abstract introduction literature review methodology research design the organisation that participated in the study study results summary of results: statistical tests and box plots discussions acknowledgements references about the author(s) robert w.d. zondo department of entrepreneurial studies and management, faculty of management sciences, durban university of technology, durban, south africa citation zondo, r.w.d. (2019). the impact of training and assessment register (tar) on productivity in the automotive parts manufacturing organisation in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1179. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1179 original research the impact of training and assessment register (tar) on productivity in the automotive parts manufacturing organisation in south africa robert w.d. zondo received: 23 feb. 2019; accepted: 26 aug. 2019; published: 28 nov. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: organisations are confronted with the challenge of competency among its employees for productivity improvement. they implement strategies that improve employee skills proficiencies for higher productivity. these can also be achieved by implementing a training model that develops employee’s skills and knowledge so that they become the specialists in their work areas. this sentiment underpins the concept of employee training and assessment register (tar). purpose: this study evaluates the influence of tar on productivity in automotive parts manufacturing organisation in south africa. motivation for the study: the south african manufacturing sector has a low level of productivity compared to its counterpart industries in the asian and western countries. the sector experiences the lack in short to medium term growth in productivity. research design, approach and methods: the automotive parts manufacturing company that has used a tar strategy for productivity improvement participated in the study. the study objectives were achieved by examining the production and related experiences in the company. the collection of data was carried out in two phases. this includes the collection of preand post-quarterly data for spoilage, overtime and customer complaints. the pre-tar results were quarterly data reflecting the company’s performance over the three-year period prior to the implementation of tar. this company operates in the ethekwini district municipality in kwazulu-natal. main findings: the results established that spoilage rate has a relationship with company productivity. any decrease in spoilage rate would result to an increase in company productivity. however, the overtime and customer complaints do not statistically have a relationship with company productivity. contribution: this article uncovers the strengths and weaknesses of tar on productivity in the automotive parts manufacturing organisation in south africa. keywords: business performance; customer complaints; overtime; productivity; south africa; spoilage; skills; training and assessment register. introduction the business world today has been characterised by ongoing technological enhancement, which embodies globalised trading markets and increased competitiveness (jones, benyon, pickernell, & packham, 2013). the working practices have been increasingly sophisticated with the improvement on the requirements and the provisions for training (saunders, lewis, & thornhill, 2000). there is a body of literature that generally supports the positive influence training has on business performance through improved quality, productivity, labour turnover and financial results (aragon & sanz-valle, 2013; noe, 2010). training assists companies in creating sustainable competitive advantages. by definition, training is the systematic acquisition and development of knowledge, skill and attitudes required by employees to adequately perform a task or to improve the performance in the job environment (chen, hsu, & huang, 2013). studies indicate that training is positively related to both the human resource (hr) outcomes such as low absenteeism, low turnover, motivation and the organisational performance, such as the production output or quality (allix, 2016; aragón-sánchez et al., 2003; garcía, 2005). however, this study focuses on the training and assessment register (tar). training and assessment register is a company-specific training model that develops employee skills and knowledge. it enables employees to improve in technical and problem-solving skills. they become specialists in their work areas. most training programmes work well in that the majority of employees who undergo training learn more than those who do not react positively to the training experience, and after training, engage in the behaviours targeted by the programme (robbins, judge, odendaal, & roodt, 2009). employees who have been trained by the tar are provided with resources to apply what they have learnt, are given opportunity to apply their newly learnt technical and problem-solving skills and motivated to continuously learn. thus, the role of training has become so much more than ‘training programme design’ (noe, 2010). while the importance of instructional design remains effective, there is an increasing call for trainers and training managers, as well as hr experts to create systems that motivate employees to learn, create knowledge and share that knowledge with other employees in the company (jones et al., 2013). according to noe (2010), the focus of training has traditionally been more of a ‘one-time event’, yet today the expectation is that training must create ‘conditions for learning’ made possible by means of collaboration, along with various methods, such as traditional classroom training, online learning or a blend of methods. a body of literature supports that training positively influences business performance (aragon et al., 2013). this is visible through enhanced productivity, quality, labour turnover and financial results. training assists companies to create sustainable competitive advantages (jones et al., 2013). companies that invest in employee training and engage in regular performance appraisal are more likely to benefit from lower employee turnover (noe, 2010). thus, training is a tool that improves the company’s performance. while numerous studies recognise training as a phenomenon that improves the company’s performance, evidence is not always provided through empirical research to support this effect. aragon and sanz-valle (2013) explain that performance is not directly influenced by training, but rather, it is indirectly effective through the improvement of other organisational outcomes. however, this study evaluates the impact of tar on productivity. it is guided by the following research questions (rqs): rq1: is tar an appropriate training model for productivity improvement in the automotive parts manufacturing organisations in south africa? rq2: is tar a suitable training model for the reduction of spoilage and customer complaints for productivity improvement? problem statement: lack to recognise the influence of training on productivity the south african manufacturing industry’s decline in productivity is a major concern. south africa experiences low productivity in the manufacturing sector when compared to korea, the united states, taiwan, japan, france and the united kingdom (klein, 2012). the country lacks both the shortand long-term growth in productivity (unido, 2013). unfortunately, the majority of private, governmental and the international organisations do not recognise the influence of training for productivity improvement (imran, 2013). however, aragon and sanz-valle (2013) indicate that there is a positive link between training and employee performance. hence, this study assesses the impact of tar on productivity. literature review this section elaborates on an overview of employee training. it presents training and organisational learning. training and company performance concludes the theoretical framework for this study. overview of employee training the word ‘skills’ has gained momentum since the 2000s as opposed to the term ‘education and training’ which was espoused in the 1990s (ngcwangu, 2014). it designates a specific form of task-oriented work and indicates a normative departure from all-encompassing educational processes integrated with training. however, training is the systematic acquisition and development of knowledge, skill and attitudes required by employees to adequately perform a task or to improve the performance in the job environment (chen et al., 2013). according to imran (2013), organisations should revamp the performance of their personnel for its growth and success. hence, training becomes an important strategic tool that benefits both the employees and employers. the provision of a comprehensive training and development enabled the organisation to enhance and develop the quality of their employees. other than its benefits in productivity improvement, it motivates and inspires employees by letting them know how important their jobs are and giving them the information they need to perform those jobs (imran, 2013). the efficiency in processes, increase motivation, innovation, morale, job satisfaction and reduced turnover are the general benefits from employee training. studies allude that training is positively related to both hr outcomes, such as low absenteeism, low turnover and motivation, and organisational performance, which includes production output or quality (allix, 2016; garcía, 2005). today, businesses are characterised by ongoing technological enhancement and increased competitiveness (jones et al., 2013). this has resulted in working practices that are increasingly sophisticated, with training provision playing a huge role. training and organisational learning the ‘learning by doing’ and ‘learning by using’ are consistent with the organisational learning literature’s concept of single-loop learning in which collective learning is characterised by a single feedback loop that facilitates ‘doing things better’ (jones et al., 2013). however, businesses apply the use of double-loop learning. in this case, the collective learning is characterised by ‘doing things differently’ or ‘doing different things’ (jones et al., 2013). this requires the capability to break the path of dependency and change the technologically trajectory through radical innovations. according to an oecd (2013), a number of factors determine the mode of training required. for manufacturing companies, the market and the need to remain competitive are the main drivers. however, the effectiveness of training depends on the method under which an individual acquires knowledge, skills, attitudes and opinions (idowu, 2013). while learning starts from individuals (ikehara, 1999) and the learning organisation is founded on the learning process of the individuals in the organisation (idowu, 2013), the organisation cannot learn unless individuals learn (argyris & schon, 1996). organisational learning differs from individual learning (senge, 1990). it consists of individuals who are involved in learning activities. the learning process results to innovation in the organisation (idowu, 2013). innovation is an important determinant for a company’s performance (bueno & ordonez, 2004). it hinges on an individual’s creative ability to recreate or invent products that are novel. idowu (2012) describes it as a variable that creates value for the business. while organisational learning produces innovation, its effectiveness is driven by the knowledge available in the organisation. ngcwangu (2014) discusses it as a necessary variable that stimulates the development of factors that enables the introduction of new ideas, products, services and systems. training and company performance the investment in training has long been recognised as a critical factor that plays a role in the economic development of both the industrial and service sectors (ballot, 2002). a large number of theoretical and empirical studies in the united states, europe and the united kingdom show that the most powerful predictor of productivity and profitability improvement relies in such an investment (blandy, dockery, hawke, & webster, 2000). this includes studies conducted in the south african context (egelser & rena, 2012; mbonyane & ladzani, 2011). through training, companies reap substantial financial and non-financial returns from well-designed and delivered training programmes (doucouliagos & sgro, 2000). according to kozlowski, brown, weissbein, cannon-bowers and salas (2000), organisational improvement and development is enhanced by the knowledge and skills in the workforce that would have been obtained from training. training and employee performance purcell, kinnie, hutchinson, rayton and swart (2003) established a strong positive relationship between hr management practices and organisational performance. the vital hr management practice that positively influences the quality of the worker’s skills, knowledge and capability is training and development. as a consequence, it results in higher employee performance on the job. harrison (2000) indicates that learning through training influences the organisational performance by greater employee performance. hence, implementing a training programme as a solution to covering performance issues such as filling the gap between the standard and the actual performance is an effective way of improving employee performance (swart, mann, brown, & price, 2005). according to wright and geroy (2001), employee competencies change through effective training programmes. it not only improves the overall performance of the employees to effectively perform the current job but also enhances the knowledge, skills and attitude necessary for the future job, thus contributing to superior organisational performance. through training, employee competencies are developed and enable them to implement their tasks efficiently. it helps the organisation achieve its objectives in a competitive manner. nonetheless, employee performance is also affected by some environmental factors such as organisational structure, power and politics prevailing in the organisation, job design, corporate culture, group dynamics and the performance appraisal systems (wright & geroy, 2001). however, this study assesses the impact of tar on productivity. it also examines if tar is a suitable training model for reducing spoilage and customer complaints. hypothesis this study is guided by the following hypotheses: h1: the implementation of the tar leads to productivity improvement in the automotive parts manufacturing organisation. h1o: the implementation of the tar does not lead to productivity improvement in the automotive parts manufacturing organisation. the following are sub-hypotheses: h2: an increase in the spoilage rate increases company productivity in the automotive parts manufacturing organisation. h2o: an increase in the spoilage rate decreases company productivity in the automotive parts manufacturing organisation. h3: an increase in the overtime rate increases company productivity in the automotive parts manufacturing organisation. h3o: an increase in the overtime rate decreases company productivity in the automotive parts manufacturing organisation h4: an increase in the rate of customer complaints increases company productivity in the automotive parts manufacturing organisation. h4o: an increase in the rate of customer complaints decreases company productivity in the automotive parts manufacturing organisation. methodology this section discusses the method employed in this research. these are discussed under the following headings, namely, research design, the organisation that participated in the study, data collection, and the measurement and data analysis. research design this study, which examined the relationship of company productivity as a dependent variable to spoilage, overtime and customer complaints, was quantitative in nature. quantitative application involved the use of statistical procedures to analyse the data collected (bryman & bell, 2007). hence, after the measurements of the relevant variables, the scores were transformed using statistical methods. this research was also conclusive in design. according to yin (2008), conclusive studies are meant to provide the information that is useful in decision-making. the organisation that participated in the study a convenience sample from one large automotive parts manufacturing organisation situated within the ethekwini metropolitan area in the province of kwazulu-natal in south africa was used. in 2005, the company embarked on lean manufacturing principles with the aim to improve product quality, productivity and customer satisfaction. however, it continued to experience an increase in customer complaints and low productivity. for instance, in the period between 2002 and 2005, customer complaints increased from 17% to 33%. similarly, company productivity decreased from 81.7% to 69.2%. the company then conducted the root-cause analyses aimed at identifying the problem. it established that the blue-collar employees were semi-skilled and relied on shop floor supervision. consequently, it implemented tar in all its processes. the strategy was aimed at improving employee knowledge and skills to improve its productivity and reduce customer complaints. the company had 1003 employees. it operates a three-shift system. table 1 presents a percentage breakdown of employees in terms of their level of activities. table 1: percentage breakdown of employees in terms of their level of activities. data collection the collection of statistical data was carried out from a single company that participated in the study. it was performed into two phases. that is, the collection of preand post-tar results by a quality control team leader from the company’s operational records. the data for spoilage rate, overtime rate and the rate on customer complaints were kept on the system, applications and products (sap) version 6.0 data management programme. the pre-tar results were quarterly data reflecting the company’s performance over the 3-year period prior to tar implementation. this includes data from the first quarter of 2006 to the final quarter of 2008. the post-tar data reflect the company’s performance for 8 years after tar was implemented. this includes data from the first quarter of 2010 to the final quarter of 2017. the company implemented tar in 2009 and such data were excluded from the study. measurement and data analysis the company’s quarterly time series data for spoilage, overtime and customer complaints were used. a total of 135 observations were measured. however, the study introduced a dummy variable that assumed the value of 0 and 1 to represent the preand post-tar, respectively, into the ordinary least squares (ols) model. this was aimed at isolating the preand post-productivity effects. for instance, if tar proved to be a useful strategy in raising productivity levels, this would result in a statistically significant coefficient on the dummy variable. the ols model used was as follows: company productivity = bo + b1 spoilage rate + b2 overtime rate + b3 rate on customer complaints + b4 post-dummy-tar. the above model identifies company productivity as a function of spoilage, overtime, customer complaints and the tar strategy. for the study to achieve its objectives, the normality test was conducted using kolmogorov–smirnov and shapiro–wilk for the overall score of the constructs. table 2 presents results of normality tests for spoilage rate, overtime rate and the rate on customer complains. table 2: normality tests for spoilage and overtime rates, as well as the rate on customer complains. statistical tests in table 2 showed that the data were not normally distributed (p > 0.05). hence, the study was analysed using parametric test, that is, the t-tests. ethical consideration the researcher complied to the following: the process for the collection of data did not involve access to confidential personal data; the research fulfil the criteria for informed consent; respondents were not asked to perform any acts or make statements which might be expected to cause discomfort; researcher did not expect to obtain any direct or indirect financial or other benefits from conducting the research. study results this section analyses the results for preand post-tar means comparison, as well as company productivity. preand post-training and assessment register means comparison table 3 compares the means (in percentages) for spoilage rate, overtime rate and the rate on customer complaints. table 3: preand post-training and assessment register percentage means comparison. results in table 3 indicate that the percentage mean data for pre-tar on spoilage, overtime and customer complaints are 48.08%, 22.08% and 8.17%, respectively. in addition, the percentage mean data for post-tar on spoilage, overtime and customer complaints are 19.58%, 15.18% and 9.06%, respectively. company productivity results table 4 presents the results for company productivity as a dependent variable to spoilage rate, overtime rate, the rate on customer complaints and post-tar dummy. table 4: company productivity results on spoilage rate, overtime rate, the rate on customer complaints, and post-training and assessment register dummy. company productivity as a dependent variable to spoilage rate results as presented in table 4 indicate that the spoilage rate has a relationship and is statistically significant to company productivity. this is shown by its t-value of -4.622, which is above the critical t-value of 2.015 at the 5% level of significance (curwin & slater, 2002). the negative relationship indicates that any decrease in spoilage rate would result to an increase in company productivity. company productivity as a dependent variable to overtime rate results as illustrated in table 4 show that the overtime rate has no relationship to company productivity. this is determined by its t-value of -0.299. the value is below the critical t-value of 2.015 at the 5% level of significance, thus accepting the null hypothesis of no relationships between these two variables. company productivity as a dependent variable to the rate of customer complaints table 4 indicates that the rate on customer complaints has no relationship to company productivity. this is determined by its t-value of -0.012. the value is below the critical t-value of 2.015 at the 5% level of significance, thus accepting the null hypothesis of no relationships between these two variables. company productivity as a dependent variable to a training and assessment register dummy variable results show that tar has no relationship to company productivity. this is determined by its t-value of 0.514. the value is below the critical t-value of 2.015 at the 5% level of significance, thus accepting the null hypothesis of no relationships between these two variables. it has the adjusted r² of 0.372. in addition, the serial correlation is also low at 0.458 when compared to the alpha value of 1.72 at the 5% level of significance (curwin & slater, 2002). summary of results: statistical tests and box plots this section uses factorial designs to analyse data. box plots have also been incorporated in the analyses. they determine whether the factorial analysis of variance (anova) assumptions of normality and homogeneity of variance have been met. according to porkess (2005), the populations represented should be normally distributed (i.e. the normality), making the mean an appropriate measure of central tendency. however, the homogeneity of variance indicates that the population from which the data are sampled should have the same variance. the bartlett’s test was used to verify whether the variances were equal for all the samples (curwin & slater, 2002). figure 1 presents a summary of the results from the bartlett’s test for homogeneity of variances. figure 1: bartlett’s test for homogeneity of variances. in addition, table 5 presents detailed results of bartlett’s test for homogeneity of variances for spoilage and overtime rates, as well as the rate of customer complains. table 5: bartlett’s test for homogeneity of variance. the p-value in the bartlett’s test (at p < 0.05) shows that the homogeneity of variances has occurred, thus rejecting the null hypothesis. the p-value at 0.000 is low as compared with the significant level of 0.05. we can conclude that there are distribution changes between the two parts of time series. this is confirmed by levene’s test of equality, as shown in table 6. table 6: levene’s test of equality. the levene’s test of equality is defined as the inferential statistics used to examine the equality of variance on different samples (porkess, 2005). in this case, the statistical procedure assumes that variances of the populations from which different samples are drawn are equal. consequently, the results in table 6 indicate that the obtained similarities between the variances in the samples for preand post-data at p-value 0.016 have occurred. they are below the statistical significant level of 0.05. the results are confirmed by box plots in figure 2. figure 2: box plots assessing the homogeneity and normality of variance. figure 2 shows that the mode of change from preto post-tar period is homogeneous. box plots developed from tar data shown indicate a similar spread. statistical tests indicate that the conditions for homogeneity of variances between the preand post-tar have been met. discussions this study investigates the impact of tar for company’s productivity improvement in the automotive parts manufacturing organisation in south africa. it examined the production and related experience of the automotive parts manufacturing organisation that has adopted tar to improve employee skills within its employees. quarterly time series data on spoilage, overtime and customer complaints were used to analyse data. the results indicate that spoilage rate has a relationship and is statistically significant to company productivity. this is supported by aragon and sanz-valle (2013) who indicate that training positively influences on business performance, visible through improvement in quality, productivity, labour turnover and financial results (aragon & sanz-valle, 2013). however, the rate on overtime and customer complaints as well as tar do not statistically have a relationship with company productivity. implications of results for policy and practice organisations in south africa should revise employee skills and develop strategies, policies and practices that help to achieve new business goals and support performance (aragon & sanz-valle, 2013). this will be based on an appreciation of the economic determinants affecting shop floor skills development for company productivity. besides the achievement of study objectives, the following conclusions can be made on the tar philosophy: it is a training model that improves quality and business performance. it reduces spoilage level in the business, thus improving company productivity. to maximise performance, a comprehensive performance policy must be developed, which aligns tar to productivity (aragon & sanz-valle, 2013). limitations of the study the study was confined to an automotive parts manufacturing organisation operating within the ethekwini metropolitan area. it was carried out to a single company that has implemented tar employee skills programme. as there are 378 registered automotive parts manufacturing organisations in south africa (sainfo, 2008), the results cannot be extrapolated to other companies within the sector. secondly, it did not examine the process followed during the tar including (among others) the individuals who participated in the implementation process. it only used quarterly time series data to determine the preand post-company productivity effects resulting from tar employee skill development strategy. lastly, the econometrics paradigm used was of the ols variety, solely because of data constraints. future studies should employ an advanced var johansen approach or longitudinal data analysis, both of which rely on multi-dimension data sets. conclusion training and assessment register is a training model that develops employee’s skills and knowledge so that they become specialists in their work areas. properly implemented and managed, the model results to employee performance and company productivity improvement. hence, the study indicates that spoilage rate has a relationship with company productivity after the tar was implemented. however, the rate on overtime and customer complaints does not statistically have a relationship with company productivity in the selected automotive parts manufacturing organisation. the system is not a solution to inherent productivity problems. it is a training approach that takes advantage of a focused organisational strategy to combine employee communication, decision-making and participation (ngcwangu, 2014). it develops employee skills and knowledge in the organisation. future research required during the course of the study, broader issues of tar were excluded from the study. this includes the long-term survival of tar model after implementation. in addition, the applicability of tar to a wider sector of the economic activity, including the public sector, was not covered. the approach under which this study was carried out did not allow these areas to be analysed in depth. it is recommended that future research should examine the following issues in greater depth: circumstances that influence the use of tar the application of tar approach to the service industry the process followed during the implementation of tar system an in-depth assessment of the registered automotive manufacturing businesses that uses the tar approach, employing a randomised sample design so that the results can be generalised. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. author(s) contributions the author, r.w.d.z., administered the questionnaire, worked on the literature review, analysed the raw data, aligned and consolidated the article into a final manuscript. funding information the article will be paid by the researcher fund kept by the durban university of technology (dut). data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references allix, m. (2016, february 17). unions plead for state to save highveld. business day. retrieved from http://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/companies/industrials/2016-02-17-unions-plead-for-state-to-save-highveld/ aragon, i.b., & sanz-valle, r. (2013). does training managers pay off? the international journal of human resource management, 24(8), 8–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.725064 aragón-sánchez, a., barba-aragon, i., & sanz-valle, r. (2003). effects of training on business results. international journal of human resource management, 14(6), 956–980. https://doi.org/10.1080/0958519032000106164 argyris, c., & schön, d. (1990). organisational learning ii: theory, method and practice. reading, ma: addison-wesley. ballot, g. (2002). modeling the labor market as an evolving institution: model artemis. journal of economic behavior & organisation, 49(1), 51–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0167-2681(02)00058-6 blandy, r., dockery, m., hawke, a., & webster, e. (2000). does training pay? evidence from australian enterprises. kensington park: australian national training authority. retrieved from http://www.ncver.edu.au/research/proj/nr8010.pdf. bueno, e., & ordoñez, p. (2004). innovation and learning in the knowledge-based economy: challenges for the firm. international journal of technology management, 27(6/7), 531–533. bryman, a., & bell, e. (2007). business research methods. new york: oxford press. chen, y.s., hsu, j., & huang, m.t. (2013). lagged effects of training on financial performance: evidence from longitudinal data. global journal of business research, 7(1), 9–20. curwin, j., & slater, r. (2002). quantitative methods for business decisions. london: british library cataloguing data. doucouliagos, c., & sgro, p. (2000). enterprise return on a training investment. adelaide: ncver references – national centre for vocational education research. egelser, s., & rena, r. (2012). an evaluation of the effectiveness of training on entrepreneurship development in windhoek. cape town: department of economics, faculty of economic and management sciences university of the western cape. garcía, m. (2005). training and business performance: the spanish case. international journal of human resource management, 16(9), 1691–1710. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190500239341 harrison, r. (2000). employee development. silver lakes, pretoria: beekman publishing. idowu, a. (2012). entrepreneurial innovation: small and medium scale enterprises health research and economic development in nigeria. research in humanities and social sciences, 2(11), 49–55. idowu, a. (2013). organisational learning, innovativeness and financial performance of small and medium enterprises (smes) in nigeria (online). european journal of business and management, 5(2), 179–184. ikehara, h.t. (1999). implications of gestalt theory and practice for the learning organisation. the learning organisation, 6(2), 63–69. https://doi.org/10.1108/09696479910262587 imran, a.e. (2013). the effect of training on employee performance. european journal of business and management, 5(4), 137–147. jones, p., benyon, m.j., pickernell, d., & packham, g. (2013). evaluating the impact of different training methods on sme business performance. environmental and planning c: government and policy, 2019(31), 56–81. https://doi.org/10.1068/c12113b klein, n. (2012). real wage, labour productivity, and employment trends in south africa: a closer look. imf wp/12/92. washington, dc: imf. kozlowski, s., brown, k., weissbein, d., cannon-bowers, j., and salas, e. (2000). a multi-level approach to training effectiveness. in k. klein & s. kozlowski (eds.), multi-level theory, research, and methods in organisations: foundations, extensions, and new directions (pp. 157–210). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass publishers. mbonyane, b., & ladzani, w. (2011). factors that hinder the growth of small businesses in south african townships. european business review. retrieved from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0955-534x.htm. ngcwangu, s. (2014). skills development in africa: issues and contestations. bargaining indicators 2014. a collective bargaining omnibus, 14(1), 151–164. noe, r.a. (2010). employee training and development (5th edn.). new york: mcgraw hill. oecd. (2013). skills development and training in smes. local economic and employment development (leed), oecd publishing. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264169425-en porkess, r. (2005). collins internet-linked dictionary of statistics. glasgow: harpercollins. purcell, j., kinnie, n., hutchinson, s., rayton, b., & swart, j. (2003). understanding the people and performance link: unlocking the black-box. research report. london: cipd. robbins, s.p., judge, t.a., odendaal, a., & roodt, g. (2009). organisational behaviour: global and southern african perspectives (2nd edn.). cape town: pearson education south africa. sainfo. (2008). south africa’s automotive industry. retrieved from http://www.southafrica.info/doing_business/economy/key_sectors/motorindustryboost.html. saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2012). research methods for business students (6th edn.). harlow, essex: pearson education limited. senge, p.m. (1990). the fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organisation. new york: doubleday. swart, j., mann, c., brown, s., & price, a. (2005). human resource development: strategy and tactics. oxford: elsevier butterworth-heinemann publications. unido. (2013). sustaining employment growth: the role of manufacturing and structural change overview. industrial development report 2013. vienna: united nations. wright, p., & geroy, d.g. (2001). changing the mindset: the training myth and the need for word-class performance. international journal of human resource management, 12(4), 586–600. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190122342 yin, r.k. (2008). handbook of applied research: california. thousand oaks, ca: sage. 8blaauw.qxd many of the unemployed in south africa have no other choice but to vent ure into the informal sector of the economy to raise income or else accept that they will have to be dependent on other income earners for survival (whiteford & van seventer, 1999). defining the informal sector is a difficult proposition. it is widely acknowledged that the sector includes all unregistered and unrecorded economic activities that normally escape detection in the official estimates of gdp (ligthelm, 2006). this provides the basis for barker’s definition: “unorganised, unregulated and mostly legal but unregistered economic activities that are individually or family owned and use simple, labour intensive technology” (barker, 2007, p. xvii). statistics south africa defines informal sector employment as: “…unregistered business, run from homes, street pavements or other informal ar rangements” (statistics south africa, 2003, p. xiii). people working in the informal sector may be self employed, or employees (muller, 2003). since 2000 respondents in the october household – and labour force surveys were asked whether they engaged in any one of a number of specific, mostly low income activities. these included “guarding cars” or “making things for sale”. day labouring can therefore be defined as a casual job seeking activity where workers wait on street corners or in other public places looking for work. they are individuals who work for different employers and get paid on a daily basis. being excluded form the formal labour market these workers often work for different employers each day, are paid in cash and do not enjoy benefits like health insurance and unemployment benefits. the employers, however, mainly benefit from this relationship. they do not have many commitments towards these workers and can use them only when work is available (blaauw, pretorius, louw, & schenck, 2006). informal employment in south africa, as well as in the rest of the world, comprises diverse activities. some activities, for example car guarding, are merely survivalist in nat ure, yielding relatively low income. in 2001 the average daily income of car guarding in bloemfontein was r 32-00 for people not belonging to a car guard organisation and r 52-40 for those who did (blaauw & bothma, 2003). in general, average informal earnings decreased dramatically from 1995 and 2000, but have been stable since (burger & yu, 2006). other activities have the potential to yield very high returns. in some cases these returns might even be higher than the average earnings from normal formal sector employment. in south africa there are thousands of people, standing at the side of the road, waiting for informal and in most cases temporary employment. the research problem that beckons is whether the day labourers who are involved in this activity are involved by choice, guided by a spirit of entrepreneurship or formally unemployed people without any hope or any future who are trapped in an informal labour market merely in an effort to survive? aim of the research against this background, the objective of this study is to: 1. determine what the demographic and economic features of day labourers in pretoria are; 2. determine whether their presence in this part of the informal sector is voluntary, guided by an entrepreneurial spirit or a last resort for income generation. to achieve the above objectives, data are required on the origin of these people, their demographic characteristics, whether formal sector employment was once held, for how long it was held and the reasons for losing/leaving it. the income generated from this activity will be compared with accepted proxies for the minimum income needed to survive materially. in order for day labouring to be regarded as an entrepreneurial exercise, key elements from the multitude of definitions of entrepreneurship must be present in their actions. entrepreneurship today is a complex phenomenon involving multiple stake-holders, an array of inputs that can be combined in innumerable ways, significant adaptation of these inputs and combinations over time, a variet y of obstacles and constraints, and high levels of uncertainty regarding outcomes (kuratko, 2006). van aardt & van aardt (1997) defined entrepreneurship as the act of initiating, creating, building and expanding an enterprise or organisation, building an entrepreneurial team and gathering other resources to exploit an opportunity in the market place for long term gain. the following characteristics of an entrepreneur are identified by van aardt & van aardt (1997): a desire to achieve, hard workers, nurturing quality, accepting responsibilit y, reward-oriented, optimistic, excellence oriented, good organisers and money-oriented. earlier studies regarding entrepreneurship in africa showed that typical p f bla auw department of economics university of johannesburg pfblaauw@uj.ac.za a m pretorius department of economics university of south africa pretoami@unisa.ac.za abstract many of the unemployed in south africa have to venture into the informal sector to raise income. the aim of this article is to describe the demographic and economic features of day labourers in pretoria and to determine whether their activity in the informal sector is an exercise in entrepreneurship or a desperate effort to survive. the day labourers were found to be mainly male, young, very low skilled, experiencing no income security and supporting on average four people. the article concludes that day labourers are not guided by a spirit of entrepreneurship and are therefore not involved in this activity by choice in spite of other options. key words entrepreneurship, casual labour, informal economy day labourers in pretoria – entrepreneurial spirit in action or survivors in a cul de sac? 65 sa journal of human resource management, 2007, 5 (1), 65-70 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2007, 5 (1), 65-70 african entrepreneurs were mainly male, middle-aged, married with children and well educated (kiggundu, 2002). kuznetsov, mcdonald & kuznetsova (2000) identified the following competencies present in entrepreneurs: opportunity alertness; the ability to be innovative; industryrelated experience; participation in important networks and sharing common values with important actors in the market; personal knowledge of business partners; and the ability to mobilize intangible assets. the accepted definition of entrepreneurship for the purpose of this article is “…the process whereby an individual or groups of individuals use organized efforts to pursue opportunities to create value and grow by fulfilling wants or needs through innovation and uniqueness, no matter what resources the entrepreneur currently has” (coulter, 2003, p. 6). the rest of the article will be structured as follows: first the results of the appropriate literature study and an exposition of the research methodology employed are presented. the results of the survey done among day labourers in pretoria in 2004 are then presented and analysed and conclusions regarding the problem statement drawn. literature study the consensus in the south african literature (hofmeyr, 1998; braude, 2005) is that employment in the informal sector offers a second best alternative to formal sector employment. africans in the majority of cases, who are unable to secure employment in the formal sector, are forced to resort to informal means of employment in order to subsist in one of a range of low-income, marginal informal sector activities (bhorat, leibbrandt, maziya, van der berg & woolard, 2001; muller, 2003). informal employment in south africa, as well as in the rest of the world, comprises diverse activities. these include street vending, gardening, bricklaying, painting, sewing, driving, caring, operating a shop or spaza, hairdressing, welding, managing, and practicing traditional medicine. this underlines the heterogeneous nature of the informal economy (devey, skinner & valodia, 2003). the increasing informalisation of employment is responsible for the fact that a significant portion of the workforce is unable to access the formal institutions that govern the labour market as well as retirement provisions and medical insurance, which form part of remuneration in the formal sector of the economy (valodia, lebani, skinner & devey, 2006). literat ure on day labourers in south africa is limited mainly to the occasional article in the daily press. a study by schenck and louw (2005) in the vicinity of the suburb of elardus park in pretoria (tshwane) indicated that men interviewed work long hours and waits almost every day for employment in harsh climatic conditions. they have to be content with an average daily wage of between fifty and sixty rand for a long day’s work. they are willing to do anything, from gardening to the mixing of cement, painting, or the loading and unloading of heav y goods. they are prepared to do this kind of work because it is their only means of earning an income. many days go by without many of these men obtaining any work at all. this study laid an important foundation for a more thorough study, encompassing the whole of pretoria (tshwane). gonzo and plattner (2003) did a study among day labourers in windhoek, namibia. their results showed a marked similarity with the study of schenck and louw (2005) in terms of working conditions, educational qualifications and income earned. the next section contains a detailed description of the research methodology used in doing the field work for the research. research design research approach in response to the work done by schenck and louw (2005), several consultative meetings were held by the members of their research team at the university of south africa during the first part of 2004. this laid the foundation for the formulation of the questionnaire for a thorough follow-up study. respondents before the actual survey was conducted a detailed reconnaissance of the greater pretoria area were done to determine the size of the research population. the estimated number of day labourers in tshwane is between 2000 and 2500. it must be noted that the number varies on a daily basis. the sample population that was earmarked for investigation was scientifically determined using the above information. to compile a stratified sample the research population must be allocated proportionally between the various hiring sites in terms of the size of the sites. the various hiring sites were therefore classified according to the number of workers standing at each site. table 1 presents the classification of the sites according to size and site number. table 1 classification of hiring sites according to size and site number size of site site number small sites: 1 25 people 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 49, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 61, 65, 66, 69 medium sites: small-medium sites: 26 35 people 7, 12, 13, 17, 20, 23, 26, 41, 47, 52, 68 large-medium sites: 36 50 people 4, 16, 48, 50, 51, 54, 60, 62, 63, 64, 67 large sites: 51 100 people 10, 14, 15, 35, 37, 39, 43, 45, 70 mega sites: 100+ people 44, 46 source: survey data a representative sample of two hundred and forty workers was proportionately selected for interviewing. measuring instrument the survey took the form of structured interviews. this method ensures that questions are not misunderstood or misinterpreted (bless & higson-smith, 1995). the questionnaire for the survey was designed using the methodology followed in similar studies in the united states by valenzuela jr, theodore, meléndez & gonzalez (2006) as well as inputs of the researchers from the university of south africa who did the earlier preliminary research mentioned above (schenck & louw, 2005). a questionnaire consisting of four sections was used. the first three sections contained questions pertaining to the demographic features and working conditions of day labourers. the last section included questions regarding the possible abuse of this vulnerable group in the economy. procedure the next step was to recruit suitable fieldworkers and provide them with appropriate training. twenty fieldworkers were hired. they were all third-year and postgraduate st udents from the department of social work at the university of south africa. these fieldworkers were chosen to be able to communicate with respondents in english and at least another african language. two days were used to train bla auw, pretorius66 the fieldworkers to be proficient with the questionnaire. this was followed up by a trail run of interviews. the completed questionnaires were evaluated in order to identif y possible ambiguous questions. the final questionnaire was adjusted to eliminate ambiguities and respond to the comments received from fieldworkers. the fieldworkers conducted the fieldwork in a period of four days from the 27th to the 30th of september 2004. fieldwork began at 06:00 in the morning. the cooperation received from the respondents was very positive overall. the personal nature of the interviews meant that the questions were thoroughly explained to the respondents. during the interviews a total of 242 questionnaires (about 10 per cent of the research population) were satisfactorily completed for the sample population. results the demographics and working conditions of day labourers in pretoria as was expected, the day labourers in tshwane were almost exclusively male. the gender distribution is 97,5 per cent male and 2,5 per cent females respectively. of the two hundred and forty-two respondents, 88 per cent were born in south africa. the remaining respondents were born in zimbabwe (7 per cent) and mozambique (2,9 per cent). five respondents, 2,1 per cent, did not want to specif y the country of their birth. it is surmised that these men were also born outside the borders of south africa (blaauw, louw & schenck, 2006: 462. this corresponds with research on international migrants in south africa which shows that these people are very active in the informal economy (valodia et al., 2006). although foreign migrants are entering the informal economy they remain marginalised and unable to make the transition into the formal economy. the opposite occurs in the united states (valenzuela jr. et al., 2006). a very interesting statistic is the fact that as many as two hundred and fifteen or 88.8 per cent of the day labourers interviewed came from outside gauteng in order to seek employment in tshwane. almost sixty per cent of the day labourers came from limpopo and mpumalanga (blaauw et al, 2006: 462). almost three quarters of the respondents in the survey are under thirty-five years old. in fact, 61,2 per cent of the day labourers involved in the survey is under thirty years old. a hundred and thirty-six (56,2 per cent) of the respondents indicated that they had never been married. thirty-three per cent are married, under either common law or customary marriage. fifteen (or 6,2 per cent) of the day labourers are living with a partner and 3,7 per cent are separated or divorced. day labourers involved in this survey have on average one or two children. the majority (33,6 per cent) maintain that they have no children and 22,8 and 19,9 per cent maintain that they have one and two children respectively. one respondent indicated that he has more than ten children. on average, each day labourer supports 4 people (including himself) from the income earned in this informal labour market. more than half of the respondents (56,2 per cent) support up to four people. of the respondents, 4,1 per cent indicated that they support more than 9 people from their income. by using the frequency results of the questionnaire, it was estimated that the informal labour market of day labourers provides some income for at least ten thousand people (blaauw et al, 2006: 462). day labourers interviewed in this survey displayed disappointing levels of formal schooling. figure 1 represents the educational qualifications obtained by the sample population. source: survey data figure 1: the educational profile of day labourers in pretoria an evaluation of the working conditions of this informal labour market provides prima facie evidence for answering the second objective of the paper. the survivalist nature of this informal labour market is clearly illustrated by the fact that 51,2 per cent of the sample population stand and wait for work between five and six days per week. forty-eight respondents (19,8 per cent) indicated that on all seven days of the week they stood waiting at a site in the hope of finding employment. in summary, the day labourers involved in this study were found to be mainly male, fairly young, having relatively low levels of schooling, experiencing no certainty in terms of income security, supporting on average four people and working under harsh conditions. these trends correspond with the findings of other research on the informal economy (valodia et al., 2006). the employment history of day labourers in pretoria a hundred and two of the respondents maintain that they did in fact have permanent employment in the formal sector of the economy before becoming day labourers. this represents a significant 42,1 per cent of the sample. five workers did not answer that particular question, leaving a hundred and thirtyfive (55,8 per cent) who did not have previous formal employment (blaauw et al, 2006: 464). figure 2 highlights the period for which these people were previously employed in the formal sector of the economy. source: survey data figure 2: periods for which day labourers were employed in the formal sector day labourers 67 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 no scho o lin g g r 1 g r 2 g r 3 g r 4 g r 5 g r 6 g r 7 g r 8 g r 9 g r 10 g r 11 g r 12refus ed ans w e r educational qualification % of day labourers 9.7 10.7 13.6 5.8 7.8 3.9 1 2.9 5.9 38.8 0 10 20 30 40 50 0 6 months 7 12 months 13 years 4 6 years 7 9 years 10 12 years 13 15 years 16 18 years 19 22 years unspecified % of day labourers of the respondents who did have previous employment, 59,2 per cent had worked in such employment for a period of three years and less. 21,4 per cent held employment for longer than 10 years. three workers held positions in the formal sector for longer than nineteen years (blaauw et al, 2006: 466). respondents were asked to state their reasons for leaving their previous employer. layoffs in the form of retrenchments and the closure of businesses were responsible for 71,9 per cent of the flow out of the formal sector of the economy. this follows the trend as observed in the informal labour market of car guards in bloemfontein (blaauw & bothma, 2003). two of the 102 refused to answer this question. more than twenty per cent of the respondents quit their full-time employment for reasons such as a wage that was considered to be too low and health reasons. discussion in general the skills level of the day labourers are very low. this makes it difficult for them to obtain alternative employment opportunities in the formal sector of the economy, since the demand for low-skilled labour in south africa is continuously declining (loots, 1998). a working week of six and sometimes seven days per week puts a big strain on the social fabric of the community where these people live. the limited time available for relaxation and family life does not augur well for the quality of life of the people involved in this activity. this is, however, the harsh reality of these people’s lives. for most of them this is the only alternative available in a labour market that requires a lot more human capital than they can offer. these circumstances make it difficult to say with any conviction that day labourers in pretoria are involved in this activity as a matter of choice. it is evident that many of the respondents held stable employment for a relatively long period of time. for their current activity to be classified as a manifestation of a spirit of entrepreneurship, this should be reflected by their reasons for leaving stable employment. however, an investigation showed that layoffs in the form of retrenchments and the closure of businesses were responsible for more than 70 per cent of the current day labourers’ leaving their formal employment. more than twenty per cent of the respondents quit their full-time employment for reasons such as a wage that was considered to be too low and health reasons. it cannot be assumed that this indicates a desire to be self-employed, guided by a spirit of entrepreneurship. the vast majorit y (90,1 per cent) of the respondents indicated that they would accept full-time formal sector employment if it was available. in contrast, lighthelm (2004) found that on average 58,1 per cent of the respondents in his survey among informal hawkers in tshwane indicated that they would not accept a salaried job if it were offered to them. this comparison clearly indicates that it is unlikely that day labourers see themselves as self-employed entrepreneurs who “…feel good about themselves, about their work lives, and about the economic rewards they earn” (timmons, 1994, p. 3). analysing the income of the day labourers will provide further evidence to determine whether these people can be regarded as entrepreneurs or whether they are stuck in this activity because they have no alternative means of survival. table 2 provides an analysis of the possible link between the levels of schooling and earnings. table 2 ppossible link between the level of schooling of day labourers in pretoria and income in 2004 variables correlation coefficient expected/desired level of income & level of schooling: 0,054 (only statistically significant at levels of 20% and more) actual income earned in previous month & level of schooling: 0,093 (only statistically significant at levels of 20% and more) source: survey data from table 2 it is clear that there is no real link between the level of schooling and expected earnings. an investigation into the link between the level of schooling and the income earned did, however, indicate a tendency for earnings to increase with an increased level of schooling. the correlation between the actual income earned in the previous month and the level of schooling of the respondents is markedly higher, namely 0,093. these correlation coefficients however only become statistically significant at levels of 20% and more. from the data it is also clear that other forms of formal and informal training have no real influence on the income obtained by the day labourers. those with training in painting earned on average r612,7; those with electrical training r675; those with training in plumbing r1300; training in carpeting r698; welding training r397,5 and security training an amount of r700. the most pertinent answer to the research question lies in the comparison between the income earned by day labourers and the minimum level of income necessary for subsistence in south africa. more than half or 57,6 per cent of the respondents earned less than r700 in the month preceding the survey. an even more significant statistic is the fact that 24,7 per cent of the day labourers received an income of less than r300 per month. this is 15,2 per cent lower than the national poverty line of r354 per month per adult in 2002 (united nations development programme, 2003, p.6). given the impact of inflation, this section of the sample population is living in absolute poverty unless they have other sources of income or support. they cannot even sustain themselves, let alone the average of four people that depend on their income. on average, the monthly income in a typical month of activity fluctuates between a minimum of no income in the worst case scenario and a maximum of r4500. the overall average income earned in the previous month was r672,17. the above and other possible estimates of the average monthly income of day labourers were compared with the minimum living level of monthly income in south africa. the results are summarised in table 3 below. table 3 average monthly income of day labourers compared with the minimum living level of monthly income in pretoria in 2004 average monthly income of day labourers in a good month* r 1187,46 average monthly income of day labourers in a bad month* r 401,93 average monthly income of day labourers in august 2004* r 672,17 monthly minimum living level per size of household in pretoria# 2 people r 1060,29 3 people r 1398,57 4 people r 1728,10 5 people r 2052,73 6 people r 2401,02 average family in an african household r 2007,36 * survey findings # martins, 2004, p. 4 bla auw, pretorius68 the estimates of martins (2004), quoted in table 3, paint a very sombre picture. his estimates are important as it was established that the average day labourer supports four people on his income. even if it is assumed that all of them reside within the same dwelling, it is clear that day labourers are not even able to support these dependents in months that can be classified as good in terms of income earning possibilities, let alone in an average or bad month. in an average month they only earn 39 per cent of the minimum amount needed to support a household of four people (blaauw et al, 2006: 469). these findings correspond to other st udies on informal sector activities in the pretoria region. ligthelm (2004) determined that the average monthly turnover and gross profit for informal market activity in tshwane (pretoria) was r3420 and r1010 per month respectively. this is only half the amount required to sustain the average african household in pretoria (martins, 2004). the above data prove beyond all reasonable doubt that being a day labourer can provide a means of survival, but on average the income earned is not adequate to support a family and other dependants. this does not support the suggestion by timmons (1994) that entrepreneurs are working towards a better life for themselves and their families (blaauw et al, 2006: 469). day labourers involved in this study were mainly male, fairly young, generally low skilled, earning low and uncertain levels of income and working under harsh conditions. the occurrence of social problems threatening the social fabric of these communities is a reality (blaauw et al, 2006: 469). the second objective of the paper was to determine whether day labourers in pretoria should be regarded as people guide by a spirit of entrepreneurship or people stuck in this activity as a last resort in order to survive. many of the respondents held stable employment for a relatively long period of time. for their current activity to be classified as a manifestation of a spirit of entrepreneurship, this should be reflected by their reasons for leaving stable employment. layoffs and people quitting or resigning were cited, by respondents who had held formal sector employment, as the main reasons for losing their jobs. this indicates that the vast majority of these people did not leave their full-time employment because they were prompted to do so by the spirit of entrepreneurship. very few of the required characteristics stemming from the definition of entrepreneurship were reflected by the available data. more than half of the day labourers in pretoria are standing on the side of the road for 5 to 6 days every week. the study by schenck & louw (2005) confirms that these men work for long hours when they do find casual employment. they therefore do meet one of the entrepreneurial characteristics identified by van aardt & van aardt (1997), namely hard work. other characteristics for example being optimistic are not evident here. in their study on the relationship between entrepreneurial attitude orientations and different biographic/demographic, personality and work related variables (van wyk, boshoff & bester, 2006) found strong relationships bet ween entrepreneurial attitudes and personality and work variables. the work variables included job satisfaction and job involvement. this strong sense of job satisfaction is not evident in the day labourers in pretoria. the vast majority of the respondents that said they would like to return to formal sector employment bore testimony to this. scholars like gartner (1988) regard entrepreneurship strictly as the creation of organisations. what differentiates entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs is that entrepreneurs create organisations, while non entrepreneurs do not (gartner, 1988). if this definition is applied then day labourers in pretoria per definition do not meet the requirements stemming from the above definition. analysing the income of the day labourers provided further evidence that day labourers are stuck in this activity as a matter of survival because they do not have any alternative. on average a day labourer is barely able to support himself in months which can be classified as bad in terms of income earned. it is doubtful whether day labourers are able to support their dependants in months that can be classified as good in terms of income earning possibilities. being a day labourer can provide a means of survival, but the income earned on average is not adequate to support a family and other dependants. this is not consistent with the argument that these are entrepreneurs involved in an activity although other options are available. these findings correspond with other studies (martins, 2004; ligthelm, 2006) on informal sector activities in the pretoria region. unfortunately it is clear that as in the case of several other informal sector activities day labourers are not entrepreneurs who are self employed by choice. they are like their counterparts in many other informal sector activities, stuck in a cul de sac in the form of an activity that they have to pursue in order to survive. day labouring is a last resort; the day labourers have no hope of achieving an improvement in their quality of life in the form of formal sector employment that offers them a decent income. limitations of the research one of the limitations of the research is the fact that this case study covers only one city and one needs to be careful to draw inferences on the research question for the whole of south africa from the available data. it is therefore important to extend this type of analysis to a country wide study as suggested in the next section. it must always be kept in mind that the fluent nature of this employment seeking activity ensures that the picture in terms of the various hiring sites and the number of workers standing at each, changes constantly. the research therefore represents a snapshot of the current situation and can be repeated to provide a better understanding of the evolvement of this activity over time. recommendations for further research further research for this topic is recommended, as this case study among day labourers was limited to the pretoria region. it is recommended that the same study be conducted on a country wide scale, covering at least all the metropolitan areas in the nine provinces as well as the most important rural hubs in each. possible differences in the demographic and economic characteristics between provinces will be brought to the fore in this process. the research must be repeated for the pretoria region as part of a country wide study. this will improve the better understanding of the evolvement of this activity over time. this process will further serve to test the validity of the above findings and provide additional credible primary data in terms of the living conditions, income earned and migration patterns of this informal sector activity in south africa. it will also make international comparisons possible given the body of research done among day labourers in namibia and the united states for example. day labourers 69 references barker, f. (2007). the south african labour market, 5th edition. pretoria: van schaik. bhorat, h., leibbrandt, m., maziya, m., van der berg, s. & woolard, i. (2001). fighting poverty – labour markets and inequality in south africa. cape town: uct press. blaauw, p.f. & bothma, l.j. (2003). informal labour markets as a solution for unemployment in south africa – a case study of car guards in bloemfontein. south african journal of human resource management, 1 (2), 40 44. blaauw, p.f., louw, h. & schenck, c.j. (2006). “the employment history of day labourers in south africa and the income they earn – a case study of day labourers in pretoria.” south african journal of economic and management sciences, ns 9 (4), 458 471. blaauw, p.f., pretorius, a.m., louw, h. & schenck, c.j. (2006). “the socio economic reality of being a day labourer in south africa.” department of economics research paper no. 0605, university of johannesburg, p. 1 –11, isbn: 0-86970-649-7. bless, c. & higson-smith, c. (1995). fundamentals of social research methods – an african perspective, 2nd edition. cape town: juta. braude, w. (2005). south africa: bringing informal workers into the regulated sphere, overcoming apartheids’ legacy, in good jobs, bad jobs, no jobs – labor markets and informal work in egypt, el salvador, india, russia, and south africa under editorship of avirgan, t., bivens, l. j. & gammage, s. washington d.c.: economic policy institute. burger, r. & yu, d. (2006). wage trends in post-apartheid south africa: constructing an earnings series from household survey data. south african reserve bank: labour market frontiers nr 8, 1 8. coulter, m. (2003). entrepreneurship in action, 2nd edition. new jersey: prentice hall. devey, r., skinner, c. & valodia, i. (2003). informal economy employment data in south africa: a critical analysis. paper presented at the tips and dpru forum 2003, the challenge of growth and poverty: the south african economy since democracy, 8 10 september 2003, indaba hotel, johannesburg. gartner, w.b. (1988). “who is an entrepreneur?” is the wrong question. american journal of small business, 12(4), 11 32. gonzo, w. & plattner, i.e. (2003). unemployment in an african country: a psychological perspective. windhoek: university of namibia press. hofmeyr, j.f. (1998). segmentation in the south african labour market. potchefstroom: south african network for economic research, working paper no. 15. kiggundu, m.n. (2002). entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in africa: what is known and what needs to be done. journal of developmental entrepreneurship, 7 (3), 239 258. kuratko, d.f. (2006). a tribute to 50 years of excellence in entrepreneurship and small business. journal of small business management. milwaukee, 44 (3), 483 492. kuznetsov, a., mcdonald, f. & kuznetsova, o. (2000). entrepreneurial qualities: a case from russia. journal of small business management. milwaukee, 38 (1), 101 107. ligthelm, a.a. (2004). informal markets in tshwane: entrepreneurial incubators or survivalist reservoirs? bureau of market research, unisa. report number 335. ligthelm, a.a. (2006). size estimate of the informal sector in south africa. southern african business review, 10 (2), 32 52. loots, a.e. (1998). job creation and economic growth. the south african journal of economics, 66 (3), 319 – 336. martins, j.h. (2004). minimum and supplemented living levels in the main and other selected urban areas of the rsa, march 2004. bureau of market research, unisa. report number 334. muller, c. (2003). investigating south africa’s informal sector: measurement, participation, and earnings. unpublished master’s thesis, university of natal, durban. schenck, r. & louw, h. (2005). an exploratory study on day labourers in elardus park pretoria. social work/maatskaplike werk, 41 (1), 84 95. statistics south africa. (2003). labour force sur vey, september 2002. pretoria. timmons, j.a. (1994). new venture creation: entrepreneurship in the 21st century, 4th edition. chicago: irwin. united nations development programme (undp). (2003). south africa human development report 2003-summary. cape town: oxford university press. valenzuela jr., a., theodore, n., meléndez, e. & gonzalez, a.l. (2006). on the corner: day labour in the united states. ucla. valodia, i., lebani, l., skinner, c. & devey, r. (2006). low-waged and informal employment in south africa. transformation 60 (2006), issn 0258-7696, 90 – 126. van aardt, i. & van aardt, c. (1997). entrepreneurship and new venture management, 1st edition. halfway house: international thompson publishing (southern africa). van wyk, r., boshoff, a.b. & bester, c.l. (2003). entrepreneurial attitudes: what are their sources? south african journal of economic and management sciences ns 6 (1), 1 – 24. whiteford, a. & van seventer, d.e. (1999). winners and losers: south africa’s changing income distribution in the 1990s. menlo park: wefa southern africa. bla auw, pretorius70 review panel edition 5.1 (2007) prof he brandt university of pretoria dr m coetzee university of south africa (unisa) ms s goosen (industrial psychologist) rhodes university prof jj havenga north west university (potchefstroom campus) dr k janse van rensburg spoornet prof w jordaan professor emeritus prof m kotze university of the free state prof rg le roux university of kwazulu natal prof c macdonald university of the witwatersrand (wits) dr p nel university of stellenbosch ms a odendaal (industrial psychologist) university of johannesburg ms c o’neil (industrial psychologist) university of kwazulu natal prof hj pietersen university of limpopo prod m sutherland gibs dr l de swart absa dr c tustin university of otago, new zealand dr r van niekerk rhodes university ms j white (industrial psychologist) private consultant review panel 71 abstract introduction theoretical framing method findings and discussion conclusion acknowledgements references appendix 1 appendix 2 about the author(s) sithenkosi lungisa department of public administration, faculty of management and commerce, university of fort hare, bhisho, south africa ogochukwu nzewi department of public administration, faculty of management and commerce, university of fort hare, bhisho, south africa samuel o. olutuase school of business and finance, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa citation lungisa, s., nzewi, o., & olutuase, s.o. (2019). the mediating role of planned behaviour on deterrence initiatives aimed at managing local government workplace compliance. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1058. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1058 original research the mediating role of planned behaviour on deterrence initiatives aimed at managing local government workplace compliance sithenkosi lungisa, ogochukwu nzewi, samuel o. olutuase received: 27 mar. 2018; accepted: 27 june 2019; published: 23 oct. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: compliance culture within the south african local government context is perceived to be critical to sustainable municipality service delivery. improving compliance culture is therefore important. research purpose: this article therefore developed a compliance framework based on deterrence theory (dt) and the theory of planned behaviour (tpb) to identify human behavioural factors to be considered in the development and use of work procedures as a way to improve workers’ compliance with work procedures. motivation for the study: reports (e.g. auditor general reports) on municipality service delivery fall short of providing a clear assessment and study of work and human behavioural dynamics in relation to compliance with work procedures. research approach/design and method: this article tested a conceptual model focused on the effect of deterrence initiatives on workplace compliance as mediated by the theory-planned behaviour. data were collected from 119 workers in two municipalities of the eastern cape province in south africa through a structured questionnaire and analysed using structural equation model. main findings: findings show that a positive attitude towards compliance to work procedures cannot be achieved through intimidation; reinforcement has a positive effect on attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control (pbc). however, only the pbc aspect of the tpb explains significant mediation between deterrence and compliance. practical/managerial implications: the study demonstrates how compliance culture can be engendered by non-intimidating deterrent measures and pbc. contributions/value-add: the negative effect of intimidation on compliance culture and the positive effect of pbc on compliance attitude of workers are critical contributions. keywords: compliance; theory of planned behaviour; deterrence theory; work procedures; local government. introduction understanding organisational behaviour is critical for the effective management of human resources. there is consensus among scholars that the concept is essential in cultivating a culture of compliance towards work procedures. the insinuation here is that employee behavioural management is cardinal in driving the institutions and organisation forward. in recent years, however, human resources management (hrm) has come under major scrutiny, especially in the south african local government context where sustainable service delivery still remains a challenge. this is partly attributable to the lack of a compliance culture in relation to following work procedures on the part of both the managers and the employees (agsa, 2016). nzewi (2017) argues that informal application of work procedures seems to be widely evident in the local government context because of a plethora of administrative factors such as limited communication and lack of documentation among others. despite this state of affairs, most government reports such as the auditor general (2016), the local government turnaround strategy (2009) and the back to basics policy (2014) are mute on providing in-depth analyses on, as well as solutions to, the internal challenges of compliance faced by municipalities. in particular, these reports fall short of providing a clear assessment and study of work and human dynamics in relation to compliance with work procedures and legislative provisions that govern them. in a bid to cover this void in the literature and weaknesses in the practice of compliance to work procedures in the local government context, this study used the deterrence theory (dt) and the theory of planned behaviour (tpb) to identify behavioural factors to be considered important in the development and use of work procedures. work procedures in this sense are viewed as organisational design statements or rules that can be strategically employed to improve compliance with legislation and regulations applying to local government. in this regard, the study sought to determine the mediating role of planned behaviour on deterrence initiatives aimed at managing local government workplace compliance. as a result, a conceptual model testing the mediating role of planned behaviour on deterrence initiatives at managing workplace compliance was developed and tested in two selected municipalities in the eastern cape province, the oliver tambo district municipality and buffalo city metropolitan municipality. to this end, the article sought to answer two questions: what is the mediating role of planned behaviour on deterrence initiatives aimed at managing local government workplace compliance? how valid are the tpb and dt hypothetical models for managing workplace compliance to work procedures? theoretical framing a review of the relevant theories guiding this study is prudent in exploring and articulating the nexus between theories and employee compliance to work procedures. based on the south african local government’s experiences on the adoption and practice of work procedures, the study hinged on dt and the tpb in informing the development of the proposed model. theory of planned behaviour the tpb, whose main architects are ajzen and fishbein (1973): [i]s a social-psychological theory that explains behavioural decision-making processes of human beings with aiming at understanding and predicting the behaviour of individuals, advocating that the successful completion of human behaviours are mainly controlled by individual will. (zhang, 2018, p. 76) the main tenets in relation to this include three primary assumptions, which are (1) attitude, (2) subjective norm (sn) and (3) perceived behavioural control (pbc). ajzen (2006, p. 35) defines attitude as ‘a learned predisposition to respond to an object or class of objects in a consistently favourable and unfavourable way’. attitude towards the act (aact), however, is defined as the degree to which performance of the behaviour is positively or negatively valued by an individual (ajzen, 2006). in the light of the definitions, this study adopts ajzen’s (2005, p. 30) definition of attitude as a disposition to respond favourably or unfavourably to an object, person or institution. more so, sn is defined by conner, norman and bell (2002, p. 197) ‘as a function of normative beliefs, which represent perceptions of specific significant others’ preferences about whether one should or should not engage in a behaviour’. according to ajzen (1991, p. 195), ‘normative beliefs are concerned with the likelihood that important referent individuals or groups approve or disapprove of performing a given behaviour’. in other words, sns deal with people with the ability to influence others (fishbein & ajzen, 2010). perceived behavioural control refers mainly to people’s perceptions of their ability to perform a given behaviour (ajzen, 2006). in the tpb, pbc is determined by the total set of accessible control of factors that may facilitate or impede the performance of the behaviour. to be specific, the strength of each control belief (c) is weighted by the perceived power (p) of the control factor, and the products are aggregated (ajzen, 2006). perceived behavioural control can also predict behaviour directly to the extent that the measure matches actual control. in this research study, the assumptions and antecedents of tpb are used to measure the relevance and importance of managing workplace compliance to accelerate organisational performance and simultaneously to enforce the culture of compliance to work procedures among the employees. this is largely based on the notion that the local government (sphere) is underpinned by non-compliance with legislative and regulatory frameworks, which hinders effective municipal performance and service delivery (ijeoma & nzewi, 2016). the intent of this study was to determine the mediating role of planned behaviour on deterrence initiative aimed at managing local government workplace compliance. deterrence theory the roots of the modern-day dt date back to the era when the united states was coming into existence (johnson, 2019). the main proponents of the theory are ceasare beccaria who wrote essay on crimes and punishments in 1764 and jeremy bentham who wrote an introduction to the principles of morals and legislation (introduction to the principles) in 1781. these philosophers emphasised the notion that ‘punishment must be proportionate to the crime committed and that punishment should occur as immediately after the commission of a crime’ (johnson, 2019, p. 3). therefore, under dt, an individual is punished for breach of a rule or law, and this serves as a lesson for the rest of the society. through this, a clear message is conveyed, which outlines what is right or wrong and consequences for such actions are indicated. in deterrence, punishment is viewed as a medium or tool for communicating a message, with the intention of stimulating individuals’ conscious and unconscious thoughts against committing an offence (bates, darvell, & watson, 2017, p. 27). this will result in the development of a habitual culture of compliance with procedures and law within a society (hawkin, 1969). according to schneider (2019, p. 1), the concept of deterrence ‘focuses on the use or the threat of punishment, with the intention to avoid people breaking the law that governs the coexistence of a society’. this is relevant in the study of municipal employee behaviour because most deviants are often public office holders who occupy the top rungs of the administrative machinery and their subordinates. noteworthy, non-compliance to work procedures directly or indirectly reduces an organisation’s competitive advantage. in this regard, the dt emphasises the need to abide by the law, and failure to that, organisational employees have to face punishment. beyleveld (1979, p. 207), in his contribution to dt, argues that at the centre of the effectiveness of deterrence is the consistent application of sanctions. he eludes that through sanctions, an individual is deterred from committing an offence because he fears the application of the sanction. in essence, sanctions act as the primary stimulator of the fear of intimidation found in the deterrent effect (beyleveld [1979] cited in bates et al., 2015, p. 24). elliott (2003), in the light of beyleveld’s (1979) definition, alludes that deterrence is therefore pivotal in ensuring compliance with rules and laws. elliot (2003) further outlines how deterrence operates, explaining that the introduction of sanctions deters and prevents an offence in the following ways: a clear knowledge of consequences associated with the breach of legislation and regulation invokes individual perception on costs of offending that results in compliance being seen to be more attractive than offending. at the centre of sanctions is moral education, which stimulates a culture of habit to comply with legislation and regulation. implementation of sanctions on breach of law is pivotal than merely providing threats. through punishment of an individual on breach of law, offences can be reduced by capacitating potential offenders and reforming offenders, which results in informal pressure to comply. therefore, this study uses dt to develop and present a work and human dynamic compliance-based model through which municipalities can improve legislative and regulatory framework compliance, which has been a recurring challenge for municipal performance. in the next section, the article presents how these theories are applicable in terms of the proposed context of local government performance. application of theory of planned behaviour and deterrence theory in local government among the many challenges of local government, non-compliance with legislation and regulatory frameworks is weightier than others (nzewi, 2017). therefore, it is important to understand the challenges of the south african local governance (ijeoma & nzewi, 2016). thus, this study identified the tpb and the dt as possible foundations for the design of work procedures for organisational compliance towards improved performance and service delivery in local government. to our knowledge, very few studies have focused on organisational compliance using tpb. nzewi (2017) developed a tpb-based conceptual framework to manage municipal audit compliance through work procedures. however, nzewi’s (2017) conceptual framework fell short of providing strategies on how the antecedents of the tpb will be strengthened to ensure a culture of audit compliance through work procedures. herath and rao (2009) used both the tpb and dt to examine employee security compliance intentions. their study identified that the antecedents of the tpb need to be supplemented by a theory that ensures conduct with law; hence, their study emphasised the adoption of the dt. deterrence theory focuses on the notion that punishment must be used on employees who fail to abide by the set rules and regulations. at the heart of this study is the exploration of the interplay between the dt and the tpb to ensure that compliance with work procedures is achieved at local government domain. the main objective of this research study was to find out the mediating role of planned behaviour on deterrence initiatives aimed at managing local government workplace compliance. however, in the review of the two theories, shortcomings were identified with the tpb, answering only the objective of how these human behavioural factors can be identified and falling short on how compliance will be instilled in the culture of the organisation, and hence the introduction of the dt, which focuses fundamentally on the consequences of non-compliance with work procedures. therefore, in essence, these two theories supplement each other in the sense that tpb focuses on studying and influencing human behaviour and dt provides strengthening mechanisms that influence the already studied human behaviour by tpb. thus, this study employed a mixed model of the dt and the tpb as a way to ensure that designed work procedures are cognisant of the social and behavioural factors of municipal officials. this study focused on three variables: dt, tpb and intention to comply (itc). the study examined the influence of deterrence on itc, and the tpb was used as an intervening variable that intended to test if the influence of deterrence on itc was persistent with the inclusion of tpb. each of the two theories was composed of three antecedents: dt (intimidation, education and reinforcement) and tpb (attitude, sns and pbc). in this regard, a hypothetical model was developed to test the relationship between deterrence and itc and the effect of planned behaviour on that relationship. in this case, the itc with legislative and regulatory frameworks will be influenced by attitude, sns and pbc. however, the study strongly argues that the tpb lacks in terms of what may prevent or deter a negative behaviour once the antecedents of the theory have been stimulated or enhanced. therefore, the dt proposes that unwanted behaviour can be prevented through deterrent effect (intimidation), strengthening of moral inhibitions (education) and stimulation of habitual law-abiding conduct (reinforcement) (williams & hawkins, 1986). the following hypotheses were made in the context of work procedure compliance: h1a: attitude towards compliance with work procedures influences the intention to comply with legislation and regulation. h1b: subjective norms with work procedures influence the itc with legislation and regulation. h1c: perceived behavioural control with work procedures influences the intention to comply with legislation and regulation. deterrence theory is mostly used in the discipline of criminology. peace, galletta and thong (2003), in their examination of organisational software piracy, found that the severity of punishment influences piracy attitudes in organisational software. the study also found that imposing penalties on organisational software piracy can lead to prevention of certain behaviour. thus, herath and rao (2009) suggest that if actions of an employee result in the breach of work procedures, the organisation must investigate the offence and the employee should be punished through imposing a penalty. thus, the employee will perceive the severity of punishment for non-compliance to be high, and their intention to commit undesired behaviours is likely to decline as a result. therefore, the study hypothesised that: h2a: the deterrent effect (intimidation) influences attitude towards compliance with work procedures. h2b: the deterrent (intimidation) influences sns towards compliance with work procedures. h2c: the deterrent effect (intimidation) influences pbc to comply with work procedures. wikström (2010) argues that, without fear of punishment and moral constraints, individuals are most likely to display a higher prospect of offending in any given scenario. therefore, his study intended to answer the following questions: what influences people to break moral rules? do these individuals view the behaviour as a viable alternative? (wikström, 2010). in this regard, if the individual perceives monitoring to be effective and sanction thereof to be severe, this may create deterrence. thus, out of fear of consequence, which acts as a factor in any thought over whether or not to perform a motivation and break a moral rule or law, deterrence is created (wikström & treiber, 2007, p. 245). this study therefore hypothesised that: h3a: strengthening moral inhibition (education) influences attitude towards compliance with work procedures. h3b: strengthening moral inhibition (education) influences sns regarding compliance with work procedures. h3c: strengthening moral inhibition (education) influences perceived behavioural control over compliance with work procedures. shoham, beck and kett (2008, p. 352) state that for habitual law-abiding conduct to occur, strengthening of moral education becomes pivotal in this regard. therefore, if an individual is taught morals that respond to what is stated in the law and to what degree compliance is rewarded and breaches punished, the individual is most likely to develop morality that leads to the birth of a culture of moral habits that promote law-abiding conduct. in essence, an individual who has internalised and developed moral habits that promote law-abiding conduct will not see non-compliance as an alternative action and, therefore, will habitually behave in line with the law (loughran, piquero, fagan, & mulvey, 2012). such individuals have built a culture of morality and moral habits that support compliance. hence, the fear of consequence for non-compliance will play a significant role in their choice of action. therefore, this study hypothesised the following: h4a: the stimulation of habitual law-abiding conduct (reinforcement) influences attitude towards compliance with work procedures. h4b: the stimulation of habitual law-abiding conduct (reinforcement) influences sns regarding compliance with work procedures. h4c: the stimulation of habitual law-abiding conduct (reinforcement) influences pbc over compliance with procedures. to this end, figure 1 represents the developed hypothetical model. figure 1: a proposed theory of planned behaviour and deterrence theory hypothetical model for managing workplace compliance. method research design in this study, an exploratory cross-sectional survey research design was employed. according to manerikar and manerikar (2014, p. 95), ‘exploratory research is the initial research conducted to clarify and define the nature of the problem’. the goal of exploratory research design is to formulate problems, clarify concepts and form hypotheses. human behaviour in the development and design of work procedures in the field of local government has been barely researched (nzewi, 2017). this study intended to clarify and define work procedures in local government as a tool to improve the level of compliance with legislation and regulation. population and sampling the buffalo city metropolitan municipality has 672 municipal officials (idp, 2016/2021), and o.r tambo district municipality has 555 municipal officials (idp review, 2016). the target population of this study was derived from three departments, namely corporate services, infrastructure services, and budget and treasury. the total number of employees in the three departments was 220 for the buffalo city metropolitan municipality and 195 for the o.r. tambo district municipality. all employees from senior managers to line officials were targeted in the study as work procedures need to be followed by everyone in an organisation. this study sampled employees from the municipalities using non-probability sampling methods. according to kumar (2014, p. 242), these are designs that are used when either the number of elements in a population is unknown or the elements cannot be individually identified. this research used snowball sampling technique. two main issues informed this choice: the first is the nature of local government operations in the chosen municipalities, where there is a marked difficulty in accessing respondents. the second is that snowball sampling augurs well for this research which is exploratory and where there is more focus on testing the relationship between variables than making generalisations. the directorates of the three departments identified for the study were required to provide information on suitable respondents for the study. in essence, they were asked to identify other people in their respective departments to become part of the sample. then, the selected individuals of whom most were divisional and project heads were further asked to identify other suitable members within the departments. in turn, the identified individuals became the basis for further data collection. sample size the raosoft sample size calculator (2004) was used for the purposes of this study. the combined number of municipal officials of the two respective municipalities is 415. the population targeted by the study were municipal workers of o.r tambo district municipality and buffalo city metropolitan municipality. the response distribution was set at 50% for each question because the researchers did not know how the response rate would turn out. as the researchers had no way of knowing the skewness of either the population or sample prior, the 50% mark, which gives the largest sample size, was used. the margin of error was set at a minimum of 5% as any value lower than that would have required a significantly larger sample size. the confidence level was at a maximum of 95% because higher confidence levels would have required a larger sample size. furthermore, the sample size for this study was estimated based on the sample size required for factor analysis. despite the seemingly known standards regarding reasonable absolute minimum sample size required for factor analysis, lack of consensus still persists in the literature. in some situations, practical conditions preclude a study from having sample size of up 100, 200, 500 and so on. based on simulation models, it was found that some conditions are more critical in determining the right sample size. these conditions relate to a number of factors: factor loadings, number of variables and size of communalities. while pearson and mundform (2010) faulted the general rule of thumb regarding the reasonable absolute minimum sample size required to yield quality results, some scholars have argued that exploratory factor analysis (efa) can produce results even from sample sizes below 50, provided that the factor loadings are high, the number of factors is low and the number of variables is high (de-winter, dodou, & wieringa, 2009). therefore, the sample of 119 was considered adequate, given that the number of factors was low (seven factors); factor loadings were high, ranging from 0.62 to 0.99; and the number of variables involved were as high as 22. the 119 questionnaires out of the 200 questionnaires administered represent a 60% response rate. data analysis data were entered and analysed in statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 25. the first step was to conduct data cleaning by screening cases and variables in the data set. this was performed to ensure that a clean data set for data analysis was generated. in the process of case screening, two participants were removed from the data set because they had over 13% missing values across the 22 indicators of latent variables. other missing data less than 13% were replaced with near-point median values. three missing values on the demographic variables were replaced with probable values deduced from contingency analyses performed. thus, the sample size became 117. the possibility of participants ticking options at random leads to unengaged responses that could dilute the normality and validity of the data set. we therefore used standard deviation to check for this. any standard deviation equals to 0 or close to 0.5 potentially shows that the participant probably had not fully engaged in the survey and was therefore removed. a total of 11 cases whose standard deviations were less than 0.5 were thus removed. this further brought down the sample size to 106. a number of latent indicators violate the strict normality rule of ±1 in terms of kurtosis and skewness, although these values are within the more relaxed range recommended by sposito, hand and skarpness (1983) who put the upper threshold at 3.3. exploration exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine which of the 22 latent indicators adequately explained variation in the seven latent constructs involved in this study. maximum likelihood method was used for the extraction of factors, while promax rotation was used for the model optimisation with kappa set at 4. other criteria include eigenvalues > 1, suppression of small coefficients set at < 0.3 and loading factor > 0.6. from the efa results, the factor model obtained extracted factors with minimum eigenvalue of 1.052 which is greater than 1. the extracted factors explain 63.607% of the total variance having only 9% non-redundant residuals with absolute values greater than 0.05. the retained items were considered adequate based on the kaiser–meyer–olkin measure of sampling adequacy higher than 0.5 (0.774) and a statistically significant bartlett sphericity test (< 0.001). validity and reliability given that the questionnaire for this study was adopted from the study of hadadgar et al. (2016), it became imperative to conduct confirmatory factor analysis (cfa). the aim of cfa was to ensure that the latent constructs, as measured by the questionnaire, satisfy construct, discriminant and convergent validity standards. ibm spss amos version 25 was used to perform cfa and results are presented in the subsequent sections. construct validity the cfa model fit indices show evidence of good construct validity (hooper, coughlan, & mullen, 2008). the cfa model has the following fit indices: relative chi-square = 1.245, chi-square = 69.723, df = 56, p = 0.103, comparative fit index (cfi) = 0.977, incremental fit index (ifi) = 0.979, tucker–lewis index (tli) = 0.963, root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) = 0.048, p of close fit (pclose) = 0.506 and standard root mean residual (srmr) = 0.0503. discriminant validity to satisfy theory-testing criteria, discriminant validity was also tested. this idea is to ensure that a latent construct is not better explained by some other variables than by its own observed variables. hair, black, babin and anderson (2010) state that discriminant validity criterion must ensure that the maximum shared variance (msv) for the latent constructs must be less than the corresponding average variance extracted (ave) estimates. from the tables provided in appendix 1, the criterion for discriminant validity was met for the six remaining constructs. convergent validity malhotra and dash (2011) recommend that convergent validity be measured in a stricter way using ave. they set the criterion that ave should be greater than 0.5, implying that less than 50% of the variance should be because of error. results showing that all ave estimates are greater than 0.5 prove that our cfa models have good convergent validity. reliability composite reliability (cr) was estimated to ascertain the internal consistency for all the seven latent constructs. the criterion is that cr score above 0.7 is considered acceptable. from the results presented in appendix 1, the cr scores range from 0.70 to 0.91, thereby showing that items reliably measure the constructs involved in the study. multivariate assumptions multivariate assumptions were addressed by estimativng cook’s distance, tolerance values and variable inflation factor (vif) using ibm spss version 25. we ran a cook’s distance analysis to determine if there were outliers and influential. based on the threshold of cook’s distance > 1, we observed that there were no influential observations as the highest cook’s distance is < 0.53. as there was no persistently high cook’s distance in any case, no participant was removed. tolerance and vif were estimated to evaluate multicollinearity assumption. the least tolerance value obtained of 0.309 was greater than the required threshold of 0.1, while most obtained vif value hovered around 1.54. this value is less than the threshold of 3.00. these criteria being met indicate good multicollinearity. structural equation model having obtained good validity and reliability, a structural equation model (see figure 3) was developed to include the latent constructs indicated in the theoretical framework (seefigure 2). as a critical requirement, the structural model was tested for fitness with data set. as set by hooper et al. (2008), the following indices show good fit: relative chi-square (χ2/df) = 1.234, cfi = 0.976, tli = 0.965, ifi = 0.977, rmsea = 0.047, pclose = 0.529 and srmr = 0.0579. figure 2: scatter graph showing non-significant outliers and influential. figure 3: structural model of theory of planned behaviour and deterrence theory on managing work place compliance. demographics and descriptive analysis out of 106 participants, there were 42 male participants and 64 female participants representing approximately 40% and 60%, respectively. a total of 58% of the respondents were supervisors, 16% were assistant managers and 10% were managers, while 15% were senior managers. in terms of age, 43% of the respondents were below 25 years, while 35% were between ages 25 and 35 years. the remaining 22% were between ages 36 and 45 years. about 54% had either a diploma or a bachelor’s degree, while 23% had either honours or master’s degree. another 23% had only matriculation (see appendix 2 for details). on a scale of 56, intimidation (i) has the lowest mean composite score at 2.40 (standard deviation = 1.11), while reinforcement (r) has the highest at 4.28 (standard deviation = 1.27). furthermore, all constructs were correlated to show their associations by performing a two-tailed bivariate correlation analysis. results (see table 1) show that all correlation coefficients were statistically significant at either α = 0.05 or α = 0.01. table 1: matrix of correlation coefficients among study constructs. hypotheses testing there were 12 sub-hypotheses involved in this explorative study. the structural equation model was used to estimate the regression weights of each path involved in the model and the p-value was computed (with α < 0.05) to determine the statistical significance of each regression weight. the results are presented in table 2. table 2: standardised regression weights. the results presented in table 2 show that only 6 out of 12 regression weights have statistical significance. from table 2, the results indicate that intimidation (i) has a significantly negative influence on attitude (a component of tpb), a (r = -0.301, p = 0.049). the implication is that attitude towards compliance with work procedure will decrease by an estimated 30% because of a proportionate increase in the use of intimidation. intimidation therefore is not a good tool for fostering the right and ethical attitude towards workplace procedures compliance. results also show that reinforcement, r, has significantly positive impact on attitude, a (r = 0.921, p = 0.002), sn (r = 0.807, p = 0.002) and pbc (r = 0.792, p < 0.001). these imply that attitude will increase by 92%, sn by 81% and pbc by 80% as reinforcement increases by 100%. reinforcement therefore is a very significant deterrence factor having high impact on tpb. similarly, sn (r = 0.246, p = 0.033) and pbc (r = 0.548, p < 0.001) have a significantly positive impact on itc with work procedures. this implies that as sn increases by 100%, there will be a corresponding increase in itc with work procedures by 25%; while 100% increase in pbc will result in a corresponding 55% increase in itc with work procedures. from the structural model, nine mediated paths were tested and the results are presented in table 3. the results show that only two mediated paths are statistically significant at p < 0.05. in other words, sn significantly mediates between reinforcement and itc with work procedures at r = 0.170 and p = 0.045. thus, sn has a 17% mediating effect between reinforcement and itc. similarly, pbc has a 37% mediating effect between itc with work procedures significantly at p = 0.035. table 3: standardised regression weights. ethical consideration this article followed all ethical standards for a research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. findings and discussion the findings of the study reveal that a positive attitude towards compliance to work procedures cannot be achieved through intimidation. in contrast to the deterrent effect (intimidation) that is largely regarded as an essential tenet of the dt that can be adopted to foster compliance to work procedures, the results of this study show that intimidation cannot always bear positive results on employee attitude. the study by bates, darvel and watson (2017) on the use of deterrence to explain provisional drivers’ non-compliance found that drivers exposed to higher levels of enforcement for traffic and speeding offences were less compliant. this is in a similar vein to havov and putri’s (2016) assertion that employees’ compliance with ethical conduct is to a greater extent influenced by the employees’ personal norms and moral standards rather than intimidation. this finding is in contrast with the doctrine of dt which states that punishing an individual for a crime should discourage them from committing it again. the insinuation presented here is that the use or the threat of punishment or sanctions with the intention to avoid employees breaking the law at workplace has a negative bearing on employee attitude; hence, it cannot be considered a good practice in establishing an organisational culture of compliance to work procedures. the implication for municipal practice is that enforcing employee ethical codes of conduct through intimidation as a means to deterrence can result in employees having a negative attitude towards work procedures and hence non-compliance. this can result in negative consequences on the general performance of municipalities. this is further elucidated by bireswari (2013) who asserts that negative employee attitude is a contributing variable to poor organisational performance. in this regard, the study suggests that the application of intimidation at managerial levels may stifle efforts towards the establishment of a positive attitude on compliance to work procedures. reinforcement has a positive effect on attitude, sn and pbc. this supports the notion that the stimulation of a habitual law-abiding conduct (reinforcement) in organisations can be adopted and used as a condition sine-qua-non for the establishment of positive compliant behaviour and control. in other terms, the absence of reinforcement may dwarf an organisation’s efforts that are geared towards the establishment of these dependent variables. to obtain desirable results for organisations (municipalities in this study context), managers need to increase reinforcement through monitoring compliance with work procedures, communication of work procedures and review of work procedures after a reasonable period. other studies (maritim, 2016; wei & yazdanifard, 2014) also reflect a significant contribution of positive reinforcement in changing attitude, sns and pbc at the workplace. the implication for municipal managerial practice is that workplace motivation, attitude and sns can be subdued if positive reinforcement is not taken into consideration. this study also finds that pbc is the only aspect of tpb that significantly affects itc with work procedures. the study by herath and rao (2009) on information systems security compliance revealed that evidence from many contexts shows greater pbc influence on behaviour than measures of attitude and sn. this is in line with the research that found that intent to comply could be limited by factors beyond the individuals’ control, such as time, cost, resistance from others (interference) and skill to perform such task. for instance, dzansi, chipunza and monnapula-mapesela (2016) found a positive relationship between political interference and how employees perceive fairness in hrm practices. according to nzewi (2017), within the context of local government in south africa, intentions or motivations to behave cannot be sufficient. this is because municipalities in south africa have become the locus of capacity and skills dearth and political tensions. these are conditions that limit the ability and capability to behave in terms of volitional control. from this perspective, pbc can be useful in predicting compliance behaviour. therefore, this implies that municipalities must give consideration to the perceived difficulties or barriers directly limiting one from carrying out a behavioural intent and the confidence one has regardless of internal or external environment. the above implies that there is only a partial mediation between dt and itc involving sn, pbc and reinforcement. the principal variable that will most likely result in the itc therefore is the interaction between reinforcement and pbc. this suggests that reinforcement from managers is boosted by employees’ positive perceptions of their ability and capability to carry out the particular compliance task. conclusion this study used empirically based literature on the tpb and dt to develop a hypothetical model for local government compliance. the model was tested to find the mediating role of planned behaviour on deterrence initiatives aimed at compliance behaviour. in answering the two research questions, the results show that a positive attitude towards compliance to work procedures cannot be achieved through intimidation mechanisms of sanctions and punishment of municipal employees. this result is in contrast to the deterrent effect that is generally regarded as essential to foster in compliance. indeed, the results reveal that reinforcement has a positive effect on attitude, sn and pbc. this makes reinforcement a pivotal and important instrument that municipalities and similar organisations can adopt and use to establish a culture of compliance with work procedures. furthermore, the results reveal pbc to be the only antecedent of tpb to significantly affect the itc with work procedures. what this says in terms of the mediating role of planned behaviour on itc is that where there is reinforcement or habitual stimulation of law-abiding conduct, the negative impact of employees’ perceptions of conditions which limit their ability and capability to behave (pbc) is curtailed. this improves employees’ likelihood to comply. the importance of these findings is that they inform municipalities to consider reinforcement measures that grow compliance behaviour and measures to increase employees’ perceived lack of ability or capability to perform a task (e.g. training). these measures will limit the perceived difficulties or barriers that directly limit employees from carrying out tasks and duties related to compliance. acknowledgements the department of public administration, university of fort hare. competing interests the author(s) declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions mr s. lungisa is the main author of this article as it is derived from his master’s research submitted to the university of fort hare. he was responsible for data collection, interpretation of results and writing a substantial part of the manuscript. prof. o. nzewi is the appointed supervisor of mr s. lungisa by the university of fort hare. she was responsible for guiding mr s. lungisa throughout the master’s degree and other requirements as mandated by the university. dr s.o. olutuase contributed to the methods, data analysis and part of findings sections of this article. he also helped in designing the theoretical framework as well as structuring the hypotheses. funding information this work is based on the research supported wholly or in part by the national research foundation of south africa (grant number 98866). data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer we declare that this research article hereby submitted to the south african journal of human resources management (sajhrm) for publication has not previously been submitted by us for publication in any other journal besides sajhrm, that it is our work in design and execution and that all material contained herein has been duly acknowledged. references auditor general of south africa (agsa). (2016). consolidated general report of the audit outcomes of local government [online]. retrieved from www.agsa.co.za ajzen, i., & fishbein, m. (1973). attitudinal and normative variables as predictors of specific behavior. journal of personality and social psychology, 27(1), 41–57. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0034440 ajzen, i. (1991). the theory of planned behaviour. organizational behaviour and human decision processes. journal of applied social psychology, 50(2), 179–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-t ajzen, i. (2005). attitudes, personality and behavior. maidenhead: open university press. ajzen, i. (2006). constructing a theory of planned behaviour questionnaire: conceptual and methodological considerations. retrieved from https://www.people.umass.edu/aizen/pdf/tpb.measurement.pdf bates, l., darvell, m. j., & watson, b. (2017). young and unaffected by road policing strategies: using deterrence theory to explain provisional drivers’ (non) compliance. australian and new zealand journal of criminology, 50(1), 23–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/0004865815589824 beyleveld, d. (1979). deterrence research as a basis for deterrence policies. the howard journal of crime and justice, 18(3), 135–149. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2311.1979.tb00388.x bireswari, v. r. (2013). organizational performance with employee attitude and behavior respect to it industry, bangalore: an empirical study. retrieved from https://ssrn.com/abstract=2210737 conner, m., norman, p., & bell, r. (2002). the theory of planned behaviour and healthy eating. health psychology, 21(2), 194–201. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.21.2.194 de-winter, j.c.f., dodou, d., & wieringa, p.a. (2009). exploratory factor analysis with small sample sizes. multivariate behavioral research, 44(2), 147–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/00273170902794206 dzansi, l.w., chipunza, c., & monnapula-mapesela, m. (2016). municipal employees’ perceptions of political interference in human resource management practices: evidence from the free state province in south africa. international business &amp; economics research journal (iber), 15(1), 15–26. https://doi.org/10.19030/iber.v15i1.9572 elliott, b. (2003). deterrence theory revisited. paper presented at the road safety research, policing and education conference, 24–26 september 2003. sydney, nsw: roads and traffic authority (rta). fishbein, m., & ajzen, i. (2010). predicting and changing behaviour: the reasoned action approach. new york: psychology press. hadadgar, a., changiz, t., masiello, i., dehghani, z., mirshahzadeh, n., & zary, n. (2016). applicability of the theory of planned behaviour in explaining the general practitioners elearning use in continuing medical education. bmc medical education journal, 16(1), 1–8. hair, j., black, w., babin, b., & anderson, r. (2010). multivariate data analysis (7th ed.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice-hall, inc. havov, a., & putri, f.f. (2016). this is my device! why should i follow your rules? employees’ compliance byod security policy. pervasive and mobile computing, 32 (2016), 35–49. hawkins, g. (1969). punishment and deterrence: the educative, moralizing, and habituative effects. uw-madison: wisconsin law review. herath, j., & rao, h. (2009). protection motivation and deterrence: a framework for security policy compliance in organisations. european journal of information systems, 18(2), 106–125. https://doi.org/10.1057/ejis.2009.6 hooper, d., coughlan, j., & mullen, m. (2008). structural equation modelling: guidelines for determining model fit. the electronic journal of business research methods, 6(1), 53–60. retrieved from www.ejbrm.com ijeoma, e., & nzewi, o.i. (2016). work procedures application in municipal government: perspective from local government employees in south africa. journal of public administration, 51(1), 58–72. johnson, b. (2019). do criminal laws deter crime? deterrence theory in criminal justice policy: a primer, minnesota house research department. retrieved from https://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hrd/pubs/deterrence.pdf kumar, r. (2014). research methodology a step-by-step guide for beginners (4th ed.). los angeles, ca: sage. loughran, t., piquero, a.r., fagan, j., & mulvey, e.p. (2012). differential deterrence: studying heterogeneity and changes in perceptual deterrence among serious adolescent offenders. crime & delinquency, 58(1), 3–27. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128709345971 malhotra, n.k., & dash, s. (2011). marketing research an applied orientation. london: pearson publishing. manerikar, v., & manerikar, s. (2014). a note on exploratory research. a peer reviewed research journal, 17(1), 95–96. maritim, d.k. (2016). the influence of positive reinforcement on employee motivation at the nakuru country government. iosr journal of business management, 18(9), 16–19. https://doi.org/10.9790/487x-1809021619 nzewi, o.i. (2017). managing municipal audit compliance through work procedures: a theory of planned behaviour approach. southern african journal of accountability and auditing, 19(1), 1–14. peace, a.g., galletta, d., & thong, j. (2003). software piracy in the workplace: a model and empirical test. journal of management information systems, 20(1), 153–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421222.2003.11045759 pearson, r.h., & mundform, d.j. (2010). recommended sample size for conducting exploratory factor analysis on dichotomous data. journal of modern applied statistical methods, 9(2), 359–368. https://doi.org/10.22237/jmasm/1288584240 republic of south africa. (2009). local government turnaround strategy. pretoria: government printers. republic of south africa. (2014). back to basic approach. pretoria: government printers. republic of south africa. (2016a). buffalo city metropolitan municipality integrated development plan 2016–2021. east london: government printers. republic of south africa. (2016b). o.r tambo district municipality integrated development plan review 2016/2017. umtata: government printers works. schneider, a., (2019). deterrence theory in paraguay: exploring fraud and violation of trust cases. social sciences, 8(23), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci8010023 shoham, s.g., beck, o., & kett, m. (2008). international handbook of penology and criminal justice. raton, nm: crc press. sposito, v.a., hand, m.l., & skarpness, b. (1983). on the efficiency of using the sample kurtosis in selecting optimal lp estimators. communications in statistics-simulation and computation, 12(3), 265–272. https://doi.org/10.1080/03610918308812318 wei, l.t., & yazdanifard, r. (2014). the impact of positive reinforcement on employees’ performance in organisations. american journal of industrial and business management, 2014 (4), 9–12. https://doi.org/10.4236/ajibm.2014.41002 wikström, p.o.h., & treiber, k. (2007). the role of self-control in crime causation. european journal of criminology, 4(2), 237–264. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370807074858 wikström, p.o.h. (2010). situational action theory. in f. t. cullen & p. wilcox (eds.), encyclopedia of criminological theory, (pp. 3–43). london, england: sage. williams, k., & hawkins, r. (1986). perceptual research on general deterrence: a critical overview. law and society review, 20(4), 545–572. https://doi.org/10.2307/3053466 zhang, k. (2018). theory of planned behavior: origins, development and future direction. international journal of humanities and social science invention, 7(5), 76–83. appendix 1 table 1-a1: validity and reliability measures. appendix 2 table 1-a2: demographic details. 6-smitcarstens.qxd albert yn (2001:20) reports that in the year 2000, out of 41 countries assessed, the world competitiveness report ranked south africa last in terms of human resources (skilled labour; labour relations generally hostile; customer satisfaction not emphasised; industrial disputes; and managers generally lacking a sense of entrepreneurship). according to albert yn (2001:20), the authoritative management structures of the south african workforce result in organisations with noninitiative taking, disempowered members. in the 2001 edition of the world competitiveness report, south africa was ranked no 46 out of 49 countries rated (imd internat ional, 2001:303). a lthough some improvement occurred, human resource is still on the imd’s list of t went y weakest areas for south africa. because they need to initiate, implement, and evaluate change, leadership takes a central position amidst organisation changes. for tizard (2001:62), the successful managers of change are those that ensure that techniques are put in place to involve and transform individuals through the different change stages as part of normal business. font yn (quoting olivier) echoes albert yn’s (2001:20) comments on authoritative struct ures in south african organisations: “due to a shortage of talent at the top of organisations, there is not enough leadership competency in sa. many business leaders run their companies purely on numbers, reverting to old models of leadership – like the autocratic model, where authority comes with the position rather than through leadership.” (fontyn, 2001:40). it is evident that change management and leadership are current issues within the south african organisation context. south africa is however not the only country experiencing a lack in change management leadership competencies. many researchers over many decades raised concern over the lack of leadership competence to deal with organisation change. pettigrew, woodman, and cameron (2001:697) refer to a host of researchers who researched this matter over the years. these researchers include van de ven and poole, 1995; weick and quinn, 1999; pett igrew, 1997; kahn, 1974; greenwood and hinings, 1996; gersick, 1994; and others (pettigrew et al, 2001:697). as inferred from the quoted references, not only is the lack of change management leadership a universal problem but also a particular issue for south africa. among the negative consequences of a lack in change management leadership are a lack of skilled labour, hostile labour relations, employees not identif ying with organisation objectives, and a high employee turnover rate. defining leadership, competence and change leadership: introductory thoughts about its definition there are a variety of different definitions and views on leadership found in the literature. kanji and moura e sa herman smit louis carstens programme leadership in performance and change department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract this article focuses on the influence leadership role congruence has on organisation change within three south african organisations in the manufacturing industry. the research was done in two phases. phase i investigated the utilisation of leaders in specific leadership change roles. four leadership change roles (initiator, shaper, monitor, and assessor) were identified, each for which a set of competencies (competence cluster) was developed. a questionnaire (leadership role competence questionnaire) measuring the perceived level of competence for each role, was designed. phase ii investigated the influence of the congruence results on organisational change outcome. a questionnaire (change outcome questionnaire) measuring the soft dimensions of organisation change was developed. all three respondent organisations’ leaders involved with their organisations’ change initiatives were selected for phase i. a random sample of 120 employees per organisation was used for phase ii. the main findings were that congruence existed for two roles (initiator and assessor). in addition to this it was found that role congruence for the initiator and assessor roles influenced change outcome positively, and that a lack of congruence for the shaper and monitor roles had a negative influence on change outcome. opsomming hierdie artikel fokus op die invloed wat rolkongruensie het op organisasieverandering binne drie suid afrikaanse maatskappye in die vervaardigingsektor. die navorsing is gedoen in twee fases. fase i het die aanwending van leiers in spesifieke leierskapsveranderingsrolle ondersoek. vier leierskapsveranderingsrolle (inisieerder, vormer, moniteerder, en assessor) was geïdentifiseer waarvoor vir elk ’n stel vaardighede (vaardigheidsbondel) ontwikkel is. ’n vraelys (leierskaps-rol-vaardigheid vraelys) wat die waargenome vlak van vaardigheid in elke rol meet, is ontwikkel. fase ii het die invloed wat die kongruensieresultate op die organisasieveranderingsresultate gehad het, gemeet. ’n vraelys (veranderings-resultate vraelys) wat die interpersoonlike dimensies van organisasieverandering meet, is ontwikkel. al die leiers van die respondent organisasies wat betrokke was met die veranderingsinisiatiewe is geselekteer vir fase i. ’n ewekansige steekproef van 120 werknemers per organisasie was gebruik vir fase ii. die belangrikste bevindinge was dat kongruensie gevind is vir twee rolle (inisieerder en assessor). aansluitend hierby is gevind dat rolkongruensie vir die inisieerder en assessor rolle die organisasieveranderingsresultate positief beïnvloed het terwyl ’n gebrek aan kongruensie vir die vormer en moniteerder rolle die organisasieveranderingsresultate negatief beïnvloed het. the influence of leadership role competencies on organisation change outcome in the manufacturing industry in south africa requests for copies should be addressed to: h smith, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 45 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (2), 45-52 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (2), 45-52 (2000:701) reviewed the literature on leadership and concluded that there are “almost as many different definitions of leadership as there are researchers who have attempted to define the concept”. in comparing the different views on leadership, there are some similarities in the way leadership is explained. kanji and moura e sa (2001: 701) note that every leadership definition inevitably comprises an “influence” component. tett, guterman, bleier and murphy’s (2000:221) study of twelve leadership models reveals that eight of these models referred to leadership as “motivation by persuasion”. according to tett et al (2000:221), this was often considered to be the essence of leadership. they also add that in the literature different authors conceptualised the same “leadership type” differently (tett et al, 2000:221). as an example they refer to transformational leadership and note that researchers such as bass (1985), burns (1978), conger and kanungo (1987), and house (1977) all defined it in different ways (tett et al, 2000:221). leadership is defined by kerfoot (1999:64) as the art and science of leading change effectively. parsell and bligh (2000:199) are of the opinion that leadership involves the possession and use of power and authority to bring about change in terms of influencing the thoughts and actions of other people. inducing change, getting others to change and upholding change are at the essence of leadership. as such, leadership is linked to transformation. it was therefore concluded that leadership cannot be non-transformational, as leadership implies change. for the purpose of this research, leadership was defined in terms of the ability to change others’ behaviour, or to influence others towards taking action in line with a goal or objective. competence: introductory thoughts on its definition competence is defined in a number of ways by different authors. letsinger (1998:40), nadler (1990:26), and halley (2001:154) define competence in terms of knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviours that are required to perform a job successfully. hall (1996:33) views competence as a matter of “fitting”. he defines competence as follows: “competence, as a state of adaptive fitness and response readiness, is the sustained capacity of people to respond in a committed and creative fashion to the demands placed on them by their environments” (hall, 1996:33). for spencer and spencer (1993:9), a competency is “an underlying characteristic of an individual that is causally related to criterion-referenced effective and/or superior performance in a job or situation”. for this research, competencies refer to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviours that are required for success in leadership roles. views on contemporary leadership research according to gaughan (2001:67), the study of leadership began around the 1930’s. the earlier models (situational or contingency models) focused on identif ying st yles and behaviours that were dependent on a range of situational factors. later models (post 1980) focused on change and gave rise to a “new” leadership approach, i.e. the paradigm shift towards “transformational” leadership (gaughan, 2001:67). although the research focus has shifted to transformational leadership, authors such as gaughan (2001:67) and cross (2001:49) stress the importance of both “transactional” and “transformational” leadership in organisations. dering (1998:32) reports that the study of leadership resulted in two distinct paths in the 1990’s. one branch was the “relational models” and the other the “contemporary organisations models”. the “relational models” focus on the affective domain in leadership, which includes concepts like caring, stewardship and love. the transformational leader model is an example of the “contemporary organisations model”, which allows for three critical leadership components, i.e. the needs of the followers, the needs of the organisation, and the change needs of the organisation. the transformational leadership style implies that leaders are only leaders by virtue of the leadership role being sanctioned by their followers (gaughan, 2001:67). although a wide range of different views on leadership and leadership models are identified in the literature, there are more similarities than differences in what authors see as “good” leaders. all of them agree on dimensions such as inspiring people, showing direction, communicating effectively, and solving problems. it is also clear that there is not yet a single, universally accepted, leadership model. approaches towards leadership competencies the views on leadership competencies are as varied as that of leadership itself. the most popular approach to explaining leadership competencies is through expressing competencies in terms of more effective leaders and less effective leaders, called competency theory by cairns (2000). for boak and coolican (2001:212), this is the best way of measuring leadership. the competency theory approach is also preferred by wright, rowitz, merkle, reid, robinson, herzog, weber, carmichael, balderson and baker (2000:1202) and fulmer and wagner (1999:28). cairns (2000) advocates an approach that would allow for the development of individuals’ own interests, insights, motivations, and capabilities. she is against the competency theory approach and says it will create inhuman monsters (cairns, 2000). although not against the competency theory as such, barner (2000:47) criticises its application as the driver of change instead of the business strateg y as the driver of change. kanji and moura e sa (2001:706) call for an approach that will consider the leadership team as a whole rather than just the strengths and weaknesses of the individual leader. a greater specificity of behavioural dimensions in the analysis of leadership competencies is emphasised by tett et al (2000:212). they express the need for the contextualisation of leadership competencies where the focus is on behaviour and the need to capture the future-oriented nature of prediction and change in a competence model (tett et al, 2000:212). change-management leadership competencies a significant number of authors (spangenberg, schroder, and duvenhage, 1999:117; dering, 1998; scholtes, 1999; graetz, 2000; kanji and moura e sa, 2001; bergman, 1999; and wright et al, 2000) stress the importance of creating a vision as an important competency of leadership. in addition to creating a vision, the above authors identif y a number of “key” or “core” competencies required by leaders to manage change successfully. the following are some examples of the core competencies identified: “sense of mission”; “effective change agent”; “strategic competence”; “conceptual competence”; “negotiation”; “develop team-oriented structures and systems”; “communication”; and “developing self and others”. organisation change: introductory thoughts on its definition in defining organisation change, most authors refer to it as a process of transition from one state to another. veldsman (2002:47) describes organisation change as “the difference in the state of an organisation at two separate locations in time and/or in smith, carstens46 space.” the earlier location refers to the “what is” state of the organisation and the latter location to its “what should/must be” state. “state” refers to the mode of existence and functioning of the organisation. the change process encompasses the conversion of the “what is” state into the “what should/must be” state. schalk, campbell and freese (1998:157) describe change as “the deliberate introduction of novel ways of thinking, acting and operating within an organization as a way of surviving or accomplishing certain organization goals”. in this sense, “novel” refers to new, different or unique, and as such implicates doing or thinking differently. both cornell (1996:23) and mink (1998:272) describe change in terms of systems theory. for cornell (1996:23), there need to be a balance or equilibrium between related factors. change disrupts this equilibrium and the system will take steps to regain its balance. change may also be a response to the desire to achieve such equilibrium, if one or other party is not content with the status quo. mink (1998:277) views change as a process and not an event. for him the goal of organisation change is renewal towards becoming an open system (mink, 1998:277). according to applebaum and wohl (2000:281), there is a difference between change and transformation. change is the alteration of something that already exists. transformation refers to a bona fide metamorphosis. it is not, like change, improving on what is, but creating something that does not exist. they use the analogy of a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly to explain the difference: “the butterfly is not more caterpillar, or a better or improved caterpillar, or even a changed caterpillar – it is a new and entirely distinct being” (applebaum and wohl, 2000:281). change, as referred to in this research, is about improvement and not transformation. change is about movement, indicating direction. views on contemporary change management research approaches towards organisation change organisation change is explained in various ways by different authors. savolainen (1999:1203) explains change in terms of the “type” and “mode”. ”type” refers to the speed of change and “mode” to the means of effecting organisation change. he differentiates “ty pe” further in terms of incremental (evolutionary) and radical (transformational/revolutionary) change (savolainen, 1999:1203). he describes the “mode” of change as a polar t ype model of collaboration and coercion and stresses that in the polar model the difference does not lie in speed but whether organisations are effecting change on a continuous or on a discontinuous basis (savolainen, 1999:1203). kofoed, gertsen and jorgensen (2002:165) describe change in terms of a series of radical and incremental changes (punctuated equilibrium theory). radical changes (secondorder changes) are changes that encompass major, fundamental shifts of organisation systems, culture, and paradigms. incremental changes or first order changes they define as “the minor modifications that seek to reinforce or converge current practices, processes, culture, paradigms, etc. (kofoed et al, 2002:165). these changes are implemented slowly and gradually over time and require little investment to implement, are based on inductive logic and often involve employee participation and involvement in the planning, directing, and implementing of improvement activities” (kofoed et al, 2002:166). radical and incremental changes are referred to in terms of episodic versus continuous change by pettigrew et al (2001:705). episodic change refers to infrequent, discontinuous, and intentional change. continuous changes are ongoing, evolving, and cumulative. organisation change is also explained as being either a “planned” or an “emergent” approach (burnes, 1996:12; gillis, 1999:28; and burke, 1995:159). the “planned” approach views change as an event where change is planned, implemented and finalised (gillis, 1999:28). many authors on organisation change models consider lewin’s (1951) three-step model (“unfreezing”, “change”, and “refreezing”) as the origin and basis of the “planned” approach (applebaum and wohl, 2000:288; cornell, 1996:26; burnes, 1996:11; gillis, 1999:28; and burke, 1995:159). the “emergent” approach towards organisation change views change as a process that unfolds through the interplay of multiple variables (context, political processes and consultation) within an organisation (burnes, 1996:13). planned and emergent change models the distinguished authors of these approaches have proposed various “planned” and “emergent” models. amongst the “planned” change models are the seven-staged “change cycle model” (heifetz, 1993:4), the four-phase “culturally sensitive restructuring model” (bate, khan, and pye, 2000:204), a threestage transition model proposed by st-amour (2001:21), and a three-step change model described by qubein (2001:17). all of these models are based on the lewin (1951) model of “unfreeze”, “change”, and “refreeze”. the dynamic non-linear “emergent” models focus on the understanding of how and why change happens in individuals, groups and organisations (lichtenstein, 2000:526). typical “emergent” models are the “continuous improvement” model (savolainen, 1999:1216), the “4-d model of appreciative inquiry” (whitney, 1998:316), the “targeted culture modelling process” (shields, 1999:107), the “business and computing support co-evolution” model (bustard and he, 1998:370), the “improvement journey” (connolly and connolly, 2000:63), the “learning based change initiative” (sugarman, 2001:65), the “consolidated change” model (jay and smith, 1996:3) and the “integrated change navigation approach” (veldsman, 2002:49). in choosing a change model the change initiator is faced with many choices and options. the main concern will be the probability of successful implementation. a constraint in deciding on an approach is the scarcity of research findings. schalk et al (1998:157) report that little empirical research had been done on the effect of organisation change, specifically on the implementation of change on employee behaviour. pettigrew et al (2001:706) agree by declaring the “emergent” approach a “rare approach to change research”. st-amour (2001:22) reports on a study by the conference board of canada who found that 66 percent of organisations that completed restructuring initiatives (based on the “planned” approach) showed no immediate increase in productivity. more than 50 percent realised no short-term profit improvements and only 30 percent reported a lowering of costs. the impact of “planned” interventions is described as “little more than a rearrangement of the existing structure chart, or the roll-out of a large scale training programme” by butcher and atkinson (2001:22). burnes (1996:12) agrees and adds that since the 1980’s, the “planned” approach has come under increased criticism. pettigrew et al (2001:706) refer to studies by sitkin, sutcliffe and weick (1998), sahlin-andersson (1996), and moorman and miner (1998) where successes of the “emergent” approach were reported. success was measured in terms of small, uninterrupted adjustments, created simultaneously across units, creating cumulative and substantial change. success for the “emergent” approach were also reported by sugarman (2001:72) and whitney (1998:318). kofoed et al leadership role competencies 47 (2002:167) declare their “emergent” change initiative (a “continuous improvement” process implemented over three years in a mid-size danish processing company) a failure and proclaim “learning processes” and actions to be “predictably unpredictable”. both the “planned” and “emergent” approaches to organisation change resulted in success. equally so, both also resulted in some failures. neither approach can be declared as being undeniably superior. the approach selected for this research was based on the “emergent” approach. leadership change roles the visionary role of change leadership is recognised by most authors, amongst others burke (1995:161), applebaum and wohl (2000:284), potter (2001:54), chapman (2002:18) and graetz (2000:550). tasks associated with the visionary role centre around leaders’ planning skills and abilities to envisage and communicate a better future. tizard (2001:62), besecker (2001:31) and st-amour (2001:20) are amongst the authors who emphasise the implementer role within the context of change leadership. the leader’s ability to ensure that the change takes place by transitioning individuals through the different stages of the change process forms the core of the implementer role. the leader’s ability to deal with individuals’ discomfort and resistance is also described as a key role by authors such as cornell (1996:29), shields (1999:105) and potter (2001:56). the final phase of organisation change centres around the evaluation of the change effort. the need for leaders to assess and measure organisation change processes is emphasised by applebaum and wohl (2000:290), jay and smith (1996:66) and sugarman (2001:66). four leadership change roles were identified for this research, i.e. initiator, shaper, monitor, and assessor. a competence cluster was developed for each leadership change role. the initiator cluster contained competencies associated with setting a vision, communicating the vision and obtaining support for it. the competencies associated with the shaper role focussed on inducing and reinforcing the change initiative, the development of employees’ competence to meet the change requirements, and the empowerment of employees to meet the change requirements. the monitor cluster contained competencies associated with employee consultation, the handling of emotional reactions, and the eliminating of resistance and conflict. the assessor cluster contained competencies linked to measuring and assessing change outcomes and the provision of focus areas for future change initiatives. integrated role competence cluster model the identified roles (initiator, shaper, monitor, and assessor) and competencies were integrated in a particular model, the “integrated role competence cluster model (irccm)”. figure 1 is a graphic illustration of this model. this model depicts the change process as a continuous four-phase cycle, integrating leadership change roles with associated competencies. smith, carstens48 figure 1: integrated role competence cluster model measuring organisation change authors such as burke (1995:177) and mcadam and bannister (2001:89) plead for measurement of change in terms of “soft” (culture, antecedents, etc.) measurements as the “hard” data (net income, return on investment and stock price) seem to be the only measurements in most studies. the “lagging” financial performance measures have long been recognised for their inadequacy in the context of change management measurement (mcadam and bannister, 2001:89). the “soft” measurements are also called for by burke (1995:177), mcadam and bannister (2001:321), kanji and moura e sa (2001:709), potter (2001:54) and tizard (2001:62). the increasing demand for “soft” measurements regarding organisation change was the reason for it to be the focus of this research. the following items are examples of the “soft” measurement items used in this research: “the extent to which employees’ knowledge and understanding of the company’s vision is linked to the change initiative”; “the extent to which employees are informed and updated with progress regarding the change initiative”; and “the extent to which employees changed behaviour as a result of the change initiative”. empirical research methodology research design the design utilised for this research was quasi-experimental ex post facto: post test/observation only. the research was implemented in two phases. phase i consisted of determining the congruence between leaders’ utilisation in a particular role and their perceived competence in the competencies allocated to that role. phase ii investigated the influence of higher/lower levels of congruence on organisational change outcome. the null hypothesis for phase i was that there was no statistical difference between the average competence scores leaders received on the different roles, i.e. they would receive similar average ratings for all four roles. the null hypothesis for phase ii was that there was no statistical difference in terms of change outcome for roles where congruence was obtained as compared to roles for which congruence was not obtained. participants three organisations in the manufacturing industry were selected. these organisations were representative of the food industry, the motor industry and the metal industry. two different populations were used for the respective phases. the reason for choosing two populations was that utilising the first population (phase i population) for also determining the change outcome (phase ii) would have resulted in respondent bias, i.e. by being involved with the implementation of the change initiative, their assessment on its success would have been subjective. for phase i all the leaders who were utilised in change roles during the implementation of their organisation’s change initiative were selected. the leaders were rated by means of a 360-degree assessment. themselves, their managers, a peer, and a subordinate assessed the identified leaders. the sample sizes for phase i for all three organisations were small because all three organisations utilised only a limited number of leaders in the change roles. the response rates were as follows: for organisation a, 49 (68%), for organisation b, 36 (45%), and for organisation c, 45 (70%). only 9 leaders (overall) received a complete (own, manager, peer, and subordinate) set of ratings. for each organisation a random sample of 120 literate employees was used for phase ii. the response rates were as follows: 75 (62%) responses for organisation a, 78 (65%) for organisation b, and 35 (29%) for organisation c. measurement instruments a questionnaire (leadership role competence questionnaire) measuring the perceived level of competence for each of the four leadership change roles identified (initiator, shaper, monitor, and assessor), was developed for phase i. to avoid biased responses in the questionnaires, competencies were not linked to their identified clusters but randomly positioned in the questionnaire. items were rated on a four point likert scale. scale values were “very competent” (1), “competent” (2), “not competent” (3), and “not at all competent” (4). the following items are examples of the items used in the leadership role competence questionnaire: item 9. explaining the vision in understandable terminology. item 25. demonstrating how employees will gain personally from change outcomes. item 40. applying continuous improvement principles through the identification of new change focus areas. a questionnaire (change outcome questionnaire) measuring the “soft” dimensions of organisation change was developed for phase ii. items were rated on a four point likert scale. scale values were “strongly disagree (4)”, “disagree (3)”, “agree (2)” and “strongly agree (1)”. values of 3 and 4 indicated an unsuccessful change outcome and values of 1 and 2 a successful change outcome. a mean value of 2.5 was chosen as cut-off point for success. the following items are some examples of items used in the change outcome questionnaire: item 17. the majority of employees in this company support the change initiative. item 39. employee participative forums regarding this change initiative are not trusted by employees. item 63. the changes resulting from this change initiative are causing inefficiencies in work processes. analytical procedure both questionnaires were given to three leadership and change management specialists for content validation. a cronbach alpha was calculated for both questionnaires to determine reliability. the leadership role competence questionnaire was found to be reliable and valid. the change outcome questionnaire was found not to be reliable. the unreliability of the change outcome questionnaire caused conflict as the instrument was validated in terms of content validation. a valid instrument should be reliable. in order to resolve this reliability dilemma of the change outcome questionnaire, the constructs and their items were factor analysed to determine the underlying validity of constructs (please refer to paragraph entitled “results of instrument validation” below). a correspondence analysis was used to determine role congruence by mapping the roles leaders were utilised for onto the average competence ratings leaders received for those roles. a cross table was used to analyse and compare the data. as a result of the small sample sizes for phase i, a cramer’s v test was done to assess the effect of sample size on tests. similar results (no significant differences) for the three organisations would allow for the comparison of phase i results with the results of phase ii. an anova was done on the results of the change outcome questionnaire (phase ii) to determine whether any significant differences existed between the three organisations’ results. to determine whether any significant differences existed within organisations, non-parametric t-tests were done for organisations b and c and a kruskal-wallis test for organisation a. to determine the influence of role congruence on change outcome the results obtained in phase i were compared to the results of the administration of the change outcome questionnaire. leadership role competencies 49 results of instrument validation the leadership role competence questionnaire was found to be reliable and valid. the alpha values obtained for each role were: initiator: 0.97, shaper: 0.94, monitor: 0.88, and assessor: 0.93. the instrument was also content validated by the change management experts, as discussed earlier. as indicated earlier, the change outcome questionnaire was found to be unreliable, yet was content validated. to resolve this dilemma, a factor analytical procedure was applied. a factor analysis was done on the change outcome questionnaire in terms of a first order paf with varimax rotation. the kmo value was 0.77 (significance < 0.001). the factor analysis resulted in fifteen factors with eigen values higher than 1, explaining 71% of total variance. this necessitated a second round paf by means of an oblimin with kaiser normalisation as rotation method. the test for sampling adequacy resulted in a kmo value of 0.85 (significance < 0.001). the second round paf resulted in three factors with eigen values higher than 1, explaining 57% of total variance. these results are presented in table 1 below. table 1 total variance explained after second round paf factor total (eigen values) % of variance change buy-in and support 4.5 31.80 resistance to change 2.41 17.21 personal work advantages 1.16 8.28 the three factors extracted were: change buy-in and support, resistance to change and personal work advantages. the third factor, personal work advantages, was eliminated on the grounds that it only represented one item in the change outcome questionnaire. a cronbach test was done on the t wo remaining factors. the change buy-in and support factor obtained an alpha value of 0.95 and the resistance to change factor an alpha value of 0.84. the factor analysis procedure’s results satisfactorily addressed the conf lict emanating from the content validation of the change outcome instrument on the one hand and the lack of reliabilit y on the other hand. empirical research results phase i results the cut-off point for congruence was set at 40 %. two roles (initiator and assessor) achieved congruence while the other two (shaper and monitor) did not achieve congruence. the results of the correspondence analysis are presented in table 2 below. seventy-one percent (10 of 14) of the leaders utilised in the initiator role were also assessed as being most competent for that role. only two (15%) of the thirteen leaders who were utilised for the shaper role were rated most competent for that role. just one out of ten leaders (10%) utilised for the monitor role was assessed as being most competent for that role. seven out of fourteen (50%) of the leaders utilised for the assessor role were assessed as being most competent for that role. figure 2: symmetrical normalisation graph (correspondence analysis) for role congruence between utilised roles and competent roles smith, carstens50 table 2 role competence and role utilisation cross tabulation role count competent: competent: competent: competent: total utilisation (number of leaders role a role b role c role d for whom an average initiator shaper monitor assessor rating was calculated) utilisation: count 10 1 3 14 role a % within role 71.4% 7.2% 21.4% 100.0% initiator % within competent 45.5% 11.1% 18.8% 27.5% utilisation: count 2 2 5 4 13 role b % within role 15.4% 15.4% 38.5% 30.8% 100.0% shaper % within competent 9.1% 50.0% 55.6% 25.0% 25.5% utilisation: count 5 2 1 2 10 role c % within role 50.0% 20.0% 10.0% 20.0% 100.0% monitor % within competent 22.7% 50.0% 11.1% 12.5% 19.6% utilisation: count 5 2 7 14 role d % within role 35.7% 14.3% 50.0% 100.0% assessor % within competent 22.7% 22.2% 43.8% 27.5% total count 22 4 9 16 51 % within role 43.1% 7.8% 17.6% 31.4% 100.0% % within competent 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% from figure 2 it can be seen that the visionary vs. implementer axis indicated a relationship between utilised and competent initiator roles and between utilised shaper, competent shaper and competent monitor roles. the implementer vs. assessor axis indicates relationships between utilised and competent assessor roles and between utilised monitor and competent shaper roles. for phase i the null hypothesis was rejected. there was a statistical difference between the average scores leaders received on the different roles. phase ii results the anova done to determine whether any significant differences existed bet ween the three respondent organisations showed that no significant differences existed (see table 3 below). the results for the three organisations could therefore be combined. a successful result was determined for the change buy-in and support factor (mean: 2.34) and an unsuccessful result for the resistance to change factor (mean: 2.63). table 3 anova on success outcomes for factor a – change buy-in and support and factor b – resistance to change a) factor a – change buy-in and support source ss ms f df significance between groups 0.9 .04 .30 2 .75 b) factor b – resistance to change source ss ms f df significance between groups 0.74 .24 1.82 2 .17 legend: ss: sum of squares ms: between and within mean squares f: coefficient of variance df: degrees of freedo the cramer’s v tests for congruence indicated that no significant differences existed between the three organisations in their congruence results (organisation a: 0.5; organisation b: 0.4, and organisation c: 0.4). the anova on the change outcome results also indicated that no significant differences existed between the three organisations. it was therefore possible to compare the results obtained from the two questionnaires. the comparison of the congruence results with the change outcome results (for both the change buy-in and support and the resistance to change factors) indicated that as a result of the similarity in the results it was not possible to determine any form of correlation. there was thus no significant statistical evidence to accept or reject the null hypothesis for phase ii. the influence of role congruence on change outcome could therefore not be determined statistically. it was however possible to derive at conclusions by means of deductive logic, as can be seen in the next section entitled “discussion”. discussion the competencies associated with the initiator and assessor roles corresponded to the items that measured change results in terms of the change buy-in and support factor. change buy-in and support was found to be a successful factor in terms of organisation change outcome (as per the results of the factor analysis). the deduction is made that congruence for these roles resulted in a positive change outcome in terms of support and buy-in as these roles’ competencies corresponded with the items that measured change results in terms of the change buyin and support factor in the change outcome questionnaire. the initiator role measured leader’s competence to formulate and share their vision as well as to inspire their followers. the assessor role measured leaders’ competence to measure, analyse and interpret the impact of the change initiative on the organisation and its employees, as well as leaders’ competence in setting future change goals for the organisation. the highest level of congruence was achieved for the initiator role. the second highest level of congruence was achieved for the assessor role. the competencies associated with the shaper and monitor roles corresponded with the items that measured resistance to change on the change outcome questionnaire. there was resistance to change. it was deduced that low congruence obtained for the shaper and monitor roles lead to resistance to change. leaders utilised for the change initiative were selected by their respective organisations on their perceived competence in “leadership”, i.e. their ability to envision and to inspire. in these organisations no appropriate match took place in terms of the change roles identified for implementing the organisation change initiatives. the interrelationship between the shaper and monitor roles showed a lack of congruence (see figure 2). leaders who were rated most competent for the shaper role were utilised in the monitor role, and vice versa. the results also indicated that leadership competence per se does not result in successful organisation change. leadership change competencies needed to be specified for specific behavioural dimensions. the different leadership change roles are typical behavioural dimensions. congruence between role utilisation and role competence resulted in successful organisation change. no congruence resulted in unsuccessful change. recommendations further research for this research topic is recommended, as statistical evidence for the hypothesis test for phase ii was inconclusive. it is recommended that a true experimental design where pre and post tests are done on control and experimental research subjects be applied. organisational leaders need to be assessed on their competence to manage change successfully. this assessment should be done for each of the change roles (initiator, shaper, monitor, and assessor) identified in this research. the leadership role competence questionnaire is recommended as an instrument to measure perceptions of leaders’ role competence. organisations should apply assessment results to accurately allocate change roles to leaders as well as to identif y development needs for less competent leaders. leaders should be utilised in change roles for which they are most competent in to allow for maximum congruence. this research identified a lack amongst leaders on the competencies associated with the shaper and monitor roles. organisations should give specific attention to the development of leaders in these roles. reference albert yn, r. (2001): increased accountabilit y through empowerment assessments. people dynamics, 19, (2), 20. applebaum, sh and wohl, l 2000: transformation or change: some prescriptions for health care organizations. managing ser vice quality, 10, (5), 279-298. barner, r. (2000): five steps to leadership competencies. training & development, 54, (3), 47-52. bate, p; khan, r. & pye, a. (2000): towards a culturally sensitive approach to organization structuring: where organization design meets organization development. organization science: a journal of the institute of management sciences, 11, (2), 197-212. leadership role competencies 51 bergmann, h. (1999): introducing a grass-roots model of leadership. strategy & leadership, 27, (6), 15. besecker, k.h. (2001): helping change take shape. security management, 45, (2), 31-32. boak, g. & coolican, d. (2001): competencies for retail leadership: accurate, acceptable, affordable. leadership & organization development journal, 22, (5), 212-220. burke, w.w. (1995): organization change: what we know, what we need to know. journal of management inquiry, 4, (2), 177. burnes, b. (1996): no such thing as a “one best way” to manage organizational change. management decision, 34, (10), 11-18. bustard, d.w. & he, z. (1998): a framework for the revolutionary planning and evolutionary implementation of a business process and its computing support. logistics information management, 11, (6), 370-374. butcher, d. & atkinson, s. (2001): stealth, secrecy and subversion: the language of change. journal of organizational change management, 14, (6). cairns, m. (2000): competency theory leadership. new straits times-management times. chapman, j.a. (2002): a framework for transformational change in organizations. leadership & organization development journal, 23, (1), 16-25. connolly, m. & connolly, u. (2000): leadership in educational change. british journal of management, 11, (1), 61-71. cornell, j. (1996): aspects of the management of change. journal of management in medicine, 10, (2), 23-30. cross, l. (2001): managing change to manage results. graphic arts monthly, 73, (11), 49. dering, n.z. (1998): leadership in quality organizations. journal of quality & participation, 21, (1), 32-36. fontyn, y. (2001): management’s missing link. people dynamics, 19, (5), 40. fulmer, r.m. & wagner, s. (1999): leadership: lessons from the best. training and development, 53, (3), 53-81. gaughan, a.c. (2001): effective leadership behaviour: leading “the third way” from a primary care group perspective – a study of leadership constructs elicited from members of primary care group management boards. journal of management in medicine, 15, (1), 67-94. gillis, t. (1999): change 101: back to basics. communication world, 16, 5. graetz, f. (2000): strategic change leadership. management decision, 38, (8), 550-564. grinnell, jr. r.m. (1988): social work research and evaluation. itasca: f.e. peacock publishers. hall, j. (1996): the competence connection: a blueprint for excellence. woodsted press: the woodlands, texas. halley, d. (2001): the core competency model project. corrections today, 63, (7), 154. heifetz, m.l. (1993): leading change, overcoming chaos: a seven stage process for making change succeed in your organization. ten speed press: berkeley, ca. imd international (institute) 2001: the world competitiveness yearbook (electronic resource.) lausanne, switzerland: international institute for management development. jay, k.e. & smith, d.c. (1996): a generic change model for the effective implementation of information systems. south african journal of business management, 27, (3), 65-70. kanji, g.k. & moura e. sa, p 2001: measuring leadership excellence. total quality management, 12, (6), 709. kerfoot, k. (1999): on leadership. nursing economics, 17, (1). kofoed, l.b.; gertsen, f. & jorgensen, f. (2002): the role of ci and learning in an organizational change process. integrated manufacturing systems, 13, (3), 165-175. letsinger, n. (1998): developing competency-based curricula, 140. mansfield, ohio: coopers & lybrand, l.l.p. lichtenstein, b.m.b. (2000): emergence as a process of selforganizing – new assumptions and insights from the study of non-linear dynamic systems. journal of organizational change management, 13, (6), 526-544. mcadam, r. & bannister, a. (2001): business performance measurement and change management within a tqm framework. international journal of operations and production management, 21, (1/2), 89. mink, o.g. (1998): ontology: creating a growth-oriented learning environment. managing service quality, 8, (4), 272-280. nadler, l. (1990): human resource development. new york: john wiley & sons. parsell, g. & bligh, j. (2000): encouraging educational leadership. medical education, 34, 199-200. pettigrew, a.m.; woodman, r.w. & cameron, k.s. (2001): studying organizational change and development: challenges for future research. academy of management journal, 44, (4), 697. potter, j. (2001): creating a passion for change – the art of intelligent leadership. industrial and commercial training, 33, (2), 54. qubein, n.r. (2001): embracing change. executive excellence, 18, (1), 17. savolainen, t.i. (1999): cycles of continuous improvement – realizing competitive advantages through qualit y. international journal of operations & production management, 19, (11), 1203-1222. schalk, r.; campbell, j.w. & freese, c. (1998): change and employee behaviour. leadership & organization development journal, 19, (3), 157-163. scholtes, p.r. (1999): the new competencies of leadership. total quality management, 10, (4 & 5), s704-s710. shields, j.l. (1999): transforming organizations. information knowledge systems management, 1, (2), 105-116. spangenberg, h.h.; schroder, h.m. & duvenhage, a. (1999): a leadership competence utilisation questionnaire for south african managers. south african journal of psychology, 29, (3), 117. spencer, l.m. & spencer, s.m. (1993). competence at work, 9. new york: john wiley & sons, inc. st. amour, d. (2001): successful organizational change. canadian manager, 26, (2), 20-23. statistical consultation department, rau 2002: interviews with a representative of the statistical consultation department at rau regarding the interpretation of this study’s statistical analysis. sugarman, b. (2001): a learning-based approach to organizational change: some results and guidelines. organizational dynamics, 30, (1), 62-76. tett, r.p.; guterman, h.a.; bleier, a.; & murphy, p.j. (2000): development and content validation of a “hyperdimensional” taxonomy of managerial competence. human performance, 13, (3), 212. tizard, j. (2001): seamless change. management, 48, (7), 62. veldsman, t.h. (2002): into the people effectiveness arena: navigating between chaos and order. knowledge resources: randburg. whitney, d. (1998): let’s change the subject and change our organization: an appreciative inquiry approach to organization change. career development international, 3, (7), 314-319. wright, k.; rowitz, l.; merkle, a.; reid, w.m.; robinson, g.; herzog, b.; weber, d.; carmichael, d.; balderson, t.r. & baker, e. (2000): competency development in public health leadership. american journal of public health, 90, (8), 1202-1208. smith, carstens52 abstract introduction research methodology discussion and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) paul poisat graduate school of business, nelson mandela university, south africa michelle r. mey school of industrial psychology and human resource management, nelson mandela university, south africa gary sharp department of statistics, nelson mandela university, south africa citation poisat, p., mey, m. r., & sharp, g. (2018). do talent management strategies influence the psychological contract within a diverse environment?. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a1044. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.1044 original research do talent management strategies influence the psychological contract within a diverse environment? paul poisat, michelle r. mey, gary sharp received: 07 feb. 2018; accepted: 24 may 2018; published: 30 july 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: even though globalisation has resulted in a more diverse workforce and working environment, talent management strategies have not evolved catering for the diversity experienced in organisations. it is assumed that talent management strategies developed on western principles can be applied effectively to employees in emerging markets. however, the success of these strategies in creating a high-performance work culture is widely questioned. research purpose: this study aims to empirically determine the relationship between talent management strategies on the psychological contract, and whether this relationship influences employee retention within diverse working environments, which includes generational cohorts, gender and ethnicity. motivation for the study: as talent management strategies impact differently on the psychological contract of individuals across the generations, gender and ethnicity, it therefore implies that a fit for purpose talent management strategy must consider these variables. the reason for this study was to determine the influence of talent management strategies on the psychological contract and ultimately retention within the diverse environment of different generations, genders and ethnicity. research approach/design and method: a structured, closed-ended likert-type validated questionnaire was distributed to employed persons of differing ethnicity, gender and generations and emanating from various professions within the private and public sector (n = 711). a quantitative survey design was used. main findings: a significant relationship between the work environment and the psychological contract on retention exists. on the contrary, no significant differences exist between growth and development and financial security. unlike other research conducted on generational cohorts, this study revealed a strong correlation between talent management strategies and generational cohort preferences. practical/managerial implications: talent management strategies need to be flexible and inclusive in terms of generational differences, including but not limited to ethnicity and gender. human resource practitioners are made aware that the work environment impacts most significantly on the psychological contract and ultimately on retention. contribution/value-add: this study subscribes to the international literature and provides empirical evidence that demonstrates the importance of generational cohorts, gender and ethnicity when executing talent management strategies. this study empirically provides the basis for human resource (hr) practitioners to develop a customised generational talent management strategy to retain high performing individuals. introduction highly skilled employees are a scarce resource, particularly in developed countries. this is partly because of the ageing profile of western and european workforces, as well as the consistent negative population growth in many established economies. in an increasingly globalised business world, multinational organisations must look to emerging markets to attract and retain talented individuals. this requires a fit for purpose talent management approach to attract, engage and retain employees in emerging markets as traditional approaches are based on western principles and practices (bluen, 2013). the global talent competitiveness index 2018 found that south africa’s ability to retain talent is poor as indicated by a ranking of 97 out of 119 countries (knowledge resources, 2018). an ageing workforce, coupled with diversity and generational considerations, requires that organisations reconsider their talent management strategies so as to address the varied expectations of employees pertaining to the work environment, financial security and growth and development (knowledge resources, 2017a; thomsons online benefits, 2017). multiple authors have emphasised the universal need for talent management (bluen, 2013; böhmer & schinnenburg, 2016; hafez, abouelneel & elsaid, 2017). in addition to being ranked 63rd overall on the global talent competitiveness index 2018, a lack of capacity, the risk of employee non-performance and the extremely high costs associated with replacing staff are just a few of the reasons why talent management remains an increasingly important organisational consideration. despite these realities, many organisations have failed to adapt to the challenges associated with increased globalisation and the resulting war for talent (bluen, 2013; knowledge resources, 2017; thunnissen, boselie, & fruytier, 2013). boudreau and ramstad (2005) emphasise the significance of having a talent management focus in the organisation, whereas lewis and heckman (2006) point out the lack of research-based findings to acknowledge and understand the importance of talent management. in addition, the importance of a psychological contract and its influence on retention needs to be considered. this is highlighted by sonnenberg, koene and paauwe (2011) who support this and provide evidence that the more talent management practices an organisation employs, the higher employees perceived their psychological contract fulfilment, which results in higher levels of commitment and well-being and lower levels of intention to quit. this article investigates the relationship between talent management strategies, the psychological contract and employee retention within the context of the various generational cohorts, gender and ethnicity. as such, this article contributes to the international literature by providing empirical evidence that a more specific and customised talent management approach is necessary while considering generational cohorts, gender and ethnicity. talent management defined although talent management is an integral part of organisational success, the concept itself lacks theoretical frameworks. even though collings and mellahi (2009) are of the opinion that there is a lack of consistent definitions, they propose that talent management is seen as activities and practices that identify critical positions and develop high performers as well as establish ‘differentiated human resource architecture to facilitate filling of these positions’. typically, there are three mainstream interpretations of talent management. talent management may firstly be described as a new term for common human resource practices; secondly, as an allusion of succession planning practices; and lastly, as referring to the general management of talented employees (al ariss, cascio, & paauwe, 2014). there is no one-size-fits-all solution to talent management. generalisations made in terms of talent management strategies are complicated by diversity considerations, including the range of generations employed. talent management strategies must be adjusted to accommodate the different values, characteristics, attitudes towards work and general world view of the different generational cohorts working together (bluen, 2013; festing & schäfer, 2014; knowledge resources, 2017b). given the broad definitions of talent management, our approach is to view talent management strategies to include hr practices and policies pertaining to the work environment, financial security and growth and development. the operationalisation of these variables will follow. operationalisation of variables an organisation is only as good as its people, and talent management should thus form the foundation on which organisations are built (grobler et al., 2017). figure 1 presents a conceptual model for this study. the model highlights talent management strategies relating to the working environment, financial stability, and growth and development as the independent variable, and retention as the dependent variable. diversity considerations, including generational cohorts, gender and ethnicity, are presented as variables which were controlled for in this study, as they may or may not have affected the strength of the relationship between talent management and retention. the model further suggests that both organisational considerations (talent management strategies) and individual considerations (diversity issues) play a role in determining the nature of the psychological contract, which in itself may influence the dependent variable of retention. figure 1: conceptual model for the study. work environment the work environment is vital to employee satisfaction. for the purpose of this study, work environment includes the conditions wherein an employee operates, their roles and responsibilities, whether sufficient authority is given to employees to make and implement decisions about their work and the nature of working relationships. one such working relationship is that between management and employees. this relationship needs to be one of trust, mutual respect and belief in employee capabilities. changing ways of working necessitated by the knowledge-intensive nature of work as well as the continuously developing possibilities provided by information and communication technology have also inevitably changed the working environment. several authors such as bosch-sijtsema, fruchter, vartiainen and ruohomäki (2011); gorgievski, bakker and schaufeli (2010); peters, poutsma, van der heijden, bakker and bruijn (2014) and van der voordt (2004) have explored these changing working practices. flexible and mobile work practices have increased in popularity as they provide employees with more autonomy in deciding when, where and how their work gets done. flexibility in work practices is especially important for females and ultimately leads to employee retention (du plessis & barkhuizen, 2015). there are also the preferences that the different generational cohorts bring to the work environment. gursoy, maier and chi (2008) found that baby boomers have a high respect for authority and hierarchy in the workplace. conversely, generation xers are seen as being more self-reliant, independent and sceptical of authority (crumpacker & crumpacker, 2007). millennials prefer more flexibility and time off work that will suit their lifestyle (roy, 2008). these characteristics will, in turn, affect the preferred work environment of the different generations. financial security financial security as a variable is complex and comprises of financial and non-financial rewards (bussin & van rooy, 2014). financial security is the individual’s peace of mind that their income is sufficient to cover their expenses. research in the south african context with regard to financial security and generational cohorts is inconclusive as the different generations place value on different aspects of financial security (bussin & van rooy, 2014; masibigiri & nienaber, 2011; moore & bussin, 2012). for the purpose of this study, factors contributing to financial security include work–life balance, recognition and achievements which, in turn, lead to job security. growth and development the characteristics of a generation do not apply unilaterally to each member of a generational cohort as each individual is unique. consideration must be given to the changing needs of employees which include freedom and flexibility in their job, opportunities to grow personally and professionally, as well as to experience fun at work. in this study, gender as a variable was controlled for as clarke (2011) argues that development programmes should be specific to gender as this allows for discussion of challenges pertaining to that gender. d’amato and herzfeldt (2008) found that employees who have a higher organisational commitment and greater orientation are more likely to stay for the next 3 years. this finding highlights the importance of providing learning opportunities within the organisation to retain talent across generations. psychological contract in his seminal work, rousseau (1990) defines a psychological contract as the individual’s beliefs in terms of reciprocal obligations between employees and employers. the contract emerges when a contribution is made, and thus, an obligation is created to provide future benefits or fulfilment of needs. this expected reciprocal obligation has an impact on employee performance beyond the levels expected in their formal contract (ye, cardon, & rivera, 2012). differences in the interpretation of what constitutes a psychological contract between parties may be a challenge because of the contract being of an unwritten nature and may cause problems within the organisation (ye et al., 2012). the employee evaluates these individual perceptions by comparing organisational experiences such as talent management practices to their own psychological contracts (festing & schäfer, 2014). when employers live up to the expectations of employees in terms of the psychological contract, employees are more likely to experience job satisfaction, demonstrate organisational commitment and eagerness to develop and learn within the organisation, and display willingness to contribute to organisational goals (festing & schäfer, 2014). however, if they fail to meet employee expectations, they may be met with negative reactions such as reduced loyalty, reduced job performance and commitment, and the intention to quit (festing & schäfer, 2014). crampton and hodge (2007) postulate that generations develop different characteristics and work-related values and attitudes based on shared experiences in the formative years which contribute to shaping their lives. research by schambach (2001) suggests that the psychological contract may be perceived stronger by younger employees, as they feel the obligation of the reciprocal relationship more so than older employees, who have paid their dues to the organisation. a study on basic human value differences between generational cohorts indicated differences between millennials and generation xers on ‘openness to change’ and ‘self-enhancement’ (lyons, duxbury, & higgins, 2007). younger generations, early in their careers, may be prone to accept higher levels of risk (johnson & lopes, 2008). the requirements of the psychological contract differ between individuals (farndale, pai, sparrow, & scullion, 2014). this will result in different generations having varying needs and expectations in terms of the psychological contract (d’amato & herzfeldt, 2008; festing & schäfer, 2014). the above discussion leads to the formulation of the following hypothesis: h1: talent management strategies with a positive influence on the psychological contract enhance retention. retention research results claim that 65% of black employees have changed jobs at least once within three years (zulu & parumasur, 2009). therefore, it is critical that organisations explore strategies aimed at enhancing employee retention. these include maintaining a work-life balance, and ways to increase job satisfaction and organisational commitment (ilies, wilson, & wagner, 2009; qu & zhao, 2012). these strategies, however, need to be flexible when dealing with different generational groups. baby boomers seek power, influence and authority over others, seek out status symbols, seniority and experience, and value opportunities to mentor others (close, 2015). generation xers value control over their lives and place an immense value on work-life balance (close, 2015). millennials desire career progression and advancement, and want opportunities for on-the-job education (close, 2015). millennials are attracted to work that is challenging, meaningful and flexible and offers career mobility (close, 2015). the above leads to the formulation of the following hypothesis: h2: the more positively talent management strategies are experienced by the generational cohorts, the more positive the employees’ experience of the psychological contract will be and, in turn, retention will be enhanced. generational cohorts generational differences may also influence the preferred methods of communication within the organisation. baby boomers prefer to communicate face to face during meetings rather than over the phone (simons, 2009). wagner (2007), however, found that generation x and millennials generally prefer email and text messages. this may cause intergenerational issues as using communications methods that are unfamiliar or undesirable to one group may cause discomfort and conflict. baby boomers are seen as being willing to sacrifice their personal and professional lives to achieve success and financial security (glass, 2007), whereas generation xers focus on balancing their personal and professional lives, resulting in the reputation of being the generation that ‘work to live not live to work’ (simons, 2009). atkinson (2008) found that although millennials see money as important, they are more motivated to maintain a good work-life balance. millennials want strong workplace relationships, a sense of purpose and a feeling that they are making a difference. not meeting these needs may decrease job satisfaction which may negatively impact on job security, resulting in the departure of highly qualified personnel, and the costs associated with employee turnover and weaker growth prospects (cheese, thomas, & craig, 2008 as quoted in kilfman, 2009). baby boomers tend to be more established in their careers than millennials and will thus not place the same value on opportunities for learning and development (close, 2015). this is largely because of millennials generally being in the early stages of their career and desiring on-the-job training (carlson, 2015). even though it is generally accepted that baby boomers may have more knowledge and experience within the organisation, it will still be expected that they should be challenged to develop new skills and refresh old ones. three main generations are identified in today’s workforce, namely baby boomers (born between 1945 and 1965), generation x (1966–1977) and millennials (1978–1990) (bussin & van rooy, 2014). although the exact dates that must be met to fall into one of these categories vary and some overlap exists, these generational cohorts show distinct characteristics which play a role in terms of how they perform in the workforce. cohort theory argues that growing up around the same time and experiencing events such as natural disasters, politics, economic conditions and pop culture at about the same point in their development lead individuals within a particular generational cohort to develop similar values, attitudes, opinions, employment expectations and life experiences (cipd, 2009; d’amato & herzfeldt, 2008; festing & schäfer, 2014; leuty & hansen, 2011; macky, gardner, & forsyth, 2008; mayhew, 2014). the above leads to the formulation of the following hypothesis: h3: the influence of talent management strategies on the psychological contract is perceived differently between the different generational cohorts. ethnicity south africa has a wide range of cultural and racial diversity, as well as a history of discrimination against individuals on this basis. issues around marginalisation and exclusion are still prominent in the south african context. typically, south african organisations comprise of a multitude of cultures and must therefore develop talent management strategies that take all of these cultural differences into account. this is confirmed by the economist intelligence unit (2010) report and knowledge resources (2017b), which highlight some of these challenges such as cultural conflict between employees (50%), problems understanding the local culture (47%) and variations in working styles and norms of behaviour in the office (42%). statistics of south africa reveals that the blacks comprise of 75% of the south african total employed population (knowledge resources, 2018). the above leads to the question as to how the nature of the psychological contract is perceived by different ethnic groups. the above leads to the formulation of the following hypothesis: h4: the influence of talent management strategies on the psychological contract is perceived differently among ethnic groups. research methodology a quantitative approach was selected for this study as it is appropriate in studies that emphasise quantification in the collection and analysis of data, and which adopt a deductive approach placing emphasis on the testing of theories (bryman & bell, 2014). development of the measuring instrument a structured, closed-ended, five-point likert-type questionnaire comprising 33 items was used to collect the data. the independent variable, talent management (tm) strategies, varies vastly among organisations based on size, type of industry and geographical location (lewis & heckman, 2006). in order to derive a standardised measure of tm, employees’ perceptions of tm strategies were assessed based on the motivational aspects derived from the job characteristics approach first developed by campion in 1988. twenty items, derived from the motivational scale developed by campion and mcclelland (1991) were clustered into three subsections comprising work environment (we), financial security (fs), and growth and development (gd). coefficient alpha values for this study ranged from 0.793 (we), 0.807 (fs) and 0.844 (gd) and compared favourably to campion and mcclelland’s (1991) alpha values ranging from 0.81 to 0.94 (see table 3). meyer and allen’s (1997) scale measuring employees’ emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in the organisation served as proxy for measuring employees’ psychological contract (pc). the moderating variable, psychological contract, comprised eight statements. the coefficient alpha for this study was 0.847 (pc) and it was compared favourably to the study of meyer and allen’s (1997) validated scale ranging from 0.77 to 0.88. retention, the dependent variable, was measured using lee, mitchell, sablynski, burton and holtom’s (2004) five-item intention to quit scale. the coefficient alpha for this scale was 0.859 (see table 2). literature indicates that behavioural intention is generally a good predictor of future behaviour (armitage & connor, 2001). furthermore, griffeth, hom and gaertner (2000) have shown that turnover intention is a strong predictor of actual turnover. in addition, generational cohort, gender and ethnicity were controlled for in this study in order to determine their impact on the psychological contract and retention. study population the target population of this study was employees across the various generational cohorts in south africa within the private and/or public sector and at all organisational levels including managerial, non-managerial and support and/or administrative employees, and comprising different gender and ethnic groupings. for the purpose of this study, the generational cohorts referred to include baby boomers, generation x and millennials as represented by the age categories presented in the discussion (refer to table 1). table 1: demographic profile of respondents. data collection the respondents were identified by means of the snowball convenience sampling technique. the questionnaire link was emailed to potential respondents, and a total of 711 useable questionnaires were returned. statistical analysis structural equation modelling (sem) was used to analyse the conceptual framework presented in figure 2. the variables referred to in this study, work environment (we), financial security (fs), growth and development (gd), psychological contract (pc) and retention (r), have been theoretically explored and operationalised using validated questionnaires. these variables were confirmed using exploratory factor analysis (efa). prior to the analyses being performed, the appropriateness of the data was assessed using bartlett’s test of sphericity and the keiser–meyer–olkin measures of sampling adequacy (msa), and ensuring an adequate sample size. once deemed adequate, the analysis was performed. the sem analysis was performed using a two-tiered model-building approach. the confirmatory factor models were analysed to ensure suitable model fit prior to testing the structural models (hair, anderson, tatham, & black, 1998). each model was assessed using several goodness-of-fit indices. once an appropriate model fit was obtained, the path estimates were interpreted and conclusions drawn (byrne, 2010). figure 2: final structural equation modelling model. analysis of data the data were captured, cleaned and the biographical information analysed (table 1). of the 711 responses obtained, 44.8% were female and 55.2% male. the respondents were fairly evenly spread among the three generational age profiles: baby boomers (21.8%), generation x (39.5%) and millennials (38.7%). the african ethnic group had the greatest frequency at 40.5%. this was followed by the white ethnic group at 30.4% and the mixed race and asian ethnic group at 29.1%. the bartlett’s test of sphericity and kaiser–meyer–olkin msa were calculated. the msa value calculated was 0.915, significantly higher than the minimum required value of 0.50 (hair, black, babin, & anderson, 2014). the bartlett’s test of sphericity was found to be significant. this along with a sample size of 711 deemed the data appropriate for efa. the efa was performed and the results were consistent with the theoretical variables. within this study, the measurement model comprises of 33 items that explain the five constructs (we, fs, gd, pc and r). factor loadings of 0.45 were considered significant, which falls above the recommendation of 0.40 for sample sizes greater than 350 respondents (hair, black, babin, & anderson, 2006). several items did not load adequately and were therefore removed from the analysis. the efa results provided evidence of the construct and discriminant validity of the measurement instrument. the internal reliability was assessed using cronbach alphas and factor loadings, as seen in table 2. a value of 0.70 or higher is considered reliable (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). table 2: factor loadings of the variables. as each construct had a cronbach’s alpha value of greater than 0.70, they were all deemed reliable. these constructs were then used in the sem analysis. each confirmatory factor model was analysed and assessed. the structural model based on the conceptual model in figure 1 was analysed. the variables gender, generational cohort and ethnicity were then added to the structural model. the constructs gd and fs were removed from the analysis as the relationships between these constructs and pc were insignificant (byrne, 2010). the resulting model can be found in figure 2. the model fit was assessed for the model in figure 2 and indicates an average fit upon review of the indices. the cmin/df value, also called chi-square to df ratio, indicating an adequate model fit, of this sample size, is a value less than 5. the cmin/df from the model indicates an appropriate model fit with a value of 4.935. the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) value of 0.074 indicates a good model fit falling below the recommended value of 0.08. the goodness-of-fit index (gfi) and comparative fit index (cfi) values were 0.863 and 0.841, respectively, which are both close to the recommended value of 0.90 (iacobucci, 2009). therefore, the overall model fit indicates an average fit. the unstandardised regression weights were then reviewed (table 3). from the results, the relationship between we and pc was significant at a 10% level, indicating a positive relationship. the relationship between gender and pc was significant at a 5% level, representing a negative relationship. the relationships of the mixed race ethnic grouping with pc, and baby boomers with pc, were found to be insignificant. the relationship between the white ethnic grouping and pc indicated a significant positive relationship, whereas the relationship between millennials and pc indicated a significant negative relationship. this indicates that the white ethnic grouping tends to favour a higher level of pc, whereas the millennials respondents did not favour a higher level of pc. the relationship between pc and retention indicated a significant positive relationship. this indicates that as the level of pc increases this leads to an increase in the level of retention. table 3: regression weights. from the results, it can be concluded that we, white ethnic grouping and retention had a significant positive relationship with pc, whereas gender and millennials had a significant negative relationship with pc. discussion and recommendations strong support was found for h1 with the goodness-of-fit indices providing satisfactory measures for the structural model depicted in figure 2. the structural model affirms that talent management strategies with a positive influence on the psychological contract enhance retention. this finding adds to psychological contract theory by isolating talent management strategies (tms), more specifically we, as having the most significant impact on psychological contract fulfilment within the context of gender, ethnic and generational cohorts. our results show and affirm differences in perception among generational cohorts, thereby adding to the limited empirical evidence supporting generational differences. understanding the nexus between the causal dynamics of tms, its relationship to the psychological contract and the resultant impact on retention is fundamental to good management practice and creating an enabling work environment. millennials’ perception of the influence of tms on the psychological contract showed a significantly negative relationship (-0.495, p = 0.000). considering that overall results confirmed a statistically positive relationship between tms and the pc, it is significant to note that millennials (38.7% of the sample) perceived the influence to be negative. this finding supports earlier research outlining that work-related attitudes are influenced more by generational experience (twenge, campbell, & hoffman, 2010). no significant statistical relationships were found for either baby boomers or generation xers. therefore, h2 cannot be supported; however, millennials’ strong negative experience of tms on the pc provides strong evidence of their dissatisfaction with tms. dissatisfaction with tms may be as a result of the high premium they place on training, development and career mobility and also account for the difficulty experienced by organisations in retaining millennial employees. the regression results for older generational cohorts (baby boomers and generation x) were not significant and may be attributed to employees in these life stages being more settled in their careers and thus less likely to change jobs (festing & schäfer, 2014). nevertheless, findings amplify the need for tms to be diversified in accordance with employees’ life stages. tms should include flexibility in working conditions (hours, off-site work), types of contracts (flexible work arrangements, gig-employees), remuneration and use of multimedia communication and be cognisant of the work–life balance of employees. gender also showed a negative relationship with psychological contract (-0.176, p = 0.04), therefore reinforcing the need for a diversified, flexible tms and supporting the notion that one size does indeed not fit all. the findings support h3 that tms influence employees’ perceived psychological contract, with we indicating a significant positive relationship with the psychological contract (0.156, p = 0.074) and is consistent with earlier research (guest & conway, 2001; sonnenberg et al., 2011). based on the findings, we takes precedence over financial security as well as growth and development that showed no significant relationship in influencing employees’ psychological contracts. the conditions under which employees operate inclusive of roles and responsibilities, authority to implement decisions, feeling valued, participating in decision-making by offering ideas, and sharing information all contribute in creating an environment that positively influences employees’ psychological contract. it is proffered that managers and hr practitioners carefully consider adopting strategies that create an inclusive climate conducive to participative decision-making based on openly sharing information within departmental and/or sectoral divisions. in addition, when allocating responsibility, the necessary authority should be clearly outlined and leadership should recognise employees for meeting agreed objectives. regression figures indicate that a strong positive relationship (0.555, p = 0.000) exists for the white ethnic grouping’s perception of the influence of tms on the psychological contract. conversely, no meaningful statistical relationships were found for any of the other ethnic groups. this variance in statistical findings among ethnic groups, axiomatically support h4 indicating that the influence of tms on the psychological contract is perceived differently among ethnic groups. consequently, it requires hr practitioners to vary and adjust their tms in accordance with the preferences which may be expressed by different ethnic groupings. as such, constructs measuring cultural norms and customs will assist hr practitioners in mapping cross-cultural tms. in addition to recognising the differences among generational cohorts, multinational global organisations operating in emerging markets have to provide locally relevant tms. strategies, other than those applied in developed (western) economies and cognisant of the local culture, should be pursued. our study showed that we has a significant positive relationship with the pc but not so for the mixed race ethnic group and baby boomers. therefore, hr practitioners and managers must understand the necessity of varying their leadership style, types of communication, level of inclusivity, types of rewards, involvement in decision-making and exercise of authority, which provide an enabling we inclusive of ethnic and generational cohorts. failing to adjust the work environment in line with cross-cultural demands may not create an environment conducive for the younger generation to contribute their creativity and productivity (leung, maddux, galinsky & chiu, 2008). moreover, the work environment may not engage the younger generation and add to lower levels of performance and impact upon retention (de meuse & mlodzik, 2010). specific acculturated strategies fall outside the ambit of this article; thus, further research is needed in understanding and translating local culture into tms that stimulates a positive we. this article has sought to show that a relationship exists among tms, the psychological contract, retention within the rich tapestry of generational cohorts, and gender and ethnic groupings. sufficient statistical support for the aforementioned thesis has been provided against the back drop of generational cohort, gender and ethnic contextual complexities. recommendations call for a cross-cultural and diversified talent management strategy that is flexible, inclusive, and sensitive to ethnic (cultural), gender and generational cohorts. the results of this study provide a basis for hr practitioners from which to develop a customised talent management strategy that is nuanced for the different generations, cultures and genders. more specifically, hrm practitioners should formulate specific inclusive we strategies while considering industry specific needs. limitations and implications for future research a limitation of the research was that the sample size was relatively small and that a larger sample would have allowed the authors to make more meaningful inferences on the data obtained. the provision of development opportunities is likely to increase the organisational commitment of younger generations and to attract talented employees. future research could investigate the developmental opportunities and corresponding perception of cohorts in emerging markets. further enquiry is necessary into the cross-cultural dimensions of generational and ethnic cohorts that impact an enabling environment supporting creativity and engagement. our research indicated that gender had a strong negative relationship between work environment and the psychological contract. as such, we believe further research is necessary to determine specific work environment requirements within a cross-cultural frame for female employees. conclusion retention of key employees is critical to the long-term success of an organisation. retaining talented employees plays a vital role in customer satisfaction, product sales, satisfied co-workers and effective succession planning. to achieve the benefits of a competitive advantage and long-term success, talent management must become a critical strategic imperative. for this to be achieved, a clear and compelling strategy must be developed to attract, engage and retain staff across the different generations. by becoming more aware of the needs and preferences of their diverse workforce, organisations can develop suitable tms. it is also important to determine whether strategies can be uniformly applied across the board or whether different strategies are required for various generations of employees comprising different gender and ethnic groupings. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions p.p. was the project leader and was responsible for the design of questionnaire and compilation of literature. m.r.m. was responsible for the design of questionnaire and compilation of literature. g.s. was responsible for the data analysis. references al ariss, a. a., cascio, w. f., & paauwe, j. (2014). talent management: current theories and future research directions. journal of world business, 49, 173–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2013.11.001 atkinson, p. (2008). millennials: researching the application of demographics to build customer relationships and hr strategy. management services, 52(1), 6–11. retrieved from http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/31726638/millennials-researching-application-demographics-build-customer-relationships-hr-strategy armitage, c. j., & conner, m. (2001), efficacy of the theory of planned behaviour: a meta-analytic review. british journal of social psychology, 40, 471–499. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466601164939 bluen, s. (2013). talent management in emerging markets. randburg, south africa: knowledge resources publishing. bosch-sijtsema, p. m., fruchter, r., vartiainen, m., & ruohomäki, v. (2011). a framework to analyze knowledge work in distributed teams. group & organization management, 36(3), 275–307. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601111403625 böhmer, n., & schinnenburg, h. (2016). how gender and career concepts impact global talent management. employee relations, 38(1), 73–93. boudreau, j. w., & ramstad, p. m. (2005). talentship and the new paradigm for human resource management: from professional practices to strategic talent decision science. people and strategy, 28(2), 17. bryman, a., & bell, e. (2014). research methodology. cape town, south africa: oxford university press. byrne, b. m. (2010). structural equation modelling with amos: basic concepts, applications and programming. new york: routledge. bussin, m., & van rooy, d. j. (2014). total rewards strategy for a multi-generational workforce in a financial institution. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.606 campion, m. a., & mcclelland, c. l. (1991). interdisciplinary examination of the costs and benefits of enlarged jobs: a job design quasi-experiment. journal of applied psychology, 76920, 186–198. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.76.2.186 carlson, c. (2015). traditionalists, baby boomers, generation x, generation y (and generation z) working together. what matters and how they learn, pp. 1–13. new york: executive office – united nations joint staff pension fund. cheese, p., thomas, r. j., & craig, e. (2008). talent powered organization. strategies for globalization, talent management and high performance. london, uk: kogan page limited. cipd. (2009). employer branding: maintaining momentum in a recession: chartered institute of personnel and development (cipd) guide. london: cipd. clarke, m. (2011). advancing women’s careers through leadership development programs. employee relations, 33(5), 498–515. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425451111153871 close, d. (2015). generational motivation and preference for reward and recognition in a south african facilities management firm. retrieved from http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/18558/dissertation_close_ds.pdf collings, d. g., & mellahi, k. (2009). strategic talent management: a review and research agenda. human resource management review, 19(4), 304–313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2009.04.001 crampton, s. m., & hodge, j. w. (2007). generations in the workplace: understanding age diversity. business review, 9(1), 16–22. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291087554_generations_in_the_workplace_understanding_age_diversity crumpacker, m., & crumpacker, j. m. (2007). succession planning and generational stereotypes: should hr consider age-based values and attitudes a relevant factor or a passing fad? public personnel management, 36(4), 349–369. retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/009102600703600405 d’amato, a., & herzfeldt, r. (2008). learning orientation, organizational commitment and talent retention across generations. journal of managerial psychology, 23(8), 929–953. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940810904402 de meuse, k. p., & mlodzik, k. j. (2010). a second look at generational differences in the workforce: implications for hr and talent management. people & strategy, 33(2), 50–58. du plessis, y., & barkhuizen, n. (2015). exploring the career path barriers of women professional engineers in a south african context. south african journal of labour relations, 39(1), 38–57. farndale, e., pai, a., sparrow, p., & scullion, h. (2014). balancing individual and organizational goals in global talent management: a mutual-benefits perspective. journal of world business, 49, 204–214. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2013.11.004 festing, m., & schäfer, l. (2014). generational challenges to talent management: a framework for talent retention based on the psychological-contract perspective. journal of world business, 49, 262–271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2013.11.010 glass, a. (2007). understanding generational differences for competitive success. industrial & commercial training, 39(2), 98–103. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197850710732424 gorgievski, m. j., bakker, a. b., & schaufeli, w. b. (2010). work engagement and workaholism: comparing the self-employed and salaried employees. the journal of positive psychology, 5(1), 83–96. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760903509606 griffeth, r. w., hom, p. w., & gaertner, s. (2000). a meta-analysis of antecedents and correlates of employee turnover: update, moderator tests, and research implications for the next millennium. journal of management, 26, 463–488. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630002600305 grobler, p., bothma, r., brewster, c., carey, l., holland, p., & warnich, s. (2017). contemporary issues in human resource management (4th edn.). cape town: oxford university press. guest, d., & conway, n. (2001). public and private sector perspectives on the psychological contract: results of the 2001 cipd survey. wimbledon, london: chartered institute of personnel and development. gursoy, d., maier, t. a., & chi, c. g. (2008). generational differences: an examination of work values and generational gaps in the hospitality workforce. international journal of hospitality management, 27(3), 448–458. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2007.11.002 hafez, e., abouelneel, r., & elsaid, e. (2017). an exploratory study on how talent management affects employee retention and job satisfaction for personnel administration in ain shams university egypt. journal of management and strategy, 8(4), 1. https://doi.org/10.5430/jms.v8n4p1 hair, j. f., jr., anderson, r. e., tatham, r. l., & black, w. c. (1998). multivariate data analysis. upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. hair, j. f., black, w. c., babin, b. j., & anderson, r. e. (2006). multivariate data analysis. upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. hair, j. f., black, w. c., babin, b. j., & anderson, r. e. (2014). multivariate data analysis. new jersey, united states: pearson education limited. iacobucci, d. (2009). structural equations modeling: fit indices, sample size, and advanced topics. journal of consumer psychology, 20, 90–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2009.09.003 ilies, r., wilson, k. s., & wagner, d. t. (2009). the spillover of daily job satisfaction on the employees’ family lives: the facilitating role of work–family integration. academy of management journal, 52(1), 87–102. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2009.36431938 johnson, j. a., & lopes, j. (2008), the intergenerational workforce revisited. organizational development journal, 26, 31–37. kilfman, s. (2009). talent management in a multigenerational workforce. (2018). masters, tilburg university. knowledge resources. (2017a). human capital and labour report: south africa. south africa. knowledge resources. (2017b). on the rise: africa’s talent mobility in the 21st century report. south africa. knowledge resources. (2018). human capital and labour report: south africa. randburg, south africa: kr publishing (pty) ltd. lee, t. w., mitchell, t. r., sablynski, c. j., burton, j. p., & holtom, b. c. (2004). the effects of job embeddedness on organisational citizenship, job performance, volitional absences and voluntary turnover. the academy of management journal, 47(5), 711–722. retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20159613 leung, a. k. y., maddux, w. w., galinsky, a. d., & chiu, c. y. (2008). multicultural experience enhances creativity: the when and how. american psychologist, 63(3), 169. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.63.3.169 leuty, m. e., & hansen, j. i. c. (2011). evidence of construct validity for work values. journal of vocational behavior, 79(2), 379–390. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.04.008 lewis, r. e., & heckman, r. j. (2006). talent management: a critical review. human resource management review, 16, 139–154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2006.03.001 lyons, s. t., duxbury, l., & higgins, c. (2007). an empirical assessment of generational differences in basic human values. psychological reports, 101(2), 339–352. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.101.2.339-352 macky, k., gardner, d., & forsyth, s. (2008). generational differences at work: introduction and overview. journal of managerial psychology, 23(8), 857–861. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940810904358 masibigiri, v., & nienaber, h. (2011). factors affecting the retention of generation x public servants: an exploratory study. sa journal of human resource management, 9(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v27i4.318 mayhew, d. r. (2014). placing parties in american politics: organization, electoral settings, and government activity in the twentieth century. princeton, nj: princeton university press. meyer, j. p., & allen, n. j. (1997). commitment in the workplace. thousand oakes, ca: sage. moore, a., & bussin, m. (2012). reward preferences for generations in selected information and communication technology companies. sa journal of human resource management, 10(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i1.325 nunnally, j. c., & bernstein, i. h. (1994). psychometric theory. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. peters, p., poutsma, e., van der heijden, b. i., bakker, a. b., & bruijn, t. d. (2014). enjoying new ways to work: an hrm-process approach to study flow. human resource management, 53(2), 271–290. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21588 qu, h., & zhao, x. (2012). employees’ work–family conflict moderating life and job satisfaction. journal of business research, 65(1), 22–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.07.010 rousseau, d. m. (1990). new hire perceptions of their own and their employer’s obligations: a study of psychological contracts. journal of organizational behavior, 11(5), 389–400. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030110506 roy, j. g. (2008). ten tips for retaining the next generation. utility automation and engineering t&d, 13(2), 8. retrieved from http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/35636085/ten-tips-retaining-next-generation schambach, t. (2001). age, motivation, and participation in professional development. journal of computer information systems, 41(4), 57–64. simons, a. (2009). changing workplace demographics: t + b + y + x = opportunity. cpa practice management forum, may, 15–23. sonnenberg, m., koene, b., & paauwe, j. (2011). balancing hrm: the psychological contract of employees: a multi-level study. personnel review, 40(6), 664–683. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481111169625 the economist intelligence unit. (2010). the economist intelligence unit. retrieved from http://www.eiu.com/home.aspx thunnissen, m., boselie, p., & fruytier, b., 2013. talent management and the relevance of context: towards a pluralistic approach. human resource management review, 23, 326–336. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2013.05.004 thomsons online benefits. (2017). expectations vs reality: the widening gap in global benefits. retrieved from https://www.thomsons.com/resources/whitepapers/the-widening-gap-between-expectations-and-reality/ twenge, j. m., campbell, s. m., hoffman, b. j., & lance, c. e. (2010). generational differences in work values: leisure and extrinsic values increasing, social and intrinsic values decreasing. journal of management, 36(5), 1117–1142. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206309352246 van der voordt, t. j. (2004). productivity and employee satisfaction in flexible workplaces. journal of corporate real estate, 6(2), 133–148. https://doi.org/10.1108/14630010410812306 wagner, k. l. (2007). filling the gap: the generation gap in the workplace creates challenges for managers wanting to build a team. journal of property management, 72(5), 29–36. ye, j., cardon, m. s., & rivera, e. (2012). a mutuality perspective of psychological contracts regarding career development and job security. journal of business research, 65, 294–301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.03.006 zulu, p. s., & parumasur, s. b. (2009). employee perceptions of the management of cultural diversity and workplace transformation. sa journal of industrial psychology, 35(1), 49–57. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v35i1.426 abstract introduction methods results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) ronny shibiti department of business management, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation shibiti, r. (2019). satisfaction with retention factors in relation to job embeddedness of public school teachers. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1161. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1161 original research satisfaction with retention factors in relation to job embeddedness of public school teachers ronny shibiti received: 05 feb. 2019; accepted: 16 mar. 2019; published: 06 aug. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the major challenge that organisations face in the contemporary competitive environment is to retain talented and productive employees. to ensure that the education system functions optimally, there is a need for strategic human resource management (hrm) practices to be implemented to assist in retaining qualified and experienced teachers. research purpose: the purposes of this study were to establish the relationship between retention factors and job embeddedness, and to establish whether retention factors positively and significantly predict job embeddedness. motivation for the study: there is a high turnover among teachers, with many teachers leaving the profession during their early years of teaching. an empirical investigation of the relationship between retention factors and job embeddedness and the outcomes of utilising retention factors and job embeddedness to facilitate the retention of employees is critical. research approach/design and method: a non-experimental, quantitative survey was conducted on 278 teachers working in the tshwane municipality public schools. main findings: a pearson’s correlational analysis revealed positive and significant relationships between retention factors and job embeddedness, while multiple regression analyses revealed that retention factors positively and significantly predict job embeddedness. practical/managerial implications: the results from this study afford concrete implications for employers in search of effective employee retention strategies. the main practical contribution of this study is the way in which it demonstrated that retention factors relate to and predict job embeddedness. contribution/value-add: this study contributes to the employee retention theory by proposing that employees who are provided with desired retention factors are more likely to be embedded in their jobs and community. keywords: retention factors; job embeddedness; compensation; work–life balance; career development; training and development. introduction orientation the key element that determines the success and survival of any organisation in an extremely competitive global market is the organisation’s ability to retain its employees (alferaih, 2017; muhoho, 2014; potgieter & ferreira, 2018; ruvimbo & hlanganipai, 2016). dynamic organisational forces have instigated a need for organisations to understand the processes and outcomes of the employment relationship to increase productivity, advance organisational effectiveness and retain talented employees (dhanpat, modau, lugisani, mabojane, & phiri, 2018; naidoo, abarantyne, & rugimbana, 2019). no matter the size of the business, and regardless of the industry in which the business operates, organisations are always faced with the challenge of attracting and retaining high-performing employees (aruna & anitha, 2015; joubert, nkosi, steenkamp, & molatsane, 2014). when qualified and experienced employees leave an organisation, it may be detrimental to both its performance and its success (cohen, cavazotte, da costa, & ferreira, 2017; lyria, namusonge, & karanja, 2017). according to coetzee and stoltz (2015), researchers and practitioners are striving to find and develop various organisational practices that are crucial to the retention of employees. concentrating on employee retention is vital to increase organisational performance and reinforce a country’s economy (cloutier, felusiak, hill, & pemberton-jones, 2015). it is vital that an organisation recognises and satisfies the needs of its employees to ensure that they remain in the employ of such organisation (dhanpat et al., 2018), but the organisation should also ensure that the employees’ needs are in line with the strategy and operational requirements of the organisation (pearsall, 2016). when a talented employee resigns from an organisation, the whole cycle of recruitment, training and development has to be repeated, resulting in higher recruitment and training costs (bhattacharyya, 2017; lyria et al., 2017), as well as the expense associated with the extreme use of overtime compensation to cope with workforce shortfalls (lai, 2017). this study specifically focused on the relationship between retention factors and job embeddedness of teachers in the tshwane municipality public schools. there is a high turnover among teachers, with many teachers leaving the profession during their early years of teaching (mafukata & mudau, 2016). furthermore, too many teachers exit the system and they are not replaced because of the inadequateness of south african college and university systems to address the training and development of teachers (mafukata & mudau, 2016). according to the centre for development and enterprise (2015), many talented graduate teachers opt to move to other countries or find employment in other professions. this results in the loss of thousands of teachers on an annual basis (the centre for development and enterprise, 2015). in addition, more than a quarter of recently qualified teachers end up not teaching in south african schools because of low salaries and the poor image of the teaching profession (the centre for development and enterprise, 2015). a study by furuta (2015) found that teachers are influenced to stay with their current organisation if they are acknowledged for their contribution and if they know they have contributed to the social context of the school, such as the relationships that they have with learners, colleagues and administrators. notwithstanding the various strategic interventions enacted by the department of basic education in south africa to improve teachers’ retention, the department continues to battle with considerably high teacher turnover rates (mampane, 2012). furthermore, south africa is losing the most qualified and experienced teachers in critical subjects such as science, mathematics, language and technology (mampane, 2012). the motives prompting teachers to leave their employment are vast and intertwined (mafukata & mudau, 2016). it is thus evident that the demand for teachers is high, and it is imperative to retain existing teachers to meet the demand in public schools. hence, there is a need for strategic human resource management (hrm) practices to be implemented to assist in recruiting and retaining teachers (ashiedu & scott-ladd, 2010). accordingly, a profound understanding of the factors that may enhance the retention of teachers in public schools, and thus of the way in which constructs such as retention factors and job embeddedness influence retention, is essential. a review of the existing literature on retention factors and job embeddedness highlights the following research problems: there is a poor understanding of the theoretical and empirical relationship between retention factors and job embeddedness, particularly in south african public schools. there is need for an empirical investigation of the relationship between retention factors and job embeddedness and the outcomes of utilising retention factors and job embeddedness to facilitate employee retention. considering the previously mentioned research problems, the following general research question has been formulated: is there a significant relationship between retention factors and job embeddedness of teachers working in the tshwane municipality public schools? research purposes and objectives the purposes of this study were (1) to establish the relationship between retention factors and job embeddedness, and (2) to establish whether retention factors positively and significantly predict job embeddedness. literature review retention factors retention factors have an impact on the turnover intentions of employees and should, thus, be considered when formulating strategies to retain employees (dhanpat et al., 2018; van dyk, coetzee, & takawira, 2013). retention factors are human resource (hr) practices that organisations implement to inspire employees to remain with the organisation and which enhance their performance, for instance, opportunities for career growth, a healthy organisational culture, fair compensation, work–life balance, performance management, supervisor support and independence at work (coetzee, oosthuizen, & stoltz, 2016; kumar & santhosh, 2014; van dyk et al., 2013). kumar and santhosh (2014) described retention factors as hr practices that are enacted to encourage employees to remain with the organisation, for example, fair compensation, opportunities for career growth, work–life balance, a healthy organisational culture, performance management, supervisor support and independence at work. it is the responsibility of management to implement interventions such as creating a positive working relationship between managers and employees, paying employees for performing their jobs well and maintaining a healthy and safe work environment to prevent employees from leaving the organisation (tourangeau, patterson, saari, thomson, & cranley, 2017). work–life balance, compensation, opportunities for career growth and development, the opportunity to use one’s skills and knowledge in the company, and challenging work are cited as some of the most important retention factors for employees (coetzee & stoltz, 2015; davidescu & issa eid, 2017; kumar & santhosh, 2014; lyria et al., 2017; mohammad, 2015; roy, 2015). compensation, job characteristics, training and development, career opportunities, talent management, supervisor support and work flexibility are the most important retention factors in the south african context (dhanpat et al., 2018; döckel, 2003; van dyk & coetzee, 2012). mohammad (2015) posits that employee involvement, providing trust-based inspirational leadership, fair compensation, orientations, health and safety programmes, training programmes, fair rewards or incentives, developing grievance-handling mechanisms, flexibility in working hours, coaching, mentoring and maintaining positive relationships between employees all enhance employee retention in an organisation. it is essential that organisations offer their employees the best working environment, career growth opportunities, rewards, work–life balance and supervisor support because this will inspire the employees to give their best to the organisation (roy, 2015). pek-greer and wallace (2017) maintain that factors such as employee benefits, employee remuneration, professional development opportunities and work environment substantially influence employee retention. thus, a lack of these hr interventions in an organisation may lead to employee turnover (cohen et al., 2017). job embeddedness according to dechawatanapaisal (2018), a problem that continuously challenges researchers and practitioners is to find the reasons that make people stay with their organisations. in their classic study, mitchell and lee (2001) developed a job embeddedness model to help researchers and hr practitioners to understand the reasons why people stay with their organisations (ampofo, coetzer, & poisat, 2017; coetzer, redmond, & barrett, 2014; hopson, petri, & kufera, 2018; kiazad, hom, holtom, & newman, 2015; thakur & bhatnagar, 2017). the concept of job embeddedness was then defined as a mesh in which an individual may be trapped – an employee who is highly embedded has many closely linked relationships in the workplace (chena & shafferb, 2017; coetzer, inma, poisat, redmond, & standing, 2018; hopson et al., 2018; marasi, cox, & bennett, 2016; mitchell & lee, 2001; sanders, 2015). links, fit and sacrifice were then identified as the three components of job embeddedness (ampofo et al., 2017; ma, mayfield, & mayfield, 2018; mitchell, holtom, lee, sablynski, & erez, 2001; mitchell & lee, 2001). links refer to the level to which people are connected to others inside and outside the organisation (ampofo et al., 2017; ma et al., 2018). fit relates to the manner in which people’s jobs and communities are comparable to the other characteristics of their lives (ma et al., 2018; mitchell et al., 2001; mitchell & lee, 2001). sacrifice refers to the simplicity with which relations may be dissolved – what they would surrender if they move, especially if they are forced to relocate to other places (ampofo et al., 2017; ma et al., 2018; mitchell & lee, 2001). job embeddedness encapsulates a wide range of influences on employee retention, specifically with regard to clarifying the reasons why employees decide to remain with their current employer (coetzer et al., 2018; coetzer, inma, poisat, redmond, & standing, 2019; peltokorpi, allen, & froese, 2015). this embeddedness may stem from within the job context (organisation), as well as from outside the employee’s immediate work environment (community) (ampofo et al., 2017; coetzer et al., 2018, 2019; kale, 2014; potgieter & ferreira, 2018). job embeddedness, thus, considers job satisfaction while combining the conceptions of work environment and community (hopson et al., 2018). the concept of job embeddedness tries to broaden the scope of factors that may clarify the reasons why employees remain in jobs by adding aspects that are non-affective (structural links to other people), and by considering off-the-job factors (fit in the community) as contributory aspects of employee retention (dechawatanapaisal, 2018). this perspective is different from traditional turnover models, which are more concerned with the motives why employees might leave their jobs (hopson et al., 2018). bambacas and kulik (2013) maintain that job embeddedness focuses on the degree of networks that an individual encounters through his or her work experiences, roles, relationships and responsibilities. when these interconnections become more multifaceted, an individual will become more embedded within the organisation and would be less likely to leave the organisation (bambacas & kulik, 2013). according to ma et al. (2018), it appears that a person with high job embeddedness is less likely to resign compared with a person with low job embeddedness, and job embeddedness fosters retention more than job satisfaction and organisational commitment combined. job embeddedness is deemed superior because of its focus on the contextual forces that influence retention rather than affect or affect-saturated constructs such as satisfaction, commitment and involvement (lee, burch, & mitchell, 2014; mitchell et al., 2001). various studies have revealed that job embeddedness significantly improves the prediction of subsequent turnover even after controlling for commitment, satisfaction and gender, and also that job embeddedness goes beyond a combination of measures of ease of movement and perceived desirability (crossley, bennett, jex, & burnfield, 2007; mitchell et al., 2001; mitchell & lee, 2001). nevertheless, researchers still have much to explore about the holistic potential of job embeddedness as an important variable in the retention of employees (dechawatanapaisal, 2018). this study aims to extend existing job embeddedness research by investigating retention factors that are related to and predict job embeddedness. mitchell et al. (2001) recommended that organisations should revise their hr practices to nurture employees’ job embeddedness because effective practices can generate an environment that inspires employees to be more satisfied and embedded, thus minimising turnover. it is important to note that the construct of job embeddedness does not replace the usefulness of other constructs such as organisational commitment, job involvement and job satisfaction in understanding imminent turnover, although it does present a potent instrument for exploring employee turnover (lee et al., 2014; mitchell & lee, 2001). crossley et al. (2007) also established that job embeddedness acts together with job satisfaction to predict voluntary turnover, thus signifying that the job embeddedness construct extends further than the unfolding model of turnover. methods participants and setting the study was a non-experimental, cross-sectional quantitative survey, with a convenience sample of 708 teachers working in the tshwane municipality public schools. two hundred and seventy-eight usable questionnaires were received. the data were collected between february and march 2017. measuring instruments retention factors were measured using the retention factors measuring scale (rfms; döckel, 2003). the rfms includes items that measure employees’ satisfaction with compensation, job characteristics, training and development opportunities, supervisor support, career opportunities and work–life policies (coetzee & stoltz, 2015; döckel, basson, & coetzee, 2006). the reliability of the scale was found to be as follows: compensation (0.90), job characteristics (0.41), training and development (0.83), supervisory support (0.90), career opportunities (0.76) and work–life policies (0.87) (döckel et al., 2006). the overall instrument achieved a reliability coefficient of 0.93 (shibiti, 2017, p. 81). this instrument is thus proven as valid and reliable in this context. job embeddedness was measured using the job embeddedness scale (jes; mitchell et al., 2001). the jes is a self-rating instrument, and consists of 37 items covering all three dimensions of the construct of job embeddedness, namely, fit, links and sacrifice, for both the community and organisation. mitchell and lee (2001) found that the reliability for the overall job embeddedness was 0.85. in the present study, the reliability for the jes was 0.91. research procedure the results for this article were extracted from the master’s study that was conducted at university of south africa (unisa) (shibiti, 2017). questionnaires were distributed to teachers with envelopes and a covering letter stating the contact details of the researchers, the purpose of the study and ethical standards that it upholds. the confidentiality of participants was protected during the process of collecting, analysing and interpreting the data. statistical analysis the data were analysed using the statistical package for social sciences (spss), version 23 (2015). the correlations between retention factors and job embeddedness were calculated using the pearson’s product moment correlations. multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine whether retention factors (independent) predict job embeddedness (dependent). the confidence interval level was set at 95% (p ≤ 0.05) and the practical effect size was set at r ≥ 0.30 ≥ 0.50 (medium-to-large effect) to determine the statistical significance and counter the probability of type 1 errors (mitonga-monga & cilliers, 2015; tredoux & durrheim, 2013). the f 2 effect sizes were calculated to investigate the practical significance of the δr2 values. ethical considerations permission has been obtained from the human resource management research, ethics and innovation committee at unisa (reference number: 2016_hrm_012) and the department of basic education (gauteng: department of education and tshwane north district). results descriptive statistics this section addresses the means, standard deviations and the internal consistency (reliability) of the measuring instruments, indicated by cronbach’s alpha coefficient (r). table 1 indicates the means, standard deviations and cronbach’s alpha for the retention factors and job embeddedness variables. the mean and standard deviation for the overall retention factors were m = 3.08 and sd = 0.51, respectively. this indicated that the participants were moderately satisfied with the retention factors that are provided by their organisation. the overall job embeddedness mean and standard deviation were m = 3.33 and sd = 0.56, respectively, showing that the participants were moderately embedded in their work. the results showed that both the rfms and jes were reliable (well above r³ 0.60). table 1: descriptive statistics for retention factors and job embeddedness. correlations analysis the correlations between retention factors and job embeddedness were calculated by computing the pearson’s product moment correlations. to determine the statistical significance, the confidence interval level was set at 95% (p ≤ 0.05) and the cut-off practical effect size was r ≥ 0.30 ≥ 0.50 (medium-to-large effect) (tredoux & durrheim, 2013). table 2 illustrates the pearson’s product moment correlations between rfms and jes. table 2: correlations between the retention factors and job embeddedness. table 2 demonstrates that retention factors significantly and positively correlate with job embeddedness (r = 0.60; large effect; p ≤ 0.05). the retention factors also correlate with the six sub-components of job embeddedness. the results indicated that, overall, retention factors correlated significantly with fit – community (r = 0.32; medium effect; p ≤ 0.05), fit – organisation (r = 0.47; medium effect; p ≤ 0.05), links – organisation (r = 0.13; small effect; p ≤ 0.05), sacrifice –community (r = 0.42; medium effect; p ≤ 0.05) and sacrifice – organisation (r = 0.68; large effect; p ≤ 0.05). multiple regressions analysis table 3 illustrates the results of the multiple regression analyses that were conducted to establish whether retention factors acted as a predictor of job embeddedness. table 3a: multiple regression analysis: retention factors as a predictor of job embeddedness table 3b: multiple regression analysis: retention factors as a predictor of job embeddedness seven regression models were deduced – one model for job embeddedness (jes) and a further six for the sub-components of job embeddedness. all the models were found to be statistically significant f (p ≤ 0.05) except for models 4 (links – community) and 5 (links – organisation), which were found not to be statistically significant. the models accounted for 41% (r2 = 0.41: overall job embeddedness); 11% (r2 = 0.11: fit – community); 30% (r2 = 0.30: fit – organisation); 17% (r2 = 0.17: sacrifice –community) and 53% (r2 = 0.53: sacrifice – organisation) of the variance in the job embeddedness variables. in model 1 (jes), compensation (b = 0.36; p = 0.00), training and development (b = 0.28; p = 0.00) and career development (b = 0.15; p = 0.02) acted as significant positive predictors of the overall job embeddedness. in model 2 (fit – community), compensation (b = 0.18; p = 0.01) and training and development (b = 0.18; p = 0.02) acted as significant positive predictors of fit – community. in model 3 (fit – organisation), compensation (b = 0.17; p = 0.01) and training and development (b = 0.45; p = 0.00) acted as significant positive predictors of fit – organisation. in model 6 (sacrifice – community), compensation (b = 0.31; p = 0.00) acted as the only significant and positive predictor of sacrifice – community. in model 7 (sacrifice –organisation), compensation (b = 0.49; p = 0.00), training and development (b = 0.26; p = 0.00) and career development (b = 0.15; p = 0.01) acted as significant positive predictors of sacrifice – organisation. discussion outline of the results the employee retention and behaviour profile revealed that, overall, the participants were moderately satisfied with the training and development opportunities with which they were provided. concerning compensation, job characteristics, supervisor support, career development and work–life balance, the participants were between neutral and satisfied. they also recorded moderate levels of job embeddedness, although they perceived that they did not fit with the community and organisation as indicated by low mean scores in table 1. the correlations results suggested that retention factors significantly and positively correlate with job embeddedness. this implies that the participants who were more satisfied with the retention factors are more embedded in their jobs as opposed to the other participants. the findings resemble dechawatanapaisal’s (2018) conclusion that a favourable hr approach as perceived by employees inspires them to develop a sense of embeddedness within their organisation. the participants who indicated greater satisfaction with compensation seemed to perceive that they had a high level of the overall job embeddedness; they fitted with both the community and organisation; they had links to the organisation and they would experience considerable organisational sacrifice if they were to leave their jobs. performance appraisal and rewards also embed employees in the organisation by improving their perceptions of fit to the organisation (bambacas & kulik, 2013). the results also suggest that training and development correlated positively with job embeddedness. this indicates that the participants who perceived that their organisation provided them with opportunities for training and development improved the links they had in the organisation and it led them to feel that they would sacrifice much if they were to leave the organisation. the participants seemed to be satisfied with their career development opportunities, which made them feel like they would sacrifice much if they were to leave the organisation. this is in line with research findings that managers should intensify the perceived costs of leaving an organisation by providing training and implementing career development programmes for their employees (bambacas & kulik, 2013; ferreira, martinez, lamelas, & rodrigues, 2017; van dyk et al., 2013). the multiple regression results revealed that retention factors predict job embeddedness with compensation, training and development, and career development contributing the most to explaining the variance in job embeddedness. the findings were consistent with previous studies, which found that job embeddedness is significantly predicted by retention factors such as job characteristics, career opportunities, training and development, and supervisor support (bambacas & kulik, 2013; coetzee, schreuder, & tladinyane, 2014; van dyk et al., 2013). this implies that satisfaction with compensation, training and development, and career development opportunities are associated with high levels of job embeddedness. the results also revealed that satisfaction with compensation correlated with fit and sacrifice in respect of both on-the-job and off-the-job environments. this may be explained by the fact that employees who are satisfied with the rewards system in the organisation are more likely to perceive that they fit with the organisation while they are also able to afford engaging in extramural activities in the community. ultimately, it would appear that these employees conclude that the cost of leaving their current organisation and community would be very high (shibiti, 2017). satisfaction with training and development was found to be related to a high level of fit (both on the job and off the job) and sacrifice in respect of the organisation. this implied that employees who are happy with the developmental initiatives implemented by their organisation are more likely to perceive that the skills they gain from those initiatives are helpful in cementing their place in the organisation and in taking on extra roles outside of work. ultimately, those employees tend to stay with their organisation and community because, if they leave, they would forfeit training opportunities (shibiti, 2017). the findings are consistent with van dyk et al.’s (2013) conclusions that satisfaction with training and development opportunities best predicts organisational fit, and satisfaction with career development opportunities is associated with a high level of sacrifice if the employee were to leave the organisation. bambacas and kulik (2013) and van dyk et al. (2013) also found that satisfaction with career opportunities in the organisation best predicts organisational sacrifice. this implies that if organisations provide their employees with career development opportunities such as recruiting internally for high positions, job expansion and enrichment, employees will perceive that they would sacrifice a lot if they were to resign from the organisation (shibiti, 2017). this then motivates the employees to remain with the organisation to benefit from the career development opportunities offered by the organisation. limitations of the study the results were limited in respect of generalising the findings and making recommendations because of a number of factors such as sample size, characteristics of the sample and the psychometric properties of the rfms and jes. the following limitations of the empirical study should be considered when interpreting the results: the study was limited to 278 teachers working in public schools in tshwane municipality. convenience sampling was used to select the participants and, therefore, it is not possible to generalise the results of this study to all population and other occupational contexts. if they are to be representative or resemble the total workforce, quantitative studies similar to this study should be conducted with more participants, bearing in mind the large number of public school teachers in question. in view of the fact that the study was cross-sectional in nature, it was not possible to draw inferences about causation because the correlations between the two constructs were interpreted rather than established. the rfms (döckel, 2003) and jes (mitchell & lee, 2001) were dependent on the participants’ self-awareness and personal perceptions, which may be both subjective and biased. notwithstanding these limitations, the findings of this study provided new knowledge on the relationship between retention factors and job embeddedness as it applies to the public school context in south africa. practical implications and recommendations the results from this study afford concrete implications for employers in search of effective employee retention strategies. the main practical contribution of this study was the way in which it demonstrated that retention factors correlate with and predict job embeddedness. the findings confirmed the need to consider retention factors in the public school context to understand the job embeddedness of public school teachers. organisations should provide their employees with improved compensation, training and development, and career development opportunities as this may lead to high level of fit to both the community and organisation, improve the links that employees have in the organisation and increase the perceived organisational sacrifice that employees would incur if they were to leave their jobs. accordingly, organisations should ensure that their employees are satisfied with their compensation, training and development, and career development opportunities. organisations may assist employees to fit into their jobs and the organisation by providing supervisory support (offering assistance, guidelines, trust in and praise for subordinates) and by empowering them to create stronger links with their co-workers (takawira, coetzee, & schreuder, 2014). future studies the findings of this study highlighted the need for further research into the relationship between retention factors and job embeddedness. it is also strongly recommended that future research should take into consideration the limitations of this study. the study was limited to 26 public schools and 278 teachers in the tshwane north district, and thus future research should use a randomised sampling process with larger samples and include different occupational fields, races, genders and ages. this study was cross-sectional in nature, and it was, therefore, not possible to establish causal relationships between the variables under investigation. consequently, longitudinal studies are recommended to determine the influence of the variables that were tested in this study on retention and performance practices within organisations. test–retest reliability may also be calculated to determine the reliability of all the items of the measuring instruments that were used. future studies should apply diverse methodologies, both qualitative and quantitative, which would result in a broader understanding of the relationship between retention factors and job embeddedness. demographic profile should also be used as moderator variable in an investigation into the relationships between retention factors and job embeddedness. conclusions the following overall conclusions were drawn: satisfaction with retention factors plays an important role in explaining employees’ level of job embeddedness. individuals who are satisfied with the compensation, training and development, and career development opportunities are more likely to be embedded in their job. individuals who are satisfied with compensation tend to demonstrate high levels of fit and sacrifice in respect of both on-the-job and off-the-job environments. satisfaction with training and development leads to high levels of fit (both on the job and off the job) and sacrifice – organisation. individuals who are satisfied with their career development opportunities tend to demonstrate a high level of organisational sacrifice. the empirical statistical relationships that were found between retention factors and job embeddedness provided new understanding in respect of the retention of employees in an organisation. the correlational analyses revealed that employees who are satisfied with retention factors are also likely to be embedded in their work. this suggests strongly that retention factors should be considered in the development of a behavioural model for both retention and performance practices. acknowledgements the author would like to express his sincere thanks and deepest gratitude to his mcom supervisors, dr mitonga-monga jeremy and mrs lerotholi mpho, for providing guidance and sharing their knowledge and expertise with him during the mcom study. competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. authors’ contributions this article is solely the work of the author. funding information the directorate of student funding and the graduate development fellowship programme at unisa funded the author to conduct this study. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references alferaih, a. (2017). developing a conceptual model to measure talent’s turnover intention in tourism organisations of saudi arabia. international journal of organizational analysis, 25(1), 2–23. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoa-10-2014-0803 ampofo, e. t., coetzer, a., & poisat, p. (2017). relationships between job embeddedness and employees’ life satisfaction. employee relations, 39(7), 951–966. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-10-2016-0199 aruna, m., & anitha, j. (2015). employee retention enablers: generation y employees. scms journal of indian management, 12(3), 94–104. ashiedu, j., & scott-ladd, b. (2010). improving worth to reduce teacher shortages: the role of strategic human resource management. international journal of employment studies, 18(2), 1–36. bambacas, m., & kulik, c. t. (2013). job embeddedness in china: how hr practices impact turnover intentions. the international journal of human resource management, 24(10), 1933–1952. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.725074 bhattacharyya, d. k. (2017). book review: the magnetic organisation – attracting and retaining the best talent. business perspectives and research, 5(1), 110–112. https://doi.org/10.1177/2278533716671633 chena, y., & shafferb, m. a. (2017). the influences of perceived organizational support and motivation on self-initiated expatriates’ organizational and community embeddedness. journal of world business, 52(2), 197–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2016.12.001 cloutier, o., felusiak, l., hill, c., & pemberton-jones, e. j. (2015). the importance of developing strategies for employee retention. journal of leadership, accountability and ethics, 12(2), 119–130. coetzee, m., oosthuizen, r. m., & stoltz, e. (2016). psychosocial employability attributes as predictors of staff satisfaction with retention factors. south african journal of psychology, 46(2), 232–243. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246315595971 coetzee, m., schreuder, d., & tladinyane, r. (2014). employees’ work engagement and job commitment: the moderating role of career anchors. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.572 coetzee, m., & stoltz, e. (2015). employees’ satisfaction with retention factors: exploring the role of career adaptability. journal of vocational behavior, 89(2015), 83–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2015.04.012 coetzer, a., inma, c., poisat, p., redmond, j., & standing, c. (2018). job embeddedness and employee enactment of innovation-related work behaviours. international journal of manpower, 39(2), 222–239. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijm-04-2016-0095 coetzer, a., inma, c., poisat, p., redmond, j., & standing, c. (2019). does job embeddedness predict turnover intentions in smes? international journal of productivity and performance management, 68(2), 340–361. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-03-2018-0108 coetzer, a., redmond, j., & barrett, r. (2014). job embeddedness and the importance of retaining small firm employees. in proceedings of the 28th australian and new zealand academy of management conference: reshaping management for impact, 13 december 2013 (pp. 1–20). sydney: anzam. cohen, m., cavazotte, f. c. n., da costa, t. m., & ferreira, k. c. s. (2017). corporate social-environmental responsibility as an attraction and retention factor for young professionals. brazilian business review, 14(1), 21–41. https://doi.org/10.15728/bbr.2017.14.1.2 crossley, c. d., bennett, r. j., jex, s. m., & burnfield, j. l. (2007). development of a global measure of job embeddedness and integration into a traditional model of voluntary turnover. journal of applied psychology, 92(4), 1031–1042. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.4.1031 davidescu, a. a., & issa eid, t. m. (2017). identifying the main determinants of retention in jordanian hospitals. an empirical analysis based on mccloskey/mueller satisfaction scale. ecoforum, 6(1). dechawatanapaisal, d. (2018). examining the relationships between hr practices, organizational job embeddedness, job satisfaction, and quit intention: evidence from thai accountants. asia-pacific journal of business administration, 10(2/3), 30–148. https://doi.org/10.1108/apjba-11-2017-0114 dhanpat, n., modau, f. d., lugisani, p., mabojane, r., & phiri, m. (2018). exploring employee retention and intention to leave within a call centre. sa journal of human resource management, 16(0), a905. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.905 döckel, a. (2003). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees (unpublished master’s dissertation). pretoria: university of pretoria. döckel, a., basson, j., & coetzee, m. (2006). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. sa journal of human resource management, 4(2), 20–28. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v4i2.91 ferreira, a. i., martinez, l. m., lamelas, j. p., & rodrigues, r. i. (2017). mediation of job embeddedness and satisfaction in the relationship between task characteristics and turnover: a multilevel study in portuguese hotels. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 29(1), 248–267. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm-03-2015-0126 furuta, s. h. (2015). a case study of teacher retention in three title i hawaii schools (published doctoral thesis). ann arbor, mi: proquest. hopson, m., petri, l., & kufera, j. (2018). a new perspective on nursing retention: job embeddedness in acute care nurses. journal for nurses in professional development, 34(1), 31–37. https://doi.org/10.1097/nnd.0000000000000420 joubert, m., nkosi, p., steenkamp, e., & molatsane, w. (2014). introduction to human resource management: a practical guide. pretoria: frontline books. kale, m. d. (2014).correlational study of job embeddedness measures and employee turnover in selected bpo companies in india (unpublished doctoral thesis). minneapolis, mn: capella university. kiazad, k., hom, p. w., holtom, b. c., & newman, a. (2015). job embeddedness: a multifoci theoretical extension. journal of applied psychology, 100(3), 641–659. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038919 kumar, g. s., & santhosh, c. (2014). factor analysis approach to explore dimensions of employee retention in bpo industry in kerala. journal of social welfare and management, 6(2), 69–78. lai, y. (2017). the impact of individual and institutional factors on turnover intent among taiwanese correctional staff. international journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology, 61(1), 100–121. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624x15589099 lee, t. w., burch, t. c., & mitchell, t. r. (2014). the story of why we stay: a review of job embeddedness. annual review of organisational psychology and organisational behavior, 1(2014), 199–216. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091244 lyria, r. k., namusonge, g. s., & karanja, k. (2017). the effect of talent retention on organizational performance of firms listed in the nairobi securities exchange. journal of human resource and leadership, 1(3), 56–68. ma, q. k., mayfield, m., & mayfield, j. (2018). keep them on-board! how organizations can develop employee embeddedness to increase employee retention. development and learning in organizations: an international journal, 32(4), 5–9. https://doi.org/10.1108/dlo-11-2017-0094 mafukata, a. m., & mudau, a. v. 2016. exploring teacher mass resignation and early retirement from public schools. dirasat: human and social sciences, 43(5), 2243–2255. mampane, p. m. (2012). the teacher turnover crisis: evidence from south africa. business education & accreditation, 4(2), 73–83. marasi, s., cox, s. s., & bennett, r. j. (2016). job embeddedness: is it always a good thing? journal of managerial psychology, 31(1), 141–153. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmp-05-2013-0150 mitchell, t. r., holtom, b. c., lee, t. w., sablynski, c., & erez, m. (2001). why people stay: using job embeddedness to predict voluntary turnover. academy of management journal, 44(2001), 1102–1121. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0191-3085(01)23006-8 mitchell, t. r., & lee, t. w. (2001). the unfolding model of voluntary turnover and job embeddedness: foundations for a comprehensive theory of attachment. research in organisational behavior, 23(2001), 189–246. mitonga-monga, j., & cilliers, f. (2015). ethics culture and ethics climate in relation to employee engagement in a developing country setting. journal of psychology in africa, 25(3), 242–249. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2015.1065059 mohammad, a. (2015). employee recruitment, selection and retention in saudi arabian family owned small and medium scale enterprises (smes). kuwait chapter of arabian journal of business and management review, 4(6), 30–45. https://doi.org/10.12816/0018967 muhoho, j. m. e. (2014). assessment of factors influencing employee retention in tanzania’s work organisations. international journal of innovation and applied studies, 9(2), 687–697. naidoo, v., abarantyne, i., & rugimbana, r. (2019). the impact of psychological contracts on employee engagement at a university of technology. sa journal of human resource management, 17(0), a1039. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1039 pearsall, w. (2016). employees’ experiences of recruitment and retention in a research unit located in a rural setting (unpublished master’s dissertation). pretoria: university of south africa. pek-greer, p., & wallace, m. (2017). a study of childcare teacher retention in the childcare service industry. global business review, 18(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/0972150916666879 peltokorpi, v., allen, d. g., & froese, f. (2015). organizational embeddedness, turnover intentions, and voluntary turnover: the moderating effects of employee demographic characteristics and value orientations. journal of organizational behavior, 36(2015), 292–312. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1981 potgieter, i. l., & ferreira, n. (2018). female human resource professionals’ job embeddedness in relation to commitment foci: an exploratory study. actacommercii, 18(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v18i1.493 roy, b. (2015). a study on employee retention factors in the indian banking industry – an empirical study. international journal of advanced research in computer science and management studies, 3(3), 346–352. ruvimbo, t. s., & hlanganipai, n. (2016). organisational commitment and job retention among nurses in a south african setting: an exploratory study. journal of psychology in africa, 26(1), 74–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2015.1101283 sanders, j. w. (2015). the relationships among leader-member exchange, off-the-job embeddedness, and turnover intention (unpublished doctoral thesis). scottsdale, az: northcentral university. shibiti, r. (2017). the relationship between retention factors, job embeddedness and work engagement of teachers in tshwane municipality public schools (unpublished master’s dissertation). pretoria: university of south africa. takawira, n., coetzee, m., & schreuder, d. (2014). job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention of staff in a higher education institution: an exploratory study. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.524 thakur, s. j., & bhatnagar, j. (2017). mediator analysis of job embeddedness: relationship between work-life balance practices and turnover intentions. employee relations, 39(5), 718–731. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-11-2016-0223 the centre for development and enterprise. (2015). teachers in south africa: supply and demand 2013–2025. executive summary. johannesburg: the centre for development and enterprise. tourangeau, a. e., patterson, e., saari, m., thomson, h., & cranley, l. (2017). work-related factors influencing home care nurse intent to remain employed. health care management review, 42(1), 87–97. https://doi.org/10.1097/hmr.0000000000000093 tredoux, c., & durrheim, k. (2013). numbers, hypotheses, and conclusions (2nd edn.). cape town: uct press. van dyk, j., & coetzee, m. (2012). retention factors in relation to organisational commitment in medical and information technology services. sa journal of human resource management, 8(2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.433 van dyk, j., coetzee, m., & takawira, n. (2013). satisfaction with retention factors as predictors of the job embeddedness of medical and information technology services staff. southern african business review, 17(1), 57–75. management experts agree that leadership could be the number one strategic concern of businesses in the 21st century (lussier, 1997). this is echoed by kets de vries (2001) who states that the effectiveness of an organisation’s employees, who are in leadership positions, will determine how the organisation will perform. furthermore, this performance is impacted upon by the fact that organisations are faced with a number of critical issues. these issues range from changes in societal values to changes in investor focus (higgs, 2003). leadership in the face of change is therefore a topic of crucial concern to all organisations in the present turbulent business environment. this is also due to the fact that the impact of change increasingly leads to the demise of many businesses. some of the major challenges that accompany change include: l the constantly changing environment has created an unpredictable future as the marketplace has lost its predictability (rabey, 2006); and hence l the unpredictability of change. not being able to predict what type of change the organisation is going to be faced with next (grieves, 2000); l the uncertainty around the outcome of the change (grieves, 2000). there is no clear relationship between the scale of the change and the scale of its impact within an organisation (french, 2001); and l the risk of failure. many change initiatives undertaken by organisations are, even with the best intentions, often destined for failure in some point in implementation. various surveys have shown that a very low percentage of change programmes are successful (siegel et al, 1996). adding to the complexity created by these challenges that the leader has to contend with, the leader must also understand how to lead employees through the uncertainty that accompanies change. a reasonable deduction that can therefore be made is that leaders require competencies that will enable them to deal with the new world of rapid change and its unique challenges. the skills that may have worked in a more stable environment are inadequate in the new era of uncertainty and rapid change (marquardt, 2000). leadership leadership defines what the future should look like and then aligns and inspires people to realise the vision (kotter, 1996). in terms of organisations, it refers to the process of influencing employees to work toward the achievement of organisational objectives (lussier, 1997). the alignment, inspiration and influence referred to by kotter and lussier are rooted in the human need for leadership (kets de vries, 2001). people want guidance about where to go and how to get there. the primary task of leadership is therefore to create a context that calls forth and taps into the emergent potential of the organisation (pascale, 1999). in this context, senge (1999) defines leadership as the capacity of a human community to shape its future and sustain the significant processes of change that enables them to do so. these processes of change place a significant burden on managers who now are expected to embrace the change-orientated attributes that will give them the ability to cope with uncertainty and become leaders, innovators and risk takers (caldwell, 2003). these changeorientated attributes refer to the competencies leaders require in times of change. over the years various studies focusing on leadership have included (robbins, & de cenzo, 1998): l trait theories of leadership. these are theories that isolate personal characteristics that differentiate leaders from nonleaders; l behavioural theories of leadership. these are theories that isolate behaviours that differentiate effective leaders from ineffective leaders; l contingency theories of leadership. these theories focus on situational influences and the relationship between leadership style and effectiveness; and l the modern schools of leadership which include: – transactional leadership. this approach (aalitio-marjosola & takala, 2000) refers to leaders who guide or motivate their followers toward established goals by clarif ying role and task requirements. it focuses on middle and first-line management (lussier, 1997) and is mostly associated with intellectual intelligence (mussig, 2003); – transformational leadership. this approach is described as an approach that focuses on developing an appealing vision of the future (eisenbach et al, 1999), providing strategic and motivational focus (eisenbach et al, 1999) and appealing to the intrinsic motivation of followers and providing inspiration (cardona, 2000). furthermore, it has been described as an enriched form of transactional leadership (cardona, 2000) that is associated with emotional intelligence (sivanathan & fekken, 2002, palmer et al, 2001 and barling et al, 2000); – charismatic leadership is often used interchangeably with transformational leadership (pawar, 2003). it is associated with inspiration and the ability to make radical changes to reach a goal (lussier, 1997); – servant leadership focuses on the personal development of the followers (stone et al, 2004) while placing service at c von eck claudelle@iiasa.org.za a verwey department of human resources management university of johannesburg abstract the purpose of this study was to develop a framework containing a set of leadership competencies required for major change types. it also compared the views of managers and employees on the importance of these competencies as well as the degree to which managers display the competencies. ten leaders participated in the qualitative phase of the study and 60 managers and 74 employees responded to the survey. the major outcomes of the study included the competency framework as well as the competencies where statistically significant differences between the managers’ and employees’ views on, a) the degree to which the managers display the competencies as well as b) the importance assigned to the competencies, were found. key words: leadership, change, competencies, followers, complexity change dynamics and related leadership competencies 44 sa journal of human resource management, 2007, 5 (2), 44sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2007, 5 (2), 44change dynamics and leadership 45 its core (russell & stone, 2002). it is said to be based on ethical and caring behaviour (russell, 2001); and – transcendental leadership. this approach refers to leaders who recognise the spirituality that compels leaders to look beyond their own egos and to be more concerned about an internal development that transcends realities as defined by the environment (sanders, hopkins & geroy, 2003). bringing some of the thoughts around the modern schools of leadership together, sanders et al (2003) developed a model that suggests that there are three structural levels of leadership accomplishment that are linked together along a hierarchical continuum namely transactional, transformational and transcendental. the continuum stretches from the lower positioning of the transactional leadership theory (which is likely to be associated with a relatively low sense of divine awareness) to the higher positioning of transcendental leadership (which is associated with a higher level of spirituality which mobilizes the individual toward meaningful or transcendental accomplishment and incorporates the leadership theories on the lower positions in the continuum). furthermore, the leadership abilities described under the different schools of leadership could broadly be divided into three categories. these are cognition, emotional and spiritual which have been coined by authors like mussig (2003) who distinguishes between intellectual, spiritual and emotional intelligences and tischler et al (2002) who distinguishes between iq, emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence. the three main leadership schools can be associated with the following types of intelligence as outlined in table 1 below. table 1 schools of leadership and intelligence leadership school type of intelligence transactional cognition/ intellectual intelligence transformational emotional intelligence transcendental spiritual intelligence for the purpose of this study, charismatic and servant leadership were clustered under transformational leadership, following the arguments of sarros & santora (2001), robbins & cenzo (1998) and aaltio-marjosola & takala (2000) in terms of charismatic leadership as well as the arguments of stone et al (2004) in terms of servant leadership. this is due to the significant amount of overlap between these two approaches and transformational leadership. it was concluded in this section that transformational leadership is an enriched transactional leadership and that transcendental leadership incorporates transactional, transformational, charismatic and servant leadership. it can therefore be argued that transformational leadership incorporates cognition and emotional intelligence and transcendental leadership incorporates cognition, emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence. this is illustrated in figure 1 below. the above definitions and schools of leadership thought suggest that leaders must understand the roles they need to perform in situations of rapid change, be able to shape change-agile employees and understand that leadership is a strategic issue. in this context marquardt (2000) argues that it has become increasingly clear that the new century demands new kinds of leaders with new skills. he suggests that the skills that may have worked in a more stable, predictable environment will be inadequate in the new era of uncertainty and rapid change where it is difficult to define the problem and even more difficult to engineer possible solutions. the next section will therefore explore change as it relates to leadership. figure 1: schools of leadership and intelligence types change based on organisational and sociological definitions, powell (2001, p 17) defines change as: “change ultimately is any activity that alters the current state within an organizational or sociological setting. the change activity can result in either positive or negative outcomes dependent upon many variables that occur prior to, during or after the change process. the initiation of the alteration of the current state can be a result of either internal or external influences that create the requirement, need or desire for the change activity”. powell further purports that change occurs as a result of an internal or external initiator that creates a requirement, need or desire for change based on the perception of managers or employees within an organisation. similarly valle (2002, p. 218) defines organisational change as: “a process of identification and implementation of new organizational routines and practices”. this is illustrated in figure 2 below. figure 2: change as a process furthermore, as organisations do not operate in isolation it is important for leaders to understand the context within which they operate. this context within which change should be understood includes society, the organisation as well as the individual. society and change toffler (1994) and slabbert (1996) refer to the following eras in society: l the stone age that was marked by human groups existing through hunting. this era was followed by a revolution that ushered in the agricultural age; l the agricultural age featured tools of the hands and hoe (focus on human input). this era was followed by a revolution that ushered in the industrial age; l the industrial age can be divided intro three major sectors: – the manufacturing sector that saw the emergence of machines to do the work of men’s hands (focus on mechanical input); – the service sector with a focus on quality of personal service; and – the knowledge sector marked by a technology wave providing an information boom that allowed people to gain more knowledge in a shorter time (focus on artificial intelligence) von eck, verwey46 political and social conflicts erupted in part because of the tools utilized throughout the waves (toffler, 1994). mankind moved from hunting (where power lay with those who had physical strength) to an era where the application of knowledge is needed to survive. furthermore, mankind has moved from more stable environments characterized by the earlier eras to more chaotic environments in the later eras (powell, 2001). society is the external environment within which organisations exist and its elements interact with each other to form some of the ‘triggers’ of change within an organisation (senior, 1997). the organisation and change organisations, in other words formal business, started to dominate the landscape in the modern industrialized societies (scott, 1981). they are systems that have been brought about by individuals in society, who have shared expectations and goals (sullivan, 1999). they are made up of a collection of objects that interrelate and give rise to emergent properties in the system (harrington et al, 1999) and are held together by relationships (fairholm, 2004). change in an organisation occurs when either an internal or external force causes an altering of the current state (powell, 2001). the challenge that leaders in organisations face today is that the environmental contexts in which organisations exist are changing at an accelerating rate towards increasing complexity (scott, 198). in understanding the internal organisational context, three forces need to be considered, namely the leader, the followers and the situation (kast & rosenzweig, 1985). a key element in the internal dynamics of the system is the leadership-followership relationship which is a dynamic relationship. during times of change the relationship may be altered as a result of a shift in expectations (kast & rosenzweig, 1985). the individual and change when organisations go through change there is a direct impact on the individuals in that organisation and their journey through that change can be quite complex. employees who go through change are subject to a host of negative emotions which directly or indirectly have an enormous impact on their productivity in the organisations (appelbaum & donia, 2000, thornhill & gibbons, 1995 and worrall et al, 2000). furthermore, it is often forgotten that managers are employees too and that their reactions to change are just as human as every other worker’s (stuart, 1995). in this context fairholm (2004) argues that understanding how people cope with change and transition allows the leader to remain confident and comfortable amid a variet y of individual reactions. change types there are two extreme types of circumstances against a continuum within which change occur. on the one hand there is a stable and predictable environment which calls for continuous or incremental change and on the other hand chaos and ambiguity which calls for transformation or frame-breaking change (booysen & beaty, 1997, senior, 1997, and robbins, 1998). there is also a distinction made between structural/technical changes and behavioural changes in organisations (waldersee & griffiths, 2004). these changes can therefore be clustered as: l incremental structural/technical change; l frame-breaking structural/technical change; l incremental behavioural change; and l frame-breaking behavioural change. in terms of the management or leadership of change, senior (1997) suggests that leadership style and behaviour can vary according to the different organisational situations. the implication therefore is that different leadership approaches are needed for different types of change. ghemawat et al (1999) point out that it is hard to mix and match across the extremes as different types of employees are required to deal with different changes. furthermore, the roles leaders must perform presupposes that they must have the necessary competencies to perform those roles. the roles serve as a bridge between the leadership context and competencies (veldsman, 1997). as the focus of this study is on leadership competencies, the next section will briefly explore competency, and also position it in relation to competence and capability. competence, competency and capability in exploring the literature that includes authors like veldsman (2002), brown & mccartney (2003), rowe (1998), stuart & lindsay (1997), jaques (1998) and morden (1997), it is clear that distinctions are made bet ween competence, competency and capability. there seems to be a relationship bet ween the three and that capability forms the platform on which competencies are built and on which competence is build in turn. veldsman (2002, p. 80) defines competence as “the ability and willingness to perform at the appropriate level as demanded by the context at a certain point in time, but also across time”. it is a set of minimum requirements of those who are deemed to be especially effective. it is concerned with the ability to demonstrate what has been acquired with its root being the fact that it looks back into the past and gains its value and legality from its past time-value (brown & mccartney, 2003). rowe (1995, p. 12) defines competency as the behaviour by which competence is achieved i.e. a description of how people do it. competencies therefore refer to the behaviours adopted in competent performance. adding to rowe’s definition stuart & lindsay (1997) purport that competencies are built up of smaller units or constituents which are termed elements of competencies. these elements are skills, knowledge, characteristics, traits and abilities. capability on the other hand looks forward to the fulfillment of potential and is not concerned with past performance or ability. it is therefore about the person’s ability to learn how to perform tasks (which he or she does not have the knowledge or skill to perform at present) in the future (brown & mccartney, 2003). capability is therefore more fluid and in a continual state of development. for the purpose of this research the term competency, as applied to leadership, essentially therefore refers to the observable behaviour that a leader displays during various types of change. research objectives the specific objectives of this study were: l to describe change in terms of types of change, the impact of change and the need for leadership in times of change; l to identif y a set of competencies for each change type that leaders need to have in order to effectively lead people through change and uncertainty; l to assess differences in the views of managers and their employees on the importance of each competency during each of the change types; l to determine the degree to which managers are perceived to display the competencies; and l to assess the differences in the views of managers and their employees on the degree to which the managers display the competencies identified. the research was executed in the financial services sector in south africa. research hypotheses based on the objectives of this study the following hypotheses were tested in the empirical phase of the research: change dynamics and leadership 47 l hypothesis 1: there is a difference between the importance assigned to the competencies by the managers and the employees respectively; and l hypothesis 2: there is a difference in the perception of the managers and the perception of the employees on the degree to which the managers display the competencies. research design research approach the strategy used is a sequential exploratory strategy which is described by creswell (2003) as a strategy which is conducted in two phases with the priority generally given to the first phase. it is characterized by an initial phase of qualitative data collection which is analysed and thereafter a phase of quantitative data collection and analysis is followed. in this case the quantitative data was used to apply the interpretation of the qualitative findings in the south african context. this is illustrated in figure 3 below. figure 3: sequential exploratory strategy used for the field research research framework it is clear from the preceding sections that there is a distinct relationship between leadership, change and competency in that change calls for leadership and leadership is requires certain competencies. this is illustrated in figure 4 below. figure 4: relationship between leadership, change and competencies in terms of creating a framework, the study focused on the four major change types identified, namely frame-breaking behavioural change, incremental behavioural change, frame-breaking structural/technical change and incremental structural/technical change. the study also focused particularly on the modern schools of leadership including transactional leadership, transformational leadership and transcendental leadership. having come to the conclusions around leadership, change and how they relate to each other in terms of competencies, table 2 below combines these elements in one framework. table 2 leadership, change and competency framework school of leadership framebreaking behavioural change incremental behavioural change framebreaking structural/ technical change incremental structural/ technical change transactional leadership competency 1 competency 2 competency 3 competency n transformational leadership competency 1 competency 2 competency 3 competency n transcendental leadership competency 1 competency 2 competency 3 competency n the framework suggests that the four major change types each comprise of a set of competencies that leaders require in order to lead people through that change type. the sets of competencies are related to certain leadership approaches and the framework therefore suggests that each change type may need a certain combination of leadership approaches. it could therefore be concluded that if the sets of competencies are determined and hence the combination of leadership approaches, leaders would be informed on what approach to adopt for each change type. leaders could therefore also have a blueprint against which they can ascertain whether they have the competencies or not. this in turn would indicate how ready the leader is to lead people through each of the change types. this framework formed the basis of the field study, which is expanded open in the following sections. research methodology the research context the study focused on one industry as the organisations within that industry are likely to experience the same challenges. the sector chosen for this study is the financial services sector as this sector has gone through some significant changes over the last few years. the study was limited to the south african context and therefore did not include the participating organisations’ operations outside of the borders of south africa. participants two samples of convenience were taken. an independent sample was taken for phase 1 in which leaders were interviewed. in contrast to the independent sample in phase 1, a related or dependent sample of the managers and employees was taken for phase 2. in other words, inclusion of any manager by definition was also accompanied by inclusion of some of his or her employees. the three populations that formed part of the study are: l ten leaders in the financial services sector; l sixty middle managers in the financial services sector; and l seventy four employees reporting to the middle managers. von eck, verwey48 table 3 below depicts the profile of the ten leaders interviewed in phase 1. table 3 profile of the interviewees position years of managerial experience demographic profile joint md 15 white male ceo 15 african male vice president 30 white male executive president 15 african male group executive director 30 african male executive director: sales, service and all pay 23 coloured female member of executive management: non-life treaty 24 african male executive director: strategic initiatives 5 african female head of public-private partnership sbu 11 african male deputy md sa 16 african male table 4 below depicts the biographical profile of the phase 2 respondents. table 4 biographical profile of the respondents profile managers employees gender female 37% 64% male 63% 36% race african 10% 18% coloured 7% 17% indian 10% 7% white 73% 58% age 18-25 0% 1% 26-35 25% 31% 36-45 46% 46% 46-55 22% 15% above 55 7% 7% level of qualification doctorate 0% 1% masters 27% 8% graduate 43% 39% matric 30% 49% grade 10 or less 0 3% measuring instruments for the quantitative phase of the study, questionnaires were designed based on the list of competencies created for each change type. this list of competencies was a product of the interview process undergone in phase one. the objective of this phase was to determine the perceptions of both the managers and employees on: l the importance of each competency in times of change; and l to what degree those competencies are displayed by the managers during times of change. the same list of competencies was presented to managers as well as employees, but each with a different objective. managers were asked to assess themselves against the list of competencies as well as rate the importance of that competency. employees were asked to assess their managers against the list of competencies as well as rate the importance of each competency. the same rating scales were used in both questionnaires. the rating of the self-assessment will be on a scale of 1 to 4 ranging from: l 1 being “do not have this competency at all” l 2 being “displays this competency some of the time in change situations” l 3 being “displays this competency most of the time in change situations” l 4 being “displays this competency all of the time in change situations”. the rating of the importance of each competency will be on a scale of 1 to 4, ranging from: l 1 being “not important at all” l 2 being “somewhat important” l 3 being “important” l 4 being “very important” research procedure the procedure followed in phase one was that of faceto-face, unstruct ured one-on-one in-person interviews. the participants were asked to identif y competencies that were required to handle four change t y pes, namely frame-breaking behavioural change, incremental behavioural change frame-breaking struct ural/technical change and incremental struct ural/technical change. competencies required for the handling of change were linked to the four change types on the basis of consensus. the consensus responses of the leaders were listed and used as a base for questionnaire design. once the lists of competencies had been established as an output of the qualitative part of the study, a questionnaire was drawn up and completed in phase two by managers and employees reporting to those managers. both groups were asked to rate the importance of each competency as well as to indicate the degree to which they believed the managers displayed those competencies. the assistance of human resource departments of selected organisations was elicited in the provision of respondents and collection of data. the questionnaires were completed electronically and e-mailed to the researcher. statistical analysis in analyzing the data the following approaches were used: l simple descriptive analysis based on cross-tabulation with an interpretation done in terms of percentages. some of these interpretations are visually displayed using bar charts; l chi-squared analyses were used to test for differences bet ween the managers and employees respectively. in cases where the sample size was not sufficient for ordinary chi-squared analysis, the fisher’s exact test was utilized; l a reliability test was performed on the competency part of the questionnaire; l factor analysis was used to identif y the dimensions of the competency part of the questionnaire; l analysis of variance (anova) was used to determine the significance of differences between the mean scores of managers and employees respectively on the various dimensions of the questionnaire; and l where anova’s could not be used, levene’s tests were used to test for significance of differences. change dynamics and leadership 49 results phase 1 every one of the leaders interviewed in the qualitative part of the field st udy was asked to provide a list of competencies for each change type, which they believe are required to successfully lead people through that change. these lists were compared and only the competencies mentioned by at least 50% of the leaders, for each change type, were included in the final lists. these competencies are listed in table 5 below. this table includes the leadership schools to which each of the competencies are related. from that information the following conclusions can therefore be drawn for the four change types: l leading people through frame-breaking behavioural change requires a combination of transformational and transcendental leadership approaches; l leading people through incremental behavioural change requires a combination of transformational and transcendental leadership approaches; l leading people through frame-breaking struct ural/ technical change requires a combination of transactional, transformational and transcendental leadership approaches; and l leading people through incremental structural/technical change requires a combination of transactional, transformational and transcendental leadership approaches. these conclusions can further be summarised in that: l behavioural change requires a combination of transformational and transcendental leadership approaches; and l structural/technical change requires a combination of transactional, transformational and transcendental leadership approaches. it is important to note that all four change types require a transcendental leadership approach, which has been classified as the highest level on the leadership hierarchy as well as incorporating the lower level leadership approaches. table 5 schools of leadership, competencies and change types school of leadership competencies framebreaking behavioural change incremental behavioural change framebreaking structural/ technical change incremental structural/ technical change transactional leadership ability to execute the vision x have the relevant technical skills with an understanding of the core business. x transformational leadership ability to create a clear vision x x x x ability to communicate until understood x x ability to get buy-in from all levels of staff by creating a willingness in people to change x x x ability to lead by example, in other words walk the talk x open minded, flexible i.e. willing to change x x empowering people by creating a culture of participation that makes people feel that they are part of the process x lead with empathy. ability to recognize that people react to change differently, being attuned to people’s feelings, being sensitive to peoples’ needs x x x x transcendental leadership ability to build credibility with people through integrity, consistency, transparency x x x x phase 2 the respondents were asked to identif y the types of change that they had experienced in the last two years. their reported experiences are summarized in table 6 below. it is clear that: l fairly high percentages in both groups reported to have not experienced the various change types; l the change type that has the highest counts, in terms of respondents reporting that they have experienced it, is framebreaking behavioural change; and l the change type that has the lowest counts, in terms of respondents reporting that they have experienced it, is incremental structural/technical change. von eck, verwey50 table 6 change types experienced by the managers and the employees change types experienced in the last two years managers employees frame-breaking behavioural change have experienced this change type 65% 57% have not experienced this change type 35% 43% frame-breaking structural/technical change have experienced this change type 62% 57% have not experienced this change type 38% 43% incremental behavioural change have experienced this change type 43% 55% have not experienced this change type 57% 45% incremental structural/technical change have experienced this change type 47% 42% have not experienced this change type 53% 58% degree to which managers display the competencies in the case of fifty percent of the competencies there is a statistically significant difference in distribution bet ween the views of the managers and that of the employees, on the degree to which the managers display the competencies. for these competencies the research hypothesis has been accepted. in the case of the other fifty percent the research hypothesis was rejected as there was no difference in the distributions of the views of the managers and the views of the employees. table 7 below summarizes the views of the managers and the employees in terms of the degree to which they believe that the managers display the competencies in times of change. the competencies where a statistically significant difference was found bet ween the t wo groups are marked with an asterix (*). importance assigned to the competencies the managers and employees who responded to the survey confirmed the importance of the competencies identified by the leaders as being important in times of change. the leaders who participated in the qualitative phase of the study reported that different combinations of the competencies are needed for the different types of change. the respondents did not however confirm that different combinations of leadership competencies are needed in different types of change. to the contrary, the data suggests that both the managers and the employees feel that all the competencies are important for all the change types. the only competency where a statistically significant difference between the two groups was found is “ability to lead by example, in other words walk the talk”. the managers placed a higher degree of importance on this competency with eighty two percent seeing it as very important as opposed to only sixty five percent of employees rating it as very important. the research hypothesis has therefore been accepted for this competency. table 7 comparing the perceptions of the managers and the employees on the degree to which the managers display the competencies competency does not have this competency at all displays this competency some of the time displays this competency most of the time displays this competency all of the time ability to create a clear vision m e m e m e m e 2% 4% 20% 18% 61% 51% 17% 27% ability to execute the vision 0% 3% 8% 22% 67% 47% 25% 28% ability to communicate until understood 0% 4% 13% 14% 37% 47% 50% 35% ability to get buy-in from all levels of staff by creating a willingness in people to change. 0% 5% 15% 22% 62% 47% 23% 26% *ability to build credibility with people through integrity, consistency, transparency 0% 3% 3% 16% 45% 43% 52% 38% *ability to lead by example, in other words walk the talk 0% 3% 0% 20% 45% 46% 55% 31% *open minded, flexible i.e. willing to change 0% 3% 3% 24% 49% 41% 48% 32% *empowering people by creating a culture of participation that makes people feel that they are part of the process 0% 4% 12% 26% 55% 27% 33% 43% *lead with empathy. ability to recognize that people react to change differently, being attuned to people’s feelings, being sensitive to people’s needs. 0% 4% 17% 28% 38% 38% 45% 30% have the relevant technical skills with an understanding of the core business 0% 1% 5% 14% 47% 41% 48% 44% m = manager e = employee discussion the complex research design of this study required a comprehensive review of available literature. this review covered: (i) the modern schools of leadership; (ii) change in its various levels of context; and (iii) leadership competencies at basic, potential and proven levels. as south africa is undoubtedly part of the global world, challenges to cope with complexity, change and uncertainty that confront leaders elsewhere in the world are the same ones that south african business leaders need to tackle head-on. the main areas explored in this study are: l change in organizations require leadership; l leadership requires competencies; and l different change types may require different competencies. four types of change were identified in the literature review. the fact that high percentages in both groups reported that they had not experienced the various change types in the last two years raises the following questions: l is the rate of change experienced by organisations being overestimated; l is the financial sector more stable than other sectors; or l have people become so used to change that they are longer conscious of it? change dynamics and leadership 51 furthermore the differences in the percentages representing the experiences of the managers as opposed to those of the employees reinforce beugelsdijk et al‘s (2002:325) argument that organisational change may have different interpretations. they found in their study at heineken inc that many lower level employees in the organisation described the organisational changes as being completely incremental, while senior managers tended to make sense of the changes as being discontinuous and revolutionary. another important finding was that although both the leaders who participated in the qualitative part of the study as well as the respondents in the quantitative part of the study rated all the competencies as important, it seems that there are two opposing views regarding the competencies: l confirming the conclusions in the literature review, the leaders in the qualitative part of the study concluded that the different change types require different sets of competencies; while l the managers and employees in the quantitative part of the study indicated that all ten competencies are important for all the different change types. conclusions from the results it is clear that all change types call for transcendental leadership competence, whether or not all the competencies are needed for all the change types or whether the different change types each needs its own set of competencies. the conclusion was drawn earlier that transcendental leadership includes transformational leadership as well as transactional leadership. a leader in an organisation that operates in a constantly changing environment should therefore have the ability to apply transactional, transformational as well as transcendental leadership approaches. in other words such a leader would need to have a combination of cognitive, emotional and spiritual intelligence. it is important to note that the results of this study strongly suggest that the application of both emotional and spiritual intelligence is needed across all four of the major change types. this finding reinforces the fact that in recent times there has been a rising call to include spirituality in the workplace (tischler, 1999). up until very recently literature focusing in transformational leadership has concentrated on the individual, the group and the organisation, a step forward from a limited focus in leadership studies on initiating structure and consideration (chakraborty & chakraborty, 2004). the new era organisation is however calling for leaders who can transcend beyond self, consumerist business and divisive politics (ibid). practical implications of the study the contribution of this study can be found on at least two levels. in the first instance, the methodology and instruments used were proven to be useful in research on leadership and leadership competencies. secondly, and arguably even more importantly, the results that also shows some departure from the mainstream literature opens up interesting possibilities for further research into the topic. leaders face the challenge of having to deal with the complexity of change, the uncertainty it produces, the unpredictability that accompanies it as well as the inertia in their organisations. it could therefore be concluded that in applying the framework created in this study, leaders would be informed on what approach to adopt for each change type. leaders could therefore also have a blueprint against which they can ascertain whether they have the competencies or not. this in turn would indicate how ready the leader is to lead people through each of the change types. limitations of the study the following areas are potential limitations within the study as well as areas where further research could be done outside of this study: l the study focused on the financial services industry. further studies could be conducted in other industries in order to create comparisons and to gain a more comprehensive view of the south african manager’s abilities to lead people through change and uncertainty; l the field study only focused on the employee aspect of change management as the focus was on leading employees through change and uncertainty. further studies that would incorporate other dimensions in the organisation such as the customers and production may reveal additional sets of competencies; l within the south african context the issue of differences in gender and race are pertinent points of discussion. comparing views in terms of managerial ability between gender groups and between race groups may reveal a different set of results; l comparing views across generational groups may also reveal important results; and l high percentages in both groups reported that they had not experienced the various change types even though the literature suggests that this sector has experienced quite a number of changes in the last few years. how people experience change and whether constant change eventually makes people oblivious to change may be another area for further study. conclusion the transcendental leader leaps forward in the evolutionary journey towards a leadership approach that is concerned with the people themselves, and tries to contribute to their personal development. this has far reaching implications for organisations in terms of the approach taken when managers are trained, or even at the point of recruitment. clearly the organisation should look beyond cognitive intelligence and even emotional intelligence. the organisation that looks for leaders who can successfully lead people through change and uncertainty should now look for spiritual intelligence in addition to cognitive and emotional intelligence. references aaltio-marjosola, i., takala, t. (2000). charismatic leadership, manipulation and the complexity of organizational life. journal of workplace learning: employee counselling today, 12, (4), 146-158. appelbaum, s.h, donia, m. (2000). the realistic downsizing preview: a management intervention in the prevention of survivor syndrome (part 1). career development international, 5 (7) 333-350. barling, j., slater, f., kelloway, e. (2000). transformational leadership and emotional intelligence: an exploratory study. leadership & organisation development journal, 21, (3), 157161. beugelsdijk, s., slangen, a., van herpen, m. (2002). shapes of organisational change: the case of heineken inc. journal of organisational change management, 15, (3), 311-326. booysen, l. & beaty, d. (1997). linking transformation and change leadership in south africa: a review of principles and practices. sbl research review, 1, (2), 9-18. brown, r.b., mccartney, s. (2003). let’s have some capatence here. education + training, 45, 91), 7-12. caldwell, r. (2003). change leaders and change managers: different or complementary? leadership & organisation development journal, 24, (5), 285-293. cardona,p. (2000). transcendental leadership. the leadership and organisation development journal, 21, (4), 204. chakraborty, s.k., chakraborty, d. (2004). the transformed leader and spiritual psychology: a few insights. journal of organizational change management, 17, (2), 194-210. creswell,j.w. (2003). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. usa: sage publications, inc. von eck, verwey52 eisenbach, r., watson, k., pillai, r. (1999). transformational leadership in the context of organizational change. journal of organizational change management, 12, (2), 80-89. fairholm, m.r. (2004). a new sciences outline for leadership development. leadership and organisation development journal, 25, (4), 369-383. french, r. (2001). “negative capability”: managing the confusing uncertainties of change. journal of organisational change management, 14, (5), 480-492. ghemawat, p, collis, d.j pisano, g.p., rivkin, j.w. (1999) strategy and the business landscape. usa: addison-wesley longman, inc. grieves, j. (2000). navigating change into the new millennium: themes and issues for the learning organisation. the learning organisation, 7, (2), 54-74. harrington, h.j., carr, j.j., reid, r.p. (1999). what’s this “systems stuff”, anyhow? the tqm magazine, 11, (1), 54-57. higgs, m. (2003). how can we make sense of leadership in the 21st century? leadership & organisation development journal, 24, (5), 273-284. jaques, e. (1998). requisite organisation. a total system for effective managerial organization and managerial leadership for the 21st century. usa: casin hall & co. publishers. kast, f.e., rosenzweig, j.e. (1985). organisation and management. a systems and contingency approach. singapore: mcgrawhill, inc. kets de vries, m. (2001). the leadership mystique. a user’s manual for the human enterprise. great britain: pearson education ltd. kotter, j. (1996). leading change. boston: harvard business school press. lussier,r.n. (1997). management: concepts, applications and skills development. usa: international thomson publishing. marquardt, m.j. (2000) action learning and leadership. the learning organisation, 7, (5), 233-241. morden, t. (1997). leadership as competence. management decision, 35, (7), 519-526. mussig, d.j. (2003). a research and skills training framework for values-driven leadership. journal of european industrial training, 27, (2/3/4), 73-79. palmer, b., walls, m., burgess, z., stough, c. (2001). emotional intelligence and effective leadership. leadership & organization development journal, 22, (1), 5-10. pawar,b.s. (2003). central conceptual issues in transformational leadership research. leadership and organisation development journal, 24, (7), 399. powell, w.r. jr (2001). theories of societal development and cross-cultural aspects of organisational change. futurics. st. paul, 25 (1/2), 1-26. rabey, g.p. (2006). response to uncertainty. team performance management, 12, (3/4), 77-81. robbins, s.p. (1998). organizational behaviour. concepts, controversies, applications. usa: prentice hall international, inc. robbins, s.p & de cenzo, d.a. (1998). fundamentals of management. usa:prentice hall international, inc. rowe, c. (1995). clarif ying the use of competence and competency models in recruitment, assessment and staff development. industrial and commercial training, 27, (11), 12-17. russell, r.f. (2001). the role of values in servant leadership. leadership and organisation development journal, 22, (1), 76-84. russell, r.f., stone, a.g. (2002). a review of servant leadership attributes: developing a practical model. leadership & organization development journal, 23, (3), 145-157. sanders iii, j.e., hopkins, w.e., geroy, g.d. (2003). from transactional to transcendental: toward an integrated theory of leadership. the journal of leadership studies, 9, (4), 21-31. sarros, j.c., santora, j.c. (2001). the transformational – transactional leadership model in practice. leadership & organization development journal, 22, (8), 383-394. scott, w.r (1981). organisations. rational, natural and open systems. usa: prentice hall, inc. senge, p. et al (1999). the dance of change. the challenges to sustaining momentum in learning organizations. usa: doubleday senior,b. (2004). organizational change, 7. great britain: pearson education limited. siegel, w., et al (1996). understanding the management of change. an overview of manager’s perspectives and assumptions in the 1990s. journal of organisational change management, 9, (6), 54-80. sivanathan, n., fekken, g.c. (2002). emotional intelligence, moral reasoning and transformational leadership. leadership & organization development journal, 23, (4), 198-204. slabbert, a (1996). capitalism at the crossroads. international journal of social economics. 23, (9) 41-50. stone, g.a., russell, r.f., patterson, k. (2004) transformational versus servant leadership: a difference in leader focus. leadership & organization development journal, 25, 94), 349-361. stuart, r. (1995). experiencing organisational change: triggers, processes and outcomes of change journeys. personnel review, 24, (2), 3-88. stuart, r., lindsay, p. (1997). beyond the frame of management competenc(i)es: towards a contextually embedded framework of managerial competence in organizations. journal of european industrial training, 21, (1), 26-33. sullivan, t.j. (1999). leading people in a chaotic world. journal of educational administration, 37 (5), 408-423. tischler, l. (1999). the growing interest in spirituality in business. journal of organizational change managent, 12, (4), 273-280. tischler, l., biberman, j., mckeage, r. (2002). linking emotional intelligence, spirituality and workplace performance. journal of managerial psychology, 17, (3), 203-218. toffler, a. (1994). creating a new civilization: the politics of the third wave. thornhill, a., gibbons, a. (1995). the positive management of redundancy survivors: issues and lessons. employee counselling today, 7, (3), 5-12. valle, economia y administracion de empresas, falcultad de ccee y empresariales, universidad de valledolid, valladolid, spain. (2002) the phenomenon of organizational evolution: a model for analysis. leadership and organisation development journal, 23, (4), 215-227. veldsman, t.h. ( 2002). into the people effectiveness arena. south africa: knowledge resources (pty) ltd. waldersee, r., griffiths, a. (2004) implementing change: matching implementation methods and change type. leadership and organization development journal 25, (5), 424-434. worrall, l., campbell, f., cooper, c. (2000). surviving redundancy: the perceptions of uk managers. journal of managerial psychology, 15, (5), 460-476. abstract introduction literature review methodology results/findings discussion contributions and implications conclusion and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) mohamed mostafa saad college of management and technology, arab academy for science, technology and maritime transport, alexandria, egypt hazem r. abdelwakeel college of management and technology, arab academy for science, technology and maritime transport, alexandria, egypt ashraf a. labib college of management and technology, arab academy for science, technology and maritime transport, alexandria, egypt citation saad, m.m., abdelwakeel, h.r., & labib, a.a. (2022). examining the impact of the various dimensions of employees’ engagement on commitment: evidence from small and medium enterprises in egypt. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1799. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1799 original research examining the impact of the various dimensions of employees’ engagement on commitment: evidence from small and medium enterprises in egypt mohamed mostafa saad, hazem r. abdelwakeel, ashraf a. labib received: 09 oct. 2021; accepted: 23 mar. 2022; published: 22 june 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: with the intense competition that many organisations are facing, they are looking for new ways to enhance employees’ engagement and commitment. research purpose: this research examines the impact of emotional, cognitive, and behavioural dimensions of engagement on commitment. motivation for the study: this study was conducted in response to several calls by academics and practitioners to better understand the relationship between employees’ engagement and commitment, specifically in the developing countries. research approach/design and method: this article is quantitative, using a self-administered questionnaire developed based on an extensive literature review with a sample of 226 employees working in egyptian small and medium enterprises (smes). main findings: the findings showed that emotional engagement was the only dimension of employee engagement that had a positive influence on commitment. also, there was an insignificant moderating impact of strategic implementation between engagement and commitment. furthermore, in terms of gender differences, there was no difference regarding perceptions of engagement and commitment, but for work departments, the group of academics and sales had a different perception than other departments. practical/managerial implications: the study recommended that it is essential for egyptian companies to adapt their strategies by which their engagement level could be measured, and monitored which will directly affect commitment. contribution/value-add: this article contributes in research that it is one of the few studies which examine the relationship between engagement and commitment inside a developing country like egypt. keywords: employees’ engagement; commitment; strategic implementation; egypt; developing countries; smes. introduction the concept of ‘employee engagement’ has recently attracted the attention of many researchers in the field of organisation behaviour (osborne & hammoud, 2017; saad, gaber, & labib, 2021; sun & bunchapattanasakda, 2019). saks (2006) stated that one way in which employees respond to their organisation’s support is through their levels of engagement. the literature shows some positive outcomes of enhancing employees’ engagement. for instance, it was found that engagement is related to a variety of individual and organisational level outcomes such as enhanced organisational commitment, identification, and job satisfaction (saks, 2006), lower absenteeism, burnout, and turnover rates (schaufeli, bakker, & van rhenen, 2009), more creativity (afsar, cheema, & javed, 2018), better individual performance (kahn, 1990), and greater business unit performance (harter, schmidt, & hayes, 2002). because companies worldwide face high employee turnover, low job satisfaction, and increased levels of absenteeism, employee engagement is seen as a solution and a strategy to retain employees and increase organisational effectiveness (bhatnagar, 2007; reijseger et al., 2017). moreover, at individual level, studies suggest that employee engagement also influences the level of happiness among employees (othman et al., 2018; stairs & galpin 2010). sufficient evidence is marked in the literature for the utility of employee engagement in increasing organisational performance and positive employee outcome (reijseger et al., 2017; xanthopoulou et al., 2007). business researchers viewed employee engagement as creating employee satisfaction to increase productivity (ismail, iqbal, & nasr, 2019). employee engagement provide a way for an organisation to survive, and to gain competitive advantage over their competitors (smith & bititci, 2017); hence, becoming a key path to organisational performance. jung and yoon (2016) specified that employees’ commitment (com) is a result of being engaged which they described it as, the satisfying state of mind of employees that lead to their passion, enthusiasm, and commitment to their work. furthermore, turker (2009), kim et al. (2010), glavas and kelley (2014) discussed that employees’ commitment is important to an organisation, not only because employees would be retained, but also because when they are retained, they stay with a ‘heart’ to deliver and accomplish their work. the most important thing for the management to do is to acknowledge the importance of its employees and the significance of having them actively engaged and committed. management should appreciate the fact that once an employee thinks through his or her job to be interesting, meaningful, and fair, he or she would be satisfied, and have a sense of accomplishment. this could be better enhanced by giving out positive feelings at work, and creating a healthy work environment that reflects on the organisation (khodakarami & dirani, 2019; shoaib & kohli, 2017). among the challenges that organisations face in relation to employees is the ability to increase their commitment to the company, and the work they perform. consequently, organisations are either unable to retain good employees or lack commitment, thus productivity tends to be negatively affected. these days, employees have doubted the significance of their work and its meaning, which eventually decreases their engagement, hence commitment (ferreira & real de oliveira, 2014). however, engagement research was mainly presented in developed western countries like the united states of america and certain european countries (poon, 2013) with very few studies carried out in middle eastern countries and particularly in egypt (albdour & atarawneh, 2012). therefore, in this current study the variable engagement is considered as a factor affecting commitment not the other way around, and to have more overview about it, this study used the engagement construct three dimensions. the first dimension is the cognitive engagement (ce), that is, to fully concentrate on delivering one’s mission as expected; the second is the emotional engagement (ee), which indicates how the employees feel towards the company and its management (purcell, 2010). lastly, the behavioural engagement (be); it refers to the actual presentation of the other two dimensions (shuck & reio, 2014). however, the conceptualisation of employee engagement is different from commitment and involvement (welch, 2011). on the one hand, job involvement is the level of satisfaction of needs and expectations that one drives from his or her work, and it stresses the cognitive and psychological identification with work. on the other hand, commitment is more related with attitudinal and affective aspects that stress the emotional attachment based on shared values and interests with the organisation. in theoretical terms, although with a common root, the concepts are clearly distinct (welch, 2011). lastly, this study is significantly worthy because of the lack in research about the relationship between egyptian employees’ engagement with commitment taking into consideration the gender and work department role in this relationship. many researchers explain that employees’ commitment is a result of being engaged (jung & yoon, 2016). in this research the studied variable engagement is tested as a factor affecting commitment, and to answering the calls of the past researchers about testing the variables on other countries specifically developing ones like the egyptian small and medium enterprises (smes). also, the demographic factors, motivating traits and attitudes that trigger and enhance employee engagement in commitment are not fully researched and still require groundbreaking research directions (aguinis & glavas, 2012; zulfiqar, sadaf, popp, vveinhardt, & máté, 2019). literature review a brief history about employees’ engagement employee engagement at the present time is very essential where the positive emotional connections appear towards the work and towards the organisation’s goals and its values (al-dalahmeh et al., 2018; anitha, 2014; dajani, 2015). without employee engagement in the workplace, companies cannot survive and compete long in the market (zainol & binti othman, 2016) because engagement is a prior business driver for organisational success. historically, kahn (1990) was the first to discuss the engagement concept as ‘the harnessing of institutional members’ selves to their job role’. in the engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performance. similarly, based on kahn’s definition albdour and altarawneh (2012) described it as a complete dedication by employees to their work. moreover, kahn (1990) research also discussed three categories of psychological engagement conditions needed for employees to be properly engaged, and whose absence will have a negative effect on the personally disengage. firstly, the meaningfulness is related to work elements that can motivate or demotivate engagement in the workplace (kahn, 1990). secondly, a feeling of safety is related to social elements, such as manager style and organisational rules that affect personal engagement or disengagement. the employee can express self-fear of negative consequences (kahn, 1990). thirdly, availability is a feeling of ownership of various resources, which is the physical, emotional, and psychological essential for role performance (kahn, 1990). consequently, the purpose for the increasing importance of engagement lies in its positive consequences, results for both the worker and the organisation; therefore, succeeding khan’s work, saks (2006) added that engaged employees are those who feel obligated to perform in a certain way towards their organisation because of its support, which motivates them to enhance their performance. rich, lepine and crawford (2010) stated that as the employee engagement practices have an impact to raise the satisfaction level of employees, this will contribute to an improved organisational performance. the engaged employees or persons are usually the top performers, who are committed to make their maximum effort, and always ready to go the extra mile. in the engagement, people employ likewise express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performance. unfortunately, many academics have mistaken the perception of employees’ engagement with other employees’ attitude or behaviour. consequently, luthans and peterson (2002) claimed that employees’ engagement should neither be perceived as other constructs like commitment or involvement, nor should it be perceived as an intrinsic motivation. although the overabundance of terms defined can frequently cloud the direction of the argument, the fundamentals are the same, and consequences are all positively reflecting the organisation (purcell, 2010). employees’ engagement dimensions kahn (1990) questioned from an employee’s appraisal about the ce levels and how it affects employees; furthermore, whether their work is meaningful, safe (physically, emotionally, and psychologically), and if the levels of resources are sufficient to successfully finish their work. this interpretation of the work environment is used to determine the overall significance of a situation, and serves as the catalyst towards the intention to engage. to better understand the ce, it reveals how employees appraise their work environment and how they work and develop their tasks. as demonstrated in previous studies, workers’ appraisal shows us the levels of positive or negative engagement which in turn influences behaviour (nimon, zigarmi, houson, witt, & diehl, 2011). besides, a cognitively engaged employee is someone totally concentrated on their mission also delivering their tasks as expected if not better (purcell, 2010). it is related to the beliefs that employees have about their organisations, management and working environment (kular et al., 2008). luthans and peterson (2002) pointed out that such employees would be so fascinated by their work. purcell (2010) determined that this type of engagement by indicating that individuals who are cognitively engaged would even be directed to the means through which their own performance, as well as that of the organisation, could be boosted. it is associated to the feelings that affect employees’ attitude, whether negative or positive, to the firm and its leaders (kular et al., 2008). employees’ positive emotional experiences in their organisations, as well as their relations with others, would form meaningful connections with the company (luthans & peterson, 2002). subsequently, rich et al. (2010) specified that in the ee process, the feelings and beliefs of workers impact and direct their energies towards task completion. additionally, behavioural aspect is another part of employees’ engagement (kular et al., 2008). behavioural engagement is defined as the physical display of the other two dimensions namely, cognitive, and ee (shuck & reio, 2014). moreover, it can be explained as increased levels of effort focused towards achieving organisational goals (macey & schneider, 2008; shuck & wollard, 2010). furthermore, be is the broadening of an employee’s available resources, and is linked to increased individual effort. according to the shuck and reio (2014) be can be explained as an increased level of effort exerted by employees. it is also the augmentation of an employee’s existing resources that are obviously presented (rich et al., 2010). the concept of employees’ commitment organisational commitment has been heavily covered in the literature due to its significant role towards building and maintaining enduring relationships between employees and their organisations (kim et al., 2010). the concept ‘organizational commitment’ was first introduced by researchers of industrial and organisational psychology (meyer & allen, 1991). early studies on organisational commitment aimed to assess employees’ level of affective attachment to their employer (becker, 1960). this was known as the attitudinal perspective on commitment which was conceptualised by porter, steers and boulian (1974) as: [a]n attachment to the organization, characterized by an intention to remain in it; an identification with the values and goals of the organization; and a willingness to exert extra effort on its behalf. (p. 604) the second perspective on organisational commitment was made by mowday, porter and steers (1982) and known as ‘the calculation perspective on commitment’. according to this perspective, employees tend to continue their membership in their organisations based on calculated costs and benefits of leaving it. in 1990, allen and meyer have introduced the tri-dimensional perspective on organisational commitment which divided the concept of organisational commitment into three aspects: affective, continuance and normative. considering what has preceded, porter et al. (1974) defines organisational commitment as ‘the strength of an individual identification with and involvement in a particular organization’. o’reilly and chatman (1986) conceptualise it as ‘the degree to which an individual internalizes or adopts characteristics or perspectives of the organization’. lastly allen and meyer (2000) consider it a psychological state that reduces an employee’s likelihood of leaving his or her organisation. additionally, mohamed and anisa (2012) referred to employees’ organisational commitment as their propensity to pertain elevated levels of ‘hard work’ on behalf of their companies; the author too, indicated that those employees would be willing to accept their organisation’s key values, ethics, and principles and share its goals and objectives. employee organisational commitment is an employee’s desire, and efforts to remain with the organisation and achieve the organisation’s goals (albdour & altarawneh, 2012). (albdour & altarawneh, 2012). it is an indication of strength of an employee’s connection to an organisation (dajani, 2015). retaining organisational commitment is extremely vital because of its consequences and benefits to organisations (zayas-ortiz, ortiz, rosario, marquez, & colón gruñeiro, 2015). cagliyan, attar and derya (2017) identified organisational commitment as the level of employees’ attachment to the organisation. it has three main factors: compliance with the goals and culture of the organisation, the ability to perform best to contribute in achieving the organisational goals, and wanting to maintain organisational membership. this confirms the notion of zayas-ortiz et al. (2015) that it contributes to boosting organisation’s human capital. it is also important that organisations preserve their competent workers, and retain their commitment in order to attract other worthy employees (zaitouni et al., 2011). lastly, danlami (2011) proposed that employees’ commitment is attainable when the working environment is supportive. similarly, meyer and herscovitch (2001) recommended that as employees become engaged in organisations’ activities, they improve certain attitude and behaviour concerning their firms such as their commitment. as a result, the author concluded that hypotheses (1) employees’ engagement is positively impacting employees’ commitment h1a: ce is positively impacting employees’ commitment. h1b: ee is positively impacting employees’ commitment. h1c: be positively impacting employees’ commitment. gender perception of engagement and commitment a general agreement among researchers and academics is that employees’ positive ideas and conception of their jobs and increased level of engagement would heighten the level of their organisational commitment (jung & yoon, 2016). the reason behind that was clarified by hakanen et al. (2006) who elaborated and described that engagement is the counter feeling of burnout which affects and lowers employees’ belonging and commitment to their organisations. additionally, scholars argued that employee commitment is recognised to be one of the contributing factors to employee engagement. unengaged employees choose to stay for many reasons that force them to such as money, career opportunities, security, stability, familiarity, comfortable working conditions, or the resistance in changing jobs. being unengaged does not bring the lack of commitment but commit in the wrong things, and create an error of inaccurate engagement rate for the company (rice, marlow, & masarech, 2012). boyd (2009) revealed that gender plays a role in the development of ee of employees. it was found that men show greater levels of engagement particularly, when the company’s performance, and goals are completely established as well as when they are delivered with guidelines through the long-term strategies. women’s ee level, alternatively, was related to what support their daily working activities such as flexibility to communicate with their family and the balancing between their work and family (boyd, 2009). moreover, empirical evidence shows that high level of employee engagement is likely to enhance organisational commitment (gupta, 2017; gupta & sayeed, 2016). although not underlining on any gender, gupta (2017) discovered that engagement is a leading factor to influence organisational commitment because of their content feelings. khodakarami and dirani (2019) suggested that both researchers and practitioners should take the factors of work areas and gender into account as they consider employee engagement. accordingly, the author decided that hypotheses (2) will be different genders have different perceptions of employees’ engagement dimensions and employees’ commitment. ‘h2a: different genders have different perceptions of the dimensions of employees’ engagement. h2b: different genders have different perceptions of the employees’ commitment’. accordingly, glavas and kelly (2014) pointed out that it is very critical to recognise employees’ perceptions about their organisations’ practices, because it will in return reflect on their attitudes, and behaviours at work along with their performance. besides, organisations neglect the importance of their employees’ well-being, humanity, and psychological condition which thus leads organisation to suffer from the increased level of absenteeism and inefficient productivity of their workforce. the most common causes of such employees’ attitude are their lack of commitment and active disengagement of employees which lessen their enthusiasm to exert hard work for their companies. these would diminish workers’ willingness to realise the benefits of their organisations and finally, losing good competent employees; organisations mostly blame employees themselves neglecting the fact that the workplace environment might have the greatest impact on workers’ attitude. companies do not declare or be aware of that (ferreira & real de oliveira, 2014). therefore, to help organisations understand their employee’s perception regarding this matter, hypotheses (3) will be different work department groups have different perceptions of the dimensions of employees’ engagement and employees’ commitment. ‘h3a: different work department groups have different perceptions of the dimensions of employees’ engagement. h3b: different work department groups have different perceptions of the employees’ commitment’. the role of strategic implementation strategic implementation has been one of the most important research topics of discussion, and examination among researchers for long time (engert & baumgartner, 2016). researchers suggested that as management efficiently positions the strategies besides creating shared goals that are in harmony among all organisational levels, the organisation’s priorities and strategic objectives are then understood and confirmed by all employees. not only that, but also employees will be working tough towards committing their time and effort to achieve organisational objectives. specifically, the organisation’s workforce would be engaged with the work related to such strategies (barrick, thurgood, smith, & courtright, 2015) and then become more committed to its organisation’s goals (ho, wu, & wu 2014). robinson, perryman and hayday (2004) described that: [t]he more developed level of employee commitment, the better the business results. if worker engagement is indeed beyond commitment, the rewards should be even superior. the problem is getting unengaged persons in the engagement level which can harm the organization, as they do not really want to stay or add any value or work hard as engaged employees for the success of the company, adding to that, employees from every department should be put at the center of the strategy so companies can’t do that with unengaged employees. (p. 11) moreover, while compensation for performance through salaries is a well-known, and preferred model in many organisations, other motivating approaches could be essential along with having an effective tactic and strategy for attracting employees to have a positive perception of the company, and become more engaged and committed to driving sustainable business success (barrick et al., 2015). so, based on that we need to examine the moderating role of strategic implementation by hypothesis (4) strategic implementation has a moderating role between employees’ engagement and employees’ commitment. the proposed conceptual model figure 1 shows the proposed conceptual model which presents the relationship between the three dimensions of employees’ engagement on commitment. the conceptual model also proposes that the strategic implementation moderates this relationship. furthermore, it proposes that employees’ perceptions can vary based on their gender and the department they work in. figure 1: conceptual model – the impact of employees’ engagement on employees’ commitment. methodology in this article, a quantitative research approach was adopted to collect and analyse the empirical data. the questionnaire method was used to collect data from employees who work in egyptian smes. the questionnaire is a powerful tool for data collection in quantitative studies, where it has the advantage of collecting data from a large sample in a relatively short time (malhotra, nunan, & birks, 2017). the data analysis was performed using spss v.26. measures and reliability to develop the questionnaire, the researchers depended on previously validated scales from the organisational studies literature. the questionnaire consisted of three parts. the first part contained an introductory section that explained the aim of the research study; the second part contained a group of questions that aimed to capture the study’s constructs. finally, the last part contained a group of questions that aimed to capture the demographic information of the study’s participants such as age, gender, years of experience and working department. to measure cognitive, emotional and behavioural engagement, the researchers used 15 items adapted from rich et al. (2010) and shuck and reio (2014). to measure employee commitment, the researchers used six items adapted from the work of turker (2009); kim et al. (2010); glavas and kelley (2014). finally, to assess the strategy implementation, six statements were adapted from barrick et al. (2015). to assess the reliability of the study’s constructs, the cronbach’s alpha of each of the study’s constructs were investigated. the findings showed that all the study’s constructs possess high reliability with cronbach’s alpha values that exceeded the threshold of 0.7 recommended by nunnally (1994). the items of the survey together with the cronbach’s alpha are shown in table 1. table 1: cronbach’s alpha. sample and procedures in this research study, the target population were employees who are working in smes in egypt. to capture employees’ perceptions, the researchers posted a link of the online questionnaire on several pages on linkedin to be able to reach the target population. also, the questionnaire was distributed physically to some employees from smes in cairo and alexandria which are considered the largest egyptian cities. out of the 300 collected questionnaires, only 226 questionnaires were complete and valid for the analysis. the valid response rate was, therefore, 75.3%. male respondents were 151 (66.8%) of the sample which are the dominant gender in contrast to 75 (33.2%) female respondents. further 36.7% of the sample were aged from 31 to 39 years’ old, which represent the majority. on the other hand, 31.9% of the sample were aged from 20 to 30; 18.6% were aged from 40 to 50 and the lowest were 12.8% representing employees who are above 50 years old. concerning the education level, most of the participants (38.9%) had a bachelor’s degree followed by 37.2% who possessed a master’s degree. on the other hand, 13.3% of the participants possessed a doctoral degree. finally, the rest of the participants (10.6%) had a high school diploma. regarding the participants’ positions in their organisations, most of the participants were full-timers representing 90.3%, while the rest (9.7%) were part-timers. also, most participants (16.8%) worked in engineering department. this is followed by an equal number of participants (15%) who worked in management and educational departments. furthermore, the rest of the participants worked in different departments such as sales (13.3%), operations (11.5%), marketing (8.4%), finance and accounting (7.5%), human resources (7.5%) and medical departments (5%). for their experience, the majority (53.5%) had more than 10 years of experience, 19% had an experience from 2 to 4 years. furthermore, 18.6% of employees had an experience from 6 to 10 years. finally, 8.8% of the participants had an experience from 4 to 6 years. table 2: correlation analysis. results/findings correlation analysis through adopting a correlation analysis on the research’s data, the findings showed that the emotional dimension (ee) of the engagement construct had the highest relationship with commitment (com) with an r = (0.739), which is a high positive relationship. furthermore, the behavioural dimension (be) of the engagement construct had a positive relationship with commitment with an r = (0.588). finally, the relationship between the cognitive dimension of engagement (ce) with commitment (com) were moderate to high relationship with an r = (0.588). multiple regression analysis the multiple regression analysis results indicated that, there is a positive relationship with strong relationship (r = 0.757), and r2 shows that the independent variables can predict the change in the dependent variable by 57.3%. also, the adjusted r2 is 56.7% which means that the dependent variable is suitable with the sample size of the study. furthermore, the results from the anova table also, were statistically significant at (p =0.001), which is less than 0.05, so we reject null hypothesis h0, also accept the h1, this indicating that this regression result is statistically significant. the findings of investigating the impact of employee engagement on commitment showed that not all the dimensions of employee engagement were able to explain the change of employees’ commitment. for instance, ce had no significant impact on com as its p = 0.065 which is greater than (0.05). similarly, be had no significant impact on com as its p = 0.085 which is greater than (0.05). the only dimension which had a significant impact on com is ee as its p = 0.001 which is less than 0.05 with β = 0.562. therefore, based on such analysis, the h1b is accepted and (h1a and h1c are rejected). table 3a: multiple regression analysis. table 3b: multiple regression analysis. table 3c: multiple regression analysis. table 4a: independent t-test analysis. table 4b: independent t-test analysis. lastly the multiple regression equation is as follows: com = 0.281 + 0.157 ce + 0.562 ee + 0.143 be. independent t-test analysis hypotheses 2a and b: different genders have different perceptions of employees’ engagement dimensions and employees’ commitment. (h2 is rejected). the test results show that both men and women did not have different perceptions of employees’ engagement and commitment that were statistically insignificant (p > 0.05). therefore, hypotheses 2a and b are rejected; also null hypothesis h0 is accepted. one-way anova analysis hypotheses 3a and b: different work department groups have different perceptions of the dimensions of employees’ engagement and employees’ commitment. (h3 is accepted). the findings show that there is a significant difference between work department groups with employees’ engagement and commitment as the ce is significant at p = 0.009 which is less than 0.05; ee is significant at p = 0.013 which is less than 0.05; be is significant at p = 0.013 which is less than 0.05. finally com is significant at p = 0.006 which is less than 0.05. because of the significant difference of ce, ee, be and com with the work department groups, we need to understand which of the tested group had a significant difference from the rest of groups. therefore, a post hoc bonferroni multiple comparison was used. we found out that ce with the work department group of academic or teacher and sales is significant at p = 0.035 which is less than 0.05. we also discovered that be with the work department group of academic or teacher and sales is significant at p = 0.019 which is less than 0.05. finally, com with the work department group of academic or teacher and sales is significant at p = 0.026 which is less than 0.05, but ee was insignificant in all of them. table 5a: anova test. table 5b: anova test. moderation analysis hypothesis 4: strategic implementation has a moderating role between employees’ engagement and employees’ commitment (h4 is rejected). the result of the test found that the model r = 0.782 which is strong positive relationship; the independent variables can predict the change in the dependent variable by around r2 = 61.1%, and the model is significant at p = 0.001 which is less than 0.05. the result of the coefficients table that shows the moderating effect is insignificant because it has a p = 0.322 which is greater than 0.05. for that reason, hypothesis 4 is rejected and null hypothesis h0 is accepted. discussion the findings of this article underscore the importance of employee engagement and its role in enhancing employee commitment. our findings are in line with some of the recent published work in the area of human resources management. for instance, gupta (2017) supported the proposed influence of engagement on commitment towards the organisation. likewise, we support such findings as well, because we found that engagement is a predictor of commitment by 57.3% with all the dimensions contributing to such impact and ee having the highest influence on commitment with b = 0.562 at p = 0.001. researchers as hakanen et al. (2006); saks (2006); halbesleben (2010) also found a strong link between engagement and commitment. the main reason for our findings was also due to what ferreira and real de oliveira (2014) discussed that in the developing countries, organisations abandon their employees’ well-being and psychological state. the observance of the demographic differences on the way employees viewed both engagement and commitment found that in terms of gender differences men besides women did not have different perceptions of employees’ engagement and commitment that were statistically insignificant. this is in line with chalofsky (2010), who found that an engaged employee, whether male or female, will interact positively with customer. however this was not in line with gamil (2016) research, as he explained that in terms of gender differences men had higher ee to their jobs than women, as well as boyd (2009) findings indicated the opposite that women had a higher ee than men. in addition to; our findings postulated that (work position) both had no impact on the way employees perceive engagement or commitment, so it contradicts what saks (2006) and boyd (2009) analyses results that females’ viewpoint of commitment that it would be directed towards customers than male. lastly, it was surprising that the testing of the moderating effect of strategic implementation on the relation between engagement and commitment resulted in insignificant moderating impact on this relation where no change was detected upon adding the interacting between the independent variable contributions and implications this article contributes practically and theoretically that it is one of the few studies which examine the previously discussed relationship inside egyptian sme’s. besides, it examined the dimensions of employees’ engagement effect on an important behavioural construct which is commitment. this study investigated the impact of the three acknowledged dimensions of engagement rather that investigating the impact on the overall employees’ engagement. lastly focusing on each engagement type separately provided valuable knowledge regarding key factors that contribute to enriching each construct in relationship to employees’ commitment. engagement is studied as a factor affecting commitment not the vice versa. it analyses the perception of the employees who are working in smes in terms of gender and work position. it tests the moderating role of strategic implementation between employees’ engagement and commitment in the egyptian context. conclusion and recommendations building on this research’s findings as well as on the reviewed literature, the study recommended that it is necessary for egyptian smes to adapt, modify their strategies and tactics by which their employees’ engagement level could be measured, and monitored particularly the ee that was found to have the greatest influence on employees’ commitment. cleveland, byrne and cavanagh (2015) stressed that organisations should treat their employees not as tangible assets; employees are not ‘static’. they, in the current settings, are expected to be engaged in their working environment (deeb, alananzeh, & tarhini, 2019). one simple way to measure this is by asking employees ‘how they feel towards the company, also its management’ with open hearts and minds. managements could hold periodical meetings with all employees to understand what problems they are facing or worried about. this would be a main, and vital source for collecting information by which workplace environment could be enhanced. egyptian managers could also create a ‘friendly’ working environment by monthly employees’ gathering over lunch, and celebrations of employees’ occasions would enhance social connections inside the company. organisations should not blame employees themselves neglecting the fact that the workplace environment might have the greatest impact on workers’ attitude and they would neglect the importance of their employees’ conditions. therefore, they suffer and thus lead to high turnover problem to the organisation (ferreira & real de oliveira, 2014). employees’ commitment is important to any organisation, not only because employees would be retained, but also because when they are retained, they stay with a ‘heart’ to deliver and accomplish tasks. the most important thing for the management to do is to acknowledge the importance of its employees and the significance of having them actively engaged and committed. management should appreciate the fact that once an employee considers his or her job to be interesting, meaningful, and fair, he or she would be satisfied and have a sense of accomplishment. saridakis et al. (2013) confirmed that workers who are satisfied with their jobs are expected to show more positive feelings, beliefs, and actions towards their jobs, and also be more committed to the organisation than those who are lacking satisfaction. egyptian managers should differentiate between engagement, and commitment terminologies in addition to their implementation at work inside the organisation. employee commitment is seen to be one of the contributing factors to employee engagement. one of the reasons, that many studies mistakenly confuse commitment with engagement, is that the engaged employees stay because they like their jobs; however, unengaged employees intend to remain as well. unengaged employees choose to stay for many reasons such as money, career opportunities, security, stability, familiarity, comfortable working conditions or even the delay and the resistance in changing jobs. being unengaged does not bring the lack of commitment but commit in the wrong things, and contribute to the inaccurate engagement rate for the company (rice et al., 2012). the danger of including unengaged employees in the engagement level can harm the organisation, as they do not really want to stay, contribute, and work hard for the success of the company. table 6a: moderation analysis. table 6b: moderation analysis. table 6c: moderation analysis. furthermore, regarding future commitment was looked upon in its holistic form, although its question covers its three dimensions, additionally future research could be recommended to examine it through each of its separate constructs. it is advised to test the opposite direction of influence between engagement and commitment to understand the reciprocal nature between them and in different context as well. the research covered only the employees working in egyptian smes. it is advised to include other companies and organisations to cover the entire industry, which will increase the sample size, and also help in developing a comparison between the sectors. it could also be tested on different contexts and be compared to egypt and kuwait findings. also, a comparison between industry players could be positioned as well. it is also advised for researchers to cover other industries’ employees, especially service providers’ employees. commitment and engagement are advised to be measured over a longer period through a longitudinal research timeframe to detect changes in employees’ perspectives about these concepts. this research data was collected through quantitative approach. hence, a further research could be supported through a qualitative methodology interviewing top management, and then compare the results with those of employees. strategic implementation was tested as a moderator; it is suggested for future research to examine its direct impact on engagement and commitment. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions this article was written by a team of researchers from the arab academy for science, technology and maritime transport. dr mohamed mostafa saad had a key role in data collection, data analysis and writing the first draft of the article. dr hazem gaber and prof. ashraf labib had key roles in revising the article and responding to reviewers’ comments. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data available within the article or its supplementary materials; other data available on request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references afsar, b., cheema, s., & javed, f. (2018). activating employee’s pro-environmental behaviors: the role of csr, organizational identification, and environmentally specific servant leadership. corporate social responsibility and environmental management, 25(5), 904–911. aguinis, h., & glavas, a. (2012). what we know and don’t know about corporate social responsibility: a review and research agenda. journal of management, 38(4), 932–968. alan, m. saks. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement, journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619, https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169. albdour, a.a., & altarawneh, i.i. (2012). corporate social responsibility and employee engagement in jordan. international journal of business and management, 7(16), 89. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v7n16p89 allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (2000). construct validation in organizational behavior research: the case of organizational commitment, in: r.d. guftin, e. helmes, problems and solutions in human assessment: honoring douglas n. jackson at seventy, kluwer, norwell, ma, pp. 285–314. al-dalahmeh, m., khalaf, r., & obeidat, b. (2018). the effect of employee engagement on organizational performance via the mediating role of job satisfaction: the case of it employees in jordanian banking sector. modern applied science, 12(6), 17–43. anitha, j. (2014). determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance. international journal of productivity and performance management, 63(3), 308–323. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-01-2013-0008 bakker, a. b., hakanen, j. j., demerouti, e., and xanthopoulou, d. (2007). job resources boost work engagement, particularly when job demands are high. journal of educational psychology, 99, 274–284. barrick, m.r., thurgood, g.r., smith, t.a. & courtright, s.h. (2015). collective organizational engagement: linking motivational antecedents, strategic implementation, and firm performance. academy of management journal, 58(1), 111–135. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2013.0227 becker, h.s. (1960). notes on the concept of commitment. american journal of sociology, 66, 32–40. bhatnagar, j. (2007). predictors of organizational commitment in india: strategic hr roles, organizational learning capability and psychological empowerment. the international journal of human resource management, 18(10), 1782–1811. boyd, g. (2009). emotional engagement: what makes some employee groups more emotionally engaged than others? retrieved from http://www.insyncsurveys.com.au/media/14429/emotional-engagement-study.pdf. çağliyan, v., attar, m., & derra, m. (2017). the relationship between organizational justice perception and organizational commitment: a study on doğuş otomotiv authorized dealers in konya. suleyman demirel university. the journal of faculty of economics and administrative sciences, 22(2), 599–612. chalofsky, n.e. (2010). meaningful workplaces: reframing how and where we work. new jersey, nj: wiley. cleveland, j.n., byrne, z.s., & cavanagh, t.m. (2015). the future of hr is rh: respect for humanity at work. human resource management review, 25(2), 146–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.01.005commitment. dajani, m.a.z. (2015). the impact of employee engagement on job performance and organizational commitment in the egyptian banking sector. journal of business and management sciences, 3(5), 138–147. danlami, a.s. (2011). strategic human resource management and organizational performance in the nigerian manufacturing sector: an empirical investigation. international journal of business and management, 6(9), 46–56. deeb, a., alananzeh, o., & tarhini, a. (2019). factors affecting job performance: the case of jordanian hotels kitchen staff. international journal of public sector performance management, 6(3), 340–360. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpspm.2020.107766 engert, s., & baumgartner, r.j. (2016). corporate sustainability strategy – bridging the gap between formulation and implementation. journal of cleaner production, 113, 822–834. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.11.094 ferreira, p., & real de oliveira, e. (2014). does corporate social responsibility impact on employee engagement? journal of workplace learning, 26(3/4), 232–247. https://doi.org/10.1108/jwl-09-2013-0070 gamil, i. (2016). the impact of corporate social responsibility and human resource practices on engagement and commitment, the case of employees in private gas stations companies in kuwait, (mba) of the maastricht school of management (msm), maastricht. glavas, a., & kelley, k. (2014). the effects of perceived corporate social responsibility on employee attitudes. business ethics quarterly, 24(02), 165–202. https://doi.org/10.5840/beq20143206 gupta, m. (2017). corporate social responsibility, employee–company identification, and organizational commitment: mediation by employee engagement. current psychology, 36, 101–109. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-015-9389-8 gupta, m., & sayeed, o. (2016). social responsibility and commitment in management institutes: mediation by engagement. business: theory and practice, 17(3), 280–287. https://doi.org/10.3846/btp.2016.633 hakanen, j.j., bakker, a.b., & schaufeli, w.b. (2006). burnout and work engagement among teachers. journal of school psychology, 43(6), 495–513. halbesleben, j.r.b. (2010). ‘a meta-analysis of work engagement: relationships with burnout, demands, resources and consequences’, in bakker, a.b., & leiter, m.p. (eds), work engagement: a handbook of essential theory and research, psychology press, new york, ny, pp. 118–131. harter, j.k., schmidt, f.l., & hayes, t.l. (2002). business-unitlevel relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: a meta-analysis. journal of applied psychology, 87, 268–279. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.2.268. ho, j.l., wu, a., & wu, s.y. (2014). performance measures, consensus on strategy implementation, and performance: evidence from the operational-level of organizations. accounting, organizations and society, 39(1), 38–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2013.11.003 ismail, h.n., iqbal, a., & nasr, l. (2019). employee engagement and job performance in lebanon: the mediating role of creativity. international journal of productivity and performance management. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-02-2018-0052 jung, h.s., & yoon, h.h. (2016). what does work meaning to hospitality employees? the effects of meaningful work on employees’ organizational commitment: the mediating role of job engagement. international journal of hospitality management, 53, 59–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2015.12.004 kahn, w.a. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work, academy of management journal, 33, 692–724. khodakarami, n., & dirani, k. (2019). drivers of employee engagement: differences by work area and gender. industrial and commercial training, 15(1), 81–91. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict-06-2019-0060 kim, h.r., lee, m., lee, h.t., & kim, n.m. (2010). corporate social responsibility and employee–company identification. journal of business ethics, 95(4), 557–569. kular, s., gatenby, m., rees, c., soane, e., & truss, k. (2008). employee engagement: a literature review. kingston business school, kingston university. luthans, f., & peterson, s.j. (2002). employee engagement and manager self-efficacy. journal of management development, 21(5), 376–387. macey, w.h., & schneider, b. (2008). the meaning of employee engagement. industrial and organizational psychology, 1, 3–30. malhotra, n., nunan, d., & birks, d. (2017). marketing research: an applied approach. (5 ed.) pearson. http://www.pearsoned.co.uk/bookshop/detail.asp?item=100000000589380 meyer, j.p., & n.j. allen. (1991). a three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment, human resource management review, 1, 61–89. meyer, j.p., & herscovitch, l. (2001). commitment in the workplace: toward a general model. human resource management review, 1, 299–326. mohamed, m.s., & anisa, h. (2012). relationship between organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior. iup journal of organizational behavior, 11(3). nimon, k., zigarmi, d., houson, d., witt, d., & diehl, j. (2011). the work cognition inventory: initial evidence of construct validity. human resource development quarterly, 22, 7–35. doi:10.1002/hrdq.20064 nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994) the assessment of reliability. psychometric theory, 3, 248–292. o’reilly, c.a., & chatman, j. (1986). organizational commitment and psychological attachment: the effects of compliance, identification, and internalization on prosocial behavior. journal of applied psychology, 71(3), 492. othman, a.k., mahmud, z., noranee, s., & noordin, f. (2018, march). measuring employee happiness: analyzing the dimensionality of employee engagement. in international conference on kansei engineering & emotion research (pp. 863–869). springer, singapore. osborne, s., & hammoud, m.s. (2017). effective employee engagement in the workplace. international journal of applied management and technology, 16(1), 4. https://doi.org/10.5590/ijamt.2017.16.1.04 purcell. (2010). building employee engagement acas policy discussion papers. available at: http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/s/1/building_employee_engagement-accessible-version-jun-2019.pdf. porter, l.w., steer, r.m., mowday, r., & boutin, p.v. (1974). organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover among psychiatric technicians. journal of applied psychology, 59(2), 603–609. poon, j.m. (2013). relationships among perceived career support, affective commitment, and work engagement. international journal of psychology, 48(6), 1148–1155. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207594.2013.768768 porter, l.w., steer, r.m., mowday, r., & boutin, p.v. (1982) employee-organization linkages: the psychology of commitment, absenteeism, and turnover. new york: academic press. rice, c., marlow, f., & masarech, m. (2012). the engagement equation: leadership strategies for an inspired workforce. somerset: john wiley and sons, inc. retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/abo-ebooks/detail.action?docid=894264 rich, b.l., lepine, j.a., & crawford, e.r. (2010). job engagement: antecedents and effects on job performance. academy of management journal, 53, 617–635. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.51468988 robinson, d., perryman, s., & hayday, s. (2004). the drivers of employee engagement. brighton: institute for employment studies. (ies report 408), viewed 25 june 2019, from www.employment-studies.co.uk/system/files/resources/files/408.pdf saad, m.m., gaber, h.r., & labib, a.a. (2021). investigating the impact of human resource management practices on employee engagement, and the moderating role of strategy implementation in egypt. sa journal of human resource management, 19, 9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1412 saridakis, g., muñoz torres, r., & johnstone, s. (2013). do human resource practices enhance organizational commitment in smes with low employee satisfaction? british journal of management, 24(3), 445–458. schaufeli, w.b., bakker, a.b., & van rhenen, w. (2009). how changes in job demands and resources predict burnout, work engagement, and sickness absenteeism. journal of organizational behavior: the international journal of industrial, occupational and organizational psychology and behavior, 30(7), 893–917. shoaib, f., & kohli, n. (2017). employee engagement and goal setting theory. indian journal of health & wellbeing, 8(8) p877–880. shuck, b., & wollard, k. (2010). employee engagement and hrd: a seminal review of the foundations. human resource development review, 9, 89–110. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484309353560. shuck, b., & reio, t.g. (2014). employee engagement and well-being a moderation model and implications for practice. journal of leadership and organizational studies, 21(1), 43–58. smith, m., & bititci, u.s. (2017). interplay between performance measurement and management, employee engagement and performance. international journal of operations and production management, 37(9), 1207–1228. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijopm-06-2015-0313 stairs, m., & galpin, m. (2010). positive engagement: from employee engagement to workplace happiness. sun, l., & bunchapattanasakda, c. (2019). employee engagement: a literature review. international journal of human resource studies, 9(1), 63–80. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijhrs.v9i1.14167 turker, d. (2009). how corporate social responsibility influences organizational commitment. journal of business ethics, 89(2), 189–204. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-9993-8 welch, m. (2011). the evolution of the employee engagement concept: communication implications. corporate communications: an international journal, 16(4), 328–346. zaitouni, m., sawalha, n.n., & el sharif, a. (2011). the impact of human resource management practices on organizational commitment in the banking sector in kuwait. international journal of business and management, 6(6), 108–123. zainol, s.s., & binti othman, m.s. (2016). determinants of employee engagement in hotel industry in malaysia. a theoretical mode. international journal of academic research in accounting, finance and management sciences, 6(3), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarafms/v6-i3/2146 zayas-ortiz, m., rosario, e., marquez, e., & colón gruñeiro, p. (2015). relationship between organizational commitments and organizational citizenship behavior in a sample of private banking employees. international journal of sociology and social policy, 35(1/2), 91–106. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijssp-02-2014-0010 zulfiqar, s., sadaf, r., popp, j., vveinhardt, j., & máté, d. (2019). an examination of corporate social responsibility and employee behavior: the case of pakistan. sustainability, 11(13), 3515. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11133515 abstract introduction method results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) jaco van niekerk department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa pharny chrysler-fox department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa rene van wyk department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation van niekerk, j., chrysler-fox, p., & van wyk, r. (2019). psychological contract inducements and expectations conveyed to potential employees on organisations’ websites. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1113. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1113 original research psychological contract inducements and expectations conveyed to potential employees on organisations’ websites jaco van niekerk, pharny chrysler-fox, rene van wyk received: 13 aug. 2018; accepted: 06 aug. 2019; published: 22 oct. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the employer–employee relationship is becoming increasingly strained, evidenced by the increase in cases referred to the commission for conciliation, mediation and arbitration. these disputes are presumed to be a consequence of breach of the psychological contract of undelivered expectations or obligations. there seems to be a need to improve the management of employer–employee relationships. research purpose: the purpose of this investigation was to identify inducements and obligations made known by organisations on their websites. motivation for the study: clarity of inducements and expectations may provide a foundation to proactively improve the employer–employee relationship. research approach/design and method: a quantitative content analysis was identified inducements and expectations on the websites of the 2015 business times top 100 organisations. as two of the companies had merged with existing companies, a total of 98 companies were analysed. a codebook on content associated with the psychological contract generated quantitative data from a qualitative analysis. main findings: comparisons between different industries (manufacturing, wholesale and financial services) yielded significant differences between organisational policies and career development inducements. comparisons revealed that organisations with a career section convey more inducements and expectations than organisations without a career section. practical/managerial implications: organisations are offered a means to identify inducements and expectations that are publicly conveyed through their websites and inform the psychological contract. contribution/value-add: the findings contribute to existing theory of the psychological contract. more insight is gained into the expression of inducements and expectations and the potential association with employees’ psychological contract. keywords: employer obligations; employee obligations; psychological contract breach; psychological contract violation; qiqqa; business times top 100 organisations. introduction employer–employee relations in south africa are becoming increasingly strained as evidenced by the increasing average number of cases referred to the commission for conciliation, mediation and arbitration (ccma, 2015, 2016). when conciliation and mediation fail, a dispute can occur which may be damaging or terminate the employer–employee relationship (bendix, 2001). such a situation implies a breach of the psychological contract between employer and employee. the employer–employee relationship is built on both a formal contract of employment and an implied contact, referred to as the psychological contract (montes & irving, 2008). employers should not underestimate the transactional promises made to employees, as the consequences could be intense and long-term (agarval & gupta, 2018). the formation of the psychological contract does not always take place explicitly. inducements and expectations are often created through indirect means (suazo, martínez, & sandoval, 2009). for instance, websites are a public source of information which may convey information on inducements and expectations offered by the employer. from a job seeker’s perspective, this information may already form part of the basis upon which the future psychological contract may be built (guest, 2004). these sources of information act as signal messages that determine employer attractiveness to job seekers (tomprou & nikolaou, 2011). information conveyed may implicitly initiate the foundational formation of the employer–employee psychological contract. the psychological contract between employer and employee only becomes binding at the point that employment is official through a formal contract of employment (suazo et al., 2009). at this point, inducements are promised by the employer in exchange for promised obligations to be delivered (conway & briner, 2005; morrison & robinson, 1997; rousseau, 1995). a promise refers to a concrete commitment to delivering an action, expressed either verbally or in writing (conway & briner, 2005). this differs from the term expectation, which implies the possibility that something will transpire if causal criteria are met (conway & briner, 2005). for job seekers, organisations may convey specific inducements that may, in turn, create anticipatory expectations associated with employment (tomprou & nikolaou, 2011). a pro-active solution is required in attempting to reduce or avoid a breach of the psychological contract. knowledge of the psychological contract can be beneficial towards understanding the employer–employee relationship (clinton & guest, 2014; guest, 2004; tomprou & nikolaou, 2011). breach of the psychological contract leads to increased turnover intention (agarval & gupta, 2018; guest, 2004; morrison & robinson, 1997), counter-productive work behaviour towards the organisation and supervisors (griep & vantilborgh, 2018) and other interpersonal and organisational deviant behaviours (suazo & stone-romero, 2011; zribi & souaï, 2013), an increase in employee unethical behaviour (ning & zhaoyi, 2017) and a decrease in trust (clinton & guest, 2014; montes & irving, 2008), perceived organisational justice and leader member exchange (tziner, felea, & vasiliu, 2017). an experience of psychological contract breach tends to lead to cynicism and a reduced self-esteem in the employee (griep & vantilborgh, 2018). this has a snowball effect of being more likely to identify future psychological contract breaches. the risk is that the employee regards the organisation as the source of violation and correspondingly may target the organisation with negative behaviours (deng, coyle-shapiro, & yang, 2017). more detail is needed on the efficient utilisation of the psychological contract in building effective and respectful employee relationships (conway & briner, 2005), and support organisational well-being (erkutlu & chafra, 2016). an intact psychological contract has various benefits (guest, 2004). benefits include elevated employee loyalty (katou & budwar, 2012), adjustment (chen & chiu, 2009), employee commitment with lower turnover intention (clinton & guest, 2014) and exhibiting less negative attitudes and behaviours (choi & lee, 2014; zribi & souaï, 2013). an intact psychological contract is also associated with a reduction in other undesirable employee behaviours such as corruption (kingshott & dincer, 2008). the number of cases referred to the ccma is increasing annually: 179 528 (2015/2016), 188 449 (2016/2017) and 186 902 (2017/2018) (ccma, 2017, 2018). this may imply that the employer–employee relationship is becoming progressively more strained. this is a problem common across all sectors, including local authorities, private sector, state-owned enterprises and constitutional entities (ccma, 2016). there is utility in using concepts such as inducements and expectations, to investigate the components that form the psychological contract (clinton & guest, 2014). previous research indicates how gaps exist where expectations promised at the start of employment are not delivered (morrison & robinson, 1997). while most literature focuses on the effects of psychological contract breach, a proactive approach may be beneficial. such preventative measures may harmonise employee–employer relations. there are various factors that can lead to psychological contract breach and violation; however, not all of these factors may be obvious to identify. incongruence refers to a scenario where one party views psychological contract promises as undelivered, while the other party views these promises as delivered (morrison & robinson, 1997). the reasons for incongruence may be because of various factors ranging from information contained in individual schemas (rousseau, 2001), the effects of socialisation (conway & briner, 2005) and communication (morrison & robinson, 1997). effective communication between parties on what promises were made and when or how these are delivered could potentially decrease the occurrence of incongruence (morrison & robinson, 1997). investigating the formation and content of this relationship from the pre-employment phase may hold benefits for the long-term maintenance or continuance of this contract. there could be various benefits in identifying the inducements offered by employers on their websites and the expectation of obligations this creates. this information may be beneficial for both job seekers and current employees. knowledge in this regard may prove benefit to the entire employee life cycle from recruitment to termination. from a job seeker’s perspective, by identifying possible inducements and expectations job seekers identify and prefer, employers could thereby benefit in attracting the desired candidates. for existing employees, this knowledge may help to retain and harmonise employer–employee relations. the research question in this article is, ‘what inducements and expectations do different employers convey to potential employees through their websites?’ research purpose and objectives the purpose of this research was to explore which inducements and obligations are published by organisations on their websites. organisation websites convey inducements and expectations to various parties, both internal and external to the organisation. exploring these organisation websites may provide insight into the role these inducements and expectations play in developing the employer–employee relationship. three objectives guided the study. the first objective focused on the inducements and expectations organisations convey to potential employees through their websites. the second objective focused on significant differences in inducements and expectations conveyed between different industries. the third objective focused on organisations’ websites with and without dedicated career section pages. literature review the psychological contract is built on notions contained within the social exchange theory (cook, cheshire, rice, & nakagawa, 2013; emerson, 1976; homans, 1958; krause & moore, 2017) and the equity theory (adams, 1963; chapman, 2001). from these theories, an exchange between parties of goods and services coincides with certain associated costs to each party (emerson, 1976). these costs are governed by the areas of mutuality (homans, 1958) where deliverables or exchanges made between parties are compared to external comparisons (adams, 1963) and notions of fairness (cook et al., 2013). the psychological contract’s social exchange consists of a transactional economic currency, relational socio-emotional and covenantal ideological exchange (krause & moore, 2017). exchanges between employer and employee refer to the terms inducement and expectation. inducements are defined as that what is offered by one party in exchange for expected contributions made by the other party wishing to obtain these contributions (hom et al., 2009). inducements, that is, what organisations offer to employees, can be either implicitly or explicitly conveyed (montes & irving, 2008). inducements can be classified into two forms: intrinsic inducement and extrinsic inducements (nikolaou, tomprou, & vakola, 2007). extrinsic inducements are benefits that are objectively observable, such as benefits, pay, promotion, job security and a safe working environment (lee, liu, rousseau, hui, & chen, 2011; lub, blomme, & bal, 2011; nikolaou et al., 2007). intrinsic inducements, on the contrary, refer to those elements implied or nested within the elements of the job offered (kickul & lester, 2001). intrinsic inducements include challenging and meaningful work, impact of work and feelings of achievement, to name but a few (lee et al., 2011). inducements can also be classified according to a transactional, relational or balanced nature (montes & irving, 2008; rousseau, 2000). transactional inducements are similar to extrinsic inducements in that they are typically short-term focussed and economical in nature (rousseau, 2000). relational inducements are similar to intrinsic inducements (rousseau, 2000) as they impact feelings and notions of trust associated with an implied relationship (montes & irving, 2008). balanced inducements, in turn, refer to rewards that contain both an intrinsic and an extrinsic element (rousseau, 2000). inducements, in turn, are classified into generic and organisation specific (clinton & guest, 2014). generic inducements are typically similar across different organisations, while organisation-specific inducements are context-bound and specific to an organisation (conway & briner, 2005). expectations, in the context of this study, refer to what organisations typically expect of employees, but not necessarily agreed upon to form an employee obligation towards the organisation. expectations associated with the exchanges made between parties within the employer–employee relationship form the core of the psychological contract (conway & briner, 2005; rousseau, 1989). a distinction is made between traditional and contemporary conceptualisations of the psychological contract. a traditional psychological contract is classified as the unspoken agreement regarding what is exchanged between parties (conway & briner, 2005; rousseau, 1989). contemporary perspectives of the psychological contract add the perceptions of promises made regarding the delivery of these exchanges (guest, 2004; rousseau, 1989). different studies have led to various conceptualisations in measures of the content of the psychological contract content advanced in the literature. these include the psychological contract inventory (rousseau, 2000), the psychological contract content dimensions (de vos, buyens, & schalk, 2003) and the tilburg psychological contract questionnaire (freese, 2007; freese, schalk, & croon, 2008). the content of the psychological contract is vast, and only certain contents, promised by employers and employees, are applicable to certain contexts. table 1 provides a summary of employer promises and expectations (i.e. employee promises) associated with the psychological contract. table 1: summary of content informing the psychological contract. these inducements and expectations for the elements upon which the psychological contract is built are informed by various sources (conway & briner, 2005). the information that determines and informs the content of the psychological contract comes from various preand post-entry sources (tomprou & nikolaou, 2011). sources include organisational documents and policies (suazo et al., 2009), agents of the organisation (rousseau, 1995) and interactions with friends and family (conway & briner, 2005). all these information sources seek to report and shape the content contained within the psychological contract. such information is used by job seekers to inform and amend their schemas held about specific employers (rousseau, 2001). there are consequences if organisations do not honour their promises made during the original exchange process. breach is defined as the awareness that an organisation has failed to deliver on obligations contained within the psychological contract (morrison & robinson, 1997). breach is experienced as a perceived imbalance of the employment relationship because of failure to commitments by the employer (payne, culbertson, lopez, boswell, & barger, 2015). although employees do engage in coping and remediation actions (payne et al., 2015) and enact in coping strategies (bankins, 2015) in the case of breach, a decrease in the perceived employee obligations is experienced (payne et al., 2015). negative consequences include a significant negative relationship with leader–member exchange and organisational justice (tziner et al., 2017), employees’ prohibitive voice (guo, 2017), significant positive relationship with unethical behaviour (ning & zhaoyi, 2017) and counterproductive work behaviour (griep & vantilborgh, 2018). breach is a precursor to violation (suazo & stone-romero, 2011). violation refers to the emotional perceptions and actions associated with a psychological contract breach (morrison & robinson, 1997). psychological contract violation takes place when the employee experiences deprivation of highly invested work objectives (guerrero & naulleau, 2016). such experience of violation and deprivation leads to grief and reduced energy. although job seekers only become employees when formally employed (suazo et al., 2009), the input to the psychological contract develops prior to engagement as part of a schema (rousseau, 2001). when employed, employees may engage in monitoring where pre-entry information, such as those contained in the schema, is compared to post-entry experiences (tomprou & nikolaou, 2011). this leads to evaluations related to psychological contract fulfilment (lee et al., 2011). when evaluations have an unsatisfactory outcome, it may lead to experiences of breach or violation. using concepts such as inducements and expectations may be useful to investigate the components that form the psychological contract (clinton & guest, 2014). previous research indicates how over time inconsistencies exist, where expectations promised made at the start of employment are not delivered and thus lead to violation and breach (morrison & robinson, 1997). while most literature focuses on the effects of breach, a proactive approach may be beneficial to try to harmonise employee–employer relations. there are various factors that can lead to violation and breach; however, not all of these factors may be obvious to identify. incongruence refers to a situation where one party to the psychological contract views promises made as not delivered, while the other party views these promises as having been delivered (morrison & robinson, 1997). the reasons for incongruence may be because of various factors ranging from information contained in individual schemas (rousseau, 2001), the effects of socialisation (conway & briner, 2005) and communication (morrison & robinson, 1997). as an example, effective communication between parties on what promises were made and when these will be delivered could potentially lead to a decrease in the occurrence of incongruence (morrison & robinson, 1997). investigating the formation and content of this relationship from the pre-employment phase may hold benefits for the long-term maintenance or continuance of this contract. there could be numerous benefits in identifying the inducements offered by employers on their websites and the expectation of obligations this creates. this information may be beneficial for both job seekers and current employees. knowledge in this regard may prove beneficial to the entire employee life cycle from recruitment to termination. from a job seeker’s perspective, by identifying possible inducements and expectations job seekers identify and prefer, employers could thereby benefit in attracting the desired candidates. for existing employees, this knowledge may help to retain and harmonise employer–employee relations. the literature review shows little to no research results that indicate the moderating effect of organisational size and industry on the psychological contract. a longitudinal study conducted by raeder, wittekind, inauen and grote (2009) was identified to test how promises made are perceived as being delivered over time. results obtained appear to indicate that significant differences exist between different organisations on employer inducements and employee expectations (raeder et al., 2009). results from this study are, however, limited because the sample used is specific to a swedish labour environment. furthermore, no explicit information was defined for the sample with regard to industry, job type or organisational size. method in this section, attention is paid to the research approach, the research strategy as well as the design and procedure employed. research approach a pragmatist paradigm was adopted because the purpose of the research design was to answer the relevant research question (creswell & plano clark, 2011), namely, what inducements and expectations do different employers convey to potential employees through their websites? a content analysis approach, a form of an unobtrusive research approach, was deemed most suitable for this research (babbie, 2007). unobtrusive research refers to studying phenomena without causing an impact upon the area of inquiry (babbie, 2007). websites act as a source of information about an employer (lin, 2010; srivastava & bhatnagar, 2010). this information may then be used to inform the schema a job seeker holds towards an employer (rousseau, 2001). websites are public records, and thus do not provide a formal employer–employee contract to evaluate. research design content analysis, as an obvious application in the analysis of business communication (rose, spinks, & canhoto, 2015), was used to do a quantitative analysis of the data. content analysis can effectively be used in either a quantitative or a qualitative research design (babbie, 2007; rose et al., 2015). content analysis is defined as a research approach used to analyse and extrapolate latent and manifest substantive content and meanings from texts (rose et al., 2015) as sources of information against a specific background (krippendorff, 2013). it involves the study of records of communications, documents, paintings websites and other records (babbie, 2007). sample to ensure that the research questions could be answered successfully, a relevance (also known as purposive) sampling procedure (krippendorff, 2013) was used. organisations ranked in the 2015 business times top 100 organisations were selected as the sample. these organisations were ranked based on financial performance and growth over a 5-year period (01 september 2010 – 31 august 2015) (business times, 2015). compound annual growth rate, expressed as a percentage indicating year-on-year growth of share value if an investment of r10 000 was made at the start of the 5-year period, was used to select the 100 organisations (business times, 2015). all these organisations are listed on the johannesburg stock exchange (2014). of the 100 organisations, only 98 could be analysed, as two were acquired in 2016 by other organisations. these two companies were therefore excluded from the analysis. most organisations were from the financial intermediation insurance and real estate and business services industry (n = 42, 42.9%) (for a summary of the represented industries, see table 2). a number of 41 organisations (41.8%), compared to the majority of organisations (n = 57, 58.2%), did not have a dedicated career section on their websites. table 2: industries represented by the organisations in the study. data collection a codebook was developed to identify inducements and expectations conveyed on organisations’ websites. codes were based on existing measures of the psychological contract content (coyle-shapiro & conway, 2005; freese et al., 2008; rousseau, 2000, 2008; schalk et al., 2010), and grouped according to the factor structures found by de vos et al. (2003) and other psychological contract scholars (freese et al., 2008; rousseau, 2000; vantilborgh et al., 2014). inducements, that what organisations use to attract potential employees, consisted of six groups and 80 codes in total. selected examples of codes for the six groups were work–life balance (concern for employees, as well as offering flexible working hours), organisational policies (fair and equitable treatment of employees and feedback on performance), career development (opportunities for promotion and skills development), job content (a job in which employees can make decisions by themselves and also a job with responsibilities), social atmosphere (good atmosphere at work and good mutual co-operation between colleagues) and financial rewards (attractive salary and performance-related rewards). website information was coded by assigning one to the presence of a code and zero to the absence of a code. expectations, in turn, that is, what organisations may expect employees to contribute, comprised 37 codes representing five groups. selected examples of the codes for the groups were ethical behaviour (e.g. to protect confidential information about the organisation and the organisation’s image), employability (e.g. to build skills to increase value to the organisation, and to take personal initiative to attend additional training courses), flexibility (e.g. to volunteer to do tasks that are strictly no part of the job if necessary, and to work extra hours to complete the job), loyalty (e.g. to not support competitors and to remain with the organisation for at least some years) and lastly inand extra-role behaviour (e.g. to assist colleagues in their work and to share information with colleagues). website information was coded similar to inducements. research procedure the content of the organisations’ websites was converted to portable document format and uploaded into qiqqa, a reference management software package, which allows for text to be coded (quantisle, 2017). coding was performed using qiqqa’s annotation function to code instances of various inducement and expectations in the source documents. quotations coded were reviewed by the second author to ensure consistency in coding, that is, reliability (singh, 2007). the frequencies (count data) were then imported into spss version 24 (ibm corp., 2016). statistical analysis the occurrences of inducements and expectations were found not to be normally distributed based on inspection of the histograms and statistically significant shapiro–wilk and kolmogorov–smirnov tests. the kruskal–wallis and mann–whitney non-parametric tests were used to examine differences between various groups (pallant, 2016) (industries and organisations with and without a career section). cohen’s (1988) recommendations are used to interpret the effect sizes of the comparisons. ethical considerations ethical principles were applied as prescribed by the american psychological association (american psychological association, 2010), in particular terms and conditions of companies’ websites were respected. this complies with the determinations of the protection of personal information act (department of justice, 2013). the research method followed (where supervisors acted as peer reviewers to ensure inter-rater-reliability) and results obtained, are reported in a fair and factual manner, free from deception or fraud (american psychological association, 2010). the access to research information is free from restriction and accessible to all. anonymity of companies was ensured by assigning a code to each company. website copies and coding were stored in qiqqa and username and password protected. results the study’s first objective sought to explore the inducements and expectations that employers convey to potential employees through their websites. the descriptive statistics are presented in table 3. the three inducements published by most organisations were organisational policies, career development and job content, followed by social atmosphere and financial rewards. information about work–life balance was published by only 41.8% of organisations. more organisations published information about inducements than expectations except for inand extra-role behaviour (61.2% of organisations) followed by ethical behaviour (45.9% of organisations). information about flexibility was the least published compared to other expectations. a possible explanation is that organisations may consider publishing expectations as a deterrent to job seekers. table 3: descriptive statistics for the inducements and expectations examined in the study. the second objective focused on how various industries are different with regard to inducements and expectations as per organisations’ websites. for comparisons between the different industries, only the three largest industries (manufacturing, wholesale and finance industries; see table 2) were included. the smaller industries (ranging between n = 1 [mining and quarrying] and n = 8 [community, social and personal services] [representing 17 organisations in total]) were excluded from the group comparisons to ensure adequate power and meaningful differences between the remaining groups (tabachnick & fidell, 2014). table 4 summarises the results for the differences in the inducements between the larger industries. kruskal–wallis test was used to compare differences in non-parametric samples (pallant, 2016). kruskal–wallis tests indicated that there were statistically significant differences between industries for organisational policies (χ2(2, 81) = 8.356, p = 0.015) and career development (χ2(2, 81) = 12.466, p = 0.002). based on a bonferroni alpha-level adjustment, a statistically significant mann–whitney test (z = −2.774, p = 0.006, r = −0.34) indicated, of a medium effect size, that only the manufacturing (mdn = 0.250, mean rank = 41.61) published more content related to organisational policies compared to the financial industry (mdn = 0.125, mean rank = 28.29). no other differences between the industries were statistically significant. with regard to career development, after adjusting the p-values for multiple-group comparisons, only the manufacturing industry (mdn = 0.286, mean rank = 43.35) published more information, of medium effect size (r = −0.42), compared to the financial services industry (mdn = 0.071, mean rank = 27.22) (z = −3.347, p = 0.001). no other differences between the industries were statistically significant. table 4: differences in the inducements between the larger industries. the results for the differences in the expectations between the larger industries are depicted in table 5. a series of kruskal–wallis tests found no statistically significant differences between the three industries for any of the expectations; therefore, no post hoc comparisons were conducted. table 5: differences in the expectations between the larger industries. in the last objective, the focus was on how organisations with and without a dedicated career website are different with regard to inducements and expectations. considering inducements, results obtained for comparisons between organisations’ websites with and without career sections performed with the kruskal–wallis test are summarised in table 6. statistically significant results, all of medium effect sizes ranging between r = 0.313 and 0.357, indicated that organisations with career pages published more information on work–life balance (z = −3.097, p = 0.002), organisational policies organisational policies (z = −3.286, p < 0.001) and financial rewards (z = −3.539, p < 0.001) compared to organisations without career pages. a similar finding, of medium effect size (r = 402), pertains to social atmosphere (z = −3.982, p < 0.001). two additional statistically significant results, all of large effect sizes (r = 0.495 and 0.626), indicate that career development (z = −4.899, p < 0.001) and job content (z = −6.193, p < 0.001) information feature more on websites with career sections compared to those without them. the mean ranks used for the comparisons are included in table 6. table 6: differences in the inducements for organisations with and without a career section. differences in expectations, with similar findings as for inducements, are presented in table 7. results reveal that statistically significant differences exist for expectations between organisations with and without a career section. statistically significant results, all of small effect sizes ranging between r = 0.237 and 0.264, indicated that organisations with career pages published more information on loyalty (z = −2.345, p = 0.019), ethical behaviour (z = −2.519, p = 0.012) and employability (z = −2.611, p = 0.009) compared to organisations without career pages. only one statistically significant result of medium effect size (r = 0.315) was found where flexibility (z = −3.115, p = 0.002) was more prevalent on websites with career pages compared to those without. an additional one statistically significant result, of large effect size (r = 0.582), was found where inand extra-role behaviour (z = −5.765, p < 0.001) was more prevalent on websites with career pages compared to those without. the mean ranks used for the comparisons are included in table 7. comparing the results obtained, it appears that organisations with a career section conveyed more inducement and expectations compared to those without a career section. this may be because of the fact that such organisations are more sensitised to marketing inducements and expectations in order to attract ideal candidates. table 7: differences in the expectations for organisations with and without a career section. discussion outline of the results this study explored inducements and obligations that were published by the 2015 business times top 100 organisations on their websites. the first objective focused on the inducements and expectations organisations convey to potential employees through their websites. more organisations publish information about inducements (except for work–life balance) compared to expectations. a possible reason for this occurrence may be that employers use their websites to attract candidates through inducements and entice job seekers to apply for vacancies as indicated by suazo et al. (2009) and yen, murrmann and murrmann (2011). research on employee branding supports this notion explained by srivastava and bhatnagar (2010) that employee branding is seen to convey unique attributes about the organisation and associated benefits. a defined inducement offered by employers is the attractive and exclusive benefits associated with employment as indicated by different authors (freese, 2007; freese et al., 2008; freese, schalk, & croon, 2011; guest & conway, 2002; katou & budwar, 2012; penfold & ronnie, 2015). another explanation is offered. the element of cost (i.e. what organisations expect) is found in social exchange theory. emerson (1976) explains through the social exchange theory that costs are associated with receiving rewards. it is possible to assume that these costs and rewards may not be published on the website as these are typically only presented in a formal contract of employment offered to employees. examining significant differences in inducements and expectations conveyed between different industry industries, the second objective of this study revealed that the inducements organisational policies and career development differed significantly between the manufacturing and financial services industries. in the raeder et al. (2009) study in switzerland, portfolio workers who had multiple jobs had statistically significant higher means for selected inducements (e.g. job security, career and skill development), compared to employees of a temporary employment agency as well as a logistics firm. one can expect a similar pattern in south african companies. expectations were also different between these groups, where portfolio workers had higher means for participation (i.e. inand extra-role behaviour) compared to employees of a temporary employment agency (raeder et al., 2009). this emphasises that the context of the psychological contract is context bound, in this case industry and employed status. regulatory requirements may also affect and impact on the results obtained. workplace safety requirements in manufacturing industry are highly regulated and regularly audited (department of labour, 1994). companies within the financial services industry are governed by similarly applicable regulations and codes of conduct such as the financial intelligence centre act (national treasury, 2002). observed differences may be because of the rules and requirements imposed by these regulatory bodies. other relevant legislation requirements may also play a part in regulating how companies provide organisational policies and career development inducements. as an example, details contained in the skills development amendment act (department of labour, 2008) seek to enhance skills development within the manufacturing industry and trades by offering rebates in the form of grants. bischoff and wood (2013) argue that the prevalence of unions and bargaining council structures, in the large enterprise industries, are also more prominent than in other smaller industries within the manufacturing industry in south africa. the influence of unions may, to some degree, illuminate the observed difference between these two industries. union representation is, however, not only limited to the manufacturing industry. however, no literature was found to support or refute this notion. the third objective focused on the differences in inducements and expectations between organisations with and without dedicated career sections on their websites. organisations with dedicated career pages convey significantly more inducements and expectations. a possible explanation may reside in that the theory of planned behaviour, explained by lin (2010) supporting the notion that information that is easily accessible, will more likely be used. suazo et al. (2009) and yen et al. (2011) explain that organisations may use such pages as a dedicated ‘one-stop’ page to entice and attract suitable candidates. practical implications managers, as agents and contract makers of the employer, have a determining impact on the content contained in the psychological contract (conway & briner, 2005; rousseau, 1989). practices surrounding recruitment, training interventions, performance appraisals, compensation systems and employee handbooks all play a role in informing the psychological contract (suazo et al., 2009). results obtained from this study provide human resource practitioners and managers of organisations a practical means of identifying the inducements and expectations conveyed through their public websites. the incidences of inducements and expectations serve as a warning to employers that breach and violation could lead to the negative effects of reduced leader–member exchange and organisational justice (tziner et al., 2017), employees’ prohibitive voice (guo, 2017), an increase in unethical behaviour (ning & zhaoyi, 2017) and counterproductive work behaviour (griep & vantilborgh, 2018). a website, as a form of organisational text, was shown to convey a fair number of inducements and expectations. this information could enable organisations to identify and better manage the employer–employee relationship. the measure used in this research provides insight into the elements on which the psychological contract is built and informed. future research on the inducements and expectations not conveyed on any of the organisations’ websites may be undertaken. the focus of this future research may be to determine the reasons for non-conveyance. limitations and recommendations the codebook developed was only applied to organisations’ websites. future research should be conducted that applies the same measure to different forms of organisational texts. by taking a broader approach in analysis, a more complete picture of which inducements and expectations are conveyed may be obtained. duplication studies on different organisations’ websites listed on different stock exchanges, as well as non-listed organisations, may further enhance the reliability and validity of the measure. the results obtained through the measure indicate that organisations may find utility from these results in an attempt to improve and maintain the employer–employee relationship. to be able to answer this question, future research should be undertaken that is aimed at proving the effectiveness of the information obtained from the measure at maintaining or improving the psychological contract between employer and employee. conclusion the purpose of this research was to explore which inducements and obligations are made known by top-listed organisations on the johannesburg stock exchange. organisations convey and communicate inducements and expectations through various means to a wide audience. management should be sensitive to the potential determining impact on the psychological contact, communicated through different forms of content to current and potential employees. organisations ought to be sensitised to the fact that inducements and expectations conveyed through their websites create expectations that need to be honoured and may have a long-term effect on the employer–employee relationship. breach or violation of these inducements and expectations may lead to adverse negative effects in the organisation. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank jaclyn de klerk for the statistical analysis, as well as the two reviewers for their valuable comments. they are also grateful to the university of johannesburg for granting ethical clearance and permission to conduct this research. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions j.v.n. was the student who conducted the research as part of the requirements for the mphil employment relations degree. p.c.-f. was the supervisor and r.v.w. was the co-supervisor. p.c-f. and r.v.w. provided inputs, advice, guidance, support and reviews. all authors prepared the article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article. disclaimer the views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not an official position of the institution or funder. references adams, j.s. (1963). toward an understanding of inequity. journal of abnormal psychology, 67(5), 422–436. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0040968 agarval, u.a., & gupta, r.k. (2018). examining the nature and effects of psychological contract: case study of an indian organization. thunderbird international business review, 60(2), 175–191. https://doi.org/10.1002/tie.21870 american psychological association. (2010). ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. the american psychologist, 57 (12), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.57.12.1060 babbie, e.r. (2007). the practice of social research (11th edn.). belmont, ca: wadsworth publishing. bankins, s. (2015). a process perspective on psychological contract change: making sense of, and repairing, psychological contract breach and violation through employee coping actions. journal of organizational behavior, 36(8), 1071–1095. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2007 bendix, s. (2001). dispute settlement. in p. hanekom (ed.), industrial relations in south africa (4th edn., pp. 549–598). cape town: juta and co. ltd. bischoff, c., & wood, g. (2013). micro and small enterprises and employment creation: a case study of manufacturing micro and small enterprises in south africa. development southern africa, 30(4/5), 564–579. https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835x.2013.817303 business times. (2015, november 01). business times top 100 companies. business times, p. 2. chapman, a. (2001). adams’ equity theory – workplace motivational theory – how individuals measure inputs and outcomes in relation to market norms and ‘referents’. retrieved from http://www.businessballs.com/adamsequitytheory.htm. chen, h.-f., & chiu, y.-h. (2009). the influence of psychological contracts on the adjustment and organisational commitment among expatriates: an empirical study in taiwan. international journal of manpower, 30(8), 797–814. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720911004434 choi, y., & lee, d. (2014). psychological capital, big five traits, and employee outcomes. journal of managerial psychology, 29(2), 122–140. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmp-06-2012-0193 clinton, m.e., & guest, d.e. (2014). psychological contract breach and voluntary turnover: testing a multiple mediation model. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 87(1), 200–207. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12033 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd edn.). hillsdale, nj: l. erlbaum associates. commission for conciliation mediation and arbitration (ccma). (2015). annual report 2014–2015. johannesburg: cma national office. commission for conciliation mediation and arbitration (ccma). (2016). annual report 2015–2016. johannesburg: cma national office. commission for conciliation mediation and arbitration (ccma). (2017). annual report 2016/2017, johannesburg: cma national office. commission for conciliation mediation and arbitration (ccma). (2018). annual report 2017/2018, johannesburg: cma national office. conway, n., & briner, r.b. (2005). understanding psychological contracts at work: a critical evaluation of theory and research. oxford: oxford university press. cook, k.s., cheshire, c., rice, e.r.w., & nakagawa, s. (2013). social exchange theory. in j. delamater & a. ward (eds.), handbook of social psychology (2nd edn., pp. 61–88). new york: springer science and business media. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6772-0_3 coyle-shapiro, j.a.-m., & conway, n. (2005). exchange relationships: examining psychological contracts and perceived organizational support. journal of applied psychology, 90(4), 774–781. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.90.4.774 creswell, j.w., & plano clark, v.l. (2011). designing and conducting mixed methods research (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. deng, h., coyle-shapiro, j., & yang, q. (2017). beyond reciprocity: a conservation of resources view on parties. journal of applied psychology, 103(5), 561–577. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000272 department of justice. (2013). protection of personal information act (4/2013). government gazette 31666. pretoria: government. department of labour. (1994). occupational health and safety amendment act (181/1993). government gazette 15369. pretoria: government printer. department of labour. (2008). skills development amendment act (37/2008). government gazette 31666. pretoria: government printer. de vos, a., buyens, d., & schalk, r. (2003). psychological contract development during organizational socialization: adaptation to reality and the role of reciprocity. journal of organizational behavior, 24(5), 537–559. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.205 emerson, r.m. (1976). social exchange theory. annual review of sociology, 60(2), 335–362. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2007.00081_11.x erkutlu, h., & chafra, j. (2016). benevolent leadership and psychological well-being. leadership & organization development journal, 37(3), 369–386. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-07-2014-0129 freese, c. (2007). organizational change and the dynamics of psychological contracts: a longitudinal study. ridderkerk, netherlands: ridderprint. freese, c., schalk, r., & croon, m. (2008). de tilburgse psychologisch contract vragenlijst [the tillburg psychological contract questionnaire]. gedrag en organisatie, 21(3), 278–294. freese, c., schalk, r., & croon, m. (2011). the impact of organizational changes on psychological contracts: a longitudinal study. personnel review, 40(4), 404–422. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481111133318 griep, y., & vantilborgh, t. (2018). let’s get cynical about this! recursive relationships between psychological contract breach and counterproductive work behaviour. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 91(2), 421–429. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12201 guerrero, s., & naulleau, m. (2016). what’s next after psychological contract violation? industrial relations, 71(4), 639–659. https://doi.org/10.7202/1038526ar guest, d.e. (2004). the psychology of the employment relationship: an analysis based on the psychological contract. applied psychology: an international review, 53(4), 541–555. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2004.00187.x guest, d.e., & conway, n. (2002). communicating the psychological contract: an employer perspective. human resource management journal, 12(2), 22–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2002.tb00062.x guo, y. (2017). effect of psychological contract breach on employee voice behavior: evidence from china. social behavior and personality, 45(6), 1019–1028. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.6326 hom, p.w., tsui, a.s., wu, j.b., lee, t.w., zhang, a.y., fu, p.p., & li, l. (2009). explaining employment relationships with social exchange and job embeddedness. the journal of applied psychology, 94(2), 277–297. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013453 homans, g.c. (1958). social behavior as exchange. american journal of sociology, 63(6), 597–606. https://doi.org/10.1086/222355 ibm corp. (2016). ibm spss statistics for windows. armonk, ny: ibm corp. johannesburg stock exchange. (2014). jse listed companies. retrieved from http://www.jse.co.za/how-to-list/main-board/main-board-listed-companies.aspx. katou, a.a., & budwar, p.s. (2012). the link between hr practices, psychological contract fulfillment, and organizational performance: the case of the greek service sector. thunderbird international business review, 54(6), 793–809. https://doi.org/10.1002/tie.21504 kickul, j.r., & lester, s.w. (2001). broken promises: equity sensitivity as a moderator between psychological contract breach and employee attitudes and behavior. journal of business and psychology, 16(2), 191–217. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1011105132252 kingshott, r.p.j., & dincer, o.c. (2008). determinants of public service employee corruption: a conceptual model from the psychological contract perspective. journal of industrial relations, 50(1), 69–85. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022185607085695 krause, a.j., & moore, s.y. (2017). ideological currency in the psychological contracts of corporate manufacturing employees. employee responsibilities and rights journal, 29(1), 15–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-017-9289-1 krippendorff, k.h. (2013). content analysis: an introduction to its methodology (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. lee, c., liu, j.u.n., rousseau, d.m., hui, c., & chen, z.x. (2011). inducements, contributions, and fulfillment in new employee psychological contracts. human resource management, 50(2), 201–226. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20415 lin, h.-f. (2010). applicability of the extended theory of planned behavior in predicting job seeker intentions to use job-search websites. international journal of selection and assessment, 18(1), 64–74. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2389.2010.00489.x linde, b. (2015). the value of wellness in the workplace: a perspective of the employee-organisation relationship in the south african labour market. london: springer. lub, x.d., blomme, r.j., & bal, p.m. (2011). psychological contract and organizational citizenship behavior: a new deal for new generations? advances in hospitality and leisure, 7, 109–130. https://doi.org/10.1108/s1745-3542(2011)0000007010 montes, s.d., & irving, p.g. (2008). disentangling the effects of promised and delivered inducements: relational and transactional contract elements and the mediating role of trust. journal of applied psychology, 93(6), 1367–1381. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012851 morrison, e.w., & robinson, s.l. (1997). when employees feel betrayed: a model of how psychological contract violation develops. academy of management review, 22(1), 226–256. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1997.9707180265 national treasury. (2002). financial intelligence centre act (33/2004). government gazette 27580. pretoria: government printer. nikolaou, i., tomprou, m., & vakola, m. (2007). individuals’ inducements and the role of personality: implications for psychological contracts. journal of managerial psychology, 22(7), 649–663. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710820082 ning, n., & zhaoyi, l. (2017). psychological contract breach, organizational disidentification, and employees’ unethical behavior: organizational ethical climate as moderator. social behavior and personality: an international journal, 45(9), 1409–1424. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.6708 pallant, j. (2016). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using spss (6th edn.). maidenhead: open university press. payne, s.c., culbertson, s.s., lopez, y.p., boswell, w.r., & barger, e.j. (2015). contract breach as a trigger for adjustment to the psychological contract during the first year of employment. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 88(1), 41–60. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12077 penfold, r., & ronnie, l. (2015). peer-to-peer psychological contracts in the south african wine industry. sa journal of human resource management, 13(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.701 quantisle. (2017). qiqqa [computer software]. retrieved january 15, 2017, from http://www.qiqqa.com/. raeder, s., wittekind, a., inauen, a., & grote, g. (2009). testing a psychological contract measure in a swiss employment context. swiss journal of psychology, 68(4), 177–188. https://doi.org/10.1024/1421-0185.68.4.177 rose, s., spinks, n., & canhoto, a.i. (2015). management research: applying the principles. london: routledge. rousseau, d.m. (1989). psychological and implied contracts in organizations. employee responsibilities and rights journal, 2(2), 121–139. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01384942 rousseau, d.m. (1995). psychological contracts in organizations: understanding written and unwritten agreements. newbury park, ca: sage. rousseau, d.m. (2000). psychological contract inventory: technical report. pittsburgh, pa: the heinz school of public policy and management, carnegie mellon university. rousseau, d.m. (2001). schema, promise and mutuality: the building blocks of the psychological contract. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 74(4), 511–541. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317901167505 rousseau, d.m. (2008). psychological contract inventory: employee and employer obligation. pittsburgh, pa: carnegie mellon university. schalk, r., de jong, j., rigotti, t., mohr, g., peiró, j.m., & caballer, a. (2010). the psychological contract of temporary and permanent workers. in d.e. guest, k. isaksson, & h. de witte (eds.), employment contracts, psychological contracts, and employee well-being (pp. 89–119). oxford: oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199542697.001.0001 singh, k. (2007). quantitative social research methods. thousand oaks, ca: sage. srivastava, p., & bhatnagar, j. (2010). employer brand for talent acquisition: an exploration towards its measurement. vision: the journal of business perspective, 14(1–2), 25–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/097226291001400103 suazo, m.m., martínez, p.g., & sandoval, r. (2009). creating psychological and legal contracts through human resource practices: a signaling theory perspective. human resource management review, 19(2), 154–166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2008.11.002 suazo, m.m., & stone-romero, e.f. (2011). implications of psychological contract breach: a perceived organizational support perspective. journal of managerial psychology, 26(5), 366–382. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683941111138994 tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2014). using multivariate statistics (6th edn.). harlow: pearson education limited. tomprou, m., & nikolaou, i. (2011). a model of psychological contract creation upon organizational entry. career development international, 16(4), 342–363. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620431111158779 tziner, a., felea, m., & vasiliu, c. (2017). psychological contract breach, leader-member exchange, perceived ethical climate and organisational justice: are they interrelated and how? journal for east european management studies, 22(1), 63–82. https://doi.org/10.5771/0949-6181-2017-1-63 vantilborgh, t., bidee, j., pepermans, r., willems, j., huybrechts, g., & jegers, m. (2014). effects of ideological and relational psychological contract breach and fulfilment on volunteers’ work effort. european journal of work & organizational psychology, 23(2), 217–230. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2012.740170 yen, c.-l. (alan), murrmann, s.k., & murrmann, k.f. (2011). the influence of context orientation on job seeker perceptions of recruitment, person-organization fit, and job application intention in the hospitality industry. journal of human resources in hospitality & tourism, 10(3), 315–330. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332845.2011.555882 zribi, h., & souaï, s. (2013). deviant behaviors in response to organizational injustice: mediator test for psychological contract breach – the case of tunisia. journal of business studies quarterly, 4(4), 1–26. 8kleynhans.qxd the role of human capital in the competitive platform of south african manufacturing industries is investigated in this paper. international competition is intensif ying following international trade agreements, like gatt, and the effect of modern technology and globalisation, while tariffs and trade restrictions are declining. this exposes companies to international price and cost structures, which can replace local sales and with it local employment that manufacture those commodities. on the other hand productive human capital can provide a country with a competitive edge that could lead to economic growth and enhance everyone’s welfare. human resources are an important factor of production and have a direct impact on the competitiveness of firms. human capital is those elements in humans that enhance the quality of labour, such as skills, knowledge and wisdom, which make it worth more in the production process. improvement in the quality of human resources can lead to lower unit costs of production and sales and in that way decreases marginal cost structures, enabling firms to trade products at lower prices and better quality. a supply of quality labour in a country can then lead to competitive markets and growth. this paper commence with a theoretical discussion on the role of human capital in the competitiveness of firms and the country, followed by a review of the available literature of the subject. then the empirical results of a survey conducted among south african manufacturers will be described. human capital as a factor of production in economics, natural resources, capital goods, labour and entrepreneurship are considered to be the four factors utilised as inputs in the production process. half off these: labour, management and/or entrepreneurship consist of people. their knowledge, skills and ability to produce, present human capital to the production process. the higher the stock of human capital the more output can be delivered per labour unit and the higher its value to the process. labour is therefore an important factor in a country’s industrial competitiveness platform. competitiveness relate to a firm’s ability to enlarge its market share. a firm can conquer a growing share of market demand by selling more goods and services. this will be possible when the firm can supply at lower prices or better quality, reliable supply, low risk, providing a superior total sales package and a better image. in all of these aspects human capital has a role to play. improving labour productivit y enhances competitiveness. although some st udies on price competitiveness ignore labour altogether (e.g. siggle, 2001), others like mazumdar and van seventer (2004) estimate price competitiveness solely considering labour. productivity is calculated as the total production per production factor input. (tp/pfin). labour productivity is then determined as the average product, which is the output per labour unit (apl = tp/l). the more output per labour unit the more valuable labour becomes. optimal resource allocation is found at the point where the marginal productivity delivered by a factor of production per last rand spent are equal in all factor markets. thus mpl/w = mpc/i, where mp are the marginal products of labour and capital, respectively, w is the wage rate and i the price of capital (usually interest rates). when the additional product (mpl) yield by labour increases without increase in price, the quality of labour is improving and its worth increases (mpl/l�). in this way labour makes the production process more competitive. this might shift the total production function up to a higher level, which sollow saw as a prerequisite for sustainable economic growth and development (todaro & smith, 2004, p. 130). this also makes labour more valuable than other production factors. capital will be substituted for labour, creating more employment in the economy, enhancing everyone’s wealth. when human capital becomes more valuable per unit of production it implies that a firm’s cost functions is depressed. average and total variable costs shift down and the marginal cost cur ve moves to the right. these down and rightward shifts of the cost functions imply higher productivit y and a better competitive position. as marginal cost curves represents the supply curve of firms, added together to form the market supply curve, higher labour productivity implies an outward shift of the total market supply, which will usually persist sustainable into the future. improved labour productivity can be due to better skilled workers or better managerial efficiency. this can shift the supply curve permanently to the right, increasing production, income, employment and wealth on the macro-level, while the country’s general price level declines, making the entire country more competitive. epj kleynhans school of economics, risk management & international trade north west university eknepjk@puk.ac.za abstract the objective of this study was to investigate the role of human capital in the competitive platform of south african industries and to determine the ability of their human capital to address the challenges of modern technology and globalisation. attention is given to the competitive strengths and investment opportunities, including the quality and availability of human resources, labour cost, level of education and skills, vocational and industry related training facility, work ethics, productivity, workplace regulations, as well as efficiency of the civil service; including productivity and competitiveness indexes. the study found that the level of human capital in south african industries is much higher than the general perception and not the worst element of south africa’s competitive platform. the findings also indicated challenges, like absentees due to aids and other factors, a shortage of artisans and proficiency towards modern technology and innovation, which limits competitiveness. key words labour productivity, human capital, competitiveness, production factor the role of human capital in the competitive platform of south african industries 55 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (3), 55-62 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (3), 55-62 kleynhans56 the so-called porter diamond of competitiveness (porter, 1998) emphasise input factors of production, output market conditions, and firm structure, rivalry and management as well as related and supporting firms and services. modern profit maximisation also requires production management, innovation and marketing at a higher level. in all of this human capital is involved. utilising modern technology with such proficiency that it leads to new innovations, builds competitiveness, while managerial efficiency has to upgrade processes and apply creative entrepreneurial activity. when legislation and trade union action push the wage rate up the opposite happens and the industry will move towards selfdestruction, especially when cost structures of firms are distorted in relation to international price structures. as human capital is involved in all the aspects of production and trade the quality thereof plays a role in all processes. by improving human capital, profit margins and competitiveness increase, making sustain growth possible. this emphasise the need for education and training, especially industry and vocational related training. a large pool of productive workers enable firms to grow as productive labour is available and this will be an important factor when the location of firms is determined (krugman, 1998). as agglomeration takes place more firms become available in the industrial districts or computer net works and advantages of knowledge and technological spill-overs occur. these spill-overs effects are mainly conveyed by people between different firms which come in contact with each other. spill-overs effects, education and training as well as experience and learning by doing all enable human capital to accumulate and become more productive. in this way the production function are pushed up continually and diminishing marginal returns may not occur or occur at much higher production levels as predicted by the endogenous growth theory (cypher & dietz, 1997, p. 115). all these aspects of south african industries will be investigated in the empirical section. studies on human capital and competitiveness there exists an extensive volume of studies related to human capital in the available literature. mayikana (2002) states that “the future of competition is human”, but focuses mainly on human capital management. very few considered the role of it on the competitiveness of firms or nations and none on its role in the south african competitive platform. on the other hand productivity received a lot of attention and several authors consider it to be synonymous, although it only entails a single aspect of competitiveness. to name a few examples: de jager (2004) st udied the productive use of human capital and yadavalli (2001) the value of human capital in productivity. van zyl (2004) suggested cost-production dualit y as an instrument to measure labour productivit y, as well as a unique microeconomic instrument that expresses productivity in monetary terms (van zyl & kleynhans, 1995). mazumdar and van seventer (2002) described the application of a simple decomposition model to assess the trade off between employment growth and real wage growth, while wilson (2003) constructed an input-output model of labour productivity equations of the american economy. several authors estimated whether productivity is improving (like mantashe, 2004 & lewis, 2002) and ways to enhance productivity (e.g. sigonyela, 2004). schoeman (2002) argues that the answer to higher levels of growth and development lies in a balanced approach between government expenditures aimed at increasing investment in human capital, research and development and productivity. much is written on the enhancement of labour productivity and managerial efficiency. falkenberg (2005, p. 42), for instance, st udied companies as learning organisations. pistorius (2004) studied the link between competitiveness and innovation, stressing that human resources are one of the most important components of a national innovation strategy. the role of management is studied by authors like brooks (2004), while others discuss specific management challenges, like managing knowledge (de villiers & michel, 2004; redelinghuys, 2001). cascio (2005, p. 16) considered the economic benefits of effective human capital management. others in the similar fields are wright and breytenbach (2004) and horwitz (2005) said “hr can advance competitiveness”. the institute for management development's (imd) studies strengths and weaknesses according to world competitiveness indices, ranking countries, stressing the importance of marketing a country. beisiegel (2003) emphasises that productivity improvement will ultimately raise the standard of living of all south africans as did van den berg (2003) who found that a country's standard of living depends on its productivity. trostel (2000) investigated micro evidence on human capital as the engine of growth and its relation to endogenous growth. in firm-specific studies grimbeek (2005, p. 39) studied the business philosophy of nissan (sa), schoeman and roode (2004) the importance of leadership for continuous growth of clover industries, while kaplan (2004) investigated comparative industrial performance in the south africa's motor and textile industries. aljuhani (2002) studied labour utilisation and labour productivity of a gold mine in saudi arabia, while fedderke and pirouz (2002) and radebe (2002) examined the labour cost and labour productivity in south african mining sectors. focussing specifically on competitiveness siggel (2000 & 2001) studied industrial price competitiveness in india and uganda, while mbaye and golub (2002) studied unit labour costs, international competitiveness and exports in senegal. mulder and de groot (2004) made an international comparison of labour-productivity performance. de jong and soete (2005) made a comparative description of the productivity in belgian and dutch manufacturing, cörvers (2005) considered the impact of human capital on labour productivit y in manufacturing sectors of the european union and galdonsanchez and schmitz (2003) studied labour productivity atlantic iron ore producers; to name a few. van dijk (2003) investigated south african manufacturing performance in international perspective and compared the labour productivity gap with that of the united states. hooper and larin (1989) made an international comparison of labour cost in manufacturing and van seventer (2002) a decomposition of the source of cost distortion for south african industry, while mazumdar and van seventer (2004) investigated real wage growth for south african manufacturing, based on price competitiveness. the above gave a sample of an enormous volume of recent publications on human capital that exists. it also indicated that a study of the role of human capital in the south african industrial competitiveness platform was still not adequately investigated and that is the reason why this study was conducted. aim of the study the objective of this study was to investigate the role of human capital in the competitive platform of south african industries and to determine the ability of their human capital to address the challenges of modern technology and globalisation. the following section gives attention to an empirical study that was conducted among south african manufacturers. human capital in the competitive platform 57 research design research approach an empirical investigation of the competitiveness platform of manufacturers was conducted to determine south africa’s abilit y to address the challenges presented by modern technological development and globalisation. a survey design was utilised to reach the research objectives. the specific design was the cross-sectional design, where a sample is drawn from a population at a particular point in time (shaughnessy & zechmeister, 1997). research methodology participants from a database of 14 000 manufacturing firms 450 firms were randomly selected and a questionnaire was posted to them during 2002. the response was 16,7 per cent, which is regarded as satisfactory for a mail-based survey in africa. although the author would prefer to report only on the responding firms of the survey as a case study, most findings correlate with earlier studies like those of the south african netherlands programme on alternative approaches to development (sanpad, 1999, 2000), roberts and mohamed (2005) and koch and ntege (2005) and some generalisation might be in order. the response to the questionnaire covered a good spread of firms. most respondents were from small firms (45,5%) employing less than 50 employees, while 28,8 per cent were from large firms, employing more than 250 workers. the number of employees ranged between one and 8 400 employees. a total of 47,6 per cent of the responding firms have an annual turnover in excess of r10 million, 27 per cent were between one and five million and 15,9 per cent have a turnover of less than a r1 million annually. considering the various sub-sectors of manufacturing the largest response of 22,4 per cent was from the sub-sector manufacturing products of basic metals, machinery and office equipment, followed by 20,7 per cent from food processing and beverages, 12,1 per cent by producers of chemicals, chemical products, coke, petroleum products, nuclear fuel, and products from rubber and plastic, 21,1 per cent from textiles, clothing and leather products, and 10,3 per cent came from the sub-sectors of electrical and electronic equipment taken together. considering the spatial response from the nine provinces in south africa; the largest response of 39,6 per cent was from gauteng, compared to 13,6 from the eastern cape, 12,1 from north west and 10,6 per cent from the free state. from some provinces the response was so small, making generalisation impossible. some firms were visited in person to complete and collect questionnaires making the response from gauteng disproportionally higher than the other provinces. gauteng is, however, the most important centre of manufact uring, producing more than half of south africa’s gdp. measuring instrument a questionnaire was designed with the assistance of the industrial development corporation (idc), in which most questions expected respondents to rate aspects of competitiveness on a five-point scale between “poor” and “excellent”. in compiling the questionnaire the porter’s competitiveness diamond was taken as the basis, taking into consideration input factors, demand conditions, firm strategy, structure and rivalry, and related and supporting firms, which represents the industrial competitive platform. the questionnaire was extended to include questions measuring specific aspects, like location and expectations. in calculating indices, the methodology was similar in principal to that applied by the international instit ute for management development (imd) in calculating the annual world competitiveness indices. data analysis the data was analysed in co-operation with the statistical consultation service of the north-west university. the data were mostly descriptive, although correlations and regression analysis were estimated where applicable. affirmative factor analysis was done and the significantly high values of cronbach-alpha coefficients that were obtained indicated that the questionnaire was a reliable measuring instrument to measure the proposed objectives. table 1 indicates some of the most important cronbach-alpha coefficients of the various groups of questions. to be reliable cronbach-alpha coefficients should exceed 0,5 and table 1 indicates that all values were satisfactory, most exceeding 0,8 (kleynhans, 2003a, p. 242). the high cronbach-alpha values and the consistency of the responses to the items in the survey suggest that respondents completed the questionnaire with great care and a high degree of accuracy. table 1 cronbach-alpha coefficients question groups coefficients human capital 0,855 resources 0,892 demand conditions 0,815 related & supporting indust. & instit. 0,878 firm strategy, structure & rivalry 0,873 technology & innovation 0,914 quality & environment 0,801 perspective & expectations: current 0,868 perspective & expectations: future 0,789 shortages: current quarter 0,917 shortages: future 0,863 results general findings the most important findings regarding the competitive platform of south africa are represented in figure 1. most questions of the questionnaire expected respondents to rate their response on a five-point scale where 5 is excellent, 4 is good, 3 fair, 2 poor and 1 very bad. although south africa is a less developed country, all categories were on average rated about fair, but none of the main constructs of the questionnaire was rated good or excellent. human resources rated much higher than expected. the survey affirmed the perception that the country’s human capital is between “fair” and “poor”, especially low on productivity, motivation and work ethics. the country’s managerial shortage is a stylised fact, but the survey also highlighted a shortage of artisans, which merits attention (kleynhans, 2003b, p. 16). the supply of unskilled labour is as can be expected fairly well, and that of technical and managerial staff fair. very few responding firms rated the availability of any component of labour as very poor. vocational and industry related training facilities are also insufficient. the findings revealed that human capital is not the worst element of south africa’s competitive platform. as illustrated in figure 1 most respondents perceive the human capital base in south africa to be fair. none of the main constructs were seen as poor but there is much room for improvement, as none were regarded as good or excellent ether. “other recourses”, “technology” and “quality” are stronger elements of the competitiveness platform in south africa, as is “strategy, structure and rivalry”, and this includes managerial performance, which is also part of human capital. kleynhans58 figure 1: strengths and opportunities it is further indicated in figure 1 that the country’s technological base is rated between “fair” and “good”, as is management strategy and quality, where human capital also has a role to play. in some industries, like electronics, a poor technological platform is still hampering competitiveness though and the technological base was not rated as good in any industry. the provision of support services, like cold storage and harbour facilities, for example, is inefficient and where they do exist, it is not utilised. all firms have a very poor perception of the government and civil service, rating them between poor and very bad. the worst rating was that of civil servants that is regarded as poor with a standard deviation of only 0,9 on a five-point scale and none of the respondents viewed them as being very efficient. they are regarded as inefficient and non co-operative. competitivity is also retarded due to a lack of government assistance, information, aid and incentives, political and policy instability. this is a matter that merits serious attention from the government. as usual respondents are unhappy about high costs, taxes and interest rates. there are sometimes shortages of raw materials but it is not serious. finally poor market demand restricts the competitiveness and growth of manufacturers. most respondents regard wage rates, unit labour costs and workplace regulations to be fair, while their perception of productivity is poor, impeding the competitiveness of firms. respondents do not expect the average working hours per factory worker, the average total cost per unit of production or the average labour cost per unit of production to change in the near future. considering the four corners of the porter diamond, competitiveness of south african manufacturers the quality of human capital and the civil service needs lots of attention. it was found that the availability and quality of most input factors were found satisfactory. some capital goods are imported at very high prices and a shortage of skilled labour and managers are sometimes a problem, though not a serious obstacle and shortages do not hamper production. the all over rating of human resources was, however, poor, pushing cost curves up. considering the measures of globalisation the availability and quality of skilled labour is low and not enough is being done to improve human capital. it does not seem that south african firms are adequately equipped to compete in the new economy yet. although the level of technology is fair, the supporting labour is lacking and unproductive. as most workers lack the necessary skills modern equipment cannot be optimally utilised in many instances. government assistance and legislative issues some manufacturers suggested that the government should support manufact uring much more, especially through direct measures. there is a need for more incentives to local manufact uring. some asked for subsidies on transport and wages, like those that existed in the past. more should be done to promote exports, training and manpower development. attention should also be given to local value added services such as consultants, design, building, education and maintenance. some respondents expressed concern against the growing power of trade unions. some manufacturers regard the current labour laws as being “draconian”, which together with affirmative equit y laws are onerous and hostile towards industrial development and need to be addressed. black empowerment programs are seen as restricting industrial expansion and investment and some manufacturers suggested that it should be suspended. labour laws make it difficult for small businesses to control their own businesses and remain competitive. healthier labour relations with manufacturers and deregulation of employment practices are requested. current labour legislation is not seen as an incentive to employ more people, but increases unemployment (this perception is also expressed in current literature; see e.g. maziya, 2001:211). trade union demands and other rising costs present other countries like china with opportunities to compete favourable in the south african market, especially with labour intensive business. local manufacturers therefore plead for a surcharge on import based on the difference in variable costs such as labour, energy and transport. a national drive towards awareness of and commitment to productivit y to increase international competitiveness was suggested including training courses, advertising, propaganda and a national productivity day. it is suggested that the skills development levy should be cancelled as firms can effectively only claim fifteen per cent of the levy back. respondents also suggested that annual wage increases should be linked to the geographical area. education and training the educational level of labour in general should be improved. the low levels of literacy restrict the trainability of most unskilled workers. people should also be trained to acquire quality skills. vocational and industry related training facilities are insufficient and there are a serious shortage prospects for artisan training. development of workers skills should receive more attention and the authorities may consider the subcontracting of private developers. continued investment, development and upgrading of human capital are crucial to obtain and expand competitiveness. on average, respondents view the vocational and industry related training facilities in south africa to be poor. figure 2: education of unskilled labourers the educational level of unskilled labour of the survey is shown in figure 2. the highest level is on average about ten years of school education and only 6,1 per cent of the firms employ mostly workers that are totally illiterate. nearly half (49%) of the unskilled workers have ten years or more, which are far higher than would have been expected. figure 3: qualifications of skilled personal 0 1 2 3 4 h u m a n r e r e s o u rc e d e m a n d s u p p o rt .i n d s tr a te g y t e ch n o lo g y q u a lit y e n v ir o n m e n t 6.1 8.2 2.0 12.2 16.3 6.1 28.6 18.4 2.0 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 u ns ki lle d s td 2 s td 4 s td 5 s td 6 s td 7 s td 8 st d 10 t er tia ry % 1.8 1.8 47.4 24.6 12.3 12.3 0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 std 7 std 8 std 10 technical diploma / trade tertiary non spec degrees % human capital in the competitive platform 59 on the other hand the average level of education among skilled personal is not very high. figure 3 shows the average level of education among skilled labourers in the firms studied. almost half (47,4%) of the workers in this category have only matric and about a quarter (24,6%) has technical diplomas or are skilled artisans. twelve per cent have degrees and another 12,3 per cent tertiary training of some sort although those respondents did not specif y. reasons for absenteeism main reasons why employees are absent from work is illness. the kind of illness was unfortunately not specified. figure 4 shows the main reasons for absence according to respondents. the largest reason following unspecified illness is problems with transport and hiv/aids. many of the other reported illnesses could also be aids related. influenza and tb respectively were both given by 9,6 per cent of the manufacturers as major reasons for absentees. respondents viewed low work ethics as an important factor causing absentees, 9,6 per cent saw workers being unmotivated as a major reason for absentees and another 11 per cent explicitly named laziness and 1,4 per cent disloyalty as major reasons. on the specific questions on work ethics and productivity, most employers rated it as being poor, although some manufacturers also have excellent motivated and productive workers. this should be addressed as workers that do not feel satisfied in their working conditions are neither committed nor productive, pushing marginal cost curves in the wrong direction. manufacturing-labour is, however, newer rated as inefficient as civil servants. although family responsibilities was only seen as a major problem by about 10 per cent of the respondents, tradition was only in 4,1 per cent of the cases a major cause of absentees and trade action was only in 1,4 per cent of the firms a major reason for absentees. figure 4: absent from work social infrastructure the next aspect investigated (not shown on the graph) was social infrastructure near their premises, which was rated by respondents on average, to be fair but they rated the availability of health services to be poor. this probably implies that they feel satisfied with their social infrastructure but view the availability of medical assistance to their employees to be insufficient. the availability of schools, colleges, universities and other industrial training facilities near the premises of manufacturers is a problem and leads to problems obtaining skilled labour. they are satisfied with their managerial skills and practices, but feel that the proximity of professional services is in most cases inadequate. locational factors the new economic geography emphasises a pool of skilled, intermediate inputs, knowledge and technological spill-overs as the most important factors of industrial location. regarding locational aspects of their premises, respondents on average rated both traditional factors of location and modern factors to be poor. neither factors like proximity to markets, low taxes, the availability of land, financial and trucking services, nor modern factors like the proximity of support services, the availability of skilled labour and industrial training facilities are seen as enhancing their efficiency and competitiveness due to their location. management respondents rate the availability of managerial staff as being poor but rate the abilities of management to be on average higher than that of other labour and contributing towards higher competitivity. management is competent and has goods contacts leading to strategic positioning in the market competing successfully with rivals. the most important aspect hampering their activities is shortages of raw material, followed by shortages of skilled labour, machinery and equipment, maintenance and supporting industries. co-operation with competitors was seen to be poor but all other factors relating to firm strategy, structure, and rivalry in the south african economy were perceived by the respondents to be fair to good. as businesses usually try to please their customers, respondents saw co-operation with clients to be the strongest factor. other factors that were seen to be between fair and good were co-operation with suppliers, managerial practice, and managerial skills in the integration and innovation of business activities, employee performance incentives and business contacts. the ability of firms to enter foreign markets, their growth in exports, and profits were also seen as being satisfactory. competitiveness and the size of firms figure 5 illustrates that all aspects of competitiveness grew with firm size, except human resources. smaller firms are more labour intensive and this might be the reason why the largest companies are not so competitive when human capital is considered. demand for skilled and specialised labour increases as firm size increases and this might also be a reason why respondents of the largest firms rate the quality of their labour input as less efficient. larger companies can achieve scale economies, as they are more efficient and more competitive, utilising higher technology. figure 5: competitiveness and firm size the factors of which large companies are experiencing a slight shortage of are skilled labour, managerial staff, raw materials, machinery and equipment and technology and knowledge support services. the only factors that large companies expect to decline in future are electricity and the availability of factory workers, including skilled labour, probably due to the effect of hiv/aids. small firms rate all aspects of their human capital to be poor. the only aspects that are satisfactory are the availability of unskilled workers and workplace regulations. the worst aspects are the efficiency of civil servants, which none rated as excellent, followed by a shortage of managerial staff and artisans and industry related training facilities. medium sized firms also experienced problems with the inefficient civil service and inadequate training facilities, but also with the work ethics of the workforce that are unmotivated, neglected and not conscientious. the respondents of medium sized firms rated all other factors relating to human capital as fair. large companies also found inefficient civil servants to be their greatest obstacle 1.4 1.4 9.6 11.0 9.6 11.0 1.4 16.4 9.6 1.4 4.1 13.7 9.6 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 a lc o h o l d is lo y a lt y f a m ily h iv a id s in fl u e n z a l a z in e s s m a te rn it y s ic k n o s p e c t b t ra d e a ct io n t ra d iti o n t ra n sp o rt u n m o ti va te d % 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 h um an r e r es ou rc e d em an d s up po rt in d s tra te gy t ec hn ol og y q ua lit y small medium lar ge kleynhans60 to competitiveness when considering human capital, followed by high unit costs per worker. other factors were all satisfactory and the best factor was the availability of unskilled labour. table 2 overhead cost per labourer: firm size large 37757 medium 116896 small 128837 total sample 109316 all firms find labour cost to be a fair obstacle, to small firms this is a little bit higher, but there are no significant differences between firms of different sizes. the overhead per worker in smaller firms are higher and declines with firm size. this might be because larger firms have more employees. this might suggest that smaller firms are not as productive; it also correlates with the productivity indices of table 4, which indicates that productivity rises with firm size. it is, however, doubted that the overhead cost per labourer could be interpreted as a measure of productivity as fewer people have to handle more overheads in smaller firms. discussion the role of human capital in the competitive platform of south african manufacturing industries is investigated in this paper. attention was first give to a theoretical background to the role of human capital in enhancing competitiveness, followed by a review of the current literature. then attention was given to a survey conducted among south african manufacturing industries. this paper reported on an empirical study conducted among manufacturers, which investigated human capital’s ability to answer to the challenges of modern technolog y and globalisation. attention was given to the competitive strengths and investment opportunities, including the quality and availability of human resources, labour cost, level of education and skills, vocational and industry related training facility, work ethic of labour force, productivity of labour force, workplace regulations, as well as efficiency of the civil service, including productivity and competitiveness indexes. other aspects like social infrastructure near their premises and health services were also included in the study, as well as the situation in the various provinces, firm-sizes and sub-sectors of manufacturing were compared. the study found that the level of human capital in south african industries much higher than generally perceived and not the worst element of south africa’s competitive platform. the findings also indicated challenges, however, like absentees due to aids and other specific factors, a shortage of artisans and proficiency towards modern technology and innovation. the following section gives some recommendations following the results of this study. recommendations the study indicated a negative perception of the civil service and government by manufacturers. government should provide in service training in an effort to transform the civil service into a more efficient and consumer friendly service. services should be improved and benefits to workers and industry should be obtained much easier cutting unnecessary bureaucratic procedure. to some extend the criticism against government and the civil service is unfounded, but the existence of such perceptions indicates that government should provide much more information to workers and industry. from the existing perceptions it can be presumed that government’s communication channels are insufficient. improving effective communication and to some extend positive propaganda might be to everyone’s advantage. to answer the challenges of globalisation, modern technology and economic growth industries need well trained personnel. since 1994 the training system of artisans in the country has collapsed. government should, in co-operation with technical colleges and large industries, like mining, construct a new system of artisan and other vocational and industrial training, which would supply in the needed demand for trained personnel, quality labour in the shortest possible duration of training. companies need more incentives to provide training of their people. other adult educational training schemes, like reading classes and courses to complete matric and higher education should also be promoted. companies should make an effort to motivate their workers in such a way that they would feel part of the company. the large number so-called lazy and unmotivated workers are an indication that people do not associate with their vacations in a way that can lead to higher productivity and industrial growth. expecting more responsibilit y, empowerment, company shares as part of their remuneration and various training programmes might be of advantage in this regard. the study also revealed much detail that should be followed up, like the fact that there is a need for cold storage facilities, and specific artisans, like toolmakers in the plastics industry and carpenter in the wining industry. the role of human capital in the competitive platform of south african industries should be further investigated to enable generalisation of the findings and determine whether trends persist over time. further research, especially with larger samples, can enable comparison of firms in the various sub-sectors of manufacturing, like food processing, basic metal products and textiles, as well as the various provinces. the study should be conducted annually and on a larger scale, when funds permit, to determine whether structural changes occurred. this will yield more reliable data and provide policymakers, industries and researchers with instruments to design better industrial development programmes and policies, especially in a spatial context. this study estimated competitive indices for provinces and its various sub-divisions, like management, resources, technology, and these findings correlated well with productivity indices, as is illustrated in tables 3 and 4. the same apply to sub-sectors of manufacturing, and different firm-sizes; but as the response rate was too small to differentiate the sample into such small units, it can at this stage only be regarded as an academic exercise. the instruments were, however, developed in this study and can now be implemented in further investigations. the competitiveness indexes calculated for various provinces is similar to the world competitiveness index of the international institute for management development and tested to determine whether the groups form a reliable instrument and whether it is statistically significant (imd, 2001, pp. 516-7). the values of cronbach alpha coefficients calculated were again averaging between 0,7 and 0,9 indicating that the groups of questions probably serve as a reliable measuring instrument. among the manufacturers investigated spatial differences in human capital were found among the various provinces as illustrated in table 3. very little differences exist, however, between human capital in the human capital in the competitive platform 61 various sub-sectors of manufacturing and their influence on competitiveness. literature of the imd on their calculation of the world competitive indices is not very clear and it was decided to base the calculations on their methodology but alter it to suit the need of this study. basically the method calculates a group average and compares, firms or groups of firms in provinces or industries using their standardised standard deviation from the average. a higher value implies higher competitiveness, while a positive value implies competitiveness above the average and a negative value indicates a level of competitiveness that is below average. these indices can suggest an agenda for development. finance, management and infrastructure deserves attention in gauteng, for instance, while the local economy, internationalisation and people need attention in north west and the western cape should focus on the local economy, business efficiency, internationalisation, infrastructure and human capital. limpopo, western cape and the northern cape have the lowest productivity indices and attention should be given to the development of human capital, science and technology to enhance efficiency and productivity. table 4 productivity index provincial indices sub-sector indices firm size indices kwazulu natal 0,802 food -0,199 large 0,687 north west 0,966 textiles -0,563 medium 0,119 mpumalanga 0,604 paper & wood -1,378 small -1,054 eastern cape -0,208 chemicals 0,771 gauteng 0,383 non-metal mine 1,561 northern cape -0,434 basic metal prod 0,995 free state 0,731 electrical -1,897 western cape -0,681 electronics 0,178 limpopo -2,164 transport 0,1778 furniture 0,1778 cronbach alpha coefficient: 0,741 an alarming aspect was the low level of technological proficiency, expertise and innovation in the scienceand technology-based industries like chemicals and electronics. if south africa is to survive in the new economy its level of technological expertise, capabilities and capacity will have to be improved considerably. much research is conducted on smmes, but larger firms are neglected and deserves further investigated. the synergy bet ween small, medium and large firms also deserves attention. when considering the theory of production it was shown that the most important aspect in enhancing industrial competitiveness was in addressing the cost structures of firms. an important extension to this study will be the calculation of cost competitiveness, like the studies done by siggel (2000 & 2001), van seventer (2002) and van seventer and molate (2002). these studies could, however, be contradictory and focus only on productivity as comparative unit cost ratios are calculated as the ratio between total costs and the value added (siggel, 2000, p. 13). a problem when determining cost competitiveness is the availability of detailed data and the estimation of shadow prices. further study of the role of human capital in the competitive platform of south african industries would contribute towards everyone’s welfare and prosperity. author’s note this paper was delivered at the 2005 biannual conference of the economic societ y of south africa. durban and recommendations were incorporated. references aljuhani, m.s.m. (2002). labour's utilization and labour's productivity of a gold mine in saudi arabia. journal of the south african institute of mining and metallurgy, 102, 307-309. beisiegel, h. (2003). productivity and beyond. productivity, 8-9. brooks, m. (2004). project management: opportunity for senior managers. management today, 20, 49. cascio, w. (2005). effective human capital management: huge benefits. management today, 21, 16-18. cörvers. f. (2005). the impact of human capital on labour productivity in manufacturing sectors of the european union. research memoranda from maastricht no 1. researchcentrum voor onderwijs en arbeidsmarkt cypher, j.m. & dietz, j.l. (1997). the process of economic development. london: routledge. table 3 competitve indices of the provinces of south africa sub-categories ranking local internationalgovernfinance inframanagescience & people total economy isation ment structure ment technology kwazulu/natal 1 0,872 0,623 0,893 0,744 1,584 0,921 0,987 1,592 1,032 north west 2 1,301 1,134 1,184 0,64 0,713 1,029 0,759 0,217 0,965 mpumalanga 3 0,971 1,368 0,484 0,591 0,22 0,674 0,918 -0,567 0,687 eastern cape 4 0,306 0,55 0,252 0,653 0,923 0,206 0,041 0,408 0,473 gauteng 5 0,478 0,085 0,574 0,145 0,347 0,336 0,531 0,867 0,401 northern cape 6 -1,031 -0,925 -0,922 -0,572 -1,125 -0,965 -1,434 -0,526 -0,999 free state 7 -0,673 -0,483 -0,177 0,471 -0,498 -0,017 -0,123 0,572 -0,113 western cape 8 -0,727 -0,796 -0,229 -0,308 -0,85 -0,054 -0,319 -0,898 -0,465 limpopo 9 -1,496 -1,557 -2,059 -2,365 -1,314 -2,133 -1,728 -1,664 -1,971 kleynhans62 de jager, j. (2004). the productive use of human capital. productivity sa, 30, 16-17. de jong, h. & soete, a. (2005). comparative levels of labour productivity and labour costs in manufacturing in belgium and the netherlands, 1921-1990. ccso working papers from university of groningen, no 199904, ccso centre for economic research. de villiers, a. & michel, p. (2004). knowledge management: the critical mass lies below the surface. management today, 20, 22-25. falkenberg, r. (2005). the learning organisation: the evolving reality. management today, 21, 42-43. fedderke, j. & pirouz, f. (2002). the role of mining in the south african economy. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 5, 1-34. galdon-sanchez, j.e. & schmitz, j. (2003). competitive pressure and labor productivity: world iron ore markets in the 1980s. quarterly review. federal reserve bank of minneapolis. grimbeek, h. (2005). human resources: strategic human capital management required. management today, 20, 39-40. hooper. p & larin, k.a. (1989). international comparison of labour cost in manufacturing. review of income and wealth, 35, 335-355. horwitz, f. (2005). hr can advance competitiveness. executive business brief, 10, 50-52. imd. (1998 2002). world competitiveness yearbook. lausanne: international institute for management development. kleynhans, e.p.j. (2003a.) the competitive platform for industrial development in south africa. ph.d.thesis. potchefstroom: potchefstroom university. kleynhans, e.p.j. (2003b.) the effect of globalisation on industrial development: the south african experience. paper delivered at the conference on clusters, industrial districts and firms. university of modena and reggio emelia. modena, italy. 12 sept. krugman, p. (1998). what’s new about the new economic geography? oxford review of economic policy, 14, 7-17. koch, s.f. & ntege, s.s. (2005). hiv/aids and labour regulation: the impact of information asymmetries on labour marker outcomes. paper delivered at the biannual conference of the economic society of south africa. durban. 7-9 sept. 2005. lewis, n. (2002). south africa becomes more competitive. productivity, 6-9. mayikana, m. (2002). the future of competition is human. management today, 18, 26-27. mazumdar, d. & van seventer, d. (2002). a decomposition of growth of the real wage rate for south africa, 1970-2000. south african journal of economics, 70, 1076-1102. mbaye, a.a. & golub, s. (2002). unit labour costs, international competitiveness, and exports: the case of senegal. journal of african economies, 11, 219-248. mulder, p. & de groot, h.l.f. (2004). international comparisons of sectoral energyand labour-productivity performance: stylised facts and decomposition of trends. cpb netherlands bureau for economic policy analysis. oulton, n. (2003). competition and the dispersion of labour productivity amongst companies. working papers from national institute of economic and social research. pistorius, c. (2004). competitiveness and innovation. elektron, 21, 3. porter, m.e. (1998). the competitive advantage of nations; with a new introduction. new york: palgrave. radebe, b. (2002). productivit y in the mining industry. productivity, 29-31. redelinghuys, w. (2001). intellectual capital management critical for international business success. management today, 17, 10-11. roberts, s. & mohamed, l. (2005). analysis of the technological challenge faced by the plastics sector and its dynamism. paper delivered at a workshop on the role of net works, relationships, industrial clusters and innovation systems in africa. johannesburg. sanpad see south africa – netherlands research programme on alternatives in development schoeman, a. & roode, m. (2004). leadership: essential for continuous growth. management today, 20, 42-43. schoeman, n. (2002). economic growth and development constraints in sa. productivity, 22-23. shaughnessy, j.j. & zechmeister, e.b. (1997). research methods in psychology (4th ed.). new york: mcgraw-hill. siggel, e. (2001). india’s trade policy reforms and industry competitiveness in the 1980s. world economy, 159-183. siggel, e. (2000). uganda’s policy reforms, industr y competitiveness and regional integration: a comparison with kenya. african economic policy. discussion paper 24. washington: united states agency for international development: bureau for africa. sigonyela, m. (2004). how can we enhance productivity through share incentive schemes. productivity, 10-11. south africa netherlands research programme on alternatives in development. (2000). annual report 2000: the manufacturing sector in north west province. prepared by naudé, w.a; serumaga-zake, p. & oostendorp, r. potchefstroom: potchefstroom university. south africa netherlands research programme on alternatives in development. (1999). first annual report 1999: manufacturing sur vey: north west province of south africa. prepared by naudé, w.a; oostendorp, r; anand, v.k. &. serumaga-zake, p. potchefstroom: potchefstroom university. todaro, m.p. & smith, s.c. (2003). economic development. boston: addison wesley. trostel p.a. (2000). micro evidence on human capital as the engine of growth. the warwick economics research paper series (twerps). department of economics, universit y of warwick. valadkhani, a. (2003). an empirical analysis of australian labour productivity. australian economic papers, 42, 273-291. van den berg, l. (2003). a country's standard of living depends on its productivity. productivity, 20-21. van dijk, m. (2003). south african manufacturing performance in international perspective, 1970-1999. south african journal of economics, 71, 119-142. van seventer, d.e. (2002). a decomposition of the source of cost distortion for south african industry. paper presented at the competitiveness workshop of the (tips). johanesburg. van seventer, d.e. & molate, c. (2002). export competitiveness, a trade performance index for south africa. paper compiled for the tips conference. department of trade and industry. van zyl, g. (2004). the cost-production duality approach to the measurement of labour productivity: a dynamic tool for effective human resource management. sa journal of human resource management, 2, 50-53. van zyl, g. & kleynhans, e.p.j. (1995). a cobb-douglas estimation of labour productivity in the south african motor vehicle industry. sa journal of industrial psychology, 21, 6-9. wilson, d. (2003). embodying embodiment in a structural, macroeconomic input-output model. economic systems research, 15, 371-398. wright, f. & breytenbach, k. (2004). you mismanage human resources, you strangle your business. people dynamics, 22, 26-27. yadavalli, l. (2001). value of human capital in productivity. productivity, 6-10. review panel edition 4.3 mr giel bekker (m. eng) university of pretoria prof wj coetsee university of johannesburg prof j degadt katholieke universiteit, brussels, belgium dr derrik de jongh unisa prof piet de la rey emeritus professor – university of pretoria dr y du plessis university of pretoria prof ltb jackson north-west university prof j kroon north-west university mr ivan latti hr practitioner prof s rothmann north-west university mr michael routledge (industrial psychologist) rhodes university prof amg schreuder unisa prof aj smith university of pretoria dr m ungerer absa prof js uys university of johannesburg dr m venter (economist) private practitioner review panel abstract introduction research design discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) amelda paltu school of human resource sciences, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa marissa brouwers school of human resource sciences, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa citation paltu, a., & brouwers, m. (2020). toxic leadership: effects on job satisfaction, commitment, turnover intention and organisational culture within the south african manufacturing industry. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1338. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1338 original research toxic leadership: effects on job satisfaction, commitment, turnover intention and organisational culture within the south african manufacturing industry amelda paltu, marissa brouwers received: 10 feb. 2020; accepted: 26 may 2020; published: 13 july 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the impact of toxic leadership on employees and organisations has only recently become the focus of certain research studies. research purpose: the general objective of this research was to investigate the relationship between toxic leadership, job satisfaction, turnover intention and commitment. the aim further was to test whether organisation culture mediates the relationship between toxic leadership and certain job outcomes such as job satisfaction, turnover intention and commitment. motivation for the study: currently, no knowledge is available on the relationships between toxic leadership and job outcomes within the context of south african manufacturing organisations. therefore, this study provides south african organisations and researchers with an insight into such a relationship and the mentioned mediation of organisational culture in the process. research approach/design and method: a cross-sectional research design with a sample size of n = 600 manufacturing employees was used. product–moment correlations, multiple regression and structural equation modelling were used. main findings: the test results returned both direct and indirect effects for all the relationships, which indicated only partial mediation in all the tested relationships. practical/managerial implications: the results provided organisations’ insight into the possible consequences of toxic leadership on employees and the organisations’ culture. contribution/value-add: the improved understanding of toxic leadership and the relationship with certain job outcomes contributes to the body of knowledge on both the theory of toxic leadership and on employees’ experience of such leadership styles in the work environment. keywords: toxic leadership; job satisfaction; organisation commitment; turnover intention; organisational culture; correlations; mediation; regression; structural equation. introduction leadership contributes significantly to an organisation’s success or failure (lok & crawford, 2003). according to rasid, manaf and quoquab (2013), the capability of a leader to lead and motivate employees should not be disregarded. however, in recent years, there has been a rise in toxic leadership styles within organisations (mehta & maheshwari, 2013), and veldsman (2012) argued that as many as three out of 10 leaders may manifest such a toxic style of leadership. veldsman (2012) indicated that toxic leadership threatens the well-being of both individuals and organisations, and this creates an urgent need to understand the nature and evolution of toxic leadership and the organisations involved. through an initial research into toxic leadership, several key themes have emerged. these are the following: toxic leaders are harmful or abusive (lipman-blumen, 2005), tend to micromanage (mehta & maheshwari, 2013), are unpredictable (schmidt, 2008), display narcissistic tendencies (schmidt, 2008), show a lack of integrity and cause divisiveness (lipman-blumen, 2005). however, minimal literature is available on the influence of toxic leadership on organisations as well as the individuals who work in these organisations (leet, 2011). the manufacturing sector currently contributes around 13.2% of the gross domestic product (gdp) and is the fourth largest sector in the south african economy, as reported in march 2019 (idc [industrial development corporation], 2019). furthermore, according to the idc, the total number employed at the end of the last quarter of 2018 was 1.21 m people (idc, 2019). the sector has seen a decline of 1.4% over the last 6 years, increasing the pressures that managers have to deal with in terms of cost, electricity supply, skills shortages and productivity levels (idc, 2019). as the manufacturing industry is labour-intensive, it is important to recognise the behaviours of leaders that can be detrimental not only to the organisation but also to the performance of the employees (mehta & maheshwari, 2013). therefore, it is important to investigate the prevalence and presence of toxic leadership in the manufacturing industry. whilst positive leadership styles are correlated with good organisational results, certain negative leadership styles have harmful effects on employees and the work environment (akca, 2017). in this regard, results from a recent survey by life meets work consulting indicated that as many as 56% of employees were currently working for a toxic leader whose behaviour was creating an unhealthy work environment (lazarczyk, 2017). several studies investigated negative leadership styles from which the theme of toxic leadership has emerged (e.g. kusy & holloway, 2009; lipman-blumen, 2005; mehta & maheshwari, 2014; schmidt, 2008, 2014). these initial studies into toxic leadership indicate that this concept exists in numerous organisations today. thus, scores of employees have been exposed to leaders and managers who display toxic behaviour styles (mehta & maheswari, 2014). however, evident from the initial studies was the insight that toxic leaders may be highly competent and effective in their jobs but help cause an unhealthy climate among their subordinates and peers, with the consequences of their actions reaching further than merely a few individuals (tavanti, 2011). toxic leadership also appeared to be a leadership style in its own right, not merely defined as the lack of effective leadership (schmidt, 2008). through the above-mentioned studies, toxic leaders have been broadly referred to as individuals who, through their destructive behaviour, inflict serious and enduring harm on individuals, groups, organisations, communities and even nations that they lead (lipman-blumen, 2005). according to mehta and maheshwari (2013), toxic leaders and their decisions do not only affect the organisation but also every individual with whom they come in contact. schmidt (2008) agreed that this leadership style has particularly negative consequences for the entire workforce and the organisation as a whole. organisational outcomes because of toxic leadership include negative effects on a company’s performance (ashforth, 1997), higher turnover intention (tate, 2009) and a lack of commitment (weaver & yancy, 2010). webster, brough, daly and myors (2011) found that the articles and books outlining the effects of toxic leadership have a conceptual nature, with limited empirical investigations performed to test the effect on job outcomes. this finding is supported by schmidt (2014) who emphasised the limited empirical testing on the relationship between toxic leadership and job-related outcomes. according to lok and crawford (2003), there is also a strong correlation between leadership, organisational culture and its effect on organisational commitment and job satisfaction. sadri and lees (2001) found that negative organisational culture impedes an organisation’s ability to perform. van der post, de coning and smit (1997) indicated that organisations are ‘living entities’ that exhibit their own personalities through what is known as ‘organisational culture’. this culture in turn gives meaning and direction to the employees (van der post et al., 1997) and creates an environment within which the organisation functions (sempane, reiger, & roodt, 2002). schein (2004) suggested that the leadership of an organisation and its culture are linked closely, and that senior leaders permeate an organisation’s culture with their own personal characteristics by establishing goals, values and norms (schneider, goldstein, & brent-smith, 1995). giberson et al. (2009) asserted that toxic leaders create a toxic culture by changing the content of ideal leadership. recent studies on leadership have indicated that organisational culture may have a mediating effect on the relationship between leadership and job outcomes, and that the mediator’s influence is stronger than that of the independent variable (imran, zahoor, & zaheer, 2012; rasid et al., 2013). therefore, it is necessary to investigate the influence or the mediating effect of organisational culture between toxic leadership and certain job outcomes, for example, job satisfaction, organisational commitment, organisational culture and turnover intention. such an investigation is necessary as, to date, no study in south africa has attempted to measure the mediating effect of organisational culture on toxic leaders. furthermore, in south africa, limited research has been conducted on the topic of toxic leadership as such. an introductory study by veldsman (2012) centred on introducing and defining the concept. dladla (2011), du toit (2015) and heine (2013) in south africa restricted their research to investigating certain aspects of negative leadership, such as unethical behaviour and distrust. it is important to understand whether the phenomenon of toxic leadership is also present in the south african workplace, and if so, what its impact is on employees in those organisations. thus far, no study in south africa has attempted to measure toxic leadership and its relationship with the above-mentioned job-related outcomes, as well as its effect on the organisation and its employees. the manufacturing industry in south africa is currently under pressure to remain competitive, and one of the main reasons for this pressure is inefficient leadership (ebrahim & pieterse, 2016). therefore, a study of this nature will help the manufacturing industry assess toxic leadership in the industry, as well as contribute to the limited research available on this topic currently. research purpose and objectives the general objective of this research was to investigate the relationship between toxic leadership, job satisfaction, turnover intention and organisational commitment. the aim further was to test whether organisational culture mediates the relationship between toxic leadership and certain job outcomes, such as job satisfaction, turnover intention and organisational commitment. literature review toxic leadership can and should be universally recognised as a unique set of destructive behaviours or characteristics that negatively impact the subordinate group in a predictable and intentional way (padilla, hogan, & kaiser, 2007). for the purpose of this study, toxic leadership can be described as a concept that is multidimensional in nature, which compromises various dimensions as outlined by schmidt (2008). toxic leadership comprises five dimensions: (1) abusive supervision refers to a leader’s perceived intentionally hostile behaviours towards employees (dobbs, 2014; schmidt, 2014), excluding physical contact (tepper, 2007); (2) authoritarian leadership attempts to exert excessive authority and control over subordinates (dobbs, 2014) in such a way that the leaders ultimately control all the work (schmidt, 2014); (3) narcissism points to a style driven by arrogance and self-absorption, where self-orientated actions are designed to enhance the self (dobbs, 2014) but often fails to follow company policies whilst expecting it of employees (schmidt, 2014); (4) self-promotion advertises their accomplishments and also take credit for others’ work (dobbs, 2014), blame others and deflect responsibility for mistakes (schmidt, 2014); and (5) unpredictability: through their actions, they keep subordinates afraid and watchful (dobbs, 2014). these leaders act differently when their superiors are around (schmidt, 2008), and their consistently unpredictable actions eventually cause their subordinates to give up, feeling helpless and powerless to protect themselves (schmidt, 2014). job satisfaction job satisfaction has to do with an individual’s perceptions and evaluation of his job, and this perception is influenced by the person’s unique circumstances, such as needs, values and expectations. (buitendach & rothmann, 2009, p. 1) mehta and maheshwari (2013) found a statistically significant negative relationship between toxic leadership and job satisfaction. their findings are supported by schmidt (2014) who indicated a statistically negative relationship between toxic leadership and job satisfaction on both the individual and group level. kusy and holloway (2009), as well as tepper (2007), concurred that toxic, destructive and dysfunctional leadership behaviour has a negative impact on employees’ job satisfaction. job satisfaction is the most important factor in understanding worker motivation, effectiveness, retention and performance (shaju & subhashini, 2017). enhanced levels of performance have a positive impact of job satisfaction. this can be grounded from the social exchange theory (cropanzano & mitchell, 2005), which provides an avenue of explanation in that it presents that social behaviour is the result of an exchange process with the intention to maximise benefits and minimise costs. therefore, if employees feel more satisfied with their job environment and leadership, they will be more inclined to perform better at work, resulting in an enhanced level of job performance, positive work values, high levels of employee motivation, and lower rates of absenteeism, turnover and burnout (shaju & subhashini, 2017). organisational commitment organisational commitment refers to the psychological link between employees and the organisation (meyer & allen, 1991). this link creates a bond that will make it less likely that individual employees will leave the organisation voluntarily. meyer and allen (1991) referred to three forms of organisational commitment, namely (1) affective commitment refers to the emotional attachment that employees feel towards their organisations; (2) continuance commitment entails employees’ decision to remain with their organisation, because they deem the cost of leaving too high; and (3) normative commitment refers to employees’ bond with an organisation because of a perceived sense of obligation towards the organisation (meyer & allen, 1991). mehta and maheshwari (2013) found a statistically significant negative relationship between toxic leadership and organisational commitment. schmidt’s follow-up study found that toxic leadership does not only affect organisational commitment at the individual level but also at the group level. the impact also indicated a statistically negative relationship (schmidt, 2014), especially concerning the affective commitment dimension of organisational commitment. furthermore, weaver and yancy (2010) also found that forms of destructive leadership behaviour impact negatively on employees’ commitment to the organisation. turnover intention tett and meyer (1993) described turnover intention as a conscious and deliberate wilfulness (i.e. conscious and deliberate determination) to leave the organisation. the results of schmidt’s follow-up study (2014) indicated that toxic leadership significantly predicts employee outcomes such as turnover intention. this finding supports tepper’s study which found that abusive supervision predicts turnover (tepper, 2007). rayner and cooper (1997) found a positive relationship between employees’ turnover intention and toxic leadership. this finding is supported by zangaro, yager and proulx (2009) investigating the influence of toxic leadership in the nursing profession, which indicates increased absenteeism and higher turnover rates. organisational culture organisations are ‘living’ entities that reflect their own personalities and sets of values, which is what is known as organisational culture (van der post et al., 1997): organisational culture refers to a system of shared meaning, the prevailing background fabric of prescriptions and proscriptions for behaviour, the system of beliefs and values and the technology and task of the organisation together with the accepted approaches to these. (p. 4) organisational culture gives meaning and direction to all employees (van der post et al., 1997) by creating the environment within which the organisation functions (sempane et al., 2002). according to van der post et al. (1997), organisational culture can be broken down into 15 different factors (e.g. conflict resolution, culture management, customer orientation, disposition towards change, employee participation, goal clarity, human resource orientation, identification with the organisation, locus of authority, management style, organisation focus, organisation integration, performance orientation, reward orientation and task structure). various other studies were conducted on organisational culture (e.g. appelbaum & roy-girard, 2007; bass, 1995). these scholars agreed that the survival of an organisation depends on the shaping of its culture by effective leaders. imran et al. (2012) examined the role of culture as a possible mediator, because of the underlying importance of organisational culture in the overall performance of the organisation. their results are supported by rasid et al. (2013), who indicate that culture mediates the relationship between leadership and organisational commitment. according to appelbaum and roy-girard (2007), toxic leaders create a toxic workplace, which over time will impact the organisation’s culture – because of the cumulative effect of their actions. the scholars argue that the glue, which keeps this toxicity together, is the culture of the organisation. in other words, the higher up the toxic leaders’ position is in the organisation, the stronger their influence would be on the culture (appelbaum & roy-girard, 2007). therefore, the inference can be drawn that toxic leaders create a toxic culture by changing the content of the organisation’s culture (giberson et al., 2009). it is, therefore, important that the mediating effect of organisational culture be investigated in the study. research design research approach the study followed a quantitative research approach and used a cross-sectional research design. this form of research focusses on gathering numerical data and generalising it across groups of people or explaining a particular phenomenon (babbie, 2010). the term ‘cross-sectional’ in a research design refers to the collection of data in more than one case, and at a single point in time. for this study, the advantage was that the data could be collected at a single point in time and from a specific population in the manufacturing sector (struwig & stead, 2013). research method research participants this study used a combined convenience and purposive non-probability sample (coolican, 2014; de vos et al., 2011), consisting of 600 respondents representative of the population in the steel and paper manufacturing industry to complete the questionnaires. inclusion criteria used were: (1) well-versed in english; (2) between the ages of 18 and 65 years; and (3) defined as full-time working adults. the data are reflected in table 1. table 1: characteristics of participants (n = 600). the data in table 1 indicate that the majority of the respondents (58.9%) were in the age group of 35–65 years, whilst 40.4% was under the age of 35 years. the gender characteristics of the respondents indicate that most of them were males (79.9%), with only 20.1% females. the majority of the respondents were african (58.6%), followed by white (22.3%), indian (12.5%), people of mixed race (6.3%) and others (0.2%). most of the respondents spoke isizulu (52.6%), followed by english (35.1%), afrikaans (11%), isixhosa (0.8%) and sesotho (0.3%). in terms of education, most of the respondents had a grade 12/matric certificate (58.4%), followed by a diploma (21.5%), degree (11.3%), postgraduate qualification (2.7%) and others (5.8%). based on the occupational level, the data indicate that most of the respondents were employed at the skilled technical level (45.4%), followed by semi-skilled (28.6%), unskilled (13.8%), middle management (8.2%) and senior management (2.8%). measuring instruments demographical characteristics (such as gender, age, language, highest qualification achieved and occupational level) of the participants were gathered using a biographical questionnaire. these characteristics were only included to describe the data. toxic leadership scale: toxic leadership was measured by the scale developed by schmidt in 2008. the 30-item scale measures five dimensions, namely, abusive supervision (seven items), for example: ‘my supervisor speaks poorly about subordinates to other people in the workplace’; authoritarian leadership (six items), for example: ‘my current supervisor determines all decisions in the unit whether they are important or not’; narcissism (five items), for example: ‘my current supervisor thrives on compliments and personal accolades’; self-promotion (five items), for example: ‘my current supervisor denies responsibility for mistakes made in his/her unit’; and unpredictability (seven items), for example: ‘my current supervisor has explosive outbursts’. the above-mentioned dimensions were scored on a 5-point likert-type scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). the reliability of the scale using cronbach’s alpha coefficients was calculated at 0.93 for abusive supervision, 0.89 for authoritarian leadership, 0.88 for narcissism, 0.91 for self-promotion and 0.92 for unpredictability. the overall cronbach’s alpha score was 0.90, suggesting that the instrument is reliable (schmidt, 2008). minnesota satisfaction questionnaire: this instrument meant to measure job satisfaction was adapted by buitendach and rothmann (2009) for use in the south african context. the questionnaire requires respondents to rate the experience of their jobs based on extrinsic and intrinsic factors for job satisfaction. this questionnaire consists of 17 items: eight that measure extrinsic job satisfaction, and nine that measure intrinsic job satisfaction. example item for extrinsic job satisfaction is: ‘the way my boss handles his/her workers’; and for job satisfaction is: ‘the way my job provides for steady employment’. the scale was measured on a 5-point likert-type scale, ranging from very satisfied to very dissatisfied. buitendach and rothmann (2009) found the scale to be reliable and valid, with a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.86. turnover intention scale: this six-item scale (tis-6), which was adapted from the 15-item scale developed originally by roodt (2004), was used to measure turnover intention. this scale was validated for use in south africa by bothma and roodt (2013); it was found to be reliable with a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.80, and was therefore used to assess turnover intention (bothma & roodt, 2013). an example item is: ‘how often have you considered leaving your job?’ the tis-6 was scored on a 5-point scale, ranging from a score of 1 (never) to 5 (always). organisational commitment scale: this 24-item scale of meyer and allen (1991) was used to measure organisational commitment. this scale measures three dimensions of organisational commitment: continuance, affective and normative commitments.the organisational commitment scale (ocs) was scored on a 5-point likert-type scale, ranging from a score of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). the reliability and validity for use of the ocs within the south african context were confirmed by studies from coetzee, schreuder and tladinyane (2007), ferreira (2009), as well as lumley (2010). the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for these dimensions in the above-mentioned studies ranged between 0.70 and 0.83, which indicates a high reliability for the scale. organisational culture questionnaire: this instrument, developed by van der post et al. (1997), was used to measure organisational culture. the questionnaire has a total of 97 items, which cover 15 factors that were considered in this study to measure organisational culture. the organisational culture questionnaire (ocq) was scored on a 7-point likert-type scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the different factors range between 0.79 and 0.93 (van der post et al., 1997). the overall reliability of the scale is 0.99 (erwee et al., 2001). research procedure and ethical considerations the human resource managers of the various companies acted only as gatekeepers, ensuring access to the participants to ensure data collection. in total, 800 questionnaires were distributed to the various organisations, and 600 were collected. data collection was done in the manufacturing sector and in the work environment, which is familiar to the researcher, using a questionnaire booklet that was individually administered. accompanying the questionnaire booklets was a letter of introduction and an explanation of the objectives and importance of the study. participants were accommodated in the training centre or empty office space of the organisations to complete the questionnaires. although this was a self-administrated questionnaire, a field worker working as a human resource intern was available at one of the organisations to assist participants who found it difficult to complete the questionnaire because of low literacy levels. the fieldworker was trained to assist the participants during the data collection phase. no personal information was recorded on the booklet, to ensure anonymity, respect privacy and ensure confidentiality (de vos et al., 2011). furthermore, no ethical guidelines were breached by the researcher during the process. the researcher maintained the respect and dignity of the participants throughout and adhered to the ethical considerations (de vos et al., 2011). sufficient time was allocated for the participants to complete the survey. the researcher coordinated the distribution of the questionnaires, as well as the collection and safe storing of completed booklets. after all the booklets were collected, the data were captured and the statistical analysis commenced. statistical analysis statistical analysis was carried out using the ssps program version 25 (ibm spss inc., 2017) and amos 20 (arbuckle, 2011). data were analysed through descriptive and inferential statistics such as means, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis. the cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated to determine reliability, with values of 0.70, which according to pallant (2010), can be regarded as reliable. confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) was done on the different scales of toxic leadership, turnover intention, organisational commitment, job satisfaction and organisational culture. the results for all scales indicated that they could be used in their present form to complete the statistical analysis. to determine the relationships between variables (i.e. toxic leadership, job satisfaction, organisational commitment and turnover intention) and the strength of these relationships, product–moment correlations and pearson’s correlation coefficient were used. the correlation coefficient cut-off scores were set at −1 to +1, with −1 indicating a negative relationship, 0 no relationship and +1 a positive relationship. statistical significance was set at 95% (p ≤ 0.05). practical significance was determined using effect size, and its cut-off point was set at 0.30 for medium effect and 0.50 for large effect (steyn & swanepoel, 2008). the aim was to test whether organisational culture has a mediational effect between toxic leadership and certain job outcomes such as job satisfaction, commitment and turnover intention. for this test, structural equation modelling (sem) was used as implemented by amos (arbuckle, 2011). several goodness-of-fit indices were used, namely, chi-square (χ2), the comparative fit index (cfi), tucker-lewis index (tli) and the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea). acceptable goodness-of-fit indices had the following cut-off points: non-significant χ2 values; cfi and tli values larger than or equal to 0.90; and rmsea values smaller than or equal to 0.08 (byrne, 2010). results it is evident from the results that most variables were found to be distributed normally. the measuring instruments also showed acceptable levels of internal consistency. furthermore, the results also indicate cronbach’s alpha coefficients with acceptable levels of reliability. these coefficients range between 0.66 and 0.85. all the cronbach’s alpha values were found to be above the cut-off point of α ˃ 0.70, except for normative commitment, cultural management, performance orientation and task structure, but these are still regarded as reliable (pacleb & cabanda, 2014; pallant, 2010; pevalin & robson, 2009). correlations the correlation coefficients between the constructs are presented in table 2. table 2: correlation matrix between constructs. toxic leadership and job satisfaction considering the relationship between toxic leadership dimensions and job satisfaction, it is evident from table 2 that abusive supervision and authoritarian leadership are positively, statistically and practically (with a medium effect) related to intrinsic job satisfaction. narcissism, self-promotion and unpredictability, and toxic leadership dimensions were statistically and practically related to a small effect on intrinsic job satisfaction. furthermore, abusive supervision, authoritarian leadership, self-promotion and unpredictability were positively, statistically and practically (with a medium effect) related to extrinsic job satisfaction. only narcissism as a toxic leadership dimension was shown to be positively related to a small effect on extrinsic job satisfaction. toxic leadership and turnover intention the relationship between toxic leadership dimensions and turnover intention indicates (table 2) that all the toxic leadership dimensions are positively, statistically and practically (with a medium effect) related to turnover intention. toxic leadership and commitment regarding the relationship between toxic leadership dimensions and commitment, it was found that the toxic leadership factors all have statistically a significant negative relationship with affective commitment. the four factors – abusive supervision, authoritarian leadership, self-promotion and unpredictability – were all practically significant with medium effect. authoritarian and unpredictable leadership were statistically significantly positively related to continuance commitment; however, this relationship was found to be only to a small extent. furthermore, abusive supervision, authoritarian leadership, narcissism and self-promotion were negatively, statistically and practically (with a very small effect) related to normative commitment. mediation analysis the results of the mediation analysis are discussed and displayed in figure 1. figure 1: organisational culture mediation across the models. structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed mediating effect of organisational culture between toxic leadership and job satisfaction, organisational commitment and turnover intention. the hypothesised mediation model above tested whether organisational culture mediates the relationship between toxic leadership and job outcomes, namely, turnover intention, job satisfaction and organisational culture. the results indicated a significant negative relationship between toxic leadership and organisational culture (r2 = −0.50; se 0.05; p = 0.00). furthermore, a significant negative relationship was found between organisational culture and job satisfaction (r2 = −0.48; se 0.02, p = 0.00). the results indicated a significant positive relationship between organisational culture and organisational commitment (r2 = 0.56; se 0.04, p = 0.00), and a significant negative relationship between organisational culture and turnover intention (r2 = −0.51; se 0.05, p = 0.00). the overall model was tested in three separate models, the results of which are displayed below. the mediation was partial for all the models that were tested and explain 45.8% of the variance in job satisfaction, 63.5% of the variation in organisational commitment and 71.6% of the variance in turnover intention. table 3 displays the goodness-of-fit statistics for the three models. table 3: goodness-of-fit statistics for all three models. marsh, hau and wen (2004) cautioned that an acceptable model can be rejected if there is a strict adherence to cut-off values. marsh et al. referred to a traditional cut-off values amounting to “little more than rules of thumb based largely on intuition and have little theoretical justification” (2004, p. 321). cut-off points should only be considered as guidelines, as there is little consensus on the values for adequate fit (lance, butts, & michels, 2006). according to hooper, coughlan and mullen (2008), researchers must not lose sight of the substantive theory. in other words, by allowing model fit to drive the research, it moves the research away from the original theory-testing purpose. as mentioned above, the overall model was tested in three separate models and is described below. model 1 tested the proposed mediating effect of organisational culture between toxic leadership and job satisfaction. the hypothesised models all provided an adequate fit to the data. the cfi value for model 1 was found to be at 0.90, the tli (0.88) value just below the cut-off point of 0.90 and rmsea was 0.09, which is indicative of a fit that is neither good nor bad. model 1, therefore, shows acceptable model fit. model 2 tested the proposed mediating effect of organisational culture between toxic leadership and commitment. in terms of model 2, both the cfi (0.89) and tli (0.87) values were found to be just below the cut-off point, but rmsea was 0.09, which is indicative of a fit that is neither good nor bad. model 2 shows weak but acceptable fit. model 3 tested the proposed mediating effect of organisational culture between toxic leadership and turnover intention. model 3 has tli (0.86) and cfi (0.88) just below the acceptable cut-off point. root mean square error of approximation was 0.09, which indicates a fit that is neither good nor bad. therefore, model 3 shows weak but acceptable fit. table 4 displays the results of the mediating effects of organisational culture. the mediation model tested whether organisational culture mediates the relationship between toxic leadership, job satisfaction, organisational commitment and turnover intention. the model does not specify whether the mediation is full or partial. the test results returned both direct and indirect effects for all the relationships tested, which indicated that mediation is only partial in all of the relationships. in terms of job satisfaction, results indicated that organisational culture does mediate the relationship between toxic leadership and job satisfaction. this mediation is found to be partial and explained 45.8% of the variance in job satisfaction. in addition, organisational culture also mediates the relationship between toxic leadership and organisational commitment. this mediation is partial and explains 63.5% of the variation in organisational commitment. in terms of the results, it confirmed that organisational culture does mediate the relationship between toxic leadership and turnover intention. this mediation was found to be partial and explains 71.6% of the variance in turnover intention. table 4: mediating effects of organisational culture (standardised effects). discussion the first objective of this study was to investigate whether there is a relationship between toxic leadership, job satisfaction, turnover intention and organisational commitment among employees within the manufacturing industry. in this study, job satisfaction was divided into extrinsic and intrinsic forms. this study theorised that there will be a statistically significant negative relationship between toxic leadership and job satisfaction. this postulate is in line with other studies by mehta and maheshwari (2013), kusy and holloway (2009), as well as schmidt (2014). the results did indicate a statistically significant relationship. however, in this study, the relationship was found to be positive for extrinsic job satisfaction, which implies that the more toxic the leader, the more satisfied the employees seemed to be. the finding above was the case, especially for authoritarian leadership, abusive supervision factors and extrinsic job factors. these job factors deal with aspects such as company policies, working conditions, remuneration and the way the employees get along. it is suggested that such a result could be because of the makeup of the study population. a significant number of participants are unskilled and semi-skilled workers (42.4%), and at this level, they are also given constant guidance on how to complete tasks. such constant supervision and guidance may contribute to the perception that they feel secure in their performance. this could be the reason for the positive experience of job satisfaction. the relationship between toxic leadership dimensions and turnover intention indicates that all the toxic leadership dimensions are positively, statistically and practically significant (with a medium effect) in relation to turnover intention. the more the leader is viewed as toxic, the stronger the potential for turnover. the results are also in line with those of schmidt (2008, 2014) and akca (2017), who found a statistically significant positive relationship between toxic leadership and turnover intention. in the manufacturing industry, which is labour-intensive, high turnover rates have a direct impact on productivity, because the new employee may not be as productive as the one who has just left, at least initially. according to sarmiento et al. (2006), employee turnover can potentially cost a company indirectly through failed implementation of continuous improvement practices, and directly through mistakes that untrained, unskilled new employees might cause. this study theorised a statistically significant negative relationship between toxic leadership and organisational commitment, similar to the finding of mehta and maheshwari (2013). as expected, it was found that toxic leadership factors all have statistically significant negative relationships with affective commitment. the current results indicate that the most significant impact of toxic leadership is made on the employees’ feelings towards their organisation – or affective commitment. lower levels of commitment in a manufacturing organisation will lead to absenteeism and decrease the production volumes because of staff shortages. this in turn will impact the organisation’s financial situation negatively if absenteeism continues unabated (weaver & yancy, 2010). the second objective of this study was to determine whether organisational culture mediates the relationship between toxic leadership and certain job outcomes (e.g. job satisfaction, turnover intention and organisational commitment) among employees within the manufacturing industry. direct and indirect effects were returned for all the relationships tested, which indicates that mediation was found to be only partial in all of the relationships. organisational culture explains 45.8% of the variance in the relationship between toxic leadership and job satisfaction; it further explains 63.5% of the variation in the relationship between toxic leadership and organisational commitment. in terms of turnover intention, organisational culture explains 71.6% of the variance in the relationship between toxic leadership and turnover intention. the partial mediation in all the tested relationships indicates that when employees experience a leader to be toxic, it can have a negative influence on the organisation’s culture. such a toxic organisational culture may in turn cause employees, who are less committed and feel dissatisfied with their workplace, wanting to leave the organisation. these results confirm findings from previous studies that organisational culture functions as a mediator (e.g. imran et al., 2012; rasid et al., 2013; schmidt, 2014). practical implications according to mehta and maheshwari (2014), the behaviour and performance of leaders must be monitored and assessed constantly to ensure their interactions with staff are conducive to healthy work environments. organisations often lack the experience and abilities to counteract the effects of toxic leadership, thus usually being forced to pay the hidden costs inflicted by the dysfunctional behaviour of the toxic leader. these hidden costs may entail: reduced productivity because of an increase in absenteeism and sick leaves; weak performance of employees caused by commitment and dissatisfaction at work; decreased brand equity as a result of reputational damages of the organisation and legal costs (vreja, balan, & bosca, 2016). it is anticipated that studies such as these will encourage the organisations to focus more on instances of toxic leadership within and help them put checks and balances in place to ensure the early detection of toxic leaders (mehta & maheshwari, 2014). in this regard, this study will help initiate interventions, where management within organisations can focus on dealing with identified toxic leaders. leadership studies have indicated that employees tend to blame the organisation as a whole for having a culture that tolerates toxic leadership. employees respond to this perceived culture of tolerance by being negatively inclined towards the organisation as a whole (folger & cropanzano, 2001). this study has indicated that such a negative response among employees is true to an extent. it has provided empirical data to support the statement that toxic leadership has a significant impact on job outcomes, and in turn on employees having to cope with such an organisational culture. the focus of the research, being a novel topic in the south african context, has expanded on the knowledge of toxic leadership. in this regard, this study as such has increased the opportunity to deal effectively with the destructive impact of toxic leadership on employees and organisations at large. a practical implication for employees in the manufacturing industry is that this study provides them with an explanation of toxic leadership as a leadership style, and how it is intertwined with an organisation’s culture. the results explain further as to how this leadership style may affect employees in the workplace: an insight which could help them make crucial decisions about their jobs and future career. this study provides human resource professionals an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon of toxic leadership. this focus may be a starting point to help organisations decrease the prevalence of toxic leadership styles, thereby reducing its destructive impact within the workplace. limitations and recommendations firstly, the study was confined to the manufacturing sector in south africa. as indicated, such a restriction of the study population and the sampling procedure may influence the generalisability of the results. future research should, therefore, replicate the study in different sectors that represent different populations. such a broadened research scope would provide a true reflection of toxic leadership in south africa and indicate whether the results in the various sectors are similar or differ considerably. secondly, whilst self-promotion had the strongest impact on job outcomes, certain other dimensions showed an amount of impact as well. thus, it would be advantageous to organisations if research could investigate the variance that is unique to all five dimensions of toxic leadership. thirdly, this study confirmed relationships as well as predictors in a small section of the manufacturing industry. therefore, it would be valuable to continue these studies in other manufacturing organisations to generate more generalised results. such a focus applies especially to this study’s unique finding on the positive experience of job satisfaction. this finding is not in line with other studies; therefore, future research should replicate the study to assess whether this result is specific to this study population only. in addition, the study should be expanded into other sectors to confirm the relationships between toxic leadership and job outcomes, predictors and organisational culture as a mediator. such future research would be valuable, especially in light of the fact that currently there are no other studies in south africa with which results can be compared. it would also be recommended that this study should compare if the same results occur in various occupation levels from the same population. finally, although the mediation results indicated directional relationships between toxic leadership and job outcomes, the data were not collected over an extended period of time; consequently, it was not possible to test the assumptions empirically. therefore, the use of longitudinal studies can assist by measuring directional relationships over an extended period of time. such an approach will deliver richer data and have positive implications for operational interventions, because it may give a deeper insight to the cause and effect aspects (de vos et al., 2011). conclusion this study provided the first analysis of toxic leadership within a south african working environment. the findings indicated the impact of this leadership style on certain job outcomes such as turnover intention, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. the study also investigated the mediation role of organisational culture. it is important that other researchers build on the above-mentioned recommendations for future studies, because several questions remain unanswered, for example, the unexpected difference in the result of job satisfaction. acknowledgements the authors convey their appreciation to prof. suria ellis for the statistical analysis, and ds. claude vosloo for the language editing of the dissertation. furthermore, credit goes to dr marissa brouwers as supervisor of the dissertation. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.p. fulfilled the role of the primary researcher, and this study formed part of her master’s research dissertation. she was responsible for the conceptualisation of the article, collection of the data, interpretation of the research results and the writing of the article. m.b. acted as supervisor and played an advisory role in this study and assisted with the conceptualisation of the study design, the describing of statistical procedures and reporting, and assisted in the writing of the research article. funding information this study was supported by the north-west university (publishing of the article). data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were analysed or created in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references akca, m. (2017). the impact of toxic leadership on intention to leave of employees. international journal of economics, business & management research, 1(4), 285–298. appelbaum, s.h., & roy-girard, d. (2007). toxins in the workplace: affect on organizations and employees. corporate governance: the international journal of business in society, 7(1), 17–28. https://doi.org/10.1108/14720700710727087 arbuckle, j.l. (2011). ibm spss amos 20.0. user’s guide, mount pleasant, sc: amos development corporation. ashforth, b.e. (1997). petty tyranny in organizations: a preliminary examination of antecedents and consequences. canadian journal of administrative sciences/revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration, 14(2), 126–140. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1936-4490.1997.tb00124.x babbie, e.r. (2010). the practice of social research. belmont, ca: wadsworth cengage. bass, b.m. (1995). leadership and performance beyond expectation. new york, ny: the free press. bothma, c.f.c., & roodt, g. (2013). the validation of the turnover intention scale. south african journal of human resources management, 11(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.507 buitendach, j.h., & rothmann, s. (2009). the validation of the minnesota job satisfaction questionnaire in selected organisations in south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 7(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.183 byrne, b.m. (2010). structural equation modelling with amos: basic concepts, applications and programming (2nd edn.). mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. coetzee, m., schreuder, a.m.g., & tladinyane, r. (2007). organisational commitment and its relation to career anchors. southern african business review, 11(1), 65–86. coolican, h. (2014). research methods and statistics in psychology (6th ed.). new york, ny: psychology press. cropanzano, r., & mitchell, m.s. (2005). social exchange theory: an interdisciplinary review. journal of management, 31(6), 874–900. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206305279602 de vos, a.s., strydom, h., fouché, c.b., & delport, c.s.l. (2011). research at grassroots: for the social sciences and human service professions (4th edn.). pretoria: van schaik. dladla, j.t. (2011). the influence of leader behaviour, psychological empowerment, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment on turnover intention (unpublished master’s dissertation). university of stellenbosch, stellenbosch. dobbs, j.m. (2014). the relationship between perceived toxic leadership styles, leader effectiveness, and organizational cynicism (unpublished doctoral thesis). university of san diego, san diego, ca. du toit, m. (2015). the influence of leader integrity on ethical leadership, interactional justice, leader trust and counterproductive work behaviour (unpublished master’s dissertation). university of stellenbosch, stellenbosch. ebrahim, z., & pieterse, j.j. (2016). a strategy to tailor performance interventions based on the nature of organisational maturity of south manufacturing firms. the south african journal of industrial engineering, 27(2), 81–94. https://doi.org/10.7166/27-2-1328 erwee, r., lynch, b., millett, b., smith, d., & roodt, g. (2001). cross-cultural equivalence of the organisational culture survey in australia. journal of industrial psychology, 27, 7–12. ferreira, n. (2009). the relationship between psychological career resources and organisational commitment (unpublished master’s dissertation). university of pretoria, pretoria. folger, r., & cropanzano, r. (2001). fairness theory: justice as accountability. advances in organizational justice, 1, 1–55. giberson, t.r., resick, c.j., dickson, m.w., mitchelson, j.k., randall, k.r., & clark, m.a. (2009). leadership and organizational culture: linking ceo characteristics to cultural values. journal of business & psychology, 24(2), 123–137. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-009-9109-1 heine, g. (2013). the influence of integrity and ethical leadership on trust and employee work engagement (unpublished master’s dissertation). university of stellenbosch, stellenbosch. hooper, d., coughlan, j., & mullen, m. (2008). structural equation modelling: guidelines for determining model fit. electronic journal of business research methods, 6(1), 53–60. ibm corp. (2017). ibm spss statistics for windows, version 25.0. armonk, ny: ibm corp. idc (industrial development corporation). (2019). economic trends: key trends in the south african economy. retrieved from http://www.idc.co.za/images/download-files/economicoverviews/ri-publication-keytrends-in-sa-economy_march2019.pdf imran, r., zahoor, f., & zaheer, a. (2012). leadership and performance relationship: culture matters. international journal of innovation, management & technology, 3(6), 713. kusy, m., & holloway, e. (2009). toxic workplace: managing toxic personalities and their systems of power. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. lance, c.e., butts, m.m., & michels, l.c. (2006). the sources of four commonly reported cut-off criteria: what did they really say? organizational research methods, 9(2), 202–220. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f1094428105284919 leet, e. (2011). the impact toxic or severe dysfunctional leadership has on the effectiveness of an organisation (doctoral dissertation). murdoch university. lazarczyk, l. (2017). life meets work survey finds 56% of employees have a toxic leader. retrieved from https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/life-meets-work-survey-finds-56-of-employees-have-a-toxic-leader-300473884.html lipman-blumen, j. (2005). the allure of toxic leaders: why we follow destructive bosses and corrupt politicians – and how we can survive them. oxford: oxford university press. lok, p., & crawford, j. (2003). the effect of organisational culture and leadership style on job satisfaction and organisational commitment: a cross national comparison. journal of management development, 23(4), 321–328. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710410529785 lumley, e. (2010). exploring the relationship between career anchors, job satisfaction and organisational commitment (unpublished master’s dissertation). university of south africa, pretoria. marsh, h.w., hau, k.t., & wen, z. (2004). in search of golden rules: comment on hypothesis-testing approaches to setting cut off values for fit indexes and dangers in overgeneralizing hu and bentler’s (1999) findings. structural equation modeling, 11(3), 320–341. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328007sem1103_2 mehta, s., & maheshwari, g.c. (2013). consequence of toxic leadership on employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment. journal of contemporary management research, 8(2), 1–23. mehta, s., & maheshwari, g.c. (2014). toxic leadership: tracing the destructive trail. international journal of management, 5(10), 18–24. meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1991). a three-component conceptualisation of organisational commitment. human resource management review, 1(1), 61–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/1053-4822(91)90011-z pacleb, t.g., & cabanda, e. (2014, june). examining the role of leadership styles and leader communication styles on leader-member exchange relationship and conflict management among bank employees in the philippines. paper presented at the asian conference on the social sciences, osaka. padilla, a., hogan, r., & kaiser, r.b. (2007). the toxic triangle: destructive leaders, susceptible followers, and conducive environments. the leadership quarterly, 18(3), 176–194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2007.03.001 pallant, j. (2010). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using the spss program (4th edn.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. pevalin, d., & robson, k. (2009). the stata survival manual. berkshire: mcgraw-hill education. rayner, c., & cooper, c. (1997). workplace bullying: myth or reality can we afford to ignore it? leadership & organization development journal, 18(4), 211–214. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437739710182313 rasid, s.z.a., manaf, m.a.a., & quoquab, f. (2013). leadership and organizational commitment in the islamic banking context: the role of organizational culture as a mediator. american journal of economics, 3(5), 171–176. https://doi.org/10.5923/c.economics.201301.29 roodt, g. (2004). turnover intentions (unpublished document). johannesburg: university of johannesburg. sadri, g., & lees, b. (2001). developing corporate culture as a competitive advantage. journal of management development, 20(10), 853–859. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710110410851 sarmiento, r., rich, n., aryee, g., & francis, m. (2006). employee turnover and its effect on sustainable manufacturing operations. retrieved from http://www.semanticscholar.org/paper schein, e. (2004). organisational culture and leadership (3rd edn.). san francisco, ca: josseybass. schmidt, a.a. (2008). development and validation of the toxic leadership scale. available from proquest dissertations & theses global. (193655997). retrieved from http://nwulib.nwu.ac.za/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.nwulib.nwu.ac.za/docview/193655977?accountid=12865 schmidt, a.a. (2014). an examination of toxic leadership, job outcomes, and the impact of military deployment. available from proquest dissertations & theses global (1558874321). retrieved from http://nwulib.nwu.ac.za/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.nwulib.nwu.ac.za/docview/1558874321?accountid=12865 schneider, b., goldstiein, h.w., & smith, d.b. (1995). the asa framework: an update. personnel psychology, 48(4), 747–773. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1995.tb01780.x sempane, m.e., rieger, h.s., & roodt, g. (2002). job satisfaction in relation to organisational culture. south african journal of industrial psychology, 28(2), 23–30. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v28i2.49 shaju, m., & subhashini, d. (2017). a study on the impact of job satisfaction on job performance of employees working in automobile industry, punjab, india. journal of management research, 9(1), 117–130. https://doi.org/10.5296/jmr.v9i1.10420 steyn, h.s., & swanepoel, c.j. (2008). praktiese statistiek (2de uitg.). potchefstroom: noord-wes universiteit. struwig, f.w., & stead, g.b. (2013). research: planning, designing and reporting (2nd edn.). cape town: pearson. tate, b.w. (2009). bad to the bone: empirically defining and measuring negative leadership. available from proquest dissertations & theses global. (304989652). retrieved from http://nwulib.nwu.ac.za/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.nwulib.nwu.ac.za/docview/304989652?accountid=12865 tavanti, m. (2011). managing toxic leaders: dysfunctional patterns in organizational leadership and how to deal with them. human resource management, 6, 127–136. tepper, b.j. (2007). abusive supervision in work organisations: review, synthesis and research agenda. journal of management, 33(3), 261–289. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f0149206307300812 tett, r.p., & meyer, j.p. (1993). job satisfaction, organisational commitment, turnover intention and turnover: path analyses based on meta-analytic findings. personnel psychology, 46(2), 259–293. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1993.tb00874.x van der post, w.z., de coning, t.j., & smit, e.v. (1997). an instrument to measure organisational culture. south african journal of business management, 28(4), 147–168. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajbm.v28i4.800 veldsman, t. (2012, october). the growing cancer endangering organisations: toxic leadership. paper presented at the conference on leadership in emerging countries presented by department of industrial psychology and people management, faculty of management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg. vreja, l.o., balan, s., & bosca, l.c. (2016). an evolutionary perspective on toxic leadership. management & economics review, 1(2), 217–228. weaver, s.g., & yancey, g.b. (2010). the impact of dark leadership on organizational commitment and turnover. leadership review, 10(summer), 104–124. webster, v., brough, p., daly, k., & myors, b. (2011). consequences of toxic leadership behaviours: a qualitative investigation. retrieved from https://www.anzam.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf-manager/563_anzam2011-314.pdf zangaro, g., yager, k., & proulx, j. (2009). recognizing and overcoming toxic leadership. retrieved from http://www.rnjournal.com/journal_of_nursing/recognizing_and_overcoming_toxic_leadership.htm 180----12 nov 2009 [final version].indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #180 (page number not for citation purposes) the effect of an emotional intelligence development programme on accountants author: cara s. jonker1 affi liation: 1workwell: research unit for economic and management sciences, north-west university, south africa correspondence to: cara s. jonker e-mail: cara.jonker@nwu.ac.za postal address: private bag x6001, north-west university, potchefstroom 2531, south africa keywords: emotions; accountants; training; human resources; qualitative dates: received: 05 dec. 2008 accepted: 19 june 2009 published: 11 sep. 2009 how to cite this article: jonker, c.s. (2009). the effect of an emotional intelligence development programme on accountants. sa journal of human resource management/ sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), art. #180, 9 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.183 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. abstract the objective of this research was to compile and evaluate a development programme aimed at emotional intelligence (ei) in the accounting profession. a two-group design (preand posttest) was used. an accidental sample (experimental and control group) was taken from future employees within a fi nancial management environment. the baron-eq-i was administered and further data were gathered qualitatively by means of diary entries. the results showed an improvement in total ei level. the specifi c areas of ei that were developed due to the programme included the following subscales: interpersonal, adaptability and general mood. the specifi c ei factors that showed improvement included self-regard, self-actualisation, interpersonal relations, reality testing, problem solving, fl exibility, stress tolerance and optimism. 157vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 9 introduction rothmann and cilliers (2007) identify emotional intelligence (ei) as one of the constructs in the domain of positive psychology that must be the focus of organisational/industrial psychologists in current and future research. current research is investigating relationships and the correlation between ei and other constructs such as problem solving, team effectiveness and leadership in the workplace (e.g. abraham, 1999; boyatzis, 2006; carmeli & colakoglu, 2005; jordan & troth, 2004; sosik & megerian, 1999). to date, little has appeared in the literature that details the effectiveness of ei development programmes (clarke, 2006). the focus of this article will be to determine the effect of the development of ei on accountants. in order to achieve this goal, the need for ei in human resources in organisations will be highlighted, the development possibilities of and training in ei will be explored and a specifi c need to develop ei in the accounting profession will be presented. a brief overview of the theory of ei will show the two different perspectives on what ei comprises. in the results section, an evaluation of the effectiveness of the development of ei in the accounting profession will take place. the need for ei development in human resources in organisations according to the global competitiveness report of 2007/2008 (porter, schwab, & sala-i-martin, 2008), the lack of labour market effi ciency in south africa is a disadvantage to economic growth and global competitiveness (south africa ranks 88th out of 131). attention must be paid to the development of individuals in the organisation to rectify this poor placement of human resources (boateng, 2007; wolmarans, 1998). human resources is the corporate function with the greatest potential (in theory), the key driver of business performance and also the one that constantly underdelivers (hammonds, 2008). the optimal development and utilisation of individual characteristics and skills are crucial to greater organisational effectiveness (hays, 1999; lukas & deery, 2004). in this regard, the measurement and development of ei can play a signifi cant role (boateng, 2007; wolmarans, 1998). a specifi c need exists to develop ei in the accounting profession (bay & mckeage, 2006; esmond-kriger, tucker & yost, 2006). in the past, the relevance of emotions and emotion management to the workplace was denied. personal, home and work life were separate entities that called for separate and differing acceptable behaviours and modes of thinking, feeling and acting. today, researchers are acknowledging a more integrated way of working and living whereby one makes use of all aspects of one’s individual competitive advantage (turner, 2004). there is a growing recognition among researchers and practitioners that the workplace is not the cognitive-managed environment it was once assumed to be; emotions play a key role in organisational life (bay & mckeage, 2006). nowadays many organisations include ei among the core competencies for high performance (laff, 2008). chrusciel (2006) states that once the importance of ei is recognised, it is essential to remember that one’s ei can be improved with appropriate training. as one looks at the cost of providing appropriate training to improve upon these skills, one also needs to consider what the cost to the organisation would be if no action were taken. therefore, it is important to not only recognise the value of ei but also to encourage and promote the improvement of these skills within the organisation (chrusciel, 2006). ei forms part of the contributing factors that can enhance worker performance as it stimulates competitiveness and an environment for change and innovation (dwyer, 2001; laff, 2008; law, smigla & pastoria, 2000; wolmarans, 1998; wong, & song, 2004). people in organisations determine the production process. by investing in people through human resource development and by attending to people’s ei and social capital issues, organisations should be able to better harness and allocate people’s talents (brooks & nafukho, 2006). emotions play an important role in organising, motivating and directing human activity (salovey & mayer, 1990). figure 1 illustrates the critical role that both internal and external environments play in determining people’s productivity. original research jonker sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 18 0 (page number not for citation purposes) 158 vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 9 if organisations are unaware of ei issues, certain problems will persist (brooks & nafukho, 2006). as mentioned earlier, rothmann and cilliers (2007) regard ei as a construct of positive psychology that adds value to human resource development in the workplace. according to the literature, ei is also linked to well-being (gallagher & vella-brodrick, 2008), better stress management (mikolajczak & luminet, 2008), social adaptation (engelberg & sjöberg, 2004), effective teamwork (cooper, 1998; green, hill, friday & friday, 2005) and job satisfaction (sy, tram & o’hara, 2006). carmeli (2003) has also established a relationship between ei and work attitudes. these established relationships make the development of ei in the workplace crucial. according to cooper (1997), the development of ei will result in increased productivity, loyalty, innovation and performance of individuals, groups and organisations. the development of ei ei is learnable and therefore trainable, unlike intelligence quotient (iq), which measures an individual’s inherent ability (chrusciel, 2006; turner, 2004). one does not have to accept inadequate levels or be satisfied with current levels of ei. appropriate training in how to identify and use ei will not only be beneficial to the individual; the organisation will also reap the benefits (chrusciel, 2006). the learning model required for ei competencies is therefore different (turner, 2004). the way in which ei is learnt in the brain differs from the way in which cognitive abilities are processed. cognitive abilities use the neocortex where quick learning takes place whereas ei competencies are learnt more slowly in the subcortex (the lower part of the brain below the neocortex). rehearsal or role-play situations are required for individuals to build a repertoire of responses that can be used and practised in real and spontaneous situations (turner, 2004). existing ei programmes fail because they make use of cognitive learning over a short period of time (laabs, 1999). the effectiveness of these programmes is not measured and behaviour change is not seen (laabs, 1999). clarke (2006) also warns against the packaging of soft skills based purely on mixed models of ei and argues for the use of ability-based models in ei training programmes. so far, training specifically coined as ei training has not evolved as a paradigm on its own, although certain types of soft-skills training, such as interpersonal communication, have been on the training front for years (laabs, 1999). in a series of four articles, orme and cannon (2000; 2001a; 2001b; 2001c) provide guidelines for ei training in four phases: conducting a needs assessment, designing a programme, implementing the programme and evaluating the programme. cherniss and goleman (2001) highlight four phases in the design of ei programmes: preparation, training, transfer, maintenance and evaluation. training employees on the topic of ei is not the same as training in other areas of interpersonal skills (laabs, 1999). teaching someone to be emotionally competent cannot be done in one afternoon session (laabs, 1999) because behavioural changes have to take place first. orme and cannon (2001a) note that expecting to see significant behavioural changes after only a brief programme is not realistic. ei programmes have to take the audience of the ei programme into consideration in the design phase. sound adult learning principles must be followed and all learning styles must be incorporated (orme & cannon, 2001a). ei training works best in small groups (15–25 participants) (laabs, 1999). confidentiality has to be guaranteed and time for the practising of and reflecting on newly obtained skills has to be incorporated into the design of the training programme (laabs, 1999). there are ei programmes on the market in the form of books; however, the learning outcomes (derived from a needs analysis) must drive the design. the outcomes from the needs analysis may lead to the creation of new material (as done in this study). the trainer must also reveal ei competence during training sessions. it is important to evaluate any training programme and specifically ei programmes in order to determine development areas and to improve programme design. ei training activities and programmes should be studied according to commonly accepted experimental designs, for example designs with control groups and comparisons between pre-tests and post-tests. ei levels should be used to test training effectiveness (wong, foo, wong & wong, 2007). the proposition can now be made that by introducing an array of ei interventions in the form of ei training, the organisation will benefit from the results indicated by the above literature study. however, a specific need exists in the accounting profession. in a study by esmond-kriger et al. (2006), accounting graduates (compared to non-accounting graduates) reported lower levels figure 1 the relationship between human resource development, emotional intelligence, social capital and productivity productivity hrd sc ei internal environment external environment s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #180 (page number not for citation purposes) the effect of an emotional intelligence development programme on accountants 159vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 9 of ei than their business school counterparts. this was also found by bay and mckeage (2006). the need for ei in the accounting profession measures must be taken to target the development of ei among accounting students (mcphail, 2003). programmes may be implemented to provide growth opportunities in recognising, discussing and appropriately managing emotions (bay & mckeage, 2006). ei (the ability to recognise and manage emotions) has become a skill that may allow accountants to perform better in a variety of areas such as leadership, client relation and decision making (bay & mckeage, 2006). foley (2007) adds that in order for accountancy firms to find a source of competitive advantage, ei must be applied. the most successful partners in many accountancy firms are the ones who display high levels of ei. the first reason for the lack of ei in many accountants is that training for most accounting professions only addresses technical competencies whereas competencies to deal with people in the work environment are in most cases neglected (smigla & pastoria, 2000). secondly, it can be assumed that people in accounting professions have a preference to work with facts and figures, leaving the development of people skills behind. ei, along with good communication skills and technical competency, is necessary for success in the accounting profession. in this regard, the new york state society of certified public accountants states that 20% of an accountant’s success is related to his or her iq whilst the other 80% is based on the ability to understand him-/ herself and others and to interact with people (ei) (kirch, tucker & kirch, 2001). ei theory ei may be conceptualised and measured as an ability (ciarrochi, chan & caputi, 2000; mayer, caruso & salovey, 2000) or as a personality trait (mixed approach) (schutte & malouff, 1998). according to spector (2003), ei is a characteristic that falls between a personality trait and a cognitive ability. according to the ability theory, ei (salovey & mayer, 1990) portrays the subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions. salovey and mayer (1990) coined the term emotional intelligence in an article titled ‘emotional intelligence’ that was published in the journal imagination, cognition and personality (1990). this article formed the basis of salovey and mayer’s future research findings and model development. mayer and salovey (1997) view their model of ei (figure 2) as operating across both the cognitive and emotional systems. it operates in a mostly unitary fashion but is still subdivisible into four branches. the first of these branches, emotional perception and identification, involves recognising and inputting information from the emotion system. the second and third branches, emotional facilitation of thought and emotional understanding, involve the further processing of emotional information with a view to problem solving. in general, the emotional facilitation of thought branch involves using emotion to improve cognitive processes whereas the emotional understanding branch involves cognitive processing of emotion. the fourth branch, emotion management, concerns figure 2 model of emotional intelligence (salovey & mayer, 1997) s original research jonker sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 18 0 (page number not for citation purposes) 160 vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 9 emotional self-management and the management of emotions in other people. these four branches are shown in figure 2. according to the mixed approach, ei encompasses the array of noncognitive capabilities, competencies and skills that influence a person’s ability to succeed in coping with environmental demands and pressures (bar-on, 1997). in defining ei, bar-on (1997) describes the intelligence component as the aggregate of abilities, competencies and skills representing the collection of knowledge used to cope with life effectively and adds the adjective ‘emotional’ to distinguish it from cognitive intelligence. bar-on (1997) further lists 15 factorial components of ei (see appendix a), namely emotional self-awareness, assertiveness, self-regard, self-actualisation, independence, empathy, interpersonal relationships, social responsibility, problem solving, reality testing, flexibility, stress tolerance, impulse control, happiness and optimism. it is clear from the discussion above that there are different approaches in the study of ei: the ability approach of mayer and salovey and the mixed approach of bar-on (1997). bar-on’s model illustrates the relationship between the intrapersonal, interpersonal, stress management and adaptability composite factors, which, together with and filtering through the fifth composite factor, general mood, lead to effective performance or success (see figure 3). the development programme in this research study was based on a combination of the mixed approach of bar-on (1997) and the ability approach of salovey and mayer (1990). in the design of the development programme, best practice training principles were taken into consideration according to the literature review of the development and training of ei. the phases and design of the development programme for ei are discussed under the research procedure in the results section later in this article. against this background, the following research question was formulated: what was the effect of an ei development programme on accountants? research design research approach the research required both a quantitative and a qualitative research approach. a two-group design with a preand posttest was used. in this design, the subjects are chosen at random from the population and assigned randomly to the experimental and control group. each group is given a pre-test and post-test, but only the experimental group is exposed to the instructional treatment. many of the threats to internal validity are controlled. variables such as history and pretesting should affect the experimental and the control group equally (goldstein & ford, 2001). although the solomon four-group design could have been used, the test-retest input forms part of the development programme aimed at ei, meaning that preand posttesting will form part of the future use of the programme. the qualitative approach was used to gather information about the subjective experience of the study population. the phenomenological method is an inductive, descriptive method that can be used to study the total experience of an intervention (omery, 1983). figure 3 effective performance model (sipsma, 2000) table 1 composition of study population variables experimental group control group total number in sample 20 20 40 men 10 8 18 women 10 12 22 population group white 10 (5 men, 5 women) 12 (4 men, 8 women) 22 black 7 (3 men, 4 women) 5 (2 men, 3 women) 12 asian 3 (1 man, 2 women) 3 (1 man, 2 women 6 average age 20 21 20.5 adaptabilitystress management intrapersonal interpersonal general mood effective performance s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #180 (page number not for citation purposes) the effect of an emotional intelligence development programme on accountants 161vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 9 research method participants the sample group consisted of future accountants of a financial institution (n = 40). the names of the future employees were pooled and randomly tabulated into two groups. the composition of the experimental and control groups is found in table 1. research procedure the development programme aimed at ei consisted of the following phases: • preparation phase: (pre-test and meeting of participants prior to training and day 1): the purpose of the meeting with participants prior to the training event was to conduct the last phase of a needs analysis (pre-test) and to foster a positive relationship with the target population. a broad learning contract was negotiated by stating what the participants could expect from the training event as well as from the facilitator. a brief introduction to ei according to the model of bar-on (1997) was provided to familiarise participants with the concept of ei. the use and relevance of ei training related to their future workplace were explained. day 1 consisted of an introduction to a model and theory of ei and assessment of personal strengths and limitations. feedback from the self-report measure of ei was also provided. this was done so that participants could experience the need for change. the need for change was also established through different experiential activities. • training phase: (day 2 and 3): day 2 was devoted to the core of ei, namely self-awareness. participants completed an emotional self-awareness questionnaire (steiner & perry, 1997) and the results were discussed in small groups. participants were also introduced to an array of emotions by means of various experiential activities. the purpose of this session was to show participants that different stimuli lead to different emotions in people and to broaden their vocabulary of emotions. the session was ended with activities and a discussion on the expression of feelings. day 3 was concerned with the application of the previous day’s training in the form of using communication of emotion in the skills of empathy, assertiveness and impulse control. • application of training outside the training environment: a break (seven days) in the training programme (between days 3 and 4) was provided. the reason for the seven-day break between days 1–3 and 4–5 is that ei development is about a change in behaviour and cannot be done as a ‘quick fix’. this also gave participants time to practise their newly acquired skills in the external environment. • transfer of training: (day 4). day 4 was dedicated to the application of learnt skills (day 3) in competencies such as problem solving, stress tolerance, flexibility and all the other skills obtained during the programme. application of ei regarding problem solving, stress tolerance and flexibility was provided in the form of three experiential exercises. before each activity, an introduction to the activity was given and afterwards the feelings and experiences that each activity evoked in participants were shared. the application to the work environment was made after each activity. • evaluation of change: (day 5): the post-test was conducted in this phase. the bar-on eq-i was used to determine change according to the model of ei of bar-on. participants also shared their experiences of the training programme. the results of the questionnaire provided the evaluation of change in total ei, the subscales of ei and the 15 divisions of the subscales. measurement instruments the bar-on eq-i was used to determine the participants’ level of ei before and after the training programme in the experimental and control groups. the eq-i measures abilities and the potential for performance rather than performance itself; it is process oriented rather than outcome oriented (bar-on, brown, kirkcaldy & thomé, 2000; o’connor & little, 2003). the eq-i is a self-report inventory comprising 133 declarative statements phrased in the first person singular. participants are required to indicate the degree to which each statement is true of the way they typically think, feel or act on a five-point scale (1 = very seldom or not true of me; 5 = very often true of me or true of me). the items of the eq-i are summed to yield scores on 15 lower order subscales, five higher order composite scores and an overall ei score. of the 133 items that comprise the eq-i, eight items comprise a positive impression scale and seven items comprise a negative impression scale. these two scales are designed to determine whether a participant is responding in an overly positive or overly negative fashion. in addition, there is an inconsistency index, calculated by summing the differences in scores between responses on 10 pairs of similar items designed to assess random responding. the final item is a self-report on honesty of responding and is not included in any scale. if a participant’s response to this item is either ‘2’ or ‘1’ (seldom true of me or very seldom or not true of me), the response is considered invalid. participants’ responses are also considered invalid if a certain percentage of items is not answered (omission rate). if the omission rate is higher than 6%, their eq-i results are considered invalid. higher scores indicate a higher level of ei (palmer, manocha, gignac & stough, 2003). psychometric analyses of the eq-i reported in the technical manual (bar-on, 1997) indicate that it has good internal reliability and test-retest reliability. across seven population samples, the 15 subscales are reported to have average to high internal consistency coefficients with cronbach alphas ranging from α = 0.69 for re to α = 0.86 for sr. with a south african sample (n = 44) the average stability coefficient of the 15 subscales after a one-month period was found to be r = 0.85 and with a smaller subset of this sample (n = 27) was found to be r = 0,75 after a four-month period (palmer et al., 2003). a qualitative approach was also used to gather information about the subjective experience of the study population. the phenomenological method is an inductive, descriptive method that can be used to study the total experience of an intervention (omery, 1983). this is based on the assumption that psychometric measurements cannot capture the total experience of the intervention and can thus render insufficient results. the respondents are therefore provided with an opportunity to express their own unique experiences of the development programme aimed at ei (kruger, 1984). this was done by means of diary entries the participants made throughout the training programme. the participants gave consent for the use of the diaries for research purposes. statistical analysis statistical analysis was done using the sas computer program (sas institute, 1999). for the purposes of this research, descriptive and inferential statistics were used. the research made use of descriptive data to organise the data meaningfully. standard deviations (s) and arithmetic means (x) were computed to interpret the descriptive statistics. arithmetic means (x) comprise a point that coincides with the sum of scores divided by the number of scores. standard deviations (s) show the amount the individual’s score differs from the average distribution of the data. to compute standard deviations, the squares of the differences were used and the average served to determine the distribution. participants’ t-tests were used to determine the significance of the difference between the average of the pre and post-tests of the control and experimental groups. this test was taken to determine whether a significant difference existed between the changes in scores from the preto the post-test. the assumption underlying the t-test is that the population is distributed normally even though the sample size is small (experimental group: n < 30). the d-value was computed to determine practical significance. the cutoff point for practical significance was as follows: original research jonker sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 18 0 (page number not for citation purposes) 162 vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 9 d ≥ 0.2 slight effect d ≥ 0.5 moderate effect d ≥ 0.8 strong effect qualitative impressions from the diaries were derived by clustering diary entries (phrases) into different themes. the participants’ exact words were used to determine the themes. results in table 2, the differences between the experimental and control groups with regard to the bar-on eq-i are reported. based on the results as presented in table 2, there was a significant difference between the total ei score with regard to the difference of the pre-tests and post-tests of the experimental and control groups. three of the five subscales of ei as measured by the baron eq-i showed a significant difference and improvement due to exposure to the development programme aimed at ei. the subscales interpersonal (moderate effect), adaptability (moderate effect) and general mood (strong effect) showed a significant difference compared to the control group. based on the results as presented in table 2, there was a significant difference with regard to some of the components of ei as measured by the baron eq-i: • self-regard (strong effect) • self-actualisation (moderate effect) • interpersonal relations (moderate effect) • reality testing (moderate effect) • problem solving (strong effect) • flexibility (moderate effect) • stress tolerance (moderate effect) • optimism (strong effect). the results from the qualitative diary entries will be presented next: theme 1: self-awareness the theme of self-awareness was found in all 20 participants. this theme derives from diary entries such as, ‘i became aware about the ways i cope with stress and the ways i can better this...’; ‘this course awakened another part of me… different way to measure and improve my abilities...’ theme 2: emotional self-awareness the theme of emotional self-awareness was found in 14 participants. this theme derives from diary entries such as, ‘during the break between the two training sessions i became even more aware of my own feelings and being able to identify them and their sources…’; ‘i learnt a lot about emotions and how to identify them and what to do about them.’ theme 3: empathy the theme of empathy was found in 10 participants. this theme derives from diary entries such as, ‘i do understand other people’s feelings…’; ‘i became aware of the emotions of others…’ theme 4: interpersonal relationships the theme of interpersonal relationships was found in 10 participants. this theme derives from diary entries such as, ‘i had preconceived ideas about certain people in my group but they got to be in my group and i actually got to like them’; ‘not to be prejudiced about people in the group you do not know...’; ‘put effort in to talk to others…’; ‘you will come to the conclusion that you summed them up wrongly...’ theme 5: self-acceptance the theme of self-acceptance was found in eight participants. this theme derives from diary entries such as, ‘i learnt to appreciate more certain things about myself which i have always seen as weaknesses and can appreciate them now...’; ‘i feel free about myself now, i am relaxed with myself…’ discussion ei development had the following quantitative effects on table 2 difference of the pre-test and post-test regarding measurement of the baron eq-i within the experimental and control group eg (n = 20) cg (n = 20) x s x s d total ei 5.60 9.40 1.00 7.30 *0.50 intrapersonal 3.40 9.60 -0.3 7.80 0.40 self-regard 2.60 6.70 -2.5 6.40 **0.80 emotional self-awareness 5.40 13.80 0.30 7.30 0.40 assertiveness 0.60 12.30 -0.90 10.80 0.10 independence 0.80 9.50 0.20 9.30 0.06 self-actualisation 3.05 10.70 -2.10 9.50 *0.50 interpersonal 4.85 10.40 -0.15 8.78 *0.50 empathy 5.60 10.70 2.60 9.80 0.30 social responsibility 1.80 10.02 -2.60 10.06 0.40 interpersonal relations 4.20 10.50 -1.60 8.20 *0.60 adaptability 8.50 7.20 2.40 9.60 *0.60 reality testing 8.05 6.20 3.00 10.80 *0.50 problem solving 7.20 8.20 -1.80 8.50 **1.05 flexibility 4.20 10.50 -1.60 8.20 *0.60 stress management 2.50 11.00 2.50 7.10 0.00 stress tolerance 4.60 9.30 -1.10 7.30 *0.60 impulse control 0.05 12.11 3.80 6.80 -0.30 general mood 4.20 9.90 -2.80 8.40 *0.70 optimism 8.00 11.30 -4.70 9.80 **1.12 happiness 0.55 11.05 -1.80 6.90 0.20 ** d ≥ 0,8 (strong effect) * d ≥ 0.5 (moderate effect) s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #180 (page number not for citation purposes) the effect of an emotional intelligence development programme on accountants 163vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 9 participants: the development programme aimed at ei increased the total score of ei as measured by the baron eq-i. specific areas of ei that were developed included the interpersonal, adaptability and general mood subscales. the following ei competencies were developed due to exposure to the development programme aimed at ei: self-regard, selfactualisation, interpersonal relations, reality testing, problem solving, flexibility, stress tolerance and optimism. regarding the qualitative impressions, it appears that the development programme aimed at ei led to the development of ei because of the ‘emotional self-awareness’ theme that was identified. support for this theme of ei from the literature comes from goleman (1996), ‘express feelings’, salovey and mayer (1990), ‘managing emotions’ and ‘handling feelings so that they are appropriate’, and steiner (1997), ‘express own emotions productively, manage and control own emotions’. other qualitative themes that were identified that confirm an increase in ei competencies are empathy and interpersonal relationships. support for empathy as a theme in ei comes from goleman (1996), ‘sense what others are feeling’, gardner (1993), ‘ability to understand others, what motivates them and how they work’, and salovey and mayer (1990), ‘recognising emotions in others’. support for interpersonal relationships as a theme of ei comes from goleman (1996), ‘sense what others are feeling’, gardner (1993), ‘ability to understand others, what motivates them and how they work’, and salovey and mayer (1990), ‘recognising emotions in others’. two new themes (not measured by the baron eq-i) that can be investigated in further research (maybe as prerequisites for the development of ei) are self-awareness and self-acceptance. support for self-awareness as a theme of ei from the literature comes from gardner’s definition of ei, ‘self-knowledge’ and ‘ability to relate inner and outer world’ as well as ‘selfawareness’, defined by salovey and mayer (1990). although the quantitative results did not indicate an increase in empathy and emotional self-awareness, the qualitative results showed a definite improvement in these applications of ei. ei can be applied in the organisation through selection, recruitment, training and development of employees from senior executives to new entrant employees. selection for different types of jobs (based on different ei competencies) can be done. within specific domains in the organisation, to which development of ei can be applied, leaders and groups within the organisation can be targeted. the ability to manage emotions and relations permits the emotionally intelligent leader to understand followers’ needs and to react accordingly (barling, slater & kellaway, 2000). by working to establish norms for emotional awareness and regulation at all levels of interaction, teams can build the solid foundation of trust, group identity and group efficacy they need for true co-operation and collaboration as well as high overall performance (druskat & wollf, 2001). within human resource functions, ei can be applied to performance feedback (abraham, 1999). an emotionally intelligent delivery of criticism provides valuable information to employees to take corrective action before problems escalate out of control (korsgaad, 1996). lastly, a literature study indicated that ei is linked to performance, well-being, stress management, effective teamwork and job satisfaction. limitations the research targeted participants in a specialist area (accounting) and, as such, resulted in a limitation to generalisation within other types of organisations. the effect of the pre-test was not accounted for because only an experimental and control group were included in the research. in future, a three-group design could be added to determine the effect of the pre-test. the use of small groups made the transfer of ei skills a tedious and timeconsuming effort. the empirical research did not make use of individual ei coaching growth sessions. this could have affected the increase of ei in a more positive way. the choice of evaluation measurement was restricted as only the baron eq-i was regarded as valid and reliable for use in south african samples. the repeatability of the study can be a very costly effort because of the high cost involved in obtaining psychometric material. conclusion ei competencies should be incorporated in the curriculum of business educators as they are the trainers of the business leaders of the future. students and/or future employees must take annual ei assessments to gauge their progress and as a means for further development efforts. future quantitative and qualitative research might focus on students’ self-regard and need for self-actualisation with regard to the implementation of ei programmes. there is also a need for further research to understand the interaction between individuals and organisation/ environment in terms of their influence on the development of ei. a development programme aimed at ei must be undertaken and must start with a theoretical introduction by choosing one of the ei models (as discussed in this research) and selfassessment. training should be done in small groups and must have a strong experiential undertone. time should be allowed between multiple training sessions for the application of newly acquired ei skills. training design should be centred and adultlearning principles must be followed accordingly. training of registered psychologists or human resource officials with a strong psychological background in the design and presentation of development programmes aimed at ei should be conducted throughout the organisation. after training has been attended, support networks should be established and coaches should be appointed in order to maintain and further develop efforts. lastly, the need for ei/emotional competence interventions in occupations that can benefit from emotion management should be investigated and tested for employees such as nurses, teachers, human resource officers and police officers. references abraham, r. (1999). emotional intelligence in organizations: a conceptualisation. genetic, social and general psychology monographs, 125, 209–224. barling, j., slater, f., & kellaway, e.k. (2000). transformational leadership and emotional intelligence: an exploratory study. leadership & organisation development journal, 21(3), 157–161. bar-on, r. (1997). baron emotional quotient inventory. toronto: multi-health systems. bar-on, r., brown, j.m., kirkcaldy, b.d., & thomé, e.p. (2000). emotional expression and implications for occupational stress: an application of the emotional quotient inventory (eq-i). personality and individual differences, 28, 1107–1118. bay, d., & mckeage, k. (2006). emotional intelligence in undergraduate accounting students: preliminary assessment. accounting education: an international journal, 15(4), 439–454. boateng, k. (2007). preparing africa’s future leaders. conflict trends, 2, 44–49. boyatzis, r.e. (2006). using tipping points of emotional intelligence and cognitive competencies to predict financial performance of leaders. psicothema, 18, 12–131. brooks, k., & nafukho, f.m. (2006). human resource development, social capital, emotional intelligence: any link to productivity? journal of european industrial training, 30(2), 117–128. carmeli, a. (2003). the relationship between emotional intelligence and work attitudes, behaviour and outcomes: an examination among senior managers. journal of managerial psychology, 18(8), 788–813. original research jonker sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 18 0 (page number not for citation purposes) 164 vol. 7 no. 1 page 8 of 9 carmeli, a., & colakoglu, s.n. (2005). the relationship between affective commitment and organizational citizenship: the moderating role of emotional intelligence. research on emotion in organizations, 1, 77–94. cherniss, c., & goleman, d. (eds.). (2001). the emotionally intelligent workplace: how to select for, measure, and improve emotional intelligence in individuals, groups, and organisations. san francisco: jossey-bass. chrusciel, d. (2006). considerations of emotional intelligence (ei) in dealing with change decision management. management decision, 44(5), 644–657. ciarrochi, j., chan, a., & caputi, p. (2000). a critical evaluation of the emotional intelligence construct. personality and individual differences, 28, 539–561. clarke, n. (2006). emotional intelligence training: a case of caveat emptor. human resource development review, 5, 422– 441. cooper, r. (1998). sentimental value. people management, 4(7), 48–51. cooper, r.k. (1997). applying emotional intelligence in the workplace. training & development, 51(12), 31–38. druskat, v.u., & wollf, s.b. (2001). building emotional intelligence of groups. harvard business review, 79(3), 81–90. dwyer, b. (2001). successful training strategies for the twentyfirst century: using recent research on learning to provide effective training strategies. the international journal of educational management, 15(6), 312–318. engelberg, e., & sjöberg, l. (2004). emotional intelligence, affect intensity and social adjustment. personality and individual differences, 37, 533–542. esmond-kriger, c., tucker, m.l., & yost, c.a. (2006). emotional intelligence: from the classroom to the workplace. management accounting quarterly, 7(2), 35–42. foley, b. (2007). from overhead to asset: the importance of people skills. accountancy ireland, 39(5), 52–53. gallagher, e.n., & vella-brodrick, d.a. (2008). social support and emotional intelligence as predictors of subjective wellbeing. personality and individual differences, 44, 1551–1561. gardner, h. (1993). multiple intelligences: the theory in practice. new york: basic books. goldstein, i.l., & ford, j.k. (2001). training in organizations: a needs assessment, development, and evaluation. belmont: wadsworth. goleman, d. (1996). emotional intelligence. learning, 24(6), 49– 51. green, a.l., hill, a.y., friday, e., & friday, s.s. (2005). the use of multiple intelligences to enhance team productivity. management decision, 43(3), 349–359. hammonds, k.h. (2008). human resources engages the entire organization. management today, april, 55–58. hays, s. (1999). american express taps into the power of emotional intelligence. workforce, 78(7), 72–73. jordan, p.j., & troth, a.c. (2004). managing emotions during team problem solving: emotional intelligence and conflict resolution. human performance, 17(2), 195–218. kirch, d.p., tucker, m.l., & kirch, c.f. (2001). the benefits of emotional intelligence in accounting firms. the cpa journal, 71(8), 60–64. korsgaad, m.a. (1996). the impact of self-appraisals on reactions to feedback from others: the role of self-enhancement and self-consistency concerns. journal of organizational behaviour, 17, 301–311. kruger, d. (1984). a first encounter with psychology. pretoria: academica. laabs, j. (1999). emotional intelligence at work. workforce, 78(7), 68–71. laff, m. (2008). emotional notions. training & development, feb, 12–13. law, k.s., wong, c., & song, l.j. (2004). the construct and criterion validity of emotional intelligence and its potential utility of management studies. journal of applied psychology, 89, 483–496. lukas, r., & deery, m. (2004). significant developments and emerging issues in human resource management. hospitality management, 23(1), 459–472. mayer, j.d., & salovey, p. (1997). what is emotional intelligence? in p. salovey & d.j. sluyter (eds.), emotional development and emotional intelligence: educational implications (pp. 3–32). new york: basic books. mayer, j.d., caruso, d.r., & salovey, p. (2000). selecting a measure of emotional intelligence: the case for ability scales. in r. bar-on & j.d.a. parker (eds.), the handbook of emotional intelligence (pp. 320–342). san francisco: jossey-bass. mcphail, k. (2003). an emotional response to the state of accounting education: developing accounting students’ emotional intelligence. critical perspectives on accountancy, 15, 629–648. mikolajczak, m., & luminet, o. (2008). trait emotional intelligence and the cognitive appraisal of stressful events: an exploratory study. personality and individual differences, 44, 1445–1453. o’connor, r.m. jr., & little, i.s. (2003). revisiting the predictive validity of emotional intelligence: self-report versus abilitybased measures. personality and individual differences, 35, 1893–1902. omery, a. (1983). phenomenology: a method for nursing research. advances in nursing research, 5(2), 49–53. orme, g., & cannon, k. (2000). getting started: conducting the needs assessment, key issue: how can emotional intelligence support the business? competency & emotional intelligence quarterly, 8(1), 1–12. orme, g., & cannon, k. (2001a). design: designing the programme, key issue: what are the necessary elements for the programme? competency & emotional intelligence quarterly, 8(2), 18–25. orme, g., & cannon, k. (2001b). taking the show on the road: implementing the eq programme, key issue: how do we assume the highest quality of implementation? competency & emotional intelligence quarterly, 8(3), 17–24. orme, g., & cannon, k. (2001c). evaluating the programme, key issue: how will we measure quality and improve the programme? competency & emotional intelligence quarterly, 8(4), 19–24. palmer, b.r., manocha, r., gignac, g., & stough, c. (2003). examining the factor structure of the bar-on emotional quotient inventory with an australian general population sample. personality and individual differences, 35, 1191–1210. porter, m.e., schwab, k., & sala-i-martin, x. (2008). the global competitiveness report 2007–2008. palgrave macmillan, world economic forum: new york. rothmann, s., & cilliers, f.v.n. (2007). present challenges and some critical issues for research in industrial/organisational psychology in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 33(1), 8–17. salovey, p., & mayer, j. (1990). emotional intelligence. imagination, cognition and personality, 9(3), 185–211. sas institute inc. (1999). version 8, cary: sas institute. schutte, n.s., & malouff, j.m. (1998). measuring emotional intelligence and related constructs. levinston: e. mellen press. sipsma, l. (2000). emotional intelligence and team effectiveness of postgraduate management students in self-managed workteams. unpublished master’s dissertation, potchefstroom university for christian higher education, potchefstroom, south africa. smigla, j.e., & pastoria, g. (2000). emotional intelligence: some have, others can learn. cpa journal, 70(6), 60–62. sosik, j.j., & megerian, l.a. (1999). understanding leader emotional intelligence and performance: the role of selfother agreement on transformational leadership perceptions. group and organization management, 24(3), 367–390. spector, p.e. (2003). industrial and organizational psychology: research and practice (3rd edn.). new york: wiley. steiner, c. (1997). achieving emotional literacy. london: bloomsbury. s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #180 (page number not for citation purposes) the effect of an emotional intelligence development programme on accountants 165vol. 7 no. 1 page 9 of 9 steiner, c., & perry, p. (1997). achieving emotional literacy: a personal program to increase your emotional intelligence. london: bloomsbury. sy, t., tram, s., & o’hara, l. (2006). relation of employee and manager emotional intelligence to job satisfaction and performance. journal of vocational behaviour, 68, 461–473. turner, l. (2004). emotional intelligence: our intangible asset? chartered accountants journal, 83(3), 29–31. wolmarans, s. (1998). goodbye taylor, hello emotions! management today, 14(2), 26–29. wong, c-s., foo, m-w., wong, c-w., & wong, p-m. (2007). the feasibility of training and development of ei: an exploratory study in singapore, hong kong and taiwan. intelligences, 35, 141–150. appendix factorial components of bar-on’s concept of ei listed below are the 15 conceptual components of ei that, according to bar-on (1997), can develop over time, can change throughout life and can be improved through training and remedial programmes as well as therapeutic techniques. baron’s model (1997) is multifactorial and relates to potential for performance rather than performance itself; it is process oriented rather than outcome oriented: • self-awareness: emotional self-awareness is the ability to recognise one’s feelings. it is not only the ability to be aware of one’s feelings and emotions but also the ability to differentiate between them, to know what one is feeling and why and to know what caused the feeling. serious deficiencies in this regard can manifest in an inability to express feelings verbally. • assertiveness: assertiveness is the ability to express feelings, beliefs and thoughts and to defend one’s rights in a nondestructive manner. assertiveness is composed of three basic components: a) the ability to express feelings, b) the ability to express beliefs and thoughts openly and c) the ability to stand up for personal rights. • self-regard: self-regard is the ability to respect and accept oneself as basically good. • self-actualisation: self-actualisation pertains to the ability to realise one’s potential capacity. becoming involved in pursuits that lead to a meaningful, rich and full life manifests this component of ei. • independence: independence is the ability to be self-directed and self-controlled in one’s thinking and actions and to be free of emotional dependency. • empathy: empathy is the ability to be aware of, to understand and to appreciate the feelings of others. • interpersonal relationships: interpersonal relationship skill involves the ability to establish and maintain mutually satisfying relationships that are characterised by intimacy and by giving and receiving affection. • social responsibility: social responsibility is the ability to demonstrate oneself as a co-operative, contributing and constructive member of one’s social group. this ability involves acting in a responsible manner, even though one may not benefit personally. • problem solving: problem-solving aptitude is the ability to identify and define problems as well as to generate and implement potentially effective solutions. • reality testing: reality testing is the ability to assess the correspondence between what is experienced and what objectively exists. • flexibility: flexibility is the ability to adjust one’s emotions, thoughts and behaviour to changing situations and conditions. • stress tolerance: stress tolerance is the ability to withstand adverse events and stressful situations without falling apart by actively and positively coping with stress. • impulse control: impulse control is the ability to resist or delay an impulse, drive or temptation to act. it entails a capacity for accepting one’s aggressive impulses, being composed and controlling aggression, hostility and irresponsible behaviour. • happiness: happiness is the ability to feel satisfied with one’s life, to enjoy oneself as well as others and to have fun. • optimism: optimism is the ability to look on the brighter side of life and to maintain a positive attitude, even in the face of adversity. abstract introduction literature review method results discussion of the findings practical implications limitations of the study recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) pieter k. smit department of people management and development, faculty management sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa cecile m. schultz department of people management and development, faculty management sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa catharina e. van hoek department of people management and development, faculty management sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa citation smit, p.k., schultz, c.m., & van hoek, c.e. (2021). the relationship between talent management, transformational leadership and work engagement: an automotive artisan perspective. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehul pbronbestuur, 19(0), a1578. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1578 original research the relationship between talent management, transformational leadership and work engagement: an automotive artisan perspective pieter k. smit, cecile m. schultz, catharina e. van hoek received: 19 feb. 2021; accepted: 23 aug. 2021; published: 28 oct. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: understanding the relationship between talent management, transformational leadership and work engagement from an automotive artisan perspective within south africa. research purpose: the purpose was to determine the relationship between talent management, transformational leadership and work engagement from an automotive artisan perspective within south africa. motivation of the study: most talent management focuses on understanding the role of the manager, with very little research being dedicated to understanding the effect of talent management on work engagement and transformational leadership amongst south african artisans. research approach/design and method: a survey was conducted amongst a non-probability sample of 609 artisans from a population of 1045 artisans. a quantitative research approach was used, and structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data. main findings: the results showed that talent management acted as a mediator between the transformational leadership and work engagement of artisans in the automotive industry. there were positive relationships between talent management and work engagement and between talent management and transformational leadership, but not between transformational leadership and work engagement. practical and managerial implications: a strategic approach should be implemented that will drive a talent management process with clear rewards and recognition for all stakeholders. this approach should be a part of the business rhythm, business agendas, organisational processes and culture of the industry. should talent management, as a mediator, not form a part of work engagement and transformational leadership in the automotive industry, these variables will not function properly. contribution/value addition: talent management offers a bridge between the two variables of transformational leadership and work engagement. it was clear in this study that a focus on talent management within the automotive industry is pivotal. keywords: transformational leadership; work engagement; talent management; artisans; automotive industry. introduction background and contextualisation of the study sharma and naude (2021) state that the south african automotive industry, which is the most significant sector in the south african economy, needs to function efficiently to compete globally. the gross domestic product (gdp) of a country is one of the main indicators used to measure the performance of a country’s economy (statssa, 2021). the automotive industry is currently a significant contributor to south african gdp (6.8%), with 110 000 people employed across vehicle and component manufacturers. it also has an estimated indirect impact on 1.5 million people (businesstech, 2021). in south africa, the artisan occupation is facing two important issues: the need for expansion and the need for transformation (teti, 2016). there are widespread claims of a shortage of artisans in south africa as well as a general agreement that artisan development is crucial (wildschut & ralphs, 2016). hufkie (2021) states that reskilling of artisans within the automotive industry in south africa is needed towards fourth industrial revolution (4ir) readiness. many south african artisans are being deskilled and the remaining artisans are being reshuffled to assembly lines likely to be automated with time (chigbu & nekhwevha, 2020). the study of mey, poisat and stindt (2021, p. 1) revealed that: [t]he retention of skilled, engaged employees requires leaders who can provide them with a sense of belonging, respect, empowerment, support their personal growth and development, and provide them with flexibility and freedom in executing their duties. (p. 1) leadership support is vital in endorsing an enabling environment that cultivates talent. without leadership’s utilisation of opportunities to provide an enabling environment, talent is not secured and will not thrive (shikweni, schurink, & van wyk, 2019). a transformation leadership style within the south african automotive industry will, therefore, be needed to develop interventions to manage the talent of artisans and to increase their work engagement. research gap and purpose it is essential that a culture is created where talent and engagement can emerge, and where leaders and managers are willing to put practices in place to ensure the development of talented and engaged employees (savarimuthu & jothi, 2020). real leadership is needed in the automotive industry’s competitive environment to guide subordinates so that they share goals, attitudes, values, and work towards the achievement of organisational strategies (gautam & enslin, 2019). leaders also need to stimulate employees’ work engagement through progressive policies and work practices (decuypere & schaufeli, 2020). by combining research about talent management, leadership and work engagement, it is possible for managers to develop strategies and approaches to work engagement and talent management that become self-reinforcing. however, such studies conducted in the south african automotive industry from an artisan perspective are not known. this study is, therefore, conducted to close this research gap by investigating the relationship between talent management, transformational leadership and work engagement within the automotive industry from an artisan perspective. furthermore, it is hoped that this study will contribute to an in-depth understanding of the intervening effect that talent management has on transformational leadership and work engagement. literature review the underpinning theory used in this study was the ability, motivation and opportunity (amo) theory. according to amo theory, the components of ability, motivation and opportunity are the three-independent work-system elements that form employee characteristics and eventually lead to organisational success (shanaz, dlvin, & vala, 2020). ability refers to those practices and policies to ensure that employees obtain the required skills, knowledge and ability to perform their tasks with minimum supervision (yahya, tan, & tay, 2017). motivation refers to employee performance and the extra efforts that employees put into their jobs (yahya et al., 2017). the last component is the opportunity-enhancing human resources management (hrm) practices which aim at engaging employee involvement by providing opportunities (yahya et al., 2017). saks and gruman (2017) propose that drawing from the amo theory will enable researchers to understand how hrm practices can influence work engagement. amor, vázquez and faíña (2020) stated that managers should be aware of the critical role of the leader in stimulating work engagement. organisational interventions that promote the development of transformational leadership may be valuable to enhance work engagement. whilst organisations need to recruit and retain top talent, they also need their talented employees to be engaged in their work (bakker & leiter, 2010). transformational leadership the theory of transformational leadership was first coined by downton (1973). downton (1973) categorised three leadership tendencies, which are transactional leadership, charismatic leadership and inspirational leadership. avolio, waldman and yammarino (1991) mentioned the four i’s of transformational leadership namely, idealised influence (modelling ethical and socially desirable behaviour, exhibiting enthusiasm about company strategy), inspirational motivation (to impart a vision that is appealing and worthy), intellectual stimulation (empowering employees to constantly be learning) and individualised consideration (giving employees a feeling of ownership in company goals and independence in the workplace). idealised influence is described by hamidianpour, esmaeilpour and mashayekh (2016), wherein followers demonstrate respect and loyalty towards a leader who conveys an ideal sense and makes followers consider the leader as a perfect sense model of behaviour. inspirational motivation is defined by steinmann, klug and maier (2018) as the method in which a transformational leader inspirationally motivates followers to achieve more than expected by sharing his or her vision in order to inspire them towards a more effective and efficient performance of their duties. intellectual stimulation refers to the leader’s ability to instil innovative and creative capabilities into followers as a way of building their critical thinking and problem-solving skills (atiku & anane-simon, 2020). individualised consideration is a dimension of transformational leadership whereby a leader pays special attention to individual differences, followers’ personal growth and needs for achievement by acting as a mentor or coach for them (gonfa, 2019). swanwick (2017) opined that developing transformational leadership with training in the four i’s can enhance a leader’s effectiveness and satisfaction. khorshid and pashazadeh (2014) maintained that transformational leaders create an atmosphere of trust and motivate employees to work for the organisation beyond their self-interests. transformational leadership has proven to be a pervasive model, inspiring shared purpose, engaging others and sharing the vision of an organisation (swanwick, 2017). mittal and dhar (2015) also put forth the fact that a transformational leader is one who inspires followers to do more than originally expected. talent management lewis and heckman (2006) mentioned that there are three distinct perspectives regarding talent management. the first perspective defines talent management as a collection of typical human resource department practices, functions, activities or specialist areas such as recruiting, selection, development and career and succession management (mercer, 2005). the second perspective on talent management focuses primarily on the concept of talent pools by focusing on the internal workforce (schweyer, 2004). employees who experience a talent management system that is based on an inclusive or stable philosophy are likely to feel supported and valued by their organisation because they work in surroundings that are generally appreciative of their talents (meyers & van woerkom, 2014). a third perspective on talent management focuses on high performing talent (axelrod, handfield-jones, & michaels, 2002) on the one hand and generic talent (walker & larocco, 2002) on the other hand. new perspectives on talent management by rhodes and fletcher (2013) bring approaches that are focused on both the employment and the work relationship and that consider the influence and well-being of role players at multiple levels. talent management is an integrated, strategic and deliberate activity that is performed to direct how organisations source, attract, select, train, develop, retain, promote and deploy employees (van rooyen & whittle, 2011). johnson (2015) posits that talent management is about the early identification of key role players and articulation of duties, leading to ownership and clear accountability to ensure organisational success. ogbari, onasanya, ogunnaike and kehinde (2018) are of the opinion that one of the main components of talent management is continuously training personnel to maintain the required level of performance. talent management contributes to creating a high-performance work culture within an organisation (poisat et al., 2018). work engagement work engagement refers to a positive, affective-motivational state of high energy combined with high levels of dedication and a strong focus on work (schaufeli & bakker, 2010). engaged employees demonstrate vigour, dedication and absorption when executing tasks in the workplace (schaufeli, salanova, gonzáles-romá, & bakker, 2002). dedication and vigour are regarded as the core components of work engagement (schaufeli, 2013; taris, ybema, & van beek, 2017). vigour means enhanced levels of mental resilience and energy and includes employees’ preparedness to put effort into their work (schaufeli, martinez, pinto, salanova, & bakker, 2002; sonnentag, 2017). employees with dedication feel challenged, proud, inspired and enthusiastic, and experience a sense of significance about their work (schaufeli et al., 2002a; sonnentag, 2017). absorption entails the immersion in one’s work (schaufeli et al., 2002b). individuals who are engaged in their work have high levels of energy, are enthusiastic about their work and are completely immersed in their work activities (bakker & albrecht, 2018). the majority of studies have adopted a between-person approach, showing that there are mean level differences in work engagement between individuals as a function of working conditions, personal characteristics and behavioural strategies (bakker, demerouti, & sanz-vergel, 2014). development of the hypotheses in this study, nine research hypotheses were developed and investigated. the development of each of these hypotheses is discussed in the following sections. talent management and transformational leadership according to the research conducted by ghafoor, qureshi, khan and hijazi (2011), transformational leadership was positively related to talent management. transformational leadership has an effect on talent management (onyango, 2015). widodo and mawarto (2020) found that there is a significant relationship between talent management and transformational leadership. the relationship between transformational leadership and talent management highlighted the following hypotheses: hypothesis 1: talent management (performance planning and motivational processes) will be positively related to transformational leadership. hypothesis 2: talent management (career development) will be positively related to transformational leadership. talent management and work engagement according to research conducted by church (2013), talent management positively relates to work engagement. the findings of sopiah, kurniawan, nora and narmaditya (2020) confirmed that talent management positively influences work involvement and employee performance. there is a significant positive relationship between talent management and work engagement (toka & hamida, 2020). ishayama (2021) found that talent management has an impact on work engagement. the relationship between work engagement and talent management highlighted the following hypotheses: hypothesis 3: talent management (performance planning and motivational processes) will be positively related to work engagement (vigour). hypothesis 4: talent management (career development) will be positively related to work engagement (vigour). hypothesis 5: talent management (performance planning and motivational processes) will be positively related to work engagement (dedication). hypothesis 6: talent management (career development) will be positively related to work engagement (dedication). work engagement and transformational leadership a positive leadership style, such as transformational leadership, has a relatively large correlation with work engagement (hoch, bommer, dulebohn, & wu, 2018). the findings of gautam and enslin (2019) indicated that transformational leadership moderately influenced work engagement more than transactional leadership and there was a positive relationship between these two constructs. an increasing number of studies suggests that transformational leadership influences work engagement (breevaart et al., 2014; tims, bakker, & xanthopoulou, 2011; tuckey, bakker, & dollard, 2012). leadership styles can potentially complement the known benefits associated with transformational leadership, particularly in explaining the emergence and maintenance of engagement in dynamic team-based working contexts (bakker & albrecht, 2018). hayati, charkhabi and naami’s (2014) investigation of transformational leadership suggested that transformational leadership would likely be the most predictive characteristic of an optimal leader. in support of this statement, avolio, bass and jung (1999) stated that transformational leaders embody characteristics of being charismatic and influential in their ability to make employees do more than expected at work. the relationship between work engagement and transformational leadership highlighted the following hypotheses: hypothesis 7: work engagement (vigour) will be positively related to transformational leadership. hypothesis 8: work engagement (dedication) will be positively related to transformational leadership. talent management, transformational leadership and work engagement according to lai et al. (2020), work engagement mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and employees’ task performance and helping behaviour. in addition, transformational leaders can enhance followers’ performance and foster their helping behaviours because they induce members’ work engagement and enable them to exceed expectations. furthermore, lai et al.’s (2020) research also depicted that role-based self-efficacy, transactional leadership and work engagement fully mediate the positive relationship between transformational leadership and members’ task performance and helping behaviours (lai et al., 2020). sopiah et al. (2020) found that work engagement had a moderating role between talent management and employee performance. talent management as a mediator between transformational leadership and work engagement highlighted the following hypothesis: hypothesis 9: talent management mediates transformational leadership and work engagement. a graphic presentation of the hypotheses is presented in figure 1. figure 1: hypothesised relationships and conceptual model. method research method empirical research, which was conducted in this study, should primarily be embedded in theory. for the purpose of this study, current, proven and tested questionnaires on the variables of transformational leadership, talent management and work engagement were used. in other words, data were directly collected from the sample group. from the analysis of the statistical data gathered, conclusions were drawn. research context this study was conducted at a large organisation that provides training to all artisans in the south african automotive industry. automotive organisations were represented by automotive brands selling vehicles in all nine provinces in south africa. from a total of 1045 artisans targeted, 609 respondents completed the questionnaire on transformational leadership, talent management and work engagement. sample for the purpose of this research, artisans from 152 automotive south african organisations were targeted to complete the questionnaire. purposive sampling was used to target the artisans who attended training at three different training venues at a specific point in time. research approach and design the study takes the ontological position of objectivism, with a positivistic epistemology. according to botma, greeff, mulaudzi and wright (2010), epistemology determines the methodologies, theories and procedure application throughout the research process. therefore, a quantitative and non-experimental research approach was adopted. leedy and ormrod (2016) highlighted that descriptive quantitative research entails the identification and exploration of characteristics of the phenomenon and possible correlations amongst the multiple phenomena. a self-administered questionnaire survey design was utilised for data collection purposes. cross-sectional and survey research designs were used in this study. research instrument the following instruments discussed namely, transformational leadership, talent management and work engagement are those that were used in the study. transformational leadership measurement according to bass and riggio (2006), the most widely accepted instrument to measure transformational leadership is the multifactor leadership questionnaire (mlq), which assesses the full range of leadership (frl) model, including laissez-faire leadership, the components of transactional leadership, namely management by exception (both active and passive forms) and contingent reward, as well as components of transformational leadership. in the study of louw, muriithi and radloff (2017), the cronbach’s alpha assessment was done to establish the reliability of the scales of the measuring instrument and the scores were considered very reliable compared to the minimum acceptable score of 0.7 (nunnally, 1978). for all factors, coefficients of greater than 0.7 (nunnally, 1978, p. 226) were returned. sufficient evidence of validity and reliability for the scales measuring the independent and dependent variables is thus provided. the specific scores for transformational leadership sub-constructs were: individualised consideration (0.892), idealised influence behaviour (0.844), inspirational motivation (0.868), intellectual simulation (0.869) and idealised influence attributes (0.849). the alpha scores were in agreement with similar studies, thereby making the measuring instrument and data reliable (hayward, 2005). talent management measurement a questionnaire on talent management was adapted from van hoek (2014), it consisted of 29 questions. the instrument was previously used in the study conducted by (van hoek 2014). in this study of van hoek (2014), performance management obtained the cronbach’s alpha value of 0.845, however remuneration obtained cronbach’s alpha of 0.619, finally career development obtained the cronbach’s alpha value of 0.629. the cronbach’s alpha should be more than 0.70 to make the scale more reliable, in this case two factors, that is, remuneration and career development obtained the cronbach’s alpha value just below the acceptable level and performance management obtained an acceptable level of 0.845 of the cronbach’s alpha value, that made the scale more reliable (van hoek, 2014). work engagement measurement schaufeli et al. (2006) set out to develop a short questionnaire to measure work engagement and validate its scores. this questionnaire was used in this research to measure engagement. in the study of hoole and bonnema (2015), cronbach’s alpha scores of 0.93 and 0.72 were obtained for the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) and performance management system (pms), respectively. in the case of the pms, one should take into consideration that reliability also tends to be lower when a scale consists of fewer than 10 items (pallant, 2005). data collection procedure the questionnaires which are in english were manually distributed to the artisans. sealed boxes were used for collection in order to ensure anonymity and confidentially. the returned responses with missing values were excluded from the analysis. data analysis the stata version 15 statistical analysis software was used for the analysis of data. descriptive statistics were reported in a form of frequencies and percentages. in terms of inferential statistics, the structural equation modelling (sem) using the partial least squares path modelling approach (pls-pm) was performed (hair, sarstedt, hopkins, & kuppelwieser, 2014). bootstrapping was used to estimate the parameters and associated standard errors in the direct and indirect effect in the statistical analysis of the structural equation model through the non-parametric method. measurement model evaluation measurement model evaluation is aimed to evaluate the consistency and validity of the manifest variables. consistency evaluations are through individual manifest and construct reliability tests. whilst validity of the variables is tested based on convergent and discriminant validity, individual manifest reliability explains the variance of individual manifest relative to latent variable by calculating standardised outer loadings of the manifest variable. structural equation modelling consists of two parts, namely the measurement model evaluation and the testing of the structural model. measurement model evaluation is intended to evaluate the validity and consistency of the manifest variables. validity of the variables is tested based on convergent and discriminant validity, and individual manifest reliability explains the variance of individual manifest relative to latent variable by calculating standardised outer loadings of the manifest variable, whilst consistency evaluations are done through individual manifest and construct reliability tests. ethical considerations approval was granted by the automotive industry to conduct research on this topic with their artisans. the study was conducted within the approved ethical framework. the participation by respondents was voluntary, and their completed questionnaires were treated as confidential. permission to conduct this study was obtained from the company under study. ethical permission was obtained from the high ethical standards that were followed in all aspects of the research process. all possible respondents were provided with an overview of the study, before inviting them to voluntarily participate. participants were assured of the anonymity and confidentiality of their responses and were informed that they could withdraw from the study at any stage, should they feel it necessary to do so. all participants indicated their consent. results descriptive statistics a total of 609 respondents participated in the study, and the response rate was 100%. the data revealed that there were more male respondents (96.72%) than female respondents (3.28%) who participated in the study. the data show that most respondents were africans with 43.64%, followed by their white counterparts with 31.74%, mixed races represented 15.87% and the remaining 876% represented indian participants. thirty-four (34) (5.6%) were in the age group of 31–40 years, 13 (2.1%) were in the age group of 41–50 years and only 2 (0.3%) were over the age of 51 years. with regard to the education of the respondents, the majority of the respondents (56.83%) had grade 12% and 17.7% possessed an n4–n6 qualification. in terms of tenure, the data showed that 77.80% of the respondents who completed the questionnaire had a tenure of service between 1 and 5 years, 14.50% of the respondents had a tenure of service less than 1 year, 5.9% of the respondents had a tenure of service between 6 and 10 years of service, 1% of the respondents had a tenure of service between 11 and 20 years of service, 0.3% of the respondents had a tenure of service between 21 and 30 years of service and 0.50% of the respondents had a tenure of service more than 31 years. the percentage distribution of vehicle petrol mechanics was 78.9% compared to vehicle diesel mechanics representing 18.5%, vehicle spray painter 1% and the other individual fields of work less than 1% each. factor and reliability analysis the results presented in table 1 show that the cronbach’s alpha values for all the variables are between the cut-off points of 0.5 and 0.7. dillon–goldstein’s rho for all the variables was above 0.7 that indicates homogeneity of the factor. the results suggest that all the variables are reliable with regard to internal consistency. the quality of a measurement model was examined by testing the convergent validity, which shows the degree to which the indicators under the constructs are related. convergent validity shows the amount of variance the indicators have in common: high factor loading and average variance extracted (ave). according to hair et al. (2014), ave loadings above 0.5 are indicators of convergent validity. the results displayed in table 1 indicate that the ave loadings were above 0.5, except for continuance commitment with 0.3. the final model factor loadings are also reported in table 1. table 1: final model: revised assessment of internal consistency. structural equation model results the direct effect in the statistical analysis of the structural equation model was determined through the non-parametric method. in the analysis of the non-parametric method, the identification of a loading close to 1 indicates a strong relationship, with the perc 0.975 equal to a 95% confidence interval. further loadings with a zero involved in the reading of the interval (–0.068:0.154) become insignificant. furthermore, bootstrapping was used to estimate the parameters and associated standard errors. table 2 indicates the different paths resulting from the statistical results (see figure 2). tm1 is significantly related to tl. the relationship is strong and positive. this means that, when tm1 increases, tl also increases. similarly, tm2 is significantly related to tl; however, the relationship is weak. tm1 has a moderate and positive relationship with we1 and we2; however, it is not as strong as with tl. should tm1 increase, we1 and we2 increase. furthermore, the results show that tm1 is a better predictor of tl than tm2. the relationship between tl and both we1 and we2 is not significant. the effect of tl on we as a whole is not significant. tm2 is significantly related to we1 and we2. the relationship is strong and positive. talent management is significantly related to tl, but not as strongly as to we1 and we2. transformational leadership is not significantly related to we1 and we2. the relationship is very weak and not positive. figure 2: the different paths of influence from statistical results. table 2: direct relationship estimation of parameters and associated standard errors. bootstrapping was used to estimate the parameters and associated standard errors in the direct and indirect effect in the statistical analysis of the structural equation model using the non-parametric method. table 3 indicates the total effect of the different paths from the direct and indirect statistical results. tm1 is still significantly related to tl. this relationship is positive. this means that, when tm1 increases, tl also increases. similarly, tm2 is significantly related to tl, but this relationship is not as positive as the direct estimation analysis only. however, the relationship between tm2 and tl is still weak. the results show that tm1 is still a better predictor of tl compared to tm2. the relationship between tl and both we1 and we2 is low and weak and thus not significant. the low and weak effect of tl on we as a whole is not significant. goodness of fit (gof) can be used as a global criterion that helps to evaluate the performance of the model in both the inner and the outer models. basically, gof assesses the overall prediction performance of the model. the main drawback with the gof index is that there is no threshold that allows one to determine its statistical significance. unfortunately, there is also no guidance about what number could be considered a good gof value. gof can be considered as an index of average prediction for the entire model. although this is not entirely true, it helps in understanding gof values. the calculated global gof is 0.479, which exceeds the threshold of 0.36 suggested by wetzels, odekerken-schröder and van oppen (2009). this led the researchers to conclude that the research model has a good overall fit. table 3: total effect estimation of parameters and associated standard errors. discussion of the findings the purpose was to determine the relationship between talent management, transformational leadership and work engagement from an automotive artisan perspective within south africa. transformational leadership is negatively related to work engagement. this deviates with the findings of church (2013), sopiah et al. (2020), toka and hamida (2020) and ishayama (2021). talent management is positively related to transformational leadership. this concurs with the findings of ghafoor et al. (2011), (onyango, 2015) and widodo and mawarto (2020). work engagement is negatively related to transformational leadership. this deviates with the findings of hoch et al. (2018), gautam and enslin (2019), breevaart et al. (2014), tims et al. (2011), tuckey et al. (2012), bakker and albrecht (2018) and hayati et al. (2014). talent management acts as the mediator between transformational leadership and work engagement. this deviates with the study of lai et al. (2020) where work engagement mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and employees’ task performance and helping behaviour. the study of sopiah et al. (2020) found that work engagement had rather a moderating role between talent management and employee performance. transformational leadership provides a better fit for leading today’s complex groups and organisations, where followers not only seek an inspirational leader to help them through an uncertain environment, but also want to be challenged and to feel empowered, if they are to be loyal and perform well (bass & riggio, 2006). employees who experience a talent management system that is based on an inclusive or stable philosophy are likely to feel supported and valued by their organisation because they work in surroundings that are generally appreciative of their talents. consequently, such employees make positive attributions regarding the goals of talent management (meyers & van woerkom, 2014). the concept of engagement has been researched and conceptualised as the ‘harnessing of organisation members’ selves to their work roles: in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally and mentally during role performances’ (kahn, 1990). the results of the research done by kahn (1990) reflected that engaged employees put a great deal of effort into their work because they identify themselves with it. a summary of the outcomes of the hypotheses is presented in table 4. table 4: hypotheses accepted/rejected. practical implications the complex environment that the automotive industry faces today highlights the importance of transformational leadership, talent management and work engagement for the effective management of organisations. this study investigated the relationship between transformational leadership, talent management and work engagement amongst artisans in the automotive industry. this study provides initial support for a complex relationship between transformational leadership, work engagement and talent management. as further research provides greater support, the development of greater validity between these variables could be used as a supplement to transformational leadership to handle the changing corporate environment effectively. limitations of the study although the current study yielded some interesting results, there are limitations that could negatively impact its generalisability because the study only reflects the views of artisans working in the automotive industry. cross-sectional and survey research designs were used and can, therefore, not be generalised to other industries as in the case with the study of mathafena and grobler (2020). this necessitates repeated longitudinal research for this type of study. the results of the study could be explained better if both quantitative and qualitative methods had been employed in the study. there is an opportunity to explore a pessimistic view that might highlight many intervention opportunities with the next survey process and qualitative research. recommendations in the automotive industry, transformational leadership is needed to guide artisans so that they share goals, attitudes, values, and work towards the achievement of organisational strategies (gautam & enslin, 2019). these leaders also need to stimulate employees’ work engagement through progressive policies and work practices (decuypere & schaufeli, 2020). policies and procedures should be reviewed to ensure better compliance towards artisans in this regard: [o]rganisational executives should focus simultaneously on understanding the broader aspects of work engagement within an organisation as well as providing constant support to develop the leadership skills of managers, particularly transformational leadership skills. (gautam & enslin, 2019, p. 139) lastly, a talent management strategy that includes transformational leadership and work engagement should be developed to guide the automotive industry on the way forward. artisan development will take place through strategic processes that are shared at all levels of the organisation. rewards and recognition will be measured by management with talent management as the mediator. conclusion the purpose was to determine the relationship between talent management, transformational leadership and work engagement from an automotive artisan perspective within south africa. the results showed that transformational leadership is negatively related to work engagement, talent management is positively related to transformational leadership and work engagement is negatively related to transformational leadership. lastly, talent management is a mediator between transformational leadership and work engagement. these results could assist managers to become transformational leaders in order to properly manage talent amongst artisans in the south african automotive industry so that these artisans’ work engagement can improve. a talent management strategy that includes transformational leadership and work engagement should, therefore, be developed to guide the automotive industry on the way forward. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions dr smit did the research together with analytical analysis of the researched data and the development of a framework determining the mediating factor. prof. schultz was the supervisor for this topic. dr van hoek was the co-supervisor to the topic. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data were recorded on an excel spreadsheet and captured into the spss v23 software package. the data were kept electronically as well as in hard copy. the original completed questionnaires were also stored. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references amor, a.m., vázquez, j.p.a., & faíña, j.a. (2020). transformational leadership and work engagement: exploring the mediating role of structural empowerment. european management journal, 38(1), 169–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2019.06.007 atiku, s.o., & anane-simon, r. (2020). leadership and innovative approaches in higher education. in n. baporikar, & m. sony (eds.), quality management principles and policies in higher education (pp. 83–100). hershey, pa: igi global. avolio, b.j., bass, b.m., & jung, d.i. (1999). re-examining the components of transformational and transactional leadership using the multifactor leadership. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 72(4), 441–462. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317999166789 avolio, b.j., waldman, d.a., & yammarino, f.j. (1991). leading in the 1990s: the four i′s of transformational leadership. journal of european industrial training, 15(4), 9–16. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090599110143366 axelrod, b., handfield-jones, h., & michaels, e. (2002). a new game plan for c players. harvard business review, 80(1), 80∓88. bakker, a.b., & albrecht, s. (2018). work engagement: current trends. career development international, 23(1), 4–11. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi-11-2017-0207 bakker, a.b., albrecht, s.l., & leiter, m.p. (2011). key questions regarding work engagement. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 20(1), 4–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2010.485352 bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & sanz-vergel, a.i. (2014). burnout and work engagement: the jd-r approach. annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behavior, 1(1), 389–411. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091235 bakker, a.b., & leiter, m.p. (2010). work engagement: a handbook of essential theory and research. washington, dc: psychology press. bass, b.m., & riggio, r.e. (2006). transformational leadership. mahwah, nj: psychology press. botma, y., greeff, m., mulaudzi, f.m., & wright, s.c.d. (2010). research in health sciences (1st ed.). cape town: pearson education. breevaart, k., bakker, a.b., hetland, j., demerouti, e., olsen, o.k., & espevik, r. (2014). daily transactional and transformational leadership and daily employee engagement. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 87(1), 138–157. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12041 businesstech. (2021). south africa’s motoring industry has big plans. retrieved from https://businesstech.co.za/news/motoring/476620/south-africas-motoring-industry-has-big-plans/ chigbu, b.i., & nekhwevha, f.h. (2020). the extent of job automation in the automobile sector in south africa. economic and industrial democracy, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831x20940779 church, a. (2013). engagement is in the eye of the beholder: understanding differences in the od vs. talent management mindset. od practitioner, 45(2), 42–48. decuypere, a., & schaufeli, w. (2020). leadership and work engagement: exploring explanatory mechanisms. german journal of human resource management, 34(1), 69–95. https://doi:10.1177/2397002219892197 downton, j.v. (1973). rebel leadership: commitment and charisma in the revolutionary process. new york, ny: free press. gautam, a., & enslin, e. (2019). transformational leadership and work engagement in the automotive retail industry: a study of south africa. international business research, 12(5), 133–141. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v12n5p133 ghafoor, a., qureshi, t.m., khan, m.a., & hijazi, s.t. (2011). transformational leadership, employee engagement and performance: mediating effect of psychological ownership. african journal of business management, 5(17), 7391–7403. https://doi.org/10.5897/ajbm11.126 gonfa, b.d. (2019). review on components of transformational leadership. arabian journal of business and management review, 9(3), 1–5. hair, j.f., jr., sarstedt, m., hopkins, l., & kuppelwieser, g. (2014). partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem): an emerging tool in business research. european business review, 26(2), 106–121. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr-10-2013-0128 hamidianpour, f., esmaeilpour, m., & mashayekh, s. (2016). studying the effect of transformational leadership style on organizational culture change. journal of academy of business and economics, 16(2), 7–24. https://doi.org/10.18374/jabe16-2.1 hayati, d., charkhabi, m., & naami, a. (2014). the relationship between transformational leadership and work engagement in governmental hospitals nurses: a survey study. springerplus, 3(1), a25. https://doi.org/10.1186/2193-1801-3-25 hayward, b.a. (2005). relationship between employee performance, leadership and emotional intelligence in a south african parastatal organisation. unpublished master’s thesis. grahamstown: rhodes university. hoch, j.e., bommer, w.h., dulebohn, j.h., & wu, d. (2018). do ethical, authentic, and servant leadership explain variance above and beyond transformational leadership? a meta-analysis. journal of management, 44(2), 501–529. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206316665461 hoole, c., & bonnema, j. (2015). work engagement and meaningful work across generational cohorts. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #681, 11 pages. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.681 hufkie, b. (2021). essential employee knowledge management and re-skilling within the 4ir in the south african automotive industry towards 2030. ma thesis. port elizabeth: nelson mandela university. ishayama, n. (2021). the impact of the talent management mechanism and self-perceived talent status on work engagement: the case of japan. asia pacific business review, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13602381.2021.1905410 johnson, c. (2015). new frontiers in talent management. hr future, 6(1), 28–30. kahn, w.a. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 33(4), 692–724. https://doi.org/10.5465/256287 khorshid, s., & pashazadeh, a. (2014). the impact of transformational leadership on organizational learning capabilities with respect to the mediating role of organizational intelligence. transformational leadership journal, 11(1), 1–28. lai, f.-y., tang, h.-c., lu, s.-c., lee, y.-c., & lin, c.-c. (2020). transformational leadership and job performance: the mediating role of work engagement. sage open, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1177%2f2158244019899085 leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2016). practical research: planning and design (11th ed.). boston, ma: pearson education. lewis, r.e., & heckman, r.j. (2006). talent management: a critical review. human resource management review, 16(12), 139–154. louw, l., muriithi, s.m., & radloff, s. (2017). the relationship between transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness in kenyan indigenous banks. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a935. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.935 mathafena, r.b., & grobler, a. (2020). the effectiveness of human resources practices in driving proactive experimentation and risk-taking work behaviours in organisations. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1259. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1259 mercer, s.r. (2005). best-in-class leadership. leadership excellence, 22(3), 17. mey, m.r., poisat, p., & stindt, c. (2021). the influence of leadership behaviours on talent retention: an empirical study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1504. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1504 meyers, m.c., & van woerkom, m. (2014). the influence of underlying philosophies on talent management: theory, implications for practice, and research agenda. journal of world business, 49(2), 192–203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2013.11.003 mittal, s., & dhar, r.l. (2015). transformational leadership and employee creativity: mediating role of creative self-efficacy and moderating role of knowledge sharing. management decision, 53(5), 894–910. https://doi.org/10.1108/md-07-2014-0464 nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory (2nd ed.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. ogbari, m.e., onasanya, y.a., ogunnaike, o.o., & kehinde, o.j. (2018). talent management as a determinant of firm performance: a conceptual approach. business & social sciences journal, 3(1), 21–32. onyango, w.p. (2015). effects of transformational leadership styles on talent management: a case of micro, small and medium size enterprises in migori county, kenya. journal of poverty, investment and development, 10, 51–59. pallant, j. (2005). spss survival manual. crows nest: allen & unwin. poisat, p., mey, m.r., & sharp, g. (2018). do talent management strategies influence the psychological contract within a diverse environment?. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a1044. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.1044 rhodes, c., & fletcher, s. (2013). coaching and mentoring for self-efficacious leadership in schools. international journal of mentoring and coaching in education, 2(1), 47–63. https://doi.org/10.1108/20466851311323087 saks, a.m., & gruman, j.a. (2017). human resource management practices and employee engagement. in p. sparrow & c.l. cooper (eds), a research agenda for human resource management (pp. 95–113). cheltenham: edward elgar. savarimuthu, a., & jothi, d.a. (2020). talent management: a strategy for employee engagement. international research journal of management sociology & humanities, 10(12), 134–140. schaufeli, w.b., bakker a.b., & salanova, m. (2006). the measurement of work engagement with a short questionnaire: a cross-national study. educational and psychological measurement, 66(4):701–716. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164405282471 schaufeli, w.b. (2013). what is engagement? in c. truss, k. alfes, r. delbridge, a. shantz, & e. soane (eds.), employee engagement in theory and practice (pp. 2657–2669). london: routledge. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2010). defining and measuring work engagement: bringing clarity to the concept. in a.b. bakker & m.p. leiter (eds.), work engagement: a handbook of essential theory and research (pp. 10–24). new york, ny: psychology press. schaufeli, w.b., martinez, i.m., pinto, a.m., salanova, m., & bakker, a.b. (2002a). burnout and engagement in university students: a cross-national study. journal of cross-cultural psychology, 33(5), 464–481. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022102033005003 schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzáles-romá, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002b). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3, 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 schweyer, a. (2004). talent management systems: best practices in technology solutions for recruitment, retention, and workforce planning. toronto: wiley. shanaz, a.t., dlvin, s.m., & vala, m.a. (2020). the underpinning theories of human resource management course. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340620672_the_underpinning_theories_of_human_resource_management_course_advance_human_resource_management_prepared sharma, m.g., & naude, m.j. (2021). interdependence analysis of supplier relationship challenges in the south african automotive industry. journal of global operations and strategic sourcing, 14(3), 438–453. https://doi.org/10.1108/jgoss-01-2020-0005 shikweni, s., schurink w., & van wyk, r. (2019). talent management in the south african construction industry. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1094. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1094 sonnentag, s. (2017). a task-level perspective on work engagement: a new approach that helps to differentiate the concepts of engagement and burnout. burnout research, 5, 2–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burn.2017.04.001 sopiah, s., kurniawan, d.t., nora, e., & narmaditya, b.s. (2020). does talent management affect employee performance?: the moderating role of work engagement. the journal of asian finance, economics, and business, 7(7), 335–341. https://doi.org/10.13106/jafeb.2020.vol7.no7.335 statssa. (2021). what is gdp and its impact? retrieved from http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=1143 steinmann, b., klug, h.j.p., & maier, g.w. (2018). the path is the goal: how transformational leaders enhance followers’ job attitudes and proactive behaviour. frontiers in psychology, 9, 2338. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02338 swanwick, t. (2017). leadership theories and concepts. in t. swanwick & j. mckimm (eds.), abc of clinical leadership (pp. 9–13). hoboken, nj: wiley-blackwell. taris, t.w., ybema, j.f., & van beek, i. (2017). burnout and engagement: identical twins or just close relatives? burnout research, 5, 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burn.2017.05.002 teti, t.n. (2016). learning experiences of female artisans in the automotive industry. master of management. school of governance, johannesburg: university of witwatersrand. tims, m., bakker, a.b., & xanthopoulou, d. (2011). do transformational leaders enhance their followers’ daily work engagement? the leadership quarterly, 22(1), 121–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.12.011 toka, m.f., & hamida, a.s.m. (2020). examining the relationship between talent management practices, work engagement and intention to quit of academic staff: insights from egyptian faculties of tourism and hotels. international journal of hospitality & tourism systems, 13(1), 1–12. tuckey, m.r., bakker, a.b., & dollard, m.f. (2012). empowering leaders optimize working conditions for engagement: a multilevel study. journal of occupational health psychology, 17(1), 15–27. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025942 van hoek, c.e. (2014). a competitive talent management strategy for a natural resources mining company in selected countries in africa. unpublished doctoral thesis. pretoria: tshwane university of technology. van rooyen, e.j., & whittle, c. (2011). talent management as a key imperative for leadership development. journal of public administration, 46(3), 1039–1054. walker, j.w., & larocco, j.m. (2002). talent pools: the best and the rest. human resource planning, 25(3), 12∓14. wetzels, m., odekerken-schröder, g., & van oppen, c. (2009). using pls path modeling for assessing hierarchical construct models: guidelines and empirical illustration. mis quarterly, 33(1), 177–195. https://doi.org/10.2307/20650284 widodo, w., & mawarto, m. (2020). investigating the role of innovative behavior in mediating the effect of transformational leadership and talent management on performance. management science letters, 10(2020), 2175–2182. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2020.3.019 wildschut, a., & ralphs, g. (2016). artisans and technicians in south africa: what the future holds. hsrc review. retrieved from http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/research-data/view/8206 yahya, k., tan, f., & tay, l. (2017). the power of ability-motivation-opportunity enhancing human resource management practices on organizational ethical climate. international journal of business and society, 18(3), 547–562. https://doi.org/10.33736/ijbs.3146.2017 abstract introduction research purpose data analysis findings discussion practical implications limitations of the study and future research areas acknowledgements references about the author(s) tinashe harry department of industrial psychology, university of fort hare, alice, south africa willie t. chinyamurindi department of business management, university of fort hare, east london, south africa citation harry, t., & chinyamurindi, w.t. (2020).illustrating school-to-work transition through drawings: an exploratory study with a sample of south african students. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1272. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1272 original research illustrating school-to-work transition through drawings: an exploratory study with a sample of south african students tinashe harry, willie t. chinyamurindi received: 19 aug. 2019; accepted: 17 june 2020; published: 03 sept. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: unemployment is a matter of great concern within the south african context. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of students who are in preparation to enter the labour market, to generate data about students’ experiences of being unemployed and to explore the usefulness of diagrams as a data generation tool in exploring such experiences. motivation for the study: there is need to understand transition experiences of unemployed youths in south africa and the basis for making interventions. research approach/design and method: a qualitative research approach utilising a participatory research design technique was used. main findings: three main drawings are illustrated that express students’ concern regarding this transition. these drawings heighten the focus on (1) individual evaluation of students as they make the transition, (2) evaluation of the university enrolment experience and (3) students’ concern about their future, albeit the high unemployment rate in south africa. managerial/practical implications: through the reflections from the drawings, suggestions are made to assist researchers, career counsellors and students. contribution/value-addition: this article contributes to the literature on the use and need of using the visual methodology as a part of data generation, especially when working with vulnerable students. keywords: drawings; career; unemployment; students; participatory visual method. introduction south africa is currently facing a high unemployment rate. this challenge is noted to affect mostly students and those with little or no skills that can be integrated into the job market (fox, senbet, & simbanegavi, 2016; tomlinson & holmes, 2017). different causes of this high rate of unemployment are widely documented. some argue the challenge to be influenced by a failing educational system (irwin, mader, & flynn, 2018) facing quality issues (frick, 2018). others (e.g. graham & da lannoy, 2016; walker & fongwa, 2017) confine the challenge of unemployment in south africa to be because of the social inequality that characterises the country (harry, chinyamurindi, & mjoli, 2018). the role of the apartheid regime and its policy of racial separation is also argued to be affecting the issue of skills within the south african context (chinyamurindi, 2012, 2016; walton, 2018). despite many young people in post-apartheid south africa having access to higher education (musitha & mafukuta, 2018) and better job prospects (aida, norailis, & rozaini, 2015), unemployment and an unequal society are still prevalent (dunga, 2016; mok, 2016). within such a context, there is a need to understand the needs of different stakeholders, such as students, as they make the transition into the world of work (irwin et al., 2018). furthermore, career counsellors can use information from such stakeholders in assisting them to address challenges regarding employability faced by students (scott, 2018) and propose interventions deemed to be useful not only for students, but also for their families, potential employers and, finally, the higher education system (maree, 2018). institutions of higher learning must be seen to be playing a strategic role in assisting nations in enhancing the employability of students and graduates (lourens, 2016; von möllendorff, kurgat, & speck, 2017). shivoro, shalyefu and kadhila (2018) concede to this and attribute institutions of higher learning to be tasked with preparing a labour force with a relevant skills set. graduates from higher education institutions are reported not to always have the necessary skills or capabilities (scott, 2018). the concern however is not only how under-prepared graduates are, but also the lack of an understanding of their needs in view of the macro-economic challenges (dunga, 2016; schoër, rankin, & roberts, 2014). unemployment in south africa the number of unemployed youths in the world is a cause of great concern amongst policymakers. the situation is no different in south africa as many youths are facing high rates of unemployment. in south africa, the youth unemployment rate is high regardless of the educational level. it has been noted that youth unemployment in south africa is caused by several factors, but one of the major causes is skills mismatch (graham, williams, & chisoro, 2019). the labour market is consisted of work seekers who lack relevant skills because of the poor education system in the country. there is a significant rise in the unemployment rate in south africa, especially affecting young people (statistics south africa, 2019). an increase in access to higher education has resulted in a growing labour force. however, the system is failing to create employment opportunities to absorb all the graduates. the demand for employment surpasses the supply thereof. the inability to reduce the unemployment rate over the past few years is of great concern for the country. statistics south africa (2019) reported that the unemployment rate amongst young graduates is on the rise. a high number of unemployed youths have limited access to quality education and opportunities in the labour market. the issues can also be because of the skills needed in the labour market. wakelin-theron, ukpere and spowart (2018) using the tourism context highlighted not only the importance but also critical shortage of skills sets, such as customer service or awareness, ethical conduct at work, verbal communication, acceptance of responsibility, attention to detail, ability to work under pressure, time management skills and, finally, motivation skills. there is little consensus about graduate unemployment as a challenge in south africa. some studies have suggested that graduate unemployment is not a challenge as graduates face low unemployment rates when compared in parallel to their non-graduate counterparts (van der berg, van broekhuizen, & hofmeyr, 2016; van der berg & van broekhuizen, 2012). other studies, however, have shown that graduate unemployment has been increasing over the past few years (pauw, oosthuizen, & van der westhuizen, 2008; reddy, 2016; van de rheede, 2012). according to some studies, non-graduates face a 55% probability of unemployment, whilst graduates have an 8% possibility of being unemployed (van der berg et al., 2016; van der beg & hendrik, 2012). it is important to keep in mind that south african graduates are not a homogeneous group despite low levels of graduate unemployment rate. different groups of graduates experience the labour market differently and their transitions into the labour market have marked differences. studies have shown that some graduates experience chronic unemployment, whilst others secure employment soon after graduation (kraak, 2010). the highest unemployment rates were noted amongst black africans (30.4%) as compared to white africans (7.6%). the literature on graduate unemployment has often disregarded these distinctions. studies have indicated that employment outcomes of graduates are shaped by race. to date, several studies have found that white graduates are more likely to be employed than black graduates (e.g. baldry, 2016; mncayi & dunga, 2016; rogan et al., 2015). in the same vein, studies have indicated that black graduates face high rates of unemployment and chronic unemployment in comparison to their white counterparts (baldry, 2016; mncayi & dunga, 2016). other studies have highlighted that differential employment rates between black and white graduates were caused by discrimination in the recruitment process as employers favour hiring white graduates (kraak, 2010). there is a stream of work that suggests that extended periods of unemployment can result in negative consequences for the individuals, such as social exclusion, loss of revenue for governments, increase in public spending and mental illnesses (branson et al., 2019; henderson et al., 2017). many obstacles amongst the youths in south africa result in the perpetuation of inter-generational inequalities. it has been argued that there is a perceived difference between the quality of education received by white and black graduates. most of the black graduates attended socio-economically disadvantaged schools that are perceived to be of poor quality by employers (pauw et al., 2006). bhorat, mayet and visser (2010) noted that black graduates face high unemployment mostly because of their race rather than the nature of the qualification or type of institution. the other reason for varying employment outcomes for white and black graduates is the job search strategies employed. evidence suggests that black graduates, because of a lack of social capital, rely on ineffective traditional methods, whilst white graduates depend on social capital to obtain employment (rogan et al., 2015). baldry (2016) demonstrated that unemployment was prone to graduates from rural areas, low socio-economic backgrounds and those who lived in households with unemployed members. the labour market outcomes of graduates are also shaped by the type of institution they come from. studies have found that graduates from historically advantaged institutions (hais) have better employment prospects than their counterparts from historically disadvantaged institutions (hdis) who take longer time to obtain an employment (oluwajodu, blaauw, greyling, & kleynhans, 2015). other studies have argued that graduates from hai, regardless of race, have better chances of securing employment (rogan & reynolds, 2015). these findings suggest that inequality persists despite the efforts to redress the past imbalances in areas such as health and education. gaps in the literature some gaps exist in the literature. we note three gaps. firstly, there is a need for an increased understanding regarding student transition into the labour market, especially challenges such as high unemployment (coetzee & schreuder, 2018; harry et al., 2018; scott, 2018). gedye and beaumont (2018) noted that there appears to be an empirical overlook into the student perceptions on aspects of work readiness and transition into the labour market. work readiness represents the attributes required by graduates to be successful in the workplace (chavan & carter, 2018). maree (2018) cautioned that there is a need to consider such transitions as a basis of expanding contemporary understanding on career issues and needed skills concerning employability. such investigations can assist in providing an expansive understanding of issues faced by individuals in view of challenges (such as unemployment) and a basis for advancing theory. the gap we identify here from the literature appears to magnify the need to give a voice to students and understand the career issues they face. however, we also note a second gap in the literature concerning issues that affect institutions of higher learning in south africa (harry et al., 2018). institutions of higher learning are tasked with the responsibility of producing human capital. challenges exist however, as qualifications from such institutions of higher learning are noted as not being a guarantee in producing such capital (shivoro et al., 2018; walker & fongwa, 2017). the expectation is that as part of university enrolment students are expected to be equipped with the right set of employability attributes (chinyamurindi, rukuni, & marembo, 2017; coetzee & schreuder, 2018; shivoro et al., 2018). the reality is the opposite, as institutions of higher learning are criticised for mostly placing emphasis on theoretical knowledge (council on higher education, 2016; tadesse, manathunga, & gillies, 2018) and in some cases placing little or no emphasis on the community focus and career guidance. this has led to some calling for a re-think into the model of higher learning in south africa to address the disparities that exist (fongwa, 2018; mayaba, ralarala, & angu, 2018) and to become more accountable. institutions of higher learning need to be asking critical questions regarding how they can enhance graduate employability and reduce the high unemployment figures. furthermore, there is a need to ascertain and understand those issues of work readiness and the requisite skills sets needed by the students of institutions of higher learning and their integration into the labour market. unsurprisingly, because of a lack of skills, graduates are struggling to make the transition into the labour market (harry et al., 2018). employment is defined as an individual’s status in the labour market (searching for a job or already in a job), whilst employability represents the skills that enable an individual to compete for employment with other job seekers (rich, 2015). in other words, employability is the skills and attributes required by an individual in order to be employed and successfully perform the duties of a position. an individual can thus be employable but remain unemployed. the third and final gap is the methodological gap. we note and support the observation by o’neil and koekemoer (2016) that the dominant methods of inquiry within the fields of human resources management (hrm) and industrial and organisational psychology (iop) to be mostly quantitative in nature rely on surveys as the main method of data collection. there is merit in how the quantitative approach, inclusive of the use of surveys, has aided the understanding of concepts within the hrm and iop fields. chinyamurindi (2012) lauds for more qualitative research, especially within the hrm and iop fields, which is also supported by other scholars (e.g. harry et al., 2018; kinnear & ruggunan, 2019; o’neil & koekemoer, 2016) as a useful basis for understanding behaviour, especially when working with vulnerable groups and complex life experiences. we seek to answer such calls and illustrate the value of qualitative research through the use of drawings in hrm employability research. theoretical postulations different theories and models exist in the literature regarding graduate employability (employment). one notable theory is the human capital theory (becker, 1964). emphasis can be placed on the development of ‘knowledge, skills and abilities’ (schultz, 1961, p. 140) that are either innate or acquired (schultz, 1981). becker (1993, p. 3) extends understanding by framing human capital as consisting of ‘knowledge, information, ideas, skills and health of individuals.’ institutions of higher education and training can be useful conduits in the development of these forms of human capital (donald, baruch, & ashleigh, 2019) in students: (1) social capital, (2) cultural capital and (3) scholastic capital (useem & karabel, 1986). in addition to the human capital theory, we give cadence and focus on the resilience framework. resilience framework resilience is explained as a ‘positive psychological capacity to rebound, to “bounce back” from adversity, uncertainty, conflict, failure, or even positive change, progress and increased responsibility’ (luthans, 2002, p. 702) and is used to describe how people deal with unemployment (victor, 2016). a resilience framework thus supported this study. resilience is adopted as a working concept for this study and viewed as a process (enrolment for higher education studies) and as an outcome (employment) (chung, turnbull, & chur-hansen, 2017). the resilience framework involves being strong in the face of adversity and learning from those hardships (mayaba & wood, 2015; zulu, 2018). this is important in a country such as south africa that is characterised by high unemployment rates caused by factors such as racial and social inequality (harry et al., 2018). participatory research is thus important in understanding and promoting resilience amongst the youth in the face of high unemployment rates. an individual who has resilience traits is highly characterised by traits such as self-confidence, esteem, efficacy and determination that promote the psychological well-being of an individual (joyce et al., 2018; theron, 2012). research purpose the purpose of this study was threefold: (1) to explore the experiences of students in preparation to enter the labour market, (2) to generate data about student experiences of being unemployed and (3) to explore the usefulness of drawings as a data generation tool in exploring such experiences. research design and context to understand university-to-work transition amongst students leaving the university setting, an interpretivist philosophy was adopted using the qualitative research approach informed by the exploratory research design (creswell, 2014). this design was adopted to understand university-to-work transition en route to competing in the open labour market. visual participatory methods are regarded as an innovative research technique (barley & russell, 2018). using a visual participatory approach provided a context for reflection, social change and action. furthermore, a visual participatory approach allowed the participants to voice their experiences during their studies (saunders, 2018). the students’ understanding of the concepts of employability and university-to-work transition was enhanced by using such an approach. in addition, a visual participatory approach allowed students to suggest possible solutions to the perceived problems they face. the study was conducted at a traditional hdi in the eastern cape province of south africa. qualifications offered by traditional universities are more theoretical with less vocational preparation in contrast to comprehensive universities and universities of technology (magagula, 2017). graduates from hdis struggle in the open labour market as compared to graduates from hais (rogan & reynolds, 2016; south african department of higher education and training, 2018). hence, there is the need to understand university-to-work transition. this is because inequality in south africa remains a great problem (khau, 2018; motala, 2017). a total of 30 students, who were in their final year of undergraduate studies in the department of business management, participated in this study. the sample was gathered using a combination of purposive and convenience sampling methods (creswell, 2014). in this regard, participants had to be final-year undergraduate students from the hdi to participate in the study. how drawings were used to generate data? several studies (e.g. barley & russell, 2018; isseri, muthukrishna, & philpott, 2018; mayaba & wood, 2015) have utilised drawings as a data collection method. as in the study by mayaba and wood (2015, p. 3), we adopted a ‘draw and write’ approach. this approach, as advocated by mair and kierans (2007), allows participants to elaborate on the meaning of the drawing through oral and written explanations. this method was selected as some of the participants had limited english language abilities (mayaba & wood, 2015). during this study, drawings, together with written explanations, therefore allowed the participants to express themselves. an email was sent to all the students who were in their final year of study to participate in the study. potential participants were invited to take part in the research through a focus group at a designated date and time slot. before the commencement of the focus group, the participants were briefed about the purpose of the study. all the groups were given an a3 paper in which they were to draw their perceptions of their work readiness. to elicit drawings, the following question was posed: can you draw a picture that describes your feelings of work readiness as you are about to enter the world of work? participants were encouraged to draw anything that would describe their feelings towards university-to-work transition. how well the drawing looked was not of importance. this allowed the participants to share their views on employability and suggest possible solutions to reduce the graduate unemployment rate. as drawing the picture was a group activity, the members of the groups were asked to write a phrase that described their feelings. after the drawing activity, the groups were invited to explain their drawings. all the focus group participants were invited to share their thoughts on the other groups’ drawings. the credibility of the study was enhanced by describing the drawings comprehensively, literature control (focus on the literature that was relevant for this study), sharing of the meaning and data retention. the session produced lively discussions; although the students felt they were not work-ready, there was a mutual feeling of soldering on to become relevant to the labour market. ethical consideration the researchers adhered to ethical guidelines in conducting the study. ethical clearance was obtained from the participating institution (reference number: chi151shar01). participation in the study was on a voluntary basis and a signed written informed consent was a prerequisite before participation. anonymity and confidentiality were guaranteed. data analysis as was proposed by miles and huberman (1994), three flows of activity were adopted to analyse the qualitative data. these three flows of activity process have also been used in previous empirical works (e.g. makhene, 2019; ogbamichael & warden, 2018), attesting to the robustness of the process. the process involves data reduction, data display and conclusion. data reduction was done at the begining and during the data collection process. whilst engaged in speculation, the researchers and the participants reflected on the literature whilst searching for meaning within the drawings. the researchers were able to make new interpretations and ask prompting questions through being speculative. furthermore, the researchers and the participants were able to search for themes to illustrate the full picture. to understand the concepts of employability and work readiness, the drawings should be viewed as a starting point for personal thought development and experiences of the concepts. the activity allowed the participants to eloquently communicate and reflect their understanding of the concepts of employability and work readiness through the drawings. the drawings also allowed the researchers to explore the experiences of students as they prepare to enter the labour market, including the experience of being unemployed. findings university-to-work transition is affected by various factors, such as trends of the labour market and higher education institution. hence, it is necessary for students to have the knowledge and understanding of the concepts to come up with possible solutions to enhance their employment in the labour market. many stakeholders in the labour market are of the perception that higher education universities are responsible for producing work-ready graduates. participants were, however, underprepared for the world of work despite being in their final year of studies. three main narratives emerge, which form the basis of the discussion being made in this article. the pictures, together with the explanations, reflect that the participants were not ready to be competitive. narrative finding 1: blind but determined the picture that was drawn by group 1 (figure 1) shows that although studying for a tertiary qualification, the students in their view state that they remain ‘blind’ as their qualifications only focused on enhancing theoretical expertise with less practical relevance. figure 1: blind but determined. furthermore, students were at a crossroads in their lives despite having the ‘right qualifications.’ the road is clear with no obstacles, meaning that they have all the required qualifications but still feel ‘confused and lost’ because of a lack of work experience. participants also experienced periods of difficulty stemming from their families who wanted an alternative path. one of the participants said, (participant 5, 27 years old, male) ‘my family is giving me pressure and friends who studied at colleges who did practical work to get a job, but i am stuck with theory.’ because of the above reasons, many of the participants struggled to make a smooth transition into the labour market. the same perception was also shared by group 2 as shown in figure 2. figure 2: excited but scared. narrative finding 2: excited but scared the participants indicated that they were heartbroken by the prospect of not securing jobs because of lack of work experience: ‘[i]t breaks my heart to spend sleepless nights and at the end of the day i am asked for the experience which i do not have but i only have my qualification.’ (participant 7, 25 years old, female) furthermore, the heart is bleeding reflecting the passion for studying, yet it leads to no job. this reveals that despite having their qualifications, they feared being ‘undermined’ by other students from other universities. the qualifications were being undermined because of the institutions they had obtained the qualifications from. despite the confusion and lack of work experience, some of the participants in the groups felt ‘encouraged’ and a step ‘closer to getting a job than yesterday.’ the qualification they were about to attain was going to allow them to ‘explore the world.’ narrative finding 3: ready to explore a similar view was expressed in groups 2 and 3 in which participants notes that theu were ready for the world of work (see figure 3). figure 3: ready to explore. regardless of the lack of work experience, the group participants felt that they were ready to ‘take on the world.’ the programmes that they were studying made them feel ‘empowered and confident’ to secure jobs. this is shown by the picture (figure 3) they drew of a graduate who had the whole world to explore without any limitations. during the discussion, many of the participants revealed that they had an inferiority complex. the inferiority complex was not only experienced when they tried to approach the lecturers, it was also experienced in their approach to the labour market. the participants felt inferior when interacting with their lecturers to gain more information about the labour market. the inferiority complex situation was clearly elaborated by one of the participants, who stated that: ‘[i] feel that i will not be able to compete in the labour market because there are other students who are from advanced institutions (white institutions) who can do better.’ (participant 10, 28 years old, female). this perception developed as a result of where these participants came from, that is, previously disadvantaged backgrounds. subsequently, the participants did not have confidence in themselves. furthermore, the location of the university was a restriction to the career development of the students. the university is located in a rural area; hence, the participants were not well versed in the market trends. they ended up relying on the internet for information and, because of the inferiority complex, they were unable to communicate with their lecturers for job market information. because of the university location, they felt that they were not ready to be competitive as compared to their counterparts in urban universities. furthermore, the participants were of the perception that the knowledge acquired at hais was more superior to that gained from an hdi. another point that was noted is that the participants lacked knowledge of their careers. they had not received adequate career guidance and counselling. many of the participants in the three groups highlighted a lack of work experience as their main concern. without work experience, they described themselves as ‘confused and lost’, not knowing what to do. furthermore, the socio-economic status of the families was exerting much ‘pressure’ on the participants to get employment soon after completion of their studies. in response to the pressure from friends and families, the participants explained that because of a lack of work experience, most of them will enrol for a post-graduate certificate in education (pgce). the predicament was expressed by one of the participants as follows: ‘[w]e are from poor family backgrounds but due to a lack of work experience and pressure from the family to provide, we end up enrolling for pgce as it offers both theory and practical sides (which is not available for commerce programmes). with a pgce we will have many opportunities plus it is easier to get employment.’ (participant 10, 28 years old, female). the lack of the practical aspect in the commerce degrees was a limiting factor in their competitiveness. family socio-economic status was the major determinant indicating what the participants will do to secure jobs. in addition, it was further highlighted in the explanations that because of a lack of social networks, the students were deprived of opportunities to develop themselves. the participants mentioned that students from hais had all the resources they needed to be successful in their careers, but hdis had very limited resources. with limited resources, the participants felt that their chances of obtaining jobs were also limited. during the discussion, one of the participants stated that (participant 10, 28 years old, female) ‘resources and opportunities are available in south africa, but it is difficult to get them as one needs connections to be able to benefit from them.’ because of the unavailability of practical knowledge for commerce programmes, participants were taking responsibility of ensuring their work readiness and employability. vacation work was the most common way to enhance one’s work readiness and employability. vacation work is viewed as a way to gain work experience. one of the participants espoused that (participant 10, 28 years old, female) ‘i took up vacation work in a pharmacy as a sales representative, and during that time i managed to learn how to interact with other people.’ this shows that vacation work is a way of developing generic skills, such as interaction skills and relationship building, to enhance one’s employability. some participants said that they did volunteer work such as assisting in shops when on holidays. many of the participants mentioned that they were applying for various internships to gain work experience, such as the national research foundation internship programme and internships in various government departments. unfortunately, they were not getting a positive response. discussion many of these participants enrolled for higher education in the hope of securing employment upon graduation. however, the study findings indicate that the participants had chosen their programmes without adequate career counselling and guidance. unsurprisingly, the participants lacked the necessary information about the qualifications they were pursuing. as mentioned in previous studies (e.g. magagula, 2017; rogan & reynolds, 2016), the south african basic education system is of a poor standard. as a result, many underprepared students are entering the higher education system. students who are not educated well in school struggle to succeed at the university level. undoubtedly, it is mostly black students who are underprepared for higher education because of the dysfunctional schooling left by the apartheid legacy and the continued failure of current governance structures. another important finding was that the university programmes lacked a practical component in their curriculum. consequently, the students were unprepared for the world of work. the students lacked the relevant skills to compete in the labour market. a lack of the practical side of the programmes limits the participants’ chances of obtaining work experience. therefore, there is a need to develop curricula that are balanced between theory and practice. these findings further support the idea of revising curricula to include a practical component (council on higher education, 2016; tadesse et al., 2018). employers are looking for candidates who have skills that can be transferred into the company for the benefit of the company. the participants appeared to have a lack of confidence in themselves and their qualifications. a possible explanation for this is the perception towards hdi degrees. employers prefer graduates from hais as their qualifications are regarded as superior to the hdis degrees. these findings are consistent with previous studies (e.g. magagula, 2017; rogan & reynolds, 2016; scott, 2018). the participants therefore felt inferior in comparison to their counterparts who qualified through hais. being inferior was further exacerbated by the race of the participants and being the first people to attend higher education within their families did not make it easy. moreover, because of a lack of social capital, participants struggled to make the transition into the open labour market. in addition, this finding supports rogan and reynolds’s (2016) study in which they argued that students from hdis had weaker social networks. participants of this study were relying on traditional and formal ways to apply for employment (rogan & reynolds, 2016). such differences show that, despite efforts to redress past imbalances, inequality remains a major concern in education and in the labour market of the country (fox et al., 2016). irrespective of several adversities, the students had the desire of securing employment in the future (mayaba & wood, 2015). however, unlike joyce et al. (2018), the findings indicate that although resilient, participants lacked traits such as self-confidence, efficacy and esteem; this was mainly because of their previously disadvantaged backgrounds. theron (2012) pointed out that resilience could be promoted through factors such as social capital, problem-solving skills and opportunity for mastery. however, the findings of this study indicate that most participants lacked these skills to promote resilience in the context of high unemployment amongst black graduates. practical implications employers are increasingly demanding graduates who are ready to work. a mere qualification is therefore not enough to secure an employment because of the present economic status that requires employees to contribute efficiently and effectively to the organisation soon after being hired. subsequently, employers are in high demand of graduates who are work-ready. hence, students must be equipped with generic and specific skills, as well as work readiness programmes and workplace experience, to be competitive in the job market. employers thus postulate that such skills should be developed during the students’ higher education process. however, higher education institutions are failing to meet the skills demands of the labour market. in view of that, students are trying to make it their responsibility to be work-ready through seeking opportunities for skills development in order to be competitive in the job market. however, such endeavours are limited and affected by the geographical location, failing government support structures and limited resources that inhibit students from exploring the labour market. higher education institutions need to continue developing their curricula to develop graduate work readiness attributes. although curriculum change will help address the skills gap, it is not the solution for graduate unemployment, especially for graduates from hdis. unemployment of hdi graduates is mainly caused by perceived degree quality, under-preparedness of students for higher education, a lack of social and professional networks, as well as perceived discrimination in recruitment. therefore, there is a need for businesses, government and universities to collaboratively redress the racial imbalances in the country by working together to create opportunities, especially for the previously disadvantaged students. developments and changes without addressing inequality will not yield sustainably positive results. perhaps, black graduates require assistance from different stakeholders to be able to compete in the labour market. furthermore, universities cannot work alone in developing work-ready students. thus, the industry should increase their involvement in preparing students for the job market. this can be done by recruiting students for work readiness programmes. hence, it is imperative that universities and potential employers collaborate in developing work-ready graduates. employers are consistently demanding highly educated and skilled employees. a co-operation thus between employers and universities will lead to the economic development of the country. moreover, for the economic development of south africa, the importance of commerce degrees cannot be denied. hence, the claim that hdi graduates enrol in programmes that have poor employment prospects is false. labour market outcomes for these students can be achieved by improving the quality of school education, higher socio-economic status and establishing social and professional networks as advocated by rogan and reynolds (2016). limitations of the study and future research areas the sample size was a limitation of this study as only a few drawings were presented. furthermore, people are storytellers and hence drawings might have been a restriction; however, the limitation was minimised by having the group to discuss the meaning denoted by the picture. socially acceptable behaviour could have been a limitation as the activity was done in groups. moreover, the study was limited to final-year undergraduate students at one university in one faculty. hence, the results cannot be generalised to other faculties or institutions. it was necessary to limit the study to the faculty of management and commerce because of lack of practical aspect of programmes. although graduates enter the job market without relevant skills, it is also important to understand work readiness from the perspective of the employer to gain an insight into how the challenges can be overcome and what the organisational expectations are. furthermore, future studies should focus on the perceived mismatch between graduates and job market skills. in addition, future research should include students across faculties, not only to increase the sample size but also to increase the generalisation of study results. conclusion this study provided valuable understanding into the work readiness of final-year students from a selected university in south africa. the economic development of a nation depends on well-equipped graduates. for historically disadvantaged students to succeed, south african higher education institutions are responsible for developing academic excellence, and providing specific and generic business skills. furthermore, it is the responsibility of the institutions and employers to have the students work-ready by increasing employability skills. the study concludes that the students lack generic skills in order to be competitive in the job market. hence, higher education institutions have an important role to increase the work readiness of students. interventions should be made to address the unemployment rates and causes of unemployment amongst graduates from hdis. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions w.t.c. supervised t.h. for his phd degree. the article was a joint effort between the supervisor and the student. funding information the authors acknowledge with appreciation the financial assistance of the national research foundation’s competitive support for unrated researchers (grant number: 114380) and also the funding provided by the national institute for the humanities and social sciences for african pathway trips to uganda and zambia where versions of this article were presented. financial support from these funders helped in revising and subsequently producing this work. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references aida, b., norailis, a.w., & rozaini, r. (2015). critical success factors of graduate employability programmes. journal of economics, business and management, 3(8), 767–771. https://doi.org/10.7763/joebm.2015.v3.283 baldry, k. (2016). graduate unemployment in south africa: social inequality reproduced. journal of education and work, 29(7), 788–812. barley, r., & russell, l. (2018). participatory visual methods: exploring young people’s identities, hopes and feelings. ethnography and education, 14(2), 223–241. https://doi.org/10.1080/17457823.2018.1441041 becker, g. (1964). human capital (2nd edn.). new york, ny: columbia university press. becker, g. (1993). the economic way of looking at behavior. journal of political economy, 101(3), 385–409. bhorat, h., mayet, n., & visser, m. (2010). student graduation, labour market destinations and employment earnings. in: m. letseka, m. cosser, m. breier, & m. visser (eds.), student retention & graduate destination: higher education & labour market access & success (pp. 97–124). cape town: hsrc press. branson, n., de lannoy, a., & brynde, k. (2019). review of youth labour market research. retrieved from http://www.opensaldru.uct.ac.za/handle/11090/948 chavan, m., & carter, l. (2018). management students – expectations and perceptions on work readiness. international journal of educational management, 32(5) 825–850. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijem-10-2016-0219 chinyamurindi, w.t. (2012). stories of career change amongst distance learners in south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 10(2), 1–11. chinyamurindi, w.t. (2016). using narrative analysis to understand factors influencing career choice amongst a sample of distance learning students in south africa. south african journal of psychology, 46(3), 390–400. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246315623662 chinyamurindi, w.t., rukuni, n., & marembo, m. (2017). the relationship between self-esteem and employability attributes: an empirical investigation at an institution of higher learning in south africa. 29th southern africa institute for management scientists (saims), annual conference proceedings. chung, e., turnbull, d., & chur-hansen, a. (2017). differences in resilience between ‘traditional’ and ‘non-traditional’ university students. active learning in higher education, 18(1) 77–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787417693493 creswell, j.w. (2014). research design, qualitative and quantitative and mixed methods approaches (4th edn.). london: sage. coetzee, m., & schreuder, d. (2018). proactive career self-management: exploring links among psychosocial career attributes and adaptability resources. south african journal of psychology, 48(2) 206–218. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246317719646 council on higher education. (2016). south african higher education reviewed: two decades of democracy. pretoria: council on higher education. dunga, s.h. (2016). an explanatory study of the variation in unemployment length of graduates of different degree programs. international business & economics research journal, 15(2), 69–78. https://doi.org/10.19030/iber.v15i2.9636 donald, w.e., baruch, y., & ashleigh, m. (2019). the undergraduate self-perception of employability: human capital, careers advice, and career ownership. studies in higher education, 44(4), 599–614. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2017.1387107 fongwa, s. (2018). towards an expanded discourse on graduate outcomes in south africa. education as change, 22(3), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/3337 fox, l., senbet, l.w., & simbanegavi, w. (2016). youth employment in sub-saharan africa: challenges, constraints and opportunities. journal of african economies, 25(1), 3–15. https://doi.org/10.1093/jae/ejv027 frick, l. (2018). next gen phd: a guide to career paths in science. higher education research & development, 37(1), 222–224. gedye, s., & beaumont, e. (2018). ‘the ability to get a job’: student understandings and definitions of employability. education + training, 60(5), 406–420. https://doi.org/10.1108/et-10-2017-0159 graham, l., & de lennoy, a. (2016). youth unemployment: what can we do in the short run? retrieved from http://www.econ3x3.org/article/youth-unemployment-what-can-we-do-short-run. graham, l., williams, l., & chisoro, c. (2019). barriers to the labour market for unemployed graduates in south africa. journal of education and work, 32(4), 360–376. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2019.1620924 harry, t., chinyamurindi, w.t., & mjoli, t. (2018). perceptions of factors that affect employability amongst a sample of final-year students at a rural south african university. south african journal of industrial psychology, 44(6), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v44i0.1510 henderson, j.l., hawke, l.d., & chaim, g. (2017). not in employment, education or training: mental health, substance use, and disengagement in a multi-sectoral sample of service-seeking canadian youth. children and youth services review, 75, 138–145. irwin, s., mader, p., & flynn, j. (2018). how youth-specific is africa’s youth employment challenge? k4d emerging issues report. brighton: institute of development studies. isseri, s., muthukrishna, n., & philpott, s.c. (2018). immigrant children’s geographies of schooling experiences in south africa. educational research for social change, 7(2) 39–56. https://doi.org/10.17159/2221-4070/2018/v7i2a3 joyce, s., shand, f., tighe, j., laurent, s.j., bryant, r.a., & harvey, s.b. (2018). road to resilience: a systematic review and meta-analysis of resilience training programmes and interventions. bmj open, 8(6), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-017858 khau, m. (2018). editorial. educational research for social change, 7(2), vii–x. kinnear, l.c., & ruggunan, s. (2019). applying duoethnography to position researcher identity in management research. south african journal of human resource management, 17(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1056 kraak, a. (2010). the collapse of the graduate labour market in south africa: evidence from recent studies. research in post-compulsory education, 15(1), 81–102. lourens, e. (2016). from graduate to employee: exploring the journeys of first-time entrants into the labour market. unpublished doctoral dissertation, stellenbosch university, cape town. luthans, f. (2002). the need for and meaning of positive organizational behaviour. journal of organizational behavior, 23(6), 695–706. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.165 magagula, b. (2017). an exploration into the social support systems of unemployed graduates. masters dissertation. pretoria, south africa. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10500/23303 mair, m., & kierans, c. (2007). descriptions as data: developing techniques to elicit descriptive materials in social research. visual studies, 22(2), 120–136. https://doi.org/10.1080/14725860701507057 makhene, a. (2019). the use of the socratic inquiry to facilitate critical thinking in nursing education. health sa gesondheid, 24(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.4102/hsag.v24i0.1224 maree, j.g. (2018). advancing career counselling research and practice using a novel quantitative+qualitative approach to elicit clients’ advice from within. south african journal of higher education, 32(4) 149–170. https://doi.org/10.20853/32-4-2558 mayaba, n.n., ralarala, m., & angu, p. (2018). student voice: perspectives on language and critical pedagogy in south african higher education. educational research for social change, 7(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.17159/2221-4070/2018/v7i1a1 mayaba, n.n., & wood, l. (2015). using drawings and collages as data generation methods with children: definitely not child’s play. international journal of qualitative methods, 14(5), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406915621407 miles, m.b., & huberman, a.m. (1994). qualitative data analysis an expanded sourcebook. thousand oaks, ca: sage. mok, k.a. (2016). massifying and internationalising higher education, changing labour markets and social mobility: challenges for education and urban governance. journal of higher education policy and management, 38(3), 233–241. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080x.2016.1174402 motala, s. (2017). introduction – part iii achieving ‘free education’ for the poor – a realisable goal in 2018? journal of education, 68(1), 15–29. musitha, m., & mafukata, m. (2018). crisis of decolonising education: curriculum implementation in limpopo province of south africa. africa’s public service delivery and performance review, 6(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/apsdpr.v6i1.179 mncayi, p., & dunga, s.h. (2016). career choice and unemployment: a study from a south african university. industry and higher education, 30(6), 413–423. ogbamichael, h.b., & warden, s. (2018). information and knowledge sharing within virtual communities of practice. south african journal of information management, 20(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajim.v20i1.956 oluwajodu, f., blaauw, d., greyling, l., & kleynhans, e.p.j. (2015). graduate unemployment in south africa: perspectives from the banking sector. south african journal of human resource management, 13(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.656 o’neil, s., & koekemoer, e. (2016). two decades of qualitative research in psychology, industrial and organisational psychology and human resource management within south africa: a critical review. south african journal of industrial psychology, 42(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v42i1.1350 pauw, k., oosthuizen, m., & van der westhuizen, c. (2008). graduate unemployment in the face of skills shortages: a labour market paradox. south african journal of economics, 76(1), 45–57. reddy, v. (2016). skills supply & demand for south africa. accept ae: labour market intelligence partnerships (lmip). rich, j. (2015). we need to talk about employability, not employment. times higher education, 10 december, pp. 24–25. rogan, m., & reynolds, j. (2016). schooling inequality, higher education and the labour market: evidence from a graduate tracer study in the eastern cape, south africa. development southern africa, 33(3), 343–360. rogan, m., & reynolds, j. (2016). study choices and employment transitions among rhodes fort hare university graduates. human sciences research council, media release. retrieved from http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/news/view/study-choices. saunders, a. (2018). seeing visuals through a unique lens: a review of participatory visual methodologies: social change, community, and policy. the qualitative report, 23(5), 1101–1103. scott, i. (2018). designing the south african higher education system for student success. journal of student affairs in africa, 6(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.24085/jsaa.v6i1.3062 schoër, v., rankin, n., & roberts, g. (2014). accessing the first job in a slack labour market: job matching in south africa. journal of international development, 26(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.2838 schultz, t.w. (1961). investment in human capital. american economic review, 51(1), 1–17. schultz, t.w. (1981). economics of population. reading, ma: addison-wesley. shivoro, r. s., shalyefu, r.k., & kadhila, n. (2018). perspectives on graduate employability attributes for management science students. south african journal of higher education, 32(1), 216–232. https://doi.org/10.20853/32-1-1578 south african department of higher education and training (dhet). (2018). the 4th annual research colloquium: enhancing the implementation of the south african nqf: colloquium proceedings. pretoria: department of higher education and training. statistics south africa. (2019). unemployment rises slightly in third quarter of 2019. retrieved from http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/p0211/p02113rdquarter2019.pdf. tadesse, t., manathunga, c.e., & gillies, r.m. (2018). making sense of quality teaching and learning in higher education in ethiopia: unfolding existing realities for future promises. journal of university teaching & learning practice, 15(1) 1–20. theron, l.c. (2012). does visual participatory research have resilience-promoting value? teacher experiences of generating and interpreting drawings. south african journal of education, 32(4), 381–392. https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v32n4a656 tomlinson, m., & holmes, l. (2017). graduate employability in context: theory, research and debate (1st edn.). london: palgrave macmillan. useem, m., & karabel, j. (1986). pathways to top corporate management. american sociological review, 51(2), 184–200. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095515 van der berg, s., & van broekhuizen, h. (2012). graduate unemployment in south africa: a much exaggerated problem. stellenbosch economic working papers no. 22/12. van der berg, s., van broekhuizen, h. & hofmeyr, h. (2016). higher education access and outcomes for the 2008 national matric cohort. stellenbosch economic working papers no.16. van de rheede, t.j. (2012). graduate unemployment in south africa: extent, nature and causes. masters dissertation. university of western cape. master of commerce in the department of economics. victor, p.e. (2016). unemployment and resilience: the role of optimism in the perception of lack of health. a work project presented as part of the requirements for the award of a master degree in management from the nova – school of business and economics. retrieved from https://run.unl.pt/bitstream/10362/19339/1/victor_2016.pdf. von möllendorff, m., kurgat, s., & speck, k. (2017). east and south african-german centre of excellence for educational research methodologies and management (cerm-esa) a case for internationalisation and higher education engagement. educational research for social change, 6(1), 93–99. wakelin-theron, n., ukpere, w.i., & spowart, j. (2018). perception of tourism graduates and the tourism industry on the important knowledge and skills required in the tourism industry. african journal of hospitality, tourism and leisure, 7(4), 1–18. walker, m., & fongwa, s. (2017). universities, employability and human development. london: palgrave macmillan. walton, e. (2018). decolonising (through) inclusive education? educational research for social change, 7(1), 31–45. zulu, n.t. (2018). resilience in black women who do not have fathers: a qualitative inquiry. south african journal of psychology, 49(2) 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246318782187 abstract introduction research purpose and objectives literature review research design results discussion limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) shanil j. haricharan nelson mandela school of public governance, faculty of commerce, university of cape town, cape town, south africa citation haricharan, s.j. (2022). is the leadership performance of public service executive managers related to their emotional intelligence? sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1773. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1773 original research is the leadership performance of public service executive managers related to their emotional intelligence? shanil j. haricharan received: 16 sept. 2021; accepted: 02 mar. 2022; published: 19 apr. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: growing evidence indicates a positive relationship between emotional intelligence (ei) and leadership performance. however, in non-western public service contexts, scholarship on the nature of this bivariate relationship trails behind. research purpose: using the behavioural ei model, this study examined the relationships between ei competencies and leadership performance of executive managers in the south african public service. motivation for the study: a significant bivariate relationship using the behavioural ei model implies empirical significance and practical implications for policy and leadership development in the public service. research approach/design and method: the multi-rater emotional and social competence inventory (esci) measured ei competencies of 35 executive managers rated by 230 respondents. multi-source nominations from 371 respondents measured leadership performance. five study hypotheses were tested using spearman’s rank correlation coefficients and analysis of variance. main findings: the results indicated significant positive correlations between leadership performance and all four ei clusters of competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management. of the 12 ei competencies, adaptability, inspirational leadership, emotional self-awareness and positive outlook displayed the strongest correlations. also, a significant negative relationship between the managers’ competency gap and (self-other agreement) their performance was observed. practical/managerial implications: the results have implications for management and leadership development and recruitment in the public service. contribution/value-add: using the behavioural method, this quantitative study validated the positive relationship between ei and leadership performance in the south african public service keywords: emotional intelligence; emotional and social competence inventory; competencies; executive managers; public service; leadership performance; self-other agreement; south africa. introduction a growing body of literature on emotional intelligence (ei) suggests that a person’s ability to perceive, identify and manage emotion is essential in making good decisions, taking optimal action to solve problems and coping with change (ashkanasy & daus, 2005; caruso & salovey, 2004; cherniss, extein, goleman, & weissberg, 2006; goleman, 1998, 2004; goleman, boyatzis, & mckee, 2002). notably, ei is postulated as an important predictor of success in the workplace and is widely considered a fundamental element of effective leadership (boyatzis, 2009; dulewicz & higgs, 2003; george, 2000; goleman et al., 2002; goleman & boyatzis, 2017; mohammed, 2018). in addition, several studies show a positive relationship between ei and transformational leadership (barling, slater, & kelloway, 2000; brown & moshavi, 2005; görgens-ekermans & roux, 2021; mills, 2009; orazi, turrini, & valotti, 2013; sosik & megerian, 1999), charismatic leadership (shamir, house, & arthur, 1993) and authentic leadership (miao, humphrey & qian, 2018). emotional intelligence is regarded as an emerging theory at an early stage in development (cherniss et al., 2006) and the study of emotions is receiving greater consideration in leadership models (dinh et al., 2014). over the past two decades, despite the growth in western and private sector scholarship on ei and leadership, there is a deficit of studies on the bivariate relationship in public sector and non-western literature, with scholars calling for further research into the ei field (boyatzis, 2009; kotzé & venter, 2011; newman, guy, & mastracci, 2009). in addition, house and aditya (1997) draw attention to the assumptions and cultural disposition of leadership literature, which they claim is predominantly western-centric, focussed on developed nations, distinctly american in character, positivistic and individualist rather than collectivist. cognisant of cultural relativism and to address the cultural biases and deficits in the scholarship, there is a need to test these claims in non-western public service contexts. as a result of probable conceptual distinctions across cultures, scholars have proposed further research to test the universality of ei constructs and metrics, and the possibility of contextual differences, in specific emotional and behavioural expressions and regulation (boyatzis, 2009; emmerling & boyatzis, 2012) and relationships with leadership styles and effectiveness (miao et al., 2018). congruently, public sector scholars denhardt and denhardt (2007) and kellis and ran (2013) call for greater attention to the significant gap in the literature to embrace developing leadership models and research appropriate for the public service. many scholars call for greater research endeavours that redefine the structures, tools, processes, competencies and functions of leadership in public organisations (kellis & ran, 2013; van wart, 2011; wright, 2011). research purpose and objectives the purpose of this quantitative research study was to test claims on the nature of the relationships between ei competencies and executive managers’ leadership performance in the south african public service, framed within the behavioural ei model (boyatzis, 2009; boyatzis, rochford, & cavanagh, 2017; goleman et al., 2002) and measured with the emotional and social competence inventory (esci). the objectives of the study were threefold: firstly, to determine the nature of the relationship between the four ei clusters and 12 individual ei competencies with leadership performance in the south african public service context. secondly, to determine those ei competencies that differentiate high performing executive managers. thirdly, to establish the relationships between the executive managers’ competency gap or self-other agreement (soa) and their leadership performance. literature review emotional intelligence: concepts, models and metrics the concept of ei builds on a long history of theory and research on personality, social and positive psychology and particularly on the importance of non-cognitive aspects of intelligence, drawing from antecedents since the early 1900s (e.g. the work of robert thorndike, david wechsler, howard gardner, david mcclelland and robert sternberg). generally, ei research is classified into three streams, identified by ashkanasy and daus (2005) as the cognitive-based ability models using objective test items (mayer-salovey-caruso emotional intelligence test, msceit), self-report or peer-report measures based on the four-branch model of ei (e.g. wong-law emotional intelligence scale, wleis; swinburne university emotional intelligence test, sueit) and ‘mixed models’ of emotional competencies (emotional intelligence quotient inventory, eq-i; emotional competence inventory, eci; esci). in their ability-based ei model, mayer, salovey and caruso (2000, p. 396) defined ei as the ‘ability to perceive and express emotion, assimilate emotion in thought, understand and reason with emotion and regulate emotion in the self and others’. conversely, framing ei as behavioural competencies instead of abilities (‘mixed model’, esci), goleman (1998) defines ei as the capacity to understand one’s emotions and to manage them effectively and to understand and effectively manage the emotions of others. later ‘mixed models’ were further classified into trait ei and behavioural ei (boyatzis et al., 2017). however, despite these differences in metrics, there are noteworthy similarities between the three ei conceptual streams. all three include two common domains of ei: firstly, awareness of and managing one’s own emotions and secondly, awareness of and managing others’ emotions. cherniss (2010) maintains that across the major ei models, three principles endure: firstly, emotions play a vital role in life; secondly, people differ in their ability to perceive, understand, use and manage emotions; and thirdly, these differences affect how an individual adapts in a variety of contexts, including the workplace. distinctions between cognitive ability, personality traits and emotional intelligence the pursuit for characteristics to adequately explain workplace success has been continuous within social psychology and the organisational field (ramo, saris, & boyatzis, 2009). research indicates that cognitive intelligence, personality and ei influence work-related outcomes (o’boyle, humphrey, pollack, hawver, & story, 2011; walter, cole, & humphrey, 2011). cherniss et al. (2006, p. 240) claimed that ei characterises a set of abilities that are distinct from either intelligence quotient (iq), a cognitive ability measure or the ‘big five’ personality traits in the five-factor model. o’boyle et al. (2011) confirmed that all three constructs (cognitive ability, personality traits and ei) are distinctly different. several research findings consistently demonstrate that traditional cognitive intelligence tests such as iq by itself are neither good nor the only predictor of job performance and leadership effectiveness (judge, colbert, & ilies, 2004; mcclelland, 1998; miao et al., 2018; o’boyle et al., 2011). specifically, mcclelland (1998, p. 331) argued that traditional tests of cognitive intelligence, such as iq, were ‘failing to account for successful performance, especially in high-level executive positions’. furthermore, several meta-analytical studies reveal that ei predicts performance and displays incremental validity over and above the five-factor model of personality traits and cognitive ability (e.g. van rooy & viswesvaran, 2004; van rooy, viswesvaran, & pluta, 2005; o’boyle et al., 2011; walter et al., 2011). in their meta-analysis, joseph and newman (2010) showed that all three streams of ei measures have greater incremental validity compared with the five-factor model of personality traits and cognitive ability. the behavioural approach to emotional intelligence (mixed emotional intelligence stream) the drive to optimise an individual’s performance has led to the quest of understanding human talent. a major part of this search has focused on leadership talent, which is considered as a key determinant of organisational success. several studies and meta-analyses indicate that ei competencies based on the behavioural approach to ei (‘mixed model’) are valid constructs in the study of human talent and performance, as they account for a significant variance in predicting or understanding job performance (boyatzis, 2009, 2018; dulewicz & higgs, 2003; goleman et al., 2002; o’boyle et al., 2011; ryan, emmerling, & spencer, 2009; sharma, 2012) and leadership effectiveness (e.g. görgens-ekermans, 2009; piel, 2008). as such, ei competencies enable the study of a leader’s personal characteristics related to behaviour. boyatzis (1982, p. 12, 23) defined competencies as ‘underlying characteristics of an individual, which are causally related to effective and superior performance in a job’. the ei behavioural model views ei as a set of competencies that drive leadership and job performance and comprises four clusters of competencies, namely, self-awareness: recognising and understanding own emotions; social awareness: recognising and understanding the emotions of others; self-management: effectively managing own emotions; and relationship management: applying emotional understanding in dealings with others (goleman et al., 2002; boyatzis, 2018). the four clusters comprise a total of 12 ei competencies, such as emotional self-awareness, empathy, emotional self-control, adaptability and conflict management. citing affective neuroscience research, goleman and boyatzis (2008) submitted that each of the ei clusters derives from different neurological mechanisms that are distinct from the cognitive domains of ability (see also rochford, jack, boyatzis, & french, 2017). in the behavioural ei model, exemplary leaders display strengths in the 12 ei competencies, as these competencies are antecedents to visionary, democratic, affiliative and coaching leadership styles, and therefore these leaders are regarded as resonant or transformational leaders (boyatzis & mckee, 2005). these effective leaders promote a collaborative, inclusive, relational, empathetic, compassionate, caring and supportive institutional culture (boyatzis, 2018; goleman et al., 2002). as anticipated, these leadership approaches were regarded as extremely valuable in responding to the coronavirus disease-2019 (covid-19) pandemic, including being ‘less autocratic, arrogant, blustering, boastful, impatient, impulsive, indecisive … swaggering and top-down’ (huang, 2020, p. 11). likewise, garikipati and kambhampati’s (2020) concluded in their study on head of states during the covid-19 pandemic that generally women leaders were more effective in their responses to the pandemic as they draw on their ei competence, such as empathy and tended to adopt a more democratic and participative leadership styles and a less autocratic or directive style compared with their male counterparts. leadership in the public service context upholding democratic principles, public service values and effective implementation of public policy continue to defy many governments, particularly during recurrent crises (kellis & ran, 2013), as observed during the current covid-19 pandemic (garikipati & kambhampati, 2020; huang, 2020). beinecke and spencer (2009) declared that there is a crisis in public leadership with both political and administrative public leaders viewed with suspicion and cynicism. globally, these negative perceptions have increased over the past few decades as evidenced in waves of public discontent and resistance as trust and confidence in the public sphere has declined remarkably across continents (holzer & illiash, 2009). for over a century, strong hierarchical traditions have characterised the public service, dominated by the ‘machine’ image of organisations (robledo, 2009). this has led to the erosion of personal and social facets of organisational life. social factors were only introduced into organisational behaviour models after the hawthorne study in the 1930s. the command-and-control approach to public service management still prevails in the 21st century public service institutions. consistently, scholarship for most of the 20th century was dominated by cognitive, rational, transactional and task-focused leadership approaches (benington & hartley, 2011; robledo, 2009). this approach was reinforced in the last quarter of the 20th century by the dominance of new public management (npm) thinking and practice drawing on private sector models, despite the distinctiveness of the public service context as a defining issue in the public governance literature (chipkin & meny-gibert, 2012; mau, 2009). the metaphor for the new millennium public service has implications on how public servants are managed and led, as earlier theories focused mainly on controlling and manipulating employees and their work environment with the objective of maximising efficiency and productivity (denhardt & denhardt, 2007). in the turbulent 21st century public service context, alternative theoretical approaches and practice in governance, and leadership are necessary, with several calls for new models for governance and types of political, administrative and citizen leadership (mau, 2009; morse & buss, 2008; van wart, 2011). denhardt and denhardt (2006, p. 83) stressed that ‘human emotions and qualities such as empathy and intuition’ have a significant role to play in public leadership. likewise, vigoda-gadot and meisler (2010, p. 72) contest the hegemony of rationality in public administration, suggesting that ‘… emotions in management and the management of emotions play a significant role in the outcomes of public administration personnel …’ for instance, emotionally intelligent public leadership is considered ‘important in moving both leader and follower towards the public good’ (newman et al., 2009, p. 9). the current covid-19 pandemic has further emphasised these observation (garikipati & kambhampati, 2020; huang, 2020). in the south african context, the national development plan 2030 (rsa, 2012) asserted that changes in the public service require new kinds of knowledge, abilities, behaviours, attitudes and professionalism to shift the image of the state. however, despite the noble intent of public policy frameworks and initiatives, there is insufficient discourse on how to promote this democratic developmental public service ethos (edigheji 2010). in this transforming context, effective public service leadership and governance are critical (chipkin & lipietz, 2012). notably, there is still a lack of rigorous scholarship on public sector transformation and leadership, except for scholarly work on political leaders – illustrated by the many books on south african presidents. amongst the few south african studies on transformational leadership, mokgolo, mokgolo and modiba’s (2012, p. 7) study on the relationships between transformational leadership behaviours and employee attitudes and performance in the provincial government sphere indicated that departmental leaders ‘do not have the appropriate transformational skills to manage their departments effectively and efficiently’. this accordingly leads to ‘negative perceptions of employees about how leaders manage their departments and about their leadership’ (mokgolo et al., 2012, p. 7). the authors further claimed that the low level of public service delivery is the result of incompetent management and leadership. transformational leadership styles place huge emphasis on the emotional and social competence of leaders (goleman et al., 2002; görgens-ekermans & roux, 2021). moreover, kotzé and venter (2011, p. 412), using the bar-on eq-i measure, found a significant difference in overall ei scores between effective and ineffective middle-level south african public managers, concluding that there is ‘a lack of certain ei competencies at both managerial and entry level’. research questions and hypotheses given the conceptual distinctions and the empirical evidence presented, this study’s theoretical grounding is the competency theory of action and performance. the study assessed competencies as behavioural manifestation of ei that predicts job performance, particularly leadership performance (boyatzis, 2009, 2018; goleman, 2004; goleman et al., 2002). the primary research question: ‘what is the nature of the relationship between ei and leadership performance amongst south african public executive managers?’ was examined through testing the following five hypotheses: hypothesis 1: the four ei clusters are positively related to leadership performance. hypothesis 2: each of the 12 ei competencies is positively related to leadership performance. hypothesis 3: a significant difference exists between the ei competency scores of high-performing and low-performing executive managers. a secondary research question: ‘what is the nature of the relationship between the ei competency gap and leadership performance?’ was tested through two hypotheses: hypothesis 4: a significant negative relationship exists between the executive managers’ ei competency gap and leadership performance. hypothesis 5: a significant difference exists in the ei competency gap between high-performing and low-performing executive managers. research design this study used a quantitative research design to test the five hypotheses. theoretically, the behavioural ei model (goleman et al., 2002) and the attendant measurement tool, the esci, was applied to measure ei competencies and to relate these to leadership performance using a nominations survey. the empirical framework of this study, illustrated in figure 1, comprises the variables to be tested, that is, the four emotional and social intelligence clusters, comprising 12 ei competencies (independent variable) and leadership performance nominations (dependent variable). figure 1: the study’s empirical framework: the relationship between emotional and social intelligence (ei) competencies and leadership performance. sampling framework and population emotional and social competence inventory survey raters sample the population for this study was 67 executive managers (chief director, deputy director-general, and head of department, i.e., rank levels 14–16), from four departments in a provincial government in south africa and were selected using convenience sampling. three departments represented the centre of government departments with province-wide transversal functions, whilst the fourth department represented the largest social service delivery line department. the 67 managers were invited to participate in the survey and provided with guidelines on the online esci survey. the sample for the survey was 35 (response rate = 52%). the demographic profile of the sample comprised 60% males, almost half (46%) between the ages of 46–55 years, predominantly post-graduate (86%) black african (80%) chief directors (rank level 14, 77% ) largely from the three transversal departments (84%) and in the employ of the provincial government for the past 10 years (72%). in addition, 43% of the managers had fewer than 11 subordinates. the final sample of esci rater respondents was 230, comprising five rater groups, namely manager or supervisor (n = 28), subordinate (n = 70), peer (n = 65), other (n = 37) and client (n = 30). leadership nominations survey sample using convenience sampling, middle-level and senior managers (n = 400; 100 per department) in the four departments, with close working contact with the 35 executive managers, were invited to nominate up to a maximum of three managers in an online nominations survey comprising a list of the managers’ names, with the question: ‘choose the executive manager/s in your department whom you view as outstanding in their leadership performance’. a final total of 191 respondents’ (response rate = 48%) 371 nominations was used, ranging from a high of 32 nominations (outstanding leadership performance) to a low of zero (poor leadership performance). the descriptive statistics for the esci survey and performance nomination scores are presented in table 1. table 1: descriptive statistics of the emotional and social competence inventory survey and performance nomination scores. measuring instruments independent variable measurement the independent variable was ei competency score that was measured using the quantitative survey instrument, the esci (boyatzis, 2009; goleman et al., 2002). the esci is a self-administered, joint self-report and observer-rated online tool designed to assess ei competencies of individuals and organisations. the esci collects and reports on ratings of a leader’s competence in ei behaviours from multiple sources, such as supervisors, subordinates, peers, clients and others, including the leader’s self-ratings. all rater group respondents have a close working relationship with the participants assessed by the esci. the esci questionnaire comprises a set of 68 pre-determined closed questions using a five-point likert-type scale (‘consistently’, ‘often’, ‘sometimes’, ‘rarely’ and ‘never’). each question relates to one of the 12 ei competencies, which are factored independently and organised into four clusters. the researcher is an accredited user of the esci and is qualified to administer the tool and interpret the results. the esci is specifically located within organisational life and work outcome contexts and thus was considered a relevant metric for this study; its emphasis on personal and professional development constitutes the cornerstone for the competency development process. numerous empirical studies, displaying strong evidence of high reliability and validity of the esci have employed the esci to explore relationships between ei and leadership or management performance, as well as assessment, development and training of ei (boyatzis, 2009; görgens-ekermans & roux, 2021; o’boyle et al., 2011; piel, 2008; ramo et al., 2009; sharma, 2012). the average cronbach’s alpha for the esci is 0.87 for ratings by rater respondents (ranging from 0.79 to 0.92), based on a sample of 52 363 (hay group, 2011). a principal axis exploratory factor analysis with promax rotation showed the factor analytic properties of the esci to be outstanding (boyatzis, 2009). leadership nominations leadership performance was measured using multi-source nominations, which have high criterion validity, that is, they predict hard job performance outcomes (boyatzis, 2009; mcclelland, 1998; ramo et al., 2009). furthermore, relevant to this study, nominations relate significantly to work-output measures and strongly correlate with each other. nominations are regarded as an effective and valid measure to predict solid job performance outcomes, as shown in a number of competency studies (boyatzis, 2009; mcclelland, 1998; ramo et al., 2009). statistical analyses two quantitative analytical methods, namely spearman’s rank correlation and analysis of variance (anova), were used to test the five study hypotheses (table 2). spearman’s rank correlation coefficient determines the strength and direction of the bivariate linear relationship, using a monotonic function (leedy & ormrod, 2010). to examine the relationship between the ei competency gap and leadership performance, the descriptive statistics for the competency gap or soa were calculated. self-other agreement is defined as the difference between the score of each self-rater and the total other raters’ score. to test hypotheses 3 and 5, two sub-samples were extracted from the total sample of executive managers, based on their performance nomination scores, namely the top 35% (n = 12) and the bottom 35% (n = 12). table 2: the study’s research questions, hypotheses and analytical tests. research procedure and ethical considerations permission for the study was granted by the provincial government’s office of the premier and support was received from the hr branches in each department. the voluntary participation of all participants was sought through informed consent. the identity of all participants and the data collected is strictly anonymous and confidential. the researcher complied with the ethical procedure guidelines set out by a western cape university. the hay group granted permission to apply the esci for academic research purposes. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards of research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. results emotional and social competence inventory reliability analysis cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the esci competencies in this study show an overall alpha value of 0.84, with a range from 0.77 to 0.89 for the 12 ei competencies indicating acceptable internal consistency reliability of the scale in this setting (see table 3). table 3: cronbach’s alpha coefficients for emotional and social competence inventory competencies. the bivariate relationships between emotional intelligence and leadership performance hypothesis 1: the four emotional intelligence clusters are positively related to leadership performance an overall strong, positive and significant correlation (r = 0.56; p < 0.001) was found in the relationship between ei and leadership performance of executive managers in this public service setting. as shown in table 4, strong correlations were displayed in two ei clusters: self-awareness (r = 0.58) and self-management (r = 0.55) whilst the relationship management (r = 0.54) and social awareness clusters showed moderate relationships. thus, hypothesis 1 is supported. table 4: result of spearman’s correlation to determine the relationship between leadership performance and emotional intelligence clusters. hypothesis 2: each of the 12 emotional intelligence competencies is positively related to leadership performance four ei competencies showed strong, positive and highly significant (p < 0.001) correlations with leadership performance nominations, namely adaptability (r = 0.64), inspirational leadership (r = 0.61), emotional self-awareness (r = 0.58) and positive outlook (r = 0.55) (see table 5). furthermore, five ei competencies displayed moderate, positive and highly significant (p < 0.01) correlations with leadership performance, namely (in descending order of coefficient magnitude): influence (r = 0.50), teamwork (r = 0.48), coach and mentor (r = 0.48), achievement orientation (r = 0.48) and conflict management (r = 0.47). in addition, organisational awareness (r = 0.43) and empathy (r = 0.39) displayed weak, positive, significant (p < 0.05) correlations with leadership performance. based on these results, hypothesis 2 was confirmed for 11 ei competencies, however, it was not confirmed for the emotional self-control ei competency. table 5: result of spearman’s correlation to determine the relationship between leadership performance and emotional intelligence competencies. hypothesis 3: a significant difference exists between the emotional intelligence competency scores of high-performing and low-performing executive managers a two-way between-groups anova was conducted to explore the impact of the ei competencies on the two levels of leadership performance. the anova analysis yielded statistically significant effects at p < 0.01 for the four ei clusters and 11 ei competencies and at p < 0.05 for emotional self-control. thus, hypothesis 3 is supported. overall, the high-performing executive managers’ ei mean scores were significantly higher with three competencies yielding the highest mean differences and f-values, namely adapatability (m = 0.61; f (1,22) = 29.04, p < 0.01), emotional self-awareness (m = 0.58; f (1,22) = 28.05, p < 0.01), inspirational leadership (m = 0.67; f (1,22) = 26.43, p < 0.01). it is noteworthy that the competencies of coach and mentor (m = 0.58; f (1,22) = 19.10, p < 0.01), positive outlook (m = 0.57; f (1,22) = 16.48, p < 0.01) and teamwork (m = 0.57; f (1,22) = 12.28, p < 0.01) also displayed high mean differences and the next three highest f-values. the relationships between the emotional intelligence competency gap ratings and leadership performance hypothesis 4: a significant negative relationship exists between the executive managers’ emotional intelligence competency gap and leadership performance a moderate, negative and significant correlation (r = -0.47, p < 0.01) between the public service executives’ ei competency gap and their leadership performance was recorded. the ei competency gap mean for the executive managers was 0.28 and the range was between 1.68 (the highest) and -0.73 (the lowest). twenty-five per cent of the gap scores were below -0.04, with a median of 0.24 (50% below median), and 25% were above 0.51. therefore, hypothesis 4 is accepted. hypothesis 5: a significant difference exists in the emotional intelligence competency gap between high-performing and low-performing executive managers the low-performing executive managers’ overall mean self-ei score (4.35) was higher than that of their high-performing colleagues (4.18). conversely, the high-performing executive manager-group was rated higher (m = 4.26) by the total other respondent groups than the low-performing executive managers (m = 3.73). the mean competency gap for the high-performing group was -0.08 and for the low-performing group was 0.62. the anova result for the ei competency gap between these two groups of executive managers revealed a f-value (1.22) = 15.81 at p < 0.01. therefore, a statistically significant difference exists in the ei competency gap between highand low-performing executive managers. accordingly, hypothesis 5 is accepted. in addition to the anova results, executive managers with a higher mean emotional self-awareness score had smaller mean ei competency gaps and higher mean performance nomination scores (refer to table 6). table 6: mean differences between the top and bottom 12 emotional and social competence inventory emotional self-awareness score, emotional intelligence competency gap and performance nominations. discussion the bivariate relationships between emotional intelligence and leadership performance overall, the quantitative analyses showed strong, positive and significant correlations between public service executive managers’ ei competencies and their leadership performance. all four esci clusters displayed either strong (self-awareness and self-management) or moderate (relationship management and social awareness) positive correlations with leadership performance. thus, hypothesis 1 was confirmed. nine of the 12 ei competencies showed a positive and highly significant (r = 0.47–0.64; p < 0.01 to p < 0.001) correlations with leadership performance, whilst two of the 12 ei competencies showed a positive and relatively moderately significant (r = 0.39–0.43; p < 0.05 to p < 0.01) correlations with leadership performance. emotional self-control was the only competency that did not show a significant (p > 0.05) association with performance. thus, hypothesis 2 was confirmed for 11 competencies. the anova analysis indicated significant difference between the ei competency scores of high-performing and low-performing executive managers at p < 0.01 for the four ei clusters and 11 ei competencies and at p < 0.05 for emotional self-control. thus, hypothesis 3 was supported. in addition, the esci indicated high reliability in this setting. these results are in general agreement with previous research findings in the fields of ei and leadership. several meta-analyses confirm the significant relationship between ei and performance (joseph & newman, 2010; o’boyle et al., 2011; van rooy & viswesvaran, 2004; van rooy et al., 2005). both meta-analyses by joseph and newman (2010) and o’boyle et al. (2011) confirmed that ei relates to job performance over and above cognitive ability and personality for all three ei streams, and notably, that the eci/esci displayed the largest incremental validity (o’boyle et al., 2011). in particular, this study confirms claims that adopt a behavioural approach to ei on which the theoretical framework of this study was based (boyatzis, 2009, 2018; cherniss, 2010; dulewicz & higgs, 2003; goleman & boyatzis, 2008; havers, 2010; hopkins, o’neil, & williams, 2007; piel, 2008; ramo et al., 2009; rosete & ciarrochi, 2005; ryan et al., 2009). for example, a study on spanish executives in three public sector organisations show that ei competencies are valuable predictors of job performance as measured by performance nominations (ramo et al., 2009). in addition, cherniss et al.’s (2006) review of ei studies show superior performers scoring higher in all four eci clusters. several studies show a positive relationship between leader ei and transformational leadership (e.g. barling et al., 2000; brown & moshavi, 2005; görgens-ekermans & roux, 2021; mills, 2009; piel, 2008; sosik & megerian, 1999) and charismatic leadership (shamir et al., 1994). transformational leadership scholars have theorised the significance of a leader’s impact on their followers’ emotional states (bass & avolio, 1994). for example, piel (2008) found that the ei relationship management cluster was a potential predictor of transformational leadership and subsequently demonstrated that all esci clusters were positively correlated with the transformational leadership factors but negatively associated with transactional leadership. recently, in a south african study, görgens-ekermans and roux (2021) observed strong effects between three esci clusters (relationship management, self-management and social awareness) with transformational leadership (idealised influence, inspirational motivation and individualised consideration, respectively). the four ei competencies displayed the strongest positive correlations with leadership performance and the highest significant mean differences and f-values between the ei competencies of highand low-performing managers, namely emotional self-awareness, adaptability, inspirational leadership and positive outlook are of noteworthy significance. the self-awareness cluster showed the strongest correlation with leadership performance. the findings highlight the significance of self-awareness, which is considered the foundational competency or cornerstone of ei (goleman et al., 2002; görgens-ekermans & roux, 2021) and the fundamental component of effective leadership (day, fleenor, atwater, sturm, & mckee, 2014). this study supports havers’ (2010) claim that participants with high emotional self-awareness display more esci competencies at strength. in addition, piel (2008) using the esci found that self-awareness was strongly correlated with the transformational leadership ability of idealised influence (bass & avolio, 1994). the adaptability competency displayed the strongest correlation with leadership performance and the second-largest significant difference in means between highand low-performing executive managers. strength in this competency illustrates top-performing executive managers’ adeptness in situations of complex change and in times of crises, such as the current covid-19 pandemic, through behaviours and actions related to adaptive leadership, such as flexibility, open-mindedness and ambiguity (heifetz, 1994; huang, 2020). adaptability is strongly associated with transformational leadership (humphrey, 2002; tucker & russell, 2004), as this competency is effective during times of constant and rapid change, uncertainty and crises (humphrey, 2002). furthermore, the importance of adaptability for public service executive managers in their turbulent environment is essential (lan & hung, 2018; newman et al., 2009), with van wart (2011) referring to adaptability as a key component of flexibility and a positive leadership trait, critical in all change functions and essential in the more complex and ambiguous public service environment. the ei competency of inspirational leadership displayed the second strongest correlation with leadership performance and the largest significant difference in means for highand low-performing executive managers. inspirational leadership is strongly related to transformational leadership elements such as modelling the way, instilling pride, focusing on followers’ needs, enunciating a clear and shared vision and trust (orazi et al., 2013). for example, significant correlations were found between ei competencies (using the esci) and transformational leadership scores using the multifactor leadership questionnaire (piel, 2008). the relationships between the emotional intelligence competency gap and leadership performance several researchers (atwater & yammarino, 1992; fleenor smither, atwater, braddy, & sturm, 2010; harris & schaubroeck, 1988) claimed that self-ratings tend to be inflated compared with other ratings. this study confirms their claim as half the self-rating participants overestimated their scores. in addition, all the ei clusters and competencies mean self-ratings were higher than those of the ratings by others (e.g. managers, subordinates, peers, etc.). fleenor et al.’s (2010) review confirmed the general positive relationship between soa and leadership effectiveness. atwater and yammarino’s (1992) research concluded that over-raters (i.e. those with self-ratings that differ greatly from other ratings) are poorer performers compared with in-agreement raters or under-raters. this study confirms this conclusion, as the correlation analysis indicated a moderate negative significant relationship between the executive managers’ competency gap and their performance. in addition, the anova analysis indicated that low-performing executive managers’ self-ratings were on average seven times larger than that of their top-performing counterparts. the results also compare favourably with other studies (e.g. fleenor et al., 2010). atwater and yammarino’s (1992) research also concluded that individuals with high soa ratings are considered more self-aware. this study corroborates their claim, as the executive managers with high emotional self-awareness scores displayed strong soa, that is, their competency gap was on average nine times lower than that of the low-scoring executive managers. the highly self-aware executive managers were significantly superior performers receiving an average of 70% more performance nominations from their colleagues. these findings have significance for studies that only use self-ratings. practical implications the results of this exploratory study have significant theoretical, methodological and practical implications for public leadership. the first major implication is that transformational and emergent leadership models that include ei offer the public service appropriate exemplars in the pursuit of distinctive public leadership models. however, public service leadership models remain extremely managerial and transactional and pay little attention to emotions and feelings (denhardt & denhardt, 2006; newman et al., 2009; vigoda-gadot & meisler, 2010). day et al.’s (2014) comprehensive review of 25 years of leadership development research and theory found that ei competencies are needed for leadership and managerial development initiatives. the methodological implication is the importance of using a 360-degree feedback process based on selfand multi-source rating instruments as these have greater reliability than single-source instruments and are appropriate for development purposes. as shown in this study (and several other studies), self-ratings are significantly inflated, and therefore have limitations for development purposes. day et al. (2014) also found support for 360-degree feedback tools (such as the esci) as a process to facilitate leader and leadership development because feedback from multisource rating fosters self-awareness and the development of individual leaders. limitations and recommendations there are a few limitations of this study to be observed. firstly, the small sample size of executive managers (n = 35) as the initial sample size of 67 participants did not materialise because of attrition of participants during the research and too few raters completing the surveys. the lukewarm interest by public managers in participating in research studies is a cause for concern given the paucity of evidence on public leadership. secondly, the study was limited to the context of four departments within a provincial government. thirdly, the dependent variable (leadership performance) was measured through a broad measure, which limits the examination of the multiple facets of this complex phenomenon. therefore, the generalisability of the results to other settings may be limited. however, the research results provide a number of opportunities for future research. as this was the first study on ei competencies and leadership performance using the research design and methods in the south african public service, a large-scale study is warranted. this will have the benefit of further testing the research design and the results. a fertile area for future ei research in the public service is to test measurable elements of transformational and emergent (e.g. authentic, servant, ethical and spiritual) leadership models (considering their growth in recent literature) as variables (miao et al., 2018). these leadership approaches are appropriate as they are concerned with emotions, values, ethics and long-term relationships, as well as followers’ motives, needs and satisfaction. conclusion the primary objective of this quantitative study was to examine the nature of the relationships between executive managers’ ei competencies and their leadership performance in the south african public service, framed within the behavioural ei model (boyatzis, 2009; boyatzis et al., 2017; goleman et al., 2002) through applying metrics of the esci and leadership nominations. related to this aim, the study determined the ei competencies that differentiate high performing executive managers. the secondary methodological aim was to examine the relationship between ei competency gap/soa and leadership performance. the study examined five hypotheses that were all supported. the results indicated significant and positive correlations between ei competencies and leadership performance with the competencies of adaptability, inspirational leadership, emotional self-awareness and positive outlook displaying the strongest correlations. a significant negative relationship between the managers’ soa and their performance was observed. this study contributes empirical evidence on the nature of the bivariate relationship in the african public service context. the high cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the ei competencies indicate the suitability of the esci in this context, therefore implying the applicability of western ei concepts and metrics. however, further research is warranted in other african public sector settings to compare the competencies with the strongest correlations with performance. the results have implications for management and leadership development and recruitment in the public sector. acknowledgements the author would like to express his special gratitude to prof. erwin schwella (university of stellenbosch) for supervising his original thesis; dr. annie mckee (university of pennsylvania) and prof. richard boyatzis (case western reserve university) for their guidance on the research design and access to relevant literature; and prof. martin kidd, ms. magriet treurnicht and ms adéle burger (university of stellenbosch) for their guidance and support with the statistical analysis of the nominations and the esci survey data. competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. author’s contributions s.j.h. was responsible for the final research design, data collection, analyses and article write-up. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references ashkanasy, n.m., & daus, c.s. (2005). rumours of the death of emotional intelligence in organisational behaviour are vastly exaggerated. journal of organisational behavior, 26(4), 441–452. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.320 atwater, l.e., & yammarino, f.j. (1992). does self-other agreement on leadership perceptions moderate the validity of leadership and performance predictions? personnel psychology, 45(1), 141–164. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1992.tb00848.x barling, j., slater, f., & kelloway, e.r. (2000). transformational leadership and emotional intelligence: an exploratory study. leadership and organization development journal, 21(3), 157–161. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730010325040 bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1994). improving organisational effectiveness through transformational leadership. thousand oaks, ca: sage. beinecke, r.h., & spencer, j. (2009). examination of mental health leadership competencies across iimhl countries. in j.a. raffel, p. leisink, & a.e. middlebrooks (eds.), public sector leadership: international challenges and perspectives (pp. 340–359). northampton, ma: edward elgar. benington, j., & hartley, j. (2011). recent trends in leadership: thinking and action in the public and voluntary service sectors. london: commission on leadership and management in the nhs. boyatzis, r., & mckee, a. (2005). resonant leadership. boston, ma: harvard business press. boyatzis, r., rochford, k., & cavanagh, k.v. (2017). emotional intelligence competencies in engineer’s effectiveness and engagement. career development international, 22(1), 70–86. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi-08-2016-0136 boyatzis, r.e. (1982). the competent manager: a model for effective performance. new york, ny: john wiley & sons. boyatzis, r.e. (2009). competencies as a behavioural approach to emotional intelligence. journal of management development, 28(9), 749–770. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710910987647 boyatzis, r.e. (2018). the behavioral level of emotional intelligence and its measurement. frontiers in psychology, 9, 1438. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01438 brown, f.w., & moshavi, d. (2005). transformational leadership and emotional intelligence: a potential pathway for an increased understanding of interpersonal influence. journal of organizational behavior, 26(7), 867–871. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.334 caruso, d.r., & salovey, p. (2004). the emotionally intelligent manager: how to develop and use the four key emotional skills of leadership. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. cherniss, c. (2010). emotional intelligence: toward clarification of a concept. industrial and organizational psychology, 3(2), 110–126. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2010.01231.x cherniss, c., extein, m., goleman, d., & weissberg, r.p. (2006). emotional intelligence: what does the research really indicate? educational psychologist, 41, 239–245. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep4104_4 chipkin, i., & lipietz, b. (2012). transforming racial bureaucracy: new public management and public sector reform in contemporary south africa. johannesburg: public affairs research institute (pari). chipkin, i., & meny-gibert, s. (2012). why the past matters: studying public administration in south africa. journal of public administration, 47(1), 102–112. day, d.v., fleenor, j.w., atwater, l.e., sturm, r.e., & mckee, r.a. (2014). advances in leader and leadership development: a review of 25 years of research and theory. the leadership quarterly, 25(1), 63–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.11.004 denhardt, r.b., & denhardt, j.v. (2007). the new public service: serving, not steering. new york, ny: m.e. sharpe. dinh, j.e., lord, r.g., gardner, w.l., meuser, j.d., liden, r.c., & hu, j. (2014). leadership theory and research in the new millennium: current theoretical trends and changing perspectives. the leadership quarterly, 25(1), 36–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.11.005 dulewicz, v., & higgs, m. (2003). leadership at the top: the need for emotional intelligence in organizations. the international journal of organizational analysis. 11(3), 193–210. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb028971 edigheji, o. (2010). constructing a democratic developmental state in south africa: potentials and challenges. in o. edigheji (ed.), constructing a democratic developmental state in south africa: potentials and challenges (pp. 1–33). cape town: hsrc press. emmerling, r.j., & boyatzis, r.e. (2012). emotional and social intelligence competencies: cross cultural implications. cross cultural management: an international journal, 19(1), 4–18. https://doi.org/10.1108/13527601211195592 fleenor, j.w., smither, j.w., atwater, l.e., braddy, p.w., & sturm, r.e. (2010). self-other rating agreement in leadership: a review. the leadership quarterly, 21(6), 1005–1034. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.10.006 garikipati, s., & kambhampati, s.u. (2020). leading the fight against the pandemic: does gender ‘really’ matter? ssrn electronic journal. retrieved from https://ssrn.com/abstract=3617953 gay, l.r., mills, g.e., & airasian, p. (2000). educational research: competencies for analysis and application (8th ed.). new york, ny: prentice hall. george, j.m. (2000). emotions and leadership: the role of emotional intelligence. human relations, 53(8), 1027–1044. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726700538001 goleman, d. (1998). working with emotional intelligence. new york, ny: bantam books. goleman, d. (2004). what makes a leader. harvard business review, 82(1), 82–91. goleman, d., & boyatzis, r. (2008). social intelligence and the biology of leadership. harvard business review, 86(9), 74–81. goleman, d., & boyatzis, r. (2017). emotional intelligence has 12 elements. which do you need to work on? retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/02/emotional-intelligence-has-12-elements-whichdo-you-need-to-work-on goleman, d., boyatzis, r., & mckee, a. (2002). primal leadership: realizing the power of emotional intelligence. boston, ma: harvard business school press. görgens-ekermans, g., & roux, c. (2021). revisiting the emotional intelligence and transformational leadership debate: (how) does emotional intelligence matter to effective leadership? sa journal of human resource management, 19(0), a1279. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1279 harris, m.h., & schaubroeck, j. (1988). a meta-analysis of self-supervisor, self-peer, and peer supervisor ratings. personnel psychology, 41(1), 43–62. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1988.tb00631.x havers, g. (2010). ei at the heart of performance: the implications of our 2010 esci research. hay group. (2011). emotional and social competence inventory (esci): a user guide for accredited practitioners. boston, ma: hay group. heifetz, r. (1994). leadership without easy answers. cambridge, ma: the belknap press of harvard university. holzer, m., & illiash, i. 2009. russian bureaucracy as an alternative model of leadership. in j.a. raffel, p. leisink, & a.e. middlebrooks (eds.), public sector leadership: international challenges and perspectives (pp. 145–162). northampton, ma: edward elgar. hopkins, m.m., o’neil, d.a., & williams, h.w. (2007). emotional intelligence and board governance: leadership lessons from the public sector. journal of managerial psychology, 22(7), 683–700. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710820109 house, r.j., & aditya, r.n. (1997). the social scientific study of leadership: quo vadis? journal of management, 23(3), 409–473. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639702300306 huang, p.h. (2020). put more women in charge and other leadership lessons from covid-19. ssrn electronic journal, 15(3), 353–421. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3604783 humphrey, r.h. (2002). the many faces of emotional leadership. leadership quarterly, 13(5), 493–504. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(02)00140-6 joseph, d.l., & newman, d.a. (2010). emotional intelligence: an integrative meta-analysis and cascading model. journal of applied psychology, 95(1), 54–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017286 judge, t.a., colbert, a.e., & ilies, r. (2004). intelligence and leadership: a quantitative review and test of theoretical propositions. journal of applied psychology, 89(3), 542–552. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.3.542 kellis, d.s., & ran, b. (2013). modern leadership principles for public administration: time to move forward. journal of public affairs, 139(1), 130–141. https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1453 kotzé, m., & venter, i. (2011). differences in emotional intelligence between effective and ineffective leaders in the public sector: an empirical study. international review of administrative sciences, 77(2), 397–427. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852311399857 lan, m.t., & hung, t.h. (2018). the leadership competency in vietnam public administration. organizations and markets in emerging economies, 9(1), 8–20. https://doi.org/10.15388/omee.2018.10.00001 leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2010). practical research. boston, ma: pearson educational international. mau, t.a. (2009). is public sector leadership distinct? a comparative analysis of core competencies in the senior executive service. in j.a. raffel, p. leisink, & a.e. middlebrooks (eds.), public sector leadership: international challenges and perspectives (pp. 313–339). northampton, ma: edward elgar. mayer, j.d., salovey, p., & caruso, d.r. (2000). models of emotional intelligence. in r.j. sternberg (ed.), handbook of human intelligence (2nd ed., pp. 396–420). new york, ny: cambridge university press. mcclelland, d.c. (1998). identifying competencies with behavioural-event interview. american psychological association, 9(5), 331–339. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00065 miao, c., humphrey, r.h., & qian, s. (2018). emotional intelligence and authentic leadership: a meta-analysis. leadership and organization development journal, 39(5), 679–690. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-02-2018-0066 mills, l.b. (2009). a meta-analysis of the relationship between emotional intelligence and effective leadership. journal of curriculum and instruction, 3(2), 2–38. https://doi.org/10.3776/joci.2009.v3n2p22-38 mohammed, i. (2018). change leadership: the role of emotional intelligence. sage open, 8(3), 21582440188. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244018800910 mokgolo, m.m., mokgolo, p., & modiba, m. (2012). transformational leadership in the south african public service after the april 2009 national elections. south african journal of human resource management, 10(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i1.334 morse, r.s., & buss, t.f. (2008). innovations in public leadership development. new york, ny: m.e. sharpe. newman, m.a., guy, m.e., & mastracci, s.h. (2009). beyond cognition: affective leadership and emotional labor. public administration review, 69(1), 6–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2008.01935.x o’boyle, e., humphrey, r.h., pollack, j.m., hawver, t.h., & story, p. (2011). the relation between emotional intelligence and job performance: a meta-analysis. journal of organizational behavior, 32(5), 788–818. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.714 orazi, d.c., turrini, a. & valotti, g. (2013). public sector leadership: new perspectives for research and practice. international review of administrative sciences, 79(3), 486–504. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852313489945 piel, m.a. (2008). emotional intelligence and critical thinking relationships to transformational leadership. unpublished phd dissertation, university of phoenix. ramo, l.g., saris, w.e., & boyatzis, r.e. (2009). the impact of social and emotional competencies on effectiveness of spanish executives. journal of management development, 28(9), 771–793. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710910987656 republic of south africa. (2012). national development plan 2030: our future – make it work. pretoria: the presidency. robledo, m.a. (2009). integrating management theory: using the aqal model for multiparadigm management research. journal of integral theory and practice, 4(1), 57–70. rochford, k.c., jack, a.i., boyatzis, r.e., & french, s.e. (2017). ethical leadership as a balance between opposing neural networks. journal of business ethics, 144(4), 755–770. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3264-x rosete, d., & ciarrochi, j. (2005). emotional intelligence and its relationship to workplace performance outcomes of leadership effectiveness. leadership & organization development journal, 26(5), 388–399. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730510607871 ryan, g., emmerling, r.j., & spencer, l.m. (2009). distinguishing high-performing european executives. the role of emotional, social and cognitive competencies. journal of management development, 28(9), 859–875. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710910987692 shamir, b., house, r.j., & arthur, m.b. (1993). the motivational effects of charismatic leadership: a self-concept based theory. organizational science, 4, 577–594. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.4.4.577 sharma, r. (2012). measuring social and emotional intelligence competencies in the indian context. cross cultural management, 19(1), 30–47. https://doi.org/10.1108/13527601211195619 sosik, j., & megerian, l.e. (1999). understanding leader emotional intelligence and performance: the role of self-other agreement on transformational leadership perceptions. group and organization management, 24(3), 367–390. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601199243006 tucker, b.a., & russell, r.f. (2004). the influence of the transformational leader. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 10(4), 103–112. https://doi.org/10.1177/107179190401000408 van rooy, d., & viswesvaran, c. (2004). emotional intelligence: a meta-analytic investigation of predictive validity and nomological net. journal of vocational behavior, 65, 71–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0001-8791(03)00076-9 van rooy, d.l., viswesvaran, c., & pluta, p. (2005). an evaluation of construct validity: what is this thing called emotional intelligence. human performance, 18(4), 445–462. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup1804_9 van wart, m. (2011). dynamics of leadership in public service: theory and practice. new york, ny: me sharpe. vigoda-gadot, e., & meisler, g. (2010). emotions in management and the management of emotions: the impact of emotional intelligence and organisational politics on public sector employees. public administration review, 70(1), 72–86. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2009.02112.x walter, f., cole, m.s., & humphrey, r.h. (2011). emotional intelligence: sine qua non of leadership or folderol? academy of management perspectives, 25(1), 45–59. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2011.59198449 wright, b.e. (2011). public administration as an interdisciplinary field: assessing its relationship with the fields of law, management and political science. public administration review, 71(1), 96–101. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2010.02310.x abstract introduction research purpose and objectives literature review research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) janine a. victor department of industrial psychology and people management, faculty of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa crystal hoole department of industrial psychology and people management, faculty of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation victor, j.a., & hoole, c. (2021). the development and validation of the rewards desirability inventory. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1599. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1599 original research the development and validation of the rewards desirability inventory janine a. victor, crystal hoole received: 21 apr. 2021; accepted: 22 june 2021; published: 14 sept. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: research on reward preferences remains inconclusive. total reward theories often do not take the role of intrinsic psychological rewards into consideration. further to this, there are not only limited instruments available to measure reward preferences but also ease of access to psychometrically sound measures is further challenging. research purpose: the aim of this study was to develop and validate an instrument to measure reward preferences in the working environment. motivation for the study: organisations require tools to enhance waning motivational levels in the workplace. the measurement of reward preferences appears essential to determine what employees ultimately want from their work to improve levels of motivation. major limitations exist regarding current reward preference instruments. research approach/design and method: quantitative scale development procedures were employed to construct the 32-item instrument. data were collected from south african employees (n = 639) and processed using both factor and rasch analysis procedures. main findings: the factor analysis revealed a 3-factor structure (non-financial rewards, financial rewards and benefits and growth opportunities). items evidenced good factor loadings and dimensions demonstrated high internal consistency. the dimensions and overall scale performed mostly well in accordance with rasch model expectations. based on the overall results, one can confirm that the new instrument has satisfactory psychometric properties. practical/managerial implications: the instrument can help employers and scholars to measure, understand and explore what employees value and seek from the working environment. contribution/value-addition: the study expands on limited pre-existing theory and empirical research pertaining to the measurement of rewards preferences. a unique and psychometrically sound reward preference instrument is provided for use by scholars and employers. keywords: reward preferences; factor analysis; rasch model; scale development; reliability; validation; south africa; rewards desirability inventory. introduction orientation organisations seek to know what motivates employees’ and what they ultimately value from the employment relationship. total rewards – financial and non-financial rewards that organisations offer to workers – motivate and drive employees to put forth their best efforts (riaz, akhtar, & aslam, 2018; worldatwork, 2007). when worker productivity increases, so does company bottom line (sels et al., 2006). the total reward concept is based on the belief that employees seek more than just money from the work that they do. it is important to note the individuality of each employee and how different rewards will affect them (alhmoud & rjoub, 2019). therefore, total rewards are strategic tools used by organisations to offer rewards which address individual employee values and needs (bussin & van rooy, 2014), thereby stimulating employee motivation (garcía, ramón, & herrera, 2019). despite the influx of total reward research, there are still pitfalls in the total rewards domain. brown (2014) advocated that total reward strategies are increasingly becoming outdated. employees may be searching for more from their jobs, signifying that organisations are no longer able to satiate the motivational needs of their staff with current total reward models. an overlooked way of rewarding employees is by focussing on the psychological façade of designing work to be more intrinsically motivating and satisfying (renard & snelgar, 2016). total rewards strategies place minimal, if any, emphasis on this approach. work is not always a means to an end. some people are strongly connected to what they do. it shapes their identities (neves et al., 2018) and gives rise to inner fulfilment (overell, 2009). the importance of the intrinsic psychological facet of rewards is that not only employees are rethinking the meaning of work, but are diverting from jobs based on salary and moving towards places of work which promote happiness and the opportunity to feel good (achor, reece, kellerman, & robichaux, 2018). as advocated by peng (2018), people are starting to reflect on the value of their work and take steps to acquire meaning by engaging in their actual work content. evidently, employees are increasingly channelling their desires towards a more intrinsically rewarding workplace. to measure preferences towards rewards and achieve the goals of this study, human resource practitioners as well as scholars require readily available instruments. despite growing interest in reward preferences locally (e.g. bussin & thabethe, 2018; fobian & maloa, 2020; nienaber, bussin, & henn, 2011; snelgar, renard, & venter, 2013) and internationally (e.g. acheampong, 2021; adinew, 2020; french & emerson, 2014), there are not only limited instruments available to measure such preferences, but also ease of access to psychometrically sound measures is further challenging (hoole & hotz, 2016; victor & hoole, 2017). what is more, and to the researcher’s knowledge, there are no holistic reward preference instruments available which account for measuring not only financial and non-financial rewards but also those intrinsic and psychological in nature. research purpose and objectives the aforementioned highlights that there is a need to develop a psychometrically sound measuring instrument to explore reward preferences. to this end, the primary objective of this study was to develop and validate a rewards preference measure based on financial, non-financial and intrinsic psychological rewards. the motive for the development of this instrument is that there are no current and psychometrically sound scales readily available to measure such preferences. literature review reward is conceptualised as returns employees receive for carrying out tasks and responsibilities in the workplace (jiang, xiao, qi, & xiao, 2009). there are various taxonomies, systems and frameworks for classifying rewards (bussin, mohamed-padayachee, & serumaga-zake, 2019). a popular basis for this is by distinguishing between different types of rewards such as intrinsic, extrinsic, direct, indirect, financial and non-financial rewards. these elements are increasingly being used by enterprises to design individualised and bespoke reward packages which align to employee preferences, desires and needs (pregnolato, bussin, & schlechter, 2017). total rewards rewards are important as they play an integral role in the field of talent management. adequately designed reward systems are highly effective tools in enhancing employee motivation and boosting job satisfaction (noor & zainordin, 2018). several researchers have explored the total rewards concept (e.g. bussin et al., 2019; hoole & hotz, 2016; pregnolato et al., 2017). total rewards consist of different types of rewards which organisations offer to employees (bussin et al., 2019; worldatwork, 2010). particularly, total rewards encapsulate all financial and non-financial returns which enterprises exert control over. organisations frequently draw on different types of rewards to attract, motivate and retain talent (armstrong, 2010). the modern development of rewards strategies focusses on ways in which organisations can enhance talent management practices, by drawing on both financial or transactional (such as pay and benefits in accordance with the employee-employer exchange) and non-financial or relational or intangible (such as learning and development opportunities as well as the working environment) returns (bussin & van rooy, 2014). financial rewards financial rewards are economic and monetary in nature. they are controlled directly by an organisation (kshirsagar & waghale, 2014). financial rewards are transactional and include pay and benefits (armstrong, 2010). whilst pay is attributable to direct means of compensation, benefits are more indirect in nature (armstrong, 2010). pay includes base pay and contingent or variable pay. base pay includes, for example, one’s remuneration or salary for actual work carried out on a monthly, hourly or weekly basis (snelgar et al., 2013). contingent or variable pay is not fixed and is dependent on variables such as performance, tenure and/or skillset (horváthová, davidová, & bendová, 2012). rewards provided indirectly by an organisation include employee benefits (armstrong, 2010). they are frequently used to supplement pay and protect employees from financial burdens (worldatwork, 2010). they are considered discretionary in nature (koskey & sakataka, 2015). armstrong (2010) suggested that benefits include: (1) health-related benefits, (2) paid or personal time off and (3) retirement and pension benefits. non-financial rewards non-financial rewards consist of non-monetary returns. these rewards are deemed intangible (joshi, 2016). examples include learning and development opportunities and the working environment (koskey & sakataka, 2015). learning and development opportunities can be defined as opportunities provided to employees to develop their skillsets and enhance their knowledge within an organisation (armstrong, 2010). training, on-the-job or experiential learning, performance management, career development and succession planning encompass examples of learning and development opportunities (armstrong, 2010). a working environment denotes the actual setting that employees work in (ushie, agba, & okorie, 2015). the working environment consists of the organisational culture, leadership, communication, involvement, work-life balance and non-financial recognition. perry and porter (1982) further advocated that the working environment includes having good relationships with colleagues and supervisors. intrinsic psychological rewards intrinsic rewards are those positive feelings (such as happiness) which derive from the working context (obicci, 2015). they are intangible and psychological in nature (jacobs, renard, & snelgar, 2014). such rewards derive from the actual job and work content (renard & snelgar, 2016). these rewards include meaningful work, felt responsibility for work outcomes and autonomy, felt challenge, a sense of competence and task interest and enjoyment. meaningful work can be defined as one’s experience and personal significance of work (michaelson, 2019). as per the job characteristics model (hackman & oldham, 1976), when certain job characteristics such as task identity and task significance are present, a psychological response is triggered whereby employees experience meaningfulness in their work. whilst task identity is defined as the completion of a task from beginning until end with an identifiable outcome, task significance refers to the degree to which a job impacts on the lives of others (hackman & oldham, 1976). when such psychological states are triggered, certain outcomes such as job satisfaction and work motivation are enhanced. felt responsibility can be defined as situations in which one feels obliged to perform, take action or deliver on something (avey, avolio, crossley, & luthans, 2009). the job characteristics model (hackman & oldham, 1976) particularly supports the inclusion of felt responsibility as an intrinsic psychological and motivational reward (renard & snelgar, 2016) by advocating that experiencing responsibility for work outcomes serves as a critical psychological state which emanates from autonomy (hackman & oldham, 1976). autonomy, according to hackman and oldham (1976), is the degree to which a job provides an employee with adequate freedom and independence in carrying out, scheduling and determining procedures in work. nguyen, taylor and bradley (2003) articulated that job autonomy may heighten enjoyment with work as employees are granted the opportunity to determine how to execute tasks to their liking. pink (2009) advocated that autonomy is a pillar of motivation. in his theory, he described autonomy as the desire to direct our own behaviours, which leads positive attitudes and improved performance. autonomous work, therefore, provides one with a sense of self-direction and choice, and which leads to heightened feelings of responsibility for work-related outcomes (ali et al., 2014). challenging work encapsulates tasks which are difficult yet energising (preenen, van vianen, & de pater, 2014). as indicated in the two-factor theory, herzberg et al. (1959) advocated that challenging work is regarded as a ‘motivator’. therefore, when people feel challenged in their work, they feel more motivated and report higher levels of satisfaction in their job. in particular, herzberg’s two-factor theory is based on the premise that there are two divisions of motivation: motivating factors (satisfiers) and hygiene factors (dissatisfiers). motivating factors lead to job satisfaction. these factors encompass achievement, recognition, work itself, responsibility, advancement and growth (ozsoy, 2019). hygiene factors lead to job dissatisfaction (herzberg, 1966). such factors include, for example, working conditions, pay, relationships with colleagues, admin policies, company policies, supervision, relationships with supervisors, status and security (ozsoy, 2019). a sense of competence is conceptualised as the positive feelings that one gets when they are able to cope with tasks, exceed expectations and produce matter-worthy work. basic psychological need satisfaction in self-determination theory (ryan & deci, 2000) posits that satisfying the need for competence is a psychological and cognitive mechanism for enhancing one’s motivation as well as satisfaction within a particular environment. according to ryan and deci (2000), not only does motivation drive certain behaviours but allows individuals to acquire a sense of fulfilment, which is associated with an internally rewarding experience. specifically, motivation is enhanced when individuals are able to master difficult and challenging tasks. in this way, individuals feel more competent. task interest and enjoyment occur when employees find their work tasks fun or enjoyable to engage with (crane, 2012). as a basis for self-determination theory, ryan and deci (2000) asserted that individuals are more inclined to persist with, gravitate towards and be motivated by tasks or activities that they find interesting or enjoyable (williams, niemiec, patrick, ryan, & deci, 2009). rigby and ryan (2018) argued that motivation may be energised by an employees’ values, needs and interests. when volitional motivation occurs, employees demonstrate work commitment and attain improved levels of satisfaction, energy and wellness. tasks which are both interesting and enjoyable, therefore, provide employees with a positive organisational experience. reward preferences preferences have been defined as an individual’s liking, desire or favouring towards phenomenon (scherer, 2005). not only do preferences enhance an individual’s sense of choice, but also when satisfied, they elicit positive feelings and emotions (dolan & metcalfe, 2012). although no universally agreed-upon definition has been formulated, reward preferences can be demarcated as the perceived desirability of work-related returns. reward preferences are significant in talent attraction and retention (victor & hoole, 2017). an important proposition in literature is that rewards are embedded in motivational theory. the degree of motivation emanates from the extent to which rewards received are perceived as desirable (chiang & birtch, 2005). this advocates that employee behaviour and motivation to perform in a job may be influenced by the extent to which rewards provided to them are appreciated. measuring reward preferences the reward preference questionnaire (rpq; nienaber et al., 2011) is the most frequently used south african rewards preference measure. the construction of the rpq was informed by a theoretical approach based on worldatwork’s total rewards framework (worldatwork, 2007). nienaber et al. (2011) identified categories used to classify reward components. they classified rewards as either total package (financial or extrinsic rewards) or additional rewards (non-financial or intrinsic rewards). total package rewards comprised (1) family care, (2) medical aid and retirement funds and (3) reward performance, whilst additional rewards consisted of (4) performance and career management, (5) quality work environment, (6) empowerment, (7) flexible work practices, (8) control over my pay, (9) work relationships and teamwork and (10) development opportunities. nienaber et al. (2011), close and martins (2015) and hoole and hotz (2016) have however, reported several discrepancies with the psychometric properties of the instrument, ranging from low reliability coefficients for various subscales to inconsistencies in the factor structure to complex wording of certain items. snelgar et al. (2013) developed a modified version of the rpq by modifying item wording and reducing the response categories to a 5-point scale. the subscales pertaining to the importance of rewards did, however, evidence low to good reliability coefficients, ranging from 0.52 to 0.82. unfortunately, there are very limited studies which have further scrutinised the psychometric properties of the modified version. another instrument which has undergone modification and validation in the south african context is the sarm10 (bussin, nicholls, & nienaber, 2016). the sarm10 consists of 11 subscales namely, guaranteed package, short-term incentives, pension, job-level-based benefits, family-related benefits, job security, work hours, career and development, performance and recognition, team pay and team equal. although the scale has undergone rigorous measurement model analysis by the developers, it has not been tested and validated by other researchers. in light of the above, the intrinsic psychological façade of rewards remains precluded from these instruments. moreover, despite limited attempts to develop, refine and validate these reward preferences measures, many reward surveys administered to employees are not based on empirical research (nicholls, 2012). given this, there is a lack of suitable reward preferences instruments in the south african context. the lack of testing and inconsistent psychometric properties reported in literature as well as the exclusion of an intrinsic psychological component in the questionnaires, serves as the underpinning motive for the development of a more intricate reward preference instrument. research design research approach to develop the reward preferences instrument, an exploratory sequential research design was employed. this article constitutes the second phase and was established on findings from the initial qualitative phase. the qualitative phase was used to define the construct, ensure content and face validity and inform the items. during the first phase, data were collected using focus group discussions and analysed using a deductive and constructionist thematic analysis. findings revealed that the total compensation package encapsulated financial rewards. underlying non-financial rewards were good relationships, learning and development opportunities, organisational culture, communication, recognition, physical working environment, feedback and work-life balance. underlying intrinsic psychological rewards were autonomy, meaningful work, felt competence, task enjoyment and challenging work. these themes formed the basis for the development of items (victor & hoole, in press). research method research participants non-probability convenience sampling was used to collect data from the final sample (n = 639). to generalise findings, the sample was made as broad and representative as possible. to ensure that the sample was sufficiently representative and to enhance external validity, participants were required to have at least 1 year of working experience and be proficient in the english language. a detailed breakdown of the samples demographics is presented (table 1). table 1: frequency distribution of sample participants. measuring instruments a biographical questionnaire required participants to indicate their age, gender, race, home language and occupational category. the rewards desirability inventory (rdi) was developed to measure preferences towards different types of rewards by asking participants to indicate how important each type is to them. based on a literature review and the qualitative findings from phase 1 (victor & hoole, 2021), the researcher devised 372 items. after reviewing these items, 100 of the best items (underlying three dimensions, namely, financial rewards, non-financial rewards and intrinsic psychological rewards) were chosen to be retained for expert and layperson evaluation. the questionnaire draft was reduced to 60 items and used to collect data from participants. following quantitative analyses, the final instrument consisted of 32 items. a 5-point likert-type scale is used to measure responses in intervals from 1 (‘not at all important’) to 5 (‘very important’). intervals between the minimum and maximum response categories include a 2 (‘somewhat important’), 3 (‘important’) and 4 (‘fairly important’) response anchor. likert-type scales comprising 5 points have been reported to produce higher reliability coefficients than those with a lower number of response categories (krosnick & presser, 2009). additionally, scales with fewer than five points tend to lack variance (comrey, 1988). research procedure and ethical considerations data were collected using both paper-based and online questionnaires. the researcher initiated contact with companies via email. company representatives either forwarded the email with an electronic survey link to participants or requested paper-based questionnaires to be delivered. paper-based questionnaires were handed back to the company representative within 2 weeks. electronic questionnaires were completed at the leisure of participants within a month of the email request. the remaining participants were recruited via social media platforms including linkedin and facebook. electronic links to the survey were open for 2 months and reminder adverts to participate in the study were carried out at weekly intervals. approval was granted from the relevant institution to conduct research. participants were informed of (1) the nature and purpose of the study, (2) option to voluntarily participate and withdraw, (3) an indication that responses will remain confidential and anonymous and (4) contact details of the research team. all data collected were stored electronically via a password protected system. statistical analysis data were screened for input errors, unengaged and/or unexpected response cases. missing cases were replaced using the ‘mice’ (multivariate imputation by chained equations) package in r (version 3.6.2.). an exploratory factor analysis (efa) and confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) were carried out. data suitability to verify factorability was explored by scrutinising the kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy (kmo; kaiser, 1970) as well as bartlett’s test of sphericity for statistical significance and correlation matrix factorability (bartlett, 1954). values between 0.50 and 1 for the kmo and significance values of p = 0.005 or p = 0.001 for bartlett’s test were used to test assumptions to indicate usefulness. an efa was used for the purpose of maximising explained covariance and reliability by reducing the number of items, exploring the number of potential dimensions and confirming the factor structure. to replicate the correlation matrix, the researchers made use of maximum likelihood (ml). an oblique (direct oblimin) rotation strategy was chosen. general inclusion for item retention included factor loadings between 0.30 and 0.50, the presence of no cross-loadings, factors consisting of at least three items, evidence of reliability (using the cronbach alpha coefficient; > 0.70; nunnally & bernstein, 1994) and convergence based on theoretical guidance (carpenter, 2018). a cfa was used to verify the factor structure using the ‘lavaan’ package in r. using a robust ml estimation method, the estimated factor structure was tested. to analyse model fit, goodness-of-fit indices were calculated. the following fit statistics were analysed: chi-square (x²; where the p value should not be statistically significant; garson, 2005), degrees of freedom (df), standardised root mean residual (srmr; < 0.10; kline, 2006), root means square error of approximation (rmsea; between 0.05 and 0.08; kline, 2006), tucker lewis index (tli; > 0.90; kline, 2006), comparative fit index (cfi; > 0.90; kline, 2006), akaike’s information criteria (aic) and bayesian information criteria (bic). item response theory was used to further test and assess underlying psychometric properties of the rdi using winsteps (version 4.4.8). firstly, the researcher explored functioning of rating scales. the category probability, category frequencies and chi-square fit statistics were evaluated. fit statistics were acceptable at between 0.50 and 1.5 (linacre, 2017). andrich thresholds and category measures were evaluated. secondly, unidimensionality was assessed using principal components analysis on standardised residuals. according to linacre (2016) upon inspection of the first contrast, eigenvalues > 2 imply a second dimension. thirdly, item fit was analysed by screening the item characteristics curve (icc). misfit was detected when the icc diverged considerably from the expected curve (outside the 95% confidence interval). to confirm whether these items were problematic, the researchers inspected item fit statistics. item locations, standard errors and fit statistics for each item were assessed. acceptable logits for item fit were set at between 0.70 and 1.30 (adams & khoo, 1995). fourthly, summary fit statistics were inspected. the mean of the squared residuals (mnsq) assessing infit and outfit for persons and items was evaluated. mean square values > 1 indicated underfit whereas values < 1 indicated overfit (linacre, 2016). finally, to determine scale reliability for the estimated dimensions for the purpose of proving internal consistency and person and item separation, the following statistics were assessed: cronbach’s alpha coefficient, person and item reliability and person and item separation indices. cut-off values were set at > 1.50 for person and item separation indices and > 00.70 for person and item reliability (linacre, 2012). results the kmo test produced an index of 0.95 whilst bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant at p = 0.000 (chisq = 11 709.64; df = 1770), indicating that the data were suitable for factor analysis. guiding theory and research results obtained in the qualitative phase suggested three types of rewards categories. hence, a three-factor solution was imposed. the solution was run multiple times until simple structure was achieved. the cumulative variance explained produced a value of 47%. the final simple structure matrix with alpha coefficients is outlined (table 2). it is noted that the three-factor solution provided a good fit from a theoretical and empirical perspective. table 2: pattern matrix for the three-factor solution. with regard to the cfa, although a perfect fit was not obtained (p < 0.000), the researcher concluded that the model produced acceptable fit. an inspection of the items showed that all items produced low standard errors and loaded well onto their respective latent constructs. on assessing the model values collectively, these results suggest that the theoretically driven three-factor solution produced adequate fit, although certain indicators fell slightly beyond the acceptable cut-off values. for a summary of the goodness-of-fit indices (see table 3). table 3: goodness-of-fit indices. with regard to the rasch analysis, good functioning of ratings was apparent in that each category featured as a unique point in the dataset and no disorder in the category thresholds was detected. the category probability curves were distributed from -7 to 7 logits. proper ordering of categories was evident and each category measured a unique part of the underlying trait (see figure 1). figure 1: category probability curves for the 5-point rating scale. as demonstrated, more than 75% of responses were captured by categories 4 and 5 (table 4). with regard to the chi-square fit statistics, the infit mnsq ranged from 0.88 to 1.66, and the outfit mnsq ranged from 0.75 to 2.16. therefore, acceptable fit for each category was mostly observed. it is noted that category 1 did not fall within the parameters of 0.50 and 1.5 as per linacre’s (2017) recommendations and thus displayed underfit. this category produced an outfit mnsq of 2.16, which is higher than desired. a plausible explanation for this may be the low frequency count (3%) for category 1. therefore, the researcher decided not to collapse this category. upon inspection of the andrich thresholds and category measures, it was evident that categories were properly ordered, despite the misfit for category 1. this depicted good evidence of construct validity. table 4: category frequencies for the rewards desirability inventory. the wright map ranged from low (-2 logits) to high (5 logits). the higher a person scored on the latent construct, the more probable it was that the person would select a higher category (i.e. 4 or 5). in addition, item 14 was the most difficult to endorse, whereas item 5 was the easiest. the average measures for both persons and items (indicated by the letter m on the continuum) are depicted (figure 2). the mean person ability exceeded the mean item difficulty by approximately 1 logit. this implies that the overall rdi was a fairly easy test for this sample, and that the test did well at measuring those individuals who scored high on reward preferences. figure 2: wright map (item or person locations). with regard to unidimensionality, eigenvalues produced coefficients of < 2 upon inspection of the first contrast for all three dimensions (linacre, 2016). the iccs showed that the empirical or observed curve for most items matched the expected or theoretical curve and hence, did not deviate substantially by falling beyond the 95% confidence interval parameters. these items were therefore, considered to perform well and fit the rasch model. with regard to factor 1, items 9, 19 and 22 appeared to display some misfit. specifically, the icc for these items showed that individuals who scored low on factor 1 were scoring higher than expected, and vice versa. the summary fit statistics are presented (table 5). the minor misfit of these items was taken into consideration, and further analysis was approached with caution. for factor 1, the mean infit and outfit mnsq for persons were 1.10 (standard deviation [sd] = 0.71) and 1.05 (sd = 0.66), respectively. in terms of the items, the mean infit and outfit mnsq were 1 (sd = 0.19) and 1.05 (sd = 0.27), respectively. item 19 was the hardest item to endorse (δ = 0.66), whilst item 5 was the easiest (δ = −0.57). the infit mnsq ranged from 0.74 to 1.52, and the outfit mnsq ranged from 0.67 to 1.80. all items, except for item 22 had acceptable fit. item 22 showed underfit, with an infit and outfit mnsq of 1.52 and 1.80, respectively. the statistics confirmed the misfit of item 22 that was previously identified. it should be considered setting this item aside in future administrations. table 5: summary item fit statistics. with regard to factor 2, item 60 appeared to display misfit. the icc for this item showed that individuals who scored low on factor 2 were scoring higher than expected, and vice versa. a plausible explanation for this may be that individuals displayed extreme behaviour towards these items. the minor misfit of this item was taken into consideration, and further analysis was approached with caution. the mean infit and outfit mnsq for persons were both 0.99 (sd = −0.10). in terms of the items, the mean infit and outfit mnsq were 0.81 (sd = 0.13) and 0.82 (sd = 0.13), respectively. item 51 was the hardest item to endorse (δ = 0.46), whilst item 41 was the easiest (δ = −0.42). in terms of item fit, the infit mnsq ranged from 0.88 to 1.17, and the outfit mnsq ranged from 0.90 to 1.14. these fit statistics did not evidence misfit. all items were, therefore, retained. with regard to factor 3, inspection of the iccs evidenced that no items appeared to display misfit. the mean infit and outfit mnsq for persons were 0.96 (sd = −0.2) and 0.97 (sd = −0.10). in terms of items, the mean infit and outfit mnsq were 0.99 (sd = −0.30) and 0.97 (sd = −0.50), respectively. item 14 was the hardest item to endorse (δ = 0.44), whilst item 30 was the easiest (δ = −0.22). in terms of item fit, the infit mnsq ranged from 0.87 to 1.13, and the outfit mnsq ranged from 0.84 to 1.10. as per the desired range, these fit statistics did not evidence misfit. all items were, therefore, retained. for factor 1, the person reliability was 0.87, with a person separation index of 2.59. the item reliability was 0.97, with an item separation index of 5.83. cronbach’s alpha was 0.95. for factor 2, the person reliability was 0.62, with a person separation index of 1.27. the item reliability was 0.95, with an item separation index of 4.61. cronbach’s alpha was 0.86. for factor 3, the person reliability was 0.64, with a person separation index of 1.33. the item reliability was 0.96, with an item separation index of 4.76. cronbach’s alpha was 0.81. discussion outline of the results the aim of this study was to develop and validate the rdi to assess the extent to which individuals show preferences towards different types of rewards. the final measure consisted of 32 items. the dimensions were labelled as non-financial rewards, financial rewards and benefit and growth opportunities. these findings are partially consistent with the results from khan, shahid, nawab and wali (2013) which reported that non-financial rewards and financial rewards underlie reward preferences. the research results demonstrated reliability of the instrument, with satisfactory cronbach alpha coefficients for all three constructs. thus, the results signify the potential value of the rdi as a useful instrument for measuring reward preferences from a financial, non-financial and benefit and growth opportunity perspective. the findings of the cfa further support the application of a three-dimensional model. the investigation of the fit indices revealed that the dimensional structure of the rdi was acceptable. this scale was developed in response to a need for a reward desirability scale that takes into account, not only financial rewards and non-financial but intrinsic psychological rewards as well. although the hypothesised model was only partially supported, it is important to note that the non-financial rewards category consisted of both non-financial and intrinsic psychological rewards. the financial rewards category conformed as hypothesised whilst the benefits and growth opportunity category was unexpected. as such, it is important to review each dimension in relation to prior research. the first dimension was labelled non-financial rewards and consisted of both non-financial and intrinsic psychological rewards. a potential explanation of why these items may have loaded onto the same dimension is because both types of rewards were defined as intangible in nature (e.g. jacobs et al., 2014; joshi, 2016). therefore, both concepts share similar attributes. the second dimension was labelled as financial rewards and consisted of items which pertain to pay as derived in prior literature (hoole & hotz, 2016). pay has been recognised as a dimension measuring financial reward preferences in the workplace (snelgar et al., 2013). the third dimension was labelled as benefit and growth opportunities and consisted of employer contributions as well as opportunities for training and advancement. this result was unexpected as benefits were hypothesised as a financial reward whereas opportunities for training and promotion were deemed non-financial. a possible explanation for this is that these rewards cannot be classified as either financial or non-financial in nature. for example, employees may perceive benefits as rewards which they receive as being non-financial in nature. benefits contribute towards satisfying their personal needs. similarly, training and advancement opportunities in the workplace also support and satisfy one’s personal needs. whilst training enhances skillsets, knowledge and competencies, advancement enhances one’s personal growth and development. both benefits and training and advancement are likely to cost the employer financially. given this, employees are aware that benefits, training opportunities and advancement within an organisation are at the expense of the employer whilst directly benefiting and satisfying an employee’s individual needs. through the application of a rasch analysis, the researcher was able to further investigate the psychometric properties of the instrument. in accordance with the fit statistics, measures and thresholds for the categories, it was evident that the response categories performed adequately in accordance with rasch model expectations. the majority of the sample endorsed categories 4 (‘very important to me’) and 5 (‘extremely important to me’) when specifying their preferences towards rewards. the item-person map confirmed these findings. a potential reason as to why the majority of the sample felt that rewards were important to them is best explained by herzberg’s two-factor theory (herzberg et al., 1959). based on this theory, humans at work seek to prevent job dissatisfaction and enhance their motivation. in line with the dimensions of the rdi, this can be achieved by offering financial rewards (i.e. salary), non-financial rewards (i.e. interpersonal relations, recognition, responsibility and work itself) and benefit and growth opportunities (i.e. possibility of growth and advancement) to employees in the workplace. therefore, humans are likely more attracted to workplace rewards which stimulate satisfaction and prevent dissatisfaction, potentially explaining why they place importance on different types. findings of the rasch analysis confirmed a three-factor structure (as supported by the factor analyses), with each subscale displaying unidimensionality. in accordance with the individual items for factor 1 (non-financial rewards), item 22 (‘will keep my job regardless of my company’s economic problems’) displayed some misfit in the form of underfit. it was also the second hardest item to endorse. bond and fox (2007) suggested that misfit of items may be because of content and wording issues. conceptually, the item wording does appear to be problematic. the words ‘regardless’ and ‘economic problems’ are complex and ambiguous in nature. regardless of this, this item appears problematic and should be precluded from future administrations. in line with the reliability of the factors, internal consistency was acceptable for all dimensions. in addition, all factors evidenced adequate item reliability and item separation index coefficients, indicating that the sample size was adequate. for factors 2 and 3, the person reliability and person separation coefficients were below the desired values as recommended by linacre (2012). these factors may require the inclusion of additional items (linacre, 2012). based on the overall results, one can confirm that the new instrument has satisfactory psychometric properties. practical implications this article offers researchers and managers a tool to explore reward preferences more holistically and intricately. specifically, those who are interested in exploring what employees ultimately value from their job can use this tool to detect which specific types of rewards employees seek from their working engagements. moreover, this study offers a credible tool for data collection and analyses for the broader purpose of making sound reward-related decisions. this may be useful in business contexts pertaining to career development, attraction and retention, recruitment and selection and reward and remuneration. it is particularly noted that this tool can be used to enhance talent management strategies in that managers will have improved insight into how rewards can be better implemented and distributed to suit individual preferences and needs. this article provides managers with awareness that the provision of intrinsic psychological rewards is as equally important as extrinsic reward offerings. therefore, this study provides insight into why job tasks can be better structured to elicit positive emotional experiences felt by employees when engaging in their actual work. as previously alluded to, the combination of extrinsic and intrinsic psychological rewards can assist employees in delivering their finest performance and satisfying their needs. having said this, managers could use this tool to identify suitable levers for non-financial and intrinsic psychological rewards, for example, identifying gaps in training and development or identifying how jobs could be redesigned to enhance employee work motivation and job satisfaction. limitations and recommendations firstly, participants were required to complete a self-report measure. participants may have answered inaccurately as a result of social desirability bias. an alternative explanation for giving inaccurate answers may be attributed to participants misinterpreting item statements (item ambiguity or difficulty). it must be noted that this study serves as the first version of the rdi, thereby allowing for further development and refinement in future studies. secondly, the sample of this study consisted solely of working south africans. generalising these findings to other countries should be carried out with caution. for future research purposes, it is recommended that the research method and sample be extended to international contexts. thirdly, the three-factor solution was selected as suggested by theory. however, it was evident that the subscales partially supported the hypothesised dimensions. it is, therefore, recommended that future studies replicate the research results to determine whether three-factors do indeed underlie reward preferences. conclusion this study reinforces the idea that there are multiple rewards which employees seek and value from their work. therefore, total reward packages should be updated to focus more on non-financial rewards and particularly, on the inclusion of intrinsic psychological rewards. this study formed part of the second phase of a broader exploratory sequential mixed methods study to develop and validate the rdi. underlying total rewards, and therefore, reward preferences are three dimensions: non-financial rewards, financial rewards and benefit and growth opportunities. after completing and interpreting scores from the instrument, managers can develop a better understanding of what employees seek from their work. in turn, managers can devise remuneration packages to suit individual employees’ needs so that employees are more motivated and satisfied in their jobs. although the instrument should be subject to further scrutiny and refinement, the preliminary results of this instrument reveal satisfactory psychometric properties in the south african context. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. author’s contributions the study was conducted by j.a.v. as part of her phd in industrial psychology at the university of johannesburg in 2020. c.h. was j.a.v.’s supervisor and edited the work for publication. both authors contributed significantly to the conceptualisation and review of the study. ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained from the research committee of the primary research institution. ippm-2017-162 (d). funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author (c.h.) upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in the article are those of the authors and do not represent the views of any affiliated institution. references acheampong, n.a.a. (2021). reward preferences of the youngest generation: attracting, recruiting, and retaining generation z into public sector organizations. compensation & benefits review, 53(2), 75–97. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886368720954803 achor, s., reece, a., kellerman, g.r., & robichaux, a. (2018). 9 out of 10 people are willing to earn less money to do more-meaningful work. retrieved from https://hbr.org/2018/11/9-out-of-10-people-are-willing-to-earn-less-money-to-do-more-meaningful-work adams, r.j., & khoo, s.t. (1995). quest: interactive item analysis. melbourne: acer. adinew, t. (2020). examining employees’ reward preference and its association with motivation to work: a case of ethio-telecom (adama branch). european journal of business and management, 12(13), 10–28. https://doi.org/10.7176/ejbm/12-13-02/ alhmoud, a., & rjoub, h. (2019). total rewards and employee retention in a middle eastern context. sage open, 9(2), 215824401984011. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019840118 ali, m.a.s., said, a.n., yunus, m.n., kader, a.f.s., latif, a.s.d., & munap, r. (2014). hackman and oldham’s job characteristics model to job satisfaction. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 129, 46–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.646 armstrong, m. (2010). armstrong’s handbook of reward management practice: improving performance through reward. london: kogan page publishers. avey, j.b., avolio, b.j., crossley, c.d., & luthans, f. (2009). psychological ownership: theoretical extensions, measurement and relation to work outcomes. journal of organizational behavior: the international journal of industrial, occupational and organizational psychology and behavior, 30(2), 173–191. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.583 bartlett, m.s. (1954). significance test for sphericity of a normal n-variate distribution. journal of the royal statistical society, 16(2), 296–298. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2517-6161.1954.tb00174.x close, d., & martins, n. (2015). generational motivation and preference for reward and recognition. journal of governance and regulation, 4(3), 258–270. https://doi.org/10.22495/jgr_v4_i3_c2_p8 bond, t.g., & fox, c.m. (2007). applying the rasch model: fundamental measurement in the human sciences (2nd ed.). mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. brown, d. (2014). the future of reward management: from total reward strategies to smart rewards. compensation & benefits review, 46(3), 147–151. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886368714549303 bussin, m., mohamed-padayachee, k., & serumaga-zake, p. (2019). a total rewards framework for the attraction of generation y employees born 1981–2000 in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 17, a1066. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1066 bussin, m., nicholls, m., & nienaber, r. (2016). the relationship between occupational culture dimensions and reward preferences: a structural equation modelling approach. sa journal of human resource management, 14(1), a737. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.737 bussin, m., & thabethe, n.n. (2018). reward preferences in south africa’s media industry. sa journal of human resource management, 16, a1010. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.1010 bussin, m., & van rooy, d.j. (2014). total rewards strategy for a multi-generational workforce in a financial institution. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.606 carpenter, s. (2018). ten steps in scale development and reporting: a guide for researchers. communication methods and measures, 12(1), 25–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/19312458.2017.1396583 chiang, f.f., & birtch, t.a. (2005). a taxonomy of reward preference: examining country differences. journal of international management, 11(3), 357–375. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2005.06.004 comrey, a.l. (1988). factor-analytic methods of scale development in personality and clinical psychology. journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 56(5), 754–761. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006x.56.5.754 crane, m.e. (2012). the effects of task autonomy and task interest on goal-setting behavior and task performance [doctoral dissertation, cleveland state university]. etd archive. retrieved from https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/etdarchive/476 dolan, p., & metcalfe, r. (2012). measuring subjective wellbeing: recommendations on measures for use by national governments. journal of social policy, 41(2), 409–427. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047279411000833 fobian, d., & maloa, f. (2020). exploration of the reward preferences of generational groups in a fast-moving consumer goods organisation. sa journal of human resource management, 18, a1244. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1244 french, p.e., & emerson, m.c. (2014). assessing the variations in reward preference for local government employees in terms of position, public service motivation, and public sector motivation. public performance & management review, 37(4), 552–576. https://doi.org/10.2753/pmr1530-9576370402 garcía, i.r., ramón, s.d.c., & herrera, a.f. (2019). the role of work motivation based on values in employee’s retention in the 21st century. management studies, 7(2), 149–156. https://doi.org/10.17265/2328-2185/2019.02.007 garson, g.d. (2005). statsnotes: an online textbook. retrieved from http://www.statisticssolutions.com/validity.htm hackman, j.r., & oldham, g.r. (1976). motivation through the design of work. organizational behavior and human performance, 16(2), 250–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(76)90016-7 herzberg, f., mausner, b., & snyderman, b. (1959). the motivation to work (2nd ed.). john wiley. herzberg, f. (1966). work and the nature of man. world publishing. 4hoole, c., & hotz, g. (2016). the impact of a total reward system of work engagement. sa journal of industrial psychology, 42(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v42i1.1317 horváthová, p., davidová, m., & bendová, m. (2012). contingent pay and experience with its use by organizations of the czech republic operating in the field of environmental protection. international journal of economics and management engineering, 6(4), 522–526. jacobs, s., renard, m., & snelgar, r.j. (2014). intrinsic rewards and work engagement in the south african retail industry. sa journal of industrial psychology, 40(2), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i2.119. jiang, z., xiao, q., qi, h., & xiao, l. (2009). total reward strategy: a human resources management strategy going with the trend of the times. international journal of business and management, 4(11), 177–183. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v4n11p177 joshi, p. (2016). relational rewards: creating a fulfilling workplace environment. international journal of engineering and management research (ijemr), 6(4), 1–5. kaiser, h. f. (1970). a second generation little jiffy. psychometrika, 35(4), 401–415. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02291817 khan, i., shahid, m., nawab, s., & wali, s. s. (2013). influence of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards on employee performance: the banking sector of pakistan. academic research international, 4(1), 282. kline, r.b. (2006). formative measurement and feedback loops. in g.r. hancock & r.o. mueller (eds.), structural equation modeling: a second course (pp. 43–68). greenwich, ct: information age publishing. koskey, a.k., & sakataka, w. (2015). effect of reward on employee engagement and commitment at rift valley bottlers company. international academic journal of human resource and business administration, 1(5), 36–54. kshirsagar, m., & waghale, v.y. (2014). impact of financial and non-financial rewards on employee motivation. international research journal of management and commerce, 1(6), 61–74. krosnick, j.a., presser s. (2009). question and questionnaire design. in p.v. marsden & j.d. wright (eds.), handbook of survey research (pp. 263–313). bingley: emerald. linacre, j.m. (2012). winsteps (version 3.74). retrieved from http://www.winsteps.com/index.html linacre, j.m. (2016). a user’s guide to winsteps ministep rasch model computer programs: program manual 3.92.0. retrieved from www.winsteps.com linacre, j.m. (2017). winsteps® rasch measurement computer program. beaverton, or: winsteps.com. michaelson, c. (2019). a normative meaning of meaningful work. journal of business ethics, 170, 413–428. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04389-0 neves, d.r., nascimento, r.p., felix, jr, m.s., silva, f.a.d., & andrade, r.o.b.d. (2018). meaning and significance of work: a review of articles published in journals associated with the scientific periodicals electronic library. cadernos ebape. br, 16(2), 318–330. https://doi.org/10.1590/1679-395159388 nguyen, a., taylor, j., & bradley, s., (2003). relative pay and job satisfaction. some new evidence (mpra paper no 1382). computer technology and the job of the first-line supervisor new technology. work employment, 2(1), 47–59. retrieved from https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/1382/1/mpra_paper_1382.pdf nicholls, m.l. (2012). the relationship between occupational culture, occupational groups and reward preferences [doctoral thesis, university of johannesburg]. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10210/8356 nienaber, r., bussin, m.h.r., & henn, c. (2011). the relationship between personality types and reward preferences. acta commercii, 11(2), 56–79. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v11i2.153 noor, s.n.a.m., & zainordin, n. (2018). the impact of rewards as motivation on job satisfaction in a quantity surveying consult firm. international journal of modern trends in social sciences, 1(4), 1–14. nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory (3rd ed.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. obicci, p.a. (2015). influence of extrinsic and intrinsic rewards on employee engagement: empirical study in public sector of uganda. management studies and economic systems, 54(2518), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.12816/0018083 overell, s. (2009). the meaning of work [review for beyond current horizons programme]. futurelab. retrieved from www.beyondcurrenthorizons.org.uk/evidence/work-and-employment ozsoy, e. (2019). an empirical test of herzberg’s two-factor motivation theory. marketing and management of innovations, 1, 11–20. http://doi.org/10.21272/mmi.2019.1-01 peng, c. (2018). a literature review of job crafting and its related researches. journal of human resource and sustainability studies, 6(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.4236/jhrss.2018.61022 perry, j.l., & porter, l.w. (1982). factors affecting the context for motivation in public organizations. academy of management review, 7(1), 89–98. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1982.4285475 pink, d.h. (2009). drive: the surprising truth about what motivates us. new york, ny: riverhead books. preenen, p., van vianen, a., & de pater, i. (2014). challenging tasks: the role of employees’ and supervisors’ goal orientations. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 23(1), 48–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2012.702420 pregnolato, m., bussin, m.h., & schlechter, a.f. (2017). total rewards that retain: a study of demographic preferences. sa journal of human resource management, 15(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.804 renard, m., & snelgar, r.j. (2016). how can work be designed to be intrinsically rewarding? qualitative insights from south african non-profit employees. sa journal of industrial psychology, 42(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip riaz, h., akhtar, c.s., & aslam, r. (2018). total rewards and employee performance: investigating the mediating role of employee motivation in telecom sector. pakistan administrative review, 2(3), 342–356. retrieved from https://nbnresolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-60666-3 rigby, c.s., & ryan, r.m. (2018). self-determination theory in human resource development: new directions and practical considerations. advances in developing human resources, 20(2), 133–147. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422318756954 ryan, r.m., & deci, e.l. (2000). intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: classic definitions and new directions. contemporary educational psychology, 25(1), 54–67. https://doi.org/10.1006/ceps.1999.1020 scherer, k.r. (2005). what are emotions? and how can they be measured? social science information, 44(4), 695–729. https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018405058216 sels, l., de winne, s., delmotte, j., maes, j., faems, d., & forrier, a. (2006). linking hrm and small business performance: an examination of the impact of hrm intensity on the productivity and financial performance of small businesses. small business economics, 26(1), 83–101. retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/40229455 snelgar, r.j., renard, m., & venter, d. (2013). an empirical study of the reward preferences of south african employees. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), a351. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.351 ushie, e.m., agba, a.m.o., & okorie, c. (2015). work environment and employees’ commitment in agro-based industries in cross river state, nigeria. global journal of human-social science research, 15(6), 9–15. victor, j., & hoole, c. (2017). the influence of organisational rewards on workplace trust and work engagement. sa journal of human resource management, 15(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.853 victor, j.a., & hoole, c. (2021). rejuvenating the rewards typology: qualitative insights into reward preferences. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 47(0), a1880. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v47i0.1880 williams, g.c., niemiec, c.p., patrick, h., ryan, r.m., & deci, e.l. (2009). the importance of supporting autonomy and perceived competence in facilitating long-term tobacco abstinence. annals of behavioral medicine, 37(3), 315–324. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-009-9090-y worldatwork. (2007). the worldatwork handbook of compensation, benefits and total rewards: a comprehensive guide for hr professionals. hoboken, nj: john wiley and sons. worldatwork. (2010). worldatwork introduces revised total rewards model. retrieved from https://www.worldatwork.org/docs/worldatworkpressreleases/2015/worldatwork-introduces-revised-total-rewards-model.html abstract introduction literature review methodology findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) abdulkadir noor faculty of social sciences, simad university, mogadishu, somalia john walsh department of international business, school of business and management, rmit university vietnam, hanoi, vietnam citation noor, a., & walsh, j. (2020).managing in a war zone: somalian managers in the banking and mobile telecommunications sectors. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1148. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1148 original research managing in a war zone: somalian managers in the banking and mobile telecommunications sectors abdulkadir noor, john walsh received: 10 dec. 2018; accepted: 19 june 2020; published: 26 nov. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: management studies too often concentrate on supposedly normal market conditions in stable, developed countries. in reality, most forms of management are conducted in more trying circumstances, and this article seeks to expand knowledge of how it takes place under difficult conditions. research purpose: this study explored management techniques under wartime conditions exhibited by managers in the banking and mobile telecommunications sectors in mogadishu, the capital of somalia. motivation for the study: somalia is a fragile state that risks failing its people in many ways, including security, food security and basic public services. one means of compensating for these failures is the private sector’s ability to organise not just business but essential public services when the government is unable to do so. this article studied whether that was taking place. research approach/design and method: the research was qualitative in nature and featured in-depth, personal interviews with managers and executives in the identified sectors of interest. respondents were identified through convenience and then purposive snowball sampling techniques. main findings: it was found that adaptations to managing in wartime could be divided into three main themes: practical aspects of managing in adversity, coping mechanisms and the ethical issues involved in managing without a government. in general, in the absence of a legitimate ruling power or a form of market regulation, managers reverted to the pre-existing tribal system as a means not just of managing transactions but also to instil trust in those transactions. practical/managerial implications: a model is provided for managing under wartime or similarly difficult situations, which might be adapted to other contexts. contribution/value-add: this article extends knowledge of how management is conducted in wartime and how managers adapt to adverse conditions. keywords: banking; conflict; mobile telecommunications; resilience; somalia. introduction somalia, a coastal country located on the horn of africa, has had a troubled history since emerging from italian and british imperialism as the somali republic in 1960. a military coup in 1969 was succeeded by a civil war in the 1990s that led to the evisceration of the country’s institutions, such that it became considered a ‘failed state’. this concept, much contested, places the reasons for failure on crises that are local in nature and the failure of local leaders, whilst in reality it is the ‘imperial history of global capitalism’ that is the principal cause and this is manifested locally as the crisis that is manifested locally (jones, 2008). this crisis, of course, results from the uneven development that drives the spread of capitalism through colonialism. it resulted in the breakdown of the central state and the rule of law. in place of the central state, local communities reverted to traditional or religious systems that had served them in the precolonial era. commercial operations were, necessarily, severely hampered in these circumstances because there was no guarantee of property rights or of normal banking activities. in addition, there is, of course, the relentless violence and the disruption this causes. the violence has been intensified by the fact that ‘… covert commandos and drone strikes assisted by a secret cia base in mogadishu, are routine’ (anderson, 2017). famine, or the threat of famine for a large proportion of the population, has become a persistent presence (samator, 1992). in some cases, failed state status obscures the fact that some societies never really had successful or sustainable institutions and, instead, relied principally upon patronage networks and the need to endure factionalism (englebert & tull, 2008). in the case of somalia, this has meant the re-emergence of the tribal structure and system that were so influential for so long. the complex tribal system, featuring community self-rule in hierarchical societies, many nomadic, can merge into a hybridised form of non-centralised government through those involved applying leverage from their position to obtain a form of pragmatically permitted legitimacy: ‘the local dynamics of state-building are shaped mainly by the reproduction modes and legitimisation strategies of local elites who use the appropriation of material and immaterial (e.g. reputation) resources not only for enriching themselves, but also for securing legitimacy from relevant segments of the population (debiel, glasner, schetter, & terlinden, 2009).’ in doing so, they come into competition or conflict with those whose legitimacy has derived from other sources, such as political party office holding, traditional and religious authorities, influential intellectuals, diaspora repatriates and so forth. not only will these elite representatives compete for political power, but they may also be competing for different conceptions of how the economy and the actors within it should behave. business operators and their employees may face deep contradictions in terms of how they can survive from day to day and have their businesses thrive in hostile environmental change. these problems are notable for two business sectors that are considered to be essential in contemporary society for both the business-to-customer (b2c) and business-to-business (b2b) sectors: banking and mobile telecommunications. not only are these essential to the prevailing economic and social conditions, but they may become even more important in the absence of state institutions. people must still live, of course, and so they need to transfer money to relatives and other people who need to buy food and other necessities and to have trusted intermediaries ensure daily security in the absence of the rule of law. the concept of the ‘failed state’ is not helpful for those bodies responsible for delivering aid and assistance to local communities because, by declaring that no groups or individuals possess sufficient legitimacy, no assistance can be delivered with the required level of accountability. this is one of the motives behind the creation of the ‘fragile state’ definition, which encompasses a wider range of causal factors than conflict or poverty in recognising that there is in fact considerable intersectionality of causation: ‘violent conflict has sparked dramatically since 2010, and the fragility landscape is becoming more complex. climate change, rising inequality, demographic change, new technologies, illicit financial flows and other global trends may also create fragility risks. both lowand middle-income countries are affected by fragility risks, some far away from where the problems start’ (world bank, 2018). in this regard, somalia is considered to be one of those countries that may be included in the category of suffering fragility, conflict and violence (fcv), although it is possible to argue that other designations, including ‘failed state’ and ‘hybrid state’ might also be employed. the term ‘fragile or failed state’ will be used to designate this plurality of usage. this article reports on a programme of qualitative research conducted in somalia amongst cohorts of people in the banking and mobile telecommunications sectors with a view to answering the identified research questions. the article continues with a literature review of relevant subjects, a description of the research method employed, a presentation of the findings and a discussion of these findings, before ending with concluding notes. the purpose of the article is to provide a tentative model of management in wartime that helps to explain the behaviour of managers in the defined sectors in the research site of mogadishu. literature review much remains to be learned about business activities in failed or fragile states, not least because of the difficulties inherent in conducting worldwide research in such situations and in the complex and intricate interactions between many variables that make each situation appear to be unique. in these circumstances, it has been difficult to generalise with any confidence, and many areas of vagueness remain. when empirical research has been conducted in somalia, with respect to business or management issues, it tends to have been restricted to sites of relative security (e.g. ali & dahie, 2015; ali, sidow, & gueid, 2015), although this has not always been the case (sayid, echchabi, & aziz, 2012). larger scale studies of reconstruction issues by international aid donors and similar bodies have been able to collect data in fragile and failed states, but they have been able to deploy resources on a completely different level to the research considered in this article. instead, the research here focuses specifically on management issues in specific business sectors in a specific part of the country where conducting research as an academic researcher was possible. crisis management approaches exist within the changed circumstances that then apply and evolve so as to be able to cope with them. recognising that life must continue at some level even during wartime, both sides of a civil war will, explicitly or implicitly, make accommodations for the civilian population in whose name they launch their campaigns so that they are not destroyed because of the conflict: ‘bargains, deals, and tacit understandings between states and insurgents are common in civil wars’ (staniland, 2012). in other words, business managers will be made aware of those areas in which they will be allowed to conduct their activities as normal and those areas in which they will be expected to cooperate with the dominant local power or even to devote all their resources to the military effort. this suggests a three-part approach to understanding the practice of management during wartime: understanding how businesses can survive at all in such difficult circumstances, how and when managers must make arrangements with the dominant power and what are the ethical issues involved when managers must act in direct support of a wartime effort. it is understood that these issues are complicated in the case of a civil war because the cause of conflict may involve identity issues that are fluid and contested and because, when the war does stop, the people fighting it and enduring it will still be living side by side (wehr & lederach, 1991). managing in adversity management literature tends to focus on the ability of people and organisations to continue with business on a basis as close as possible to normal, no matter what the circumstances. to achieve this, it is considered that organisations should demonstrate resilience. in the context of dealing with more common and severe adverse weather events, linnenluecke, griffiths and winn (2012) consider resilience to be the ‘… capacity to absorb the impact and recover from the occurrence’ of unwelcome events, which is tied to the need for anticipating adaptation. annarelli and nonino (2016) identify a wide range of fields in which the term ‘organizational resilience’ is used and identify different directions and fields of inquiry in which the concept is being pursued. organisations need to develop the building blocks of resilience during normal working conditions so that preparation for difficult conditions takes place before the crisis requires it (aleksić, stefanović, arsovski, & tadić, 2013). lengnick-hall, beck and lengnick-hall (2011), meanwhile, consider resilience to be centred upon the ability of individuals to be able to respond to adversity appropriately: … [a]n organization’s capacity for resilience is developed through strategically managing human resources to create competencies among core employees, that when aggregated at the organizational level, makes it possible for organizations to achieve the ability to respond in a resilient manner when they experience severe shocks. (p. 247) the nature of work and the way that work is managed also has a significant impact on the degree of resilience. defining resilience in part as the ability to be responsive to change in a positive way, mallak (1998) observes that ‘[a]s workers become more empowered, more decisions are often made without immediate approval and under time pressure’. it would be expected, therefore, that some types of business activity, where employees are routinely able to take decisions based on their own initiative and discretion, would tend to encourage a degree of innate resilience. there is also an external element to developing resilience because evidence indicates that people in high-trust societies are more likely to be able to demonstrate the flexibility necessary to respond well to a crisis (levine, lin, & xie, 2018). it has also been indicated that, in the case of banks, smaller organisations are more likely to be able to survive adversity (vallascas & keasey, 2012). in short, organisational resilience is a complex phenomenon that consists of both internal and external elements and that can be developed and encouraged to a certain extent. however, it is likely that organisations that are well resourced and that inhabit economies with high levels of information and competence are more likely to be able to demonstrate resilience. coping mechanisms previous research (nenova & harford, 2005) has indicated that somali organisations have used a variety of methods to try to cope with the disruptions to normal business life. these include accepting external assistance from international telecommunications companies, making local agreements to deal with interoperability issues and the use of informal systems such as hawala to handle international payments. hawala is a trust-based system used in a number of muslim-majority societies in which money can be deposited with a local agent in one country and then withdrawn from an agent in another country if the applicant is able to answer a number of relationship-based questions that only a person with the requisite tribal knowledge could answer (nenova & harford, 2005). it was anticipated that similar forms of coping mechanisms would be witnessed in the current research. this is particularly true in the case of those occasions when businesses operated in those areas in which cooperation with realpolitik was required because of a deal made with one of the warring powers. the state, of course, can lay monopolistic claim to the legitimate use of violence, but this claim does not extend to the case of a civil war, in which a non-state actor can claim effective power within a territory and can back that claim with the threat of violence. management under duress can depend on decision-making based on a wide variety of forms and bodies of knowledge and experience, and individuals will necessarily vary in this regard (hoekstra & montz, 2017). this situation can give rise to a form of cowboy capitalism, in which the fact that lawful authorities are absent and replaced by quasi-state authorities means that legal decisions are usually delivered through the barrel of a gun (e.g. walsh, 2012, 2016). this can occur when the legitimate state’s institutions are not able to function in a particular place or have been suborned by non-state actors so that they are no longer active. a range of different such situations can exist in a civil war because the state might be able to control some parts of a city, for example, although not other parts. this might take place on a vertical as well as a horizontal level, as demonstrated by recent us military doctrine, which privileges control of the air through manned and unmanned vehicles rather than, as the saying has it, ‘boots on the ground’ (renner, 2004). the effect of occupation – actual or threatened – has been studied under various perspectives. it is common to argue in such cases that businesses in these circumstances should follow the lead of civic institutions in promoting self-reliance and self-development and that, inevitably, such institutions should also be working towards political change in the name of the people (kuttab, 1989). however, in the case of business, attempts to continue management activities on as close to a normal standard as possible have almost invariably been labelled as ‘collaboration’ throughout history because they are seen as benefitting the occupying army. this inevitably introduces an ethical component: ‘every culture tags collaboration as moral failure. what could otherwise be described simply as the political arrangement of dependency under the conditions of military occupation is almost never permitted to remain simple or purely descriptive’ (brook, 2007, p. 4). there have, in other words, been few attempts to try to isolate from a non-moralistic viewpoint to determine which aspects of management under occupation are legitimate forms of business as (un)usual and which have been repurposed to the benefit of an occupying force. this article hopes to contribute to this gap in knowledge. ethical issues the previous section indicated that the literature has tended to conflate operational and ethical aspects of behaviour when it comes to business under occupation. however, there is another aspect to this conflation and that is to consider business management ethics from a stakeholder perspective. this approach implicitly or explicitly assumes that stakeholders have a right to some kind of guarantee of their rights with respect to the company concerned and that the latter acts through the accepted provision of a social contract (kakabadse, rozuel, & lee-davies, 2005). in complex situations, companies can variously engage and disengage with particular stakeholders as circumstances change (lehtinen, aaltonen, & rajula, 2019), indicating that a similar approach, perhaps in a more extreme form, might be adopted in wartime. because the conflict is not continuous, it might be possible to re-establish business activities through network reformation at a time when it is possible so to do. in the current research, the banking and mobile telecommunications sectors were explored. it might be argued that these activities are essential to the functioning of a normal society and that providers have a moral duty to provide such services when they can do so. this is problematic from a methodological perspective because so much has been developed from a western viewpoint, derived from greek and latin philosophers, whose work was then built upon by islamic thinkers, whose ideas are not always captured in management literature. it is also the case that there is not just one islamist ethic, although all are rooted in the same core beliefs. the founding points are the quran and the person of the prophet himself, who was of course a merchant. together, they indicate this foundation: … [t]he utmost importance of all sorts of productive work and the distribution of wealth in society; the vocation of trade; the fundamental principles of freedom and justice for business conduct; the prescription of certain manners such as leniency, service-motive, and consciousness of allah; and mutual consultation. (abeng, 1997:47–54) clearly, there is an extensive overlap with the stakeholder approach, and both could be used to demonstrate that business should go ahead for the benefit of different sectors of society whenever it can do so. this research will aim to make a contribution to understanding the extent to which these values can be detected under difficult conditions. methodology this project employed qualitative research for data collection. a qualitative approach was selected for both ideological and practical reasons. from the ideological perspective, qualitative approaches have been found to be helpful in outlining the location-specific factors and contexts that are prevalent and their interactions with specific interventions with different sectors of the population (nastasi & schensul, 2005). in doing so, it is recognised that, as bourdieu claimed, the proper focus of social inquiry is not the individual; although independent people are important and to be valued, ‘… it is the field which is primary and must be the focus of the research operations’ (bourdieu & wacquant, 1992, p. 107) in which people are ‘agents’ who provide the texts by which the reality of social relations and social reproduction may be understood (bourdieu, 1998, pp. 22–23). it is necessary to locate the field within the overarching power structures that configure the lives of people and then seek to understand the habitus that individuals derive and develop. in this regard, the habitus is the long-standing schemas and system of dispositions that people understand as reflecting their progress in the wider world. the somalian environment has caused considerable stress and anxiety to the people who occupy it, and the disruptions have been of sufficient length and importance to ensure that the habitus of each individual has become suffused by these events. moving from the ideological to the practical, therefore, it is important to appreciate the stress that people may be feeling and the diversity of impacts and outcomes that may have resulted from it. consequently, it is appropriate to permit individuals the opportunity to express themselves as they see fit and not seek arbitrarily to restrict their responses too narrowly in the way that a quantitative survey would have done. in this research, then, a series of face-to-face interviews was conducted with respondents in the banking and telecommunications sectors. respondents were identified using a combination of convenience, purposive and snowball sampling. the first respondents were identified through personal networks and connections, and these respondents were invited to identify future additional respondents who might be contacted. the purposive element of this approach involved attempts to introduce some diversity into the sample achieved. given the nature of somali society, all respondents were men with a similar economic and social background appropriate to the work position in which they found themselves. this provides an inevitable limit on the amount of heterogeneity it was possible to achieve in a sample and creates issues that need to be recognised in the data analysis process (robinson, 2014). interviewing was continued until the point of saturation was reached – that is, when the researchers realised that adding new interview transcripts was not adding any new information. under these circumstances, the interviewing process was ended. at this point, the researchers concluded that they possessed sufficient data that were rich (i.e. in quality of responses) and thick (i.e. in quantity of responses) so as to believe that the saturation point had been reached (fusch & ness, 2015). a semi-structured interview schedule was created that enabled individual conversations to vary according to the types of communications that respondents wished to make whilst still having an overall framework to keep the conversation as relevant as possible to the research themes. the semi-structured schedule was devised after consultation of the secondary literature and through a period of personal observation of the environment. somali and arabic were the languages used for interviewing. the interviews were translated into english and transcribed for future analysis. the transcripts were entered into a database, which also contained the secondary literature and the contents of the research diary, which is a document that contains both observations made during the field research and subsequent reflections upon those observations. the contents of the database as a whole were subjected to a process of content analysis. conventional content analysis was employed, in which codes and themes were derived directly from the texts explored, although, in considering the configuration of the discussion section, elements of directed content analysis were also used, in which specific words and concepts were sought (hsieh & shannon, 2005). overall, 30 interviews were conducted with representatives of the banking sector, and 22 interviews were conducted with representatives of the telecommunications sector. all of the respondents were men with formal education and experience in the private sector. the respondents were generally junior or middle-level managers, although some were more senior. all respondents were located in the capital city, mogadishu, because for security reasons it was not feasible to interview people from locations outside the city. it is clear that there are research limitations in the case of this research in terms of both time and space. these were unavoidably constrained by interests of personal safety. if circumstances permit, longitudinal research projects might be launched to evaluate the conclusions drawn here by considering them over a longer period of time. findings ‘people view business as the sole source of authority to help them survive in the absence of the rule of law.’ (telecommunications sector respondent, 42, manager, 13) there is no doubt that the respondents felt that the lack of security caused by the absence of the rule of law was the central issue that affected their working lives. they felt that they faced the ‘law of the jungle’ and could not be sure what kinds of conditions they would face from one day to the next. there might be fairly stable conditions, but there might well be fighting or the aftermath of fighting that has caused the closing of roads and businesses without notice. surviving these conditions entailed being able and willing to respond to a volatile environment on a continual basis, shifting plans where necessary and dealing with the stress that such conditions would bring. it is very difficult to plan for normal business activities in this case. in extreme and tragic cases, a staff member might have been wounded or even killed, which would also interrupt business plans, in addition to the human cost. where resilience has been shown on the individual and organisational levels, this appears to have resulted from the efforts and abilities of individual people who have been able to react to and adapt to change in a positive way. the organisations themselves do not seem to have much in the way of institutional ability to cope beyond the capabilities of talented individuals. these findings are broadly in line with the concept of companies engaging and disengaging with stakeholders in response to changes in the external environment described previously. the impact of the absence of the rule of law may be seen in terms of business activities and in terms of social impacts. business activities lawlessness means that most standard practices have either to be suspended or rearranged. it is not possible to offer banking services or telecommunication services when no one can be sure whether or not shops and businesses will be open or closed the next day. attempting to maintain regular daily schedules cannot be managed, and it is necessary to be flexible in order to achieve anything. managers need to take responsibility for freeing stakeholders from meeting strict schedules when there are acts of god that are beyond their control. it is unrealistic to expect bills always to be paid on time, for example, whilst any aspirations to lean logistical systems are impractical. under such circumstances, the importance of trust in relationships assumes even greater importance because it can easily appear that a stakeholder is failing to meet contractual obligations when the reality is that meeting the obligation is just not possible. this is in line with islamic ethics in business, which makes the claim that its role in maintaining social relations is an ethical action. distribution and redistribution of wealth within an economy cannot take place if businesses are closed. trust helps to persuade stakeholders that the business will continue as soon as possible and under whatever circumstances may be available. it would, further, be quite possible for unscrupulous people to take advantage of the confusion to obtain benefits for themselves if no conditions of trust existed. a proper understanding of the relationships between the stakeholders involved would help in measuring and monitoring performance and policies, and this would be invaluable. for example, one respondent observed rather luridly: ‘in a country where there is no effective law and order, the problems are uncountable. competitors can do whatever they want to you, they can even assassinate you’. mohamed mahamoud sheik, a young entrepreneur who opened somalia’s first florist shop and first laundry and dry cleaning business since 1991, was murdered by unknown assailants for unknown reasons (marchese & ratcliffe, 2018). it is certainly possible that personal or business motivations may have become involved in the terrorist and politically motivated attacks in the country. in other words, even if there are the implicit deals and compromises made by the warring parties and the people suggested previously, then the situation can still be chaotic and the terms and conditions subject to asymmetrical information availability. smooth operation of services is not possible in these circumstances, and it seems inevitable that consistency of operations and service provision will also be compromised. in this case, it is the relationship between service provider and customer that will need to be flexible and based on trust and a commitment to moving towards the establishment of a long-term relationship. this is more commonly found in the banking sector rather than the telecommunications sector. loyalty to banks – or, at least, reluctance to switch (e.g. hauff, 2019) – is reported to be high, whilst customers of mobile telecommunications are more willing to change from one brand to another depending on short-term considerations such as discount pricing or free services, as well as to take advantage of different forms of network externalities that will change in time. churn amongst telecommunications customers might be increased in the conditions outlined here because services are likely to be affected on a differential basis, and so consumers would be likely to try to use multiple channels so as to increase their options in the event of discontinued services. whilst this might also be possible for bank customers, it is generally not so easy to do the equivalent of switching a subscriber identification module (sim) card in order to respond to changing short-term conditions. the opening of access to submarine fibre optic cables in 2017, delayed because of concerns about piracy, as well as the creation of a new legal framework, have offered some new structure to a situation that had been termed ‘anarchy’ (business wire, 2019). however, these new capabilities are not placed in the hands of a competent central state but as something of a prize to be competed for by the various actors in the civil war. this has not, in other words, changed the terms of the game so much as added stakes to the existing game. because conditions militate against the formation of business relationships on the rational basis of standard trust establishment, practitioners have instead resorted to tribal loyalties as a basis for making business decisions. whilst this is a reasonable response to the situation encountered, and it is one that is generally well understood by the people involved, it is contrary to the principles of business practice that have been inculcated into the respondents through their business practice and education. this is very evident in the discourse employed. many respondents spoke repeatedly about desirable business approaches, such as ‘good governance, transparency, justice and giving everyone their rights’ or ‘… our business success depends on having qualified and skilled staff who serve customers honestly’. however, whilst these qualities remain important, they are undermined by the reality that tribal relations have resumed their importance in business relationships, and these relations are often opaque in nature and may seem unfair to other people because the meritocracy of rational business management is replaced by an alternate logic. managers are required to adjust through coping mechanisms to deal with these conditions but also act with respect to the ethical position that they are obliged to pursue. the tribal system is both a means of coping with difficult circumstances and a replacement system when regular capitalist relations become unsustainable. respondents did not openly acknowledge the disparity between discourse and practice. instead, it became evident in their answers to different types of prompting that they wanted and expected to operate in organisations that were rational and understandable through management logic, but they actually lived in quite a different world. this has resulted in a form of cognitive dissonance that might also contribute to stress and alienation. one banking sector respondent observed that ‘[p]eople view business as the only instrument that will help them survive, and give all their efforts to making businesses and gaining profits’. in this case, business success becomes the sole means of survival rather than being just one part of a life that has a balance of different institutions and interests. it indicates the personal difficulties involved in adapting to coping mechanisms. the switch might appear to be logical, but it can remain a complex one for individuals to negotiate nevertheless. from a practical perspective, the absence of a central banking system in addition to the central institutions of security mean that individual banks are obliged to act as independent units offering needed services to customers without the support of the usual banking infrastructure. people still need to transfer funds to each other to meet daily needs, to receive remittance from diaspora and overseas workers, and to pay bills and debts. in the absence of the banking infrastructure, banks provide their own services and microfinance services with the assistance of mobile telecommunications and the willingness to innovate and be flexible in operations noted above. even so, the amount of risk borne by individual banks doing this increases significantly. however, this falls within the realm of ethical imperatives in that other stakeholders rely upon businesses to keep their activities going for the good of the social system as a whole. a further example of changes to business practice caused by external conditions is through the rise of informal employment, particularly in the telecommunications sector. because it cannot always be predicted accurately what kind of activities might be possible the next day, some managers have started the practice of hiring casual labour wherever circumstances indicate that such an opportunity exists. this is, again, contrary to normal managerial practice as business education might dictate, although it is, nevertheless, a rational response to a short-term problem. it is assumed that managers will dispense with the usual documentation in such cases, not least because the absence of state institutions means that tax is no longer being collected and auditing and monitoring functions have ceased. it is evident that both coping and ethical issues are involved in this case. social impacts that normal institutional rule has broken down and community relations have in part replaced it also has a social impact. dealing with elders places business practitioners in different types of relationships with community members. where previously the balance of power in the relationship would be with the person holding the office or who is in possession of the desired resources, now the balance of power changes according to other criteria. in the case of the banking sector, it is the banker rather than the customer who tends to hold the upper hand in the relationship, but the opposite is the case for telecommunications, because customers have a range of options (albeit sometimes a narrow range) from which to choose. now, the situation is different in that the relevant resources are societal in nature and relate to familial and tribal relationships. as ever, a measure of gerontology is in place whereby the elderly expect to be able to rule over the younger people. in such a case, business education at the undergraduate or the graduate level assumes rather less importance than it would have done under the rule of law. this also has the effect that the business thinking and business-style discourse that respondents prefer to use is reduced in value because it is not the basis on which community elders choose to make their decisions. again, these are examples of how respondents have used a previous system as a form of temporary coping mechanism whilst also being willing to use it as a replacement system altogether if that proves necessary. a number of respondents spoke about working in the national interest and representing the people when government has become ineffective. in this sense, the private sector has replaced the public sector in representing the interest of the people. several respondents spoke about the sense of responsibility they felt for propping up private sector organisations generally acting independently. as one respondent in the telecommunications sector put it: the creation of this business was based on two main objectives: the first was to serve the people and the second was to make profits, so it was in everyone’s mutual interest that we be successful. this respondent continued by talking about working in collaboration with the people who have settled in the city. his company provides good services to the people and also employs some of them, which means that they will have more income to spend. there is, therefore, even a measure of redistribution in the way that the private sector has replaced the public sector. although it was not a widely expressed sentiment, a couple of respondents further expressed the idea that there was a relationship between the absence of tax-collecting organisations and a responsibility on the business to act on behalf of the people. more commonly, a connection was drawn between the need to exhibit self-reliance with the morality required of a business operator or manager. although respondents did acknowledge that success and all blessings come from allah, they also believed that their own moral actions could help this to occur. islamic business ethics, as previously suggested, require the active intervention of individuals when it is required of them to do so. to some extent, the state can take this interventional role when it is the legitimate ruler, but in a civil war the situation becomes fluid and contested. business owners should not place other people at risk in doing this but should do what they can to preserve the system as far as is possible. sectoral differences although the experiences of the respondents were formed and influenced by the same factors, there were some differences between the responses of the managers in either category. the respondents in the banking sector, for example, were more likely to consider their business activities in the context of the whole economy, whilst those in the mobile telecommunications sector tended to be more focused on individual cases. the banking sector respondents were more likely to consider the moral aspects of their actions as serving society as a whole, whilst the mobile telecommunications respondents were more likely to consider morality within the individual relationships that have assumed a different character after the collapse of the central state. given the nature of the two sectors, it is not surprising that the respondents of one take a macrosocial perspective whilst those of the other take a microsocial one. these are two aspects of managing in adversity, in that some sectors require managers to support the prevailing system from the bottom, by focusing on the needs of individual customers, whilst other sectors require the support of the system from above, by ensuring liquidity and the ability to conduct transactions across the economy. the research design for this project enabled this duality to become evident. the absence of central institutions had different implications for members of the two sectors. people in mobile telecommunications were able to continue with most of their business activities because the infrastructure required (which is, of course, vulnerable to physical attack) resides with the private sector. this is different for the banking sector because, in this case, necessary infrastructure and support is located in the public sector. that the government is no longer able to collect taxation revenues and provide government services is, therefore, of more concern to this sector than that of mobile telecommunications. to some extent, both these approaches involve the merging of the public and private sectors as contending parties in the war make their compromises and bargains and lend their quasi-state power in the attempt to ensure that private sector activities continue. following on from the previous points, it is notable that it was respondents in the mobile telecommunications sector who observed that somalian people were now more likely to consider business to be the bastion of order and authority that remained and the sole hope of people looking to survive and manage their future. bankers might look upon themselves in that light but did not include other forms of business in that category. irrespective of these differences, though, as well as the threat of direct attacks on them, respondents in both sectors nevertheless spoke about the sense of responsibility that they felt to people in society. in this sense, then, the violence has brought about a partial and perhaps temporary cessation to the intensification of capital accumulation in the city. however, that accumulation is not in itself seen as wrong but is expected under the ethical system. it will resume whenever conditions permit it to do so. discussion there is a need to locate the individual fields of experience that people have been undergoing within the overarching power structures that create the world. this power structure is manifested in the war that has been inflicted upon somalia for some decades. the ostensible causes of intervention in the country by, notably, the united states of america are the presence of the al qaeda-linked al-shabaab group there and the practice of piracy on ships in the waters off the coast. actions taken to prevent piracy by security agencies and by shipping companies themselves, forced to act as their insurance providers, caused the attacks to be suppressed for more than 5 years, although risks remain (the economist, 2017). suppressing terrorism, on the contrary, has proved to be more problematic, notwithstanding the scale of the resources devoted to the process. an airstrike that was claimed to have killed 60 combatants (burke, 2018) was followed by a bomb blast in mogadishu that killed more than 50 people (afp, 2018). there can be little doubt, therefore, that management as explored in this article took place during wartime. the results indicated that this followed the literature in being composed of three elements: surviving adversity, the use of coping mechanisms and consideration of the ethical issues involved in continuing with business activities in such circumstances. this is the dominant narrative that is framing the lives of the respondents described in this article and other people who are living in somalia. it affects every aspect of daily life and, within daily life, the life of work and commerce. a variety of normal life must continue to be practised, but it is a life that is radically disrupted, as it was during the siege of sarajevo, by the arrival of: ‘… cnn, ngos, satellite phones, un peacekeepers, aid convoys, and diaspora remittances’ (andreas, 2008, p. ix). certain aspects of daily life have become internationalised, that is, by the changes these arrivals have brought about, but this internationalisation process can be cut off from the majority of the economy, being located in large hotels, press associations, embassies and, for day-to-day movements, isolated within powerful 4 × 4 vehicles. the proximity of the external world, which is both present and not present, has an alienating effect on those people still struggling with daily issues. for the respondents in this research, the alienation process has a second face in the disparity between the discourse of business with which the well-educated respondents attempt to describe their interactions with the world and the everyday reality of business being run on premodern lines based on personal relationships and kinship networks. it is not clear how sustainable this is for people to be able to manage. that warfare can lead to the alienation of the individual has been well documented and has been studied in particular in the return of us servicepeople after their defeat in vietnam (johnson, 1976). that working in a stressful environment can lead to alienation is also well attested (e.g. sarros, tanewski, winter, santora, & densten, 2002). this research suggests, therefore, a form of double alienation that people might face when working or managing during war that is not constant but that is a constant threat. to deal with this, people demonstrate the use of coping mechanisms that centre on pre-existing tribal methods of governance. this development is broadly in support of the treatment of psychological stress, which focuses on resilience (e.g. schissel, 1993), as previously suggested. however, this is not to say that there is some form of moral or spiritual relationship with resilience, just as it has been demonstrated by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that there is no relationship between survival of the virus and moral status. resilience, after all, was created as a concept ‘… to offer adaptive solutions without addressing the political roots of contemporary social risk and disaster’ (dawson, 2017, p. 171). the habitus of the individual is shaped and tempered by these events. it is influenced by a different understanding and use of trust. in contemporary business practice, trust is fostered through a variety of interactions between business and customers, mediated by the integrated marketing communications efforts of the company and the sensitive deployment of new applications with social media networks, preferably on a transparent basis (schnackenberg & tomlinson, 2014). because of the violence, all of these interactions – or most of them, at least – have been replaced by older forms of trust based on premodern kinship relations. the ability to negotiate the absence of the contemporary paraphernalia of interactivity and to adopt an alternative mode of deal-making has become one of the principal requirements of a manager. this helps managers to survive in a stressful situation because, as it has been argued, although their absolute levels of stress may be higher than employees feel, this is compensated for by the greater agency that managers have to affect the environment around them (skakon, kristensen, christensen, lund, & labriola, 2011). this suggests a level of complexity at a methodological level that the habitus embodies as a container of practices in line with bourdieu’s original concept (costa & murphy, 2015). although it may seem likely that the absence of state institutions that both support and regulate companies might act to weaken the relationship between company and community, because there is neither oversight nor restrictions on the firms involved, in fact the opposite is often true. at least according to the testimonies of the respondents, some have felt an increased responsibility to take care of community members by providing needed services, in line with the islamic business ethics outlined above (abeng, 1997). this might be linked to the previous point in that a return to a mode of interaction shaped by kinship relations helps to ground individuals within the surrounding community and the responsibilities to them that are incumbent on them, which is in accordance with tribal patterns of behaviour (nenova & harford, 2005). what, then, does this exploration of the commercial life under physical assault indicate for the behaviour of managers in a more general sense? it is possible to propose a model of behaviour that combines the following elements: a resurgence of pre-contemporary business practices takes place to replace the contemporary practices, which wither under physical assault. exchange relations are replaced, in part, by social relations that need not be obedient to the market. pragmatism and flexibility replace rule-bound managerial processes. not everyone is able to deal with the cognitive dissonance and alienation that these changes produce. further research is necessary to determine the validity of this model in related circumstances. nevertheless, it is possible to propose this model of management under wartime conditions as a valid approach to understanding this research site. conclusion this article has explored the management issues facing a group of respondents in mogadishu in the banking and telecommunications sector. it has been shown that the prevalence of violence and disorder has significantly impacted upon the ability of the managers involved to conduct their business activities according to normal, rational practices. instead, flexibility, improvisation, morality and the return to premodern tribal relationships have become the new norms. this does not prevent standard business operations, but it does make them more difficult, and it promotes some personal stress amongst people who are unable to bring their education and expectations to bear upon the situation. in these circumstances, it is important for all stakeholders to take a pragmatic attitude towards whatever may be possible that day and the next day and to do it accordingly. good will is required, although this is difficult to maintain in the presence of intimidation and violence. as ever, qualitative research such as that reported on in this article is vulnerable to the charge that the findings may have been interpreted differently if a different sample of respondents had been drawn. it also faces the limitation that the experiences of individuals involved may not be comparable and, hence, generalisable to some extent because the impact of the violence may be very different for different people and might change very rapidly. it cannot be guaranteed, for example, that some life-changing event did not affect one or more of the respondents after the start of the research. this is always the case, of course, but here the risks are much higher than in regular management research. further research is required to determine the extent to which the current practice of management has been sustained or has either evolved or disintegrated in the period since this research was conducted. it would also be helpful if the research were to be broadened to additional sectors of the economy and to other geographical locations. however, the possibility that this could take place depends upon the security situation, and it is not possible to predict what this will be in the future. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. ethical consideration this article followed all ethical standards for carrying out research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is possible according to standard procedures. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abeng, t. (1997). business ethics in islamic context: perspectives of a muslim business leader. business ethics quarterly, 7(3), 47–54. https://doi.org/10.2307/3857312 agence france-press (afp). (2018, november 18 ). death toll from somali bomb blast rises above 50. the guardian. retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/11/death-toll-from-somali-bomb-blasts-rises-above-50. aleksić, a., stefanović, m., arsovski, s., & tadić, d. (2013). an assessment of organizational resilience potential in smes of the process industry, a fuzzy approach. journal of loss prevention in the process industries, 26(6), 1238–1245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlp.2013.06.004 ali, a.y.s., & dahie, a.m. (2015). leadership style and teacher job satisfaction: empirical study from secondary schools in somalia. research on humanities and social sciences, 5(8), 84–96. ali, a.y.s., sidow, m.a., & guleid, h.s. (2015). leadership styles and job satisfaction: empirical evidence from mogadishu universities. european journal of management sciences and economics, 1(1), 1–10. anderson, p. (2017). passing the baton. new left review, (103), 41–64. andreas, p. (2008). blue helmets and black markets: the business of survival in the siege of sarajevo. ithaca, ny: cornell university press. annarelli, a., & nonino, f. (2016). strategic and operational management of organizational resilience: current state of research and future directions. omega, 62, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.omega.2015.08.004 bourdieu, p. (1998). practical reason. cambridge: polity. bourdieu, p., & wacquant, l.j.d. (1992). an invitation to reflexive sociology. cambridge: polity. brook, t. (2007). collaboration: japanese agents and local elites in wartime china. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. burke, j. (2018, october 16 ). airstrike kills 60 islamist extremist fighters in somalia, us military says. the guardian. retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/16/somalia-us-military-airstrike-al-shabaab. business wire. (2019, november 15 ). somalia telecoms, mobile and broadband statistics and analyses report 2019 – researchandmarkets.com. retrieved from https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191115005357/en/somalia-telecoms-mobile-broadband-statistics-analyses-report. costa, c., & murphy, m. (2015). bourdieu and the application of habitus across the social sciences. in c. costa & m. murphy (eds.), bourdieu, habitus and social research (pp. 3–17). london: palgrave macmillan. dawson, a. (2017). extreme cities: the perils and promise of urban life in the age of climate change. london: verso. debiel, t., glasner, r., schetter, c., & terlinden, u. (2009). local state-building in afghanistan and somaliland. peace review: a journal of social justice, 21(1), 38–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/10402650802690052 englebert, p., & tull, d.m. (2008). postcolonial reconstruction in africa: flawed ideas about failed states. international security, 22(4), 106–139. https://www.jstor.org/stable/30129793. fusch, p.i., & ness, l.r. (2015). are we there yet? data saturation in qualitative research. the qualitative report, 20(9), 1408–1416. hauff, j.c. (2019). reasons to switch: empowered vs less powerful bank customers. international journal of bank marketing, 37(6), 1441–1461. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbm-08-2018-0231 hoekstra, s., & montz, b. (2017). decisions under duress: factors influencing emergency management decision making during superstorm sandy. natural hazards, 88(1), 453–471. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-017-2874-7 hsieh, h.-f., & shannon, s.e. (2005). three approaches to qualitative content analysis. qualitative health research, 15(9), 1277–1288. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732305276687 johnson, l. (1976). political alienation among vietnam veterans. the western political quarterly, 29(3), 398–409. https://doi.org/10.2307/447512 jones, b.g. (2008). towards a critique of the ‘failed state’ ideology. review of international political economy, 15(2), 180–205. https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290701869688 kakabadse, n.k., rozuel, c., & lee-davis, l. (2005). corporate social responsibility and stakeholder approach: a conceptual review. international journal of business governance and ethics, 1(4), 277–302. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijbge.2005.006733 kuttab, e. (1989). community development under occupation: an alternative strategy. journal of refugee studies, 2(1), 131–138. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/2.1.131 lehtinen, j., aaltonen, k., & rajula, r. (2019). stakeholder management: complex product systems, practices and rationales for engagement and disengagement. industrial marketing management, 19, 58–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2018.08.011 lengnick-hall, c.a., beck, t.e., & lengnick-hall, m.l. (2011). developing a capacity for organizational resilience through strategic human resource management. human resource management review, 21(3), 243–255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2010.07.001 levine, r., lin, c., & xie, w. (2018). corporate resilience to banking crises: the roles of trust and trade credit. journal of financial and quantitative analysis, 53(4), 1441–1477. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022109018000224 linnenluecke, m.k., griffiths, a., & winn, m. (2012). extreme weather events and the critical importance of anticipatory adaptation and organizational resilience in responding to impacts. business strategy and the environment, 21(1), 17–32. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.708 mallak, l. (1998). putting organizational resilience to work. industrial management, 40(6), 8–13. marchese, s.-e., & ratcliffe, r. (2018, september 03 ). ‘i get scared, but i’m staying’; poignant words of murdered mogadishu florist. the guardian. retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/sep/03/poignant-words-of-murdered-mogadishu-florist-mohamed-mahamoud-sheik. nastasi, b.k., & schensul, s.l. (2005). contributions of qualitative research to the validity of interventional research. journal of social psychology, 43(3), 177–195. https://doi.org/10.1081/ja-200033233 nenova, t., & harford, t. (2005). anarchy and invention: how does somalia’s private sector cope without government? africa region findings & good practice infobriefs, 254. retrieved from https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/9655. renner, r.a. (2004). america’s asymmetric advantage: the utility of airpower in the new strategic environment. defence studies, 4(1), 87–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/1470243042000255281 robinson, o.c. (2014). sampling in interviewer based qualitative research: a theoretical and practical guide. qualitative research in psychology, 11(1), 25–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2013.801543 samator, a.i. (1992). destruction of state and society in somalia: beyond the tribal convention. the journal of modern african studies, 30(4), 625–641. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022278x00011083 sarros, j.c., tanewski, g.a., winter, r.p., santora, j.c., & densten, i.l. (2002). work alienation and organizational leadership. british journal of management, 13(4), 285–304. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00247 sayid, o., echchabi, a., & aziz, h.a. (2012). investigating mobile money acceptance in somalia: an empirical study. pakistan journal of commerce and social sciences, 6(2), 269–281. schissel, b. (1993). coping with adversity: testing the origins of resiliency in mental health. international journal of social psychiatry, 39(1), 34–46. https://doi.org/10.1177/002076409303900104 schnackenberg, a.k., & tomlinson, e.c. (2014). organizational transparency: a new perspective on managing trust in organization-stakeholder relationships. journal of management, 42(7), 1784–1810. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314525202 skakon, j., kristensen, t.s., christensen, k.b., lund, t., & labriola, m. (2011). do managers experience more stress than employees: results from the intervention project on absence and well-being (ipaw) study among danish managers and their employees. work, 38(2), 103–109. https://doi.org/10.3233/wor-2011-1112 staniland, p. (2012). states, insurgents, and wartime political orders. perspectives on politics, 10(2), 243–264. retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/41479550. the economist. (2017, april 12 ). why somali piracy is staging a comeback? retrieved from https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2017/04/18/why-somali-piracy-is-staging-a-comeback. vallascas, f., & keasey, k. (2012). bank resilience to systemic shocks and the stability of banking systems: small is beautiful. journal of international money and finance, 31(6), 1745–1776. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jimonfin.2012.03.011 walsh, j. (2012). economic geography in the development of cambodia: the case of okhna mong port co. ltd. international journal of business and globalisation, 9(3), 236–245. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijbg.2012.050364 walsh, j. (2016). casino resorts as micro-para-statal areas in the gmsr: connectivity and economic development. the myanmar journal, 3(1), 21–31. wehr, p., & lederach, j.p. (1991). mediating conflict in central america. journal of peace research, 28(1), 85–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343391028001009 world bank. (2018). overview: helping countries navigate a volatile environment. retrieved from www.worldbank.org/en/topic/fragility/conflictviolence/overview. abstract introduction research method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) pheagane i. modipane faculty of economic and management sciences, nwu business school, north-west university, mafikeng, south africa petrus a. botha faculty of economic and management sciences, nwu business school, north-west university, mafikeng, south africa tonja blom faculty of economic and management sciences, nwu business school, north-west university, mafikeng, south africa citation modipane, p.i., botha, p.a., & blom, t. (2019). employees’ perceived effectiveness of the performance management system at a north-west provincial government department. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1081. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1081 original research employees’ perceived effectiveness of the performance management system at a north-west provincial government department pheagane i. modipane, petrus a. botha, tonja blom received: 04 june 2018; accepted: 25 feb. 2019; published: 02 sept. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the implementation of the performance management system (pms) within a specific north-west provincial government department appears to be ineffective. research purpose: to measure employees’ perceived effectiveness of the pms. motivation for the study: employees’ experiences of employee pmss may be different from that which it intends. the motivation for this study was to quantify employees’ perceptions of pms effectiveness. research approach/design and method: the researchers used a quantitative research approach and collected data using self-administered e-mail questionnaires on a total population of 247 employees at a north-west provincial government department. main findings: utilising two measurement constructs, namely, performance management accuracy and fairness, the study revealed that employees perceived the pms as effective. however, some deficiencies were identified. the major shortcomings related to the lack of coaching provided and manager’s non-compliance with procedural, distributive and procedural justice principles. the overall mean score of the perceived accuracy was slightly above the midpoint of the range, indicating that employees perceived pms as accurate, and were generally satisfied with the implementation of the system. however, employees perceived the pms as unfair. practical/managerial implications: a perception of effective and accurate pms does not translate into perceptions of fairness. when employees feel unfairly treated during the appraisal system, morale and performance are likely to be adversely affected. coaching and/or training related to pms remains imperative. contribution/value-add: this study contributes to the body of knowledge by quantifying the perceptions of employees regarding the factors that determine the effectiveness of pms, namely, accuracy and fairness. it contributes towards the theory and practice regarding employees’ perceived effectiveness of the pms. keywords: accuracy; fairness; feedback and coaching; justice; performance appraisal; performance management system; performance management effectiveness; performance planning; outcomes. introduction this article reported on a study conducted on employees’ perceived effectiveness of the performance management system (pms) at a north-west provincial government department. the effectiveness of the pms is determined by employees’ perceived accuracy and fairness of the system. therefore, research regarding the effectiveness from the perspective of employees is critical. there seemed to be limited research on pms effectiveness. sharma, sharma and agarwal (2016) conducted a study in the indian context to measure employees’ perceived effectiveness of the pms, while dewettinck and van dijk (2013) conducted a study in the netherlands on pms effectiveness in a public sector institution. haines and st-onge (2012) researched pms effectiveness in both public and private organisations in canada. in the south african context, ramulumisi, schultz and jordaan (2015) measured the effectiveness of the pms in a government department, while makhubela, botha and swanepoel (2016) did a similar study in a public sector institution. the limitations of these studies were that the scales developed to measure the effectiveness of the pms did not extensively cover all the phases of the pms. from an academic perspective, this article provides a theoretical framework and practical validated instrument that measures employees’ perceived effectiveness of the pms in the public sector context. the core research problem investigated was that employees perceived the pms as ineffective. the objectives were to measure employees’ perceived pms effectiveness; establish whether there are differences in the perceived pms effectiveness between gender, age groups and positional levels; establish whether there is an association between the perceived accuracy and fairness of the pms; and propose remedial interventions to address the identified gaps. based on the research objectives, the following research questions were formulated: (1) what are employees’ perceptions of pms effectiveness? (2) are there differences in employees’ perceptions of the pms between gender, age groups and post levels? (3) is there a correlation between pms accuracy (pmsa) and fairness? this study was conducted among 247 employees at a north-west provincial government department. the following sections include the literature review, the research approach, followed by the results and discussion. limitations, recommendations and the conclusion follow this. literature review according to armstrong (2009), performance management was established in the late 1980s in response to negative aspects of merit rating and management by objectives. armstrong (2009) suggested that the strength of performance management lies in its continuous, integrated performance approach. rantanen, kulmala, lönnqvist and kujansivu (2007) concluded that performance management systems were established as a means through which large organisations could support their strategic management functions. performance management is intended to increase people’s ability to come up to and go beyond expectations and to realise their potential to the full, to their own benefit and that of the organisation with four primary purposes, namely strategic communication, relationship building, employee development and employee evaluation (armstrong, 2006). armstrong (2009, p. 1) described performance management as a system consisting of interlocking elements designed to achieve high performance and stated that this system encompasses processes of planning, goal-setting, monitoring, feedback, performance assessment, reviewing, coaching and dealing with under-performance. bacal (2003, p. viii) held a different view, stating that performance management is a continuous process of communication, engaged in between an employee in partnership with his or her supervisor. it entails the stating of expectations that are clear and job functions that are fully understood, how an employee contributes towards organisational goals, measurement, barriers that hinder performance and how the employee and the supervisor will work together to improve performance. tyson (2006) argued that a critically important task in people management is to ensure that employees become effective in their jobs. employees harbour needs of motivation regarding development and recognition, status and achievement. these needs can and should be satisfied using work satisfaction and performance achievement. slavić, berber and leković (2013) defined performance measurement as a quantifying process, a process that measures both the efficiency and the effectiveness of what is performed. it is also a comparison of results against expectations that have been agreed upon, with the aim of guiding, motivating and improving decision-making. selden and sowa (2011) noted the critical starting point of explaining the process through which individual employee performance will be managed. furthermore, the process also begins at the top of the organisation. demartini (2014) described performance management as a set of mechanisms. these mechanisms are both formal and informal processes as well as systems and networks that organisations put to use to convey crucial objectives and goals required by management for assisting the strategic process and ongoing management by planning, analysis, control, measurement, reward and management of performance. performance appraisals, as one performance management practice, are often regarded as irreconcilable with quality management principles (haines, st-onge, & marcoux, 2004), although an appropriately designed system of performance management could assist in maintaining quality (haines et al., 2004). thomas and lazarova (2014) postulated that the pms has both evaluative and developmental components as part of its goal. rees and smith (2014) reiterated the importance of establishing performance targets, a system of measuring performance and a clear linkage of performance results to rewards. haines and st-onge (2012) viewed performance management as a means through which strategic initiatives and the management of the development of the workforce are implemented. however, a poorly implemented pms results in unfavourable outcomes, such as job dissatisfaction, employee burnout, increased turnover and damaged relationships (smither & london, 2009). goal-setting theory (maitland & gervis, 2010) formed the theoretical foundation of performance management. goal-setting theory, grounded in locke and latham (1990), advocated that conscious goals and intentions govern individual actions and performance. this theory emphasises the importance of goal specificity (latham, brcic, & steinhauer, 2017). yearta, maitlis and briner (1995) defined goal-setting as a broadly used motivational technique to improve performance (maitland & gervis, 2010) by affecting the performance through the arousal, direction and intensity of behaviour (bipp & kleingeld, 2011). fried and slowik (2004) asserted that goal-setting theory suggests that the expectancy, instrumentality and valence of outcomes will be high if goals are challenging, specific and attainable. goal effects are moderated by commitment to goals, confidence in one’s own abilities, complexity of tasks, feedback on performance as well as consistent and timely feedback (bipp & kleingeld, 2011; latham, 2016; locke & latham, 2002, 2006; motel & motel, 2016; scobbie, wyke & dixon, 2009). furthermore, challenging goals cause people to work longer on a task (fried & slowik, 2004). the pms used in the public service is referred to as the employee performance and development system. for this article, the pms and the employee performance and development system were used synonymously. the employee performance management and development system (epmds) was developed by the south african department of public service and administration (dpsa) with the aim of managing employee performance through training, development and reward systems. the dpsa developed epmds to guide public institutions in implementing employee performance and development (dpsa, 2007). the public service regulation 2001 was also developed to provide a framework that ensures the use of epmds to govern the performance and development of public service employees. in 1997, the government of the republic of south africa instituted a white paper on hrm in the public arena to act as a guiding principle for the implementation of performance management of civil servants (white paper on hrm in the public service, 1997). the public service human resource development strategic framework vision 2015 was drawn up to act as a palliative in respect of public service performance gaps. the main purpose of this framework is to improve public service capacity through skills development to ensure service delivery to all south africans (public service commission, 2010). the success of this depends mainly on the efficiency and effectiveness with which public servants carry out their duties (white paper on hrm in the public service, 1997). managing performance is, therefore, a critical hrm tool to ensure that employees know what they are expected to do; managers know whether employee performance is delivering what is required; a performance that is unsatisfactory is recognised and subsequently improved; and performance that is satisfactory and outstanding is singled out and rewarded. the pms is a cycle consisting of various steps that start with a clarification of expectations. this first step must ensure that employees clearly comprehend what the objective entails and what is necessary to effect the measure associated with the objective. after that, performance facilitation, performance monitoring, providing feedback, coaching and support follow. finally, good performance is acknowledged (viedge, 2017). according to rowley and jackson (2011), the process starts as employees place their individual goals in line with the organisational goals, identify core competency improvements and key result areas, agree with the supervisor on the actions needed to accomplish the objectives and together lay out a personal development plan. kirkpatrick (2006) stated that performance reviews are key to the process, as are extended discussions related to past performance and future performance plans between employee and manager (stredwick, 2005). performance appraisals are formal and systematic processes to review and provide oral and/or written feedback on employee performance (selden & sowa, 2011). improving employee performance remains a crucial part of the ongoing performance management process (armstrong, 2006). then follows reward and recognition, which rowley and jackson (2011) defined as a systematic process that is used to link performance targets with rewards through, for example, merit pay, commission or incentive pay bonus. employees with a high performance are rewarded and, equally, poor performers should be corrected (amos, ristow, ristow, & pearse, 2012). the performance management cycle in the public service covers 12 months, starting 01 april and ending on 31 march, with five stages, namely performance planning, performance review, performance assessment and appraisals, developing performance, reward and recognition. the construct effectiveness of the pms is measured by two factors, namely, accuracy and fairness. vlãsceanu, grünberg and pârlea (2007) define effectiveness as a means to measure whether a system is successful in reaching particular goals. they asserted that there is a difference between effectiveness and efficiency. the latter is measured as the ability to achieve stated objectives with the barest minimum waste of materials or other assets. the perception of the effectiveness of the pms by employees is measured by focusing on accuracy and fairness within the pms context (sharma et al., 2016). performance management system effectiveness is determined by how employees perceive the accuracy and fairness of the system’s implementation (luthra & jain, 2012). sharma et al. (2016) suggested that employee acceptance is a significant factor in the system of performance management. the accuracy of the pms is an indication of the perception of employees relating to pms correctness through the alignment of employees with organisational goals. further, that goal clarity, standards, skills and behaviours that are expected at various levels are aligned with business needs and goals. performance evaluation is then measured against planned standards, correctly evaluated through regular feedback and employee development facilitation, to ensure that pms outcomes are met (sharma et al., 2016). appraisal accuracy processes imply trustworthy information concerning the feedback source’s true intention of the real level of the recipient’s performance; feedback that is considered to be correct may be regarded as fair (roberson & stewart, 2006). son and park (2016) defined accuracy as employees’ perceptions about how their employers use information as evidence when pms rules are implemented, taking into account the correctness, relevance and thoroughness of the information. tsai and wang (2013) argued that perceived appraisal accuracy has been shown to influence employees’ behaviour and performance and, in turn, organisational performance. within the context of this study, accuracy relates to the process of performance planning (sharma et al., 2016), feedback and coaching (mathis & jackson, 2011), review (tsai & wang, 2013) and outcomes (baird, schoch, & chen, 2012). performance planning accuracy is the degree to which the employees perceived that the performance planning phase of pms ensures the alignment of the employee’s performance goals (through relevant behaviours or skills) with the organisational goals (sharma et al., 2016). the organisational policy requires immediate supervisors to first establish performance standards for each employee at the start of the appraisal period (narcisse & harcourt, 2008). these authors (narcisse & harcourt, 2008) argued that performance standards should be discussed with employees and revised when necessary; however, it is found that all of the participants whom they interviewed were concerned about not being given clear performance standards or objectives in advance. they furthermore concluded that supervisors take for granted that a job description will suffice for employees to know what is expected of them (narcisse & harcourt, 2008). tsai and wang (2013) argued that if employees are involved in the design of the pms, it will help to create a sense of control over the whole system and this, in turn, may cultivate employees’ perceived appraisal accuracy. feedback and coaching accuracy is the extent to which employees perceive that the feedback and coaching phase of pms ensures the alignment of the employee’s delivered performance with the planned performance through regular feedback and coaching (sharma et al., 2016). upon setting standards, supervisors ought to monitor the performance of the employee and provide continuous, constructive feedback over the appraisal period (narcisse & harcourt, 2008). developing an individual’s potential is a critical role of feedback and coaching accuracy. in this role, the manager is a mentor rather than a judge. the emphasis is on identifying performance gaps, potentials and planning employees’ growth opportunities and direction (mathis & jackson, 2011). mathis and jackson (2011) reported that most employees have a strong need to know how well they are performing, making continuous employee feedback imperative. there should be minimal surprises during a performance review (mathis & jackson, 2011). managers should handle daily performance problems when they arise and not allow them to pile up for longer periods, and then address them during the performance appraisal interview (ibeogu & ozturen, 2015). sharma et al. (2016) defined performance review accuracy as the degree to which the employee perceives that the annual performance review phase of pms measures the alignment of the employee’s annual performance with the planned performance through an assessment of the employee’s performance against planned goals (behaviours or skills). supervisors must assess each employee’s performance against the set performance standards (narcisse & harcourt, 2008). the authors further argued that employees should be given an opportunity to go through a completed appraisal before it can be discussed with the supervisor. finally, when development gaps are identified, the supervisor must initiate appropriate action for performance improvement (narcisse & harcourt, 2008). a study conducted by tsai and wang (2013) showed that when organisations provide adequate and clear information and regular face-to-face communications regarding changes, employees become happy and feel that the pms is fairer than when they are not provided with information. selvarajan and cloninger (2012) argued that improved interactions between employees and managers are attributed to frequent appraisals, leading to positive interactional fairness on the part of employees. well-timed appraisals may be perceived as following appropriate procedures for providing feedback, as opposed to late feedback, which may be seen as procedurally unfair (selvarajan & cloninger, 2012). outcomes accuracy is defined by sharma et al. (2016) as the extent to which the employee perceives that the pms out-comes phase ensures that the performance-based rating, compensation, reward and/or recognition are tied to the employee’s annual performance review. lawler (2003) found when there is a connection between the results of the pms and the reward system, the performance appraisal system is perceived to be effective. this is consistent with baird et al. (2012), whose findings suggested that when employees observe a linkage of performance and rewards, they are most likely to work towards the achievement of organisational objectives and goals. fairness is not necessarily a detailed version of the work outputs of employees. rather, a common feeling of being treated like others are treated, and an explanation of decisions and rewards allocation. collins and mossholder (2014) found that fairness has a greater influence on employees deeply interested in their jobs than in the case of less devoted workers. colquitt (2001) provided empirical confirmation that justice can be seen as consisting of four distinct, highly correlated factors: fairness of procedures (procedural), outcomes fairness (distributive, interpersonal treatment fairness or quality), interpersonal and explanation fairness (informational). fairness is further understood against organisational justice theory, suggesting that the manner in which people are treated influences their judgement of fairness (lau & martin-sardesai, 2012). rowland and hall (2012) stated that the fair treatment of employees is likely to foster loyalty. priesemuth, arnaud and schminke (2013) indicated that when employees are treated unfairly, they will easily respond in angry, resentful and retaliatory ways. knoll and gill (2011) remarked that the employees’ faith in fairness is determined by the appraisal itself. this article focused on four components of organisational justice: procedural, distributive, interpersonal and informational justice. procedural justice is defined as a legal process of decision-making by which fair results are decided (cho & sai, 2012). kerwin, jordan and turner (2015) asserted that procedural justice is determined by judgements of fairness about the decision-making process policies and procedures in organisations. various authors found that procedural justice affects job satisfaction (e.g. cho & sai, 2012; lau & martin-sardesay, 2012). distributive justice is a conceptualisation based on adams’s (1963) equity theory. the suggestion was that consistent resource allocation among employees should be the order of the day based on the contribution ratio of each employee. adams (1963) perceived reward allocation in line with performance inputs and comparisons with the social field of rewards with relevant referents, as justified. an employee compares job inputs and outcomes with those of others. an employee has a perception of it being an injustice if he or she has not been treated fairly (kim & andrew, 2013). within a performance appraisal context, this dimension relates to the perceived fairness of performance ratings received by employees (selvarajan & cloninger, 2012). distributive justice is based on employee judgements about the fairness of outcomes, the levels at which resources are distributed among parties (caza, caza, & lind, 2011), and is decided on a perception of the outcome of fairness experienced (kerwin et al., 2015). interpersonal justice is strengthened when employees are treated with dignity and respect and do not make remarks or comments that are improper during the implementation of procedures (colquitt, conlon, wesson, & porter, 2001). kerwin et al. (2015) concluded that interpersonal justice indicates the degree to which decision-makers in the organisation treat employees with respect, dignity and courtesy. when employees’ performance ratings were lower than expected, their attitudes towards the results of the performance appraisals varied depending on the inter-personal treatment they received from the rater (tsai & wang, 2013). informational justice hinges on how much explanation is required about outcomes distribution and what ways are used to come to those decisions on the outcome (kerwin et al., 2015). it refers to the extent to which virtual communities engage in sharing knowledge to justify the procedures they have put in place (ellis, reus, & lamont, 2009). this also relates to the quality of communication between employees and supervisors (suliman & kathairi, 2012). employees with a positive perception of information justice are more involved in the work at a physical, cognitive and behavioural level. they would rather exhibit greater motivation and commitment to their job overall, have a feeling of excitement and pride in what they do and look for novel ways of performing their work and would do extra things to do their work well (gupta & kumar, 2012). research method research approach this study was conducted within the quantitative paradigm and a cross-sectional survey design was used. this design was used to gather primary data to achieve the research objectives. this kind of survey was used to answer what, when, where and how questions (babbie, 2010). a quantitative survey design was followed by various other studies measuring the perceptions of employees regarding the effectiveness of the pms (dewettinck & van dijk, 2013; haines & st-onge, 2012; makhubela et al., 2016; ramulumisi et al., 2015; sharma et al., 2016). participants the population consisted of 247 employees from post levels 1–12 at the selected department. participants were from various occupational groups, such as registry clerks, project coordinators, office assistants, legal officers, data capturers, supply chain management, land reform, assistant directors, deputy directors and directors. given the small population, a census was performed. of the 247 questionnaires, 212 were returned, with a high response rate of 85.82%. measuring instrument self-administered e-mail questionnaires were used for data gathering. two factors were measured, namely performance management accuracy and fairness, and combined to determine the overall pms effectiveness: the perceived pmsa was measured using the 11-item performance management accuracy survey developed by sharma et al. (2016). the pms fairness (pmsf) was measured using the 20-item survey developed by colquitt (2001). the performance management system accuracy questionnaire the pmsa questionnaire consisted of 11 items grouped as follows: performance planning accuracy (two items), feedback and coaching accuracy (three items), performance review accuracy (three items) and outcomes accuracy (three items). a five-point likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), was used to measure the respondents’ perceptions of the pmsa. the performance management system fairness questionnaire this questionnaire concentrated on organisational justice (with special reference to procedural, distributive, interpersonal and informational justice). the instrument consisted of 20 items: procedural justice (seven items), distributive justice (four items), interpersonal justice (four items) and informational justice (five items). a five-point likert scale, ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (to a very great extent), was used to measure the outcomes. measuring instrument validity a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.7 has been commonly used as a historical benchmark value to indicate that at least some of the items measure the same construct (minitab, 2017). the pmsa measuring instrument was validated by a study conducted by sharma et al. (2016). cronbach’s alphas were for performance planning accuracy (0.77), feedback and coaching accuracy (0.74), performance review accuracy (0.75) and outcomes accuracy (0.79). the pmsa measuring instrument was validated for this study (see table 1). given the low item-total correlation of the performance planning accuracy factor, one item was removed. the cronbach’s alpha was for performance planning accuracy (0.86), feedback and coaching accuracy (0.78), performance review accuracy (0.82), outcomes accuracy (0.96) and the total pmsa scale (0.92). the scale was found to have a high predictive validity. table 1: cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the performance management system accuracy, performance management system fairness and total performance management system effectiveness scales. the construct organisational justice was found reliable in a study conducted by colquitt (2001, p. 396). the cronbach’s alpha in his study were for procedural justice (0.93), interpersonal justice (0.92), informational justice (0.90) and distributive justice (0.93) (colquitt, 2001, p. 396). the cronbach’s alphas in this study were for procedural justice (0.97), interpersonal justice (0.97), informational justice (0.93) and distributive justice (0.96) (see table 1). the cronbach’s alpha of 0.96 for the pmsf scale was found highly reliable in this study. the cronbach’s alpha for the overall pms scale was 0.97. statistical methods descriptive statistics were used to determine the following: minimum and maximum scores, means and standard deviations. descriptive statistics embody a group or collection of quantitative measures and data description ways. this includes measures of central tendency (mean, median, mode and proportion), dispersion measures (range, variance and standard deviation) and distributions and histograms of frequency (evans, 2013). to compare the mean perception scores of the pms effectiveness between men and women, a t-test was performed. analysis of variance (anova) was performed to compare the mean perception scores between age groups and post levels regarding the effectiveness of the pms. the relationship between perceived accuracy (as measured by the pmsa questionnaire) and perceived fairness (as measured by pmsf questionnaire) was established using pearson’s product–moment correlation coefficient. ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained. all participants gave informed consent. confidentiality and anonymity was ensured. results demographic composition the majority (56.6%) of respondents were men, with 43.4% being women. the majority (59.4%) of employees were 30 to 39 years old, followed by the 20–29 years age group (19.8%). only 0.5% of employees were 50 years old and above. participants ranged from positional levels 1–12. in total, 21.2% of participants occupied level 8 positions, followed by 19.3% of employees at level 5 and 2.4% of employees at level 4. a total of 44.8% of respondents had 0–5 years of service, 34.4% had between 6 and 10 years of experience and 15.1% had between 11 and 15 years of working experience. a total of 49.1% of respondents had a post-school certificate, degree or diploma, followed by 18.9% with an honours degree and 1.9% with a master’s degree. the data, therefore, indicate a male-dominated workforce, ranging in age from 30 to 39 years. the dominant positional level was 8, with 0–5 years of service and a degree qualification. performance management system accuracy table 2 presents employees’ perceptions of the pmsa based on four pmsa factors. the first two questions measured the performance planning accuracy factor. the mean score for the performance plan based on pms gives a clear idea of what is expected of one to meet departmental goals (m = 4.18; standard deviation [sd] = 0.890) and the performance plan helps one focus one’s efforts through identification of goals (and/or behaviours or skills) relevant to meet departmental goals (m = 4.17; sd = 0.801), which were both at the high point of the scale. table 2 reveals that the mean score for performance planning accuracy (m = 4.17: sd = 0.792) was higher than the midpoint of the range, suggesting that employees had a clear idea of what was expected of them and helped them to focus their efforts on the identification of goals relevant to meet departmental goals. table 2: employees’ perceptions of the performance management system accuracy. the feedback and coaching accuracy factor was measured by means of three questions, namely, the ongoing feedback during the performance cycle gives an accurate assessment of how one is performing against planned performance (m = 3.85; sd = 1.003); during the year, one’s areas for improvement are clearly pointed out to one (m = 2.84; sd = 1.304); and one receives the coaching one needs during the year to achieve one’s goals (and/or improve one’s behaviour or skills) to achieve planned performance (m = 2.51; sd =1.399). the mean score for the feedback and coaching accuracy factor (m = 3.07; sd = 1.037) was slightly above the midpoint of the range, indicating that, on average, employees perceived that the ongoing feedback provided an accurate assessment of how they have performed against planned performance, and improvements were clearly pointed out to them. the performance review accuracy was measured by three questions. annual feedback during a performance review is an accurate representation of the ongoing feedback during the performance cycle (m = 3.50; sd = 1.146); one’s goals (behaviours or skills) are accurately rated as part of the review process (m = 2.77; sd = 1.219); and one’s annual performance review is very objective in the assessment of one’s annual performance against planned performance (m = 3.45; sd = 1.153). the mean score for performance review accuracy (m = 3.24; sd = 1.008) was slightly higher than the midpoint of the range, indicating that, on average, employees perceived the annual feedback, how their goals were rated and the objectivity of performance reviews to be moderately accurate. the performance outcomes accuracy factor was measured using three questions. the performance reviews result in an accurate performance rating (m = 2.84; sd = 1.273); one’s pms outcomes (compensation, promotion and/or recognition) are linked to one’s performance ratings (m = 2.79; sd = 1.476); and one’s annual performance review is directly related to one’s performance outcomes (compensation, promotion reward and/or recognition) (m = 2.77; sd = 1.450). the mean score for the outcomes accuracy factor (m = 2.80; sd = 1.348) was slightly higher than the midpoint of the range. the mean score for the pmsa scale (m = 3.24; sd = 0.901) was higher than the midpoint of the range, indicating that, on average, the respondents perceived their pms as moderately accurate. performance management system fairness table 3 depicts employees’ perceptions of the pmsf based on organisational justice factors. the procedural justice factor was measured using seven questions, namely: ‘have you been able to express your views and feelings during the implementation of the pms?’ (m = 3.07; sd = 1.268); ‘have you had influence over the performance assessment arrived at by the pms?’ (m = 2.22; sd = 1.353); ‘has the pms been applied consistently?’ (m = 2.12; sd = 1.385); ‘has the pms been free of bias?’ (m = 2.12; sd = 1.464); ‘has the pms been based on accurate information?’ (m = 2.25; sd = 1.443); ‘have you been able to appeal against the performance assessment arrived at by the pms?’ (m = 2.90; sd = 1.273); and ‘has the pms upheld ethical and moral standards?’ (m = 2.20; sd = 1.457). the overall mean score for the procedural justice factor was (m = 2.41; sd = 1.151) well below the midpoint of the scale. table 3: employees’ perceptions of the performance management system fairness. the distributive justice factor was measured using four questions. these include: ‘does your performance assessment reflect the effort you have put into your work?’ (m = 2.47; sd = 1.556); ‘is your performance assessment appropriate for the work you have completed?’ (m = 2.65; sd = 1.518); ‘does your performance assessment reflect what you have contributed to the department?’ (m = 2.49; sd = 1.568); and ‘is your performance assessment justified, given your performance? (m = 2.40; sd = 1.538). the overall mean score for the distributive justice was (m = 2.50: sd = 1.480) below the midpoint of the scale. four questions measured the interpersonal justice factor: ‘has he or she treated you in a polite manner?’ (m = 3.97; sd = 1.050); ‘has he or she treated you with dignity?’ (m = 3.99; sd = 1.055); ‘has he or she treated you with respect?’ (m = 4.04; sd = 1.039); and ‘has he or she refrained from improper remarks or comments?’ (m = 4.10; sd = 1.092). the mean score for the interpersonal justice factor was (m = 4.02; sd = 1.014) at the highpoint of the scale. the informational justice factor score was measured using five questions, namely ‘has he or she been candid in his or her communications with you?’ (m = 3.61; sd = 1.161); ‘has he or she explained the pms thoroughly?’(m = 2.50; sd = 1.409); ‘were his or her explanations regarding the pms reasonable?’ (m = 2.50; sd = 1.436); ‘has he or she communicated details of the pms promptly?’ (m = 2.49; sd = 1.478); and ‘did he or she seem to tailor his or her communications to individuals’ specific needs?’ (m = 3.00; sd = 1.297). the overall informational justice score was (m = 2.82; sd = 1.211) just above the midpoint of the scale. the mean score for the total pmsf scale was 2.94, which was slightly higher than the midpoint of the range, indicating that, on average, employees perceived their pms to be fair. however, employees perceived both procedural justice and distributive justice as unfair. employees’ perceived effectiveness of the performance management system table 4 depicts the employees’ perceived effectiveness of the pms. the table shows that the overall mean score (m = 3.09; sd = 0.913) was slightly above the midpoint of the range. this showed that employees perceive the pms, on average, to be effective; however, regarding organisational justice, the respondents felt that supervisors did not comply with procedural and distributive justice principles in the implementation of the pms. table 4: employees perceived effectiveness of the performance management system. comparison of the perceived effectiveness of the performance management system mean scores between men and women an independent samples t-test was conducted to compare the mean perception scores of the perceived pms effectiveness between men and women. there were no significant differences in the scores for men (m = 3.04; sd = 0.872) and women (m = 3.16; sd = 0.963; t (210) = -0.95, p = 0.342, two-tailed) (see tables 5 and 6). table 5: descriptive statistics of the differences in the mean perception scores of the performance management system effectiveness between men and women. table 6: independent samples t-test of the differences in the mean perception scores of the performance management system effectiveness between men and women. comparison of the perceived performance management system effectiveness mean scores between age groups a one-way between-group anova was conducted to explore the impact of age groups on the perceived pms effectiveness (see table 7). statistically, there was no significant difference at the p > 0.05 level for the four age groups: f (3, 208) = 0.76; p = 0.520. post hoc comparisons, using the scheffe tests, indicated no significant differences between the four age groups. the mean scores for the age groups were: 20–29 (m = 3.22; sd = 0.776), 30–39 (m = 3.03; sd = 3.969), 40–49 (m = 3.20; sd = 0.943) and 50 and older (m = 2.88; sd = 0.438). table 7: one-way analysis of variance to compare the mean scores of the performance management system effectiveness between the four age groups. comparison of the perceived performance management system effectiveness mean scores between the post levels a one-way between-group anova was conducted to explore the impact of post levels on the perceived pms effectiveness (see table 8). there were statistically significant differences at the p < 0.05 level in the perceived performance management system effectiveness scores between levels 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and level 12: f (8, 203) = 5.05; p = 0.000. post hoc comparisons using the scheffe test indicated that the mean score for post level 12 (m = 4.41; sd = 0.627) was significantly different from level 5 (m = 3.16; sd = 0.904), level 6 (m = 2.82; sd = 0.718), level 7 (m = 2.96; sd = 0.892), level 8 (m = 2.99; sd = 0.797) and level 10 (m = 2.89; sd = 0.706). table 8: one-way analysis of variance to compare the mean scores of the performance management system effectiveness between the post levels. correlation between performance management system accuracy and fairness scales the relationship between the mean perception scores of fairness and accuracy was investigated using pearson’s product–moment correlation coefficient (see table 9). there was a strong positive correlation between the two variables (r = 0.952; n = 212; p < 0.000). table 9: correlation between performance management system accuracy and fairness scales. discussion the first research objective was to establish employees’ perceived performance management effectiveness, mea-sured by accuracy and fairness constructs. accuracy was measured by a performance management accuracy scale consisting of four factors and 11 items. the mean score for the performance planning accuracy factor was 4.17 at the high point of the scale, indicating that the performance plan based on pms provided employees with a clear idea of what is expected of them to meet the departmental goals. furthermore, it assists employees to focus on their efforts through the identification of goals and behaviour and skills relevant to meet the departmental goals. the findings revealed that employees are involved in performance planning. the high mean scores indicate that employees perceived that performance planning was performed correctly and was accurately implemented. the mean score for the feedback and coaching accuracy factor of 3.07 was slightly above the midpoint of the range, indicating that, on average, employees perceived that the ongoing feedback provided is accurate. respondents suggested that the continuous feedback that they received during the performance cycle gave a precise assessment of how they were performing against planned performance. however, a large number of respondents indicated that, during the year, their areas of improvement were not clearly pointed out to them. another weakness identified was that they did not receive adequate coaching during the year to achieve their goals. the mean score for the performance review accuracy of 3.24 was above the midpoint of the range, indicating that respondents were moderately satisfied with the performance review accuracy. the respondents felt that the annual feedback during the performance review was an accurate representation of the continuous feedback during the performance cycle. however, a large number of respondents indicated that their goals (behaviour and skills) were inaccurately rated as part of the review process. the findings indicated that their annual performance reviews were objective in the assessment of their annual performance against planned performance. the mean score for the performance outcomes accuracy factor was 2.80, just above the midpoint of the scale. the low mean scores indicated that a large number of respondents were of the opinion that the performance reviews resulted in inaccurate performance ratings. furthermore, they also felt that their pms outcomes (compensation, promotion and/or recognition) were not linked to their performance ratings and that their annual performance reviews were not directly related to their performance outcomes (compensation, promotion reward and/or recognition). therefore, the mean score for the outcomes accuracy factor (2.80) was slightly higher than the midpoint of the range. the mean score for the total pmsa scale of 3.24 was higher than the midpoint of the range, indicating that, on average, the respondents perceived their pms to be accurate. these findings were supported by gruman and saks (2011), who suggested that employees should also be allowed to formulate their goals within the broader organisational context. these findings implied that employees felt happy that they were engaged in planning their performance, and they were more likely to produce a satisfactory performance by meeting the set performance standards. these findings are consistent with ikramullah et al. (2016), viedge (2017) and lee and steers (2014), who concluded that employees are less likely to meet the appraiser’s expectations if they are not aware of what they are expected to do and how to do it. the findings were further supported by bedarkar and pandita (2014), who asserted that employee engagement results in positive feelings towards their work and organisation, thereby increasing job performance. the construct organisational justice – which consists of four factors, namely, procedural justice, distributive justice, interpersonal justice and informational justice – was used to measure the pmsf. the mean score for the procedural justice factor was 2.41. the respondents indicated that they have been able to express their views and feelings during the implementation of the pms. however, the majority of respondents revealed that they had little influence over the performance assessment arrived at by the pms. the majority of respondents stated that the pms was applied inconsistently and was biased. participants felt that the pms was based on inaccurate information. a slight majority indicated that they were able to appeal against the performance assessment arrived at by the pms. the majority of respondents were of the opinion that the pms did not uphold ethical and moral standards. the overall mean score for the procedural justice factor was 2.41, which is well below the midpoint of the scale, indicating that employees were dissatisfied and that supervisors did not comply with procedural justice principles. the mean score for the distributive justice factor was 2.50. the majority of respondents felt that their performance assessment was not an accurate reflection of their work effort. only a slight majority of respondents viewed their performance assessment as appropriate for the work they have completed. the majority of respondents were of the opinion that their performance assessment did not reflect what they contributed to the department and that their performance assessment was unjustified, given their performance. the overall mean score for the distributive justice was 2.50, indicating that employees were dissatisfied that supervisors did not comply with distributive justice principles. overall, the respondents were satisfied with the interpersonal justice factor. the majority of respondents were of the opinion that their supervisor treated them respectfully, politely and in a dignified manner. they also indicated that their supervisors refrained from improper remarks or comments. the mean score for the interpersonal justice factor of 4.02 was at the high point of the scale, showing that employees were satisfied that supervisors complied with interpersonal justice principles. regarding informational justice, the majority of respondents felt that there was open and honest communication between them and their supervisors. they regard their supervisor’s explanations regarding the pms as unreasonable, and that supervisors did not communicate the details of the pms on time. however, respondents moderately agreed that their supervisors tailored their communications to individuals’ specific needs. the overall informational justice score was 2.82, just above the midpoint of the scale, indicating that, on average, employees were satisfied with the way line managers had communicated pms information. the mean score for the total pmsf scale was 2.94, which is slightly above the midpoint of the range. this indicates that, on average, employees perceived their pms to be fair. however, employees perceived both procedural justice (2.41) and distributive justice (2.50) as unfair. these findings imply that employees are dissatisfied with the procedures and outcomes of the pms, which can negatively affect their performance. these findings are consistent with those of lau and martin-sardesai (2012) that if procedures and outcomes are perceived to be unfair, employees are likely to be more dissatisfied. komodromos (2014) supports this, stating that fairness in organisations is imperative as it affects workplace behaviours and results, and can foster the effective functioning of organisations. this is consistent with lau and martin-sardesai (2012), who stated that the employees’ motivation effect would not be realised unless they perceive the pms as fair. similarly, priesemuth et al. (2013) indicated that when employees feel that they have been unfairly treated in work-related matters, they are more likely to respond with anger, resentment and retaliatory behaviours. regarding the overall perceived effectiveness of the pms, the findings revealed a mean score of 3.09, which is slightly above the midpoint of the range. this means that employees perceived the pms as slightly effective. according to sharma et al. (2016), for a pms to be effective, it needs to be perceived as fair regarding the distribution of outcomes (distributive justice), processes followed to arrive at distributions (procedural justice) and clarity of communication mechanisms. the second research objective was to establish whether there were any differences in employees’ perceived performance management and development effectiveness between gender, age groups and positional levels. an independent sample t-test was conducted to compare the mean perceived scores of the pms effectiveness between men and women. there were no significant differences in the scores between men and women. one-way between-group anova was conducted to explore the impact of age groups and post levels on the perceived pms effectiveness. there were statistically no significant differences in the mean scores between the four age groups. there were statistically significant differences in the perceived pms effectiveness scores between post levels 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and level 12. post hoc comparisons using the scheffe test indicated that the mean score of 4.41 for post level 12 was significantly different from level 5, level 6, level 7, level 8 and level 10. the high score of 4.41 can be ascribed to the fact that post level 12 is middle management managers. however, their performance management is done by senior managers (post levels 13–16). these senior managers may have more experience in performance management, and the high mean score showed that managers at post level 12 perceived the pms to be highly effective. the third research objective sought to establish whether there is a correlation between the two factors of pms effectiveness, namely, accuracy and fairness. there was a strong positive correlation between the two variables, with moderate perception scores for the accuracy associated with moderate perception scores for fairness. therefore, pms cannot be accurate if the appraisal process is perceived to be unfair. similarly, sharma et al. (2016) argued that for effectiveness, pms needs to be perceived as fair regarding the distribution of outcomes (distributive justice), processes followed to arrive at distributions (procedural justice) and clarity of communication mechanisms. limitations and recommendations given the high response rate, the results can be generalised to the total population of the selected provincial government department. however, the results cannot be generalised or transferred to the 11 north-west provincial government departments. based on the results, the following recommendations are made for line managers to improve the implementation of the pms in the selected department: regarding feedback and coaching accuracy, a large number of respondents indicated that they had not received adequate coaching throughout the year to achieve their goals or to improve their behaviours or skills. therefore, managers should provide employees with proper coaching they need during the year. the results showed that managers did not apply procedural justice principles in the implementation of pms. managers should allow employees to participate and exercise influence over the performance assessment process. managers should also implement performance management consistently and objectively. performance management should be based on accurate and quantifiable information and uphold high ethical and moral standards. the results also indicated that managers did not uphold distributive justice principles in performance assessment. managers should objectively recognise the efforts employees put into their work by applying objective performance indicators and standards. managers should also objectively quantify employee contributions and ensure that performance assessments are justified. regarding informational justice, managers should thoroughly and adequately explain the pms to subordinates. managers should continuously give reasonable explanations of the pms. also, management should communicate the details of the pms promptly. conclusion the main aim of this study was to measure employees’ perceived effectiveness of the pms at a selected north-west provincial government department. the researcher used a quantitative research approach and collected data using self-administered e-mailed questionnaires. it can be concluded that employees perceive pms – in the selected department – to be effective and accurate, and are generally satisfied with the implementation of the system. however, employees perceive the pms as unfair. when employees feel they are unfairly treated during the appraisal system, their morale and performance will be adversely affected. therefore, management must implement the system without bias, ensuring consistency at all times. future qualitative research could be useful to establish, firstly, how a perception of effectiveness and unfairness plays out in the organisation and, secondly, to what extent the employee–supervisor relationship impacts perceptions of unfairness. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions p.a.b. was the academic supervisor and responsible for the design of the project. t.b. assisted with the final manuscript and wrote the article. p.i.m. was the principal investigator responsible for the fieldwork and literature review. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references adams, j. s. (1963). towards an understanding of inequity. the journal of abnormal and social psychology, 67(5), 422. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0040968 amos, t. l., ristow, a., ristow, l., & pearse, n. j. (2012). human resource management (3rd edn.). cape town: juta and co ltd. armstrong, m. (2006). human resource management practice (10th edn.). philadelphia, pa: kogan page limited. armstrong, m. (2009). armstrong’s handbook of performance management (4th edn.). philadelphia, pa: kogan page limited. babbie, e. (2010). the practice of social science research (12th edn.). wadsworth, oh: cengage learning. bacal, r. (2003). the manager’s guide to performance reviews. new york: mcgraw-hill. baird, k., schoch, h., & chen, q. j. (2012). performance management system effectiveness in australian local government. pacific accounting review, 24(2), 161–185. https://doi.org/10.1108/01140581211258461 bedarkar, m., & pandita, d. (2014). a study on the drivers of employee engagement impacting employee performance. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 133, 106–115. bipp, t., & kleingeld, a. (2011). goal-setting in practice: the effects of personality and perceptions of the goal-setting process on job satisfaction and goal commitment. personnel review, 40(3), 306–323. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481111118630 caza, a., caza, b. b., & lind, e. a. (2011). the missed promotion: an exercise demonstrating the importance of organizational justice. journal of management education, 35(4), 537–563. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562910381875 cho, y. j., & sai, n. (2012). does organizational justice matter in the federal workplace? review of public personnel administration, 33(3), 227–251. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x12458126 collins, b. j., & mossholder, k. w. (2017). fairness means more to some than others: interactional fairness, job embeddedness, and discretionary work behaviors. journal of management, 43(2), 293–318. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314527132 colquitt, j. a. (2001). on the dimensionality of organizational justice: a construct validation of a measure. journal of applied psychology, 86(3), 386. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.386 colquitt, j. a., conlon, d. e., wesson, m. j., porter, c. o., & ng, k. y. (2001). justice at the millennium: a meta-analytic review of 25 years of organizational justice research. journal of applied psychology, 86(3), 425. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.425 demartini, c. (2014). performance management systems, design, diagnosis and use. heidelberg: springer. department of public service and administration. (2007). employee performance management and development system, viewed 10 january 2017, from http://www.dpsa.gov.za/dpsa2g/documents/ep/2007/epmds.pdf dewettinck, k., & van dijk, h. (2013). linking belgian employee performance management system characteristics with performance management system effectiveness: exploring the mediating role of fairness. the international journal of human resource management, 24(4), 806–825. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.700169 ellis, k. m., reus, t. h., & lamont, b. t. (2009). the effects of procedural and informational justice in the integration of related acquisitions. strategic management journal, 30(2), 137–161. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.728 evans, t. r. (2013). statistics, data analysis and decision modeling (5th edn.). new york: pearson. fried, y., & slowik, l. h. (2004). enriching goal-setting theory with time: an integrated approach. academy of management review, 29(3), 404–422. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2004.13670973 gruman, j. a., & saks, a. m. (2011). performance management and employee engagement. human resource management review, 21(2), 123–136. gupta, v., & kumar, s. (2012). impact of performance appraisal justice on employee engagement: a study of indian professionals. employee relations, 35(1), 61–78. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425451311279410 haines, v. y., iii, & st-onge, s. (2012). performance management effectiveness: practices or context? the international journal of human resource management, 23(6), 1158–1175. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.561230 haines, v. y., iii, st-onge, s., & marcoux, a. (2004). performance management design and effectiveness in quality-driven organizations. canadian journal of administrative sciences, 21(2), 146–161. ibeogu, p. h., & ozturen, a. (2015). perception of justice in performance appraisal and effect on satisfaction: empirical findings from northern cyprus banks. procedia economics and finance, 23, 964–969. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00359-7 ikramullah, m., van prooijen, j. w., iqbal, m. z., & ul-hassan, f. s. (2016). effectiveness of performance appraisal: developing a conceptual framework using competing values approach. personnel review, 45(2), 334–352. kerwin, s., jordan, j. s., & turner, b. a. (2015). organizational justice and conflict: do perceptions of fairness influence disagreement? sport management review, 18(3), 384–395. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2014.10.005 kim, s., & andrew, d. p. (2013). organizational justice in intercollegiate athletics: perceptions of coaches. sport management review, 16(2), 200–210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2012.08.001 kirkpatrick, d. l. (2006). improving employee performance through appraisal and coaching. new york: amacom. div american mgmt assn. knoll, d. l., & gill, h. (2011). antecedents of trust in supervisors, subordinates, and peers. journal of managerial psychology, 26(4), 313–330. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683941111124845 komodromos, m. (2014). employees’ perceptions of trust, fairness, and the management of change in three private universities in cyprus. journal of human resources, 2(2), 35–54. latham, g. p. 2016. goal setting: a possible theoretical framework for examining the effect of priming goals on organizational behavior. current opinion in psychology, 12, 85–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2016.07.005 latham, g. p., brcic, j., & steinhauer, a. (2017). toward an integration of goal setting theory and the automaticity model. applied psychology, 66(1), 25–48. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12087 lau, c. m., & martin-sardesai, a. v. (2012). the role of organisational concern for workplace fairness in the choice of a performance measurement system. the british accounting review, 44(3), 157–172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bar.2012.07.006 lawler, e. e. (2003). reward practices and performance management system effectiveness. organizational dynamics, 32(4), 396–404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2003.08.007 lee, t. w., & steers, r. m. (2017). facilitating effective performance appraisals: the role of employee commitment and organisational climate. in f. landy, s. zedeck, & j. cleveland (eds.), performance measurement and theory (pp. 1–16). london: routledge. locke, e. a., & latham, g. p. (1990). a theory of goal setting & task performance. new york: prentice-hall, inc. locke, e. a., & latham, g. p. (2002). building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: a 35-year odyssey. american psychologist, 57(9), 705. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.57.9.705 locke, e. a., & latham, g. p. (2006). new directions in goal-setting theory. current directions in psychological science, 15(5), 265–268. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2006.00449.x luthra, p., & jain, m. (2012). india’s performance management problem. gallup business journal. maitland, a., & gervis, m. (2010). goal-setting in youth football: are coaches missing an opportunity? physical education and sport pedagogy, 15(4), 323–343. https://doi.org/10.1080/17408980903413461 makhubela, m., botha, p. a., & swanepoel, s. (2016). employees’ perceptions of the effectiveness and fairness of performance management in a south african public sector institution. south african journal of human resource management, 14(1). retrieved from https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/article/view/728/1104 mathis, r. l., & jackson, j. h. (2011). human resource management. mason, oh: south-western cengage learning. minitab. (2017). what is cronbach’s alpha. retrieved from http://support.minitab.com/en-us/minitab/17/topic-library/modeling-statistics/multivariate/item-and-cluster-analyses/what-is-cronbach-s-alpha/ motel, l., & motel, l. (2016). increasing diversity through goal-setting in corporate social responsibility reporting. equality, diversity and inclusion: an international journal, 35(5/6), 328–349. https://doi.org/10.1108/edi-01-2016-0005 narcisse, s., & harcourt, m. (2008). employee fairness perceptions of performance appraisal: a saint lucian case study. the international journal of human resource management, 19(6), 1152–1169. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190802051451 priesemuth, m., arnaud, a., & schminke, m. (2013). bad behavior in groups the impact of overall justice climate and functional dependence on counterproductive work behavior in work units. group & organization management, 38(2), 230–257. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601113479399 public service commission. (2010). retrieved from http://www.psc.gov.za/documents/2010/state%20of%20the%20public%20service%20report.pdf ramulumisi, t. v., schultz, c. m., & jordaan, c. j. (2015). perceived effectiveness of a performance management system. journal of contemporary management, 12, 517–543. rantanen, h., kulmala, h. i., lönnqvist, a., & kujansivu, p. (2007). performance measurement systems in the finnish public sector. international journal of public sector management, 20(5), 415–433. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513550710772521 rees, g., & smith, p. e. (2014). strategic human resource management: an international perspective. los angeles, ca: sage. roberson, q. m., & stewart, m. m. (2006). understanding the motivational effects of procedural and informational justice in feedback processes. british journal of psychology, 97(3), 281–298. https://doi.org/10.1348/000712605x80146 rowland, c. a., & hall, r. d. (2012). organizational justice and performance: is appraisal fair? euromed journal of business, 7(3), 280–293. https://doi.org/10.1108/1450219121265334 rowley, c., & jackson, k. (2011). introduction: hrm in context. in c. rowley & k. jackson (eds.). human resource management: the key concepts (pp. 19–27). new york: routledge. scobbie, l., wyke, s., & dixon, d. (2009). identifying and applying psychological theory to setting and achieving rehabilitation goals. clinical rehabilitation, 23(4), 321–333. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269215509102981 selden, s., & sowa, j. e. (2011). performance management and appraisal in human service organizations: management and staff perspectives. public personnel management, 40(3), 251–264. https://doi.org/10.1177/009102601104000305 selvarajan, t. t., & cloninger, p. a. (2012). can performance appraisals motivate employees to improve performance? a mexican study. the international journal of human resource management, 23(15), 3063–3084. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.637069 sharma, n. p., sharma, t., & agarwal, m. n. (2016). measuring employee perception of performance management system effectiveness: conceptualization and scale development. employee relations, 38(2), 224–247. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-01-2015-0006 slavić, a., berber, n., & leković, b. (2014). performance management in international human resource management: evidence from the cee region. serbian journal of management, 9(1), 45–58. smither, j. m., & london, m. (eds.). (2009). performance management: putting research into action (1st edn.). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. son, j. y., & park, j. (2016). procedural justice to enhance compliance with non-work-related computing (nwrc) rules: its determinants and interaction with privacy concerns. international journal of information management, 36(3), 309–321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2015.12.005 south africa. department of public service and administration. (1997). department of public service and administration. pretoria: government printer. retrieved from http://www.dpsa.co.gov stredwick, j. (2005). introduction to human resource management (2nd edn.). butterworth: elsevier ltd. suliman, a., & al kathairi, m. (2012). organizational justice, commitment and performance in developing countries: the case of the uae. employee relations, 35(1), 98–115. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425451311279438 thomas, d. c., & lazarova, m. b. (2014). essentials of international human resource management: managing people globally. london: sage. tsai, c. j., & wang, w. l. (2013). exploring the factors associated with employees’ perceived appraisal accuracy: a study of chinese state-owned enterprises. the international journal of human resource management, 24(11), 2197–2220. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.723019 tyson, s. (2006). essentials of human resource management (5th edn.). oxford: elsever ltd. viedge, c. (2017). performance management. in j. bagraim, p. cunningham, t. potgieter, & c. viedge (eds.), organisational behaviour (4th edn.). pretoria: van schaik publishers. vlãsceanu, l., grünberg, l., & pârlea, d. (2007). quality assurance and accreditation: a glossary of basic terms and definitions. bucharest: unesco-cepes. retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001346/134621e.pdf yearta, s. k., maitlis, s., & briner, r. b. (1995). an exploratory study of goal setting in theory and practice: a motivational technique that works? journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 68(3), 237–252. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1995.tb00584.x abstract introduction literature review empirical results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) doret botha department of sociology, faculty of humanities, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa citation botha, d. (2021). self-perceived employability among undergraduate students at a south african university. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1685. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1685 original research self-perceived employability among undergraduate students at a south african university doret botha received: 31 may 2021; accepted: 21 sept. 2021; published: 08 nov. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: south africa has been suffering from persistently high levels of unemployment since 2008. the youth is regarded as the most at-risk group in the south african labour market and unemployment amongst the youth is considered one of the most critical socio-economic problems in south africa. increasing one’s employability is essential to securing employment and enhancing one’s well-being. research purpose: this study aimed to explore the self-perceived employability of undergraduate students at a south african university. motivation for the study: currently, there is a scarcity of published research on the self-perceived employability amongst undergraduate students at higher education institutions in south africa. research approach/design and method: the study was conducted within a positivistic research paradigm. a quantitative-based cross-sectional survey design was used. convenience sampling was used to select the students who were included in the survey. data were collected through a web-based survey, using a standardised coded questionnaire that consisted of a five-point likert-type scale. main findings: the results indicated that the respondents were relatively confident about their internal employability, but they were less confident about their opportunities in the external labour market. practical/managerial implications: understanding one’s employability and the accompanied issues creates awareness of one’s potential, skills and knowledge to become a successful citizen and employee. contribution/value-add: the study shed light on the self-perceived employability of undergraduate students at a south african university and consequently contributes to the existing literature on employability in the south african context. keywords: external employability; higher education; internal employability; self-perceived employability; undergraduate students. introduction from 1998 to 2008, the south african economy grew at an average rate of 4% per annum; however, this 11-year growth period ended with the 2008 global recession (yu & swanepoel, 2021). since then, the country’s economy has been ‘going downhill’ (wakefield, yu, & swanepoel, 2020, p. 1) and the country has suffered from ‘persistently high levels and rates of unemployment’ (yu & swanepoel, 2021). the poor economy and unemployment rates in the country were further exacerbated by the global covid-19 pandemic (reuters, 2021). in the second quarter of 2021, the country recorded its highest unemployment rate (34.4%) (statistics south africa, 2021b, p. 7) since the start of the quarterly labour force survey in 2008 (statistics south africa, 2021a). if those who are discouraged from seeking work are included (i.e. the expanded definition of unemployment), the figure rose to 44.4% (statistics south africa, 2021b, p. 8). the youth is regarded as the most at-risk group in the south african labour market and the unemployment rate was estimated at 64.4% for those aged between 15 and 24 years and 42.9% for those aged between 25 and 34 years (statistics south africa, 2021b, p. 15). the graduate unemployment rate was estimated at 11% (statistics south africa, 2021b, p. 14). the continued high youth unemployment rate is considered as one of the most critical socio-economic problems in south africa (statistics south africa, 2020). youth unemployment is regarded as a potential threat to social stability (jordan, 1982, as cited in edgell & granter, 2019, p. 240). furthermore, it is associated with property crimes such as burglary and theft (hakim, as cited in edgell & granter, 2019, p. 239). long-term youth unemployment may have negative economic and health consequences (edgell & granter, 2019, p. 237). young people’s transition to adulthood status is delayed, as they remain dependent upon their families for economic and social support. furthermore, long periods of unemployment for young people may result in permanent personal scars and may influence one’s happiness, job satisfaction and health for many years later (edgell & granter, 2019, p. 237). unemployment in south africa has a structural nature, thereby indicating ‘an inability of an economy to provide employment for the total (or potential) labour force, even at the peak of its economic cycle’ (cloete, 2015, p. 515). furthermore, it points to a mismatch between the type of skills supplied and demanded in the labour market (wakefield et al., 2020, p. 2). young people seeking employment in the labour market are often not well educated and do not possess the necessary skills and work experience demanded by employers in the labour market (statistics south africa, 2020). globally, education is considered a key instrument to developing one’s human capital and consequently one’s employment prospects. the more educated people are, the more likely their chances are to secure employment and jobs with good working conditions (statistics south africa, 2020). this is also confirmed by human capital theory, which suggests that investment in training and education would increase internal mobility and decrease external mobility. increasing one’s human capital assists in making individuals more employable and consequently increases internal mobility (groot & van den brink, 2000, p. 573). although qualifications alone cannot guarantee future employment, they contribute to one’s employability (tymon, 2013, as cited in harry, chinyamurindi, & mjoli, 2018, p. 2). employability concerns ‘work and the ability to be employed’ (hillage & pollard, 1998, p. 3). it encompasses the ‘ability of the individual to gain initial employment, to maintain employment and to obtain new employment if required’ (hillage & pollard, 1998, p. 3). it also, ideally, includes the quality of employment; some individuals may be able to obtain employment, but it may be ‘below their level of skills or in low paid, undesirable or unsustainable jobs’ (hillage & pollard, 1998, p. 3). today, employers want to recruit individuals who possess specific knowledge and skills related to the type of work to be completed and who have basic employability skills (such as communicating clearly, thinking critically and innovatively and solving complex problems) to contribute to the organisation’s success (quiring, boys, & harris, 2017, p. 537). therefore, employability is of utmost importance for graduates (moolman, 2017, p. 26). understanding one’s employability and the accompanied issues creates awareness of one’s potential, skills, knowledge and prospects to become a successful citizen and employee (hooley, 2017). research purpose and objectives the purpose and main objective of this study were to explore the self-perceived employability of undergraduate students at a south african university. the secondary objectives were to determine whether selected socio-demographic variables (gender, year of study, faculty of study, geographical location in which respondents mainly grew up and previous and current work experience) influence the self-perceived employability of undergraduate students. the article begins with a conceptualisation of self-perceived employability, followed by a discussion of the main theoretical perspectives on employability. next, the association between selected socio-demographic variables and self-perceived employability is discussed. thereafter, the research methodology used for the study is outlined, followed by a discussion of the empirical results. the article concludes with recommendations to the research community and to the university under investigation pertaining to the findings of the research. literature review defining and conceptualising employability there is an abundance of definitions of employability reflected in the literature, highlighting different characteristics of (prospective) employees, for example, ‘physical and cognitive suitability, learning, flexibility, adaptation and mobility’, amongst others; however, all have in common the notion of ‘employment as an outcome’ (thijssen, van der heijden, & rocco, 2008, p. 167). according to rothwell (2015, p. 338), the definition provided by hillage and pollard (1998) is the most widely cited and comprehensive definition in the literature. hillage and pollard (1998, p. 3) stated that ‘employability is about the capability to move self-sufficiently within the labour market to realise potential through sustainable employment’. for the individual, employability depends on the following three factors: firstly, one’s knowledge, skills and attitudes; secondly, the way one uses those assets and presents them to employers and thirdly, the context (such as individual circumstances, e.g. family and domestic responsibilities, disabilities and household conditions and the status of the labour market, e.g. the demand and supply of labour, job openings and employer recruitment and selection behaviour) within which one seeks work (hillage & pollard, 1998, pp. 3–4). hillage and pollard (1998, p. 3) further asserted that an individual’s ‘employability assets’ consist of baseline assets (i.e. the basic skills and crucial individual attributes, e.g. reliability and integrity), intermediate assets (i.e. occupation-specific and key skills, e.g. communication and problem solving and key individual attributes, e.g. motivation and initiative) and high-level assets (i.e. skills that assist in contributing to organisational performance, e.g. teamwork and self-management/regulation). a distinction is made between one’s internal and external employability. internal employability reveals the worth of an employee’s human capital in the internal labour market. it refers to an employee’s capability and willingness to remain employed with his or her present employer (juhdi, pa’wan, othman, & moksin, 2010, p. 2). in relation to students, internal determinants of employability include, amongst other features, ambition, self-confidence and academic performance, which play a vital role in securing employment (paterson, 2017, p. 248). external employability reveals the value of workers’ human capital in the external labour market. it refers to the ability and willingness of an employee to switch to a similar or another job in another firm (juhdi et al., 2010, p. 2). in relation to university students, external determinants include, amongst other features, ‘university reputation, the field of study credibility and demand for the field of study’ (paterson, 2017, p. 248). theoretical approaches to employability according to rothwell (2015), there are four main approaches to employability, namely employability in public policy, employability in education, employability in human resource management (an organisational perspective) and employability as perceived by the individual. the first approach, employability in public policy, developed because of fears about rising unemployment in the western world since the 1990s. as a result, international organisations (e.g. the european union, the united nations and the organisation for economic co-operation and development) and government departments requested reports that should entail information regarding the status of the labour market and recommendations on how public policy might respond to changing circumstances and how skills could be developed in the labour market (rothwell, 2015, p. 339). the focus was on reducing unemployment and the accompanied social consequences (vargas, sanchez-queija, rothwell, & parra, 2018, p. 227). the educational approach focuses on graduates’ access to and suitability for the labour market in often difficult economic circumstances. emphasis is placed in curriculums on enhancing undergraduates’ employability skills, which also include soft skills sought by employers (rothwell, 2015, p. 339). in this regard, different models were developed, such as the following: the decision, opportunity awareness, transition learning and self-awareness (dots) model developed by bill law and tony watts of the national institute for careers education and counselling, cambridge: this model focuses on career education and planning, which according to the developers, encompass four steps: decision learning, opportunity awareness, transition learning and self-awareness (law & watts, 2003, p. 1). the understanding, skills, efficacy and metacognition (usem) model developed by peter knight and mantz yorke: this model describes the following graduate attributes: understanding, skills (subject-specific and generic social practices), efficacy beliefs and metacognition (reflection or strategic thinking), which may increase one’s employability (knight & yorke, 2003, p. 8). the careeredge model developed by lorraine dacre pool and peter sewell: this model describes five components that may enhance students’ employability, namely career development learning, experience (work and life), degree subject knowledge (understanding and skills), generic skills and emotional intelligence (dacre pool & sewell, 2007, p. 281). the organisational or human resource management approach focuses on employer-led employability strategies to assist individuals to ‘fit into changing job roles’ (rothwell, 2015, p. 342) and to ‘sustain their careers in the light of increased job instability and insecurity’ (vargas et al., 2018, p. 227). it furthermore aims at ‘optimising the deployment of staff in order to increase the organisation’s flexibility and competitive advantage’ (nauta et al., 2009, as cited in de vos, de hauw, & van der heijden, 2011, p. 439). the individual approach to employability focuses on the individual’s own ability and capability to find and keep a job of an appropriate level (vargas et al., 2018, p. 227). this includes the individual’s understanding of how well he or she is likely to perform in securing employment (rothwell, 2015, p. 343). the individual approach to employability includes three main approaches, namely competence-based employability, trait-based (dispositional) employability and self-perceived employability (vargas et al., 2018, p. 227). the competence-based employability approach focuses on an individual’s knowledge, skills and abilities that will result in effective performance in the internal and external labour market (de vos et al., 2011, p. 439). the trait-based (dispositional) employability approach refers to the proactive attitudes adopted by individuals to create and realise opportunities in the labour market (fugate & kinicki, 2008, p. 505). the self-perceived employability approach focuses on individuals’ perceptions of their own abilities, capabilities and skills (internal dimensions) and their perceptions of the influence of the external labour market and the importance of their qualifications or professions (external dimensions) when trying to secure a job (vargas et al., 2018, p. 227). therefore, the approach not only focuses on internal and external dimensions of employability but also their interactions with one another, in other words how the perception of one’s own capacities and skills (internal dimensions) influences the perceptions of the external labour market (external dimensions) and how the perception of the external labour market (external dimensions) influences the perception of one’s own capabilities (internal dimensions) (batistic & tymon, 2017, as cited in vargas et al., 2018, p. 4). in terms of the self-perceived employability approach, rothwell, herbert and rothwell (2008) developed a theoretical model (see figure 1) to measure self-perceived employability amongst undergraduate university students. the model comprises four components, namely perceptions of students’ self-belief in terms of skills and abilities, perceptions of the reputation of the university attended, perceptions of the status and credibility of students’ chosen field of study and perceptions of the state of and opportunities in the external labour market (rothwell et al., 2008, p. 3). figure 1: students’ self-perceived employability. self-belief (also referred to as self-efficacy) is regarded as the belief a person has in his or her ability to successfully accomplish or realise goals (quiring et al., 2017, p. 537). self-belief represents an internal dimension of employability (rothwell et al., 2008, p. 2; vargas et al., 2018, p. 228). self-belief about one’s vocational or job-related knowledge and skills and the ability to conduct an efficient, successful job search might influence individuals’ self-perceptions of employability (rothwell et al., 2008, p. 2). the current state of the external labour market and job opportunities available in the labour market might also influence one’s perceptions of employability (rothwell et al., 2008, p. 2). employment opportunities for graduates of tertiary education are closely related to the economic development of the country and its ability to create employment opportunities in the labour market (stojanováa & blaškováa, 2014, p. 641). it is believed that the reputation of the university attended lends credibility to the job-seeking potential of individuals and therefore might influence self-perceptions of employability (murray & robinson, 2001, as cited in rothwell et al., 2008, p. 2). applicants from universities with higher reputational capital are more likely to receive positive responses compared with applicants showing credentials from universities with lower reputational capital (nogales, córdova, & urquidi, 2020, p. 538; qenani, macdougall, & sexton, 2014, p. 210). it is furthermore believed that there is higher demand for individuals with degrees in particular fields of study, and this might also influence one’s self-perceptions of employability (rothwell et al., 2008, p. 2). the choice of field of the study might limit employment outcomes (stojanováa & blaškováa, 2014, p. 641). rothwell et al. (2008, p. 4) developed a 16-item questionnaire based on the theoretical model to measure undergraduate students’ self-perceived employability. the validity and reliability of the instrument is further elaborated on under the research design and methodology section. socio-demographic variables and self-perceived employability according to rothwell and arnold (2007, p. 26), there is an interest in the associations between demographic measures and self-perceived employability. for this particular study, the influence of the following socio-demographic variables on the self-perceived employability of university students was measured and discussed: gender, year of study, faculty of study, geographical location in which respondents mainly grew up and previous and current work experience. previous research shows mixed results for gender in terms of self-perceived employability. in a study conducted by vargas et al. (2018, p. 233), which measured self-perceived employability amongst undergraduate students at universities in spain, gender differences were reported, and the mean scores obtained by men were higher than the scores obtained by women. similar results were found by qenani et al. (2014, p. 210), whose study measured employability perceptions amongst students of california polytechnic state university in the usa, which found that women were less confident about their employability skill sets than men. the results were also confirmed by a study conducted by räty et al. (2020, p. 9), which measured the perceived employability amongst finnish university students. the results revealed that women perceived their employability less positively than did men. in contradiction to these results, a study conducted by rothwell, jewell and hardie (2009, p. 158), measuring the self-perceived employability amongst postgraduate students of a university’s business school in the midlands region of the united kingdom, revealed no significant difference in the mean scores of men and women. similar results were obtained in a study conducted by karli (2016, p. 857), measuring the self-perceived employability amongst university students and graduates of a sports department of abant izzet baysal university in turkey; no significant differences were found between the scores of the different genders. previous research revealed self-perceived employability differences in terms of field of study. in the study conducted by vargas et al. (2018, p. 233), students studying degrees in arts and humanities scored lower on self-perceived employability than those studying degrees in other fields of study. this was followed by students studying degrees in social sciences, legal studies and sciences. the highest mean scores were obtained for students studying degrees in engineering and architecture and health sciences. the study conducted by räty et al. (2020, p. 9) revealed that students studying medicine and computing science showed a significantly higher level of self-perceived employability than all other groups. students studying humanities displayed the lowest self-perceived employability, followed by students studying nursing sciences, forest sciences and biology. students studying social sciences, business studies and law displayed medium levels of self-perceived employability. employability can be affected by experience (in work and in life) (dacre pool & sewell, 2007, p. 284). graduates who have previous work experience are more likely to secure employment than graduates without such experience (the pedagogy for employability group, 2004, as cited in dacre pool & sewell, 2007, p. 284). in general, employers prefer to hire people who have work experience (knight & yorke, 2003, p. 4). helyer and lee (2014) examined the role of work experience in the future employability of graduates in higher education. the study demonstrated that subject knowledge in combination with real-life workplace experience (e.g. via an internship) provides ‘a catalyst for future innovation, development and success’ (helyer & lee, 2014, p. 368). qenani et al. (2014, p. 208) found a significant relationship between work experience gained during academic studies and employability perceptions, where perceptions of employability increased when respondents reported work experience gained through an internship. the study conducted by karli (2016, p. 857) revealed that respondents who had work experience in their study field reported higher employability perceptions than their inexperienced counterparts. these results were also confirmed by räty et al. (2020, p. 9), who found that students ‘having had at least half a year of work experience showed higher employability optimism than those who had less working experience or no experience at all’. jackson and wilton (2017, p. 757) conducted research amongst business undergraduates from vocationally focused universities based in the united kingdom and australia and found a positive relationship between work-integrated learning and self-perceived employability, emphasising the importance of part-time work during one’s studies. previous research reported age differences with regard to self-perceived employability. van der heijden (2002, p. 49) compared employability perceptions amongst three age groups of the working population: the starters (20–34 years), the middle-aged (35–49 years) and the seniors (50+). the results indicated that the older the employee, the lower his or her employability perceptions (van der heijden, 2002, p. 53). rothwell et al.’s (2008, p. 9) study conducted amongst business bachelor degree students in three united kingdom universities revealed older students having lower levels of self-perceived employability. karli (2016, p. 857) found significant differences between the mean scores of senior students and newly graduated students, where senior students scored significantly higher on self-perceived employability compared with newly graduate students. the author ascribed this tendency to graduates’ failure and unsatisfied expectations in the labour market. qenani et al. (2014, p. 208) found a negative relationship between perceived employability and length of time at university; the senior students displayed lower perceptions of employability than second-year students. jackson and wilton (2017, p. 757) found lower levels of perceived employability amongst final-year students. according to these authors, students become less confident when they become aware of the opportunities and realities of the labour market. according to watson (2017, p. 277), ‘people do not enter the occupational structure with equal opportunities’. people’s class, family and educational background influence the resources they take into the labour market and their aspirations. parents’ occupational and class background may have a significant effect on an individual’s life chances. harry et al. (2018, p. 5) investigated the factors that affect employability amongst final-year students at a rural university in south africa. as the university was situated in a rural area, a large number of the students who took part in the research came from a low socio-economic background. the findings revealed that background is a significant factor when choices are made with regard to education and career paths. the findings further showed that the higher education institution attended is a key factor in determining how an individual is perceived in the south african labour market. van broekhuizen (2016) investigated the association between higher education institutions and graduate employment and unemployment probabilities in south africa. the findings revealed that graduates who attended traditional universities were found to be less likely unemployed than graduates who attended comprehensive universities (van broekhuizen, 2016, p. 21). traditional universities refer to the general academic universities that offer mainly theoretically oriented diplomas and degrees. universities of technology resemble the former technikons and mainly offer vocational diplomas and degrees. comprehensive universities refer to institutions that offer a combination of these types of qualifications (van broekhuizen, 2016, p. 10). the finding was also confirmed by oluwajodu, blaauw, greyling and kleynhans (2015, p. 7), who examined the perceived causes of graduate unemployment in the south african banking sector. the results suggested that the kind of institution that a graduate attends and the perception of employers about those institutions may affect one’s chances to secure employment. this section conceptualised employability, discussed the theoretical perspectives of employability, elaborated on the theoretical model developed by rothwell et al. (2008) to measure the self-perceived employability amongst undergraduate university students and discussed the socio-demographic variables that might influence self-perceptions of employability. the following section presents and discusses the empirical results of the study. research design and methodology the study was conducted within a positivistic research paradigm. the ontological and epistemological philosophical positions of objectivism and empiricism informed the study. a quantitative-based cross-sectional survey design was used (see creswell & creswell, 2018, p. 149); the data were collected at one point in time. research setting, population and sampling the survey was conducted amongst undergraduate students who studied full-time at a south african university. convenience sampling was used to select the students who were included in the survey. convenience sampling is adopted as a method by researchers to obtain data from a group of people or units that are conveniently available (zikmund, babin, carr, & griffin, 2010, p. 396). in total, 241 undergraduate students participated in the research. instrumentation and data collection data were collected through a web-based survey (quesionpro), using a coded questionnaire. the questionnaire included two sections. section a contained biographical questions, which included items on gender, year of study, faculty of study, geographical location in which respondents mainly grew up and previous/current work experience. for section b, the 16-item self-perceived employability scale for university students developed by rothwell et al. (2008) was used. the scale used a five-point likert-type scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). the measurement instrument was tested amongst business bachelor degree students at three universities in the united kingdom. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the overall 16-item scale yielded a value of 0.75 and showed high reliability and internal consistency (rothwell et al., 2008, p. 7). the scale’s factor structure also confirmed external (α = 0.76) and internal (α = 0.66) dimensions of employability (rothwell et al., 2008, p. 7). external dimensions included respondents’ perceptions of the state of the external labour market, the strength of the university’s brand and the status and credibility of their field of study. internal dimensions included respondents’ perceptions of self-belief (i.e. their confidence in their skills and abilities) (vargas et al., 2018, p. 229). the wording of some of the items was slightly adapted to enhance understanding of the individual items. furthermore, the item ‘the skills and abilities that i possess are what employers are looking for’ was divided into two items, namely ‘i possess the skills that employers are looking for in the labour market’ and ‘i possess the personal abilities that employers are looking for in the labour market’. this was performed to avoid inaccuracies in the perceptions being measured because of a double-barrelled question. the scale used therefore resulted in 17 items that measured students’ perceptions of their university’s reputation, their self-belief in terms of their skills and abilities, the status and credibility of their field of study and the status of and opportunities in the external labour market. analysis and reporting the statistical package for the social sciences (spss version 26) was used to process the data collected. a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to validate the factor structure of the self-perceived employability construct and the reliability of the cronbach’s alphas. descriptive statistics were interpreted and reported by mean and standard deviation. the independent samples t-test was used to compare the mean score of two independent groups on the continuous variable self-perceived employability to determine whether they differed significantly (see frost, 2020). analysis of variance (anova) was used to compare the mean score of two or more groups on the continuous variable self-perceived employability to determine whether they differed significantly (see pallant, 2016, p. 109). post hoc tests were conducted to determine which groups were significantly different from each other (see pallant, 2016, p. 109). effect sizes were used to measure the strength of the relationship between two groups; the greater the effect size, the stronger the relationship between two variables and vice versa (see mcleod, 2019). cohen’s d-values were used as effect sizes to determine the size of differences between the group means. cohen (1988) suggested that a d-value equal to 0.2 represents a small effect size, a d-value equal to 0.5 a medium effect size and a d-value equal to 0.8 a large effect size. ethical considerations the following ethical considerations recommended by babbie and mouton (2011, p. 520) and sarantakos (2013, p. 17) were adhered to during the research: upholding professional integrity, voluntary participation, obtaining informed consent, respecting the privacy of participants, ensuring the anonymity and confidentiality of the research setting and research participants and honesty in reporting on the research data. approval to conduct the research was obtained from the arts research ethics committee of the faculty of humanities of the university under investigation. empirical results biographical information table 1 presents the biographical information of the respondents. table 1: biographical information. self-perceived employability measurement model the scale developed by rothwell et al. (2008) was used to measure undergraduate students’ self-perceived employability. confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the structure and relations between the latent variables that underlay the data. two measurement models were tested: a one-factor model, measuring the employability construct (17 items) and a two-factor model, measuring internal (seven items) and external (10 items) dimensions of employability. internal employability was measured by q1, q2 and q13 – q17 of the scale and external employability by q3 – q12. all factor loadings, for the oneand the two-factor measurement models, were statistically significant at the 0.05 level. factor loadings for the one-factor model ranged from 0.321 to 0.713. for the two-factor model, factor loadings ranged from 0.335 to 0.831 for internal dimensions and 0.346 to 0.661 for external dimensions of employability. the standardised regression coefficients were interpreted as factor loadings; in general, a factor loading of an absolute value of more than 0.3 is regarded as important (field, 2005, p. 644). three goodness-of-model-fit indices were used to determine how well the models fit the data of the sample. they were the chi-square statistic divided by degrees of freedom (cmin/df), the comparative fit index (cfi) and the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) with its 90% confidence intervals. hancock and mueller (2010) stated that it is good practice to report multiple fit indices, preferably from three broad classes. table 2 indicates the goodness-of-model-fit indices for the measurement models. table 2: goodness-of-model-fit indices. confirmatory factor analyses showed that the oneand two-factor structures of the employability scale did not fit well to the data of the sample (see table 2). chi-square statistic divided by degrees of freedom is the chi-square fit index divided by degrees of freedom (also called the chi-square to degrees of freedom [df] ratio). degrees of freedom ratios between 2 and 3 are indicative of an acceptable fit between the measurement model and the sample data (carmines & mciver, 1981, p. 80). according to mueller (1996) and paswan (2009, as cited in shadfar & malekmohammadi, 2013, p. 586), in practice, values as high as 3, 4 or even 5 still represent an acceptable model fit, depending on the viewpoint of the investigator. values below 1.0 are considered poor model fit (shadfar & malekmohammadi, 2013, p. 586). chi-square statistic divided by degrees of freedom values of 3.836 (one-factor) and 3.127 (two-factor) were found for the measurement models, indicating an acceptable fit. cfi values can range between 0 and 1 (institute for digital research and education, 2021). values above 0.9 indicate a good overall fit (hair, anderson, tatham, & black, 2010; mueller, 1996). comparative fit indices of 0.718 (one-factor) and 0.790 (two-factor) were found for the measurement models, indicating they were not a good fit. the rmsea values of 0.01, 0.05 and 0.08 are regarded as indications of excellent, good and mediocre fit, respectively (institute for digital research and education, 2021). according to brown and moore (2012, p. 6), a value of 0 indicates a very good fit. hu and bentler (1998, 1999, as cited in brown & moore, 2012, p. 6) recommended a value equal to or smaller than 0.06 as a cut-off value for a good fit. blunch (2008) suggested that models with rmsea values of 0.10 and larger should not be accepted. the rmsea value is commonly reported with its confidence intervals. in a good-fitting model, the lower 90% confidence level should be close to 0, whilst the upper level should be below 0.08 (shadfar & malekmohammadi, 2013, p. 588). the one-factor measurement model obtained an rmsea value of 0.109 with a 90% confidence interval of 0.098 (low) and 0.119 (high), whilst the two-factor model obtained an rmsea value of 0.094 with a 90% confidence interval of 0.083 (low) and 0.105 (high). the results therefore indicated that both the measurement models and the sample data were not a good fit. as the measurement models analysed indicated ‘not a good fit’, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the 17 likert-type scale items measuring undergraduate students’ self-perceptions of their employability. principal component analysis and oblimin rotation were employed. the kaiser-meyer-olkin test yielded a value of 0.856, suggesting that the sample size was adequate to be used for factor analysis. the p-value of bartlett’s test of sphericity was 0.05, showing that the correlation between items was sufficient for factor analysis (see field, 2005). four factors, namely external labour market, academic engagement and performance, self-belief in skills and abilities and university reputation, were extracted that explained 56.94 of the total variance. kaiser’s rule to retain factors that have eigenvalues greater than 1 was applied (field, 2009, p. 652). the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for three factors (external labour market: α = 0.779; self-belief in skills and abilities: α = 0.70; university reputation: α = 0.75) calculated 0.7 and above, showing high reliability and internal consistency. six statements loaded on external labour market (ranging from 0.396 to 0.816), five on self-belief in skills and abilities (ranging from 0.240 to 0.852) and four on university reputation (ranging from 0.587 to 0.764). one item, q19r7, in the self-belief in skills and abilities factor, obtained a factor loading of 0.240; however, it was decided to retain the item because of its theoretical importance. the academic engagement and performance factor yielded a cronbach’s alpha of 0.539, indicating a low reliability. only two items loaded on the factor (ranging from −0.338 to −0.600). according to cortina (1993, as cited in field, 2009, p. 675), the number of items in a scale can influence the value of cronbach’s alpha. on the one hand, a large number of items can possibily result in a higher value of cronbach’s alpha and on the other hand a small number of items could result in a lower value of cronbach’s alpha (field, 2009, p. 675). the mean inter-item correlation yielded a value of 0.382, which is sufficient according to clark and watson (1995). the following mean scores were obtained for the factors: external labour market: m = 3.58, academic engagement and performance: m = 4.25, self-belief in skills and abilities: m = 3.95 and university reputation: m = 3.74. a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the structure and relations between the latent variables that underlay the data of the four-factor self-perceived employability model; the results are presented in figure 2. figure 2: confirmatory factor analysis results for the self-perceived employability model with standardised regression weights and correlations. table 3 indicates the goodness-of-model-fit indices for this model. two of the indices showed an acceptable model fit; a cmin/df value of 2.406 and an rmsea value of 0.077 with a 90% confidence interval of 0.065 (low) and 0.088 (high) were obtained. furthermore, a relatively acceptable cfi of 0.867 was also found for the model. table 3: goodness-of-model-fit indices. the association between self-perceived employability and socio-demographic variables the results of the t-tests indicated no significant differences between the means of male and female respondents for all the dimensions (factors) of self-perceived employability; all the p-values calculated higher than 0.05. the effect sizes showed a small effect for external labour market (d = 0.22; male: m = 3.69; female: m = 3.54), academic engagement and performance (d = 0.21; male: m = 4.15; female: m = 4.29) and self-belief in skills and abilities (d = 0.26; male: m = 4.06; female: m = 3.90). the results of the t-test showed no significant differences between the means of first-year and senior respondents for all the dimensions (factors) of self-perceived employability; all p-values measured higher than 0.05. the effect sizes showed no effect for all the dimensions (factors) of self-perceived employability; all d-values were lower than 0.2. the results of the t-test showed no significant differences between the means of respondents with and without previous and current work experience for all the dimensions (factors) of self-perceived employability; all the p-values yielded a value greater than 0.05. the effect sizes showed a small effect for external labour market (d = 0.22; work experience: m = 3.66; no work experience: m = 3.50) and self-belief in skills and abilities (d = 0.21; work experience: m = 4.01; no work experience: m = 3.88). the results of the anova showed significant differences between the means of the different faculties for academic engagement and performance (p = 0.037), university reputation (p = 0.019) and external labour market (p = 0.000). the post hoc tests showed significant differences between the means of the faculties humanities and economic and management sciences (p = 0.014; d = 0.55), where the respondents in the faculty of economic and management sciences (m = 4.39) were more positive about their academic engagement and performance than respondents of the faculty of humanities (m = 4.11). the effect size indicated a medium effect. furthermore, the post hoc tests indicated that the means of the faculties of health sciences and economic and management sciences differed significantly (p = 0.049; d = 0.57); the respondents in the faculty of economic and management sciences (m = 3.99) held more positive opinions about the reputation of the university than respondents in the faculty of health sciences (m = 3.63). a medium effect was evident from the effect size. in terms of external labour market, the post hoc test indicated significant differences between the means of the faculties of humanities and natural and agricultural sciences/engineering (p = 0.012; d = 0.72), humanities and economic and management sciences (p = 0.047; d = 0.49), natural and agricultural sciences/engineering and health sciences (p = 0.008; d = 0.76) and economic and management sciences and health sciences (p = 0.032; d = 0.60). respondents in the faculties of natural and agricultural sciences/engineering (m = 3.97) and economic and management sciences (m = 3.81) were more positive about their employment opportunities in the external labour market than respondents in the faculties of humanities (m = 3.48) and health sciences (m = 3.45). the effect sizes indicated medium to large effects. the results of the anova indicated significant differences between the means of the different geographical areas in which the respondents grew up for academic engagement and performance (p = 0.009) and for self-belief in skills and abilities (p = 0.011). for academic engagement and performance, the post hoc tests (homogeneous subsets) showed that the means of small city (m = 4.13) and village/traditional settlement/farm in a rural area (m = 4.14) differed significantly from town (m = 4.30; d = 0.28 [small city]; d = 0.30 [rural area]) and big city (m = 4.42; d = 0.48 [small city]; d = 0.53 [rural area]). the effect sizes showed small to medium effects. this indicates that respondents who mainly grew up in towns and big cities held more positive opinions regarding their academic engagement and performance than those who mainly grew up in small cities and rural areas. similarly, the post hoc tests indicated significant differences between the means of town (m = 4.30) and big city (m = 4.42; d = 0.23); the effect size indicated a small effect. therefore, respondents who mainly grew up in big cities were more positive about their academic engagement and performance than those who mainly grew up in towns. for self-belief in skills and abilities, the post hoc tests showed significant differences between the means of village/traditional settlement/farm in a rural area (m = 3.71) and small city (m = 3.88; d = 0.31), big city (m = 4.04; d = 0.56) and town (m = 4.08; d = 0.67). the effect sizes indicated small to medium effects. therefore, it can be deduced that respondents who mainly grew up in rural areas were less confident about their skills and abilities than those who mainly grew up in towns and small and big cities. in all instances, the p-values calculated lower than 0.05. discussion this study was conducted to explore the self-perceived employability of undergraduate students at a south african university. the self-perceived employability scale for university students developed by rothwell et al. (2008) was used. confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the structure and relations between the latent variables that underlay the data on self-perceived employability. confirmatory factor analyses showed that both the oneand the two-factor structures (internal and external dimensions) of the self-perceived employability scale did not fit well to the data of the sample. three goodness-of-model-fit indices (cmin/df, cfi and rmsea) were used; only one index (cmin/df) indicated an acceptable fit for both the measurement models and the sample data. an exploratory factor analysis was therefore conducted on the likert-type scale items of the self-perceived employability scale. the results showed four factors: external labour market (α = 0.779), academic engagement and performance (α = 0.539), self-belief in skills and abilities (α = 0.70) and university reputation (α = 0.75). the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for three factors showed high reliability and internal consistency. the academic engagement and performance factor yielded a cronbach’s alpha of 0.539, indicating a relatively low reliability; however, the mean inter-item correlation obtained a value of 0.382, which is acceptable. confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the four-factor structure fit well to the data of the sample. two of the goodness-of-model-fit indices (cmin/df & rmsea) showed an acceptable model fit, whilst the cfi indicated a relatively acceptable model fit. the mean scores of all four factors measured above 3.5. the highest mean score was obtained for academic engagement (m = 4.25), followed by self-belief in skills and abilities (m = 3.95), university reputation (m = 3.74) and external labour market (m = 3.58). therefore, the participants scored higher on internal dimensions of self-perceived employability than external dimensions. it can be deduced that although the participants were confident about their internal employability, they were not much confident that they would be able to secure employment in the external labour market. this might be an indication that students were aware of the current economic circumstances, the high unemployment rates and opportunities available in the external labour market in the country. regarding the influence of the socio-demographic variables on self-perceived employability, the following results were obtained: the results of the t-tests indicated no significant differences between the means of male and female participants, the means of first-year and senior participants and the means of participants with and without previous and current work experience. in all instances, the effect sizes were either small or indicated no effect. although the studies conducted by qenani et al. (2014, p. 210), vargas et al. (2018) and räty et al. (2020) found significant differences between the means of males and female respondents, this study supported the results of the studies conducted by rothwell et al. (2009) and karli (2016), which found no significant differences between the means of male and female participants. this study contradicted the findings of the literature and previous research that indicated an association between age (jackson & wilton, 2017; karli, 2016; qenani et al., 2014; rothwell et al., 2008; van der heijden, 2002) and self-perceived employability and previous work experience (dacre pool & sewell, 2007; helyer & lee; 2014, jackson & wilton, 2017; knight & yorke, 2003; qenani et al., 2014; räty et al., 2020) and self-perceived employability. however, the results of the anova test indicated significant differences between the means of the different fields of study for academic engagement and performance, university reputation and external labour market. respondents studying in the faculty of economic and management sciences were more positive about their academic engagement and performance than respondents studying in the faculty of humanities. respondents studying in the faculty of economic and management sciences were more positive about the reputation of the university than respondents studying in the faculty of health sciences. furthermore, respondents studying in the faculties of natural and agricultural sciences/engineering and economic and management sciences were more positive about their employment opportunities in the external labour market than respondents in the faculties of humanities and health sciences. the results of the study confirmed the results obtained by vargas et al. (2018) and räty et al. (2020), who also found that students studying in the field of humanities displayed lower levels of self-perceived employability in comparison with students studying in other fields of study. in addition, the study found that students studying in engineering and economic and management sciences were more optimistic about their employment prospects in the external labour market than students studying in other fields of study. the anova test showed significant differences between the means of the different geographical areas in which students mainly grew up for academic engagement and performance and for self-belief in skills and abilities. respondents who mainly grew up in big cities were more positive about their academic engagement and performance than those who mainly grew up in towns. furthermore, respondents who mainly grew up in rural areas were less confident about their skills and abilities than those who mainly grew up in towns and small and big cities. watson (2017, p. 277) and harry et al. (2018, p. 5) indicated that one’s background (class, family and educational and socio-economic background) may influence one’s aspirations and employment prospects. limitations the sample of the study only included undergraduate students of one site of delivery of the higher education institution (university) in south africa; therefore, undergraduate students of the two other sites of delivery were excluded. the results of the study can therefore not be generalised to all students of the institution. recommendations in order for the study to apply to a larger context, the study could be extended to include a larger population and sample, including other higher education institutions in south africa. this will allow for comparisons between the samples and might provide valuable information for the higher education sector. conclusion the primary purpose of this study was to explore the self-perceived employability of undergraduate students at a south african university. the results indicated that the students were relatively confident about their internal employability, but they were less confident about their opportunities in the external labour market. although the current economic circumstances and the structural nature of unemployment in south africa are not ideal to easily realise opportunities in the external labour market, it is of utmost importance that young people be aware of the skills and accompanied experience required in the labour market. continuous investment in those skills will enhance students’ employability and will consequently enable them to secure employment and to become successful citizens and employees. acknowledgements the author is grateful for the 2020 honours students in sociology at the higher education institution under investigation who collected the data and for the statistical consultation services of the higher education institution under investigation who processed the collected data. competing interests the author declares that she has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article. author’s contributions d.b. conducted the literature review, interpreted the empirical results and wrote up the article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the author (d.b.). disclaimer the views and opinion expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2011). the practice of social research. oxford: oxford university press. blunch, n.j. (2008). introduction to structural equation modelling using spss and amos. los angeles, ca: sage. brown, t.a., & moore, m.t. (2012). confirmatory factor analysis. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/michael-moore-75/publication/251573889_hoyle_cfa_chapter_-_final/links/0deec51f14d2070566000000/hoyle-cfa-chapter-final.pdf carmines, e.g., & mciver, j.p. (1981). analyzing models with unobserved variables. in g.w. bohrnstedt & e.f. borgatta (eds.), social measurement: current issues (pp. 65–115). los angeles, ca: sage. clark, l.a., & watson, d. (1995). constructing validity: basic issues in objective scale development. psychological assessment, 7(3), 309–319. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.7.3.309 cloete, a. (2015). youth unemployment in south africa: a theological reflection through the lens of human dignity. missionalia, 43(3), 513–525. https://doi.org/10.7832/43-3-133 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). mahwah, nj: erlbaum. creswell, j.w., & creswell, j.d. (2018). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). los angeles, ca: sage. dacre pool, l., & sewell, p. (2007). the key to employability: developing a practical model of graduate employability. education and training, 49(4), 277–289. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400910710754435 de vos, a., de hauw, s., & van der heijden, b.i.j.m. (2011). competency development and career success: the mediating role of employability. journal of vocational behavior, 79(2), 438–447. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.05.010 edgell, s., & granter, e. (2019). the sociology of work: continuity and change in paid and unpaid work. los angeles, ca: sage. field, a. (2005). discovering statistics using spss (2nd ed.). los angeles, ca: sage. field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss (3rd ed.). los angeles, ca: sage. frost, j. (2020). how t-tests work: t-values, t-distributions and probabilities. statistics by jim. retrieved from https://statisticsbyjim.com/hypothesis-testing/t-tests-t-values-t-distributions-probabilities/ fugate, m., & kinicki, a.j. (2008). a dispositional approach to employability: development of a measure and test of implications for employee reactions to organizational change. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 81(3), 503–527. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317907x241579 groot, w., & van den brink, h.m. (2000). education, training and employability. applied economics journal, 32, 573–581. https://doi.org/10.1080/000368400322471 hair, j.r., anderson, r.e., tatham, r.l., & black, w.c. (2010). multivariate data analysis (7th ed.). hoboken, nj: prentice-hall. hancock, g.r., & mueller, r.o. (2010). the reviewer’s guide to quantitative methods in the social sciences. london: routledge. harry, t., chinyamurindi, w.t., & mjoli, t. (2018). perceptions of factors that affect employability amongst a sample of final-year students at a rural south african university. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 44, a1510. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v44i0.1510 helyer, r., & lee, d. (2014). the role of work experience in the future employability of higher education graduates. higher education quarterly, 68(3), 348–372. https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12055 hillage, j., & pollard, e. (1998). employability: developing a framework for policy analysis (research report no. rr85). retrieved from https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/43539201/employability_developing_a_framework_for20160309-24658-1ix1nw2-with-cover-page-v2.pdf?expires=1635282732&signature=d0gaunwsritd3n2hp5qlfpghvqrzqnd6l2e-o0zgo~xos7gtrdxhxcfzk3pmbnlu2gewtcnqtwuavb5a9-mbakbmnfpkx-xlt0oa9iwcvga8blc3u6g5iypu0i9sb7uhm3lw~rkrwmnnv4vzjq7q9ggq18ud5ubact5vfwf-uc5s~kvpx8h4ycrulte4z8ccbp3ytpkcokuoqeduabg1805selxbtvlnbjwjmo0epewldh9~dj5rhioqkrvtrei9upq0kk7mgo3x7sujytips7fj7vxs25ycds6fmocwjycwanh3e90jcuktxiiv12yig9kbxqfrk7gfh~rppwamuw__&key-pair-id=apkajlohf5ggslrbv4za hooley, t. (2017). climbing the employability mountain. retrieved from https://derby.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10545/621626/climbing+the+employability+mountain.pdf?sequence=1 institute for digital research and education. (2021). a practical introduction to factor analysis: confirmatory factor analysis. retrieved from https://stats.idre.ucla.edu/spss/seminars/introduction-to-factor-analysis/a-practical-introduction-to-factor-analysis-confirmatory-factor-analysis/ jackson, d., & wilton, n. (2017). perceived employability among undergraduates and the importance of career self-management, work experience and individual characteristics. higher education research & development, 36(4), 747–762. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2016.1229270 juhdi, n., pa’wan, f., othman, n.a., & moksin, h. (2010). factors influencing internal and external employability of employees. business and economics journal, 11, 1–10. karli, u. (2016). adaptation and validation of self-perceived employability scale: an analysis of sports department students and graduates. educational research and reviews, 11(8), 848–859. knight, p.t., & yorke, m. (2003). employability and good learning in higher education. teaching in higher education, 8(1), 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/1356251032000052294 law, b., & watts, a.g. (2003). the dots analysis – original version. the career learning network. retrieved from https://www.hihohiho.com/memory/cafdots.pdf mcleod, s. (2019). what does effect size tell you? simply psychology. retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/effect-size.html moolman, h. (2017). a conceptual competence-based framework for enhancing the employability of graduates. the independent journal of teaching and learning, 12(2), 26–43. mueller, r.o. (1996). basic principles of structural equation modelling: an introduction to lisrel and eqs. berlin: springer. nogales, r., córdova, p., & urquidi, m. (2020). the impact of university reputation on employment opportunities: experimental evidence from bolivia. the economic and labour relations review, 31(4), 524–542. https://doi.org/10.1177/1035304620962265 oluwajodu, f., blaauw, d., greyling, l., & kleynhans, e.p.j. (2015). graduate unemployment in south africa: perspectives from the banking sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), a656. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.656 pallant, j. (2016). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using ibm spss (6th ed.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. paterson, r. (2017). because sometimes your failures can also teach you certain skills: lecturer and student perceptions of employability skills at a transnational university. qualitative research in education, 6(3), 241–275. https://doi.org/10.17583/qre.2017.2583 qenani, e., macdougall, n., & sexton, c. (2014). an empirical study of self-perceived employability: improving the prospects for student employment success in an uncertain environment. active learning in higher education, 15(3), 199–213. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787414544875 quiring, s., boys, s., & harris, e. (2017). the role of self-efficacy in employability: implications for pedagogical change. thurgood marshall law review, 43(1), 533–550. räty, h., hytti, u., kasanen, k., komulainen, k., siivonen, p., & kozlinska, i. (2020). perceived employability and ability self among finnish university students. european journal of psychology of education, 35, 975–993. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-019-00451-7 reuters. (2021). south africa’s unemployment rate jumps to new record high. retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-economy-unemployment-iduskbn2an0s1 rothwell, a., & arnold, j. (2007). self-perceived employability: development and validation of a scale. personnel review, 36(1), 23–41. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480710716704 rothwell, a., herbert, i., & rothwell, f. (2008). self-perceived employability: construction and initial validation of a scale for university students. journal of vocational behavior, 73(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2007.12.001 rothwell, a., jewell, s., & hardie, m. (2009). self-perceived employability: investigating the responses of post-graduate students. journal of vocational behavior, 75(2), 152–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.05.002 rothwell, a.t. (2015). employability. in p.j. hartung, m.l. savickas, & w.b. walsh (eds.), apa handbook of career intervention (pp. 337–350). worcester, ma: american psychological association. sarantakos, s. (2013). social research (4th ed.). london: palgrave macmillan. shadfar, s., & malekmohammadi, i. (2013). application of structural equation modeling (sem) in restructuring state intervention strategies toward paddy production development. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 3(12), 576–618. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v3-i12/472 statistics south africa. (2020). vulnerability of youth in the south african labour market. retrieved from http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=13379 statistics south africa. (2021a). more people participate in the south african labour market in the 4th quarter of 2020. retrieved from http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=14031 statistics south africa. (2021b). quarterly labour force survey (qlfs) q2:2021. retrieved from http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/p0211/presentation%20qlfs%20q2_2021.pdf stojanováa, h., & blaškováa, v. (2014). the role of graduates’ field of study and its impact on the transition to working life. procedia economics and finance, 12, 636–643. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(14)00388-8 thijssen, j.g.l., van der heijden, b.i.j.m., & rocco, t.s. (2008). toward the employability–link model: current employment transition to future employment perspectives. human resource development review, 7, 165–183. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484308314955 van broekhuizen, h. (2016). graduate unemployment and higher education institutions in south africa (stellenbosch economic working paper no. 08/16). retrieved from https://resep.sun.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/wp-08-2016.pdf van der heijden, b. (2002). prerequisites to guarantee life-long employability. personnel review, 31(1), 44–61. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480210412418 vargas, r., sanchez-queija, m.i., rothwell, a., & parra, a. (2018). self-perceived employability in spain. education and training, 60(3), 226–237. https://doi.org/10.1108/et-03-2017-0037 wakefield, h.i., yu, d., & swanepoel, c. (2020). revisiting transitory and chronic unemployment in south africa. development southern africa. retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/0376835x.2020.1799761?casa_token=l9uizfclbgaaaaaa:iugwq3fe75mmy5bjxvodywyv2mhuluf-3uxxtmfkqbt3gs_6ahqpetalaaqz-qncwcn6jluudnu watson, t. (2017). sociology, work and organisation (7th ed.). london: routledge. yu, d., & swanepoel, c. (2021). granular understanding of joblessness in south africa can help pinpoint policies. polity. retrieved from https://www.polity.org.za/article/granular-understanding-of-joblessness-in-south-africa-can-help-pinpoint-policies-2021-03-10 zikmund, w.g., babin, b.j., carr, j.c., & griffin, m. (2010). business research methods (8th ed.). boston, ma: south-western cengage learning. abstract introduction and background research objectives literature review problem statement study methodology results discussion limitations and future research acknowledgements references about the author(s) sean mccallaghan optentia research focus area, north-west university, vanderbijlpark, south africa leon jackson workwell research unit, business school, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa marita heyns optentia research focus area, north-west university, vanderbijlpark, south africa citation mccallaghan, s., jackson, l., & heyns, m. (2020). the indirect effect of servant leadership on employee attitudes through diversity climate in selected south african organisations. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1297. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1297 research project registration: project number: emspbs09/09/16-01/01 original research the indirect effect of servant leadership on employee attitudes through diversity climate in selected south african organisations sean mccallaghan, leon jackson, marita heyns received: 04 nov. 2019; accepted: 14 mar. 2020; published: 11 june 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: organisations are continuously diversifying their workforces and require information on how to benefit from positive diversity-related outputs. servant leadership might provide a solution to improve diversity-related outputs. literature proposes that servant leadership, diversity climate and employee outputs are related; yet, literature is silent on how these observations would operate in a transitional environment where organisations are intentionally attempting to correct inherited workforce imbalances. research purpose: the study examined indirect effects of diversity climate on the relationship between servant leadership and employee attitudes. motivation for the study: examinations of the indirect effects of diversity climate are limited. method: a quantitative approach with cross-sectional design collected 230 responses from a convenience sample. respondents completed assessments for servant leadership, diversity climate, organisational commitment, job satisfaction and intention to quit. statistical analysis included descriptive statistics, correlational analysis and three independent mediation models. main findings: servant leadership and diversity climate are positively associated with organisational commitment, job satisfaction, and non-intention to quit. servant leadership demonstrated a direct effect on diversity climate, organisational commitment, job satisfaction and non-intention to quit. diversity climate had a positive impact on organisational commitment. servant leadership demonstrated an indirect effect on organisational commitment via diversity climate. practical implications: the improvement of organisational commitment cannot only rely on servant leadership; a conducive diversity climate is also required. contribution and value-added: the examination contributes towards limited diversity climate research with evidence of the indirect capacity of diversity climate. keywords: diversity climate; intention to quit; job satisfaction; organisational commitment; servant leadership. introduction and background our societies are becoming more diverse. an increasing number of organisations are moving away from merely managing diversity because of legal obligations. in the current context of organisations, diversity is an integral part of co-operative management and planning, which is actively supported (anand & winters, 2008). positive consequences for organisations embracing and strategically managing diversity can include several organisational and employee benefits (joubert, 2017). employees who indicated that they are receptive towards diversity and especially the effective management of diversity are more inclined to also consider their organisation’s overall performance as positive. the associated advantages of a more diverse workforce include increased sales performance (richard, stewart, mckay, & sacket, 2017), organisational commitment and job satisfaction (hicks-clarke & iles, 2000). diversity further attracts the attention of organisations as it has been proven that more diverse organisations have distinct competitive advantages over heterogeneous organisations (süβ & kleiner, 2007). in addition, diversified organisations also have access to a larger and improved quality pool of human talent because of an increase in supply from future employees (foster & harris, 2005). while the constructive benefits of a diverse organisation are noticeable, the negative consequences are also a reality. such negative consequences include counterproductive effects (joshi & roh, 2009; van dijk, van engen, & van knippenberg, 2012); dissatisfaction and conflict (jayne & dipboye, 2004) as well as subtle discrimination (ogbanna & harris, 2006). in the context of this research, the focus is on constructive and positive outcomes of diversity. this study contributes towards developing solutions, rather than reconfirming the opposite effects. the possible solution to perhaps gain full benefits associated with diversity and minimising the recorded negative associations might be found in leadership. leadership, especially servant leadership, plays an essential role in augmenting diversity outcomes, ‘especially in supporting a climate respectful of differences, as well as affirming the fundamental worthiness of diverse employees’ (gotsis & grimani, 2016, p. 1002). servant leadership is a developing area that is linked to ethics, virtues and morality (parris & peachy, 2013). it is also a form of leadership that articulates emotional, relational and moral dimensions of management very well (reed, cohen, & colwell, 2011). it is also about influence, caring, listening, creating a climate of love, simplicity and consciousness, as well as contributing towards a stronger sense of interactional justice, optimistic attitude and commitment to change (choudhary, akhtar, & zaheer, 2013; kool & van dierendonck, 2012). there is enough evidence to indicate that servant leadership improves individual and team-level effectiveness (hu & liden, 2011). carter and baghurst (2014) state that servant leadership has the potential to improve employee engagement, whilst liden, wayne, zhao and henderson (2008) confirm the relationship between servant leadership and organisational commitment. from a perspective of well-being – reducing burnout and turnover intentions – hunter et al. (2013) explained that servant leadership has a positive influence on individuals. chan and mak (2014, p. 280) found evidence to indicate that servant leadership behaviour is strongly and positively associated with subordinates’ trust in leader and job satisfaction – only for short-tenure subordinates – ‘implying that managers should differentiate leader tactics accordingly’. while the associated benefits of diversification are appealing to organisations, the landscape of diversity has also drawn the attention of researchers. because of globalisation and increasing workforce diversification, a heightened increase is noted for research on diversity tailored to develop new, improved approaches to diversity management practices and interventions. the study of diversity climate is also considered one of the new areas that researchers are starting to focus on in the world of diversity literature (pugh, dietz, brief & wiley, 2008). diversity climate entails how employees appreciate and form impressions of or perceptions on how well the organisation is performing on the diversity front. this relates to specific perspectives on organisational diversity policies and practices (pugh et al., 2008). taking into consideration the independent associations between servant leadership, diversity climate and employee attitudes, and the fact that leadership is regarded as an important aspect to enhance the benefits of diversity (wieland, 2004), the present study aims to answer the question regarding whether or not diversity climate has an indirect effect on the relationship between servant leadership and the selected employee attitudes. the intended model is depicted in figure 1. figure 1: servant leadership as a model antecedent, diversity climate as a mediator and employee attitudes as model outcome. research objectives the primary objective of this study is to investigate the indirect effect of leadership on employee attitudes through a diversity climate. the secondary objectives include the following: examine the relationships between servant leadership, diversity climate and the selected employee attitudes (organisational commitment, intention to quit and job satisfaction) investigate the direct effect of servant leadership on diversity climate investigate the direct effect of diversity climate on employee attitudes explore the direct effect of servant leadership on employee attitudes. the following section is dedicated to previous literature findings on the variables under investigation as proposed in the model in figure 1. literature review proposed model antecedent: servant leadership originally proposed by greenleaf (1977), servant leadership, in principle, is a service to followers. servant leaders are also motivated by something more important than the need for power, namely, the need to serve and, therefore, servant leaders would go beyond self-interest in leading others (luthans & avolio, 2003). according to hale and fields (2007), servant leadership is: [a]n understanding and practice of leadership that places the good of those led over the self-interest of the leader, emphasizing leader behaviours that focus on follower development, and de-emphasizing glorification of the leader. (p. 397) servant leadership further emphasises moral behaviour, protecting followers from leaders who act for self-gain or out of selfishness (liden et al., 2008). servant leaders also exhibit the ability to recognise their moral responsibility towards the success of the organisation (and the success of their subordinates), the organisation’s clients and any other interested party (ehrhart, 2004). according to reed et al. (2011), servant leaders would typically display behaviours of interpersonal support, building community, altruism, egalitarianism and moral integrity. a recent south african study also found similar characteristics of servant leadership from an extend literature review. these characteristics include ‘authenticity, humility, integrity, listening, compassion, accountability, courage, and altruism’ (coetzer, bussin, & geldenhuys, 2017, p. 19). although servant leadership demonstrates several similarities with other leadership styles, it offers a more distinctive influence on organisational stakeholders (choudhary et al., 2013). proposed mediator: diversity climate the composition of the modern workforce has changed considerably over recent years and has stimulated interest in shared diversity perceptions, known as diversity climate (pugh et al., 2008). according to mor barak, cherin and berkman (1998), individuals form perceptions about the stance of an organisation’s diversity as well as their own stance of diversity. mor barak et al. (1998, p. 83) further define diversity climate as ‘employee behaviours and attitudes that are grounded in perceptions of the organisational context related to women and minorities’. although mor barak et al.’s (1998) definition is still relevant, recent literature has extended the conceptualisation of diversity climate to include multicultural perspectives, in other words, situations where cultural security, cultural diversity and cultural equity are embodied and promoted (ojukwu & oni, 2017). it is especially hofhuis, pernill, van der rijt and vlug’s (2016) view on the diversity climate that clearly conceptualises these inter-related diversity disciplines. hofhuis et al. (2016) illustrate diversity climate as an environment characterised by situations where employees can freely discuss their cultural heritage and display cultural behaviours. this conceptualisation also relates to environments where diversity is actively promoted with a belief that cultural differences provide value to the team or organisation (hofhuis et al., 2016). while the focus on a constructive diversity climate should be emphasised for this particular study, it cannot ignore the benefit associated with an accurate assessment of an organisation’s diversity climate. the end result for organisations wishing to manage one of their most valuable resources would largely depend on employees’ perceptions of diversity management initiatives (kaplan, wiley, & maertz, 2011). employees scrutinise their organisation’s diversity-related policies, practices and even work environment, which lead to the formation of perceptions on how well their organisation is doing in terms of valuing diversity (madera, dawson, & neal, 2013). organisations that would like to benefit from the positive performance associated with diversity should also take care of how employees perceive their efforts towards supporting and driving diversity initiatives (mor barak et al., 1998). diversity climate refers to the ‘aggregate employee perceptions in terms of the organisation’s diversity-related formal structure characteristics and informal values’ (gonzalez & denisi, 2009, p. 24). the perceptions employees form regarding whether an organisation is fair towards all groups are essential to the diversity climate and relate to how employees perceive organisational efforts towards inclusion or exclusion of individuals from diverse backgrounds (mor barak et al., 1998). the explanation of diversity climate by hofhuis, van der zee and otten (2012) accurately captures the present study’s view on diversity climate. hofhuis et al. (2012, p. 969) consider diversity climate as ‘the degree to which an organisational climate facilitates the presence of cultural differences, and views this diversity as a positive asset’. the view of hofhuis et al. (2012) is specifically applicable to south african organisations that employ a wide range of diverse employees, all with different cultural backgrounds. proposed model outcome: employee attitudes although several employee attitudes exist in mainstream research, the current study focuses on organisational commitment, intention to quit and job satisfaction. the selection of these employee attitudes was jointly based on organisational benefits associated with these selected employee attitudes and their proven impact as positive consequences of a constructive diversity climate. during a review study on diversity climate, mckay and avery (2015) reported that diversity climate was associated with a decrease in turnover intention, improved organisational commitment and job satisfaction. organisational commitment refers to an employee’s strong belief in the organisation’s goals and values. it further entails an employee’s ‘enthusiasm to demonstrate additional effort on behalf of the organisation, coupled with a wish to remain a member of the specific organisation’ (mowday, porter, & steers, 1982, p. 20). it is well recorded that organisational commitment comprises affective, continuance and normative commitment. affective commitment contains value similarities between employees and the organisation, and is mostly a result of the compatibility between employee objectives and values, and organisational goals (suliman & iles, 2000). continuance commitment refers to an employee’s continued connection with an organisation because of ‘the perceived high costs and risks involved when leaving an organisation’ (curtis & wright, 2001, p. 59), while normative commitment refers to ‘an employee’s feelings of having an obligation to stay with the organisation’ (allen & meyer, 1996, p. 2). employees who demonstrate high levels of organisational commitment have a propensity to remain with the organisation and continue to demonstrate constructive behaviours that result in improved organisational performance (vandenberghe, bentein, & stinglhamber, 2004). for the purpose of this study, the focus was directed towards affective commitment, as this form of commitment has generated the most interest amongst researchers (albrecht, bakker, gruman, macey, & saks, 2015). according to boshoff, van wyk, hoole and owen (2002), intention to quit is considered as the strength of a person’s view that he or she does not want to stay with the current employer, while according to bothma and roodt (2012), intention to quit is the realisation of the employee and his or her willingness to purposely leave the organisation. intention to quit precedes the final step in the withdrawal process (bothma & roodt, 2012). the benefits associated with a reduction in an employee’s intention to quit have consistently been associated with both job satisfaction and organisational commitment (yalabik, popaitoon, chowne, & rayton, 2013). job satisfaction entails how an individual feels about and thinks of his or her job (colquitt, lepine, & wesson, 2011). it can be classified into two dimensions: intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction. intrinsic satisfaction refers to the employee’s job content, such as independence, an assortment of skills, supervision and amount of responsibility, while extrinsic satisfaction is related to the work environment and includes incentives, rewards, promotion opportunities, safety and satisfactory working hours (chatzoglou, vraimaki, komsiou, polychrou, & diamantidis, 2011). job satisfaction has also been associated with organisational performance in the form of total asset turnover, revenue per employee, labour costs per employee and earnings before taxes per employee (bakotić, 2016). job satisfaction is, therefore, an important organisational aspect that would require continuous management. servant leadership, diversity climate and employee attitudes in terms of servant leadership in relation to diversity climate and employee attitudes, van dierendonck and nuijten (2011) established that servant leadership is strongly related to organisational cultures and climates for inclusion. gotsis and grimani (2016, p. 985) explained servant leadership as one of the leadership styles that might be of a ‘particular interest to the endeavour of nurturing inclusive climates’. servant leaders will typically motivate and encourage equitable and socially responsible practices, as well as interventions that will decrease tensions between subgroups, which are, in turn, expected to encourage followers’ feelings of belongingness (gotsis & grimani, 2016). not only has servant leadership been established as a worthy contributor towards organisational performance (leem, 2015), but it has also been associated with lower observations of intention to quit (brohi, jantan, sobia, & pathan, 2018), improved organisational commitment (jang & kandampully, 2018) and increased job satisfaction (cerit, 2009). according to gonzalez and denisi (2009), diversity climate will have an impact on organisational performance in the form of productivity and a return on profit. consequences of diversity climate have not been restricted to the organisational level. at the employee level, diversity climate has demonstrated an inverse relationship with intention to quit (gonzalez & denisi, 2009) and a positive, direct association with organisational commitment (gonzalez & denisi, 2009; parks, knouse, crepeau, & mcdonald, 2008). furthermore, diversity climate has demonstrated a direct positive association with job satisfaction (choi, 2013; parks et al., 2008). according to brimhall, lizano and mor barak (2014), diversity climate will have a direct effect on job satisfaction, which in turn will reduce an employee’s intention to leave. according to mckay and avery (2015), limited studies have explored diversity climate as a mediator. however, from a south african perspective, mccallaghan, jackson and heyns (2019a) found evidence to suggest that diversity climate can be considered as a mediator in the relationship between transformational leadership and organisational commitment. according to mccallaghan, jackson and heyns (2019b), transformational leadership would also have an indirect effect on job satisfaction via diversity climate. problem statement the mismanagement of certain south african organisations is currently considered as a large-scale problem and research suggests that agencies combating corruption are not performing well (budhram & geldenhuys, 2018). because of servant leadership’s emphasis on integrity and morality and the fact that south africa is further attempting to redress inherited imbalances (jackson, van de vijver & molokoane, 2013), whilst also combating corruption, this study considers to examine the relationship between servant leadership, diversity climate and employee attitudes as a relevant investigation. south africa has a unique history of segregation and historic labour imbalances can still be witnessed. a current labour force report indicates that the south african workforce is still dominated by large groups of men (49% of total employed population compared to 38% employment rate of women) and white people (65% of total employed population compared to 40.5% for the african group; 50% for the mixed race group and 55% for the indian or asian group) (statistics south africa, 2018). the dominance of certain demographical groups might pose managerial problems in itself. it might be that this dominance also invites negative organisational observations, especially towards gender and racial discrimination that is still witnessed in south african organisations (jaga, arabandi, bagraim, & mdlongwa, 2018). south african researchers have also stated that racial stereotypes are still widespread amongst all four south african race groups (african, white, indian and mixed race) (durrheim & talbot, 2012). these witnessed stereotypes are not restricted to race, but also include gender stereotypes, especially between individuals occupying managerial positions (booysen & nkomo, 2010). perhaps, effective leadership is what is required in combating these negative associations with diversity. according to covey (2006), servant leadership is very applicable to south africa as this form of leadership displays moral authority, humility, service and sacrifice that can lead to trust and respect. the view of covey (2006) is supported by kgatle (2018, p. 8), who stated that ‘servant leadership is an urgent style for the current state of political leadership in south africa’. researchers further indicate that empirical evidence demonstrating the effect of servant leadership on job outcomes is relatively scarce (chiniara & bentein, 2016), together with studies examining variables that could possibly mediate the relationship between servant leadership and employee outcomes (panaccio, donia, saint-michel, & liden, 2015). chin, desormeaux and sawyer (2016) called for a re-examination of leadership theories in diverse settings. to the best of our knowledge, there is no research exploring any relationship between servant leadership and diversity climate and employee attitudes in a south african context. according to mckay and avery (2015), researchers should test leadership as a non-traditional antecedent of diversity climate and also consider diversity climate as a mediator in possible future studies. in summary, in order for south african organisations to manage diversity more effectively and to improve negative employee attitudes that might be created by non-conducive diversity climates, relevant and empirically tested evidence is required. as indicated, the south african environment with regard to diversity management is unique and, therefore, south african organisations, managers and leaders would require evidence from a south african investigation. from limited literature it is evident that servant leadership would impact diversity climate, and diversity climate would impact employee attitudes. however, the majority of western samples were not subjected to the long, legalised segregation and inherited historic labour imbalances as witnessed by south african organisations. moreover, international diversity climate literature is silent on how servant leadership would impact employee attitudes via diversity climate. taking into consideration the preceding paragraphs from the literature review, problem statement and research objectives, the following research questions have been developed: what is the type and nature of the relationship between servant leadership, diversity climate and employee attitudes? what is the impact of servant leadership on diversity climate? what is the effect of diversity climate on employee attitudes? what is the impact of servant leadership on employee attitudes? what is the indirect effect of servant leadership on employee attitudes through diversity climate? study methodology research design and approach this study applied a quantitative approach with a cross-sectional design. a cross-sectional design was considered appropriate because it could explain connections amongst variables and serve as the foundation for understanding and theorising occurrences (spector, 2019). servant leadership, diversity climate and employee attitudes (organisational commitment, intention to quit and job satisfaction) were assessed at a single point in time and, therefore, the cross-sectional design was further considered as appropriate. the anonymous nature of the study ensured that a minimal risk classification was obtained. questionnaires were only distributed to selected gauteng-based, south african organisations after permission had been granted via human resource managers, heads of departments or team leaders. objectives of the study and confidentiality were also communicated to the participants. after a set time, questionnaires were collected from central points at each participating organisation. participants and sampling data were primarily collected through a non-probability convenience sample from individuals employed at south africa-based organisations. organisations from the manufacturing, financial, retail and industrial sectors were included in the sample. in total, 820 questionnaires were distributed of which 230 responses could be used, resulting in a 28% response rate. the sample characteristics are presented in table 1. table 1: sample characteristics. measuring instruments the measuring instrument consisted of four main sections. the first section collected biographical data, with the final three sections collecting data relating to observations on servant leadership, diversity climate and employee attitudes, respectively. the measuring instrument comprised the following components. the biographical section collected authentic data from respondents, including the year of birth, gender, ethnicity, employment status and tenure. the servant leadership dimension was measured by the executive servant leadership scale (esls) as developed by reed et al. (2011). the esls comprises elements of servant leadership, namely, interpersonal support, building community, altruism, egalitarianism and moral integrity. the esls has 55 scale items and uses a five-point likert scale, ranging from (1) totally disagree to (5) totally agree. a typical item from the esls is as follows: ‘consider the effects of organisational decisions on the community’. a recent south african application of the esls reported the following cronbach’s alpha scores: interpersonal support (α = 0.94), building community (α = 0.85), altruism (α = 0.92), egalitarianism (α = 0.84) and moral integrity (α = 0.90) (van heerden, 2015). the one-dimensional diversity climate was measured with the diversity climate instrument developed by mckay et al. (2007). the instrument (with nine scale items) measures individuals’ perceptions regarding the commitment of the organisation towards eliminating discrimination and creating an environment of inclusivity (mckay et al., 2007). the one-dimensional diversity climate instrument uses a five-point likert scale, ranging from (1) well below expectations to (5) well above expectations. a typical item is as follows: ‘respect perspectives of people like me’. the original application of the one-dimensional diversity climate instrument recorded a cronbach’s alpha value of 0.91 (mckay et al., 2007). the job satisfaction dimension was measured by using the short version of the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire (msq) (weis, england, & lofquist, 1967). the short version of the msq comprises 20 scale items and measures intrinsic, extrinsic and general satisfaction (weis et al., 1967). the msq offers five options for each statement, ranging from (1) very dissatisfied to (5) very satisfied. a typical item from the questionnaire is as follows: ‘being able to keep busy all the time’. in terms of reliability for the short version of the msq, a south african study reported a cronbach’s alpha value of 0.96 for an aggregated job satisfaction score (rothmann, scholtz, fourie, & rothmann, 2000). the employee commitment variable was determined with an application of the ‘organisational commitment’ construct in the psycones questionnaire (psychological contracts across employment situations; kerstin, 2002). the organisational commitment scale comprises five scale items, ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree. a typical item to determine organisational commitment is as follows: ‘even if this organisation or client was not doing too well, i would be reluctant to change to another employer or client’. a south african application of the measuring instrument reported a cronbach’s alpha value of 0.72 (walters, 2008). the intention to quit dimension was measured by using the ‘intention to quit’ construct in the psycones questionnaire as developed by kerstin (2002). the four-item scale uses a five-point likert scale, ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree. a typical item to quantify the specific measurement is as follows: ‘these days, i often feel like quitting’. a higher score would be an indication of the likelihood of respondents quitting or exiting their current employment, whilst a lower score would be an indication that respondents do not really show a propensity to quit their present employment. a south african application of the measuring instrument recorded a cronbach’s alpha value of 0.93 (walters, 2008). statistical analysis the data were captured and analysed by using statistical package for social sciences (spss) (ibm corp, 2018) version 25.0. an exploratory factor analysis was conducted for each single measured variable in this study. the statistical analysis of the factor analysis included the kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy; principal component analysis was used as the extraction method. according to field (2009), the kmo measure of sampling adequacy could be used to determine whether or not a sample was suitable for factor analysis. a value close to 1 indicates that patterns of correlations are relatively compact and a factor analysis, therefore, should yield distinct, reliable factors (field, 2009). eigenvalues larger than 1.00 were used as criteria for factor selection, as proposed by field (2009). a study by jackson (2017) administered similar techniques in order to determine separate validity, including an investigation on personal resource, transformational leadership and employee attitudes. cronbach’s alpha values and inter-item correlations were computed in order to determine reliability. adequate reliability was considered at α > 0.60 = moderate (robinson, shaver, & wrightsman, 1991) and r = 0.10 for inter-item correlations (pallant, 2007). pearson’s correlation values were calculated in order to determine the relationships between variables. effect sizes were set at a confidence level of 99%, with p < 0.01 viewed as significant. parameters for the correlation coefficients were considered as exerting a small effect when r ≥ 0.10, medium effect when r ≥ 0.30 and large effect when r ≥ 0.50 (cohen, 1988). mediation modelling was computed by using process macros, version 3 (hayes, 2017) which was installed in spss. mediation modelling also included standardised regression coefficients in order to determine predictor characteristics of the investigated variables. servant leadership was considered as the independent variable; diversity climate as the mediator and employee attitudes (organisational commitment, intention to quit and job satisfaction) as dependent variables. gender and race were included as control variables. mediation was verified with an indirect effect, using a percentile bootstrap estimation approach by including 10 000 samples (shrout & bolger, 2002). an indirect effect from the bootstrap analysis was considered significant if the lower level confidence interval (llci) and upper level confidence interval (ulci) excluded 0 (zhao, lynch, & chen, 2010). a complementary mediation result could only be determined with existing mediated and direct effects pointing in the same direction (zhao et al., 2010). ethical consideration ethical clearance (nwu-00602-20-a4) to conduct the study was obtained from the north-west university school of business and governance. results the findings of the study are reported in three main sections. the first section reports on validity; the second section reports on reliability and descriptive statistics; whilst the final section reports on correlations, multiple regression and structural equation modelling. exploratory factor analysis the results gathered from the separate exploratory factor analysis, inspections of scree plots and eigenvalues of the extracted factors indicate that all measurement scales applied in this study could be considered as one-dimensional. eigenvalues greater than 1.00 were used as criteria for factor selection, as proposed by field (2009). the uni-factorial calculations extracted explain 60.60% of the variance, with an eigenvalue of 5.45 (kmo = 0.90) in diversity climate. with regard to servant leadership, the uni-factorial solutions extracted explain 71.48% of the variance in interpersonal support, with an eigenvalue of 4.29 (kmo = 0.90). the first factor extracted in building community explains 64.97% of the variance with an eigenvalue of 3.25 (kmo = 0.84), while in the altruism variable, the first factor expounds 79.15% of the variance with an eigenvalue of 3.17 (kmo = 0.85). the egalitarianism factor has 75.56% of the variance clarified by the first factor extracted, with an eigenvalue of 3.02 (kmo = 0.81); and the moral integrity factor has 71.63% of the variance explained by the first factor, with an eigenvalue of 4.30 (kmo = 0.92). the results for the organisational commitment variable reveal the fact that the first factor extracted explains 56.01 of the variance, with an eigenvalue of 2.80 (kmo = 0.79). the intention-to-quit factor has 77.25% of the variance explained for the first factor extracted, with an eigenvalue of 3.09 (kmo = 0.88). with regard to the job satisfaction variable, the intrinsic satisfaction factor has 44.21% of the variance explained by the first factor extracted, with an eigenvalue of 5.31. the extrinsic factor reveals a variance of 56.77% for the first factor extracted, with an eigenvalue of 3.41 (kmo = 0.79). the general job satisfaction variable has 69.34% of the variance explained by the first factor extracted, with an eigenvalue of 1.38 (kmo = 0.50). descriptive and reliability results table 2 depicts the results obtained from descriptive and reliability statistical calculations. table 2: descriptive and reliability results, servant leadership, diversity climate and employee attitudes. according to table 2, the general job satisfaction (α = 0.58; r = 0.39) factor documents an alpha score below the set threshold and was therefore removed from further analysis. reliability scores for the remaining variables were deemed acceptable. table 2 further demonstrates the fact that the main variables are all in their respective scales’ ‘agree’ range. the results for the diversity climate observation and servant leadership recorded a mean score of 3.39 and 3.55, respectively. the job satisfaction variable recorded a mean score of 3.66, which would suggest that the respondents are fairly satisfied with their current occupation. the intention-to-quit variable recorded a mean score of 2.48, which would indicate that the respondents from the sample group are not actually demonstrating turnover intention. correlation analysis table 3 shows the results obtained from the correlation analysis. the purpose of the correlation analysis was to determine the extent and direction of the relationships between the variables under investigation. table 3: correlation analysis: servant leadership, diversity climate and employee attitudes. characteristics from servant leadership recorded significant correlations with diversity climate (table 3). the correlations range from r = 0.38 to r = 0.48, with all relationships considered as medium practical effect. the relationship between servant leadership (aggregate) and diversity climate also yields a positive result (r = 0.41, medium). features of servant leadership further demonstrate significant relationships with employee attitudes. servant leadership recorded a positive relationship with organisational commitment (r = 0.36, medium) and job satisfaction (r =-0.67, large). the relationship between servant leadership and intention to quit demonstrates an inverse relationship (r = −0.36, medium). this result indicates that higher levels of servant leadership within the sample would be associated with lower feelings of turnover intention. diversity climate recorded positive associations with organisational commitment (r = 0.34) and job satisfaction (r = 0.32), with both relationships considered as medium. furthermore, diversity climate has an inverse relationship with intention to quit (r = −0.20), which is interpreted as a medium effect. this would imply that respondents who indicated a positive perception towards diversity climate would most probably also be associated with lower levels of intention to quit. simple mediation modelling three independent simple mediation models were tested by using process (hayes, 2017). servant leadership was considered as the independent variable in each model, while diversity climate was considered as the proposed mediator. the dependent variables were considered as organisational commitment, intention to quit and job satisfaction. both gender and ethnicity were included as control variables. the results for the three independent models are presented in table 4. table 4: standardised regression coefficients of the variables: servant leadership, diversity climate and employee attitudes. table 4 reveals that only model 1 demonstrates adequate evidence to consider diversity climate as a mediator in the relationship between servant leadership and organisational commitment. neither model 2 nor model 3 yields a significant result when considering the indirect effect of servant leadership on intention to quit and job satisfaction individually through diversity climate. model 1 reveals the first regression (a) where servant leadership (independent variable) and diversity climate (mediator) reveal a significant result with b = 0.39, t (225) = 6.74, p < 0.01. the second regression (b) with diversity climate (mediator) and organisational commitment (dependent variable) is also significant with b = 0.20, t (224) = 3.43, p < 0.01; while the third regression (c) is also significant where servant leadership is considered the independent variable and organisational commitment the dependent variable, with b = 0.22, t (224) = 3.98, p < 0.01. the results for the indirect effect reveal a significant result, with b = 0.08, standard error (se) = 0.03, llci = 0.03 and ulci = 0.15. the indirect effect from the bootstrap analysis, with 95% confidence interval, did not include 0; therefore, (a × b) is significant. consequently, diversity climate can be considered as a mediator in the relationship between servant leadership and organisational commitment. all three pathways (a, b and c) are significant and positive; for that reason, the mediation model is considered a ‘complementary mediation’ model as recommended by zhao et al. (2010). the results for model 1 are demonstrated in figure 2. figure 2: simple mediation model 1: servant leadership, diversity climate and organisational commitment. model 2 indicates that the first regression (a) with servant leadership and diversity climate (mediator) demonstrates a significant result with b = 0.39, t (225) = 6.74, p < 0.01. the second regression (b) with diversity climate (mediator) and intention to quit (dependant variable) is not significant, with b = −0.06, t (224) = −0.61, p = 0.54; while the third regression (c) yields a significant result where servant leadership is considered as the independent variable, and intention to quit as the dependent variable, with b = −0.48, t (224) = −5.30, p < 0.01. the results for the indirect effect do not reveal a significant result, with b = −0.02, se = 0.04, llci = −0.10 and ulci = 0.06. the values between the confidence interval include 0; therefore, diversity climate cannot be considered a mediator in the relationship between servant leadership and intention to quit. the results from model 2 are illustrated in figure 3. figure 3: simple mediation model 2: servant leadership, diversity climate and intention to quit. the results from model 2 indicate that the first regression (a) with servant leadership and diversity climate (mediator) is significant, with b = 0.39, t (225) = 6.75, p < 0.01. the second regression (b) with diversity climate (mediator) and job satisfaction (dependant variable) is not significant, with b = 0.03, t (224) = 0.66, p = 0.51; while the third regression (c) produced a significant result where servant leadership is considered the independent variable and job satisfaction the dependent variable, with b = 0.48, t (224) = 12.14, p < 0.01. the results for the indirect effect do not reveal a significant result, with b= 0.01, se = 0.02, llci = −0.03 and ulci = 0.06. the values amidst the confidence interval included 0; therefore, diversity climate cannot be considered as a mediator in the relationship between servant leadership and intention to quit. the results of model 3 are illustrated in figure 4. figure 4: simple mediation model 3: servant leadership, diversity climate and job satisfaction. discussion the objectives of the study were to examine three separate mediating models with diversity climate considered as the mediator in the relationship between servant leadership and employee attitudes. the objectives further included an investigation into the relationships, including direct effects between servant leadership, diversity climate and the investigated employee outcomes (organisational commitment, intention to quit and job satisfaction). the objectives aimed at answering the following research questions: what is the type and nature of the relationship between servant leadership, diversity climate and employee attitudes? what is the impact of servant leadership on diversity climate? what is the effect of diversity climate on employee attitudes? what is the impact of servant leadership on employee attitudes? what is the indirect effect of servant leadership on employee attitudes through diversity climate? the results reveal that servant leadership has a significant positive relationship with diversity climate. this would translate to a situation where beneficial levels of servant leadership would also be associated with a constructive amount of diversity climate. in addition, servant leadership demonstrates a significant and positive direct effect with diversity climate, which translates into a situation where higher recordings of servant leadership would also result in a conducive diversity climate. the results of the present study confirm previous findings of gotsis and grimani (2016) and van dierendonck (2011) who stated that servant leadership is highly related to cultures and climates for inclusion. therefore, the present study further contributes to limited literature on diversity climate, providing empirical evidence that servant leadership can be associated with constructive levels of diversity climate; at the same time, positive levels of servant leadership are also likely to predict higher levels of diversity climate. servant leadership symbolises an ethical element to such an extent that servant leaders are considered as individuals who set more humane ideals for individuals respecting diverse employees (gotsis & grimani, 2016). servant leadership further demonstrates a statistically significant and positive medium practical relationship with organisational commitment and an inverse medium practical relationship with employee’s intention to quit. these results imply that within the south african sample group, higher recordings of servant leadership would be associated with employees who are more committed and demonstrate a reduced propensity of quitting their current employment. the examinations of direct effects further demonstrate servant leadership to have a direct positive effect on organisational commitment and job satisfaction, and an inverse direct effect on employees’ intention to quit. the results would translate into a situation where improved observations of servant leadership would result in improved levels of organisational commitment and job satisfaction, and would further result in employees not showing intentions to quit. the findings confirm previous investigations that servant leadership would be associated with improved organisational commitment (jang & kandampully, 2018) and intentions not to quit (brohi et al., 2018). servant leadership recordings also demonstrate a statistically significant and practically strong relationship with job satisfaction, therefore confirming the previous findings of cerit (2009). the findings pertaining to the relationships between diversity climate, organisational commitment, intention to quit and job satisfaction reveal servant leadership to have a positive relationship with organisational commitment and job satisfaction. diversity climate further has an inverse relationship with employee’s intentions to quit. the present study supports previous findings indicating diversity climate to be positively associated with organisational commitment (gonzalez & denisi, 2009) and job satisfaction (choi, 2013), and further demonstrates associations with non-intentions to quit (gonzalez & denisi, 2009). these results suggest that higher observations of diversity climate of respondents within the sample group would also be associated with higher recordings of organisational commitment and job satisfaction, and lower recordings of intention to quit. although these results should be considered as positive, the study was only able to find evidence that a constructive diversity climate would positively impact levels of organisational commitment. the results of the three separate mediation models could only provide evidence that servant leadership would have an indirect effect on organisational commitment via diversity climate. evidence could not be obtained to indicate a significant indirect effect of servant leadership on intention to quit, and job satisfaction via diversity climate. previous findings offer evidence to suggest the fact that diversity climate would mediate the relationship between a positive form of leadership (transformational) and organisational commitment (mccallaghan et al., 2019a). the present study confirms the mediating characteristics of diversity climate in the relationship of a positive form of leadership (servant leadership in the case of the present study) and organisational commitment. theoretical and practical implications for human resource practitioners this study extends the diversity climate literature by obtaining evidence from a south african sample that servant leadership impacts diversity climate. it is widely known that policies and practices related to effective diversity management are considered traditional antecedents of diversity climate (mckay & avery, 2015). mckay and avery (2015) have also called on researchers to examine non-traditional antecedents of diversity climate, for example, leadership. the present contribution demonstrates direct effects and positive associations between characteristics of servant leadership and a constructive diversity climate. as a supplement to effective diversity policies and practices, organisations should further benefit on the diversity front by implementing strategic development initiatives in terms of interpersonal employee support, community building, greater acts of humanity, increased observations of tangible fairness and moral integrity. while well-formulated and governed policies and practices are important contributing factors towards an improved diversity climate, organisations should also manage diversity beyond normal legislative requirements (gotsis & kortezi, 2015). for organisations to experience the full benefit of a diversity climate, they are required to focus on discrimination and social justice improvement, as this will improve employee perceptions in terms of the total commitment towards diversity (gotsis & kortezi, 2015). the current study offers evidence that although servant leadership might be sufficient to reduce employees’ intention to quit their current occupations and improve their job satisfaction, managers and leaders would have to carefully consider how employees form perceptions regarding diversity, especially when attempting to improve organisational commitment. therefore, managing diversity beyond legislative requirement can assist organisations in improving organisational commitment, especially when employees are subjected to servant leadership behaviours. the findings, therefore, contribute to limited literature related to diversity climate, especially when examining the indirect effect of diversity climate on the relationship between servant leadership and employee attitudes. limitations and future research we are realistic in accepting that the present study was not faultless. the quantitative cross-sectional approach reflects servant leadership, diversity climate and employee outcomes at a single point in time. although cross-sectional investigations are valuable in identifying certain observations at a single point in time (spector, 2019), the long-term causal effect of diversity-related interventions can only be confirmed with repeated examinations over time. for example, future studies might consider examining the observation of new employees with regard to servant leadership, diversity climate and employee outcomes consequently re-examining the same employees after a considerable employment period. furthermore, a convenience sampling method was used to gather data and as a result, population generalisation could not be considered. future studies should consider a mixed-method approach with a stratified sampling technique, especially when investigating gender and ethnic differences within servant leadership. the low reliability score for the general job satisfaction variable might be a result of low scale items; however, rephrasing the items with a test or retest method should be considered in future studies. given the association between servant leadership and high morality, future studies should consider alternative leadership forms that also resemble high levels of morality and integrity when investigating relationships with diversity climate. authentic and ethical leadership behaviour could be considered in this regard. employee outcomes were restricted to individual attitudes and future south african studies should perhaps consider performance indicators as model outputs, including ethical behaviour and indicators of integrity. because of self-report questionnaires and noticeable correlations between variables, common source bias is also identified as a limitation of the study. in order to mitigate common source bias, future studies should consider careful assessment of the research setting, identify possible sources of bias and apply both procedural and statistical methods to control for common source bias (podsakoff, mackenzie, & lee, 2003). future studies could perhaps consider a mixed-method approach in order to confirm or dismiss quantitative outcomes. the present study covered a wide range of industries; future studies should consider focusing on one specific industry in order to formulate better understandings on how diversity climate operates in specific industries. conclusion this study helped confirm the fact that conducive levels of servant leadership should be able to positively impact levels of job satisfaction and decrease levels of an employee’s intention to quit. however, the presence of servant leadership would not be sufficient to improve organisational commitment; what is also required are positive shared perceptions on how well the organisation manages and values diversity. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions s.m. conducted the literature review, collected and processed all data and was responsible for the write-up of the article. l.j. and m.h. guided the conceptualisation and interpretation of results, provided a commentary and co-authored the article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references albrecht, s.l., bakker, a.b., gruman, j.a., macey, w.h., & saks, a.m. (2015). employee engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: an integrated approach. journal of organizational effectiveness: people and performance, 2(1), 7–35. https://doi.org/10.1108/joepp-08-2014-0042 allen, n., & meyer, j. (1996). affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organisation: an examination of construct validity. journal of vocational behaviour, 49(3), 252–276. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1996.0043 anand, r., & winters, m.f. (2008). a retrospective view of corporate diversity training from 1964 to present. academy of management learning & education, 7(3), 356–371. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2008.34251673 bakotić, d. (2016). relationship between job satisfaction and organisational performance. economic research-ekonomska istraživanja, 29(1), 118–130. https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677x.2016.1163946 booysen, l.a.e., & nkomo, s.m. (2010). gender role stereotypes and requisite management characteristics: the case of south africa. gender in management: an international journal, 25(4), 285–300. https://doi.org/10.1108/17542411011048164 boshoff, a.b., van wyk, r., hoole, c., & owen, j.h. (2002). the prediction of intention to quit by means of biographic variables, work commitment, role strain and psychological climate. management dynamics, 11(4), 14–28. bothma, f.c., & roodt, g. (2012). work based identity and work engagement as potential antecedents of task performance and turnover intention: unravelling a complex relationship. south african journal of industrial psychology, 38(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v38i1.893 brimhall, k.c., lizano, e.l., & mor barak, m.e. (2014). the mediating role of inclusion: a longitudinal study of the effects of leader-member exchange and diversity climate on job satisfaction and intention to leave among child welfare workers. children and youth services review, 40, 79–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2014.03.003 brohi, n.a., jantan, a.h., sobia, a.m.s., & pathan, t.g. (2018). does servant leadership style induce positive organisational behaviors? a conceptual study of servant leadership, psychological capital, and intention to quit relationship. journal of international business and management, 1(1), 1–11. budhram, t., & geldenhuys, n. (2018). combating corruption in south africa: assessing the performance of investigating and prosecuting agencies. acta criminologica: south african journal of criminology, 31(2), 23–46. carter, d., & baghurst, t. (2014). the influence of servant leadership on restaurant employee engagement. journal of business ethics, 124(3), 453–464. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1882-0 cerit, y. (2009). the effects of servant leadership behaviours of school principals on teachers’ job satisfaction. educational management administration & leadership, 37(5), 600–623. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143209339650 chan, s.c., & mak, w. (2014). the impact of servant leadership and subordinates’ organizational tenure on trust in leader attitudes. personnel review, 43(2), 272–287. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-08-2011-0125 chatzoglou, p.d., vraimaki, e., komsiou, e., polychrou, e., & diamantidis, a.d. (2011). factors affecting accountants’ job satisfaction and turnover intentions: a structural equation model. paper presented at the 8th international conference on enterprise systems, accounting and logistics, 11–12 july 2011. greece: thassos island. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257230548_factors_affecting_accountants’_job_satisfaction_and_turnover_intentions_a_structural_equation_model chin, j. l., desormeaux, l., & sawyer, k. (2016). making way for paradigms of diversity leadership. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 68(1), 49–71. chiniara, m., & bentein, k. (2016). linking servant leadership to individual performance: differentiating the mediating role of autonomy, competence and relatedness need satisfaction. the leadership quarterly, 27(1), 124–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2015.08.004 choi, s. (2013). demographic diversity of managers and employee job satisfaction. review of public personnel administration, 33(3), 275–298. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x12453054 choudhary, a.i., akhtar, s.a., & zaheer, a. (2013). impact of transformational and servant leadership on organizational performance: a comparative analysis. journal of business ethics, 116(20), 433–440. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1470-8 coetzer, m.f., bussin, m., & geldenhuys, m. (2017). the functions of a servant leader. administrative sciences, 7(5), 1–32. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci7010005 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for behavioural science (2nd edn.). hillside, nj: erlbaum. colquitt, j.a., lepine, j.a., & wesson, m.w. (2011). organisational behaviour: improving performance and commitment in the workplace (2nd edn.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. covey, s.r. (2006). servant leadership: use your voice to serve others. leadership excellence, 23(12), 5–6. curtis, s., & wright, d. (2001). retaining employees: the fast track to commitment. management research news, 24(8/9), 59–64. https://doi.org/10.1108/01409170110782964 durrheim, k., & talbot, k. (2012). the princeton trilogy revisited: how have racial stereotypes changed in south africa? south african journal of psychology, 42(4), 476–491. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124631204200403 ehrhart, m.g. (2004). leadership and procedural justice climate as antecedents of unit-level organizational citizenship behaviour. personnel psychology, 57(1), 61–96. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2004.tb02484.x field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss (3rd edn.). london: sage. foster, c., & harris, l. (2005). easy to say, difficult to do: diversity management in retail. human resource management journal, 15(3), 4–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2005.tb00150.x gonzalez, j.a., & denisi, a.s. (2009). cross-level effects of demography and diversity climate on organizational attachment and firm effectiveness. journal of organizational behaviour, 30(1), 21–40. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.498 gotsis, g., & grimani, k. (2016). the role of servant leadership in fostering inclusive organizations. journal of management development, 35(8), 985–1010. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd-07-2015-0095 gotsis, g., & kortezi, z. (2015). critical studies in diversity management literature. a review and synthesis. new york, ny: springer. greenleaf, r.k. (1977). servant leadership: a journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. new york, ny: paulist press. hale, r.k., & fields, d.l. (2007). exploring servant leadership across cultures: a study of followers in ghana and the usa. leadership, 3(4), 397–417. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715007082964 hayes, a.f. (2017). introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: a regression-based approach. new york, ny: guilford publications. hicks-clarke, d., & iles, p. (2000). climate for diversity and its effects on career and organisational attitudes and perceptions. personnel review, 29(3), 324–345. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480010324689 hofhuis, j., van der rijt, p.g.a., & vlug, m. (2016). diversity enhances work outcomes through trust and openness in workgroup communication. springerplus, 5(714), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40064-016-2499-4 hofhuis, j., van der zee, k.i., & otten, s. (2012). social identity patterns in culturally diverse organisations: the role of diversity climate. journal of applied social psychology, 42(4), 964–989. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2011.00848.x hu, j., & liden, r.c. (2011). antecedents of team potency and team effectiveness: an examination of goal and process clarity and servant leadership. journal of applied psychology, 96(4), 851–862. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022465 hunter, e.m., neubert, m.j., perry, j.s., witt, l.a., penney, l.m., & weinberger, e. (2013). servant leadership inspires servant followers: antecedents and outcomes for employees and the organization. the leadership quarterly, 24(2), 316–331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2012.12.001 ibm corp. (2018). ibm spss statistics for windows, version 25.0. armonk, ny: ibm corp. jackson, l.t.b. (2017). the mediating role of personal resources in the relationship between transformational leadership and employee attitude. in c.a. bisschoff, & j. jordaan (eds.), 2017 international business conference proceedings, dar es salaam, tanzania (pp. 569–608). north-west university. retrieved from http://ibc-conference.com/2017-ibc/ jackson, l.t.b., van de vijver, f.j.r., & molokoane, d.h. (2013). a dualprocess model of diversity outcomes: the case south african police service in the pretoria area. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–13. jaga, a., arabandi, b., bagraim, j., & mdlongwa, s. (2018). doing the ‘gender dance’: black women professionals negotiating gender, race, work and family in post-apartheid south africa. community work & family, 0(0), 1–16. jang, j., & kandampully, j. (2018). reducing employee turnover intention through servant leadership in the restaurant context: a mediation study of affective organizational commitment. international journal of hospitality & tourism administration, 19(2), 125–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/15256480.2017.1305310 jayne, m.e.a., & dipboye, r.l. (2004). leveraging diversity to improve business performance: research findings and recommendations for organizations. human resource management, 43(4), 409–424. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20033 joshi, a., & roh, h. (2009). the role of context in work team diversity research: a meta-analytic review. academy of management journal, 52(3), 599–627. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2009.41331491 joubert, y.t. (2017). workplace diversity in south africa: its qualities and management. journal of psychology in africa, 27, 367–371. kaplan, d.m., wiley, j.w., & maertz, c.p. (2011). the role of calculative attachment in the relationship between diversity climate and retention. human resource management, 50(2), 271–287. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20413 kerstin, i. (2002). psychological contracts across employment situations (psycones). stockholm: institute for working life. kgatle, m.s. (2018). servant leadership: an urgent style for the current political leadership in south africa. verbum et ecclesia, 39(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/ve.v39i1.1815 kool, m., & van dierendonck, d. (2012). servant leadership and commitment to change, the mediating role of justice and optimism. journal of organizational change management, 25(3), 422–433. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534811211228139 leem, t.j. (2015). the relationship between servant leadership and the diversity of performance measures. indian journal of science and technology, 8(s1), 254–260. https://doi.org/10.17485/ijst/2015/v8is1/59023 liden, r.c., wayne, s.j., zhao, h., & henderson, d. (2008). servant leadership: development of a multidimensional measure and multi-level assessment. leadership quarterly, 19(2), 161–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2008.01.006 luthans, f., & avolio, b. (2003). authentic leadership development. in k.s. cameron & j.e. dutton (eds.), positive organisational scholarship (pp. 241–258). san francisco, ca: berrett-koehler. madera, j.m., dawson, m., & neal, j.a. (2013). hotel managers’ perceived diversity climate and job satisfaction: the mediating effects of role ambiguity and conflict. international journal of hospitality management, 35, 28–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2013.05.001 mccallaghan, s., jackson, l.t.b., & heyns, m.m. (2019a). exploring organisational diversity climate with associated antecedents and employee outcomes. south african journal of industrial psychology, 45(0), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2019.1619994 mccallaghan, s., jackson, l.t.b., & heyns, m.m. (2019b). transformational leadership, diversity climate and job satisfaction in selected south african companies. journal of psychology in africa, 29(3), 195–202. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2019.1619994 mckay, p.f., & avery, d.r. (2015). diversity climate in organizations: current wisdom and domains of uncertainty. research in personnel and human resource management, 33, 191–233. mckay, p.f., avery, d.r., tonidandel, s., morris, m.a., hernandez, m., & hebl, m.r. (2007). racial differences in employee retention: are diversity climate perceptions key? personnel psychology, 60(1), 35–62. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2007.00064.x mor barak, m.e., cherin, d.a., & berkman, s. (1998). organizational and personal dimensions in diversity climate: ethnic and gender differences in employee attitudes. the journal of applied behavioural sciences, 34(1), 82–104. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886398341006 mowday, r.t., porter, l.m., & steers, r.m. (1982). employee–organization linkages. new york, ny: academic press. ogbonna, e., & harris, l.c. (2006). the dynamics of employee relationships in an ethnically diverse workforce. human relations, 59(3), 379–407. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726706064181 ojukwu, c., & oni, e.o. (2017). multiculturalism, racialism and the dilemma of the african-american in the twenty-first century. affrika journal of politics, economics and society, 7(1), 111–126. https://doi.org/10.31920/2075-6534/2017/v7n1a6 pallant, j. (2007). spss survival manual. a step by step to data analysis using spss for windows (7th edn.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. panaccio, a., donia, m., saint-michel, s., & liden, r.c. (2015). servant leadership and well-being. in r.j. burke, k.m. page & c.l. cooper (eds.), flourishing in life, work and careers (pp. 334–358). cheltenham: edward elgar. parks, k.m., crepeau, l.j., knouse, s.b., & mcdonald, d.p. (2008). latina perceptions of diversity climate in the military. business journal of hispanic research, 2(3), 48–61. parris, d.l., & peachy, j.w. (2013). a systematic literature review of servant leadership theory in organizational contexts. journal of business ethics, 113, 377–393. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1322-6 podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., & lee, j. (2003). common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. journal of applied psychology, 88(5), 879–903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879 pugh, s.d., dietz, j., brief, a.p., & wiley, j.w. (2008). looking inside out: the impact of employee and community demographic composition on organizational diversity climate. journal of applied psychology, 93(6), 1422–1428. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012696 reed, l.l., cohen, d.v., & colwell, s.r. (2011). a new scale to measure executive servant leadership. journal of business ethics, 101, 415–434. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0729-1 richard, o.c., stewart, m.m., mckay, p.f., & sacket, t. (2017). the impact of store-unit-community racial diversity congruence on store-unit sales performance. journal of management, 43(7), 2386–2403. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206315579511 robinson, j.p., shaver, p.r., & wrightsman, l.s. (1991). criteria for scale selection and evaluation. in j.p. robinson, p.r. shaver & l.s. wrightsman (eds.), measures of personality and social psychological attitudes (pp. 1–16). san diego, ca: academic press. rothmann, s., scholtz, p.e., fourie, m., & rothmann, j.c. (2000). the relationship between individual variables and work-related outcomes. potchefstroom: potchefstroom university for christian higher education. shrout, p.e., & bolger, n. (2002). mediation in experimental and nonexperimental studies: new procedures and recommendations. psychological methods, 7(4), 422–445. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989x.7.4.422 spector, p.e. (2019). do not cross me: optimising the use of cross-sectional designs. journal of business psychology, 34(3), 125–137. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-018-09613-8 statistics south africa. (2018). quarterly labour force survey, quarter q1, 2018. retrieved from https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/p0211/p02111stquarter2018.pdf. suliman, a., & iles, p. (2000). is continuance commitment beneficial to organisations? commitment-performance relationship: a new look. journal of managerial psychology, 15(5), 407–426. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940010337158 süβ, s., & kleiner, m. (2007). diversity management in germany: dissemination and design of the concept. the international journal of human resource management, 18(11), 1934–1953. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190701638150 van dierendonck, d., & nuijten, i. (2011). the servant leadership survey: development and validation of a multidimensional measure. journal of business psychology, 26, 249–267. van dijk, h., van engen, m.l., & van knippenberg, d. (2012). defying conventional wisdom: meta-analytical examination of the differences between demographic and job related diversity relationships with performance. organizational behavior and human decision making processes, 119(1), 38–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2012.06.003 van heerden, l.d. (2015). the relationship between servant leadership and ethical work climate in an agri-business. unpublished master’s dissertation, north-west university, potchefstroom. van heerden, l.d. (2015). the relationship between servant leadership and ethical work climate in an agri-business (unpublished master’s dissertation). north-west university, potchefstroom. vandenberghe, c., bentein, k., & stinglhamber, f. (2004). affective commitment to the organisation, supervisor, and work group: antecedents and outcomes. journal of vocational behavior, 64(1), 47–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0001-8791(03)00029-0 walters, e. (2008). intentions to leave the workplace: the role of unfulfilled promises (unpublished master’s dissertation). north-west university, potchefstroom. weiss, d.j., england, g.w., & lofquist, l.h. (1967). manual for the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire (minnesota studies in vocational rehabilitation, no. 22). minneapolis, mn: university of minnesota press. wieland, a.j. (2004). business leadership and diversity: the relationships between team diversity climate, leaders’ diversity attitudes, and leadership styles. unpublished doctoral dissertation. the university of iowa. yalabik, z.y., popaitoon, p., chowne, j.a., & rayton, b.a. (2013). work engagement as a mediator between employee attitudes and outcomes. the international journal of human resource management, 24(14), 2799–2823. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.763844 zhao, x., lynch, j.g., & chen, q. (2010). reconsidering barron and kenny: myths and truths about mediation analysis. journal of consumer research, 37(2), 197–206. https://doi.org/10.1086/651257 abstract introduction research purpose literature review research method findings discussions practical implications limitations, recommendations and future research ideas acknowledgements references about the author(s) cecilia m. schultz department of people management and development, faculty of management sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa citation schultz, c.m. (2021). the future and the role of human resource management in south africa during the fourth industrial revolution. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1624. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1624 original research the future and the role of human resource management in south africa during the fourth industrial revolution cecilia m. schultz received: 05 apr. 2021; accepted: 12 oct. 2021; published: 17 dec. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the world of work is evolving at an alarming rate, and human resource (hr) practitioners need to familiarise themselves with the future of human resource management (hrm) in order to add value to their organisations. research purpose: this article presents south african hr practitioners’ views about the future and the role of hrm in the fourth industrial revolution (4ir) from a qualitative perspective. motivation for the study: human resource practitioners play a central role in the 4ir, but theories on how their role is enacted remain insufficient. research approach/design and method: a qualitative survey design was used to study the views of 105 hr practitioners affiliated with the south african board of people practices. three open-ended questions were sent to participants by means of a surveymonkey link. deductive and inductive coding were used to thematically analyse the data. main findings: the following themes were identified: technology-driven, data-driven, ethically driven, change driven, business-driven, human–machine collaboration and presilience. practical/managerial implications: south african hr practitioners should be prepared for the future world of work. if these hr practitioners are not technology-driven, data-driven, ethically driven, change driven, business-driven, human–machine collaboration and presilient, they may have difficulty to add value to the organisation in the 4ir. contribution/value-add: this study extends the body of knowledge about the future world of work and the role of hrm in south africa by founding that hr practitioners must have presilience and respect ubuntu. the study also extends contemporary scholarship by using an open-ended qualitative review design to investigate the future of hrm in south africa during the 4ir. keywords: future human resource management; role of human resource management; fourth industrial revolution; qualitative survey; south africa. introduction the pace of transformation in the business landscape has made it mandatory for the human resource (hr) role within the organisation to evolve, adapt and adjust to the demands of the fourth industrial revolution (4ir) (thomas, kureshi, suggala, & mendonca, 2020). this is also relevant within the south african organisational context (bothma, 2019; patel, 2019). the concept of the 4ir is accepted as a real and irreversible phenomenon, which is set to change all aspects of hr profoundly. tarry (2018) advises: the first revolution was steam powered mechanisation in 1784, followed by the 2nd, with electricity enabling mass production from 1890. the 3rd was the it and electronics revolution ushered in from 1969, which gained momentum and evolved into digital technology beyond the 1980s taking us to the edge of the 4th digital revolution, when we see artificial intelligence (ai), biotechnology and the internet of things completely changed our world. (p. 1) in the 4ir, companies face the challenge of motivating their knowledge workers to release their human potential (xu, david, & kim, 2018). the hr department should be able to transform during the 4ir (bissola & imperatori, 2018). this department needs to be involved in identifying the roles that should be filled by humans exclusively. in identifying the required skills, hr teams should develop staff internally and recruit the required talent externally. human resource departments further will have to assist employees in adjusting and staying relevant in the new world of work (pandian, 2018). thus, hr departments should start planning for the necessary changes to meet the demands of digital transformation of the enterprise and seize the opportunities to improve hr capabilities, service offerings and performance (diromualdo, el-khoury, & girimonte, 2018). human resource departments further need to focus on the long-term objectives and future-oriented plans of their organisations. instead of focusing on internal hr issues exclusively, hr departments need to take a balanced, broad approach (kapoor & sherif, 2012). in the south african context, the transition to 4ir has skills implication for hr practitioners (dhanpat et al., 2020; maisiri & van dyk, 2021). bothma (2019) urged south african hr practitioners to prepare and get ready for the 4ir. ngwenya, aigbavboa and thwala (2019) are of the opinion that hr practitioners should realise the benefits of human resource information systems in south africa. mefi and asoba found that in south africa, human resource management (hrm) will need to have human–technology interface competencies and pay attention to talent management, smart hr 4.0, digitalisation, remote hrm and hrm 4.0 policy development. ayentimi and burgess (2019) argued that policy development towards the 4ir in the sub-sahara africa region, given its young population profile and emerging skill shortages in key sectors, needs to obtain the necessary attention. research purpose the literature on hr in south africa remains fragmented in terms of scale, scope and reaching distinct scholarly communities (wood & bischoff, 2020). a study by pietersen (2018) indicated that the future of hr studies and studies on the role of hr in the 4ir in south africa are limited. in the light of the limited literature available on the future of hr in south africa, the following research gap was identified for the present study: what does the future of hr entail and what will the role of hr be in the 4ir? this knowledge is essential in preparing hr for the future world of work in a south african context. a qualitative approach was chosen because of the pioneering nature of this study to obtain rich and new data about the future of hr. the purpose of this research therefore was to provide a qualitative perspective on the future of hr and to focus on the role of hr in a south african context. this study used brockbank, ulrich, kryscynski and ulrich (2018), silver (2018), wilkesmann and wilkesmann (2018) and calitz, poisat and cullen (2017) as theoretical grounding. from an academic point of view, this study broadened the body of knowledge regarding the future of hr and enhanced an understanding of the new roles and confirmed important current roles of hr that will still be relevant in the 4ir. the study further extends contemporary scholarship by using an open-ended approach to investigate the future of hr. overall, this study extended the body of knowledge about the future of hr, specifically in terms of presilience. the possibility that employees may experience fear because of possible retrenchments as a result of automation featured a few times in the study, corroborating existing workforce trends in the adoption of new technologies. the empirical contribution entails the importance of ethical behaviour and the role of the african concept ubuntu in accentuating humanity in the future of work. presilience as a theme contributed to new knowledge regarding the future of hr. this approach presented an important methodological advancement to obtain rich data for future studies in the field. it could be said that the study adopted a pioneering approach in approaching the future of hr. literature review the future of human resources management and the role of human resources management in the 4ir are discussed below. the future of human resources management to keep up with the pace of the 4ir and function efficiently, a clear focus on technology and the automation of hr processes, agility, innovation, productivity, saving costs and the ability to remain competitive is necessary. the evolution of cloud computing and the development of new architectures and computational principles lead to the transformation of software and may bring radical changes in the business strategies of companies across all sectors of the economy (gokhberg, sokolov, & chulok, 2017). considering the impact of technologies such as cloud applications and ai and the digitisation of operations, the work roles most likely to be eliminated are those involving routine, rule-based administrative and transactional tasks whilst those requiring relationship management, negotiation, problem-solving, judgement and domain expertise typically will remain (diromualdo et al., 2018). artificial intelligence may boost analytic and decision-making abilities by providing the right information at the right time (wilson & daugherty, 2018). the challenges brought about by technological innovations should be addressed by complementary and innovative approaches to provide innovative solutions that include radical methods that can be deployed to anticipate emerging technologies and their impact from a holistic perspective (morrar, arman, & mousa, 2017). mcclure (2018) found that there exists a sizable population of ‘technophobes’ or those who fear robots, ai and technology they do not understand. in the 4ir, there could be retrenchments because of automation processes and the use of robots (pandian, 2018). jin (2021) states that the digital transformation of hr is vital in the 4it and the 5g era. the hr professional must be a technology integrator (ulrich, kryscynski, ulrich, & brockbank, 2017). human resource professionals’ decision-making could be improved by being data driven. consulting firms, academics and individual hr professionals have examined the basic applications of hr data to create well-functioning hr practices, but hr should rather focus on creating the organisational capabilities that are the foundation of high-performing institutions (brockbank et al., 2018). the growth of data volumes available for analysis assists with managerial decisions and business intelligence (gokhberg et al., 2017). it is essential to employ a clear data strategy to produce, capture and refine the data that is necessary for process redesign (shukla, wilson, alter, & lavieri, 2017). ethical behaviour will remain essential in the future world of work. when ethics and values are sacrificed for superficial benefits, success tends to be limited (silver, 2018). ethical leadership further is a manifestation of honesty and credibility, concern, doing the right thing, openness of communication, a personal life based on morality standards and being fair in decision-making, which influences ethical behaviour (aryati, sudiro, hadiwidjaja, & noermijati, 2018). in order for hr to be reinvented, its main five stakeholders must receive outcomes that matter to them: employee (productivity and well-being), strategy (direction and execution), customer (net promoter score and customer share), investor (financial results and intangible confidence) and community (reputation) (ulrich & smallwood, 2021). in the south african context, the reinventing of hr necessitates resilience to assist companies to transform in a fast and positive way (schultz, 2021). in addition, the rebalancing of priorities and rethinking of hr lead to the fact that resilience becomes equally important to strategic thinking, cost and efficiency (schultz, 2021). mefi and asoba (2021) found that there are technological skill deficiencies amongst south african hr practitioners arising from the transition to industry 4.0. calitz et al. (2017) highlighted a fear of retrenchment because of changes such as introducing cobots (i.e. collaborative robots). as organisations progress to the future and adapt to new realities, hr practitioners should stay abreast of changes to prepare for the future world of work (schultz, 2019). one of these challenges is to ensure an updated human resource information systems (ngwenya et al. 2019). another challenge is the impact of covid-19 on employees in the workplace (bussin & swart-opperman, 2021), which hr practitioners will also need to deal with. the role of human resources management in the fourth industrial revolution ‘a role is a comprehensive pattern of behaviour that is socially recognised, providing a means of identifying and placing an individual in a society’ (britannica, 2021:online). a role for the purpose of this study is the set of behaviour expected from hr practitioners: since the beginning of industrialisation, technological leaps have led to paradigm shifts and have had a strong impact on the functional areas of individual work systems; in retrospect, these changes can be defined as industrial revolutions. (wilkesmann & wilkesmann, 2018, p. 251) increased productivity presented the underlying thrust for each industrial revolution (xu et al., 2018). to ensure productivity within hr, it is essential to rethink the role of hr. diromualdo et al. (2018) suggested that the hr department needs to rethink roles, for example, which activities can be fully digitised and how existing roles should be redefined. this department should further consider which high-impact areas and existing hr roles currently do not address adequately. the hr manager should coordinate industrial changes, such as automation, including the use of robotics to increase the efficiency of business operation (pandian, 2018). the hr manager should further assist business leaders in navigating towards the best business decisions, often by means of technology (hogg, 2019). human resource faces a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be strategic, integrating the business digitisation process whilst assisting the workforce in transitioning to valueand purpose-based employment, instead of previous taskand skill-based employment (papageorgiou, 2018). during digital transformation, hr departments will have the role of change agents to ensure that the organisation has the capacity for change (karasek, 2020). as business strategies and teams grow more agile to keep pace with recurring change in companies, hrm must also adapt (schultz, 2021) and assist with business transformation (bersin, 2020). human resource managers should understand the basic business drivers such as global business, economic growth, capital markets, changing customer behaviour and competition (thakur, 2020). according to ulrich et al. (2017), the hr practitioner must be a strategic positioner and be able to position a business to achieve success in its market. specialising in big data systems, maintenance and the analysis of both hr-specific and enterprise data are required in the digital age (diromualdo et al., 2018). data privacy will be an important issue of hr analytics in the future. as there will be an increasing amount of data available (‘big data’), there will be a blurring of lines in using data for business progress. by applying metrics and analytics in all functions of the hr department, management decision-makers can modify comprehensive employment systems by effectively managing the company’s human capital (durai, rudhramoorthy, & sarkar, 2019). by having access to the knowledge and inner workings of all of the best hr data sources, the hr technology centre of expertise (coe) is an ideal place to focus resources on workforce analytics to drive business insights and recommendations (fernandez, 2019). as hr departments rush to deploy cloud technologies, robotics process automation and hr analytics, there is a growing need for a coe dedicated to hr data and technology. human–machine collaboration enables companies to interact with employees and customers in novel, enhanced ways (wilson & daugherty, 2018). legions of data analysts, it professionals and experts in financial fraud are needed at the interface between humans and machines to guard against criminal interventions (wilson & daugherty, 2018). in working with machines, humans are advised to build machines for specific tasks, to explain their actions to other humans and to sustain the quality, safety and ethics of how cobots are used (wilson & daugherty, 2018). furthermore, the use of cobots in production must be designed in such a way that employees experience the new technology as supportive and not as a rival (wilkesmann & wilkesmann, 2018, p. 247). the hr practitioner should therefore be able to act as a change agent to ensure that employees are appropriately informed about cobots and the further possible impact of 4ir. being a change agent in the future world of hrm is of utmost importance (jin, 2021; ulrich et al., 2017). in the south african context, business acumen will be a prerequisite to enable and influence the future role of hr in a positive way (schultz, 2021). dhanpat et al. (2021) stated that technical, managerial and soft skills will be critical for competitive advantage in 4ir. the 4ir not only holds changes for the future world of work but it also holds significant threats and opportunities to the relationship between employment relations stakeholders (mabasa, 2020). mefi and asoba (2021) stated that the human–machine interface skills will be essential for south african hr practitioners. cobots increasingly collaborate with humans in factory production and assembly environments in african organisations (calitz et al., 2017). traditional thinking about the workspace will be needed in the future world of work (schultz, 2021). in conclusion, the hr role within south africa will have to be improved to meet the demands of the 4ir (bothma, 2019; patel, 2019). this may lead to new skills for hr practitioners (dhanpat et al., 2020; maisiri & van dyk, 2021). it is interesting to note that a mindset shift for the 4ir will be necessary (molloy & ronnie, 2021). research method the research design, population and sample, research instrument, data analysis, trustworthiness of the data and the ethical considerations are discussed below. research design given that this study surveyed a wide range of participants, a qualitative survey as a research design was used. braun et al. (2020) stated that this type of survey can harness the rich potential of qualitative data but seems to be underutilised. the qualitative type of survey does not aim at establishing frequencies, means or other parameters but at determining the diversity of some topic of interest within a given population. this type of survey does not count the number of people with the same characteristic (value of variable), but it establishes the meaningful variation (relevant dimensions and values) within that population by studying the diversity in a population (jansen, 2010). open-ended questions were utilised to collect data. population and sample members who are affiliated with the south african board of people practices (sabpp) formed the population of this study (4500 members). those members of the sabpp who were employed as hr practitioners in the private and public sector and not in academe were invited to participate in the study. the reason for this inclusion criterion was that active involvement in the field was deemed more pertinent than academic knowledge in this study. a total of 108 members volunteered to participate in the study. considering the present study’s focus on the future, as well as the type of data collection technique used, all participants were included in order to obtain rich data about the future of hrm. after analysing the input of participant 105, saturation of data was reached. no new information and views were therefore produced. the answers of the participants were very short and that is why the number of participants was more than in a usual qualitative face-to-face interview setup. each of the 105 participants wrote on average 34 words. this provided a clear indication of the vastness of participants’ views about the future of hrm. finally, 42 males and 66 females participated, including 61 participants from the private sector and 47 participants from the public sector. the age range was between 25 and 65 years. research instrument data were collected by means of an open-ended questionnaire to obtain rich data from participants. the following three open-ended questions were sent to participants by means of a surveymonkey link: what are your views about the future of hrm? what is the role of hrm in the fourth industrial revolution? in your opinion, which areas of development are essential to prepare hrm for the future world of work? for the purpose of this article, only the first two questions were analysed and reported upon because they are related to the study purpose. as a result of a qualitative survey as a research design, surveymonkey was used to collect the data. data analysis the data were organised into excel spreadsheets in a way that facilitates analysis. the researcher followed the thematic analysis approach to analyse the data collected (tesch, 1990). this involved searching for phrases and words that appeared to be the same based on the literature on the future of hrm. simple colour coding was used to identify themes (skjott linneberg & korsgaard, 2019). the main themes were identified, which led to the conclusion and recommendations. thematic analysis allowed for data to be presented in words and themes and also allowed for easy interpretation of the findings (bengtsson, 2016). this type of analysis enabled the meaning and interpretation of the data whereby the researcher allocated codes and assigned themes to the collected data (neuendorf, 2019). the text was allocated appropriate labels, themes, codes and categories in alignment with the research objectives of the study (bazeley, 2013). a combination of inductive and deductive coding is the most commonly used approach, what is sometimes referred to as a blended approach (graebner, martin, & roundy, 2012) or abduction (alvesson & kärreman, 2007). there is a strong tradition in qualitative research of developing codes ‘directly’ from the data. the researcher developed codes from the data by using phrases or terms used by the participants themselves, rather than using the, often theoretical, vocabulary of the researcher. in this way, the codes stayed close to the data, mirroring what is actually in them, rather than the ideas and prior understandings of the researcher, who is working vigorously to remain open minded (skjott linneberg & korsgaard, 2019). this approach is most often referred to as the inductive approach. generally, the codes in deductive coding are theoretical concepts or themes drawn from the existing literature. the following main literature was used for deductive coding: brockbank et al. (2018), silver (2018), wilkesmann and wilkesmann (2018) and calitz et al. (2017). trustworthiness of the data trustworthiness involves the following elements: credibility, dependability, confirmability and transferability (bless, higson-smith, & sithole, 2013). in the present study, credibility was established through peer debriefing and member checks (madill & sullivan, 2018). peer debriefing was performed involving a disinterested peer – a peer who is not involved in the research project – to aid in probing the researcher’s thinking around all or parts of the research process. member checking was not carried out because of the fact that a brief summary of the findings or sharing the whole findings was not shared with the research participants because of the data collection technique. the study used a transparent process of coding to ensure that the research process was logical, traceable and clearly documented to ensure dependability (sinkovics & alfoldi, 2012). according to zhang and wildemuth (2009), confirmability is determined by checking the internal consistency of the research product. in the present research, this was achieved by ensuring that the data are available so that other researchers or reviewers can access or audit it to ensure that the results were not fabricated. ethical considerations permission to conduct this study was obtained from the sabpp. ethical permission was obtained from the research ethics committee of the tshwane university of technology (pretoria campus), ref#: fcre2018/fr/10/025-ms. the researcher adhered to essential ethical standards in all aspects of the research process. all possible participants received an overview of the study, before inviting them to participate voluntarily. as a result of the nature of the qualitative survey, participants were assured of the anonymity and confidentiality of their responses by using surveymonkey. they were also informed that they could withdraw from the study at any stage, if they wish. all participants indicated their consent to participate in the study after accessing the relevant information by means of the surveymonkey link. findings the data revealed nuanced details about the future and the role of hrm in south africa. the following themes were identified: technology-driven, data-driven, ethically driven, change driven, business-driven, human–machine collaboration and presilience. please note that all quotes are reproduced verbatim and unedited. theme 1: technology driven in order for the hr practitioners to thrive in the 4ir, their focus should be on technology in order driven to support business results as seen by participant 31: ‘stay relevant and enable business results through technology and digitisation.’ (participant 31, male, public sector) if hr practitioners are not technology driven, business results and other hr processes may not be effective and efficient. participants 24 and 104 were of the opinion that it is essential to automate hr processes by means of digitisation: ‘i do believe that hr of the future is digitally based, less paper, more data and informatics to guide business decisions where people are concerned.’ (participant 24, female, public sector) ‘all areas in hr should be digitalised and consider millennials in what we do.’ (participant 104, female, public sector) an important issue that surfaced is the fact that technology creates fear amongst employees. technophobes are those who fear robots, ai and technology, and according to participant 27, they are a reality in south african organisations: ‘hr will be more challenging than ever. technology advances but workers see it as a threat.’ (participant 27, female, public sector) technophobes are also threatened because of possible job losses. it is therefore crucial that hr practitioners reduce such fears by providing awareness campaigns and relevant technology-related training to all employees. human resource practitioners should also engage constantly with employees in order to allow employees to verbalise and deal with their fears in a constructive manner. this is a prominent role of hr practitioners in the 4ir: ‘the advancement of technology is threatening jobs security.’ (participant 30, female, public sector) ‘hr has to focus more on motivating employees in view of the fourth industrial revolution. people fear losing jobs, so hr plays a vital role in helping people develop new skills.’ (participant 55, female, public sector) in order to successfully deal with technophobes, it will be essential that hr practitioners assist management in creating an environment conducive to alleviating employees’ fears. such an environment will assist employees to positively embrace technology: ‘positive work environment that does not create fear amongst employee due to technology.’ (participant 23, male, private sector) it is evident that hrm should drive technology to support business results, but this might create fear among employees. human resource management should therefore create a positive work environment and ensure that employees do not feel threatened and rather embrace technology. theme 2: data driven it is essential that hr practitioners and hr managers must make informed business decisions in their role as business partners. one way in doing this is to use technological, qualitative, intelligent data to make such informed business decisions. the fact that people data should be readily available is something that hrm should take serious note of. the understanding and dealing with data analytics are therefore inevitable. an important role of hr in the 4ir will be to employ data analytics in making proper business decisions: ‘the hr function is also becoming data-driven. data analytics is playing a big role in helping hr leaders make informed decisions.’ (participant 70, female, private sector) ‘ensuring that people data is readily available for business decisions.’ (participant 77, female, private sector) ‘high tech, qualitative, intelligent provision of data analytics for business decision-making.’ (participant 10, female, private sector) there was a strong sense amongst the participants that data could also be used to improve people and business practices and lead to life-changing practices. it is therefore important that hr practitioners should see data as influential in their role in the 4ir: ‘providing data to improve people practices which will improve business practices, which will improve our countries’ economy. transforming influential data into life-changing practices.’ (participant 105, male, public sector) human resource practitioners sometimes shy away from numbers, but the ability to deal with numbers in the future workplace is essential because it will rely on data analytics to assist with business decision-making and to provide information about staff issues. theme 3: ethically driven the ethical behaviour of hr professionals is crucial in the future world of work. to ethically driven is a non-negotiable in the 4ir. according to participant 35, an hr professional needs good ethics: ‘it needs professionals that has good ethics.’ (participant 35, male, public sector) in the same vein as ethics, the african concept of ubuntu was also mentioned. ubuntu was developed by conducting inductive coding. ubuntu is a term meaning ‘humanity’ and is often translated as ‘i am because we are’ or ‘humanity towards others’ (gade, 2011). ubuntu as african humanism, is a philosophy, an ethic and a worldview (gade, 2011). since the transition to democracy in south africa with the nelson mandela presidency in 1994, the term has become more widely known outside of southern africa: ‘future of hr is on the rise with principles of ubuntu and ethical behaviour being a necessity.’ (participant 29, male, private sector) through hrm, ethics can be given credibility and aligned with how businesses and hr practices are executed. it is important to understand that ethical behaviour is rooted within a person, and hrm should therefore be self-driven and dynamic by portraying their own ethics and encourage others to also be ethically driven. complying with legislation is a further dimension and requirement of ethics in the workplace and hr should therefore adhere to what is right: ‘hr needs to be dynamic and self-driven by being ethical.’ (participant 62, male, private sector) ‘all the hr employees must comply with the legislation do what is right and be an example to other employees.’ (participant 64, female, public sector) ethical behaviour and the humanity of hr professions are crucial in the future world of work. therefore, hr professionals should ensure that they are self-driven and dynamic and that they comply with legislation in order to do what is right. theme 4: change driven change is inevitable in the future, and hr professionals need to be able to adapt to change. it is important for hrm to be change driven in order to build relationships of trust and respect and not to neglect these relationships: ‘hr needs to be able to adapt to changes and be able to innovate.’ (participant 36, female, public sector) ‘support, embrace the change and ensure business is prepared for the rapid rate of change, without losing the opportunity to build sound relationships of trust and respect.’ (participant 44, female, private sector) human resource professionals should take cognisance of the fact that changes relating to employee–employer relations should be addressed and that they themselves stay relevant in the future workplace. in building these relationships, hr professionals should assist employees in coping with the swift changes related to the future workplace: ‘to help people cope with the anticipated rapid rate of change.’ (participant 68, male, public sector) the ability to adapt to change, build essential relationships of trust and respect, assist employees in coping and address employee–employer relationships are important aspects that the hr professional should focus on to stay relevant in the future. the fact that the hr practitioner should be change driven requires hrm to lead change and be a leader: ‘to be change ambassadors and lead the change process in the organisation.’ (participant 45, female, public sector) ‘to ensure that personnel are engaged given the changes taken place because of the revolution.’ (participant 28, male, private sector) becoming change driven, entails more than merely being a change agent because hrm needs to both lead change and engage with staff to facilitate change. in the 4ir, change must be driven by hr practitioners because of the fact that it will be expected from them by management and employees. theme 5: business driven an important role of hr in the 4ir is to enable the organisation – including its employees – to be ready. the business should be prepared for, changes, skills development and data management. this will be made possible if hr practitioners possess critical and strategic thinking skills in order to enable the business for readiness and be business driven: ‘ensure that the business is ready for the changes in the world, skills development and data management.’ (participant 24, male, public sector) ‘to be a critical and strategical thinker.’ (participant 34, female, private sector) advanced systems and alignment to the best practices of the business form part of hrm in enabling the business in the 4ir. jobs will need to be redesigned, and people will need to be reorganised to meet future demands and to deal with technological changes: ‘business enablement with advanced systems and alignment to the industry best practices.’ (participant 3, male, public sector) ‘redesigning jobs to meet the future demands.’ (participant 96, female, public sector) ‘re-organising people and their talent to respond to technological changes.’ (participant 37, female, private sector) in order to be business driven in the 4ir, a critical role of hrm will be to drive the organisation to become a learning organisation, to drive innovation and to oversee continuous improvement. human resource management can understandably not do this in silos and should therefore create an awareness through constant engagement with management and employees: ‘to drive the organisation being a learning organisation, to drive innovation and continuous improvement.’ (participant 17, female, public sector) in order to enable the business to be successful, hr practitioners should assist with preparing future readiness that entails change, skills development and data management. human resource practitioners should be critical and strategic thinkers in order to properly enable the business to be prepared for the future world of work. aligning systems, developing best practices, supporting staff to adjust, redesigning jobs and reorganising people also are essential parts of the role of hr. human resource should drive a business to become a learning organisation and continually drive innovation and improvement to enable the business to be successful in the 4ir. sub-theme 6: human–machine collaboration the human side of an organisation should never be neglected in dealing with ai, and hr therefore has a significant role to play: ‘to adapt to the technology without losing the human touch.’ (participant 5, female, public sector) ‘invest in technology but don’t forget about the human element in the organisation.’ (participant 42, female, private sector) human resource will have to alert employees to improve their creativity and cultivate a culture where humans and machines can interact in a positive manner to reduce employees’ perceptions of the possible threats that machines hold: ‘it is going to be great, driven by robotics, artificial intelligence and humans dealing with creativity and human interactions instead of mechanical processes.’ (participant 68, male, public sector) ‘finding a way to promote the interactions between humans and non-humans in a manner that will not be perceived as a threat to human resources.’ (participant 83, male, private sector) human resource must provide the necessary attention to the human side and positive interaction in collaborating with machines in the workplace. in doing so, hr will act as a type of a convener who will be responsible for bringing employees, management and the inventors or developers of machines together to address issues, problems and opportunities. in the context of human–machine collaboration, it will involve convening representatives from multiple sections in an organisational and a multi-meeting process, on this complex issue. theme 7: presilience presilience as a theme was developed through inductive coding. schneider and mcquirk (2020) opined that: [p]resilience is about flexibility in responding to the risks of the future, and given the scale and pace of major events over recent months – driven by climate change and an increased global movement of people – we need to get better at responding to what is unfolding in front of us, that is, insight – not just concentrate on avoiding the mistakes of the past, that is, hindsight. (p. 1) schneider and mcquirk (2020:1) also stated that presilience focuses on building the mental endurance, across the whole organisation not only to ‘bounce back’ but also to completely avoid crises, manage them effectively and minimise any negative effects – ideally it represents the idea of ‘bouncing back better.’ essentially, presilience entails risk intelligence, agility and flexibility. flexibility by itself is not sufficient; hr should also be agile: ‘flexibility and continuous learning will play an important role in catapulting hr performance to the next level.’ (participant 56, female, private sector) ‘hr needs to evolve with the fourth industrial revolution, be more agile and utilise artificial intelligence.’ (participant 12, female, public sector) human resource needs to be reinvented by thinking about and doing things in a new manner and by continually obtaining the necessary skills and learning. flexibility and agility are necessary for supporting organisational strategy and to drive organisational performance through people. to stay relevant, hr should measure its performance against the financial success of the business, ensure that the needs of employees, management and the organisation are met and act as the custodian of equality and fairness. redefining the future world of work necessitates hr to capacitate staff to remain relevant in terms of what the organisation needs: ‘train and capacitate employees so that they continue to remain relevant.’ (participant 15, male, private sector) ‘advising and shaping employees to be what the organisation needs and not just employing dead weight.’ (participant 20, female, public sector) in order for hr to capacitate employees properly, a new mindset, adaptability, flexibility and agility will be essential, in order to embrace continuous disruption: ‘to develop employees to do better and have a different mindset. get people ready to embrace continuous disruption.’ (participant 41, male, public sector) ‘helping people develop adaptability, flexibility and agility.’ (participant 41, male, public sector) a part of being presilient in the 4ir, an hr role that might be challenging is to alleviate unemployment, inequality and poverty through training and development, especially in a developing country, such as south africa: ‘training and development towards alleviation of unemployment, inequality and poverty.’ (participant 26, male, private sector) the main reason why hr needs to capacitate employees is to assist them in remaining relevant and to have presilience. the new focus is on the people who are managing and responding to risk and presilience is about enhancing their inherent skills and capabilities to be adaptable, flexible and agile in response and then building the systems to support them as opposed to making them fit into the system. presilience is the attribute and process of successfully preventing where possible, preparing for, responding to and recovering from adverse, major business interruption events and crises whilst looking for opportunities. unlike resilience, which focuses purely on recovery and the ability to ‘bounce-back’, presilience focuses on building the mental fortitude, across the whole organisation not only to ‘bounce back’ but also to completely avoid crises, manage them effectively and minimise any negative effects – ideally it epitomises the idea of ‘bouncing back better.’ presilience is much more than simply being reliable and ensuring business continuity in case a negative event happens, it’s about high performance and outcomes to ensure better performance. it’s about constant learning and adaption to seize opportunity, not simply recovering from a negative event. presilience focuses on leaders and teams applying high-level critical reasoning skills to the problem in front of them, quickly developing a plan, making effective decisions within a simple framework and executing effective action through clear, effective and directive communication (schneider & mcquirk, 2020:1). a challenging role for hr is that of alleviating unemployment, inequality and poverty through training and development. discussions the purpose of this study was to investigate the future and the role (or set of behaviours) of hrm in south africa during the 4ir. it is evident that the future of hr will be technology driven to support business results. it is essential that existing hr processes have to be automated through digitisation. this study concurs with papageorgiou’s (2018) suggestion that digitisation and assisting the workforce in transitioning to valueand purpose-based employment are important features of the future of hr. it is critical that hr has insight into new technologies and their disruptive potential – especially in developing countries. this suggestion corresponds to the south african finding of mefi and asoba (2021), xu et al. (2018) and ulrich et al. (2017) who also found that hrm must be technology driven. technology may generate fear amongst employees, and they may feel threatened because of the possibility of losing their jobs. human resource managers and hr practitioners should therefore assist management in creating an environment that reduces employees’ fears. this supports the findings of wilkesmann and wilkesmann (2018). calitz et al. (2017) described the fear of retrenchment because of cobots in the african and south african context. data should serve to assist management in making informed business decisions to plan ahead and improve people and business practices, concurring with the study of durai et al. (2019) who also found that hr must be data driven. as evident from the findings of the present study, the ethical behaviour of hr professionals is crucial in the future world of work. human resource professionals should therefore be self-driven and dynamic by portraying ethics. complying with legislation in the workplace is also an important part of ethics, requiring hr professionals to do what is right. aryati et al. (2018) also found that ethical behaviour will be a prominent future area. human resource professionals must therefore be able to adapt to change and build relationships of trust and respect during the process. in building these relationships, hr professionals should assist employees in coping with the swift changes related to the future workplace. change relating to employee–employer relations also forms an important part of staying relevant in the future workplace. pandian (2018) also highlighted the importance of adjusting and staying relevant in the new world of work. human resource needs to be reinvented by thinking about and doing things in a new presilient manner. to achieve this, hr needs to possess the necessary skills, by focusing on learning continuously and being flexible. flexibility by itself, however, is not sufficient; hr also needs to be agile. whilst reinventing hr, overall hr should support the organisational strategy. in supporting the organisational strategy, hr professionals should drive organisational performance through people. in addition, hr should consider that his or her own performance will be measured against financial success to ensure remaining relevant. when determining the efficiency of hr, it is important to ensure that the needs of employees, management and the organisation have been met. in meeting the needs of people and the organisation, it will be the duty of hr to be the custodian of equality and fairness. diromualdo et al. (2018), for instance, found that hr needs to rethink its role. it is vital that the hrm department has the ability to transform in the 4ir (bissola & imperatori, 2018; karasek, 2020). an important role of hr is to enable the organisation – including the employees – to be ready for the 4ir. an hr practitioner should be a critical and strategic thinker to enable the business for readiness. advanced systems and alignment to the business’ best practices also form part of hrm in enabling the business. another important role of hr is to support management and employees in revising their ways of working in order to handle the future of work. jobs will need to be redesigned and people will need to be reorganised to meet the future demands and deal with technological changes. a critical role of hr will be to drive the business to become a learning organisation, to drive innovation and to oversee continuous improvement. hogg (2019) found that hr must assist business leaders towards making the best business decisions, often with the use of technology. an important role of hr in the 4ir will be to use data analytics to guide business decisions. considering that hr will need to provide information on staff issues, an ability to use hr analytics would therefore be essential. human resource will have to focus on numbers in the future workplace, because they will need to employ data analytics to assist with business decision-making and to provide information about staff issues. previous research also highlighted the importance of data analytics (fernandez, 2019; shukla et al., 2017; ulrich et al., 2017), whilst van den heuvel and bondarouk (2017) and rajbhar, khan and puskar (2017) emphasised the importance of data analytics in transformation. to capacitate employees, hr professionals need to remain relevant in terms of what the organisation needs. in order for hrm to capacitate employees properly, a new mindset, adaptability, flexibility and agility will be essential in order to embrace continuous disruption. once this is achieved, performance can be increased through digital engagement. an hr role that might be challenging is to alleviate unemployment, inequality and poverty through training and development, especially in a developing country such as south africa. human–machine collaboration was an important sub-theme in this study. in dealing with ai, hrm has a significant role in seeing to it that the human side of an organisation is never neglected. human resource management will have to make employees aware of the fact that they should improve their creativity and cultivate a culture where humans and machines can interact in a positive manner to lessen employees’ perceptions of the possible threat of machines. fears of technology exacerbate fears of unemployment and financial insecurity. technophobes are also more likely than nontechnophobes to report having anxiety-related mental health issues and to fear unemployment and financial insecurity (mcclure, 2018). according to gikopoulos (2019), there is a fine balance between man and machine, and whilst technology will increase efficiency and improve the value of hr in businesses, the human touch will always be the key to success, corresponding to the findings of the present study. wilkesmann and wilkesmann (2018) also emphasised that cobots could assist during production, as well as assist employees, and they should therefore not be seen as adversaries. the hr practitioner will have to become an ambassador of change and this finding corresponds with the finding of ulrich et al.’s (2017). becoming an ambassador of change entails more than merely being a change agent, because hr needs to lead change and engage with staff to facilitate change. human resource practitioners find themselves in a unique position at the outset of the 4ir era because they are in the front line of advising organisations about the best ways to address the forthcoming change (schultz, 2021). practical implications in terms of the future of hr, outdated human development strategies that focus mainly on the acquisition of knowledge, should be replaced with finding talented individuals who are able to apply existing knowledge, create new ideas and learn from trial and error (lee, 2017). to support the future of organisations, hr will be tasked with the complete integration of people and technology, taking a holistic approach to organisational and technological transformation at a previously unimagined scale. a culture that empowers employees to thrive alongside intelligent machines whilst encouraging workers to maintain a healthy scepticism of machine-generated outcomes must be developed (shukla et al., 2017). the role of hr in the 4ir offers both challenges and opportunities in terms of advancing the technological capabilities of the workforce to ensure that it keeps up with technological advancement, as well as ensuring an organisation is equipped to deal with the unknown. from a managerial perspective, suitable investment in it systems is necessary, as well as the upgrading of systems and establishing a solid infrastructure for data collection, data analysis and prediction. if hr practitioners are not technology driven, data driven, ethically driven, change driven, business driven, human–machine collaboration and presilient, they may have difficulty to add value to the organisation in the 4ir. limitations, recommendations and future research ideas the present study had some limitations, and therefore, the findings should be approached with caution. firstly, whereas a single study approach facilitated a rich investigation of the future of hrm, the theory that i derived from this investigation may be limited in its generality. secondly, only members of one professional body participated and the views of additional hr practitioners in south africa were not obtained. lastly, as surveymonkey was used during data collection, it was not possible to follow up on participants’ views. member checking was therefore not performed. it is evident that for the future of hr, managers should align their workforce strategy with their business strategy, to allow for the mobility and flexibility that cobot solutions provide, to create a sustainable work environment of the future (calitz et al., 2017). it is important to alleviate the fear that employees may experience because of possible retrenchments because of automation. redesigning jobs to embrace the interaction between human employees and machines and allowing both to perform roles most suited to their unique set of abilities are essential (shukla et al., 2017). companies need employees who continually work to ensure that ai systems are functioning properly, safely and responsibly (wilson & daugherty, 2018). furthermore, for hrm to function optimally during the 4ir, management should decide whether to invest in an hr analytical team based within the hr function or to set up a centralised analytics team covering all disciplines, which would be more cost effective (van den heuvel & bondarouk, 2017). a manager’s decision-making behaviour could be changed by reporting hr indicators, using a return on an investment-based approach that is based on metrics and analytics (durai et al., 2019). a possible direction for future research is to duplicate the present research in other countries to determine the future of hr, as well as the role of hr practitioners in the 4ir entail in their contexts. a further research idea might be to develop a questionnaire that is based on the findings of the present study to conduct a quantitative study about the future of hr. with such a quantitative approach, different variables that influence the future of hr could be identified. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contributions c.m.s. is the sole author of this article. funding information this work was supported by the national research foundation of south africa under grant number tk150621119893 and by the niche area of ‘the future of work and the alleviation of unemployment and poverty’ within the faculty management sciences of the tshwane university of technology. data availability the author confirms that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references alvesson, m., & kärreman, d. (2007). constructing mystery: empirical matters in theory development. academy of management review, 32(4), 1265–1281. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2007.26586822 aryati, a.s., sudiro, a., hadiwidjaja, d., & noermijati, n. (2018). the influence of ethical leadership to deviant workplace behavior mediated by ethical climate and organizational commitment. international journal of law and management, 60(2), 233–249. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijlma-03-2017-0053 ayentimi, d.t., & burgess, j. (2019). is the fourth industrial revolution relevant to sub-sahara africa? technology analysis & strategic management, 31(6), 641–652. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537325.2018.1542129 bazeley, p. (2013). qualitative data analysis: practical strategies. london: sage. bengtsson, m. (2016). how to plan and perform a qualitative study using content analysis. nursing plus open, 2, 8–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.npls.2016.01.001 bersin, j. (2020). introducing resilient hr: a new way to run your business. retrieved from https://joshbersin.com/2020/09/introducing-resilient-hr-a-new-way-to-run-your-business/ bissola, r., & imperatori, b. (2018). hrm 4.0: the digital transformation of the hr department. in f. cantoni & g. mangia (eds.), human resource management and digitalization: the effects of industry 4.0 on human resources (pp. 51–69). abingdon-on-thames: routledge. bless, c., higson-smith, c., & sithole, s.l. (2013). fundamentals of social research methods: an african perspective (5th ed.). cape town: juta. bothma, r. (2019). hr, get ready for the 4th industrial revolution! hr future, 8, 40–41. braun, v., clarke, v., boulton, e., davey, l., & mcevoy, c. (2020). the online survey as a qualitative research tool. international journal of social research methodology, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2020.1805550 britannica. (2021). role. retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/role brockbank, w., ulrich, d., kryscynski, d.g., & ulrich, m. (2018). the future of hr and information capability. strategic hr review, 17(1), 3–10. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr-11-2017-0080 bussin, m.h.r., & swart-opperman, c. (2021). covid-19: considering impacts to employees and the workplace. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19, a1384. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1384 calitz, a.p., poisat, p., & cullen, m. (2017). the future african workplace: the use of collaborative robots in manufacturing. south african journal of human resource management, 15, a901. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.901 dhanpat, n., buthelezi, z.p., joe, m.r., maphela, t.v., & shongwe, n. (2020). industry 4.0: the role of human resource professionals. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18, a1302. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1302 diromualdo, a., el-khoury, d., & girimonte, f. (2018). hr in the digital age: how digital technology will change hr’s organization structure, processes and roles. strategic hr review, 17(5), 234–242. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr-08-2018-0074 durai, s.d., rudhramoorthy, k., & sarkar, s. (2019). hr metrics and workforce analytics: it is a journey, not a destination. human resource management international digest, 27(1), 4–6. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid-08-2018-0167 fernandez, j. (2019). the ball of wax we call hr analytics. strategic hr review, 18(1), 21–25. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr-09-2018-0077 gade, c.b.n. (2011). the historical development of the written discourses on ubuntu. south african journal of philosophy, 30(3), 303–329. https://doi.org/10.4314/sajpem.v30i3.69578.s2cid143928483. gikopoulos, j. (2019). alongside, not against: balancing man with machine in the hr function. strategic hr review, 182, 56–61. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr-12-2018-0103 gokhberg, l., sokolov, a., & chulok, a. (2017). russian s&t foresight 2030: identifying new drivers of growth. foresight, 19(5), 441–456. https://doi.org/10.1108/fs-07-2017-0029 graebner, m.e., martin, j.a., & roundy, p.t. (2012). qualitative data: cooking without a recipe. strategic organization, 10(3), 276–284. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476127012452821 hogg, p. (2019). artificial intelligence: hr friend or foe? strategic hr review, 18(2), 47–51. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr-11-2018-0094 jansen, h. (2010). the logic of qualitative survey research and its position in the field of social research methods. forum qualitative sozialforschung/forum: qualitative social research, 11(2), art 11, 1–21. jin, l.j. (2021). methods, stages and misunderstandings of digital transformation of hr management. in xv international conference ‘russian regions in the focus of changes’ (icrrfc), 12–14 november 2020 (pp. 82–88). ekaterinburg, russia. kapoor, b., & sherif, j. (2012). global human resources (hr) information systems. kybernetes, 41(1/2), 229–238. https://doi.org/10.1108/03684921211213052 karasek, a. (2020). hr roles – the state-of-the-art and challenges. scientific papers of silesian university of technology. organization and management series, 315–325. https://doi.org/10.29119/1641-3466.2020.149.27 lee, s. (2017). developing creative human resources for the preparation of the fourth industrial revolution. association for talent development. retrieved from https://www.td.org/insights/developing-creative-human-resources-for-the-preparation-of-the-fourth-industrial-revolution mabasa, f.d. (2020). fourth industrial revolution: threat and opportunity on employment relations. the 5th annual international conference on public administration and development alternatives, 07–09 october 2020. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10386/3233 madill, a., & sullivan, p. (2018). mirrors, portraits, and member checking: managing difficult moments of knowledge exchange in the social sciences. qualitative psychology, 5(3), 321–339. https://doi.org/10.1037/qup0000089 maisiri, w., & van dyk, l. (2021). industry 4.0 skills: a perspective of the south african manufacturing industry. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19, a1416. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1416 mcclure, p.k. (2018). “you’re fired,” says the robot: the rise of automation in the workplace, technophobes, and fears of unemployment. social science computer review, 36(2), 139–156. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439317698637 mefi, n.p., & asoba, s.n. (2021). industry 4.0 and skills deficiencies in the hrm function: case study of the hrm department of a selected organisation in cape town. academy of entrepreneurial journal, 27(2), 1–9. molloy, l., & ronnie, l.c. (2021). mindset shifts for the fourth industrial revolution: insights from the life insurance sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19, a1543. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1543 morrar, r., arman, h., & mousa, s. (2017). the fourth industrial revolution (industry 4.0): a social innovation perspective. technology innovation management review, 7(11), 12–20. https://doi.org/10.22215/timreview/1117 neuendorf, k.a. (2019). content analysis and thematic analysis. in p. brough (ed.), research methods for applied psychologists: design, analysis and reporting (pp. 211–223). new york, ny: routledge. ngwenya, l., aigbavboa, c., & thwala, w. (2019). benefits of human resource information systems in a south african construction organisation. in iop conference series: materials science and engineering, 15–16 october 2018 (p. 640). solo paragon hotel, indonesia. pandian, s.s. (2018). impact of fourth industrial revolution in human resource management. international journal for research trends and innovation, 3(2), 59–61. papageorgiou, d. (2018). transforming the hr function through robotic process automation. benefits quarterly, 34(2), 27–30. patel, a. (2019). hr must prepare for the 4ir. hr future, 1, 8–9. pietersen, c. (2018). research trends in the south african journal of human resource management. south african journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16, a825. https://doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.825 rajbhar, a.k., khan, t., & puskar, s. (2017). a study on hr analytics transforming human resource management. journal of investment and management, 6(4), 92–96. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jim.20170604.12 schneider, g., & mcquirk, t. (2020). the move towards presilience. retrieved from https://www.ifsecglobal.com/security/the-move-towards-presilience/ schultz, c.m. (2019). future expectations from human resource managers: a qualitative perspective. international journal of management and applied science, 5(9), 6–9. schultz, c.m. (2021). the future of hr [online first]. in g. sánchez-gardey, f. martín-alcázar, & n. garcía-carbonell (eds.), beyond human resources – research paths towards a new understanding of workforce management within organizations. intechopen. retrieved from https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/the-future-of-hr shukla, p., wilson, h.j., alter, a., & lavieri, d. (2017). machine reengineering: robots and people working smarter together. strategy & leadership, 45(6), 50–54. https://doi.org/10.1108/sl-09-2017-0089 silver, w. (2018). the future of hr is being brave. strategic hr review, 17(4), 186–192. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr-05-2018-0043 sinkovics, r.r., & alfoldi, e.a. (2012). progressive focusing and trustworthiness in qualitative research: the enabling role of computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (caqdas). management international review, 52(6), 817–845. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11575-012-0140-5 skjott linneberg, m., & korsgaard, s. (2019). coding qualitative data: a synthesis guiding the novice. qualitative research journal, 19(3), 259–270. https://doi.org/10.1108/qrj-12-2018-0012 thakur, r. (2020) hr in 2020 and beyond: what the future of hr holds. retrieved from https://www.peoplemattersglobal.com/blog/strategic-hr/hr-in-2020-and-beyond-what-the-future-of-hr-holds-24636 tarry, a. (2018). the role of hr in the 4th industrial revolution. the hr director. retrieved from https://www.thehrdirector.com/features/revolution/role-hr-industrial-revolution/ tesch, r. (1990). qualitative research: analysis types and software tools. bristol, pa: falmer. thomas, s., kureshi, s., suggala, s., & mendonca, v. (2020). hrm 4.0 and the shifting landscape of employer branding. in p. kumar, a. agrawal & p. budhwar (eds.), human & technological resource management (htrm): new insights into revolution 4.0 (pp. 37–51). bingley: emerald publishing limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83867-223-220201003 ulrich, d., kryscynski, d., ulrich, m., & brockbank, w. (2017). victory through organization: why the war for talent is failing your company and what you can do about it. the rbl group. retrieved from https://www.rbl.net/insights/books/victory-through-organization-why-the-war-for-talent-is-failing-your-company-and-what-you-can-do-about-it ulrich, d., & smallwood, n. (2021). hr’s reinvention: moving from benchmarking and best practices to guidance. retrieved from https://www.rbl.net/insights/articles/hrs-reinvention-moving-from-benchmarking-and-best-practices-to-guidance van den heuvel, s., & bondarouk, t. (2017). the rise (and fall?) of hr analytics: a study into the future application, value, structure, and system support. journal of organizational effectiveness: people and performance, 4(2), 157–178. https://doi.org/10.1108/joepp-03-2017-0022 wilkesmann, m., & wilkesmann, u. (2018). industry 4.0 – organizing routines or innovations? vine journal of information and knowledge management systems, 48(2), 238–254. https://doi.org/10.1108/vjikms-04-2017-0019 wilson, h.j., & daugherty, p.r. (2018). collaborative intelligence: humans and ai are joining forces. harvard business review. retrieved from https://hbr.org/2018/07/collaborative-intelligence-humans-and-ai-are-joining-forces wood, g., & bischoff, c. (2020). human resource management in africa: current research and future directions – evidence from south africa and across the continent. the international journal of human resource management, 32(17), 1–28. https://doi:10.1080/09585192.2019.1711443 xu, m., david, j.m., & kim, s.h. (2018). the fourth industrial revolution: opportunities and challenges. international journal of financial research, 9(2), 90–95. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijfr.v9n2p90 zhang, y., & wildemuth, b. m. (2009). qualitative analysis of content. in b.m. wildemuth (ed.), application of social research methods to questions in information and library science (pp. 308–319). westport, ct: libraries unlimited. abstract introduction literature review method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) wesley r. pieters department of human sciences, faculty of humanities and social sciences, university of namibia, windhoek, namibia letisha matheus department of human sciences, faculty of humanities and social sciences, university of namibia, windhoek, namibia citation pieters, w.r., & matheus, l. (2020). improving general health and reducing burnout of nurses in namibia. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1138. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1138 original research improving general health and reducing burnout of nurses in namibia wesley r. pieters, letisha matheus received: 01 nov. 2018; accepted: 03 sept. 2019; published: 25 may 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: nurses make up 80% of namibia’s healthcare workforce, and they are considered as the backbone of the industry. because of the lack of other healthcare providers nurses are exposed to high levels of job stress. research purpose: this study investigated how job demands-resources and psychological capital impact general health and burnout of nurses in oshikoto, kavango east, oshana, omaheke and khomas regions. motivation for the study: improving the work environment by balancing the relationship between job demands and job resources will result in lower levels of burnout, improved healthcare services, improved employee performance and patient satisfaction. research design/approach and method: using questionnaires, this study investigated the perceptions of nurses within selected regions of namibia to understand the relationship amongst these variables. the results were analysed using the spss (version 24), pearson’s product–moment correlation and multiple regression analyses. main findings: emotional exhaustion was found to have a positive relationship with general health and workload. social dysfunction and anxiety and insomnia were found to be significant predictors of cynicism. anxiety and insomnia, workload and social dysfunction were found to be significant predictors of emotional exhaustion. practical/managerial implications: healthcare sector needs to invest in health education and stress management programmes for nurses on how to take care of their own health and emotional well-being. providing training and development opportunities and coping strategies increases nurses’ psychological capital, general health, skills and abilities. contribution/value-add: this ground breaking study in namibia will pave the way for future research regarding the health and well-being of health professionals, add to the already existing knowledge within industrial and organisational psychology and guide interventions to improve the health and well-being. keywords: job demands-resources; psychological capital; general health; burnout; industrial psychology. introduction burnout is a major problem within the nursing profession. nurses are faced with high levels of burnout because of the nature of their work compared to other health professionals (khamisa, oldenburg, peltzer, & ilic, 2015). burnout is a result of being exposed to unpleasant stressful work environments for a long period of time (khamisa et al., 2015). stress can have a negative influence on the health, well-being and job satisfaction of nurses. stress may also impact the hospital in terms of absenteeism and poor patient care (mohajan, 2012). factors that cause job stress include overtime work as well as irregular working hours. because of the stressful work environment nurses may experience burnout (mohajan, 2012). stress is an inevitable part of the working world; however, some professions are more prone to stress. nursing is a profession that experiences more stress compared to other professions, and the main causes of stress include physical demands, management issues, lack of resources and difficulties in balancing home and work responsibilities (american holistic nurses association, 2007). inadequate staffing of nurses and the high levels of nurse burnout are issues that have become a crisis across the world (health education england, 2014). it becomes difficult for hospitals to provide good quality care when they experience staff shortages, especially with a growing population (health education england, 2014). recent information on nursing jobs in namibia indicates that nurses make up the highest number of healthcare workers in the public sector, with an estimated number of 2848 registered nurses and 2043 enrolled nurses compared to 666 medical doctors and 288 pharmacists (world health organization, 2002). nurses therefore make up 80% of namibia’s healthcare workforce (ministry of health and social services, 2008). this indicates that the country relies heavily on nurses’ performance and the quality of their service to patients. factors such as quality patient care and working shift patterns can influence job satisfaction and nurses’ intention to leave their job (aiken et al., 2012). job satisfaction, in turn, has an effect on burnout (ogresta, rusac, & zorec, 2008). working long hours under pressure and having to attend to patients with limited resources available may cause nurses to become less satisfied and may result in them resigning (khamisa et al., 2015). according to the job demands-resources model (jd-r), job demands are the characteristics of the job that require continuous effort over a period of time (demerouti, bakker, nachreiner, & schaufeli, 2001). job resources are the characteristics of the job that make it easy to achieve work goals of the healthcare team and the hospital, reduce job demands, or stimulate personal growth through significant work, and bring meaning to the lives of the nurses (bakker & demerouti, 2007). when job resources within the hospital are sufficient, it increases the nurses’ motivation to stay committed to their work and limit their intentions to leave (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). according to lorenz, beer, putz, and heinitz (2016), psychological capital has a positive relationship with job satisfaction and commitment. when employees experience psychological capital, they are more empowered, less likely to resign and will be less absent during work. psychological capital may influence job performance, and employees are able to draw upon more resources to pursue goals (lorenz et al., 2016). this article discusses key literature to better understand the relationship between job demands, job resources, psychological capital, general health and burnout of nurses in namibia. it further explains how the study was conducted, presents the findings, discusses the results in relations to key literature and makes some practical recommendations about this study. this article begins with the purpose of the study. purpose in namibia, the healthcare industry faces challenges such as staff shortages, work overload and poor general health (gaomas, 2006). the shortage of nurses prevents the smooth operation of hospital services (gaomas, 2006). nurses experience high levels of burnout because of a high workload and because nurses are always in contact with sick patients, they are easily exposed which can cause work-related health problems (wang, kristopher, guoping, burgess, & williams, 2003). burnout levels range between 10% and 70% amongst nurses and have become a common issue amongst healthcare workers, which can affect the quality of care provided to patients (lyndon, 2016). some of the factors that lead to burnout in the nursing profession include work-related stress that is caused by high job demands, work overtime, shortage of staff and lack of resources (khamisa et al., 2015). the purpose of this study was to investigate how job demands, job resources and psychological capital impact the general health and burnout of nurses in oshikoto, okavango east, oshana, omaheke and khomas regions in namibia. limited research has been conducted to explore the impact of job demands, job resources, psychological capital on the general health and burnout of nurses in namibia. this study aimed to add to the understanding of general health and burnout of nurses. literature review burnout because of staff shortages, lack of resources and high workloads, the stress nurses experience could lead to frustration, alcoholism, absenteeism, inadequate patient care and potentially burnout (continuing education for healthcare professionals, 2014; mohajan, 2012; shirey, 2006). burnout is a result of constant exposure to stress which is caused by factors such as increased job demands and work pressure. burnout causes nurses to detach from work and become less engaged with patients (lyndon, 2016; maslach, jackson, & leiter, 1996). according to maslach, schaufeli, and leiter (2001) burnout is a prolonged response to chronic interpersonal stressors on the job and is characterised by emotional exhaustion, cynicism and inefficacy. bakker, demerouti, and euwema (2005) define burnout as the result of an imbalance between job demands and job resources. the multidimensional theory of burnout describes burnout in a much broader manner in terms of three components: emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment (maslach & jackson, 1986). emotional exhaustion is what employees experience when they feel drained. depersonalisation refers to a detached, impersonal response towards recipients of one’s service. reduced personal accomplishment refers to a decline in work productivity, reduced self-efficacy and effectiveness that are associated with the inability to cope with job demands (maslach, 1998). according to maslach et al. (2001), research carried out on burnout reports that burnout is strongly related to emotional exhaustion and that emotional exhaustion in simpler terms is the stress experienced by workers. the influence of burnout can be understood by the jd-r model. the jd-r model tries to combine two independent variables: job demands, which are described as initiators of a health impairment process, and job resources, which are described as initiators of a motivational process (demerouti & bakker, 2011). the health impairment process proposes that jobs with severe job demands, for example, work overload and emotional demands, exhaust employees, lead to strain and ultimately to health problems (bakker, demerouti, & schaufeli, 2003). the motivational process suggests that job resources have the potential to motivate individuals and lead to high work engagement, but a lack of resources reduces motivation and leads to cynicism (demerouti & bakker, 2011). general health the general well-being and health of nurses are also related to burnout. well-being consists of physical and psychological aspects. the availability of staff is affected by a hazardous environment in which nurses may work. nurses are exposed to substances that can cause various infections. africa has 1.3% of the health workforce of the world and 25% of the disease burden in the world (world health organization, 2004). when nurses experience poor well-being and health, they are more susceptible to experience burnout. stress can result in depression. stress can cause sleeping problems and can have physical effects such as headaches, stomach upset and changes in blood pressure (national institute for occupational safety and health, 2008). this indicates that stress affects employees’ physical health and well-being. in this study, general health will be characterised by somatic symptoms (physical ailments), anxiety and insomnia (problems with sleep) and social dysfunction (poor interaction with others) (maslach et al., 2001). nurses may be anxious about the quality of service because the lack of adequate resources (khamisa et al., 2015) affects the quality of their sleep, which is already hampered by shift work (aiken et al., 2012). not being able to sleep well is a major factor in influencing the general health as sleep is one of the best ways for the body to recuperate (robotham, chakkalackal, & cyhlarova, 2011) and recover from the job demands (bakker et al., 2003). work stress influences the smooth operation of hospital services (gaomas, 2006); this also includes interaction with patients (social dysfunction). job demands-resources nurses perform poorly in poor working conditions (ministry of health and social services, 2008). overcrowding of the public hospitals, failure of hospital staff to pay attention to avoid harm or errors, and alleged mistreatment of patients are some of the issues discussed in newspapers and public debates regarding the health department (ministry of health and social services, 2008). other african countries and the ministry of health and social services in namibia have the same mandate, which is to ensure that its health departments are operating well to promote the well-being of the citizens. the hiv and aids epidemic impacts life expectancy, causing the latter to decline in the workforce of 17 out of 48 sub-saharan african countries, which in turn resulted in unmanageable workload, affected the quality and productivity of work and also caused more frustration amongst nurses (sanders, dovlo, meeus, & lehmann, 2003). the availability of qualified nurses is low in many countries because the number of nurses who graduate from tertiary institutions is low (munjanja, kibuka, & dovlo, 2005). nembwaya (2013) reported that although the university of namibia has been training healthcare professionals, there remains a high need of nurses in the private and public sectors. because of poor working conditions, qualified nurses are leaving state hospitals, preferring to work in the private sector. out of 104 registered nurses, 65 moved to the private health sector in the country between 2001 and 2004, whilst 39 left the country for the united kingdom (gaomas, 2006). faced with unfavourable working conditions and no opportunities for growth in their careers, nurses thus resign from the public health sector (gaomas, 2006). job demands are aspects of a job that require sustained effort and lead to psychological problems, such as stress and emotional exhaustion. examples of job demands are work hours, time pressure, work environment and workload (bakker et al., 2005). they are also further defined in a broader concept of job demand dimensions, which can be grouped into qualitative and quantitative demands. qualitative demands include role ambiguity and role conflict, and quantitative demands relate to time pressure and workload (janssen, 2001). job demands are not necessarily negative, but excessive effort requirements and exposure to high job demands over a long period of time can lead to burnout (demerouti et al., 2001). according to sundin, hochwälder, and lisspers (2011), job demands such as time pressure, emotional demands and lack of nursing staff were found to predict both emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation, which are considered to be the core dimensions of burnout. as a result of work-related stress, job demands also have a negative impact on individuals’ motivation to engage in work (bakker, 2010). when employees are required to do much work under time pressure, they may become less engaged. job resources are aspects of a job that ease job demands and help employees to succeed in completing work tasks and stimulate personal growth and development (demerouti et al., 2001). job resources are also defined as those aspects that foster intrinsic motivation among employees and satisfy the needs for autonomy, belongingness and competence (hakanen, bakker, & schaufeli, 2006; van den broeck, vansteenkiste, de witte, & lens, 2008). examples of job resources include social support, autonomy and performance feedback (bakker & demerouti, 2007). in this study, job resources include organisational support, job security and advancement opportunities (jackson & rothmann, 2005). research has shown that strong relationships exist between job resources and work engagement, organisational commitment and job satisfaction (bakker & demerouti, 2007). however, when job demands are high, it can influence work engagement negatively. previous research has also shown that the lack of job resources may contribute to burnout (hakanen et al., 2006). individuals learn by receiving proper feedback, which increases job competence, whereas support from supervisors and colleagues satisfies the need for autonomy and the need to belong and can help in completing the work faster (van den broeck et al., 2008). job resources facilitate employees’ motivation to engage in work and reduce the level of burnout by lessening the impact of job demands (crawford, lepine, & rich, 2010). staff shortages (of nurses) are a serious problem in district hospitals in namibia. it is reported that district hospitals have complained about staff shortages as a result of the large number of vacant posts (ministry of health and social services, 1998). it is unlikely to find nurses at the workstations that they were assigned to because these nurses are working alone without any supervision and support from medical officers and registered nurses (ministry of health and social services, 1998). most of the qualified staff members do not want to work in the remote areas because of a lack of proper accommodation, work environment and unfair management practices. it is very difficult to recruit qualified staff, and as a result of these challenging work-related factors, nurses do not stay long in these areas (ministry of health and social services, 1998). based on the literature discussed above, the following hypotheses have been developed: hypothesis 1: job demands are positively related to burnout. hypothesis 2: job demands are positively related to general health. hypothesis 3: job resources, organisational support, job security and advancement opportunities are negatively related to burnout. hypothesis 4: job resources, organisational support, job security and advancement opportunities are negatively related to general health. psychological capital psychological capital is defined as the positive psychological state of development of an individual, which is characterised by self-efficacy, optimism, hope and resilience (luthans, youseff, & avolio, 2007). self-efficacy refers to a person’s confidence in having the ability to complete a challenging task, and it involves five behaviours: high goal-setting, openness to challenging tasks, high self-motivation, application of the necessary effort for goal accomplishment and perseverance. optimism refers to a person’s thinking positively about succeeding now and in the future. hope refers to a person’s motivation to reach goals and create pathways to achieve those goals. resilience refers to a person’s ability to cope and recover from life difficulties and adapt to significant changes (luthans et al., 2007). according to luthans and church (2002), psychological capital is the study of human strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed and managed for improved employee performance in the workplace. self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience adopt and maintain a sense of control. when individuals are positive, they will view their chances of being successful high. having high self-efficacy will give them the motivation to attempt and achieve with challenging tasks. having hope will encourage different pathways towards reaching their goals. having resilience will help individuals recover quickly from obstacles (luthans et al., 2007). according to masten, cutuli, herbers, and reed (2009), social support builds self-efficacy and resilience, and resilience builds optimism and hope. when employees receive support from colleagues, it improves their level of self-efficacy; they learn from each other and develop new skills. developing new skills and abilities improves employees’ ability to come with new challenging situations (resilience). when these employees are able to cope better with challenging situations, they become more hopeful and optimistic about the future outcomes. the relationship between job demands-resources, psychological capital, general health and burnout studies have shown that job demands are positively related to emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation (maslach & jackson, 1981b). when job demands are high, employees experience increased emotional exhaustion, but do not become disengaged; and when job resources are insufficient, employees experience high levels of disengagement but not emotional exhaustion. high job demands and the lack of job resources are the main drivers of burnout (alarcon, edwards, & menke, 2011; demerouti et al., 2001). according to avey, wernsing, and luthans (2008), psychological capital and positive emotions are interrelated. positive emotions are a result of psychological capital and positivity. positive emotions can also facilitate and restore physical, social and psychological resources that have been depleted (fredrickson, 2001). studies have shown that nurses with a supportive environment and adequate number of nursing colleagues are more satisfied with their work, give better quality care and are less likely to experience burnout (vahey, aiken, sloane, clarke, & vargas, 2004). the united kingdom has one of the highest rates of nurses reporting burnout across europe because of a number of risk factors associated with job dissatisfaction and stress. research studies have confirmed a high level of job satisfaction in less stressful work environments, and about 30% of nurses have less intention to leave the profession in a healthy work environment (health education england, 2014). a stressful work environment, which is caused by work overload and a shortage of staff, can cause nurses to be dissatisfied with their work. as a result, dissatisfaction amongst nurses may lead to low work engagement, burnout and consequently become a risk to patients. nurses experienced high levels of job dissatisfaction and job-related stress who work overtime with little support from managers, and less work flexibility and autonomy (richman, 2006). according to the jd-r model, the interaction between job demands and job resources is important for the development of strain or motivation (bakker, demerouti, taris, schaufeli, & schreurs, 2003). according to bakker and demerouti (2007), the reason why job resources can act as buffers is different for different resources. for example, a quality relationship with one’s supervisor can ease the impact of job demands such as work overload, emotional and physical demands on job strain. support from supervisor may also help the worker to cope with the job demands and act as a protector against ill health (vaananen, et al., 2003). the jd-r health model indicates that job demands lead to negative health and job resources lead to positive or negative health. job resources have a beneficial impact on health, as the more the resources are available, the easier the workers will recover from job demands (brauchli, jenny, fullemann, & bauer, 2015). job resources mediate the relationship between job demands and burnout and general health. when nurses experience burnout, especially emotional exhaustion, because of high job demands or other stressors, they can protect themselves by mobilising their positive resources as a coping tool (hobfoll, 1989). a low level of self-efficacy can promote the development of burnout (cherniss, 1993), and a high level of self-efficacy will result in high levels of engagement and less burnout (ventura, salanova, & llorens, 2015). according to laschinger and fida (2014), psychological capital can protect newly graduated nurses from the occurrence of burnout. limited resources, workplace stress, workplace hazards, well-being of nurses and the limited number of nursing staff are the factors that cause major concerns in the health department. the relationship between job resources, job demand and burnout is consistently negative, where the lack of job resources is causing high levels of burnout (demerouti et al., 2001). based on the literature discussed, figure 1 demonstrates the theoretical relationship between job demands-resources, psychological capital, general health and burnout. job demands increase the levels of burnout and health (ill health) experienced by employees. literature also indicates that different job resources may reduce the experience of burnout and general health (ill health). psychological capital impacts the general health and burnout of employees. figure 1 indicates that the general health and burnout levels of employees are also interdependent. figure 1: theoretical relationship between job demands-resources, psychological capital, general health and burnout. based on the literature discussed, the following hypotheses are proposed: hypothesis 5: psychological capital is negatively related to general health. hypothesis 6: psychological capital is negatively related to burnout. hypothesis 7: job demands (workload) and general health (anxiety and insomnia, somatic symptoms) predict burnout (emotional exhaustion). hypothesis 8: general health (anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunction) predicts burnout (cynicism). hypothesis 9: burnout (emotional exhaustion and cynicism) predicts general health (anxiety and insomnia). hypothesis 10: burnout (emotional exhaustion and cynicism) predicts general health (social dysfunction). method research approach this study used quantitative research in the form of questionnaires to collect data about the biographical information, job demands-resources, psychological capital, general health and burnout of nurses in the selected regions in namibia. research assistants were used to collect the data in the different regions where they lived. design permission was obtained from the permanent secretary of the ministry of health and social services, the matrons at the different regional hospitals and station managers within the different hospitals. once permission was obtained, nurses were informed about their rights to privacy, confidentiality and the purpose of the study. participants were in no way harmed in this study, and the questionnaires were securely stored for the next 3 years. after informed consent was obtained from the nurses, the questionnaires were distributed to be completed after working hours. in order not to interfere with work-related duties, the questionnaires were collected after a few days as agreed between research assistants and nurses. participants were informed about their right to withdraw from the study at any time without any negative consequences. a total of 750 questionnaires were distributed within the different regions, of which 672 were completed and returned, providing a response rate of 89.6%. participants this study used convenience sampling, choosing participants who were willing and available to participate. a sample of 672 nurses included enrolled nurses, registered nurses and student nurses from public hospitals and clinics. of the sample of 672 nurses, the majority were women (n = 537, 79.9%). most of the respondents reported that they are between the ages of 24 and 28 years (n = 167, 24.9%), have worked for 3–4 years in the nursing profession (n = 168, 25%), are single (n = 416, 61.9%), have 1–2 children (n = 245, 36.5%), have obtained a certificate (n = 191, 28.4%), are working as a registered nurse (n = 272, 40.5%) and are working in the khomas region (n = 214, 31.8%). the rest of the biographical information is presented in table 1. table 1: frequency distribution of the sample (n = 672). measuring instruments a biographical questionnaire was developed to collect information about participant’s gender, age, tenure, marital status, number of dependants (children), highest qualification obtained, rank and region in which they work. the job demands-resources scale (jd-rs) was developed by jackson and rothmann (2005) to measure job demands and job resources. the questionnaire made use of a four-point response scale (1: never; 2: sometimes; 3: often; and 4: always) and 46 items. the questionnaire consists of five dimensions: workload (‘do you work under pressure?’), resources (‘does your job offer you opportunities for personal growth and development?’), organisational support (‘can you count on your colleagues when you come across difficulties in your work?’), job security (‘do you need to be more secure that you will still be working in one year’s time?’) and advancement opportunities (‘does your organisation give you opportunities to follow training courses?’). jackson and rothmann (2005) found this instrument to be reliable, recording cronbach’s alpha coefficients of 0.75 for workload, 0.76 for resources, 0.88 for organisational support, 0.90 for job security and 0.80 for advancement opportunity. pieters and hasheela (2018) found an acceptable reliability statistics in a namibian study: workload (0.76), resources (0.75), organisational support (0.88), job security (0.79) and advancement opportunities (0.88). the psychological capital questionnaire (psycapq) was developed by luthans and youssef (2004) to measure the positive psychological state of individuals. this questionnaire consists of a six-point likert-type scale (1: strongly disagree; 2: disagree; 3: somewhat disagree; 4: somewhat agree; 5: agree; and 6: strongly agree) and 24 items. it consists of four subscales: self-efficacy (‘i feel confident analysing a long-term problem to find a solution’), hope (‘if i should find myself in a jam at work, i could think of many ways to get out of it’), resilience (‘when i have a setback at work, i have trouble recovering from it, moving on’) and optimism (‘i always look on the bright side of things regarding my job’). this instrument was found to be reliable, recording cronbach’s alpha coefficients of 0.87 for self-efficacy, 0.84 for hope, 0.80 for optimism and 0.86 for resilience (sapyaprapa, tuicomepee, & watakakosol, 2013). the general health questionnaire (ghq) was developed by goldberg (goldberg & hillier, 1979) to detect health problems and the perception of quality of life. there are different versions, the 12, 28, 30 or 60 items of the ghq (jackson, 2007). this study made use of the 28-item version, which consists of three subscales: somatic symptoms (‘i have been feeling perfectly well and in good health’), anxiety and insomnia (‘i have lost much sleep over worry’) and social dysfunction (‘i felt that life is entirely hopeless’). the items are measured on a four-point response scale (1: not at all; 2: no more than usual; 3: rather more than usual; and 4: much more than usual). this instrument was found to be reliable, recording cronbach’s alpha coefficient ranging from 0.78 to 0.95 (jackson, 2007). the maslach burnout inventory (mbi) was developed by maslach and jackson (1981b) and it measures three domains of burnout: emotional exhaustion, cynicism and professional efficacy. it has a 7-point response scale (0: never; 1: a few times a year or less; 2: once a month; 3: a few times a month; 4: once a week; 5: a few times a week; and 6: every day) with 16 items (maslach, jackson, & leiter, 1996). sample items include emotional exhaustion (‘i feel emotionally drained from my work’), cynicism (‘i doubt the significance of my work’) and professional efficacy (‘i can effectively solve the problems that arise in my work’). this instrument was found to be reliable, recording cronbach’s alpha coefficients of 0.88 for emotional exhaustion, 0.67 for cynicism and 0.78 for professional efficacy (bria, spanu, baban, & dumitrasfu, 2014). pieters and van heerden (2018) found an acceptable reliability for emotional exhaustion. however, cynicism and professional efficacy did not meet the standards for acceptable reliability of 0.70 within a namibian study. analysis the ibm spss programme (version 24) was used to analyse the quantitative data collected from the questionnaires (spss, 2016). the results were presented in descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation and reliability) and inferential statistics (pearson’s correlation coefficient) was used to determine the relationship between the variables. the reliability of the results was measured using the cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.7, which represents a reliable scale. the pearson’s product–moment correlation was used to determine the relationship between the different variables. the stepwise multiple regression analysis was used to indicate which variable best predicts the dependent variables and allows the researchers to identify which dimensions need to be included in the analysis. ethical consideration ethical clearance was awarded by the university of namibia and permission to conduct the study was provided by the permanent secretary of the ministry of health and social services, namibia. all ethical principles have been upheld in this study (ref no.: 17/3/3). results descriptive statistics and correlations the means (m), standard deviation (sd), cronbach’s alpha coefficient and correlations are recorded in table 2. table 2: mean, standard deviation, cronbach’s alpha and pearson product-moment correlation. the jd-rs questionnaire was found to be reliable in this study. a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.78 was reported for workload, 0.75 for resources, 0.88 for organisational support, 0.79 for job security and 0.88 for advancement opportunities. the psycapq was found to be reliable in this study. a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.83 was reported for self-efficacy, 0.84 for hope and 0.70 for resilience. optimism was found to be unreliable; thus, it was not included further in the analysis as it did not meet the cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.70. the ghq was found to be reliable in this study. a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.82 was reported for somatic symptoms, 0.89 for anxiety and insomnia and 0.84 for social dysfunction. the maslach burnout inventory was found to be reliable in this study, reporting with a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.88 for emotional exhaustion and 0.75 for cynicism. professional efficacy was found to be unreliable and thus excluded from further analysis in this study because it did not meet the cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.70. workload reported a mean of 23.74 and a standard deviation of 4.40; resources reported a mean of 22.50 and a standard deviation of 4.42; organisational support reported a mean of 62.89 and a standard deviation of 10.31; job security reported a mean of 8.88 and a standard deviation of 2.63; and advancement opportunity reported a mean of 11.68 and a standard deviation of 4.77. self-efficacy reported a mean of 26.18 and a standard deviation of 6.07; hope reported a mean of 27.67 and a standard deviation of 5.76; and resilience reported a mean of 17.04 and a standard deviation of 4.07. somatic symptoms reported a mean of 12.53 and a standard deviation of 4.55; anxiety and insomnia reported a mean of 12.11 and a standard deviation of 5.16; and social dysfunction reported a mean of 22.07 and a standard deviation of 6.16. emotional exhaustion reported a mean of 13.83 and a standard deviation of 9.69; cynicism reported a mean of 5.75 and a standard deviation of 5.55. making use of pearson’s correlation coefficient, table 2 shows that workload reported a positive relationship with resources (r = 0.12, p < 0.05; small effect), organisational support (r = 0.06, p < 0.05; large effect) and job security (r = 0.13, p < 0.05; small effect), and a negative relationship with advancement opportunity (r = -0.06, p < 0.05; small effect). workload reported a negative relationship with self-efficacy (r = -0.00, p < 0.05; small effect), a negative relationship with hope (r = -0.01, p < 0.05; small effect) and a positive relationship with resilience (r = 0.06, p < 0.05; small effect). workload reported a positive relationship with somatic symptoms (r = 0.27, p < 0.05; small effect), a positive relationship with anxiety and insomnia (r = 0.27, p < 0.05; small effect) and a positive relationship with social dysfunction (r = 0.20, p < 0.05; small effect). table 2 indicates that workload reported a positive relationship with emotional exhaustion (r = 0.41, p < 0.05; medium effect) and a positive relationship with cynicism (r = 0.26, p < 0.05; small effect). resources reported a positive relationship with organisational support (r = 0.54, p < 0.05; large effect), job security (r = 0.24, p < 0.05; small effect) and advancement opportunity (r = 0.32, p < 0.05; medium effect). resources reported a positive relationship with self-efficacy (r = 0.26, p < 0.05; small effect), a positive relationship with hope (r = 0.26, p < 0.05; small effect) and a positive relationship with resilience (r = 0.16, p < 0.05; small effect). resources reported a negative relationship with somatic symptoms (r = -0.07, p < 0.05; small effect), a negative relationship with anxiety and insomnia (r = -0.14, p < 0.05; small effect) and a negative relationship with social dysfunction (r = -0.08, p < 0.05; small effect). resources reported a negative relationship with emotional exhaustion (r = -0.15, p < 0.05; small effect) and a negative relationship with cynicism (r = -0.08, p < 0.05; small effect). organisational support reported a positive relationship with job security (r = 0.31, p < 0.05; medium effect) and advancement opportunities (r = 0.30, p < 0.05; small effect). organisational support reported a positive relationship with self-efficacy (r = 0.26, p < 0.05; small effect), a positive relationship with hope (r = 0.23, p < 0.05; small effect) and a positive relationship with resilience (r = 0.06, p < 0.05; small effect). organisational support reported a negative relationship with somatic symptoms (r = -0.15, p < 0.05; small effect), a negative relationship with anxiety and insomnia (r = -0.20, p < 0.05; small effect) and a negative relationship with social dysfunction (r = -0.16, p < 0.05; small effect). organisational support reported a negative relationship with emotional exhaustion (r = -0.18, p < 0.05; small effect) and a negative relationship with cynicism (r = -0.12, p < 0.05; small effect). job security reported a positive relationship with advancement opportunity (r = 0.18, p < 0.05; small effect). job security reported a positive relationship with self-efficacy (r = 0.13, p < 0.05; small effect), a positive relationship with hope (r = 0.12, p < 0.05; small effect) and a positive relationship with resilience (r = 0.05, p < 0.05; small effect). job security reported a positive relationship with somatic symptoms (r = 0.02, p < 0.05; small effect), a negative relationship with anxiety and insomnia (r = -0.00, p < 0.05; small effect) and a negative relationship with social dysfunction (r = -0.03, p < 0.05; small effect). job security reported a positive relationship with emotional exhaustion (r = 0.01, p < 0.05; small effect) and a positive relationship with cynicism (r = 0.02, p < 0.05; small effect). advancement opportunity reported a positive relationship with self-efficacy (r = 0.15, p < 0.05; small effect), a positive relationship with hope (r = 0.06, p < 0.05; small effect) and a negative relationship with resilience (r = -0.06, p < 0.05; small effect). advancement opportunity reported a negative relationship with somatic symptoms (r = -0.12, p < 0.05; small effect), a negative relationship with anxiety and insomnia (r = -0.06, p < 0.05; small effect) and a positive relationship with social dysfunction (r = 0.02, p < 0.05; large effect). advancement opportunity reported a negative relationship with emotional exhaustion (r = -0.04, p < 0.05; small effect) and a positive relationship with cynicism (r = 0.12, p < 0.05; small effect). self-efficacy reported a positive relationship with hope (r = 0.65, p < 0.05; large effect) and resilience (r = 0.42, p < 0.05, medium effect). self-efficacy reported a negative relationship with somatic symptoms (r = -0.08, p < 0.05; small effect), a negative relationship with anxiety and insomnia (r = -0.14, p < 0.05; small effect) and a negative relationship with social dysfunction (r = -0.12, p < 0.05; small effect). self-efficacy reported a negative relationship with emotional exhaustion (r = -0.14, p < 0.05; small effect) and a negative relationship with cynicism (r = -0.07, p < 0.05; small effect). hope reported a positive relationship with resilience (r = 0.53, p < 0.05; large effect). hope reported a negative relationship with somatic symptoms (r = -0.07, p < 0.05; small effect), a negative relationship with anxiety and insomnia (r = -0.14, p < 0.05; small effect) and a negative relationship with social dysfunction (r = -0.17, p < 0.05; small effect). hope reported a negative relationship with emotional exhaustion (r = -0.15, p < 0.05; small effect) and a negative relationship with cynicism (r = -0.12, p < 0.05; small effect). resilience reported a positive relationship with somatic symptoms (r = 0.02, p < 0.05; small effect), a negative relationship with anxiety and insomnia (r = -0.02, p < 0.05; small effect) and a negative relationship with social dysfunction (r = -0.08, p < 0.05; small effect). resilience reported a negative relationship with emotional exhaustion (r = -0.02, p < 0.05; small effect) and a negative relationship with cynicism (r = -0.04, p < 0.05; small effect). somatic symptoms reported a positive relationship with anxiety and insomnia (r = 0.65, p < 0.05; large effect) and social dysfunction (r = 0.50, p < 0.05, large effect). somatic symptoms reported a positive relationship with emotional exhaustion (r = 0.39, p < 0.05; medium effect) and a positive relationship with cynicism (r = 0.25, p < 0.05; small effect). anxiety and insomnia reported a positive relationship with social dysfunction (r = 0.60, p < 0.05; large effect). anxiety and insomnia also reported a positive relationship with emotional exhaustion (r = 0.49, p < 0.05; medium effect) and a positive relationship with cynicism (r = 0.38, p < 0.05; medium effect). social dysfunction reported a positive relationship with emotional exhaustion (r = 0.39, p < 0.05; medium effect) and a positive relationship with cynicism (r = 0.40, p < 0.05; medium effect). emotional exhaustion reported a positive relationship with cynicism (r = 0.53, p < 0.05; large effect). multiple regression analyses multiple regression analysis was performed to test hypotheses 7, 8, 9 and 10. some dimensions of the variables were excluded from the analysis because these dimensions did not meet the expected correlation of r = 0.3 (pallant, 2005). to test hypothesis 7, anxiety and insomnia, somatic symptoms and social dysfunction (general health) were used as the independent variables in the first step and workload (job demands) was added in the second step to predict emotional exhaustion (burnout), the dependent variable. the results are reported in table 3. table 3: multiple regression with emotional exhaustion (burnout) being the dependent variable and anxiety and insomnia, somatic symptoms and social dysfunction (general health), and workload (job demands) being the independent variables. a stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to evaluate how well anxiety and insomnia, somatic symptoms and social dysfunction (general health), and workload (job demands) predict emotional exhaustion (burnout). table 2 indicates that anxiety and insomnia, somatic symptoms and social dysfunction (general health) produced a significant model in step 1 (f(3,604) = 71.21; p < 0.00) and accounted for 26% of the variance. in step 2, workload (job demands) was added to the model, producing a significant model (f(4,603) = 77.85; p < 0.00), accounting for 34% of the variance. the results showed that anxiety and insomnia (β = 0.31; t = 6.41; p < 0.00) is the strongest significant predictor of emotional exhaustion, somatic symptoms (β = 0.05; t = 1.14; p < 0.26) was an insignificant predictor of emotional exhaustion and social dysfunction (β = 0.13; t = 3.11; p < 0.00) was a significant predictor of emotional exhaustion. workload (β = 0.29; t = 8.51; p < 0.00) was also a significant predictor of emotional exhaustion and the second largest significant predictor in this model. to test hypothesis 8, anxiety and insomnia and social dysfunction (general health) were used as the independent variables in the first step to predict cynicism (burnout), the dependent variable. the results are reported in table 4. table 4: multiple regression analysis with cynicism (burnout) being the dependent variable and anxiety and insomnia and social dysfunction (general health) being the independent variables. a stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to evaluate how well anxiety and insomnia and social dysfunction (general health) predict cynicism (hypothesis 8). table 4 produced a significant model in step 1 (f(2,628) = 74.58; p < 0.00) that accounted for 19% of the variance. the results showed that anxiety and insomnia (β = 0.24; t = 5.38; p < 0.00) was a significant predictor of emotional exhaustion and social dysfunction (β = 0.25; t = 5.63; p < 0.00) was the strongest significant predictor of emotional exhaustion (by very small margin). emotional exhaustion and cynicism (burnout) were used as the independent variables to predict anxiety and insomnia (general health), the dependent variable (hypothesis 9). emotional exhaustion and cynicism were entered into the first model and the results are presented in table 5. table 5: multiple regression with anxiety and insomnia (general health) being the dependent variable and emotional exhaustion and cynicism (burnout) being the dependent variables. a stepwise multiple regression analysis was carried out to evaluate how well emotional exhaustion and cynicism predict anxiety and insomnia. table 5 produced a significant model in step 1 (f(2,643) = 117.50; p < 0.00) and accounted for 27% of the variance. the results showed that emotional exhaustion (β = 0.41; t = 10.30; p < 0.00) was the strongest significant predictor of anxiety and insomnia and cynicism (β = 0.17; t = 4.30; p < 0.00) was also a significant predictor of anxiety and insomnia. emotional exhaustion and cynicism (burnout) were used as the independent variables to predict social dysfunction (general health), the dependent variable (hypothesis 10). emotional exhaustion and cynicism were entered into the first model and the results are presented in table 6. table 6: multiple regression with social dysfunction (general health) as the dependent variable and emotional exhaustion and cynicism (burnout) as the independent variables. a stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to evaluate how well emotional exhaustion and cynicism predict social dysfunction. in table 6 emotional exhaustion and cynicism produced a significant model in step 1 (f(2,633) = 79.85; p < 0.00) and accounted for 20% of the variance in social dysfunction (general health). the results showed that emotional exhaustion (β = 0.25; t = 5.98; p < 0.00) was a significant predictor of social dysfunction and cynicism (β = 0.26; t = 6.28; p < 0.00) was the strongest significant predictor of social dysfunction (by a small margin). discussion outline of results this study found that job demands had a positive relationship with burnout (emotional exhaustion and cynicism), supporting hypothesis 1 of this study. the results support the findings of bakker et al. (2005), maslach and jackson (1981b) and demerouti et al. (2001), which indicated that when nurses are expected to perform many tasks as part of their duties, they may experience emotional exhaustion and cynicism. this study also hypothesised that job demands are positively related to general health. workload reported a positive relationship with anxiety and insomnia, somatic symptoms and social dysfunction, supporting hypothesis 2 of this study. a heavy workload negatively impacts the general health of nurses, making them anxious, experience insomnia and physical problems, and become hopeless about life. the results of this study supported hypotheses 3 and 4, indicating that when employees have better access to job resources, organisational support, job security and advancement opportunities, they may become less exhausted, less negative about their abilities at work, less anxious, sleep better at night and develop a positive outlook on life. similar results were also found in other studies (bakker, demerouti, & schaufeli, 2003; bakker & demerouti, 2007; vaananen et al., 2003). this study found a positive relationship between advancement opportunities (job resources) and cynicism (burnout). this is different from what bakker et al. (2003) found, reporting that job resources ease the impact of job demands. when employees are promoted, they are likely to be required to take on more tasks or more challenging tasks. it was also noted that as a result of a lack of resources and high job demands, employees are likely to experience burnout (alarcon, edwards, & menke, 2011; demerouti et al., 2001). bakker et al. (2003) indicated that the interaction between job demands and job resources can result in either motivation or strain. job resources can motivate employees to become engaged in their work, whilst a lack of resources can lead to cynicism (demerouti & bakker, 2011). based on this reasoning, it could be seen that the resources (advancement opportunities) within the work environment are not adequate to motivate employees and rather cause strain. when employees are more confident about their own abilities, more optimistic about work goals and able to handle stressful situations at work, they experience less physical ailments, are able to sleep good at night and also become calmer and optimistic about life. these findings support hypothesis 5 regarding the negative relationship between psychological capital and general health. this study also supports hypothesis 6 and found that psychological capital (self-efficacy, hope and resilience) had a negative relationship with burnout (emotional exhaustion and cynicism). these findings support the study by ventura et al. (2015) and laschinger and fida (2014) that indicate that low self-efficacy can result in burnout and high self-efficacy can result in increased engagement and reduced burnout. workload was found to be a significant predictor of emotional exhaustion. this study found somatic symptoms, anxiety and insomnia and social dysfunction to be significant predictors of emotional exhaustion, supporting hypothesis 7. anxiety and insomnia and social dysfunction were found to be a significant predictor of cynicism, supporting hypothesis 8. these findings support the study by bakker and demerouti (2007), indicating that chronic job requirements such as work overload and emotional demands exhaust employees’ mental and physical resources and may therefore lead to the depletion of energy (i.e. a state of emotional exhaustion) and to health problems. this indicates that when nurses do not get enough sleep and their health status is low, they tend to experience high levels of emotional exhaustion, which lead to poor patient care and result in nurses being cynical about their work. this study found that emotional exhaustion and cynicism predicted anxiety and insomnia as well as social dysfunction, supporting hypotheses 9 and 10. the national institute for occupational safety and health (2008) highlights that stress can result in depression, may cause sleeping problems and may have a physical impact on nurses, such as headaches, stomach upset and changes in blood pressure. practical implications this study recommends teamwork and support from colleagues and supervisors as a way to reduce job demands and stimulate personal growth through significant work; this would bring meaning to the lives of the nurses. job resources such as social support, autonomy and performance feedback can reduce burnout. individuals learn by receiving proper feedback, which increases job competence, whereas support from supervisors and colleagues satisfies the need for autonomy and the need to belong and can help in completing the work faster (van den broeck et al., 2008). seeing that some nurses have only completed grade 12, a certificate or diploma, it is suggested to provide non-accredited training or short courses that will enhance the capabilities and competences of nurses. these short courses will add to job resources, thereby allowing better adaptation with job demands, improved hope and optimism, enhanced positive general health and reduced levels of burnout. recruitment and training of learners who completed grade 12 could help to alleviate the immediate pressure that nurses experience. it is important for nurses to have good health and well-being so that they would be able to provide quality care to patients and also would be satisfied with their work. this study further recommends that the ministry of health and social services needs to implement training and development programmes and invest in health education and stress management programmes for nurses. it is suggested that nurses should also invest in hobbies or other activities, such as hiking or meditating, to help reduce work-related stresses. when nurses are more informed about and actively engaged in improving their own health, they would be better equipped and eager to attend to clients. once customer service improves, providing quality healthcare becomes possible. this, in turn, will increase the optimism and outlook of nurses, productivity and the positive public image of the nursing profession. once nurses live a healthy and active life, they would also have more personal resources, buffering the job demands, and be less likely to experience burnout. this study also provides theoretical insights into the relationship of job demands, job resources, psychological capital and how these variables impact general health and burnout specifically for nurses in namibia. it also provides scientific evidences about the reliability of these instruments and how the findings add to the knowledge within the field of human resource management and industrial psychology. limitations this study has the following limitations. firstly, as the study only focused on selected regions within namibia, the findings are applicable to the regions under study and thus cannot be generalisable to all settings. secondly, it used a survey design which could have been influenced by response bias. recommendations it is suggested that future studies should consider a quantitative approach to investigate further approaches to reduce poor health and burnout experienced by nurses in namibia. perhaps future studies could also investigate the state of all the healthcare professionals across the country. a longitudinal study or a study focusing on other factors that may impact burnout and general health, which were not included in this study, may be conducted in the future. conclusion when sufficient job resources are available within the hospital, it increases nurses’ motivation to stay engaged in their work and limits their intentions to leave by lessening the influence of job demands (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). it is suggested that adequate resources should be provided to reduce high workload, which in turn results in lowering the levels of anxiety, insomnia and social dysfunction. the availability of job resources facilitates employees’ motivation to engage in work and reduces the level of burnout by lessening the impact of job demands (crawford et al., 2010). employees who are required to execute a high workload are likely to experience poor health and ultimately experience burnout. the impact of burnout may be dampened when employees are provided with the required job resources. general health and burnout levels of nurses are inter-related. the working conditions may negatively impact the burnout levels of nurses, which in turn affects the general health, depleting personal resources and exacerbating the effects of burnout. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank n. auanga, j. kadhila, i. mwila, n. nobukoshi and m. pinehas, the research assistants, for the data collection and their tireless efforts. they would also like to express their gratitude to the employees within the ministry of health and social services for their accommodating and generous nature with which they engaged in this study. authors’ contributions w.p. conducted the analysis of the data and wrote the article. l.m. is a research student who was involved in the collection of data, as well as in the writing of this article. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references aiken, l.h., sermeus, w., van den heede, k., sloane, d.m., busse, r., mckee, m., … kutney-lee, a. (2012). patient safety, satisfaction, and quality of hospital care: cross sectional surveys of nurses and patients in 12 countries in europe and the united states. british medical journal, 344,7851. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e1717 alarcon, g.m., edwards, j.m., & menke, l.e. (2011). student burnout and engagement: a test of the conservation of resources theory. journal of psychology, 145(3), 211–227. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2011.555432 american holistic nurses association. (2007). holistic nursing: scope and standards of practice. silver spring, md: nursebooks.org, the publishing program of ana. avey, j.b., wernsing, t.s., & luthans, f. (2008). can positive employees help positive organizational change? journal of applied behavioral science, 44, 48–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886307311470 bakker, a.b. (2010). engagement and job crafting: engaged employees create their own place to work. in albrecht, s.l. (ed.), handbook of employee engagement: perspectives, issues, research and practice (pp. 229–244). bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2007). the job demands-resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22, 309–328. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & euwema, m.c. (2005). job resources buffer the impact of job demands on burnout. journal of occupational health psychology, 10, 170–180. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.10.2.170 bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2003). dual processes at work in a call centre: an application of the job demands – resources model. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 12, 393–417. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320344000165 bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., taris, t., schaufeli, w.b., & schreurs, p. (2003). a multi-group analysis of the job demands-resources model in four home care organizations. international journal of stress management, 10, 16–38. https://doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.10.1.16 brauchli, r., jenny, g.j., fullemann, d., & bauer, g.f. (2015). towards a job demands resources health model: empirical testing with generalizable indicators of job demands, job resources, and comprehensive health outcomes. biomed research international, 2015, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/959621 bria, m., spanu, f., baban, a., & dumitrascu, d.l. (2014). maslach burnout inventory-general survey: factorial validity and invariance among romanian healthcare professionals. burnout research, 1(3), 103–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burn.2014.09.001 cherniss, c. (1993). role of professional self-efficacy in the etiology and amelioration of burnout. in schaufeli, w.b., maslach, c., & marek, t. (eds.), series in applied psychology: social issues and questions. professional burnout: recent developments in theory and research (pp. 135–149). continuing education for healthcare professionals. (2014). burnout: impact on nursing. us. retrieved from http://www.netce.com/coursecontent.php?courseid=827. crawford, e.r., le pine, j.a., & rich, b.l. (2010). linking job demands and resources to employee engagement and burnout: a theoretical extension and meta-analytic test. journal of applied psychology, 95, 834–848. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019364 demerouti, e., & bakker, a.b. (2011). the job demands–resources model: challenges for future research. south african journal of industrial psychology, 37(2), 974–1038. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i2.974 demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., nachreiner, f., & schaufeli, w.b. (2001). the job demands-resources model of burnout. journal of applied psychology, 86, 499–512. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i2.974 fredrickson, b.l. (2001). the role of positive emotions in positive psychology: the broaden and-build theory of positive emotions. american psychologist, 56(3), 218–226. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.56.3.218 gaomas, s. (2006, march 13). nurses are overworked. new era newspaper namibia. archived news. goldberg, d.p., & hillier, v.f. (1979). a scaled version of the general health questionnaire. psychological medicine, 9, 139–145. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.56.3.218 hakanen, j.j., bakker, a.b., & schaufeli, w.b. (2006). burnout and work engagement among teachers. journal of school psychology, 43, 495–513. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2005.11.001 health education england. (2014). growing nursing numbers: literature review on nurses leaving the nhs. hobfoll, s.e. (1989). conservation of resources. a new attempt at conceptualizing stress. american psychologist, 44(3), 513–524. https://doi.org/10.1037//0003-066x.44.3.513 jackson, c. (2007). the general health questionnaire. journal of occupational medicine, 57, 79. https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kql169 jackson, l.t.b., & rothmann, s. (2005). work-related well-being of educators in a district of the north west province. perspectives in education, 23, 107–122. janssen, o. (2001). fairness perception as a moderator in the curvilinear relationships between job demands and job resources, satisfaction and job performance. academy of management journal, 44, 1039–1050. https://doi.org/10.2307/3069447 khamisa, n., oldenburg, b., peltzer, k., & ilic, d. (2015). work related stress, burnout, job satisfaction and general health of nurses. international journal of environmental research and public health, 12, 652–666. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120100652 laschinger, h.k.s., & fida, r. (2014). new nurses burnout and workplace wellbeing: the influence of authentic leadership and psychological capital. burnout research, 1, 19–28. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.burn.2014.03.002 lorenz, t., beer, c., & heinitza, k. (2016). measuring psychological capital: construction and validation of the compound psycap scale (cpc-12). plos one, 11(4), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152892 luthans, f., & church, a. (2002). positive organizational behavior: developing and managing psychological strengths. academy of management, 16, 57–75. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2002.6640181 luthans, f., youssef, c.m., & avolio, b.j. (2007). psychological capital. new york: oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1037/t06483-000 lyndon, a. (2016). burnout amongst health professionals and its effect on patient safety. agency for healthcare research and quality, 1, 1–17. maslach, c. (1998). a multidimensional theory of burnout. in cooper, c.l. (ed.), theories of organisational stress (pp. 68–85). new york: oxford university press. maslach, c., & jackson, s.e. (1981a). maslach burnout inventory. palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. maslach, c., & jackson, s.e. (1981b). the measurement of experiences burnout. journal of occupational behavior, 2, 99–113. https://doi.org/10.1037/t05190-000 maslach, c., & jackson, s.e. (1986). maslach burnout inventory. palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. maslach, c., jackson, s.e., & leiter, m.p. (1996). maslach burnout inventory manual (3rd edn.). palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. maslach, c., schaufeli, w.b., & leiter, m.p. (2001). job burnout. annual review of psychology, 52, 397–422. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397 masten, a.s., cutuli, j.j., herbers, j.e., & reed, m.g.j. (2009). resilience in development. oxford handbooks online. ministry of health and social services (mohss). (1998). towards achieving health and social wellbeing for all namibians: a policy framework. windhoek: ministry of health and social services. ministry of health and social services (mohss). (2008). health and social services review. namibia: ministry of health and social services. mohajan, h.k. (2012). the occupational stress and risk of it among the employees. international journal of mainstream social science, 2(2), 17–34. munjanja, o., kibuka, s., & dovlo, d. (2005). the nursing workforce in sub-saharan africa. icn 2005 issue 7: the global nursing review initiative. national institute for occupational safety and health (niosh). (2008). exposure to stress, occupational hazards in hospitals. department of health and human services, centers for disease control and prevention, national institute for occupational safety and health, dhhs (niosh) publication no. 2008–2136. nembwaya, h. (2013, may 17). nam faces shortages of nurses. the namibian newspaper. retrieved from https://www.namibian.com.na/index.php?id=108182&page=archive-read. ogresta, j., rusac, s., & zorec, l. (2008). relation between burnout syndrome and job satisfaction among mental health workers. croatian medical journal, 49(3), 364–374. https://doi.org/10.3325/cmj.2008.3.364 pallant, j. (2005). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using spss for windows (version 12). sydney: ligare. pieters, w.r., & hasheela, c. (2018). investigating the exhaustion of police offices, selected regions within namibia. journal of economics and behavioral studies, 10(3), 8499. https://doi.org/10.22610/jebs.v10i3.2319 pieters, w.r., & van heerden, a.a. (2018). investigating the relationship between workload-resources and exhaustion of nurses and police officers in namibia. journal of economics and behavioral studies, 10(5), 195–207. https://doi.org/10.22610/jebs.v10i5.2509 richman, a. (2006). everyone wants an engaged workforce: how can you create it?. workspan, 36–39. robotham, d., chakkalackal, l., & cyhlarova, e. (2011). sleep matters: the impact of sleep on health and wellbeing. mental health foundation. retrieved from https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/sites/default/files/mhf-sleep-report-2011.pdf sanders, d., dovlo, d., meeus, w., & lehmann, u. (2003). public health in africa. in beaglehole, r. (ed.), global public health: a new era. new york: oxford university press. sapyaprapa, s., tuicomepee, a., & watakosol, r. (2012). validation of psychological capital questionnaire in thai employees. the asian conference on psychology and the behavioral sciences official conference proceedings, 394–399. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organizational behavior, 25, 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.248 shirey, m.r. (2006). authentic leaders creating healthy work environments for nursing practice. american journal of critical care, 1(3), 256–267. spss (2016). spss 24.0 for windows. chicago, il: spss incorporated. sundin, l., hochwälder, j., & lisspers, j. (2011). a longitudinal examination of generic and occupational specific job demands and work-related social support associated with burnout among nurses in sweden. work, 38, 389–400. vaananen, a., toppinen-tanner, s., kalimo, r., mutanen, p., vahtera, j., & peiro, j.m. (2003). job characteristics, physical and psychological symptoms, and social support as antecedents of sickness absence among men and women in the private industrial sector. social science and medicine, 57, 807–824. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0277-9536(02)00450-1 vahey, d.c., aiken, l.h., sloane, d.m., clarke, s.p., & vargas, d. (2004). nurse burnout and patient satisfaction. medical care, 42(2), 57–66. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.mlr.0000109126.50398.5a van den broeck, a., vansteenkiste, m., de witte, h., & lens, w. (2008). explaining the relationships between job characteristics, burnout, and engagement: the role of basic psychological need satisfaction. work & stress, 22, 277–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802393672 ventura, m., salanova, m., & llorens, s. (2015). professional self-efficacy as a predictor of burnout and engagement: the role of challenge and hindrance demands. the journal of psychology, 149(3), 277–302. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2013.876380 wang, h., kristopher, f., guoping, h., burgess, j., & williams, a.b. (2003). a training programme for prevention of occupational exposure to blood-borne pathogens: impact on knowledge, behaviour and incidence of needle stick injuries among student nurses in changsha, people’s republic of china. journal of advanced nursing, 41, 187–195. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2003.02519.x world health organization (who). (2002). nursing and midwifery services. strategic directions 2002–2008. geneva: world health organization. world health organization (who). (2004). addressing africa’s health workforce crisis: an avenue for action the high level forum on the health mdgs. abuja december 2004. geneva, switzerland: who. abstract background to the study research purpose and objectives literature review research design and methodology results and discussion of main findings implications and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) bridget de villiers school of industrial psychology and human resources, nelson mandela university, port elizabeth, south africa michelle taylor van daalen associates, east london, south africa citation de villiers, b., & taylor, m. (2019). promoting a positive work experience for south african domestic workers. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1206. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1206 original research promoting a positive work experience for south african domestic workers bridget de villiers, michelle taylor received: 05 apr. 2019; accepted: 27 aug. 2019; published: 15 oct. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: domestic work remains a main source of employment for many south african women. despite legislation directed at protecting the rights of south african domestic workers, research indicates that many still experience marginalisation and a sense of powerlessness. this prompts a need to understand the factors that could enhance a positive work experience for domestic workers. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to explore the factors that contribute to a positive work experience for domestic workers in south africa. motivation: because of limited work opportunities and a lack of access to finance and education in south africa, domestic work will continue to provide a source of employment in the future. it is thus important to implement strategies to enhance the positive nature of the domestic work experience. research approach/design and method: a qualitative design, utilising a semi-structured interview format for data collection purposes, was utilised. the sample comprised seven domestic workers and seven employers of domestic workers. main findings: thematic analyses extracted job security, wages, working conditions and the relationship with employer as the most important considerations for domestic workers. employers of domestic workers highlighted compliance with legislation, perceiving the employee as part of the family, retirement planning and respect as important factors. practical/managerial implications: it is proposed that employers purposefully comply with the relevant legislation to promote feelings of job security, and that domestic workers are educated in the legal requirements surrounding domestic work. employers are further encouraged to establish open and trust-based relationships characterised by respect and consider the need for post-retirement provision. the importance of education and training in professionalising the domestic work sector is raised. contribution/value-add: the results of this study contribute to promoting the value and status of domestic work by providing a voice for marginalised employees and promoting a humanistic and positive work experience. keywords: domestic workers; humanistic management; humanising work experience; marginalised workers; positive work experience. background to the study post-apartheid south africa is characterised by ongoing endeavours to establish equality for all citizens, including marginalised employees. despite 25 years of democracy, south african society remains one of the world’s most unequal societies (meiring, kannemeyer, & potgieter, 2018). this inequality is partly evidenced in the ongoing over-representation of women, particularly black women, in low level and unskilled occupations, including that of domestic work. according to the international labour organisation (ilo) (2010), domestic workers are employed in private households to undertake tasks such as cleaning, cooking, washing clothes and caring for children and/or the elderly. the domestic work sector has traditionally served as an important form of employment, more so in developing countries (dinkelman & ranchhod, 2012). in south africa, domestic work represents a substantial source of employment, with approximately 953 000 black women currently active in this sector, representing 5.84% of the total south african labour force (stats south africa, 2019). the south african workforce is characterised by both formal and informal employment. formal employment provides stable and productive work with adequate earnings, whereas informal employment, which includes domestic work, is characterised by wages that are low in relation to the cost of living, exposure to challenging working conditions and a lack of job security (mabilo, 2018). the informal nature of domestic work contributes to the precarious nature thereof. precarious employment is characterised by low levels of regulatory protection, low wages, high unemployment insecurity and little employee control over wages, and working hours and conditions (campbell & price, 2016). globally, domestic workers are recognised as a marginalised group of workers who are denied access to decent work. the ilo defines decent work as productive work undertaken in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity (galvaan et al., 2015). progressive legislative reforms in south africa in recent years have provided domestic workers and other lower income employees with protection within their employment contexts (marais & van wyk, 2015). promulgated legislation includes the basic conditions of employment act, no. 75 of 1997 (bcea), which regulates the right to decent work and fair labour practices (finnemore & koekemoer, 2018), and sectoral determination 7: domestic work sector, which regulates minimum wages and working hours amongst others (blaauw & bothma, 2010). in addition, in 2013, south africa became a signatory to the domestic workers convention 2011 (no. 189) (ilo, 2010), thus indicating a commitment to achieve decent work for all. this is of significance understanding that domestic workers constitute approximately 8% of the informal employment sector, and that in south africa the informal economy is one of the few areas of employment growth, with an increase of 220 000 jobs from 2017 to 2018 (stats sa, 2018). an ilo law and practice report in 2010 found domestic work across the world to be undervalued, underpaid, unprotected and poorly regulated – this despite the contributions of domestic workers to the care and welfare of their employers’ households (budlender, 2010). domestic work differs vastly from other traditionally paid work, particularly that undertaken in the formal sector. in the domestic work sector, the boundaries between employer and employee are not as well defined as those in a more typical workplace, such as an office or factory setting. furthermore, domestic workers may experience a sense of marginalisation and powerlessness because of the largely invisible nature of their work that takes place behind the walls of private homes (kwele, nimako, zwane, & chrysler-fox, 2015). in addition, domestic work is not always regarded as ‘actual work’. this is because of the similarity between the paid tasks of domestic workers and the unpaid tasks performed by women in their own homes (du preez, beswick, whittaker, & dickinson, 2010). furthermore, dinkelman and ranchhod (2012) contend that legislative protection is difficult to monitor and enforce in private households because of the limited availability of resources to do so. the completion of domestic tasks requires the presence of the worker in the home. technological advances in household appliances have created an expectation of the elimination of human assistance in households, but this has been countered by the increasing needs of professional working people for assistance in coping with the double burden of family and career (lutz, 2002). although advances in technology may ultimately replace the human element for certain domestic chores such as cleaning, cooking, planning children’s activities and reminding the elderly to take their medication, other activities such as soothing a baby and encouraging an old person to make the effort to stand up may not be so easily achieved (brizi & bertolaso, 2017). the authors contend that domestic workers will remain pivotal to the smooth running of many households worldwide. they further assert that the value of domestic work lies in the enabling, empowering and emancipating impact that it contributes to the flourishing of society. marais and van wyk (2015) add to this in stating that domestic workers deserve recognition as significant contributors to, and enablers within, the world economy. pre-democracy research on the domestic work sector in south africa has highlighted the factors that contributed towards feelings of oppression experienced and related to long hours worked, low wages and racial inequality (cock, 1980; gaitskell et al., 1984). more recent studies have explored the impact of minimum wage legislation in the domestic work sector (blaauw & bothma, 2010; dinkelman & ranchhod, 2012), experiences within the domestic employment relationship (bosch & mcleod, 2015; galvaan et al., 2015) and factors influencing the choice for continued employment in the domestic work sector (marais & van wyk, 2015). these later studies contributed to an in-depth understanding of the domestic work experience, and the factors that determine the nature of this experience. the aim of this study was to identify the factors in the context of south african domestic work that promote a positive work experience by reflecting on the experiences of domestic workers and employers of domestic workers. within the context of this study, a positive work experience is one that is characterised by elements that promote a humanising work environment (ryan, 2016). a humanising work environment acknowledges that the human element is the most important in any employment relationship. this is achieved through the practice of humanistic management. humanistic management is described as one that emphasises the human condition and focuses on the development of human virtue by considering the situational and personal circumstances of the employee (melé, 2013). research purpose and objectives understanding the ongoing importance of domestic work as a form of employment in south africa, the purpose of this study was to identify the factors in the context of south african domestic work that promote a positive work experience. this knowledge is valuable in determining strategies to enhance the positive nature of this experience. specific research objectives included the following: to explore the work experiences of domestic workers in a south african context to explore the theory on humanistic management in promoting a positive work experience to identify specific factors that contribute towards a positive work experience for domestic workers in south africa. literature review the nature of domestic work domestic workers are entrusted with caring for the family’s most valued assets, including children, the elderly and the home. meyiwa (2012) highlights an unwillingness to acknowledge the contribution of these women, who are depended on to run the household smoothly and who perform duties that would otherwise be incumbent on the employer. through this contribution, domestic workers enable their employers and other family members to work apart from the home or pursue other interests. in this way, they actively contribute to the prosperity of the societies in which they work through fostering human development, productivity and economic growth (brizi & bertolaso, 2017). in many instances, domestic workers trade a working opportunity for a significant loss in time spent with their own families and involvement in their own communities (mangqalaza, 2012). the practice of employing domestic workers in private homes is a long-standing global phenomenon. factors such as the ageing of the world population, the insufficiency of state care provision for children, the elderly and the infirm, as well as the increased participation of women in the workplace have amplified the demand for domestic workers, particularly in relation to care services (brizi & bertolaso, 2017; lutz, 2002). in a study conducted by blaauw and bothma (2010), it was found that the percentage of domestic workers performing childcare duties in south africa almost doubled in the period 2001 (8%) to 2006 (14%), which suggests an increased number of mothers entering employment over that period. the domestic labour force is viewed as precarious and particularly vulnerable to discrimination with respect to conditions of employment (budlender, 2010), despite the validation of various acts to formalise and more closely regulate domestic work (dilata, 2008). while the minimum wages stipulated in sectoral determination 7 have increased over time, high levels of unemployment in south africa lead to situations where workers are prepared to accept below minimum wages offered to them by employers, despite this being an infringement of law (du toit, 2010). surveys conducted in south africa revealed that one out of five participants admitted to paying their domestic workers less than the minimum wage (businesstech, 2018). for better understanding the domestic work experience, it is important to reflect on the atypical nature of the domestic employment relationship. qayum and ray (2003) contend that the conceptual divide that would normally prevail in a more traditional employer–employee relationship is blurred in the employer–domestic worker relationship. hansen (1989) alluded to the ‘peculiar personalness’ of the domestic employment relationship, which takes place with in an intimate space. this ‘confuses and complicates the divide between family and work, custom and contract, affection and duty, the home and the world’ (qayum & ray, 2003, p. 521). hua and ray (2010) echo this sentiment. the nature of domestic work is such that household members play a key role in determining the day-to-day working conditions of these workers (brizi & bertolaso, 2017). in addition, the tendency of some employers to make use of the family metaphor to depict the employment relationship masks the reality of an unequal power relationship. this metaphor allows the employer to shift between a contractual or familial approach to the relationship, based on what suits the employer at a specific point in time (du preez et al., 2010). furthermore, employers of domestic workers are not a homogeneous group, which leads to differing expectations regarding the skills required from domestic workers (brizi & bertolaso, 2017). this individualised employment relationship (marais & van wyk, 2015) largely excludes domestic workers from decision-making processes, and they consequently have little or no bargaining power concerning the determination of working conditions. the south african domestic work experience africa follows asia (1) and latin america and caribbean (2) as the third largest employer of domestic workers globally, and the majority are employed in south africa (marais & van wyk, 2015). research undertaken by stats sa indicated that for the first quarter of 2019, domestic work accounted for 6.22% of the total workforce, of which 96% were women (stats sa, 2019). the domestic work sector in south africa is largely composed of poorly educated black and mixed race women (dinkelman & ranchhod, 2012). in south africa, the apartheid regime was responsible for enacting legislation that limited educational and work opportunities for people based on race. black women were prohibited from most forms of work. this, coupled with the poor bantu education system, led to high levels of illiteracy and limited skills acquisition (du preez et al., 2010). black women consequently comprise most of the current south african domestic labour force. marais and van wyk (2015) believe that poverty is a primary reason that still drives young girls to enter the domestic work sector. household poverty is cited as one of the main reasons why south african learners leave school (weybright, caldwell, xie, wegner, & smith, 2017) and enter the informal work sector, including that of domestic work. marais and van wyk (2015) contend that although low levels of formal education may have historically limited career options for black women, the high level of unemployment in south africa has led to a situation where educated women, regardless of race, would be prepared to consider domestic work as a source of employment. despite the enactment of labour legislation to eliminate unfair labour practices, challenges are experienced. a study conducted by the south african labour and development research unit in 2010 revealed that domestic worker wages increased by about 20% in the 16-month period following the implementation of minimum wage legislation and the probability of an employee having a formal contract doubled. however, this was not accompanied by a significant reduction in hours of work (dinkelman & ranchhod, 2012). at the same time, du preez et al. (2010) found that a large percentage of employers were paying below the set minimum wage, did not pay unemployment insurance and did not have a formal written contract of employment in place. a lack of adherence to the relevant labour legislative provisions is seen to exacerbate the power disparity within the employment relationship (marais, 2014). in south africa, the analogy of being part of the family is sometimes used to describe the relationship between domestic workers and their employers, more particularly in the case of live-in domestic workers (tolla, 2013). in this relationship, a female employer typically takes on a maternal role, in which she leads, disciplines, is concerned for and assists her employee in the same way that she would do her own children (du toit, 2010). maternalism may have been seen as a one-way relationship where the actions of the employer, such as giving gifts and financial support, could be a way to elicit loyalty from the employee. king (2007) cited in bosch and mcleod (2015) referred to this arrangement as pseudo-maternalism, in the sense that the apparent caring, nurturing and empathy may mask a curtailing of the rights of adult employees. parrenas (2001) disputes the maternal nature of the domestic employment relationship, stating that it is mutually beneficial. the author states that employers can use the notion of being part of the family to elicit behaviour over and above that of the employee’s duties, such as house-sitting when the employer is away, and the domestic worker can use this to her advantage through, for example, receiving gifts and money. khunou (2018) challenges this view stating that practices such as passing on old clothes and giving gifts could lead to exploitation should domestic workers feel obliged to accept this in return for working longer hours or reduced wages. in her study exploring caring and connectedness in the context of domestic work, marais (2016) found that these actions were not seen to be one-sided; instead, there was a perception of a give and take, and hence an attitude of mutual caring and commitment. this was seen as demonstrating reciprocal support within the employer–employee relationship. galvaan et al. (2015) describe the difficulties experienced by employers in navigating the domestic employment relationship in the sense of the employer fulfilling a mothering role while continuing to maintain a professional working relationship with her employee, particularly so when the domestic worker is responsible for looking after the employer’s child(ren). donald and mahlatji (2006) highlight that domestic workers in south africa may experience a sense of disempowerment in the workplace because of the actions of employers. these include the demonstration of a lack of trust regarding household items, differential treatment in the provision of food and utensils, locking valuables away and implementing wage deductions for household items broken. galvaan et al. (2015) highlight practices such as the rationing of food and handing over leftovers to domestic workers, directing meal times and determining where and with whom the domestic worker should eat as reinforcing a social divide. in contrast, participants in marais’s (2016) study reported on the importance of open communication, and spoke about conversations surrounding employment conditions, the resolution of disputes and the sharing of personal joys and hardships. humanistic management and a positive work experience dierksmeier (2016) contends that multiple crises faced in the 21st century largely share a common denominator, that is, an economic system that holds little regard for human values and virtues. a disregard for moral norms is seen to contribute to many of the social and ecological problems experienced in the world today. as a result, many businesses are contemplating their role in broader society. this is reflected in a growing interest in business theory and management practices that focus on shifting from capitalistic to humanistic business practices (dierksmeier, 2016). this shift includes a focus on humanistic management, which, in its broadest sense, entails a concern for people and human aspects in managing organisations. a humanistic management approach is oriented not only to obtaining results through people, but also towards showing care for the flourishing and well-being of people (melé, 2016). humanistic management upholds the unconditional human dignity of all people within an economic context (spitzeck, 2011). melé (2013) defines humanistic management as emphasising the human condition, oriented towards the development of human virtue, and viewing employees as contributing freely and with a sense of responsibility and awareness to organisational objectives. according to this approach, employees are regarded as both rational and emotional, and as possessing talent and creativity. in addition, employees can be motivated to cooperate, can work with high or low morale and can develop feelings of either pride or resentment towards the organisation (melé, 2016). the author thus asserts that from a management perspective, it is important to promote self-determination at work. this requires treating employees with respect and focussing on their well-being, satisfaction and self-actualisation. acevedo (2012) describes humanistic management as affirming human beings as human persons. dierksmeier (2016) argues that affirming the unconditional dignity of human life requires consideration of the conditions under which dignity can flourish. a humanistic focus on dignity thus goes hand in hand with the fostering of humane life conditions, which, in turn, demands promoting the capabilities of people so that all can freely achieve a life they have reason to value. the author contends that humanistic management entails an unconditional commitment to a business orientation that is of service to human dignity and that promotes the flourishing of human life. flourishing requires a reciprocity in work relationships, which, in turn, necessitates active and meaningful engagement between an employer and an employee, leading to an overall sense of well-being. this can lead to a caring connectedness forming between the employer and employee based on mutual respect and trust (marais, 2016). spitzeck (2011) developed an integrative model of humanistic management that considers the duality of morality and profitability faced by organisational leaders, as depicted in table 1. table 1: integrative model of humanistic management. table 1 maps the dimensions of profitability and morality on a 2 × 2 matrix with four resulting quadrants. quadrant i is described as profitable and evil, and as depicting an organisation that engages in business activities to the detriments of human dignity, such as the mafia, who engage in extremely profitable drug and weapon trading. quadrant iv is described as responsible, but unprofitable, and would more typically characterise a non-governmental organisation that fails to consider economic viability. an organisation situated in quadrant iii would not possess the moral or financial resources to exist and is thus considered irrelevant in a business context. quadrant ii combines the two dimensions in a virtuous manner and describes organisations that have developed financially attractive business models and practices that respect human dignity and offer products and services that address genuine human needs in a way that respects the concerns of all stakeholders (spitzeck, 2011). carr, parker, arrowsmith, haar and jones (2017) describe a humanistic workplace as one that provides employees with opportunities to experience a sense of contribution and achievement. characteristics of a humanistic workplace include empowerment, reward and recognition, good working conditions, job security, challenging work and growth opportunities. experiences with these elements lead to higher levels of job satisfaction and improved work performance to achieve this, acevedo (2012) highlights the importance of ensuring that the way in which organisational activities are led and the manner in which technological, informational, material and financial resources, including profits, are administered must affirm human dignity. several developments have taken place over time, which have influenced the field of humanistic management. melé (2013) highlights some of these developments as indicated in table 2. table 2: developments contributing to humanistic management. the most current contributions pertaining to positive organisational scholarship focus on positive processes, value transparency and extending the range of what constitutes a positive organisational outcome. positive organisational scholarship specifically highlights the role of organisations in fostering excellence, and a sense of thriving, flourishing, abundance and resilience amongst employees. as noted by melé (2013), positive organisational scholarship is not only a theory but also an umbrella covering different approaches focusing on positive phenomena in the workplace that bring about what is considered positive or desirable. the household in which the domestic worker is employed is a workplace. domestic workers, as with any other employees, are not economic assets and valued only for their productivity, but individuals have complex needs and a desire for meaningful work and a positive work experience (thompson, n.d.). through understanding the experiences of domestic workers, this study aimed to identify the factors that contribute towards a positive work experience. research design and methodology this exploratory study, which was qualitative in nature, used a phenomenological research design. from this perspective, behaviour is seen as a product of how the individual interprets the world (bryman & bell, 2011), and the research design used to understand the everyday lived realities as voiced by participants. in this study, the perceptions of domestic workers, working in private households, with different sets of circumstances, different tasks, different work methods, different relationships and varying benefits were sought. in addition, the perceptions of employers of domestic workers were also sought. these employers were not the employers of the participating domestic workers. population, sampling technique and sample the target population of this study comprised domestic workers located in the eastern cape province of south africa. because of the primary researcher being based in east london, situated in the eastern cape province, the study was conducted in that area. two groups participated in the study, namely, seven domestic workers employed in and seven employers of domestic workers based in the metropolitan area of east london. the participation of the domestic workers was obtained through convenience sampling. this was achieved by approaching the coordinator of an outreach initiative that offered basic computer training to domestic workers at a local church. the coordinator was contacted, the researcher explained the purpose of the study and permission was requested and granted to inform domestic workers attending the training about the study. on an evening when the training was taking place, the researcher read a prepared brief that explained the purpose of the study and asked whether any of the domestic workers would be willing to participate. the group was further informed that participation was voluntary, that participants had the option to opt out at any stage of the process, that their participation would be anonymous and that information disclosed would remain confidential. following this information sharing, participants were included in the study based on their willingness to participate. inclusion criteria set by the researcher included that the participants must be employed to perform household chores within a private household and worked for a minimum of 6 h per day, for 3 days per week, for a single employer. these inclusion criteria were set to ensure some form of homogeneity amongst the respondent group, understanding that the experiences of part-time employment may differ from that of live-in employment. there is an increasing trend to employ domestic workers on a part-time basis. bosch and mcleod (2015) highlighted a decrease in live-in in favour of live-out and char work since the dawn of democracy in south africa. a study conducted by marais (2016) revealed a live-in employment status of only 25% in south africa to access the employers of domestic workers, a request was made on a local social media group for interested parties to contact the researcher. the employers selected were not those of the participating domestic workers to avail any concerns regarding confidentiality because of the potentially sensitive nature of information disclosed. the seven domestic workers who participated in the survey were all black women, with an average age of 43 years. none of these women were married, with one indicating that she was in a relationship, two suggested that they were single and four mentioned that they were divorced. one of the women indicated that she had no children, one had six children and the others had one child each. in terms of education, two participants stated that they had completed grade 12, one had grade 8 and one possessed no formal education. in establishing a climate of trust and rapport with the participants, the researcher felt that for three of the participants, it was respectful not to enquire about their education. the seven employers of domestic workers were all white women, with an average age of 47 years. all but one indicated that they were married, and most had between one and three children, with one indicating that she had no children. one participant stated that she held a matriculation qualification, and the others all possessed tertiary qualifications, ranging from a diploma to a master’s degree. data collection, processing and analysis as a phenomenological study, semi-structured interviews were deemed an appropriate method for data collection, as they allowed the researcher to create a relationship of trust through good rapport and empathetic listening (marais, 2014). data were collected through holding individualised semi-structured interviews, which may be described as a conversation with a purpose (wilson & mclean, 2011). non-maleficence was ensured through the researcher clearly communicating the purpose of the study to the participants, and through negotiating the best location for the holding of the interviews. these interviews were held in a relaxed public setting to allow participants to feel at ease (marais, 2014), were audio-recorded and later transcribed for further analysis. the researcher requested permission to make notes, which were used to supplement the audio recordings. all participants were reminded that they had a choice to participate in as well as withdraw from the interview process. data were gathered from the domestic workers and employers of domestic workers by asking the questions listed in table 3, which were followed by further questions to gain clarity where necessary. table 3: interview questions for domestic workers and employers. the questions listed in table 3 formed the basis of the interview schedule. in choosing these questions, the researcher consulted with the questions posed in a study conducted by tolla (2013), in which the experiences of domestic workers were explored. for the current study, questions were posed in a manner aimed at eliciting positive and negative work experiences. the opening question aimed at gaining demographic and other information, and questions posed thus moved from gathering general to specific information (tolla, 2013). thematic analysis was used to analyse the data collected in this study. wilson and maclean (2011) state that thematic analysis allows for the identification of common themes within a complete data set. it entails identifying, analysing and reporting on themes identified within data, and minimally organises and describes a data set in rich detail. the researcher followed the six-phased approach proposed by braun and clarke (2006) in identifying themes. this entailed data familiarisation, generation of initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming themes and creating a final report. thematic analysis is considered a flexible technique because it is not necessarily linked to a particular theoretical framework (wilson & maclean, 2011). it was deemed an appropriate analysis technique for an exploratory study aimed at revealing areas for relevant future research. ethical considerations permission to conduct the study was obtained from the nelson mandela university research ethics committee (h18-bes-hrm-004). results and discussion of main findings a discussion of the results provides an analysis of the various dominant themes that emerged during the semi-structured interviews held with domestic workers and employers of domestic workers. themes emerging for domestic workers themes emerging from domestic workers’ responses centred on job security, wages, working conditions and the relationship with the employer. job security job security emerged as a dominant theme. because of the largely ‘invisible’ nature of domestic work (dilata, 2008), employers do not always abide by the relevant labour legislation, including the provisions of the unemployment insurance act, no. 63 of 2001. this act requires that an employee who works for more than 24 h a month should be registered with the unemployment insurance fund (uif) and the onus is on the employer to do so (south african revenue services, 2017). however, most of the domestic workers interviewed in this study were not registered and stated that this made them feel as if they were not permanently employed. one domestic worker was of the impression that the paying of uif constituted permanent employment, and another was not sure if she was registered. a further respondent mentioned working for two employers, neither of whom had registered her. all of the participants were aware of the uif regulation but did not exercise their rights in this regard, preferring to remain silent. marais and van wyk (2015) contend that domestic workers confronted by less than favourable employment conditions remain silent because it is the only option that they have if they want to remain employed. employees who were registered felt less vulnerable, citing unemployment and maternity benefits afforded as the reason for this. wages the domestic workers interviewed confirmed the global phenomenon of poor wages and long working hours (ilo, 2010), stating that their wages were insufficient to live on, particularly because of the need to support an extended family. magwaza states that many domestic workers support a number of dependents with their single salaries. the domestic worker is often the head of the household, and the sole family breadwinner. while this might hold absolute poverty at bay, it remains a challenge in terms of the long-term sustainability and upliftment of these families (magwaza, 2008). many respondents also spoke about extremely long hours of work and unpaid overtime. one respondent, who worked for two different employers, reported a largely positive work experience in stating that ‘i am happy with everything … except money’. another stated that she had received only r140 per day since 2016, and a further one stated that she worked 6 days a week, from half past five in the morning until five in the afternoon, with a monthly pay of r2500. although the latter amount is marginally below the minimum wage stipulation of r2545 per month for workers in metropolitan who work for 27 h a week or more (department of labour, 2018), it seems apparent that employers may not be adhering to the minimum conditions of employment pertaining to hours of work and overtime pay as stipulated by the bcea. the notion of unequal power balance alluded to earlier in this article influences the ability of domestic workers to negotiate in relations to their wages. responses in relation to income included phrases such as ‘i don’t complain’, ‘i’m not complaining … there is nothing much to do here’ and ‘it’s not legal … but i am keeping quiet because i need the job … if i complain, after that he can say ok you can go’. the unwillingness to be seen as complaining is regarded as further evidence that domestic workers lack voice and power in the employment relationship. it is important to note that most of the participants in this study revealed that they were aware of their rights concerning minimum wages. this was expressed through statements such as ‘listening to the radio about domestic workers and about the money’ and ‘they (employers) must sit down with me and say that they have heard about the radio or tv or newspaper that they know about the law about domestic workers’. this finding is in contrast to the findings of du preez et al. (2010), who reported that worldwide studies indicate that very few employers or employees are aware of legislation governing domestic work and changes to this legislation. a couple of the participants expressed uncertainty as to whether they would receive an increase, and, if so, what the increase would be. while the women in this study felt exploited in this regard, they highlighted the high unemployment rate in south africa and indicated that a small salary is better than no salary at all. following the introduction of minimum wage legislation in south africa, employers had three options: pay the minimum wage, discharge their workers or reduce the working hours through making use of part-time work. this has led to an increase in the number of domestic workers working for more than one employer, as increasing numbers of employers choose to employ domestic workers on a part-time basis (blaauw & bothma, 2010). this finding provides support for the concern that domestic workers have regarding job loss or reduced hours should they raise their voices. working conditions in general, the participants in this study expressed satisfaction with their hours and conditions of work, which is seen to indicate a positive work experience, with the exception of two participants who felt that they worked for more hours. one of them spoke about working 7 days a week, with excessive unpaid overtime. this respondent stated that: ‘[i have] no time to stay with my family … if i am not working on the weekend i would be happy … i would be happy if i could start working at 07h00 or 07h30, and then finish at 17h00.’ this employee was required to start working at 05:30 and her family lived in the transkei, located in the rural eastern cape – a considerable distance from her place of employment. another woman started working at 05:30 had to work 6 days a week and relied on her mother in the transkei to look after her children. the difficulty that domestic workers experience in getting time off from work remains an issue of concern (cock, 1980; dilata, 2008) – this despite the bcea provisions regarding overtime pay and working hours per week (department of labour, 2001). one respondent noted that she was not required to work on public holidays, which reduced her income. employers may engage in this practice to avoid the overtime rate as stipulated by the bcea. the participants also expressed difficulties regarding annual leave, with a respondent stating that she had ‘no holidays, and no off’ during the 3 years that she had been employed by her current employer, with the exception of 2 weeks during christmas. long working hours and little leave result in domestic workers (mothers) being isolated from their families (tolla, 2013), and experiencing what henderson and anetos (2018) refer to as both an economic and social deficit. lutz (2002) highlighted the plight of the many women who are not allowed, or able, to have their children with them, and have to leave them with a paid substitute mother or relative. it is noted that none of the participants in this study spoke about negative or unpleasant physical conditions related to their work experience. this is in contrast to the findings of hua and ray (2010) who reported about the potential dangers associated with paid domestic work, including exposure to hazardous and toxic chemicals, chronic pain and injury, exposure to humiliating and increasingly sophisticated technologies of surveillance, undernourishment and sleep deprivation, and isolation and loneliness. relationship with employer in relation to this theme, all of the participants reported a positive working relationship with their employers and said that they felt free to discuss work-related problems in an open and honest manner. however, some of the comments made in this regard were noted. one respondent reported, ‘if they don’t like things, they talk to me and they don’t shout at me’, which implies an expectation or experience of being shouted at in past employment situations. another respondent reported that she found it difficult to talk about issues that did not relate directly to her work. a further respondent mentioned that the situation determined whether she felt comfortable to talk to her employer or not: ‘for instance, when the margarine is finished, i’m not feeling free … i feel that it is her duty to check if i have margarine … but for instance, see if there is no dishwashing soap, i feel free.’ a respondent highlighted that her employer regarded it as acceptable if she did not complete certain tasks, as her main responsibility was to care for the employer’s 2-year-old daughter. another respondent mentioned feeling comfortable because her employer was fluent in isixhosa, which highlights the need to consider the role of spoken language in the employment relationship. the emotional and relational complexity of the domestic employment relationship in some ways overrides the role played by an employment contract and fair legislation in guaranteeing the rights of these workers. the human factor is a key element in the way this relationship unfolds within private households (brizi & bertolaso, 2017). it is critical to bear in mind that, while sacrificing time away from their own families and households, domestic workers are tending to the personal comfort and convenience of the employer’s family. as such, they are enabling members of the household to work elsewhere (brizi & bertolaso, 2017). the authors assert that the domestic worker plays a crucial role as an enabler for members of the household by relieving them of household tasks and taking up the role of guardian of the home. marais and van wyk (2015) highlight the significant contribution made to the global economy through the enablement provided by domestic workers. this enabling influence must be acknowledged and elevated from the shadows of what is largely an invisible and underestimated job (brizi & bertolaso, 2017). the authors highlight the responsibility of restoring human dignity to the domestic worker both through a protective legal framework and by acknowledging the inherent value of their empowering presence. themes emerging for employers of domestic workers themes emerging from employers of domestic workers centred on compliance with legislation, perceiving the employee as part of the family, retirement planning and respect. compliance with legislation the domestic workers interviewed expressed not being registered for uif as a great concern as it created a sense of employment insecurity. literature reviewed suggests that employers tend not to register employees for uif, as there is little to no threat of policing by authorities (fish, 2006; tolla, 2013). however, in this study, it was found that the majority of the employers had registered their employees, with only one acknowledging that registration ‘is something that i need to do’. part of the family the notion of the domestic worker being regarded as part of the family emerged as a theme for all of the employer participants. domestic workers were seen to play a role in bringing up children, caring for them in the absence of their parents and being a second mom to them. one respondent highlighted an intimate and trusting relationship when she stated, ‘when i was going through difficulties in my relationship, i cried on her shoulder. she supported me and was there for me when i needed her’. another spoke about supporting her employee when the employee’s brother was sick at home, at the time of his passing and with financial assistance for his funeral. employers spoke about having their employees’ best interests at heart, through assisting with transporting goods to their homes, taking ill employees for appropriate medical attention, providing loans when needed, providing comfortable clothing and taking an interest in their families. these findings suggest employment relationships characterised by mutual caring, and the willingness of employers to contribute more than required by the relevant labour legislation. the principles of humanistic management emphasise unconditional human dignity and equality (acevedo, 2012; spitzeck, 2011). employers have a role to play in encouraging human dignity through developing their domestic workers’ self-esteem and self-efficacy (acevedo, 2012). the role of the employer in building esteem is important, considering the isolated nature of domestic work that does not allow for the sense of belonging and inclusion usually associated with working in an office or factory setting, and which contributes to feelings of fulfilment and self-respect (mantouvalou, 2006). retirement planning a study conducted by blaauw and bothma (2010) revealed the average age of domestic workers to be 43.3 years, a marked increase from the average age of 39.2 years found in a study conducted in 1997. this suggests that domestic work is becoming a profession of older women, for a number of reasons, including that their dependents are required by law to attend school and that young people are overqualified for domestic work, unattractive income levels and job uncertainty. limited alternative job opportunities also encourage incumbents to remain in domestic employment. because of the low minimum wages of r2545 for domestic workers (27 h or more per month) (department of labour, 2018), and an even lower state pension of r1780 per month (south african government, 2019), preparing for retirement is a major challenge for domestic workers. this is further complicated by the fact that many of these women support extended families. during the interviews, employers expressed their concern in this regard. one employer reported that she had taken out both a pension and a medical aid policy for her employee, while others acknowledged that they should already have performed something in terms of retirement provision. the concern noted here is that many domestic workers remain trapped in a cycle of poverty when they stop working. tolla (2013) found that many domestic workers felt that their employers had a responsibility for providing a pension fund, as their low wages made it difficult for them to save. lutz (2002) highlights the fact that while creating a home for their employers, domestic workers are providing financially for their own families. as such, they are not preparing for their retirement, and many of these women thus become dependent on the income of children. marais and van wyk (2015) contend that for domestic workers, retirement is fraught with problems, one of these being the hardship and poverty that they will face without any form of income. for this reason, many domestic workers resume work after retirement. in their study considering exit strategies for domestic workers, the authors found that participants accepted it as given that they would have to work until they died, with some alluding to ‘double dipping’ in the sense of claiming social security benefits after the age of 60 while continuing to work. respect a certain degree of respect is accorded to domestic workers through the private household being recognised as a workplace through the implementation of a minimum wage (roy, 2011). it is also implied in the notion of considering domestic workers as part of the family, but research has indicated to the contrary, as extensive literature bespeaks the exploitation of domestic workers (ally, 2011; byrd, 2010; donald & mahlatji, 2006; du preez et al., 2010; maboyana & sekaja, 2015; marais, 2014). the employer participants in this study expressed concern in this regard. one employer cited the difficulty that her domestic worker experienced in discussing issues pertaining to income, borrowing money and annual leave. this challenge highlights the importance of establishing a culture of dignity and respect, through open and trust-based communication. two employers reiterated the importance of teaching their children to respect their domestic workers, and another mentioned that having a domestic worker should not be seen as a form of entitlement. yenn (2014) affirms that the treatment that domestic workers receive in the workplace is a function of the values and culture of a society and taught through daily practice. if a culture of respect and dignity is practised, children in homes with domestic workers grow up learning valuable lessons regarding class, gender and equality, and treating others with respect (qayum & ray, 2009). implications and recommendations the findings of this study have important workplace implications. these implications are not only limited to the domestic workplace but also to other work environments in which workers experience a sense of marginalisation or vulnerability because of the nature of their work. a developed society is one that cares for vulnerable people and protects them from the turns and twists of fate (brizi & bertalosi, 2017). many south africans are not able to access meaningful work because of a lack of education, finances and other resources. employers and managers can assist in enhancing a positive work experience for these employees through implementing the strategies suggested in these implications. compliance with legislation based on this study, employer compliance with relevant legislation was a great concern for domestic workers. while most of the domestic workers interviewed indicated that they were not registered for uif, most of the employers interviewed stated that they had registered their employees. employees indicated that they viewed uif registration as signifying permanent employment and contributing to feelings of job security. brizi and bertolaso (2017) believe that monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, including labour inspection, are important within the context of domestic work because any regulatory framework does not necessarily mirror what is really taking place within the private household. employers must be compelled to comply with legislation governing the workplace to enhance job security, which is an important characteristic of a humanistic workplace. in her study, fish (2006) cited participants who mentioned that in predemocratic south africa, employers were required to register the employment status of domestic workers. although the intention at that time may have been to exercise control over the domestic worker’s whereabouts, this type of strict monitoring may currently be required to further promote the protection of domestic workers. wages were also raised as a pertinent factor contributing to a positive work experience. it is important that employees are informed of and accorded their basic rights in terms of minimum wages, working hours and annual leave. this aligns with the findings of acevedo (2016) who highlights that informational and financial resources, amongst others, should be administered in a manner that affirms human dignity. understanding that domestic workers may not report violations through a lack of knowledge in this regard, or out of a fear of reprisal, it is important that domestic workers are encouraged to recognise their status as employees and understand the relevant legislation governing their terms and conditions of employment. employers have a role to play in assisting in this regard. marais (2016) believes that inspectors from the department of labour are in a perfect position to encourage domestic workers to speak out for their rights, and to create an awareness amongst employers of their responsibilities in this regard. unions, such as the south african domestic service and allied workers union (sadsawu), also have a pivotal role to play in providing information in support of both domestic workers and employers. this may assist in strengthening the relationship between employers and domestic workers, contribute to the sense of well-being flowing from mutual workplace engagement and lead to a caring connectedness forming between employer and employee (marais, 2016). relationship with employer although domestic workers generally reported a positive working relationship with their employers and felt free to discuss issues of concern, one employer perceived that her domestic worker found it difficult to communicate on certain issues, and one domestic worker found communicating about work tools (dishwashing soap) easier than communicating about her own needs (margarine being finished). employers and managers would benefit from developing trusting and respect-based relationships with employees to enhance positive perceptions of the work experience (melé, 2016). nzimakwe (2014) emphasises the importance of the collective and the responsibility that people have to respect each other. sithole (2001) highlights the south african notion of ‘ubuntu’, which focuses on the need for shared compassion, sympathy and participation, and which needs to be reflected in workplaces in creating a humanising work experience. marais (2016) asserts that the reciprocity inherent in ubuntu implies a sense of collective well-being and responsibility between employer and employee, which develops through harmonious engagement characterised by kindness, caring and involvement. in turn, these positive emotions are seen to influence the thoughts and actions of those involved in a positive manner. in their study, bosch and mcleod (2015) found that the more information each party had of each other, the more positively each perceived the interaction to be. retirement planning domestic workers did not openly share concerns about retirement planning; however, several of the employers voiced concern about their employees, who may have worked for many years, without the opportunity of saving. many domestic workers continue to work well after retirement age to survive and provide for the needs of their extended families. meyiwa (2012) proposes that programmes and policies should be formulated that will contribute towards ending the cycle of poverty that many marginalised workers experience. marais and van wyk (2015) recommend that because of the inability experienced by domestic workers to prepare for post-retirement, social security legislation is required to enable them, together with their employers, to make provision for their retirement. in this regard, the complication of domestic workers rendering their services to more than one employer, both at one time and over time, needs to be borne in mind. retirement planning for marginalised employees is a difficult and contentious arena for south africa. there is a state social grant system in south africa that includes pension beneficiaries, but concern exists as to the sustainability of the system. the social grant system expanded rapidly from 4.2 million beneficiaries in 2002, a time of rapid economic growth in the country, to about 17 million in 2017, a time that was, and continues to be, associated with low economic growth (rossouw, 2017). at the same time, dubihlela and dubihlela (2014) highlights that coverage remains inadequate, and that there is a need to further expand social grant expenditure. employers of domestic workers may enter into a private arrangement to contribute to some form of investment or retirement funding option, but reliance on either the state grant system or the willingness of employers to contribute to retirement is regarded as insufficient. respect although domestic workers did not explicitly raise the issue of respect, it was highlighted by employers who expressed their conscious efforts to treat their workers with respect and teach their children to do the same. respect is integral to humanistic management and a positive work experience (melé, 2016). employers would benefit from establishing a value-based culture within the home environment and reinforcing this within the family unit. in turn, domestic workers should be encouraged to speak openly should they experience a lack of respect within the home. marais (2016) believes that treating domestic workers with respect builds a strong sense of social connectedness that has a positive influence on experiences of subjective well-being. this can lead to the domestic worker developing positive feelings towards the organisation (domestic work context) as described by melé (2016). education and training domestic workers did not raise education and training as a factor in the employment relationship, but it was mentioned by one of the employers. it should be borne in mind that the domestic workers participating in this study were receiving basic computer skills training. although not discussed as a theme, education and training is an important consideration. as stated earlier, domestic work is often performed by women who have little or no education. challenging work and growth opportunities are important elements of a positive work experience (melé, 2016). employers can assist in this regard by ensuring that the equipment and technology provided in the course of domestic work enable the employee to carry out her duties effectively and efficiently. this aligns with the findings of acevedo (2012) pertaining to the administration of technological and material resources. brizi and bertolaso (2017) contend that professionalisation of the occupation of domestic work is key to recognising the real value thereof, and that training can empower domestic workers and promote the dignity of the profession. opportunities for adding tasks that the domestic worker finds personally more satisfying and stimulating, as well as recognition for the depth of responsibility associated with domestic work, could also enhance the positivity of the domestic work experience. there are numerous non-governmental organisations and other institutions that offer education, training and development opportunities, and study bursaries are also available for qualifying individuals. marais and van wyk (2015) propose the introduction of a developmental mentoring programme to guide domestic workers with the career choices of their children to break any cycle of generational engagement in the sector. it is asserted that employers need to assume ethical and moral responsibility for the most vulnerable of the workforces through creating opportunities for purposeful development. conclusion this study was aimed at providing a better understanding of the factors that contribute towards a positive work experience for domestic workers, and how employers can enhance the domestic work experience. this can be performed through creating a humanistic workplace and elevating domestic work to its rightful place as an enabling and worthy occupation. the findings of the study revealed that domestic workers highlighted job security, wages, working conditions and relationship with employers as important factors. employers of domestic workers, in turn, centred on compliance with legislation, part of the family, retirement planning and respect. the most notable theme emerging was that of employer compliance with the relevant legislation, as this provides domestic workers with a greater sense of job security and peace of mind. employer compliance can be achieved through monitoring by the department of labour and unions such as sadsawu. strategies recommended in promoting a positive work experience include nurturing a trust-based relationship between employer and employee based on open communication, making provision for retirement planning and establishing a value-based culture within the home. furthermore, understanding that career opportunities may be limited for many domestic workers, attending to their personal growth and development is important. recommendations in terms of future research include a study determining the relative significance of factors contributing towards a positive work experience for domestic workers. furthermore, a study exploring the emotional and relational complexity of the domestic employment relationship is proposed. finally, a study exploring strategies to professionalise domestic work in order to more closely protect and regulate this sector is recommended. this would assist in acknowledging the value that domestic work adds to the south african economy. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the primary research study was undertaken by m.t. in fulfilment of the requirements of an mcomm (iop) degree. this article was written by b.d.v., who synthesised the main aspects of the study with additional literature in support of the research objectives, findings and recommendations, with input from m.t. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors, and not an official position of the organisations with which the authors are affiliated. references acevedo, a. (2012). personalist business ethics and humanistic management: insights from jacques maritain. journal of business ethics, 105, 197–219. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0959-x ally, s. (2008). domestic worker unionisation in post-apartheid south africa: demobilisation and depoliticization by the democratic state. politikon: south african journal of political studies, 35(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/02589340802113014 blaauw, p.f., & bothma, l.j. (2010). the impact of minimum wages for domestic workers in bloemfontein, south africa. sa journal of human resources management, 8(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.216 bosch, t., & mcleod, c. (2015). the relationship between female domestic workers and their employers in cape town, south africa. global media journal african edition, 9(2), 134–155. braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa brizi, m.r., & bertolaso, m. (2017). the long road towards sustainability: the contribution of domestic work. in: ‘il volto del lavoro professionale. servizio alla famiglia e alla società’, atti del convegno ‘the heart of work – quale anima per il lavoro professionale’, pontificia università della santa croce, roma, 19–20 october 2017. bryman, a., & bell, e. (2011). research methodology: business and management contexts. cape town: oxford university press. budlender, d. (2010). what do time use studies tell us about unpaid care work? evidence from seven countries. in: d. budlender (ed.), time used studies and unpaid care work (p. 36). new york: routledge. businesstech. (2018). how much south africans are paying domestic workers in 2018. retrieved from https://businesstech.co.za/news/finance/227253/how-much-south-africans-are-paying-domestic-workers-in-2018/. byrd, n.z. (2010). the dirty side of domestic work: an underground economy and the exploitation of undocumented workers. depaul journal for social justice, 3(10), 245–276. campbell, i., & price, r. (2016). precarious work and precarious workers: towards an improved conceptualisation. the economic and labour relations review, 27(3), 314–322. https://doi.org/10.1177/1035304616652074 carr, s.c., parker, j., arrowsmith, j., haar, j., & jones, h. (2017). humanistic management and living wages: a case of compelling connections? humanist management journal, 1(2), 215–236. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41463-016-0018-y cock, j. (1980). maids and madams: a study in the politics of exploitation. johannesburg: ravan press. department of labour. (2001). domestic workers report: investigation into minimum wages and conditions of employment of domestic workers. retrieved from https://www.gov.za/departmentoflabour/papers.htm department of labour. (2018). basic conditions of employment act (75/1997). amendment of sectoral determination 7: domestic worker sector, south africa, pretoria: south african government. dierksmeier, c. (2016). what is humanistic about humanistic management? humanistic management journal, 1, 9–32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41463-016-0002-6 dilata, x.p. (2008). between sisters: a study of the employment relationship between african domestic workers and african employers in the townships of soweto. doctoral dissertation, faculty of arts, university of the witwatersrand, johannesburg. retrieved from http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/7611. dinkelman, t., & ranchhod, v. (2012). evidence on the impact of minimum wage laws in an informal sector: domestic workers in south africa. journal of development economics, 99, 27–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2011.12.006 donald, f.m., & mahlatji, l. (2006). domestic workers experiences of power and oppression in south africa. journal of psychology in africa, 16(2), 205–213. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2006.10820124 dubihlela, j., & dubihlela, d. (2014). social grants impact on poverty among the female-headed households in south africa: a case analysis. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(8), 160–167. du preez, j., beswick, c., whittaker, l., & dickinson, d. (2010). the employment relationship in the domestic workspace in south africa: beyond the apartheid legacy. social dynamics, 36(2), 395–409. https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2010.483826 du toit, d. (2010). extending the frontiers of employment regulation: the case of domestic employment in south africa. law, democracy & development, 14(1), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.4314/ldd.v14i1.6 finnemore, m., & koekemoer, g.m., (2018). introduction to labour relations (12th edn.). cape town, south africa: lexis nexis. fish, j.n. (2006). engendering democracy: domestic labour and coalition-building in south africa. journal of southern african studies, 32(1), 107–127. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070500493811 gaitskell, d., kimble, j., maconachie, m., & unterhalter, e. (1984). class, race and gender: domestic workers in south africa. review of african political economy, 27(28), 86–108. https://doi.org/10.1080/03056248308703548 galvaan, r., peters, l., smith, t., brittain, m., menegaldo, a., rautenbach, n., & wilson-poe, a. (2015). employers’ experiences of having a live-in domestic worker: insights into the relationship between privilege and occupational justice. south african journal of occupational therapy, 45(1), 41–47. https://doi.org/10.17159/2310-3833/2015/v45no1a7 hansen, k.t. (1989). distant companions: servants and employers in zambia 1900–1985. ithaca, ny: cornell university press. henderson, r., & anetos, p. (2018). domestic workers: the one million helpers behind the economy. sunday times. retrieved from https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/sunday-times/20180513/282445644698806. hua, j., & ray, k. (2010). the ‘practice of humanity’. feminist media studies, 10(3), 253–267. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2010.493644 ilo. (2010). decent work for domestic workers. international labour conference 2009, 99th session. geneva: international labour office. august 2010. khunou, k. (2018). domestic workers rights: a legal and practical guide. socio-economic rights institute of south africa. retrieved from http://www.seri-sa.org/images/seri_domestic_workers_rights_guide_draft_2_reprint.pdf. kwele, d., nimako, c., zwane, x., & chrysler-fox, p. (2015). the psychological contract between domestic workers and their employers in south africa. working paper. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/pharny_chrysler-fox/publication/307852786_the_psychological_contract_between_domestic_workers_and_their_employers_in_south_africa/links/57d0172e08ae6399a389ce38/the-psychological-contract-between-domestic-workers-and-their-employers-in-south-africa.pdf. lutz, h. (2002). at your service madam! the globalization of domestic service. feminist review, 70, 89–104. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave/fr/9400004 mabilo, m. (2018). women in the informal economy: precarious labour in south africa. unpublished master’s dissertation. stellenbosch, south africa: stellenbosch university. maboyana, y., & sekaja, l. (2015). exploring the bullying behaviours experienced by south african domestic workers. journal of psychology in africa, 25(2), 114–120. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2015.1021511 magwaza, t. (2008). effects of domestic workers act in south africa: a steep road to recognition. agenda, 22(78), 79–92. mangqalaza, h. (2012). the economic worth of domestic workers in south africa. unpublished master’s dissertation. tshwane, south africa: tshwane university of technology. mantouvalou, v. (2006). servitude and forced labour in the 21st century: the human rights of domestic workers. industrial law journal, 35(4), 395–414. https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwl029 marais, c. (2014). lived realities of domestic workers within the south african labour legislative context: a qualitative study. unpublished doctoral dissertation. vaal triangle campus, south africa: north-west university. marais, c. (2016). caring and connectedness in the context of domestic worker employment in south africa. journal of psychology in africa, 26(3), 237–245. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2016.1185903 marais, c., & van wyk, c. (2015). future directiveness within the south african domestic workers’ work-life cycle: considering exit strategies. indo-pacific journal of phenomenology, 15(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/20797222.2015.1049896 meiring, t., kannemeyer, c., potgieter, e. (2018). the gap between rich and poor: south african society’s biggest divide depends on where you think you fit in. saldru working paper number 220. cape town: saldru, uct. melé, d. (2013). antecedents and current situation of humanistic management. african journal of business ethics, 7(2), 52–61. https://doi.org/10.4103/1817-7417.123079 melé, d. (2016). understanding humanistic management. humanistic management journal, 1, 33–55. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41463-016-0011-5 meyiwa, t. (2012). domestic workers’ rights in global development indicators. agenda, 26(1), 54–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/10130950.2012.674279 nzimakwe, t.i. (2014). practising ubuntu and leadership for good governance: the south african and continental dialogue. african journal of public affairs, 7(4), 30–41. parrenas, r.s. (2001). servants of globalization: women, migrant and domestic work. ca: stanford university press. qayum, s., & ray, r. (2003). grappling with modernity: india’s respectable classes and the culture of domestic servitude. ethnography, 4(4), 520–555. https://doi.org/10.1177/146613810344002 rossouw, j. (2017). social grants matter: they support 33% of south africans. university of johannesburg. https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/in-their-own-words/2017/2017-02/social-grants-matter-they-support-33-of-south-africans.html roy, n.s. (2011). in india, maids need protection and respect. new york times. retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/world/asia/13iht-letter13.html. ryan, l. (2016). 22 easy ways to humanize your workplace. retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2016/10/31/22-easy-ways-to-humanize-your-workplace/#5688bfa6154e. sithole, j. (2001, 15 may). africa can only use own culture to influence globalization. afrol news. retrieved from http://www.afrol.com/html/news2001/afr020_ culture_econ.htm. south african government. (2019). old age pension. retrieved from https://www.gov.za/services/social-benefits-retirement-and-old-age/old-age-pension. south african revenue services. (2017). unemployment insurance fund. retrieved from http://www.sars.gov.za/taxtypes/uif/pages/default.aspx. spitzeck, h. (2011). an integrated model of humanistic management. journal of business ethics, 99(1), 51–62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0748-6 stats sa (statistics south africa). (2018). quarterly employment statistics, march 2018. pretoria: statistics south africa. stats sa (statistic south africa). (2019). quarterly labour force survey, quarter 1: 2019. pretoria: statistics south africa. thompson, s. (n.d.). challenges of humanistic management. small business chron.com. retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/challenges-humanistic-management-64545.html tolla, t. (2013). black women’s experiences of domestic work: domestic workers in mpumalanga. unpublished dissertation. cape town, south africa: university of cape town. weybright, e.h., caldwell, l.l., hui, x., wegner, l., & smith, e.a. (2017). predicting secondary school dropout among south african adolescents: a survival analysis approach. south african journal of education, 37(2), 1–11. wilson, s., & maclean, r. (2011). research methods and data analysis for psychology. london: mcgraw-hill. yenn, t.y. (2014). modeling good values by treating domestic workers with respect. retrieved from https://www.aware.org.sg/2014/03/modeling-good-values-by-treating-domestic-workers-with-respect/. abstract introduction research design results discussion concluding summary acknowledgements references about the author(s) mpho d. magau department of industrial psychology and people management, faculty college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa gerhard (gert) roodt department of industrial psychology and people management, faculty college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa gerhardus van zyl department of industrial psychology and people management, faculty college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation magau, m.d., roodt, g., & van zyl, g. (2021). a measurement scale for assessing intellectual capital disclosure. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1645. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1645 original research a measurement scale for assessing intellectual capital disclosure mpho d. magau, gerhard (gert) roodt, gerhardus van zyl received: 01 may 2021; accepted: 21 sept. 2021; published: 09 dec. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: intellectual capital disclosure (icd) including structural capital (sc), human capital (hc), and relational capital (rc) of non-financial information creates a shareholder value. conflicting evidence on this voluntary disclosure suggests the need to develop an icd measurement scale for reducing information asymmetry in the annual financial reporting. research purpose: the main aim of this study was to develop a multi-dimensional measurement scale consisting of groups of items for critically examining the extent of icd in the corporate annual reports or integrated reports to build investor confidence. motivation for the study: the lack of voluntary disclosure on intellectual capital (ic) increases information asymmetry and negatively affects investor decision-making. an icd measurement scale is expected to facilitate the reliable extraction of non-financial information from the annual reports or integrated reports. research approach/design and method: a quantitative cross-sectional study was used with an icd measurement scale for extracting information from 150 annual reports of the johannesburg stock exchange (jse) listed companies. the measurement scale was subjected to exploratory factor analysis (efa). main findings: the icd measurement scale yielded one factor structures across all three dimensions with internal reliability statistics (cronbach alphas) of sc (0.849), hc (0.806) and rc (0.749), after the second level factor analysis. practical/managerial implications: the icd measurement scale will enable the market participants to understand how non-financial information can be extracted reliably from the annual reports and use to assess the value of intangible assets. contribution/value-add: the novel contribution of the study is the construction of a measurement scale for assessing icd. keywords: intellectual capital disclosure; structural capital; human capital; non-financial information; information asymmetry. introduction disclosed non-financial information on intellectual capital (ic) which includes structural capital (sc), human capital (hc) and relational capital (rc) is value-relevant in the financial markets. intellectual capital disclosure (icd) allows institutional investors to analyse the impact intangible assets have on shareholder value (abdolmohammadi, 2005; abeysekera, 2006; abhayawansa & guthrie, 2010, 2014, 2016; rimmel, nielsen, & yosano, 2009; vergauwen, bollen, & oirbans, 2007). although several attempts have been made on assessing icd, the underlying challenge of consistent measurement can be attributed to the absence of standardised disclosure indexes, which ultimately seem to discourage efforts to quantity the value of non-financial information (garcía-meca, parra, larrán, & martinez, 2005; guthrie, petty, & ricceri, 2006; schneider & samkin, 2008; whiting & miller, 2008). disclosure indexes, also referred to as measurement instruments, are use in ic theory for examining the extent of non-financial information disclosure in annual reports. a disclosure index is defined as: [a] qualitative based instrument designed to measure a series of items which, when the scores for the items are aggregated, gives a surrogate score indicative of the level of disclosure in the specific context for which the index was devised. (coy, 1995, p. 121) scores derived are normally used to perform quantitative data analysis for predicting the value of icd towards shareholder value creation despite the conflicting results (abdolmohammadi, 2005; garcía-meca et al., 2005; gerpott, thomas, & hoffmann, 2008; guthrie et al., 2006; rimmel et al., 2009; schneider & samkin, 2008; striukova, unerman, & guthrie, 2008; vandemaele, vergauwen, & smith, 2005; whiting & miller, 2008). this plethora of research in icd yields no empirical evidence regarding the measurement of the internal consistency of disclosure indexes at both construct and item level, which led to the construction of a measurement scale for assessing the extent of icd in corporate annual reports. intellectual capital intellectual capital refers to the company’s intangible assets which create business value when there is seamless interaction amongst sc, hc and rc (kannan & aulbur, 2004). structural capital resides within the organisation’s architecture and reflects internal knowledge, innovation and structural capabilities that create wealth for shareholders through hc (anifowose, rashid, & annuar, 2017). according to chen, cheng and hwang (2005), hc collectively refers to people’s contribution, skills, knowledge, abilities, motivation and experience which create value for customers. when properly orchestrated, both sc and hc result in optimum customer experience, retention and the overall satisfaction which is about improving rc. kale, singh and perlmutter (2000, p. 218) referred to rc as ‘the level of mutual trust, respect, and friendship that arises out of close interaction at the individual level between alliance partners’. relational capital is ‘the knowledge embedded in the relation to stakeholders and its relevant value’ (hosseini & owlia, 2016, p. 736). compared to the traditional financial measure, ic measures present investors with behavioural-based, structural and relationship-oriented information about the organisation (litschka, markom, & schunder, 2006). in unlocking the value of ic, chiucchi and dumay (2015) highlighted the significance of accounting practices in building an ic measurement system. hence, any efforts to evaluate icd must consider a measurement scale with key pivotal points for generating insights from the non-financial information (gerpott et al., 2008; guthrie et al., 2006; oliveira, rodriques, & craig, 2006; schneider & samkin, 2008; vandemaele et al., 2005). moreover, investors and the broad investment community need the ic information for determining shareholder value. hence, a measurement scale of icd is expected to aid the reliable extraction and use of non-financial information to integrate in the investment process. intellectual capital disclosure theoretically, researchers investigate icd to determine the organisations’ reporting patterns and the willingness to share information about their strategy, business models, sc, hc and rc. icd, including structural, human and rc information, is insightful for reducing investors’ perceptions of risk and increases the companies’ capacity to generate funding for their growth or expansion plans. icd literature is increasing significantly with more developed countries realising the value-relevance of intangible assets towards the companies’ market capitalisation (abeysekera, 2006; abdolmohammadi, 2005; abhayawansa & guthrie, 2010, 2014, 2016; anifowose et al., 2017; vergauwen et al., 2007). as a result, various regulatory requirements such as the international financial reporting standards (ifrs) and the international integrated reporting framework (iirf) have implemented measures to improve icd. developed countries also continue to make significant strides towards transparency, governance and accountability in icd. specifically, the integrated reporting committee of south africa (ircsa) promotes icd in annual reports through integrated reporting (atkins & maroun, 2015; setia, abhayawansa, joshi, & vu huynh, 2015). annual reports are a source of icd used by investors to monitor the business performance of targeted investments. depending on the extent of icd, annual reports have the potential to enhance the transparency amongst executives, stakeholders, shareholders and investors. despite the regulatory requirements on (ir), annual reports are useful for monitoring impression management and creating ideal investor and public perceptions (edgar, beck, & brennan, 2018). with the absence of the generally-accepted framework for icd around the world (an & davey, 2010) and lack of consensus on standardised corporate reporting (alfraih, 2018), it is becoming increasingly paramount to investigate a measurement scale to assess a broad range of ic information to be disclosed. therefore, the conceptual framework depicted in figure 1, with selected items used in the study, served as a guide for constructing the icd measurement scale incorporating structural capital disclosure (scd), human capital disclosure (hcd) and relational capital disclosure (rcd). figure 1: intellectual capital disclosure measurement conceptual framework. the framework posits that the extent of icd is influenced by both voluntary disclosure of non-financial information and the corporate annual reporting requirements, which ultimately lead to shareholder value creation. to illustrate, the literature survey provides that scd concerns the critical assessment of information disclosed regarding intellectual property (ip) that includes goodwill, trademarks, research and development (r&d), innovation, corporate brand, product development and market intelligence (arvidsson, 2011; dominguez, 2011; lenciu & matiș, 2014; piehler, king, burmann, & xiong, 2016; sonnier, 2008). another key component of scd is the companies’ transparency about decisions taken on structural choices, business strategy, leadership and group ownership structure (bini, dainelli, & giunta, 2016; olson, slater, & hult, 2005; slack & munz, 2016), which can provide useful information to assess board effectiveness. management philosophy relates to the general thoughts, ethics and moral good in social norms and human actions, which forms part of scd assessment. this information pertaining to organisational culture, growth and management processes (gamerschlag, 2013; garcía-meca et al., 2005; rimmel et al., 2009) is useful for corporate valuation by investors (singh & kansal, 2011). scd is often disclosed in aggregate terms, and not clearly isolated per sub-dimensions to understand how each intangible asset creates value. hcd regarding plans to maximise the value of people’s embodied assets is useful for predicting future business returns (magau, roodt, & van zyl, 2021). disclosed information on the implementation of key human resource (hr) practices such as workforce planning, recruitment, selection, development, performance and rewards can signal the companies’ utilisation of hc for creating shareholder value (adams et al., 2013; motokawa, 2015; o’donnell, kramar, & dyball, 2012). huang, luther, tayles and haniffa (2013) confirmed that when information about hr planning and recruitment is disclosed in the annual reports, it conveys the company’s potential to create value, whereas the disclosure of information about remuneration practices is required in terms of king iv on corporate governance, ifrs and as part of the johannesburg stock exchange (jse) listing requirements (cassim & madlela, 2017; kim & taylor, 2011). hcd of employee performance indicators, training and development also demonstrates the utilisation of people to achieve business objectives in the organisation (sürdü, çalıskan, & esen, 2020). rcd is one of the determinants of organisational market value together with scd and hcd (adams et al., 2013; abdolmohammadi, 2005; abhayawansa & guthrie, 2016; petty & guthrie, 2000). measured in terms of customer service, distribution channels and stakeholder partnerships, information disclosed on rc reflects the organisation’s relationship with both its internal and external environments (abhayawansa & guthrie, 2016; orens, aerts, & lybaert, 2009; tejedo-romero, rodrigues, & craig, 2017). arvidsson (2011) supported the disclosure of customer service information as a key non-financial indicator that is useful in predicting future financial performance. managing the flow of goods effectively requires the company to build relationships with multiple distributors, select appropriate distribution channels and manage costs (neves, zuurbier, & campomar, 2001), and such disclosure reflects customer-orientation (abhayawansa & guthrie, 2016). tejedo-romero et al. (2017) concluded that this information including the companies’ transparency about their relationships with, for instance, suppliers and customers reinforce stakeholder engagement. therefore, this literature survey guided the construction of icd measurement scale. constructing the intellectual capital disclosure measurement scale a measurement scale determines the extent of icd by scoring the presence of items in the annual report with either 1 for disclosed or 0 for not disclosed (cardi, mazzoli, & severini, 2019; nielsen, rimmel, & yosano, 2015). another two-point scale means 1 for information disclosed qualitatively and 2 for information disclosed quantitatively (garcía-meca et al., 2005; whiting & miller, 2008). oliveira et al. (2006) used a three-point scale by scoring 0 for no information disclosed, 1 for information disclosed qualitatively and 2 for information disclosed quantitatively. another three-point scale was used by guthrie et al. (2006) by scoring 1 for information that is discursive, 2 for information that is in numerical terms, and 3 for information that is in monetary terms. in a four-point scale, vandemaele et al. (2005) scored 0 for no information disclosed, 1 for information disclosed qualitatively, 2 for information disclosed quantitatively, and 3 for information disclosed graphically. similarly, gerpott et al. (2008) scored 0 for no information disclosed, 1 for general information disclosure, 2 for substantial qualitative or quantified disclosure, and 3 for combination of qualitative and quantitative information. a six-point scale was used by scoring 0 for non-disclosure; 1 for disclosure is immaterial to the financial well-being and results of the company, 2 for information disclosed obscurely whilst other topics and themes are discussed, 3 for information disclosed narratively by clearly showing its influence on the company or its policies, 4 for information disclosed in monetary terms or physical quantities, and 5 represents information disclosed in monetary or physical quantities and narrative statements (an & davey, 2010; schneider & samkin, 2008). it appears that all these above-mentioned scales are restricted in terms of measurement range. therefore, there is a need to investigate a seven-point scale for capturing a broad range of icd in annual reports. this scale is comprehensive for assessing the extent of information disclosed (an & davey, 2010) and determining the transparency of companies’ annual reporting (cheung, jiang, & tan, 2010). scale development with selected items must yield acceptable mean values (pather & uys, 2008) for inclusion in the final index. for assessing the internal consistency of disclosure indexes, urquiza, navarro and trombetta (2009) indicated that internal consistency reliability coefficients above α = 0.60 should be obtained, and this requirement was taken into consideration. the research design of the study will be discussed next, to explain how the data used in this study was generated. research design research approach a quantitative based cross-sectional study was undertaken by using the icd measurement framework to guide the extraction of data from the annual reports of 150 companies listed in the jse. in doing so, a disclosure index with a seven-point response scale was utilised across 75 items categorised into scd, hcd and rcd. cross-sectional design is suitable for ic studies examining the prevalence of disclosure in annual reports of the public listed companies in a given point in time (alfraih, 2018; an & davey, 2010; anifowose et al., 2017; devalle et al., 2016). these studies do not yield a trend analysis as data are only captured across predefined variables in a specific point in time which would have been the case with longitudinal-based research. research method research participants and sampling johannesburg stock exchange-listed companies (a list was obtained from the jse) form the research population targeted for this research project. a total of 150 annual reports of the jse listed companies were selected for the period of 2015 to 2016 through a purposive sampling of top (75) and low (75) performing companies. this technique focuses on predefined criteria where participating companies are expected to comply with the annual reporting regulations (bowrin, 2018). as part of the criteria for inclusion, the jse listed companies were required to have published audited financial results in the year 2015 to 2016. from this list, suspended companies and those with incomplete information were removed before deriving a final sample. subsequently, the annual reports were obtained from the companies’ websites for data extraction using a predefined 7-point response scale. measurement instrument a measurement instrument also referred to as a disclosure index containing 75 items with an ordinal response scale was constructed to extract data from the annual reports. ordinal measures are used to assess qualitative and quantitative information in annual reports (bukh, nielsen, gormsen, & mouritsen, 2005; husin, hooper, & olesen, 2012). dammak, triki and boujelbene (2010) used a disclosure index with 71 items to assess the voluntary disclosure of icd on a 0 to 1 response scale. similarly, an icd disclosure index with 78 items also with 0 to 1 response scale was found useful in examining icd towards corporate performance (cardi et al., 2019; nielsen et al., 2015). in this study, the icd dimensions (scd, hcd and rcd) were utilised as follows in the construction of a 7-point disclosure index taking into consideration the reflective measures than formative measures (park, lee, & chae, 2017): structural capital disclosure construct the scd dimension with three sub-dimensions, namely, intellectual property (7 items), organisational culture (10 items) and management philosophy (15 items) allow investors to determine the companies’ decisions regarding the maximisation of intangible assets (arvidsson, 2011; burmann et al., 2016; dominguez, 2011; lenciu & matiș, 2014; sonnier, 2008). to test for the internal consistency, the cronbach alpha for measuring the scd is acceptable if it is above 0.70 (biscotti & d’amico, 2016; milne & adler, 1999). human capital disclosure construct literature survey confirmed that hcd is gaining prominence (adams et al., 2013; huang et al., 2013; motokawa, 2015; o’donnell et al., 2012), especially since the adoption of integrated reporting that encourages the voluntary disclosure of information pertaining to hc. the three hcd sub-dimensions included hr planning and recruitment (7 items), remuneration, benefits and performance (6 items) and training and development (5 items). the internal consistency of the hcd dimension is also acceptable above the cronbach alpha of 0.70 (biscotti & d’amico, 2016; milne & adler, 1999). relational capital disclosure construct quite evident from the literature is that rcd about customer service (7 items), distribution channels (9 items) and stakeholder partnerships (9 items) is also essential for business valuation (abdolmohammadi, 2005; abhayawansa & guthrie, 2016; adams et al., 2013; petty & guthrie, 2000). the cronbach alpha for measuring rcd was calculated at α = 0.68 in a study by martini, corvino, doni and rigolini (2016), which was acceptable. biscotti and d’amico (2016) and milne and adler (1999), on the other hand, determined that a cronbach alpha above 0.70 is appropriate for measuring the aggregate constructs of the disclosure index for rc. subsequently, a 7-point response scale shown in table 1 completed the construction of the disclosure index with scd, hcd and rcd constructs of icd. table 1: the 7-point intellectual capital disclosure response scale. data collection the published annual reports are available in the public domain; therefore, there were no ethical concerns related to confidentiality, except that the data had to be reported accurately (thomas, 2012). in this study, a dictionary of keywords was developed as part of the disclosure index, in line with the ic dimensions, and used to (1) locate the relevant text electronically in the annual reports, (2) read and understand meaning in the context of ic and (3) accurately score the text (in microsoft excel). abeysekera (2010) and krippendorff (2013) emphasised the importance of accuracy in classifying text, ensuring that it corresponds with a predefined standard or norm representing ic items when searching for text and meaning in annual reports. wagiciengo and belal (2012) recommended that because this is labour-intensive and time-consuming, sufficient intervals be taken from time to time to ensure careful reading and honest data capturing. in this present study, this process took 13 months to complete. the un-weighted method determining the presence of items in the annual report was used instead of the weighted procedure which examines the quality of disclosure (hooks, coy, & davey, 2001). pilot study karanges, johnston, beatson and lings (2015) emphasised the importance of pilot studies in quantitative research. to improve the integrity and quality of the data-capturing process, a pilot process was conducted in the present study using the top 40 jse-listed companies for the year 2015 to 2016 to identify and eliminate measures with low mean values. firstly, the disclosure index with a 4-point scale initially contained 111 items (later reduced to 75 items), with 44 for scd, 28 for hcd and 39 for rcd. feedback extracted from the pilot process was used to improve the disclosure index. initially, the disclosure index produced low reliability coefficients because of a restriction of range of a 4-point scale used in the pilot process, and hence it was later expanded to a 7-point scoring system. therefore, this final scale was used on a total sample of 150 companies that included the initial pilot using 40 items. subsequently, reliability statistics improved in all the icd dimensions as presented in the statistical analysis. statistical analysis firstly, the disclosure index must be examined to test the reliability of the instrument (bozzolan, favotto, & ricceri, 2003). accordingly, a newly constructed instrument was subjected to an exploratory factor analysis (efa) instead of confirmatory factor analysis (cfa), which was also the case in another research examining the voluntary disclosure of icd (dammak et al., 2010). efa is useful when testing a new instrument that has not been subjected to reliability and validity tests, whereas cfa is considered to verify or confirm an existing instrument (hurley et al., 1997). a factor analysis identifies patterns of relationships between items and constructs by reducing observable variables to fewer latent variables with common variance (bartholomew, knott, & moustaki, 2011). procedurally, the first-level factor analysis statistically examined the covariance relationship amongst observed items to derive latent factors (unobserved) through the principal component factor extraction method, using varimax (orthogonal) rotation (mulaik, 2009). the artificial factors were subsequently removed with a second level factor analysis. to this effect, the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy (msa) and bartlett’s test of sphericity were calculated. kaiser (1974) suggested that a kmo measure of 0.90 is marvellous, 0.80 is meritorious, 0.70 is middling, 0.60 is mediocre, 0.50 is miserable and below 0.5 is unacceptable. bartlett’s test of sphericity is considered to be statistically significant at ρ ≤ 0.05. the retention of the number of latent factors followed the kaiser rule, which requires an eigenvalue larger than unity (> 1.00) (larsen & warne, 2010). a msa ≥ 0.70 and a significant value for bartlett’s test of sphericity confirm that a solution is suitable for multivariate analysis (bartlett, 1950; kaiser, 1974). the second level factor analysis follows the same procedure to further reduce the emerged observable variables to fewer latent constructs (schepers, 1992). subsequently, the mean scores of all items making up each factor were calculated. tabachnick and fidell (2001) suggested a 0.32 threshold for at least one inter-factor correlation in non-orthogonal rotation. during the extraction process, cross-loadings became evident, where variables load on at least two or more factors simultaneously. items with cross-loading values higher than 0.30 were removed. ethical considerations it is always advisable to follow stringent ethical considerations when conducting research and disseminating research findings (suri, 2008). it is also imperative to adhere to the research ethics policy and guidelines of the relevant research institution. in the present study, a multidisciplinary literature review was undertaken by using the following key search words: hc, ic, intangibles, intangible assets, hr, customer capital, rc, sc and hc theory. this enabled the researcher to cover a much wider literature base, including a variety of opposing views on the topic of ic. bornmann and daniel (2008) provided useful insights on the citations behaviour which scholars must avoid. these were duly considered in this study. results results of the factor analysis the results are presented according to the firstand second-level factor analysis. the iterative item reliabilities are also presented per factor. firstly, the results of the factor analysis for scd are discussed. structural capital disclosure the scd dimension contained 7 items in intellectual property, 10 items in organisational structure and 15 items in management philosophy, which amounted to a total of 32 items. first-level factor analysis initially, an exploration of item correlations was carried out through a 32 × 32 inter-correlation matrix (too large to insert here, but available upon request), which provided a detailed assessment of the sampling adequacy. the resultant item correlations were sufficient to perform the kmo msa test which yielded an index of 0.770 and bartlett’s test of sphericity significant at p = 0.001 (χ2 = 1213.103; df = 496). this complied with the required sampling adequacy for executing an efa (kaiser, 1974) and implied a sufficient correlation between items (bartlett, 1950). to determine the appropriateness of the factor model, the eigenvalues of the unreduced item correlation matrix were calculated based on the criterion of roots greater than unity (kaiser, 1961). table 2 presents the eigenvalues of the 11 extracted factors. table 2: initial eigenvalues for structural capital disclosure (first-level factor analysis). table 2 shows that 11 factors were postulated, based on the eigenvalues greater than unity, explaining 63% of the variance in the factor space. subsequently, principal axis factoring and varimax rotation with kaiser normalisation were used to extract the unobserved factors. the factor matrix rotated with kaiser normalisation converged in 45 iterations, and the 11 items with values greater than 0.3 were retained. second-level factor analysis the aim of a second-level factor analysis is to avoid the creation of artificial factors, also referred to as artifactors. this technique further assessed the underlying patters of relationships by rearranging the data into a smaller set of matrices accounting for the interrelations. during this procedure, a reduced 11 × 11 inter-correlation matrix was subjected to an exploration of item correlations. the degree of linear relationships was sufficient to proceed with determining the sampling adequacy. the kmo msa criteria and bartlett’s test of sphericity were computed for the inter-correlated matrices, and the resultant item correlations were sufficient to perform the kmo msa test which produced an index 0.806 and bartlett’s test of sphericity significant at p = 0.001 (χ2 = 320.628; df = 55). these statistics were all above the recommended threshold (kleinheksel & ritzhaupt, 2017) and confirmed the inter-correlation to be factorable. on calculating the eigenvalues of the unreduced item correlation matrix, a one-factor solution was postulated. table 3 provides the results of the postulated factors based on the eigenvalues larger than unity. table 3: initial eigenvalues for structural capital disclosure (second-level factor analysis). the one factor postulated in table 3 and extracted by means of principal axis factoring and varimax rotation with kaiser normalisation converged after eight iterations. this factor explained 60% of the variance in the factor space. the factor loadings and communalities presented in table 4 represent the derived factor structure. tabachnick and fidell (2001) suggested 0.32 as a rule of thumb in factor loadings. table 4: factor loadings and extracted communalities for structural capital disclosure. upon completion, all items inter-correlating with communalities above 0.20 indicated that the variance was explained by all the common items (child, 2006) and confirmed the factor structure. iterative item reliabilities having extracted the appropriate factor, the iterative item reliability procedure was used to examine the reliability of the items with correlations > 0.30. ultimately, this factor retained 16 items within the three theoretical sub-dimensions, as reported in table 5. table 5: iterative item reliability analysis: structural capital disclosure. it is evident from table 5 that individual items yielded cronbach alpha coefficients ranging from 0.816 to 0.823. overall, the scd dimension was found to be reliable, with a cronbach alpha of 0.829, which is adequate. urquiza et al. (2009) indicated that reliability values above α = 0.60 confirm the internal consistency of a disclosure index. the results concluded the factor analysis for the scd dimension. the next section presents the results of the factor analysis of hcd. human capital disclosure the 18 items of the hcd dimension were initially grouped as follows: seven items in hr planning and recruitment, six items in remuneration and benefits and five items in training and development. these variables measured the extent to which hr practices leveraged the contribution of hcd towards business performance. this preliminary composition was subjected to factor analyses. first-level factor analysis in order to determine whether the item inter-correlations were substantial (> 0.30), 18 × 18 inter-item correlations were calculated (too larger to insert here), yielding an anti-image correlation matrix with acceptable values to test for overall significance and sampling adequacy. the kmo msa produced 0.813 and bartlett’s test of sphericity p = 0.001 (χ2 = 801.530; df = 153) confirming the inter-correlation to be factorable. the next step was to extract an interpretable factor from the original items. this was performed by calculating the eigenvalues of the unreduced item-correlation matrix on the criterion of roots greater than unity (kaiser, 1974). table 6 presents the eigenvalues. table 6: initial eigenvalues human capital disclosure (first-level factor analysis). table 6 suggests that a six-factor solution accounting for 62% of the variance in the factor space with eigenvalues larger than unity was proposed. principal axis factoring and varimax rotation with kaiser normalisation were used to extract six factors that converged after 19 iterations. retained factors carrying the greatest amount of variance were found logically appropriate for second-level factor analysis. second-level factor analysis when conducting second-level factor analysis, a reduced 6 × 6 inter-item correlation matrix was computed by diffusing the pattern of item relationships in order to determine the extent of correlation between items. this process led to the allocation of items into appropriate factors. the item inter-correlation matrix explains the underlying meaning of the corresponding factors and showed that the items were moderately correlated with each other. the resultant item correlations were sufficient to perform the kmo msa test which yielded an index of 0.736 and bartlett’s test of sphericity significant at p = 0.001 (χ2 = 125.357; df = 15). the results confirmed that the correlation matrix was an identity matrix and satisfactory for factor analysis (bartlett, 1950; kaiser, 1974; kleinheksel & ritzhaupt, 2017). the next step was to calculate the eigenvalues of the unreduced item correlation matrix on the criterion of roots greater than unity (kaiser, 1974). principal axis factoring with varimax rotation and kaiser normalisation was executed to extract a one-actor solution that converged after 10 iterations. table 7 provides the extracted eigenvalues. table 7: initial eigenvalues for human capital disclosure (second-level factor analysis). the one factor postulated explained 38% of the variance in the factor space. principal axis factoring with varimax rotation and kaiser normalisation was executed in extracting a one factor solution that converged after 10 iterations. the results indicated a shift in the ultimate factor composition, as determined through the factor loadings and communalities, presented in table 8. table 8: factor loadings and extracted communalities for human capital disclosure. items with communalities less than 0.20 may not be related to other items (child, 2006). however, factor loadings above 0.32 are sufficient (tabachnick & fidell, 2001) to retain the hc factor structure with three components (employees, knowledge and recruitment). this result confirmed the hcd factor structure with all related items. iterative item reliabilities the hcd dimension originally consisted of 18 items. all 18 items were retained after the second-level factor analysis. table 9 provides the reliability statistics. table 9: iterative item reliability analysis: human capital disclosure. all items achieved cronbach alpha coefficients ranging from 0.777 to 0.817, and the hc dimension found to be reliable at 0.806. a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.70 or greater indicates that the disclosure index consistently measures the underlying constructs (urquiza et al., 2009). the results concluded the factor analysis for the hcd dimension. relational capital disclosure relational capital disclosure contained 25 items: seven items in customer service, nine items in distribution channels and nine items in strategic partnerships. this list of items represents the key variables in measuring the impact of disclosure of hc in improving stakeholder relationships. the rcd dimension was subjected to the following factor analyses. first-level factor analysis a 25 × 25 inter-item correlation matrix (too large to insert here) was computed in order to determine the extent of correlations, yielding an anti-image correlation matrix confirming the correlations and the factor’s appropriateness to test for sampling adequacy and significance. this led to the computation of the kmo msa yielding an index of 0.702 and bartlett’s test of sphericity significant at p = 0.001 (χ2 = 717.313; df = 300) confirming the factorability of the inter-correlation matrix. a kmo msa value of 0.60 or greater confirmed factorability (kaiser, 1974; tabachnick & fidell, 2007). the next step was to extract an interpretable factor by calculating the eigenvalues of the unreduced item-correlation matrix on the criterion of roots greater than unity (kaiser, 1974). this resulted in the extraction of eight factors, as shown in table 10. table 10: initial eigenvalues for relational capital disclosure (first-level factor analysis). eight factors with eigenvalues larger than unity were postulated and converged after 10 iterations, explaining a total of 56% variance in the factor space. principal axis factoring with varimax rotation and kaiser normalisation were performed. these postulated eight factors were subjected to a second-level factor analysis. second-level factor analysis the 8 × 8 inter-item correlation matrix was computed in order to further explore the item correlations and to force a one-factor solution from this itemised structure. this was sufficient for the kmo msa test of sampling adequacy which produced an index of 0.775 and bartlett’s test of sphericity significant at p = 0.001 (χ2 = 157.580; df = 28) confirming the factorability of the inter-correlation matrix. subsequently, the eigenvalues of the unreduced item correlation matrix were calculated. table 11 provides the extracted eigenvalues. table 11: initial eigenvalues: relational capital disclosure (second-level factor analysis). the eigenvalues larger than unity suggested a two-factor solution explaining a total of 46% variance in the factor space. principal axis factoring and varimax rotation with kaiser normalisation converged after 25 iterations. the factor loadings and communalities presented in table 12, represent the derived factor structure. table 12: factor loadings and extracted communalities for relational capital disclosure. only two items, namely customer needs and customer retention loaded on factor 2, with loadings of 0.722 and 0.342, respectively. these items also cross-loaded on factor 1 at 0.382 and 0.124. the rule of thumb is to retain a factor loading of above 0.32 (tabachnick & fidell, 2001). the customer needs item in both factor 1 and factor 2 measured the same construct, which resulted in factor 1 being retained, because of more items with higher loadings. item cross-loadings can be assigned to the factor with the highest loadings (anagnostopoulos, yfantopoulos, moustaki, & niakas, 2013). therefore, factor 2 remained with one item only, customer retention, which loaded the highest, compared to factor 1. factor 2 was rendered invalid and omitted in further analyses, because of the one remaining item not being factorable. additionally, there were cross-loadings of two items, namely produce and customers in factor 1 and factor 2. this again implied that both factors measured the same construct. factor 1 was retained, as it had the highest loadings of 0.592 and 0.536, respectively. in this way, a one-factor solution was forced. iterative item reliabilities the 14 retained items in rcd produced the reliability statistics provided in table 13. table 13: iterative item reliability analysis: relational capital disclosure. relational capital disclosure yielded a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.749, with all 18 items ranging between 0.709 and 0.737, which confirmed the internal consistency of this dimension. the results concluded the factor analysis for the rcd dimension. discussion studies focused on the development of an icd through factor analysis could not be obtained. the present study set out to use the icd framework (scd, hcd and rcd) for developing a disclosure index by selecting 75 items, with a 7-point response scale or scoring system for assessing the extent of icd in the annual reports/integrated reports. in this research, efa was carried out with the internal consistency of the overall icd generating a cronbach’s alpha coefficient (0.794), which is consistent with the recommendation by urquiza et al. (2009) that reliability values above α = 0.60 for disclosure indexes are acceptable. icd calculated by dividing the number of items disclosed in each dimension by the total number of all items across (bukh et al., 2005) provided fairly distributed scores across the scale (0 to 6) indicating the extent of disclosure. scores were unweighted by only examining the extent of icd and not weighted as the priority of the scale was not to assess the quality of information disclosed (hooks et al., 2001). the next passage elaborates on the key findings based on the following three icd measurement constructs. structural capital disclosure measurement the scd results generated high reliabilities of 0.829 cronbach’s alpha coefficient and item reliabilities ranging between 0.816 and 0.823 confirming that the items measured the same underlying ‘construct’. the cronbach’s alpha values of above 0.70 for disclosure indexes are considered acceptable (biscotti & d’amico, 2016; milne & adler, 1999). no cases of factor loadings were detected confirming the reliability of the construct. consequently, the key scd finding is that the scale used in the study empirically measured the presence of information in the annual reports in relation to the company’s ip, oc and mp which are essential for enhancing corporate value (bini et al., 2016; burmann et al., 2016; gamerschlag, 2013; garcía-meca et al., 2005; olson et al., 2005; rimmel et al., 2009; slack & munz, 2016). human capital disclosure measurement human capital disclosure measuring disclosed information about the implementation of key hr practices (adams et al., 2013; cassim & madlela, 2017; kim & taylor, 2011; motokawa, 2015; o’donnell et al., 2012; sürdü et al., 2020) generated an overall reliability of 0.806 cronbach’s alpha coefficient consistent with 0.60 (urquiza et al., 2009) and 0.70 (biscotti & d’amico, 2016; milne & adler, 1999) baselines. item reliabilities ranged between 0.777 and 0.817 confirming that these measures assessed the same underlying construct. similar to the scd construct, no cases of factor loadings were detected in hcd, which also confirmed that this scale measured the underlying factors of human resource planning and recruitment, remuneration, benefits and performance as well as training and development. relational capital disclosure measurement relational capital disclosure yielded 0.749 cronbach’s alpha and the item reliabilities ranged between 0.709 and 0.737. cronbach’s alphas above 0.70 are acceptable for this construct (biscotti & d’amico, 2016; martini et al., 2016; milne & adler, 1999). there were two cases of logical inconsistencies in the way the rcd dimension was constructed which led to factor loadings. only two items, namely customer needs and customer retention loaded on factor 2, with loadings of 0.722 and 0.342, respectively. these items also cross-loaded on factor 1, at 0.382 and 0.124. the rule of thumb is to retain a factor loading of above 0.32 (tabachnick & fidell, 2001). the customer needs item in both factor 1 and factor 2 measured the same construct, which resulted in factor 1 being retained, because of more items with higher loadings. item cross-loadings can be assigned to the factor with the highest loadings (anagnostopoulos et al., 2013). therefore, factor 2 remained with one item only, customer retention, which loaded the highest, compared to factor 1. despite the factor loadings, and overall, the items scored across the scale confirmed the presence of ic disclosure in the annual reports which measure information related to customer service, distribution channels and stakeholder partnerships (abhayawansa & guthrie, 2016; orens et al., 2009; tejedo-romero et al., 2017). practical implications the study provides evidence that icd can be assessed from the annual reports by means of a measurement scale to understand corporate decision-making in sc, hc and rc during the preceding financial reporting period. whilst the preparers of the annual reports seem to focus attention on disclosing ic information, the measurement scale can facilitate this process effectively by enabling them to broadly assess different patterns of disclosure using a 7-point scoring system (see the response scale) than merely identifying the presence of information through a 0 (not disclosed) and 1 (disclosed) score which might be restrictive in limiting the extent of icd. therefore, the scale applied in the study provides a framework for assessing icd and serves as a proxy for the extent of information supplied in the capital market. intellectual capital disclosure remains the only source of information through which investors can estimate how the company will generate future returns. conversely, the lack of transparency in ic increases information asymmetry and prevents the market participants an opportunity to gain in-depth insight on how sc, hc and rc in the organisation are leveraged for creating shareholder value. lastly, the measurement scale can be used to evaluate the extent of integrated reporting (ir) of the public listed companies. limitations the limitations of the study are summarised as follows: the scale exhibits predictive validity where financial performance could be predicted, and discriminant validity in that could discriminate between high and low performing companies. the measurement scale is inherently subjective and only based on the researcher’s scale construction. the results mostly yielded information disclosed qualitatively with less emphasis. the scale was only used to examine the presence of predefined items (un-weighted scoring) in the annual reports and not the quality thereof (weighted). the cross-sectional nature of the study restricted the researchers from assessing the pattern of disclosures over a period of time, which could have been achieved through a longitudinal study. notwithstanding these limitations, the main objective of the study, namely, ‘to develop a measurement scale for evaluating the extent of icd in the annual reports’ was achieved. the reliability statistics obtained across the icd dimensions indicate the internal consistency of the index which can be applied for both practical and research purposes. however, the results must be generalised with careful consideration to the context of future studies. recommendations and suggestions for future research it is recommended that the construction of a disclosure index to score the presence of the ic information in the annual reports be based on a thorough literature survey which will guide the researcher’s scale definition and item selection. validity tests must also be conducted to increase the constructs being measured. as indicated, a longitudinal study can be carried out for validating the construction of the measurement scale by assessing changes in the pattern of disclosure. concluding summary the main aim of constructing a multi-dimensional measurement scale for assessing icd in the annual reports was achieved through efa using a disclosure index containing 75 items categorised according to scd (32 items), hcd (18 items) and rcd (25 items). although, only two cases on factor loadings were detected in the rcd dimension which was later moderately restructured. the proposed measurements, therefore, add theoretical understanding of icd. therefore, the study provides a novel contribution to icd by constructing a measurement scale that can be used to assess scd, hcd and rcd in the annual reports/integrated reports. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions m.d.m. was responsible for the actual research under the supervision of g.r. and g.v.z. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability secondary data were sourced from the annual or integrated reports of the companies listed in the jse. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors, and the publisher. references abdolmohammadi, m.j. (2005). intellectual capital disclosure and market capitalisation. journal of intellectual capital, 6(3), 397–416. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930510611139 abeysekera, i. (2006). the project of intellectual capital disclosure: researching the research. journal of intellectual capital, 7(1), 61–77. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930610639778 abeysekera, i. (2010). the influence of board size on intellectual capital disclosure by kenyan listed firms. journal of intellectual capital, 11(4), 504–518. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691931011085650 abhayawansa, s., & guthrie, j. (2010). intellectual capital and the capital market: a review and synthesis. journal of human resource costing & accounting, 14(3), 196–226. https://doi.org/10.1108/14013381011095472 abhayawansa, s., & guthrie, j. (2014). importance of intellectual capital information: a study of australian analyst reports. australian accounting review, 68(34), 66–83. https://doi.org/10.1111/auar.12012 abhayawansa, s., & guthrie, j. (2016). drivers and semantic properties of intellectual capital information in sell-side analysts’ reports. journal of accounting & organisational change, 12(4), 434–471. https://doi.org/10.1108/jaoc-05-2014-0027 adams, c., coulson, a.b., emmelkamp, t., greveling, r., klüth, g., & nugent, m. (2013). capitals: background paper for ir. international integrated reporting council. issn: 2052-1723. retrieved from https://integratedreporting.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/ir-background-paper-capitals.pdf alfraih, m.m. (2018). intellectual capital reporting and its relation to market and financial performance. international journal of ethics and systems, 34(3), 266–281. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoes-02-2017-0034 an, y., & davey, h. (2010). intellectual capital disclosure in chinese (mainland) companies. journal of intellectual capital, 11(3), 326–347. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691931011064572 anagnostopoulos, f., yfantopoulos, j., moustaki, i., & niakas, d. (2013). psychometric and factor analytic evaluation of the 15d health-related quality of life instrument: the case of greece. quality of life research, 22(8), 1973–1986. https://doi.10.1007/s11136-013-0348-2 anifowose, m., rashid, h.m.a., & annuar, h.a. (2017). intellectual capital disclosure and corporate market value: does board diversity matter? journal of accounting in emerging economies, 7(3), 369–398. https://doi.org/10.1108/jaee-06-2015-0048 atkins, j., & maroun, w. (2015). integrated reporting in south africa in 2012: perspectives from south african institutional investors. meditari accountancy research, 23(2), 197–221. https://doi.org/10.1108/medar-07-2014-0047 arvidsson, s. (2011). disclosure of non-financial information in the annual report: a management-team perspective. journal of intellectual capital, 12(2), 277–300. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691931111123421 bartholomew, d., knott, k., & moustaki, i. (2011). latent variable models and factor analysis: a unified approach (3rd ed.). london: wiley. https://doi.10.1002/9781119970583. bartlett, f.c. (1950). incentives. british journal of psychology, 41(3–4), 122–128. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.1950.tb00270.x bini, l., dainelli, f., & giunta, f. (2016). business model disclosure in the strategic report: entangling intellectual capital in value creation process. journal of intellectual capital, 17(1), 83–102. https://doi.org/10.1108/jic-09-2015-0076 biscotti, a.m., & d’amico, e. (2016). theoretical foundation of ic disclosure strategies in high-tech industries. international journal of disclosure and governance, 13(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1057/jdg.2015.8 bornmann, l., & daniel, h.d. (2008). what do citation counts measure? a review of studies on citing behaviour. journal of documentation, 64(1), 45–80. https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410810844150 bowrin, a.r. (2018). human resources disclosures by african and caribbean companies. journal of accounting in emerging economies, 8(2), 244–278. https://doi.org/10.1108/jaee-07-2016-0065 bozzolan, s., favotto, f., & ricceri, f. (2003). italian annual intellectual capital disclosure: an empirical analysis. journal of intellectual capital, 4(4), 543–558. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930310504554 bukh, p.n., nielsen, c., gormsen, p., & mouritsen, j. (2005). disclosure of information on intellectual capital in danish ipo prospectuses. accounting, auditing & accountability journal, 18(6), 713–732. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513570510627685 cardi, c., mazzoli, c., & severini, s. (2019). people have the power: post ipo effects of intellectual capital disclosure. journal of economics & finance, 43, 228–255. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12197-018-9439-9 cassim, r., & madlela, v. (2017). disclosure of directors’ remuneration under south african company law: is it adequate? (2017) 1349(2) salj 383–414. south african law journal, 34(2), 383–414. cheung, y.l., jiang, p., & tan, w. (2010). a transparency disclosure index measuring disclosures: chinese listed companies. journal of accounting and public policy, 29(3), 259–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2010.02.001 chen, m.c., cheng, s.j., & hwang, y. (2005). an empirical investigation of the relationship between intellectual capital and firms’ market value and financial performance. journal o f intellectual capital, 6(2), 159–176. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930510592771 chiucchi, m.s., & dumay, j. (2015). unlocking intellectual capital. journal of intellectual capital, 16(2), 305–330. https://doi.org/10.1108/jic-01-2015-0004 child, d. (2006). the essentials of factor analysis (3rd ed.). new york, ny: continuum international publishing group. coy, d.v. (1995). a public accountability index for annual reporting by nz universities (doctoral thesis). hamilton: university of waikato. dammak, s., triki, m., & boujelbene, y. (2010). towards a measurement scale for the voluntary disclosure of the intellectual capital. journal of advanced research in management, 1(1), 30–44. devalle, a., rizzato, f., & busso, d. (2016). disclosure indexes and compliance with mandatory disclosure – the case of intangible assets in the italian market. advances in accounting, 35, 8–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adiac.2016.04.003 dominguez, a.a. (2011). the impact of human resource disclosure on corporate image. journal of human resource costing & accounting, 15(4), 279–298. https://doi.org/10.1108/14013381111197225 edgar, v.c., beck, m., & brennan, n.m. (2018). impression management in annual report narratives: the case of the uk private finance initiative. accounting auditing & accountability journal, 31(2), 1566–1592. https://doi.org/10.1108/aaaj-10-2016-2733 gamerschlag, r. (2013). value relevance of human capital information. journal of intellectual capital, 14(2), 325–345. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691931311323913 garcía-meca, e., parra, i., larrán, m., & martínez, i. (2005). the explanatory factors of intellectual capital disclosure to financial analysts. european accounting review, 14(1), 63–94. https://doi.org/10.1080/0963818042000279713 gerpott, t.j., thomas, s.e., & hoffmann, a.p. (2008). intangible asset disclosure in the telecommunications industry. journal of intellectual capital, 9(1), 37–61. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930810845795 guthrie, j., petty, r., & ricceri, f. (2006). the voluntary reporting of intellectual capital: comparing evidence from hong kong and australia. journal of intellectual capital, 7(2), 254–271. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930610661890 hooks, j., coy, d., & davey, h. (2001). the annual reports of new zealand electricity companies: assessing quality. pacific accounting review, 13(2), 35–69. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb037960 hosseini, m., & owlia, m.s. (2016). designing a model for measuring and analyzing the relational capital using factor analysis: case study, ansar bank. journal of intellectual capital, 17(4), 734–757. https://doi.org/10.1108/jic-04-2016-0042 huang, c.c., luther, r., tayles, m., & haniffa, r. (2013). human capital disclosures in developing countries: figureheads and value creators. journal of applied accounting research, 14(2), 180–196. https://doi.org/10.1108/09675421311291919 hurley, a.e., scandura, t.a., schriesheim, c.a., brannick, m.t., seers, a., vandenberg, r.j., & williams, l.j. (1997). exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis: guidelines, issues, and alternatives. journal of organizational behaviour, 18(6), 667–683. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199711)18:6<667::aid-job874>3.0.co;2-t husin, n.m., hooper, k., & olesen, k. (2012). analysis of intellectual capital disclosure – an illustrative example. journal of intellectual capital, 13(2), 196–220. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691931211225030 kaiser, h.f. (1961). a note on guttman’s lower bound for the number of common factors. british journal of statistical psychology, 14, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8317.1961.tb00061.x kaiser, h.f. (1974). an index of factorial simplicity. psychometrika, 39(1), 31–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02291575 kale, p., singh, h., & perlmutter, h. (2000). learning and protection of proprietary assets in strategic alliances: building relational capital. strategic management journal, 21(3), 217–237. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-0266(200003)21:3<217::aid-smj95>3.0.co;2-y kannan, g., & aulbur, w.g. (2004). intellectual capital: measurement effectiveness. journal of intellectual capital, 5(3), 389–413. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930410550363 karanges, e., johnston, k., beatson, a., & lings, i. (2015). the influence of internal communication on employee engagement: a pilot study. public relations review, 41(1), 129–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2014.12.003 kim, s.h., & taylor, d. (2011). labour cost disclosures: have ifrss made a difference? journal of human resource costing & accounting, 15(2), 127–146. https://doi.org/10.1108/14013381111157346 krippendorff, k. (2013). content analysis. an introduction to its methodology (3rd ed.). california, ca: sage publications. kleinheksel, a.j., & ritzhaupt, a.d. (2017). measuring the adoption and integration of virtual patient simulations in nursing education: an exploratory factor analysis. computers & education, 108, 11–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2017.01.005 larsen, r., & warne, r.t. (2010). estimating confidence intervals for eigenvalues in exploratory factor analysis. behaviour research methods, 42(3), 871–876. https://doi.org/10.3758/brm.42.3.871 lenciu, n.m., & matiş, d. (2014). inflection points in the development of ias 38. journal of financial reporting and accounting, 12(1), 62–75. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfra-04-2012-0014 litschka, m., markom, a., & schunder, s. (2006). measuring and analysing intellectual assets: an integrative approach. journal of intellectual capital, 7(2), 160–173. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930610661836 magau, m.d., roodt, g., & van zyl, g. (2021). monetary value of human capital disclosure for predicting future business earnings. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1398. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1398 martini, s.b., corvino, a., doni, f., & rigolini, a. (2016). relational capital disclosure, corporate reporting and company performance: evidence from europe. journal of intellectual capital, 17(2), 186–217. https://doi.org/10.1108/jic-07-2015-0065 milne, m.j., & adler, r.w. (1999). exploring the reliability of social and environmental disclosures content analysis. accounting, auditing & accountability journal, 12(2), 237–256. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513579910270138 motokawa, k. (2015). human capital disclosure, accounting numbers, and share price. journal of financial reporting & accounting, 13(2), 159–178. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfra-11-2014-0089 mulaik, s.a. (2009). foundations of factor analysis (2nd ed.). new york: chapman and hall/crc. neves, m.f., zuurbier, p., & campomar, m.c. (2001). a model for the distribution channels planning process. journal of business & industrial marketing, 16(7), 518–539. https://doi.org/10.1108/08858620110408757 nielsen, c., rimmel, g., & yosano, t. (2015). outperforming markets: ic and the long-term performance of japanese ipos. accounting forum, 39(2), 83–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accfor.2015.04.001 o’donnell, l., kramar, r., & dyball, m.c. (2012). human capital reporting: should it be industry specific? asian pacific journal of human resources, 47(3), 358–373. https://doi.org/10.1177/1038411108099293 oliveira, l., rodrigues, l., & craig, r. (2006). firm-specific determinants of intangibles reporting: evidence from the portuguese stock market. journal of human resource costing and accounting, 10(1), 11–33. https://doi.org/10.1108/14013380610672657 olson, e.m., slater, s.f., & hult, g.t.m. (2005). the performance implications of fit among business strategy, marketing organisation structure, and strategic behaviour. journal of marketing, 69(3), 49–65. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.69.3.49.66362 orens, r., aerts, w., & lybaert, n. (2009). intellectual capital disclosure, cost of finance and firm value. management decision, 47(10), 1536–1554. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740911004673 park, s., lee, h., & chae, s.w. (2017). rethinking balanced scorecard (bsc) measures: formative versus reflective measurement models. international journal of productivity and performance management, 66(1), 92–110. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-08-2015-0109 pather, s., & uys, c.s. (2008). using scale reduction techniques for improved quality of survey information. sa journal of information management, 10(3), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajim.v10i3.322 petty, r., & guthrie, j. (2000). intellectual capital literature review: measurement, reporting and management. journal of intellectual capital, 1(2), 155–176. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930010348731 piehler, r., king, c., burmann, c., & xiong, l. (2016). the importance of employee brand understanding, brand identification, and brand commitment in realising brand citizenship behaviour. european journal of marketing, 50(9/10), 1575–1601. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejm-11-2014-0725 rimmel, g., nielsen, c., & yosano, t. (2009). intellectual capital disclosures in japanese ipo prospectuses. journal of human resource costing & accounting, 13(4), 316–337. https://doi.org/10.1108/14013381011010150 schepers, j.m. (1992). toetskonstruksie: teorie en praktyk. johannesburg: rau-drukpers. schneider, a., & samkin, g. (2008). intellectual capital reporting by the new zealand local government sector. journal of intellectual capital, 9(3), 456–486. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930810892036 setia, n., abhayawansa, s., joshi, m., & vu huynh, a. (2015). integrated reporting in south africa: some initial evidence. sustainability accounting, management and policy journal, 6(3), 397–424. https://doi.org/10.1108/sampj-03-2014-0018 singh, s., & kansal, m. (2011). voluntary disclosures of intellectual capital: an empirical analysis. journal of intellectual capital, 12(2), 301–318. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691931111123430 slack, r., & munz, m. (2016). intellectual capital reporting, leadership and strategic change. journal of applied accounting research, 17(1), 61–83. https://doi.org/10.1108/jaar-02-2014-0021 sonnier, b.m. (2008). intellectual capital disclosure: high-tech versus traditional sector companies. journal of intellectual capital, 9(4), 705–722. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930810913230 striukova, l., unerman, j., & guthrie, j. (2008). corporate reporting of intellectual capital: evidence from uk companies. british accounting review, 40(4), 297–313. https://doi.10.1016/j.bar.2008.06.001 sürdü, f.b., çalıskan, a.ö., & esen, e. (2020). human resource disclosures in corporate annual reports of insurance companies: a case of developing country. sustainability, 12(8), 1–21. https://doi:10.3390/su12083452 suri, h. (2008). ethical considerations in synthesising research – whose representations? qualitative research journal, 8(1), 63–73. https://doi.org/10.3316/qrj0801062 tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2001). using multivariate statistics. boston, ma: allyn and bacon. tejedo-romero, f., rodrigues, l.l., & craig, r. (2017). women directors and disclosure of intellectual capital information. european research on management and business economics, 23(3), 123–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iedeen.2017.06.003 thomas, a. (2012). governance at south african state-owned enterprises: what do annual reports and the print media tell us? social responsibility journal, 8(4), 448–470. https://doi.org/10.1108/17471111211272057 urquiza, f.b., navarro, m.c.a., & trombetta, m. (2009). disclosure indices design: does it make a difference? revista de contabilidad, 12(2), 253–277. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1138-4891(09)70008-1 vandemaele, s.n., vergauwen, p.g.m.c., & smits, a.j. (2005). intellectual capital disclosure in the netherlands, sweden and the uk: a longitudinal and comparative study. journal of intellectual capital, 6(3), 417–426. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930510611148 vergauwen, p., bollen, l., & oirbans, e. (2007). intellectual capital disclosure and intangible value drivers: an empirical study. management decision, 45(7), 1163–1180. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740710773961 wagiciengo, m.m., & belal, a.r. (2012). intellectual capital disclosures by south african companies: a longitudinal investigation. advances in accounting, 28(1), 111–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adiac.2012.03.004 whiting, r.h., & miller, j.c. (2008). voluntary disclosure of intellectual capital in new zealand annual reports and the hidden value. journal of human resource costing & accounting, 12(1), 26–50. https://doi.org/10.1108/14013380810872725 abstract introduction research design findings discussion acknowledgements references footnote about the author(s) manasseh mokgolo department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa antoni barnard department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation mokgolo, m., & barnard, a. (2019). buridan’s ass syndrome: dilemma of the human resources practitioner in workplace bullying. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1124. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1124 original research buridan’s ass syndrome: dilemma of the human resources practitioner in workplace bullying manasseh mokgolo, antoni barnard received: 02 oct. 2018; accepted: 14 feb. 2019; published: 24 june 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: worldwide, bullying in the workplace is recognised as a sensitive and psychologically destructive issue. it has a detrimental effect on employee well-being, organisations’ productivity and employee relations. as a vital link between different constituencies in the organisation, human resource practitioners struggle in their attempts to address and manage workplace bullying. research purpose: the aim of this article was to describe the challenges that human resource practitioners face when being tasked with addressing workplace bullying. motivation for the study: concern about human resource practitioners’ capacity to manage situations of workplace bullying requires a better understanding of their role in and perspective of the bullying phenomenon. research approach/design and method: a constructivist, grounded theory research design was used to explore the perspectives of nine human resource practitioners on workplace bullying. data were gathered through semi-structured interviews to gain insight into and understanding of their experiences of bullying in the workplace. main findings: paradoxical role demands, lack of decision-making power and their perceived lack of support from policy and management disable the human resource practitioners’ functionality in addressing workplace bullying. practical/managerial implications: the study identifies dilemmas that human resource practitioners face, impeding their capacity to address workplace bullying effectively. findings highlight the practical value of empowering such practitioners in the role they play in dealing with workplace bullying situations. contribution/value-add: the present study contributes to the limited body of knowledge on human resource practitioners’ perspectives on workplace bullying within the south african context. keywords: workplace bullying; counterproductive work behaviour; human resource practitioner; critical realism; constructivist grounded theory; theoretical sampling; buridan’s ass. introduction human resources (hr) is increasingly being regarded as a strategic partner providing support for various employee matters to management, line managers and employees (heizmann & fox, 2017; paauwe & boon, 2018). the hr function includes strategies to retain employees as valuable assets (davis, 2017; galang & osman, 2016), to ensure optimal employment relations and to enhance employee wellness (collings, wood & szamosi, 2018). human resources practitioners therefore play an undeniably important role in maintaining optimal workplace relations and well-being (collings et al., 2018). this is especially true because disruptive behaviour such as workplace bullying has become a frequent occurrence that they have to deal with (salin et al., 2018). human resources practitioners, however, face numerous obstacles in their attempt to prevent and address unacceptable and inappropriate workplace behaviour, such as bullying (fox & cowan, 2015). workplace bullying is classified as counterproductive workplace behaviour (fox & spector, 2005) and poses a direct threat to the wellness of employees and the organisation as a whole (nzonzo, 2017). for employees, such misbehaviour leads to reduced work performance, lower job satisfaction, poor interpersonal relationships as well as decreased motivation and morale (coetzee & van dyk, 2018). the organisation suffers costs because of more frequent staff turnover and increased absenteeism (sheehan, mccabe, & garavan, 2018). still, the prevalence of bullying in the workplace is increasingly acknowledged globally, and organisations should ensure its effective management (dzurec, kennison, & gillen, 2017; salin et al., 2018; van schalkwyk, els, & rothmann, 2011). human resources practitioners play an integral part in managing situations where workplace bullying takes place (branch, ramsay, & barker 2007; salin et al., 2018). such practitioners are not only expected to assist targets with their complaints but also to investigate bullying incidents and enforce the organisation’s policy in this regard (salin, 2008).despite substantial literature on workplace bullying, hr practitioners’ perspectives of the bullying phenomenon within organisations is largely absent in research (cowan, 2012; fox & cowan, 2015; salin et al., 2018). by engaging an hr practitioner perspective, organisations may gain an understanding of their capacity to manage bullying situations appropriately and effectively. the management of counterproductive behaviour such as bullying in the workplace cannot be operationalised fully and efficiently without considering the hr function’s role and its interrelationship with employees and management in the organisation (jackson, schuler, & jiang, 2014). the present study explored workplace bullying from the point of view of hr practitioners tasked with identifying and dealing with such misbehaviour in the workplace. the primary purpose of this article is to report on the dilemmas that hr practitioners face in this context. workplace bullying the study of workplace bullying finds its roots in the investigation of bullying behaviour among schoolchildren in the 1970s (olweus, 1978). in the early 1980s, the focus changed from schoolchildren to the work context and adult victimisation (leymann, 1990). adult bullying at work was conceptualised as ‘workplace bullying’ by andrea adams in 1990, who publicised the significance of bullying at work and its hostile influence on people’s lives (lutgen-sandvik, namie & namie, 2009). for a situation to be regarded as workplace bullying, three distinctive considerations should be met. firstly, workplace bullying is identified in terms of a prolonged frequency of conflict or persistent pattern of harmful behaviour (cunniff & mostert, 2012; jerkins, 2011). secondly, it entails a situation where victims experience psychological and/or physical harm (dzurec et al., 2017). lastly, the victims are considered defenceless because they are less powerful than the alleged perpetrator. a power imbalance in the bully–target relationship is therefore an important distinguishing criterion for regarding conflict as bullying (sheehan et al., 2018). workplace bullying can be defined summatively as injurious, hostile or destructive verbal or non-verbal, psychological or physical behaviour (lutgen-sandvik, 2008). such behaviour occurs repetitively, regularly, persistently or systematically over time (einarsen, hoel, zapf, & cooper, 2010; lutgen-sandvik et al., 2009). the actions are overt or covert (finchilescu, bernstein, & chihambakwe, 2018) and typically directed from those more powerful to the less powerful at work (mattice & garman, 2010; salin, 2003). the result is a hostile and intimidating work environment (von bergen, zavaletta, & soper, 2006) in which employees’ normal work performance and/or health suffers (einarsen et al., 2010). to be considered inappropriate, behaviour should be regarded as offensive by any reasonable person or be shown to violate accepted social norms (von bergen et al., 2006). this explication emphasises that normal day-to-day conflicts and disagreements cannot be regarded as bullying per se. this is the case even though most definitions rely heavily on the perception of individual victims that they are being humiliated, offended, intimidated, violated or made to feel distressed (von bergen et al., 2006). after adams and crawford’s (1992) book, bullying at work: how to confront and overcome, systematic research into workplace bullying took flight globally (zapf & einarsen, 2010). research examined the prevalence and underlying causes of the mentioned phenomenon (skogstad, matthiesen, & einarsen, 2007), such as the personality traits of targets (adams, 2000; balducci, fraccaroli, & schaufeli, 2011). some reported on the risk of bullying and its destructive effects on organisations’ and individuals’ well-being (agtervold, 2007; hoel, einarsen, & cooper, 2003) and highlighted bullying’s direct and indirect financial costs (mccormack, casimir, djurkovic, & yang, 2009). others focused on relevant educational or prevention strategies (vartia & leka, 2011). most research has, however, been occupied with the difficulties in pinpointing the act of bullying. this is accomplished, on the one hand, by focusing on conceptualising the phenomenon as such (einarsen et al., 2010) and on the other hand by distinguishing it from related constructs such as workplace victimisation, violence and harassment (cunniff & mostert, 2012; momberg, 2011; pietersen, 2007). despite different approaches, studies emphasise that the targets are humiliated and demotivated; thus, productivity and the organisation’s ‘bottomline’ are impacted negatively (sheehan et al., 2018). in south africa, marais-steinman (1998) is considered a pioneer in the field for identifying workplace bullying in various occupational sectors (cunniff & mostert, 2012). numerous studies followed within the south african work context. burton (2001), for instance, views workplace bullying as a subset of workplace violence. pietersen (2007) conceptualised bullying as persistent, inappropriate verbal and non-verbal behaviour resulting from interpersonal issues between people. he highlights the relational aspect of the phenomenon and found that bullying can be directed from a superior to a subordinate or vice versa. de wet (2010) confirmed the distinctive characteristics of bullying as conceptualised by pietersen. in addition he found that bullying negatively affected the victims’ performance and work well-being and that it caused employee relations to break down. momberg (2011) investigated the prevalence and consequences of bullying and found that various internal and external recourse mechanisms are available to victims of workplace bullying, but most of these are not effectively applied. momberg proposed the development of a code of good practice in dealing with workplace bullying in terms of section 54 of the employment equity act of 1998. from their side, cunniff and mostert (2012) focus on the prevalence of workplace bullying across various industries and report that over 31.1% of their sample (n = 13 911) experienced bullying at work with negative physical and psychological effects. cilliers (2012) examines organisational bullying experiences from the perspective of system psychodynamics and contributes to understanding the phenomenon better by highlighting the unconscious behavioural dynamics that result in subtle forms of bullying such as humiliation, intimidation and insults. more recently, coetzee and van dyk (2018) confirmed the negative effect of workplace bullying on turnover. other studies show that psychosocial flourishing (coetzee & oosthuizen, 2017) and certain personality traits (omar, 2017) can only partially alleviate this negative effect. finchilescu et al. (2018) also indicate that social support does not significantly mediate the effect of high-level workplace bullying on mental well-being. training in conflict management, interpersonal skills and types of bullying behaviour have been the most common intervention method to curb bullying in organisational contexts (einarsen et al., 2018; jackson et al., 2014; khan & khan, 2012). according to van den broeck, baillien and de witte (2011) proper job design to control for critical job demands and to reinforce job resources for vulnerable employees is a preventative strategy that some organisations follow. the potential for bullying is also more effectively prevented when organisations establish a well-being policy with relevant wellness activities (heizmann & fox, 2017; nzonzo, 2017). yet, solely relying on an anti-bullying policy is inadequate in preventing and dealing with bullying (balducci et al., 2011; ryan, 2016). anti-bullying policies are more effective in organisations where they are linked with additional intervention processes such as bullying awareness campaigns and available support mechanisms, for example, counselling and mentoring (balducci et al., 2011) and a dedicated ombudsman (ryan, 2016). collectively these studies demonstrate that workplace bullying is a pervasive and contentious phenomenon within the south african work context. bullying is costly to both the individual and the organisation because of negative consequences for work performance as well as its detrimental effect on employees’ and the organisation’s well-being and workplace relations. to curb bullying in the workplace, training, policy and additional proactive intervention mechanisms should be in place. the prevalence of bullying and its dire consequences require continued research (ncongwane, 2010; omar, 2017; salin et al., 2018) and increased organisational attention (coetzee & oosthuizen, 2017). the reason is that such bullying is regarded as one of the most serious workplace problems in the new millennium (steinman, 2009), damaging the organisation’s bottom line (mattice & garman, 2010). the intricate role of the human resources practitioner in their overall objective to maintain relations among employees (sheehan, de cieri, cooper, & shea, 2016), hr practitioners fulfil work roles filled with paradoxical stakeholder demands (collings et al., 2018; o’brien & linehan, 2014). human resources practitioners’ roles are complicated foremost by the different constituencies they serve (sheehan et al., 2016). constituencies include employees as well as line and top management, each with unique and frequently conflicting expectations, which may cause role conflict and ambiguity for the hr practitioner. intrinsic to hr practitioners’ roles, they also have to navigate relational power differences among these constituencies (heizmann & fox, 2017). naturally this creates emotional demands in their daily functioning – stressors that often are ignored (o’brien & linehan, 2014). employees expect the hr practitioner to care for and champion their needs in the organisation (o’brien & linehan, 2014). when individuals experience unfair treatment, they expect the hr practitioner to intervene, providing fairness and justice (fox & cowan, 2015). aggrieved employees often become impatient and frustrated, thus directing their negative emotions towards the hr practitioner. jamrog and overholt (2004) also point out that management often expects hr practitioners to go beyond their normal day-to-day administrative duties. this means these practitioners must provide expertise on resolving difficult workplace issues, thereby leading to role conflict and demanding emotional work for the hr practitioner. in this regard, hr practitioners are pressured to refrain from expressing their negative emotions to their constituents, which may have detrimental effects on their performance and well-being (o’brien & linehan, 2014). in addition to the paradoxical expectations and emotional work inherent to hr practitioners’ role, their subordinate power position in the organisation leaves them with a lack of adequate decision-making power to manage difficult workplace issues such as bullying (collings et al., 2018; gill, 2017). there is a general premise that as strategic business partners, hr practitioners have as much power as top management to resolve employees’ work-related problems (namie & lutgen-sandvik, 2010; salin, 2008; sheehan et al., 2016). human resources practitioners’ decisions, however, have to be ratified by top management (gill, 2017), and they merely implement management’s decisions (grobler, warnich, carrell, elbert, & hatfield, 2012). the reality is that hr practitioners hold a subordinate power position in organisations (namie & namie, 2011), and the hr function continues to negotiate its legitimacy within the organisation’s strategic value chain (davis, 2017; heizmann & fox, 2017; sheehan et al., 2016). research design research approach qualitative research is particularly valuable when studying sensitive behavioural phenomena such as workplace bullying (fahie, 2014). this interpretive, qualitative inquiry was directed ontologically by the notion of critical realism (redman-maclaren & mills, 2015) together with a constructivist epistemology (crotty, 2005). an interpretive stance seeks to create exploratory and descriptive knowledge and in-depth understanding of people’s lived experience and shared meaning of a particular phenomenon within a specific context (terre blanche & kelly, 2004). such an approach to research supports the idea that a study’s findings contribute to a knowledge domain by representing a version of the truth and that such findings should be aimed at critiquing and transforming the status quo (redman-maclaren & mills, 2015). the findings presented here, therefore, do not claim an absolute truth but propose a perspectival account of hr practitioners’ role in workplace bullying to create a critical awareness of the context-specific dilemmas they face. the aim is to influence changes in policy and management that would help empower these practitioners in the key role they fulfil. research strategy the study was designed on the basis of a constructivist grounded theory (charmaz, 2006, 2014). this allowed for the application of classic grounded theory methods to develop themes that are grounded in data and in the co-creation of meaning between researcher and participants (charmaz, 2006, 2014). the grounded theory strategy entailed constructing themes through simultaneous gathering and analysing of data, theoretical sampling and an iterative inquiry process (birks & mills, 2015; glaser & strauss, 1967). research methods research setting the research focused on practitioners from the hr service departments of two institutions of higher education. the hr departments service these institutions through various functions such as staffing, hr development, compensation and benefits, promoting employees’ health and wellness, as well as the management and administration of grievances. entrée and establishing researcher roles the hr executive director and the senate research and innovation committee acted as gatekeepers and granted the researchers access to their hr practitioners’ contact details. these practitioners were recruited for the study through telephone and emails. prior to commencing with interviews, practitioners were informed fully about the nature of the study and its topic. participation was voluntary, and practitioners gave written informed consent before the fieldwork started. research participants purposive sampling was applied to identify participants who would purposefully inform an understanding of the research problem and the phenomenon central to the research objective (creswell, 2013). criteria for such sampling, also referred to as ‘inclusion criteria’ (omona, 2013), were set to capture information-rich data and ensure reputable participants from the phenomenon under research (etikan, musa, & alkassim, 2016). according to these criteria, participants were eligible for the study if they had been employed permanently in an hr position, with a minimum of 3 years’ hr experience, and were performing general hr responsibilities. in grounded theory studies, samples are usually not large (charmaz, 2014; mason, 2010). the sampling process is flexible and iterative, guided by theoretical sampling (birks & mills, 2015). data analysis commenced after the first two interviews. further participants were added and follow-up interviews conducted, based on the theoretical sampling principle of ongoing theory development. when we reached a point when no new insights emerged from the data, we did not sample further participants. the sample, as depicted in table 1, ultimately included nine hr practitioners, four being male and five female. the professional affiliation of each research participant (rp) is indicated in the table as being either to the south african board for people practices (sabpp) or to the industrial relations association of south africa (irasa). five participants were black, two white, one mixed race and one indian. their educational qualifications ranged from a diploma to a doctoral degree. two of the nine participants were managers in their hr subunits; three were team leaders and the remaining four were practitioners who report to team leaders and/or managers. two participants attested to having 3–5 years of hr experience, two had 6–10 years and five had between 11 and 20 years’ experience. table 1: profile of sample (n = 9). data collection semi-structured interviews allowed for an emergent understanding of hr practitioners’ experience of workplace bullying in a real-life setting. an interview guide was constructed with opening questions aimed at building rapport and getting to know the background of the participant as an hr practitioner. key questions were formulated to probe the participants’ accounts of workplace bullying incidents he or she had to deal with. probing questions explored the cognitive, affective and behavioural responses of the participant in relation to the bullying cases. the interview was closed with a question on whether the participant wanted to add anything. interviews lasted between 50 minutes and 55 minutes and the decision to conclude the data gathering was informed not by the amount of data but rather by its richness, through constant comparison of the emerging information in relation to the research objective (glaser & strauss, 1967; guest, bunce, & johnson, 2006). follow-up interviews were conducted with all the participants to clarify the researchers’ understanding of issues emanating from the first interview and where necessary to probe further experiences. these typically lasted approximately 30 min. data recording after gaining consent from participants, interviews were audio-recorded. recordings were transcribed verbatim by a professional transcriber. transcription accuracy was checked by listening to the recordings repeatedly and simultaneously reading through the transcriptions. lengthy processing of the data in this way aided immersion in and familiarity with the data. data analysis data analysis commenced directly after the initial interview and continued consecutive to each interview (charmaz, 2006). in grounded theory analysis, meaning is iteratively ascribed to data during different coding stages by the method of constant comparison, where codes are advanced conceptually through the practice of memoing (birks & mills, 2015). the coding process used in the present study was guided by the analytic approach of charmaz (2006). this involved the stages of open, axial and theoretical coding. open coding entailed deconstructing the data by constantly comparing it with the research objective and labelling meaningful data pieces as ‘codes’. meaningful data reduction was further done in the next axial coding stage, by identifying relationships, similarities and contradictions between codes, which help construct categories of meaning. theoretical coding followed, during which four core themes were constructed, by integrating categories conceptually in comparison to one another and to existing literature (charmaz, 2006). moving iteratively to and fro in this coding process, atlas.ti software was used to manage the constant comparison between field notes, conceptual memos, emerging codes, categories and themes. ethical considerations permission to conduct the study as well as ethical clearance was obtained from both institutions under study (reference: rec2013/01/001 and senric 30 november 2012). to guard the anonymity of the participants and ensure confidentiality in light of the sensitive issue under inquiry, the specific institutions are not named. findings from the empirical analysis several categories or subthemes emerged, which were grouped, and four key grounded theory themes were constructed. the themes describe the dilemmas faced by the hr practitioners from their workplace bullying experiences. these themes were: role ambiguity: torn between paradoxical constituent demands; power dynamics and lack of authority in the hr role; hr self-efficacy negatively affected by a lack of policy; and management’s disempowering orientation towards bullying. role ambiguity: torn between paradoxical constituent demands the participants were acutely aware of their commitment to both complainants and perpetrators. thus, they found themselves torn by the pressure of attending to opposite sides of the bullying narrative. such ambiguity made it difficult for hr practitioners to distinguish the truth and act objectively in a situation where bullying occurs: ‘as an investigator, being impartial or neutral is difficult. it’s extremely difficult to detect and assess the gist of the situation because people will do anything or use any means available to defend themselves or others in order to skew your conclusion to their favour.’ (research participant [rp] 7) in a similar vein, rp2 recognised the effect of a subjective perspective when diagnosing a situation as workplace bullying: ‘i think there is a very thin line between bullying and perceived bullying. people should be very careful to make distinctions about intended bullying behaviour’. as a result, participants attempted consistently to determine actual intent from the accused: ‘i focus on the purpose or intent’ (rp1). however, they simultaneously emphasised the difficulty of determining intent: ‘well, i looked for the intention, though sometimes it is complicated to determine intentionality’ (rp4). human resource practitioners found themselves undecided on who to believe – the target experiencing bullying or the accused denying intent. this made it difficult to trust their own impartiality and ability to address the situation effectively. research participant 8 described how the obscure nature of a bullying situation affects his objective response: ‘maintaining impartiality in this institution is not always conceivable because if bullying involves subordinates or just employees, the line managers are quick to act in the best interest of the institutions, but if it involves one or more of the middle or top management or their protégés they act otherwise. based on these responses, it is also evident that the hr practitioners’ role to help address the bullying situation is complicated because they serve both employees and management. this implies serving the conflictual expectations of both the target and the bully, especially as targets frequently accuse their supervisors or managers of bullying behaviour. thus, both parties make it difficult for the practitioner to assess and act clearly. research participant 4 explained: ‘in cases where senior employees or their favourite staff are involved, decisions taken are biased’. he, however, also recognised: ‘very often targets complicate our role and they do not understand. they feel frustrated because they expected us to stop it just like that’. in the context of being torn between constituents’ paradoxical demands, rp5 summarises the difficulty of having to address bullying: ‘affording both parties the opportunity to state their side without judging either target(s) or accused is difficult’. this is often because of the highly subjective nature of the bullying experience: ‘as an investigator you need to find the truth or get to the bottom of a problem because bullying is subjective and difficult to prove sometimes; because some people will do anything to get a person out of their way for good and because of their inferiority position, fear of reprisal or they want to gain something.’ (rp8) these responses reflect the psychological and emotional pressure hr practitioners feel: being torn between their commitment to serve employees, line managers and the organisation overall. this paradoxical commitment makes them feel pressurised and uncertain when diagnosing and addressing a situation such as bullying. in several cases, this ambiguity disables the hr practitioners from acting, or causes them to act destructively, as noted by rp4: ‘this behaviour induced us to take fake sick leaves just to avoid being pushed around’. power dynamics and lack of authority in the human resources role literature indicates disproportionate power relations as a defining component of workplace bullying (dzurec et al., 2017; lutgen-sandvik et al., 2009; von bergen et al., 2006). the findings in the present study show that power is a core issue. the results also uniquely highlight how the hr practitioners’ advisory role and consequent lack of decision-making authority entangles them in the bullying dynamic. to illustrate, some participants narrated how line managers, for example, often intimidated them by reminding them of their inferior positional authority. research participant 4 reflected on how his line manager instructed him to deal with a specific complaint: ‘i am your team leader and you will do as i tell you’. having submitted an investigation on a specific case, rp7 experienced his lack of authority to act when he attempted to follow-up: ‘i was told the investigation is underway and you will be informed of the outcome, but you never hear from them’. ultimately, the hr practitioners lack decision-making authority in several respects and mainly function in an advisory role: ‘my role is to advise employees and the management based on formal documents or guidelines available and that’s it’ (rp2). research participant 6 indicated the approach of line managers who ‘deliberately make them [hr practitioners] feel on edge about the promotional prospects or whether their job is secure or not’. a continuous lack of decision-making power causes hr practitioners to be compliant with managerial requests because they fear punishment. in this regard, the response by rp8 emphasises the hr practitioners’ fear of acting in the context of power affiliations: ‘myself and other colleagues are careful in responding to such [a] bullying colleague because he or she knows how to push the line manager’s weight around’. because of such power dynamics, hr practitioners feel that bullies carry on with their behaviour unchallenged. thus, fearing their own position, the hr practitioner feels incapable of mitigating or stopping bullying. research participant 2 describes the hr practitioners’ inability in this regard: ‘such individuals like [to] get things done their way at the expense of others and you cannot defy or confront because of their top position’. in this way the hr practitioners seem to become despondent and even distrustful of management, to the extent that they start to feel that they themselves are being bullied by management. feeling bullied by management is reflected in the threat that underlies the response of rp3: ‘these individuals meddle with every day-to-day business of departments and expect us to do as he/she says or else’. participants pointed out their inability to stand up against a perpetrator who occupies a more powerful position than the hr practitioner. as a result, the victim (i.e. employee) tends to perceive the hr practitioner as siding with the perpetrator (i.e. manager). thus, victims label these practitioners as incompetent (namie & lutgen-sandvik, 2010) or exasperating the situation (ritzman, 2014). in this power dynamic, the hr practitioner not only feels bullied by management but also by the employees, as reflected on by rp8: ‘it becomes problematic to deal with and there is nothing we could do in the situation; and that often makes us become victims and targets become bullies themselves’. these responses reveal the paradoxical demands of constituents, which manifest in an intricate power dynamic. this state of affairs complicates the role of the hr practitioners to such an extent that it thwarts their ability to deal effectively with complaints of workplace bullying. human resources self-efficacy negatively affected by lack of policy all the hr practitioners in the present study were unaware of a bullying policy in their organisations and mostly referred to the sexual harassment policy. research participant 2, for instance, indicated: ‘i am not aware of [a] bullying policy, to the best of my knowledge, and never saw it. the management sometimes use the harassment policy and/or code of conduct or the employee disciplinary code to address misconducts but with bullying problems these documents fail to address bullying objectively and often the decision taken is not fair.’ in performing his duty to investigate grievances of bullying, rp8 voiced his frustration with the lack of clear guidelines and management’s negative attitude in this regard: ‘i searched for the definitions of bullying and made recommendations to the senior management committee to amend and add certain terms to the harassment policy to include harassment part a and bullying part b. but the response i got from the management committee was negative.’ when there is a lack of clear policy, hr practitioners run the risk of being subjective in their diagnosis and consequent handling of a bullying situation. this subjective view is reflected pertinently in the reasoning of rp5:‘i think i know and can feel when they are bullying’. human resources practitioners believe that the absence of a policy about bullying or formal guidelines makes it difficult for them to identify and handle situations where bullying occurs. research participant 6 explained: ‘a policy is needed to address some of these behaviours because it makes us uncomfortable each time i meet with these colleagues’. research participant 8 maintained: ‘availability of a bullying policy will give them [hr practitioners] power to deal with bullying situations, protect the target and witness, and also leverage to hold top management accountable should they overstep the policy’. the results thus showed that the participants were unaware of a policy governing bullying. management’s disempowering orientation towards bullying the hr practitioners noted their perception of management’s evasive position in the bullying dynamic. for participants, managerial attitude was key to their own capacity to address bullying complaints. managers seem to discount the prevalence of bullying or to shy away from such incidents. the reason may be that this is a sensitive issue or because managers are frequently pointed out as the perpetrators (cunniff & mostert, 2012). consequently, participants felt unsupported by management and perceived management to deny or suppress the high frequency of bullying situations: ‘they hate to deal with bullying situations. they [would] rather postpone it or justify it as a misunderstanding or personality difference to get rid of it’ (rp8). research participant 9 asserted: ‘i have witnessed several times some employees in management positions getting away with bullying; they excuse it as misunderstanding’. furthermore, participants pointed out: ‘if you report a bully to the management or a person above, they tell you this matter will be investigated and then you never hear from them’ (rp4).when hr practitioners were asked how management responded to bullying complaints, rp4, rp5 and rp8 emphasised apparent disinterest and an interest mostly in quick solutions. similarly, rp3 stated: ‘they are interested in quick solutions. who gets hurt in the process is none of their business, hr should deal with it’. research participant 1 remarked: ‘on paper they are committed, but practically they are not’. these findings are consistent with those of samnani and singh (2012) that the inability of those in leadership positions to recognise workplace bullying and deal with it often makes it difficult to pin down such behaviour, in this context particularly for the hr practitioner. based on their experience of management’s disengagement in bullying situations, hr practitioners asserted that management allows bullying to become infused in the organisational culture: ‘bullying behaviours are features of an institution’s culture and are twisted by those leading the departments and institution, because a culture is developed, endorsed and instructed by the top management. and this determines how their employees are managed.’ (rp8) furthermore, it was pointed out: ‘bullying is used as a strategy espoused in organisational culture and that culture originates from the top’ (rp1). in this manner the participants perceived a bullying culture to be perpetuated and extended across the departments by those entrusted to develop, approve and implement organisational culture. management’s evasive or negative attitude towards bullying can be understood when reflecting on the accused’s position, which managers frequently occupy in the bullying complaint (cowan, 2012). this presents the manager with an obvious conflict of interest. two hr practitioners from both organisations noted similar situations where employees felt uncomfortable and intimidated when they had to follow the grievance procedure through management. this was especially because the alleged bullies were part of the grievance structure or close to their immediate superiors. in this regard, yamada (2008) argues that top management has a significant influence on the bullying that is perpetuated in organisations, especially through attitudes that disregard the importance and prevalence of such behaviour (skogstad, einarsen, torsheim, aasland, & hetland, 2007). finally, rp4 reflected on the de-authorising effect that management’s conflicted interest exerts on the hr practitioner: ‘in some situations where the management is biased or retributive and does not want to be seen as biased or retributive, the management see us not as advisors to them’. the participants’ perceptions in this regard confirms the opinion of sumner, scarduzio and daggett (2016) that management often fail to treat workplace bullying seriously. management’s ambiguous position in the bullying dynamic disempowers the hr practitioners, thus preventing them from addressing complaints effectively. discussion the hr practitioner is generally acknowledged as an integral actor in a situation where bullying occurs (cowan, 2012). nevertheless, research to date has largely omitted an hr perspective on workplace bullying (salin et al., 2018). the present study was concerned with the hr practitioners’ perspective on workplace bullying in order to shed light on the dilemmas these practitioners face when having to deal with bullying in the workplace. the findings show that hr practitioners are involved intricately in addressing complaints about workplace bullying. however, these practitioners experience several difficulties that prevent them from dealing effectively with these complaints, which include role ambiguity, complex power dynamics and lack of authority, as well as little guidance because of a lack of policy and management support. the participants viewed bullying as a complex phenomenon, which is difficult to pin down fairly and objectively. this fear of being unfair and subjective is because in their hr role they serve different client constituencies, who often hold opposing expectations in the bullying dynamic. thus, hr practitioners are under constant pressure to satisfy the expectations of employees but at the same time to be responsible to the organisation and management. such a role ambiguity confuses hr practitioners’ rational decision-making to the extent of paralysis, which reflects the metaphor of buridan’s ass.1 this is similar to findings by cowan (2012) and sheehan et al. (2016), who note that competing demands by top management, line managers and employees create role conflict and ambiguity for the hr practitioners, making it difficult for the latter to deal with workplace bullying in a self-confident manner. the paradoxical role of the hr practitioner when serving the interests of employee and management alike is moreover complicated by the complex power dynamic underlying the bullying context. it was found that in most incidences, management are indicated as the perpetrators of bullying or its defenders (cunniff & mostert, 2012; van schalkwyk et al., 2011). this sets the scene for power imbalance, not only between the target and the bully but also between the bully, the target and the hr practitioner. participants in the present study noted how their own lack of authority incapacitated them when having to deal with issues of workplace bullying. the responses reflected the hr practitioners’ deficient decision-making power, which on the one hand makes them appear to be siding with the management in the eyes of targets. to solve the bullying complaint in favour of the target is not always possible, especially because these practitioners lack the authority to make certain decisions about bullying complaints. as a result, the victims also perceive the hr practitioners as underplaying or ignoring their concerns (barrow, 2012). on the other hand, the hr practitioners fear consequences to themselves and feel equally intimidated by management when having to deal with a situation where bullying occurs. such a feeling of lacking power may prevent them from acting in bullying situations, or when they do they may discover their actions to be ineffective (lewis & rayner, 2003). the subordinate power position of the hr practitioners thus challenges their self-confidence to address bullying in the workplace, as they find themselves distrusted by the targets and insufficiently authorised to deal with the matter. for participants in the present study, such an ambiguous situation heightens their stress levels and impedes a positive affect. this finding resonates with that of sumner et al. (2016) that workplace bullying holds negative psychological consequences not only for targets but for witnesses or bystanders as well. in the present study, such a negative psychological effect is especially evidenced in the hr practitioners’ sense of becoming bullied themselves – not only from the perspective of management but also from that of the target. in addition, participants reported indecision and lack of action because they felt inadequate and fearful. coupled with their paradoxical role expectations, the intricate power dynamic thus creates an untenable position for the hr practitioner, which is further reminiscent of identifying with the paralysed donkey – what we would term ‘buridan’s ass’ syndrome. this positioning within the bullying dynamic causes perceptions regarding hr practitioners acting in what paull, omari and standen (2012, p.10) describe as an ‘abdicating bystander’ role. this also has the unintended consequence that practitioners perpetuate the bullying dynamic as a result of making no useful contribution. moreover, an hr practitioner risks becoming a fellow victim or ‘succumbing bystander’ as a result of feeling powerless and incapable of dealing with bullying (paull et al., 2012, p.13). by performing these roles of ‘bullying bystander’, hr practitioners experience the rippling effect of the negative emotions linked to the bullying situation. as a result, these practitioners may present typical victim-like symptoms such as anxiety, depression and withdrawal (paull et al., 2012). similarly, cowan (2012) emphasises that hr practitioners’ uncertainty in diagnosing bullying affects their sense of self and may lead to stress, tension and ambiguity. these are typical of the stress-related feelings experienced at work that are attributed to buridan’s ass syndrome (http://www.pastorbenjamin.com/buridans-ass-syndrome/#.w7hr9nszapo). workplace bullying is often framed as an individual or dyadic phenomenon, including interaction between the target and perpetrator (dzurec et al., 2017; sumner et al., 2016). however, such a perspective tends to overlook the organisational context and systemic factors that perpetuate the problem of bullying (einarsen et al., 2010). the hr practitioners’ perspectives in the present study emphasise the necessity to recognise an emotionally laden and conflictual relationship triad as fundamental to the bullying dynamic in an organisation. this perspective is coupled with two important factors from within the organisational context. firstly, in accordance with findings by fox and cowan (2015), participants in the present study identified the lack of policy as a key source of their incapability to address workplace bullying. secondly, in the context of this study, management’s perceived evasive stance towards bullying may embed this misbehaviour within the organisational culture, which disempowers the hr practitioners from addressing complaints of bullying. gill (2017) confirms hr managements’ power relationship with management as a factor within the organisational context that hinders hr managers’ ability to influence strategy and act as change agents in the organisation. given hr managements’ subordinate power position in the organisation, gill (2017) argues that management most likely would use the hr practitioners to implement and maintain their utilitarian agenda. in the context of workplace bullying, this leads to dual negative perceptions: the hr practitioners’ view of unwilling managerial support, and the employees’ assessment of the hr practitioners’ unfair handling of complaints. despite this conundrum, galang and osman (2016) found that it is possible for hr practitioners to be both employee champion and strategic partner, if the organisational context empowers and supports their enacting of these roles. the findings of the present study highlighted the paradoxical duality of the hr practitioners’ role, interwoven with a complex triad of power relations and a context that lacks proper policy and perceived managerial support to address bullying. the findings of the present study confirmed those by branch and murray (2015, p. 289) that workplace bullying is ‘multi-dimensional with individual characteristics of targets, perpetrators and bystanders as well as the work environment itself all contributing, synergistically, to its occurrence and escalation’. combined, the mentioned issues pointed out in this study have an adverse effect on the hr practitioners’ ability to manage workplace bullying effectively and competently, resulting in psychological stress, indecisiveness and an inability to act – buridan’s ass syndrome. consequently, the hr practitioners feel disempowered, victimised and experience work commitments in this regard as distressing. in addition, such an interplay of the mentioned factors seemingly causes hr practitioners to distrust and resent management and, in return, causes employees to distrust and even resent hr practitioners. these findings underline the importance of focusing beyond the dualistic nature of the workplace bullying phenomenon to acknowledge the triadic relationship and organisational context. it is in this that the fundamental dilemma lies for the hr practitioner when required to address bullying effectively. implications effective prevention and resolution of workplace bullying cannot be facilitated before acknowledging the fundamental, yet intricate role played by hr practitioners in the bullying dynamic. occupying a middle ground in a bullying situation is psychologically unhealthy for the hr practitioners, who are working within contradictory role expectations and have to deal with complex power dynamics. these role-related dilemmas disempower the hr practitioner from acting decisively and competently. perceived lack of policy and poor management support may furthermore often increase the risk that hr practitioners – torn between management and targets – may perceive themselves as victims of bullying. training and policy are the best means globally to prevent workplace bullying (salin et al., 2018) yet, according to sheehan et al. (2018), are insufficient to prevent or even reduce the phenomenon. in this regard, the findings revealed the impetus that is lacking: to develop a comprehensive anti-bullying strategy that would empower the hr practitioner to effectively deal with bullying at work. limitations and recommendations talking about bullying is difficult in the work context, seeing that people are intuitively fearful of reprisal and other consequences detrimental to work relationships (salin et al., 2018). the sensitive nature of the phenomenon is thus a potential limiting factor per se. this is especially the case in a qualitative study utilising smaller samples and personal methods of data collection (fahie, 2014). as a result, the participants may have been selective in their disclosure. the researchers were aware of the necessity to methodologically curb this potential limitation, through ensuring ethical and rich data gathering. therefore, the focus was on establishing and building rapport with participants and ensuring confidential spaces for interviewing them. follow-up interviews were deemed necessary as well as the decision to review relevant policies. this inquiry was limited to the hr practitioners in two organisations only, and the findings are therefore context-specific. continued research is necessary into the perspective of hr practitioners on workplace bullying, to advance an understanding of the following: how bullying manifests and can be recognised; the power dynamics at play; and the recourse alternatives to defuse bullying situations. such an understanding will contribute to more detailed and specific policy formulations and clear procedural guidelines. as noted, the findings demonstrate the need for a comprehensive approach to managing bullying within the organisation. such an approach should incorporate senior and line management to work closely with and support hr practitioners when dealing with bullying issues. management should be an important precursor in empowering hr practitioners to fulfil their function. the roles of senior and line management, as well as the hr practitioners’ role within the bullying dynamic, should be established clearly in policy, seeing that role clarity creates a sense of organisational support and buffers the impact of falling victim to bullying behaviour themselves (van schalkwyk et al., 2011). management training is necessary and should create an understanding of the challenges hr practitioners face in the workplace bullying dynamic. this will facilitate management’s commitment to ensuring that these practitioners are skilled, supported and empowered to fulfil their role optimally. a comprehensive strategy should finally include interventions aimed at building hr practitioners’ capability and self-efficacy through relevant training and coaching. conclusion the complexity of managing workplace bullying for the hr practitioner is exacerbated by being in a paradoxical relationship triad with employees and managers. this practitioner role is moreover impeded by limited decision-making power as well and complicated further by a lack of directive through policy and support from management. being evasive or ignoring issues of bullying adds to the condition of workplace bullying ‘becoming an increasingly silent epidemic’ that is underreported because of fear of retribution and lack of perceived support from within the organisation’s structure (van schalkwyk et al., 2011). ultimately, it is the organisation’s responsibility to protect its employees against bullying and, in the process, assist the hr practitioners, by empowering them through transparency, direction and relevant skills training. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.m. completed his phd in workplace bullying and wrote this manuscript based on findings from his doctoral thesis. a.b. was the phd promoter and contributed methodologically and conceptually to the design and findings. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement public sharing of data is not ethically feasible in this study due to the sensitivity of the research phenomenon and the presence of identifiable narrative in the transcripts. to ensure confidentiality and guard the anonymity of the participants, data is only available on request from and under the supervision of the authors. disclaimer the views expressed in the submitted article are the authors’ own and not an official position of the institution(s) at which the research was conducted or with which the authors are affiliated. references adams, a. (2000). bullying at work: how to confront and overcome it. london: virago. adams, a., & crawford, n. (1992). bullying at work. london, uk: virago. agtervold, m. (2007). bullying at work: a discussion of definitions and prevalence, based on an empirical study. scandinavian journal of psychology, 48(2), 161–172. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.2007.00585.x balducci, c., fraccaroli, f., & schaufeli, w. b. (2011). workplace bullying and its relation with work characteristics, personality, and post-traumatic stress symptoms: an integrated model. anxiety, stress & coping, 24(5), 499–513. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2011.555533 barrow, l. m. s. (2012). workplace bullying and the role of human resource management. retrieved december 03, 2013, from http://www.hrvoice.org/workplace-bullying-and-the-role-of-human-resource-management birks, m., & mills, j. (2015). grounded theory (2nd edn.). los angeles, ca: sage. branch, s., & murray, j. (2015). workplace bullying: is lack of understanding the reason for inaction? organisational dynamics, 44(4), 287–295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2015.09.006 branch, s., ramsay, c., & barker, m. (2007). managers in the firing line: contributing factors to workplace bullying by staff – an interview study. journal of management & organisation, 13(3), 264–281. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1833367200003734 burton, l. (2001). violence at work in south africa. people dynamics, 24(19), 25. charmaz, k. (2006). constructing grounded theory: a practical guide through qualitative analysis. london, uk: sage publications. charmaz, k. (2014). constructing grounded theory. london, uk: sage publications. cilliers, f. (2012). a systems psychodynamic description of organisational bullying experiences. south africa journal of industrial psychology, 38(2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v38i2.994 coetzee, m., & oosthuizen, r. m. (2017). work-role psychosocial flourishing: its mediation role on workplace bullying and employee turnover intention. journal of psychology in africa, 27(3), 211–215. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2017.1321826 coetzee, m., & van dyk, j. (2018). workplace bullying and turnover intention: exploring work engagement as a potential mediator. psychological reports, 121(2), 375–392. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033294117725073 collings, d. g., wood, g. t., & szamosi, l. t. (eds.). (2018). human resource management: a critical approach. human resource management: a critical approach (pp. 1–23). london, uk: routledge. cowan, r. l. (2012). it’s complicated: defining workplace bullying from the human resource professional’s perspective. management communication quarterly, 26(3), 377–403. https://doi.org/10.1177/0893318912439474 creswell, j. w. (2013). research design (3rd edn.). london, uk: sage publications. crotty, m. (2005). the foundations of social research: meaning and perspective in the research process. london, uk: sage publications. cunniff, l., & mostert, k. (2012). prevalence of workplace bullying of south african employees. south african journal of human resource management, 10(1), art. #450, 15 pages. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i1.450 davis, p. j. (2017). how hr can create competitive advantage for the firm: applying the principles of resource-based theory. human resource management international digest, 25(2), 4–6. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid-09-2016-0122 de wet, c. (2010). the reasons for and the impact of principal-on-teacher bullying on the victim’s private and professional lives. teaching and teacher education, 26(7), 1450–1459. dzurec, l. c., kennison, m., & gillen, p. (2017). the incongruity of workplace bullying victimization and inclusive excellence. nursing outlook, 65(5), 588–596. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2017.01.012 einarsen, s., hoel, h., zapf, d., & cooper, c. l. (2010). bullying and harassment in the workplace: developments in theory, research and practice (2nd edn.). boca raton, fl: crc press. einarsen, s., skogstad, a., rørvik, e., lande, å. b., & nielsen, m. b. (2018). climate for conflict management, exposure to workplace bullying and work engagement: a moderated mediation analysis. the international journal of human resource management, 29(3), 549–570. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1164216 etikan, i., musa, s. a., & alkassim, r. s. (2016). comparison of convenience sampling and purposive sampling. american journal of theoretical and applied statistics, 5(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajtas.20160501.11 fahie, d. (2014). doing sensitive research sensitively: ethical and methodological issues in researching workplace bullying. international journal of qualitative methods, 13(1), 19–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940691401300108 finchilescu, g., bernstein, c., & chihambakwe, d. (2018). the impact of workplace bullying in the zimbabwean nursing environment: is social support a beneficial resource in the bullying–well-being relationship? south african journal of psychology, 49(10), 83–96 https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246318761735 fox, s., & cowan, r. l. (2015). revision of the workplace bullying checklist: the importance of human resource management’s role in defining and addressing workplace bullying. human resource management journal, 25(1), 116–130. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12049 fox, s., & spector, p. e. (eds.). (2005). counterproductive work behaviour: investigations of actors and targets. washington, dc: american psychological association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10893-000 galang, m. c., & osman, i. (2016). hr managers in five countries: what do they do and why does it matter? the international journal of human resource management, 27(13), 1341–1372. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1072099 gill, c. (2017). don’t know, don’t care: an exploration of evidence based knowledge and practice in human resource management. human resource management review, 28(2), 103–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2017.06.001 glaser, b. g., & strauss, a. l. (1967). the discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. chicago, il: aldine. grobler, p., warnich, s., carrell, m., elbert, n., & hatfield, r. (2012). contemporary issues in human resource management: gaining a competitive advantage. pretoria, southern africa: oxford university press. guest, g., bunce, a., & johnson, l. (2006). how many interviews are enough? an experiment with data saturation and variability. field methods, 18(1), 59–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822x05279903 heizmann, h., & fox, s. (2017). o partner, where art thou? a critical discursive analysis of hr managers’ struggle for legitimacy. the international journal of human resource management, 28. retrieved november 05, 2014, from https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1314974 hoel, h., einarsen, s., & cooper, c. (2003). organisational antecedents of workplace bullying. in s. einarsen, h. hoel, d. zapf & c. cooper (eds.), bullying and emotional abuse in the workplace: international perspectives in research and practice (pp. 203–218). london, uk: taylor & francis. jackson, s. e., schuler, r. s., & jiang, k. (2014). an aspirational framework for strategic human resource management. the academy of management annals, 8(1), 1–56. https://doi.org/10.5465/19416520.2014.872335 jamrog, j. j., & overholt, m. h. (2004). measuring hr and organisational effectiveness. employment relations today, 31(2), 33–45. https://doi.org/10.1002/ert.20015 jerkins, m. f. (2011). workplace bullying: the perception of the targets, the alleged perpetrator and the hr professional. doctoral dissertation, university of adelaide, adelaide. khan, a., & khan, r. (2012). understanding and managing workplace bullying. industrial and commercial training, 44(2), 85–89. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197851211202911 lewis, d., & rayner, c. (2003). bullying and human resource management: a wolf in sheep’s clothing? in s. einarsen, h. hoel, d. zapf & c. l. cooper (eds.), bullying and emotional abuse in the workplace: international perspectives in research and practice (pp. 370–382). london, uk: taylor & francis. leymann, h. (1990). mobbing and psychological terror at workplaces. violence and victims, 5(2), 119–126. https://doi.org/10.1891/0886-6708.5.2.119 lutgen-sandvik, p. (2008). intensive remedial identity work: responses to workplace bullying trauma and stigmatisation. organisation, 15(1), 97–119. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508407084487 lutgen-sandvik, p., namie, g., & namie, r. (2009). workplace bullying: causes, consequences and corrections. in p. lutgen-sandvik & b. d. sypher (eds.), destructive organistional communication (pp. 41–86). new york, ny: routledge. marais-steinman, s. (1998). the changing workplace: work trauma and the workplace. cape town: kagiso publishers. mason, m. (2010). sample size and saturation in doctoral studies using qualitative interviews. forum qualitative sozialforschung/forum: qualitative social research, 11(3), art#8, 19 pages. https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-11.3.1428 mattice, c. m., & garman, k. (2010). proactive solutions for workplace bullying: looking at the benefits of positive psychology. paper presented at the international association for workplace bullying & harassment, 2–4 june, cardiff: wales. retrieved april 17, 2014, from www.nsea-nv.org/assets/img/content/bullyingbrochurerevised.pdf mccormack, d., casimir, g., djurkovic, n., & yang, l. (2009). workplace bullying and intention to leave among school teachers in china: the mediating effect of affective commitment1. journal of applied social psychology, 39(9), 2106–2127. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2009.00518.x momberg, m. a. (2011). the prevalence and consequences of workplace bullying in south africa. unpublished master’s thesis. nelson mandela metropolitan university, port elizabeth. namie, g., & lutgen-sandvik, p. e. (2010). active and passive accomplices: the communal character of workplace bullying. international journal of communication, 4(1), 343–373. namie, g., & namie, r. (2011). the bully-free workplace: stop jerks, weasels and snakes from killing your organisation. new york, ny: john wiley & sons. ncongwane, s. (2010). the impact and consequences of bullying and violence in the workplace. retrieved october 16, 2013, from www.hrfuture.net/workplace bullying and violence/wc1008/htm nzonzo, j. c. (2017). a discourse analysis of the exogenous and endogenous drivers of employee wellbeing in south africa. australian academy of accounting and finance review (aaafr), 3(1), 37–49. o’brien, e., & linehan, c. (2014). a balancing act: emotional challenges in the hr role. journal of management studies, 51(8), 1257–1285. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12098 olweus, d. (1978). aggression in the schools: bullies and whipping boys. washington, dc: hemisphere. omar, t. (2017). workplace bullying, personality and work engagement among south african employees. doctoral dissertation, wits, johannesburg. omona, j. (2013). sampling in qualitative research: improving the quality of research outcomes in higher education. makerere journal of higher education, 4(2), 169–185. https://doi.org/10.4314/majohe.v4i2.4 paauwe, j., & boon, c. (2018). strategic hrm: a critical review. in d. g. collings, g. t. wood & l. t. szamosi (eds.), human resource management: a critical approach (pp. 49–73). london, uk: routledge. paull, m., omari, m., & standen, p. (2012). when is a bystander not a bystander? a typology of the roles of bystanders in workplace bullying. asia pacific journal of human resources, 50(3), 351–366. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7941.2012.00027.x pietersen, c. a. (2007). interpersonal bullying behaviours in the workplace. south african journal of industrial psychology, 33(1), 59–66. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v33i1.256 redman-maclaren, m., & mills, j. (2015). transformational grounded theory: theory, voice, and action. international journal of qualitative methods, 14(3), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940691501400301 ritzman, m.e. (2014). human resource professionals and workplace bullying: a systems approach to performance improvement intervention in criminal justice agencies. unpublished doctoral dissertation. the university of toledo, ohio, united state of america. ryan, m. (2016). management: besting the workplace bully. reference & user services quarterly, 55(4), 267–269. salin, d. (2003). ways of explaining workplace bullying: a review of enabling, motivating, and precipitating structures and processes in the work environment. human relations, 56(10), 1213–1232. https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267035610003 salin, d. (2008). the prevention of workplace bullying as a question of human resource management: measure adopted an underlying organisational factors. scandinavian journal of management, 24(3), 221–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2008.04.004 salin, d., cowan, r. l., adewumi, o., apospori, e., bochantin, j., d’cruz, p., … zedlacher, e. (2018). prevention of and interventions in workplace bullying: a global study of human resource professionals’ reflections on preferred action. the international journal of human resource management, 29, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2018.1460857 samnani, a., & singh, p. (2012). 20 years of workplace bullying research: a review of the antecedents and consequences of bullying in the workplace. aggression and violent behaviour, 17(6), 581–589. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2012.08.004 sheehan, c., de cieri, h., cooper, b., & shea, t. (2016). strategic implications of hr role management in a dynamic environment. personnel review, 45(2), 353–373. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1406390 sheehan, m., mccabe, t. j., & garavan, t. n. (2018). workplace bullying and employee outcomes: a moderated mediated model. the international journal of human resource management, 29, 1–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1406390 skogstad, a., einarsen, s., torsheim, t., aasland, m. s., & hetland, h. (2007). the destructiveness of laissez-faire leadership behaviour. journal of occupational health psychology, 12(1), 80–92. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.12.1.80 skogstad, a., matthiesen, s. b., & einarsen, s. (2007). organisational changes: a precursor of bullying at work? international journal of organisation theory and behaviour, 10(1), 58. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijotb-10-01-2007-b003 steinman, s. m. (2009). what are the causes of workplace bullying? retrieved may 27, 2014, from http://www.worktrauma.org/survive_bully/bullying_in_sa.htm sumner, e. m., scarduzio, j. a., & daggett, j. r. (2016). drama at dunder mifflin workplace bullying discourses on the office. journal of interpersonal violence, 31, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260516681158 terre blanche, m. s., & kelly, k. (2004). interpretive methods. in m. terre blanche & k. durrheim (eds.), research in practice: applied methods for the social sciences (pp. 96–123). cape town: university of cape town press. van den broeck, a., baillien, e., & de witte, h. (2011). workplace bullying: a perspective from the job demands-resources model. sa journal of industrial psychology, 37(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i2.879 van schalkwyk, l. m., els, c., & rothmann, i., jr. (2011). the moderating role of perceived organisational support in the relationship between workplace bullying and turnover intention across sectors in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 9(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.384 vartia, m. a., & leka, s. (2011). interventions for the prevention and management of bullying at work. in s. einarsen, h. hoel, d. zapf & c. l. cooper (eds.), bullying and harassment in the workplace: developments in theory, research and practice (pp. 359–379). boca raton, fl: crc press. von bergen, c. w., zavaletta, j. r., & soper, b. (2006). legal remedies for workplace bullying: grabbing the bully by the horns. employee relations law journal, 32(3), 14–40. yamada, d. c. (2008). workplace bullying and ethical leadership. the journal of values-based leadership, 1(2), 1–13. zapf, d., & einarsen, s. (2010). individual antecedents of bullying: victims and perpetrators. in s. einarsen, h. hoel, d. zapf & c. l. cooper (eds.), bullying and harassment in the workplace. developments in theory, research and practice (pp. 177–200). boca raton, fl: crc press. footnote 1. ‘buridan’s ass’ is an idiomatic expression referring to the dilemma of a person (metaphorically referred to as a ‘donkey’ or ‘ass’) being confronted with two equally important alternatives. the absence of a clear rationale to choose one above the other leads to indecision (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/buridan’s%20ass) and stress (http://www.pastorbenjamin.com/buridans-ass-syndrome/#.w7hr9nszapo). 1bedenhorst.indd emotional intelligence has become a buzz-word and part of informed people’s vocabulary over the past ten years. large corporates as well as individuals are spending millions on training and workshops to improve emotional intelligence. a recent internet search done with emotional intelligence as a keyword yielded 9 900 000 results. yet there is still confusion about the concept emotional intelligence (ei). is ei in essence ”to manage ourselves and our relationships with others so that we truly live our intentions”, as stated by lynn (2005, p. v.)? does ei refer to “the array of personal-management and social skills that allows one to succeed in the workplace and in life in general” (sterrett, 2000, p. 2)? is “emotional aptitude (is) a meta-ability, determining how well we can use whatever other skills we have, including raw intellect” (goleman, 1996, p. 36)? or is ei more simply “involved in the capacity to perceive emotions, assimilate emotion-related feelings, understand the information of those emotions, and manage them” (mayer, salovey & caruso, 1999, p.1)? this apparent diversity in the conceptualization of ei leads to confusion with regard to the territory of ei, as well as to ei practitioners making claims that cannot be substantiated by addressing ei alone. multiple theories with regard to the concept ei in the ei field numerous theories, models or views of ei exist. theories of ei, upon which definitions of ei are based, are often classified into two basic types: those proposing a narrow definition of ei as an ability, based on the definition of mayer et al. (1999), and those utilising a broader definition of ei, of which goleman’s approach is the most well-known (zeidner, matthews, roberts, & maccann, 2003). these two approaches are also called “academic” versus “popular” (emotional intelligence view 360, 2004), or “ability” versus “mixed-model” (mayer et al., 1999). in their article “emotional intelligence: issues and common misunderstandings”, emmerling and goleman (2003, p. 9) point out that, while some might argue that the goal of research should be to identif y and define a singular theoretical framework to be labelled as the “correct” version of ei, another approach would be to acknowledge that having multiple theories can often serve to elucidate additional aspects of complex psychological constructs. while this, on the surface, sounds like a fair argument, the problem is that many ei theorists make unfounded claims with regard to the scope of ei. this will be explained further on. caruso (2004, p. 2) comes up with an equally valid statement when he comments on emmerling and goleman’s article. he writes: if we, as researchers or practitioners, don’t have a common language we cannot hope to effectively communicate with each other. we also risk alienating our clients as they struggle to understand what it is we have been selling them. the lack of a common language is evident from the widely divergent definitions of ei quoted above. caruso argues that, although writing for the general public is different to writing for the scientific community, the integrity of basic concepts, such as ei, should remain intact. the broadening of the concept ei has not been to the advantage of the ei field. one has to agree with caruso’s statement (2004, p. 4) that there have been too many wild claims made in a frenzy to stake out territory during the gold rush of emotional intelligence. criticism against the concept ei a review of literature reveals that the broadening of the definition of ei is one of the main criticisms levelled against efforts to define the concept (daus & ashkanasy, 2003; mayer et al., 1999). this broadening of the definition might be a result of the lack of a single, accepted definition of the concept, or in caruso’s terms, the lack of a common language. the lack of consensus on a single definition may also be connected to the other major criticisms of the concept, namely: l ei overlaps with aspects of established personality theories and traits, especially the five factor theory. daus and ashkanasy (2003) note that the broad definitions of goleman (1996) and bar-on (1997) “do not appear to markedly differ from traditional personality models or competency models”, and that “the emotional competence inventory of boyatzis, goleman and rhee (2000) tends to show quite substantial overlap with the big five (see for example, davies, stankov, & roberts, 1998; dadwa & hart, 2000)”. davis (2004, p. 10) also states that some of the competencies identified by goleman may not really be abilities at all (and thus would not technically qualif y as a kind of intelligence), but may reflect personality traits instead. l measures of the construct are weak or problematic. the biggest problem in this regard, according to davis (2004), is that self-report measures, the easiest ways to measure emotional quotient (eq), are also the weakest ways to do it. measurements of ei tend to be associated with the major ei models, and anobé badenhorst anobe@swartberg.co.za dawie smith dsmith@uj.ac.za department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract emotional intelligence (ei) has become a buzz-word over the past ten years, yet misconceptions with regard to the concept abound. this leads to confusion among the general public, the scientific community, as well as to unfounded claims being made as to what the development of ei can accomplish in a person’s life. in this article the aim is to clarif y the concept ei by making a sharper demarcation between the emotional life dimension and the other life dimensions. based on this clarification, the conceptualisation of ei in the literature is reviewed in more depth. key words: emotional intelligence, conceptual misconceptions misconceptions about emotional intelligence: deploying emotional intelligence in one’s life dimensions 1 sa journal of human resource management, 2007, 5 (3), 1-10 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2007, 5 (3), 1-10 this has “allowed us to confuse ei models or theories with a specific measurement approach” (caruso, 2004, p. 3). l the degree to which ei is malleable, in contrast to the relative fixity of iq, is contested by critics. closely related to this is the view that ei is potentiality, and as such cannot be improved, although this potential can be developed or left undeveloped, as well as the issue of whether ei can be easily learned. hein (2001, p.4) differentiates between emotional intelligence (ei), a person’s innate potential, and eq, “a relative measure of a person’s healthy or unhealthy development of their innate ei”. l claims made about the importance of ei cannot be substantiated. a lot of the debate revolves around the statement goleman made that eq can be more important to success at work than iq (goleman, 1996). this issue has been addressed and clarified by emmerling and goleman (2003). however, some claims are being made by eq specialists about changes being affected to a person’s life by developing one’s ei that can clearly not be substantiated. dann (2002, p. 31) for instance claims that “developing your eq will help you if you are concerned with: ....your life-work balance because it must become more equitable and you need to renegotiate how your time is spent”. vermeulen states on her web site (www.theeqsite.co.za), that eq is important “because it sets the stage for our ability to succeed at life”, and that “if you’re currently battling with any of the following then eq is for you: are you unhealthy, unfit?...does your life lack purpose? is it meaningless to you?” unsubstantiated statements such as these could give rise to expectations that cannot be met through developing emotional competencies in isolation from the other life dimensions, as will be explained further on. unless greater clarity with regard to the concept is attained, the concept might be broadened to such an extent that the significance of ei, and its contribution to a greater understanding of the effective functioning of man, is lost. the research problem the knowledge gap despite the huge amount of literature available on ei, there still appears to be a knowledge gap: l there is no single, universally accepted definition of ei. it is evident that the ei field lacks a single, universally accepted definition of the concept emotional intelligence. this has been acknowledged by the major authorities on ei, such as emmerling and goleman (2003), and caruso (2004). this leads to confusion among the audience (the general public as well as the scientific community), as well as to unfounded claims being made as to what the development of ei can accomplish in a person’s life. l there sometimes appears to be inconsistency when applying the stated definition of ei in developing ei. in some instances there is also a considerable gap between the stated definition of ei, and the application of that definition when developing ei. le roux and de klerk (2003), for instance, start off with a fairly narrow definition of ei, but broaden the concept when developing ei to include aspects such as values and self-acceptance. l ei is not clearly demarcated. in the introduction to their book, titled: “what is an emotion: classic readings in philosophical psychology”, calhoun and solomon (1984, p. 6) state that, in approaching emotion theory, one of the most basic problems has to do with distinguishing between emotions and other mental phenomena. the problem of clarity of the concept ei can be addressed by demarcating the concept ei more clearly from one’s other life dimensions. because ei is not clearly demarcated from the other life dimensions, ei practitioners sometimes attribute improvement in functioning or wellbeing to the development of ei, while it should in fact be attributed to the development of other life dimensions, e.g. the spiritual dimension. l there appears to be no documented holistic, integrated framework of how ei fits into the total person that can be applied when developing ei. authors such as le roux and de klerk (2003), vermeulen (1999), dann (2002) and goleman (1996) rightly include nonemotional aspects of the person, e.g. spirituality, morality, physical state and social relationships when developing ei. they do not, however, provide any conceptual framework of how these aspects link to ei, or of how ei fits into the functioning of the total person. such a framework is provided by smith, but has not been formally noted in academic literature. the objective of the research the primary objective of this article is to clarif y the concept ei by putting ei in perspective with regard to the total person. to accomplish this objective, this article aims to: l position ei in the context of the eight life dimensions by making a sharper demarcation between the various life dimensions. special emphasis will be placed on the spiritual life dimension, since many ei specialists unknowingly confuse ei with spirituality. vermeulen (1999, p.9), for instance, states: “what’s relevant is that the spiritual is the only source capable of generating power but it’s managed by our emotional lives. ... we know too our emotions manage this force because when we feel good we’re energetic.” the irony, however, is that this should be the other way around. we feel good emotionally when we experience spiritual harmony, and for that matter, physical harmony. l illuminate the relationship between the emotional dimension and the other life dimensions l illustrate the misconception and confusion about the definition and scope of the concept ei in current literature l propose that the definition of mayer, caruso and salovey (1999) be accepted as the definition of ei l introduce the concept of emotional leadership l propose that a holistic model of leadership development be applied when developing emotional leadership. potential contributions of this study the potential contributions of this study are l increased clarification of the concept ei by demarcating ei more clearly from the other life dimensions; l identification of some of the misconceptions about ei, especially with regard to unfounded claims made by ei practitioners; l to provide some insight into the links between ei and the other internal life dimensions; and l documentation of smith’s framework as a foundation for the development of ei. methodology the research approach followed in this study was non-empirical. research methods used were a literature study and conceptual analysis. a literature study was undertaken to provide an overview of the definitions and scope of ei as applied in relevant literature. to this extent, current publications such as text books, theses, dissertations, and scientific journals, as well as those from the popular press and information available on the internet have been explored. smith’s pipl perspective on ei forms an essential part of this study and his written works, workbooks for various workshops, as well as verbal communication were studied. conceptual analysis means to explore the meaning of a specific construct or concept and can be defined as the analysis of the meaning of words or concepts through clarification and elaboration of the different dimensions of meaning (mouton, 2004, p. 175). the meaning of the concept emotional intelligence was explored. badenhorst, smith2 the personal, interpersonal and professional leadership (pipl) perspective prof d.p.j. smith developed personal, interpersonal and professional leadership (pipl), a relatively new multidisciplinary paradigm, currently being taught at the university of johannesburg. smith (2007a, p. 2) applies a systems theory approach towards a comprehensive, holistic view of man. according to smith (2007a, p. 2), pipl takes the integrated total well-being of a person as its focus. pipl is based on anthropological premises, and grounded in existential reality and phenomenology. it therefore investigates and attempts to solve various phenomena that are characteristic of contemporary man and society, i.e. modern man’s problems of existence (du toit, 2004). the scope of the article precludes an in-depth discussion of the presuppositions of pipl. of importance for this article, however, is the distinction made by smith between intelligence and leadership. the american heritage dictionary (second edition, 1982) defines intelligence as the capacity to acquire and apply knowledge. a person is born with numerous intellectual capacities and has the responsibility to optimally develop his abilities and skills in these capacities. smith defines intelligence as an innate ability, potential or capacity. the optimal development of abilities and skills and the utilization of those abilities and skills in living an effective, successful and happy life is called personal leadership (smith, 2007a, p. 8). leadership requires commitment, willingness to grow, constructive use of abilities, responsibility, adding knowledge and a positive attitude. for instance, a person is born with a specific mental or cognitive intelligence, potential or capacity. the development and practical application of this intelligence is called mental leadership. smith’s life dimensions model as stated above, this article aims to position ei in the context of the eight life dimensions by making a sharper demarcation between the various life dimensions. smith (2007a, p. 3) distinguishes between four internal and four external life dimensions. the internal life dimensions are the spiritual, the physical, the mental and the emotional life dimensions. the external life dimensions are the social, one’s career, one’s financial dimension and the ecological life dimension. a model of the life dimensions is shown in figure 1. figure 1: smith’s pipl life dimensions model the dimensions of life and wellness define one’s uniqueness, and help us understand who we are. the spiritual dimension is at the centre of a person’s life. one’s locus of control and the quality of one’s life depend on the ability to balance one’s internal life dimensions with the external. although these eight dimensions can be distinguished from one another, they do not function in isolation, but are in constant systemic interaction with each other. the focus of this article is the emotional dimension, one of the internal life dimensions. as the distinction between the internal and external life dimensions is fairly evident, the external life dimensions will not be discussed. the emotional dimension will be discussed first, whereafter the spiritual, physical, and mental dimensions will each be considered separately. the relationship between the emotional dimension and the other internal life dimensions will be investigated. the emotional dimension this dimension refers to emotions and feelings. the focus of this article on emotional intelligence requires a closer look at the concept emotion. the word emotion appeared in the english language in approximately 1660, and was borrowed from the middle french émotion, derived from old french emouvior, meaning to agitate, to stir up. it can be traced to the latin word movre, to move out: ex-, out + movre, to move (klein, 1966; american heritage dictionary, 1982; barnhart, 1988). a review of dictionaries reveals that the current meaning of the word emotion includes: 1) an affective state of consciousness that involves feelings or sensibilities, as distinguished from cognitive and volitional states of consciousness (simon & schuster, 2000; webster’s new world dictionary of american english); 2) strong feeling, excitement, a state of agitation or disturbance (oxford english dictionary, 1961; simon & schuster, 2000; webster’s new world dictionary of american english); and 3) a complex and usually strong subjective response; any specific feeling, such as joy, sorrow, hate and love (simon & schuster, 2000; american heritage dictionary, 1982; webster’s new world dictionary of american english). the scientific investigation of emotions by a number of disciplines, including philosophy, theology, psychology, psychiatry, and the neurosciences, contributed to the formation of an array of divergent views of the concept emotion. an excellent classification of the theories on emotion was made by calhoun and solomon (1984). working from a philosophical perspective, they postulate that the modern debate about what an emotion is continues between the jamesian theory on the one hand and the aristotelian view on the other. william james, an american philosopher and psychologist, originally trained in medicine, proposed a definition of emotion in an article published in 1885. he defined emotion as the perception of physiological disturbances caused by an awareness of events and objects in the environment (calhoun & solomon, 1984, p. 125). an object or event, for instance a snake, is perceived. in preparation for flight, the muscles involuntarily contract and respiration increases (physiological disturbances). the emotion (fear) is the perception of these physiological disturbances. at the other end of the spectrum lies the theory of aristotle, developed almost two-and-a-half thousand years ago. aristotle saw beliefs, bodily motions and physiological changes as inseparable elements of emotions. he avoids a sharp distinction between mind and body, between the cognitive and physical elements of emotions. calhoun and solomon state that the aristotelian view “…involves a concept of emotion as a more or less intelligent way of conceiving of a certain situation, dominated by a desire (for example, in anger, the desire for revenge)” (calhoun & solomon, 1984, p. 3). emotional intelligence 3 recent research in neurobiology and other neurosciences has contributed greatly towards our understanding of emotions. the neurologist antonio damasio (2004) bases his theory of emotion on this research. damasio differentiates emotions from feelings, although he still sees the process of affect as a unified and apparently singular process (2004, p. 27). he offers what he calls a “working hypothesis of emotion-proper in the form of a definition”, namely (damasio, 2004, p. 53): 1. an emotion-proper… is a complex collection of chemical and neural responses forming a distinctive pattern. 2. the responses are produced in the normal brain when it detects an emotionally competent stimulus (an ecs), the object or event whose presence, actual or in mental recall, triggers the emotion. the responses are automatic. 3. the brain is prepared by evolution to respond to certain ecss with specific repertoires of action. however, the list of ecss is not confined to those prescribed by evolution. it includes many others learned in a lifetime of experience. 4. the immediate result of these responses is a temporary change in the state of the body proper, and in the state of the brain structures that map the body and support thinking. 5. the ultimate result of the responses, directly or indirectly, is the placement of the organism in circumstances conducive to survival and well-being.”. damasio further postulates that feelings follow emotions, and defines a feeling as “the perception of a certain state of the body along with the perception of a certain mode of thinking and of thoughts with certain themes” (damasio, 2004, p. 86). bearing in mind that the emotional dimension encompasses both emotions and feelings as defined by damasio, this dimension can be seen as complex collections of chemical and neural responses, trigged by emotionally competent stimuli, of which the immediate results are temporary changes in the state of the body and in the state of the brain structures, plus the perception of such bodily states along with the perception of modes of thinking and thoughts with certain themes. the raison d’etre of emotions and feelings is the placement of the organism in circumstances conducive to survival and well-being. smith (2005a) sees the emotional dimension as the expression of the integrated functioning of a multi-dimensional being. he describes emotions as expressions of one’s: • inner harmony or disharmony (spiritual dimension); • meaningful or meaningless life (spiritual dimension); • good or ill health ([hysical dimension); • positive or negative thoughts (mental dimension) and • fulfilling or unfulfilling relationships (social dimension). emotion is in most cases a feeling state of the inferred cognition (automatic or learned cognition) of a stimulus or event. it can be described in simple terms as how the person experiences a situation. the spiritual dimension one of the presuppositions upon which pipl is based is that humans are spiritual beings (smith, 2007a, p. 48). zohar and marshall (2001, p. 4) postulate: “we are driven, indeed we are defined, by a specifically human longing to find meaning and value in what we do and experience.” the concept spirituality is difficult to define. in a recent article smith and louw (2007) states that there appears to be no universal definition of spirituality, and that the degree to which one can define the spiritual dimension from an intellectual perspective is limited. a very extensive and representative literature study of the conceptualisation of the spiritual dimension was done by smith and louw (2007). it was concluded by louw that smith’s conceptualisation of the spiritual dimension makes an extremely valuable contribution because, among other reasons, it is comprehensive, descriptive and functional. smith’s conceptualisation of spirituality, as documented by louw, is therefore accepted as the working definition of the spiritual dimension for this article. he sees the essence of spirit as beingness, i.e. where being finds expression (smith & louw, 2007), and describes the spiritual self as “that vital part of us that transcends our temporary existence” (smith & katz, 2006, p. 27). smith developed pipl as a functional science, with the broad objective of guiding a person toward an awareness and understanding of the essence of his own life and toward living a fulfilled life (smith & louw, 2007). he therefore functionalises the concept spirituality, and translates it into concepts accessible to the ordinary person. of particular importance for this article are the primary manifestations of spirituality identified by smith (smith & louw, 2007), i.e.: love, living in the present, simplicity, authenticity, gratitude, and stillness. secondary manifestations, which can be seen as outcomes of living the primary manifestations of spirit, include connectedness, centeredness, harmony, peace, a sense of meaning, a sense of purpose, a sense of integration and wholeness, living what matters most (values), transcendence, positive expectations, an experience of profound beauty, wisdom, and intuition. smith and louw (2007) present a discussion of the primary and secondary manifestations of spirituality. the interaction between the emotional dimension and the spiritual dimension the connection between the emotional dimension and the spiritual dimension is not as well-researched as the connection between emotions, and, for instance, the physical dimension. a few studies on the effect of religiosity on emotional intelligence have been undertaken recently, for instance by paek (2004). smith (smith & louw, 2007) has identified a religious orientation as one of the manifestations of spiritual leadership, but the spiritual dimension clearly encompasses much more than religiosity. in their article, entitled “linking emotional intelligence, spirituality and workplace performance: definitions, models and ideas for research”, tischler, biberman and mckeage (2002) reviewed literature on both ei and spirituality. they concluded that ei and spirituality appear to lead to similar attitudes, behaviours and skills, and that many articles about spirituality tend to focus on or include emotional components, so that there often seems to be confusion, or at least intersection and linking, between the two constructs. these authors do not specif y the definition of emotional intelligence on which they based their research, but quote goleman’s definition of ei, as well as an even broader definition postulated by martinez. they propose several possible models of the linkage between ei and spirituality. the current article proposes that literature with regard to emotional intelligence often includes or focuses on components of the spiritual dimension. as defined earlier, a feeling includes an awareness of a certain mode of thinking and of thoughts with certain themes. but where do these thoughts come from? the emotionally competent stimulus or activating event is perceived, interpreted (mental dimension) and evaluated. this evaluation is based on assumptions, attitudes, and beliefs. our beliefs are based on our values, one of the secondary manifestations of spirituality. our governing values and beliefs partly direct our behaviour and emotional response to events. smith views the spiritual dimension as the core of the individual – deficiencies in this dimension will lead to problems in the other life dimensions (smith & louw, 2007). it is self-evident that living the primary manifestations of spirituality, as described by smith (in smith & louw, 2007), will have a profound effect on one’s emotional dimension. smith (in smith & louw, 2007) describes spiritual love as characterised by its unconditional nature: it is non-judgmental, uncritical and accepting. this he translates in practical terms into unconditional acceptance, looking for the best in each person and in oneself, and treating others with respect. smith identifies authenticity as another of the primary manifestations of spirituality. several ei practitioners (goleman, 1996; dann, 2002; cooper & sawaf, 2000) regard authenticity as an outcome of ei. secondary manifestations, such as a deep badenhorst, smith4 centeredness, a sense of inner calm, harmony, peace, and inner control enable us to be emotionally stable – not becoming emotionally upset so easily. connectedness to others enables us to express feelings such as caring, compassion and friendship, while connectedness to oneself leads to a positive self-image and selfacceptance. having a sense of clear, direction-giving values helps us to understand our own emotions more easily, while an attitude of gratitude goes a long way in combating negative emotions. smith (2005a) illustrates the relationship between the emotional dimension and the other life dimensions by means of the metaphor of a motor car. the emotions represent the heat indicator on the dashboard, while the engine represents the body (physical dimension) and the spirit (spiritual dimension). the driver represents the mind (mental dimension). the faster the car is driven and the heavier the load, the higher the pressure on the engine. the heat indicators on the dashboard (emotions) will rise according to the heat and the speed. in order to control or lower the speedometer and the heat indicator, the driver needs to lower the speed or the pressure on the engine. the physical dimension this dimension encompasses the optimal wellness and health of all the parts and systems of the body, as well as the manner in which they function as a whole. a person’s state of health is often seen as the result of inherited genes. during the twentieth century scientists were devoted to linking specific genes to specific diseases (genetic determinism). however, as capra (2003) illustrates in his chapter, entitled: “biotechnology at a turning point”, the concept of genetic determinism has been proven to be too simplistic. holford (1998, p. 12) points out that a person’s genetic make-up seems to be the result of highly complex interactions between the codes of numerous genes and the person’s internal chemical environment. furthermore, gene expression must be activated. genes are turned on and off in response to specific signals. our health is the result of the interaction between our genes and our environment or circumstances. the environment includes our internal chemical environment as well as our external environment. our bodies try to function optimally and adapt to the stresses of life. each person is born with a different genetic resilience or adaptive capacity. if a person’s total environmental load exceeds his/her genetic capacity to adapt, disease may develop. this implies that every person is in charge of his own health. although genes are inherited, the environment can determine how those genes are expressed. holford (2004) describes the environment of your life as the sum total of everything you eat, drink, breathe, think and exercise. smith developed pipl as a functional discipline based on the existential problems of modern man. he therefore focuses on those aspects of the physical dimension that have the biggest impact on quality of life, namely: l cardiovascular health (according to statistics south africa (2006) 64 092 people died in south africa in 2004 of cerebrovascular diseases, other forms of heart disease or ischaemic heart diseases); l physical strength; and l flexibility (smith, 2007b). in the light of the high prevalence of obesity, hypokinetic diseases and unbalanced lifestyles, smith emphasises the importance of nutrition and exercise for optimal physical health. results of recent studies by the south african medical research council indicate that nearly 50 percent of south africans are overweight or obese, while 22 percent of children in the age group 1 to 9 years are overweight or obese (van heerden, 2006). as every person has to deal with aging, the biomarkers of aging are also addressed by smith in his ppl workshops (smith, 2007c), viz. muscle-to-fat ratio, strength, basal metabolic rate, aerobic capacity, blood sugar tolerance, cholesterol, blood pressure, bone density, and body temperature. the interaction between the emotional dimension and the physical dimension the scientific investigation of the link between emotions and physical health has sparked a lot of interest in recent years. the link between emotions and health is well-documented (see karren, hafen, smith & frandsen, 2006). as we defined an emotion as a collection of chemical and neural responses, triggered by an emotionally competent stimulus, of which the immediate result is a temporary change in the state of the body and in the state of the brain structures, it is self-evident that the state of the body prior to experiencing the emotion would have an effect on the emotion. likewise, the release of chemicals such as glucocorticoids into the bodily systems is known to have a huge effect on physical health (karren et al., 2006, p. 45). the state of the body prior to perceiving an emotionally competent stimulus plays a role in experiencing an emotion. to illustrate this role, the importance of the level of neurotransmitters such as serotonin in the brain can be considered. neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, noradrenaline and oxytocin activate certain circuits in the brain, producing a happy state (illman & carter, 2004, p. 44). according to ratey (2001), very high or very low levels of serotonin can contribute to aggression and anger – aggression has therefore been treated successfully with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (ssris) such as prozac. a person with an abnormal level of serotonin may thus respond more severely to an emotionally competent stimulus, becoming much angrier than he would have, had his serotonin levels been normal. low levels of serotonin are also associated with depression. pert (1999, p. 267) states that the classical understanding of depression is that there is a shortage of the neurochemical serotonin secreted by the brain cells. it must be stressed that the link between neurochemicals and emotions is not a unilateral one. by definition emotions are chemical and neural responses resulting in changes in the body and brain struct ures. thus, feeling happy, in t urn, stimulates the production of “happy” neurotransmitters. one of the most universal emotional responses of modern man is stress. karren et al. (2006, pp. 45-47) describe twelve phases of the typical stress response – preparing the body for “fight or flight”. while these processes are useful and may even be essential for coping with a stress-provoking situation, it is clear that continual stress is detrimental to physical health. these authors (2006, p. 59) state that some of the most common signs and symptoms of stress include headaches, backache, insomnia, tightness in the neck and shoulders, indigestion, loss of appetite or excessive eating, and a pounding heartbeat. they provide an overview of research on the effect of stress on various bodily systems, namely on the brain, the endocrine system, the gastrointestinal system, and the cardiovascular system. holford and cass (2001, pp. 10-18) provide a brief overview with regard to the interaction between neurochemicals and emotions. excellent references for more detailed information are pert (1999), ledoux (1999), ratey (2001), and hammond (2005). one aspect of the physical life dimension that we are able to control under normal circumstances is nutrition. nutritionists are finding more and more evidence that what we eat and drink, or do not eat and drink, influences our emotions. holford and cass (2001, p. 106) quote research done at king’s college hospital, london, where it was found that 33 percent of patients with psychiatric disorders, including depression, were deficient in the b-vitamin foliate. they came to the conclusion that if we are poorly nourished, we are actually less able to cope with life’s challenges. nutrients (e.g. amino acids) are the building blocks of neurotransmitters. a lack of the amino acid tryptophan may, for instance, lead to a low serotonin level, and thus to feeling depressed (holford & cass, 2001). emotional intelligence 5 the physical dimension encompasses certain aspects of the emotional dimension, but not all of it, while the emotional dimension encompasses certain aspects of the physical dimension, but also not all of it. however, it is clear that the two dimensions are intricately linked. the mental dimension according to reber and reber (2001) there has been so much bitter dispute as to the very nature of the human mind that it has never been entirely clear what this pertains to. they conclude that the term mental process is used to refer to a cognitive process. these authors state that cognition has traditionally been used to refer to activities such as thinking, conceiving and reasoning, while most psychologists use cognition to refer to any class of mental behaviours with underlying characteristics of an abstract nature, involving symbolizing, insight, expectancy, complex rule use, imagery, belief, intentionality, problem-solving and so forth. mental intelligence is often seen as synonymous to intelligence quotient (iq), as measured by instruments such as the wechsler adult intelligence scale (wais) and the stanford-binet scale. iq tests measure abilities such as reasoning, imagination, insight, judgement, adaptability, abstraction, learning and dealing with novelty (reber & reber, 2001). these aspects of the human mind can be referred to as intellect. however, the mind encompasses much more than just intellect. de beauport (2002) regards the abilities measured by traditional iq tests as rational intelligence, and expands the concept mental intelligence to also include associative intelligence, spatial intelligence and intuitive intelligence. smith’s pipl-perspective on the mental dimension is far more inclusive, addressing aspects such as the conscious mind as well as the subconscious mind, the power of thought, conditioned mindset, belief windows, attitude, and temperament (smith, 2007c). an important aspect of the mental dimension’s bearing on the emotions is the temperament of the person. smith (2007d) has done substantial research in this regard, upon which his pipltemperament typology is based. he describes temperament as the psychological outcome of one’s dna composition, the chemical composition of one’s blood, hormones that enhance or inhibit certain physical and psychological function, the nature of one’s central nervous system and brain dominance (smith, 2007d, p. 3). the manner in which temperament is expressed, depends to a large extent on the dominant mindset of the person. mindset can be defined as a fixed mental attitude or disposition that predetermines a person’s responses to and interpretations of situations (www.answers.com/topic/mindset). smith (2007c, p. 3:1) describes mindsets as deep beliefs, attitudes, prejudices, views and norms that we hold about ourselves, people, our environment and the world we live in. the interaction between the emotional dimension and the mental dimension with regard to the emotional dimension, having mental abilities enables us to: l sense, experience and interpret events; l assess situations on the basis of our feelings; l express our feelings; and l manage our feelings, e.g. through rational choice (smith, 2005a). damasio (2004, p. 86) defines a feeling as the perception of a certain state of the body, along with the perception of a certain mode of thinking and of thoughts with certain themes. thoughts are clearly seated in the mental dimension, while the awareness of these thoughts, along with an awareness of the state of the body, creates a feeling (in the emotional dimension). the contents of the thoughts have a direct bearing on the feeling. the cognitive-behavioural school of counselling, represented by theories such as ellis’s rational-emotive behaviour therapy (ellis, 2004), and beck’s cognitive behaviour therapy (cbt) (illman & carter, 2004), is based on the premise that what we think influences the way we feel. these theories focus on thoughts, beliefs, assumptions and perceptions. they propose that the way we feel about an event (an emotionally competent stimulus, or, in ellis’s terms, an activating event) depends largely on what we think about the event. ellis (2004) uses his abc model to explain this phenomenon, where: a = an activating event: what the person perceives (or an emotionally competent stimulus); b = belief: what the person believes about what he perceives (including thoughts, modes of thinking, belief systems); c = consequence: his reaction, including his feelings. this is not a reaction to “a”, but to “a” plus “b” (ellis, 2004, p. 32) these theories attempt to help the individual who is experiencing problems change the way he feels by changing his thoughts, beliefs or assumptions to more helpful ones. the way we express our feelings is influenced by our temperament type. smith (2007d) describes the difference in expression of feelings for each of his four temperament types. an l1 person, will, for instance tend to bottle up or repress feelings, while an r2 person tends to be very expressive. different temperament types also react differently to stress. conversely, the way we feel also affects our way of thinking. caruso and salovey (2004, pp. 17-19) refer to research done on the interaction of mood and thinking. they point out that emotions, both positive and negative, influence our way of thinking. positive emotions expand thinking, help generate new ideas, and encourage us to consider possibilities. negative emotions narrow our field of attention and perception, leading to a clearer focus that allows details to be examined more efficiently, and motivates a more efficient search for errors. damasio (2004, p. 85) confirms this, stating that sadness, for example, is accompanied by low rates of image production and hyperattentiveness to images, rather than by the rapid image change and short attention span that goes with happiness. an experiment conducted by damasio and his colleagues found a marked deactivation in the prefrontal cortices while a person is experiencing sadness, and an increase in activity in this region of the brain when a person is experiencing happiness (damasio, 2004, p. 101). misconceptions about emotional intelligence (ei) defining ei mayer et al. (1999) define ei as the ability to a) perceive and identif y emotions; b) use emotions to facilitate thought; c) understand emotions; and d) manage emotions. goleman (1996, p. 34) defines ei as: “abilities such as being able to motivate oneself and persist in the face of frustrations; to control impulses and delay gratification; to regulate one’s moods and keep distress from swamping the ability to think; to empathize and to hope.” he suggests 20 independent and important ei competencies clustered in four categories: self-awareness; self-management; social awareness; and relationship management. some eq specialists broaden the concept even further, as illustrated by the above-mentioned definition proposed by lynn (2005). some of the definitions of ei can be challenged, because they do not clearly demarcate ei from the other life dimensions, such as the spiritual, mental and social dimensions. a summary of some of the definitions of ei that are available in literature, followed by an indication of the life dimensions actually involved, is presented in table 1. it is clear that most of these definitions, with the exception of the definition of mayer et al. (1999), include aspects of life dimensions other than the emotional life dimension. they therefore do not clearly distinguish between the emotional and other life dimensions. badenhorst, smith6 table 1 definitions of ei 1) bar-on (1988) traits theory: life dimension l to be aware of, to understand and to express oneself l to be aware of, to understand and to relate to others l ability to deal with strong emotions l to adapt to change l to solve problems of l a personal nature l a social nature l includes aspects of the physical and mental dimensions l includes aspects of the social and spiritual dimensions l relies strongly on the spiritual dimension l relies strongly on the mental and spiritual dimensions. could also involve the physical dimension. l includes aspects of the mental, and spiritual dimensions. solving problems of a social nature involves the social dimension. 2) mayer, salovey and caruso (1999) life dimension l become aware of one’s own feelings (ability to perceive one’s emotions) l ability to use these emotions/ the right mood to assist thought (what and how one thinks) l to understand the underlying causes of one’s emotions and to build one’s emotional knowledge base l to reflectively regulate/manage one’s emotions and thereby promote emotional decision making and actions l emotional dimension l emotional dimension l emotional dimension l emotional dimension 3) goleman, 1999, p. 318) life dimension l self-awareness: knowing what we are feeling l self-regulation: handling our emotions l motivation: using our deepest preferences to move and guide us toward our goals l empathy: sensing what people are feeling l social skills: handling emotions in relationships l emotional dimension and mental dimension l emotional dimension and mental dimension l spiritual dimension (values) l emotional dimension l social dimension and emotional dimension 4) cooper & sawaf, (2000) life dimension l emotional literacy: being real and true to yourself, inner guidance, connection, intuition, honesty l emotional fitness: authentic presence, resilience, trust l emotional depth: integrity, commitment, purpose l emotional alchemy: intuitive flow, reflection, situational transformation l spiritual dimension l spiritual dimension and social dimension l spiritual dimension l spiritual dimension some ei specialists define ei in a narrow sense, but broaden the concept when applying it in developing ei. le roux and de klerk (2003, p. 10), for instance, define ei in terms of abilities: emotional intelligence is a type of personal and social intelligence, which includes the following: l the ability to perceive, recognise, understand and react to the feelings of yourself and those of others (emotional awareness); l the ability to distinguish between various feelings and to name them (emotional literacy); l the ability to express and control your feelings appropriately (emotional control); (then they start broadening their definition) l the ability to listen to others, to have empathy with them, and to communicate effectively in terms of emotions and thoughts, and • to use the information in directing your thoughts and actions so that you live effectively, are motivated, and have a goal in mind (relation between thoughts, feelings and behaviour). when applying the concept they include aspects such as values and assumptions, self-knowledge, self-image, self-acceptance, and self-assertiveness, without providing a conceptual framework of how these aspects are linked to ei. unfounded claims ei practitioners, in their endeavour to stake out territory, make claims with regard to ei that are mostly unaccounted for. some of the traits and competencies that ei specialists claim to develop as a result of “emotional” intelligence intervention are listed in table 2 below. a number was used to refer to each source. the index to the sources occurs at the bottom of the table. goleman’s full list of corporate emotional competencies, as presented in his 1998 book, reads as follows: emotional awareness, accurate self-assessment, self-confidence, trust worthiness, conscientiousness, adaptability, innovation, achievement drive, commitment, initiative, optimism, understanding others, developing others, service orientation, leveraging diversity, political awareness, inf luence, communication, conf lict management, leadership, change catalyst, building bonds, collaboration and cooperation, and team capabilities. in looking at this list it is also fairly easy to see that it includes nearly everything that is not iq (see http://www.emotionaliq. org). (in fairness, this list has now been adapted, albeit only slightly). table 2 competencies ascribed to the development of ei trait/competency ascribed to ei by authenticity transparency intuition value centered living integrity self-management, self control self-awareness better thought process, problem solving sense of presence, personal influence adaptability self-knowledge, self-image, self-acceptance, assertiveness, choices balance communication coping with stress goal-setting purpose, vision self-motivation trust, trustworthiness 1; 2; 4 4 1; 4; 6 2; 4; 6 1; 3; 6 2; 3; 7 1; 2; 4; 5; 6 1; 2; 3 1; 4; 5; 6 2; 3; 4 2; 6 2; 3 3; 6 2; 4 4; 6 1; 4; 5 2; 6 1; 2; 4 index of sources: (1) cooper & sawaf, 2000; (2) dann, 2002; (3) emotional intelligence 360 view, 2004; (4) goleman, 1996; (5) lynn, 2005; (6) sterrett, 2000; (7) vermeulen, 1999. a number of quotes will indicate typical unfounded claims of ei practitioners: l “emotions can serve as our inner moral and ethical compass” (dann, 2002, p. 27). l competency for self-control: authenticity. to have this competency you would: – build trust through your reliability and congruent behaviour; – act ethically; – stand up for your values (dann, 2002, p. 143). emotional intelligence 7 l some of cooper & sawaf’s (2000, p. xxxii) statements about what ei can do for you: – executive eq begins with intuition, responsibility, and connection. builds personal power – including awareness, inner awareness, inner guidance, respect; – emotional fitness strengthens your authenticit y, believability, and resilience; – evidence indicates that a person’s fundamental values and character in life stem above all, not from iq, but from underlying emotional capacities. l lynn (2005, p. vi) says about the power of ei: “in essence ei is about managing ourselves and our relationships with others so that we truly live our intentions. eq is the distinguishing factor between finding and living our life’s passions or just putting in time”. l and last, but not least, vermeulen’s (1999, p. 9) statement that our emotions manage the spiritual (quoted at the beginning of this article). it is clear that failing to acknowledge the role of the spiritual dimension in the development of emotional leadership leads to most of these misconceptions about ei. clarifying the concept ei: ei versus emotional leadership the lack of a single universally accepted definition of ei clearly leads to a broadening of the concept, which in turn gives rise to confusion of the audience and unfounded claims being made by ei practitioners. this issue needs to be addressed urgently. caruso (2004, p. 3), in his argument for a common language, proposes a dictionary of ei terms as a starting point. he suggests defining the following three entries as the starting point, summarizing their explanations in table 3. table 3 approaches to defining ei term current approach related to trait approach competency approach emotional intelligence traits related to adaptation and coping (e.g. assertiveness) acquired skills and competencies underlying effective leadership (e.g. influence) intellectual abilities using emotional information (e.g. emotion identification) models of personality and dispositional traits leadership competency models. models of general, or standard, intelligence. caruso (2004, p. 3) further states: to be less subtle, what i am proposing is that for a model to be considered and called emotional intelligence it must combine emotion with intelligence. calling traits such as assertiveness or influence emotional intelligence just does not seem to be helpful. this statement is strongly endorsed. as illustrated above, all the other definitions of ei include aspects of life dimensions other than the emotional dimension. it is therefore advocated that the definition of mayer et al., (1999) as adhered to by davis (2004) and salovey and caruso (2004), should be the accepted definition of ei. emotional skills and competencies that underlie effective leadership, as referred to above by caruso, should rather be termed emotional leadership. goleman (2004) proposes that: “emotional intelligence and ei competence are intimately related, but not of the same order. rather, one emerges from the other”. according to him, ei competences are based on ei, but require cultivation over years throughout a person’s life, or intentionally cultivating ei competences with a proper model of learning. goleman (2004) further states that: “ei mingles neocortical and subcortical skills, combining affective and cognitive abilities”. this article proposes that emotional leadership not only combines affective abilities (emotional dimension) and cognitive abilities (mental dimension) but also abilities from all the other life dimensions, drawing heavily on the spiritual dimension in particular. discussion interpretation it was initially stated that the main objective of this article was to clarif y the concept ei by putting ei in perspective with regard to the total person. this was done by utilising smith’s life dimensions model. demarcating the four internal life dimensions, namely the spiritual, physical, mental and emotional dimensions, clarifies what the emotional dimension is, and, more importantly for this article, what it is not. when studying relevant literature with a clearer concept of ei in mind, the following become apparent: l misconceptions about the nature and scope of ei abound. these misconceptions often lead to claims made by ei practitioners about what the development of ei can accomplish in a person’s life, which cannot be substantiated by developing ei alone. a review of claims made by ei practitioners indicated that many of the traits and competencies attributed to the development of ei should, in fact, rather be attributed to the development of spiritual leadership, as these traits involve the spiritual dimension and not the emotional dimension. l these misconceptions can partly be ascribed to the lack of a single, universally accepted definition of ei. a review of a number of definitions presented in the literature showed that life dimensions other than the emotional dimension are often included in the broader definitions of ei. based on the demarcation of the life dimensions, the conclusion was drawn that only the “narrow” definitions of ei, such as the definition proposed by mayer et al. (1999), are valid definitions of ei. emotional skills and competencies underlying effective leadership should rather be termed emotional leadership. l in addition to having no clear concept of the nature and scope of ei, most ei practitioners also lack a conceptual f ramework of how ei fits into the total person, or fail to explicitly state their framework. smith’s life dimensions model provides such a framework, and the connection between the emotional dimension and each of the other internal life dimensions was illustrated. this is of particular importance, as most of the ei practitioners are involved in the development of ei. recommendations for developing emotional leadership: the need for a conceptual framework of the emotional dimension in perspective with regard to the total person although many ei specialists draw on the spiritual dimension when developing emotional competencies, most do not acknowledge the fact that the spiritual dimension is involved in developing emotional leadership. those specialists who do, e.g. vermeulen (1999), do not have a clear model of the link between the two. the spiritual dimension is the core of a person, and spiritual leadership has a profound effect on emotional leadership, i.e. the optimal development of emotional intelligence. this article proposes that all the life dimensions need to be taken into account when developing emotional leadership competences within a holistic model of how ei fits into one’s life dimensions. smith’s life dimensions model provides such badenhorst, smith8 emotional intelligence 9 a framework. in terms of this model, developing emotional leadership should involve not only the emotional dimension, but also include all the other life dimensions, as they each have a bearing on emotional leadership. the spiritual dimension is of particular importance for the development of emotional leadership. this dimension forms the foundation for emotional leadership. most ei practitioners agree that values and assumptions determine emotional needs (le roux & de klerk, 2003). these are manifestations of spirit. it is essential that this dimension be specifically addressed when developing emotional leadership. developing the spiritual dimension along with the emotional dimension will also help to avoid what hein (2003) calls “the dark side of ei”: to use emotional intelligence to become hurtful, manipulative, greedy, controlling, and arrogant; or depressed and suicidal. although not discussed in this article, it should be noted that the external life dimensions, viz. the social, financial, career and ecological dimensions, are also important. for instance, the social dimension – a person’s social support system, or lack of such a system, could have a meaningful impact on his ability to cope with his emotions. to get along adequately with others, we need more than emotional skills: the essence of good interpersonal relationships (social dimension) is determined primarily by what smith (2007c) calls the three a’s: the ability of authenticity (cashman, 1998; mcgraw, 2000), the ability of acceptance (rogers, 1961; ruiz, 1999; mcgraw, 2001; buscaglia, 1984), and the ability to add value to self and others (cashman, 19981; covey, 1999). conclusion it is in the interest of the ei community to clarif y the confusion surrounding the nature and scope of ei, otherwise the significance of ei might be diminished. a single, universally accepted definition of ei is needed. to evaluate the different definitions presented in the literature, it is necessary to distinguish clearly between emotions and other life dimensions. smith’s life dimensions model provides a framework for demarcating the emotional dimension, and for explaining how the emotional dimension is linked to the other life dimensions. based on this demarcation, it is clear that the only definition of ei that defines intelligence exclusively with regard to emotions is that of mayer et al. (1999). all the other definitions include aspects of the other life dimensions, mostly of the spiritual dimension. the definition of mayer et al. (1999) should therefore be accepted as the universal definition of ei. the other definitions that were reviewed, define emotional leadership, rather than ei. smith’s life dimension model provides an extremely valuable conceptual framework for the development of emotional leadership. this model not only demarcates the emotional life dimension from the other life dimensions, but also provides insight into the connections between the different life dimensions. ei, or rather emotional leadership, is not the only factor determining the effectiveness, success or well-being of a person: it is not more or less important than leadership in any of the other life dimensions. this article strongly endorses smith’s view of man as a multi-dimensional being, while emotions are seen as the expression of the integrated functioning of this multi-dimensional being. although emotions are very important, they are, in smith’s metaphor of the motor car, only the indicators of what is going on in the engine. if the engine overheats due to too much pressure, the situation cannot be rectified by replacing the heat indicator. it is therefore strongly advocated that emotional leadership be developed within a holistic framework, including all the other life dimensions, with particular emphasis on the spiritual dimension. references the american heritage dictionary second edition. (1982). boston: houghton mifflin company. barnhart, r.k. (editor) 1988. the barnhart dictionary of etymology. usa: the h.w. wilson company. bar-on, r. (1988). the development of an operational concept of psychological well-being. unpublished doctoral dissertation. pietermaritzburg, rhodes university. buscaglia, l.f. (1984). loving each other. new york: fawcett columbine. caruso, d.r. & salovey, p. (2004). the emotionally intelligent manager. how to develop and use the four key emotional skills of leadership. san francisco: jossey-bass. caruso, d. (2004). comment on r.j. emmerling and d. goleman; emotional intelligence: issues and common misunder standings: defining the inkblot called emotional intelligence. http://www.eiconsortium.org. calhoun, c, & solomon, r.s. (eds). (1984) what is an emotion? classic readings in philosophical psychology. new york: oxford university press. capra, f. (2003). the hidden connection. london: flamingo. cashman, k. (1998). leadership from the inside out. usa: executive excellence publishing. cooper, r.k. & sawaf, a. (2000). executive eq. emotional intelligence in business. london: texere. covey, s.r. (1999). the seven habits of highly effective people. london: simon & schuster. damasio, a. (2004). looking for spinoza. joy, sorrow and the feeling brain. london: vintage. dann, j. (2002). emotional intelligence in a week. london: hodder & stoughton. daus, c.s. & ashkanasy, n.m. (2003). will the real emotional intelligence please stand up? on deconstructing the emotional intelligence “debate”, http://siop.org/tip/oct03/16daus.htm. davis, m. (2004). test your eq: find out how emotionally intelligent you really are. london: piatkus. de beauport, e. (2002). the three faces of mind. think, feel, and act to your highest potential. wheaton: quest books. du toit, c.s.m. (2004). individual facilitation: a personal and professional leadership perspective. unpublished d-phil thesis. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. ellis, a. (2004). the road to tolerance: the philosophy of rational emotive behavior therapy. new york: prometheus books. emmerling, r.j., & goleman, d. (2003) ). emotional intelligence: issues and common misunderstandings. consortium for research on emotional intelligence in organizations. http:// www.eiconsortium.org. emotional intelligence view 360. (2004). facilitator’s guide. santa monica: organizational performance dimensions. goleman, d. (1996). emotional intelligence. why it can matter more than iq. london: bloomsbury. goleman, d. (1999). working with emotional intelligence. great britain: bloomsbury. goleman, d. (2004). comment on d. caruso, defining the inkblot called emotional intelligence: apples and applesauce .http://www.eiconsortium.org. hammond, c. (2005). emotional rollercoaster. a journey through the science of feelings. london: fourth estate. hein, s. (2001). understanding emotional intelligence. .http:// hr.com/hrcom/index.cfm/weeklymag/94a83eb2-59c311d5-9ac6009027eo248f. hein, s. (2003). the dark side of emotional intelligence. http:// eqi.org/dark1.htm. holford, p. (1998). 100% health. london: piatkus. holford, p. (2004). new optimum nutrition bible. london: piatkus. holford, p. & cass, h. (2001). natural highs. london: piatkus. illman, j. & carter, r. (2004). use your brain to beat depression. the complete guide to understanding and tackling depressive illness. london: cassell illustrated. karren, k.j., hafen, b.q., smith, n.l. & frandsen, k.j. (2006). mind/body health. the effects of attitudes, emotions, and relationships. boston: allyn and bacon. badenhorst, smith10 klein, e. (1966) a comprehensive etymological dictionary of the english language. volume 1. amsterdam: elsevier publishing company. ledoux, j. (1999). the emotional brain: the mysterious underpinnings of emotional life. london: phoenix. le roux, r. & de klerk, r. (2003). emotional intelligence workbook: the all-in-one guide for optimal personal growth. cape town: human & rousseau. lynn, a.b. (2005). the eq difference. a powerful plan for putting emotional intelligence to work. new york: amacom. mayer, j.d., caruso, d.r., & salovey, p. (1999). emotional intelligence meets traditional standards for an intelligence. ablex publishing corporation. mcgraw, p.c. (2000). relationship rescue. london, vermilion. mcgraw, p.c. (2001). self matters. london: simon & schuster. mouton, j. (2004). how to succeed in your master’s & doctoral studies. a south african guide and resource book. pretoria: van schaik publishers. the oxford english dictionary. (1961). london: oxford university press. paek, e.s.k. (2004). the role of religiosity in emotional intelligence: an empirical study of christians. unpublished doctoral dissertation. usa : new york university. pert, c.b. (1999). molecules of emotion: why you feel the way you feel. london: pocket books. ratey, j. (2001). a user’s guide to the brain. london: abacus. reber, a.s. & reber, e.s. (2001) the penguin dictionary of psychology (third edition). london: penguin books. rogers, c.r. (1961). on becoming a person: a therapists view of psychotherapy. boston: houghton mifflin. ruiz, d.m. (1999). the mastery of love. san rafael: amber-allen publishing. simon & schuster (2000). new millennium dictionary and thesaurus. available on cd: simon & schuster interactive. smith, d.p.j. & louw, m. (2007). conceptualisation of the spiritual life dimension: a personal and professional leadership perspective. sa journal of human resource management, 5(1). smith, d.p.j. (2007a) the pipl perspective. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. smith, d.p.j. (2007b). study guide, module 7: personal health and total well-being. unpublished notes. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. smith, d.p.j. (2007c). personal and interpersonal leadership workbook. johannesburg: minuteman press. smith, d.p.j. (2007d). the pipl-temperament typology. . johannesburg: university of johannesburg smith, d.p.j. & katz, r. (2006). spiritual leadership: readings for mba elective. stellenbosch: business school, university of stellenbosch. smith, d.p.j. (2005a). misconceptions about ei: deploying ei in one’s life dimensions. unpublished paper delivered to the nexuseq conference, june 2005, amsterdam. statistics south africa (2006). mortality and causes of death in south africa, 2003 and 2004. findings from death notifications. pretoria: statistics south africa. http://www.statssa.gov.za. sterrett, e.a. (2000 ). the manager’s pocket guide to emotional intelligence. amherst: hrd press. tischler, l., biberman, j., & mckeage, r. (2002). linking emotional intelligence, spirit ualit y and workplace performance: definitions, models and ideas for research. journal of managerial psychology, 17, (3): 203-218. van heerden, i. (2006). are south africans gluttons? http://www. health24.com/dietnfood/ weight centre/15-51-2954-2960,36121.asp. vermeulen, s. (1999). eq. emotional intelligence for everyone. cape town: zebra press. webster’s new world dictionary of american english, third college edition, cleveland: webster’s new world. zeidner, m., matthews, g., roberts, r.d. & maccann, c. (2003). development of emotional intelligence: towards a multilevel investment model. human development, mar-jun; (46): 2-3; academic research library p.69. zohar, d. & marshall, i. (2001). sq: spiritual intelligence: the ultimate intelligence. london: bloomsbury. 5lesabe.qxd no organisation in today’s highly competitive world can perform at peak levels unless each and every employee is committed to its objectives and strategic goals. faced with ever-increasing competition and preparing for continuous challenges, one of the key components of organisation survival is maintaining and upgrading its important human resources. as businesses face increasing competition, a strategy that will develop commitment and loyal employees holds the promise of exceptional financial returns (chambers, 1998; huselid, 1995). according to katz (1964) and mcelroy (2001) employee behaviour that is essential for organisational effectiveness includes the following: � employees entering and remaining with the organisation � employees carrying out specific roles � employees engaging in innovative and spontaneous activity that goes beyond role prescriptions the appointment of a good employee is thus critical, but of even greater significance is the organisation’s ability to retain the employee by providing a satisf ying work environment. the organisation’s ability to create a committed workforce is undoubtedly crucial to its success. hence the need for management to understand the concept of organisational commitment: viz what it is, how it operates, and most importantly, the behaviour exhibited by committed employees (mcelroy, 2001). as measured by increased sales, improved productivit y, profitabilit y and enhanced retention, loyal and engaged employees tend to generate highperformance business outcomes (rogers, 2001; tsui, pearce & porter; 1995). these employees commit themselves to the organisation’s vision and mission. organisational commitment has evolved as a key indicator of employees’ attitudes. high employee commitment is a prominent feature of worldclass organisations. unfortunately, even the best-performing organisations do experience turnover, lack of job satisfaction and commitment-related problems. people still leave highly esteemed organisations, and sometimes join an organisation perceived to be mediocre, leaving management confused. (jiang & klein, 2001) labour market trends in the retail industry have not only presented increased career opportunities for employees, but also challenges to organisations in hiring and retaining workers. kochanski and ledford’s (2001) survey showed that career opportunities yielded more significant predictors of retention than any other t ype of reward, followed by training opportunities and employee relationship with supervisors. it can therefore be argued that employees’ views regarding their attachment to the organisation have remained critical in the workplace, and will do so for the foreseeable future. in the light of the local scarcity of in-depth knowledge, contributing to irrefutable confusion and insufficient information on organisational commitment and its possible effect on the overall functioning of organisations, this article strives to make a modest contribution in illuminating organisational commitment by capt uring and describing employees’ decisions to remain in or leave a particular organisation. the question may be asked: what is the state of matters regarding organisational commitment and its dimensions and underlying factors in scholarly literature? over the years, scholars have defined commitment and measured it in many different ways. the lack of consensus of what the concept entails has contributed greatly to its treatment as a multidimensional construct (meyer & allen, 1991). even if multiple dimensions or forms of commitment exist, there has to be a core essence that characterises it. to establish what that core essence is, one has to look for commonalities among the existing conceptualisations. table 1 provides a set of definitions taken from the relevant literature. as indicated by meyer and herscovitch (2001), all of these refer to a “force” that directs a person’s behaviour. there appears to be consensus that this force is experienced as a mindset (ie a frame of mind or psychological state). scholars agree, but also differ, in several ways on what organisational commitment entails. all definitions generally point to commitment to – (i) being a stabilising and obliging force; and (ii)providing direction to behaviour (eg restricting freedom, binding the person to a course of action). the differences in scholars’ definitions involve detail concerning the nature or origin of the stabilising force directing behaviour (meyer & herscovitch, 2001). r ankgoang andrew-face lesabe andrew-face.lesabe@gauteng.gov.za james nkosi department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract it is generally accepted that employee commitment has an impact on the overall functioning of organisations. therefore, the primary aim of this qualitative explorative study is to detect and describe views of a group of employees at a local johannesburg retail organisation regarding employee turnover and retention in the organisation. relevant theoretical key concepts and views of scholars are carefully integrated and described briefly. qualitative methods were used to collect and analyse the data. the research findings are explicitly outlined and linked to the existing literat ure on organisational commitment. the article is concluded with some recommendations. key words organisational commitment, employee turnover, retenion a qualitative exploration of employees’ views on organisational commitment 35 sa journal of human resource management, 2007, 5 (1), 35-44 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2007, 5 (1), 35-44 lesabe, nkosi36 table 1 general definition of commitment, meyer and hersovitch (2001) commitment “…a state of being in which an individual becomes bound by his actions and through these actions to belief that sustains the activities of his own involvement.” (salancik, 1977: 62) “…a force that stabilizes individual behaviour under circumstances where the individual would otherwise be tempted to change that behaviour.” (brickman, 1987: 2) “…a stabilizing force that acts to maintain behavioral direction when expectancy/equity conditions are not met and do not function.( scholl, 1981: 593) “commitment comes into being when a person, by making a side bet, links extraneous interests with a consistent line of activities.” (becker, 1960: 32) an obligation force which requires that the person to honour the commitment, even in the face of fluctuating attitudes and whims.” (brown, 1996: 241) “…one’s inclination to act in a given way towards a particular commitment target.” (oliver, 1990: 30) “commitment is defined as a cognitive predisposition towards a particular focus, insofar as this focus has the potential to satisf y needs, realize values and achieve goals” (roodt, 2004:85) organisational commitment “…the psychological attachment felt by the person for the organization; it will reflect the degree to which the individual internalizes or adopts characteristics or perceptive of the organization.” (o’reilly & chatman, 1986:493) “…the totality of normative pressure to act in a way which meets organisational goals and interests.” (wiener, 1982:421) “…a psychological state that binds the individual to the organization…” (allen & meyer, 1990:14) “…a bond or linking of the individual to the organization,” (mathieu & zajac, 1990:171) researchers providing a general definition of commitment (table 1) note that commitment is different from motivation or general attitudes (brickman, 1987; brown, 1996; scholl, 1981). they suggest that the concept influences behaviour independently of other motives or attitudes, and might lead to course persistence even when conflicting motives or attitudes exist. thus commitment may lead individuals to behave in a way that, from the perspective of neutral observers, might seem in contrast with their own self-interest, eg a temporary employee who is productive despite having no job security. (meyer & herscovitch, 2001). roodt (2004) argues that employee commitment evolved as a wide range of types (eg engagement, attachment, commitment, involvement) within a wide spectrum of foci (eg work, job, career, profession or occupation, organisation, union), while categories towards studying commitment varied bet ween behavioural, attitudinal and motivational within three broad research streams (sociological, industrial/organisational psychology and health psychology). for the purpose of this study, the following definition of organisational commitment as provided by allen and meyer (1990) was used: organisational commitment is a psychological state that binds the individual to the organisation. as is evident from their work, scholars tend to disagree about the dimensions of organisational commitment. table 2 presents definitions of the various forms of commitment provided in several multidimensional models of organisation commitment. differences between multidimensional frameworks stem largely from the different motives and strategies involved in their development. as is to be expected the many different frameworks pose a problem for the development of a general model of workplace commitment since they make it difficult to answer simple questions such as: “in fact, what is commitment?” roodt (2004) said it best when he remarked that “most researchers took little cognisance of contradictory research findings and/or of different theorisation about various concepts of employee commitment”. table 2 dimensions of organisational commitment. o’reilly & chatman’s model (1986) angle and value commitment to support the goals of the perry (1981) commitment organisation. “commitment commitment to retain their organisational to stay” membership. o’reilly and compliance instrumental involvement for specific chatman extrinsic rewards. (1986) identification attachment based on a desire for affiliation with the organisation internalisation involvement predicted on congruence between individuals and organisational values. penley and morale acceptance of and identification with gould (1988) organisational goals. calculative a commitment to an organisation which is based on the employee’s receiving alternative inducement to match contribution. organisational commitment which results when an employee no longer perceives that there are rewards commensurate with investment; yet he/she remains due to lack of available alternatives. meyer and affective the employee’s emotional attachment to, allen (1991) identification with, and involvement in the continuance organisation. an awareness of the costs associated with normative leaving the organisation a feeling of obligation to continue employment. mayer and value a belief in and acceptance of organisational schoorman goals and values and a willingness to exert (1992) continuance considerable effort on behalf of the organisation. a feeling of obligation to continue employment. jaros et al affective the degree to which an individual is (1993) psychologically attracted to an organisation continuance through feelings such as loyalty, affection, warmth, belongingness, pleasure, etc. morale the degree to which an individual experiences a sense of being locked in place because of the high cost of leaving. the degree to which an individual is psychologically attached to an organisation through internalisation of its goals, values and mission. this table gives the overall view, and since it is not the purpose of this study to examine organisational commitment, only those models that have generated most research and which best explain commitment in terms of organisational behaviour, will be discussed (meyer & allen; 1991, o’reilly & chatman, 1986). o’reilly and chatman’s (1986) model o’reilly and chatman (1986), as discussed in meyer and herscovitch (2001), developed a multidimensional framework based on the assumption that commitment represents an attitude towards the organisation, and that there are various mechanisms through which attitude can develop. based on kelman’s (1958) work on attitude and behaviour change, o’reilly and chatman argued that commitment takes the following three forms: � compliance. this occurs when attitudes and corresponding behaviour are adopted in order to gain specific rewards employees’ views on organisational commitment 37 � identification. this occurs when an individual accepts influence to establish or maintain a satisf ying relationship. � internalisation. this occurs when influence is accepted because the attitude and behaviours one is being encouraged to adopt are congruent with existing values. the employee’s psychological attachment can reflect various combinations of these three psychological foundations. table 3 the three-component model of commitment, meyer & allen (1997) affective (affective orientation) “an attitude or an orientation toward the organisation which links or attaches the identity of the person to the organisation.” (sheldon, 1971:143) “a partisan, affective attachment to the goals and values of the organisation, to one’s role in relation to goals and values, and to the organisation for it’s own sake, apart from its purely instrumental worth.” (buchanan, 1974:533) “the process by which the goals of the organisation and those of the individual become increasingly integrated or congruent.” (hall et al, 1970: 176-177) “the relative strength of an individual’s identification with and involvement in a particular organisation.” (mowday et al, 1982:27) “the attachment of an individual’s fund of affectivity and emotion to the group”kanter, 1968:507 continuance (cost based) “commitment comes into being when a person, by making a side bet, links extraneous interests with a consistent line of activity.” (becker, 1960: 32) “profit associated with continued participation and a 'cost' associated with leaving” (kanter, 1968: 504) “a structural phenomenon, which occurs as a result of individual/organisational transactions and alteration in side bets or investment over time.” (hrebiniak & alutto, 1972:556) normative (obligation or mor al) “commitment behaviours are socially accepted behaviours that exceed formal and/or normative expectations relevant to the object of commitment.” (wiener & gechman, 1977:48) “the totality of internalized normative pressure to act in a way which meets organisational goals and interests.” (wiener, 1982:421) “the commitment employees consider morally right to stay in the company, regardless of how much status enhancement or satisfaction the firm gives him or her over the years.” (marsh & mannari, 1977:59) meyer & allen, (1997) reflects the three broad themes as indicated by category labels, used to develop their threecomponent model of commitment. meyer and allen (1991:67) noted that organisational commitment is “the view that commitment is a psychological state, which (1) characterises the relationship with the organisation, and (2) has implication for the decision to continue membership with the organisation.” they describe these three components as affective, continuance and normative. the focus of organisational commitment roodt (2004) points out that poor theoretical integration and poor theory building unfortunately still permeates each research stream (sociology, industrial & organisational psychology, health) and approach to commitment (attitudinal, behavioural, motivational). according to him, few attempts have been made to eliminate construct redundancy and construct contamination across different research streams and approaches. this has contributed largely to the development of a wide range of different commitment foci. it therefore can be argued that a clear understanding of organisational commitment as a concept is virt ually imperative in the organisation. this will help management to understand what the real issues in the organisation are, which areas needs attention, and what can be done to address the identified gaps. behavioural focus on organisational commitment individuals’ behaviours and attitudes are affected by organisational factors in terms of the psychological contract. the importance of these in affecting attitudes or behaviours of employees has been widely advocated (allen & meyer, 1990; cohen, 1993; mathieu & zajac, 1990; meyer & allen, 1984; o’reilly & chatman, 1986). according to chang (1999) after entering the company, members evaluate whether the company has fulfilled the psychological and employment contract. the psychological contract is a perceptual belief about what employees believe they are entitled to receive or should receive (robinson, 1996). robinson, kraunt & rossouw (1994) suggest that when employees feel that their employers have failed to fulfil their obligations, they tend to reduce their obligation by showing withdrawal behaviour, eg decreased level of commitment and high turnover rate. entity focus on organisational commitment meyer and herscovitch (2001) suggest that differences in focus are largely a function of emphasis. when commitment is considered to focus on an entity, the behavioural consequences are often implied, if not stated explicitly. these authors also suggest, however, that from the standpoint of understanding and predicting outcomes of commitment, there may be an advantage in specif ying the relevant entity and behaviour. according to meyer and allen (1997) when commitment is measured as a whole, it is probably measuring employee’s commitment to “top management” (reichers, 1986) or a combination of top management and more localised foci (becker & billings, 1992). meyer and allen (1997:20) suggest when using “commitment as a means of understanding or predicting behaviour of violence to the organisation as a whole (to top management specifically), it would seem that the purpose can be well served with global measures of organisational commitment”. if interested in behaviour to more specific constituencies (eg the supervisor), it would be better to measure commitment to the relevant constituency. meyer and herscovitch (2001) suggest that individuals may commit to both entities and behaviours. meyer and colleagues (meyer & allen, 1984, 1991, meyer, allen & smith, 1993) define commitment in such a way that it implies a course of action (continuing membership) of relevance to an entit y (organisation or profession). commitment and work behaviour organisations need employees who are willing to go beyond the call of duty and engage in extra-role behaviours. for this reason, researchers continued to examine the link between the three components of commitment and they have developed a multidimensional measure of work behaviour. allen and smith (1987) and meyer and allen (1984) found that measures of work behaviour correlated positively with measures of affective and normative commitment, but not with continuance commitment. research by randall, fedor and longenecker (1990) revealed that affective commitment contributed significantly to the prediction of concern for quality, sacrifice orientation and willingness to share knowledge. normative commitment contributed only to the prediction of sacrifice orientation, and continuance commitment did not add significantly to the prediction of any of these behaviours. these findings thus provide support for the supposition that the three components of commitment have different implications for work-related behaviour other than turnover. the relevance of organisational commitment organisational commitment was originally intended as a tool to manage human resources within a hierarchical organisational structure. such organisations are now decreasing in number, with the unit of activities becoming smaller. however, owing to its lesabe, nkosi38 potential for increasing productivity, whatever its form, strategies to encourage commitment will continue to be important in managing human resources in the future (sano, 1999). managers therefore increasingly rely less on formal rules and more on building a committed workforce to attain organisational objectives (carson, carson p, birkenmeier, & phillip, 1999) organisational commitment and retention factors employee retention, productivit y, qualit y and corporate financial success are characterised as highperformance and high-commitment strategies. the assumption is that integrated sets of management strategies focusing on commitment (as opposed to control) produce high levels of affective employee commitment and subsequent organisational performance (tsui et al; 1995). there are a number of factors that can influence employees’ commitment to the organisation or factors that can have a bearing on the organisation’s ability to preserve certain skills and talents in the workplace. for the purpose of this study the factors below were identified. compensation according to higginbotham (1997) high salaries are not essential for retaining employees, but “good” and “fair” salaries showed a strong correlation with intention to stay, indicating that as long as the compensation was competitive, financial rewards were not the primary factor in retention. kochanski and ledford (2001) support this statement, which indicates that the actual level of pay is less important than feelings about pay raises and the process used to administer them. employees want to understand how the pay system works, and want to know how they can earn pay increases. once the pay level has been reached other things become important, eg, the intangibles, such as career, supervisor support, work and family balance (tomlinson, 2002). benefit packages managers can pick and choose from a variety of programmes, such as flexible spending accounts, flexitime, in-house training and tuition-refund programmes to meet their corporate goals and satisf y their diverse employee populations. (kochanski & ledford, 2001). morale and motivation according to kreitener and kinicki (2001) the term "motivation" derives from the latin word movere, meaning “to move”. in the present context, the term represents “those psychological processes that cause the arousal, direction and persistence of voluntary actions that are goal directed". managers need to understand these psychological processes if they wish to successfully guide employees towards accomplishing organisational objectives. figure 1 integrates elements from several motivation theories. figure 1: integrated elements of motivational theories. kreitener & kinicki (2001) diagram 1 shows that individual inputs and job context are t wo key elements of factors that inf luence motivation. employees bring ability, job knowledge, dispositions and traits, emotions, moods, beliefs and values to the work setting. the job context includes the physical environment, the tasks one completes, the organisation’s approach to recognition and rewards, the adequacy of supervisory support and coaching and the organisation’s culture. these two categories of factors influence each other, as well as the motivational process of arousal, direction and persistence, which in turn influence performance and commitment in the workplace (kreitener & kinicki, 2001). career growth and development despite the shift in ultimate responsibility and ownership, the value of investing in the comprehensive career-development process is still widely recognised and informed by needs such as attracting and retaining high-performing employees and the need to instill a mindset of continuous learning and improving employee satisfaction with opportunities for career growth (garavan, morley, gunnigle and collins, 2001; mason, chua, roux and kaye, 1999) cited in meyer (2002). kaye (1999) states that for such companies career development is not a programme, but a process that integrates and supports ongoing activities and thereby maximising the value of on-the-job experiences with training and development. leadership in terms of management support and organisational commitment, eby, adams, russel & gaby (2000) indicated that work environment was characterised by participation in important work-related decisions, supervisory feedback and support and rewards that were perceived as fair and equitable. this provides individuals with the opportunity to make a difference to the job and to try out new skills, exercise discretion and receive feedback on their performance. these work conditions, instigated by management, are expected to increase individuals’ intrinsic motivation by providing affirmation that their efforts are worthwhile and valued (thomas & velthouse, 1990). the proposed outcome of this mastery-based motivation is affective commitment to the organisation and general job satisfaction. in turn, these affective work reactions are expected to impact on areas such as turnover and absenteeism. nature of the job itself employees need a reasonable degree of autonomy in their application of knowledge. even if employees rarely decide on the organisational policy to which their expertise contributes, they still need a reasonable degree of autonomy in the process of performing their work (bailyn & lynch, 1983). when job autonomy is high, workers will view their work outcomes in terms of their own efforts, initiatives and decisions, rather than instructions of the supervisor or procedure (marx, 1996). training and development training is essential for the livelihood of any employee, and is the only way employment can be maintained over their careers. tomlinson (2002) suggests that it is critical that organisations keep the leading edge by having their employees well trained in the latest systems and technologies. employees remain with companies that promote career opport unities through leaning and the abilit y to apply their newly-learned skills (cataldo, van assen & d’alessandro, 2000; jiang & klein, 2000). employee training is intended to provide opportunities for advancement and might be perceived as “the organisation values them and bolster their sense of self-worth, therefore building a stronger affective commitment” (meyer & allen, 1997). training, if put to use on the job, should increase affective organisational commitment through its link to increase job scope. this employees’ views on organisational commitment 39 response can be a function of closer psychological attachment to the organisation and its goals (mcelroy, 2001). paré, tremblay & lalonde (2001:24) found training to be positively related to affective commitment. performance management the shift from traditional single-rater performance appraisal to 360-degree or multirater feedback system as a modern approach to performance management has been a significant trend in the area of performance management. multirater feedback is used when a person receives performance ratings from a range of parties, such as supervisors, peers and subordinates and, in some cases, even customers, using some t ype of standardised instrument which is computerised in many companies. clear procedures and understanding of systems in the organisation can motivate employees and uplift the level of commitment. this can be attained through effective utilisation of the performance management system, which provide management with the opportunity to understand employees’ weakness and identif y individual development programmes, relevant to curb the identified gaps. work environment according to rollinson, broadfield and edwards (1998) organisational commitment can be influenced by a number of factors that may be major or minor. they identified resources, physical conditions, (location where the offices are based) safety and security of employees in the workplace as factors that can affect employees’ level of commitment. moorhead and griffin (1995) also added supportive relationships as another important factor. they suggest that in all organisational activities, individuals should be treated in such a way that they experience feelings of support, self-worth and importance. these involve the elements of respect, courtesy and empathy amongst employees and management and among employees themselves. it can therefore be argued that management needs to consider the above mentioned factors when compiling, amongst other things, the operational plans, business plans, as well as the strategic plans, because of the impact this factors might have on the employees’ commitment level, as well as the processes taking place in the organisation. research design research approach in view of the aim and objectives of the study (detecting and describing views of employees on organisational commitment) and other previous statements, the author opted for a qualitative research methodology. this approach implies: “…observing people in their everyday lives, listening to them talk about what is on their minds, and looking at the documents they produce". via this approach: "…qualitative researchers are able to obtain firsthand knowledge of the social life unfiltered through operational definitions or rating scales” (taylor & bogdan, 1984:33). using unstruct ured and f lexible methods, a researcher is able to obtain the insider’s perspective and definition of the situation in a holistic and rich manner. the flexibility of qualitative research is perhaps its most important value since it can be modified relatively easily as the study progresses, making it particularly suitable for studying real-life situations (punch, 1998). in the light of the many traditions of contemporary qualitative research, it has become necessary to point out the particular variety one has chosen (schurink, 2004). resarch methodology modernist qualitative research for the purposes of this study the author opted for a modernist variety of qualitative research. extending through the post-war years, the 1970s, the mid-1980s, to the work of many contemporary qualitative scholars, this tradition has, according to denzin and lincoln (2003), generated highly influential “formalised” methods. schurink (2004) emphasises that this qualitative tradition is characterised by the interpretation of social reality by means of formalised methods of data collection and rigorous tools of data analysis (e.g. analytical induction and grounded theory). apart from the fact that this approach generates sufficient information that explains the process taken when gathering data and how it was analysed, it also provides a comfortable and conducive free-flowing interaction (between the researcher and the participants) that enhance the reliability of the results. casing as research design in the light of the many changes that have taken place in qualitative research it should come as no surprise that researchers can choose from various designs (schurink, 2004). the case study as a well-known design was chosen. suffice it to say that the study comprised multiple case studies within the context of a more defined exploratory approach. a sample size of 14 employees was chosen, and that was done with ethical consideration. furthermore, the researcher approached employees (represented at all levels within the organisation. i.e. top management, middle management, consultants, specialists and practitioners) to share their stories and experiences. informed by the belief that both inductive (focusing on identif ying patterns and meaning derived from a particular social reality or phenomenon) and deductive approaches (utilising theoretical concepts and ideas derived from abstract work of scholars available in the literature) are required, both tactics were applied in this research. that was also done to ensure that the reliability and validity of the study is not threatened. operalisation while attending to the preceding perspectives in the study’s qualitative component, the researcher did not ignore general evaluative principles. it seemed particularly helpful to consider the fit between the study’s respective components. punch (1994) identifies the following main areas, all of which were considered in this approach: � the “set-up” of the research � the empirical procedures used in the study (design, data collection, sample and data analysis) � the data quality � the findings and conclusions presented in the research report � the presentation and display of the research as planned, a number of strategies were used throughout the study, including compiling autoethnographical notes, to curb possible bias. it is also important to note that the researcher reflected on the progression of decisions made during the execution of the study and illuminated this for the readers. that is in line with what punch (1994) refers to as critical subjectivity meaning: “…that we do not suppress our primary subjective experience, that we accept that our knowing is from a perspective; it also means that we are aware of that perspective and of its bias, and we articulate it in our comments. critical subjectivity involves a self-reflexive attention to the ground on which one is standing”. variables included in this study were selected based on the empirical support in the relevant literature, theoretical relevance and anticipated contribution of the study to the industry that was identified. data display while qualitative researchers sometimes use tables to summarise their findings, they generally provide in-depth description or quotations of how social life is accomplished. lesabe, nkosi40 they typically provide clear examples from the voluminous amount of data representing the way in which subjects have organised their worlds, their thoughts about what is happening and their experiences, as well as their perceptions. this, of course, is no easy task because: “…firstly, examples from the data that typif y certain observed patterns should be provided in order to enable the reader to see what they look like" (schurink, 2004). research participants the researcher was very careful when selecting research participants, ensuring that all races (indians, coloureds, whites and blacks), literacy level, and other ethical issues (language, traditions, cultures, and religions) are considered. the researcher also gathered a harmless and brief historical background of each participant. according to schurink, that is very important in helping the researcher to better understand the participants. it also gives readers of the article the opportunity to understand the people who took part in the study without having met them. to allow participants to express themselves to the maximum level that was considered to be satisfactory, participants were allowed to use the language they felt comfortable with. most of the participants preferred to use english, but there were a few instances where they preferred to use their mother tongue and i captured that in my analysis. methods of collecting data unstructured interviews were conducted as a data-gathering method. information was then recorded on tape, and in some cases i took notes during the sessions. four sessions per participant were conducted over a period of 3 to 4 months. the first two sessions were basically used to extract information from the participants. the third session came as a follow-up meeting aimed at clarif ying all the unclear aspects and issues raised during the first two sessions so as to create a concrete understanding of the situation. during the third-round meetings in order to enhance validity, i offered parts from transcripts, together with field-notes, which contained a summarisation and interpretation of the material during the unstructured interviews, to the interviewees to ensure accuracy and to facilitate further comments which i might have missed. getting both the researcher and interviewees to collaborate on the writing up of interviews is a good way to enhance validity since it allows a more objective assessment (humphrey & lee, 2004) cited in schurink 2004. the fourth session was mainly about validating the information with respondents and obtaining their views about the data that was gathered. analysis of data the following strategies were employed, as suggested by schurink (2004), to demonstrate the level of biasness and inappropriate subjectivity: � reflexivity � the audit trail � peer debriefing as schurink (2004) points out, reflexivity entails the process during which one critically reflects on one’s own role and preconceptions throughout the research process; the datacollection, analysis, interpretation and report-writing stages. the audit trail: “credibility” or “natural history” is closely related to reflexivity. athens (1984:265) writes the following about scientific credibility: “scientific credibility is not an ascribed quality of a study, but rather an achieved one. thus, a study is neither intrinsically credible nor incredible, rather, the researcher must make it so. the way in which a researcher makes a study credible is by supplying an adequate account of his or her research along with the description of its results. an account is merely a story told by the researcher about how he or she performed the research in question”. the audit trail represents the thorough documentation of the decisions the researcher made before and after the research and an account of his or her research process, (schurink, 2004). peer debriefing here one identifies a few colleagues who intermittently review one’s work by re-analysing the raw data and by discussing one’s interpretation of them with one. (“ditto”). throughout the various phases of this study several debriefing sessions were held, to – � detect bias or inappropriate subjectivity; � obtain alternative explanations to my own explanations; and � obtain warnings against inappropriate attempts to produce interpretations not substantiated by the data. findings the following (compensation, benefit packages, moral, motivation, career growth, leadership style, nature of job, training and development, performance management system and the work environment) were identified as factors affecting the commitment of employees in the workplace. compensation: reward systems are frequently used by companies in an effort to retain staff (farris, 2000). in this study a significant number of research participants indicated that monetary rewards were contributing a lot towards employees’ decisions to stay in or leave the organisation. they mentioned that they were sometimes motivated to go the extra mile if they knew that they would be financially rewarded. one employee used a famous township expression faka imali uzobona (put in some money and you will see the results) to emphasise the role of money in our lives. tshelete e tla nna ele “issue” mo maphelong a rona “because the cost of leaving is crazily high, it’s ridiculous i’m telling you” (money will forever remain an issue in our lives because of the extremely high cost of leaving). another employee sharing the same sentiment made it clear that he was not necessarily making decisions based on money, but could not deny its importance. his decisions revolved around what the company did for him, and especially how they rewarded him. eqinisweni wonke umuntu uyafisa ukuthi akwazi ukuhlinzekela izidingo zempilo, noma angehlukile kwabanye abantu. lento ayinako nkwenza nemali. (it is not all about money, but honestly speaking, everybody wants or wishes to be able to afford better things in life, and i’m not an exception to this). lower morale: the term morale (mastekaasa, 2004) represents “…those psychological processes that cause the arousal, direction and persistence of voluntary actions that are goal directed". managers need to understand these psychological processes if they wish to successfully guide employees towards accomplishing organisational objectives. there are, of course, a number of issues involved when talking about morale and motivation. people become motivated and demoralised by different things and to a different extent. one of the employees taking part in the present study expressed it in this way: “people are not happy here; we are not happy. the majority of us are demoralised by issues ranging from poor treatment from the top to career frustrations, and as a result we don’t have any reason to push ourselves beyond the expectations”. re tlabe re kgahlisa mang? meaning: who will we be trying to impress? employees’ views on organisational commitment 41 career growth career growth also came out strongly, indicating that people were concerned about their own future; they wanted to progress and they became frustrated when they believed that their path was blocked, or that there were some obstacles in their way. one concerned and worried woman put it like this: “i have compromised so much and sacrificed a lot for this organisation, but all i get in return is a disgusting 'we don’t care attitude' from my boss. i cannot be stacked in one position forever. i also need to be given an opportunity to grow as well. i’m not saying i want to be the ceo, but i think i have overstayed my welcome in this position and cannot take it any longer”. leadership the fourth factor that came out strongly on the list was the role played by those in leadership positions. one of the employees who complained about leadership spoke about the “distance between employees and their leaders”, suggesting that there was a rift between them, and as a result they (the leaders) were not accessible and accountable. he acknowledged that, of course, people had to follow protocol in terms of submitting their concerns and at the same time had to remember that managers also had things to attend to, and therefore could not be available at all times since they were responsible for the overall running of the organisation, but he still insisted that the leaders needed to make time for people on the ground. quite a few people also complained about being led by incompetent leaders, eg leaders with questionable leadership st yles, people who took decisions without consultation and people who delegated, even where it was not appropriate, and who failed to guide employees where they most needed their assistance. one employee said: rona re bona mathata fela mo mosebetsing, di “leaders” tsa rona ga di tsebe ntwe di e etsang, ba tswere bothata “and that thing” e sokodisa rona. (we are really experiencing problems here at work, our leaders don’t know what they are doing, they are struggling. as a result we are the ones who are suffering). nature of work research has shown that employees engage in higher levels of citizenship behaviour when they have the opportunity to work on intrinsically satisf ying tasks. however, citizenship levels (commitment) are likely to be noticeably lower when employees are given repetitive or routine tasks to complete. in addition, bureaucratic rules and procedures that overly constrain workers may serve to inhibit acts of citizenship (bolino & turnley, 2003). unchallenging tasks were also highlighted as serious concerns for most employees in the workplace. an employee mentioned that she had been doing the same thing for over 3 years, and that there was nothing new about it. the task was routine and she believed that this would hamper her psychological growth. on the other hand, another employee complained about the complicated tasks that she was required to master. stating that some systems were very complex and took time before one could grasp them, and as a result she easily became frustrated and lost interest. training and development according to raghunathan, raghunathan & tu (1998) the difficulty of the retention of qualified personnel cannot be understated, and a particular problem in the retention systems is attributed to the “higher growth needs” for skilled personnel. (cougar & zawacki, 1980). training and development also cropped up as concerns to some research participants. one employee suggested that training needed to be analysed before people should be sent on training courses. she mentioned that sometimes people received irrelevant training and missed out on important ones because team leaders made those decisions without consulting or identif ying the individual's needs. performance reviews the item mentioned least, but emphasised most strongly by the research participants was performance reviews. few participants raised any concerns about the manner in which performance reviews were still handled. firstly, there was the issue of how some managers still struggled with understanding the purpose of reviews, and were using them for all the wrong reasons such as for punishing individuals they had targeted. one employee mentioned that his manager made it clear from day one that no one would ever get a mark of 4 (5 point performance rating scale, 5 = excellent, 1 = poor performance), because he himself had never received that mark from his boss. in addition, performance reviews were most of the time not completed in time, and when the due date arrived managers put pressure on employees. they were using the “let’s do it and get it over” approach, which was ethically wrong. positive themes these are factors which employees viewed as positive and encouraging, factors that give them a reason to stay with the organisation, as opposed to those that makes them leave. work environment the majority of participants, that is, almost everyone who took part in this study, acknowledged the fact that the environment, which included the people, the building and the resources used, was next to perfect. one employee said that he felt part of the family at this retail and clothing company, and that was so because they always treated each other with respect and love. most of the participants agreed that their workplace was a safe environment and their machinery and systems were advanced and always kept up to date, making it a wonderful place to be at, regardless of all the negative aspects. one male participant mentioned that when he resigned, he couldn’t handle the pain of leaving behind such a bunch of good people and as a result he cried (literally) during his farewell party. ngiyengakhubazek’ umoya, inhliziyo yami yephuka, kube ingathi inxenye yempilo yami imuke nomfula. ngakuthokozela kakhulu ukusebenza nalabantu. (it was painful, my heart was aching. i felt like an integral part of my life had been shut down. i really enjoyed working with those guys.) benefit structure although most people complained about the remuneration packages, they acknowledged that the company’s benefit structure was attractive. by introducing the i-share yethu scheme, which offered free shares to all employees, management motivated employees to a great extent. world-class ser vice a number of employees also said that although they experienced some problems in the workplace, most of the time they managed to comply with the mission and vision of the company and, as far as possible, provided excellent service and quality products to their customers. most of the participants mentioned that thanks to their readiness and commitment to serve their customers, their company was collecting awards one after the other; out-classing their competitors. exposure having been voted “the best company to work for” and being regarded the leader in the retail and clothing industry, most employees felt that they were getting the necessary exposure and experience in their respective fields. gurus from europe and lesabe, nkosi42 america have been recruited in the past few years to bring their knowledge and expertise into the company, and most participants believed that this was helping them a lot as they could mingle with experts. discussion and recommendations the purpose of this study was to detect and describe factors (as viewed by employees) that influence organisational commitment in one of the retail and clothing organisation. the findings (based on the literature and the information gathered) indicate that organisational commitment plays an important role towards the intended strategic objectives of the organisation. it, however, has to be acknowledged that organisational commitment is a complicated concept and the study of it, a tedious one. over the years researchers have been struggling with and disagreeing about what commitment entailed and how it could be measured. roodt (2004) indicated that a number of researchers (knoop, 1986; morrow, 1983; morrow & mcelroy, 1986; o’reilly & chatman, 1986; rabinowitz & hall, 1977) cited in meyer and allen (1991) have pointed out that research in the wider arena of employee commitment has not evolved in a logical, coherent and progressive fashion. this resulted in concept redundancy and concept contamination. the findings of the study also suggest that the link between commitment and other factors is conspicuous and indisputable, making it almost impossible to study the concept independently. remuneration appears to be a serious issue in the organisation in question. the majority of employees were not satisfied with what they were paid and believed that, that affected their level of commitment severely. the alarming number of complains around the issues does not mean management should just increase salaries without reviewing the policy on remuneration. there are other factors that might have an impact on the issues, such as individual’s financial management skills, proper life style planning and the cost of living. to address this issue management should review the policy on remuneration and also arrange life skills workshops for employees, to assist them with planning. the level of morale in the organisation is also important as it determines the extent to which employees are ready to go, in terms of committing themselves to the set objectives of the organisation. management needs to diagnose the situation by means of using organisational development tools (.e.g. climate survey) to understand the root-cause of the lower level of morale experienced in the organisation. a solution to this problem is critical because of the impact it might have on the overall productivity. also, workshops on motivation can be arranged to assist employees to believe in themselves, be innovative and participate in the activities taking place in their workplace. employees also indicated that their career development is a matter of serious concern. this ties in nicely with what mason, chua, roux and kaye, 1999; garavan, morley, gunnigle and collins, 2001) cited in meyer & allen (2001) found, namely: that despite the shift in ultimate responsibility and ownership, the value of investing in a comprehensive career-development process is still widely recognised and informed by needs such as attracting and retaining high-performing employees, the need to instil a mindset of continuous learning, and to improve employee satisfaction with opportunities for career growth. garavan et al. (2001) and mason et al. (1999) cited in meyer & herscovitch (2001). through performance management system, relevant training and career path should be identified, and be made available and accessible to employees, to ensure personal and ultimately, organisational growth. the issue of leadership in the organisation is also a concern. employees prefer to be led by people with profound knowledge and skills in the organisation. they complained about people with questionable leadership styles, people who targeted them during reviews instead of building them up. they preferred to be consulted when decisions were taken, especially those that affected them. this supports (amabile, 1993, conger and kanungo 1988 & spreitzer, 1996 cited in ramus & steger 2000), whose findings recognised the role of managerial support in employee empowerment, referring to it as “the motivational concept of employees’ feelings (self-efficacy) that can influence their work performance”. management needs to look into this issue with resolute interest because of the inf luence leaders have in the organisation and the value attached to their roles. change management interventions focusing on interpersonal relations and relationship building needs to be considered to address this issue. leadership development workshops can also be used to equip leaders with necessary skills, tactics, and knowledge necessary to achieve the organisational goals. without proper leadership, the organisations is unlikely to reach the desired stage, mainly because when the level of commitment drops no one will be there to drive the organisation into the right direction. quite a number of employees also mentioned the fact that the nature of their jobs also affected their commitment. challenging jobs that were not complicated were preferred by most as opposed to dull and routine jobs. management needs to (depending on the departmental policies) introduce a rotation system to deal with the problem of boredom. if rotating employees is not an option, then job functions can be redesigned, enriched or upgraded. employee training was also believed to provide an opportunity for advancement and might boost their sense of selfworth, thereby building a stronger affective commitment. employees mentioned the fact that they needed relevant training to sharpen their skills and boost their confidence. the findings by agarwal & ferratt (1999) and tsui et al (1995) supported this, and particularly their point that “the primary mechanism by which training is predicted to increase organisational commitment is through increased self-worth and importance”. p.311. management should also look into training needs analysis (tna) to ensure that the right person receives the right training. performance reviews should be used with the aim of achieving its main purpose. it should be used to assist managers to close the gaps and identif y areas that still need development. to ensure that employees and their managers fully understand the system, management needs to provide them with training and supporting documents around performance management and development system. on the positive side, most participating employees believed that, to a certain extent, they were doing their best to help the organisation achieve its set goals. they felt at home at this organisation, and attributed that to the welcoming environment (which includes the psychical side: the perceived safe area and decent building). most believed that they were treating each other with courtesy and respect (the human side) because they understood and cared for each other. some attributed that to regular unit team-building sessions that normally takes place within the organisation. management should ensure that the practice continue, as it yields prolific results necessary to enhance organisational commitment. the study afforded employees the platform to vent their concerns and share their frustrations. it is therefore recommended that employees’ views on organisational commitment 43 management use the findings and recommendations of this study to curb the gaps within the organisation. given the nature of the labour market today, where change is constant and the complexity surrounding commitment, further research of a similar kind is clearly required to further demystif y issues that were not covered, clearly explained or explored to a satisfactory level, in the study described here. reference agarwal, r. & ferratt, t.w. (1999). coping with labour scarcity in it strategies and practices for effective recruitment and retention. pinnaflex: cincinnati, oh. allen, n.j & meyer, j.p (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organisation. journal of occupational psychology, 63, 1-18 allen, n.j & smith, j (1987). an investigation of extra-role behaviours within organizations. journal of occupational psychology, 37, 645-659. amabile, t.m. (1993) motivation synerg y: towards new conceptualisations of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the workplace. human resources management review, 3, 185201. athens, l.a. (1984). scientific criteria for evaluating qualitative studies. in n.k. denzin (ed.), studies in symbolic interaction. greenwich: jai press bailyn, l. & lynch, j. (1983). engineering as a life-long career: it’s meaning, its satisfaction and its difficulties. journal of occupational behaviour, 4, (2), 263-283 becker, h.s. (1960). notes on concept of commitment. american journal of sociology, 66, 32-42. becker, t.e. & billing, r.s. (1992). profiles of commitment: an empirical test. journal of organisational behaviour, 14, 177190. bolino, mc & turnley, w.h (2003). going the extra mile: cultivating and managing employee citizenship behaviour. academy of management executive, 17 (3), 60-72. brickman, p. (1987). commitment. in b. wortman & r. sorrentino (eds.), commitment, conflict and caring (p.1-18). englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. brown, r.b. (1996). organisational commitment: clarif ying the concept and simplif ying the existing construct typology. journal of vocational behaviour, 49, 230-251. carson, k.d; carson, p.p., birkenmeier, b.j & phillips, j. s. (1999). four commitment profiles and their relationship to empowerment, service recovery and work attitudes. public personnel management, 28, 1-11. cataldo, p., van assen, j. & d’alessandro, a. (2000). how to win the telecom talent war: companies can retain a best-in-class workforce in a highly competitive labour market using a knowledge-based approach that emphasises continuous learning. america’s network, 104, (11), 55. chambers, e.g. (1998). win the war for top talent. workforce, 77, (12), 50-56. chang, e. (1999). career commitment as a complex moderator of organisational commitment and turnover intention. human relations, 52, (10), 1257-1278 cohen, a. (1993) on the discriminant validity of the meyer & allen (1984) erasure of organisational commitment: how does it fit with the work commitment construct? organisational behaviour, vol.14, p.82-91. conger, j.a. & kanungo, r.n. (1988). the empowerment process: integration theory and practice. academy of management review, 13, 471-482. cougar, j.d. & zawacki, r.a. (1980). motivating and managing computer personnel: new york . wiley. denzil, n.k. & lincoln, y.s (ed). (1994). handbook of qualitative research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. denzil, n.k & lincoln, y.s. (ed) (2000) handbook of qualitative research 2nd edition. thousand oaks, ca: sage. eby, l.t. adams, d.m. russel, j.e.a. & gaby, s.h. (2000). perceptions of organisational readiness for change. factors related to employees’ reaction to the implementation of team-based selling. human relations, 53 (3), 419-442. farris, g.f. (2000) rewards and retention of technical staff. ieee international engineering management conference, 617-619. hall, d.t, schneider, b & nygren, h.t. (1970). personal factors in organisational identification. administrative science quarterly, 15, 176-190. higginbotham, j.s. (1997). the satisfaction equation. research & development, 39, (10),1-9. hrebiniak, l.g. & alutto, j.a. (1972). personal and role related factors in the development of organisational commitment. administrative science quarterly, 17, 555-573. huselid, m.a. (1995) the impact of human resources management practises on turnover, productivit y and corporate financial performance. academy of management journal, 38, 635-672 jiang, j.j. & klein, g. (2001). supervisor and career anchor on the career satisfaction of the entry-level information systems professional. journal of management information system, 16, 3,219-240 kanter, r.m. (1968). commitment and social organisations. a study of commitment mechanisms in utopian communities. american sociological review, 33, 499-517. katz, d. (1964). the motivational basis of organizational behaviour. behavioural science, 9, 131-146. katz, r. & allen, t.j. (1997). managing dual career ladder systems in rd&e settings. in the human side of managing technological innovation, r katz (ed.), new york: oxford university press. kelman, h.c (1958). compliance, identification, internalisation: three processes attitude change. journal of conf lict resolution, 2, 51-60. kreitener, r & kinicki, a. (2001). organisational behaviour (5th ed) new york mc'graw-hill. kochanski, j. & ledford, g. (2001). “how to keep me”-retaining technical professionals. research technology management, 44, (3) 31-38. marsh, r.m. & mannari, h. (1977). organisational commitment and turnover: a predictive study. administrative science quarterly, 22, 57-75. marx, e. (1996). the influence of task and role characteristics on organisational commitment. unpublished dissertation m.com. (human resources management). pretoria: university of pretoria. mastekaasa, a (2004) organisational commitment among public and private sector. preliminary version, oslo: oslo university college. mathieu j.e & zajac, d (1990). a review and meta analysis of the antecedents, correlates and consequences of organisational commitment. psychological bulletin, 108, 171-194. mcelroy, j.c. (2001). managing workplace commitment by putting people first. human resources management review, 11, p.327-335. meyer, j.p. & allen, n.j. (1984). testing the “side-bet theory” of organisational commitment: some methodolo-gical considerations. journal of applied psychology, 69 (3), 372-378. meyer, j. p. & allen, n. j (1991) a three component conceptualisation of organisational commitment. human resources management review, 1, 61-89. meyer, j. p. & allen, n. j. (1997). commitment in the workplace: theory, research and application. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications ltd. meyer, j. p, allen, n. j. & gellantly, i. r. (1990). affective and continuance commitment to the organisation: evaluation of measures and analysis of concurrent and time-lagged relations. journal of applied psychology, 75, 710-720. meyer, j. p, allen, n.j. & smith, c. a. (1993). commitment to organisational and occupations: extension and test of three component conceptualisation. journal of applied psychology, 78, 538-551. lesabe, nkosi44 meyer, j. p & herscovitch, l. (2001). commitment in the workplace: towards a general model. human resources management review, 11, 299-326 moorhead, j & griffin, r (1995). organisational behaviour; managing people and organisations (4th ed) boston: houghton miffin company. mowday, r. t, porter, l. w & steers, r (1982). organisational linkages, psychology of commitment, absenteeism and turnover. san diego, ca: academic press. oliver, n. (1990). reward, investment, alternatives and organisational commitment: empirical evidence and theoretical development. journal of occupational psychology. 63, 19-31. o’reilly, c.a & chatman, j. (1986). organisational commitment and psychological attachment: the effects of compliance, identification and internalisation on pro-social behaviour. journal of applied psychology, 71 (3): 492-499 paré, g, tremblay, m & lalonde, p. (2001). the role of organisational commitment and citizenship behaviours in understanding relations between human resources practises and turnover intensions of it personnel. canada: scientific series #2001a-24 cirano, montreal. punch, m (1994). politics and ethics in qualitative research. handbook of qualitative research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. raghunathan, b, raghunathan, t & tu, q (1998). an empirical analysis of the organisational commitment of information systems executives. international journal of management sciences, 26, 5, 569-580. ramus, c.a & steger, u (2000) the roles of supervisory support behaviour and environmental policy in employees “ecoinitiatives” at leading edge european companies. academy of management journal, 43, (4), 605-626. randall, d.m, fedor, d,b & longenecker, c.o. (1990) the behaviour expression of organisational commitment. journal of vocational behaviour, 36, 210-224. reicher, a. e. (1986). conflict and organisational commitment. journal of applied psychology, 71, 508-514 robinson, s 1996. trust and breach of the psychological contract. administrative science quarterly, vol.41, p.574-599. robinson, s, kraunt, m. & rossouw, d. (1994). changing obligations and the psychological contract: a longitudinal study. academy of management journal, 37, (1),137-152. rogers, e. w. (2001). a theoretic look at firm performance in high technology organisation: what does existing theory tell us? journal of high technology management research, 12, 39-42. rollinson, d, broadfield, a & edwards, d. j. (1998). an integrated approach. eddison-wesley longman limited-london. roodt, g. (2004). concept redundancy and contamination in employee commitment research: current problems and future directions. sa journal of industrial psychology, 30. salancik, g.r. (1982). commitment and the control of organisational behaviour and belief. in b.m. shawn, g.r salancik (ed), new directions in organisational behaviour (pp.1-54). malabar, florida: robert e, knegler publishing company, inc sano, y (1999). commitment, www.itbp.com/hrm/iebm/ commitment.htm. scholl, r. w. 1981. differentiating commitment from expectancy and motivating force. academy of management review, 6, 589-599. schurink, w (2004). qualitative research: considerations when choosing a qualitative style of research. pretoria (unpublished qualitative research: lecture doc.) schurink, w. (2004). qualitative research: designing qualitative study. pretoria (unpublished qualitative research: lecture doc). sheldon, m. e. (1971). investments and involvements as mechanisms producing commitment to the organisation. administrative science quarterly, 16. smith, c. p. (1992). motivation and personality: handbook for thematic content analysis. cambridge: cambridge university press. spreitzer, g. m (1996). social structural characteristics of psychological empowerment and validation. academy of management journal, 38, 1442-1465 taylor, s.j. & bogdan, r. (1984). introduction to qualitative research methods: the search for meanings. 2nd edition. new york: wiley. thomas, k. w. & velthouse, b. a. (1990). cognitive elements of empowerment: an interpretative model of intrinsic task motivation. academy of management review, 15, 667-681. tomlinson, a. (2002). high technology workers want respect: survey. canadian human resources reporter, 15, (3), 2. tsui, a. s, pearce, j. l. porter, l. w. & hite, j. p (1995). choice of employee organisational relationships: influence on internal and external factors. greenwich, c. t jai press. wiener, y. (1982). commitment in organisations: a normative view. academy of management review, 7, 418-428. wiener, y. & gechman, a. s. (1977). commitment: a behavioural approach to job involvement. journal for vocational behaviour, 10, 47-57. 1debraine.qxd great leaders throughout the history of man have won battles, called the command of nations and won the respect and admiration of their followers based on their character. people today are seeking to follow leaders that not only demonstrate the necessary leadership competencies, but also leaders that exhibit character, integrity, courage and consideration (covey, 1997). character communicates consistency, potential and respect to followers (maxwell, 1998). followers then emulate their leaders, which inevitably contributes to the building of character at all organisational levels, and ultimately strengthens the organisation and its bottom-line (turknett, turknett & mccusker, 2006). this provides the impetus for this study’s exploration of what influences the development of character in leaders. the researchers’ interest in studying the development of character in leaders was also roused by a statement made by joseph badarocco (1997, p. 2), a leading authority on business ethics. he stated that leaders are suffering from a “dirty hands problem”. badarocco derived this from jean paul sartre, a french philosopher, who made use of this metaphor in his play of the same name, in which he demonstrated how leaders involve themselves in activities that are morally destructive. major corporations such as enron, worldcom, global crossing, anderson consulting and tyco (klann, 2003; miller, 2004; storey, 2003) have seen their leaders suffer from this “dirt y hands problem.” these organisations, along with others, fell prey to the greed of their leaders in various forms, ranging from "massaging” numbers (“managed earnings”) to outright fraud (beatt y, ewing & tharp, 2003). these examples of leadership crisis partially stems from the crisis of character in individual leaders (sankar, 2003). this has resulted in employees losing their jobs, companies filing for bankruptcy (storey, 2003), the loss of employee life savings plans (gray & clark, 2002), increased levels of cynicism and suspicion (farmer, 2005), and public disenchantment (storr, 2004). this leadership crisis could be attributed to leaders choosing to operate out of what cashman (1998) calls persona (leading on the outside), which limits possibilities and potentialities and which is guided by control, fear, self-interest and winning at all costs. instead, cashman states that people should be leading out of character (leading from the inside-out), which opens up possibilities and potentialities and allows a leader to be guided by authenticity, purpose, openness, trust and compassion. this problem is further exacerbated by the spirit of this age which revolves around material gain and a consumer mentality (maxwell, 2002). this consumer drive has caused leaders to pursue performance goals, whereby they forget that enduring positive influence depends on the “type of people they are and not merely on power, titles and positions” (klann, 2003, p. 4). of the many leadership theories that exist today, there are a few that place significant emphasis on the type of people that leaders are and the importance of character or elements thereof. one such theory is the personal and professional leadership perspective (pipl). smith (2004), the founder of pipl, states that personal leadership begins with knowing where one stands now as a leader. to become a personal leader, requires a person to become principle-centered, character–based and to lead from the inside-out (covey, 1994). according to verrier (2004) personal leadership in the pipl context forms the foundation for interaction with people (interpersonal leadership) and also for professional leadership that is based on teamwork, relationship building and empathic listening. authentic leadership is also an important perspective taken into consideration in this study. according to luthans and avolio (2003), cited in ilies, morgeson and nahrgang (2005, p. 376), authentic leadership is defined as a process that combines positive leader capacities and a highly developed organisational context. luthans and avolio (2003) further hold that the authentic leader displays confidence, hopefulness, optimism, moralit y, and fut ure-orientedness and gives priorit y to developing associates to be leaders. servant leadership is another form of leadership that considers character to be important. to be a servant leader requires “serving with compassion and heart” and enriching and empowering participants (jaworski & senge, 1996, p. 60). servant leaders also demonstrate empathy, self-awareness and commitment to the growth of people, according to larry spears (2006), the chief executive officer of the greenleaf center for ser vant leadership. the abovementioned attributes associated with the description of personal leaders, authentic leaders and servant leaders are all considered important elements of character. integrity, a character element, is also regarded as an important attribute for leadership (maxwell, 2002). according to covey (2004), integrity is one of the three facets of personal character, together with maturity and an abundance mentality. he states that these provide the foundation for great achievement and roslyn de br aine roslynd@uj.ac.za department of human resource management university of johannesburg derek verrier derek@nurcha.org.za nurcha abstract the purpose of this study was to explore (1) what organisational leaders consider to be character elements of leaders within the workplace, (2) what influences leaders’ character development, and (3) how an organisation can continue the process of character development. the literature review and findings revealed that leadership, integrity, industriousness, empathy, loyalty, optimism, fairness and compassion are the most sought after character elements within leaders in the workplace. leadership and integrity were found to be the most supported character elements. the findings also indicate that work environmental factors, a person’s own efforts, and the daily experiences of work life contribute towards character development. key words character, leadership, development, integrity, virtues, strengths leadership, character and its development: a qualitative exploration 1 sa journal of human resource management, 2007, 5 (1), 1-10 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2007, 5 (1), 1-10 trust. integrity is also considered a challenge that organisations face in managing ethical behaviour (rossouw & van vuuren, 2003). ethically led organisations display stronger organisational culture, lower levels of staff turnover and increased employee effort (storr, 2004). this in turn supports the organisation to fulfill what bellingham (2003) calls an external moral responsibility towards customers and the greater community in which trading occurs. certain character elements, such as perseverance, for instance, is known to increase one’s chances of attaining difficult goals, improving skills and resourcefulness, enhancing self-efficacy and is considered to be a key personal characteristic required for successful entrepreneurship (peterson & seligman, 2004). other examples include curiosity and the love of learning; both having a positive relationship with leadership development (peterson & seligman, 2004). self-knowledge and a strong belief in oneself, for example, are known to enable one to achieve career maturity (coetzee, 2006). the above discussion suggests that greed, the spirit of this age, and leaders leading out of persona, not character, has caused the downfall of many organisations. one of the remedies to this problem is to create work environments that optimize the development of character in people. although character forms from experiences and influences in childhood and adolescence, character development is a continuous life-long process, some of it occurring within the workplace (klann, 2003). the threefold aim of this article is to explore what organisational leaders consider to be the key character elements of leaders, what influences leaders’ character development, and how organisations can continue the process of character development in their leaders. in order to address the above questions, a literature review was conducted, in which character was defined and its constituent elements explored. thereafter empirical interviews with leaders were carried out to further address the above research aims. what is character? in the early 5th century bc the greeks held that character was a distinguishing mark of an individual’s ideals and conduct as judged in terms of values and strength of will (halsey & friedman, 1981, p. 700). the great greek philosopher aristotle held that there are two kinds of human excellences: excellences of thought, and excellences of character. excellences of character – ethikai aretai – is usually translated as “moral virtue(s)” or “moral excellences.” the greek word ethikos (ethical) is the adjective cognate with ethos, which is character (stanford encyclopedia of philosophy, 2003). aristotle also viewed good character as the life of right conduct – right conduct in relation to other persons and in relation to oneself (lickona, 1994). this view is supported by nucci (1997) and wynne and walberg (cited in huitt, 2004). aristotle held that character consists of moral virtues, these being self-oriented virtues (such as self-control and moderation) as well as other-oriented virtues (such as generosity and compassion) (lickona, 1994). thomas lickona (1994), a moral educationist, also supports the aristotelian notion of character. he argues that character consists of operative values, being values in action and that people progress in their character as a value becomes a virtue (a reliable inner disposition to respond to situations in a morally good way). this notion of operative values is supported by leadership writers manning and curtis (2003, p. 93); they state that “character is based on a value system that is known, cherished, stated and lived habitually.” some theorists, specifically in the field of psychology, view character as the accumulation of traits or habits required to live a successful life. corsini’s definition (1999, p. 155) considers character to be the total qualities or traits, particularly characteristic of the moral, social and religious attitudes of a person. positive psychologists define character in terms of positive traits that have emerged across cultures and throughout history as important for a good life (park, 2004, p. 46). character is also perceived as consisting of habits (baumrind, 1998, p. 4, cited in park, 2004). baumrind holds that “character refers to such positive and cultivated habits such as social responsibility, moral commitment, self-discipline and resoluteness by which constellation the whole person is judged to be deficient, adequate, or exemplary.” smith (2005, p. 4) considers character to be an expression of one’s moral orientation, willpower, conscience and principles. crystallizing the above definitions of character, into a single, composite definition, the researchers define character as follows: character refers to positive and cultivated traits that become habits by which the whole person is judged to be exemplary. so far in the discussion of the various definitions or views of character from various scientific disciplines, character is seen in various ways as the accumulation of “moral virtues” or “operative values” or “positive traits” or “cultivated habits.” for the purposes of this article these various ways of viewing character will be termed “elements of character.” what follows then, is a brief explanation and listing of what a few theorists, particularly in the field of psychology, education and leadership believe to be the constituent elements of character. these theorists have done extensive research on character and its development and are therefore regarded to be authoritative on the topic. the constituent elements of character positive psychology’s hierarchical classification scheme of character, as expounded by peterson and seligman (2004), as based on the literature review, is one of the most comprehensive and easy to understand categorizations of character traits. their classification scheme of character is modelled on the linnaean classification of species and distinguishes three conceptual levels of character as follows: � conceptual level 1: virtues. these are the core characteristics valued by moral philosophers and religious thinkers: – wisdom and knowledge: cognitive strengths that entail the acquisition and use of knowledge. – courage: emotional strengths that involve the exercise of will to accomplish goals in the face of opposition, external or internal – humanity: interpersonal strengths that involve tending and befriending others – justice: civic strengths that underlie healthy community life – temperance: strengths that protect against excess – transcendence: strengths that forge connections to the larger universe and provide meaning. (table 1 overleaf provides a brief description of the associated character strengths of each of the above virtues.) � conceptual level 2: character strengths. these are the psychological ingredients – processes or mechanisms that define the virtues. they are distinguishable routes to displaying one or another of the virtues. (listed in table 1) � conceptual level 3: situational themes. these are the specific habits that lead people to manifest given character strengths in given situations. de br aine, verrier2 table 1 classification of virtues and character strengths virtue associated character strengths wisdom & creativity (originality, ingenuity): thinking of novel and knowledge productive ways to conceptualize and do things; includes artistic achievement but is not limited to it. curiosity (interest, novelty-seeking, and openness to experience): taking an interest in ongoing experience for its own sake; finding subjects and topics fascinating; exploring and discovering. open-mindedness (judgement, critical thinking): thinking things through and examining them from all sides; not jumping to conclusions; being able to change one’s mind in light of evidence; weighing all evidence fairly. love of learning: mastering new skills, topics, and bodies of knowledge, whether on one’s own or formally; obviously related to the strength of curiosity but goes beyond it to describe the tendency to add systematically to what one knows. perspective (wisdom): being able to provide wise counsel to others; having ways of looking at the world that make sense to oneself and to other people. courage bravery (valour): not shrinking from threat, challenge, difficulty, or pain; speaking up for what is right even if there is opposition; acting on convictions even if unpopular; includes physical bravery but is not limited to it. persistence (perseverance, industriousness): finishing what one starts; persisting in a course of action in spite of obstacles; “getting it out the door”; taking pleasure in completing tasks. integrity (authenticity, honesty): speaking the truth but more broadly presenting oneself in a genuine way and acting in a sincere way; being without pretense; taking responsibility for one’s feelings and actions. vitality (zest, enthusiasm, vigour, energy): approaching life with excitement and energy; not doing things halfway or halfheartedly; living life as an adventure; feeling alive and activated. humanity love: valuing close relations with others, in particular those in which sharing and caring are reciprocated; being close to people. kindness (generosity, nurturance, care, compassion, altruistic love, “niceness”): doing favours and good deeds for others; helping them; taking care of them. social intelligence (emotional intelligence, personal intelligence): being aware of the motives and feelings of other people and oneself; knowing what to do to fit into different social situations; knowing what makes other people tick. justice citizenship (social responsibility, loyalty, teamwork): working well as a member of a group or team; being loyal to the group; doing one’s share. fairness: treating people the same according to notions of fairness and justice; not letting personal feelings bias decisions about others; giving everyone a fair chance. leadership: encouraging a group of which one is a member to get things done and at the same time maintain good relations within the group; organising group activities and seeing that they happen. temperance forgiveness and mercy: forgiving those who have done wrong; accepting the shortcomings of others; giving people a second chance; not being vengeful. humility/modesty: letting one’s accomplishments speak for themselves; not seeking the spotlight; not regarding oneself as more special than one is. prudence: being careful about one’s choices; not taking undue risks; not saying or doing things that might later be regretted. self-regulation (self-control): regulating what one feels and does; being disciplined; controlling one’s appetites and emotions. transcenappreciation of beauty and excellence (awe, wonder, dence elevation): noticing and appreciating beauty, excellence, and/or skilled performance in various domains of life, from nature to art to mathematics to science to everyday experience. gratitude: being aware of and thankful for the good things that happen; taking time to express thanks. hope (optimism, future-mindedness, and futureorientation): expecting the best in the future and working to achieve it; believing that a good future is something that can be brought about. humour (playfulness): liking to laugh and tease; bringing smiles to other people; seeing the light side; making (not necessarily telling) jokes. spirituality (religiousness, faith, purpose): having coherent beliefs about the higher purpose and meaning of the universe; knowing where one fits within the larger scheme; having beliefs about the meaning of life that shape conduct and provide comfort. source: peterson and seligman (2004, pp. 29-30) according to barnard (2003, p. 22) humans have the potential for morality, the ability to choose between “good” or “bad”. lickona (1994) characterised the components of good character in three interrelated parts: moral knowing (knowing the good), moral feeling (desiring the good) and moral behaviour (doing the good), as shown in table 2. table 2 components of good character moral knowing moral component description 1. moral awareness people often don’t see a situation that involves a moral issue and that requires moral judgement. people use their intelligence to see when a situation requires moral judgement. 2. knowing moral values gets passed from one generation to another; ethical literacy and its application requires knowing these values. 3. perspective taking this is the ability to take the viewpoint of other people, see a situation as they see it, and imagine how they might think, react and feel. it is a prerequisite for moral judgement. 4. moral reasoning involves understanding what it means to be moral and why we should be moral. growth is gradual and children learn what counts as good moral reason and what does not count. respect the intrinsic worth of every individual. 5. decision-making thinking one’s way through a moral problem. asking the questions: what are my choices and what are the consequences? moral feeling 1. conscience a mature conscience includes : a sense of moral obligation and the capacity for constructive guilt. 2. self-esteem a healthy measure of self-esteem helps us to value ourselves and be less dependent on the approval of others. self positive regard has a positive correlation with treating others positively. 3. empathy this is identification with, or vicarious experience of, the state of another person/ emotional side of perspective taking. 4. loving the good the highest form of character includes being genuinely attracted to the good. when people love the good, they take pleasure in doing good. they have a morality of desire, not just a morality of duty. part of the moral potential of ordinary people, even children. 5. self-control emotion can overwhelm reason, that’s one reason why self-control is a necessary moral virtue. selfcontrol helps us to be ethical even when we don’t want to. it is also necessary to curb selfindulgence. moral action 1. competence moral competence is having the ability to turn moral judgement and feeling into effective moral action. 2. will the right choice in a moral situation is usually the hard one. will is the mobilizing of moral energy to do what we think we should. it takes will to keep emotion under the control of reason. it takes will to see and think through all the moral dimensions of a situation. it takes will to put duty before pleasure. will is the core of moral courage. 3. habit moral conduct benefits from habit. source: lickona (1991, pp. 53-62) mcelmeel (2002), a moral educationist, lists the following character traits: caring, confidence, courage, curiosity, flexibility, friendship, goal setting, humility, humour, initiative, integrity, patience, perseverance, positive attitude, problem-solving, selfdiscipline and teamwork. leadership character development 3 another prominent writer on character is covey (1994). according to covey exhibiting the character ethic truly allows one to experience true success and enduring happiness. the principles of the character ethic include integrity, humility, fidelity, temperance, courage, justice, patience and industry. certain character traits have been identified as important for the workplace and specifically for leaders. sankar (2003), for instance, maintains that a leader’s character should be grounded on core values such as integrity, trust, truth and human dignity which influence the leader’s vision, ethics and behaviour. this stance is supported by the josephson institute (2006). they hold that there are six core ethical values associated with character, namely: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. john adair (2003) mentions that there are certain qualities that are the hallmarks of good leaders: integrity, enthusiasm, warmth, calmness, being tough but fair and courage. from the above exposition of the constituent elements of character, as proposed by various expert authors, the researchers propose that character be classified, using the following dimensions: � cognitive dimensions (evident in the virtues wisdom and knowledge and their associated character strengths and also encompassing moral knowing) � emotional dimension (evident in the virtues courage and humanity and their associated character strengths) � spiritual dimension (evident in the virtue transcendence and its associated character strengths) � social dimension (evident in the virtues courage, humanity, justice and temperance and their associated character strengths) the researchers further suggest that the above dimensions are interdependent. this assertion is based on smith’s (2004) life dimension’s model. as the various character elements become cultivated habits in the life of person, a person’s behaviour becomes exemplary. the question then arises, what influences the cultivation or development of character in individuals? empirical studies are available that have looked at the development of certain character strengths. however, there are no investigations of the development of character as a family of positive traits – a multidimensional construct (park, 2004). what follows then is a brief explanation of the different perspectives on character development. it is by no means exhaustive but for the purposes of this article, a brief description of each approach to character development is given. character development character development is a process in which the character of an individual develops from the possibilities which nature supplies and within the framework of environmental or cultural factors. character, however, is also a unique achievement contributed to by an individual’s creativeness, effort and striving (halsey & friedman, 1981, p. 700). psychological approaches to character development take into consideration environmental and cultural factors. psychological approaches: according to park (2004), there are a variety of influences that contribute to the development of good character. one such influence is parenting styles, particularly the authoritative parenting style, which has been consistently associated with childrens’ prosocial behaviours like sharing with peers, selfcontrol and self-confidence. secondly, positive role modelling, coupled with appropriate reinforcement, is known to facilitate prosocial behaviours such as sharing, helping and being a good team-mate. social observational learning occurs due to the operant and cognitive principles at work indicated by the observation of others, reinforcement, and the use of rewards (jordaan & jordaan, 1998). close relationships with family members and friends also perform a role in the development of good character (park, 2004). sibling relationships, for example, provide opportunities for children to develop character strengths like social intelligence and social problem-solving skills. park also holds that moral education in schools enhances moral thinking, specifically among high school students. a cultural-social approach or framework to moral development can also be taken (haste, markoulis & helkamal, 1999). according to anderson (1997), nearly all societies have instruction and “rites of passage” which are intended to mould the character of a child into a loyal and productive citizen. park (2004) maintains that moral culture and values of societies and communities influence character development. the character of humans then becomes “social in its institution” (hunter, 2000, p. 15). moral development occurs as the individual’s skill in managing the moral expectations of his or her culture grows which is finally expressed through linguistic and symbolic practices (haste et al., 1999). kohlberg’s theory on moral development is also of relevance here (barger, 2000). kohlberg held that most moral development occurs through social interaction and that the progression of moral reasoning occurs through six identifiable stages. his theory focused on the development of cognitive processes, especially reasoning about obligation, rights and justice (haste et al., 1999). kohlberg also stated that the majority of adults never reach stage six in moral development (barger, 2000). this stage is characterised by respect for universal principles and the demands of social conscience. moral development can be advanced educationally, using social interaction, cognitive conflict, a positive moral atmosphere and democratic participation (kohlberg, 1969, cited in mcdaniel, 1998). lifespan developmental psychology’s stance on development supports kohlberg’s idea that development occurs through continual change and transformation through successively complex systems or stages (haste et al., 1999). adults are expected to show more integrated and elaborate morality, but not all adults show equal levels of ‘moral maturity’ (haste et al., 1999, p. 318). philosophical approaches to character development also consider the influence that social interaction and political institutions has on moral development. philosophical approaches: aristotle and plato held that education of our emotional responses is crucial for the development of virtuous character (stanford encyclopaedia of philosophy, 2003). aristotle states that virtue is the state that makes a human being good and makes him perform his function well. he believes that the virtuous person is characterised by a nonstereotypical self-love. self-love is developed and preserved through friendships in which individuals come to desire the good of others’ own sakes and political institutions that promote the conditions under which self-love and friendship flourish (stanford encyclopaedia of philosophy, 2003). philosophy also views character development as being the responsibility of the individual. this is stipulated in the definition of character development according to halsey and friedman (1981, p. 700). virtues are seen as “an activity of the soul” (lickona, 1991, p. 51) and are acquired through trial and error (peterson & seligman, 2004, p. 46). immanuel kant’s doctrine of virtue, also provides some light into the development of character through a person’s own efforts. kant states that we are always fighting against the impulses and dispositions that oppose the moral law, therefore we need strength of will and selfmastery to fulfill our imperfect duties (stanford encyclopedia of philosophy, 2003). many people follow the moral law that is taught to them from their religious beliefs. consequently, character is also understood as being related to the religious attitudes of a person (corsini, 1999). a brief description of the major religions’ stances on moral virtues follows: de br aine, verrier4 religious approaches: judeo-christian judeo-christian virtues are promulgated and taught within the old and new testament of the bible, the religious text of followers of both judaism and christianity. the old testament has two sections that are particularly illustrative of virtues esteemed by jewish culture and christians: the ten commandments and the two books of proverbs that specifically instruct on the consequences of virtues and vices (peterson & seligman, 2004). virtues such as integrity, righteousness, humility and trustworthiness are advocated in proverbs. in the christian faith character development is believed to be brought about through trials and perseverance (romans 5:3-4 in niv). islam muslims obtain their moral teachings from the qu’ran, the muslim bible. some of the values espoused by the qu’ran include humility, modesty, control of passions and integrity (www.iad.org/islam). confucianism: there are four or five central virtues espoused in the tenets of confucianism: jen (translated as humanit y or humanheartedness or benevolence), yi (duty or justice or equity), li (etiquette or observance of the rites of ceremonious behaviour), zhi (wisdom or perspicacity), and possibly, xin (truthfulness or sincerity or good faith) (peterson & seligman, 2004). buddhism in buddhism it is taught that the strategy of the eightfold path to nir vana (the ultimate destiny of existence) and the philosophy behind it is known to invoke the core virtues of humanity, justice, temperance, transcendence and wisdom (peterson & seligman, 2004). hinduism the emphasis in hinduism is on personal virtues, such as selfdenial and renunciation; these promote self-improvement in the current life and potential for salvation or the attainment of a higher caste in the next life (peterson & seligman, 2004). biological approaches: lennick and kiel (2005) highlight the nature versus nurture debate. they use the analogy that we need moral software, the programming that our moral hardware relies on to make moral choices. like any other human capacit y, moralit y is a combination of our biology (our nature) and our experiences (nurture). they further hold that we grow morally through the interplay between our biological disposition to be empathetic and through our loving relationship with our parents. this is shown in the behaviour of six or seven year olds who are able to tell right from wrong and experience guilt when participating in activities that are wrong (lennick & kiel, 2005). temperament and personality also have a role to play in character development. investigations of temperament have shown how biologically-based individual differences in sociability, emotionality, and activity level channel subsequent personality development (park, 2004). twin studies of both adults and children have found that empathic behaviours and prosocial patterns of behaviours are heritable (park, 2004). one final thought to consider regarding the various perspectives discussed, which was put so succinctly by canella and monroe (1997, p. 2), is that “theorizing is imperfect.” therefore multiple perspectives are necessary to explain the complexit y surrounding character development in people. in summary of the above discussion, what is commonly found running through each approach is the influence that social interaction (with family, role models, friends, educators and political institutions) has on character development. the statement “character is social in its institution” (hunter, 2000, p. 15) can be reiterated here and is greatly applicable to the workplace which is also regarded as a social institution (wikipedia free encyclopedia, 2006). what follows next is a discussion of the possible ways that character develops in the workplace. character development in the workplace most organisations do not have “developing character” in mind when they plan leadership training and development programmes in their organisations. according to adair (2005), growing leaders transcends organisations, as leaders are developed in families, schools and universities; however, it is the responsibility of organisations to grow leaders. adair (2005) suggests that organisations should select candidates who have personal qualities of character, such as integrity, reliability and stability, leadership and teamwork abilities, decision-making abilities, communication abilities and self-management abilities. adair further states that these candidates should be trained and educated to work together in harmony to fulfill the generic role of a leader. as mentioned earlier, there is a lack of literature on the development of character as a multidimensional construct, however there have been studies done on the development of various elements of character, particularly in the workplace. as in the case of the study of the development of wisdom, hartman (2000), cited in peterson and seligman (2004), found that the accumulation of a wide range of adult experiences precedes the development of wisdom. these could include mentoring in the workplace and successful resolution of crises and hardship. another example is that of perseverance which develops through social support, receiving positive feedback and reward, and selfcontrol (peterson & seligman, 2004). individual integrity, for instance, is known to develop through social support provided by multiculturalism and diversity awareness (peterson & seligman, 2004). this is greatly applicable to the south african work context. there are, however, t wo leader character development approaches worth mentioning. klann (2003) proposes the five e’s approach: example (leaders lead by example), education (formal and informal training), environment (organization’s culture), experience (experiential training) and evaluation (feedback on developmental experience). khurana and snook (2004) prescribe another novel intervention to develop character in military cadets: inspire them to react emotionally to situations, getting cadets out of their comfort zones, and a structured reflection and meaning-making process to influence each cadet’s identity. a study conducted on perceived leader integrity and the ethical intentions of subordinates, revealed that subordinates who do not adhere to a belief in universal moral values, intentions to commit unethical acts decreased as the perceived integrity of their leaders increased (peterson, 2004). this presents a notion that the character of a leader has a direct influence on whether or not subordinates will commit unethical acts, thus indirectly developing character in the workplace. a leader of character can further influence his/her followers by communicating belief in employees, encouraging reciprocal disclosure of beliefs and goals, and contracting for mutual feedback and mutual accountability in their performance development initiatives (lennick & kiel, 2005). research design research approach with a definition of character in mind, having unpacked its constituent elements, and with an understanding of how character is developed, field work was undertaken to understand perceptions of character in the workplace, and how it is developed. to this end, a qualitative research design was selected. the design was primarily non-empirical, but was supported by a limited number of empirical interviews. leadership character development 5 research methodology participants six individuals, each from different work settings, were chosen for the study (refer to table 3). each of these individuals were considered by the researchers to be leaders of sound character. table 3 participant’s profile position sector/industry participant 1 chief executive officer information technology participant 2 director legal participant 3 senior pastor religious institution participant 4 group manager recruitment agency participant 5 salesperson information technology participant 6 chief operating officer recruitment agency methods of data gathering in-depth interviews using semi-structured questions were conducted at each of the participants’ workplaces. purposeful sampling was used as it allows one to “discover, understand, gain insight” through the selection of “a sample from which one can learn the most” (merriam, 1988, p. 48). generic considerations such as obtaining informed consent and protecting the participants, anonymity, and situation-specific issues were taken into account during the execution of the research (schurink, 2005). the following research questions were asked: � what are the prime elements/categories of character? � how does character develop? � how is your character revealed through your role as a leader? � describe the importance of character in leadership? � how does your organisation develop leaders? � what is the employers’ responsibility in developing character in future leaders? procedure a digital tape recorder and field notes were used to record the indepth interviews. thereafter, each tape recording was transcribed, analyzed, stored and safeguarded. data analysis themes that emerged were evaluated against the theories of the phenomenon of character development in leaders as reviewed above. the data was evaluated using the criteria postulated by lincoln and guba (1985, cited in roberts & llardi, 2003), which is credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. the data was analysed manually. results as with any qualitative study a large amount of rich data was generated. the data presented in table 4 refers to core character elements that the participants regarded as important for potential leaders and existing leaders to exhibit in their working lives. they are listed from the most frequently mentioned element to the least often mentioned element. all of the participants supported leadership as a character element; 80% supported integrit y; 50% industriousness, empathy and loyalty; 30% optimism, fairness and compassion and the remainder of the character elements were 10% supported. table 4 key character elements for leadership character element supporting extract leadership ‘i think another characteristic of a leader is enabling other people to do the job’; ‘lead by example’; ‘i find that if you’re a good leader, people will do almost anything for you and its not, it becomes not about the money, it becomes about the fulfillment of the individual, so if you self-satisf y people and give them fulfillment as a leader and inspire them they will do anything, i think you develop the work ethic’ integrity/faithfulness ‘people who are true to their word and who can be trusted under any conditions’; ‘consistency and passion in executing tasks is not congruent with consistency and passion in words’; ‘a lot to do with what they committed to and what they deliver after their commitment’ ‘faithful in the little things, such as obeying company rules eg. coming on time to work’ industriousness ‘the ethical side of character and also your ability to work hard and also produce high quality work, those three things go hand in hand’ empathy/emotional ‘how you get the best out of people and the leader is engagement only as good as his/her people’; ‘empathy i believe underpins all aspects of leadership, you have to fundamentally put yourself in someone else’s shoes to understand what their needs are in their positions, in order to really communicate effectively’; ‘understand what people under you are doing in their jobs, for example, wash dishes for a day, this enables getting a balanced perspective and builds respect from your subordinates’ loyalty/commitment ‘loyal to yourself, to others and to the company – protects the company image’; ‘an unselfish commitment to helping other people, fundamental around the concept of love’ optimism/positive ‘demonstrated in the passion that people display for attitude the company that they work for’; ‘leaders need to look at whether people will do more than they are asked’; ‘if things don’t go their way, character says, it doesn’t matter if things go your way or not your way, what is important to the company becomes important to you’ fairness ‘applying rules consistently’; ‘giving people equal opportunity’ compassion ‘the humane side that they need to deal with in terms of offering counseling’ love ‘service in the concept of love, unselfishly caring about, moving from those words service to the term customer service, this is universal and the principles that underpin these extends further into the concept development of people, maximizing people development and bringing the best out in people and watch them grow.’ humour ‘there's a lot of people that joke in the business , it is not unhealthy, as long as boundaries are managed and there is professionalism’ self-discipline ‘being accountable for every activity in the organisation, for example salesman that go out cannot always account for their time, requires self discipline’; ‘to adhere to the company’s policies and procedures’; ‘not doing what you want to do’ perseverance ‘perseverance is an inbred desire or passion for you to want to achieve something’ self-confidence ‘any decision that a leader makes you have to make it confidently, whether it is good or bad’ humility ‘should come out in the way we engage as leaders with people’; ‘never thinking that you are bigger or better than others, attitude of always place to learn’ self-knowledge ‘most people do not know their character strengths and weaknesses’; ‘they are dishonest with themselves’ initiative ‘aspiring to be’; ‘they don’t necessarily wait for others to develop them’ conscience ‘whether you acting right or wrong’ creativity ‘reinventing yourself’; ‘people coming up with new and innovative ideas’ spirituality ‘through pain you learn to discover where you draw strength from , inevitably it goes beyond yourself, your family, to your spiritual dimension’ de br aine, verrier6 the findings indicate that the leaders take their leadership roles seriously, as leadership was considered the most important character element by all the participants. the finding that integrity is the second most important character element asserts the belief that without it in leadership, there is no trust of followers (manning & curtis, 2003). the data presented in table 5 represents the participants’ understanding of the way character develops in life. table 5’s identified themes and supporting extracts reflects the participants’ recognition that environmental factors, such as a person’s upbringing and role models, influence character development. these findings support the literature reviewed. table 5 themes identified from participants’ understanding of the way character develops in life identified theme supporting extract person’s upbringing ‘bad or good childhood, each experience can be worthwhile’; ‘parents discipline you’ ‘starts with the role models that you engage with when you are at your earliest years of consciousness, that is your immediate family’; ‘your value system teaches you how to deal with different kinds of people’; ‘helps you to identify the difference between right and wrong’ role models ‘unselfishly caring about other people and that you have to build through experience of observing how other people, who you look up to’ value system ‘your value system teaches you how to deal with different kinds of people’; ‘helps you to identif y the difference between right and wrong’; ‘having positive role models’ ‘this provides a foundation of value that will help you through the challenges of life.’ self-discipline ‘example: training yourself to play soccer’; ‘you don’t realize it when you are young that your character is being built’ relationship with ‘your wife can discipline you’; ‘integrity and fidelity spouse go hand in hand’ church environment ‘you can be disciplined’ personal crisis and ‘the pain associated with anxiety causes you to think trauma long and hard about the issues and to work through they, inevitably become mature’; ‘you discover what is right from wrong’; ‘the crisis has to be constructively challenged’; ‘your character cannot develop if you don’t go through sometimes very negative circumstances’ religion ‘if you heed what the bible is telling you, you will not come off tracks’ table 6’s identified themes and supporting extracts reveal that work environmental factors such as difficult clients, good and bad superiors, and the nature of obeying company rules and procedures, each have a role to play in developing character. table 6 themes identified from participants’ understanding of character development in the workplace identified themes supporting extract stress ‘i guess it also builds character is how people deal with stress and stress related responses because obviously people deal with stress differently and some can handle it well and some can’t, also how emotionally engaged we are’ nature of clients/ ‘call centre clients have many challenges surrounding customers attrition, productivity, performance results, environments are very stressful, a blaming culture exists’; ‘some team members would make an effort to get to the bottom of get to what is driving the challenges and take that as a learning and character building experience’; ‘an attorney who does criminal law, with all respect to them, their minds are warped, because they are dealing with ...criminals, it actually gets difficult for those people to make an informed and correct decision, i’ve seen this happen, i refuse point blank to do criminal law’ difficulties with ‘difficult challenges, for example flexi staff passing staff members away, deaths; one needs to be quite strong to handle that, the administration obligation and humane obligation(counseling)’; ‘the other thing in character development in the workplace, is a the way people rub off good habits and bad habits’; ‘you have to develop a hard nose approach to those that have developed bad habits’; ‘dealing with people that steal and come late – handle such situations in an ethical manner (there’s no grey area) – hr guiding policy and disciplinary code’. good and bad ‘good and bad managers and its built my character as superiors a leader because you know it brings you back to the way you felt when you were treated in a certain way, as long as you never forget it and you apply it to the relevant work situation.’ company’s policies ‘the company’s policies and processes discipline an and procedures individual to behave in a certain way’. being disciplined ‘one can either rebel against it or accept it’; ‘accepting in the workplace discipline in a positive way builds character’ nature of job ‘a company builds your character in the nature of your job; they develop you solely for the purposes of the company; this is not sustainable as they are not working on the real character.’ work experience ‘i think people who can lead other people have been through areas and experienced, have been there and know what it feels like are therefore able to uplift and inspire people cause they know how it feels’; ‘one becomes wise and one gains more skills with experience’ community invest‘we have five modules of classroom training around ment programmes the very subjects of leadership, once our team leaders have been to the classroom and learnt the principles of leadership, we then ask that they engage with groups of underprivileged children and that they teach those principles’; ‘it builds self confidence, where you really feel good about yourself and make a difference to a young child, and not only that you build a culture of service when you engage with that group of children’; ‘so we’ve discovered that experiential learning and teaching underprivileged children is an incredibly powerful way teaching people empathy’ leadership develop‘it was a eight module process dealing ment programmes – with leadership, emotional maturity, includes mentoring, project management etc’ coaching, technical and soft-skill training. the participants also gave their viewpoints on the benefits of having a leader of character. in summary, they stated that companies that have leaders that exhibit character are more likely to “attract the right talent, customers and suppliers”, which in essence will lead or “translate” into “passion and commitment” from employees, business performance and ultimately the achievement of organisational goals. this in turn, will eventually lead to sustainability and stability through difficult, challenging and fast-moving work environments. the participants also believed that an organisation should maximize character development within the organisation, but that exclusive responsibility should not be taken for it. one participant held that it made “good commercial sense” and that “in order to deliver excellent customer service, to achieve profitable results for our shareholders we have to grow and develop the staff.” the participants held that it is the individual’s responsibility to take ownership of his/her character development, and that a company will develop your character only in terms of the nature of your job. one participant held that it is a leader’s responsibility to build a follower’s character for the purpose of taking a person to a higher level in life. this can be achieved through motivation and support. one participant held that his organisation focuses their development initiatives on the slogan ‘training for reigning.’ the participants were posed with the question, what roles do leaders play in developing employees’ character? they mentioned the following leadership responsibilities: employers leadership character development 7 should play a role in terms of guiding employees or adding to that building process of character development. one participant argued that “guiding means to help employees get on the right track, providing thoughts and tools for possibly enhancing character, but employees must ultimately take ownership.” they further stated that this can be achieved by creating a work environment that is optimal for character development, being a leader of character, building trust, teaching t wo-way communication, allowing employees to make mistakes and allowing employees to experiment. discussion leadership, integrit y, industriousness, empathy, loyalt y, optimism, fairness and compassion were regarded as the most important elements of character that are sought after in leaders in the workplace. in essence, table 4’s findings support the idea that to be a great leader means to lead out of character. leading out of character is complex as it requires the interrelationship between the various elements of character. if one considers peterson and seligman’s (2004) categorization of character strengths, and lickona’s (1991) components of good character, the following stands out: character depends on the interplay and harmonious working of the cognitive, emotional, spiritual, social and work dimensions of a person’s life. these dimensions, and the perspectives discussed in the literature review, provide a rich understanding of the complexit y surrounding character. the supporting extracts in table 5 and 6, regarding the way character is believed to develop in life and in the workplace specifically, can possibly be viewed as situational themes (specific habits that lead people to manifest given character strengths in given situations, as postulated by peterson and seligman (2004)). this confirms baumrind’s (1998) standpoint that character consists of cultivated habits. it is through the cultivation and display of “good habits” that one can see tangibly what character is. one can begin to understand manning and curtis’s (2003, p. 94) statement that “character is who you are” and that “you lead by virtue of who you are.” the following statement, made by one of the participants, “the way you honour people, the way you build people, all those type of things that you are they must see”, strengthens the above assertion. this assertion is further supported by scarnati (2002), who stated that everything a leader says, does, and every feeling that a leader expresses, is observed by others, and has an effect on the organisation. table 5 and 6 also serve to confirm that character development is a continuous life-long process, starting in early childhood and continuing through adulthood. it encompasses the influence of that which is inherent (moral software, temperament, cognitive ability), that which is an environmental influence (childhood, adolescence and adult life experiences), and a person’s own efforts, for example through the activation of “self-discipline”. what still stands, however, from the findings is that character development in an organisation rests upon the shoulders of the individual leader. leaders have to lead “by example”, inspire and develop employees. this is a crucial responsibility of the leader if one considers kohlberg’s standpoint that the majority of adults never reach stage six in moral development, a stage characterized by respect for universal principles and social conscience (barger, 2000). this concern is further heightened by a study that revealed that leaders that exhibit high perceived integrity and strong beliefs in universal moral rules are associated with lower intentions of employees to commit unethical acts (peterson, 2004). another point of importance that is reflected in the findings is that character development occurs through the daily work experience of leaders and employees interacting with one another, interacting with clients, performing one’s daily work tasks and dealing with complex challenges. however, it does require willingness and the openness on the part of the individual to develop him/herself. it is worth noting that, according to adair (2003, p. 10), all “leadership qualities can be developed – some more than others – by practice and experience”. jaworski and senge (1996, p. 7) view leadership development as a participation in an unfolding future that has more to do with our “being – our total orientation of character and consciousness – than with what we do.” the findings also indicate that organisations are willing to assist employees and future leaders in developing their character but they believe that the onus of character development rests with the individual. leaders and their organisations therefore play a supportive role by creating a work environment that is conducive for character development, as this creates a culture of service, and in the end, sustainability. the findings further highlight that leaders are seeking to develop employees with leadership potential who have the leadership attributes that adair (2005) mentions: leadership and teamwork, including qualities of personalit y and character, such as energ y, enthusiasm and initiative; decision-making; thinking skills in the applied forms of problem-solving, decision-making, and creative and innovative thinking; and communication skills (speaking, listening, writing, and reading). conclusion this study explored what organisational leaders consider to be the key character elements of leaders within the workplace and it was found that leadership, integrity, industriousness, empathy, loyalty, optimism, fairness and compassion were regarded as the most important elements of character that are sought after in leaders in the workplace. the study also found that the influence of environmental work factors (for example clients and good and bad superiors), a person’s own efforts, and the daily work experiences of leaders led to the development of their character. organisations are and can continue the process of character development in their leaders by providing a supportive role through the creation of work environments that are conducive to character development and through various developmental initiatives such as mentoring and soft-skill training. what was also demonstrated in the findings is that organisations are willing to assist in continuing the development of character in their employees, but the onus of character development lies with the individual employee. the essence of a great leader lies in the development of character elements through habitual action. different elements of character and the degree to which they are reflected varies in different leadership work contexts, for example a higher level of conceptual skills is needed for vice presidents than department heads (newstrom & davis, 2002, p. 166). character provides the platform upon which leaders can be authentic and serve their followers. however, there is still much ignorance regarding what character is and its overall benefits for an organisation. sometimes character is confused with personality. a leader is considered, only as good as his/her followers are. this statement is supported by adair (2003, p. 84) who believes that “any good leader has a product – a high-performance team.” this can be measured by the level of trust and commitment that one’s followers have towards one. in the final conclusion, maxwell (1998) maintains that to build trust a leader must demonstrate competence, connection and character, and the greatest of these is character. trust, according to rossouw and van vuuren (2004), facilitates co-operation, unlocks knowledge and promotes loyalty. these functions of trust provide the bedrock upon which an organisation will achieve success. in the end it is all about relationship which hangs on the demonstration of two great moral values: “respect” and “responsibility” towards oneself, others and the environment (lickona, 1992, p. 43–44). de br aine, verrier8 recommendations based on the literature and the findings, it is suggested by the researcher that organisations use klann’s five e's approach (2003) to continue the development of character in their employees and future leaders. this approach, mentioned briefly before, is expanded upon in table 7. table 7 klann’s five es approach to character development five es approach example � leaders should lead by example, by displaying the character ethic in their organisations. � create an environment of trust with their followers. � provide guidelines and be the first to follow them. education � formal and informal training, through the use of leadership development programmes. � personal leadership development programmes, that develop character-based, principle-centered, insideout leaders. � emotional intelligence facilitation (amos, ristow and ristow, 2004, pp. 227-229) environment � build an ethical culture. � develop an ethical code of conduct. � disciplinary codes and the enforcement thereof. � build a learning culture through the use of teams. � promote spirituality in the workplace (nel, gerber, van dyk, haasbroek, schultz, sono & werner, 2001, p. 307) experience � experiential training, through job-related experiences with managers, colleagues, community investment projects and customers � coaching and mentoring processes that provide career and psychosocial support (noe, 2005, pp. 289 -291) evaluation � personality assessment (bergh and theron, 2005, pp. 446-447) � feedback on developmental experiences that focuses on most important character elements for one’s leadership role. � reinforcement through the use of positive and negative rewards. source: klann (2003, pp. 5-6) it is further suggested that leaders assess their own character, using the three criteria mentioned by manning and curtis (2003). these three criteria are based on the way employees assess character, which are: (a) what leaders say is important; (b) what leaders do is more important (is there congruency between a leader’s words and actions?); and (c) what leaders sacrifice is most important (caring to the point of personal sacrifice is regarded as the highest form of living by one’s values). suggestions for further research it is recommended that investigations into the development of character as a family of positive traits – a multidimensional construct – should be done in the workplace. the researcher further suggest that the development of character in reference to the social, spiritual, cognitive, and emotional dimensions of a person’s life and the interdependency that exists among them as dimensions should be further investigated to understand the complexity of character as a multidimensional construct. “the only thing that walks back from the tomb with the mourners and refuses to be buried is the character of a man. this is true. what a man is, sur vives him. it can never be buried.” – j. r. miller references adair, j. (2005). how to grow leaders. the seven key principles of effective leadership development. great britain: kogan page limited. adair, j. (2003). not bosses but leaders. the way to success. great britain: kogan page limited. amos, t, ristow, a. & ristow, l. (2004). human resource management. (2nd ed.). lansdowne: juta & co. ltd. anderson, g.l. (1997). identity and character development: individual in community. international journal of world peace, 14 (4), 41. badarocco, j.l. (1997). defining moments. boston, massachusetts: harvard business school press. barger, r.n. (2000). a summary of lawrence kohlberg’s stages of moral development. university of notre dame. retrieved on august, 12, 2006 from http://www.nd.edu/~rbarger/kohlberg.html. barnard, h. (2003). the anthropological presuppositions of personal and professional leadership. unpublished masters essay. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. beatty, r., ewing, j.r & tharp, c. (2003). hr’s role in corporate governance: present and prospective. human resource management, 42 (3), 3. bellingham, r. (2003). ethical leadership: rebuilding trust in corporations. amherst, mass: hrd press. bergh, z.c. & theron, a.l. (2005). psychology in the work context. (2nd ed.). cape town: oxford university press southern africa. canella, a.a. & monroe, m.j. (1997). contrasting perspectives on strategic leaders: toward a more realistic view of top managers. journal of management, 23 (3). (business source premier database, ref. no. 9708224783). cashman, k. (1998). leadership from the inside-out. provo: executive excellence publishing. coetzee, m. (2006). career planning in the 21st century. cape town: juta & co. corsini, r.j. (1999). the dictionary of psychology. usa: taylor & francis group. covey, s.r. (1994). the seven habits of highly effective people. new york: simon & schuster. covey, s.r. (1997). seven habits of global executives. executive excellence, 14 (12), 3-4. covey, s.r. (2004). the 8th habit. from effectiveness to greatness. great britain: simon & schuster. cresswell, j.w. (1998). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five traditions. california: sage publications. farmer, r.t. (2005). corporate culture defines a company and future. mid-american journal of business, 20 (2), 7-9. huitt, w. (2004). moral character development. educational psychology interactive. retrieved on august, 16, 2006 from http://teach.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col. hunter, j.d. (2000). the death of character. new york: basic books. gray, k.r. & clark, g.w. (2002). addressing corporate scandals through business education. international journal of world peace, 19 (4), 43-62. halsey, w.d. & friedman, e. (1981). collier’s encyclopaedia 5. new york: macmillan education. haste, h. , markoulis, d. & helkama, k. (1999). morality, wisdom and life-span. chapter 7. in demetriou, a., doise, w. & van lieshout, c. (eds.). life span developmental psychology. england: john wiley & sons ltd. ilies, r., morgeson, f.p., & nahrgang, j.d. (2005). authentic leadership and eudaemonic well-being: understanding leaderfollower outcomes. the leadership quartely, 16 (3), 373–394. jaworski, j. & senge, p. (1996). synchronicity: the inner path of leadership. usa: berrett-koehler publishers inc. jordaan, w. & jordaan, j. (1998). people in context. (3rd ed.). heinemann johannesburg. khurana, r. & snook, s. (2004). developing leaders of character. in gandossy, r. & sonnenfeld, j. (eds.). leadership and governance from the inside out. new jersey: john wiley & sons inc. leadership character development 9 klann, g. (2003). character study: strengthening the heart of good leadership. leadership in action. 23 (3), 3-7. lennick, d. & kiel, f. (2005). moral intelligence: enhancing business performance and leadership success. upper saddle river: wharton school publishers. lickona, t. (1991). educating for character: how our schools can teach respect and responsibility. new york: bantam. manning, g. & curtis. k. (1998). the art of leadership. new york: mc graw hill. maxwell, j.c. (1998). the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership. nashville: thomas nelson publishers. maxwell, j.c. (2002). the most important ingredient of leadership: integrity. in graves, s.r. & addington, t.g. life @ work on leadership. san francisco: jossey-bass. mcdaniel, a.k. (1998). character education: developing effective programs. journal of extension. 36 (2). retrieved on june, 13, 2006 from http://www.joe.org/joe/1998april/ a3.html. mcelmeel, s.l. (2002). character education. a guide book for teachers, librarians and parents. usa: libraries limited. merriam, s.b. (1988). case study research in education: a qualitative approach. san francisco: jossey-bass publishers. miller, g. (2004). leadership and integrity: how to ensure it exists in your organization. the canadian manager, 29 (4), 15-17. miller, j (2003) organizational future solutions: integrity. futurics, 27 (3/4), 105-106. nel, p.s., gerber, p.d., van dyk, p.s., haasbroek, g.d., schultz, h.b.,sono, t. & werner, a. (2001). human resource management. (5th ed.). cape town: oxford university press southern africa. newstrom, j.w. & davis, k. (2002). organisational behaviour. human behaviour at work. (11 ed.). united states: mcgrawhill companies, inc. noe, r. (2005). employee training and development. (3rd ed.). boston: mcgraw – hill international. nucci, l. (1997). moral development and character formation. in walberg, h.j. & haertel, g.d. psychology & educational practice. berkeley: maccarchan. park, n. (2004). character strengths and positive youth development. in peterson, c. positive development: realizing the potential of youth. the annals of the american academy of political and social science (eds.). ca: sage publications. peterson, c. & seligman, m.e.p. (2004). character strengths and virtues. a handbook of classification. american psychological association. oxford university press. peterson, d. (2004). perceived leader integrity and ethical intentions of subordinates. leadership & organization development journal, 25 (1/2), 7-23. roberts, m.c. & llardi, s.s. (2003). handbook of research methods in clinical psychology. united kingdom: blackwell publishing ltd. rossouw, d. & van vuuren, l. (2004). business ethics. (3rd ed.). cape town: oxford university press. rossouw, g.j. & van vuuren, l.j. (2003). modes of managing morality: a descriptive model of strategies for managing ethics. journal of business ethics, 46 (4), 389-402. scarnati, j.t. (2002). leaders as role models: 12 rules. career development international. bradford, 7 (3),181-189. schurink, w. (2005). qualitative research: introducing key features of an interpretative approach to social science research. lecture 14: qualitative research proposal writing. department of human resource management. university of johannesburg. sankar, y. (2003). character not charisma is the critical measures of leadership excellence. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 9 (4), 45-55. smith, d.p.j. (2004). leadership development portfolio for m.philhrm (pipl) programme. department of human resource management. auckland park: rand afrikaans university. smith, d.p.j. (2005). the ppl – temperament typology facilitator workbook. auckland park: university of johannesburg. social organisation from wikipedia free encyclopedia. retrieved on november 12, 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org. spears, l.c. (2006). on character and servant leadership: ten characteristics of effective, caring leaders. the greenleaf centre for ser vant leadership. retrieved on october, 23, 2006 from http://www.greenleaf.org. stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. retrieved on august, 10, 2006 from http://plato.stanford.edu. storey, m.a. (2003). bringing head and heart to coaching. organization development journal, 21 (2), 77-78. storr, l. (2004). leading with integrity: a qualitative research study. journal of health organization and management, (18) 6, 415-434. the josephson institute. character counts. retrieved on october, 18, 2006 from www.charactercounts.org. the new international version rainbow study bible. (1996) usa: international bible society. turknett, r. , turknett, l. & mccusker, c. (2006). going first and being followed: leading with knowledge and integrity. retrieved on january, 16, 2006 from http://www.southerninstitute.org. verrier, d. (2004). executive coaching: a personal and professional leadership (ppl) perspective. d.phil thesis. auckland park: rand afrikaans university. de br aine, verrier10 vol. 6 no. 1 pp. 10 21sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za original research a spiritual audit of a retail branch of a south african bank abstract the purpose of this study was to investigate whether or not employees in a branch of one of the leading south african banks are spiritually fulfilled at work, whilst living the values of the bank. the results indicate that employees in the branch are spiritually fulfilled at work, that they seem to be “living the values”, and that they believe the branch to be a spiritual workplace. the results are linked to certain interventions in the branch, and these interventions could be replicated across the branch network, reaping the advantages of a spiritual workplace. keywords: spirituality, spirituality at work, spiritual audit, spiritual fulfilment, spiritual workplace work forms an integral part of most people’s lives. studies suggest that the organisation where we work is becoming our most significant community and that work replaces family, friendship circles, church groups and social groups. people are spending more time at work and there are diffuse boundaries between work and personal lives (parker, 2005, p. 23). the majority of people’s waking time is spent at work, yet people are often asked to leave the major part of themselves their spirit at home, whilst at the same time, are asked to give one hundred percent of themselves at work (mitroff denton, 1999, p. 27). employers need to recognise that people are more than just a cost to the organisation; that they have souls, dreams, and a need to feel good about what they do. there is increasing evidence that major transformation is occurring in organisations across the world. sometimes referred to as the “spirituality movement”, organisations that have long been viewed as rational systems, are considering making room for the spiritual dimension, a dimension that has less to do with rules and order, and more to do with meaning, purpose, values and a sense of community (ashmos duchon, 2002, p. 3). spirituality in business, having quietly blossomed for decades, is an established trend that is about to metamorphose into a mega trend (aburdene, 2005, p. 65). the organisation on which this research is based is one of the “big four” full service south african banks. this banking institution operates in seventeen african countries and twenty-one countries outside south africa. this bank has a retail division, as well as a corporate and investment banking division. the retail division has approximately 250 “points of representation” throughout the country. this research is undertaken in one of the branches situated in gauteng. this branch has a total of 93 employees and offers the full range of product services offered by the bank. this branch was chosen as it falls within the researcher’s mandate in terms of addressing leadership development and is a designated “pilot site” in terms of leadership development and employee satisfaction interventions by the bank itself. whilst this branch is typical of other “full service” branches, and may be representative of the branch network in terms of services offered, layout, operational policies and procedures, the findings of the study in this branch cannot be extrapolated onto the entire bank’s branch network. this is because of two fundamental differences between all the branches: the individuals that make up the branch (employees) and the leadership of each branch. although the entire retail branch network can be seen as one business unit or organisation within the broader bank with the same top leadership, the individuals (employees and branch leadership) in each branch differ in terms of many variables – years of service, age, experience, education, age, gender, ethnicity, qualifications, maturity, personal development, to name but a few. the findings of this study will be used to investigate (measure) and address another causal dimension of employee satisfaction within the branch – the link between spirituality at work and employee satisfaction as well as the link between spirituality at work and living the bank’s values. this link is explained more fully under relevance of the study. problem statement according to zohar and marshall (2004, p. 14): the trouble with corporate life is that it is essentially dispiriting. corporations care about making money. they define work as the pursuit of money. but we are human beings. we are essentially spiritual creatures. we are on a life-long quest for meaning. so our corporate lives exclude what we really care about. what is the meaning behind the spirit in business? simply that “it grows out of our desire to celebrate all of ourselves at work” (aburdene, 2005, p. 66). humphreys (2000, p. 23) states: “there is a certain sickness in the western world which appears to afflict people who are over-ambitious, ‘high-flyers’ and ‘successful’ in the popular meaning of that word. there are also the people who, more often than not, become fatigued, anxious, depressed, frustrated, unfulfilled and dependent on medication, alcohol or illicit drugs to handle their weariness and moods. even though work has become a major block to their emotional, social and spiritual growth, they tenaciously hold on to it.” in a study done by mitroff and denton (1999, p. 22), respondents who felt they worked in “more spiritual” organisations were able to bring more of their “complete selves” to work. they could deploy more of their creativity, emotions, and intelligence: in ercole albertini david p j smith department of human resource management university of johannesburg south africa correspondence to: ercole albertini e-mail: albertin@global.co.za 10 south african bank: spiritual audit original research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 1 pp. 10 21 short, organisations viewed as more spiritual get more from their participants, and vice versa. another key finding from the research done by mitroff and denton (1999, p. 27) was that people do not want to “compartmentalise” or fragment their lives. they want to have their entire beings acknowledged wherever they go. many organisations are afflicted by an abundance of disgruntled and demotivated employees who lack a deep sense of commitment towards strategic purpose. this makes it increasingly difficult for such organisations to remain competitive in the rapidly changing global marketplace. the truth is that many employees simply come to work because they have to in order to eat and live. one of the main reasons for this is that the current motivational paradigm does not incorporate the spiritual dimension of employees, and this missing link in the current understanding is considered to be the key to addressing the problems of low employee motivation and the ensuing organisational underperformance and ineffectiveness. the dominant paradigm which is held by most managers is therefore incomplete in that it fails to see people in a whole sense – that is body, heart, mind, and spirit – and by failing to understand the true nature of people it ignores the deeper needs of the whole person (verrier & smith, 2006, p. 1). in the organisation under study, several reports, diagnostics and employee perception surveys indicate a “myriad of people problems” (bank hr board report, 2006). these reports and diagnoses have not been included for confidentiality reasons. of particular concern, is that as an employer of choice as measured by the deloitte’s best company to work for survey this organization has dropped from 6th position (out of 100) in 2000 to 54th position (out of 100) in 2005 (deloitte, touche & tohmatsu, 2006). reports, diagnoses and surveys in this branch reflect the same trend with respect to employee morale and employee satisfaction. this study will not attempt to discuss or prove the benefits of spirituality at work. there have been numerous studies and research that prove the benefits of spirituality at work. amongst others, some of the more popular, scientific and conclusive studies have been conducted by aburdene (2005), ashmos and duchon (2002), gibbons (2002), howard and welbourn (2004), lamont (2002), mitroff and denton (1999), and zohar and marshall (2004). for purposes of this study, it is accepted that some of the more popular and frequently reported benefits of spirituality at work as per the above-mentioned authors are: • a purpose-driven and meaning-based workplace; • an appreciation based culture; • management practices and decisions that are consistent with spiritual values such as integrity, honesty, love, hope, kindness, respect, and nurturing; • management values employees based on who they are not only on what they do; management truly listens and builds a safe place • where employees can speak the truth without fear of repercussion; • a move from command-and-control leadership to horizontal servant leadership; more creative and innovative employees; • increased authenticity and genuineness in communication; • a greater sense of teamwork based on trust; increased ethical and moral behaviour; increased sense of self-fulfilment, contentment and belonging; and • improvement of morale, job satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately productivity. in addressing the link between spirituality at work, productivity and profitability, verrier and smith (2006, pp.1622), after consulting the views of various authors on this issue, cite numerous examples of evidence, studies and research that substantiate the link between spirituality at work and 11 link author • enhanced individual intuition and creativity, increased honesty and trust within the organisation, increased commitment to organisational goals, enhanced personal fulfilment. krisnakumar & neck • a spirited workplace pays off in customer service. thompson • correlation between corporate culture and profits, with more spirited companies outperforming the others by 400% to 500% in terms of net earnings, return on investment and shareholder value. thompson – harvard business school study • productivity improves and turnover is greatly reduced. mckinsey & co. • there is an opportunity cost of not bringing about a spiritual transformation in businesses – potential not realised, sub-optimal decisions, resistance to change, lack of creativity. anderson • wilson learning company – 39% of the variability in corporate performance is attributable to the personal satisfaction of the staff. mclaughlin • employees and managers who find the fewest restrictions placed on their beliefs, emotions and actions will more wholeheartedly deploy their skills and talents on the firm’s and society’s behalf. frederick quoting mitroff & denton • organisations that focused on core values were significantly more profitable and long-lasting than companies that only focused on the bottom line. collins & porras table 1 evidence of the link between spirituality at work, productivity and profitability serving our customers whatever we do starts with the customer in mind. we aim to delight our customers whilst adhering to sound business practices. we strive to continuously improve service delivery to internal and external customers. we demonstrate that meeting customer needs and delivering the highest level of satisfaction is our number one shared priority. working in teams we understand and demonstrate that we – and all that we do – are part of an interdependent team. we make individuals feel part of a team. we strive to make our staff feel accepted and that they belong to a team with a common purpose. growing our people we constantly strive to develop our staff to reach their full potential. we provide opportunities for our staff to learn and develop. we constantly measure and evaluate how effectively we develop our people. we ensure that our people are challenged, inspired, motivated and involved. we recognise diverse skills in our people and use these in a meaningful and challenging way. respecting each other we treat everyone with respect and dignity. we demonstrate the highest regard for the dignity of all people. we lead from a position of stature and not status. delivering to our shareholders we recognise that we earn the right to exist as an employee of this organisation by providing long-term returns to our shareholders. we work hard to meet our commitments but have fun doing so. guarding against arrogance we are confident yet remain humble and “serving”. being proactive we use, encourage and reward creativity in all that we do. we are willing to take necessary risks and learn from our mistakes. we see mistakes as opportunities to grow. upholding the highest levels of integrity we do our utmost to build an atmosphere of trust within our teams. we help each other identify and develop our limitations in a safe and secure environment. we encourage our staff to share and learn from each other. table 2 behavioural guidelines for the bank’s eight values original research smith & albertini vol. 6 no. 1 pp. 10 21sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za productivity and profitability. these have been summarised using key words in table 1. a dispirited workplace can also manifest itself in low morale, high turnover, burnout, frequent stress-related illness, and rising absenteeism (thompson in verrier, 2002, p. 32). objectives of this study the objectives of this study are: 1. to investigate whether or not the chosen branch is a spiritual workplace with employees in the branch living the values of the bank 2. are the employees in this branch spiritually fulfilled at work? more specifically the aim of this study is to answer the following research question: 1. do employees experience this branch (of the bank) as a spiritual workplace, i.e. do they feel spiritually fulfilled at work? relevance of the study this study will contribute to the existing pool of theoretical knowledge on spirituality at work. research and literature within the south african context regarding the phenomenon of spirituality at work seems to be limited. this study is motivated by the lack of such knowledge, research and understanding in the south african context. on a practical level the leaders in the company under study may use this knowledge to develop any necessary strategies to create and to sustain a workplace that nourishes both the mind and the spirit of its employees and in so doing both the organisation as well as its employees will enjoy the benefits of this workplace. if this study reveals that: • the branch exhibits the characteristics of a spiritual workplace, and that the branch employees experience spiritual fulfilment in this branch (workplace), then leadership can develop “lessons learned” and “good practices” for duplication throughout the bank’s branch network. • the branch is not a spiritual workplace and that the employees are not experiencing spiritual fulfilment in this branch (workplace), then leadership can use the results to address the shortcomings, and develop leaders with skills that will create a culture that characterises a spiritual workplace. • the bank’s values and corresponding behaviours are linked, then management can assess the extent to which employees in the branch are exhibiting the behaviours demonstrative of “living the values”. • the employees in the branch are in fact “living the values”, leadership can develop “lessons learned” for duplication throughout the bank to help employees live the values. the values of the bank in 2005 – after extensive research involving employees – the bank launched a set of values. this was done to “create a sense of common understanding and purpose for all employees and to act as a framework (or guidelines) for how we as employees behave” (ceo road show, 2005). the bank’s values are: • serving our customers we do everything in our power to ensure that we provide our customers with the products, services and solutions to suit their needs provided that everything we do for them is based on sound business principles. • growing our people we encourage and help our people to develop to their full potential, and measure our leaders on how well they grow and challenge the people they lead. • delivering to our shareholders we understand that we earn the right to exist by providing appropriate long-term returns to our shareholders. we try extremely hard to meet our various targets and deliver on our commitments. • being proactive we strive to stay ahead by anticipating rather than reacting, but our actions are always carefully considered. • working in teams we and all aspects of our work are interdependent. we appreciate that, as teams, we can achieve much greater things than as individuals. we value teams within and across business units, divisions and countries. • guarding against arrogance we have confidence in our ability to achieve ambitious goals and we celebrate success, but we must never allow ourselves to become arrogant. • respecting each other we have the highest regard for the dignity of all people. we respect each other and what the bank stands for. we recognise that there are corresponding obligations associated with our individual rights. • upholding the highest levels of integrity our entire business model is based on trust and integrity as perceived by our stakeholders, especially our customers. since launching the values, the bank has invested substantial time, money and effort in ensuring that the staff “live the values”. to this end the bank has produced a set of “behavioural guidelines” for each of the values for staff to follow and to look out for in the behaviour of their colleagues as evidence that they too are ‘living the values’. the behavioural guidelines in respect of the eight values are shown in table 2. a personal, interpersonal and professional leadership (pipl) perspective this study is done in the context of the pipl perspective as the researcher has found this perspective and paradigm on leadership to be the only one that focuses on a whole-person paradigm, including the spiritual dimension. there are many other perspectives and paradigms concerned with human development, leadership and social development. leading proponents of these perspectives are in the fields of psychology, sociology, education and other related fields of study. one shortcoming of all these fields of study is the specialised focus on one or maybe two or three dimensions of a person’s life. traditionally professional leadership was synonymous with status, power and output (production at all cost) (smith, 2005, p. 22). the pipl perspective was developed in the mid 1990s by smith, a professor at the university of johannesburg. the core focus of pipl is the concept “leadership” from an inside-out perspective, including: • personal leadership – self mastery • interpersonal leadership – relationship mastery • professional leadership – professional effectiveness. in the pipl context the study of professional leadership focuses on the workplace with its emphasis on: the importance (worth) of work for a meaningful existence, credible leadership, servant leadership, competent leadership, spiritual fulfilment at work, finding balance between the oneself, one’s principles and values, 12 connectedness centredness harmony peace a sense of meaning a sense of purpose a sense of integration and wholeness an inner compass spontaneity living what matters most (values) service stewardship transcendence total well-being congruency between one’s true north and personal reality positive expectations religious and/or moral orientation adding value to self and others an experience of profound beauty wisdom intuition table 3 peripheral manifestations of the spirit south african bank: spiritual audit original research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 1 pp. 10 21 viewpoints of various authors on the subjects of spirituality and spirituality at work were consulted. the smith and louw (2007) article was found to be one of the most comprehensive studies conceptualising spirituality, and these views will be used for purposes of this study. spirituality smith and louw (2007, p. 25) after studying existing conceptualisations of spirituality conclude that: smith’s conceptualisation of the spiritual life dimension makes an extremely valuable contribution to this field of study in that it, by way of summary: (a) is comprehensive, descriptive and functional; (b) offers a prioritisation of the manifestations of spirit; (c) paves the way for the development of a questionnaire design for the measurement of the spiritual life dimension; (d) distinguishes clearly between spirit and soul; (e) emphasises the dichotomy of spirit versus ego, and (f) maps out a route to spirituality. smith and louw (2007, pp. 25-27) demonstrate that a definite gap in knowledge exists in the study of the spiritual life dimension and that smith’s perspective offers the following that are lacking or even absent from the current body of knowledge: • a comprehensive and descriptive conceptualisation; • a systematic approach. smith not only provides more information by discussing various manifestations of the spirit, but attempts to order and prioritise these into core (fundamental) and peripheral (less fundamental) manifestations; • balance between a functional approach and emphasis on the intangibility of spirit; • a foundation for developing a questionnaire for measuring spirituality; • emphasis on the dichotomy of spirit versus ego; • distinction between spirit and soul; • clarification in functional terms of what spirit is. smith clarifies the difference between spirit and soul and translates this abstract concept of spirit into functional terms that can be easily understood and whereby the individual may measure and develop his/her spirituality; • an indication of the route to spirituality. 13 characterisation of spirituality at work authors according to index (below) • the concept of “the whole person” – people are spiritual beings with the spiritual dimension as foundational requiring nourishment at work 1;2;3;4;5;6;8;10;12;14; • meaningful and challenging work / a sense of vocation / a sense of purpose and meaningful contribution 2;4;7;11;12;13;14;15;16 • congruence between personal and corporate values 3;4;6;10;12;14;15;16 • employees share vision, mission and goals 4;14 • being in the “here and now” 8;12 • drawing on diversity and a tolerance for diversity of people and differences 8;12;14;16 • teamwork / team spirit 4;10;12;14 • an environment that fosters a positive creative energy, innovation, initiative, inspiration and resourcefulness 3;4;7;8;10;11;14 • authenticity and integrity / ethical decision making 4;10;11;12;14 • involvement/ empowerment / participative management 4;12;14 • realisation of potential / personal and professional growth / opportunity to learn and grow 3;9;10;12;14 • self awareness 3;8;10;13;16 • community used as a metaphor 6;8;12;14 • a sense of connectedness to others 6;8;12;14 • physical well-being / positive, pleasant environment / safety and security 10;12;14 • reward / recognition / acknowledgement/ appreciation / employees feel valued 2;4;5;6;8;12;14 • employees are principle centred 4;12;14 • high levels of trust and trustworthiness 4;6,8,9,10;11;12;14 • employees feel listened to / open communication/ share information / freedom of expression (no fear of reprisal) 10;12;14 • an atmosphere of caring, understanding and concern for others / the golden rule 10;4;14 • there is abundant legitimate power based on respect and loyalty (not upon fear or selfish motives) 4;14 table 4 viewpoints on what characterises apirituality at work index of authors 1) aburdene (2005); 2) ashmos and duchon (2002); 3) barrett (1998); 4) covey (1989); 5) gibbons (2002); 6) howard and wellbourn (2004); 7) humphreys (2000); 8) lamont (2002); 9) marques, dhiman and king (2005); 10) miller (2003) 11) mitroff and denton (1999); 12) parker (2005)13) smith (2006); 14) toms (1997); 15) verrier (2002); 16) zohar and marshall (2004) one’s primary and secondary relationships, and effectiveness in the workplace. professional leadership in the pipl context is based on the precepts of spiritual fulfilment at work, relationship building, teamwork, mutual trust and respect, appreciation, empathetic listening, commitment towards a common vision, win-win, synergy, conflict resolution, professional effectiveness and other related principles and values (smith, 2005). the spiritual dimension is at the centre of a person’s life and totality. as human beings we are alive because the spiritual essence within us is naturally attracted to life in material form. the spiritual dimension can be defined as a search for purpose, meaning, value, inner wholeness, connectedness, harmony, love, morality, beauty, wisdom, hope, vitality, and gratitude. our spiritual dimension is considered to be our ultimate or core dimension (smith & louw, 2007, p. 19). the pipl-perspective presents a holistic model and paradigm that deals with the essence of who and what we are. individual behaviour is collectivised in organisations. at the core, most organisational problems have common roots – misunderstanding human/individual nature – i.e. lack of a whole-person paradigm (smith, 2005, p. 28). spirituality at work involves “bringing one’s whole self to work”, including one’s spirit. if one views spirituality as a basic human life dimension, then one would have to agree that it is impossible not to take one’s spirit to work (verrier, 2002, p. 35) conceptualising spirituality and spirituality at work definitions of spirituality and spirituality at work seem to vary widely. the lack of a clear, accepted definition has hindered the development of useful measures and delayed research that could advance one’s understanding of what spirituality at work really is, and one’s understanding of the factors that influence the experience of spirituality at work. this study does not attempt to conceptualise the spiritual life dimension, nor does it seek to conceptualise spirituality at work. however, in order to develop a theoretical foundation as well as guidelines and criteria for the construction of a questionnaire to be used to measure spirituality at work, the original research smith & albertini vol. 6 no. 1 pp. 10 21sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za for purposes of this study smith’s pipl conceptualisation of spirituality will be used. according to smith the essence or core of spirituality is beingness, i.e. where being finds expression. associated with the core of beingness are some primary manifestations of the spirit that lend insight into what the spirit represents – they are not spirit, but spirit may be known by them. these core manifestations, in turn, find expression in certain observable peripheral manifestations. smith and louw (2007, pp. 21-23) discuss the essence of spirituality as consisting of six elements: 1. love – love finds expression in kindness, patience, helping, giving, caring, vitality, energy and vibration. 2. living in the now, the present – to be so utterly and completely present that no problem, no suffering, nothing that is not who you are in your essence can survive in you. 3. silence this is dropping one’s ego. 4. authenticity – be who you are. authenticity finds expression in character, integrity, simplicity, acceptance of self and of others and living in character instead of in persona. this is also about “straight talk” or caring confrontation. 5. gratitude – not taking things for granted, thinking about what one has and developing an attitude of thankfulness. 6. simplicity – demonstrated by living in the moment – with no idea of becoming this or that, responding to life, with spontaneity, total acceptance of the “such-ness” of life and with complete awareness. from smith and louw (2007, p. 23) the following peripheral manifestations of spirituality are noted in table 3: smith (2006, p. 19) states that spirituality at work finds expression in manifestations such as: • a pleasant, inviting work environment; • passion about one’s work (job), experiencing work as a calling; • feeling energised by one’s work; • finding meaning and purpose in work; • authentic expression (in one’s work) and at the workplace; • feeling connected to those with whom one works, a sense of community; • an atmosphere of trust; • continuous personal growth; • feeling values, i.e. making a difference; • work that is recognised, rewarding and fulfilling; • a culture of service; • a principle-centred approach finding expression in clarified values and a strong ethical (moral) code; and • inner well-being, i.e. harmony and balance in and between one’s life dimensions. it is beyond the scope of this study to discuss these core and peripheral manifestations in any further detail. spirituality at work after studying the work of various authors on the subject of spirituality at work, the most frequently mentioned characteristics of spirituality at work are presented in table 4. for the purpose of this study, and of relevance to the branch, the seventeen most frequently mentioned characteristics of spirituality at work that will be measured are indicated in table 5. these seventeen characteristics were chosen as they are the most frequently cited characteristics (by the authors listed) and are the most relevant in terms of the bank’s (and therefore the branch’s) diagnostics and surveys used to measure employee satisfaction. linking values, behavioural guidelines and characteristics of spirituality at work the eight values the bank has adopted have been linked to the seventeen characteristics of spirituality at work measured in this study. this can be extended to include some of the behavioural indicators of “living the value”. in turn the behavioural indicators or guidelines (that are in fact manifestations of spirituality at work measured in this study) can be linked to questions in each of the two questionnaires used in this study (see table 6). research design research approach the research approach followed in this study is a quantitative field survey. leedy and ormrod (2001, p. 183) describe a survey research as research that involves acquiring information about one or more groups of people – perhaps about their characteristics, opinions, attitudes, or experiences – by asking them questions and tabulating their answers. the ultimate goal is to learn about a larger population by surveying a sample of that population. reduced to its basic elements a survey is quite simple in design: the researcher poses a series of questions to willing participants, summarises their responses and then draws inferences about a particular population from the response of the sample (leedy & ormrod, 2001, pp. 183-184). survey research typically employs a face-to-face interview, a telephone interview, or a written questionnaire (leedy & ormrod, 2001, p. 184). participants gay and airasian (in leedy & ormrod, 2001, p. 207) have offered the following guidelines for selecting a sample size: 1. for small populations (fewer than 100 people), there is little point in sampling. survey the entire population. 2. if the population size is around 500, 50% of the population should be sampled. 3. if the population size is around 1500, 20% should be sampled. 4. beyond a certain point (about 5000 units or more), the population size is almost irrelevant, and a sample size of 400 should be adequate. as the staff compliment of the branch is 93 employees, the entire population was surveyed. this specific branch was chosen for this study as it has been identified as a “pilot site” and is within the researchers’ mandate in terms of assessing 14 • meaningful and challenging work. a sense of vocation. making a meaningful contribution. • congruence between personal and corporate values. • employees share a common vision, mission and goals. • drawing on and a tolerance for diversity of people and differences. • teamwork and team spirit. • an environment that fosters a positive creative energy, innovation, initiative, inspiration and resourcefulness. • authenticity, integrity and ethical decision making. • involvement, empowerment and participative management. • realisation of potential, personal and professional growth. opportunities to learn and develop. • employees experience a sense of community. • a sense of connectedness to others. • physical well-being, positive and pleasant environment, safety and security. • appropriate reward and recognition, acknowledgement and appreciation. employees feel valued. • high levels of trust and trustworthiness. • employees feel listened to, open communication and sharing of information. freedom of expression without fear of reprisal. • an atmosphere of caring, understanding, and concern for others. the golden rule. • there is abundant legitimate power based on respect and loyalty (not upon fear and selfish motives). table 5 characteristics of spirituality at work measured in this study south african bank: spiritual audit original research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 1 pp. 10 21 well as instructions for completing the two questionnaires were discussed at a monthly staff meeting. at this meeting the questionnaires were handed out to the staff by the researcher. branch employees were asked to take time after the meeting to complete the questionnaires. the researcher who was present at the staff meeting collected the completed questionnaires from the respondents. this process gave respondents some assurance that branch management would not see their responses. to further ensure confidentiality and enhance participation and reliability, the study was conducted anonymously. statistical analysis in total, 70 of the 93 staff members completed the questionnaire. this equates to 75% of the population. the data was analysed in two phases. the first phase analysed the basic descriptive statistics in respect of responses to the two questionnaires, reliability analysis using cronbach’s alpha, paired t-tests and paired sample correlation. the second phase tested for significant differences across new categories of demographical dimensions using analysis of variance (anova) tests. the basic descriptives of the respondents are presented in table 8. employee satisfaction and developing appropriate interventions to enhance employee satisfaction. measuring instrument this study made use of two written questionnaires. the base of these questionnaires was developed by smith and adapted by the researcher to include the relevant characteristics of spirituality at work that this study seeks to measure. the first questionnaire consists of 21 statements that characterise a spiritual workplace, and asks respondents to rate the extent to which each statement is characteristic (descriptive) of the branch environment or workplace. the second questionnaire tests if respondents are spiritually fulfilled at work. the questions from both questionnaires have been linked to the characteristics of spirituality at work as measured by this study. table 7 indicates these links. research procedure senior management approval at the organisation was obtained for the study. the objective and relevance of the survey, as 15 value behaviours – table 2 characteristics table 5 questions • serving our customers we demonstrate that meeting customer needs and delivering the highest level of satisfaction is our number one shared priority. employees share a common vision, mission and goals. a16 b14; b15 • growing our people we constantly strive to develop our staff to realise their full potential. we provide opportunities for our staff to learn and develop. we constantly measure and evaluate how effectively we develop our people . we ensure that our people are challenged, inspired, motivated and involved. we recognise and value diverse skills in our people, and use these in a meaningful and challenging way. meaningful and challenging work. a sense of vocation. making a meaningful contribution. drawing on and a tolerance for diversity of people and differences. realisation of potential, personal and professional growth. opportunities to learn and develop. a10 b1;b2;b3;b7;b8 a3;a6 b14;b15 a2;a21 b8;b9;b10 • delivering to shareholders we work hard to meet our commitments but have fun doing so. employees share a common vision, mission and goals. a16 b14;b15 • being proactive we use, encourage and reward creativity in all that we do. we are willing to take necessary risks and learn from our mistakes. we see mistakes as opportunities to grow. an environment that fosters a positive creative energy, innovation, initiative, inspiration and resourcefulness. a14;a20 b17 • working in teams we understand and demonstrate that we – and all that we do – are part of an interdependent co-dependent team. we make individuals feel part of a team. we strive to make our staff feel accepted and that they belong to a team with a common purpose. teamwork and team spirit. employees experience a sense of community. a sense of connectedness to others. a12;a13;a15 b14;b15 a15 b15 a15 b14 • guarding against arrogance we are confident, yet remain humble and “serving”. an atmosphere of caring, understanding and concern for others. the golden rule. a12;a18;a19 b9;b10;b17;b18 • respecting each other we treat everyone with respect and dignity. we demonstrate the highest regard for the dignity of all people. we lead from a position of stature and not status. an atmosphere of caring, understanding and concern for others. the golden rule. there is abundant legitimate power based on respect and loyalty. a12;a18;a19 b9;b10;b17;b18 a11 b10;b16;b20;b21 • upholding highest levels of integrity we do our utmost to build an atmosphere of trust within our teams. we help each other identify and develop our limitations in a safe and secure environment. there is abundant legitimate power based on respect and loyalty. a11 b10;b16;b20;b21 table 6 linking values, behaviours and characteristics of spirituality at work characteristic a b • meaningful and challenging work. a sense of vocation. making a meaningful contribution 10 1;2;3;7;8 • congruence between personal and corporate values 16 4;21 • employees share a common vision, mission and goals 16 14;15 • drawing on and a tolerance for diversity of people and differences 3;6 14;15 • teamwork and team spirit 12;13;15 14;15 • an environment that fosters a positive creative energy, innovation, initiative, inspiration and resourcefulness 14;20 17 • authenticity, integrity and ethical decision making 1;19 10;20;21 • involvement, empowerment and participative management 4;5 5 • realisation of potential, personal and professional growth. opportunities to learn and develop 2;21 8;9;10 • employees experience a sense of community 15 15 • a sense of connectedness to others 15 14 • physical well-being, positive and pleasant environment, safety and security 7;8 6 • appropriate reward and recognition, acknowledgement, appreciation. employees feel valued 9;10 11;12;13; 19 • high levels of trust and trustworthiness 1;19 10;16 • employees feel listened to. open communication. sharing of information. freedom of expression 11;17 12 • atmosphere of caring, understanding, and concern for others. the golden rule 12;18;19 9;10;17;18 • abundant legitimate power based on respect and loyalty – not upon fear and selfish motives 11 10;16;20; 21 table 7 linking characteristics of spirituality to questions original research smith & albertini vol. 6 no. 1 pp. 10 21sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za16 table 8 basic descriptive of respondents descriptive respondents percentage age 20-30 31-35 36-40 41-49 50+ total missing 37 10 8 7 7 69 1 52.9 14.3 11.4 10.0 10.0 98.6 1.4 ethnicity african indian coloured white total 25 11 9 25 70 35.7 15.7 12.9 35.7 100.0 tenure <3 3-5 5-10 >10 total missing 20 9 14 23 66 4 28.6 12.9 20.0 32.9 94.3 5.7 job level general staff managers total missing 60 8 68 2 [e j4] 85.7 11.4 97.1 2.9 descriptive respondents percentage function support finance sales admin total missing 32 6 21 1 60 10 45.7 8.6 30.0 1.4 85.7 14.3 years in job level 1-3 3-10 >10 total missing 49 11 4 64 6 70.0 15.7 5.7 91.4 8.6 [e j1] years in the branch 1-3 3-10 >10 total missing 37 20 8 65 5[e j2] 52.8 28.6 11.4 92.9 7.1[e j3] results result of the spirituality at work questionnaire – questionnaire a using 21 statements, questionnaire a was aimed at identifying the presence (or lack thereof) of the 17 characteristics used in this study that are descriptive of spirituality at work. respondents were asked to rate the extent to which the statement is characteristic of their workplace (the branch surveyed). the results are shown in table 9. the statistics in respect of the responses to questionnaire a were reviewed and are shown in table 10. questions a2; a14 and a20 all have a mean score of >4. question a2 – employees have opportunities to learn and develop – linked to the value “growing our people” scored the highest mean score of 4.03. this is significant as this has been identified by the bank as a strategic imperative and key competitive advantage. results of the spiritual fulfilment at work questionnaire – questionnaire b using 21 statements, questionnaire b was aimed at assessing the extent of spiritual fulfilment at work of the employees within the branch. the results of questionnaire b are shown in table 11. the results of questionnaire b were analysed and the statistics are shown in table 12. the lowest mean score is in respect of question b19 relating to “appropriate salary for work done”. the three highest mean scores are in respect of b4 “i am truly committed to my work”; b7 “i feel that i make a valuable contribution in my work”; and b9 “i feel that my leadership is committed to my personal and professional growth”. the value “growing our people” as measured by b19 is in the top three highest mean scores. the results indicate that the majority of the respondents found that all of the 17 characteristics of spirituality at work measured in this study are present in the branch “very often” or “all the time”. these results are shown in table 13. the results of questionnaire b – spiritual fulfilment at work – indicate that the majority of the respondents find spiritual fulfilment at work (in the branch) “often” or “almost always”. these results are shown in table 14. the only exception is in respect of question b19 that partly measures the characteristic “reward and recognition, and acknowledgement and appreciation”. question 19 in questionnaire b is “i feel my salary is reasonable (appropriate) for the work that i do.” only 27.1% of the respondents felt this was true “often” and 14.3% felt it true “almost always”. this question received the highest percentage in the rating scale “never” with 12.9% of respondents saying that their salary is not (never) reasonable or appropriate for the work that they do. based on the link made between characteristics of spirituality at work, the bank’s values and associated behavioural indicators of “living the values”, the results indicate that employees in the branch see and experience evidence of the values at work in the branch. whilst all the values are equally important, the bank has acknowledged that talent management is and will continue to be a strategic imperative and a key competitive advantage. to this end the results in respect of the value “growing our people” and the corresponding characteristics of spirituality at work, will be elaborated on. the value “growing our people” has been linked to the following characteristics of spirituality at work: 1. meaningful and challenging work. a sense of vocation. making a meaningful contribution. (questions a10; b1; b2; b3;b7 and b8) 2. drawing on and a tolerance for diversity of people and differences. (questions a3; a6; b14 and b15) 3. realisation of potential, personal and professional growth. opportunities to grow and develop. (questions a2; a21; b8; b9 and b10) the statistics in respect of the questions dealing with these three characteristics are shown in table 15. paired t-test results for the questions dealing with these characteristics are shown in table 16 and table 17. in all three cases there are no significant differences between how respondents answered questions from questionnaire a and questions from questionnaire b that deal with the same characteristic of spirituality at work and the corresponding value “growing our people”. in respect of the answers from questionnaires a and b there is moderate correlation (.479) for pair 1, and strong correlation (.661 and .575) for pair 2 and pair 3 respectively – as shown in table 16. reliability analysis showed the reliability statistics as shown in table 18. reliability was found in all five sets of questions where cronbach’s alpha was found to be greater than 0.7. the results show that the employees in the branch believe the following characteristics of spirituality at work – 1) meaningful and challenging work, 2) drawing on and a tolerance for diversity of people and differences and 3) realisation of potential, personal and professional growth. opportunities to grow and develop are present in the branch and the value “growing our people” is alive and well. south african bank: spiritual audit original research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 1 pp. 10 21 17 characteristic of spirituality at work statement describing your workplace not at all very seldom sometimes very often all of time no response a1: there is an atmosphere of trust count 1 8 19 29 12 1 % 1.4% 11.4% 27.1% 41.4% 17.1% 1.4% a2: employees have opportunities to learn and develop as people count 4 13 29 23 1 % 5.7% 18.6% 41.4% 32.9% 1.4% a3: there is tolerance for diversity of people and differences count 5 19 24 21 1 % 7.1% 27.1% 34.3% 30.0% 1.4% a4: employees feel empowered and involved in the managing of the business count 1 4 16 32 15 2 % 1.4% 5.7% 22.9% 45.7% 21.4% 2.9% a5: there is a participative management style count 1 5 12 29 21 2 % 1.4% 7.1% 17.1% 41.4% 30.0% 2.9% a6: differences in culture, personalities and skills are respected, valued and used count 1 4 17 26 22 % 1.4% 5.7% 24.3% 37.1% 31.4% a7: the workplace is a safe and pleasant environment generating a positive pleasant atmosphere count 2 5 17 33 13 % 2.9% 7.1% 24.3% 47.1% 18.6% a8: employees experience job security they do not fear they will be retrenched unexpectedly count 2 3 20 30 15 % 2.9% 4.3% 28.6% 42.9% 21.4% a9: employees feel recognised and acknowledged for work done count 1 6 16 26 20 1 % 1.4% 8.6% 22.9% 37.1% 28.6% 1.4% a10: employees feel valued as employees and experience a sense of meaningful contribution to the business count 6 17 31 16 % 8.6% 24.3% 44.3% 22.9% a11: there is a culture of open and honest communication and information sharing without fear of reprisal count 1 8 21 23 16 1 % 1.4% 11.4% 30.0% 32.9% 22.9% 1.4% a12: employees are appreciative of and thankful for each other count 4 19 26 19 2 % 5.7% 27.1% 37.1% 27.1% 2.9% a13: there is strong teamwork in which employees count on one another for help and support count 1 5 13 31 18 2 % 1.4% 7.1% 18.6% 44.3% 25.7% 2.9% a14: there is energy, fun and creativity in the workplace count 5 13 27 25 % 7.1% 18.6% 38.6% 35.7% a15: there is a sense of a community and connectedness amongst the staff employees feel accepted / belong count 4 20 27 19 % 5.7% 28.6% 38.6% 27.1% a16: there is a sense of shared values and common purpose that inspires and motivates employees count 6 20 26 18 % 8.6% 28.6% 37.1% 25.7% a17: employees feel listened to count 2 2 28 26 12 % 2.9% 2.9% 40.0% 37.1% 17.1% a18: the leadership cares about the employees count 5 20 26 19 % 7.1% 28.6% 37.1% 27.1% a19: justice, fairness and integrity are the order of the day count 1 3 26 24 16 % 1.4% 4.3% 37.1% 34.3% 22.9% a20: there is a service orientation in the workplace count 3 12 35 20 % 4.3% 17.1% 50.0% 28.6% a21: employees are competent and have the required skills count 4 18 36 11 1 % 5.7% 25.7% 51.4% 15.7% 1.4% table 9 results of questionnaire a: a spiritual workplace question valid missing mean std deviation a1: there is an atmosphere of trust 69 1 3.62 .956 a2: employees have opportunities to learn and develop as people 69 1 4.03 .874 a3: there is tolerance for diversity of people and differences 69 1 3.88 .932 a4: employees feel empowered and involved in the managing of the business 68 2 3.82 .897 a5: there is a participative management style 68 2 3.94 .960 a6: differences in culture, personalities and skills are respected, valued and used 70 0 3.91 .959 a7: the workplace is a safe and pleasant environment generating a positive pleasant atmosphere 70 0 3.71 .950 a8: employees experience job security they do not fear they will be retrenched unexpectedly 70 0 3.76 .939 a9: employees feel recognised and acknowledged for work done 69 1 3.84 .994 a10: employees feel valued as employees and experience a sense of meaningful contribution to the business 70 0 3.81 .889 a11: there is a culture of open and honest communication and information sharing without fear of reprisal 69 1 3.65 1.012 a12: employees are appreciative of, and thankful for each other 68 2 3.88 .890 a13: there is strong teamwork in which employees count on one another for help and support 68 2 3.88 .939 a14: there is energy, fun and creativity in the workplace 70 0 4.03 .916 a15: there is a sense of a community and connectedness amongst the staff employees feel accepted / belong 70 0 3.87 .883 a16: there is a sense of shared values and common purpose that inspires and motivates employees 70 0 3.80 .926 a17: employees feel listened to 70 0 3.63 .904 a18: the leadership cares about the employees 70 0 3.84 .911 a19: justice, fairness and integrity are the order of the day 70 0 3.73 .916 a20: there is a service orientation in the workplace 70 0 4.03 .798 a21: employees are competent and have the required skills 69 1 3.78 .783 table 10 statistics of questionnaire a original research smith & albertini vol. 6 no. 1 pp. 10 21sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za demographical differences the results were analysed using anova to determine if there are any significant differences in the responses between demographical groupings. the following demographical groupings were analysed and compared: 1. age groups a. 20 -35 years b. 36 years and older 2. ethnic groups a. african b. white c. indian d. coloured 3. job levels a. managerial b. general staff 4. years of service differences – tenure a. < 3 years of service b. 3-10 years of service c. >10 years of service it is beyond the scope of this study to report and interpret these findings in any detail, and therefore these results are not presented. it should be noted, however, that there are no 18 question never occasionally sometimes often almost always no response b1: i experience a sense of meaningfulness and fulfilment at work count 2 3 19 24 22 % 2.9% 4.3% 27.1% 34.3% 31.4% b2: i feel energised in my work i enjoy what i do count 2 3 17 24 24 % 2.9% 4.3% 24.3% 34.3% 34.3% b3: i am enthusiastic about my work count 2 3 15 23 27 % 2.9% 4.3% 21.4% 32.9% 38.6% b4: i am truly committed to my work count 1 8 24 37 % 1.4% 11.4% 34.3% 52.9% b5: i feel empowered in my work count 1 2 16 25 25 1 % 1.4% 2.9% 22.9% 35.7% 35.7% 1.4% b6: i experience job security not to be retrenched unexpectedly count 1 8 17 22 22 % 1.4% 11.4% 24.3% 31.4% 31.4% b7: i feel that i make a valuable contribution in my work count 1 9 20 39 1 % 1.4% 12.9% 28.6% 55.7% 1.4% b8: i feel that my potential is recognised and utilised effectively at work count 1 4 15 27 20 3 % 1.4% 5.7% 21.4% 38.6% 28.6% 4.3% b9: i feel that my leadership is committed to my personal and professional growth count 2 17 21 29 1 % 2.9% 24.3% 30.0% 41.4% 1.4% b10: i am open about my weaknesses and willing to expose these at work count 3 15 31 21 % 4.3% 21.4% 44.3% 30.0% b11: when i achieve something at work i feel it is recognised and appreciated count 4 21 21 24 % 5.7% 30.0% 30.0% 34.3% b12: i can express myself freely in my workplace without fear of reprisal count 6 26 19 19 % 8.6% 37.1% 27.1% 27.1% b13: i am being acknowledged for work well done count 2 18 24 25 1 % 2.9% 25.7% 34.3% 35.7% 1.4% b14: i feel connected to or part of a bigger picture (vision) of the organisation count 2 4 17 23 24 % 2.9% 5.7% 24.3% 32.9% 34.3% b15: i experience a sense of community, a common bond between me and my colleagues count 4 15 26 25 % 5.7% 21.4% 37.1% 35.7% b16: an atmosphere of mutual trust exists in my work team count 1 6 18 22 17 6 % 1.4% 8.6% 25.7% 31.4% 24.3% 8.6% b17: my workplace culture is service orientated count 4 12 30 24 % 5.7% 17.1% 42.9% 34.3% b18: i feel that people in the workplace are supportive and help each other when needed count 4 17 28 20 1 % 5.7% 24.3% 40.0% 28.6% 1.4% b19: i feel my salary is reasonable (appropriate) for the work that i do count 9 15 17 19 10 % 12.9% 21.4% 24.3% 27.1% 14.3% b20: i am treated with dignity and respect count 6 14 28 22 % 8.6% 20.0% 40.0% 31.4% b21: i am able to be my “true self” at work count 4 16 22 28 % 5.7% 22.9% 31.4% 40.0% table 11 results of questionnaire b significant differences over age groups and job levels, but that there are a few significant differences over ethnicity and tenure. given the complexity of this analysis these findings are not presented and elaborated on, but should be considered as an element for further research. discussion interviews with branch managers the researcher discussed the results of the survey with branch management and two workshops were held (23 february 2007 and 18 april 2007) to discuss possible explanations for the results obtained. whilst the branch surveyed is part of the bank’s broader branch network and as such follows certain mandatory branch operating policies, procedures and operating practices, the branch surveyed also deploys various interventions and practices that are unique to this branch and are the initiative of the branch leadership. some of these initiatives that might be “causal” and that may have contributed to the results of the survey are the following: • frequent team building • a mentoring programme • each staff member is part of a “buddy system” • an extensive “on boarding” programme for new recruits south african bank: spiritual audit original research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 1 pp. 10 21 19 question valid missing mean std. deviation b1: i experience a sense of meaningfulness and fulfilment at work 70 0 3.87 1.006 b2: i feel energised in my work i enjoy what i do 70 0 3.93 1.012 b3: i am enthusiastic about my work 70 0 4.00 1.022 b4: i am truly committed to my work 70 0 4.39 .748 b5: i feel empowered in my work 69 1 4.03 .923 b6: i experience job security not to be retrenched unexpectedly 70 0 3.80 1.058 b7: i feel that i make a valuable contribution in my work 69 1 4.41 .773 b8: i feel that my potential is recognised and utilised effectively at work 67 3 3.91 .949 b9: i feel that my leadership is committed to my personal and professional growth 69 1 4.12 .883 b10: i am open about my weaknesses and willing to expose these at work 70 0 4.00 .834 b11: when i achieve something at work i feel it is recognised and appreciated 70 0 3.93 .937 b12: i can express myself freely in my workplace without fear of reprisal 70 0 3.73 .962 b13: i am being acknowledged for work well done 69 1 4.04 .865 b14: i feel connected to or part of a bigger picture (vision) of the organisation 70 0 3.90 1.038 b15: i experience a sense of community, a common bond between me and my colleagues 70 0 4.03 .900 b16: an atmosphere of mutual trust exists in my work team 64 6 3.75 1.008 b17: my workplace culture is service orientated 70 0 4.06 .866 b18: i feel that people in the workplace are supportive and help each other when needed 69 1 3.93 .880 b19: i feel my salary is reasonable (appropriate) for the work that i do 70 0 3.09 1.260 b20: i am treated with dignity and respect 70 0 3.94 .931 b21: i am able to be my “true self” at work 70 0 4.06 .931 table 12 statistics of questionnaire b • monthly competitions around themes such as “best idea”; “discovery”; “share and tell”, and others • actively soliciting feedback from internal and external clients • a “values person” competition, where every month there is a substantial prize for the staff member who is seen to be demonstrating the behaviour/s of ”living the values”. staff are encouraged to “catch their colleagues” demonstrating such behaviours. • every staff member in the branch has a personal development plan that is reviewed quarterly by the line manager, the mentor, and, in some cases, an executive coach. these initiatives should be investigated in more detail to determine the impact they may have on making the branch a spiritual workplace as measured by the characteristics of spirituality at work measured in this survey. this will be noted in recommendations for further research. conclusions and recommendations the objective of this study was to investigate whether or not this branch is a spiritual workplace with employees in the branch living the values of the bank and whether or not employees in the branch are spiritually fulfilled at work. the results have shown that the branch as a workplace is a spiritual workplace as characterised by the seventeen indicators measured in this study. employees in the branch are “living the values”. they are demonstrating the behaviours that indicate they are living the values. strategically the bank has identified talent management as a critical imperative and key competitive advantage. in terms of the value “growing our people” and the corresponding three characteristics of spirituality at work, namely: 1) meaningful and challenging work; 2) drawing on and a tolerance for diversity of people and differences, and 3) realisation of potential, personal and professional growth and opportunities to grow and develop, the results indicate that these characteristics are present and employees are living this value. interviews with branch management revealed certain “in branch” initiatives that may be contributing to making the branch a spiritual workplace. it is recommended that a project team be initiated, consisting of human resources as well as learning and development practitioners to work together with characteristics (abbreviated) corresponding bank value is shown in bold italics questions from questionnaire a % of respondents who believe the characteristic is present “very often” or “all the time” meaningful/challenging work – growing our people 10 67,2% congruence – personal and corporate values 16 62.8% employees share a common vision – serving our customers. delivering to shareholders 16 62.8% drawing on tolerance for diversity – growing our people 3; 6 64.3%; 68,5% teamwork and team spirit – working in teams 12; 13 ; 15 64,2%; 70,0%; 65,7% creativity and initiative/resourcefulness – being proactive 14; 20 74,3%; 78,6% authenticity/integrity/ethical decisions – upholding the highest levels of integrity 1; 19 58,5%; 57,2% involvement/empowerment/participative management 4; 5 67,1%; 71,4% realisation of potential/personal growth /opportunities to learn and develop – growing our people 2; 21 74,3%; 67,1% employees experience a sense of community – working in teams. 15 65,7% a sense of connectedness to others – working in teams 15 65,7% positive /pleasant environment 7; 8 65,7%; 64,3% reward and recognition; acknowledgement and appreciation 9; 10 65,7%; 67,2% high levels of trust and trustworthiness – upholding the highest levels of integrity 1; 19 58,5%; 57,2% employees feel listened to 11; 17 55,8%; 57,2% atmosphere of caring, understanding, and concern for others – respecting each other. guarding against arrogance 12; 18; 19 64,2%; 64,2%; 54,20% legitimate power based on respect – respecting each other. upholding the highest levels of integrity 11 55,8% table 13 respondents who believe characteristics are present “very often” and “all the time” original research smith & albertini vol. 6 no. 1 pp. 10 21sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za cannot be assumed to be representative of the entire bank. the study did not deal with the impact of the leadership responsible on the branch. suggestions for further research formal research the significant differences found in the responses across the different ethnic groups as well as tenure should be researched to understand the relevance and impact of ethnicity and tenure on spirituality at work and spiritual fulfilment. it is suggested that this survey be carried out in more branches across the branch network to assess spirituality at work (living the values) and spiritual fulfilment of employees. this would also help management understand the impact of various branch specific initiatives on spirituality at work, living the values and employee spiritual fulfilment. functional “in branch” research it is suggested that further functional or “in action” research be conducted within the branch to determine what might be contributing to making the branch a spiritual workplace and characteristic (abbreviated) corresponding bank value is shown in bold italics questions from questionnaire b % of respondents who find spiritual fulfilment at work “often” and “almost always” meaningful/challenging work – growing our people 1;2;3;7;8 65,7%; 68,6%; 71,5%; 84,3%; 67,2% congruence – personal and corporate values 4;21 87,2%; 71,4% employees share a common vision – serving our customers. delivering to shareholders 14;15 67,2%; 72,8% drawing on tolerance for diversity – growing our people 14; 15 67,2%; 72,8% teamwork and team spirit – working in teams 14; 15 67,2%; 72,8% creativity and initiative/resourcefulness – being proactive 17 77,2% authenticity/integrity/ethical decisions – upholding the highest levels of integrity 10; 20; 21 74,3%; 71,4%; 71,4% involvement/empowerment/participative management 5 71,4% realisation of potential/personal growth /opportunities to learn and develop – growing our people 8;9;10 67,2%; 71,4%; 74,3% employees experience a sense of community – working in teams 15 72,8% a sense of connectedness to others – working in teams 14 67,2% positive/pleasant environment 6 62,8% reward and recognition; acknowledgement and appreciation 11;12;13;19 64,3%; 54,2%; 70,0%; 41,4% high levels of trust/trustworthiness. upholding the highest levels of integrity 10;16 74,3%; 55,7% employees feel listened to 12 54,2% atmosphere of caring, understanding, and concern for others – respecting each other. guarding against arrogance 9;10;17;18 71,4%; 74,3%; 77,2%68,6& legitimate power based on respect – respecting each other. upholding the highest levels of integrity 10;16;20;21 74,3%; 55,7%; 71,4%; 71,4% table 14 respondents who believe they are spiritually fulfilled at work ‘often’ and ‘almost always’ questions valid missing mean std. deviation a10 70 0 3.81 .889 b1; b2; b3; b7; b8 66 4 4.0273 .74988 a3; a6 69 1 3.8913 .86121 b14; b15 70 0 3.9643 .89005 a2; a21 68 2 3.9191 .71555 b8; b9; b10 66 4 4.0273 .74988 table 15 statistics in respect of the questions measuring the characteristics linked to the value “growing our people” pair questions mean n std. deviation correlation 1 a10; b1; b2; b3; b7; b8 3.83 4.0273 66 66 .870 .74988 .479 2 a3; a6; b14; b15 3.8913 3.9493 69 69 .86121 .88760 .661 3 a2; a21; b8; b9; b10 3.9609 4.0313 64 64 .70319 .70952 .575 table 16 paired sample statistics paired differences pair questions mean std. deviation t df sig. (2 tailed) 1 a10 b1; b2; b3; b7; b8 -.19394 .83314 -1.891 65 .063 2 a3; a6 b14; b15 -.05797 .72017 -.669 68 .506 3 a2; a21 b8; b9; b10 -.07031 .65115 -.864 63 .391 table 17 paired sample tests questions cronbach’s alpha number of items a10 na na b1; b2; b3; b7; b8 .863 5 a3; a6 .797 2 b14; b15 .809 2 a2; a21 .659 2 b8; b9; b10 .710 3 table 18 reliability statistics for paired samples 20 line management and investigate these initiatives, with a view to assessing the impact of these initiatives on spirituality at work and living the values. the project team should be briefed to “package” those initiatives that are identified as making a positive contribution to creating a spiritual workplace and to add these as training interventions to the branch development programme. it is further recommended that the leaders (eight managerial staff) in the branch be used to establish a “community of practice”’ to facilitate shared learning forums within the branch network. a final recommendation is that the characteristics measured in this study (and the two questionnaires used to survey these characteristics) be added to the set of branch diagnostics to be used annually to measure employee satisfaction. limitations only one branch was surveyed in this study. no factor analysis was done due to the limited number of respondents. the results south african bank: spiritual audit original research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 1 pp. 10 21 ensuring employees in the branch live the values. this study has dealt with the question: is this workplace a spiritual workplace and do the employees experience spiritual fulfilment at work? it has not dealt with the possible reasons for this. the impact of the branch leadership and the initiatives in the branch should be assessed, and to the extent that these are contributing to spirituality at work and spiritual fulfilment at work, these initiatives should be “packaged” as lessons learned and replicated across the branch network. references aburdene, p. (2005). megatrends 2010: the rise of conscious capitalism. charlottesville: hampton road publishing company. ashmos, d.p. & duchon, d. (2002). spirituality at work: a conceptualization and measure. unpublished manuscript, san antonio: university of texas. bank hr board report, april 2006. barrett, r. (1998). liberating the corporate soul: building a visionary organization. usa: butterworth–heinemann. ceo road show – “living the values”. covey, s.r. (1989). the seven habits of highly effective people. london: simon & schuster. deloitte, touche & tohmatsu, (2006). results: building and delivering on your employer brand. retrieved january 20, 2007, from the world wide web: http://www.bestcompany.co.za gibbons, p. (2002). spirituality at work: definitions, measures, assumptions, and validity claims. paper presented at euram conference, august 2002. howard, s. & welbourn, d. (2004). the spirit at work phenomenon. great britain: azure. humphreys, t. (2000). work and worth. dublin: newleaf. lamont, g. (2002). the spirited business. great britain: hodder & stoughton. 21 leedy, p. & ormrod, j.e. (2001). practical research: planning and design. new jersey: prentice hall. marques, j., dhiman, s. & king, r. (2005) spirituality at work. the journal of american academy of business, 7(2), 1-2. miller, w.c. (2003). the art of spiritual leadership in business: how to lead with spirituality, purpose, values and creativity. sounds true.4 cds – running time 4 hours. isbn: 1-59179-019 usa. mitroff, i. & denton, e.a. (1999). a spiritual audit of corporate america. san francisco: jossey-bass. parker, c. (2005). beyond positions and possessions – finding your place at work. indwe – south african express airways inflight magazine. pretoria: siyaya publishing, pp. 8-9. smith, d.p.j. (2005). personal leadership a. unpublished notes, johannesburg: university of johannesburg. smith, d.p.j. (2006). the concept spirituality – a pipl-perspective. monograph, johannesburg: university of johannesburg. smith, d.p.j. & louw, m. (2007). conceptualisation of the spiritual life dimension: a personal and professional leadership perspective. sa journal of human resource management, 5(1), 19-27. toms, m. (1997). the soul of business. great britain: hay house. verrier, d. (2002). spiritual fulfilment in a utility company of the city of johannesburg: a phenomenological study. unpublished research essay, johannesburg: university of johannesburg. verrier, d. (2005). executive coaching: a personal and professional leadership (ppl) perspective. unpublished doctoral thesis, johannesburg: university of johannesburg. verrier, d. & smith, d.p.j. (2006). spirituality at work: a pivotal postmodern paradigm for determining success or failure in business in the twenty–first century. hr future, january 2006. pp.37-38. retrieved july, 2007 from the world wide web: http://www.hrfuture,net/ zohar, d. & marshall, i. (2004). spiritual capital. great britain: bloomsbury. abstract introduction literature review research methodology and design results and findings discussion on the research findings acknowledgements references about the author(s) michelle govender wits business school, university of the witwatersrand, parktown, south africa mark h.r. bussin gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, illovo, south africa citation govender, m., & bussin, m.h.r. (2020). performance management and employee engagement: a south african perspective. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1215. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1215 original research performance management and employee engagement: a south african perspective michelle govender, mark h.r. bussin received: 06 may 2019; accepted: 27 feb. 2020; published: 08 june 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: to remain competitive south african organisations must improve their operational efficiency by lowering manufacturing and service costs, and the key is the performance of its employees. research purpose: the purpose of the study was twofold: firstly, to establish if there is a relationship between performance management and employee engagement; and secondly to ascertain if performance management can be rebooted through increased employee engagement. motivation for the study: organisations that measure and manage performance generally outperform those that do not. organisations need to understand what drives employee engagement and performance to outperform their competitors. research approach, design and method: a qualitative approach was employed that included a review of research articles and interviews with employees from various functions across all levels within operations of a fast-moving consumer goods organisation based in gauteng. a sample size of 20 employees was used. main findings: the results suggest that a relationship exists between performance management and employee engagement and that an increase in employee engagement would result in improved performance of employees and subsequently the organisation. the study revealed that whilst engagement and communication occur across all levels within the organisation, there is still a significant gap. the messages and expectations are not simple enough to be understood. employees are not empowered to have a voice which causes them to be demotivated. supportive management, which is fundamental to the success of performance management, is lacking. practical/managerial implications: the insight from this study may be used to change the way organisations engage with employees and manage performance to ensure it is a beneficial exercise that adds value to all stakeholders. contribution/value-add: this study will contribute towards organisations understanding the relationship between performance management and employee engagement and how to leverage this towards improving operational efficiency and organisational effectiveness. keyword: performance management; operational efficiency; organisational effectiveness; employee engagement; south africa. introduction top performing companies are those that are successfully able to translate business and talent strategies into reality faster and more efficiently than their competitors. hattingh, de waal and parsons (2018) acknowledged that there was a shift in the global economy since the financial and economic crisis of 2008. hill (2013) recognised that cross-border trade and investment barriers are declining and doing business in foreign countries is becoming easier as administrative and regulatory barriers are reduced, allowing both small and big organisations from developed to developing economies to expand internationally. globalisation, big data, the internet of things and advances in technology ensure that organisations only have one major differentiation – their employees. van der walt (2018) concluded that sustaining high performance to create a competitive advantage in an increasingly turbulent economic environment is crucial. performance management is an essential tool used for the effective management of organisations. it is used to assess achievement of agreed key performance indicators, develop talent, build competencies and enhance skills of employees, thus ensuring continued success. aguinis (2013, p. 2) defines performance management ‘as a continuous process of identifying, measuring and developing the performance of individuals and teams and aligning performance with the strategic goals of the organisation’. according to melnyk, bititci, platts, tobias and andersen (2013), there are studies, however, that show that performance management can adversely impact performance when a misalignment exists between what the organisations want to achieve and what is being measured. the reality is that the key competitive advantage of organisations today is the performance of their employees. as suggested by gruman and saks (2011), employee engagement has been cited as having considerable popularity over the last couple of years and plugged as the key to an organisation’s success. it seems that leaders are fast making the connection between engaged employees and business success. ‘there is an increasing awareness that employee engagement is pivotal in commercial and business performance’ (robertson-smith & markwick, 2009, p. 2). no longer are engaged employees a nice to have; they are a must to have if an organisation wants to outperform its competitors. robinson, perryman and hayday (2004) define employee engagement as: [a] positive attitude held by the employee towards the organisation and its value. an engaged employee is aware of business context and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organisation. the organisation must work to develop and nurture engagement, which requires a two-way relationship between employer and employee. (p. 8) the biggest challenge that leaders in organisations face is how to build a culture of employee engagement and leverage this as a driver of performance. how to make employee engagement work to positively change behaviour and improve operational performance is a concern. bedarkar and pandita (2014) state that employees want to be engaged in and contribute to the larger organisation. research purpose managing performance must be a continuous process to be effective; it must be a part of the way a company does business. for most organisations in south africa, it is a bi-annual tick box exercise that leaves managers and employees unchanged either way. de leeuw and van den berg (2011) stated that organisations that measure and manage performance outperform those that do not do these. strauss and du toit (2010) argued that south africa lacks competitiveness. how then does south africa compete and survive in the global arena? hoole and bonnema (2015) stated that a gap exists between the realisation of employee engagement and ideal engagement levels. the supposition is that the level at which an organisation performs will be in part determined by the level of engagement its leaders have with their employees. hoole and bonnema (2015) further suggested that in the current economic situation, a workforce that is engaged may provide the competitive edge required for organisations to succeed, and that whilst low levels of engagement may negatively impact the bottom line, high levels add value. an employee who feels valued and sees himself or herself as an integral part of the organisation is the one that is more likely to contribute towards the success of that organisation. according to schaufeli, salanova, gonzalez-roma and bakker (2002), engaged employees see themselves capable of dealing with demanding jobs and are connected to their work activities. the connection made between employer and employee is what will give an organisation a competitive advantage over another. the value people contribute cannot be imitated or duplicated by competitors. levels of engagement differ, organisational cultures differ, employees differ in the way they adapt to change, leadership styles are not the same from one organisation to another – all these factors must be considered to make both performance management and employee engagement work. ‘a “one size fits all” approach to enabling engagement is ineffective, because levels of engagement and its drivers vary according to the organisation, employee group, the individual and the job itself’ (robertson-smith & markwick, 2009, p. 46). although extensive literature exits on both performance and employee engagement, there is paucity of literature on the relationship between the two within the south african context. the purpose of this study was to contribute to existing knowledge regarding the relationship between performance and employee engagement. the insights gained from the study are to contribute to existing literature and help south african organisations understand their employees’ views on managing performance and employee engagement, leveraging this knowledge to change the way they engage, and manage their employees to improve performance and grow the business. objectives to address the paucity of literature that exists on the relationship between performance and employee engagement within the south african context and to understand whether increased employee engagement can improve performance, the following objectives will be explored, namely, to: understand how to effectively engage employees to ensure increased performance ascertain how to leverage employee engagement to reboot performance management. literature review performance management what is performance management? aguinis (2013, p. 2) states that ‘performance management is a continuous process of identifying, measuring, and developing the performance of individuals and teams and aligning performance with the strategic goals of the organization’. it is relevant to note that aguinis highlights two critical points for organisations; the first point is that it is a ‘continuous process’, which means ongoing. organisations conduct bi-annual performance appraisals on their employees confusing it with performance management. this highlights a lack of understanding by managers and human resource business partners. performance appraisal sessions are usually a tick box exercise for managers, an administrative hurdle imposed by human resources (smither & london, 2009). the second point is ‘aligning performance with the strategic goals’; business needs change and these changes must translate into changes in employee objectives. if performance appraisals are conducted twice a year, then how are organisations ensuring this alignment? performance management is not the same as performance appraisal (smither & london, 2009). aguinis (2013) and smither and london (2009) are aligned when they conclude that performance management is not the same as performance appraisals. aguinis (2013) describes evaluations that are done once or twice a year without constant coaching and feedback to employees as performance appraisal, where objectives of the employee’s contributions are not clearly set out. aguinis (2013) and denisi and pritchard (2006) state that performance appraisal forms part of performance management. they also concur that performance management can be defined as various activities that occur throughout the year and are not a shaped or defined set of events. these activities focus on motivating employees to improve their performance. the importance of performance management according to aguinis (2013), there are several reasons for managing performance that are beneficial to organisations, managers and employees alike; however, for the purposes of this research study, we shall limit the review to those that are most relevant to the study and which were highlighted in participants’ responses. they include the following: employees are encouraged and motivated when they are recognised for good work; it boosts their morale and makes them want to do better. employees want to be recognised and feel valued; this satisfies a basic human need and motivates them. managers get to know their employees, which builds better relationships, opens the channels for an honest two-way communication and allows for the manager to understand how to effectively manage the employees for sustained performance. employees get a greater understanding of their roles in achieving organisational objectives and their managers’ expectations, including the behaviours they must display. employees are encouraged and motivated by constructive feedback; they are encouraged by their managers’ interest in them and gain valuable insights into their strengths and want to know how they are performing to work on their areas of development and improve future performance. employees become more competent. organisational goals are given clarity, and this helps employees understand the relevance of their role in supporting the achievement of the team and business objectives. timely and meaningful feedback occurs which allows for employees to be supported in correcting performance to achieve individual and business objectives. employees are given a voice; they can share their ideas for improvement and raise concerns for timely resolution, which improves organisational performance. the consequence of a poorly implemented and managed performance management process a poorly implemented performance management system can have a significant negative impact on business results. aguinis (2013) explains that if the performance management system lacks credibility and is seen as unfair, then employees would either leave the organisation or become silent. feedback that is not constructive leads to employees feeling demotivated, and employees who are not motivated are not productive. employees who do not trust in the ability of their manager to effectively manage performance will find the employee and manager relationships being destroyed. when performance management is not effectively implemented, it becomes a tick box exercise that adds no value to the employee who is left discouraged and unchanged; the manager has wasted his, the employee’s and the organisation’s time because there will be no improvement all round. a performance management process that is not consistently applied across the organisation will have ratings and standards that may vary, be unfair and, as a result, employees will be unclear of how the ratings were generated. bias leads to unhappy and discouraged employees who do not trust the performance management process. employee engagement what is employee engagement? employee engagement is the level of commitment and involvement an employee has with the organisation. schaufeli (2013) states that in business engagement is a blend of job satisfaction, being committed to the organisation and extra-role behaviour in that an employee is willing to go beyond what is in his or her job description. an employee that is engaged will go the extra mile without being coaxed, believes in the values and vision of the organisation and wants to contribute to its success. engaged employees are part of the solution and step up to the plate to deliver business results. kahn (1990, p. 694) introduced the concept of employee engagement as ‘the harnessing of organization members’ selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances’. according to lockwood (2007), there are different levels of engagement which organisations must be cognisant of, which could either positively or negatively impact organisational performance. the first level of engagement includes the ‘engaged employee’ who is passionate about his or her job, feels connected to the organisation and drives superior performance. the second level of engagement is the ‘not engaged employee’ who is there to earn a living; he or she has no interest or passion for his or her work. the last level of engagement describes the ‘actively disengaged employee’ who is unhappy and shows it, undermining the achievements of engaged employees. as a leader, being able to recognise the level of engagement an employee has is important in managing the employee. employee engagement is regarded as cognitive, emotional or behavioural (khan, 1990). what an employee believes about the workplace culture, its managers and the organisation is referred to as cognitive engagement. how employees feel about the organisation, management and fellow co-workers is referred to as emotional engagement. the value the employee adds in terms of discretionary effort and energy put into his or her work is the behavioural factor (lockwood, 2007). the benefits of employee engagement robertson-smith and markwick (2009) maintained that engaged employees perform 20% better than their co-workers because they immerse themselves fully in their work. talented, engaged people who are aligned to the business strategy and feel connected to the organisation are more likely to stay with the organisation, thus reducing employee turnover and ensuring business continuity. employees who are engaged positively influence their fellow workers, thus improving not only individual performance but also team performance. this has a roller-coaster effect on the organisation. high-performing teams hold themselves accountable for performance, which delivers business results. a similar view was shared by lockwood (2007), who affirmed that business success is determined by the levels of engagement within an organisation. an increase in the levels of employee engagement helps in the retention of talent, increases stakeholder value, improves loyalty of customers and subsequently improves organisational performance. drivers of employee engagement according to robertson-smith and markwick (2009), a ‘one-size-fits-all approach’ will not deliver the desired benefits of employee engagement because the levels of engagement and drivers of engagement are not the same. they identified several key drivers of employee engagement, which include the following: nature of work: the kind of work an employee has or is expected to do greatly influence how engaged he or she is. employees want work that is exciting, uses their skills and capabilities, and challenges them. they want to know that the work they do adds value and is important to them and others. work that has purpose and meaning: employees want to feel as if they are making a difference; they want to feel proud of their organisation, what it does and their own work. opportunities for development and improvement: employees want to develop their skills and growth in their careers. managers and organisations must encourage employee development through regular feedback discussions. engaged employees feel empowered and when they are confident in their ability and their job, they perform at their best. reward and recognition: employees want to be recognised; they want to feel appreciated and valued. relationships that are effective: maintaining good and productive relationships with peers and managers is important. it must be a trusted relationship where there is mutual respect and open dialogue. managers can show trust in employees by allowing greater autonomy. the organisation must support a culture of trust. two-way communication: employees must be consulted in decision-making and allowed to have a voice. inspiring leadership: managers must adopt a collaborative approach; they must act with integrity and inspire employees. the drivers identified above by robertson-smith and markwick (2009) as being key to performance management are supported by a study conducted in 2006 in singapore by the gallup group, which concluded that the key employee expectations that form the basis of engagement include employees wanting to know what is expected from them and the necessary tools to perform their jobs. they wanted to use their skills and talents and they wanted recognition. it was important that they feel valued. feedback on how they are performing was important; they want opportunities to learn and they want to have good relationships with their co-workers (gopal, 2006). interpretation of the management theory constructs common to performance and employee engagement while all the themes will be discussed, the focus will be on the constructs that emerged as the three major themes of the study, which are engagement and communication, employee empowerment and authentic leadership. engagement and communication hoole and bonnema (2015) argued that engaged employees can enhance the competitiveness of organisations in the current economic landscape and that while high levels of engagement add value, low levels of engagement can have a damaging effect on the bottom line. robertson-smith and markwick (2009) pointed out that various studies have demonstrated a correlation between high employee engagement levels and productivity of employees, teams and organisations. they argued that engaged employees show commitment, advocate on behalf of the organisation, show dedication, use discretionary effort and utilise their skills and abilities to support the achievement of the organisation’s goals. they feel a connection with the organisation and invest themselves into their roles and into the organisation. when organisations encourage a culture of enabling employees, they benefit not only financially but also have the advantage of employees who are willing to go the extra mile and do whatever it takes for the organisation to succeed (baumruk, 2006). lockwood (2007) argued that continuous communication is a key management tool that gives credibility to the organisation’s leadership and ensures organisational success. the same argument was made by lowry (2016) who stated that critical to business success was the communication of clear, consistent messages to employees. it was further explained that the reasons organisations fail are because leaders assume that important information will be filtered down to the lower levels. according to lockwood (2007), consistent, clear and honest communication encourages, energises and keeps employees productive. a lack of clear or poor communication can lead to distrust, high turnover, frustration and doubt. it is important for organisations to have a strategic communication plan that encompasses what will be communicated and the methods of communication. delivery methods must be adapted to the audience. effective communication is a two-way process. according to morrison (2014), employees who engage in an upward voice are willing to provide the organisation with valuable information, raise concerns or give input, and when they are demotivated and stop having a voice, they may be depriving the organisation of useful information. it is therefore important that employees are given an opportunity to have a voice without fear of intimidation or victimisation. aguinis (2013) states that timely and meaningful feedback allows for employees to be supported in correcting performance to achieve individual and business objectives. performance discussions and feedback must take place regularly; it must not happen annually or bi-annually. the performance appraisal process is not the same as the performance management process. organisations, human resource managers and management need to be trained to understand the difference between these constructs. performance management is a continuous process of two-way discussions and feedback. the absence of regular discussions and feedback results in employees feeling blindsided and disengaged when the annual or bi-annual appraisals happen. often objectives are not met because throughout the year there was no feedback on performance or support to achieve objectives. this negatively impacts employee performance and organisational performance. a regular two-way communication allows for a culture of transparency and openness, where any form of confusion or doubt can be quickly and amicably resolved, creating an environment of trust. employees who trust are loyal and will go the extra mile to achieve business results. regular and constant communication between employees and management allows for issues or problems to be identified early and resolved quickly. a continuous process of evaluation and mentoring will ensure that employees are skilled and developed to improve their own opportunities for career growth and to ensure business success. when constructive and honest feedback is given to employees, it encourages them to leverage their strengths and work on their areas of development to maximise performance. employee empowerment lockwood (2007) argued that: [w]hen employees have the power to make decisions related to their performance, can access information about company costs and revenues, and have the necessary knowledge, training and development to do their jobs – and are rewarded for their efforts – they are more productive. (p. 3) according to anitha (2014), employees are more interested and engaged when they know that their contribution adds value and brings a positive difference to the organisation. menon (2001) argued that allowing employees to make work-related decisions to enhance performance is not new in management literature and that empowering employees would allow them the ability to significantly affect organisational outcomes. empowerment is the result of increased participation of employees. all these authors are aligned in their view that empowered employees enhance organisational performance. menon (2001) further states that by providing a vision for the future, leaders energise and empower their employees to act by participating in transforming the organisation. menon argues that the true benefit of empowerment will only be realised if employees experience empowerment; he alludes to the fact that most organisations profess to empower employees by asking leaders to get them involved in the decision-making process, but in the hierarchy of the organisation, it is about control. according to menon (2001), empowerment initiatives fail because of the inability of leaders who cannot delegate effectively, their need for power and their insecurity with their own jobs. aguinis (2013) states that employees are encouraged and motivated when they are recognised for good work, and it boosts their morale. employees who are motivated get involved and take initiative. intrinsic motivation which is fuelled by feelings is perceived as more important to employees than monetary rewards. employees want as recognition for good work and developed competencies the freedom to make decisions and to feel empowered. when employees are given a voice and are allowed to share their ideas for improvement and raise concerns for timely resolution, it improves organisational performance. a key contributor to organisational success in today’s ever-changing and increasingly competitive business arena is employee engagement. schaufeli et al. (2002, p. 74) define engagement as ‘a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterised by vigor, dedication and absortion’. engaged employees are productive employees; they want to be empowered, they demand support from their leaders and they want to deliver business results through improved performance. by giving employees a voice, and allowing them to share ideas, make suggestions and raise concerns, it makes them feel included. increasing the opportunities given to employees to contribute or participate in the direction of the company will encourage and motivate them to know that their inputs are valued. employees who feel valued are productive employees. authentic leadership george, sims, mclean and mayer (2007) argued that: [a]uthentic leaders demonstrate a passion for their purpose, practise their values consistently, and lead with their hearts as well as their heads. they establish long-term meaningful relationships and have the self-discipline to get results. they know who they are. (p. 129) from this definition it can be concluded that a leader’s role is to create an environment that encourages employee participation and provide supportive management to employees that motivates them to use discretionary effort, and be a role model – an individual who leads by example consistently applies ethical values and is someone who forms trust relationships. the success and effectiveness of performance management lies in the quality of the leader and his or her commitment to engage with, provide support to, challenge, coach, give constructive feedback and include his or her employees in activities of the business (gruman & saks, 2011). sanger (2008) argued that effective performance management requires a change in culture and skilled leaders who are willing and committed to provide considerable managerial investment. the point is further illustrated in the work by smither and london (2009) where it is cited that: the second big gap is tied to the skills of performance ‘managers’. short of training them as psychologists, many struggle with the challenges of setting proper goals with their people, providing timely and meaningful feedback in a constructive fashion, and coaching people to bring out the best in them. (p. 81) aguinis, gottfredson and joo (2012) suggest that often managers do more harm than good when giving performance feedback because they are not comfortable with it and therefor a constructive feedback approach should be used rather than one that relies on employees’ shortcomings. gruman and saks (2011) argued that leaders motivate and encourage employees to try new things by showing support, giving employees stretch roles and allowing employees to participate in discussions and get involved in decision-making without fearing negative consequences. authentic leaders inspire and motivate employees to outperform. performance management must be fair, transparent, objective and used as a tool for improvement and not punishment. the role of supportive management and authentic leaders is critical to the performance management process. if employees lack confidence in their leaders to effectively manage performance, they will become disengaged and demotivated. leaders need to undergo training on how to manage performance and to increase their emotional intelligence. managers who are trained and equipped to be supportive of employees and show interest in their development form better relationships with employees. leaders need to reinforce and keep landing the message with employees that their role within the organisation is key to its success and that their contribution is valued. an employee’s interest and engagement are increased when his or her work is regarded as meaningful (anitha, 2014). development and improvement development and improvement is another key construct that must be considered when engaging employees. anitha (2014) suggested that employees gain confidence when they are trained and developed, which allows them to engage significantly in their jobs. when individuals and teams are engaged, there is a higher level of productivity and so organisations must be quick to leverage this and explore opportunities to develop these individuals and teams into stretch roles. organisations must ensure that the competencies and development of these employees are understood and acted upon – this will ensure that these individuals remain motivated and encouraged to grow with the business and to grow the business. according to lockwood (2007), as organisations compete globally, attracting and retaining the right talent will be increasingly more important. employees wanting greater work–life balance means that organisations must understand employee needs and how to meet them, yet still develop and leverage talent at all levels of the organisation. another key consideration is that because of the poor education system, employees starting their careers might not have the right level of skills needed and organisations would need to partner with schools and universities to acquire the required skills. building capability for the future will be positively related to increased performance. aguinis (2013) states that employees are encouraged and motivated by constructive feedback; they are encouraged by their manager’s interest in them and gain valuable insights into their strengths. they want to know how they are performing to work on their areas of development and improve future performance. it is important for organisations to have effective training programmes in place to increase the skills and competencies of employees. employees want to be developed; they want to improve their own performance to better support in the achievement of organisational objectives. organisations need to recognise the changes in work–life balance and develop and retain talent. employees must have the right skills and competencies and display the right behaviours aligned with the values of the organisation. performance discussions must include the ‘how’ in terms of achieving objectives. for sustained performance it is important to have employees act with integrity. if organisations measure behaviour, then there is a greater chance of having authentic leaders at all levels of the organisation, which would increase performance and allow for sustained performance. performance management soundness and roles employees’ perception of the performance management system is poor and often perceived as the ‘big stick’ (bourne, neely, platts, & mills, 2002). employees are not part of the performance management system – goal setting, objectives are decided by senior management or global teams and cascaded to employees and therefore there is no buy-in of the process from the onset. in order to be accepted, goals should be understood and meaningful. de leeuw and van den berg (2011) suggested that a lack of motivation and resistance to change may be the result of not involving personnel in performance management systems. there is a lack of employee participation during the performance management reviews, with discussions often being led by the manager. performance feedback sessions are often not conducted on a regular basis and the performance management reviews do not include development discussions. workplace culture lockwood (2007) argued that to effectively engage employees, organisations must first understand the nature of their workplace culture; is it too results focused that employees are left behind, or does it provide employees with a sense of purpose, connecting leaders and employees in their shared beliefs and enabling employees to contribute in the direction of the organisation? according to (lockwood (2007): research shows that organizations that provide a workplace culture with the psychological conditions of meaningfulness (job enrichment, work-role fit), safety (supportive manager and co-workers) and availability (resources available) are more likely to have engaged employees. (p. 5) an organisation that can provide meaningful work, supportive management and adequate resources is more likely to have engaged employees. organisations must create an environment of trust that could encourage mutual respect and build good relationships. when the culture of the organisation is one of support, engagement, development and continuous improvement, it allows for employees to want to be a part of the organisation; they are proud of it, they will defend it and they want to be part of its success. they use discretionary effort to ensure that the organisation succeeds. the organisation must ensure that there is an effective engagement policy in place to ensure employee engagement levels are measured and improved continuously for sustained performance. rewards, recognition and appreciation saks and rotman (2006) concluded that employees will positively involve and engage themselves more in their roles should they perceive that the rewards will be greater, and should they be given recognition that their work is meaningful and adds value. rewards and recognition are key in employee engagement because people want to feel respected and have a sense of accomplishment. employees want to be recognised for their achievements and when they are given this recognition, it boosts their self-esteem and gives them a sense of worth or having contributed towards the success of something. this is supported by maslow’s (1943) theory of motivation and hierarchy of needs that alludes to the fact that when the basic needs of physiology, safety and love are satisfied, the need for esteem and self-actualisation emerges. maslow (1943) says this about esteem needs: all people in our society (with a few pathological exceptions) have a need or desire for a stable, firmly based, (usually) high evaluation of themselves, for self-respect, or self-esteem, and for the esteem of others. by firmly based self-esteem, we mean that which is soundly based upon real capacity, achievement and respect from others. these needs may be classified into two subsidiary sets. these are, first, the desire for strength, for achievement, for adequacy, for confidence in the face of the world, and for independence and freedom. secondly, we have what we may call the desire for reputation or prestige (defining it as respect or esteem from other people), recognition, attention, importance or appreciation. (p. 381) rewards and recognition that are in line with achievements will be positively related to increased performance. for the participants in this study, they wanted to be rewarded with being given the opportunity to participate in the activities of the organisation. summary the outcome of the literature review confirmed the findings of the research study and highlighted poor practices in both performance management and employee engagement. the major contributors to poor performance are lack of communication and engagement, employee empowerment and authentic leadership. research methodology and design introduction although extensive literature exists for both performance management and employee engagement, this research study was aimed at gaining insights into employees’ perceptions of performance management and employee engagement within a south african context and whether they perceived a relationship existed between the two. design the research study employed a cross-sectional research design methodology that was exploratory in nature and was conducted with a qualitative focus. it was based on literature review of employee engagement and performance management, and considered interview data collected from 20 south african employees. participants participants comprised 20 employees in various functions within operations of a fast-moving consumer goods multinational company based in johannesburg, gauteng province, south africa. permission was sought and received from the organisation to conduct the research study and allow willing participants to participate in the research. it was made clear that there were no incentives. the organisation and participants were made aware that the results were for academic purposes and may be published in an academic journal. it was further explained that all information would be kept strictly confidential, with all transcripts and recordings destroyed after final submission. the company and participants would remain anonymous. all participants took part voluntarily and were afforded the opportunity to decline or terminate participation throughout the interview process. the criterion for participation was that participants had at least 1 year of working experience, was part of the performance management process, understood english and completed grade 12. population and sampling method the organisation with a workforce of approximately 450 employees at the time of the study, comprising 356 permanent employees and 94 contract workers, had been operating in south africa for 37 years. non-probability convenience sampling is a sampling method where not all the participants or units within the target population have an equal chance of being used in the study and members in the target population are used because they meet practical criteria (etikan, musa, & alkassim, 2016). as the study was exploratory in nature and sought to investigate the views of employees across all levels of operations within the organisation, non-probability convenience sampling was used. this was because of ease of access to employees and time constraints as employees were given permission to utilise company hours to participate in the study. the sample selection consisted of 20 employees across various functions and levels within operations of the organisation, all of whom formed part of the performance management process and were involved in employee engagement activities. the majority of participants (60%) were males. in terms of ethnicity, 55% were blacks, 30% were indians, 10% were whites and 5% were mixed-race people. all the participants were assigned codes (a1 to a20) to protect their anonymity. the levels within the organisation were categorised into shop floor personnel, office personnel, first-line management, site leadership and directorate (see table 1). table 1: participant demographics. research instrument according to foddy (1993), open-ended questions allow participants to express themselves freely and say what they are thinking without being influenced by the researcher. the exploratory nature of the research study allowed the researcher to use an open-ended discussion guide to conduct semi-structured interviews with the participants. this enabled the researcher to ask the same open-ended questions to all participants while still allowing participants to expand and elaborate on their responses. it also allowed the researcher to probe for further understanding and clarity, yet remain on track to investigate the objectives of the study. the challenge of such an instrument is that it is time-consuming – both in the time taken to conduct each individual interview and in transcribing and coding of the data. data collection the data collection process included the researcher doing an online review of accredited south african and international journal articles applicable to the study to understand what the findings and views of academics about performance management and employee engagement were. based on this knowledge, the researcher compiled an interview discussion guide to aid in gathering the relevant insights from participants on performance management and employee engagement. a semi-structured interview process was applied, which allowed for open-ended questions and a discussion to evolve, which allowed participants’ views and thoughts to come through with ease. interviews occurred during business hours at the organisation’s premises at times that were suitable to the participants and did not negatively impact operations. participants were encouraged to give honest unbiased feedback. interviews took place on a one-to-one basis in the researcher’s office which is secluded, thus maintaining confidentiality. each interview was lasted approximately between 45 and 60 min, with participants being asked to elaborate and give examples to ensure that the interviewer understood and correctly noted the points being made. after the interviews had been concluded and if the researcher required further clarity on any of the responses from the participants, then this was done through either telephonic or face-to-face interview depending on the availability of the participants. data analysis shortly after each interview was conducted, the researcher went through the recordings and notes to establish that she understood participant responses; if clarity was required, then this was sought at the earliest convenience of the participant. in total, 20 interviews were conducted, after which data saturation was reached, with no new codes and themes emerging further; the researcher did an initial read-through of the data to familiarise herself with it. then participant responses were transcribed into a microsoft excel worksheet per question to facilitate analysis of the data. an important step in analysing and organising qualitative data is being able to ‘see’ and assign codes or tags to express or infer information gathered during the study. codes can be assigned to phrases, words or whole paragraphs (basit, 2003). responses for each question were then reviewed and analysed for key words and phrases for which codes were assigned. the codes and phrases that were identified and highlighted were then collated into one data set relevant to each question. the data set was then analysed for similarities, differences and repeat themes and organised into first-order theme clusters, organising themes and emerging themes for which each theme was named. this report highlights the themes for performance management and employee engagement which emerged from the responses. thematic analysis accordings to braun and clarke (2006), thematic analysis has increased in popularity as a method of analysing qualitative data because of its accessibility and theoretic flexibility, as it can be used within different frameworks to answer various types of research questions. thematic analysis is a search for patterns and themes within a data set that explores commonalities of experiences, ideas, thoughts, views and perceptions, thus addressing the research questions being investigated. the process involves familiarising oneself with the data, coding and theme development. feredday and muir-cochrane (2006) defined thematic analysis as patterns that are recognised in the data from which themes develop and become categories for analysis. different question types require different versions of thematic analysis which is informed by different theoretical frameworks. braun and clarke (2006) stated thatthematic analysis can be approached in various ways, which include coding and themes that are directed by data content, coding and themes that are directed by current concepts and theories, coding and themes that mirror the obvious data content, coding and themes that support or underpin the data, reporting of an assumed reality within the data content and focus on how a certain reality is created by the data. a theme is characterised by patterns that highlights a point or idea of importance within the data and in relation to the research question; however, a theme that occurs more frequently is not necessarily more critical. a theme is important if it highlights something that is significant to the research question (braun & clarke, 2006). within the data set, themes denote specific patterns of meaning which is either directly observable – manifest content or references – latent content. it is important to distinguish whether themes are drawn from theoretical ideas – deductive, which allows for replication, refuting or extensions of current studies – or from the raw data – inductive, drawing from the naturally occurring themes within the data itself and remaining open to emerging concepts (joffe 2012). inductive analysis is like grounded theory with the analysis being data driven. braun and clarke (2006) stated that in inductive analysis the coding of data happens without trying to fit it into either the researcher’s preconceived notions or a pre-existing framework and is data driven. the deductive theory-driven approach involves analysis of data that is limited to preconceived framework. conducting thematic analysis braun and clarke (2006) stated that it is important that as a first step the researcher is familiar with the data and any interview recordings must be written out so that it can be read. a read-through of the entire data set is required to make notes on initial thoughts and ideas after which initial codes can be generated; this can be done manually or through the use of a software program. after the initial coding is done, codes, sentences and phrases that are similar can be grouped together as first-order theme clusters. the same is then applied with the first-order theme clusters, similar codes become organising themes and the process is repeated until a theme emerges. at this stage a review of the themes is necessary to establish if all the data fit accordingly. define and name themes so that they fit in with all the data and finally compile the report. validity and reliability according to creswell and miller (2000), the concept of validity in qualitative research is not easy but researchers undertaking qualitative research must show that the study is credible, using a validity procedure. creswell and miller define validity as how credibly and accurately the participants view and ideals regarding the phenomena have been accounted for. there are several validity procedures, but for the purpose of this study, the thick, rich description to show credibility was used. the purpose of which was to give the readers a sense that they could have been in the interview and to allow the readers to ‘see’ the emotion coming through the words. ponterotto (2006) defines thick description as: [t]he researcher’s task of both describing and interpreting observed social action (or behaviour) within its context. thick description accurately describes observed social actions and assigns purpose and intentionality to these actions, by way of the researcher’s understanding and clear description of the context under which the social actions took place. thick description captures the thoughts and feelings of participants as well as the relationships among them. thick meaning of findings leads readers to a sense of verisimilitude, wherein they can cognitively and emotively ‘place’ themselves within the research context. (p. 543) according to cypress (2017), reliability in qualitative research is about ensuring that the findings are congruent with the reality and the researcher does not manipulate the phenomenon of interest. whilst the research study was conducted ethically, and the results reported as accurately as possible, it must be noted that the researcher was the source of data collection. ethical consideration ethical clearance was obtained the ethics committee: wits business school (clearance number: wbs/ba1254736/252). results and findings introduction participant responses were reviewed, interpreted and analysed for commonalities, differences and repeat ideas. the results were categorised into first-order theme clusters, organising themes and emerging themes. the research study revealed seven common themes for performance management and employee engagement. the common themes have further been categorised into major themes based on their relevance to the study, significance in terms of participant responses and the number of times it had emerged per research question. major themes that emerged included engagement and communication, employee empowerment and authentic leadership. several other themes that emerged included development and improvement, performance management soundness and roles, workplace culture and reward, recognition and appreciation. findings: performance management are employees satisfied with the way they are performance managed? the purpose of research question 1 was to explore the level of satisfaction employees felt with which they were performance managed and to determine what worked and what could be improved. of the total participants, 45% were dissatisfied with the way they were performance managed, citing no discussions taking place, key performance indicators not being aligned with their roles and lack of regular interaction and feedback from direct line managers. the 30% of participants that were satisfied with the way they were performance managed said that their objectives were aligned with the business objectives and they understood them. the remaining 25% of participants who were somewhat satisfied mentioned that there is room for improvement in terms of interaction between management and lower levels; they cited a need for increased training to enhance skills and knowledge and more regular mini-assessments during the year. group 1: shop floor personnel. about 55% of group 1 participants were not satisfied with the way they were performance managed. participants perceived a gap in the focus placed on the development of employees and the lack of managerial interaction. group 2: office personnel. while both participants, participant a13 and a16, in group 2 were satisfied with the way they were performance managed, it was suggested that increased discussions throughout the year would improve the overall performance management process. group 3: first-line management. all four participants in group 3 were dissatisfied with the way in which they were performance managed. participants were despondent because of their managers’ inability to effectively manage performance and the lack of commitment by managers to engage and have meaningful discussions with employees. there was a perception that the performance management process lacked credibility and that measures focused on results only and did not consider behaviours. group 4: site leadership and directorate. all participants in group 4 were satisfied with the way they were performance managed and agreed that it worked; however, they also all agreed that improvement was required as the performance management process was not always consistently applied. changes in organisational objectives did not always translate to changes in objectives, which resulted in lack of strategic focus. while most of group 4 participants mentioned improvements in the performance management system itself, one participant was frustrated with his manager’s lack of ability to justify how he rated his performance and thus perceived the performance management process as lacking objectivity. participants from groups 2 and 3 shared the same view that regular discussions must happen to improve performance. a leader’s role is to provide supportive management to employees that could motivate them to participate and use discretionary effort. the responses from groups 3 and 4 reinforced gruman and saks’ (2011) theory that the quality of the leader plays a pivotal role in the success or failure of managing performance. the commonality in responses of participants across all four groups reiterated the importance of a sound and authentic leadership in managing performance effectively. how do you want to be performance managed? the purpose of this question was to understand which constructs of managing performance were important to participants to drive continuous improvement in performance. participants were all aligned on how they wanted to be performance managed; they wanted to be empowered to take decisions and come up with new ideas. it was important for them to feel included and be part of the organisation’s success through coaching and mentoring. the need for regular discussions and feedback was also highlighted as significantly important. group 1: shop floor personnel. most of the participants in this group shared similar views regarding how they wanted to be performance managed. peer reviews, better communication between employees and management, and employee empowerment through coaching, mentoring and recognition were important. group 2: office personnel. participants in group 2 shared the same sentiment around being recognised for good work and wanted as recognition the freedom to make decisions and to feel empowered. lockwood (2007) argued that productive employees are those who are empowered to make decisions, have access to information, are equipped with the right capabilities and have their efforts recognised and rewarded. group 3: first-line management. participants in this group all shared similar views with each other and group 1 on how they wanted to be performance managed. it was important that the performance management process was credible, was used as a tool for improvement and not punishment, and boundaries within which they operated extended. aguinis (2013) states that performance management is an ongoing continuous process that includes agreeing on set targets as aligned to the organisation’s objectives that will deliver business results, reviewing performance and including a two-way feedback and coaching that ensures the employee’s contribution towards the organisation’s success is clear. group 4: site leadership and director. participants in group 4 wanted to be able to give input when decisions affected them and for the business to consider more than just the achievement of objectives, and also the values lived by the employee and the behaviours displayed. it was important for participants across all the groups that performance is managed on clearly set objectives aligned to their roles. what is the common reason for the level of performance in south african companies? strauss and du toit (2010) argued that south africa lacks competitiveness. the purpose of the question was to understand the underlying cause of south african companies lacking competitiveness. participants responded that the common reasons for the level of performance in south african companies is the high skills shortage, lack of authentic leadership, lack of employee empowerment, ineffective engagement and poor communication. group 1: shop floor personnel. participants in group 1 shared similar views regarding the reasons for the current performance levels in south african companies, which were more relational: poor leadership, lack of interaction and communication between management and employees, and employees being afraid to voice their concerns. lack of training and skills development was also mentioned as a reason for poor performance. group 2: office personnel. participants in group 2 shared different views on the reason for the current levels of performance within south african organisations. managers’ partiality and lack of employee empowerment were cited as reasons. group 3: first-line management. participants in group 3 shared the same view that managers’ partiality was an issue when it came to managing performance and developing employees. they were aligned in their view that employee’s ambitions and development were not a priority for the organisation. group 4: site leadership and director. all participants in group 4 believed the level of performance in south african organisations was poor, including theirs, citing lack of performance standards, a skills shortage and employee retention as causes for concern. tables 2 to 4 show a summary of the findings for questions 1 to 3 relating to performance management. table 2: summary of findings for question 1 – performance management. are employees satisfied with the way they are performance managed? table 3: summary of findings for question 2 – performance management. how do you want to be performance managed? table 4: summary of findings for question 3 – performance management. what is the common reason for the level of performance in south african companies? findings: employee engagement what do you regard as ‘employee engagement’? the purpose of this question was to gauge which constructs of employee engagement were of relevance and importance to the participants. employees want to know that they are adding value and contributing to the organisation’s success, having a voice motivates them to get more involved and give more of themselves. greater positive engagement and involvement will result in better performance. group 1: shop floor level. participants in group 1 shared similar understanding with each other regarding employee engagement, which involved more employee connection and emotion. their understanding of employee engagement included employees living the values of the organisation and being empowered to have a voice. group 2: office personnel. participants in group 2 differed in their understanding of employee engagement from each other yet were aligned to group 1 with regard to employees being empowered and allowed to contribute to the organisation’s success. group 3: first-line management. for participants in group 3, employee engagement was about communication, employee connection and emotion to drive performance. group 4: site leadership and director. participants in this group all shared different ideas with each other about employee engagement. some participants alluded this to management taking the lead, while the rest of the participants said it was the employees who took the lead and made the effort. what can management do to increase and improve employee engagement? the purpose of this question was to understand the current underlying issues that organisations are facing in terms of employee engagement and get the participants’ views on how it can be improved upon. participants highlighted that to improve employee engagement, discussions and feedback must be regular and not a onceor twice-a-year exercise. engagement and communication need to improve, and employees must be given a voice. development of employees must be a key focus and employees need to be rewarded, appreciated and recognised for their contribution to the organisation’s success. leaders need to be more approachable, supportive and willing to create an environment of trust and respect. group 1: shop floor personnel. participants in this group shared common views on how to improve employee engagement, with the focus being on improving communication and developing employees through training. a key construct was the lack of leadership, which was further supported by group 3 in their responses. group 2: office personnel. participants in this group shared similar ideas on giving employees a platform to have a voice. group 3: first-line management. participants in this group all shared the same view that leadership was lacking; and from their emotion it was clear that this was a serious issue that was negatively impacting performance. group 4: site leadership and director. all the participants in this group had different ideas on how to increase and improve employee engagement levels; for some participants, the focus was on empowering employees through involvement and development, and for others it was more about addressing issues and concerns that impact employee engagement. does a relationship exist between employee engagement and performance management? the purpose of this question was to understand if participants perceived a relationship existed between employee engagement and performance management. all participants in all four groups agreed that there was a relationship between employee engagement and performance management. group 1: shop floor personnel. participants in this group made it clear that increased communication regarding performance was a priority; they wanted to have meaningful discussions. they also wanted to have a voice. group 2: office personnel. participants in this group alluded to the fact that employees need empowerment to achieve increased performance. group 3: first line management. group 3 participants spoke of behavioural factors and alluded to cognitive engagement as the factor to increase performance. group 4: site leadership and director. participants were aligned in their view that increased engagement will encourage employees to take initiative and go the extra mile. discussion on the research findings the research findings will be discussed in relation to the research objectives and questions based on the literature review of specific constructs within performance management and employee engagement. the use of the qualitative research method was to gain insights into the experiences of employees with regard to performance management and employee engagement. it was important to understand how the participants perceived performance management, what they thought was key to ensuring greater employee engagement and if they perceived a link between the two. tables 5 to 7 show the summary findings to question 1 to 3 as it relates to employee engagement. table 5: summary of findings for question 1 – employee engagement. what do you regard as ‘employee engagement’? table 6: summary of findings for question 2 – employee engagement. what can management do to increase and improve employee engagement? table 7: summary of findings for question 3 – employee engagement. does a relationship exist between employee engagement and performance management? objective 1: understand how to effectively engage employees to ensure increased performance south african employees perceive the following as key constructs to improve performance engagement and communication: it was important for employees to have clear discussions regarding objectives to deliver against expectations, and it was also of equal importance to have regular discussions and feedback about their performance. a major gap identified in the research study was the lack of regular and honest performance discussions, including timely and meaningful feedback. participants explained that regular discussions and timely feedback would help them address gaps within their own performance to achieve key performance indicators, which would positively impact the organisation’s performance. this finding was supported by aguinis (2013), who asserted that timely and meaningful feedback allows for employees to be supported in correcting performance to achieve individual and business objectives. authentic leadership: the data collected from the research study revealed a gap in leadership, with participants highlighting managers’ partiality, an autocratic leadership style and managers lacking emotional intelligence as key inhibiters to performance management. this provided enough evidence to support the theory that the lack of quality leaders negatively impacts performance management. the success and effectiveness of performance management lies in the quality of the leader and his or her commitment to engage with, provide support to, challenge, coach, give constructive feedback and include his or her employees in activities of the business (gruman & saks, 2011). employee empowerment: empowerment is the result of increased participation of employees. research data provided enough evidence that suggested that participants operated within tight boundaries across all levels within the organisation and were not included in decisions that affected them. there was also a perception that if they shared their ideas and views, then they will be victimised. menon (2001) argued that allowing employees to make work-related decisions to enhance performance is not new in management literature and that empowering employees would allow them the ability to significantly affect organisational outcomes. performance management soundness and roles: employee’s perception of the performance management system is poor and often perceived as the ‘big stick’ (bourne et al., 2002). repeat findings within the research data showed that participants across all levels within the organisation perceived that the performance management process lacked credibility, performance appraisals were confused with performance management and there was poor strategic focus, with changes in organisational objectives not translating into changes in individual objectives. there was also a perception that inconsistencies existed in the way employees were performance managed – often the process being used to punish rather than to improve performance. this caused frustration and distrust, which was evident from the emotions expressed by the participants. development and improvement: research study data revealed that the absence of discussions pertaining to career development, lack of training and inability of the organisation to retain employees with the right talent and competencies caused frustration amongst the lower levels. anitha (2014) suggested that employees gain confidence when they are trained and developed, which allows them to engage significantly in their jobs. there was a perception that training only occurred if it benefited the organisation. according to lockwood (2007), as organisations compete globally, attracting and retaining the right talent will be increasingly more important. the theories alluded to by anitha (2014) and lockwood (2007) asserted the importance of developing employees to enable them to perform better in their roles and retaining those employees for sustained performance. workplace culture: participants perceived a workplace culture of fear and intimidation where employees were not given a voice. according to lockwood (2007): research shows that organisations that provide a workplace culture with the psychological conditions of meaningfulness (job enrichment, work-role fit), safety (supportive manager and co-workers) and availability (resources available) are more likely to have engaged employees. (p. 5) the research data supported this theory of lockwood (2007) who argued that engaged employees are those who find themselves in a safe environment where they can share ideas and make decisions without fear. rewards, recognition and appreciation: it was important to note that participants within the study wanted as part of recognition for good work and displayed capabilities to be rewarded with greater decision-making opportunities. saks and rotman (2006) concluded that employees will positively involve and engage themselves more in their roles should they perceive that the rewards will be greater, and should they be given recognition that their work is meaningful and adds value. appropriate rewards and recognition are key in performance management because people want to feel respected and have a sense of accomplishment. south african employees perceive the following as key constructs of employee engagement that will positively impact performance management engagement and communication hoole and bonnema (2015) correctly argued that engaged employees have the ability to enhance the competitiveness of organisations in the current economic landscape and that while high levels of engagement add value, low levels of engagement can have a damaging effect on the bottom line. robertson-smith and markwick (2009) pointed out that various studies have demonstrated a correlation between high employee engagement levels and productivity of employees, teams and organisations. they argued that engaged employees show commitment, advocate on behalf of the organisation, show dedication, use discretionary effort and utilise their skills and abilities to support in the achievement of the organisation’s goals. the research data showed significant evidence that employees want to be kept informed; they want to know what transpires within the organisation and they want to be actively involved in the decisions that affect them. the research data revealed a clear gap in the way communication occurs, often characterised by a crisis and not simple enough to be understood at all levels of the organisation. participants asserted the need for management to openly engage employees, for two-way effective communication to take place and for the organisation to interact with employees. it was important for participants that communication and engagement is effective to help them understand how their involvement and delivering against objectives contributed to the success of the organisation. employee empowerment participants within the research study asserted the need to be given a voice and for the boundaries within which they operate to be extended. it was important to them that they were given the opportunity to share ideas, be part of the decision-making process and allowed a platform to express their views which they believed would positively impact performance. this was supported by lockwood (2007), who correctly argued that: [w]hen employees have the power to make decisions related to their performance, can access information about company costs and revenues, and have the necessary knowledge, training and development to do their jobs – and are rewarded for their efforts – they are more productive. (p. 3) authentic leadership george et al. (2007) argued that: [a]uthentic leaders demonstrate a passion for their purpose, practise their values consistently, and lead with their hearts as well as their heads. they establish long-term meaningful relationships and have the self-discipline to get results. they know who they are. (p. 129) it was important for participants within the research study that managers lead by example and connect with them. they believed that a leader who provides supportive management will motivate the use of discretionary effort and will encourage employees to go the extra mile. rewards, recognition and appreciation aguinis (2013) argued that employees are encouraged and motivated when they are recognised for good work, and that it boosts their morale. employees who are motivated get involved and take initiative. intrinsic motivation which is fuelled by feelings is perceived as more important to employees than monetary rewards. this theory is supported by the participants’ need for their achievements and talents to be recognised. objective 2: ascertain how to leverage employee engagement to reboot performance management the purpose of this study was to understand the relationship between performance management and employee engagement within the south african context and to explore if increased employee engagement will positively impact performance management. there is substantial evidence from the research study data to support that a relationship exists between performance management and employee engagement and that an increase in the level of employee engagement will positively impact performance management. the study data were further supported by the management theories identified and the key common constructs to both employee engagement and performance management. the following major constructs will be discussed to understand how to leverage employee engagement to reboot performance management. engagement and communication lockwood (2007) argued that continuous communication is a key management tool that gives credibility to the organisation’s leadership and ensures organisational success. this theme encapsulates the participants’ need for increased employee engagement, personal interaction and two-way open communication. although communication takes place, there is evidently a gap in terms of what is being communicated and what the expectations are. aguinis (2013) stated that through regular and continuous communication departmental and organisational goals can be made clear so that the employee could understand the connection between what he or she does and the organisation’s success. participants explained that the communication messages were not always clear or easily understood at the lower levels of the organisation. it was explained that often the messages get distorted or do not filter down to shop floor level. changes within organisational goals and objectives are not always communicated timely and the participants felt that this hindered them from fully supporting the changes, which resulted in unachieved key performance indicators. aguinis (2013) argued that managers who get to know their employees foster better relationships, open the channels for an honest two-way communication and allow for them to understand how to effectively manage the employees for sustained performance. participants explained that the interaction between direct line manager and employees was lacking and that an increase in interaction would allow for the manager to get to know his or her employees better. this increased interaction would also facilitate and encourage open, honest discussions regarding capability building and would ensure that a gap in performance is corrected quickly. it was clear that participants understood the need and importance of regular discussions to give and receive feedback on key performance indicators, to share challenges currently being experienced and to request for support to achieve individual and organisational goals and improve performance. aguinis (2013) argued that when employees are given a voice, they are allowed to share their ideas for improvement and raise concerns for timely resolution, which improves organisational performance. participants wanted management to consult them on issues that affected them, and they wanted to be actively involved in the direction of the organisation. they wanted to be listened to and given a platform to voice their concerns without fear of reprimand or intimidation or a forum to share their ideas. employee empowerment menon (2001) argued that allowing employees to make work-related decisions to enhance performance is not new in management literature and that empowering employees would allow them the ability to significantly affect organisational outcomes. empowerment is the result of increased participation of employees. this theme highlights the need for employees to be empowered to take ownership of their areas of responsibility so that managers will be able to assume a more leadership role. participants expressed their eagerness to contribute to the success of the organisation, bring new ideas and improve the current ways of working. they were of the view that organisations must empower employees by allowing them the freedom to make decisions with regard to their areas of work if it was aligned to the values of the organisation and to express themselves freely. participants were adamant that they do not want to be micro-managed. several participants argued that they were hired for their skills and knowledge and should be given an opportunity to use them. they wanted the organisation to understand that every employee brings something new and different to the table and this should be encouraged and nurtured to take the organisation forward. employees are more interested and engaged when they know that their contribution adds value and makes a positive difference to the organisation (anitha, 2014). participants want to feel valued and feel like they are a bigger part of the organisation. it was mentioned that a higher level of engagement would make employees feel happy and valued, which would result in them performing to the maximum. it was clear that participants wanted to get involved in the core activities of the organisation but wanted management to trust that they will do their best and give off their best always. authentic leadership george et al. (2007) argued that: [a]c for their purpose, practise their values consistently, and lead with their hearts as well as their heads. they establish long-term meaningful relationships and have the self-discipline to get results. they know who they are. (p. 129) this theme points out the importance of sound and authentic leadership for performance management to be effective. the responses from the participants reinforced gruman and saks’s (2011) theory that the quality of the leader plays a pivotal role in the success or failure of performance management. the lack of knowledge and skills of managers to effectively performance manage employees, the lack of commitment to engage and having meaningful discussions with employees, and managers’ partiality were three re-occurring reasons why participants at the lower level of the organisation placed so little value on the performance management process. sanger (2008) argued that effective performance management requires a change in culture and skilled leaders who are willing and committed to provide considerable managerial investment. the study revealed that participants perceived their managers as being disengaged and managing from afar and with fear, giving instructions rather than leading by example. several participants also alluded to the fact that employees were often afraid to raise concerns or give input for fear of being reprimanded or sidelined. this kind of management is unsupportive and hinders employees from achieving their full potential. gruman and saks (2011) argued that leaders motivate and encourage employees to try new things by showing support, giving employees stretch roles and allowing employees to participate in discussions and get involved in decision-making without fear of negative consequences. a re-occurring view shared by many of the participants was that managers led by fear and intimidation, which resulted in employees being afraid to make mistakes or to speak up because they might be victimised or lose their jobs. employees not only feared management, they resent them and lack confidence in their abilities to manage effectively. employees are disengaged and lack motivation because of this. another concern shared by participants was managers’ partiality and it was explained that if an employee wanted to be developed or to progress in his or her career, then he or she must ensure that he or she has the right stakeholder backing or the right network because ‘selective nurturing’ occurred within the organisation. favouritism and ‘friendships’ often got mixed up as strong performance. this has caused lack of confidence in the performance management system and employees to become despondent. managers lack emotional intelligence and want to ensure that the hierarchical system remains firmly in place; they will not allow communication or interaction between their subordinates and executive or global leaders and this causes tension amongst the lower levels. implications and recommendations based on the findings of this research study, the following recommendations have been made. organisations organisations must understand and acknowledge employee development and career aspirations to implement effective training and development solutions to satisfy employee needs. the study identified that employees perceive a skills gap, and this requires that organisations partner with schools and universities to improve and attain the skills they need. the true benefit of empowerment will only be realised if employees experience empowerment. the study revealed that communication is not simple and therefore engagement and communication strategies cannot be ‘cascaded’ or ‘rolled out’; they must be adapted to the location of the organisation and be cognisant of the target audience. the levels of engagement determine the extent of individual, team and organisational success. engagement strategies must not be a ‘one-cap-fits-all’ approach. supportive management and the quality of the leader are critical if organisations want to have a competitive advantage. it is important that organisations hire the right leaders and equip leaders with the necessary skills and capabilities to lead. a workplace culture that is built on a foundation of inclusiveness, mutual trust and respect is required if the organisation wants to gain competitive advantage. leaders leaders must understand their true self to lead effectively, understanding the impact of their actions and behaviours when managing employee performance. improving their levels of emotional intelligence to ensure a balanced work environment is challenging and at the same time rewarding. leaders need to understand the relationship between employee engagement and performance management and create an environment where employees have a role model, are given direction and are allowed a voice. limitations of the study there are limitations of the study that must be recognised. this research was performed on a small sample size in one province in south africa. this makes it difficult to generalise the findings to the larger south african population as the culture, values and strategic objectives are not the same across organisations. whilst interviews were conducted across all levels of the organisations, a cross-sectional snapshot view of the current situation was taken. it did not consider what had transpired before whether the organisation was in a crisis or transition process, which could have influenced employee responses or what will happen after the snapshot has been taken. conclusion the study results showed that a relationship exists between performance management and employee engagement and an increase in the level of employee engagement would result in an increase in performance. employees were not satisfied with the way in which they were performance managed and a greater level of employee engagement is required. employees are the greatest assets of any organisation and employers need to ensure that they create an environment of inclusiveness, engagement and trust to improve performance. people want to feel valued and want to know they add value to the organisation; therefore, managing performance should not be a tick box bi-annual exercise but a continuous process of learning, feedback, action and engagement that is embedded in the company culture. it is imperative that organisations operating within south africa actively seek initiatives that will meet employee expectations in terms of managing performance and employee engagement. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.g. conducted the research and m.h.r.b. supervised the research and co-wrote the article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views expressed in this article are the author’s own and not an official position of the institution. references aguinis, h. (2013). performance management (3rd edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson education. aguinis, h., gottfredson, r.k., & joo, h. (2012). delivering effective performance feedback: the strengths-based approach. business horizons, 55, 105–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2011.10.004 anitha, j. (2014). determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance. international journal of productivity and performance management, 63(3), 308–323. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-01-2013-0008 basit, t.n. (2003). manual or electronic? the role of coding in qualitative data analysis. educational research, 45(2), 145–154. https://doi.org/10.1080/0013188032000133548 baumruk, r. (2006). why managers are crucial to increasing engagement: identifying steps managers can take to engage their workforce. strategic hr review, 5(2), 24–27. https://doi.org/10.1108/14754390680000863 bedarkar, m., & pandita, d. (2014). a study on the drivers of employee engagement impacting employee performance. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 106–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.04.174 bourne, m., neely, a., platts, k., & mills, j. (2002). the success and failure of performance measurement initiatives. international journal of operations and production, 1288–1310. https://doi.org/10.1108/01443570210450329 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa creswell, j.w., & miller, d.l. (2000). determining validity in qualitative inquiry. theory into practice, 39(3), 124–130. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip3903_2 cypress, b.s. (2017). rigor or reliability and validity in qualitative research: perspectives, strategies, reconceptualisation, and recommendations. dimensions of critical care nursing, 36(4), 253–256. https://doi.org/10.1097/dcc.0000000000000253 de leeuw, s., & van den berg, j.p. (2011). improving operational performance by influencing shopfloor behavior via performance management practices. journal of operations management, 224–235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2010.12.009 denisi, a.s., & pritchard, r.d. (2006). performance appraisal, performance management and improving individual performance: a motivational framework. management and organizational review, 2(2), 253–277. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8784.2006.00042.x etikan, i., musa, a.s., & alkassim, r.s. (2016). comparison of convenience sampling and purposive sampling. american journal of theoretical and applied statistics, 5(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajtas.20160501.11 feredday, j., & muir-cochrane, e. (2006). demonstrating rigor using thematic analysis: a hybrid approach of inductive and deductive coding and theme development. international journal of qualitative methods, 5(1), 80–92. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690600500107 foddy, w. (1993). constructing questions for interviews and questionnaires: theory and practise in social research. cambridge: cambridge university press. george, b., sims, p., mclean, a.n., & mayer, d. (2007). discovering your authentic leadership. harvard business review, 2(85), 129–138. gopal, a. (2006, may 11). worker disengagement continues to cost singapore. retrieved from https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/2 gruman, j.a., & saks, a.m. (2011). performance management and employee engagement. journal of human resource management review, 21(2),123–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2010.09.004 hattingh, c., de waal, a., & parsons, p. (2018). assessing high performance: a south african case study. south african journal of business management, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajbm.v49i1.3 hill, c.w. (2013). international business competing in the global marketplace. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. hoole, c., & bonnema, j. (2015). work engagement and meaningful work across generational cohorts. south african journal of human resource management, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.681 joffe, h. (2012). thematic analysis. qualitative research methods in mental health and psychotherapy. a guide for students and practitioners, 1, 210–223. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119973249.ch15 kahn, w.a. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 692–724. https://doi.org/10.5465/256287 lockwood, n.r. (2007). leveraging employee engagement for competitive advantage: hr’s strategic role. society for human resource management research quarterly, 1(1), 1–12. lowry, g. (2016). employee engagement: communicating clear expectations. seminars in orthodontics, 2(2), 103–106. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.sodo.2016.04.010 maslow, a.h. (1943). a theory of human motivation. psychological review, 370–396. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054346 melnyk, s.a., bititci, u., platts, k., tobias, j., & andersen, b. (2013). is performance measurement and management fit for the future. journal of management accounting research elsevier, 173–186. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mar.2013.07.007 menon, s. (2001). employee empowerment: an integrative psychological approach. applied psychology, 50(1), 153–180. https://doi.org/10.1111/1464-0597.00052 morrison, e.w. (2014). employee voice and silence. the annual review of organisational psychology and organisational behavior, 1, 173–197. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091328 ponterotto, j.g. (2006). brief note on the origins, evolution, and meaning of the qualitative research concept thick description. the qualitative report, 11(3), 538–549. robertson-smith, g., & markwick, c. (2009). employee engagement: a review of current thinking. institute for employment studies, 1–71. robinson, d., perryman, s., & hayday, s. (2004). the drivers of employee engagement (pp. 1–87). brighton: institute for employment studies. saks, a.m., & rotman, j.l. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169 sanger, m.b. (2008). from measurement to management: breaking through the barriers to state and local performance. journal of public administration review, 70–85. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2008.00980.x schaufeli, w.b. (2013). what is engagement? in c. truss, k. alfes, r. delbridge, a. schantz, & e. soan (eds.), employment engagement in theory and practice. london: routledge. schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzalez-roma, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two sample confirmatory factor analytical approach. journal of happiness studies, 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 smither, j.w., & london, m. (2009). performance management: putting research into action. san francisco, ca: john wiley & sons. strauss, a.c., & du toit, a. (2010). competitive intelligence skills needed to enhance south africa’s competitiveness. aslib proceedings: new information perspectives, 302–320. https://doi.org/10.1108/00012531011046925 van der walt, f. (2018). workplace spirituality, work engagement and thriving at work. south african journal of industrial psychology, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v44i0.1457 abstract introduction problem statement research purpose and objectives literature review research design research method results discussion of the results practical implications limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) shingirayi f. chamisa department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the free state, phuthaditjhaba, south africa temba q. mjoli department of industrial psychology, faculty of management and commerce, university of fort hare, alice, south africa tatenda s. mhlanga department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the free state, phuthaditjhaba, south africa citation chamisa, s.f., mjoli, t.q., & mhlanga, t.s. (2020). psychological capital and organisational citizenship behaviour in selected public hospitals in the eastern cape province of south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1247. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1247 research project registration: project number: 814 original research psychological capital and organisational citizenship behaviour in selected public hospitals in the eastern cape province of south africa shingirayi f. chamisa, temba q. mjoli, tatenda s. mhlanga received: 20 june 2019; accepted: 29 sept. 2020; published: 04 dec. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the relationship between psychological capital (psycap) and organisational citizenship behaviour (ocb) is important to establish especially in the south african public hospitals where the quality of healthcare services have been reported to have deteriorated. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between psychological capital and organisational citizenship behaviour among nurses in the public hospitals. motivation for the study: there is crisis in the public nursing sector as nurses are reported to be working under pressure as a result of increased workload and responsibilities beyond their scope of practice (in terms of doing the work that they are not trained for and more work than they can handle), in addition to rapidly changing work environments. research approach, design and method: the present study follows a quantitative cross-sectional design using a questionnaire on a sample of 228 nurses from public hospitals in the eastern cape province, south africa. main findings: the findings of the study confirm that psychological capital has a significant positive relationship with organisational citizenship behaviour. practical/managerial implications: the study recommends management to recognise the area of ocb in the public hospitals and work in nurturing and retaining those nurses capable of displaying such behaviours. contribution/value add: the study validates aspect of reciprocity of the social exchange theory. nurses with high levels of hope, self-efficacy, resilience and optimism showed reciprocity through the display of ocbs. the study also validates the aspect of job resources in eroding job demands from the job demands resources model. keywords: psychological capital; organisational citizenship behaviour; public hospitals; operational efficiency; nurses; south africa. introduction organisational citizenship behaviour (ocb) is vital in the working environment as it can be employed for human resource management in promoting both the quality of personnel and the services that organisations offer (banwo & du, 2020). specifically highlighting the definite state of ocb leads to the recognition of the status and the reliability of the organisation. in addition, behaviour-level items can also be utilised for personal evaluation as they are simple to measure (george & jones, 2008; grego-planer, 2019). the characteristics of ocb, for example, in terms of age, tenure and experience form a basis for in service by stage development to human resource management practitioners when targeted to individual employees and the organisation at large. in other studies (joubert, van tonder, & grobler, 2018; oparinde, oparinde, & abdulsalam, 2019; wang, yang, cao, & lee, 2019), ocb has also been reported to promote work quality, actual performance, service quality and service delivery and good reputation, and hence corporate image. the absence of ocb affects the organisational performance and its reputation. the south african public hospitals have high rates of turnover and accidents (weenink, kool, hesselink, bartels, & westert, 2017). this has further resulted in poor-quality healthcare services and underperformance. furthermore, nurses in public hospitals are reported to lack support, which affects performance. there is a massive skills shortage in the public health sector, and this affects the quality of healthcare services offered to the public (mkonza, 2018). a total number of 15 552 registered nurses are serving a population of 6 498 682 in the eastern cape province. this implies that one registered nurse is responsible for 417 patients (the south african nursing council, 2018). there is a crisis in the public nursing sector as a result of lack of preparation and support. this is a consequence of the rapidly changing work environment, which has caused an increased workload and responsibilities beyond the nurses’ scope of practice (maphumulo & bhengu, 2019). organisational citizenship behaviour has been defined by organ (1988, p. 4) as ‘individual behaviour that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognised by the formal reward system, and in the aggregate, promotes the efficient and effective functioning of the organisation’. employees who engage in ocb are motivated to go the extra mile during task completion. examples include assisting a fellow employee who is behind in their work or mentoring a new worker. organisational citizenship behaviour is, therefore, an important aspect in hospitals as it results in improved patient care and the quality of health services (organ, podsakoff, & mackenzie, 2006). other scholars have also supported the above using the social exchange theory (chernyak-hai & rabenu, 2018; konovsky & pugh, 1994; spector & che, 2014). social exchange theory derives a sense of reciprocity; thus, as organisational workers are presented with a conducive task environment, they would feel that they need to give something in return and they reciprocate through ocb (chernyak-hai & rabenu, 2018; konovsky & pugh, 1994; spector & che, 2014). employees consider psychological capital (psycap) a vital element in the social exchange environment of the organisation and employees high in psycap also have a proactive personality (li & crant, 2018; machmud, 2018). psychological strengths promote voluntary behaviour and research has identified psycap as a predictor of ocb in the working environment (avey, wernsing, & luthans, 2008). psychological capital has its foundations from positive psychology and it is a motivational factor. problem statement organisational citizenship behaviour enhances effectiveness and workers’ participation. it promotes teamwork and inter-organisation cooperation in addition to minimising rates of errors and overall presents a good task environment (balakrishnan & raman, 2020). previous studies have identified the public health sector as one of the areas in which the issue of ocb seems critical (issever, soyuk, & sengun, 2016; youssef, 2012; yusof, yaacob, & rahman, 2019). hospital systems are endlessly undergoing innovative modifications that influence patient care and client management and most public hospital centres are failing to meet the demands, which are attached to the changes. it is considered that if nurses retained a higher level of ocb, there would have been a better chance for public hospitals to remain efficient (yusof et al., 2019). organisational citizenship behaviour has been reported to support innovation and development through addressing and meeting the new demands of the organisation and the patients (khaola, 2018). demographic variations, innovation and increase in expectations of patients in the value of caring in the area of nursing added to a rising deficiency in the nursing workforce in general, and the turnover intentions of nurses in the public health sector have increased the importance of ocb amongst nurses in the same sector (taghinezhad, safavi, raiesifar, & yahyavi, 2015). organisational types impact policies, practices and guidelines. in south africa, hospitals managed by the private sector are flexible, for example, in monetary administration and staffing. in contrast, public hospitals are rigid. the deterioration in quality healthcare has led people to drop trust in the healthcare system in south africa (maphumulo & bhengu, 2019). some studies outline psycap as an antecedent of ocb (bogler & somech, 2019). high ocb has been related with quality service care. however, ocb’s contribution to quality services has a limited concept and empirical support (almutawa, muenjohn, & zhang, 2018; sidin & arifah, 2019). the public healthcare system is a popular sector with significant attention from researchers and healthcare practitioners globally. this has prompted for a great amount research as a result of shortcomings and challenges in the sector (maphumulo & bhengu, 2019). for this reason, this study was conducted to explain the role of psycap in enhancing ocb at public hospitals in eastern cape, south africa. research purpose and objectives the primary goal of this study is to investigate the impact of psycap on ocb in public hospitals in the eastern cape province of south africa. this is important because the findings of this study will contribute to new knowledge about public hospitals as no previous studies could be identified with the same variables using a sample of nurses in public hospital in the eastern cape province. the public healthcare environment is characterised by poor working conditions and non-personalised conditions (rutter, 2017). there is a shortage of nurses in the province and an unequal distribution of nurses in different areas. for example, a province like the eastern cape has a density of less than half that of the western cape and gauteng (dhai, 2018). nurses comprise 80% of the overall health professionals in south africa and in eastern cape their performance in terms of health outcomes when compared with other provinces is extremely poor (passchier, 2017). in reference to the interdependence between nurses and patients, public hospitals need to promote ocb because it is critical. the evaluation of ocb amongst nurses is, therefore, important. statement of hypothesis h1: there is a significant direct relationship between psycap and ocb. h0: there is no significant direct relationship between psycap and ocb. literature review this section will define the variables of interest and explain the theories underpinning the study. theoretical literature review this section will discuss the theories underlining the study. social exchange theory the social exchange theory originated from the fields of economics, psychology and sociology (homans, 1958). social exchange behaviour has been conceptualised as the interchange of tangible or intangible elements like the signs of esteem or prestige. individuals that offer more to others also expect more from them, and they are under pressure to deliver (li & yu, 2017). blau (1986) further conceptualised social exchange as discretionary behaviours of employees that are derived by the proceeds they expect to receive from co-workers. social exchange brings forth an expectancy of some forthcoming reward for contributions. it is based on an employee’s trusting that the other part of the exchanges will objectively meet their obligations in the long run (holmes, 1981). social exchange theory explains how workers perceive their relationship with co-workers based on perceptions of: the balance between what one dedicated into the relationship and what they obtain from it, the kind of relationship that employees are worth and the probability of achieving a better relationship with a co-worker (blau, 1986). employers exploiting social exchange theory utilise a lasting relationship with workers and are involved in their workers’ welfare and career development and expect the loyalty and commitment to be mutual. when employees are treated with esteem, they are highly likely to exhibit ocbs (cho & johanson, 2008). other scholars also confirmed that managers’ and supervisors’ support promote employee ocb as a result of the social exchange relationship that is formed amongst employees, managers and supervisors (organ, 1988; podsakoff, mackenzie, paine, & bachrach, 2000). related results have also occurred in the setting of co-workers’ social exchange (ilies, nahrgang, & morgeson, 2007; rhodes & eisenberger, 2002). the job demands resources model in the job demands resources (jd-r) model job characteristics are classified into two groups which are job-related demands and job-related resources (leiter & bakker, 2010). job-related demands are the physical, psychological, social or organisational traits of a task, which promote continued physical, cognitive and emotional effort or skills (schaufeli & taris, 2014). these comprise pressure of work and emotional, mental or physical demands. job resources refer to those physical, psychological, social or organisational aspects of the job that are either/or: practical in attaining work goals; lessen job demands and the related physiological and psychological costs; and stimulate personal growth, learning and development (schaufeli & taris, 2014). psychological capital is a psychological form of development associated with high levels of hope, self-efficacy, resilience and optimism and it also fulfils the other two stated aspects here. according to the jd-r model, job resources such as psycap serve a significant part in fuelling an engagement process that results in ocb and in turn improves job performance (kasaa & hassanb, 2015). psychological capital adopts roles as intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. intrinsic motivators include meaning, hope and self-efficacy. job demands make task accomplishment difficult and erode the existence of ocb in the task environment. job resources as extrinsic motivators achieve and retain employee well-being to enhance their drive to fulfil the accomplishment of their tasks (okello & gilson, 2015). the conception of ‘resource caravans’ only takes place when individuals in possession of vast job resources experience more strengths for them to thrive in the work environment (pheko, 2013). such employees experience higher levels of consistency in both their objectives and personal development. as a result, these individuals are intrinsically and/or extrinsically stirred to put more emphasis on their objectives and in turn are highly engaged in their work roles and may be expected to evince high levels of ocb (okello & gilson, 2015). in turn, ocb generates positive organisational outcomes. conceptual literature review this section will highlight the main variables of the study. psychological capital the term ‘psycap’ is defined as an employee’s desirable psychological state of development, whose main features are high levels of hope, self-efficacy, resilience and optimism (lorenz, beer, pütz, & heinitz, 2016). these paradigms are objectively different and denote an individual’s positive frame of mind. psychological capital is also a positive outlook of an employee about (not necessarily restricted to) his or her job and organisation (levene, 2015). it is derived from the fundamentals of positive psychology that underline strengths and benefits rather than dysfunctions and flaws of employees (peterson & park, 2003; seligman, csikszentmihalyi, & seligman, 2000). hope refers to the desirable emotional state grounded in the possession of determination and pathways to fulfil objectives (snyder, 2000). self-efficacy refers to an employee’s confidence of his or her capability to achieve work roles at an agreed level and results in the acceptance of challenges and partaking of the task (bandura, 1997). resilience is defined as the continuance of positive adjustment under challenging conditions (masten & reed, 2002). optimism refers to the state of always identifying the best in every situation whilst expecting the best outcomes (jitendra, jenny, brian, & bharat, 2010). psychological capital has its roots from positive organisational scholarship, a field of psychology that aims to enhance personalities, competences and behaviour that lead to qualify employees to operate more efficiently (robyn & mitonga-monga, 2017). positive organisational behaviour provides a foundation of this study because it focuses on the creation of a positive work life and performance in the organisation. psychological capital is a validated factor that positively enhances performance in the organisation (bouzari & karatepe, 2017; chen, 2017). it provides a series of resources that are important for the display of ocbs by employees and retaining expert and referent bases of power amongst nurses in public hospitals (hou, hsieh, & ngo, 2018). in the process, nurses are also empowered both directly and indirectly to improve the performance in their task environments. the high level of skill and power amongst nurses together with the worthiness and right to others’ respect promotes performance and increases the quality of public healthcare services and the nurse’s intention to stay in the public hospitals. organisational citizenship behaviour organisational citizenship behaviour refers to voluntary behaviour an employee displays that is not part of the formal task requirements and duties, which are not stated in the job description and they benefit others as well as the organisation (organ, podsakoff, & mackenzie, 2006). it comprises of five dimensions, which are altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship, courtesy and civic virtue (organ, 1988; podsakoff et al., 2000). altruism refers to assisting co-workers generously without expecting anything in return. workers involved in conscientiousness perform their duties in time and have high job engagement levels. courtesy refers to the consideration of an individual’s personal actions on co-workers. workers demonstrating sportsmanship are more likely to be tolerant of inconveniences and impervious to gossiping on the job. civic virtue relates to active participation in organisational governance and undertakings. such employees are more concerned with organisational policies and being involved with issues important to organisational functioning (organ, 1988; podsakoff et al., 2000). empirical literature review the relationship between psychological capital and organisational citizenship behaviour psychological capital is usually focused on goal accomplishment through an employee’s ability to identify several ways (paths) (i.e. hope) to achievement, (i.e. hope, resilience and optimism) (chen, zeng, chang, & cheung, 2019). in a study conducted in iran, psycap was found to be significantly positively correlated with ocb (pouramini & fayyazi, 2015). this is supported by other studies (beal iii, stavros, & cole, 2013; sepeng, 2016) using south african samples where psycap was found to be statistically significantly correlated with ocb; thus, employees with high psycap engaged more in ocb than those with low psycap. suifan (2016) used a sample of banking employees and the results of regression analysis showed that psycap had a significant positive correlation with ocb. another study in the indian context using a sample of manufacturing personnel confirmed psycap as a predictor of ocb (pradhan, jena, & bhattacharya, 2016). thus, the positive psychological status of personnel stimulates voluntary behaviour such as assisting co-workers and completing a task jointly. a study by somech and khotaba (2017) using survey questionnaires in israel also confirmed a significant positive relationship between psycap and ocb. in another study on emotional intelligence, psycap and ocb, the results of correlational statistical analysis confirmed a positive and significant relationship between psycap and ocb (azim & dora, 2016). another quantitative study using a sample of academic employees found that the results supported a positive correlation between psycap and ocb (rehman, qingren, latif, & iqbal, 2017). the investigation of psycap and ocb using a sample of nurses and administrative staff from a hospital in iran reported a significant and positive relationship between psycap and ocb, implying that psycap supports positive performance in the organisation (jahani, mahmoudjanloo, rostami, nikbakht, & mahmoudi, 2018). furthermore, in a study using the conservation resource theory a positive relationship between psycap and ocb was established (hobfoll, halbesleben, neveu, & westman, 2018). the positive relationship of psycap and ocb was also supported by shukla and singh (2013) and sidra, imran and adnan (2016). more quantitative results validate the extant theories of psycap as a predictor of ocb. qadeer and jaffery (2014) studied psycap, organisational climate and ocb in the middle east and found that psycap was positively associated with ocb. equally, in another study, the results verified a positive association between psycap and ocb (nikpay, siadat, hoveida, & nilforooshan, 2014). nafei (2015) also investigated the impact of psycap on the quality of work life and ocb in a tertiary educational institution in india. the investigation reported a positive relationship between psycap and ocb. murthy (2014) and yu et al. (2018) also recorded a positive relationship of psycap with ocb. nandan and azim (2015) in their study on the influence of psycap and ocb in malaysia using a sample of multimedia employees established that psycap is a predictor of ocb. in a study by lather and kaur (2015) on the relationship between psycap and ocb using an online questionnaire, the results showed that psycap promotes ocb. similarly, hakkak, zarnegarian, heydari and ebrahimi (2015) conducted a quantitative study on psycap and ocb in an institution of higher learning in the middle east and found that a positive and significant relationship exists between psycap and ocb. another cross-sectional study indicated psycap to be a positive predictor of ocb (cintantya & salendu, 2017). psycap has a positive effect on individual employee behaviour and attitude (williams, kern, & waters, 2017). it determines the rate of task completion and motivates employees to perform more in the task environment (luthans, avolio, avey, & norman, 2007). this is inconsistent with the study conducted by jeong and baek (2017) in asia. the results of that study indicated that psycap was significantly and positively correlated with ocb. this is also supported by results from numerous studies, which proved a significant positive correlation between psycap and ocb (malik & dhar, 2017; min, park, & kim, 2016; tang & tsaur, 2016). more research supports that psycap positively influences ocb (karatepe & kaviti, 2016). this is in line with the study by probst, gailey, jiang and bohle (2017) where psycap was identified as a higher order construct with a positive significant relationship with ocb. in addition, a study conducted by bouzari and karatepe (2017) collected data from a sample of employees in the hospitality industry and established that psycap predicts ocb. in another meta-analysis by rachmawati and priyono (2015), the results recorded psycap to be positively associated with ocb. a further study by rego et al. (2017) using employees involved in teamwork showed that psycap predicts ocb. similarly, a study by and basmala and prihatsanti (2017) also recorded psycap as a predictor of ocb. prihatsanti (2017) using a sample of employees from asia also confirmed that psycap has a positive effect on ocb. an investigation by mao and tang (2015) using a sample of teachers also reported that psycap had a positive significant impact on ocb (mao & tang, 2015). in a study using a sample of teachers, the results indicated that psycap had a positive significant impact on ocb. furthermore, these findings were consistent with the results of the study by ghorbani, alizadeh, khani and mohamadi (2016). in their study using a sample of government employees, the results confirmed that ocb is positively influenced by high levels of hope, self-efficacy, resilience and optimism. in another study grounded in the social exchange theory (khliefat, 2016), the results showed that psycap predicted higher levels of ocb. this further assists management in developing interventions to improve psycap in order to promote employee performance. in a study using correlative methods through a sobel test of significance, the results indicated a direct significant positive relationship between psycap and ocb (sari, 2016). psychological capital, therefore, contributes to individual employee’s positive attitudes, which in turn influence positive behaviour at work. additional studies also show that psycap is a predictor of ocb (cohen, mosley, & gillis, 2016; gupta & kumar, 2015; jung & yoon, 2015; lee, lyu, chang, & shin, 2016). hope, self-efficacy, resilience and optimism are, therefore, part of a supportive climate that promotes employee performance (cohen, mosley, & gillis, 2016). barbaranelli, paciello, biagioli, fida and tramontano (2019) in their study of positive work relationships established that psycap promotes job performance and ocbs. in addition, another study by testa, corsini, gusmerotti and iraldo (2018) showed that personal attitudes and psycap through self-efficacy influence ocb. this is also supported with other studies (machmud, 2018; shefer, carmeli, & cohen-meitar, 2018; tüzün, çetin, & basim, 2018) using samples of employees from different professions in europe. akin (2017) in his research using multiple regression analysis established that psycap through optimism predicts ocb. some scholars have challenged these findings. for instance, putri (2016) and hidayat (2015) in their studies concluded that no correlation was found between psycap and ocb amongst employees in the commercial sector. this may be because of the existence of incentives in the sector, which are already stated in the formal job description and serve as motivation to perform more on the job (hidayat, 2015). in addition, a study by goguen (2015) found that psycap predicted reduced ocb. in another study by harris (2012) on psycap, work engagement and ocb, the results from multiple regression analysis showed no significant contributions to ocb by psycap. when comparing scores, small relationships between psycap scores and ocb scores, as well as their dimensions, were recorded. literature gap most of the studies employed samples of employees from the manufacturing and commercial industries (arefin, arif, & raquib, 2015; newman, schwarz, cooper, & sendjaya, 2017; suifan, 2016). this study will use a sample of public sector nurses to explore their levels of psycap and ocb. in addition, some previous studies investigated the variables excluding one or more of the other gender groups (amadi, jaja, & ukoha, 2017; yu et al., 2017). this study will be conducted amongst both male and female registered hospital nurses. other scholars also employed samples comprising mostly employees in big cities in ‘high income’ and ‘middle income’ countries and most samples were from metropolitan cities (ginsburg et al., 2016; newman et al., 2017; yuriev et al., 2018). the present study was performed using a sample of nurses from an upper middle income country and a province where the healthcare system has been reported to be in crisis in relation to quality and access (day, gray, & ndlovu, 2018; tac, 2018). thus, in comparison with the previous studies, there are differences in the availability of opportunities and resources amongst the subjects of interest and hence this may also affect their psycap and ocb. research design research approach a cross-sectional survey was used because it permits the researcher to evaluate two or more variables at the same time and at a specific point in time. for example, this study considered psycap in relation to ocb simultaneously. cross-sectional surveys are also quick and inexpensive, and there is no manipulation of the study environment. research method research participants the sample of this study consisted of nurses from five public hospitals in amathole district in the eastern cape province of south africa, namely, victoria hospital in alice, grey hospital in king william’s town, frere hospital in east london, winterburg tuberculosis hospital and fort beaufort hospital, both in fort beaufort. a purposive sampling was used to select the hospitals. it was also used to address the issues around constraints of time, resources and access to information. the technique is adaptable and meets multiple needs and interests of research. it allows the researcher to draw generalisations from the sample of interest, which can be logical, analytic or theoretical in nature (palys, 2008). proportionate stratified random sampling was used to select a total of 228 nurses from different departments (both men and women) in the five selected hospitals. the population was separated into subgroups (such as area of specialisation) and then randomly selected from each of the subgroup. the size of each subgroup was proportionate to the population size of the strata when examined across the entire population. this was done to promote a uniform sampling fraction for each subgroup. of the 228 nurses, 13 (3.9%) nurses who participated were below 21 years of age, 35 (15.4%) were from 21 to 30 years old, 37 (16.2%) were from 31 to 40 years old, 67 (29.4%) were from 41 to 50 years old, 72 (31.6%) were from 51 to 60 years old and only 4 people (3.5%) were above 61 years of age. from the results, 22.8% of the people (52) who participated were men and 77.2% (176) were women. in total, 61% (139) of participants were black people, 30.7% (70) were mixed race people, 7% (16) of participants were white people and only 1.3% (3) were indians. in terms of tenure, 30.3% (69) of the participants had worked for more than 16 years in their present job, 26% (59) worked from 1 to 10 years in the present job, 24.1% (55) worked from 5 to 10 years in the current job, 12.7% (29) worked from 11 to 15 years in the current position and only 7% (16) were in their present job for less than a year. of the total participants, 49.6% (113) were married, 39.5% (90) were single, 4.8% (11) were widowed, 4.4% (10) were divorced and only 1.8% (4) were separated. on the work status, 96.5% (220) were under full-time employment and only 3.5% of participants (8) were employed part time. departmentally, 19.7% (45) of the participants were working in theatre and casualty departments, 14.5% (33) paediatric, 10.5% (24) outpatient, 7.5% (17) intensive care, 7% (16) surgical, 6.6% (15) maternity, 5.3% (12) rehabilitation, 4.8% (11) medical and 4.4% (10) oncology. lastly, regarding the highest qualification, 54.4% (124) of the participants had a bachelor’s degree, 14.9% (34) had an honours degree, 14% (32) had a master’s degree, and 2.6% (6) had a doctoral degree. the respondents on the ‘other’ category had senior school certificates. research instruments self-administered questionnaires were used in this study as a means of data collection. the questionnaire comprised three sections: biographical data, the psycap questionnaire (pcq-24) and the organisational citizenship behaviour scale. psychological capital questionnaire the pcq-24 (luthans, youssef, & avolio, 2007) was used to assess psycap. it is a 6-point 24-itemised rating scale, ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 6 = strongly agree. it comprises the following four subscales with the coefficient alpha indicated: self-efficacy (e.g. ‘i feel confident that i can accomplish my work goals’), α = 0.87; hope (e.g. ‘i have several ways to accomplish the work goal’), α = 0.84; optimism (e.g. ‘at work, i always find that every problem has a solution’), α = 0.80; and resilience (e.g. ‘i am undiscouraged and ready to deal with difficulties at work’), α = 0.87 (luthans et al., 2007). in this study, the following cronbach’s alphas were obtained: hope (α = 0.90), self-efficacy (α = 0.80), optimism (α = 0.86) and resilience (α = 0.84). the organisational citizenship behaviour scale the organisational citizenship behaviour scale by podsakoff, mackenzie, moorman and fetter (1990) was used to measure ocb. it is a 7-point itemised rating scale, ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree. the questionnaire has 24 items with five subscales: altruism (e.g. ‘i willingly help new comers to get oriented towards the job’), α = 0.88; courtesy (e.g. ‘i am mindful of how my behaviour affects other people’s jobs’), α = 0.87; civic virtue (e.g. ‘i keep myself updated with organisational announcements and memos’), α = 0.84; sportsmanship (e.g. ‘i usually find fault with what my organisation is doing’), α = 0.88; conscientiousness (e.g. ‘i don’t take extra or long breaks whilst on duty’), α = 0.85. in this study, the following cronbach’s alphas were obtained: altruism (α = 0.86), courtesy (α = 0.84), civic virtue (α = 0.90), sportsmanship (α = 0.82) and conscientiousness (α = 0.88). research procedure and ethical considerations approval to carry out the research was sought from the university of fort hare research ethics committee (clearance number: mjo081scha01), the department of health (clearance number: ec_2017rp46_814), and the relevant authorities of the five hospitals of interest in the study. in conducting this research, the researcher observed and respected the rights and culture of the research participants. anonymity and voluntary consent were always upheld. no personally identifying information was collected in the study. during data collection, a short presentation was held before the distribution of the instrument in each department to introduce the research and clarify the data collection process to the respondents. this was done during normal working hours but without the disruption of the hospital work setting and it was stressed that participation of the respondents was voluntary and that they would not receive any reward or incentive for their participation. a cover page with a statement assuring respondents that their data would only be used for academic purposes and would be kept confidential was attached to each questionnaire. respondents were given a maximum of 1 week to complete the questionnaire. the researcher collected the questionnaires in person during the normal hospital operating hours. provision for nurses on night duty was also made. of the anticipated 230 respondents who received questionnaires, 228 returned the completed questionnaires. statistical analysis data were analysed using statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 24 (ibm, 2016). a pearson correlational analysis together with linear regression analysis was used to determine whether psycap had a significant effect on ocb. tests were carried out at 5% level of significance. ethical consideration ethical clearance to conduct the study was obtained from the eastern cape department of health research committee (clearance number: ec_2017rp46_814). results reliability analysis the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for scales used in the study; the pcq-24 and the organisational behaviour scale are α = 0.85 and α = 0.89, respectively. this shows that the measuring scales are reliable. for the subscales of each of the questionnaires, the cronbach’s alpha coefficients are shown under the section ‘research instruments’. descriptive statistics table 1 shows the summary of the descriptive statistics of the study. data are displayed in terms of total number of respondents, mean scores, standard deviation, minimum, maximum, skewness and kurtosis of the data set from the sample. table 1: summary of descriptive statistics. it shows the mean levels of the variables that are score for the psycap (mean = 4.66; sd = 1.17); ocb (mean = 4.74; sd = 1.10) were all high for the study sample and this indicates the level of psycap and ocb the sample experienced and how their scores are distributed. the low standard deviation shows that the data are clustered closely around the mean, and therefore more reliable mean (gurland & tripathi, 1971). furthermore, the distribution of the responses from the questionnaires suggests that the data are very slightly negatively skewed, as it still falls in the -1.00 to +1.00 range. the kurtosis for psycap and ocb are less than 3, which shows that the light tailed relative to a normal distribution. correlation analysis the association amongst the variables or components thereof was investigated using the pearson product moment correlation coefficient and the results were as follows: r = 0.43; p < 0.001 for the relationship between psycap and ocb. we, therefore, accept the alternative hypothesis and conclude that there is a significant direct relationship between psycap and ocb. the relationship between psycap and ocb was further tested using multiple regression analysis. the results in table 3 show that a significant regression equation was found (f = 65.05; β = 0.40; p < 0.001; t = 8.07). the adjusted r 2 of our model is 0.223, which means that psycap accounts for only 22.3% of the total variance in ocb. it thus implies that many other factors that were not considered in the study could be responsible for the remaining 76.7% of variance in the relationship between psycap and ocb. table 2: correlation of psychological capital and organisational citizenship behaviour. table 3: model summary for the relationship between psychological capital and organisational citizenship behaviour. discussion of the results psychological capital had a positive correlation with ocb. this may be because high levels of high self-efficacy, optimism, hope and resiliency may be a coping strategy to the challenges posed by the current work environment such as innovation; hence, employees who adapt to the challenges may be motivated to go the extra mile during task completion. for example, they might be involved in assisting a fellow employee who is behind in his or her job or mentoring new workers. this finding is consistent with that of waters, strauss, somech, haslam and dussert (2020) who reported a positive and a statistically significant correlation between psycap and ocb. more studies showed that psycap acts as an important resource that promotes ocb in organisations. in their study, aderibigbe and mjoli (2019) using a sample of graduate employees found a significant positive relationship between psycap and ocb. another study by lalita and singh (2019) using a sample of school teachers also confirmed psycap as a form of management support, which promotes ocb, a form of the social exchange relationship that is formed amongst employees and management in the education sector. the present results are in line with the findings of a study by prihatsanti (2017) that emphasised that positive behaviour promotes extra role behaviour and consequently organisational success. positively oriented human strengths and human capacities encourage the performance by employees that exceeds the minimum role requirements expected by the organisations (kim, kim, newman, ferris, & perrewé, 2019). these results are also further supported by another study by rehman et al. (2017) who also found that there is a significant positive relationship between psycap and ocb. the present results are also consistent with those of machmud (2018) who established that psycap is a predictor of ocb. a significant and positive relationship between psycap and ocb is also supported by bouzari and karatepe (2017) who found that psycap motivates the exhibition of ocbs. another study by khosravizadeh et al. (2017) also supported the results of this study. the authors found that employees with high psycap have a positive approach to the task environment and that leads to the exhibition of extra role work behaviour. in addition, such employees are confident and optimistic about the work outcomes; hence, they exhibit voluntary work behaviours (akin, 2017). more scholars also showed that employees with high levels of psycap exhibit a positive behaviour and they are highly involved in organisational activities, and hence they also display higher levels of ocb (testa et al., 2018). psychological capital therefore is an important growth and development resource to such an extent that employees partake in other task complementing activities, which are not outlined in their job description voluntarily just to support the organisation (grobler & joubert, 2018). more studies from asia (azim & dora, 2016; jeong & baek, 2017) also support the results of this study. this may be because higher levels of psycap promote the establishment of a positive image about the organisation and this will lead to their display of ocb (nandan & azim, 2015). these results of the study provide support for the relevance of contingency theories such as the social exchange theory and the job demands resources (jd-r) model by highlighting the need of certain prevailing situational factors to influence organisational outcomes. the social exchange theory in perspective of organisational behaviour supports that a series of ‘interdependent’ interactions take place that are conditional on actions, which could determine the intrinsic or extrinsic behaviour of employees towards their organisation (cropanzano & mitchell, 2005; partina, harsono, sawitri, & haryono, 2019). thus, an employee’s resiliency, hope, self-efficacy and sense of optimism contribute significantly to bring out the ‘good soldier’ syndrome in an employee (liaquat & mehmood, 2017). the jd-r model provides a basis for understanding how workers respond to the job resources in the work environment. it is assumed that when intrinsic motivators such as self-efficacy, optimism, hope and resiliency (job resources) increase, job demands and the related psychological demands can be lessened, which will result in better performance in the organisation and thus promote employees to engage in ocb (shim, park, & jeong, 2019). practical implications the outcome of the study presents a few directions for hospital managers. the positive association between psycap and ocb should encourage managers to strategise ways of involving the nurses by outlining fairly challenging task objectives for them. challenging work objectives can, therefore, be outlined to nurses with high levels of psycap as this will lead to their engagement in ocb. it is imperative for management to recognise that nurses with high levels of psycap can be expected to be more active in the work environment and exert extra effort to assist co-workers in executing their tasks (kim & park, 2017). public hospitals depend solely on highly engaged human resources and, more specifically, on belief-driven, voluntary participation and consensus in most tasks, which may benefit overly from high levels of ocb. hospital managers and supervisors must encourage and nurture psycap in the psyche of nurses through trainings and seminars and conference exposure to promote ocb. in addition, it is also recommended to widen the scope of action of nurses within the nursing units, if possible. however, in order to strengthen ocb, management must also be reminded that with the rising of ocb, tension (e.g. from time pressure and disruptions) reduces at the same time. the latter could contribute to increased pressure for nurses. hospital administrators need to be aware of the levels of nurses’ occupational satisfaction and its triggers in order to develop and promote organisational citizenship behaviour. hospital managers can nature workplace happiness amongst the nurses through maintaining social relationships with them, be concerned with their work–life balance and encourage open communication practices (aderibigbe & mjoli, 2019). hospital management is also recommended to include workers in the organisational decision-making process and avoid prejudice and discrimination in meetings. administrators must also develop a culture of periodically assessing the behaviour of nurses in the workplace through relevant interviews or surveys and also through monthly reports about their feelings of their jobs and their aspirations (adatara et al., 2016). the outlined acts may restore the personal energy of nurses and reinforce their emotional relations with the hospitals in which they practise and in turn stimulate their ocbs. limitations and recommendations the study was mainly focused on registered nurses in the public sector. research conducted in the south african health sector shows that there are some differences between nurses’ experiences in public and private hospitals (pillay, 2009; swart, pretorius, & klopper, 2015). future research could explore these variances and how they may relate to registered nurses’ experiences of ocb in relation to psycap. in addition, ocb may, however, be influenced with external factors such as culture; therefore, it is recommended that future studies must explore the issue of culture on ocb across industries. another possibility for future research is the evaluation and comparison of various hospitals. other investigators could also test the same study hypothesis in private hospitals to obtain more in-depth information on the two variables discussed in this article. researchers in the field of human resources management may also collaborate with experts from other fields, such as public policy and sociology, to create more multidisciplinary research on the relationship between psycap and organisational citizenship behaviour in various public and private organisational contexts. future research could also assess about why south african nurses often display ocbs and how nursing policymakers can improve such behaviours in the hospitals in south africa. conclusion in conclusion, the evidence from the findings and discussion showed that psycap influences ocb. this study makes theoretical contributions by providing information concerning the social exchange theory and the job resources demands model on their application to nursing practitioners. this research also offers useful insight into the importance of ocb amongst nurses in public hospitals. knowledge obtained from this study allows hospitals to create better workplace conditions that place focus on ocb at work. nurses are the face of the public health sector and they are considered as first responders. their performance can therefore not be compromised, and the importance of ocb must not be underestimated in their working environment. organisations must therefore continuously promote greater opportunities for displaying positive behaviours and outcomes that encourage ocb. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions s.f.c. is the main author of the article. the article is an extract from her phd studies. t.q.m. was the phd supervisor who provided guidance and mentorship during the study. t.s.m. assisted with conceptual contributions. funding information the university of fort hare govan mbeki research and development centre assisted through a 2-year supervisory linked bursary to conduct this study. data availability statement data sharing is applicable to this study as new data were created and analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references adatara, p., kuug, a., nyande, f., opare, f., apaaye, m., achaliwie, a., & dotse, w. (2016). a cross sectional study to examine perspective of nursing unit managers on factors affecting the effective performance of their roles in the volta regional hospital, ghana. pyrex journal of nursing and midwifery, 2(1), 1–6. aderibigbe, j.k., & mjoli, t.q. (2019). relationship between occupational stress, organisational citizenship behaviour, psychological capital and emotional intelligence among nigerian employees. african journal of business and economic research, 14(1), 85–111. https://doi.org/10.31920/1750-4562/2019/v14n1a5 akin, k. (2017). the effect of teachers’ shared leadership perception on academic optimism and organizational citizenship behaviour: a turkish case. international journal of leadership in education, 20(2), 246–258. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2015.1066868 almutawa, z.h., muenjohn, n., & zhang, j. (2018). attitudes and behaviors as predictors of service quality in the telecommunications sector context. international journal of quality & reliability management, 35(3), 656–677. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijqrm-06-2016-0079 amadi, b.z., jaja, s.a., & ukoha, d.o. (2017). an empirical study on relationship between employee engagement and organizational citizenship behavior in maritime firms, onne, nigeria. international journal of advanced academic research, social & management sciences, 3(2), 16–32. arefin, s., arif, i., & raquib, m. (2015). the mediating role of psychological empowerment in the relationship between high-performance work systems and organizational citizenship behavior. european scientific journal, 11(2), 264–277. avey, j.b., wernsing, t.s., & luthans, f. (2008). can positive employees help positive organizational change? impact of psychological capital and emotions on relevant attitudes and behaviors. the journal of applied behavioral science, 44(1), 48–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886307311470 azim, a.m., & dora, m. (2016). perceived organizational support and organizational citizenship behavior: the mediating role of psychological capital. journal of human capital development, 9(2), 9. balakrishnan, l., & raman, m.r. (2020). the influence of perceived hospital ethical climate on nurse’s organisational citizenship behaviours. our heritage, 68(1), 1881–1887. bandura, a. (1997). self-efficacy: the exercise of control. new york, ny: freeman. banwo, a.o., & du, j. (2020). when the good outweighs the bad: organizational citizenship behaviour (ocb) in the workplace. human resource development international, 23(1), 88–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2018.1449546 barbaranelli, c., paciello, m., biagioli, v., fida, r., & tramontano, c. (2019). positivity and behaviour: the mediating role of self-efficacy in organisational and educational settings. journal of happiness studies, 20(3), 707–727. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-018-9972-4 basmala, b., & prihatsanti, u. (2017). the relationship between transformational leadership style and psychological capital of pdam tirta moedal employees in semarang [hubungan antara gaya kepemimpinan transformasional dengan psychological capital pada pegawai pdam tirta moedal kota semaran]. jurnal empati, 6(1), 45–53. beal, iii, l., stavros, j., & cole, m. (2013). effect of psychological capital and resistance to change on organisational citizenship behaviour. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 39(2), 11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1136 blau, p. (1986). exchange and power in social life. new brunswick, nj: wiley & sons, inc. bogler, r., & somech, a. (2019). psychological capital, team resources and organizational citizenship behavior. the journal of psychology, 153(8), 784–802. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2019.1614515 bouzari, m., & karatepe, o. (2017). test of a mediation model of psychological capital among hotel salespeople. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 29(8), 2178–2197. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm-01-2016-0022. chen, h.w. (2017). an empirical analysis of the influence of civil servants’ psychological empowerment and job satisfaction on organizational citizenship behavior for the environment. hong kong: lingnan university. chen, x., zeng, g., chang, e.c., & cheung, h.y. (2019). what are the potential predictors of psychological capital for chinese primary school teachers? frontiers in education, 4, 50–58. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2019.00050 chernyak-hai, l., & rabenu, e. (2018). the new era workplace relationships: is social exchange theory still relevant? industrial and organizational psychology, 11(3), 456–481. https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2018.5 cho, s., & johanson, m. (2008). organizational citizenship behavior and employee performance: moderating effect of work status in restaurant employees. journal of hospitality and tourism research, 32(3), 307. https://doi.org/10.1177/1096348008317390 cintantya, h., & salendu, a. (2017). the relationship between psychological capital and organizational citizenship behavior among employees in bank syariah x. depok: universitas indonesia. cohen, s., mosley, d., & gillis, b. (2016). transforming social capital: how psychological capital and emotional intelligence influence ncbis. academy of management proceedings, 2016(1), 12273–12280. https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2016.12273abstract cropanzano, r., & mitchell, m. (2005). social exchange theory. an interdisciplinary review. journal of management, 31(6), 874–900. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206305279602 csikszentmihalyi, m., & seligman, m.e. (2000). positive psychology: an introduction. american psychologist, 55(1), 5–14. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.5 day, c., gray, a., & ndlovu, n. (2018). south african health review 2018. durban: health systems trust. dhai, a. (2018). healthcare in crisis: a shameful disrespect of our constitution. south african journal of bioethics and law, 11(1), 8–10. https://doi.org/10.7196/sajbl.2018.v11i1.00649 george, j.m., & jones, g. (2008). understanding and managing organizational behavior. pearson, nj: pearson education. ghorbani, v.z., alizadeh, h., khani, s., & mohamadi, a. (2016). a structural model for the effect of psychological capital on organizational citizenship behavior. research in sports management and motor behaviour journal, 5(10), 95–106. ginsburg, l., berta, w., baumbusch, j., rohit dass, a., laporte, a., reid, r., … taylor, d. (2016). measuring work engagement, psychological empowerment, and organizational citizenship behavior among health care aides. the gerontologist, 56(2), e1–e11. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnv129 goguen, k.n. (2015). the mediating effects of positive psychological states on the relationships between hindrance stressors and organizational citizenship behaviors: a multi-level approach. clemson, sc: graduate school of clemson university. grego-planer, d. (2019). the relationship between organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors in the public and private sectors. sustainability, 11(22), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11226395 grobler, a., & joubert, y.t. (2018). psychological capital: convergent and discriminant validity of a reconfigured measure. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 21(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v21i1.1715 gupta, m., & kumar, y. (2015). justice and employee engagement. asia-pacific journal of business administration, 7(1), 89–103. https://doi.org/10.1108/apjba-04-2014-0048 gurland, j., & tripathi, r.c. (1971). a simple approximation for unbiased estimation of the standard deviation. the american statistician, 25(4), 30–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/00031305.1971.10477279 hakkak, m., zarnegarian, y., heydari, a.r., & ebrahimi, h.r. (2015). research paper investigating the effects of psychological capital on organizational citizenship behavior – a case study of educational staff of qom university. international journal of scientific management and development, 3(5), 372–376. harris, c. (2012). relationships between psychological capital, work engagement and organisational citizenship behaviour in south african automative dealerships. port elizabeth: nelson mandela metropolitan university. hidayat, m. (2015). the impact of job characteristic, work satisfaction, employee psychological capital on work performance with organizational citizenship behavior as a mediator (study on bprs artha surya barokah company). journal mahasiswa pascasarjana, 2(1), 12–34. hobfoll, s.e., halbesleben, j., neveu, j.p., & westman, m. (2018). conservation of resources in the organizational context: the reality of resources and their consequences. annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behavior, 5, 103–128. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032117-104640 holmes, j.g. (1981). the exchange process in close relationships: microbehavior and macromotives. in j. lerner & c. lerner (eds.), the justice motive in social behavior (pp. 219–247). new york, ny: plenum. homans, g. (1958). social behavior as exchange. american journal of sociology, 63(6), 597–606. https://doi.org/10.1086/222355 hou, w.k., hsieh, h.l., & ngo, q.n. (2018). linking service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior, service climate, employees’ work engagement via social support: a moderated mediation model based on conservation of resources theory. world academy of science, engineering and technology, international journal of psychological and behavioral sciences, 5(3), 12. ibm. (2016, march 15). spss statistics 24. chicago, il: ibm. ilies, r., nahrgang, j.d., & morgeson, f.p. (2007). leader-member exchange and citizenship behaviors: a meta-analysis. journal of applied psychology, 92(1), 269–277. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.1.269 issever, h., soyuk, s., & sengun, h. (2016). p147 organisational citizenship behaviour of the nurses working in public hospitals. occupational and environmental medicine, 73(suppl. 1), a169–a170. https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2016-103951.464 jahani, m.a., mahmoudjanloo, s., rostami, f.h., nikbakht, h.a., & mahmoudi, g. (2018). datasets on organizational citizenship behavior in the selected hospitals with different ownership. data in brief, 19, 288–292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2018.05.024 jeong, h., & baek, y. (2017). meta-analysis of the impact of positive psychological capital on employees’ outcomes: the moderating role of tenure. world academy of science, engineering and technology. international journal of social, behavioral, educational, economic, business and industrial engineering, 11(7), 1749–1753. jitendra, m., jenny, s., brian, l., & bharat, m. (2010). optimism and longevity. advances in management, 3(3), 50–62. joubert, p., van tonder, e., & grobler, b. (2018). perceived organisational support, job satisfaction and organisational citizenship behaviour of south african police service officials. the international journal of social sciences and humanity studies, 10(1), 222–239. https://doi.org/10.20472/iac.2018.039.020 jung, h., & yoon, h. (2015). the impact of employees’ positive psychological capital on job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviors in the hotel. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 27(6), 1135–1156. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm-01-2014-0019 karatepe, o., & kaviti, r. (2016). test of a mediational model of organization mission fulfillment: evidence from the hotel industry. international journal of contemporary hospitality, management, 28(5), 988–1008. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm-09-2014-0464 kasaa, m., & hassanb, z. (2015). the role of flow between burnout and organizational citizenship behavior (ocb) among hotel employees in malaysia. social and behavioral sciences, 211, 199–206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.11.084 khaola, p.p. (2018). fostering innovative behaviours through leadership and fairness: commitment and citizenship behaviours as successive mediators (doctoral dissertation). johannesburg: university of witwatersrand. khliefat, a. (2016). the impact of the perceived challenge and hindrance stressors on the hotel frontline employees organizational citizenship behaviors: an empirical investigation to the moderating role of the psychological capital. auburn, al: auburn university. khosravizadeh, o., vatankhah, s., alirezaei, s., doosty, f., mousavi esfahani, h., & rahimi, m. (2017). organizational citizenship behavior and its relationship with psychological capital: a survey of hospital staffs. evidence based health policy, management and economics, 1(1), 25–32. kim, m., kim, a.c., newman, j.i., ferris, g.r., & perrewé, p.l. (2019). the antecedents and consequences of positive organizational behavior: the role of psychological capital for promoting employee well-being in sport organizations. sport management review, 22(1), 108–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2018.04.003 kim, w., & park, j. (2017). examining structural relationships between work engagement, organizational procedural justice, knowledge sharing, and innovative work behavior for sustainable organizations. sustainability, 9, 205. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332845.2016.1147936. konovsky, m.a., & pugh, s.d. (1994). citizenship behavior and social exchange. academy of management journal, 37(3), 656–669. https://doi.org/10.5465/256704 lalita, s., & singh, s. (2019). predicting organizational citizenship behavior among school teachers: the role of psychological capital. international journal of indian psychology, 7(2), 62–71. lather, a.s., & kaur, m.s. (2015). psychological capital as predictor of organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior. the international journal of indian psychology, 2(4), 102–112. https://doi.org/10.25215/0204.069 lee, k.h., lyu, j., chang, y.c., & shin, y.j. (2016). the effect of ethical management and positive psychological capital on organizational effectiveness in hospitals. health policy manaement, 26(3), 155–171. https://doi.org/10.4332/kjhpa.2016.26.2.155 leiter, m.p., & bakker, a.b. (2010). work engagement: introduction. in m.p. leiter & a.b. bakker (eds.), work engagement: a handbook of essential theory and research (pp. 1–9). london: psychology press. levene, r.a. (2015). positive psychology at work: psychological capital and thriving as pathways to employee engagement. master of applied positive psychology (mapp) capstone projects, paper (vol. 88, pp. 1–54). pennsylvania: university of pennsylvania. li, h.y., & yu, g.l. (2017). a multilevel examination of high-performance work systems and organizational citizenship behavior: a social exchange theory perspective. eurasia journal of mathematics science and technology education, 13(8), 5821–5835. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.01032a li, n.l., & crant, j.m. (2018). the role of proactive personality in job satisfaction and ocb-a relational perspective. journal of applied psychology, 95(2), 395–404. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018079 liaquat, m., & mehmood, k. (2017). organization citizenship behavior: notion of social exchange theory. journal of business and social review in emerging economies, 3(2), 209–216. https://doi.org/10.26710/jbsee.v3i2.137 lorenz, t., beer, c., pütz, j., & heinitz, k. (2016). measuring psychological capital: construction and validation of the compound psycap scale (cpc-12). plos one, 11(4), e0152892. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152892 luthans, f., avolio, b.j., avey, j.b., & norman, s.m. (2007). positive psychological capital: measurement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. personnel psychology, 60(3), 541–572. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2007.00083.x luthans, f., youssef, c.m., & avolio, b.j. (2007). psychological capital: developing the human competitive edge. oxford: oxford university press. machmud, s. (2018). the influence of self-efficacy on satisfaction and work-related performance. international journal of management science and business administration, 4(4), 43–47. https://doi.org/10.18775/ijmsba.1849-5664-5419.2014.44.1005 malik, n., & dhar, r. (2017). authentic leadership and it’s impact on extra role behavior of nurses: the mediating role of psychological capital and the moderating role of autonomy. personnel review, 46(2), 277–296. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-05-2015-0140 mao, j.p., & tang, c. (2015). team psychological capital and teachers organizational citizenship behavior: the mediating role of job satisfaction. chinese journal of clinical psychology, 23(4), 736–740. maphumulo, w.t., & bhengu, b.r. (2019). challenges of quality improvement in the healthcare of south africa post-apartheid: a critical review. curationis, 42(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/curationis.v42i1.1901 masten, a.s., & reed, m.j. (2002). resilience in development. in c. snyder & s. lopez (eds.), handbook of positive psychology (pp. 74–88). oxford: oxford university. min, h., park, j., & kim, h.j. (2016). common method bias in hospitality research: a critical review of literature and an empirical study. international journal of hospitality management, 56, 126–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2016.04.010 mkonza, t. (2018, june 26). critical shortage of skilled nurses, warns mec. pretoria: iol. murthy, r.k. (2014). psychological capital, work engagement and organizational citizenship behaviour. sinhgad institute of management and computer application (simca), 1(1), 347–358. nafei, w. (2015). meta-analysis of the impact of psychological capital on quality of work life and organizational citizenship behavior: a study on sadat city university. international journal of business administration, 6(2), 42–64. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijba.v6n2p42 nandan, t., & azim, a. (2015). organizational justice and organizational citizenship behavior: mediating role of psychological capital. american international journal of social science, 4(6), 148–153. newman, a., schwarz, g., cooper, b., & sendjaya, s. (2017). how servant leadership influences organizational citizenship behavior: the roles of lmx, empowerment, and proactive personality. journal of business ethics, 145(1), 49–62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2827-6 nikpay, i., siadat, s., hoveida, r., & nilforooshan, p. (2014). a model for investigating the impact of faculty members’ psychological capital on organizational citizenship behaviors in universities. international journal of management sciences, 2(6), 161–168. okello, b., & gilson, l. (2015). exploring the influence of trust relationships on motivation in the health sector: a systematic review. human resources for health, 13, 3–18. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-015-0007-5 oparinde, f., oparinde, o., & abdulsalam, a. (2019). the influence of job satisfaction on organisational citizenship behaviour in osun state-owned tertiary institutions. african journal of inter/multidisciplinary studies, 1(1), 49–60. organ, d.w. (1988). organizational citizenship behaviour: the good soldier syndrome. lexinton, ma: lexinton books. organ, d.w., podsakoff, p.m., & mackenzie, s.b. (2006). organizational citizenship behavior: its nature, antecedents, and consequences. thousand oaks, ca: sage. palys, t. (2008). purposive sampling. in l. given (eds.), the sage encyclopedia of qualitative research methods (pp. 697–698). los angeles, ca: sage. partina, a., harsono, m., sawitri, h., & haryono, t. (2019). the predictor of organizational citizenship behaviour using social exchange theory. international journal of scientific and research publications, 9(5), 514–518. https://doi.org/10.29322/ijsrp.9.05.2019.p8961 passchier, r.v. (2017). exploring the barriers to implementing national health insurance in south africa: the people’s perspective. south african medical journal, 107(10), 836–838. https://doi.org/10.7196/samj.2017.v107i10.12726 peterson, c., & park, n. (2003). positive psychology as the evenhanded positive psychologist views it. psychological inquiry, 14(2), 143–147. pheko, m.m. (2013). the impact of resource loss and resource gain among botswana employees: a test of the conservation of resources theory. international journal of business and social science, 4(4), 151–162. pillay, r. (2009). retention strategies for professional nurses in south africa. leadership in health services, 22(1), 39–57. podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., moorman, r.h., & fetter, r. (1990). transformational leader behaviors and their effects on followers’ trust in leader, satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behaviors. the leadership quarterly, 1(2), 107–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/1048-9843(90)90009-7 podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., paine, j.b., & bachrach, d.g. (2000). organizational citizenship behaviour: a critical review of the theoretical and empirical literature and suggestions for future reserch. journal of management, 26(3), 513–556. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630002600307 pouramini, z., & fayyazi, m. (2015). the relationship between positive organizational behavior with job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior, and employee engagement. international business research, 8(9), 57–66. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v8n9p57 pradhan, r.k., jena, l.k., & bhattacharya, p. (2016). impact of psychological capital on organizational citizenship behavior: moderating role of emotional intelligence. cogent business & management, 3(1), 16. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2016.1194174. prihatsanti, u. (2017). the role of psychological capital among indonesian’s worker. journal of educational, health and community psychology, 6(3), 68–83. https://doi.org/10.12928/jehcp.v6i3.8319 probst, t.m., gailey, n.j., jiang, l., & bohle, s.l. (2017). psychological capital: buffering the longitudinal curvilinear effects of job insecurity on performance. safety science, 100, 74–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2017.02.002 putri, m.d. (2016). the impact of positive psy capital, job satisfaction on organizational citizenship behavior of blue sky pandurata hotel in jakarta [pengaruh positive psy capital, job satisfaction terhadap organizational citizenship behavior blue sky panduratadi jakarta]. jakarta: universitas trisakti. qadeer, f., & jaffery, h. (2014). mediation of psychological capital between organizational climate and organizational citizenship behavior. pakistan journal of commerce and social sciences, 8(2), 453–470. rachmawati, e., & priyono, b. (2015). the influence of job characteristics and psychological capital on organizational citizenship behavior with moderation of person organization fit (a study on the department of revenue, management, finance, and asset in patiregency). journal mahasiswa pasca sarjana, 2(1), 76–92. rego, a., owens, b., yam, k., bluhm, d., cunha, m., silard, a., … liu, w. (2017). leader humility and team performance: exploring the mediating mechanisms of team psycap and task allocation effectiveness. journal of management, 45(3), 1009–1033. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206316688941 rehman, s.u., qingren, c., latif, y., & iqbal, p. (2017). impact of psychological capital on occupational burnout and performance of faculty members. international journal of educational management, 31(4), 455–469. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijem-01-2016-0011 rhodes, l., & eisenberger, r. (2002). perceived organizational support: a review of the literature. journal of applied psychology, 87(4), 698–714. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.698 robyn, c.m., & mitonga-monga, j. (2017). psychological capital and work engagement in relation to employee commitment in a south african manufacturing organisation. journal of contemporary management, 14(1), 702–730. rutter, l. (2017). detailed report on the state of limpopo health system. limpopo: treatment action campaing. sari, d. (2016). the role of quality of work life (qwl) as a mediator in the relationship of psychological capital (psycap) with organizational citizenship behavior (ocb) in civil servants (pns) in buleleng regency. proceedings of the national conference of young indonesian psychology researchers, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 85–93. jakarta: icyss. schaufeli, w., & taris, t. (2014). a critical review of the job demands-resources model: implications for improving work and health. in g.f. bauer & o. hämmig (eds.), bridging occupational, organizational and public health: a transdisciplinary approach (pp. 43–68). dordrecht: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5640-3_4 sepeng, w. (2016, may 24). authentic leadership, organisational citizenship behaviour and intention to leave: the role of psychological capital. vanderbijlpark: north west university. shefer, n., carmeli, a., & cohen-meitar, r. (2018). bringing carl rogers back in: exploring the power of positive regard at work. british journal of management, 29(1), 63–81. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12247 shim, d.c., park, h.h., & jeong, s.y. (2019). government employees’ organizational citizenship behavior amid organizational resource decline: can they work more with less? review of public personnel administration, 39(2), 209–231. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x17715501 shukla, a., & singh, s. (2013). psychological capital & citizenship behavior: evidence from telecom sector in india. indian journal of industrial relations, 49(1), 97–110. sidin, i., & arifah, n. (2019). organizational climate enhance service quality through enhancing ocb in public hospital. biomedical research, 30(5), 738–746. https://doi.org/10.35841/biomedicalresearch.30-19-304 sidra, s., imran, b., & adnan, a. (2016). moderating role of psychological capital between perceived organizational support and organizational citizenship behavior and its dimensions. international journal of research studies in psychology, 5(2), 41–50. https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrsp.2016.1375 snyder, c.r. (2000). handbook of hope. san diego, ca: academic press. somech, a., & khotaba, s. (2017). an integrative model for understanding team organizational citizenship behavior. journal of educational administration, 55(6), 671–685. https://doi.org/10.1108/jea-09-2016-0104 spector, p.e., & che, x.x. (2014). re-examining citizenship: how the control of measurement artifacts affects observed relationships of organizational citizenship behavior and organizational variables. human performance, 27(2), 165–182. https://doi.org/10.1080/08959285.2014.882928 suifan, t. (2016). the impact of organizational climate and psychological capital on organizational citizenship behaviour. international journal of business and management, 11(1), 224–230. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v11n1p224 swart, r. p., pretorius, r., & klopper, h. (2015). educational background of nurses and their perceptions of the quality and safety of patient care. curationis, 38(1), 1–8. tac. (2018). state of provincial healthcare system. cape town: treatment action campaign. taghinezhad, f., safavi, m., raiesifar, a., & yahyavi, s.h. (2015). antecedents of organizational citizenship behavior among iranian nurses: a multicenter study. bmc research notes, 8(1), 557–565. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-015-1505-1 tang, y., & tsaur, s. (2016). supervisory support climate and service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior in hospitality: the role of positive group affective tone. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 28(10), 2331–2349. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm-09-2014-0432 testa, f., corsini, f., gusmerotti, n.m., & iraldo, f. (2018). predictors of organizational citizenship behavior in relation to environmental and health & safety issues. the international journal of human resource management, 1(1), 1–34. the south african nursing council. (2018). 2018 annual report. pretoria: south african nursing council. tüzün, i.k., çetin, f., & basim, h.n. (2018). improving job performance through identification and psychological capital. international journal of productivity and performance management, 67(1), 155–170. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-03-2016-0060 wang, x.h., yang, j., cao, r., & lee, b.y. (2019). corporate social responsibility and collective ocb: a social identification perspective. frontiers in psychology, 10, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02720 waters, l., strauss, g., somech, a., haslam, n., & dussert, d. (2020). does team psychological capital predict team outcomes at work? international journal of wellbeing, 10(1), 1–25. weenink, j.w., kool, r.b., hesselink, g., bartels, r.h., & westert, g.p. (2017). prevention of and dealing with poor performance: an interview study about how professional associations aim to support healthcare professionals. international journal for quality in health care, 29(6), 838–844. https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzx114 williams, p., kern, m.l., & waters, l. (2017). the role and reprocessing of attitudes in fostering employee work happiness: an intervention study. frontiers in psychology, 8(28), 13–40. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00028 youssef, c.m. (2012). positive global leadership. journal of world business, 47(4), 539–547. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2012.01.007 yu, h. y., lou, j. h., eng, c. j., yang, c. i., & lee, l. h. (2018). organizational citizenship behaviour of men in nursing professions: career stage perspectives. collegian, 25(1), 19–26. yuriev, a., boiral, o., & guillaumie, l. (2020). evaluating determinants of employees’ pro-environmental behavioral intentions. international journal of manpower, 1(1), 1–15. yusof, j., yaacob, h.f., & rahman, s.a. (2019). the effects of psychological empowerment on organisational citizenship behaviour among malaysian nurses. management research spectrum, 9(1), 48–53. sajhrm 16(1)_2019_contents.indd http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access table of contents i page i of iii original research investigating cyberloafing, organisational justice, work engagement and organisational trust of south african retail and manufacturing employees adele oosthuizen, gerhard h. rabie, leon t. de beer sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a1001 | 03 may 2018 original research coaching as support for postgraduate students: a case study ingrid le roux sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a939 | 07 may 2018 original research the impact of social media on recruitment: are you linkedin? tanja koch, charlene gerber, jeremias j. de klerk sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a861 | 07 may 2018 original research current collective engagement stakeholder strategies for south african labour relations popi c. madlala, cookie m. govender sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a909 | 10 may 2018 original research the chief executive officer pay–performance relationship within south african state-owned entities magda l. bezuidenhout, mark h.r. bussin, mariette coetzee sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a983 | 14 may 2018 original research total rewards and its effects on organisational commitment in higher education institutions calvin m. mabaso, bongani i. dlamini sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a913 | 17 may 2018 original research using work integrated learning programmes as a strategy to broaden academic and workplace competencies patient rambe sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a999 | 28 may 2018 original research the importance of metacognition and the experiential learning process within a cultural intelligence–based approach to cross-cultural coaching catherine a. van der horst, ruth m. albertyn sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a951 | 31 may 2018 original research the impact of resilience and perceived organisational support on employee engagement in a competitive sales environment anel meintjes, karl hofmeyr sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a953 | 31 may 2018 102 113 120 134 142 155 163 179 190 table of contents i opinion paper operationalising performance management in local government: the use of the balanced scorecard zwelinzima j. ndevu, kobus muller sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a977 | 31 may 2018 original research investigating strengths and deficits to increase work engagement: a longitudinal study in the mining industry pule mphahlele, crizelle els, leon t. de beer, karina mostert sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a900 | 27 february 2018 original research exploring employee retention and intention to leave within a call centre nelesh dhanpat, faith d. madou, phokela lugisani, rethabile mabojane, mbail phiri sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a905 | 20 march 2018 original research brains versus beauty in the knowledge economy richard ford, gavin price, karl b. hofmeyr, manoj chiba sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a897 | 20 march 2018 original research the relationship between readiness to change and work engagement: a case study in an accounting firm undergoing change megan matthysen, chantel harris sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a855 | 22 march 2018 original research research trends in the south african journal of human resource management charlotte pietersen sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a825 | 28 march 2018 original research investigating the impact of a combined approach of perceived organisational support for strengths use and deficit correction on employee outcomes crizelle els, karina mostert, marianne van woerkom sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a882 | 28 march 2018 original research role stress and turnover intentions among information technology personnel in south africa: the role of supervisor support rennie naidoo sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a936 | 04 april 2018 original research the association between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurship as a career choice: a study on university students in south africa michelle kanonuhwa, ellen c. rungani, tendai chimucheka sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a907 | 05 april 2018 1 12 28 41 52 63 72 83 93 vol 16 (2018) issn: 1683-7584 (print) | issn: 2071-078x (online)sa journal of human resource management http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access table of contents ii page ii of iii original research the impact of team dialogue sessions on employee engagement in an information and communication technology company michael a.w. seymour, dirk j. geldenhuys sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a987 | 14 june 2018 original research factors relating to the attraction of talented early career academics in south african higher education institutions dorcas l. lesenyeho, nicolene e. barkhuizen, nico e. schutte sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a910 | 25 june 2018 original research transformational leadership and employee organisational commitment in a rural-based higher education institution in south africa wiseman ndlovu, hlanganipai ngirande, sam t. setati, simbarashe zhuwao sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a984 | 27 june 2018 original research motivation sources and leadership styles among middle managers at a south african university crispen chipunza, lerato l. matsumunyane sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a985 | 09 july 2018 original research conditions for coaching to contribute to the adjustment of black african professionals heidi m. le sueur, valerie tapela sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a946 | 10 july 2018 original research undergraduate students’ perceptions of factors affecting job satisfaction rhyno van der schyff, doret botha, suria ellis sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a949 | 11 july 2018 original research exploring the causal relationship between the antecedents and consequences of talent management for early career academics in south african higher education institutions dorcas l. lesenyeho, nicolene e. barkhuizen, nico e. schutte sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a912 | 12 july 2018 original research talent measurement: a holistic model and routes forward gregory j. lee sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a990 | 16 july 2018 original research a micro-level outcomes evaluation of a skills capacity intervention within the south african public service: towards an impact evaluation petronella jonck, riaan de coning, paul s. radikonyana sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a1000 | 18 july 2018 original research transport anxiety and work performance jenni gobind sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a943 | 23 july 2018 201 212 221 228 241 251 261 271 282 291 original research do talent management strategies influence the psychological contract within a diverse environment? paul poisat, michelle r. mey, gary sharp sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a1044 | 30 july 2018 original research reward preferences in south africa’s media industry mark h.r. bussin, nokwanda n. thabethe sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a1010 | 31 july 2018 original research generational differences in workplace motivation marita m. heyns, marilyn d. kerr sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a967 | 08 august 2018 original research gender pay gap in salary bands among employees in the formal sector of south africa adeboye m. adelekan, mark h.r. bussin sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a1018 | 16 august 2018 original research expatriate mentoring: the case of a multinational corporation in abu dhabi desere kokt, tommy f. dreyer sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a974 | 22 august 2018 original research the combined influence of self-leadership and locus of control on the job performance of engineering workforce in a power generation utility: an empirical perspective patient rambe, disebo l. modise, crispen chipunza sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a952 | 23 august 2018 original research assessing organisational justice as a predictor of job satisfaction and employee engagement in windhoek wesley r. pieters sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a928 | 27 august 2018 original research multiculturalism in the workplace: model and test leon t.b. jackson, fons j.r. van de vijver sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a908 | 04 september 2018 original research psychological capital as a moderator in the relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour among nigerian graduate employees john k. aderibigbe, themba q. mjoli sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a1030 | 20 september 2018 original research implementing a total reward strategy in selected south african municipal organisations patrick w. bwowe, newlin marongwe sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a927 | 02 october 2018 298 308 320 330 340 350 359 370 385 398 http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access table of contents iii page iii of iii original research the role of psychological capital in the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement marieta du plessis, adre b. boshoff sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a1007 | 15 october 2018 original research unravelling managerial competencies and the profitability of small technology-oriented businesses: a case of public access venues in an emerging economy patient rambe sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a1045 | 16 october 2018 original research investigating the validity of the human resource practices scale in south africa: measurement invariance across gender renier steyn, gideon de bruin sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a1038 | 18 october 2018 original research motivational factors for engaging in dirty work entrepreneurship among a sample of african immigrant entrepreneurs in south africa charles cobbinah, willie t. chinyamurindi sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a1025 | 30 october 2018 407 416 431 441 original research impact of demographic variables on emotional intelligence levels amongst a sample of early career academics at a south african higher education institution matthew marembo, willie t. chinyamurindi sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a1051 | 07 november 2018 original research factors that influence employee perceptions about performance management at statistics south africa maria sachane, adéle bezuidenhout, chris botha sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a986 | 20 november 2018 reviewer acknowledgement sa journal of human resource management | vol 16 | a1140 | 27 november 2018 450 459 467 172---12 nov 2009.indd [ final version].indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #172 (page number not for citation purposes) organisational conflict: reflections on managing conflict, identities and values in a selected south african organisation authors: claude-hélène mayer1 lynette louw1 affi liations: 1department of management, rhodes university, south africa correspondence to: claude-hélène mayer e-mail: claudemeyer@gmx.net postal address: department of management, rhodes university, po box 94, grahamstown, 6140, south africa keywords: managerial values and identities; organisational confl ict; south african automotive industry; organisational case study; employee identity dates: received: 27 oct. 2008 accepted: 29 apr. 2009 published: 26 june 2009 how to cite this article: mayer, c.h., & louw, l. (2009). organisational confl ict: refl ections on managing confl ict, identities and values in a selected south african organisation. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), art. #172, 13 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.172 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. abstract this article presents a case study on organisational confl ict in a selected international organisation in the south african automotive industry to increase the contextual understanding of the topic. data was gathered through in-depth interviews with 45 senior and middle managers in the selected international organisation at the head offi ce and two branches in gauteng and at one branch in kwazulu-natal. the data analysis was conducted through content analysis as well as triangulation of data. the research results show that managers in this industry in post-apartheid south africa experience organisational confl icts that are associated with their managerial values and identities. introduction look, you have got two sides of confl ict you have got the confl ict in the company, the departmental confl ict… each got its own goals…its own targets…and everything and so you have got the confl ict inside. and then you have got the confl ict outside. you have got the branch and the leader network and then you’ve got the branches that are owned by us and then you’ve got the confl ict from the independent people, because it’s their enterprise, it’s their money, it’s their investment. so, that is the three kind of….but any specifi c…i mean…that is…is…very diffi cult… (mayer, 2008a, p. 374) the complexity, uncertainty and confl ict potential of the early 21st-century business environment – as described in the opening citation – requires that fundamental transformation take place in organisational management, thinking and practices (voelpel, leibold & tekie, 2006). due to increasing trends of managers transcending geographic, economic and socio-cultural boundaries, confl ict and the management thereof, particularly in international organisations, need further attention (kriesberg, 2003a; mayer & louw, 2007). these trends often impact on managers and their daily work routine and are experienced by many of them as being confl ictive and diffi cult to deal with (mayer, 2008a, p. 374). as shown in the quote above, confl ict in organisational contexts has diverse aspects, including confl ict within the network of headquarters, branches and dealerships, referring to intraand interorganisational aspects. in the following, the literature on human resource management with regard to organisational confl ict, identities and values, and selected aspects of their interrelationship will be reviewed. therefore, it is important to draw attention to the interconnectivity of these complexities and their management. organisational confl ict and its management confl ict research, particularly since the 1970s, has been embedded in (social) constructivist theories, which view reality as a construct created by the mutual inter-relationships between individuals and the environment (applefi eld, huber & moallem, 2000; coy & woehrle, 2000; demmers, 2006; lederach, 2000). in these terms, confl ict can be defi ned as ‘a feeling, a disagreement, a real or perceived incompatibility of interests, inconsistent worldviews, or a set of behaviours’ (mayer, 2000, p. 3). at the same time, ‘confl ict is a psycho-social process’ (northrup, 1989, p. 54), which includes social interactions and is shaped by individual and cultural meanings (augsburger, 1992; avruch, 1998; lederach, 2000). these cultural meanings are constructed by including ‘perceptions, interpretations, expressions and intentions’ (lederach, 1996, p. 9), which result in confl ict. thus, ‘confl ict situations are those unique episodes when we explicitly recognize the existence of multiple realities and negotiate the creation of a common meaning’ (lederach, 1988, p. 39). this means that, in confl ict situations, people experience the relativity of realities while simultaneously negotiating and creating their shared meaning. confl ict is linked to the inner processes of people and their relationship with the environment and is, therefore, an inevitable part of organisational life (jones & george, 2003). according to studies done by pondy (1992), organisations are riddled by confl ict, and the need for confl ict analysis and confl ict management in organisations is, therefore, essential. the potential for confl ict in internationally acting organisations continues to grow, both through globalisation trends and (re-)structuring processes in international business. in parallel, scientifi c research on confl ict and the management thereof has continued worldwide (coleman, 2003) and has further attracted the interest of management scientists in analysing organisational and managerial confl ict scenarios (francis, 2003; pondy, 1992; rahim, 2001; 2002). this has rarely taken place in the southern african organisational context (mayer, 2008a). a broad variety of confl ict research has been conducted concerning special aspects of ‘types of confl ict’ (jehn, 1997), ‘sources of confl ict’ (gobeli, koening & bechinger, 2003) or ‘confl ict management styles’ (antonioni, 1998). however, these aspects and categories are not relevant for this case study. a wide range of theories and practical tools has been developed for the management of confl ict, both internationally (miall, ramsbotham & woodhouse, 2000) and by the south african scientifi c community (shonhiwa, 2006). confl ict management is the art of appropriate intervention to achieve confl ict settlement (nye, 2005). it is the positive and constructive management of difference and vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 13 36 original research mayer & louw sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 2 (page number not for citation purposes) 37 divergence. rather than advocating methods for removing conflict, conflict management addresses the more realistic question of managing conflict, namely, how to deal with it in a constructive way; how to bring opposing sides together in a cooperative process; and how to design a practical, achievable and cooperative system for the constructive management of difference. (ghai, bloomfield & reilly, 1998, p. 18) accordingly, conflict management does not necessarily imply the avoidance, reduction or termination of conflict. rather, it helps in the design of effective strategies to both ‚minimise dysfunctions and enhance the constructive functions of conflict‘, thereby enhancing learning and effectiveness (rahim, 2002, p. 208). organisational conflict can result in strong intraand interpersonal distress, distraction from work, difficulties in decision making and interpersonal contact, and has a negative affect on effectiveness, productivity and creativity (cowan, 1995). organisational conflict therefore is at the centre of theoretic and practical discourses on the international management of human resources (harris, brewster & sparrow, 2003; hiltrop & partner, 1996; sparrow & hiltrop, 1997), as well as that of organisational behaviour (garcia-prieto, bellard & schneider, 2003; mullins, 2007). relationships and communication processes, as well as identity and value aspects of the managers in the organisation, are highly influenced by conflict and its management. the inter-connectivity of these aspects in the setting of international organisations in south africa is highly complex and requires further attention, especially as the international south african automotive industry is driven by the ‘double transition’ (webster & adler, 1999) of the country: on the one hand, international co-operation, such as joint ventures driven by globalisation, has changed the way business is conducted in south africa (bornman, 2003). on the other hand, the internal socio-political transition of south africa from an apartheid state to a new democracy subsequent to 1994 influenced globalisation and management trends, as well as conflict and the management thereof in organisations (webster & adler, 1999). because of the recent trends in south africa, which have been described, managing diversity has become a relevant topic in the area of human resource management and international behaviour (horwitz, bowmaker-falconer & searll, 1996; human, 1996; wood & mellahi, 2001). cultural diversity not only encompasses differences in visible characteristics such as race, gender and ethnicity, but also includes differences that are not necessarily visible, such as religion, professional background and sexual preference (francesco & gold, 2005). it can be described as a mosaic in which all component pieces form an image (kandola, 1995) and is understood as possessing an acute awareness of characteristics common to cultures, races, genders and ages, while at the same time managing staff members as individuals (overman, 1991). diversity includes value diversity (fryzel, 2004; mujtaba, 2006), which can be distinguished into different kinds of values, such as business, individual, corporate or organisational values (de anca & vega, 2006). however, there is a gap in the literature on the inter-linkage of conflict, values and identities in the international south african organisational conflict. this case study wants to begin to fill this void by addressing these issues through a qualitative case study. identity in organisational conflict interdisciplinary, identity and intra-personal processes comprise popular research topics that have, during the past decades, drawn interest from the management sciences (albert, ashforth & dutton, 2000; gioia, schultz & corley, 2002; hatch & schulz, 2002; pratt & rafaeli, 1997; whetten & godfrey, 1998). in the fields of management and organisational studies in particular, identity is viewed as an overall topic that interlinks individual and organisational management levels in organisations (humphreys & brown, 2002). at the same time, both managers and organisations are constructed by identities, and (re-) construct these with regard to self and others across managerial and organisational levels. according to various authors (alvesson, 2000; dutton, dukerich & harquail, 1994), the increasing complexity of social patterns and social fragmentation in organisations has increased the importance of inter-related identity constructions, leading to a sense of organisational belonging and organisational identity. this increasing multiplicity of organisational patterns results in the individual identity being viewed as a kind of ‘patchwork identity’ (keupp, 1988, p. 425), which forms the depending equivalent patterns to the social and organisational multiplicity. such ‘patchwork identity’ (keupp, 1988, p. 425), carrying multiple and diverse identity aspects, can lead either to positive effects, such as the creation of synergies and kreativitätsspielräume (creativity spaces) (keupp, 1994, 1997), or the creation of conflict and tension (rahim, 2002). at the same time, conflict is always created through aspects of identity (lederach, 2005; mayer, 2005) and can, therefore, be defined as a ‘psycho-social process’ (northrup, 1989, p. 54). individual identities can be constructed from a variety of identity aspects that evolve from inner processes and selfascriptions, such as being pedantic, self-convinced and ambitious. conversely, identity aspects can derive from social identities and group membership, such as culture, race, gender, nationality and/or profession. managerial identities, therefore, are bound to inner processes and to both social interaction and communication (lindgren & wåhlin, 2001). in this article it is argued that identities cannot simply be reduced to certain stable institutionalised aspects such as race, gender or profession, but should rather be seen as a dynamic process of (re-)construction of self-ascriptions and social identities that are flexible in reconstruction and contextualisation. in the management sciences, however, identity aspects and their dynamics in relationship to conflict need to be assessed and evaluated further to both understand and manage the origins of conflict in organisations, as well as to develop tools for intraand inter-personal conflict management (mayer, 2008b). values in organisational conflict the challenge for south african managers is to find creative solutions for integrating diversity characteristics, identity aspects and value differences, while simultaneously overcoming deeply entrenched discriminatory practices and social division created by valuing people according to their cultures (jackson, 2002). there is evidence that diversity, if not managed well, can contribute to an increase in conflict (church, 1995). in this context, the management of conflict has emerged as a vital issue in human resource management. diversity and conflict management, therefore, not only need to be conceptually integrated to raise consciousness and awareness across managerial levels (horwitz et al., 1996), but should further be contextualised within the organisation to create a better understanding of managers within an organisation. conflict and ambiguity may arise from situations in which beliefs and values work at cross purposes with one another in groups and organisations (martin, 2002). research on value orientations has recently intensified, with an increasing focus on the african region (schwartz & bardi, 2001; schwartz et al., 2001). sub-saharan africa is, however, still under-represented in (cross-cultural) value research, even though values and value conflicts have played a considerable role in different sectors in south africa, both throughout its history and at present (mayer & louw, 2007). vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 13 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #172 (page number not for citation purposes) reflections on managing organisational conflict 38 values and value orientations are patterns of thoughts and actions (kluckhohn & stroedbeck, 1961) and are important to most members of a community or group. the consensus on values themselves is subject to change over time, and group members are principally able to adopt the values of others (burton, 1990). values are often un-reflected and unconscious until conflicts occur and the conflicting parties realise that their conflict derives from differences in patterns of thought and action. contradictory or competing values can cause intraand interpersonal conflicts (coy & woehrle, 2000; kriesberg, 2003a; 2003b; 2003c) that are context and situation bound. booysen (in nel et al., 2004) is of the opinion, however, that there is a definite lack of cultural awareness – in a broad sense – in organisations in south africa, and that only 24% of organisations have implemented diversity-management programmes. he further states that new recruits are expected to assimilate the organisational culture and that resistance to change in organisations is expected from members of all cultural groups. an urgent need therefore exists to assess and understand organisational conflict and values as part of diversity so as to manage them effectively. organisational conflict and the negotiation of values are often inter-related (berkel, 2005; wallace, hunt & richards, 1999), particularly with regard to organisational processes (gandal, roccas, sagiv & wrzesniewski, 2005; smith, peterson & schwartz, 2002) and to the organisational culture, which plays a major role in managing organisational conflicts constructively (pool, 2000). the discourse on international human resource management – including aspects of conflict, diversity, identity and values and their management – is growing (kamoche, 1997; 2002). challenges can definitely be defined in areas of constructing organisational cultures that integrate diverse managerial and organisational aspects (thomas & bendixen, 2000). jackson (1999) particularly emphasises that organisations in south africa need to focus on issues concerning the value attached to people in organisations, as this has not yet been addressed properly. the contribution of this paper is toward increasing the clarity and interdisciplinary understanding of these complexities and to provide recommendations for managing organisational conflict, identity and values in international organisations acting in the south african context. this discourse imparts new stimuli for the scientific debate, as well as for managers, practitioners and consultants active in this field. the purpose of this paper is to approach the issue of conflict, identity and values, and their inter-connection, in a selected organisation to improve the understanding of human resource management in this specific south african organisational context by addressing perceptions on values and identities of managers from – as far as possible – an emic perspective. in addition, it presents selected qualitative research results on organisational conflict from a case study in the described setting. the aim of this paper is to answer the following research questions in investigating such managerial perspectives: which organisational conflicts are perceived by managers in • the selected organisation in the international south african automotive industry? which identity aspects do the managers regard as being • important in organisational conflict? which value orientations, according to the managers, play a • role in these organisational conflicts? how do the managers resolve these organisational • conflicts? these research questions can only lead to specific answers referring to the selected organisation, and are not necessarily generalisable. however, they can serve as new stimuli in the discourse on the abovementioned topics. the research design and the selected results will be discussed next, followed by a discussion of the results and recommendations. research design this case study is based on the postmodernist premise that there is no single true reality and that there is no absolute truth (becvar & becvar, 2006). this premise asserts that human beings inhabit different realities that are socially constituted and that may, therefore, vary quite dramatically across cultures, time and context (gonzalez et al., 1994); and that multiple selves are socially constructed in the context of increasingly varied and constantly changing relationships (becvar & becvar, 2006). the organisational case study presents managerial perspectives on conflict, identities and values, and views them as one option to (re-)construct the contextual truth referring to these topics. it can therefore only be one piece within a ‘mosaic’ of reality constructs. research approach given the qualitative nature of this research , the phenomenological and interpretative paradigms were considered to be the most relevant approaches (collis & hussey, 2003). within these paradigms, the theoretical and methodological approaches used are found in both the epistemological tradition of constructivism (berger & luckmann, 2000) and interpretative hermeneutics (habermas, 1999). various theoretical stances reflect a postmodern epistemology and can be grouped under terms such as constructivism or social constructivism, which share the notion of multiple realities. here, constructivism is used as an umbrella term for both constructivism and social constructivism (mcleod, 1996) and is generally defined as postulating the objective world as a construct of social interaction or, alternatively, as a process of the observed and the observer, the last giving meaning to what is observed (jonassen, 1991). constructivism, therefore, implies that all stories or interpretations are equally valid and that there is no single truth or interpretation (dickerson & zimmerman, 1996). this means that the research results from this organisational case study need to be (re-)confirmed through parallel case studies conducted under different contextual parameters. research strategy while quantitative research is often based on analytical empiricism, with a strong emphasis on objectivity, qualitative research focuses on gaining a deeper understanding of the research issue (cheldelin, druckman & fast, 2003), deep data and ‘thick descriptions’ (geertz, 1987). sveningsson and alvesson (2003, p. 1164) assert that few studies address ‘the understanding of specific processes and situations of identity construction in and around work and organizations’. in order to ‘share an interest in personal views and circumstances’ and to gain an understanding of processes and situations of identity in the selected organisation, a single-case explanatory study approach was used (stake, 2005, p. 448). this organisational case study approach was used because of its focus on collecting and understanding the perspectives of managers in a selected organisation on the abovementioned issues within this context, which provides – with its organisational cultures and structure – a frame for conflicts, their management and their interpretation. using an organisational case study turned out to be a good research strategy, because the managers of the organisation reflected a broad and diverse workforce that reflected aspects of the south african society. at the same time, this organisation is a valuable example of a successful international organisation in which the managers succeed in managing conflicts, identities and values across cultures and nations. finally, the organisation acted as an adequate platform for exploring the issue and for the process of the research (see below). this choice of research strategy led – as expected – to a broad variety of data, as shown in the presentation of selected results. vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 13 original research mayer & louw sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 2 (page number not for citation purposes) 39 this organisational case study approach was used to assess the association between organisational conflict and the managerial values and identity constructions of senior and middle managers in the selected organisation in conflict situations. the assessment was done using in-depth interviews. the interviews were guided by predetermined research questions, as stated previously, which focused on the subjective elements of the managers’ perceptions, narrations and interpretations relating to the selected topics according to four levels of text reconstruction (ricoeur, 1979; wolff, 2000), which are explained in the section on data analysis. the results cannot be generalised, but provide in-depth insight into the described contexts and could possibly be replicated in other organisations in south africa. as stated previously, the aim of this study was to gain deeper understanding of the subject described above in the south african automotive context, as well as to formulate appropriate recommendations for theorists and practitioners working in similar fields. depth in the understanding of the reality was achieved in that the researcher and managers had a mutual relationship. the research results were obtained from the interdependent relationship between the ‘issue of research’ and the ‘process of research’ (stellrecht, 1993, p. 36). in this study, the issue of research pertained to identity and values in conflict and its management, while the process of research encompassed the identification of keywords with regard to organisational conflict, values and identity and the management thereof, hermeneutical reconstruction and the presentation and interpretation of the mentioned concepts. the ‘issue of research’ was narrated in the interviews and was highly dependent on the trustful relationship between the researcher and the managers, particularly referring to the challenging core issues of this research. the ‘process of research’ included the analysis and evaluation of the data. by interlinking the issue and the process of research, the research results were constructed based on the inter-personal relationship. research method an explanatory case study was used to understand and explain organisational conflict and related managerial values and identity aspects. the research method used in this organisational case study approach is explained in this section by considering the research setting, data collection and data analysis methods. research setting the german organisation used for this case study operates in 120 countries worldwide and belongs to one of europe’s leading engineering groups. as a technical leader in the automotive industry it is ranked among the top three suppliers in each of its worldwide markets. the organisation employs 58 000 people worldwide in its five core areas of activity, namely commercial vehicles, industrial services, printing systems, diesel engines and turbomachines (organizational paper, 2006a). one of its largest sales regions is southern africa (organizational paper, 2006a) where the organisation consists of a head office, parts division and bus and coach manufacturing plant in gauteng, as well as a chassis assembly plant in kwazulu-natal (organizational paper, 2006b). central to this research were the key issues of guiding organisational principles and policies. the organisation has adopted guiding principles pertaining to its customers, investors, employees and the society within which it operates (organizational paper, 2006b), as shown in table 1. these guiding principles are objectives for the corporate culture of the organisation. the relevant diversity-related and conflicthandling policies, such as the employment equity, affirmative action and conflict management policies of the organisation, are based on these principles, as well as others, and are in place and well managed (organizational paper, 2002a; 2002b). the selection of this organisation for the case study was based on the following reasons: global and regional business involvement and standing, as • discussed previously; diversity, due to the different plants and offices in various • regions in south africa; diversity-related and conflict-handling policies are in place • and well managed; international management profile; and• permissible access to the organisation.• entrée and establishing researcher roles the entrée of the researcher into the physical field of research was prepared through establishing contacts and meetings with key persons in the organisation at the german and south african headquarters. these meetings included discussions on the topic, and on the content and the process of the research, whilst building a trustful relationship. managers were identified and asked by the human resource office to participate in the research. they then received information on the research project. the role of researcher was constructed through the discussions with the key persons in the organisation. the role was defined as being an ‘external, independent researcher’ who aimed to understand the abovementioned issues from the point of view of the organisation and its managers. this role could be maintained throughout the project, even though a long and intensive period of time was spent in the organisation. permission to undertake the research was granted by the human resource offices of the german and south african headquarters and by the branches themselves. each manager agreed to participate voluntarily. permission was obtained from the board, the hr office and the managers after discussions and agreements on the content and process of the research. permission to conduct the research was also given by the ethics committee of the university involved. confidentiality was guaranteed by the researcher and maintained throughout the research process and when the data was published. the names and positions of the managers were therefore not linked with the content of the data to ensure anonymity and confidentiality. sampling this sample was representative of the senior and middle management levels at the selected organisation’s head office and three of its branches. the sample comprised managers from south africa, germany, the netherlands, england and zimbabwe respectively. a total of 95 senior and middle managers were approached to participate in the research and 45 managers table 1 guiding principles of organisation shareholders guiding principles customers value for customers listen to customers and meet their requirements measurement according to success with products and services investors set attractive yield targets expand leading market position in core areas of activity ensure tomorrow’s success with today’s research and development employees provide a modern management culture promote knowledge and experience among staff members as most important source believe in fairness, tolerance and equal opportunity society ensure social acceptance guided by principles of sustained yield respect dignity of human beings source: author’s own construction, adapted from organizational paper, 2006a:16 vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 13 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #172 (page number not for citation purposes) reflections on managing organisational conflict 40 (37 male and eight female) eventually agreed to participate. in terms of nationality, 37 managers were south african (sa); three were german; four managers each hailed from the netherlands, zimbabwe and england; and one manager neglected to record nationality. of the 45 managers, 31 worked at the head office (gauteng), three worked at branch i (gauteng), four worked at branch ii (gauteng), six worked at branch iii (kwazulu-natal) and one manager neglected to record a place of work. data-collection methods triangulation of data was used in this organisational case study by conducting in-depth interviews and reviewing secondary literature and the internal documents of the organisation. an open-ended questionnaire was constructed as the main data-collection method for this research. seven interview questions were asked in a face-to-face interview to stimulate conversation. the questions referred to conflicts experienced in the organisation, conflict management, actions to resolve conflict, identity, value orientations, management style, need for improvement of the organisation and (future) conflictintervention strategies. aspects of validity and reliability were of importance in this study. four major concepts – conformability, credibility, transferability, and trustworthiness – were defined as criteria for judging the qualitative research. johnson (1997) supports the approach that constructivism may facilitate the aim of qualitative research – which is fundamental to this research – to create a deeper understanding of the research objective with regard to changing multiple-reality constructions (hipps, 1993). parallel to the interviews, organisational documents and secondary literature were analysed to guarantee triangulation of the data. recording of data the managers’ in-depth interviews were recorded in full to ensure precise transcription. the transcripts were viewed as selective constructions that reproduced aspects of the conversation and which were transcribed, according to von steinke (2000, p. 327), in a ‘manageable’ way, which is ‘simple to write, easy to read, easy to learn and to interpret’. this means that standard orthography was used throughout the transcription processes: the transcription procedure focused mainly on the verbal aspects of the communication, in the interest of analysis and evaluation controlled by factual words. analytical data evaluation was included (as described below under data analysis, level 4), subsequent to the texts being transcribed. data analysis after the data had been gathered, it was collected and analysed according to four levels of text reconstruction (ricoeur, 1979; wolff, 2000): level 1: the manager experienced a (trans-cultural) conflict • situation and specific identity and value aspects. level 2: the manager narrated the conflict identity aspects • and values during the interview. level 3: the researcher transcribed the interview and • categorised this transcribed text through content and keyword analyses. level 4: the researcher interpreted the categorised text • through content analysis (mayring, 2003), based on a systematic approach to accidental perceptions. key terms are defined as words that occupy key positions in the text through the import of their content, their significance in the text structure, and conception or repetition or other emphasis. this culminates in the construction of categories; hence, content analysis serves as a technique of research that leads to conclusions that can be generalised (kromrey, 1998). data analysis was conducted according to the five-step process of terre blanche, durrheim and kelly (2006: 322-326): step 1: familiarisation and immersion, step 2: inducing themes, step 3: coding, step 4: elaboration and step 5: interpretation and checking, to ensure a transparent process of data analysis and reconstruction. however, in reality, interpretative analysis rarely proceeds in as orderly a manner as may be suggested by our step-wise presentation (terre blanche et al., 2006, p. 322-326). following these steps in data analysis enhances the ‘thick description’ (geertz, 1973). the text has been (re-)constructed by content analysis using categorisation (e.g. as organisational conflicts) and coding (e.g. with regard to values and identities), which leads to elaboration and interpretation. content analysis1 comprises a subjective process between the text and the person coding the text: ‘verifying the reliability of content analysis is primarily done by inter-individual and intra-individual verification’ (yin, 2002, p. 45), as in this study. objectivity in analysis is guided by intersubjective validation, such as adhering to particular rules and regulations and/or verifying that the same (or similar) results have been attained by different researchers. in this study, the coding of the text and its analysis and re-categorisation through content analysis are considered in this way. this process includes the ‘constant comparison’ method (strauss, 1987, p. 12) that is used to look for similarities and differences in the data. from this process, the researcher identifies underlying uniformities in the indicators or incidents (actions, events, perspectives) and produces a coded category or concept. these categories are compared with one another and with new incidents to sharpen the definition of the concept and to look for possible new categories. categories are clustered together to form themes, which are used to describe the phenomena. strategies to ensure data quality and reporting strategies that were employed to ensure data quality were based on specific criteria. the criteria to ensure qualitative data research include confirmability, credibility, transferability and trustworthiness for this organisational case study. relevant strategies of qualitative data collection, analysis and interpretation were used. this research is based on research ethics that ensure the quality of data with regard to ethical guidelines, which have been implemented in the research and which have been accepted by the research ethics commitment of the university involved as well as by the organisation studied. ethical considerations include, among others, the respect accorded to and the rights of the managers, the creation of informed consent, confidentiality and anonymity, and transparency (mayer, 2008a, p. 111). data was stored on a voice recorder, transcribed and again stored on electronic equipment. atlas.ti software was used to analyse the data by content analyses. in the following sections, the results will be reported by presenting selected results in a qualitative reporting style according to the research methods used in the research for this case study.2 organisational conflict, identity and value concepts will be introduced by describing the conflict scenarios and contributing aspects that were narrated by the interviewees. in the following section, selected data on organisational conflict are presented by giving short summaries of the conflict stories. 1.for a more detailed description of content analysis with regard to the data, please see mayer (2008a: 117ff). 2.interview narrations were coded according to the interviewees and conflict stories narrated: p7:2 means, for example, interview person number 7, conflict story number 2. vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 13 original research mayer & louw sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 2 (page number not for citation purposes) 41 these summaries are followed by subsections in which the conflict is interpreted, referring to the values and identity of the managers. results the research results presented here focus on managerial perspectives on organisational conflict; identity and values involved in these experienced and narrated conflicts; and the management thereof in the selected international organisation. the ways in which managers were challenged by the conflict that occurred, and how they met these challenges in a diverse organisational context, will be discussed. finally, recommendations for international human resource management in the context of the south african automotive industry will be made. the main results from this case study indicate that managers from diverse backgrounds experience organisational conflict mainly when values are not considered adequately and identity concepts clash. conflict experiences were related primarily to five conflict categories, namely: communication and treatment; position and competition; organisation; race and gender; and no conflicts. selected conflicts from the category organisation will be presented in the following section, specifically with regard to underlying identity and value concepts and attempts to manage such conflicts. these are focused on because the category organisation provides a deep insight into the value and identity concepts of managers in the described context. organisational conflict this conflict category mainly includes conflicts which provide a deeper understanding of the structure and function of the organisation. organisational conflicts were only narrated by managers who defined themselves as white. all instances of organisational conflict, except one (p7:2), were narrated by male managers. this category is the only one in which the managers did not connect the conflict to racial or cultural belonging, but only to the structure and operational aspects of the organisation. a summary of the conflicts reported and biographical data is presented in table 2. this is followed by a discussion of the results pertaining to the selected organisational conflicts. p3:1 warranty: p3 experienced the issue of warranties as very conflicting in the organisation. he was in the position to decide on the ‘validity of warranties’. this could be difficult, especially when colleagues, particularly salesmen, had given the customers ‘incorrect information about the warranty’, which then forced p3 into rejecting the customers’ claims. he would often be accused of dishonesty, even if the warranty conditions were set by the organisation and not by him personally. therefore, his nickname in the organisation was ‘mr no’. this name made him feel very uncomfortable. conflicts relating to warranties, therefore, often not only entailed conflicts with customers, but also entailed a deeper conflicting aspect, namely that of the ‘information policy of the organisation and the question of corporate identity’. the conflict experienced by p3 touched on the core values of honesty, transparency and truth which he claimed for himself and for the organisation and its employees. these values, however, were not linked to individual identity, but rather to the organisational system or work-related organisational identity aspects, which he viewed as being the base of the organisation’s corporate identity. these values provided objectivity in the organisation and all persons involved. p3 felt strengthened by these common values, which led to his strong-mindedness as a manager. transparency and truth as core values – leading to direct and honest communication and strong-mindedness – helped p3 solve his conflicts in the organisation. in his opinion, the management of conflict included ‘mediation’ and ‘exchange of interpretation with regard to truth’. he claimed that ‘warranties helped follow the truth’. he was prepared to give his subordinates 100 per cent support and assistance, at a medium-distance level, whilst keeping his focus on power and success. p4:1 training in workshops: p4 wanted to offer training at the headquarters’ training centres, but experienced conflict because the workshop managers wanted the training to be conducted in their workshops, mainly to ‘save money and time’. in his opinion, the workshop owners did not have enough ‘interest in education’ and were ‘not flexible’ enough to send their employees for training. this conflict touched on p4’s value of flexibility. he did not feel personally hurt by the conflict, but felt that his position as a manager gave him the authority to lead and decide. he felt that table 2 conflicts experienced and related biographical data biographical data per respondent organisational conflict experienced respondent group mother tongue occurrence of conflict gender age group citizenship warranty p3:1 white afrikaans headquarters male 40–49 years sa training in workshops p4:1 white english headquarters male 40–49 years sa departmental conflict p7:2 white afrikaans headquarters female 30–39 years sa mentality of mistrust p9:1 white dutch headquarters male 50–59 years the netherlands conflict with union p13:2 white english headquarters male 30–39 years sa operational conflict with staff members p19 white afrikaans headquarters male 50–59 years sa conflict with a branch p20 white english headquarters male 20–29 years sa work time company rules p32 white afrikaans branch iii male 30–39 years sa german or local contract in sa p41 white german branch i male 30–39 years germany source: author’s own construction vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 13 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #172 (page number not for citation purposes) reflections on managing organisational conflict 42 he had developed a ‘strong, conservative identity’ concerning his managerial position in the organisation, which helped him to cope with ‘personal injuries’ that might have been caused by conflict. he did not view discussions and arguments as desirable options for conflict resolution. he therefore first analysed all the available information to gain an ‘objective overview on the issue’ to obtain clarity on how to proceed. p4 deemed objectivity in conflict to be ‘successful and strong’ in a managerial position. he was able to compromise by considering the interests of the other parties and by engaging in ‘interactive, two-way communication’, whilst still adhering to the rules and procedures of the organisation. he preferred to submit the issue to the objective formal disciplinary system in the ‘event that such rules were not respected’. p7:2 departmental conflict: p7 generally felt ‘over-controlled by the junior manager’ in her department and experienced neither co-operation nor sharing of information. when she explained herself she experienced negative comment from senior management and did not receive any support: direct conflict, yes, ahm…one manager towards me and that is one of the reason why i am leaving, permanently shouting, ahm, not open for an embetterment of a working environment, refusing to work in a more logical way, i am sorry, i can’t work like that. resolution? get another job. i have discussed it in top management board in front of him on two situations, about his behaviour and his mannerism and this board has chosen that being shouting at (by) people is correct. talking bad about people is correct. she felt that her junior manager did not follow the ‘ethical guidelines of the organisation’, because whilst he was very friendly to her he also ‘talked negatively about her behind her back’. she described him as ‘discriminative and racist’. p7 further felt unfairly treated as a result of the high work pressure placed on her: she worked daily until 10 pm, whereas her superior left at 5 pm. she defined her experienced conflicts as gender based, as she suspected that the junior manager would have ‘dismissed her to replace her with a male colleague’ if he had the power. her managerial values of racial equality, gender equality and respect, as well as adequate conduct and ruling by senior managers, were not considered. she felt that her identity was consequently weakened by the conflict and she felt intimidated and hesitant to speak out about it. p9:1 mentality of mistrust: p9 had experienced many instances of conflict, ranging from conflict with the managing director to conflict based on the organisation’s mentality, which he described as ‘mistrustful and over-controlled’. he felt that the conflict recounted had ‘shaken his personal identity’. he particularly experienced mistrust with regard to the relationship between the german and south african headquarters, mainly due to miscommunication. he missed the value of transparency and open communication within the whole organisation, as well as the building of trust through social networking, sharing of information and ‘opening up of files’. his vision for the organisation was one of more open and trustful communication, direct work approaches and open-door policies. sharing information was his key to trustful relationships, rather than that of following hidden agendas. p13:2 conflict with union: the core conflict presented by p13 dealt with union activities and the organisation. he described the staff as ‘politically active’ in a certain trade union, thereby ‘polarising themselves and the managers’. the blue-collar workers were demanding higher wages and increased benefits and emphasising their demands with go-slow work methods. he believed that cultural issues and a fight over distribution between white management and black workers underpinned the strikes. p13’s identity seemed to be very strong; he understood his colleagues and felt that his identity was ‘guided by diplomacy’. he was, however, convinced that an organisation’s highest value was in working in harmony. his value of harmony was accompanied by a mature sense of collaboration: mature in the sense of not standing against each other due to incompatible interests, but rather joining together and pursuing higher common goals. p13, therefore, emphasised the valuing of and paying respect to one another. he stressed honesty, but admitted that some powers could, for certain periods, undermine his ideas of peaceful harmony and freedom to achieve the organisational targets. with regard to the value of harmony, he managed his conflicts through team discussions and mediation, guided by his identity: ‘i am not trained to do that, but what i am trained in is to tell you what is in my heart. so, i will tell you that.’ p19: operational conflict with staff members: p19 described the situation as an operational conflict that had emerged between staff and management. in general terms, p19 reported that staff members refused to ‘carry out work orders as a result of either lack of commitment or work pressure’. he stated that conflict was a ‘normal operational thing’. his conflicts concerned the different interests of managers and staff; a lack of commitment; and the achievement of good results for the organisation. to him, conflict was limited and manageable, because he was leading by exerting strict control and displaying the correct behaviour. he also felt that his identity was driven by ‘strictness and control’. p20: conflict with a branch: p20 experienced severe conflict when he made a mistake with the pricing of some spare parts whilst working at the headquarters. salesmen at a branch immediately sold the parts at these very low prices, although they should have perceived that a pricing mistake had been made. p20 felt abused by these colleagues, as he felt they were supporting their customers at the expense of a superior: ‘we should work together and not against each other in the company.’ p20 experienced a lack of cooperation, an abuse of weakness and a break of confidence with regard to this branch when he made the pricing mistake. his values of truth and trustful networking seemed undermined. p20 experienced this conflict as a real threat to his identity, because he felt his identity was based on truth and harmony. he partially experienced the conflict on a personal level, even though he realised he should not take his organisational conflict personally. the values of trust and cooperation should, according to p20, be organisational values, rather than the values of single individuals. for him, the conflict was not managed, but he would have appreciated a pricing system that would not have allowed such mistakes. p32: work time company rules: the conflict reported by p32 involved a staff member who refused to ‘follow the company rules and regulations regarding working hours’. it was common practice in the company that, in the event of a public holiday falling on a monday, the working hours would be prolonged for one hour on the friday preceding the public holiday. one staff member applied for overtime payment for this hour and waged a strike in protest against the rules. p32 tried to solve the conflict through discussion, but was severely ‘offended in the process’. the staff member complained of being ‘exploited by a capitalistic company’. the conflict included four keywords: company, work, rules and time. these words represented certain values that the managers had to abide by. p32 supported a corporate identity within the company based on these values. according to him, the staff member had acted irresponsibly, as the staff member valued his leisure time more than corporate company rules and procedures. p32, therefore, considered the company values endangered. the interviewee wanted to avoid negotiating about the organisational rules and values. he felt that his direct and clear communication influenced his identity strongly. the challenges arising from the conflict in which he had been engaged were so strong that p32 felt disrespected and personally hurt. he referred the conflict to a disciplinary hearing and regained personal integrity. vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 13 original research mayer & louw sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 2 (page number not for citation purposes) 43 p41: german or local contract in sa: p41 reported an intra-personal conflict. he had moved from germany to south africa, married a south african citizen and, after six years, had to decide whether he wanted to remain in the south african company and receive a local contract (until then he was working as an expatriate) or return to germany. he decided to remain in south africa, but felt angry about ‘being forced to make his decision quickly’. he further complained about changing management structures and a ‘lack of the right people in the organisation’. finally, p41 was very unhappy to receive a south african salary, but continued to obey the rules and procedures of the organisation. generally, he felt that his concept of identity had been shaken terribly by the conflicting changes and that he had lost the ‘dedication to his job’. discussion the purpose of this paper was to assess managerial perspectives and to gain deeper understanding of organisational conflict with regard to values and identities, and the management thereof, in a selected international south african organisation in the automotive industry. managing organisational conflicts some authors (e.g. northrup, 1989, p. 55ff) view organisational conflict as ‘psycho-social processes’ that are constructed by managers through their external realities and their internal perceptions and in relationship to aspects of their values and identity (demmers, 2006; lederach, 2000; rahim, 2002). this study supports this assumption. organisational conflict generally, it can be concluded that managers have to deal with a broad variety of organisational conflict in the described context. these conflicts are influenced by external realities such as globalisation trends (such as the south african headquarters depending on the mother company in germany); national guidelines and policies for the organisation (such as guiding principles and the construction of a corporate national identity); as well as aspects of post-apartheid transitions (such as interlinking of cultural aspects and the fight for redistribution through formal organisational structures). at the same time, these organisational conflicts are created by ‘cognitive-affective process dynamics’ (mischel & shoda, 1998, p. 229ff), such as thoughts, intentions, cognitive structures, feelings and emotions that impact on the conflict and its management, as shown in the excerpts from the narrations discussed in the previous section. organisational conflict, therefore, needs to be assessed in the context of diverse influences that are shaped by managerial values and identities. this study focuses on the emic perspective of managers, referring to conflicts being mediated through the inner realities of the managers. it also ties to the geertzian concept of ‘webs of significance’ and therefore to how managers are embedded in and influenced by multiple significant contextual layers: man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, take culture to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be therefore not an experimental science in search of law, but an interpretative one in search of meaning. (geertz, 1973, p. 5) table 3 overview of organisational conflicts i1 managerial values identity aspects conflict management approach managerial values and conflict management approach and congruity with organisational guiding principles p3:1 transparency; truth; strong-mindedness; corporate identity work-related identity aspects, strong identity based on strongmindedness direct and honest communication; support staff; mediation value for customers and their requirements; promote modern organisational culture; promote knowledge and experience of staff p4:1 flexibility; authority; decision making by authority; objectivity strong conservative identity to cope with personal challenges and injuries compromise; consideration of all interests; formal rules and procedures; two-way communication guided by principles of sustained yield; respect for dignity of human beings p7:2 co-operation; sharing of information; ethics; racial and gender equality; respect; adequate managerial conduct weakened, intimidated identity aspects interaction and communication with, and support from, the board; resignation belief in fairness, tolerance and equal opportunity; respect for dignity of human beings p9:1 trust; control; social networking; sharing of information; ‘open up files’ identity shaken by conflict open and direct communication promote knowledge and experience among staff members p13:2 harmony; confidence; collaboration; respect; honesty; join together to pursue higher goals; corporate identity diplomatic and strong identity aspects team discussion; mediation promote knowledge and experience among staff members as most important source; guided by principles of sustained yield p19 carrying out orders; commitment towards organisation; coping with work pressure; development of joint interests of managers and staff (corporate identity); achievement of good results for the organisation strict and controlling identity control; correct behaviour set attractive yield targets; guided by principles of sustained yield p20 co-operation; support throughout weakness; confidence; truth and trustful networking; trust and co-operation as organisational values of corporate identity truth and harmony-based identity identity based on directness and clarity identity concept shaken by intrapersonal conflict structural changes to help avoid mistakes ensure tomorrow’s success with today’s research and development; guided by principles of sustained yield p32 organisation comes first; work; organisational rules; time management; corporate identity; corporate organisational rules and procedures; personal integrity disciplinary hearing p41 time for decision making; stability in management structures; accept rules and procedures of organisation obedience to rules and procedures source: author’s own construction vol. 7 no. 1 page 8 of 13 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #172 (page number not for citation purposes) reflections on managing organisational conflict 44 table 3 provides an overview of the narrated conflicts and the analysed aspects, which will be discussed with regard to recent literature. the experience of conflict is not only an external reality, but rather a result of how each person perceives and approaches existing problems (gaziano, jensen-campbell & hair, 1996) and therefore, at least in part, a result of ‘cognitive-affective process dynamics’ (mischel & shoda, 1998, p. 251). most of the managers mentioned that constructive conflict management needs inner distance or objectivity. the managers further asserted that negative personal feelings of hurt and anger do not contribute positively to conflict management in the organisation. the managers who succeeded in managing the conflict constructively (p3:1; p4:1; p9:1; p13:2; p19; p20 and p32) reconstructed and reinforced their managerial values through their way of conflict management and, therefore, contributed to the (re-)creation of aspects of the corporate identity. conflict in organisations, therefore, often relates to issues of identity and value and their priority, and may start when an individual or a group perceives differences and opposition between the self and the other about interests, beliefs, needs and values (de dreu, harinck & van vianen, 1999), as analysed in the conflicts described in this and the previous section. organisational conflict and managerial identity aspects this interplay of intraand interpersonal conflict has been explored by many psychologists, who assume that the human mind consists of ‘different parts in which the psyche, the value system and the behaviour is created’ (folger, scott poole & stutman, 2001, p. 45). this interdependence could also be seen in the interplay of the experienced organisational conflicts and the described aspects of the identities and values of the interviewed managers. according to rahim (2002, p. 207), ‘an interactive process does not preclude the possibility of intraindividual conflict, for it is known that a person often interacts with self’. in some cases, the inter-personal conflict was at the same time experienced as an intra-personal conflict (p7:2, p20). this interaction is also described as either a process of the ‘many faces of a person’ (satir, 2001) or the communication of the ‘inner team’ (schulz von thun, 1998), in which outer experiences are transformed into inner voices that reconstruct both the multiple identity aspects, and the internal and external realities of a person. it is apparent, therefore, that conflict relates to aspects of identity or even forms part of identity and this, in turn, can lead to ‘identity crisis’ (mayer, 2005). in these two narrated conflict situations (p7:2, p20), the managers also reconstructed parts of their identities and their inner voices according to the inter-personal conflict experienced and felt deeply irritated with regard to their individual identity concept. aspects of the identity of managers are viewed as important aspects of organisational conflict and its management across managerial and organisational levels (humphreys & brown, 2002), as described in the conflict narrations. the managers felt that they were influenced by different identity aspects, which are interlinked and which may be compared to the concept of ‘patchwork identity’ (keupp, 1988) discussed previously. in most of the cases evaluated, the conflict experienced and multiple identity aspects led either to a re-creation of identity and values or to an ‘identity and value crisis’. four managers highlighted that they felt strong in and strengthened by the conflict they experienced and that they were guided by aspects of their strong identity, which opened up ways to manage the conflict constructively (p3:1, p4:1, p3:2, p20). five managers highlighted their shaken identity, their irritation and the weakening of their identity (concept). these impacts on identity aspects were experienced as negative and as causing tension, leading to a type of individual ‘identity crisis’ (maringer & steinweg, 1997). organisational conflict and managerial values values are viewed as aspects that interlink individual and organisational management levels in organisations, particularly in the fields of management, leadership and organisational studies (humphreys & brown, 2002), and which further represent aspects of the organisational culture (schein, 2004). they have a major, underlying impact on conflict and its management (moore, 1996) – as shown in this case study – as they are essentially dialectic and contradictory (gandal et al., 2005; smith et al., 2002; stewart, danielian & foster, 1998). furthermore, conflict management often relates to the negotiation and management of values (berkel, 2005; wallace et al., 1999). clashing value concepts are common in diverse settings (miller, glen, jaspersen & karmokolias, 1997) and are further interlinked with the cultural background of a person (kitayama & markus, 1991), as highlighted above. the research results from this case study indicate that organisational conflict and value orientations, and the management thereof, often relate to aspects of individual managerial perceptions. the managers linked their individual managerial values with the quest for the corporate identity (p3:1, p13:2, p19, p20 and p32). in some cases, the managers wished to promote their individual managerial values – particularly with regard to the concepts of truth, honesty, information sharing, working and joining together for higher goals – as part of the corporate identity of the organisation. in this organisational case study, therefore, values contribute to the organisational culture. managing conflict in organisations should include ‘cutting across cultures’ (burton, 1990, pp. 211-212) and values, even if there are culturally defined means of dealing with conflict (horowitz, 1985). post-apartheid south africa is on its way to managing and reconciling differences with regard to language, culture and values (moodley & adam, 2000; slabbert, 2001). thomas and bendixen (2000) suggest that international organisational and management contexts in south africa promote diversity through management effectiveness and an inclusive organisational culture. according to schein (2004), a ‘set of values that become embodied in an organizational philosophy can serve as a guiding principle toward managing conflicts or difficult events’. it has been established (druckmann, broom & korper, 1988) that parties are generally more willing to move further from their initial position and become more cooperative when they have talked about value orientations before negotiations. however, this could not be estimated in this study and needs to be researched further. managing organisational conflict from the manager’s viewpoint managing aspects of structural and operational organisational conflict and value orientations lies in the area of tension regarding individual managerial values. these are perceived as being unfulfilled in the described conflicts (truth, honesty, transparency, harmony) and in the guiding principles that form part of the corporate identity values (such as the endeavour for equality of all levels, respectful and fair mutual treatment). in some cases, the managerial values are congruent with the guiding principles with regard to the corporate identity of the organisation, as shown in table 3. in most of the instances of organisational conflict experienced, however, the guiding principles of the organisation did not meet the managers’ needs for values and guidance. with regard to the limitations of this study, it needs to be mentioned that it cannot be generalised and thereof only gives answers to very concrete research questions with regard to the context described. it also does not reach a theoretical level, but stays at the practical level of describing conflict, values and identities in the selected organisation. the recommendations that can be made follow below. vol. 7 no. 1 page 9 of 13 original research mayer & louw sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 2 (page number not for citation purposes) to develop a study on the abovementioned topics of conflict, • values and identity by using qualitative and quantitative research approaches to deepen and widening the focus of research. references albert, s., ashforth, b., & dutton, j. (2000). special topic forum on organizational identity and identification. academy of management review, 25(1), 13–152. alvesson, m. (2000). social identity and the problem of loyalty in knowledge-intensive companies. journal of management studies, 37(8), 1101–1123. antonioni, d. (1998). relationship between the big five personality factors and conflict management styles. international journal of conflict management, 9(4), 336–355. applefield, j.m., huber, r., & moallem, m. (2000). constructivism in theory and practice: toward a better understanding. the high school journal, 84(2), 35–53. augsburger, d.w. (1992). conflict mediation across cultures. kentucky: john knox press. avruch, k. (1998). culture and conflict resolution. washington: usip press. becvar, d.s., & becvar, r.j. (2006). family therapy: a systemic integration. (6th edn.). boston: allyn & bacon. berger, p.l., & luckmann, t. (2000). die gesellschaftliche konstruktion der wirklichkeit. eine theorie der wissenssoziologie [the societal construction of reality]. (17th edn.). frankfurt: fischer. berkel, k. (2005). wertkonflikte als drama – reflexion statt training [value conflicts as drama – reflection instead of training]. wirtschaftspsychologie. themenheft konfliktprozesse in der betrieblichen lebenswelt – theorie, konzepte, pragmatik, 4(1), 2–8. bornman, e. (2003). struggles of identity in the age of globalization. communication south african journal of communication theory and research, 29(1&2), 24–47. burton, j.w. (1990). conflict: human needs theory. london: macmillan. cheldelin, s., druckman, d., & fast, l. (2003). conflict: from analysis to intervention. new york: continuum. church, a. (1995). diversity in work-group setting: a case study. leadership and organizational development journal, 16(6), 3–9. coleman, p.t. (2003). characteristics of protracted, intractable conflict: toward the development of a metaframework. peace and conflict: journal of peace psychology, 9(1), 1–37. collis, j., & hussey, r. (2003). business research: a practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. (2nd edn.). new york: palgrave macmillan. cowan, d. (1995). taking charge of organizational conflict: a guide to managing anger and confrontation. spring valley: inner choice publishing. coy, p.g., & woehrle, l.m. (2000). social conflicts and collective identities. new york: rowman & littlefield. de anca, c., & vega, a.v. (2006). managing diversity in the global organization. creating new business values. new york: palgrave macmillan. de dreu, c.k.w., harinck, f., & van vianen, a.e.m. (1999). conflict and performance in groups and organizations. in c.l. cooper & i.t. robertson (eds.), international review of industrial and organizational psychology (p. 14). chichester: wiley. demmers, j. (2006). conflict research: lacunas, mantras and pitfalls. isyp journal on science and world affairs, 2(2), 99– 102. dickerson, v.c., & zimmerman, j.l. (1996). myths, misconceptions, and a word or two about politics. journal of systemic therapies, 15(1), 79–88. druckmann, d., broom, b.j., & korper, s.h. (1988). value differences and conflict resolution: facilitation or delinking? journal of conflict resolution, 32(3), 234–251. recommendations with regard to recent literature on conflict, values, identities and their management, and the results of this research, the challenge for international human resource management in international organisations in south africa lies in the construction of a corporate identity that cares for the diverse interests, identity aspects and value orientations of the different parties, and the levels involved: the international level, with regard to cooperation between the german and south african headquarters; the national level, with regard to the guidelines and principles for the national organisation; and the local level, including individual managerial perceptions, values and identities. the challenge for the selected organisation is in the transformation of organisational structures that support: managerial competencies, which support direct and open • communication as well as regular exchange of ideas, thoughts and feelings on conflict; informal and alternative conflict management strategies, • such as the implementation of non-violent communication, trans-cultural mediation, team discussions and sharing sessions, which also address issues of identity and values; the implementation of working and coaching sessions on • identity with managers, focussing on the development of a congruent managerial identity that aims at conflict management practices. this work on identity should include the strengthening of positive identity aspects and individual resources in managers, and their reflection in the corporate culture of the organisation, as well as the promotion of constructive conflict management practices that are connected to the managerial identity and values; reflection of the value orientations and value priorities • of the managers in their different roles as team members, subordinates and superiors, and in actively constructing the corporate culture of the organisation (human resource development and individual managerial development); and active engagement to transform and influence structural • and operational processes, globalisation trends, national guidelines and post-apartheid structures in a non-violent and constructive way. the transformation of these aspects in the organisation could lead to a reduction in organisational conflict potential and could, therefore, create synergies which might lead to the improvement of human resource and conflict management in the organisation. the (re-)construction of managers’ identities through work on their identity and particularly through managerial coaching is a major source of success in individual and organisational (conflict) management. the understanding of the complex (managerial) identity constructions from an emic perspective can lead to creative spaces and synergies in a diverse organisation. it can further help to develop an awareness of multiple identities and process synergies across managerial and departmental lines. professional human resource management, with regard to identity and value, will then lead to an improvement in organisational strategies and organisational integrity, and successful identity-based diversity and conflict management. finally, based on the outcome of this research and the limitation of not being about to make generalisations from this case study on a single organisation, the following can be recommended for future research on organisational conflict in south africa: to replicate this study in a couple of different international • organisations based in south african to gain deeper insight into and understanding of a culture-specific point of view; to conduct a study on conflict, identities and values in a • different south african (work) context to gain a broader view of these issues in the south african society; to replicate this study within this organisation in different • countries to gain insight into culture-specific and/or culturegeneral issues of conflict, identities and values in different national cultures in one international organisation within a global context; and 45 vol. 7 no. 1 page 10 of 13 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #172 (page number not for citation purposes) reflections on managing organisational conflict dutton j., dukerich, j., & harquail, c. (1994). organizational images and member identification. administrative science quarterly, 39, 239–263. folger, j.p., scott poole, m., & stutman, r.k. (2001). working through conflict: strategies for relationships, groups and organizations. (2nd edn.). new york: addison wesley longman. francesco, a.m., & gold, b.a. (2005). international organizational behaviour. (2nd edn.). new jersey: pearson prentice hall. francis, d. (2003). people, peace and power: conflict transformation in action. peace review, 15(2), 241–243. fryzel, b. (2004). values and knowledge creation. a study on diversity management. international journal of knowledge, culture and change management, 4. retrieved september 9, 2008, from http://ijm.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.28/ prod.4.54 gandal, n., roccas, s., sagiv, l., & wrzesniewski, a. (2005). personal value priorities of economists. human relations, 58(10), 1227–1252. garcia-prieto, p., bellard, e., & schneider, s.c. (2003). experiencing diversity, conflict, and emotions in teams. applied psychology (special issue on workforce diversity in the international context), 52(3), 413–440. gaziano, w.g., jensen-campbell, l.a., & hair, e. (1996). perceiving interpersonal conflict and reacting to it: the case of agreeableness. journal of personality and social psychology, 70(4), 820–835. geertz, c. (1973). the interpretation of cultures. new york: basic books. geertz, c. (1987). dichte beschreibung. beiträge zum verstehen kultureller systeme [thick descriptions. contribution to understand cultural systems]. frankfurt: suhrkamp. ghai, y.p., bloomfield, d., & reilly, b. (1998). analysing deeprooted conflict. in p. harris & p. reilly (eds.), democracy and deep-rooted conflict: options for negotiations (pp. 31– 48). stockholm: institute for democracy and electoral assistance. gioia, d., schultz, m., & corley, k. (2002). on celebrating the organization identity metaphor: a rejoinder to cornelissen. british journal of management, 13, 269–275. gobeli, d.h., koenig, h.f., & bechinger, i. (2003). managing conflict in software development teams: a multilevel analysis. journal of product innovation management, 15(5), 423–435. gonzalez, n., moll, l.c., floyd-tenery, m., rivera, a., rendon, p., gonzales, r. et al. (1994). funds of knowledge: learning from language-minority households. eric digest. retrieved july 19, 2008, from http://www.ericfacility.net/databases/ eric_digests/ed367146.html habermas, j. (1999). theorie des kommunikativen handelns [theory of the communicative action]. (3rd edn.). frankfurt: suhrkamp. harris, h., brewster, c., & sparrow, p. (2003). international human resource management. london: cipd. hatch, m., & schulz, m. (2002). the dynamics of organizational identity. human relations, 55(8), 989–1018. hiltrop, j.m., & partner, s. (1996). the impact of human resource management on organizational performance: theory and research. european management journal, 14(6), 628–637. hipps, j.a. (1993, april). trustworthiness and authenticity: alternate ways to judge authentic assessments. paper presented at the annual meeting of the american educational research association, atlanta, ga. horowitz, d.l. (1985). ethnic groups in conflict. california: university of california press. horwitz, f.m., bowmaker-falconer, a., & searll, p. (1996). human resource development and managing diversity in south africa. international journal of manpower, 17(4/5), 134–151. human, l. (1996). managing workforce diversity: a critique and example from south africa. international journal of manpower, 17(4/5), 46–64. humphreys, m., & brown, a. (2002). narratives of organizational identity and identification: a case study of hegemony and resistance. organization studies, 23, 421–427. jackson, t. (1999). managing change in south africa: developing people and organizations. international journal of human resource management, 10(2), 306–326. jackson, t. (2002). the management of people across cultures: valuing people differently. human resource management, 41(4), 455–475. jehn, k.a. (1997). the qualitative analysis of conflict types and dimensions in organizational groups. administrative sciences quarterly, 42(3), 530–557. johnson, b.r. (1997). examining the validity structure of qualitative research. education, 118(3), 282–292. jonassen, d.h. (1991). evaluating constructivistic learning. educational technology, 28(11), 13–16. jones, g.r., & george, j.m. (2003). contemporary management. (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. kamoche, k. (1997). managing human resources in africa: strategic, organizational and epistemological issues. international business review, 6(5), 537–558. kamoche, k. (2002). introduction: human resource management in africa. international journal of human resource management, 13(7), 993–997. kandola, r. (1995). managing diversity: new broom or old hat? international review of industrial and organizational psychology, 10(3), 131–167. keupp, h. (1988). auf dem weg zur patchwork-identität [on the way to a patchwork identity]. verhaltenstherapie and psychosoziale praxis. mitteilungen der dgvt, 4(88), 425–438. keupp, h. (1994). ambivalenzen postmoderner identität [ambivalences of post-modern identity]. in u. beck & e. beck-gersheim (eds.), riskante freiheiten. individualisierung in modernen gesellschaften (pp. 336–350). frankfurt: suhrkamp. keupp, h. (1997). von der (un-)möglichkeit erwachsen zu werden – jugend zwischen multioptionalität und identitätsdiffusion [the (im-)possibility of becoming an adult – youth between multi-optionality and identity diffusion]. gemeindepsychologie-rundbrief, 1(97), 10–15. kitayama, s., & markus, h.r. (1991). culture and the self: implications for cognition, emotion and motivation. psychological review, 98(2), 224–253. kluckhohn, f.r., & stroedbeck, f.l. (1961). variations in value orientations. evanston: row, peterson and company. kriesberg, l. (2003a). constructive conflicts: from escalation to resolution. (2nd edn.). new york: rowman & littlefield. kriesberg, l. (2003b). identity issues. in g. burgess & h. burgess (eds.), beyond intractability. retrieved july 22, 2008, from http://www.beyondintractability.org/m/identity_issues. jsp kriesberg, l. (2003c). factors shaping the course of intractable conflict. in g. burgess & h. burgess (eds.), beyond intractability. retrieved july 22, 2008, from http://www. beyondintractability.org/m/factors_shaping_intractable_ conflict.jsp kromrey, h. (1998). empirische sozialforschung [empiric social research]. (8th edn.). opladen: leske und budrich. lederach, j.p. (1988). of nets, nails and problems: a folk vision of conflict in central america. unpublished dissertation, university of colorado, colorado, usa. lederach, j.p. (1996). preparing for peace. conflict transformation across cultures. new york: syracuse university press. lederach, j.p. (2000). the cultural dimension. akron: mennonite conciliation service. lederach, j.p. (2005). all conflicts are identity conflicts. in g. burgess & h. burgess (eds.), beyond intractability. retrieved november 6, 2007, from http://www.beyondintractability. org/user_guides/identity_conflict/?nid=5306 lindgren, m., & wåhlin, n. (2001). identity construction among boundary-crossing individuals. scandinavian journal of management, 17(3), 357–377. 46vol. 7 no. 1 page 11 of 13 original research mayer & louw sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 2 (page number not for citation purposes) pool, s.w. (2000). organizational culture and its relationship between job tension in measuring outcomes among business executives. journal of management development, 19(1), 32–49. pratt, m., & rafaeli, a. (1997). organizational dress as a symbol of multilayered social identities. academy of management journal, 40(4), 862–898. rahim, m.a. (2001). managing conflict in organizations. (3rd edn.). westport: quorum books. rahim, m.a. (2002). toward a theory of managing organizational conflict. the international journal of conflict management, 13(3), 206–235. ricoeur, p. (1979). der text als modell: hermeneutisches verstehen [the text as model: hermeneutic understanding]. in w.l. bruehl (ed.), verstehende soziologie. grundzuege und entwicklungstendenzen. münchen: nymphenburger verlag. satir, v. (2001). meine vielen gesichter wer bin ich wirklich? [my many faces – who am i really?]. münchen: kösel verlag. schein, e. (2004). organizational culture and leadership. (3rd edn.). san francisco: jossey-bass. schulz von thun, f. (1998). miteinander reden 3 — das innere team und situationsgerechte kommunikation. [talking with each other – the inner team and situation adequate communication]. reinbek: rowohlt taschenbuchverlag. schwartz, s.h., & bardi, a. (2001). value hierarchies across cultures taking a similarities perspective. journal of crosscultural psychology, 32(3), 268–290. schwartz, s.h., melech, g., lehmann, a., burgess, s., harris, m., & owens, v. (2001). extending the cross-cultural validity of the theory of basic human values with a different method of measurement. journal of cross-cultural psychology, 32(5), 519–542. shonhiwa, s. (2006). the effective cross-cultural manager. a guide for business leaders in africa. cape town: zebra press. slabbert, a. (2001). cross-cultural racism in south africa – dead or alive? social behavior and personality: an international journal, 29(2), 125–132. smith, p.b., peterson, m.f., & schwartz, s.h. (2002). cultural values, sources of guidance, and their relevance to managerial behaviour. a 47-nation study. journal of crosscultural psychology, 33(2), 188–208. sparrow, p.-r., & hiltrop, j.m. (1997). redefining the field of european human resource management: a battle between national mindsets and forces of business transition? human resource management, 36(2), 201–219. stake, r.e. (2005). qualitative research studies. in n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds.), the sage handbook of qualitative research (pp. 443–467). thousand oaks: sage. stellrecht, i. (1993). interpretative ethnologie: eine orientierung [interpretative ethnology: an orientation]. in t. schweizer, m. schweizer & w. kokot (eds.), handbuch der ethnologie (pp. 29–73). berlin: reimer. stewart, e.c., danielian, j., & foster, r. (1998). cultural assumptions and values. in m.j. bennett (ed.), basic concepts of intercultural communication. selected readings (pp. 157–172). maine: intercultural press. strauss, a.l. (1987). qualitative analysis for social scientists. cambridge: cambridge university press. sveningsson, s., & alvesson, m. (2003). managing managerial identities: organizational fragmentation, discourse and identity struggle. human relations, 56(10), 1163–1193. terre blanche, m., durrheim, k., & kelly, k. (2006). first steps in qualitative data analysis. in m. terre blanche, k. durrheim & d. painter (eds.), research in practice. applied methods for the social sciences (pp. 321–344). cape town: university of cape town. thomas, a., & bendixen, m. (2000). the management implications of ethnicity in south africa. journal of international business studies, 31(3), 507–519. voelpel, s.c., leibold, m., & tekie, e.b. (2006). managing purposeful organizational misfit: exploring the nature of industry and organizational misfit to enable strategic change. journal of change management, 6(3), 257–276. maringer, e., & steinweg, r. (1997). konstruktive haltungen und verhaltensweisen in institutionalisierten konflikten. erfahrungen, begriffe, fähigkeiten [constructive attitudes and behaviour. experiences, terms, skills]. berlin: berghof forschungszentrum für konstruktive konfliktbearbeitung. martin, j. (2002). organizational culture: mapping the terrain. thousand oaks: sage. mayer, b. (2000). the dynamics of conflict management: a practitioner’s guide. san francisco: jossey-bass. mayer, c.-h. (2005). artificial walls. south african narratives on conflict, difference and identity. an exploratory study in postapartheid south africa. stuttgart: ibidem. mayer, c.-h. (2008a). managing conflict across cultures, values and identities. a case study in the south african automotive industry. marburg: tectum. mayer, c.-h. (2008b). identity and health in transcultural mediation. the model of culture-synergetic transcultural mediation and its impacts. journal of intercultural communication, 17. retrieved 28 june, 2008, from http:// www.immi.se/intercultural/ mayer, c.-h., & louw, l. (2007). management of transcultural conflicts: a case study in the south african automotive industry. in proceedings of the south african international management science (saims) conference, 19–21 october 2007. johannesburg, gauteng, south africa. retrieved september 27, 2007, from http://www.uj.ac.za/saims2007/track%20 12/12mayer_track12_cp.pdf mayring, p. (2003). qualitative inhaltsanalyse [qualitative content analysis]. (8th edn.). weinheim: beltz verlag. mcleod, j. (1996). the emerging narrative approach to counselling and psychotherapy. british journal of guidance & counselling, 24(2), 173–195. miall, h., ramsbotham, o., & woodhouse, t. (2000). contemporary conflict resolution. cambridge: polity press. miller, r., glen, j., jaspersen, f., & karmokolias, y. (1997). international joint ventures in developing countries. finance and development, 29(3), 10–26. mischel, w., & shoda, y. (1998). reconciling processing dynamics and personality dispositions. annual review of psychology, 43(3), 229–258. moodley, k., & adam, h. (2000). race and nation in postapartheid south africa. current sociology, 48(3), 51–69. moore, c.w. (1996). the mediation process. practical strategies for resolving conflict. (2nd edn.). san francisco: jossey-bass. mujtaba, b.g. (2006). workforce diversity management challenges, competencies and strategies. tamarac: llumina press. mullins, l.j. (2007). management and organizational behaviour. (8th edn.). london: prentice hall. nel, p.s., van dyk, p.s., haasbroek, g.d., schultz, h.b., sono, t., & werner, a. (2004). human resource management. (6th edn.). cape town: oxford university press. northrup, t.a. (1989). the dynamic of identity in personal and social conflict. in l. kriesberg, t.a. northrup & s.j. thorson (eds.), timing the de-escalation of international conflict (pp. 55–82). syracuse: syracuse university press. nye, j.s. (2005). understanding international conflicts. an introduction to theory and history. (5th edn.). new york: longman. organizational paper. (2002a). [employment equity and affirmative action policy]. unpublished internal paper. organizational paper. (2002b). [grievance procedure]. unpublished internal paper. organizational paper. (2006a). [annual report, 2005]. unpublished internal paper. organizational paper. (2006b). [company truck and bus – southern africa. company profile 2005]. unpublished internal paper. overman, s. (1991). managing the diverse workforce. hr magazine, 36(3), 32–36. pondy, l.r. (1992). reflections on organizational conflict. journal of organizational behaviour, 13(2), 257–261. 47 vol. 7 no. 1 page 12 of 13 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #172 (page number not for citation purposes) reflections on managing organisational conflict von steinke, i. (2000). gütekriterien qualitativer forschung [criteria of qualitative research]. in u.v. flick, e. kardoff & i. von steinke (eds.), qualitative forschung. ein handbuch (pp. 219–331). hamburg: rowohlts enzyklopädie. wallace, j., hunt, j., & richards, c. (1999). the relationship between organizational culture, organizational climate and managerial values. international journal of public sector management, 12(7), 548–564. webster, e., & adler, g. (1999). towards a class compromise in south africa’s “double transition”. bargained liberalization and the consolidation of democracy. politics and society, 27(3), 347–385. 48 whetten, d., & godfrey, p. (1998). identity in organizations. sage: london. wolff, s. (2000). clifford geertz. in u. flick, e. kardoff & i. von steinke (eds.), qualitative forschung. ein handbuch [qualitative research. a handbook.] (pp. 84–96). hamburg: rowohlts enzyklopädie. wood, g., & mellahi, k. (2001). human resource management in south africa. in s. pawan, a. budhwar & s. debrah (eds.), human resource management in developing countries (pp. 222– 237). london: routledge. yin, r.k. (2002). case study research: design and methods. (2nd edn.). london: sage. vol. 7 no. 1 page 13 of 13 reviewer acknowledgementpage 1 of 1 http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access sa journal of human resource management recognises the value and importance of peer reviewers in the overall publication process – not only in shaping individual manuscripts, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank the following reviewers who participated in shaping this volume of the sa journal of human resource management. we appreciate the time taken to perform your review(s) successfully. in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for the sa journal of human resource management, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on https:// sajhrm.co.za for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a reviewer. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at https://sajhrm.co.za 2. in your ‘user home’ [https://sajhrm.co.za/ index.php/sajhrm/user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest(s). 3. it is good practice as a reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to the sa journal of human resource management. please do not hesitate to contact us if you require assistance in performing this task. publisher: publishing@aosis.co.za tel: +27 21 975 2602 tel: 086 1000 381 adele bezuidenhout alex d. stajkovic amanda werner amos s. engelbrecht andre c. de la harpe andrew johnson anita j. de bruyn anne crafford arien strasheim barney j. erasmus bridget de villiers bright mahembe calvin m. mabaso cecilia m. schultz chantal olckers chipo mukonza chris van tonder chris w. callaghan chukwuemeka k. echebiri claude-helene mayer colleen j. rigby cookie m. govender crystal hoole david b. zoogah debrah n.p. mtshelwane desere kokt dirk j. geldenhuys dominique e. uwizeyimana doret botha elsabe diedericks esther p. palmer frances de klerk frans maloa freda van der walt gerda van dijk gerhard bezuidenhout ghada a. el-kot gilton g. klerck gregory j. lee gwendolyn m. combs h. (miemsie) c. de jager heidi m. le sueur herman j. pietersen jacob shenje jacques myburgh jeanette e. maritz jeanine k. pires-putter jenika gobind johann f. burden johanna c. diedericks juan-ri m. potgieter kakoli sen karel j. stanz karen luyt krishna k. govender kyle luthans leon t. de beer leon t.b. jackson liezel cilliers lize a.e. booysen lizelle brink madelyn geldenhuys magda l. bezuidenhout marieta du plessis marissa de klerk mark h.r. bussin melanie j. bushney melinde coetzee mezgebu yitayal michael c. glensor mookgo s. kgatle moses acquaah nelesh dhanpat newlin marongwe nicky h.d. terblanche nicole m. dodd nirmal k. betchoo norizan azizan 00 acknowledgement to reviewers ntsako i. makamu ntwanano e. mathebula nuraan agherdien olalekan b. sakariyau olorunjuwon m. samuel penny m. abbott pieter a. grobler rachele paver rene van wyk rennie naidoo richard g. chazuza roslyn t. de braine rudolf m. oosthuizen ruth m. albertyn sanjay k. singh santoshi sengupta sarah kieran siebert mutereko sonal agarwal sonia swanepoel suki l. goodman sumei van antwerpen suvera boodhoo tessie h. herbst tinashe t. harry vijaya c. banu vuyokazi n. mtembu waliu m. adegbite wellington b. zondi wesley r. pieters willem schurink willie t. chinyamurindi wilma j. coetzer wiseman ndlovu worku m. tadesse yilmaz akgunduz yvonne du plessis zoharah omar zwelinzima j. ndevu http://www.sajhrm.co.za https://sajhrm.co.za https://sajhrm.co.za https://sajhrm.co.za https://sajhrm.co.za mailto:publishing@aosis.co.za s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 1 pp. 29 36 original research the adequacy of the current social plan to address retrenchment challenges in south africa abstract the purpose of the social plan guidelines is to manage large-scale retrenchments and ameliorate their effects on employees. in this study a comprehensive literature review and two case studies were conducted to review the theoretical and practical application of the social plan. the research findings identified various challenges that inhibit the effective management of retrenchments. these challenges were analysed and interpreted and a new model to effectively manage retrenchments was developed. the new model is centred on a company’s business plan; the concept is a participative performancedriven governance approach between management and employees focusing on business results. the new model suggests that the employment relations management and corporate social investment of an organisation be utilised as vehicles to manage retrenchments effectively. keywords: social plan, retrenchment model, management of retrenchments, employment relations, challenges of retrenchments purpose of the study prior to the democratic elections in 1994, south africa had a captive market. there were regulations that were specifically designed to protect south african organisations. there were various tariffs and taxes imposed on foreign organisations doing business in south africa. after the democratic elections, south africa introduced market reforms that resulted in south africa being part of a globalised market. this globalisation process brought about significant changes. south african organisations had an opportunity to expand their business opportunities, but at the same time were faced with competition from other organisations from different parts of the world. this meant that, in order to be competitive, south african organisations had to undergo structural transformation, which led to the pursuit of lean management strategies to obtain world-class status (prinsloo, moropodi, slabbert and parker, 1999). this process led to job losses. it is submitted that although not all job losses can be attributed to globalisation, it was one of the major factors that led to job losses. vlok (2001) has this to say about this phenomenon: “management calls it downsizing or rationalising. consultants call it restructuring or re-aligning staff with fiscal goals. workers call it retrenchment or …death”. this is the reality in which the south african labour market finds itself for various economic reasons the south african labour market is being impacted by retrenchments. a need therefore exists to effectively manage retrenchments and ameliorate their effects which have serious implications, not only for individuals, but also for families, society and the country (ngonini, 2001). the social plan guidelines were gazetted in 1999 (government gazette, 1999). they were seen as an effective solution for the management of large-scale retrenchments. their primary objective is “to avoid job losses and employment decline, wherever possible, and seek to actively manage retrenchments and to ameliorate their effects on individuals and local economies when large job losses are unavoidable” (nedlac, 2005). despite the good intentions and noble objectives of the social plan guidelines, there are very few organisations who have embraced them. it should be noted that the social plan guidelines are not an “act” but guidelines, and therefore their adoption is purely voluntary since failure to adopt them does not attract any legal consequences. large-scale retrenchments continue to occur. individuals, their families and local economies continue to suffer. it is therefore imperative that we seek to understand the issues that make the social plan guidelines unattractive to organisations. a need for effective management of retrenchments has been identified (ngonini, 2001) and therefore a proper diagnosis of the issues that make the social plan guidelines unattractive and ineffective must be done. this study seeks to understand these issues, offer an alternative solution and to investigate whether the current mechanism (social plan) provided by the department of labour is, in practice, adequate to manage retrenchments. the objectives of the study were to: • highlight the unemployment rate in rsa; • highlight the impact of globalisation on employment; • show the integration or lack thereof of the measures designed to ameliorate the effect of retrenchments (policies, guidelines and statutory framework); • investigate through practical case studies how retrenchments were managed in practice and highlight the deficiencies, if any; • investigate possible synergies between the social plan and corporate social investment; and • develop and propose a possible solution to the effective management of retrenchments. literature review in order to meet the objectives of the study, a review was done on the following literature: • globalisation; • statistical information on employment in rsa as well as specific industries (e.g. mining); thulane ngele maarten erasmus department of human resource management university of johannesburg south africa correspondence to: thulane ngele e-mail: thulane.ngele@eskom.co.za 29 original research ngele & erasmus vol. 6 no. 1 pp. 29 36sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za30 • the available policy framework for managing retrenchments; • the legislative framework for managing retrenchments; • case studies of large-scale retrenchments. globalisation south africa’s transition from an apartheid dispensation to a democratic one has resulted in the country becoming part of the global market and south african organisations were faced with global competition for the first time. rhinesmith (1996) is of the view that south african organisations must have the ability to respond effectively to the prevailing challenges in a manner that surpasses that of their competitors. globalisation in the context of closer integration of national markets is not a new concept or phenomenon (o’rourke and williamson, 2000). slabbert, prinsloo, swanepoel and backer (1999) are of the opinion that globalisation has always been there; what has changed is the scale and impact of globalisation on business environments around the world and the emergence of what has come to be termed the “global village”. south africa as a nation state was, and still is, affected by globalisation. south africa moved from a history of economic protectionism to become a member of the world trade organisation. the move was facilitated by the change in the political dispensation in 1994. prinsloo, moropodi, slabbert and parker (1999) confirmed that political reform in south africa resulted in the opening up of south africa’s economy to global markets. consequently, south african organisations are now faced with global competition, which forces them to undergo structural transformation in order to be competitive. this structural transformation has led to the shedding of jobs. in the first quarter of 1998 employment levels declined by an additional 3% (over 22 000 job losses) on top of the 4% contraction recorded in 1997. should the mining sector be included in these statistics, it would mean that the formal economy shed 100 000 jobs in 1998 (prinsloo, moropodi, slabbert and parker et al., 1999). it is envisaged that this trend will continue for some time to come. in the last two years, the south african currency appreciated to such high levels that various sectors (e.g. textile 0 200000 400000 600000 800000 1000000 1200000 1400000 1600000 ja nma r1 99 4 ju l-s ep 19 94 ja nma r1 99 5 ju l-s ep 19 95 ja nma r1 99 6 ju l-s ep 19 96 ja nma r1 99 7 ju l-s ep 19 97 ja nma r1 99 8 ju l-s ep 19 98 ja nma r1 99 9 ju l-s ep 19 99 ja nma r 2 00 0 ju l-s ep 2 00 0 ja nma r 2 00 1 ju l-s ep 2 00 1 ja nma r 2 00 2 ju l-s ep 2 00 2 ja nma r 2 00 3 ju l-s ep 2 00 3 ja nma r 2 00 4 ju l-s ep 2 00 4 ja nma r 2 00 5 period e m pl oy m en t mining industries manufacturing industries figure 1 graphic representation of employment figures in the mining and manufacturing industries between 1994 and 2005 0 10 20 30 40 50 period feb-00 sep-00 feb-01 sep-01 feb-02 sep-02 mar-03 sep-03 mar-04 sep-04 mar-05 period percentage official definition expanded definition figure 2 the comparison of employment figures as per the two definitions addressing retrenchment challenges original research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 1 pp. 29 36 and mining) had to shed more jobs to survive. this had an impact on individual employees and the communities in which affected organisations are located. in order to survive global competition, parker (1998) is of the view that business organisations must continually adapt to an ever-changing external environment and become “world-class” organisations. being a world-class organisation means that the organisation must have the ability to respond effectively to the prevailing challenges in a manner that surpasses that of other competitors. rhinesmith (1996) is of the opinion that the strategic intent of a world-class organisation is to concentrate on delivering the highest-quality product or service to the most profitable worldwide markets, at a lower cost, under changing market and competitive conditions. inherently this has an impact on employment. management of retrenchments it is difficult to attribute all job losses to globalisation, partly due to the difficulties of defining and measuring the effects of globalisation on organisations and partly due to many other factors that are unique to a particular country and probably unique to a particular industry or sector. despite the difficulties of defining and measuring retrenchments, it is certain that in south africa there is a worrying trend to reduce employees. figure 1 indicates the employment figures in the mining and manufacturing industries from 1994 to 2005. figure 2 indicates the unemployment rate in south africa as per the official and expanded definitions. the statistical information in both figures 1 and 2 give an indication of the extent of job losses and unemployment in rsa. job losses must be managed to avoid an increase in the already high unemployment rate. as long ago as 1995, the trade unions believed that south africa’s entry into the global market would bring about globalisation and competition that would have dire consequences for the continued employment of their members. organisations have to retrench workers from time to time for economic reasons and because organisations have to rationalise to remain globally competitive (department of labour, 1999). the trade unions saw the potential effects of globalisation and predicted mass job losses and sought some statutory protection from the labour relations act, 1995 (lra). section 189 of the lra provides for the statutory management of retrenchments. the trade unions, however, questioned the provision of the lra and are of the view that the lra makes it easy for employers to retrench, since the requirements of section 189 are about process compliance rather than a genuine attempt to avoid retrenchments. furthermore, trade unions are of the view that the lra does not take into consideration the impact of retrenchments on the communities from which the retrenched employees come. having considered all these factors, the national union of mineworkers (num) in particular advocated for the introduction of a social plan to address retrenchments. after indepth consultation, the social plan guidelines were gazetted (government gazette, 1999). the social plan guidelines: • apply in the event of threatening large-scale retrenchments (500 people or 10% of the labour force of an organisation), as such retrenchments could have an impact on sector, regional or national interest; • aim to prevent job losses and a decline in unemployment. as such they promote negotiations about threats to employment security and other measures to prevent a decline in employment; and • aim to ameliorate the social and economic impact on individuals, regions and the economy. the social plan guidelines have three mandates, namely, saving jobs, managing retrenchments, and creating jobs for local economies. in order to carry out its mandate, the social plan guidelines tasked the national productivity institute (npi), the department of labour (dol) and the department of provincial and local government to give effect to the mandate. despite the provisions of section 189 and the social plan guidelines, trade unions exerted more pressure on the dol to review the statutory provisions for managing retrenchments. under the weight of social pressure to review policy norms governing retrenchments, a raft of substantive and procedural changes has been made to the law. in essence, the unions have won the case that retrenchments are too easy and expedient for employers facing hard times and that the bar must be raised (cheadle et al., 2002). the implications of the provisions of the new section 189(a) are as follows: • retrenchments are now a strike-able issue; • there is more scope for trade unions to challenge retrenchment; and • the approach that the courts must take on the merits of retrenchment has been clarified. it is an accepted principle that one of the indicators of a good economy is its ability to create and sustain employment. the south african economy is shedding employment, and therefore from an economics point of view the economy is not doing well. the causes, as highlighted in this study, are mainly the fact that south africa is now competing on the global stage and is no longer protected as it was during the apartheid era. the south african government, through the dol, had to respond to the pressure that was exerted by the labour movements, hence the promulgation of the social plan guidelines. corporate social investment and employment relations strategies there are many organisations that, despite the statutory provisions of managing retrenchments and the social plan guidelines, have developed mechanisms to manage retrenchments. the question that arises is why these companies are engaging in such processes and not adhering to the lra and the social plan guidelines. the social plan guidelines provide a process for the assistance of retrenched employees and their communities and therefore it is submitted that they constitute an element of corporate social investment. the principle of the social plan guidelines is that they attempt to ameliorate the social and economic impact of retrenchment on individuals, regions and the economy (the local economy in particular). the social plan guidelines have another aspect, which relates to employment relations strategy. this aspect deals with the prevention of job losses and decline in employment, promotes negotiations about threats to employment security and potential measures to prevent a decline in employment. the social plan guidelines therefore have elements of corporate social investment and employment relations strategy. it is not evident, however, whether this was intended. case studies the social plan guidelines, by their very nature, require that various parties be actively involved in managing large-scale retrenchments. the social plan guidelines state that their primary objective is to avoid job losses and employment decline wherever possible, and to seek to actively manage retrenchments and to ameliorate their effects on individuals and local economies when large job losses are unavoidable. in order to give effect to this primary objective, various parties – namely, trade unions, companies, local authorities, the dol and impacted individuals – must actively take part in the initiatives to avoid or ameliorate retrenchments. case studies 31 original research ngele & erasmus vol. 6 no. 1 pp. 29 36sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za32 were undertaken to demonstrate how, in practice, the parties relate and manage the process of retrenchments currently in south africa. the case studies conducted included the process that was followed in managing retrenchments by the city of matlosana and the role of solidarity (a trade union) in that process as well as the management of retrenchments by eskom holdings limited and telkom sa limited. the case studies investigated the impact on society (people and/or the economy), number of employees involved, and the role played by trade unions and/or employees. the findings of the case studies are that: 1. the city of matlosana • there was a lack of cooperation from government departments/agencies; • the city had no integrated strategy/approach; • there were limited skills within the city; and • there was a lack of support from local businesses. 2. solidarity (trade union) • the trade union was not consulted by the employer; • there was a lack of support from other trade unions; and • the employer did not have an in-house social plan. 3. eskom holdings • there were problems due to the relocation of employees from one area to another; • there was a lack of entrepreneurial skills among the affected employees; and • there was a lack of balance between business efficiency and social responsibility. 4. telkom telkom was a model employer in managing • retrenchments in that all the challenges that were experienced in the other case studies were catered for in their in-house social plan. summary parker (1999) is of the view that industrial relations and human resources should be integrated and managed collectively. the collective management of these fields is referred to as employment relations. the social plan guidelines by their very nature are inclusive of both the element of industrial relations and the element of human resources. retrenchments and redundancy processes are to do with industrial relations, whereas training and development are human-resource based. research methodology employed in the study the research problem as discussed above was used as the foundation for the choice of the research methodology. an exploratory research methodology was employed in this study due to the limited academic research on the subject. the overall research design of the study included the following: • data collection the data for the study was collected through literature reviews; analysis of case studies; and expert surveys/ interviews. • sampling the sampling approach that was used in the study is non-probability sampling because the study did not necessarily require a sampling approach. • validity due the nature of the study (exploratory), empirical validation was not possible. theoretical or conceptual validation was therefore employed. • reliability in exploratory research it is not possible to achieve reliability through production of consistent results. the reliability was achieved through precision and objectivity when data was gathered; with analyses and interpretation of data and presentation of findings. • ethical consideration the data that was gathered and considered was not fabricated or falsified to achieve a particular outcome. identification of the limitations/deficiencies of the social plan the literature review and the case studies presented the practical and theoretical demonstration of the management of the social plan guidelines. having considered or reviewed both the practical and the theoretical aspect of managing largescale retrenchments, the limitations are identified. the limitations or challenges that have been identified can be clustered under the following categories: roles it has been identified that there are various stakeholders that are required to play a role in the effective management of the social plan guidelines as they stand currently. stakeholders such as trade unions, communities, the dol, npi, provincial and local authorities, impacted employees, the future forum and many others were identified. the social plan guidelines attempt to define and clarify some of the roles of these stakeholders. the definition and clarification, however, failed to indicate and manage the overlaps or inter-dependencies of these roles. purpose the social plan guidelines, like any other programme, exist because of a certain need. they exist because they aim to prevent job losses and a decline in employment; to promote alternative solutions to threatened job security, provide potential measures to prevent a decline in employment and to ameliorate the social and economic impact on individuals, regions and the economy. one of the problems of the social plan guidelines is that their definition of large-scale retrenchments negatively affects the very purpose it seeks to address. the definition excludes employees who, irrespective of the impact of retrenchments on them and their local economies, happen not to meet the 10% or 500 thresholds. further, it excludes the accumulative effect of small-scale retrenchments. support it was indicated that there is little support for the social plan guidelines as a programme to address job losses. the problems are identified and explained. as there is no support and commitment, the effectiveness of the programme is at risk. information management one of the challenges of the social plan guidelines is the lack of information management. there is little or no information available in any form that records the use of the social plan guidelines as a retrenchment strategy. a report to the dol has identified the lack of awareness as a challenge to the social plan guidelines. statutory integration/legal framework generally, the management of employment relations and, more specifically, the management of retrenchments are very complex. there are many regulations and statutory provisions that must be considered when managing retrenchments. the lack of integration of various pieces of legislation and other regulatory provisions was identified as a problem. the following relevant areas of legislation and regulatory provisions were identified: • law of insolvency; • companies act; addressing retrenchment challenges original research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 1 pp. 29 36 • labour relations act; • corporate social investment; • code of good practice; • competition law; and the • municipal systems act. these pieces of legislation and regulatory provisions require integration for the effective management of the social plan guidelines. the problem identified in this regard is that the social plan guidelines either fail to align with these pieces of legislation and provisions, or simply do not make reference to the said provisions. this results in conflict and/or interpretational problems which affect the very existence of the social plan guidelines and their application. human resources the roles of the various stakeholders that are involved in the application and management of the social plan guidelines must be performed by people. a challenge that was identified was that within the local authorities, there are no skills to perform these roles effectively, and it is questionable whether a trade union has the appropriate and adequate human resources to perform such functions. financial resources the application and management of the social plan guidelines creates various activities, some of which are accompanied by the formation of structures. the activities and the functioning of these structures must be supported financially. it becomes difficult for a company which is under financial strain to finance these activities and structures. the social plan guidelines provide that the dol must grant r50 000 to a local authority to regenerate the local economy that has been affected by retrenchments. this is a very small amount to support such a need. if r50 000 is divided by 500 employees (minimum threshold), it means that r100 is spent per employee to regenerate the economy, an amount which is inadequate. it is evident that the social plan guidelines have many challenges. some of the challenges are fundamental to the very existence of the social plan guidelines, not to mention their effectiveness. furthermore, it is evident that in its current form, the social plan guidelines are very ineffective and therefore not adequate to address retrenchment challenges. proposed solutions the challenges that have been identified and interpreted are diverse yet interrelated in that they are dependent on each other. for the purpose of simplicity the challenges are categorised as follows: • institutions or structures; • corporate social responsibility; • employment relations strategy; • legal framework; and • general. the above challenges are discussed under these categories and are referred to as themes. each theme has several sub-categories (see figure 3). institutions/structures institutions and/or structures of any model are the foundation of that model. they are the pillars of the model, without which the model may not be operationalised. the social plan guidelines too have institutions and/or structures whose primary focus is to operationalise the social plan guidelines and make them effective. the problems highlighted have a negative impact on the effective management of the social plan guidelines. either they figure 3 the categorisation of challenges under themes 33 original research ngele & erasmus vol. 6 no. 1 pp. 29 36sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za34 be effective, it must supplement and complement an act that operates within that particular area. currently the social plan guidelines do not achieve this goal. consequently the existence of the social plan guidelines, in their current form, is not desirable. employment relations integrative management of industrial relations and human resources management, i.e. employment relations, are an integral part of the social plan guidelines. this means that an employer’s employment relations strategy must have an element of strategic management as laid out in the social plan guidelines. from this deduction it is evident that the social plan guidelines should be managed within the employment relations strategy rather than as an independent process. the management of the social plan guidelines as a separate process creates duplication and conflict with redundancy procedures and established collective bargaining processes, the employee assistance programme (eap) and the training and development initiatives that normally reside under employee relations management. thus the objectives of the social plan guidelines should be addressed through existing company policies such as the employment relations management policy. corporate social responsibility a principle of the social plan guidelines must be an amelioration of the social and economic impact on individuals, regions and the economy (local economy in particular) and must support the objectives of corporate social investment. synergies between the social plan guidelines and corporate social investment strategies should be enhanced. the enhancement of synergies may be done in various ways including, but not limited to, the co-existence of the two processes. in fact, the co-existence of the two processes is not desirable. it is argued that the existence of the social plan do not add value and are bureaucratic, or simply do not achieve what they are intended to achieve. legal framework the social plan guidelines are a process and not legal rights and duties. parties (employers and trade unions) have a choice as to whether they use them or not. failure to use them in the circumstances in which they operate does not attract any legal penalties or sanctions. the provisions of the social plan guidelines have a bearing on other statutory areas. in particular, the social plan has a bearing on the following: • insolvency act; • companies act; • labour relations act; • competitions act; and • municipal systems act. the social plan and the above-mentioned acts operate, in one way or the other, within the same space. inevitably this leads to contradictions and/or duplications of processes. sometimes the social plan guidelines create extra functions for institutions established under a particular act, e.g. local and provincial authorities. due to the fact that they are guidelines, they cannot supersede any statutory provisions. the management of retrenchments through the social plan guidelines creates an extra function for employers, which is not, strictly speaking, required by an act. employers are reluctant to embrace a process that is not a legal requirement when there are legal requirements from other acts that seek to address the same issues. it can therefore be concluded that, in its current form, the existence of the social plan guidelines does not bring anything new that can be enforced to manage retrenchments effectively. even if the social plan guidelines can be promulgated as an act (an approach that is not supported) in its current form, it will cause contradictions and confusions. for a guideline to employment relations management corporate social investment business results social plan objective employees management company’s business plan figure 4 world-class management of retrenchment model (ngele, 2006) addressing retrenchment challenges original research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 1 pp. 29 36 guidelines in their current form and/or as a separate process is not necessary. taking the same line of argument, the social plan guidelines do not need to exist because their objectives can also be catered for through established processes such as corporate social investment initiatives. companies have longstanding corporate social investment initiatives that they engage in voluntarily and that are not in contradiction to other statutory provisions. corporate social investment initiatives are an integral part of the strategies of companies. many companies have established nonprofit subsidiaries to manage their corporate social investment initiatives. this addresses the inadequacies of the institutions or structures that are meant to operationalise the social plan guidelines. the subsidiaries are existing, internally-managed structures which are more likely to carry out their mandates than many uncoordinated structures or institutions. many companies report on their corporate social investment initiatives in their financial reports. this enhances the corporate citizenship of companies. it therefore stands to reason that if the objectives of the social plan guidelines were incorporated into and managed under the corporate social investment initiatives, they are more likely to be addressed adequately. general the challenges listed here are dependent on the other four themes (institutions or structures, legal framework, employment relations and corporate social investment). the inadequacy of the institutions or structures, the contradiction and duplication of processes in the legal framework and the lack of synergy in the employment relations theme and corporate social investment theme led to these challenges. these challenges can be addressed merely by addressing the challenges of the other four themes. in summary, the conclusions that have been reached above are that: i. the social plan guidelines do not have to exist in their current form due to the inadequacies caused by the institutional or structural theme challenges. ii. the social plan guidelines fail to complement and supplement existing legislation that operates within the same area. it causes unnecessary duplication and contradiction of legal processes and therefore its existence is not desired. iii. the objectives of the social plan guidelines can be addressed through an employment relations strategy and therefore the social plan guidelines do not have to exist as a separate concept. iv. the objectives of the social plan guidelines can be addressed through the establishment of processes such as corporate social investment. it can therefore be concluded that the social plan guidelines are not adequate to address retrenchment (large or small scale) challenges in south africa. discussions and recommendations it has been concluded that the social plan is not an adequate concept to address retrenchment challenges in south africa. the conclusion is made after the identification and interpretation of challenges which were categorised into themes. it is evident that two of the themes, namely, institutions or structure and the legal framework are the problematic themes. the objectives of the social plan guidelines can be achieved through the themes of employment relations and corporate social investment. parker (1998) is of the opinion that the management of employment relations must reflect the fact that they are an inherent part of a company’s business plan, that they are proactive and of a long-term nature, that they are an important matter for management because the model of addressing retrenchment challenges must have as a base, or must flow from, a company’s business plan. the management of retrenchments by its very nature involves employees. the employees are involved while they are still employed and when they are exiting the company through retrenchments. the participation of employees in matters that affect them and their company is important. parker (1998) discussed the concept of participative performance driven governance. this concept is the foundation of the involvement of employees in companies that are ascending to world-class status. the management of retrenchments involves employees and the company. therefore it makes sense to apply the concept of participative performance driven governance to the management of retrenchments. the concept allows for joint participation of management and employees in focusing on business results. business results, in this context, refer to the financial viability of the organisation while effective measures to avoid and/or minimise retrenchments are put in place. the activities of this concept are laid down in the company’s business plan. the discussion on the construction of the new model of managing retrenchments as above is premised on: • the concept that employment relations and corporate social investment can address the objectives of managing retrenchments; • the concept that employment relations (and corporate social investment in its own right) must be managed inherently as part of a company’s business plan; and • the world-class concept that management and employees jointly drive performance (participative performance driven governance). the combination of these three concepts creates a new model for managing retrenchments, namely world-class management of retrenchment model developed and recommended by the author (see figure 4). advantages/benefits of the world-class management of retrenchment model the principal benefits or advantages that are presented by the new model are the following: i the model is based on a company’s business plan and therefore financial and human resources will be easier to make available. ii both management and employees (either by themselves and/or through trade unions) participate jointly in the operational implementation of the model. iii the model is linked to corporate social investment and therefore the company will be obliged to report on the management of retrenchments in their financial report when reporting on corporate social investment initiatives. iv the model is internally driven and therefore flexible. v the model does not create contradictions with other statutory provisions. vi the processes recommended by the new model will not create new obligatory internal structures. the existing structures of the company may be adapted to manage the process. vii the application of the model will not be quota-based, but part of day-to-day operations of the business of the company. viii integration of resources and operations within the company will be enhanced. 35 original research ngele & erasmus vol. 6 no. 1 pp. 29 36sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za o’rourke, k. h. and williamson, j.g. (2000). “when did globalisation begin?” nber working paper no. 7632. parker, a.j. (1998). the role of employment relations management in the business strategy of a south african organisation. pursuit of world-class status. unpublished dissertation, johannesburg: rand afrikaanse universiteit. prinsloo, k. & moropodi, j. & parker, a. (1999). a perspective on the world-class company. pretoria: strat excell. republic of south africa (1973). companies act, act 61 of 1973, government printers. republic of south africa (1999). code of good practice on dismissals based on operational requirements. general notice 1517. government gazette 20254. government printers. republic of south africa (2002). insolvency amendment act, act 33 of 2002. government printers. republic of south africa (2002). the labour relations act, act 66 of 1995, government gazette no 23540, 24 june 2002. rhinesmith, s.h. (1996). a manager’s guide to globalisation: six skills for success in a changing world. london: irwing professional. slabbert, j.a., prinsloo, j.j., swanepoel, b.j. & backer, w. (1999). managing employment relations in south africa. durban: lexis nexus butterworth. vlok, e. (2001). phanzi retrenchments. phanzi!, south african labour bulletin, 25, 2. disadvantages of the world-class management of retrenchment model the model does present some disadvantages, including the following: i the model does not address industry cooperation. it is not the intention of the model to create “forced marriages”. parties must join forces voluntarily, having considered mutual benefits and potential synergies. ii smaller companies may not necessarily have corporate social investment functions, but retrenchments can still be managed through employment relations alone. the study has highlighted the importance of managing retrenchments in an integrated manner within a business organisation. in practice, business organisations will be able to integrate their employment relations management, corporate social investments and their business plans to pro-actively ameliorate the effects of retrenchments. references cheadle, h., thomson, c., le roux, p. k. & van niekerk, a. (2002). current labour law: the authoritative annual review of labour law. durban: lexis nexis butterworths. ngonini, x. (2001). waai-waai – the impact of retrenchment. south african labour bulletin, 25, 1. 36 abstract introduction research purpose literature review findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) kristofina filippus southern business school, windhoek, namibia cecile m. schultz department of people management and development, faculty management sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa citation filippus, k., & schultz, c.m. (2019). exploring talent management execution in the ministry of justice in the namibian public sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1162 https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1162 original research exploring talent management execution in the ministry of justice in the namibian public sector kristofina filippus, cecile m. schultz received: 05 feb. 2019; accepted: 03 june 2019; published: 07 oct. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the ministry of justice in the government of the republic of namibia, which is tasked to implement an effective judicial system in the country, is one of the public sector institutions rocked by a shortage of critical skills. research purpose: the aim of this study was to scrutinise the execution of talent management practices in the ministry of justice in the namibian public sector by investigating the talent management execution levels, identifying the distractors and enablers that form part of the talent management practices and developing a conceptual framework of talent management execution. motivation for the study: the war for talent is evident in the ministry of justice in the namibian public sector, and limited research exists regarding the execution of talent management in this organisation. research approach/design and method: the research was based on an exploratory research design and a qualitative approach was used. purposive sampling was utilised and semi-structured interviews were conducted. the data were analysed by means of qualitative content analysis. main findings: talent management was executed on three levels: human resource execution, operational execution and strategic execution. specific distractors and enablers were identified and formed part of the talent management practices. practical/managerial implications: to execute talent management properly, managers and human resource managers should attend to the identified talent management distractors and enablers. contribution/value-add: talent management execution levels and the relating distractors and enablers were identified. a conceptual framework of talent management execution in the ministry of justice in the namibian public sector was developed. keywords: human resource, hr; execution; namibian public sector; operational execution; strategic execution; talent management. introduction business leaders who execute the best talent management processes are more prepared than their competitors to compete in the global economy and capitalise quickly on new opportunities. talent management practices are focal tools for attracting top talent to key roles, but are recognised as a great global challenge to organisations (johnson, 2015). an aspect of talent management that needs consideration is the levels of responsibility within a particular organisational context (tansley, 2011). talent management ought to be executed by human resource (hr) (maheshwari, gunesh, lodorfos, & konstantopoulou, 2017). operational execution (king, 2017) and strategic execution (hughes & rog, 2008) of talent management are imperative. a paradigm shift from traditional hrs to strategic talent management is needed and this may lead to changes in the organisational business practices and procedures (van zyl, mathafena, & ras, 2017). ‘talent is left to sink or swim as they are progressed into new roles, projects or secondments without adequate support or structured development’ (ross, 2013, p. 12). distractors and enablers should form part of the talent management practices. research purpose the ministry of justice in the government is tasked to implement an effective judicial system in the country, and is one of the public sector institutions affected by the impact of a shortage of critical skills (ministry of justice, 2017). the war for talent is evident in the ministry of justice in the namibian public sector, and limited research exists regarding the investigation of the execution of talent management in this organisation (nakuta & chipepera, 2010). there is also no knowledge of what the distractors and enablers are in relation to talent management execution in this organisation. the aim of this study was therefore to address these research gaps by uncovering the execution of talent management in the ministry of justice in the namibian public sector. in the light of the above, the execution of talent management in the ministry of justice in the namibian public sector was explored by: investigating the talent management execution levels identifying the distractors and enablers that form part of the talent management practices developing a conceptual framework of talent management execution. literature review talent management overview in earlier times, organisations were exposed to a limited set of hr practices. johnson (2015) posits that talent management is about the early identification of key role players and articulation of duties, leading to ownership and clear accountability to ensure organisational success. poisat, mey and sharp (2018) maintain that talent management concerns creating a high-performance work culture at all organisational levels, resulting in all company employees being well informed of competitive advantage. lewis and heckman (2006, p. 139), who conducted an extensive review of the talent management literature in both professional and academic publications, found that talent management comprised ‘a collection of typical human resource department practices … such as recruiting, selection, development and career and succession management.’ lewis and heckman’s (2006) view of talent management is considered more or less synonymous with hr or workforce planning. the third and final perspective on talent management of lewis and heckman (2006) focuses on sourcing, developing and rewarding employee talent. talent management serves as a supportive tool to improve staff members’ performance to ensure the organisation’s success in achieving its intended goal (barkhuizen, schutte, & smith, 2015). ogbari, onasanya, ogunnaike and kehinde (2018) are of the opinion that one of the main components of talent management is continuously training personnel to maintain the required level of performance. employees who receive personal development and are involved in the talent management programme are expected to be more innovative and to contribute exceptionally to the success of the organisation (ogbari et al., 2018). human resource, operational and strategic levels of talent management according to bothma (2015), talent management is a strategy designed to enhance an organisation’s current processes and practices, and to deliver corporate and hr management (hrm) strategies. bothma (2015) further opines that the greatest hr challenge is to obtain the required skills to link talent management practices and the broader hr system. human resource needs to plan and execute talent management (maheshwari et al., 2017). operational level is another level of talent management execution (king, 2017). king (2017) further mentions that organisational systems and practices across the diverse range of today’s workspaces and the strength of an organisation’s talent system may practically be expected to become a noticeable element of an organisation’s approach to attract, develop and retain the talent it requires for its business purpose. strategic talent management refers to the long-term or future talent needs of an organisation (hughes & rog, 2008). a paradigm shift from traditional hrs to strategic talent management is needed and this may lead to changes in the organisational business practices and procedures (van zyl et al., 2017). to ensure proper execution of talent management at hr, operational and strategic levels, distractors and enablers of talent management should be identified. talent management distractors distractors pertain to issues that do not enhance talent management execution and can also be seen as challenges. li, hedayati-mehdiabadi, choi, wu and bell (2018) state several challenges regarding talent management process, including challenges of attracting and retaining talent, tension between subsidiaries and headquarters, tension between high potentials and non-high potentials and tension between generations. van hoek (2016) states that many organisations are negatively challenged by the war for talent with regard to imperative talent management factors such as work motivation, attraction, development, work value and recruitment. organisations fail to successfully implement talent management because of lack of understanding of how to acquire, develop and retain high-potential talent in this competitive world (pannell, 2015). pannell (2015) further maintains that companies fail to accept that pay is an astounding defence for winning the talent war, especially with regard to the retention and attraction of real talent. craig (2017) is of the opinion that most organisations fail to properly employ talent management practices because they miss the point of how most of the power has now shifted from the employer to the talented employee. another distractor is the lack of retention programmes. as a result of a lack of retention programmes, high performers keep leaving organisations. according to riccardi (2015, p. 33), organisations struggle with talent attraction strategies because of lack of consideration for candidate experience, caused by the emerging technology of online applications. talent attraction strategies can therefore be a distractor if not properly managed. riccardi (2015) also maintains that online applications make it difficult for organisations to choose candidates with good and relevant experience because of thousands of applications being received. in recently conducted research, sirin (2018) found that talent acquisition was one of the biggest challenges with a negative impact on organisations. according to ogbari et al. (2018), the comprehensive solution to talent management challenges is composed of strategic job requirements, job grading, performance management, recruitment criteria and succession planning. talent management enablers enablers refer to issues that enhance talent management execution to win the war for talent. krasavin and de swardt (2016) refer to talent management as the war for talent. organisations that keep strategising their day-to-day business operation in accordance with talent management can win the war for talent and survive in a competitive world (dinnen, 2017). ulrich (2016) found that organisations can win the war for talent only if they practise talent management that is focused on the organisational future performance to attract investors. some of the essentials that organisations need to act on to win this war are creating a winning employee value proposition, moving beyond the recruiting hype, using job experience, coaching and mentoring, investing in strong performers, grooming better performers and acting decisively on poor performers (krasavin & de swardt, 2016). hosking (2017) recommends that one of the key enablers of talent management is talent acquisition. hosking (2017) considers talent acquisition as a fundamental tool to appoint the right people at the right time. organisations that can attract, retain and develop employees will have a distinct edge in competitive environments (maheshwari et al., 2017). the talent management framework of phillips and roper (2009) consists of five key elements, namely, attracting, selecting, engaging, developing and retaining employees. these elements should be enablers to ensure that talent management is executed effectively: talent management challenges can be addressed by aligning and integrating people management practices with those of the organisation, through developing the organizational talent management framework, in order to achieve strategic execution and operational excellence. (van zyl et al., 2017, p. 18) lee (2018) is also of the opinion that organisations should focus on continuously measuring their operational practices to determine current and longer term competitive success. lastly, bringing oneself more fully into one’s work roles and devoting greater amounts of cognitive, emotional and physical resources is a very profound way for individuals to respond to an organisation’s actions, as suggested earlier by the work of kahn (1990). employees are more likely to exchange their engagement for resources and benefits provided by their organisation and are therefore a talent management enabler. ashton and morton (2005, p. 11) state that ‘talent management is integral to engaging employees in the organization.’ research design the framework that is used to define the processes of selecting the sources of information, the method of data collection and the technique of data analysis is commonly known as the research design (silverman, 2018). this is explained below. an exploratory research design was employed in this study. research approach in this research, a qualitative research approach was used. according to mugenda and mugenda (2003), qualitative research is the best approach to use if the researcher intends to purposefully explore, describe, explain and interpret the collected data within a specific context. to achieve this, the researchers adopted the recommendation of mills, bonner and francis (2006) to implement a constructivist grounded theory approach to collect qualitative data with an explorative purpose. according to mills et al. (2006, pp. 447–464), ‘the constructivist theory is a methodology that seeks to construct theory about issues of importance in peoples’ lives.’ this means that issues of importance to participants emerge from the stories that they tell about an area of interest that they have in common with the researcher. the constructivist theory allows the data collection, data analysis and theory to stand in reciprocal relationships with each other (strauss & corbin, 1990). the researchers analysed the data by constant comparison, initially of data with data, progressing to comparisons between their interpretations, translated into codes and categories and more data (strauss & corbin, 1990). research strategy semi-structured interviews were conducted. in the collection and analysis of data, the researchers ensured that data comparisons within and between the responses were executed by the theoretical framework of the subject under study. the collection and analysis of data were executed taking cognisance of the theoretical framework of the subject under study and through the directive of grounded theory. this enabled the researchers to pinpoint the core facts of the talent management situation at the ministry of justice in namibia. research method this study was carried out with consideration of the research setting and the research procedure, which resulted in access to all the expected information. research setting this research was directly executed in liaison with the directorate of central administration. the directorate of central administration is mandated to provide various administrative support services to the rest of the ministry of justice and the office of the attorney general in terms of its strategic objective: ‘to ensure an enabling environment and high-performance culture’ (ministry of justice, 2017, p. 5). the directorate of central administration spans across four divisions, namely, division general and auxiliary services (subdivision auxiliary services, subdivision human resource management, subdivision human resource development and subdivision ministerial support service), division finance and budgeting, division information technology and division development plans and fixed asset management (ministry of justice, 2017). the main activities of the directorate of central administration encompass managerial oversight, strategic leadership and corporate services to ensure that other directorates are able to deliver their services and to integrate the functioning of the ministry as a whole. such services are aimed at providing administrative support to ministerial programmes, ensuring proper financial management and facilitating equitable distribution and effective utilisation of resources, as well as capacity-building (ministry of justice, 2017). research procedure because of the security at the ministry of justice, a request for authorisation was used to access the setting. the research was executed in accordance with the premises’ regulations, irrespective of the fact that the government has an open policy for access to information. an approval letter was obtained from the permanent secretary of the ministry of justice that enabled the researchers to obtain full access to all the target sources of information. entrée and establishment of the researchers’ roles the 10 respondents were proposed to the ministry of justice permanent secretary’s for approval. the director of human resources management, as per the permanent secretary’s instruction, informed all proposed respondents accordingly. each individual was approached through an email request for an appointment. the research purpose and ethical parameters such as freedom to withdraw, protection of privacy and confidential information were explained to each interviewee. each respondent signed an informed consent form. issues of confidentiality and privacy were reiterated during the course of the interviews. confidentiality was ensured by numbering each interviewee instead of using their names and privacy was ensured by conducting the interview in a secluded venue. research participants and sampling methods in recognising the relationships between theory and data, purposive sampling was utilised, and semi-structured interviews were employed as data collection method. mougeot (2006) defines sampling as the process of selecting a number of study units from a defined study population. purposive sampling was the best tool to find answers to the research questions and was performed in this study according to criteria relevant to the research questions. accordingly, four top managers in the positions of senior managers, three assistant managers and three administrative officers were interviewed to gather the data and facts in relation to the execution of talent management in the ministry of justice. the targeted directors and their assistants were at managerial level, whereas the three administrative officers were from the hr department. the selection of these participants was based on the fact that they were of the few that were directly involved in talent management practices in this ministry. saturation of data was reached after the 10th interview where no new information was obtained. data collection methods in this study, semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data. piansoongnern and anurit (2010) state that interviews enable the researcher to collect facts, gain an understanding of the respondents’ opinions and experiences and establish the practical processes of the phenomenon under investigation. the information elicited through the interviews was compared or verified to enhance the credibility of the findings. this was performed by two researchers who coded the data and did the necessary comparisons. recording of data the interviews were recorded digitally and corroborated by taking field notes. the data were stored on a recorder and transcribed on word document to ensure that the quality of the data was not compromised. when conducting qualitative research, ensuring trustworthiness of the data collected is of utmost importance. the term trustworthiness is used to represent data validity and data reliability. its aim is to ensure that the study findings are collected and analysed with credibility. according to maxwell (2011), five principles must be considered so as to ensure data validity, namely, credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability. the research was guided by the above-mentioned principles; therefore, there is assurance that data trustworthiness was achieved. credibility was ensured by ensuring that the interview questions were related to the purpose of the study. the findings of this study can be applied to other departments in the government department under study and is therefore transferable. to address dependability, the processes of data analysis were reported in detail, thereby enabling a future researcher to repeat the work, if not necessarily to gain the same results. the researchers ensured as far as possible that the research findings were the result of the experiences and ideas of the participants to address confirmability. data analysis according to strauss (1987): any researcher who wishes to become proficient at doing qualitative analysis must learn to code well and easily. the excellence of the research rests in large part on the excellence of the coding. (p. 27) qualitative content analysis was used to explore and analyse the information collected from the respondents and documents that were obtained as data sources. content analysis was chosen because it is systematic, flexible and has the ability to reduce data into manageable categories and subcategories. this was achieved by examining every part of the interview transcript. strauss (1987) further says that this method requires the researcher to be able to maintain focus on the phenomenon being investigated, guided by the respondents’ meanings and the overall research question of the study. qualitative data coding, through pre-set and emergent codes, was employed for organising and sorting data into manageable categories and subcategories. deductive and inductive coding was used. reporting from the interviews, main themes and categories were identified. for the purposes of anonymity, the research respondents were referred to as respondent 1 up to respondent 10. the data will be presented with simplicity and clarity, as well as usability by future researchers. verbatim or verbal quotes will be used to substantiate the categories. the quotes, in some instances, reflect a pool level of english as english is the second or even third language spoken by some of the respondents. ethical considerations as extracted from ritchie, lewis, nicholls and ormston (2014), ethics refers to standards of conduct to which a particular group or profession is expected to conform. ethical principles are also appropriate to the academic environment. according to ritchie et al. (2014), it is required that students obtain ethical clearance from the institution at which they are registered before they carry out a research project. this research complied with the code of ethics of the institution where it was conducted. a consent letter from the organisation under study was obtained. in addition, this study complied with privacy, confidentiality and anonymity requirements. findings this section of the article reports on participants’ responses about their views of talent management, as well as notes made during the interviews. the following themes were identified: hr execution, operational execution and strategic execution, which can be grouped as talent management execution levels. human resource execution refers to the roles that hr needs to play in order to ensure that talent management is properly implemented. operational execution entails the practical policies and procedures that need to be in place and strategic execution refers to the elements that relate the long-term aspects of talent management. these themes are discussed below under the sub-headings enablers and distractors. these distractors and enablers form part of the talent management practices. theme 1: human resource execution distractors the first category under theme 1 relates to the lack of proper implementation of performance management: ‘we have no idea of any talent development programme in place but we have a performance management system introduced by the office of the prime minister and still not fully implemented.’ (respondent 6, male, 58, chief training officer) ‘there is a performance management system that requires supervisors to assess their teams’ performance on a quarterly and annual basis which is still at early stage.’ (respondent 3, female, 46, chief legal drafter) performance management forms an integral part of talent management. it seems as if there is a performance management system at the ministry of justice, but it is not fully implemented. this distractor may cause future talent management initiatives to fail. the second category links with performance management in the sense that there is lack of talent development: ‘we don’t have talent development.’ (respondent 7, female, 42, senior human resources practitioner; respondent 8 female, 36, human resources practitioner and respondent 9, male, 46, chief legal clerk) ‘in our case is even worse due to the fact there is no talent development and lawyers need to continuously improve on their trial advocacy courses, which are worth millions of rands that the ministry cannot afford.’ (respondent 3, female, 46, chief legal drafters) ‘we have a performance management system and there is no talent development.’ (respondent 1, female, 48, deputy director) talent development leads to the enhancement of high-potential employees with critical skills, such as the lawyers in the ministry of justice. lack of talent retention is the next category. this category was accentuated by most of the respondents, and it is therefore important to take notice of this category: ‘there is nothing done here to identify talent and to retain.’ (respondent 7, female, 42, senior human resources practitioner) ‘we don’t have talent retention practices in the ministry, talent acquisition we do through interviews.’ (respondent 6, male, 58, chief training officer) ‘most talented people always leave for better opportunities in private firms.’ (respondent 5, female, 48, permanent secretary) according to most of the employees, talent retention was a major problem in the ministry of justice. a holistic approach will be necessary to develop a talent management plan because of the complexity thereof. intrinsic and extrinsic motivation should be taken into consideration. enablers another category, talent acquisition, emerged in a positive light. this could be seen as an enabler: ‘well-constructed interviews enable us to get right candidates …’ (respondent 6, male, 58, chief training officer) ‘further put it like this: our acquisition is done through interviews.’ (respondent 7, female, 42, senior human resources practitioner) the hr staff managed to identify talent and conduct well-constructed interviews. this is a clear enabler in the talent management process. theme 2: operational execution distractors the first category under operational execution is remuneration challenges: ‘public service policy requires us to construct the job adverts in a way it attracts right people with right competencies and make them to want to work for the organisation and it made people to come with high expectations but in the end disappointed by the remuneration and other operational practices.’ (respondent 6, male, 58, chief training officer) ‘senior legislative drafters’ positions are critical position that take eight to 10 years to be filled as there are few talented and experienced people out there willing to work for public services and this budget cut have a negatively impacted on the organisation.’ (respondent 2, senior human resources practitioner) remuneration challenges are evident on operational level and should therefore obtain the necessary attention. cumbersome rules and red tape of government were identified as the next category. the data suggested that respondents felt that public service rules had become an obstacle and needed to be revised as soon as possible: ‘our hr always co-ordinate with training committee and facilitate training programs, but with the prime minister’ office (public service commission) being the primary approval authority, decision are not always in our favour. public service commission keeps turning our talent management proposals down due to their cumbersome policies.’ (respondent 3, female, 46, chief legal drafters) ‘public service rules cumbersomeness on recruitment policy causes a delay in recruitment and as a result we keep losing critical skilled and suitable candidate.’ (respondent 5, female, 48, permanent secretary) ‘the remuneration policy is also worrisome in today’ competitive world, therefore i would like to leave you with a special request to assist the namibian public service sectors implementing talent management, or otherwise the boat will completely be drowned.’ (respondent 6, male, 58, chief training officer) ‘hr leaders always recommend candidates with strong and talent characters through the interviews, but the person might be discouraged by our remuneration policy which lacks reward and incentive packages.’ (respondent 5, female, 48, permanent secretary) ‘i strongly believe that we suffer the impact of shortage of critical skills to implement an effective judiciary system and this shortage is a result of lack of talent management in the organisation mostly and by the public service recruitment rules.’ (respondent 3, female, 46, chief legal drafters) there is a clear link here between financial constraints, remuneration packages and policies, as discussed in the categories above. without proper policies and rules, it is impossible to execute talent management effectively. enablers no categories were identified. it is therefore clear that the operational execution in this organisation needs to be revisited to enable all stakeholders to win the war for talent. it is expected on an operational level that engagement be evident to ensure proper execution of talent management. the reason why no enabler was identified could be that there was no proper engagement to share with the interviewer. theme 3: strategic execution distractors the lack of leadership skills was a distractor at this organisation: ‘another challenge we have is lack of top leadership talent skills in the whole public service at large.’ (respondent 5, female, 48, permanent secretary) ‘our top managers lack talent leadership skills and as a result, it affects the whole organisation.’ (respondent 8, female, 36, human resources practitioner) if leadership does not enable the staff to successfully execute their work and let the staff experience satisfaction in the workplace, they may resign. enablers on a positive note, there was evidence of strategic planning, which can be grouped as an enabling factor: ‘i do not know how it is incorporated in business strategy, but we have a five-year national development plan and vision 2030.’ (respondent 3, female, 46, chief legal drafters) ‘i think harambe prosperity plan, which is aimed at improving the public service, is one of those strategies.’ (respondent 5, female, 48, permanent secretary) it is imperative to note that there is a level of strategic thinking in the government sector in namibia, which may assist the talent management process in the ministry of justice. planning is essential and it seems like management in the namibian public sector came to this realisation. a talent management strategy should therefore be linked to these strategic plans. all the above themes and categories were summarised and illustrated in a conceptual framework in figure 1. this framework was developed to summarise and illuminate talent management execution by focusing on the enabling and distracting factors in the ministry of justice in the namibian public sector. figure 1: conceptual framework of talent management execution in the ministry of justice in the namibian public sector. it is clear from figure 1 that there were three talent management execution levels: hr execution, operational execution and strategic execution. distractors and enablers were identified in each of these execution levels, except for operational matters where there was no enabler. these distractors and enablers formed part of the talent management practices in the ministry of justice. it is important to note that engagement was not found to be theme in findings, but should be part of this figure because of the essence thereof found in the literature review (morton, 2005). discussion the aim of this study was to scrutinise the execution of talent management practices in the ministry of justice in the namibian public sector by identifying distracting and enabling factors. in the findings, the following talent management execution levels were identified: hr execution, operational execution and strategic execution. the lack of performance management and the lack of talent development and talent retention were grouped as the distractors at hr execution level. at operational execution level, remuneration challenges and cumbersome rules and red tape of government were identified. a lack of leadership was placed as a distractor at strategic execution level. talent acquisition is an enabler at hr execution level. engagement is an operational execution enabler. lastly, strategic planning was positioned as an enabler at the strategic execution level. the relationship between hr execution, operational execution and strategic execution is essential in the sense that talent management cannot be executed in isolation. human resource usually initiates the talent management processes and the execution thereof. at an operational level, engagement between hr, management and employees is essential to ensure proper execution. leadership and strategic planning are key issues to effective strategic talent management execution. the interviewees made no mention of engagement, which may be an indication of an authoritative environment with little interaction between management and staff. ideally, engagement should have been part of the conceptual framework in figure 1, as seen in the literature review. talent development and talent retention were not reported to be practiced in the ministry of justice; therefore, the organisation’s survival is at risk. this concurs with the findings of kapoor (2011). in this study, continuous alignment of an organisation’s business operational practices with talent management was found to be a strategic tool for future success and investors’ attraction. based on the findings of hughes and rog (2008), it appears that organisations could benefit from the increased integration of some hrm practices that fall clearly within the talent management domain, including retention, workforce planning, leadership and professional development, which agrees with findings of this study. when an organisation is operated without focusing on talent management practices, there will be no progress on the horizon (tafti, mahmoudsalehi, & amiri, 2017), which corresponds with the findings of this study. according to johnson (2015), talent management practices are focal tools for attracting top talent to key roles. this view was reiterated by the findings of this study. it was clear that remuneration challenges as well as inadequate policies and rules were raised by most of the interviewees to be the most detrimental distractors. in concurrence with the findings of this study, the implementation of talent strategy is expected to drive value in the business and this is an enabler (sparrow & makram, 2015). in our view, talent management execution at the ministry under study still needs the necessary attention. the execution of talent management at hr, operational and strategic levels is not fully fletched. an observation that we made was that proper communication lacked between hr, management and the staff members. this could be a reason why engagement was not identified as an enabler. performance management is a prominent aspect of talent management, but is overseen up to a certain extent at this ministry. the lack of talent development and talent retention at hr execution level are also serious concerns and hr therefore needs to improve their processes. at operational execution level, management needs to pay attention to remuneration challenges and reduce cumbersome rules and the red tape. this could be linked to the lack of leadership that was placed as a distractor at strategic execution level. talent acquisition seems to shed light at the hr execution level and strategic planning at the strategic execution level. practical implications this article scrutinised the status quo in the ministry of justice with regard to the application of talent management practices. the starting point should be linking talent management to the day-to-day operational practices of the organisation through the involvement of top managers. to execute talent management properly, managers and hr managers should deal with enablers and distractors related to talent management execution levels. it is imperative that the hr staff, management and operational staff should therefore be involved in the execution of talent management. engagement on all three levels is essential. talent management is important to ensure that organisations can successfully acquire and retain essential talent, as well to ensure that employees are engaged on all levels. according to santhanam (2018), talent management challenges can be successfully addressed through managing a coaching programme that consists of key contributors such as organisational culture, business and employee demand, lifelong learning, a top-driven approach, a high success rate and employee sourcing and retention. the ability to effectively address both of these issues has become a primary determinant of organisational success and, in some cases, even survival. as shown in figure 1, there were six distractors and three enablers. the implication of this can therefore be presumed to be that the execution of talent management in this ministry is not successful. recommendations performance management in this ministry is not yet established and therefore in an early stage. however, performance management forms an integral part of talent management. top management must support this system to ensure that talent management initiatives can succeed. a talent retention strategy should be developed to ensure that staff members, such as lawyers, stay with the ministry of justice. a holistic approach is needed to compile such a strategy, and this may include benchmarking and engaging with management, identified talent as well as hr and operational staff. other problems such as organisational culture and low motivation may affect the retention of staff within the ministry and should therefore be investigated. the policies and rules should be revisited to accommodate successful execution of talent management in the ministry. operational matters, specifically enabling factors, in this organisation need to be revisited to win the war for talent. leadership skills training is necessary, especially for top management in the ministry of justice. it is recommended that the ministry pays attention to the distractors identified in this study and builds on the enablers. engagement on all levels is an essential part of talent management and should be developed into an enabler in the talent management process. a talent management strategy should be linked to the strategic plans of the namibian public sector. future research might consist of similar qualitative studies that can be conducted in other departments of the namibian government and the private sector in namibia. a quantitative study on talent management in the whole namibian government should be conducted to detect the impact of talent management on staff and management as well as on productivity and service delivery. the conceptual framework of talent management execution levels in the ministry of justice in the namibian public sector should be compared with other government departments in namibia to detect holistic enablers and distractors to enhance talent management. further studies are needed to build on the conceptual framework of talent management execution because of the dynamics that evolve around hr, operational and strategic challenges and in order to prepare for the future world of work. conclusion the purpose of this study was met by exploring the execution of talent management in the ministry of justice in the namibian public sector. human resource execution, operational execution and strategic execution formed the talent management execution levels that were evident in this ministry. the lack of performance management, lack of talent development, lack of talent retention, remuneration challenges, cumbersome rules and red tape of government and lack of leadership were grouped as distractors, while talent acquisition, engagement and strategic planning were identified as enablers in talent management. these distractors and enablers formed part of the talent management practices in the ministry of justice in namibia. a conceptual framework of talent management was developed to illustrate the three execution levels as well as the distractors and the enablers. should the ministry continue with the current talent management system, it will hardly survive in this competitive world and keep on losing the war for talent. if the ministry of justice does not enhance the identified enablers and does not pay the necessary attention to the distractors, it could lead to redundancy of this unit. it is therefore of utmost importance for the ministry of justice to pay attention to the identified distractors as well as engagement that was not apparent as a talent management practice. business leaders who execute the best talent management processes at hr, operational and strategic levels are more prepared than their competitors to compete in the global economy and capitalise quickly on new opportunities. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the staff members from various government ministries for providing relevant information throughout this research. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions this study was conducted by k.f. as part of his master’s thesis at the southern business school. c.m.s. was the supervisor and co-wrote the article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availibility statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references ashton, c., & morton, l. (2005). managing talent for competitive advantage: taking a systemic approach to talent management. strategic hr review, 4(5), 28–31. https://doi.org/10.1108/14754390580000819 barkhuizen, n., schutte, n., & smit, a. (2015). talent management, motivation and service quality of support staff in a public higher education institution. journal of public administration, 50(special issue 1), 658–673. bothma, r. (2015). implement a comprehensive talent management solution. hr future, 11(1), 34–35. craig, d. (2017). catalyst consulting. hr future, september, 24–26. dinnen, m. (2017). how to hire exceptional talent. hr future, june, 10–11. hosking, a. (2017). make pre-hire talent assessments a part of your predictive talent acquisition strategy. hr future, february, 10–13. hughes, j.c., & rog, e. (2008). talent management. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 20(7), 743–757. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596110810899086 johnson, c. (2015). new frontiers in talent management. hr future, 6(1), 28–30. kahn, w.a. (1990) pysychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 33, 692–724. https://doi.org/10.5465/256287 kapoor, r. (2011). collaborative innovation in the global semiconductor industry. a report on the findings from the 2010 wharton-gsa semiconductor ecosystem survey, global semiconductor alliance, pennsylvania. retrieved january 15, 2019, from https://faculty.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/semiconductorecosystemstudyfinal.pdf. king, k.a. (2017). the talent climate: creating an organisational context supportive of sustainable talent development through implementation of a strong talent system. journal of organizational effectiveness: people and performance, 4(4), 298–314. https://doi.org/10.1108/joepp-03-2017-0023 krasavin, a., & de swardt, d. (2016). enhance your employee experience. hr future, october, 34–35. lee, g. j. (2018). talent measurement: a holistic model and routes forward. sa journal of human resource management, 16, a990. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.990 lewis, r. e., & heckman, r. j. (2006). talent management: a critical review. human resources management review, 16, 139–154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2006.03.001 li, j., hedayati-mehdiabadi, a., choi, j., wu, f., & bell, a. (2018). talent management process in asia: a multiple case study. european journal of training and development, 42(7/8), 499–516. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejtd-04-2018-0035 maheshwari, v., gunesh, p., lodorfos, g., & konstantopoulou, k. (2017). exploring hr practitioners’ perspective on employer branding and its role in organisational attractiveness and talent management. international journal of organizational analysis, 25(5), 742–761. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoa-03-2017-1136 maxwell, j.a. (2011). qualitative research design. london: sage. mills, j., bonner, a., & francis, k. (2006). the development of constructivist grounded theory. international journal of qualitative methods, 5(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690600500103 ministry of justice. (2017). annual report and accounts 2016–17. london: ministry of justice. mougeot, l. (2006). growing better cities: urban agriculture for sustainable development. ottawa: international development research centre. mugenda, o.m., & mugenda, a.g. (2003). research methods: quantitative and qualitative approaches. nairobi: african centre for technology studies. nakuta, j., & chipepera, f. (2010). the justice sector & rule of law in namibia. windhoek: meinert. ogbari, m.e., onasanya, y.a., ogunnaike, o.o., & kehinde, o.j. (2018). talent management as a determinant of firm performance: a conceptual approach. business & social sciences journal, 3(1), 21–32. pannell, m. (2015). (real) talent is scarce, elusive, mobile and expensive. hr future, 6(1), 26–27. phillips, d.r., & roper, k.o. 2009. a framework for talent management in real estate. journal of corporate real estate, 11(1), 7–16. https://doi.org/10.1108/14630010910940525 piansoongnern, o., & anurit, p. (2010). talent management: quantitative and qualitative studies of hr practitioners in thailand. international journal of organizational innovation, 3(1), 280–302. poisat, p., mey, m.r., & sharp, g. (2018). do talent management strategies influence the psychological contract within a diverse environment? sa journal of human resource management, 16(1), a1044. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.1044 riccardi, e. (2015). attracting and retaining talent in the digital economy. hr future, 4(1), 33. ritchie, j., lewis, j., nicholls, c.m., & ormston, r. (2014). qualitative research practice: a guide for social science students and researchers. new delhi: sage. ross, s. (2013). talent derailment: a multi-dimensional perspective for understanding talent. industrial and commercial training, 45(1), 12–17. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197851311296656 santhanam, p. (2018). champion a coaching culture in your organisation. hr future, october, 22–23. silverman, d. (2018). doing qualitative research: a practical handbook. london: sage. sirin, c. (2018). adopt recruitment marketing and remain relevant. hr future, june, 34–37. sparrow, p.r., & makram, h. (2015). what is the value of talent management? building value-driven processes within a talent management architecture. human resource management review, 25(3), 249–263. https://doi.org/10.1016/jhrmr.2015.04.002 strauss, a.l. (1987). qualitative analysis for social scientists. cambridge: cambridge university press. strauss, a.l., & corbin, j.m. (1990). basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques. los angeles, ca: sage. tansley, c. (2011). what do we mean by the term ‘talent’ in talent management? industrial and commercial training, 43(5), 266–274. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197851111145853 tafti, m.m., mahmoudsalehi, m., & amiri, m. (2017). critical success factors, challenges and obstacles in talent management. indian commercial training, 49(1), 15–21. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict-05-2016-0036 ulrich, d. (2016). win the war for talent through an investor focus. hr future, october, 16–19. van hoek, l. (2016). millennial engineers: talent management expectations and needs in an african mining corporation. journal of contemporary management, 13(1), 482–505. van zyl, e.s., mathafena, r.b., & ras, j. (2017). the development of a talent management framework for the private sector. sa journal of human resource management, 15, a820. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.820 ackoff (1994), carpa (2003), starbuck (2005) and wheatley (1999) proposed the rethinking of the manner in which organisations plan and execute work in the emerging future. at the coal face managers and leaders often ask why they should prepare for the future when it is impossible to know what to prepare for (rethinking corporate strategy, 2003, p. 65). weingand (1995) argued that today’s speculations on the future have moved from the realm of fantasy or literary illusion into the pragmatic world of organisational need. tomorrow needs to be explored in order to more fully understand the demands of today and the critical decisions that must be made for the future. it is no longer enough to wonder what the future might bring. it is a necessity to critically assess potential future scenarios and incorporate well-considered forecasts into today’s planning. even though the future is uncertain, organisations that study potential futures, share knowledge and encourage collective learning are more likely to survive the test of time. peters (1992) supported this argument by suggesting that organisations do not only need to become “learning organisations”, but be able to innovate on a continuous basis. organisations find themselves midstride between an old and new era, and have not yet found their way (nicol in parker, 1998, p. 1). it is also evident that the changes surrounding organisations are not mere trends but the workings of large, unruly forces: globalisation and increased international competition (kiggundu, 2002; moon & bonny, 2001), cross national strategic alliances and mergers, privatisation, outsourcing, information technology innovations, the increasing frequency of short term work contracts (cooper, 2005; stewart, 1993), and changing work ethic and culture (ulrich, zenger, & smallwood, 2003). these influences are leading to an increasingly chaotic and complex world of work (cairnes, 2004; hite, 1999; kraut & kormann, 1999). it is difficult to envisage leadership and management in their current form surviving the emerging future world of work as discussed above. starkey and tempest (2005, pp. 140-141) provide the following reasons for this position: l the legitimacy of management (and leadership) is under fire as never before. fundamental questions are raised about why managers/ leaders act and feel empowered to act in the ways they do; l there is accumulating evidence that the future world will be transformed for the worse, unless there is a rethink in the way businesses are managed; and l increasing amounts of dissatisfaction from employees for the stress they suffer and the long hours of operating in the slimmed-down workplace. it is clear from the above that both the substance and speed of change are fundamentally different from what has occurred in past centuries. this implies that the thinking about the nature and work of leaders needs to be revisited at a very fundamental level (veldsman, 2003; verwey, 2003). what is required, are better and different leaders for a redefined and redefining world of work (veldsman, 2003). the background sketched above the raises a number of questions, such as: l what are the paradigm and supporting philosophies of the future organisation and the world of work from a systems thinking perspective? l how can the nature and work of the future business leader be defined? l what qualities (or meta-competencies) of leadership will lead to success in this emerging business environment? stated differently, organisations are faced with a period of extraordinary change, where both the essence and swiftness of change are different from what has been experienced before. as organisations within which leaders have to operate change, so the nature of leadership and the work of the leader must change as well. the future world of work roux and du toit (2003) put forward a provocative argument that the best way to manage the growing complexities of the twenty first century society is through developing a “systems thinking” capability. a similar argument was put forward by senge (1990, p. 55) who stated “from an early age we’re taught to break apart problems in order to make complex tasks and subjects easier to deal with. but it creates a bigger problem… we lose the ability to see the consequences of our actions, and we lose a sense of connection to a larger whole.” a system is a “whole” that cannot be divided into independent parts, because the behaviour of the parts and their effect on the whole depends on the behaviour of all the parts interacting with one another (gharajedaghi & ackoff, 1985). “systems thinking” is the conscious use of the particular concept of wholeness captured in the word “system” to order thinking and thoughts (checkland: 1981, pp. 3-4). organisations can also be viewed as systems, and even as system within systems. haines (1998, 2000) is of the opinion that by viewing organisations as levels of system within, and colliding with other systems, “…we align ourselves with the principles of openness, interrelation and interdependence…”. both scott (1981, p. 22) as well as verwey and verwey (2003, p. 77) view organisations as open social systems that are constantly in letitia van der merwe letitia@deltaw7.co.za anton verwey department of human resources management university of johannesburg abstract the purpose of this study was to define the nature and work of leaders within the context of the future world of work. a leadership meta-competence model, based on levels of work theory, was developed. this model was validated by senior managers in the retail industry. subsequently a questionnaire assessing the perceived importance of these competencies, currently and in the future, was designed and completed by just more than 100 managers from various retail industries. the questionnaire results indicated that there is a significant difference between the perceived current and future definitions of the nature and work of leaders. key words: leadership, retail, competence model, future world of work leadership meta-competencies for the future world of work 33 sa journal of human resource management, 2007, 5 (2), 33-41 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2007, 5 (2), 33-41 van der merwe, verwey34 interaction with a broader society, while simultaneously shaping and being shaped by broader social forces. systems thinking offers an alternative viable paradigm upon which the changing world of work, as well as the nature and work of business leaders can be built. a futuristic model was developed on the principles of systems and complexity theory implying that organisations have a purpose (ackoff 1994) and they operate in a zone between stability and predictability on the one hand, and chaos and unpredictability on the other (kurtz & snowden, 2003; lewis, 1994). the complexity of an organisation depends on the complexity of the elementary components, the richness of their connectivity and their functional differentiation (boulding, 1956; espejo, 2004; miller, 1978). organisations innovate by producing spontaneous, systemic bouts of novelty from which new patterns of behaviour emerge that enhance the ability to adapt successfully to the environment or to evolve to higher effectiveness (letiche, 2000; lewin, 1993; elroy, 2000). some of the possible key future implications of the research for business organisations from a complex, adaptive systems perspective are the following: l the future world of work will focus on meaning and the offering of solutions. the world of work will be a community of meaning by listening; produce what is desired and being a long term partner to their customer(s) (fairholm, 1996; hey & moore, 1998). handy (1997, p. 179) suggested that organisations must come to terms with their employees expecting the same collection of freedoms, rights and responsibilities that they have in the wider society. what is also emerging are work activities often described as “new age” explorations that includes interest in eastern and pagan culture, religion and spirituality (casey, 2002). l future organisations will not only have a portfolio of products and services, but also of core competencies which will include marketing excellence, organising the value chain, and innovation (guptara 2005; prahalad & ramaswamy 2004). l the organisational design will be virtual, flexible and dynamic with an increase in complexity, interdependency of systems and widening seamlessness between people, systems, information and structures (cascio, 2002). contingent employment (or contingent) work contracts have become a label for employment relations which fit the lexicon of the future workology (matusik & hill, 1998; treu 1992). lee, hourquet and macdermid (2002) concluded that what is likely to be found more frequently in the future workplace are more customised work arrangements, and work arrangements that are constantly in flux and changing according to individual and business needs. l financial measurements will no longer serve as the only form of reporting business success/ performance. success measurements will be an integration of financial, environmental and social reporting with a focus on intellectual assets and knowledge management (ehrbar 1998; handy 1994; kaplan & norton, 1992, 1996). l in future customers/ consumers will discriminate against organisations failing to meet the criteria of acceptable ethical business practices. organisations would be viewed as systems of integrity, working towards good corporate citizenship focusing on wealth creation and sustainability (naidoo, 2002; sifonis & goldberg; 1996; simms, 2003). l technology will automate existing processes, abolishing whole classes of occupation, cancel traditional divisions, create entirely new ways of organising companies and eliminate the boundaries between industries. it is highly unlikely that technology and the internet will replace brick and mortar, what it may bring to retail is a more effective way to integrate distribution and marketing and optimising of the value chain (ander & stern, 2004; guptara 2005; reynolds, 2004; underhill 2000). l organisations and their leadership also have take account of changing consumer demographics coupled with an increasingly demand by customers to be involved in business decisions. consumers are demanding, fickle, disloyal, individualistic and easily bored. they are better informed and more sophisticated, looking for fast and convenient shopping and demand a huge variety in products and services (field, 1998; popcorn & marigold, 1996; wesely-clough, 2004). the literature reviewed also led to the conclusion that most of the emerging trends and patterns of the future world of work also hold true for the future world of retail. the next section focuses on the changing work and nature of future business leaders within this changing world of work. nature and work of future business leaders it is difficult to envisage leadership and management in their current form surviving the emerging world of work as discussed above. it was argued above that emerging future organisations are characterised by the need for urgency, speed, growing complexity and learning with the aim of continuous innovation. various authors view the work of leaders within this emerging future organisation from different perspectives. it is argued that leaders need to recognise the need for revitalisation, create a vision, align people towards the direction or vision and institutionalise change (kotter, 1999; tichy & devanna, 1990). fairholm and fairholm (2000) suggested that leadership is the task of building collaborative teams, of teaching a common vision and organisation principles and instilling and encouraging trust. for the well-being of business and society, leadership should also focus the ability to forge new meaning and purpose for an organisation and its employees (podolny, khurana & hillpopper, 2005). crom and bertels (1999) suggested that the work of leadership is about developing leadership talent at all levels of the organisation; accelerating organisational learning, including cross-cultural /functional/ business learning; and encouraging a results orientation, including providing a vehicle for results replication. a case has been made that the future organisation can be viewed as a complex, adaptive social system. taking this, as well as the above-mentioned views into account, it can be concluded that the work of the future business leader is to: l design and develop the purpose (or function, role) that the organisation as a complex, adaptive social system and/or subsystem fulfils, as measured by the implementation of its vision, mission and related strategy. l perceive and understand the system (i.e., the organisation) as a whole that is “producing” a particular state within which the organisation and its subsystems function, and realising that a change in one area of the system will have an immediate effect on the rest of the system. making sense of what is currently happening by thinking in terms of process which refers to making sense of how results (order, chaos, complexity and paradoxes) are “produced” within the system and its sub-systems. l think in terms of the governance: how the integrity of a particular system is maintained in order to ensure the survival of the system. given this perspective on the changing work of leadership, the changing nature of leadership will now be explored. the traditional leadership approach stated that to be effective, management should be founded upon a well-defined hierarchy of authority (naranyanan & nath, 1993). this is in sharp contrast to veldsman (2002) who argued that leadership is in essence the act of creating shared possible futures and realising a shared, specific chosen future with, through and for people. the nature of leadership in itself is “everyone’s business”, implying that it is not reserved for a selective few (kouzes & posner, 2002; veldsman, 2002). the future forms the context from which leadership meta-competencies 35 leadership derives justification and meaning for why and how to act. the nature of leadership forms a paradox itself: from the one perspective it is to focus on the future (bringing change), whilst maintaining the current from another perspective (coetzee, 2004; prescott, 1993; koestenbaum, 2002); verwey and verwey (2003, p. 88) stated that the nature of leadership can be viewed as an inside-out approach. they argue that leadership is based in the first instance on personal, holistic “wellness”. in turn this wellness needs to be complemented by “caring”. caring is at the heart of leadership. followers want to be treated with dignity, respect and compassion. followers are seeking honesty and acknowledgement for not only their contributions to the workplace, but also for their own uniqueness (coetzee, 2004; bracey, rosenblum, sanford & trueblood, 1990). the nature of leadership is therefore about the modelling of worthiness, credibility and substance. in a sense it can be argued that it is required from leadership to “prove their worthiness” to be followed (coetzee, 2004; koestenbaum, 2002; kouzes & posner, 2002). lastly, the nature of leadership is also to create sustainability (koestenbaum, 2002). sustainability implies a “time” component. it can therefore be argued that the nature of leadership may change for different time concepts – short, medium and long term. this brings the question to mind “what are the competencies of leaders being able to fulfil the work requirements?” veldsman (2000) suggested that leadership needs to suit the necessary levels of difficulty (or complexity). research points to the possibility of different leadership requirements by level. the embodiment of such work was the model developed by katz & kahn (1966, 1980). jaques (1976, 1989) built on many of the ideas set forth in katz and kahn (ibid) and developed the stratifiedsystems theory (sst). essentially, sst suggests a general model of organisational functioning such that there are increasingly complex critical tasks or requirements at each successive organisational level, and that effective leaders address these tasks. the increasing task complexity is a function of the uncertainties created by the necessity to deal with a more encompassing and turbulent environment as a leader moves up the hierarchy (jaques 1976, 1989). jaques (1989) asserted that higher-level leaders themselves must possess higher levels of cognitive complexity to deal with the increasingly more demanding critical tasks as they move up the organisational hierarchy. stamp (1991) extended the sst and identified seven levels of work complexity, called the matrix of work. the matrix of work is translated into levels of capability. stamp (1991) explained that as capability extends to engage with wider contexts, earlier levels are not left behind, but built in as part of the next level. the implications of the views are that leadership competencies as well as the typical behavioural evidence of the presence or absence of competence can be articulated across the different levels of complexity. nkomo and kriek (2004) were of the opinion that sustainable leadership requires more than selecting and developing a critical mass of individuals with a set set of competencies. therefore the next section will now systematically explore the concept of competence as well as defining a metacompetence model for the future world of work. meta-competence model boak and coolican (2001) noted that leadership competencies are based on behavioural indicators, but can also be expressed in terms of skills or characteristics. of importance for this study is that recent leadership competence models (boak & coolican, 2001) focus on “meta-competencies” which refer to abilities that underpin or allow for the development of competencies, as well as characteristics that individuals will need in addition to competencies such as motivation and key cognitive abilities. veldsman (2002, p. 80) links competence to a point in time and defines competence as: “the ability and willingness to perform at the appropriate level as demanded by the context at a certain point in time, but also across time”. it can be concluded that competences are based on behavioural indicators, best described as a set of skills, characteristics and/ or attributes that can be either functional or inter-functional in nature, as demanded by the context at a certain point in time, but also across time. by integrating stratified systems theory, the levels of work theory (level 1-5) with the work and nature of leadership, a conceptual framework within which the future leadership competence can be discussed, was developed. based on this framework, leadership competencies across competence categories and complexity levels, were articulated. a key aspect of this framework is that although a competency spans all the levels of complexity, the definition of such competencies at each of the levels of complexity may indeed be very different. stated differently, the behavioural evidence of a particular competency may be different at each of the complexity levels. having identified the competencies, the next phase involved the detailed definition of the competencies in terms of levels of complexity as well as the typical behavioural evidence of the presence or absence of competence. the competencies identified were further described in terms of the skills, behaviour and attributes associated with levels iii and iv of work complexity. this was further subjected to a process that involved retail business leaders currently operating at levels iii and iv to verif y the logic, flow and consistency of the descriptors and this process gave rise to the following research model, which is a listing of the competencies with their definitions (or description) within each of the levels of complexity. table 1 depicts the proposed meta-competence model. figure 1: conceptual approach for research procedure problem statement and research objectives given the literature reviewed above, the research was guided by the following problem statement: to determine whether there is a difference between the current definition of the nature and work of business leaders and the future business leader meta-competences within the south african retail industry. the specific objectives of this study thus were to: l develop a leadership meta-competence model for the future business leader; and l determine the validity of the meta-competence leadership model within the south african retail environment. c o n c e p t fo r r e s e a r c h t re n d s & p a tte rn s f u tu re w o rld f u tu re w o rld o f w o rk f u tu re b u s in e s s le a d e r c o n s tru c t o p e ra tio n a l le a d e rs h ip m o d e l fo r re s e a rc h q u a lita tiv e r e s e a r c h “v e rify in g m o d e l b y u tilis in g th e q u a lita tiv e re s e a rc h d a ta c a te g o ris e ite m s p e r m o d e l d e s ig n in d iv id u a l q u e s tio n n a ire l ite r a tu r e r e s e a r c h p ilo t s tu d y r e ta il b u s in e s s le a d e rs c u rre n tly o p e ra tin g o n le v e ls o f w o rk iii a n d iv to v e rify th e lo g ic , flo w a n d c o n s is te n c y o f th e d e s c rip to rs a n d to d e te rm in e ite m s fo r th e q u e s tio n n a ire o f th e q u a n tita tiv e c o m p o n e n t o f th e re s e a rc h d e fin e th e s a m p le g ro u p q u a n tita tiv e r e s e a r c h c o lle c t th e d a ta c o n d u c t d a ta a n a ly s is r e p o rt fin d in g s van der merwe, verwey36 research design the three main approaches were considered for this: (1) a quantitative approach; (2) a qualitative approach; and (3) a mixed approach. a mixed approach was adopted, resulting in the research consisting of a two-phase, sequential exploratory project which was characterised as an initial phase of qualitative data collection and analysis which was followed by a phase of quantitative data collection and analysis. research approach the design used for this research is therefore exploratory in nature, employing both quantitative and qualitative approaches. the integration of both methodologies is called triangulation (leedy, 1993). this integration uses several frames of reference in the analysis of the same data which allows the researcher to test a theory in more than one way so that the theory has a more complete scientific validation. research methodology pilot study phase i of the research was treated as a qualitative pilot study with the specific objective of exploring the thoughts of south african retail business leaders on the competencies needed for the future world of work. this process led to the operational research model. five retail business leaders from the furniture and appliances sector, currently operating on both level iii and iv, were identified through determining their current level of work via their different role descriptors. level iii work is associated with work that mainly encompasses the constructing, connecting and fine-tuning systems to optimal utilisation of resources. level iv work is concerned with integrating new futures, new services and products including positioning the organisation within the market context. the pilot group was characterised by the following: the group formed part of the senior management echelon in their different companies; were all male; the average age of the group was 47 years; and with an average of 22 years of experience inside retail. the following procedure was employed with the pilot group: l participants were provided with the proposed metacompetence model based on themes taken from the literature that consisted out of 15 competencies; l through a focus group discussion the participants were asked to verif y the flow, logic and consistency of the descriptors; l responses were immediately captured; and l the different responses were incorporated into the model and participants were asked to verif y the content of the adapted model. the value of the pilot study was in the identification of another competency namely “strategic thinking”, and the clarification of the meaning and applicability of the identified competencies in the current and future world of retail. the pilot study also indicated that the five participants were convinced that the increase in complexity in the world of retail will require different leadership competencies in the future. respondents a convenience sampling approach was followed, as it can be a good source of data in exploratory research. it is a method to test ideas or to gain ideas about a subject of the study. results of a convenience sample might produce evidence that is so compelling that a more sophisticated sampling procedure is unnecessary. however, the limitation of this non-probability method is that it doesn’t indicate how representative the information collected is to the population as a whole and has no controls to ensure precision (cooper & schindler, 2002). respondents were located by the snowball technique. this sampling approach has become popular in recent years in studies where respondents are difficult to identif y and are located through referral networks. individuals are selected who identif y others who in turn identif y others. the “snowball” gathers individuals as it rolls along (cooper & schindler, 2002). based on referrals 172 senior managers in the retail industry were targeted as it was argued that the current levels of work complexity will be based on the current hierarchical level of the employee. questionnaires were distributed in an electronic format and electronically submitted to a central point to protect the identity of the respondent. from the responses given, it was evident that the majority of the 101 respondents: aged between 40 and 49 years; male;have been employed in their current company between 6 and 10 years; have a tertiary qualification; speak english as a home language; indicated a level iii or iv in terms of work complexity; and were working in the furniture, appliances and audio-visual industry. measuring instrument/ methods of data gathering the pilot study also informed the structure and possible items for the research questionnaire. the pilot group was also used to verif y the items/ questions of the actual questionnaire before it was utilised in the quantitative study. the questionnaire consisted out of 41 questions with 3 statements per question. the statements were allocated as follow: one statement referring to level ii work – quality; one statement referring to level iii work – good practice; and one statement referring to level iv work – strategic development. the questionnaire required of the sample group to firstly rate the 3 statements per question in terms of how important (important; more important; critical) they view them for retail business leaders (working at their current organisational level) in rank order for the current world of work. secondly, they were required to rate the importance of the same items for retail business leaders for the future world of work in the same manner. stated differently, respondents were required to rank each competency in terms of their perceived current versus their perceived future importance. results the construction of the questionnaire, where every item in effect is ranked on three aspects (the levels of work), means that the assumption for typical reliability analysis (such as that each item score is linearly related to total score for the scale) does not hold true. for this reason, the questionnaire was viewed as essentially two questionnaires, one being the items with a current focus; and the second the items with a future focus respectively. in order to test the investigate the problem statement that “there is a difference between the current definition of the nature and work of business leaders and the future business leader metacompetences within the south african retail industry”, the z-test was performed that also give the direction and strength of the significance. table 1 gives the statistical comparisons of current vs future leadership meta-competencies. the results as reported in table 1 indicated that retail leaders perceived competencies such as influencing others, learning and knowledge networks, information processing, talent management, developing high performing teams and self insight at level iv to be more critical for the future. based on table 2 the conclusion is that there is a difference in the perceived competencies required for the current and the future world of retail. it was also evident from table 2 that in most cases competencies associated with level iv are perceived to become more critical in the future world of retail, with level ii and iii playing a less important role. leadership meta-competencies 37 table 1 meta-competence model work of leader competence category competency level of complexity level iiigood practice (1-2 years) level iv strategic development (2-5 years) design and develop the purpose the organisation fulfils as measured by the implementation of its vision, mission and related strategy. achieving sustainable business results thinking strategically convey the organisational vision. convey the organisational strategy through constructing, connecting and fine-tuning systems is able to integrate different futures in order to design a clear vision for the organisation to ensure its future success. design and develop the organisational strategy acting strategically through the enablement of people execute the intended organisational strategy. prepare for external trends and alternative scenarios potentially impacting the business in the medium term consistently review, restate and reinforce the intended organisational direction. prepare for external trends and alternative scenarios potentially impacting the business in the long term. organisational resilience is able to convey a clear understanding of the need to and steps of change and assists employees and colleagues in dealing with change. manage the paradox of stability and change. is able to respond positively to environmental and organisational change(s) and/or business setbacks in directing the organisation through times of uncertainty. have a paradoxical combination of making harsh, unpopular decisions for the sake of the future sustainability of the business, and assisting employees and colleagues in dealing with change. technical competence able to utilise the knowledge, expertise and skills associated with a technical domain like the retail industry with the purpose of constructing, connecting and fine-tuning systems to optimal utilisation of resources. able to utilise the knowledge, expertise and skills associated with a technical domain like the retail industry with the purpose of developing new services and products including the positioning of the organisation within the market context. customer orientation direct energy towards the creation of meaningful solutions for identified customer base. know the detail of customer needs and how it affects service requirements. is sensitive to changing customer requirements and the organisation’s capacity to meet such, by actively involving the customer. can initiate organisational response to customer demands. business acumen clear understanding of the operational business drivers. develop and implement plans that anticipate business demands. identif y root causes of problems. design and develop innovative solutions regarding systems and resource utilisation. create and exploit business opportunities by positioning the organisation and its products and services in such a way that sustainability of the organisation is ensured. clear understanding of external factors that could influence the operational business drivers. identif y root causes of problems. design and develop innovative solutions. perceive and understand the organisation as a whole which. making sense of what is currently happening; by thinking in terms of process which refers to making sense of how results are “produced” within the organisation. sensemaking and influence learning and knowledge networking participate in continuous “knowledge networks” that aren’t limited to technical and professional topics. able to share the learning and knowledge with others. institute and participate in continuous “knowledge networks” that aren’t limited to technical and professional topics. able to inspire others and share the knowledge and learning with others by teaching stories. taking action put processes and resources in place to make the initiative happen. consistently deliver what has been agreed to and demonstrates commitment by walking the talk. have the determination and commitment to integrate new futures, new services and products including positioning the organisation within the market context. consistently deliver what has been agreed to and demonstrates commitment by walking the talk. influencing others is able to identif y the paradigms and needs of various individuals and groups and can adapt own leadership style to these. able to sell ideas and concepts to people and get them to willingly follow the set direction, without compromising the contributions and growth of the follower. create synergistic relationships between individuals, organisations, and the environment. seek out information which increases understanding of key individuals, their needs and perspectives. create an environment of openness, trust and understanding. information processing relevant information is gathered, selected and processed in a practical, step-wise manner to identif y potential answers which are then evaluated. inter-related information is gathered pro-actively from a wide variety of sources/perspectives and processed/applied creatively to compare several “what if” scenarios (both from a holistic and detailed perspective). contextual competence able to handle the complexity of a setting at the level of constructing, connecting and fine-tuning systems to optimal utilisation of resources. able to handle the complexity of a setting at the level of the future and future scenarios. talent management attract and retain talent that fits the business requirements. develop talent by assisting the people in continuous appropriate learning and development. optimise systems and processes that foster the free expression of ideas, and empowering others to contribute to the organisation. attract and retain talent to ensure a future competitive advantage. align human and other resources, to create an organisational culture that fosters the free expression of ideas, empowering others to contribute to the organisation, and provides meaning and purpose to the job. develoing high performing teams optimise the crested environment in which people are involved, included and have a sense of ownership. encourage and support team work within own team. create an environment in which people are involved, included and have a sense of ownership. work across organisational boundaries to encourage teamwork. think in terms of the governance to secure the integrity of the organisation to ensure the survival of the organisation. transcendental self-insight understands own strengths and weaknesses in terms of the demands of being a representative of the organisation. ensure that own capability profile is aligned with the appropriate level and nature of job outputs. understand own limitations and potential in terms of a career. take total responsibility to alignment with a job that leverages own competitive edge with regard to personal capability profile. transcend self-interest for the good of the group. wisdom is able to make decisions in a changing environment by identif ying alternatives, imagining the outcomes of these alternatives and deciding on the correct one. weigh conflicting information, associating information interactions and identif y ranges of possible appropriate alternatives before making a decision. evaluate risks in the context of the business and develop contingency plans accordingly. integrity demonstrate behaviour that is credible, respected by others and reflect the appropriate organisational values. admit to own mistakes and are prepared to shoulder blame. influential in creating the appropriate organisational values. demonstrate behaviour that is credible, respected by others and reflects the appropriate organisational values. van der merwe, verwey38 table 2 statistical comparison of current vs future leadership meta-competencies note: li – least important; mi – more important, ccritical competency level item key word: item measured significance =* (p≤0.05) item key word: item measured significance =* (p≤0.05) item key word: item measured significance =* (p≤0.05) thinking strategically level ii li item 1 future vision of the organisation * item 2 communication message * level ii mi * level ii c * level iii li * level iii mi level iii c * level iv li * * level iv mi level iv c * acting strategically level ii li item 3 main strategy focus area * item 4 work results level ii mi * level ii c * level iii li level iii mi * level iii c level iv li * level iv mi level iv c * organisational resilience level ii li item 5 responses to change * item 6 change process * item 7 change behaviour level ii mi * * level ii c * * level iii li level iii mi level iii c * level iv li * level iv mi * * level iv * technical competence level ii li item 8 competence utilisation item 9 time spent * item 10 responsibilities * level ii mi level ii c * level iii li * level iii mi * level iii c * * * level iv li * * level iv mi * level iv c * * customer orientation level ii li item 11 customer service * item 12 customer information item 13 customer orientation * level ii mi level ii c * * level iii li * level iii mi level iii c * level iv li * level iv mi level iv c * * leadership meta-competencies 39 discussion the results showed that in most instances even though not always significant there is a perceived difference between the current and future definitions of the nature and work of business leaders, where level ii work behaviour will become less important in the future and level iii and iv work behaviour show increasing importance for the future retail leader. ultimately, however, the nature and work of the future business leadership requires leadership at all work levels, placing emphasis on the leader as the integrator of corporate systems. as was shown in the review of literature organisations find themselves between an old and new era of defining the concept work as well as the nature and work of leaders. it is also clear that there is a lot of speculation and uncertainty of what the future may hold. it is important to explore the future in order to make sense of out of the demands of today and the vital decisions made in the present that will shape the future. despite the perceived difference between the current and future definitions of the nature and work of business leaders, current competence requirements will still be relevant for the future. it can therefore be concluded that there is not a distinct set of competence requirements for the current world of work and another set of competence requirements for the future. what the results clearly indicates is that the level of complexity in the world of business, and specifically the world of retail, is increasing and therefore the future would require of more business leaders to be able to perform work associated with level iii and iv. the most important finding of this research is that current leaders in the retail industry in south africa perceive a difference in the leadership competencies required now and in the future. this in itself impacts on leadership selection and development in the south african retail industry. it is therefore suggested that organisations in their leadership selection and development approaches: l focus on aspects such as values, integrity and honesty towards all; l move from the traditional focus on leadership towards a focus that is more orientated towards leadership of organisations and not the leader per se; and l take into account emerging forms of distributed leadership business acumen level ii li item 14 business challenges * item 15 timeframe until work results is known item 16 area of challenges * level ii mi level ii c * * level iii li level iii mi level iii c * * level iv li * * level iv mi level iv c * * learning and knowledge networking level ii li item 17 method of learning and development * item 18 content of learning * level ii mi level ii c * * level iii li * level iii mi level iii c * * level iv li * * level iv mi * level iv c * * taking action level ii li item 19 problem solving * item 20 decision making * item 21 leadership style * level ii mi * * level ii c * * level iii li * level iii mi * * level iii c * * level iv li * * level iv mi level iv c * * influencing others level ii li item 22 method of influence item 23 approach * item 24 areas of importance level ii mi * level ii c * level iii li * * level iii mi * level iii c * * * level iv li * * level iv mi * * level iv c * * van der merwe, verwey40 – more effective leadership at more levels to assure organisational innovation and change at all organisational levels. conclusion the main purpose of this study was to conduct explorations into the future world of work as well as the competences required by leaders in the future world. the results of the exploratory research were used to create preliminary concepts and therefore indicate certain limitations in terms of the validation of the meta-competence model. the main limitations of employing this approach in this study were: l during the quantitative pilot study the initial validation of the meta-competence model only business leaders from the furniture and appliances retail sector formed part of the pilot group. this clearly did not cater for the impact that other variables like age, gender and the type of retail industry might have had on the results; l making use of a convenience sample. although a convenience sample is a good source of preliminary data it is not necessarily representative of the whole population. the validation was further limited by only targeting senior management in the 16 different retail companies. this implied an age and gender limitation as most senior managers were male and in the age categories of 40-49 years. the convenience sample was further too small to cater for other differences like education, experience and type of retail industry; l it was further assumed that a person’s current level of work complexity would be based on the current hierarchal level of the employee, which is not necessarily the case; and l the general problem of mono-operation bias occurred as a limited number of questions (namely, 41) in the questionnaire were used to determine the behavioural subtleties of competencies at different levels of work complexity. based on these limitations it is suggested that future research assessing the perceptions of the nature and work of future business leaders should focus on the broadening the pool of behavioural manifestation of competencies at different levels of work complexity. the following suggestions are made that may assist in improving the research methodology: better differentiation between the different levels of work (level ii to iv); larger sample size with better representation at the different levels of work; and to use an instrument like the career path appreciation (cpa) of stamp (1991) to determine an individual’s current and potential level of work complexity; in terms of future research it is also suggested that a longitudinal study is conducted to research development trends over the life span of an individual and/or an organisation. this could lead to a better understanding of individuals as they move through the different levels of work during their career as well the requirements of organisations when an “advance” level becomes relevant due the increase in complexity that needs to be catered for. references ackoff, r.l. (1994). systems thinking and thinking systems. systems dynamics review, 10(2):175-188. ander, w.n. & stern, n.z. (2004). winning at retail: developing a sustained model for retail success. new jersey: john wiley & sons inc. boak, g & coolican, d. (2001). competencies for retail leadership: accurate, acceptable, affordable. leadership & organizational development journal. 22(5):212-220. boulding, k. (1956). general system theory. the skeleton of science. general systems. 1: 11-17. bracey, h., rosenblum, j., sanford, a, & trueblood, r, (1990). managing from the heart. new york: dell. cairnes, m. (2004). staying sane in a changing world: a handbook for work, leadership & life in the 21st century. australia: simon & schuster. carpa, f. (2003). the hidden connections. london: flamingo. cascio, w.f. (2002). the virtual organization. ma: blackwell publishers. ltd. casey, c. (2002). critical analysis of organizations: theory, practice, revitalization. london: sage publications. checkland, p. (1981). systems thinking, systems practices. chichester: john wiley & sons. coetzee, j. (2004). leadership: how now? management today. available from: www://managetmenttoday.co.za. (accessed: 25 may 2004). cooper, c.l. (ed.). (2005). leadership and management in the 21st century: business challenges of the future. new york: oxford university press. cooper, d.r. & schindler, p.s. (2002). business research methods.business research methods. 6th ed. boston: mcgraw-hill. crom, s. & bertels, t. (1999). change leadership: the virtues of deviance. leadership & organisational development journal, 20(3):162-168. ehrbar, a. (1998). eva: the real key to creating wealth. chichester: john wiley & sons. espejo, r. (2004). the footprint of complexity: the embodiment of social systems. kybernetes. 33 (3/4): 671-700. fairholm, g.w. (1996). spiritual leadership: fulfilling wholeself needs at work. leadership & organization development journal. 17(5):11-17. fairholm, m.r. & fairholm, g.w. (2000). leadership amid the constraints of trust. leadership & organisational development journal, 21(2):102-109. field, c. (1998). the new consumer. in the future for uk retailing. fernie, j. ed. london: prentice hall. gharajedaghi, j. & ackoff, r.l. (1985). mechanisms, organisms and social systems. in gharajedaghi, j. toward a systems theory of organisations. california: intersystem publications. guptara, p. (2005). managers’ lives, work, and careers in the twenty-first century. in cooper, c.l. (ed.). (2005). leadership and management in the 21st century: business challenges of the future. new york: oxford university press. haines, s.g. (1998). systems thinking and learning. amherst: hrd press. haines, s.g. (2000). systems thinking and learning. amherst: hrd press. handy, c. (1989). the age of unreason. london: century business books. hey, k.r. & moore, p.d. (1998). the caterpillar doesn’t know: how personal change is creating organizational change. new york: the free press. hite, j. (1999). learning in chaos : improving human performance in today’s fast-changing, volatile organizations. houston: gulf professional publishing. jaques, e. (1976). a general theory of bureaucracy. heinemann. london. jaques, e. (1989). requisite organisation. a total system for effective managerial organization and managerial leadership for the 21st century. va, arlington: cason hall publishers. jaques, e. (1996). requisite organization. revised 2nd ed. va, arlington: cason hall publishers. kaplan, r.s. & norton, d.p. (1992).the balanced scorecard – measures that drive performance. har vard business review. january – february. kaplan, rs & norton, dp. (1996). using the balanced scorecard as a strategic management system. har vard business review. january – february. katz d. & kahn r. l. (1966). the social psychology of organizations. chichester: john wiley & sons ltd. kiggundu, m.n. (2003). managing globalization in developing countries and transition economies : building capacities for a changing world. uk: quorum books. leadership meta-competencies 41 koestenbaum, p. (2002). leadership: the inner side of greatness – a philosophy for leaders. 2nd ed. san francisco: jossey –bass. kotter, j.p. (1999). what leaders really do. boston: harvard business school press. kouzes, j.m. & posner, b.z. (2002). the leadership challenge: how to keep getting extraordinary things done in organisations. 3rd ed. san francisco: jossey-bass. kraut, a.i. & korman, a.k. (1999). evolving practices in human resource management : responses to a changing world of work. san francisco: pfeiffer. kurtz c.f. & snowden, d.j. (2004). the new dynamics of strategy: sense-making in a complex and complicated world. ibm systems journal. 42(3):462-483. lee, m.d., hourquet, p & macdermid, s.m. (2002). reduced-load work arrangements. in cooper, c.l & burke, r.j. (ed.). the new world of work. ma: blackwell publishers. ltd. leedy, p. d. (1993). practical research – planning and design. 5th ed. new york: macmillan publishing company. letiche, h. (2000). phenomenal complexity theory as informed by bergson. journal of organizational change management, 13(6):545-557. lewin, r. (1993). complexity: life at the edge of chaos. london: macmillan. lewis, r. (1994). from chaos to complexity: implications for organizations. executive development. (7) 4:16-17. luhmann, n. (1986). the autopoiesis of social systems. sociocybernetic paradoxes. in geyer f & van der zouwen, j. sociocybernetic paradoxes. beverly hills: sage. matusik, s.f. and hill, c.w.l. (1998). the utilization of contingent work, knowledge creation, and competitive advantage. academy of management review, 23,680-97. mcelroy, m.w. (2000). integrating complexity theory, knowledge management and organizational learning. journal of knowledge management. 4(3): 195-203. miller, j. (1978). living systems. new york: mcgraw-hill. moon, c. & bonny, c. (2001). business ethics. london: profile books. naidoo, r. (2002). corporate governance: an essential guide for south african companies. double storey books. narayanan, v.k. & nath, r. (1993). organization theory: a strategic approach. homewood, illinois: richard d. irwin inc. nkomo, s.m. & kriek, d. (2004). leading transformationalleading transformational change: challenges and opportunities. in meyer, t.n.a. &in meyer, t.n.a. & boninelli, i. (eds) conversations in leadership: south african perspectives. randburg: knowledge resources (pty) ltd. oshagbemi, t. & gill, r. (2004). differences in leadership styles and behaviour across hierarchical levels in uk organisations. leadership and organization development journal, 25(1): 93106. parker, a.j. (1998). the role of employment relations management in the business strategy of south african organisation’s pursuit of ‘world-class’.johannesburg. rau (dissertation – m.a.). peters, t. (1992). liberation management: necessary disorganisation for the nanosecond nineties. new york: pan books. podolny, j.m. khurana, r. & hill-popper, m. (2005). how to put meaning back into leading. hbs working knowledge. available from: ht t p://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=4563&t=strateg y. (accessed feb. 2005). popcorn, f. & marigold, l. (1996). clicking. 16 trends to future fit your life, your work, and your business. new york: harpercollins. prahalad, c.k. & ramaswamy, v. (2004). the future of competition: co-creating unique value with customers. boston: harvard business school press. prescott, d.p. (1993). theology and the new paradigm. world business academy perspective. 7(3):59-68. rethinking corporate strategy. (12 july 2003). the economist, pages 65-67. reynolds, j. & cuthbertson, c. (eds.). retail strategy: the view from the bridge. burlingtonton ma: butterworth-heinemann. roux, a & du toit, j. (2003). thinking about the future and strategic transformation. in business futures. stellenbosch: institute for futures research. scott, w.r. (1981). organizations: rational, natural and open systems. new jersey: prentice-hall inc. senge, p.m. (1990). the fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. ny: doubleday/ currency. sifonis, j.g. & goldberg, b. (1996). corporation on a tight rope: balancing leadership, governance, technology in an age of complexity. new york: oxford university press. simms, j (2003). corporate irresponsibility. directorship. august: 20. stamp, g. (1991). a guide to career path appreciation. brunel: university of west london. starbuck, w. (2005). four conflicts of the twenty-first century. in cooper, c.l. (ed.). (2005). leadership and management in the 21st century: business challenges of the future. new york: oxford university press. starkey, k. & tempest, s. (2005). late twentieth-century management, the business school, and social capital. in cooper, c.l. (ed.). (2005). leadership and management in the 21st century: business challenges of the future. new york: oxford university press. stewart, t.a. (1993). the revolution underway. world business academy perspectives. 7(4): 42-54. tichy, n.m. & devanna, m. (1990). the transformational leader – the key to global competitiveness. canada: john wiley & sons inc. treu, t. (1992). labour flexibility in europe. international labour review, 131:497-512. ulrich, d., zenger, j. & smallwood, n. (1999). results-based leadership. boston: harvard business school press underhill, p. (2000). why we buy: the science of shopping. 2nd ed. uk: simon & schuster. veldsman, t.h. (2002). into the people effectiveness arena – navigating between chaos and order. south africa: knowledge resources. veldsman, t.h. (december 2003). leadership culture and climate: enhancing or destroying excellence: management today. available from: http//www.managmenttoday.co.za. (accessed 23 february 2004). verwey, a.m. & verwey, s. (2003). leadership: walking the talk. in verwey, s. & du plooy-cilliers, f. strategic organisationalstrategic organisational communication: paradigm and paradoxes. sandown: heinemann publishers. verwey, a.m. (september 2003). why is leadership suddenly such a big issue? management today. available from http//www.managmenttoday.co.za. (accessed 23 february 2004). weingand, d. e. (1995.) futures research methodologies: linking today’s decisions with tomorrow’s possibilities. available from: http://www.ifla.org/iv/ifla61/61-weid.htm (accessed 23 february 2004). wesely-clough, m. (2004). 2004 and beyond: emerging and evolving consumer trends. available from: ht t p://retailindustr y.about.com/cs/retailtrends/a/bl_ trends2004_2.htm. (accessed 24 march 2005). wheatley, m. (1999). leadership and the new sciences. san francisco: berrett-koehler publishers. abstract introduction literature review research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) wayne ramgath gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa mark h. bussin gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation ramgath, w., & bussin, m.h. (2022). determinants of chief executive officers remuneration for johannesburg stock exchange listed financial service organisations. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1774. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1774 original research determinants of chief executive officers remuneration for johannesburg stock exchange listed financial service organisations wayne ramgath, mark h. bussin received: 17 sept. 2021; accepted: 07 dec. 2021; published: 10 feb. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: research is inconclusive regarding which factors that determine chief executive officers (ceo) remuneration. there is evidence of a positive link between the risky actions taken by ceos, incentivised by their remuneration structure, which contributed to the financial crisis of 2008. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to determine whether organisation size and organisation performance were determinants of ceo remuneration and to what degree. motivation for the study: no consensus on a model, a set of variables, or a consistent view defines the principles of remuneration setting at the ceo level across organisations or industries. this study intended to provide further clarity on the matter. research approach/design and method: the research employed a mono-method methodology, and the study was longitudinal in nature. secondary data were collected over a 5-year period (2015–2019) using a homogenous purposive sampling method. statistical analysis was performed to analyse the data. main findings: organisation size was not found to be a significant determinant of ceo remuneration in financial services organisations listed on the johannesburg stock exchange (jse). in contrast, organisation performance was found to be a significant determinant of ceo remuneration. practical/managerial implications: this study serves as a baseline for best practice, enabling remuneration committees to leverage when setting ceo remuneration, to ensure that the outcomes driven by remuneration are in line with the best interests of all stakeholders within the organisation. contribution/value-add: the findings add to the body of knowledge on this topic and create an evidence base showing whether these exorbitant remuneration packages are performance driven or if they are merely driven by managerial power. keywords: ceo remuneration; financial services; organisation size; organisation performance; south africa. introduction orientation chief executive officers (ceos) are board-appointed leaders responsible for implementing an organisation’s strategic plans, as set out by the board of directors (daft, 2011). chief executive officers remuneration, more specifically, refers to the pay received by these individuals as the ceo of the organisation (ryder, 2019). given the nature and complexity of the role, ceos are typically highly educated, skilled, and experienced individuals who have gained management prowess through their tenure in leadership roles (acero & alcalde, 2019, adams, 2019). to acquire and retain individuals of this calibre and to influence actions that drive performance within the organisation to maximise shareholder returns, a wage premium may be necessary and is used as an incentive (morton, 2018). hayek, thomas, novicevic and montalvo (2015) state that human capital plays a role in the remuneration setting but social and institutional pressures also play a role in the process. this could explain why the remuneration of a ceo is so markedly different from other employees within the organisation. over time, two main schools of thought on the determinants of ceo remuneration have emerged. the optimal contracting approach theorises that ceo pay is driven by efficient bargaining between shareholders and ceos to alleviate the agency-principal problem (abdou, ntim, lindop, thomas, & opong, 2019). the managerial power approach theorises that ceos, as rent seekers, set their pay (bussin, 2011; bussin & ncube, 2017) and can extract higher remuneration by exploiting their advantage (acero & alcalde, 2019; temkin, 2020). this research addresses the relationship and relationship strength of organisational size, as measured by assets, revenue and the number of employees and organisational performance as measured by profit, return on equity (roe) and earnings per share (eps) on the components of ceo remuneration. furthermore, it addresses how the abovementioned schools of thought play a role by testing two main assumptions: organisation size influences ceo remuneration. organisation performance influences ceo remuneration. these assumptions were tested using six hypotheses where the fixed, variable and total remuneration of the ceo were contrasted against one another. for the purposes of this study, only fixed remuneration and short-term incentives were included. core, holthausen and larcker (1999) state that long-term incentives (ltis) are pegged to performance over a future period and, although provisioned for, are not guaranteed. therefore, including ltis can be problematic in a study of this nature and may distort the results (core et al., 1999). research purpose and objectives there has been isolated research conducted, where researchers have tested organisation size or organisation performance to establish the relationship that these variables have on ceo remuneration. however, there has been limited research conducted on testing the relationship of both variables (organisation size and organisation performance) on the elements of remuneration, in a single study. for the purposes of this study, proxy variables will be used to measure the direction and degree of influence that organisation size and organisation performance have, on the different components of ceo remuneration (fixed, variable and total), by testing the following research hypotheses: h1 organisation size is a significant determinant of fixed remuneration, for ceos of financial services organisations, listed on the jse h2 organisation size is a significant determinant of variable remuneration, for ceos of financial services organisations, listed on the jse h3 organisation size is a significant determinant of total remuneration, for ceos of financial services organisations, listed on the jse h4 organisation performance is a significant determinant of fixed remuneration, for ceos of financial services organisations, listed on the jse h5 organisation performance is a significant determinant of variable remuneration, for ceos of financial services organisations, listed on the jse h6 organisation performance is a significant determinant of total remuneration, for ceos of financial services organisations, listed on the jse the outcomes of hypotheses one, two, and three will confirm whether organisation size is a significant determinant of fixed remuneration, variable remuneration and total remuneration of financial services ceos and to what degree. similarly, the outcomes of hypotheses four, five and six will confirm whether organisation performance is a significant determinant of fixed remuneration, variable remuneration and total remuneration of financial services ceos and to what degree. literature review agency theory jensen and meckling (1976) state that when decision making power is given by a principal to an agent, an agency relationship is created. in these circumstances, where an agent is a utility maximiser, it is reasonable to believe that the agent will favour their own interests above the interests of the principal (akram, abrar ul haq, & umrani, 2021). safriliana, subroto, subekti and rahman (2018) concur and add that agents derive personal gains from the work they do and may manipulate what is in their control to their advantage. therefore, agency theory seeks to understand the problems that arise between agents and principals of an organisation, where the agent refers to the ceo leading the organisation and the principal refers to the shareholders of the organisation. linder and foss (2015) state that the problem, in this context, is a conflict of interest that arises from information asymmetry, where the agent holds considerably higher levels of information than the principal. furthermore, the agent is in control of the information that is made available to the principal. consequently, ceos have the ability to define the goals of the organisation in a way that is beneficial to them, even though it may destroy value for the organisation (oliveira, almeida, & lucena, 2017). these events may be exacerbated when there are loose controls by the principal over the agent and may increase the welfare loss that arises from the agent-principal problem (safriliana et al., 2018). a prime example of this was the bloated salary of r50 million paid to the chief finance officer (cfo) of the steinhoff group, who at the time double hatted as the ceo of steinhoff africa retail. this was a salary paid to a ceo, at a time when the organisation was in the process of needing financial rescue, highlighting the fact that there is information asymmetry between agent and principle (wessels, 2018). optimal contracting jensen and meckling (1976) suggested for principals to use incentives to drive the right behaviour of the agent. hogan and jones (2016) agree with this view. in some instances, mere monitoring may ensure that the agents’ behaviour is in line with the best interest of the principal. oppositely, the principal may use bonding costs to influence the behaviour of the agent. whichever decision is made, it will cost the organisation and these costs do not guarantee that the agent will not diverge from the decisions that would ordinarily maximise the returns to shareholders. jensen and meckling (1976) refer to these costs as a residual loss that is ultimately borne by the principal. managerial power the managerial power approach depicts ceos as rent seekers who have a significant degree of influence over the board of directors and their remuneration. bussin and ncube (2017) and acero and alcalde (2019) state that ceos are able to exploit their advantage to extract higher remuneration from the organisation. evidently, where managerial power exists, the board’s ability to objectively set remuneration is diminished, and hence the board does not operate at arm’s length in these transactions (bebchukt, walker, & friedtt, 2002). ultimately, this process negatively impacts shareholder value, which is counterintuitive to the responsibility of a ceo, which is to maximise shareholder value (chamorro-premuzic, 2014; gande & kalpathy, 2017; gaye, li, & miller, 2018). organisation size various authors (acero & alcalde, 2019; ghazali & taib, 2015; merhebi, pattenden, swan, & xianming, 2006; sonenshine, larson, & cauvel, 2016; zhou, 2000) have debated the influence of size of an organisation on ceo remuneration. theoretically, larger organisations are deemed more complex, requiring a greater level of skill and effort from their ceo. finkelstein and hambrick (1989) concur and state that as the size of an organisation increases, they are subject to higher marginal demands, because of increased complexity of managing the business and therefore need highly skilled and experienced ceos to run the business. additionally, they identified that larger organisations tend to have more hierarchical layers and therefore, more people under management. zhou (2000) adds that the marginal product of the actions of the ceo are magnified by the span of their control resulting in a higher demand on the ceo, who in turn demands a premium wage for their efforts. thus, it may be concluded that the size of an organisation can be used as a proxy for complexity and effort (ghazali & taib, 2015). merhebi et al. (2006) and bussin and ncube (2017) found that organisation size is a key consideration in determining ceo remuneration. given that a ceo’s remuneration is set at the beginning of their tenure, their performance in the organisation is indeterminable at that point. an organisation specific measure that ceo remuneration can be pegged against is the size of the organisation. in this case, size acts as a proxy for the complexity the ceo can expect in their role. the size of the organisation is therefore deemed to have a positive and significant relationship with ceo fixed remuneration, at the hiring phase. however, this variable may lose its explanatory power over time, according to sonenshine et al. (2016), who found that organisation size is not a factor that influences fixed remuneration during tenure. even when actions taken by the ceo result in a reduction of the organisation size (through asset divestitures), this does not have a negative influence on the fixed component of a ceo’s remuneration in future periods. based on previous research, the view is that organisation size has an influence on ceo remuneration. these findings have been deduced using proxies for organisation size and confirm a positive relationship between the independent variables used to measure organisation size and ceo remuneration. zhou (2000) used revenue, assets and market capitalisation as three proxies for organisation size. zhou (2000) concluded that where revenue is used as a proxy for organisation size, a positive and statistically significant relationship exists. it was observed that a 10% increase in revenue led to a 2.5% increase in the remuneration paid to a ceo. in addition, the study concluded that when assets were used as a proxy for organisation size, a negative relationship was exhibited. however, the significance levels of this relationship were low. merhebi et al. (2006) who used the same proxies for organisation size as zhou (2000) concurred that there is a strong, positive relationship between organisation size and ceo remuneration. their study concluded that for every 1% increase in revenue of the organisation, there is a resultant 2.74% increase in ceo remuneration. ghazali and taib (2015), hussain, obaid and khan (2014) and sonenshine et al. (2016), using revenue as a proxy for organisation size, concluded that even when using revenue as the only measure of organisation size, there is a positive and significant relationship between organisation size and ceo remuneration. in addition, ghazali and taib (2015) further state that it is the quantum of the ceo remuneration that is most explained by the size of the organisation. in their study, using assets as a proxy for organisation size, acero and alcalde (2019) found that organisation size can be used to explain the difference in ceo remuneration across organisations. thus, there seems to be consensus on the positive relationship between organisation size and ceo remuneration, even in instances where different variables have been used as a proxy for organisation size. however, there are mixed views on whether organisation size has an influence on overall ceo remuneration or whether specific proxies for organisation size have an influence over a specific component of ceo remuneration. sur, magnan and cordeiro (2015) concur with the view that there is a positive correlation but found that this influence is limited to the cash component of remuneration only and that organisation size has no significant influence on the variable remuneration of a ceo. although organisation size has been established to have a positive and significant relationship with ceo remuneration, sonenshine et al. (2016) state that there may be instances where management actions are taken to reduce the organisation size and a reward for these management actions are captured in the variable component of ceo remuneration. however, this can only be adequately measured where the components of ceo remuneration are broken down into a fixed and variable remuneration view (philipps, 2018). this highlights that when testing variables on the components of ceo remuneration, it may be necessary to included more than one proxy for organisation size to ensure the accuracy of the model. organisation performance chief executive officers typically earn high returns for the effort they give, relative to those employees who rank below them in the organisation. however, of late, many organisations have started to adjust the way in which they reward their ceos and a significant portion of their remuneration is tied to performance measures, making this portion of pay at-risk (martin & magnan, 2019). earlier studies on the topic found a negative relationship between ceo remuneration and organisation performance. in addition, van essen, otten and carberry (2015) found that the remuneration-performance link diminishes as ceo tenure increases. this occurs as the influence of ceos over remuneration structure and level of remuneration strengthens over time, concurring with the theory of managerial control. sonenshine et al. (2016) found that the determinants of ceo remuneration have shifted towards a pay for performance model since the financial crisis in 2008. where a pay for performance model exists, otomasa, shiiba and shuto (2020) state that management forecasts form the basis of ceo compensation. martin and magnan (2019) concur with this view. it is a common practice for organisations to attribute the performance of an organisation to the prowess of their ceo (lange, boivie, & westphal, 2015; mascarenhas, 2009). therefore, their pay is likely aligned in this manner. where ceos can influence the remuneration equation, it is in the favour of measures that are not related to performance. however, at an aggregate level, ceo remuneration tends to be higher when driven by a pay for performance model (dale-olsen, 2012). based on the above evidence, it can be argued that organisation performance influences ceo remuneration. these findings were established by using proxies for organisation performance, and the findings confirm a positive relationship between the independent variables used to measure organisation performance and ceo remuneration. merhebi et al. (2006), and zhou (2000), using return on assets (roa) and return on equity (roe) as proxies for organisation performance, found a positive and statistically significant relationship between organisation performance and ceo remuneration. in their results, merhebi et al. (2006) concluded that for every 10.00% increase in organisation performance, there is a resultant 1.16% increase in ceo remuneration. similarly, dale-olsen (2012) observed the same directional change. however, the results of their study showed a 0.55% increase in ceo remuneration for every 1.00% increase in performance, when profit was used as a proxy for performance. evidently, there is a measurable change in remuneration, based on performance. however, it has been noted that the type of contract that the ceo is on has an influence on their total remuneration, but the influence of performance is not always positive for all ceo remuneration contract types. where a ceo is on a performance-remuneration contract, they earn approximately 30.00% more than their fixed remuneration counterparts and only where a performance contract exists, does organisation performance have a positive and statistically significant influence on ceo remuneration (dale-olsen, 2012). consequently, sonenshine et al. (2016), using eps as their proxy for organisation performance, concluded that organisation performance is a strong determinant of ceo remuneration. this follows the expectations that are derived from agency theory, which endeavours to align the shareholders’ interests with ceo actions. otomasa et al. (2020) concur with the agency theory principle and state that organisation performance has shown a strong, positive correlation with the cash component of ceo remuneration where earnings were used as a proxy for organisation performance. they state that this occurrence only happens in the positive scenario, and there does not seem to be a penalty on earnings even when organisation performance is less desirable than expected. in contrast to the findings mentioned above, various authors have found converse results when measuring the effect of organisation performance on ceo remuneration. using profit and roa as their proxies for organisation performance, ghazali and taib (2015) observed that there is no significant relationship between organisation performance and ceo remuneration. similarly, when using roe as their proxy for organisation performance, acero and alcalde (2019) and hussain et al. (2014) reached similar results and concluded that there is no significant relationship between organisation performance and ceo remuneration. having discussed the findings from previous research, the next section outlines the approach and methods that were adopted to conduct this research. research design this section discusses the research approach and research method adopted in this study. research approach a deductive reasoning approach was used by testing the theoretical proposition, through a research strategy, designed to collect data for this purpose (saunders & lewis, 2018). this approach was taken as deductive reasoning is a valid reasoning approach where it is impossible to accept the premise of the argument while rejecting the conclusion (zalaghi & khazaei, 2016). in this research, data were collected and analysed using a logical structure to determine the manner and the extent in which the independent variables influence the dependent variables. as such, research hypotheses were defined and tested, based on the premise outlined in the literature review. new theories have not been developed as an outcome of this research. rather, existing theories were tested. research method secondary data were collected over a 5-year period (2015–2019) using a single data collection technique. this data collection technique lends itself to quantitative techniques on which statistical analysis was performed, and results were examined to determine the explanatory power of the independent variables on the dependant variable (saunders & lewis, 2018). this section will address the research participants, measuring instruments, research procedure, ethical considerations and statistical analysis related to the study. research participants given the research focus for this study, the population was limited to ceos of financial services organisations, listed on the jse within the context of south african financial service organisations. as the research was focused on a specific population, namely ceos in the financial services sector, a homogenous purposive sampling method was employed. the sample was limited to the top 15 financial services organisations on the jse, based on their market capitalisation. the ceo of the selected company become the subject of this study and the period of observation spanned 5 years. therefore, the dataset consisted of ~75 observations per variable. to qualify for inclusion, organisations had to meet the following criteria: the organisation must have been in operation for the entire period under observation (2015–2019). the organisation must have been listed on the jse for the entire period of the study (2015–2019). the data must have been available on the data sources specified for this study. measuring instruments given that this research was based on secondary data analysis, this section will discuss the unit of analysis and the sources used to retrieve the relative data. the first unit of analysis was ceo remuneration, broken down into fixed remuneration and short-term incentives (bonuses). for this study, only fixed remuneration and short-term incentives were included. core et al. (1999) stated that ltis are pegged to performance over a future period and, although provisioned for, are not guaranteed. therefore, including ltis can be problematic in a study of this nature and may distort the results (core et al., 1999). for this reason, ltis have been excluded from the study. the second unit of analysis was organisation size. the following variables were chosen as proxies: assets, revenue and number of employees. this information was sourced from i-net bureau for financial analysis (i-net bfa), one of the leading sources of financial information in south africa and validated against the annual financial statements for each organisation. given that i-net bfa is a trusted and widely used source of information, the information was deemed valid and reliable. the third unit of analysis was organisation performance. the following variables were chosen as proxies: profit, roe and eps. this information was also sourced from i-net bfa and validated against the annual financial statements for each organisation. the information was deemed valid and reliable. research procedure and ethical considerations secondary data were collected and analysed using a logical structure to determine how the independent variables influence the dependent variables and to what extent. as such, research hypotheses were defined and tested, based on the premise outlined in the literature review. new theories have not been developed as an outcome of this research. rather, existing theories were tested. the focus for this research was confined to ceos of financial services organisations listed on the jse. given the requirements of the jse, all organisations are mandated to publish their ceos’ remuneration in their annual financial reports. this made data collection standardised and accurate as financial statements for all jse listed companies are subject to audit requirement. after the secondary data were collected, the research hypotheses were tested to determine the degree of influence that the independent variables had on the dependent variable, ceo remuneration. throughout the research procedure, the researcher adhered to the ethical principles of respect, beneficence and justice. statistical analysis the data were categorised into two distinct categories, namely (1) organisation size and (2) organisation performance. all information relating to the organisation’s size and performance was extracted from the i-net bfa database, which is south africa’s leading provider of financial data and was validated against the annual financial statements of the organisation. the data were aggregated at a per-subject level after which, this data formed the basis for data analysis. the dependent variable (ceo remuneration) was broken up into fixed remuneration and variable remuneration, where the former refers to guaranteed pay and the latter refers to bonus payments, made to the ceo, in the financial year under review. all other independent variables were presented as is. the data was prepared and run through statistical package for the social sciences (spss). descriptive statistics were run to determine the mean and standard deviation for the variables. because of the small sample size, a t-test was not valid. therefore, the data was tested for normality by means of a cronbach’s alpha test (kline, 2015; taber, 2018). in addition, the skewness and kurtosis of the data set were also tested. the outcomes of these tests signified whether parametric (normally distributed) or non-parametric (not normally distributed) testing should be performed to test for differences (saunders & lewis, 2018). to test the strength of the relationship between the dependent variable (ceo remuneration) and the proxy variables for the two categories being tested (organisation size and organisation performance), a pearson correlation test was used. thereafter, inferential statistics were drawn using regression analysis to test the hypotheses and reach conclusions from the results. the next section provides the results determined from the research analysis. the results convey the research hypotheses, contrasted against the findings of the study. results research hypothesis one regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses. research hypothesis one tested whether organisation size is a significant determinant of ceo fixed remuneration: h0 organisation size is not a significant determinant of ceo fixed remuneration h1 organisation size is a significant determinant of ceo fixed remuneration: h1a assets is a significant determinant of ceo fixed remuneration h1b revenue is a significant determinant of ceo fixed remuneration h1c number of employees is a significant determinant of ceo fixed remuneration table 1 shows the standardised coefficients and level of significance of the proxies used to measure organisation size. over the 5-year period under observation, the following was observed: assets had a non-significant positive effect on ceo fixed remuneration. this implies that assets do not influence ceo fixed remuneration, and therefore, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected. revenue had a non-significant positive effect on ceo fixed remuneration. this implies that revenue does not influence ceo fixed remuneration, and therefore, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected. number of employees had a non-significant positive effect on ceo fixed remuneration. this implies that the number of employees does not influence ceo fixed remuneration, and therefore, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected. table 1: multiple regression – organisation size on chief executive officers’ fixed remuneration. the models adjusted r2 = 0.062 signify that only 6.2% of the variation in ceo fixed remuneration is explained by the organisation size model. research hypothesis two research hypothesis two tested whether organisation size is a significant determinant of ceo variable remuneration: h0 organisation size is not a significant determinant of ceo variable remuneration h2 organisation size is a significant determinant of ceo variable remuneration: h2a assets is a significant determinant of ceo variable remuneration h2b revenue is a significant determinant of ceo variable remuneration h2c number of employees is a significant determinant of ceo variable remuneration table 2 shows the standardised coefficients and level of significance of the proxies used to measure organisation size. over the 5-year observation-period, the following was determined: assets had a significant negative effect on ceo variable remuneration in 2017 but when an aggregate regression was run, a non-significant positive effect on ceo variable remuneration was found for the entire 5-year period. this implies that assets do not influence ceo variable remuneration, and therefore, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected. revenue had a significant positive effect on ceo variable remuneration in 2017 and 2018 but a non-significant effect on ceo variable remuneration when an aggregate regression was run, for the entire 5-year period. this implies that revenue does not influence ceo variable remuneration and therefore, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected. number of employees had a non-significant positive effect on ceo variable remuneration. this implies that the number of employees does not influence ceo variable remuneration, and therefore, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected. table 2: multiple regression – organisation size on chief executive officers’ variable remuneration. the models adjusted r2 = 0.345 signifies that only 34.5% of the variation in ceo variable remuneration is explained by the organisation size model. research hypothesis three research hypothesis three tested whether organisation size is a significant determinant of ceo total remuneration: h0 organisation size is not a significant determinant of ceo total remuneration h3 organisation size is a significant determinant of ceo total remuneration: h3a assets is a significant determinant of ceo total remuneration h3b revenue is a significant determinant of ceo total remuneration h3c number of employees is a significant determinant of ceo total remuneration table 3 shows the standardised coefficients and level of significance of the proxies used to measure organisation size. over the 5-year period under observation, the following was observed: assets had a non-significant positive effect on ceo total remuneration. this implies that assets do not influence ceo total remuneration, and therefore, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected. revenue had a non-significant positive effect on ceo total remuneration. this implies that revenue does not influence ceo total remuneration, and therefore, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected. number of employees had a non-significant positive effect on ceo total remuneration. this implies that the number of employees does not influence ceo total remuneration, and therefore, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected. table 3: multiple regression – organisation size on chief executive officers’ total remuneration. the models adjusted r2 = 0.527 signifies that 52.7% of the variation in ceo total remuneration is explained by the organisation size model. research hypothesis four research hypothesis four tested whether organisation performance is a significant determinant of ceo fixed remuneration: h0 organisation performance is not a significant determinant of ceo fixed remuneration h4 organisation performance is a significant determinant of ceo fixed remuneration: h4a profit is a significant determinant of ceo fixed remuneration h4b return on equity is a significant determinant of ceo fixed remuneration h4c earnings per share is a significant determinant of ceo fixed remuneration table 4 shows the standardised coefficients and level of significance of the proxies used to measure organisation performance. over the 5-year period under observation, the following was observed: profit has a significant positive effect on ceo fixed remuneration. this implies that profit has an influence on ceo fixed remuneration, and therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected in favour of hypothesis h4a. return on equity has a significant negative effect on ceo fixed remuneration. this implies that roe does influence ceo fixed remuneration, and therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected in favour of hypothesis h4b. earnings per share has a significant positive effect on ceo fixed remuneration. this implies that eps does influence ceo fixed remuneration, and therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected in favour of hypothesis h4c. table 4: multiple regression – organisation performance on chief executive officers’ fixed remuneration. the models adjusted r2 = 0.658 signify that 65.8% of the variation in ceo fixed remuneration is explained by the organisation performance model. research hypothesis five research hypothesis five tested whether organisation performance is a significant determinant of ceo variable remuneration: h0 organisation performance is not a significant determinant of ceo variable remuneration h5 organisation performance is a significant determinant of ceo variable remuneration: h5a profit is a significant determinant of ceo variable remuneration h5b return on equity is a significant determinant of ceo variable remuneration h5c earnings per share is a significant determinant of ceo variable remuneration table 5 shows the standardised coefficients and level of significance of the proxies used to measure organisation performance. over the 5-year observation-period, the following was determined: profit has a significant positive effect on ceo variable remuneration. this implies that profit has an influence on ceo variable remuneration. therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected in favour of hypothesis h5a. return on equity has a non-significant positive effect on ceo variable remuneration. this implies that roe does not influence ceo variable remuneration. therefore, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected. earnings per share has a non-significant negative effect on ceo variable remuneration. this implies that eps does influence ceo variable remuneration. therefore, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected. table 5: multiple regression – organisation performance on chief executive officers’ variable remuneration. the models adjusted r2 = 0.479 signifies that 47.9% of the variation in ceo variable remuneration is explained by the organisation performance model. research hypothesis six research hypothesis six tested whether organisation performance is a significant determinant of ceo total remuneration: h0 organisation performance is not a significant determinant of ceo total remuneration h6 organisation performance is a significant determinant of ceo total remuneration: h6a profit is a significant determinant of ceo total remuneration h6b return on equity is a significant determinant of ceo total remuneration h6c earnings per share is a significant determinant of ceo total remuneration table 6 shows the standardised coefficients and level of significance of the proxies used to measure organisation performance. over the 5-year period under observation, the following was observed: profit has a significant positive effect on ceo total remuneration. this implies that profit has an influence on ceo total remuneration. therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected in favour of hypothesis h6a. return on equity has a non-significant negative effect on ceo total remuneration. this implies that roe does not influence ceo total remuneration. therefore, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected. earnings per share has a non-significant positive effect on ceo total remuneration. this implies that eps does not influence ceo total remuneration. therefore, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected. table 6: multiple regression – organisation performance on chief executive officers’ total remuneration. the model’s adjusted r2 = 0.699 signifies that 69.9% of the variation in ceo total remuneration is explained by the organisation performance model. all variables used in the models were tested for internal reliability and generated an adequate score. the skewness and kurtosis of the data were assessed, and the data were cleared for inferential statistics as all measures were deemed fit. discussion practical implications the literature review, which is supported by the findings of this study, shows that a remuneration-performance link is required to drive alignment between the agent and the principal. linder and foss (2015) state that information asymmetry can have dire consequences and results in the agent benefiting at the expense of the principal, creating a welfare loss that is invariably borne by the principal. as such, the results of this study have shown that financial services organisations have tied both elements of ceo remuneration to the overall performance of the organisation, which places the agent’s total remuneration at risk in the absence of satisfactory organisational performance in the south african context. these findings are in line with king iv, which recommends that organisations in south africa use performance measures that support positive outcomes within the organisation and that organisations should provide an account of the performance measures that have been used in ceo remuneration setting (institute of directors southern africa, 2016). although a guideline, these recommendations coupled with the requirements of the companies act (2008) (which compels organisations to disclose the remuneration paid to ceos, as well as the benefits they receive) creates a degree of transparency that ascertains the best interest of stakeholders. therefore, when remuneration committees apply the guidelines of king iv, a higher degree of transparency and trust is created among organisational stakeholders. applying these processes provides stakeholders with the information they need to hold the board of directors accountable for any poor decisions made and assists in neutralising managerial power to a certain degree. this is especially the case where ceos have considerable influence over the board and attempt to use this influence to extract higher remuneration. in addition to the measures that are driven from a companies act and king iv perspective, remuneration committees can introduce measures such as the ‘say-on-pay’ approach to the remuneration setting. this approach allows shareholders to have oversight and input on the remuneration paid to ceos. in their research, newman, banning, johnson and newman (2019) observed a reduction in pay ratios and a significant reduction in ceo remuneration in organisations following the implementation of the ‘say-on-pay’ measures being adopted. similarly, this measure helps neutralise the effects of managerial power in an attempt to extract additional remuneration from encumbered board members. limitations and recommendations the focus of this research was on the top 15 jse listed financial services organisations, based on their market capitalisation. as such, these organisations can be deemed large, and the findings of this research may not lend itself to organisations that are classified as medium or small organisations. davis, batchelor and kreiser (2018) highlight that the scale of the organisation should also be taken into consideration when setting up the metrics for ceo remuneration, because small and medium enterprises (smes) may not be able to apply the same remuneration metrics based on performance. the measures used in this research are specific to large organisations, and they may not have wider applicability where the scale of the organisation is not classified as large. this research focused primarily on the effects of organisation metrics, being size and performance. finkelstein and hambrick (1989) refer to ceos as highly skilled and qualified individuals. in this instance, skills and qualifications are captured in the human capital characteristics of a ceo, which this research did not account for. as such, some of the explanatory power of these variables will not have been accounted for and their influence on the determination of fixed, variable and total remuneration will not be evident in this study. for this research, the sample was limited to financial service organisations that were listed on the jse. therefore, no comparatives can be drawn across industries to determine whether the findings are applicable to other jse listed organisations that fall outside of the financial services industry. based on the sample selection criteria, the findings of this research may not be applicable to private financial services organisations that are not listed on the jse. future research should include a broader spectrum of industries. this will allow for comparatives to be drawn between the findings of each industry and to determine whether there is a convergence or divergence of remuneration setting practices over time. future research should also focus on share schemes, particularly during the decline in share prices early in 2020. chief executive officers’ tenure should be included in the research to determine whether tenure plays a role in the influence of organisation size on ceo fixed remuneration. the size of the organisations selected for the study should be more varied by not selecting organisations on the basis of market capitalisation. rather, market capitalisation should be used to categorise these organisations into small, medium and large organisations to draw parallels based on the findings. this will allow for a broader degree of applicability of the results from the study. given that market trend shifts, a longer period of observation could show the shifts in remuneration setting trends, if any appear in the findings of the research. for example, a study that looked back prior to 2008 may have findings that show the shift in trends post the financial crisis of 2008, thereby adding more depth to the research and its findings. conclusion this section outlines the key findings from this study. the key finding of this study is that organisation size, as measured by assets, revenue and number of employees is not a significant determinant of ceo fixed, variable or total remuneration. in contrast, organisation performance, as measured by profit, roe and eps are significant determinants of ceo fixed remuneration and, when measured by profit, are significant determinants of ceo variable and total remuneration. the mixed views on the influence of organisation size on ceo remuneration highlighted the lack of consensus on the influence of organisation size on ceo remuneration or the proxies that should be used to accurately predict ceo remuneration. the findings of this study showed no significant relationship between organisation size and any of the components of ceo remuneration even after using universally accepted variables as proxies for organisation size. in addition, the models that were created showed moderate to low levels of explanatory power that indicated that organisation size, as measured by assets, revenue and number of employees, is not a good predictor of ceo fixed, variable and total remuneration, when assessing their influence over the remuneration earned by ceos of financial services organisations listed on the jse. no consensus exists on the influence of organisation performance on ceo remuneration or the proxies that should be used to accurately predict ceo remuneration. the findings of this study indicated a significant relationship between organisation performance, as measured by profit, roe and eps and ceo fixed remuneration. in addition, organisation performance, as measured by profit, proved to be a significant determinant of ceo variable remuneration and ceo total remuneration. the models that were created showed moderate to high levels of explanatory power, thus indicating that organisation performance is a good predictor of ceo fixed, variable and total remuneration, when assessing their influence over the remuneration earned by ceos of financial services organisations listed on the jse. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for a research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data is available upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abdou, h., ntim, c., lindop, s., thomas, d., & opong, k. (2019). executive pay and performance: the moderating effect of ceo power and governance structure. the international journal of human resource management, 30(6), 921–963. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1282532 acero, i., & alcalde, n. (2019). directors compensation. what really matters? journal of business economics and management, 21(1), 180–199. https://doi.org/10.3846/jbem.2020.11788 adams, z. (2019). ‘wage’, ‘salary’ and ‘remuneration’: a genealogical exploration of juridical terms and their significance for the employer’s power to make deductions from wages. industrial law journal, 48(1), 34–65. https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwy003 akram, f., abrar ul haq, m., & umrani, w.a. (2019). assessing the effect of managerial power on firm performance through the perceptual lens of executive remuneration. journal of social sciences and humanities, 27(1), 293–309. bebchukt, l.a., walker, d., & friedtt, j. (2002). managerial power and rent extraction in the design of executive compensation. the university of chicago law review, 69(3), 751–846. https://doi.org/10.2307/1600632 bussin, m. (2011). the remuneration handbook for africa: a practical and informative handbook for managing recognition in africa. randburg: knowres publishing. bussin, m., & ncube, m. (2017). chief executive officer and chief financial officer compensation relationship to company performance in state-owned entities. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 20(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v20i1.1644 chamorro-premuzic, t. (2014). huffington post. huffington post. retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-dark-side-of-executiv_b_4462127 companies act. (2008). south african government. pretoria. government printers. core, j., halthausen, r., & larcker, d. (1999). corporate governance, chief executive officer compensation and firm performance. journal of financial economics, 51(3), 371–406. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0304-405x(98)00058-0 daft, l. (2011). what does it mean to be a leader? in leadership. stanford: south-western cengage learning. dale-olsen, h. (2012). executive pay determination and firm performance – empirical evidence from a compressed wage environment. manchester school, 80(3), 355–376. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9957.2011.02225.x davis, j., batchelor, j., & kreiser, p. (2018). the influence of organizational task environment and firm size on top-executive compensation contracts. journal of small business & entrepreneurship, 31(1), 21–42. finkelstein, s., & hambrick, d. (1989). chief executive compensation: a study of the intersection of markets and political. strategic management journal, 10(2), 121–134. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250100203 gande, a., & kalpathy, s. (2017). ceo compensation and risk-taking at financial firms: evidence from u.s. federal loan assistance. journal of corporate finance, 47(1), 131–150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2017.09.001 gaye, g.-l., li, c., & miller, r. (2018). how well does agency theory explain executive compensation. federal reserve bank of st. louis review, 100(2), 201–236. https://doi.org/10.20955/r.100.201-36 ghazali, z., & taib, f. (2015). it pays to be an executive in malaysia. the journal of developing areas, 49(5), 225–237. https://doi.org/10.1353/jda.2015.0047 hayek, m., thomas, c., novicevic, m., & montalvo, d. (2015). contextualizing human capital theory in a non-western setting: testing the pay-for-performance assumption. journal of business research, 69(2), 928–935. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.06.039 hogan, b., & jones, g. (2016). the association between executive pay structure and the transparency of restatement disclosure. accounting horizons, 30(3), 307–323. https://doi.org/10.2308/acch-51454 hussain, a., obaid, z., & khan, s. (2014). ceo compensation determinants: ‘is the size or performance of the firm a determinant of ceo compensation in pakistan. humanities and social sciences, 21(1), 115–124. institute of directors southern africa. (2016). report on corporate governance for south africa. johannesburg: adams africa. jensen, m., & meckling, w. (1976). theory of the firm: managerial behaviour, agency costs and ownership structures. journal of financial economics, 3, 305–360. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-405x(76)90026-x kline, r.b. (2015). statistical notes for clinical researchers: assessing normal distribution using skewness and kurtosis. restorative dentistry and endodontics, 37(4), 245–248. lange, d., boivie, s., & westphal, j. (2015). predicting organisational identification at the ceo level. strategic management journal, 36(8), 1224–1244. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2283 linder, s., & foss, n. (2015). agency theory. international encyclopedia of the social & behavioural sciences, 344–350. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-097086-8.73038-8 martin, d., & magnan, m. (2019). executive compensation and employee remuneration: the flexible principles of justice in pay. journal of business ethics, 160(1), 89–103. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3786-5 mascarenhas, b. (2009). the emerging ceo agenda. journal of international management, 15(3), 245–250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2009.02.002 merhebi, r., pattenden, k., swan, p., & xianming, z. (2006). australian chief executive officer remuneration: pay and performance. accounting and finance, 46(3), 481–497. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-629x.2006.00178.x morton, b. (2018). executive pay barometer. johannesburg: 21st century. newman, c., banning, k., johnson, r., & newman, j. (2019). the say on pay impact on executive pay: an analysis of pay ratios. journal of business and behavioral sciences, 31(2), 192–205. oliveira, a.s., almeida, k., & lucena, w. (2017). executive remuneration and organisational life-cycles: a focus on brazillian companies. brazillian journal of management, 12(4), 663–678. https://doi.org/10.5902/1983465923418 otomasa, s., shiiba, a., & shuto, a. (2020). management earnings forecasts as a performance target in executive compensation contracts. journal of accounting, auditing and finance, 35(1), 139–167. https://doi.org/10.1177/0148558x17696764 phillips, m. (2018). what makes up your remuneration? johannesburg: 21st century. ryder, g. (2019). global wage report 2018/19. geneva: international labour organisation. safriliana, r., subroto, b., subekti, i., & rahman, a. (2018). overviews of contracting theory & agency theory. international journal of organisational innovation, 1(3), 10–21. https://doi.org/10.18502/kss.v3i10.3381 saunders, m., & lewis, p. (2018). doing research in business and management. harlow: pearson. sonenshine, r., larson, n., & cauvel, m. (2016). determinants of ceo compensation before and after the financial crisis. modern economy, 7(12), 1455–1477. https://doi.org/10.4236/me.2016.712133 sur, s., magnan, m., & cordeiro, j. (2015). disentangling ceo compensation: a simultaneous examination of time, industry, and firm-level effects. canadian journal of adminisatrtive science, 32(1), 30–46. https://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1304 taber, k. (2018). the use of cronbach’s alpha when developing and reporting research instruments in science education. research in science education, 48, 1273–1296. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-016-9602-2 temkin, s. (2020). executive directors report. pricewaterhouse coopers. retrieved from https://www.pwc.co.za/en/press-room/executive-directors-report-2019.html van essen, m., otten, j., & carberry, e. (2015). assessing managerial power theory: a meta-analytic approach to understanding the determinants of ceo compensation. rotterdam: journal of management. wessels, r. (2018). steinhoff units seek ‘significant’ funding as cfo steps down. retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-04/steinhoff-units-seek-significant-liquidity-as-cfo-steps-down zalaghi, h., & khazaei, m. (2016). the role of deductive and inductive reasoning in accounting research and standard setting. asian journal of finanace & accounting, 8(1), 227–241. https://doi.org/10.5296/ajfa.v8i1.8148 zhou, x. (2000). ceo pay, firm size, and corporate performance: evidence from canada. canadian journal of economics, 33(1), 213–251. https://doi.org/10.1111/0008-4085.00013 abstract introduction literature review research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) refiloe l. thokoa tshwane school for business and society, management sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa vinessa naidoo tshwane school for business and society, management sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa tessie h.h. herbst academic leadership development, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa citation thokoa, r.l., naidoo, v., & herbst, t.h.h. (2021). a study of job satisfaction and work engagement at the national treasury of south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1557. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1557 original research a study of job satisfaction and work engagement at the national treasury of south africa refiloe l. thokoa, vinessa naidoo, tessie h.h. herbst received: 23 jan. 2021; accepted: 24 aug. 2021; published: 03 dec. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: there is overwhelming research on job satisfaction and work engagement as it relates to the private sector when compared with the public sector. noting differences between the two sectors, the undeniable importance of the latter and that its employees are central to service delivery the dynamics of the concepts must be understood comprehensively. this study aims to add to this body of knowledge. research purpose: to determine the level of job satisfaction and work engagement at national treasury, and whether job satisfaction is a significant predictor of work engagement. motivation for the study: south african government’s financial performance, which is largely the responsibility of national treasury is unsatisfactory. as this responsibility is carried out by its employees, noting that job satisfaction and work engagement are some of the more recognised antecedents for employee performance, these need to be understood as the first step towards intervention. research approach/ design and method: a quantitative approach was followed wherein two questionnaires were administered via online census survey to all employees (n = 1189). data collected were analysed using the mean and the frequency polygon. multiple linear regression was conducted using statistical package for social sciences (spss). main findings: somewhat low levels of job satisfaction and work engagement were observed. multiple linear regression has confirmed that job satisfaction is a predictor of work engagement (r2 = 49.1%). it was also discovered that non-monetary aspects of the former such as communication and access to promotional opportunities are significant predictors while pay is not. practical / managerial implications: job satisfaction, which relates to a focused state of work engagement, can also be harnessed through non-monetary aspects of the job. contribution/ value added: the study provided insight into the level of job satisfaction and engagement at national treasury and reinforced the sentiment that satisfied employees tend to be vigorous, dedicated and absorbed. keywords: job satisfaction; work engagement; national treasury; employee performance; audit outcomes. introduction orientation this study was motivated by what seems to be weaknesses of national treasury to appropriately manage two functions: the annual budget preparation function and the budget implementation monitoring function as illustrated through negative audit outcomes expressed by the auditor general of south africa. these audit outcomes are based on an objective assessment of a department’s compliance with financial legislation and the extent to which appropriated budgets have been implemented in line with departmental performance plans for service delivery (auditor general of south africa, n.d.). the audit outcomes of 2016–2017 indicated that only 30% of the total population audited at the national government level received clean audits (auditor general of south africa, 2017). these aforementioned functions, mandated through the public finance management act (republic of south africa, 1999), are aimed at ensuring government departments achieve good audit outcomes as support would be given to ensure that realistic budgets are crafted and adequately implemented in line with applicable financial legislation and that allocated resources enable the given departments to provide good service delivery (department of national treasury, 2015). parliament of south africa (2016) and department of national treasury (2011) provide further detail on the functions as follows: budget preparation function: this is a lengthy function with various sub-processes, such as the assessment of proposed budget reallocations and budget bids for new priorities, wherein budget and resource allocation decisions for all national government departments are made by national treasury before the annual national budget is tabled in parliament. employees would need to apply their budget management knowledge and expertise and extensively interact with national government departments to support them in crafting realistic and reliable budgets. budget implementation monitoring function: this involves the continuous monitoring and analysis of public expenditure and assessing the impact thereof on service delivery. employees would need to apply their knowledge of sector policy goals and provide close support to departments to ensure that allocated budgets are expeditiously implemented, in line with relevant legislation, to achieve the given sector goals. the department of national treasury (2019) suggested that the national treasury is a service organisation as its employees would need to interact with, and in a sense serve, government departments as they carry out the aforesaid functions. these functions form part of its ultimate organisational service promise to ensure prudent management of public finances. given the sentiment of skaalsvik (2017) that in the case of service organisations, employees make up part of an organisation’s actual service as they carry out the various activities involved in performing a given service promise, greater focus needs to be placed on ways to improve employee performance. job satisfaction and work engagement are suggested as appropriate ways to harness employee performance (alzyoud, 2018). garg, dar and mishra (2017), ludviga and kalvina (2016) and yalabik, rayton and rapti (2016) suggested that a positive feeling regarding one’s job increases the likelihood of a vigorous, dedicated and absorbed manner of interaction with their work. this is also the basis for the hypothesis statement in the study. earlier thinking on employee performance was largely centred on the belief that money was the most significant motivator. this is mainly because of work, such as the theory of scientific management, by taylor (1919), which treated humans as purely money driven beings. this implied that employee performance would only be a function of the perceived adequacy of remuneration levels. it was only during the mid-1900s that this thinking evolved to realise the importance of positive psychology (gable & haidt, 2005), with its popularity later expedited by the seminal work of authors such as seligman (1994) and seligman and csikszentmihalyi (2000), leading to greater consideration that ‘experiences of positive emotion are beneficial for individuals because they serve to broaden perceptive, focus and attention’ (lambert, pasha-zaidi, passmore, & york al karam, 2015, p. 3). this also led to increased appreciation of the influence of other factors such as job satisfaction and work engagement on employee performance (mills, fleck, & kozikowski, 2013). khan, khan, nawaz and qureshi (2013) and lopez and gallagher (2009) mentioned that positive psychology is based on the belief that human strengths and qualities can be boosted to ensure that individuals function optimally, creatively and effectively in the workplace. this type of psychology particularly acknowledges the dynamism of human behaviour and would be useful to managers because employee performance remains a challenge (orin, 2010). the application of punitive measures for poor employee performance is also discouraged with authors such as mogab, kishan and vacaflores (2013) referring to domestic labour legislation as overly protective. employers, therefore, need to seek amicable ways to encourage good performance (bhorat, naidoo, & yu, 2014). a positive correlation between job satisfaction and performance was confirmed by studies such as those of bakotić (2016), khan, nawaz, aleem and hamed (2012), and latif, ahmad, qasim, mushtaq, ferdoos and naeem (2013) amongst others. a similar correlation was determined for work engagement and performance in studies by kim, kolb and kim (2012), rana, pant and chopra (2019), and yongxing, hongfei, baoguo and lei (2017). bellani, ramadhani and tamar (2018), garg et al. (2017) and tepayakul and rinthaisong (2018) also found that job satisfaction is a predictor of work engagement, which then impacts performance. as these concepts are amicable ways to promote performance as suggested by abu-shamaa, al-rabayah and khasawneh (2015), application thereof would be useful particularly in the south african labour market. bakker (2017) and inuwa (2016) considered job satisfaction and work engagement as valuable topics in modern management, particularly in light of the seeming consensus towards a positive psychological approach for managing performance (lambert et al., 2015), given their proven link to employee performance (alzyoud, 2018). inuwa (2016), and ziapour and kianipour (2015) stated that much of the research relating thereto has largely focused on the private sector. this is probably not surprising because at the core of the very survival of business is market competitiveness, which can be achieved through superior employee performance (zuñiga-collazos, castillo-palacio, & padilla-delgado, 2019). macleod and clarke (2009), however, argued that much of the work of the public sector involves complex policy issues, with organisational performance in the sector being a direct function of whether public services are appropriately delivered to citizens. thus, organisational performance that usually results from employee performance (skaalsvik, 2017) is arguably just as important as it would be in the private sector. this warrants research relating to the concepts under review in this study to be progressively increased for the public sector to match that available for the private sector. it is easy to imagine how a favourable feeling towards one’s job, which is one of the definitions for job satisfaction (aziri, 2011), would probably make it easier for one to be more engaged in their work in the private sector environment where undesired consequences for poor performance are usually severe and accountability is stringently applied (khan & khandaker, 2016). in a sector where this is not the case, the choice to not be engaged in one’s work despite possessing this feeling is perhaps easier. given this difference between the sectors, it should not be readily assumed that job satisfaction would predict work engagement as has been proven over and over again in the private sector. this needs to be tested and established in formal research, using the case of a vast number of different government institutions, at least to level of available literature for the private sector. doing this would also address the sentiment that both concepts are generally under-researched in the public sector. this study aims to contribute in both respects. research purpose and objectives the study, relying on the notion that job satisfaction and work engagement are appropriate and amicable ways to improve employee performance, focused on these concepts at national treasury. specifically, the objectives of this study are as follows: to determine the level of job satisfaction and work engagement at national treasury: a case has been made that national treasury is a service providing organisation, relying heavily on its employees to carry out the functions articulated earlier. these functions are meant to ensure that government achieves good audit outcomes, the negative audit outcomes seen thus implies that national treasury’s performance is not adequate. as these functions are performed by its employees, employee performance can be said to be inadequate and requires intervention. understanding the level of job satisfaction and work engagement would be a good starting point for crafting an intervention strategy that considers the context of positive psychology. to determine whether job satisfaction is a significant predictor of work engagement: while the link between job satisfaction and work engagement has been established in literature much of this was based on the private sector context (bellani et al., 2018; garg et al., 2017; tepayakul & rinthaisong, 2018). taking this fact into account and that the public sector is driven by political forces wherein competitiveness is not much important (khan & khandaker, 2016), further dedicated public sector research on this link by different types of government institutions is important. in addition, a quick google search for studies that aim to determine this link in this manner for national government departments, such as national treasury, in south africa yielded no useful results. literature review since the advent of positive psychology, there has been a significant growth in its appreciation, both in academia and the industry as a means to manage performance (orin, 2010). gable and haidt (2005, p. 103) highlighted the difference between traditional and positive psychology, by stating that the former is, in essence, about ‘learning how to bring people up from negative eight to zero’ while the latter is more concerned about ‘understanding how people rise from zero to positive eight’. furthermore, traditional psychology is more curative because it seeks to resolve already existing problems and synonymises well-being with the absence of problems or illness in the present. positive psychology, on the other hand, follows a preventative approach to care by suggesting that creating positive emotions and building on human strengths would minimise the likelihood of the occurrence of problems in the first place. it also postulates that well-being reduces vulnerability for future problems (lambert et al., 2015). job satisfaction and work engagement, as defined in this study, seem more appropriately placed within the realm of positive psychology. bellani et al. (2018) mentioned that operationalising these concepts essentially entails getting employees to have favourable feelings about the workplace in general, thereby increasing the probability of their appropriate involvement in the various work tasks. consequently, future vulnerability to workplace-related problems is limited, thereby achieving and sustaining good employee performance. this idea also aligns with the hypothesis statement of this study. south african labour legislation seems to lean more towards a positive psychology approach by introducing the term of corrective discipline. the labour relations act (republic of south africa, 1995) refers to corrective discipline as the process through which an employer should attempt to correct employee behaviour through a graduated system of discipline, which would start with counselling and informal advice. job satisfaction job satisfaction is said to be potentially the most researched concept in organisational behaviour with more than 10 000 studies published, but very few of these focusing on the public sector (inuwa, 2016). it has been proven to be a significant predictor of performance, particularly through the demonstrated ability to get employees to be appropriately focused and involved in the workplace (wright, 2006). wright further stated that appreciation of the concept began as early as the 1900s when authors such as gilbreth (1911) observed that employees who believed that their earnings were commensurate with the effort exerted in the workplace, were happier and more enthusiastic to take on work tasks compared with those who did not. this observation suggested the presence of contentment, which seemed to be a notable contributor to employee performance. it was later observed that any employee sentiments and feelings towards work would determine contentment (wright, 2006). this suggested that there may be a vast number of factors that influence job satisfaction, making it a very complex concept to understand (arifin, nirwanto, & manan, 2019). as such, management teams often find it challenging to ensure that employees are consistently satisfied. aziri (2011) indicated that this complexity is evident in the fact that there are various definitions of job satisfaction available in literature and mentioned the following as examples: a positive feeling that results from how psychological, physical and environmental factors, which have to do with the job and the workplace, relate with each other. it is a reflection of the extent to which an employee is competent in the various roles of the particular job. it represents a worker’s sense of achievement in the workplace. field (2008) succeeded in simplifying the job satisfaction concept through a basic job satisfaction model. this model suggested that job satisfaction impacts employee fulfilment, commitment and engagement. it also provided common factors such as pay and work conditions, which increase the likelihood of an employee to either be satisfied or dissatisfied. job satisfaction and dissatisfaction are seen as opposites, the more favourable the common factors the more likely an employee is to experience job satisfaction (popović, maletić, & paunović, 2015). spector (1985) suggested that the concept is a sum of nine favourable factors, namely pay, promotion, supervision, benefits, contingent rewards, operating procedures, co-workers, nature of work and communication. rabbanee, yasmin and mamun (2016), bellani et al. (2018) and spector (1985) explained these as follows: pay: refers to the wages that form part of an employee’s compensation package for a given job. the perceived appropriateness of the level of wages to workplace demands is as important as perceptions of fairness when compared with those earned by other employees within the organisation and industry at large. promotion: the importance of access to promotional opportunities within the organisation for employees stems from the prospect that these would also provide for personal growth, improved social status and increased responsibility. supervision: this factor is concerned with how immediate supervisors manage their subordinates. a good supervisor can create an environment where employees feel safe and confident to fully express themselves. this can be achieved by valuing the opinions and views of employees and coming across as friendly and knowledgeable. benefits: these refer to employee fringe benefits, often seen as employers’ way for providing personal protection, which are made over and above pay and includes medical aid cover, tuition reimbursement and retirement savings. contingent rewards: these rewards may be of a financial or non-financial nature made by employers with the specific intention to express appreciation for outstanding performance. operating procedures: it refers to the collection of various rules, procedures and processes applicable within the organisation. an example would include the process for which project approvals would need to undergo before implementation. too much red tape has the potential to discourage employees. co-workers: given the rather protracted periods spent at work, social interaction is necessary for most employees. having friendly co-workers who can provide advice and support in the achievement of individual performance goals is preferred. nature of work: work is enjoyable only if its employees are satisfied with its various aspects. these include basic daily tasks and other periodic or special tasks that may be required from time to time. communication: the extent to which employees are informed about the organisation and things that impact the organisation is important, particularly those who pertain to their obligations to the organisation and work demands. communication is critical at all levels and should not be limited to the immediate supervisor and subordinate level. this study relies upon the operational definition of concept, which is provided as the sum of the nine factors of spector (1985). work engagement schaufeli (2012) mentioned that the concept of work engagement emerged in the 1990s and has since become very popular in academia and in business. it, along with job satisfaction, grew in popularity because of the general shift in organisational behaviour towards a positive psychological approach. its importance was further highlighted by the results of an international survey conducted in the late 1990s amongst chief executive officers. the survey found the absence of universally acceptable practices to enhance employee engagement to be in the top five challenges proposed in the survey (schaufeli, 2013). bakker (2017) stated that there are more than 100 studies validating a strong positive relationship between work engagement and organisational performance. following the review of more than 200 publications, schaufeli (2013) found common descriptions of work engagement based on four main approaches, namely the needs-satisfying approach rests on the desire of an employee to positively express himself or herself when performing their roles in the workplace. the burnout-antithesis approach consists of two main schools of thought. on the one hand, burnout is probably the most obvious to recognise and features to some extent in current literature. work engagement is thus, proposed as a way of avoiding the undesirable state of burnout. on the other hand, work engagement is not seen as quite the opposite of burnout but rather separate and is characterised by vigour, dedication and adsorption. the satisfaction-engagement approach emerged in the 1990s and the early 2000s and synonymises the concept of involvement, which was believed to largely make up engagement and satisfaction. in other words, a satisfied employee will be involved in the workplace. lastly, the multi-dimensional approach was established in the mid-2000s when various authors started using combinations of the needs-satisfying, burnout-antithesis and satisfaction approaches. as discussed earlier, bellani et al. (2018), garg et al. (2017), and tepayakul and rinthaisong (2018) suggested that satisfied employees are more likely to display higher work engagement levels. this implies a more focused state of interaction with the workplace, leading to improved performance. in support, viswesvaran, schmidt and ones (2005) stated that engaged employees are less prone to make mistakes and are generally more efficient. schaufeli and bakker (2004) introduced another perspective that focused on the direction of causality between job satisfaction and work engagement. it is suggested that work engagement is the initial source of job satisfaction in a continuous cycle wherein one results in the other. this study relied on the following definition of work engagement: a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigour, dedication and absorption. rather than a momentary and specific state, engagement refers to a more persistent and pervasive affective-cognitive state that is not focused on any particular object, event, individual or behavior [sic]. (schaufeli & bakker, 2004, p. 15) another definition referred to the concept as two dimensional, namely attention and absorption. saks (2006, p. 601) referred to the concept as the ‘psychological presence of an employee’. articulating the hypothesis statement: employees’ level of job satisfaction has a significant positive relationship with work engagement according to garg et al. (2017) various studies found job satisfaction to be closely related to work engagement. ludviga and kalvina (2016) supported this by highlighting the wide following in industry and academia on the idea that job satisfaction is an ascendant of work engagement. furthermore, it is reasonable to expect that an employee who has a positive feeling that resulted from favourable interaction between psychological, physical and environmental factors of the job and the workplace (job satisfaction) (aziri, 2011) would be more prone to vigour, dedication and adsorption in the workplace (work engagement) (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). yalabik et al. (2016) supported this by referring to the satiation–activation concept. satiation relates to satisfaction that results from the favourable outcome of the emotional evaluation of the job. activation refers to a positive state of directed behaviour and thus relates to work engagement. the idea is that satiation would inform activation. these findings from literature inform the hypothesis statement of the study as depicted in figure 1. figure 1: graphic representation of the hypothesis statement for the study. an employee would therefore, generally expect that being focused, dedicated and energetic would increase his or her performance, which in turn should bring about greater rewards, recognition and growth within the organisation. consequently, the likelihood of the said employee acquiring positive feelings about the organisation increases and it leads to job satisfaction. this satisfaction would then fuel work engagement and so on. the given discussions clearly affirm that job satisfaction positively influences the manner in which employees interact with their work. depending on the situation and their individual preferences, employees are either displeased with their jobs or draw pleasure from it. various studies in different sectors have provided evidence that performance is linked with job satisfaction (bakotić, 2016; khan et al., 2012; latif et al., 2013) and work engagement (kim et al., 2012; rana et al., 2019; yongxing et al., 2017). thus, the claim that the absence of job satisfaction is harmful to an organisation can be accepted. despite several studies on job satisfaction and work engagement being available in literature, little has been done in the context of the public sector and the national treasury, which is a key government department. thus, this study would address this gap. research design research approach this study is descriptive in nature as it aims to provide an accurate description of the study constructs and uses this information to determine the relationship between the two (allwood, 2012). the study also follows a quantitative research design as it relies on numerical data for measurement and testing (saunders, lewis, & thornhill, 2016). research method the study employed a cross-sectional design, which is one wherein phenomena is studied at a particular time (saunders et al., 2016). questionnaires were administered to all national treasury employees to obtain perceptions of job satisfaction and engagement. the envisaged relationship between the two study constructs was based on a review of literature and data collected were used to measure these constructs and test the hypothesis statement for the study. research participants and sample the research participants were the employees of the national treasury. an online census survey, wherein the questionnaires were sent to the entire population (n = 1189), was followed to ensure that the voices of all employees who wished to participate were included, to increase the likelihood of a good response rate and to ensure improved representation across various demographical factors. a response rate of 42.1%, 501 of 1189, was achieved. demographic information was collected on gender, job grade and level of education to better understand the respondents (see table 1). table 1: demographic information of respondents. closer inspection of table 1 reveals that most of the respondents were male respondents at 53.9% (270). a total of 25 respondents equalling 5.0% opted not to disclose their gender. for job grade, majority of the respondents were senior managers at 39.7% (199), followed by junior managers with 20.6% (103) and only 1 respondent indicated a job grade above level 16. the level of participation increases with the qualification level from national certificate to master’s degree. only 0.4% (2) of the respondents held national certificates, 0.8% (4) higher certificates and 2.2% (11) diplomas. those with bachelor’s degrees were 13.6% (68) and 26.1% (131) held an honours degree. most of the respondents had a master’s degree at 54.7% (274). measuring instruments this study used the english version of the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) by schaufeli and bakker (2004) and the original version job satisfaction survey (jss) by spector (1985) because these are amongst the most extensively used and recognised in the field (batura, skordis-worrall, thapa, basnyat, & morrison, 2016; wickramasinghe, dissanayake, & abeywardena, 2018). each have been designed to measure the constructs that are believed to make up work engagement and job satisfaction, based on the definitions discussed in the literature review section, as follows (schaufeli & bakker, 2004; spector, 1985): the uwes has a total of 17 items grouped within three subscales: firstly, the vigour subscale, which consists of 6 items. secondly, the dedication subscale, which consists of 5 items and lastly the adsorption subscale, which consists of 6 items. psychometric evaluation of the instrument was conducted across different counties including south africa confirming its factorial validity, reliability, stability upon test retest and cross-national applicability. the jss has a total of 36 items within nine subscales: all subscales consist of 4 items and are meant to measure pay, promotion, supervision, benefits, contingent rewards, operating procedures, co-workers, nature of work and communication. a psychometric evaluation of the instrument was conducted across 19 organisations in the public, service, non-profit sectors and municipal public works. in all cases, the proposed nine factor solution was confirmed, appropriateness of its use across various service organisation types, stability upon test resting and reliability were also illustrated. both developers of the surveys established validity by using factor analysis. both instruments have also been used in various other studies (jacobs, renard, & snelgar, [2014]; musenze & mayende [2020]; steyn, [2016]) for uwes and ani & mirela [2016]; maleka, paul-dachapalli, ragadu, schultz, & van hoek, [2020]; syeda, nighat, & syeda, [2017] for jss) and their validities illustrated, with high interrelations between the proposed factors usually resulting (kulikoski, 2019). this study relied on the face validity of the instruments, which was carried through the pre-testing process wherein three practicing human resource experts in a government department were requested to review the instruments as recommended by taherdoost (2016), and all agreed that it seemed to measure what it should measure and thus constitute face validity (saunders et al., 2016). a professor of human resources management also reviewed the instrument and has also provided this confirmation. both authors recommended the use of the likert-scale approach to obtain data and suggest the use of mean scores to interpret results. the closer the mean score to the highest possible positive response option, the greater the presence of the construct measured by the respective scale. the opposite would be true for those close to the lowest possible response option. this study opted for a 7-point likert scale, starting from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’, as lower scales have been criticised for providing options that are radically different from each other (joshi, kale, chandel, & pal, 2015). response options were assigned values from 1 to 7, from lowest to highest options with the highest being preferred. the basis of this ranked superiority stems from the context of the questionnaire items in the field of organisational behaviour, for instance; a ‘7’, or strongly agree, for ‘at work, i feel bursting with energy’ which is one of the items of the uwes. saunders et al. (2016) and manikandan (2011) further suggested the use of graphic representations of frequency distributions, such as frequency polygons, as these make it easy to summarise total data gathered while also showing the skewness of data. skewness refers to the extent to which a distribution curve deviates from a normal curve wherein the curve would peak on the centre value, which is 4 in this study. a negatively skewed polygon, indicating more positive scores, would peak on the positive side, which would be on the right-hand side of the centre value (saunders et al., 2016). for reliability, cronbach’s alphas of 0.865 and 0.861 were obtained, respectively, for the pilot study using 37 respondents. for the main study, as shown in tables 2 and 3, overall values of 0.975 and 0.952 were obtained, which are above the recommendation of 0.7. the average inter-item correlation was also used with values ranging between 0.20 and 0.4 indicative of reliability in cases where cronbach’s alpha was below 0.7 as recommended by pallant (2007). table 2: frequency distribution for job satisfaction survey. table 3: frequency distribution for utrecht work engagement scale. research procedure and ethical considerations the data were collected using an online survey, which was sent to all national treasury (n = 1189) employees. given the sensitivity of the subject and to ensure that respondents were as truthful as possible, the study was anonymous and respondents were informed of this anonymity in a signed letter by the researcher that was included in the email, which contained the link to the online survey. participation was voluntary and respondents were also free to withdraw during the survey. written permission to obtain data from the employees and to publish the national treasury name was obtained from the director general. the ethics committee of a university in gauteng granted ethical clearance for the study. statistical analysis descriptive and inferential statistical data analysis methods were used via the statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 25. frequency tables (tables 2 and 3) show the mean and standard deviation used for the descriptive analysis. multiple linear regression was used to test for the direction and strength of the relationship between job satisfaction, including its nine components as provided by spector (1985) and work engagement. responses received for all negatively worded items were reversed for the ease of analysis. results level of job satisfaction and work engagement the total mean value of 5.151 for the responses relating to job satisfaction (table 2) and that of 5.789 for the responses relating to work engagement (table 3) are both above the centre value of 4 indicating appropriate levels. however, there is still room for improvement for both as the former is closer to the third best-preferred option, which is 5 on the likert scale. the latter is closer to the second-best preferred option, which is 6 on the likert scale. to provide a more detailed summary, the total number of responses received in each response category was used to construct the frequency polygon for job satisfaction and work engagement (figure 2). the centre value of 4 is illustrated with a red vertical line in the frequency polygon. the frequency polygon peaks on the right-hand of the centre, which indicates negatively skewed responses and implies more positive results. this supports the interpretation made using the mean. figure 2: frequency polygon for job satisfaction and work engagement at national treasury. results from hypothesis testing multiple linear regression analysis was conducted using spss and interpreted using the guidance of dhakal (2018). all assumptions of regression were met, with n = 326 used after outliers were removed using mahalanobis distance. its maximum value started at 138.36 but was soon reduced to 27.76 after 10 iterations of removing outliers by spss. this is below the suggested critical value of 27.88 determined by using a chi-square table with 9 as our degrees of freedom as 9 predictors were loaded in the regression model (pallant, 2007). the analysis of variance (anova) table is the first output of the multiple linear regression model and indicates whether the model has statistical significance. a p-value below the level of significance of 0.05, used in this study, indicates that the predictors predict the dependent variable in a statistically significant manner. the coefficient of determination (r2) provides for the proportion of the variance explained by the predictors. the r2 value of 0.491, indicates that 49.1% of the variance in work engagement is explained by job satisfaction and is close to the threshold of what would be considered a strong explanation of variance, which is usually 0.5 (gogtay & thatte, 2017). the model also provides p-values for each predictor to help identify those with noteworthy impact using the beta coefficient (b). b indicates the exact value change in the dependent value that would result when the particular predictor increases or decreases by one unit (dhakal, 2018; pallant, 2007). accordingly, the following predictors are determined to predict work engagement in a statistically significant manner (table 4): with one unit increase in promotion, work engagement increases by 0.058. with one unit increase in benefits, work engagement increases by 0.438. with one unit increase operating procedures, work engagement decreases by 0.060. with one unit increase in nature of work, work engagement decreases by 0.052. with one unit increase in communication, work engagement increases by 0.595. table 4: validation of hypothesis statement. discussion outline of results it is important to observe the idea that the poor government audit outcomes relate to national treasury’s inability to adequately perform the annual budget preparation and the budget implementation monitoring functions, through its employees as suggested by department of national treasury (2019). if the premise that job satisfaction and work engagement are amongst notable antecedents for good employee performance, the results of this study would seem to support the idea. while noting that there is a vast number of antecedents to employee performance, further research has suggested that job satisfaction (m = 5.151) and work engagement (m = 5.789) are amongst the more significant predictors (schaufeli & bakker, 2004; zuñiga-collazos et al., 2019) and have been found to need improvement in the case of national treasury. results from the regression analysis corroborate the established view, largely in the private sector, that job satisfaction notably facilitates work engagement (r2 = 0.491, p < 0.000) even in the case of the public sector, despite the inherent differences between the two. the results also seem to support the notions of lambert et al. (2015) and gable and haidt (2005) that employees are not entirely driven by money as pay was found not to be a notable predictor of work engagement (p = 0.678). furthermore, however, knowledge of the prospect for personal growth and personal protection provided by the employer, which underpins positive emotions and promotes feelings of being valued by the employer, can be achieved through improved access to opportunities for promotion (b = 0.058, p < 0.000) and good fringe benefits (b = 0.438, p < 0.000), respectively, as suggested by uysal, aydemir and genc (2017). both of which were found to be significant predictors of work engagement as indicated. this also aligns with the statement of lambert et al. (2015) that experiences of positive emotions are beneficial as they broaden perceptive and facilitate focus and attention, which are some components of work engagement (saks, 2006). it is not surprising that communication is found to be the strongest predictor (b = 0.595, p < 0.000). schaufeli and taris (2014) mentioned that the appropriate alignment between job demands, which refers to physical and mental effort required in a job and job resources, which refers to aspects of the job that facilitate the performance of work tasks, prevents burnout, which is seen as the opposite of work engagement. bucăţa and rizescu (2017) mentioned that without communication not only will employees not know what is expected from them but will also not know which job resources are at their disposal and how to access these. thus, the inadequate use of job resources may thus ensue increasing the likelihood of burnout. the direction of the relationship between work engagement and nature of work (b = –0.052, p = 0.001) and operating procedures (b = –0.060, p < 0.000) as predictors were found to be negative. perhaps this links with the widespread belief that the public sector jobs are typically not challenging and that the sector cannot provide job resources to the level of the private sector (do monte, 2017; zuñiga-collazos et al., 2019), thus entrants already come into the sector with low expectations relating to the nature of work and operating procedures. practical implications the study suggests that employees can be kept vigorous, dedicated and absorbed in their work, which all relate to improved employee performance, by igniting positive feelings about the job which is job satisfaction and happens to be amongst some of the more recognised antecedents for work engagement (aziri, 2011; schaufeli & bakker, 2004). as the south african government is facing challenging financial times, which implies that salaries cannot be as easily increased as before (department of national treasury, 2020), other non-monetary aspects of job satisfaction need to be carefully considered to promote superior employee performance. the findings confirmed that supervision, assuming a level of significance of 0.10, and communication can be used to improve on work engagement. thus, managers and team leaders at the treasury need to provide appropriate and supportive supervision. for human resource managers communication, at all levels, needs to be prioritised as it was found to be the strongest predictor for work engagement. a dedicated two-way communication system, where employees and managers and employees with other employees can freely and without prejudice express themselves may be useful. limitations and recommendations for future research the researcher (rlt) is an employee of the national treasury and colleagues, perhaps not entirely convinced of anonymity, may have given slightly more positive responses. this may have led to the overestimation of both the constructs measured. the research design of the study wherein structured data collection instruments were used may have effectively silenced other views on the topic, which the researchers may not have necessarily conceptualised. this study is also rather employee focused and does not take into account the views of the minister and the director general of the national treasury who collectively own all organisational policies including those relating to human resources (department of national treasury, 2019). it has been highlighted that job satisfaction and work engagement are well researched in the private sector and not in the public sector (inuwa, 2016; ziapour & kianipour, 2015). given the absence of market competitiveness, which is shown to usually drive a culture of satisfaction, engagement and performance from top levels to the very bottom levels (zuñiga-collazos et al., 2019) research directed thereto is important for the public sector. this is also supported by the sentiment of macleod and clarke (2009) that the work of this sector impacts government service delivery. conclusion this study set out to determine the level of job satisfaction and work engagement at the national treasury, and whether the former is a significant predictor of the latter as the first step towards supporting the owners of its policies to develop an intervention plan. the poor audit outcomes observed for national government suggested that national treasury is not performing the budget preparation and budget implementation monitoring functions adequately. as these functions are carried out by employees because national treasury is a service organisation, it is further suggested that employee performance may be inadequate. given that job satisfaction and work engagement are amongst the more recognised ways to improve employee performance, understanding its dynamics may be useful. the need for an intervention plan is further supported by the fact that there are scores as low as the strongly disagree and disagree options, which is 1 and 2 on the likert scale used. these have been observed for job satisfaction (n = 49) and work engagement (n = 8). through social interaction, employees can influence each other’s views (schaufeli & bakker, 2004; schaufeli & taris, 2014). thus, swift intervention is necessary to limit the possibility of the lesser satisfied and engaged employees influencing those with more positive views. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contributions r.l.t. conducted the research and wrote the article. v.n. and t.h.h.h. supervised the research and co-wrote the article. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for a research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data can be shared anytime for the purpose of this publication’s processes and is available on request from the corresponding author r.l.t. disclaimer the views expressed in this article are those of the authors’ own and not an official position of any particular institution or funder. references abu-shamaa, r., al-rabayah, w.a., & khasawneh, r.t. (2015). the effect of job satisfaction and work engagement on organizational commitment. the iup journal of organizational behavior, 14(4), 1–27. allwood, c.m. (2012). the distinction between qualitative and quantitative research methods is problematic. quality and quantity: international journal of methodology, 46(5), 1417–1429. alzyoud, a.a.a. (2018). job satisfaction and work engagement moderated by trust. international journal of economics, commerce and management, 6(11), 125–139. ani, m., & mirela, f. (2016). exploring the job satisfaction of public and private employees. proceedings of the 10th international conference on business administration, 13–15 february (pp. 138–144). barcelona: social science research network. arifin, z., nirwanto, n., & manan, a. (2019). improving the effect of work satisfaction on job performance through employee engagement. international journal of multi discipline science, 2(1), 1–9. auditor-general of south africa. (2017). auditor-general reports a slow but noticeable four-year improvement in national and provincial government audit results. pretoria: auditor-general of south africa. auditor-general of south africa. (n.d.). the role of the auditor-general. retrieved from http://www.agsa.co.za/portals/0/audit101/the_role_of_the_auditor-general.pdf. aziri, z. (2011). job satisfaction: a literature review. management research and practice, 3(4), 77–86. bakker, a.b. (2017). strategic and proactive approaches to work engagement. organisational dynamics, 46, 67–75. bakotić, d. (2016). relationship between job satisfaction and organisational performance. economic research-ekonomska istraživanja, 29(1), 118–130. batura, n., skordis-worrall, j., thapa, r., basnyat, r., & morrison, j. (2016). is the job satisfaction survey a good tool to measure job satisfaction amongst health workers in nepal? results of a validation analysis, bmc health services research, 16(308), 1–13. bellani, e., ramadhani, s., & tamar, m. (2018). job satisfaction as predictor of employee engagement. proceedings of 8th international conference of asian association of indigenous and cultural psychology, indonesia, 21–23 august (pp. 15–19). paris: atlantis press. bhorat, a., naidoo, k., & yu, d. (2014). trade unions in an emerging economy: the case of south africa. wider working paper 2014/055. tokyo: united nations university. bucăţa, g., & rizescu, a.m. (2017). the role of communication in enhancing work effectiveness in an organization. land forces academy review, 23(85), 49–57. department of national treasury. (2011). local government budgets and expenditure review: 2007/07 – 2012/13. pretoria: government printer. department of national treasury. (2015). strategic plan 2015 to 2019. pretoria: government printer. department of national treasury. (2019). annual performance plan. pretoria: government printer. department of national treasury. (2020). 2020 budget review. pretoria: government printer. dhakal, c. (2018). interpreting the basic outputs (spss) of multiple linear regression. international journal of science and research, 7, 1448–1452. do monte, p. (2017). public versus private sector: do workers’ behave differently? economia, 18(2017), 229–243. field, j. (2008). job satisfaction model for retention. retrieved from http://talentedapps.wordpress.com/2008/04/11/job-satisfaction-model-for-retention gable, s.l., & haidt, j. (2005). what (and why) is positive psychology? review of general psychology, 9(2), 103–110. garg, k., dar, i.a., & mishra, m. (2017). job satisfaction and work engagement: a study using private sector bank managers. advances in developing human resources, 20(1), 1–14. gilbreth, f.b. (1911). motion study: a method for increasing the efficiency of the workman. new york: sturgis and walton. gogtay, n.j., & thatte, u.m. (2017). principles of correlation analysis. journal of the association of physicians of india, 65, 78–81. inuwa, m. (2016). job satisfaction and employee performance: an empirical approach. the millennium university journal, 1(1), 90–103. jacobs, s., renard, m., & snelgar, r. (2014). intrinsic rewards and work engagement in the south african retail industry, south africa journal of industrial psychology, 40(2), 1–13. joshi, a., kale, s., chandel, s., & pal, d.k. (2015). likert scale: explored and explained. british journal of applied science and technology, 7(4), 396–403. khan, a., khan, s., nawaz, a., & qureshi, q.a. (2013). theories of job-satisfaction: global applications & limitations. gomal university journal of research, 26(2), 45–62. khan, a., & khandaker, s. (2016). public and private organisation: how different or similar are they? journal of siberian federal university. humanities & social sciences, 12(2016), 2873–2885. khan, a.h., nawaz, m.m., aleem, m., & hamed, w. (2012). impact of job satisfaction on employee performance: an empirical study of autonomous medical institutions of pakistan. african journal of business management, 6(7), 2697–2705. kim, w., kolb, j.a., & kim, t. (2012). the relationship between work engagement and performance: a review of empirical literature and a proposed research agenda. human resource development review, 12(3), 248–276. kulikowski, k. (2019). measurement of work engagement with single-item measure. polish psychological bulletin, 49(4), 406–415. lambert, l., pasha-zaidi, n., passmore, h.-a., & york al-karam, c. (2015). developing an indigenous positive psychology in the united arab emirates. middle east journal of positive psychology, 1(1), 1–23. latif, m.m., ahmad, s., qasim, m., mushtaq, m., ferdoos, a., & naeem, h. (2013). impact of employee’s job satisfaction on organizational performance. european journal of business and management, 5(5), 166–171. lopez, s.j., & gallagher, m.w. (2009). a case for positive psychology. in j. lopez & c.r. snyder (eds.), the oxford handbook of positive psychology (pp. 3–6). oxford: oxford university press. ludviga, i., & kalvina, a. (2016). exploring the relationships between job satisfaction, work engagement and loyalty of academic staff. international journal of social, behavioural, educational, economic, business and industrial engineering, 10(1), 99–105. macleod, d., & clarke, n. (2009). engaging for success: enhancing performance through employee engagement. a report to the government of the united kingdom. richmond: office of the public sector information. maleka, m., paul-dachapalli, l., ragadu, s., schultz, c., & van hoek, l, (2020), performance management, vigour, and training and development as predictors of job satisfaction in low-income workers, south african journal of human resources management, 18(2020), 1–10. manikandan, s. (2011). frequency distribution. journal of pharmacology and pharmacotherapeutics, 2(1), 54–56. mills, m., fleck, c., & kozikowski, a. (2013). positive psychology at work: a conceptual review, state-of-practice assessment, and a look ahead. the journal of positive psychology, 8(2), 153–164. mogab, j., kishan, r., & vacaflores, d.e. (2013). labour market rigidity and foreign direct investment: the case of europe. applied econometrics and international development, 13(1), 35–54. musenze, t., & mayende, t. (2020). a psychometric evaluation of a the 17-itemed utrecht work engagement scale in uganda, african journal of psychological assessment, 2(0), 1–9. orin, c.d. (2010). why the workplace needs positive psychology. retrieved from http://qllab.org/publications/pospsychworkingpaper_orindavis.pdf pallant, j. (2007). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using spss for windows. maidenhead: open university press. parliament of south africa. (2016). how the budget works for us. pretoria: government printer. popović, b., maletić, r., & paunović, t. (2015). employee satisfaction survey in function of business improvement. journal of sustainable business and management solution in emerging economies, 20(76), 31–40. rabbanee, f., yasmin, s., & mamun, a. (2016). determinants of job satisfaction: a study on bangladesh perspective. international research of commerce and behavioural science, 1(8), 28–34. rana, s., pant, d., & chopra, p. (2019). work engagement and individual work performance: research findings and an agenda for employee relationships. journal of emerging technologies and innovative research, 6(5), 17–32. republic of south africa. (1995). labour relations act, no 33 of 1995. pretoria: government printers. republic of south africa. (1999). public finance management act, no 1 of 1999. pretoria: government printers. saks, a.m. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619. saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2016). research methods for business students. harlow: pearson education ltd. schaufeli, w.b. (2012). work engagement. what do we know and where do we go? romanian journal of applied psychology, 14(1), 3–10. schaufeli, w.b. (2013). what is engagement? in: c. truss, k. alfes, a. delbridge, a. shantz, & e. soane, (eds.), employee engagement in theory and practice (pp. 15–36). london: routledge. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a. (2004). utrecht work engagement scale. domplein: utrecht university. schaufeli, w.b., & taris, t.w. (2014). a critical review of the job demands-resources model: implications for improving work and health. in: g.g. bauer & o. hamming (eds.), bridging occupational, organizational and public health: a transdisciplinary approach (pp. 1–11). dordrecht: springer. seligman, m.e.p. (1994). what you can change & what you can’t. new york, ny: knopf. seligman, m.e.p., & csikszentmihalyi, m. (2000). positive psychology: an introduction. american psychologist, 55(1), 5–14. skaalsvik, h. (2017). service branding: suggesting and discussing four perspectives influencing a value-creating service brand at the company level. retrieved from https://www.intechopen.com/books/advancing-insights-on-brand-management/service-branding-suggesting-and-discussing-four-perspectives-influencing-a-value-creating-service-br spector, p.e. (1985). measurement of human service staff satisfaction: development of the job satisfaction survey. american journal of community psychology, 13(6), 693–713. syeda, b., nighat, p., & syeda, b. (2017). emotional intelligence and job commitment: meditational role of job satisfaction and job performance. pakistan business review, 18(4), 904–923. steyn, r. (2016). sex differences and work engagement: a study across 27 south african companies. journal of contemporary management, 13, 461–481. taherdoost, h. (2016). validity and reliability of the research instrument; how to test the validation of a questionnaire/survey in a research. international journal of academic research in management, 5(3), 28–36. taylor, f.w. (1919). the principles of scientific management. new york, ny: harper and brothers publishers. tepayakul, r., & rinthaisong, i. (2018). job satisfaction and employee engagement among human resources staff of thai private higher education institutions. the journal of behavioral science, 13(2), 68–81. uysal, h.t., aydemir, s., & genc, e. (2017). maslow’s hierarchy of needs in 21st century: the examination of vocational differences. in: a. hasan, a. elliott, & r. turgeon (eds.), researches on science and art in 21st century turkey (2nd ed., pp. 211–227). ankara: gece kitapligi. viswesvaran, c., schmidt, f.l., & ones, d.s. (2005). is there a general factor in ratings of job performance? a meta-analytic framework for disentangling substantive and error influences. journal of applied psychology, 90(1), 108–131. wickramasinghe, n., dissanayake, d., & abeywardena, g. (2018). validity and reliability of the utrecht work engagement scale‑student version in sri lanka, bmc res notes, 17(277), 1–6. wright, t.a. (2006). the emergence of job satisfaction in organisational behaviour. journal management history, 12(3), 262–277. yalabik, z.y., rayton, b.a., & rapti, a. (2016). facets of job satisfaction and work engagement. evidence-based human resource management, 5(3), 248–265. yongxing, g., hongfei, d., baoguo, x., & lei, m. (2017). work engagement and job performance: the moderating role of perceived organizational support. anales de psicología, 33(3), 708–713. ziapour, a., & kianipour, n. (2015). a study of the relationship between characteristic traits and employee engagement (a case study of nurses across kermanshah, iran in 2015). journal of medicine and life, 8(3), 134–140. zuñiga-collazos, a., castillo-palacio, m., & padilla-delgado, l. (2019). organizational competitiveness: the conceptualization and its evolution. journal of tourism and hospitality management, 7(1), 195–211. abstract introduction critical evaluation of the literature research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) mark h.r. bussin gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa nokwanda n. thabethe gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa citation bussin, m. h. r., & thabethe, n. n. (2018). reward preferences in south africa’s media industry. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a1010. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.1010 original research reward preferences in south africa’s media industry mark h.r. bussin, nokwanda n. thabethe received: 17 nov. 2017; accepted: 30 may 2018; published: 31 july 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: employee remuneration is a key driver of employee engagement and thus organisational performance. a thorough understanding of employee needs is essential to enable management to develop an equitable mix in reward strategy. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to examine context-specific reward preferences in order to determine the overall reward preferences of employees in the media industry with the aim of improving existing reward strategies. motivation for the study: the focus on reward preferences has emerged as a critical element in identifying what really motivates productive behaviour within the workplace. a better understanding of reward preferences is required to find ways to improve performance within the world of work. research approach/design and method: the research was a quantitative, empirical and descriptive study of reward preferences in an industry-specific context. a self-administered survey was used as a measure and analysed using non-parametric tests to identify variances between dependent and independent groups, testing for internal consistency and non-parametric analysis of variance (anova). main findings: the following five reward preferences were rated as most important by participants: base pay or salary, merit increase that is linked to personal performance, incentives and bonus, safety and security at the workplace, and market-related salary. the results indicated that monthly salary (base pay) is the most preferred and/or significant reward category in attracting, retaining and motivating employees. practical/managerial implications: managers in south africa’s media industry should investigate their organisations’ rewards through the perspective of the total rewards concept to assess and develop an equitable mix in reward strategy. a comprehensive analysis of reward preferences is required to ensure that all aspects that promote the attraction, retention and motivation of employees are taken into consideration. the importance of base pay should not be under-estimated as it represents the most significant reward preference for employees in the south african media industry. contribution/value add: this study adds to the body of social science research, providing a deeper understanding of reward preferences, specifically in the context-specific setting. introduction problem statement the 21st century organisations face an economically difficult, highly competitive and ever-changing working environment. the demands on business are therefore to find work structures suitable to a dynamic, diverse and ambiguous workplace. the quality of human resources is of great importance to the success of any organisation, specifically in uncertain working contexts. in terms of employees, organisations require energy, dedication and engagement. bearing these challenges in mind, organisations need to focus on acquiring and retaining talented employees and keeping them actively engaged in their work (frank, finnegan, & taylor, 2004). key focus of the study an important area in talent management and organisational management is employee engagement. promoting employee engagement is a key strategy that can be adopted to attract, retain and motivate skilled workers in a complex and dynamic workplace in order to remain competitive (kerr-phillips & thomas, 2009). understanding reward preferences is one of the key ways in which employee engagement can be realised. background to the study according to boyd and salamin (2001), employees offer a significant source of a sustainable competitive advantage for organisations. this was further detailed in a study by ferreira (2012), which found that the challenges of work in the 21st century have an influence on attracting and retaining employees and that employers need to adopt a vigorous approach when developing employment and retention practices within the organisation. having the right talent in essential roles is of strategic importance and is linked to the ability to attract, engage and retain talent, leading to competitive advantage. a report by the south african board for people practices (2014) listed the shortage of research on factors influencing employee engagement and the poor alignment or integration of people management as the widest gaps in understanding how south african organisations can best leverage their biggest source of competitive advantage. labour market efficiency, which is a key determinant in driving productivity and competitiveness, is a primary indicator of sustainable economic growth. the global competitiveness report 2014–2015 ranks south africa 136 out of 144 countries in pay and productivity (world economic forum, 2015). this rating suggests that the pay scale (remuneration) of organisations within the south african economy is not strongly related to employee productivity. this can potentially hamper the country’s competitiveness as it impacts on organisations’ ability to deliver on their strategic objectives, can reduce the competitiveness and productivity of organisations and can lower innovation and creativity. this is a worrisome assessment when considering that employees provide an important source of a sustainable competitive advantage for organisations. as a result, employee remuneration calls for a thorough understanding of employee needs and reward preferences to enable management to develop an equitable mix in reward strategy. a well-designed and relevant reward strategy can enhance the performance of employees and thus positively influence the realisation of the overall organisational objectives. employee reward is therefore an important topic where innovation is required to optimise people practices, differentiate organisations in the labour market and place organisations in a better position to attract, motivate and retain skilled employees to support sustainable growth. armstrong (2012) and meyer, mukerjee and sestero (2001) argue that reward strategies are crucial elements of any human resources (hr) strategy, and they play a strategic role in developing the performance and profitability of an organisation. furthermore, armstrong (2012) argues that reward strategy actually delivers performance by helping to foster a high-performance culture; identifying and rewarding key skills, competencies and performance; and making certain that reward systems are market-based, fair and cost-effective. according to mckinsey (2012), the global shortage of skills has resulted in a ‘war for talent’ with a progressively competitive backdrop for recruiting and retaining skilled employees. this has resulted in a strategic business challenge where talent serves as a critical driver of organisational performance (michaels, handfield-jones, & axelrod, 2001). organisations can better respond to attraction and retention concerns by understanding the reward preferences that employees have. an early study by horwitz, heng and quazi (2003) identified the need to differentiate hr practices to manage different groups and identified competitive pay packages as the most effectual strategy. trends from the research literature snelgar, renard and venter (2013) argue that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ reward approach is no longer effective, especially considering that employee retention and motivation are a serious challenge in south africa. the implications of this are that there is a need for a contemporary understanding of which rewards are preferred by employees to develop strategies for attracting and retaining key staff (bussin & toerien, 2015). perrow (1986) notes the importance of incentives and self-interest in organisations. in this context, agency theory provides the theoretical foundation for the understanding of reward systems, as the assumption is that employees will not make any more effort than the level that is equal to the value for the pay they are receiving. this leads to the practical interpretation that organisations should tailor their compensation in a way that gets the desired behaviours from employees (armstrong, 2012). it follows that clear and tailored rewards strategies should then result in reward policies and practices, which provide guidelines and action plans formulated to reward and motivate employees. research by nienaber, bussin and henn (2011) in south africa showed that total rewards models structured according to employee preferences are instrumental in the attraction, motivation and retention of key employees. furthermore, schaufeli and bakker (2004) found that positive attitudes towards work such as organisational commitment, motivation and job involvement are also related to employee engagement. research objectives this research examined context-specific reward preferences to determine the overall reward preferences of employees in the media industry. the implications of the findings can be used to improve existing reward strategies, as opposed to mimicking other organisations’ reward practices, which may not be in line with their context-specific culture. an additional objective was to deepen the understanding of reward preferences in the context-specific setting of the media industry. the pricewaterhousecoopers (2015) media outlook report argues that south africa’s media market will continue its run of double-digit year-on-year growth, as it had recorded an 11.5% rise to reach r112.7 billion in 2014. the industry forecasts a healthy compound annual growth rate (cagr) rise of 9.4% by 2019, reaching r176.3 bn. the media sector is set to be a major generator of economic value, and the industry revenue growth is set to outstrip the country’s economic growth. organisations, therefore, need to ensure that they are strategically positioned and leverage this projected growth. as employees have been recognised as the source of competitive advantage, effective rewards should be used to influence the attraction, retention and motivation of key, critical and talented individuals, who must be obtained and kept in order for the industry to be competitive. current economic growth in south africa is slow (world bank, 2016), and with accompanying economic volatility, employee reward preferences are bound to change. specifically, money becomes a deficiency need, making it important to look at the impact of rewards on engagement. organisations need to look at the perspective of total rewards focusing on tangible and intangible reward elements (royal, 2014). research questions the following research questions were investigated in this study: research question 1: what reward preferences do employees in the media industry have? research question 2: what are the reward preferences that promote attraction in the media industry? research question 3: what are the reward preferences that promote retention in the media industry? research question 4: what are the reward preferences that promote motivation in the media industry? research question 5: do demographic variables play a significant role in determining the different reward preferences of employees within the media industry? what will follow? the article will commence with various theories underlying rewards and reward preferences. thereafter, the research method used to contest or support the findings of the literature review will be detailed. the research questions will be answered in the results section, and a discussion section, elaborating on the results, will commence thereafter. critical evaluation of the literature in this study, rewards refer to the sum of financial (basic pay, variable pay and employee benefits) and non-financial compensations, such as recognition, learning and development opportunities and increased job responsibility, paid by organisations to employees in exchange for their services (jiang, xiao, qi, & xiao, 2009). horwitz et al. (2003) and kwon and hein (2013) identified competitive monetary rewards as a basis for attracting and retaining employees. for this reason, compensation formed the base of this research and was considered as one of the key factors influencing employee engagement and achieving organisational success. according to bamberger and levi (2009) and bussin and toerien (2015), rewards impact on performance and productivity; so, the alignment of reward strategies with organisational strategies can ensure organisational effectiveness, positive outcomes and increased employee effort, which are important combinations for organisations to ensure competitive advantage. it is therefore important to invest in total rewards programmes (deloitte consulting, 2014). in the ever-changing work environment, snelgar et al. (2013) conclude that a standard ‘one-size-fits-all’ reward approach is no longer effective, especially considering that employee retention and motivation are a serious challenge in south africa. it has been suggested that reward preferences vary based on a number of factors, and preferences may differ across industries and are influenced by various demographic factors. theoretical underpinning – agency theory according to perrow (1986), agency theory holds that employees will not make any more effort than the level that is equal to the value for the pay they are receiving. implications for organisations are that they should tailor their compensation in a way that gets the desired behaviours from employees (armstrong, 2012). according to the human resource practice, agency theory draws attention to the different interests and goals of an organisation’s stakeholders and the way that employee remuneration can be used to align these interests and goals. in the organisation, employers and employees are the two stakeholders, where the employers assume the role of principals and the employees the role of agents. in this context, the compensation payable to employees is the agency cost. according to the theory, the principal must choose a contracting scheme (reward strategy) that helps align the interests of the agents with the principal’s own interests. a study by nienaber et al. (2011) and one by snelgar et al. (2013) found that reward preferences differ in the employee attraction, retention and motivation lifecycle. the study found that base pay (monetary rewards) was the biggest factor in attracting employees, whereas career management (non-monetary rewards) was the biggest factor in motivating employees. contrary to the above studies, bhengu and bussin (2012) showed that monetary rewards were the third-most important influencing factor in attracting, retaining and motivating employees. there is thus conflicting evidence in evaluating the importance of reward in attracting, retaining and motivating employees. according to stahl et al. (2012), a holistic total reward approach is required for effectiveness across the attraction, retention and motivation life cycle. studies by bloom and michael (2002), levine (1991) and pfeffer and langton (1993) found that unrestricted compensation practices are related to employee cooperation, involvement, satisfaction and commitment; however, they did not examine specific compensation practices. in response to the current economic crisis and talent or skills shortages, organisations are concerned with keeping employees engaged and motivating them under such circumstances. as a result, renewed focus on compensation as a catalyst that boosts productivity and having clearly defined reward strategies is essential in improving performance that lends itself to productivity and gives an incentive for employees to perform. motivation is defined by steers and porter (1991) as a process by which behaviour is energised, directed and sustained to help organisations increase their productivity and is interconnected with engagement. first-hand studies by alexander (1993), hall (1986), strauss and wohart (2004) and wakeford (2004) found higher remuneration stimulated employee productivity via the efficiency wage argument. contrary to the argument that higher remuneration stimulated employee productivity, research by horwitz et al. (2003) found non-monetary rewards to being the most influential in motivating employees, and consequently, pay and benefits had limited impact on motivating employees. this assertion is supported by the findings of scott, mcmullen, royal and stark (2010), who stated that organisations need to look at utilising total rewards strategies (including both monetary and non-monetary rewards) to promote employee engagement. theoretical framework surrounding rewards according to wilson (2003), the purpose of reward systems is to establish an efficient way to deliver positive outcomes for contribution towards desired performance as it influences the actions of individuals. total rewards, according to the worldatwork total rewards model (the main reward model that forms the basis for this study), describes reward strategies as a combination of five elements of reward in order to create value for the organisation and its employees. it is considered as everything of value that forms part of the relationship between an employer and an employee (medcof & rumpel, 2007). according to worldatwork (2010), the following five elements of reward have a direct relationship on an organisation’s ability to attract, motivate and retain employees: compensation or remuneration: any pay provided by an employer to an employee for services rendered. benefits: programmes employers use as an add-on to any cash compensation that employees receive. work–life: a set of various organisational practices that support efforts for employees to achieve success both at work and at home. performance and recognition: alignment of employee effort to the achievement of business goals and the acknowledgment of these efforts. development and career opportunities: learning experiences that enhance employees’ skills and competencies and support of individual plans to advance career goals. the basic premise is that when these elements are properly designed, it results in reward strategies (defined as the direct development and operation of reward practices) that inform reward policies and practices. these practices and policies in turn provide guidelines and action plans formulated to reward and motivate employees (kwon & hein, 2013). research by nienaber et al. (2011) showed that total rewards models structured according to employee preferences are instrumental in the attraction, motivation and retention of key employees. according to schaufeli, salanova and gonza´lez-roma´ (2002), employee engagement is defined as a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterised by energy, commitment and concentration. employee engagement is a critical driver of success in organisations (al mehrzi & singh, 2016) and is believed to manifest when employees experience an ideal fit and identification of self and their work roles. employee engagement is linked to higher productivity and lower attrition, and as a result, the concept of engagement has become a fundamental determinant of organisational success. the drivers of employee engagement are critical factors that lead to employee engagement and create the feeling by employees of being valued and involved. aon (2015) listed career opportunity, reputation and compensation as the top three engagement drivers across markets and regions from 2013 to 2015 (rama devi, 2009). a study by schaufeli and bakker (2004) further indicated that positive attitudes towards work, such as organisational commitment, motivation and job involvement, are related to employee engagement. al mehrzi and singh (2016) found that other correlates of employee engagement including perceived organisational support, leadership, teamwork and organisational culture significantly affect employee engagement through employee motivation. according to cropanzo and mitchell (2005), the social exchange theory presumes that when individuals are happy with the rewards provided by the prospective or current organisation, individuals reciprocate with positive attitudes that in turn increase levels of commitment and performance which leads to an increase in productivity (newman & sheikh, 2011). a study by misra, jain and sood (2013) agreed with newman and sheikh (2011), asserting that when desired rewards are received, individuals respond with greater levels of engagement which is linked to positively influencing motivation, performance and a desire to remain with an organisation. coffman and gonzalez-molina (2002) found that employee engagement has a statistically significant relationship with productivity, profitability, employee retention and business success. bakker and demerouti (2008) concluded that an engaged employee is willing and able to contribute to the success of the organisation, putting discretionary effort into their work, going beyond the required minimum to get the job done as engagement is a predictor of overall job satisfaction, and reducing employee turnover (kurnia & welly, 2015). reward preferences – attraction, retention and motivation schuler and rogovsky (1998) and von glinow (1985) argue that there is a close interdependence between organisations’ rewards, motivation and the culture in which the organisation is embedded. considering this, it is surprising that the influence of industry-specific culture on reward preferences remains largely unexplored. lawler (1995), wilson (1995) and zingheim and schuster (1995) found that successful alignment of rewards with business strategy relies very much on understanding employee reward preferences. a study by schlechter, faught and bussin (2014) provided a generic study in reward preferences of south african employees, and the results of this study showed that base pay was considered to be the most preferred reward component and an important reward component in attracting and retaining employees. this study notably also found differences between reward preferences and demographic variables, including age, gender and job level, providing support for segmentation of rewards based on certain demographic variables. considering the needs of different generations, the study by masibigiri and nienaber (2011) explored factors that affect the retention of different generations and found specific reward preferences existed among generational groups. however, moore and bussin (2012) investigated the reward preferences of veterans, baby boomers, generation x and generation y and found no preference among generational groups. these research findings provide guidelines to focus on individual and demographic factors to develop reward strategies. chiang and birtch (2005) and nienaber et al. (2011) found that reward preferences do differ according to various demographic factors. meyer and kirsten (2012) also found that many factors such as age, values, gender and culture affect employee reward preferences and therefore are useful to consider in structuring reward packages that suit personal interests. there is limited research on reward preferences and segmentation of the workforce, and this review of the literature has mostly focused on the financial services industry, knowledge workers of south african information technology companies and artisans, whereas south africa has a number of industries with diverse characteristics that could benefit from understanding what reward categories employees consider important and how demographic variables influence these reward preferences. there is still much argument over whether reward packages should be tailor-made to suit individual employees as it has been argued that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to rewards is no longer effective. research design research approach the research design is a quantitative, descriptive study entailing the collection of numerical data and describing the characteristics of objects, people or organisations in order to explain a particular phenomenon in answering the research questions (zikmund, 2003). research method research participants the participants in this study consisted of all employees of a large media organisation that has interests in new media, content production, specialised publishing, research, radio broadcasting and television sphere. at the time of the study, the company had 736 permanent employees across its various subsidiaries. all employees were able to volunteer to complete the survey. one hundred and thirty-one employees completed the survey. measuring instrument the rewards preferences questionnaire (nienaber & bussin 2009) was administered online. the questionnaire consisted of a series of questions and prompts to allow participants to answer questions during a single visit and submit their responses (saunders & lewis, 2012). section a of the questionnaire collected participants’ demographic information such as age, gender, race, occupational level, division and department within the organisation. for section b of the questionnaire, the questions were derived from constructs extracted from the worldatwork total rewards model (worldatwork, 2010) to measure reward preferences using a 5-point likert scale on each reward component from the model indicating the level of importance for each component. section c of the questionnaire focused on enabling participants to rank which reward component had the greatest impact on attracting, retaining and motivating them. this also functioned as a way to assess the overall reward preferences of participants. research procedure a survey pre-test was conducted with a group of six individuals for input and comments; no revisions were required. all participants completed a self-administered web-based questionnaire hosted by typeform. with assistance from the different subsidiaries’ human resources managers, the questionnaire link was distributed electronically via email to the entire population, with a 6-week response window in order to allow time for targeted individuals to complete the survey. reminders were sent periodically to encourage participation. statistical analysis the data were analysed quantitatively using a three-stage data analysis process. stage 1 involved descriptive statistical analysis to describe, show or summarise data in a meaningful way, focusing on measures of centrality and dispersion. stage 2 pertained to basic inferential statistics used to make generalisations from a sample to a population to help assess the strength of the relationship between the study’s independent variables and dependent (effect) variables. stage 3 inferential and multivariate statistical analysis focused on observations made on many variables (creswell, 2014). the statistical techniques utilised were means score ranking test and analysis of variance (anova). results the survey was completed by 131 participants. table 1 shows a summary of the total rewards elements, detailing the reward preference comparisons by demographics. a kruskal–wallis anova was completed, comparing two or more independent groups with significant differences shown in shaded areas. table 1: total reward preference comparisons by all demographics. reward preferences based on demographic variables gender the summary of mean ranks of reward components based on gender showed the extent of rating difference for medical aid, retirement, return to work after maternity and paternity leave, and feedback and performance between the participants. the summary of mean ranks of the reward components based on gender showed that female participants have higher mean ranks on all four reward components. age when the data were analysed by age groups, six reward components revealed statistically significant results as presented in table 1. the mean ranks suggest that study leave, learning and development, career path and international secondment are the most appealing rewards for participants in the age group of 19–29 years. with a mean rank of 74.41, participants aged between 30 and 39 years consider sabbatical leave as the most important reward. yet, participants aged between 40 and 49 years recorded the highest mean rank for base pay. ethnicity the summary of mean ranks shows that there was a statistically significant difference among the four racial groups considered for 16 rewards components as presented in table 1. notably, mean ranks based on ethnicity showed that participants who indicated that they are african had the highest mean ranks for the majority of significant mean ranks except for retirement, children holiday programme and formal recognition. further to this, mixed race and white participants did not record any highest mean ranks for reward components which were statistically significant. indian respondents, on the other hand, had the highest mean ranks for retirement benefits, children holiday programme and formal recognition. number of children the summary of mean ranks of reward components based on the number of children revealed that there was a statistically significant difference among the five groupings of a number of children for children holiday programme and informal recognition. participants with three or more children stood out for children holiday programme. in particular, participants who indicated that they have four or more children recorded the highest mean rank on children holiday programme. on the contrary, respondents who indicated that they have no children had the highest mean rank for informal recognition. education participants who indicated that matric is their highest educational qualification had the highest mean rank for base pay. in contrast, participants who stated that in addition to matric, they had also acquired certificates for certain skills stood out for study leave and learning and development. postgraduate degree holders showed sabbatical leave as their most preferred reward. job level the results show that general staff had the highest mean rank for study level. specialists recorded the highest mean rank for subsidised care for dependents, office environment, on-site medical facilities, learning development and funding for tertiary education to any other reward benefits. participants in the other jobs group had the highest mean rank for good working relationship and informal recognition. media division as a group of companies, the media division comprised different subsidiaries or divisions. a kruskal–wallis anova test was conducted to evaluate differences in reward preferences among groups of companies. the summary of mean ranks shows that there was a statistically significant difference among the groups of the media divisions for seven rewards components. participants from radio media had the highest mean rank for good working relationship, whilst participants from the publishing division have parking bay and increases income linked to inflation as their most preferred rewards. participants working for media mark recorded the highest mean rank for retirement. the highest mean rank for participants in other media companies was recorded for career path and accountability for job outputs. job role the results show that participants in from the human resources department have the highest mean rank for sabbatical leave and flexible working hours. participants from the internet technology (it) department had the highest mean rank for good working relationship and monthly communication sessions. participants in the marketing department only had the highest mean rank for on-site childcare facilities. finance department participants had the highest mean rank for funding for tertiary education, whilst participants from the programming department had the highest mean rank for office environment and informal recognition. in addition, the legal department has its participants finding the quality of co-workers in the team of high importance. these results suggest that the reward preferences vary within and across departments. overall reward preferences sorted by mean the most favoured reward component by the participants were salary, merit increase linked to personal performance, and incentives and bonus, and the least preferred reward components were on-site childcare facilities, children holiday programme and subsidised care for dependent. the top and the most preferred category as per the participants in structuring their own rewards package is base pay, and the least preferred is quality work environment category. reward preferences in attraction, retention and motivation to determine the most significant reward factors that drive attraction, retention and motivation, participants were asked to indicate which one of the following six reward categories had the greatest impact on an organisation’s ability to attract, retain and motivate them: monthly salary or remuneration variable pay (bonus or long-term incentive) benefits (medical aid or retirement funding) performance and career (development opportunities, quality discussions with your manager) quality work environment (fitness centre on-site, medical centre on-site, latest technology) work or home integration (your ability to balance your work and home commitments, e.g., flexible work schedules and half day leave). participants were asked to tick only one block for each category (attraction or retention or motivation). the results are presented in subsequent sections. reward preferences in attraction the majority of participants (68.7%, n = 90) indicated that monthly salary was the most significant component of promoting attraction. in contrast, quality work environment stood out as the least significant category in influencing the decision to join an organisation. figure 1 shows the ranking of factors which promote employee attraction. figure 1: ranking of factors which promote employee attraction. reward preferences for retention most participants (46.6%) ranked monthly salary as the most significant way to promote retention. the second-most preferred reward preference category for retention was related to performance and career. in contrast, only 3% (n = 4) of the participants indicated that they value the quality of work environment as a driver of retention. figure 2 shows the ranking of factors which promote employee retention. figure 2: ranking of factors which promote employee retention. reward preferences for motivation most of the participants (46.6%) ranked monthly salary as the most significant means of driving motivation. the second-highest ranked category for motivation was related to performance and career. in contrast, only 3% (n = 4) of the participants indicated that they preferred the quality of work environment as a means of motivation. figure 3 shows the ranking of factors which promote employee motivation. figure 3: ranking of factors which promote employee motivation. the results for reward preferences suggest that monthly salary (base pay) is the most highly ranked reward category for promoting employee attraction, retention, and motivation. quality work environment stood out as the lowest ranked category for attraction, retention and motivation. reward category and component internal consistency reward components were grouped into the following five categories – compensation; benefits; work–life (work environment); career, learning, and development; and performance and recognition. to ensure consistency, all statements were based on a 5-point likert scale. the cronbach alpha test was used to determine the internal consistency of the reward categories, where scores equal or greater than 0.6 were considered acceptable and scores approaching 1.0 were considered excellent scores. the top and most preferred category as per the participants in structuring their own rewards package is base pay and the least preferred is quality work environment category. discussion research question 1: what reward preferences do employees in the media industry have? results show that overall participants ranked base pay as the most preferred and/or significant form of reward. this finding differs with the findings of nienaber et al. (2011) and snelgar et al. (2013), whose research indicated that career management (a form of non-monetary reward) was the most significant reward preference. the finding supports the conclusion of schlechter et al. (2014) who also found that base pay was considered to be the most preferred reward component. there remains no clear answer to the question of most significant reward preference, and further research at a larger scale will be required to provide a definitive position. research questions 2, 3 and 4: what are the reward preferences that promote attraction, retention and motivation in the media industry? reward preferences did not vary across the categories of attraction, retention and motivation. monthly salary was ranked as the most influential reward preference, followed by performance and career and then work home integration. it is possible that the way the questions were phrased influenced the results, and it is suggested that this potential extraneous variable be considered in how future surveys are designed. studies by nienaber et al. (2011) and snelgar et al. (2013) indicated that reward preferences differ in the employee attraction, retention and motivation lifecycle. the results for reward preferences for this study indicated that monthly salary (base pay) stood out as the most preferred reward category in attracting, retaining and motivating employees. from an attraction perspective, this correlates positively with the studies of nienaber et al. (2011) and snelgar et al. (2013) who also found that base pay (a form of monetary reward) was the most significant factor in attracting employees. from a motivation perspective, the results contradict nienaber et al. (2011) and snelgar et al. (2013) who found that career management (a form of non-monetary reward) was the most significant driver of employee motivation. the results also differ from the study by bhengu and bussin. (2012) which showed monetary rewards as the third-most important influencing factor in attracting, retaining and motivating employees. lazear (1995) concluded that the reward systems of organisations should be tailored to take the characteristics of their workforce into account. medcof and rumpel (2007) assert that there is a difference in reward preferences between industries. the results of this study lend support to both lazear (1995) and medcof and rumpel (2007) and support the notion of context-specific reward preferences. research question 5: do demographic variables play a significant role in determining the different reward preferences of employees within the media industry? gender: from the study, statistically significant results were indicated for medical aid, retirement, return to work after maternity and paternity leave, and feedback and performance. this indicates that females had a higher preference for medical aid, retirement (benefits component), phased return to work after maternity leave (work–life component), and also feedback and performance (performance & recognition component). these results are similar to those of nienaber et al. (2011) which indicated that women had a higher preference for performance, medical aid and retirement funds as the mean scores for these reward categories were higher than those of men. age: study leave, learning and development, career path, and international secondment are the most appealing rewards for participants in the age group of 19–29 years. participants aged between 30 and 39 years consider sabbatical leave as the most important reward. finally, participants aged between 40 and 49 years recorded the highest preference for base pay. base pay: this noted a significant relationship between age group, educational level and division. the findings match the study by nienaber et al. (2011) that observed significant differences between age groups are most notable for base pay preference is in the age group 39–48 years. benefits also revealed an observed relationship between the following demographic variables – gender, age group, study leave and sabbatical leave. ethnicity also displayed a relationship for retirement, study leave, child educational subsidy and sabbatical leave, in terms of its influence on reward preferences. job level: reward preferences based on job level results showed a statistically significant difference among the groups of job levels for eight reward components as presented in table 1. the most noteworthy results were that general staff had the highest preference for study leave; specialists recorded the highest preference for subsidised care for dependents, office environment, on-site medical facilities, learning development and funding for tertiary education to any other reward benefits; participants in the other jobs group had the highest preference for good working relationship and informal recognition. overall, the results from the study, and as discussed above, support the findings from the study by schlechter et al. (2014) that also found differences between reward preferences and demographic variables, including age, gender and job level. this provides support for the segmentation of rewards based on certain demographic variables and contributes to the literature on reward preferences. this is also in line with the research findings of johns and gratton (2013) who found that the rewards preference profile of certain workers would be different, supporting the notion that demographic and industry-specific factors influence reward preferences. internal consistency of reward elements the key part of this study was assessing the internal consistency of the different reward categories to determine if the results of these categories were fitting to group in order to assess overall reward preferences. notably, the compensation category did not score acceptable levels as per the cronbach alpha reliability test. as the top-rated category and most preferred reward component, its results showed a poor correlation with the elements in its category. the compensation category included the following elements: base pay incentives and bonuses merit market-related salary remuneration structure income inflation bonus linked to personal performance. it is both interesting and surprising that the level of internal consistency within this specific category was low. the individual elements are commonly considered to be associated with compensation and it is not clear what caused the low reliability score. literature on the subject of reward and common sense suggest that these elements should be reflective of a compensation category. further research with a larger sample size may be able to shed more light on this irregularity in future. principal findings the study showed similar reward preferences in the scenarios of attraction, retention and motivation in principle supporting the literature that asserts that the main elements of monetary compensation are still crucially important (bunton & brewer, 2012; horwitz et al., 2003; moore & bussin, 2012; nienaber et al., 2011; schlechter et al., 2014; snelgar et al., 2013). this is an indication that base pay does not seem to lose its desirability and therefore it is important that employees feel that they are adequately rewarded to contribute towards achieving organisational goals. in examining the relative influence of total rewards elements on reward preferences by employees in this context, participants ranked base pay or salary, merit increase that is linked to personal performance, incentives & bonus, safety and security at the workplace, and market-related salary as the five most important reward components preferred by them, further indicative of the preference towards the monetary elements in the total rewards model. this is contrary to some of the findings by bloom and michael (2002), levine (1991) and pfeffer and langton (1993) who asserted that competing for talent solely on monetary elements may not prove to be the most effective mechanism in gaining competitive advantage. this can be attributed to the fact that the total rewards model adopts a holistic approach and combines five elements of reward to create value for the organisation and its employees. in a mix of reward elements, the monetary component still remained the most preferred reward across the attraction, retention and motivation lifecycle. this is supported by findings by scott et al. (2010) in that organisations need to look at utilising total rewards strategies to build on employee engagement. another key finding stems from observed significant differences towards reward preferences as a result of demographic variables, similar to the studies by bussin and toerin, (2015), kowalewski and phillips (2012) and snelgar et al. (2013), and the notion that it is best for employers to have an understanding of demographic variables and their impact in order to design appropriate reward strategies. implications for management considering the insight from this study, the results are an important starting point in assessing and developing methods to attract, retain and motivate employees and key talent in organisations. a holistic total rewards approach is required for effectiveness across the attraction, retention and motivation lifecycle, including both monetary and non-monetary rewards. despite the requirement and best practice of implementing a holistic reward mix, this study suggests that the importance of base pay cannot be minimised and is the most significant reward preference in the south african media industry. managers and leaders in the south african media industry need to investigate their organisations’ rewards through the perspective of the total rewards concept used in this study in order to evaluate and ensure that they have considered all of the aspects required to attract, retain and motivate employees. limitations of the research the study is descriptive in nature. therefore, the results are limited to numerical descriptions, and it was not possible to explore reasons for the participants’ selection of reward preferences. additionally, the sample was not representative of the population being studied; the survey did not test the entire population as the majority of employees chose not to participate. the results were also not without external influences such as economic and political factors. the study had a contracted timeframe, and it was therefore not possible to establish if the reward preferences were stable or as a result of temporal external influences. most importantly, the low internal reliability score for the compensation category could impact the reliability of the main research findings on reward preferences. suggestions for future research future research should ideally examine specific compensation practices and extend to exploring causal relationship between rewards and attraction, retention and motivation of employees. another important element is devising a way to fixing the correlation and reliability of the compensation category. conclusion the purpose of this study was to examine context-specific reward preferences in order to determine overall reward preferences of employees in the media industry with the aim of improving existing reward strategies. the study has meet its purpose by illustrating the total reward components preferred by participants in south africa’s media industry and indicates the importance of the adoption of a total rewards strategy as rewards are a key source to persuade individuals and ensure work productivity. rewards are used as a primary tool for organisations to attract competent key employees and improve the productivity of their employees. compensation is an important element in understanding the drivers of engagement to increase employee engagement and promote the attraction, retention and motivation of employees. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.h.r.b. was the principal investigator and was responsible for the design and execution of the project and writing up of the article. n.n.t was responsible for field work and writing up of the article. references alexander, c. o. (1993). the changing relationship between productivity, wages and unemployment in the uk. oxford bulletin of economics and statistics, 55, 87–102. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0084.1993.mp55001005.x al mehrzi, n., & singh, s.k. (2016). competing through employee engagement: a proposed framework. international journal of productivity and performance management, 65(6), 831–843. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-02-2016-0037 aon, h. (2015). 2015 trends in global employee engagement. retrieved from http://www.aon.com/: http://www.aon.com/attachments/human-capital-consulting/2015-trends-in-global-employee-engagement-report.pdf armstrong, m. (2012). armstrong’s handbook of reward management practice: improving performance through reward. london: kogan page publishers. bakker, a. b., & demerouti, e. (2008). towards a model of work engagement. career development international, 13, 209–223. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430810870476 bamberger, p. a., & levi, r. (2009). team-based reward allocation structures and the helping behaviors of outcome-interdependent team members. journal of managerial psychology, 24, 300–327. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940910952705 bhengu, m. b., & bussin, m. (2012). the perceived effectiveness of employee share options as a mechanism of talent management in south africa. acta commercii, 12(1), 85–93. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v12i1.135 bloom, m. c., & michael, j. g. (2002). the relationship among organizational context, pay dispersion and managerial turnover. academy of management journal, 45(1), 33–42. boyd, b. k., & salamin, a. (2001). strategic rewards systems: a contingency model of pay system design. strategic management journal 22(8), 777–792. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.170 bunton, t. e., & brewer, j. l. (2012). discovering workplace motivators for the millennial generation of it employees. in proceedings of the 1st annual conference on research in information technology (riit ‘12) 13–18 october, (pp. 13–18). new york: acm. bussin, m., & toerien, w. c. (2015). influence of reward preferences in attracting, retaining, and motivating knowledge workers in south african information technology companies. acta commercii, 15(1), art. #290, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v15i1.290 chiang, f. t., & birtch, t. a. (2005). a taxonomy of reward preference: examining country differences. journal of international management, 11, 357–375. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2005.06.004 coffman, c., & gonzalez-molina, g. (2002). follow this path: how the world’s greatest organisations drive growth by unleashing human potential. new york: warner books, inc. creswell, j. w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. thousand oaks, ca: sage publishing. cropanzo, r. & mitchell, m. (2005). social exchange theory: an interdisciplinary review. journal of management, 31(6), 874–900. deloitte consulting. (2014). global human capital trends 2014. engaging the 21st century workforce. retrieved from http://www2.deloitte.com: http://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/human-capital/articles/human-capital-trends-2014.html ferreira, n. (2012). hardiness in relation to organisational commitment in the human resource management field. sa journal of human resource management, 10(2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.418 frank, f. d., finnegan, r. p., & taylor, c. r. (2004). the race for talent: retaining and engaging workers in the 21st century. hr. human resources planning, 27(3), 12–27. hall, s. g. (1986). an application of the granger and engle two-step estimation procedure to united kingdom aggregate wage data. oxford bulletin of economics and statistics, 48, 229–239. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0084.1986.mp48003003.x horwitz, f. m., heng, c. t., & quazi, h. a. (2003). finders, keepers? attracting, motivating, and retaining knowledge workers. human resource management journal, 13, 23–44. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2003.tb00103.x jiang, z., xiao, q., qi, h., & xiao, l. (2009). total rewards strategy going with the trend of the times. international journal of business and management, 4(11) 177–183. johns, t., & gratton, l. (2013). the third wave of virtual work. harvard business review, 91(1), 66–72. kerr-phillips, b., & thomas, t. (2009). macro and micro challenges for talent retention in south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 7(1), 82–91. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.157 kowalewski, s. j., & phillips, s. l. (2012). preferences for performance based employee rewards: evidence from small business environments. international journal of management and marketing research, 5, 65–76. kurnia, r., & welly, j. (2015). the assessment of employee engagement level in a new institution during transition period. journal of business and management, 4(1), 218–228. kwon, j., & hein, p. (2013). employee benefits in a total rewards framework. benefits quarterly; first quarter (29,1) proquest business collection,29(1), 32–38. lawler iii, e. (1995). the new pay: a strategic approach. compensation and benefits review, 27(4), 14–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/088636879502700404 lazear, e. (1995). personnel economics. cambridge, ma: mit press. levine, d. i. (1991). cohesiveness, productivity and wage dispersion. journal of economic behavior and organization, 15(2), 237–255. https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-2681(91)90031-r masibigiri, v., & nienaber, h. (2011). factors affecting the retention of generation x public servants: an exploratory study. south african journal of human resource management, 9(1), 1–11. mckinsey global institute. (2012, june). the world at work: jobs, pay and skills for 3.5 billion people. retrieved from http://www.mckinsey.com/: http://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/employment-and-growth/the-world-at-work medcof, j. w., & rumpel, s. (2007). high technology workers and total rewards. the journal of high technology management research, 18, 59–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hitech.2007.03.004 meyer, c. s., mukerjee, s., & sestero, a. (2001). work-family benefits: which ones maximize profits? journal of managerial issues, 13(1), 28–44. meyer, m., & kirsten, m. (2012). introduction to human resource management. pretoria: van schaik. michaels, e., handfield-jones, h., & axelrod, b. (2001). the war for talent. retrieved from https://books.google.co.za/books?id=simzcd_yuc4c&pg=pa1&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false misra, p., jain, s., & sood, a. (2013). compensation: impact of rewards and organisational justice on turnover intentions and the role of motivation and job satisfaction: a study of retail store operations in ncr. international journal of human resources development and management, 13(2), 136–152. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijhrdm.2013.055414 moore, a., & bussin, m. (2012). reward preferences for generations in selected information and communication technology companies. south african journal of human resource management, 10(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i1.325 newman, a., & sheikh, a. z. (2011). organizational commitment in chinese smalland medium-sized enterprises: the role of extrinsic, intrinsic and social rewards. the international journal of human resource management, 23(2), 349–367. nienaber, n., & bussin, m. (2009). the relationship between personality types and reward preferences. doctoral thesis. johannesburg, south africa: university of johannesburg. nienaber, r., bussin, m., & henn, c. (2011). the relationship between personality types and reward preferences. acta commercii, 11(2), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v11i2.153 perrow, c. (1986). complex organizations. new york: random house. pfeffer, j., & langton, n. (1993). the effect of wage dispersion on satisfaction, productivity, and working collaboratively: evidence from college and university faculty. administrative science quarterly, 38(3), 382–407. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393373 pricewaterhousecoopers. (2015). entertainment and media outlook: 2015–2019 south africa –nigeria – kenya (6th edn.). johannesburg: pricewaterhouse coopers. rama devi, v. (2009). employee engagement is a two-way street. human resource management international digest, 17(2), 3–4. https://doi.org/10.1108/09670730910940186 royal, m. (2014, march 20). the role of rewards in building employee engagement. retrieved from https://blog.haygroup.com: https://blog.haygroup.com/the-role-of-rewards-in-building-employee-engagement/ saunders, m., & lewis, p. (2012). doing research in business management: an essential guide to planning your project. essex: pearson education limited. schaufeli, w. b., & bakker, a. b. (2004). job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organizational behavior, 25, 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.248 schaufeli, w. b., salanova, m., & gonza´lez-roma´, v. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout and: a confirmative analytic approach. journal of happiness, 3, 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 schlechter, a., faught, c., & bussin, m. (2014). total rewards: a study of artisan attraction and retention within a south african context. south african journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.648 schuler, r., & rogovsky, n. (1998). understanding compensation practice variations across firms: the impact of national culture. journal of international business studies, 29(1), 159–177. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490030 scott, d., mcmullen, t., royal, m., & stark, m. (2010). the impact of rewards programs on employee engagement. retrieved from world at work: https://www.worldatwork.org/adimlink?id=39032 snelgar, r. j., renard, m., & venter, d. (2013). an empirical study if the reward preferences of south african employees. south african journal of human resource management, 11(1) 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.351 south african board for people practices. (2014, october). employee engagement. retrieved from http://sabpp.co.za/fact-sheet-employee-engagement-october-2014/ stahl, g., björkman, i., morris, s. s., paauwe, j., stiles, p., & wright, p. (2012). six principles of effective global talent management. sloan management review, 53(2), 25–42. steers, r., & porter, l. (1991). motivation and work behaviour. new york: mcgraw-hill. strauss, j., & wohar, m. e. (2004). the linkage between process, wage and labour productivity: a panel study of manufacturing industries. southern economic journal, 70, 920–941. https://doi.org/10.2307/4135280 von glinow, m. a. (1985). reward strategies for attracting, evaluating, and retaining professionals. human resource management, 24, 191–206. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.3930240207 wakeford, j. j. (2004). the productivity-wage relationship in south africa: an empirical investigation. development southern africa, 21(1), 109–132. https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835042000181444 wilson, b. t. (2003). innovative reward systems for the changing work place. new york: mcgraw-hill. wilson, t. b. (1995). innovative reward systems for the changing workplace. new york: mcgraw-hill. worldatwork. (2010). retrieved from https://www.worldatwork.org; worldatwork – the total rewards association: https://www.worldatwork.org/adimlink?id=78737 world bank. (2016, april 12). #african can: overview. retrieved from http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/southafrica/overview world economic forum. (2015). the global competitiveness report 2015–2016. geneva: world economic forum. zikmund, w. (2003). business research methods (7th edn.). oh: thomson south-western. zingheim, p. k., & schuster, j. r. (1995). moving one notch north: executing the transition to new pay. compensation & benefits review, 27(4), 33–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/088636879502700406 abstract introduction literature review research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) pardon chikobvu department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic management sciences, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa martha harunavamwe department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic management sciences, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa citation chikobvu, p., & harunavamwe, m. (2022). the role of emotional intelligence and work engagement on nurses’ resilience in public hospitals. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1690. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1690 original research the role of emotional intelligence and work engagement on nurses’ resilience in public hospitals pardon chikobvu, martha harunavamwe received: 02 june 2021; accepted: 18 jan. 2022; published: 28 feb. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the ability to cope effectively with adversity has become vital for healthcare employees because of high job demands. nurses are faced with workplace adversities that drain resilience resources; as such it is important to investigate factors that may conserve and build resilience resources. positive states in the form of emotional intelligence and engagement have the potential to activate and conserve resources for coping and adaption amongst nurses. research purpose: the study was designed to investigate empirically the predictive value of emotional intelligence and work engagement on nurses’ resilience. motivation for the study: the study was motivated by the fact that negative experiences or adversities kindle loss of resources for coping and adaptive functioning. promoting positive states has the potential to motivate the building of resources that improve coping and adaptation. research approach, design and method: the study utilised a cross-sectional quantitative survey using self-administered questionnaires. the sample comprised 252 nurses from the mangaung metropole, south africa. the smartpls programme was used to analyse the data. main findings: emotional intelligence and work engagement had a statistically significant effect on resilience. of great significance was the strong direct link between emotional intelligence and resilience. practical or managerial implication: the healthcare sector needs to invest training in emotional intelligence and work engagement programmes for nurses as a way to improve their resilience; a coping strategy for the highly demanding and stressful work environments. contribution: these findings contribute valuable new knowledge that can be applied in promoting and enhancing resilience of nurses in public hospitals. keywords: resilience; work engagement; emotional intelligence; nurse in the public hospitals, personal resources, work overload. introduction as a result of the highly demanding nature of the nursing profession, resilience has become one of the most critical attributes for healthcare workers in public hospitals (duncan, 2020). resilience fosters nurses to maintain professional integrity and continues to provide safe and effective care (best, 2019). ramalisa, du plessis and koen (2018) indicated that south african nurses face adversities in their working environment, which leaves them feeling demotivated, angry and dissatisfied. khamisa, peltzer, ilic and oldenburg (2017) commented that nurses’ work environment is characterised by high acuity and long hours, workplace violence, abuse, bullying and sexual harassment. koen, van eeden and wissing (2011) added that nurses are exposed to the suffering of human beings, death and grief, which leaves them feeling emotionally drained. in addition to emotional fatigue, nurses experience psychological emptiness, diminishing inner balance and a sense of dissonance, which depreciates their ability to be resilient (hart, brannan, & chesnay, 2014). likewise, hobfoll et al. (2015) argued that these workplace adversities cause severe resource loss, which greatly undermines resilience building. the fact that employees are still suffering from the negative effects of workplace adversities questions the efficacy of the strategies currently used to improve resilience. based on that, managers or practitioners are faced with a task of finding alternative ways to improve resilience of employees in order to improve efficiency and overall organisational performance. resilience has been positively associated with personal and organisational outputs, such as skills improvement and job and life satisfaction amongst nurses (duncan, 2020). in addition, it has also been associated with retention and reduction in the sense of exhaustion and psychological problems (i.e. depression) and better patient care (çam & buyukbayram, 2017). in south africa, resilience is recognised as an important characteristic and resource for employees (meintjes & hofmeyr, 2018; ramalisa et al., 2018). it is reported that resilience has a positive impact on nurses’ health and life, improves quality of services, and reduces the cost of healthcare (koen et al., 2011; ramalisa et al., 2018; salilih & abajobir, 2014). despite the efforts made to improve resilience, nurses in south africa are still affected by heavy work overloads, poor work relationships, as well as mental, emotional and physical exhaustion, which negatively affect their well-being and persistently diminish their resilience (khamisa et al., 2017; truter, theron, & fouché, 2014). ramalisa et al. (2018) and koen et al. (2011) observed that the declining levels of resilience may be attributed to ineffective strategies implemented to promote resilience; therefore it is worth exploring the role of emotional intelligence and work engagement on nurses’ resilience in the public hospitals. a combination of negative experiences and workplace adversities are argued to be the main ingredients for the mental and psychological illness that threatens the resilience of employees (mcdermid, peters, daly, & jackson, 2016). this can be neutralised by positive states or positive mindsets, which in turn promote and strengthen resilience. correspondingly, pidgeon, ford and klaassen (2014) comment that positive perceptions and attitudes are necessary for individuals to effectively function and cope despite facing challenges and or adversities. moreover, scholars (e.g. hakanen, perhoniemi, & toppinen-tanner, 2008; hobfoll et al., 2015) agree that positive states cluster together resulting in resource gain and enhancing resilience. a number of positive states (e.g. self-efficacy, hope, emotional intelligence, positive outlook, optimism, work satisfaction and spirituality) have been identified as antecedents to resilience (çam & buyukbayram, 2017; hart et al., 2014; yilmaz, 2017). this study focused on emotional intelligence and work engagement as possible ways to activate and conserve resources for coping and adaption amongst nurses. therefore, this study seeks to determine the role of emotional intelligence and work engagement amongst nurses in the public hospitals. research purpose and objectives the primary aim of the study is to determine the role of emotional intelligence and work engagement on the resilience of nurses in the public hospitals. to this effect the following research objectives were formulated: to establish the influence of emotional intelligence on resilience. to determine the combined influence of emotional intelligence and work engagement on resilience. to determine the mediating effect of work engagement in the relationship between emotional intelligence and resilience. literature review resilience has its roots in the practice of positive organisational behaviour, which focuses on positive human resource strength and psychological capacities for the improvement of workplace performance (crane, 2017). for this study, resilience was approached from wagnild and young’s (1993) point of views. they conceptualised it as an individual’s adaptive capacity having the interrelated characteristics of equanimity, perseverance, self-reliance, meaningfulness and existential aloneness. equanimity is the first step in resilience and it refers to having a balanced perspective of one’s life and experiences. perseverance refers to the drive to persist in the face of challenges (aiena, baczwaski, schulenberg, & buchanan, 2014). thirdly, self-reliance refers to a belief in oneself and one’s capacities (paul, bamel, & garg, 2016). meaningfulness connotes having a sense of purpose and long-term goals (wagnild & young, 1993). lastly, existential aloneness refers to a belief and realisation that every person has a different path in life (paul et al., 2016). aiena et al. (2014) presented that existential aloneness occurs when individuals are comfortable with themselves and with handling things on their own. pidgeon et al. (2014) argued that resilience is subject to influences from environmental, work-specific and personal contexts. this implies that the ability to demonstrate resilience depends on one’s experience and perceived experiences. resilience is regarded as a source of competitive advantage for organisations as it has implications for promoting individual competences, enhancing individual responses to stressful circumstances and improving job performance (zhu, zhang, & shen, 2019). as highlighted earlier, a number of positive states have been reported as antecedents to resilience. for the purpose of this study the positive states identified to influence resilience is limited to emotional intelligence and work engagement. emotional intelligence and resilience the concept of emotional intelligence dates back to the works of charles darwin (1872/1965) on emotional expression in survival and adaptation (prins, van niekerk, & weyers, 2018). the current widespread interest in the concept is attributed to the growing importance of positive psychological states and flourishing in the workplace. emotional intelligence was approached from goleman’s (1995) perspective, who defines it as the ability to recognise and regulate emotions in oneself and in others in order to achieve successful work performance. in this definition, goleman (1995) identified five components that include self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills (toyama & mauno, 2017). emotional intelligence enables individuals to accurately assess their environment, express empathy and think according to the priority of problems and organise thoughts, which consequently increases resilience (magnano, craparo, & paolillo, 2016): hypothesis 1: emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills) has a positive influence on resilience. work engagement and resilience work engagement has its roots in burnout literature and it emerged as an attempt to shift from employee unwell-being to employee well-being (albrecht, 2010; bakker et al., 2008). schaufeli, salanova, romá and bakker (2002) defined work engagement as a positive, fulfilling work-related state of mind characterised by full concentration in one’s work and having high levels of energy and enthusiasm whilst working. thus, work engagement is characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption. bakker and leiter (2010) argued that work engagement is an important strategy for organisations as it may contribute to the physical, emotional and mental well-being of employees. engaged employees display positive attitudes towards their work, commit emotionally to their work and are likely to be mentally absorbed in their work. as a motivational concept, engagement is argued to be related to the persistence and intensity with which individuals pursue their task performance (kašpárková, vaculík, procházk, & schaufeli, 2018; rich, lepine, & crawford, 2010). in other words, work engagement influences resilience: hypothesis 2: emotional intelligence and work engagement influence resilience. relationship between emotional intelligence, work engagement and resilience ackley (2016) and antoniou and cooper (2016) agreed that individuals will not be able to bounce back or engage if they do not have an accurate assessment of the environment in which they are operating. prins et al. (2018) stated that emotionally intelligent individuals, through their excellent self-awareness, are much more aware of what happens in their surroundings. prins et al. (2018) further commented that emotionally intelligent individuals, through their ability to manage their emotions well, have motivation and experience positive emotions. the experience of positive affect fuels the investment of more energy, which is salient in the development of positive job attitudes such as work engagement (salanova, schaufeli, xanthopoulou, & bakker, 2010). van wingerden and poell (2019) indicated that: [e]ngaged employees create their own great place as they are able to craft their work. by doing so, they optimize their work environment in a way that it is aligned with their preferences and abilities which subsequently strengthens their resilience. (p. 2) from the foregoing discussion, emotional intelligence is the point of entry of the proposed relationship (between emotional intelligence, work engagement and resilience). it also suggests that work engagement mediates the relationship between emotional intelligence and resilience. hypothesis 3: work engagement mediates the relationship between emotional intelligence and resilience. research design research approach the study utilised a quantitative approach that is rooted in the positivist paradigm. as the study involved validation, hypothesis testing and describing relationships between the independent variables (work engagement and emotional intelligence) and the dependent variable (resilience), the quantitative approach was most appropriate. specifically, the study employed a cross-sectional survey as the researcher wanted to obtain an overall picture of a phenomena at a specific point in time. research method research participants the target population of the study was nursing employees working in the mangaung metropole, south africa. nurses from three selected public hospitals (pelonomi, botshabelo and national), with a total population of 938, were chosen for the study. although 335 questionnaires were distributed, only 282 were returned and of those returned 252 were eligible to be captured for analysis. thus, the study had a response rate of 75.2%. nurses between the ages of 41and 50 years constituted the largest group within the sample (31.3%) whilst the majority of the nurses surveyed were females (80.2%). most of the respondents were from the medical nursing department, constituting 28.6% of the sample. the highest level of education achieved by the nurses who participated was an advanced diploma (23.8%). only a few nursing employees had undergraduate (5.6%) and postgraduate degree qualifications (15.1%). most participants (23.8%) had 6–10 years’ experience in their current organisation. measuring instrument the measuring instrument had four sections. the first section was a biographical questionnaire. the other sections consisted of pre-established scales, namely the utrecht work engagement scale (section b), rahim emotional quotient index (rahim et al., 2002) (section c) and the wagnild and young resilience scale (section d). the 14-item resilience scale (rs-14) (wagnild & young, 1993) was used to assess nurses’ resilience. the scale is based on five dimensions, namely perseverance, equanimity, self-reliance, meaningfulness and existential aloneness. all items were scored on a 7-point likert scale that ranges from 1 = disagree to 7 = agree. koen et al. (2011), in a south african sample, reported acceptable reliability score for the scale with a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.80 and test-retest coefficients of 0.60–0.98. koen et al. (2011) commented that the construct validity of the measuring instrument indicate that the scale is valid. in this study, an acceptable internal consistency score of α = 0.889 was obtained. work engagement was measured using the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes)-17 (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). the scale is made up of 17 items loading on three factors, namely vigour, dedication and absorption. responses were scored on a 7-point likert scale, ranging from 0 = never to 6 = always. schaufeli and bakker (2004) reported an acceptable reliability coefficient for the scale as α = 0.86. in a south african study, simons and buitendach (2013) obtained the following alpha coefficients for the three subcomponents: vigour (α = 0.90), dedication (α = 0.86) and absorption (α = 0.85). simons and buitendach (2013) found no evidence of item bias on the measure in the various race groups. in the present study, an acceptable internal consistency was observed for the three subscales: vigour (α = 0.776), dedication (α = 0.840) and absorption (α = 0.798). the rahim emotional quotient index (eqi) (rahim et al., 2002) was used to measure the nurses’ emotional intelligence. the instrument is made up of 22 items consisting of five factors, namely self-regulation, self-awareness, empathy, motivation and social skills. the instrument uses a 7-point likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree). in a south african sample, nel, du plessis and bosman (2015), reported internal consistency reliability coefficients of the five subscales ranging between 0.844 and 0.994. nel et al. (2015) commented that the instrument is standardised and valid for the south african population. in this study, the following reliability scores were observed for the five subscales: self-awareness (α = 0.810), self-regulation (α = 0.763), empathy (α = 0.733), motivation (α = 0.820) and social skills (α = 0.705). research procedure the research procedure was in accordance with the university of the free state health sciences research ethics committee (ufs_hsrec) with reference number ufs-hds2019/0077/2506. after being granted permission, the researcher was personally responsible for the distribution and collection of the questionnaires. voluntary participation, anonymity and confidentiality were guaranteed. statistical analysis statistical analysis was conducted using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 24, lisrel 10.0 and smart pls. descriptive statistics and statistical modelling were used to sum up the collected data and test the study’s hypotheses. the cronbach’s alpha was used to assess the internal consistency reliability of the measuring instruments. confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) through assessment of the goodness of fit statistics (cfi, rmsea and srmr) was used to determine the psychometric properties of the measuring instruments. variance-based structural equation modelling (sem) smart pls was used to test the direct and indirect links between emotional intelligence, work engagement and resilience. the model was tested following the application of a two-step process, including (1) the assessment of the outer model then (2) the assessment of the inner model. the outer model (i.e. measurement model) was evaluated in terms of internal consistency (composite reliability), convergent (average variance extracted [ave] scores) and discriminant validity (heterotrait–monotrait ratio [htmt] values). the outer model aimed to determine whether the measurements used to operationalise each of the latent variables were reliable and valid. the quality criteria associated with an acceptable outer model are: (1) ave of 0.5 and higher, (2) composite reliability estimates of 0.7 and higher and (3) htmt correlations cut-off score of 0.90 (hair, risher, sarstedt, & ringle, 2019). the inner model (i.e. structural model) was evaluated using the following guidelines: (1) the size of the path coefficients (beta values), (2) significance of the path coefficients and (3) the amount of variance explained in the dependent variable by the proposed model. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of the free state: ufs-hsd2019/0077/2506. results validity and reliability of the scales confirmatory factor analysis through the goodness of fit statistics confirmed the distinctive validity of emotional intelligence, work engagement and resilience. cronbach’s alpha coefficient and composite reliability was used to assess the reliability of the measuring instruments. the resilience scale scored 0.899 cronbach’s alpha which is regarded as good pallant (2013). the internal consistency of the emotional intelligence scale (measured by the rahim eqi) consisting of five dimensions was good, ranging from 0.705 for social skills to 0.820 for motivation. the reliability scores associated with work engagement dimensions may be regarded as good (vigour = 0.776, dedication = 0.840, absorption = 0.798). table 2 presents the goodness of fit statistics related to all the scales. the fit indices of the cfa model related to emotional intelligence were reported as follows: cfi (0.966), rmsea (0.134) and srmr (0.0863). the model fitted the data well as two (cfa and srmr) of the three fit statistics were acceptable. goodness of fit results for work engagement were found as follows: cfi = 0.930, rmsea = 0.132, srmr = 0.0718. resilience observed the following goodness of fit indices: cfi = 0.984, rmsea = 0.190, srmr = 0.0919). the model was well fitting given that two of the three fit statistics (cfi and srmr) were acceptable. table 1: reliability of the scales. table 2: goodness of fit statistics. table 3: quality criteria. the composite reliability was used to compute the internal consistency reliability. the composite reliability scores for all three variables were above the cut-off score of 0.6. thus, the three variables observed satisfactory composite reliability scores: emotional intelligence (0.926), resilience (0.912) and work engagement (0.925). the convergent validity of the measuring instruments in the measurement model assessed through the ave score was also good. the ave scores were above 0.5 (emotional intelligence = 0.715, work engagement = 0.805, resilience = 0.675). table 4 presents the results for discriminant validity. the following htmt values were recorded for the constructs: resilience and work engagement (0.516), resilience and emotional intelligence (0.705), emotional intelligence and work engagement (0.575). to achieve discriminant validity, the htmt values should be lower than 0.90 (hair et al., 2019). this enabled the researcher of the present study to continue evaluating the inner model, representing the hypothesised model. table 4: heterotrait–monotrait ratio. table 5 presents the outer loadings that are the paths connecting each indicator to its respective construct. all the indicators loaded significantly on their respective constructs (p = 0.000). the indicator loadings ranged between 0.777 (existential aloneness) to 0.912 (vigour). table 5: outer loadings. table 6 presents the path coefficients and the associated pand t-values, which give an indication of the direction and strengths of the proposed paths. the results observe that all the paths in the theoretical model are statistically significant p < 0.05. the pathway from emotional intelligence to resilience was the strongest (β = 0.619: t = 12.060: mean = 0.623: p = 0.000). emotional intelligence to work engagement observed the second strongest path (β = 0.516: t = 11.189: mean 0.519: p = 0.000). work engagement to resilience had the least statistically significant path (β = 0.142: t = 2.222: mean = 0.139: p = 0.027). table 7 shows the extent to which emotional intelligence and work engagement influences resilience. it is reported that the variables in the theoretical model (emotional intelligence and work engagement) explain approximately 49.3% of the variance in resilience, which can be interpreted as moderate, according to chin (1998). it should be observed that both emotional intelligence and resilience have a significant association with work engagement. the results provide support for hypothesis 1 and hypothesis 2. table 6: path coefficients (inner model). table 7: r-squared (r2). to determine whether work engagement mediates the relationship between emotional intelligence and resilience, the specific indirect effects (table 8) should be consulted. table 8: specific indirect effects (inner model). table 8 shows that work engagement has a significant mediating effect (0.073, p = 0.030) on the relationship between emotional intelligence and resilience. the results support hypothesis 3. discussion the primary objective of this study aimed to determine whether emotional intelligence and work engagement influence resilience. it was hypothesised that the two constructs positively influence work engagement (directly and indirectly) and that emotional intelligence lays the foundation for the effect of work engagement on resilience. this was based on the idea that emotionally intelligent individuals experience positive emotions. the experience of positive affect is instrumental in the development and maintenance of positive fulfilling work-related moods (prins et al., 2018). the development of positive fulfilling work-related moods (characteristic of work engagement) enables employees to increase their job resources and job demands. this premise is consistent with the conservation of the resources theory, which claims that personal resources have a positive impact on work engagement, which in turn reinforces personal resources (salanova et al., 2010). it is grounded on the notion that individuals who possess personal resources are capable of gaining more resources to sustain them in times of adversity. this accumulation of resources creates resource caravans and these resource caravans result in positive outcomes, such as better coping and adaptation skills (hakanen et al., 2008; salanova et al., 2010). similarly, the broaden-and-build theory posits that positive emotions trigger upward spirals, because the broadening of individual thought-action repertoires influence the building of resources, which may, in turn, promote well-being and adaptive functioning (pidgeon et al., 2014; tugade & fredrickson, 2004). with the given background, the outcomes of the present study are discussed in the following paragraphs. the two independent variables, emotional intelligence and work engagement, had significant relations with resilience. de waal and pienaar (2013) indicated that employees who are engaged are highly energetic, self-efficacious and exercise influence over events that affect their lives. the belief that they may cope with various stressors boost their confidence, which allows them to use adaptive coping strategies and endure demanding situations without being overwhelmed by the demands. schwarzer and warner (2013) argued that self-efficacy activates affective, motivational and behavioural mechanisms in demanding situations, which promotes resilience. emotionally intelligent individuals have the capacity to combat emotional experiences. this capacity to manage and regulate emotions generates continued fulfilment and capacity for positive emotions (pidgeon et al., 2014). according to the broaden-and-build theory, positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and cognition, enabling flexible and creative thinking and augmenting people’s enduring coping resources in the form of resilience (tugade & fredrickson, 2004). likewise, çutuka and aydoğanb (2019) argued that the experience of positive emotions builds psychological resilience over time. the results support hypotheses 1 and 2. the study observed that work engagement significantly mediated the relationship between emotional intelligence and resilience. however, there is only evidence of partial mediation given that the relationship between emotional intelligence and resilience is still statistically significant. based on the conservation of resources theory, emotionally intelligent employees are capable of conserving resources because of their ability to understand their own emotions and those of others, as well as their ability to use and regulate their feelings effectively (salanova et al., 2010). through the ability to effectively manage their own and others’ emotions, they conserve their physical and cognitive energy and remain cognitively engaged with work tasks (antoniou & cooper, 2016). when individuals are cognitively engaged, they experience positive work-related moods (vigour, dedication, absorption). de waal and pienaar (2013) suggested employees who experience these work-related moods are highly energetic, self-efficacious and exercise control of their environment. possessing self-efficacy and having the skill to exercise control over the environment foster resilience, as individuals will have the confidence and skill to deal with the many challenges of professional practice (antoniou & cooper, 2016; schutte & loi, 2014; schwarzer & warner, 2013). emotional intelligence can therefore be used as a building block for individuals to develop positive mood and coping skills. schutte and loi (2014) explained that emotional self-regulation facilitates an individual’s mastery of workplace events and reactions to them. in consequence, individuals are likely to experience positive outcomes such as work engagement. van wingerden and poell (2019) argued that engaged employees craft their jobs to create a better suiting and more challenging work environment. creating a resourceful and challenging work environment leads to positive outcomes such as resilience (van wingerden & poell, 2019). an alternative explanation for the established link is that employees who can manage their emotions experience enthusiasm, meaning and satisfaction and remain strongly committed to their work (dedication) in the face of challenges (albrecht, 2010). dedicated individuals feel positive and according to the broaden-and-build theory (tugade & fredrickson, 2004), positive emotions, such as being excited, enthusiastic and having a sense of pride, help to improve their capacity for resilience as they broaden their individual thought-action repertoires and augment personal resources that improve coping and adaptation. this suggests that work engagement via dedication explains the influence of emotional intelligence on resilience. therefore, the third hypothesis, work engagement mediates the relationship between emotional intelligence and resilience was confirmed. however, although an indirect link was observed, it should be observed that the indirect effects of emotional intelligence on resilience were smaller compared with the direct effects. a plausible explanation could be that the stronger direct relationship between emotional intelligence and resilience decreased the variance in resilience that could be explained by work engagement. emotional intelligence and resilience are both recognised as personal resources and resilience is assumed to be part of emotional intelligence, which explains the strong direct effect. the results suggest that emotional intelligence on its own can directly influence the resilience levels of nurses. emotional intelligence enables individuals to accurately assess their environment, express empathy, think according to the priority of problems and organise thoughts, which consequently increase resilience (magnano et al., 2016). individuals will not be able to bounce back or engage if they do not have accurate assessment of the environment in which they are operating (ackley, 2016; antoniou & cooper, 2016). in addition, emotional intelligence is argued to predict positive active coping skills of which resilience is one (alizadeh goradel, mowlaie, & pouresmali, 2016). the results support the relationship between emotional intelligence and resilience and strengthen previous theory and research (prins et al., 2018) that demonstrate that emotional intelligence has a positive direct effect on resilience. generally, these results suggest that emotional intelligence can directly influence the resilience levels of nurses. overall, given that emotional intelligence and work engagement have a significant impact on resilience, a theory can be framed to integrate emotional skills and work engagement dimensions as positive states and attitudes within the healthcare industry to promote resilience. interventions aimed at raising awareness regarding resilience should focus on how to foster greater emotional intelligence, which creates a positive mindset and harmonious relationship that in turn influence positive organisational outcomes. by implementing initiatives aimed at enhancing emotional intelligence, employees may experience greater levels of resilience. thus, to improve nurses’ resilience, interventions should be focused more on emotional intelligence training. nurses are faced with emotional, physical and psychological demands whilst at the same time having to offer quality care, given that it is imperative for the care service industry to foster high levels of resilience so that nurses can be able to cope and adapt. limitations of the study the study has some limitations. firstly, the small sample size (252) and the relatively homogenous nature of the sample. the participants were predominantly female nurses with very few male nurses working at three hospitals in the mangaung metropole: botshabelo, pelonomi and national. if the findings are to be representative of the total workforce, quantitative studies similar to this study should be conducted with more than 252 participants, bearing in mind the large number of nurses in public hospitals. secondly, the study relied on a cross-sectional survey design, making it difficult to prove causal relationships between the variables. thirdly, self-administered questionnaires could influence the reliability and validity of the data and findings. self-reported data can lead to response bias such as social desirability bias. the use of paper-based self-administered questionnaires may give rise to impression management, which can be seen as a weakness of self-administered questionnaires. fourthly, and related to the above limitation, the language used in the questionnaire could also have been a limitation. the questionnaire was only provided in english. some of the afrikaans and sesotho-speaking nurses found some of the items difficult to understand, especially words such as ‘immersed’ and ‘determined’ in the uwes and res. respondents failed to interpret certain items that were most confusing to them, for example, item 11 of the uwes, ‘i am immersed in my work’. practical implications and recommendations emotional intelligence and work engagement were observed to have predictive values for resilience. therefore, institutions should carefully adopt and implement programmes or initiatives to address this relationship. the south african healthcare industry is faced with a number of challenges that require nurses’ resilience to cope with the demands and challenges. the growing covid-19 pandemic has placed unexpected demands on the nurses. the unaffordable services offered by private hospitals has also resulted in the larger part of the population seeking help from the public hospitals, further increasing the demands on the professional nurses. this has negatively impacted the physical and mental well-being of nurses, making resilience critically important as a coping mechanism. emotional intelligence was observed to have a higher predictive value and a strong relationship with resilience. in the light of these findings and in order to improve nurses’ resilience, more focus should be on understanding the power of emotions and how it leads to self-directed learning. cultivating emotional intelligence competencies, such as self-awareness, social awareness, self and relationship management, recognition of emotions and regulation of emotions can be used as building blocks for coping and adaptation. the emotional intelligence of nurses can be improved through a number of ways – this may include identifying negative thoughts, emotions and expressions, evaluating individual actions, behaviours and relationships, expressing feelings and focusing on resolving conflict through communication (chowdhury, 2020). more importantly, for nurses, practicing empathy should be a daily habit. listening to a patient without judging or accepting harsh words from someone under stress can significantly increase emotional and social intelligence, thereby strengthening resilience through strong social bonds. emotional intelligence through self-directed learning assists in stress management, adapting to change and providing flexible problem-solving techniques. high stress tolerance and impulse control positively influence resilience, which leads to efficiency. enhancing emotional intelligence amongst nurses therefore improves their work-life balance, enhances their relationships with patients and colleagues and creates optimistic feelings for the patients they interact with. strategies aimed at increasing emotional intelligence may include taking interpersonal skills courses, doing an emotional intelligence test to understand self-awareness, performing regular self-directed learning activities and participating in coaching. in addition, networking with others to improve job-related skills and seeking feedback from peers, family and even patients may also lead to improved emotional intelligence. the implementation of these strategies may foster emotional intelligence and result in positive outcomes for nurses, which, in turn, will influence resilience. it is recommended that the role of emotional intelligence and work engagement as routes towards being resilient be considered and investigated further. future studies should focus on additional variables, such as mindfulness and job crafting as mediating variables between emotional intelligence and resilience. the sample comprised 252 nurses, predominantly women, from selected public hospitals. future research should use a randomised sampling process with larger samples and should also include more male nurses. conclusion the purpose of this survey was to investigate the effect of emotional intelligence and work engagement on resilience. the empirical statistical effect of emotional intelligence and work engagement on resilience observed in the study provided new understanding with respect to employee resilience. this study concludes that both emotional intelligence and work engagement are important in explaining an employee’s resilience. however, the strong direct link between emotional intelligence and resilience is very interesting. this strongly suggests that emotional intelligence should be the main focus in the promotion of resilience amongst nurses in the workplace. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions p.c. and m.h. contributed equally to the design and implementation of the research, to the analysis of the results and to the writing of the manuscript. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data that support the findings of this study can be made available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author m.h. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references ackley, d. (2016). emotional intelligence: a practical review of models, measures, and applications. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 68(4), 269–286. https://doi.org/10.1037/cpb0000070 aiena, b., baczwaski, b.j., schulenberg, s., & buchanan, e. (2014). measuring resilience with the rs-14: a tale of two samples. journal of personality assessment, 97(3), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2014.951445 albrecht, s.l. (2010). handbook of employee engagement: perspectives, issues, research and practice. cheltenham: edward elgar publishing limited. alizadeh goradel, j., mowlaie, m., & pouresmali, a. (2016). the role of emotional intelligence, and positive and negative affect on the resilience of primiparous women. journal of fundamentals of mental health, 18(5), 243–248. antoniou, a.s., & cooper, c.l. (2016). copying, personality and the workplace: responding to psychological crisis and critical events. london: gower publishing. best, c. (2019). building resilience in contemporary nursing practice. nursing practice, 30(8), 400–404. https://doi.org/10.12968/pnur.2019.30.8.400 bakker, a.b., & leiter, m. (2010). a handbook of essential theory and research. in a.b. bakker & m.p. leiter (ed.), work engagement: a handbook of essential theory and research. new york, ny: psychology press. çam, o., & buyukbayram, a. (2017). nurses’ resilience and effective factors. journal of psychiatric nursing, 118–126. https://doi.org/10.14744/phd.2017.75436 chin, w.w. (1998). the partial least squares approach to structural equation modeling. in g.a. marcoulides (ed.), modern methods for business research (pp. 295–336). mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. chowdhury, m.r. (2020). how to improve emotional intelligence through training. positive psychology. retrieved from https://positivepsychology.com/emotional-intelligence-training crane, m.f. (2017). managing for resilience: a practical guide for employee wellbeing and organizational performance. new york, ny: routledge. çutuka, z.a., & aydoğanb, r. (2019). emotional self-efficacy, resilience and psychological vulnerability: a structural equality modeling study. journal of educational sciences and psychology, 9(1), 106–114. de waal, j.j., & pienaar, j. (2013). towards understanding causality between work engagement and psychological capital. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1113 duncan, d. (2020). what the covid-19 pandemic tells us about the need to develop resilience in the nursing workforce. nursing management, 27(3), 22–27. https://doi.org/10.7748/nm.2020.e1933 goleman, d. (1995), emotional intelligence. new york, ny: bantum books. hair, j.f., risher, j.j., sarstedt, m., & ringle, c.m. (2019). when to use and how to report the results of pls-sem. european business review, 31(1), 2–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr-11-2018-0203 hakanen, j.j., perhoniemi, r., & toppinen-tanner, s. (2008). positive gain spirals at work: from job resources to work engagement, personal initiative and work-unit innovativeness. journal of vocational behaviour, 73(1), 78–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2008.01.003 hart, p., brannan, j.d., & chesnay, m.d. (2014). resilience in nurses: an integrative review. journal of nursing management, 22(6), 720–734. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2834.2012.01485.x hobfoll, s.e., stevens, n.r., & zalta, a.k. (2015). expanding the science of resilience: conserving resources in the aid of adaptation, psychological inquiry. an international journal for the advancement of psychological theory, 26(2), 174–180. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840x.2015.1002377 kašpárková, l., vaculík, m., procházk, j., & schaufeli, w.b. (2018). why resilient workers perform better: the roles of job satisfaction and work engagement. journal of workplace behavioural health, 33(1), 43–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/15555240.2018.1441719 khamisa, n., peltzer, k., ilic, d., & oldenburg, b. (2017). effect of personal and work stress on burnout, job satisfaction and general health of hospital nurses in south africa. health sa gesondheid, 22, 252–258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hsag.2016.10.001 koen, m.p., van eeden, c., & wissing, m.p. (2011). the prevalence of resilience in a group of professional nurses. health sa gesondheid, 16(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/hsag.v16i1.576 magnano, p., craparo, g., & paolillo, a. (2016). resilience and emotional intelligence: which role in achievement motivation. international journal of psychology research, 9(1), 9–20. https://doi.org/10.21500/20112084.2096 mcdermid, f., peters, k., daly, j., & jackson, d. (2016). developing resilience: stories from novice academics. nurse education today, 38, 29–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2016.01.002 meintjes, a., & hofmeyr, k. (2018). the impact of resilience and perceived organisational support on employee engagement in a competitive sales environment. sa journal of human resource management, 16(1), e1–e11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.953 nel, p., du plessis, m., & bosman, l. (2015). comparing different versions of the questionnaire in a south african context. south african journal of industrial psychology, 41(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v41i1.1220 pallant, j. (2013). spss survival manual. new york, ny: two pen plaza. paul, h., bamel, u., & garg, p. (2016). employee resilience and ocb: mediating effects of organizational commitment. vikalpa: the journal for decision makers, 41(4), 308–324. https://doi.org/10.1177/0256090916672765 pidgeon, a.m., ford, l., & klaassen, f. (2014). evaluating the effectiveness of enhancing resilience in human service professionals using a retreat-based mindfulness with metta training program: a randomised control trial. psychology, health & medicine, 19(3), 355–364. https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2013.806815 prins, a., van niekerk, e., & weyers, a. (2018). emotional intelligence: tipping point in workplace excellence. randburg: kr publishing. rahim, m.a., psenicka, c., polychroniou, p., zhao, j.-h., yu, c.-s., chan, k.a., & van wyk, r. (2002). a model of emotional intelligence and conflict management strategies: a study in seven countries. international journal of organizational analysis, 10(4), 302–326. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb028955 ramalisa, r.j., du plessis, e., & koen, m.p. (2018). increasing coping and strengthening resilience in nurses providing mental health care: empirical qualitative research. health sa gesondheid, 23(0), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/hsag.v23i0.1094 rich, b.l., lepine, j.a., & crawford, e.r. (2010). job engagement: antecedents and effects on job performance. academy of management journal, 53(3), 617–635. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.51468988 salanova, m., schaufeli, w.b., xanthopoulou, d., & bakker, a.b. (2010). the gain spiral of resources and work engagement: sustaining a positive worklife. in a.b. bakker & m.p. leiter (ed.), work engagement: a handbook of essential theory and research (pp. 118–131). new york, ny: psychology press. salilih, s.z., & abajobir, a.a. (2014). work-related stress and associated factors among nurses working in public hospitals of addis ababa, ethiopia: a cross-sectional study. workplace health & safety, 62(8), 326–332. https://doi.org/10.3928/21650799-20140708-02 schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b (2004). uwes utrecht work engagement scale: preliminary manual (measuring instrument). utrecht: utrecht university, occupational health psychology unit. schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzález-romá, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two-sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3, 71–93. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 schutte, n.s., & loi, n.m. (2014). connections between emotional intelligence and workplace flourishing. personality and individual differences, 66, 134–139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.03.031 schwarzer, r., & warner, l.m. (2013). perceived self-efficacy and its relationship to resilience. in resilience in children, adolescents, and adults (pp. 139–150). new york, ny: springer. simons, j.c., & buitendach, j.h. (2013). psychological capital, work engagement and organisational commitment amongst call centre employees in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1071 toyama, h., & mauno, s. (2017). associations of trait emotional intelligence with social support, work engagement, and creativity in japanese eldercare nurses. japanese psychological research, 59(1), 14–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpr.12139 truter, e., theron, l., & fouché, a. (2014). indicators of resilience in resilient south african designated social workers: professional perspectives. the social work practitioner-researcher, 26(3), 305–329. tugade, m.m., & fredrickson, b.l. (2004). resilient individuals use positive emotions to bounce back from negative emotional experiences. journal of personality and social psychology, 86(2), 320–333. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.86.2.320 van wingerden, j., & poell, r.f. (2019). meaningful work and resilience among teachers: the mediating role of work engagement and job crafting. plos one, 14(9), e0222518. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0222518 wagnild, g.m., & collins, j. (2009). assessing resilience. journal of psychosocial nursing, 47(12), 28–33. https://doi.org/10.3928/02793695-20091103-01 wagnild, g.m., & young, h.m. (1993). development and psychometric psychometric evaluation of the resilience scale. journal of nursing management, 1(2), 165–178. yilmaz, e.b. (2017). resilience as a strategy for struggling against challenges related to the nursing profession. chinese nursing research, 4, 9–13. https://doi.org/10.25164/cnr201701003 zhu, y., zhang, s., & shen, y. (2019). humble leadership and employee resilience: exploring the mediating mechanism of work-related promotion focus and perceived insider identity. frontiers in psychology, 10(673), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00673 abstract introduction research design findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) zelda burger montage leadership development, durban, south africa university of stellenbosch business school, stellenbosch university, cape town, south africa salome van coller-peter university of stellenbosch business school, stellenbosch university, cape town, south africa citation burger, z., & van coller-peter, s. (2019). a guiding framework for multi-stakeholder contracting in executive coaching. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1114. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1114 original research a guiding framework for multi-stakeholder contracting in executive coaching zelda burger, salome van coller-peter received: 13 aug. 2018; accepted: 25 feb. 2019; published: 19 sept. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: multi-stakeholder contracting provides a platform for the coaching stakeholders: the individual being coached (client), the organisation (sponsor and line manager) and the coach for achieving aligned outcomes within executive coaching. contracting is not optimally implemented by stakeholders in all three phases of executive coaching (commencement, execution and conclusion). research purpose: the research’s purpose was to develop a guiding framework for multi-stakeholder contracting in each of the three phases of coaching. motivation for the study: stakeholders ensure outcomes achievement for the individual and the organisation in executive coaching. limited research exists relating to the contractual elements and practices implemented by stakeholders during the three phases of coaching. research approach/design and method: a qualitative, inductive, exploratory approach using purposive sampling was used to identify 12 participants, consisting of three: executive coaches, clients, line managers and sponsors from three corporate organisations. participants were interviewed using a customised interview guide categorised into the three coaching phases. main findings: findings showed that contracting was included at the commencement coaching phase. the study indicated the advantages of contracting in all three coaching phases with all stakeholders emphasising phase-specific accountabilities. practical/managerial implications: a guiding framework for multi-stakeholder contracting for each of the three phases of coaching could assist stakeholders; in particular human resource practitioners when contracting for executive coaching. contribution/value-add: outcomes alignment at the commencement phase, agreement on progress and results feedback during the execution and conclusion phases are enabled by implementing the guiding framework for multi-stakeholder contracting offered by this research. keywords: executive coaching; multi-stakeholder contracting; three-way session; three-and four-cornered meeting. introduction problem statement key focus contracting challenges in the three phases of executive coaching impact outcomes alignment among stakeholders and the support from the line manager (ogilvy & ellam-dyson, 2012) and sponsor (lee & frisch, 2015). this, in turn, affects the learning experience of the client, which could yield unsatisfactory coaching outcomes for both individual and organisation (kombarakaran, baker, yang, & fernandes, 2008). multi-stakeholder contracting is effective for aligning outcomes and agreeing progress feedback and results reporting. however, limited research exists pertaining to the contractual elements and practices implemented by coaching stakeholders in the three phases of executive coaching. this research presents a guiding framework for multi-stakeholder contracting for implementation by coaching stakeholders at commencement, execution and conclusion phases of executive coaching. background according to the international coach federation (icf) 2016 global coaching study, the coaching industry continues to demonstrate growth as a response to workplace demands (de haan, 2008; de meuse, dai & lee, 2009; joo, 2005; maritz, 2013; turner & hawkins, 2016). hence, the coaching industry needs to be serving both the individual and the organisation in ways that demonstrate clear value (schlosser, steinbrenner, kumata, & hunt, 2007). the coach is faced with the challenge of achieving the goals set by the coaching client and the organisation represented by the line manager and sponsor (khan, 2014; stout-rostron, 2014). this challenge, namely, the ‘duality of client’ role of the coach (kahn, 2014), correlates with the systemic perspective of coaching (drinnan & hutson, 2007; koortzen & oosthuizen, 2010; o’neill, 2000), where the coaching is delivered within the team and organisational systems (stout-rostron, 2012). this is supported by kilburg (2000), who describes executive coaching as a helping relationship, assisting the client to achieve mutually identified goals, to improve professional performance and personal satisfaction and to improve the effectiveness of the organisation within a formally defined coaching agreement. multi-stakeholder contracting is presented in the literature and in this study as a solution to the ‘duality of client’ challenge of the coach. multi-stakeholder contracting is defined as a contracting engagement involving the coach who provides the service, the client who receives the coaching and the organisation that pays for the coaching (clutterbuck, 2015; sherman & freas, 2004; stout-rostron, 2014; turner & hawkins, 2016). multi-stakeholder contracting is effective when all contractual elements receive the uncoerced agreement of the client, coach and organisation (fielder & starr, 2008; sherman & freas, 2004). despite the benefits of multi-stakeholder contracting in executive coaching, limited research has been produced the last few years (fillery-travis, 2015; stern & stout-rostron, 2013). research objectives the question this study asks is: ‘what contracting elements and practices should be included in a guiding framework for multi-stakeholder contracting covering the three phases of executive coaching: commencement, execution and conclusion?’ to answer this question, the following research objectives were formalised: to identify what the initial contracting processes between executive coaches, clients, line managers and sponsors comprise; to determine what the contracting in the coach-client-line manager relationship regarding involvement and support consist of; to identify what the contracting for progress feedback between the four stakeholders comprise; and lastly to determine what contracting for results reporting and closeout between the four stakeholders comprise. contribution to the field of executive coaching the worldwide demand for high-quality coaching (feldman & lankau, 2005; stern & stout-rostron, 2013) has encouraged multi-stakeholder contracting in organisational settings worldwide (turner & hawkins, 2016), yet research in this area is limited. in fact, the entire process of contracting is probably the most neglected area of coaching practice (stout-rostron, 2014). the limited research in multi-stakeholder contracting is amplified by the worldwide association of business coaches’ (wabc) white paper on contracting, stipulating that the increased use of coaching in corporate contexts has created an urgent need for accountability and clearer contracts (fillery-travis, 2015). a review of 263 journal articles on coaching research, conducted between 2008 and 2012, found that contracting had less than 20 studies recorded and was therefore identified as one of the focus areas in need of research (stern & stout-rostron, 2013). literature review the theoretical underpinnings of this research consist of contracting as an executive coaching practice focused on contractual guidelines from coaching organisations and literature, emphasising three-cornered (client-coach-line manager) and four-cornered (client–coach–line manager-sponsor) contracting practices. this section reviews current research, views and practices, and discusses the significance of the contracting challenges for coaching stakeholders and the limited research in multi-stakeholder contracting. contractual guidelines from coaching organisations and literature the importance of contracting is emphasised by coaching organisations such as the international coach federation (icf), the european mentoring and coaching council (emcc), worldwide association of business coaches (wabc), association of coaching (ac) and coaches and mentors south africa (comensa, 2016). these organisations provide member guidelines in their core competencies, code of ethics and professional standards for developing a coaching agreement, contracting confidentiality and other contractual elements. the wabc commissioned multi-stakeholder contracting research in 2014, which reviewed contractual elements identified by professional coaching organisations (icf, emcc, wabc, 2016) and communities of practice as the most critical. contractual elements identified as most critical were accountability, confidentiality, and organisational and individual goal attainment (turner & hawkins, 2016). a systemic approach when contracting would benefit goal attainment for stakeholders because clients require approaches that recognise the multiple systems of which they are part of (fillery-travis, 2015; o’neil, 2000; sherman & freas, 2004). key systemic factors to consider when setting up the coaching contract are (1) business results to be achieved; (2) leadership behaviours to be exhibited and (3) team communication and staff dynamics required to achieve the desired result (o’neil, 2007 cited by fillery-travis, 2015). it is evident that contracts should acknowledge the complex, systemic and qualitative aspects of coaching. as long as the coach, client and organisation have an understanding that stakeholder rights will be maintained regardless of differences in stakeholder interests, the contract will remain essential to the coaching relationship (drinnan & hutson, 2007; fielder & starr, 2008). in summary, significant theory and different contracting approaches exist in executive coaching, which illustrate the complexity in achieving individual and organisational aligned outcomes. stakeholder involvement ensures alignment of outcomes, which brings synergy, creates wealth, sustains the future of the organisation and provides meaning and purpose for all involved (van coller-peter, 2015). the two most prominent systemic contracting practices in executive coaching are threeand four-cornered contracting involving all four coaching stakeholders in all three phases of executive coaching. threeand four-cornered contracting reaching explicit three-cornered (client-coach-line manager) and four-cornered (client-coach-line manager-sponsor) contracting agreements pertaining to goals, measures and accountabilities brings the stakeholders into alignment (fakalata & wiete, 2012; sherman & freas, 2004), which is key to the success of the coaching intervention (lee & frisch, 2015, p. 9). contracting conversations should therefore be explicit, candid debates addressing boundaries of confidentiality and defined accountabilities for each stakeholder (hay, 2011; pomerantz & eiting, 2004). three-cornered contracting firstly, a three-cornered contracting agreement is reliant on the client–coach relationship, which is determined by their connection, their collaboration and their mutual commitment to the process (ting & hart, 2004, cited by baron & morin, 2009). the first contracting conversation is the ‘chemistry session’, which is a coach-client exchange determining the feasibility of a potential working relationship. following a positive ‘chemistry session’, a coaching agreement is developed, addressing the key points of the coaching engagement (stout-rostron, 2012), such as goals of the coaching (lee & frisch, 2015), estimated resources required, time and confidentiality commitment, and assessment methods to be used (thach, 2002). in addition, the goal setting methodology, the client’s willingness and effort towards achieving the goals and systemic feedback from the client’s environment should also be included in the contract. secondly, a three-cornered contracting agreement is dependent on line manager involvement in the three-way coaching sessions with the coach and client, which enhances the line manager’s understanding of the coaching process and its impact (schlosser, steinbrenner, kumata, & hunt 2006; sherman & freas, 2004). client line manager feedback conversations provide targeted conversation regarding outcomes and a conducive context for clarifying expectations (feldman & lankau, 2005). the perspective of the line manager needs to be heard and brought into the process of outcome measurement (schlosser et al., 2007). coaching programme administrators, such as human resources, need to elicit and sustain line manager participation in coaching programmes because their involvement suggests a better return on investment (kombarakaran et al., 2008). four-cornered contracting a four-cornered contracting agreement between the coach, client, line manager and sponsor is an effective start to the contracting process because it clarifies roles and accountabilities, sets confidentiality boundaries, explains goal setting, agrees on goal areas, determines the format and frequency of progress feedback and results reporting, and agrees on client support (ogilvy & ellam-dyson, 2012). the four-cornered contracting agreement aligns the outcome requirement of the organisation and the outcome delivery by the coaching intervention (coutu & kauffman, 2009). successful contracting is therefore customising to the coaching stakeholders’ requirements (bennett, 2008; fillery-travis, 2015). building contractual structures around the coaching programme that clarify expectations, accountability and feedback mechanisms is essential for the achievement of coaching outcomes and illustrates the organisation’s investment in the professional growth of the individual (fakalata & wiete, 2012; walsh, 2016). coaching is a time-intensive and expensive engagement and organisations should insist on regular and formal progress reviews starting in the first third of the coaching engagement (kauffman & coutu, 2009; lee & frisch, 2015). insufficient contracting between the coach, client, line manager and sponsor can create misaligned outcomes and expectations, which may compromise the success of the coaching intervention. the challenge is to continuously refine a methodology to measure coaching impact and assess value that meets the needs of all the stakeholders (schlosser et al., 2006). organisations should be committed to coaching clients to grow, and senior management needs to be invested in the engagement (fakalata & wiete, 2012; kauffman & coutu, 2009). an open organisational culture and support from within the organisation are considered to be critical for the success of executive coaching (walker-fraser, 2011). readiness for change is an important consideration, regardless of whether it applies to the client or the organisation, as it concerns resisting change or being motivated to be pulled in different directions within the organisational system (drinnan & hutson, 2007). it is evident from the literature that multi-stakeholder contracting could assist with achieving an aligned outcome for the individual and organisational in executive coaching; however, limited research has been conducted on the implementation of contracting practices by stakeholders in each of the three phases of executive coaching. research design research approach the qualitative, inductive and exploratory study captured the essence of the actions of the participants within their contexts (babbie & mouton, 2014; bloomberg & volpe, 2012; bryman & bell, 2007) and was appropriate for examining complex research such as multi-stakeholder contracting. research method sampling purposive sampling was used on the basis of knowledge of the population (multiple coaching stakeholders) and the research aim and objectives (babbie & mouton, 2014). the research aim was to develop a guiding framework for multi-stakeholder contracting within the three phases of executive coaching: commencement, execution and conclusion. the sample consisted of three executive coaches, three clients, three line managers and three sponsors from three different corporate organisations. three executive coaches, co-attendees of the researcher’s coaching supervision group, were approached by the researcher and invited as study participants. following their consent, the three coaches each selected and approached one client, line manager and sponsor as potential study participants from one corporate client organisation they had delivered coaching to. twelve participants consented and were interviewed within their organisational clusters, respectively, to take cognisance of the multi-stakeholder dynamics and organisational context. participant selection criteria were as follows: executive coaches who were professionally qualified, worked in corporate contexts and used multi-stakeholder contracting elements and practices in their stakeholder relationships during the three phases of the coaching intervention. coaching clients who had completed a coaching intervention of more than eight sessions with an executive coach and who had experienced and participated in contracting interactions with a coach, line manager and/or sponsor during the three phases of the coaching intervention. line managers and sponsors who had experienced and participated in contracting interactions with a coach and coaching client during the three phases of the coaching intervention. data collection methods primary data were generated by conducting 1-hour individual interviews with 12 participants. ten face-to-face and two skype interviews were conducted over a 3-week period. interviews as a data collection method were effective in eliciting participants’ experiences relating to multi-stakeholder contracting in the three phases of executive coaching. a customised interview guide was used for the three participant group interviews, based on the research aim and objectives. the seven stages of kvale (1996, cited by babbie & mouton, 2014) were followed for the interview process. the interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed with participant consent, followed by participant checking and transcription analysis. data analysis thematic analysis, a form of qualitative analysis, was used to identify and analyse patterns in the qualitative data (clarke & braun, 2013). the six-step thematic analysis of braun and clarke (2006) was used to analyse interview transcriptions, and to select reoccurring, prominent and/or relevant categories. this was followed by coding, category grouping and theme selection. the themes were compared to the research aim and objectives assisting with sense making of the findings and comparing reality with the theoretical perspectives presented in the literature review. findings according to the three executive coaching phases (commencement, execution and conclusion), the findings from the analysis of the 12 interviews with coaches (a, b, c), clients (a, b, c), line managers (a, b, c) and sponsors (a, b, c) were grouped into themes. the themes created context for the most prominent contracting elements and practices identified in each of the three phases. commencement phase the commencement phase contains three themes, as summarised in table 1. table 1: commencement phase. organisational objective and initial contracting overall, the client and coach findings indicated that they found the buy-in and support from senior management encouraging and motivational. according to client a, the pre-coaching programme provided context, a sense of certainty and trust in the coaching. client b shared his organisation’s culture of investing in his development, and client c was inspired by the organisation’s ability to improve leadership skills. sponsor findings indicated that the coaching had a specific organisational objective to be achieved, which supported coaching’s systemic perspective: ‘the leadership development programme is about stepping into your own leadership. clients are delegates on the programme where they design their own leadership philosophy which they continually update through the coaching.’ (sponsor b, female, human resources executive) in a similar manner, sponsor a noted that their leadership development was aimed at transforming behaviour and client engagement philosophy and that leadership had to transform from a matriarchal to a collaborative, adaptive and coaching management style. sponsor c’s organisation was engaged in cultural, team and value integration interventions and coaching was one of the methodologies implemented. line managers b and c noted that the coaching was aimed at enabling the leaders towards increased effectiveness and formed part of a succession development programme: ‘there was a need to empower our leaders, to make them feel more confident in their day-to-day operations and to lead in terms of the new strategy by applying a more rounded, holistic management style.’ (line manager a, male, sales executive) ‘initial contracting between the organisation and the service providers consisted of a process document presented to coaching participants.’ (coach a, female, executive coach) ‘the initial contracting in terms of the intervention was between the coaching service provider and the sponsor. i contract with the service provider to do the coaching and was involved in some of the workshops prior to the coaching.’ (coach c, female, executive coach) contracting between coaches a, b and c and their clients started with a comprehensive contract at commencement, mentioning the three-way line manager sessions and systemic feedback mechanisms: ‘there is a two-page document which you go through with your client at the beginning, which says this is the coach’s and client’s role. setting out the responsibilities between what they do and what is expected of them.’ (coach a, female executive coach) coach b was directly contracted to the organisation and noted that the coach needed to lead the contracting process because of contracting being a core coaching principle and competency. coach selection and coach-client relationship despite the difficult task of coach selection, all three organisations in the study succeeded in using matching and chemistry sessions effectively. clients a, b and c indicated the importance of the coach–client connection and coach b emphasised the psychological and spiritual connection essential for client–coach rapport building. the two important factors in coach selection were the coaching methodology and knowledge of the coach (clients a, b and c). understanding the business context and credentialing was highlighted by sponsor b (female, human resources executive): ‘we only select coaches who are icf accredited onto our panel. we also choose integral coaches nationally to link to our philosophy of leadership’. in the case of sponsor c, the coaches were sourced by the service provider, with whom the organisation had an established relationship. coaching objectives and measures coaching objectives were mostly derived from selfand 360-assessments at the start of the coaching (clients a, b and c). ‘the client sends me his developmentally supportive insights based on the enneagram profile and conversation’ (coach c, female, executive coach). ‘i shared my development plan and the 360 with my coach in the first session. he guided me towards my development plan’ (client b, male, human resources manager). the first coaching session provided goal setting and direction for clients a, b and c: ‘we spent the first meeting going through the enneagram. one of my goals emerged along the way’ (client a, female, sales manager). the question relating to goal measures drew a variety of responses. coach c’s opinion was that measures should be based on systemic feedback relating to the client’s actions. measures for client c consisted of a self-awareness and self-regulatory approach, whereas client a used a scaling method for determining the goal progress. client b’s description of goal measures was: ‘we set objectives which we can measure such as the culture survey which gave us the best information for implementing a number of interventions to achieve results’. (male, human resources manager) execution phase the execution phase contains three themes, as summarised in table 2. table 2: execution phase. first three-way session findings indicated that three-way sessions assisted line managers and clients in reaching agreements on goals, measures and accountabilities before the coaching started. sponsor b and coach a noted that line managers received an email from the organisation explaining their role during the three-way sessions. line manager b shared that the coach explained the process including the three-way sessions providing the opportunity of adding to the coaching development plan. client a concurs: ‘my manager had an opportunity to view the objectives sheet to see if it aligned with his expectation and had input at the three-way session’ (female, sales manager). goal alignment between the individual and line manager is described by coach c: ‘sometimes the client has their own idea of where they should develop, depending on their own level of maturity and self-awareness. the line manager adds a valuable dimension in terms of confirming what the client has already identified as areas for development or perhaps adding another angle, especially in terms of how that person shows up in the work place and the team.’ (female, executive coach) line managers (a, b and c) were non-descriptive and aligned with the coaching goals shared by the client during the first three-way session. ‘the goals were set by the client with their coach. we were not involved in that until the first three-way session’ (line manager a, male, sales executive). ‘he had two goals he enthusiastically told me about, which we agreed on. the 360 assessments in the beginning and performance management feedback confirmed the goals discussed’ (line manager c, male, production executive). line manager feedback during the three-way session was experienced by client a as performance management focused, which in her opinion should have been a reflection on her individual growth during the coaching. the view of sponsor c was that the coach needed to enlighten the line manager in providing practical support during the coaching. one example is coach a who encouraged authentic and transparent interactions during the three-way sessions: ‘i try and put 10 minutes upfront to speak to the line manager before the three-way sessions, to get the line manager to articulate their expectations of the client’ (female, executive coach). on the contrary, coach c was pleased with line manager c’s skilled delivery of the feedback in a ‘non-threatening way’. line managers a and b suggested the adding of a third three-way session in the middle of the coaching journey to provide further support to the client. upfront systemic feedback for goal setting was noted by sponsor c as critical for preventing goal evolution during the coaching: ‘once objectives are agreed between client, coach and line manager, they should get coaching objectives from the sponsor. collaborate the goal – you want commitment from the client, but at least the insight is there and the client can reflect on it.’ (female, human resources executive) progress check-ins with line manager the client and line manager findings showed that check-in conversations created goal alignment and expectation clarification: ‘we now have radical clarity between us where she can ask for assistance and not feel that she is any less respected.’ (line manager a, male, sales executive) check-in conversations positively influenced the clients’ perceptions by creating a sense of line manager support for the clients’ career development (clients b and c). as stated by line manager: ‘the client would have discussions with me on issues where he needed support and i found that very refreshing, because i saw that as my primary role as his boss.’ (line manager b, male, human resources executive) progress check-ins also resulted in an enhanced relationship based on improved communication: ‘the engagements enabled us to check-in that we were doing the things we said we would do. it became natural to integrate the coaching into the discussions and generally the conversations took on a whole different theme.’ (line manager a, male, sales executive) the line managers (a, b and c) indicated a high level of understanding of their support role which translated into involvement and valuing the coaching process. line manager c reinforced the client’s efforts by providing observational feedback, and the constructive input regarding potential growth areas was appreciated: ‘line manager gave his feedback to see if he saw any difference in me, it was factual. he picked up my behavioural changes and going back to default mode in meetings and would give me feedback’ (client c, male, production manager). progress feedback to sponsor sponsors a and b received monthly updates from coaches indicating whether sessions had been forfeited by clients for the situation to be remedied: ‘the contract with the client includes confidentiality, but the feedback to the project manager (service provider) covers process and attendance information which is provided by the coach in a monthly tracker via email. the service provider has initially contracted with the sponsor and communicates with them.’ (coach c, female, executive coach) although sponsor b mentioned goal progress tracking as one of their development areas, they still required high level feedback: ‘coaches give me a monthly touchdown feedback report – just high overview. so, i have got a picture at the end of the 13 sessions’ (female, human resources executive). on the contrary, sponsor c required the clients to complete a quarterly selfand 360-assessment accompanied by a report shared with the coach, line manager and sponsor. two different perspectives pertaining to sponsor feedback were shared by clients a and c: ‘i do not think it is unusual for the company to want to get feedback from a group perspective in terms of the progress being made in the field with their managers’ (client a, female, sales manager). the importance of the sponsor partnering with the client and the line manager in terms of support, empathy and interest in their well-being including the coaching was emphasised by client c, who was uncomfortable with the line manager sharing coaching information with the sponsor. another method used by sponsor b to gauge progress was to engage clients attending the leadership programme. ‘i think line managers are agreeing to something they do not always understand, so i will have a touchdown session halfway through. this has been a gap that we are addressing’ (female, human resources executive). conclusion phase the conclusion phase contains three themes, as summarised in table 3. table 3: conclusion phase. second three-way session line manager b describes the last three-way session as a reflection on what had transpired during the coaching – the completion of the formal coaching. this session is an effective feedback mechanism for the client pertaining to coaching progress and outcomes achieved: ‘i have seen a change in his behaviour, gave feedback to him; areas that he needs to continue focusing on.’ (line manager b, male, human resources executive) findings noted that the session was useful for trust building: ‘the client’s realisation or acceptance that we regard her as a valuable member of our team and we back her and respect her abilities and capabilities’ (line manager a, male sales executive). sponsor b mentioned that the second three-way session is the culmination of learning: ‘at the close-out they need to share their leadership philosophy’ (female, human resources executive). sustainability coaches a, b and c produced closeout reports in collaboration with their clients in accordance with mutually agreed requirements. the coaches stated that they revisited the initially agreed coaching goals throughout the coaching which were included in the closeout reports. ‘the client and i do the end report together, it could include a comment in the client’s own words and a short piece from me on what we have discovered and covered. the report is then sent to human resources or the line manager.’ (coach b, male executive coach) sponsor b was adding guidelines for goal reporting on measures and progress for embedding the client’s learning into the business and sustaining the learning. line manager b suggested that the client journals the objectives, learnings, insights and behavioural change during the coaching journey to minimise regression and sustain the learning. ongoing feedback from line managers was noted as a mechanism for sustaining the learning: ‘i appreciate that the client might lapse, because it is all about practice. i give immediate feedback informally as well as in the formal one-on-one’ (line manager c, male, production executive). return on engagement and value from coaching sponsors (a, b and c) and coaches (a, b and c) viewed return on engagement (roe) as a more useful measure of coaching success than return on investment (roi). sponsor a said that clients’ behavioural change in alignment with the organisational objectives added the most value to the organisation and the client: ‘when you have somebody with very high power and influence that makes that kind of shift, the impact is far and wide. it is all based on behavioural change and shifts. 360-feedback became unimportant when we saw the behavioural changes in the most powerful and influential colleagues of ours.’ (sponsor a, female, human resources executive) this is echoed by line manager a’s view that coaching is about the individual developing at their rate, feeling confident and being able to disseminate their learnings into their own teams: ‘sometimes the coaching helps people in their personal lives; it helps them see their purpose more clearly. you would pick up the change in your engagement survey results, in your team performance, team goal performance and in the system.’ (sponsor c, female, human resources executive) the success of coaching, according to sponsor c, is defined by the client and the line manager, and when there are good results they become agents of change. ‘it was important for me to gauge and to ensure that the process ultimately delivered on the envisaged end result’ (line manager c, male, production executive). sponsors b and c used 360 feedback assessment in gauging behavioural change during coaching. client b and sponsor b used a 360-feedback at the commencement and closeout phases. client a suggested that preand post-coaching assessments should include not only the line managers, but also individuals from the client’s work environment. line manager c was in agreement with the coach conducting systemic interviews and the client eliciting feedback from the system; however, line manager b was cautious of the impact on the coach–client trust relationship if the coach had to obtain feedback directly from the system. ethical considerations the selection of the participants and sample size were the researcher’s choice by including coaching stakeholders who had experience in multi-stakeholder contracting in corporate contexts. given the research aim and objectives, the researcher had to contract mindfully with each of the stakeholders. because contracting was the focus of the research, it had to be incorporated and modelled throughout the interactions with the participants. confidentiality and anonymity were contracted with participants before, during and after interviews. further contractual elements included an informed consent form discussing the ethical research principles and an organisational permission form signed by the sponsors. the truthfulness, openness and honesty of the results were critical to the quality of the research and these elements were kept prominent during interactions with participants. discussion the objective of this study was to investigate the contracting elements and practices for inclusion in a guiding framework for multi-stakeholder contracting for each of the three phases of executive coaching: commencement, execution and conclusion. study findings indicated key contractual elements and practices implemented by coaching stakeholders, which were consolidated into a guiding framework for multi-stakeholder contracting for each of the three executive coaching phases. commencement phase the most prominent finding of this research was that contracting for objective setting at the onset of the coaching relationship remains a complex process, taking the systemic perspective of the client, line manager and sponsor into consideration (bennett, 2008; drinnan & hutson, 2007; koortzen & oosthuizen, 2010; o’neill, 2000). according to the findings, systemic feedback in the form of 360-feedback and line manager and coach observations formed part of the clients’ learning and progress tracking and was included in the initial contracting conversations (clutterbuck, 2015; gregory, levy, & jeffers, 2008; lee & frisch, 2015; thach, 2002). coaches a and c had written contracts with the coaching service provider they were contracted to, whereas coach b had a written contract with the organisation represented by the sponsor. coaches a and c had written contracts with clients, whereas coach b verbally discussed the contract with clients. sponsor b had contracting conversations with line managers and clients before the coaching started. the three-cornered agreement between the coach, client and line manager was according to the findings represented by an objectives or outcomes document used during the two three-way sessions to align the three stakeholders on goal setting, progress and results reporting. clients a, b and c indicated that the line managers were non-descriptive of the goals proposed (cowan, 2013). the findings showed that the sponsor was not included in the contractual agreement between the client, coach and line manager at commencement of the coaching. involving the sponsor would have implied a four-cornered agreement at the start of the coaching for clarifying objectives, process and accountabilities. in summary, findings indicated that two written contracts were used by coaching stakeholders: (1) contract between the coach and the client, and (2) contract between the coach and the service provider or organisation, and that the contracts between the client, coach and line manager consisted of an objectives or outcomes document agreed during the three-way sessions. the findings therefore align with the literature that the majority of coaches have one contract with the organisation and a three-cornered agreement with the client and line manager and/or sponsor (hay, 2011, p. 5; walsh, 2016, p. 30). execution phase this research indicated the significance of multi-stakeholder contracting in aligning goals, enhancing synergy and providing meaning and purpose for all involved (van coller-peter, 2015). the findings indicated that three-way sessions assisted line managers and clients to reach explicit agreements on goals, measures and accountabilities, which brought the stakeholders into closer alignment before the coaching began (fakalata & wiete, 2012; sherman & freas, 2004). according to the findings, the formal feedback given to the client during the two three-way sessions was captured in the objectives or outcomes document. the client and line manager findings on progress check-ins showed that these conversations provided a mechanism for targeted conversations about goals and expectations (feldman & lankau, 2005). the check-ins between client b and line manager b were informal, a continuation of their ongoing work relationship, focused on operational issues and personal development. the check-ins between client c and line manager c were structured one-on-ones discussing coaching milestones and feedback. the check-ins between client a and line manager a were operational and not specifically centred around coaching, yet behavioural changes were recognised and acknowledged. involvement and support from line managers a, b and c were demonstrated by giving observational informal and informal feedback on the client’s progress. coach a mentioned the importance of the line manager articulating his expectations transparently during three-way sessions. client a included feedback from peers, colleagues and team members in addition to his line manager’s feedback before and at the end of the coaching to gauge behavioural change. sponsor c had the view that systemic feedback should be elicited from the sponsor to confirm behavioural shifts based on the agreed objectives. sponsor findings indicated that coaching was perceived as a time-intensive and expensive engagement necessitating regular and formal progress reviews starting during the first third of the coaching engagement (kauffman & coutu, 2009; lee & frisch, 2015). findings indicated that the coaches’ feedback to sponsors covered process and excluded confidential content, as specified by the coaches’ code of ethics (stout-rostron, 2012). conclusion phase findings agreed that the three-way sessions and specifically the last one were a powerful method for the client to obtain feedback on coaching progress and outcomes achieved (hay, 2011; lee & frisch, 2015; sherman & freas, 2004;). the sponsor and line manager findings showed a strong commitment to the client’s coaching which contributed to a supportive organisational culture for coaching (walker-fraser, 2011). line manager feedback during the second three-way session was received as valuable (clients b and c). however, client a suggested that the line manager should focus feedback on the individual’s growth journey, demonstrating the line manager’s commitment towards the client’s coaching (kauffman & coutu, 2009). findings indicated that the three-cornered agreement between the coach, client and line manager was represented by the objectives or outcomes document used during both three-way sessions: one for objective alignment and the other for closeout reporting. sponsor c indicated the need to be included in the closeout session, which demonstrated senior management’s investment in the client’s progress (fakalata & wiete, 2012). the coach findings indicated that coaches produced closeout sponsor reports in collaboration with their clients in accordance with mutually agreed requirements (bennett, 2008; fillery-travis, 2015). coach b mentioned that goal evolvement (david, clutterbuck, & megginson, 2013) should be contracted at the commencement of the coaching and that stakeholders should be kept engaged throughout evolvement. this highlights the importance for the coach to align the expectations of the organisation with the outcomes delivered by the coaching (kauffman & coutu, 2009). coach a and client a emphasised the ‘unintended consequences’ of the client’s behavioural change on the system. contracts should include an understanding of the systemic implications of coaching for the organisation created by the client’s self-development, learning and behavioural changes to meet the coaching objectives (fielder & starr, 2008). the findings and discussions of the three phases were consolidated into a guiding framework for multi-stakeholder contracting. box 1 contains the guiding framework for multi-stakeholder contracting for each of the three executive coaching phases. box 1: a guiding framework for multi-stakeholder contracting in executive coaching. in summary, multi-stakeholder contracting needs to become more systemically integrated. coaches, in particular, should make a cognitive shift towards systemic thinking, where the client is regarded as the individual being coached as well as the organisation. literature and this research indicate that the multiple coaching relationships may require stakeholders to structure contracts in customised ways to accommodate the dynamic nature of coaching relationships. the benefits of multi-stakeholder contracting guidelines the benefits of contractual guidelines for each of the four stakeholders could be described as follows: benefits for clients: the client receives coaching underpinned by a contracting process providing clarity on goal setting, progress feedback and results reporting, in alignment with mutually agreed individual and organisational objectives. the client needs to partner with the coach in reaching out to the line manager and the sponsor, from setting goals to obtaining systemic feedback on achievement of goals. benefits for executive coaches: effective contracting with stakeholders will encourage collective responsibility for the client receiving the coaching and the organisation investing in the coaching. coaches need to take a leadership role during contracting by adopting a systemic approach, involving the line manager and the sponsor throughout the contracting process and encouraging the client to seek line manager and sponsor feedback on goal setting and progress. setting goals, defining expectations and agreeing on progress feedback and results reporting are critical for coaching success and should be pursued as threeand four-cornered contracting with line managers and sponsors. benefits for line managers: a guiding framework for contracting will provide a clear guide for progress feedback and results reporting and will clarify the line manager’s supporting role during the coaching journey. line managers need to partner with clients and coaches from objective setting to progress feedback and closeout. line managers have to clarify the support needed by the client in practical behavioural terms. observing the client’s behaviour in relation to the coaching objectives is critical as well as giving positive and constructive ongoing feedback. line managers need to provide transparent feedback during three-way sessions, articulating their expectations and distinguishing between performance and coaching feedback. benefits for sponsors: the contracting guidelines will provide the sponsors, who are the investors on behalf of the organisation, with structured progress feedback and results reporting to assess the success of the executive coaching. the sponsor needs to clarify the organisation’s objectives and articulate the coaching expectations from an organisational perspective. at the start of the coaching, the sponsor needs to confirm the line manager’s support for the client’s coaching. finally, sponsors need to offer systemic feedback to the client from the formulation of the objectives to closeout. limitations of the research although the participant selection included a wide range of perspectives which included coaches, clients, line managers and sponsors with multi-stakeholder experiences, diversity could have been increased by including a larger number of participants. the selection of the participants and the size of the sample were limited by the researcher’s choice of using only coaching stakeholders who had experience in multi-stakeholder contracting in corporate contexts. a gender-balanced representation in each of the participant groups would have been preferable. the overall gender balance was 50% male and 50% female, which did create a gender balance for the overall study. conclusion the literature and this study indicate the importance of contracting in executive coaching in achieving aligned client and organisation objectives. the four stakeholders are challenged by aligning on outcomes and progress feedback and results reporting to ensure the protection of their interests throughout the coaching. the literature makes it clear that research on contracting is limited. this research provides a guiding framework for multi-stakeholder contracting, for implementation by coaches, clients, line managers and sponsors in the three phases of executive coaching. by contracting in this way, executive coaching will be enabled to achieve an aligned outcome for the individual and the organisation. acknowledgements the author acknowledges god for his wisdom and her family for their support. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions z.b. conducted the research and compiled the article as part of her master’s project. s.v.c.-p. supervised her research and reviewed the article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references association of coaching (ac). (2016). member guidelines and professional standards. retrieved from https://www.associationforcoaching.com/ babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2014). the practice of social research (south african edn). cape town: oxford university press. baron, l., & morin, l. (2009). the coach-coachee relationship in executive coaching: a field study. human resource development quarterly, 20(1), 85–104. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.20009 bennett, j.l. (2008). contracting for success. the international journal of coaching in organizations, 6(4), 7–14. bloomberg, l.d., & volpe, m. (2012). completing your qualitative dissertation. london: sage. braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(92), 77–101. bryman, a., & bell, e. (2007). business research methods. new york: oxford university press. coaches and mentors south africa (comensa). (2016). member guidelines and professional standards. retrieved from https://www.comensa.org.za/. clarke, v., & braun, v. (2013). teaching thematic analysis: overcoming challenges and developing strategies for effective learning. the psychologist, 26(92), 120–123. clutterbuck, d.s. (2015). managing the three-way contract in executive coaching and mentoring. retrieved from https://www.davidclutterbuckpartnership.com/managing-the-three-way-contract-in-executive-coaching-and-mentoring/. coutu, c., & kauffman, c. (2009). what can coaches do for you? harvard business review research report, 87(1), 91–97. cowan, k. (2013). what are the experiences of external executive coaches working with coachees’ assigned goals? international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring, 7(june), 14–25. david, s., clutterbuck, d., & megginson, d. (2013). beyond goals – effective strategies for coaching and mentoring. farnham: gower. de haan, e. (2008). i doubt therefore i coach: critical moments in coaching in practice. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 60(1), 91–105. https://doi.org/10.1037/1065-9293.60.1.91 de meuse, k.p., dai, g., & lee, r.j. (2009). evaluating the effectiveness of executive coaching: beyond roi? coaching: an international journal of theory, research and practice, 2(2), 117–134. https://doi.org/10.1080/17521880902882413 drinnan, s., & hutson, h. (2007). who is the client really? going beyond a multidimensional approach to organisational effectiveness. the international journal of coaching in organisations, 5(2), 38–45. european mentoring and coaching council (emcc). (2016). member guidelines and professional standards. retrieved from https://www.emccouncil.org/. fakalata, k., & wiete, a.k. (2012). scaling executive coaching across the enterprise: the key to developing tomorrow’s talent, december 7–30. new york: human capital institute. feldman, d.c., & lankau, m.j. (2005). executive coaching: a review and agenda for future research. journal of management, 31(6), 829–847. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206305279599 fielder, j.h., & starr, l.m. (2008). what’s the big deal about coaching contracts? the international journal of coaching in organizations, 6(4), 15–27. fillery-travis, a. (2015). contracting within the business coaching relationship – a guide and a cautionary tale! worldwide association of business coaches white papers – best fit business coaching series. retrieved from http://www.wabccoaches.com. gregory, j.b., levy, p.e., & jeffers, m. (2008). development of a model of the feedback process within executive coaching. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 60(1), 42–56. https://doi.org/10.1037/1065-9293.60.1.42 hay, j. (2011). setting up the coaching contract. idta newsletter, 6(2), 5–6. icf. (2016a). global coaching survey. retrieved from www.coachfederation.com. icf. (2016b). member guidelines and professional standards. retrieved from www.coachfederation.org. joo, b. (2005). executive coaching: a conceptual framework from an integrative review of practice and research. university of minnesota. human resource development review, 4(4), 462–488. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484305280866 kauffman, c., & coutu, c. (2009). the realities of executive coaching. harvard business review. research report, 87(1), 6–7. khan, m.c. (2014). coaching on the axis – working with complexity in business and executive coaching. johannesburg: knowledge resources. kilburg, r.r. (2000). executive coaching: developing managerial wisdom in a world of chaos. washington, dc: american psychological association (apa). kombarakaran, f.a., baker, m.n., yang, j.a., & fernandes, p.b. (2008). executive coaching it works! consulting psychology journal, 60(1), 78–90. https://doi.org/10.1037/1065-9293.60.1.78 koortzen, p., & oosthuizen, p.m. (2010). a competence model for executive coaching. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 1–11. lee, r.j., & frisch, m.h. (2015). legacy reflections coach: ten lessons about becoming an executive. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 67(1), 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1037/cpb0000033 maritz, j. (2013). taming the wild west of business coaching training: an emerging conceptual framework. retrieved from http://www.actacommercii.co.za/index.php/acta/article/view/174. ogilvy, h., & ellam-dyson, v. (2012). line management involvement in coaching: help or hindrance? a content analysis study. international coaching psychology review, 7(1), 39–53. o’neill, m.b. (2000). executive coaching with backbone and heart – a systems approach to engaging leaders with their challenges. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. pomerantz, s.i., & eiting, j. (2004). drawing lines in the sand: ethics in coaching, contracting, and confidentiality. international journal of coaching in organisations, 2(3), 1–8. schlosser, b., steinbrenner, m.a., kumata, e., & hunt, j. (2006). the coaching impact study: measuring the value of executive coaching. the international journal of coaching in organizations, 4(3), 8–26. schlosser, b., steinbrenner, m.a., kumata, e., & hunt, j. (2007). the coaching impact study: measuring the value of executive coaching. the international journal of coaching in organizations, 5(1), 140–161. sherman, s., & freas, a. (2004). the wild west of executive coaching. harvard business review, 82(11), 82–90. stern, l., & stout-rostron, s. (2013). what progress has been made in coaching research in relation to 16 international coaching research forum (icrf) focus areas from 2008 to 2012? coaching: an international journal of theory, research and practice, 6(1), 72–96. https://doi.org/10.1080/17521882.2012.757013 stout-rostron, s. (2012). business coaching wisdom and practice: unlocking the secrets of business coaching. johannesburg: knowledge resources. stout-rostron, s. (2014). leadership coaching for results. cutting-edge practices for coach and client. johannesburg: knowledge resources. thach, e.c. (2002). the impact of executive coaching and 360 feedback on leadership effectiveness. leadership & organisation development journal, 23(4), 205–214. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730210429070 the world association of coaches (wabc). (2016). member guidelines and professional standards. retrieved from www.wabc.com. turner, e., & hawkins, p. (2016). multi-stakeholder contracting in executive/business coaching: an analysis of practice and recommendations for gaining maximum value. journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring, 14(2), 48–65. van coller-peter, s. (2015). coaching leadership teams – getting organisational culture aligned. johannesburg: knowledge resources. walker-fraser, a. (2011). an hr perspective on executive coaching for organisational learning. international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring, 9(2), 67–79. walsh, b. (2016). why coaching contracts are essential. hr future, 1(1), 30. abstract introduction literature review objectives research design participants data collection tool data collection procedure data analysis results attitudes and experiences of graduate trainees components of successful graduate traineeship models discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) lungile z. gama tshwane school for business and society, faculty of management, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa emmanuel i. edoun tshwane school for business and society, faculty of management, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa citation gama, l.z., & edoun, e.i. (2020). the relationship between the graduate trainee programme and talent management in corporate organisations in eswatini. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1249. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1249 original research the relationship between the graduate trainee programme and talent management in corporate organisations in eswatini lungile z. gama, emmanuel i. edoun received: 23 june 2019; accepted: 27 feb. 2020; published: 30 june 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: research on the existence of the relationship between the gtps and tm has been necessitated by the significant organisational resources invested in the administration of gtps. withal, the valueof gtps to an organisation’s tm initiatives needs to be ascertained because both variables are applied to ensurethat future staffing requirements are met. research purpose: the aim of this study was to assess the relationship between the graduate trainee program (gtp) and talent management (tm) in corporate organisations in eswatini. motivation for the study: corporates need toexplore administering gtps as structured processes such as workplace training and development programs so that they significantly contribute to tm. research approach/design and method: a quantitative explanatory design was applied to carry out the study.the population was five corporate organisations in eswatini that administer gtps. the respondents weregraduate trainees (gts),who met all the requirements prescribed by the inclusion criteria. main findings: while the results indicated a null hypothesis in the relationship between gtps and tm a strong correlation was found. the conclusion drawn is that the strong correlation (r = 0.511), between gtps and tm, is attributed to the lack of integration and the parallel and independent administration of gtps to tm, which invalidated a link between the two variables. practical/managerial implications: the value to be derived by corporates administering gtps may be elusive if the relationship between gtps and tm remains unexplored. contribution/value-add: corporate organisationswill administer gtps as effective management tools applied to ensure tm. keywords: graduate trainee programmes; talent management; workplace training; development programmes; strategies. introduction great leaders attend to people first and strategy second, get the right people in the bus, move the wrong people off, usher the right people to the right seats and figure out where to drive it. (collins, 2011, p. 124) in an effort to get the right talent into the organisation at inception, corporate organisations in eswatini are administering graduate trainee programmes (gtps) as a long-term strategy to identify the leadership and managerial potential of graduates, so that the latter can be groomed accordingly to assume critical, managerial and leadership roles in the organisation. graduates are sourced through strategic partnerships that organisations form with tertiary institutions (mkhonta, 2010). the selection and recruitment of graduates are conducted solely on the basis of merit, which is evaluated through the performance of the individual in executing key objectives of the gtps. organisations put emphasis on merit as a basis for hiring newly qualified graduates. this can be attributed to the fact that individuals with a strong accountability of their careers, who are responsible and reliable, highly intelligent and success-driven, have the ability to learn more (robins & judge, 2013, p. 588). as organisations attempt to cultivate their own calibre of employees through training and development to ensure the right fit between the people and the vision, merit should therefore be a strong factor in recruiting graduate trainees (kotter & collins, 2011, p. 3). this can additionally ensure that recruited graduates are competent to receive the offerings of the gtps. merit is inevitably a highly determinant factor in hiring graduate trainees because the skills of talented employees and how they are organised are progressively perceived as key to an organisation’s long-term success and competitive edge (boudreau & ramstad, 2007, p. 4). talent management is primarily concerned with ensuring the adequate supply of talent to align the right people with the right skills, knowledge and experience at the right time based on strategic business objectives (nel et al., 2011, p. 163). patently the right fit between an organisation and the employee is the fundamental basis on which tm exists. withal, if corporate organisations aim to utilise the gtps as a strategy for ensuring tm, it is key that the gtps are administered effectively, in consideration of the financial, time and intellectual resources invested by organisations in administering gtps (mkhonta, 2010). research pertaining to gtps, albeit limited, does exist. employers tend to follow a similar approach when engaging newly qualified graduates into a structured programme. focus is on graduate identification and selection, workplace development, formal in-service training initiatives, apparent organisational relations with tertiary institutions, key organisational expertise and proficiencies required from graduates within the organisation as well as relational and reporting skills (andrews & higson, 2010, pp. 411–422). therefore, a balanced approach to the administration of gtps would be integral in the value of the gtp to the graduate trainee. literature review the link that was determined as a tie between the gtps and talent management programmes (tmps) was that both variables were utilised by organisations as long-term strategies aimed at ensuring that future staffing requirements were met. graduate trainee programmes were applied as future staffing strategies through administering structured workplace training and development for newly qualified graduates entering the workplace, to ensure that applied training yielded the desired employee expertise in the newly qualified graduates, which would ultimately ensure that the desired organisational change was realised (dirani, 2012, p. 5). talent management was, in turn, applied to ensure that future staffing requirements were met through the methodical recruitment, selection, training, identification, appointment, motivation, retaining and stationing of talented employees who were of a particular value to an organisation to create a long-term competitive edge (thunnusen et al., 2017, p. 3). the gtps could therefore be utilised as significant contributors to tm, particularly because the resource-based view (rbv) on tm had as its main component, talented employees as the basis for key lasting competitive edge and the primary tenet for the future success of organisations and the rbv approach was one of the key pre-potent concepts in tm literature (thunnusen et al., 2017, p. 92). focusing on people as soon as they entered the organisation through utilising strategies such as gtps could therefore enrich the rbv on tm. lawler (2017, p. 117) further acceded that tm was primarily centred on five main components: attracting, selecting, developing, rewarding and integrating tmps to the overall organisational processes to have the required talented employees in the relevant positions at any given time. dirani (2012) and duplessis (2011, p. 7), in turn, summarily conceded that gtps were also primarily centred on attracting, selecting, developing, rewarding and integrating gtps into organisational process to ensure that organisations had the relevant human resources at the required time, with the relevant expertise and proficiencies that would ensure the future success of the organisation. in addition, waheed and zaim (2015, p. 1206) argued that the need for attracting competent employees was one that was urgent for organisations. the gtps could undeniably contribute to tm because they could be utilised as a tool for organisations to appraise well-performing graduate trainees who were eligible to proceed to permanent employment because they had met the required performance levels and possessed the relevant qualifications required by the organisation. henceforth, organisations would be in a position to be able to establish a talent pool consisting of employees who were outstanding performers. establishing a talent pool would inevitably enable an organisation to choose suitable employees from the established talent pool when the need to make placements to fill existing vacant positions arose. the establishment of a talent pool would, in turn, ensure that talented employees were placed in positions where they could be effective and advance the organisation, thus ensuring that both tm and career planning were accomplished. the tenets that validate the link between gtps and tmps are summarised as follows. (see figure 1). figure 1: tenets that support the link between graduate trainee programmes and talent management. if extensively explored, the tenets validating the link between the gtps and tm could enable organisations to administer both programmes in an integrated manner to facilitate the application of gtps as contributors to tm. the articulation of the link between gtps and tm was supposed to be validated by the narrative that both variables were key leadership strategies applied to attract, select and develop organisational talent. fostering valid tm through integrating workplace training and development programmes (wtdps) such as gtps could significantly maximise the benefits of administering both programmes in the organisations. henceforth, the onus would be on corporate organisations in eswatini to marry the two variables, based on the existence of the supposed link. de-parallelising the administration of both variables would ensure that corporate organisations derived value and benefitted extensively from the administration of the gtps as contributors of tm. objectives the primary objective of this study was to assess the existence of a link between gtps and tm through a comprehensive analysis of the impressions, understanding and perspectives of graduate trainees undergoing the programme within an eswatini corporate environment context. this study explored the graduate trainees’ unique perspective on the gtp models in so far as their contributors to tm. research design a quantitative explanatory design was applied in carrying out the research study as it aimed to establish the possible causal relationship between variables (saunders et al., 2016, p. 176). the researcher merged self and individually completed questionnaires and/or computerised questionnaires (de vos et al., 2011, p. 188). the format of the questionnaire was designed in line with a likert scale so respondents could rate their responses on a scale of 1–7, with 1 being strongly agree and 7 being strongly disagree. the researcher was guided by the preferences of the respondents insofar as computerised or physical completion of questionnaires. collected data were immediately captured in an excel spreadsheet to summarise and document the respondents’ responses, for information security, for ease of analysis and for simplifying coding and tabulation. participation in this study was strictly voluntary and this was communicated to all respondents before completing the questionnaire. de vos et al. (2011, p. 117) advocate that participants should not be compelled to be involved in a research project because involvement in a research study must always be voluntary. participants the inclusion criterion was graduate trainees currently undergoing the programme as well as employees who had completed the programme in the last 5 years and were still employed by participating corporates. the graduate trainees were the ideal respondents to participate in the research study because they could furnish the researcher with relevant and current valuable information pertaining to their experiences while undergoing the programme, thus ensuring that the collected data were current, accurate and enriching to the findings of this study. the slovin formula was used to compute the sample size to ensure a 95% level of confidence with a margin error of 5%. in applying the slovin formula, the total sample size was calculated at 68. respondents were randomly selected and a total of 45 of the 68 questionnaires that were distributed were completed, resulting in a 66% response rate. it is noted that (1) 66.7% of the participants were males and 33.3% were females; (2) 77.8% of the participants were in the 25–34 age range and 11% were between 18 and 24, which meant that they were newly qualified graduates entering the work sector for the first time through the gtps; (3) 91.1% of the respondents had undergraduate qualifications, that is a bachelor’s degree/advanced diploma/b tech; and (4) 40.5% of the respondents had 5 years and above working experience, with 23.8% of the respondents having between 1 and 2 years’ work experience gained through the gtps (see table 1). table 1: demsographic profile of respondents. the summary profile figures highlighted in bold indicate the findings that were an anomaly in a demographic constituent of graduate trainees. gender imbalances were caused by the fact that participating organisations currently focus their gtps on engineering and technical skills, which are currently dominated by males in the population that participated; hence 66.7% of the participants were males while only 33.3% were females. additionally it was an anomaly that a significant percentage (40.5%) new hires entering the participating corporates as graduate trainees had over five years work experience, when in fact the program is tailor made for recent under graduates. the heighted figures reflect the gaps in the administration that the study sought to remedy moving forward. data collection tool the researcher hand delivered and administered the questionnaire in person to three of the participating corporates and also e-mailed the questionnaire to two participating corporates. the researcher administered the questionnaire through the human resources departments of the population of this study. the questionnaire was centred on the main variables of this study, which were tm and gtps and the organisational support for graduate trainee programs (osgtps). section a comprised questions pertaining to the demographic information of respondents. section b entailed questions pertaining to the organisational support for gtps. section c aimed to obtain information on the experiences and attitudes of the graduate trainees with the gtps. section d aimed to ascertain the views of graduate trainees on the extent to which gtps contributed to tm. the questionnaire was in english as it was the language most preferred by the respondents. data collection procedure a request for consent to conduct this study was sent in writing to the human resources managers and talent management specialists of the participating corporate organisations as they served as gatekeepers for the corporates because they were responsible for authorising access into the organisations’ premises as well as permission for the research to be done (cresswell, 2013, p. 2012). once consent was authorised by the ‘gatekeepers’, the researcher then formally extended an invitation to the respondents to be part of this study. the respondents were given a 1-week notice of the impending administration of the questionnaire by the researcher and the date and time for administering same was agreed to prior, so that respondents would be prepared. questionnaires were collected by the researcher after completion or e-mailed in the instance wherein the questionnaire was completed electronically. the questionnaire took between 15 and 20 min to complete. respondents were additionally informed that participation was non-mandatory and confidential, and they could withdraw from this study without prejudice. respondents were further informed that transparency would be maintained throughout the research study as respondents were notified that the results of the research would be primarily used for a master’s dissertation. data analysis multiple linear regression analysis was conducted with spss (version 25), ibm®, armonk, new york city, to test the hypotheses h1: there is a positive relationship between the gtps and tm. in addition, a 7-point likert scale was used to measure the constructs: gtps and tm, to determine the descriptive results of the two constructs, where the value of 1 correlates to ‘strongly disagree’ and 7 correlates to ‘strongly agree’. the mid-point of the 7-point likert scale was therefore 3.5. all the mean values less than 3.5 implied that a majority of the respondents tended to disagree with the statement. the values between 3.5 and 4.5 implied that respondents tended to be neutral. all the mean above 4.5 implied that most respondents either agreed or strongly agreed with the statements. each question per section of the questionnaire was grouped together in the analysis to ensure that comparisons were done. data were collected over a 2-month period and analysed upon the completion of the data collection process once the data were consolidated. a descriptive analysis of the demographics was done to shed light on the specific cohorts of graduate trainees currently undergoing the gtps in the population study. the primary and core analysis of the collected data was on the testing of the structural relationships between gtps and tm. ethical consideration this article followed all ethical standards for carrying out research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. results the analysed data shed light on the following themes: understanding the relationship between gtps and tm. attitudes and experiences of graduate trainees. components of successful graduate traineeship models. the results further highlighted that there was no significant relationship between gtps and tm (p > 0.01); therefore, h1 was rejected. the results, however, indicated a strong correlation (r = 0.511) between the gtp and tm. the correlation was validated by the results that suggested that a majority of the respondents saw themselves growing within the organisation and this validated the contribution of gtps to tm (see table 2). table 2: regression analysis for hypotheses testing. the null hypotheses could be attributed to the fact that the gtps were administered parallel to tm primarily because corporates in eswatini had not identified the value in the link between the two variables as confirmed by this submission from one of the respondents on the questionnaires: ‘the company’s tm needs to be more vibrant and ensure that potentials are aware of the organisations plans about their development for the future.’ (eswatini electricity company, talent management specialists) attitudes and experiences of graduate trainees the central tendency measure of the two constructs, gtps and tm, was analysed and the overall mean point was 4.5. withal, an above average mean point suggested that most of the respondents tended to agree or strongly agree with the statements. the results indicated that most of the respondents tended to agree or strongly agree with the statements of gtps (5.32). however, there was a high standard deviation of 1.02 as some respondents disagreed with the statements of gtps. the results further indicated that a majority of the respondents tended to agree or strongly agree with the statements of tm (5.54) (see table 3). table 3: central tendency measure of two constructs. the following statements validate the experiences and attitudes of graduate trainees: ‘the gtp is a good way in so far as penetrating the workplace without experience.’ (respondent 25, eswatini electricity company, male, bachelor’s degree) ‘gtps are quite useful and beneficial to the new graduate.’ (respondent 28, eswatini electricity company, male, bachelor’s degree) ‘the gtp is a good tool to unpack tertiary theories.’ (respondent 30, eswatini electricity company, male, bachelor’s degree) however, the researcher identified that there were still areas of improvement in the administration of gtps identified through the experiences and attitudes of graduate trainees towards the gtps, and the following statements confirm this: ‘make objectives clear when contracting.’ (respondent 42, eswatini mtn, female bachelor’s degree) ‘colleagues/trainers have no idea of their role in the trainee programme it is not good working while not knowing your future after the programme.’ (respondent 5, eswatini railway, male, diploma) components of successful graduate traineeship models the central tendency measure of the two constructs, gtps and tm, was analysed using the statements in the questionnaires and the overall mean point was 4.5. the results indicated an above average mean of 5.32 on the graduate trainee’s agreeability with the statements on gtps. this suggested that most of the respondents perceived that their gtps are well designed. a reviewed gtp from one of the participating corporates included the following components: (1) it was conclusive of all functions of the department; (2) monitored the attitudes of the graduate trainees; (3) monitored managerial and leadership potential of the graduate trainees; (4) included periodic assessment of the graduate trainees performance and feedback sessions; (5) the gtps were documented and formalised to ensure leadership and managerial support, as well; and (6) a collaborative effort in the implementation of the gtp between graduate trainee and mentor was part of the gtp. discussion this article assessed the relationship between gtps and tm in corporate organisations in eswatini that extensively administer the gtps. quantitative data collected from 45 graduate trainees currently undergoing the programme, using questionnaires, were used by the researcher to validate the hypothesis that gtps are significant contributors to tm. this study noted inherent limitations that exist in the administration of gtps which may hinder the successful implementation of gtps: (1) there were instances wherein the principles of administering the gtps are not adhered to, as in some instances individuals who had been part of the work sector were employed as graduate trainees; thus, deserving and eligible newly qualified graduates missed out on this valuable opportunity of being part of the gtp; (2) while the completion rate was quite impressive at 90%, there were instances wherein graduate trainees were impatient to complete the programme and therefore sought alternative permanent employment; (3) the disconnect in administering gtps to ensure tm, birthed uncertainty in graduate trainees from the perspective of future organisational plans for the graduate trainees; (4) there were instances wherein the actual gtp was discarded and the graduate trainee was by default extended to full-time employment. this is a significant red flag because the graduate trainees are then made to deteriorate as underpaid, expendable sources labour (maitra & maitra, 2015, p. 330). it would be key for eswatini corporates to address these concerns as they move forward in administering the gtps. conclusion it is vital that the administration of gtps is intentional to ensure that the programme contributes to tm. corporate organisations should extensively look into their tmps to ensure that they yield the desired results. thunnusen et al. (2017, p. 12) contend that research foundations and designs utilised in tm have not been very vigorous and the empirical research that has been conducted on tm has presented a fragmented and one-dimensional view on the subject. the administration of gtps as a wtdp will significantly benefit tm to satisfy future staffing requirements because it will ensure that the gtps are streamlined in line with all organisation practices aimed at meeting future staffing requirements. corporate organisations primarily utilise traditional staffing methods such as interviews, head hunting, labour brokering, poaching and counter-offers for employees who have resigned as well as recalling retirees. therefore, the need for streamlining gtps as a contributor to tm would undoubtedly have significant value for corporate organisations as it would afford organisations a competitive staffing edge against other corporates that still primarily utilise traditional staffing methods. an integration between the administration of gtps and tm should be extensively facilitated to ensure that the value of gtps as a contributor to tm is realised. the integration should be exhaustive of all key components relevant to the successful administration of gtps, which include sound tmps, robust leadership and managerial support, establishing key partnerships with universities/tertiary institutions, to ensure that courses offered meet future organisational skills requirements as well as effective and sufficient financial, training, development, mentorship and coaching initiatives. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references andrews, h., & higson, j. (2008). graduate employability, ‘soft skills’ versus ‘hard’ business knowledge: a european study, higher education in europe. higher education in europe, 33(4), 411–422. https://doi.org/10.1080/03797720802522627 boudreau, j., & ramstad, p. (2007). beyond hr. the new science of human capital. s.l.: s.n. collins, j. (2011). harvard business review’s 10 must reads on leadership. s.l.: s.n. cresswell, j. (2013). research design qualitative, quantitative & mixed method approaches (4th edn.). croydon: sage. de vos, a., strydom, h., fouche, c., & delport, c. (2011). research at grass roots. for the sciences and human service professions (4th edn.). pretoria: van schaik publishers. dirani, k. (2012). professional training as a strategy for staff development. european journal of training and development, 36(2/3), 158–178. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090591211204698 duplessis, a. 2015. the role of hrm in leadership and development, talent retention, knowledge management and employee engagement. auckland, new zealand. published 2015. business, retrieved from https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/the-role-of-hrm-in-leadership-development%2c-talent-plessis-sukumaran/6de4a08bef839e7196357d765ec199dec57060d7 kotter, j., & collins, j. (2011). harvard business review 10 must reads on leadership. s.l.: s.n. lawler, e. (2017). reinventing talent management: principles and practices for the new world of work. oakland, ca: berret-koehler publishers, inc. maitra, s., & maitra, s. (2015). tapping into the ‘standing-reserve’: a comparative analysis of workers’ training programmes in kolkata and toronto. studies in continuing education, 37(3), 317–332. https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037x.2015.1043988 mkhonta, m. (2010). general manager corporate services. eswatini: eswatini electricity company. nel, o., werner, p., poisat, a., sono, p., du plessis, t., & ngalo, a. (2011). human resources management (8th edn.). s.l.: oxford university press. robins, s., & judge, t. (2008). organisational behaviour (15th edn.). s.l.: s.n. saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2016). research methods for business studies (7th edn.). london: pearson education limited. thunnussen, m., & gallardo-gallardo, e. (2017). talent management in practice. an integrated and dynamic approach. retrieved from http://0.searchebscohost.com.tkplib01.tut.ac.za waheed, a., & zaim, a.h. (2015). a model for talent management and career planning. educational sciences: theory and practice, 15(5), 1205–1213. abstract introduction literature review research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) tsitsi t. kanonge department of industrial psychology and people management, faculty of management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa mark h.r. bussin department of industrial psychology and people management, faculty of management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation kanonge, t.t., & bussin, m.h.r. (2022). pre-conditions for employee motivation to curb zimbabwe’s academic brain drain. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1819. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1819 original research pre-conditions for employee motivation to curb zimbabwe’s academic brain drain tsitsi t. kanonge, mark h.r. bussin received: 08 nov. 2021; accepted: 15 mar. 2022; published: 19 aug. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation and research purpose: in this article we explore an applicable framework of pre-conditions for employee motivation so as to help curb zimbabwe’s current brain drain challenge. motivation for the study: after observing that current literature does not seem to address the questions around what actually compels employees to stay within their jobs, especially in politically and socio-economic unstable countries; we sought to understudy current employees in zimbabwe’s institutions of higher learning. research approach/design and method: the case study, which is qualitative in nature, studies two research sites, namely, one public and one private university. from the two sites, participants are purposefully selected to be interviewed. main findings: through the interviewed participants, the study reveals a new wave of brain drain. as opposed to the traditional political and socio-economic push factors, the study highlights that the current brain drain is being driven by unresponsive administration systems which have failed to meet employee needs, although this task is achievable. through the study, a range of needs, which vary in terms of priority from one age generation to another, are identified. the study reveals that the needs, although varying in their nature, should be considered as part of the processes to change. practical/managerial implications and contribution/value-add: the intervention required to address zimbabwe’s academic brain drain challenge is a sense of responsiveness on the part of the employer. in situations where dialogue is the required solution, collected data red-flags the manifestation of unresponsive administration systems in its place. this has left employees extremely frustrated. keywords: brain drain; dialogue; employee motivation; pre-conditions; unresponsive. introduction although measuring brain drain is a difficult task (kaplan & höppli, 2017), recent research indicates that there is a significant increase of brain drain of qualified african professionals from their home countries. a specific focus on higher education in africa reveals that tertiary educated immigrants constitute a large part of this human migration (marsh & oyelere, 2018). in a research of over 20 african countries, it was revealed that the number of academic migrants are way above 50% of the total academic staff complement of sending countries (darkwa, 2018). this trend is alarming. the brain drain of skilled workers has greatly impacted africa’s development across all sectors, namely, social, economic and political sectors (brock & blake, 2017). this has caused regressive and delayed development. because of a continuous drain of skilled human resources (hrs), countries of origin, that include zimbabwe, are increasingly lacking in the provision of support services in critical sectors such as healthcare and education. other ripple effects to this predicament include the lack of investment in infrastructure and compromised tax returns (brock & blake, 2017). furthermore, there is hardly any involvement in the establishment of effective and legitimate governments in these countries and this has greatly compromised democracy in these nations (brock & blake, 2017). definition brain drain can be classified as: […] geographical (the departure of individuals from one country to another to find better living conditions and better paid jobs), industrial (the departure of employees from one economic sector to another) or organisational (the departure of employees from one company to another). (flanja & nistor, 2017, p. 60) although brain drain can be localised, that is, the movement of skilled personnel between local institutions (nyanhete & bhebhe, 2014), it is the outward migration of individuals from one country to another in an effort to find better living conditions and well-paid jobs (flanja & nistor, 2017) that is of greater concern. the brain drain phenomenon has always been of great concern among scholars to the extent that scholars have developed industry-specific literature on the phenomenon. the field of academia has not been spared in this regard. more recently, scholars have begun to identify brain drain with the loss of educated professionals from one country to another. the concept has evolved to be seen as the mass migration of highly skilled and experienced academics because of poor working conditions. such industry-specific definitions, illustrate the growing fears on the brain drain of skilled academics from universities in developing countries such as zimbabwe, to more developed countries that include but are not limited to south africa, australia and the united kingdom (tembeni, nyoni, & nyoni, 2017). in comparison to other continents, in terms of hrs development and management, the african continent is far behind (atswenje sikolia, 2016). consequently, brain drain has affected africa more severely than any other region (atswenje sikolia, 2016). according to the organisation for economic co-operation and development (oecd), out of every nine university degreed people born in africa, at least one of them is a migrant in one of the 38 oecd member states (which are the world’s most developed countries) (atswenje sikolia, 2016). it is estimated that more than 30% of africa’s highly skilled workforce stock has been lost to brain drain (atswenje sikolia, 2016). on average, africa loses an average of 20 000 top key professionals (which it cannot afford to lose) such as academics, doctors, engineers and scientists, among others (joseph, 2005). in a continent that needs at least 1 million scientists and engineers to help sustain its development goals, only 20 000 remain, serving a population of about 600 million people (atswenje sikolia, 2016). to make up for this deficit created as a result of the drain, it is estimated that african countries are annually recruiting about 100 000 non-african skilled expatriates at an exorbitant cost of at least us$4 billion per annum (joseph, 2005). orientation although it is well known that the brain drain phenomenon cuts across trades and industries, this particular research focuses on the drain of faculty or academic staff from institutions of higher learning in zimbabwe. the reasoning behind the study of the loss of academic staff in particular has been motivated by the realisation that: academics themselves count not only as an elite segment of society, but are also those who educate the specialists of tomorrow, participate in science and technology production and even in the definition of scientifically valid knowledge. their departure can cause consistent imbalances in society. (panzaru & reisz, 2017, p. 35) to this end, academics are in fact a very critical hr whose absence creates instabilities in our societies. research problem since 1990, zimbabwe has lost and continues to lose a significant number of skilled professionals at alarming rates. for critical sectors such as education, researchers argue that the situation is desperate (bigirimana, sibanda, & masengu, 2016; gwaradzimba & shumba, 2010; mkandatsama & nyanhete, 2017; shumba & mawere, 2012) because this challenge is also negatively affecting the quality of graduates being churned out (jones 2004). consequently, this scenario is creating serious implications around the country’s capacity to deliver on sustainable development goals (brock & blake, 2017; gwaradzimba & shumba, 2010; mapolisa & tshabalala, 2013). research purpose and objective traditionally, the argument has mainly been that zimbabwe’s outward migration of skilled professionals has been greatly influenced by the economic crisis, which scholars argue, is deeply rooted in the political crisis within the country (van vuuren, 2012). owing to government failures, zimbabwe’s once robust economy totally collapsed between the years 2000 and 2008. mainly characterised by high unemployment, inflation, shortages of foreign currency, fuel, food, pharmaceuticals and other health consumables, the collapse of the economy has led to a major performance decline across all sectors, plunging the country into deep poverty (mbizwo, 2019). within institutions of higher learning, this has led to the failure to offer attractive remuneration packages, pay salaries on time, provide adequate resources and facilities for teaching, learning and research and provide desirable working conditions (garwe & thondhlana, 2019). because this has been the case for a significant amount of time, studies have begun to show links between employee working conditions and brain drain (bigirimana et al., 2016). in a study conducted on academics who migrated outside zimbabwe, researchers reveal that over 50% of the study’s representative sample highlight work-related factors as the reason for leaving zimbabwe (chetsanga & muchenje, 2003). with such staggering statistics, this rarely discussed dimension, offers a new platform for academic debate on which work-related factors in particular are fuelling the drain. it is unfortunate that despite the vast literature on the brain drain topic, which has mostly focused on the factors that influence employees to leave their jobs to pursue career prospects outside their home countries, much less is known about the factors that actually compel employees to stay within their jobs in their home countries (sinha, 2012). owing to this gap in literature, the researcher seeks to understand the conditions that can be put in place to motivate employees, particularly skilled academics, to stay and work in their countries amid the current socio-economic and political environment. it is expected that through understudying current faculty, a framework to curb faculty brain drain can be constructed from participant feedback. furthermore, the researcher hopes that this framework can be used in other institutions of higher learning from non-developed countries. literature review causes a combination of push and pull factors result in brain drain (everett, 1966). while negative factors are responsible for the ‘pushing out’ of employees, the positive factors (which they usually seem to see in another organisation) become the ‘pulling’ factors (bigirimana et al., 2016). until now, research suggests that the major push factors for zimbabwe’s brain drain challenge are deeply rooted within the chaotic and unfavourable political and economic environment in zimbabwe (bigirimana et al., 2016; gwaradzimba & shumba, 2010; netsianda, 2015). since the early 1990s, poor government policies have led to the collapse of the economy, plunging the nation into deep poverty. growing discontent among the masses has also seen those who choose to be vocal as enemies of the state (kriger, 2005). state imposed violence and intimidation has been employed to silence and stifle growing opposition. the violent targeting of academic professionals has been motivated by the fact that academics have influence over their local communities (langa, 2012). this conflict has created the ideal platform for the mass migration of local academics from zimbabwe (van vuuren, 2012). in fact, it is understood that within the first decade of the 21st century, zimbabwe lost over 100 000 academics alone due to politically related violence (langa, 2012). the political crisis has in turn created an unimaginable ripple effect on the social and economic arena. in addition to the political turmoil currently raging in the southern african country, zimbabwe’s brain drain continues to be worsened because of the ongoing economic crisis, which has come as a result of the political crisis in the country (van vuuren, 2012). the economic hardships have greatly contributed to a poor quality of life for the majority of zimbabweans. highly characterised by a hyperinflationary operating environment, unemployement, shortages of fuel, food, medical drugs and services because of limited foreign currency and extreme poverty (mbizwo, 2019), the current crisis has been more than enough reason for zimbabweans to jump ship. although it makes sense that a nation in crisis is prone to brain drain, there exists other dimensions within the body of extant literature that now call for inclusion as causes for brain drain at national level. in a study conducted in laos, southeast asia, obtained data reveals that in most circumstances, employees will opt to walk away from their employer as opposed to walking away from the job in general (duplessis, sumphonphakdy, oldfield, & botha, 2013). usually, the decision to leave is fuelled when staff feel underemployed, stagnant, redundant and irrelevant (garwe & thondhlana, 2019). in light of this, if one is to offer mechanisms to help curb the drain, they need to align the proposed interventions to the actual challenges at hand. the researcher believes that understanding this dimension will assit in developing working solutions to the brain drain challenge thereby curbing the drain. to fully understand zimbabwe’s current brain drain phenomena, the researcher employs the use of herzberg’s two factor theory or theory of motivation (herzberg, 1959), to understudy what actually compels current employees to want to and choose to stay within their jobs. the choice of theory selection is influenced by the fact that herzberg’s theory has a set of general factors of what most likely compels employees to stay within their jobs (alshmemri, lina, & maude, 2017). together with two of his colleagues, mausner and snynderman, herzberg developed the theory which argues that a combination of two factors, namely, motivation (intrinsic) factors and hygiene (extrinsic) factors, stimulate job satisfaction (herzberg, 1959). herzberg and his colleagues argue that motivation factors such as advancement, individual growth, responsibility, recognition and achievement, coupled with hygienic factors such as attractive rewards and remuneration, favourable policies and administration practices, healthy interpersonal relationships and a good working environment are all essential elements that help generate employee motivation (alshmemri et al., 2017). magnitude and impact in a study conducted to assess the magnitude of brain drain on academics in africa, research reveals that the continent is losing at least 20 000 academics from the tertiary sector alone on an annual basis (gwaradzimba & shumba, 2010). in yet another study, specifically focusing on zimbabwe, collected data redflags that at least a quarter of zimbabwe’s population has been lost due to brain drain (shumba & mawere, 2012). as a result of the severity of the situation, different local institutions have been carrying out institution-specific research, all in a bid to try and come up with working solutions to help curb the zimbabwean brain drain. for example, in a study conducted at a private university in zimbabwe, africa university, it was revealed that out of the 74 full-time academic staff members, the university lost (and replaced) close to 50 academic staff members between 2009 and 2013 (bigirimana et al., 2016). in another study, which took place at zimbabwe’s first state university, the university of zimbabwe, studies show a university operating almost on auto-pilot because of the presence of only skeletal staff (netsianda, 2015). for instance, out of the 13 lecturers required for veterinary science and computer science departments, respectivley, the university only had one employee in each department. other critical departments such as engineering, mining and geo-informatics also had one employee instead of the required 8, 10 and 16 lecturers, respectively (bigirimana et al., 2016). zimbabwe’s brain drain challenge has created a huge gap within local universities. studies show that while in some cases faculties are understaffed, in other circumstances, the critical shortage of key academics has led to the full closure of other depatments (shumba & mawere, 2012). in terms of institutional productivity, this scenario has been observed to be very costly (ali sha, fakhr, ahmad, & zaman, 2010). in addition to this, studies also show that the loss of skilled academics negativley affects the element of continuity in teaching and research activities (tevera & crush, 2003). with regard to the teaching component, researchers have observed a disrupted skills transfer process from the lecturers to the students (ali sha et al., 2010). apparently, this scenario is what is leading to the release of quality compromised graduates into industry (jones, 2004). intervention strategies/framework development in understanding the view that very little is known about what compels employees to stay working within their jobs in an unstable country (sinha, 2012), the researcher seeks to understudy individuals who are currently employed with the hope of learning what possibly motivates them to stay in zimbabwe at a time like this. as indicated earlier, owing to the new school of thought that indicates a probability of internally induced brain drain, more and more research studies have begun to show that the issue of employee brain drain does not necessarily have to be managed strictly at national or international level. instead, institutions may have the opportunity and responsibility to address this challenge through correct employee motivation strategies, thereby achieving employee retention (logan, 2000). defined as the voluntary move by an organisation to create an environment which engages employees for a long-term (chaminade, 2007), employee retention strategies may be the only solution that can be used by zimbabwean institutions to protect their staff from leaving the organisation, and the country today. studies show that employee retention strategies have been proven to help increase motivation, thereby decreasing employee turnover (duplessis et al., 2013). in light of this, it is important that when hr managers prepare for employee recruitment, they also strategically plan for motivation and retention (duplessis et al., 2013). researches on employee retention reveal that employee motivation can be achieved through healthy work environments and encouraging work cultures, open communication, rewards and benefits, staff wellness, training and development programmes, appreciation, gifting, compliments and acknowledgements, good working conditions and flexible working, opportunities for career advancement, growth and development, trust, alleviating stress from work overload and imbalance, performance based bonuses and staff access to institutional recreational facilities (bigirimana et al., 2016). the assumption from this brief is that the seamless management of all these factors and activities together can help curb internally induced brain drain (duplessis et al., 2013). however, the question of how all these factors can come together and actually help contribute to a well-established framework remains. the researcher therefore seeks to investigate the probability of managing internally induced brain drain from zimbabwe. research design approach this research in particular employs a purely qualitative research approach. ‘qualitative research refers to the methods and techniques of observing, documenting, analysing and interpreting attributes, patterns, characteristics, and meanings of specific contextual features of a phenomenon under study’ (leininger, 1985, p. 5). the approach concerns itself with describing, rather than counting (as in quantitative research) (perri & bellamy, 2012). this approach befits this particular research as the research itself seeks to describe a social issue or occurrence through the collection of non-standardised data, analysis of texts and images as opposed to determining statistics (flick, von kardorff, & steinke, 2004). as the study seeks to investigate what can possibly make employees choose to stay within their jobs amid tumultuous environments, answers providing detail and not just numbers will constitute appropriate data. in this regard, qualitative research becomes key and central as it goes an extra mile in providing detail and explaining data received all in a bid to fully understand phenomena (peräkylä, 2002). research method research setting the proposed research is a case study, which is a critical examination of an identified target, either an individual, group or phenomenon (sturman, 1997). it was carried out at two local sites in zimbabwe, namely, reformed church university (a private church-related institution) and chinhoyi university of technology (a public university with special interests in science technology engineering and mathematics). entrée and establishing researcher roles to gain access to research sites, the researcher wrote to the registrars of both academic institutions under study. a full copy of the research proposal and a detailed introductory letter explaining the purpose of the research and the procedures that would be undertaken to obtain data were made available to the registrars, who occupy the position of gate keeper. research conducted in privately managed entities, such as universities, require researchers to obtain gate-keeper permission to gain access to the research site beforehand (singh & wassenaar, 2016). in social research, gate keepers are considered to be the essential mediators for accessing study participants (andoh-arthur, 2019). usually regarded as those persons who are ‘in charge’ of formal institutions (e.g. heads of institutions and principal officers), their permissions are required to gain access to people working within their vicinity and access to key formal documents under their care (flick et al., 2004). the choice to select the sector for higher education was motivated by the researcher’s experience of working in the sector at the time of commencing the study. the researcher was given access to approach potential research participants. a careful selection of individuals who are knowledgeable on the issue was made and communication was extended to all potential candidates through office visits and telephone calls. research population, participants and sampling methods the population for this research is extracted from the reformed church university in masvingo and chinhoyi university of technology in chinhoyi. both universities are within zimbabwe. while the former is a private church-related institution, the latter is a public and state run university. although both research sites are institutions of higher learning, the researcher is of the view that the participants’ different experiences and conditions of working in a public and private university may be different. this may give the researcher an opportunity to investigate the same phenomena from two different viewpoints, possibly offering enriched data. for a case study, it is advised that at least five cases can present an adequate sample (creswell, 2013). the argument behind the selection of such a seemingly small sample comes as a result of the nature of qualitative research in itself (flick et al., 2004). firstly, qualitative research involves a large amount of work; it may be impractical to analyse huge samples. secondly, while frequencies are normal and can be recorded, one occurrence is potentially useful. this is because qualitative research focuses more on deducing meaning in an identified problem. lastly, in qualitative research more participants do not necessarily lead to more data. this is because just one highlight within obtained data can be adequate to be a contributing factor to a framework (flick et al., 2004). the researcher targets to select double the sample size that has been recommended by (creswell, 2013). this is because of the view that what constitutes a diverse sample size may help achieve data saturation. although data saturation is not entirely concerned with numbers, it cannot be ignored that an adequate sample can provide for a depth in the information that is collected from all the participants and this is what is required (fusch & ness, 2015). the accomplishment of data saturation paves way for the researcher to recognise data patterns and properties that are adequate for explaining the phenomena (thomson, 2011). in view of this, 10 academic staff members from each of the two universities under study are initially targeted for sampling. as the study took place, a total number of 17 samples agreed to take part in the study. all participants representing the sample are purposefully selected to take part in the study. in order to obtain highly enriched data, the researcher employs the stratified purposive sampling technique. purposive sampling involves identifying and selecting individuals that are especially knowledgeable about or experienced with a phenomenon of interest (creswell, 2013). the research solicited the participation of academic personnel with significant experience from executive, senior and middle management portfolios. as a result of the careful selection of participants, this selected sample is able to share information enriched contributions (neuman, 2000). data collection methods the study employs the use of semi-structured interviews to collect data. it was important to use this particular tool as the guide specifically addressed the issues that had to be explored by the researcher (scott & garner, 2013). with the use of semi-structured interviews, which allow for participants to give direct responses to particular questions (fox, 2009), the researcher relied on an interview guide, which is a set of prepared questions that covers the basic topics and themes, which the researcher wished for participants to address (scott & garner, 2013). this assisted respondents in giving answers that are relevant to the research questions. eventually, 17 face-to-face interviews were conducted on current employees of zimbabwean nationality from the selected sites. all participating respondents were selected from the following hierarchies within each institution as follows: executive management – academic staff occupying principal officer positions senior management – academic deans / directors middle management – senior lecturers / lecturers in constructing the questions, the researcher incorporated the interview protocol refinement (ipr) framework. this serves as a guide, enhances the dependability of the schedule and ultimately improves the quality of data collected (castillo montoya, 2016). the framework explains that for a protocol to be valid, it should primarily be able to meet the research objectives (flick et al., 2004). for this study, all sections have been designed in such a manner that they serve as a response to and help meet the research objectives. the first section, which discusses demographics, carries questions that have been asked to help show participant background and eligibility to take part in the study. other questions that cover background information such as age, work experience and education level, help feed into statistics which are quite crucial for this study. the second section carries questions on the brain drain phenomenon. these questions seek to address how knowledgeable participants are on the topic, rates and statistics of the drain, as well as causes and impact. finally, the last section carries questions that will help answer the question of what is really required to make employees choose to stay within their jobs. another key result area as stipulated by the ipr framework is the ability to construct an inquiry-based conversation with participating responders. to fulfil this obligation, the researcher designed the protocol in such a way that encourages conversation between the researcher and each interviewee. with the majority of questions being open-ended, there was an opportunity for discussion and follow-up questions to help create clear understanding and also allow the researcher to collect as much information as possible. data analysis the study employed a thematic approach for analysing data. all collected data was recorded manually. after the interviews, data was transcribed, duplicated and backed up electronically. to manage and analyse collected data, the researcher adopted the use of atlas. ti version 8, 2020. the main reason for selecting this particular software was mainly influenced by the voluminous nature of the collected data. in a bid to avoid the difficulties of manually bringing together different pieces of narrative from collected data and forming numerous collections of papers, notes and spreadsheets for the purposes of coding (soratto, pires de pires, & friese, 2020), through its features, atlas. ti offers an opportunity to centralise all information that is necessary (flick et al., 2004). in addition to this, the software also carries within it mechanisms to enable data analysis to be performed in the software itself (flick et al., 2004). therefore, through its intelligence and with the aid of the researcher – who retains her role as the critical thinker (flick et al., 2004) – the software easily makes it possible to perform the three crucial steps in data analysis process (data reduction, data display and verification and conclusion forming) as alluded to by (miles & huberman, 1994). strategies employed to ensure quality and integrity to ensure trustworthiness, the researcher conducted case study tests as recommended by (yin, 2009). as a way of establishing integrity in research findings, (yin, 2009) recommends testing research integrity using construct validity, internal validity as well as external validity tests. while the use of multiple sources of evidence (literature review, and the 17 cases of samples) were consulted for information for this study under construct validity tests, under external validity, the researcher made use of existing theories (everett lee’s famous push and pull theory and herzberg’s two-factor theory), to help guide the study. furthermore, using internal validity tests, the researcher conducted pattern matching on all collected data. through this exercise, the researcher was able to identify key recurring themes or motifs, particularly in the area of the real causes of zimbabwe’s brain drain challenge. ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained from the department of industrial psychology and people management (ippm) research ethics committee, university of johannesburg ippm-2018-169(d) results causes this research study was conducted with the overall aim of establishing pre-conditions of employee motivation for the retention of local academics within their jobs, in zimbabwe. in order to develop these, it was crucial to first understand the causes of the brain drain, so as to use necessary interventions in the construction of the framework. general causes the study reveals that although it is a fact that zimbabwe continues to lose skilled workforce because of the challenges resulting from the national crisis, this is no longer the only cause of zimbabwe’s brain drain. in fact, obtained data reveals that zimbabweans have actually grown accustomed to what is happening around them and have developed for themselves coping mechanisms to help them in dealing with the predicaments associated with the national crisis (moyo, 2019). through comedy and political satire, studies show zimbabweans have acknowledged that the political situation in the country is beyond their control and because they are not a confrontational people, they have grown passive aggressive instead (gappah, 2016). internal causes amid this realisation, the researcher was drawn to find out what else could be triggering the drain. in analysing collected data, the researcher observed a new trend of employees who wish to leave work in zimbabwe because of a host of challenges which are all linked to the internal administration system as illustrated in figure 1. figure 1: internally induced brain drain causes. collected data reveals that poor organisational structures have largely contributed to inefficiencies and poor decision-making in local universities. in turn, the challenges illustrated above have created room for severe frustration among staff, thereby affecting job satisfaction and employee motivation. rates and statistics in order to understand the impact of brain drain in zimbabwe, one of the research objectives of this study was to evaluate the rates and statistics of zimbabwe’s current brain drain. although the literature review gives some insight regarding this issue and 82% of participating respondents revealing that they have witnessed an increase in people (through family, friends and colleagues) leaving zimbabwe to pursue better job opportunities in other countries, it appears as if there is not enough information on the estimate rates and statistics that, to date, has been accurately provided. the information gap in literature could be because zimbabwe actually experienced some form of stability which encouraged return migration between the years 2009 and 2013 under the government of national unity (gnu), something almost 30% of participating respondents alluded to. the gnu managed to stabilise the economy and created a peaceful environment, although the political ground was uneven. the possible return migration phase is most likely because the gnu succeeded in making notable reforms in socio-economic and political development (hlatywayo & mukono, 2014). therefore, although participant responses managed to guide the researcher to arrive to a certain standpoint, which concludes that brain drain levels are currently escalating at alarming levels, actual data on rates and statistics appears to be missing. instead, participants are using the rate of occurrences of this nature which they have encountered and continue to encounter with friends, family and colleagues within their circles. impacts although collected data from the study reveals some positives that come as a result of brain drain, which include but are not limited to diaspora remittances, individual growth, learning and development (as a result of exposure), brain gain for receiving countries and employment creation, the overall conclusion is that brain drain comes with far-reaching consequences for those countries that would have lost out on their workforce. impact on national development and investment fifty-eight per cent (58%) of the respondents reveal that brain drain has a negative impact on national development. this is particularly because brain drain causes skill gaps in critical industries such as health, education, science and engineering. in the sector for higher education, it has been the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem) related fields which have been hit the hardest. it is therefore difficult to make meaningful progress if staff members are lost in fields where they are urgently needed to help propagate a national developmental agenda. in addition to this, the loss of key professionals from industry is a financial loss in terms of the state regulated or subsidised tuition fees that would have been extended to these same individuals during their time of study. impact on higher education as alluded to earlier, one of the major impacts on the sector of education is the skills gap, especially in areas where it is difficult to find replacements. for example, one of the respondents revealed that the only telecommunications and signal processing lecturer at their university, one of only two in the country, left for botswana at the end of 2019. it being a rare skill on the zimbabwean job market at present, to date, this position has remained vacant. the failure to replace faculty in such circumstances usually leads to the deployment of unqualified staff to take over, or suspension of the programme. according to respondents, when vacancies are not filled either on time or at all, ‘staff workloads tend to be redistributed among the remaining staff, who are not compensated for receiving this additional work load’ r7. ‘unfortunately, this is causing reduced level of motivation among staff members’ r6 ‘…and severe job burnout’ r14 ‘…because the workloads are a burden and difficult to manage’ r13. ‘this is quite strenuous for staff’ r15. furthermore, it is noted with concern that ‘…unmanageable workloads are making it difficult for staff to balance their obligations particularly in the area of research’ r1 furthermore, the study reveals how the skills gap has also disturbed the skills transfer process, thereby leading to compromised teaching standards and ultimately the release of half-baked graduates. the lack of experienced staff in our universities has led to a compromised quality of teaching, ‘leading our students themselves to be of compromised quality’ r3. ‘… the greatest impact of this challenge has been the diminished quality of graduates being fed into industry’ r7. what this means is that ‘… students are graduating without the required rigour that they are supposed to encounter during the training process’ r9. it was also discovered that the loss of staff time and again is affecting continuity; hence development is either excruciatingly slow or merely at a standstill. it was also discovered that the loss of staff time, particularly in the middle of running projects, is affecting continuity; hence development is either excruciatingly slow or merely at a standstill. ‘… due to brain drain, universities are experiencing a lot of downtime and productivity loss’ r7: ‘there is hardly an ounce of continuity in the work that is being done and several critical projects are being abandoned mid-way before completion as and when people leave for greener pastures. more and more time and money is being taken up by orientation and training programmes of new staff each semester.’ (r5, 39, female, departmental chairperson/senior lecturer); (r9, 40, male, departmental chairperson/senior lecturer) to this end, it is widely believed that the ‘… local institutions are lacking in terms of institutional development, efficiency and productivity’ r16. impact on social issues obtained data reveals that brain drain is destroying cultural structures and impacting mental well-being. it was revealed that there is a huge risk of social ills and culture erosion. this is being brought about by foreign elements that are being borrowed from foreign cultures from individuals who would have succumbed to the drain. in addition to this, participants reveal that individual mental health is also being affected. two groups were revealed to be affected mostly with regard to the mental health issue: the children whose parents have succumbed to brain drain and left them behind. it was reported that alcoholism, drug abuse and some cases, violence, are on the rise among affected children. frustrated staff in the work place. a number of employees express severe frustration with the system, with some even disclosing that they have lost hope and are failing to cope under the current set-up. some employees even go as far as to suggest that the current working environment in zimbabwe institutions is propagating chronic diseases and mental health problems among employees. pre-conditions of employee motivation in submitting proposed pre-conditions for employee motivation, participating respondents more or less drew up opposites of the current challenges at hand. therefore, the opposite scenario of the challenge being faced in the workplace today becomes the pre-condition that can possibly help bring about employee motivation. after all suggestions were compiled, they were compressed and grouped under six key elements for purposes of coherence and comprehension. the six elements are as follows; clear, fair and favourable policies almost 30% of respondents argue that among employees, there is lack of knowledge when it comes to institutional policies and standard operating procedures. in addition to this, in circumstances that should simply be addressed by policy, there is rampant corruption and abuse of office. respondents argue that an opposite scenario would be much more respected by employees. advancement although varying in form, the majority of respondents reveal that advancement is an essential requirement for employee motivation. while the much younger faculty aspire to advance in their academic profession through research and opportunities for continued education, the much older faculty aspire to be promoted to senior positions as they progress in their careers. research and development/innovation one of the most-talked-about pre-conditions that is lacking in zimbabwean universities today is the availability of funding for research opportunities. participants emphasised that there is a huge gap between what academics can do versus what they are doing right now. the research component has been severely neglected and despite the many solutions that are required for some of the country’s challenges, not enough research is coming out of zimbabwe. training and development almost 30% of all respondents indicate that limited opportunities available in the area of training and development is one of the causes of employee frustration. it is important to note that even as individuals, staff cannot afford to fund such programmes due to poor remuneration structures. enabling working environment respondents reveal that another key essential which encourages employee motivation is the presence of an enabling working environment. this can be achieved through the provision of attractive, well equipped work spaces, teaching facilities, equipment and infrastructure and social amenities with world class standards, as well as the presence of a healthy environment that would ordinarily refuse to entertain employee frustration which can be caused by job burnout, workplace tensions between management and employees, and so on. in achieving this, participating respondents argue that the physical and mental well-being of employees is guaranteed. rewards and remuneration almost 100% of all participating respondents stress the importance of attractive reward and remuneration packages, especially because the economic crisis has depreciated standards of living. there are urgent calls for benchmarking with other universities within the region so that local universities can learn from and also begin to offer reasonable offers which do not continue to demean the academic profession. discussion outline of results the study reveals an emerging trend of internally induced brain from local universities. studies show that employer negative behaviours, attitudes and treatment of staff is generally what is causing frustration. the lack of responsiveness, on the part of the employer has been exacerbated by the fact that dialogue for conflict resolution has been done away with. the failure to dialogue, especially on the part of the employer has been due to the fact that there are currently high levels of unemployment in the country and employers are generally unwilling to spend time in dialogue over grievances anymore simply because there are so many other potential employees who are out of work and can take the very same position at any given time. therefore, an employee can be replaced, anytime. the proposed pre-conditions for employee motivation are not far off from existing theories. in fact, there are striking similarities between indicators within the framework and other theories of motivation such as herzberg’s theory of motivation and maslow’s hierarchy of needs. limitations and recommendations the findings of the research study are specific to the sector for higher education in zimbabwe. although it would be appreciated to have the representative sample used for this study be paralleled across different sectors, it is advisable to carefully analyse the applicability of these findings across other industries. with brain drain levels currently on the rise (garwe & thondhlana, 2019), the researcher recommends the urgent adoption for experimentation of the suggested pre-conditions of employee motivation as presented in this report for the urgent curbing of faculty brain drain from zimbabwe today. these pre-conditions, are aligned to the current situation on the ground and will serve as solutions to the problems that faculty are currently facing, thereby creating employee motivation. she further recommends further study within a year or two following adoption to assess and measure the level of employee motivation within these institutions. conclusion this research unearthed that although the national crisis in zimbabwe has greatly fuelled the brain drain of academic staff out of zimbabwe, zimbabweans have generally adjusted to this problem and have created ways to help them cope with the stressful environment. instead, the researcher establishes that there is a new wave of brain drain, one that is being fuelled internally by the institutions themselves. the challenge which has been observed is that local organisations have developed a culture of being unresponsive to internal challenges which are at hand. there is no dialogue between the employer and the employee. in fact, it appears as if the employer is no longer interested in having a dialogue to help iron out the challenges. it is almost as if the zimbabwean employer is taking advantage of the current national crisis which has largely contributed to high unemployment rate to say to the employee ‘take what is there or leave’. in the event that the employee chooses to leave, it is perfectly ok because there is someone already waiting desperately to take on the same job. to give a clearer picture of this challenge, the researcher reflects on two key events which are currently taking place in the country. during the compilation of this article, the researcher learnt that the zimbabwean government, through its ministry of primary and secondary education, has threatened to replace primary and secondary teachers who are currently on strike with 10 000 other qualified but unemployed teachers. in their justification, government expresses that the teachers are holding the state ransom by participating in the ongoing industrial strike (which is calling for better wages and working conditions) (zimeye, 2020). in another separate but related event, through the ministry of health and child welfare, government has issued a directive that all junior resident medical officers (jrmos) will now be absorbed under the zimbabwe defence forces (zdf) soon after graduating (vinga, 2020). this is opposed to having the ministry of health and child welfare absorb them. the new order, issued on 2020 september 28, comes at a time when almost 250 medical graduates have finished their 5-year undergraduate training and are meant to be absorbed by the ministry of health and child welfare, within district public hospitals as jrmos. analysts argue that this new directive is aimed at ‘… militarising the health sector and stopping the health practitioners from going on strike’ (matenga & chikandiwa, 2020, p. 1). what this means is that even if employees become aggrieved, there is no platform for dialogue or industrial action because army officials are not allowed to strike. this turns out to be a complete violation of part 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the constitution of zimbabwe as illustrated in figure 2. figure 2: section 65 (extract from the constitution of zimbabwe). both events mentioned above, come at a critical time during the compilation of this article. it is apparent that workers across the board are frustrated. because of fear, intimidation and lack of an opportunity to dialogue with the employer, they are choosing to leave their employment, either willingly or unwillingly (dismissal). then, the question that comes to mind is where has the dismissed or frustrated employee gone to, in a country already reeling from high levels of unemployment? in addition to this, mentally, where is the employee who is still employed but frustrated by all of this and what are they planning? the researcher establishes that there is no data regarding this issue. information on affected persons and those that have succumbed to brain drain in this manner could not be found. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions both the authors contributed equally to this work. funding information the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references ali sha, i., fakhr, z., ahmad, s.m., & zaman, k. (2010). measuring push and pull personal factors affecting turnover intention: a case of university teachers inn pakistan. review of economic and business studies, 3(1), 167–192. alshmemri, m., lina, s.a., & maude, p. (2017). herzberg’s two-factor theory. life science journal, 14(5), 12–16. andoh-arthur, j. (2019). gatekeepers in qualitative research. in sage research methods foundation. london: sage. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336749771_gatekeepers_in_qualitative_research atswenje sikolia, w. (2016). brain drain in africa. berlin: research gate. bigirimana, s., sibanda, e.n., & masengu, r. (2016). the impact of working conditions on academic staff turnover at africa university, mutare, zimbabwe. asian journal of social sciences and management studies, 3(2), 91–98. https://doi.org/10.20448/journal.500/2016.3.2/500.2.91.98 brock, g., & blake, m. (2017). justice, the brain drain and africa: an introduction to a symposium on debating brain drain. south african journal of philosophy, 36(1), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1080/02580136.2017.1289010 castillo-montoya, m. (2016). preparing for interviewing research: the interview protocol refinement framework. the qualitative report, 21(5), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2016.2337 chaminade, b. (2007). a retention checklist: how do you rate? human resources magazine. retrieved from https://www.hcamag.com.au/archived/a-retention-checklist-how-do-you-rate/133815 chetsanga, c.j., & muchenje, t.b. (2003). an analysis of the cause and effect of the brain drain in zimbabwe. harare: scientific and industrial research and development centre (sirdc). creswell, j.w. (2013). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches. los angeles, ca: sage. darkwa, s.k. (2018). from brain drain to brain gain: the african-diaspora community and development in africa. africology: the journal of pan african studies, 12(5), 14–35. duplessis, a.j., sumphonphakdy, s., oldfield, j., & botha, c. (2013). competitive advantage: recruitment and senior retention of senior managers in financial sectors in laos. journal of community positive practices, 12(2), 41–52. everett, s.l. (1966). a theory of migration. demography, 3(1), 47–57. https://doi.org/10.2307/2060063 flanja, d.p., & nistor, r.m. (2017). brain drain, are we losing our minds? a study on the romanian human capital flight. online journal modelling the new europe, (24), 58–75. https://doi.org/10.24193/ojmne.2017.24.05 flick, u., von kardorff, e., & steinke, i. (2004). a companion to qualitative research. london: sage. fox, n. (2009). using interviews in a research project. nottingham: the nihr rds for the east midlands/yorkshire & the humber. fusch, p.i., & ness, l.r. (2015). are we there yet? data saturation in qualitative research. the qualitative report, 20(9), 1408–1416. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2015.2281 gappah, p. (2016). sentenced to death for murder, a woman tells her story from ‘memory’ (national public radio, interviewer). nationa public radio, morning edition. retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2016/03/01/467259286/sentenced-to-death-for-murder-a-woman-tells-her-story-from-memory garwe, e.c., & thondhlana, j. (2019). higher education systems and institutions in zimbabwe. in j. shin, & p.n. teixeira (eds.), encyclopedia of international higher education systems and institutions (pp. 1–11). netherlands: springer international publishing. gwaradzimba, e., & shumba, a. (2010). the nature, extent and impact of the brain drain in zimbabwe and south africa. acta academia, 42(1), 209–241. herzberg, f. (1959). the motivation to work. new york, ny: wiley. hlatywayo, l., & mukono, a. (2014). an evaluation of the zimbabwean government of national unity (2008–2013). international journal of science and research, 3(8), 1453–1459. jones, j.s. (2004). south africa’s brain drain underestimated. scidev.net. retrieved from http://www.scidev.net/global/news/south-africas-brain-drain-underestimated.html joseph, r.a. (2005). at home abroad: human capital and ghana’s development. in m. takyiwaa (ed.), at home in the world? international migration and development in contemporary ghana and west africa. accra: sub-saharan publishers. https://www.scholars.northwestern.edu/en/publication/at-home-abroad-human-capital-and-ghanas-development kaplan, d., & höppli, t. (2017). the south african brain drain: an empirical assesment. development southern africa, 34(5), 497–514. https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835x.2017.1351870 kriger, n. (2005). zanu (pf) strategies in general elections: discource and cohesion. african affairs, 104(414), 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adi016 langa, v. (2012). teachers flee political violence. kharare: newsday. retrieved from https://www.newsday.co.zw/2012/12/70-000-teachers-flee-political-violence/ leininger, m.m. (1985). qualitative research methods in nursing. philadelphia, pa: w.b. saunders company inc. logan, j.k. (2000). retention tangibles and intangibles. training and development, 54(4), 48–50. mapolisa, t., & tshabalala, t. (2013). the impact of the economic metdown on the education system of zimbabwe. international journal of asian social science, 3(11), 2254–2266. marsh, r., & oyelere, r. (2018). global migration of talent: drain, gain and transnational impacts. in j.r. dassin, r.r. marsh, & m. mawer (eds.), international scholarships in higher education, pathways to social change (pp. 209–234). cham: palgrave macmillan. matenga, m., & chikandiwa, h. (2020). army conscripts junior doctors. harare, harare metropolitan. retrieved from https://zimbabwe.shafaqna.com/en/al/830896 mbizwo, a. (2019). zimbabwe devalues currency. iol news. retrieved from https://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/in-a-bid-to-tackle-economic-crisis-zimbabwe-devalues-currency-19447512 miles, m.b., & huberman, a.m. (1994). qualitative data analysis. thousand oaks, ca: sage. mkandatsama, p., & nyanhete, t. (2017). human resource planning in an unstable economy: challenges faced. a case for state universities in zimbabwe. international journal of asian social science, 7(3), 206–217. https://doi.org/10.18488/journal.1/2017.7.3/1.3.206.217 moyo, j. (2019). politics: no laughing matter in poverty-hit zimbabwe. reuters. retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-zimbabwe-comedy/politics-no-laughing-matter-in-poverty-hit-zimbabwe-iduskcn1se1pw netsianda, m. (2015). brain drain too costly for africa. the chronicle. bulawayo, bulawayo metropolitan: zimpapers. retrieved from http://www.chronicle.co.zw/brain-drain-too-costly-for-africa/ neuman, w. (2000). social research methods. london: allyn and bacon. nyanhete, t., & bhebhe, m. (2014). factors impacting on reward systems: a comparative study between public and private universities in zimbabwe. journal of sustainable development, 7(5), 150–161. https://doi.org/10.5539/jsd.v7n5p150 panzaru, c., & reisz, r.d. (2017). brain drain migration from romanian academia. the end of a mirage. european review of applied sociology, 10(14), 34–48. https://doi.org/10.1515/eras-2017-0003 peräkylä, a. (2002). reliability an valiity in research based on tapes and transcripts. in d. silverman (ed.), qualitative research: theory method and practice (pp. 201–220). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. perri, & bellamy, c. (2012). principles of methodology research design in social science. london: sage. scott, g., & garner, r. (2013). doing qualitative research: designs, methods and techniques. hoboken, nj: pearson. shumba, a., & mawere, d. (2012). the causes and impact of the brain drain in institutions of higher learning in zimbabwe. journal of international migration, 50(4), 141–153. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.2012.00749.x singh, s., & wassenaar, d. (2016). contextualising the role of the gatekeeper in social science research. the south african journal of bioethics and law, 9(1), 42–46. https://doi.org/10.7196/sajbl.2016.v9i1.465 sinha, c. (2012). factors affecting employee retention: a comparative analysis of two organisations from heavy engineering industry. european journal of business management, 4(3), 145–162. soratto, j., pires de pires, d.e., & friese, s. (2020). thematic content analysis using atlas. ti software. scientific electronic library online, 73(3). https://doi.org/10.1590/0034-7167-2019-0250 sturman, a. (1997). case study methods. in j.p. keeves (ed.), educational research methodology and measurement: an internatioal handbook (pp. 61–66). oxford: pergamon. tembeni, j., nyoni, t., & nyoni, m. (2017). the impact of labour migration on wages in the source country labour market: empirical evidence from zimbabwe. international journal of research culture society, 1(7), 1–5. tevera, d.s., & crush, j. (2003). the new brain drain from zimbabwe. harare: the southern africa migration project. thomson, s.b. (2011). sample size and grounded theory. joaag, 5(1), 45–52. van vuuren, p.j. (2012). zimbabwe: migration and brain drain. research gate. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303388998 vinga, a. (2020). over 200 medical junior officers to be appointed under the military. new zimbabwe. retrieved from https://www.newzimbabwe.com/over-200-junior-medical-officers-to-be-appointed-under-the-military/ yin, r.k. (2009). case study research methods: design and methods. thousand oaks, ca: sage. zimeye. (2020). govt threatens teachers: we’ll replace you with 10,000 others. harare, harare metropolitan. retrieved from https://www.zimeye.net/2020/09/30/govt-threatens-teachers-well-replace-you-with-10000-others/ abstract introduction theoretical framework rapport research methodology research findings acknowledgements references about the author(s) salome van coller-peter university of stellenbosch business school, stellenbosch university, cape town, south africa linda manzini university of stellenbosch business school, stellenbosch university, cape town, south africa citation van coller-peter, s., & manzini, l. (2020). strategies to establish rapport during online management coaching. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1298. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1298 original research strategies to establish rapport during online management coaching salome van coller-peter, linda manzini received: 09 nov. 2019; accepted: 06 aug. 2020; published: 29 oct. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: online coaching (via a range of technologies) is becoming a preferred option as more and more coaches and clients embrace technology-enabled environments. one of the fundamental skills of coaching is the ability of the coach to build rapport with the client. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to explore ways in which rapport can be established between the coach and the client during online management coaching. motivation for the study: the authors believe that the creation of rapport online between the coach and the client cannot be left to evolve naturally and that the building of rapport requires the parties to invest intentionally to create connection and chemistry. hence, this question: what can be done to optimise the rapport between client and coach during e-coaching? research approach/design and method: to obtain primary data for this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six coaches and six clients who had experienced at least four online management coaching sessions without meeting the client or coach face to face. main findings: this article provides practical strategies on how to build rapport during online coaching. with explicit articulation and consistent application, these strategies can help to improve interpersonal connection between coach and client. practical or managerial implications: this study offers strategies to establish rapport between coach and client during online management coaching. contribution/value-add: the results of this study inform the practice of online coaching as well as the design of coaching programmes for the future. keywords: e-coaching; nonverbal cues; online interpersonal communication; online management coaching; rapport; verbal cues. introduction coaching as a profession is gaining momentum, and the use of technology to facilitate management coaching is becoming a preferred option. sherpa coaching’s 2019 executive coaching survey revealed that in the majority of cases, coaching was delivered using technology (sherpa coaching, 2019). the survey found that in 2019, 32% of coaching was done face to face compared to 59% in 2012. according to this survey, most of the coaching was done using technology (telephone 25%, webcam and skype 25%, email 8% and video conferencing 10%). however, the prevalence of technology has consequences for rapport development. building rapport with a client is a prerequisite in establishing a trusting and productive management coaching relationship. according to clutterbuck and hussain (2010, p. 156), ‘rapport is the core of the coaching relationship’. without this rapport, there can be no genuine coaching relationship, making it difficult for clients to reach their full potential. it is therefore essential to know what creates rapport between coach and client in a coaching relationship. according to starr (2002, p. 993), the critical factors in rapport building are ‘physical appearance; body language or gestures; quality of voice; language or use of words; and beliefs and values’. these nonverbal factors are much more feasible to work with, assess, maintain and achieve in a face-to-face coaching relationship. research findings indicate that even today, consumers evaluate the trustworthiness of partners based on the first impression of the initial face-to-face experience (chamberlin, 2000; mcknight, cummings, & chervany, 1998). if this is the case, gaining insight into establishing rapport online becomes critical to ensure that effective coaching centred on rapport between coach and client is achieved. several researchers have explored the growing trend to use modern technology in coaching (frazee, 2008; grant & zackon, 2004; icf, 2007). looking for research on the technology-facilitated delivery of coaching yielded various results relating to therapy rather than coaching (blake buffini & gordon, 2015; weitz, 2014). the concerns addressed by these researchers included the effective functioning of the working alliance and the comparability to face-to-face interactions. kanatouri and geissler commented that ‘since coaching evolved as an industry in the 1990s, the target groups and application fields for coaching have multiplied’ (2017, p. 715). researchers like clutterbuck and hussain (2010), boyce and hernez-broome (2010), otte, bangerter and wüthrich (2014), and kanatouri and geissler (2017) reported that, in reality, practitioners of coaching make much more use of technology and that face-to-face sessions in real time are not the norm anymore. no matter which of the various definitions of coaching you subscribe to, one aspect is always prevalent: the facilitation of learning. learning is an essential part of the coaching process. in an online management coaching relationship, the coach mainly relies on the quality of voice, intonation and use of language and words. the lack of nonverbal signals during online management coaching deprives participants of critical information about their communicator, such as character, attitude and emotions, which can lead to poor understanding and effectiveness, and constrained social communication. it may seem a paradox, but when they have the freedom offered by email communication, clients decide how much and what information to share. clients become freer to open themselves up when they are no longer forced to share their feelings in an intimate setting such as face-to-face counselling. they are free from the misunderstandings that could come from non-verbal communication in traditional counselling settings. perhaps, the online environment allows clients to provide information that they would never reveal in direct contact with a counsellor. by the time this study was conducted in 2016, limited research was available on how rapport is built during online management coaching and the underlying chemistry created between coach and client. hence, this qualitative study aimed to explore ways in which rapport can be established between coach and client during online management coaching. strategies to guide rapport development could contribute towards more productive interactions in an online coaching environment. in the next section, a theoretical framework is provided based on what is already known about rapport building between coach and client during online management coaching. after that, a presentation of the empirical study follows. semi-structured interviews were used to capture the experiences of the coaches and their clients. finally, the article presents strategies on how to establish rapport during online management coaching. theoretical framework the research and theoretical foundations relevant in exploring the establishment of rapport between coach and client online are reviewed below. the following terms are used interchangeably in this article: online management coaching, e-coaching, remote coaching, distance coaching and virtual coaching. in this section, the nature, benefits and challenges of online management coaching, the technology used and, in particular, the building of rapport, including verbal cues and nonverbal cues, are discussed. nature, benefits and challenges of online management coaching traditionally, coaching has been conducted face to face. today, the upsurge of technology has enabled the emergence of online management coaching. face-to-face coaching can be idiosyncratic and expensive, whereas coaching online enables organisations to offer effective coaching to more people at various levels, allowing coaching to be more constant, sizable and cost-efficient (barbian, 2002; charbonneau, 2002). challenges related to the cost of time, travel and scheduling have given rise to the popularity of distance coaching, which involves conducting coaching from different physical locations using technologies such as telephones and computers (ghods, 2009, p. 36). according to hernez-broome, boyce and whyman (2007), computer-mediated and distance technologies influenced coaching, historically conducted face to face. frazee (2008, p. 90) discovered that 26% of a sample of 191 coaches interacted with clients at a distance with no face-to-face interaction. according to berry (2005), all the coaches in her study (102 coaches) reported that they sometimes use the telephone to interact with clients, while 25% indicated that they rarely or never meet clients face to face. more recently the following has been reported: popular publications and anecdotal evidence perceive distance coaching as a practical, creative and cost-effective coaching approach compared to face-to-face coaching as it decreases the costs associated with travel and time, and enhances productivity and knowledge. (ghods, 2009, p. 36) frazee (2008, p. 53) agreed that e-coaching assists coaches and clients to enhance contact opportunities, despite challenges in terms of different geographic locations, time scheduling and competing demands. as the discourse on e-coaching is recent, there is an apparent lack of consensus around its meaning. coach and leadership expert david clutterbuck (2010), co-founder of the european mentoring and coaching council, defined e-coaching as a developmental partnership in which the learning dialogue is conducted online. an alternative definition considers e-coaching as a technology-mediated relationship between coach and client, to facilitate client growth (boyce & hernez-broome, 2010). online management coaching is sometimes referred to as ‘just-in-time’ coaching, being available as and when required, allowing greater flexibility for the coach and the client to interact when the need arises. e-coaching allows coaches to be more flexible, which is viewed by clients as leading to a successful coaching experience (hall, otazo, & hollenbeck, 1999). ribbers and waringa (2012, p. 31) concurred that within e-coaching, interaction moments could be flexibly arranged, ensuring continuity within the coaching relationship and facilitating lively interaction with numerous opportunities for feedback. e-coaching also enables access to a bigger and more diverse pool of coaches (frazee, 2008, p. 54). stone (2004) said that as e-coaching was not constrained by time or location and was less dependent on face-to-face interaction, the matching of coach and client could be based more on compatibility and less on other demographics, location, or ease of access. e-coaching, therefore, allows an organisation to scale its coaching programme by tapping into a larger pool of coaches who are not limited by face-to-face requirements. some researchers believe that e-coaching deepens the level of engagement between coach and client because e-coaching may reveal insights hidden in face-to-face coaching (frazee, 2008, p. 55). ribbers and waringa (2012, p. 32) stated that e-coaching reached the crux of the matter much quicker and facilitated greater depth than face-to-face coaching. it has also been noted that online communication tools may enable more candid and objective feedback owing to their ability to enhance a sense of anonymity and openness (hamilton & scandura, 2003). the separate physical locations of the coach and the client in e-coaching could pose various challenges. some coaching activities, including rapport development, are sometimes encouraged and supported by the coach’s visual cues like eye contact, nodding and smiling. according to frazee (2008, p. 56), ‘some learning requires implicit contextual information, gestural cues, or coordinating physical action’. the disadvantages, challenges and limitations of e-coaching, as cited by researchers, include the development of trust, the management of interpersonal issues and the ability to communicate effectively at a distance (frazee, 2008, p. 56; ghods, 2009, p. 42). in a study of executive coaching by charbonneau (2002), eight out of 10 clients indicated that a trusting relationship was fundamental and could only be facilitated face-to-face, at least initially. wenger (1998) concurred that it could be more challenging to develop trust at a distance. communicating over a distance, therefore, increases the importance of alerting clients that they have been heard (feldman, 2002). hence, choosing the appropriate technology to use during online management coaching becomes critical. technological modalities used in online management coaching online management coaching uses various technological modalities to deliver a coaching experience to clients in different geographical locations. these technologies include coaching via video (skype/zoom), coaching via telephone, coaching via email, and coaching via chat line (whatsapp and texting). traditionally, coaching used to be conducted face to face, but this has changed (gregory & levy, 2010). already, coaches are evolving their practices beyond face-to-face to include phone coaching, video conferencing, instant messaging and text communications, and email (pascal, sass, & gregory, 2015; rossett & marino, 2005). rossett and marino (2005) highlighted many of the benefits of leveraging technology for coaching, noting that it eliminates geographic barriers and access to individuals with specialised expertise. e-coaching, therefore, puts one-on-one development support within reach of individuals in even the most remote locations. technology-enabled coaching can also be more cost-effective than face-to-face coaching, eliminating the need for costly travel and time away from the office for the coach. it is essential that the: [a] coach must decide on what modality to use given the situation and the tools available, as well as the coach’s own and client’s abilities, personality, preference, experience, and coaching philosophy. (hernez-broome et al., 2007; pulley, 2006). the technological modality chosen for e-coaching should, therefore, be aligned to establish rapport during online management coaching. it is also critical to choose a technology that both client and coach feel comfortable with and have access to. pascal et al., (2015) highlighted several advantages of technology-enabled coaching. one advantage is access to a large pool of potential coaches. the authors noted that virtual coaching eliminates geographic constraints to finding an effective coach–coachee match, thereby increasing the likelihood that the client would find the coach who best meets his or her needs. a second significant advantage is that technology-enabled coaching is convenient, flexible, time-saving and cost-effective. pascal et al., (2015) therefore asked: does the quality of the coaching experience suffer if the technology is used to replace face-to-face coaching sessions entirely? in other words, rather than merely focusing on the addition of technology, is the absence of face-to-face interaction, a detriment to the quality of coaching and relevant to client outcomes? this question triggered the authors’ interest to answer an essential part of this question: is rapport building in face-to-face coaching and e-coaching different or similar? rapport researchers have offered broad definitions of rapport. common attributes emerging as key elements of rapport include chemistry, trust, mutual understanding, warmth and mutual respect (boyce, jackson, & neal, 2010; ghods, 2009; laborde, 1983; tickle-degnen & rosenthal, 1990). the coaching literature agrees that it is crucial to establish a partnership with the client based on confidentiality, trust, honesty and mutual respect as it enables coordination and buy-in about expectations and objectives (ghods, 2009, p. 8). rapport development is informed by appearance, body gestures, quality of voice, language or word use, beliefs and values (starr, 2002, p. 992). the coaching literature seems to put the onus on the coach to establish and develop rapport with the client. according to wycherley and cox (2008, p. 45), the coach’s competency to consider the client’s predicament through empathy and understanding should enable the coach to overcome challenges in establishing rapport. ghods (2009) explained that the coach’s supportive skills – such as warmth, compassion, patience and empathy – are vital in building a strong coach-and-client relationship, two-way communication, the ability to pose powerful questions, active listening and understanding of the client’s challenges and predicament. this view is affirmed by starr (2002), stating that rapport is present in all forms of conversation, whether it is telephonic, written or face-to-face communication. verbal cues and nonverbal cues research conducted by psychologist albert mehrabian (mehrabian & ferris, 1967) indicated that 7% of communication is verbal, while 38% is based on intonation and 55% on body language. berry, pennebaker, mueller and hiller (1997) shared a different view, finding that verbal communication conveyed as much information as nonverbal behaviour. for the current study, verbal cues are defined as the spoken and language-based form of communication between individuals, including tone and quality of voice. nonverbal cues refer to eye contact, gestures, physical appearance, body language, silence and listening. various researchers have examined the importance of verbal and nonverbal cues in building rapport between individuals. verbal cues encompass choice of words, types of sentences and flexibility of speech, as well as how the person speaks to another (isbister & nass, 2000, p. 253). pitsounis and dixon (1988) believed that the skill of encouragement was centred in verbal articulations that demonstrate acceptance, reinforce effort, or appreciate performance and contributions. during coaching via video and telephone modalities, verbal articulations by the coach could serve as a source of encouragement for clients in building remote interpersonal relationships. a study performed by walther, loh, & granka (2005) illustrated that individuals adapted to online communication by infusing verbal messages with information about the communicator’s character, emotion and attitude, thus allowing improved relationship-based communication to surface. this view is supported by ribbers and waringa (2012, p. 26) who found that language in e-communication could be enriched through the use of stylistic tools that help to express emotions and state of mind, such as emoticons (smiley face), sound words (‘hmm’ or ‘ugh’), action words, font (boldface to emphasise) and capital letters (shouting). these may be open to interpretation, especially at the beginning of the coaching relationship. however, as client and coach get to know each other better, they get to know each other’s communication queues. the very lack of nonverbal cues online affords possibilities to accentuate one’s identity and interpersonal relations (walther & parks, 2002). lack of visual social information about a conversation partner during phone, chat and email communication promoted participation, equality, friendliness, openness and honesty (ribbers & waringa, 2012, p. 27). nonverbal cues include body posture and movement as the person interact with others (isbister & nass, 2000, p. 253; gallagher, 1992). nonverbal communication – such as gestures, facial expressions, body movement, looks and physical appearance – communicate messages between people (burgoon, guerrero, & manusov, 2011, p. 215). in e-coaching, there are no nonverbal cues, except if the coaching is conducted via video, which can still limit nonverbal cues. nonverbal cues came first in our evolutionary journey as humans and first in our ontological development as people; and they were the first signals we responded to in our initial interaction with humanity (burgoon et al., 2011, p. 218). research findings from neuroscience revealed that nonverbal signals such as facial expressions activated brain structures, resulting in the judgement of the sender of the messages (wood, 2006). perceived nonverbal cues, therefore, influence the assessment of the trust-related characteristics of the sender and are critical in the development of rapport (wood, 2006). tickle-dengen and rosenthal (1990) confirmed that nonverbal behaviour or cues are essential in the emergence of rapport between individuals, as it served as a barometer that measures the climate surrounding the interaction, for example, a smile during a friendly encounter. according to laborde (1983, p. 283), the fundamental part of developing rapport is often accomplished nonverbally. ribbers and waringa (2012, p. 23) offered an alternative view of the contribution of nonverbal cues in developing rapport in a coaching relationship, articulating that it is a myth that body language and eye contact are fundamental in creating an excellent coach-client relationship. research methodology this research aimed to identify strategies to establish rapport during online management coaching. the research was qualitative, aiming to study human action from the angle of the active participants themselves (babbie & mouton, 2012, p. 270). the research intended to explore, make sense of and describe the coach and client’s perspective on rapport building during e-coaching. research approach the research was conducted from the perspective of social actors, namely coaches and clients, in understanding their experience in establishing and developing rapport during online coaching. in this context, bloomberg and volpe (2012, p. 27) stated that qualitative research was best placed to enhance understanding of social activity from the viewpoint of the participants, through exploration, description and discovery. this research, therefore, attempted to understand how coaches and clients experienced and facilitated rapport during e-coaching. the seven stages of the interview process by kvale (1996, p. 88) – namely thematising, designing, interviewing, transcribing, analysing, verifying and reporting – were followed and deemed most aligned with the research process. sample the broad definition of the population for this research is all coaches and clients who have experienced e-coaching. the researcher used convenience and random sampling to select coaches and clients from a base of virtual and e-coaching networks. the participants did not belong to an organisation and were only known to the researcher through informal networks and a common interest in e-coaching. the key criterion in selecting the sample was the completion of at least four or more e-coaching sessions with a previously unknown coach or client. before the e-coaching sessions, the coach and client had to be unknown to each other to ensure a clear foundation on which to build rapport based on initial human interaction and first impressions. according to bloomberg and volpe (2012, p. 104), purposeful sampling is aimed at selecting scenarios that are fertile in information, and that would derive insight and understanding about the phenomenon being investigated. a sample of six coaches and six clients with adequate experience in giving and receiving e-coaching was chosen for the semi-structured interviews. the participants were selected based on age (ranging from 30 to 60 years), gender (three males and nine females), ethnic diversity (seven white people and five persons of mixed race), coaching experience (coaches with three to 12 years of experience) and e-coaching sessions received (clients who have received seven to 34 sessions of e-coaching). the locations of the participants were geographically dispersed and included north america, scotland, senegal, south africa and zimbabwe. data collection and measuring instrument based on the insights and information gained during the literature review, semi-structured questionnaires were designed for the coaches and the clients. the interviews were conducted one on one mainly, via skype or zoom, in line with the research topic regarding virtual connection, lasting approximately 45 min to 60 min. the initial interviews for both coaches and clients served as pilots, enabling refining of questions. the interview questionnaire could be changed as the interviews progressed to gain depth without bias (maykut & morehouse, 1994). separate questionnaires were designed for the coaches and the clients, exploring how rapport was established during the e-coaching. the following were some of the questions posed to the participants: what made you choose e-coaching? how was your experience with e-coaching? do you think there was rapport between you and the client/coach? what led you to believe that there was rapport? what were the key factors that enabled you to build rapport during e-coaching? how did you promote rapport building? how did the client/coach demonstrate that he/she had rapport with you? ethical clearance was obtained from the departmental ethics screening committee (desc) of the university of stellenbosch business school before the fieldwork commenced. the credibility of the research findings and data analysis various strategies were applied to ensure credibility concerning objectivity and quality,t authenticity was promoted through the verification of transcripts with the participants. triangulation was achieved by matching, comparing and analysing data collected through the research literature, leading to the identification of common trends. direct quotes from the participants helped to illustrate the findings from this research, enabling readers to draw insights and transfer these to their contexts. the transcribed data was organised into themes through a coding process, leading to data portrayed in figures, tables and discussions – as guided by creswell (2007, p. 148). basic coding was done manually, reviewing each transcript in detail, highlighting and recording all keywords in a separate table. the transcript was read at least three times to make sure that nothing had been omitted. the process was repeated with all the other transcripts. the codes were then paired to determine the main categories, themes and subthemes. the next step was to list the research objectives and the interview questions in a table to identify categories, themes and subthemes from the transcribed data. findings were drawn from the analysis of concepts, patterns, segments and trends emerging from the data, as guided by babbie and mouton (2012, p. 492). these findings are presented in the following section. research findings both the coaches and the clients reflected and shared ways that promoted rapport building during online management coaching. some of these reflections are presented in this section. virtual coaching allows the coach to decide in advance on the technological modality to be used in the coaching relationship taking into account the coaching situation and the tools available, including the capabilities, personality, preference, experience and coaching philosophy of both the coach and the client (hernez-broome et al., 2007; pulley, 2006). for some participants, fully functional technology played a crucial role in building rapport during online management coaching, as captured below: ‘… the connectivity is a big one, because if connectivity drops, then the rapport fails.’ (client b) ‘i use all the platforms, electronic platforms in support of the client, and where it is convenient for them and myself to be able to meet. but, what it does for me, it helps maintain engagement and the intensity of the coaching with the client.’ (coach d) participants noted the ability of the coach or the client, to be honest, authentic, comfortable with self and relaxed as promoting rapport. although these factors are considered as general requirements in a coaching relationship, in virtual coaching, they become more critical because of the absence of visual signals. ribbers and waringa (2012, p. 27) stated that the absence of visual social information about a conversation partner during phone, chat and email communication enhanced participation, equality, friendliness, openness and honesty. participants’ views on how authenticity contributes positively towards rapport building are shared below: ‘be authentic. we are who we are and don’t try to pretend to the coach.’ (client c) ‘you are looking for genuine, authentic connection in the responses of the client …’ (coach d) some participants identified honesty as one of the factors in enhancing rapport building: ‘i think honesty is key, and being clear from the very beginning of what your expectations are of the client, and also allowing them to state what their expectations of you.’ (coach a) ‘if i cannot give her [coach] honesty, then how can i expect for her to be able to guide me on this journey?’ (client a) according to jackson, boyce and neal (2012, p. 202), the credibility of the coach inspired hope and confidence in the coaching process. in virtual coaching, credibility could be promoted by sharing and discovering personal experiences. personal stories and interests were viewed as rapport promoters online, with some participants expressing the following insights: ‘so, storytelling becomes more powerful because the story transcends the space.’ (coach c) ‘yes, there was humility in that he shared; the rapport was created through sympathy, and sharing of experiences.’ (client f) coaches and mentors of south africa (comensa) (n.d.) emphasises the importance of creating a safe space in a coaching relationship in which clients could courageously explore their inner and outer thinking. assurance of a safe space online requires constant and explicit articulations during coaching sessions as parties establish a trusting relationship. frazee (2008) reported on a study indicating that building rapport can be challenging when coaching over a distance; at the same time, technology offers increased accessibility and frequency of communication, which can potentially facilitate a more human process than face-to-face coaching. he also pointed out that the obstacles associated with telephone coaching, such as the lack of visual cues, can be overcome by verbalising the process to the client and by paying attention to the subtle parts of the conversation (frazee, 2008). some of the participants highlighted a safe space as a factor that promoted rapport for them during online coaching: ‘… sometimes delving into very personal things that they share with you, and automatically there needs to be that understanding that whatever is said you are in a safe space.’ (coach b) ‘it is a safe space, to be vulnerable and to be willing to explore new possibilities.’ (client b) the safe space created during online management coaching enables in-depth listening. some coaches and clients shared how listening helped to accentuate rapport during e-coaching conversations, in line with some of the articulations shared by researchers. communicating over a distance increases the importance of alerting clients that they have been heard (feldman, 2002). according to mclaughlin (2013, p. 10), telephone coaching is dependent on the coach’s listening skills: ‘… he made me understand that he listened to me, by summarising, when i finished with, even when we start new sessions, he would summarise what we did last time. and that made me feel very important.’ (client f) ‘i find that coaching virtually has a lot to do with listening and connecting deeply without having the benefit of the visual cues.’ (coach c) listening and hearing are, therefore, of paramount importance during coaching online, and various ways could be explored by the coach to absorb information from the client. participants reflected on how touching base, checking in, and feedback during e-coaching facilitated a platform to listen, leading to further enhancement of rapport, as captured below: ‘you check in with the client anything that you get about them; you check in with them to verify, confirm, reconfirm certain things.’ (coach d) ‘i touch base with my client in the sense that i ask them if what we are going through is sitting well with them. do they have a clearer understanding of where they are?’ (coach b) ‘i would advise clients just to be willing to give the coach feedback …’ (client b) the coaching conversation and information shared should be safeguarded by confidentiality, more so during online management coaching. the issue of confidentiality and being free from judgement surfaced as a stimulant in rapport building online. the coaching literature confirmed that it was critical to forming a partnership with the client based on confidentiality, trust, honesty and mutual respect as it facilitated harmonisation of coaching expectations and objectives (ghods, 2009, p. 8): ‘i try to make sure that people understand that this conversation is confidential and that they can trust me with the information, etc.’ (coach c) ‘yes, in my view, in general, confidentiality is important because you can maybe share sensitive information on yourself or others …’ (client d) in virtual coaching, the very lack of nonverbal signals afforded possibilities to promote identity and interpersonal relations online (walther & parks, 2002). it is therefore essential for both coaches and clients in a virtual coaching setting not to make assumptions but instead verbalise an understanding, situation or uncertainty. some of the coachees believed this helped to build rapport in e-coaching: ‘with virtual coaching so much is outside of the visual framework of both parties, and sometimes you have to verbally state what is going on.’ (client b) ‘let the client walk their own path and not assume that what you determined as levels of rapport are the same levels of rapport that the client has.’ (coach d) verbal cues – like the spoken word, the use of language and the tone of voice – in building rapport during e-coaching were mentioned as rapport enhancers (isbister & nass, 2000, p. 253). the participants highlighted the role that verbal cues play in facilitating interpersonal relationships online: ‘you can understand how i feel, and you can hear emotions in my voice when i share it with you.’ (client a) ‘the coach still has access to things such as the client’s language, tone of voice, the pace of words used, the description and so forth.’ (coach f) ‘so the rapport can be established in the email, in the tone of the email, even in emails reflecting the client’s language.’ (coach e) some participants identified the flow of conversation as a facilitator of rapport building, that is, how the conversation was being conducted: ‘so the word that comes to mind is rhythm. the rhythm of the conversation which is a little bit of mirroring in our rhythm.’ (coach e) ‘so, when the coach says, “what i am actually hearing you say, is …” or, “what i hear you say is this …” and, “what i am getting from you that you are not saying is the following …” so, those kinds of conversations, then i know that although the coach is miles away, they are present to who i am.’ (client b) ‘i think when we were able to have conversations, the conversations flowed quite nicely, so i would say there was rapport.’ (coach b) according to ghods (2009, p. 9), coaching researchers acknowledged the coach’s supportive skills – such as warmth, compassion, patience and empathy – as vital in building a strong coaching relationship. also, coaching researchers acknowledged the coach’s relationship with the client, two-way communication, the ability to pose powerful questions, active listening and an understanding of the client’s challenges and predicament as key to building sound relationships. these attributes are centred in the coach’s experience. some participants viewed rapport as being encouraged by passion, commitment and experience from both the coach and the client, as presented below: ‘you have to be passionate, and she [coach] was very passionate, and she was experienced as well, and i felt that she was experienced, i could learn from her.’ (client d) ‘i think the client’s passion for achieving his goal and that passion kind of grew commitment to achieve it.’ (coach f) some participants regarded the ability to use a sense of humour creatively as one of the factors that helped with rapport building online. ribbers and waringa (2012, p. 62) stated that one of the strategies geared towards building closer connections between coach and client, and that could be applied in e-coaching, is the use of a sense of humour: ‘sense of humour and a smile go a long way. it must be a very interesting conversation.’ (client c) ‘when there’s an opportunity to be humorous, share a joke or comment.’ (coach f) some participants identified clarity on guidelines, expectations and parameters upfront as instrumental in promoting rapport online: ‘i think by explaining early the boundaries, boundaries is not the right word, but how we’re going to connect and how this is going to work, particularly if the client may be using the virtual world for the first time.’ (client c) ‘the client needs to know upfront what the parameters are …’ (coach b) the research findings outlined in this section helped to identify strategies to establish rapport between coach and client during online management coaching. these strategies are presented in the conclusion section that follows. conclusion the emergence of online communication has created complexity and stimulated debate on how interpersonal relationships, in particular rapport, are established online. for the coaching fraternity, electronic communication is particularly important as they need to create chemistry between coach and client. the lack of nonverbal cues during e-coaching, save for limited visuals on video coaching, has led to the following question: what can be done to optimise the rapport between client and coach during e-coaching? the participants highlighted the factors that assisted them in promoting rapport building during ecoaching. based on these findings, this article identified the following strategies to establish rapport between coach and client during e-coaching: online technology: ensure that the chosen technological modality is functional, comfortable and compatible with both parties and the coaching environment. authenticity and honesty: both parties need to be reliable and have the ability to be their natural selves without being seen as trying too hard. personal storytelling: include sharing of personal and similar experiences. safe space: create and hold a sacred space for the coaching conversation. listening: ensure that there is enough capacity to be an attentive and in-depth listener to hear what is not being said. confidentiality and non-judgement: ensure privacy for the conversation and be objective without judging. check-in and feedback: constantly seek, confirm and affirm information while providing feedback. suspension of assumptions: have no assumptions and verbally articulate thoughts and actions. tone of voice and language: ensure creative use of words, sentences, speech and language. flow of conversation: aim for a natural flow and build-up of the conversation. passion, commitment and experience: use passion, commitment and experience to support the interaction and engagement of the parties. sense of humour: create an exciting coaching conversation through humour. setting of guidelines, expectations and boundaries: both parties must have clarity up front on how the coaching engagement will be conducted as well as the end goal. these strategies, or a combination thereof, with explicit articulation and consistent application will enable rapport to be established between coach and client in an online environment. the presence of rapport in coaching facilitates a sufficient learning experience, a sense of connection and closeness to bridge the social distance between coach and client online. the strategies also assist in compensating for the deficit of non-verbal cues during online management coaching. this study, therefore, offers strategies to establish rapport between coach and client during online management coaching. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions the main author was s.v.c.-p., and the second author was l.m. ethical consideration the departmental ethics screening committee of the university of stellenbosch business school (usb desc) (su-hsd-0021387). funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2012). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford university press southern africa. barbian, j. (2002). a little help from your friends: an employee with ample job knowledge and experience is a trainer waiting to happen. training, 39(3), 38–56. berry, d.s., pennebaker, j.w., mueller, j.s., & hiller, w.s. (1997). linguistic bases of social perception. personality and social psychology bulletin, 23(5), 526–537. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167297235008 berry, r.m. (2005). a comparison of face-to-face and distance coaching practices: the role of the working alliance in problem resolution. unpublished doctoral dissertation. atlanta, ga: georgia state university. blake buffini, k., & gordon, m. (2015). one-on-one support for crisis intervention using online synchronous instant messaging: evaluating working alliance and client satisfaction. british journal of guidance & counselling, 43(1), 105–116. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2014.987723 bloomberg, l.d., & volpe, m. (2012). completing your qualitative dissertation: a roadmap from beginning to end (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. boyce, l.a., & hernez-broome, g. (2010). e-coaching: consideration of leadership coaching in a virtual environment. in d. clutterbuck & z. hussain (eds.), virtual coach, virtual mentor (pp. 139–174). charlotte, nc: iap information age publishing. boyce, l.a., jackson, j.r., & neal, l.j. (2010). building successful leadership coaching relationships: examining impact of matching criteria in a leadership coaching program. journal of management development, 29(10), 914–931. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621711011084231 burgoon, j.k., guerrero, l.k., & manusov, v. (2011). nonverbal signals. in m.l. knapp & j. daly (eds.), handbook of interpersonal communication. thousand oaks, ca: sage publishing. chamberlin, c.r. (2000). nonverbal behaviors and initial impressions of trustworthiness in teacher-supervisor relationships. communication education, 49(4), 352–364. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634520009379223 charbonneau, m.a. (2002). participation self-perception about the cause of behavior change from a program of executive coaching. unpublished doctoral dissertation. los angeles, ca: alliant international university. clutterbuck, d., & hussain, z. (2010). virtual coach, virtual mentor. charlotte, nc: information age publishing. coaches and mentors of south africa (comensa). (n.d.). what is comensa? retrieved june 11, 2016 from www.comensa.org.za/about_us/ creswell, j.w. (2007). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among the five traditions (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. feldman, d.a. (2002). distance coaching. training and development, 56(9), 54–56. frazee, r.v. (2008). e-coaching in organizations: a study of features, practices, and determinants of use. unpublished doctoral dissertation. san diego, ca: san diego university. gallagher, p.e. (1992). individual differences in nonverbal behavior: dimensions of style. journal of personality and social psychology, 63(1), 133–145. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.63.1.133 ghods, n. (2009). distance coaching: the relationship between the coach-client relationship, client satisfaction, and coaching outcomes. unpublished doctoral dissertation. san diego, ca: san diego university. grant, a.m., & zackon, r. (2004). executive, workplace and life coaching: findings from a large-scale survey of international coach federation members. international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring, 2(2), 1–15. gregory, j.b., & levy, p.e. (2010). employee coaching relationships: enhancing construct clarity and measurement. coaching: an international journal of theory, research and practice, 3, 109–123. https://doi.org/10.1080/17521882.2010.502901 hall, d.t., otazo, k.l., & hollenbeck, g.p. (2000). behind closed doors: what really happens in executive coaching. organizational dynamics, 27(3), 39–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0090-2616(99)90020-7 hamilton, b.a., & scandura, t.a. (2003). e-mentoring: implications for organizational learning and development in a wired world. organizational dynamics, 31(4), 388–402. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0090-2616(02)00128-6 hernez-broome, g., boyce, l.a., & whyman, w. (2007). critical issues of coaching with technology. in e-coaching: supporting leadership coaching with technology. symposium conducted at the 22nd annual conference of the society for industrial and organizational psychology, new york, ny. international coach federation (icf). (2007). global coaching study: final report. retrieved june 4, 2016 from www.coachfederation.org/coachingstudy2007. isbister, k., & nass, c. (2000). consistency of personality in interactive characters: verbal cues, non-verbal cues, and user characteristics. international journal of human-computer studies, 53(2), 251–267. https://doi.org/10.1006/ijhc.2000.0368 jackson, r.j., boyce, l.a., & neal, l.j. (2012). eharmony, match.com, plentyoffish: have you considered matching to support your client-coach relationships? in e. de haan & c. sills (eds.), coaching relationships: the relational coaching field book. oxfordshire: libri publishing. kanatouri, s., & geissler, h. (2017). adapting to working with new technologies. in g. spence & d. drake (eds.), the sage handbook of coaching (pp. 715–730). london: sage. kvale, s. (1996). interviews: an introduction to qualitative research interviewing. london: sage publications. laborde, g.z. (1983). influencing with integrity. palo alto, ca: syntony publishing. maykut, p., & morehouse, r. (1994). beginning qualitative research: a philosophic and practical guide. london: the falmer press. mcknight, d.h., cummings, h.l., & chervany, n.l. (1998). initial trust formation in new organizational relationships. academy of management review, 23(3), 473–490. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1998.926622 mclaughlin, m. (2013). less is more: the executive coach’s experience of working on the telephone. international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring. special issue 7 (june), 1–13. mehrabian, a., & ferris, s.r. (1967). inference of attitudes from nonverbal communication in two channels. journal of consulting psychology, 31(3), 248. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0024648 otte, s., bangerter, a., britsch, m., & wüthrich, u. (2014). attitudes of coaches towards the use of computer-based technology in coaching. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 66(1), 38–52. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035592 pascal, a., sass, m., & gregory, j.b. (2015). i’m only human: the role of technology in coaching. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 67(2), 100–109. https://doi.org/10.1037/cpb0000025 pitsounis, n.d., & dixon, p.n. (1988). encouragement versus praise: improving productivity of the mentally retarded. individual psychology, 44(4), 507–512. pulley, m.l. (2006). blended coaching. in s. ting & p. scisco (eds.), the center for creative leadership handbook of coaching (pp. 347–378). san francisco, ca: john wiley & sons. ribbers, a., & waringa, a. (2012). e-coaching: theory and practice for a new online approach to coaching. amsterdam, nl: uitgeverij boom nelissen. rossett, a., & marino, g. (2005). if coaching is good, then e-coaching is…’. training development, 59(11), 46–49. starr, j. (2002). the coaching manual. london: pearson education limited. stone, f. (2004). the mentoring advantage: creating the next generation of leaders. chicago, il: dearborn trade publishing. sherpa coaching. (2019). the sherpa executive coaching survey report. retrieved september 30, 2019 from https://www.sherpacoaching.com/pdf_files/2019_executive_coaching_survey_summary_report.pdf tickle-degnen, l., & rosenthal, r. (1990). the nature of rapport and its nonverbal correlates. psychological inquiry, 1(4), 285–293. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli0104_1 walther, j.b., loh, t., & granka, l. (2005). let me count the ways the interchange of verbal and nonverbal cues in computer-mediated and face-to-face affinity. journal of language and social psychology, 24(1), 36–65. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927x04273036 walther, j.b., & parks, r.m. (2002). cues filtered out, cues filtered in: computer-mediated communication and relationships. retrieved september 30, 2016 from http://www.researchgate.net/publication/239489124 weitz, p. (2014). psychotherapy 2.0: where psychotherapy and technology meet. london: karnac books. wenger, e. (1998). communities of practice and social learning systems. organization, 7(2), 225–246. https://doi.org/10.1177/135050840072002 wood, j.a. (2006). nlp revisited: non-verbal communications and signal of trustworthiness. journal of personal selling & sales management, 26(2), 197–204. https://doi.org/10.2753/pss0885-3134260206 wycherley, i.m., & cox, e. (2008). factors in the selection and matching of executive coaches in organisations. coaching: an international journal of theory, research and practice, 1(1), 39–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/17521880701878075 abstract introduction methodology results discussion of results limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) tawaziwa wushe college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa country cool air conditioning pvt. ltd, harare, zimbabwe jacob shenje decision point consultants pvt. ltd, harare, zimbabwe citation wushe, t., & shenje, j. (2019). the antecedents of employee engagement and their effect on public sector service delivery: the case study of government departments in harare. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1082. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1082 original research the antecedents of employee engagement and their effect on public sector service delivery: the case study of government departments in harare tawaziwa wushe, jacob shenje received: 07 june 2018; accepted: 07 june 2019; published: 13 nov. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: employee engagement has become an impetus behind business success and a deciding factor for service delivery, especially in the zimbabwean public sector. research purpose: this study sought to investigate the antecedents of employee engagement and their effect on public sector service delivery with reference to selected government departments in harare. motivation for the study: the government departments in harare have witnessed gross employee disengagement as indicated by reduced employee commitment and high absenteeism. research approach/design and method: a quantitative research design was adopted for this study. a structured questionnaire was developed, validated and distributed to 260 employees and management working in five selected government departments. main findings: this study showed that the antecedents of employee engagement such as effective leadership, training and career development, compensation and incentive programmes, and organisational policies and procedures greatly influenced employee engagement in the public sector. the study also noted that employee engagement positively impacted service delivery in the public sector. practical/managerial implications: an important implication of this study is the need for the public sector management to understand the significance of the social exchange for employee engagement and to provide employees with resources and benefits that would oblige them to perform productively. contribution/value-add: this study is expected to enrich the empirical evidence on the antecedents of employee engagement and also provide recommendations for practitioners in investigating the influence of employee engagement on service delivery in the public sector. keywords: effective leadership; employee engagement; policies and procedures; public sector; service delivery; training and career development. introduction orientation the current operating business environment has been compelling both public and private sector organisations to come up with new strategies to adapt to fast-changing circumstances in terms of the workforce. the public sector organisations had been facing employee turnovers as they look for greener pastures and new responsibilities and challenges. lack of engagement because of poor compensation and incentive programmes, lack of training and career development opportunities, and ineffective leadership had also tended to result in withdrawal and defensive behaviours by employees (koodamara, 2017). moreover, disengaged employees are more unlikely to stay with their current organisation and commit to their organisation (ramsay & finney, 2006). apparently, employees who are not engaged will affect the organisational service delivery through higher absenteeism, higher turnover and lower productivity, recruitment and training cost (crawford, rich, buckman, & bergeron, 2013; meutia, tubagus, & ahmad, 2017). nevertheless, high-performing employees have become the most important asset that organisations have at a time when production economy has been shifting towards service economy (abukhalifeh & ahmad, 2013; ortiz, cernas, lau, & qin, 2013). in particular, engaged employees have become true impetus behind business success through efficient service delivery and three times more sincere towards their jobs in comparison to actively disengaged employees (basbous, 2011; mangundjaya, 2012). thus, employee engagement can be a deciding factor for service delivery, especially in the public sector, and has the potential to significantly affect employee productivity, loyalty and overall stakeholder value. having highly engaged employees is important for increasing innovation, productivity and performance, while reducing costs related to workforce hiring and retention (kazimoto, 2016). the public sector in both developing and developed countries had been experiencing increasing pressure to identify ways of managing demographic changes while drastically reducing costs. in zimbabwe, there had been unprecedented decline in public sector employee disengagement with the work force merely showing up at work without contributing much more (ncube & jerie, 2012). indeed, the government had been facing people management challenges in engaging employees against a backdrop of poor remunerations, recruitment freezes and job cuts (daily news, 2017). in addition, the government had been operating on tight budget, which resulted in lack of investment in employee training and development programmes. basically, most government departments had been experiencing employee engagement problems, most of which significantly affected service delivery. moreover, the government had been witnessing gross employee disengagement as indicated by high absenteeism and reduced operating and reduced employee commitment (ncube & jerie, 2012). these unengaged employees had been creating a vacuum between employees’ efforts and good service delivery. consequently, employee engagement had been slipping with most employees contemplating not to remain with their current respective departments if comparable jobs were available elsewhere. most troubling had been that although the employees had been physically ‘present’ at the offices, they would have mentally checked out, thereby creating a vacuum between employees’ effort and successful service delivery. apparently, disengaged employees had been affecting service delivery through higher absenteeism, higher turnover and lower productivity and recurrent training costs. with employee engagement to the periphery and becoming the government’s achilles heel, there had been increased employee disenchantment with their jobs resulting in poor service delivery. from a theoretical perspective, studies on the antecedents of employee engagement and their effect on public sector service delivery have remained quite rudimentary, in the zimbabwean context. in particular, little research had been conducted on employees in the public. given the void in public sector human resources management literature, this study would seek to initiate theoretical enquiry into the antecedents of employee engagement and their effect on service delivery using the public sector service in harare as the research context. research purpose and objectives given the potential contribution engaged employees can make to the public sector, this study sought to determine the antecedents of employee engagement and their effect on service delivery. in particular, the study was premised to achieve the following research objectives: determine the effect of effective leadership on employee engagement establish the impact of training and career development on employee engagement determine the influence of compensation and incentive programmes on employee engagement determine the effect of organisational policies and procedures on employee engagement determine the impact of employee engagement on service delivery determine the mediating effect of employee engagement on the relationship between the antecedent variables and service delivery. literature review social exchange theory the social exchange theory has been accepted as the most and widely used theory in the employee engagement research (hakanen & schaufeli, 2012; kazimoto, 2016; truss, alfes, delbridge, shantz, & soane, 2013). the theory provides a theoretical basis for explaining why employees opt to become more engaged or less engaged in an organisation. the main principles of the theory are that employees make social decisions based on perceived costs and mutual benefits. moreover, the theory proposes that there are obligations that are made through interactions between various parties in a state of reciprocal interdependence. according to the theory, employees are motivated to engage in their jobs when they believe there is a fair and balanced system of exchange (bwire, ssekabuko, & lwanga, 2014). thus, the social exchange theory involves various obligations created on one independent party on the actions of another party that has the capability of producing high-quality relationships. the social exchange theory also argues that in the exchange rules, both parties will have a reciprocal relationship that will result in the establishment of trust, loyalty and commitment. according to the theory, the relationship between the parties grows over time, and this may mature into trust, loyalty and mutual understanding (saks, 2006). for instance, employees make full involvement towards their works by dedicating higher amount of cognitive and emotional and physical resources to respond to organisational actions (abukhalifeh & som, 2013). thus, employee engagement consists of psychological and emotional connections between employees and organisation that lead to positive or negative performance at work (abukhalifeh & som, 2013). furthermore, the social exchange theory argues that individuals possessing strong exchange ideology will be more inclined to feel obliged to return the benefits that they receive from an organisation. this is consistent with marie, ibrahim and al naseer’s (2014) argument that engagement should be viewed as a two-way relationship between the employees and employers. in other words, individuals would continue to engage each other because of the continuation of reciprocation. the social exchange theory was used as the basis for developing the study’s research framework because it provided a theoretical basis for explaining the relationship between employee engagement and improved service delivery in organisations. thus, employees are more likely to exchange their engagement for resources and benefits, and this explains why employees choose to become more or less engaged in their work and organisation. concept of employee engagement there are different definitions for the term ‘employee engagement’ in the academic literature that varies greatly according to the organisations. although employee engagement and work engagement have been used interchangeably, this study prefers the latter because it is more specific. employee engagement can be looked at from both individual and organisational perspectives. according to kwon, farndale and park (2016), employee engagement comprises how employees feel about their organisation. nahrgang, morgeson and hofmann (2011) explain further by stating that employee engagement involves the level of commitment and involvement of employees towards an organisation and its values. in the same vein, ortiz et al. (2013) define employee engagement as a psychological state where employees feel they do have a vested interest in the organisation’s success and perform to high standards that exceed the stated job requirements. another definition by abukhalifeh and som (2013) describes employee engagement as comprising positive attitude, passion and commitment to the organisation, its values and willingness to help other colleagues. although each of the above definitions represents unique perspectives, it can be broadly stated that employee engagement involves the level of commitment and involvement by employees towards their respective organisations. for saks (2006), the antecedents of employee engagement include rewards and recognition, job characteristics, perceived supervisor support and procedural justice. as pointed out by keenoy (2014), these antecedents provide the means to indicate whether or not employees have become engaged. saks (2006) also proposed that employee engagement consists of antecedents such as organisational policies and support, job characteristics, rewards and compensation, supervisor support, distributive justice and procedural justice. when employees perceived these antecedents, employee engagement would result at organisational levels, resulting in job satisfaction, organisational commitment, low turnover and improved service delivery (crawford et al., 2013). the other antecedents that have been suggested by kim, kolb and kim (2012) include task significance, organisational care, employee autonomy, feedback from the job, organisational support and psychological safety. results of rana, ardichvili and tkachenk (2014) have indicated that there is a significant correlation between the antecedents and employee engagement, as well as positively related to job satisfaction and service delivery. effective leadership and employee engagement effective leadership can be described as the ability to handle the organisation’s challenges, genuine commitment to providing high-quality products and services, ability to give employees a clear picture of company direction and ability to inspire confidence in employees (hansen, byrne, & kiersch, 2014; strom, sears, & kelly, 2014). as postulated by converso, loera, viotti and martini (2015), the effective leaders have charismatic characteristics. kovjanic, schuh and jonas (2013) also corroborate that effective leadership should be able to inspire trust and confidence among employees. chandani, mehta, mall and khokhar (2016) argue that effective leadership is very important for the smooth functioning of any organisation. it is the duty of leadership to actively demonstrate the organisation’s values and goals as well as create an open and fair work environment for employees. from engagement literature, leaders should provide meaning and intellectual stimulation whereby they support employees’ creativity in blame-free contexts. wallace and trinka (2009) argue that the three leadership competencies that can be funnelled to have positive impact on employee engagement are efficient coaching, interest in developing follower’s careers and effective communication on individual performances. an exploratory study by daraei and vahidi (2014) concluded that effective leadership positively affected employee engagement as it addressed key drivers of engagement such as recognition, personal development and respect. in their empirical study, jiang and men (2017) examined the relationship between effective leadership and employee engagement, and the results reported a direct effect between the variables. similarly, krishnaveni and monica (2016) believe that the most reliable way of increasing employee satisfaction and commitment is to provide them with more effective leaders and managers. studies by carasco-saul, kim and kim (2015) also tied effective leadership to employee engagement with the clear purpose of increasing organisational results. from the preceding discussion, it can be argued that effective leadership positively affects employee engagement. thus, the following hypothesis is made: hypothesis 1: effective leadership has a positive effect on employee engagement. training and career development and employee engagement furthermore, organisations with high levels of engagement provide their employees with opportunities to develop their abilities, learn new skills, acquire new knowledge and realise their potential. according to rana and chhabra (2011), training and career development programmes in an organisation influence engagement for employees by providing opportunities for personal development. thus, training and career development opportunities play a catalytic role in the engagement of employees in the organisation. as suggested by bakar (2013), it is of profound importance for organisations to check that the tasks provided to employees match with their career goals as this increases satisfaction and engagement. this is also echoed by eldor and harpaz (2016), who argue that organisations with high levels of employee engagement provide career development opportunities for employees to learn new skills and realise their potential. in this regard, training and career development are an important antecedent, which is to be considered in the process of engaging employees because it helps the employees to concentrate on a focused work dimension. more so, redundancy of skills has been cited by robbins, judge, millett and boyle (2013) as one of the reasons for employee turnover, thereby indicating the necessity for training, re-training and multi-skill training. through training and career development, employees will improve service accuracy, and acquire the knowledge and skills needed to perform their jobs, thereby impacting service performance and employee engagement. when employees undergo training and development programmes, their confidence build up and they become more engaged in their job. thus, we can formulate the following hypothesis: hypothesis 2: training and career development have a positive effect on employee engagement. compensation and incentive programmes and employee engagement compensation and incentive programmes are also said to have a major influence on the employees’ conceptions of their employment relationship. these programmes consist of financial and non-financial elements such as on-site day care, employee assistance programmes, bonuses, retirement plans, health insurance and company shares, travel discounts and company picnics (bedarkar & pandita, 2014). other psychological incentives include rewarding superior performance of an employee in front of an audience; mentoring, assuring job security; granting promotions and increasing insurance cover (mangundjaya, 2012). it is therefore important for organisations to have a proper compensation management system so that the employees are motivated to work in the organisation. as elucidated by ortiz et al. (2013), compensation and reward programmes immensely contribute to organisational effectiveness through influencing both individual and group behaviours. this is corroborated by kwon et al. (2016), who stated that sound compensation policies help in motivating employees towards their job and that also have a major influence on employee engagement. as noted by krishnaveni and monica (2016), an effective compensation policy would reduce the problems of attrition and cost of recruitment in an organisation. similarly, jiang and men (2017) also highlight that compensation and benefits increase the level of employee engagement. thus, compensation and incentive programmes are indispensable attributes to employee engagement that motivate employees to achieve more and focus more on work and personal development. a quantitative study by agyemang and ofei (2013) on public sector organisations in ghana revealed that recognition and rewards are significant antecedents of employee engagement. another study by ncube and jerie (2012) on hotels in zimbabwe concluded that compensation and incentive programmes have a positive effect on employee engagement and commitment. in the same vein, kelliher, hope-hailey and farndale (2013) found that compensation and incentive programmes resulted in employees providing extra effort to meet their target and also wanted to know the effect of their effort in the next year financial statement. thus, on the basis of the preceding discussion, the following hypothesis is formulated: hypothesis 3: compensation and incentive programmes have a positive effect on employee engagement. organisational policies and procedures and employee engagement organisational policies and procedures decide the extent to which employees are engaged in an organisation. evidence from past studies show that amiable organisational policies and procedures are extremely important for the employee engagement and achievement of business goals (keenoy, 2013; purcell, 2013). according to townsend, wilkinson and burgess (2013), the most common policies and procedures used by organisations include fair recruitment and selection, flexi-timing, aid in balancing work and life, and fair promotional policies. as indicated by bwire et al. (2014), recruitment and selection policy of an organisation have a direct impact on future employee commitment and engagement. similarly, marie et al. (2014) expound that an organisation’s flexible work–life policies have a notable positive impact on employee engagement. likewise, other studies such as youssef-morgan and bockorny (2013) have emphasised the significance of organisational policies and procedures that best support flexible work arrangements, balancing employee work and home environments because such arrangements result in engaged employees. thus, we can formulate the following hypothesis: hypothesis 4: organisational policies and procedures have a positive effect on employee engagement. employee engagement and service delivery a plethora of studies in the literature have sought to determine the relationship between employee engagement and service delivery. for instance, bakar’s (2013) study on the malaysian financial sector revealed that employee engagement was a critical ingredient of organisational success and service delivery because it predicted financial performance. another quantitative study by swarnalatha and sureshkrishna (2013) on indian industries found a significant positive correlation between employee engagement and service delivery performance. furthermore, abukhalifeh and som (2013) also proved an effective connection between employee engagement and essential performance outcomes such as financial performance and profitability, customer loyalty, productivity, turnover, safety incidents, absenteeism, shrinkages and quality. in a study of 22 companies across five business sectors, huang et al. (2016) determined that several key drivers for employee engagement, including recognition and rewards, career advancement, and management leadership, had a noticeable relationship with performance outcomes such as service delivery. furthermore, quantitative studies by song, kolb, lee and kim (2012) on 17 multinational companies in south korea showed that more than 75% of engaged employees were both productive and likely to stay in the company for the long term. the finding is further buttressed by baumruk and gorman (2016), who opine that engaged employees are productive and more likely to stay in the organisations when compared with disengaged employees. in the same vein, converso et al. (2015) noted that employee engagement can act as a critical tool for organisations to fortify their competitiveness and also enhance organisational service delivery. it has also been noted that high levels of employee engagement promote talent retention and improve stakeholder value (robbins et al., 2013). thus, employee engagement can act as a deciding factor for organisational effectiveness and efficiency. thus, the linkage between engagement and performance is consistent with engagement models, theory and research. based on the above analysis, it can be argued that there is a connection between employee engagement and organisational service delivery in terms of productivity and efficiency. more so, the literature also indicated that employee engagement is significant to employee loyalty, retention and job satisfaction. it is of paramount importance for the public sector to be aware of employee needs and policies that would have implications on employee engagement. for most government departments, cole (2014) and siddiqi (2015) concur that high level of employee engagement would result in improved service delivery. this is because the engaged employees would be highly committed towards the job. other noted advantages of employee engagement include positive attitudes among the employees towards their job, enthusiasm to get the job done, and commitment and alignment with organisational goals and objectives (ortiz et al., 2013). moreover, daraei and vahidi (2014) also elude that engaged employees are less likely to feel exhausted, have higher confidence levels, focused towards their work and have greater level of customer satisfaction. in addition, other consequences of employee engagement include job satisfaction, organisational commitment, organisational citizenship behaviour and lower turnover intention (abraham, 2012; tejaswi & raya, 2014). thus, we can formulate the following hypothesis: hypothesis 5: employee engagement has a positive impact on service delivery. conceptual framework in light of the preceding literature discussion, the following conceptual framework is relevant in the wider perspective of knowledge sharing and understanding the study’s variables. the study sought to examine the antecedents of employee engagement and their effect on public sector service delivery. thus, the conceptual framework first focused on the antecedents of employee engagement and their impact on service delivery. the antecedents of employee engagement are measured as a multidimensional construct and are taken as proxy for service delivery. the variables making up the conceptual framework for the study are illustrated in figure 1. figure 1: conceptual framework. methodology research approach from the study’s ontological position of objectivism, a quantitative research method was found as appropriate for inquiring into the research problem based on testing theory and analysing with statistical procedures. moreover, a quantitative research design was adopted for the study because it could use structured tools to generate numerical data (leedy & ormrod, 2013). moreover, a quantitative research design sought to measure variables and expresses any relationships using inferential statistics such as pearson’s correlation and regression analysis (draper & smith, 2014). research participants the target population for this study consisted of employees and management from the selected government departments in harare. figures from zimstats indicate that there are more than 800 employees in various government departments within the central business district of harare (zimstats, 2017). because it was not possible to cover all government departments in harare, it was of profound importance to determine a sample size for the study. in selecting the sample size for the study, it was important to achieve maximum precision. thus, the determination of a sample size was an important step in conducting the empirical study. the study’s sample size was calculated using the sample determination table by jankowicz (2005). using the table, the targeted population of 800 government employees and management statically required at least 260 participants at 5% level of significance. after ascertaining the sample size, the researchers picked the exact number of participants using the appropriate sampling techniques. in particular, probability sampling techniques were used for the study. firstly, stratified sampling was used to select from the five different government departments. these were obtained from the classification list supplied by public service commission. the selected government departments were found to have clear and consistent organisational structures that would allow generalisation of results without a lot of errors (yin, 2014). the allocation of each stratum is indicated in table 1. table 1: proportional sampling. measuring instruments structured questionnaires were used as the study’s main research instrument. the questions were made using 5-point likert scale. researchers such as newman, lim and pineda (2013) recommend the use of 5-point likert-type scale because of their easiness in analysing data statistically. accordingly, the lowest rating of 1 implied strong disagreement by the respondents, while the highest rating of 5 would imply strongest agreement with the statement provided. the study used the composite version of utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) short version developed by schaufeli and bakker (2004) and included engagement sub-scales such as dedication, vigour and absorption at work. these were then analysed unidimensionally. on the contrary, the servqual instrument developed by parasuraman, zeithaml and berry (1991) was used to measure the service delivery. in particular, service delivery dimensions, such as reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy, were utilised for the study. the questionnaires were administered personally by the researcher to the respondents. a pilot study was done to check if all the questions made sense and the respondents were able to understand them and answer in a meaningful way as it was intended. thus, the questionnaire was pilot tested on 10 participants (5 managers and 5 employees) for relevance, comprehension and logic. these respondents were drawn from the sample study of government employees in harare. as recommended by scandura and williams (2013), questionnaires must be pretested to observe reactions and attitudes of the respondents. these questionnaires were handed directly to the respondents by the researcher and that gave him the privilege to introduce the topic and encouragement in answering the questionnaire. the feedback obtained from the pilot study was then used to revise the questionnaire before the commencement of the fieldwork. research procedure primary data were collected through the use of a survey research strategy. by implication, the use of a survey research strategy allowed the researcher to collect quantitative data and use inferential statistics (jankowicz, 2005). the questionnaires were administered through the use of drop and pick method. the advantage of pick and drop was that the respondents were given enough time to answer the questionnaire because the researcher would come later to pick them up. furthermore, the pick and drop method allowed the researchers to collect data from a large representative sample at relatively low cost per datum. the distribution of questionnaires began from 20 november 2017 to 04 january 2018. statistical analysis prior to data analysis, it was first sorted for completeness, reliability and consistency, and this was done through analysis of internal reliability and internal consistency. the data cleaning ensured that errors during data entry could be detected before final analysis (root, fellows, & hancock, 2013). this study used ibm statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 25. the data were analysed using both inferential and descriptive statistics. descriptive statistics were performed to run the basic statistical measures such as the mean, median and standard deviation. inferential statistics were used to test the research hypotheses as well as to infer whether relationships between variables were significant or not. in particular, pearson’s correlation was used to measure linear dependence between two variables. to establish the nature and magnitude of the relationships between the variables and to test the hypothesised relationships, the study applied multiple regression analysis. ethical considerations the ethical considerations conserved in this study included anonymity of respondents, confidentiality of primary data as well as seeking permission to conduct research from relevant authorities such as the ministry of health and child welfare as well as the management of the respective public hospitals. ethicality of the research methodology was highly important in ensuring that research participants did not feel that they have been mistreated. as such, the researchers took various steps to ensure that this study adhered to research ethical standards. the researchers explained the exact nature of the study and any reasons why they might not want to take part to all the participants. participants were asked to consent to participate in the research through filling a consent form. participants were also informed that they had the right to withdraw from the study at any point. more so, participation in the study was purely voluntary and all participants were informed that their responses would remain anonymous and confidential. results participants for this study included 260 employees and managers working in five selected government departments in harare. from the distributed questionnaires, the researchers managed to collect 206 filled questionnaires representing a response rate of 79.2%. thus, the study’s response rate was huge enough to make meaningful conclusions and recommendations. more so, the response rate was in line with root et al.’s (2013) stipulations that a response rate of 70% and over can be regarded as excellent to make adequate statistical analysis. with regard to demographic characteristics of the respondents, it was revealed that majority of the participants were males (67%), while 64% of them were aged less than 40 years old. in addition, the study revealed that more than 80% of the participants had at least university degree and at least 65% of them had been with their respective government departments for a period of at least 6 years. table 2 illustrates the demographic characteristics of the respondents. table 2: demographic characteristics of the respondents. before applying any statistical tools to the collected data, it was important to first test reliability of the scales on the extent to which the measurement scales would produce consistent results if done repeatedly. in this regard, cronbach’s alpha was used to measure reliability. in management research, a cronbach’s alpha coefficient that is greater than 0.70 is usually preferred and considered ‘good reliability’ (zikmund, 2012). as suggested by field (2005), the generally accepted range of the cronbach’s alpha measure in management research is 0.7–0.8. table 3 shows the cronbach’s alpha for all the study’s variables. table 3: cronbach’s alpha reliability test. from table 3, it can be seen that the reliability values for the study’s items such as effective leadership (0.86), training and career development (0.82), compensation and incentive programmes (0.84), organisational policies and procedures (0.86), employee engagement (0.77) and service delivery (0.89) were all above 0.7, which signifies acceptable reliability. this invariably implies that the suggested study constructs would give the same results when the same test is applied under the same condition again and again. thus, the items were included because they provided meaningful data to the research. this study conducted correlation analysis to test the strength of association or relationship between the variables. correlation measures the relationship or association between two continuous numeric variables and indicates both the direction and degree to which they vary with one another (scandura & williams, 2013). the findings are presented in table 4. table 4: correlation analysis. results from table 4 reveal that there is a significant positive relationship between effective leadership and employee engagement (r = 0.55, p < 0.05). this implies that effective leadership as an antecedent is positively related to employee engagement in the public sector departments under study. thus, at 5% level of significance we accept the hypothesis that effective leadership has a positive effect on employee engagement on the basis of sampled data. in addition, the correlation analysis also showed that both effective leadership and service delivery were also positively related (r = 0.49, p < 0.05). the findings also disclosed a significant positive relationship between training and career development and employee engagement (r = 0.66, p < 0.05), thus implying that training and career development have a positive and significant association with employee engagement in the public sector departments under study. thus, at 5% level of significance we accept the hypothesis that training and career development have a positive effect on employee engagement on the basis of sampled data. this study also showed that training and career development also had an indirect positive association with service delivery in the public sector (r = 0.53, p < 0.05). the findings also revealed a positive correlation between compensation and incentive programmes and employee engagement (r = 0.52, p < 0.05). this indicates that compensation and incentive programmes have a positive and significant relationship with employee engagement in the public sector departments under study. thus, at 5% level of significance we accept the hypothesis that compensation and incentive programmes have a positive effect on employee engagement on the basis of sampled data. the findings also showed a positive association between compensation and incentive programmes and service delivery in the public sector (r = 0.67, p < 0.05). the pearson’s correlation matrix also showed that organisational policies and procedures have a positive and significant relationship with employee engagement with a correlation coefficient of r = 0.48, p < 0.05. this invariably means that improved organisational policies and procedures by the government departments can have a positive correlation with increased employee engagement. thus, at 5% level of significance we accept the hypothesis that organisational policies and procedures have a positive effect on employee engagement. in addition, it was also revealed that organisational policies and procedures had a positive relationship with service delivery (r = 0.39, p < 0.05). furthermore, employee engagement showed a positive and significant relationship with service delivery with a correlation coefficient of r = 0.865, p < 0.05. these findings do indicate that employee engagement has a positive association with service delivery for the government departments under study. thus, at 5% level of significance we accept the hypothesis that employee engagement has a positive effect on service delivery. to determine the predictability of job engagement using antecedent variables and the predictability of service delivery using job engagement, series of simple regression analysis was conducted. the results of the regression analysis are illustrated in table 5. table 5: regression analysis. from table 5, it can be inferred that compensation and incentive programmes have the highest predictive power of employee engagement as it can explain 67% of the total variance of employee engagement. training and career development were the second important predictor of employee engagement, and it can explain 62% of its total variance. in addition, effective leadership also seems to have similar predictive power of 51% and organisational policies and procedures explained 21%. in addition, employee engagement seems to be a better predictor for service delivery, where it can explain 13% of its total variance. this study used the bootstrapping method to test the significance of mediation effect of employee engagement on the relationship between antecedent variables and service delivery at 95% confidence intervals. the results of the study are summarised diagrammatically in figure 2. figure 2: mediation model. the results of this study suggest that employee engagement mediates the relationship between the four antecedent variables and service delivery. discussion of results this study showed that employee engagement mediated the antecedents such as effective leadership, training and career development, compensation and incentive programmes, and organisational policies and procedures. based on the test results, it was revealed that training and career development (r = 0.66) had the highest positive and significant relationship with employee engagement. as such, the higher the amount of training and development programmes initiated by the government departments, the higher the employee engagement in various organisational activities that would in the end improve service delivery. in the same vein, effective leadership (r = 0.55) and compensation and incentive programmes (r = 0.52) also showed a positive and significant relationship with employee engagement. this confirmed the social exchange theory in explaining the influence of training and development as well as remunerations and rewards on employee engagement. moreover, these findings supported the empirical study of abukhalifeh and ahmad (2013), daraei and vahidi (2014) and koodamara (2017). hakanen and schaufeli (2012) also stated that training and career development were related to the technological and social development in work environments. this study also showed that employee engagement had a positive association with service delivery in the public sector (r = 0.55). it was revealed that employee engagement could act as a mediating variable for the relationship between the four antecedents and work outcomes such as improved service delivery through higher performance, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. according to swarnalatha and sureshkrishna (2013), the experience of employee engagement can be a fulfilling and positive work-related experience, which is positively related with work productivity. these positive experiences and emotions can result in service delivery. as indicated by takawira, coetzee and schreuder (2014), there is a connection between employee engagement and business results in both public and private organisations. like several other studies (schaufeli & bakker, 2004; tejaswi & raya, 2014), the results of the study suggest that employee engagement mediates the relationship between the four antecedent variables and service delivery. practical implications the findings of this study provide various managerial implications to the public sector human resources practices. the study also found that both effective leadership and training and career development were the most important determinants of employee engagement that would result in improved service delivery. thus, effective leadership and training and career development should be retained by the management in the public sector if they want higher levels of employee engagement. furthermore, to increase employee engagement, the government departments should boost employees’ self-esteem through providing training and development opportunities. moreover, job enrichment may cause employees to show high levels of engagement at work (agyemang & ofei, 2013; kazimoto, 2016). at the same time, the government departments can improve employee engagement by striving to build policies and procedures that foster trust and support. the study also highlighted the critical role of compensation and incentive programmes in determining employee engagement in the workplace. therefore, management should strive to develop compensation and incentive programmes that will act as incentives for employee retention and engagement. the results amplify the antedating role of employee engagement on improved service delivery in the workplace. notably, employee engagement is an important area for the public sector in zimbabwe to nurture creative behaviour in employees and hence increased service delivery. this may be because employees’ training programme makes them feel they are cared for. (townsend et al., 2013). management should involve and consult employees on matters of importance as this may make them feel their opinions and suggestions are listened to. limitations and recommendations it is important for the government departments to foster engagement through good staff management, providing well-structured appraisals and working in well-structured teams. it should be noted that these factors are linked to employee health, which is also important for engagement. other factors that can be considered include creation of positive work environment in which all employees feel valued, respected and supported. the results indicated that effective leadership was the most contributor factor to employee engagement. thus, it is very useful for the government departments that seek to increase employee engagement levels. it is also important for the government to spend more on programmes that develop employee skills and carry out suitable workshops and career development that enhance their skills and abilities. this study on the antecedents of employee engagement and their effect on public sector service delivery was largely limited to government departments in harare, zimbabwe. as such, the findings from the study may not be generalisable to a large proportion of public senior employees across zimbabwe as a whole. therefore, further studies may be required to include larger and more diverse sample of public sector employees in the country. conclusion the results from this study provide a vivid message about the profound importance of employee engagement in the public sector. the study showed that the antecedents of employee engagement greatly influenced employee engagement and had significant impact on the level of engagement among the employees in the public sector. indeed, the study revealed that employee engagement has many significant associations with antecedents such as effective leadership, training and career development, compensation and incentive programmes, and organisational policies and procedures. the study also concluded that employee engagement positively impacted service delivery in the public sector. the more engaged the employees are, the better the outcomes for service delivery generally. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the staff members from various government ministries for providing relevant information throughout this research. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the researchers have been working very closely during the course of this study. to make the research more productive and efficient, j.s. formulated the research problem and synthesised relevant literature review. he was also involved in the distribution and collection of questionnaires from targeted respondents. t.w., on the contrary, was instrumental in providing the research methodology section as well as the construction of research instrument. he also sought permission to conduct the study on government premises. both authors were involved in data collation, editing and analysis. the researchers also agreed on conclusions and recommendation. after completion of the research, t.w. was involved in proofreading of the article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availibility statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abraham, s. (2012). job satisfaction as an antecedent to employee engagement. sies journal of management, 8(2), 27–36. abukhalifeh, a., & ahmad, p. (2013). the antecedents affecting employee engagement and organizational performance. asian social science, 9(7), 11–17. https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v9n7p41 abukhalifeh, a.n., & som, a.p.m. (2013). the antecedents affecting employee engagement and organizational performance. asian social science, 9(7), 41–46. https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v9n7p41 agyemang, c.b., & ofei, s.b. (2013). employee work engagement and organizational commitment: a comparative study of private and public sector organizations in ghana. european journal of business and innovation research, 1(4), 20–33. bakar, r.a. (2013). understanding factors influencing employee engagement: a study of the financial sector in malaysia. published thesis. melbourne: rmit university. basbous, o.k. (2011). antecedents of employee engagement. published thesis. kuala lumpur: university of malaysia. baumruk, r., & gorman, b. (2016). why managers are crucial to increasing engagement. london: melcrum publishing. carasco-saul, m., kim, w., & kim, t. (2015). leadership and employee engagement: proposing research agendas through a review of literature. human resource development review, 14, 38–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484314560406 chandani, a., mehta, m., mall, a., & khokhar, v. (2016). employee engagement: a review paper on factors affecting employee engagement. indian journal of science and technology, 9(15), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.17485/ijst/2016/v9i15/92145 cole, b. (2014). the relationship between job demands, job resources, engagement, burnout and intention to quit. doctoral dissertation. stellenbosch: stellenbosch university. converso, d., loera, k.m., viotti, b., & martini, h.l. (2015). determinants of the burnout syndrome in public health: interpersonal and organizational factors. risorsauomo, 1(4), 27–48. crawford, e.r., rich, b.l., buckman, b., & bergeron, j. (2013). the antecedents and drivers of employee engagement. in c. truss, r. deldridge, k. afles, a. shantz & e. soane (eds.), employee engagement in theory and practice (pp. 57–81). london: routledge. daily news. (2017). govt jobs freeze saves $10m monthly. retrieved from https://www.newsday.co.zw/2017/06/govt-jobs-freeze-saves-10m-monthly/. daraei, m.r., & vahidi, t. (2014). designing a conceptual model for analysing the relation between strategic knowledge management and talent management strategy in profitability of the southern khorasan electric distribution company (skedc). global journal of management and business, 1(1), 14–20. draper, n.r., & smith, h. (2014). applied regression analysis. new york: john wiley & sons. field, j.m. (2005). observation: a complex research method. library trends, 55(1), 171–189. https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2006.0045 hansen, a., byrne, z., & kiersch, c. (2014). how interpersonal leadership relates to employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 29(8), 953–972. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmp-11-2012-0343 jankowicz, a.d. (2005). business research projects (4th edn.). london: cengage. jiang, h., & men, r.l. (2017). creating an engaged workforce. communication research, 4(2), 225–243. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650215613137 kazimoto, p. (2016). employee engagement and organizational performance of retails enterprises. american journal of industrial and business management, 6(4), 516–525. https://doi.org/10.4236/ajibm.2016.64047 keenoy, t. (2014). organising textscapes. organization studies, 25(1), 145–153. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840604038184 kelliher, c., hope-hailey, v., & farndale, e. (2013). employee engagement in multinational organisations. in c. truss, k. alfes, r. delbridge, a. shantz, & e. c. soane (eds.), employee engagement in theory and practice (pp. 692–724). london: routledge. kim, w., kolb, j.a., & kim, t. (2012). the relationship between work engagement and performance: a review of empirical literature and a proposed research agenda. human resource development review, 12(3), 248–276. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484312461635 koodamara, n.k. (2017). procedural justice, distributive justice and interactional justice as the antecedents of employee engagement. international journal of scientific research, 5(11), 3–30. kovjanic, s., schuh, s.c., & jonas, k. (2013). transformational leadership and performance: an experimental investigation of the mediating effects of basic needs satisfaction and work engagement. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 86(4), 543–555. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12022 krishnaveni, r., & monica, r. (2016). identifying the drivers for developing and sustaining engagement among employees. iup journal of organizational behavior, 15(3), 7–15. kwon, b., farndale, e., & park, j.g. (2016). employee voice and work engagement: macro, meso, and micro-level drivers of convergence? human resource management review, 26(4), 327–337. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2016.04.005 leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2013). practical research. planning and design (10th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson education. mangundjaya, w. (2012). are organizational commitment and employee engagement important in achieving individual readiness for change? humanitas, 9(2), 186–191. marie, a.a., ibrahim, m., & al naseer, a.d. (2014). effect of financial and non-financial performance measures on customers perceptions of service at islamic banks in uae. international journal of economics and finance, 6(10), 201–214. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijef.v6n10p201 metha, d., & metha, n. (2013). employee engagement: a literature review. economic seria management, 16(2), 208–215. meutia, tubagus, i., & ahmad, b. (2017). the role of feedback and feed forward control system to improve competitive advantage of smes in indonesia. european research studies journal, 20(2a), 496–506. nahrgang, j.d., morgeson, f.p., & hofmann, d.a. (2011). safety at work: a meta-analytic investigation of the link between job demands, job resources, burnout, engagement, and safety outcomes. journal of applied psychology, 96(1), 71–94. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021484 ncube, f., & jerie, s. (2012). leveraging employee engagement for competitive advantage in the hospitality industry. a comparative study of hotels a and b in zimbabwe. journal of emerging trends in economics and management sciences, 3(4), 380–388. newman, i., lim, j., & pineda, f. (2013). content validity using mixed methods approach: its application and development through the use of a table of specifications methodology. journal of mixed methods research, 7(3), 243–260. https://doi.org/10.1177/1558689813476922 ortiz, d.a., cernas, l., & qin, h. (2013). quantitative analysis of impacts of employee engagement on continuance and normative commitment. international journal of services and standards, 9(2), 186–191. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijss.2013.058227 parasuraman, a., zeithaml, v., & berry, l.l. (1991). refinement and reassessment of the servqual scale. journal of retailing, 67(4), 420–450. purcell, j. (2013). employee voice and engagement. in c. truss, k. alfes, r. delbridge, a. shantz, & e. c. soane (eds.), employee engagement in theory and practice (pp. 47–78). london: routledge. ramsay, c.s., & finney, m.i. (2006). employee engagement at intuit. mountain view, ca: intuit inc. rana, n., & chhabra, n.l. (2011). employee engagement: a primer for strategic human resource management. asian journal of research in business economics and management, 6(2), 24–28. rana, s., ardichvili, a., & tkachenko, o. (2014). a theoretical model of the antecedents and outcomes of employee engagement. journal of workplace learning, 26(3/4), 249–266. https://doi.org/10.1108/jwl-09-2013-0063 robbins, s., judge, t.a., millett, b., & boyle, m. (2013). organisational behaviour. melbourne, vi: pearson higher education. root, d., fellows, r., & hancock, m. (2013). quantitative versus qualitative? journal of construction procurement, 3(6), 34–44. saks, a. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169 scandura, t.a., & williams, e.a. (2013). research methodology in management: current practices, trends, and implications for future research. academy of management journal, 43(6), 1248–1264. https://doi.org/10.2307/1556348 schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organizational behaviour, 25(4), 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.248 siddiqi, m. (2015). work engagement and job crafting of service employee influencing customer outcomes. the journal for decision makers, 40(3), 277–292. https://doi.org/10.1177/0256090915598584 song, j.h., kolb, j.a., lee, u.h., & kim, h.k. (2012). role of transformational leadership in effective organizational knowledge creation practices: mediating effects of employees’ work engagement. human resource development quarterly, 23, 65–101. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21120 strom, d.l., sears, k.l., & kelly, k.m. (2014). work engagement: the roles of organizational justice and leadership style in predicting engagement among employees. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 21(1), 71–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051813485437 swarnalatha, c., & sureshkrishna, g. (2013). role of employee engagement in building job satisfaction among employees of automotive industries in india. international journal of human resource management & research, 3(1), 1–6. takawira, n., coetzee, m., & schreuder, d. (2014). job embeddedness, work engagement and ti of staff in a higher education institution: an exploratory study. south african journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.524 tejaswi, b., & raya, r.p. (2014). employee engagement: key to organizational success. scms journal of indian management, 11(4), 61–71. townsend, k., wilkinson, a., & burgess, j. (2013). routes to partial success: collaborative employment relations and employee engagement. the international journal of human resource management, 24(4), 1–7. truss, c., alfes, k., delbridge, r., shantz, a., & soane, e.c. (2013). introduction. in c. truss, k. alfes, r. delbridge, a. shantz, & e. c. soane (eds.), employee engagement in theory and practice (pp. 180–200). london: routledge. wallace, l., & trinka, j. (2009). leadership and employee engagement. public management, 91(5), 10–13. yin, r.k. (2014). case study research design and methods (5th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. youssef-morgan, c.m., & bockorny, k.m. (2013). engagement in the context of positive psychology. in c. truss, k. alfes, r. delbridge, a. shantz, & e. c. soane (eds.), employee engagement in theory and practice (pp. 66–82). london: routledge. zikmund, w.g. (2012). business research methods. london: cengage learning. zimstats. (2017). facts and figures. harare: population census office. abstract introduction literature review research design results infrastructural challenges human resources challenges lack of equipment and supplies support risk and reward emotions discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) avhapfani musie school of health systems and public health, faculty of health sciences, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa jacqueline e. wolvaardt school of health systems and public health, faculty of health sciences, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation musie, a., & wolvaardt, j.e. (2021). risk and reward: experiences of healthcare professionals caring for drug-resistant tuberculosis patients. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1191. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1191 original research risk and reward: experiences of healthcare professionals caring for drug-resistant tuberculosis patients avhapfani musie, jacqueline e. wolvaardt received: 26 mar. 2019; accepted: 27 oct. 2020; published: 22 jan. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (mdr-tb) continues to be a global public health challenge. healthcare professionals caring for mdr-tb patients face the occupational risk of being infected. research purpose: to describe the experiences of healthcare professionals caring for mdr-tb patients at one tb hospital. motivation for this study: managers of healthcare settings, which posed a specific occupational risk, struggle with recruitment, retention and a high turnover. what is not known is what can be performed in these settings to mitigate these human resource challenges. research approach/design and method: this study used a qualitative research design. a fieldworker collected data via in-depth individual interviews from 20 participants. a purposive sampling technique was used. main findings: six themes emerged: infrastructure challenges, human resource challenges, lack of equipment and supplies, support, risk and reward and emotions. this environment led to additional risk-taking with regard to working outside the scope of practice and feelings of burnout. participants valued the opportunity to develop relationships with patients in their journey of recovery in an atmosphere that was not characterised by urgency. practical and managerial implications: this study offered managers some insight on how to create a rewarding working environment and atmosphere that were favourable to deliver quality patient care services to mdr-tb patients. participants provided insight into the previously unknown risks in the workplace, which can be ameliorated. contribution/value-add: this study identified the key interventions – some of which can receive immediate attention – to ensure recruitment and retention of this specialised workforce. keywords: qualitative; healthcare professionals; tuberculosis; retention; human resource management. introduction the health of a population is dependent, amongst other factors, on the ability of health systems to provide the required promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative services. health systems, in turn, require a health workforce (both healthcare professionals and non-professional healthcare workers) to be able to provide these services (world health organization [who], 2016). the centrality of the health workforce is reflected in the overwhelming proportion (65% – 70%) of healthcare expenditure – excluding the cost of training – that is spent on human resources in most countries (south african national department of health, 2011). but the provision of adequate healthcare depends on more than the availability of a health workforce. only when this workforce is equitably distributed, accessible, competent, empowered, motivated and supported by the health system can they deliver quality care and an effective service that is appropriate and acceptable to the sociocultural expectations of the population (who, 2016). the health workforce also plays a role in contributing to the resilience of health systems to be able to respond to hazards (natural, man-made, biological, technical or environmental (who, 2016) as evidenced by the covid-19 pandemic. in 2015, the united nations (2015) developed 17 interlinked global goals called the sustainable development goals (sdgs). the health priorities enshrined in sdg 3 or good health and well-being are ending aids, tuberculosis and malaria; achieving drastic reductions in maternal mortality; expanding access to essential surgical services; ending preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years; reducing premature mortality from non-communicable diseases; promoting mental health; addressing chronic diseases and guaranteeing universal health coverage (use of promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative health services of sufficient quality to be effective, without financial hardship). these health goals cannot be achieved without strategies to ensure a capable health workforce (who, 2016). policymakers and planners are guided in this by the human resources for health (hrh) action framework developed by the world health organization. this framework contains six action fields (policy, finance, education, partnership, leadership and hr management systems) and four phases of the action cycle (situational analysis, planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation) and is a comprehensive framework to help countries develop a national human resource development plan (figure 1). figure 1: human resources for health action framework. there is a global shortage of healthcare professionals, which is exacerbated by the difficulties in employing them in rural, remote and underserved areas (both geographical and in less-than desirable sectors and settings) (who, 2016). in 2013, the global shortage of healthcare professionals was approximately 17.4 million, of which almost 2.6 million were doctors and over 9 million were nurses and midwives. africa has the largest shortage in relative terms (i.e. taking the population size into account) (who, 2016). south africa (sa) is not excluded from this shortage, and the health system, with a public and a private sector, creates additional strain because of the internal competition for the scare human resources. south africa has considerably less doctors, pharmacists and oral health practitioners per 10 000 population than comparable countries (south african national department of health, 2011). south africa, in general, and the public sector, in particular, are affected by attrition (estimated at 25% per year) from the professions and migration to other countries (south african national department of health, 2011). the distribution of the health workforce in sa is also characterised by maldistribution between the public and private sectors; between provinces and between urban and rural settings (south african national department of health, 2011). despite growth in the number of healthcare professions, this growth is not sufficient to meet the clinical and healthcare needs of the growing population (south african national department of health, 2011). sdg 3 highlights the goal of ending tuberculosis globally. this goal includes the ending of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (mdr-tb) that continues to be a global public health challenge. healthcare professionals caring for mdr-tb patients face the possibility of being infected whilst executing their duties, and in a healthcare system with both external and internal competition for scarce human resources, retention of staff in these settings is a critical success factor in the implementation phase of the who’s hrh action framework (figure 1). literature review this research focuses on the experiences of healthcare professionals who care for mdr-tbpatients in sa. the literature acknowledges that the experiences of mdr-tb patients have been extensively researched; research on experiences of healthcare professionals who care for mdr-tb patients remain scant in sa notwithstanding the high number of tb cases and the occupational risks associated with working with these patients (lange et al., 2014; skrahina et al., 2013). there have been high numbers of patients diagnosed with mdr-tb in sa in recent years. such patients are hospitalised for the first 2 months of the treatment (intensive phase) under the direct care of healthcare professionals. new regimens have been introduced to treat this form of tb. these regimens have reduced the period of treatment from 24 to 9 months (cox et al., 2015). the reason for the high numbers of patients diagnosed with mdr-tb is twofold. firstly, there is an increase in numbers of healthcare professionals who can test. secondly, cutting-edge diagnostic equipment such as the xpert mtb/rif machine is now available in tb hospitals in sa (de vries, sebek, & lambregts-van weezenbeek, 2006). south africa ranks amongst the countries with the highest numbers of mdr-tb cases (farley et al., 2012), and mpumalanga province has the third-highest number of cases in sa (who, 2016). previous studies tend to have focused on experiences of healthcare professionals who care for hiv patients. however, few studies explored the experiences of healthcare professionals providing care to mdr-tb patients (philip, chadee, & yearwood, 2014). human iimmunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (hiv/aids) studies report experiences such as anxiety and exhaustion, lack of support and limited resources (ramathuba & davhana-maselesele, 2015). recruitment and retention of health professionals in such facilities is a problem (khamisa, oldenburg, peltzer, & ilic, 2015; kroezen et al., 2015; laschinger, leiter, day, & gilin, 2009). in a study exploring experiences of health professionals in a tb healthcare setting, tudor, mphahlele, van der walt and farley (2013) reported that the greatest concern was fear of becoming infected with mdr-tb and having to take the treatment course for as long as 24 months. in view of this potential occupational hazard, compensation in the form of salary was a common concern and healthcare professionals likened their work to one that needed a danger allowance. the potential occupational exposure to a contagious disease is an added deterrent to recruiting and retaining healthcare professionals in public sector settings, which, in sa, are already under pressure. working conditions are known to be a major contributor to the high turnover of health professionals in general (ellett, ellis, westbrook, & dews, 2007; lewis, 2015; mrayyan, 2006). poor infrastructure, shortage of equipment and staff are classic factors that contribute to poor working conditions such as high workload, which in turn leads to stress and burnout of staff (khamisa et al., 2015). studies on the turnover of health professionals found that poor rewards, lack of autonomy, poor working conditions, lack of job satisfaction, autocratic management styles and few opportunities for promotion contribute to the poor retention of health professions (mrayyan, 2006). when occupational exposure to a contagious disease is added, then the recruitment and retention of healthcare professionals become acute. the associated cost of a high staff turnover is magnified by the specialist nature of the clinical skills and knowledge that is developed whilst in service as healthcare professionals such as nurses need to be trained in the management of mdr-tb such as managing side effects (shrestha, bhattarai, thapa, basel, & wagle, 2017). this study was conducted with the aim of describing the experiences of healthcare professionals caring for mdr-tb patients at one tb hospital that is also the provincial referral mdr-tb unit. research design methodology a qualitative research design used an exploratory approach to explore and describe the experiences of healthcare professionals regarding their practice in caring for mdr-tb patients. researchers use qualitative research to observe and describe events in a natural research setting, in order to be able to represent the participants’ experiences (denzin & lincoln, 2003). this study was conducted at one tb hospital, in sa. at the time of the study, there were 114 staff members of whom 21 were healthcare professionals who cared for 55 tb patients at the study site. this hospital is one of 32 tb hospitals in sa and is the province’s referral mdr-tb unit. the study population was all healthcare professionals (professional nurses (pns), allied health professionals and medical officers) working at the tb hospital. allied health professionals included the following: audiology, dieticians, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, social workers and pharmacists. the total population of healthcare professionals was 13 pns, six allied health professionals and two medical officers. participants had to be permanently employed as a healthcare professional at the tb hospital and willing to participate in the study. a purposive sampling method was used to identify the hospital and participants. a non-probability purposive sampling method was used as the research interest was the shared set of characteristics common to those who work in this type of work environment. all 21 healthcare professionals were invited to participate in the study. the first author (am) had prior knowledge of the phenomenon under study (he is a manager at the tb hospital) and as a result, a trained fieldworker was recruited to conduct the interviews. data collection and recording an in-depth individual interview was used to collect data by using a structured interview guide. the participants were invited via e-mail to participate. the invitations included a summary of the purpose of the research as well as the date, time and venue of the interview. interviews were carried out over a period of 10 working days so that those who were either on night duty or off duty could participate. the interview guide had five demographic questions and nine open-ended questions with prompts: why did you choose to work in this hospital? what do you enjoy most about working in this hospital? what do you enjoy least about working in this hospital? do you see yourself working here in 5 years’ time? [probe for reasons for both ‘yes’ and ‘no’ answers] if there is something that the hospital could change to keep you working here, what would it be? [probe: ask for specifics, e.g. improve the employee assistance programme, by doing……; provide more training opportunities around the following topics…….etc.] what do you think are some of the factors that could result in your fellow employees leaving witbank hospital? would you suggest working at this hospital to a friend or colleague of yours? [probe for reasons for both ‘yes’ and ‘no’ answers] what support do you need as an employee of this hospital to improve the services to the patients? is there anything else that you would like to share that you think we should know? the questions in the interview guide were developed by the authors based on personal experience and the phenomenon of interest. interviews were conducted in english in the boardroom of the hospital during working hours and each interview lasted between 45 and 50 min. data collection was continued until saturation was reached. the interviews were audio-recorded and field notes were kept by the interviewer. the first author had no access to the audiotapes and only received the written transcripts after they were professionally transcribed, checked for accuracy by the fieldworker and anonymised. data analysis data were analysed manually by the first author by using an interpretative phenomenological analysis framework. open coding and development of the subthemes were performed after repeated reading of the transcripts. connections across the emerging themes were explored. similar subthemes were grouped into super-ordinate themes. both authors reached consensus on the subthemes and the themes. both authors had attended a module on qualitative data analysis and the second author has several years’ additional experience. strategies employed to ensure data quality and integrity this study applied trustworthiness as the degree of confidence used by qualitative researchers. to improve the trustworthiness of this study, the researcher utilised the four measures: credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability to ensure the quality of the data (lietz, langer, & furman, 2016; sinkovics, penz, & ghaur, 2009). credibility was ensured by giving full description of participants and the study setting. proper capturing of participants’ views was ensured by recording the interviews and the professional transcription. member checking was performed by a fieldworker, and participants confirmed the authenticity of the data and could correct inaccuracies (sinkovics et al., 2009). transferability is the process in which the results of the study can be applied in other settings or to other groups (sinkovics et al., 2009). the researchers ensured all theoretical parameters such as study design, setting, participants, data collection and analysis, which are reported and followed. dependability is when study findings are consistent and repeatable (lietz et al., 2016). to ensure dependability, the researchers conducted a pilot study to confirm whether the questions were understood as intended. confirmability is the confidence that the results are the views of participants and not the biases of the researcher. this was ensured by maintaining an audit trail (graneheim & lundman, 2004). ethical consideration this study was approved by the ethics committee of the university (number: 490/2018) as well as the relevant provincial department of health ethics committee. on the day of the interview, the fieldworker explained the purpose and nature of this study before asking participants to take part in this study. each participant received a participant information letter that outlined the research. participation was voluntary and participants had the right not to participate or to withdraw at any time. separate permission was sought for the interview and the audio-recording of the interview. transcripts were anonymised in order to protect the identity of the participants and the first author did not have access to the audio files. results table 1 describes the demographics of the 20 healthcare professionals who agreed to participate in this study. table 1: demographic profile of the participants. six themes emerged from the study: infrastructural challenges, human resources challenges, lack of equipment and supplies, support, risk and reward and emotions (table 2). table 2: themes and subthemes. infrastructural challenges the infrastructure of a health facility influences the attitude of the healthcare professionals’ ease of service delivery and may lessen the workload amongst participants (who, 2010). the four subthemes that formed this theme are as follows: asbestos roof, no privacy, no isolation ward and night duty challenges. asbestos roof the hospital is old and the roofs of all the wards are made of asbestos, which is a well-known health hazard. participants were concerned about the asbestos roof and the moral dilemma of providing care in a potentially hazardous environment: ‘we are not making tb a priority … i’m becoming emotional when i talk about this because when you look at the infrastructure we are working under, it is like we don’t worry about the people that we are nursing … look at them (patients) sitting outside asbestos roof which exposes them to asbestosis … they already have weak lungs but we are exposing them to asbestos ….’ (hcpn10) no isolation ward the hospital does not have isolation wards, which is the cornerstone of infection control in a hospital of this nature. nosocomial infection is a challenge when patients, who are still infectious, cannot be isolated: ‘we don’t have isolation wards, we don’t have a proper children’s ward so if i was still going to work i would like to have those things.’ (hcpn12) no privacy the lack of privacy was identified as a challenge in this hospital: ‘to us as health workers there are some procedures that you want to do in private but you find that you don’t have a private area. a room has many beds. a patient feels very much uncomfortable if there is no privacy. for instance, if a patient dies, the corpse is exposed to other patients for some time which is traumatic.’ (hcpn2) night duty challenges the infrastructure was described as a deplorable. at night, pns move from one ward to another on a two-hourly basis to check on patients. the nature of the ward is such that they cannot stay for the whole night in the ward. during the day, patients sit outside: ‘it is during the night that infection is extremely high. and you mustn’t stay with the patients inside because the infection is high.’ (hcpn1) human resources challenges healthcare professionals play a vital role in the provision of quality healthcare and related services. the three subthemes that formed this theme are as follows: shortage of staff, lack of supervision and lack of career pathing. shortage of staff participants complained about the shortage of staff in almost all the medical and allied sections in the hospital. professional nurses stated that the pressure is felt mostly during night duty because of the infrastructure: ‘because you can find that a sister, a pn is working two wards – the mdr department and xdr sections being a professional nurse and three assistant nurses.’ (hcpn1) this study found that shortage of doctors in the hospital has an impact on the nurses. professional nurses find themselves carrying out tasks beyond their own scope of practice and experience burnout as a result: ‘ok … there is shortage of staff. for instance, we have only two doctors in the hospital and lots of patients … if they can add few doctors because there are some procedures that are done by the doctor.’ (hcpn1) lack of supervision allied health professionals felt that they do not have an appropriate supervisor as they are currently supervised by a medical doctor who has no knowledge of their profession: ‘i’m the only permanent staff member (in my section), but i don’t [have] direct supervision.’ (hcpa1) participants feel that it is necessary to: ‘… improve supervision because there is no direct supervision.’ (hcpa5) related to the latter, one participant added that because there are not enough pns, assistant nurses sometimes step to execute tasks beyond their scope of practice without supervision. lack of career pathing the lack of career pathing was a factor in participants’ intentions to remain at the hospital: ‘… growing and progressing in terms of career pathing, is very slow. i don’t see myself working here for another five years.’ (hcpa5) lack of equipment and supplies healthcare professionals require medical equipment in order to provide quality services to the patients. two subthemes formed in this theme: shortage of equipment and supply of arv drugs. shortage of equipment participants were concerned about the shortage of technological resources that diagnose and provide treatment to patients: ‘there are not resources, for instance, for assistance to a pregnant (woman) infected mdr/xdr. there are incubators for a baby. we don’t have a maternity bed and we don’t have proper lighting to suture in case of an episiotomy.’ (hcpn14) the absence of laptops was also raised as a barrier to deliver quality services. supply of arv drugs this study found that accessing arvs from the government depots is a source of frustration for participants: ‘ok, what i enjoy least … it is a bit frustrating that you don’t have access to arvs.’ (hcpm1) support healthcare professionals need support from supervisors and management. participants expressed concern over the lack of supervision as a supportive process and the lack of support from management. two subthemes formed this theme: lack of professional support and lack of training. lack of professional support participants were concerned about the support that they receive from management. there was a feeling that nobody listens to them when they complain about the shortage of staff or material resources like equipment: ‘uhm … everyone is complaining about being understaffed … like everyone. and then it is a high risk place and we do not get risk allowance. and people complain about the lack of support like from our superiors (stops mid thought).’ (hcpa1) the reality of being in a single-person department or section resulted in a sense of being ignored by management and these participants did not feel that management understood their needs: ‘… we are one in a section so when, you feel that maybe the management they have a meeting and you have a complaint, they know about you … some people will take your complaint and dismiss it because they don’t know about your profession.’ (hcpa2) participants were working alone in most cases because of the shortage of staff, irrespective of the number of patients. whenever they come to work, in particular, on night duty, they just pray nothing happens. participants felt that if there was an incident, management would just want an explanation on what happened and ignore the reality of only having skeleton staff available to do the work. ‘if there is an incident my head will be on the block. who must support me? when i come and say assist me in this i don’t get assistance, they give you … as a professional nurse you would want someone to have your back but if you don’t have anyone to fall back on you always work on prayer (god help me, let there be no incident). and that is not nice. making mistakes is a learning moment but you don’t want that here because nobody will support you.’ (hcpn10) this study revealed that some support is not the only local support from the hospital management as the discussion regarding the absence of support extended beyond the hospital to the district and provincial level. most of the issues that are related to infrastructure and information technology are not within the domain of the hospital manager. participants raised concerns that neither the district nor the province provides support. the participants were well aware that the budget is allocated by the province, which makes it difficult for the hospital management to provide support to healthcare professionals: ‘… not getting (more especially) enough support, iya. from the management, i can say also from the province.’ (hcpn2) this lack of support is mostly in terms of budget, which makes the appointment of certain categories of health professionals challenging because of budgetary constraints. respondents noted that most of the wards operate without operational managers, which they regarded as a challenge to provide quality health services. lack of training some participants had never received formal training related to mdr-tb and they learned on the job: ‘like i don’t remember going to … the only training i have attended are in-house, i don’t remember going to a tb training or whatever. everything that you know you learn as you are working, like we didn’t get like formal proper training on tb.’ (hcpa1) on the other hand, some had received formal training and had carried out advanced training to initiate treatment in the absence of the medical officer: ‘i like the way uhm … about trainings, we, the support us just to give us a chance for trainings, because now i’m doing this (what you call) nimdr. i can initiate when the doctor is not around, because i am trained.’ (hcpn1) risk and reward remuneration is regarded as one cause of staff retention (castle & engberg, 2006; dovlo, 2007; lephalala, ehlers, & oosthuizen, 2008). hayes et al. (2012) stated that the absence of an attractive salary leads to staff turnover in most professional groups. in this study, participants considered the remuneration low when compared to the nature of the work. two subthemes formed this theme: poor remuneration and lack of incentives and lack of risk allowance. poor remuneration and lack of incentives participants described their remuneration as poor, considering the specialised nature of their work. the occupational risk of exposure to tb was an additional argument for why their remuneration should be differentiated from those working in general clinical environments: ‘… of course remuneration especially for, for, for the nurses to be improved. and then uhhh … also things like specialised tb hospital … and also their salaries specialised for the staff. because i mean, risk … what do you … risk allowance? something like that is very necessary for tb hospitals. not to be specialised and you end up being specialised on paper … no. you must also be specialised in terms of the, the, the benefits thereof. and this one is not your general remuneration; it is at least some acknowledgement that the environment in which you are working in is obviously risky, i mean who has to wear a mask every day because they are exposed to mdr? it’s only the tb hospital.’ (hcpm1) the participants said that it is difficult to receive an incentive bonus despite the fact that they work in different specialties and work alone: ‘like it’s very difficult here to get something like incentive bonuses and stuff because there is always budget, they say there is no budget and stuff. and when you look at other places there are five in a section and they are always telling you they got … and then you are thinking … i have to work in all of the areas of the section and i’ve never since i started working i’ve never got incentive bonus.’ (hcpa1) lack of risk allowance participants reported that they do not obtain a risk allowance; yet, the environment that they find themselves on a daily basis is very risky. the lack of risk allowance was thought to be a major contributor to the staff turnover: ‘uhm … everyone is complaining about being understaffed … like everyone. and then it is a high risk place and we do not get risk allowance. and people complain about the lack of support like from our superiors and stuff … like … [stops mid thought].’ (hcpa1) the staff who stay close to the hospital are happy but still felt that they would change jobs because of the lack of a risk allowance more than the risk of contracting tb. participants mentioned that the money would comfort them because even in the event of their death, the money will remain to help the family: ‘i think it is the challenge if it is not external stuff like maybe your family is not from here. if someone is from around here why would they leave here? maybe they just want something different. maybe they are tired of tb. maybe for the pay, there is no [risk] allowance, maybe they will leave for that.’ (hcpa4) emotions employees experience emotions, either positive or negative, in the workplace. positive emotions in the workplace assist employees achieve better outcomes, whereas bad emotions, such as anxiety, irritation, stress, unfriendliness and unhappiness, may decrease performance that may lead to poor outcomes (bono et al., 2007). six subthemes formed this theme: burnout, fear of contracting mdr-tb, rapport with the patients, progress in the patients’ recovery, no rush, non-emergency cases and working in a single-person section. negative emotions in this theme, the negative subthemes that emerged were burnout and fear of contracting tb. the subtheme of working in a single-person section had both negative and positive emotions. negative emotions in this study emerged in connection with topics such as work overload and inadequate working conditions. burnout participants, especially those from the nursing team, reported feeling exhausted by the high number of patients and the disease itself. reasons for the feelings of burnout were linked to staff shortage: ‘because staff shortage makes people to get tired and they get burnout and get sick and all of that stems from short staffing.’ (hcpn3) the feelings of burnout were linked in the minds of the participants to personal risk and staff turnover: ‘the things that lead to people leaving are workload and litigation … it can affect you and your family. but nothing is taken seriously; people would go [leave] to protect themselves from such.’ (hcpn7) anxiety of contracting tuberculosis participants were afraid that they face being infected with mdr-tb. they mentioned that to work in this kind of environment is a personal sacrifice and that of their family: ‘uhmm, it’s shortage of staff and i would also think they might be afraid of contracting, being in this environment they fear they end up contracting tb.’ (hcpn6) this participant indicated that the occupational risk of contracting tb was linked in the participants’ minds to the reason for the staff shortage as: ‘i would also think they might be afraid of contracting, being in this environment they fear they end up contracting tb.’ (hcpn6) the occupational risk resulted in a heightened sensitivity to their own health: ‘it’s a very risky place as in when you get sick, once you start coughing or whatever there is that thing … oh my gosh … i hope it is not tb. ok, but i guess everywhere you can have that thing, but the fact that we work with people with tb, like once you feel something … a little pain on the chest or whatever or cough, you think oh there goes tb!.’ (hcpa1) positive emotions participants had positive emotions about working in the tb hospital, with four subthemes: rapport with the patients, progress in the patients’ recovery, no rush, non-emergency cases and single-person section. rapport with the patients participants described rewarding relationships with patients because they are able to spend enough time with them. patients were likened to family members and so could share their problems. this aspect of work was considered to be a positive aspect of working in this type of hospital: ‘uhm … what i enjoy most is that is not that much hectic, you see. and then you’ve got that close communication with the patient, unlike other hospitals you see.’ (hcpn2) progress in the patients’ recovery the long-term interaction with the patients formed the basis for personal investment and interest in the patients’ recovery. the relationship that was formed whilst patients were hospitalised extended beyond discharge. participants were happy that they could see the patients’ progress: ‘patients don’t come and then they are gone. they are here we give the full treatment and then they go back home, they get to come back and we see they are making progress during the reviews … we get more time with patients, we’ve got the best relationship, we know if they are progressing or not. it’s just better.’ (hcpa4) participants were positive about the new regimen of drugs that they felt were very effective in treating mdr-tb patients: ‘i have experience before we started with this bedaquiline. most of the time the patients were having a higher percentage of death … after we initiate bedaquiline … the patients they convert earlier because you can find that the patient is admitted today but the following month he is negative, negative, negative, negative until the end of the treatment … i like this one because the death rate is down … because when we send the patient home complete negative, they are not infectious… even to us, we benefit. the chances of us getting (infected) is less.’ (hcpn1) no rush, non-emergency cases the predictability of the working environment was considered to be a positive factor. participants were happy in the tb hospital because they are not working with patients who require running around like in casualty section: ‘because we are not working so hard like in general hospital. every time you find that they rush. we just work so nicely because we are working with ambulatory patients. it’s not an emergency.’ (hcpn1) single-person section participants mentioned that some of the units only have one person, which was viewed both positively and negatively. most of the allied health sections, for example, audiology, dietetics, occupational therapy and physiotherapy, only have one person working in the section. participants reported enjoying working alone because they are able to plan and execute without interference. however, the negative consequence was that they are supervised by somebody outside their profession: ‘it’s just that it gives me that freedom to do … to, to give myself my own work. like today i can decide that ok, i’m going to do 1,2,3 … then when i’m done ok, then i’ll see that for tomorrow. that is at least some freedom, if i have to take leave i don’t have to consider the next colleague.’ (hcpa2) discussion outline of the results the aim of this study was to describe the experiences of healthcare professionals caring for mdr-tb patients at one tb hospital in sa. the preceding section presented six themes that constitute the experiences of these healthcare professionals: infrastructural challenges, human resource challenges, lack of equipment, lack of support, risk and reward and emotions. each theme had subthemes that were also presented. a number of researchers contend that the work environment affects health professionals’ morale in positive and negative ways. previous studies specifically found a correlation between the work environment and productivity and performance (awan & tahir, 2015; lerner & henke, 2008; singh, syal, grady, & korkmaz, 2010). the performance of employees is largely determined by the environment in which they operate. in this study, the infrastructure is not conducive to a positive work environment – rather, it is an old building with an asbestos roof. related to the environment are inadequate facilities and problems to access arvs. the inadequacy of facilities and the consequences were the leitmotiv in this study. there are factors in this hospital that exacerbate the fear of contracting tb. the infrastructure plays a central role in this, and night staff are particularly affected. the fear of contracting tb is well founded as sa has the second largest proportion (21%) of the global amount of 10 000 tb infections amongst the healthcare professionals per annum (who, 2015). the high prevalence of hiv, the poor circulation of air in health facilities and contact with tb patients all contribute to the risk (who, 2015). in this study, the occupational exposure to infectious and untreated patients on a regular basis is a known risk. the age group of the participants is the range of 25–44 years, which is the age group most characterised by a high hiv prevalence. employees working night shifts have been found to have low morale than day shift workers. participants of this study work in an environment where the building is old and does not allow for optimum productivity at night. night duty participants felt particularly affected by the roof of the hospital and the poor ventilation and consequently limited the time they spent in a ward. the open wards with limited privacy were also considered problematic. these findings relate well to what other previous researchers found as a lack of privacy because of infrastructural designs and crowding in wards not only adversely impacts on healthcare professionals but also can be traumatic to patients as well (tabak & ozon, 2004). patients prefer to be treated in private rooms rather than in open wards (awan & tahir, 2015). environments that are not conducive and safe for healthcare professionals may lead to a high turnover of staff and unnecessary occupational risk (singh et al., 2010). this finding is of particular concern as this hospital was viewed as a risky place where they could contract tb. productivity and performance of healthcare professionals are negatively influenced by workplace settings and may affect motivation and job satisfaction (stanz & greyling, 2010). our study confirmed what is raised by stanz and greyling (2010), in that some participants reported feeling burnt out as a result of the environment. this study found that participants do not feel safe because mdr-tb is infectious and this contributes to dissatisfaction. this finding explains why institutions such as this tb hospital continue to face staff shortages. stanz and greyling (2010) reported that healthcare staff leave such unfriendly working environments. the shortage of healthcare professionals and particularly amongst nurses led to concerns about workload. in a study by shihundla, lebese and maputle (2016), health professionals experienced numerous challenges as a result of increased nurses’ workload, amongst others. the findings of this study relate well to the literature in this regard. healthcare professionals in the public sector in sa experience heavy workloads and work long hours and the government has inadequate reward systems that force them to move when combined with risky occupational settings. the persistent shortage of staff in a hospital of this nature was raised as a concern by participants who thought that those still working there are at the risk of low morale and burnout. the findings of this study are confirmed by a study by khamisa et al. (2015), which indicated that staff issues are related with burnout as well as job satisfaction. this study found that healthcare professionals are sometimes forced to work without supervision. working in a tb hospital requires specialist expertise and those who are not experienced require supervision. a study conducted regarding clinical supervision indicated that supervision of junior staff has positive benefits for professional growth of nurses and their clinical practice (snowdon, leggat, & taylor, 2017). it is a risk for junior staff members to be left without supervision as high mortality has been reported because of lack of supervision or negligence (mckenna, hasson, & keeney, 2004; snowdon et al., 2017). the lack of operational managers in the wards and an allied staff manager was viewed as problematic. health facilities without managers pose a risk to patients and result in issues of accountability (ghiasipour, mosadeghrad, arab, & jaafaripooyan, 2017). lack of career progression remains a challenge in the public sector, and given that the participants work at a specialist tb hospital, this results in few opportunities for career progression. limited promotion opportunities, together with the risk of contracting tb and suffering burnout, were presented as primary drivers of healthcare professionals leaving their jobs. a number of studies (jenkins et al., 2014; okoh, 2009) acknowledge that one of the experiences of healthcare professionals and the public service as a whole is working in a sector that is characterised by less chances for growth. the findings of this study relate well to such previous studies. a number of studies concur that lack of support, a poor working environment and lack of adequate equipment and supplies can, to some extent at least, be moderated by the support given to the staff. however, this study showed that the support to the employees was viewed as sub-optimal. this study shows a pattern of a lack of supervision, work outside the scope of practice and supervision of allied health professionals by those who are not from their field. this pattern is within a larger context of perceived lack of support from management, local authorities and the provincial government. professional support benefits health facilities by retaining healthcare professionals and enabling recruitment (hargreaves et al., 2011; pietersen et al., 2014; zumla et al., 2012). support at all levels of management leads to a competent workforce, equipped to meet current and future challenges (sarre et al., 2018; teasdale, brocklehurst, & thom, 2001). what exacerbates the lack of support is the finding that there appears to be insufficient training at the hospital. participants indicated that some of the aspects of their jobs are learnt on the job without formal tb training. this finding is a particular concern as it is important that healthcare professionals should stay abreast of new information (garzonis, 2015). the field of tb treatment is evolving significantly and healthcare professionals must be up to date in this specialised work environment. training is a significant part of keeping current and for the improvement of quality services (wang, wan, lin, zhou, & shang, 2018). similar to other studies, participants viewed the remuneration and lack of incentives such as a risk allowance negatively. compensation, such as remuneration and/or financial incentives, is known as a causal factor for staff retention (castle & engberg, 2006; dovlo, 2007; lephalala et al., 2008). studies have shown that the absence of good pay leads to high staff turnover (haines et al., 2010; yun et al., 2010). the participants’ perception that their remuneration is not enough compensation is a source of concern. this concern is magnified by the knowledge that healthcare professionals are reluctant to work in tb hospitals because of the fear of infection, a fear that was confirmed in this study. the participants stated that they do not gain a performance bonus despite their hard work. the system of performance management itself excludes most of the healthcare professionals. incentives for better performance in healthcare are intended to inspire and encourage healthcare professionals to perform well and achieve better outcomes. this study concurs with the finding that there is a poor level of incentives offered to healthcare professionals. findings suggested that healthcare professionals are often excluded by the system and therefore take no interest to participate (abduljawad & al-assaf, 2011). burnout was a common thread in this study and was partially attributed to the perceived lack of managerial support and the work environment. whilst the work environment, such as the infrastructure and disease profile of the patients, is not easy to modify, managerial support is. the perception of a blame culture and a lack of support is a source of concern. management practices by hospital managers who promote job control and provide adequate resources have been indicated as important in reducing burnout (portoghese, galletta, coppola, finco, & campagna, 2014). in this study, respondents reported working long hours with heavy workloads. this scenario, together with a less-than-ideal work environment, can lead to burnout. some solutions are described by papathanasiou et al. (2014) who reported that leadership, motivation, empowerment and confidence are four essential aspects that may work as protection against burnout and supporting the mental health status of the healthcare professionals. the negative aspects of working in this environment were balanced by the opportunity to spend a protracted period of time with patients and to witness their recovery. these benefits meet the needs of the healthcare professionals who delight in caring for those that are vulnerable and needing help (bordignon, ferraz, beck, amestoy, & de lima trindade, 2015). on the one hand, participants were happy to be autonomous but, on the other hand, felt the absence of a line manager. this study concurred with a study that showed that there is an inverse positive association between healthcare professionals’ independence and moral distress (ann seago, 2006). based on the findings, it is recommended that tb hospital managers develop a non-monetary reward/recognition system to reflect their appreciation of a scarce resource who have other employment options. in addition, implementing a system for regular training will not only improve clinical competence and assure quality of care but would have the added benefit of developing a specialised workforce. finally, hospital managers should prioritise the procurement of necessary equipment and the implementation of an employee wellness programme. an employee wellness programme not only has the benefit of preventing burnout, on the one hand, but also acknowledges the lived experience of employees, on the other hand. it is also recommended that the provincial department of health prioritises the replacement of the roof. limitations and recommendations this study focused on one tb hospital; therefore, the findings cannot be generalised. participants in this study were aware that one of the managers would analyse the transcripts and could have been reluctant to share all personal and sensitive information. triangulation of data could not be performed because the exit interview information of the healthcare professionals who had resigned was not available. conclusion a pattern emerged of dual burden of health risks where, on the one hand, these health professionals work in an environment with the risk of contracting an infectious disease and, on the other hand, the physical working environment, with its asbestos roof and lack of isolation wards, poses a second health risk. these dual health risks are faced within a work environment characterised by a shortage of staff, a perceived lack of support and a lack of monetary recognition or compensation. this work environment led to additional risk-taking with regard to working outside the scope of practice and feelings of burnout. the dual burden of risk is to some extent balanced by the rewarding aspects such as protracted time spent with patients and, in some cases, job autonomy. participants remained positive and valued the opportunity to develop relationships with patients in their recovery in an atmosphere that was not characterised by urgency. these findings offer managers a chance not only to balance the risk with reward by enhancing the positive aspects of working in a specialised environment such as this but also to be seen to acknowledge and address the negative aspects. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge the research participants who kindly gave their time. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exist. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement the data are available upon request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abduljawad, a., & al-assaf, a.f. (2011). incentives for better performance in health care. sultan qaboos university medical journal, 11(2), 201–206. ann seago, j. (2006). autonomy: a realistic goal for the practice of hospital nursing? aquichan, 6(6), 92–103. awan, a.g., & tahir, m.t. (2015). impact of working environment on employee’s productivity: a case study of banks and insurance companies in pakistan. european journal of business and management, 7(1), 329–345. bono, j.e., foldes, h.j., vinson, g., & muros, j.p. (2007). workplace emotions: the role of supervision and leadership. journal of applied psychology, 92(5), 1357. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.5.1357 bordignon, m., ferraz, l., beck, c.l.c., amestoy, s.c., & de lima trindade, l. (2015). (dis) satisfaction of health professionals who work with oncology. revista da rede de enfermagem do nordeste, 16(3). https://doi.org/10.15253/2175-6783.2015000300013 castle, n.g., & engberg, j. (2006). organizational characteristics associated with staff turnover in nursing homes. the gerontologist, 46(1), 62–73. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/46.1.62 cox, h.s., daniels, j.f., muller, o., nicol, m.p., cox, v., van cutsem, g., … hughes, j. (2015). impact of decentralized care and the xpert mtb/rif test on rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis treatment initiation in khayelitsha, south africa. open forum infectious diseases, 2(1), ofv014. https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofv014 denzin, n.k., & lincoln, y.s. (2003). collecting and interpreting qualitative materials (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. de vries, g., sebek, m.m., & lambregts-van weezenbeek, c.s. (2006). healthcare workers with tuberculosis infected during work. european respiratory journal, 28(6), 1216–1221. https://doi.org/10.1183/09031936.06.00039906 dovlo, d. (2007). migration of nurses from sub-saharan africa: a review of issues and challenges. health services research, 42(3 pt 2), 1373–1388. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6773.2007.00712.x ellett, a.j., ellis, j.i., westbrook, t.m., & dews, d. (2007). a qualitative study of 369 child welfare professionals’ perspectives about factors contributing to employee retention and turnover. children and youth services review, 29(2), 264–281. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2006.07.005 farley, j.e., tudor, c., mphahlele, m., franz, k., perrin, n.a., dorman, s., & van der walt, m. (2012). a national infection control evaluation of drug-resistant tuberculosis hospitals in south africa. the international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease, 16(1), 82–89. https://doi.org/10.5588/ijtld.10.0791 garzonis, k., mann, e., wyrzykowska, a., & kanellakis, p. (2015). improving patient outcomes: effectively training healthcare staff in psychological practice skills: a mixed systematic literature review. europe’s journal of psychology, 11(3), 535. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v11i3.923 ghiasipour, m., mosadeghrad, a.m., arab, m., & jaafaripooyan, e. (2017). leadership challenges in health care organizations: the case of iranian hospitals. medical journal of the islamic republic of iran, 31(1), 96–96. https://doi.org/10.14196/mjiri.31.96 graneheim, u.h., & lundman, b. (2004). qualitative content analysis in nursing research: concepts, procedures and measures to achieve trustworthiness. nurse education today, 24(2), 105–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2003.10.001 haines iii, v.y., jalette, p., & larose, k. (2010). the influence of human resource management practices on employee voluntary turnover rates in the canadian non governmental sector. industrial and labor relations review, 63(2), 228–246. https://doi.org/10.1177/001979391006300203 hargreaves, j.r., boccia, d., evans, c.a., adato, m., petticrew, m., & porter, j.d. (2011). the social determinants of tuberculosis: from evidence to action. american journal of public health, 101(4), 654–662. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2010.199505 hayes, l.j., o’brien-pallas, l., duffield, c., shamian, j., buchan, j., hughes, f., … stone, p.w. (2006). nurse turnover: a literature review. international journal of nursing studies, 43(2), 237–263. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2005.02.007 jenkins, h.e., tolma, a.w., yuen, c.m., parr, j.b., keshavjee, s., pérez-vélez, c.m., … cohen, t. (2014). incidence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis disease in children: systematic review and global estimates. the lancet, 383(9928), 1572–1579. khamisa, n., oldenburg, b., peltzer, k., & ilic, d. (2015). work related stress, burnout, job satisfaction and general health of nurses. international journal of environmental research and public health, 12(1), 652–666. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120100652 kroezen, m., dussault, g., craveiro, i., dieleman, m., jansen, c., buchan, j., … sermeus, w. (2015). recruitment and retention of health professionals across europe: a literature review and multiple case study research. health policy, 119(12), 1517–1528. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2015.08.003 lange, c., abubakar, i., alffenaar, j.-w.c., bothamley, g., caminero, j.a., carvalho, a.c.c., … crudu, v. (2014). management of patients with multidrug-resistant/extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis in europe: a tbnet consensus statement. european respiratory journal, 44(1), 23–63. https://doi.org/10.1183/09031936.00188313 laschinger, h.k.s., leiter, m., day, a., & gilin, d. (2009). workplace empowerment, incivility, and burnout: impact on staff nurse recruitment and retention outcomes. journal of nursing management, 17(3), 302–311. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2834.2009.00999.x lephalala, r., ehlers, v., & oosthuizen, m. (2008). factors influencing nurses’ job satisfaction in selected private hospitals in england. curationis, 31(3), 60–69. https://doi.org/10.4102/curationis.v31i3.1040 lerner, d., & henke, r.m. (2008). what does research tell us about depression, job performance, and work productivity? journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 50(4), 401–410. https://doi.org/10.1097/jom.0b013e31816bae50 lewis, s. (2015). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches. health promotion practice, 16(4), 473–475. lietz, c.a., langer, c.l., & furman, r. (2016). establishing trustworthiness in qualitative research in social work. qualitative social work: research and practice, 5(4), 441–458. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325006070288 mckenna, h.p., hasson, f., & keeney, s. (2004). patient safety and quality of care: the role of the health care assistant. journal of nursing management, 12(6), 452–459. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2834.2004.00514.x mrayyan, m. (2006). jordanian nurses’ job satisfaction, patients’ satisfaction and quality of nursing care. international nursing review, 53(3), 224–230. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-7657.2006.00439.x okoh, a. (2009). prevention and control of tuberculosis. benin journal of postgraduate medicine, 11(1), 97–99. https://doi.org/10.4314/bjpm.v11i1.48862 papathanasiou, i.v., fradelos, e.c., kleisiaris, c.f., tsaras, k., kalota, m.a., & kourkouta, l. (2014). motivation, leadership, empowerment and confidence: their relation with nurses’ burnout. materia socio-medica, 26(6), 405–410. https://doi.org/10.5455/msm.2014.26.405-410 philip, j., chadee, d., & yearwood, r.p. (2014). health care students’ reactions towards hiv patients: examining prejudice, emotions, attribution of blame and willingness to interact with hiv/aids patients. aids care, 26(10), 1236–1241. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540121.2014.896449 pietersen, e., ignatius, e., streicher, e.m., mastrapa, b., padanilam, x., pooran, a., … sirgel, f.a. (2014). long-term outcomes of patients with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis in south africa: a cohort study. the lancet, 383(9924), 1230–1239. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(13)62675-6 portoghese, i., galletta, m., coppola, r.c., finco, g., & campagna, m. (2014). burnout and workload among health care workers: the moderating role of job control. safety and health at work, 5(3), 152–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2014.05.004 ramathuba, d.u., & davhana-maselesele, m. (2015). support in caring for people living with hiv and aids: a concept analysis. journal of human ecology, 50(1), 73–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/09709274.2015.11906861 sarre, s., maben, j., aldus, c., schneider, j., wharrad, h., nicholson, c., & arthur, a. (2018). the challenges of training, support and assessment of healthcare support workers: a qualitative study of experiences in three english acute hospitals. international journal of nursing studies, 79(1), 145–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2017.11.010 shihundla, r.c., lebese, r.t., & maputle, m.s. (2016). effects of increased nurses’ workload on quality documentation of patient information at selected primary health care facilities in vhembe district, limpopo province. curationis, 39(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/curationis.v39i1.1545 shrestha, a., bhattarai, d., thapa, b., basel, p., & wagle, r.r. (2017). health care workers’ knowledge, attitudes and practices on tuberculosis infection control, nepal. bmc infectious diseases, 17(1), 724. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-017-2828-4 singh, a., syal, m., grady, s.c., & korkmaz, s. (2010). effects of green buildings on employee health and productivity. american journal of public health, 100(9), 1665–1668. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2009.180687 sinkovics, r.r., penz, e., & ghauri, p.n. (2009). enhancing the trustworthiness of qualitative research in international business. management international review, 48(6), 689–714. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11575-008-0103-z skrahina, a., hurevich, h., zalutskaya, a., sahalchyk, e., astrauko, a., hoffner, s., … dara, m. (2013). multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in belarus: the size of the problem and associated risk factors. bulletin of the world health organization, 91(1), 36–45. https://doi.org/10.2471/blt.12.104588 snowdon, d.a., leggat, s.g., & taylor, n.f. (2017). does clinical supervision of healthcare professionals improve effectiveness of care and patient experience? a systematic review. bmc health services research, 17(1), 786–786. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-017-2739-5 stanz, k., & greyling, j. (2010). turnover of nursing employees in a gauteng hospital group. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.850 south african national department of health. (2011). human resources for health south africa 2030. retrieved from https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/dohdrafthrstrategyconsultation.pdf tabak, n., & ozon, m. (2004). the influence of nurses’ attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control on maintaining patients’ privacy in a hospital setting. nursing ethics, 11(4), 366–377. https://doi.org/10.1191/0969733004ne709oa teasdale, k., brocklehurst, n., & thom, n. (2001). clinical supervision and support for nurses: an evaluation study. journal of advanced nursing, 33(2), 216–224. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2001.01656.x tudor, c., mphahlele, m., van der walt, m., & farley, j.e. (2013). health care workers’ fears associated with working in multidrugand or extensively-resistant tuberculosis wards in south africa. the international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease, 17(10 suppl 1), 22–29. https://doi.org/10.5588/ijtld.13.0109 united nations. (2015). sustainable development goals. retrieved from https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030.html wang, y.-y., wan, q.-q., lin, f., zhou, w.-j., & shang, s.-m. (2018). interventions to improve communication between nurses and physicians in the intensive care unit: an integrative literature review. international journal of nursing sciences, 5(1), 81–88. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnss.2017.09.007 world health organization (who). (2010). increasing access to health workers in remote and rural areas through improved retention: global policy recommendations. retrieved from https://www.who.int/hrh/retention/guidelines/en/ world health organization (who). (2015). global tuberculosis report 2015. world health organization. retrieved from https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/191102/9789241565059_eng.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y world health organization (who). (2016). global strategy on human resources for health: workforce 2030. retrieved from https://www.who.int/hrh/resources/pub_globstrathrh-2030/en/ world health organization (who). (n.d.). hrh action framework. retrieved from https://www.who.int/hrh/tools/en/ yun, h., jie, s., & anli, j. (2010). nursing shortage in china: state, causes, and strategy. nursing outlook, 58(3), 122–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2009.12.002 zumla, a., abubakar, i., raviglione, m., hoelscher, m., ditiu, l., mchugh, t.d., … mcnerney, r. (2012). drug-resistant tuberculosis – current dilemmas, unanswered questions, challenges, and priority needs. journal of infectious diseases, 205(suppl_2), s228–s240. https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jir858 abstract introduction literature review method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) cecilia m. schultz department of people management and development, faculty of management sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa citation schultz, c.m. (2021). the relationship between self-leadership, the future of human resource management, and work engagement. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1701. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1701 original research the relationship between self-leadership, the future of human resource management, and work engagement cecilia m. schultz received: 08 june 2021; accepted: 14 oct. 2021; published: 28 oct. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: with industry 4.0 at our doorstep, we would benefit from a better understanding of how the future of human resource management (hrm) relates to self-leadership and work engagement. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between self-leadership, the future of hrm and work engagement. motivation for the study: the future of hrm in south africa, as well as its relationship with organisational behaviour dimensions such as self-leadership and work engagement, is under-researched. a better understanding of work engagement as the missing link between self-leadership and the future of hrm needed to prepare for the future world of work. research approach/design and method: a survey was conducted amongst members of the south african board of people practices, and a quantitative research approach was therefore used. the relationships were investigated through correlation analysis and regression analysis. main findings: all the variables positively relate to one another and self-leadership predicts work engagement and the future of hrm. furthermore, work engagement mediates the relationship between self-leadership and the future of hrm. practical and managerial implications: human resource practitioners have a responsibility to ensure that they are able to lead themselves, be engaged in their work and prepare for the future of hrm. contribution/value add: the critical connection between work engagement and self-leadership could help direct organisations toward improving, maintaining and refining human resource managers’ and human resource practitioners’ ability to lead themselves and be more engaged. keywords: future of hrm; self-leadership; south africa, survey; work engagement. introduction our world is constantly changing. the first industrial revolution started in the late 18th century with steam power and mechanisation; the second started in the late 19th century with electricity and led to assembly lines; and the third started in the mid-20th century, powered by new information technology and automation. ‘in 2020, organisations need to be more agile, future oriented and willing to adapt to contemporary technological trends’ (thareja, 2020, p. 34). now, we have embarked on industry 4.0 (i4.0). the concept of i4.0, identified as the fourth industrial revolution (4ir), was initially introduced in germany in 2011 (lu, 2017; sanders, elangeswaran, & wulfsberg, 2016). it refers to the integration of physical objects, human actors, intelligent machines, production lines and processes across organisational boundaries to form a system in which all processes are integrated and information is shared in real time. according to basl (2017), the basic principle of i4.0 is the connection of machines, work pieces and systems, and businesses creating intelligent networks along the entire value chain that can control each other autonomously. industry 4.0 is often identified with a number of technologies involving, for example, the internet of things (iot), big data and analytics, cybersecurity and 3d printing (tortorella & fettermann, 2017), and is likely to affect people, processes and companies. within the south african context, human resources (hr) practitioners need to embrace technology and automation, find new ways of work, and be agile regarding the i4.0 (dhanpat, buthelezi, joe, maphela, & shongwe, 2020). molloy and ronnie (2021) stated that south africa struggles to navigate the exponential change of the 4ir. to get the most out of i4.0 technologies, organisations will have to invest heavily in building capabilities in the following dimensions: data and connectivity, analytics and intelligence, conversion to the physical world and human-machine interaction (oberer & erkollar, 2018). an organisation would require a successful hr strategy to cope with the challenges of i4.0 transformation (sivathanu & pillai, 2018). human resources practitioners must transform and embrace i4.0 (schultz, 2017). the future of hr presents the profession with opportunities and thought-provoking challenges and complexities (cohen, 2015). ulrich, ulrich, burns and wright (2021) suggest an hr competency model to simplify complexity and this includes the mobilisation of information, advancing human capability, accelerating business, and the fostering of collaboration. to match the pace of i4.0 and leverage its true benefit, companies should focus on the automation of hr processes, make the workforce smarter and more agile to drive efficiency and innovation, improve productivity, save costs and stay hyper-competitive (verma, bansal, & verma, 2020). schultz (2017) accentuated that analytical skills, employment relations and future workspace are of utmost importance in the future of human resource management (hrm). due to the i4.0 challenges, hr practitioners need a positive level of enthusiasm and dedication toward their job (alzyoud, 2018). aromaa et al. (2019) emphasised the role of work engagement in the digital transitions of organisations in i4.0. because of the increasing use of technology, digitalisation and automation in the workplace, it is essential to understand the role of work engagement in the sense that when employees are more likely to invest in the work they do, it may lead to a higher quality of work produced (roto, palanque, & karvonen, 2019). in the qualitative study of schultz (2017) about the future of hrm, work engagement and self-leadership were found to be important themes. bloem et al. (2013) also mentioned the importance of work engagement during i4.0, and mustaffa and ghani (2019) referred to self-leadership as another important element in facing i4.0. for this reason, self-leadership and work engagement were chosen as variables to further investigate the future of hrm. there could be a possible nexus between self-leadership, future hrm and work engagement, but little, if any, research has examined this relationship. against this backdrop, the following question arose: what is the relationship between self-leadership, work engagement and the future of hrm? therefore, this article aims to bridge the gap in the literature by exploring whether self-leadership and work engagement influence the future of hrm. literature review self-leadership leadership is a complex topic and can be studied from different approaches that require different definitions (oberer & erkollar, 2018). for the purpose of this study, the focus is on self-leadership. self-leadership has its theoretical roots in bandura’s (1977, 1986) social learning and social cognitive theories, in self-regulation theory (carver & scheier, 1981), and in the concept of ‘self-management’ (manz, 1983). it is also related to the concept of influencing oneself (alves et al., 2006). bandura’s (1977, 1986) theories explained how people can influence their own motivation, cognition and behaviour. the continuous interaction between people and their environment allows them to use the consequences of their own behaviour as a source of information and motivation (norris, 2008). behavioural self-regulation processes enable people to monitor the gap between actual performance levels and the standards or goals they set themselves (carver & scheier, 2002). self-leadership strategies are applied to improve the effectiveness of these self-regulatory processes. these strategies include behaviour-focused strategies, natural reward strategies and constructive thought strategies (neck & houghton, 2006). self-leadership can be surmised as the ability to self-influence to achieve one’s goals (mustaffa & ghani, 2019). exceptional hr leaders are ‘results-oriented, team builders, motivators, highly organised and demonstrate the ability to coach and develop the people around them’ (longenecker & fink, 2015, p. 23). behaviour awareness politis (2006) stated that manz developed a theory which goes beyond bandura’s study of self-control. according to this theory, behaviour-focused strategies provide specific approaches to identify ineffective behaviours and replace them with more effective ones (houghton, dawley, & diliello, 2012). these strategies include: self-reward, self-cueing, self-observation, self-punishment, self-goal setting, self-correcting feedback and practice (manz, 1992; manz & neck, 2004; neck & houghton, 2006). houghton and neck (2002) stated that these strategies were designed to encourage positive, desirable behaviours that lead to successful outcomes, whilst suppressing negative, undesirable behaviours that lead to unsuccessful outcomes. volition and task motivation self-leading individuals are motivated to do a task and use self-influencing strategies such as goal setting, self-observation, creating natural rewards as part of their will (volition) to take a particular course of action (van dorssen-boog, de jong, veld, & van vuuren, 2020). natural reward strategies focus on the enjoyable aspects of a task or activity (manz & neck, 2004; neck & houghton, 2006). natural reward strategies can be expressed as situations in which the fun aspects of the task or activity are motivated or rewarded by the individual. the task or activity should be enjoyable so that a natural reward should be apparent. then, the individual should move away from the negative aspects of the task and focus on the rewarding aspects (manz & neck, 2004; neck & houghton, 2006). in this way, the individual who focuses on the pleasant aspects of the task exhibits better performance and increases his or her performance (houghton & neck, 2002). there are two basic natural reward strategies, namely building more pleasant features for the task and shaping perceptions for the task (manz & neck, 2004; neck & houghton, 2006). essentially, the former strategy represents changing the task itself in order to make it better, whilst the latter involves cognitive reframing of the task in order to make it seem better (mahembe, engelbrecht & de kock, 2013). constructive cognition constructive thought pattern strategies can be expressed as the formation of constructive thought patterns and the formation of habits that will affect performance positively. manz (quoted in neck, nouri, & godwin, 2003, p. 701) described a thought pattern as ‘certain ways of thinking about our experiences’ and ‘habitual ways of thinking’. these strategies include the definition and change of non-functional beliefs, assumptions, mental images and self-talk (neck & houghton, 2006). positive and effective thought patterns are developed, and negative thoughts are reduced (manz & sims, 2001; neck & houghton, 2006). mental imagery refers to imagining the successful performance of a task before it is actually completed (neck et al., 2003). the future of human resource management industry 4.0 is upon us, with significant implications for how organisations conduct business (baldassari & roux, 2017). the challenges the hr profession faces in i4.0 include: the huge amount of data we have, the rapidity of change, new business models and even smart services enabled by digital tools (dhanpat et al., 2020). the future of work by schultz (2017) highlighted the following future hrm factors: analytical skills, employment relations and future workspace. the relationship between these factors was not further investigated. for this reason, for the purpose of this article, analytical skills, employment relations and future workspace formed part of the critical dimensions of future hrm. analytical skills traditional hr applications were used administratively for payroll and record-keeping, but there is much more to hr analytics than simple descriptive data collection and reporting. analytical skills entail applying existing and generating new scientific knowledge to develop practical solutions (van der togt & rasmussen, 2017). according to shrivastava, nagdev and rajesh (2018), analytical skills refer to the use of analytical techniques such as data mining, predictive analytics and contextual analytics to enable managers to take better decisions related to their workforce. analytics should focus less on hr practices and more on hr outcomes (ingham & ulrich, 2016). human resources practitioners should possess analytical skills to analyse data, inform business decision-making and predict what might happen in the future (van den heuvel & bondarouk, 2017). possessing analytical skills allows better people decisions and more effective and efficient hr (van der togt & rasmussen, 2017). an increased focus on workforce analytics forces hr practitioners to obtain analytical skills to be more useful business partners (kryscynski, reeves, stice-lusvardi, ulrich, & russell, 2017). future workspace workspace demand is driven by professional employment trends and is especially sensitive to space requirement assumptions (miller, 2014). the nature of work itself is becoming more flexible and virtual (chernyak-hai & rabenu, 2018), and this may have an impact on future workspace. digitalisation and smart communication technology are the enablers for new workspace design (kämpf-dern & konkol, 2017). it is essential to provide the right balance between office, home office and third workplace, together with suitable information technology (it) tools and behavioural aspects, to make working at a distance effective (de bruyne & gerritse, 2018). the agility required to support a constantly evolving workforce can be enabled by the infrastructure to design the workspace (harris, 2015). flexibility and customisation of space and furniture need to be incorporated into workspace design to satisfy the unique needs of end users (hills & levy, 2014). an opportunity for dialogue and critical thinking in an organisation is essential to ensure proper workspace design (totterdill & exton, 2014). dialogue will allow hr practitioners to converse with all relevant stakeholders to obtain their views into improving workspace design. critical thinking is necessary to think widely and more in-depth regarding best options for especially future workspace design. the new workspace presents a greater diversity of stakeholders and workers, which impacts employment relations. employment relations employment relations are about the interests of employers and workers. in the future world of work, there will be significant changes in employment relations (hatting, 2017): there is considerable debate about whether the field of employment relations is either too theoretical and removed from the concerns of everyday life in the workplace to be relevant to practitioners and policymakers or, conversely, it has been too partisan in its relationship with unions or employers and has served the needs of one party or the other. (lansbury, 2018, p. 6) trust and reciprocity are necessary for sustainable employment relations (dundon, 2019). whilst the regulation of the workplace and interaction between employers and unions remain key concerns to the field of employment relations, other issues related to people at work, employment and organisations are important in bringing a broader perspective to the subject (lansbury, 2018). south africa is one of the unionised countries in the world and the involvement of trade unions in resolving disputes including grievances and disciplinary matters is crucial (mzangwa, 2015). mzangwa (2015) also stated that employment relations are informed by labour legislations. poor employment relations impose significant costs on workers and society, such as labour turnover, absenteeism, workplace injuries and industrial conflict (wilkinson, barry, gomez, & kaufman, 2018). a recent economic development that has an increasing impact on employment relations is the gig economy. dundon (2019, p. 8) posited that ‘in terms of employment relations, debates continue about the legal status of gig-economy work’. particular concerns include the ambiguous nature of the relationships between workers and intermediary platforms, with people who work in the gig economy being denied basic protections (stewart & stanford, 2017). ljungholm (2019) stated that workers in the on-demand economy are freelancers, contingent workers, part-time workers, full-time workers, independent contractors, or a hybrid category. there are many challenges in the realisation of i4.0. in order to adopt a certain technology and improved software processes, many ethical considerations need to be identified and considered if a company is to obtain an ethical development and deployment of i4.0 (rahanu, georgiadou, siakas, ross, & berki, 2021). therefore, there must be greater governance of ethics in the future world of work. work engagement over the past two decades, hr scholars and practitioners have exerted a great deal of effort towards understanding engagement. the concept of employee engagement was first proposed by kahn (1990, p. 693) as the ‘harnessing of organization members’ selves to their work roles; self-employment and self-expression of people physically, cognitively, and emotionally in their work lives’. saks (2006, p. 601) defined employee engagement as a ‘different and unique concept’ which is composed of knowledge, emotion and behaviour. macey and schneider (2008) suggested to regard engagement as a wide-ranging term which contains different types of engagement (traits engagement, psychological state engagement, behavioural engagement), and each one needs different conceptualisations, such as proactive personality (traits engagement), involvement (psychological state engagement) and organisational citizenship behaviour (behavioural engagement). work engagement has been defined as ‘a positive, fulfilling work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigour, dedication, and absorption’ (schaufeli, bakker, & salanova, 2006, p. 702). work the i4.0 challenges, hr practitioners need a positive level of enthusiasm and dedication toward their job (alzyoud, 2018) and this is the reason why work engagement was chosen as construct in this study. the three dimensions of work engagement, namely vigour, dedication and absorption are discussed below. vigour vigour, which is the physical component of work engagement, involves high levels of energy and mental resilience whilst working. chughtai and buckley (2008) postulated that higher levels of vigour suggest an individual’s increased readiness to devote effort within his or her work by not becoming easily fatigued and developing the tendency to remain resolute in the face of task difficulty or failure. dedication dedication refers to being strongly involved in one’s work and experiencing a sense of significance, enthusiasm and challenge. dedication constitutes the emotional component of work engagement, characterised as putting one’s heart into the job, and it typifies individuals’ strong sense of identification with their work (chughtai & buckley, 2008). dedication also encompasses feelings of enthusiasm, passion, pride and challenge, and indicates individuals’ psychological involvement in their work, combined with a sense of significance (gawke, gorgievski, & bakker, 2017). as noted by biggs, brough and barbour (2014), dedicated individuals are strongly involved in their work and experience a sense of significance, enthusiasm and challenge. such individuals are inspired by work tasks and are absorbed in their work to the benefit of the organisation. absorption absorption refers to being fully concentrated and engrossed in one’s work. thus, work engagement is a positive motivational state (bakker, demerouti, & sanz-vergel 2014). schaufeli and salanova (2007) highlighted the importance of various job resources, such as supervisory coaching, social support from colleagues and supervisors, autonomy, positive work climate, performance feedback, task variety and training facilities, in enhancing employees’ work engagement. the cognitive component of work engagement, which is often interchangeable with the absorption dimension, is characterised by being fully concentrated and happily engrossed in work, and feeling like time flies when working (breevaart, bakker, & demerouti, 2014). absorbed individuals are completely immersed in their work so that time appears to pass so rapidly that they forget everything else that is around them, and often find it difficult to disengage or detach themselves from their work (chughtai & buckley, 2008). this component of work engagement refers to the full concentration, satisfaction and engrossment that individuals receive from performing their job-related tasks. all these dimensions result in highly engaged employees who perform their best and contribute to the success of the organisation. hypothesis development previous studies have shown that there is a relationship between self-leadership and work engagement (kotzé, 2017; shaoping, huachun, & yongheng, 2015). breevaart et al. (2014) found that daily self-leadership (comprising five strategies: self-goal setting, self-reward, self-punishment, self-observation and self-cueing) was positively related to employees’ resourcefulness and this increased their daily work engagement. breevaart et al. (2014) also argued that self-leadership enables employees to motivate themselves, achieve required standards and optimise their work environment, and therefore increases their work engagement. harunavamwe (2018) stated that self-leadership is an integral part of the personal resources that facilitate positive behaviour that eventually translates to work engagement. gomes, curral and caetano (2015) found that work engagement had a mediating effect on the relationship between self-leadership and individual innovation. it is interesting to note that self-leadership can have a significant effect on work engagement as well as a partial mediating effect on the relationship between organisational justice and employees’ work engagement (park, song, & lim, 2016). training opportunities, career development opportunities and developmental performance appraisal, as part of the key dimensions of developmental hr practices, were positively related to work engagement in the study of ahmed, kura, umrani and pahi (2019). the study of aybas and acar (2017) found that perceived hr practices (skill, motivation, empowerment enhancing and working conditions) predicted work engagement through psychological capital. alzyoud (2018) found that hrm practices (employee communications, employee development, and rewards and recognition) influenced work engagement. there is a positive relationship between hrm (ability enhancing practices, motivation enhancing practices and opportunity enhancing practices) (tensay & singh, 2020) and engagement. tensay and singh (2020) also found that engagement partially mediated the relationship between hrm and organisational performance. human resource management (service training and performance appraisal) has a positive and significant influence on work engagement (suan & nasurdin, 2014). work engagement and job crafting mediate the relationship between employee perceptions of hr practice and employee performance (guan & frenkel, 2018). human resource management practices (high performance, high commitment, high control, high involvement and international hrm) and leadership (authentic, ethical, transformative, paternalistic, authoritarian and global leadership, and leader-member exchange) have interactive effects on organisational, team/unit and individual outcomes (zhao, liu, zhu, & liu, 2020). leadership has an indirect effect on outcomes through hrm practices, and hrm practices may have an indirect effect on outcomes through leadership. for example, transformational ceos are likely to adopt skill-based hrm practices (lopez-cabrales, bornay-barrachina, & diaz-fernandez, 2017). gill, gardner, claeys and vangronsvelt (2018) found that there is a link between authentic leadership and hr practices (system strength, alignment and fit). previous studies about the relationship between self-leadership and future hrm (analytical skills, employment relations and future workspace) could not be found. previous studies about the relationship between work engagement and future hrm (analytical skills, employment relations and future workspace) could also not be found. the aim of this article was therefore to fill this research gap. the following hypotheses were investigated in this article: h1: self-leadership is positively related to work engagement. h2: self-leadership is positively related to the future of hrm. h3: work engagement is positively related to the future of hrm. h4: behaviour awareness, volition and task motivation (factor 1 of self-leadership) predict the future of hrm. h5: constructive cognition (factor 2 of self-leadership) predicts the future of hrm. h6: behaviour awareness, volition and task motivation (factor 1 of self-leadership) predict work engagement. h7: constructive cognition (factor 2 of self-leadership) predicts work engagement. h8: work engagement mediates the relationship between self-leadership and the future of hrm. the hypothesised model is illustrated in figure 1. figure 1: hypothesised model. method sample and procedure within the survey research design, data were collected by means of a questionnaire that was sent via surveymonkey to the members of an hr professional body in south africa, namely the south african board of people practices (sabpp). the selection criterion for this study was sabpp members who worked in industry, not in academia, or who were self-employed. the reason for this decision was to obtain the views of hrm practitioners who dealt with hr issues in the workplace. human resource management academics would not have been able to answer some of the questions because of the actual execution of certain hrm functions. the profiles of the respondents are shown in table 1. table 1: profile of the respondents. it is interesting to note that more females than males participated in this study. with reference to age groups, most of the participants fell within the 35–44 years age group, followed by individuals in the 45–54 years age group, which could be an indication that hr practitioners in these age groups seem to be enthusiastic about the future of hrm studies. with respect to the area of specialisation, more than half of the respondents specialised in hrm. this could be an indication that human resource development (hrd), labour relations management (lrm), and other areas of specialisation such as organisational development, vocational rehabilitation, hr generalist (hrm, hrd and lrm included), safety and risk management, and hr information systems are occupied in smaller numbers in the south african context. of the respondents, 55.6% worked in the private sector and 32.3% worked in the public sector, whilst 12.1% worked in other sectors related to state-owned enterprises. this could be a signifier that the majority of the sabpp members worked in the private sector. lastly, most of the respondents possessed a certificate or a diploma and therefore postgraduate qualifications does not seem to be of the essence to these hr practitioners. measures for the purpose of this study, the abbreviated self-leadership questionnaire (houghton et al., 2012), the short version of the work engagement questionnaire of schaufeli et al. (2006), and a new questionnaire based on the work of schultz (2017) to measure future hrm were used. examples of the items used to measure each of the three variables were as follows: future hrm: i am future-fit (focused on what is ahead than behind). i assist management to redefine work relationships between the employer and employee to fit future purposes. i am future-fit (focused on what is ahead than behind). i use future thinking skills (the ability to mind-time travel into the future, experience that imagined future and back-cast to develop strategies in the present to realise the preferred future). work engagement: at my work, i feel bursting with energy. i find the work that i do full of meaning and purpose. time flies when i am working. self-leadership: i establish specific goals for my own performance. i make a point to keep track of how well i’m doing at work. i work toward specific goals i have set for myself. a five-point likert scale (1 – never; 2 – almost never; 3 – about half of the time; 4 – most of the time; 5 – all the time) was used for all the questionnaire items. face validity was ensured by conducting a pilot test with 16 hrm, hrd and lrm specialists. these managers had 5 years’ experience or more as an hrm, hrd or lrm specialist. content validity was determined by having the questionnaire reviewed by nine hrm, hrd and lrm academics. these academics possessed a doctoral degree in the relevant field of expertise and a minimum of 5 years’ experience as an academic. these experts reviewed the language, structure and design of the questionnaire. construct validity was ensured by conducting a principal factor analysis. to progress to factor analysis, the kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy was determined. it was 0.865 for work engagement, 0.796 for self-leadership and 0.811 for the future of hrm. the factor analysis confirmed the theoretical sub-scales, namely, work engagement (vigour, absorption and dedication) and the future of hrm (analytical skills, future workspace and employment relations), except for self-leadership, which was grouped into a two-factor solution (factor 1: behaviour awareness, volition and task motivation and factor 2: constructive cognition). all these factors were discussed in the literature review. the reliability coefficients for the future hrm questionnaire are not available because this is a newly developed questionnaire. according to mahembe, engelbrecht and wakelin (2017), the cronbach’s alphas for the self-leadership questionnaire were as follows: behaviour awareness and volition = 0.66, task motivation = 0.68, and constructive cognition = 0.54. in the study of gautam and enslin (2019), the overall cronbach’s alpha was 0.89. the cronbach’s alphas for work engagement according to choi, suh, choi, lee and son (2020) were as follows: vigour = 0.63, dedication = 0.65, absorption = 0.56. kanten and sadullah (2012) found that absorption’s cronbach’s alpha was 0.84 and for vigour and for dedication the cronbach’s alpha was 0.89. in this study, scale reliability was measured using cronbach’s alpha. the alpha readings are presented in table 2. table 2: scale reliabilities. feinberg, kinnearz and taylor (2013) suggested that the acceptable level for measuring the reliability of an instrument is 0.7. table 2 indicates that all alpha readings were above the recommended 0.7 value. the scales used in this study were reliable or internally consistent. for this study, it was decided to keep the employment relations factor with its 0.634 reliability coefficient because composite reliability values of 0.60–0.70 are acceptable in exploratory research (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). data analysis the statistical package for the social sciences (spss 24) was used to analyse the numeric data in the study. pearson correlation was conducted to determine the significant relationships; and multiple regression analysis was used to determine the predictions. according to hayes (2009), mediation is a sequence of causal relations by which variable x exerts its effect on variable y by influencing intervening variables. the mediation role of work engagement between the future of hrm and self-leadership was investigated. ethical considerations the sabpp gave permission to the researcher for conducting the study. ethical permission for this study was obtained from the research ethics committee of the tshwane university of technology, ref#: fcre2018/fr/10/025-ms. high ethical standards were followed in all aspects of the research process. all possible respondents were provided with an overview of the study before inviting them to voluntarily participate. the respondents were assured that their responses would be anonymous and confidential, and were informed that they could withdraw from the study at any stage should they feel it necessary to do so. all respondents indicated their consent on surveymonkey. results table 3 illustrates the means, standard deviations (sd) and correlations between the variables used in this study. an examination of the means revealed that most of the respondents indicated that they almost never agreed with the statements about self-leadership (m = 1.99, sd = 0.59), the future of hrm (m = 2.50, sd = 0.64) and work engagement (m = 2.07, sd = 0.58). the strength of associations between the variables was tested using the pearson correlation coefficient (r). as shown in table 3, the pearson correlation coefficients suggested positive linear associations between the scales. cohen (1988) suggested that a small relationship is represented by an r ranging from 0.10 to 0.29, a medium correlation is identified by an r ranging from 0.30 to 0.49, and a large and significant relationship is identified by an r ranging from 0.50 to 1.0. an r-value of 1 indicates a perfect positive correlation, whilst –1 indicates a perfect negative correlation, 0.5 indicates a moderate positive correlation, –0.5 indicates a moderate negative correlation, and 0 shows no correlation. the larger the absolute value of the coefficient, the stronger the relationship between the variables. the practical significance seems to be medium and large. by implication, an increase in a scale results in increases in other scales if a positive correlation exists, whilst the reverse is also true. these results confirmed hypotheses h1, h2 and h3. table 3: means, standard deviations and correlations of all variables. regression analysis was used to determine whether self-leadership predicted the future of hrm and work engagement. to better explore this relationship, the two self-leadership factors (behaviour awareness, volition and task motivation, as well as constructive cognition) were used. from table 4, it is clear that factor 1 of self-leadership, namely behaviour awareness, volition and task motivation, predicted the future of hrm (β = 0.51, p < 0.5) and work engagement (β = 0.42, p < 0.5). factor 2 (constructive cognition) also predicted the future of hrm (β = 0.13, p < 0.5) and work engagement (β = 0.17, p < 0.5). these results confirmed hypotheses h4, h5, h6 and h7. table 4: regression results. according to hayes (2009), mediation is a sequence of causal relations by which variable x exerts its effect on variable y by influencing intervening variables. the mediation role of work engagement between the future of hrm and self-leadership was investigated. the variables that were measured are depicted in figure 2, where x = self-leadership, y = the future of hrm and m = work engagement. figure 2: a simple mediation model. figure 2 illustrates the effect of selfleadership (c’) on the relationship between talent x and y. the results are discussed in table 5. table 5: mediation – complete standardised indirect effect of work engagement on self-leadership and the future of human resource management. the number of bootstrap samples for bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals (ci): 5000 and level of confidence for all cis in output: 0.95. mediation is found when one variable (x) has an effect on an outcome variable (y) through one or more intervening variable(s), also known as mediators (hayes, 2009). from table 5, it is clear that work engagement mediated the relationship between self-leadership and future hrm at 0.10 (95% ci [0.18, 0.19]). these results confirmed hypothesis h8. discussion the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between self-leadership, the future of hrm and work engagement. in a nutshell, this study found that self-leadership and work engagement were positively related to the future of hrm. self-leadership predicted the future of hrm and work engagement, and lastly, work engagement mediated the relationship between self-leadership and the future of hrm. previous studies conducted on the relationship between the future of hrm (analytical skills, future workspace and employment relations) and work engagement, as well as the relationship between the future of hrm (analytical skills, future workspace and employment relations) and self-leadership, could not be found. it is noteworthy to mention that the mean revealed that there was a tendency to almost never agree with the statements about self-leadership, the future of hrm and work engagement. as seen in table 6, all the hypotheses were accepted. table 6: summary of the hypotheses testing. it was found that self-leadership was positively related to work engagement, concurring with the studies of breevaart et al. (2014), shaoping et al. (2015), park et al. (2016), kotzé (2017) and harunavamwe (2018). self-leadership has a significant effect on work engagement as well as a partial mediating effect on the relationship between organisational justice and employees’ work engagement (park et al., 2016). gomes et al. (2015) found that work engagement had a mediating effect on the relationship between self-leadership and individual innovation. in this study, however, work engagement mediated the relationship between self-leadership and the future of hrm. harunavamwe (2018) found that self-leadership is an important part of the personal resources that facilitate positive behaviour that eventually translates to work engagement. previous studies found that hrm correlated with leadership (gill et al., 2018; lopez-cabrales et al., 2017; zhao et al., 2020), but studies on future hrm (analytical skills, employment relations and future workspace) and self-leadership could not be found. suan and nasurdin (2014), aybas and acar (2017), alzyoud (2018), guan and frenkel (2018), ahmed et al. (2019) and tensay and singh (2020) found that hrm had a positive relationship with work engagement, but this study found that future hrm had a positive relationship with work engagement. as we enter i4.0, there has been a slight increase in literature about the future of hrm. however, research about the future of hrm has commonly overlooked the challenges of hr practitioners who are not possessing analytical skills, not being involved in designing future workspace and not addressing the concerns surrounding employment relations in the future world of work. the roles of self-leadership and work engagement in the future of hrm have also been overlooked or perhaps underestimated. the current study has contributed to a better understanding of these challenges and concerns. for the purpose of this study, the future of hrm focused on three critical factors, namely analytical skills, future workspace and employment relations. these three factors were found to be an important outcome in the future of hrm study by schultz (2017). the current study was the first to investigate these three factors and their relationship with work engagement and self-leadership. therefore, this offers a whole new field of research opportunities. self-leadership emphasises the importance of internal rather than external factors that control the behaviour of an individual. it is therefore vital that hr managers and hr practitioners be aware of their ability to lead themselves and monitor their engagement levels. the findings of this study alludes to the fact that in the south african context, work engagement emerged as a critical driver of self-leadership and future hrm. human resources practitioners, therefore, need to enhance their own work engagement in order to lead themselves and manage the future of hrm, with specific reference to their own analytical skills and the managing of employment relations and future workspace. to foster a culture of engagement, south african hr practitioners should lead by example. work engagement could be the link between self-leadership and the future of hrm. overall, this study showed the important notion to contribute to bridging the gap in the literature by exploring the effect of self-leadership and work engagement on the future of hrm. work engagement mediated the relationship between self-leadership and the future of hrm, and this produced new knowledge in the field of hrm and organisational behaviour. on a practical level, this indicates that necessary attention must be given to the improvement of work engagement, as work engagement will influence self-leadership and future hrm. practical implications the fact that the respondents in this study almost never agreed with the statements about self-leadership, the future of hrm and work engagement could be an indication that they did not see themselves as being self-led, engaged and ready for the future of hrm with specific reference to their analytical skills, future workspace and employment relations. it is however not clear. from a practical point of view, the theorising and results of the study are applicable to hr managers and hr practitioners. the measure of the future of hrm is comprised of items that measure specific hr behaviours. thus, the results from the study could be used to train, coach and mentor hr managers and hr practitioners to promote preparation for the future of hrm, be self-led and be more engaged. in order to ensure a practical impact, training, coaching and mentoring should focus on how to be self-led, how to be engaged in the future world of work, how to improve hr’s analytical skills and employment relations, as well as how to design future workspace. engagement related to improving employment relations is also essential. the critical connection between work engagement and self-leadership could help direct organisations toward improving, maintaining and refining hr managers’ and hr practitioners’ ability to lead themselves and be more engaged. this can be done by creating an awareness and providing training sessions on how to improve one’s work engagement and self-leadership. these two abilities will assist hr with the successful transition into the future of work. in dealing with i4.0 challenges, the ability of hr practitioners to lead themselves and be engaged in their work will affect the future of hrm. the cognitive component of work engagement, which is often interchangeable with the absorption dimension, is characterised by being fully concentrated and happily engrossed in work, and feeling such as time flying when working. this relates to cognition (positive thought patterns) as part of self-leadership. behavioural strategies such as self-reward, self-cueing, self-observation, self-punishment, self-goal setting, self-correcting feedback and practice should be encouraged to improve positive and desirable behaviours. vigour, which relates to high levels of energy and mental resilience experienced, should be encouraged even in cases where performance in the future may be challenging. dedication is characterised by strong involvement in one’s work, which results in positive feelings about work, such as pride and inspiration. human resources practitioners should be made aware of this quality to maintain or improve their dedication. limitations, recommendations and future research as with all studies, there are limitations to the present study. a limitation in this study is that it was cross-sectional in nature and can therefore not be generalised to all hr practitioners. the sample was comprised of members of a professional hr body in only one country. therefore, it is suggested that professional hr bodies from other countries also be involved in a similar study. additionally, researchers would be well served to consider research in different workplaces, such as tertiary institutions, private companies and government departments. another limitation is that this study relied on only three factors (analytical skills, future workspace and employment relations) as part of the future of hrm. there is a need to investigate more future hrm factors such as technology readiness, agile leadership and future hrm competencies to form a holistic view of the future of hrm and how to prepare for it. another limitation is that i4.0 was mentioned as a background scene for this article, and its role or impact in relation to self-leadership, work engagement and the future of hrm was not investigated. it is recommended that organisations support, train and develop hr practitioners to be future-fit. constant learning and upskilling are no longer differentiators, but rather necessities if hr practitioners want to keep themselves relevant in this changing landscape. human resources practitioners, therefore, also have a responsibility to ensure that they are able to lead themselves, be engaged in their work and prepare for the future of hrm. the ability to communicate, connect and establish relationships is very important. with respect to self-leadership, their task motivation links with their work engagement, which is an indication of a positive motivational state. a research idea is that future researchers can attempt to replicate or test the findings of this study longitudinally. although further research can, of course, provide additional validity to the conclusions that have been drawn here, it is suggested that the next step should be a qualitative approach and delphi technique to obtain rich data about hr practitioners being self-managed, engaged and prepared for the future world of work. line management, subordinates, peers and clients of hr practitioners can also be included in such a study to obtain a holistic view about hr practitioners as being self-led, engaged in their work and prepared for the future. as discussed in the above section, the respondents almost never agreed with the statements about self-leadership, the future of hrm and work engagement. this could be an indication that they did not see themselves as being self-led, engaged and ready for the future of hrm, with specific reference to their analytical skills, future workspace and employment relations. this needs further investigation by using a qualitative study, for example, to obtain rich data as to why respondents did not perceive themselves as being self-led, engaged in their work and future hrm-fit. other studies can also be conducted to determine whether hr practitioners in different industries of south africa and other countries also perceive themselves to not be self-led, engaged in their work or future-fit, with specific reference to their analytical skills, future workspace and employment relations. future research should examine the future of hrm in relation to other leadership styles, such as authentic leadership, agile leadership and leadership 4.0. future research should also investigate other types of engagement, such as employee engagement, which focuses on the cognitive, affective and behavioural levels of a person. future work should aim to better understand how the future of hrm interacts with leadership and engagement. in this study, the future hrm factors, namely analytical skills, future workspace and employment relations, were used. in further studies, other types of future hrm factors should be examined in terms of their relationship to self-leadership and work engagement. self-leadership, work engagement and the future of hrm may positively impact i4.0, but this needs to be investigated scientifically. overall, more research is needed to ensure that hrm will be relevant and add value in i4.0. conclusion this article aimed to bridge the gap in the literature by exploring whether self-leadership and work engagement influenced the future of hrm. this study provided evidence of the relationship between self-leadership, the future of hrm and work engagement. the article concluded by arguing that the role of work engagement and self-leadership is critical to our understanding of the future of hrm. taken together, these results produced new knowledge to better prepare for the future of hrm. further research needs to continue to examine the nexus between self-leadership, the future of hrm and work engagement. organisations need to support, train and develop hr practitioners to be future-fit. with i4.0 at our doorstep, it is expected that this study will encourage researchers to conduct more research about the future of hrm. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that there is no conflict of interest. author’s contributions prof. schultz was the sole contributor. funding information this research was supported by the national research foundation of south africa under grant number tk150621119893 and by the niche area of ‘the future of work and the alleviation of unemployment and poverty’ within the faculty management sciences of the tshwane university of technology. data availability the author confirms that the data supporting the findings of this study are available. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author, and the publisher. references ahmed, u., kura, k.m., umrani, w.a., & pahi, m.h. (2019). modelling the link between developmental human resource practices and work engagement: the moderation role of service climate. global business review, 21(1), 31–53. https://doi.org/10.1177/0972150919837813 alves, j.c., lovelace, k.j., manz, c.c., matsypura, d., toyasaki, f., & ke, k. (2006). a cross-cultural perspective of self-leadership. journal of managerial psychology, 21(4), 338–359. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610663123 alzyoud, a. (2018). the influence of human resource management practices on employee work engagement. foundations of management, 10, 251–256. https://doi.org/10.2478/fman-2018-0019 aromaa, s., liinasuo, m., kaasinen, e., bojko, m., schmalfuß, f., apostolakis, k.c., zarpalas, d., … boubekeuer, m. (2019). user evaluation of industry 4.0 concepts for worker engagement. in t. ahram, w. karwowski, & r. taiar (eds.), human systems engineering and design: proceedings of the 1st international conference on human systems engineering and design (ihsed 2018), future trends and applications (vol. 876, pp. 34–40), october 25–27, 2018, chu-université de reims champagne-ardenne, france: springer. aybas, m., & acar, a.c. (2017). the effect of hrm practices on employees’ work engagement and the mediating and moderating role of positive psychological capital. international review of management and marketing, 7(1), 363–372. bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & sanz-vergel, a.i. (2014). burnout and work engagement: the jd-r approach. annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behavior, 1, 389–411. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091235 baldassari, p., & roux, j.d. (2017). industry 4.0: preparing for the future of work. people & strategy, 40(3), 20–23. retrieved from https://www.nxtbook.com/ygsreprints/hrps/hrps_40_3_2017/index.php#/p/22 bandura, a. (1977). self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioural change. psychological review, 84(2), 191–215. https://doi.org/10.1037//0033-295x.84.2.191 bandura, a. (1986). social foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive theory. hoboken, nj: prentice hall. basl, j. (2017). pilot study of readiness of czech companies to implement the principles of industry 4.0. management and production engineering review, 8(2), 3–8. https://doi.org/10.1515/mper-2017-0012 biggs, a., brough, p., & barbour, j.p. (2014). strategic alignment with organizational priorities and work engagement: a multi-wave analysis. journal of organizational behavior, 35(3), 301–317. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1866 bloem, j., van doorn, m., duivestein, s., excoffier, d., maas, r., & van ommeren, e. (2013). the fourth industrial revolution: things to tighten the link between it and ot. retrieved from https://www.sogeti.com/globalassets/global/special/sogeti-things3en.pdf breevaart, k., bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2014). daily self-management and employee work engagement. journal of vocational behavior, 84(1), 31–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.11.002 carver, c.s., & scheier, m.f. (1981). attention and self-regulation: a control theory approach to human behavior. berlin: springer-verlag. carver, c.s., & scheier, m.f. (2002). optimism. in c.r. snyder & s.j. lopez (eds.), handbook of positive psychology (pp. 231–243). oxford: oxford university press. chernyak-hai, l., & rabenu, e. (2018). the new era workplace relationships: is social exchange theory still relevant. industrial and organizational psychology, 11(3), 456–481. https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2018.5 choi, m., suh, c., choi, s.p., lee, c.k., & son, b.c. (2020). validation of the work engagement scale-3, used in the 5th korean working conditions survey. annals of occupational and environmental medicine, 32, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.35371/aoem.2020.32.e27 chughtai, a.a., & buckley, f. (2008). work engagement and its relationship with state and trait trust: a conceptual analysis. journal of behavioural and applied management, 10(1), 47–71. https://doi.org/10.21818/001c.17170 cohen, d.j. (2015). hr past, present and future: a call for consistent practices and a focus on competencies. human resource management review, 25(2), 205–215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.01.006 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates, publishers. de bruyne, e., & gerritse, d. (2018). exploring the future workplace: results of the futures forum study. journal of corporate real estate, 20(3), 196–213. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcre-09-2017-0030 dhanpat, n., buthelezi, z.p., joe, m.r., maphela, t.v., & shongwe, n. (2020). industry 4.0: the role of human resource professionals. south african journal of human resource management, 18, a1302. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1302 dundon, t. (2019). the fracturing of work and employment relations. labour & industry: a journal of the social and economic relations of work, 29(1), 6–18. https://doi:10.1080/10301763.2018.1537047 feinberg, f.m., kinnear, t., & taylor, j.r. (2013). modern marketing research: concepts, methods, and cases. boston, ma: cengage learning. gautam, a., & enslin, e. (2019). transformational leadership and work engagement in the automotive retail industry: a study of south africa. international business research, 12(5), 133–141. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v12n5p133 gawke, j.c., gorgievski, m.j., & bakker, a.b. (2017). employee intrapreneurship and work engagement: a latent change score approach. journal of vocational behavior, 100, 88–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2017.03.002 gill, c., gardner, w., claeys, j., & vangronsvelt, k. (2018). using theory on authentic leadership to build a strong human resource management system. human resource management review, 28(3), 304–318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2018.02.006 gomes, c., curral, l., & caetano, a. (2015). the mediating effect of work engagement on the relationship between self-leadership and individual innovation. international journal of innovation management, 19(1), 1550009. https://doi.org/10.1142/s1363919615500097 guan, x., & frenkel, s. (2018). how hr practice, work engagement and job crafting influence employee performance. chinese management studies, 12(3), 591–607. https://doi.org/10.1108/cms-11-2017-0328 harris, r. (2015). the changing nature of the workplace and the future of office space. journal of property investment & finance, 33(5), 424–435. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpif-05-2015-0029 harunavamwe, m. (2018). the effect of psychological capital, self-leadership and job embeddedness on work engagement among employees in the banking sector. unpublished doctoral thesis, university of the free state. hatting, s. (2017). skills planning for the unpredictable, disruptive fourth industrial revolution: feature disruption. hr future, 1, 20–23. hayes, a.f. (2009). beyond baron and kenny: statistical mediation analysis in the new millennium. communication monographs, 76(4), 408–420. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637750903310360 hills, r., & levy, d. (2014). workspace design and fit-out: what knowledge workers value. property management, 32(5), 415–432. https://doi.org/10.1108/pm-02-2014-0011 houghton, d.j., dawley, d., & diliello, t.c. (2012). abbreviated self-leadership questionnaire (aslq): a more concise measure of self-leadership. international journal of leadership studies, 7(2), 216–232. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940210450484 houghton, d.j., & neck, c.p. (2002). the revised self-leadership questionnaire: testing a hierarchical factor structure for self-leadership. journal of managerial psychology, 17(8), 672–691. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940210450484 ingham, j., & ulrich, d. (2016). building better hr departments. strategic hr review, 15(3), 129–136. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr-03-2016-0025 kahn, w.a. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 33(4), 692–724. kämpf-dern, a., & konkol, j. (2017). performance-oriented office environments: framework for effective workspace design and the accompanying change processes. journal of corporate real estate, 19(4), 208–238. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcre-03-2017-0009 kanten, s., & sadullahb, o. (2012). an empirical research on relationship quality of work life and work engagement. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 62, 360–366. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.057 kotzé, m. (2017). the influence of psychological capital, self-leadership, and mindfulness on work engagement. south african journal of psychology, 48(2), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246317705812 kryscynski, d., reeves, c., stice-lusvardi, r., ulrich, m., & russell, g. (2017). analytical abilities and the performance of hr professionals. human resource management, 57(3), 715–738. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21854 lansbury, r.d. (2018). the changing world of work and employment relations: a multi-level institutional perspective of the future. labour & industry, 28(1), 5–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/10301763.2018.1427425 ljungholm, d.p. (2019). are the workers in the on-demand economy employees, independent contractors, or a hybrid category? linguistic and philosophical investigations, 18, 119–125. https://doi.org/10.22381/lpi1820197 longenecker, c., & fink, l.s. (2015). exceptional hr leadership rests on four foundations: business acumen, trust, expertise and culture make up the cornerstones. human resource management international digest, 23(1), 21–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid-12-2014-0160 lopez-cabrales, a., bornay-barrachina, m., & diaz-fernandez, m. (2017). leadership and dynamic capabilities: the role of hr systems. personnel review, 46(2), 255–276. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-05-2015-0146 lu, y. (2017). industry 4.0: a survey on technologies, applications and open research issues. journal of industrial information integration, 6, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jii.2017.04.005 macey, w.h., & schneider, b. (2008). the meaning of employee engagement. industrial and organizational psychology, 1(1), 3–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2007.0002.x mahembe, b., engelbrecht, a.s., & de kock, f.s. (2013). a confirmatory factor analytic study of a self-leadership measure in south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 11(1), a520. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.520 mahembe, b., engelbrecht, a., & wakelin, s. (2017). a study to assess the reliability and construct validity of the abbreviated self-leadership questionnaire: a south african study. south african journal of psychology, 47(3), 356–366. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246316675139 manz, c.c. (1983). the art of self-leadership: strategies for personal effectiveness in your life and work. hoboken, nj: prentice hall. manz, c.c. (1992). mastering self-leadership: empowering yourself for personal excellence. hoboken, nj: prentice hall. manz, c.c., & neck, c.p. (2004). mastering self-leadership: empowering yourself for personal excellence (3rd ed.). hoboken, nj: prentice hall. manz, c.c., & sims, h.p. (2001). the new superleadership: leading others to lead themselves. oakland, ca: berrett-koehler. miller, n.g. (2014). workplace trends in office space: implications for future office demand. journal of corporate real estate, 16(3), 159–181. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcre-07-2013-0016 molloy, l., & ronnie, l.c. (2021). mindset shifts for the fourth industrial revolution: insights from the life insurance sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1543. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1543 mustaffa, e.n., & ghani, m.f.a. (2019). self-leadership: challenges of malaysian students toward industrial revolution 4.0. in proceedings of the 3rd international conference on research of educational administration and management (icream 2019) (pp. 426–430). paris: atlantis press. https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.200130.215 mzangwa, s.t. (2015). legislation and employment relations in south africa: a narrative overview of workplace dispute. journal of governance and regulation, 4(1), 167–177. https://doi.org/10.22495/jgr_v4_i4_c1_p4 neck, c.p., & houghton, j.d. (2006). two decades of self-leadership theory and research. journal of managerial psychology, 21(4), 270–295. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610663097 neck, c.p., nouri, h., & godwin, j.l. (2003). how self-leadership affects the goal-setting process. human resource management review, 13(4), 691–707. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2003.11.009 norris, e. (2008). an examination of self-leadership. emerging leadership journeys, 1(2), 43–61. nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.r. (1994). psychometric theory. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. oberer, b., & erkollar, a. (2018). leadership 4.0: digital leaders in the age of industry 4.0. international journal of organizational leadership, 7, 404–412. https://doi.org/10.33844/ijol.2018.60332 park, y., song, j., & lim, d. (2016). organizational justice and work engagement: the mediating effect of self-leadership. leadership & organization development journal, 37(6), 711–729. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-09-2014-0192 politis, j.d. (2006). self-leadership behavioural-focused strategies and team performance: the mediating influence of job satisfaction. leadership & organization development journal, 27(3), 203–216. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730610657721 rahanu, h., georgiadou, e., siakas, k., ross, m., & berki, e. (2021). ethical issues invoked by industry 4.0. in: m. yilmaz, p. clarke, r. messnarz, & m. reiner (eds.), systems, software and services process improvement. eurospi 2021. communications in computer and information science (vol. 1442, pp. 589–606). cham: springer. roto, v., palanque p., & karvonen, h. (2019) engaging automation at work – a literature review. in b. barricelli, v. roto, t. clemmensen, p. campos, p. campos, f. gonçalves, & j. abdelnour-nocera (eds.), human work interaction design. designing engaging automation. hwid 2018. ifip advances in information and communication technology (vol. 544). cham: springer. saks, a. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169 sanders, a., elangeswaran, c., & wulfsberg, j. (2016). industry 4.0 implies lean manufacturing: research activities in industry 4.0 function as enablers for lean manufacturing. journal of industrial engineering and management, 9(3), 811–833. https://doi.org/10.3926/jiem.1940 schaufeli, w.b., bakker, a.b., & salanova, m. (2006). the measurement of work engagement with a short questionnaire: a cross-national study. educational and psychological measurement, 66(4), 701–716. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f0013164405282471 schaufeli, w.b., & salanova, m. (2007). work engagement: an emerging psychological concept and its implications for organizations. in s.w. gilliland, d.d. steiner, & d.p. skarlicki (eds.), managing social and ethical issues in organizations, vol. 5, research in social issues in management (pp. 135–177). charlotte, nc: information age publishers. schultz, c. (2017). future work: a qualitative review. journal of contemporary management, 14(1), 1143–1164. shaoping, y.u., huachun, x.u., & yongheng, y.o.u. (2015). research on the relation between the self-leadership and work engagement of the primary and junior school master. studies in sociology of science, 6(2), 17–21. https://doi.org/10.3968/6273 shrivastava, s., nagdev, k., & rajesh, a. (2018). redefining hr using people analytics: the case of google. human resource management international digest, 26(2), 3–6. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid-06-2017-0112 sivathanu, b., & pillai, r. (2018). smart hr 4.0 – how industry 4.0 is disrupting hr. human resource management international digest, 26(4), 7–11. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid-04-2018-0059 stewart, a., & stanford, j. (2017). regulating work in the gig economy: what are the options? economic and labour relations review, 28(3), 420–437. https://doi.org/10.1177/1035304617722461 suan, c.l., & nasurdin, a.m. (2014). an empirical investigation into the influence of human resource management practices on work engagement: the case of customer-contact employees in malaysia. international journal of culture, tourism and hospitality research, 8(3), 345–360. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijcthr-12-2013-0083 tensay, a.t., & singh, m. (2020). the nexus between hrm, employee engagement and organizational performance of federal public service organizations in ethiopia. heliyon, 6(6), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04094 thareja, r. (2020). contemporary hr technology trends for 2020. hr future, 2, 34–35. tortorella, g.l., & fettermann, d. (2017). implementation of industry 4.0 and lean production in brazilian manufacturing companies. international journal of production research, 56(8), 2975–2987. https://10.1080/00207543.2017.1391420 totterdill, p., & exton, r. (2014). work and organisations in 2020: the future we want? strategic direction, 30(9), 4–7. https://doi.org/10.1108/sd-09-2014-0110 ulrich, d., ulrich, m., burns, e.r., & wright, p. (2021). new hrcs 8 competency model focuses on simplifying complexity. retrieved september 06, 2021, from https://www.rbl.net/insights/articles/new-hrcs-8-competency-model-focuses-on-simplifying-complexity van den heuvel, s., & bondarouk, t. (2017). the rise (and fall?) of hr analytics: a study into the future application, value, structure, and system support. journal of organizational effectiveness: people and performance, 4(2), 157–178. https://doi.org/10.1108/joepp-03-2017-0022 van der togt, j., & rasmussen, t.h. (2017). toward evidence-based hr. journal of organizational effectiveness: people and performance, 4(2), 127–132. https://doi.org/10.1108/joepp-02-2017-0013 van dorssen-boog, p., de jong, j., veld, m., & van vuuren, t. (2020). self-leadership among healthcare workers: a mediator for the effects of job autonomy on work engagement and health. frontiers in psychology, 11, 1420. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01420 verma, a., bansal, m., & verma, j. (2020). industry 4.0: reshaping the future of hr. strategic direction, 36(5), 9–11. https://doi.org/10.1108/sd-12-2019-0235 wilkinson, a., barry, m., gomez, r., & kaufman, b.e. (2018). taking the pulse at work: an employment relations scorecard for australia. journal of industrial relations, 60(2), 145–175. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022185617748990 zhao, s., liu, m., zhu, c.j., & liu, h. (2020). the role of leadership in human resource management: perspectives and evidence from asia pacific. asia pacific business review. https://doi.org/10.1080/13602381.2020.1779496 abstract introduction literature research design results discussion limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) vusi mthimkhulu department of psychology, college of human sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa hugo d. van der walt institute for open and distance learning, college of education, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation mthimkhulu, v., & van der walt, h.d. (2021). wokers’ awareness of alcohol breathalyser test in the workplace and their alcohol consumption patterns. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1627. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1627 project research registration: project number: 35353740 original research wokers’ awareness of alcohol breathalyser test in the workplace and their alcohol consumption patterns vusi mthimkhulu, hugo d. van der walt received: 07 apr. 2021; accepted: 15 june 2021; published: 22 july 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: an alcohol breathalyser test is one of various methods of assessing alcohol consumption behaviour of workers in the workplace. its awareness can yield insights on behavioural change of alcohol-consuming individuals in safety-sensitive settings when being aware of alcohol breathalyser testing. research purpose: a breathalyser test provides an efficient means of measuring blood alcohol concentration within seconds of an employee blowing into the device. the purpose of this research was to examine awareness of breathalyser testing to capture meaning that can offer insights on behaviour under research. motivation for research: the research was prompted by a quest to gain understanding of thought processes (motivation to control behaviour) when alcohol is involved. by focusing on awareness, it was possible to interpret behaviour. the research is a basis for future studies and can contribute to discussions related to alcohol testing in the workplace. research approach/design and method: a qualitative approach was followed to gain insights into the topic under research. eight alcohol-consuming individuals who performed jobs considered high-risk consented to participate in semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. the data were analysed through interpretative phenomenological analysis (ipa). main findings: the findings revealed excessive alcohol consumption and intoxication in spite of awareness of breathalyser testing. individuals prone to external inducements were more likely to abuse alcohol. behaviour therefore tends to be unstable and impulsive when alcohol is involved. practical implications: reporting for work after excessive drinking of alcohol is not an indication of total soberness. individuals may physically be present in the workplace without making any contribution to work processes because of effects of alcohol. contribution/value-add: the research highlights behavioural insights that can contribute to studies related to locus of control and control over alcohol in relation to testing to workplace testing. keywords: behavioural change; breathalyser testing; effects of alcohol; inducements; locus of control; workplace testing. introduction orientation alcohol and drug testing is a modern practice in the workplace, dating back only as early as the 1980s (besinger, 2017). the rise in workplace testing originated between 1985 and 1991 in workplaces in the usa (hartwell, steele, park, & roddman, 1996). the need for testing was brought by the mounting substance-related cases and work-related incidents (accidents, fatalities and absenteeism) associated with alcohol, which had an impact on profitability and sustainability of workplaces (besinger, 2017). by 1992, alcohol and drug testing in the usa had increased from 18% to 40%; thus, nearly 77% of its companies reported making use of alcohol and drug testing in their workplaces (hartwell et al., 1996). the market for alcohol and drug testing in the usa alone is estimated at over $2.6 billion with more than 150 million alcohol and drug tests having been performed in its workplaces (phifer, 2016). a study aimed at establishing the prevalence of alcohol and cannabis in south african mines found that alcohol use tends to be high among mineworkers in south africa and australia (pick et al., 2003). to illustrate, the prevalence of risky drinking among workers in a south african gold mine was found to be 32% with the majority of those workers in unskilled or semiskilled positions (kew, 1994 cited in pick et al., 2003). another study that examined the consequences of alcohol abuse and cigarette consumption in mamre (western cape) found that the highest rates of alcohol abuse (32%) as a household problem among unskilled manual workers and the lowest rates (9.1%) were among professionals (yach & joubert, 1988 cited in pick et al., 2003). a study in namibia that explored the comprehensiveness of alcohol and drug testing in the mining sector found high prevalence rates of alcohol abuse within communities (maree, lightfoot, & ananias, 2016). correspondingly, south african community epidemiology network on drug use’s observation (sacendu) has found alcohol to commonly abuse in the context of south africa (sutherland & ericson, 2010). the above insights point to alcohol as both a challenge for the workplace and within communities (maree et al., 2016; sutherland & ericson, 2010). conversely, the mining sector in south africa tends to regulate alcohol in its workplaces because of hazards associated with the working environment, thus fitting the description of a safety-sensitive workplace. to illustrate, the burden of safety in the workplace lies solely with the employers in this sector; however, workers also accept responsibility for their safety by adhering to safety regulations in the workplace (the mine health and safety act 29 of 1996). in spite of these stricter regulations, absenteeism seems to cost the south african economy almost r9billion a year (fourie, 2017). the diamond mining industry alone has reported production losses of nearly r476 525 per shift in 2016, which totalled to nearly r3 967 792 240 (fourie, 2017). subsequently, the production losses in 2017 amounted to r3 400 249 988 (fourie, 2017). in general, the mining sector tends to lose 86 working days a year to absenteeism because of alcohol (fourie, 2017). these findings are a cause of concern as three out of four persons in the workplace consume alcohol (fourie, 2017). moreover, the rates of alcohol were found to be predominantly high among unskilled manual workers (32%) and professionals (9.1%) in the workplace (yach & joubert, 1988 cited in pick et al., 2003). research purpose and objectives an alcohol breathalyser test is perceived to be effective in managing alcohol consumption behaviour of workers in the workplace (hartwell et al., 1996). the purpose of this research was to explore lived experiences of alcohol-consuming individuals and their awareness of breathalyser testing to gain understanding of thought processes that can yield insights on behaviour (control). as discussed in the earlier section, alcohol has a bearing on the workplace in south africa, particularly in sectors deemed to be safety-sensitive (i.e. mining) where alcohol is restricted (fourie, 2017; maree et al., 2016; pick et al., 2003). the objective of the research was to discover meaning in accordance with the world view of research participants under study (thanh, thi, & thanh, 2015). the individual accounts of experiences of breathalyser testing therefore laid ground to this social inquiry in pursuit of meaning. literature an alcohol breathalyser is a device used in alcohol testing procedures, which measures blood alcohol concentration (bac) by analysing an amount of alcohol in the bloodstream through a breath sample (swartz, 2004). an alcohol breathalyser test is regarded as less intrusive in comparison to other procedures, which tend to draw blood or make use of urine samples from a worker suspected to be under the influence of alcohol (bible, 1986). breathalyser devices are considered more practical and their portability (handheld) makes it easy to administer alcohol tests in the workplace (workman, 2012). these devices can deliver prompt results in seconds of a worker blowing into the device (workman, 2012). alcohol breathalyser devises are therefore expedient, cost-effective and effective in monitoring alcohol in the workplace (hartwell et al., 1996). alcohol is a considerable safety hazard for a workplace deemed to be safety-sensitive, which then permits such companies to institute disciplinary measures as prescribed within employment law in south africa (department of labour of south africa, 1995) (department of labour of south africa, 1995). thus, line managers may elect temporary measures (i.e. issuing written warnings) or lasting measures (i.e. rehabilitation or ongoing counselling) in dealing with alcohol in the workplace (cook, 2014; hartwell et al., 1996; johns, 2016). in exceptional circumstances, a worker may be requested by a line manager to use sick leave as justification for absence from work because of alcohol (maree et al., 2016). in extreme cases, a worker may be dismissed through termination of a contract of employment because of alcohol; in addition, criminal charges may be pursued externally (i.e. magistrate court), showing evidence that the worker concerned was in a safety-critical role (cook, 2014; olbina, hinze, & arduengo, 2011). an alcohol breathalyser test is therefore not only essential in detecting workers whose performance may be temporarily or permanently impaired because of alcohol, but also in removing those workers from the workplace because of the risk that they might pose on themselves and others while working in a safety-sensitive working environment (pidd & roche, 2014). although alcohol breathalyser devices appear to be useful and convenient for monitoring alcohol in the workplace, problems with inconsistencies in the results of tests are not uncommon with these types of devices. alcohol breathalysers tend to be inclined to discrepancies because of false positives within the process of testing (workman, 2012). for example, electrochemical fuelled cells on the mouthpiece of a breathalyser device tend to respond to all members of the alcohol family indiscriminately, which includes thousands of compounds (workman, 2012). thus, products that contain alcohol (i.e. medicine or yeast) are likely to report false positives (workman, 2012). for this reason, a second or third test is normally recommended to rule out any inconsistencies in the process of testing for alcohol; however, this practice is not universally applicable and is largely dependent on policies governing each and every particular workplace (workman, 2012). theoretical perspectives underpinning behaviour the understanding and interpretation of behaviour under this section was drawn from social learning theory as ascribed by julian rotter and later conceptualised the model of locus of control (beukman, 2005). the capacity of individuals to exercise control over specific events in their lives is seen as either coming from within individuals themselves or coming from the environment (beukman, 2005). thus, individuals who attribute control over the events in their lives as coming from within themselves tend to have an internal locus of control and individuals who attribute control to external influences tend to have an external locus of control (roddenberry, 2007). locus of control is therefore a point at which an individual is confident in controlling the outcomes of events in life as either coming from within the individual or swayed by external influences (roddenberry, 2007). according to roddenberry (2007), beliefs are perceived as a channel to a psychological functioning of an individual. the attributes of an individual are therefore perceived to be shaped by judgements (i.e. beliefs and commitments), which are significant indicators of a persons’ psychological functioning (folkman, 1984 cited in roddenberry, 2007). under this research, it is possible that alcohol-consuming individuals will tend to reduce or abstain from alcohol when off-site because of awareness of breathalyser testing in the workplace. thus, when individuals believed to have control over situations involving alcohol will likely reduce or refrain from alcohol, which indicate internal locus of control (roddenberry, 2007). the event that individuals believed to have no control over these specific situations because of factors in the environment and thereby getting intoxicated is an indication of external locus of control (roddenberry, 2007). it is, however, important to note that within the concept of locus of control, internality and externality symbolise two ends of a continuum, and not an either/or classification because there is another type of control that involved a mix of internal or external types. individuals with combination types tend to take personal responsibility for their actions while still able to attribute control to external influences. an experiment in the usa has found that safety-related incidents in the workplace to be linked directly to mistakes made by workers (wuebker, 2011). the experiment implemented a safety-locus-of-control scale, which divided workers likely to be at risk of unsafe behaviours at work (i.e. accidents and injuries) into two groups categorised low accident group and high accident group. the scale then assessed the risk factors through variables labelled internally orientated and externally orientated behaviours. the hypothesis was that internally orientated individuals would exhibit a tendency to show an association between personal behaviour and the outcome (risky behaviours). the data revealed that workers in low accident group demonstrated more internal orientation in their safety locus of control beliefs in comparison with workers in the high accident group (wuebker, 2011). thus, the more internally orientated the group was, the lower the risks were associated with accidents (wuebker, 2011). the above experiment therefore showed that locus of control was significant in shedding behavioural insights that can significantly contribute to the workplace. the concept of locus of control was therefore deemed fit to interpret and explain behaviour under this research. research design research approach this research process adopted an interpretivist paradigmatic qualitative approach by exploring detailed accounts of research participants regarding a specific phenomenological experience (gough & lyons, 2016). face-to-face interview was the only vehicle to gain access to rich and in-depth accounts of the phenomenon reported under this research (smith, flowers, & larkin, 2012). a qualitative interpretivist stance was deemed to be fit to capture lived experience and the essence of meaning as told by research participants (thanh et al., 2015). research strategy face-to-face interviews provided an occasion to explore in-depth understanding of the phenomenon under research (smith et al., 2012). this approach enabled a dialogue in real time between the researcher and research participants to achieve a conversation with a purpose in accordance with research aims (smith et al., 2012). in addition, this approach enabled contact with research participants thereby adding a human component in the process of research, which assisted in capturing meaning by taking cognisant the emotions and feelings of research participants. these insights were incorporated into the analysis to deliver the richness of lived experiences (smith et al., 2012). research method the study is exploratory and seeks to gain new understanding of a topic under research (mayer, 2015). this research seeks to make a contribution towards discussions related to alcohol consumption behaviour in relation to alcohol testing in the workplace, and lays groundwork for future studies. the exploratory method was therefore fit for purpose because the research intent was not only to articulate concluding proof of the phenomenon under research, but also to lay ground for further studies within this particular field (mayer, 2015). research setting data were collected in different parts of johannesburg and midvaal, south africa. these areas are located close to industrial sites (manufacturing, chemical, steel and mining) where safety-sensitive companies tend to employ people from nearby communities. entrée and establishing researcher roles the first researcher is a postgraduate student and a lecturer in the department of psychology at the university of south africa in pretoria, south africa. the second researcher is an academic staff member at open and distance learning (iodl), university of south africa in pretoria, south africa. the first researcher collected the data, analysed and interpreted it while the second researcher supervised and assisted in interpreting and structuring the research. research participants and sampling the sample consisted of eight male individuals between ages of 32 and 60 who indicated that they were inclined to alcohol consumption outside working hours, performed tasks at work that were considered high-risk and were frequently exposed to alcohol breathalyser testing at work. the sample is in accordance with interpretative phenomenological analysis (ipa) studies where participants have shared experiences of a phenomenon in a specific context (burr, king, & butt, 2014; smith, flowers, & larkin, 2012). a purposive snowball sampling technique was employed, which involved asking those who have already been approached to be part of the research if they knew other individuals who may be interested in taking part in research (smith et al., 2012). data collection the interviews were face-to-face and semi-structured through an interview guide, which assisted in capturing the dialogue in real time in three different languages preferred by individuals under research (i.e. isizulu, sesotho and english). an interview guide consisted of 19 questions divided into five sections (i.e. parts a–e). the structure of questions included closed questions (7) and open-ended (12) questions. the open-ended questions encouraged the participants to deliver detailed information under the discussion and allowed the researcher to pursue meaning. the closed questions included prompts to encourage engagement and bolster the conversation, which is consistent with ipa approach to assist with the flow of an interview process (smith et al., 2012). the questions were formulated with consideration of behaviour as a point at which individuals felt encouraged and confident in controlling situations involving alcohol or otherwise felt discouraged because of influences in the environment (beukman, 2005; roddenberry, 2007). strategies employed to ensure data quality and integrity the research ensured scientific rigour through credibility, dependability, transferability and confirmability (zhang & wildemuth, 2005). credibility this research achieved credibility through constant interaction between the authors of this research on coding methods to ensure that the themes were efficiently drawn from raw data and represented the experiences and perceptions of the sample. in addition, the second researcher is a trained and certified senior atlas.ti software trainer and coder. transferability in this research, transferability was achieved through the interpreted analysis of the data from atlas.ti. the raw data and the printed transcripts are available for audit or further research purposes (within the limits of ethical consideration discussed in the consent form). the availability of the coding methods in analysing data to deduce meaning also provides a basis to which other researchers could make their own conclusions about the findings of the research. dependability the transcribed interviews, field notes, reflective notes from the notebook and the codebook can be available on request in the event of an audit trial, thus ensuring dependability. confirmability in this study, the substantiation of field notes, interpretative notes from the codebook, the coding process followed as well as the appendices to the research are kept in a safe place for audit purposes. data analysis data analysis involved the application of an ipa approach that is concerned with the appreciation of language in interpreting messages that simplify experiences and perceptions of the world as seen by individuals under research (smith et al., 2012). congruently, the ipa approach is regarded as a well-established approach to study a range of psychological topics (smith et al., 2012). the analysis process involved identifying patterns among emergent themes from data and developing them into superordinate and subordinate themes using atlas.ti software. the themes belonging together were clustered and reduced into meaning according to the lived experiences and perceptions of the individuals under discussion. the collated codes and themes were further cross-checked and discussed until consensus was reached by researchers. atlas.ti assisted in analysing the complex phenomenon hidden in the data through its contemporary data analyses tools. reporting style three major themes were identified in relation to awareness of alcohol breathalyser testing while consuming alcohol outside work contexts. the themes focused on aspects of behaviour in accordance with the literature under research. the findings were reported according to themes with each finding backed by direct quotations from the individuals within research. ethical considerations information sheets and consent forms provided in-depth details of the research prior to participation in the research process. the information included the right to participate or withdraw (voluntarily), privacy and confidentiality, limitation of anonymity and risks to potential harm during the course of research. the authors applied for permission from the ethics committee of the university of south africa (unisa), department of psychology (ref no: perc-17401). pseudo names (p1–p8) were employed to protect the identities of research participants. results three major themes emerged during data analysis: (1) reaction to awareness of breathalyser testing (when consuming alcohol), (2) perceptions of control and (3) personal meaning of lived experiences. these themes are discussed in detail in the following section. reaction to awareness of breathalyser testing (when consuming alcohol) by emphasising awareness (alertness) under this section, it was possible to gain insights into individuals’ thoughts and interpretations (cognitive occurrences) in their own understanding (meaning) to interpret and analyse behaviour. under this theme, individuals reported ceasing the use of alcohol; however, the ceasing of alcohol use transpired very late in spite of the awareness of breathalyser testing. the excerpts of data below highlight these instances transpiring with awareness of breathalyser testing: ‘from 12 o’clock midnight, if you were drinking the whole of sunday. now, i’m actually supposed to be preparing myself for work and i am aware of the consumption, and then i am aware of tomorrow around 07:00 i will be tested.’ (p1) ‘ten o’clock (22h00) i have stopped consuming alcohol, i’m always aware.’ (p2) ‘so it’s up to me that at 4 or 6 o’clock in the afternoon, i stop.’ (p6) the behaviour highlighted above is a cause of concern because safety-sensitive workplaces tend to have shift work patterns that commence between 07:00 and 19:00 at any given 24-h day (health safety executive, 2006). the overlap in excessive drinking of alcohol (until very late) and job demands (to reporting early for work) culminated to absenteeism from the workplace because of effects of alcohol. the quotations below point to this behaviour: ‘i feel that i am really drunk, i must not go to work. i will not go to work.’ (p3) ‘you tell yourself that tomorrow you’re not going to work.’ (p4) ‘tomorrow you try to wake up, the head is heavy, agh no. i’m not going to work. you just tell yourself that you are bunking.’ (p6) data revealed incidences of dishonest behaviour carried out to justify absences from the workplace because of effects of alcohol. this behaviour concurred with the description of absenteeism as unauthorised absences from work for any reasons other than illness (fourie, 2017): ‘on monday, i just have to go to a doctor and lie. maybe you go to a doctor you get a letter for 1 day.’ (p4) ‘at the doctor there’s no this thing that you’re drunk, sometimes we tell them that i didn’t go to work because of 1 … 2 … 3 (other reasons not related to intoxication) and he writes you a letter that you will present that you were not okay.’ (p8) ‘you ask for those 3 days, while at home.’ (p6) under this theme, the results have shown that seizing alcohol consumption transpired very late (from 16:00–12:00) when individuals have already reached intoxication. in addition, individuals confirmed that they were aware of breathalyser testing all the while consuming alcohol. in terms of data, the stoppage of alcohol was therefore unrelated to awareness of breathalyser testing because alcohol ensued to a level of intoxication despite this seeming awareness. perceptions of control data under this theme revealed instances when individuals felt confident and believed to be in control by refraining from alcohol. this behaviour was interpreted as internal locus of control because self-confidence emanated from within the individuals under research, thus maintaining control over specific events in life (beukman, 2005; roddenberry, 2007). the researchers noted that control over situations specified below was unrelated to awareness of breathalyser testing according to data excerpts: ‘you are able to; they [friends] will drink while you’re just sitting there. sometimes i just want their company, i don’t want to drink.’ (p6) ‘you channel your mind into other things that excite you, like music.’ (p1) ‘i could have a wonderful and a great time without consuming any alcohol. i’ll say it actually helps a bit [breathalyser], but like i said, in my case it’s not really a concern.’ (p2) data also revealed instances where challenges with maintaining control over certain events were encountered because of inducements external to individuals (i.e. drinking peers and entertainment). this behaviour was interpreted as external locus of control because individuals believed that they had little or no control over certain events in life (beukman, 2005; roddenberry, 2007). correspondingly, a study conducted in australia that assessed problematic drinking behaviour; the levels of alcohol consumption, restrained drinking and cognitive control found that dedicating considerable strength (i.e. cognitive effort) to managing an emotion can exhaust or drain coping resources (williams & ricciardelli, 1999). thus, in the case of alcohol consuming behaviour, the signals to drink are more likely to override the intentions to drink less or abstain from alcohol (williams & ricciardelli, 1999). data in this research concurred with this understanding that cues to drink alcohol tended to dominate the intentions to drink less or refrain from alcohol as specified in williams and ricciardelli (1999). the excerpts below point out such behaviour: ‘it’s difficult because the people who invited you will always want to offer you something to drink.’ (p2) ‘we enjoyed ourselves, and i forgot about my work. there is no one who will block you. you are happy for each other isn’t.? it becomes so nice.’ (p7) ‘it is because of enjoyment, when you check your time, it is already late.’ (p3) ‘the vibe [entertainment] where you are it would be lit [abuzz].’ (p4) overlapping with behaviours stated above were consumption of alcohol on sundays, which individuals highlighted as challenging because of external inducements (i.e. drinking peers and entertainment) which is more prominent on sundays: ‘sunday was too hectic for me, it seems like alcohol becomes very nice. it’s difficult to control yourself, mostly i drink beer, sometimes if i drink whisky, i forget myself, when i look it’s already late and now i’m mixing [beer] and whisky. then when your friend arrives, he gets 4 [beers] and puts it here, you see, it’s difficult.’ (p8) ‘there are instances like that, where you feel like okay, i drank over or maybe i don’t even know when i’m drunk.’ (p1) ‘it is fun, and alcohol on a sunday becomes more delicious.’ (p6) the behaviours highlighted above were congruent with a method of control labelled retrained. restrained is characterised by rigid control intermingled with sessions of self-indulgence (i.e. bingeing); thus, it was found to be a counteractive method (williams & ricciardelli, 1999). in the context of this research process, those behaviours were interpreted as external locus of control because of control attributed to external influences (beukman, 2005; roddenberry, 2007). data revealed that these periods of excessive alcohol consumption were followed by drinking certain remedies believed to offset the effects of alcohol. the individuals believed that these remedies were effective in offsetting the effects of alcohol despite the information that alcohol measuring instruments can detect alcohol on the breath for up to 24 h after its consumption (wagener, 2021). the quotations below are from the individuals: however, they were uncomfortable in discussing these remedies in detail: ‘there’s a medication that they take, when we test your alcohol it won’t show. he knows that in the morning when i go to work, i will do [1, 2…. referring to instructions on the use of this medication]. when they test me it won’t show.’ (p5) ‘others believe that when they are drunk, they should vomit in the morning. like those who drink almost every day.’ (p5) ‘i know that when i wake up in the morning, maybe i have to drink something and vomit it to cleanse myself, but i have to do something about the alcohol in my system.’ (p3) data indicated that the individuals were cognisant of the effects of alcohol, but nevertheless, went to the workplace (considered to be safety-sensitive) to perform jobs regarded as high-risk. below are individuals’ quotations from data: ‘so if you stop around 10 (pm) there’s a possibility that it’s already morning, already you are waking up to go to work. that thing will still be there, because if you stop at around 10 (pm) most of the times in the morning you will suffer hangover.’ (p5) ‘it’s there but you know there’s something called a hangover, it’s yesterdays’, you’re not drunk it’s yesterdays.’ (p6) ‘but the water consumption is just for me to like to try and not really be babalas in the morning.’ (p2) the results were consistent with the practice of a second and/or third alcohol test employed to minimise inconsistencies in the results of tests (workman, 2012). data showed that the beliefs about control were resilient despite the results of tests indicating the presence of alcohol that was not related to medicine or yeast: ‘sometimes it reduces, sometimes it rises, and sometimes it vanishes from your body, like maybe its yesterday’s alcohol.’ (p5) ‘first test, second test is to show us the alcohol you consumed, like you say it may happen that people drink in the morning, it rises. when it reduces, we know at least they may allow you at the company, maybe you stay there so that after maybe 3, 2 hours you eat because they need you inside.’ (p5) the results under this theme showed the challenges regarding control, especially when alcohol is involved. the drinking of unspecified medicines was interpreted as feelings of regret after excessive alcohol drinking and perhaps transpiring with sense of responsibility, hence efforts to regain control and attempting to go to the workplace despite alcohol effects. the inconsistencies in testing results (i.e. second to third testing) seemed to assure the individuals of some level of control despite suffering from the effects of alcohol. this behaviour was interpreted in accordance with mixed types locus of control because, on the one hand, individuals took personal responsibility for their actions (i.e. attempting to go to the workplace after excessive alcohol drinking); and, on the other hand, still relied on external resources (i.e. second or third tests) (international journal of indian psychology inc., 2014). personal meaning of lived experiences the ipa method allows individuals to reflect on their experiences of the phenomenon under research (smith et al., 2012). thus, the way in which individuals describe what is occurring in their lives tends to shed light on the meaning attached to those experiences regarding a phenomenological experience (gough & lyons, 2016). the meaning of experiences was therefore significant in appreciation of thoughts, emotions and behaviour of participants within this research process (burr et al., 2014). the interpretation of how the individuals viewed what was happening in their lives was in accordance with their meaning they ascribe to it (thanh et al., 2015). the data excerpts highlight individuals’ accounts as told by them: ‘i would say as an individual the issue of tests is not fine, but it has to be done in firms. it is right.’ (p7) ‘people shouldn’t perceive being tested for alcohol at the workplace as a negative thing; is a positive thing. there’s a lot of good that comes out of it.’ (p2) data indicated that individuals believed that the absence of alcohol breathalyser testing in the workplace would lead to total loss of control in behaviour. the sentiments expressed regarding alcohol testing seemed applicable in both work and personal contexts according to data below: ‘i stopped drinking, because of this testing thing.’ (p6) ‘i love it, it protects me, i work with things that are very dangerous, and i won’t be compromised like that. they can test me ten times a day, i wouldn’t mind.’ (p2) ‘factories are not made for alcohol. so i think that this thing of making people blow is a good thing. it should not only be in factories, even at municipal offices and schools it should be done.’ (p4) results under this theme illuminated individuals’ accounts of acceptance of breathalyser testing as part of everyday existence in that it has changed lives; and thus, viewed in a positive light. the impression that testing should be made public policy emphasised the significance of breathalyser testing in the context of this research. however, the confidence in breathalyser testing to regulate alcohol consumption behaviour may be limiting; and thus, undercut the importance of learning other ways of managing behaviour such as beliefs and commitments (internally orientated), which tend to hold significant meaning (roddenberry, 2007). discussion the results have shown consumption of alcohol until early hours of the next working day with full awareness of impending breathalyser testing in the workplace. this finding raised a concern because the working shifts in safety-sensitive work settings tend to start as early as 07:00 to 19:00 (health safety executive, 2006). in addition, alcohol testing devices are perceived to be proficient in measuring alcohol in the bloodstream for up to 6 h and on the breath for 12–24 h (wagener, 2021). sleep deprivation overlapping with effects of alcohol may be a hazard for high-risk jobs in work settings considered safety-sensitive. moreover, it has been shown that work-related incidents (i.e. accidents and fatalities) were because of mistakes made by workers as opposed to the dangerous equipment in the workplace because of alcohol (fourie, 2017; olbina et al., 2011; wuebker, 2011). the results point to awareness of alcohol breathalyser testing as less likely to discourage alcohol consumption in the context of this research. in addition, consumption of alcohol tends to ensue despite the possibility of dismissal from the workplace in the event that alcohol is detected through breathalyser testing. conversely, the notion of ‘yesterday alcohol’ created a misconception of control to the individuals under study. the drinking of unspecified medicines contributed to misdirected beliefs about control. in spite of these flaws in cognitive thinking (i.e. perception), beliefs regarding control remained concrete. this insight was congruent with a view that beliefs were significant indicators of a person’s psychological functioning (folkman, 1984 cited in roddenberry, 2007). the results stressed the significance (meaning) of alcohol breathalyser testing in the context of this research. breathalyser testing may have changed lives (i.e. permanent sobriety), and this total reliance may signal difficulties in adjusting behaviour. this understanding agrees with the view that the more life experiences an individual has in building up a set of beliefs, the more self-control and involvement it would be required for a change in behaviour to transpire (mearns, 2014). thus, learned behaviours and persevered attitudes can be resistant to change (mearns, 2014). the reliance on breathalyser testing is therefore problematic in this regard. however, as with an interpretivist approach, the exploration of the human experience is viewed as value-bound and value-laden (schwandt, 2001 cited in wagner, kawulich, & garner, 2012). therefore, data analysis in this research took cognisant of the significance (meaning) of values of the research participants within the research (wagner et al., 2012). the interpretation of meaning was without judgement of lived experiences of individuals under this research because in ipa research, there are no wrong or right values, but different values (tam, 2016). limitations and recommendations the sample dominated by men with shop floor and engineering backgrounds within safety-sensitive work settings in spite of gender not being an emphasis of this research. in addition, snowballing sampling technique was employed to attract a diverse and representative sample of research participants interested in taking part in the research; however, it was not possible to attract a representative sample. this challenge is therefore considered a limitation because of safety-sensitive industries dominated by men. future research can therefore endeavour to close this gap through rigorous sampling methods. in addition, the research is based on data collected from johannesburg and midvaal, which is a limitation. the results could therefore not be generalised. conclusion the researchers concluded that behaviour tends to be unstable and impulsive when alcohol is involved. a breathalyser test alone may therefore be impractical to monitor alcohol consumption behaviour on and off the job. self-regulating behaviour is complex when alcohol is involved; moreover, when the inducements in the environment tend to be overpowering. for that reason, alcohol-consuming workers are likely to be in the workplace without adding any value to the work processes because of suffering from the effects of alcohol. beliefs that ‘its yesterday’s alcohol’ is not only unscientific, but a hazard for work settings considered safety-sensitive. although not proposed as the panacea to wiping out alcohol in the workplace, it may be prudent that any detected alcohol on the breath of a worker should be a cause for an investigation that precludes entry to the work area in spite of the operational or production demands. thus, a second or third breathalyser test should be reserved only for medically related reasons backed by a written medical document that a worker concerned can perform only light duties in the workplace for a specified period of time. moreover, it has been shown that medicine (not alcohol) tends to complicate testing results when making use of breathalyser devices (workman, 2012). medically related reasons should therefore be the only authorisation for a second or third test as opposed to dedicating efforts to re-establishing alcohol levels in the breath of workers who may be inebriated or suffering from effects of alcohol while on duty. the onus to proof that the bac reflected on the breathalyser device is medically related, and not from stale alcohol should shift to workers. this approach can therefore compel workers to accept responsibility and commitment to safety in the workplace. this practice may reinforce zero tolerance for alcohol in the workplace. this research was not able to establish the influence of alcohol on safety and performance in the workplace. future studies should endeavour to close this gap to contribute to the debate. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions v.m. drafted the article from the field research supervised by h.d. and h. d. v.d.w. also contributed to editing and refining the article prior to submission. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not for profit sectors. data availability the data for this particular study are restricted to accessibility on granting permission from the university of south africa. special permission should be granted from the institution to gain access to data. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references besinger, p.b. (2017). drug testing in the workplace. the annals of the american academy of political and social science, vol. 498, the private security industry: issues and trends (july 1998), 498, 43–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716288498001005 beukman, t.l. (2005). the effect of selected variables on leadership behaviour within the framework of a transformational organisation paradigm. pretoria: university of pretoria. bible, j.d. (1986). screening workers for drugs: the constitutional implications of urine testing in public employment. american business journal, 24(3), 309–357. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-1714.1986.tb00501.x burr, v., king, n., & butt, t. (2014). personal construct psychology methods for qualitative research. international journal of social research methodology, 17(4), 341–355. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2012.730702 cook, n. (2014). health focus. the rospa occupational safety & health journal, april, 13–17. labour relations amendment act, pub. l. no. 38512, 412 (1995). department of labour of south africa. 1995. labour relations act no.66 of 1995. fourie, r. (2017). fatigue, substance use and sick leave of employees in a mining environment (issue may). potchefstroom: north-west university. gough, b., & lyons, a. (2016). the future of qualitative research in psychology: accentuating the positive. integr psych behav, 50, 234–243. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-015-9320-8 hartwell, t.d., paul d.s., michael t.f., & nathaniel, f.r. (1996). prevalence of drug testing in the workplace. monthly labor review, 119(11), 35–41. health safety executive. (2006). managing shiftwork – health and safety guidance. hse books (pp. 1–45). london: crown business. international journal of indian psychology inc. (2014). the international journal of indian psychology. the international journal of indian psychology, 1(3). retrieved from https://books.google.co.za/books/about/the_international_journal_of_indian_psyc.html?id=qbbfcwaaqbaj&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y. johns, d.v. (2016). the national labor relations board’s misapplication of weingarten rights to employer substance abuse testing programs. labor law journal, 67(1), 285–297. maree, m., lightfoot, e., & ananias, j. (2016). a comprehensive alcohol and drug testing policy in the workplace as an intervention in the mining sector. journal for studies in humanities and social sciences, 5(1), 1–8. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307924743_a_comprehensive_alcohol_and_drug_testing_policy_in_the_workplace_as_an_intervention_in_the_mining_sector mayer, i. (2015). qualitative research with focus on qualitative data analysis. international journal of sales, retailing and marketing, 4(9), 53–68. mearns, j. (2014). julian b. rotter (1916–2014) (issue october 1916). thousand oaks, ca: sage olbina, s., jimmie, h., & christopher, a. (2011). drug testing practices in the us construction industry in 2008. construction management and economics, 29(10), 1043–1057. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2011.631553 phifer, r. (2016). a sensible approach to workplace drug testing for cannabis. journal of chemical health & safety, 24(2), 34–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchas.2016.06.004 pick, w., naidoo, s., ajani, f., onmukwe, v., hansia, r., & biele, o. (2003). prevalence of alcohol and cannabis use and reported knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding its relationship with health and safety on mines in south africa. retrieved n.d. from http://hdl.handle.net/10204/1277 pidd, k., & roche, a.m. (2014). how effective is drug testing as a workplace safety strategy? a systematic review of the evidence. accident analysis and prevention, 71, 154–165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2014.05.012 roddenberry, a.c. (2007). locus of control and self-efficacy: potential mediators of stress, illnes, and utilization of heath services in college students. doctoral dissertation (open access). smith, j., flowers, p., & larkin, m. (2012). interpretative phenomenological analysis, theory, method and esearch. london, england: sage. sutherland, m.e., & ericson, r. (2017). abuse, and treatment in people of african descent. journal of balck studies, 41(1), 71–88. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934708331169 swartz, j. (2004). breath testing for prosecutors: targeting hardcore impaired drivers. american prosecutors research institute. alexandria, va. tam, c. (2016). investigating the experiences of special school visual arts teachers: an illustration of phenomenological methods and analysis. indo-pacific journal of phenomenology, 16(october), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/20797222.2016.1208031 thanh, n.c., thi, t., & thanh, l. (2015). the interconnection between interpretivist paradigm and qualitative methods in education. american journal of educational science, 1(2), 24–27. the mine health and safety act no 29, pub. l. no. 29, 3 (1996). wagener, d. (2021). how long does alcohol stay in your system? americanaddictioncenters.org. retrieved from https://americanaddictioncenters.org/alcoholism-treatment/how-long-in-system wagner, c., kawulich, b., & garner, m. (eds.). (2012). doing social research: a global context. berkshire: mcgraw-hill education. williams, r.j., & ricciardelli, l.a. (1999). restrained drinking and cognitive control among adolescents. adolescence, 34(135), 557–565. workman, t.e. (2012). the science behind breath testing for ethanol. umass law review, 2(110), 110–180. wuebker, l.j. (2011). safety locus of control as a predictor of industrial accidents and injuries. jstor, 1(1), 19–30. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01014164 zhang, y., & wildemuth, b.m. (2005). qualitative analysis of content. human brain mapping, 30(7), 2197–2206. abstract introduction research methodology research results discussion acknowledgements references appendix 1: pilot study’s questionnaire appendix 2: main study’s questionnaire appendix 3: participants’ informed consent form about the author(s) john k. aderibigbe department of industrial psychology, university of fort hare, south africa themba q. mjoli department of industrial psychology, university of fort hare, south africa citation aderibigbe, j.k., & mjoli, t.q. (2018). psychological capital as a moderator in the relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour among nigerian graduate employees. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a1030. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.1030 original research psychological capital as a moderator in the relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour among nigerian graduate employees john k. aderibigbe, themba q. mjoli received: 10 jan. 2018; accepted: 24 july 2018; published: 20 sept. 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: it is a documented fact that occupational stress is widespread worldwide. moreover, there are clear signs of many variables that affect nigerian graduate employees, which are most likely to cause severe occupational stress, and this, in turn, could negatively affect employees and their organisational ability to demonstrate citizenship behaviour. research purpose: the purpose of this study was twofold: firstly, to examine the nature of relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour, and, secondly, to investigate whether psychological capital significantly moderates the relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour. motivation for the study: the study was conducted to demonstrate whether the presence of psychological capital could result in a better level of employee performance, even as employees experience a certain level of occupational stress. in view of the above, the study might have contributed to form a new model of psychological intervention for occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour. research approach/design and method: the study adopted the positivist explanatory cross-sectional (survey) research design to systematically sample opinions of 1532 male and female graduate employees across various sectors of the nigerian economy, using a structured and validated questionnaire and the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) software. main findings: the results showed that there was a weak positive relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour. psychological capital significantly moderated the relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour. practical/managerial implications: human resource managers should develop psychological capital in employees in order to increase the level of organisational performance and reduce the negative impact of occupational stress. contribution/value-add: recommendations of the study could assist in training and developing effective workforce capacity towards improving the economy of the nation. introduction scholars have linked challenges that are related to employee performance in current employment with high levels of occupational stress (baxter, 2010; laschinger, 2011; shafaghat, zarchi, & kavosi, 2018). in the same manner, studies have shown that occupational stress is significantly related to both task-related work behaviour and non-task-related work behaviour of employees (adebiyi, 2013; arogundade & lawal, 2016; niks, de jonge, gevers, & houtman, 2018). the world health organization (who) has also reported occupational stress as a global epidemic (who, 2010). obviously, the consequence of an increasingly strenuous work environment is evident in nigerian work settings, as cases of job dissatisfaction, a high rate of absenteeism, employee intention to quit, labour turnover and poor job performance (contrast to organisational citizenship behaviour) remain evident among graduate employees in nigeria (adebayo & ogunsina, 2011; adebiyi, 2013; adetayo, ajani, & olabisi, 2014; arogundade & lawal, 2016). so far, broad studies over the years have centred on identifying the stressors (brynien & igoe, 2016; paillé, 2011). the literature further reveals that most studies conducted on occupational stress have concentrated on determinants, as opposed to results, such as employee performance, turnover intention, turnover behaviour and employee productivity (american psychological association, 2013; goh, pfeffer, & zenios, 2015). hence, few scientific investigations have been conducted to devise psychological intervention strategies to ameliorate the situation and ensure organisational citizenship behaviour (ahmad, hussain, saleem, qureshi, & mufti, 2015; niks et al. 2018). furthermore, although there is an increasing consideration of the phenomenon of organisational citizenship behaviour by researchers, a thorough review of the literature shows a lack of agreement about the scope of the concept (farzianpour, foroushani, kamjoo, & hosseini, 2011). however, the current study sought to empirically examine the moderating role of psychological capital (psycap) in the relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour in order to fill the existing vacuum identified in the literature. research purpose the purpose of the study is twofold. firstly, the study seeks to examine the nature of relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour. secondly, the study seeks to investigate if there is a significant moderating role of psycap in the relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour. literature review organisational citizenship behaviour organisational citizenship behaviour is an essential phenomenon in the formal work setting because of its potency to facilitate interpersonal relationships among employees, and also to increase organisational performance (kumari & thapliyal, 2017; pradhan, jena, & bhattacharya, 2016). organisational citizenship behaviour is an alternative form of performance behaviour, which is differentiated from the traditional performance that relies heavily on official assignments and tasks (karolidis, 2016). for instance, having subordinates who are highly engaged in organisational citizenship may improve managers’ efficiency by allowing them to devote a greater amount of time to long-range planning matters. hence, managers, employees and the organisations at large benefit from the positive behaviours (lelei, chepkwony, & ambrose, 2016; nawazi & gomes, 2018). these behaviours are explained by concepts such as pro-social behaviours, extra-role behaviours, contextual performance, spontaneous behaviours or organisational citizenship behaviour. occupational stress occupational stress is a negative career-related concept that generates concerns among career holders, and it has the ability to influence individual and organisational outcomes (beheshtifar & nazarian, 2013). in other words, occupational stress is a negative phenomenon, the occurrence of which often stimulates an unpleasant response to the work environment making it appear threatening to the employees. moreover, prolonged occupational stress could manifest itself physically, emotionally and psychologically in the lives of the affected employees. the commonly reported physical symptom of occupational stress is a headache, which makes the affected employees unconsciously tense in their necks, foreheads and shoulder muscles (chandra & parvez, 2016). the other known symptoms of occupation stress are digestive problems, ulcers, hypertension, anxiety and inordinate sweating, coronary illness, strokes and even male pattern baldness (chandra & parvez, 2016). emotionally, an affected employee frequently displays nervousness, outrage, depression, fractiousness, frustration to ordinary issues, dementia and an absence of focus for any assignment, because the mind of the individual is negatively impacted. the psychological manifestations of occupational stress, on the other hand, include withdrawal from society, phobias, compulsive behaviours, eating disorders and night fears (chandra & parvez, 2016). psychological capital the term ‘psycap’ is a composite construct that is defined according to luthans, avolio, avey and norman (2007) as: a person’s positive mental state of improvement, which is described by: (1) having confidence (self-efficacy) to take on and put in the needed effort so as to prosper at challenging responsibilities; (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future; (3) determining toward goals and, when necessary, diverting ways to objectives (hope) with a specific end goal to succeed; and (4) when affected by issues and afflictions, managing, enduring and even going past (resilience) to reach success. (p. 3) according to aliyev and tunc (2015), psycap is a collection of abilities such as self-efficacy, optimism and endurance that are open to improvement, and it implies more than the collection of the aforementioned skills. specifically, capital signifies the quality of individuals’ assets (human capital) as well as in connection with other constructs such as social capital, cultural capital and intellectual capital (amunkete, 2015). the term ‘psycap’ also denotes individual motivational inclinations that accumulate through desirable psychological concepts such as optimism, resilience, hope and efficacy (luthans et al., 2007). besides, psycap is recognised in the situation of a venture in psychic resources that results in getting realistic incentives from the current moment while also brightening the prospect of future benefits. it is about the condition of the segment of an individual’s inner life (amunkete, 2015). relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour in a recent descriptive correlational study (nourani, kohansal, esmaily, & hooshmand, 2016) on the relationship between organisational citizenship behaviour and occupational stress among 122 midwives at mashhad, iran, it was found that there is a significant negative association between organisational citizenship behaviour and occupational stress. likewise, arogundade and lawal (2016) investigated the influence of perceived occupational stress on the organisational citizenship behaviour among 300 male and female bankers in lagos, nigeria, using a simple random sampling technique. although the results of the study revealed that there is no significant difference in the levels of organisational citizenship behaviour that were exhibited by bankers with higher stress levels and those with lower stress levels, there is an inverse relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour. moreover, soo and ali (2016) studied the linkage between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour among a sample of 472 bankers in malaysia and found that there is a significant negative impact of occupational stress on organisational citizenship behaviour. in the same vein, gregory, yitzhak and steffen (2016) scientifically examined the proposed need to distinguish between self-initiated and organisationally imposed overload in studies of work stress, using three samples, which consisted of 116 male and female full-time employed students in three countries, some nursing staff of six private hospitals in switzerland and 161 middle manager-supervisor dyads in switzerland. the study revealed in its findings that self-initiated imposed overload is significantly, positively related to organisational citizenship behaviour, but organisationally imposed overload is not a significant predictor of organisational citizenship behaviour. furthermore, ikonne and madukoma (2016) conducted a survey on the relationship among organisational citizenship behaviour, job stress and satisfaction among 109 librarians in some selected universities around the south-west region of nigeria and found that there is a significant negative relationship between organisational citizenship behaviour and job stress. in addition, uzonwanne (2014) conducted a survey research on depression, anxiety and stress as correlates of organisational citizenship behaviour, using the accidental sampling technique to sample 151 female and 149 male employees of oil and gas companies in ogun state, nigeria. the outcomes of their research showed that there is a significant positive relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour. the findings of the study also indicated that although there was a statistical positive relationship between the two variables, the observed positive relationship was weak considering the r value of 0.118, which is close to 0. psychological capital as a moderator in the relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour aybas and acar (2017) surveyed the mediating and moderating roles of psycap in the effects of opportunity enhancing human resource (hr) practices and working conditions on work engagement among 555 white-collar employees of private companies from different sectors in turkey by using a convenience sampling method and a validated questionnaire and sampled the views of respondents about the variables under consideration in the study. the results of the statistical analysis of data showed that psycap partially moderated and mediated the effects of opportunity enhancing hr practices and working conditions on work engagement. likewise, wang, liu, zou, hao and wu (2017) conducted a cross-sectional survey research that investigated the mediating role of psycap on occupational stress, organisational support and work engagement among a sample of 1016 female nurses that was drawn from the population of nurses in the general hospitals in shenyang, liaoning province, china. a validated questionnaire was used to collect data from all the participants in the study. the research findings showed that psycap and its components of hope and optimism are significant mediators of the relationships among work stress, work engagement and rewards. in addition, shaheen, bukhari and adil (2016) surveyed the moderating role of psycap in the relationship between organisational support and organisational citizenship behaviour among a sample of 325 employees in public and private sector banks of islamabad and rawalpindi cities in pakistan by using a convenience sampling technique and a validated questionnaire to gather information from the participants. the study discovered and established from its findings that psycap significantly enhanced the observed positive relationship between organisational support and organisational citizenship behaviour. correspondingly, li et al. (2015) studied the mediating role of psycap on the association between occupational stress and burnout among a sample of 1239 male and female bankers drawn from the population of bankers in the state-owned banks in liaoning in china by using a random sampling technique. the study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design and used a validated questionnaire to collect data from the participants. the findings of the study indicated that psycap is generally a mediator between occupational stress and job burnout among chinese bank employees. conceptual model based on the past studies reviewed and on logical grounds, a conceptual model was developed indicating the hypothesised relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour, and the moderating role of psycap. organisational citizenship behaviour is depicted as the dependent variable, while occupational stress is the independent variable, whereas psycap is shown as the moderating variable. the conceptual model, demonstrated in figure 1, indicates the moderating role of psycap in the relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour. figure 1: psychological capital as a moderator of the relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour. statement of hypotheses hypothesis 1 h0: occupational stress is not significantly positively correlated with organisational citizenship behaviour. h1: occupational stress is significantly positively correlated with organisational citizenship behaviour. hypothesis 2 h0: psychological capital is not a significant moderator of the relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour. h1: psychological capital is a significant moderator of the relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour. research methodology research design, sample and procedure the study adopted a positivist explanatory cross-sectional (survey) research design. the explanatory cross-sectional (survey) research was considered appropriate for the study because the research used the positivist approach by means of quantitative data generation and hypotheses testing (bhattacherjee, 2012). the chosen research design was also considered appropriate in the study because the study cut across the private and public sectors of the national economy, and thus incorporated diverse industries. the stratify type of probability (two-stage north carolina center for public health preparedness’ [2013] sampling scheme) technique was adopted along with the research advisor’s (2006) sample size calculation table, and used in calculating the appropriate sample size of the study. according to the federal ministry of women affairs and social development (2008), there were a total number of 40 567 978 male and female employees across industries in nigeria as of 2007. in applying the stratify sampling method as recommended by the north carolina center for public health preparedness, 10% of 40 567 978 was calculated at the first stage, which reduced the number to 4 056 797. again, at the second stage, 10% of 4 056 797 was calculated. consequently, the result further reduced the number to 405 679. nevertheless, at this point, the researchers subjected the derived figure of 405 679 to the recommendation of the research advisor (2006), which approves a sample size of 1532 (at 95% level of confidence and 2.5% margin of error) out of an approximate population of 500 000 for a national survey. hence, the researchers were 95% confident of the population sampled being a true representation of the study’s targeted population. thus, a total of 1532 male and female graduate employees formed the sample size of the study. in addition, the convenience and purposive types of non-probability sampling technique were employed in selecting participants for the study. firstly, the convenience sampling technique was applied in selecting three most suitable states (oyo, osun and lagos states) out of the 36 states in nigeria, as the sites of the field work. the rationale for selecting the three states is that each of them houses one or the other of the renowned public and private universities (university of ibadan, obafemi awolowo university and the pan-atlantic university) where the study samples were offered part-time postgraduate admissions for mba programmes as working-class postgraduate students with a minimum of 3-year employment experience. another reason for adopting the convenience sampling technique was because the fieldwork became easier when the participants were met in groups at conducive places such as in the lecture rooms and relaxation centres within the university premises. furthermore, as the study was designed only for the graduate employees, the purposive sampling technique was also introduced and applied to ensure that participants in the study were employed during the period of the field work, and that they were graduates of universities and polytechnics. the sample consisted of 916 (60%) male and 616 (40%) female graduate employees from 19 sectors of the nigerian economy. among the participants, 202 (13.2%) were graduate employees from the educational sector, 38 (2.5%) from the research institutes, 51 (3.3%) from the transportation sector, 291 (19%) from the finance and insurance sector, 83 (5.4%) from the fast-moving consumer goods (fmcgs) industry, 21 (1.4%) from the commercial sector, 70 (4.6%) from the healthcare sector, 8 (0.5%) from the aviation sector, 77 (5.0%) from the agricultural sector and 57 (3.7%) from the information technology sector. all participants were nigerians english speakers. the participants’ ages ranged from 20 to 65 years old. relatively, 974 (63.6%) of the participants were senior staff, while the remaining 558 (36.4%) were junior staff. conclusively, among the participants, 730 (47.7%) were employed by the government, while the remaining 802 (52.3%) were working under the employment of private organisations. data were collected by means of paper–pencil inventories (structured validated questionnaires), which were distributed to employees in the large lecture auditoriums during their weekend (saturdays) part-time professional postgraduate programmes, in the three renowned public and private universities (university of ibadan, obafemi awolowo university and the pan-atlantic university), situated in oyo, osun and lagos states of nigeria. measuring instruments three established scales of measurement were used to assess psycap, occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour. psychological capital a 24-item scale of psycap that was developed and validated by luthans et al. (2007) was utilised to measure psycap. the construct consisted of self-efficacy, hope-state, optimism-state and resilience-state sub-scales, with a five-point likert-type response format ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). the authors reported a cronbach’s alpha coefficient score of 0.91 for the scale. however, the outcome of the pilot factor analysis of this study reduced the scale item to 21, and yielded cronbach’s alpha coefficient scores of 0.88 (self-efficacy), 0.91 (hope), 0.85 (resilience), 0.67 (optimism) and 0.94 for the whole scale of psychological capital, while the main study’s factor analysis yielded a cronbach’s alpha coefficient score of 0.85 for the whole scale of psycap (see appendices 1–3 for details). occupational stress a nine-item scale of job stress that was developed and validated by jamal and baba (1992) was utilised to measure occupational stress. the measure was designed with a five-point likert-type response format ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). the authors reported a cronbach’s alpha coefficient score of 0.83 for the scale. however, the outcome of the pilot factor analysis of this study reduced the scale item to seven and yielded cronbach’s alpha coefficient score of 0.81, while the main study’s factor analysis yielded a cronbach’s alpha coefficient score of 0.80 for the measure of occupational stress (see appendices 1–3 for details). organisational citizenship behaviour a 15-item modified version of podsakoff, mackenzie, moorman and fetter’s (1990) organisational citizenship behaviour questionnaire by argentero, cortese and ferretti (2008) was utilised to measure organisational citizenship behaviour. the construct consisted of altruism, conscientiousness and civic virtue sub-scales, with a five-point likert-type response format ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). argentero et al. (2008) reported the following cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the scale: altruism = 0.81, conscientiousness = 0.73, civic virtue = 0.73 and 0.84 for the whole scale of organisational citizenship behaviour. however, the outcome of the pilot factor analysis of this study reduced the scale item to 13, and yielded cronbach’s alpha coefficients of 0.88 (altruism), 0.81 (conscientiousness), 0.86 (civic virtue) and 0.93 for the whole scale of organisational citizenship behaviour, while the main study’s factor analysis yielded a cronbach’s alpha coefficient score of 0.82 for the whole scale of organisational citizenship behaviour (see appendices 1–3 for details). statistical analysis of data the data generated from 1532 screened questionnaires were analysed based on the hypotheses stated, using version 20 of the statistical package for the social sciences (spss). hypothesis 1 was analysed, using pearson correlation analysis. hypothesis 2 was analysed using multiple regression analysis, while the percentage, mean, standard deviation (sd) and the frequency of the biographical and occupational data were determined by the descriptive statistics. ethical consideration voluntary participation in the study was sought through a letter of consent, signed by each of the participants. the participants were informed about the importance of the study as the findings of the study may positively influence the government policy helping in improving their conditions of employment and service. moreover, assurance was given to the participants with respect to confidentiality of all information supplied. furthermore, the participants were instructed not to indicate any means of identification such as name, identity number and organisational affiliation. with utmost sense of sincerity, information concerning the study and its outcomes was accurately submitted to the appropriate institutions. thus, it was ensured that no instances of misleading actions were demonstrated in the course of the study. the researchers also ensured that the study was conducted in a conducive environment such that it would not expose the participants to any physical or psychological hazard. the research ethics committee of university of fort hare granted approval for ethical clearance of the study (certificate reference number: mjo071sade01). research results the results in table 1 show the levels at which the participants possessed each of the variables of consideration in the study. for instance, the results of descriptive statistics show that the participants demonstrated a higher level of psycap, = 60.482, sd = 8.493. the results imply that the participants in the study are positively oriented about themselves. table 1: descriptive analysis showing the mean and standard deviation among organisational citizenship behaviour, the three dimensions of organisational citizenship behaviour, psychological capital, the four dimensions of psychological capital and occupational stress. similarly, the results in table 1 show that participants expressed a high level of organisational citizenship behaviour = 52.389, sd = 6.949), which also indicates that the participants are highly interested in helping their colleagues at work, at the same time ensuring that their personal and organisational goals are achieved. likewise, the results in table 1 further show that the participants expressed a significant amount of occupational stress ( = 24.354, sd = 5.402). the results mean that the participants have experienced some amount of occupational stress. the results further reveal that the participants expressed significantly higher levels of civic virtue ( = 20.584, sd = 3.178), hope ( = 20.528, sd = 3.405), self-efficacy ( = 20.385, sd = 3.546), altruism ( = 20.002, sd = 3.254), resilience ( = 15.354, sd = 2.595), conscientiousness ( = 11.804, sd = 1.971) and optimism ( = 8.042, sd = 1.653). hypothesis 1 was analysed by using pearson’s correlation analysis. the results of the analysis are presented in table 2. table 2: summary of pearson’s correlation analysis showing the relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour. the data in table 2 show that there is a positive relationship between os and ocb (r = 0.070, p = 0.01). even though there is a positive relationship observed between os and ocb, the level of the observed positive relationship between the two aforementioned variables is feeble, considering the given significance value, 0.006 = 0.01 (approximated to two decimal points), which is exactly the maximum limit of acceptable value of significance at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). therefore, based on the results and interpretations above, hypothesis 1, h0, is rejected, while hypothesis 1, h1, is accepted. figure 2 depicts the relationship between os and ocb. figure 2: relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour. the results in table 3 show that psycap is a significant moderator of the relationship between os and organisational citizenship behaviour, f(2.1529) = 8.514; r2 = 0.011; p < 0.01. the results also indicate that occupational stress independently influences organisational citizenship behaviour (β = 0.070; t = 2.738; p < 0.05). however, when compared the beta value obtained from the direct influence of occupation stress (β = 0.070) with that of the moderating influence of psycap (β = 0.064) in the relationship between os and organisational citizenship behaviour, the result indicates that psycap demonstrated a significant moderating influence in the observed relationship between os and ocb by significantly reducing the undesirable direct influence of occupation stress on organisational citizenship behaviour. table 3: summary of multiple regression analysis showing the moderating role of psychological capital in the relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour. the results in table 3 further show that the moderating role of psycap accounts for only 1% of the total variance in the relationship between os and ocb. it thus implies that many other factors that were not considered in the study could be responsible for the remaining 99% variance in the relationship between os and ocb. although the r value, on the other hand, is higher (0.105), which if considered, it implies that psycap accounts for as much as 10% of the total variance in the relationship between os and ocb, but it is not as reliable as the r2 value even though it looks greater, because the statistical principle of regression theory emphasizes the fact that only the r2 guarantees error-free values. in view of the above results and its interpretations, hypothesis 2, h0, is rejected, while the h1 is accepted. figure 3 depicts the picture of psycap moderating the relationship between os and organisational citizenship behaviour. figure 3: psychological capital as a moderator of the relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour. discussion the results presented established the hypothesised relationship and moderation in the conceptual model (figure 1). a weak positive relationship was found existing between os and ocb. this explains that though there is an indication of a positive relationship between os and ocb, but the observed level of positive relationship between the two variables is not reliable enough. thus, perhaps, it requires the introduction of one or more other positive variables to serve as moderators or mediators in order to yield a more significant and reliable relationship. these findings corroborate the reports of uzonwanne (2014), which states that there is a weak positive relationship between os and ocb. similarly, soo and ali (2016) report further that self-initiated imposed work overload is significantly, positively related to organisational citizenship behaviour, but organisationally imposed overload is not a significant predictor of organisational citizenship behaviour. in terms of moderation, psycap was found to have a significant level of moderating role in the observed positive relationship between os and ocb. although the results show that there are many other variables or factors, which are of a similar nature with psycap, and could have also moderated the relationship between os and organisational citizenship behaviour, but were not considered in the structured model. the observed results are supported by the findings of aybas and acar (2017), which show that psycap partially moderated and mediated the effects of opportunity enhancing hr practices and working conditions on work engagement. similarly, wang et al. (2017) reported that psycap and its components of hope and optimism are significant mediators of the relationships among work stress, work engagement and rewards. limitations of the study and suggestions for future research the first noticeable shortcoming of this research relates to bias in the approach of data collection. the research only adopted the quantitative method, which limited the opinions of research respondents to the response options provided to statements in the questionnaire. this study therefore suggests that future studies should consider adopting more than one method of data collection. the second acknowledged limitation of this study is that only one moderating variable was considered in the structured model. recommendations in view of the above discussion of the findings, the researchers make the following practical recommendations: the tertiary institutions’ management, most especially of the universities, should incorporate in their academic curricula some practical simulated work exercise that will pre-expose the graduating students to the challenges at the world of work. this will build their psyche and make them mentally and emotionally ready to overcome any stressful situation that may come in their way, even in the cause of discharging of career duties or responsibilities through the positivism approach. this can be achieved by a deliberate inclusion of moderately difficult practical group assignments in the syllabus that will task each student in a group to proactively think ‘outside the box’ and proffer visible solutions in the form of suggestions to the problems at hand. by so doing, the students will develop reasonable levels of hope, resilience, optimism, self-efficacy and empathy along with the acquired theoretical knowledge of their disciplines, while the universities can also boast of producing capable graduates who will fit perfectly into the realities of the world of work and promptly deliver. the model of relationship between os and organisational citizenship behaviour, propounded in this study, should be adopted and applied by teachers, lecturers, seminar facilitators, workshop trainers, supervisors and managers during their coaching or training sessions. specifically, the focus should be on training the individual employees or graduates to discover their covert behavioural endowments such as psycap and make them refined through a systematic training process that converts the covert behavioural gifts into overt psychological assets in the form of demonstrable managerial competencies, which can enhance their performance on the job, and also enable them to be pro-social among colleagues in the work settings. conclusion this study concludes that there is a positive relationship between os and organisational citizenship behaviour. it also concludes that psycap is a significant moderator of the relationship between os and organisational citizenship behaviour. the researchers therefore finally state that the study findings contribute specifically to the existing literature on occupational stress, organisational citizenship behaviour and also to the literature on employee performance management. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions j.k.a. is the phd researcher who designed, developed and implemented the research blueprint under the supervision of t.q.m. references adebayo, s. o., & ogunsina, s. o. (2011). influence of supervisory behaviour and job stress on job satisfaction and turnover intention of police personnel in ekiti state. journal of management and strategy, 2(3), 13–20. https://doi.org/10.5430/jms.v2n3p13 adebiyi, d. r. (2013). occupational stress among academic staff of ekiti state university, ado-ekiti. european scientific journal, 9(4), 202–208. adetayo, j. o., ajani j. o., & olabisi, o. (2014). an overview of the effects of job stress on employees’ performance in nigeria tertiary hospitals. ekonomika, 60(4), 139–153. ahmad, a., hussain, a., saleem, m. q., qureshi, m. a. m., & mufti, n. a. (2015). workplace stress: a critical insight of causes, effects and interventions. technical journal, university of engineering and technology, taxila, pakistan, 20(2), 45–55. aliyev, r., & tunc, e. (2015). self-efficacy in counceling: the role of organizational psychological capital, job satisfaction and burnout. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 190, 97–105. american psychological association. (2013). stress in america: missing the health care connection. washington, dc: american psychological association. amunkete, s. l. n. (2015). psychological capital in namibian state-owned enterprises: measurement, antecedents and outcomes. ph.d thesis, north-west university, south africa. argentero, p., cortese, c. g., & ferretti, m. s. (2008). organisational citizenship behaviour: podsakoff et al.’s scale. tpm, 15(2), 61–75. arogundade, o. t., & lawal, o. (2016). the influence of perceived occupational stress on the organizational citizenship behaviour of bankers in ikeja, lagos state. european scientific journal, 12(17), 449–458. aybas, m., & acar, a. c. (2017). the effect of human resource management practices on employees’ work engagement and the mediating and moderating role of positive psychological capital. international review of management and marketing, 7(1), 363–372. baxter, p. e. (2010). providing orientation programs to new graduate nurses: points to consider. journal for nurses in staff development, 26, e12–e17. https://doi.org/10.1097/nnd.0b013e3181d80319 beheshtifar, m., & nazarian, r. (2013). role of occupational stress in organizations. interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, 4(9), 648–657. bhattacherjee, a. (2012). social science research: principle, methods and practices. textbook collection. book 3. athens. createspace independent publishing platform, http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/oa_textbooks/3 brynien, k., & igoe, a. (2016). occupational stress factsheet. pef health and safety department. new york: public employees federations. chandra, n., & parvez, r. (2016). a review article: impact of environmental and occupational stress on health. paripex – indian journal of research, 5(5), 456–457. farzianpour, f., foroushani, a. r., kamjoo, h., & hosseini, s. s. (2011). organisational citizenship behaviour (ocb) among the managers of teaching hospitals. american journal of economics and business administration 3(3), 534–542. https://doi.org/10.3844/ajebasp.2011.534.542 federal ministry of women affairs & social development. (2008). nigeria gender statistics book. mitsubishi ufj research & consulting co., ltd, japan. goh, j., pfeffer, j., & zenios, s. a. (2015). workplace stressors & health outcomes: health policy for the workplace. behavioural science & policy, 1(1), 43–52. https://doi.org/10.1353/bsp.2015.0001 gregory, a. l., yitzhak, f., & steffen, r. (2016). evidence for the need to distinguish between self-initiated and organizationally imposed overload in studies of work stress. work & stress, 30(4), 337–355. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2016.1253045 ikonne, c. n., & madukoma, e. (2016). an investigation of the relationship between job satisfaction, job stress and organizational citizenship behaviour: a research on librarians in nigerian university libraries. international journal of science and research, 5(8), 480–484. jamal, m., & baba, v. v. (1992). shiftwork and department type related to job stress, work attitudes and behavioural intentions: a study of nurses. journal of organisational behaviour, 13, 449–464. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030130503 karolidis, d. (2016). organisational citizenship behaviour in the greek public sector. interdependent programme of postgraduate studies in business administration, university of macedonia. retrieved from https://dspace.lib.uom.gr/bitstream/2159/18829/6/karolidisdimitriosmsc2016.pdf kumari, p., & thapliyal, s. (2017). studying the impact of organizational citizenship behaviour on organizational effectiveness. international academic journal of organizational behavior and human resource management, 4(1), 9–21. laschinger, h. k. s. (2011). job and career satisfaction and turnover intentions of newly graduated nurses. journal of nursing management, 20(4), 472–484. advance online publication. lelei, j. c., chepkwony, p. k., & ambrose, k. (2016). effect of organisational citizenship behaviour on employee performance in banking sector, nairobi county, kenya. international journal of business, humanities and technology, 5(4), 55–61. li, x., kan, d., liu, l., shi, m., wang, y., yang, x., … wu, h. (2015). the mediating role of psychological capital on the association between occupational stress and job burnout among bank employees in china. international journal of environmental research and public health, 12, 2984–3001. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120302984 luthans, f., avolio, b. j., avey, j. b., & norman, s. m. (2007). psychological capital: measurement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. personnel psychology, 60, 541–572. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2007.00083.x nawazi, n., & gomes, a. m. (2018). the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and team performance: the mediating effect of team conflict. management and organizational studies, 5(1), 15–22. https://doi.org/10.5430/mos.v5n1p15 niks, i., de jonge, j., gevers, j., & houtman, i. (2018). work stress interventions in hospitals care: effectiveness of the discovery method. international journal of environmental research and public health, 15, 332. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph north carolina center for public health preparedness. (2013). two-stage cluster sampling: general guidance for use in public health assessments. university of north carolina, chapel hill. nourani, s. s., kohansal, d. z., esmaily, h., & hooshmand, e. (2016). the relationship between organisational citizenship behaviour, job satisfaction and occupational stress among midwives working in healthcare centers of mashhad, iran. journal of midwifery and reproductive health, 4(2), 622–630. paillé, p. (2011). stressful work, citizenship behaviour and intention to leave the organization in a high turnover environment: examining the mediating role of job satisfaction. journal of management research, 3(1), 1–14. podsakoff, p. m., mackenzie, s. b, moorman, r. h., & fetter, r. (1990). transformational leader behaviours and their effects on followers’ trust in leader, satisfaction and organisational citizenship behaviour. the leadership quarterly, 1(2), 107–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/1048-9843(90)90009-7 pradhan, r. k., jena, l. k., & bhattacharya, p. (2016). impact of psychological capital on organisational citizenship behaviour: moderating role of emotional intelligence. cogent business & management, 3, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2016.1194174 shafaghat, t., zarchi, m. k. r., & kavosi, z. (2018). occupational stress and how to confront it: a case study of a hospital in shiraz. hospital practices and research, 3(2), 64–68. https://doi.org/10.15171/hpr.2018.13 shaheen, s., bukhari, i., & adil, a. (2016). moderating role of psychological capital between perceived organizational support and organizational citizenship behaviour and its dimensions. international journal of research studies in psychology, 5(2), 41–50. https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrsp.2016.1375 soo, h. s., & ali, h. (2016). the linkage between stress and organizational citizenship behaviour. international business management, 10(14), 2713–2718. the research advisors. (2006). sample size table. retrieved from http://research-advisors.com uzonwanne, f. c. (2014). depression, anxiety and stress as correlates of organizational citizenship behaviour among oil workers in nigeria. european journal of globalization and development research, 10(1), 619–637. wang, x., liu, l., zou, f., hao, j., & wu, h. (2017). associations of occupational stressors, perceived organizational support, and psychological capital with work engagement among chinese female nurses. biomed research international, 2017(5284628), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/5284628 world health organization. (2010). healthy workplaces: a model for action for employers, workers, policymakers and practitioners. geneva: who. appendix 1: pilot study’s questionnaire section: a (biographical and occupational information) please mark [√]/indicate in the appropriate box sex: male [ ] female [ ] age: _______ marital status: single [ ] married [ ] divorced [ ] widow/widower [ ] educational qualification: bsc [ ] hnd [ ] years of work experience: _______ type of appointment type: full-time [ ] temporary/contract [ ] rank of employment: senior [ ] junior [ ] type of sector: public [ ] private [ ] occupation: _______ industry: _______ section: b section: c section: d appendix 2: main study’s questionnaire section: a (biographical and occupational information) please mark [√]/indicate in the appropriate box sex: male [ ] female [ ] age: _______ marital status: single [ ] married [ ] divorced [ ] widow/widower [ ] educational qualification: bsc [ ] hnd [ ] years of work experience: _______ type of appointment type: full-time [ ] temporary/contract [ ] rank of employment: senior [ ] junior [ ] type of sector: public [ ] private [ ] occupation: _______ industry: _______ section: b section: c section: d appendix 3: participants’ informed consent form organisations: department of industrial psychology research: occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour researcher: mr. john k. aderibigbe, doctorate degree researcher (university of fort hare) i am conducting this survey in nigeria as my phd research. please, you are invited to participate in this study, because you are a graduate employee in nigeria. by signing this consent form, it means that you have confirmed that you: …have read the participant information sheet. …fully understand your role within this research. …have had enough opportunity to ask any questions and have received satisfactory answers. …understand that your participation in this study is completely voluntary that you are able to withdraw from the study at any time within practical limits, without penalty. …understand that this research project has been reviewed by, and received ethics clearance through the supervisor in charge of this study. …understand that your data will be handled in a confidential manner and no one involved in the study will know your name. the data will only be made available to mr. john k. aderibigbe and will be stored at the library of university of fort hare. …agree to take part in the research stated above. …understand that if you have any other questions about this research you can contact john k. aderibigbe at (201607467@ufh.ac.za). if you would like to make a complaint, please contact prof. t.q. mjoli at (tmjoli@ufh.ac.za). signed (participant)………………………    date ……………… signed (researcher) …………………….    date ……………… abstract introduction construct definition theoretical underpinning research method limitations findings discussion and conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) petronella jonck research and innovation, national school of government, south africa riaan de coning university of stellenbosch, business school, south africa paul s. radikonyana research and innovation, national school of government, south africa citation jonck, p., de coning, r., & radikonyana, p.s. (2018). a micro-level outcomes evaluation of a skills capacity intervention within the south african public service: towards an impact evaluation. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a1000. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.1000 original research a micro-level outcomes evaluation of a skills capacity intervention within the south african public service: towards an impact evaluation petronella jonck, riaan de coning, paul s. radikonyana received: 22 sept. 2017; accepted: 16 may 2018; published: 18 july 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: interest in measuring the impact of skills development interventions has increased in recent years. research purpose: this article reports on an outcomes evaluation under the ambit of an impact assessment with reference to a research methodology workshop. motivation of the study: a paucity of studies could be found measuring the workshop outcomes, especially within the public service as it pertains to training interventions. research approach/design and method: a pretest–post-test research design was implemented. a paired-sample t-test was used to measure the knowledge increase while controlling for the influence of previous training by means of an analysis of variance and multiple regression analysis. main findings: results indicated that the increase in research methodology knowledge was statistically significant. previous training influenced the model only by 0.8%, which was not statistically significant. practical/managerial implications: it is recommended that the suggested framework and methodology be utilised in future research as well as in monitoring and evaluation endeavours covering various training interventions. contribution/value add: the study provides evidence of the impact generated by a training intervention, within the south african public service. thus, addressing a research gap in the corpus of knowledge. introduction south africa cannot reach its developmental goals by relying on opinion-based policy practices. in this regard, the department of planning, monitoring and evaluation (dpme) (2014) notes that most policies originate in the planning meetings of political parties. thus, the probability that the resulting policies would be evidence-based is unlikely. evidence-based policy development can be defined as an approach that supports the provision of a knowledge base by ensuring that research evidence is the cornerstone of policy development and implementation. as a result, opinion-based policy-making and ad hoc decision-making methods are challenged (davies, 2004). research is, inter alia, deemed to be the missing link in providing high-quality, evidence-based policy interventions (zwar, weller, mcclaughan & traynor, 2006). additionally, research plays a supportive role in the achievement of a skilled and capable developmental state. to accomplish the shared vision of realising a developmental state, the national development plan (ndp) states that ‘a well-functioning research capacity is vital in sustaining growth and improving productivity’ (national development plan 2030 (ndp), 2012:131). the ndp likewise stipulates that research conducted by government departments, and other organs of state, has a crucial role to play in improving south africa’s global competitiveness (ndp, 2012:293). there is also a broader argument to be made for the development of research capacity in the south african public service. the current age is characterised by globalisation and major knowledge-based economies. thus, an investment in knowledge and skills development will ensure the progress of the country’s labour force and consequently the country’s ability to compete in the world economy (goujon, lutz & wazir, 2011). research plays a pivotal role in the knowledge economy in that it lays the foundation for the production and dissemination of knowledge (leahey & moody, 2014). furthermore, the ndp (2012:364) states that inadequate public service performance could be attributed to skills deficiencies and unsuitable staff appointments. a lack of an adequately skilled staff component in the public service has, therefore, been a cause for concern. consequently, the interest in measuring the impact of skills development interventions has increased (pillay, juan & twalo, 2012). abrahams (2015) notes that within the context of the public service, monitoring was underscored until the new public management (npm) approach emphasised accountability. thereafter, a shift occurred towards including evaluation as a key performance management tool. in this respect, impact evaluations are deemed crucial, because these evaluations provide information about the impact produced by an intervention and can be undertaken in a programme, a policy or a capacity-building intervention (rogers, 2014). furthermore, an impact evaluation can be undertaken either for formative (i.e. the improvement or reorientation of a programme or policy) or summative purposes (i.e. to inform decision-making regarding the continuation, or discontinuation, of a programme or policy), as pointed out by rogers (2014). it therefore suffices to state that ‘an impact evaluation encompasses any evaluation that systematically and empirically investigates the impact produced by an intervention’ (rogers, 2012:1). the goal of an impact evaluation can be to promote a particular type of intervention as best practice in a specific field or development (weyrauch & langou, 2011). despite the importance of the aforementioned, few examples of successfully implemented evaluation studies could be found (abrahams, 2015), especially in terms of training interventions. o’malley, perdue and petracca (2013) note that many training interventions do not consistently provide evidence that links specific training efforts to desired outcomes, despite a commitment to training. colquitt and simmering (1998) identified the three keystone examined training outcomes subsuming declarative knowledge, task performance and post-training self-efficacy, based on a 20-year longitudinal meta-analysis of 106 training interventions. research indicated that cognitive skills development evolves from an initial knowledge compilation (viz. gaining knowledge via instruction) to procedural knowledge (viz. task performance) and advances towards self-efficacy, which refers to internalised perceived performance capabilities. hence, determining the knowledge outcome is a necessary precursor which influences task performance and self-efficacy that results from task performance (yi & davis, 2003). in view of the discussion thus far, the aim of this research was to conduct an outcomes evaluation on a research methodology skills capacity workshop within the context of the public service. construct definition an evaluation can be defined as a cross-sectional or periodic application that is aimed at providing credible evidence to guide decision-making. an evaluation may assess relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability (department of planning, monitoring and evaluation (dpme), 2007). from the literature studied, six dominant methods of evaluating skills development interventions have been identified, including methods which encompass efficiency indicators, self-reported behavioural change, on-the-job follow-ups, proxy indicators, policy evaluation and knowledge testing. the subject literature on evaluation studies indicates that knowledge and skills testing provides the best example of objectively evaluating skills development interventions (pillay et al., 2012:28). to this effect, literature search reveals that pretest and post-test designs are widely used in behavioural research, primarily to measure knowledge gained from participating in a training intervention (dimitrov & rumrill, 2003). by comparing participants’ post-test scores with their pretest scores, it is possible to determine whether the training or skills development programmes were successful in increasing participants’ knowledge of the training content (dimitrov & rumrill, 2003; pillay et al., 2012). it is worth noting that in preand post-testing, the researcher does not take into consideration whether increased knowledge will result in behaviour change (pillay et al., 2012). theoretical underpinning mouton (2010) notes that, although programme evaluation was introduced into south africa by international funding organisations, it was not until this practice was accepted and amalgamated in public service policy documents and frameworks that a culture of evaluation emerged. as such, using the ndp’s concept of a developmental and capable state, the department of planning, monitoring and evaluation (dpme), as the organ of state responsible for the planning, monitoring and evaluation (abrahams, 2015), endorses performance monitoring and evaluation as a key management intervention that should enhance public service capacity and increase the impact of service delivery interventions (dpme, 2014). a key initiative of the aforementioned department has been to introduce the outcomes approach which emphasises linking inputs and activities to outputs and outcomes (phillips, 2012). an example of a programme evaluation is the implementation evaluation conducted on the business processes services incentive programme in the department of trade and industry using a cost-competitiveness analysis approach by mashalaba, wyatt, mathe and singh (2015). the dpme (2007) approved a monitoring and evaluation framework which consists of five key elements. the first key element is the inputs that represent the resources utilised, including fiscal resources and equipment. the second key element is the activities that encompass the process or actions that make use of a plethora of inputs to produce the desired outputs and, ultimately, outcomes. the third key element is the outputs or the final products that represent the goods and services produced. the fourth key element is the outcomes. these are the medium-term results for specific beneficiaries which are the consequence of achieving specific outputs. outcomes should ideally relate clearly to the strategic goals and objectives of institutions as indicated in their annual reports. lastly, impact can be seen as the result of achieving specific outcomes. in light of the above, a theory-based theoretical underpinning was utilised in this study. white (2009) noted that theory-based evaluation, which refers to examining the assumptions underlying the causal chain from inputs to outcomes and possibly impact, is a well-established approach. bank (2012) defined a theory-based evaluation as an approach to evaluation that underscores a specific manner of structuring and undertakes the analysis based on a theory of change, also referred to as a ‘programme logic’ or ‘logic model’. the theory of change typically commences with a sequence of events and results (i.e. outputs, immediate outcomes, intermediate outcomes and ultimate outcomes) that are expected to occur owing to the intervention (bank, 2012). table 1 provides an indication of the logic model utilised to evaluate the training intervention in this study. table 1: training evaluation logical framework. o’malley et al. (2013) note that programmes generally report on training outputs, such as number of participants trained, lending support to the logical framework formulated in table 1. these output indicators enable stakeholders to aggregate data across a variety of training interventions, such as workshops, lectures or e-learning programmes. nevertheless, output indicators cannot be utilised in the evaluation of whether or not the training encounter improves knowledge or practice. in addition, although the aforementioned logical framework is focussed on the micro-level of complexity as training is provided to an individual, it should be borne in mind that training has various complexity levels. a system can be defined as a structured entity consisting of components sufficiently interrelated and interdependent, thereby forming a whole. as a component of a system, training can influence the system at various levels of complexity, in accordance with the hierarchy of systems. for example, a vertical hierarchy of systems can in theory include micro-, meso-, macro-, national and supranational levels of complexity (ureda & yates, 2005). thus, the influence of training can extend to various levels of complexity, commencing with the micro-level (frei, 2011). multiple frameworks have been developed to evaluate the complex phenomenon referred to as training. the most frequently utilised framework is the kirkpatrick model which identifies four levels at which training can be evaluated, namely reaction, learning, behaviour and results (o’malley et al., 2013). the last three categories correspond to three levels of complexity. firstly, learning occurs at the micro-level or at the individual level. secondly, behaviour ensues at the meso-level or within the organisation, and thirdly, results arise at the macro-level within the broader community. as such, table 2, as adapted from o’malley et al. (2013:6), provides an indication of training evaluation outcomes identified in a systematic review that emphasises training outcomes as well as the levels of complexity. table 2: training evaluation outcomes based on a systematic review of relevant published literature. pursuant to the foregoing discussion, methodological challenges have been reported as especially problematic. these challenges include, inter alia, the distal (decentralised) nature of outcomes and impact, and the fact that it may not be possible to generalise the findings to the population (o’malley et al., 2013). thus, the problem in measuring training impact is the fact that a micro-level intervention is implemented, but a macro-level impact is expected. this is especially challenging in the case of public service training institutions where a micro-level intervention is effected (e.g. an individual is trained), but impact is expected by departments that require training at a macro-level (e.g. impact is seen as resolving service delivery problems experienced by the procuring department). in addition, not all training interventions are aimed at generating macro-level impact. for example, training interventions for programme 1, namely corporate services, which is standard in government departments, may not result in improved service delivery to communities. in spite of challenges in the measurement of impact, it is essential to evaluate the effectiveness of training to ensure that limited fiscal resources, manpower and hours devoted to attending training yield a return on investment (o’malley et al., 2013). based on the logical framework presented in table 1, this article reports on an evaluation of a training intervention to determine a hypothetical knowledge increase. it should be noted that although this article reports on outcomes, the trend is towards an impact evaluation. the rationale for the foregoing contention is based on the work of weyrauch and langou (2011:12) who note that impact can be measured at various levels of complexity, of which the first aims to influence a particular project, programme or policy. this refers to a tangible public intervention with a particular objective, defined recipient population, budget and set of activities with clearly defined benefits. it is important to note that what is referred to as an impact evaluation at the micro-level can be targeted at either changing a part of the programme or alternatively sustaining it (behrman, 2010:1476). furthermore, the national evaluation plan (2012) reports on a project determining the learning outcomes of a grade r educational intervention as an example of an impact evaluation. in addition, babbie and mouton (2011:340) note that the term ‘impact assessment studies’ refers to the degree to which a programme has produced the desired outcomes. the abovementioned authors elaborate by distinguishing between four types of evaluation studies, namely the evaluation of need, process, outcome and efficiency. the evaluation of outcome, under the ambit of an impact assessment, could entail a knowledge increase, and a behavioural and/or an attitudinal change (babbie & mouton, 2011). because of the fact that this study controlled for the influence of previous training, the view of samuels et al. (2015), who found that an educational intervention had limited impact on later educational outcomes, is pertinent. research method a pretest–post-test repeated measure research design was incorporated in the study to determine the effect of the training intervention on research methodology knowledge. babbie and mouton (2011) note that the logic of an impact assessment is based on the supposition that an intervention has certain effects. as such, the standard evaluation approach to investigate this is a pretest–post-test design. gertler, martinez, premand, rawlings and vermeersch (2011:13) further note that retrospective evaluations assess the programme impact after implementation, generating comparisons ex post facto. this study could be classified as an ex post facto research design as respondents were related to the different variables prior to data collection. thus, participants were not assigned to experimental and/or control groups (jonck, 2014). as a result of this, three limitations of a pretest–post-test research design can be identified, namely the absence of a control group against which comparisons can be made, the teaching effect and the unobserved moderating variables intrinsic to the facilitator (wagner, kawulich & garner, 2012). research hypotheses the primary research hypothesis states that: ‘a research methodology capacity-building intervention does have a statistically significant influence on participants’ research methodology knowledge’. the secondary research hypothesis specifies that: ‘prior research methodology training does have a statistically significant influence on research methodology knowledge after the training intervention’. the primary hypothesis was verified by gertler et al. (2011:7) who note that in the context of an impact assessment the research question would hypothetically be: ‘what is the impact or causal effect of a programme on an outcome of interest?’ research process the skills development facilitator of a national department requested the training intervention after conducting a training needs analysis, at which time a need for research methodology capacity-building was registered. from consultation with the facilitator, it would appear that the request arose because participants lacked the research capacity to complete their higher education postgraduate studies, and this influenced bursary requirements and fruitless expenditure. thus, participants volunteered to undergo training. the two-day training intervention consisted of a quantitative and qualitative section. as a pretest–post-test method was implemented, assessment took place prior to and after the two-day training programme. standard ethical guidelines according to wagner et al. (2012) were adhered to throughout this research. respondents were informed of the nature and scope of the study. participation was completely voluntary and respondents were not compelled to participate. respondents completed the questionnaire anonymously, and the information received remained confidential. finally, no physical or psychological harm occurred as a result of respondents’ participation. in fact, the research study was used as an example in the training intervention. description of the intervention the training intervention occurred at the micro-level, which is indicative of the notion that training was provided to the individual, taking into consideration that individual training would inevitably result in a hypothetical knowledge increase (i.e. research knowledge) and ultimately an organisational outcome (i.e. the development of evidence-based policies). the research methodology workshop was hosted at a public service training facility. facilitators utilised teaching aids, such as powerpoint presentations, flip charts and electronic devices. the mode of delivery encompassed traditional lecturing, class discussions and practical exercises on a resource compact disc (cd) that was distributed to participants. the syllabus consisted of two sections, namely a qualitative and quantitative section. the qualitative section focussed on the fundamentals of research, including differentiating between personal information-seeking and academic research. by way of introduction, the three research methodologies (viz. quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods) were briefly mentioned before attention was focussed exclusively on qualitative research. the aspects covered by this topic included the nature of qualitative research, various designs (e.g. phenomenological, thematic analysis and grounded theory), development and implementation of data-gathering instruments and, finally, data analysis. the section on quantitative research emphasised various themes. these included the following: the research process, quantitative research designs (viz. experimental, quasi-experimental and non-experimental designs) and sampling developing and/or designing an appropriate questionnaire (viz. types of survey questions, and scaling techniques which might include using either a likert or a semantic differential scale) coding and capturing data cleaning the data set basic descriptive statistical analysis (viz. measures of central tendencies and dispersion). research participants the study made use of a non-random sampling technique, namely convenience sampling (i.e. participants who attended training were involved in the study). the final sample consisted of a total of 32 public service employees which comprised 16 (48.5%) male and 17 (51.5%) female respondents. note that one respondent did not complete the post-test and was eliminated from further analysis. as far as the age distribution of the sample was concerned, 6.1% of the sample was in the 25 years and younger age category. moreover, 15.2% of the respondents were in the 26–35-year age category, followed by the majority of the sample (42.4%) who were between 36 and 45 years of age. thirty-three per cent of the respondents were in the age group of 46 to 55 years and one (3%) respondent was in the 56–65-year age category. in terms of the highest academic qualification, one respondent (3%) had a grade 12 coupled with a certificate, two (6.1%) respondents had diplomas, seven (21.2%) respondents held bachelor’s degrees, five (15.2%) respondents had postgraduate certificates and/or diplomas, and eight (24.2%) held honours degrees, while nearly one-third (n = 10; 30.3%) of the sample held master’s degrees. respondents were requested to indicate their previous work experience. results indicated that 9.1% of the sample had experience in the legislative sector, 54.5% of the sample had originally been employed in national government, 18.2% had work experience in provincial departments, 3% (representing one respondent) had work experience at local government level, two (6.1%) of the sample worked in the private sector and, lastly, two (6.1%) respondents indicated that their previous work experience could not be categorised in the abovementioned response categories. the previous training which participants had received ranged from information seeking (3.4%), sabinet training (3.4%), research methodology skills development (13.8%) or a combination of these (27.9%), to mention a few. however, 44.8% of the sample indicated that they had not had any previous research-related training. measuring instrument primary data were collected by implementing a questionnaire consisting of two sections, namely a biographical section and a section containing questions relating to the content of the workshop. the section that explored respondents’ biographical information included questions regarding gender, age, highest academic qualification and previous research methodology training. the latter is important as it can influence the level of research methodology knowledge and can be considered a moderating variable. section b of the questionnaire consisted of 28 questions that probed respondents’ knowledge of both qualitative and quantitative research methodology. typical questions included, for example, ‘sample size is pivotal in a quantitative research design’, ‘quasi-experimental research designs are typically found in qualitative research’ and ‘qualitative research involves various stages of coding which include initial coding and open-ended coding’. participants were requested to select the most appropriate option from a four-point likert scale, with options ranging from ‘strongly agree’ (1) ‘agree’ (2) ‘disagree’ (3) and ‘strongly disagree’ (4). a likert scale was used because the underlying assumption of the statistical tests performed is that the residual scores should be normally distributed and not categorical (pallant, 2011). as the questionnaire was specifically developed for the study, the reliability and validity of the scale had to be investigated (de souza, alexandré & guirardello, 2017). reliability refers to the likelihood that a given measure would yield the same results in various iterations, while validity refers to the extent to which a specific measurement provides data that relate to the accepted meaning of a particular concept. in general, reliability is measured by means of cronbach’s alpha coefficient, while validity can be determined by means of face and construct validity (de souza et al., 2017). cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to calculate the inter-item consistency (0.225), with an alpha of 0.88, emphasising the reliability of the scale. in terms of face validity, the measuring instrument was circulated for inputs to five researchers within the public service with numerous years of research experience in the public sector, as well as institutions of higher learning. factor analysis was used to determine the construct validity of the questionnaire as lu (2014), for example, indicates that factor analysis can be seen as an efficient tool to ascertain the underlying construct validity of a measurement. results indicated that the data were factorable, as the kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) test for sampling adequacy returned a value of 0.663, and bartlett’s test of sphericity reverted a statistically significant value on the 99th percentile, as indicated by the p-value accompanied by double asterisks (χ2 = 494.527; df = 378; p = 0.000**). an exploratory factor analysis with oblique (oblimin) rotation was performed, and it was determined that nine components had an eigenvalue exceeding 1, accounting for 73.367% of the total variance. nonetheless, an inspection of the scree plot indicated a clear break after the third factor. to verify the number of factors, a monte carlo parallel analysis was performed. results obtained from the analysis indicated that two components had eigenvalues exceeding the corresponding criterion value for a randomly generated data matrix of the same size (28 variables × 33). it was therefore decided to retain two components for the purposes of further investigation in accordance with the scree plot and monte carlo parallel analysis results. confirmatory factor analysis was performed with a two-factor rotation, with results displayed in table 3. table 3: forced two-factor component matrix. pursuant to the confirmatory factor analysis illustrated above, two underlying dimensions were identified. factor 1, which emphasises aspects related to qualitative research, included items such as document analysis (factor loading of 0.723), reporting on qualitative data (with a loading of 0.695) and the aim of qualitative research, which is to gain a deep and insightful understanding of phenomena (factor loading of 0.666). factor 2 focussed on quantitative research, for example, ethics in quantitative research with a factor loading of 0.670, specific quantitative research designs (e.g. quasi-experimental design) with a factor loading of 0.668 and the symbol for reliability (0.632 factor loading). descriptive statistical analysis was conducted to provide a profile of the sample. in addition, measures of central tendency were determined to indicate the research methodology knowledge of respondents before and after the training intervention. inferentially, the primary research hypothesis, which states that: ‘a research methodology capacity-building intervention does have a statistically significant influence on participants’ research methodology knowledge’, was tested using a paired-sample t-test. pursuant to this, an anova (one-way analysis of variance) was performed to determine whether prior research methodology training had a statistically significant influence on research knowledge. hence, the secondary research hypothesis was tested using an anova. however, to further investigate the relationship, a standard multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine how much of the variance in research methodology knowledge after the training intervention could be explained by prior training (i.e. to control for prior training as counterfactual). babbie and mouton (2011:349) maintain that a t-test and anova would indicate whether a statistically significant difference between the pretest and post-test results for participants would be yielded by the analysis. a statistically significant difference would, hypothetically, indicate that any differences that are observed could probably be ascribed to true differences and not chance factors. limitations the following limitations should be taken into consideration when interpreting the results: firstly, there was an overnight time gap between the implementation of the quantitative and qualitative sections of the course material, during which it may have been possible for participants to acquire additional relevant information from sources other than the training intervention. this could be considered to be a moderating variable that was not taken into consideration during the data analysis. however, further reading should be considered as an outcome of the training intervention, and various books and other resources to this effect are listed in the course material. secondly, results are based on a small sample which cannot be seen as representative of the population. however, the aim in reporting the results of the study in this article was not to generalise the findings to the larger population, which would have required a more adequate sample size, but to report on findings within the scope of the sample. despite the fact that the aim of the current research negates the necessity of a representative sample, caution is advised when interpreting the results. thirdly, very little is known about the motivation of respondents other than the need that was registered by the skills development facilitator who requested the training. the reasons that respondents selected this training intervention are therefore unknown. as a result, the correlation (if any) between learning and level of motivation could also be seen as a moderating variable that was not taken into consideration during data analysis. ethical considerations the authors certify that the underlying analysis is in compliance with standard ethical guidelines. findings before testing the stated hypotheses, it was important to determine the current and prior research methodology knowledge in a sample of public servants. hence, measures of central tendency were determined, with results illustrated in table 4. table 4: measures of central tendency for the variables measured. from the descriptive results, it was evident that 44.8% of the respondents had had previous training prior to the training intervention. however, despite half of the respondents indicating that they had had previous training, their research methodology knowledge was below 50% (mean = 47.45; median = 50.00; sd = 16.80), as can be seen from table 4. although an increase in knowledge occurred after the training intervention, table 3 indicates that respondents’ research methodology knowledge remained below 50% (mean = 54.78; median = 57.50; sd = 10.385). a paired-sample t-test was performed to determine whether the knowledge increase that was observed was statistically significant. in order to test the primary research hypothesis, which was principally to evaluate the influence of the training intervention on participants’ knowledge of research methodology, a paired-sample t-test was conducted, with the results indicated in table 5. table 5: paired-sample t-test results for research methodology knowledge. as can be seen in table 5, there was a statistically significant increase on the 99th percentile in respondents’ knowledge from the first iteration (mean = 47.45; sd = 16.8; t = −15.884; p ≤ 0.000**) to the second iteration (mean = 54.78; sd = 10.385; t = −28.750; p ≤ 0.000**). the mean increase in knowledge was 7.33, with a 95% confidence interval ranging from 52.412 to 40.497 in the first iteration and 56.526 to 49.037 in the second iteration. the eta squared statistics indicated a large effect (0.96). to determine whether previous training had a statistically significant influence on respondents’ increase in knowledge, as reported in table 4, an anova was performed (as shown in table 6). table 6: one-way analysis of variance results for prior training as independent variable and previous and current research methodology knowledge as dependent variable. as can be deduced from table 6, prior training did not have a statistically significant influence on the previous and/or current research methodology knowledge of respondents. to examine this relationship further, a multiple regression analysis was performed to determine how much of the variance in current research methodology knowledge after the training intervention can be explained by prior training. the results of this analysis are displayed in table 7. table 7: multiple regression analysis results with research methodology knowledge after the training intervention as dependent variable and prior training as independent variable. as can be seen from table 7, it would appear that the results displayed in table 5 were verified because prior training did not predict current research knowledge as statistically significantly. more specifically, the model predicted 0.8% of the variance in current research methodology knowledge. it should be noted that the adjusted r2 value expressed as a percentage was used as a result of the small sample size (pallant, 2011). the most important aspect to note is that the relationship was negative. thus, as research methodology knowledge increased, the influence of prior training decreased. because of the small sample size, it is advised that the results be interpreted with caution. however, the direction of the correlation is not in accordance with the normal assumption, which was that various training courses would cumulatively increase an individual’s knowledge base. the abovementioned supposition is based on a study conducted by hailikari, katajavuori and lindblom-ylanne (2008) which found that students who possessed relevant prior knowledge from previous training were likely to perform better on future related courses. on the contrary, the findings of samuels et al. (2015) support the presented finding. the authors of the study mentioned above did an impact evaluation of a grade r programme, with results indicating that an educational intervention had limited impact on later educational outcomes. future research could, therefore, investigate a possible mismatch between theoretical and practical knowledge, specifically in terms of research methodology as subject matter as well as possible contextual factors which may influence the results. for example, would the application of research methodology differ in the context of higher education and within the public service as such? discussion and conclusion according to the results illustrated in the preceding section, a 7.33% increase in research methodology knowledge occurred, which was statistically significant on the 99th percentile. a control was done to establish the influence of previous training, and it became evident that previous training was only responsible for 0.8% of the variance. however, the significance of the training intervention should be taken at face value, in that during the training course, information and knowledge was disseminated on a complex topic over a two-day period to a range of participants. although the majority of the sample was in possession of a higher education qualification, only 44.8% of the respondents indicated that they had received previous training, whereas only one respondent held a grade 12 qualification coupled with a diploma. research methodology forms part of a higher education qualification as it is a critical cross-field outcome currently embedded in all higher education curricula. as such, critical cross-field outcomes are generic outcomes, which are the foundation of all teaching and learning and which all higher education students need to achieve (de jager, 2004, as cited in jonck, 2014:267). hence, the assumption would be that most of the respondents would have had at least a basic understanding of the topic under investigation. based on the results discussed, the primary research hypothesis was accepted, while the secondary research hypothesis was rejected. furthermore, alternative explanations for the findings could theoretically include (1) micro-level situational factors, for example, intrinsic motivation (i.e. participants were highly motivated and outcomes could be ascribed to the unique characteristics of participants), (2) the training emphasised aspects that were later assessed, which could be assumed as the pretest–post-test design would be related to the content of the courses (i.e. respondents would have been familiar with the items covered in the assessment) and (3) the facilitation style(s) or personality of the facilitator(s) could have played a role. as far as could be established, similar findings have not previously been reported. samuels et al. (2015) did an impact evaluation of a grade r programme. mashalaba et al. (2015) did an implementation evaluation of the business process services (bps) incentive programme undertaken by the department of trade and industry. the approach adopted in the aforementioned study did not correspond to the approach in this study as a cost-competitiveness analysis was utilised. in accordance with the objective of a formative outcomes evaluation under the ambit of an impact assessment, it is recommended that the research methodology training intervention be sustained because the objectives were achieved. moreover, the framework utilised should be used as a benchmark for best practice in the capacity-building sphere. in terms of the practical significance, this study is only the first step in empirically investigating ways to determine the efficacy of training interventions and could also be used to stimulate debate regarding impact assessments with specific reference to capacity-building initiatives. thus, it is recommended that the suggested framework and methodology be utilised in future research, as well as monitoring and evaluation endeavours covering various training interventions, in an effort to validate the current findings. furthermore, future research could include a control group against which comparisons can be made. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions p.j. conceptualised the article and was responsible for the development of the measuring instrument and the data analysis as well as writing the article. p.s.r. and r.d.c. assisted with data collection as well as compiling the article. all parties were involved with the facilitation of the workshop. references abrahams, m.a. (2015). a review of the growth of monitoring and evaluation in south africa: monitoring and evaluation as a profession, an industry and a governance tool. african evaluation journal, 3(1), a142. https://doi.org/10.4102/aej.v3i1.142 babbie, e. & mouton, j. (2011). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford university press. bank, j. (2012). theory-based approaches to evaluation: concepts and practices. retrieved march 02, 2017 from https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/audit-evaluation/centre-excellence-evaluation/theory-based-approaches-evaluation-concepts-practices.html behrman, j.r. (2010). the international food policy research institute (ifpri) and the mexican progresa anti-poverty and human resource investment conditional cash. world development, 38(10), 1473–1485. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2010.06.007 colquitt, j.a., & simmering, m.j. (1998). conscientiousness, goal orientation, and motivation to learn during the learning process: a longitudinal study. journal of applied psychology, 83, 654–665. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.83.4.654 davies, p. (2004). is evidence-based government possible? jerry lee lecture presented at the 4th annual campbell collaboration colloquium (pp. 1–29). washington, dc. retrieved from http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20091013084422/http://www.nationalschool.gov.uk/policyhub/downloads/jerryleelecture1202041.pdf department of planning, monitoring and evaluation. (2007). policy framework for the government-wide monitoring and evaluation system. pretoria: the presidency. department of planning, monitoring and evaluation. (2014). overview paper: evidence-based policy-making and implementation. pretoria: the presidency. de souza, a. c., alexandré, n. m. c., & guirardello, e. d. b. (2017). psychometric properties in instruments evaluation of reliability and validity. applications of epidemiology, 26(3), 1–10. dimitrov, d. m., & rumrill, p. d. (2003). pretest-posttest designs and measurement of change. work, 20, 159–165. frei, r. (2011). a complex systems approach to education in switzerland. in t. lenaerts, m. giaconini, h. bersini, p. bourgine, m. dorigo & r. doursat (eds.), advances of artificial life ecal (p. 242–249). ma, usa: massachusetts institute of technology. gertler, p. j., martinez, s., premand, p., rawlings, l.b., & vermeersch, c. m. j. (2011). impact evaluation in practice. washington, dc: the world bank. goujon, a., lutz, w., & wazir, a. (2011). alternative population and education trajectories for pakistan. international institute for applied systems analysis (iiasa), austria interim report ir-11-029. retrieved november 01, 2017 from http://www.iiasa.ac.at/research/pop/staff/index.html?sb=31 hailikari, t., katajavuori, n., & lindblom-ylanne, s. (2008). the relevance of prior knowledge in learning and instructional design. american journal of pharmaceutical education, 72(5), 113. https://doi.org/10.5688/aj7205113 jonck, p. (2014). a human capital evaluation of graduates from the faculty of management sciences employability skills in south africa. academic journal of interdisciplinary studies, 3(6), 265–274. https://doi.org/10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n6p265 leahey, e., & moody, j. (2014). sociological innovation through subfield integration. social currents, 1(3), 228–256. https://doi.org/10.1177/2329496514540131 lu, c.h. (2014). assessing construct validity: the utility of factor analysis. statistical year book, 15, 79–94. mashalaba, n., wyatt, a., mathe, j., & singh, r. (2015). implementation evaluation of the business process services incentive programme. african evaluation journal, 3(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/aej.v3i1.146 mouton, c. (2010). the history of programme evaluation in south africa. unpublished master’s thesis, university of stellenbosch, stellenbosch. national development plan 2030. south africa. (2012). pretoria: sherino printers. national evaluation plan, south africa. (2012). retrieved from http://www.dpme.gov.za/publications/policy%20framework/national%20evaluation%20policy%20framework%20(nep).pdf o’malley, g., perdue, t., & petracca, f. (2013). a framework for outcome-level evaluation of in-service training of health care workers. human resources for health, 11(50), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1186/1478-4491-11-50 pallant, j. (2011). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using spss (4th edn.). sydney, australia: allen and unwin publishers. phillips, s. (2012, february/march). the presidency: outcome-based monitoring and evaluation approach. psc news, p. 13–15. pillay, p., juan, a., & twalo, t. (2012). impact assessment of national skills development strategy ii: measuring impact assessment of skills development on service delivery in government departments. pretoria: human sciences research council (hsrc) & development policy research unit, uct. rogers, p. (2014). methodological brief, no 1: overview of impact evaluation. florence, italy: united nations children’s fund (unicef). rogers, p.j. (2012). introduction to impact evaluation (impact evaluation notes no. 1). washington, dc: the rockefeller foundation. samuels, m., taylor, s., shepherd, d., van der berg, s., jacob, c., deliwe, c.n., & mabogoane, t. (2015). reflecting on an impact evaluation of the grade r programme: method, results and policy responses. african evaluation journal, 3(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/aej.v3i1.139 ureda, j., & yates, s. (2005). a systems view of health promotion. journal of health and human service administration, 28(1), 5–38. wagner, c., kawulich, b., & garner, m. (2012). doing social research: a global context. berkshire: mcgraw-hill higher education. weyrauch, v., & langou, g. d. (2011). sound expectations: from impact evaluations to policy change. international initiative for impact evaluation, working paper 12. new delhi: 3ie. white, h. (2009). theory-based impact evaluation: principles and practice. international initiative for impact evaluation, working paper 3. new delhi: 3ie. yi, m.y., & davis, f.d. (2003). developing and validating an observational learning model of computer software training and skills acquisition. information systems research, 14(2), 146–169. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.14.2.146.16016 zwar, n.a., weller, d.p., mcclaughan, l., & traynor, v.j. (2006). supporting research in primary care: are practice-based research networks the missing link? the medical journal of australia, 185(2), 110–113. abstract introduction and problem statement methodology results and discussion implications acknowledgements references about the author(s) patient rambe department of business support studies, central university of technology, south africa citation rambe, p. (2018). unravelling managerial competencies and the profitability of small technology-oriented businesses: a case of public access venues in an emerging economy. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a1045. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.1045 original research unravelling managerial competencies and the profitability of small technology-oriented businesses: a case of public access venues in an emerging economy patient rambe received: 12 feb. 2018; accepted: 01 aug. 2018; published: 16 oct. 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the tweak speed of technological changes, volatility of domestic markets, shifts in consumer behaviour and homogeneity of internet-based services are pressurising entrepreneurs operating small technology-oriented businesses such as public access venues (pavs) (e.g. internet cafés) to develop a compendium of managerial competencies to deal with these challenges effectively and expeditiously. yet rigorous research on managerial competencies of internet café business owners or managers in emerging economies such as south africa is conspicuously missing, raising critical questions about the perceived significance of such competencies in management and entrepreneurship literature. research purpose: this research, therefore, examined the managerial competencies discernible among pav or internet café owner or managers and their implications for the profitability of their businesses. motivation for the study: to establish the managerial competencies of pav or internet café business owners or managers and their effect on the profitability of their businesses. research approach/design and method: drawing on a quantitative approach and a survey design, a structured questionnaire was administered to 152 internet café owners or managers to establish the influence of their managerial competencies on the profitability of their businesses. main findings: three assortments of managerial competencies were evident among internet café owners or managers, namely, resource management, innovation management and market management capabilities. the results of the pearson’s correlations revealed that managerial competencies are significantly correlated to business profitability, resource management capabilities have the highest correlation with profitability (correlation = 0.743, p = 0.000), followed by innovation management capabilities (correlation = 0.732, p = 0.000) and lastly marketing management capabilities (correlation = 0.695, p = 0.000). practical/ managerial implications: because many businesses were very small establishments, employing less than six employees and with owners or managers who had less than 6 years of experience, it would be critical to establish if the provision of management training to owners or managers from the inception of the business would increase the growth orientation of such businesses. because resource management capabilities have the highest correlation with firm profitability, the managerial training of small business owners or managers should concentrate more on this dimension compared to other managerial capabilities to improve their competitiveness. contribution/value-add: strategic interventions to improve the profitability of these small technology-oriented businesses border on scrupulously addressing and aligning their resource management, innovation management and market management capabilities. introduction and problem statement small, micro and medium enterprises (smme) in emerging economies such as south africa are confronted with momentous 21st-century challenges with a strong bearing on their managerial competencies and capacities. these challenges include the global supremacy of information and communication technologies (icts) in the provision of products and services (jerald, 2009; selywn, 2016), and the volatility of the domestic market in light of the instability of domestic currencies (butler, 2016; maveé, perrelli, & schimmelpfennig, 2016). other challenges include shifts in consumer behaviour and needs (urban, 2010) and the increasing convergence and homogeneity of internet-based services (powell, 2007; rambe, 2013). these constraints cast aspersions on the capacity of small technology-oriented businesses such as internet cafés to survive without a transformation of their owners’ managerial competencies and capabilities. while the increasing permeation of icts into all spheres of society in the 21st-century (jerald, 2009) has heightened the need for entrepreneurs’ recognition and anticipation of technology opportunities (urban, 2010), there is insufficient evidence on the rethinking of smme’s managerial competencies and capabilities to tap into these opportunities. similarly, while the avalanche of bite-sized communications embedded in digital technologies are expanding and intensifying care work and emotional labour (selwn, 2016), these promises and hype about technology cannot be sufficiently tapped into because of the paucity of managerial competencies that persist in south african small businesses to optimise the business opportunities created by technology (nkosi, bounds, & goldman, 2013; olawale & garwe, 2010; tangwo, 2012; van scheers, 2011). while the smme owners or managers’ possession of managerial competencies is generally considered as critical to the creation, growth and longevity of small businesses (nkosi et al., 2013; temtime & pansiri, 2005), no systematic research has targeted technology-oriented businesses such as public access venues (pavs), especially internet cafés in developing countries. the few exceptions that focused on managerial competencies have not necessarily covered internet cafés (temtime & pansiri, 2005; yahya & elsayed, 2012) and ironically those that foregrounded internet cafés were theoretical studies (rambe & makhalemele, 2016; rambe & mokgosi, 2016) which insights lacked empirical evidence. more so, despite the professed significance of internet cafés in ict-based service provision, their impact in the marketplace (including the honing of managerial competencies) remains practically unknown (dammert, galdo, & galdo, 2014). as such, what remained speculative in entrepreneurship and management studies that examine managerial competencies in technology-enabled contexts is the nature of managerial competencies inherent in internet café owners or managers and their implications for the profitability of such businesses. as such, the study attempted to address the following questions: which managerial competencies are discernible among owners or managers operating small technology businesses (i.e. internet cafés) in the free state province? what is the relationship between managerial competencies of owners or managers of small internet businesses (i.e. internet cafés) and the profitability of their businesses? which managerial competencies of owners or managers have the greatest impact on the profitability of internet cafés in the free state province? problem background the need to explore the managerial capabilities of owners or managers of pavs such as internet cafés should be conceived in light of limited digital competencies and skills of some internet café users and the uniqueness of internet café services. these issues are discussed in subsequent sections. parochial digital competencies and skills internet cafés in south africa render a wide spectrum of services and digital competencies to users such as the downloading and uploading of documents, browsing websites, emailing and document processing. for example, internet café employees normally provide valuable services and support in computer use and information access to inexperienced users (furuholt & kristiansen, 2007). despite these claims, there is no guarantee that such service providers possess sophisticated technological skills and digital competencies, founded on their possession of a compendium of managerial competencies. chen, paik and mccabe’s (2014) investigation of the internet users’ practices and perceptions of internet security in ghana revealed their limited comprehension of the operation of internet technologies. they elaborate on such users’ exclusive dependence on passwords for online information security and their reliance on ad hoc practices such as word of mouth to augment their knowledge of internet security. the author infers from this that the technological savviness and exposure of internet café owners or managers do not necessarily constitute sophisticated technological and managerial competencies relevant and critical to users’ acquisition and transfer of technological skills. the peculiarity of internet café services the demands for sophisticated managerial competencies among internet café owners or managers stem from the emporium of services provided by these small firms. makhalemele (2016) claims that the uniqueness of internet cafés stems from the diversification of their product or service offerings, which includes internet surfing, photocopying, retail services in addition to dining and bar services. their services also sprawl across various geographical spaces ranging from downtown shops, airport facilities, industrial sites, suburban and peri-urban areas. such spatial distribution presents complex temporal and spatial challenges (e.g. dealing with rivals in proximity, and time management), which demand solid managerial competencies to deal with to ensure the competitive provision of products or services. literature review public access venues for wijaya and polina (2014), pavs describe spaces that provide public access computing and therefore provide ict and internet access in public spaces such as internet cafés, public libraries, hospital waiting rooms, malls and airport terminals. although public agencies (e.g. government departments) often provide such information access points geared at rendering easy affordable internet and computing services (e.g. internet, photocopying, printing, word processing, retail and dining), non-governmental organisations and small-scale businesses are now rendering such services. wijaya and polina (2014) elaborate that pavs are envisaged to play a fundamental role of bestowing access to information for underserved communities, especially those individuals without ict and internet connections. augmenting public access to internet and ict services is particularly acute to south africa where multiple regional (e.g. provincial divide), spatial (work-home divide) and temporal variations (within or outside education institutions) persist in access to such services. statistics south africa’s general household survey (2014) highlights the heavy concentration of internet services in the metropolitan provinces of western cape, gauteng and the free state. the same survey also reports that only one-tenth of south african households have access to the internet at home and such access is highest in the western cape (23.8%) and gauteng (17.3%) (see https:///news/telecoms/127450-internet-access-in-south-africa-best-and-worst-provinces.html). to further compound this challenge, these variations also persist between rural and urban areas, between different gender groups and across different times and temporal zones. in view of these divides, the managerial competencies of owners or managers of internet cafés, public spaces for increased access for the socio-economically marginalised, including the competitiveness of such firms, cannot be taken for granted. studies on internet access studies on internet access via internet cafés have emphasised their utilisation for job searches and applications (dammert et al., 2014), the inculcation of computer literacy among marginalised groups in informal urban slums (hansson & wihlborg, 2011) and the unravelling of gender variations in university students’ intentions of and behaviours when visiting internet cafés (hsu & chuang, 2008). however, an incommensurate attempt has been made to explore the intersection between internet cafés and managerial competencies of their owners or managers. research that has approached this intersection closest includes temtime and pansiri’s (2005) exploration of the managerial competency and organisational flexibility of botswana smmes, which reported that the critical managerial factors affecting the development of smmes are human resources development; organisational development, managerial background; managerial leadership and competitive strategy. nonetheless, their study was not anchored in technology-oriented businesses per se. bouazza, ardjouman and abada (2015) and aylin, garango, cocca and bititchi (2013) attribute the growth of smmes to the proper application of a set of managerial competencies while the paucity of such competencies is considered to hinder firm growth. although the study by bouazza et al. (2015) elaborates on the distinction between managerial competencies, managerial capacities and managerial competencies, this study was conducted in algeria and did not explore internet cafés in particular. definition of managerial competencies the concept of managerial competencies cannot be sufficiently comprehended without grasping competencies. for jauhari (2006, p. 123), competencies refer to ‘observable and applied knowledge, skills, and behaviour that create a competitive advantage for an organisation’. as such, managerial competencies describe those demonstrable knowledge, skills, abilities and behavioural traits that an owner or manager of an internet café should possess to effectively accomplish their entrepreneurial and managerial duties to generate financial value for the organisation. fejfarová and urbancová (2015, p. 111) define managerial competencies as ‘a specific type of individual competencies; for example, specific knowledge, abilities, skills, traits, motives, attitudes and values necessary to improve management performance’. implicit in this definition is the possession and effective application of psychological, technical and emotional dispositions relevant to task performance, which ultimately ensure organisational effectiveness. therefore, managerial competencies are a combination of the manager’s professional knowledge, acquired skills, experience, traits and the proper attitude and motivation to act on-the-job (szczepańska-woszczyna, 2014). these are internal capabilities that people bring to their jobs, which may be expressed in a broad and even infinite array of on-the-job behaviours and enable successful performance of the job. the contemporary concept of managerial competencies is broad, closely related to human capital and encapsulates talents, predispositions, interests, internal motivation, education, knowledge, professional experience, practical skills, attitudes, behaviours, characteristics and the right to act on behalf of the organisation (oleksyn, 2010; szczepańska-woszczyna, 2014). typologies of managerial competencies managerial competencies have generally been described differently depending on different disciplinary, functional, industrial and contextual areas. for instance, the knowledge skills and capabilities demanded in information system and ict domains may differ from those expected in other domains, the same way skills and competencies demanded in large corporations could vary from those expected of small organisations. however, some skills, such as time management and leadership skills can be conceived as generic across different organisations regardless of size, location and industry. nolan, conway, farrell and monks (2010) describe eight competency areas ranging from professional knowledge or operational, interpersonal, communication, information technology, human resources, finance, sales and marketing skills. from an ict perspective, peppard and ward (2004) formulated 26 information systems (is) competencies falling into a nomenclature covering strategy formulation, specifying information technology (it) needs and capabilities, it delivery solutions and fostering and maintaining good relationships with suppliers. cragg’s (2002, 2008) study of managerial factors and their related is competencies emphasised competencies such as business strategy, is strategy alignment, technology innovation, technology analysis, system and process innovation and managing change. in a masters study that examined competencies of emerging technology firms in south africa, makhalemele (2016) identified three main competencies that are most critical: innovation management capabilities, market management capabilities and resource management competencies. consistent with her analysis, the following sections discuss this typology of managerial competencies. innovation management competencies innovation management competencies cannot be grasped fully without defining innovation. szczepańska-woszczyna (2014, p. 14) defines innovation as ‘the implementation of new ideas and introducing new solutions into practice in the environment’. innovation, on the one hand, involves the successful execution and sometimes commercialisation of creative ideas in a business context. innovation management capabilities, on the other hand, describe the capacity of the firm to effectively manage its internal innovations in ways that optimise its performance and create value for the firm. therefore, innovation management capabilities involve those capabilities required in the innovation value chain, that is, the entire innovation process ranging from the innovation input (supplies, materials and resources), innovation process (administrative procedures and techniques applied to the processes of transforming input into output) to innovation output (products, services and logistics) (barosa & cintra, 2012). depending on the size, scale of operations, industry and broad context the firm operates in, innovation management capabilities may take the form of accepting changes in product design, marketing, network management and supply chain management systems, creative thinking about products and services and the successful management of change (quinn, faeman, thompson, & mcgrath 2007; ziębicki, 2011). innovation management capabilities also entail system-wide competencies that cover improvements in information systems, technological innovations, research and development (r&d) activities and the clientele affairs of an organisation (laakso-manninen & viitala, 2007). it implies the application of creative problem-solving skills to develop solutions to organisational problems and adopting ‘smart’ risks during decision making (state of north dakota competency library, n.d.) while fostering the personal development of employees through successful creative participation in organisational activities (königová, urbancová, & jiří, 2012). while small internet firms are often constrained financially and in terms of human capital to participate in r&d activities and to rollout wide-scale technological innovations, they are more predisposed to engage in creative problem-solving to address problems peculiar to their size and scale of operations. in the service industry, including internet cafés, innovation management competencies can translate into firms’ foresight to ‘think for the customer’ by creating services that offer superior value to the customer through leveraging knowledge resources and specific stakeholder relationships (kandampully, 2002). therefore, innovation management competencies have the potential to improve products, services, processes and transform organisational structures. in the view of walker, damanpour and devece (2011), these competencies allow the firm to achieve production and marketing goals, improve product or service quality, lower their operational costs, increase their market share, attain production flexibility and improve the management process. market management capabilities market management capabilities are a bundle of market, human resources and organisational competencies, which a business employs to access, retain and augment its customer base through the generation, dissemination and articulation of customer value. these capabilities have evolved over a long history even though the theme of creating and retaining satisfied customers remains central to the advancement of market management competencies (day 1994; narver & slater 1990). often articulated under the banner of market orientation, market management competencies emphasise a clear recognition of the superiority of target customers (day, 1994), the capacity of the firm to generate, disseminate and deploy superior information about customers and competitors (kohli & jaworski, 1990) and the creation of superior customer value through the coordination of firm’s resources (narver & slater, 1990). since the 1990s, market management capabilities have evolved from creating satisfied customers to appropriately managing the marketing process, which includes analysing market opportunities, formulating clear marketing objectives and developing a marketing strategy that should be implemented and controlled (kotler, 2004). such a determination of the marketing process involves ascertaining whether and the extent to which a firm is effectively managing market research, marketing strategy, planning and implementation, control and evaluation (banterle, cavaliere, stranieri, & carraresi, 2009). managing market research involves capacity of the firm to locate good partners in an investment destination market, possession of adequate market knowledge of the targeted country market, development of export competencies and knowledge of the market language and cultural differences (brancatisano, jurriëns, & verburg, 2012). for banterle et al. (2009), marketing strategy entails the formulation of marketing objectives and organising activities consistent with opportunities opened in the market. planning and implementation is integral to the success of the marketing management process in the same way formulation of a marketing plan is critical to the achievement of marketing strategy objectives. control and evaluation revolve around determining the extent of success of the outcomes of the marketing activities in terms of sales and profit. drawing on day’s (1994) conception of a market-driven firm and the ever evolving conception of marketing which now incorporates networking competencies and collaborative capabilities, ritter (n.d.) conceives marketing management process as encompassing market making and market prioritising as additional capabilities. ritter (n.d.) summarises the marketing management process as involving four main processes, namely, market sensing, market relating, market prioritising and market making. often articulated as market orientation (jaworski & kohli, 1993; narver & slater, 1990), market sensing encompasses market intelligence to grasp the dynamics of the market operations. this process of knowledge management involves acquiring, sifting and synthesising information with a view to improve the performance of the business. this capability entails the business’ exploitation of its current knowledge of markets (e.g. customer preferences and tastes, potential and actual competitors and partners) and its capacity to generate new knowledge that favourably positions it strategically in its chosen markets (hou & chien, 2010). market relating involves attracting and strengthening the business’ relations with the market and its customers. for ritter (n.d.) market relating encapsulates the process of building bridges between the business and actors in the environment such as customers, suppliers, research institutions and government. this has also been perceived as relationship marketing (berry, 1983; berry & parasuraman, 1991) and transaction marketing (coviello, brodie, danaher, & johnston, 2002) covering the creation of strong bonding ties and other distant relationships. such relationships can be founded on logistics planning competencies geared at reducing distribution cost and improving customer satisfaction by providing products at the right place in the right condition at the right time (christopher, 2003; dubey & ali, 2011). market prioritising involves the selection and prioritising of important individual and group customers on a transactional basis as not all customers are equally important. lastly, marketing making is founded on the instability of the market, its networks and a lack of a predetermined structure of operations. this gives rise to the need for the business to provide innovative offerings continually, maintain the dynamics of standardised markets and creating new niches through challenging the logics of the market. therefore, these market management capabilities transcend the firm’s capacity to demonstrate responsiveness to customers’ needs to generate market innovation and attain a competitive advantage (dubey & ali, 2011; nguyen, 2008). internet cafés may not be good candidates for market prioritising as a result of the small client base they serve and their low resource base, which undermine their logistics planning and implementation. resource management capabilities resource management capabilities cannot be grasped fully without articulating what resources, resources management and capabilities are. resources can be conceived as organisational assets – that is (diverse physical and organisational) endowments the business has accumulated (e.g. investments in the scale, scope and efficiency of facilities and systems; brand equity; and the consequences of the location of activities for factor costs and government support) (day, 1994). these resources range from tangible resources (e.g. physical it infrastructure), human it resources (e.g. technical it skills and managerial it skills) and intangible it-enabled resources (knowledge assets, customer orientation and synergy) to valuable resources (helping an organisation to create or implement strategies that improve its efficiency and effectiveness). lastly, resources are rare when more organisations want them than are able to obtain them, imperfectly imitable and non-substitutable when they are immobile and expensive to imitate or replicate (barney & hesterly, 2006; bharadwaj, 2000). in a narrow sense, resource management entails fiscal resource management, that is, the capacity of employees to effectively carry out the responsibility for planning, raising, allocating, spending and managing monetary resources to complete individual, group, unit or department, or organisation-wide work activities (state of north dakota competency library, n.d.). from a human resources perspective, resource management involves developing a more integrated and well-coordinated approach to designing improvements to human resource management systems, job redesign, recruitment, organisational learning, career management, performance improvements and compensation systems (unido, 2002). in its broad sense, it covers planning, project and budget management, information management, change management and organisational performance assessment (krajcovicova, caganova, & cambal, 2012). capabilities can be conceived as the adhesive which brings organisational assets together and enables them to be deployed as a source of competitive advantage (day, 1994). while assets can be assigned monetary value, capabilities cannot, as they are deeply embedded in organisational routines and practices and cannot be traded or imitated (day 1994; dierckx & cool 1989). therefore, resource management competencies describe those competencies that enable the well-coordinated and integrated deployment of financial, physical, human, organisational resources (e.g. quality control systems, corporate culture, and relationships) and technological and intangible resources (e.g. reputation, brand recognition, and goodwill) (braganza, brooks, nepelski, ali, & moro, 2017; grant, 1991; mahoney & pandian, 1992) to increase the competitive advantage of the firm. based on this, the resource domains that could be most relevant to internet cafés include human resources, finance (including fund raising) and organisational changes because of the size and scale of their operations. profitability profitability is one of the prominent measures of business performance. small business owners seek to achieve profit and other economic benefits (e.g. increasing revenue and employment levels) through bearing calculated market risks (carland, hoy, boulton, & carland, 2007; ndofirepi, 2016). the common measures of profitability include sales revenue, gross profit, net profit, percentage return on investment and an increase in employment figures (gumbochuma, 2017). methodology this study adopted a cross-sectional survey design and drew on a structured questionnaire, which was developed based on an in-depth examination of literature on managerial competencies and their impact on firm performance. a cross-sectional survey design allows the researcher to develop a set of statements that characterise the individual or groups, aimed at collecting data about these individuals or groups at a particular point in time as opposed to at intermittent intervals (privitera, 2013; punch, 2013). because the researcher was preoccupied with exploring the managerial competencies discernible among internet café owners or managers at a particular point in time and how these relate to firm profitability, the cross-sectional survey design was conceived as most appropriate for this study. target population and sampling a target population describes ‘the total group of individuals from which a sample is drawn’ (dzansi, 2014, p. 28). officials from the free state development corporation (fdc), a funding agency for internet cafés, estimated that there were approximately 250 internet cafés in the mangaung metropolitan area including outlying areas in the free state province. it is important to emphasise that although individual owners or managers were the appropriate unit of analysis because of the study’s focus on their managerial competencies, fdc only provides the list of smmes and not their owners or managers per se. hence, a critical point of departure was to employ this list to calculate the number of smmes for inclusion in the sample and subsequently work with the owners or managers of these selected firms. using a sample size calculator set at 95% confidence level and a margin of error of 5% (https://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm), the researcher established that for a population of 250 smmes, 152 units will be required for sufficient analysis. as such, owners or managers of 152 internet cafés located in the free state province were interviewed for further investigation. because the researcher assumed variations in internet cafés in the metropole, cities, towns and small towns, stratified sampling which involves dividing the wider population into homogenous or discrete groups, that is, strata (cohen, manion, & morrison, 2010) was employed. this was followed by the random sampling within these groups or strata, the size of each group being determined by the judgement of the researcher (cohen et al., 2010). consistent with the idea of distributing more questionnaires to areas with more internet cafés, 50 questionnaires were distributed in bloemfontein, thaba-nchu received 20 questionnaires, while botshabelo received 27, welkom 17, harrismith 25 and qwa-qwa 13, for representivity purposes. measuring instrument, data collection and analysis as indicated, a structured questionnaire was developed based on an in-depth examination of literature relating the managerial competencies of smmes with a technology orientation. in view of the reality that most research instruments on competencies were prepared for small businesses in general and not technology-oriented smmes in particular (which have unique characteristics – offering intangible technology services, serve a particular clientele with a technological orientation, predominantly middle class and students), a new instrument was necessary. in view of the diverse literature covering multiple competencies, only those innovation management competencies related to and feasible for small technology-oriented firms were considered in the development of the questionnaire. these included creative thinking about products and services, successful management of change (quinn et al. 2007; ziębicki, 2011), improvements in information systems and technological innovations (laakso-manninen & viitala, 2007), creative problem-solving skills to develop solutions to organisation problems (state of north dakota competency library, n.d.) and personal development of employees through successful creative participation in an organisational activity (königová et al., 2012). market management competencies considered included analysing market opportunities, formulating clear marketing objectives, developing a marketing strategy (jaworski & kohli, 1993; kotler, 2004), effectively managing market research, (banterle et al., 2009; brancatisano et al., 2012) and implementation of marketing management processes (banterle et al., 2009) including market training of employees. control and evaluation were not included because most internet cafés often lack the financial resources, expertise and training to effectively execute such processes because of their survivalist orientation and lack of a growth-oriented approach to firm sustainability. shuman and seeger (1986) and alcantar and ngwenyama (2015) argue that although large and small companies deal with many of the same issues, smaller businesses also deal with unique size-related challenges, and they behave differently in their analysis of and interaction with their environments. the resource management capabilities included developing human it, technical and managerial skills (barney & hesterly, 2006; bharadwaj, 2000), improvements in human resource recruitment systems (unido, 2002), budget management, change management (krajcovicova et al., 2012) and management of intangible organisational resources (braganza et al., 2017; mahoney & pandian, 1992). because the main business of internet cafés is the provision of internet, photocopying, printing and other web-based services in addition to sale of internet related products (e.g. flash drives, compact disks [cds], speakers and electronic gadgets), improvements in sales, profit margins, salaries and meeting financial targets were the main measurements of profitability in this study. likert-based close-ended questions were developed. the questionnaire had four sections covering owner or manager demographics, business profile, different managerial competencies and firm performance. with the assistance of two research assistants, data were collected from internet café owners or managers located in the free state province. the free state was large enough to provide a fair representation of various racial groups in south africa. the data were collected over a period of 2 months. data were coded, captured into microsoft excel, cleaned and exported to statistical package for the social sciences version 21 for detailed analysis. while frequencies verified the coding of the data, descriptive analysis assisted in comparing and describing the data. inferential statistics, specifically correlation and regression analysis, were employed to establish relationships between managerial competencies and profitability and to predict the strength and effects of these relationships. validity of the instrument principal component analysis (pca) was carried out on each of the elements that sought to measure each of the four variables, namely, innovation management capabilities, marketing management capabilities, resource management capabilities and profitability of the business (see table 1 for the factor loadings for each variable). table 1: principal component analysis. the kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) values derived are greater than 0.7, which is more than the minimum acceptable threshold of 0.5 (field, 2009), validating the sampling adequacy for the analysis. furthermore, the result of p < 0.001 for bartlett’s test of sphericity demonstrates that correlations between items were sufficiently large for pca. a factor loading value greater than 0.5 shows a relationship between the individual measuring items constituting a variable (factor). the structural validity results for each of the variables, and the subsequent factor analysis, are reported in table 2. the results of the factor analysis suggest that all questionnaire elements intended to measure the four constructs and should be retained. these include innovation management capabilities, marketing management capabilities, resource management capabilities and profitability. table 2: results of the exploratory factor analysis. reliability of data reliability is the extent to which an instrument is repeatable and consistent across time (pietersen & maree, 2014). a statistician in liaison with the researcher, assisted with the pretesting of the questionnaire and its validation. the results of the reliability test are summarised in table 3. table 3: questionnaire reliability statistics. adequate reliability of a construct is indicated by a cronbach’s alpha value of at least 0.700. the fact that all constructs in the questionnaire had cronbach’s alpha coefficients greater than 0.700 demonstrate high internal consistency, hence were reliable. the overall questionnaire is also very reliable (cronbach’s alpha = 0.963). sample demographics internet café owners’ or managers’ demographic and business profiles are summarised in tables 4 and 5, respectively. table 4: biographical information. table 5: company information. of the 112 owners or managers who responded to the survey, a majority (67.9%) of them were women and the remaining 32.1% were men. this finding is surprising in view of the fact that men are often considered to be more technologically savvy than women. about 50.9% of the respondents were 25–34 years old, 19.6% were aged 35–44, 18.8% were under the age of 25 and 9.8% were between 45 and 54 years of age. this points to the dominance of a young adult population as owners or managers of small technology-oriented businesses. sesotho owners or managers of internet cafés were the most represented (50%), followed by xhosa owners or managers (14.3%). the prominence of sesotho-speaking owners or managers can be attributed to the fact that basothos are the dominant group in the free state province. a considerable percentage (40.2%) of the owners or managers had either a matric or lower qualification, 33% had a further education and training (fet) or equivalent qualification while 16.1% had either a university degree or diploma. company profile table 5 summaries the business profile, its nature, role and duration; the number of years the owner or manager had been at management level; the number of employees in the business; and the qualification that the employees have. a majority (58.9%) of internet café businesses had been in operation for 25 years, 18.8% of these businesses had been in operation for less than 1 year, while 17.9% of them had been in operation for between 6 and 10 years. a sizeable percentage (46%) of the internet cafés’ core business was the provision of internet, printing and retail services, 32% offered internet and printing services exclusively while the remainder served as internet cafés only (22%). these statistics point to the different levels of diversification of these businesses. a sizeable proportion (40.2%) of the respondents was owners, 25.9% were managers, 17.9% were employees and 8.9% were supervisors. perhaps employees could have been managers and supervisors who performed limited managerial and supervisory roles and hence conceived themselves more as employees than managers and supervisors. a majority (60.4%) of the internet café owners or managers had between 2 and 5 years of experience of managing such firms while 21.7% of the internet café owners or managers had less than a year of internet managerial experience. the statistics suggest the infantile nature of most of these businesses. results and discussion managerial competencies discernible among internet café owners or managers this section addresses the question on managerial competencies discernible among owners or managers operating small technology businesses (i.e. internet cafés) in the free state province. in view of the reality that competencies comprise a set of knowledge, skills and abilities possessed by an individual, some of which are hard to estimate with precision, a reasonable proxy for determining these competencies was to test them from the perspective of capabilities rather than arbitrarily asking their possession of a competency set. capabilities related to practically oriented business processes, actions and activities these owners or managers were capable of accomplishing in their firms. the managerial competencies discernible among internet café owners or managers were innovation management capabilities, market management capabilities and resource management capabilities. innovation management capabilities the wide range of competencies encapsulating innovation management capabilities are summarised in table 6. table 6: innovation management capabilities. imparting technological knowledge and introducing business systems about 84.8% of owners or managers agreed or strongly agreed that their businesses imparted technological knowledge on their employees to produce new products or services. this corroborates rambe and dzansi’s (2016) finding that effective technology adoption demands not only the shared intentionality among a distributed core group of employees (i.e. technology implementers) at the lower rungs of the organisation but also the sufficient buy-in of senior management. more so, 84% of the respondents were of the opinion that their businesses valued the skills of introducing new business systems frequently. this finding corroborates evidence in entrepreneurial literature on the value of infusing necessary skills such as project and business management skills in the successful conceptualisation and incubation of new business start-ups (lindgren & packendorff, 2011; ramirez-portilla, 2013). developing marketing skills and creative thinking a total of 82.9% of internet café owners or managers affirmed that their businesses encouraged the development of unique skills for marketing its products or services. a majority (76.9%) of owners or managers also claimed that their employees were encouraged to engage in creative thinking about the development of products and services. this mirrors the business development stages of small businesses, where employees are not only expected to generate innovative ideas but also to operationalise them through the application of business concepts by launching new products, introducing new methods of production and new marketing techniques (dzansi, rambe, & coleman, 2015; hatten, 2006). participative decision making in purchases and idea generation about 79% of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their businesses employ participative decision making on the purchase of new stocks or products. this view supports liang, huang, lu and wang’s (2015) finding that individuals’ direct participation in collective activities positively impacts organisations’ economic activities. the other finding was that 77.7% agreed or strongly agreed that their businesses developed unique ideas and creatively transformed existing products into new products. however, the peculiarity of this finding is that most smmes such as internet cafés do not really sell new unique products but rather engage in ‘replicative entrepreneurship’ (ndofirepi, 2016) in which they market and sell already manufactured products and services. market management capabilities the second set of managerial competencies is summarised under market management capabilities, which revolved around issues that are summarised in table 7. table 7: marketing management capabilities. knowledge on customer preferences and market size table 7 shows that 73.1% of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their businesses used market research knowledge on customer preferences when making decisions about the amount of service to provide to customers. because entrepreneurship encapsulates innovative thinking and production of goods and services for customers to make profit while bearing the inherent risk (agbobli, 2013; allen, 2013), it is logical to expect internet café businesses to be sensitive to customers’ preferences and needs if they are to maximise businesses’ economic value. systematic planning before marketing their products and services the findings in table 7 also demonstrate that 70.2% of the internet owners or managers claimed that their businesses engaged in systematic planning before marketing their products and services. because business planning entails ‘formulating decisions about which practical activities to be accomplished as well as turning ideas into reality via a business plan’ (dzansi et al., 2015, p. 5), planning is deemed instrumental in providing a visual map and displaying the future state of affairs which, when correctly executed, will result in business success. this finding resonates with the claim by gruber (2007) and nieman and nieuwenhuizen (2009) that systematic planning is pivotal in enhancing the entrepreneur’s thinking processes about all components of the business to reduce the risks associated with business activities. marketing skills and systematic planning the majority (61.9%) of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their businesses equipped their employees with marketing skills before promoting their products or services. this finding seems to cohere with agbobli’s (2013) claim that resource mobilisation (including sufficient marketing training of staff) should precede the identification of markets and launch of products. market training is critical to the identification of existing and new markets, the location of market gaps and developing interventions to breach them, in addition to the development of employees’ sufficient knowledge of products and services before they can market them successfully. resource management capabilities a third set of managerial competencies discerned was resource management capabilities which comprised the business staff’s appointment procedures, fund raising capabilities, change management strategies and the business owners or managers’ capacity to demonstrate leadership. the findings on resource management capabilities dimensions are illustrated in table 8. this table required respondents to highlight their extent of agreement with each of the statements provided. table 8: resource management capabilities. leadership qualities the findings demonstrate that a majority (86.1%) of internet owners or managers agreed or strongly agreed that they displayed leadership qualities that guided employees in achieving their set goals. however, internet café managers’ exercise of leadership, power and authority may vary depending on whether the manager is a member of the family that owns the business or not. the studies by ingram and simon (1995) and moshavi and koch (2005) found that non-family managers of smmes were often less capacitated to exercise leadership and exert influence, and their decisions tended to be given less weight and priority than those of family members. these variations could be attributed to the non-family managers’ limited influence in decision making processes of family-owned businesses. fund raising capabilities with regard to funding capabilities, the study examined the extent to which businesses were capable of raising funds for the purchase of equipment, products or services. the findings suggest that 84.8% of the owners or managers agreed or strongly agreed that their businesses had the capacity to raise such funds for the purchase of working equipment, products or services. consistent with the resource-based view, the findings corroborate the view that firm resources (finance, skills, knowledge, experience and capabilities) are not limited to the possession of firm-specific resources but also to the effective utilisation of these resources to achieve competitive advantage (ramorena, 2016). the current researcher argues that most internet cafés displayed resource mobilisation capabilities as they could raise their capital with limited external support (e.g. external borrowing). facilitating systemic organisational changes the findings highlight that 78.4% of the internet café businesses owners or managers used skilled employees to facilitate systemic changes in their organisation. this finding somewhat contradicts studies in the construction industry in which highly skilled employees were largely concentrated in large organisations such as murray and roberts, aveng, wbho, group 5 and basil read compared to emerging contractor firms (construction industry development board, 2015; ramorena, 2016). selection of employees based on their experience, qualifications or skills the finding that 49.5% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their businesses selected employees based on their experience, qualifications or skills somewhat contradicts biographic data in table 5 that state that 55% of respondents were less educated (i.e. had a matric qualification and below). it is not clear whether this contradiction arose from respondents’ slight variations with regard to the experience and skills of their employees or was a consequence of different employees judging the attainment of matric differently (e.g. as an achievement or not). business profitability measurements the highest ranking profitability attribute (87.5% agreed or strongly agreed) was that most of the businesses were driven by a need for continuous improvement of their products or services to raise profitability. however, this finding on continuous improvement – itself a component of innovation – seems inconsistent with the lower innovation or growth effect size reported in preceding sections of this investigation. table 9 presents results from the questionnaire items that addressed the profitability of the businesses surveyed. most participants (72.3%) believed that over the previous 3 years their businesses have increased their profit margins, been able to raise salaries and wages from profits (72.3%) and have been able to generate profit (76.2%). table 9: performance measurement – profitability. relationship between managerial competencies and the profitability of emerging technology businesses. the relationship between managerial competencies and the profitability of emerging technology businesses is investigated using pearson’s correlation and regression analysis. pearson’s correlation is a measure of the linear relationship between two continuous random variables. it does not assume normality, although it does assume finite variances and finite covariance. when the variables are bivariate normal, pearson’s correlation provides a complete description of the association. however, for non-normal populations, the sample correlation coefficient remains approximately unbiased, but may not be efficient. the results in table 10 show that all managerial competencies are significantly correlated to business profitability. resource management capabilities has the highest correlation with profitability (correlation coefficient = 0.743, p = 0.000), followed by innovation management capabilities (correlation = 0.732, p = 0.000) and lastly marketing management capabilities (correlation coefficient = 0.695, p = 0.000). table 10: correlations between business profitability and managerial competencies. the findings on the three managerial capabilities and firm profitability (a component of firm performance) seem to cohere with previous studies. bridoux (2004) observes some reciprocal interactions at multiple levels of analysis between the business’ market environment and firm capabilities, business strategy and performance, and interactions between strategy and performance, which in turn shape both organisational capabilities and competitive environments. ramorena (2016) supports this view by acknowledging the continual complementarity between firm-level capabilities (internal networking, social capital networks, product innovation) and market-level capabilities (external networking, market innovation) as they relate to small business growth and profitability. regression analysis of the relationship between managerial competencies and the profitability of emerging technology businesses to predict the relationship between managerial capabilities and firm profitability and associated effect sizes, a regression analysis was conducted. the results of the regression analysis are illustrated in table 11. table 11: regression results for the influence of managerial competencies on business profitability. the regression results in table 11 show that when considered together, marketing management competencies will have a non-significant influence on profitability (coefficient = 0.121, t = 1.145, p = 0.255). this result may mean that small internet cafés located in main urban centres (i.e. bloemfontein) and peri-urban centres (botshabelo and thabanchu) do not necessarily need to market their activities because of their current ideal locational advantages (e.g. proximity to the city, easy accessibility). alternatively, rather than conceive this relationship from the perspective of limited access to markets, which have been considered to be a main inhibitor of the profitability of south africa smmes (nieman & nieuwenhuizen, 2009), this result may mean that these internet cafés have already established their goodwill with customers making the marketing of their activities unnecessary. resource management capabilities have the most significant influence on profitability (coefficient = 0.513, t = 4.191, p = 0.000). innovation has the second highest impact on profitability (coefficient = 0.337, t = 3.322, p = 0.001). thus, it is clear from these findings that the profitability of the business is a consequence of combinations of entrepreneurial orientation components such as innovation as well as organisational resources. ferreira, azevedo and ortiz (2011) who report that firm resources, personal resources and innovation capabilities are all critical to the growth and profitability of small firms, corroborate this finding. the r-square value also shows that the three managerial competencies account for 98.8% of business growth (r-square = 0.988). implications study implications and research limitations the prevalence of women and the limited participation of men in small technology-oriented businesses raise some doubts on the relevance of literature that emphasises the dominance of men in running technology-oriented businesses. future studies should be conducted at the national level to establish if these gender gaps persist with regard to participation in management of technology-oriented businesses. the majority of the businesses surveyed were very small establishments, employing less the six employees and had owners or managers with less than six years of experience. the implication of these findings is the need to establish whether the provision of management training to owners or managers from the inception of the business would increase the growth orientation of such businesses. management training is conceived as critical to the success of emerging businesses (mpiti, 2016; rambe & mpiti, 2016). this is particularly critical in view of the fact that less than half of the surveyed businesses managed to reach their financial targets in the previous three years, pointing to constrained growth opportunities. compared to other innovation management capabilities, employees’ involvement in collaborative decision making on stock purchases was comparatively lower than other variables, pointing to some owners’ or managers’ authoritative tendencies with regard to business management. future studies may need to compare the performance implications of democratically managed and authoritatively managed businesses. because only about half of the surveyed businesses explored the size of the market before launching a new product or service, future studies covering market management capabilities of small businesses need to examine the business growth implications of such businesses in comparison to businesses that do not embark on such market exploration. because resource management capabilities have the highest correlation with firm profitability, the implication is that small businesses should concentrate more on this dimension compared to other managerial capabilities to improve their competitiveness. because regression analysis demonstrated that when all managerial competencies were considered collectively, market management competencies did not have a significant influence on firm profitability, it would be more appropriate for firms to concentrate on resource management and innovation management capabilities if their performance is to be optimised. conclusion the study examined the managerial competencies discernible among small technology-oriented businesses, especially pavs such as internet cafés. the study also employed correlation analysis to examine the relationship between such businesses and their level of profitability including which managerial competency has the greatest impact of firm profitability. the study findings demonstrated three sets of managerial competencies, namely, market management, resource management and innovation management capabilities. in terms of their correlations with profitability, resource management capabilities had the highest significant correlation with firm profitability, followed by innovation management, and lastly, marketing management capabilities. when considered collectively, market management capabilities could be removed from the capabilities–profitability relationship with little effect. in view of firms’ failure to reach their financial targets including somewhat weaker effects of market management capabilities on firm performance, the need to emphasise resource management and innovation management capabilities among resource-constrained emerging firms cannot be discounted. acknowledgements the author is grateful to miss naledi makhalemele and her team for assisting with data collection. the author also thanks the statistician for detailed analysis and dr agbobli for commenting on the previous versions of the research instrument. competing interests the author declares that there was no competing interest in the production of this article. references agbobli, e. k. (2013). the influence of entrepreneurial and market orientations on small scale rural agricultural enterprises in the vryburg area (phd thesis). central university of technology. alcantar, j., & ngwenyama, o. (2015). top management capabilities for sme’s market entry decisions. international association for management of technology iamot 2015 conference proceedings, 8–11 june 2015. cape town, south africa. allen, p. (2013). complexity, uncertainty and innovation. economics of innovation and new technology, 22, 702–725. https://doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2013.795776 aylin, a., garango, p., cocca, p., & bititchi, u. (2013). the development of sme managerial practice for effective performance management. journal of small business and enterprise development, 20(1), 28–54. https://doi.org/10.1108/14626001311298402 banterle, a., cavaliere, a., stranieri, s., & carraresi, l. (2009, september 3–6). marketing management capabilities and price setting: an empirical analysis in the eu traditional food sector. paper prepared for presentation at the 113th eaae seminar ‘a resilient european food industry and food chain in a challenging world,’ chania, crete, greece. barney, j. b., & hesterly, w. s. (2006). strategic management and competitive advantage. upper saddle river, nj: pearson education. barosa, a., & cintra, l. (2012). innovation, competencies and organizational performance – articulating constructs and their operational capability. future studies research journal, 4(1), 30–59. berry, l. (1983). relationship marketing. in l. berry, g. shostack, & g. upah (eds.), emerging perspectives on service marketing (pp. 25–28). chicago, il: american marketing association. berry, l., & parasuraman, a. (1991). marketing services. new york, ny: the free press. bharadwaj, a. s. (2000). a resource-based perspective on information technology capability and firm performance: an empirical investigation. mis quarterly, 24(1), 169–196. https://doi.org/10.2307/3250983 bouazza, a., ardjouman, d., & abada, o. (2015). establishing the factors affecting the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises in algeria. american international journal of social science, 4(2), 101–115. braganza, a., brooks, l., nepelski, d., ali, m., & moro, r. (2017). resource management in big data initiatives: processes and dynamic capabilities. journal of business research, 70, 328–337. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.08.006 brancatisano, g., jurriëns, j., & verburg, r. (2012). competence-based approach for small and medium-sized enterprises: for selecting suitable international market-entry strategies. has business publications, 8, 137–155. bridoux, f. a. (2004). resource-based approach to performance and competition: an overview of the connections between resources and competition. retrieved from http://www.isys.ucl.ac.be/working_papers/documents/wp110bridoux.pdf butler, c. (2016). zar insights from chuck butler. retrieved from http://www.everbank.com/currencies/south-african-rand/insights carland, w. j., hoy, f., boulton, w. r., & carland, j. c. (2007). differentiating entrepreneurs from small business owners: a conceptualization. in á. cuervo, d. ribeiro, & s. roig (eds.), entrepreneurship (pp. 73–81). berlin: springer. chen, j., paik, m., & mccabe, k. (2014, july 9–11). exploring internet security perceptions and practices in urban ghana. symposium on usable privacy and security (soups), menlo park, ca. christopher, m. (2003). logistics and supply chain management: strategies for reducing cost and improving service. london: pitman publishing. cohen, l., manion, l., & morrison, k. (2010). research methods in education. oxon: routledge. construction industry development board (cidb) quarterly monitor. (2015). progress against construction industry indicators. pretoria: cibd. coviello, n. e., brodie, r. j., danaher, p. j., & johnston, w. j. (2002). how firms relate to their markets: an empirical examination of contemporary marketing practices. journal of marketing, 66(3), 33–46. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.66.3.33.18500 cragg, p. b. (2002). benchmarking information technology practices in small firms. european journal of information systems, 11(4), 267–282. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000430 cragg, p. (2008). identifying key information systems competencies in small firms. total quality management, 19(1–2), 29–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783360701601926 dammert, a., galdo, j., & galdo, v. (2014). mobile phones for labour market intermediation: a multi-treatment experimental design. retrieved from http://conference.iza.org/conference_files/worldb2014/galdo_j2620.pdf day, g. (1994). the capabilities of market-driven organizations. journal of marketing, 58(4), 37–52. https://doi.org/10.2307/1251915 dierckx, i. & cool, k. (1989). asset stock accumulation and sustainability of competitive advantage. management science, 35, 1504–1511. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.35.12.1504 dubey, r., & ali, s. s. (2011). study on effect of functional competency on performance of indian manufacturing sector. international journal of engineering business management, 3, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.5772/50941 dzansi, d., rambe, p., & coleman, w. (2015). enhancing new venture creation success in south africa: a project management perspective. problems and perspectives in management, 13(2), 417–425. dzansi, d. y. (2014). research methodology module 1. bloemfontein: central university of technology. field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss. london, uk: sage. fejfarová, m., & urbancová, h. (2015). application of the competency-based approach in organisations in the czech republic. business administration and management, 1(18), 111–121. https://doi.org/10.15240/tul/001/2015-1-009 ferreira, j. j., azevedo, s. g., & ortiz, r. f. (2011). contribution of resource-based view and entrepreneurial orientation on small firm growth. journal of international business administration, 11(1), 95–116. furuholt, b., & kristiansen, s. (2007). internet cafés in asia and africa – venues for education and learning? the journal of community informatics, 3(2), retrieved from http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/314/320 grant, r. m. (1991). the resource-based theory of competitive advantage: implications for strategy formulation. california management review, 33(3), 114–135. https://doi.org/10.2307/41166664 gruber, m. (2007). uncovering the value of planning in new venture creation: a process and contingency perspective. journal of business venturing, 22(6), 782–807. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2006.07.001 gumbochuma, j. (2017). the status and impact of technology transfer and innovation on the productivity and competitiveness of small-scale agro processing businesses in mashonaland central (zimbabwe) and free state (south africa) (unpublished doctoral thesis), central university of technology, free state, south africa. hansson, p. o., & wihlborg, e. (2011). internet café as a supportive educational arena – a case study from the urban slum of kibera, inted 2011 conference proceeding (pp. 5966–5975). nairobi, kenya. hatten, t. s. (2006). small business management: entrepreneurship and beyond (3rd ed.). boston, ma: houghton mifflin company. hou, j.-j., & chien, y.-t. (2010). the effect of market knowledge management competence on business performance: a dynamic capabilities perspective. international journal of electronic business management, 8(2), 96–109. hsu, y.-c., & chuang, o. (2008). are internet cafés gendered spaces? cyberpsychology and behaviour, 11(2), 224–226. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2007.0051 ingram, p., & simons, t. (1995). institutional and resource dependence determinants of responsiveness to work-family issues. the academy of management journal, 38, 1466–1482. jaworski, b. j., & kohli, a. k. (1993). market orientation: antecedents and consequences. journal of marketing, 57, 53–70. https://doi.org/10.2307/1251854 jauhari, v. (2006). competencies for a career in the hospitality industry: an indian perspective. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 18, 123–134. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596110610646673 jerald, c. d. (2009). defining a 21st century education. alexandria, va: centre for public education. kandampully, j. (2002). innovation as the core competency of a service organisation: the role of technology, knowledge and networks. european journal of innovation management, 5(1), 18–26. https://doi.org/10.1108/14601060210415144 kohli, a. k., & jaworski, b. j. (1990). market orientation: the construct, research propositions. journal of marketing, 54, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.2307/1251866 königová, m., urbancová, h., & fejfar, j. (2012). identification of managerial competencies in knowledge-based organisations. journal of competitiveness, 4(1), 129–142. kotler, p. (2004). marketing management. upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. krajcovicova, k., caganova, d., & cambal, m. (2012). key managerial competencies and competency models in industrial enterprises. annals of daaam for 2012 and proceedings of the 23rd international daaam symposium, zadar, croatia, 23(1), 1119–1122. laakso-manninen, r., & viitala, r. (2007). competence management and human resource development: a theoretical framework for understanding the practices of modern finnish organisations. helsinki: haaga-helia university of applied sciences. liang, q., huang, z., lu, h., & wang, x. (2015). social capital, member participation, and cooperative performance: evidence from china’s zhejiang. international food and agribusiness management review, 18(1), 49–78. lindgren, m., & packendorff, j. (2011). on the temporary organizing of entrepreneurial processes: applying a project metaphor to the study of entrepreneurship. revue de. entrepreneuriat, 10(2), 45–67. https://doi.org/10.3917/entre.102.0045 mahoney, j. t., & pandian, j. r. (1992). the resource-based view within the conversation of strategic management. strategic management journal, 13(5), 363–380. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250130505 makhalemele. (2016). the relationship between managerial competencies and performance of smmes: a case of internet cafés in the mangaung metropolitan area in south africa (unpublished master’s thesis), central university of technology, free state, south africa. maveé, n., perrelli, r., & schimmelpfennig, a. (2016). surprise, surprise: what drives the rand/u.s. dollar exchange rate volatility? imf working paper, wp/16/205. washington, dc: international monetary fund. moshavi, d., & koch, m. (2005). the adoption of family-friendly practices in family-owned firms. community, work & family, 8(3), 237–249. https://doi.org/10.1080/13668800500142210 mpiti, n. (2016). the influence of private and public finance on the performance of smmes in the free state: a case of afro hair salons in mangaung metropolitan area. unpublished master’s thesis, central university of technology, free state, south africa. narver, j. c., & slater, s. e. (1990). the effect of a marketing orientation on business profitability. journal of marketing, 54, 20–35. https://doi.org/10.2307/1251757 ndofirepi, t. (2016). the impact of technological creativity and entrepreneurship education on the entrepreneurship intentions of students at particular tertiary institutions in zimbabwe and south africa (unpublished doctoral thesis), central university of technology, free state, south africa. nguyen, t. m. (2008). functional competencies and their effects on performance of manufacturing companies in vietnam. fribourg: university of fribourg. nkosi, e., bounds, m., & goldman, g. (2013). skills required for the management of black-owned small enterprises in soweto. acta commercii, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v13i1.186 nieman, g., & nieuwenhuizen, c. (2009). entrepreneurship: a south african perspective (2nd ed). cape town: van schaik publishers. nolan, c., conway, e., farrell, t., & monks, k. (2010). competency need in irish hotels: employer and graduate perspectives. journal of european industrial training, 31, 432–454. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090591011049800 olawale, f., & garwe, d. (2010). obstacles to the growth of new smes in south africa: a principal component analysis approach. african journal of business management, 4(5), 729–738. oleksyn, t. (2010). zarządzanie kompetencjami. teoria i praktyka. warszawa: oficyna wolters kluwer business. state of north dakota. (n.d.). competency library. (online). retrieved from https://www.nd.gov/omb/sites/omb/files/documents/…/nd-competency-library.pdf peppard, j., & ward, j. (2004). beyond strategic information systems: towards an is capability. journal of strategic information systems, 13, 167–194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2004.02.002 pietersen, j. & maree, k. (2014). standardisation of a questionnaire. in k. maree (ed.). first steps in research (pp. 215–222). pretoria: van schaik publishers. powell, a. (2007). an ecology of public internet access: exploring contextual internet access in an urban community. the electronic journal of communication, 17(1 & 2), retrieved from http://www.cios.org/ejcpublic/017/1/01715.html privitera, g. j. (2013). research methods for the behavioural sciences. los angeles, ca: sage publications. punch, k. f. (2013). introduction to social research: quantitative and qualitative approaches. london: sage. rambe, p. (2013). converged social media: identity management and engagement on facebook mobile and blogs. australasian journal of educational technology, 29(3), 315–336. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.117 rambe, p., & dzansi, d., (2016). informal distributed leadership in technology adoption. african journal of science, technology, innovation and development, 8(2), 155–165. https://doi.org/10.1080/20421338.2016.1147200 rambe, p., & makhalemele, n. (2015). relationship between managerial competencies of /managers of emerging technology firms and business performance: a conceptual framework of internet cafés performance in south africa. international business & economics research journal, 14(4), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.19030/iber.v14i4.9357 rambe, p., & mokgosi, b. (2016). the influence of personal, family and social variables on technology-oriented venture creation: theoretical case of internet cafés in bloemfontein, south africa. the journal of applied business research, 34(4), 1063–1078. https://doi.org/10.19030/jabr.v32i4.9722 rambe, p., & mpiti (2016). the influence of private and public finance, organisational and environmental variables on the performance of beauty salons in the free state, south africa: a theoretical perspective. international business and economics research, 16(1), 1–18. ramirez-portilla, a. (2013, january 16–18). project manager’s characteristics influence in the entrepreneurial process: a project based entrepreneurship model. paper presented at the druid academy, comwell rebild bakker, rebild/aalborg, denmark. ramorena, m. (2016). the impact of social networks on innovation, competitiveness and firm performance in the south african context: a case study of emerging construction firms in the free state, (unpublished doctoral thesis), central university of technology, free state, south africa. ritter, t. (n.d.). market management capabilities of vusiness-to-business firms. frederiksberg. denmark: copenhagen business school. unpublished manuscript. retrieved from https://www.impgroup.org/uploads/papers/4746.pdf selywn, n. (2016). academic work in the digital age. transcript of a talk given at the ‘disrupting higher education dialogues’ conference – deakin university, melbourne, 23–25 november 2016. shuman, j. c., & seeger, j. a. (1986). the theory and practice of strategic management in smaller rapid growth firms. american journal of small business, 11(1), 7–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/104225878601100101 statistics south africa’s general household survey (ghs). (2014). retrieved from https://news/telecoms/127450-internet-access-in-south-africa-best-and-worst-provinces.html szczepańska-woszczyna, (2014). competencies, innovation and entrepreneurship in the theory and practice of management. dąbrowa górnicza, poland: scientific publishing of the university of in dąbrowa górnicza. quinn, r. e., faerman, s. r., thompson, m. p., & mcgrath, m. r. (2007). profesjonalnezarządzanie. warszawa: pwe. tangwo, a. (2012). the impact of motivations, personal values, management skills of managers on the performance of smes in selected towns (port elizabeth and port alfred) in the eastern cape province, south africa (unpublished master’s thesis), university of fort hare, south africa. temtime, z., & pansiri, j. (2005). managerial competency and organizational flexibility in small and medium enterprises in botswana. problems and perspectives in management, 1, 25–36. united nations industrial development organisation (unido) (2002). unido competencies: strengthening organisational core values and managerial capabilities [online]. retrieved from http://www.unido.org2002.p.351 urban, b. (2010). technology and entrepreneurial orientation at the organisational level in the johannesburg area. sa journal of human resource management, 8(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.212 van scheers, l. (2011). smes’ marketing skills challenges in south africa. african journal of business management, 5(13), 5048–5056. walker, r., damanpour, f., & devece, c. (2011). management innovation and organizational performance: the mediating effect of performance management. journal of public administration research and theory, 21(2), 367–386. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muq043 wijaya, s., & polina, a. (2014). male and female internet access usage patterns at public access venues in a developing country: lessons from yogyakarta, indonesia. the journal of community informatics, 10(1), online. retrieved http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/798/1141 yahya, h., & elsayed, k. (2012). the influence of the factors of managerial competencies among smes in selangor, malaysia: a preliminary study of human resources. australian journal of basic and applied sciences, 6(13), 123–134. ziębicki, b. (2011). managerial competencies in the context of contemporary management concepts and methods. pp. 221–239. retrieved from http://repozytorium.wsb-nlu.edu.pl/bitstream/handle/11199/7453/zi%c4%99bicki%20bernard,%20managerial%20competencies%20in%20the%20contex%20of%20contemporary%20management%20concepts%20and%20methods.pdf?sequence=1 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 2 pp. 15 24 empirical research employee perceptions regarding whistle-blowing in the workplace: a south african perspective abstract the purpose of whistle-blowing is to eradicate unethical behaviour in the work place. this article investigates the perceptions of south african employees (n=387) employed in medium and large organisations regarding whistle-blowing. respondents regard personal viewpoints and the supportive organisational environment as determining factors for whistle-blowing. south african employees have faced minimal negative consequences and will again engage in whistle-blowing, regardless of union support. organisations can create a whistle-blowing culture by having a personal code of ethics, using hotlines, having an ethical committee, engaging in periodic ethics training and doing an annual ethical audit. keywords: ethical behaviour, internal policies, communication channels, whistle-blowing, wrongdoing. while south africa’s transition to democratic rule has been characterised by high levels of crime, including widespread corruption, it does not detract from the moral issue that as individuals, each employee ought to be held accountable and responsible for his or her actions (sangweni, 2005). borrie and dehn (2003) blame rapid advances in the transformation of the modern organisation for making it increasingly difficult for an organisation to have the necessary checks and controls in place, and this makes it easier for employers and employees to act in ways that compromise their professional integrity. to be effective in the fight against unethical behaviour in the work place, a wide-spread commitment to eradicate this behaviour is required. according to daft (2006), organisations can no longer rely exclusively on codes of conduct and ethical structures to prevent all unethical behaviour, but have to depend to some degree on individuals who are willing to blow the whistle if they detect illegal, dangerous or unethical activities. rossouw (2002) recommends that the responsibility to eliminate unethical behaviour should be shared by all members of the organisation. members need to share a firm conviction that the tolerance of unethical behaviour is not in their own, or the organisation’s interests, and that the eradication of unethical behaviour must become internalised. whistle-blowing is a very important ethical issue as it guards against the negative social, economic and environmental impact of multi-national corporations invading global markets. it also acts against the aggressive and unethical practices engaged in by such firms in order to earn revenue, particularly in the modern technologically-driven and turbulent economic times (weiss, 2006). whistle-blowing is considered a key tool for promoting individual responsibility and organisational accountability (stewart, 1996). whistle-blowing is contrary to the tradition that an employee does not question a superior’s decisions and acts, especially not in public. what is at stake is the employee’s right to speak out in cases where they think the organisation or management is engaging in an unacceptable practice. if employees conclude that they cannot discuss current or potential unethical activities with co-workers or superiors, they may go outside the organisation for help (carroll & buchholtz, 2000). whistleblowing is thus a serious action with real consequences. it often involves a decision to be made among conflicting moral, legal, economic, personal, family, and career demands and choices. firstly, the objectives of the article are outlined, followed by the hypotheses with an explanation of how they were identified. whistle-blowing is defined, the process is described and highlighted in a global context. the literature study explored the consequences of whistle-blowing and how to minimise wrongdoing in the work place. the research methodology outlines how the study was conducted, followed by the results with the implications and recommendations derived from the results. guidelines are given on how to minimise wrongdoing in the workplace and the main conclusions of the study are highlighted. objectives the primary objective of this article is to investigate the perceptions of employees regarding whistle-blowing in the workplace. to help achieve this main objective, the following secondary goals are identified: • to explore the concept of whistle-blowing. • to highlight the importance and nature of whistle-blowing as an ethical issue in the workplace. • to empirically assess the perceptions of employees regarding whistle-blowing. • to investigate the consequences of engaging in the act of whistle-blowing in the workplace. • to identify and recommend organisational practices to minimise wrongdoing in the workplace. hypotheses various null-hypotheses were formulated to investigate the relationship between the independent variables (classification data) and dependent variables (perceptions regarding whistleblowing). the following null-hypotheses were formulated and tested: h0 1 there is no relationship between the personal viewpoints of respondents regarding whistle-blowing and their age. h0 2 there is no relationship between the personal viewpoints of respondents regarding whistle-blowing and their number of dependents. sandra perks elroy e smith department of business management nelson mandela metropolitan university south africa correspondence to: sandra perks e-mail: sandra.perks@nmmu.ac.za 15 empirical research perks & smith vol. 6 no. 2 pp. 15 24sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za16 h0 3 there is no relationship between the personal viewpoints of respondents regarding whistle-blowing and their ethnic group. h0 4 there is no relationship between the personal viewpoints of respondents regarding whistle-blowing and their position in the organisation. h0 5 there is no relationship between the personal viewpoints of respondents regarding whistle-blowing and their income level. h0 6. there is no relationship between a supportive environment for whistle-blowing and the ethnic group of respondents. h0 7 there is no relationship between a supportive environment for whistle-blowing and the position of respondents in the organisation. h0 8 there is no relationship between a supportive environment for whistle-blowing and the length of employment of respondents. h0 9 there is no relationship between a supportive environment for whistle-blowing and the income level of respondents. with regards to the analysis of variance exercise, 10 independent variables (classification data) and five dependent variables/ factors (whistle-blowing) were used. a total of 50 hypotheses were originally formulated and tested by means of anova (41 null-hypotheses indicated no relationships between the tested variables). only the nine hypotheses (hypothesis h0 1 to hypothesis h0 9 ) indicating significant relationships are outlined above and reported in this article. five other null hypotheses (hypothesis h0 10 to hypothesis h0 14 ) investigate the consequences of whistle-blowing and are reported elsewhere in this article. the alternative or research hypotheses could be stated as the exact opposite of the abovementioned null hypotheses (hypothesis h 1 to hypothesis h 14 ). whistle-blowing in the workplace concept clarification eaton and akers (2007) explain that whistle-blowing in its simplest form involves the act of reporting wrongdoing within an organisation to internal and/or external parties. daft (2006) stipulates that whistle-blowing is the employee’s disclosure of illegal, immoral, or illegitimate practices on the employer’s part. hellriegel, jackson, slocum, staude and associates (2001) define whistle-blowers as employees who report unethical or illegal actions of their employers to other people or organisations that are capable of taking corrective action. camerer (2001) regards whistle-blowing in its most general form as involving calling public attention to wrongful acts, typically in order to avert harm. for the purpose of this study, whistle-blowing is defined as when an employee reveals wrongdoing within an organisation either to the public or to those in positions of authority. channels camerer (1996) comments that the whistle-blower must preferably blow the whistle through available internal channels or, as a last resort, to a regulatory body, the press or police. unfortunately, according to sangweni (2005) most employees are too scared to blow the whistle internally as they might be disadvantaged, disciplined or dismissed. alternatively, auriacombe (2005) confirms that if blowing the whistle to an outside party such as the press, the whistle-blower could experience negative reaction from the organisation, supervisors or colleagues. process the whistle-blowing process is depicted in figure 1 below. it clearly shows the authority lines to follow for lodging the wrongdoing as well as the actions required by each superior. the above indicates the process that organisations can follow to increase public scrutiny of corporate behaviour. ravishankar (2002) added to this by outlining the following steps for creating a whistle-blowing culture in an organisation: • step 1: create a policy with formal mechanisms, clear communication lines and clear communication about bans on retaliation; • step 2: get endorsement from top management (ceo to line managers) for an open-door policy regarding employee complaints; figure 1 whistle-blowing process* *source: adapted from royal kingston (2007) employee perceptions regarding whistle-blowing empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 2 pp. 15 24 • step 3: publicise the organisation’s commitment through newsletters, memos and speeches acknowledging and rewarding employees who report ethical issues; • step 4: investigate and follow up all investigations promptly and thoroughly and report the origins and results to a higher authority; • step 5: assess the organisation’s internal whistleblowing system through employees’ opinions about the organisational culture and commitment to ethics and values. the first step will be to outline a whistle-blowing process and then to outline how whistle-blowing can be incorporated in the organisational culture. in the next section the consequences of whistle-blowing are explored. consequences of whistle-blowing dellaportas, gibson, alagiah, hutchinson, leung and van homrigh (2005) warn that while whistle-blowers are considered heroes by the public, within the organisation, the whistle-blower is considered a traitor who has been disloyal to the organisation and colleagues. rossouw and van vuuren (2004) agree that although legal protection is an avenue that can be visited by the whistle-blower, it has a devastating effect, especially when it results in losing one’s job. dellaportas et al. (2005) cited examples in history where whistle-blowers were penalised for their actions by: some form of harassment, lower performance evaluations, demotions, punitive transfers and dismissal. whistle-blowers are also ostracised by management and colleagues as troublemakers, which in turn hinders future employment opportunities. nelson and trevino (2007) cautioned employees on deciding how to raise ethical concerns in order to avoid being branded as someone with poor judgment. other risks the whistle-blower can face include disciplinary hearings for insubordination, claims of disloyalty, accusations of whistle-blowing for personal gain, loss of friendships and loss of respect for the ethnicity in whose interest the whistleblower acted (naude, 2005). camerer (1996) states that the culture of the organisation determines whether the whistle-blower will be considered as a wrongdoer, or as a do-gooder, regardless of whether the whistle has been blown through internal channels or, as a last resort, through external channels. dellaportas et al. (2005) regards the negative effects of whistle-blowing for the organisation, besides bad publicity, as a negative reputation, prosecution, decreased profits and the demoralisation of the workforce. the ramifications for both the employee and the organisation are serious, and procedures and practices need to be in place to help smooth the process. according to wood (2004), whistle-blowers may face fierce resistance and extreme levels of disapproval inside the organisation when they attempt to expose unethical and suspect behaviour. whistle-blowers may be discredited by transferring them to undesirable duties or shifts. kaplan and kleiner (2000) cited that whistle-blowers often face different forms of retaliation, for example by: • putting the spotlight on the whistle-blower; • manufacturing a poor record; • being threatened to silence, isolation or humiliation; • setting them up for failure; • prosecution; • eliminating their jobs, or • paralysing their careers. carroll and buchholtz (2000) stated that studies of whistleblowers have found that as many as 90% experience negative outcomes, and more than half lose their jobs. many end up taking prescription medicine to ease the stress, while others even contemplate suicide. in spite of this, dellaportas et al. (2005) advise that employees should be encouraged to blow the whistle internally and to resolve the problem before it becomes a public scandal. if the employees remain silent they could be labelled accomplices if the wrongdoing is later revealed. based on the above-mentioned reasoning, the following null hypotheses were formulated to investigate the consequences of whistle-blowing in the workplace: h0 10. blowing the whistle does not lead to any consequences. h0 11. blowing the whistle does not result in large-scale resignation for whistle-blowers. h0 12. unions do not protect employees if fired for blowing the whistle. h0 13. previous whistle-blowers intend not to engage in the act of future whistle blowing. h0 14 most whistle-blowers do not report wrongdoing to the organisation itself. the next section highlights some global whistle-blowing practices. global whistle-blowing practices in south africa, the protected disclosure act, no. 26 came into force in february 2001 to protect whistle-blowers, both in the public and private sector. prior to this act, there were other efforts, which include the promotion of access to information act and hosting of anti-corruption conferences in 1998 and 1999. at the 1999 conference resolutions were taken to develop, encourage and implement whistle-blowing mechanisms to protect people from victimisation when they expose corruption. (whistle-blowing act no. 26, 2000). literature about whistle-blowing from the following key countries reveals the following global legal practices to minimise wrongdoing in the workplace (classified and related information disclosure act 1998; caslon analytics guide secrecy and accountability 2000; hills governance centre, 2004; policy and procedures on whistle-blowing: definition, 1999; ravishankar, 2002): • whistle-blowers protection act in australia (victoria – 2001; queensland – 1994); • united kingdom public interest disclosures act – 1998; • united states whistle-blower’s protection act – 1989; • japan’s whistle-blower protection act – 1994; • south korea’s anti-corruption and protection act – 2001; • new zealand public service whistle-blowing act – 2000. other countries that have followed are ghana and philippines (hills governance centre, 2004; martens & crowell, 2002). within these acts provision is made for a code of conduct, the protection of the whistle-blower, whistle-blowing channels, procedures and support structures for, and programmes to promote whistle-blowing (hills governance centre, 2004). most of the above-mentioned countries allow whistle-blowing to external channels but procedures differ in the various countries. in australia, the united states and new zealand, annual reports must be released specifying the current guidelines, the number of disclosures investigated and referred to other public agencies (hills governance centre, 2004). in the united states, the aig corporate compliance group has established a toll-free help line to report suspected misconduct or fraud. countries outside the united states can also call this line or report online (dom, 2007). according to martens and crowell (2002) in china hotlines are not favoured as it reminds employees of the horror of the cultural revolution, also not in germany as it reminds employees about gestapo tactics. scepticism exists about the reality of whistle-blowers’ protection in hong kong, taiwan and china (martens & crowell, 2002). it is further stated that in russia whistle-blowers subject themselves to a lot of trouble due to possible persecution from company managers and/or owners. hills governance centre (2004) remarked that in japan 17 empirical research perks & smith vol. 6 no. 2 pp. 15 24sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za18 and australia granting of rewards linked to whistle-blowing is not explicit in the whistle-blowing acts. the european union published a charter for whistle-blower protection in 2000 (martens & crowell, 2002). in south africa, a company called whistle blowers (pty) ltd offers a 24-hour communication centre for reporting wrongdoing and crime prevention. it is more than a hotline as it also assists in the investigation and provides feedback to the parties (whistle-blowers, 2007). johnnic communications in south africa also advertise their anonymous independent hotline for reporting workplace dishonesty. in the next section further organisational practices for minimising wrongdoing are outlined. organisational practices for minimising wrongdoing sangweni (2005) identifies several initiatives that have been undertaken in south africa by government to promote accountability and fight corruption within the public sector. these include legislation on the promotion of access to information act and the protected disclosure act. this act aims to protect persons from victimisation when they expose corruption and unethical practices. government has also hosted various anti-corruption conferences. barker and dawood (2004) recommend that organisations implement an effective internal system for employees to raise concerns and to facilitate the process of whistle-blowing internally. if individuals feel that it is not safe and accepted to blow the whistle internally, they will resolve to blow the whistle externally. megone and robinson (2002) suggest that the internal policy on whistle-blowing should include: a clear statement that malpractices are taken seriously, confidentiality is respected, that there are penalties for false and malicious allegations and/or a clear indication of how the concern can be raised externally if necessary. the internal system should include proper communication channels, commitment by management to the whistle-blowing process and to support the whistle-blower. barker and dawood (2004) and ravishankar (2002) propose paying attention to formal mechanisms for reporting violations, such as: • hotlines and mailboxes; • respect for the confidentiality of staff raising concerns; • access to independent advice, and • guidelines on how to raise concerns outside the organisation if deemed necessary. brian (2001) stressed that the practice of whistle-blowing must be communicated by line managers at all levels who are trained continuously in creating an open-door policy regarding employee complaints. to create a culture of openness and honesty, it is important that employees are reminded regularly about the policy. this will require management to investigate all allegations promptly and thoroughly, and report the origins and the results of the investigation to a higher authority. robbins and judge (2006) encourage ethics training to implement an ethical organisational culture. the training should be given to new employees as part of orientation, as well as to existing employees. this training should be given on a periodic basis to help employees recognise ethical dilemmas and to make them aware of the ethical issues underlying any action they take (robbins & judge, 2006). it could also serve as reinforcement of ethical principles. a large organisation has the ability to develop and implement various programmes to minimise wrongdoing. de beers has a fully outsourced ethics hotline (investing in the future, 2005) and a principles assurance programme which encourages the systematic monitoring of performance, third party verification and has a commitment to disclosure (about de beers, 2005). ten things you can do to avoid being the next enron (2005) gives the following guidelines on how to minimise wrongdoing and to improve an ethical climate: • organisations should examine their ethical climate and put safeguards in place. these include conducting a formal assessment of their corporate culture from the perspectives of attitudes, perceptions, standards of conduct and vulnerabilities. • organisations should also have ethics committees who are responsible for ensuring that systems are in place in the corporation. these committees should also focus on employee compliance with the code of ethics. • “hot lines” can also help employees – they can phone when they are confronted with an ethical dilemma. • communication is also an important element to ensure that wrongdoing is eliminated. managers should communicate values and be supportive of employees that may have a problem. • codes of conduct or an ethics code should be properly implemented. it is no use having a wonderful code of conduct that employees are not aware of. management should post ethic codes on information boards, intranets and in annual reports. moon and bonny (2001) agree with ten things you can do to avoid being the next enron (2005) that companies should establish codes of conduct or adopt the international chamber of commerce’s revised code to ban any form of unethical behaviour by company employees. organisation ethics policy (2005) indicated that management is responsible both for ensuring that policies and procedures are in place to manage risks or unethical practices and for complying with such policies and procedures. more should be done than merely investing in closed circuit television to combat intra-organisational crime (organisations learn ethics make good organisation sense, 2003). hellriegel, jackson, slocum, staude & associates (2004) identify the practices outlined in table 1 to encourage whistleblowing and minimise wrongdoing. these previous suggestions will only be effective if, according to nadler and schulman (2006) an observer of wrongdoing is willing to make reports over the hotline, and those who receive the reports respond appropriately and ensure that the employee’s identity remains confidential. this will require commitment from top management and they must be serious about corruption and wanting to create a supportive environment for whistle-blowers (bakman, 2003). by preventing organisational wrongdoing, both the organisation and the individual benefit (bakman, 2003). table 1 practices to minimise wrongdoing number practices to minimise wrongdoing 1 signal the importance of ethical conduct through the organisation’s vision and value statements. 2 have a designated ethics officer. 3 use an integrity test when screening job applications. 4 provide ways for employees to report the questionable actions of peers and superiors, such as providing an ethics hotline. 5 develop enforcement procedures that contain stiff disciplinary and dismissal procedures. 6 treat allegations of wrongdoing seriously and treat both parties fairly. 7 document the organisation’s ethical rules through a written code of ethics. 8 appoint an ethics committee to implement organisation ethics initiatives and supervise the ethics officers. 9 emphasise the importance of ethical conduct in training. 10 conduct an ethical audit and take visible steps to address concerns raised. 11 constantly communicate the organisation’s ethical standards and principles. employee perceptions regarding whistle-blowing empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 2 pp. 15 24 research methodology to investigate the perceptions of south african employees regarding whistle-blowing in the workplace, an empirical study was undertaken. research approach the quantitative research method is used in this research project. it is a form of conclusive research, which involves a large representative sample and structured data collection procedures are used. the quantitative research approaches used are exploratory research (an area that has not been studied in order to develop initial ideas) and descriptive research (describe whistle-blowing perceptions of employees). the sample for the purpose of this research project the population could be regarded as all employees employed by firms employing more than 50 employees operating in the nelson mandela metropole in port elizabeth, south africa. only medium and large organisations were targeted. a non-probability sampling procedure was used and a convenient sample was drawn, purely on the basis of availability and accessibility. clear instructions were given regarding the sample and data collection procedure. the total sample size was 387 employees. the questionnaire structured questionnaires were administered during personal interviews. the questionnaire is divided into three sections: • section a deals with the classification data of respondents (biographical details) and contains a nominal scale of measurement, using 10 categorical variables. aspects covered included: gender, age, number of dependants, educational level, ethnic group, position in the organisation, length of employment, income level, size of organisation and type of employment. • section b investigated the whistle-blowing perceptions of employees in the workplace and consists of five factors: personal viewpoints regarding whistle-blowing, perceptions of colleagues’ actions regarding whistleblowing, consequences of whistle-blowing, rewards and supportive environment. a total of 26 variables/statements are used. the type of ordinal scale used is a five-point likerttype scale. one open-ended question was used to obtain suggestions for minimising wrongdoing in the workplace. • section c deals with the consequences of whistle-blowing and was completed only by those employees who had previously engaged in the act of whistle-blowing. a nominal scale of measurement is used, consisting of five dichotomous statements related to the consequences of whistle-blowing. one open-ended question was used (year in which whistleblowing occurred). pilot study in order to pre-test the questionnaire, it was given to a few fulltime employed students and a few academics in the field of management, human resources and statistics. after processing and analysing the data from this pilot study, the questionnaire was refined and some minor changes were made regarding wording, sequence and layout. data collection the type of information required (data specification decisions) for this research project can be classified as follows: • type of data – research data are numeric and verbal (interviews). • sources of data – both secondary and primary data (survey) were collected. • nature of data – data were collected at a single point in time. • form of data – overt data by means of interviews. during the literature search (secondary data collection), various textbooks, journals and the internet were consulted. primary data were collected by means of a survey through structured questionnaires administered during personal interviews. a total of 387 questionnaires were completed during these personal interviews. clear instructions were given regarding the completion of these questionnaires. data processing and analysis the returned questionnaires were inspected to determine their level of acceptability. they were then edited where necessary, and coded. the data were transferred to an excel spreadsheet. a statistical computer package, named spss, was used to process the results. techniques used during data analysis included descriptive statistics (e.g. mean and variance), frequency distribution, factor analysis, correlation coefficients and analysis of variance. results descriptive statistics table 2 provides an overview of the most important and significant descriptive statistics for section b of the questionnaire (perceptions regarding whistle-blowing). with regard to the descriptive statistics of each individual variable, no in-depth discussion is provided, as it falls beyond the scope of this article. only those factors with significant statistics are reported. regarding the measure of central tendency (mean values) of these factors, it appears that most of these values cluster around point three (neutral) on the instrument scale. it appears that most respondents are indifferent regarding the factors/variables testing perceptions about whistle-blowing. respondents tend to disagree (point two on the scale) with the variables constituting factor b3 (consequences of whistleblowing). measures of dispersion, indicated by means of low variance scores, reveal that respondents tended not to vary much regarding their opinions about these variables. demographic profile of respondents table 3 provides an outline of the most important demographic characteristics of respondents. ten classification data variables were used in section a of the questionnaire. table 3 highlights some of the most important demographic characteristics of respondents. some of the categories were re-categorised for purpose of analysis. the majority of the respondents (56%) were males. forty-five percent of the respondents are between the ages of 25 and 34. half of the respondents (50%) have one to three dependants, while 43% have no dependants. a significant percentage of the respondents (27%) only have a grade 12 qualification, while 38% have a bachelor’s degree or post-graduate degree (36% have a national certificate or diploma). the majority of respondents (43%) were white, while blacks and coloureds were 33% and 18% respectively of the total sample. sixty-six percent of the respondents were employees, while 29% occupied a managerial position and five percent were owners. based on length of employment in the organisation, it appears that almost one fifth (19%) of the 19 factor/variable mean range variance personal viewpoints regarding whistleblowing (b1) 3.15 2.33 0.55 perceptions about colleagues’ actions regarding whistle-blowing (b2) 3.25 0.87 0.14 consequences of whistle-blowing (b3) 2.73 0.87 0.97 rewards for whistle-blowing (b4) 3.04 0.20 0.02 supportive environment (b5) 3.35 1.58 0.27 table 2 descriptive statistics for whistle-blowing perceptions empirical research perks & smith vol. 6 no. 2 pp. 15 24sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za20 left as a result of whistle-blowing). it appears that the majority of respondents (81%) were treated fairly by the organisation when engaging in the act of whistle-blowing. since 1985 there has been a remarkable increase in the reporting of wrongdoing in south africa. seventy-seven percent of the alleged whistleblowing acts occurred between 1996 and 2006, while since last year 16% of whistle-blowing acts have occurred. most of the wrongdoings were reported to the organisation itself (78%), while 10% were reported to the press or police services. it appears that almost half of the respondents received protection from their union against possible dismissal because of engaging in whistle-blowing, while the other half did not receive any protection from their union. most of the respondents (84%) indicated that they are willing to blow the whistle in future if required to do so. based on the information provided in table 4 above, this section attempts to provide the results of testing hypothesis 10 to hypothesis 14 (consequences of whistle-blowing). only respondents who have engaged in whistle-blowing and reported wrongdoing completed section c of the questionnaire. it has been clearly indicated that blowing the whistle has certain consequences (h0 10 rejected). it could lead to resignation (14%), being treated unfairly (19%), having to report the wrongdoing to outsiders (22%) and not receiving union protection against possible dismissal (49%). the majority of respondents (86%) are sill employed with the same organisation after blowing the whistle and only 14% resigned (this could have been for other reasons). these results thus contradict the findings of carroll and buchholtz (2000) that as many as 90% experience negative outcomes, and more than half lose their jobs. based on this reasoning, hyporthesis 11 can be accepted, thus implying that whistle-blowing does not result in large-scale resignation of employees. hypothesis 12 is also rejected: 51% of the respondents indicated that they received some form of union protection against the possibility of getting fired for blowing the whistle. it is, however, regretful that the other 49% did not receive any union protection. it further appears that previous whistle-blowers are not reluctant to engage in future whistle-blowing (hypothesis 13 rejected) – 84% indicated that they will again blow the whistle. based on the fact that 78% of the respondents indicated that they reported the wrongdoing to the organisation itself (only 22% reported it to outsiders), hypothesis 14 is rejected. reliability and validity of the measuring instrument external validity refers to the generalisation of research results to other population groups and is ensured by means of a proper and sound sampling procedure. clear guidance was given respondents have been employed for less than one year in the organisation, while the majority (60%) have been employed for more than five or 10 years. forty-five percent of the respondents earn a salary of between r5000 and r12000, while 17% earn a salary of less than r5000 and 38% earn a salary of more than r12000. sixty percent of the respondents are employed in a large organisation, with 40% in medium-sized organisations. it appears that the majority of respondents (81%) are permanently employed, with the remainder on a contract or part-time basis. frequency distribution results: consequences of whistleblowing table 4 indicates the frequency distribution results of the consequences of whistle-blowing (section c of the questionnaire). it should be noted that only respondents who have engaged in the act of whistle-blowing completed this section of the questionnaire. a total of 147 respondents (38%) had engaged in the act of whistle blowing. table 4 clearly indicates the possible consequences of whistleblowing for employees. the majority of respondents (86%) indicated that they are still employed by the same organisation despite the fact that they have blown the whistle (14% possibly characteristic category % gender male female 56 44 age 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 64+ 20 45 16 15 3 1 number of dependants none 1 2-3 4-5 5+ 43 21 29 5 2 education grade 12 national certificate/diploma bachelor’s degree post graduate qualification 27 36 23 14 ethnic group white coloured black asian other 44 18 33 3 2 position in organisation owner manager employee 5 29 66 length of employment < 1 year 2 5 years 6 10 years 11 15 years 15 years + 19 39 21 10 11 income level < r5000 r5001-r12000 r12001-r20000 r20001 + 17 45 22 16 size of organisation medium large 40 60 type of employment permanent contract part-time 81 14 5 table 3 frequency distribution results of classification dataptions consequence category % still employed by same firm yes no 86 14 treated fairly by organisation yes no 81 19 year of whistle-blowing 1985-1995 1996-2006 2007 – currently 7 77 16 to whom wrong doing reported organisation press police other 78 3 7 12 union protection against possible dismissal yes no 51 49 possibility of blowing the whistle again yes no 84 16 table 4 frequency distribution results of consequences of whistle-blowing n = 147 employee perceptions regarding whistle-blowing empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 2 pp. 15 24 regarding the place, time and conditions in which the research was to be conducted. internal validity of the instrument’s scores is ensured through both face and content validity. expert judgement and a pilot study were undertaken to assist in this regard. internal consistency reliability was ensured by means of a factor analysis. the statistical software package, spss, was used to determine the cronbach’s alpha values for the four predetermined whistle-blowing factors. to confirm the internal reliability of the five factors, cronbach’s alpha was calculated (refer to table 5). according to hair, anderson, tatham and black (1998), cronbach’s alpha value may be decreased to 0.5 in exploratory research. it can therefore be concluded that all factors are internally reliable. correlation an inter-item correlation exercise was conducted to determine the correlation between the variables constituting each factor. it can be reported that most of the variables in each factor show positive relationships with each other (indicating strong positive r values). a positive correlation coefficient (r value) indicates a strong or positive relationship among the variables. only in factor one (personal viewpoints) and factor five (supportive environment) a few negative correlation coefficients were identified. for example, item or variable b1 (willingness to report) correlated with b3 (preparedness to leave the firm) indicates a negative r value of -.0336 while b19 (cannot report as supervisor is involved) correlated with b25 (availability of internal reporting procedure) indicates a negative r value of -.0826. all other correlations indicate strong positive relationships between the variables or items, but fall beyond the scope of this article and are thus not reported. anova the purpose of this analysis is to investigate the relationship between the independent and dependent variables and to test the stated hypotheses. inferential statistics are used to make inferences about the population using sample data to make decisions regarding various hypotheses. different analyses of variance exercises were conducted to test the stated hypotheses. the classification data variables are used as the independent variables (section a of the questionnaire) and perceptions regarding whistle-blowing in the workplace are used as the dependent variables (section b of the questionnaire). table 6 only reports those anova results that show significant relationships between the independent and dependent variables and those that exhibit no significant relationships are excluded. the anova results clearly indicate the relationships between the independent and dependent variables. hypothesis 1 to hypothesis 9 can, in all cases, be rejected and the alternative hypotheses can be accepted. hypothesis 1 to hypothesis 5 fall within the rejection region (p < 0.01) which indicates that there is a significant relationship (difference) between personal viewpoints of respondents regarding whistle-blowing and the following classification data variables: age, number of dependants, ethnic group, position in organisation and income (h 1 to h 5 accepted). hypothesis 6 to hypothesis 9 also fall within the rejection region: p-values < 0.01 and large f-statistic values. this indicates that there are significant relationships between a supportive environment for whistle-blowing and the following classification data variables: ethnic group, position in organisation, length of employment and income level (h 6 to h 9 accepted). figure 2 summarises the results of testing the hypothesis stated in the study. conclusions and recommendations the following conclusions and recommendations can be drawn, based on the analysis of variance between the independent variables (classification data) and dependent variables (whistleblowing perceptions): • there appears to be a highly significant relationship between age and personal viewpoints of employees regarding 21 variables factor cronbach’s alpha 1-7 personal viewpoints regarding whistleblowing (b1) 0.52 8-11 perceptions about colleagues’ actions regarding whistle-blowing (b2) 0.60 12-16 consequences of whistle-blowing (b3) 0.55 17-18 rewards for whistle-blowing (b4) 0.78 19-26 supportive environment (b5) 0.66 table 5 cronbach’s alpha (section b of the questionnaire) dependent variable independent variable f-test p-value hypothesis personal viewpoints regarding whistleblowing age 6.427 0.000* h1 number of dependents 3.774 0.005* h2 ethnic group 7.980 0.000* h3 position in organisation 11.842 0.000* h4 income level 3.857 0.002* h5 supportive environment for whistle-blowing ethnic group 3.535 0.004* h6 position in organization 9.272 0.000* h7 length of employment 4.335 0.002* h8 income level 4.610 0.000* h9 table 6 analysis of variance results for the variables *p<0.01 figure 2 summary of hypothesis testing results empirical research perks & smith vol. 6 no. 2 pp. 15 24sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za22 whistle-blowing (h0 1 rejected). differences exist between age groups regarding personal viewpoints about whistleblowing. it appears that older employees have different perceptions about whistle-blowing when compared to their younger counterparts. management should thus ensure that policies and practices in the organisation encourage whistleblowing among all age groups. the new dispensation in the country which emphasises transparency, equal rights and ethical values could have contributed to the fact that “younger” employees have different perceptions about whistle-blowing compared to those of “older” employees who have grown up under the old dispensation. • personal viewpoints of respondents regarding whistleblowing also show significant relationships with their number of dependants (h0 2 rejected). employees with no dependants have different perceptions about whistleblowing when compared to those who have dependants. this might relate to the fact that employees with no dependants feel that they have nothing to lose in reporting wrongdoing (if they lose their job they have no dependants to care for), while, those with dependants are more reluctant to report wrongdoing (fear they may lose their job and cannot support their dependants). organisational policies regarding whistle-blowing should explicitly state that there are no harmful consequences if the whistle is blown (not even losing one’s job). job security should be ensured at all times. • highly significant relationships were found between ethnic groups and personal perceptions regarding whistle-blowing (h0 3 rejected). ethnic groups differ regarding their personal viewpoints about reporting wrongdoing. employers should be sensitive and open towards differences between 39 figure 3 model for practising whistle-blowing in the workplace ethnic groups regarding ethical issues. contemporary organisations should, therefore, without becoming too ethnically or race-orientated, attempt to cater for and align ethnic differences with organisational and ethical values. sensitivity towards ethnic differences could foster an environment in which whistle-blowing is encouraged and practised. • the personal viewpoints of employees regarding whistleblowing in the workplace showed highly significant relationships with the position occupied in the organisation (h0 4 rejected). differences exist between employees, managers and owners regarding their personal viewpoints about whistle-blowing. the practice of whistle-blowing should therefore be encouraged and promoted among all levels in the organisation. the perception might exist that employees are more likely to report wrongdoing than managers who often “hide” wrongdoings or perhaps are more likely to be involved in wrongdoing due to access to information based on their status. employees at all levels should be encouraged to blow the whistle, even if exposing the wrongdoings of management. • there appears to be a significant relationship between the personal viewpoints of employees regarding whistleblowing in the workplace and income level (h0 5 rejected). employees with different income levels differ in their personal viewpoints about whistle-blowing. employees with lower levels of income might feel that they have nothing to lose when blowing the whistle, while employees with higher levels of income might be more reluctant to report wrongdoing, as they have a lot at stake. employees should be assured and encouraged that regardless of income level, employee perceptions regarding whistle-blowing empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 2 pp. 15 24 everyone in the organisation has a right and obligation to report wrongdoing. • a supportive environment for whistle-blowing showed a significant relationship with the ethnic group of respondents (h0 6 rejected). it appears that employees from different ethnic groups value different aspects of a supportive environment regarding whistle-blowing as being important. organisations should therefore be ethnically sensitive when creating and providing a supportive environment for whistle-blowing. • it was found that there is a highly significant relationship between a supportive environment for whistle-blowing and the position of respondents in the organisation (h0 7 rejected). owners, managers and employees differ in their perceptions regarding a supportive environment for whistle-blowing. lower-level employees might feel more vulnerable when reporting wrongdoing and therefore require more support when compared to managers and owners. lower-level employees should be ensured that they can rely on the support of the organisation and other role players when blowing the whistle. • there appears to be a significant relationship between a supportive environment for whistle-blowing and the length of employment of respondents (h0 8 rejected). employees with different lengths of employment differ in their perceptions regarding a supportive environment for whistle-blowing. employees with a shorter tenure might be more dependent on a supportive environment for whistle-blowing as they feel more exposed and stand a chance of more easily being fired for reporting wrongdoing. employees with longer tenures know the ropes and are therefore less dependent on a supportive environment. • there is a highly significant relationship between a supportive environment for whistle-blowing and the income level of respondents (h0 9 ). employees with lower income levels are likely to be more dependent on a supportive environment when reporting wrongdoing, as they fear that they might lose their job. employees at all income levels should be given the assurance that they can rely on the support of the organisation and various role players when blowing the whistle. there has been an increase in whistle-blowing in south africa in the workplace as the majority of respondents have blown the whistle internally in the last 10 years. this was brought about by countries promulgating acts to this effect. many reasons were given as to why employees have blown the whistle, but it is clear that employees should value ethics and honesty in the workplace from a personal viewpoint and also think in terms of the long-term reputation, goals and best interest of the organisation. it is acknowledged that both the organisation and the individual could benefit in the long run. the majority of respondents of this study are still employed by the organisation and were treated fairly. respondents that have not yet blown the whistle, are not fully aware of the consequences thereof. those respondents who blew the whistle are aware of the negative consequences of whistle-blowing: getting into trouble, dismissal, lack of union protection, lots of pressure, fear, being the outcast and being victimised by a supervisor. unions in south africa do not totally support whistle-blowers as only about half of respondents who blew the whistle indicated that they had union protection. this indicated that unions are not yet very familiar with whistle-blowing procedures and cases. respondents also acknowledged the positive consequences of whistle-blowing such as bringing about change in the work place, making people alert and benefiting the organisation in the long run. in spite of the negative consequences, the vast majority would blow the whistle again as it appears that most organisational cultures support whistle-blowing. the organisational culture of the organisation will determine if those who have blown the whistle will do so again. few respondents indicated that they would not blow the whistle again because they had a bad experience, cannot afford to lose their job, or as their innocence was turned into suspicion. the results of the study revealed that whistle-blowing can be improved in the following ways: • the workplace must have a personal code of ethics, based on guidelines from the act; • the internal policy must include a clear statement that malpractices are taken seriously and confidentiality is respected so as to prevent whistle-blowing externally; • the internal system should have proper communication channels and the organisation should have a supportive environment starting with the incorporation of ethical conduct in their vision and value statements; • an ethical committee should be established and be responsible for ensuring that systems are in place. this committee should choose a dedicated ethics officer to whom wrongdoings in the organisation can be reported; • the process to resolve wrongdoings has to be dealt with professionally, with commitment from top management; • at all times, management should have an open-door policy regarding employee complaints; • allegations must be investigated promptly and thoroughly; • the individual blowing the whistle must act with honesty and integrity and there should be penalties for false allegations and rewards for bringing justice; • ethics training, in particular on whistle-blowing, should be given to new and existing employees on a periodic basis to raise awareness and as reinforcement of ethical principles; • mechanisms such as a toll-free number (hotline) managed by a private company, access to independent advice, guidelines on how to raise concerns outside the organisation if necessary, should be indicated; • an ethical audit should be conducted annually and visible steps be taken to address concerns raised. figure 3 provides a model to minimise wrongdoing in the workplace and encourage whistle blowing. the following quote is appropriate to conclude this article: “it is believed that whistle-blowers are not any different from other employees. they do not seem to be at a higher stage of moral development, nor are they either more or less loyal to the company than their peers. instead they tend to be people who happen to know about the wrongdoing and believe that by acting they can do something to stop it.” (hellriegel, et al.,2004, p. 138). references about de beers. (2005). retrieved september 17, 2007, from the world wide web: http://www.debeersgroup. com/debeersweb/about+de+beer+value+and+culture/ the+assurance+programme.htm. auriacombe, c.j. (2005). what happens when one blows the whistle? recent south african cases. sabinet online, 24(1), 85-100. retrieved september 5, 2007, from the world wide we b: http://www.subinet.co.za/abstracts/polit/polit_v24_ n1_95_htm. bakman, f. (2003). the impact of whistle-blowing on organisations. unpublished masters research proposal papers. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. barker, r., & dawood, r. (2004). whistle blowing in the organisation: wrongdoer or do-gooder? communicare, 23(2), 119-138. borrie, g. & dehn, g. (2003). whistle-blowing: the new perspective. retrieved september 16, 2007, from the world wide web: http://www.pcaw.co.uk/policy-pub/ niewperspective.html. brian, d. (2001). the future of organisation ethics in africa. iber, 4(1). retrieved september 5, 2007, from the world wide web: http://www. organization-ethics.org/newdetail. asp?news1d=20-27k. 23 empirical research perks & smith vol. 6 no. 2 pp. 15 24sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za camerer, l. (1996). ethics and the professions: blowing the whistle on crime. african security review, 5(6). retrieved september 10, 2007, from the world wide web: http://www. iss.co.za/pubs/asr/5/no6/camerer.html. camerer, c. (2001). protecting whistle blowers: the protected disclosures act. organization day, 7 feburary, p. 21. carroll, a.b., & buchholtz, a.k. (2000). organization and society. (4th ed.). mason: south western college. caslon analytics guide secrecy and accountability. (2000). retrieved april 30, 2008, from the world wide web: http:// www.cslon.com.am/secresyguide1-.htm. classified and related information disclosure act. (1998). retrieved april 30, 2008, from the world wide web: http:// www.fas.org/sgp/congress/s1668.htm. daft, r.l. (2006). the new era of management. international edition. australia: south western thompson. dellaportas, s., gibson, k., alagiah, r., hutchinson, m., leung, p., & van homrigh, d. (2005). ethics, governance and accountability: a professional perspective. australia: john wiley & sons, ltd. dom, e. (2007). aiu africa compliance flash. retrieved september 18, 2007 from the world wide web: http:// www. aigcompliancehelpline.com. eaton, t., & akers, m.d.( 2007). whistleblowing and good governance, cpa journal, 77(6), 66-71. hair, j.f., anderson, r.e., tatham, r.l., & black, w.c. (1998). multivariate data analysis. new jersey: prentice hall, inc. hellriegel, d., jackson, s.e., slocum, j., staude, g. & associates (2001). management. cape town: oxford university press. hellriegel, d., jackson, s.e., slocum, j., staude, g. & associates (2004). management. cape town: oxford university press. hills covernance centre (2004). whistleblowing in the philippines awareness, attitudes and structures. retrieved april 1, 2008, from the world wide web: http://www.aimshills.ph/proejectpage/prs/research3_6htm.. investing in the future. (2005). retrieved september 17, 2007, from the world wide web: http://debeersgroup.com/ debeersweb/investi ng+i n+the+fut ure/ethics?whistle_ blowing.htm. kaplan, b., & kleiner, b.h. (2000). new developments concerning discrimination for whistle blowing, insight, 19(6-7), 75-77. retrieved september, 10, 2007 from the world wide web: http://www.emraldinsight.com/ uinsight/viewpdf.jsp?filename=html/output/published/ emraldabstractonlyarticle/pdf/0300190616.pdf. martens, l.t., & crowell, a. (2002). whistle blowing: a global perspective. retrieved july 23, 2007, from the world wide web: http://www.info.ethicspoint.com/pyw9d… megone, c. & robinson, s.j. (2002). case histories in organization ethics. (1st ed.). oxon: routledge. moon, c., & bonny,c. (2001). organization ethics. london: profile books. nadler, j., & schulman, m. (2006). whistle blowing in the public sector. markkula centre for applied ethics. retrieved september 17, 2007 from the world wide web: http://www. scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/government. naude, p.j. (2005). organisation ethics: an orientation. unpublished organisation ethics study guide. port elizabeth: nelson mandela metropolitan university. nelson, k., & trevino, l. (2007). managing organization ethics: straight talk about how to do it right. (4th ed.). sydney: john wiley and sons. organization ethics policy. (2005). retrieved september 12, 2007, from the world wide web: http://www.g4s.com/home/crs/ cer-organizationethics-policy.htm#csr-organizationethicspolicy-policies. organizations learn ethics make good organization sense. (2003). retrieved september 7, 2007, from the world wide web: http://www.gsb.uct.ac.za/gsbwebb/suerfiles/ organizationslearnethicsmakegoodorganizationsense_ 1.pdf. policy and procedures on whistle-blowing: definition. (1999). retrieved july, 23, 2007 from the world wide web: http:// www.bhasvic.ac.uk/govenors/policy%20file%20januar y%202008/human%20resources/whistleblowing_ policy_and_procedures.pdf ravishankar, l. (2002). encouraging internal whistle-blowing in organsations. retrieved september 16, 2007, from the world wide web: http://www.scu.edu/ethics/p;ublications/ submitted/whistleblowing.html. robbins, s.p., & judge, t.a. (2006). organizational behaviour. (12ed.). new jersey: pearson education. royal kingston. (2007). what takes place in an investigation. retrieved may, 5, 2008 from the world wide web: ht t p://w w w.k i ngston.gov.u k/…/key_doc u ment s_ for_ pr o c u r e me nt/wh i s t le blow i n g/t h e _wh i s t le blow i n g _ process.htm. rossouw, d. (2002). organization ethics in africa. (2nd ed.). cape town: oxford university press. rossouw, d. & van vuuren, l. (2004). organization ethics. (3rd ed.). cape town: oxford university press southern africa. sangweni, s. (2005). parliamentary briefing on the 2005 annual state of the public service report. retrieved september 17, 2007, from the world wide web: http://www..pmg.org.za/ briefings/briefings.php?id=185. stewart, d. (1996). organization ethics. united states of america: mcgraw-hill companies, inc. ten things you can do to avoid being the next enron. 2005. retrieved september 17, 2007, from the world wide web: http://www.ethics.org/resources/avoid-being-enron.asp. weiss, j.w. (2006). organization ethics. (4th ed.). ontario: thompson/south west. whistleblowers. (2007). retrieved september 12, 2007, from the world wide web: http://www.whistleblowing.co.za/site/ awdep.asp?dealer=6565&depnum=20401whistleblowers. whistleblowing act no. 26. (2000). retrieved october 2, 2007, from the world wide web: http://www. nacf.org.za/guide_ to_the_whistle_blowing_act/section_two.html. wood, m.b. ( 2004). organization ethics in uncertain times. new jersey: pearson education. 24 8smithroodt.qxd contemporary research (cummings, 2001; denison, 2001; dove, 2001; flamholtz, 2001; nadler, thies & nadler, 2001) has shown that organisational culture is perhaps the single best predictor of organisational performance. however, poor measurement instruments of culture, would yield poor data that renders best management interventions useless. common pitfalls in this regard are the choice of response scale formats (nunnally & bernstein, 1994; schepers, 1992; swart, roodt & schepers, 1999), and wording of items (petty, rennier & cacioppa, 1987; schepers, 1992). little research has been conducted on the metrics of different response scales in the field of organisational culture instruments. the five-point response likert scale is used in the organisational culture instruments by many authors (ashkanasy, broadfoot & falkus, 2000; church & waclawski, 1998; van der post, de coning & smit, 1997a). in the south african context there appears to be little appreciation for the limitations posed by the design of the likert scale, in the context of organisational culture instrumentation. the aim of the study was to identif y which response scale from the four, five or six-point scale response format is the most effective for assessing organisational culture. this research also aimed to establish which response scale format would yield the best metric characteristics for use in organisational survey instruments. the following postulates for the investigation were proposed: � postulate 1: four-point response scales would yield the poorest metric properties, compared to the five and six-point response scales. � postulate 2: six point response scales would yield the best metric properties, compared to the four and five-point response scales. � postulate 3: five point response scales would yield better metric properties that the four-point response scale, but worse that the six-point response scale. culture the earliest references to culture in the literature go back as far as 1887. the concept culture represents in broad holistic terms that, are passed from successive generations (kotter & heskett, 1992). the following definition indicates the universality of the concept culture: “the total of inherited ideas, beliefs, values and knowledge, which constitute the shared bases of social action” (collins dictionary and thesaurus, 1988, p. 237). the above definition emphasises the broad nature of the concept culture and the manner in which culture is passed to members by social rewards and sanctions. the totality of the process is emphasised by the social nature of the transmission of everything that is important to a group. social anthropolog y has provided the framework for the development what we currently understand to be organisational culture (denison, 1990; hatch, 1997; kotter & heskett, 1992; ott, 1989). kroeber and kluckhohn (1952) have reviewed the concept culture and associated definitions. the work attests to the difficulties in defining culture. while considering over 100 definit ions, none of the definit ions were evaluated as acceptable. common denominators among the definitions are learning and the transmission of culture. national culture hofstede (2001) has done the most significant work on national culture and its influence in multi-national organisations. he described national culture using a systems approach where those who belong to a particular group share a value system. the norms of the grouping or societ y have resulted in the development of institutions with particular functions. hofstede’s view of national culture presents a strong case for influence on organisational culture. the society is a social entity that has specific values, rituals, heroes and symbols peculiar to a group. similar influences act on the culture of an organisation. organisational culture since the early 1980’s, organisational culture has received much attention in the literature (peters & waterman, 1982). many books appeared, focussing on the performance of organisations (alvesson, 2002; kotter & heskett, 1992; peters & waterman, stan smith gert roodt programme in leadership in performance and change department of human resources management, rau abstract the aim of the study was to investigate which response scale, of the four, five, or six-point response scales would yield the best metric properties on the culture assessment instrument. this was achieved by utilising data sets where the respective scales were used. the subjects included participants of various organisations, ages, educational levels, language and gender groups. no one scale could be identified as having the better metric properties. the lack of conclusive results is attributed to differences in education, aggregation effect, possibility of different units of measurement being measured and the manner in which cronbach alpha is calculated opsomming die doel van die studie was om vas te stel watter responsskaal, van ‘n vier-, vyf-, of sespuntskaal die beste metriese eienskappe sou oplewer op die kultuurtakseringinstrument. dit is bereik, deur gebruik te maak van datastelle waar die skale toegepas is. deelnemers was afkomstig uit verskeie organsisasies, ouderdomsgroepe, opvoedkundige agtergronde, taalgroepe en geslagte. geen skaal kon gëidentifiseer word met onderskeidende metriese eienskappe nie. die gebrek aan beduidende resultate word toegeskryf aan die verskille in die opvoedkundige agtergronde van deelnemers, samevoegingseffek, die moonlikheid van verskillende eenhede van meting en die wyse waarop cronbach alpha bereken is. an evaluation of response scale formats of the culture assessment instrument requests for copies should be addressed to: s smith, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 60 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (2), 60-75 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (2), 60-75 response scale formats 61 1982). other books have attempted to explain the competitiveness of japanese organisations (alvesson, 2002; denison, 1990; hatch, 1997; ouchi, 1981). the definition of schein has received the most attention in the literature (hatch, 1997; ott, 1989): “a pattern of basic assumptions-invented, discovered, or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration – that has worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems” (schein, 1985, p. 9). schein’s levels of organisational culture schein (1985) identified three levels of culture; artefacts and creations; values and basic assumptions. (see figure 1). level one, according to schein (1985) relates to artefacts. artefacts are conscious, obvious expressions of culture. artefacts are a visible, tangible and audible demonstration of behaviour supported by organisational norms, values and assumptions. artefacts range from physical aspects such as architecture to forms of language and rituals. organisational members could be less aware of organisational culture, but it is observable to the outsider (schein, 1985). level two, according to schein (1985) relates to values and norms. values represent the principles and standards valued by organisational members. values are the foundation as to what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. values, though not obvious, operate uppermost in members’ minds. organisational members are able to recognise their values when challenged by others (schein, 1985). norms are related to values. norms provide the unwritten rules that indicate expectations in terms of actions applicable in a number of situations. norms within the business environment include appropriate dress codes (schein, 1985). values indicate what is important to organisational members and norms help to indicate what the expectations are among organisational members. the relationship between norms and values is that which is considered acceptable and can be traced to what is valued in a particular culture. therefore, organisational members share values and conform to norms because the foundational assumptions support the norms and values. norms and values support the manifestation of more obvious observable behaviours. figure 1: schein’s model of organisational culture level three, according to schein (1985) relates to beliefs and assumptions. assumptions are the basis of an organisation’s culture. where solutions to a problem work continuously, the solution is used unconsciously and becomes the way things are done by the group. the beliefs and assumptions are the foundation of an organisation’s culture. assumptions are the basis for the manner in which organisational members think and feel. assumptions are unconscious and are taken for granted. assumptions are complex in the variety of assumptions that apply in a culture at a time (schein, 1985). domains of organisational culture organisational culture manifests on a continuum, from being concrete and visible to being subtle and invisible. at the one end of the continuum are artefacts and at the others are basic underlying assumptions. artefacts artefacts include any materials, patterns that communicate information about an organisation’s technology, beliefs, values, assumptions and practices (ott, 1989; schein, 1999). artefacts are not easily understood, although visible within the organisation. artefacts inevitably provide an “image” of the organisation and its culture (shultz, 1995; schein, 1999). artefacts include symbols, language, metaphors, myths, stories, legends, heroes and ceremonies. symbols are representations of the meanings that express more than their extrinsic content. symbols lead to represent wider patterns of meaning causing organisational members to associate consciously or unconsciously at different levels of meaning. symbols could include anything from a flag, to a picture of the chief executive officer or leader (ott, 1989). language is a part of organisational culture. language must be learnt so that organisational members can communicate effectively. language includes words, phrases and acronyms not comprehensible to outsiders. language serves to identif y members of a group and those who do speak the language (ott, 1989; shultz, 1995). metaphors are powerful representations of organisational language because of the communication of meaning beyond the obvious context of words (alvesson, 2002; ott, 1989). myths are extended metaphors. the story, as part of the myth has a part that is factually correct and focuses on the origins of beliefs (ott, 1989). stories relate to anecdotal events that have occurred in the past. while similar to myths, the contents of stories tend to be accurate. often, stories communicate morals metaphorically and can be related to the core values of the organisation. stories communicate core messages implicitly or metaphorically. stories have a major influence on the attitudes that members have (ott, 1989; wilson, 2001). sagas and legends are the stories told that relate to the history of the organisation. sagas and legends have the capability to illustrate the distinctiveness of the organisation. legends provide information about allegiances, commitment and emotional investment (ott, 1989). heroes are the leading actors in organisational life. heroes are the embodiment of the values of the organisation and provide a mechanism to relate the strengths of the organisation. hero’s behaviour set standards and serve as role models (ott, 1989; schein, 1999). ceremonies and commemorations are celebrations of the values and basic assumpt ions held by organisat ions. ceremonies celebrate the achievement of heroes (ott, 1989). rites and ceremonies are characterised by elaborate planned activities, involving social interaction. they usually benefit smith, roodt62 an audience and have social consequences for organisational members involved (trice & beyer, 1984). beliefs and values beliefs and values are at the next level on the continuum of organisational culture. in the context of organisational culture, they represent beliefs, values, ethical codes, moral codes and ideologies. shared beliefs and values are functional for the organisational members in that choices and decisions are based on the values held. beliefs are consciously held (ott, 1989; schein 1999). values are affective desires or wants and are important to people and can be associated with almost anything. beliefs are what people believe to be true or real. beliefs are also what is important to people. the importance of beliefs and values can be related to the influence on the patterns of behaviour and the resultant artefacts (ott, 1989; schein, 1999). espoused values represent practical applications of values, or a theoretical view of values. beliefs and values are what people admit to and are able to articulate what the values are. basic assumptions are what people actually believe and feel which informs their actual behaviour (ott, 1989; schein, 1999). norms are the prescriptions for behaviour and serve as blueprints for organisational members in general. norms are useful for those organisational members who perform specific functions and enact roles in the organisation. norms have the effect of providing structure and coherence. norms stabilise organisational behaviour and provide a framework for common expectations and attitudes (ott, 1989; wilson, 2001). basic underlying assumptions organisational assumptions are conceptually at the higher level of the organisational culture continuum. basic assumptions are those acts and behaviours that proved to be useful so often that the behaviour is no longer conscious behaviour (ott, 1989: schein 1985; 1999). time time is not included in the previous levels of culture as conceptualised by schein (1985). time is related to the values and beliefs that organisational members hold in terms of activities. time relates to the complexities of the tasks that organisational members need to complete. tasks may be completed in a linear manner (monochronic time) or simultaneously (polychronic time) and would depend on the abilities of organisational members or the requirements of the task. organisational culture practices would require ether polychronic or monochronic time approaches in the work environment (bluedorn, 2000). conceptually culture has common characteristics irrespective of the context wherein culture is described. culture, in broad anthropological terms share similar components at national and in the organisational fields. the differences are evident only in the manner in which the components manifest at different levels in organisations. the organisational culture model aims to accommodate the components at the implicit and explicit levels in their relationship to organisational outcomes. a model of organisational culture is indicated in figure 2. response scales and measurement the nature of response scales used in survey instruments has an impact on the statistical analysis of the data obtained (babbie & mouton, 2001; welman & kruger, 2001). most of what has been called measurement in organisational research involves scaling. the way scales work is not that obvious on their own. for that reason, some rules are required. rules are important in the arena of standardisation (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). a measure is standardised when the rules are clear, are practical to apply, does not demand exceptional skills from users, and the results do not depend on the skills of particular user (cronbach, 1990; nunnally & bernstein, 1994). the features that distinguish the levels of measurement are indicated in table 1. the higher levels of measurement accommodate characteristics of lower levels of measurement. when designing scales, the issues of having equal intervals and absolute zero points remain problematic. where the attribute to be measured fails to comply with the basic conditions of measurement, there are limited mathematical operations available to the practitioner. the practitioners needs to consider the assumptions made about the attribute measured and thus the choice of level of measurement, and the construction of the scale (nunnally & bernstein, 1994; van der post et al., 1997). many response scales are available to the practitioner, though, there are only a few that are not complex, expensive, and labour intensive to develop. some formats have been more popular than others. others have been highly regarded, but are not often used like the thurstone and guttman scales (rubin & babbie, 1997). the likert scale and semantic differential scale have been the more popular of the scales (rubin & babbie, 1997). schepers (1992) suggested the intensity scale. the metric properties of instruments are partially dependent on the scale format used (kerlinger & lee, 2001; nunnally & bernstein, 1994). figure 2: model of organisational culture response scale formats 63 the likert scale is one of the more popular formats used in surveys and questionnaires. an example of a more popular response format is set out in figure 3. likert scales offer ordinal response categories where respondents are able to provide responses indicating the intensity of their responses (swart et al., 1999). newstead and arnold (1989) have found that when comparing labelled and unlabelled likert response scales, higher means were obtained on the unlabeled scales. strongly disagree neutral agree strongly disagree agree 1 2 3 4 5 figure 3: likert scale (adapted from church & waclawski, 1998; fink, 1995) intensit y scales are similar to likert scales, though the anchoring of the scale is limited to the extreme poles of the scale. the interval qualities of the scale become redundant as soon as more than two of the interval points are anchored (schepers, 1992: torgerson, 1958). the intensity scale thus provides for the advantages of the interval level of measurement and continuous scales. refer to figure 4 for an example of an intensity scale response format. in practice, most measurement instruments are assumed to use interval-level measurements. the absolute equality of intervals of such instruments is difficult to prove (gregory, 1996). the controversies on the usefulness of some measures have yet to be resolved (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). strongly 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 strongly agree disagree figure 4: intensity scale (adapted from schepers, 1992) in the design of instruments a logical process needs to be followed. table 2 provides a useful framework for the design of instruments. essential metrics of instruments of the various forms of reliability in the context of culture instrument development, the kuder-richardson formula 20 is useful for discrete or dichotomous scores (ghiselli et al., 1981; mcintire & miller, 2000). for continuous scores the cronbach alpha formula is the appropriate formula (cortina, 1993; ghiselli et al., 1981; mcintire & miller, 2000). of the various forms of validity, important to the practitioner developing instruments, construct validity is important as it measures the theoretical construct the instrument is designed to measure (allen & yen, 1979; hair, anderson, tatham & black, 1998). table 1 levels of measurement classification level of basic operation description determining permissible statistics response scale application of scale measurement measurement level nominal level equality versus use of numerals unique numbers – frequencies, mode. respondents categorise or measurement inequality to identif y objects, are assigned to sort objects or events into classification/ individuals, events objects or events. mutually exclusive and distinctness or groups. numbers may be exhaustive sets. sets of changes as long data are mutually as the numbers exclusive for each object assigned to objects and are sorted into one are different. set only. ordinal level greater than in addition to larger numbers including statistics respondents rank-order measurement versus less than identification are assigned with from the previous object or events in terms ordering of of, numerals more that one level of some property. objects objects describe relative property measured. – median, percentiles, or events are ranked higher characteristics when scale value is order statistics, or lower by assigned values posed by the assigned, the scale correlation. according to the property. event, individual. may be changed as rating scales usually long as the ordering involve people by asking of the scales to indicate opinions, maintained. beliefs, feelings or attitudes. interval level determination includes the interval level have including statistics respondents to assign measurement of equality of properties of numbers that allow from the previous numbers to stimuli or interval or nominal and calculation and level. differences to stimuli differences. ordinal scales. interpretation of – arithmetic mean, through direct equal intervals including intervals ratio interval/ variance. pearson estimation, produces between consecutive intervals between correlation. interval scales. the points that are equal. scales. scale values produced often take the mean or median of the values obtained from many respondents. direct estimation methods assume respondents are skilled enough to make interval judgements. ratio level determination of includes the ratio level scales including statistics ratio scales are produced measurement equality of ratios. properties of have numbers that from the previous using the method of direct absolute zero nominal, ordinal allow calculation level. estimation. respondents and interval scales. and interpretation – geometric mean. are required to assign has an absolute of ratios of scale numbers to stimuli zero point. values or ratio stimuli. (adapted from: allen & yen, 1979; babbie & mouton, 2001; gregory, 1996; mcdaniel & gates, 2001; nunnally & bernstein, 1994; welman & kruger, 2001), c a te g o ri a l sc a le s c o n ti n u o u s sc a le s smith, roodt64 table 2 design process steps feigl 1970, p.9 swart et al, rust & golombok, organisational 1999 p.34 1999 pp,196-217, culture instrumentation development summary postulates define theoretical define the purpose identif y the foundations of of the instrument. construct – construct. culture. primitive identif y the develop blue print/ define concepts domains within specifications for organisational the construct. instrument. culture model. defined identif y the subidentif y and define identif y the subconcepts domains content areas. domains of culture. empirical identif y/develop identif y how the operationalise concepts behavioural construct would the sub-domains indicators. be manifested (that in behavioural is the behavioural terms. affective areas). observations/ develop item develop the items. develop the item experiences format taking format taking care care of the of technical technical details as requirements of indicated by instruments and schepers, 1992, metrics. pp.2-7. response styles no rational explanation can be found for the choices of respondents in terms of the choices respondents make on response scales. the choices made could be ascribed to realistic responses, ambiguity, meaninglessness or difficulty of items. under these conditions the respondent will respond according to a particular response style (brown, 1983). the controversy regarding response sets combined with other diffuse factors have yet to be resolved. the responses on self-report instruments are a combination of self-deception, impression management and realistic self-portrayal (anatasi & urbani, 1997). the practitioner needs to take cognisance of the response bias discussed below when interpreting results of instruments. halo effect, which is characterised by a favourable or unfavourable attribute of the person, tends to rate the characteristics of the attribute in favourable or unfavourable terms of the attributes that have little relation to the attribute rated (welman & kruger, 2001). leniency or stringency error refers to the respondent who rates all individual or attributes either too strictly or too leniently (guilford, 1954; welman & kruger, 2001). blacks, when compared to whites, tend to focus their responses at one end of the response scale (bachman & o’malley, 1984). greenleaf (1992) reported conflicting findings in research on extreme response style. he indicated that there is evidence to suggest that the response styles are not stable and that response styles are not necessarily related to personality or demographic variables. he did report that income, education and age were associated with increased extreme response style. logical error is similar to the halo effect (guilford, 1954). logical error is the tendency to rate attributes that are considered logically related in a similar way (guilford, 1954; welman & kruger, 2001). central tendency bias occurs where respondents are reluctant to rate attributes at the extremes of the scale, thus tending to rate most attributes at the centre of the scale (guilford, 1954; welman & kruger, 2001). the challenge of dealing with central tendency or “don’t know” responses continues to be a problem for practitioners and the associated interpretations of the response (fleick, 1989; poe, seeman, mclaughlin, mehl & dietz, 1988; duncan & stenbeck, 1988). the origins of central tendency responses are multiple and could be ascribed to an error response in the sense that the respondents may have misunderstood the item. secondly the respondent is ambivalent or ignorant to the alternatives available (fleick, 1989; sanchez & morchio, 1992) and finally, the responses could be a “nonattitude” (fleick, 1989; francis & busch, 1975; gilljam & granberg, 1993). where the response options include “no opinion” or “not sure” these responses should not be interpreted as being interchangeable (duncan & stenbeck, 1988). constant error occurs where respondents tend to exaggerate the difference between themselves on an attribute or those being rated (guilford, 1954; welman & kruger, 2001). guilford (1954) reported that the phenomenon may be ascribed to respondents requiring others to be similar to them in terms of the attribute and are surprised when the opposite is true. proximity error introduces high covariances among construct measures. error is attributed to the nearness in space and time of items in an instrument. similar items spaced close to each other tend to inter-correlate higher than when items are spaced apart (guilford, 1954). statement formats and question formats have their individual effects on response st yles. in personalit y and interest instruments, use is made of questions. use is also made of intensity scales, which are often designed as ordinal measures. at times use is also made of the likert scale, which is also an ordinal response scale (schepers, 1992). where statements are used in item design, respondents are likely to respond in the affirmative without having considered the content of the item (petty et al., 1987; schepers, 1992) this response style is referred to an acquiescence response style (anastasi, 1968; jackson & messick, 1967). to deal with the problem, questions should be asked that require the respondent to engage with the items to avoid the acquiescent response (schepers, 1992). questions require more thoughtful responses (petty et al., 1987). prestige bias occurs with the use of prestige names or intentional words that have value which are attached to the words. the effect is to confuse attitude with the evaluation of the issue at hand. furthermore, prestige names add to the stimuli presented, thus contributing to the variance. the interpretation of the responses becomes difficult as respondents may or may not be responding to the named symbols or issue referred to (smith & squire, 1990). brown (1983) offers some advice to control bias. he suggested obtaining the co-operation of the respondents by explaining the purpose of the instrument. the instrument should also have clear instructions and be well structured to eliminate ambiguity. wording effects that affect metrics of instruments avoid abbreviations and vaguely worded items. only those abbreviations and terms that have commonly understood meanings should be used in instruments (fink, 1995b; fowler, 1992; gaskill, o’muircheartaigh & wright, 1994; sarantakos, 1998). avoid slang and colloquial expressions. an instrument is likely to become redundant as words go out of fashion (fink, 1995b; sarantakos, 1998). avoid technical terminology by using plain language in question wording wherever possible (fife-schaw, 2000). avoid intensifier words. intensifier words tend to magnif y the meanings of words. words like very, good, satisfied and really may influence respondents to respond in a particular direction on a scale. intensifier words effects are dependent on the context in which the words are used. intensifiers do not create consistent responses in all sit uations (o’muircheartaigh, gaskill & wright, 1993). response scale formats 65 avoid value judgements in item wordings. the views of sponsors should not be mentioned in items (fife-schaw, 2000). context effects cannot be divorced from the context in which instruments are used. questions referring to issues that are current in an organisation or other questions in the instrument will influence responses to questions (fife-schaw, 2000). avoid hidden assumptions. items should not contain assumptions where respondents are required to respond to a situation that they have not been exposed to before or are not likely to be exposed to (fife-schaw, 2000). research method research design the research design followed in this study was ex post facto in nature where secondary data was used for the data analysis. the sample the sample for the study comprised of members working in different organisations ranging from service orientated organisations to information orientated organisations. the sample described below, represents the data common to all the samples utilised in the study. from table 3 it is clear that most respondents are male, from different language groups and between 25 – 35 years old. table 3 the sample characteristics 4-points 5-point 6-point response scale response scale response scale gender males 1485 2034 381 females 36 1879 27 missing values 150 153 442 total 1671 4066 850 language afrikaans 330 1014 193 english 111 225 41 ndebele 4 4 north sotho 68 31 south sotho 299 164 swazi 84 32 tsongo 134 10 tsawa 174 86 venda 23 3 xhosa 264 124 zulu 108 71 shangaan 62 other languages 47 21 1 missing data 25 2806 28 total 1671 4066 850 age 24 years and younger 112 436 41 25-35 years of age 672 1808 323 36-45 years of age 549 1008 346 46 years of age 306 638 108 missing data 32 176 32 total 1671 4066 850 organisations information financial services mining technology retail postal services the measuring instrument different response scale formats of the culture assessment instrument (cai) were used in this study. the instrument was originally developed to measure the organisational culture of a financial institution. the instrument has since been used to assess organisational culture in other south african organisations (martins & martins, 2001). the reliability of the five-point response scale (cronbach alpha) is 0,933. the internal consistency of the culture dimensions measures range from 0,655 to 0,932. test-retest reliability is between 0,933 and 0,955 (martins, 2000). the instrument is modelled on the work of schein (martins, 2000). the instrument was initially developed with five-point likert response-scale-requiring reactions to statements in positive and negative formats. the participant must indicate whether he/she, differs or agrees. the points on the scale are marked as follows: scale point 1, indicates strongly disagree, scale point 2 indicates differ, scale point 3 indicates uncertain, scale point 4 indicates agree, and scale point 5 indicates strongly agree. in adapting the instrument for customer requirements, use was made of the four and six-point response scales. the scales marking were: four-point response scale were marked, 1 indicated strongly agree, 2 indicated agree, 3 indicates disagree and 4 indicates strongly disagree. six-point response scale were marked, 1 indicated strongly agree, 2, indicates agree, 3 indicates slightly agree, 4 indicates slightly disagree, 5, indicates disagree and 6, indicates strongly disagree. the full questionnaire had 79 items. only 38 items from the questionnaire were used that were generic to all the organisations where the instrument was used. research procedure the steps followed in the research process are reported in table 4. table 4 methodology process steps phase action one a database was developed after the culture assessment instrument was used in different organisational settings. the settings include the application of the three response scales formats, i.e. four, five and six-point response scale format. two questions common to all the organisations were identified, nongeneric items were removed from the data set. three the data sets were checked to ensure the correctness and completeness of the data. four the data were then subjected to statistical analyses using the spss program to: � obtain the descriptive statistics for the respective scales. � establish the factor structure for the respective response scales using first and second order level factor analyses. � establish the internal reliability, (cronbach’s alpha) through iterative item analyses. five the analysed information will be reported and interpreted, from the results, recommendations will be made for future research. smith, roodt66 statistical analysis with the data available, the data analysis is possible. as indicated earlier, the focus is on the data obtained from the four, five and six-point response scale format on the cai. the purpose of the approach outlined below is to reduce the data so that conclusions may be drawn. results results pertaining to the four-point response scale the data for the four-point response scale originated in an information technology organisation. more detail of the sample is reported in table 3. descriptive statistics for the four-point scale are reported in table 5. table 5 four point response scale descriptive statistics item mean median mode std. skewstd. error kurtosis std. error deviation ness of skewness of kurtosis q2 2,86 3,00 3 0,909 -0,564 0,060 -0,392 0,120 q3 2,85 3,00 3 0,902 -0,580 0,060 -0,337 0,120 q4 2,67 3,00 3 0,962 -0,360 0,060 -0,803 0,120 q5 2,39 2,00 3 0,980 0,016 0,060 -1,039 0,120 q6 2,58 3,00 3 1,027 -0,171 0,060 -1,103 0,120 q9 2,69 3,00 3 0,983 -0,308 0,060 -0,905 0,120 q10 2,73 3,00 3 1,066 -0,347 0,060 -1,116 0,120 q11 2,83 3,00 3 0,943 -0,450 0,060 -0,669 0,120 q12 2,41 3,00 3 1,088 0,015 0,060 -1,313 0,120 q14 2,52 3,00 3 1,017 -0,108 0,060 -1,102 0,120 q15 2,77 3,00 3 0,972 -0,497 0,060 -0,694 0,120 q16 2,39 2,00 3 1,038 0,026 0,060 -1,195 0,120 q17 2,52 3,00 3 0,921 -0,234 0,060 -0,817 0,120 q18 2,47 3,00 3 1,035 -0,078 0,060 -1,169 0,120 q20 2,56 3,00 3 0,971 -0,246 0,060 -0,930 0,120 q21 2,56 3,00 3 1,005 -0,221 0,060 -1,036 0,120 q25 2036 2,00 3 0,915 0,024 0,060 -0,873 0,120 q26 2,39 2,00 3 0,921 -0,041 0,060 -0,898 0,120 q31 2,32 2,00 2 0,988 0,154 0,060 -1,033 0,120 q30 2,45 3,00 3 0,995 -0,098 0,060 -1,078 0,120 q32 2,38 2,00 3 0,987 0,010 0,060 -1,067 0,120 q33 2,37 3,00 3 1,016 -0,101 0,060 -1,211 0,120 q34 2,53 3,00 3 0,996 -0,198 0,060 -1,030 0,120 q38 2,81 3,00 3 0,876 -0,597 0,060 -0,207 0,120 q39 2,72 3,00 3 0,922 -0,450 0,060 -0,583 0,120 q40 2,89 3,00 3 0,833 -0,685 0,060 0,146 0,120 q42 2,79 3,00 3 0,958 -0,544 0,060 -0,592 0,120 q43 2,58 3,00 3 0,929 -0,336 0,060 -0,764 0,120 q44 1,85 1,00 1 0,998 0,791 0,060 -0,657 0,120 q47 2,98 3,00 3 0,877 -0,730 0,060 -0,013 0,120 q48 2,68 3,00 3 0,932 -0,455 0,060 -0,630 0,120 q50 2,82 3,00 3 0,905 -0,548 0,060 -0,392 0,120 q51 3,11 3,00 3 0,903 -0,890 0,060 0,071 0,120 q52 2,58 3,00 3 0,903 -0,270 0,060 -0,704 0,120 q53 2,74 3,00 3 0,907 -0,458 0,060 -0,518 0,120 q54 2,89 3,00 3 0,863 -0,648 0,060 -0,064 0,120 q55 2,93 3,00 3 0,898 -0,628 0,060 -0,274 0,120 q56 2,73 3,00 3 0,948 -0,444 0,060 -0,676 0,120 n = 167 missing values = 0 minimum value = 1 maximum value = 4 the data set for the four-point response scale was factor analysed on two levels according to a procedure suggested by schepers (1992) in order to determine the factor structure of the instrument. the data was analysed using the spss programme. to determine the suitability of the inter-correlation matrix for factor analysis, the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy (msa) and bartlett’s test of sphericity were conducted on the matrix. the kmo yielded a msa of 0,953 and the bartlett’s test a chi-square of 22158 (p = 0,000). the matrix is therefore suitable for further factor analysis. the items of the cai were inter-correlated and the eigenvalues of the unreduced matrix calculated. due to the limited space, the intercorrelation matrix is not reported here. the number of factors postulated according to kaiser’s (1970) criterion (eigenvalues greater that unity) are reported in table 6. these seven factors explain about 52% of the variance in the factor space. the item loadings on the seven postulated factors are presented in table 7. the loadings are reported in bold type for each of the factors. only items with values greater than 0,3 were included in this sorted matrix. table 6 eigenvalues on the item inter-correlation matrix (38 x 38) initial eigenvalues root eigenvalue % of variance cumulative % 1 11,357 29,887 29,887 2 1,929 5,076 34,962 3 1,524 4,011 38,973 4 1,371 3,608 42,581 5 1,356 3,567 46,148 6 1,135 2,986 49,134 7 1,101 2,898 52,032 8 0,994 2,616 54,649 9 0,940 2,474 57,123 10 0,884 2,326 59,448 11 0,837 2,204 61,652 12 0,786 2,067 63,719 13 0,763 2,007 65,726 14 0,736 1,937 67,663 15 0,729 1,918 39,581 16 0,687 1,809 71,390 17 0,654 1,702 73,110 18 0,633 1,666 74,776 19 0,625 1,645 76,422 20 0,596 1,568 77,990 21 0,582 1,532 79,522 22 0,573 1,509 81,031 23 0,545 1,434 82,465 24 0,534 1,406 83,871 25 0,522 1,372 85,244 26 0,514 1,353 86,597 27 0,490 1,289 87,886 28 0,474 1,246 89,132 29 0,450 1,185 90,317 30 0,446 1,173 91,490 31 0,441 1,160 92,651 32 0,430 1,133 93,783 33 0,426 1,120 94,903 34 0,413 1,087 95,990 35 0,408 1,072 97,062 36 0,384 1,010 98,072 37 0,371 0,976 99,048 38 0,362 0,952 100,000 trace = 38 response scale formats 67 table 7 item loadings on seven postulated factors factor items 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 48 0,568 56 0,528 52 0,494 39 0,494 55 0,487 0,329 40 0,464 0,344 42 0,433 43 0,407 53 0,609 54 0,560 51 0,325 0,558 50 0,523 47 0,411 0,471 38 0,431 18 0,399 0,393 16 0,654 12 0,544 17 0,372 26 0,306 0,348 44 0,328 15 0,317 32 0,672 33 0,324 0,494 31 0,480 0,319 34 0,342 0,432 30 0,417 10 0,636 11 0,326 0,523 9 0,489 21 0,396 14 0,322 0,335 3 0,610 4 0,505 5 0,384 0,349 2 0,381 25 0,304 0,308 0,347 20 0,268 6 0,515 sub-scores on each of the postulated factors were calculated by adding item scores. these sub-scores were again inter-correlated and the results are portrayed in table 8. table 8 inter-correlation of sub-scores on seven postulated factors factors sub scores 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 1,000 0,680 0,626 0,637 0,566 0,586 0,359 2 0,680 1,000 0,566 0,493 0,598 0,525 0,360 3 0,626 0,566 1,000 0554 0,517 0,568 0,396 4 0,637 0,493 0,554 1,000 0,478 0,546 0,406 5 0,566 0,598 0,517 0,478 1,000 0,497 0,232 6 0,586 0,525 0,568 0,46 0,497 1,000 0,448 7 0,359 0,360 0,396 0,406 0,323 0,448 1,000 all correlations are significant at the p = 0,05 level. eigenvalues were again calculated on this unreduced intercorrelation matrix. only one factor was postulated according to kaiser’s (1970) criterion (eigenvalues greater that unity) that accounts for about 59% variance in factor space. the results appear in table 9. table 9 eigenvalues on the sub-score inter-correlation matrix (7 x 7) initial eigenvalues root eigenvalue % of variance cumulative % 1 4,100 58,573 58,573 2 0,768 10,971 69,544 3 0,555 7,928 77,471 4 0,455 6,497 83,969 5 0,440 6,279 90,248 6 0,410 5,858 96,105 7 0,273 3,895 100,000 trace = 7 one factor was extracted using principal axis factoring. the loadings of sub-scores on the single factor appear in table 10. table 10 sub-score loadings on second level factor factor loadings communalities sub-scores 1 1 0,831 0,691 2 0,761 0,579 3 0,758 0,574 4 0,735 0,525 5 0,728 0,479 6 0,692 0,540 7 0,508 0,258 iterative item analyses were conducted on the single obtained scale. the item-test correlations as well as the test reliabilities (cronbach alpha) with the respective item deleted appear in table 11. the obtained single scale yielded a cronbach alpha of 0,9345. the reliability item statistics for the four-point scale are reported in table 11. results pertaining to the five-point response scale the sample for the five-point response scale is reported in table 3. descriptive statistics for the five-point scale are reported in table 12. the data set for the five-point response scale was factor analysed on two levels according to a procedure suggested by schepers (1992) in order to determine the factor structure of the instrument. the data was analysed using the spss programme. smith, roodt68 table 11 item reliability statistics for the four-point scale item scale mean if scale variance if corrected item alpha if item item deleted item deleted total correlation deleted 2 96,8294 396,5332 0,4462 0,9333 3 96,8324 396,1647 0,4611 0,9332 4 97,0150 368,0076 0,4612 0,9332 5 97,2908 369,9693 0,3984 0,9338 6 97,1065 366,2485 0,4745 0,9331 9 96,9916 366,0766 0,5029 0,9328 10 96,9527 369,3337 0,3778 0,9341 11 96,8612 368,6059 0,4547 0,9333 12 97,2795 367,1883 0,4217 0,9337 14 97,1688 363,3248 0,5570 0,9323 15 96,9144 365,6615 0,5206 0,9327 16 97,2974 369,9193 0,5034 0,9328 17 97,1682 368,0046 0,4837 0,9330 18 97,2190 365,9951 0,4772 0,9331 20 97,1239 367,4284 0,4726 0,9331 21 97,1287 365,4415 0,5077 0,9328 25 97,3279 367,5451 0,5010 0,9328 26 97,2974 366,3815 0,5311 0,9326 31 97,3656 366,7051 0,4828 0,9330 30 97,2382 362,2917 0,5987 0,9319 32 97,3004 366,8654 0,4794 0,9331 33 97,3107 367,0634 0,4585 0,9333 34 97,1538 364,0955 0,5488 0,9324 38 96,8749 369,7670 0,4579 0,9332 39 96,9701 363,8817 0,6037 0,9319 40 96,7965 369,5322 0,4910 0,9330 42 96,8971 370,2409 0,4013 0,9338 43 97,1041 363,7173 0,6029 0,9319 44 97,8360 368,5192 0,4293 0,9335 47 96,7050 365,0620 0,6005 0,9320 48 97,0018 361,9862 0,6512 0,9315 50 96,8683 366,6749 0,5326 0,9326 51 96,5709 366,1852 0,5482 0,9324 52 97,1017 366,3238 0,5443 0,9325 53 96,9467 365,6073 0,5627 0,9323 54 96,7923 368,7742 0,4959 0,9329 55 96,7576 364,2939 0,6085 0,9319 56 96,9563 362,7831 0,6165 0,9318 no of cases = 1671 no of items = 38 cronbach alpha 0,9345 to determine the suitability of the inter-correlation matrix for factor analysis, the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy (msa) and bartlett’s test of sphericity were conducted on the matrix. the kmo yielded a msa of 0,960 and the bartlett’s test a chi-square of 47436 (p = 0,000). the matrix is suitable for further factor analysis. the items of the c ai were inter-correlated and the eigenvalues of the unreduced matrix calculated. due to the limited space, the inter-correlat ion matrix is not reported here. the number of factors postulated according to kaiser’s (1970) criterion (eigenvalues greater that unit y) are reported in table 13. these six factors explain about 47% of the variance in the factor space. the item loadings on the six postulated factors are presented in table 14. the loadings are reported in bold t ype for each of the factors. only items with values greater than 0,3 were included in this sorted matrix. table 12 five-point response scale descriptive statistics item mean median mode std. skewstd. error kurtosis std. error deviation ness of skewness of kurtosis q2 3,93 4,00 4 0,904 -1,135 0,038 1,418 0,077 q3 3,82 4,00 4 1,092 -0,959 0,038 0,161 0,077 q4 3,32 4,00 4 1,236 -0,443 0,038 -1,005 0,077 q5 2,82 3,00 2 1,214 -0,114 0,038 -1,043 0,077 q6 3,06 3,00 4 1,394 -0,148 0,038 -1,381 0,077 q9 3,41 4,00 4 1,236 -0,462 0,038 -1,033 0,077 q10 3,33 4,00 4 1,370 -0,375 0,038 -1,192 0,077 q11 3,40 4,00 4 1,243 -0,430 0,038 -1,020 0,077 q12 3,80 4,00 4 1,217 -0,988 0,038 -0,045 0,077 q14 2,99 3,00 4 1,340 -0,084 0,038 -1,376 0,077 q15 3,72 4,00 4 1,241 -0,899 0,038 -0,290 0,077 q16 2,88 3,00 4 1,385 -0,011 0,038 -1,375 0,077 q17 2,83 3,00 2 1,197 0,044 0,038 -1,045 0,077 q18 3,01 3,00 4 1,371 -0,194 0,038 -1,307 0,077 q20 3,58 4,00 4 1,047 -0,664 0,038 -0,160 0,077 q21 3,03 3,00 4 1,336 -0,104 0,038 -1,257 0,077 q25 3,14 3,00 4 1,181 -0262 0,038 -1,039 0,077 q26 3,21 4,00 4 1,253 -0,379 0,038 -1,053 0,077 q31 2,86 3,00 4 1,246 0,032 0,038 -1,274 0,077 q30 2,74 2,00 4 1,323 0,123 0,038 -1,349 0,077 q32 2,98 3,00 4 1,254 -0,137 0,038 -1,213 0,077 q33 3,40 4,00 4 1,191 -0,625 0,038 -0,708 0,077 q34 3,32 4,00 4 1,139 -0,450 0,038 -0,854 0,077 q38 3,16 3,00 4 1,171 -0,272 0,038 -0,943 0,077 q39 3,68 4,00 4 1,018 -0,827 0,038 0,035 0,077 q40 3,30 4,00 4 1,281 -0,483 0,038 -0,985 0,077 q42 3,23 4,00 4 1,441 -0,343 0,038 -1,322 0,077 q43 2,81 3,00 4 1,292 -0,019 0,038 -1,291 0,077 q44 2,59 2,00 2 1,253 0,283 0,038 -1,181 0,077 q47 3,53 4,00 4 1,114 -0,765 0,038 -0,303 0,077 q48 3,35 4,00 4 1,211 -0,536 0,038 -0,810 0,077 q50 3,79 4,00 4 1,170 -0,904 0,038 -0,152 0,077 q51 3,44 4,00 4 1,132 -0,583 0,038 -0,611 0,077 q52 2,95 3,00 4 1,168 -0,109 0,038 -1,103 0,077 q53 3,41 4,00 4 1,131 -0,583 0,038 -0,696 0,077 q54 3,41 4,00 4 1,131 -0,583 0,038 -0,622 0,077 q55 3,41 4,00 4 1,229 -0,540 0,038 -0,784 0,077 q56 3,17 4,00 4 1,387 -0,239 0,038 -1,314 0,077 n = 4066 missing values = 0 minimum value = 1 maximum value = 5 sub-scores on each of the postulated factors were calculated by adding item scores. these scores were again inter-correlated and the results are portrayed in table 15. a kmo test for sampling adequacy and bartlett’s test for sphericity was performed to test the suitability of this matrix for factor analysis. eigenvalues were again calculated on this unreduced intercorrelation matrix. only one factor was postulated according to kaiser’s (1970) criterion (eigenvalues greater that unity) that accounts for about 57% variance in factor space. the results appear in table 16. one factor was extracted using principal axis factoring. the loadings of sub-scores on the single factor appear in table 17. iterative item analyses were conducted on the single obtained scale. the item-test correlations as well as the test reliabilities (cronbach alpha) with the respective items deleted appear in response scale formats 69 table 18. the obtained single scale yielded a cronbach alpha of 0,9248. table 13 eigenvalues on the item inter-correlation matrix (38 × 38) initial eigenvalues root eigenvalue % of variance cumulative % 1 10,529 27,709 27,709 2 2,013 5,297 33,006 3 1,627 4,282 37,288 4 1,313 3,454 40,742 5 1,170 3,080 43,822 6 1,134 2,985 46,808 7 0,986 2,596 49,403 8 0,929 2,445 51,849 9 0,884 2,327 54,176 10 0,853 2,245 56,421 11 0,808 2,153 58,574 12 0,788 2,125 60,699 13 0,771 2,074 62,773 14 0,745 2,029 64,802 15 0,731 1,960 66,762 16 0,718 1,923 68,685 17 0,699 1,890 70,575 18 0,693 1,839 72,414 19 0,648 1,824 74,239 20 0,624 1,706 75,945 21 0,624 1,643 77,588 22 0,615 1,618 79,206 23 0,601 1,583 80,789 24 0,593 1,560 82,345 25 0,584 1,538 83,667 26 0,573 1,507 85,393 27 0,558 1,467 86,860 28 0,529 1,391 88,252 29 0,508 1,337 89,589 30 0,507 1,334 90,923 31 0,488 1,284 92,206 32 0,471 1,239 93,446 33 0,464 1,221 94,667 34 0,431 1,134 95,801 35 0,424 1,115 96,916 36 0,412 1,085 98,001 37 0,399 1,049 99,050 38 0,361 0,950 100,00 trace = 38 table 14 item loadings on six postulated factors factor items 1 2 3 4 5 6 16 0,611 18 0,609 42 0,606 0,332 40 0,573 17 0,565 26 0,553 55 0,506 0,362 48 0,424 0,306 43 0,421 25 0,419 14 0,335 38 0,296 44 0,312 0,476 34 0,458 50 0,449 20 0,429 53 0,421 39 0,412 21 0,362 0,385 0,330 15 0,354 11 0,697 10 0,302 0,631 9 0,585 12 6 0,499 4 0,497 5 0,490 3 0,461 2 0,370 30 0,491 31 0,496 32 0,447 47 0,307 0,318 33 51 0,429 54 0,339 0,401 52 0,381 56 0,353 table 15 inter correlation matrix of sub-scores on six postulated factors (6 x 6) factor factors 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 1,000 0,575 0,559 0,500 0,682 0,542 2 0,575 1,000 0,493 0,475 0,574 0,389 3 0,559 0,493 1,000 0,360 0,439 0,332 4 0,500 0,475 0,360 1,000 0,517 0,340 5 0,682 0,574 0,439 0,517 1,000 0,460 6 0,542 0,389 0,332 0,340 0,460 1,000 all correlations are significant at the p = 0,05 level. table 16 eigenvalues on the sub-score inter-correlation matrix (6 x 6) initial eigenvalues root eigenvalue % of variance cumulative % 1 3,440 57,339 57,339 2 0,694 11,566 68,905 3 0,655 10,919 79,824 4 0,488 8,139 87,963 5 0,437 7,277 95,240 6 0,286 4,760 100,00 trace = 6 smith, roodt70 table 17 sub-score loadings on the second level factor factor loadings communalites sub-scores 1 1 0,858 0,736 2 0,789 0,520 3 0,721 0,379 4 0,617 0,380 5 0,615 0,623 6 0,577 0,333 table 18 item reliability statistics for the five-point scale item scale mean if scale variance if corrected item alpha if item item deleted item deleted total correlation deleted 2 119,9764 566,1874 0,2836 0,9246 3 120,0821 562,6545 0,2964 0,9247 4 120,5831 547,7880 0,5165 0,9225 5 121,0876 553,2834 0,4282 0,9236 6 120,8689 547,5689 0,4553 0,9232 9 120,4889 547,2330 0,5116 0,9226 10 120,5780 546,8634 0,4754 0,9230 11 120,5010 548,5359 0,5000 0,9227 12 120,1008 555,9539 0,3793 0,9240 14 120,9129 549,9821 0,4363 0,9234 15 120,1840 559,3447 0,3120 0,9247 16 121,0189 539,0533 0,5947 0,9215 17 121,0760 543,4464 0,6151 0,9215 18 120,8947 540,7938 0,5728 0,9218 20 120,3232 561,1290 0,3423 0,9242 21 120,8756 542,3004 0,5642 0,9219 25 120,7641 546,0833 0,5750 0,9219 26 120,6904 538,8682 0,6662 0,9209 31 121,0401 547,6995 0,5138 0,9225 30 121,1596 540,0791 0,6080 0,9214 32 120,9225 547,0875 0,5208 0,9225 33 120,5049 555,2311 0,4018 0,9237 34 120,5856 555,4934 0,4177 0,9235 38 120,7469 554,3386 0,4262 0,9235 39 120,2226 546,5996 0,2806 0,9247 40 120,6058 539,9269 0,6322 0,9212 42 120,6242 543,6939 0,4974 0,9228 43 121,0935 548,9256 0,4727 0,9230 44 121,3180 549,6890 0,4755 0,9230 47 120,3684 548,4453 0,5656 0,9221 48 120,5553 544,0846 0,5956 0,9217 50 120,1178 551,6636 0,4763 0,9230 51 120,4678 548,7199 0,5506 0,9222 52 120,9501 555,2297 0,4108 0,9236 53 120,4338 551,1426 0,4883 0,9228 54 120,4934 552,9482 0,4696 0,9230 55 120,4899 542,4661 0,6156 0,9214 56 120,7381 570,5555 0,1015 0,9274 no of cases = 4066 no of items = 38 cronbach alpha 0,9248 results pertaining to the six-point scale the sample is reported in table 3. the descriptive statistics are reported in table 19. table 19 six-point response scale descriptive statistics item mean median mode std. skewstd. error kurtosis std. error deviation ness of skewness of kurtosis q2 3,70 4,00 5 1,682 -0,402 0,084 -1,279 0,168 q3 4,18 5,00 5 1,461 -0,780 0,084 -0,455 0,168 q4 3,78 4,00 5 1,537 -0,530 0,084 -0,923 0,168 q5 3,61 4,00 5 1,597 -0,315 0,084 -1,223 0,168 q6 3,58 4,00 5 1,644 -0,251 0,084 -1,253 0,168 q9 4,41 5,00 5 1,495 -0,663 0,084 -0,683 0,168 q10 4,15 5,00 5 1,547 -0,647 0,084 -0,768 0,168 q11 4,22 5,00 5 1,391 -0,726 0,084 -0,368 0,168 q12 4,16 5,00 5 1,646 -0,652 0,084 -0,847 0,168 q14 3,59 4,00 5 1,569 -0,223 0,084 -1,210 0,168 q15 4,33 5,00 5 1,329 -0,885 0,084 0,054 0,168 q16 3,61 4,00 5 1,649 -0,204 0,084 -1,286 0,168 q17 3,38 4,00 4 1,469 -0,150 0,084 -1,105 0,168 q18 3,53 4,00 5 1,695 -0,158 0,084 -1,344 0,168 q20 3,77 4,00 5 1,454 -0,502 0,084 -0,894 0,168 q21 3,26 3,00 5 1,595 0,089 0,084 -1,233 0,168 q25 3,51 4,00 5 1,516 -0,251 0,084 -1,156 0,168 q26 3,66 4,00 5 1,562 -0,329 0,084 -1,189 0,168 q31 3,31 4,00 4 1,513 -0,063 0,084 -1,185 0,168 q30 3,59 4,00 5 1,551 -0,358 0,084 -1,129 0,168 q32 3,26 3,00 4 1,528 -0,041 0,084 -1,252 0,168 q33 3,47 4,00 5 1,585 -0,213 0,084 -1,271 0,168 q34 ,076 4,00 5 1,534 -0,362 0,084 -1,014 0,168 q38 4,23 5,00 5 1,340 -0,869 0,084 -0,101 0,168 q39 4,00 4,00 5 1,365 -0,587 0,084 -0,641 0,168 q40 4,25 5,00 5 1,317 -0,845 0,084 -0,055 0,168 q42 4,47 5,00 5 1,551 -1,062 0,084 -0,007 0,168 q43 3,90 4,00 5 1,301 -0,644 0,084 -0,460 0,168 q44 2,98 3,00 1 1,614 0,226 0,084 -1,335 0,168 q47 4,33 5,00 5 1,299 -0,932 0,084 0,183 0,168 q48 3,91 4,00 5 1,507 -0,598 0,084 -0,777 0,168 q50 4,13 5,00 5 1,305 -0,784 0,084 -0,241 0,168 q51 4,62 5,00 5 1,284 -1,055 0,084 0,407 0,168 q52 3,84 4,00 5 1,367 -0,615 0,084 -0,608 0,168 q53 4,00 4,00 5 1,469 -0,535 0,084 -0,850 0,168 q54 4,11 4,00 5 1,421 -0,558 0,084 -0,659 0,168 q55 3,91 4,00 5 1,483 -0,566 0,084 -0,779 0,168 q56 3,96 5,00 5 1,461 -0,678 0,084 -0,750 0,168 the data set for the six-point response scale was factor analysed on two levels according to a procedure suggested by schepers (1992) in order to determine the factor structure of the instrument. the data was analysed using the spss programme. to determine the suitability of the inter-correlation matrix for factor analysis, the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy (msa) and bartlett’s test of sphericity were conducted on the matrix. the kmo yielded a msa of 0,938 and the barlett test a chi-square of 12571 (p = 0,000). the matrix is suitable for further factor analysis. the items of the cai were inter-correlated and the eigenvalues of the unreduced matrix calculated. due to the limited space, the inter-correlation matrix is not reported here. the number of factors postulated according to kaiser’s (1970) criterion (eigenvalues greater that unity) are reported in table 20. these six factors explain about 52% of the variance in the factor space. the item loadings on the six postulated factors are presented in table 21. the loadings are reported in bold type for each of the factors. only five factors yielded significant item loadings. response scale formats 71 factor five was non-determined, having only one significant loading. only items with values greater than 0,3 were included in this unreduced matrix. table 20 eigenvalaues on the item inter-correlation matrix (38 x 38) initial eigenvalues root eigenvalue % of variance cumulative % 1 10,666 28,068 28,068 2 3,644 9,589 37,657 3 1,770 4,657 42,314 4 1,483 3,903 46,216 5 1,158 3,048 49,264 6 1,087 2,861 52,125 7 0,997 2,622 54,747 8 0,908 2,391 57,138 9 0,892 2,347 59,485 10 0,849 2,233 61,718 11 0,807 2,124 63,842 12 0,781 2,055 65,897 13 0,735 1,934 67,830 14 0,729 1,918 69,748 15 0,682 1,796 71,544 16 0,668 1,758 73,302 17 0,657 1,729 75,031 18 0,638 1,680 76,711 19 0,625 1,646 78,357 20 0,581 1,529 79,886 21 0,562 1,478 81,364 22 0,537 1,412 82,776 23 0,524 1,378 84,154 24 0,517 1,360 85,514 25 0,500 1,315 86,829 26 0,478 1,258 88,088 27 0,463 1,218 89,306 28 0,447 1,177 90,483 29 0,430 1,131 91,614 30 0,427 1,123 92,738 31 0,396 1,043 93,78 32 0,387 1,017 94,798 33 0,364 0,958 95,756 34 0,361 0,949 96,705 35 0,341 0,897 97,602 36 0,321 0,845 98,447 37 0,310 0,817 99,264 38 0,280 0,736 100,000 trace = 38 sub-scores on each of the five postulated factors were calculated by adding item scores. these sub-scores were again intercorrelated and the results are portrayed in table 22. a kmo test for sampling adequacy and a bartlett’s test of sphericity was performed to test the suitability of this matrix for factor analysis. the kmo yielded a msa of 0,662 and bartlett’s test a chi-square of 939,17 (p = 0,000). the matrix is suitable for further factor analysis. eigenvalues were again calculated on this unreduced intercorrelation matrix. two factors were postulated according to kaiser’s (1970) criterion (eigenvalues greater that unity) that account for about 70% variance in factor space. the results appear in table 23. table 21 item loadings on six postulated factors (6x6) items 1 2 3 4 5 6 55 0,727 26 0,719 56 0,669 17 0,662 33 0,658 25 0,646 16 0,642 32 0,611 18 0,567 30 0,531 0,327 21 0,527 48 0,464 0,419 4 0,463 52 0,461 0,345 42 0,444 14 0,441 44 0,441 31 0,427 0,344 0,360 20 0,336 0,302 0,087 54 0,691 53 0,652 50 0,607 51 0,591 40 0,584 38 0,563 47 0,533 39 0,328 0,439 15 0,424 43 0,355 0,380 9 0,380 5 0,686 6 0,478 3 0,472 10 0,645 11 0,375 0,574 12 0,568 2 0,342 -0,385 34 0,335 0,516 table 22 inter-correlation matrix of sub-scores on five postulated factors (5 x 5) 1 2 3 4 5 1 1,000 0,522 0,516 0,026 0,342 2 0,522 1,000 0,301 0,356 0,452 3 0,516 0,301 1,000 -0,30 0,194 4 0,26 0,356 -0,30 1,000 0,313 5 0,343 0,452 0,194 0,131 1,000 all correlation are significant ate the p = 0,05 level. two factors were extracted using principal axis factoring. the loadings on the sub-scores appear in table 24. smith, roodt72 table 23 eigenvalues on the sub-score inter-correlation matrix (5 x 5) initial eigenvalues root eigenvalue % of variance cumulative % 1 2,273 45,450 45,450 2 1,210 24,202 69,652 3 0,620 12,401 82,053 4 0,538 10,754 92,807 5 0,360 7,193 100,000 trace = 5 the scores were inter-correlated and the results portrayed in table 24. factor 2 is non-determined. in order to create an equal base for comparison, the factor analysis was forced into a single factor solution. table 24 sub-scores on the second level factor factors loadings sub-scores 1 2 1 0,889 0,278 2 0,582 0,113 3 0,564 0,662 4 0,002 0,646 5 0,368 0,547 one factor was extracted using principal axis factoring. the loadings of the sub-scores on a single factor appear in table 25. table 25 factor correlation matrix factor factor 1 2 1 1,000 0,272 2 0,272 1,000 iterative item analyses were conducted on the single obtained scale. the item-test correlations as well as the test reliabilities (cronbach alpha) with the respective item deleted appear in table 26. the obtained single scale yielded a cronbach alpha of 0,9273. table 26 sub-score loadings on the second level factor factor communalities sub scores 1 1 0,806 0,649 2 0,686 0,470 3 0,527 0,278 4 0,493 0,243 the item reliability statistics are reported in table 27. table 27 item reliability statistics for the six-point scale item scale mean if scale variance if corrected item alpha if item item deleted item deleted total correlation deleted 55 126,0412 700,8758 0,6000 0,9241 26 126,2941 694,7944 0,6428 0,9235 56 125,9918 704,6654 0,5593 0,9246 17 126,5682 699,8946 0,6190 0,9239 33 126,4800 695,5196 0,6239 0,9237 25 126,4424 701,5756 0,5763 0,9243 16 126,3512 696,2085 0,5889 0,9241 32 126,6859 699,5278 0,5975 0,9241 18 126,4235 696,9912 0,5623 0,9245 30 126,3612 695,7599 0,6357 0,9236 21 126,6929 701,3131 0,5484 0,9247 48 126,0424 702,9287 0,5630 0,9245 4 126,1718 704,1236 0,5355 0,9248 2 126,1141 704,5347 0,6032 0,9242 42 125,4812 712,8766 0,4213 0,9262 14 126,3612 707,3829 0,4832 0,9255 44 126,9694 707,1062 0,4714 0,9256 31 126,6376 705,8709 0,5227 0,9250 20 126,1776 712,0874 0,4635 0,9256 54 125,8376 718,1314 0,3943 0,9264 53 125,9471 720,3329 0,3509 0,9269 50 125,8224 713,2487 0,5054 0,9252 51 125,3341 715,6974 0,4779 0,9255 40 125,7012 722,9565 0,3597 0,9267 38 125,7165 716,3706 0,4462 0,9258 47 125,6224 715,6464 0,4723 0,9256 39 125,9541 709,2146 0,5379 0,9249 15 125,6212 718,9824 0,4128 0,9262 43 126,0541 711,4411 0,5337 0,9249 9 125,8129 716,4868 0,3930 0,9265 5 126,3376 715,0508 0,3813 0,9267 6 126,3753 708,5851 0,4440 0,9260 3 125,7694 721,1694 0,3424 0,9270 4 126,1859 713,1715 0,4230 0,9262 no of cases = 850 no of items = 34 cronbach alpha 0,9273 a cronbach alpha 0,9273 was calculated. the alpha values if an item is deleted are of the order of 0,92 for all the items. cortina (1993) indicated that a cronbach alpha of 0,7 and more is significant. discussion comparative findings and discussion of the four, five and sixpoint response scales the study set out to identif y which response scale would provide the best metric properties on the cai. the item statistics for the respective response scales indicate that most of the items were negatively skewed indicating that most of the respondents were in agreement with the statements posed in the cai. the factor structures are similar, with a single factor extracted in each of the respective scales, except for the six-point scale where a single factor solution was forced. range ranges of the item statistics are reported in table 28. response scale formats 73 the alpha values of the respective response scales all have high reliabilities that exceed 0,7. values more than 0,7 are significant (cortina, 1993). the literature makes no further distinction regarding the significance of values that exceed 0,7 making further interpretation difficult. the column where the ranges have larger differences is limited to the ranges of corrected items and total correlation. here the ranges are wider indicating larger differences between the lowest and the highest values in terms of the correlated values. the highest values for the three scales do not indicate major differences. the values for the four and six-point response scales are close, while the largest difference on the low score is for the five-point scale. the differences are attributed to the characteristics of the sample populations completing the cai and the effects of the using ordinal scales. the differences in the sample populations include: � data collected in different organisations that are not comparable in terms of core business; � home language of most of the respondents was not english. the majority of respondents have indicated that their first language is not english. where items are not clear or ambiguous, respondents are likely to respond in the affirmative (greenleaf, 1992; mda, 2000). � standard biographical data is not available for all the response scales. in the six-point response format there was a significant number of respondents that have lower levels of qualifications. low levels of qualified respondents are likely to respond at the either extreme ends of response scales (backman & o’malley, 1984; greenleaf, 1992). � ages of respondents varied across the data sets. older respondent are likely to respond at the extremes of response scales (greenleaf, 1992). � comparisons of the reliabilities of the respective scales indicate differences, but the overall differences are not significant. the lack of significant differences between the alphas is attributed to differences in the sample populations that completed the cai and the effects of using ordinal scales. the response format in the cai was a combination ordinal scale with statements. schepers (1992) reported that a combination of ordinal scale with statements affects responses. � another possible factor could explain the results of the alphas. this requires a re-examination of the cronbach alpha formula. this formula suggests when vx is restricted (as in the case of the four-point scale) the obtained coefficient alpha would increase. this may explain the slightly higher coefficient for the four-point scale. the fact that ordinal scales were used with all three-scale formats may be the reason for the relative small differences in overall reliabilities. � the items included in the instrument do not indicate any unusual practice in business. most businesses engage in the practices reflected in the items. the nature of the items would be typical practice in most organisations, hence the affirmative responses by the respondents to most of the items in all three of the response scales. � in the design of items the instrument employs statement-type items on a five-point, likert type scale. schepers (1992) indicates that there is a high likelihood for respondents to engage in acquiescence bias where items are of the statement linked to the likert t ype labelled response points. participants are less likely to engage in the items where statement type items are included (petty et al., 1987). � james (1982) and glick (1985) argue that when doing organisational research that requires respondents to respond in terms of their opinion and perceptions, the perceptions relate to ambiguity autonomy influence, facilitation support and warmth (james, 1982). there also exists possibility that two levels of research result. at the one level is the organisation, while at another level is the respondent’s psychological level. this creates two units of measurement (james 1982; & glick, 1985). glick (1985) further argues that the literature makes a distinction between organisational and psychological unit concepts. the levels should therefore be treated as different levels of measures in organisational research. organisational culture included a variety of psychological variables. the present study may have run into the dilemma of mixing the psychological with the organisational units of measurement. while the postulates proposed have not been confirmed, the study has again highlighted aspects that require attention in culture instrument results interpretation. aspect that requires attention include: � the comparison of the respective scales would only be meaningful once organisation level units and psychological level units are clearly defined and accommodated in the research design (james, 1982). � the paucity of research relating response styles in the south african population. � in the format used, the number of items was limited to 38 items. to justif y the effort, more items need to be developed that would measures at the less obvious levels of organisational culture. the instrument should then be used where organisations are comparable in terms of core business, and sample characteristics. once the many of the extraneous variables are controlled, the possibility exists to make meaningful comparisons of the respective scales (klein & kozlowski, 2000). � instrumentsshould be developed taking a question format combined with an intensity scale. this is likely to control biased responses and improve the metric properties of the instrument (schepers, 1992). limitations of the research include � the effects of organisation, age, education, gender language, race and income levels were not considered in the data analysis which may have allowed for more comparable data to be extracted. � the lack of standard biographical data across all the scales did not allow for comparisons to be made or for comparisons within the samples of the respective response scales. � the results were based on an instrument of only 38 items that measure organisational culture at a superficial level. a more robust measure with multiple levels of culture (schein, 1985) may have produced more significant results. table 28 ranges of item reliability statistics for the four, five and six point scales response range of scale means range of scale variances range of corrected range of alpha scores cronbach scale if item deleted if item deleted items – total correlation if item deleted alpha low high low high low high low high four-point 96,5709 97,9360 361,9862 396,5332 0,3778 0,6512 0,9315 0,9338 0,9345 five-point 119,9764 120,9501 540,7938 561,1290 0,1015 0,6662 0,9212 0,9247 0,9248 six-point 125,3341 126,9694 695,5196 718,1314 0,3424 0,6428 0,9235 0,9269 0,9273 smith, roodt74 emanating from this study, the following research is suggested: � to investigate the true effects of response formats (that is four, five and six-point response formats within similar samples and organisations. � investigating the wording effects on response scales on the south african population. � establish the effects of changes in wording on response scales, positive to negative and negative to positive and the relationship to response styles. � specific effects of age and education, language, gender, income and race in response sets and styles. � the effect of changing the response positions i.e., changing the ‘don’t know’ from the middle positions to the end of the response options where likert type response scale are required. � to research the racial differences, the effects of socio-economic and educational levels of respondents in relation to response bias. � what the effect would be on the metrics of instruments by redesigning the response scale in the intensity scale and question format. � evaluate the culture assessment instrument and the different response scales using data from similar organisations with comparable sample. acknowledgement the authors are indebted to prof nico martins of organisational diagnostics for providing the data set for conducting this research. the 56-item cai used in this research was abstracted from a larger item pool collected across various organisations and does not constitute the original organisational culture survey of prof martins. data collected from each organisation by means of the survey was suplemented by qualitative methods. the authors would like to thank riëtte eiselen and her staff from statcon at rau for their professional service and valuable contribution regarding the data analysis for this project. references allen, m.j. & yen, w.m. (1979). introduction to measurement theory. monterey, ca: brooks/cole. alvesson, m. (2002). understanding organisational culture. london: sage. anastasi, a. (1986). evolving concepts of test validation. annual review of psychology, 37, 1-15. anastasi, a. & urbani, s. (1997). psychological testing. (7th edition). upper saddle river, n j: prentice hall. ashkanasy, n.m., broadfoot, l e. & falkus, s. (2000).questionnaire measures of organisational culture. in ashkanasy, n.m. wilderom, c.p.m. & pearson, m. f. (eds). handbook of organisational culture and climate. thousand oaks: sage. ashkanasy, n.m., wilderom, c.p.m. & pearson, m.f. (2000). (eds.). handbook of organisational culture and climate. thousand oaks: sage. babbie, e. & mouton, j. (2001). the practice of social research. (south african edition) cape town: oxford university press. bachman, j.g. & o’malley, p.m. (1984). yea-saying, nay-saying, and going to extremes: black-white differences in response styles. public opinion quarterly, 48, 491-509. bluedorn, a.c. (2000). time and organisational culture. in ashkanasy, n.m., wilderom, c.p.m. & pearson, m.f. (eds.). handbook of organisational culture and climate. thousand oaks: sage. bradburn, n.m., sudman, s., blair, e. & stocking, c. (1978). question threat and response bias. public opinion quarterly, 42 (2), 221-234. brown, f.g. (1983). principles of educational and psychological testing. (3rd edition). new york: holt, rinehard & winston. church, a.h. & waclawski, j. (1998). designing organisational sur veys. aldershot: gower. collins dictionary and thesaurus in one volume (1987). london; london. cortina, j.m. (1993). what is coefficient alpha? an examination of the theory and applications. journal of applied psychology, 78 (1), 98-104. cronbach, l.l. (1990). essentials of psychological testing. (5th edition). new york: harper collins. cummings, t. (2001). culture and change. in: c.l cooper, s. cartwight & p.c. earley, (eds.). the international handbook of organisational culture and climate. chichester: john wiley. denision, d. (2001). organisational culture: can it be a key lever for driving culture change. in c. l cooper, s., cartwight & p.c. earley (eds). the international handbook of organisational culture and climate. chichester: john wiley. dove, r. (2001). response ability: the language, structure, and culture of the agile enterprise. new york: john wiley. duncan, o.d. & stenbeck, m. (1988). no opinion or not sure. public opinion quarterly, 52, 513–525. flamholtz, e. (2001). corporate culture and the bottom line. european management journal, 19 (3), 268-275. feigl, h. (1970). the orthodox view of theories: remarks in defence as well as critique. in m. radner, & s. winokurs, (eds.). analysis of theories and methods of physics and psychology. minneapolis: universit y of minnesota press. fife-schaw, c. (2000). questionnaire design. in g.m. breakwell, s. hammond & c. research methods in psychology. (2nd edition). london: sage. fink, a. (1995a). the sur vey handbook. thousand oaks: sage. fink, a. (1995b). how to ask sur vey questions. thousand oaks: sage. fleick, l. (1989). latent class analysis of survey questions that include don’t know responses. public opinion quarterly, 53, 525–547. fowler, f.j. (1992). how unclear terms affect survey data. public opinion quarterly, 56, 218-231. francis, j.d. & busch, l. (1975). what we know about “i don’t knows”. public opinion quarterly, 39 (2), 207-218. gaskill, g.d., o’muircheartaigh, c.a. & wright, d.b. (1994). survey questions about the frequency of vaguely defined events: the effect of response alternatives. public opinion quarterly, 58, 241-254. ghiselli, e. e., campbell, j.p. & zedrick, s. (1981). measurement theory of the behavioural sciences. san francisco: wh freeman. gilljam, m. & granberg, d. (1993). should we take don’t know for an answer? public opinion quarterly, 57, 348–357. glick, w.h. (1985). concept ualising and measuring organisational and psychological climate: pitfalls in multilevel research. academy of management review, 10 (3), 601-616. greenleaf, e.a. (1992). measuring extreme response style. public opinion quarterly, 56, 328-351. gregory, r.j. (1996). psychological testing: history, principles and applications. (2nd edition). boston: ally and bacon. guilford,j.p. (1954). psychometric methods. new york: mcgrawhill. hair, j.s., anderson, r.e., tatham, r.l. & black, w.c. (1998). multivariate data analysis. (5th edition). upper saddle river, n j: prentice-hall international. hatch, m.j. (1997). organisational theory: modern, symbolic, and post-modern perspectives. oxford: oxford university press. hofstede, g. (2001). cultures and consequences: comparing values, behaviours institutions and organisations across nations. (2nd edition). thousand oaks: sage. jackson, d.m. & messick, s. (1967). response styles and the assessment of psychopathology. in d.n. jackson & s. messick (eds.). problems in human assessment. new york: robert e krieger. james, l.r. (1982). aggregation bias in estimates of perceptual agreement. journal of applied psychology, 67 (2), 219-229. response scale formats 75 kaiser, h.f. (1970). a second-generation little jiff y. psychometrika, 35, 401-415. kerlinger, f.n. & lee, h.b. (2001). foundations of behavioural research. (4th edition). fort worth: harcourt college. klein, k.j. & kozlowski, s.w.j. (2000). a multilevel approach to theory and research in organisations: contextual, temporal and emergent processes. in k.j. klein & s.w.j. kozlowski (eds.). multile vel theor y, research, and methods in organisations: foundations, extensions, and new directions. san francisco: jossey-bass. kotter, j.p. & heskett, j.l. (1992). corporate culture and performance. new york: john wiley. kroeber, a.l. & kluckhohn, c. (1952). culture: a critical review of concepts and definitions. papers of the peabody museum of american archaeology and ethnology, (harvard university), xlvii, no 1. cambridge, massachusetts: peabody museum. martins, n. (2000). organisational culture study. unpublished manuscript. mcintire, s & miller, l. a. (2000). foundations for psychological testing. boston: mcgraw-hill. nadler, d.a., thies, p.k. & nadler, m.b. (2001). culture change in the strategic enterprise: lessons from the field. in c. l cooper, s. cartwight & p.c. earley (eds.). the international handbook of organisational culture and climate. chichester: john wiley. newstead, s.e. & arnold, j. (1989). the effect of response format on ratings of teachers. educational and psychological measurement, 49, 33-43. nunnally, j.c. & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory. (3rd edition.) new york: mcgraw-hill. o’muircheartaigh, c.a., gaskill, g.d. & wright, d.b. (1993). intensifiers in behavioural frequency questions. public opinion quarterly, 57, 552-565. ott, j.s. (1989). the organisational culture perspective. chicago: dorsey press. ouchi, w.g. (1981). theory z. reading, ma: addison-wesley. peters, t.j. & waterman, r.h. (1982). in search of excellence: lessons of from america’s best-run companies. new york: harper & row. petty, r.e., rennier, g.a. & cacioppa, j.t. (1987). assertion versus interrogation formats in opinion surveys: questions enhance thoughtful responding. public opinion quarterly, 51, 481-494. poe, g.s., seeman, i., mclaughlin, j., mehl, e. & dietz, m. (1988). “don’t know” boxes in factual questions in a mail questionnaires: effects on level and quality of response. public opinion quarterly, 52, 212-222. rubin, a. & babbie, e. (1997). research methods for social work. pacific grove, ca: brooks/cole. rust, j. & golombok, s. (1999). modern psychometrics: the science of psychological assessment. (2nd edition). london: routledge. sanchez, m.e. & morchio, g. (1992). probing “don’t know” answers: effects on survey estimates and variable relationships. public opinion quarterly, 56, 454-474. sarantakos, s. (1998). social research. (2nd edition). south yarra: macmillan. schein, e .h. (1985). organisational culture and leadership. san francisco: jossey-bass. schein, e.h. (1999). the corporate sur vival guide: sense and nonsense about culture change. san francisco: jossey-bass. schepers, j.m. (1992). toetskonstruksie: teorie en praktyk. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. schultz, m. (1995). on studying organisational cultures. berlin: walter de gruyter. smith, e.r.a.n. & squire, p. (1990). the effects of prestige names in question wording. public opinion quarterly, 54, 97-116. swart, c., roodt, g. & schepers, j.m. (1999). itemformaat, differensiële itemskeefheid en die faktorstruktuur van ’n selfvoltooingsvraelys. sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 25 (1), 33-43. torgerson, w.s. (1958). theory and methods of scaling. new york: john wiley. trice, h.m. & beyer, j.m. (1984). studying organisational culture through rites and ceremonials. academy of management review, 8 (4), 653-669. van der post, w.z., de coning, t.j. & smit, e.v.d.m. (1997). an instrument to measure organisational culture. south african journal of business management, 28 (4), 147-168. van der post, w.z., de coning, t.j. & smit, e.v.d.m. (1998). the relationship between organisational culture and financial performance: some south african evidence. south african journal of business management, 29 (1), 30-40. welman, j.c. & kruger, s.j. (2001). research methodology for business and administrative sciences. (2nd edition). cape town: oxford university press. wilson, a.m. (2001). understanding organisational culture and the implications for corporate marketing. european journal of marketing, 35 (3/4), 453-567. abstract introduction literature review research approach results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) daniël j. le roux business school, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa petrus a. botha business school, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa citation le roux, d.j., & botha, p.a. (2021). investigating the impact of technostress on productivity and overall life satisfaction of managers working at a south african ferrochrome smelting company. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1649. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1649 original research investigating the impact of technostress on productivity and overall life satisfaction of managers working at a south african ferrochrome smelting company daniël j. le roux, petrus a. botha received: 21 apr. 2021; accepted: 14 july 2021; published: 19 aug. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: information and communication technology (ict) advances such as computers, tablets, and cell phones allow for information flow like never before, both in terms of speed and volume. but, unfortunately, this has resulted in technostress. research purpose: to investigate the impact of technostress on the productivity and the overall life satisfaction of managers working in ferrochrome smelters. motivation for the study: limited research has been conducted on technostress in a south african context. most of the researches on technostress were conducted amongst computer professionals and information technology (it) consultants and they did not focus on non-ict specialists such as managers who are exposed to ict as a regular part of their workday. research approach/design and method: this study was conducted within a quantitative paradigm using a correlational design. main findings: the managers experience low levels of technostress, high levels of it-enabled productivity, and above-average life satisfaction. no practically significant differences exist for any of the research factors between males and females, whilst techno-complexity and techno-uncertainty increase with age. technostress does not affect productivity, but a negative relationship exists between technostress and life satisfaction. practical/managerial implications: techno-uncertainty and techno-complexity are present amongst older managerial employees. techno-complexity decreases the self-reported levels of productivity. strategies such as training and assistance to reduce the techno-complexity for older managerial employees should be considered. contribution/value-add: this study creates an awareness of the potential negative impact of ict on productivity and life satisfaction. it contributes to the body of knowledge by quantifying the impact of the managers’ perceived technostress on productivity and life satisfaction. keywords: ferrochrome smelter; life satisfaction; managers; productivity; techno-complexity; techno-insecurity; techno-invasion; techno-overload; techno-stressors; techno-uncertainty. introduction this article reports on the impact of technostress on the productivity and life satisfaction of managers at a south african ferrochrome smelting company. there is contradictory evidence regarding the effect of technostress on productivity. for example, pirkkalainen, salo, tarafdar and makonnen (2019) found that increased technostress leads to decreased productivity, whereas lee, lee and suh (2016) found that higher techno strain levels increased the productivity. according to kazekami (2020) and lee et al. (2016), increased technostress decreases the overall life satisfaction. most research has been conducted on employees exposed continuously to information and communication technology (ict) as a regular part of their workdays, such as computer professionals (van eck, 2005) and it consultants (ferziani, rajagukguk, & analya, 2018). the problem with this approach is that ict has advanced to such an extent that it is filtering through and becoming an integral part of most business functions and, as a result, potentially affects employees who do not specialise in information technology (it). technological advancements over the past few decades have had a pronounced effect on how companies do business. these advancements have affected nearly all aspects of the working life (sowell, 1995). when laptops, cellular phones, internet and video conferencing started emerging in the 1990s, people reacted negatively towards technology (hess, 2004). these adverse effects on attitudes, thoughts, and behaviour, either directly or indirectly through the use of technology, result from what was termed ‘technostress’ (weil & rosen, 1997). the literature has shown that increased levels of technostress can lead to a reduction in productivity (pirkkalainen et al., 2019) and overall life satisfaction (lee et al., 2016). because the list of new technologies is growing daily (west, 2019), the research topic of technostress and its possible adverse effects on productivity and overall life satisfaction remains current and relevant. besides the potential effects on productivity and overall life satisfaction, various international organisations such as the international labour organization and the world health organization have also voiced their concerns about the potential adverse effects of technostress on employee health (mahboob & khan, 2016). according to van eck (2005), limited research has been conducted on technostress in a south african context. bonnah (2015) makes a similar comment as it pertains to sub-saharan africa. most research has been conducted on employees who are constantly exposed to icts as a regular part of their workdays, such as computer professionals (van eck, 2005) and it consultants (ferziani et al., 2018). the problem with this approach is that icts proliferate throughout organisations, thereby affecting people who are not ict specialists. therefore, this research focused on non-ict specialists (i.e. managers), who are also exposed to ict as a regular part of their workday. this study fills these gaps by investigating the impact of managers’ technostress on productivity and life satisfaction. the purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which non-ict managers working at a ferrochrome smelting company experience technostress and its effect on their productivity and overall life satisfaction. the objectives of this research were to establish the technostress, productivity and life satisfaction levels of managerial employees; to determine whether there are practically significant differences in the mean scores of technostress, productivity and life satisfaction between gender and age groups, and establish whether there is a correlation between technostress, productivity and life satisfaction. based on the objectives, the following research questions were formulated: what are the levels of technostress, productivity, and life satisfaction of managerial employees? are there practically significant differences in the mean scores of technostress, productivity, and life satisfaction between gender and age groups? is there a correlation between technostress, productivity and life satisfaction? literature review technostress is defined as a modern disease of adaptation caused by the inability to cope with new computer technologies (brod 1984, p. 16). technostress comprises five dimensions which are referred to as technostressors: techno-overload, techno-invasion, techno-complexity, techno-insecurity, and techno uncertainty (ragu-nathan, tarafdar, ragu-nathan, & tu, 2008). according to tarafdar et al. (2011, p. 119) and ragu-nathan et al. (2008), nimrod (2018), techno-overload occurs when icts force employees to work harder. techno-invasion is the penetration of icts into employees’ personal lives. techno-complexity occurs when icts create a sense of incompetence amongst employees. it involves situations in which the complexity of technology makes users feel inadequate about their technology skills, resulting in them spending more time and effort to understand the technology. techno-insecurity refers to stressful situations that make users feel threatened about losing their jobs to more proficient people using ict. techno-uncertainty arises when the pace at which software, hardware, and computer networks change. according to techtarget (2021), it productivity refers ‘to the relationship between an organisation’s technology investments and its corresponding efficiency gains, or return on investment’. tarafdar, tu and ragu-nathan (2010) investigated the impact of technostress on end-user satisfaction and performance. they utilised the transactional model of stress and coping (tmsc) as their theoretical-conceptual framework. hence, they made use of techno-stressors to measure the degree to which employees experience technostress. to measure technostress, they adopted a measuring instrument from tarafdar, tu and ragu-nathan (2007). to measure productivity, they adopted a measuring instrument from torkzadeh and doll (1989). the research involved 233 ict users. the techno-stressors’ average mean scores were techno-overload 2.97, techno-invasion 1.91, techno-complexity 2.54, techno-insecurity 2.00 and techno-uncertainty 3.15. in summary, techno-overload and techno-uncertainty stressors contributed the most to feelings of technostress, whereas the remaining three techno-stressors had little to no effect. techno-invasion and techno-insecurity were scored below average, indicating that these stressors did not contribute to the perception of technostress. the average mean score obtained for productivity was 3.8. pirkkalainen et al. (2019) researched the effect of coping behaviours on the levels of technostress experienced and the effect thereof on productivity. their sample comprised 846 organisational it users from the united states of america. they used the same measuring instrument as chen (2015), except for techno-uncertainty, which they omitted. this measuring instrument is based on the tmsc and uses the same five techno-stressors discussed earlier, measured using a five-point likert scale. the average for techno-overload was 2.94, for techno-invasion 2.54, for techno-complexity 2.51 and techno-insecurity 2.34 (pirkkalainen et al., 2019). the measuring instrument used for productivity was the same as that used by tarafdar et al. (2007). a five-point likert scale was used to measure it-enabled productivity. the average mean score was 4.06. to summarise the results, the participants experienced only moderate levels of techno-overload. they were neutral concerning the effects of techno-invasion and techno-complexity. the average for techno-insecurity shows that this was not a genuine concern for the respondents. however, they reported high levels of it-enabled productivity. both the studies listed above used the same measuring instruments to measure technostress and productivity, making it ideal for comparison. both the studies were conducted in the united states of america. the current research also used the same measuring instrument for productivity and technostress, making the results directly comparable. according to shin and johnson (1978, p. 478), life satisfaction can be viewed ‘as a global assessment of a person’s quality of life according to his or her chosen criteria’. the literature on the effect of technostress on life satisfaction is not as abundant as that on productivity. la torre, esposito, sciarra and chiappetta (2019) did a systematic review of technostress research in 2019. they used three databases and identified 345 research articles related to technostress. after removing duplicates and articles that did not fulfil the inclusion criteria, they narrowed the number of helpful research articles to 107. of these 107 research articles, only five addressed life satisfaction (i.e. well-being or happiness). lee et al. (2016) defined technostress as slightly different but identified techno-stressors that lead to strain and theoretically affect life satisfaction. they used a three-item measure of life satisfaction based on huebner’s (1991) work. although they did not report the average level of life satisfaction, they reported a practically significant relationship between strain and life satisfaction. an increase in strain led to a decrease in the perceived life satisfaction. choi and lim (2016) investigated the effect of technology overload on the psychological well-being of 419 college students in south korea. they noted the difference between technology overload and technostress. in fact, in this research, they used the ‘techno-overload’ factor to measure technology overload – from the technostress measuring instrument developed by tarafdar et al. (2007). they used seven items from the rosenberg self-esteem scale (rosenberg, 1965) to measure psychological well-being. they did not find evidence that techno-overload affects psychological well-being (choi & lim, 2016). the mean score for psychological well-being was 3.806, with a standard deviation of 1.443. the measuring instrument used a 7-point likert scale. in general, the results showed that the overall psychological well-being was rated as being only slightly above neutral. brooks (2015) investigated the effect of social media usage on efficiency and well-being. the sample comprised undergraduate students from a prominent western us university. the same measure of technostress was used in previous studies, based on tarafdar et al. (2007). to measure well-being, they used a combination of the oxford happiness questionnaire (hills & argyle, 2002), which is a condensed version of the oxford happiness index and happiness measures (fordyce, 1988). the happiness measures comprise only two items. by combining these two instruments, the author attempted to gather a more robust estimation of the factor (brooks, 2015). a 6-point likert scale was used to answer the items. an average score of 4.67 was attained, with an average standard deviation of 1.14. in general terms, it can be stated that this sample showed higher than average levels of life satisfaction, especially compared to choi and lim (2016). because brooks (2015) used the same measuring instrument for technostress, the results can also be compared to those discussed previously. van eck (2005) studied the levels of technostress experienced by computer professionals and computer users in the vaal triangle area in south africa. she found that age, qualification and gender had no significant effects on the technostress experienced. according to riedl, kindermann, auinger and javor (2012), men experience more physiological stress than women when exposed to similar ict breakdowns designed to increase time pressure. in the research conducted by chen (2015) on a sample of 221 chinese knowledge workers, it was found that males experienced significantly higher levels of technostress. ragu-nathan, monideepa and bhanu (2008) got similar results using a sample of usa managers. in contrast, according to la torre, de leonardis and chiappetta (2020), women experience more technostress than men. they found that women experience significantly more techno-overload, techno-invasion and techno-complexity compared to men. according to weil and rosen (1997), the level of computer-related experience mitigates technostress levels. the more experienced a person is, the less technostress they will experience. kouvonen, toppinen-tanner, kivisto, huuhtanen and kalimo (2005) got results to the contrary. according to these researchers, computer professionals with relatively more computer-related knowledge and experience will experience more technostress when faced with the challenges of working with icts. tams (2011) investigated how adults of varying ages experience workplace stress because of it use. the results revealed that younger adults experience relatively less technostress than their older counterparts. the researcher explained that younger adults have higher levels of it experience and higher levels of computer self-efficacy. shu, tu and wang (2011) studied the effect of computer self-efficacy and computer dependency on technostress experienced using social cognitive theory. they found that a practically significant relationship exists between age and technostress, in which an increase in technostress accompanied an increase in age. like tams (2011), they posited that this result could be ascribed to the high computer self-efficacy of younger employees. however, some contradictory results exist in the literature. setyadi, widagdo and susanto (2017) found support for their research hypothesis, which stated that chronological age has no effect on technostress experienced. similarly, la torre et al. (2020) found no effect of age on perceived technostress. according to ferrer-i-carbonell and gowdy (2007), a non-linear relationship exists between age and life satisfaction, following a u-shaped trend. young people experience relatively higher levels of life satisfaction, which decreases over time as they age. they reported the lowest levels of life satisfaction between the ages of 30 and 50 years, after which it increases again. in the south african context, powdthavee (2005) found similar results. according to the research conducted by hinks and gruen (2007), however, no such relationship exists in the south african context. according to clark and oswald (1994), men and women differ in their levels of life satisfaction. the general trend is that men report lower levels of life satisfaction compared to women. according to both hinks and gruen (2007) and mahadea and rawat (2008), however, no such trend exists in the south african context, where both genders report similar levels of life satisfaction. craik and salthouse (2000) postulated that older employees might be less productive than younger employees because of decreasing cognitive and perceptual abilities, as a result of the ageing process. according to hursh, lui and pransky (2006, p. 46), ‘if declines in performance or functional ability occur, they may be offset by accommodations or experience and may have little or no impact on productivity’. mcevoy and cascio (1989) conducted a meta-analysis of 96 independent studies on age and performance. this meta-analysis had a total sample size of 38 938 units. they reported a correlation of only 0.04 and concluded that all mean correlations for overall samples were relatively small. furthermore, no evidence could be found that the type of job (professional vs. nonprofessional) influences the relationship between age and performance to any significant degree. shoushtary, asgarizadeh and vahdat-zad (2012) investigated the effect of ict on the iranian national oil company’s human resource productivity. the sample exceeding 11 000 units concluded that productivity was not affected by age. according to pirkkalainen et al. (2019): [n]one of the three control variables (gender, age, and it experience) were found to have a significant effect on it-enabled productivity in model 1 and, by themselves, could explain practically none (0%) of the variance in it-enabled productivity. (p. 1205) kazekami (2020) studied the mechanisms that influence the productivity of employees performing telework. concerning the control variables, he found lower productivity levels associated with females. he also found that increased age is associated with increased productivity (kazekami, 2020). zhao, xia and huang (2020) studied the impact of technostress on productivity from the theoretical perspective of appraisal and coping, involving 513 respondents from across china. they found that their control variables (age, gender and education) had no significant impact on ict-enabled productivity (zhao et al., 2020). tarafdar et al. (2010) conducted research that focussed on end-user satisfaction when using icts and perceived the productivity gains. the research population comprised 233 ict users from two different organisations. the results showed that an increase in technostress decreased productivity (tarafdar et al., 2010). pirkkalainen et al. (2019) conducted research on a population of 846 organisational ict users where they theorised and validated a model of deliberate proactive and instinctive reactive coping with mitigating the effects of technostress. they confirmed that an increase in technostress leads to decreased productivity (pirkkalainen et al., 2019). according to la torre et al. (2020) and waizenegger, remus and maier (2016), knowledge workers experience technostress because of techno-invasion. the consequences may also extend beyond the individual level. if a climate is created that fosters the factors that increase technostress, it may lead to a decrease in productivity on an individual level. however, multiple individuals being affected will also potentially harm group level and organisational performance. lee et al. (2016) conducted research investigating the effect of technostress on productivity and life satisfaction. the research population comprised 267 koreans, and the focus was on instant messaging after work hours. the results revealed that respondents who reported higher levels of technostress also reported higher productivity levels because of ict usage (lee et al., 2016). lee et al. (2016) also found that an increase in technostress leads to decreased overall life satisfaction in korean respondents using ict after work hours. according to these authors, this result was in line with the results reported by adams and king (1996). kazekami (2020) investigated the effect of telework (i.e. working from home using ict) on productivity and life satisfaction, amongst other factors. although technostress was not measured directly, it was found that too long hours of telework increased the stress of balancing work and domestic chores, which ultimately leads to stress and decreased life satisfaction. la torre et al. (2020) investigated the impact of technostress on productivity and an individual’s life (similar to this research). they found productivity only to be affected by educational level, with higher educated employees reporting higher productivity levels. none of the five techno-stressors had a practically significant effect on self-reported productivity (la torre et al., 2020). to summarise the relationship between technostress and productivity, it is clear that some inconsistencies do exist and that different studies reported different results. overall, the tendency seems to be that an increase in technostress decreases productivity. the literature which is based on the effect of technostress on overall life satisfaction is not as abundant. all indications show that a strong negative relationship exists between technostress and overall life satisfaction, where an increase in technostress should lead to a decrease in life satisfaction. research approach brand (2009) describes positivism as: [a] belief system arising out of practices in the natural sciences that assume that the subject of research is susceptible to being investigated objectively and that their veracity can be established with a reasonable degree of certainty. (p. 432) subsequently, positivists believe that all knowledge can be attained through rigorous experiments and observations (rahi, 2017). a positivistic paradigm was utilised to establish whether technostress impacts productivity and life satisfaction (i.e. whether causal links exist and to what extent). research design the research aims to determine whether technostress is correlated with productivity and life satisfaction. therefore, a correlational research design was used. according to dziak (2020:3), ‘correlational research is a method by which people study how two or more variables are related’. research participants the population of this research includes managers working at a ferrochrome smelting company. because of the small population size of 192 managers, a census was carried out. a census attempts to elicit information from each unit of the population (walliman, 2011). the questionnaire was sent online to 192 recipients, and 106 valid responses were received. the response rate equates to 55.2%. measuring instruments an instrument developed by chen (2015) was used to measure technostress. this instrument is based on an instrument first developed by tarafdar et al. (2007). chen’s version of the instrument was chosen because it was adapted for chinese knowledge workers, whereas the original instrument was us-centric. like china, south africa is a developing country, and it was thought best to make use of chen’s version. the instrument comprises 23 items divided into five factors aimed at measuring the five techno-stressors. according to chen (2015, p. 72), ‘all items have higher composite reliability coefficients than the benchmark value of 0.60 as recommended by bagozzi and yi (1988)’. this suggests high internal reliability of the data. the average variance extracted (ave) values for all factors are higher than the threshold of 0.5, indicating that adequate discriminant validity exists. tarafdar et al. (2007) developed a factor which they defined as it-enabled productivity, which comes close to meeting the above requirement. the face validity of the factor is clear with items such as, ‘this technology helps to improve my productivity’ and ‘this technology helps me to perform my job better’. a cronbach’s alpha of 0.92 was calculated for the instrument. they found the instrument to have good reliability and validity. the riverside life satisfaction scale (rlss), developed by margolis, schwitsgebel, ozer and lyubomirsky (2018), was used in this research. this instrument is based on the satisfaction with life scale (swls) developed by diener, emmons, larson and griffin (1985), which has been the dominant measure of life satisfaction since its creation over 30 years ago with more than 19 000 citations to date (margolis et al., 2018). the rlss was chosen above the swls because it contains multiple indirect indicators of life satisfaction, increasing the effective bandwidth of the instrument. according to margolis et al. (2018), the mcdonalds ωt for the instrument ranges from 0.91 to 0.93. reliability of the measuring instruments the reliability of the measuring instruments was measured using cronbach’s alpha values. composite reliability values ranged between 0.802 and 0.943, all above 0.7, the cut-off value proposed by nunnally and bernstein (1994) (see table 1). table 1: cronbach’s alphas for the scales and factors. research procedure and ethical consideration google forms were used as the platform to administer the questionnaire and collect the data. a link to the questionnaire was sent to all the managers forming part of the research population. because covid-19 lockdown restrictions were in place and most managers worked from home, 1 month was allocated for collecting the data. one week before the questionnaire closing date, a reminder was sent out to ensure a reasonable response rate. google forms automatically compiles the data into an easy-to-use spreadsheet format. the research ethics committee approved the ethics application to conduct this research. the purpose of this research was clearly explained to the participants. the researcher confirmed the consent by stating that participants consented to use this information for research by completing this questionnaire. statistical analysis descriptive statistics was carried out to describe the demographic characteristics of the respondents. the first objective of the research was to establish the technostress, productivity and life satisfaction levels of managers. descriptive statistics were calculated for all items in the questionnaire. categorical variables were reported as frequencies and percentages. means and standard deviations were reported for items measured on a likert scale. the mean score represents the central tendency of a dataset, whereas standard deviation indicates the dispersion of the individual values around the mean (levine, stephan, & szabat, 2016). the second research objective was to determine if there are practically significant differences in the mean scores of technostress, productivity and life satisfaction between gender and age groups. mean factor scores were calculated for each factor. these factor scores were summarised by reporting means and standard deviations. factor scores were compared between various independent groups. for gender, an independent t-test was performed. for age groups, a one-way analysis of variance (anovas) was performed. cohen’s d was calculated to determine significant practical differences between standardised means. cohen’s (1988) guideline values were used where an effect size of 0.2 shows a small effect or practical non-significant difference, an effect size of 0.5 reveals a medium effect or practical visible difference and, 0.8 a large effect or significant practical difference. the third objective was to establish a correlation between technostress, productivity and life satisfaction. spearman rank-order correlational analysis was conducted to determine the correlation coefficients between the three constructs. the absolute value of the correlations was used to determine the practical significance. interpretations are based on cohen’s (1988) guidelines: 0.1 small effect or practically non-significant relationship; 0.3 medium effect or practically visible; and 0.5, a large effect or practically significant relationship. all statistical tests were two-tailed, and type i error rate was set to α = 0.05. however, because of the nature of the sample, p-values were only reported for completeness’ sake. in this research, effect sizes were used for interpretation purposes. ethical considerations this study was approved by economic and management sciences research committee nwu-00795-20a4. results descriptive statistics describe the four demographic variables, namely gender, age, management level and operational unit (see table 2). slightly over two-thirds of the respondents were males (70.8%), whilst females made up 28.3% of the sample, and there was also one respondent who opted not to answer the question. managers between 31 and 40 years of age comprised 34.0% of the sample, and 41–50-year-old managers made up 35.8%. managers between 20 and 30 years of age made up about a tenth of the sample (11.3%). managers between 51 and 60 years of age made up 16% of the sample, and managers above 61 are only 2.8%. the organisation owns and operates five ferrochrome smelting plants in south africa. three plants are near rustenburg and two near steelpoort (lion) and lydenburg (glencore, 2020). the responses received were relatively equally distributed between the five plants. wonderkop represented the largest group at 30.2%, and boshoek was the smallest group at 11.3%. the most considerable proportion of the respondents fell at the d2–d3 level (38.7%). the next largest group was the d1 managers at 23.6%. the d4–d5 managers were the smallest group, making up only 7.5% of the sample. e1 managers, who typically also carry the title of manager in the organisation, made up 19.8% of the sample. senior management made up 10.4% of the sample. table 2: demographic characteristics of respondents. the mean scores of the technostress scale and factors vary between 2.03 and 3.27. the productivity mean score is 4.04 with an standard deviation (sd) of 0.86, whilst the means score of life satisfaction is 3.46 with an sd of 0.82. the mean scores and standard deviations are depicted in table 3. table 3: mean scores and standard deviations of the scales and factors. an independent t-test was done to compare the mean scores between gender groups, whilst an anova was done to compare the mean scores between age groups (see table 4). for completeness, p-values will be reported but not interpreted because a census was used and not random sampling. table 4: comparison between male and female respondents. the largest effect size recorded was only 0.150 (for techno-overload). therefore, only practically non-significant differences were found between the eight factors when comparing males and females. this means that there are no discernible differences in opinion between males and females. there were only three respondents in the 61–70 group; hence they were combined with the 51–60 group to form category 51–70 (see table 5). the mean score for techno-overload increased as the age of the respondents decreased. however, the largest effect size recorded was only 0.21, which means that all these differences are practically non-significant. for techno-complexity, more significant differences were observed. the mean score for the 20–30 age group was 1.93 (sd = 1.00), and for the 31–40 age group, it was 1.85 (sd = 0.82). the mean for the 41–50 age group was 2.11 (sd = 0.71). between these three age groups, no practically significant differences exist (d = 0.09–0.32). considering that respondents from the younger age groups have been exposed more extensively to technological advancements, this result makes sense. the mean score for the 51–70 age group was 2.47 (sd = 0.83). practically visible differences exist between this age group and the 20–30 and 41–50 groups, with effect sizes of 0.54 and 0.43. between the 31–40 age group and the 51–70 age group, an effect size of 0.75 was recorded, which shows that a practically significant difference exist. although the oldest group of respondents reported higher levels of perceived techno-complexity than the other age groups, the mean value was still below 3.00 (m = 2.47), which means they do not perceive techno-complexity to be adding to overall feelings of technostress. the education level and experience of the respondents might have contributed to this result. no significant effect sizes were recorded for techno-invasion. the largest effect size was 0.28, recorded between the 41–50 (m = 3.38, sd = 1.11) and 51–70 (m = 3.01, sd = 1.28) age groups. this result means the respondents are experiencing slight levels of techno-invasion, which are adding to perceived levels of technostress. the mean scores for techno-uncertainty were 2.83 (sd = 0.81) for the 20–30 age group, 3.17 (sd = 0.88) for the 31–40 age group, 3.41 (sd = 0.90) for the 41–50 age group and 3.43 (sd = 0.67) for the 51–70 age group, whilst the 20–30 age group is the only group with a mean score of less than 3.00. the other three groups, and especially the older two groups, scored above 3.00. this means that the two older age groups, in particular, perceive techno-uncertainty, and it is contributing to feelings of technostress. the effect size between the 20 and 30 age group and the 41–50 age group was 0.64, showing a practically visible difference. similarly, the effect size between the 20–30 age group and the 51–70 age group was 0.73, signifying that the difference leaned towards being practically significant. for techno-insecurity, the largest effect size measured between the groups was only 0.31. this result means there are practically no significant differences between the mean scores of the four age groups. for productivity, the largest effect size recorded was 0.34. this result indicates there are no practically significant differences between the mean scores of the four age groups. for life satisfaction, the largest effect size measured was 0.24, indicating practically no significant differences in the mean scores of the four age groups. mean scores from the five techno-stressors were combined to calculate the aggregate technostress score. the largest effect size measured was only 0.20, indicating practically non-significant differences between the age groups. table 5: comparison between age groups. spearman rank-order correlational analyses were conducted to determine the correlation coefficients between technostress, productivity and life satisfaction (see table 6). the correlation coefficient between technostress and productivity is only –0.112. there is a practically non-significant relationship between technostress and productivity. the literature reviewed pointed towards a negative relationship between these two factors. the results of this research points towards a negative relationship, albeit practically non-significant. the correlation coefficient between technostress and life satisfaction is –0.245. this result indicates that a negative relationship exists between technostress and life satisfaction, in that an increase in technostress leads to a decrease in life satisfaction. the relationship is approaching a practically visible effect. this result coincides with existing literature. the correlation coefficient between techno-overload and productivity is –0.049. techno-overload does not seem to impact productivity. the correlation coefficient between techno-overload and life satisfaction is –0.155. an increase in techno-overload will lead to decreased life satisfaction, but the effect is practically non-significant. the correlation coefficient between techno-complexity and productivity is –0.361. an increase in techno-complexity leads to a decrease in self-reported productivity. the effect is practically visible. the correlation coefficient between techno-complexity and life satisfaction is –0.197. an increase in techno-complexity leads to a decrease in life satisfaction. the effect is small, approaching practically visible levels. the correlation coefficient between techno-invasion and productivity is –0.150. an increase in techno-invasion leads to a decrease in self-reported productivity. the effect is small and practically non-significant. the correlation coefficient between techno-invasion and life satisfaction is –0.207. an increase in techno-invasion leads to a decrease in life satisfaction. the effect is small, approaching practically visible levels. the correlation coefficient between techno-uncertainty and productivity is 0.306. an increase in techno-uncertainty leads to an increase in self-reported productivity. the effect is medium and practically visible. this result is somewhat unexpected. constant improvements in the technology used increase techno-uncertainty but seemed to be associated with increased productivity. the correlation coefficient between techno-uncertainty and life satisfaction is –0.058. an increase in techno-uncertainty leads to a decrease in life satisfaction. the effect is small, approaching a level of being practically visible. the correlation coefficient between techno-insecurity and productivity is –0.108. an increase in techno-insecurity leads to a decrease in self-reported productivity. the effect is small and practically non-significant. the correlation coefficient between techno-insecurity and life satisfaction is –0.245. an increase in techno-insecurity leads to a decrease in life satisfaction. the effect is medium and approaching levels of being practically visible. to summarise, productivity is best correlated with techno-complexity and techno-uncertainty. the other three techno-stressors are weakly correlated with productivity. increases in techno-complexity decrease self-reported productivity, whereas increases in techno-uncertainty increases productivity. life satisfaction is best correlated with techno-complexity, techno-invasion and techno-insecurity. in all three instances, an increase in the respective techno-stressor leads to a decrease in life satisfaction. table 6: correlation between technostress, productivity and life satisfaction. discussion the mean score for the techno-complexity factor was only 2.07, which is significantly lower compared to the findings of tarafdar et al. (2010) (m = 2.54); pirkkalainen et al. (2019) (m = 2.51) and brooks (2015) (m = 2.45). this result shows that the complexity of ict is not adding to perceptions of stress. the respondents are on the management level, meeting competency requirements related to education level and experience. the mean score for the techno-overload this factor was 3.18, indicating a slight agreement that ict usage is causing feelings of overload. this correlated with the finding of brooks (2015) (m = 3.20). the mean score for techno-invasion was 3.19, indicating that there is a slight agreement that techno-invasion contributes to perceptions of stress. the mean score for techno-uncertainty was 3.27 (close to neutral), slightly higher than tarafdars’ et al. (2010) finding of 3.15. this result shows that techno-uncertainty are contributing most to the feelings of technostress for managerial employees. the mean score for the techno-insecurity factor was 2.03 compared to 2.00 of tarafdar et al. (2010) and 2.34 of pirkkalainen et al. (2019). the managerial employees seem to have high self-efficacy as related to dealing with demands arising from ict usage. both in terms of techno-complexity and techno-insecurity, their abilities and competency are decreasing perceived levels of technostress. the mean score across all the technostress statements was 2.71. this result reveals that managerial employees, on average, experience low levels of technostress. the factor mean for productivity was 4.04, similar to the 4.06 of pirkkalainen et al. (2019) and slightly higher than the 3.8 found by tarafdar et al. (2010). the mean score shows that ict usage contributes considerably to the productivity levels of managerial employees. the mean score for this life satisfaction was 3.46. this result reveals that the managers, on average, are satisfied with their lives. no practically significant differences exist for any of the factors between males and females. this correlates with the results of van eck, whilst riedl et al. (2012), ragu-nathan et al. (2008) and chen (2015) found that males experienced higher levels of technostress. however, la torre et al. (2020) found that women experience more techno-overload, techno-invasion, and techno-complexity than men. managerial employees between 31 and 40 years of age scored only 1.85 for techno-complexity, whereas their colleagues between the ages of 51 and 70 scored 2.47. managerial employees between 20 and 30 years of age scored only 2.83 for techno-uncertainty, whereas their colleagues between the ages of 51 and 70 scored 3.42. the degree to which techno-uncertainty is experienced is increasing with age. shu et al. (2011) found similar results that an increase in technostress is increasing with age. tams (2011) findings showed that younger adults experience less technostress than their older counterparts, whilst setyadi et al. (2017) and la torre et al. (2020) found no effect of age on perceived technostress. similar to this study, zhao et al. (2020), shoushtary et al. (2012) and pirkkalainen et al. (2019) found that gender and age had no significant impact on ict-enabled productivity. hinks and gruen (2007) and mahadea and rawat (2008) correlate with the findings of this study that gender had similar life satisfaction levels. the results reveal that technostress does not affect productivity. although a negative correlation exists, it is practically non-significant. these results correlate with la torre et al. (2020) findings, which revealed that none of the five techno-stressors had a practically significant effect on self-reported productivity. however, lee et al. (2016) found that higher technostress leads to higher productivity levels and decreased overall life satisfaction. the correlation coefficient between technostress and life satisfaction is –0.245. this result shows that a negative relationship exists between technostress and life satisfaction, in that an increase in technostress leads to a decrease in life satisfaction. adams and king (1996) and kazekami (2020) also found that long hours of telework (ict) lead to stress and decreased life satisfaction. it is noted that this correlation is approaching the effect of being practically visible. the techno-stressors were also analysed separately to determine their correlations with productivity and life satisfaction. productivity is best correlated with techno-complexity and techno-uncertainty. increases in techno-complexity decrease self-reported productivity, whereas increases in techno-uncertainty increases productivity. life satisfaction is best correlated with techno-complexity, techno-invasion and techno-insecurity. in all three instances, an increase in the respective techno-stressor leads to a decrease in life satisfaction. practical implications techno-uncertainty and techno-complexity seem to be more prevalent in older managerial employees. from the correlation analyses conducted, techno-complexity is decreasing self-reported levels of productivity. strategies to reduce techno-complexity, especially for older managerial employees, should be considered. this might involve giving additional training and providing more assistance. techno-invasion is highly correlated with life satisfaction. as expected, they are also reporting low levels of life satisfaction. strategies should be investigated and employed to decrease perceived techno-invasion, leading to higher levels of life satisfaction. limitations and recommendations a particular research population characterises this research. therefore, although this allows for a detailed and population-specific investigation, it limits the degree to which the results can be extrapolated to other populations. a correlational research design was utilised, inheriting the advantages and disadvantages associated with this approach. one of these disadvantages is the inability to determine cause-and-effect relationships. this means that although it was found that a negative correlation exists between technostress and life satisfaction, it is not a sufficient evidence to conclude that technostress is indeed leading to reduced life satisfaction. there is one result that stands out as being unexpected – the correlation between techno-uncertainty and productivity. according to the results, increased techno-uncertainty increases productivity, and the result is practically visible. the techno-uncertainty factor supposedly measures the incremental technostress experienced because of the stress of being constantly exposed to technological updates. looking at the statements within this sub-factor, it only measures the rate of new technology introduction, whether in hardware, software or network upgrades. the inherent assumption is that those new technologies increase perceived technostress, but it is not necessarily true. introducing new technologies might also decrease perceived technostress. future research should critically evaluate this factor for applicability. limited measuring instruments exist for technostress. the assumption is made that the technostress experienced is the aggregate of the scores for the individual techno-stressors. mathematically, each techno-stressor contributes to the overall technostress score in proportion to the number of questions. these contributions might distort the outcome. it is suggested to explore further this question, which techno-stressors contribute the most to feelings of technostress. lastly, it is recommended to evaluate the scope of future studies critically. in this research, the focus was on managerial employees, for whom technostress does not seem to be a major concern. employees who are not on managerial levels might be more exposed to the effects of technostress for various reasons. lower levels of employment (those levels slotting in between managers and floor staff) should be involved, and that specific technology is targeted with the questionnaire (not ict in general). this will also assist significantly in developing targeted organisational interventions. conclusion research has shown that ict advances are causing technostress. the study’s purpose was to investigate the impact of technostress on the managers’ productivity and overall life satisfaction in ferrochrome smelters. there is limited research that has been conducted on technostress in a south african context, especially amongst managers exposed to ict. a quantitative paradigm using a correlational design was appropriate in answering the research questions. the main findings were that managers experience low levels of technostress, high levels of it-enabled productivity and above-average life satisfaction. no practically significant differences exist for any research factors between males and females, whilst techno-complexity and techno-uncertainty increase with age. technostress does not affect productivity, but a negative relationship exists between technostress and life satisfaction. techno-uncertainty and techno-complexity had a higher prevalence amongst older managerial employees. techno-complexity decreases the self-reported levels of productivity. strategies such as providing training and assistance to reduce techno-complexity for older managerial employees should be considered. this study confirmed the negative impact of ict on life satisfaction. acknowledgements the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions p.a.b. was the academic supervisor responsible for the design of the project and wrote this article. j.d.l.r. was the principal investigator and responsible for the original research report that this article is based on. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author (p.a.b) upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or positions of any affiliated agency of the authors. references adams, g., & king, l.k.d. (1996). relationships of job and family involvement, family social support, and work-family conflict with job and life satisfaction. journal of applied psychology, 81(4), 411–420. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.81.4.411 bagozzi, r.p., & yi, y. (1988). on the evaluation of structural equation models. journal of the academy of marketing science, 16(1), 74–94. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02723327 bonnah, f. (2015). techno-stress and africentric coping strategies: an exploratory study among academic library employees in ghana. doctoral dissertation. pretoria: university of pretoria. brand, v. (2009). empirical business ethics research and paradigm analysis. journal of business ethics, 86, 429–449. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-9856-3 brod, c. (1984). technostress: the human cost of the computer revolution. reading, ma: addison-wesley. brooks, s. (2015). does personal social media usage affect efficiency and well-being? computers in human behavior, 46, 26–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.12.053 chen, l. (2015). validating the technostress instrument using a sample of chinese knowledge workers. international information management association, 24(1), 65–81. choi, s., & lim, m. (2016). effects of social and technology overload on psychological well-being in young south korean adults: the mediatory role of social network service addiction. computers in human behaviour, 61, 245–254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.03.032 clark, a., & oswald, a. (1994). unhappiness and unemployment. economic journal, 104(424), 648–659. https://doi.org/10.2307/2234639 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioural sciences (2nd ed.). hillsdale, ny: lawrence erlbaum associates. craik, f., & salthouse, t. (2000). the handbook of ageing and cognition. mahway, ny: erlbaum. diener, e., emmons, r., larson, r., & griffin, s. (1985). the satisfaction with life scale. journal of personality assessment, 49(1), 71–75. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13 dziak, m. (2020). correlational research. retrieved from https://eds-a-ebscohost-com.nwulib.nwu.ac.za/eds/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=455f2820-e874-4705-89c8-38de80e3fc2e%40sessionmgr4008&bdata=jnnpdgu9zwrzlwxpdmu%3d#an=119214045&db=ers ferrer-i-carbonell, a., & gowdy, j. (2007). environmental degradation and happiness. ecological economics, 60(3), 509–516. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2005.12.005 ferziani, a., rajagukguk, r., & analya, p. (2018). types of technostress on employees of it consulting company. in 2018 international conference on orange technologies (icot), nusa dua, bali, indonesia, 2018 (pp. 1–5). fordyce, m. (1988). a review of research on the happiness measures: a sixty second index of happiness and mental health. social indicators research, 20(4), 355–381. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00302333 glencore. (2020). ferroalloys. retrieved from https://www.glencore.com/what-we-do/metals-and-minerals/ferroalloys hess, c. (2004). stress on the job. retrieved from http://health.yahoo.com/ency/healthwise/ug810 hills, p., & argyle, m. (2002). the oxford happiness questionnaire: a compact scale for the measurement of psychological well-being. personality and individual differences, 33(7), 1073–1082. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0191-8869(01)00213-6 hinks, t., & gruen, c. (2007). what is the structure of south african happiness equations? evidence from quality-of-life surveys. social indicators research, 82, 311–336. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-006-9036-8 huebner, e. (1991). initial development of the student’s life scale. school psychology international, 12(3), 231–240. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143034391123010 hursh, n., lui, j., & pransky, g. (2006). maintaining and enhancing older worker productivity. journal of vocational rehabilitation, 25(1), 45–55. kazekami, s. (2020). mechanisms to improve labor productivity by performing telework. telecommunications policy, 44(2), 9–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2019.101868 kouvonen, a., toppinen-tanner, s., kivisto, m., huuhtanen, p., & kalimo, r. (2005). job characteristics and burnout among ageing professionals in information and communications technology. psychological reports, 97(2), 505–514. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.97.2.505-514 la torre, g., de leonardis, v., & chiappetta, m. (2020). technostress: how does it affect the productivity and life satisfaction of an individual? results from an observational study. public health, 189, 60–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2020.09.013 la torre, g., esposito, a., sciarra, i., & chiappetta, m. (2019). definition, symptoms and risk of technostress: a systematic review. international archives of occupational and environmental health, 92, 13–35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-018-1352-1 lee, s., lee, s., & suh, y. (2016). technostress from mobile communication and its impact on quality of life and productivity. total quality management, 27(7), 775–790. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2016.1187998 levine, m., stephan, d., & szabat, k. (2016). statistics for managers using microsoft excel. upper saddle river, ny: pearson prentice hall. mahadea, d., & rawat, t. (2008). economic growth, income and happiness: an exploratory study. south african journal of economics, 76(2), 276–290. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2008.00181.x mahboob, a., & khan, t. (2016). technostress and its management techniques: a literature review. journal of human resource management, 4(3), 28–31. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jhrm.20160403.12 margolis, s., schwitsgebel, e., ozer, d., & lyubomirsky, s. (2018). a new measure of life satisfaction: the riverside life satisfaction scale. journal of personality assessment, 101(6), 1–100. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2018.1464457 mcevoy, g., & cascio, w. (1989). cumulative evidence of the relationship between employee age and job performance. journal of applied psychology, 74(1), 11–17. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.74.1.11 nimrod, g. (2018). technostress: measuring a new threat to well-being in later life. ageing & mental health, 22(8), 1086–1093. https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2017.1334037 nunnally, j., & bernstein, i. (1994). the assessment of reliability. psychometric theory, 3(1), 248–292. pirkkalainen, h., salo, m., tarafdar, m., & makonnen, m. (2019). deliberate or instinctive? proactive and reactive coping for technostress. journal of management information systems, 36(4), 179–1212. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421222.2019.1661092 powdthavee, n. (2005). unhappiness and crime: evidence from south africa. economica, 72(287), 531–547. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0013-0427.2005.00429.x ragu-nathan, t.s., tarafdar, m., ragu-nathan, b.s., & tu, q. (2008). the consequences of technostress for end users in organisations: conceptual development and empirical validation. information systems research, 19(4), 417–433. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.1070.0165 rahi, s. (2017). research design and methods: a systematic review of research paradigms, sampling issues and instruments developed. international journal for economic and management sciences, 6, 403–415. riedl, r., kindermann, h., auinger, a., & javor, a. (2012). technostress from a neurobiological perspective: system breakdown increases the stress hormone cortisol in computer users. business & information systems engineering, 4, 61–69. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-012-0207-7 rosenberg, m. (1965). society and the adolescent self-image. princeton, ny: princeton university. setyadi, h., widagdo, p., & susanto, t. (2017). cognitive age and chronological age of the technostress that effect on satisfaction, performance, and intention of continue the use of information technology in the university. informatika mulawarman, 14(1), 330–335. https://doi.org/10.30872/jim.v14i1.1792 shin, d.c., & johnson, d.m., 1978. avowed happiness as an overall assessment of the quality of life. social indicators research, 5(1), 475–492. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00352944 shoushtary, m.a., asgarizadeh, a., & vahdat-zad, m.a., 2013. effect of information communication technology on human resources productivity of the iranian national oil company. international journal of technology, 1, 56–62. shu, q., tu, q., & wang, k. (2011). the impact of computer self-efficacy and technology dependence on computer-related technostress: a social cognitive theory perspective. international journal of human-computer interaction, 27(10), 923–939. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2011.555313 sowell, c. (1995). technology transforms the workplace. quest, 2(3), 11–18. tams, s. (2011). the role of age in technology-induced workplace stress. retrieved from http://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/779/ tarafdar, m., tu, q., & ragu-nathan, t. (2007). the impact of technostress on role stress and productivity. journal of management information systems, 24(1), 301–328. https://doi.org/10.2753/mis0742-1222240109 tarafdar, m., tu, q., & ragu-nathan, t. (2010). impact of technostress on end-user satisfaction and performance. journal of management information systems, 27(3), 303–334. https://doi.org/10.2753/mis0742-1222270311 tarafdar, m., tu, q., ragu-nathan, t.s., & ragu-nathan, b.s. (2011). crossing to the dark side: examining creators, outcomes, and inhibitors of technostress. communications of the acm, 54(9), 113–120. techtarget. 2021. definition of it productivity. retrieved from https://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/it-productivity torkzadeh, g., & doll, w. (1989). a discrepancy model of end-user computing involvement. management science, 35(10), 1151–1171. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.35.10.1151 van eck, m. (2005). technostress and work wellness. mba dissertation. potchefstroom: north-west university. waizenegger, l., remus, u., & maier, r. (2016). the social media trap – how knowledge workers learn to deal with constant social connectivity. in 49th hawaii international conference on system sciences (pp. 2115–2124). walliman, n. (2011). research methods – the basics. new york, ny: routledge. weil, m., & rosen, l. (1997). coping with technology @work @home @play. new york, ny: wiley. west, d. (2019). technological progress and potential future risk. retrieved from https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/articles/technological-progress-and-potential-future-risks/ zhao, x., xia, q., & huang, w. (2020). impact of technostress on productivity from the theoretical perspective of appraisal and coping processes. information and management, 24(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2020.103265 157--12 nov 2009.indd [final version].indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #157 (page number not for citation purposes) macro and micro challenges for talent retention in south africa authors: berenice kerr-phillips1 adèle thomas2 affi liations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa 2department of business management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: adèle thomas e-mail: adelet@uj.ac.za postal address: department of business management, university of johannesburg, po box 524, auckland park 2006, south africa keywords: new zealand; achievers; talent attrition; leadership; emigration dates: received: 30 july 2008 accepted: 25 may 2009 published: 17 july 2009 how to cite this article: kerr-phillips, b., & thomas, a. (2009). macro and micro challenges for talent retention in south africa. sa journal of human resource mangement/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), art. #157, 10 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.157 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. abstract the aim of the study was to explore the challenges presented in retaining south africa’s talent at both macro (country) and micro (organisational) levels. using a web-based survey placed on eight new zealand sites, the reasons for emigration of south african talent during the period 1994–2006 were explored with 84 respondents. utilising a purposive sampling technique, 20 semi-structured interviews were undertaken with identifi ed ‘top talent’ in two fi nancial services companies. content analysis of the responses from both samples was employed. reasons for emigration (macro issues) included uncertainty about the future of the country, job insecurity and fears regarding both corruption and violent crime. reasons for talent loss amongst identifi ed top talent (micro issues) were found to be linked to leadership, organisational culture and employment equity. 82vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 10 introduction key focus of the study in the light of current skills shortages and the impact that this has on competitiveness, the present study focuses on the reasons for the emigration of talented south africans as well as on the reasons why talent at senior levels in south african organisations may choose to leave their companies of employ. by identifying reasons for emigration as well as those reasons contributing to senior talent attrition in south african companies, recommendations are furnished to address this loss at both country and individual company levels. background to the study it is imperative that south africa becomes globally competitive. the world competitiveness report (imd, 2008) lists south africa in 53rd position in a ranking of the competitiveness of 55 nations, a decline from previous years. a critical component of competitiveness is having the appropriate skills complement across a range of occupations and professions as well as the skills to drive leadership in south african organisations. pfeffer (1994) notes that those organisations that are intent on becoming competitive must necessarily rely on talented and dedicated employees. in a report for mckinsey and company, guthridge, komm and lawson (2008), however, reveal that while internationally, skills shortages and the ‘war for talent’ are recognised as critically impacting competitiveness, few companies integrate clear strategies for talent acquisition and retention into their mainstream business strategies. as is evident in other developing countries, south africa is currently experiencing a brain drain that could severely impact its competitiveness (du preez, 2002). paton (2003, p. 18) notes in this regard that ‘government’s ambition to grow [the] manufacturing base risks being stillborn unless the country addresses a worsening skills crisis.’ behar (2006) illustrates how the development and retention of skilled people in a country contributes to country growth and benefi ts all occupations, including the unskilled ones. behar (2006) further notes that the belief that skills shortages constrain economic growth in south africa motivated the government to introduce the joint initiative on priority skills acquisition (jipsa) in 2006 and the associated accelerated and shared growth initiative for south africa (asgisa) in order to identify urgent skills requirements and to develop effective solutions to address these requirements. contogiannis (2007, p. 44) stresses that ‘skills shortages in the south african economy, and the reasons behind them, are well known and they are one of the major constraints for a sustainable economic growth.’ in addition to the macro skills shortage, strong competition exists in the country amongst companies to attract the best remaining talent (mitchell, holtom & lee, 2001). accordingly, a key macro challenge for south africa is to retain its talent in the country. similarly, at micro level, the challenge exists for companies to retain the existing senior talent who can contribute to organisational competitiveness. trends from the research literature the south african brain drain south africa is experiencing a general skills crisis, especially pertaining to the retention of its top talent or ‘knowledge workers’. this ‘brain drain’ leads to the depletion or loss of intellectual and technical personnel, with a negative outcome that impacts the economic and social growth of the country (du preez, 2002). internationally, clarke (2001) reports on the critical labour and skills shortages in virtually all industries and lengahan and eisner (2006) stress that global unemployment rates and associated job mobility will not resolve the shortage of top talent. for organisations, the retention of skills is the only viable option. in south africa there have been three peaks in emigration: in 1977 (after the soweto riots); in 1986 (during the states of emergency); and in 1994 (during the introduction of the anc government) (simelane, 1999). the past ten years have witnessed a dramatic increase in the emigration of south africans to countries such as australia, new zealand and the united kingdom (statistics south africa, original research kerr-phillips & thomas sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 15 7 (page number not for citation purposes) 83 vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 10 2005). with figures indicating that during 1997–2001 south africa lost an estimated 310 000 citizens, including 50 000 professionals, south africa is undoubtedly experiencing a skills crisis (crush, 2002) that is unlikely to slow down in the foreseeable future (mattes & richmond, cited in crush, 2002). statistics south africa (2005) reports that there was a further increase in the emigration of south africa’s skilled workforce between the years 2002–2003, of which 65% were economically active and 26.7% were professionals, and that the united kingdom, australia, new zealand, canada and the united states have emerged as the emigration destinations of choice. with regard to emigration to new zealand, specifically during 2006–2007, south africans constituted the second largest source of skilled migrants, involving the contribution of 3 201 skilled workers or business people to the new zealand economy, with south africa comprising, again, the second largest source of skilled or business applicants to that country (merwood, 2008). further, south africa was one of the main source countries contributing ‘talented’ employees to new zealand through the talent (accredited employers) policy in 2006–2007 (merwood, 2008). the trend of migration of south africans to new zealand is increasing, as indicated by 1 000 work permits being granted by new zealand to south africans in 1997–1998, rising to 3 985 work permits being granted in 2006–2007 (merwood, 2008). the fact that south africans score highest on the skilled/business stream assessment test amongst the top 12 countries (merwood, 2008) indicates that it is talented south africans who are emigrating to new zealand. in addition, the official emigration statistics, when compared to immigration figures received from other countries, appear to understate the problem (du preez, 2002). in contrast to the loss of skilled and talented south africans, of the number of economically active immigrants who arrived in south africa during 2002–2003, only 4.7% were professionals and 3.9% were managers. unskilled immigrants place a strain on the economy and potentially increase crime levels due to their limited means of income generation and limited ability to obtain skilled jobs (mitchell, 2003). south africa’s brain drain of economically active and professional people, with no increase in skilled immigrants, negatively impacts south africa’s ability to compete effectively in a global marketplace (du preez, 2002). accordingly, it is imperative that south africa retains its knowledge workers in order to promote its global competitiveness (denton & vloeberghs, 2003), noted above to have dropped in recent years (imd, 2008). challenges for companies presented by the macro environment the sustainability of the south african marketplace has been impacted by the country’s own political, economic and social history. prior to 1994, apartheid laws restricted the progress of black employees in the workplace (finestone & snyman, 2005). empowerment policies have been legislated to address these imbalances and to grow the economy by facilitating the introduction of previously marginalised people (horwitz, 1996). the employment equity act (republic of south africa, 1998) introduced affirmative action measures to ensure the equitable representation and advancement of designated groups (africans, coloureds, indians, women and people with disabilities) in the workplace. the broad-based black economic empowerment act (republic of south africa, 2003) followed, with the purpose of increasing the participation of black ownership of major industrial companies (jackson, alessandri & black, 2005). companies are required to manage the implementation of this labour legislation and compete internationally whilst protecting their local markets from international competitors (denton & vloeberghs, 2003). internal challenges for south african companies while retaining talent in the country is a macro challenge for south africa, south african companies also face the micro challenge of retaining top talent in their own organisations. it is these knowledge workers who, through their intellectual capital, control the competitive advantage of the organisation (birt, wallis & winternitz, 2004). mitchell, holtom and lee (2001) note that managers face a constant challenge to develop and retain talent and to curb the impact of market-driven turnover amongst this talent group by dominating the war for talent in local and global contexts. many reasons for the turnover of employees have been advanced in the literature: kim, price, mueller and watson (1996) have linked employee turnover to individual characteristics, workplace structures and environmental conditions. mueller, boyer, price and iverson (1994); griffeth, hom and gaertner (2000); and mallol, holtom and lee (2007) stress how, given alternatives, employees tend to remain with their organisations of employment if they experience job satisfaction and are committed to their organisations or leave if they are not. lum, kervin, clark, reid and sirola (1998) earlier found that job satisfaction has only an indirect influence on the intention to quit while organisational commitment has the most direct impact. iverson and roy (1994) found a link between intention to leave a workplace and remuneration and career opportunities. schaufeli and enzmann (1998) note how conflict with colleagues and/or with supervisors may lead to resignations while houkes, janssen, de jonge and bakker (2003) identify a complex relationship between intention to resign and unmet career expectations. lunaarocas and camps (2008) suggest a link between job enrichment strategies, employee commitment and turnover intentions and elangovan (2001) details the complex influence of causal events such as stress, job satisfaction and work commitment on the final decision to leave. glen (2006) notes that the retention of knowledge workers and their specialised skills is critical for the advancement of an organisation’s intellectual capital base. in addition to the challenges faced in retaining talent, south african business leaders have had to acquire the skills to effectively manage postapartheid organisational culture and business dynamics (luthans, van wyk & walumbwa, 2004), including the management of the broad range of diversity brought into organisations by the new demographic employee pool (thomas & jain, 2004). accordingly, ethnic and language diversity, affirmative action and the gaps in income levels, education and opportunities influence the complexity of organisational culture in the south african workplace (roodt, 1997). south african business leaders, therefore, are required to develop skills to effectively manage a multicultural and ethnic workplace, historically dominated by eurocentric, autocratic and hierarchical conglomerates (prime, 1999) and based on western value systems that are often individualistic, self-centred, competitive and exclusive (finestone & snyman, 2005). in this regard, prime (1999) notes that not all groups in an organisation share a vision for the competitiveness that can be achieved from diversity and that knowledge sharing among diverse employees is often ‘sporadic’ and difficult. in managing such diversity, leaders are challenged to create organisational cultures in which the mix of diverse individuals is harnessed for competitive advantage (thomas, 2002; thomas & jain, 2004). south african organisations must ensure that organisational cultures are inclusive of all and encourage the full participation of all the diverse employees who now comprise the workforce (thomas & doak, 2000), particularly top talent who can drive and advance the intellectual capital of the organisation. in order to prepare south africa’s future leaders to be successful in this dynamic work environment, current business leaders must serve as role models. this involves the active coaching and mentoring of top talent, ensuring that they have a belief in organisational change and an appreciation of the advantages of workplace diversity (gbadamosi, 2003). this is of particular s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #157 (page number not for citation purposes) macro and micro challenges for talent retention in south africa 84vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 10 importance given the underlying culture of mistrust and reluctance to share information that many south african organisations display (thomas & jain, 2004) due to the opposing challenges of historical past exclusionary workplace practices and current compliance with affirmative action (denton & vloeberghs, 2003). research objectives the aim of the present study was to highlight the challenges of retaining south africa’s talent at both macro (country) and micro (organisational) levels. the objectives were, therefore, to identify the key macro factors that push south africa’s talent to leave the country as well as the key micro factors that could assist south african organisations in retaining their top talent to ensure the overall sustainability of such organisations in a global marketplace. the overall research question that guided the study was, what macro and micro factors impact on the retention of south african talent? the potential value-add of the study the findings of the present study may inform, on a practical basis, macro strategies to retain south africa’s talent as well as provide business leaders with insight into strategies that can be used to retain the top talent that remains in the country, currently employed in south african organisations. what will follow the paper discusses the research design employed in the present study. this includes a description of the research approach and the populations and samples that were studied in order to address both macro reasons for emigration and organisational reasons for top talent attrition. the development of the measuring instruments is considered along with the research process followed to collect and analyse the qualitative data. the findings are then presented. the paper concludes with a discussion of the findings and recommendations to guide strategies to stem the flow of emigration of talented south africans as well as strategies that leaders can consider in retaining talented individuals in senior positions in south african organisations. research design research approach the present study utilised both survey and qualitative semistructured interview approaches. the first part of the study involved the establishment of a web-based survey to identify the main push forces that have caused south africans to emigrate to new zealand, with particular focus on key triggers for such emigration (oberoi & lin, 2006). the second part of the study involved conducting 20 semi-structured interviews with employees identified as top talent in two south african financial institutions, that is those employees who were designated by companies for top leadership positions. the method of semi-structured interviews was chosen as it incorporates the qualitative discussion element of strategic conversations whilst using a framework of standard questions that are prepared in advance (ratcliffe, 2002), maximising opportunities for collecting meaningful information and allowing for the probing of complex issues. research strategy the web survey population comprised all south africans who emigrated to new zealand between 1994 and 2006. new zealand was selected due to it being identified by statistics south africa (2005) as one of the main countries to which south africans emigrate. furthermore, new zealand was chosen due to its relatively small population size, which potentially allowed a more specific expatriate sample to be drawn upon. the date range of 1994–2006 was chosen in order to determine whether there is a positive link between macro social, economic and political events that have taken place in south africa during that time and emigration. given that south africans comprise the second greatest source of skilled or business migrants to new zealand and score highest on the assessment test for skilled/ business migrants (merwood, 2008), it can be argued that the target population were skilled and talented former south africans. for the purposes of understanding the factors that lead to top talent attrition, all companies in south africa were considered to comprise the research population. a purposive sample of two leading companies in the south african financial sector was chosen, this sector being considered to play a key role in the global marketplace. research method research setting two research settings were utilised: eight new zealand websites were the source for the web-based survey; two financial institutions comprised the research setting for the qualitative interviews with identified top talent. entrée and establishing researcher roles to initiate the web survey, a number of websites that are hosted by expatriate south africans living in new zealand were targeted. the web hosts responsible for each website were approached via e-mail and were provided with the rationale for the study. they were asked to provide an accurate estimate of the average number of subscribers and the number of ‘hits’ that their specific website receives to allow the researchers to gain insight into the potential number of survey respondents from each particular site. based on this information, the web hosts of each of the eight popular websites were utilised. upon accessing the web survey, respondents were provided with additional information relating to the purpose of the survey and were given the assurance of anonymity and confidentiality due to the nature of the data capturing. an e-mail address was also provided and respondents were encouraged to seek additional information should they require it. once the survey results had been analysed, the relevant web hosts were notified by e-mail of the findings in compliance with the recommendation of fox, murray and warm (2003) to adhere to this ethical practice. with regard to the interviews at each of the two financial institutions, the researchers notified the selected interviewees via a standardised e-mail that outlined the purpose of the research, the nature of the questions and the interview process. potential interviewees were informed that participation in the study was voluntary. an e-mail address was included to afford potential respondents an opportunity to pose questions before they committed to the interview, allowing them to elect not to participate if they so desired. the researchers reinforced the confidentiality of all responses (gubrium & holstein, 1997). sampling the eight new zealand web hosts opened the survey for a sixweek period in 2007 and expatriate south africans employed in new zealand were encouraged to complete the survey. in response to these advertisements, 84 respondents completed the web survey, 37 being female and 48 male. 93% of the sample (78 respondents) were white; 5% (four respondents) were coloured; 1% (one respondent) was african; and 1% (one respondent) was indian. the generic, collective term ‘black’ is used when referring to african, coloured and indian web respondents or company interviewees. in each financial institution, the sampling frame included all permanent staff members who were formally targeted as having the potential to be in top leadership positions, that is currently positioned at the level below directorship. the combined list of top talented employees from both companies comprised 79 names. from each separate company list, ten participants were original research kerr-phillips & thomas sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 15 7 (page number not for citation purposes) 85 vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 10 randomly selected. both groups of interviewees consisted of men and women from previously advantaged groups (white interviewees) as well as previously disadvantaged backgrounds (black interviewees). of the 20 interviewees, nine interviewees were white males, eight were white females, one was an african female and two were indian males. the sectors that the interviewees represented in both organisations included strategic project management, commercial property, capital management, housing development, information technology, enterprise risk management, insurance, diversity management, human resources and business development. data collection methods once the web-based survey was ready to be launched, each of the selected web hosts was e-mailed a standardised message advertising the survey and the website link. the survey was designed to capture frequencies of responses along with qualitative input from respondents who completed the questionnaire on eight websites. the web survey questions were structured to ascertain the occupational and income levels of the participants and the previous roles that participants played in the south african working environment. in order to facilitate the exploration of reasons for company top talent attrition, one of the researchers personally undertook all 20 semi-structured interviews at the two financial institutions. recording of data the web survey primarily consisted of single-response questions (refer to appendix 1). where open-ended questions were posed, a commentary box was provided to ensure that the respondent could add an explanation. respondents were required to answer questions in the intended order by selecting the matching button before being allowed to advance to the next question in order to prevent non-response (evans & mathur, 2005). the backend of the web survey consisted of an excel spreadsheet that automatically tabulated responses, facilitating the efficient management and analysis of the data (dey, 1993) and ensuring respondent anonymity. with regard to the semi-structured interviews with identified talented company employees the composition of each question was guided by the literature pertaining to the retention of top talent in the workplace (refer to appendix 2). this process ensured the systematic capturing of the information. data analysis drawing on the excel spreadsheet that captured respondents’ answers, the results were tabulated into specific categories and descriptive statistics were extracted. the company interviews were transcribed and subjected to content analysis. this process involved the codification of the qualitative data into predefined categories in a systematic manner in order to identify themes, concepts and meanings (burns, 2000); the defined categories of classification resulted in the data either belonging to a category or not (guthrie & parker, 1990). this approach also assumed that frequency indicated the importance of the subject matter (krippendorff, 1980). the systematic themes that emerged were grouped together to establish the main factors that would retain talented employees in the organisation or that would contribute to their resignation. strategies employed to ensure quality data a pilot test was conducted prior to the web-based survey going live to ensure that problematic technical issues were addressed. the survey was completed as an html document that was checked through five browsers that utilised different platforms. the script on the html document was tested to ensure that the buttons corresponded with the intended statements as well as to ensure that the selected data were recorded after each question had been completed (fox et al., 2003). the interview guide was piloted with six interviewees at one of the selected financial institutions who did not comprise the research sample. this led to the rephrasing of one question. during the interviewing process, the researchers kept accurate notes as a means of reflecting on judgements relating to content of the interviews. reporting the findings in this paper are reported in tabular format along with qualitative commentary. table 1 respondent skill, experience levels and qualifications whilst in south africa item description % skills level executive management senior management middle management supervisory junior management business owner 7.0 25.0 21.0 11.0 13.0 23.0 experience level less than 15 years 15–20 years 21–25 years 26–30 years 30 years+ 23.0 42.0 19.0 12.0 4.0 qualification matric tertiary qualification (excl. degree) honours degree masters degree doctorate 20.0 52.0 13.0 7.0 8.0 table 2 dates of emigration date of emigration race gender white african indian coloured total male female 2006 21 0 0 0 21 9 12 2005 12 0 0 0 12 8 4 2004 2 0 0 0 2 1 1 2003 8 0 0 0 8 5 3 2002 5 0 0 3 8 5 3 2001 8 0 0 1 9 5 4 1994–2000 20 0 0 0 20 12 8 prior to 1994 2 1 1 0 4 2 2 total 78 1 1 4 84 47 37 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #157 (page number not for citation purposes) macro and micro challenges for talent retention in south africa 86vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 10 results the respondents to the web-based survey were noted to be entrepreneurs, were skilled and had extensive work experience. 23% reported that they previously owned their own businesses while the remaining 77% all occupied management positions in south africa prior to emigration. 80% of the respondents claimed to have some tertiary qualification or honours, masters or doctoral degree and 77% reported having over 15 years of work experience. while 52% of respondents stated that they had a tertiary qualification but no degree, such tertiary qualification, along with the substantiating statistics of the quality of south african emigrants to new zealand (merwood, 2008), appears to indicate that respondents can be regarded as talented south africans. these findings are summarised in table 1. 70% of respondents reported remaining in the same professions that they occupied whilst working in south africa, such as accounting, banking, engineering, information technology, education and nursing upon emigrating to new zealand. 62% of the respondents stated that they did not intend to return to south africa. the remainder stipulated that their decision to return would be based on whether or not crime and corruption were addressed as well as on job opportunities being available for white south africans. an association exists between the socio-political factors operating in south africa and the number of respondents who emigrated during specific times, as summarised in table 2. from table 2, it can be seen that white people constituted the main group of émigrés in the sample and that there has been a recent increase in emigration to new zealand, with 33 respondents (39.3%) departing during 2005–2006. from table 3, it can be seen that the dominant reasons furnished by these respondents for emigrating were job insecurity and an increase in crime. 27 respondents (32.1%) emigrated during 2001–2004 (see table 2), the overwhelming reasons also being the increase in crime and job insecurity (see table 3). between 1994 and 2000, 20 respondents (23.8%) emigrated during this seven-year period of political transition in south africa (see table 2). for these 20 respondents, the predominant reason cited for emigrating was also job insecurity, but, in addition, concern about a future for children in south africa was expressed (see table 3). four respondents stated that they emigrated prior to 1994 due to uncertainty about south africa’s future. with reference to the semi-structured interviews, while the questions were adhered to, the open-ended nature of such questions resulted in information being gained that was sometimes broader than was anticipated. all interviewees noted that in the quest to become global players, their organisations had undergone restructuring, including the introduction of new leadership and the shift in emphasis to human resources as well as the bottom line. however, within these parameters, interviewees criticised their organisations for still being somewhat bureaucratic and hierarchical, with a tolerance, in some instances, for mediocre performance. while executive leadership was noted to communicate business growth strategy, all interviewees stated that their organisations’ leaders were perceived to be removed from the coalface and part of an exclusive ‘old boys’ club’. they regarded this exclusionary behaviour relating to the ‘old boys’ club’ as preventing transparent succession planning and promoting existing hierarchical structures. 80% of the interviewees noted that the layers of authority in the organisations that had been created over the years retarded entrepreneurship and they expressed frustration at how such structures facilitated mediocrity and slowed the growth of a high-performance culture. the interviewees unanimously stated their support for company compliance with employment equity as a means of securing business. the focus of employment equity, noted by interviewees, was on the legal compliance of business as a necessity to survive in the marketplace. no mention was made by any interviewee of the benefits of a diversified workforce for local and global competitiveness. however, 80% of the white male interviewees expressed frustration at the possibility of limited future career growth due to employment equity and a fear of being replaced by someone from an historically disadvantaged background. half of the group of white interviewees expressed a reluctance to train, develop and mentor previously disadvantaged employees due to this fear. all the white male interviewees and 40% of the white female interviewees stated the need for a termination date to be placed on the affirmative action component of employment equity as they felt that it was unfair that race instead of merit is used as a determinant of development. it was mentioned that the sentiments harboured about employment equity and the related uncertainty regarding career progression could lead to a lack of trust and engagement between black and white colleagues. in contrast, all black interviewees highlighted the slow rate at which employment equity was occurring throughout their organisations. 90% of the white female respondents indicated that excessive emphasis was placed on affirmative action (primarily benefiting males), leading to an overall underrepresentation of women in senior leadership positions. the majority of interviewees indicated that a strong allegiance to their employers’ brand, the high-performance culture in their top talent groups and the well-structured leadership development programmes provided to them were factors that contribute to their retention. they also regarded the support and guidance from their mentors as being invaluable to their growth as well as being a critical tool in retaining them. the responses of the interviewees have been summarised into the themes according to their implications for talent attraction, retention or attrition. the majority sentiments have been later indicated in figure 1. with regard to what attracted interviewees to their current employers, four common themes emerged from all the interviewees: quality and depth of company leadership development • programmes, including personal growth and development opportunities high-performance workplace cultures that offer challenging • and stimulating work opportunities attractive company brand and a culture that actively • promotes people development and is ethical in its business approach competitive remuneration packages.• the four main themes that emerged, sometimes articulated more strongly by a particular group, as reasons for considering alternative employment are as follows: table 3 factors driving emigration: web survey respondents date of emigration reasons for emigration responses (n = 84) % prior to 1994 uncertainty about south africa’s future 4 4.8 1994–2000 job insecurity & no future for children corruption 18 2 21.4 2.4 2001–2002 increase in violent crime & job insecurity 17 20.2 2003–2004 increase in violent crime & job insecurity 10 12.0 2005–2006 increase in violent crime & job insecurity 33 39.3 original research kerr-phillips & thomas sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 15 7 (page number not for citation purposes) 87 vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 10 levels of organisational bureaucracy that stunt an • entrepreneurial mindset (80% of interviewees) a senior leadership level dominated by an old boys’ club • mentality in which new leaders are invited to join based on internal, exclusionary networking (40% of interviewees, primarily females); a work culture in which women are not recognised and promoted into leadership roles (90% of white female interviewees and the one black female interviewee) an organisational culture that allows for mediocrity and poor • performers to prevail, stunting progress in the organisation (100% of interviewees) limited career opportunities due to affirmative action • (80% of white male interviewees; 90% of white female interviewees). the following seven factors were regarded as critical to retention: development according to merit and not race (80% of white • male interviewees) being part of a high-performance work culture in which • mediocrity and poor performers are not tolerated (100% across all groups) personal growth associated with participating in leadership • development programmes, including an international sabbatical at a centre of excellence (100% of black interviewees; 80% of white interviewees), and being part of a mentorship programme conducted by senior leaders who offer guidance on career progression (100% of black interviewees; 50% of white interviewees) being exposed to all aspects of the business (100% of black • interviewees; 70% of white interviewees) being valued for skills and ability (60% of white • interviewees) being recognised for contribution to the organisation (100% • of black interviewees; 60% of white interviewees) being employed by an organisation with a respected • employer brand (100% of black interviewees; 60% of white interviewees). black and white interviewees expressed differences in opinion on this topic. none of the black interviewees saw any reason to emigrate. they viewed this period of transition in south africa as an exciting time of transformation and considered any brain drain to be inevitable in a global marketplace. these interviewees also noted that they would consider an international assignment that would benefit career growth but would feel obliged to return to south africa to transfer their acquired skills. of the white interviewees, 70% cited crime, safety concerns for their families, affirmative action and uncertainty of the country’s future as reasons why south african talent would consider emigration. 30% cited concern primarily about the future of their children in terms of safety and ability to obtain employment. the above findings are illustrated in figure 1. discussion the objective of the study was to explore some of the reasons for the emigration of talent in south africa and to identify reasons for talent attrition at senior levels in organisations in order to understand what can be done to retain talent in the country as well as to provide business leaders with insight into strategies that can be used to retain the top talent that remains in the country, currently employed in south african organisations. in this manner, it is endeavoured to provide practical guidance for strategy development as one means of addressing the skills and talent shortage in the country. macro drivers of talent loss from the findings of the web survey (see table 3), it can be seen that specific macro social, economic and political factors in south africa directly influence the reasons for emigration. the two waves of emigration appear to have been during 1994–2000 (when the anc government came into power) and during 2005– 2006 (when a strong focus on transformation in south africa, including on employment equity in the workplace, was evident). most émigrés were white south africans, reflecting national emigration statistics (statistics south africa, 2005). with regard to reasons for emigrating, similarities are reported by web survey respondents and interviewees, with 70% of the white interviewees identifying the same macro driving forces of crime and personal safety. similarly, 80% of the white males cited affirmative action as a reason to emigrate and 30% of the white females cited concerns for the safety and future of their families as a reason for emigration. those who emigrated from south africa appear to have moved into similar senior or entrepreneurial jobs in new zealand, reinforcing the view that the loss of talent has economic implications for a country (birt et al., 2004). this is all the more a cause for concern given the seeming increase in emigration by talented south africans during 2005–2006 and the awareness of the possibility of emigration by the top achievers interviewed. micro drivers of talent attraction, retention and loss all the interviewees reported the challenges of transformation and globalisation faced by their organisations. the interviewees reported that, in line with striving to be competitive, their organisations were focusing upon both human resources and bottom-line profitability, coupled with the development of high-performance work cultures, a trend also articulated by crosbie (2005), luna-arocas and camps (2008) and maxwell and farquharson (2008). according to rudy giuliani, the former mayor of new york, ‘the only way to lure and retain bright, energetic self-starters is to create an environment that allows them to shine’ (lockhead, 2005, p. 9). a strong work culture, coupled with leadership development opportunities, a strong employer brand along with the associated values and competitive remuneration were noted to be factors that attracted the top achievers to their companies or factors that would attract them to other companies (houkes et al., 2003; iverson & roy, 1994). according to glen (2006), organisations with a solid strategy for developing an employer brand will be an attractive force for both external and internal top talent. similar factors promoting the attraction of top talent are amongst those reported to promote their retention, viz a macro factors driving emigration c r i m e factors promoting the attraction of top talent 1. leadership development opportunities 2. a high performance work culture 3. a strong employer brand 4. competitive remuneration factors promoting the retention of top talent 1. merit-based talent development 2. a high performance work culture 3. leadership development & mentorship programmes 4. exposure to all aspects of the business 5. a valuing of skills & abilities 6. recognition of contribution 7. a reputable employer brand factors leading to top talent attrition 1. organisational bureaucracy 2. an exclusionary culture (‘old boys’ club; glass ceiling for women) 3. an organisational culture that promotes mediocrity & poor performance 4. employment equity e m p l o y m e n t e q u i t uncertainty of future of country figure 1 factors influencing talent attraction, attrition, retention and emigration s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #157 (page number not for citation purposes) macro and micro challenges for talent retention in south africa 88vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 10 high-performance work culture, leadership development and mentoring programmes with exposure to all aspects of the business and a strong employer brand. a well-structured leadership development programme was noted to provide organisations with a competitive edge, particularly when an international sabbatical is offered, with exposure to all aspects of the business. this finding is supported by brocksmith (1997) and glen (2006), who state that high-potential employees seek opportunities to rapidly develop their careers and enhance their marketability. it is interesting to note that while a competitive remuneration package was noted by all interviewees as a factor that would attract them to an organisation, it was not mentioned by any as a factor that would promote their retention. in contrast, it appears that once top achievers join an organisation, they then also require a valuing of their skills and abilities and a recognition of the contribution that they are making. organisational culture appears to be an important factor in attracting and retaining top achievers as well as in their attrition. a high-performance work culture with little organisational bureaucracy was clearly articulated as a reason for the attraction and retention of top achievers. this theme was enlarged upon when top talent attrition was discussed, where comment centred on the problem of exclusionary cultures, ‘old boys’ networks’ and the lack of senior women in organisations. these three practices could be considered to promote a culture that does not reward high work performance but rather rewards people according to their inclusion in informal networks (e.g. the old boys’ club) and gender, as noted by coulson-thomas (1994). all interviewees agreed that organisations must comply with employment equity legislation in order to secure business. however, the majority of the white male interviewees submitted that the implementation of employment equity in the workplace was a contributing factor in the loss of critical skills. the majority of white male interviewees also noted that development should be based on merit and not race. it is interesting to note that these sentiments reflect those of the primarily white émigrés in the sample who left south africa during 1994–2006. of concern are the different views of the black and white interviewees concerning employment equity. while white interviewees (especially males) were concerned about its impact on future career prospects, black interviewees appeared to consider this aspect of organisational transformation as progressing too slowly. latent discontent can arise because of the harbouring of hostile feelings about employment equity or anger about slow progress. an earlier south african study (thomas, 2003) of the progress of employment equity in south african companies noted the tensions between black and white employees and the opposing views and expectations held. horwitz (1996) states that a failure to understand such differences can lead to misguided assumptions, poor working relations, underperformance and discrimination. glen (2006) emphasises the need for these ‘hot’ buttons to be managed in order to ensure retention, engagement and motivation of key employees. uys (2003) highlights the effects of affirmative action on white employees, viz. low productivity, resignations, depression, emigration and even suicide. none of the interviewees mentioned, other than for legal compliance, the benefits derived from having a diversified workplace to drive the future sustainability of the business. what is apparent is that both of these financial institutions are adhering to the principles of affirmative action for employee attraction and retention reasons. what appears not to be filtered down to employees is the benefit and purpose of a diversified workplace culture. the value of a diversified workforce and the competitive advantage that it affords have been well documented and include creativity and problem solving (thomas & ely, 1996), enhanced strategic decision making (watson, kumar & michaelsen, 1993) and understanding diverse markets and customers, suppliers and distributors (thomas & ely, 1996). according to tung (1995), the goal of valuing diversity is about drawing on the strengths of the individual or subgroup to ensure that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. with regard to talent retention, jenner (1994, p. 12) argues that effectively managing the mix of employee diversity, in this case at senior levels where top talent resides, assists organisations in becoming workplaces of choice and being able to ‘pick from the ever shrinking pool of highly skilled employees’. yu (2002) and robinson and harvey (2008) highlight that addressing this challenge requires a strategic effort on the part of leaders. recommendations the findings of the web survey indicate that the following macro driving forces of talent emigration should be addressed: violent crime, personal safety and employment opportunities. certain respondents indicated that should these macro factors be addressed, they might consider returning to south africa. these same macro factors were noted by the company interviewees, although white interviewees were more concerned than black interviewees about future career prospects; black interviewees also expressed an acceptance of the brain drain in a global marketplace. common factors identified with regard to talent retention in companies include leadership development programmes, a highperformance work culture that promotes development, a strong employer brand and a competitive remuneration package. a major driver of top talent turnover was noted to be a bureaucratic structure, a workplace culture that tolerates poor performers, the existence of an old boys’ club, an exclusionary workplace culture and the impact of affirmative action on career prospects (the latter being raised as a problem primarily by white male interviewees). no mention was made by any of the interviewees of the value of a diverse workforce and no recognition was given to the positive effects of a diversified workforce on the overall sustainability of an organisation. from the findings of the web-based survey and the interviews, specific recommendations can be made to government with regard to the addressing of the brain drain, these being that government address the prevailing violent crime, that the personal safety of citizens be guaranteed within normal parameters and that whites not be excluded indefinitely from competing for work opportunities. in this regard, it is acknowledged that the country must address historical imbalances due to the policy and practices of apartheid. however, active research should be undertaken with regard to the changes that have been achieved since the implementation of the employment equity act (republic of south africa, 1998), and such feedback should determine a timeline, if necessary, for the slackening of the targeted demographic requirements of the legislation. it is imperative that government addresses these macro drivers of emigration to ward off the continued loss of talent. top talent interviewees highlighted that both organisations were undergoing transformation that was impacting upon all aspects of the business. according to hughes (1996), for any successful organisational transformation to occur, the alignment, buyin, involvement and participation of all employees are vital. attitudinal and behavioural changes are essential to ensuring sustained performance. accordingly, for business to retain top talent, the following is recommended: business leaders must consciously develop a culture of • transformation in their organisations. such transformation must include expectations of high standards, competitive remuneration packages, leadership development and an inclusive culture that actively embraces employee diversity, including that brought in by white males. denton and vloeberghs (2003) note that this action could reduce the original research kerr-phillips & thomas sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 15 7 (page number not for citation purposes) 89 vol. 7 no. 1 page 8 of 10 fear of white employees of being replaced and future career uncertainty, allowing for individual commitment to organisational change and transformation. in this process, the fear often expressed by black employees of lack of progress in transformation will also be addressed. diversity in the workplace needs to be embraced as a tool that can promote organisational strategy and competitiveness (robinson & harvey, 2008). leadership must openly address the underlying employee • tensions and fears associated with the implementation of employment equity. it is not enough to adhere to legislation that aims at addressing past discrimination without addressing the impact of the associated change in the workplace. in order to tackle this fear, business leaders need to instil a workplace culture in which mentorship and knowledge sharing are rewarded. meyer and allen (1997) support this notion by stating that commitment from employees is developed when an organisation conveys a supportive environment in which individual contribution is valued, resulting in a fulfilling work experience. this in turn creates an environment in which individuals are empowered and their expertise trusted, thus obviating the need for bureaucratic layers of checks and balances that currently frustrate the top talented employees. the business reasons for diversity should be fully debated • in organisations so that employees are enabled to move to a position of ‘integration and learning’ as advocated by ely and thomas (2001, p. 242), who state that the competitive advantage of a diverse work force ‘lies in the capacity of its members to learn from each other and develop in each other a range of cultural competencies that they can all then bring to bear on their work’. these authors advocate that adherence to this paradigm is related to sustainable organisational performance. limitations the following limitations of the study that impact on the generalising of the findings are noted: despite the web surveys being advertised on eight • expatriate south african websites, it was essentially open to the public and therefore it cannot be guaranteed that all respondents were south african expatriates. in the absence of filters to screen out non-expatriates and those expatriates not in employment, the possibility cannot be excluded that this omission contaminated the findings. however, the structuring of the questions attempted to control this limitation to some extent. the web survey restricts the sample to internet users, • resulting in the exclusion of potential respondents. the validity of web-based surveys has been criticised due • to coverage problems and sampling error (manfreda & vehovar, 2002). the questionnaire posted on the websites was not tested for • validity or reliability. both the number of web-based respondents and interviewees • were small and responses may not be representative of broader populations. the number of black interviewees was small and therefore • the views expressed are mainly those of white interviewees. interviewer bias and assumptions may have impacted the • interview process and the interpretation of responses. the interviews were conducted in one industry in south • africa and may have highlighted issues that are unique to this industry. suggestions for further research given the need to enhance the competitiveness of south african business, there is a need for government and business to find solutions that will enhance top talent retention. it is therefore recommended that the following areas of future research be considered: measuring the turnover intentions of top achievers in a range • of south african businesses and attempting to correlate this with perceptions of some of the macro factors identified in this study (crime, violence, employment equity and job insecurity) and with some of the micro factors identified (organisational culture and development) with the aim of attempting to predict factors leading to talent loss employing a larger sample, drawn through stratified random • sampling, to correlate perceptions of push and pull factors relating to talent loss with demographics, for example age, race, gender and tenure with the organisation quantifying the impact of the brain drain on south african • business to guide staff development and leadership planning extending the present research to a broader range of • industries, which may highlight similar or additional areas to be considered in talent attraction and retention building and testing a talent retention model for south • african organisations that could include addressing white male career fears, devising the appropriate developmental processes including mentoring and knowledge sharing, developing an organisational culture that is fully inclusive of diversity and articulating high work standards exploring the impact of transformational leadership and • core leadership competencies on the retention of top talent. conclusion in conclusion, the present study merely touched on the issue of talent retention in south africa. for the country to become globally competitive, it is essential that this topic be actively pursued by academics and business practitioners alike, with the aims of developing strategies to retain talent in the country nurturing and developing the talent that remains in south african organisations. references behar, a. (2006). asgisa and jipsa: will those who remain unskilled also get to share? paper presented at the accelerated and shared growth conference in south africa: determinants, constraints and opportunities, johannesburg, gauteng. birt, m., wallis, t., & winternitz. g. (2004). talent retention in a changing workplace: an investigation of variables considered important to south african talent. south african journal of business management, 35(2), 25–31. brocksmith, j.g. (1997). passing the baton: preparing tomorrow’s leaders. in f. hesselbein, m. goldsmith & r. beckhard (eds.), the organization of the future, (pp. 251–258). san francisco: jossey-bass. burns, r. (2000). introduction to research methods. new delhi: sage publications. clarke, k. (2001). what businesses are doing to attract and retain employees: becoming an employer of choice. employee benefits journal, 26(1), 21–24. contogiannis, t. (2007). economic growth, constraints and prospects for the south african economy. discourse, 35(2), 38–44. coulson-thomas, c. (1994). developing directors: building an effective boardroom. journal of european industrial training, 186, 29–52. crosbie, r. (2005). learning the soft skills of leadership. industrial and commercial training, 37(1), 45–51. crush, j. (2002). the global raiders: nationalism, globalisation and the south african brain drain. journal of international affairs, 56(1), 147–172. denton, m., & vloeberghs, d. (2003). leadership challenges for organizations in the new south africa. leadership and organization development journal, 24(2), 84–95. dey, i. (1993). qualitative data analysis: a user-friendly guide for social scientists. london: routledge. du preez, j. (2002). the depletion of the human resources pool in south africa. acta commercii, 2, 80–84. elangovan, a.r. (2001). causal ordering of stress, satisfaction and commitment, and intention to quit: a structural equations analysis. leadership and organization development journal, 22(4), 159–165. s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #157 (page number not for citation purposes) macro and micro challenges for talent retention in south africa 90vol. 7 no. 1 page 9 of 10 ely, r.j., & thomas, d.a. (2001). cultural diversity at work: the effects of diversity perspectives on work group processes and outcomes. administrative science quarterly, 46, 229–273. evans, j., & mathur, a. (2005). the value of online surveys. emerald internet research, 15(2), 195–219. finestone, n., & snyman, r. (2005). corporate south africa: making multicultural knowledge sharing work. journal of knowledge management, 9(3), 128–141. fox, j., murray, c., & warm, a. (2003). conducting research using web-based questionnaires: practical, methodological and ethical considerations. international journal of social research methodology, 6(2), 167–180. gbadamosi, g. (2003). hrm and the commitment rhetoric: challenges for africa. management decision, 41(2), 274–280. glen, c. (2006). key skills retention and motivation: the war for talent still rages and retention is the high ground. industrial and commercial training, 38(1), 37–45. griffeth, r.w., hom, p.w., & gaertner, s. (2000). a meta-analysis of antecedents and correlates of employee turnover: update, moderator tests, and research implications for the millennium. journal of management, 26, 463–488. gubrium, j., & holstein, j. (1997). the new language of qualitative method. new york: oxford university press. guthridge, m., komm, a.b., & lawson, e. (2008). making talent a strategic priority. the mckinsey quarterly, 1, 49–59. guthrie, j., & parker, l.d. (1990). corporate social disclosure practice: a comparative international analysis. advances in public interest accounting, 3, 159–175. horwitz, f. (1996). human resource development and managing diversity in south africa. international journal of manpower, 17(4/5), 134–151. houkes, i., janssen, p.p.m., de jonge, j., & bakker, a.b. (2003). specific determinants of intrinsic work motivation, emotional exhaustion and turnover intention: a multisample longitudinal study. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 76, 427–450. hughes, m. (1996). indaba on quality: a south african challenge overcome. managing service quality, 6(3), 23–26. imd. (2008). word competitiveness yearbook. retrieved november 18, 2008, from http://www.worldcompetitiveness.com. iverson, r.d., & roy, p. (1994). a causal model of behavioral commitment: evidence from a study of australian bluecollar employees. journal of management, 20, 15–41. jackson, w., alessandri, t., & black, s. (2005). the price of corporate social responsibility: the case of black economic empowerment transactions in south africa. atlanta: federal reserve bank, working paper series. jenner, l. (1994). diversity management: what does it mean? hr focus, 71(1), 11. kim, s.w., price, j.l., mueller, c.w., & watson, t.w. (1996). the determinants of career intent among physicians at a u.s. air force hospital. human relations, 49, 947–976. krippendorff, k. (1980). content analysis: an introduction to its methodology. beverly hills: sage publications. lengahan, j.a., & eisner, a.b. (2006). employers of choice and competitive advantage: the proof of the pudding is in the eating. journal of organizational culture, communication and conflict, 10(1), 99–109. lockhead, e. (2005). the coi path to hr success: three key steps to award-winning performance. human resources management international digest, 13(7), 9–10. lum, l., kervin, j., clark, k., reid, f., & sirola, w. (1998). explaining nursing turnover intent: job satisfaction, pay satisfaction or organizational commitment? journal of organizational behavior, 19(3), 305–320. luna-arocas, r., & camps, j. (2008). a model of high performance work practices and turnover intentions. personnel review, 37(1), 26–46. luthans, f., van wyk, r., & walumbwa, f. (2004). recognition and development of hope for south african organisational leaders. the leadership and organisational development journal, 25(6), 512–527. mallol, c.m., holtom, b.c., & lee, t.w. (2007). job embeddedness in a culturally diverse environment. journal of business psychology, 22, 35–44. manfreda, k.l., & vehovar, v. (2002). survey design features influencing response rates in web surveys. retrieved december 20, 2007, from http://www.icis.dk/icis_papers/c2._4_3. pdf. maxwell, g., & farquharson, l. (2008). senior managers’ perceptions of the practice of human resource management. employee relations, 30(3), 304–322. merwood, p. (2008). migration trends 2006–2007. new zealand department of labour. retrieved april 18, 2009, from http://www.immigration.govt.nz/research. meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1997). commitment in the workplace: theory, research and application. london: sage publications. mitchell, j. (2003). a new review about the white exodus from south africa. retrieved december 20, 2007, from http://www. southafricaemigration.com/reviews.htm mitchell, t.r., holtom, b.c., & lee, t.w. (2001). the development of an effective employee retention plan. academy of management executive, 15(4), 96–108. mueller, c.w., boyer, e.m., price, j.l., & iverson, r.d. (1994). employee attachment and noncoercive conditions of work: the case of dental hygienists. work and occupations, 21, 179–212. oberoi, s., & lin, v. (2006). brain drain of doctors from southern africa: brain gain for australia. australian health review, 30(1), 25–33. paton, c. (2003, 20 june). artisan alert. financial mail, p. 18. pfeffer, j. (1994). competitive advantage of people: unleashing the power of the work force. boston: harvard business school press. prime, n. (1999). cross-cultural management in south africa: problems, obstacles and solutions in companies. retrieved december 20, 2007, from http://www.marketing.byu.edu. ratcliffe, j. (2002). scenario planning: strategic interviewing and conversations. foresight, 4, 19–30. republic of south africa. (1998). the employment equity act, act 55 of 1998. pretoria: government printers. republic of south africa. (2003). the broad-based black economic empowerment act, act 53 of 2003. pretoria, south africa: government printers. robinson, d.a., & harvey, m. (2008). global leadership in a culturally diverse world. management decision, 46(3), 466– 480. roodt, a. (1997). in search of a south african corporate culture. management today, 13(2), 14–16. schaufeli, w.b., & enzmann, d. (1998). the burnt out companion to study and practice: a critical analysis. london: taylor & francis. simelane, s. (1999, july). trends in international migration among professionals, semi-professionals and miners in south africa, 1970–1997. paper presented at the annual conference of the demographic association of southern africa, saldanha bay, south africa. statistics south africa. (2005). documented migration. report no. 03-51-03. retrieved december 20, 2007, from http://www. statssa.gov.za. thomas, a. (2002). employment equity in south africa: lessons from the global school. international journal of manpower, 23(3), 237–256. thomas, a. (2003). employment equity practices at selected companies in south africa. south african journal of labour relations, 27(3–4), 6–40. thomas, a., & doak, r. (2000). the development of shared values: impact on employee behaviour and on customer perception of service. south african journal of business management, 31(1), 17–30. thomas, a., & jain, h.c. (2004). employment equity in canada and south africa: progress and propositions. international journal of human resource management, 15(1), 35–54. original research kerr-phillips & thomas sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 15 7 (page number not for citation purposes) thomas, d.a., & ely, r.j. (1996). making differences matter: a new paradigm for managing diversity. harvard business review, 74(5), 79–90. tung, r. (1995). the global human resources challenge: managing diversity in international settings. in proceedings of the 10th world congress of the international industrial relations association, 31 may–4 june 1995 (pp. 16–24). washington dc, usa. uys, i. (2003). diversity management: reasons and challenges. politeia, 22(3), 30–48. watson, w.e., kumar, k., & michaelsen, l.k. (1993). cultural diversity’s impact on interaction process and performance: comparing homogeneous and diverse task groups. academy of management journal, 35, 91–121. yu, l. (2002). does diversity drive productivity? sloan management review, 43(2), 17. appendices appendix 1 web survey questions please note that the questions included here are not formatted according to the questionnaire that was placed on the websites. the listing of the questions posed to respondents is intended to provide readers with the gist of the questions asked in the survey. gender1. race2. current age3. when did you leave south africa?4. what was the highest qualification that you held when living in south 5. africa? what was the main reason for emigrating to new zealand?6. under what conditions would you consider returning to south africa on a 7. permanent basis? whilst living and working in south africa, in which industry have you gained 8. most of your experience? while you worked in south africa, were you a permanent employee, a 9. temporary employee, a contractor or self-employed? which of the following best described your position while working in south 10. africa – executive management, senior management, middle management, junior management, supervisory, business owner or other (please specify)? how many years of working experience did you gain in your industry whilst 11. living in south africa? are you continuing to work in the same profession/occupation in new 12. zealand as you did when living in south africa? if not, please specify your new profession/occupation. appendix 2 interview guide questions name of company respondent name (for internal use only) job title race gender length of service grade in company level of responsibility what position do you occupy in the company and what does it involve?1. what attracted you to seek employment at your current employer?2. please describe your career plan as discussed between you and 3. management. what do you think that a company should do to retain its top achievers?4. if an opportunity arose with another company, what would you investigate 5. before accepting the offer? what do you think your company regards as important in terms of its 6. people? if you could change or improve upon certain aspects of your company’s work 7. culture, what would they be? what advice would you give to executive management if you had to make 8. suggestions about how the company can retain its top talent? what do you think are the main reasons why top achievers leave their 9. organisations? south africa is said to be experiencing a brain drain of its top talent due to 10. emigration. what would make you decide to take up an opportunity outside of south africa? vol. 7 no. 1 page 10 of 10 91 179---6 nov 2009 [final version].indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #179 (page number not for citation purposes) the influence of performance appraisal on the psychological contract of the inpatriate manager author: jane f. maley1 affi liation: 1macquarie graduate school of management, macquarie university, australia correspondence to: jane f. maley e-mail: jane.maley@mgsm.edu.au postal address: 2/1 bayiew street, lavender bay, nsw, australia, 2060 keywords: inpatriate manager; performance management; health care; bottom line; psychological contract dates: received: 21 nov. 2008 accepted: 25 june 2009 published: 17 sept. 2009 how to cite this article: maley, j.f. (2009). the infl uence of performance appraisal on the psychological contract of the inpatriate manager. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), art. #179, 10 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.179 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. abstract this article explores the extent, nature and limitations of performance appraisals, and the subsequent infl uence that these issues may have on the psychological contract of inpatriate managers in a sector of the health care industry in australia. 18 in-depth interviews using a grounded theory methodology revealed that the process was signifi cantly infl uenced by multinational organisations’ emphasis on the bottom line and the inpatriate manager’s relationship with his/ her supervisor. furthermore, the fi ndings suggest that the inpatriate manager’s experience of his/ her performance appraisal frequently results in a perception of violation of his/her psychological contract with the organisation. 100vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 10 introduction owing to the current dynamic business environment, international human resource practitioners are compelled to actively lead in improving multinational organisations’ effectiveness as performancemanagement specialists. in order for practitioners to establish such performance-management systems, it is critical that job performance be clearly understood and that individual employees are given rewards and development opportunities on the basis of fair and accurate performance evaluation (bae, 2006; williams, 2002). in other words, major parts of a multinational organisation’s global performancemanagement system must be clarifi ed and well designed, so that the performance-management system will be able to function effectively throughout the entire international organisation. evidence indicates that multinational organisations and their subsidiaries are an increasingly important part of the global business landscape (harzing & noordhaven, 2005). this places an immense dependence on the subsidiary and, as a consequence, a strong reliance on the manager of the subsidiary, commonly called the inpatriate manager. these managers are usually isolated from their supervisors. they are responsible for the performance of the subsidiary and implement strategically critical tasks, such as the management of a number of staff, and carry responsibility for the achievement of the revenue and profi tability targets of the subsidiary. the inpatriate manager must be able to manage these tasks within the objectives and guidelines handed down by the multinational organisation. the performance of the inpatriate manager is, therefore, critical to the success of the multinational organisation. nonetheless, little research has focused on this critical international employee in relation to either performance appraisal or a set of reciprocal expectations between the employee and the employer, which has been termed the psychological contract. performance appraisals are an integral part of the wider performance-management system and are extensively used to evaluate international employees (gratton, 2000; milliman, nason, zhu & de cieri, 2002). despite their importance and prevalent use, the implementation of performance appraisals is frequently defective in a number of ways. these limitations include erroneous judgements about performance, unproductive feedback, invalid performance criteria and a lack of transparency about the purpose of the system (maley & kramar, 2007; whitford & coetsee, 2006). at the same time, a performance appraisal cannot be an exclusive process, and the consequences of the appraisal may infl uence a number of human resource management areas (rousseau, 2001). one of the important processes that the appraisal may infl uence is the psychological contract (stiles, gratton, truss, hopehailey & mcgovern, 1997). prior research has demonstrated that psychological contract breach is associated with various negative outcomes, such as a decrease in employees’ perceived obligations to their employers, lowered citizenship behaviour and reduced commitment and satisfaction (robinson, 1996). the aim of this study was to explore the infl uence of the performance appraisal on the psychological contract for the multinational organisation’s remote subsidiary manager. performance appraisal performance appraisal is considered to be one of two key elements of performance management (suutari & tahvanainen, 2002), with the other being the communication of organisation strategy through individual objective setting, development and compensation. much of the research on performance appraisal has been performed within the united states (us) context (dowling, welch & schuler, 1999). although there has been some research on international performance appraisal, little research has focused on the appraisal of the inpatriate manager. this dearth of research means that little is known about the effects of the appraisal on job satisfaction among employees in multinational organisations’ subsidiaries (taormina & goa, 2009). however, what little is known suggests that problems that have been identifi ed at the national level are exaggerated when a organisation globalises its operations (harvey, speier & novicevic, 2001; harvey, novicevic & speier, 2002). even for research focusing on the national situation, there is a lack of agreement among researchers with regard to the most effective criteria for assessing performance appraisal and the purpose of the procedure (gratton, hope-hailey, stiles & truss, 2001; whitford & coetsee, 2006; williams, 2002). it is, therefore, not surprising that multinational organisations frequently measure some attributes and behaviours of international employees that are inappropriate, and that international employees are despondent about their appraisals (fenwick, 2004; taormina & goa, 2009; vance, 2006). original research maley sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 9 (page number not for citation purposes) 101 vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 10 at the australian national level, the criteria for performance appraisal have received a great deal of attention from researchers and have been broadly divided into results and behaviours. results are easily defined and can lead to superior productivity and business goals (whitford & coetsee, 2006). however, this approach has a number of shortcomings (mcgovern, 1999; muchinsky, 2002). for instance, results-oriented measures may be deficient as performance criteria, because they typically tap only a small proportion of the job-performance requirements. bae (2006) has argued that they create a results-at-any-cost mentality, which could generate dysfunctional behaviour and may be beyond the control of the manager. behavioural criteria have been argued to give more control to the employee and allow for direct feedback. for example, the international research on appraisal criteria, although limited, suggests that behavioural criteria, such as employee attitude and conduct, provide a more helpful way of assessing the effectiveness of appraisal in the global context (harvey, 1997; milliman, taylor & czaplewski, 2000). the behavioural criterion of ‘acceptability’ of the performance appraisal is a fairly recent addition to the field and research literature on acceptability from the perspective of the employee is limited. an exception is a recent study conducted in china (taormina & goa, 2009), which found performance-appraisal acceptability to be paramount, and that it related to the way the performance-appraisal process was executed. in the same way, ratee appraisal acceptability in an international context has been found to increase when the ratee has regular communication and a positive relationship with the rater (milliman et al., 2002). from the perspective of the appraisee, acceptability is more likely to occur when he/she perceives the appraisal to be fair (bradley & ashkanasy, 2001; taylor, masterton, renard & tracey, 1998), and when the feedback he/she receives from the appraiser is timely and accurate (cascio, 2000; milliman et al., 2000; sully de luque & sommer, 2007; williams, 2002). moreover, where a subordinate and supervisor are geographically distant, regular feedback has been found to be particularly important (cascio, 2000; harzing & noordhaven, 2005; milliman et al., 2002; sully de luque & sommer, 2007). hedge and teachout (2000) have claimed that acceptability may be the critical criterion for determining the success of an appraisal process. in the international setting, a vital aspect of the acceptability of the performance-appraisal process to both the supervisor and the employee has been found to be attributed to the clarity of purpose of the appraisal (lindholm, 1999; maley & kramar, 2007; milliman et al., 2002). consequently, a multinational organisation’s purpose for conducting appraisals needs to be transparent. in other words, not only should the subordinate’s and supervisor’s expectations be aligned, but both also need to be in congruence with the organisation’s rationale for conducting the appraisal (milliman et al., 2002; shen, 2005; whitford & coetsee, 2006). furthermore, milliman et al. (2002) argue that the purpose of appraisal, in addition to controlling individuals and maximising the organisation’s financial performance, is to develop the employee, engender allegiance and allow subordinate expression in an environment of trust. along similar lines, fenwick (2004) states that international appraisal has two purposes: evaluation and development of performance. she argues that, in the context of international performance management, appraisal should be the means by which compensation decisions are made and training and development needs are identified. however, training and development have been found to be infrequently linked to the purpose of appraisal (williams, 2002). murphy and cleveland (1995) claim that, while over 85% of organisations use appraisals for administrative purposes, in particular salary decisions, appraisals are rarely used for training and development purposes. murphy and cleveland (1995) also expressed a key concern that goals pursued by the rater and ratee are not necessarily the same as those pursued by the organisation. the above argument was also advanced by milliman et al. (2002), who propose that expectations may be high in relation to what can be realistically achieved through performance appraisals, and that organisations need to devote more time and effort to the purpose of performance appraisal. furthermore, they concluded that the purpose of appraisal has fallen short not only in the us, but in 10 other countries they sampled. whitford and coetsee (2006) examined performance appraisals in a large life insurance organisation in south africa and also found that appraisal purpose was frequently unclear. performance-appraisal acceptability and the purpose of appraisal emerge from the literature to be both paramount and interdependent. evidence suggests that, from an employee perspective, in order to be acceptable the appraisal needs to have a clear purpose, and the appraisal purpose has to be acceptable. the relationship between purpose and acceptability reinforces the need for appraisal to be embedded in a performancemanagement system rather than to stand alone as a human resource event. for example, if appraisal is part of a fully fledged performance-management system, it is more likely that the appraisal will be linked to the organisation’s strategy and that both compensation and training and development needs will be achieved. under these conditions the appraisal is more likely to be acceptable to the ratee. construct theories undoubtedly, performance appraisal has long been one of the most perplexing and troublesome topics in human resource management, which could be based on the fact that no-one likes to be evaluated. construct theories have been used to attempt to understand the behaviours that occur during performance appraisals. for example, a psychological explanation for people’s resistance to performance evaluation could be that a negative evaluation can represent a threat to one’s self-efficacy. consequently, it might be expected that these feelings might be reduced to some extent if the appraisal criteria were acceptable and the purpose clear to the person undergoing the appraisal. the threat to self-efficacy that may occur in a dysfunctional appraisal could have a flow-on effect on many psychological aspects of the employee-employer relationship. cognitive dissonance theory (festinger, 1957) is a theory on the basis of which aspects of performance appraisal may be interpreted. from the perspective of cognitive dissonance theory, a negative evaluation from another person would be inconsistent with the individual’s general upbeat perception of him-/herself as a capable person. such conflicting cognitions would possibly affect the spirit of the individual’s relationship with the organisation, in other words his/her psychological contract. organisational justice (colquitt, kossek & raymond, 2001) is another theoretical construct on the basis of which performance appraisal may be viewed. a dysfunctional performance-appraisal system may affect the employee’s perception of organisational justice. this construct may help to explain employees’ attitudinal and behavioural reactions to both performance appraisal and organisational commitment (masterson, lewis, goldman & taylor, 2000). because the appraisal has implications for individual reward, employee perceptions of justice are especially significant. erdogan (2002) claims that organisational justice has two subjective perceptions: procedural justice (the fairness of procedures) and distributive justice (the fairness of outcome). for example, when employees feel unfairly treated in their appraisal, they are likely to react negatively. distributive justice is concerned with the perceived fairness of the outcomes or allocations received. in appraisal, to reach a perception of distributive justice, individuals compare their efforts with the rating they receive and the fairness of that rating (erdogan, 2002). s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #179 (page number not for citation purposes) the influence of performance appraisal on the psychological contract of the inpatriate manager 102vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 10 on the basis of the two construct theories above, an appraisal is unlikely to be perceived as acceptable unless those involved in the process perceive it as unbiased (i.e. from the perspective of cognitive dissonance theory) and fair (i.e. from the perspective of organisational justice theory). it is reasonable to expect that, if an employee believes that he/she is being treated unfairly by the organisation, this will in turn impact on his/her perception of his/her relationship with the organisation. therefore, cognitive dissonance theory and organisational justice theory assist in understanding the relationship between the appraisal and the psychological contract. the psychological contract the psychological contract was originally defined by argyris (1960) to draw attention to the subjective dimension of the employment relationship. over the past 15 years this early framework has been developed significantly, primarily under the influence of rousseau (1989; 1995; 1998; 2001), and has become a major analytical device for promoting and explaining sustained employee motivation and commitment. a number of commentators (arnold, 1996; robinson, 1996; rousseau, 1989; rousseau & tijoriwala, 1998) have referred to the psychological contract as ‘an unwritten contract’ and have identified two major types of contracts: transitional (e.g. pay and career progression in exchange for hard work) and relational or social exchange (e.g. job security in exchange for loyalty). together, these expectations are described as ‘the assumptions or expectations that both employers and employees have about their responsibility to one another that go beyond the formal employment contract’ (grimmer & oddy, 2007, p.158). empirical evidence supports a positive relationship between perceived contract fulfilment and employees’ commitment to the organisation (coyle-shapiro & conway, 2005; robinson, 1996; robinson & morrison, 1995) and a negative relationship association with the neglect of in-role job duties and turnover intentions (turnley & feldman, 1999). fundamental to a successful psychological contract is an understanding of people’s expectations from employment (atkinson, barrow & connors, 2003; cullinae & dundon, 2006). in fact, levinson, price, mundeen and stolley (1962) suggested that the psychological contract is a series of mutual expectations. schein (1978) claimed that these expectations cover not only the actual job at hand and basic objectives, but also a whole set of obligations, privileges and rights. he also contended that employee dissatisfaction and alienation comes from violations of the psychological contract, which may be dressed up as explicit issues, such as pay and working hours. developing this further, rousseau and tijoriwala (1998) reconceptualised the psychological contract, stressing an emphasis on the individual employee’s sense of obligations, rather than expectations, on the assumption that unmet obligations are more damaging than unmet expectations. they argued that the psychological contract is an individual employee’s belief in mutual obligations between him-/herself and the employer. commonalities of the psychological contract and performance appraisal the psychological contract and the performance appraisal have commonalities. first and foremost, they are both grounded in social exchanges and rely on the norm of reciprocity as the explanatory mechanism for their consequences on employee attitude and behaviours. for example, milliman et al. (2002) assert that one of the purposes of performance appraisal is engendering allegiance and trust. correspondingly, a major part of the rationale behind the need for a psychological contract is the need to generate commitment and satisfy employee expectations (thompson, 2003), and the need to incorporate central work issues of trust and fairness (guest, 2004; robinson, 1996). the two frameworks also have similar complexities. for example, in a manner very similar to performance appraisal, research on the psychological contract has suggested that companies often give mixed messages about the terms of the psychological contract, and that these terms are poorly communicated by managers (cullinae & dundon, 2006). also, studies have shown that an emphasis on individual psychological contracts in an organisation can necessitate a heavy emphasis on individuals and weaken teamwork (bacon, 2003). additionally, the theoretical complexities in both frameworks have been argued, usually separately, to underpin their future usefulness. the exception here is a study by stiles et al. 1997. they reviewed the management of performance in determining the psychological contract-making process in circumstances of change. they found that employees’ deep concerns about accuracy and fairness of the performancemanagement process created scepticism and had a negative effect on the psychological contract. nonetheless, the common ground shared by the two paradigms would suggest that the application of these two constructs could help achieve a similar set of outcomes, for example effective mutual commitment by the employer and the employee, and organisational citizenship behaviour that is aligned with the strategy of the organisation. performance appraisal has received intense attention from researchers over the past three decades. research has progressed in traditional content areas (tziner, murphy & cleveland, 2005) and has also explored some new areas, such as contextual aspects (levey & williams, 2004). nonetheless, there still remain significant gaps in performance-management studies. although the consequences of utilising performance appraisal in international contexts have received some attention (dowling et al., 1999; harvey, 1997; shen, 2005), the inpatriate manager and his/her appraisal have been neglected. as a consequence, the aim of this study is to explore the extent, nature and limitations of performance appraisals, and the subsequent influence that these issues may have on the psychological contract of inpatriate managers. the next part of this article describes the research design used in the study. the third part of the article presents the results and focuses the discussion on the factors that influence the appraisal and its impact on the psychological contract. at the end of the article certain conclusions are drawn, and potential issues and opportunities are identified in the sphere of the inpatriate manager’s appraisal and psychological contract. the implications for practitioners in multinational organisations are also discussed. research design research approach the objectives of the study were achieved using a qualitative methodology, namely grounded theory. this approach involves identifying the relevant variables in data, rather than focusing on predetermined perspectives or variables. this approach is qualitative, subjective, humanistic and interpretist. it enables the researcher to capture both the behaviour of the participants in natural settings and the context that gave the behaviour meaning. this enables the theory to logically emerge from the study (glaser & strauss, 1967). using the grounded theory approach, the discovery and conceptualisation of the process under study are embedded in the empirical data. for example, this method involves both an inductive and deductive approach to theory construction and attempts to achieve one or more of the objectives of both qualitative and quantitative research given by denzin and lincoln (1994), namely (a) to initiate new theory, (b) to reformulate theory, (c) to refocus theory, or (d) to clarify existing theory. as stated above, grounded theory is a useful approach when relatively little is known about the topic, or few adequate theories exist to accurately explain or predict outcomes. this was clearly the case in this study. research strategy the focus of the study was inpatriate managers currently employed by medium-sized australian subsidiaries in a significant sector of the health care industry. this study focused on the major factors that influence the inpatriate manager’s experience of performance appraisals. the grounded theory approach used in this study generated a significant original research maley sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 9 (page number not for citation purposes) 103 vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 10 amount of data on the appraisal experience of inpatriate managers. this approach also enabled the exploration of the factors that influenced this experience and the impact on the psychological contract. these findings were then interpreted from the perspective of their potential breach of the inpatriate’s psychological contract. research questions the specific research objectives were to explore two critical components of human resource management: the appraisal and the psychological contract. before outlining the research questions, it is important to emphasise some important points about grounded theory. because the framework of grounded theory evolves during the research itself, the initial research questions tend to be broader and less specific than with other research approaches (strauss & corbin, 1990). the grounded theory approach is useful when little is known about a situation, and for this reason it is a valuable methodology for studying the inpatriate manager. the methodology generates theory from the data, instead of trying to fit the data to a hypothesis. therefore, if it succeeds, an original contribution to the knowledge of performance appraisal is achieved. however, to the scholar unacquainted with grounded theory, the hypothesis may appear underdeveloped. considering these points, the following key research question was formulated: what are the main factors that influence the experience of • the inpatriate manager’s appraisal? this research focused on the inpatriate manager, specifically addressing the following sub-questions: what are the causes of these factors?• do these causes breach the inpatriate manager’s psychological • contract with the organisation? research methods research setting the majority of interviews took place during a quiet time in the participants’ offices. for some this was early morning; for others it was at the end of the day. 17 interviews took place at the participants’ work places, and one was conducted in an airport lounge. at the commencement of each interview a brief profile was taken of each participant, including sex, age group, education, number of years as inpatriate manager, time in current position, nationality and country of origin. the participants were employed by companies whose products are used in medical diagnostics, medical devices, life science and equipment industries. the range of products manufactured by these companies is diverse, extending from everyday items used in large quantities, such as bandages and syringes, to sophisticated and costly items of capital equipment, such as x-ray, imaging and radiographic equipment, implants and fine measuring devices. health care companies are among the top industry performers; in the us the market is worth us$1.6 trillion, while in europe it is worth us$700 billion. in australia, the industry has been estimated to be worth a$5 billion in local sales (csi, 2008). the ageing population and increasing need for sophisticated diagnostic procedures and medicines guarantee industry longevity. this study specifically examined the nonpharmaceutical sector of the health care industry and excluded large pharmaceutical companies. health care covers many subdisciplines and it was beyond the scope of this study to examine the whole health care market in australia. entrée and establishing researcher roles key participants were initially contacted either by telephone (6) or e-mail (12). an appointment was made for the initial interview at a time and venue convenient to the participant. participants were advised both verbally and in writing that participation was voluntary and that they could withdraw at any time. permission to record the interviews was freely given by all participants. the initial interview with each participant lasted an average of 65 minutes (the longest was 120 minutes and the shortest was 45 minutes). the transcripts of a total of 20 hours of interviews formed the major data source for this study. also, there were notes on secondand third-round interviews, notes on informal interviews, field notes, performance-appraisal documents and other literature sources that were incorporated during the study. sampling the population consisted of a non-probability purposive voluntary sample of inpatriate managers in sydney, australia. 24 inpatriate managers from different health care multinational organisations were asked whether they would agree to be interviewed and 18 accepted. there were 17 males and 1 female and the age range varied from 35 years to 63 years, with a mean age of 48 years. inpatriate managers from the us (6), united kingdom (uk) (3), denmark (2), france (1), norway (1), sweden (2), switzerland (1) and germany (2) were represented in the study. the participants were selected for the study based on certain criteria: they currently held a position as an inpatriate manager • of a medium-sized australian subsidiary of a health care multinational organisation (subsidiary turnover between a$10 million and a$100 million.) they reported directly overseas.• they had held their position for more than two years.• they had had at least two performance appraisals as • inpatriate manager. data-collection methods data were collected from a variety of sources, including organisation documents, field notes, memos, appraisal documents and, most importantly, formal interviews with the 18 inpatriate managers. interviewing as a method of data collection was selected because it was considered to provide the most suitable approach to study the participants in their own normal, everyday world, which is the premise of grounded theory (glaser & strauss, 1967). the interview questions were semi-structured in order to give the interviews some direction, but at the same time permit enough flexibility, again in accordance with the guidelines of grounded theory. the researcher conducted all the interviews herself and the data were collected over a six-month period from july 2003 to january 2004. participant observation commenced in 1999 and extended to december 2002 (during which time the researcher was working as an inpatriate manager). documents and literature were examined during the whole period of the study. as the study progressed, theoretical sampling (glaser, 1978) was employed, with the researcher seeking participants and other data sources as directed by the initial findings of data analysis. additional participants included a supervisor of inpatriate managers based in the uk, two international human resource managers, two industrial psychologists and two professional recruiters. the aim of this approach was to look for variation, and to seek data that shed more light on the developing themes, or emerging new properties of the categories or processes. this targeted interviewing approach (silverman, 1989) enabled significant specific issues to be pursued, as well as verification of data about issues that appeared to be controversial, sensitive, or about which there appeared to be some misinformation. seven key participants were interviewed twice and two were interviewed three times. re-interviewing enabled the verification, clarification and elaboration of data obtained in the first interview, or the cross-checking of data acquired from other sources. interviews ceased when saturation of the main theoretical category (or in grounded theory terms, core category) had occurred; that is, when no additional data were found from which new theoretical categories or properties of the categories could be developed. s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #179 (page number not for citation purposes) the influence of performance appraisal on the psychological contract of the inpatriate manager 104vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 10 data-recording analysis the interviews were tape-recorded with the permission of the participants, and it was also emphasised that the identity of the participants would remain anonymous and that the participants could withdraw from the study at any time. data analysis the recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim. the constant comparative method of qualitative analysis using nvivo software was used as a means of coding the data. collection, coding and analysis of data were a major operation. data analysis, including coding and memoing, was conducted based on methods described by glaser and strauss (1967), glaser (1978), strauss (1987) and strauss and corbin (1990). glaser selects an area for study and allows issues to emerge, whereas strauss and corbin are more specific and prefer to identify a phenomenon (parker, 1994). this study used both methods. the writing of theoretical memos detailing the theoretical dimensions and implications of codes and the development of core categories and relationships formed the substance of the theoretical framework. open coding involved the labelling of events, activities, functions, relationships, influences and outcomes. subsequent axial coding required the recombining of closely related and overlapping codes into aggregate key concepts. selective coding involved the selection of the central phenomenon from the key concepts and its designation as the core code, which was then related to the other key concepts directly and indirectly. this provided the derived grounded theory framework. once this was done, the analysis was directed towards identifying the core category. this was a process that formed the substance of the theoretical framework, which alternated between inductive and deductive thought. first, the researcher inductively determined meaningful groupings or potential categories, which were apparent from the data collected. next, a deductive approach was used that allowed the researcher to turn away from the data and think rationally about the missing data. theory was generated by systematically sorting and categorising the collected and partially analysed data by a process of constant comparative analysis. according to glaser and strauss (1967), the term ‘comparative analysis’ is used because every datum is compared with every other datum, rather than comparing totals of indices. the data obtained in the interviews with the inpatriate managers was used to assess the effectiveness of the appraisals. the participants’ appraisals that emerged from the data as being effective for the inpatriate managers were initially labelled ‘exemplary’. effectiveness of the appraisal became apparent in three ways: firstly, the contribution of the appraisal to the inpatriate’s own development; secondly, the effect of the appraisal on the inpatriate’s motivation; and, thirdly, the inpatriate’s perceptions of the appraisal’s overall benefit to the organisation. thereafter, the term ‘exemplary’ was used when the participants considered their appraisals to be effective. strategies employed to ensure data quality data quality was ensured in several ways: the application of triangulation was the primary means to • ensure data quality, and boiled down to the use of various data-collection techniques, namely in-depth interviews with key participants, interviews with additional secondary but also pertinent participants, content analysis of various relevant documents and participant observation. the participants in this study were informed of the voluntary • nature of their involvement and that they could withdraw from the study at any time during the research. confidentiality of the participants was respected and • protected. none of the participants were aware of the other participants who took part in the study. written permission was given by each participant to record • the interview, and they were informed that they could request the tape to be turned off at any time. furthermore, all participants were advised that they could review the transcripts if requested. purposive sampling was applied by selecting only employees • who fitted set criteria, namely they had served two years as an inpatriate manager and had undergone at least two performance appraisals in their current role. conscientious application of the constant comparative • analysis method helped reduce any possible observer effects. in addition to the interviews, a diary was kept to record personal feelings and viewpoints during the research to heighten levels of awareness. results satisfaction with the performance appraisal only three multinational organisations were found to conduct exemplary performance-appraisal systems. the most outstanding features to emerge from these multinationals were that their appraisals involved frequent face-to-face contact with the supervisor, appropriate and regular feedback and appraisal follow-up, and that they were directly related to a defined career path. according to the participants, their exemplary appraisals significantly contributed to their long-term retention in the organisation, which they believed gave their appraisals purpose. as a result, this group of participants thought that their appraisal met the criteria of acceptability. limitations of the performance appraisal in contrast to the three instances of satisfaction, it was found in this study that, although performance appraisals were widely used, they were for the most part performed inadequately. more than 41% of the appraisals were conducted over the phone without any face-to-face contact, and less than one-third of the participants believed that they received any benefit from their appraisal. the results of the appraisals were used to make bonus decisions in almost 85% of the companies, but only 23% of the inpatriates’ supervisors used the appraisal data to make training and development decisions. the findings showed that there were considerable limitations in the management of performance appraisals, namely inadequate face-to-face contact with the supervisor, lack of opportunity for feedback by the inpatriate manager, and limited (or total absence of) follow-up after the appraisal. furthermore, this group of participants all reported that they did not have a definitive career path with their organisations and as a consequence their expectations for career advancement were not met. it became evident that they believed the appraisal should assist in their career development. the lack of career advancement was discovered to be a significant factor that contributed to the participants perceiving that their appraisal served no purpose. as a consequence, the appraisals failed to meet the criteria of acceptability. face-to-face contact it was found that the majority of the inpatriate managers and their supervisors infrequently met face-to-face. one participant met his boss once every three months, but another had not had face-to-face contact with his boss for over two years. on average, the inpatriate managers and their supervisors met twice a year. each inpatriate manager was also questioned as to where he/she met the supervisor and the quality of contact. answers varied enormously. for example, inpatriate managers typically visited the head office once a year or, where a region existed, twice a year. several participants spoke about doing many things and seeing numerous people when they visited the regional or head office, and there was often not much time spent with their supervisor. for example: ‘when i go there i don’t get much time with f. well, the last time i hardly saw him. i run around like a headless chicken, with so many people to see.’ original research maley sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 9 (page number not for citation purposes) 105 vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 10 it would be unlikely that the inpatriate manager and boss could strengthen their relationship with so little time for face-to-face contact. a major grievance from the participants was that, when their supervisors visited the subsidiary, their trips were too short, which exacerbated both lack of face-to-face contact and insufficient feedback. the participants whose appraisals were conducted over the phone, in all cases, did not think that this was appropriate. one participant expressed a typical view of the situation: ‘for the last three years my appraisal has been over the phone. it’s as though he doesn’t have the courage to face me. it’s really a joke. i find the whole process farcical.’ feedback insufficient feedback was another frequent subject of discontent. to some extent, this is understandable considering the poor regularity of face-to-face contact. 78% of participants were dissatisfied with their feedback, for example: ‘i get no time to air my grievances because it’s just not possible with the kind of management that i get. there is no time for feedback.’ in some cases feedback was felt to be problematic because the setting of the appraisal was unsuitable, as in the case of an inpatriate manager whose only opportunity for feedback and follow-up was the performance appraisal itself, which was held in a noisy hotel restaurant: researcher: ‘were you given any opportunity for feedback?’ participant: ‘well no, not really, er ... not at all, well, how can you do that when you have your appraisal in a busy restaurant in singapore? anyway, feedback wasn’t on the agenda, so i really didn’t push the issue.’ follow-up follow-up was the third area of frequent dissatisfaction. all participants were asked about the follow-up subsequent to their appraisal. 90% of the participants stated that they did not receive any appraisal follow-up. for example: ‘after he has finished the appraisal, well, that’s it for another year. i can guarantee that we will never talk about what we discussed until the same time next year. it’s like an annual ritual, a bit meaningless and it really doesn’t fit with the real business.’ in sum, poor face-to-face contact, inadequate feedback, and almost non-existent appraisal follow-up were the most significant areas of discontent expressed by the participants and were identified by the researcher as being directly related to the key factors that influence inpatriate manager appraisals. influences on performance appraisals the data revealed two core problems that represented major influences on the performance-appraisal process for inpatriate managers. firstly, inpatriate managers’ appraisals were found to be limited because of organisations’ overwhelming short-term emphasis on sales and profit, which was termed the ‘bottom line’. all the other phenomena were found to relate to this category. in other words, everything was found to be dependent upon organisations’ obligations to secure sales and profit. all inpatriate manager participants in the study spoke repeatedly about the need to achieve financial results and quantitative aspects of their job, which included market shares and volumes of sales. they also talked about the external quantitative measurement or their organisations’ obsession with the ‘bottom line’ to the detriment of all other measurements. the evidence was salient throughout the study: the participants were aware that financial performance was paramount. secondly, the inpatriate manager was disadvantaged by being solely dependent on the remote relationship with his/her supervisor, who rarely had any commitment to the inpatriate manager’s appraisal because his/her primary concern was the sales and profits of the business. most of the inpatriate managers in this study felt that the success of their appraisal interview depended on the nature and frequency of the interactions with their supervisors and the quality of the relationship. the lack of contact did not create trust or a sufficient relationship to enable an effective performance assessment. the short-term emphasis on the bottom line was the chief finding or, in grounded theory terms, the core category of this study, with the relationship with the supervisor being a secondary or near core finding. core categories and limitations the three key limitations of performance appraisal found in this study, namely the limited face-to-face contact with the supervisor, the lack of feedback and absence of appraisal followup, were caused by either the core category, the emphasis on the bottom line, or the near core category, the manager’s relationship with his/her supervisor. the core categories and the limitations of appraisal are, therefore, interrelated. regular contact, preferably face-to-face, timely feedback and appraisal follow-up were regarded as necessary for an effective appraisal. figure 1 displays the two main categories, one of which is the basic social process or core process, namely the bottom line (the largest circle). the other main category or near core category (medium-sized circle) is the relationship with supervisor, upon which the performance appraisal was contingent. the three small circles represent the limitations. influences on the psychological contract evidence suggests that the three multinational organisations that conducted exemplary appraisals had a positive psychological contract with their inpatriate managers. all participants from these organisations exhibited a strong social exchange construct towards their organisations. for example, they all perceived that they had a positive, clearly defined future career with their organisations and, consequently, they reported that they felt secure in their jobs. this sentiment was not expressed by the remaining participants, who did not have exemplary appraisals. in other words, the participants who had exemplary appraisals felt that their organisations understood their implicit raison d’êtres and, in turn, the participants reported that they understood the explicit expectations of their organisations. one participant described this in the following way: ‘i think we’re singing from the same hymn sheet.’ a second participant who had experienced exemplary appraisals reported: ‘i [am of the opinion] that my expectations have been met by xyz and will continue to be met.’ it became evident in the study that the expectations of the participants who had undergone exemplary appraisals were met by their organisations. the expectations of the remaining participants, who had received non-exemplary appraisals, were not satisfied; that is, these inpatriate managers believed that the organisations were not meeting their expectations. their prospects for career advancement and a definitive career path were ambiguous. in other words, the multinationals were not fulfilling their side of the psychological contract. discussion this study has revealed two core problems that represent major influences on the performance-appraisal process for inpatriate managers. first of all, the inpatriate’s appraisal was found to be limited because of the organisation’s overwhelming short-term emphasis on sales and profit (the bottom line). subsequently, the inpatriate was disadvantaged by being solely dependent on the remote relationship with his/her supervisor, who rarely had any commitment to the inpatriate’s appraisal because his/ her primary concern was the sales and profit of the business. s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #179 (page number not for citation purposes) the influence of performance appraisal on the psychological contract of the inpatriate manager 106vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 10 key factors influencing performance appraisal a limited range of criteria were used to assess the performance of the inpatriate managers. while there was compelling evidence of the use of results type criteria, there was less evidence of the application of behavioural criteria. in particular, there was little indication of the criteria of appraisal acceptability made apparent to the participants. moreover, and in line with the findings of bae (2006), this results-at-any-cost mentality was found to have a negative effect on the relationship between the supervisor and the inpatriate manager. the negative relationship between the inpatriate and his/her supervisor was further impaired by the lack of face-to-face contact, the limited feedback and the poor appraisal follow-up. the difficulties surrounding a lack of faceto-face contact for remote employees in distant subsidiaries have been previously documented (harzing & noordhaven, 2005), and the theme of poor feedback between the rater and ratee has been well acknowledged (harvey, 1997; milliman et al., 2002; taormina & gao, 2009). conversely, the problem of poor appraisal follow-up does not appear to have been uncovered by previous researchers. poor follow-up could be an indication that the appraisal is not part of a performance-management process. the underlying principle here is that if the appraisal is embedded in the overall context of a performance-management system, it will be linked to the organisation’s strategy and will be more likely to be followed-up. the purpose of the appraisal was also found to be ill-defined, and this created a great deal of angst for the participants. one the one hand, the supervisors explicitly viewed the purpose of the appraisal as a means to influence the financial results. on the other hand, the inpatriate managers implicitly considered that one of the key purposes of the appraisal was to support their career development. the purpose of the performance appraisal from the perspectives of the supervisor and the inpatriate manager are clearly not aligned. this misalignment of purposes means that the inpatriates’ expectations are unmet, which in turn will have a detrimental effect on their psychological contract with the organisation. the finding, that the performance appraisal influences the psychological contract, is in agreement with that of stiles et al. (1997). building on the model suggested by stiles et al. (1997), the frames of performance appraisal and psychological contract have been integrated to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the employee-employer relationship. influences of performance appraisal on the psychological contract the influence of the performance appraisal on the psychological contract can be demonstrated in a cycle of inadequate feedback (see figure 2). the sequence starts with the inpatriate manager receiving poor feedback. this is followed by inadequate face-to-face contact between the inpatriate manager and his/her supervisor, and is further exacerbated by a limited performance-appraisal follow-up. this sequence of events results in a non-exemplary appraisal. the appraisal clearly does not meet the criteria of acceptability. moreover, the supervisor and inpatriate manager’s understanding of the purpose of the appraisal is not aligned; the supervisor thinks the purpose is to give support to the financial results, and the inpatriate manager thinks the purpose of the appraisal is to help him/her with career development. in reality, the inpatriate manager associates the appraisal with poor career opportunities and, as a result, his/her expectations are unmet. in other words, the inpatriate managers are of the opinion that the multinational organisations do not fulfil their obligations. this causes a loss of trust, motivation and commitment and has a detrimental effect on the psychological contract, which triggers another cycle of poor feedback. evidence related to this cycle shows that not only does the multinational organisation neglect the explicit expectations expressed in the performance appraisal, it also neglects the implicit expectations of the psychological contract. as a consequence, the result of a poor performance appraisal is that two key management processes, the explicit performance appraisal and implicit psychological contract models, may be flawed. the breach of the psychological contract could have more ominous and multifaceted consequences for the inpatriate manager and the multinational organisation. for example, employee dissatisfaction and alienation have been argued to stem from violations of the psychological contract. schein (1978) found that violations of the contract may appear to be caused by obvious explicit issues, such as pay and working hours, but that in reality violations are caused by implicit concerns that the employee may not feel comfortable raising. according to this line of reasoning, the inpatriate managers could be claiming that their dissatisfaction with their performance appraisal is due to explicit issues such as inadequate feedback and a lack of face-toface contact and appraisal follow-up, when in fact the genuine source of their frustration could be an implicit cause, for example career limitation. according to schein’s (1978) argument, the participants may be apprehensive about their future place in the organisation, but feel less able to vocalise this issue. in other words, the participants’ tangible and explicit complaints may be masking the implicit intangible aspects of the psychological contract breach. inpatriate managers’ expectations of career advancement may be problematic for many multinational organisations. as a byproduct of globalisation and, more recently, the 2008 crisis in the world economy, job security has become rare. rouseeau (1990) argued that employee prospects for long-lasting careers in a single organisation have been replaced by high contingent pay and training. the participants in this study may have achieved high contingent pay, but the majority did not believe they were receiving adequate training and career development. employer breach of expectations in relation to job security or opportunities for development have been found to lead to feelings of injustice or betrayal among workers (morrison & robinson, 1997). this betrayal has been found to lead to a central issue of lack of trust and fairness (guest, 2004), which was clearly the case in this study with the majority of inpatriate managers. according to erdogan (2002), it is probable that the betrayal affects the inpatriate’s perception of both procedural and distributive justice. improving the cycle of inadequate feedback in order to improve performance appraisals and, accordingly, strengthen psychological contracts, the cycle of inadequate feedback has to be broken. in accordance with the findings in the literature (colquit et al., 2001; erdogan, 2002; masterton et al., 2000), the appraisal must be perceived by the inpatriate manager to have both procedural and distributive justice. figure 3 illustrates how the cycle may be rectified. for example, if the lack of face-to face contact lack of feedback lack of follow-up relationship with supervisor bottom -line influences core category near core category limitations figure 1 core categories and their limitations original research maley sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 9 (page number not for citation purposes) 107 vol. 7 no. 1 page 8 of 10 inpatriate manager’s performance appraisal includes timely feedback, adequate face-to-face contact and follow-up, his/ her appraisal will be exemplary. these are necessary but not sufficient criteria for a strong psychological contract. in an ideal situation, the inpatriate manager should have a clearly defined career path with the organisation. the appraisal will then more likely meet the important criteria of acceptability and may go some way to serving a well-defined purpose. for many reasons, a definite career path, particularly in a small multinational organisation that has recently globalised, may not be possible. in this case, the organisation needs to be clear about the inpatriate manager’s future. if the multinational organisation cannot offer a long-term career, the organisation can still develop the inpatriate manager by continuing to offer training and development. in other words, the organisation needs to consider providing the enabling resources, but does not necessarily need to take responsibility for the inpatriate manager’s career. supportive and effective feedback can create conditions that encourage employees to find their own directions and guide their own activities (cascio, 2000; harvey et al., 2001). the key issue is that the inpatriate managers have clarity about their future lack of feedback no faceto-face contact no pa follow-up non-exemplary pa poor career opportunities unmet expectations w eak pc reduced trust, commitment & motivation figure 2 the cycle of inadequate employee feedback constructive feedback faceto-face contact pa follow-up exemplary pa career opportunities m eet expectations strong pc commitment & motivation figure 3 the cycle of constructive employee feedback commitment & motivation constructive feedback strong pc meet expectations career opportunities exemplary pa pa follow-up faceto-face contact lack of feedback reduced trust, commitment & motivation weak pc unmet expectations poor career opportunities non-exemplary pa no pa follow-up no faceto-face contact s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #179 (page number not for citation purposes) the influence of performance appraisal on the psychological contract of the inpatriate manager 108vol. 7 no. 1 page 9 of 10 career directions and are not left with unrealistic expectations. if expectations are met, the theory of cognitive dissonance (festinger, 1957) suggests that there would be no threat to the inpatriate manager’s self-efficacy. when an exemplary appraisal is combined with clarity of career path, the appraisal has a purpose and meets the criteria of acceptability, and the inpatriate manager will have not only a feeling of positive self-efficacy, but also increased motivation and commitment. this will encourage positive feedback from the supervisor and there will more likely be a durable psychological contract. therefore, the positive cycle is re-triggered (see figure 3). limitations this research was conducted in sydney, australia, in the health care business sector. this may lead to some limitations in the generalisability of results. 18 participants participated in the study and, while by grounded theory standards this is a sufficient number, it is not a large sample on which to make generalisations. ideally, a comprehensive study should include all groups with whom the inpatriate manager interacts, but this was considered to be outside the scope of this particular study, as it was pioneering in the sense that it was aiming to apply a research approach that had not previously been used in this discipline. conclusion this study has made a contribution to the field of international human resource management. it has identified that the literature has almost ignored the inpatriate manager and his/her performance management, despite the fact that this person’s importance to the multinational organisation is increasingly growing. in addition, the research has established that there are several relevant constraints on the international performance-appraisal process for the inpatriate manager, and that, if performed inadequately, the appraisal is not only unacceptable to the inpatriate manager, but may also have a profoundly negative effect on the psychological contract of the inpatriate manager. the outcome could potentially rob the organisation of a valuable intangible asset, namely a fleet of motivated international executives. furthermore, the study has recommended that, if a multinational organisation with a poor appraisal process and subsequent unsatisfactory psychological contract attempts to make some fundamental improvements to the performance appraisal of its inpatriate managers, it will not only be managing the competency of this important manager, but will engender commitment and loyalty. these improvements, as suggested earlier, may be as straightforward as strengthening the feedback cycle and ensuring the inpatriate manager continues to develop his/her skills and improve his/her competencies. importantly, it is vital that the inpatriate manager’s expectations are congruent with those of the multinational organisation. in other words, his/her expectations need to be managed, and this can only be achieved if there is ample communication and opportunity for feedback between the supervisor and the inpatriate manager. performance appraisals are fraught with difficulties at the national level, and yet are acknowledged as being important to an organisation’s success. at the international level, distance and culture compound the problems and, more importantly, negligence in this area can have a devastating effect on the organisation’s globalisation success. the multinational organisation may not be able to offer inpatriate managers life-long careers, but they can continue to develop them and manage their expectations. in the words of jack welch (the former ceo of general electric), ‘you can give lifetime employability by training people, by making them adaptable, making them mobile to go other places to do other things. but you can’t guarantee lifetime employment’ (welch, 2001). along these lines, the multinational organisation needs to be transparent with its inpatriate managers and manage their expectations. notwithstanding, the fundamental improvements to the feedback cycle outlined above will assist organisations in not only improving the performance of inpatriate managers, but also assist in the critical role of developing their global talent pool, thereby giving the multinational organisation a distinct global advantage. future research this study indicates that the experience of the performanceappraisal process in the international context and its relationship to the psychological contract could be illuminated by research in a number of areas. these include the influence of components of strategic human resource management systems, such as structure, incentives and communication processes. studies in the virtual workplace on how appraisals are conducted and how the psychological contract is enacted could further illuminate some of the difficulties associated with the lack of face-to face contact between supervisors and employees, and the supervisory skills required in this environment. references argyris, c. (1960). understanding organisational behaviour. homewood: dorsey. arnold, j. (1996). the psychological contract: a concept in need of closer scrutiny? european journal of work and organisational psychology, 5, 511–520. atkinson, p., barrow, c., & connors, l. (2003). models of police probationer career progression and the psychological contract. hrm development international, 6, 43–57. bacon, n. (2003). hrm and industrial relations. in p. acker & a. wilkinson (eds.), understanding work and employment: industrial relations in transition. oxford: oxford university press. bae, e.k. (2006, february). major elements and issues in performance management systems: a literature review. paper presented at the academy of human resource development international conference (ahrd), columbus. bradley, l., & ashkanasy, n. (2001). performance appraisal interview: can they be objective and are they useful anyway? asian pacific journal of human resources, 39(2), 83–97. cascio, w.f. (2000). managing a virtual work place. academy of management executive, 12(3), 81–91. colquitt, j.a., kossek, e.e., & raymond, a. (2001). care giving decisions, well-beings, and performance: the effects of place and provider as a function of dependent type and work-family climates. the academy of management journal, 44(1), 29–44. coyle-shapiro, j., & conway, n. (2005). exchange relationships: an examination of psychological contracts and perceived organizational support. journal of applied psychology, 90(94), 774–781. csi (2008). diagnostics, medical devices and scientific products and equipment. sydney: csi. cullinae, n., & dundon, (2006).the psychological contract: a critical review. international journal of management reviews, 8(2), 113–119. denzin, n.k., & lincoln, y.s. (1994). handbook of qualitative research. thousand oaks: sage. dowling, p., welch, d., & schuler, r. (1999). international dimensions of human resources. cincinnati: south western college publishing. erdogan, b. (2002). antecedents and consequences of justice perceptions in performance appraisals. human resource management review, 12, 555–578. fenwick, m. (2004). international assignments and expatriation. asian pacific journal of human resources, 42(3), 365–377. festinger, l. (1957). a theory of cognitive dissonance. stanford: stanford university press. glaser, b. 1978. theoretical sensitivity. mill valley: sociology press. glaser, b., & strauss, a. (1967). the discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. new york: aldine publishing. original research maley sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 9 (page number not for citation purposes) gratton, l. (2000). living strategy: putting people at the heart of corporate purpose. london: prentice-hall. gratton, l., hope-hailey, v., stiles, p., & truss, c. (2001). emerging themes in strategic human resource management. oxford: oxford university press. grimmer, m., & oddy, m. (2007).violation of the psychological contract: the mediating effect of relational versus transactional beliefs. australian journal of management, 32(1), 153–175. guest, d. (2004). the psychology of the employment relationship: an analysis based on the psychological contract. applied psychology, 53, 541–555. harvey, m. (1997). focusing on international performance appraisal process. human resource development quarterly, 8(1), 41–62. harvey, m., novicevic, m., & speier. (2002). the evolution of shrm systems and their application in a foreign subsidiary context. asian pacific journal of human resources, 40(3), 284– 300. harvey, m., speier, c., & novicevic, m. (2001). a theory-based framework for strategic global human resource staffing policies and practices. human resource management, 12(6), 898–915. harzing, a.w., & noordhaven, n. (2005). geographical distance and the role of management of the subsidiaries: the case of subsidiaries down under. asian pacific journal of management, 23, 167–185. hedge, j.w., & teachout, m.s (2000). exploring the concepts of acceptability as a criterion for evaluating performance measures. group and organisation management, 25(1), 22–44. levey, p., & williams, j. (2004). the social context of performance appraisal: a review and framework for the future. journal of international management, 30(6), 881–905. levinson, h., price, c., mundeen, k., & stolley, c. (1962). men, management and mental health. cambridge: harvard university press. lindholm, n. (1999). national culture and performance management in mnc. international studies of management and organisations, 29(4), 45–66. maley, j., & kramar, r. (2007). international performance appraisal: policies, practices and processes in australian subsidiaries of healthcare mncs. research & practice in human resource management, 15(2), 21–41. masterson, s., lewis, k., goldman, b., & taylor, m. (2000). integrating justice and social exchange: the differing effects of fair procedures and treatment on work relationships. academy of management journal, 43, 738–748. mcgovern, p. (1999). hrm policies and management practices. in l. govern, v. hope-hailey, p. stiles & c. truss (eds.), strategic human resource management. oxford: oxford university press. milliman, j., nason, s., zhu, c., & de cieri, h. (2002). an exploratory assessment of the purpose of performance appraisal in north and central america and the pacific rim. asia pacific journal of human resources, 40(1), 87–107. milliman, j., taylor, s., & czaplewski, a. (2000). performance feedback in mnc: opportunities for organizational learning. human resource planning, 25(3), 29–44. morrison, e., & robinson, s. (1997). when employees feel betrayed: a model of how psychological contract violation develops. academy of management review, 22, 226–256. muchinsky, p.m. (2002). psychology applied to work. (6th edn). belmont: wadsworth. murphy, k., & cleveland, j. (1995). understanding performance appraisal. new york: sage. parker, l. (1994). reactive planning in christian bureaucracy: an examination of the uniting church of australia, synod of victoria. adelaide: university of adelaide. robinson, s. (1996). trust and breach of the psychological contract. administrative science quarterly, 41, 574–599. robinson s., & morrison e. (1995). psychological contracts and the ocb: the effect of unfulfilled obligations on civic virtue. journal of organisational behaviour, 16, 289–298. rousseau, d. (1989). psychological and implied contracts in organizations. employee responsibilities and rights journal, 2, 121–139. rousseau, d. (1990). new hire perceptions of their own and employer’s obligations: a study of psychological contracts. journal of organisational behaviour, 11, 389–400. rousseau, d. (1995). psychological contracts in organisations: understanding the written and unwritten agreements. london: sage. rousseau, d. (1998). the problems of the psychological contracts considered. journal of organisational behaviour, 19, 665–672. rousseau, d. (2001). schema, promise and mutuality: the building blocks of the psychological contract. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 74, 511–542. rousseau, d., & tijoriwala, s. (1998). assessing the psychological contracts: issues, alternatives and measures. journal of organisational behaviour, 19, 679–696. schein, e. (1978). career dynamics: matching individual and organisational needs. reading: addison-wesley. shen, j. (2005). effective international performance appraisals: easily said, hard to do. compensation and benefits review, 27, 70–80. silverman, d. (1989). six rules of qualitative research: a postromantic argument. symbolic interaction, 12(2), 215–230. stiles, p., gratton, l., truss, c., hope-hailey, v., & mcgovern, p. (1997). performance management and the psychological contract. human resources management, 7(1), 57–66. strauss, a. (1987). qualitative analysis for social scientists. new york: cambridge university press. strauss, a., & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and technique. newbury park: sage. sully de luque, m., & sommer, s. (2007). the impact of culture on feedback seeking behaviour: an integrated model and propositions. academy of management review, 25(4), 829–849. suutari, v., & tahvanainen, m. (2002). the antecedents of performance management among finnish expatriates. the international journal of human resource management, 13(1), 1–21. taormina, r., & goa, j. (2009). identifying acceptable performance criteria: an international perspective. asia pacific journal of human resources, 47(1), 102–124. taylor, s., masterton, s., renard, m., & tracey, k. (1998). manager’s reactions to procedurally just management systems. academy of management journal, 41(5), 568–579. thompson, p. (2003). disconnected capitalism; or why employees can’t keep their side of the bargain. work, employment and society, 17, 359–378. turnley, w., & feldman, d. (1999). the impact of psychological contract violations on exit, loyalty and neglect. human relations, 52, 895–922. tziner, a., murphy, k. & cleveland, j. (2005). does conscientiousness moderate the relationship between attitudes and beliefs regarding performance appraisal and rating behavior? international journal of selection and assessment, 10, 218-224. vance, c. (2006). strategic upstream and downstream considerations for effective global performance management. international journal of cross-cultural management, 6(1), 37– 56. welch, j. (2001). class day interview: jack welch to hbs grads: “don’t be a jerk”. harvard business school working knowledge. school archives, 6, 11. whitford, c. m., & coetsee, w.j. (2006). a model of the underlying philosophy and criteria for effective implementation of performance management. south african journal of human resource management, 1, 63–73. williams, r.s. (2002). managing employee performance: design and implementation in organisations. london: thompson learning. vol. 7 no. 1 page 10 of 10 109 abstract introduction literature review research design results discussion concluding remarks acknowledgements references about the author(s) nicola vermooten department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and business management sciences, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa johan malan department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and business management sciences, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa martin kidd centre for statistical consultation, faculty of economic and business management sciences, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa billy boonazier department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and business management sciences, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa citation vermooten, n., malan, j., kidd, m., & boonazier, b. (2021). relational dynamics amongst personal resources: consequences for employee engagement. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1310. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1310 original research relational dynamics amongst personal resources: consequences for employee engagement nicola vermooten, johan malan, martin kidd, billy boonazier received: 29 dec. 2019; accepted: 01 dec. 2020; published: 16 feb. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: consistent with the central tenets of the job demands-resources theory, research has shown that personal resources foster employee engagement. there is, however, a gap in the literature, as limited research has explored the relational dynamics amongst personal resources. research purpose: firstly, to explore the relational dynamics amongst personal resources and, secondly, to determine its consequences for employee engagement. the motivation of the study: employees possess multiple personal resources. in consideration of this, the researchers propose that it is necessary to adopt a structural model to capture the interrelatedness of the personal resources phenomenon and its consequences for employee engagement. research approach/design and method: a quantitative cross-sectional survey design was used in the study to collect primary data amongst teachers from public schools located across the western cape province (n = 353). main findings: the results of the study demonstrated that personal resources are related to each other and, in turn, foster employee engagement. practical/managerial implications: the researchers recommend human resource interventions that can be developed and implemented to cultivate personal resources, specifically emotional intelligence, work locus of control, psychological capital and calling orientation. contribution/value-add: a structural model was adopted to explore the relational dynamics amongst personal resources. this enabled the researchers to capture the complexity of the personal resources phenomenon and its consequences for employee engagement. keywords: employee engagement; emotional intelligence; work locus of control; psychological capital; calling orientation; broaden-and-build theory; conservation of resources theory. introduction this article forms part of a larger study overlapping with the doctoral research of the first author on the antecedents of employee engagement amongst public school teachers. the research paradigm could be described as multidirectional interactionism or more specifically as an ecological systemic paradigm (newacheck, rising, & kim, 2006), whilst the overarching research design is a mixed-methods exploratory sequential design (creswell & plano clark, 2011) that incorporates an initial qualitative phase informing subsequent quantitative phases. during the qualitative phase, a group of 37 secondary teachers from fee-paying (n = 20) and non-fee-paying (n = 17) public schools in the cape winelands education district were subjected to an adapted interactive qualitative analysis (iqa) (northcutt & mccoy, 2004) exploring key aspects influencing their job experience, how they cope with being a teacher and what the personal attributes or resources are that enable them to cope with being a teacher. the following themes (affinities) were identified, namely employee engagement, teaching motivation, personal characteristics, coping strategies, perceived workload, school climate, student–teacher relationships and interactions, school facilities and teaching resources, parental attitudes, social context of the neighbourhood and perceived organisational justice (vermooten, malan, & boonzaier, 2020). these themes could be described in terms of five levels, namely the teacher-level (individual), school-level (microsystem), community-level (exosystem), societal-level (macrosystem) and temporal level (chronosystem) (newacheck et al., 2006). the findings of the iqa composite uncluttered systems influence diagram (vermooten et al., 2020) indicated that the personal characteristics of the teachers influenced their perception of the societal context and their teaching motivation, whilst their teaching motivation influenced their coping strategies; their coping strategies influenced their perception of their workload, which influenced their level of engagement. in the subsequent quantitative study, a non-probability sample of 353 participants employed in 76 participating public schools in the western cape was subjected to a compilation of measures focused upon the evaluation of a structural model of latent variables selected on the basis of the findings of the qualitative research phase, as well as an interpretation of the extant literature (vermooten, 2018). the emerging teacher employee engagement model was evaluated using variance-based structural equation modelling (sem). the prominence given to the different coping skills in the teacher employee engagement model was not supported by the results. the authors hence decided to focus on the personal resource characteristics and their impact on employee engagement in an adapted structural model. this study reports on the evaluation of the adapted personal resource and employee engagement model. a plethora of empirical evidence has shown that employee engagement is associated with various favourable individual and organisational outcomes (bailey, madden, alfes, & fletcher, 2017; richardsen, 2019). bailey et al. found that employee engagement was positively associated with individual morale, task performance, extra-role performance and organisational performance. vermooten (2018) lists job performance, productivity and profitability, and claims that engaged employees experience positive emotions are typically in better health, effectively deal with job demands and have a positive effect on customer satisfaction. the job demands-resources (jd-r) theory offers a conceptual framework that can be used to explicate the antecedents of variance in employee engagement. it suggests that work characteristics (i.e. job demands and job resources) (demerouti, bakker, nachreiner, & schaufeli, 2001), personal resources (bakker & demerouti, 2017; xanthopoulou, bakker, demerouti, & schaufeli, 2007) and coping strategies (i.e. job crafting and self-undermining) (bakker & costa, 2014; tims, bakker, & derks, 2013) explain variance in employee engagement. in the not so distant past, it was assumed that employers were primarily responsible for creating a work environment that would facilitate the engagement of their employees. modern organisations, however, are increasingly pursuing human resource practices that transfer the responsibility for employee engagement to employees. in line with this, the integration of personal resources and coping strategies (i.e. job crafting and self-undermining) into the jd-r theory acknowledges that employee behaviour is a function of both the work characteristics created by the employer and by the employees themselves (bakker & demerouti, 2017). although research has shown that employees’ personal resources foster employee engagement (bakker & demerouti, 2017), the authors claim that there is a gap in the literature. limited research has explored the relational dynamics amongst personal resources. whilst it is important to understand which personal resources foster employee engagement, it is equally important to take cognisance of the fact that employees possess multiple personal resources. by extrapolating from research conducted by menguc, auh, fisher and haddad (2013), the current authors propose that it is necessary to study the interrelatedness of the personal resources in order to capture the complexity of the personal resources phenomenon and its consequences for employee engagement. such research may provide an insight into the way multiple personal resources influence one another and this knowledge may be utilised to foster employee engagement. research purpose and objectives the purpose of this study was to explore the relational dynamics amongst personal resources and its consequences for employee engagement. more specifically, the study aimed to: propose and empirically test an explanatory personal resources and employee engagement structural model consisting of a number of selected personal resources. the results of this study will allow the authors to offer recommendations with respect to the management of the engagement of public school teachers. the researchers decided to conduct the study amongst public school teachers in the cape winelands education district. the mixed-methods study conducted by vermooten (2018) highlighted the salience of personal resources within this setting, as the work characteristics (i.e. job demands and job resources) of public schools across south africa are frequently not conducive to employee engagement. under these circumstances, public school teachers frequently find themselves in a position where they have to take primary responsibility for their own engagement, rather than rely on larger governing bodies, such as the national and provincial departments of education. the following section of the article will offer a review of the extant literature. firstly, employee engagement will be defined. following that, the jd-r theory and its conceptualisation of personal resources will be discussed. literature review employee engagement according to schaufeli, salanova, gonzález-romá and bakker (2002, p. 74), employee engagement denotes ‘a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption’. vigour is a positive affective response to work, characterised by feelings of physical strength, emotional energy and cognitive liveliness. dedication refers to being actively involved with work, whereby employees experience a sense of enthusiasm, inspiration and pride in their work. absorption refers to a complete captivation with work, whereby employees experience an optimal state of focused attention and intrinsic enjoyment in their work. according to schaufeli et al. (2002), employee engagement is a relatively persistent and pervasive affective-cognitive state. job demands-resources theory the jd-r theory offers a framework that can be used to explicate the antecedents of variance in employee engagement in diverse occupational settings. the jd-r theory proposed that work characteristics (i.e. job demands and job resources) influence the development of job strain (i.e. job burnout) and motivation (i.e. employee engagement) through two underlying psychological processes. these processes are the health impairment process, also known as the effort-driven process, and the motivational process, also known as the motivation-driven process (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). at a later stage personal resources (xanthopoulou et al., 2007) and coping strategies (i.e. job crafting and self-undermining) (bakker & costa, 2014; tims et al., 2013) were sequentially integrated into this framework (bakker & demerouti, 2017). personal resources xanthopoulou et al. (2007) proposed that personal resources (such as optimism or self-efficacy) are important determinants of employees’ adaptive capability and defined them as ‘aspects of the self that are generally linked to resiliency and refer to individuals’ sense of their ability to control and influence their environment successfully’ (xanthopoulou et al., 2007, p. 123). the integration of personal resources in the jd-r theory was, however, not without challenges. based on research conducted by schaufeli and taris (2014), the current authors will make three critical comments regarding the epistemological status, conceptualisation and roles of personal resources within the parameters of the jd-r theory. epistemological status of personal resources the jd-r theory provides limited insight into the underlying psychological role of personal resources. hence, the researchers will draw on the broaden-and-build theory (conway, tugade, catalino, & fredrickson, 2013) and the conservation of resources (cor) theory (hobfoll, 1989) to explain the underlying psychological role of personal resources within the parameters of the jd-r theory. conceptualisation of personal resources xanthopoulou et al.’s (2007) conceptualisation of personal resources subsumes a limited number of person variables (i.e. optimism, organisation-based self-esteem and self-efficacy). schaufeli and taris (2014) claimed that this conceptualisation does not adequately reflect personal resources. the current authors endorse this notion and contend that a more comprehensive definition of personal resources is required. lazarus’s (1991) originally defined personal resources as: [p]erson variables which influence what we are able and unable to do as we seek to gratify needs, attain goals and cope with the stresses produced by demands, constraints and opportunities. (p. 71) the current authors define personal resources in line with lazarus’s (1991) conceptualisation. roles of personal resources personal resources have been integrated into the jd-r theory as antecedents of variance in job demands and job resources, moderator variables, mediator variables and ‘third variables’, explaining the relationship between employees’ perception of job demands and job resources and their level of engagement (schaufeli & taris, 2014). irrespective of the role played, the relationship between personal resources and employee engagement has been well established (karatepe, ozturk, & kim, 2019; lorente, salanova, martínez, & schaufeli, 2008; mäkikangas, feldt, kinnunen, & mauno, 2013) in addition to the fact that researchers have not been able to agree on where personal resources fit within the parameters of the jd-r theory, limited research has explored the relational dynamics amongst personal resources. therefore, the current authors maintain that it is necessary to study the interrelatedness of the personal resources and its consequences for employee engagement. the focus on the interrelatedness of personal resources corresponds with hobfoll’s (1989) cor theory. the cor theory suggests that employees strive to acquire, maintain and accumulate resources. resources generate other resources because a particular resource can be linked to or replace another resource. the linkages and interplay between resources are known as ‘resource caravans’ (hobfoll, 2001, p. 343). against this background, four personal resources that were empirically identified in the qualitative study by vermooten et al. (2020) amongst public school teachers in the cape winelands education district will be introduced here. these personal resources are emotional intelligence (ei), work locus of control, psychological capital and calling orientation. building upon the review of the extant literature, the relational dynamics amongst ei, work locus of control, psychological capital and calling orientation and its consequences for employee engagement will be explored. emotional intelligence there are two primary approaches to research regarding ei, namely the ability model and the trait model. the ability model defines ei as a group of relatively discrete mental abilities (e.g. mayer, salovey, & caruso, 2002). the trait model, on the other hand, defines ei as a personality trait that occupies the lower levels of the personality hierarchies (e.g. petrides, pita, & kokkinaki, 2007). the researchers decided to adopt the ability model of ei in the study. this decision was informed by research that has shown that ei can be learned and developed (e.g. hodzic, scharfen, ripoll, holling, & zenasni, 2018; kozlowski, hutchinson, hurley, & browne, 2018). the authors defined ei in accordance with palmer, stough, harmer and gignac (2009), which translates to teachers being able to perceive and understand their emotions (i.e. emotional self-awareness), effectively express their emotions (i.e. emotional expression), perceive and understand the emotions of learners, colleagues and parents (i.e. emotional awareness of others), use emotional information in decision-making (i.e. emotional reasoning), manage their emotions (i.e. emotional self-management), positively influence the emotions of others (i.e. emotional management of others) and control their own emotions (i.e. emotional self-control). a cross-sectional study conducted by pérez-fuentes, molero, gázquez and oropesa (2018) amongst 2126 professional nurses in spain demonstrated that ei had a significant positive influence on employee engagement. toyama and mauno (2017) showed similar results amongst 489 eldercare nurses in japan. in a similar vein, lestari and sawitri (2017) found that amongst special need school teachers in indonesia, there was a positive correlation between ei and work engagement. turner and stough (2019) claimed that ei plays a significant role in teacher effectiveness and that it has been shown to influence the behaviour, engagement and academic performance of learners, as well as have beneficial effects for teacher well-being, job satisfaction, collegial relations and a diminished likelihood of burnout. the importance of being able to manage learner–teacher relationships in the classroom was also evident in the iqa composite uncluttered systems influence diagram (vermooten et al., 2020). against the given background, ei should be seen as an important personal resource that influences the engagement of teachers. the following hypothesis can thus be formulated: hypothesis 1: emotional intelligence has a significant positive influence on employee engagement. work locus of control according to rotter (1966), locus of control is a generalised expectation about the extent to which individuals exercise control over their environment. consistent with rotter’s conceptualisation of locus of control, lefcourt (1966) stated that it involves the extent to which individuals accept personal responsibility for the events in their lives. rotter (1966) highlighted the difference between an internal locus of control and an external locus of control. this distinction refers to (rotter, 1990): [t]he degree to which persons expect that a reinforcement or an outcome of their behaviour is contingent on their own behaviour or personal characteristics versus the degree to which persons expect that the reinforcement or outcomes is a function of chance, luck or fate, is under the control of powerful others or is simply unpredictable. (p. 489) individuals with an internal locus of control believe that reinforcement or outcomes are dependent on their behaviour or personal characteristics. in contrast, individuals with an external locus of control believe that reinforcement or outcomes are coincidental or under the control of influential individuals. by extrapolating from research regarding locus of control, spector (1988) coined the concept of work locus of control, which describes the perception employees have of the relationship between their behaviour or personal characteristics and reinforcement or outcomes at work. employees with an internal work locus of control believe reinforcement or outcomes at work are dependent on their behaviour or personal characteristics, whilst employees with an external work locus of control believe that reinforcement or outcomes at work are coincidental or under the control of influential individuals. three of the dimensions that are subsumed under palmer et al.’s (2009) definition of ei refer to a sense of mastery and perceived control over emotions (i.e. emotional self-control, emotional self-management and emotional management of others). the current authors contend that it is plausible that the sense of mastery and perceived control associated with these dimensions of ei may extend to work matters. in other words, employees, who report high ei, might be more likely to regulate and control their emotions and behaviour according to situational appropriateness. this will enable them to exercise personal control over work matters and, in turn, strengthen their belief that reinforcement or outcomes at work are dependent on their behaviour or personal characteristics. this implies that ei has a significant positive influence on work locus of control. in a study amongst social work professionals in india, singh (2006) found that ei and locus of control were related. singh found that social work professionals, who had a high level of ei, believed that rewards or outcomes are dependent on their behaviour or personal characteristics (i.e. internal locus of control). a cross-sectional study conducted by ng, ke and raymond (2014) amongst 242 nurses in malaysia showed similar results. for this reason, the researchers formulated the following hypothesis: hypothesis 2: emotional intelligence has a positive influence on work locus of control. a meta-analysis conducted by wang, bowling and eschleman (2010) indicated that work locus of control predicted job performance and job attitudes such as organisational commitment and global job satisfaction. in a similar vein, myers (2014) claimed that locus of control is a necessary component of employee engagement and that it leads to higher performance, job satisfaction and successful personal and workplace relationships. the authors consequently formulated the following hypothesis: hypothesis 3: work locus of control has a positive influence on employee engagement. psychological capital luthans, youssef and avolio (2007) defined psychological capital as: [a] positive psychological state of development characterised by having confidence (i.e. self-efficacy) to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks; making a positive attribution (i.e. optimism) about succeeding now and in the future; persevering towards goals and, when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (i.e. hope) to succeed and when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond (i.e. resiliency) to attain success. (p. 3) a longitudinal study conducted amongst 515 middle managers from the recruitment industry in south africa, shaik and buitendach (2015) demonstrated that work locus of control is positively related to psychological capital. shaik and buitendach found that middle managers, who had an internal work locus of control, displayed positive psychological capital. bulmash (2016) had gone so far as to actually equate locus of control with psychological capital. in consideration of this, the current authors propose that work locus of control has a significant positive influence on psychological capital. more specifically, employees, who have an internal work locus of control, are more likely to experience positive emotions as a result of their effective coping with negative emotional circumstances, which builds their psychological resources, such as self-efficacy, resilience, hope and optimism. the following hypothesis was thus formulated: hypothesis 4: work locus of control has a significant positive influence on psychological capital. gong, chen and wang (2019) found that employees’ ei has a positive predictive effect on psychological capital and job performance. whilst simons and buitendag (2013) and allesandri, consiglio, luthans and borgogni (2018) confirmed the positive link between ei and engagement. the following hypotheses could therefore be formulated: hypothesis 5: emotional intelligence has a positive influence on psychological capital. hypothesis 6: psychological capital has a positive influence on employee engagement. calling orientation wrzesniewski, mccauley, rozin and schwartz’s (1997) proposed that employees pursue a career for three reasons, because it is something valuable as an end in itself and serves the greater good (i.e. calling orientation), something that is done primarily to make money (i.e. job orientation), or something that is moderately fulfilling but involves a constant process of trying to get promoted (i.e. career orientation). the mixed-methods study conducted by vermooten (2018) highlighted the salience of calling orientation amongst public school teachers in the cape winelands education district. in accordance with this, the current researchers will operationalise calling orientation as a personal resource in the study. a review of the extant literature on the interface of spirituality, religion and career development directs attention to several definitions for calling. in response to the lack of a unified, empirically testable definition of calling, dik and duffy (2009) proposed a definition that can be used to guide future research. dik and duffy (2009) described calling as: [a] transcendent summons, experienced as originating beyond the self to approach a particular life role in a manner oriented towards demonstrating or deriving a sense of purpose or meaningfulness (i.e. purposeful work) and that which holds other-oriented values and goals as primary sources of motivation (i.e. prosocial orientation). (p. 4) the current authors contend that calling orientation has a significant positive influence on psychological capital. they explain that employees, who have a calling orientation, might be more likely to exhibit positive psychological capital, specifically self-efficacy, hope and resilience. a cross-sectional study conducted by hirschi (2012) amongst 259 heterogeneous employees in germany demonstrated that a positive association exists between calling orientation and occupational self-efficacy (a dimension of psychological capital). a study by wu and lee (2020), however, provided more specific evidence of the strong relationship between calling and psychological capital (b = 0.43, p < 0.0001) in a sample of 164 taiwanese nurses. the researchers, therefore, formulated the following hypothesis: hypothesis 7: calling orientation has a significant positive influence on psychological capital. a cross-sectional study conducted by ugwu and onyishi (2017) amongst 207 high school teachers in nigeria demonstrated that calling orientation had a significant positive influence on employee engagement. a time-lagged survey study conducted by xie, xia, xin and zhou (2016) amongst 832 heterogeneous employees in china reported comparable results. wu and lee (2020), however, obtained a slightly divergent result, with psychological capital fully mediating the relationship between calling orientation and employee engagement. on the basis of these findings, the authors formulated the following hypothesis: hypothesis 8: calling orientation has a positive influence on employee engagement. research design research approach a quantitative research approach was used in the study to achieve its research objectives. a cross-sectional survey of ei, work locus of control, psychological capital, calling orientation and employee engagement was used to collect primary data. research method research participants the setting for the study was public schools in the western cape. the western cape comprises of eight education districts. these districts are the cape winelands, eden and karoo, metro central, metro east, metro north, metro south and west coast education districts. non-probability purposive sampling was used to select a sample of teachers (teachers: n = approximately 1 824 teachers) employed in the participating 76 public schools in the western cape. three hundred fifty-three participants completed the self-administered web-based survey (19% response rate). table 1 offers a description of the participants’ biographical characteristics. table 1: biographical characteristics of participants. measuring instruments the web-based survey, which was developed specifically for the quantitative phase of the study, was made up of two sections. the first section gathered information regarding participants’ biographical characteristics. the second section comprised of valid and reliable instruments that captured the latent variables of interest. the measures utilised for the evaluation of the adapted personal resource and employee engagement model are reported in the following sections. genos emotional intelligence inventory: the shortened version of the genos ei inventory (palmer et al., 2009) was used to measure key ei competencies. this self-report measure, which consists of 14 items, assesses the seven ei competencies, namely emotional self-awareness (two items, ‘i am aware of how my feelings influence the decisions i make at work’), emotional expression (two items, ‘when someone upsets me at work i express how i feel effectively’), emotional awareness of others (two items, ‘i understand the things that make people feel optimistic at work’), emotional reasoning (two items, ‘i demonstrate to others that i have considered their feelings in decisions i make at work’), emotional self-management (two items, ‘i appropriately respond to colleagues who frustrate me at work’), emotional management of others (two items, ‘i am effective in helping others feel positive at work’) and emotional self-control (two items, ‘when upset at work i still think clearly’). a five-point likert-type scale varying from 1 (almost never) to 5 (almost always) was used to score responses. there were two reverse score items. palmer et al. (2009) reported that the reliability coefficient of the extended, as well as the shortened, version of the genos ei inventory was satisfactory (> 0.70). palmer and his colleagues also showed evidence of construct validity (i.e. discriminant validity), as well as criterion validity (i.e. predictive validity and concurrent validity). work locus of control scale: the work locus of control scale (spector, 1988) was used to measure work locus of control. this self-report measure, which consists of 16 items, assesses two subscales, namely internal work locus of control and external work locus of control. only the internal work locus of control subscale (8 items; ‘on most jobs, people can pretty much accomplish whatever they set out to accomplish’) was used to assess work locus of control. a six-point likert-type scale varying from 1 (disagree very much) to 6 (agree very much) was used to score responses. there were no reverse-scored items. spector (1988) reported that the reliability coefficients of work locus of control scale and its subscales were satisfactory (> 0.70) across six samples. spector also demonstrated evidence of criterion validity (i.e. predictive validity). psychological capital questionnaire: the psycap questionnaire (luthans et al., 2007) was used to measure psychological capital. this self-report measure, which consists of 24 items, assesses the four dimensions of psychological capital, namely optimism (six items; ‘i am optimistic about what will happen to me in the future as it pertains to my work’), self-efficacy (six items; ‘i feel confident representing my work area in meetings with management’), resilience (six items; ‘i usually take stressful things at work in my stride’) and hope (six items; ‘at the present time i am energetically pursuing my goals’). the four subscales of the psycap questionnaire were combined in the study. the composite measurement indicator measured psychological capital amongst participants. a six-point likert-type scale varying from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree) was used to score responses. there were three reverse score items. luthans et al. (2007) reported that the reliability coefficients of the psycap questionnaire and its subscales were mostly satisfactory (> 0.70) across four heterogenous samples. luthans and his colleagues also showed evidence of construct validity (i.e. discriminant validity), as well as criterion validity (i.e. predictive validity). calling and vocation questionnaire: the calling and vocation questionnaire (dik, eldridge, steger, & duffy, 2012) was used to measure calling orientation. this self-report measure, which consists of 24 items, assesses the two primary subscales, namely the presence of calling and the search of calling. only the presence of calling primary subscale was used to assess calling orientation. the presence of calling subscale, which consists of 12 items, comprises of three subscales. these subscales are the presence of transcendence summons (four items; ‘i believe that i have been called to my current line of work’), purposeful work (four items; ‘my work helps me live out my life’s purpose’) and prosocial orientation (four items; ‘making a difference for others is the primary motivation in my career’). a four-point likert-type scale varying from 1 (not at all true of me) to 4 (absolutely true of me) was used to score responses. there was one reverse score item. dik et al. (2012) reported that the reliability coefficients of the primary, as well as the secondary, subscales of the calling and vocation questionnaire were satisfactory (> 0.70). dik and his colleagues also demonstrated evidence of construct validity (i.e. discriminant validity and convergent validity). utrecht work engagement scale. the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes-9) (schaufeli, bakker, & salanova, 2006) was used to measure employee engagement. this self-report measure, which consists of nine items, assesses the three dimensions of employee engagement, namely vigour (three items; ‘at my work, i feel bursting with energy’), dedication (three items; ‘i am enthusiastic about my job’) and absorption (three items; ‘i am immersed in my work’). the three subscales of the uwes-9 were combined in the study. the composite measurement indicator measured employee engagement amongst participants. a seven-point likert-type scale varying from 0 (never) to 6 (always) was used to score responses. there were no reverse-scored items. schaufeli et al. (2006) reported that the reliability coefficients of the uwes and its subscales were mostly satisfactory (> 0.70) across 10 heterogenous samples. schaufeli and his colleagues also showed evidence of criterion validity (i.e. concurrent validity). research procedure and ethical considerations once principals had granted institutional permission, the first author sent an email with a link to the web-based survey to the principals or secretaries of participating public schools, depending on their preference. principals or secretaries were asked to send the email to all the teachers who were employed at their school at that point in time. teachers were given five working days (i.e. monday through friday) to participate in the quantitative phase. principals or secretaries were asked to remind teachers to participate in the quantitative phase once during the 5-day period. statistical analysis several statistical techniques were used to analyse the primary data that was gathered for the study and to evaluate the proposed personal resources and employee engagement structural model, depicted in figure 1. these techniques include item analysis to determine the reliability of latent variable scales, confirmatory factor analysis to validate the measurement model and partial least squares (pls) structural equation modelling (sem) to evaluate the structural model. figure 1: proposed personal resources and employee engagement structural model. ethical considerations the researchers obtained approval from the ethics committee of the university where it was undertaken, as well as the western cape department of education, before the commencement of the study. following this, the first author proceeded to apply for institutional permission from the principals of public schools. principals, who agreed to participate in the study were asked to complete an institutional permission form and return it to the first author by email. the institutional permission form gave a detailed explanation of the study and the nature of participation (ethical clearance number: su-hsd-002152). results testing the measurement model item analysis an item analysis was carried out on all the items that were included in the web-based survey. table 2 shows that the cronbach’s alpha for each latent variable scale was acceptable (> 0.70) (nunnally, 1978). moreover, the average inter-item correlation for each latent variable scale was acceptable (> 0.30) (robinson, shaver, & wrightsman, 1991), apart from the genos ei inventory. the average inter-item correlation of the genos ei inventory was, however, still considered ‘extensive’ (> 0.20) (robinson et al., 1991, p. 13). table 2: cronbach’s alpha, average inter-item correlation, mean and standard deviation of the measurement instruments. table 3 provides an indication of how interrelated the latent variables are. table 3: intercorrelational matrix of the latent variables (n = 353). inspection of table 3 shows that the different personal resources are highly correlated and that psycap has the strongest correlation with employee engagement. evaluating the measurement model confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to evaluate the measurement model fit. three separate measurement models were constructed for latent variable scales that comprised of subscales. these latent variable scales are the psychological capital scale (consisting of four subscales), the calling and vocation questionnaire (consisting of three subscales) and the uwes-9 (consisting of three subscales). table 4 summarises the measurement models for the multidimensional measures with the statistics showing either good fit (< 0.05) or reasonable fit (> 0.05 and < 0.08) (hair, black, babin, anderson, & tatham, 2006) and meeting the criteria for the goodness-of-fit index (gfi) and adjusted goodness-of-fit index (agfi) values (> 0.90) (hooper, coughlan, & mullen, 2008). these results suggested that the measurement models mentioned above reproduced the empirical data reasonably well. table 4: goodness-of-fit statistics of the measurement models of each multidimensional instrument. partial least squares path analysis reliability analysis a reliability analysis was carried out on all the items that were included in the web-based survey. table 5 shows that the composite reliability (> 0.60) and average variance extracted (ave) (> 0.50) of the latent variable scales were mostly acceptable (hair, ringle, & sarstedt, 2011). the ave values of ei (0.27) and work locus of control (0.38) were, however, smaller than the 0.50 critical value. the ave score refers to the amount of variance that is captured by the construct and could be seen as a measure of construct validity. upon investigating the available evidence, the researchers concluded that the ave values of these latent variables did not unduly influence the results obtained. the researchers, therefore, concluded that the outer-measurement model fit was acceptable. each latent variable scale measured the construct that it was assigned to measure. table 5: evaluation of the partial least square inner model and outer model. despite the strong intercorrelations between the latent variables (table 3), the variance inflation values (ranging from 1 to 2.208) were satisfactory (< 4.00) (garson, 2016), indicating that there was no collinearity between the latent variables. in a similar vein, the heterotrait-monotrait ratios (ranging from 0.48 to 0.8) were satisfactory (< 0.90) (henseler, ringle, & sarstedt, 2015), indicating that the latent variables displayed discriminant validity. testing the structural model table 5 shows that the r square value and r square adjusted value of work locus of control was moderate (> 0.19), whilst the r square value and r square adjusted value of psychological capital and employee engagement were substantial (> 0.33) (chin, 1998). these results suggested that the structural model fit was acceptable. figure 2 depicts the path coefficients between the latent variables of interest. five of the hypothesised relationships in the personal resources and employee engagement structural model were supported at the 95% confidence level. the strength of the influence of ξj and/or ηj on ηi was substantial and significant for the following hypotheses: emotional intelligence on work locus of control (path coefficient = 0.45) (hypothesis 2) work locus of control on psychological capital (path coefficient = 0.24) (hypothesis 4) emotional intelligence on psychological capital (path coefficient = 0.49) (hypothesis 5) psychological capital on employee engagement (path coefficient = 0.55) (hypothesis 6) calling orientation on psychological capital (path coefficient = 0.18) (hypothesis 7) calling orientation on employee engagement (path coefficient = 0.32) (hypothesis 8). figure 2: partial least squares report for the personal resources and employee engagement structural model. two of the hypothesised relationships between personal resources and employee engagement structural model were not supported at the 95% confidence level. the strength of the influence of ξj and/or ηj on ηi was not substantial or significant for the following hypotheses: emotional intelligence on employee engagement (path coefficient = −0.03) (hypothesis 1) work locus of control on employee engagement (path coefficient = 0.04) (hypothesis 3). discussion the researchers drew on the central tenets of the jd-r theory to examine the role of personal resources in predicting employee engagement amongst public school teachers in the western cape. by extrapolating from research conducted by menguc et al. (2013), the researchers proposed that it is necessary to study the interrelatedness of the psychological resources, in order to capture the complexity of the personal resource phenomenon and its consequences for employee engagement. a mixed-methods study conducted by vermooten (2018) directed attention to the salience of four personal resources amongst public school teachers in the cape winelands. these personal resources were ei, work locus of control, psychological capital and calling orientation. for this reason, the researchers decided to explore the relational dynamics amongst ei, work locus of control, psychological capital and calling orientation and its consequences for employee engagement in the study. outline of the results the results obtained from pls sem generally supported the hypothesised relationships. the results provided strong support for the influence of ei on work locus of control (ng et al., 2014; singh, 2006), ei on psychological capital (gong et al., 2019), work locus of control on psychological capital (shaik & buitendach, 2015), calling orientation on psychological capital (wu & lee, 2020), psychological capital on employee engagement (allesandri et al., 2018; simons & buitendach, 2013) and calling orientation on employee engagement (ugwu & nyishi, 2017; xie et al., 2016). unexpectedly, the hypothesised influence of ei on employee engagement (pérez-fuentes et al., 2018; turner & stough, 2019) and work locus of control on employee engagement (myers, 2014) were not supported. this suggests that personal resources may not always have a direct influence on employee engagement. it was, however, clear, in accordance with the cor theory that some personal resources support other personal resources. inspection of figure 2 reveals that psychological capital fully mediates the relationship between ei and employee engagement, as well as between work locus of control and engagement. it also serves as partial mediator between work locus of control and employee engagement, as well as between calling orientation and employee engagement. these findings strengthen the theory that ‘resource caravans’ (hobfoll, 2001) are formed that have a significant positive influence on employee engagement. the above-mentioned results captured the complexity of the personal resources phenomenon and its consequences for employee engagement. by adopting a model that explores the relational dynamics amongst personal resources, the study provided insight into the way multiple personal resources interact with one another and, in turn, foster employee engagement. practical implications the study highlighted the salience of personal resources amongst public school teachers in the western cape. consistent with the conservation of resources theory (hobfoll, 1989), its results demonstrated that personal resources, specifically ei, work locus of control, psychological capital and calling orientation, generate each other and, in turn, foster employee engagement. for this reason, the researchers recommend that reasonable steps should be taken to ensure that teaching students and in-service teachers develop these personal resources. this can be achieved through career counselling, coaching and training. teaching students can be asked to create a personal development plan that consists of specific action steps, which target personal resources that are not adequately developed. similarly, provincial departments of education should offer coaching services that target the development of personal resources to in-service teachers. limitations of the study and recommendations for future research the first limitation relates to the cross-sectional survey design that was adopted in the study. this design does not allow researchers to fully establish the causal relationships between the latent variables of interest. longitudinal research is needed to address this limitation. the second limitation concerns the nature of self-reported measures that were used in the study. common method variance, associated with the use of self-reported measures, may have negatively affected the accuracy of associations between the latent variables of interest (podsakoff, mackenzie, lee, & podsakoff, 2003). multiple source studies are needed to address this limitation. the third limitation relates to the underrepresentation of the no-fee paying schools in the sample, which has a negative impact on the generalisability of the results. the reasons for the low participation rates should be investigated. concluding remarks the study demonstrated the importance of adopting a model that captures the complexity of the personal resources phenomenon and its consequences for employee engagement (menguc et al., 2013). in doing so, the researchers made a meaningful contribution to the field of industrial and organisational psychology, as they were able to provide insight into the way multiple personal resources interact with one another and, in turn, foster employee engagement. consistent with the conservation of resources theory (hobfoll, 1989), the results of the study demonstrated that personal resources, specifically ei, work locus of control, psychological capital and calling orientation, support each other. in turn, these personal resources foster employee engagement. in consideration of this, the researchers recommend that human resources practices should concentrate on developing personal resources to foster employee engagement. acknowledgements the authors are grateful for the support received from the public schools that agreed to participate in the research study. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contribution n.v. conducted a review of the extant literature, facilitated the web-based survey and prepared the manuscript. j.m. and b.b. reviewed the manuscript. m.k. facilitated the data processing. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability new data were created and analysed in this study. authors may be contacted in this regard. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references allesandri, g., consiglio, c., luthans, f., & borgogni, l. (2018). testing a dynamic model of the impact of psychological capital on work engagement and job performance. career development international, 23(1), 33–47. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi-11-2016-0210 bailey, c., madden, a., alfes, k., & fletcher, l. (2017). the meaning, antecedents and outcomes of employee engagement: a narrative synthesis. international journal of management reviews, 19(1), 31–53. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12077 bakker, a.b., & costa, p.l. (2014). chronic job burnout and daily functioning: a theoretical analysis. burnout research, 1(3), 112–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burn.2014.04.003 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2017). job demands-resources theory: taking stock and looking forward. journal of occupational health psychology, 22(3), 273–285. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000056 bulmash, b. (2016). entrepreneurial resilience: locus of control and well-being of entrepreneurs. journal of entrepreneurship & organisation management, 5(1), 171. https://doi.org/10.4172/2169-026x.1000171 chin, w.w. (1998). the partial least squares approach to structural equation modeling. in g.a. marcoulides (ed.), modern methods for business research (pp. 295–336). mahwah, nj: psychology press. conway, a.m., tugade, m.m., catalino, l.i., & fredrickson, b.l. (2013). the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions: form, function and mechanisms. in s.a. david, i. boniwell, & a.c. ayers (eds.), oxford handbook of happiness (pp. 17–34). oxford: oxford university press. creswell, j.w., & plano clark, v.l. (2011). designing and conducting mixed methods research (2nd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., nachreiner, f., & schaufeli, w.b. (2001). the job demands-resources model of burnout. journal of applied psychology, 86(3), 499–512. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.86.3.499 dik, b.j., & duffy, r.d. (2009). calling and vocation at work: definitions and prospects for research and practice. the counseling psychologist, 37(3), 424–450. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000008316430 dik, b.j., eldridge, b.m., steger, m.f., & duffy, r.d. (2012). development and validation of the calling and vocation questionnaire (cvq) and brief calling scale (bcs). journal of career assessment, 20(3), 242–263. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072711434410 garson, g.d. (2016). partial least squares: regression and structural equation models. asheboro, nc: statistical publishing associates. gong, z., chen, y., & wang, y. (2019). the influence of emotional intelligence on job burnout and job performance: mediating effect of psychological capital. frontiers in psychology, 10, 2707. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02707 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., anderson, r.e., & tatham, r.l. (2006). multivariate data analysis (6th ed.). uppersaddle river, nj: pearson prentice hall. hair, j.f., ringle, c.m., & sarstedt, m. (2011). pls-sem: indeed a silver bullet. journal of marketing theory and practice, 19(2), 139–151. https://doi.org/10.2753/mtp1069-6679190202 henseler, j., ringle, c.m., & sarstedt, m. (2015). a new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. journal of the academy of marketing science, 43(1), 115–135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8 hirschi, a. (2012). callings and work engagement: moderated mediation model of work meaningfulness, occupational identity, and occupational self-efficacy. journal of counseling psychology, 59(3), 479–485. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028949 hobfoll, s.e. (1989). conservation of resources: a new attempt at conceptualizing stress. american psychologist, 44(3), 513–524. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.44.3.513 hobfoll, s.e. (2001). the influence of culture, community, and the nested-self in the stress process: advancing conservation of resources theory. applied psychology, 50(3), 337–421. https://doi.org/10.1111/1464-0597.00062 hodzic, s., scharfen, j., ripoll, p., holling, h., & zenasni, f. (2018). how efficient are emotional intelligence trainings: a meta-analysis. emotion review, 10(2), 138–148. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073917708613 hooper, d., coughlan, j., & mullen, m. (2008). structural equation modeling: guidelines for determining model fit. electronic journal of business research methods, 6(1), 53–60. karatepe, o.m., ozturk, a., & kim, t.t. (2019). the effects of nonwork and personal resources on frontline bank employees’ work engagement and critical job outcomes. international journal of bank marketing, 37(3), 858–879. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbm-05-2018-0133 kozlowski, d., hutchinson, m., hurley, j., & browne, g. (2018). increasing nurses’ emotional intelligence with a brief intervention. applied nursing research, 41, 59–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnr.2018.04.001 lazarus, r.s. (1991). progress on a cognitive-motivational-relational theory of emotion. american psychologist, 46(8), 819–834. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.46.8.819 lefcourt, h.m. (1966). internal versus external control of reinforcement: a review. psychological bulletin, 65(4), 206–220. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0023116 lestari, s.d., & sawitri, d.r. (2017). correlation between emotional intelligence and work engagement of special need school teachers. advanced science letters, 23(4), 3480–3482. https://doi.org/10.1166/asl.2017.9139 lorente, l.p., salanova, m.s., martínez, i.m., & schaufeli, w.b. (2008). extension of the job demands-resources model in the prediction of burnout and engagement amongst teachers over time. psicothema, 20(3), 354–360. luthans, f., youssef, c.m., & avolio, b.j. (2007). psychological capital: developing the human competitive edge. oxford: oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195187526.001.0001 mäkikangas, a., feldt, t., kinnunen, u., & mauno, s. (2013). does personality matter? research on individual differences in occupational well-being. in a.b. bakker (eds.), advances in positive organizational psychology (vol. 1, pp. 107–143). bingley: emerald publishing. mayer, j.d., salovey, p., & caruso, d.r. (2002). msceit user’s manual. toronto: multi-health systems. menguc, b., auh, s., fisher, m., & haddad, a. (2013). to be engaged or not to be engaged: the antecedents and consequences of service employee engagement. journal of business research, 66(11), 2163–2170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2012.01.007 myers, j. (2014). employee locus of control and engagement in nonprofit organizations (walden dissertations and doctoral studies collection). walden university, p. 122. retrieved from https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/122 newacheck, p.w., rising, j.p., & kim, s.e. (2006). children at risk for special health care needs. pediatrics, 118(1), 334–342. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2005-2238 ng, s.m., ke, g.n., & raymond, w. (2014). the mediating role of work locus of control on the relationship among emotional intelligence, organisational citizenship behaviours, and mental health among nurses. australian journal of psychology, 66(4), 207–215. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12049 northcutt, n., & mccoy, d. (2004). interactive qualitative analysis: a systems method for qualitative research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. nunnally, j. (1978). psychometric methods. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. palmer, b.r., stough, c., harmer, r., & gignac, g.e. (2009). the genos emotional intelligence inventory: a measure designed specifically for workplace applications. in c. stough, d.h. saklofske, & j.d. parker (eds.), assessing emotional intelligence: theory, research, and applications (pp. 103–117). boston, ma: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-88370-0_6 pérez-fuentes, m.c., molero, m.m., gázquez, j.j., & oropesa, n.f. (2018). the role of emotional intelligence in engagement in nurses. international journal of environmental research and public health, 15(9), 1915. https://doi:10.3390/ijerph15091915 petrides, k.v., pita, r., & kokkinaki, f. (2007). the location of trait emotional intelligence in personality factor space. british journal of psychology, 98(2), 273–289. https://doi.org/10.1348/000712606x120618 podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., lee, j.y., & podsakoff, n.p. (2003). common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. journal of applied psychology, 88(5), 879–903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879 richardsen, a.m. (2019). work engagement: increasing employee well-being and organizational effectiveness. in r.j. burke, & a.m. richardsen (eds.), creating psychologically healthy workplaces (pp. 311–331). cheltenham: edward elgar publishing. robinson, j.p., shaver, p.r., & wrightsman, l.s. (1991). criteria for scale selection and evaluation. in j.p. robinson, p.r. shaver, & l.s. wrightsman (eds.), measures of personality and social psychological attitudes: measures of social psychological attitudes (vol. 1, pp. 1–16). new york, ny: academic press. rotter, j.b. (1966). generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. psychological monographs: general and applied, 80(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0092976 rotter, j.b. (1990). internal versus external control of reinforcement: a case history of a variable. american psychologist, 45(4), 489–493. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.45.4.489 schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organizational behavior, 25(3), 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.248 schaufeli, w.b., bakker, a.b., & salanova, m.s. (2006). the measurement of work engagement with a short questionnaire: a cross-national study. educational and psychological measurement, 66(4), 701–716. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164405282471 schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m.s., gonzález-romá, v.a., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3(1), 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 schaufeli, w.b., & taris, t.w. (2014). a critical review of the job demands-resources model: implications for improving work and health. in g.f. bauer & o. hämmig (eds.), bridging occupational, organizational and public health: a transdisciplinary approach (pp. 43–68). dordrecht: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5640-3_4 shaik, z., & buitendach, j.h. (2015). the relationship between work locus of control and psychological capital amongst middle managers in the recruitment industry of south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 13(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.615 simons, j.c., & buitendach, j.h. (2013). psychological capital, work engagement and organisational commitment amongst call centre employees in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1071 singh, s.k. (2006). social work professionals’ emotional intelligence, locus of control and role efficacy: an exploratory study. south african journal of industrial psychology, 4(2), 39–45. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v4i2.88 spector, p.e. (1988). development of the work locus of control scale. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 61(4), 335–340. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1988.tb00470.x tims, m., bakker, a.b., & derks, d. (2013). the impact of job crafting on job demands, job resources, and well-being. journal of occupational health psychology, 18(2), 230–240. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032141 toyama, h., & mauno, s. (2017). associations of trait emotional intelligence with social support, work engagement, and creativity in japanese eldercare nurses. japanese psychological research, 59(1), 14–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpr.12139 turner, k., & stough, c. (2019). pre-service teachers and emotional intelligence: a scoping review. the australian educational researcher, 47, 283–305. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-019-00352-0 ugwu, f.o., & onyishi, i.e. (2017). linking perceived organizational frustration to work engagement: the moderating roles of sense of calling and psychological meaningfulness. journal of career assessment, 26(2), 220–239. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072717692735 vermooten, n. (2018). variance in employee engagement amongst public school teachers in the western cape province: an exploratory study. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of stellenbosch, stellenbosch. vermooten, n., malan, d.j., & boonzaier, b. (2020). variance in employee engagement: a qualitative analysis among public school teachers in the cape winelands education district. sa journal of industrial psychology, 46, a1568. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v46i0.1568 wang, q., bowling, n.a., & eschleman, k.j. (2010). a meta-analytic examination of work and general locus of control. journal of applied psychology, 95(4), 761–768. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017707 wrzesniewski, a., mccauley, c., rozin, p., & schwartz, b. (1997). jobs, careers, and callings: people’s relations to their work. journal of research in personality, 31(1), 21–33. https://doi.org/10.1006/jrpe.1997.2162 wu, w., & lee, y. (2020). how spiritual leadership boosts nurses’ work engagement: the mediating roles of calling and psychological capital. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(17), 6364. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17176364 xanthopoulou, d., bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2007). the role of personal resources in the job demands-resources model. international journal of stress management, 14(2), 121–141. https://doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.14.2.121 xie, b., xia, m., xin, x., & zhou, w. (2016). linking calling to work engagement and subjective career success: the perspective of career construction theory. journal of vocational behavior, 94, 70–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2016.02.011 abstract introduction method findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) badelisile m. maseko department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa rene van wyk department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa aletta odendaal department of industrial psychology, university of stellenbosch, stellenbosch, south africa citation maseko, b.m., van wyk, r., & odendaal, a. (2019). team coaching in the workplace: critical success factors for implementation. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1125. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1125 original research team coaching in the workplace: critical success factors for implementation badelisile m. maseko, rene van wyk, aletta odendaal received: 04 oct. 2018; accepted: 06 dec. 2018; published: 30 apr. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: there is a scant availability of clear practice guidelines for the implementation of team coaching in organisations. challenges and enabling factors in the implementation of team coaching require further exploration. research purpose: this study aims to develop a conceptual framework that identifies the critical success factors that play a role in the implementation of team coaching in organisations. motivation for the study: this study contributes towards the understanding of team coaching implementation in the workplace. informed knowledge of critical factors may guide the practice of team coaching and assist in the development of a conceptual framework for such coaching. research approach/design and method: a constructivist qualitative research method was adopted. a case study approach was used, with seven experienced subject matter experts selected by means of purposive snowballing. data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed using thematic analysis. main findings: results of the thematic analysis indicate that to integrate successful team coaching into any organisation, effective analysis of an organisational context is required, that is, leadership stakeholders, team effectiveness, competency of a coach and employee engagement. constraints that may prevent successful implementation of team coaching are identified. practical/managerial implications: the findings provide a platform to enhance the understanding and knowledge of the complexities of team coaching within organisations. contribution/value-add: the main contribution of the study is the identification of critical factors in the pre-, during and post-implementation phases of team coaching. this conceptual framework could serve as a guide for team coaching interventions in south african contexts. keywords: team coaching; team coaching enablers; team coaching constraints. introduction effective leadership is important for organisational survival and growth, especially in today’s dynamic global business environment. coaching is a planned intervention and part of a strategy for leadership development that is aligned with organisational strategic objectives (reich, ullmann, van der loos, & leifer, 2009). traditionally, coaching has focused on individual empowerment and achievements. organisations are now beginning to rely on team coaching to enhance organisational performance (hackman & wageman, 2005). even though organisations depend on teams to achieve their goals (kozlowski & ilgen, 2006), many leaders are uncertain of how to optimally lead their teams in order to enhance performance (wageman, fisher, & hackman, 2009). research on coaching in practice appears to mainly focus on coaching individuals, managers and executives and less on team coaching (klein, 2012). the lack of empirical evidence in the full value chain from need identification to implementation is regarded as a weakness in the research into team coaching (hagen & aguilar, 2012; peters & carr, 2013b). reviewing south african literature, there appears to be a lack of research with regard to team coaching in organisations. however, in support of the effectiveness of team coaching, two south african studies suggest that collective coaching is more effective than dyadic coaching (martiz, 2012; reid, 2012). there is also a call for coaching interventions to evolve beyond one-on-one to collective coaching (martiz, 2012). purpose the aim of this study was to identify critical factors that could enable organisations to implement team coaching. coaching: an overview traditionally, coaching has been anchored in western approaches that value individualism and achievement (joo, 2005; kampa-kokesch & anderson, 2001). the focus has been on individuals, leadership development and the growth of the leader’s capacity to take on effective leadership roles and responsibilities. coaching is furthermore used as a tool to assist the coachee in realising sustainable change and personal development (mcdermott, levenson, & newton, 2007; odendaal, 2016). given the amount of attention devoted to the topic of coaching, one might expect that there would be a common agreement on its definition (clutterbuck, 2013; hamlin, ellinger, & beattie, 2008). this is not, however, the case. currently, the definitions of coaching reflect the diversity of contexts or domains in which the practitioner operates, the specific methodological approach employed and the outcomes to be achieved (standards australia, 2010). descriptions of coaching that are in line with the purpose of this study define coaching as a process of helping individuals or teams in achieving their goals (grant, 2012a; kampa-kokesch & anderson, 2001). team coaching group coaching is at times used interchangeably with team coaching, but the current study will use group coaching and team coaching as differentiated terms. in group coaching, members come together as relative strangers, and the purpose is explicitly to facilitate the self-directed learning of the members, using a variety of individual goals in a cross-fertilising learning experience (hawkins, 2014). team coaching, as a collective strategic intervention, focuses on the improvement of team productivity, increased engagement levels and reaching commonly agreed team goals (bandura & lyons, 2017; morgeson, derue, & karam, 2010). team coaching augments performance, collaborations, synergies and the alignment of employees towards achieving a common goal (clutterbuck, 2013; hackman & wageman, 2005; peters & carr, 2013a, 2013b; thornton, 2010). it is a process whereby a coach works with the entire team, with one common objective aimed at assisting participants in attaining their full potential. team members, however, share responsibilities and expertise, resulting in the team being increasingly recognised as more effective than individuals (mathieu, heffner, goodwin, salas, & cannon-bowers, 2000). the coaching of a team is seen as a powerful strategy in organisational development (clarke, 2010). when a team is coached, knowledge is transferred from individuals to work for the team, with positive organisational outcomes (rousseau, aubé, & tremblay, 2013). teams provide the platform for knowledge sharing and exchange, of which organisational learning becomes the product. therefore, team learning is evident where there are transformed skills, knowledge and behaviour in the team (sessa, london, pingor, gullu, & patel, 2011; vesso & alas, 2016). numerous factors determine the efficacy of this form of intervention. team characteristics play an important role in encouraging participation in all activities. the greater the social support and competence of the team, the better the participation levels within the team (solansky & mciver, 2017). self-reflection and self-awareness practices are critical for a team to uncover their learning processes (peuker & kiss, 2018). it is of fundamental importance that the team coaching process takes place in a favourable environment to yield positive results (ingleton, 2013). a case analysis of team coaching indicated that team coaching initiatives should be linked to organisational strategies and objectives (mukherjee, 2012). all stakeholders’ expectations must be recognised and aligned to the organisational goals, especially where the organisation is the ultimate sponsor of such an intervention. sufficient resources and active leadership support are critical factors in ensuring that coaching is successfully implemented, as interventions are often not successful without executive backing (avolio, avey, & quisenberry, 2010; goldman, wesner, & karnchanomai, 2013). indeed, the coaching of managers improves both team and individual learning (matsuo, 2018). accurate assessment of the impact of interventions, such as coaching, is not easy to obtain other than through the solicitation of feedback from participants. however, well-designed preand post-coaching evaluation questionnaires may be useful in ascertaining the effectiveness of a team coaching programme (rousseau et al., 2013). team diagnostics and assessments early in the implementation of a coaching programme are key to establish the needs of a client, which in turn must inform the design of a coaching programme (britton, 2015; rekalde, landeta, & albizu, 2015). it would also be instructive to track the operational performance of the team over an extended period of time after team coaching (anderson, 2011; avolio et al., 2010; osatuke, yanovsky, & ramsel, 2016). a team coaching contract must preferably be employed, setting out the roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders, rules of engagement and accountability of the coach to an identified party within the organisation (kahn, 2011). failure to do so may result in restricted accountability and unnecessary discomfort. at the outset of the intervention, the coach and the coachees must establish mutual understanding with regard to trust, confidentiality and empathetic response (clutterbuck, 2013). constraints to team coaching the absence of leadership support and lack of resources will adversely affect the team coaching intervention (anderson, 2011; chapman, 2010). this may also reduce the interest in the programme and thus affect participation (ashley-timms, 2012; goldman et al., 2013). the presence of rigid silos and the absence of collaboration and commitment, which are endemic and characteristics of an organisational culture, may pose a potential threat to successful team coaching implementation (bond & naughton, 2011). lastly, inadequate coaching experience and a poor appreciation of team dynamics can undermine the team coach’s good intentions and effectively derail the coaching project (yates, 2015). problem statement from the review of the literature, it is evident that the availability of clear practice guidelines regarding the implementation of team coaching in organisations is limited. challenges and factors that facilitate the implementation of team coaching, especially within the south african context, require further exploration. against this background, the aim of this study is to explore and describe critical success factors that may enable organisations to implement effective team coaching. research question the main research question posed is the following: what are the critical success factors that need to be taken into consideration for the implementation of team coaching? method a qualitative research method was adopted to explore and accumulate descriptive data regarding the implementation of team coaching as a phenomenon. qualitative research affords the opportunity to gain detailed knowledge and a better understanding of opinions, experiences and thoughts as presented by respondents (miles, huberman, & saldana, 2013). based on the ontological and epistemological assumption that the experiences of research participants will be subjective, the constructivist paradigm allows for the interpretation of the observed phenomena (scotland, 2012). the ontological view of reality follows an epistemological subjective reality that interprets knowledge as socially constructed through the interconnected patterns of the integration of the different perspectives of participants. research strategy this study applied a case study strategy to answer the research question. this research strategy was used to collect comprehensive data from experts in coaching (leedy & ormord, 2001), with the purpose of understanding team coaching implementation. a case study inquiry allows the researcher to address the complexity of social phenomena (baxter & jack, 2008; blumberg, cooper, & schindler, 2011), in this case coaching expertise. the principles of thematic analysis are applied to provide clarity on this phenomenon. participants two non-probability sampling procedures were utilised: purposive and snowballing techniques. the participants were deliberately chosen to reflect a unit of analysis and process of interest (mayan, 2009; welman, kruger, & mitchell, 2005) of having expertise in the field of team coaching. sampling parameters were centred on the participants being subject matter experts in the coaching field and having implemented team coaching. selection criteria required that participants had at least 5 years of experience in executive coaching in any economic sector and had implemented team coaching interventions within organisations. the sample comprised four men and three women, with age ranging from 36 to 67 years. all the participants had more than 5 years of experience, ranging from individual to executive and team coaching. they had all implemented team coaching in various privateand public-sector industries, such as engineering, financial services, mining and manufacturing. procedure the research focused on seven team coaching practitioners with specific expertise in team coaching in the workplace. individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with the team coaching practitioners. access to the participants was gained via email invitation to participate in the study, and the snowballing technique assisted in obtaining additional participants. the purpose of the research, as well as ethical considerations of anonymity and confidentiality, was explained. all interviews were recorded and field notes were taken with permission. data collection method two rounds of semi-structured interviews were conducted. saturation was determined when no new information was generated from the participants (greeff, 2005; mayan, 2009). permission to record the interviews was obtained from the participants prior to the interviews. for the purpose of eliciting in-depth responses, a semi-structured interview schedule was formulated to keep the interviewing process focused on the research objectives. this ensured consistency across different interviews. interviews were fully transcribed to provide raw data for an orderly analysis. audio recordings further allowed for the capture of information that could have been missed during note-taking (guest & mitchell, 2007). a hand-written journal of personal notes was made after each interview and while listening to audio recordings. the journal enabled the recording and reflection of observations, during and immediately after each interview. the first phase of semi-interviews solicited individual, in-depth, detailed information from the respondents. the second phase of interviews facilitated clarification and confirmation from the initial respondents. data analysis all the interviews and raw field notes were captured and transcribed (pope, ziebland, & mays, 2000; welman et al., 2005). audio recordings were transcribed verbatim, without changing their intended meaning (patton, 1990; pope et al., 2000). thematic analysis was employed and emerging codes and themes were identified. firstand second-level interpretations were used for analysing the data and verifying patterns and themes (collis & hussey, 2009; newman, 2012). the process involved identification and coding of significant phrases in terms of insights they furnished into key enablers, constraints and challenges, as well as outputs of the process of implementing team coaching. comparisons and contrasting ideas allowed for analysed variations in answers, resulting in common central themes and individual uniqueness (welman et al., 2005). ethical considerations the participants were informed about the objectives of the study and that participation was voluntary. it was made clear that participants could opt out without any negative consequences. the participants were assured that anonymity and confidentiality would be maintained by numbering the participants, with non-disclosure of organisations where team interventions had taken place. to incentivise their contribution to the study, participants have been granted access to the completed research report. permission was obtained from the university of johannesburg’s ethics committee (ethical clearance number: fom2017ippm068). findings seven main themes emerged from the analysis of the findings: (1) organisational culture, (2) coaching agreement, (3) team effectiveness, (4) common team goal, (5) engagement, (6) competencies of the coach and (7) constraining factors. these themes are summarised in table 1 and explained in the discussion that follows. table 1: main themes that support team coaching (current authors) organisational culture culture is regarded as the setting of tone of employee actions and leadership orientations, thus cultivating a platform for transparency and collaboration. a favourable organisational culture needs to be in place to produce a receptive environment for team coaching. this has to be done with ‘open-mindedness, a flow of communication, cultural optimisation and acceptance, … there must be trust’ (participant 3, male, 55 years old). the environment should be such that the team feels safe and trusts the system. trust has to be ingrained within an environment that promotes open and honest communication. there needs to be an organisational readiness (participants 2 [female, 51 years old]; participant 3 [male, 55 years old]; participant 4 [female, 40 years old] and participant 7 [male, 65 years old]) and willingness for organisational members to work together to bring about organisational change: ‘the organisation must be ready for the intervention’ (participant 3, male, 55 years old); ‘one has to look at the rationale behind the organisation wanting to implement team coaching’ (participant 7, male, 65 years old). there needs to be a shared vision (participants 3, [male, 55 years old]; participant 4 [female, 40 years old] and participant 7 [male, 65 years old]) that if various stakeholders are committed to implementing the change, one can be confident that their collective wisdom will bring about the desired results. the majority of the participants indicated organisational culture supported by leadership as a key enabling factor for the successful implementation of team coaching. leadership support is fundamental as a strategic priority in achieving the objectives of team coaching. the leadership of the organisation must be actively engaged in the successful implementation of team coaching. participant 1 (male, 67 years old) emphasises a ‘robust organisational culture that supports team coaching interventions, strong sponsorship and buy-in from senior leadership’. an effective leader collaborates with either his or her counterparts and subordinates. such a leader creates an opportunity to mitigate the challenges faced when a manager tries to influence areas that are outside of his or her span of control. the coach is the moderator and facilitator aiming at helping the team members’ preparation to engage objectively with challenges in the workplace. the team coach must relate to the organisational culture and have the capacity to understand the diverse nature of the team from a cultural and demographic perspective (participants 3, 4, 5 and 6), ‘paying attention to cultural sensitivity’ (participant 5, male, 55 years old). every level from senior management down to the production line of the workplace should strive to embrace diversity ‘… you need to get the richness of information from the diverse culture within south africa’ (participant 3, male, 55 years old). the acknowledgement of diversity acts as a value-adding tool with an improved understanding of all the various units within the workplace: ‘an understanding of diversity allows one to avoid misguided conclusions’ (participant 4, female, 40 years old). the coaching environment should enable the team to be relaxed and free to provide input without fear of criticism or victimisation. ‘new understanding helps them think about how they can relate to one another more effectively, at the same time it breeds tolerance’ (participant 3, male, 55 years old). coaching agreement an agreement must be made between the client, who is the sponsor, and the coach. ‘contracting with the sponsor upfront with clear objectives and deliverables …’ (participant 1, male, 67 years old); it has to be done ‘upfront and [with] goal clarity’ (participant 6, female, 58 years old). this has to be in line with the vision of the organisation. the contract should specify the method, goals and expectations of the team coaching intervention. there need to be ‘clear objectives, … [which] get the team to integrate with the individual dynamics as a team’ (participant 4, female, 40 years old). the agreement must define the roles of all parties as well as the relationship structure. ‘role clarity is important at the contracting stage’ (participant 7, male, 65 years old). the contract must explicitly clarify the agreed outcomes and direction of the process. coaches must state their flexibility and limitations. this implies that the agreement must not be rigid, but rather should allow for future amendments. the coach needs to be able to ‘change direction’ if the process does not work well (participant 2, female, 51 years old). sufficient resources must be allocated to meet these objectives within team coaching. this may require budget, time allocation and commitment (participants 1, 3 and 7). it may also necessitate the logistics of moving resources to where they are needed to accomplish the set objectives. organisational dynamics require that the team coaching intervention must fulfil all stakeholders’ expectations (participants 1, 2 and 7). a clearly stated contract, guided by the coach who accommodates team dynamics, allows an opportunity to navigate across the stakeholder expectations of the coaching process: ‘you need to look at the relationship between the team and its stakeholders, what the various stakeholders are expecting from the team … and if the team is delivering’ (participant 7, male, 65 years old). the coach must be prepared to manage conflicting ideas from various stakeholders by finding a balance between different expectations. team effectiveness team effectiveness is based on the ability to encourage team members to work cohesively towards a common goal within an organisation. organisations make team effectiveness problematic, as evident from one participant’s response: they ‘advocate teamwork, however, rewards are based on individual performance’ (participant 3, male, 55 years old). organisational processes must be coordinated and should combine cognitive, motivational and behavioural resources. values include encouraging listening and responding constructively to all views expressed, being supportive and acknowledging the interests and achievements of others. the organisational strategy should be clear to the team. if unclear, there will be ‘a lack of transparency, lack of integrity and trust, lack of commitment to the goal and the team’s performance and poor communication’ (participant 3, male, 55 years old). the outcomes of team coaching implementation have to align with organisational priorities. with effective team coaching implementation, the organisation establishes a synergy across the entire employee engagement system. there has to be an ‘agreement with team deliverables’ (participant 2, female, 51 years old). this should take place at the vertical element of senior to lower reporting structures, as well as horizontal reporting levels. clear team objectives must be set with accurate and timely pre-assessment guidelines. assessments allow to uncover effective and ineffective team practices. pre-assessment enables an organisation to determine how to frame the entire engagement and address existing challenges. common team goals common team goals allow the ‘team to focus and hold each other accountable to the agreed deliverables’ (participant 5, male, 36 years old) and ‘pull together towards the same objectives’ (participant 7, male, 65 years old). however, the organisation must first determine what its goals are such that their achievement ‘serves the organisations and not individuals’ agendas’ (participant 2, female, 51 years old). confidentiality is vital for the effective implementation of team coaching to safeguard the information shared by the coached individual and to establish a trusting relationship. successful team results require that all the members of the team are aligned with the objectives. the team then has ‘a common team goal which they agree to focus on and hold each other accountable for deliverables’ (participant 5, male, 36 years old). the effect of the sum of multiple agents combined and working in concert will be greater than that of individuals working in isolation. team coaching adds value through facilitating the collaborative attainment of organisational goals. parties concerned must invest themselves fully in the activity by giving the necessary attention and effort to complete the task. individual goals may have to be sacrificed to achieve team goals. without common goals, a team is just a group of individuals with their own agendas: ‘it is designed to achieve its objectives … example: you can’t have 11 players on the soccer field – each person must have their role and complement each other’ (participant 3, male, 55 years old). consistent feedback will further enhance the team coaching implementation. feedback can positively contribute to change as stakeholders begin to see the initiative take shape and link the ‘why’ questions to the results achieved. the coach should provide continuous feedback on team performance, to both the team and the sponsor. engagement the implementation of new strategies must be clear, as this will bear an impact on the performance of the organisational deliverables. keeping employees engaged should become an organisational priority as employee engagement serves to enhance a positive mindset. ‘the aim of team coaching is to foster team engagement which results in team performance’ (participant 1, male, 67 years old). often organisational leadership formulates new strategies for implementation. such implementation is optimally introduced through a collaborative approach towards all organisational stakeholders. a collaborative approach is likely to yield higher success when implemented through team coaching. ‘organisations need to implement programmes that improve employee engagement … team coaching implementation is one of the strategies that can be used to improve employee engagement’ (participant 1, male, 67 years old). a collective approach, where all those affected regularly share their experiences through constant open communication, may promote a healthier environment for team learning. the continuous monitoring and evaluation of strategies enables all stakeholders to reflect on the effectiveness of team coaching implementation (participants 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7). it allows the organisation to remain objective on executing strategies. a perspective that emerges from the evaluation provides insights into the viewpoints of participants. the organisation is able to measure the successes of the initiative against the established criteria. regular in-progress evaluations (participants 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7) and post-intervention evaluations of performance continuation should be conducted at intervals ranging from 3 and 6 months to 1 year subsequent to the coaching intervention (participants 2, 3, 4 and 7). competencies of the coach qualifications of the team coach also play a vital role in the facilitation of the intervention and competencies of a coach should be well-capacitated in personal development, conflict management, effective communication and team coaching (participants 1, 2, 6 and 7). the coach should be skilled in dealing with team dynamics and in creating a safe space for the team members to express themselves. participant 7 (male, 65 years old) explains the skills of the coach as a prerequisite in detail: ‘coaching, experience, and sensitivity to understand the difference between individual and team… what works with individual won’t work with a team. a good coach should be comfortable with working at all levels … coaches must understand the difference between coaching, training, facilitation, mentoring, skills development. all different things … coach must be fit for purpose and know when to recommend someone else … recognize your own competencies.’ (participant 7, male, 65 years old) constraining factors in the implementation of team coaching participants 1 and 7 cited lack of resources, insufficient budget, lack of priority and time allocation, inexperienced team coaches without good facilitation skills or record of accomplishment as contributing factors to poor results in team coaching implementation. participants 2 and 4 identified lack of transparency as another key constraining factor, along with lack of integrity, trust and commitment to goal attainment for the team. participant 6 expressed that if the system is not safe for all participants, and there is a lack of leadership, there will be poor trust from the members. the absence of a stakeholder commitment may serve as a major obstacle. this develops when stakeholders are ‘not in agreement with the team deliverables and members of the team show resistance to the team coaching intervention … it will affect results’ (participant 2, female, 51 years old). competing for personal goals and values may serve as a constraining factor during the implementation phase. the silo effect could also serve as an inhibitor to team coaching implementation (participants 5, 6 and 7), where people prefer to work individually. a conceptual framework for the implementation of team coaching the conceptual framework in figure 1 depicts the key steps involved in the implementation of team coaching. the process is divided into three phases, namely, pre, during and post-implementation, in line with core activities, enablers and constraints. figure 1: conceptual framework of critical success factors for the implementation of team coaching in associated organisations (current authors) the framework in figure 1 highlights the key steps involved in the three phases (pre, during and post) of implementation. the three phases are aligned with core activities, enablers and constraints. the core activities of the pre-implementation stage involve the identification of the need for team coaching and the initiation of a team coaching intervention. during the implementation phase, the core activities are the execution of team coaching, monitoring and assessment of the coaching process, as well as learning, correction and feedback. the post-implementation core activities imply an evaluation of the coaching process, reflection and improvement of the coaching process. team coaching is implemented in the form of a project with a specific start and end date. thus, at the end, team coaching would include a project reflection step. this reflection step focuses on the final monitoring and evaluation of team coaching implementation. the outcomes are evaluated against the pre-set objectives. the core activities depict team coaching as a dynamic process, containing a feedback loop, which translates feedback received from assessments and evaluations into learning and self-correction. these learnings are applied to re-assess the core of the team coaching implementation process. the enablers of the pre-implementation phase involve organisational factors such as the optimisation of cultural diversity and a readiness to participate in the team coaching process. organisational leadership support refers to sponsorships, the establishment of team coaching outcomes, the allocation of resources to enable a coaching environment and contracting with a coach. team effectiveness implies the alignment with the strategic goals of the organisation and a thorough pre-assessment of what should be accomplished. the pre-implementation phase involves addressing the needs of all stakeholders. enablers that play a role during implementation include team effectiveness and the skills of the coach. team effective factors include commitment, identification of common goals, ensuring confidentiality, establishing synergy and providing feedback. the skills of the coach are of utmost importance. the coach needs to be experienced and establish a trusting relationship with both management and employees. post-implementation enablers refer to continuous monitoring of employee engagement through collective performance and establishment of team effectiveness. there are certain constraints that may play a role in the pre-, during and post-implementation phases. at pre-implementation, there is a danger of a lack of organisational resources because of budget limitation, scheduling challenges and unhealthy team dynamics. these negative team dynamics may lead to non-alignment, a lack of commitment, resistance and mistrust in the coaching process and aims of leadership. during implementation, the process can be adversely affected by counterproductive team dynamics, such as conflict, unhealthy competition and a lack of participation by preferring to work in silos. post-implementation, the lack of the continuation and monitoring of successful implementation can have a deleterious effect on the ongoing achievement of goals. discussion outline of the findings despite the increasing evidence that teamwork can be a powerful strategy for the realisation of organisational goals, evidence suggests a failure to take advantage of this useful tool (peters & carr, 2013b). in an attempt to establish the factors critical to successful implementation of team coaching, data from the participants were reviewed. the themes are discussed in terms of existent literature and based on the identified phases of team coaching implementation. the identified critical factors that play a role in the successful implementation of team coaching are discussed in terms of existent literature. the first part of the findings focuses on the positive contributors to team coaching implementation, while the latter part of the section focuses on constraining factors. pre-implementation phase the framework highlights the two key steps during the pre-implementation phase: (1) identification of a need for team coaching and (2) initiation of team coaching implementation. organisational context attributes such as culture, strategic objectives, and parameters of team coaching relationship may play a role in the interaction between the coach and the team. in essence, organisational contextualisation refers to strategy and culture, with a focus to improve team engagement and productivity (bandura & lyons, 2017; morgeson et al., 2010). strategic contextualisation aligns the objectives, content and outcomes of the team with those of the organisation. this is in line with the argument of clarke (2010) that team coaching is regarded as a powerful initiation of organisational development. cultural contextualisation aligns the coachee to the traditions of the organisation. a positive enabling organisational culture may enhance successful implementation of team coaching, where responsibilities and expertise are shared (mathieu et al., 2000). this finding corresponds to and expands the findings of nieminen, biermeierhanson and denison et al. (2013) which revealed that a coaching culture may play a critical role in building a responsive team of committed leadership. for the coaching to be beneficial, the teams need to be well structured and supported by leadership (avolio et al., 2010; goldman et al., 2013) and may improve both individual and team learning (matsuo, 2018). top leader sponsorship will promote a positive experience of team coaching. leadership should be firmly established and capable of nurturing and channelling the rest of the organisation towards successful team coaching implementation. team coaching has to be aligned with organisational strategies and should receive leadership support (mukherjee, 2012). a well-managed diverse workforce may enhance organisational strategic goals. participants with a wide range of experiences and skill sets result in progressive productive levels and increase the likelihood of breakthrough innovations (agrawal, 2012). the diversities in skills and experiences allow team members to tackle a project or a task from different points of view, thus creating an opportunity for out-of-the-box thinking. the findings indicate that leadership trust and competence are key factors for team coach intervention. a leader’s trust in team members serves as a crucial element of a high-quality leader-team relationship. both trust in the coaching relationship (clutterbuck, 2013) and trust in leadership must be respected. the current study emphasised the importance of contracting at the onset of the intervention, clearly defining the obligations and expectations of all stakeholders. this is in line with the arguments of mukherjee (2012) that initiatives need to be aligned with organisational strategies. the participants highlighted the need to consider stakeholders’ expectations prior to team coaching implementation, as this will enable the alignment of team coaching interventions with organisational goals. ashley-timms (2012) emphasises that all stakeholders’ anticipations need to be acknowledged and aligned with organisational needs, especially when the organisation is the ultimate sponsor of such intervention. the findings emphasise the importance of organisational readiness and pre-assessment as a key to the team coaching implementation strategy. this may provide guidance to best proceed and indicate expectations. rousseau et al. (2013) confirm that analyses of pre-coaching questionnaires will assist in measuring the level of interest and key areas to focus on. such information could contribute to the application of the most appropriate approach according to the dynamics and structure of the team. it provides a platform for the transformation of skills and development of knowledge behaviour (sessa et al., 2011; vesso & alas, 2016). during implementation phase during the implementation phase, key activities are the execution of team coaching, monitoring, assessment and evaluation. the framework reflects the team coaching process as a dynamic process, containing a feedback loop that translates feedback received from assessments and evaluations into learning and self-correction. information gained through feedback should be applied to rectify the core team coaching implementation process where necessary. the themes associated with the implementation phase are subsequently discussed. team effectiveness any meaningful team coaching initiative should be linked to some organisational strategic objectives rather than conducted for its own sake. team effectiveness is about maximising the team’s contribution to the attainment of organisational strategic objectives (rousseau et al., 2013). regardless of the level of the team coach engagement, the sponsor and the team coach must formulate a plan that is cognisant of and integrates organisational strategy, vision and values (clutterbuck, 2013). the participants’ consent and commitment are viewed as critical to team coaching implementation. the coachees’ willingness and buy-in from the team members along with the team coaching intervention allow for improved success. it is fundamental that team coaching takes place in a conducive environment (ingleton, 2013). the participants posited that an effective team coaching process requires confidentiality and trust. at the outset of the intervention, the coach and the team must establish a common understanding of trust, confidentiality, empathy and deep listening (clutterbuck, 2013). self-reflection and sensitisation to self-awareness may play an important role in this regard (peuker & kiss, 2018). team coaching is viewed as a strategic space for the enhancement of collective member capabilities and improvement of participation levels (solansky & mciver, 2017). collaborative teams share information and promote knowledge empowerment that translates to innovative teams (gallant & gilham, 2014), with subsequent perceived influence on organisational culture. for effective team coaching, the participants emphasised that coaches should be competent, accomplished and skilled. a team coach should seek to simplify organisational strategies and objectives (mukherjee, 2012), vision, team dynamics, team incentives, responsibilities, timelines and measures. the study conducted by vandaveer, lowman, pearlman and brannick (2016) reveals three top critical success factors that impacted the implementation of team coaching: (1) coach quality, (2) coachee readiness and (3) strength of the coach–team relationship. establishing the coach–coachee relationship is the primary step in any coaching engagement. this provides a platform for the rules of engagement and accountability (kahn, 2011) and ultimately influences the strength of their relationship. a fundamental factor influencing the ability of a coach and coachee to work well together is the establishment of a list of criteria compiled by both parties (clutterbuck, 2013). this is in line with kahn’s (2011) observation that the role and accountability of the parties should be established and contracted from the start. the majority of the participants cited the importance of having periodic and consistent feedback sessions between team members and to leadership. these feedback sessions can comprise regular checking in sessions. the sponsor should receive feedback during and after team implementation. the type of feedback must be agreed in advance, during the contracting, pre-implementation phase. post-implementation phase in a workplace setting, team coaching is implemented in the form of a project with a defined start and end date. thus, at the end, team coaching should include a project reflection step where the continuation of intervention outcomes is closely monitored (anderson, 2011; avolio et al., 2010; osatuke et al., 2016). critical reflection focuses on the final monitoring and evaluation of team coaching implementation against the objectives, as well as any correction that may be required in future team coaching interventions. the post-implementation phase would include a project reflection step. this reflection step focuses on the final monitoring and evaluation of team coaching implementation. set objectives may allow an organisation to obtain in-time outcomes, as they give the organisation an opportunity to critically assess progress, and an opportunity to intervene if necessary. employee engagement participants identified employee engagement as a critical factor for successful team coaching implementation, which resonates with nelson and hogan’s (2009) assertion that organisations should prioritise engagement with employees. the participants highlighted that employee engagement promotes a progressive relationship as managers begin to trust their employees’ input. according to the participants, these improved relations contribute to employee performance and turnaround time, further enhancing productivity. the coach-client relationship further influences the way in which a coach challenges and supports the team so that new ways of thinking are developed in order to achieve team-personalised and organisational goals. through an input of learning and transformation, an output of the relationship and task orientation is achieved that influences levels of engagement (vesso & alas, 2016). participants identified team learning as a pivotal objective to organisational values. central to team coaching is the cultivation of learning among team members. teams provide the platform for knowledge sharing and exchange for which organisational learning becomes the product. team learning is effective when there is a permanent change in skills, knowledge and behaviour of the team (sessa et al., 2011). monitoring and evaluation participants highlighted that a variety of techniques can be applied to sustain and embed coaching in organisations, such as evaluation of the post-coaching implementation outcomes vis-à-vis or compared to the initial team coaching expectations. surveys of the team and all stakeholders after the intervention are crucial for the evaluation of the team coaching exercise. as affirmed by anderson (2011) and avolio et al. (2010), the business impact, emergence of team relations and collaborations are aspects that must be measured after team coaching. this evaluation should perhaps take place a couple of months after the activity to allow reasonable time for gathering evidence to provide an authentic assessment. constraining factors the study identified some constraining factors, with insufficient budget cited by the majority of participants as one of the critical factors in team coaching failure. this is similar to chapman’s (2010) argument that resource limitations could hinder the success of team coaching. the participants highlighted the absence or lack of commitment to overall team performance. this ties in with the reasoning of guidroz, luce and denison (2010) that the absence of collaboration and ‘working in silos’ hamper the success of a team coaching intervention. practical implications the literature demonstrates that dyadic coaching remains dominant. the findings of the current study provide a platform that enhances our understanding of the complexities of team coaching within organisations. high performance is at the centre of successful team coaching, which promotes meaningful collaboration. team coaching signifies a method of leadership development that moves beyond the individual to development at a team level. team coaching could serve as a critical platform for team work, collaboration and leadership development. limitations and recommendations the study only concerned itself with teams within the workplace. the study did not include other team settings. findings reflect the views of team coaches and not the coachees. sample bias may have played a limiting role, as purposive and snowballing techniques were employed. future research could benefit by including all the stakeholders, coaches, coachees, leadership and executive management to provide multiple perspectives on team coaching. future quantitative investigations could add insights into the effectiveness of team coaching. the advantages and disadvantages of dyadic coaching compared to team coaching need further investigation. conclusion the current study contributes to the body of evidence on team coaching in the workplace. a number of critical success factors were identified, which contribute to the foundation of a conceptual team coaching framework. this framework represents team coaching as an interactive process with feedback loops that provide continuous review and improvement opportunities for the pre-implementation, implementation and post-implementation stages. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the participants for volunteering to take part in the study, and for sharing their experience and expertise. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions b.m.m. is the master’s student and this work is from her dissertation. r.v.w. was the supervisor of this research and responsible for guidance and literature, and was involved in analysis. a.o. was the co-supervisor of the study and responsible for guidance and literature, and was involved in analysis. references agrawal, v. (2012). managing the diversified team: challenges and strategies for improving performance. team performance management: an international journal, 18(7/8), 384–400. https://doi.org/10.1108/13527591211281129 anderson, m. (2011). evaluating the roi of coaching: telling a story, not just producing a number. in g. ashley-timms, l. (2012). return on investment guaranteed: effecting transformation and sustaining change with coaching. industrial & commercial training, 44(3), 159–163. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197851211216763 avolio, b. j., avey, j. b., & quisenberry, d. (2010). estimating return on leadership development investment. leadership quarterly, 21(4), 633–644. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.06.006 bandura, r. p., & lyons, p. r. (2017). using a skill-building tool to enhance employee engagement. human resource management international digest, 25(6), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid-04-2017-0064 baxter, p., & jack, s. (2008). qualitative case study methodology: study design and implementation for novice researchers. the qualitative report volume, 13(4), 544–559. https://doi.org/10.2174/1874434600802010058 blumberg, b., cooper, d. r., & schindler, p. s. (2011). business research methods (3rd edn.). london: mcgraw-hill higher education. bond, a., & naughton, n. (2011). the role of coaching in managing leadership transitions. international coaching psychology review, 6(2), 165–179. britton, j. j. (2015). expanding the coaching conversation: group and team coaching. industrial & commercial training, 47(3), 116–120. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict-10-2014-0070 chapman, l. (2010). integrated experiential coaching: becoming an executive coach. london: karnac books. clarke, n. (2010). emotional intelligence and learning in teams. journal of workplace learning, 22(3), 125–145. https://doi.org/10.1108/13665621011028594 clutterbuck, d. (2013). time to focus coaching on the team. industrial and commercial training, 45(1), 18–22. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197851311296665 collis, j., & hussey, r. (2009). business research: a pratical guide for undergraduates & postgraduate students (3rd edn.). new york, ny: palgrave macmillan. gallant, a., & gilham, v. (2014). differentiated coaching: developmental needs of coachees. international journal of mentoring and coaching in education, 3(3), 237–254. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmce-12-2013-0059 goldman, e., wesner, m., & karnchanomai, o. (2013). reciprocal peer coaching: a critical contributor to implementing individual leadership plans. human resource development quarterly, 24(1), 63–87. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21153 grant, a. m. (2012a). an integrated model of goal-focused coaching: an evidence-based framework for teaching and practice. international coaching psychology review, 7(2), 146–165. https://doi.org/10.1080/17521880903102308 grant, a. m. (2012b). roi is a poor measure of coaching success: towards a more holistic approach using a well-being and engagement framework. coaching: an international journal of theory, research and practice, 5(2), 74–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/17521882.2012.672438 greeff, m. (2005). information collection: interviewing. in a. s. de vos, c. b. fouché, & c. s. l. delport (eds.), research at grass roots: for the social sciences and human service professions (3rd edn., pp. 286–313). pretoria: van schaik. guest, s., & mitchell, m. (2007). collecting qualitative data: a field manual for applied research. london: sage. guidroz, a. m., luce, k. w., & denison, d. r. (2010). integrated change: creating synergy between leader and organizational development. industrial and commercial training, 42(3), 151–155. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197851011038141 hackman, j., & wageman, r. (2005). a theory of team coaching. academy of management review, 30(2), 269–287. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2005.16387885 hagen, m., & aguilar, m. g. (2012). the impact of managerial coaching on learning outcomes within the team context: an analysis. human resource development quarterly, 23(3), 363–388. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21140 hamlin, r. g., ellinger, a. d., & beattie, r. s. (2008). the emergent ‘coaching industry’: a wake-up call for hrd professionals. human resource development international, 11(3), 287–305. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678860802102534 hawkins, p. (2014). leadership team coaching: developing collective transformational leadership. philadelphia, pa: kogan page. hernez-broome, b., & boyce, l. a. (eds.), advancing executive coaching: setting the course for successful leadership coaching (pp. 351–368). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. ingleton, c. (2013). the miracle of coaching. industrial and commercial training, 45(5), 289–292. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict-03-2013-0018 joo, b. k. (2005). executive coaching: a conceptual framework from an integrative review of practice and research. human resource development review, 4(4), 462–488. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484305280866 kahn, m. s. (2011). coaching on the axis: an integrative and systemic approach to business coaching. international coaching psychology review, 6(2), 337–347. kampa-kokesch, s., & anderson, m. (2001). executive coaching a comprehensive review of the literature. consulting psychology journal, 53(4), 205–228. https://doi.org/10.1037//1061-4087.53.4.2o5 klein, c. (2012). research will evolve, but we must do a better job of translating what we already know. industrial and organizational psychology, 5(1), 52–55. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2011.01405.x kozlowski, s. w. j., & ilgen, d. r. (2006). enhancing the effectiveness of work groups and teams. psychological science in the public interest, 7(3), 77–124. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1529-1006.2006.00030.x leedy, p. d., & ormord, j. e. (2001). practical research: planning and design. ohio, nj: merill prentice hall. martiz, m. (2012). high performance team coaching: a positive deviant exploration. m.com. [unpublished thesis]. university of johannesburg. mathieu, j. e., heffner, t. s., goodwin, g. f., salas, e., & cannon-bowers, j. a. (2000). the influence of shared mental models on team process and performance. the journal of applied psychology, 85(2), 273–283. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.85.2.273 matsuo, m. (2018). how does managerial coaching affect individual learning? the mediating roles of team and individual reflexivity. personnel review, 47(1), 118–132. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-06-2016-0132 mayan, m. j. (2009). essentials of qualitative inquiry. walnut creek, ca: left coast press. mcdermott, m., levenson, a., & newton, s. (2007). what coaching can and cannot do for you organisation. human resource planning, 30(2), 30–37. miles, m. b., huberman, m. a., & saldana, j. (2013). qualitative data analysis. los angeles, ca: sage publications. morgeson, f. p., derue, d. s., & karam, e. p. (2010). leadership in teams: a functional approach to understanding leadership structures and processes. journal of management, 36(1), 5–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206309347376 mukherjee, s. (2012). does coaching transform coaches? a case study of internal coaching. international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring, 10(2), 76–87. nelson, e., & hogan, r. (2009). coaching on the dark side. international coaching psychology review, 4, 9–21. newman, l. (2012). basics of social research: qualitative & quantitative approach. upper saddle river, nj: pearson. nieminen, l., biermeier-hanson, b., & denison, d. (2013). aligning leadership and organizational culture: the leader–culture fit framework for coaching organizational leaders. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 65(3), 177–198. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034385 odendaal, a. (2016). leadership coaching. in t. h. veldsman, a. johnson, & w. crous (eds.), leadership: perspectives from the front line (pp. 631–649). johanesburg: knowledge resources. osatuke, k., yanovsky, b., & ramsel, d. (2016). executive coaching: new framework for evaluation. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 69(3), 172–186. patton, m. q. (1990). qualitative evaluation and research methods. newburry park, ca: sage. peters, j., & carr, c. (2013a). high performance team coaching. calgary: inneractive leadership associates inc. peters, j., & carr, c. (2013b). team effectiveness and team coaching literature review. coaching: an international journal of theory, research and practice, 6(2), 116–136. https://doi.org/10.1080/17521882.2013.798669 peuker, g., & kiss, o. (2018, june). development of executives in agile organisation. paper presented at the 5th international coaching conference (pp. 12–13). university of applied sciences and arts northwestern switzerland, otten, switzerland. pope, c., ziebland, s., & mays, n. (2000). analysing qualitative data. british medical journal, 320(8), 114–116. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.109.458.163 reich, y., ullmann, g., van der loos, m., & leifer, l. (2009). coaching product development teams: a conceptual foundation for empirical studies. research in engineering design, 19, 205–222. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00163-008-0046-1 reid, m. a. (2012). the impact of group coaching on leadership effectiveness in south african woman managers. johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. rekalde, i., landeta, j., & albizu, e. (2015). determining factors in the effectiveness of executive coaching as a management development tool. management decision, 53(8), 1677–1697. https://doi.org/10.1108/md-12-2014-0666 rousseau, v., aubé, c., & tremblay, s. (2013). team coaching and innovation in work teams: an examination of the motivational and behavioral intervening mechanisms. leadership & organization development journal, 34(4), 344–364. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-08-2011-0073 sessa, v. i., london, m., pingor, c., gullu, b., & patel, j. (2011). adaptive, generative, and transformative learning in project teams. team performance management, 17(3/4), 146–167. https://doi.org/10.1108/13527591111143691 scotland, j. (2012). exploring the philosophical underpinnings of research: relating ontology and epistemology to the methodology and methods of the scientific, interpretive and critical research paradigms. english language teaching, 5(9), 9–16. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v5n9p9 solansky, s., & mciver, d. (2017). team characteristics and leadership training participation. team performance management, 24(3/4), 135–149. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1108/tpm-12-2016-0055 standards australia. (2010). standards australia guidelines for coaching in organisations. sydney: standards australia. thornton, c. (2010). group and team coaching: the essential guide by christine thornton. new york: routledge. vandaveer, v. v., lowman, r. l., pearlman, k., & brannick, j. p. (2016). a practice analysis of coaching psychology: towards foundational competency model. consulting psychology journal, 68(2), 118–142. vesso, s., & alas, r. (2016). characteristics of a coaching culture in leadership style the leader’s impact on culture. problems and perspectives in management, 14(2), 306–318. https://doi.org/10.21511/ppm.14(2-2).2016.06 wageman, r., fisher, c. m., & hackman, j. r. (2009). leading teams when the time is tight: finding the best moment to act. organizational dynamics, 38(3), 192–203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2009.04.004 welman, c., kruger, f., & mitchell, b. (2005). research methodology (3rd edn.). cape town: oxford university press. yates, k. (2015). managing, tracking and evaluating coaching part 2: where could you be. industrial and commercial training, 47(2), 95–98. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict-08-2014-0058 abstract introduction research design results discussion acknowledgements references footnotes about the author(s) rudolf m. oosthuizen department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa louise tonelli department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa claude-hélène mayer department of management, rhodes university, grahamstown, south africa citation oosthuizen, r.m., tonelli, l., & mayer, c-h. (2019). subjective experiences of employment equity in south african organisations. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1074. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1074 original research subjective experiences of employment equity in south african organisations rudolf m. oosthuizen, louise tonelli, claude-hélène mayer received: 04 may 2018; accepted: 01 oct. 2018; published: 08 apr. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: this article explores employees’ subjective experiences of employment equity (ee) within south african organisational contexts, adding diverse and in-depth insights to the post-apartheid ee discourse. research purpose: the purpose is to hear the voices of employees of different social-cultural, racial and gender backgrounds on the experiences of ee in contemporary south african organisations. motivation for the study: research suggests that south african organisations are pressurised to redress past racial inequality. understanding employees’ subjective experiences of ee adds value to the debate and provides the reader with an in-depth contemporary image of ee in post-apartheid south african organisations. research approach/design and method: a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, within the qualitative interpretive paradigm, yielded in-depth, rich and detailed descriptions of employees’ experiences of ee in both the private and public sectors of the south african workplace. main findings: findings show five themes that are associated with experiences of ee within south african organisations. this study highlights differences of experiences regarding ee plans and processes based on racial background, gender and age, as well as on historical socio-cultural and racial classifications of being a member of advantaged and disadvantaged groups. the following findings are highlighted: the insight into the experiences of ee from the perspectives of the ‘born-frees’ (the differences in experiences of different age groups of employees) and the experienced discrimination of black male and female employees regarding race and the experiences of gender-based discrimination being described by black and white male employees. practical/managerial implications: findings show the focus of experiences of ee, the conflicting issues and what south african organisations need to focus on in terms of human resources management (hrm) and the development of employee relations across racial and gender divides. it shows which topics need to be addressed in employee development and training programmes to manage diversity constructively and effectively. contribution/value-add: the findings can be used by human resources managers to: (1) monitor the progress towards ee competently and vigorously, (2) create awareness and communication within individuals, organisations and society regarding ee, (3) create best practices in order to benefit from ee (members of all racial, gender, cultural groups), (4) create a discourse on humanistic and reflexive hrm, and(5) implement consulting, training and development programmes in organisations that are strategically, sustainably and long-term orientated. keywords: affirmative action; employment equity; diversity management; subjective experiences; post-apartheid south africa. introduction organisations in south africa are the key players in transforming the society on economic, political, structural, cultural and individual levels (cloete, bunting, & maassen, 2015). they are implementers of transformation with regard to employment equity (ee) and affirmative action (aa) to turn workplaces into democratic spaces of equality and equity. during apartheid, organisations were built up on racial and gender divides and promoted racial segregation while they are contemporarily legally bound to ensure diversity and inclusion through ee plans (council for higher education [che], 2015). employment equity is defined as the employment of individuals in a fair and non-biased manner, thus to promote equal opportunity by eliminating discrimination in all employment policies and practices (bendix, 2010, p. 145). affirmative action refers to programmes designed to ensure the proportional representation of employees to undo the results of past discrimination. however, the latter definition may be viewed as problematic, because it does not explicitly acknowledge the assumption that those being considered for proportional representation are all equally qualified for certain positions (saha, o’donnell, patel, & heneghan, 2008). further, the terms ‘employment equity’ and ‘affirmative action’ are used interchangeably, although they are two different but related concepts (mason, williams, & cranner, 2009; portnoi, 2003). since 1994, the south african government has provided revised legislative frameworks for organisations (dingindawo, nwafor, mutshaeni, mudzielwana, & mulovhedzi, 2016). one of the major strategic objectives is to ensure that organisations actively participate in eradicating discriminatory policies and practices that have been transferred from the past societal system (van der westhuizen, 2015). these policies and practices require active transformation to reflect the new democratic dispensation principles that are based on recognition and implementation of individual human rights in mind and practice (ebrahim, 2018). the employment equity act 55 of 1998 (eea) (government gazette, 2014) defines the designated recipients of ee opportunities as black1 employees, women and the physically challenged. the eea demands that both public and private employers meet equity targets within their workplaces and report on the progress of meeting these targets (sebola & khalo, 2010). since the implementation of the eea (basson, 2017), changes towards a more inclusive, diverse and democratic workforce have been implemented (moraka & jansen van rensburg, 2015). however, these changes seem to be rather ‘on the surface’ in terms of organisational changes and adjustment to legislative requirements (herman, 2017). organisations are required by law to present ee reports on a regular basis (moraka & jansen van rensburg, 2015); however, transformation seems to be non-existent in post-apartheid south africa (zulu & parumasur, 2009). larger organisations fail to implement demographic representation (surtee & hall, 2009) and racial quotas do not match the societal demographic profile (mayer & barnard, 2015). a strong debate on colonialism, apartheid, postcolonialism and transformation has opened (masombuka, 2016) a slow and steady change towards ee (breetzke & hedding, 2016). the question of how to address ee stays vibrant (louw, 2015a). on a macro-level, aa programmes have been implemented and eea and black economic empowerment (bee) are dominant pieces of legislation passed by the democratic parliament to enact equity in the south african workplace (eea, 1998). while the former focuses only on ee, the latter is more comprehensive and includes ownership and management targets for black individuals (burger, jafta, & von fintel, 2016). on the meso-level, organisations are requested to address ee on a daily basis (hills, 2015) and change past racial inequalities. they are bound to employment according to racial quota to ensure the proportional representation of employees (reuben & bobat, 2014). organisations have to deal with the complexities and failures of aa and ee practices (burger et al., 2016). on a micro-level, individuals working within organisations respond to ee (lee, 2016). all three levels are interrelated and correspond with each other. employment equity in south africa it is likely that future employment relations in organisations will continue to be extensively influenced by ee and aa developments in south africa. the course of action for aa, as set out in the eea, continues to have far-reaching effects on employment relations practice. the ministry of labour continues to confirm the government’s commitment to rectifying racial and gender imbalances in the workplace and to promote equity at all levels in the world of work (timothy, 2013). in this vein, section 15(1) of the eea describes aa as: measures designed to ensure that suitably qualified people from designated groups have equal employment opportunities and are equitably represented in all occupational categories and levels in the workplace of a designated employer. (nel, kisten, swanepoel, erasmus, & poisat, 2016) however, as a contemporary issue, legislative mechanisms alone will not achieve ee in south africa. employment relation departments can influence the situation by means of effective training and development of people (warnich, carell, elbert, & hatfield, 2015). employment relation departments will also need to execute special programmes, such as black advancement, which should include literacy training of illiterate workers, support for quality education for workers and family members and, in communities where the organisation operates, mentorship and targeted recruitment programmes to achieve equality in organisations and ultimately in society (nel et al., 2016). another aspect concerning addressing imbalances is that making correct aa appointments enables organisations to enjoy new streams of business, while those that have not done so experience the frustrations of exclusion from government and other tenders based on their lack of ee. nicoll (2006, p. 6) cautions that the international concept of aa is ultimately to protect the minorities. in south african imbalances created by past practices have to be redressed, to ensure that the previously disadvantaged majority can be empowered. once the balance has been redressed, legislation has to protect the rights of minorities such as white people, mixed race, asians, females and disabled people. there are cases of ee targets already being achieved. in some cases, management now focuses on redressing the imbalance with, for instance, an exceptionally large black representation (nel et al., 2016). also, negative belief systems of employees towards ee policies seem to hinder its effectiveness in organisations (ivona & lance, 2014). this is true for both non-beneficiaries (men) and beneficiaries (women), who react negatively to ee policies in terms of threatened self-image (ivona & lance, 2014). those least likely to experience a self-image threat when faced with a gender-based ee policy are the most likely to show positive reactions to ee policies, and both men and women react more favourably to ee policies when self-image threats are mitigated through a self-affirmation task (ivona & lance, 2014). beneficiaries of ee plans fear tokenism and marginalisation, being victims of white manipulation or being sold out, when appointed to designated positions (stoffels, 2015). the ‘stigmatisation’ argument (heilman, block, & stathatos, 1997) shows that professional employees believe in individual merit and dislike the labels ‘incompetent’ and ‘less qualified’ associated with ee. white employees not only question the political and ethical legitimacy of ee but also fear retribution or revenge from members of previously disadvantaged groups, loss of standards, punitive taxation and limitation of their career opportunities (de beer & radley, 2000; leonard & grobler, 2006). in addition, ee is associated with racism, unfair treatment and reverse discrimination (denton vloeberghs, 2003; ng & burke, 2004). despite the challenges, previously established racial inequalities need to be addressed (coetzer, 2009) and ee, aa and bee might contribute positively to this process (op’t hoog, siebers, & linde, 2010). according to nel, kisten, swanepoel, erasmus and poisat (2008), the eea 55 of 1998 as amended (government gazette, 2014) stipulates that employers may not refuse to reward individuals on the basis of the inputs employers may deem unfavourable. in addition to the role legislation plays in upholding principles of equity, there is the practice in organisations of promoting and rewarding people who bring value such as skills, expertise, training, technological know-how and sound managerial and interpersonal skills into organisations (van zyl, 2017). organisations may promote and reward skilled employees, while members of all groups experience prejudices in the workplace (golele & rachidi, 2017). the eea’s intention is to regulate unjust and unfair discrimination; however, the implementation and practices are rather unsatisfactory (fernandez, 2016). critiques question whether business organisations can navigate stormy waters and how effective communication efforts in support of equitable change management strategies are managed (oosthuizen & naidoo, 2010). employment equity challenges are brought before south african courts and different approaches through which ee and aa should be applied result in confusion, controversy and fierce debate (e.g. south african police service i, ii, iii). the discourse contains the idea of abolishing the eea 55 of 1998 on a specific future date, which will give organisations the freedom to implement ee and aa voluntarily (rautenbach, 2015) and to involve the entire workforce in this transformational initiative (ebrahim, 2018). the facts of stereotyping racial groups and misunderstandings about ee intentions emphasise the need to address the socio-historical context in any related communication strategy (leonard & grobler, 2006; louw, 2015b). individuals’ experiences of employment equity and affirmative action in organisations although ee and aa are methods applied to redress the injustices committed during apartheid, skilled employees are under the impression that they are ‘carrying’ those who lack the skills to perform the work required of them (burger et al., 2016; oosthuizen & naidoo, 2010). generally, employees experience reverse discrimination and racism, lack of training and development, and victimisation (oosthuizen & naidoo, 2010). nel, kisten, swanepoel, erasmus and poisat (2012, p. 2015) postulate that the principle of distribution on the basis of equity raises concern about (1) whether all parties agree that equity is the most reasonable and fair-minded basis for reward allocations, resource distributions and performance appraisals; (2) valued inputs and outputs and (3) effective and efficient implementation (government gazette, 2014). lack of communication and shared understanding of ee, the white male dominated organisational culture, low leadership commitment, retention of black employees, the role of white fear and the lack of meaningful engagement of white male employees in ee implementation are major barriers to effective ee implementation (booysen, 2007). black women leaders feel double discriminated through gender and race and feel caught up in postcolonial struggles, discourses of power, dominance, inferiority and superiority (mayer, 2017). further, the lack of tapping into the potential of a diverse workforce is limited through ee (maharaj, ortlepp, & stacey, 2008) and effective succession planning is needed (roman & mason, 2015). the aim and purpose of this article the employment equity act and aa have been discussed extensively; however, the voices of individual employees across racial and gender divides have hardly been researched on a micro-level (mayer, 2017). they might differ from the organisational aims to implement ee plans and employees might see the organisational roles as difficult (zulu & parumasur, 2009). we argue that subjective voices from individuals of diverse cultural, racial, gender and age groups need to be heard to sustainably transform organisations and society. research design the research design is based on the post-modernist premise that reality is defined by multiple truths and that perceptions, experiences and realities are socio-culturally constructed within a specific frame of time and space (creswell, 2013). this study applies a qualitative research approach within the hermeneutic–phenomenological research paradigm (creswell, 2013; collis & hussey, 2014) to explore the subjective experiences of individuals’ work lives and social worlds (creswell, 2013; hassan & ghauri, 2014). this perspective is orientated towards lived experiences to yield rich and detailed descriptions of ee (creswell, 2013; ramgoolam, 2005), thereby focusing on the verstehen (understanding) of the lived experience (dilthey, 2002). phenomenology lends itself not only to description but to an interpretive process, where the researchers mediate between different meanings of the meaning of lived experiences (creswell, 2013). a hermeneutic approach to the multiple case study (yin, 2009) allowed the researchers to analyse the data from the perspective of the researchers while emphasising the social and historical context within which it was produced (clark & hogget, 2009, grix, 2010). the researchers of this study looked further than simple hermeneutics, which concerns individuals’ interpretations of themselves, such as the participants’ interpretations of their experiences of ee, towards double hermeneutics, which implies a multilevel interpretation within a theoretical frame of reference. double hermeneutics mitigates as far as possible the power relationships between researchers and participants through critical reflexivity of the data by the researchers, not to lose the voice of the participants themselves. reflection in this context, is defined as interpretations by the researchers of ee interpretations of the participants themselves, in an attempt to gain an understanding of the participants’ subjective experiences of ee (clark & hogget, 2009). research method a qualitative multiple case study was used as a research method towards an in-depth understanding of subjective experiences of ee towards identifying consistent patterns of behaviour and to possibly uncover new or divergent themes (yin, 2009; zach, 2006). the multiple case study consisted of 79 face-to-face semi-structured interviews. research setting the study is based within south african public and private organisations’ (see table 1) specified financial turnovers requiring them to comply with ee legislation (department of labour, 2002; government gazette, 2014; thomas, 2003). table 1: demographic breakdown of the sample by occupational category, race and gender. entrée and establishing researcher roles organisations from both the private and public sector that complied with ee legislation were approached by the three researchers and invited to participate. permission was obtained from the organisations to conduct the research. the researchers introduced themselves and a trustful relationship was built. sampling eleven organisations took part in this study. employees from these organisations were obtained through purposeful sampling strategies (welman, kruger, & mitchell, 2012), which were based on inclusion criteria, such as race, gender, language competency and general accessibility. three separate organisations have been classified under the first heading in table 1, ‘human resources and private sector’. data collection methods data were collected over a period of a year, which consisted of 79 face-to-face semi-structured interviews of 30 min to 60 min each. each participant conducted 4 to 23 interviews each with employees who had experience with ee (kruger, 1988, p. 150). interviews were conducted in english. employees were assured of the confidentiality and ethical considerations were applied. the semi-structured interviews started with the questions: ‘what is your personal story in terms of your experience of ee in the workplace?’ this question was probed by means of elaboration and further explanation (pietersen, 2007). data analysis and interpretation data were analysed as recommended in phenomenology studies (clarke & hoggett, 2009; creswell 2013) by applying the following steps: (1) the data were subjected to an initial, preliminary and holistic assessment, organising and reading through; (2) themes were generated; (3) data were coded, to describe the way in which the text was represented through inductive and deductive thinking; (4) the body of the text was broken down into meaningful pieces that were labelled; and (5) closer attention was paid to the subtleties and nuances of the meaning inherent in the data, through the ‘double hermeneutics’ abstracting beyond codes and themes by remaining within the hermeneutic characteristics of description, reduction and intentionality through a iterative process of sense-making of the data (kafle, 2013). interpreting the personal interpretations of ee of the participants by forming interpretations of the interpretations through reflexivity of the researchers (clarke & hoggett, 2009). a data analysis aimed at developing knowledge of the participants’ reality by safeguarding against the possibility of one person or group’s rationality becoming another’s reality, which could reinforce prejudice and injustice (clarke & hoggett, 2009). recording of data data were recorded through field notes and audio recordings according to participant preferences. audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and data are stored electronically for a period of 5 years in password-encrypted data files. hard copy research projects were stored by the university under examination policies and procedures of the university with no access to the projects by the public. strategies to ensure data quality and reporting data quality was ensured through rich and detailed descriptions of employees’ subjective experiences of ee through immersion in the data (creswell 2013; lincoln & guba, 1985). credibility relied on the triangulation of different sources, methods and researchers where theories provide corroborating evidence (creswell & plano clark, 2011). the researchers triangulated the methods, primary and secondary resources used to establish credibility. confirmability of data and document trail (creswell, 2013) was promoted through intersubjective validation processes (yin, 2009). the researchers used intersubjective validation processes to reflect on and discuss the data and their interpretations during several points in time of the data analysis and interpretation procedures. the rigour of the study was based on intersubjective validation processes and thick descriptions. transferability of the findings to other settings was established through describing processes of research methodology, detailed findings and shared characteristics. finally, this study does not focus on generatability per se but rather aims at providing an in-depth insight into the issue of research (creswell, 2013; lincoln & guba, 1985). limitations of research the study was limited to a methodological approach exploring the subjective experiences of selected employees in 11 organisations, which may not be representative of the majority of south african organisations. the study was limited in terms of the sampling procedures and the defined aim without proclaiming generalisations. ethical considerations approval to conduct the study was obtained from the college of economics and management sciences of the university of south africa for ethical clearance in line with the policies of the university. employees provided written consent and were informed about confidentiality and possibilities of withdrawal from the research participation. results findings led to five themes (see table 2). table 2 shows that the theme ‘race and gender reverse discrimination’ was prevalent (85 statements), followed by statements on employees’ ‘experiences of stereotyping’ (61 statements), ‘organisational management of ee’ (46 statements), ‘talent management’ (35 statements) and ‘tokenism’ (23 statements). table 2: number of statements for each theme by organisation. below, the findings have been presented in detail. theme 1: race, gender and reverse discrimination the majority of participants, across racial groups, highlighted ‘race and gender reverse racism’ and discriminative experiences in ee contexts. white male participants experienced ee as a racist system and compared their present experience to the experience of black participants during apartheid. a white male participant working in an insurance company commented: ‘ee and aa, it was supposed to correct past inequities which is to make it equal for everyone in getting a job. if it is supposed to be so equal, why is it so difficult for a white male to get a job? sounds to me like the white man is becoming the black man … is that not discriminating against the white male now?’ (medical insurer, male, white) a white middle-aged male participant based in the motor industry lacked comprehensibility in terms of understanding the logic behind retrenching skilled employees based on race: ‘my dad was retrenched at his work after ten years of service purely based on the fact that he is white. so, my first impression is already a bad one. and i cannot understand why i must pay and suffer because of something that i wasn’t part of.’ (motor industry, white, male) this male participant rejected taking collective responsibility for historical events as a member of the white group and denied his personal accountability. he did not favour ee because it does not resolve the encountered workplace problems. white male participants felt threatened by discrimination and ascribed the south african brain drain and experts leaving the country to the ee plan implementation. they asked how ee plans took employees’ skills and abilities into account. according to a white male participant, individuals should be employed based on skills, ability and knowledge and not based on race or gender. a white male participant from an insurance company highlighted the following: ‘it is as if they forgot about skills. is that not the reason why you employ someone?’ (medical insurer, white, male) a black male participant was unhappy about being reduced to a ‘racial quota’. he would rather have liked to be recognised as a capable, skilled individual and not as a ‘black quota employee’. carrying this role of a ‘quota employee’, he feels unacknowledged. a black male participant pointed out: ‘with the whole ee and aa thing, when a black person gets appointed … why is it that everyone thinks it is to fill a quota? it is as if we have no skill or education. i went to varsity just like they did! white guys were favoured in the past, and now they are correcting this by discriminating against you … i was discriminated against when you were not and now i am still being discriminated against!’ (medical insurer, black, male) negative stereotypes accompanied the experience of this black participant, who wanted to be viewed as a valued employee with skills and knowledge and not as a person to fulfil a racial quota. another black male participant contributed that, besides race, gender was a competitive factor in ee: ‘everyone says we should be lucky we are not white and that we have nothing to complain about … they do not realise that as a black man we have to work just as hard to get a job … i have applied so many times for a post, just to see a woman get the job … first, i wasn’t white enough, now i’m not the right gender.’ (medical insurer, black, male) black males saw themselves as being racially and gender-wise discriminated against, while female participants felt stereotyped as ‘quota employees’, and asked for recognition as skilled employees: ‘as a black female employee, i work just as hard and have to go through the same things as men do. it is not like we just get the posts because we are women!’ (medical insurer, black, female) however, it was not only the gender stereotyping but also the racial stereotyping, and black women generally emphasised the difficulty of building a self-worth on two ‘quota’ stereotypes, which was counterproductive to the recognition of their ‘true’ abilities, achievements and knowledge. they saw ee as counterproductive to being recognised for what they really were – valuable employees: ‘when you are a woman and you’re black, a lot of people think that you are just here because of ee. this decreases one’s self-worth.’ (black, female) black male and female employees wanted to be recognised for their abilities, competences, skills and knowledge and not for their race or gender. white men complained that they were viewed as competent but were left out of ee plans because of their race and gender: now imagine how we must feel, being last on the list?’ (motor industry, white, male) the discourse on ee plans was mainly an issue for black and white employees; mixed race and indian male and female employees were less involved in the discourse and acted less emotionally on that matter. a female indian human resource (hr) manager stated: ‘in our hr department two skilled black staff members resigned and they were replaced by two white females. because the hr senior manager is an indian female and the group head is a coloured male.’ (hr manager, indian, female) for this hr manager, ee was a support structure to complement skills and abilities according to a racial and gender quota structure, which provided opportunities while managing diversity. table 3 provides an overview of experiences of ee based on racial and gender group membership. table 3: overview of race and gender experiences. theme 2: experiences of employment equity regarding race and age groups: the ‘born-frees’ findings showed further that black male and female participants experienced ee as a rather positive tool to create equality, while white participants hardly did so because of the disadvantages they experienced. participants across racial and gender divides in public and private organisations felt stereotyped based on their racial belonging. white employees classified black employees as ‘taking too long to learn’ and thereby described them as ‘slow’ and ‘passive’ and were critical about black people being able to fulfil their jobs. this critical, negative image of black employees seemed to challenge equal opportunities and equalised work relations, while black employees felt unacknowledged in the ee racialised system. how organisations deal with the stereotypes is highly important, because black and white males feel discriminated against by organisations regarding female employees, who have become the main competitors, although they feel reduced to race and gender only: ‘i have to work very hard at proving myself so that everyone can see that not only ee is considered in making appointments, but also skills and knowledge.’ (black, female) participants belonging to the ‘born-frees’ – individuals who were born post-1991, after the release of nelson mandela from prison – contrast with the views of historically disadvantaged south africans. born-frees of all races, however, in particular black born-frees, do not define themselves as historically disadvantaged. therefore, they do not expect special treatment in the workplace in the form of ee and aa. the born-frees just want to be seen as equal, as emphasised by a black female participant: ‘as a “born-free” i really think i should not be classified as a historically disadvantaged south african. i want to be treated as an equal to my white counterparts. i may be black, but i come from a privileged background where i have had the blessing to go to private schools.’ (human resources, black, female) born-frees stated that they wanted to be seen as equal across racial membership of groups, because the racial stereotyping, which leads to classifications of advantaged and disadvantaged, is not always right as it does not take the individual’s family background into account. they acted against the eea because of the fact that it is based on a stereotyped view of members of certain racial and gender groups. a young white male participant took on a different perspective and accepted the collective responsibility constructed in the past: ‘younger white males feel that ee is good. implemented to redress past inequalities.’ (banking, white, male) experiences of ee are determined by race and gender, but also by age. across all race groups, the younger generation strives to overcome the historical inequalities to transform society in terms of equality and by overcoming categories of (dis)advantage. table 4 refers to ee experiences by race and age. table 4: employment equity experiences by race and age. theme 3: leading and managing diversity through employment equity looking at the question on how to deal with ee in organisations, leadership is emphasised as one important key. in the banking sector, participants of all races requested a paradigm shift in leadership to deal with the challenges of managing diversity ahead. participants in the public sector agreed that leaders need to deal with this topic proactively, as one white male manager emphasised: ‘managers should be the drivers of this process, as they are the decision-makers and are ultimately accountable.’ (human resources, white, male) selected black participants were critical of the abilities of senior management to drive eea processes professionally and constructively. one black female hr manager emphasised: ‘managers feel that it is the responsibility of hr. ee matters are not of concern to them. we do not have much faith in our senior and top management to drive this process, as we often don’t trust their decisions around certain appointments and promotions. they feel that eea appointments are done to fill quotas and have nothing to do with the skill of the individual.’ (hr manager, black, female) a strong competence of leaders to manage diversity within the context of abilities and race was requested by employees; however, they criticised the fact that leaders were not necessarily able to steer this process in a balanced way, and it was emphasised across all groups that leaders need to be trained to manage diversity with regard to the success of the organisation. a white female participant pointed out: ‘we used to offer diversity management workshops but were mandated to move toward more functional training and away from the soft skills training, which is judged as being less important.’ (human resources, white, female) a white male manager contributed to the discourse that diversity training needs more depth to prepare leaders to manage issues of diversity and take them by their roots: ‘diversity management is done at a very superficial level with an emphasis on trying to be politically correct, but we don’t discuss the tough issues as people are reluctant to talk about it. it was felt that there was a need to move away from painting pretty pictures of the “rainbow nation” and deal with these issues.’ (human resources, white, male) male and female white participants highlighted the need to talk openly on diversity issues without avoiding the core problems. participants saw diversity as a key issue and maybe even a taboo that required political correctness and openness to move beyond the accepted discourses to transform the challenges into solutions. leaders can create awareness through ee policies beyond the personal involvement of employees, highlighted a black female manager: ‘people think of their own colour when positions are advertised. race is always a necessary option when considering filling position and certain races are more entitled to obtain employment.’ (manager, black, female) black participants judged ee as positive, while white employees saw ee as being used by leaders as a tool to segregate and exclude white people from workplace competition. a white male manager stated: ‘employment equity policies are literally pushing white people out of the workforce.’ (, white, male) a black female hr manager criticised the fact that the eea demands both public and private employers to meet certain equity targets but, however, they do not succeed on all levels: ‘organisations rely excessively on the numbers game in that ee requirements are applied with diligence when appointments are made for junior and mid-tier employees while these proportions are clearly not replicated in top management structures across the organisation.’ (hr manager, black, female) this statement reflects the frustration of male and female black participants that the ee targets have not been reached in top management, resulting in a negative view of ee. theme 4: talent management further, ee was discussed in the context of talent management and the questions of how to train and foster talent. a white male participant in an insurance company highlighted: ‘we are training people just to comply with statistics. there is no follow-through to see the impact of the training and too much of it is theoretical and not practical in nature. there is no succession planning, because we are always recruiting externally. my skill as forensic auditor is very rare and dominated by white ex-policemen. why don’t we groom our black brothers? obviously, we would look at people that are currently doing well in their roles.’ (human resources, white, male) this highly skilled white male participant criticised the training and development concepts within the organisation as being unsustainable and as being short-sighted. he further on suggested that there be a focus on developing black internal employees with talent within the organisation, before recruiting externals. talent management in organisations is promoted through specific learning opportunities. however, a white male employee criticised the fact that the opportunities for competencies, growth and self-development were not linked to promotion for him because of ee: ‘i know that i am good at what i do, and so do the managers. i can promise you now, if a manager’s post become vacant, i would be the last person to get that post. so i don’t see myself going anywhere fast.’ (medical insurer, white, male) the participant felt that ee hindered him from moving forward with regard to his promotion. he was frustrated with the ee processes and he could not see his development in the future within the organisation. mentorship in organisations was perceived as being positive to develop individuals, as a black male employee in an insurance company emphasised, to support juniors to develop and learn: ‘the last mentor i had was my ex-manager. we just clicked, and he started teaching me and that worked, because i am now a team leader. this was not a formalised process. some managers will mentor people from previously disadvantaged groups, because they understand the importance of diversity.’ (human resources, black, male) this participant clearly stated that mentoring was not based on a specific mentoring programme and ee plans but on the personal view of the leader on diversity within the organisation. in his case, the mentor–mentee relationship was based on personal sympathy and an interest of the leader in creating a diverse organisation, which then led to developing the participant’s talent further as well as his chances to be promoted. an indian male participant in the same organisation also experienced training and development negatively: ‘the only thing they do is to offer the bursaries and then afterwards they do not give you the opportunity to practise what you have learned. why doesn’t the company want return on its investment? for some reason people from previously disadvantaged groups are grabbing the learning opportunity because they think studying will increase their chances of moving upwards – but this is not the case.’ (human resources, indian, male) this indian male participant also highlighted the fact that talent management programmes, such as bursaries, were in place, but participating did not necessarily lead to promotion within the organisation, which was strongly criticised. generally, participants were aware of different talent management options. however, they criticised the fact that there was a lack of transparency: how the participation in talent management programmes leads to promotion and who is promoted is not defined on talent only but also on other criteria, such as race. theme 5: tokenism the findings show 23 statements that ee and tokenism is viewed as being misused rather than positively used within organisations. a black male participant from an insurance company emphasised: ‘if you look at my team, i am sure i was appointed as the token black. i actually don’t care – at least i was able to get a job. now i can prove myself.’ (medical insurer, black, male) this male black participant was conscious and reflective with regard to why he had been employed and he believed he was employed as a ‘token’. however, he did not let this idea frustrate him but rather used his opportunity to prove himself. however, two black females were strongly frustrated by the tokenism they experienced. one of them pointed out: ‘we are all professionals in our own right, and we all compete for jobs; when i go into an interview i give it my all, just like everyone else. it really hurts when one is working so hard on a career, and when you think the hard work paid off, someone says: “you were only appointed due to colour”.’ (medical insurer, black, male) this participant was highly frustrated about being reduced to her skin colour and being unacknowledged with regard to her competences, as one of her colleagues also explained: ‘when will we ever be good enough like them [non-previously disadvantaged]? by saying i am a token appointee, you basically say that you think i don’t deserve it, because i’m not qualified, what a nerve!’ (medical insurer, black, female) she expressed her anger about being stereotyped as unskilled and appointed only because of racial background. the entire discourse around tokenism was mainly led by male and female participants, based on their frustration and anger at being labelled as unskilled. while one male black participant saw this as a chance to prove himself, the female black participant felt strongly frustrated and angry and did not view this as a starting point to prove herself. discussion as oosthuizen and naidoo (2010) have pointed out, the research shows that ee plans are strongly entangled into the discourse of race and gender and the experience of perceived reverse discrimination. the findings indicate that the white male participants seemed the least satisfied with the ee plans. they did not see ee as a fair and non-biased employment plan (bendix, 2010); however, individuals of all groups experienced the ee plan as biased and a method to heighten the focus on racial divides, as described by the council for higher education (2015). the study supports the idea that active transformation is needed (van der westhuizen, 2015) and that changes seem to rather stay ‘on the surface’ (herman, 2017), not reaching the depth required with regard to soft skill training for ee. the participants agreed that transformation is slow (breetzke & hedding, 2016); however, they did not share the view of zulu and parumasur (2009) that ee is non-existent. they rather felt that ee consists of complexities and failures (burger et al., 2016) in individuals’ response to ee (lee, 2016). employment equity movements are not always viewed as positive (as in ivona & lance, 2014). participants experience ee negatively when it comes to self-image with regard to racial and gender stereotyping, as well as tokenism and stigmatisation (heilman, black, & stathatos, 1997; ivona & lance, 2014). white participants fear retribution or revenge from members of previously disadvantaged groups, loss of standards, punitive taxation and limitation of their career opportunities (de beer & radley, 2000; leonard & grobler, 2006). black participants see themselves as being labelled as incompetent and unskilled (heilman et al., 1997) – findings supported in this study (golele & rachidi, 2017). white male participants highlight the fact that they feel excluded from professional recruitment processes or are released from positions, while black participants feel stereotyped as unskilled and employed because of race only. this is the reason that born-frees of all groups vote for overcoming ee and employment in the context of racial categorisation. according to segalo (2014), born-free individuals do not expect special treatment in the workplace through ee and aa – substantiated by the younger generation in this study. challenges arise within organisations where, in the implementation of ee and with the drive to meet legislative quotas, white males are deliberately excluded from recruitment and development opportunities (in this study as in segalo, 2014). roman and mason (2015) indicate that ee tends to be racially and numbers-driven at the expense of competence, as presented in these findings. further, members of previously disadvantaged groups seem to foster their education through bursaries, diversity management and personal mentorship but are often not promoted although they have increased their education. they experience ee implementations as comparably slow and perceive that ee training is not addressed with enough depth (roman & mason, 2015). this is reflected in the call for recruitment, promotion in organisations (through further education), diversity management strategies and personal mentorship; however, all of these aspects are rather random and are not implemented based on more complex management strategies. the individual differences in the way various employees respond to the idea of tokenism seems to suggest that self-image threats are mitigated through self-affirmation tasks (ivona & lance, 2014). the experiences and perceptions of the employees seem to corroborate ivona and lance’s (2014) studies on self-enhancement that self-interest accounts for beneficiaries of ee reacting negatively to ee policies in the same manner as non-beneficiaries react. black employees emphasise the fact that they reject being taken as a token. however, there is a difference in the way male and female black employees manage tokenism: male employees seem to take it as the start of their competitive behaviour, while female black employees feel frustrated and angered by the treatment. the current eea landscape includes gender discrimination in addition to race discrimination (denton vloeberghs, 2003; ng & burke, 2004; oosthuizen & naidoo, 2010). this study supports the previous findings of zulu and parumasur (2009) and highlights the fact that, in senior management transformation, processes seem to be rather slow. furthermore, employees do not believe that their companies have done enough to employ and promote previously disadvantaged groups as envisaged in labour legislation (thaver, 2010). zulu and parumasur (2009) emphasise the fact that without viable structures or systems, such as transformation forums, mentorship programmes and human resources policies to support the integration of previously disadvantaged groups into corporate environments, no transformation effort will yield results and the effective management of cultural diversity will not be realised. diversity management needs to become a structured organisational process, otherwise organisations will ultimately have to deal with job hopping particularly of black employees, culture clashes, stifling corporate cultures and hostile environments (ngobeni, 2006). according to moses (2006, p. 6), women are alienated from ‘testosterone-fuelled corporate cultures’ and individuals are not enabled and empowered (ntuli, 2006). the findings also show that no structured diversity management is provided in organisations and that it therefore stays superficial, personalised and rather ineffective. both leonard and grobler (2006) and employees in this study suggest that communication of the purpose and transformation within the entire workforce is needed. a study conducted by preeya (2014) indicates that key inclusion elements that need to be transformed at an organisational level include, among others, senior leadership, communication and transparent recruitment, promotion and development. at an interpersonal level engagement is needed, which includes decision-making authority and access to information (preeya, 2014). this study also highlights the fact that senior management needs to take on responsibility in the ee processes and make decisions accordingly with regard to recruitment processes. generally, the findings support the view that leadership must be strong to manage ee well across racial divides (mayer, 2017). recommendations this research study calls for comparative research in terms of how eea is implemented in south africa and in other countries. thereby, positive experiences in the ee processes could increasingly be taken into account. best practices of ee should be evaluated with regard to mesoand micro-levels in organisational management. on a practical level, findings can be used by human resources managers to: (1) monitor the progress towards ee competently and vigorously, (2) create awareness and communication within individuals, organisations and society regarding ee, (3) create best practices in order to benefit from ee (members of all racial, gender, cultural groups), (4) create a discourse on humanistic and reflexive human resources management (mahadevan & mayer, 2017) and (5) implement consulting, training and development programmes in organisations that are strategically, sustainably and long-term orientated. conclusion the aim of this article was to present voices from individuals of diverse cultural, racial, gender and age groups working in south african organisations. findings show that ee experiences are connected to racial, gender and age group memberships; individuals experience ee as heightening racial discrimination and stereotyping with regard to specific race groups. while white employees experience ee as reverse racism, black employees see it rather as an attempt to create equal access to the labour market for all individuals. both black and white males feel discriminated against by female competitors. born-frees do not want to return to previous (historical) categorisations, racial discrimination and advantages and stand up for equality. further, many employees across race and gender groups describe that they suffer stereotyping because of ee. they are of the opinion that diversity management is needed but that organisations do not focus enough on managing diversity effectively through organisational strategies. diversity management is viewed as a superficial attempt to overcome racial challenges, and employees across the board request stronger leadership in ee contexts. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the organisations and individual employees for participating in this study. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions r.o. conceptualised the study and wrote the first draft. l.t. and c.m. did the data analysis. all authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript. references basson, y. (2017). selected developments in south african labour legislation related to persons with disabilities. per / pelj, 20, 2–21. http://doi.org/10.17159/1727-3781/2017/v20i0a1216 bendix, s. (2010). industrial relations in south africa. (5th edn.). cape town: juta. booysen, l. (2007). barriers to employment equity implementation and retention of blacks in management in south africa. southern african journal of labour relations, 31(1), 47–71. breetzke, g. d., & hedding, d. w. (2016). the changing racial profile of academic staff at south african higher education institutions (heis), 2005–2013. africa education review, 13(2), 147–164. https://doi.org/10.1080/18146627.2016.1224114 burger, r., jafta, r., & von fintel, d. (2016). affirmative action policies and the evolution of post-apartheid south africa’s racial wage gap, wider working paper, no. 2016/66, isbn 978-92-9256-109-3. coetzer, n. (2009). affirmative action: the sword versus shield debate continues. sa mercantile law journal, 21, 92–101. council for higher education (che). (2015). annual report 2014/2015. council on higher education. retrieved from http://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/publications/che%20annual%20report%20of%20the%20council%20on%20higher%20education.pdf clarke, s., & hogget, p. (2009). researching below the surface. psycho-social research methods in practice. london: karnac. cloete, n., bunting, i., & maassen, p. (2015). research universities in africa: an empirical overview of eight flagship universities. in n. cloete, p. maassen, & t. bailey (eds.), knowledge production and contradictory functions in african higher education (pp. 18–31). cape town: african minds. collins, j., & hussey, r. (2014). business research: a practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. new york: palgrave macmillan higher education. isbn: 978-0-230-30183-2. creswell, j. w. (2013). qualitative inquiry & research: choosing among five approaches (3rd edn.). london: sage publications. creswell, j. w., & plano clark, v., (2011). designing and conducting mixed methods research (2nd edn.). london: sage publications. de beer, j. j., & radley, j. h. (2000). a case for managing diversity. georgeville, mn: enza. denton, m., & vloeberghs, d. (2003). leadership challenges for organizations in the new south africa. leadership and organization development journal, 24(2), 84–95. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730310463279 department of labour. (1998). employment equity act, no. 55 of 1998. retrieved from http://www.labour.gov.za department of labour. (2002). employment equity register. retrieved from http://www.labour.gov.za/documents/usefuldocuments/employmentequity/downloads/useful%20document%20-%20eea%20-%20employment%20equity%20registry%202002.pdf dilthey, w. (2002). the formation of the historical world in the human sciences. in r. a. makkreel & f. rodi (eds.), wilhelm dilthey selected works (vol. 3). princeton, nj: princeton university press. dingindawo, n., nwafor, a., mutshaeni, n., mudzielwana, n., & mulovhedzi, s. (2016). redressing past injustices through affirmative action: creating opportunities for women to assume leadership positions in the society. journal of educational studies, 15(2), 180–196. ebrahim, s. (2018). reviewing the suitability of affirmative action and the inherent requirements of the job as grounds of justification to equal pay claims in terms of the employment equity act 55 of 1998. per / pelj, 21, 2–38. employment equity act 55. (1998). pretoria: government printer. fernandez, s. (2016). the transformation of the south african public service: exploring the impact of racial and gender representation on organisational effectiveness. journal of modern african studies, 54(1), 91–116. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022278x15000816 golele, f. h., & rachidi, m. (2017). the challenges of achieving gender equity in a government department: a case study of the department of health, limpopo province, south africa. gender & behaviour, 15(3), 9584–9606. government gazette. (2014). employment equity act (55/1998): as amended: draft employment equity regulations, 2014. regulation gazette, 10127(584), pretoria, 28 february 2014, no. 37338 labour department of government notice r. 124. grix, j. (2010). the foundations of research (2nd edn.). chippenham, eastbourne: palgrave and macmillan, cpi antony rowe. isbn 978-0-230-24897-7. hassan, i., & ghauri, p. n. (2014). evaluating companies for mergers and acquisitions. book series: international business and management (vol. 40, pp. 75–89). bingley, england: emerald. heilman, m. e., block, c. j., & stathatos, p. (1997). the affirmative action stigma of incompetence: effects of performance information ambiguity. academy of management journal, 40(3), 603–625. herman, h. d. (2017). affirmative action in education and black economic empowerment in the workplace in south africa since 1994: policies, strengths and limitations. bces conference books, 15. sofia: bulgarian comparative education society. issn 1314–4693 (print), issn 2534–8426 (online), isbn 978-619-7326-00-0 (print), isbn 978-619-7326-01-7 (online). hills, j. (2015). addressing gender quotas in south africa: women empowerment and gender equality legislation. deakin law review, 20(1), 153–184. https://doi.org/10.21153/dlr2015vol20no1art498 ivona, h., & lance, f. d. (2014). support for employment equity policies: a self-enhancement approach. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 123(1), 49–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2013.11.002 kafle, n. (2013). hermeneutic phenomenological research method simplified. bodhi: an interdisciplinary journal, 5, 181–200. kruger, d. (1988). an introduction to phenomenological psychology. (2nd edn.). cape town: juta. lee, h. a. (2016). affirmative action regime formation in malaysia and south africa. journal of asian and african studies, 51(5), 511–527. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909614550895 leonard, a., & grobler, a. f. (2006). exploring challenge to transformational leadership communication about employment equity: managing organizational change in south africa. journal of communication management, 10(4), 390–406. https://doi.org/10.1108/13632540610714827 lincoln, y. s., & guba, e. g. (1985). naturalistic inquiry. beverly hills, ca: sage. louw, a. m. (2015a). i am not a number! i am a free man! the employment equity act, 1998 (and other myths about the pursuit of ‘equality’, ‘equity’ and ‘dignity’ in post-apartheid south africa) part 1. p.e.r, 18(3), 668–735. http://doi.org/10.4314/pelj.v18i3.05 louw, a. m. (2015b). i am not a number! i am a free man! the employment equity act, 1998 (and other myths about the pursuit of ‘equality’, ‘equity’ and ‘dignity’ in post-apartheid south africa) part 2. p.e.r, 18(3), 668–735. mahadevan, j., & mayer, c.-h. (2017). muslim minorities, workplace diversity and reflexive hrm. new york: routledge. maharaj, k., ortlepp, k., & stacey, a. (2008). psychological contracts and employment equity practices. management dynamics, 17(1), 16–30. masombuka, s. (2016). varsities down on women, (2016, march 22) times lives. mason, g., williams, g., & cranner, s. (2009). employability skills initiatives in higher education: what effects do they have on graduate labour outcomes? education economics, 17(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1080/09645290802028315 mayer, c.-h. (2017). a ‘derailed’ agenda? black women’s voices on workplace transformation. journal of international women’s studies, 18(4), 144–163. mayer, c.-h., & barnard, a. (2015). balancing the scales of gender and culture in contemporary south africa. in s. safdar & n. kosakowska-berezecka (eds.), the psychology of gender and culture (pp. 327–352). new york: springer. moraka, n. v., & jansen van rensburg, m. (2015). transformation in the south african mining industry – looking beyond the employment equity scorecard. the journal of the southern african institute of mining and metallurgy, 115, 669–678. http://doi.org/10.17159/2411-9717/2015/v115n8a2 moses, b. (2006). glass ceiling not to blame: women alienated by male corporate culture. city press. nel, p. s., kirsten, m., swanepoel, b. j., erasmus, b. j., & poisat, p. (2008). south african employment relations theory and practice (6th edn.). pretoria: van schaik. nel, p. s., kirsten, m., swanepoel, b. j., erasmus, b. j., & poisat, p. (2012). south african employment relations theory and practice (7th edn.). pretoria: van schaik. nel, p. s., kirsten, m., swanepoel, b. j., erasmus, b. j., & poisat, p. (2016). south african employment relations theory and practice (8th edn.). pretoria: van schaik. nevin, t. (2008). chinese are now black – official. african business, august/september, 28–29. ng, e. s. w., & burke, r. j. (2004). cultural values as predictors of attitudes towards equality and diversity: a canadian experience. woman in management review, 19(6), 317–324. https://doi.org/10.1108/09649420410555088 ngobeni, m. (2006). black job-hopping not all about the money. sunday times, business times, p. 8. nicoll, b. (2006). the rewards eight years later. people dynamics, 24(3), 6–7. ntuli, d. (2006). do you fit in? career junction. retrieved from http://ananzi.careerjunction.co.za op’t hoog, c., siebers, h., & linde, b. (2010). affirmed identities? the experience of black middle managers dealing with affirmative action and equal opportunity policies at a south african mine. south african journal of labour relations, 34(2), 60–83. oosthuizen, r. m., & naidoo, v. (2010). attitudes towards and experience of employment equity. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), art. #836, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.836 pietersen, c. (2007). interpersonal bullying behaviours in the workplace. south african journal of industrial psychology, 33(1), 59–66. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v33i1.256 portnoi, l. m. (2003). implications of the employment equity act for the higher education sector. south african journal of higher education, 17(2), 79–85. preeya, d. (2014). diversity and inclusion in an emerging market context. an international journal equality, diversity and inclusion, 33(3), 293–308. http://doi.org/10.1108/edi-10-2012-0087 ramgoolam, s. (2005). experiences of employment equity in the coal mining industry. (unpublished master’s dissertation). university of south africa, pretoria. rautenbach, i. m. (2015). requirements for affirmative action and requirements for the limitation of rights. south african police service v solidarity obo rm barnard 2014 10 bclr 1195. tsar, 2, 432–443. reuben, s., & bobat, s. (2014). constructing racial hierarchies of skill – experiencing affirmative action in a south african organisation: a qualitative review. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 40(1), art. #1158, 12 pages. http://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1158 roman, l. j., & mason, r. b. (2015). employment equity in the south african retail sector: legal versus competence and business imperatives. south african journal of labour relations, 39(2), 84–104. saha, s.k, o’donnell, d., patel, t., & henegehan, j. (2008). a study of individual values and employment equity in canada, france and ireland. equal opportunities international, 27(7), 629–645. https://doi.org/10.1108/02610150810904328 sebola, m. s., & khalo, t. (2010). implementation of employment equity: a case of the universities of venda and of pretoria. journal of public administration, 45, 202–217. segalo, n. r. (2014). a qualitative study on the opinions, attitudes and experience of employment equity for various racial groups in an organisation’s human resources department. (unpublished honours research report). university of south africa: pretoria. stoffels, m. c. (2015). evaluering van regstellende aksie in konteks van moontlike onbillike diskriminasie teen subgroepe binne die aangewese groep. per/pelj, 18(5), 1954–1977. http://doi.org/10.4314/pelj.v18i5.24 surtee, s., & hall, m. (2009). transformation: african people in the western cape. commissioned by the development policy research unit. cape town: university of cape town. thaver, b. (2010). the transition to equity in south african higher education: governance, fairness, and trust in everyday academic practice. international journal of politics, culture, and society, 23(1), 43–56. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-010-9098-0 thomas, a. (2002). employment equity in south africa: lessons from the global school. international journal of manpower, 23(3), 237–255. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720210432211 timothy, o. (2013). affirmative action: the uncertainty continues. people dynamics, 13(9), 3–5. van der westhuizen, e. j. (2015). democratisation of employment in the public sector. a constitutional perspective grounded in the interpretation of litigated cases between 1996 and 2013. politeia, 34(2), 597777. issn 0256-884. van zyl, b. (2017). affirmative action in saps. hrfuture.net, 12, 38–43. warnich, s., carell, m. r., elbert, n. f., & hatfield, r. d. (2015). human resource management in south africa. (5th edn.). hampshire: cengage learning emea. welman, c., kruger, f., & mitchell, b. (2012). research methodology. oup southern africa. isbn 0195789016, 9780195789010. yin, r. k. (2009). case study research design and methods (4th edn.) thousand oaks, ca: sage. zach, l. (2006). using a multiple-case studies design to investigate the information-seeking behavior of arts administrators. library trends, 55(1), 4–21. https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2006.0055 zulu, p. s., & parumasur, s. b. (2009). employee perceptions of the management of cultural diversity and workplace transformation. south african journal of industrial psychology, 35(1), art. #426, 9 pages. http://doi.10.4102/sajip.v35i1.426 footnotes 1. the term ‘black’ is applicable in the eea to african, mixed-race and indian people and recently also included south african-born chinese people (nevin, 2008). abstract introduction literature review method results discussion acknowledgements references footnotes about the author(s) gina görgens-ekermans department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa chene roux department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa citation görgens-ekermans, g., & roux, c. (2021). revisiting the emotional intelligence and transformational leadership debate: (how) does emotional intelligence matter to effective leadership? sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1279. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1279 original research revisiting the emotional intelligence and transformational leadership debate: (how) does emotional intelligence matter to effective leadership? gina görgens-ekermans, chene roux received: 18 sept. 2019; accepted: 03 nov. 2020; published: 27 jan. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: empirical evidence supports the notion that emotional intelligence (ei) and transformational leadership (tfl) are related and confirms the positive effect of this leadership style on follower attitudes and performance. however, more insight is needed into the nomological net of variables that affect outcomes of effective leadership, as experienced by the follower of a leader who exhibits tfl behaviours, being influenced by various ei competencies. research purpose: this study developed and tested a structural model that depicts the nature of the relationships between ei competencies, tfl behaviours and three outcomes of effective leadership. motivation for the study: we argued that more insight into how (1) different components of ei affect tfl behaviours, and how (2) different components of tfl behaviours, in turn, affect outcomes of effective leadership, could be valuable in designing targeted interventions to increase employee commitment, job satisfaction (js) and perceived supervisor support (pss). research design/design and method: the cross-sectional data included a sample of 267 respondents, with 85 leader–follower dyads that were analysed with partial least squares modelling. self and other ratings were employed. main findings: nine of the 19 postulated relationships in the structural model were supported. three of the four tfl components were shown to be influenced by various components of ei. only pss was significantly affected by idealised influence as a tfl behaviour. practical/managerial implications: increased understanding of which ei competencies influence tfl behaviours may be useful in the development of leaders by guiding targeted ei intervention strategies to increase leadership effectiveness. contribution / value-add: this study confirmed the notion that ei competencies seem to be hierarchically ordered, whilst also providing insight into the differential impact of these competencies on tfl behaviours. keywords: emotional intelligence; transformational leadership; job satisfaction; organisational commitment; perceived supervisor support. introduction orientation over the past decades, the theory of transformational leadership (tfl) has emerged as one of the most dominant leadership theories (mhatre & riggio, 2014) in the organisational psychology literature. meta-analytic evidence underscores the central role of tfl in organisational success (e.g. dumdum, lowe, & avolio, 2002; wang, oh, courtright, & colbert, 2011). various researchers have shown that tfl is generally more effective than other leadership styles (e.g. gardner & stough, 2002; limsila & ogunlana, 2008; lowe, kroeck, & sivasubramaniam, 1996). at least two meta-analyses have confirmed the effect of tfl on follower performance (judge & piccolo, 2004; lowe et al., 1996). in a meta-analysis by hiller, dechurch, murase and doty (2011), follower attitudes were revealed as the most common studied outcome of leadership. for example, subordinates of transformational leaders have been shown to report higher levels of job satisfaction (js) (kaiser, hogan, & craig, 2008), increased organisational citizenship behaviours (piccolo & colquitt, 2006) and even increased employee creativity (cheung & wong, 2011). moreover, a recent meta-analysis (i.e. jackson, meyer, & wong, 2013) confirmed the positive effect of tfl on the various components of organisational commitment (oc). theory of tfl embodies the notion that leaders possess the capacity to influence followers to aspire towards a collective purpose by setting aside selfish pursuits. transformational leaders clearly communicate vision and goals and empower subordinates in the pursuit of goals (bass & riggio, 2006). given the benefits of tfl, more studies have focussed on the antecedents thereof. one such stream of investigation has focussed on emotional intelligence (ei) (for a comprehensive review, see kim & kim, 2017). emotional intelligence has been studied as a predictor of job performance (o’boyle jr. et al., 2011) and leadership performance for close to three decades (kim & kim, 2017). early on, with the advent of ei research, mayer and salovey (1990) argued that the leader’s capacity to respond to and influence subordinates’ emotions is essential in developing quality relationships with them. moreover, researchers have consistently showed that leaders who are perceived as successful and/or effective are those who portray ei skills, such as being aware of, and responsive to, their own and other’s emotions (zeidner, matthews, & roberts, 2004). various researchers have found that leaders with a higher level of ei are more effective in influencing subordinates’ attitudes (e.g. polychroniou, 2009), and possibly even more so when engaging in a tfl style (ashkanasy & tse, 2000; rinfet, laplante, lagacé, deschamps, & privé, 2018). for example, consistent positive correlations have been reported between ei and tfl (e.g. lam & o’higgins, 2012). moreover, hur, van den berg and wilderom (2011) have shown the mediating effect of tfl on the relationship between ei and team outcomes. connelly and ruark (2010) argued that, given the significance of expressing emotions in the leader–member exchange, more researchers have been giving attention to transformational leaders’ ei. their study investigated the effect of leaders’ emotional displays on subordinates’ satisfaction and performance. results revealed that transformational leaders are better at expressing a wider range of emotions (including negative emotions) without causing subordinates to adversely alter their perceptions of their leader. moreover, the study revealed that subordinates feel less threatened by negative displays of emotion by the leader if the leader displays individual consideration (a dimension of tfl) of the followers’ needs (connelly & ruark, 2010). according to kerr, garvin, heaton and boyle (2006, p. 268), successful leaders enhance unity and morale by ‘creating shared emotional experiences’. hence, if leaders can affect follower emotions, they can also significantly affect follower performance (kerr et al., 2006). the notion that leaders with high ei are more effective has been confirmed by various researchers (e.g. rosete & ciarrochi, 2005). research purpose and objectives research clearly shows that successful leadership (specifically tlf) is related to positive organisational outcomes such as increased js and oc (jackson et al., 2013; lowe et al., 1996) and a lower level of turnover intentions (cheng & wu, 2017). organisational commitment and js have also been shown to be outcomes of perceived supervisor and organisational support (yousef, 2000). epitropaki and martin (2013, p. 305) have argued that this is because of the fact that perceived organisational support ‘signals an employer’s commitment to employees whereby employees reciprocate with increased efforts to help the organization’. however, more insight is needed into the nomological net of variables that affect these outcomes of leadership, as experienced by the follower of a leader who exhibits tfl behaviours, being influenced by various ei competencies. this study, therefore, investigated variance in follower-perceived supervisor support (pss), oc and js, as outcomes of tfl, in an elaborated structural model that depicts the nature of the relationships between ei dimensions, tfl dimensions and the three outcomes of effective leadership. the research question for this study, therefore, was: does the structural model developed in this study provide a valid, plausible account of the psychological process that determines the outcomes of effective leadership (defined as pss, js and oc) as experienced by the follower of a particular leader who exhibits certain tfl behaviours influenced by various ei competencies? the research objectives, therefore, were (1) to develop a structural model and (2) to test the fit of the outer and inner model via partial least squares modelling (pls). literature review the hierarchical nature of emotional intelligence most ei research has followed the conceptual distinction of ability or ‘mixed models’ (mayer, caruso, & salovey, 1999). recently, however, a further distinction was proposed (boyatzis, rochford, & cavanagh, 2017) by splitting ‘mixed models’ into trait ei and behavioural ei. the latter is an approach that ‘captures ei as it is manifested in real contexts by collecting external informants’ observations (as opposed to self-assessments) of an individual’s behavior’ (truninger, fernández-i-marín, batista-foguet, boyatzis, & serlavós, 2018, p. 2). the ei model utilised in this research, namely the emotional and social competence inventory (ecsi, boyatzis, 2009), fits within the behavioural ei approach and includes the sub-dimensions of self-awareness (sa), self-management (sm), social awareness (soca) and relationship management (rm). the esci comprises basic competencies of emotional recognition and management skills (as encompassed in sa and sm), and also more psychologically integrated dimensions such as social skills (contained within the soca and rm dimensions). according to schutte, malouff and thorsteinsson (2013), social skills as a component of ei build on the more basic ei skills. self-awareness and sm are the more basic processes, given that these dimensions involve basic knowledge and skills related to identifying and managing one’s own emotions. this is in contrast to the more integrated processes, captured in the soca and rm dimensions, which involve reading the environment and others’ emotional cues and deciding how to react to the situation in a way that contributes to creating and maintaining functional relationships. results about inter-correlations of respective ei dimensions for specific ei models are routinely reported in ei studies. however, limited research exists on how basic (e.g. self-recognition) and more integrated ei skills (e.g. management/regulation of emotions based on environmental cues) are possibly hierarchically ordered in terms of the internal structure of the ei construct. for example, in one of the foundational publications regarding the mayer and salovey ei model, it was stated that the ei abilities are positioned from the ‘basic psychological process to higher, more psychologically integrated processes’ (mayer & salovey, 1997, p. 10). to this end, joseph and newman (2010) proposed and tested a ‘cascading’ ei model, which explicated the theoretical causal mechanism amongst ei sub-facets. the results of their international meta-analysis provided empirical evidence of a progressive structure, ‘… in which emotion perception, causally precedes emotion understanding, which in turn gives rise to conscious emotion regulation …’ (joseph & newman, 2010, p. 55). however, nationally there is limited empirical evidence to support this claim. to the knowledge of the authors, only one south african study has investigated this notion. beyers (2006) reported results from a structural model in which sa (measured with the ei index scale, rahim & minors, 2003) preceded self-regulation (0.69) and empathy (0.81). empathy (a component of social competence), in turn, predicted social skill (i.e. adeptness at inducing desirable responses in others). this study, however, was constrained by multiple methodological limitations (e.g. small sample size). it is argued here that a clear understanding of the psychological process explicating how different ei skills are hierarchically ordered (implied by the ei part of the structural model tested in this study) and how certain basic ei skills influence other more psychologically integrated ei skills is lacking in the literature. to this end, this study aimed to contribute to the current body of literature regarding the possible hierarchical (i.e. cascading) nature of the ei construct. the following hypotheses pertaining to the structural model were developed: hypothesis 1: self-awareness is positively related to sm. hypothesis 2: self-awareness is positively related to soca. hypothesis 3: self-management is positively related to rm. hypothesis 4: social awareness is positively related to rm. emotional intelligence and transformational leadership the significance of ei skills for successful leadership is well established (e.g. lam & o’higgins, 2012; rosete & ciarrochi, 2005). building on the argument that leadership is ‘an emotional process’ (nourollahi, nikbakhsh, & esmaeili, 2011, p. 32), various researchers have explored the relationship between a leader’s ei and effective leadership. for example, gardner and stough (2002) reported that leaders who are more emotionally intelligent are more committed and more successful in the workplace. more specifically, gardner and stough (2002), by using a trait ei measure, the swinburne university ei test (palmer & stough, 2001), reported a strong positive relationship (r = 0.675, p < 0.01) between ei and tfl, whereas no relationship was found between ei and transactional leadership. moreover, the correlation (r = 0.585, p < 0.01) between the individualised onsideration (ic) of tfl dimension and the ei dimension of understanding external emotions (i.e. of others) was shown to be the strongest in their results. their results were consistent with research by palmer, walls, burgess and stough (2001) who reported that an individual’s ability to manage his or her own emotions and those of others is a key skill of tfl. rahman, ferdausy and uddin (2012) similarly reported that leaders with higher ei are more likely to be transformational leaders. to this end, various studies have reported significant relationships between ei and tfl (e.g. fitzgerald & schutte, 2010; spano-szekely, griffin, clavelle, & fitzpatrick, 2016; hajncl & vučenović, 2020). more specifically, a meta-analysis by harms and credé (2010) found that, although the relationship between trait ei measures and tfl was less in studies that used multisource ratings,1 it was still significant, with ‘effect sizes comparable to those found between personality traits and transformational leadership’ (harms & credé, 2010, p. 12). research in the behavioural ei domain has also provided evidence of the utility of the construct to predict various aspects of leadership. bajaj and medury (2013), for example, showed that aggregated scores on the esci predicted engagement in a tfl style and resultant leadership effectiveness. miller (2014) provided evidence of a strong significant relationship between behavioural ei and perceived leadership effectiveness. aliaga and taylor (2012) similarly reported that behavioural ei scores could differentiate high versus low effectiveness of managers. lastly, boyatzis, good and massa (2012) provided evidence of the incremental validity of behavioural ei above general mental ability (measured with the ravens progressive matrices) and the big five personality traits (measured with the neo-five factor inventory [neo-ffi]), in the prediction of leadership effectiveness. the results of all these studies undoubtedly emphasise the importance of a leader’s ei on tfl behaviours. however, these studies do not provide much insight into the psychological process that underlies this association. it is in this respect that this study aimed to contribute to the ei–tfl literature, through proposing a plausible nomological net of interactions that may provide more insight into the way in which ei skills may influence tfl behaviours. to this end various hypotheses of paths between behavioural ei sub-dimensions and tfl sub-dimensions were included in the structural model, emphasising the fact that certain ei skills may be more salient in predicting certain tfl behaviours than others. firstly, a leader who understands and is capable of effectively managing his or her own emotions, and who exhibits self-control, may more likely be perceived as a role model by his or her followers, thereby developing their trust in and respect for their leader (barling, slater, & kelloway, 2000). therefore, it was hypothesised that a leader’s level of sm (according to the esci, that is, emotional self-control) will have the most salient direct effect on idealised influence (ii) as a tfl behaviour (i.e. communicating important values and a shared sense of purpose (bass & riggio, 2006). moreover, this ability to manage ‘one’s internal states, impulses and resources’ (boyatzis, 2009, p. 754) should also enhance the engagement in inspirational motivation (im) behaviours, as followers may display more trust in such a leader (dirks & ferrin, 2002). such sustained positive leader–member interactions should positively influence efforts of the leader to confidently communicate a compelling vision and goals to followers. secondly, leaders who have the capacity to effectively understand and interpret the emotions of others (i.e. soca) would probably be more capable of realising the degree to which their followers’ expectations could be influenced, which is ‘… a hallmark of im’ (barling et al., 2000, p. 157). for example, by displaying empathy (a sub-dimension of the esci soca subscale) a leader should more easily be able to confidently read and respond to follower emotions, which could help facilitate the communication of the vision and goals of the organisation, as it is likely that the follower will have greater trust in the leader (gillespie & mann, 2004). however, soca as an ei skill within the esci also contains sub-dimensions of organisational awareness and service orientation. collectively these ei skills imply being able to read and understand the emotions of others; being able to understand what other individuals need; and finding ways of meeting those needs (boyatzis, 2018). thirdly, therefore, a further direct path from soca to ic was hypothesised. individualised consideration refers to the ability to understand the needs of followers; take action according to this understanding in terms of giving personal attention to followers; and encourage their development (bass & riggio, 2006), all of which should naturally be enhanced through the leader’s better soca skills (gardner & stough, 2002). this notion is corroborated by barling et al. (2000, p. 157), when they state ‘… with its emphasis on empathy and the ability to manage relationships positively, leaders manifesting ei would be likely to manifest individualized consideration’. fourthly, rm, that is the skill of positively affecting others’ responses and/or emotions (boyatzis, 2009, p. 754), was hypothesised to have the most salient effect on the tfl dimension of ii (i.e. communicating important values and a shared sense of purpose). leaders who are adept at effectively managing relationships, for example, through coaching and mentoring behaviours (behaviours contained in the rm dimension of the esci) (boyatzis, 2009), would more easily communicate their personal values and standards (humphreys & einstein, 2003), which should facilitate creating a shared sense of purpose. lastly, beyers’ (2006) results revealed no significant correlations between any of the goleman ei dimensions and intellectual stimulation (is) (as a tfl dimension), thus corroborating results from a study by barling et al. (2000). moreover, no paths to is from any of the ei sub-dimensions were included in the initial model in beyers’ (2006) study. the authors (e.g. barling et al., 2000) argued that the cognitive nature of is (i.e. providing intellectual challenges, encouraging initiative) differs markedly in nature from the other tfl dimensions, which seem to rely more naturally on the emotional competencies of the leader. therefore, no paths between any of the ei dimensions and is were hypothesised in this study. ultimately, this study aimed to add to the body of knowledge regarding the nature of the relationships between ei and tfl in a way that would create a deeper understanding of those specific ei skills that would influence certain tfl behaviours. therefore, the following hypotheses pertaining to the structural model were proposed: hypothesis 5: self-management is positively related to ii. hypothesis 6: self-management is positively related to im. hypothesis 7: social awareness is positively related to ic. hypothesis 8: social awareness is positively related to im. hypothesis 9: relationship management is positively related to ii. follower outcomes linked to transformational leadership as an indication of effective leadership a strong body of evidence supports the notion that various employee attitudes, such as js and oc, are significantly impacted by leadership behaviours (e.g. hiller et al., 2011). in a recent meta-analysis, ng (2017) showed support for the notion that the effect of tfl on job performance is facilitated through an affective mechanism, embodied within js and oc. ng (2017), for example, argued that: [r]eceiving tfl is a positive work event that makes one feel positive about his or her job (job satisfaction); for instance, being inspired by the leader makes the follower see his or her job as meaningful. (p. 388) to this end, js has been described as multifaceted affective reactions towards the job (e.g. pool & pool, 2007). research has indicated that employee js is considerably affected by leadership by an immediate supervisor (mardanov, heischmidt, & henson, 2008), and more significantly so by a leader who exhibits tfl behaviours (banks, mccauley, gardner, & guler, 2016). for example, mast, jonas, cronauer and darioly (2011) studied the significance of leaders’ interpersonal sensitivity on leader effectiveness. in this study, ic, a dimension of tfl, was shown to be positively correlated to subordinates’ levels of satisfaction. moreover, the is dimension of tfl refers to leadership behaviour in which the leader encourages employees to be creative and innovative. glisson and durick (1988) have argued that employees who experience work as stimulating and requiring a wide variety of skills report higher levels of js. in addition, ii refers to the fact that leaders are viewed as role models by their followers. such leaders possess high self-confidence and also tend to display confidence in the abilities of their followers, which acts as a motivational factor for followers. hence, such a display of trust and confidence in followers may enhance follower js positively as leader behaviour has been shown to be a major contributor to employees’ js (e.g. mardanov et al., 2008). organisational commitment indicates the extent to which employees identify with and are involved in organisations (meyer, stanley, herscovitch, & topolnytsky, 2002). meyer and allen’s (1991) model of oc ‘retains the greatest empirical scrutiny and arguably receives the greatest support’ (pool & pool, 2007, pp. 354–355) and was used in this study. organisational commitment is described by three dimensions: affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. organisational commitment has been shown to be a predictor of turnover intentions and behaviour (maertz, griffeth, campbell, & allen, 2007), as well as of absenteeism and js (pool & pool, 2007). several studies have reported a positive correlation between the tfl style and subordinates’ oc (e.g. limsila & ogynalan, 2008). according to piccolo and colquitt (2006), transformational leaders heighten the degree of commitment received from their subordinates. for example, the charisma of the leader, a characteristic of ii (a dimension of tfl), is said to boost employees’ levels of commitment, inspiring them to perform beyond what is expected (klein & house, 1995). jackson et al. (2013), moreover, have argued that such leaders are acutely aware of the needs of followers and regularly attempt to satisfy individual needs. in a similar vein, ng (2017) argued and showed support for the notion that: [r]eceiving tfl is also a positive work event that makes one feel positive about his or her organization (affective organizational commitment); for instance, leaders’ individualized consideration makes a follower see working for the organization as enjoyable. (pp. 388) for example, a study by erkutlu (2008) reported a strong correlation between the ic (i.e. paying individual attention to followers and encouraging development) dimension of tfl and oc levels of followers. this is in line with research by arnold and davey (1999), who reported that intrinsic work aspects, such as career development, play a large role in the oc levels of employees. in addition, im, which embodies the ability of the leader to mentor followers (bass & riggio, 2006) by effectively communicating an appealing future goal state and expressing confidence in followers’ abilities to attain this higher-order goal (bass & riggio, 2006), has been shown to positively influence follower commitment, also in african contexts (e.g. louw, muriithi, & radloff, 2017; mclaggan, bezuidenhout, & botha, 2013). supervisory support is ‘the socio-emotional concerns of the supervisor, and represents the degree to which the supervisor creates a facilitative climate of psychological support, mutual trust, friendliness, and helpfulness’ (yoon, seo, & yoon, 2004, p. 396). examples of pss behaviours include showing personal concern and applying fair decision-making practices (maertz et al., 2007) and voluntarily providing resources and assistance to help followers perform more effectively (zhang & bartol, 2010). perceived supervisor support has been shown to have a significant negative correlation with subordinates’ turnover (maertz et al., 2007) and positively affect effectiveness of subordinates (gentry, kuhnert, mondore, & page, 2007). perceived organisational support, a closely related construct, has been shown to be a significant antecedent of oc (eisenberger, huntington, hutchison, & sowa, 1986; wayne, shore, & liden, 1997). argued within the boundaries of social exchange theory (cropanzano & mitchell, 2005), we expect that tfl will influence employees’ perceptions of the degree to which they can obtain needed resources and assistance from their supervisor (i.e. pss), as evidenced in a recent study by cheng and wu (2020). these authors reported tfl ‘as a key factor that affects … perceived supervisor support’ based on a strong path coefficient between these variables (β = 0.52; p < 0.01) in their structural model (cheng & wu, 2020, p. 9). therefore, we firstly hypothesised that ic (as a tfl dimension) would affect employees’ perceptions of perceived supervisory support, as this tfl dimension embodies leader behaviours that actively demonstrate personal concern and attention to a subordinate’s needs (bass & riggio, 2006), which should make employees feel supported by their leader. secondly, we anticipated that, when leaders are successful in being positive role models (i.e. exhibiting ii behaviours) their followers will report higher levels of perceived support. charismatic leaders motivate followers by displaying confidence in follower abilities (sarros & santora, 2001). it is argued that such a positive mutual experience of trust and respect could enhance follower perceptions of feeling supported by their supervisor. with reference to the structural model, the following hypotheses were proposed: hypothesis 10: individualised consideration is positively related to js. hypothesis 11: intellectual stimulation is positively related to js. hypothesis 12: idealised influence is positively related to js. hypothesis 13: idealised influence is positively related to oc. hypothesis 14: individualised consideration is positively related to oc. hypothesis 15: inspirational motivation is positively related to oc. hypothesis 16: idealised influence is positively related to pss. hypothesis 17: individualised consideration is positively related to pss. the relationships between the three outcomes variables (pss, js and oc) were also analysed in this study as part of the structural model. based on organisational support research (e.g. tang, yu, cooke, & chen, 2017; wayne et al., 1997) it was hypothesised that pss would be a direct antecedent to both js (eisenberger, cummings, armeli, & lynch, 1997) and oc (eisenberger, fasolo, & davis-lamastro, 1990). for example, active support (perceived as coming from the organisation or supervisor) has been argued to invoke a desire for reciprocity from employees (albalawi, naugton, elayan, & sleimi, 2019). moreover, some have argued that js and oc both reflect employees’ positive feelings about their jobs and organisations (harrison, newman, & roth, 2006) and that a positive emotional contagion effect is present when support is being experienced. although there is evidence to suggest that a reciprocal relationship exists between oc and js (george, yanqing, muñoz torres, & gourlay, 2020; huang & hsiao, 2007), it is argued in this study that oc is an antecedent of js (paik, parboteeach, & shim, 2007; pool & pool, 2007), as employees may adjust their satisfaction levels to be consistent with their experienced commitment levels. bateman and strasser (1984) have argued, for example, that, based on cognitive dissonance theory, commitment as a cognitive appraisal is rationalised by consequent js attitudes. that is, individuals actively manage their levels of cognitive dissonance by adjusting their level of js to be consistent with their perceived level of oc. we, therefore, proposed direct paths from pss to oc, as well as to js, and a direct path from organisational commitment to js in the structural model: hypothesis 18: perceived supervisor support is positively related to js. hypothesis 19: organisational commitment is positively related to js. hypothesis 20: perceived supervisor support is positively related to oc. the present study aimed to explicate an approximation of the relationships between the ei behavioural competencies contained in the esci (boyatzis & goleman, 2007), the tfl style, in terms of the different sub-dimensions of this style (bass & riggio, 2006), and its direct and indirect effects on the outcomes of effective leadership (defined as subordinates’ levels of oc, js and their pss). figure 1 shows a visual representation of the proposed structural model. figure 1: the structural model representing the relationships amongst emotional intelligence, transformational leadership and the outcomes of effective leadership. method participants the cross-sectional data obtained by means of a non-probability convenience sampling method resulted in a sample of 267 respondents, with 852 leader–follower dyads (i.e. 182 followers). most of the respondents came from the higher education industry (78.8%) and the financial services sector (18.8%). the leader sample consisted of 60% females with a mean age of 46.22 (sd = 8.32). the follower sample consisted of 65.93% females with a mean age of 39.93 (sd = 10.63). the race composition for the leader sample (58.8% white people; 29.4% mixed race; 3.5% black african and 8.2% indian/asian) was not dramatically different to that of the follower sample (33.0% white; 37.9% mixed race; 6.6% black african; 3% indian/asian; 19.5 missing data). research procedure and ethical considerations hard copy, leader/follower coded anonymous questionnaires (that were returned in sealed envelopes in collection boxes) were distributed at the participating organisations with the instruction that a leader and at least two subordinates/followers linked to a particular leader should complete the questionnaire. a total of 135 leader questionnaires (92 returned, response rate = 69.7%) and 305 follower questionnaires (198 returned, response rate = 64.9%) were disseminated. only 182 of the follower questionnaires and 85 leader questionnaires that were returned were found suitable for use. leaders rated their own ei and tfl, whilst followers rated their leader on ei and tfl, as well as their own js, oc and perceived supervisory support. measurement instruments emotional intelligence the emotional and social competency inventory (esci; boyatzis & goleman, 2007) was used to measure ei in terms of four competencies. self-awareness focusses on emotional sa, accurate self-assessment and self-confidence. self-management includes elements such as achievement orientation, adaptability, emotional self-control and positive outlook. social awareness centres on empathy, organisational awareness and service orientation. relationship management includes, amongst others, conflict management, coaching and mentoring, influence and inspirational leadership. the esci is a 360-degree instrument, which employs a 6-point likert scale with the following options: ‘never’, ‘rarely’, ‘sometimes’, ‘often’, ‘consistently’ or ‘don’t know.3 sample items include: ‘you remain calm in stressful situations’ and ‘you coach and mentor others’. the scale has been shown to be internally consistent (alphas ranging from 0.80 to 0.90 for the esci self and 0.86–0.94 for the esci other; boyatzis, 2018). transformational leadership only the tfl section of the multifactor leadership questionnaire (mlq; bass & avolio, 1995) was used to measure ii (i.e. leaders being role models to their followers); is (i.e. encouraging followers to be creative, to not avoid challenges and to participate in decision-making); ic (i.e. leaders considering the needs of their followers and encouraging development); and im (i.e. making followers aware of the mission and vision of the company and encouraging them to commit to the vision). sample items included ‘i talk optimistically about the future’ and ‘i spend time supporting and coaching’. engelbrecht, van aswegen and theron (2005) provided evidence of satisfactory internal consistency (alphas ranging from 0.72 to 0.84) of this scale on a south african sample. perceived supervisor support eisenberger et al.’s (1986) perceived organisational support questionnaire was used to measure pss. similar to the practice employed by other researchers (e.g. pazy & ganzach, 2009), the word ‘organisation’ was replaced with ‘supervisor’. a 7-point likert scale, ranging from 0 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree), was utilised. sample items included ‘my supervisor values my contribution’ and ‘my supervisor really cares about my well-being’. eisenberger et al. (1997) reported a reliability coefficient of 0.93 for this scale. job satisfaction six items from the 30-item version of the job descriptive index (jdi) that related to satisfaction at work were used to measure js. a likert-type response format was used (1 = strongly disagree, to 5 = strongly agree). sample items included: ‘my work is satisfying’ and ‘my work gives me a sense of accomplishment’. with alphas ranging from 0.68 to 0.96, the jdi has been reported to have satisfactory internal consistency (buckley, carraher, & cote, 1992). organisational commitment the organisational commitment questionnaire (ocq) (allen & meyer, 1990) was used to measure commitment. the instrument uses a 4-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). sample items include: ‘i would be very happy to spend the rest of my career at my current workplace’ and ‘i do not feel a strong sense of belonging at my current workplace’. allen and meyer (1990) reported satisfactory reliability for this subscale (α = 0.87). data analysis the reliability of the instruments was calculated with statistica (statsoft, 2012). partial least squares modelling (smartpls 3; ringle, wende, & becker, 2015) was used to test the fit of the inner (i.e. structural) and outer (i.e. measurement) models. results reliability analysis item analysis (statsoft, 2012) was performed on all five measurement scales for the separate data sets (i.e. leader and follower data). the results revealed that all, besides one (sa, follower data), of the cronbach’s alpha values exceeded the required 0.70 cut-off value (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). most items presented high item–total correlations4 (see tables 1 and 2). each scale was, therefore, considered to be internally consistent and reliable. table 1: reliability of the measurement scales (leader data). table 2: reliability of the measurement scales (follower data). partial least square results: the measurement (outer) model partial least square (pls) (smartpls 3; ringle et al., 2015) was used to fit the model to the data. overall, the composite reliability, average variance extracted (ave) and discriminant validity results of the scales used in this study generally met the cut-off values considered for a suitable measurement model. composite reliabilities ranged from 0.79 to 0.94 and ave from 0.37 to 0.75. the heterotrait–monotrait ratio (htmt) was calculated to examine discriminant validity (henseler, ringle, & sarstedt, 2015). social awareness and sm did not attain discriminant validity, whilst their aves were also below the suggested value of 0.50. however, the discriminant validity of the tfl subscales raised some concern. idealised influence and ic, as well as im and ii, were shown to fail to obtain discriminant validity. moreover, the results revealed a further rather concerning finding in that is did not obtain discriminant validity with any of the other tfl variables. various studies (e.g. antonakis, avolio, & sivasubramaniam, 2003; vandenberghe, stordeur, & d’hoore, 2002) have reported that the subscales within the mlq measure showed a lack of discriminant validity, with very high correlations between the subscales that were observed. carless (1998) reported an average correlation of 0.93 between the subscales. it would, therefore, seem that discriminant validity of the tfl subscales is a weakness of the tfl measure. partial least square bootstrap analysis was used to determine whether item loadings of the outer model were significant. all outer loadings were significant (ranges, tfl: 0.52–0.93; ei: 0.30–0.91; js: 0.58–0.89; oc: 0.49–0.74; pss: 0.66–0.90). two exceptions existed. item 58 in the ei scale (negatively keyed item) and item 3 of the organisational commitment questionnaire (ocq) scale. these items were retained as it was argued that the effect of two non-significant items out of 117 items (composite questionnaire) would be negligible. however, none of the is items obtained significant loadings. based on this and the discriminant validity results for this scale, this construct was removed from the model.5 partial least square results: the structural (inner) model the coefficient of determination (r²) depicts how much variation of each of the endogenous variables is accounted for by the whole model. the explanatory power for the three outcomes of effective leadership ranged from weak (0.19; chin, 1998) to moderate (>0.33; chin, 1998). that is, explanatory power was fairly strong for pss (r² = 0.51), but weak for oc (r² = 0.19) and js (r² = 0.26), respectively. the results revealed that nine of the 196 hypothesised paths were significant (table 3). upon further inspection it was evident that all four of the hypothesised paths between the ei sub-facets were significant and obtained moderate (i.e. 0.44) to strong path estimates (i.e. 0.70), leading to the conclusion that hypotheses 1–4 were supported. furthermore, of the five hypotheses specifying the relationships between the ei sub-facets and tfl dimensions, three obtained strong significant path estimates (ranging from 0.66 to 0.69). two paths, sm on ii (h5) and soca on im (h8), were non-significant. the results, therefore, only provided support for hypotheses 6, 7 and 9. the model, however, was not successful in finding support for the multiple hypotheses (h10 – h17) specified in terms of follower outcomes linked to tfl as an indication of effective leadership. that is, the only significant path coefficient (of moderate strength, 0.48) that emerged was between ii and pss. therefore, only hypothesis 16 was supported by the results. moreover, only one of the three hypotheses specifying the relationships between the outcome variables was significant. organisational commitment was shown to have a moderate effect on js (0.50), providing support for hypothesis 19. table 3: path coefficients. discussion the hierarchical nature of emotional intelligence mayer and salovey (1997) stated that the ei abilities are possibly organised in terms of basic to more psychologically integrated processes. others (e.g. schutte et al., 2013) support this viewpoint, stating that social skills, for example, build on more basic ei skills (e.g. sa). the current research provided evidence for the notion of the hierarchical nature of ei (i.e. basic processes seem to drive higher-order processes), providing further evidence of a cascading model of ei (see joseph & newman, 2010). the results revealed that sa strongly affects soca, which, in turn, moderately affects rm. moreover, sa also affected sm (strong effect), which, in turn, affected rm. the integrated process of rm is, therefore, indirectly affected in two ways by the more basic process of sa. for example, the more individuals display the basic emotional competencies of being aware of their own emotions (sa) and are able to manage their emotional actions and behaviours (sm), the more effective they should be in manifesting the integrated process of rm (geßler, nezlek, & schütz, 2020; joseph & newman, 2010), which involves affecting the emotional experiences and responses of others positively. similarly, the more knowledgeable of their own feelings individuals are (sa), the better their ability will be to display empathy and be aware of others’ emotions, which is characteristic of soca (an integrated ei process). this should then result in better rm skills, which include conflict management and influencing others. the present study replicated previous research on the hierarchical/cascading nature of the ei construct (beyers, 2006; joseph & newman, 2010). beyers (2006), more specifically, reported that sa is the foundational skill or cornerstone of ei. this finding, which has been replicated in this study, suggests that an (beyers, 2006): [e]motionally intelligent leader can keep an eye on his or her moods through self-awareness, adapt them for the better through self-management, understand their consequences through empathy and act in ways that enhance followers’ moods through social management. (p. 45) moreover, the results align with the main assumption underlying the cascading model (the ‘modal’ model of emotion; gross & thompson, 2007 as cited in joseph & newman, 2010, p. 57). this model argues that emotional perception (i.e. reading verbal and non-verbal cues in the environment, as well as being aware of one’s own emotional states) enables more accurate appraisal (emotional understanding) and more appropriate response formation (emotional regulation). hence, this study, together with the beyers (2006) result, provides strong evidence for the hierarchical process constellation of ei skills that has not received much empirical attention in ei literature. moreover, it is useful to note that these results are not based on the leaders’ self-reported ei competencies only, but also their followers’ perceptions of their ei competencies. the relationships between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership the findings confirmed that three paths between the ei competencies and tfl characteristics included in the structural model were supported. more specifically, strong evidence for the effect of rm on ii was obtained. relationship management describes the skill of positively affecting others’ responses and/or emotions. it includes exhibiting behaviours related to coaching and mentoring, influencing others and conflict management, amongst others (boyatzis, 2009). the results suggest that when leaders display this ei competency, they will most likely be viewed as role models by their followers (i.e. ii dimension of tfl) (sarros & santora, 2001). furthermore, the results revealed that sm exerted a strong significant effect on im, but no significant effect on ii as a tfl behaviour. according to boyatzis (2009, p. 754) sm describes the competency of, ‘managing one’s internal states, impulses and resources’ and is manifested in behaviours such as emotional self-control, being adaptable, as well as modelling an achievement orientation and positive vantage point. the results suggest that when leaders display sm, they also seem to be viewed as displaying im behaviours that encourage subordinates to commit to a vision and exert extra effort in their work. lastly, a strong effect of soca on ic was evident, whilst no significant evidence to support its effect on im was found. empathy is a sub-dimension of the soca dimension of ei within the esci (boyatzis & goleman, 2007). the results suggest that the leadership behaviour of paying personal attention to each subordinate (bass & riggio, 2006) encapsulated in the ic tfl dimension is probably driven by the display of empathy and an awareness of others’ feelings and desires by the leader. the results, therefore, seem to suggest that the most salient effect of soca as an ei competency is on leadership behaviours with a strong focus on the emotional and developmental needs of the individual follower, as opposed to the motivational aspects of tfl (encapsulated in the im dimension). the relationship between transformational leadership and outcomes of effective leadership in total, seven direct paths between the different tfl sub-dimensions and the three outcomes of effective leadership were hypothesised. however, the results only revealed moderate support for the ii and pss path. supervisor support represents, ‘… the degree to which the supervisor creates a facilitative climate of psychological support, mutual trust, friendliness, and helpfulness’ (yoon et al., 2004, p. 396). followers experience supervisor support when leaders value their work and are concerned about their well-being. this finding indicates that when a leader exhibits behaviours such as instilling confidence in the subordinates’ abilities and causing subordinates to view the leader as a role model (boyatzis & goleman, 2007), followers will hold more positive perceptions of supervisor support. research has confirmed multiple positive outcomes of higher levels of pss, such as lower turnover (maertz et al., 2007) and employee effectiveness (gentry et al., 2007). the lack of further significant results with regard to the various proposed relationships between tfl dimensions and the outcomes of effective leadership should be viewed within the nature of the study. that is, with the assumption of complexity as a basis (cilliers, 1998), the current structural model aimed to depict how the individual dimensions of tfl could be related to different outcomes of leadership effectiveness. an important assumption underlying this approach is that meaning is not located at a specific point in the structural model; meaning is spread over the whole of the model. therefore, the model provides insights into the differential salience of the separate tfl dimensions, in predicting certain outcomes. the results suggest that ii, in relation to the other tfl dimension, was the only notable antecedent to an outcome of effective tfl (i.e. pss). this gives valuable information to inform practical training interventions based on specific tfl behaviours, specifically if resources are limited. relationships between the outcomes of effective leadership in the structural model, direct paths were hypothesised from pss to oc, and js, with an additional path from oc to js. the results revealed (table 3) that only the oc, js path was significant. although research seems to suggest a bidirectional relationship between js and oc (e.g. george et al., 2020; huang & hsiao, 2007), this finding provided evidence of a moderate to strong effect of self-reported feelings of commitment on js. higher employee retention rates (van saane, sluiter, verbeek, & frings-dresen, 2003) could be a positive organisational outcome when employees experience greater js. unfortunately, the results did not reveal any support of the notion that followers, when they report more pss, will necessarily experience more feelings of commitment, or hold more positive evaluations of their own levels of js. this may be because of the nature of the measurement of commitment in this study, as meyer et al. (2002) have shown, by using meta-analysis, that followers’ perceptions of organisational support mostly affect their affective commitment, and not their continuance or normative commitment. limitations of the study and suggestions for future research several limitations should be noted. firstly, the convenience sampling method has obvious limitations. future studies should aim to utilise a larger, random sample from more industries to enhance its representativeness of the general business population. secondly, the lack of significant results for the tfl and outcomes of effective leadership (i.e. js, oc and pss) section of the model may point towards the fact that direct relationships between these variables may not closely approximate reality. future studies should aim to incorporate more mediating (e.g. perceived work impact, peng, liao, & sun, 2020; organisational identification, gok, karatuna, & karaca, 2015) and moderating variables (e.g. intrinsic motivation, woo & chelladurai, 2012) to clarify the nomological network that may influence these relationships. moreover, a longitudinal study of the proposed structural model should be executed to enable causal inferences, as causality cannot be inferred with the current cross-sectional design. lastly, the lack of discriminant validity of the is sub-dimension of the tfl scale and the resultant implications (i.e. removal of the construct) is an important limitation of this study. managerial implications the main practical implication of this study is that knowledge on the nature of the relationship between ei and tfl can be useful in recruitment and selection and in the development of leaders. the behavioural ei approach and measures are widely used in companies across the world as a key element in training programmes (boyatzis, 2018). research evidence suggests that ei can indeed be developed (e.g. görgens-ekermans, delport, & du preez, 2015) and, based on the results of this study, should enhance engagement in tfl behaviours. the sa competency could be a logical starting point for such a developmental programme, as the results suggest it may be a necessary condition for the development of the other ei skills/competencies (i.e. relationship management and soca). a recent study supports this notion. geßler et al. (2020), through a randomised controlled experimental study, showed support for the cascading model and that training of more complex and higher-order abilities (emotional regulation) depends on the development of more basic ei abilities (emotion perception). enhancing the latter competencies of a leader through development interventions on the sa and management level could lead to the display of more tfl behaviours, which could hold multiple positive benefits for the organisation (e.g. increased performance, judge & piccolo, 2004; better employee creativity, cheung, & wong, 2011) not measured in this study. however, the study suggests that the effect of ii as a leader characteristic on the follower’s pss is significant and should hold a number of positive implications for organisations (e.g. less turnover, maertz et al., 2007; employee effectiveness, gentry et al., 2007). organisations should, therefore, strive to actively develop leaders who are mentors and role models, through equipping them with the necessary ei skills for effective rm, as this study confirms that followers of leaders who display idealised influencing behaviours experience more active support from their immediate supervisor. conclusion a large body of empirical evidence supports the notion that ei and tfl are related, and that tfl does indeed positively impact follower attitudes and performance (judge & piccolo, 2004). we argued that more insight was needed into a possible nomological net of variables that affect outcomes of effective leadership, as experienced by the follower of a leader who exhibits tfl behaviours, being influenced by various ei competencies. the results of this study provided insight into the notion that ei competencies/skills seem to be hierarchically ordered, in that sa and sm, both directly and indirectly, influenced the more psychologically integrated competencies of soca and rm. moreover, three of the four tfl components were shown to be influenced by various components of ei. however, only follower pss, as an outcome of effective leadership, was shown to be significantly affected by ii as a tfl behaviour. the contribution of this study lies in the knowledge pertaining to how ei competencies influence tfl behaviours and may be useful in the development of leaders by guiding targeted intervention strategies based on specific ei skills to increase leadership effectiveness. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions g.g-e. was responsible for the write-up of the full article and supervising the original thesis. c.r. was responsible for the data gathering and original write-up in the thesis. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. ethical consideration ethical clearance was obtained from the relevant ethics committee before data gathering commenced (stellenbosch university research ethics committee: human research [humanities], stellenbosch university, ethical clearance number: desc_roux2013). data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references albalawi, a.s., naugton, s., & elayan, m.b., & sleimi, m.t. (2019). perceived organizational support, alternative job opportunity, organizational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intention: a moderated-mediated model. organizacija, 52(4), 310–324. https://doi.org/10.2478/orga-2019-0019 aliaga, s.v., & taylor, s. (2012). the influence of emotional and social intelligence competencies on the performance of peruvian refinery staff. journal of cross cultural management, 19(1), 19–29. https://doi.org/10.1108/13527601211195600 allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization. journal of occupational psychology, 63(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.x antonakis, j., avolio, b.j., & sivasubramaniam, n. (2003). context and leadership: an examination of the nine-factor full-range leadership theory using the multifactor leadership questionnaire. the leadership quarterly, 14(3), 261–295. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(03)00030-4 arnold, j., & davey, k.m. (1999). graduate’s work experiences as predictors of organisational commitment, intention to leave, and turnover: which experienced really matter? applied psychology: an international review, 48(2), 211–238. https://doi.org/10.1080/026999499377628 ashkanasy, n.m., & tse, b. (2000). transformational leadership as management of emotion: a conceptual review. in n. ashkanasy, c.e.j. härtel, & w.j. zerbe (eds.), emotions in the workplace: research, theory, and practice (pp. 221–235). westport, ct: quorum books. bajaj, b., & medury, y. (2013). relationship between emotional and social competencies and transformational leadership styles. international journal of research in commerce management, it & management, 3(2), 56–59. banks, g.c., mccauley, k.d., gardner, w.l., & guler, c.e. (2016). a meta-analytic review of authentic and transformational leadership: a test of redundancy. the leadership quarterly, 27(4), 634–652. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2016.02.006 barling, j., slater, f., & kelloway, e.k. (2000). transformational leadership and emotional intelligence: an exploratory study. leadership and organizational development, 21(3), 157–161. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730010325040 bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1995). multifactor leadership questionnaire for research. palo alto, ca: mind garden. bass, b.m., & riggio, r.e. (2006). transformational leadership (2nd edn.). mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. bateman, t.s., & strasser, s. (1984). a longitudinal analysis of the antecedents of organizational commitment. academy of management journal, 27(1), 95–112. https://doi.org/10.5465/255959 beyers, w. (2006). the development of a structural model reflecting the impact of emotional intelligence on transformational leadership. unpublished master’s thesis. university of stellenbosch, stellenbosch. boyatzis, r., rochford k., & cavanagh k.v. (2017). emotional intelligence competencies in engineer’s effectiveness and engagement. career development international, 22(1), 70–86. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi-08-2016-0136 boyatzis, r.e. (2009). competencies as a behavioural approach to emotional intelligence. journal of management development, 28(9), 749–770. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710910987647 boyatzis, r.e. (2018). the behavioral level of emotional intelligence and its measurement. frontiers in psychology, 9, 1438. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01438 boyatzis, r.e., & goleman, d. (2007). emotional competency inventory (now the emotional and social competency inventory). boston, ma: hay group. boyatzis, r.e., good, d., & massa, r. (2012). emotional, social and cognitive intelligence as predictors of sales leadership performance. journal of leadership organizational studies, 19(2), 191–201. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051811435793 buckley, m.r., carraher, s.m., & cote, j.a. (1992). measurement issues concerning the use of inventories of job satisfaction. educational and psychological measurement, 52(3), 529–543. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164492052003003 carless, s.a. (1998). assessing the discriminant validity of transformational leadership behaviour as measured by the mlq. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 71(4), 353–358. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1998.tb00681.x cheng, t.j., & wu, c.m. (2017). improving the turnover intention of tourist hotel employees: transformational leadership, leader-member exchange, and psychological contract breach. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 29(7), 1914–1936. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm-09-2015-0490 cheng, t-j., & wu, c-m. (2020). can newcomers perform better at hotels? examining the roles of transformational leadership, supervisor triggered positive affect, and perceived supervisor support. tourism management perspectives, 33, 100587. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2019.100587 cheung, m.f.y., & wong, c. (2011). transformational leadership, leader support, and employee creativity. leadership & organization development journal, 32(7), 656–672. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437731111169988 chin, w.w. (1998). the pls approach to structural equation modelling. in g.a. marcoulides (ed.), modern methods of business research (pp. 295–358). mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. cilliers, p. (1998). complexity and postmodernism: understanding complex systems. london: routledge. connelly, s., & ruark, g. (2010). leadership style and activating potential moderators of the relationships among leader emotional displays and outcomes. the leadership quarterly, 21(5), 745–764. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.07.005 cropanzano, r., & mitchell, m.s. (2005). social exchange theory: an interdisciplinary review. journal of management, 31(6), 874–900. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206305279602 dirks, k.t., & ferrin, d.l. (2002). trust in leadership: meta-analytic findings and implications for research and practice. journal of applied psychology, 87(4), 611–628. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.611 dumdum, u.r., lowe, k.b., & avolio, b.j. (2002). a meta-analysis of transformational and transactional leadership correlates of effectiveness and satisfaction: an update and extension. in j.b. avolio & f.j. yammarino (eds.), transformational and charismatic leadership: the road ahead (pp. 35–66). oxford: elsevier science. eisenberger, r., cummings, j., armeli, s., & lynch, p. (1997). perceived organizational support, discretionary treatment, and job satisfaction. journal of applied psychology, 82(5), 812–820. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.82.5.812 eisenberger, r., fasolo, p., & davis-lamastro, v. (1990). perceived organizational support and employee diligence, commitment, and innovation. journal of applied psychology, 75(1), 51–59. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.75.1.51 eisenberger, r., huntington, r., hutchison, s., & sowa, d. (1986). perceived organizational support. journal of applied psychology, 71(3), 500–507. engelbrecht, a.s., van aswegen, a.s., & theron, c.c. (2005). the effect of ethical values on transformational leadership and ethical climate in organisations. south african journal of business management, 36(2), 19–26. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajbm.v36i2.624 epitropaki, o., & martin, r. (2013). transformational–transactional leadership and upward influence: the role of relative leader–member exchanges (rlmx) and perceived organizational support (pos). the leadership quarterly, 24(2), 299–315. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2012.11.007 erkutlu, h. (2008). the impact of transformational leadership on organizational and leadership effectiveness: the turkish case. the journal of management development, 27(7), 708–726. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710810883616 fitzgerald, s., & schutte, n.s. (2010). increasing transformational leadership through enhancing self-efficacy. journal of management development, 29(5), 495–505. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621711011039240 gardner, l., & stough, c. (2002). examining the relationship between leadership and intelligence in senior level managers. leadership & organization development journal, 23(2), 68–78. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730210419198 geßler, s., nezlek, j.b., & schütz, a. (2020). training emotional intelligence: does training in basic emotional abilities help people to improve higher emotional abilities? the journal of positive psychology, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2020.1738537 gentry, w.a., kuhnert, k.w., mondore, s.p., & page, e.e. (2007). the influence of supervisory-support climate and unemployment rates on part-time employee retention. journal of management development, 26(10), 1005–1022. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710710833432 george, s., yanqing, l., muñoz torres, r.i., & gourlay, s. (2020). exploring the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment: an instrumental variable approach. the international journal of human resource management, 31(13), 1739–1769. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1423100 gillespie, n.a., & mann, l. (2004). transformational leadership and shared values: the building blocks of trust. journal of managerial psychology, 19(6), 588–607. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940410551507 glisson, c., & durick, m. (1988). predictors of job satisfaction and organisational commitment in human service organisations. administrative science quarterly, 33(1), 61–81. https://doi.org/10.2307/2392855 gok, s., karatuna, i., & karaca, p.o. (2015). the role of perceived supervisor support and organizational identification in job satisfaction. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 177, 38–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.02.328 görgens-ekermans, g., delport, m., & du preez, r. (2015). developing emotional intelligence as a key psychological resource reservoir for sustained student success. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 41(1), 1251art. #1251, 13 pages. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v41i1.1251 gross, j.j., & thompson, r.a. (2007). emotion regulation: conceptual foundations. in j.j. gross (ed.), handbook of emotion regulation (pp. 3–24). new york, ny: guilford press. hajncl, l., & vučenović, d. (2020). effects of measures of emotional intelligence on the relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership. psychological topics, 29(1), 119–134. https://doi.org/10.31820/pt.29.1.7 harms, p.d., & credé, m. (2010). emotional intelligence and transformational and transactional leadership: a meta-analysis. journal of leadership and organizational studies, 17(1), 5–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051809350894 harrison, d.a., newman, d.a., & roth, p.l. (2006). how important are job attitudes? meta-analytic comparisons of integrative behavioral outcomes and time sequences. academy of management journal, 49, 305–325. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2006.20786077 henseler, j., ringle, c.m., & sarstedt, m. (2015). a new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modelling. journal of the academy of marketing science, 43(1), 115–135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8 hiller, n.j., dechurch, l.a., murase, t., & doty, d. (2011). searching for outcomes of leadership: a 25-year review. journal of management, 37(4), 1137–1177. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310393520 huang, t.c., & hsiao, w.j. (2007). the causal relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment. social behavior and personality: an international journal, 35(9), 1265–1276. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2007.35.9.1265 humphreys, j., & einstein, w. (2003). nothing new under the sun: transformational leadership from a historical perspective. management decision, 41(1), 85–95. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740310452934 hur, y., van den berg, p.t., & wilderom, c.p.m. (2011). transformational leadership as a mediator between emotional intelligence and team outcomes. the leadership quarterly, 22(4), 591–603. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.05.002 jackson, t.a., meyer, j.p., & wang, x. (2013). leadership, commitment and culture: a meta-analysis. journal of leadership and organizational studies, 20(1), 84–106. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051812466919 joseph, d.l., & newman, d.a. (2010). emotional intelligence: an integrative meta-analysis and cascading model. journal of applied psychology, 95(1), 54–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017286 judge, a.t., & picollo, r.f. (2004). transaction and transformational leadership: a meta-analytic test of their relative validity. journal of applied psychology, 89(5), 755–789. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.5.755 kaiser, r.b., hogan, r., & craig, s.b. (2008). leadership and the fate of organizations. american psychologist, 63(2), 96–110. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.63.2.96 kerr, r., garvin, j., heaton, n., & boyle, e. (2006). emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness. leadership & organization development journal, 27(4), 265–279. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730610666028 klein, k.j., & house, r.j. (1995). on fire: charismatic leadership and levels of analysis. leadership quarterly, 6(2), 183–198. https://doi.org/10.1016/1048-9843(95)90034-9 kim, h., & kim, t. (2017). emotional intelligence and transformational leadership: a review of empirical studies. human resource development review, 16(4), 377–393. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484317729262 lam, c.s., & o’higgins, e.r. (2012). enhancing employee outcomes: the interrelated influences of managers’ emotional intelligence and leadership style. leadership and organization development journal, 33(2), 149–174. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437731211203465 limsila, k., & ogunlana, s.o. (2008). performance and leadership outcome correlates of leadership styles and subordinate commitment. engineering, construction and architectural management, 15(2), 164–184. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980810852682 louw, l., muriithi, s.m., & radloff, s. (2017). the relationship between transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness in kenyan indigenous banks. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15, a935. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.935 lowe, k.b., kroeck, k.g., & sivasubramaniam, n. (1996). effectiveness correlates of transformational and transactional leadership: a meta-analytic review of the mlq literature. leadership quarterly, 7(3), 385–425. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(96)90027-2 maertz, c.p. jr., griffeth, r.w., campbell, n.s., & allen, d.g. (2007). the effects of perceived organizational support and perceived supervisor support on employee turnover. journal of organizational behavior, 28(8), 1059–1075. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.472 mardanov, i.t., heischmidt, k., & henson, a. (2008). leader-member exchange and job satisfaction bond and predicted employee turnover. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 15(2), 159–175. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051808320985 mast, m.s., jonas, k., cronauer, c.k., & darioly, a. (2011). on the importance of the superior’s interpersonal sensitivity for good leadership. journal of applied social psychology, 42(5), 1043–1068. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2011.00852.x mayer, j.d., caruso, d.r., & salovey, p. (1999). emotional intelligence meets traditional standards for an intelligence. intelligence, 27(4), 267–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0160-2896(99)00016-1 mayer, j.d., & salovey, p. (1997). what is emotional intelligence? in p. salovey & d. sluyter (eds.), emotional development and emotional intelligence: implications for educators (pp. 3–31) new york, ny: basic books. mclaggan, e., bezuidenhout, a., & botha, c.t. (2013). leadership style and organisational commitment in the mining industry in mpumalanga. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydksrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #483, 9 pages. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.483 meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1991). a three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment. human resource management review, 1(1), 61–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/1053-4822(91)90011-z meyer, j.p., stanley, d.j., herscovitch, l., & topolnytsky, l. (2002). affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization: a meta-analysis of antecedents, correlates, and consequences. journal of vocational behaviour, 61(1), 20–52. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2001.1842 mhatre, k.h., & riggio, r.e. (2014). charismatic and transformational leadership: past, present, and future. in d.v. day (ed.), the oxford handbook of leadership and organizations (pp. 221–240). london: oxford university press. miller, s.p. (2014). developing next generation leadership talent in family businesses: the family effect. doctoral dissertation. cleveland, oh: case western reserve university. ng, t.w.h. (2017). transformational leadership and performance outcomes: analyses of multiple mediation pathways. the leadership quarterly, 28(3), 385–417. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2016.11.008 nourollahi, h., nikbakhsh, r., & esmaeili, m.r. (2011). the relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership of female coaches on golestan province. researcher in sport science quarterly, 2(1), 31–38. nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory (3rd edn.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. o’boyle, jr., e.h., humphrey, r.h., pollack, j.m., hawver, t.h., & story, p.a. (2011). the relation between emotional intelligence and job performance: a meta-analysis. journal of organizational behavior, 32, 788–818. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.714 paik, y., parboteeah, k.p., & shim, w. (2007). the relationship between perceived compensation, organizational commitment and job satisfaction: the case of mexican workers in the korean maquiladoras. the international journal of human resource management, 18(10), 1768–1781. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190701570940 palmer, b., & stough, c. (2001). workplace sueit interim technical manual. melbourne: swinburne university, swinburne organizational psychology unit. palmer, b., walls, m., burgess, z., & stough, c. (2001). emotional intelligence and effective leadership. leadership & organization development journal, 22(1), 5–10. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730110380174 pazy, a., & ganzach, y. (2009). pay contingency and the effects of perceived organizational and supervisor support on performance and commitment. journal of management, 35(4), 1007–1025. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206307312505 peng, s., liao, y., & sun, r. (2020). the influence of transformational leadership on employees’ affective organizational commitment in public and non-profit organizations: a moderated mediation model. public personnel management, 49(1), 29–56. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026019835233 piccolo, r.f., & colquitt, j.a. (2006). transformational leadership and job behaviors: the mediating role of core job characteristics. academy of management journal, 49(2), 327–340. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2006.20786079 polychroniou, p.v. (2009). relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership of supervisors: the impact on team effectiveness. team performance management, 15(7/8), 343–356. https://doi.org/10.1108/13527590911002122 pool, s., & pool, b. (2007). a management development model. measuring organizational commitment and its impact on job satisfaction among executives in a learning organization. journal of management development, 26(4), 353–369. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710710740101 rahim, m.a., & minors, p. (2003). effects of emotional intelligence on concern for quality and problem solving. managerial auditing journal, 18(2), 150–155. https://doi.org/10.1108/02686900310455146 rahman, m., ferdausy, s., & uddin, m. (2012). examining the relationships between emotional intelligence and the components of transformational leadership. the abac journal, 32(1), 45–59. rinfet, n., laplante, j., lagacé, m.c., deschamps, c., & privé, c. (2018). impacts of leadership styles in health and social services: a case from quebec exploring relationships between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership. international journal of healthcare management, 13(suppl 1), 329–339. https://doi.org/10.1080/20479700.2018.1548153 ringle, c.m., wende, s., & becker, j-m. (2015). smartpls 3. boenningstedt: smartpls gmbh. retrieved from http://www.smartpls.com rosete, d., & ciarrochi, j. (2005). emotional intelligence and its relationship to workplace performance outcomes of leadership effectiveness. leadership & organization development journal, 26(5), 388–399. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730510607871 sarros, j.c., & santora, j.c. (2001). the transformational-transactional leadership model in practice. leadership & organization development journal, 22(8), 383–393. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730110410107 schutte, n.s., malouff, j.m., & thorsteinsson, e.b. (2013) increasing emotional intelligence through training: current status and future directions. international journal of emotional education, 5(1), 56–72. spano-szekely, l., griffin, m.t.q., clavelle, j., & fitzpatrick, j.j. (2016). emotional intelligence and transformational leadership in nurse managers. journal of nursing administration, 46(2), 101–108. https://doi.org/10.1097/nna.0000000000000303 statsoft, inc. (2012). statistica (data analysis software system), version 11. retrieved from www.statsoft.com tang, g., yu, b., cooke, f.l., & chen, y. (2017). high-performance work system and employee creativity: the roles of perceived organizational support and devolved management. personnel review, 46(7), 1318–1334. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-09-2016-0235 truninger, m., fernández-i-marín, x., batista-foguet, j.m., boyatzis, r.e., & serlavós, r. (2018). the power of ei competencies over intelligence and individual performance: a task-dependent model. frontiers in psychology, 9, 1532, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01532 vandenberghe, c., stordeur, s., & d’hoore, w. (2002). transactional and transformational leadership in nursing: structural validity and substantive relationships. european journal of psychological assessment, 18(1), 16–29. https://doi.org/10.1027//1015-5759.18.1.16 van saane, n., sluiter, j.k., verbeek, j.h.a.m., & frings-dresen, m.h.w. (2003). reliability and validity of instruments measuring job satisfaction – a systematic review. occupational medicine, 53(3), 191–200. https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqg038 wang, g., oh, i-s., courtright, s.h., & colbert, a.e. (2011). transformational leadership and performance across criteria and levels: a meta-analytic review of 25 years of research. group and organization management, 36(2), 223–270. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601111401017 wayne, s.j., shore, l.m., & liden, r.c. (1997). perceived organizational support and leader-member exchange: a social exchange perspective. academy of management journal, 40(1), 82–111. https://doi.org/10.2307/257021 woo, b., & chelladurai, p. (2012). dynamics of perceived support and work attitudes: the case of fitness club employees. human resource management review, 2(1), 6–18. yoon, m.h., seo, f.h., & yoon, t.s. (2004). effects of contact employee supports on critical employee responses and customer service evaluation. journal of services marketing, 18(5), 395–412. https://doi.org/10.1108/08876040410548311 yousef, d.a. (2000). organizational commitment: a mediator of the relationships of leadership behaviour with job satisfaction and performance in a non-western country. journal of managerial psychology, 15(1), 6–28. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940010305270 zeidner, m., matthews, g., & roberts, r.d. (2004). emotional intelligence in the workplace: a critical review. applied psychology: an international review, 53(3), 371–399. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2004.00176.x zhang, x., & bartol, k.m. (2010). linking empowering leadership and employee creativity: the influence of psychological empowerment, intrinsic motivation, and creative process engagement. academy of management journal, 53(1), 107–128. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.48037118 footnotes 1. this study used multi-source ratings. that is, self-ratings of leader ei and tfl, as well as ratings of tfl and leader ei by subordinates. 2. leaders comprised the unit of analyses in this study. an average score for the leader was calculated from their own perceived ei and tfl ratings, as well as from the followers linked to a particular leader. 3. the final category in the likert rating scale, “don’t know” was treated as a missing value in the data analysis procedure. 4. it was noted from all the item analysis results for the ei instrument that all the items that underperformed were reverse keyed items (items 5, 15, 58 and 49). this may suggest some method bias effect, which may have resulted from respondent’s inability to easily interpret reverse phrased items. however, given the composite reliability results for the pls outer model, it was concluded that this did not adversely affect the quality of measurement of the ei construct. 5. as a result of this, hypothesis 11 could not be tested. 6. the number of hypotheses was reduced to 19, given that hypothesis 11 could not be tested. abstract introduction and background overview of nigeria’s manufacturing sector relationship between work–life balance strategies and organisational performance methods and sample measures analysis and results measurement model on the mediating influences of work–life balance strategies and work–family satisfaction structural model discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) idris o. ganiyu department of human resource management, faculty of law and management, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa evelyn derera department of management and entrepreneurship, faculty of law and management, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa sulaiman o. atiku harold pupkewitz graduate school of business, namibia university of science and technology, windhoek, namibia ziska fields department of business management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation ganiyu, i.o., derera, e., atiku, s.o., & fields, z. (2020). measuring the effectiveness of work–life balance strategies in the manufacturing sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1216. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1216 research project registration: project number: hss/0104/016d original research measuring the effectiveness of work–life balance strategies in the manufacturing sector idris o. ganiyu, evelyn derera, sulaiman o. atiku, ziska fields received: 17 may 2019; accepted: 27 feb. 2020; published: 08 june 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the development of an appropriate framework to measure the effectiveness of work–life balance strategies (wlbs) among manufacturing firms in nigeria is still a major challenge. research purpose: the main purpose of this article is to measure the effectiveness of wlbs in the manufacturing sector, drawing insights gathered from two selected manufacturing firms in lagos metropolis, nigeria. motivation for the study: despite the global explosion of research on work–life balance, there is a dearth of studies measuring the effectiveness of wlbs adopted by manufacturing firms in nigeria. research approach/design and method: a structured questionnaire was adopted to gather data among 312 employees of the two selected manufacturing firms in lagos metropolis, nigeria. structural equation modelling was valuable in establishing the mediating influences of wlbs and work-family satisfaction on the interplay between work-family stressors and the selected manufacturing firms’ performance. main findings: the study findings revealed that wlbs and work–family satisfaction mediate the interplay between work–family stressors and the selected manufacturing firms’ performance. practical/managerial implications: to enhance continuous performance, human resource managers of the manufacturing firms should ensure the improved implementation and adoption of relevant wlbs that could help the employees cushion the effect of work and family stressors thereby achieving satisfaction with work and family life. contribution/value-add: this study develops and validates a framework to measure the effectiveness of wlbs in selected manufacturing firms, lagos metropolis. the developed framework could serve as a template which could be replicated in other sectors of the nigeria’s economy. keywords: effectiveness of work–life; work–life balance strategies; wlbs; manufacturing sector; nigeria. introduction and background the work–life debate is a common discourse in developed countries such that appropriate work–life balance strategies (wlbs) are provided to ensure employees achieve the right mix between work and family domains (brochard & letablier, 2017). previous studies have shown that despite robust frameworks on wlbs in developed countries, gaps have continued to emerge between the ideal and the actual work–life balance issues because of the changing structure of work (akanji, mordi, & ojo, 2015; rodó-de-zárate et al., 2016). a recent study conducted by agba, wilson and innah (2015) has revealed that employees in nigeria are finding it difficult to balance between work and family roles, which is affecting productivity in both domains. many firms have put in place various wlbs such as parental leave, employees’ health and wellness programme, dependent care, personal development and flexible work arrangement to overcome this challenge (abe, abe, fields, & idris, 2018). however, the effectiveness of these wlbs in helping employees to cope with work and family stressors is still in doubt (agba et al., 2015; de cieri, holmes, abbott, & pettit, 2005; zheng et al., 2016). researchers have recognised wlbs as viable human resource (hr) tool which could be adopted in the promotion of organisational efforts aimed at attracting, retaining and motivating the employees (wei, yili, & tian, 2013). much of the research efforts have focused on high commitment hr systems which are aimed at helping the workforce to develop prospects in decision-making process and rewards for performance (guest, 2017). the issue of work–life balance has been viewed as strategic element in the performance of hr function (hirschi, shockley, & zacher, 2019; wei et al., 2013). evidence has revealed that the availability of wlbs in an organisation do not suggest such strategies are properly implemented and utilised (hirschi et al., 2019). fleetwood (2007) points out that current hr practices with respect to wlbs are characterised by practices that are not favourable to employees. the devolution of hr function to line managers implies that a disparity and inconsistency may arise in the hr strategy formulated at the higher hierarchy of hr and the actual implementation by line managers (mccarthy, darcy, & grady, 2010). overview of nigeria’s manufacturing sector nigeria is the most populous country in africa with a population of over 170 million (ogunnubi, 2017). located in west africa, nigeria has emerged as the largest economy in africa with a gross domestic product (gdp) of over us$500 billion (odubajo & akinboye, 2017; ogunnubi, 2017). the economic influence of nigeria in the west africa sub-region is traced by the presence of its commercial banks propelling commercial activities in 16 countries of the sub-region, with lagos stock exchange as the only financial trading stock exchange (olugbenga & grace, 2016). nature has endowed nigeria with rich human and natural resources. the discovery of oil in commercial quantity has resulted in the neglect of other sectors of the economy which could enhance the country’s quest for industrialisation (ehie & muogboh, 2016; olugbenga & grace, 2016). the oil and gas sector accounts for over 85% of nigeria’s gdp, whilst industrial and manufacturing sector contribute 6% and 4% gdp respectively (chete, adeoti, adeyinka, & ogundele, 2016). manufacturing activities are traced to the 19th century industrial revolution in europe (mokyr, 2018). this period marked the beginning of a new order of economic growth and development in the western world. the manufacturing sector was viewed as the engine of industrialisation around the world (raphael & gabriel, 2015). governments in african nations considered manufacturing sector as a springboard for modernisation with a knack of creating employment (mokyr, 2018). an empirical study revealed that between 1992 and 2012, one-third of the global manufacturing output was produced in developing countries of asia and africa, with china leading the pack (newman et al., 2016). corroborating this study, balchin et al. (2016) have stated that output, employment and foreign direct investment (fdi) in the manufacturing sector have increased over the past decade in sub-sahara africa. the researchers have further revealed that new opportunities are emerging in manufacturing subsectors such textiles, agro-allied, automobiles and consumer goods. however, the same cannot be said of the manufacturing sector in nigeria. many challenges are bedevilling the manufacturing firms in nigeria, resulting in slow pace of development in the country’s pursuit of economic diversification. most of these challenges arise because of the unfriendly nature of nigeria’s business environment (ehie & muogboh, 2016). in spite of enormous potentials in human and natural resources, various impediments, such as corruption, unstable power supply, high energy costs, inconsistent regulatory and legal environment, insecurity and ineffective judicial system, have continued to plague the development of manufacturing sector in nigeria (us department of state [usds], 2015). lack of infrastructural facilities, especially unstable power supply (electricity), immensely contribute to the high operating costs of manufacturing firms in the country. a study has revealed that listed manufacturing companies with the manufacturers’ association of nigeria (man) have dropped from 4850 in the 1980s to 2000 in 2010 (raphael & gabriel, 2015). raphael and gabriel (2015) further argued that capacity utilisation of the sector dropped from 70.1% in 1980 to 52.8% in 2005 and 48.0% in 2009, resulting in the liquidation of many of the manufacturing firms. between 2000 and 2008 alone, an estimated 820 manufacturing firms liquidated or temporarily suspended operations (mike, 2010). hardly any nation could experience meaningful economic development without a strong and vibrant manufacturing sector. this is because the manufacturing sector is noted to contribute in no small measures to the economic growth and development of most countries of the world (maiyaki, 2013; sola, obamuyi, adekunjo, & ogunleye, 2013). the presence of thriving manufacturing sector ensures the growth of an economy through the production of quality goods for local consumption and export to earn foreign revenue (okoiye, onah, & atsaka, 2015). the manufacturing sector in nigeria has a chequered history. the sector has continued to evolve through different stages prior to the country attaining independence in 1960 to the present day (maiyaki, 2013). prior to independence, the manufacturing sector’s focus was characterised by agricultural production for local consumption and export (raphael & gabriel, 2015). during pre-independence period, raw materials were produced for export to foreign companies, whilst the finished products were imported for local consumption. mike (2010) explained that post-independence nigerians witnessed an emphasis on rapid industrialisation in the policy framework of the government. import substitution strategy was introduced to encourage local production of imported goods. the import substitution strategy was consolidated in the nigeria’s second national development plan period of 1970–1974, during which the country experienced boom in oil and gas sector (sola et al., 2013). the oil boom attracted many global investors, as there was an increase in fdi. the gdp from the sector increased from 3.2% in 1960 to 9.5% in 1975 (mike, 2010). however, the collapse of global oil market experienced in the early eighties led to a downward trend in the foreign exchange earnings of nigeria with adverse effect on the manufacturing sector (mike, 2010; sola et al., 2013). negative trends in oil revenue and the currency exchange rate between 1982 and 1986 necessitated the rationing of foreign exchange amongst manufacturing firms (ejohwomu, onifade, & adeoye, 2016; mike, 2010). fluctuations in the global oil market often affected nigeria’s economy because of its over reliance on crude oil as a major source of foreign exchange earnings. the policy thrust of nigerian government in the 21st century is the pursuance of industrialisation through continuous development in science and technology, product development, improvement in quality and quantity of manufactured goods, production of products which could produce other products and building manufacturing sector that could withstand competitiveness (ehie & muogboh, 2016). this policy thrust could be enhanced by building a sustainable manufacturing sector. relationship between work–life balance strategies and organisational performance globalisation has brought about demographic shifts in labour market. the changing demographics mean that employees are saddled with more responsibilities from the family domain, in addition to the concern to achieve success in the work domain (ko & hur, 2014). more so, the level of competitiveness which has made it difficult for organisations to attract and retain the best talent in the labour market has propelled the attention given to wlbs (caillier, 2016). organisations are keeping pace with this trend to enhance performance and create greater competitive advantage. however, organisation’s inability to effectively implement wlbs may result in employees living in perpetual anxiety (zheng et al., 2016). work–life balance strategies (sometimes referred to as work–life policies or family-friendly policies in literature) are aligned with organisational hr strategies to help employees manage work and non-work aspects of their lives. felstead, jewson, phizacklea and walters (2002) see wlbs as the factors, whether intentionally or otherwise, that enhance the flexibility and autonomy of an employee in negotiating attention and presence in employment. organisations around the world have seen the need to adopt wlbs as part of hr strategies to help employees cope with stressors and attract the best talent in a competitive labour market (abe et al., 2018; hirschi et al., 2019). it is generally assumed that employees derive benefits from organisational wlbs. however, it is not clear whether workers have equal access to it (caillier, 2016). the effective implementation of wlbs implies equity. in essence, employees are able to achieve balance between work and life roles. life responsibilities vary from one person to another and it is based on many factors, which include marital status, gender orientation, childcare, extended family demands, hobbies/interests and many other dynamics apart from work (mazerolle, eason, & trisdale, 2015). a study conducted by perry-smith and blum (2000) has revealed that organisations that implement wlbs such as flexible work arrangement, on-site day care and dependent care experienced improved performance. beauregard and henry (2009) have attributed the business case of wlbs to include attraction and retention of skilled employees to enhance organisational outcomes. however, empirical evidences have revealed that many employees are not accessing the wlbs provided by their organisations because of perceived negative consequences (beauregard & henry, 2009; daverth, cassell, & hyde, 2016). consistent with this argument, russo (2015) points out that employees are reluctant to use flexible policies even when they are entitled to use it to show commitment to the organisation. for instance, an employee that makes use of organisational flexible work arrangements, such as telecommuting and part-time work, may not be considered for promotion. this is because telecommuting and part-time working are said to be incompatible with promotion in an organisation with a greater number of men at managerial positions (russo, shteigman, & carmeli, 2016). the inability to access and use organisational wlbs such as flexible work arrangement may result in low productivity, higher stress, work–family conflict and health disorders (russo, 2015). human resource managers, whether at senior or supervisory level, have a major role to play in the effective implementation of wlbs as they have the capacity to encourage or discourage employees from accessing the wlb initiatives of an organisation (wei et al., 2013). deery and jago (2015) suggest that a major determinant of effective implementation of wlbs is hr policy that affirms work–life balance culture. as such, it is the wlbs that an organisation has put in place that determines the extent of employees’ satisfaction with work (sww), commitment to work and turnover intention (abe et al., 2018; coetzee, ferreira, & potgieter, 2017). studies have revealed that a supportive hr policy enhances the effective implementation of wlbs (caillier, 2016, daverth et al., 2016). the major obstacle to the effective implementation of wlbs in the manufacturing sector of lagos metropolis has been identified as the lack of direct involvement of senior management and improper communication with staff members (ganiyu, fields, & atiku, 2017). the consciousness of the changing needs of employees and the provision of effective wlbs are plausible in employees’ retention (de cieri et al., 2005). daverth et al. (2016) argue that organisational strategies aimed at helping employees cope with the competing demands of work and non-work aspects of employees’ lives are reciprocated by employees through productivity and commitment to job. the assumption is that wlbs is a reciprocal gain system that benefits organisations and their employees (caillier, 2016; las heras, bosch, & raes, 2015). whilst wlbs could be valuable in managing employees work–family stressors (wfs), organisations benefit from wlbs through reduction in the stress level of employees and turnover intentions, thereby enhancing organisational performance (las heras et al., 2015). the reality amongst corporate bodies in the 21st century is the view that the alignment of wlbs to hr strategies can enhance employees’ productivity with an impact on organisational outcomes (russo et al., 2016). as such, resources are being invested in various contexts on wlbs with a view of adapting work to the changing employee work–life needs and as a response to government policies aimed at promoting gender integration in the labour force (caillier, 2016). however, studies have revealed that organisational characteristics, such as size, gender composition and management structure, influence the types of wlbs that are put in place (dancaster, 2014). organisational efforts aimed at helping employees achieve balance may include the implementation of wlbs such as flexible work arrangement, child and elder care options, employees’ health and wellness programmes, leave options and stress management (de cieri et al., 2005; subramaniam, overton, & maniam, 2015). this study is guided by conceptual framework presented in figure 1. the framework is tested using international business mahines (ibm) analysis of moment structures (amos), version 25. figure 1: conceptual framework to measure work–life balance strategies. in figure 1, work and family stressors are exogenous variables, wlbs and work–family satisfaction (wfsat) are mediating variables, whilst organisational performance is an exogenous variable. based on the foregoing, the following hypotheses were formulated: h1: work–life balance strategies mediate the relationship between wfs and manufacturing firms’ performance. h2: work–family satisfaction mediates the relationship between work family stressors and manufacturing firms’ performance. the formulated hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling (sem) via ibm amos. methods and sample this article employed a quantitative research design to test and validate a model to measure the effectiveness of wlbs. the target population comprised 508 employees of two selected manufacturing firms in lagos metropolis. five manufacturing firms quoted on the nigerian stock exchange were approached for the purpose of data collection. only two of the five firms approached indicated interest in allowing their employees to participate in the survey. the principle of convenience sampling technique was adopted to select the two manufacturing firms willing to participate in this survey. the rationale for adopting a convenience sampling technique in a study of this nature is that it allows data to be collected from members of a population who are conveniently accessible to provide it (sekaran & bougie, 2016). self-administered questionnaires using a 5-point likert type rating scale were used to collect data from employees of the two selected manufacturing firms in lagos metropolis. a simple random sampling technique was adopted to administer 312 questionnaires to the study respondents. the survey was conducted amongst employees of all levels across departments within the firms surveyed; ibm spss, version 25, was used to conduct descriptive statistics of the demographic data. ibm amos, version 24, was employed to run confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) and sem. structural equation modelling is a second-generation multivariate statistical technique employed to test conceptual framework and establish path analysis amongst the composite variables measured in this study. convergent and discriminant validity was conducted to ensure the validity of composite variables. this was achieved by using the average variance extracted and fornell and larcker (1981) criterion. measures exogenous latent variable: work–family stressors work stressors were measured with 15-item scale adapted from 30-item scale developed by rizzo, house and lirtzman (1970). the items from rizzo et al. (1970) were originally developed to measure role conflict and role ambiguity which are dimensions of work-stressors considered in this study. the scale by rizzo et al. (1970) has been used extensively and validated by previous studies in the measure of work stressors, role ambiguity, role conflict and work–family conflict (ganiyu et al., 2017; gonzález-romá & lloret, 1998). cronbach’s alpha for the 15-item scale adapted for measuring work stressors is 0.82, which is above the acceptable threshold of 0.70. the scale for measuring family-stressors was adapted from kopelman, greenhaus and connolly (1983). kopelman et al. (1983) grouped the 24-item scale into three to measure work conflict, family conflict and inter-role conflict. the items measuring family conflict and inter-role conflict which are consistent with the dimensions of family stressors construct were reworded and included in the scale measuring family stressors in this study. the items were reworded for simplicity and clarity to ensure that this study’s respondents have a clearer understanding of each item. for instance, items such as ‘because of my family situation, i have too little time to pursue my personal interests’ was reworded to ‘i do not have time for my friends and hobbies’ and ‘my work takes up time that i’d like to spend with my family’ was reworded to ‘i do not spend time with family’. the 15-item scale adapted has a very good reliability with cronbach’s alpha of 0.87. the adapted scale was valuable in eliciting responses from the study respondents using a 5-point likert type rating scale. mediating variables: work–life balance strategies and work–family satisfaction work–life balance strategies were measured on 15-item scale adapted from de cieri et al. (2005). this scale was used to elicit responses from the study respondents on the various wlbs such as flexible work arrangements, employees’ health and wellness programmes, paid maternity/maternity leave and child care facility implemented by the manufacturing firms. the cronbach’s alpha test of reliability for the adapted scale was 0.88. a combination of the revised version of the job descriptive index (jdi) and minnesota satisfaction questionnaire (msq) were adapted to measure sww. the jdi as developed by smith, kendall and hulin (1969) measures various dimensions of work satisfaction; the authors defined satisfaction ‘as the feelings a worker has about his job’. the jdi was validated and revised by kinicki, mckee-ryan, schriesheim and carson (2002).the average internal consistency values for ‘the revised jdi were 0.87, 0.88, 0.86, 0.88 and 0.89 for satisfaction with pay promotion, co-workers, work and supervision respectively’ (kinicki et al., 2002, p. 16). satisfaction with family life was adapted from the three-item scale developed by edwards and rothbard (1999). it included items such as; ‘i am satisfied with the conditions of my family-life’. the scale is very reliable with a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.97. the scale was supported by three-item family satisfaction scale developed by diener, emmons, larsen and griffin (1985). the reliability tests for the scale were 0.85 and 0.87 respectively. responses were provided on a 5-point likert-type rating scale from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). the least score represents lack of family satisfaction, whilst the highest score in the rating scale represents high level of family satisfaction. overall, the adapted scale for this study amounted to 10-item scales, each used to measure sww and satisfaction with family. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient tests of reliability for the two scales were 0.90 and 0.92 respectively. the reliability test was consistent with the rule of thumb as alpha coefficients ranged from acceptable to excellent values at 0.90 and 0.92 (pallant, 2011). endogenous latent variable: organisational performance some six items were developed to measure organisational performance. the reliability of the items was ascertained to ensure that they measure what they were supposed to measure. the cronbach’s alpha for the organisational performance scale was above 0.80, which is considered very good. this shows that the scale was very reliable in measuring the performance of the selected manufacturing firms. ethical consideration ethical clearance was obtained from the humanities and social sciences research ethics committee of the university of kwazulu-natal. as part of the ethical requirement, a written request was sent to the manufacturing firms where the survey for this study was conducted, with approval granted by the firms through the issuance of gatekeeper’s letter. the anonymity of the respondents was ensured through the signing of the informed consent attached with the survey questionnaire. analysis and results the analysis was conducted in three stages. in the first stage, exploratory factor analysis (efa) was conducted to establish the factor loadings of items for each construct. the result of efa saw item three of the job performance scale cross-loading to the sww scale and was subsequently renamed sww3. secondly, first and second-order cfa were conducted. the third stage presents sem. the next section presents the outcome of the efa analysed using spss version 25. the outcome of the descriptive and inferential statistics using spss version 25 and ibm amos version 25 are presented in this section. the factor structure of efa on the mediating influences of wlbs and wfsat on the interplay between wfs and manufacturing firms’ performance are presented in table 1. table 1: exploratory factor analysis of measuring instruments. exploratory factor analysis exploratory factor analysis was adopted to determine the factor structure of items measuring the variables considered in this study. the principal component analysis helped to determine factors to be extracted. the sets of observed variables which are constantly moving together were identified through the factor extraction (ul hadia, abdullah, & sentosa, 2016). the items identified through extraction in the efa helped to determine the factors to be included in the cfa (pallant, 2011; ul hadia et al., 2016). items with good factor loadings were retained for cfa. according to comrey and lee (1992), an item with a good factor loading has a loading of higher or equal to 0.71. the kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) test was valuable to determine the appropriateness and adequacy of the study sample size. kaiser (1974) suggests 0.50 as the threshold for kmo, whilst the values between 0.50 and 0.70 are considered mediocre, values between 0.70 and 0.80 are considered good, values between 0.80 and 0.90 are considered great and 0.90 and above values are considered excellent (pallant, 2011; ul hadia et al., 2016). pallant (2011) recommends that the kmo value should be 0.60 or above. consistent with cattell’s (1966) recommendation of retaining all factors above the elbow, this study retained factors with eigenvalue greater than 1 (devellis, 2016). other items with poor loadings were deleted. the corrected item-total correlation was valuable in ensuring the purification of items to prevent less important items from confounding the interpretation of efa. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient was employed to measure the internal consistency of extracted factors. table 1 presents the factor structure of items retained for cfa. the illustration in table 1 represents items retained for the six factors. the overall result indicates good reliability of all the factors extracted in this study, given that the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for all the factors is more than 0.70. the eigenvalue for the first factor which measures work stressors is 1.683 and explained 3.2% of the data. the second factor which measures family stressors has an eigenvalue of 2.032 with 3.8% of variance explained. factor three which measures wlbs showcases eigenvalue of 3.252 and explained 6.1% variance of the original data. the fourth factor measuring satisfaction with family produced an eigenvalue of 13.514 and explained 25.4% of item variance. factor five which measures sww has an eigen value of 3.854 and explained 7.3% of item variance. factor six measuring organisational performance (manufacturing firms’ performance) has an eigen value of 2.223 and explained 4.2% of the total variance. the factor loadings revealed that virtually all items retained in each construct have loadings more than 0.50, which are considered excellent, very good or good. only one item (sww_2) has a loading less than 0.50. the kmo test of 0.87 is an indication that the study sample size of 312 is adequate. the bartlett test of sphericity is significant at p < 0.001, which justified why the efa was performed. measurement model on the mediating influences of work–life balance strategies and work–family satisfaction ibm amos graphic was used to conduct cfa. as indicated by hair jr, sarstedt, hopkins and kuppelwieser (2014), cfa is conducted to test the extent to which a researcher’s a priori and theoretical pattern of factor loadings on pre-specified constructs represent the actual data. the purpose of cfa is therefore to confirm the structure of constructs. the second-order cfa was considered in measuring the mediating influences of wlbs and wfsat on the interplay between wfs and organisational performance. a second-order cfa is a statistical method aimed at confirming whether a construct loads onto certain number of underling sub-constructs (thompson, 2007). according to herman (2016), the decision on whether to conduct a second-order cfa is determined by the needs of a study. the second-order cfa was conducted in this article to establish the effects a main construct had on sub-constructs (herman, 2016). two latent constructs, which include wfs and wfsat (a mediator), are specified as of second order. these two constructs are linked with their sub-constructs with a one-sided arrow to depict their causal effects. work–family stressors are linked to family stressors and work stressors, whilst wfsat is linked with satisfaction with work and satisfaction with family. the second-order cfa was valuable in hypothesising the model into four latent constructs of wfs (endogenous variable), wlbs (first mediator), wfsat (second mediator) and organisational performance (exogenous variable). figure 2 presents the statistical analysis of the second-order cfa. figure 2: hypothesised four-factor model (second-order ss). figure 2 illustrates the results of the model fit indices for the second-order cfa. the second-order cfa was carried out by combining first-order constructs. family stressors and work stressors were combined to wfs, whilst satisfaction with family and satisfaction with work were combined with wfsat. the model fit indices indicated cmin/df value of 2.036 and rmsea value of 0.058, which were within the acceptable threshold. in addition, the composite reliability and validity of the second-order cfa was conducted. table 2 shows the results of the composite reliability and validity of constructs in the second-order cfa. table 2: reliability analysis, convergent and discriminant validity assessment. as shown in table 2, the of reliability of the constructs in the measurement model was established using composite reliability. composite reliability is considered a more appropriate measure of reliability of the instruments which measures latent variables (hair et al., 2014). in addition, composite reliability, otherwise referred to as dillon–goldstein’s rho, is a more credible measure of reliability than cronbach’s alpha in sem because it is based on loadings and not on observed correlations between variables (demo, neiva, nunes, & rozzett, 2012). it is observed in table 2 that the composite reliability of each construct is above the threshold of 0.70. this shows that all constructs in the model are consistent. the validity of the research instrument was achieved using ave. the ave was applied to ensure the convergent validity of constructs. the values of ave revealed that the loading for each construct is more than the acceptable level of 0.50. this implies that each of the constructs with explained over 50% of its item variance. the fornell and larcker (1981) criterion was applied to ensure discriminant validity of all constructs. this was achieved by comparing the cross-loading of all constructs with the square roots of ave as depicted by values of the diagonal in table 2. in addition, discriminant validity is denoted as ave values greater than msv values (ave > msv). the msv values (ave > msv) show that all constructs in this article did not violate discriminant validity (herman, 2016). structural model the structural model in figure 3 examines the mediating influences of wlbs and wfsat on the interplay between wfs and organisational performance. bootstrapping method was employed for mediation analysis. the fit indices extracted from amos output indicate good fit of structural model. figure 3: mediating influences of work–life balance strategies and work–family satisfaction. figure 3 indicates a good fit of structural model. the standardised regression weight from wfs to wlbs is β = −0.422 and p < 0.000. this result indicates a significant negative relationship between wfs and wlbs in the selected manufacturing firms of lagos metropolis. the inverse relationship implies that an improvement in the effectiveness of wlbs would bring about reduction in the wfs of employees of the selected manufacturing firms in lagos metropolis. likewise, the direct path from wfs to wfsat depicts a significant negative relationship at β = −0.25 and p = 0.018. this result implies that as employees of the selected manufacturing firms continue to experience satisfaction with work–family lives, the stressors emanating from work and family domains of the employees continue to decline. however, the structural model illustrated a direct significant positive effect between wlbs and wfsat at β = 0.590 and p = 0.001. by implication, an increase in the availability and effectiveness of wlbs put in place brings about increase in the level of wfsat of employees of the selected manufacturing firms in lagos metropolis. the standard regression weight also revealed a direct significant positive effect between wfsat and the selected manufacturing firms’ performance (β = 0.752, p = 0.001). statistically, the result implies that employees’ satisfaction with work–family life exert a direct positive effect on the performance of selected manufacturing firms. based on the outcome of the structural model, wlbs exert an indirect positive effect on the selected manufacturing firms’ performance via wfsat. the outcome of mediation analysis was subjected to sobel test, arorian test and goodman test calculators for the significance of mediation. the results confirmed that wlbs mediates the relationship between wfs and manufacturing firms’ performance at p < 0.001. the result confirmed that wlbs and wfsat mediate the interplay between wfs and organisational performance. based on this outcome, the formulated hypotheses h1 and h2 are supported. discussion the path from wfs to wfsat was statistically significant. the direct path from wfs to organisational performance was not significant. this justified whilst no link was displayed between the two constructs (figure 3). therefore, wfs exerts a significant indirect effect on organisational performance via wfsat. this outcome implies that wfsat fully mediates the relationship between wfs and performance of selected manufacturing firms in lagos metropolis. also, the direct path from wfs and wlbs is significant. in other words, the wlbs put in place by the selected manufacturing firms was effective in cushioning the effects of stressors emanating from work and family domains. this is evident from the statistically significant relationship between wfs and wlbs. however, the direct path between wlbs and the selected manufacturing firms’ performance is not significant, rather wlbs exerts indirect influence on the manufacturing firms’ performance via wfsat. given the outcome of statistical analysis, the effectiveness of the adopted wlbs in addressing work and family stressors could result in employees having satisfaction with work and family lives, which invariably enhances the performance of the selected manufacturing firms (organisational performance) in lagos metropolis. this finding aligns with the empirical study conducted by organ, podsakoff and mackenzie (2006), in which it was found that wlbs tends to enhance employees’ organisation citizenship behaviour with positive effect on the performance of the organisation. the structural model given in figure 3 revealed that the direct path from wlbs to wfsatis is statistically significant. this explains why carlson, grzywacz and kacmar (2010) affirmed that the alignment of wlbs, such as flexible work arrangement, employees’ health and wellness, and training and development programmes, could enhance employees’ commitment and generally enhance satisfaction with work and family. perry-smith and blum (2000) found that organisations that implement wlbs, such as flexible work arrangement, on-site day care and dependent care, experienced improved performance. a recent study performed by coetzee et al. (2017) showcase that organisational retention strategy that includes wlbs, such as flexible work arrangement, enhances conclusion this article contributes to the existing literature in the work–life debate. work–life balance stems from the assumption that individuals are usually confronted by work and family stressors. finding a balance between employees work and family lives is considered a strategic hr function. this research provided perspectives on the significance and the benefits of effectively implementing wlbs by the manufacturing firms in lagos metropolis. this was realised by empirically establishing the interplay between wfs and the selected manufacturing firms’ performance. the proposed framework, which is generalised to the manufacturing firms in lagos metropolis, could be considered in the design of wlbs by various sectors of nigerian economy. in spite of the contribution of this study, there are some limitations from which further study could be conducted. this is a cross-sectional study which limits data collected to two manufacturing firms in lagos metropolis, nigeria. the future research could expand the scope of study to other manufacturing firms in the six geopolitical zones of nigeria to be able to make generalisation of the research findings to nigeria. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abe, e.n., abe, i.i., fields, z., & idris, g.o. (2018). work-family stressors and work-family satisfaction: effect of sense of coherence at a metropolitan municipality. work, 10(2), 74–88. https://doi.org/10.22610/jebs.v10i2(j).2218 agba, a.m., wilson, u.w., & innah, d.e. (2015). correlates between family and employees’ work-life in nigeria: the need for proper integration. international journal of capacity building in education and management, 2(3), 25–42. akanji, b., mordi, c., & ojo, s. (2015). reviewing gaps in work-life research and prospecting conceptual advancement. petroleum – gas university of ploiesti bulletin, technical series, 67(3), 21–30. retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&an=110496861&site=ehost-live balchin, n., gelb, s., kennan, j., martin, h., te velde, d.w., & williams, c. (2016). developing export-based manufacturing in sub-saharan africa. london: department for international development (dfid) and overseas development institute (odi). beauregard, t.a., & henry, l.c. (2009). making the link between work-life balance practices and organizational performance. human resource management review, 19(1), 9–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2008.09.001 brochard, d., & letablier, m.t. (2017). trade union involvement in work–family life balance: lessons from france. work, employment and society, 31(4), 657–674. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017016680316 caillier, j.g. (2016). does satisfaction with family-friendly programs reduce turnover ? a panel study conducted in us federal agencies. public personnel management, 45(3), 284–307. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026016652424 carlson, d.s., grzywacz, j.g., & kacmar, k.m. (2010). the relationship of schedule flexibility and outcomes via the work–family interface. journal of managerial psychology, 25(3), 330–355. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683941011035278 cattell, r.b. (1966). the screen test for the number of factors. multivariate behavioral research, 1(2), 245–276. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr0102_10 chete, l.n., adeoti, j.o., adeyinka, f.m., & ogundele, f.o. (2016). industrial policy in nigeria: opportunities and challenges in a resource-rich country. in c. newman, j. page, j. rand, a. shimeless, m. söderbom, & t. finn (eds.), manufacturing transformation: comparative studies of industrial development in africa and emerging asia (pp. 1–29). new york: oxford university press. coetzee, m., ferreira, n., & potgieter, i. (2017). perceptions of sacrifice, workplace friendship and career concerns as explanatory mechanisms of employees’ organisational commitment. sa journal of human resource management, 17(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1033 comrey, a.l., & lee, h.b. (1992). a first course in factor analysis (2nd edn.). nj: hillsdale. dancaster, l. (2014). work-life balance and the legal right to request flexible working arrangements. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 9(2), 175–186. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v9i2.1144 daverth, g., cassell, c., & hyde, p. (2016). the subjectivity of fairness: managerial discretion and work–life balance. gender, work & organization, 23(2), 89–107. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12113 de cieri, h., holmes, b., abbott, j., & pettit, t. (2005). achievements and challenges for work/life balance strategies in australian organizations. international journal of human resource management, 16(1), 90–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/0958519042000295966 deery, m., & jago, l. (2015). revisiting talent management, work-life balance and retention strategies. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 27(3), 453–472. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm-12-2013-0538 demo, g., neiva, e.r., nunes, i., & rozzett, k. (2012). human resources management policies and practices scale (hrmpps): exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. bar-brazilian administration review, 9(4), 395–420. https://doi.org/10.1590/s1807-76922012005000006 devellis, r.f. (2016). scale development: theory and applications (vol. 26). thousand oaks, ca: sage. diener, e.d., emmons, r.a., larsen, r.j., & griffin, s. (1985). the satisfaction with life scale. journal of personality assessment, 49(1), 71–75. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13 edwards, j.r., & rothbard, n.p. (1999). work and family stress and well-being: an examination of person–environment fit in the work and family domains. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 77(2), 85–129. https://doi.org/10.1006/obhd.1998.2813 ehie, i., & muogboh, o. (2016). analysis of manufacturing strategy in developing countries: a sample survey of nigerian manufacturers. journal of manufacturing technology management, 27(2), 234–260. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmtm-07-2014-0094 ejohwomu, o.a., onifade, m.k., & adeoye, a.b. (2016). developmental programmes and policies: a logic model approach. journal of construction project management and innovation, 6(2), 1429–1446. felstead, a., jewson, n., phizacklea, a., & walters, s. (2002). opportunities to work at home in the context of work–life balance. human resource management journal, 12(1), 54–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2002.tb00057.x fleetwood, s. (2007). why work-life balance now? international journal of human resource management, 18(3), 387–400. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190601167441 fornell, c., & larcker, d.f. (1981). evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. journal of marketing research, 18(1), 39. https://doi.org/10.2307/3151312 ganiyu, i.o., fields, z., & atiku, s.o. (2017). work-family stressors and manufacturing firms performance : influence of work-life balance. journal of accounting and management, 7(3), 60–71. gonzález-romá, v., & lloret, s. (1998). construct validity of rizzo et al.’s (1970) role conflict and ambiguity scales: a multi-sample study. applied psychology, 47(4), 535–545. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.1998.tb00042.x guest, d.e. (2017). human resource management and employee well-being: towards a new analytic framework. human resource management journal, 27(1), 22–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12139 hair jr, j.f., sarstedt, m., hopkins, l., & kuppelwieser, v.g. (2014). partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem): an emerging tool in business research. european business review, 26(2), 106–121. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr-10-2013-0128 herman, d.r. (2016). research article cfa first-order and cfa second-order (measurement model) of the special education teachers’ readiness on the implementation of sexuality and health education for students with learning disabilities in special education (integration pr). international journal of current research, 8(10), 40165–40172. hirschi, a., shockley, k.m., & zacher, h. (2019). achieving work-family balance: an action regulation model. academy of management review, 44(1), 150–171. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2016.0409 kaiser, h.f. (1974). an index of factorial simplicity. psychometrika, 39(1), 31–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02291575 kinicki, a.j., mckee-ryan, f.m., schriesheim, c.a., & carson, k.p. (2002). assessing the construct validity of the job descriptive index: a review and meta-analysis. the journal of applied psychology, 87(1), 14–32. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.1.14 ko, j., & hur, s. (2014). the impacts of employee benefits, procedural justice, and managerial trustworthiness on work attitudes: integrated understanding based on social exchange theory. public administration review, 74(2), 176–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12160 kopelman, r.e., greenhaus, j.h., & connolly, t.f. (1983). a model of work, family, and inter-role conflict: a construct validation study. organizational behavior and human performance, 32(2), 198–215. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(83)90147-2 las heras, m., bosch, m.j., & raes, a.m. (2015). sequential mediation among family-friendly culture and outcomes. journal of business research, 68(11), 2366–2373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.03.042 maiyaki, a.a. (2013). the challenges of textile and manufacturing industries in kano metropolis. research journal of the institute of business administration karachi-pakistan, 8(2), 116–123. mazerolle, s.m., eason, c.m., & trisdale, w.a. (2015). work-life balance perspectives of male ncaa division i athletic trainers: strategies and antecedents. athletic training and sports health care, 7(2), 50–62. https://doi.org/10.3928/19425864-20150216-01 mccarthy, a., darcy, c., & grady, g. (2010). work-life balance policy and practice: understanding line manager attitudes and behaviors. human resource management review, 20(2), 158–167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2009.12.001 mike, j.a. (2010). banking sector reforms and the manufacturing sector: the manufacturers’ association of nigeria perspective. economic and financial review, 46(4), 57–65. mokyr, j. (2018). the british industrial revolution: an economic perspective. oxfordshire: routledge. newman, c., page, j., rand, j., shimeles, a., söderbom, m., & tarp, f. (2016). made in africa: learning to compete in industry. washington, dc: brookings institution press. odubajo, t., & akinboye, s. (2017). nigeria and south africa: collaboration or competition? south african journal of international affairs, 24(1), 61–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/10220461.2017.1314224 ogunnubi, o. (2017). effective hegemonic influence in africa: an analysis of nigeria’s ‘hegemonic’ position. journal of asian and african studies, 52(7), 932–946. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909616632277 okoiye, o., onah, t., & atsaka, j. (2015). self-efficacy and emotional intelligence as predictors of employees job performance in manufacturing companies in lagos state, nigeria. journal of research in education and society, 6(1), 12–19. olugbenga, a.a., & grace, o.o. (2016). impact of foreign direct investment on nigerian capital market development. international journal of academic research in accounting, finance and management sciences, 5(1), 103–108. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarafms/v5-i1/1503 organ, d.w., podsakoff, p.m., & mackenzie, s.b. (2006). organizational citizenship behaviour: its nature, antecedents, and consequences. thousand oaks, ca: sage. pallant, j. (2011). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using spss (4th edn.). perth: allen & unwin. perry-smith, j.e., & blum, t.c. (2000). work-family human resource bundles and perceived organizational performance. academy of management journal, 43(6), 1107–1117. https://doi.org/10.2307/1556339 raphael, a.i., & gabriel, a.a. (2015). effect of financial sector development on manufacturing output growth in nigeria (1986–2012): a vector auto regression approach. journal of applied economics & business research, 5(1), 38–55. rizzo, j.r., house, r.j., & lirtzman, s. (1970). role conflict and ambiguity in complex organizations. administrative science quarterly, 15(2), 150–163. https://doi.org/10.2307/2391486 rodó-de-zárate, m., garcia-ramon, m.d., villarino, m., porto, a.m., baylina, m., & salamaña, i. (2016). work–life balance of professional women in rural spain. gender, place & culture, 24(1), 72–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369x.2016.1249345 russo, m. (2015). work-home enrichment and health: an analysis of the mediating role of persistence in goal striving and vulnerability to stress. the international journal of human resource management, 26(19), 2486–2502. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2014.1003085 russo, m., shteigman, a., & carmeli, a. (2016). workplace and family support and work–life balance: implications for individual psychological availability and energy at work. the journal of positive psychology, 11(2), 173–188. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2015.1025424 sekaran, u., & bougie, r. (2016). research methods for business: a skill building approach (7th edn.). west sussex: john wiley. smith, p.c., kendall, l.m., & hulin, c.l. (1969). the measurement of satisfaction in work and retirement: a strategy for the study of attitudes. chicago, il: rand mcnally. sola, o., obamuyi, t.m., adekunjo, f.o., & ogunleye, e. (2013). manufacturing performance in nigeria: implication for sustainable development. economic and financial review, 3(9), 1195–1213. subramaniam, a.g., overton, b.j., & maniam, c.b. (2015). flexible working arrangements, work–life balance and women in malaysia. international journal of social science and humanity, 5(1), 34–38. https://doi.org/10.7763/ijssh.2015.v5.417 thompson, b. (2007). exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis: understanding concepts and applications. applied psychological measurement, 31(3), 245–248. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146621606290168 ul hadia, n., abdullah, n., & sentosa, i. (2016). an easy approach to exploratory factor analysis: marketing perspective. journal of educational and social research, 6(1), 215–223. https://doi.org/10.5901/jesr.2016.v6n1p215 us department of state (usds). (2015). nigeria investment climate statement. retrieved from https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/241898 wei, c., yili, l., & tian, y. (2013). how can hrm help organizations build the supportive ‘work-life/family ‘balance culture ? international journal of business and social science, 4(9), 104–110. zheng, c., kashi, k., fan, d., molineux, j., ee, m.s., zheng, c., … ee, m.s. (2016). impact of individual coping strategies and organisational work–life balance programmes on australian employee well-being. the international journal of human resource management, 27(5), 501–526. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1020447 abstract introduction context and problem statement south african public protector from 1995 till date current public protector human capital theory recruitment and selection selection research questions research methodology conclusion and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) sandiso bazana department of psychology, rhodes university, grahamstown, south africa tayra reddy department of psychology, rhodes university, grahamstown, south africa citation bazana, s., & reddy, t. (2021). a critical appraisal of the recruitment and selection process of the public protector in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1207. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1207 original research a critical appraisal of the recruitment and selection process of the public protector in south africa sandiso bazana, tayra reddy received: 10 apr. 2019; accepted: 24 aug. 2020; published: 22 jan. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the process of recruitment and selection the public protector (pp) needs to ensure that the most ‘fit and proper’ candidate is appointed. the process needs critical scrutiny for such a fit and proper candidate to be selected. research motivation: south africa’s superior courts, including the constitutional court have recently (in 2019) labelled the current public protector; dishonest and incompetent in carrying out the duties of the pp office. research purpose: this article critically appraises the recent process that culminated in the appointment of ms busisiwe mkhwebane as the fourth public protector in the democratic south africa. research approach: this article analysed documents, including the constitution of the republic of south africa, minutes of the meetings of the adhoc committee established by parliament to lead the process of the recruitment and selection of the public protector, and public protector act. main findings: we found that the process of recruiting and selecting the public protector as it currently stands in south africa, through the sections of the constitution, completely ignores the principles of recruitment and selection that help avoid sentiments of bias and selecting incompetent persons. practical implications: the findings of this paper call for a critical evaluation of the discretion that the constitution gives to only the sa parliament to initiate and undertake the process of the recruitment of the public protector. contribution: the contributes to the role that human resources management discipline needs to play in sa, beyond its preoccupations with corporate organisations, to influence professional ethics in the public sector. keywords: public protector; south africa; recruitment and selection; ad-hoc committee; constitution of south africa; parliamentary; documents analysis; competency-based assessment. introduction south africa (sa) became an official democratic state in 1994. this was cemented by the successful endorsement of the constitution of south africa in 1996 by the first democratically elected president, mr nelson mandela. the constitution of the republic of south africa has acted as the holy grail of south african law. it is the vanguard that protects the citizens from the people who are placed in power. it represents the supreme law of the land while simultaneously echoing a ‘never again’ message. this means that the government will no longer have the ultimate power to make unjust laws without their actions being grounded firmly in the law of the constitution (de vos & freedman, 2014). the bill of rights that is contained in the constitution is a cornerstone of democracy in south africa. it enshrines the rights of all people in the country and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom (south african history online [saho], 2018). to protect the rights of people, the constitution gives rise to the separation of powers, which means that there are certain checks and balances to ensure that there is no abuse of power. the constitution has a separation of powers doctrine – aimed at limiting powers of each branch of government: the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. this means that the doctrine thus provides the basis for an institutional, procedural and structural division of public power (de vos & freedman, 2014). to ensure that there is a separation of powers, as well as checks and balances on these powers, the constitution establishes chapter 9 institutions that support the constitutional democracy. the chapter 9 institutions consist of the following: the public protector (pp), the auditor-general (ag), the independent electoral commission (iec), the south african human rights commission (sahrc), the commission for gender equality (cge) and lastly, the commission for the protection of the rights of cultural, religious and linguistic communities. these institutions are independent and subject only to the constitution as well as the law. they must be impartial and must exercise their powers, as well as perform their functions without fear, favour or prejudice. the other organs of state, through legislative and other measures, must assist and protect these institutions to ensure the independence, impartiality, dignity and effectiveness of these institutions (constitution, 1996). this article focusses on one of the chapter 9 institutions: the pp. context and problem statement the pp is an important chapter 9 institution that monitors the conduct of state officials and agencies with the main aim of ensuring an effective and ethical public service (bishop & woolman, 2013). the pp’s brief is to watch the watchers and to ensure that the government discharges its responsibilities correctly and thus the pp can be described as the ‘watchdog’ (bishop & woolman, 2013). this indicates the value that this institution holds in terms of protecting the public. according to pienaar (2000), the pp is often compared to the ombudsman. an ombudsman is an institution that originated in sweden and it was created to ensure that the public officials acted in terms of the law and discharged their duties properly. pienaar (2000) argues that there are many variations in terms of structure and function, and this is dependent on the circumstances of the particular country. pienaar (2000) further argues that ombudsmen are established to protect and promote people’s rights as well as oversee government agencies. this then acts as a link between the people and their government. mbiada (2017) supports the argument that the pp is derived from the ombudsman. mbiada (2017) also argues that the pp’s predecessors were the advocate general and the office of the ombudsman whose powers included investigating reports of maladministration, but not taking remedial action. thus, their powers were limited to referring their findings to other institutions (mbiada, 2017). the origins of the pp can be found in the pre-constitutional structure that was similar to the ombudsman who was known as the advocate general (pienaar, 2000). according to pienaar (2000), this was established in 1979, and it was regarded as a distinctly south african institution. the advocate general’s mandate was limited and restricted to investigating the improper use of public money (pienaar, 2000). the office of the pp is given rise to by the constitution, and it does not fall under the three branches of government (executive, legislature and judiciary); it is a separate, independent and impartial institution that is meant to be a check on governmental power and to increase government’s accountability and responsibility (de vos & freedman, 2014). according to the supreme court of appeal, the pp plays an important role in combating corruption. the supreme court of appeal has described the institution as an ‘important defence against maladministration and corruption’, which ‘are capable of insidiously destroying the nation’ (sabc v da, 2015). as a result, the correct person must be chosen to occupy the office of the pp. to understand why the best candidate should be selected, the human capital theory (hct) will provide an understanding of how people can be considered as an investment towards the organisation’s success. at this stage, the article will explore the developments that have taken place in this chapter 9 institution since its inception in 1995. south african public protector from 1995 till date in 1995, president nelson mandela appointed judge selby baqwa as the country’s first pp (saho, 2018). according to pillay and ramela (2016), baqwa did a good job in establishing the office of the pp as well as bringing awareness about the institution as well as its mandate and services. baqwa focussed on making the pp accessible to all by establishing various offices and outreach points across the country. according to section 183 of the constitution, the tenure of the pp is a non-renewable period of 7 years and thus a new pp is appointed after 7 years. in 2002, president thabo mbeki’s appointed lawrence mushwana as the new pp, who was a deputy chairperson in the national council of provinces (saho, 2018). according to pillay and ramela (2016), there was criticism because of mushwana’s allegiance to the african national congress (anc). corruption watch (2018) echoed this by stating that mushwana was met with public criticism as he had previously served as deputy chairperson in the national council of provinces. opposition parties felt that his known anc alliance would taint the independence of the pp and that he would not act independently because of his political allegiance. mushwana aimed to expand on the programme that was implemented by baqwa (pillay & ramela, 2016). mushwana has been credited with creating the remedial action for investigations and allowing the findings of the pp to be binding. corruption watch (2018) states that mushwana was known for his ‘soft findings’ towards members of the anc, and while not finding fault in certain individuals in the anc does not constitute wrongful conduct on the part of mushwana, corruption watch (2018) further argues that the somewhat soft findings and remedial action in high-profile cases brought little or no consequences for the offenders and painted the pp as a lapdog for the ruling party. several cases show mushwana’s alleged bias towards certain anc leaders (corruption watch, 2018). in 2009, after mushwana’s 7-year term ended, president jacob zuma appointed thuli madonsela who was the former law reform commissioner and human rights lawyer (saho, 2018). according to pillay and ramela (2016), madonsela has been the country’s most celebrated pp. her legacy will be prominently associated with her secure in comfort report, which found that president jacob zuma unduly benefited from taxpayer-funded upgrades to his nkandla residence that were not related to security (pillay & ramela, 2016), including the state of capture report that culminated into the zondo state capture commission established by president zuma on instructions by the pp, under ms madonsela. in a 2013 survey conducted by freedom house, madonsela was praised widely for her work in protecting south africa’s democracy. the survey suggested she was a well-known and powerful force against corruption. in 2014, time magazine ranked madonsela among the top 100 most influential people in the world under the category of leaders, praising her as ‘an inspirational example of what african public officers need to be’ (pillay & ramela, 2016). in 2016, after madonsela’s 7-year tenure ended, president jacob zuma appointed busisiwe mkhwebane as the current pp. current public protector the selection decision of the current pp, ms busisiwe mkhwebane, was questioned by sa’s second main opposition party, the democratic alliance (da). important to mention that this criticism did not engage with the process of recruitment and selection that was followed by parliament, which the da participated. what has subsequently happened, which has thus far been captured and analysed in the sa media and in sa courts, suggests for a critical analysis of the very process of recruitment and selection of the pp in sa. a recent high court judgement regarding the bankorp-ciex case has resulted in calls for the removal of the current pp (makinana, 2018). makinana (2018) argues that there are calls for her removal on the basis that ‘she misconstrued her powers and is grossly incompetent’. the pretoria high court, which set aside mkhwebane’s report, published in june last year, and her finding that absa was liable to pay r1.25 billion to the government indicates that the findings of the report were not accurate and thus shows a lack of competence (makinana, 2018). this would be followed by a spree of the court cases against her reports, as law expert and professor, pierre de vos, recounts here. the court cases include the constitutional court that found the pp ‘dishonest and incompetent’ (2019). senior staffers in the office of the pp have dissociated themselves from the reports – and some have broken rank by speaking publicly about how ms mkhwebana runs the prestigious office of the pp as reported here (maqhina, 2020). she refuted these allegations from within her office and labelled some of these staffers as disgruntled former employees of the office. ms mkwhebane though has been unable to defer the critical judgements of some of sa’s superior courts that have set aside her recent reports. according to makinana (2018), the court ordered her to pay some of her opponents’ legal costs personally, stating that she did not conduct herself in a manner expected from a person occupying the office of the pp. this has earned ms mkhwebane a label of ‘incompetent’, by critics including important different courts of south arica. according to makinana (2018), the pp is facing backlash and many people are calling for her removal. makinana (2018) further argued that the da then chief whip john steenhuisen wrote to the then speaker baleka mbete requesting that the national assembly expedite procedures to remove mkhwebane from office based on the court ruling. many media pundits have interpreted many court judgements against ms mkwhebana as pointing out the glaring ‘lack of ‘knowledge on her duties and her limited powers, including ‘lack of basic understanding of the constitution, her powers and duties as pp’ (constitutional court judgement, july 2019). the current speaker of parliament, ms tandi modise, has already expedited the process of removing the pp through parliament (gerber, 2020). it is at the back of all these public allegations of incompetence that this study investigates the recruitment and selection process of the pp in south africa. with all the accolades and words of appreciation shown to the previous pp, ms thuli madonsela, the first to be given the star of outstanding performance, how and what made the country select the current pp who is seemingly in public opinion and by court’s judgement is lacking competence. this problem is studied within the discipline and profession of human resource (hr) management. the aim is to critically examine the process of recruiting and selecting a pp in south africa through the framework of professional hr practices. the next section of the article will provide an overview of the process of recruitment and selection that begins with the job analysis process. the job analysis process is an information-gathering as well as data-recording process that is used in recruitment. depending on the type of job, different job analysis techniques can be used (nelson, 1997). certain steps need to be followed in a job analysis. firstly, there is the identification of the tasks performed, then the writing of the task statement and finally the rating of the task statement. following that is the determining of the knowledge, skill, abilities, and other characteristics (ksao’s) (fine & getkate, 2014). there are also different types of job analysis processes that are used in different situations. the role of a job analysis is to combine the knowledge of human attributes with the task demands and from there produce a behaviour theory for the job. the two different types of job analysis that will be discussed are taskand work-oriented job analyses (nelson, 1997). in the task-oriented approach, the actual tasks of the job are discussed and the approach looks at what will be accomplished by those specific tasks. work-orientated approach looks at what attributes are needed to do the specific tasks (nelson, 1997). work approach is mainly used for training programmes as it looks at the behaviour of people more than in task analysis. the taskand work-orientated analyses have to be conducted to ensure that the correct applicants apply for the job and whether the applicants meet the requirements or not. this analysis sets a benchmark of consistency that will allow for the best candidate to be chosen for the office of the pp (nelson, 1997). there are different types of data that need to be collected for a proper analysis. examples of this include the work activities, work performance, the context of the job, machines, tools and so on, as well as personnel requirements. the agent of the information (known as the incumbent), as well as the incumbent’s staff, is overall the most important source of information relating to the actual job analysis (nelson, 1997). our initial reading of the minutes of the ad-hoc committee’s meetings that were set up by parliament to take charge of the process of recruitment and selection of the pp stated that information could not be gathered from the previous incumbent as they argued it would negatively affect the current process (parliamentary monitoring group, 2016). the minutes of the meetings indicate that no job analysis was done for the position of the pp. the information was taken from section 182 of the constitution as well as from the public protector act (parliamentary monitoring group, 2016). this study is guided by the centrality of the human factor in making organisations (and in this case, states) succeed and achieve their intended goals, through a carefully structured recruitment and selection process, as explained by the hct. human capital theory the hct was originally conceptualised by adam smith in the 18th century (spengler, 1977). according to lepak and snell (1999), human capital is the knowledge and skills that an individual possesses that allow him or her to propel an organisation in the right direction. this means that for an organisation to function, the most qualified people need to be hired for the job. the hct argues that people are fixed capitals because they possess skills and useful abilities that yield genuine cost and profits to an organisation (ekwoaba, ikeije, & ufoma, 2015). consequently, it highlights the importance of why the best people would need to be selected for the job. boon, eckardt, lepak and boselie (2017) argue that human capital is a resource that helps ‘firms’ obtain a competitive advantage. ekwoaba et al. (2015) argue that people and their collective skills, abilities and experience are now recognised as significant contributors to organisational success and, as a result, place great importance on recruiting and selecting the best candidates for optimum results. according to lepak and snell (1999), hct is closely associated with the study of hr management, which is found in the practice of business administration. lepak and snell (1999) further argue that human capital is accumulated specifically for the nature of the task, and this is then vital for organisations as these tasks and skills can be transferrable in nature. ekwoaba et al. (2015) state that consequently many organisations have placed value on hr because people offer the organisation different values, perceptions and attributes. as a result, human capital when well managed can benefit the organisation in many ways. ekwoaba et al. (2015) go further to argue that the hct proposes two possible hypotheses. firstly, the theory begins by arguing that the recruitment and selection criteria have an important effect on the performance of the organisation. this then means that if the correct candidates are recruited and selected, there is a high chance that the organisation will perform better. the second postulation is that the more objective the recruitment and selection is, the better the organisation’s performance will be (ekwoaba et al., 2015). this article applies the theory of human capital to emphasise the importance of ensuring the credibility and fairness of the process of recruitment and selection of the pp to find suitably (fit and proper) qualified person for the job. the constitution highlights the importance of the role of the pp concerning the protection of the constitutional democracy of south africa, and thus one could argue that using this theory concerning the pp will bring to focus the critical role of the figure of pp within the pp office. if we take the hct into the discourse of the pp in south africa, we could argue that the former pp, ms madonsela, provided sa with ‘appropriate’ behaviour and competencies to be an effective pp. the hct argues for the importance of a carefully and professionally managed recruitment and selection process for any organisation to get someone who will add value to the organisation (in this case, to the state). thus, the hct underpins the need for a thorough, objective recruitment and selection of the pp. this theory states the importance of people’s skills and overall competencies in a given task. this then brings about the importance of recruitment and selection. recruitment and selection louw (2013) argues that competent employees make organisations effective. the process of finding and identifying competent human capital that will add the necessary value to an organisation is known as recruitment and selection and is a function of the hr management department (grobler, wärnich, carrell, elbert, & hatfield, 2006). gold defines recruitment as a process of generating a pool of capable candidates applying to an organisation for employment (gold, 2007). the organisation attracts candidates through sources and methods. el-kot and leat (2008) observe that recruitment begins with advertising existing vacancies. this can be done internally and externally (louw, 2013). for most organisations, direct applications by mail or by individuals applying in person form the largest source of applicants (louw, 2013). the usefulness of direct applications will often depend on the image the organisation has in the business community and the eventual quality of such applicants (beardwell, 2007). other sources of recruitment include personal contacts, walk-ins, university and school campus recruiting, career fairs, recruitment agencies, newspaper advertising and direct mail postings to suitable candidates (beardwell, 2007; cober & brown, 2006; grobler et al., 2006; madia, 2011; tucker, 2012; zottoli & wanous, 2000). recently, the use of technologically advanced methods such as twitter and cell phones (madia, 2011; tucker, 2012) has proved to be helpful. e-recruitment includes job postings on company homepages as well as curriculum vitae (cv) uploads to central databases. other researchers (pollit, 2005; tong & sivanand, 2005) believe that the use of e-recruitment in the recruitment process is increasing because of its cost-effectiveness. all this leads to a process known as selection where ‘applicants with experience and qualifications most closely related to job specifications may eventually be selected (louw, 2013, p. 2). selection selection, according to mondy (2010, p. 136), refers ‘the process of choosing from a group of applicants those individuals best suited for a particular position in an organization’. the process of selection is more concerned with identifying and employing the best qualified and suitable individuals for specific positions (louw, 2013). louw recently referred to the importance of person–environment (p–e) fit ‘when setting criteria in the selection process’ (p. 3). according to louw, p–e fit focuses (1) ‘the extent to which a job provides rewards that meet the individual’s needs and (2) the extent to which the applicant’s skills, abilities, and experience meet the requirements of the employer (p. 3). louw contends that ‘if a misfit exists between either one of these types, an individual may develop stress during his or her stay with the employer’ (p. 3). in recent years support for a multilevel fit for selection, purposes emerged that require a variety of selection sources or techniques to appoint the desired applicant (anderson, lievens, van dam, & ryan, 2004; kristof-brown, jansen, & colbert, 2002). such approaches are the person–job fit, person–team fit and the person–organisation fit. person–team fit has been reported in a quantitative study of 121 participants (across 30 teams) as leading to a high supplementary and complementary fit than teams with the less person–team fit (de cooman, vantilborgh, bal, & xander lub, 2015, abstract). a review of literature and views of hr practitioners in a study by mercurio (2016) found a significant relationship between person and organisation fit during the selection process and recommends that: ‘researchers should focus on developing valid tools such as score sheets for organizations to rate p-o fit during the interview stage of the selection process’ (p. 21). the media reports and court cases cited above, including disagreements between pp staffers and pp – criticisms that she lacks understanding of the organisation that she occupies illustrate problems of person–environment (pp office) and person–job fit (pp job description and specification). recruitment and selection process is not without its challenge as shown in masibigiri and nienaber (2011). harris, brewster and sparrow (2002) are convinced that ‘the decision to use recruitment and selection methods differs from country to country and region to region. such decisions are dictated by labour legislation and the source of recruitment that may be available from within or outside the organisation’ (louw, 2013, p. 2). in sa, legislation imperatives of affirmative action, which aims at recognising the groups that were previously disadvantaged known; designated groups, including women, disabled and blacks. the legislation encourages recruitment and selection of employees who show at least minimum requirements of the job and competencies to be selected (ekwoaba et al., 2015). the functions of the pp are highlighted by section 182 of the constitution, which state that the pp has the power as regulated by national legislation to: investigate any conduct in state affairs, or the public administration in any sphere of government, that is alleged or suspected to be improper or to result in any impropriety or prejudice, to report on the aforementioned conduct and to take appropriate remedial action. the pp has the additional powers and functions prescribed by national legislation. the pp may not investigate court decisions. the pp must be accessible to all persons and communities. any report issued by the pp must be open to the public unless in exceptional circumstances, be determined in terms of national legislation and require that a report be kept confidential. the study, after going through the minutes of the previous ad-hoc committee that was established to undertake the process of recruiting and selecting the pp, found no evidence of the committee/parliament embarking on a transparent job analysis to identify the key job description and specification of the pp (parliamentary monitoring group, 2016). such a scenario would have paramount importance, especially after the admirable precedence and conduct that former pp madonsela demonstrated. the second step would be to attract potential employees by advertising the job and attracting people to apply for the job. this is where cascio and aguinis (2008) state the important ways in which jobs can be advertised. the next stage is selecting the correct people for the job, and this is where job interviews are conducted and ability tests are taken if need be. this step is important as the hct states the importance of talent and skills, and this is the stage where the committee can gauge the skills that the pp requires (ekwoaba et al., 2015). the advert that was issued out on the parliamentary page shows that the section from the constitution was given verbatim and thus questions how the advert was created and where the job description and specification is (parliamentary monitoring group, 2016). when recruiting for a vacancy, a good job analysis must be conducted to ensure that the best person will be chosen for the job. to do a job analysis, a job analysis must be explained briefly (cascio & aguinis, 2008). the process can be divided into three stages; the first is to define the requirements of the job and this is broken down into a job description and a job specification. this step aims to describe and define what the job entails and what qualifications are needed for a particular job (cascio & aguinis, 2008). research questions what are the flaws in the current process from a professional recruitment and selection viewpoint? how can the process be strengthened to eliminate perceptions of bias and favouritism? is there a better approach or can the current approach be improved to recruit and select a fit and proper pp? to answer these questions, the study adopted a qualitative research methodology and emphasised the importance of analysing documents to identify the flaws and hopefully construct a process that could be underpinned by rigour, reliability and validity. research methodology this research study has used qualitative research design. creswell (1998) defines qualitative research as an inquiry process of understanding that is based on distinct methodological traditions that explore a social or human problem. this research has also used document analysis as a key qualitative research design, and this will be further explained in the procedures of data collection. unit of analysis and sampling procedures and procedures of data collection this study has employed a purposive sampling method to identify documents that help one make sense of the most recent process that was followed by the parliament of sa to recruit and select a ‘fit and proper’ pp. tongco (2007) states that purposive sampling is also known as judgement, subjective or selective sampling, and it is a technique that allows the researcher to use their judgement to choose members of a population to participate within the study. this research project will use document analysis as a method of highlighting the importance of the recruitment and selection of the pp. bowen (2009) defines documents as something that contains text (words), and images that have been recorded without a researcher’s intervention. he also argues that documents are referred to as ‘social facts’, which are produced, shared and used in socially organised ways. bowen (2009) states that document analysis is a form of qualitative research in which documents are interpreted in an attempt for researchers to give meaning to the topic they are assessing. bowen (2009) further argues that analysing documents integrates coding content into themes, which is similar to how focus groups or interview transcripts are analysed. this research will use the public records as the primary source of documents and these are the official, ongoing records that parliament has published (o’leary, 2014). these documents include the minutes of the meeting that has been published on the south african parliamentary page, as well as the constitution of the republic of south africa and the public protector act as well as any other relevant legislature. this research aims to use data that already exist in the form of minutes posted on the south african parliamentary page as well as other legislations such as the public protector act and the constitution. procedures for data analysis documents can be interpreted in various ways, and as a result detailed planning processes must be followed as they promote reliable results (o’leary, 2014). o’leary (2014) further outlines an eight-step process that needs to take place when planning a document analysis. the important steps will be highlighted in this research. the first step is to create a list of texts that will be explored in this study; the constitution of south africa, the legislation such as the public protector act as well as the minutes published on the south african parliamentary page will be the list of texts that will be used. the second step that o’leary (2014) highlights is to consider how the texts will be accessed while paying special attention to linguistic and cultural barriers. this research will access these documents electronically and analyse how the pp was recruited and selected. the third step would be to acknowledge and address the biases of the researcher as well as those exist in the documents (o’leary, 2014). this research would need to identify the biases that exist with the documentation and highlight these biases in an attempt to ensure credibility. this would then lead to the last few steps: considering strategies for making sure that the data are credible, being familiar with the data that are being used, fixing ethical issues and having a backup in case the documents do not give you what you need (o’leary, 2014). bowen (2009) insists that a researcher should consider the subjectivity of the author as well as the personal biases that are brought into the research. bowen (2009) further argues that the purpose of the document needs to be thoroughly analysed, taking into consideration the target audience. bowen (2009) also states that thematic analysis can be considered as a way of recognising patterns that exist within the data. this method will be used when looking at the minutes of the meetings to check if there was a consistent pattern with regard to the types of questions and evaluations that were done on the candidates. the overall concept of document analysis can be seen as a process of evaluating documents to produce empirical knowledge while simultaneously developing an understanding (bowen, 2009). this process must maintain a high level of objectivity so that the overall process can be valid and credible (bowen, 2009). findings and analysis this research paper will highlight some important pronouncements of the constitution of south africa regarding the process of selecting a pp. it will then critically appraise the pronouncements of the pp act concerning the recruitment and selection process. lastly, the article will explore the minutes of the most recent ad-hoc committee that was responsible for the recruitment of the current pp, ms mkhwebane. this research project will use document analysis as a method of highlighting the importance of the recruitment and selection of the pp. bowen (2009) states that document analysis is a form of qualitative research in which documents are interpreted in an attempt for researchers to give meaning to the topic they are assessing. to give meaning to this research paper, the following documents will be looked at: the constitution of the republic of south africa, the public protector act and the parliamentary minutes of the ad-hoc committee. the constitution of south africa, 1996 as stated above, the constitution acts as the holy grail of south african law. chapter 9 of the constitution of the republic of south africa introduces the state institutions that support the constitutional democracy of the country. six state institutions are established by this chapter, but for the research, the institution of the pp will be highlighted. section 181 (2)-(3) highlights the establishment and governing principles of these state institutions, which ultimately strengthen the constitutional democracy of south africa. the functions of the pp are highlighted by section 182, which states that the pp has the power, as regulated by national legislation to investigate any conduct in state affairs or the public administration in any sphere of government that is alleged or suspected to be improper or to result in any impropriety or prejudice, to report on the aforementioned conduct and to take appropriate remedial action. the pp has the additional powers and functions prescribed by national legislation. the pp may not investigate court decisions. the pp must be accessible to all persons and communities. any report issued by the pp must be open to the public unless in exceptional circumstances, to be determined in terms of national legislation, require that a report be kept confidential. the above paragraph details the functions that are set out by the constitution. the tenure of the pp is given in section 183 and states that the pp is appointed for a non-renewable period of 7 years. section 193 deals with the appointments and states that the pp must be women or men who are south african, who are fit and proper persons to hold the particular office and who comply with any other requirements prescribed by the national legislation. section 193 (4) further explains that the president, on the recommendation of the national assembly, must appoint the pp. this shows that the president could disregard the recommendation and thus brings into question the fairness of the appointment. the national assembly must recommend persons who are nominated by a committee of the assembly which is proportionally composed of the members of all parties that are represented in the assembly. the recommended persons should be approved by the assembly by a resolution adopted with a supporting vote of at least 60% of assembly members. the selection process of professional management must be objective and does not contain any form of bias, and this is highlighted by bazana (2016) when he states that the pp needs to be an apolitical, professional person. the national assembly is dominated by the ruling party and thus the 60% can be easily attained to further their interests. this shows that the process cannot be dissociated from the ruling party’s political interests as they are the majority and ultimately have the power (in the form of the president as well) to make the final decision. the constitution outlines the grounds on which the pp may be removed from their office. this can be found in section 194, which indicates that the pp may be removed from office only on grounds of misconduct, incapacity or incompetence, on a finding to that effect by a committee of the national assembly and the adoption by the assembly of a resolution calling for that person’s removal from office. section 59 explains the extent to which the public may be involved in the process. it states that the national assembly must facilitate the public’s involvement in the legislative and other processes of the assembly and its committees. they should conduct business in an open manner and hold its sittings and those of the committees, in public. however, reasonable measures can be taken to regulate the public’s access including the accessibility of the media. the national assembly may exclude the public and media access only if it is reasonable and justifiable in an open and democratic society. the above sections aim to provide the reader with all the information that the constitution provides regarding the pp. according to the literature regarding the recruitment and selection, the constitution does not provide for a professional method to recruit and select. the constitution focusses on the functions and removal of the pp; it does not provide a detailed process of recruitment and selection that can be justifiably reliable and valid when critically appraised. it is important to note that section 193 of the constitution explains who appoints the pp, but it does not detail the process of recruitment and how candidates should be shortlisted. this point will further be elaborated on later in this study. the next document that will be looked at will be the public protector act, and this will provide more information regarding the establishment and appointment. the public protector act section 1 (a) of the act establishes that there shall be a pp for the republic. the pp shall be a south african citizen who is a fit and proper person. the act and constitution reiterate this point about fit and proper, and there seems to be no definition regarding the competencies or attributes that would render a person as fit and proper. the act outlines a list of requirements that the pp should possess, and these state that the person who will hold the office should be a judge of a high court or a person who is admitted as an advocate or as an attorney and has, for the cumulative period of at least 10 years after having been admitted, practised as an advocate or an attorney. the person is qualified to be admitted as an advocate or an attorney and has, for a cumulative period of at least 10 years after having qualified, lectured in law at a university. the person has specialised knowledge of or has experienced for a cumulative period of at least 10 years in the administration of justice, public administration or public finance. the person has a cumulative period of at least 10 years as being a member of parliament. the last point states that a person may have any combination of the above-mentioned for a cumulative period of 10 years to hold the office of a pp. the act does not indicate why there is an emphasis on 10 years’ experience and what bearing this 10 years of experience will have on a person’s ability to complete what is required of them. according to the literature regarding the formulation of the job specification, it can be argued that this information provided by the act is the job specification. the critique would be that there is no explicit process that is outlined within the act to show where this information was obtained and why these specific tasks are important. the literature discussed above mentions that the pp was modelled from the idea of the ombudsman and thus ideas and specifications could have emanated from that. however, the act does not explicitly state where these specifications emanate from and why they are important. this is the only information that the act provides regarding the establishment and appointment of the pp. at this point, it is important to highlight that the act, as well as the constitution, does not provide a clear process on how the pp is appointed. although section 193 of the constitution and section 1a of the act contain the heading ‘appointment’, there is no process on how the pp is appointed. according to the literature, after conducting a thorough job analysis, the organisation would be required to attract the best candidates for the job and this stage is known as the recruitment stage (gamage, 2014). the selection or appointment would be considered the final stage where the best candidate is chosen. section 193(5) gives power to the national assembly to create a committee that is proportionally representative of all parties in the assembly. this committee then makes a recommendation, and according to section 193(4), the president must appoint the pp. the information contained in the act seems to bypass the professional or scientific approach that is recruitment and selection and go straight to the appointment. the next document that will be looked at is the minutes of the meetings that were published on the parliamentary monitoring group. this page offers insight into the meetings and aims to provide a true account of the process that was followed from 2002, 2009 and 2016. because of the lack of information regarding the process of recruitment and selection in both the act and the constitution, these meetings were used to gain insight, and the aim was to find out if a method was used to recruit and select the pp and whether or not the method is that of professional recruitment and selection. minutes regarding the appointment of the public protector to appoint the pp, an ad-hoc committee was established as per section 193(5) of the constitution. the committee was set up and established by parliament. the aim was to elect and appoint a new pp. the committee consisted of the following political office-bearers: seven members from the african national congress (anc). four from the democratic alliance (da). one from the econimic freedom fighters (eff). one from the african chirstian democratic party (acdp). one from the inkatha freedom party (ifp). one from the national freedom party (nfp). according to bazana (2016), this committee consists of only politicians and thus all, respectively, represent their own parties’ interests. bazana (2016) eloquently states that the ad-hoc committee’s composition greatly compromises the professional ethics of recruitment and selection. as the committee comprises only politicians, it unearths the critique that they do not possess the necessary qualifications to conduct professional recruitment and selection. the lack of qualifications in hr or recruitment can be seen from the first meeting that took place (parliamentary monitoring group, 2016). the first meeting took place on the 27 may 2016, and this is where the chairperson of the committee was elected. the secretary called for nominations and two members from the anc elected dr m khoza who was an anc member. dr khoza was then accepted as the chairperson of the committee (parliamentary monitoring group). it is important to highlight that all members of the committee are politicians who represent their political party, and as bazana (2016) stated, it hugely compromises the ethics of recruitment and selection. according to the minutes, mr s swart (acdp) said that ‘it would be helpful to members if the criteria for the selection of the public protector could be provided to the committee’. this indicates that the committee did not receive the information before the meeting. mr n. masondo (anc) also asked: ‘that the committee be provided with a timetable for the process as soon as possible’ (parliamentary monitoring group). from the minutes, it can be seen that the committee members did not know what the processes would entail and what the criteria for selection were. this highlights the fact that the committee did not receive prior training and according to the recruitment and selection theory discussed above, people (also called assessors) must be trained so that the process can be professionally executed (gamage, 2014). the next meeting was on the 01 june 2016, and the committee was briefed on the role of the pp as well as the importance and functions that are outlined in the constitution. the committee was briefed on the legal interpretation of ‘fit and proper’. according to the parliamentary monitoring group (2016), mr nathi mjenxane, parliamentary legal advisor, said that the term ‘fit and proper’ person to occupy the post of the pp appeared in section 193 of the constitution and section 1 of the public protector act. ‘it was a very stringent requirement, but it was not defined or described in the legislation’. mr mjenxane stated that legal scholars who interpreted the principle of ‘fit and proper person’ concluded that the principle served as a warranty to the public that the person occupying such a sensitive post would act ethically. there seems to be no guideline that further discusses the meaning of ‘ethically’. he further explained that it was commonly accepted that a fit and proper person must show integrity, reliability and honesty. these characteristics affected the relationship between the office concerned and the public. it was concluded that honesty, integrity and reliability of the person had to be interrogated to ensure that they were fit and proper to fill the office. it is important to note, as bazana asserts, that these features (honesty, integrity and reliability) can best be attained with some form of carefully constructed competency-based behavioural assessment methods, for example, assessment centres (bazana, 2016). such would require careful studying of the previous incumbent’s functions where they had to use the three qualities of honesty, integrity and reliability. the minutes stated that the committee would be ‘called upon to objectively make a value judgment on whether a person was fit and proper to be the public protector’. it was important to note that the value judgement would not be a ‘subjective’ one, but rather an ‘objective’ one. it required a consideration of the person’s qualifications and whether that person could perform his or her functions without fear, favour or prejudice. it is also interesting to note that there seems to be no further discussion regarding ‘fear, favour and prejudice’ and this would speak to the importance of competency-based assessments that were highlighted by bazana (2016). the final appointment of the pp rested with the president. the committee, through interviews, had the obligation to screen individuals who would be recommended for appointment, based on whether they were honest, had integrity, were reliable and were fit and proper to occupy the office of the pp. it is interesting to note that the committee did not draw up a guideline to follow regarding how they would measure honesty, integrity and reliability. bazana (2016) succinctly captures the essence of the critique by stating that (bazana, 2016): the public protector is required to be ‘fit and proper’. that means that he or she must be honest, have integrity and be reliable. a proper job analysis would provide a more specific and detailed account of these key behavioural competencies. because the current process relies on interviews, it opens the door for personal judgement and biases. interview questions are not informed by a proper job analysis exercise. (para 6) this is why it would be important to look at the previous incumbent and her staff because as bazana (2016) puts it: madonsela has provided a benchmark in terms of the required properties, characteristics and attributes to seek in her successor. her courage and integrity brought prestige to the office and made it one of south africa’s most trusted public governance institutions. the next meeting for the pp was held on the 22nd june, and this is where they updated the media regarding where they were with the process and what steps they would take to include the public in the process of recommending someone to be the next pp. the public was then urged to make nominations before the 24th june (parliamentary monitoring group). the next meeting that took place was on the 28th june, and this is where the committee looked at 59 cvs of the candidates that were nominated. the minutes state that the candidates’ cvs will be made available to the public, and it is interesting to note that they encourage the public to scrutinise the candidates’ names. the candidates were not informed that their cvs would be made public and commenting on names and not qualifications suggest that there are judgements made that are not in line with recruitment and selection. according to hct mentioned above, a person’s name would not result in an objective judgement and a person’s name would not dictate whether he or she would be capable of completing the tasks. according to the parliamentary monitoring group, the candidates would receive a questionnaire that they would have to complete and send to the committee. the information obtained would be used as supplementary information that would help the committee with shortlisting and interviewing. it is very important to note that the information on the questionnaire was not discussed and that there were no clear competencies that were communicated during the meeting. this means that there is no indication of how this questionnaire came about and who created it and how valid or fair it is. gamage (2014) states that the shortlisting of a candidate needs to follow clear guidelines which need to be properly justified. there are no clear guidelines regarding the questionnaire which questions the professionality, reliability and validity of the method used to shortlist. the next meeting was held on the 13th july, and this is where the committee shortlisted the candidates for interviews. the committee gave the names of the 14 shortlisted candidates’ names, and the chairperson said that the comments made by the public assisted the committee in making an informed decision. the committee indicated that the criteria for shortlisting came from the constitution and the public protector act. the qualities to be considered were grouped into four categories: character, experience, knowledge and skills. members proposed other qualities that should be considered during shortlisting such as managerial skills, understanding of the developmental state, understanding of the spheres of government and their relationship, financial management skills, leadership skills and hr skills. these proposed qualities seemed to be based on their personal understanding of the job and thus questions how reliable and valid they are. the committee did not justify these four categories, and the point that was made above regarding biases can be applied to this context. as bazana (2016) argues that personal judgements leave the door open for biases. the committee did not take into account ‘experts’ or previous incumbents of the office when deciding these categories. according to the job analysis process, the information-gathering stage is vital (nelson, 1994). there is therefore a bias here to take the view of politicians only without any questioning, which again undermines all the ‘rules’ that apply in a fair process of recruitment and selection. the minutes further indicate that the meeting was adjourned for 2 h to allow members who had not received all the relevant documents, including a completed questionnaire, to go through the documents appropriately. later, it adjourned again for 30 min as some members of parliament (mps) complained they had received an incomplete set of documents. it is highlighted again that the questionnaire information was not disclosed, and the committee did not explicitly discuss what competencies or information they were looking for within the questionnaire. the committee did not seem to have the documents printed out and distributed to the members in time, and as a result there was a lot of confusion regarding the correct documentation being circulated. one of the members suggested that proceeding with the shortlisting without the questionnaires and without a proper consideration of the public comments made on the nominees might result in a disservice to the entire appointment process. the criterion for shortlisting was that of section 1 of the public protector act. it was duly noted that the meeting was disorganised and that all members did not have the same information and documentation that was needed to shortlist the candidates. as for shortlisting procedure, no formal guidelines had been put in place and used in previous processes. the committee, therefore, had to come up with its own guidelines to be used for the shortlisting process. this would mean that every 7 years, the process will change to cater to the subjective ‘feelings’ and thoughts of the incumbent ad-hoc committee at the time. bazana states that this cannot be accepted as it opens up room for malpractice and poor judgement because of the subjective nature of the ‘assessors’ decisions. a prescriptive model which follows a professional process would help eliminate subjectivity and unqualified decisions. this highlights that the committee as well as the constitution and public protector act did not provide enough information regarding the actual process of the recruitment of the pp. it is thus clear that the committee had to come up with guidelines for the process. from the meetings and discussions, it is evident that the members all had different definitions of the four characteristics they were looking for. corruption watch issued a letter to the committee stating that they wanted the process properly documented as it would promote transparency, and in an effort to comply with the requests the minutes as well as video and audio files were uploaded onto the parliamentary monitoring group page. the minutes and recordings revealed that the interview process of each candidate was different because there were no standardised questions. the committee decided that (bazana, 2016): [t]he most commonly asked questions aimed at establishing the candidates’ notions regarding their fitness and propriety to fill the post. they were also asked what their response would be to an allegation of financial impropriety by a member of the national legislative arm of government. (para 4) this is highly problematic as there were no standardised questions, and this allowed members of the committee to ask irrelevant and personal questions that have nothing to do with the job requirements. candidates were being judged based on their personal beliefs and not their ability to do the job. one of the committee members asked the candidate judge desai ‘if he had initially denied the allegation of any sexual intercourse on his part, but had later stated in his defence that it had been consensual sexual intercourse’. the committee then reported that ‘he had no control over his tongue and temper’. this question was highly unprofessional considering that the committee member knew the facts and outcomes of this case and it had no relevance to the job at hand (parliamentary monitoring group, 2016). the interviews did not follow the times stipulated and candidates spent more than 20 h because the committee insisted that all interviews have to take place on the same day. apart from the procedural flaws mentioned above regarding the interviews, bazana (2016) also states that ‘mere interview process is inadequate if the aim is to identify behavioural characteristics like integrity, honesty and reliability’. there were 14 candidates that were interviewed and (parliamentary monitoring group, 2016) (maqhina, 2020): [m]embers considered each candidate – with some there was serious discussion on whether the candidate should remain in the running while for others there was little or no discussion but unanimous consensus that the candidate should be eliminated. (para 8) this indicates that there was no standardisation and objectivity as the members made personal judgements on whom they thought was suitable for the position. the committee met again and (parliamentary monitoring group, 2016) (maqhina, 2020): [r]ecommended adv busisiwe mkhwebane as the preferred candidate to the national assembly when it tabled its reports on 31 august 2016. all committee members, apart from the da, reached consensus agreement on the name of adv mkhwebane. (para 8) this process was highly subjective as members spoke of their personal encounters and perceptions regarding the candidate and the interview. mkhwebane was then appointed as the new pp by president jacob zuma, despite the concerns of the eff stating that her recommendation was received from the president’s cabinet. this can be viewed as highly problematic because the president is given the power to make the ultimate decision which could be biased and from recent reports mkhwebane has been accused of ‘siding with state captors and failing to “protect the public” from corrupt officials’ (head, 2018). this process lacked professionalism in their approach to questions and process, and this is reflected throughout the minutes of the meetings and members who complained that the process was ‘informal and used harsh wording’. bazana (2016) highlighted the importance of a competency-based assessment. this is because it is grounded in the job specification and description. he further argues that it eliminates biases and subjectivity. bazana raises the point that competency-based assessments are also the basis on which interviews are conducted. the committee that could have used good interview questions would be aimed at identifying a ‘fit and proper’ candidate by interrogating their character. the basis of competency-based assessment is that it directly measures skills and abilities specifically relating to, in this case, the job of a pp (bazana, 2016). competency-based assessment is highly valuable because it relates directly to the job, rather than assessing broader behavioural and past events that are not related to the job (bazana, 2016). he further argues that the interviews conducted by the ad-hoc committee were disrespectful and demeaning of some candidates’ characters and professional statures. some were subjected to unwarranted personal attacks. and some were subjected to inquisitions about their ideological positions with no relevance to the requirements of the job. conclusion and recommendations according to the information discussed, it is evident that the recruitment and selection process is flawed as bazana (2016) stated and as a result: [t]hese problems could be addressed if a more competency based assessment selection method was used. a more professional approach would be appropriate since the key post should be occupied by an apolitical, professional person. he or she is not an elected political office bearer. (maqhina, 2020, para 8) this research paper recommends that the process of recruitment and selection be rooted in the professional practices, and this can be achieved by conducting a competency-based assessment as bazana (2016) suggested. competency-based assessments aim to assess the individuals’ ability to complete the job and thus negates room for bias and subjective preferences. the process could have been done differently had the committee consulted with an independent specialist who could have helped them create an assessment battery that was suitable for the position. this would have helped the process run efficiently, and there would be no confusion regarding what is happening. the committee members could have been trained or briefed regarding how the assessment battery would be used, and thus no one would question the validity of the outcome. bazana (2016) stated that: [t]he recruitment of the country’s public protector would be done better if scientific recruitment methods were followed. parliament would do well to involve recruitment professionals to ensure that its choice of a suitable candidate is both professional and fair. (maqhina, 2020, para 8) this statement succinctly summarises and suggests how the process could have been carried out. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have no financial or personal interests in writing this article. authors’ contributions s.b. conceptualised the study, developed and collected the literature used in this study, and supervised the writing of the article. s.b. edited the article. t.r. is an honours student who worked in this project and wrote of the article under s.b.’s supervision. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. ethical consideration this research project had to be cleared by the rhodes university ethics committee. there were no ethical concerns because the pp and the ad-hoc committee falls part of government institutions that aim to maintain transparency. the constitution, public protector act and parliamentary minutes were all made available to the public. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references anderson, n., lievens, f., van dam, k., & ryan, a.m. (2004). future perspectives on employee selection: key directions for future research and practice. applied psychology: an international review, 53(4), 487–501. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2004.00183.x bazana, s. (2016). south africa should use a more scientific approach to appoint its public protector. the conversations-africa. retrieved from https://theconversation.com/south-africa-should-use-a-more-scientific-approach-to-appoint-its-public-protector-64077 beardwell, j., & claydon, t. (2007). human resource management: a contemporary approach. (5th edn.) harlow: ft/prentice hall. berger, p., & luckmann, t. (1991). the social construction of reality. london: penguin books. bishop, m., & woolman, s. (2014). public protector. in s. woolman & m. bishop (eds.), constitutional law of south africa (2nd edn., ch 24a). cape town: juta. blustein, d.l., schultheiss, d.e.p., & flum, h. (2004). toward a relational perspective of the psychology of careers and working: a social constructionist analysis. journal of vocational behavior, 64(3), 423–440. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2003.12.008 boon, c., eckardt, r., lepak, d.p., & boselie, p. (2018). integrating strategic human capital and strategic human resource management. the international journal of human resource management, 29, 34–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1380063 boudreau, j.w., & ramstad, p.m. (2005). talentship and the new paradigm for human resource management: from professional practices to strategic talent decision science. people and strategy, 28(2), 17. bowen, g. (2009). document analysis as a qualitative research method. qualitative research journal, 9(2), 27–40. https://doi.org/10.3316/qrj0902027 bratton, j., & gold, j. (2007). human resource management (4th edn.). new york: palgrave macmillan. braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology, qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa burr, v. (2003). social constructionism (2nd edn.). london: routledge. cascio, w.f., & aguinis, h. (2008). staffing twenty-first-century organizations. academy of management annals, 2(1), 133–165. https://doi.org/10.5465/19416520802211461 cober, r.t., & brown, d.j. (2006). direct employers association recruiting trends survey. washington, dc: booz, allen, & hamilton. corruption watch. (2018). sa’s public protectors – the legacies, part two – corruption watch. retrieved from https://www.corruptionwatch.org.za/sas-public-protectors-the-legacies-part-two/ creswell, j.w. (1998). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five traditions. thousand oaks, ca: sage. de cooman, r., vantilborgh, t., bal, m., & lub, x. (2016). creating inclusive teams through perceptions of supplementary and complementary person–team fit: examining the relationship between person–team fit and team effectiveness. group & organization management, 41(3), 310–342. de vos, p. (2019, july 23). now that the concourt has found the public protector both dishonest and incompetent, will parliament axe her? daily maverick. de vos, p., & freedman, w. (eds). (2013). south african constitutional law in context. cape town: oxford university press. ekwoaba, j.o., ikeje, u.u., & ufoma, n. (2015). the impact of recruitment and selection criteria on organisational performance. european centre for research and development, 3(2), 22–32. el-kot, g., & leat, m. (2008). a survey of recruitment and selection practices in egypt. contemporary middle eastern issues. fine, s.a., & getkate, m. (1995). benchmark tasks for job analysis: a guide for functional job analysis (fja) scales. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. gamage, a.s. (2014). recruitment and selection practices in manufacturing smes in japan: an analysis of the link with business performance. ruhuna journal of management and finance, 1(1), 37–52. https://doi.org/10.4038/suslj.v13i1.7668 gerber, j. (2020, january 24). public protector removal: speaker thandi modise approves motion to begin proceedings. news24. retrieved from https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/public-protector-removal-speaker-thandi-modise-approves-motion-to-begin-proceedings-20200124 golafshani, n. (2003). understanding reliability and validity in qualitative research. the qualitative report, 8(4), 597–606. grobler, p.a., warnick, s., carrel, m.r., elbert, n.f., & hartfierd, r.d. (2006). human resource management in south africa (2nd edn.). london: cornwall institute of management. head, t. (2018). who is busisiwe mkhwebane, south africa’s public protector? retrieved from https://www.thesouthafrican.com/who-is-busisiwe-mkhwebane/ joppe, m. (2000). the research process. retrieved from http://www.ryerson.ca/~mjoppe/rp.htm joseph, s.j. (1977). adam smith on human capital. american economic review: papers and proceedings, 67(1): 32–36. kristof-brown, a.l., jansen, k.j., & colbert, a.e. (2002). a policy-capturing study of the simultaneous effects of fit with jobs, groups, and organizations. journal of applied psychology, 87(5), 985–993. http://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.5.985 lepak, d.p., & snell, s.a. (1999). the human resource architecture: toward a theory of human capital allocation and development. academy of management review, 24(1), 31–48. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1999.1580439 louw, g. (2013). exploring recruitment and selection trends in the eastern cape. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #319, 10 pages. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.319 madia, s.a. (2011). best practices for using social media as a recruitment strategy. strategic hr review, 10, 19–24. makinana, a. (2018). renewed calls for public protector mkhwebane to be removed from office. city press. retrieved from https://www.news24.com/southafrica/news/public-protector-must-fall-20180217 maqhina, m. (2020, february 23). ‘more colleagues to speak out’ against public protector busisiwe mkhwebane. iol news. johannesburg. retrieved from https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/more-colleagues-to-speak-out-against-public-protector-busisiwe-mkhwebane-43272000 masibigiri, v., & nienaber, h. (2011). factors affecting the retention of generation x public servants: an exploratory study. sa journal of human resource management, 9(1), art. #318, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.318 mbiada, c. (2017). the public protector as a mechanism of political accountability: the extent of its contribution to the realization of the right to access adequate housing in south africa. potchefstroom electronic law journal, 20, 1–34. https://doi.org/10.17159/1727-3781/2017/v20i0a1382 mercurio, z.a. (2015). affective commitment as a core essence of organizational commitment: an integrative literature review. human resource development review, 14(4), 389–414. mondy, r.w. (2010). human resource management (11th edn.). prentice-hall: upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. nelson, j.b. (1997). the boundaryless organization: implications for job analysis, recruitment, and selection. people and strategy, 20(4), 39. o’leary, z. (2014). the essential guide to doing your research project (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. parliamentary monitoring group. (2016). interviews for public protector position | pmg. retrieved from https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/23063/ pienaar, g. (2000). the role of the public protector in fighting corruption. african security studies, 9(2), 52–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/10246029.2000.9627920pillay, k., & ramela, n. (2016). the highlights and lowlights of being public protector. city press. retrieved from https://city-press.news24.com/news/the-highlights-and-lowlights-of-being-public-protector-20160414 pollit, p. (2005). testing graduates at lloyds tsb: how banks select the people who will lead it into the future? human resource management international digest, 13(1), 12–14. http://doi.org/10.1108/09670730510576347 republic of south africa (rsa). (1996). constitution of the republic of south africa. pretoria: government printers. south african history online. (2019). the history of the bill of rights. retrieved from https://www.saha.org.za/billofrights/the_birth_of_the_bill_of_rights.htm south african legal information centre. (2019). public protector v south african reserve bank (cct107/18) [2019] zacc 29; 2019 (9) bclr 1113 (cc); 2019 (6) sa 253 (cc), retrieved 22 july 2019, from http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/zacc/2019/29.html southern african legal information centre. (2015). south african broadcasting corporation soc ltd and others v democratic alliance and others (393/2015) [2015] zasca 156; [2015] 4 all sa 719 (sca); 2016 (2) sa 522 (sca) retrieved 8 october 2015, from http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/zasca/2015/156.html tong, d., & sivanand, c. (2005). e-recruitment service providers review: international and malaysian. employee relations, 27(1), 103–117.http://doi.org/10.1108/01425450510569337 tongco, m.d.c. (2007). purposive sampling as a tool for informant selection. ethnobotany research and applications, 5, 147–158. https://doi.org/10.17348/era.5.0.147–158 willig, c. (2013). introducing qualitative research in psychology (3rd edn.). oxford: oxford university press. zottoli, m.a., & wanous, j.p. (2000). recruitment source research: current status and future directions. human resource management review, 10(4), 353–382. abstract introduction literature review research design research method findings discussion practical implications limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) selma n. shingenge department of management, southern business school, johannesburg, south africa musawenkosi d. saurombe department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation shingenge, s.n., & saurombe, m.d. (2022). leadership mindset regarding talent management practices: a case study of the city of windhoek council. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1730. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1730 original research leadership mindset regarding talent management practices: a case study of the city of windhoek council selma n. shingenge, musawenkosi d. saurombe received: 16 july 2021; accepted: 07 dec. 2021; published: 25 feb. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: municipalities are facing significant challenges in attracting talented personnel because of poor talent management practices. research purpose: the main objective of this research was to determine how effective the leadership mindset is regarding talent management in windhoek city council in namibia. motivation for the study: limited research currently exists on the outlook that leaders have in municipalities regarding talent management practices. research approach, design and method: a qualitative approach was adopted for this study; semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain data. the participants were six top staff members from human resource division in the city of windhoek council in namibia. in addition, data were analysed through content-thematic analysis. main findings: the findings of this study showed that effective talent management practices are crucial for an organisation to attract and retain skilled and experienced workers to reach a sustainable competitive advantage. the study revealed specific elements that constitute sound leadership mindset regarding talent management. these were talent management practices, leadership mind-set, recruitment strategy/talent acquisition and talent retention strategy. practical/managerial implications: if individuals’ talents are not harnessed because of poor leadership and a lack of sound mindset and commitment to talent, this will negatively affect talent management in organisations. thus, the findings of the study challenge the government to formalise the draft talent management policy at municipalities to help municipalities remain competitive through attracting, developing, retaining and rewarding talented employees. contribution/value-addition: the study provides important insights that could assist the city of windhoek council and the government at large to attract talented personnel and become an employer of choice. keywords: leadership mind-set; talent recruitment strategy; talent acquisition; talent management practices; talent retention strategy. introduction orientation the talent management mandate is to source, keep, enhance and reward people whilst ensuring that they perform the tasks allotted to them. barkhuizen and gumede (2021) state that talent management is a strategic process that is pivotal in ensuring the sustainability and success of an organisation. nguwi (2015) suggests that regardless of the money invested into a business, some of these organisations still do not perform. the blame is usually shifted on the economic environment, whilst the actual reason is the absence of employees with the right skills and talent, which is a requirement for the success of any given organisation. several researchers have found that applying talent management practices is still a major challenge for organisations in the public sector. a study conducted by spreitzer, cameron and garrett (2017) indicated that individuals leave employment in local government organisations for greater career enhancement opportunities elsewhere. in addition, a study conducted by saurombe and barkhuizen (in press) found that talent management practices, for example, talent development, workforce planning, strategies for employee retention, were being poorly applied amongst supporting staff in a public institution in south africa and consequently had a negative effect on their service orientation and work engagement. in a local municipality study conducted by mabope (2018), it was found that most of its managers are not competent in human resource aspects, for example, recruitment and selection, compensation, organisational development, performance management and safety and wellness. horton (2016) asserts that talent management is considered as being centred on the use of top-level human capital planning tools to create organisational competencies and to make sure that the business has skilled and experienced workers needed to reach a sustainable competitive advantage. if the staff are not developed, they may end up leaving in search of development at other organisations. adzido, dzogbede, kamasah and dzineku (2015) noted that investing in the development of staff has the advantage of benefitting not only talented staff but also the entire organisational workforce. saurombe, barkhuizen and schutte (2017) posited that the initial idea regarding talent mindset was concerned with the extent of accountability that a leader is willing to accept within the organisation, concerning talent management. an effective leader accepts that if others fail, it will also reflect on them, and thus, they take the initiative to understand and contribute towards the performance and functioning of the organisation. the mindset of an individual is so important given that it governs how they interpret and think about situations, their reactions emotionally, the decisions they make and actions that are taken. the mindset of individuals directly has an impact on their relationships, their subsequent interactions and how they lead. it also sets the direction for the business and determines the type of experience the workers have in their place of work. research purpose and objectives the primary aim of the study was to determine how effective the leadership mindset is regarding talent management at the city of windhoek council in namibia. the study further aimed to: to determine the importance of effective talent management in the windhoek city council in namibia. to determine the importance of a leadership mindset regarding talent management in local authorities. to determine the effectiveness of the current recruitment strategy of the windhoek city council in namibia. to determine the effectiveness of the current talent retention strategy of the windhoek city council in namibia. research questions the main question this research sought to answer was: how effective is the leadership mindset regarding talent management at the city of windhoek council in namibia? the main research questions were: what is the importance of effective talent management at the windhoek city council in namibia? what is the importance of sound leadership mindset regarding talent management in local authorities? what is the effectiveness of the current recruitment strategy of the windhoek city council in namibia? what is the effectiveness of the current talent retention strategy of the windhoek city council in namibia? literature review the background of the city of windhoek council according to hanns seidel foundation (2018), the city of windhoek council is a government entity that is governed by the local authorities act. it, thus, forms part of the government sphere, based in the khomas region. the city of windhoek council is co-operatively run by administrative and political authorities. these leaders have an overall mandate to provide services to the citizens. local authorities have the fiduciary duty and power to make regulations on a wide range of issues (bwowe, 2015). some of the services that the municipality provides are roads, water supply, electricity, the removal and disposal of refuse to the community as well as human settlements that were established formally as residential areas that consist of neighbourhoods where the local authority has laid out streets and divided the land into plots that are made available for purchase (bwowe, 2015). when any local authority is not able to carry out its mandate, the central government may take steps to solve the problem (hanns seidel foundation, 2018). the windhoek report implies that 40% of the city’s population is unemployed, because of a lack of skills and aggravated by the lack of higher institutions emanating from the colonial era. to provide quality services to the community requires committed and talented people (masale, barkhuizen, & schutte, 2021). the findings of this research can, thus, be useful to the municipality of windhoek. talent management practices in local authorities the process of talent management covers all the important aspects of an employee’s life cycle, which are recruitment and selection, enhancing their knowledge by providing appropriate training, performance management and succession planning for the future (sareen & mishra, 2016). top management and the hr managers have always focused on basic talent management but to reach the desired levels of success; they require committed, engaged and high-performing employees (saurombe et al., 2017). talent management helps to discover the strengths and weaknesses of their employees. talent management recognises both people who excel at a particular activity and enables them to put more effort towards their work that then improves their capabilities and helps them focus on meeting the organisational goals (barkhuizen & gumede, 2021). thus, talent management contributes to the effective management of the local authorities in namibia. saurombe and barkhuizen (in press) opined that to grow fast and to achieve high performance, all the organisations need to incorporate effective talent management strategies. they also showed that the companies that consider talent management as a strategic activity will achieve greater success levels and will also be able to sustain them in the long run. the study also concluded that talent management is not merely an initiative of the human resource department, but it is an integral part of the overall development of the organisation. according to nguwi (2015), the organisation needs to put in place talent management mechanisms to get maximum output from employees because the success of the organisation depends on the performance of employees and is directly related to the quality of the workforce and the service that the organisation provides. the masvingo city council in zimbabwe is responsible for the provision of water, waste management, maintenance of council infrastructure and town planning, amongst other services, to the masvingo residents. if these services are not up to standard, there will be a huge outcry from community members (mahlahla, 2018). the study focused on the local authority’s employees, how effective talent management could influence their ability to provide efficient service delivery, as well as retain valued employees. namibian local authorities have the power to make local regulations on a wide variety of matters. all local authorities must supply water, sewerage and refuse disposal services to communities, formally established as residential areas, including neighbourhoods where the local authority has laid out streets and divided the land into plots available for purchase (mabope, 2018). aina and atan (2020) stated that the organisations that have talent management practices in place have enhanced performance and productivity, and to achieve this, they need to develop a high performing workforce to fill the top positions. talent management practices are to be taken into consideration in a local authority for career planning and effective workforce. proper measures should be taken to implement the best talent management practices in the industry, which will help the organisation to gain a competitive edge over the competitors and will help the company to always stay ahead in the market (aina & atan, 2020). importance of effective management in local authorities for organisational leaders to effectively manage talent within the organisation, they need to acknowledge the critical role that talent plays towards the overall effectiveness of the organisation (saurombe et al., 2017). management needs to carry out their roles of planning, leading organising and controlling well so that they can manage talent effectively (barkhuizen & gumede, 2021). therefore, effective management is needed to help the city of windhoek council to identify and retain talent who will be able to fulfil the municipality’s administrative mandate of supplying goods and rendering quality services to citizens. thus, the study considers that effective management is important in the local authorities. talent management recruitment strategies saurombe et al. (2017) describe talent acquisition as discovering the appropriate talent when it is required and ensuring a consistent applicant experience throughout the process of attraction, recruitment, appointment and induction. the extent to which an organisation is effective largely depends on the effectiveness of the organisation’s employees. the underlying idea behind talent management holds that the right employee should be recruited for the right job. maheshwari and haque (2020) identified the importance of competency-based recruitment practices. the previous study argued that attraction and selection of talent require a flexible and well-designed competency-based recruitment system for various sections of workforce. the competency-based recruitment system is the starting point towards the management of talent in any organisation. once the recruitment system in any organisation is streamlined, the second phase of talent management would be proper training and development of employees. talent management is a useful tool when it describes an organisation’s commitment to hire, manage, develop and retain talented employees. it comprises all the work process and systems that relate to retaining and developing a superior workforce (barkhuizen & gumede, 2021). corroboratively, jackson and schuler (2017) viewed talent management as the job of ensuring the right person is in the right job at the right time. when hiring, managers need to have a set list of skills and qualifications they are looking for. anyone who fulfils them should be granted an interview, no matter what is his or her age. talent management of employees will start with the selection process. therefore, it is important to appoint the right person in the right job. in this process, career development strategies for different generations in the workplace need to be considered (horton, 2016). organisations need to understand how their employees will behave in future and get them to behave differently from the past to get better results. the greater the efforts that organisations put into recruiting employees, the greater the likelihood of retaining those employees (saurombe et al., 2017). the goal of talent management practices or programs implemented by the company must be to get the right people for the right jobs to make the company successful (sareen & mishra, 2016); however, this goal is not as easy to achieve as it sounds. talent management retention strategies according to chilvers et al. (2019), retention strategies are policies and plans that organisations follow to satisfy the diverse needs of employees and create an environment that encourages people to stay in the organisation. talent management is a human resource doctrine that holds that the employee is not merely a means to achieve organisational objectives but an organisational asset, hence the term human capital. as such, organisations are moving away from the traditional methods of managing their human capital, and in contemporary times, organisations look more intently at ways of retaining their human capital. it should be noted that the money spent on developing human capital is, at times, significant and the loss of an employee would translate to a loss of money and no return on investment (aina & atan, 2020). employees want to feel that their abilities are utilised and valued. jackson and schuler (2017) stated that placing employees in talent-fulfilling positions benefits both employees and employers. employees who feel valued at work achieve greater productivity than those who feel like their talent is being wasted (sareen & mishra, 2016). the retaining of critical employees that are productive is a big challenge for both domestic and international institutions given that the disturbance created by the replacement of individuals who will voluntarily exit the institution is costly for the business indirectly and directly (schlechter, syce, & bussin, 2016). individuals generate value using the organisation’s resources. this means that the more effective the individuals become, the better the chance of the organisation performing. unfortunately, if individuals’ talents are not harnessed because of poor leadership and a lack of sound mindset and commitment to talent, this will negatively affect talent management in organisations. this statement has been confirmed in a study by saurombe et al. (2017), who reported that many executives do not have ample time to strengthen talent pools and are also not trained on how to develop and nurture talent. many organisations have now come to the realisation that the growth of the organisation and its subsequent effectiveness depend on programs aimed at career development, which ensures that the needed talent and skill sets are present and applicable in the job market (schlechter et al., 2016). similarly, sareen and mishra (2016) found out that the easiest way to ensure employees feel respected is to make sure managers regularly talk with them about their jobs and enquiring what the company could do to help them achieve the goals. they felt that talent management processes that maintain accountability improve workforce productivity. they align employee behaviours with business goals by creating connections between what people do on the job and what they receive from the company. companies can take advantage of this basic truth by ensuring that people see clear connections between what they do on the job and the rewards they receive from the company. this requires establishing, communicating and following processes that directly link employee performance to pay, job opportunities, promotions and other employment decisions (masale et al., 2021). maintaining accountability also increases employee commitment towards the company by creating an organisational culture that is perceived to be fairer and more equitable (masale et al., 2021). top management at the city of windhoek council should ensure that the retention strategies adopt the commitment-based approach. the essence of the commitment-based approach is to draw out employee commitment, which in turn will produce both better organisational performance and greater human development. chilvers et al. (2019) highlighted the importance of talent retention by saying that effective talent management and retention is a continuation process, and it must be the part of the organisational culture. this study, therefore, sought to determine how best talent can be retained, despite the development process that may render this talent more attractive to other competing organisations. research design research approach this research used the phenomenological and case study research paradigms to explore the perceptions as well as the relationship between leadership mindset and talent management practices in the city of windhoek council. phenomenological research is a qualitative approach wherein the views of a few participants on a specific phenomenon are collected to better understand these participants’ perceptions of a particular phenomenon (bryman & bell, 2017). this study also used a case study approach to effectively address the phenomenon under investigation at the city of windhoek council in namibia. sutton and austin (2015) explain that case studies are useful when ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions are posed. the study explored and gained deeper understanding about how effective the current leadership mindset regarding talent management is at the city of windhoek council in namibia. a case study strategy was deemed most appropriate as the researchers aimed to investigate a contemporary phenomenon in the real-life context (bryman & bell, 2017). research strategy the researchers applied for ethical clearance that was granted by the university (southern business school). the main researcher emailed a letter asking for permission to collect data at the city of windhoek council. the letter explained the area of investigation, data collection method, ethical considerations, as well as the participants to be interviewed. before the interview, the participants were informed that the information will be used for research purposes only and will, therefore, be confidential. only those who agreed to participate in the study were selected. participant’s real names were not used. only the pseudo names participants 1 up to 6. research method research setting interviews took place in windhoek, where the main researcher travelled to interview six human resource personnel at the city of windhoek council premises. the interviews were administered one-on-one and face-to-face in the comfort of the participants’ work/office environments. the interviews were all conducted in english. entrée and establishing researcher roles the main author/researcher wrote up the literature and conducted the data collection of this study, whilst the second author/researcher analysed the data and discussed the findings according to emerging themes. permission was requested from the city council human resource manager in windhoek to conduct the interviews. after permission was granted, the researchers reached out to the prospective participants and scheduled an interview with each of them, according to availability and willingness. research participants and sampling methods this study used non-probability sampling and sutton and austin (2015) state that in this method, the chance of selecting population elements to include in a sample is unknown. this research used purposive sampling to select six participants from the human resources department at the city of windhoek council, which conformed to the qualitative sample size recommendations by braun and clarke (2021a), and further considered the study by guest, bunce and johnson (2006), which found that 94% of most prominent or frequent codes emerge in the first six interviews and 97% by 12 interviews, thus implying sufficiency of the sample size to ensure valid findings, and arguably alluding to data saturation. purposive sampling has an advantage in that the researcher will be able to purposefully select knowledgeable staff to give detailed information about talent management. the inclusion criteria for this study were human resource managers at the city of windhoek council, between the ages of 18 and 65 years, with a minimum of 5 years of work experience. the work experience was critical in ensuring more pertinent contributions regarding talent management perspectives. data collection methods there are many ways of collecting data, and they depend on the purpose and aim of the study. qualitative data collection methods differ in that they consist of semi-structured or unstructured techniques. some methods include focus groups (group discussions), individual interviews and participation/observations (korstjens & moser, 2018). in addition, brewerton and millward (2018) stated that primary data are personally collected by the individual conducting the research using tools such as questionnaires, experiments, interviews and observation. the researchers used an interview guide that provided a list of questions to solicit answers from participants. all questions were open ended and designed in such a way to explore the perceptions of participants on the matter of talent management. the researchers, therefore, drafted the questions in line with the research objectives. the following questions were asked during the interviews: how do you generally view talent management practices in your organisation? to what extent are municipal leaders aware, understand and apply talent management practices to attract and retain employees in the organisation? what do you think is the importance of effective talent management in your organisation? what do you think have been the challenges of leaders in applying talent management practices? what do you think is the importance of leadership in improving talent management in local authorities? what can a municipality do to attract the best employees through effective talent management practices? how will better talent management help to ensure better recruitment practices in your organisation? in your opinion, how effective is the current talent retention strategy in your organisation? in your opinion, how best can talent in your organisation be retained so that they do not leave for other organisations? data recording the interviews were recorded using a smart phone, voice recorder and transcribed immediately using microsoft word software. data were transcribed verbatim (word for word) and saved on the computer as well as on secondary storage specifically the external hard drive, which were stored safely so that the quality of the data is not compromised. the main researcher wrote additional information in the notebook about what was being discussed to have additional backup in case of the computer or external hard drive getting corrupted or lost. strategies employed to ensure data quality and integrity ensuring the integrity of the research data is very important for promoting the quality of the study. to check the validity and reliability of the interview guide, the main researcher conducted a pilot study by interviewing one participant before conducting the final research. this was done to check any mistakes or inconsistencies in the interview guide. the researchers further employed the following strategies to ensure the quality and rigour of the data in this research (hadi & closs, 2015): triangulation: the researchers discussed the generated codes and themes with other researchers to ensure credibility and conformability. self-reflection: the researchers clearly stipulated their role in terms of the study and were careful of any bias that could have emanated from personal or subjective viewpoints. peer-debriefing: the researchers consulted with two other researchers who were not directly involved in the study, to promote reliability and validity. extensive description: the researchers provided extensive descriptions of the research setting, sample traits, including the data gathering and analysis techniques in this study. data analysis the purpose of data analysis is to organise, provide structure to and elicit meaning from research data. the study followed the thematic analysis explained by bengtsson (2016), to record interviews, transcribe, read and review transcriptions thoroughly. according to braun and clarke (2021a), thematic analysis has six stages: familiarisation with the data, coding, generating initial themes, reviewing themes, defining themes and writing up the narrative or dissertation. after transcription, the researcher read and reviewed the transcribed notes to generate codes that would be of interest to the study. similar responses were coded and for the sake of maintaining anonymity and confidentiality, the participants’ names and titles were not used but rather participants were coded as participants 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. after coding, the researcher searched for and identified themes that could be relevant for the information transcribed. these themes were identified through the questions asked during the interview process. similar information given by participants was grouped together, and the researcher had to make sure that themes are selected according to the general patterns identified in the data provided. reporting style the various themes and sub-themes that emanated from the study were delineated in the findings section of this research and were narrated and substantiated along the lines of the existing literature, where some findings were seen to be corroboratory to previous research, whilst others were contradictory, and in some cases, novel. findings four themes emerged from the thematic content analysis that was done on the semi-structured interview responses, conducted at the city of windhoek council premises. these are talent management practices, leadership mind-set, recruitment strategy/talent acquisition and talent retention strategy. theme 1: talent management practices during the interviews that took place at the city of windhoek council premises, all participants agreed unanimously that there is no formalised or approved talent management policy or framework. however, they revealed that there is a draft talent management strategy and framework, which was drafted by niklaas seibeb in august 2013. the draft indicated that the talent management strategy was designed to facilitate and promote the achievement of the organisational objectives through a process of identifying, attracting, nurturing and retaining talent across the entire organisation. in addition, after being asked about the current state of talent management practices in the organisation, all participants indicated how important talent management is to the survival of the city council. participant 1 stated that: ‘[t]he council has not implemented a formal talent management programme. it is important to implement the policy and have talent management programmes that will identify talent in the organisation. it would be beneficial for the organisation to groom the talent in our organisation. these individuals can then ultimately add to the success or the achievement of our strategic goals.’ (participant 1, female, 46) participant 2 supported this view by adding the following: ‘we have a talent management framework, but i don’t know whether it is approved or not. we did not revise it, but we are practicing talent management indirectly. i attended a talent management course in july this year and i have realised how important it is. the talent management programme has to be rolled out but it should be very holistic. once the framework is formalised it is important to work with people when they enter the organisation and maintain good relations with them throughout to make sure that everything works good. each individual is different and must be developed using a holistic approach.’ (participant 2, male, 52) in support of this view, participant 3 said: ‘we have talent management policy in place in black and white, but it is not officially adopted by the council because we follow government regulations. the council cannot do anything except to wait for government approval. however, it is important to formalise the process so that the council can become more lucrative and that internal human resources processes can become easy to follow.’ (participant 3, male, 49) furthermore, participant 4 added the following: ‘we do have talent management policy but not yet approved since everything is governed by the government. we are the human resources department and somehow talent management (tm) is being practiced indirectly although it is not yet approved.’ (participant 4, male, 38) participants were also asked to explain how they view the importance of current talent management practices in the council. there were differing views on this aspect. participant 1 said: ‘talent management is important because we are operating in a competitive environment. therefore, we used talent management so that we can attract the right people with the right or critical skills.’ (participant 1, female, 46) participant 6 added: ‘our organisation needs to realise that competition for talent against the private sector is still stiff and we need to be more intentional about our talent management practices as we already have to deal with [uhm] the stereotypical notions [that government entities mostly attract ‘lazy’ people with no drive nor ambition] of prospective employees regarding government.’ (participant 6, female, 40) theme 2: leadership mindset leaders or managers can view talent management positively or negatively, and their perceptions are very important in ensuring the overall success of talent management. participant 2 shared the following view: ‘leadership is affected by their mindset or perceptions of the organisation as well as talent management processes. every organisation has its challenges, but we feel that we have a very good and strong leadership team in our hr. we also have a very strong chief executive officer (ceo) who is performance driven.’ (participant 2, male, 52) moreover, participant 3 posited that leadership plays a very important role in any organisation. it was further cited that the performance management system is also very important. they added that it is important for leaders to begin to think differently about how to manage talent including how to accommodate the young generation. the world is evolving, and thus nowadays more and more younger people are taking up critical positions. thus, every leader should be able to innovate new ways of adapting to the generational gap. both old and younger employees have different belief and value systems with regard to work and a leader should know how to cater for the needs of both groups of workers. (participant 3, male, 49) participant 6 added: ‘our leadership do[es] their best to encourage, you know, a culture of acknowledging the importance of talent management. for instance, there are programs targeted at enhancing employee skills and ensuring, uhm, ongoing learning. it helps employee keep abreast with the ever-changing requirements of their jobs, especially amid the evolving technological age.’ (participant 6, female, 40) theme 3: talent recruitment strategy in terms of recruitment, most participants highlighted that the municipality follows the government mandate on how to recruit employees. they indicated that the local authorities act is a government act and highlights how staff should be recruited. the municipality always needs skilled workers such as engineers. participant 2 shared the following: ‘there is a gap in recruitment or acquisition of talent and the council needs to work on this once the framework is formalised.’ (participant 2, male, 52) furthermore, participant 5 indicated the following: ‘talent acquisition is the process of finding and acquiring skilled human labour for organisational needs and to meet any labour requirement. i believe that our recruitment strategy is fair and transparent as we have to follow government procedures.’ (participant 5, male, 43) participant 6 also indicated: ‘over and above following or [uhm], adhering to the available legislation, i think our organisation could improve its recruitment strategy by perhaps considering best practices in the private sector. well, unfortunately it seems government entities are always lagging compared to private entities in terms of, you know, these recruitment strategies.’ (participant 6, female, 40) theme 4: talent retention strategy the participants unanimously agreed that there is no formal retention strategy, but they believe that their turnover rate is one of the lowest amongst the municipalities as well as other private organisations in namibia (less than 5% of employees recruited leave), and some employees have even worked for the organisation for more than 20 years. participants cited that some of the reasons why the turnover rate is low are because they have a very good salary in line with market rates, good working conditions, good study programmes and excellent fringe benefits such as housing allowances, car allowances, annual leave, medical aid scheme and lucrative pension schemes to name a few. participant 3 said: ‘[w]e do not have a talent retention strategy in place. but we do have one of the most competitive salary packages and benefits which allow us to have a low turnover rate. the workers who put more effort should be rewarded, promoted, or be developed so as to retain them.’ (participant 3, male, 49) moreover, to keep and develop skilled workers, the municipality is making use of in-house training as well as outside trainings. for example, participant 4 said: ‘w]e recruit final year engineering students whom we attach to senior engineers so that there is skills transfer. in this way, we also make sure that there is no skills shortage when a senior engineer resigns or leaves the organisation.’ (participant 4, male, 38) sub-theme: training and development the study unearthed the perceived significance of training and development in enhancing retention odds. participant 1 highlighted the importance of providing career development to employees: ‘[p]roviding learning and development opportunities that helps employees to achieve their long-term career goal is a talent management best practice and can increase employee satisfaction and company loyalty. hr has the opportunity to have a positive impact on nearly every point of the employee lifecycle.’ (participant 1, female, 46) participant 5 concurred and said: ‘[w]e have good benefits such as a study skills programme where the company pays for employees study. if they study something in their field of work, the company pays them 100% of the tuition fees for the study. if it is not in their field they are not refunded.’ (participant 5, male, 43) participant 3 further added the following: ‘[i]t is very rare for our workers to leave just like that. people coming to work here, stay here. a lot of people when they come here they don’t leave the organisation.’ (participant 3, male, 49) discussion outline of the findings the main objective of this research was to determine the current leadership mindset regarding talent management in the city of windhoek council in namibia. to meet this objective, the study addressed the following objectives: to determine the importance of effective talent management in the windhoek city council in namibia, to determine the importance of a leadership mindset regarding talent management in local authorities, to determine how effective the current recruitment strategy of the windhoek city council in namibia is and to determine how effective the current talent retention strategy of the windhoek city council in namibia is. when the human resources personnel were asked about their perception of talent management, they agreed that a positive mindset towards talent management is critical for the success of an enterprise. contrary to this, masale et al. (2021) discovered in their study of local government institutions that middle management does not have a good perception of how talent management practices are being applied. the previous authors stated that employees leave because of lack of commitment of executives towards talent management. in addition, the findings that emerged from the study show that there is no approved talent management policy in the city of windhoek council. there is a draft talent management framework in place, but it has not yet been approved by the government. thus, the municipality cannot use it effectively to develop and retain talent within the enterprise. this result is confirmed by several authors who concur that some municipalities are struggling to deliver quality services to communities because of lack or poor application of talent management practices (bwowe, 2015; mahlahla, 2018). the city of windhoek council does not have recruitment and retention strategies in place. a study done by namweda (2017) confirmed that if an organisation does not have these strategies in place, they will not gain a competitive advantage in recruiting and retaining the best staff members. on the positive side, it appears that the city of windhoek council has a very low turnover rate because it offers good remuneration packages as well as having career advancement plans in place. this, however, is not the case with some municipalities as bwowe (2015) and mnukwa (2016) found in their studies that high employee turnover is a talent management problem at some south african municipalities. the research project had four objectives to fulfil, which will be discussed separately below. research objective one the first research objective was to determine the importance of effective talent management in the windhoek city council in namibia. all participants interviewed agreed that talent management is vital for an organisation to achieve its goals and objectives. however, the major challenge cited was that there is only a draft talent management strategy and framework in place, and thus the city of windhoek council cannot fully utilise it as they are waiting for government to formalise it. it is presupposed that if talented employees are managed effectively, this will lead to positive outcomes for both employees and the organisation (saurombe & barkhuizen, in press). research shows that if employees are managed well, they will be greatly motivated, they will be satisfied with their jobs and they will engage effectively at the workplace (aina & atan, 2020). for the organisation, talent management enhances service orientation, performance and production of high-quality products and client satisfaction (barkhuizen & gumede, 2021). research objective two the second objective was to determine the importance of a leadership mindset regarding talent management in local authorities. it was discovered that the leadership mindset regarding talent management is crucial for the success or failure of an organisation. poor leadership and a lack of sound mindset and commitment to talent will negatively affect talent management in organisations (saurombe et al., 2017). participants highlighted that talent management is important, but they have not had an opportunity to practise it fully because it is not formalised. adzido et al. (2015) concur that many executives do not have ample time to strengthen talent pools and are also not trained on how to develop, mentor and nurture talent. furthermore, the horton (2016) study showed that if management lacks commitment towards talent management practices, there will be gaps in workforce planning, talent acquisition and development. research objective three the third objective was to determine how effective the current recruitment strategy of the windhoek city council in namibia is. unfortunately, it was also discovered that because of the non-formalisation of the talent management framework or policy at the city of windhoek council, there is, therefore, no formalised recruitment strategy except the procedures given by government according to the local authorities act. in as much as recruiting the right people with the right qualifications and talent is concerned, it seems the city of windhoek council’s human resources personnel hands are tied as they cannot be flexible in their recruitment strategies. to support the importance of having recruitment strategies, maheshwari and haque (2020) and jackson and schuler (2017) argued that attraction and selection of talent require a flexible and well-designed competency-based recruitment system for various sections of workforce. research objective four the fourth and final objective was to determine how effective the current talent retention strategy of the windhoek city council in namibia is. there is also no talent retention strategy in place. however, it was found out that there are systems in place at the city of windhoek council that ensure a low staff turnover. they have excellent fringe benefits, competitive salary and career development initiatives that make employees stay longer at the workplace (saurombe & barkhuizen, 2020). conversely, mnukwa (2016) found out that the sisonke district municipality had many talent management challenges such as failure to retain key talent and lack of career management strategies. all these challenges were connected to poor motivation strategies such as low remuneration packages, organisational commitment and employee engagement (namweda, 2017). their recommendation was for the municipality to devise strategies that would recognise efforts of employees as well as retain talented employees for longer periods. additionally, mahlahla (2018) concurred that talent management is very vital in retaining high performing employees. if talent management is not implemented effectively, it can have negative bearing that can pose a challenge on both performance and retention of employees. both retention and transference of critical skills are important in enhancing quality service delivery for the public sector (masale et al., 2021). the results of mahlahla’s (2018) study showed that employees were willing to leave the masvingo city council if they got better offers elsewhere. thus, the study recommended that retention strategies should be on a commitment basis to encourage employees to be committed and develop further as well as for the organisation to perform better. practical implications the findings of this research have important practical implications for municipalities. the city of windhoek council should realise the importance of speeding up the process of formalising the talent management framework as it might lose talented pool in the foreseeable future to other competitive organisations. business is evolving and there is a need to keep in pace with new human resource developments to develop and retain critical skills personnel who will assist in offering quality services to the community and residents at large. management of the city of windhoek council should push for formalisation and implementation of the talent management framework or policy for betterment of the organisation. limitations and recommendations because of the small sample size, the findings of this study are not generalisable to the general population, which is all municipalities in namibia. the findings of this research study are only applicable to the windhoek city council. secondly, because of time and financial constraints, the data were collected at one point in time that limits the research in terms of lacking observation/investigation over a longer period. future research should be done in other cities so that findings can be compared. in addition, employees from other departments can also be interviewed to find out their perceptions about talent management. the findings of this research can be used to develop best talent management practices such as recruitment, development and retention strategies, which can be used to enhance recruitment and retention of employees in municipalities. conclusion this research highlighted the importance of talent management practices and the importance of leadership mindset as well as importance of recruitment and retention strategies. if individuals’ talents are not harnessed because of poor leadership and a lack of sound mindset and commitment to talent, this will negatively affect talent management in organisations. thus, the findings of the study challenge the government to formalise the draft talent management policy at municipalities to help municipalities remain competitive by attracting, developing, retaining and rewarding talented employees. the findings of this research should encourage the city of windhoek municipality to engage in serious dialogue with government authorities to enhance better talent management practices within the organisation. acknowledgements the authors have no additional contributors to acknowledge. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions this article was adapted from the master’s research of s.n.s. who executed and wrote the article, whilst m.d.s. was the study leader and provided conceptualisation guidelines and editorial inputs. ethical considerations the authors obtained permission to conduct the research from the manager of organisational and human resources development at the city of windhoek council and further, ethical clearance from the southern business school’s research ethics committee to conduct the study was obtained, prior to data collection and the ethical clearance was valid during the entire duration of the data collection phase. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the original data from which the results of this article were analysed and delineated are available in the researchers’ electronic database. disclaimer the views expressed in the submitted article are the researchers’ own and not an official position of the researchers’ affiliated institution or funder. references adzido, r.y.n., dzogbede, o., kamasah, v.y., & dzineku, w.k. (2015). assessing the mutual benefits of investing in staff training and development. international journal of education and research, 3(3), 641–656. aina, r.a., & atan, t. (2020). the impact of implementing talent management practices on sustainable organizational performance. sustainability, 12, 8372. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12208372 barkhuizen, e.n., & gumede, b. (2021). the relationship between talent management, job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions of employees in a selected government institution. sa journal of human resource management, 19(0), a1396. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1396 bengtsson, m. (2016). how to plan and perform a qualitative study using content analysis. nursingplus, 2, 8–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.npls.2016.01.001 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2021a). conceptual and design thinking for thematic analysis. qualitative psychology, 8(1), 2–22. https://doi.org/10.1037/qup0000196 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2021b). to saturate or not to saturate? questioning data saturation as a useful concept for thematic analysis and sample-size rationales. qualitative research in sport, exercise and health, 13(2), 201–216. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676x.2019.1704846 brewerton, p., & millward, l. (2018). organisational research methods. london: sage. bryman, a., bell, e., hirschsohn, p., & du toit, j. (2017). research methodology business and management contexts (8th ed.). cape town: oxford university press. bwowe, p.w. (2015). crafting strategies to improve talent management in selected south african municipalities. unpublished doctoral thesis. mafikeng campus. north-west university. chilvers, r., richards, s.h., fletcher, e., aylward, a., dean, s., salisbury, c., & campbell, j. (2019). identifying policies and strategies for general practitioner retention in direct patient care in the united kingdom: a rand/ucla appropriateness method panel study. bmc family practice, 20, 130. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-019-1020-x guest, g., bunce, a., & johnson, l. (2006). how many interviews are enough? an experiment with data saturation and variability. field methods, 18(1), 59–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822x05279903 hadi, m.a., & closs, s.j. (2015). ensuring rigour and trustworthiness of qualitative research in clinical pharmacy. international journal of clinical pharmacy, 38(3), 641–646. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11096-015-0237-6 hanns seidel foundation. (2018). regional and local government: know your government. factsheet series no. 6 of 8. cape town: hanns seidel stiftung. horton, m. (2016). talent management and its links to leadership and management development. university of bristol. iosr journal of business and management, 18(12), 66–73. jackson, s.e., & schuler, r.s. (2017). human resource planning: challenges for industrial/organisational psychologists. american psychologist, 45(2), 223–239. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.45.2.223 korstjens, i., & moser, a. (2018). series: practical guidance to qualitative research. part 4: trustworthiness and publishing. european journal of general practice, 24(1), 120–124. https://doi.org/10.1080/13814788.2017.1375092 mabope, n.c. (2018). strategies and practices for effective talent management in the mangaung metropolitan municipality. unpublished master’s dissertation. central university of technology. maheshwari, n., & haque, m.m. (2020). a role of competency-based recruitment screening: a case study on indian manufacturing unit. international journal of indian culture and business management, 20(4), 467–487. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijicbm.2020.108919 mahlahla, l.t. (2018). the impact of talent management on employee performance and retention strategies: a case study of masvingo city council in zimbabwe. unpublished master thesis. durban university of technology. masale, r., barkhuizen, e.n., & schutte, n.e. (2021). exploring the determinants of an organisational talent culture for a botswanan local government institution. acta commercii, 21(1), a892. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v21i1.892 mnukwa, n. (2016). employee turnover and retention in south african municipalities: the case of sisonke district municipality. unpublished master’s dissertation. university of kwa-zulu natal. namweda, i.n. (2017). retention of employees in the department of transport in the ministry of works and transport in namibia. unpublished master’s dissertation. university of south africa. nguwi, m. (2015). zimbabwe: time to rethink employee engagement. financial gazette. all africa global media. retrieved from https://allafrica.com/stories/201505071277.html sareen, p., & mishra, s. (2016). the study of talent management and its impact on performance on organisations. noida: amity business school, university of noida. saurombe, m.d., & barkhuizen, e.n. (2020). a talent value proposition for academic staff in a south african hei. journal of global business and technology, 16(2), 85–102. saurombe, m.d., & barkhuizen, e.n. (in press). talent management practices and work-related outcomes for south african academic staff. journal of psychology in africa, 32(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2021.2002033 saurombe, m.d., barkhuizen, e.n., & schutte, n.e. (2017). determinants of a talent life cycle for academic staff in a higher education institution. international journal of business and management studies, 6(2), 279–294. http://www.universitypublications.net/ijbms/0602/pdf/p7rs296.pdf schlechter, a.f., syce, c., & bussin, m. (2016). predicting voluntary turnover in employees using demographic characteristics: a south african case study. acta commercii, 16(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v16i1.274 spreitzer, g.m., cameron, l., & garrett, l. (2017). alternative work arrangements: two images of the new world of work. annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behavior, 4, 473–499. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032516-113332 sutton, j., & austin, z. (2015). qualitative research: data collection, analysis, and management. cjhp research primer series, 68(3), 226–231. https://doi.org/10.4212/cjhp.v68i3.1456 1foba.indd it is common wisdom that technological advances in the fields of communication such as digitalization, satellite transmission, and intercontinental transport have, over the past two decades, facilitated the trend towards globalization. slabbert et al (2003:220) concur that one of the consequences of globalisation, with markets no longer limited to specific geographic regions, products no longer specific to single buying or geographic populations, and with most businesses avariciously pursuing the global market, has been an increasing demand for competitiveness within organisations. a further consequence is that organisations are faced with constraints on available resources, both human and capital, as the need for innovation, quality and competencies is amplified in endeavours for competitive advantage and compliance with customer requirements. globalisation and its consequential outcomes have had an inordinate impact on the world of work. one of the consequences has been a trend toward virtual employment where technologically complex cell phones, wireless connected laptop computers, and air travel possibilities have enabled employees to communicate and interact globally. this, in turn, facilitated the servicing of national and international customers and markets. slabbert et al (2003:2-20) support this view, pointing out that technological developments and progress over the past few years have changed the way in which work is done and organised as the world moves towards virtual offices, workers and organisations. another development flowing from globalisation is the demise of the traditional production environment and the growth of value added economic activities. this in turn has led to questions about the continued viability of the traditional basis of employment. traditionally, management consisted of instructing the employee about what work had to be done, how it had to be done and when it had to be done, but in the new world of work, innovation, creativity, proactiveness, initiative, risk taking, personal decision making, flexibility and mobility dictate success. thus, the traditional employment relationship and management style may no longer be feasible. finally, changes in work place and work method have raised questions about the continued feasibility of traditional performance measurement systems and approaches. as a result, alternatives to the traditional human characteristic or performance measure based approaches have been sought. new approaches to performance management have been suggested by academics such as norton and kaplan (2005), and later rampersad (2003), who created the various balanced score card methodologies. this deviation indicating recognition of the need for a new approach to performance measurement and represents the first steps in the direction of addressing the dynamics of the new world of work. however, the conceptual leap to recognising the increasingly important role of intrapreneurship in the corporate environment and the need to be able to measure the intrapreneurial behaviour as a part of the new management dynamics of the global business environment had not yet been made. intrapreneurship economists have long recognised the role of entrepreneurial initiative as a generator of greater economic activity and its value in sustaining economic stability, usually outside of the traditional production based environment. audretsch (2004) declares that entrepreneurship is the engine of economic and social development throughout the world. antoncic and hisrich (2003) state that the initial research into, and view of entrepreneurship focused on the initiatives taken by individuals with regard to new business venture creation. they espouse the view that, whereas entrepreneurship gives life to small businesses and individual enterprises, the so-called ‘knock-on effect’ is that these small businesses often grow into large production based corporations. little research has, however, been done on the role of entrepreneurship, or rather intrapreneurship, within the already existing large corporates. equally little research exists with regard to the interface between entrepreneurship and the emerging corporates that are value-added based rather than production based and which increasingly have to maintain their competitiveness in the global environment. a new economic paradigm recognises that, while there is a need for new entrepreneurs to emerge and generate new economic activity which will eventually develop into larger businesses, thereby generating capital growth and employment opportunities, a substantial need also exists for entrepreneurship within the new knowledge-based, value-added business organizations of the global economic environment. antoncic and hisrich (2003) recognise this development and point out that economists are now increasingly transferring their attention to the role and contribution of entrepreneurs within the larger organisation. they refer to these as “intrapreneurs”, emphasising that it is characteristic of the intrapreneur to behave as an entrepreneur and recognising entrepreneurs according to their economic behaviour. kuratko et al (2001) concur that entrepreneurship should in future include acts of creation, renewal or innovation with regard to economic or business activities that occur within or outside an organisation, thabo wl foba vuyani @mweb.co.za dawie de villiers department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract this study aimed to investigate the feasibility of using the dynamics of intrapreneurship to develop a new generation performance management model based on the structural dynamics of the balanced score card approach. the literature survey covered entrepreneurship, from which the construct, intrapreneurship, was synthesized. reconstructive logic and hermeneutic methodology were used in studying the performance management systems and the balanced score card approach. the dynamics were then integrated into a new approach for the management of performance of intrapreneurial employees in the corporate environment. an unstructured opinion survey followed: a sample of intrapreneurship students evaluated and validated the model’s conceptual feasibility and probable practical value. key words: intrapreneurship, performance management the integration of intrapreneurship into a performance management model 1 sa journal of human resource management, 2007, 5 (2), 1-8 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2007, 5 (2), 1-8 as well as activities that take place in an established organisations and that they describe these as corporate entrepreneurship or intrapreneurship. relevant research and publications reveal a common finding that there are four primary characteristics which identif y entrepreneurship, and mutatis mutandis also intrapreneurship. these characteristics are: (1) corporate or new business venturing, (2) proactiveness, (3) self renewal or transformation and (4) competitive aggressiveness. in addition it has been become common cause that there are a further five secondary characteristics that can be found in most, if not all, intrapreneurs. these are (1) strategy, (2) innovativeness, (3) autonomy, (4) risktaking, and (5) team-building. the classification of primary and secondary characteristics is fairly arbitrary and, for purposes of this study, all nine of these characteristics were used as a set of common variables for the integration into an envisaged conceptual model for the management of intrapreneurial performance. it was obvious that these nine variables would be the critical items to be ‘measured’ or evaluated when intrapreneurial behaviour in organisations is evaluated. in addition to the above mentioned nine variables, research has identified that there are a number of organisational dynamics that, although they cannot in any way be classified as intrapreneurial characteristics, but which in fact facilitate, promote and enhance intrapreneurial behaviour. it has been suggested that these factors actually ‘enable’ the exercise of intrapreneurial behaviours in the corporate environment, and must therefore also be taken into account when intrapreneurial behaviour in organisations is evaluated. for the purposes of this investigation these factors have, therefore, been classified as ‘enablers’. they are: vision, mission, objectives, strategy, culture, structure, risk-taking, team work, autonomy, employee involvement, processes, resources, reward systems, competitiveness, innovativeness, proactiveness, and learning. performance management traditionally performance management in production based organisations could readily be achieved by first identif ying critical performance variables such as the number of units of productions, and simply evaluating the achievement of certain production output against a predetermined standard or benchmark. another approach to performance management in the traditional environment is the evaluation of the degree to which employees respond positively to the direct supervision by their managers, where they are required to carry out instructions meticulously and closely adhere to prescribed operational methodology. the management of performance in the knowledge based organisations however differs from that of traditional organisations in that competitiveness and responsiveness to client needs are critical considerations. templer (2000) suggests that the output of intrapreneurs in knowledge-based competitive organisations can probably not be measured in units of production or employee response to prescription in terms of instruction, but will have to be assessed in terms of added value outputs. it is almost axiomatic that value added outputs are exceptionally difficult to measure accurately. performance management will therefore undoubtedly become a critically important challenge facing management as organisations transform into knowledgebased global organisations. it is safe to deduce that a reengineered approach to performance management has already become essential to facilitate the management of employees in the globally competitive environment. this assumption regarding the critical need for transformation in the approach to performance management in ‘new age’ organisations is exacerbated by the paradigm of a ‘roving, virtual’ operator, working from a virtual office, whose work performance can be judged only by his or her value added ‘outputs’ which are often not really quantifiable in the short term. this begs the question regarding the viability of direct supervision and control. it further suggests that a totally fresh view of, and approach to, performance management is an imperative. research design research approach in contemporary qualitative research the trend is that researchers clarif y their scientific beliefs and values prior to deciding on the research design. accordingly, it is prudent to reflect on the ontological and epistemic rationale, which underpinned the study. scientific values ontology refers to a person’s views on the nature of things in the social world (schurink, 2004). according to bryman (2004: 19) ontological assumptions and commitments shape the ways in which research questions are formulated and the research is carried out. the views of a group of students and academics, who tested the veracity of the model created as a consequence of this study, shaped the social reality about intrapreneurial principles and the performance management as well as reflected the ontological context of the study. epistemology refers to what a person regards as knowledge or evidence of things in the social world (schurink, 2004). with reference to this study, document analysis, unstructured questionnaires were used to capture the social views and experiences of the authors, students and academics. their knowledge, experience and perceptions on the concepts of entrepreneurship/intrapreneurship and performance management therefore provided an epistemological basis for developing new theories and models for the study. having reflected on the ontological and epistemic rationale underpinning the study, it is therefore prudent to present a synopsis on the research approach. as the intention of the study was to build a conceptual model, the definition of what constitutes a model, needed to be defined. mouton (1996: 196) stresses that the key issue to bear in mind when either studying or using models is that they do not purport to be anything more than partial representations of given phenomena. in this study this description of a “model” was adopted as the intention was to provide a representation of what constitutes intrapreneurship, as well as a model depicting a typical intrapreneurial performance management system. the research was guided by the reconstructive logic process, when constructing the envisaged conceptual model. literature was used in reconstructing two concepts in order to integrate them using an inductive logical reasoning process that is contained in the hermeneutic methodology proposed inter alia by neuman (2003: 140). the methodology employed in gathering and interpreting the data for this study is described below. research methodology the premise from which this investigation departed with regard to the methodology employed was that generally, methodological reasoning dictates that: (1) where there is little or insufficient literature on the subject being investigated, an empirical examination would be required in order to generate the necessary data; and (2) conversely, where a mass of data already exists, an ‘interpretive analysis’ may be utilised to synthesize the common knowledge generated by this mass of data, to clarif y the actual common meaning or discover new meanings of constructs, or some ‘reconstructive logic’ may be used to generate new constructs. foba, de viliiers2 the availability of extensive literature and research reports on the constructs, intrapreneurship and performance management, facilitated the choice of the interpretive methodology which was suggested for the first phase of the study. the intention of the first phase of the study was to conduct a literature survey on the above constructs and synthesise the data to generate new understanding and reconstructive logic to create a new construct which would lead to the emergence of a conceptual model. the second phase would test the veracity of the conceptual model in terms of its validity, theoretical or academic value and practical value, by soliciting nominal data by means of an opinion survey of a sample of relevant respondents. the methodology employed for the two phases of the study is explained below. phase one the data for phase one, which formed the main body of this investigation, mainly comprised literature and research publications dated between 1998 and 2007, on the constructs; intrapreneurship and performance management. it was assumed that such articles would provide the most developed and recent data, particularly on intrapreneurship. sample the sample, from which the data of phase one was solicited, constituted all the authors of all the publications on the subject of entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship and performance management, which was relied on in the interpretive analysis. an extensive literature survey was conducted on literature, books and periodicals and on academic as well as research library bases on the internet, regarding the constructs intrapreneurship and performance management, in terms of the prescribed dates (between 1998 and 2007). the data derived from the publications from the internet library bases was down-loaded and read. only the data which was extracted from the publications was referenced in this research report. these were mainly publications which best summarised the required data or presented them in a manner that facilitated a better integration of opinions and facts or the discovery of new knowledge. data collection as this phase of the investigation relied on the available literature to extract data from publications, the literature survey method was employed. according to neuman (2000: 33) every researcher collects data using one or more techniques. the techniques may be grouped into two categories: quantitative methodology, which involves the collection of data in the form of numbers, and qualitative, which refers to the collection of data in the form of words or pictures. this phase of the investigation utilised the qualitative method of collecting data. this was done by means of identif ying academic and research bases on the internet, downloading the extracted data and storing them in marked files, which were categorised according to the constructs entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship and performance management. the collection of the above data led to the analysis, which is explained below. data analysis the analysis of the data for phase one of this study was guided by the opinions expressed by neuman (2003) and schwandt (2003). according to neuman (2003: 76), documentary or text analysis is ordinarily interpretive, as its objective is to seek to extract meaning from the text. this interpretive approach often typifies a qualitative method of research. as the intention of the study was to interpret the published opinion and research findings of previous authors on intrapreneurship and performance management, the hermeneutic methodology, was felt to be best suitable, as its analysis is meant to discover meaning or explain a lot of discrete but interrelated data. neuman (2003:76) describes hermeneutics as a methodology which “emphasises a detailed reading or examination of text, which could refer to a conversation, written words or pictures”. according to neuman, a researcher conducts a reading to discover meaning embedded within text. each reader brings his or her subjective experience to the text. when studying the text, the researcher/reader tries to absorb or ‘get inside’, to adopt the viewpoint that it presents as a whole, and develops a deep understanding of how its parts relate to the whole. true meaning is rarely simple or obvious on the surface; one reaches it through a detailed study of the text, contemplating its many messages and seeking the connections through its parts. this investigation was guided by the criteria recommended by madison (1990) and adapted by whittaker (2001) for using the hermeneutics methodology. madison developed his principle for the purpose of the validation of a specific text. whittaker (2001) adapted these principles for the purpose of working with a multit ude of texts from a multitude of authors. as this study focuses on a multitude of texts from various authors, these criteria seemed the most appropriate. the guiding principles that madison lists are: coherence, comprehensiveness, penetration, thoroughness, appropriateness, contextuality, agreement, suggestiveness and potential (madison, 1990). phase two it was anticipated, through a structured research methodology utilised in the main body of this investigation that the interpretation of data in phase one would yield data in the form of a conceptual model that would have to be validated. accordingly, it was decided that an unstructured opinion survey methodology, be utilised on data solicited from sample of respondents who were exposed to entrepreneurial projects and studies, would also yield findings that could confirm the veracity of the conceptual model. sample in order to test the veracity of the conceptual model it was felt that such test would have to be conducted by a sample of highly credible respondents. the appropriate sample was found amongst a group of 21 students and academics from the faculty of economics and management sciences at the university of western cape, in south africa, who were involved in entrepreneurial studies and projects under the guidance of their academic leaders and the auspices of the university. this group was selected because it was assumed that as they were involved in st udies and projects of entrepreneurship, they would have the academic understanding and the theoretical, as well as the practical, knowledge of entrepreneurship. thus, their opinions would be relatively ‘valid’ and ‘reliable’. this sample could be regarded as a ‘representative sample’ because they are representative of a profile of students and academics of entrepreneurship within a university. data collection the data for this second phase of the study was collected by means of unstructured questionnaires which were administered to a sample of students and researchers of entrepreneurship. according to miller and salkind (2002: 51), the collection of data is a crucial step in the execution of a good research design, because the quality of the research often rests upon the quality of the data the questionnaires solicited only nominal data, to test the veracity of the conceptual model which would emerge from the first phase of this study. although the data are nominal, they are valuable in that they represent the valid and reliable opinions of a sample of respondents involved in entrepreneurial studies and projects. intrapreneurship in a performance management model 3 data analysis in the analysis of the nominal data collected during the opinion survey, use was made, largely, of histograms, in order to determine the implications of the views of the respondents. according to neuman (2000: 317), a histogram is a type of graphical representation of numerical data which may be nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio-level data. neuman op cit., further explains that histograms are usually upright bar graphs of interval or ratio data. the nominal data contained in the questionnaires was analysed by grouping them into 15 mutually exclusive categories in accordance with the questions on the questionnaires which had elicited various responses from the respondents. twelve of the categorised questions related to an assessment whereby the respondents rated aspects of the conceptual model according to a scale of between 1 and 10, where 1 reflected a very low score and 10 represented a very high score. three of the categorised questions solicited responses which gave a negative or positive answer to inquiries about some aspects of the conceptual model. the responses to the twelve questions, which were in the form of raw scores, were then transcribed and converted to bar charts, in order to represent the ratings by the respondents. these ratings had to be above a score of 5, which is the median of the 10 point scale in order to reflect a high rating. the responses to the three questions were also computed as above and translated into bar charts which, based on the median, which was 10.5, of the total number of respondents, which was 21. to represent a high rating, the responses had to be at 10.5 or above. all the graphs were consolidated into a finding that reflected a validation of the model. results/findings the qualitative analysis of the data in phase one of the study, yielded the following findings: l the resultant demands of globalisation have exerted pressure on organisations to attract, employ, develop and retain the calibre of employee who thinks and acts like an entrepreneur. l the need for entrepreneurial employees has generated significant interest in the construct, intrapreneurship which has developed as a corollary of entrepreneurship. l whereas authors agree that there are four key dimensions of intrapreneurship, this study revealed 5 additional dimensions which are characteristics of intrapreneurship. l the current performance management systems are not suitable for or effective in managing the calibre of employee required for globally competitive organisations. l although the current performance management systems were found to have deficiencies that make them unsuitable for measuring intrapreneurship, as it was established that the balanced scorecard created by norton and kaplan (1995) and the total performance scorecard created by rampersad (2003) provided the most suitable (operational) frameworks that could be adapted in order to be integrated with intrapreneurship. l the key finding of the study is the development of a new generation score card for the management of intrapreneurship, which is referred to in this research as the intrapreneurial performance management model (ipmm). the findings of the opinion survey, conducted in phase two, are that; the majority of the respondents felt that: 1. the researcher had identified all the dimensions of intrapreneurship and was correct in differentiating between the true dimensions or characteristics of an intrapreneur and the enablers of intrapreneurship. 2. the approach of the score card measurement is most appropriate for the measurement of intrapreneurship and such approach is of a high value. 3. the conceptual model is highly valid and is of high academic value. 4. they strongly supported the validity of the proposed conceptual model and felt that it would provide a theoretical and practical value. 5. the weighting of the raw scores is highly valid and that these weightings provide a theoretical and practical value. 6. the proposed empirical testing of the conceptual model would be of high theoretical and academic value. the above-mentioned findings are discussed in detail below. discussion the analysis of the theory and literature with regard to the construct and content of the concept of entrepreneurship, and thereafter of the emerging concept of intrapreneurship, confirmed that the need for organisations to respond to the requirements of globalisation to produce innovative and competitive products or services to be able to remain competitive and viable, has exerted pressure on them to attract, employ, develop and retain the calibre of employee who thinks and acts like an entrepreneur. the interpretive analysis revealed that this is because entrepreneurs, and in the context of this study also intrapreneurs, generally respond to demands and situations by finding innovative solutions to problems, optimising available resources and ensuring more innovative utilisation of resources. entrepreneurs do this, inter alia, by being innovative, proactive, taking risks, interpreting and exploring new business opportunities and conceiving new combinations of existing resources (see yamada, 2004). the study revealed that the pursuit of entrepreneurial orientation and behaviour within organisations has generated considerable interest and has been a subject of research over the past two decades, resulting in the adoption and development of a construct which has become known or referred to as intrapreneurship. this development of a new construct for the understanding of human behaviour in the work environment, is the result of the recognition that traditionally the term ‘entrepreneur’ refers to a person who embarks on a new business venture for his or her own account, usually through the establishing of a small (often one-man) business, which may or may not over time develop into a larger corporate. this realisation identified the needs for a new theoretical construct called ‘intrapreneur’ to identif y those employees who demonstrate entrepreneurial behaviour in the corporate environment. the study further concludes that the promotion and pursuance of intrapreneurship, the new management construct which evolved as the corporate corollary of the commonly held business economics concept of entrepreneurship, suggests a certain pattern of behaviour on the part of the employee in the corporate environment to the execution of his or her tasks. this also applies in his or her attitude towards his work such as, being proactive, innovative and being risk prone, which have emerged as key organisational strategies that positively impact the demands of innovation and competitiveness in the emerging global economic environment. the above mentioned finding is supported by antoncic and hisrich (2003) who refer to intrapreneurship as “…entrepreneurship within an existing business organization…” thereby referring to emergent behaviours in an organization that are related to departures from the customary organisational behaviour patterns. taylor (2001) concurs that if companies are to survive and succeed, management teams in large companies need to act more like individual entrepreneurs. relying on the research of a large number of authors and researchers the study concludes that the definition of intrapreneurship is most practical in terms of what these authors foba, de viliiers4 and researchers refer to as the ‘dimensions of intrapreneurship’. this definition of the construct in terms of certain dimensions has been described by many researchers, inter alia yamada (2004), as the “…functional view…” of entrepreneurship. it is this functional view that was used in this study for the purpose of explaining the nature and content of the construct ‘intrapreneurship’. in addition, the study determined that most authors agree that there are four ‘key’ or ‘primary’ dimensions of intrapreneurship, namely (1) corporate or new business venturing, (2) proactiveness, (3) self-renewal or transformation and (4) competitive aggressiveness. an in depth analysis of the literature revealed, however, that in addition to the above mentioned four dimensions, the following characteristics of the entrepreneur should also be included as dimensions of intrapreneurship, namely (1) strategy, (2) innovativeness, (3) autonomy, (4) risktaking, and (5) team-building. the veracity of this finding of the necessity to expand the dimensions of intrapreneurship to a total of nine, is supported by the research findings of inter alia antoncic (2000) and goosen (2002) who concluded that the construct intrapreneurship comprises of dimensions which exceed the commonly accepted four ‘key’ or ‘primary’ dimensions. having determined the nature and dimensions of the construct, the study further established that these dimensions have to be allowed proper and practical expression, for intrapreneurship to succeed within organisations. it was found that these dimensions, when allowed proper expression within organisations, translate into a different form, and in that way, play the role of ‘facilitating’ or ‘enabling’ the dimensions to be effective. it was determined that the practical effect of intrapreneurship within organisations could be achieved by isolating or identif ying these translated dimensions, and referring to them as the “enablers of the (true) dimensions” of intrapreneurship. the significance of these findings is that the researcher was able, in his analysis of the construct intrapreneurship, to: l identif y and define the following key variables which facilitate or enable the practice of intrapreneurship. l identif y these enablers as being the following: vision, mission, objectives, strategy, culture, structure, risk-taking, team work, autonomy, employee involvement, processes, resources, reward systems, competitiveness, innovativeness, proactiveness, and learning. l synthesize the dimensions and the enablers into a conceptual model for the measurement of the behaviour of entrepreneurial employees in a corporate environment. clearly the benefit for the organisations of having such an instrument is that, they will be able to structure themselves in accordance with the conceptual model should they intend to achieve competitiveness; l identif y and define the following key variables which characterise an intrapreneurial employee being innovativeness, proactiveness, autonomy, commitment, risk-taking, competence and ability to learn or being trained. the importance of the findings mentioned above is that organisations will be able to: l create environments which are conducive for intrapreneurial behaviour and activities, as the models tabulate the variables which characterise the dimensions of intrapreneurship and their enablers; l enhance the selection of employees for intrapreneurial programmes as the models specif y the attributes of an intrapreneurial employee. these findings have considerably enhanced the understanding of the dynamics of intrapreneurship and through highlighting the deficiencies of the traditional and contemporary performance management systems, confirm that an unequivocal necessity exists for research into the need for a next generation of performance management systems that would enable or enhance the management of intrapreneurs and the measurement of intrapreneurial behaviour. the study concludes that the proven deficiencies of current performance management systems, are not suitable for or effective in managing the calibre of employee required for globally competitive organisations even more so with the demands of the new world of work. this applies to even more recently developed approaches to performance management such as the total performance scorecard developed by rampersad (2003). although the current performance management systems were found to have deficiencies that make them unsuitable for measuring intrapreneurship, it was established that the balanced scorecard created by norton and kaplan (1995) and the total performance scorecard created by rampersad (2003) provided the most suitable (operational) frameworks that could be adapted in order to be integrated with intrapreneurship. their scorecard approach differs from the earlier or more traditional approaches in that they include the key aspects of organisational performance in addition to the performance criteria for individual employees for the measurement of performance in that their approach to performance management is much more ‘holistic’ than earlier approaches. the score card approach was therefore found to be the most suitable or appropriate for integrating the dimensions of intrapreneurship, as all aspects of organisational functioning should embrace intrapreneurship if innovation and competitiveness were to be achieved. this discovery facilitated the synthesis of the dimensions and enablers of intrapreneurship into a list of variables to be used in a new measuring instrument based on the conceptual structure of the above mentioned scorecard system. this led to the development of a new generation score card, which will henceforth be referred to in this research report as the intrapreneurial performance management model (ipmm). this model was developed as a conceptual model only as it had not been based on empirical evidence. obviously, for the new model to gain practical value and usage it will need to be subjected to empirical investigation in order to determine the comparative statistical or arithmetic values for the variables, as well as the correlation dynamics of the variables in the model. this conceptual model is meant, therefore to provide a theoretical and scientific conceptualization of the integration of the said variables into the score card structures. the intention is to contribute a research framework for future empirical research into the practical measurement of intrapreneurial behaviour within organizations, as well as the extent to which organizations facilitate, support and promote intrapreneurial behaviour. as the model is a consequence of the consolidation of in depth literature analysis, it is further intended to contribute to the theoretical expansion of the construct as its findings may trigger additional need for further research on the construct. from the interpretive analysis of the dynamics of intrapreneurship it was also found that variables, both the intrapreneurial dimensions and the enablers, will of necessity have different values (in relation to each other) in different situations, and for different types of organization, in terms of technology, markets, products and processes. consequently it was found that the intrapreneurial performance management model will of necessity have to be a ‘situational model,’ in that it is not intended to be generalized but to be adapted to suit variant organisational sizes, industries, and technological bases. the basic premise from which the research departs is that, while the founding construct is universally applicable, the model will in practice have to be adapted to accommodate the varying intrapreneurship in a performance management model 5 dynamics of different technologies and operating systems, varying complexities created by size and structure, culture, climate, and the impact of market differences, supplier bases and resource availability. the study also determined that for the model to be successful, it has to function primarily through four separate and discrete (subordinate) score cards, each dealing with a different component of the organisational system. each would eventually have to be integrated into an overall (super-ordinate) score card measuring instrument, that will measure or evaluate the complete organisational system with the view to determining its’ viability for competitiveness and survival in the new world of work. the four subordinate scorecards are listed below: 1. organisational score card, 2. employee score card, 3. client score card and 4. supplier score card. the above score cards were designed to measure the expression of the nine dimensions of intrapreneurship together with their enablers. the study determined that to ensure the structural feasibility of the conceptual model and also to create an operational framework against which further empirical research aimed at determining the empirical values of the conceptual model as a measuring instrument could be developed, use of the criteria (a) what to measure, and (b) how to measure, would considerably enhance the structural dynamics of the model. using these criteria, the model will theoretically be able to ‘measure’ variables which determine the intrapreneurial capacity of the organisation. the consequential benefit of using the model and its measuring instruments or criteria is that, organisations may, based, on the outcome of the measure (through the model) devise strategies for improvement in order to achieve competitiveness. it was further determined that, the evaluation of the performance of the employee and that of the organisation, in terms of the above stated criteria of the model would have to be done by means of a likert-type 5-point rating scale. the likert rating scale is commonly acknowledged and applied in social sciences, because it allows the categorisation of the raw scores given by each assessor into intervals of sufficient size or scope to allow for adequate differentiation across a continuum from zero to 100. as the intrapreneurial performance management model is a conceptual model, the ratings, will not be exact statistical intervals, but will rather be conceptual indications of the measures that can be applied. the actual statistical measures will have to be determined by means of an empirical investigation, and probably by means of the development of a properly researched stochastic or statistical model, once the veracity and viability of the conceptual model has been determined. another finding is that as the model is aimed primarily at measuring the expression of the nine dimensions of intrapreneurship, in order for it to function properly, it had to recognise the varying and complex nature in which these dimensions manifest themselves within an organisation. as a consequence it was established that such recognition could be achieved by differentiating between the true dimensions and their enablers, in each score card of the model. furthermore, the study concludes that the recognition of the varying and complex nature of the manifestation of the dimensions and the differences in size, nature of operation and industry, required the provision of the weighting of the scores resulting from the measuring instruments of the scorecards. the concept of weighting is used in scientific methodological language to refer to a process of translating ‘absolute raw scores’ into ‘relative weighted scores.’ this is done to ensure that a comparator, or basis of equivalent comparisons, can be established: ‘to compare apples with apples’. weighting can also be referred to as a process of translating raw scores which are not comparable to comparable values. owing to the variance in the relative value of each of the dimensions and their enablers in the respective score cards, it was found that weighting would then provide a fair measure of comparability. once the isolation and differentiation of dimensions and enablers was achieved, it was found that the consolidation of the measuring instruments on the conceptual model could be achieved by referring to all the dimensions and enablers as ‘variables’. this would facilitate the application of the model as all the measuring instruments would refer to each factor requiring measurement, as a variable as a variable. the significance of the intrapreneurial performance management model is that it is able to integrate the measurement of intrapreneurship and organisational performance, including that of employees, into a single measuring framework. the value for organisations is that they will be able to conduct analysis of all the components of their business in a structured manner. the results of such measurement would determine the extent to which organisations have the capacity to respond to the requirements of globalisation. the conceptual nature of the model was found to pose some challenges as, although it is based on extensive literature review of the construct intrapreneurship, its measuring instruments and ratings are not exact statistical measures or intervals, but rather conceptual indications of the measures that can be applied. it would therefore have to be subjected to an empirical investigation in order to determine the veracity of its values. although the model which has emerged from this study is a conceptual one, a questionnaire was developed to elicit the opinion of a sample of respondents. the aim was to determine the functionality and feasibility of the model in so far as its academic and theoretical value, practical value and the value of its scorecards, proposed weighting of scores, and recommended empirical value can be determined. this questionnaire was administered to a sample of 21 respondents (comprising of academics and students of entrepreneurship) from the university of western cape, in south africa. value of the study in summary it can be stated that the study makes the following key contributions to the field of intrapreneurship, human resources management, and industrial psychology. 1. firstly, it consolidates various research findings and literature on the construct intrapreneurship and expands on the findings of previous studies on the construct by discovering additional dimensions that characterise intrapreneurship. this is despite previous propositions that intrapreneurship has four dimensions. the isolation of the dimensions and the enablers of intrapreneurship is a major contribution, as through the two conceptual models on intrapreneurship, it will: (i) enhance the identification and definition of the variables that characterise the true nature of intrapreneurship, and (ii) enhance the identification and definition of the variables which enable intrapreneurship by the employee or organisation. 2. a further contribution is the developing of two conceptual models of intrapreneurship that depict the dimensions of intrapreneurship and characteristics of an intrapreneurial organisation as well as those of an employee. these models will contribute towards further studies on the development of the construct, as through the variables depicting the true dimensions and their enablers will provide the empirical basis for the extrapolation of the true value of these variables on intrapreneurship. 3. the study has contributed towards enhancing the developments and future research on the efficacy of performance management by highlighting the deficiencies of the current performance management systems and the future challenges thereof within the context of the new world of work. foba, de viliiers6 4. finally, through the development of a conceptual performance management model, a sound scientific basis, albeit conceptual at this stage, has been provided for the measurement of intrapreneurship in the corporate environment in the new world of work. this will also provide a basis for further empirical research into determining the mathematical or arithmetic value of a measure of intrapreneurship and performance. recommendations in light of the foregoing findings and limitations, it is the recommended that an empirical investigation be conducted to determine the true value of the measures of the intrapreneurial performance management model. in addition, future research on the application and true value of the measures of the model should recognise the differences in the values of the dimensions of intrapreneurship and attempt to determine the true or statistical value of those differences including that of weightings. it should be noted that any research conducted on the practical value of intrapreneurship, should first extrapolate its true characteristics and the variables which enhance its application within the organisation. these having been established, it would be imperative to determine empirically the value of those dimensions and their enablers within organisations. the human factor behind the success of intrapreneurial endeavours also needs to be further explored. furthermore it is recommended that once the values of the dimensions have been determined, the conceptual model should be tested to determine its theoretical/academic value and its practical value. references andersen, b., & fagerhaug, t. (2002). performance measurement explained: designing and implementing your state of the art system. wisconsin: quality press. armstrong, m. & baron, a. (2005). managing performance: performance management in action. london: chartered institute of personnel and development house. audretsch, d.b. sustaining innovation and growth: policy for entrepreneurship industry and innovation. sydney: sep 2004 vol.11, iss.3; p.167. antoncic, b (2000) intrapreneurship: construct refinement and an integrative model development. unpublished phd thesis, case western reserve university. antoncic, b., & hisrich, r.d. intrapreneurship modelling in transition economies: a comparison of slovenia and the united states. journal of developmental entrepreneurship. norfolk: apr 2000.vol.5, iss. 1; pg. 21. antoncic, b., & r. d. clarif ying the intrapreneurship concept. journal of small business and enterprise development bradford: 2003. vol. 10, iss. 1, p.7. antoncic, b., & hisrich, r. d. corporate entrepreneurship contingencies and organizational wealth creation. the journal of management development. bradford: 2004.vol.23, iss. 5/6; pg. 518. barrett, h., balloun, j.l., weinsten, a. marketing mix factors as moderators of the corporate entrepreneurship business performance relationship a multistage, multivariate analysis. journal of marketing theory and practice. statesboro: spring 2000.vol.8, iss. 2; pg. 50. beatham, s., anumba, c., thorpe, t., hedges, i. an integrated business improvement system (ibis) for construction. measuring business excellence. bradford: 2005.vol.9, iss. 2; pg. 42, 14 pgs bititci, u. s., mendibil, k., martinez,v., & albores, p. measuring and managing performance in extended enterprises. international journal of operations & production management. bradford: 2005.vol.25, iss. 3/4; pg. 333,21 pgs bogdan, r.c., & biklen, s.k. (2003). qualitative research for education. an introduction to theory and methods. boston: allyn & bacon. bostjan a., robert d hisrich. corporate entrepreneurship contingencies and organizational wealth creation. the journal of management development. bradford: 2004, vol 23, iss. 5/6 p.518. bryman, a. (2004). social research method. new york: oxford university. busco, c., frigo, m. l., giovannoni, e., riccaboni, a., & scapens, r.w. integrating global organizations through performance measurement systems. strategic finance. montvale: jan 2006. vol.87, iss. 7; pg. 30. coulson-thomas, c. individuals and enterprise: developing intrapreneurs for the new millennium. industrial and commercial training volume 31 number 7 1999 pp. 258-261. crandon, d.s., & merchant, k.a. principles to guide the development and use of effective performance measures performance improvement. silver spring: feb 2006.vol.45, iss. 2; pg. 17,7pgs. christensen, k.s. enabling intrapreneurship: the case of a knowledge-intensive industrial company. european journal of innovation management volume 8 number 3 2005 pp. 305-322. dehne, t. the corporate culture and customer-inspired innovation. r & d. highlands ranch: may 2003. vol. 45, iss. 5; pg. 11. de waal, a.a. (2002). quest for balance: the human element in performance management systems. new york: john wiley & sons. eesley, d.t., & longenecker, c.o. gateways to intrapreneurship industrial management. norcross: jan/feb 2006.vol.48, iss. 1; pg. 18. echols, a. e., & christopher p. neck, c.p. the impact of behaviors and structure on corporate entrepreneurial success. journal of managerial psychology. bradford: 1998. vol. 13, iss. 1/2; pg. 38 equist, c., hommen, l., & mckelvey, m. (2001) innovation and employment: process versus product innovation: massachusetts: edward elgas publishing. fattal, t. intrapreneurship at work. cma management. hamilton: nov 2003.vol.77, iss. 7; pg. 14. fitzsimmons, j.r., douglas, e.j., antoncic, b., & hisrich, r.d. intrapreneurship in australian firms. journal of the australian and new zealand academy of management. lindfield: 2005. vol.11, iss. 1; pg. 17. goosen, c. j. (2002) key factor intrapreneurship: the development of a systems model to facilitate the perpetuation of entrepreneurship in the larger south african organisation unpublished phd theses: university of stellenbosch. graham, j. developing a performance-based culture. the journal for quality and participation. cincinnati: spring 2004.vol.27, iss. 1; pg. 4-5. greco, s., caggiano, c., & ballon, m. ‘i was seduced by the new economy’. inc. boston: feb 1999.vol.21, iss. 2; pg. 34. grogan, j. (2001). workplace law. cape town: juta. hale, r., & whitlam, p. (2000) powering up performance management: an integrated approach to getting the best from your people. gower publishing: hampshire. hua tan, k., platts, k., & noble, j. building performance through in-process measurement: toward an “indicative” scorecard for business excellence. international journal of productivity and performance management. bradford: 2004.vol.53, iss. 3/4;pg. 233. jacobs, h., & kruger, s. (2001) establishing an intrapreneurial orientation as strategy: a framework for implementation. acto commercii, vol. 1 kaplan. r. s., & norton. d.p. the balanced scorecard: measures that drive performance. har vard business review. july-august 2005. kuratko, d .f., & goldsby, m. g. (2004). corporate entrepreneurs or rogue middle managers? a framework for ethical corporate entrepreneurship. journal of business ethics, 55: 13-30. intrapreneurship in a performance management model 7 kuratko, d. f.; & hodgetts, r. m. (2004). entrepreneurship: theory, process, and practice. ohio: thomson learning. kuratko, d.f., ireland, r.d., & hornsby, j.s. improving firm performance through entrepreneurial actions: acordia’s corporate entrepreneurship strategy. the academy of management executive. briarcliff manor: nov 2001.vol.15, iss. 4; pg. 60. lawn, j. the challenge of intra-preneurship. food management. cleveland: oct 2005.vol.40, iss. 11; pg. 10. lawrie, g., cobbold, i.,& john marshall. corporate performance management system in a devolved uk governmental organisation: a case study. international journal of productivity and performance management. bradford: 2004. vol.53, iss. 3/4; pg. 353. llewis, j., wright, p.c., & geroy, g.d. managing human capital: the study of a self-managed group venturing into the digital economy. management decision. london: 2004.vol.42, iss. 1/2; pg. 205. likert, r. (1967). the human organisation. new york: mc grawhill. madison, g. b. (1990). the hermeneutics of postmodernity: figures and themes. bloomington: indiana university press. manion, j. enhancing career marketabilit y through intrapreneurship. nursing administration quarterly. frederick: winter 2001.vol.25, iss. 2; pg. 5. meyer, m. w., (2002) rethinking performance measurement: beyond the balance scorecard. cambridge: cambridge university press. michelle, c. becoming an entrepreneur. the canadian nurse. apr 2005.vol.101, iss. 4; pg. 14. miller, d.c., & salkind, n.j. (2002). handbook of research design & social measurement. california: sage publications. mouton, j (1996). understanding social research. pretoria: van schaik. neuman, w.l (2000). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. boston: allyn & bacon. neuman, w.l (2003). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. boston: allyn & bacon. o’leary-collins, m. a powerful business model for capturing innovation. management ser vices. enfield: summer 2005.vol.49, iss. 2; pg. 37, 3 pgs partington, d. (2002). essential skills for management research. london: sage publications. olmsted, l. non-stop innovation inc. boston: jul 2005.vol.27, iss. 7; pg. 34. rampersad, h. k. (2003) total performance scorecard: redefining management to achieve performance with integrity. amsterdam: butterworth-heinemann. rebecca, a. the relationship of vertical and horizontal individualism and collectivism to intrapreneurship and organizational commitment. leadership & organization development journal. bradford: 1997.vol.18, iss. 4; pg. 179. robinson, m. the ten commandments of entrepreneurs. new zealand management. auckland: dec 2001.vol.48, iss.11; pg.95. robson, i. implementing a performance measurement system capable of creating a culture of high performance international journal of productivity and performance management. bradford: 2005.vol.54, iss.1/2; pg.137. rodgers, k. stepping up performance management. personnel today. sutton: jun 7, 2005. pg. 20. russell, r.d. developing a process model of intrapreneurial systems: a cognitive mapping approach. entrepreneurship: theory & practice, 10422587, spring99, vol. 23, issue 3. salavou, h. the concept of innovativeness: should we need to focus? european journal of innovation management. bradford: 2004.vol.7, iss. 1; pg. 33 saunders, m., lewis, p., thornhill, a. (2003). research methods for business students. ashford: gosport. schindehutte, m., morris, m. h., & kuratko, d. f. triggering events, corporate entrepreneurship and the marketing function. journal of marketing theory and practice. statesboro: spring 2000.vol.8, iss. 2; pg. 18. schwandt, t.a. (2003). interpretivism, hermeneutics, and constructionism. in denzin, n.k., & lincoln, y.s. (2003). handbook of qualitative research. london: sage publications. shurink, w.j. (2004c). lecture three: considerations when choosing a qualitative style of research. introducing key features of an interpretive approach to social science. university of johannesburg 27-28 silverman, d. (2001). interpreting qualitative data; methods for analysing talk, text, and interaction. london: sage publications. slabbert, j.a., prinsloo, j.j., swanepoel, b.j., & backer, w. (2003). managing employment relations in south africa. durban: butterworths. smith, m. performance management methodology business credit. new york: nov/dec 2005.vol.107, iss.10; pg. 54. stevens, t. idea dollars industry week. cleveland: feb 16, 1998. vol.247, iss. 4; pg. 47. sundbo, j. empowerment of employees in small and mediumsized service firms. employee relations. bradford: 1999.vol.21, iss. 2; pg. 105. tangen, s. improving the performance of a performance measure. measuring business excellence. bradford: 2005.vol.9,iss. 2; pg. 4. taylor, b. from corporate governance to corporate entrepreneurship. journal of change management. london: dec 2001.vol.2, iss. 2; pg. 128. templer, a. the hrm response to global changes in employment relationships. management research news. patrington: 2000. vol.23, iss.2-4. p 75. thompson, j.l. innovation through people. management decision. london: 2004.vol.42, iss. 9; pg.1082. thornberry, n. e. corporate entrepreneurship: teaching managers to be entrepreneurs. the journal of management development. bradford: 2003.vol.22, iss.4; pg. 329. tosi, h.l., & mero, n.p. (2003). the fundamentals of organisational behaviour: what managers need to know. blackwell publishing: oxford. ulrich, d. (1997). human resources champions: the next agenda for adding value and delivering results. usa: harvard business school. verweire, k., & van den berghe (2004). integrated performance management: new hype or new paradigm. london: sage publications wade, d. & recardo, r. (2001). corporate performance management. woburn: butterworth-heinemann. whittaker; l (2001) information systems evaluation: a post dualist interpretation. unpublished phd thesis, university of pretoria. williams, k. how does your company measure performance? strategic finance. montvale: dec 2004. vol. 86, iss. 6; pg. 17. wilkes, j. leading and lagging practices in performance management. measuring business excellence. bradford: 2005. vol.9, iss.3; pg. 41. williams, r. s (2000). performance management: perspectives on employee performance. cornwall: t.j international. williams, k. how does your company measure performance? strategic finance. montvale: dec 2004.vol.86, iss.6; pg. 17. wunderer, r. employees as “co-intrapreneurs” a transformation concept. leadership & organization development journal bradford 2001.vol 22, iss. 5’/6, p.193. yamada, j. a multi-dimensional view of entrepreneurship: towards a research agenda on organisation emergence. the journal of management development. bradford: 2004, vol 23, iss. ¾ p.329. zhao, f. exploring the synergy between entrepreneurship and innovation international journal of entrepreneurial behaviour & research. volume 11 number 1 2005 pp. 25-41 foba, de viliiers8 about the author(s) vusi mthimkhulu department of psychology, college of human sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa hugo d. van der walt institute for open and distance learning, college of education, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation mthimkhulu, v., & van der walt, h.d. (2022). erratum: workers’ awareness of alcohol breathalyser test in the workplace and their alcohol consumption patterns. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1745. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1745 note: doi of original article published: https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1627 correction erratum: workers’ awareness of alcohol breathalyser test in the workplace and their alcohol consumption patterns vusi mthimkhulu, hugo d. van der walt published: 20 may 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. in the original article published, mthimkhulu, v., & van der walt, h.d. (2021). wokers’ awareness of alcohol breathalyser test in the workplace and their alcohol consumption patterns. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1627. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1627, the title contained a spelling error. the first word of the title stated “wokers’ ” and this was unintentional. as a result of this, the title is corrected to read ‘workers’ awareness of alcohol breathalyser test in the workplace and their alcohol consumption patterns’. the affiliation of the second author was also given incorrectly. the correct affiliation should be ‘institute for open and distance learning, college of education, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa’. the publisher apologises for this error. the correction does not change the study’s findings of significance or overall interpretation of the study’s results or the scientific conclusions of the article in any way. abstract introduction the requirement for human resource management moral expertise virtue as a skill human resource management moral competence human resource management decision-making human resource management ethical practice acknowledgements references about the author(s) yendor r. felgate department of philosophy, university of the witwatersrand, johannesburg, south africa citation felgate, y.r. (2020). human resource management moral competencies. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1193. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1193 original research human resource management moral competencies yendor r. felgate received: 29 mar. 2019; accepted: 17 feb. 2020; published: 31 mar. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: if human resource management (hrm) has a positive role in providing direction for the permissible use of people in organisations, then such a role inevitably creates a number of ethical tensions. the hrm practitioner often encounters situations, where they require moral expertise to make decisions that are ethical. research purpose: the purpose of the research is to identify and describe the moral competencies hrm can use to make normative judgements in organisations. motivation for the study: the understanding of hrm moral expertise is important, given the role of hrm in organisations. research design: this article uses a virtue-ethical approach to identify and describe possible hrm moral competencies and their use. main findings: there is value to using a virtue-theoretic approach in hrm, because it allows for the identification of moral competencies that can be used to improve ethical decision making, when using hrm practices. practical/management implications: the article provides a practical approach to using moral expertise. moral expertise can be used to discern concrete normative actions when using hrm practices, and so doing improve normative outcomes for employees and organisations. contribution/value add: this is the first attempt to identify and apply hrm moral competencies to hrm decision-making and practice. furthermore, if the requirement for hrm moral expertise is known, it follows that it can provide the basis for further hrm professional development. keywords: hrm; virtue, virtue as skill, hrm moral competencies; hrm decision-making; hrm practice; performance management. introduction if human resource management (hrm) is given a positive role regarding the permissible use of people in organisations in the form of hrm policy-making, then hrm practitioners are still required to apply such policies or make ethical decisions in difficult cases, which inevitably create a number of ethical tensions. human resource management practitioners often encounter situations where they have to use their judgement to make decisions that are ethical, as it is not always possible to resolve ethical tensions by merely resorting to accepted hrm practice or rules. it then follows that it is important to understand what type of ethical expertise hrm practitioners require to make dependable judgements. this article uses a virtue–ethical approach to identify and describe possible hrm moral competencies and their use in hrm decision-making. human resource management deals with complex normative issues regarding the legitimate use of people in organisations. human resource management is commonly defined as the productive use of people in achieving the organisation’s strategic business objectives and the satisfaction of individual employee’s needs (greenwood, 2002, p. 261). many hrm practitioners recognise that hrm has an ethical role to play in organisations, placing an emphasis on such things as ‘sound moral character’ and the ‘respect for human dignity’ (kirsten, wordsworth, van niekerk, & erasmus, 2015). few, though, are clear on how to define ethics or go about being ethical (van vuuren & eiselen, 2006). in this article, the author assumes that because of the demands of the role of hrm, hrm practitioners are required to become practical experts (both in a technical and a normative sense), with the ability to express such expertise in the form of ethical judgement. if so, the focus of this article would be on one type of normative expertise that hrm practitioners require to make reliable ethical judgements. the author attempts to identify and describe hrm moral competencies that are possible forms of hrm normative expertise, and in order to do so, he uses a virtue–ethical approach to propose hrm moral competence and provide examples of such within an hrm work context. the requirement for human resource management moral expertise human resource management practitioners require practical moral expertise, because it is not always easy to determine what is ethical in complex environments such as organisations. discretion is often required when formulating, implementing or interpreting policies. the south african board of people practices (sabpp), for example, recognises the need for the capacity and the active use of ethical judgement during the application of hrm practice. it argues in the following manner (abbott, 2015): the formulation and interpretation of policies is not always straightforward and it is in these grey areas that an hr practitioner needs to be skilled at recognising an ethical issue, analysing it and finding an appropriate resolution, which is fair to all parties. furthermore, policies often provide for discretionary powers to be exercised by executives, line managers and hr practitioners. some rules many not be totally clear, and sometimes roles and responsibilities overlap or leave gaps resulting in conflicts. sometimes also, a judgement needs to be made where one of the possible outcomes is to the advantage or disadvantage of the hr practitioner who is providing advice or support to line management. there are, therefore, many situations in organisations where the ethical judgement of hr practitioners may be tested. (p. 5) most professional hrm associations recognise the need for hrm practitioners to make ethical judgements when using hrm practices (academy of human resource development [ahrd], 1999; sabpp, 2014; society for human resource management [shrm], 2012, 2016). however, when the globally accepted hrm competency models are surveyed (lee & yu, 2013), the capacity for ethical judgement is not discussed in any meaningful way. if hrm practitioners require the capacity or need to develop the skill to make ethical judgements, then it follows that this requirement should be understood in more detail. one way of approaching the development of ethical judgement and its use by practical experts is through the application of virtue theory. over the last 30 years, there has been a resurgence of interest in the concept of virtue, virtue-related topics and virtue theory in applied ethics (annas, 2015, p. 1). a virtue approach provides a theoretical framework capable of describing how a person could develop the skill required to make ethical judgements in context, which is part of the normative hrm project of ‘knowing what to do’ in a practical sense when formulating, implementing and interpreting hrm policies (in short, hrm practice). human resource management practitioners do so by developing the requisite virtues as a form of moral skill or moral competence – taken in its simplest form, this is the capacity to make a skilled moral judgement according to a given context (morales-sanchez & cabello-medina, 2015). the author begins with a short account of the concept of ‘virtue’ and explains how virtues are understood as analogous to skill. then, he uses the notion of moral competence to propose and describe hrm-specific moral competence in more detail before providing some practical examples of how these moral skills could be used in hrm decision-making. virtue as a skill virtue ethics is one of the three major approaches in normative ethics. when referring to a virtue or moral excellence (arête), such as justice, courage, charity or benevolence, typically two concepts are applied. these are phronesis [practical or moral wisdom] and eudaimonia [usually translated as happiness or flourishing; hursthouse, 2013, p. 2]. a virtuous person, then, is one who acts virtuously, and a virtue is a character trait that a human being needs to flourish (hursthouse, 1991). when virtuous people respond courageously, for example, they wholeheartedly (as per their disposition) face and overcome difficulties for a good cause, as to act on the contrary would probably be perceived as cowardliness (annas, 2015, p. 4). such virtues are developed as a form of intelligent response to circumstances over time (annas, 1995, 2011, 2015; hursthouse, 2013; stichter, 2007a, 2013, 2015). the process of learning a virtue is analogous to that of acquiring a practical skill (annas, 1995, 2011, 2015; stichter, 2007a, 2007b, 2013, 2015). virtue and skill are analogous in the following ways: they are similar in terms of motivation in that they require effort or intentionality to develop; they develop in similar ways in that they are learnt; and they both are forms of mastery. the virtue-as-skill approach has been referred to in recent literature as a form of moral competence. in their work on management skills, morales-sanchez and cabello-medina (2015) usefully provided a workable definition of moral competence, which has been used in the rest of the article. according to morales-sanchez and cabello-medina (2015), moral competence is a: … [s]et of knowledge, skills and attitudes and abilities acquired through experience, which in fact facilitate the engagement in ethical behaviours in a specific job … these moral competencies are nothing other than virtues, which are internal mental and will-related capacities acquired by the continuous development of ethical behaviours capable of responding in a consistent (i.e. across different conditions or situations), stable (i.e. through different times), and integrated (i.e. in accordance with other similar competences). (p. s166) moral competence is dependent on the intentionality of the practitioners and their active engagement with the context that they operate in. this results in the continuous development of ethical behaviours over time that are consistent, stable and integrated. in other words, moral competence is a virtue that could be described in terms of behaviours that include attributes such as knowledge, attitudes and abilities within context. much in the same way that morales-sanchez and cabello-medina (2015) identified moral competencies specific to line management, it should be possible to identify moral competencies for hrm. moral competence in this sense is a virtue adapted to specific job demands. it makes sense then that hrm practitioners could respond intelligently to circumstances if they develop specific forms of virtues over time. virtue then is a part of the skill set of hrm practitioners that enables a correct or normative response to situations that fall within the domain of hrm. such virtues are ordinary in nature but are domain-specific to hrm in terms of their application. for example, hrm practitioners do not normally require courage in the face of physical danger but may require moral courage when it comes to questions of justice at the workplace. human resource management practitioners may require courage when dealing with labour disputes, abusive managers or ensuring fair treatment of women regarding remuneration. human resource management virtue enables a correct or normative response to situations that fall within the domain of hrm. if so, the question arises as to the nature of hrm moral competence. on this premise, the author now describes hrm moral competence and then their use in hrm decision-making. human resource management moral competence identifying the virtues that are important to a profession such as hrm is more difficult than gaining acceptance of the idea that virtue is in-and-if-itself important. there is a strong claim dating back to aristotle, socrates and plato that virtues are universal, with some being cardinal (i.e. core virtues; devettere, 2002; morales-sanchez & cabello-medina, 2013). such universality or commonality is also supported by modern research psychology (dahlsgaard, peterson, & seligman, 2005, p. 205). the focus of this article is on cardinal virtues, as it is perceived that these virtues directly pertain to professional decision-making (morales-sanchez & cabello-medina, 2013). a summary of the moral components of hrm expertise and how they contribute to hrm decision-making is provided in table 1. the cardinal virtues are practical wisdom, justice, self-control and courage, as they pertain to hrm. it is conceivable that additional virtues, such as honesty (stichter, 2007b) should be added, but for our purposes, a short description of cardinal virtues will suffice. table 1: moral competencies, decision-making and human resource management after morales-sanchez and cabello-medina (2013) using the rest (1986) decision-making model. the author has suggested above that hr practitioners should know as to when to be courageous amongst others, and the way to do so in virtue theory is to use judgement. the virtue of good judgement is called practical wisdom, which is the intellectual virtue of good deliberation (devettere, 2002; mele, 2012; morales-sanchez & cabello-medina, 2013). human resource management practitioners are able to normatively ‘deliberate, decide and direct’ (devettere, 2002, p. 84) for themselves when using practical wisdom. practical wisdom is thought of as the origin of virtue, and in this way it is considered a meta-virtue. practical wisdom is the intentional activity of ‘discerning the truth’ (devettere, 2002, p. 115) and by so doing justifying concrete action (stichter, 2015) when it comes to seeking human flourishing (devettere, 2002). in hrm terms, the use of practical wisdom is the ability to discern what needs to be carried out to flourish in organisations. in the case of hrm practitioners, the ability to evaluate alternatives, assess the normative impact on all agents and judge hrm practice against ethical and professional standards (see table 1) seem important, particularly where existing principles and rules, as already mentioned, are not always clear. as much as practical wisdom may provide alternatives regarding what to do, it also qualifies how hrm practitioners could choose to go about doing so. when we consider labour disputes, for example, from the perspective of practical wisdom, different alternatives may emerge. human resource management practitioners may reason that in order for an organisation to flourish, excessive income differentials need to be addressed. the hrm practitioner may reason that one way to address income differentials is to increase the salaries of lower paid workers more in percentage terms than in comparison to their senior counterparts. such an alternative could be seen as more important for organisational flourishing, than the principle of absolute equality of salary increase within the context of a particular organisation, and in terms of addressing worker vulnerability and historical disadvantage as being just. justice then is an interpersonal capability concerned with equity or fairness between people, or what mele (2012) called ‘relationability’. morales-sanchez and cabello-medina (2015, p. s168) saw justice as a form of ‘giving each one what they are due’, which in hrm means at least respecting the rights of employees and applying standards and laws with impartiality. concomitant behaviours include the search for what is appropriate and avoiding wrong doing, the willingness to correct own mistakes, the respect for the rights of people, the settling of conflicts equitably and the ability to apply standards taking into account special circumstances (morales-sanchez & cabello-medina, 2015). the hrm practitioner then has a normative role in ensuring fairness in organisations and correcting past mistakes, which may require remediation such as in the case of affirmative action. in contrast with justice, which has to do with the relations between people, self-control is an intrapersonal or ‘character’ virtue, which enables to ‘control one’s own emotions and dominate the passions and instincts’ (morales-sanchez & cabello-medina, 2015, p. 169). self-control is characterised by the behaviours of moderation, decency, gentleness, mercy, modesty and humility, amongst others, and could be described as a form of self-knowledge or personal maturity. a component of self-knowledge knows when to be humble in demonstrating expertise, how to be appropriately respectful to others, modest in success, calm during a crisis and able to control one’s anger when provoked. human resource management practitioners with self-knowledge also have more of a chance of avoiding personal bias and ensuring that their intentions remain in line with the required ethical judgement. for example, personal stakeholder bias could be avoided, which could be an over identification with management or enmity towards labour representatives. the last of the cardinal virtues is courage. similar to self-control, courage is also an intrapersonal virtue. in our context, it is the ‘willingness to set difficult and costly goals that are morally beneficial and face difficulties with determination’ (morales-sanchez & cabello-medina, 2015, p. s169). examples of courage at the workplace include magnanimity, magnificence, patience and, importantly, perseverance, as it pertains to overcoming difficulties and doing good to others. courage is also said to be an important part of the successful implementation of moral decisions (morales-sanchez & cabello-medina, 2013). human resource management practitioners with courage avoid diluting important moral goals because they are able to persevere and overcome moral obstacles that inevitably arise when pursuing such goals as equal pay for equal work for women, pursuing alternatives to retrenchments or resisting detrimental ‘outsourcing’ arrangements. it seems then that there is normative value in using a virtue-based approach in hrm. the due consideration of the ethical implications of hrm practice and the skill to do so in the form of practical wisdom seems valuable. furthermore, there is a depth to the normative account when an intelligent hrm response also includes (by definition) the other character virtues as named; be that justice, self-control and courage. up to now, the author has suggested and described different forms of hrm moral competence whilst providing some hrm examples of this skill. the question that remains is how in such a practitioner-focussed ethical approach, moral competence could be applied. morales-sanchez and cabello-medina (2013) provided a virtue account of how moral competence could be used to improve normative outcomes through moral decision-making, which is described in more detail below in the context of hrm. human resource management decision-making if hrm practitioners are practical experts in that they apply moral expertise such as practical wisdom with the aim of organisational flourishing, then how they go about using such expertise to make and implement ethical hrm decisions is important. morales-sanchez and cabello-medina (2013) described how professionals who are morally competent could use moral competence in different ways as they go through the various stages of decision-making, from moral awareness through to the implementation of such decisions. such a moral competence in action approach is useful to begin with understanding how hrm practitioners could respond intelligently to hrm circumstances, be that in terms of motivation, agency and right action, as a form of hrm moral behaviour. morales-sanchez and cabello-medina (2013) described how moral competence could be used during decision-making using rest’s (1986) four-stage decision-making model, which professionals such as hrm practitioners could use to improve normative outcomes. rest’s (1986) decision-making model has the following four stages: moral sensitivity, moral judgement, moral motivation and moral character. for each stage, morales-sanchez and cabello-medina (2013) described how moral competence could be applied. table 1 summarises how practical wisdom, as a meta-virtue, contributes in different ways, to each stage of decision-making, as supported by the other cardinal virtues of justice, self-control and courage, as they pertain to hrm. i will now turn to the different stages in more detail as they pertain to hrm. in the first stage of decision-making, hrm practitioners show moral sensitivity, when intentionally using practical wisdom to discern whether policy, process or behaviour, within a requisite context, ‘is most convenient and suitable for each occasion, in accordance with the ‘human good’ (morales-sanchez and cabello-medina, 2013:724). the hrm practitioner begins to discern what could be correct for the situation and starts evaluating potential means towards correct action. this could involve the consideration of alternatives, assessing impact on others and the evaluation of the concerns against hrm standards (morales-sanchez & cabello-medina, 2013). practical wisdom contributes significantly to moral judgement, which is the second stage of hrm decision-making. practical wisdom at this stage is the skill to ‘judge the correctness’ of specific actions through reasoning and sagacity, regardless of personal values (morales-sanchez & cabello-medina, 2013, p. 728). human resource management practitioners assess the correctness of each act, morally labelling them, when considering all alternatives and their means. an important requirement of such consideration is also the technical expertise of an hrm practitioner. in the same way, a lawyer needs an understanding of the law or a doctor is skilled in medical procedure, a hrm practitioner also requires hrm technical competence in order to be able to consider all alternatives when responding in the context of the hrm domain. the ability to make a moral judgement is not always sufficient to ensure that a correct action is taken. practical wisdom contributes to the third stage of decision-making through what morales-sanchez and cabello-medina (2013, p. 728) called its imperative dimension. over and above the cognitive ability for moral sensitivity and judgement, practical wisdom, as the name implies, also has a practical side, where ‘decisions are seen as an imperative of the will’ or what is called moral motivation or the third stage of decision-making. human resource management practitioners often know the correct thing to do but fail to do so. for example, if an hrm practitioner judges that a labour dispute is based on unfair remuneration practices, then they cannot argue that this is a matter for the remuneration committee or ignore the issue in order to improve their own bonus position. if they have practical wisdom, they would be compelled to act. it is at the third or the intentional stage of decision-making that the role of practical wisdom and its relationship with other cardinal virtues come up. whilst practical wisdom commonly is seen to play a leading role in virtue theory and an important role in moulding the other virtues, the other cardinal virtues are also seen to support practical wisdom (devettere, 2002; mele, 2012; morales-sanchez & cabello-medina, 2013). morales-sanchez and cabello-medina (2013, p. 728) described how practical wisdom ‘shows the desired good’, which is then carried out by the ‘individual through the will’, exercising justice and ‘avoid(ing) possible deviations’ by using self-control and courage. finally, the resultant ethical behaviour (or character) is the fourth stage of normative agency. rest (1986) saw ethical behaviour as the result of the judgements we make using our character much in the same way that moral competence results in intelligent responses in the virtue-as-skills approach. this involves turning moral judgement and motivation into the demonstration of moral behaviour. the resulting moral behaviour is a function of the unified nature of moral competence and is seen as excellent when judged by the criteria of justice (bastons, 2008, p. 398) or the normative assessment of the impact it has on others. it is conceivable then that practical experts broadly require expertise during decision-making, and more specifically moral expertise when making ethical judgements. furthermore, moral expertise in the form of different types of virtues or moral skills operates together in different ways (as per the unity of the virtues) at different times or stages. the value of such an approach lies in how professional decision-making could be improved through the development of moral expertise, resulting in better normative outcomes. the author now develops this idea further by using the example of the moderation of performance ratings in hrm practice. human resource management ethical practice performance management, though important, remains controversial, as it goes to the heart of the use and recognition of employees in organisations. performance management is commonly thought of as a ‘planned process of directing, developing, supporting, aligning and improving individual and team performance in enabling the sustained achievement of organisational objectives’ (sabpp, 2014, p. 67). in its many iterations, it is not the idea of performance management per se that is contested. rather, the concern is whether it is fair for organisations to make decisions that affect individuals, such as in the case of personal development, promotions and remuneration, based on a process that is perceived to be inherently inconsistent in the way that it is implemented (fletcher, 2001; gibbon, 2015; winstanley & stuart-smith, 1996). one of the processes that aim to improve consistency in performance management is the common hrm practice of moderating individual performance ratings. moderation occurs when hrm practitioners, amongst others, align performance ratings against an idealised organisational performance curve after managers have assessed individual performance. such moderation is seen as important mainly because of deficiencies in the capability of managers to rate effectively (fletcher, 2001; gibbon, 2015). however, do current conceptions of moderation meet the requirements of ethical hrm practice? the dilemma is weighing up the perceived ‘objectivity’ of moderation with the impact on those individuals that end up overrated or underrated when not moderated. employees are often sensitive to problems of overrating and underrating, though they also claim that moderation is not much better as it is carried out by those who do not know them, putting aside for the moment the issue of whether performance ratings in and of themselves are workable. the situation regarding moderation is a complex one. moderation is accepted and inherent in many hrm policies or guidelines as ‘good hrm practice’. however, hrm practitioners are often made aware of employee dissatisfaction regarding moderation through feedback and grievances. human resource management practitioners cannot merely rely or ‘fall back’ on accepted practice if the assumption of hrm moral competence holds. there is both strategic and normative value then to the hrm practitioner showing practical wisdom in being morally sensitive to employee concerns (stage 1). the hrm practitioner may reason (stage 2) that moderation fails to recognise performance fairly because changes are made to performance ratings without the necessary knowledge of the individual, resulting in a lack of transparency and trust. as part of deliberating on moderation, the good hrm practitioner also requires technical capacity to evaluate potential hrm alternatives that may help resolve the dilemma. such positive intersectionality is referred to as the coming together of hard (technical) and soft (normative) hrm or ethical convergences as a form of hrm practice (carey, 1999). the hrm practitioner may judge that it is better to change moderation from a model of instrumental or ‘forced’ altering of ratings to one of moderating the quality of management actions. performance could be fairly recognised if managers actively engage with employees to set reasonable targets, ensure that employees have the capacity to perform and mutually agree on what has been achieved (fletcher, 2001; winstanley & stuart-smith, 1996), conceivably obviating the need for moderation in the first place. during deliberation, the hrm practitioner has to demonstrate the capacity for self-control, even though they may instinctively relate to managers and want to be able to control the outcomes of performance management. the capacity for self-control is important so that the development of justice (stage 3) is not inhibited and thereby the willingness or intention to act, ensuring that the resulting behaviour remains aligned to the moral intent. this then is the potential willingness to consider in this situation the alternatives that may challenge the quality and thereby the power of managers in the organisation. knowing what to do and being motivated to do so are insufficient to turn moral intent into moral action, which is the final stage of decision-making. if hrm practitioners want to moderate management actions, then courage is also required. courage is required to hold managers accountable for their actions if the goal is the fair recognition of performance. the virtuous practitioner needs to maintain a positive attitude, demonstrating patience and resilience when confronting managers regarding their attitudes to performance and their capacity to engage and rate staff fairly. furthermore, concrete actions are required to address and work around distractions, such as recalcitrant managers. moral competencies then operate together through the meta-competency of practical wisdom and contribute in various ways during the process of hrm decision-making. we have seen how – in the case of performance management – fair moderation could lead to better normative outcomes by having a positive impact on others, and how such moral competence in action could contribute to ethical hrm practice. such ethical hrm practice has the potential to both question what is currently accepted as ‘good hrm’ and allow hrm practitioners to challenge, where necessary, the inherent power of stakeholders more effectively. conclusion a case has been made for the importance of virtue as a skill in hrm in the form of moral competencies. human resource management moral competence has the potential for the active moderation of interests within organisations using good judgement such as in our case of performance management. the advantage of such an approach to hrm decision-making is the potential for better normative outcomes and behaviour that is aligned to ethical intent. such virtues as practical wisdom, justice, self-control and courage could form the basis of the professional character of hrm and furthermore a commitment to developing such skills. acknowledgements the author is grateful to prof. dylan futter, department of philosophy, university of the witwatersrand, johannesburg, for helping out with the research work. competing interests the author has declared that no competing interests exist. author(s) contributions i declare that i am the sole author of this research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. ethical consideration this article followed all ethical standards for a research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references abbott, p.e. (2015). ethical competence in hr management practice. johannesburg: sabpp. academy of human resource development (ahrd). (1999). standards on ethics and integrity. retrieved from https://www.ahrd.org/?standards_on_ethics annas, j. (1995). virtue as a skill. international journal of philosophy studies, 3(2), 227–243. https://doi.org/10.1080/09672559508570812 annas, j. (2011). intelligent virtue. oxford: oxford university press. annas, j. (2015). applying virtue to ethics (society of applied philosophy annual lecture 2014). journal of applied philosophy, 32(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/japp.12103 bastons, m. (2008). the role of virtues in the framing of decisions. journal of business ethics, 78(3), 389–400. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-006-9332-x carey, l. (1999). ethical dimensions of a strategic approach to hrm: an australian perspective. asia pacific journal of human resources, 37(3), 53–68. https://doi.org/10.1177/103841119903700305 dahlsgaard, k., peterson, c., & seligman, m.e.p. (2005). shared virtue: the convergence of valued human strengths across culture and history. review of general psychology, 9(3), 203–213. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.9.3.203 devettere, r.j. (2002). introduction to virtue ethics: insights of the ancient greeks. washington, dc: georgetown university press. fletcher, c. (2001). performance appraisal and management: the developing research agenda. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 74(4), 473–487. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317901167488 gibbon, p. (2015). ethics in performance management. in p. abbott (ed.), ethical competence in hr management practice (pp. 169–179), johannesburg: sabpp. greenwood, m. (2002). ethics and hrm: a review and conceptual analysis. journal of business ethics, 36, 261–278. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1014090411946 hursthouse, r. (1991). virtue theory and abortion. philosophy & public affairs, 20(3), 223–246. hursthouse, r. (2013). virtue ethics. in stanford encyclopaedia of philosophy. retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2013/entries/ethics-virtue/ kirsten, m., wordsworth, r., vanniekerk, m., & erasmus, b. (2015). are we there yet? the role of hr in promoting ethical behaviour: 2002–2014. in p. abbot (ed.), ethical competence in hr management practice (pp. 15–29), johannesburg: sabpp. lee, e., & yu, k.s. (2013). how are global hr competency models evolving for the future? ithaca, ny: ilr school, cornell university. retrieved from http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/student/17/ mele, d. (2012). management ethics. placing ethics at the core of good management. hampshire: palgrave macmillan. morales-sanchez, r., & cabello-medina, c. (2013). the role of four universal moral competencies in ethical decision-making. journal of business ethics, 116, 717–734. morales-sanchez, r., & cabello-medina, c. (2015). integrating character in management: virtues, character strengths, and competencies. journal of business ethics: a european review, 24(s2), 156–174. https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12104 rest, j.r. (1986). moral development: advances in research and theory. new york, ny: praeger. society for human resource management (shrm). (2012, 2016). the shrm competency model. retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/learningandcareer/competency-model/pages/default.aspx south african board of people practices (sabpp). (2014). national human resource management standards. hrm file provided to sabpp, johannesburg: sabpp. south african board of people practices (sabpp). (2017). hr standards update, hr professional practice standards, sabpp. hrm publication provided to sabpp, johannesburg: sabpp. stichter, m. (2007a). ethical expertise: the skill model of virtue. ethical theory and moral practice, 10, 183–194. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-006-9054-2 stichter, m. (2007b). the skill of virtue. dissertation submitted to the graduate college of bowling green state university, bowling green, ohio. stichter, m. (2013). virtue as skills in virtue epistemology. pre-print draft. journal of philosophical research, 38, 333–348. https://doi.org/10.5840/jpr20133817 stichter, m. (2015). practical skills and practical wisdom in virtue. australasian journal of philosophy, 94(3), 435–448. https://doi.org/10.1080/00048402.2015.1074257 ulrich, d., younger, j., brockbank, w., & ulrich, m. (2012). hr from the outside in, six competencies for the future of human resources, new york: mcgraw hill. van vuuren, l.j., & eiselen, r.j. (2006). a role for hr in corporate ethics? south african practitioners’ perspectives. south african journal of human resource management, 4(3), 22–28. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v4i3.95 winstanley, d., & stuart-smith, k. (1996). policing performance: the ethics of performance management. personnel review, 25(6), 66–84. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483489610148545 abstract introduction job demands and work engagement job resources: mediating the job demands–work engagement relationship job resources and personal resources as mediators in serial research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) martina kotzé business school, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa petrus nel department of industrial psychology, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa citation kotzé, m., & nel, p. (2019). job and personal resources as mediators in the relationship between iron-ore mineworkers’ job demands and work engagement. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1183. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1183 original research job and personal resources as mediators in the relationship between iron-ore mineworkers’ job demands and work engagement martina kotzé, petrus nel received: 04 mar. 2019; accepted: 24 may 2019; published: 27 aug. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: mining companies are major sources of employment in south africa. withstanding the challenges that the mining industry faces, maintaining work engagement of employees is essential to success in this context. research purpose: to investigate the mediating effect of job and personal resources (in parallel and serial) in the relationship between the job demands and work engagement of employees at two iron-ore mines in a remote south african locale. motivation for the study: most south african research on work engagement in the mining industry focuses on the role of job resources. there is a lack of research investigating the influence of both job and personal resources in the relationship between job demands and mineworkers’ work engagement. research approach/design and method: data were collected using questionnaires from 238 employees working for two open-pit iron-ore mines. three mediating relationships were investigated using variance-based structural equation modelling. main findings: the results indicate that job and personal resources (in parallel) partially mediated the relationship between job demands and work engagement, with personal resources having a stronger effect than job resources. in addition, job and personal resources (in serial) partially mediated the relationship between job demands and work engagement but not as strongly as personal resources (in parallel). practical/managerial implications: despite job demands, mineworkers’ work engagement can be increased by investing in interventions and a work environment that enhances job and personal resources (such as mindfulness and psychological capital). contribution/value add: the study bridges a specific gap in the literature by exploring the role of both job and personal resources (i.e., mindfulness and psychological capital) in the relationship between mineworkers’ job demands and work engagement. no previous studies explored these variables in combination in the south african mining industry. keywords: mindfulness; psychological capital; mineworkers; work engagement; job and personal resources in the mining industry. introduction south african mines are significant sources of employment for local communities (marais et al., 2018). notwithstanding major changes in labour laws that improved working conditions of mineworkers over the past two decades, the mining industry is still marked by several job demands, such as work pressure, labour unrest, safety hazards, retrenchments, production demands, shift work and job insecurity (abrahamsson et al., 2014; malherbe & segal, 2000; marais & cloete, 2013). to reduce operational costs and increase profits, mines locally and abroad, are seeking to produce more with fewer employees (chen, chen, zhu, qi, & long, 2015; phakathi, 2011). management encourages mineworkers to meet demanding production targets in exchange for bonuses. to secure these bonuses, workers often deviate from work rules and take risks and shortcuts – sometimes with serious implications for their safety and health (chimamise et al., 2013). however, accidents and injuries in the mining environment are not only the result of job and production demands. personal factors such as mineworkers’ psychological well-being, negative affectivity and job dissatisfaction also lead to unnecessary risky behaviour that influences mineworkers’ safety and accident proneness (paul & maiti, 2007). to get the best out of mineworkers, managers need to keep mineworkers energised, focused and engaged. as engaged employees are more proactive in shaping their work environment and creating their own resources, they are more likely to handle job demands effectively (bakker, demerouti, & xanthopoulou, 2012). past studies show that work engagement has the potential to create flourishing workplaces (schaufeli & salanova, 2007), and that engaged employees outperform disengaged employees (herbert, 2011; youssef & luthans, 2007). the job demands–resources model (jd-r) (bakker & demerouti, 2008) can assist managers in this regard as it shows how stressful job demands can be mitigated by job and personal resources to increase work engagement. job demands are organisational, social or physical job aspects associated with psychological and physiological costs (xanthopoulou, bakker, demerouti, & schaufeli, 2007) and may include excessive workload, intrusion of work into employees’ private lives and time pressure. job resources, such as managerial support, help employees reach their work goals and reduce job demands, while also assisting employees to develop personally. personal resources refer to employees’ ability to influence or control their work environment successfully. this includes qualities such as self-efficacy that fosters employee resilience (bakker, 2009; xanthopoulou et al., 2007). bakker (2009) argues that both job and personal resources (separate or in combination) influence work engagement. past studies conducted in the south african mining industry show how job resources influence employees’ work engagement. these studies found that perceived organisational support, such as work autonomy, communication, role clarity and supervisory and co-worker support (mphahlele, els, de beer, & mostert, 2018; palo & rothmann, 2016; rothmann & joubert, 2007) enhance work engagement. on the other hand, few studies investigate the influence of personal resources on mineworkers’ work engagement. de beer, tims and bakker’s (2016) study of several organisations in the south african mining and manufacturing industries shows that employees’ proactive behaviour in the form of job crafting increased work engagement. other recent south african studies outside the mining industry found that personal resources, such as psychological capital (psycap) and mindfulness, positively influence work engagement (kotzé, 2018a, b). while psycap enhances proactive behaviour (avey, wernsing, & luthans, 2008; bakker, tims, & derks, 2012; sameer, 2018), mindfulness encourages states of wakefulness and involvement, and, as a result, employees perform their work in more interesting and creative ways (depenbrock, 2014; langer & modoveanu, 2000; leroy, anseel, dimitrova, & sels, 2013; malinowski & lim, 2015). no south african studies, to our knowledge, explore the influence of both job and personal resources on work engagement, specifically within the mining industry. to bridge this gap in the literature, this research explores the role of job and personal resources (i.e., mindfulness and psycap) in the relationship between mineworkers’ job demands and work engagement. job demands and work engagement job demands are psychological, physical, social or organisational job-related aspects that require either psychological or physiological effort, associated with specific psychological or physical costs (demerouti, bakker, nachreiner, & schaufeli, 2001; schaufeli & bakker, 2004). based on the challenge stressor-hindrance stressor framework (cavanaugh, boswell, roehling, & boudreau, 2000), researchers distinguish two types of job demands: those incorporating ‘challenges’ (such as time pressure) and ‘hindrances’ (such as role conflict) to the achievement of work outcomes. most definitions of work engagement (see, e.g., fernandez, 2007; markos & sridevi, 2010; schaufeli, 2013) include common elements such as employees’ passionate drive towards, enthusiasm for, involvement in and commitment to their job or organisation. schaufeli (2013, p. 25) describes work engagement as ‘a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption.’ ‘vigour’ means enhanced levels of mental resilience and energy and includes employees’ preparedness to put effort into their work. it is seen as a motivational concept and is most apparent when employees approach their tasks with persistence and effort, despite difficulties at work. employees with ‘dedication’ feel challenged, proud, inspired and enthusiastic, and experience a sense of significance about their work (schaufeli, salanova, gonzalez-roma, & bakker, 2002; sonnentag, 2017). ‘absorption’ involves immersion in one’s work (schaufeli, martinez, pinto, salanova, & bakker, 2002). however, dedication and vigour are regarded as the ‘core components’ of work engagement (schaufeli, 2013; taris, ybema, & van beek, 2017). theoretically, the jd-r model does not assume there is a direct relation between job demands and work engagement (bakker, hakanen, demrouti, & xanthopoulou, 2007), yet there is empirical evidence indicating that certain job demands are positively associated with work engagement (mauno, kinnunen, & ruokolaine, 2007). although both types of job demands (challenges and hindrances) are positively related to job strain (breevaart & bakker, 2018), some studies show that challenges, such as time pressure, contribute to employee motivation and are positively related to increased work engagement. hindrances, such as role conflict and unreasonable intrusion of work into employees’ private lives, on the other hand, are detrimental to employee motivation and show a negative association with work engagement (breevaart & bakker, 2018; inoue et al., 2014; kotzé & nel, 2018; van der broeck, de cuyper, de witte, & vansteenkiste, 2010). therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed: h1: job demands (i.e., intrusion of work into private life) have a negative influence on mineworkers’ work engagement. job resources: mediating the job demands–work engagement relationship the relationship between job demands and job resources job resources refer to: [p]hysical, psychological, social, or organizational aspects of the job that either/or (1) reduce job demands and the associated physiological and psychological cost; (2) are functional in achieving work goals; (3) stimulate personal growth, learning and development. (schaufeli & bakker, 2004, p. 296) job resources can be formal or informal. organisations can provide formal support (through organisational practices or policies) or informal support (through supervisor or social support) (hammer, kossek, yragui, bodner, & hanson, 2009; rhoades & eisenberger, 2002). in the relationship between job demands and job resources, employees experiencing hindering job demands typically perceive their job resources as inefficient. because perceptions influence peoples’ cognitive appraisals of situations, employees’ perceptions of organisations’ formal and informal support override objective indicators of support (glazer, 2006). when employees perceive job resources as insufficient, or are unable to mobilise it, it may overwhelm or discourage them (duong, tuckey, hayward, & boyd, 2015). hindering job demands cause stress, which may impede employees’ ability to mobilise job resources (bakker, demerouti, & verbeke, 2004; muse & pichler, 2011) and may undermine employees’ perceptions of employers’ care and respect for them (liao, 2011). the relationship between job resources and work engagement past studies show that job resources have a positive influence on work engagement (mauno et al., 2007; schaufeli, bakker & van rhenen, 2009). liao (2011) uses emerson’s (1976) theory to explain that the organisation/supervisor–employee relationship is characterised by a social exchange process. when employees experience their organisations as supportive (i.e., sufficient job resources), they will reciprocate this support by exhibiting a positive affect towards their work/organisation (e.g., work engagement) (zhai, wang, & weadon, 2017). because high job demands, coupled with job resources, may lead to work engagement (schaufeli & bakker, 2004), job resources are potential mechanisms influencing the negative relationship between job demands and work engagement. resources can counteract hindering job demands and thereby protect employees (breevaart & bakker, 2018; ten brummelhuis & bakker, 2012). the following hypothesis is therefore proposed: h2: job resources mediate the relationship between job demands and work engagement such that the indirect effect is negative. personal resources (psycap and mindfulness): mediating the job demands–work engagement relationship psycap is a second-order construct consisting of four integrated first-order constructs: self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience (luthans, youssef, & avolio, 2007). high self-efficacy occurs when employees have confidence in their capabilities to confront and accomplish challenging assignments (luthans, youssef-morgan, & avolio, 2015). hope enables individuals to stay focused on set goals, while creating alternative paths, when needed, to succeed. optimism includes the belief that employees’ efforts will result in positive outcomes presently and in future. resilience is one’s ability to cope despite problems, and to bounce back after setbacks (snyder et al., 1991). as psycap creates positive emotions, it allows employees to evaluate interpersonal relations, job resources and other available support in a more positive light (avey et al., 2008; herbert, 2011). it is a state-like resource and can be developed, even through short training interventions (luthans & youssef-morgan, 2017). mindfulness is a conscious, non-judgmental awareness of, and attention to, every moment. it helps people focus on the present and stay conscious of any relevant internal and external stimuli, without being concerned with the past or future (dane, 2011; depenbrock, 2014). in the workplace, mindfulness assists employees to give attention to relevant occurrences and activities, acknowledge their own behaviour and feelings and manage negative feelings that may encourage harmful actions (dane & brummel, 2013). although mindfulness is an innate human ability that differs between individuals, employees can enhance mindfulness through various types of interventions (brown & ryan, 2003; leroy et al., 2013; petchsawang & mclean, 2017). the relationship between job demands and personal resources persistent job demands may diminish and deplete employees’ energetic resources as they draw on resources beyond employees’ normal abilities (grover, teo, pick, roche, & newton, 2018). according to bakker et al. (2004), job demands operate through a process of impairment, negatively influencing psychological and physical well-being. job demands can drain employees’ energy, and they may struggle to cope with the resulting exhaustion (maslach, 1993). the impairment of employees’ personal resources can result in job strain and, subsequently, a decreased willingness to invest themselves in their work (breevaart & bakker, 2018). this indicates that there is a negative relationship between job demands and personal resources. the relationship between personal resources and work engagement empirical studies in different types of work environments support the positive influence of psycap on work engagement (constantini et al., 2017; herbert, 2011; roux, 2010; simons & buitendach, 2013; wang, liu, zou, junhui, & wu, 2017). some studies indicate that psycap, as a second-order construct, is a stronger predictor of work engagement than the four first-order constructs separately (simons & buitendach, 2013). other studies indicate that self-efficacy and optimism are the two strongest predictors of work engagement (herbert, 2011; roux, 2010). wang et al. (2017) found that the second-order construct psycap, as well as two first-order constructs, hope and optimism, are significant predictors of work engagement. researchers found that mindfulness increases employees’ work engagement because it stimulates personal flourishing (a state of optimal mental health; feeling good about yourself and your potential to contribute positively to the world around you) (zheng, gunasekara, & blaich, 2018). it also helps employees perform their work more creatively (langer & modoveanu, 2000) and assists them to utilise the resources they need in order to be actively involved at work (depenbrock, 2014). based on this, the following hypothesis is proposed: h3: personal resources (i.e. psycap and mindfulness) mediate the relationship between job demands and work engagement such that the indirect effect is negative. job resources and personal resources as mediators in serial job resources stimulate the energy of employees and subsequently enable them to persist and persevere. empirical evidence from a study by xanthopoulou et al. (2007) helps explain the underlying psychological mechanisms of the motivational process of the jd-r model. the authors conclude that the availability of job resources activates employees’ personal resources, making them ‘feel more capable of controlling their work environment’ (p. 136). subsequently, being more proud and confident, and finding more meaning in their work, they stay engaged in their work. past studies found that personal resources either mediate or partially mediate the relationship between job resources and work engagement, suggesting that job resources foster the development of personal resources (demerouti & bakker, 2011; xanthopoulou et al., 2007). therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed: h4: job resources and personal resources mediate in serial the relationship between job demands and work engagement such that the indirect effect is negative. to explore the influence of job and personal resources in the relationship between job demands and work engagement, a conceptual model (figure 1) was developed. figure 1: conceptual model: the influence of job demands on work engagement mediated by job resources (employer respect and employee care) and personal resources (psycap and mindfulness). research design research approach this study was part of a larger interdisciplinary research project in which a cross-sectional design with a survey data-collection technique was used. research method participants employees (n = 238) from two open-pit iron-ore mines (51% and 49% split) in the northern cape in south africa participated. the majority (83%) are male, and over half (55%) operate heavy-duty machinery and equipment. the rest are artisans, engineers, equipment or quality controllers, health and safety officers, or maintenance planners. only 6% are supervisors or team leaders. participants’ average age was 36 (sd = 8.65). the majority (62%) speak an indigenous african language, about 33% are afrikaans-speaking and 5% indicated they speak other languages. measuring instruments job demands: ‘intrusion of work into private life’ (six items) was used as the indicator for job demands. items focus on whether employees feel stressed and pressured to meet targets, find it difficult to relax after work, and if work affects their private life or impacts negatively on their self-esteem (parker & hyett, 2011). work engagement: the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes-9) was used to measure vigour and dedication (core constructs of work engagement) as a one-factor structure (de bruin & henn, 2013; schaufeli, bakker, & salanova, 2006; schaufeli, salanova et al., 2002). personal resources: psycap and mindfulness were used as indicators of personal resources. the 15-item mindful attention awareness scale (maas) (brown & ryan, 2003) was employed to measure mindfulness. the psycap questionnaire (pcq-24) containing the four subscales of psycap (self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience) (luthans, avolio, avey, & norman, 2007; grobler & joubert, 2018) measured psycap. job resources: two scales from the work well-being questionnaire (parker & hyett, 2011) were used as indicators of job resources. organisational respect for employees (seven items) focused on whether employees view senior people in their organisation as trustworthy and whether the organisation values its staff and treats them well. employee care (seven items) reflects the degree to which employees perceive their supervisors as caring, willing to listen, understanding of their work concerns, and treating employees as they wish to be treated. statistical analysis the reliability of the measuring instruments was determined using cronbach’s alpha. estimates as low as 0.6 may be acceptable when conducting exploratory research (field, 2005; hair, black, babin, anderson, & tatham, 2006, pp. 137, 778). pearson’s product moment correlation was used to determine the degree to which the independent variables are significantly correlated with work engagement. variance-based structural equation modelling was employed to evaluate the different hypotheses. a two-step process should be followed when evaluating the results associated with variance-based structural equation modelling (henseler, ringle, & sinkovics, 2009). the outer model (i.e., measurement model) provides information as to the quality of the indicators used to operationalise each of the latent variables. the quality of the outer model is determined in terms of reliability and validity. composite reliability estimates of 0.7 and higher, together with values of 0.5 and higher for the average variance extracted (ave), are both evidence of an acceptable outer model. the indicators used to operationalise each latent variable must have statically significant loadings. the inner model (i.e., structural model) provides information on the strength (beta) and statistical significance (p-values) of the associated paths in a theoretical model. furthermore, the r-square value is an indicator of the proposed theoretical model’s predictive power (henseler et al., 2009). smartpls version 3 (ringle, wende, & becker, 2015) was used to evaluate all four of the hypotheses. ethical considerations ethical clearance number: ufs-hsd2015/0495. this project was part of a larger interdisciplinary project conducted at the mines in postmasburg. the project leader was prof. philippe burger. results the results section includes several tables showing the statistical outcomes from the collected data. the reliability estimates for each variable are reported here (table 1). it is evident from the data that all variables have acceptable levels of reliability, ranging between 0.6 (intrusion of work into private life) and 0.92 (mindfulness). table 1: reliability estimates. the results from correlating the variables show that they are all significantly associated with work engagement (table 2). mindfulness (r = 0.429) and intrusion of work into private life (r = −0.462) have the strongest relationship with work engagement. psycap (r = 0.295) has the weakest relationship with work engagement. table 2: correlations. all the indicators used to operationalise each of the latent variables met the required quality criteria (tables 3 and 4). all the indicators had acceptable composite reliabilities and values higher than 0.5 in terms of ave. table 3: outer model (quality criteria). table 4: outer loadings. the present study continued evaluating the inner model, emphasising both the size and significance of the proposed paths. all proposed paths are statistically significant (table 5). this proposed model explained 33% of the variance in mineworkers’ work engagement. of importance is the direct path between job demands and work engagement. it is evident that job demands have a negative influence on work engagement (−0.304). as this path is statistically significant (p = 0.000), the study finds support for hypothesis 1. table 5: path coefficients. the specific indirect effects (table 6) are used to evaluate the proposed mechanisms through which the negative effect of job demands on work engagement is mediated. table 6: specific indirect effects. firstly, it is clear that the mechanism through which job demands affect work engagement (via job resources) is negative (−0.044) and statistically significant (p = 0.050). secondly, the mechanism through which job demands affect work engagement (via personal resources) is negative (−0.096) and statistically significant (p = 0.004). interestingly, the effects of the mechanism through which job demands negatively influence work engagement (via personal resources) are stronger than via job resources. in short, these results indicate that job resources and personal resources only partially mediate (in parallel) the negative effect of job demands on work engagement. therefore, both hypothesis 2 and hypothesis 3 are partially accepted. the mechanism through which job demands negatively influence work engagement (via job resources, then personal resources) (−0.018) is also statistically significant (p = 0.037). these results show that job resources and personal resources only partially mediate (in serial) the negative effect of job demands on work engagement. as a result, hypothesis 4 is partially accepted. discussion the present study set out to determine the direct effect of job demands on work engagement, as well as the mediating effects of job and personal resources (in parallel) on the above relationship. finally, the mediating effect of both job and personal resources (in serial/combination) was investigated. support was found for the negative effect of job demands on work engagement among the sample of mining employees. bakker et al. (2004) propose that job demands negatively influence work engagement through an impairment process. it is assumed that when employees are faced with high job demands, their mental resources (and probably other resources) are diminished, leading to lower levels of work engagement. continued exposure to high job demands also negatively influences health and well-being by requiring individuals to use more resources than they actually have (schaufeli & taris, 2014). the present study found that the two types of resources (job and personal in parallel) partially mediate the negative effect of job demands on work engagement. this is in line with the findings of slöetjes (2012) on the mediating role of personal resources. according to kanfer, frese and johnson (2017), motivation is usually a function of explicit personal factors (e.g. personality traits) and job-related contextual characteristics. as such, both job and personal resources influence the motivational levels of employees to be engaged with their work. brouze (2013) reported that psycap partially mediates the motivational process of the jd-r model, while bakker and demermouti (2016) state that individuals with access to job resources are more motivated to use these resources to successfully fulfil their job responsibilities and achieve their goals (bakker & demerouti, 2016). interestingly, the mediating effect of personal resources on the relationship between job demands and work engagement is slightly stronger than the mediating effect of job resources. schaufeli and taris (2014) argue that it is possible that not all the resources in the jd-r model are equal. therefore, in any given context, employees can place different motivational values on different resources. whereas job resources function as external/contextual motivators (schaufeli & taris, 2014), it is likely that personal resources (such as psycap and mindfulness) function as internal motivators. in addition, it is likely that because employees may have more control over their personal resources than their job resources, that the influence of personal resources may have a stronger mediating effect. although, job demands had a negative effect on work engagement in the present study, this relationship was suppressed by the presence of both job and personal resources. finally, the present study found that the two types of resources (job and personal in serial) partially mediated the negative effect of job demands on work engagement – but not as strongly as found by the partial mediation in parallel. previous research suggested that when individuals are faced with job demands, the availability of job resources activates their personal resources (xanthopoulou et al., 2008). this seems plausible given that individuals use different resources in combination (‘resource caravans’) (hobfoll, 2011), to successfully deal with demands. indeed, a positive effect was observed between job and personal resources. this agrees with slöetjes (2012) who found a significant relationship between job resources and personal resources. the mediating effect (in serial) was also statistically significant, lending support to the possibility that job resources activate personal resources that eventually influence work engagement. however, as previously theorised, individuals may place different motivational values on the resources they use to enhance their levels of engagement. practical implications the findings of the study show that job demands (intrusion of work into private life) negatively influence iron-ore mineworkers’ work engagement. despite the job demands, mineworkers’ work engagement can be increased by investing in interventions and a work environment that enhances job and personal resources. the present study suggests two potential interventions: firstly, increasing individual mindfulness awareness and psycap through training and development interventions, and secondly, designing work environments and organisational practices and/or policies that reflect respect and care for employees and allow supervisors to support their employees. limitations and recommendations the present study explored the influence of only two personal resources, mindfulness and psycap, as mediators in the relationship between the job demands and mineworkers’ levels of work engagement. future studies may incorporate other personal resources and investigate their accumulative influence on mineworkers’ work engagement (schaufeli & taris, 2014; slöetjes, 2012). the present study applied a quantitative methodology. as the work environment of mineworkers is unique, future researchers are encouraged to use qualitative methods to improve the understanding of the mining working environment, as well as the personal, work and home resources mineworkers employ to feel engaged in their daily work activities. conclusion the purpose of this research was to investigate the mediating effect of both job and personal resources in the relationship between job demands and work engagement of mineworkers at two iron-ore mines in a remote area in south africa. the results indicate that job and personal resources partially mediate (in parallel and in serial) this relationship. in light of these results, mining companies may need to consider what can be done to enhance the job and personal resources of their employees to help them cope with the challenges in mining workplace environments. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.k. was responsible for conceptualisation, literature review, data gathering, discussion of results, conclusion, limitations and practical implications. p.n. was responsible for research design, statistical analysis, presentation and discussion of results, conclusion and limitations. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abrahamsson, l., segerstedt, e., nygren, m., johansson, j., johansson, b., edman, i., et al. (2014). gender, diversity and work conditions in mining, mining and sustainable development. luleå: luleå university of technology press. avey, j. b., wernsing, t. s., & luthans, f. (2008). can positive employees help positive organizational change? impact of psychological capital and emotions on relevant attitudes and behaviors. journal of applied behavioral science, 44(1), 48–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886307311470 bakker, a. b. (2009). building engagement in the workplace. in r. j. burke & c. l. cooper (eds.), the peak performing organization, (pp. 50–72). oxon: routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203971611.ch3 bakker, a. b., tims, m., & derks, d. (2012). proactive personality and job performance: the role of job crafting and work engagement. human relations, 65(10), 1359–1378. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726712453471 bakker, a. b., & demerouti, e. (2008). towards a model of work engagement. career development international, 13(3), 209–223. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430810870476 bakker, a. b., & demerouti, e. (2016). job demands-resources theory: taking stock and looking forward. journal of occupational health psychology, 22(3), 273–285. bakker, a. b., demerouti, e., & verbeke, w. (2004). using the job demands-resources model to predict burnout and performance. human resource management, 43(1), 83–104. bakker, a. b, demerouti, e., & xanthopoulou, d. (2012). why do engaged employees stay engaged? ciencia & trabajo, 14 (special issue), 16–22. bakker, a. b., hakanen, j., demerouti, e., & xanthopoulou, d. (2007). job resources boost work engagement, particularly when job demands are high. journal of educational psychology, 99(2), 274–284. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.99.2.274 breevaart, k., & bakker, a. b. (2018). daily job demands and employee work engagement: the role of daily transformational leadership behavior. journal of occupational health psychology, 23(3), 338–349. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000082 brouze, k. l. (2013). examining the mediating and moderating role of psychological capital in the job demands-resources model. unpublished master’s dissertation. university of cape town, south africa. brown, k. w., & ryan, r. m. (2003). the benefits of being present: mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. journal of personality and social psychology, 84(4), 822–848. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.84.4.822 chen, h., chen, f., zhu, d., qi, h., & long, r. (2015). burnout in chinese coal mine safety supervision. energy policy, 85(c), 22–31. chimamise, c., gombe, n. t., tshimanga, m., chadambuka, a., shambira, g., & chimusoro, a. (2013). factors associated with severe occupational injuries at a mining company in zimbabwe, 2010: a cross-sectional study. pan african medical journal, 14, 5. https://doi.org/10.11604/pamj.2013.14.5.1148 constantini, a., de paola, f., ceschi, a., sartori, u., meneghini, a. m., & fabio, a. d. (2017). work engagement and psychological capital in the italian public administration: a new resource-based intervention programme. sa journal of industrial psychology, 43(1), a1413. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v4310.1413 dane, e. (2011). paying attention to mindfulness and its effects on task performance in the workplace. journal of management, 37(4), 997–1018. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310367948 dane, e., & brummel, b. (2013). examining workplace mindfulness and its relations to job performance and turnover intention. human relations, 67(1), 105–128. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726713487753 de beer, l. t., tims, m., & bakker, a. b. (2016). job crafting and its impact on work engagement and job satisfaction mining and manufacturing. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 19(3), 400–412. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v19i3.1481 de bruin, g. p., & henn, c. m. (2013). dimensionality of the 9-item utrecht work engagement scale (uwes-9). psychological reports: human resources and marketing, 112(3), 788–799. https://doi.org/10.2466/01.03.pr0.112.3.788-799 demerouti, e., & bakker, a. b. (2011). the job demands-resources model: challenges for future research. sa journal of industrial psychology, 37(2), art. #974, 9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i2.974 demerouti, e., bakker, a. b., nachreiner, f., & schaufeli, w. b. (2001). the job demands-resources model of burnout. journal of applied psychology, 86(3), 499–512. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.499 depenbrock, f. (2014). being mindfully aware and engaged at work? the role of affect regulative processes for the relationship between daily levels of mindfulness and work engagement. unpublished master’s thesis. maastricht university, the netherlands. duong, d., tuckey, m. r., hayward, r. m., & boyd, c. m. (2015). work-family conflict: the importance of differentiating between different facets of job characteristics. work and stress, 29(3), 230–245. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2015.1074629 emerson, r. m. (1976). social exchange theory. annual review of sociology, 2, 335–362. fernandez, c. p. (2007). employee engagement. journal of public health management and practice, 13(5), 524–552. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.phh.0000285207.63835.50 field, a. (2005). discovering statistics using spss (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. glazer, s. (2006). social support across cultures. international journal of intercultural relations, 30(5), 605–622. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2005.01.013 grobler, a., & joubert, y. t. (2018). psychological capital: convergent and discriminant validity of a reconfigured measure. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 21(1), a1715. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v21i1.1715 grover, s. l., teo, s. t., pick, d., roche, m., & newton, c. j. (2018). psychological capital as a personal resource in the jd-r model. personnel review, 47(4), 968–984. hair, j. f., black, b., babin, b., anderson, r. e., & tatham, r. l. (2006). multivariate data analysis (6th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. hammer, l. b., kossek, n. l., yragui, n. l., bodner, t. e., & hanson, g. c. (2009). development and validation of a multidimensional measure of family supportive supervisor behaviors. journal of management, 35(4), 837–856. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206308328510 henseler, j., ringle, c. m., & sinkovics, r. r. (2009). the use of partial least squares path modeling in international marketing. advances in international marketing, 20, 277–319. https://doi.org/10.1108/s1474-7979(2009)0000020014 herbert, m. (2011). an exploration of the relationships between psychological capital (hope, optimism, self-efficacy, resilience), occupational stress, burnout and employee engagement. unpublished master’s thesis. stellenbosch university, south africa. hobfoll, s. e. (2011). conservation of resource caravans and engaged settings. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 84(1), 116–122. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.2010.02016.x inoue, a., kawakami, n., tsutsumi, a., shimazu, a., miyaki, k., takahashi, m., et al. (2014). association of job demands with work engagement of japanese employees: comparison of challenges with hindrances (j-hope). plos one, 9(3), e91583. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0091583 kanfer, r., frese, m., & johnson, r. e. (2017). motivation related to work: a century of progress. journal of applied psychology, 102(3), 338–355. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000133 kotzé, m. (2018a). how job resources and personal resources influence work engagement and burnout. african journal of economic and management studies, 9(2), 148–164. https://doi.org/10.1108/ajems-05-2017-0096 kotzé, m. (2018b). the influence of psychological capital, self-leadership, and mindfulness on work engagement. south african journal of psychology, 48(2), 279–292. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246317705812 kotzé, m., & nel, p. (2018). the work-related psychological well-being of a mineworker. in l. marais, p. burger & d. van rooyen (eds.), mining and community in south africa: from small town to iron town (pp. 199–214). new york: routledge. langer, e. j., & moldoveanu, m. (2000). the construct of mindfulness. journal of social issues, 56(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00148 leroy, h., anseel, f., dimitrova, n., & sels, l. (2013). mindfulness, authentic functioning, and work engagement: a growth modelling approach. journal of vocational behavior, 82(3), 238–247. liao, p-y. (2011). linking work-family conflict to job attitudes: the mediating role of social exchange relationships. the international journal of human resource management, 22(14), 2965–2980. luthans, f., & youssef-morgan, c. m. (2017). psychological capital: an evidence-based positive approach. annual review of organisational psychology and organizational behavior, 4, 339–366. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032516-113324 luthans, f., avolio, b. j., avey, j. b., & norman, s. m. (2007). positive psychological capital: measurement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. leadership institute faculty publications, paper 11. retrieved from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/leadershipfacpub/11 luthans, f., youssef, c., & avolio, b. (2007). psychological capital: developing the human competitive edge. oxford: oxford university press. luthans, f., youssef-morgan, c., & avolio, b. (2015). psychological capital and beyond. new york: oxford university press. malinowski, p., & lim, h. j. (2015). mindfulness at work: positive affect, hope, and optimism mediate the relationship between dispositional mindfulness, work engagement and well-being. mindfulness, 6(6), 1250–1262. marais, l., & cloete, j. (2013). labour migration, settlement and mine closure in south africa. geography, 98(2), 77–84. marais, l., burger, p., van rooyen, d., lenka, m., cloete, j., denoon-stevens, s., et al. (2018). the background to the postmasburg study. in l. marais, p. burger & d. van rooyen (eds.), mining and community in south africa: from small town to iron town (pp. 5–22). new york: routledge. markos, s., & sridevi, m. s. (2010). employee engagement: the key to improving performance. international journal of business and management, 5(12), 89–96. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v5n12p89 maslach, c. (1993). burnout: a multidimensional perspective. in w. b. schaufeli, c. maslach & t. marek (eds.), professional burnout: recent developments in theory and research. washington, dc: taylor & francis. malherbe, s. a., & segal, n. (2000). a perspective on the south african mining industry in the 21st century: an independent report prepared for the chamber of mines of south africa. graduate school of business and genesis analytics, university of cape town. retrieved from http://pmg-assets.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/docs/segal.pdf. mauno, s., kinnunen, u., & ruokolainen, m. (2007). job demands and resources as antecedents of work engagement: a longitudinal study. journal of organizational behavior, 70(1), 149–171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2006.09.002 muse, l. a., & pichler, s. (2011). a comparison of types of support for lower-skill workers: evidence for the importance of family supportive supervisors. journal of vocational behavior, 79(3), 653–666. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.04.005 mphahlele, p., els, c., de beer, l. t., & mostert, k. (2018). investigating strengths and deficits to increase work engagement: a longitudinal study in the mining industry. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a900. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.900 palo, j., & rothmann, s. (2016). work engagement in the mining industry in south africa: the role of tasks and relationships. journal of psychology in africa, 26(3), 221–229. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2016.1185901 parker, g. b., & hyett, m. p. (2011). measurement of well-being in the workplace: the development of the work well-being questionnaire. journal of nervous and mental disease, 199(6), 394–397. https://doi.org/10.1097/nmd.0b013e31821cd3b9 paul, p. s., & maiti, j. (2007). the role of behavioral factors on safety management in underground mines. safety science, 45(4), 499–471. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2006.07.006 petchsawang, p., & mclean, g. n. (2017). workplace spirituality, mindfulness, meditation, and work engagement. journal of management, spirituality & religion, 14(3), 216–244. https://doi.org/10.1080//14766086.2017.1291360 phakathi, t. s. (2011). worker responses to work reorganisation in deep-level gold mining workplace: perspectives from the rock-face. dphil thesis. oxford university, england. rhoades, l., & eisenberger, r. (2002). perceived organizational support: a review of the literature. journal of applied psychology, 87(4), 698–714. http://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.698 ringle, c. m., wende, s., & becker, j. m. (2015). smartpls 3. boenningstedt: smartpls gmbh. retrieved from http://www.smartpls.com. rothmann, s., & joubert, j. h. m. (2007). job demands, job resources, burnout and work engagement of managers at a platinum mine in the north west province. sa journal of business management, 38(3), 49–61. roux, s. (2010). the relationship between authentic leadership, optimism, self-efficacy and work engagement: an exploratory study. unpublished master’s thesis. stellenbosch: stellenbosch university. sameer, y. m. (2018). innovative behaviour and psychological capital: does positivity make any difference? journal of economics and management, 32(2), 76–101. schaufeli, w. b. (2013). what is engagement? in c. truss, k. alfes, r. delbridge, a. shantz & e. soane (eds.), employee engagement in theory and practice (pp. 2657–2669). london: routledge. schaufeli, w. b., & bakker, a. b. (2004). job demands, job resources and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organizational behavior, 25(3), 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.248 schaufeli, w. b., bakker, a. b., & salanova, m. (2006). the measurement of work engagement with a brief questionnaire: a cross-national study. educational and psychological measurement, 66(4), 701–716. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164405282471 schaufeli, w. b., bakker, a. b., & van rhenen, w. (2009). how changes in job demands and resources predict burnout, work engagement, and sickness absenteeism. journal of organizational behavior, 30(7), 893–917. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.595 schaufeli, w., & salanova, m. (2007). work engagement: an emerging psychological concept and its implications for organizations. in s. w. gilliland, d. d. steiner & d. p. skarlicki (eds.), research in social issues in management (volume 5): managing social and ethical issues in organizations (pp. 135–177). greenwich, ct: information age publishers. schaufeli, w., salanova, m., gonzalez-roma, v., & bakker, a. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3(1), 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 schaufeli, w. b., & taris, t. w. (2014). a critical review of the job demands-resources model: implications for improving work and health. in g. bauer & o. hämmig (eds.), bridging occupational, organizational and public health (pp. 43–68). dordrecht: springer. schaufeli, w. b., martinez, i. m., pinto, a. m., salanova, m., & bakker, a. b. (2002). burnout and engagement in university students: a cross-national study. journal of cross-cultural psychology, 33(5), 464–481. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022102033005003 simons, j. c., & buitendach, j. h. (2013). psychological capital, work engagement and organisational commitment amongst call centre employees in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), art. #1071, 12 pages. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1071 slöetjes, t. (2012). personal resources in the job demands-resources model: the influence of proactive behavior, assertiveness, and worker flexibility. unpublished master’s thesis. utrecht university, the netherlands. snyder, c. r., harris, c., anderson, j. r., holleran, s. a., irving, l. m., sigmon, s. t., et al. (1991). the will and the ways: development and validation of an individual-differences measure of hope. journal of personality and social psychology, 60(4), 570–585. sonnentag, s. (2017). a task-level perspective on work engagement: a new approach that helps to differentiate the concepts of engagement and burnout. burnout research, 5, 2–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burn.2017.04.001 taris, t. w., ybema, j. f., & van beek, i. (2017). burnout and engagement: identical twins or just close relatives? burnout research, 5, 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burn.2017.05.002 ten brummelhuis, l. l., & bakker, a. b. (2012). a resource perspective on work-home interface: the work-home resource model. american psychologist, 67(7), 545–556. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027974 van der broeck, a., de cuyper, j., de witte, h., & vansteenkiste, m. (2010). not all job demands are equal: differentiating job hindrances and job challenges in the job demands-resources model. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 19(6), 735–759. wang, x, liu, l., zou, f., junhui, h., & wu, h. (2017). associations of occupational stressors, perceived organisational support, and psychological capital with work engagement among chinese female nurses. biomed research international, 2017(2), 1–11. article id 5284628. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/5284628 xanthopoulou, d., baker, a. b., heuven, e., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w. b. (2008). working in the sky: a diary study on work engagement among flight attendants. journal of occupational health psychology, 13(4), 345–356. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.13.4.345 youssef, c. m., & luthans, f. (2007). positive organisational behaviour in the workplace: the impact of hope, optimism and resilience. journal of management, 33(5), 774–800. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206307305562 zhai, q., wang, s., & weadon, h. (2017). thriving at work as a mediator of the relationship between workplace support and life satisfaction. journal of management and organization, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2017.62 zheng, c. s., gunasekare, a., & blaich, s. (2018). mindfulness and work engagement: the mediating effect of psychological flourishing. academy of management annual meeting proceedings, 2018(1), 12210. https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2018.12210abstract 4townsend.qxd ”… managers are seen to be always looking up and never looking down. in other words, the focus is on achieving key performance indicators (kpi’s) and listening to what senior management were saying while believing that the work will just get done” (townsend, 2006c). this is typical of feedback received from employees during the course of the research study on which this article is based. it is feedback of this ilk which immediately raised doubts regarding the existing employee satisfaction strategy and tool that is presently being used by the organisation and has been in use for many years. it is comments such as the above that have raised the question,”is the organisation’s employee satisfaction strategy effective and is it worth pursuing into the future”? it is towards answering this question that this article is focussed. the guiding definition of employee satisfaction to be used in this article will be, “the degree to which the individuals needs and desires are met and the extent to which this is perceived by the other employees” (küskü, 2003, as cited in samuel, 2005, p13). employee satisfaction was a much popularised subject during the 1980’s and 1990’s, where much of the literature (stoner & wankel, 1986; brewster, dowling, grobler, holland & warnich, 2000), focused on the link between employee satisfaction and employee performance. subsequent research has, however, proven that this link is not particularly strong, (kreitner & kinicki, 2005; ivancevich & matteson, 2002). what recent research has confirmed is that there is a clear reciprocal relationship between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction (kraut, 1996). for example, one of the most detailed studies undertaken was that carried out by heskett, sasser, jr. and schlesinger (1995). the authors point out that, “when companies put employees and customers first, their employees are satisfied, their customers are loyal, their profits increase, and their continued success is sustained” (as cited in bailey & dandrade, 1997, p3). the organisation in which this research project has been conducted (hereafter referred to as the organisation) has acknowledged this fact and actively measures and monitors the levels of satisfaction in both cases. this is done by utilising two measurement tools, namely: the employee satisfaction index (esi) and from a customer satisfaction perspective, maxicare (the organisation, 2006). what is of concern is that the two measurement tools are not linked in any way and are used in isolation by two different departments within the organisation. as far as employee satisfaction within the organisation is concerned, the existing process was launched approximately fifteen years ago. this process, and the tool used to monitor satisfaction levels, were developed based on the results of a literature study completed at the time (benkenstein, 2006). on being consulted regarding his source documents and literature review, the designer indicated this information had long since been disposed of (ibid; email communication). supporting documentation or other archival traces from which to examine the tool in terms of the validity and reliability of its construction now no longer exist. there was therefore no means of examining the soundness of the existing instrument. this is especially in terms of how it had been constructed, normed and consequently adopted as a central means of assessing employee satisfaction within the organisation. this current research project was conducted from the standpoint that there was considerable doubt that the abovementioned strategy provided an adequately true and effective reflection of the status of employee satisfaction in the organisation. this was supported by the increasing time and effort that had to be exerted to ensure a similar percentage return year on year (internal employee satisfaction index reports, 2003-2005). the current employee satisfaction assessment process was also coming under increasing criticism from both managers and the labour force. very common feedback received from both members of the labour force and management was that the instrument had run its course and that the vast majority of staff in the organisation did not see the value that this instrument and the process attached to it was bringing to the organisation (internal employee satisfaction index reports, 2003-2005). it was also very difficult to defend from an academic point of view due to the lack of archival support. since being implemented the esi assessment process has been converted to an electronic exercise. many employees in the organisation do not have access to the intranet and, therefore a manual exercise still exists for a large percentage of the labour force. this throws doubt on the whole process from a confidentiality point of view as in most cases the supervisor facilitates the completion of the questionnaires by his/her subordinates. employees make requests on an ongoing basis for a facility to provide ad hoc comments. during the last three years an average return of roughly 50% has been maintained and a drop in employee satisfaction from 71% to 69% has been noted (internal employee satisfaction index survey reports, 2003-2005). there also appears to be a year on year decrease in satisfaction levels in respect of colleagues and diversity dimensions. michael townsend errol sundelowitz karel stanz karelss@uj.ac.za department of human resources management university of johannesburg abstract the aim of the study was to conduct an exploration into the issues around the employee satisfaction strategy and tool being utilised by a large public utility in south africa. a mixed method approach was applied incorporating focus groups, individual interviews, and a questionnaire. the results indicate that staff are not satisfied with the existing strategy, are reasonably comfortable with the dimensions being measured but clearly want to see a qualitative aspect added. major areas of concern are: lack of feedback, little or no action plans linked to the results and a lack of a genuine concern for employee satisfaction. key words employee satisfaction, instrument evaluation, mixed methods “are they really satisfied?”: an exploration of issues around employee satisfaction assessment strategies 28 sa journal of human resource management, 2007, 5 (1), 28-34 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2007, 5 (1), 28-34 issues around employee satisfction 29 the concept of employee satisfaction can be traced back to edward thorndike, who in the early 1900’s published an article in the journal of applied psychology where he explored the relationship between work and satisfaction (bavendam, 2000). the concept of employee satisfaction has certainly been researched very thoroughly over the years and has been linked to many other issues like employee loyalt y, employee commitment, employee engagement and job satisfaction fosam, grimsley & wisher, 1998; martensen & grønholdt, 2002). one of the most quoted theorists is hertzberg (1968) who during the 1950’s developed his theory which identified two dimensions of satisfaction, namely motivation and hygiene. hertzberg (1968) maintained that the hygiene factors could not motivate employees but rather helped minimise dissatisfaction levels if addressed. these hygiene factors include topics such as; company policies, supervision, salary, interpersonal relationships and working conditions. the motivating factors addressed topics such as: the work itself, achievement, recognition, responsibility, and advancement. if continuously good levels are maintained in respect of these topics, a motivated work force is created. it is unlikely that hertzberg (1968)’s theory in its original form is totally relevant in today’s radically different world of work. this is particularly so in a country like south africa where strategic focuses like racial and gender equity are legislated and audited by national government. this standpoint has been researched by janse van rensburg (2004) who identified a clear link between employee satisfaction/ commitment and the implementation of these t ypes of programs. the organisation concerned makes use of a strategy and tool which focuses on 14 dimensions (see table 1 below). a superficial analysis of these dimensions indicates an obvious alignment with hertzberg’s hygiene factors. table 1 the organisations employee satisfaction dimensions compared to hertzberg (1968)’s fimensions and factors the organisation’s 14 dimensions hertzberg’s dimensions and factors supervision hygiene factor my job motivating factor personal development motivating factor colleagues hygiene factor work place hygiene factor policies and procedures hygiene factor communication remuneration hygiene factor transformation performance management diversity ethics respect commitment to customer service the first seven dimensions were part of the original tool developed by the designer some fifteen years ago (benkenstein, 2006). subsequent to that, the remuneration, transformation, performance management, diversit y and respect dimensions were added. lastly the dimensions of ethics and commitment to customer service were added. the addition of these dimensions was based on the request of management to align with key focus areas in the business, and not because they were identified based on feedback received from employees as being crucial to employee satisfaction. although hertzberg’s (1968) theory is considered central to the concepts of employee satisfaction, it is important not to look at employee satisfaction in isolation, but to rather consider it as an integral part of the process of ensuring satisfied customers and a profitable business. for example, vilares and cohelo (2000) developed a model (see figure 1 below) based on their findings which supported the link bet ween employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction (as cited by bulgarella, 2005, p.2). heskett et al (1997) carried out comprehensive research from which they developed the service-profit chain (see figure 2 below). figure figure 1: employee satisfaction model source: vilares & cohelo (2000) figure 2: the service profit chain source: heskett, sasser, jr & schlesinger (1997) townsend, sundelowitz, stanz30 research design research approach the concept of employee satisfaction within the organisation is one which has been neglected for quite some time. it is also believed that the current process is not taking care of key stakeholders’ needs as a result of radical changes which have taken place over the last number of years. the context within the organisation is complex and although a single reality exists with respect to the issue it will be necessary to embark on a comprehensive and rigorous study to establish the necessary information to address the problem. concomitant with the complexity of the context within the organisation, the research paradigm that has been selected to inform the research process is that of critical realism. this is also sometimes referred to as postpositivism (denzin & lincoln, 2005) or neo-post-positivism (manicas & secord, 1982). this paradigm maintains that it is practically impossible to be totally objective and that subjectivity is inevitable. from a critical realist point of view realit y is “real” but only imperfectly so. this is based on the viewpoint that reality is based on individual perceptions of reality and that reality is a result of social conditioning. in order to try and get to know what the current reality is it is, therefore, important to make use of many different sources. this approach incorporates the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods to aid triangulation of data and hence ensure a more rigorous process in coming to grips with reality. “the idea behind triangulation is that the more agreement of different data sources on a particular issue, the more reliable the interpretation of the data,” (cano, n.d., p.4). in order to remain as objective as possible throughout the research project the researcher continuously assessed the influence they were having on the research process. an integral part of the qualitative approach that was adopted was the use of focus groups. this is in alignment with a phenomenological approach where the feelings and emotions of stakeholders within the organisation were recorded as accurately as possible. in heeding boeree’s (1998) warning that there is a danger that the interviewer may influence the feedback received from the participants, bracketing was used to counter the influence of researcher bias in the process. semi-structured interviews (del barrio, 1999) were utilised to obtain specific information to inform the structuring of the focus group questions as well as to ensure management support for the entire study. in addition, a short questionnaire was administered via the organisation’s intranet to obtain feedback from employees regarding the effectiveness of the existing tool and to get input regarding dimensions which should be measured. prior to initiating the process of participant selection and data collection, written consent was obtained from the organisation and ethical confidentiality procedures guaranteed. an undertaking to provide feedback to the organisation regarding the research results was also agreed to. participants participants were selected from the southern region of the organisation. this was done from a pool of potential participants consisting of 1456 employees with roughly one third of these employees based at the regional head office in east london. five focus groups were conducted and included inputs from 48 individuals. as far as the questionnaire based survey is concerned, a sample of 428 was achieved. this equates to a return of 29% and includes inputs from employees across all job grades and geographical areas in the region. further data was located in the archival records of the organisation. table 2 number of participants per grade grade (patterson) number of returns % return b bands 108 15% c bands 280 43% d bands 40 53% total 428 data was gathered by carrying out archival research, conducting a questionnaire based survey (a first step analysis here was done using a four point likert scale), carrying out a rigorous literature study, conducting structured interviews and by conducting focus groups. this facilitated triangulation of data through eliciting input from as broad a spectrum of sources as possible. the questionnaire consisted of six questions addressing the following dimensions: management commitment, administration of the process, the process of giving feedback, the perceived accuracy of the results, the validity of the dimensions and an opinion on whether comments fields should be included. the likert scale that was used in the questionnaire was: strongly disagree, disagree, agree, strongly agree. focus groups were chosen to afford managers and the labour force an opportunity to provide input regarding their needs concerning employee satisfaction. according to david l. morgan (1988, p.9), as a form of qualitative research, focus groups are basically group interviews, although not in the sense of an alternation bet ween the researchers’ questions and the research participants’ responses. instead, the reliance is on interaction within the group, based on topics that are supplied by the researcher, who typically takes the role of a moderator. it is understood that although focus groups have become increasingly popular especially outside of the marketing and sales arena, there were a number of issues which needed to be borne in mind. uppermost in this list was possibly the influence that the facilitator may have on the focus group (group interview) process. this was particularly relevant in this case where the focus group facilitator had strong opinions regarding the issue under discussion and may have inadvertently led or steered the group towards his way of thinking (boeree, 1998). other issues which guided the running of the focus groups were those of the influence of strong personalities, group think and the risk of the session ending in an emotional chat show. four focus groups were conducted with staff across the regions four geographical areas. one additional focus group was conducted at head office aimed specifically at managers only. in addition, historical records of the last three employee satisfaction surveys were analysed for trends and themes. lastly, an electronic quantitative questionnaire was initiated via the organisations intranet facility to obtain additional feedback concerning the existing employee satisfaction strategy and tool. the archival records of the internal employee satisfaction index survey for the last three years (2003-2005) were utilised to assess trends and themes and the original developer of the existing tool was engaged to obtain as much information as possible regarding the development of the tool. rosnow and rosenthal (1996, p.80) cite archival records as an example of unobtrusive, non-invasive observation, and they define “an archive” as “any relatively permanent repository of data or material”. archival records provided a further means of identif ying central issues for the present study. issues around employee satisfction 31 analysis of the data data that is produced in research conducted under the paradigm of critical realism should be the result of a robust multidimensional data collection process (krauss, 2005). this should be a process whereby large quantities of data are accumulated via a number of different methodologies to ensure triangulation. for this type of research triangulation means comparing several perceptions of reality so as to acquire a better understanding of reality. it helps ensure that a more realistic reflection of what the true reality is, is obtained (krauss, 2005). the feedback received via the focus groups was subjected to a systematic coding via content analysis as suggested by morgan (1988) and identified themes were noted. the information obtained via this process was collated and compared to the findings obtained from the literature review as well as the quantitative process via the questionnaire. to address the issue of validity in the research project a rigorous process was ensured. this was maintained mainly through the abovementioned methods of triangulation to ensure as broad a spread of methods as possible. critical to the validity of the research was the element of trustworthiness. this refers to the information obtained from the research as well as maintaining the anonymity of the research participants. it was therefore important for the entire process to be transparent in respect of the purpose of the study, what would happen to the information obtained from the participants and a fair and accurate representation of the information contained in the finished article (golafshani, 2003). from a validity point of view, it is important that what is represented in a report on the findings accurately matches the stories told or as perceived by the participants. “. . . the purpose of qualitative research is to describe or understand the phenomena of interest from the participant's eyes, the participants are the only ones who can legitimately judge the credibility of the results,” (trochim, 2005, p.1). credibility here can be equated with the concept of validity for the purpose of the present study. findings a central issue arising out of the feedback from the management focus group (townsend, 2006b) is that the existing strategy and tool has run its course in its existing format. this fact was borne out by the feedback from the managers who participated in the management level focus group. they felt that there was not enough credence given to the fact that the questionnaire is just one tool to assist managers in determining employee satisfaction levels. for many managers the questionnaire had become the one and only tool and if the result was above the target they were happy. the management focus group participants felt that it was time to look for a fresh approach, one which could accommodate a more flexible approach with open ended questions, and which would assist managers establish employee needs more realistically. they felt very strongly about the fact that due to the amount of time and effort required to generate a valid result for the employee satisfaction survey, it was critical that the information obtained should be properly assessed and utilised to identif y employees’ real needs. this feedback is in line with the initial perception that management had grown increasingly frustrated with the existing strategy. participants in the general employee focus groups (townsend, 2006c) also felt that the employees no longer understood the reason for the survey and a process of re-sensitisation needed to be embarked on to rectif y this. this information was supported by feedback received from employees who indicated that the purpose for the survey had long been forgotten. a basic requirement for conducting any survey is that the people being requested to participate need to understand the purpose for the survey and how it will be of benefit to them (leones, 1998). this is clearly not being done in this case. the fact that the survey is only conducted on an annual basis was of concern in that a more frequent survey with appropriate consequences would benefit both management and employees. this was also an issue raised by both managers and employees (townsend, 2006d) even though both parties conceded that there are certainly difficulties arising out of a more frequent survey from a time point of view. “the managers don’t care about us” would typif y the perception that employees have of management (townsend, 2006c). the employees feel that a large emphasis is placed on achieving key performance indicators (kpi’s) regardless of the impact on manpower. the employee satisfaction survey exercise is a case in point where employees are badgered into completing the questionnaire so that a result can be generated, but the staff don’t get any feedback or see any consequences. at the end of the day managers should be, of their own accord, doing things on an on-going basis to establish employees needs and probably more importantly – what needs to be done to meet these needs if they are not being met. this is something that should be happening on an on-going basis and the annual employee satisfaction survey should be used as a checkpoint. the most common feedback received out of the general staff focus groups regarding the survey itself, centred around a lack of feedback and follow-through from management (townsend, 2006c). employees maintain they are tired of being called upon time and again to complete employee satisfaction survey questionnaires and yet nothing essentially changes in the status quo. they believe that the only reason the survey is conducted annually is to obtain a result for the managers’ performance appraisals. they do not believe that there is a genuine interest from managers regarding employee satisfaction. this is a clear indication that management do not understand the potential value in following through on the data generated via the survey. employees also requested that they be afforded the opportunity to give more general feedback in addition to being asked to assess specific dimensions. to cater for this it is suggested that geographically based area focus groups be established. once again there is a clear need for a more qualitative process when dealing with employee satisfaction. this is particularly true when it comes to accommodating the varying needs of different grades, race groups and gender. a number of common themes were identified in the analysis of the available archival data. firstly, it is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve sufficient sample sizes from certain areas within the organisation. this is particularly true of the engineering environment and specifically department a and department b. secondly, there is very little enthusiasm or energy being demonstrated by management in terms of actively supporting the process. thirdly, increasing numbers of employees are requesting an opportunity to give more open ended responses in addition to being asked to assess specific dimensions (that is a more qualitative approach). fourthly, employees are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with completing the hardcopy questionnaires, as the process is inevitably facilitated by their supervisor and they are hindered by the lack of confidentiality. an assessment of the data accumulated via the questionnaire based survey (townsend, 2006e), indicate that there are many participants who do not believe that management is fully committed to employee satisfaction. this is particularly valid in department a where only 31% of employees are satisfied with this element of the process. what is significant here is townsend, sundelowitz, stanz32 that the vast majority of employees (400) are situated within this department including many lower level employees. it is also interesting to note that management maintain that they are committed to the process. this could indicate that either management are not clearly demonstrating their commitment in a practical way, or employees’ expectations are much higher than anticipated. most participants are satisfied with the administrative process and a vast majority of employees (87%) across all grades supported the need to allow participants to submit comments when completing the employee satisfaction survey. this fully supports the feedback received via the focus groups. the employees agreed that feedback was not done appropriately whereas management felt they were giving appropriate feedback and there is also considerable doubt illustrated in respect of the accuracy of the results. table 3 percentage agree per dimension, per total region, engineering environment, field services department and electricity delivery department dimension total region engineering department department sample = 428 sample = a sample = b sample = (29%) 206 85 42 management 53% agree 45% agree 39% agree 38% agree commitment administrative 80% agree 82% agree 80% agree 86% agree process feedback 47% agree 44% agree 43% agree 38% agree process accuracy of s 50% agree 48% agree 50% agree 43% agree result current 65% agree 66% agree 69% agree 69% agree dimensions comments 87% agree 87% agree 85% agree 90% agree table 4 percentage agree per dimension, per band dimension b bands c bands d bands sample = 108 sample = 280 sample = 40 management c 58% agree 50% agree 77% agree ommitment administrative 82% agree 81% agree 83% agree process feedback process 50% agree 43% agree 70% agree accuracy of results 55% agree 48% agree 63% agree current 76% agree 61% agree 63% agree dimensions comments 91% agree 86% agree 90% agree discussion from a literat ure st udy point of view, the dimensions currently included in the existing tool are all relevant as far as employee satisfaction is concerned. this is supported by the fact that two thirds of the employees surveyed as part of this research, believe that the existing dimensions are appropriate. it is also clear that the organisation understands the link between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction (as described by heskett et al, 1994) as it makes a point of measuring both of these aspects on an on-going basis. what is not very clear is whether all the managers in the region fully appreciate the significance of ensuring satisfied employees. this is supported in the feedback received that the original purpose for the strategy has long since been forgotten. it is obvious that an opportunity is being missed by regional management in using a tool that generally is seen to be administered appropriately, measures the right dimensions and is regularly being completed by 50% of their employees on an annual basis. there is, however, growing resistance from the staff to participate in the survey each year due to the fact that they very seldom ever receive any feedback regarding the results and certainly do not experience any consequences (positive or negative) as a result of the survey. this situation is, therefore, actually contributing to the dissatisfaction levels of the very people who are supposed to benefit from the process. the employees and managers have indicated support for the inclusion of comments fields in the assessment tool as well as the use of more open ended questioning techniques. this is a clear indication that a qualitative element should be included in the process of assessing and grappling with employee satisfaction. it is understood that the organisation requires a score to be generated to be used as one input in the process, but there is certainly support for a process being implemented to afford managers and staff an opportunity to get to grips with identif ying and addressing the real needs of the employees. staff also indicated that the mere fact that an assessment has been completed is certainly not proof of an effective employee satisfaction strategy. line managers need to use the data generated via the assessment process to generate action plans to address identified development areas. recommendations companies must build their own models because customer satisfaction is only one variable in understanding the relationship bet ween employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and financial performance. moreover, each company must determine how it defines employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction, which can even differ bet ween departments and business units within one company. (corporate executive board, 2003, p.2) based on the findings as discussed in this article, it is clear that the existing tool although already in use for many years is still seen to be measuring appropriate dimensions. it is, therefore, not recommended that wholesale changes be made to the existing tool at this stage. it would be more appropriate to use the hard copy inputs from the next survey to carry out a cronbach analysis to determine the reliability coefficient of the existing tool. however, from a strategy point of view there are clear opportunities which need to be exploited. these include the following: � the employee satisfaction assessment strategy must be shared with both managers and employees throughout the region via a multi-level communication strategy. � the questionnaire should be available both electronically and in hard copy. however, hard copy questionnaires must be distributed to semi-literate employees via human resources practitioners who will personally facilitate the completion of the questionnaires. � a 50% return must continue to be maintained. � on completion of the survey, results must be presented to senior regional management and line managers must be allocated a period of two weeks to share the results with their staff. the human resources department must provide a presentation template and process guideline for line managers to use when giving feedback to the employees to ensure consistency. � all line managers must develop consequence action items regardless of the result achieved i.e. a spirit of continuous improvement needs to prevail. issues around employee satisfction 33 � in addition the human resources department must establish area employee satisfaction focus groups which will meet one month after the results have been communicated to get feedback regarding the process. these focus groups may be facilitated by a human resources practitioner. limitations of the present study the questionnaire used to assess the existing strategy and tool was developed by the researcher and evidence of it having been subjected to any reliabilit y test is unavailable. this, by implication, makes the reliability of the results produced questionable (walizer & wienir, 1978). however, it was decided to utilise the data generated as part of the data triangulation process. it may be argued that five focus groups are not sufficient to obtain valid inputs. this is particularly so in respect of management focus groups where only one management focus group was conducted which consisted of six participants. this amounts to a sample of 8% of 74 managers employed in the region. four focus groups were conducted with a total of 42 lower level employees which equates to a sample size of 3% of the regional complement of 1456. however, calder (1977), maintains that if the facilitator can clearly anticipate what will be said next in a group there is a clear indication that sufficient groups have been conducted. no analysis has been conducted to determine the reliability of the existing tool due to the unavailability of historical input data. the unavailability of historical data is a result of the tool being administered electronically and raw data is, therefore, only available to the external service provider who owns the software. a reliability analysis would have resulted in a far more robust assessment of the existing tool and would have enhanced the triangulation of research data considerably. at least it would have given an indication of whether the current results generated by the existing tool are an accurate reflection of employee satisfaction in the organisation. suggestions for further research through the process of conducting the first stage data collection in preparation for writing this article, it has become very apparent that there is a need – as well as a tremendous opportunity – to carry out additional research in the area of employee satisfaction in the organisation, specifically in terms of developing an appropriate assessment tool. any future tool would need to effectively accommodate both quantitative and qualitative elements as well as the needs of various demographic dimensions. the project that underpins this article managed to identif y important possible answers to the question, “are they really satisfied”? in order to obtain maximum value from the above mentioned findings, a practical model needs to be developed to inform the organisation’s future employee satisfaction assessment strateg y. this represents a clear opportunity to embark on a full scale project at doctoral level within the organisation. references bailey, b. & dandrade, r. (1995). employee satisfaction + customer satisfaction = sustained profitability: digital equipment corporation’s strategic quality efforts. in, center for quality of management journal. retrieved 22 february 2006 from http://cqmextra.cqm.org/cqmjournal. nsf/reprints/rp05800 bavendam, j. (2000). managing job satisfaction bavendam research incorporated special report. retrieved 6 february 2006 from http://www.employeesatisfactions.com. benkenstein, r. (2006). personal communications (email) on the subject of the employee satisfaction index, specifically in pursuance of how the index was constructed, normed and validated. boeree, c.g. (1998). qualitative methods workbook. retrieved 30 april 2006 from http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/ qualmeth.html brewster, c., dowling, p., grobler, p., holland, p. & warnich, s. (2000). comtemporary issues in human resource management: gaining a competitive advantage. oxford: oxford university press. bulgarella, c.c. (2005). employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction: is there a relationship? guidestar research. retrieved 2 may 2006 from http://www.guidestar. .com/professional_services/whitepaper_cs_es_relationships. pdf calder, b.j. (1977). focus groups and the nature of qualitative marketing research. in, journal of marketing research, 14, 353-364. corporate executive board. (2003). linking employee satisfaction with productivity, performance, and customer satisfaction corporate leadership council. retrieved 2 may 2006 from http://www.keepem.com/doc_files/clc_article_on_productiv ity.pdf del barrio, c. (1999). the use of semi-structured inter views and qualitative methods for the study of peer bullying. universidad autonome de madrid. retrieved 2 may 2006 from http://www.gold.ac.uk/tmr/reports/aim2_ madrid1.html fosam, e.b., grimsley, m.f.j. & wisher, s.j. (1998). exploring models for employee satisfaction – with particular reference to a police force. in, total quality management, 9 (2&3), 235247. golafshani, n. (2003). understanding reliability and validity in qualitative research. in, the qualitative report, 8 (4), 597607 herzberg, f. (1968). one more time: how do you motivate employees? in, the very best of the har vard business review of 1991, 119-130. heskett, j.l, sasser, w.e. & schlesinger, l.a. (1997). the ser viceprofit chain. new york: free press. ivancevich, j.m. & matteson, m.t. (2002). organizational behaviour and management (6th edition). new york: mcgrawhill irwin. janse van rensburg, k. (2004). a predictive model of employee commitment in an organisation striving to become world class. thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree d.litt. et phil in industrial psychology in the faculty of arts at the rand afrikaans university. krauss, s.e. (2005). research paradigms and meaning making: a primer. in, the qualitative report, 10 (4), 758-770. kraut, a.i. (1996). organizational sur veys: tools for assessment and change. san francisco: jossey-bass publishers. kreitner, b. & kinicki, a. (2005). organizational behaviour. homewood: irwin incorporated. leones, j. (1998). a guide to designing and conducting visitor sur veys college of agriculture publications. retrieved 1 september 2006 from http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/ marketing/az1056/#steps manicas, p. & secord, p. (1982). implications for psychology of the new philosophy of science. in, american psychologist, 38, 390-413. martenson, a. & grønholdt, l. (2002). using employee satisfaction measurement to improve people management: an adaptation of kano’s quality types. in, total quality management, 12 (7&8), 949-957. morgan, d.l. (1988). focus groups as qualitative research. newberry park: sage publications. inc. rosnow, r. & rosenthal, r. (1996). beginning behavioral research. new jersey: prentice-hall inc. samuel, g. (2005). the relationship between leadership and internal customer satisfaction within a motor manufacturing company in gauteng. thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of masters in business administration of rhodes university. townsend, sundelowitz, stanz34 stoner, j.a.f. & wankel, c. (1986). management. (3rd edition) new jersey: prentice-hall inc. townsend, m. (2006a). “are they really satisfied?” an exploration of issues around empoyee satisfaction assessment strategies. research proposal for the degree mphil (l.p.c.) presented before the academic committee, dhrm, university of johannesburg, on 26 may 2006. townsend, m. (2006b). management focus group data collation. collation of responses of focus group run on management level participants from the organisation on 26 june 2006. townsend, m. (2006c). employee focus groups data collation. collation of responses from four focus groups held with employee level participants from the organisation from 29 june 2006 to 11 august 2006. townsend, m. (2006d). focus group response analysis. a comparative analysis of the responses from townsend (2006b) and townsend (2006c). townsend, m. (2006e). employee satisfaction sur vey critique. an analysis of feedback received from an electronic survey conducted in july 2006. trochim, w.m.k. (2005). qualitative validity. one web page as downloaded from http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/ kb/qualval.htm on 20 oct 2005. walizer, m. & wienir, p. (1978). research methods and analysis: searching for relationships. new york: harper and row. abstract introduction literature review research design confirmatory factor analysis results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) johanna c. diedericks department of human resource management, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa frans cilliers department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa adéle bezuidenhout department of human resource management, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation diedericks, j.c, cilliers, f., & bezuidenhout, a. (2019). resistance to change, work engagement and psychological capital of academics in an open distance learning work environment. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1142. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1142 original research resistance to change, work engagement and psychological capital of academics in an open distance learning work environment johanna c. diedericks, frans cilliers, adéle bezuidenhout received: 13 nov. 2018; accepted: 19 sept. 2019; published: 12 nov. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: in the present knowledge economy, the external environment is rapidly evolving and organisations are increasingly demanding much more from their employees. psychological capital (psycap) and work engagement (we), seen as positive human resource strengths and psychological capacities, can be developed and effectively managed for enhanced work performance. employees’ resistance to change (rtc) is a key barrier to organisational change. research purpose: to investigate the interrelationships between psycap, we and rtc of open distance learning (odl) academics. motivation for the study: little empirical research has investigated the application of positive work and organisational psychological functioning of odl academics. universities can use the study results to develop strategies which may enable institutions and individuals to flourish through positive well-being despite change. research approach/design and method: a quantitative survey including a probability sample of 208 (n = 208) academics was utilised. structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data. main findings: the results reveal a meaningful positive relationship between the positive psychological constructs of psycap and we, and a meaningful negative relationship between the psychodynamic construct rtc, and the positive psychological constructs of psycap and we. structural equation modelling indicated an adequate fit of conceptual structural model. practical/managerial implications: results suggest that reduced rtc and increased positive psychological behaviour could contribute to a positive organisation and individual well-being in a changing work environment. contribution/value-add: this study adds to the body of knowledge and insights into positive work and organisational functioning of academics in a changing odl work environment. keywords: positive work and organisational psychology; academics; open distance learning; resistance to change; work engagement; psychological capital; flourishing; well-being; positive organisation. introduction the global labour market is characterised by flexibility, rapid innovations and changes. the synergies of information and communication technology have penetrated all aspects of life, and traditional services are becoming more and more multidisciplinary, intelligent and agile (abramovici, göbel, & neges, 2015). higher education institutions (heis) from all over the globe have also been confronted with complex changes and challenges (arinto, 2013; guasch, alvarez, & espasa, 2010; panda & mishra, 2007). south africa, as part of the global south and developing world, is required to provide education to the masses in the interest of social justice whilst maintaining standards of developed world (leibowitz, bozalek, van schalkwyk, & winberg, 2015). the realities of globalisation, knowledge economy and information economy are forcing structural changes and challenges on heis (cloete, 2017). to adapt successfully to the changing environment, universities need to focus on both performance and health and well-being of employees (conley, 2007). seale and cross (2016) arrived at the conclusion that the internal competition for dwindling resources in south african universities and the pressure experienced by deans to ‘do more with less’, (seale & cross, 2016, p. 1522) are adding to the complexities faced by governments and policy makers in odl institutions as well as all other developing world universities. furthermore, the redesigning of all modules and teaching for online delivery in universities because of economic sustainability models has put additional pressure on all the university systems, and especially on academics (poalses, joubert, bezuidenhout, & nienaber, 2014). blended learning is the educational model utilised by more and more residential universities as well as odl institutions and is not as simple as it may seem to be for both students and academics (cloete, 2017). terminology such as open educational resources (oers) – freely accessible documents and media for teaching, learning, education, assessment and research purposes – and massive open online courses (moocs), a term proposed in 2008 by george siemens and stephen downes (rodriguez, 2013), have become part of everyday educational language. these changes and challenges necessitate that organisations need proactive employees who are committed to high-quality performance, show initiative and regard their own professional development on high priority (bakker & schaufeli, 2008). furthermore, the changing environment in which organisations function requires flexibility and innovation in the development of employees’ knowledge, skills and expertise (avey, reichard, luthans, & mhatre, 2011). this phenomenon is forcing organisations to look for specific competencies and behaviours in employees that can adapt to changes and challenges (salanova & schaufeli, 2008). two dimensions are identified in the literature which are required for academics in south africa to flourish (keyes & annas, 2009), namely feeling good and functioning well. to adapt successfully to the changing odl environment, universities need to focus on both performance and health and well-being of employees (conley, 2007). resistance to change has undergone thorough transformation in meaning, from a systems concept to a psychodynamic construct, and as it reduces optimism and hope, it is often regarded as a primary reason for lack of change in organisations (palmer, dunford, & akin, 2009; stanley, meyer, & topolnytsky, 2005). oreg, bartunek, lee and do (2018) contemplated that a supportive work environment during any intervention enhances change-related efficacy. similarly, bruque, moyano and eisenberg (2008) indicated individuals’ adaptation to a technology-induced change by increasing their efficacy. zhongen (2015) indicated that one of the biggest challenges with regard to the effective implementation of modern, agile educational models is the unwillingness to change at institutional level. the movement towards positive work and organisational psychology has highlighted an awareness of happiness of people in work and organisational contexts (rothmann, 2013; swart & rothmann, 2012). positive organisations characterised by flourishing employees enable the organisation and individual employees to flourish through positive well-being despite changes (seligman & csikszentmihalyi, 2000). flourishing employees demonstrate positive feelings and positive functioning (keyes, 2007) as well as hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism, and this what is termed as positive psychological capital (psycap). bakker and demerouti (2008) suggest that these personal resources facilitate work engagement (we). work engagement makes an important contribution to the flourishing of individuals in an organisation (diedericks & rothmann, 2013). seale and cross (2016) express their concern about the absence of research in the universities of developing world such as south africa. in this context, kuanda (2012) calls for increased research in universities. therefore, this study adds greatly to the body of knowledge by mainly focusing on the impact of rtc, we and psycap on odl academics and concludes with a synopsis of practical implications, study’s limitations and recommendations for the future research. literature review open distance learning technology is an integral part of living today, referred to as the fourth industrial revolution, with numerous opportunities but also extensive challenges (cloete, 2017). in adapting to a vibrant, changing external as well as internal work environment and new developments in information and communication technology, odl academics are becoming part of a complex process that depends on political, administrative, organisational, strategic and cultural factors. this transformation requires change resilience and dynamic interaction between the academics and complex environment (luthar & cicchetti, 2000). bates (2014) argued that odl academics in particular faces an increasingly diverse work environment and are not developing adequate skills for digital age. barkhuizen, rothmann and van de vijver (2014) identified the increasingly work overload as a top barrier to the enhancement of physical and psychological well-being of academics. open distance learning is changing roles of the student, the academic as well as the university because technology redefines what academics do and therefore implies change in a pedagogical rationale away from learning to critical thinking (söderström, from, lövqvist, & törnquist, 2012). although the odl university where this study was conducted emphasises that academics need to be able to adapt to transformation in the world of work, rtc amongst academics is seen as a huge obstacle in the way of the endeavours of heis to transform the existing higher education landscape (palmer et al., 2009; zhonggen, 2015). changes in higher education system, such as massification, low pass rates and tremendous pressure for increased research outputs (scott, yeld, & hendry, 2007), and challenges in odl are becoming more complex. many students who are entering this domain are younger, unemployed, looking for more affordable educational options and are often underprepared by the school system. they do not find it easy to adapt to higher education (scott et al., 2007). zhonggen (2015) notes that students’ passive participation is another huge challenge. this potentially creates more complex environment and an increased workload for odl academics (kearsley, 2000; weller, 2002). furthermore, arinto (2013) is of the opinion that the professional development of academics in odl is a complex process that requires continuous engagement in advanced roles and competencies. more recently, bates (2014) has argued that academics experience lack of training in pedagogy as well as odl training material development; they also experience the process of knowledge facilitation as complicated (heydenrych & prinsloo, 2010). knowledge economy and information economy underline the connection between economy and education in a complex work environment. student access to technology and technological literacy are ongoing challenging factors experienced in developing countries (cloete, 2017). this further complicates the level of specific competencies and behaviours of academics, as not only physical access is needed but also epistemological access – the theory of knowledge – as well as computer and conventional literacy. according to martin (2007), more money is spent on technology at universities and less on appointment and development of staff. open distance learning academics therefore need to focus on positive psychological functioning that emphasises strengths and potential that could be expressed and realised in individual and social well-being (wissing, potgieter, guse, khumalo, & nel, 2014). resistance to change resistance to change is a multifaceted concept, originating as a psychodynamic construct which lewin (1947) used to describe as the active force obstructing the efforts of change leaders. oreg (2006) conceptualised and operationalised it as a reactive passive attitude towards change. unconscious processes that influence health, well-being and (psychological) wellness within the organisation (henning, 2009; rothmann & cilliers, 2007) and organisational change (golom, 2017) should therefore be taken into account. as transformation processes often mean resistance, a systems psychodynamic perspective enables an understanding of the dynamics between individuals and system elements, such as ineffective interventions (koortzen & cilliers, 2002), conflict (mayer, 2011) or decreased health and well-being (mayer & surtee, 2015), which may contribute to an increased understanding of non-conscious dynamics within the individual. boundaries, often set by leadership in the organisation, determine what belongs or does not belong to the system (cilliers & koortzen, 2005), and if individuals are unable to deal with anxiety and change in organisations, it is blocked out of the conscious mind, which largely shapes the nature of the system and leadership. according to de vries (2009), many leaders have a ‘dark side’ or the ‘shadow side of leadership’, as leadership theories are inadequate and even fictional. organisational dysfunction and destructive cycles are caused by narcissistic, controlling, depressive, abrasive, negativistic, hypomanic (disinhibition) charismatic and neurotic leadership styles as identified by de vries (2009). in the dynamic higher education environment, the organisation needs to recognise dysfunctional behaviour or leadership styles that might influence effective action, complicating relationships or causing discomfort and hamper well-being. it may motivate change, and often group interventions and understanding are critical for change processes. structural aspects influencing change in organisations are defined as open systems, which may be explored (greyvenstein & cilliers, 2012). furthermore, for the individual employee, experiencing resistance, making the non-conscious conscious and becoming aware of our dark side, decision making is often taken back and complicated (de vries, 2009). however, academics’ acceptance of change in work environment has been linked with positive outcomes such as improved well-being (oreg, vakola, & armenakis, 2011). rodda (2007) concluded that understanding the psychological and behavioural foundations of rtc is significant for working behaviour. more recent studies (oreg, michel, & by, 2013; oreg et al., 2018) have explored concepts that are related to rtc from an individual’s different perspective. in this study, rtc is discussed as a multifaceted, people-centred construct, measuring individual’s dispositional inclination to resist change (oreg, 2003). work engagement work engagement is a three-dimensional construct, characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption, and is defined as a positive, fulfilling, affective and motivational state of work-related well-being (bakker, schaufeli, leiter, & taris, 2008). engagement is a positive energy that advances sustainable performance (spreitzer, lam, & fritz, 2010). engaged employees have high levels of energy and are enthusiastic about their work. moreover, they are often so immersed in their work that time flies and they have difficulty in detaching themselves from their work (miner, bickerton, dowson, & sterland, 2015). however, we cannot be seen as a skill that one can develop, but rather it is an affective motivational state (spreitzer et al., 2010). work engagement refers to the relationship of an individual with his or her job (schaufeli 2008, krueger & killham 2005, as cited in rothmann, 2017), and according to saks (2011), we requires a sense of connectedness with work environment. research has indicated that we has both short-term and long-term positive effects (mauno kinnunen & ruokolainen, 2007). on the other hand, sonnentag, mojza, binnewies and scholl (2008) argue that the level of engagement can have negative consequences if an employee is in a continuous state of high engagement which could lead to burnout. according to bakker, albrecht and leiter (2011), work engagement manifests in two antecedents, namely job resources and personal resources. job resources include supervisory support, innovativeness, information, appreciation and organisational climate (rice, 2009), and personal resources refer to an individual’s positive psychological state of development, characterised by (1) confidence (efficacy) to take on and put in necessary efforts to succeed in challenging tasks; (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future; (3) persevering towards goals, and when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to succeed; and (4) when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond (resilience) to attain success (bakker et al., 2011, p. 7). previous studies on we have found that it is negatively related to intention to quit but positively related to job satisfaction and organisational commitment (schaufeli, bakker, & van rhenen, 2008). calitz (2013) argued that employees who are engaged in their work are likely to perform well, and may experience positive health and positive emotions. this enables them to be better equipped to address issues at the workplace, such as stress and change (rice, 2009), to be more driven and to be key role players in helping to move the organisation forward (krueger & killham, as cited in rice, 2009). it is important to note that positive working and organisational psychology, which appreciates human potential and facilitates psychological principles such as flourishing (we), well-being and psycap, may contribute to optimising success and growth of odl academics in this changing work environment. the literature further suggests that flourishing odl academics are a crucial component of a positive hei. flourishing individuals may show hope, efficacy, resilience, optimism, engagement in work, find meaning, be motivated and experience high levels of psychological well-being in a changing work environment. engaged employees may use resources such as optimism, efficacy, resilience and an active coping style to assist them to manage and influence their changing work environment with more success (bakker, demerouti, & burke, 2009; luthans, norman, avolio, & avey, 2008; van der walt, 2018). flourishing employees enjoy quality of life and function optimally in their work environment and this is manifested through multidimensional indicators (keyes & annas, 2009; rothmann, 2013). the indicators of positive work and organisational psychological functioning which are important for this study include flourishing, we, hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism, and these are all related to high levels of emotional well-being. similarly, bakker, gierveld and van rijswijk (2006) argue that employees who use their resources optimally may score high levels of we, efficacy, resilience and optimism, and this could contribute specifically to overall we and flourishing. psychological capital luthans, avolio, avey and norman (2007) define psycap as an individual’s positive psychological state of development that is characterised by: (1) persevering towards goals and, when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to succeed; (2) having confidence (efficacy) to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenges; (3) when set back by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond (resiliency) to attain success and (4) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future. psycap, a higher order construct is characterised by an underlying common thread and shared characteristics running through each of the psychological resource capacities, (hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism) of a positive intentional striving towards flourishing and success, no matter what changes and challenges arise in the work environment (avey et al., 2008). similarly, avey, luthans and jensen (2009) and luthans (2002) are of the opinion that the construct of psycap, may contribute to employee well-being. although research on psycap is still in its infancy, it is playing an important role in predicting employees’ attitudes, behaviours and performance (avey et al., 2011). psycap is a cognitive state that includes the individual’s beliefs and expectations with regard to a specific task or context (avey et al., 2011). luthans, avey, avolio and peterson (2010) and luthans, avey and patera (2008) indicated that face-to-face and web-based interventions showed an enhancement in an individual’s level of psycap and can therefore be developed. what is also of importance for odl academics is that high levels of efficacy and resilience protect employees from negative consequences that might arise from a stressful and changing work environment (fida, paciello, tramontano, barbaranelli, & farnese, 2015; souri & hasanirad, 2011). high levels of hope, which are characterised by positive cognitive processes, such as setting challenging goals and finding ways to achieve these goals, are negatively linked to depression and positively linked to well-being (alarcon, bowling, & khazon, 2013; inzlicht, schmeichel, & macrae, 2014). similarly, optimists are more likely to experience higher levels of well-being and lower levels of distress (desrumaux et al., 2015). a conceptual model encapsulating research hypothesis 1 was constructed for this study and is shown in figure 1. figure 1: preliminary conceptual model encapsulating research hypothesis 1. according to weinberg and cooper (2007), organisations need healthy and motivated employees to prosper and survive in a continually changing environment, characterised by increasing flexibility in working practices and the creation of a 24-h economy where fewer people do more work. luthans (2002) came to the conclusion that the psychological resources that have been shown to best meet the criteria of positive organisational behaviour include hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism. according to beal iii, stavros and cole (2013), little empirical research has investigated the application of positive organisational behaviour in organisations in the changing higher education environment and youssef and luthans (2012) suggest that the role of psycap in educational institutions should be investigated. from the literature it is evident that engaged employees may use resources such as optimism, efficacy, resilience and an active coping style to assist them to manage and influence their changing work environment with more success (bakker & demerouti, 2008; luthans et al., 2008). it can be seen from the model that rtc could potentially influence we. bakker et al. (2006) argue that employees who use their resources optimally may score high levels of we, efficacy, resilience and optimism, and this could contribute specifically to overall we and flourishing. the following research hypotheses are based on the above-mentioned discussion and are formulated to investigate inter-relationships between psycap, we and rtc: h1: there is a positive or negative relationship between psycap (represented by hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism) and rtc (represented by routine seeking (rs), emotional reaction (er), short term focus (sf) and cognitive rigidity (cr). h2: there is a negative relationship between rtc and vigour (vi)/dedication (de). h3: there is a negative relationship between rtc and absorption (ab). h4: there is a positive relationship between psycap (represented by hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism) and vi/(de. h5: there is a positive relationship between psycap (represented by hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism) and ab. research design research approach for this research, probability sampling and more specific proportional stratified sampling was used (kerlinger, 1986; leedy & ormrod, 2013). a quantitative research method was used to pursue aims of this study. participants and sampling the research target population comprised 1662 permanent academics at the south african odl university. power analysis was conducted to estimate a target sample size for the study (faul, erdfelder, buchner, & lang, 2009) resulting in a planned sample of 432 academics as 26% of the sample was considered to be a representative of the population. the population comprised 1662 (n = 1662) permanent academics at the odl university and was stratified on the basis of 66 academic departments. the realised sample comprised 208 (n = 208) completed usable questionnaires. measuring instruments an electronic survey comprising participants’ demographic information and three quantitative instruments were administered to measure self-reported rtc, we and psycap. the items of the instruments were scored on a six-point likert-type scale. the resistance-to-change scale resistance to change was measured using the 17-item rtc scale (oreg, 2006). in addition to a composite full-scale rtc construct, the rtc scale comprises four subscales: rs (five items), er to imposed change (four items), sf (four items) and cr (four items). previous research (del val & fuentes, 2003; van den heuvel & schalk, 2009) indicate strong internal consistency and reliability for the full rtc instrument. beal iii et al. (2013) report on using the instrument with a sample of government organisation employees and found similar strong internal consistency reliability for full instrument (α = 0.89) and the four subscales (rs, α = 0.78; er, α = 0.94; sf, α = 0.93 and cr, α = 0.65) as well as acceptable construct validity. the rtc instrument also showed acceptable construct validity as evaluated via second-order confirmatory factor analysis (cfa). the overall model fit was χ2 = 162.94; df = 114; p < 0.01; root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) (90% ci) = 0.07 (0.04–0.09); and comparative fit index (cfi) = 0.93 (beal iii et al., 2013). the standardised root mean residual (srmr) value was 0.0862, slightly above the suggested threshold of 0.08. the utrecht work engagement scale work engagement was measured using the 17-item version of the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) (schaufeli & bakker, 2003). the uwes includes three dimensions, namely vi (six items), de (five items) and ab (six items). storm (2002) and storm and rothmann (2003) reported cronbach’s α coefficient for vi = 0.78, de = 0.89 and ab = 0.78 in a sample of 2396 employees of the south african police service. in an insurance company in south africa, coetzer and rothmann (2007) found cronbach’s α coefficient for vi = 0.80, de = 0.87, ab = 0.69. coetzee and de villiers (2010) obtained cronbach’s α coefficient for vi and de as 0.77 and 0.88, respectively, in a financial institution (de waal & pienaar, 2013). as cronbach’s α coefficient of 0.7 or more is considered to indicate a reliable scale (nunnally & bernstein, 1994; pallant, 2010), the overall alpha coefficient and those for four subscales were deemed to be adequate in this study and no item-reliability analysis was conducted (terre blanche & durrheim, 2002). the psychological capital questionnaire (pcq-24) psychological capital was measured using the 24-item pcq (luthans et al., 2007). the pcq-24 has demonstrated adequate psychometric properties in several samples (avey et al., 2008; luthans et al., 2007). in addition to a composite full-scale construct, the pcq-24 measured the following four subscale constructs: hope (six items), optimism (six items), resilience (six items) and efficacy (six items). the results of a series of higher-order cfas provided strong evidence for the higher-order factor structure for the overall psycap measure (i.e. rmsea = 0.046; cfi = 0.93, srmr = 0.051) as reported by luthans et al. (2007). research procedure and ethical considerations the research procedure involved inviting research participants to complete an electronic survey administered via the lime survey interface at the university. information regarding the aim of the questionnaire, aim of the use of data as well as confidentiality of the information obtained was given to all respondents. participation in this study was voluntary and all information was treated as anonymous with high regard to respondents’ confidentiality. ethical clearance for this research was obtained from the hei. the raw data were captured and analysed using the statistical programmes statistical package for social sciences (spss, 2003), version 22.0 for the microsoft windows platform, and amos, version 23 (arbuckle, 2006), for further analysis. construct validity and reliability the three instruments used in this study are established measuring instruments and cfa; these were first conducted to establish model fit to the data. if an inadequate fit was found, exploratory factor analysis (efa) was conducted to confirm the underlying factor structure of the data. for all efas, principal axis factor was used as an extraction method to minimise error, and promax rotation was used to indicate the pattern of loadings for this research. confirmatory factor analysis the resistance-to-change scale in order to address construct validity, cfa was conducted. the results indicated a reasonably acceptable fit for all 17 items and the associated four subscales, with values of 0.87 and 0.89 for tucker lewis index (tli) and cfi (marginal and very close to the threshold value of 0.9) and an rmsea of 0.08. the model chi-square (x2: 266,972, df: 133) was significant (p < 0.001). however, the latter is not a good indication of an acceptable model fit. subsequently, because of the non-satisfactory fit of the data as shown by the composite consideration of all the relevant fit statistics, an efa was conducted on the 17-item rtc scale. the srmr value was 0.0862, slightly above the suggested threshold of 0.08. the utrecht work engagement scale the cfa did not indicate an acceptable fit, with values of 0.831 and 0.856 for tli and cfi, smaller than the threshold value of 0.9, and an rmsea of 0.120, which indicates a value far from the upper threshold value of 0.08. the model chi-square (χ2: 459,338, df: 116) was significant (p < 0.001). the psychological capital questionnaire (pcq-24) the cfa in this research indicated an almost acceptable fit, with values of 0.872 and 0.889 for tli and cfi respectively (approximately equal to the threshold value of 0.09) and an rmsea of 0.080 (equal to the upper threshold of 0.08). the model chi-square (χ2: 428,417, df: 183) was significant (p < 0.001). although the psycap and rtc scales show a close to adequate fit, it was decided to confirm the factor structure by conducting an efa. in the case of uwes, it was necessary to determine the underlying factor structure of the data in this study. a summary of the results follows in table 1. table 1: factor loadings and cronbach’s α values for the resistance-to-change scale, utrecht work engagement scale and psychological capital questionnaire-24. cronbach’s α coefficient was used to determine the reliability of measuring instruments (rtc scale, uwes and pcq-24) as reported in table 1. for the rtc scale, both the kaiser–meyer–olkin measure of sampling adequacy (0.861), which was above the recommended threshold of 0.5, and the bartlett’s test of sphericity, which was significant (p = 0.000), indicated that a factor analysis was appropriate for this research. the analysis identified four factors, based on the kaiser’s eigenvalue criterion of eigenvalues greater than one, which explained 62.1% of variance. the percentage variation explained was 36.4%, 10.9%, 7.7% and 7.1% for the four factors respectively. the results indicated and confirmed a four-structure solution for the rtc scale as proposed in literature. for the uwes, both the kaiser–meyer–olkin measure of sampling adequacy (0.933 > 0.5) and the bartlett’s test of sphericity, which was significant (p = 0.000), indicated that a factor analysis was appropriate for the uwes. the analysis identified only two factors, namely vi/de (the items that loaded on this factor represented items from both vi and de) and ab, based on the kaiser eigenvalue criterion of eigenvalues greater than one, which explained 62.3% of the variance. the percentage variation explained was 52.9% and 9.4% for the two factors respectively. although schaufeli et al. (2008) confirmed a three-dimensional construct in previous studies, the three-factor structure was not considered self-evident in this sample of academics. for the pcq-24, both the kaiser–meyer–olkin measure of sampling adequacy (0.920) and the bartlett’s test of sphericity, which was significant (p = 0.000), indicated that a factor analysis was appropriate. the resulting factor structure revealed five factors with the three reversed items loading on one factor, forming a construct on their own. although the remaining items loaded, in general, on the constructs as identified in the luthans et al. (2007) study, the hope-adapted construct did not emerge clearly. it was decided in this study to exclude the three reverse scored items from further analysis. the overall percentage variation explained was 63%, with 41.9%, 9%, 6.9% and 5.2% for the four factors respectively. as a cronbach’s α coefficient of 0.7 or more is considered to indicate a reliable scale (nunnally & bernstein, 1994; pallant, 2010) and because the overall alpha coefficient and that for subscales were deemed to be adequate in this study, no item-reliability analysis was conducted (terre blanche & durrheim, 2002). all constructs were considered consistent internally. the linear measurement of the inter-relationships between constructs was computed using pearson’s product moment correlations. statistical analysis descriptive statistics were calculated to describe the sample characteristics of identified factors within each of the three key constructs, namely mean value, standard deviation, and skewness and kurtosis (de vos, delport, fouche, & strydom, 2011; salkind, 2009). correlation analysis was first conducted to test the strength of the relationships between each of the psychological constructs of rtc (rs, er, sf and cr) and the positive psychological constructs of we (vi, de and ab) and psycap (hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism). pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient (r) was used to calculate the strength of the relationships between variables (steyn, 2002). structural equation modelling (sem) as a multivariate procedure, combining multiple regression and factor analysis, was used to describe the interrelationships between observed variables and the basic goal of providing a quantitative test of the theoretical model as hypothesised (hair, black, babin, & anderson, 2010). in the context of this study, the sem analysis was performed to test structural paths between the psychological constructs of rtc, we and psycap to test the hypothesised relationships between these constructs as shown in the conceptual model (see figure 1). both psycap and rtc could be represented as a second-order factor model as both have target coefficient more than 0.9 (marsh & hocevar, 1985). the chi-square values for the firstand second-order models were 266.972 and 267.154 respectively for the rtc instrument, and 428.417 and 429.675 respectively for the psycap instrument. the uwes could not be represented by the second-order factor model as the target coefficient was 0.78. the chi-square values for the firstand second-order models were 2635.9 and 300.7 respectively. ethical considerations ethical clearance for this research was obtained from the hei where the research was conducted. results the descriptive statistics, namely mean, median, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis, for each factor obtained in the constructs of the measuring instruments are indicated in table 2. table 2: mean, median, standard deviation, and skewness and kurtosis. the mean score for rtc ranged from 2.65 to 3.57. the group of academics obtained the highest scores on the cr subscale (m = 3.57; sd = 0.97), and the lowest scores on the sf subscale (m = 2.65; sd = 0.85). standard deviation for the subscales ranged from –0.84 to 1.04. the skewness values for the rtc scale ranged from –0.09 to 0.35, thereby falling within the –1 and +1 normality range recommended for these coefficients (cohen, manion, & morrison, 2011). the kurtosis values ranged from –0.46 to 0.03, indicating that the distribution of subscales could be considered normal for values between –1 and +1 as recommended for these coefficients (tredoux & durrheim, 2013). the mean scores for uwes were fairly high and varied from 4.03 to 4.25. the group of academics obtained the highest score on the ab dimension (m = 4.25; sd = 0.96), and the lowest score on the vi/de dimension (m = 4.03; sd = 1.01). standard deviation for the dimensions ranged from 0.96 to 1.0. the skewness values ranged from –0.51 to –0.52, thereby falling within the –1 and +1 normality range recommended for these coefficients (cohen et al., 2011). the kurtosis values ranged from 0.50 to 0.97, indicating that the distribution of subscales could be considered normal for values between –1 and +1 as recommended for these coefficients (tredoux & durrheim, 2013). the mean scores for pcq-24 were all high and ranged from 4.13 to 4.48. the sample of participants obtained the highest scores on the efficacy sub-construct (m = 4.48; sd = 0.85), and the lowest scores on the optimism sub-construct (m = 4.13; sd = 0.89). standard deviation for the subscales ranged from 0.70 to 0.89. the skewness values ranged from –0.24 to 0.34, thereby falling within the –1 and +1 normality range recommended for these coefficients (cohen et al., 2011). the kurtosis values ranged from –0.64 to 0.90, indicating that the distribution of subscales could be considered normal for values between –1 and +1 as recommended for these coefficients (tredoux & durrheim, 2013). table 3 indicates inter-relationships between the constructs which were computed using the parametric pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient. table 3: pearson’s product moment correlation coefficients on the total constructs of resistance to change, work engagement (vi/de, ab) and psycap (n = 208). composite average scores for each construct were calculated by summing the ratings for the set of items associated with each construct and dividing it by the number of items in the set for each case. considering the structural coefficients of the final structural model utilising amos v23 for the theoretical-based sem model as indicated in figure 2, there were a total of five paths, of which three paths were statistically significant. figure 2: conceptual model. model fit statistics indicated the three fit indices, cfi, tli and rmsea with values of 0.792, 0.782 and 0.071 respectively. both cfi and tli values were below the acknowledged threshold of 0.90 but the rmsea was considered acceptable as it was below 0.08. although two of the fit indices did not indicate adequate fit, the non-centrality index, rmsea, did indicate an adequate fit. the srmr value was 0.0862, slightly above the suggested threshold of 0.08. the size and direction of structural paths were still considered to obtain an insight into the directional relationship between the subscales, dimensions and sub-constructs as postulated in the estimated model. the chi-square (2476.4) with 1217 degrees of freedom was significant (p = 0.000). no covariance indicated by modification indices was added to the model to improve model fit as those indicated could not be justified theoretically. the structural path coefficients from psycap to rtc (–0.41), as represented by h1, were statistically significant and indicated a strong negative relationship. higher levels of psycap were therefore related to the lower levels of rtc. from a preventive point of view, it was important to consider previous research indicating that academics demonstrating high levels of efficacy to adapt to organisational change, as well as high levels of resilience to bounce back from setbacks because of challenges during the change process, may reveal positive behaviour that may lead to effective and positive change processes (luthans et al., 2007). the path coefficients from psycap to vi/de (0.65) and psycap to ab (0.72) were statistically significant and indicated a strong positive relationship. there is a positive statistical relationship between psycap and we. the present research supports research that has shown that psycap, with each of its psychological resource capacities, demonstrates a positive intentional striving towards we, flourishing and success, no matter what changes and challenges arise in the work environment. it is important to note that psychological strengths such as we and psycap could possibly contribute significantly to the well-being of odl academics facing the challenge of change at their work environment. the path coefficients from rtc to vi/de (–0.06) and rtc to ab (0.08) were not statistically significant and therefore there is no statistical relationship between rtc and we. the predictiveness of the model was also assessed in terms of the substantial strength of structural paths or loadings, as opposed to simply achieving statistical significance as reported by chin (1998). for this study, looking at the predictive structural paths, it was observed that only two of the five standardised regression weights were > 0.60, with three paths < 0.60, meaning that each of these measures did not actually account for at least 50% variance of the underlying latent variable. in addition, two of the standardised paths had estimates below the absolute value of 0.20. according to chin (1998), the recommended standardised path is at least 0.20, or above 0.30, for variables to be considered for interpretation. the regression weights indicated statistically significant structural path coefficients from psycap to rtc at 41% (0.41) and indicated a negative relationship, correlating with previous research findings (luthans et al., 2007; porras & robertson, 1992). the path coefficient from psycap to vi/de was statistically significant at 65% (0.65) and from psycap to ab at 72% (0.72), and indicated a strongly positive relationship. discussion the study aimed to contribute to the research on positive organisational behaviour by offering a model illustrating the dynamic nature of the interrelationships manifested between psycap, we and rtc of academics in a changing odl work environment. the objective of this study was to investigate the interrelationship dynamics of the psychological constructs of psycap (represented by hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism), we (represented by vi, de and ab) and rtc (represented by rs, er, sf and cr) as experienced by academics in the changing environment of an odl university in south africa. the results reveal a meaningful positive relationship between the positive psychological constructs of psycap and we and a meaningful negative relationship between the psychodynamic construct rtc and the positive psychological constructs of psycap and we in this profile of academics. academics may possibly experience emotional components of resistance such as frustration, stress and nervousness because of radical changes and challenges as well as the conscious and unconscious dynamics impacting cognitive, affective and behavioural processes. as the odl work environment is dynamic and vibrant, academics experience a multitude of challenges at every stage of their professional lives (baijnath, 2012; bokor, 2012; paloff & prat, 2011; picciano, 2006). the results revealed a strong support for the existence of a significant relationship between the subscales of rtc, resulting in these academics refusing, denying or rejecting the change, and the more negative these feelings are, the stronger are the emotional reactions, directly impacting the well-being. the results also indicate high levels of routine-seeking. however, the results reveal that the academics possess a high level of intentional behaviour as well as high levels of understanding of the reasons for these changes. the perspective of systems psychodynamics may therefore reveal new insights into the complexity of the conscious and unconscious dynamics taking place in this work environment. according to heinrich (2004), this may assist individual to perceive or understand the changes as a threat or a challenge which in this sample of academics may lead them to being willing to change. the results suggest that participants do consider the long-term benefits of change to be important and are willing to act in response to a change in the environment. therefore, from a positive work and organisational psychological perspective, rtc or the reaction to change may involve new ways of thinking and result in new behaviours. although the assumption that acceptance of change is good, whereas resistance is bad (battilana & casciaro, 2013; hon, bloom, & crant, 2014), passive responses, even if positive, may retard change, whereas active responses, even if negative, may sometimes facilitate adjustments in the long run by clarifying problems with the change (oreg et al., 2018). this implies that academics’ experience of change with regard to the perceived benefits of the change and challenges can have a positive effect on their we and flourishing. the data support that the academics possess a high level of we, measured against the norms provided by schaufeli and bakker (2003) and the results suggest a two-factor model of we (vi/de and ab), as in prior research studies (naudé & rothmann, 2004; nerstad, richardsen, & martinussen, 2010; schaufeli et al., 2008). the results of this research reveal that these odl academics are energetic, see work as meaningful, stimulating and something that they want to concentrate on, despite the challenges of odl work environment. high levels of we imply a positive, energetic and fulfilling work-related state of mind (schaufeli et al., 2002). because we cannot be regarded as a skill that could be developed, but is rather an affective-motivational state, it is suggested that organisations need to create working environments that could cultivate work engagement and well-being. furthermore, the results reveal fairly high levels of psycap and we that may possibly indicate high levels of emotional well-being in these academics, and flourishing could include the presence of high levels of emotional, psychological and social well-being. flourishing employees function optimally in their work environment and according to rothmann (2013) this manifests through multi-dimensional indicators such as flourishing, hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism. as significant hope was revealed in this sample of academics, it may contribute positively to psycap. the results revealed high levels of hope as well as we. roemer and harris (2018) reported a strong correlation between we and psycap in a sample of employees in a variety of professions such as education, administration, health, engineering, accounting and human resources. they similarly reported that the dimension of hope showed maximum predictive variance in explaining hope. this in turn suggests that academics in this study, in an odl environment as well as in various other professions, tend to be more energised to persist in achieving their particular goals, as hope is closely related to constructs such as efficacy, optimism, resilience and generalised well-being and positive work and organisational psychology (larson & luthans, 2006; luthans et al., 2007). the results in this study reveal that the academics possess fairly low levels of resiliency. the results of this study are consistent with scholars such as luthans (2002) and roemer and harris (2018), who conclude that although resiliency has been recognised in positive psychology movement (masten, 2001), it goes beyond simple adaptation and is reactive rather than proactive. these academics possess an adequate level of optimism, and luthans, luthans and luthans (2004) report optimism to be more closely associated with positive psychology than other constructs. in terms of structural equation model methods, implemented to test the measurement and structural models, the results revealed an acceptable fit with the data. the results revealed a significant negative relationship between psycap and rtc in this sample of odl academics. it is important to note that a negative relationship was also found between psycap and rtc in the correlational analysis of this research. similar research conducted by beal iii et al. (2013) and saruhan (2013) suggested that employees who reported high levels of rtc reported low levels of psycap. in conclusion, the results reveal a strong support for the existence of a significant interrelationship between rtc, we and psycap in academics at the odl hei. psycap was the strongest predictor of we, whilst the relationship between rtc and psycap was a moderately negative one. practical implications distance learning academics often feel overwhelmed in the changing work environment, as they are expected to perform complex tasks, often in isolation, and experience a lack of role clarity whilst navigating the demands of the changing higher education environment. major change challenges, such as globalisation and technological innovations, may create new opportunities to involve academics actively in the process of change to enhance and reinforce their positive work and organisational psychological functioning. an action plan, focusing on opportunities for academic as well as for positive organisation, and embodying the principles of fairness and the favourable aspects of change, should be implemented. this has the potential to have a positive impact on commitment to change and challenge. academics are expected to take responsibility for their own personal development, and as job resources are positively related to we, the organisation needs to implement action plans to ensure the availability of physical, cognitive and emotional resources. the organisation should create an organisational climate that is supportive and conducive to fair, trusting employee relationships and vibrant communication channels, and this would contribute to greater we and increased psychological well-being. positive work and organisational psychological functioning interventions implemented at the odl hei would help to enhance employee well-being and the flourishing of employees. on a practical level, leadership training should acknowledge system psychodynamics in organisations and create awareness around the topics of restraint, destruction and anxieties within organisations. leadership training should use applied systems psychodynamic interventions to create increased awareness of roles, authorisation, ownership and professionalism by using self-reflective approaches, reflexivity training and the definition of boundaries. psychological well-being could be enhanced by decreasing the workload of academics, ensuring variety in their tasks and providing different learning opportunities and autonomy in their jobs. job resources, referring to physical, social or organisational aspects of the job that may, for example, reduce job demands and the associated physiological and psychological costs, should be increased. furthermore, the odl hei could actively, through strategies and leadership, eliminate negative attitudes and behaviour as well as any institutional barriers that may prevent the optimal functioning and engagement of the odl academic. interventions to increase state-like psycap are assumed to produce synergy effects leading to higher efficiency. a healthy workplace, availability of resources, support and we seems to contribute in promoting the well-being of employees (keyes, 2007). research indicated that face-to-face and web-based interventions could enhance an individual’s level of psycap (luthans et al., 2008, 2010). this malleability is an important characteristic because organisations might be able to influence and develop psycap of their employees. a continued professional development (cpd) programme aimed specifically at equipping odl academics with necessary competencies, skills and knowledge to deal with change and challenges could be implemented at the hei. this may also inculcate adequate positive psychological behaviour so that academics are able to function optimally in the changing odl work environment and flourish. limitations and recommendations the study had various limitations. firstly, because of the relatively small sample applied in this study, the results of this study cannot be generalised to the overall population of academics. a larger sample with more representatives would have been desirable because this would have made it possible to generalise the results. as only academics in an odl institution participated in this study, the future studies on the interrelationships between rtc, we and psycap should consider larger samples from more diverse organisations in order to increase the generalisability of results. secondly, three specific measuring instruments, namely the rtc scale (oreg, 2006), the uwes (schaufeli & bakker, 2003) and the pcq-24 (luthans et al., 2007) were used in this study. as only one instrument for each construct was used, different measuring instruments might have revealed different results. thirdly, another limitation pertaining to the study was the use of a cross-sectional design. this limits the inference and confirmation of causal relationships between rtc, we and psycap. it is recommended that longitudinal research be conducted to undertake further investigation into the drivers of rtc, we and psycap. this study delivered interesting and meaningful results, and it should be noted that certain limitations may be overcome by the future research studies, especially empirical research that could extend beyond the scope of this study. this may contribute to policy development on odl staff development, health and well-being as well as interventions to support we and psycap of academics. conclusion this study empirically confirmed that dynamic interrelationships exist between an academic’s rtc (represented by routine seeking, emotional reaction, short-term focus and cognitive rigidity), we (represented by vigour, dedication and absorption) and psycap (represented by hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism), and that this produces individuals with different levels of psychological and psychodynamic behaviour that informs optimal organisational functioning in a changing work environment. furthermore, academics displaying a particular level of positive psychological behaviour are able to adapt to changes and are more engaged, hopeful, efficacious, resilient and optimistic, which in turn influence their work performance. therefore, the interrelationships of rtc, we and psycap of odl academics in a changing work environment relates positively towards the reduction of rtc as well as the flourishing, positive work and organisational psychological functioning and well-being of academics. acknowledgements this research was conducted as part of the first author’s (j.c.d.) doctoral degree, and completed at the university of south africa (unisa), south africa. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced the writing of this article. authors’ contributions this article uses the doctoral research of j.c.d. (unisa) as its basis. f.c. was the supervisor and a.b. its co-supervisor. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abramovici, m., göbel, j.c., & neges, m. (2015). smart engineering as enabler of the 4th industrial revolution. in integrated systems, innovations and applications. springer. alarcon, g.m., bowling, n.a., & khazon, s. (2013). great expectations: a meta-analytic examination of optimism and hope. personality and individual differences, 54(7), 821–827. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.12.004 arbuckle, j.l. (2006). amos (version 7.0) [computer program]. chicago, il: spss. arinto, p.b. (2013). a framework for developing competencies in open and distance learning. international review of research in open and distance learning, 4(1), 167–185. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v14i1.1393 avey, j.b., hughes, l.w., norman, s.m., & luthans, k.w. (2008). using positivity, transformational leadership and empowerment to combat employee negativity. leadership and organisational development journal, 29, 110–126. avey, j.b., luthans, f., & jensen, s.m. (2009). psychological capital: a positive resource for combating employee stress and turnover. human resource management, 48, 677–693. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20294 avey, j.b., reichard, r.j., luthans, f., & mhatre, k.h. (2011). meta-analysis of the impact of positive psychological capital on employee attitudes, behaviours and performance. human resource development quarterly, 23(2), 127–152. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.20070 baijnath, n. (2012). an organisational architecture for a digital future – a discussion document. pretoria: university of south africa. bakker, a.b., albrecht, s.l., & leiter, m.p. (2011). key questions regarding work engagement. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 20(1), 4–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2010.485352 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2008). towards a model of work engagement. career development international, 13(3), 209–223. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430810870476 bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & burke, r. (2009). workaholism and relationship quality: a spillover-crossover perspective. journal of occupational health psychology, 14(1), 23–33. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013290 bakker, a.b., gierveld, j.h., & van rijswijk, k. (2006). succesfactoren bij vrouwelijke schoolleiders in het primair onderwijs: een onderzoek naar burnout, bevlogenheid en prestaties [success factors among female school principals in primary teaching: a study on burnout, work engagement, and performance]. diemen: right management consultants. bakker, a.b., & schaufeli, w.b. (2008). positive organisational behaviour: engaged employees in flourishing organisations. journal of organisational behaviour, 29, 147–154. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.515 bakker, a.b., schaufeli, w.b., leiter, m.p., & taris, t.w. (2008). work engagement: an emerging concept in occupational health psychology. work and stress, 22(3), 187–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802393649 barkhuizen, n., rothmann, s., & van de vijver, f.j.r. (2014). burnout and work engagement of academics in higher education institutions: effects of dispositional optimism. stress and health, 30(4), 322–332. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2520 bates, t. (2014). teaching in a digital age. retrieved from http://www.tonybates.ca/2014/08/10/choosingteaching-methods-for-a-digital-age/#sthash.0sok0dtr.dpuf. battilana, j., & casciaro, t. (2013). overcoming resistance to organisational change: strong ties and affective cooptation. management science, 59, 819–836. https://doi.org/10.2307/23443813 beal iii, l., stavros, j.m., & cole, m.l. (2013). effect of psychological capital and resistance to change on organisational citizenship behaviour. south african journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1136 bokor, j. (2012). university of the future. a thousand year old industry on the cusp of profound change. retrieved from http://www.ey.com/publication/vwluassets/universityofthefuture/$file/universityofthefuture2012.pdf. bruque, s., moyano, j., & eisenberg, j. (2008). individual adaptation to it-induced change: the role of social networks. journal of management information systems, 25, 177–206. calitz, t.m. (2013). an empowerment programme to regain positive work engagement for social workers in the north west province (doctoral dissertation). north-west university, potchefstroom. chin, w.w. (1998). issues and opinions on structural equation modeling. mis quarterly, 22(1), 1–10. cilliers, f., & koortzen, p. (2005). working with conflict in teams – the cibart model. hr future, 10(1), 52–53. cloete, a.l. (2017). technology and education: challenges and opportunities. hts theological studies, 73(4), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v73i4.4589 coetzee, m., & de villiers, m. (2010). sources of job stress, work engagement and career orientations of employees in a south african financial institution. southern african business review, 14(1), 27–57. coetzer, w.j., & rothmann, s. (2007). a psychometric evaluation of measures of affective well-being in an insurance company. south african journal of industrial psychology, 33(2), 7–15. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v33i2.372 cohen, l., manion, l., & morrison, k. (2011). research methods in education (6th edn.). abingdon: routledge. conley, c. (2007). peak: how great companies get their mojo from maslow. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. del val, m.p., & fuentes, c.m. (2003). resistance to change: a literature review and empirical study. management decision, 41(2), 148–155. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740310457597 desrumaux, p., lapointe, d., ntsame sima, m., boudrias, j.s., savoie, a., & brunet, l. (2015). the impact of job demands, climate and optimism on well-being and distress at work: what are the mediating effects on basic psychological need satisfaction? european review of applied psychology, 65(4), 179–188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erap.2015.06.003 de vos, a., delport, c., fouche, c., & strydom, h. (2011). research at grass roots: a primer for the social science and human professions. pretoria: van schaik. de vries, m.k. (2009). the shadow side of leadership. human capital review, 2(7). retrieved from www.humancapitalreview.org de waal, j.j.p., & pienaar, j. (2013). towards understanding causality between work engagement and psychological capital. south african journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1113 diedericks, e., & rothmann, s. (2013). flourishing of information technology professionals: the role of work engagement and job satisfaction. journal of psychology in africa, 23(1), 55–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2013.10820618 faul, f., erdfelder, e., buchner, a., & lang, a.g. (2009). statistical power analyses using g*power 3.1: tests for correlation and regression analyses. behaviour research methods, 41, 1149–1160. https://doi.org/10.3758/brm.41.4.1149 fida, r., paciello, m., tramontano, c., barbaranelli, c., & farnese, m.l. (2015). ‘yes, i can’: the protective role of personal self-efficacy in hindering counterproductive work behavior under stressful conditions. anxiety, stress, & coping, 28(5), 479–499. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2014.969718 golom, f.d. (2017). debra a. noumair: understanding organizational life beneath the surface. in d.b. szabla, w.a. pasmore, m.a. barnes, & a.-n. gipson (eds.), the palgrave handbook of organizational change thinkers (pp. 1–13). cham, ch: springer. greyvenstein, h., & cilliers, f. (2012). followership’s experiences of organisational leadership: a systems psychodynamic perspective. south african journal of industrial psychology, 38(2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v38i2.1001 guasch, t. alvarez, i., & espasa, a. (2010). university teacher competencies in a virtual teaching/learning environment: analysis of a teacher training experience. teaching and teacher education, 26(2), 199–206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2009.02.018 hair, j., black, w., babin, b., & anderson, r. (2010). multivariate data analysis. pearson, nj: pearson education. heinrich, t. (2004). resistance to change – does age matter? predicting negative attitudes towards organisational change. london: turnshare. henning, s. (2009). towards a system psychodynamic model of psychological wellness (doctoral thesis). university of south africa, pretoria. heydenrych, j.f., & prinsloo, p. (2010). revisiting the five generations of distance education: quo vadis? progressio, 32(1), 5–26. hobfoll, s.e. (2002). social and psychological resources and adaptation. review of general psychology, 6, 307–324. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.6.4.307 hon, a.h., bloom, m., & crant, j.m. (2014). overcoming resistance to change and enhancing creative performance. journal of management, 40, 919–941. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206311415418 inzlicht, m., schmeichel, b.j., & macrae, c.n. (2014). why self-control seems (but may not be) limited. trends in cognitive sciences, 18(3), 127–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.12.009 kearsley, g. (2000). online education: learning and teaching in cyberspace. belmont, ca: wadsworth/thomson learning. kerlinger, f.n. (1986). foundations of behavioural research (3rd edn.). orlando, fl: harcourt brace jovanovich college publishers. keyes, c.l.m. (2007). promoting and protecting mental health as flourishing: a complementary strategy for improving national mental health. american psychologist, 62, 95–108. keyes, c.l.m., & annas, j. (2009). feeling good and functioning well: distinctive concepts in ancient philosophy and contemporary science. journal of positive psychology, 4, 197–201. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760902844228 koortzen, p., & cilliers, f. (2002). the psychoanalytical approach to team development. in r.l. lowman (ed.), handbook of organizational consulting psychology (pp. 260–284). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. kuanda, l. (2012). curriculum internationalisation in an african context. university world news, 242. retrieved from http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20121003103951872. larson, m., & luthans, f. (2006). potential added value of psychological capital in predicting work attitudes. journal of leadership and organisational studies, 13, 45–62. https://doi.org/10.1177/10717919070130020601 leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2013). practical research, planning and design. london: pearson. leibowitz, b., bozalek, v., van schalkwyk, s., & winberg, c. (2015). institutional context matters: the professional development of academics as teachers in south africa. higher education, 69, 315–330. lewin, k. (1947/1959). group decisions and social change. in t.m. newcomb & e.l. hartley (eds.). readings in social psychology (pp. 197–211). new york: holt. luthans, f. (2002). the need for and meaning of positive organisational behaviour. journal of organisational behaviour, 23, 659–706. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.165 luthans, f., avey, j.b., avolio, b.j., & peterson, s.j. (2010). the development and resulting performance impact of positive psychological capital. human resource development quarterly, 21(1), 41–67. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.20034 luthans, f., avey, j.b., & patera, j.l. (2008). experimental analysis of a web-based training intervention to develop positive. academy of management learning & education, 7(2), 209–221. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2008.32712618 luthans, f., avolio, b.j., avey, j., & norman, s.m. (2007). positive psychological capital: measurement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. personnel psychology, 60, 541–572. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2007.00083.x luthans, f., luthans, k.w., & luthans, b.c. (2004). positive psychological capital: beyond human and social capital. business horisons, 47(1), 45–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2003.11.007 luthans, f., norman, s.m., avolio, b.j., & avey, j.b. (2008). the mediating role of psychological capital in the supportive organisational climate – employee performance relationship. journal of organisational behaviour, 29, 219–238. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2003.11.007 luthar, s.s., & cicchetti, d. (2000). the construct of resilience: implications for intervention and social policy. development and psychopathology, 12, 867–886. masten, a.s. (2001). ordinary magic: resilience processes in development. american psychologist, 56, 227–238. mauno, s., kinnunen, u., & ruokolainen, m. (2007). job demands and resources as antecedents of work engagement: a longitudinal study. journal of vocational behaviour, 70, 149–171. marsh, h.w., & hocevar, d. (1985). application of confirmatory factor analysis to the study of self-concept: firstand higher-order factor models and their invariance across groups. psychological bulletin, 97(3), 562–582. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.97.3.562 martin, r. (2007). online education and training: well-founded pedagogy or state corporate interest? south african journal of higher education, 21(3), 473–484. mayer, c.h. (2011). the sense of coherence in trans-cultural management. münster: waxmann. mayer, c.h., & surtee, s. (2015). the leadership preferences of women leaders working in higher education. generos, multidisciplinary journal of gender studies, 4(19), 612–636. https://doi.org/10.17583/generos.2015.1320 miner, m., bickerton, g., dowson, m., & sterland, s. (2015). spirituality and work engagement among church leaders. mental health, religion & culture, 18(1), 57–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2014.1003168 naudé, j.l.p., & rothmann, s. (2004). the validation of the utrecht work engagement scale for emergency medical technicians in gauteng. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 7(3), 459–468. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v7i3.1356 nerstad, c.g.l., richardsen, a.m., & martinussen, m. (2010). factorial validity of the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) across occupational groups in norway. scandinavian journal of psychology, 51(4), 326–333. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.2009.00770.x nunnally, j., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. oreg, s. (2003). resistance to change: developing an individual difference measure. journal of applied psychology, 88(4), 680–693. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.4.680 oreg, s. (2006). personality, context and resistance to organisational change. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 15(1), 73–101. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320500451247 oreg, s., bartunek, j.m., lee, g., & do, b. (2018). an affect-based model of recipients’ responses to organisational change events. academy of management review, 43(1), 65–86. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2014.0335 oreg, s., michel, a., & by, r.t. (eds.). 2013. the psychology of organisational change: viewing change from the employee’s perspective. cambridge: cambridge university press. oreg, s., vakola, m., & armenakis, a.a. (2011). change recipients’ reactions to organisational change: a sixty-year review of quantitative studies. journal of applied behavioural science, 47, 461–524. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886310396550 pallant, j. (2010). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using spss for windows (version 12) (2nd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. paloff, p., & pratt, k. (2011). the excellent online instructor: strategies for professional development. san francisco, ca: wiley. palmer, i., dunford, r., & akin, g. (2009). managing organisational change: a multiple perspectives approach (2nd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. panda, s., & mishra, s. (2007). e-learning in a mega open university: faculty attitude, barriers, and motivators. educational media international, 14(1), 324–338. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523980701680854 picciano, a.g. (2006). online learning: implications for higher education pedagogy and policy. journal of thought, 41, 75–94. poalses, j., joubert, j.p.r., bezuidenhout, a., & nienaber, h. (2014). college of economic and management sciences occupational stress and risk assessment. pretoria: university of south africa. porras, j.i., & robertson, p.j. (1992). organisational development: theory, practice and research. in m.d. dunnette & l.m. hough (eds.). handbook of industrial and organisational psychology (2nd edn, vol. 3, pp. 719–822). palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. rice, j.k. (2009). the role of tenure as a moderator to work engagement and job satisfaction (master’s thesis). san josé state university, san jose, ca. rodda, j. (2007). a multilevel examination of employee reactions to organisational change (phd dissertation). depaul university, chicago, il. rodriguez, c.o. (2013). two distinct course formats in the delivery of connectivist: moocs. turkish online journal of distance education, 14, 66–80. roemer, a., & harris, c. (2018). perceived organisational support and well-being: the role of psychological capital as a mediator. south african journal of industrial psychology, 44(0), a1539. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v44i0.1539 rothmann, s. (2013). from happiness to flourishing at work: a southern african perspective. in m.p. wissing (ed.), well-being research in south africa: cross-cultural advances in positive psychology (vol. 4, pp. 123–152). dordrecht: springer. rothmann, s. (2017). employee engagement. in l.g. oades, m.f. steger, a.d. fave & j. passmore (eds.), the wiley blackwell handbook of the psychology of positivity and strengths-based approaches at work (pp. ). hoboken, nj: wiley. rothmann, s., & cilliers, f. (2007). present challenges and some critical issues for research in industrial/organisational psychology in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 33(1), 8–17. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v33i1.262 saruhan, n. (2013). organisational change: the effects of trust in organisation and psychological capital during change process. journal of business economics and finance, 2(3), 13–35. saks, a.m. (2011). workplace spirituality and employee engagement. journal of management, spirituality & religion, 8(4), 317–340. https://doi.org/10.1080/14766086.2011.630170 salanova, m., & schaufeli, w.b., (2008). a cross-national study of work engagement as a mediator between job resources and proactive behaviour. the international journal of human resource management, 19(1), 116–131. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190701763982 salkind, j.n. (2009). exploring research (7th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2003). utrecht work engagement scale. preliminary manual. utrecht: occupational health psychology unit, utrecht university. pmc id: pmc1765719. schaufeli, w.b., bakker, a.b., & van rhenen, w. (2008). how changes in job demands and resources predict burnout, work engagement, and sickness absenteeism. journal of organisational behaviour, 30(7), 893–917. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.595 scott, i., yeld, i., & hendry, j. (2007). a case for improving teaching and learning in south african higher education. pretoria: the council on higher education. seale, o., & cross, m. (2016). leading and managing in complexity: the case of south african deans. studies in higher education, 41(8), 1514–1532. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2014.988705 seligman, m.e.p., & csikszentmihalyi, m. (2000). positive psychology: an introduction. american psychologist, 55(1), 5–14. söderström, t., from, j., lövqvist, j., & törnquist, a. (2012). the transformation from distance to online education: perspectives from the educational management horizon. the european journal of open, distance and e-learning, 1, 1–9. sonnentag, s., mojza, e.j., binnewies, c., & scholl, a. (2008). being engaged at work and detached at home: a week-level study on work engagement, psychological detachment, and affect. work & stress, 22, 257–276. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802379440 souri, h., & hasanirad, t. (2011). relationship between resilience, optimism and psychological well-being in students of medicine. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 30, 1541–1544. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.10.299 spreitzer, g.m., lam, c.f., & fritz, c. (2010). engagement and human thriving: complementary perspectives on energy and connections to work. in a.b. bakker & m.p. leiter (eds.), work engagement: a handbook of essential theory and research (pp. 132–146). new york: psychology press. spss. (2003). spss 12.0 for windows. chicago, il: spss. stanley, d.j., meyer, j.p., & topolntsky, l. (2005). employee cynicism and resistance to organisational change. journal of business and psychology, 19(4), 429–459. steyn, h. (2002). practical significant relationships between two variables. south african journal of industrial psychology, 28(3), 10–15. storm, k. (2002). burnout and work engagement in the south african police service (unpublished doctoral thesis). north-west university, potchefstroom. storm, k., & rothmann, s. (2003). a psychometric analysis of the utrecht work engagement scale in the south african police service. south african journal of industrial psychology, 29(4), 62–70. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v29i4.129 swart, j.j., & rothmann, s. (2012). authentic happiness of managers, and individual and organisational outcomes. south african journal of psychology, 42(4), 492–508. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124631204200404 terre blanche, m., & durrheim, k. (2002). research in practice: applied methods for the social sciences. cape town. south africa: uct press. tredoux, c., & durrheim, k. (2013). numbers, hypotheses, and conclusions (2nd edn.). cape town: uct press. van den heuvel, s., & schalk, r. (2009). the relationship between fulfilment of the psychological contract and resistance to change during organisational transformation. social science information, 48(2), 283–313. https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018409102415 van der walt, f. (2018). workplace spirituality, work engagement and thriving at work. south african journal of industrial psychology, 44(0), a1457. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v44i0.1457 weinberg, a., & cooper, c. (2007). surviving the workplace: a guide to emotional well-being. london: thomson. weller, m. (2002). delivering learning on the net: the why, what and how of online education. london: kogan page. wissing, m.p., potgieter, j.c., guse, t., khumalo, i.p., & nel, l. (2014). towards flourishing: contextualising positive psychology. pretoria: van schaik. youssef, c., & luthans, f. (2012). psychological capital: meaning, finding and future directions. in k.s. cameron & g.m. spreitzer (eds.). the oxford handbook of positive organisational scholarship (pp.17–27). new york, ny: oxford university press. zhonggen, y. (2015). blended learning over decades. international journal of information and communication technology education, 11(3), 1–19. abstract introduction literature review research methodology results discussions and practical implications acknowledgements references about the author(s) habiba akter unikl business school (ubis), universiti kuala lumpur, kuala lumpur, malaysia waqas ahmed unikl business school (ubis), universiti kuala lumpur, kuala lumpur, malaysia ilham sentosa unikl business school (ubis), universiti kuala lumpur, kuala lumpur, malaysia sheikh m. hizam unikl business school (ubis), universiti kuala lumpur, kuala lumpur, malaysia citation akter, h., ahmed w., sentosa i., & hizam, s.m. (2022). crafting employee engagement through talent management practices in telecom sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1775. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1775 original research crafting employee engagement through talent management practices in telecom sector habiba akter, waqas ahmed, ilham sentosa, sheikh m. hizam received: 19 sept. 2021; accepted: 23 nov. 2021; published: 31 jan. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: solving the dearth of skilled employees and maintaining the engagement policy are key concerns of the malaysian telecom sector. therefore, talent management practices have created a mainstream process for telecom employers to be proactively involved in talent engagement. research purpose: this study aimed to elucidate the vital talent management practices towards employee engagement in telecom sector, incorporating psychological empowerment as a mediator. motivation for the study: studies linking talent management with career development, rewards and recognition, training and development, are still not established in terms of employee engagement in the context of malaysian telecom sector. research design, approach and method: an online survey was conducted through the purposive sampling technique to collect data from telecom firms in malaysia. the survey resulted in 242 responses, which were analysed through partial least squares – structural equation modelling (pls-sem) and pls-predict. in pls-sem, data were evaluated for hypothesis testing. after hypothesis result was obtained, the pls-sem model was assessed for its predictive validity through pls-predict. main findings: the results explored that talent management factors positively and significantly predicted employee engagement through psychological empowerment, except training and development. the pls-predict resulted a higher value of predictive power for our model. practical/managerial implications: this study may lead to practical applications to support human resource management practitioners towards comprehending the impact of talent management practices, either directly or indirectly, in engaging the right talent. contribution/value-add: this study will fill the untapped area of improving employee engagement by adding psychological empowerment as a mediator between employee engagement and talent management practices. keywords: talent management practices; psychological empowerment; employee engagement; telecom sector; social exchange theory; pls-sem; pls-predict. introduction during the 1970s and 1980s, employees’ satisfaction was the key focus area for human resource management (hrm), which had little impact on or no link to organisational productivity. thereafter, the focus went beyond employee commitment, as commitment is a vital factor predicting engagement (aktar & pangil, 2018). as a result of increasing global competition in businesses, hrm strategy began to change with hrm leaders effectively balancing both individual and organisational needs. at the end of the 1980s, employees were encouraged to be engaged in their job roles and as well as being focused on their talents to achieve organisational goals. these were the main conceptualization aspects of employee engagement (ee). employment engagement emerged for the first time in management theory in 1990. various scholars have given a different definitions of ee since then; therefore it is sometimes difficult to comprehend the exact meaning of the term ‘engagement’. engagement is often delineated in the management literature as a ‘positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind, which is categorised by vigour, dedication and absorption’ (schaufeli, salanova, gonzález-romá, & bakker, 2002, p. 74). with the advent of ee in the academic domain, many scholars opined that ee is a crucial factor for organisational success. the hr policymakers also affirm that ee initiative improves organisational productivity, enhances customer satisfaction and decreases turnover intention (aktar & pangil, 2018; sheikh, christina, & sharina, 2020). however, claims have been made repeatedly that nowadays engaged employees are shortening and disengaged workforce is deepening. according to the recent gallup (2017) survey, 85% of employees are disengaged throughout the world, resulting in a greater level of financial loss (around $7 trillion). the survey also reported that only 19% of staff are engaged throughout the southeast asian countries (e.g. malaysia, singapore, thailand, etc.) (gallup, 2017). according to the department of statistics malaysia (dosm), the information and communications technology (ict) sector is the major contributor to the malaysian economy, especially the telecom sector with the highest value of gross output and value-added of malaysian ringgit (rm)87.4 billion and rm49.5 billion, respectively, (dosm, 2019a, 2019b). although ee is one of the leading contributor to the productivity and effectiveness of the malaysian telecom sector (khan & bukhari, 2020), the telecommunication companies are facing several challenges to engage and retain the right talent (mcmc, 2015; sheikh et al., 2020; talentcrop, 2018). a recent report revealed that in 2020, the malaysian ict sector was confronted with a deficient workforce totalling to 9000 employees. if the employers do not address this issue urgently, the demand for talented employees will increase manifold by 2025 (kkmm, 2018). according to alias, nor and hassan (2016), the malaysian ict organisations should focus on strategic initiatives such as talent management practices (tmps) for not only attracting the right talent but increasing the engagement levels to retain them. sheikh et al. (2020) also stated that to retain the right talent, telecom professionals in malaysia should put in more efforts to manage the engagement level. the talent shortage problem that the malaysian telecom sector is experiencing has enlarged the skill-gap amongst its employees. the importance of tmp is critical in this aspect. a study evidenced that tmp is imperative for attracting, developing, engaging and maintaining a strong talent pool. the research also found that the term ‘talent management (tm)’ is broadly practiced in today’s business world, however, more studies are required to evaluate the impact of tmp on organisational strategy. employers therefore, need to reconsider their policies towards tm to improve their ee strategy (pandita & ray, 2018). several factors of tm have become crucial for the telecom sector in malaysia to manage top talent. according to a survey conducted by the academy of sciences malaysia (asm), 51% of companies revealed the low-skilled workforce factor as the prominent reason for employee disengagement in the telecom sector, whilst 25% stated the incapability of meeting employees’ expected salary. thus, training and development (td) and rewards and recognition (rr) may be crucial in fostering ee (asm, 2018). another survey in the context of malaysia’s information technology (it) and telecom sector found that 57% of staff are concerned about career development (cd) to be more engaged at the workplace (cooper, 2015). although previous researchers over the past decades have studied the influence of tmp on ee (alias et al., 2016), there is a paucity of studies that link tm with cd, rr and td in terms of ee in the malaysian telecom sector. some earlier researchers have also suggested psychological empowerment (pe) as an intervening factor between tmp and different outcomes at the individual level (khan, yasir, majid, & afridi, 2019). however, this relationship is less comprehensible because of its underlying mechanisms. in this context, the previous studies had undertaken numerous theories such as social exchange theory (set) to understand the ee mechanism. according to khoreva and vaiman (2015), set posits that when employers give priority to skilled workers to be involved through tmp, they reciprocate by engaging at the organisation. to explore this addressing gap, our study aims to examine the relevance of tmp (e.g. cd, rr and td) towards ee based on set, incorporated in pe as a mediator and empirically test it among the workforces in the telecom sector in malaysia. literature review social exchange theory we have focused on the set developed by blau (1964), which is relevant for this study. based on saks’s (2006) opinion, a strong theoretical rationale for explicating ee has been found within set. according to khoreva, vaiman and zalk (2017), to perceive the effectiveness of tmp, which leads to positive employee behaviour, set provides a suitable lens for better understanding the scenario. stein and min (2019) evidenced that set directs a positive relation between hrm practices and pe, which leads to employees’ positive outcomes. social exchange theory explains that engagement emerges as the approach of exchanging or ‘refunding’ the belief that employers ‘offer’ to their staff (ugwu et al., 2014). hence, this study combines tmp and pe with the theory of social exchange to determine their direct or indirect impact on ee. connections between talent management practices and employee engagement the term ‘tmp’ covers talent transformation, td programmes, talent involvement, rr and talent deployment (pandita & ray, 2018). as tmp is closely tied with different facets of hrm, therefore, organisations should consider the significance of tmp whilst planning for ee strategies. an important factor of tmp goes towards cd to manage the right talent. as defined by arthur, hall and lawrence (1989), cd is a set of programmes intended to accomplish employees’ needs in terms of creating a better career path in the organisation. according to pandita and ray (2018), when scholastically exploring tm, scholars widen the notion to involve cd strategy in an organisation for a long time. the authors further explained that when employees undergo career advancement programmes, their self-confidence build-up towards their career which stimulates them to be more involved in their work roles. hence, cd as an effective tm factor has a positive relationship with ee (alias et al., 2016). aktar and pangil (2018) and anitha (2014) also revealed a positive impact of cd on ee. rewards and renumeration as a tool of tmp is also considered as a means for effectively engaging the workforce. in line with bandura’s (1977) concept, reward controls behavioural outcomes outwardly because it leads to future reimbursements to those who deserve it. whilst recognition, is a significant driver of behaviour beyond any benefits being related to it. these constructs consist of vital tmp including compensations, company benefits and location (tymon, stumpf, & doh, 2010). rewards and recognition opportunities create employees’ positive feelings about their jobs and thereby influence ee. a growing number of researchers have linked rr as an efficient dimension of tmp with individual outcomes. for example, alias et al. (2016) and ghosh, rai, chauhan, baranwal and srivastava (2016) confirmed that rr positively influences ee. along similar lines, a more recent study found rr has a positive impact on ee (aktar & pangil, 2018). training and development is another significant factor of tmp that is to be deliberated in the way of enhancing workforces’ engagement. according to aguinis and kraiger (2009), training is meant as a systematic way that affects one’s knowledge, abilities and behaviours leading to efficiency. on the other hand, development is referred to as a systematic action that influences one’s knowledge, abilities and behaviours leading to self-development. keeping the ability to learn effectively through td programmes expands persons’ skills and abilities, makes them strongly engaged and highly satisfied at their jobs. they also provide a better scope for self-development (aguinis & kraiger, 2009). researchers have found that td is positively and significantly linked to ee (e.g. aktar & pangil, 2018; presbitero, 2017). extending the aforesaid reasoning, we propose the following hypotheses: h1a: cd positively influences ee. h2a: rr positively affects ee. h3a: td has a positive impact on ee. linking talent management practices, psychological empowerment and employee engagement psychological empowerment is reflected on individuals’ task orientation within a set of four cognitive factors including: meaning, competence, self-determination and impact (spreitzer, 1995). in line with jose and mampilly’s (2014) opinion, pe helps to improve employees’ thoughts of meaning, competence self-determination and impact, and therefore higher levels of engagement. there are several well-established research works which validate that pe is positively associated with greater engagement levels at the workplace. nawrin (2016), for instance, explained that psychologically empowered staffs convey the key attributes of engagement on the job and organisational level. more specifically, past researchers found that pe positively and significantly predicted ee (arefin, alam, islam, & rahaman, 2019). several studies found tmp as the key player to increase pe. although there are different controversial results, many researchers empirically found that tmp (cd, rr, td) positively and significantly influence pe (arefin et al., 2019; matsuo, 2019; moradi & dashti, 2016). in the direction of mediating effect of pe, the relationship between tmp and employee outcome has been documented in various research works, but contradictory outcomes have been found in the context of relationship amongst these variables. however, pe has a direct or partial or full mediating effect on the relationship between tmp and employee outcome, which has been discoursed in prior studies (arefin et al., 2019; khan et al., 2019). given these shreds of evidence, we hypothesise that: h1b: cd has a positive effect on pe. h2b: rr has a positive effect on pe. h3b: td is positively connected with pe. h1c: pe mediates the connection between cd and ee. h2c: pe mediates the effect of rr on ee. h3c: pe plays as a mediator in the connection between td and ee. h4: pe is positively linked to ee. research framework studying and evaluating the findings from signified literature reviews as detailed above, the authors have proposed the research framework as illustrated in figure 1. this framework underlines the influence of tmp (e.g. cd, rr, td) on ee with the existence of pe as a mediator. they propose the hypotheses for tmp factors as: cd with three hypotheses (i.e. h1a for cd→ee, h1b for cd→pe, h1c for cd→pe→ee), rr also with three hypotheses (i.e. h2a for rr→ee, h2b for rr→pe and h2c for rr→pe→ee) and td also showing three paths (i.e. h3a for td→ee, h3b for td→pe, h3c for td→pe→ee), whilst pe has one hypothesis, that is, h4 for pe→ee. figure 1: proposed research framework. research methodology to build the methodology base, research onion by saunders, lewis and thornhill (2016) was considered to design philosophy, approach and strategies for this research. the positivism philosophy was adopted to choose the research design. in the positivist paradigm, causal research which deals with the cause and effect relationships amongst the variables is undertaken as practiced in this research. for the research approach, we adopted set from various viewpoints in measuring certain factors, which impact employee behaviour, therefore, the deductive approach was selected for this quantitative research. sampling and data collection in this study, we carried out an online survey with a cross-sectional approach for collecting the primary data. the respondents were chosen from telecom companies in malaysia. the purposive sampling technique was preferred to reach the respondents who are the best option to collect the required data (sekaran & bougie, 2016). we explained the main objective of the research to the companies’ internal team correspondence to obtain permission for the data collection. the online survey link was sent to the respondents who were employed in different departments such as administration and customer care, financial and technical. the survey continued for 8 weeks and a total of 242 responses were gathered. the respondents participated anonymously and voluntarily in which they were convinced of the confidentiality of their responses. the minimum sample size for partial least squares-structural equation modelling (pls-sem) was projected as per the rule of 5-times the number of measurement items in the proposed model (hair, sarstedt, ringle, & mena, 2012). therefore, 242 collected responses were considered adequate for conducting the pls-sem analysis. measuring instruments this study mainly covers three major constructs including tmp (e.g. cd, rr, td), pe and ee. we adopted the items for each construct from the validated studies. career development was measured adopting six items taken from imandin, bisschoff and botha’s (2015) study. 05 measurement items for rr were drawn from the saks’s (2006) study. training and development was measured adapting five items developed by edgar and geare (2005). a total of 12 items were derived from spreitzer’s (1995) study for evaluating pe. employee engagement was assessed using nine items, which are the widely used instruments to measure ee (schaufeli et al., 2002). the questionnaire had two sections with demographic particulars of respondents (such as gender, age, qualification, experience, department, etc.) in part-a and part-b consisted of variable questions or items. these items were assessed through a 5-point likert-scale (i.e. 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). a total of 37 question items based on the five variables of the proposed model were used to collect the responses for testing the hypotheses. data analysis techniques the pls-sem analysis method was used to analyse study data. in pls-sem, data reliability, validity, factor loadings, variance inflation factor (vif), regression path coefficients and hypothesis testing were employed. finally, to assess the predictive validity of the pls-sem model, we also conducted the pls-predict algorithm through two error metrics, that is, mean absolute error (mae) and root mean square error (rmse) with the q-square-root of both pls and linear regression model (lm). towards the data analysis, smartpls v3.3 was employed. results demographic results of the 242 respondents, 61.8% of the respondents were males whilst females represented 38.2%. a total of 42.7% of respondents were chinese, whilst the rest of them were either malay, indian or of other nationalities. based on the education level, about 60% of the respondents had a bachelor’s degree. in the context of job level, the majority of the participants (74%) held the position of executive or senior officer level. on the basis of age group, 39.7% of the participants were from the age group 21–30 years, 44.3% from 31–40 years, whilst others were from the age group of 41 to 50 years or above 50-years. also, most of the participants had 1–5 years of job experience at telecom companies. most of the sample population was employed in the technical department i.e., 38.2%. in terms of renumeration, 39.7% of the respondents were from the salary bracket of rm ≤ 3000, followed by 35.9% who received rm3001 – rm6000 of the salary and the remaining 24.5% had been paid either rm6001 – rm9000 or above rm9000 as salary. reliability and validity using smartpls software 3.3 version, our findings showed that both cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability values of each construct lie between 0.80 and 0.90, respectively. according to hair, babin, anderson and black (2018), cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability values standing between 0.80 and 0.90 are deliberated as highly reliable and acceptable. therefore, all the constructs in the research model were identified as having a better level of reliability. furthermore, convergent validity was assessed through average variance extracted (ave). the ave values confirmed that all indicators were valid as they exceeded the minimum threshold value of 0.5 (hair et al., 2018). based on the multitrait-multimethod (mtmm) matrix, the heterotrait-monotrait (htmt) criterion was assessed to establish the discriminant validity of the variables. according to henseler, ringle and sarstedt (2015), if the htmt ratio is less than 0.85, it is confirmed that the discriminant validity has been determined by the reflective constructs. in the test of this study, the htmt approaches reliably detected the discriminant validity between two reflective constructs. table 1 represents the reliability level and convergent validity level (composite reliability and cronbach’s alpha, ave) and discriminant validity level (htmt ratio), respectively, for all the proposed constructs. table 1: reliability, discriminant validity, factor loadings and collinearity statistics. outer loadings to measure outer loadings for all the items, we used the smartpls. our results revealed that the outer loadings of the items ranged from 0.70 to 0.90, which were viewed as appropriate items. here only cd-6, pe-2 and pe-10 did not found the criteria, whereas the value range for the items was not above 0.70. as the outer loadings above 0.70 are acceptable levels for analysis, all the indicators of each construct have been reliably preferred for this study. on the other hand, the outer loading values of 0.50–0.60 are still widely accepted (soelton et al., 2020). hence, the items from cd-6, pe-2 and pe-10 were also accepted. the overall outer loadings of each item are shown in table 1. the collinearity statistics, that is, vif for each instrument was also calculated for inner model assessment in smartpls and found appropriate (i.e. depicted in table 1) as a recommended value of > 5 was achieved (sarstedt, ringle, & hair, 2017). structural model the sem was applied for ensuring the causal relationship amongst tmp (cd, rr, td), pe and ee. in pls, r2 is assessed for measuring the effects of latent variables. the analytical findings of pls-sem show that the r2 (variance explained)for the endogenous variables ee and pe were 0.56 and 0.14, respectively (see figure 2). this signifies that cd, rr, td and pe, could explain 56% of the variance for ee. the findings also revealed that 14% of the variance for pe could be explained by cd, rr, td. table 2 denotes the direct and indirect effects with r2 and adjusted r2 in the endogenous variables. figure 2: measurement model from partial least squares-structural equation modelling analysis. table 2: results of hypothesis testing with r2 and adjusted r2. furthermore, each proposed hypothesis was tested using sem. findings from table 2 show that a significantly positive connection exists between cd and ee (β = 16%, p < 0.05). thus, hypothesis h1a was validated. in addition, based on the prediction in table 2, a weak positive direct impact of rr on ee has been found, whilst td negatively influences ee. however, these findings are not statistically significant (p > 0.05). hence, hypotheses h2a and h3a are not supported. on the other hand, cd and rr are positively and significantly associated with pe (p < 0.05), supporting hypotheses h1b and h2b. our findings also confirm that td positively but not significantly impact pe. therefore, hypothesis h3b is not confirmed. interestingly, the pe is found to be a strong predictor of ee (β = 70%, p < 0.001). thus, h4 is robustly accepted. to determine the mediation, it has already been found that the indirect effect of cd and rr are significant (p < 0.05), whilst td has an insignificant effect (p > 0.05). these findings support hypotheses h1c and h2c, but do not confirm hypothesis h3c.the overall significance level for each hypothesis is indicated in figure 3. figure 3: structural model from pls-sem analysis. partial least squares-predict towards an assessment of predictive validity of the proposed framework, the novel method of pls-predict was utilised. this pls-predict algorithm adopted from shmueli, ray, velasquez estrada and chatla (2016), assessed the predictive ability and concentrated on the overfitting problems by generating the holdout samples to execute the cross-validation. guidelines to evaluate the predictive power of framework were adopted from garcía-fernández, martelo-landroguez, vélez-colon and cepeda-carrión (2018) hair (2021) hair et al. (2020) shmueli et al. (2019). to measure the predictive validity of endogenous variables (pe and ee), two error metrics, that is, mae and rmse were considered. by applying the pls-predict algorithm to whole data, the predictive validity of the model was assessed through error metrics and q square root (q2). it can be seen from table 3 that rmse and mae values in the pls section are lower than multiple linear (ml) (i.e. multiple linear regression) sections whilst q2 values are greater than ml’s respective values, which indicates quite a higher predictive power of our proposed model with non-overfitting problems (kasilingam & krishna, 2021). moreover, the positive q2 values of endogenous variables (i.e. ee = 0.105 and pe = 0.093) confirm the predictive relevance of our model. the pls-predict for the model fulfilled the required criteria as depicted in table 3. table 3: partial least squares-predict. discussions and practical implications the objective of this study was to investigate the tmp for predicting engagement levels amongst telecom employees by assessing the mediation effect of pe. in our study, tmp comprises three factors, namely cd, rr and td. our findings confirmed that cd had a significantly positive connection on ee (β = 16% , p < 0.05). thus, hypothesis h1a (cd→ee) was supported. this outcome is aligned with earlier researchers’ findings (alias et al., 2016; anitha, 2014). our findings also indicated that rr positively but not significantly forecasted ee. besides, a negative and insignificant connection between td and ee was found. therefore, hypotheses h2a (rr→ee) and h3a (td→ee) were not supported. this statement does not concur with results received in previous studies that rr and td have a positive effect on ee (aktar & pangil, 2018; alias et al., 2016). besides, all the three factors of tmp (i.e. cd, rr and td) positively influenced pe. for example, cd and rr were positively and significantly associated with pe (β = 0.20 and 0.17, respectively), whilst td had a positive but insignificant impact (β = 0.06). hence, hypotheses h1b (cd→pe) and h2b (rr→pe) were supported, whilst hypothesis h3b (td→pe) was not supported. similar findings were confirmed by earlier researches also (arefin et al., 2019; matsuo, 2019; moradi & dashti, 2016). also, the result confirmed that pe changed a greater level of ee (β = 0.70 and p < 0.001). this evidence strongly supported hypothesis h4 (pe→ee). such an outcome coincides with prior researchers’ findings (arefin et al., 2019; nawrin, 2016). as per the desirable mediation analysis, the findings of this study showed that ee was not robustly affected by the proposed factors of tmp. the role of pe in mediation practice had a stronger effect on the connection between tmp and ee. for example, this study’s findings revealed that cd→pe→ee: (β = 0.14 , p < 0.05), rr→pe→ ee: (β = 0.12, p < 0.05), td→pe→ ee: (β = 0.04, p > 0.05). these findings confirmed the indirect effect of all the variables except td. our results are consistent with prior evidence that the effect of tmp via pe has a solid understanding of employee outcomes in the malaysian telecom sector (khan et al., 2019). this is the novelty of our study because of the paucity of researches in terms of the intervening role of pe on the relationship between tmp and ee. according to pandita and ray (2018), high-skilled employees tend to engage more in organisational excellence than low-skilled ones. but, only tmp cannot strongly predict ee. the mediating role of pe would be to reinforce the relationship between the two variables. however, our results have proved that tmp positively affects employees’ positive behavioural outcomes through pe. according to pandita and ray (2018), productivity in an organisation is the function of ee and employees’ work satisfaction as well, which can be brought about by an efficient tm strategy via pe (arefin et al., 2019; khan et al., 2019). hence, this study will enable hrm leaders to choose the tmp to engage potential employees through pe. precisely, as predictive validity of our model also proved the pls-predict, model findings ensured that all the factors in the proposed model have resulted in 56% of change towards ee. the results are consistent with set that signifies a viable theoretical model. saks (2006) unveiled that set explains the reciprocal actions between two persons create an obligation in the stage of mutual interconnection. according to khoreva et al. (2017), tmp delivers a suitable lens for highly skilled workforces to respond positively. hence, tmp requires to be combined with set for a better understanding of the scenario. on the other hand, set directs a positive association between tmp and pe, which leads to productive employee outcomes (stein & min, 2019). similarly, a strong connection between pe and ee has been found within set (kosar, 2017). this theory has provided essential support to develop and test the proposed research model with mediation effects. however, drawing on set, our findings mainly highlight the importance of tmp to influence ee, either directly or indirectly. this research contributes to the existing literature by examining the mediation role of pe in the relationship between tmp and ee. past literature has mostly focused on the connection between either employees’ innovative work behaviour (khan et al., 2019), organisational citizenship behaviour (arefin, arif, & raquib, 2015) or knowledge sharing intention (han, seo, li, & yoon, 2016). with this study’s contribution, telecommunications managers may therefore focus on pe as a potential meditator to understand their employees’ positive intentions to work. as this study has empirically evidenced that tmp can positively affect employees’ intention to engage in the work environment via pe, this would benefit telecommunications companies to recognise the link between tmp and pe to ensure ee. particularly, we suggest that pe could be a strong intermediate factor to strengthen the effect of tmp on ee. this form of internal link amongst tmp, pe and ee may be considered a reliable form to gain a competitive advantage. the findings of this research also support several interesting practical implications. firstly, this study would benefit telecommunications leaders and hrm practitioners to understand the link between tmp and ee, which in turn will diminish turnover intentions. according to wang, xu, zhang and li (2020), studies on ee have become a conduit to guide academics, hr practitioners and organisations to understand behavioural expectations of the right talent towards the current retention policy. secondly, as engagement occurs at each level in an organisation, strategic planning on enhancing engagement in the workplace may lead to long-term benefits. in such a way, workers may desire to put effort into their job responsibilities that refer to meaningfulness, determination and connection (shrm, 2016). the telecom sector is categorised as a highly growing market in the tech-business world, thus, maintaining proper staff settings is an essential concern that may result in sustainable business development. in this respect, through fulfilling the employees’ needs, for example, giving career opportunities and providing td programmes to work in the organisation, telecom employers may sense the positive employee outcomes, that is, high levels of ee and commitment. on another note, this research would be crucial to provide a detailed strategic plan of looking at ee in the hybrid workplace context. for instance, although most employers put effort into the process of digitalisation, not every employer has kept up successfully with organisations shaping digitally (attaran, attaran, & kirkland, 2019), whilst 75% are still struggling on ee as reported in social chorus’s survey (brook, 2019). as most organisations have kept ee as one of their top priorities enabling a technology-driven workplace, it is critical that they know what the employees really desire (buchanan, kelley, & hatch, 2016). within this context, tmp still remains a focal point in the current hr policy, such that to improve employees’ digital competency, proper td programmes have become indispensable (attaran et al., 2019). besides, wherever the workplace remains either traditional or digital, every worker desires an attractive compensation and benefits package (vulpen, 2020) and, particularly a great career path (buchanan et al., 2016). as these are the basic needs of an employee therefore organisations and hr practitioners should prudently leverage these facts, which ultimately may drive high ee. according to osman, noordin and daud (2018), when employees leave the current organisation, their experiences, knowledge and skills that have already been gained will transfer to the new organisation. this is a critical issue in talent mobility. the employers may contemplate the inferences of this study for workforces, which in return boost the sense of inspiration amongst employees and exert an obligation to involve them in work roles with their best effort. maintaining this reciprocal relationship with employees may integrate inflow of the right talent and increase ee to latch turnover intentions. finally, results in this study may lead to strategically enhancing the engagement levels amongst employees. based on cropanzano and mitchell’s (2005) opinion, employers should comprehend that engagement is a long-term and ongoing process that involves continual connections to employees’ feelings and obligations and a state of mutual relationship. therefore, this study may facilitate hrm practitioners in maintaining a strong engagement strategy in an organisation by understanding the connection between tm factors and pe by which employees can be willing to involve with their tasks, share their views and contribute to the organisations’ success. henceforth, in order to augment employee productivity, employers should ponder tm strategies and empowerment initiatives in the business landscapes. limitations and recommendations this section paves some limitations of the research and covers the recommendations for further researcher/s. firstly, the purposive sampling technique may lead to possible biases, in which, the participants may have responded more accurately than their exact feelings. secondly, we drew relatively small sample sizes from the malaysian telecom companies, which were not robustly significant to evaluate the influence of each of the factors on ee. thus, a larger sample size covering different telecom companies could lead to a greater positive generalisation of the results. furthermore, the response rates in the survey of managerial employees were relatively low because of the time constraints and the limited interaction with employees amidst covid-19 pandemic restrictions. more representation of managerial employees in the sample could highlight whether tmp affects the management levels in boosting their engagement levels, vis-à-vis their other counterparts. a longitudinal approach instead of a cross-sectional study might provide more robust findings. hence, further longitudinal studies need to be conducted, which may result in stronger findings. in addition, as tmp might have influenced ratings on employees’ behavioural outcomes (pandita & ray, 2018), further study can repeat our research in other settings for enhancing the generalisability of the findings. moreover, few researches have particularly shown the intervening effect of pe on the link between tmp and ee. therefore, further research is needed to strengthen this relationship, which in result may explore additional viewpoints to forecast ee. lastly, we integrated only three factors, that is, cd, rr and td with tmp predicting ee. however, digital competency and workforce agility are important aspects of tmp that can greatly affect employees’ engagement levels. thus, future researchers can turn their attention to these two phenomena in terms of ee. conclusion employee engagement has been a challenging issue for an organisation since the 1990s, and many studies have shed light on this issue. following the empirical analysis, our study’s findings ensured that only pe can measure its mostly respective relationship. on the other side, our findings also proved that although cd had a significantly positive association with ee, the other proposed factors of tmp (i.e. rr and td) did not adequately discourse to boost ee. the reason behind this phenomenon is that when employees generally do not perceive rr and td as a booster in workplace morale. in addition, td did not significantly affect pe. the reason is that if employees are not satisfied with the td programmes, their empowerment behaviour would be declined. to determine the mediation, pe should be prudently studied; the result from our study did not support the hypothesised mediating relationship of h3c (td→pe→ee). overall, this study empirically validated the research framework and confirmed that more than 50% of the hypotheses were significantly supported. this statistical evidence confirms that tmp factors do significantly enhance employee engagement, either directly or indirectly. to summarise, these results may support both practitioners and hrm leaders to comprehend what stimulates workers to commit in their workplace and know the link of efficient tm strategies on pe to engage them. acknowledgements the authors are very thankful to all the participants of their survey, who were drawn from malaysian telecom companies, for giving their valuable time and effort to fill up the questionnaire form. the authors would also like to thank them for providing noteworthy feedback. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions h.a. constructed the manuscript and gathered the data. on the other hand, w.a. managed the data analysis. lastly, i.s. and s.m.h. supervised consolidating this article for publication. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data are available from the authors on request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors, and the publisher. references aguinis, h., & kraiger, k. (2009). benefits of training and development for individuals and teams, organizations, and society. annual review of psychology, 60(1), 451–474. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163505 aktar, a., & pangil, f. (2018). mediating role of organizational commitment in the relationship between human resource management practices and employee engagement: does black box stage exist? international journal of sociology and social policy, 38(7–8), 606–636. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijssp-08-2017-0097 alias, n.e., nor, n.m., & hassan, r. (2016). the relationships between talent management practices, employee engagement, and employee retention in the information and technology (it) organizations in selangor. in international conference on business management (pp. 101–115). springer. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-426-9_9 anitha, j. (2014). determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance. international journal of productivity and performance management, 63(3), 308–323. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-01-2013-0008 arefin, m.s., alam, m.s., islam, m.r., & rahaman, m. (2019). high-performance work systems and job engagement: the mediating role of psychological empowerment. cogent business and management, 6(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2019.1664204 arefin, m.s., arif, i., & raquib, m. (2015). the mediating role of psychological empowerment in the relationship between high-performance work systems and organizational citizenship behavior. european scientific journal, 11(2), 264–277. arthur, m.b., hall, d.t., & lawrence, b.s. (1989). generating new directions in career theory: the case for a transdisciplinary approach. in m.b. arthur, d.t. hall, & b.s. lawrence (eds.), handbook of career theory (pp. 7–25). new york, ny: cambridge university press. asm. (2018). science outlook 2017. retrieved from https://issuu.com/asmpub/docs/so2017 attaran, m., attaran, s., & kirkland, d. (2019). the need for digital workplace: increasing workforce productivity in the information age. international journal of enterprise information systems, 15(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijeis.2019010101 bandura, a. (1977). self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. psychological review, 84(2), 191–215. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.84.2.191 blau, p.m. (1964). justice in social exchange. sociological inquiry, 34(2), 193–206. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682x.1964.tb00583.x brook, j. (2019). socialchorus’ 2019 internal communicator index. retrieved from https://socialchorus.com/ebooks/socialchorus-2019-internal-communicator-index/ buchanan, j., kelley, b., & hatch, a. (2016). digital workplace and culture how digital technologies are changing the workforce and how enterprises can adapt and evolve. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/ cooper, p. (2015). 2015 employee intentions report malaysia. malaysia. retrieved from http://www.michaelpage.com.sg/sites/michaelpage.com.sg/files/2015_sgmp_employee_intentions_final_0.pdf cropanzano, r., & mitchell, m.s. (2005). social exchange theory: an interdisciplinary review. journal of management, 31(6), 874–900. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206305279602 dosm. (2019a). information and communication technology satellite account 2018. retrieved from https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=column/cthemebycat&cat=319&bul_id=uwpoufbqsjk2tdhjnxfwufhjzhneut09&menu_id=te5cruzcblh4ztzmodzibmk2awrrqt09 dosm. (2019b). information and communications services expanded by 7.8 per cent in value of gross output of rm144.8 billion in 2017. retrieved from https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=column/cthemebycat&cat=330&bul_id=z3u1eg5wyzhsztj6ewc0nxrhuhn1ut09&menu_id=b0piv1e3rw40vwrtukzocehyz1plut09 edgar, f., & geare, a. (2005). hrm practice and employee attitudes: different measures – different results. personnel review, 34(5), 534–549. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480510612503 gallup. (2017). state of the global workplace. new york, ny. retrieved from https://www.gallup.com/workplace/257552/state-global-workplace-2017.aspx garcía-fernández, j., martelo-landroguez, s., vélez-colon, l., & cepeda-carrión, g. (2018). an explanatory and predictive pls-sem approach to the relationship between organizational culture,organizational performance and customer loyalty: the case of health clubs. journal of hospitality and tourism technology, 9(3), 438–454. https://doi.org/10.1108/jhtt-09-2017-0100 ghosh, p., rai, a., chauhan, r., baranwal, g., & srivastava, d. (2016). rewards and recognition to engage private bank employees: exploring the ‘obligation dimension’. management research review, 39(12), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1108/mrr-09-2015-0219 hair, j.f. (2021). next-generation prediction metrics for composite-based pls-sem. industrial management and data systems, 121(1), 5–11. https://doi.org/10.1108/imds-08-2020-0505 hair, j.f., astrachan, c.b., moisescu, o.i., radomir, l., sarstedt, m., vaithilingam, s., & ringle, c.m. (2020). executing and interpreting applications of pls-sem: updates for family business researchers. journal of family business strategy, 12(3), 100392. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfbs.2020.100392 hair, j.f, babin, b.j., anderson, r.e., & black, w.c. (2018). multivariate data analysis (8th ed.). india: cengage. hair, j.f., sarstedt, m., ringle, c.m., & mena, j.a. (2012). an assessment of the use of partial least squares structural equation modeling in marketing research. journal of the academy of marketing science, 40, 414–433. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-011-0261-6 han, s.h., seo, g., li, j., & yoon, s.w. (2016). the mediating effect of organizational commitment and employee empowerment: how transformational leadership impacts employee knowledge sharing intention. human resource development international, 19(2), 98–115. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2015.1099357 henseler, j., ringle, c.m., & sarstedt, m. (2015). a new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. journal of the academy of marketing science, 43(1), 115–135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8 imandin, l., bisschoff, c.a., & botha, c.j. (2015). measuring employee engagement of south african managers. journal of psychology, 6(2), 110–124. https://doi.org/10.1080/09764224.2015.11885529 jose, g., & mampilly, s.r. (2014). psychological empowerment as a predictor of employee engagement : an empirical attestation. global business review, 15(1), 93–104. https://doi.org/10.1177/0972150913515589 kasilingam, d., & krishna, r. (2021). understanding the adoption and willingness to pay for internet of things services. international journal of consumer studies. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcs.12648 khan, a., & bukhari, i. (2020). impact of job autonomy & employee engagement on organizational effectiveness study on telecommunication sector of malaysia. international journal of research and analytical reviews, 7(2), 160–166. khan, z.a., yasir, m., majid, a., & afridi, s.a. (2019). talent management practices, psychological empowerment and innovative work behavior: moderating role of knowledge sharing. ciity university research journal, 9(3), 567–585. khoreva, v., & vaiman, v. (2015). intent vs. action: talented employees and leadership development. personnel review, 44(2), 200–216. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-10-2013-0191 khoreva, v., vaiman, v., & zalk, m. van. (2017). talent management practice effectiveness: investigating employee perspective. employee relations, 39(1), 19–33. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-01-2016-0005 kkmm. (2018). communications and multimedia blueprint 2018–2025. putrajaya. retrieved from https://www.kkmm.gov.my/images/171211_kkmm_blueprint2018_2025.pdf kosar, r. (2017). the impact of psychological empowerment on organizational citizenship behavior and knowledge sharing behavior : the mediating role of employee engagement and moderating role of leader-member exchange. jinnah business review, 5(2), 1–12. matsuo, m. (2019). personal growth initiative as a predictor of psychological empowerment: the mediating role of job crafting. human resource development quarterly, 30(3), 343–360. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21347 mcmc. (2015). talent gap study for the communications sector in malaysia. retrieved from https://www.mcmc.gov.my/skmmgovmy/media/general/pdf/talentgapstudy.pdf moradi, f., & dashti, n.s. (2016). the impact of human resource practices on psychological empowerment. management science letters, 6, 455–460. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2016.6.003 nawrin, r. (2016). impact of psychological empowerment on employees’ work and organization engagement: a study in the manufacturing sectors, bangladesh. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 7(5), 389–395. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n5p389 osman, i., noordin, f., & daud, n. (2018). individual entrepreneurial orientation and talent retention of engineers: a pilot survey. in proceedings of the 2nd advances in business research international conference (pp. 11–22). retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6053-3_2 pandita, d., & ray, s. (2018). talent management and employee engagement – a meta-analysis of their impact on talent retention. industrial and commercial training, 50(4), 185–199. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict-09-2017-0073 presbitero, a. (2017). how do changes in human resource management practices influence employee engagement ? a longitudinal study in a hotel chain in the philippines. journal of human resources in hospitality and tourism, 16(1), 56–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332845.2016.1202061 saks, a.m. (2006). antecedents and consequence of work engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169 sarstedt, m., ringle, c.m., & hair, j.f. (2017). partial least squares structural equation modeling. in c. homburg, m. klarmann, & a. vomberg (eds.), handbook of market research (pp. 1–40). springer international publishing ag. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05542-8_15-1 saunders, m.n.k., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2019). research methods for business students (8th ed.). london: pearson. schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzalez-roma, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3(1), 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 sekaran, u., & bougie, r. (2016). research methods for business: a skill building approach (7th ed.). new york, ny: wiley. sheikh, m.h.s.k., christina, t.l.c., & sharina, o. (2020). the mediating effects of job satisfaction on the relationship between competency mapping, employee engagement, and talent retention: an examination of talent generation y in malaysian telcos. talent development & excellence, 12(3), 2357–2371. shmueli, g., ray, s., velasquez estrada, j.m., & chatla, s.b. (2016). the elephant in the room: predictive performance of pls models. journal of business research, 69(10), 4552–4564. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.03.049 shmueli, g., sarstedt, m., hair, j.f., cheah, j.h., ting, h., vaithilingam, s., & ringle, c.m. (2019). predictive model assessment in pls-sem: guidelines for using plspredict. european journal of marketing, 53(11), 2322–2347. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejm-02-2019-0189 shrm. (2016). employee job satisfaction and engagement: revitalizing a changing workforce. retrieved from http://community.shrm.org/home soelton, m., noermijati, n., rohman, f., mugiono, m., aulia, i.n., & siregar, r.e. (2020). reawakening perceived person organization fit and perceived person job fit: removing obstacles organizational commitment. management science letters, 10, 2993–3002. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2020.5.026 spreitzer, g.m. (1995). psychological empowerment in the workplace: dimensions, measurement, and validation. the academy of management journal, 38(5), 1442–1465. https://doi.org/10.2307/256865 stein, a.m., & min, y.a. (2019). the dynamic interaction between high-commitment hrm and servant leadership: a social exchange perspective. management research review, 42(10), 1169–1186. https://doi.org/10.1108/mrr-02-2018-0083 talentcrop. (2018). the pilot critical occupations list report 2015/2016. retrieved from https://www.talentcorp.com.my tymon, w.g., stumpf, s.a., & doh, j.p. (2010). exploring talent management in india: the neglected role of intrinsic rewards. journal of world business, 45(2), 109–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2009.09.016 ugwu, f.o., onyishi, i.e., & rodrıguez-sanchez, a.m. (2014). linking organizational trust with employee engagement : the role of psychological empowerment. personnel review, 43(3), 377–400. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-11-2012-0198 vulpen, e.v. (2020). a full guide to compensation and benefits. retrieved from https://www.digitalhrtech.com/compensation-and-benefits/ wang, c., xu, j., zhang, t.c., & li, q.m. (2020). effects of professional identity on turnover intention in china’s hotel employees: the mediating role of employee engagement and job satisfaction. journal of hospitality and tourism management, 45, 10–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2020.07.002 abstract introduction research objective and value-add results discussion conclusion and recommendations limitations acknowledgements references about the author(s) rudolf m. oosthuizen department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa claude-hélène mayer department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa ntombifuthi j. zwane department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation oosthuizen, r.m., mayer, c-h., & zwane, n.j. (2021). burnout, employee engagement and self-perceived employability in the south african public sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1340. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1340 original research burnout, employee engagement and self-perceived employability in the south african public sector rudolf m. oosthuizen, claude-hélène mayer, ntombifuthi j. zwane received: 12 feb. 2020; accepted: 01 dec. 2020; published: 12 may 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the employee engagement (ee) approach has been utilised to combat burnout (bo) in both private and public sector institutions. with increasing research, self-perceived employability (spe) is gaining popularity as an effective tool for reducing bo. knowledge of the relationship between these three constructs is therefore important for public sector institutions and researchers in industrial and organisational (i/o) psychology and human resource management (hrm) in south africa. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between bo, ee and spe amongst employees in south africa’s public sector. motivation for the study: numerous studies have highlighted the prevalence of poor service delivery in public sector institutions in connection with bo and highlighted a decrease in bo through ee and spe. however, the relationship between these three constructs is still quite unknown. the study’s results will fill the void of research in this area and can be applied in i/o psychology and hr practices. research design, approach and method: this quantitative study involved a non-probability sample of 158 south african public sector employees. correlational and descriptive statistical analyses were used to analyse the data. main results: burnout has a significant negative relationship with ee; however, bo does not significantly correlate with spe. there are significant differences between the various biographical groups and bo, ee and spe. practical/managerial implications: approaches to reducing bo amongst employees should consider ee and spe as effective tools to enhance employees’ wellness, morale and improved service delivery. contribution/value-add: improving the ee levels and enhancing spe will improve the well-being of employees in public sector institutions and help alleviate employee bo. keywords: burnout; employee engagement; self-perceived employability; public sector; non-human services sector. introduction the promotion of employee health and wellness in organisations is regarded as a crucial factor for organisational success. organisations have attempted to improve employee health and well-being and to advance human potential (usman & raja, 2013; van den broeck, vansteenkiste, de witte, & lens, 2008). evidence of this is demonstrated through the programmatic interventions in the workplace such as wellness programmes aimed at promoting the well-being of employees (mattke et al., 2013). this demonstrates the constant interventions implemented by organisations to address psychosocial stressors which will enhance employees’ health, wellness and morale. a practical example of this is in south african public sector institutions (department of public service and administration [dpsa], 2015, 2016). however, larger numbers of employees around the world, from both private and public sectors, for example, the united states of america, canada, taiwan, japan, ghana and south africa, still suffer from numerous stressors. this may cause employees to experience certain levels of burnout (bo) (hirayama & fernando, 2016; lindén, salo, & jansson, 2016; palazzo, carlotto, & aerts, 2012; schaufeli, leiter, & maslach, 2009). the literature shows that a myriad of bo experiences in public sector institutions encompass employees feeling unvalued, chronic fatigue and feeling disconnected from the objectives of their public institutions (bell & bell, 2010). these experiences are associated with their unsuccessful attempts at improving the quality of services because of the lack of available resources (hirayama & fernando, 2016). engaged employees are more productive, more committed and more likely to remain with their employer (gupta & sharma, 2016; kosuta, 2010; moodley, 2010; vigoda-gadot, eldor, & schohat, 2012). they have a sense of energy, close involvement with their job and the ability to deal well with the demands of their job (schaufeli, taris, & van rhenen, 2008). in addition, engaged employees perceive themselves as being in control and perceive the workload as sustainable. this is directly the opposite of bo, of having no control and perceiving an excessive and unattainable workload (moodley, 2010). in this context, self-perceived employability (spe) refers to individuals’ self-perception of their capabilities of obtaining and retaining fulfilling work and having the knowledge, understanding, skills, experience and personal attributes to move self-sufficiently within the labour smarket (coetzee, roythorne-jacobs, & mensele, 2016). as a result, there has been a focus on new mechanisms to address employees’ psychosocial stressors such as focusing on psychosocial meta-capacities of employability (coetzee et al., 2016). this study focuses on the relationship between bo, employee engagement and spe to fill the void in theory regarding the south african public sector. public sector employees in the contemporary global economy are faced with a myriad of psychosocial stressors because of high job demands (schaufeli & taris, 2014) as well as changes in psychological contracts (coetzee et al., 2016). these institutions are promoting employee health and commitment (usman & raja, 2013) to achieve service delivery. however, research shows that public sector employees are increasingly experiencing numerous stressors and various levels of bo (palazzo, carlotto, & aerts, 2012). several approaches on combating experiences of bo have been realised in the world of work, such as ee and spe. traditionally, ee has been utilised as a tool to reduce bo (maslach & leiter, 2016), as well as to achieve competitive advantage for both individuals and organisations (nienaber & martins, 2015). even with such measures in place, research still indicates high bo experiences amongst public sector employees because of changes within the global economy (guan et al., 2017). employees focus on increasing their employability by taking charge of their careers to survive the situation. in south africa, they tend to be perceived with a lack of growth and career path (bosman, rothmann, & buitendach, 2005), thus resulting in employees feeling frustrated, stressed and demotivated (vanhercke, de cuyper, & de witte, 2016). it is therefore prudent to investigate the relationship between bo, ee and spe within south africa’s public sector. existing research refers to the relationship between bo and ee within the south african public sector, drawing specifically on police, healthcare and social welfare institutions (schaufeli et al., 2009). limited studies focus on bo beyond the human services occupations. this study explores a south african public sector institution with a core mandate beyond the human services occupations. literature review numerous studies have been conducted on the relationship between bo and ee within the south african public sector (schaufeli et al., 2009). most of these studies stem from stressful work environments that are related to human services such as the police, healthcare and social welfare (schaufeli et al., 2009). limited studies were conducted in the south african context with a focus beyond the human services occupations, such as managers and white-collar employees. this research focused on a south african public sector institution that has a core mandate beyond the human services occupations. furthermore, ee has been used as an intervention to erode bo amongst employees in organisations for over two decades now. yet, employees currently experience high levels of bo in the workplace. current literature has considered the postmodern, workplace environment of the 21st century, and newly emerged constructs such as spe have gained significant popularity in the literature as important and relevant coping resource mechanisms (van der vaart, 2012). however, fewer studies have looked at the relationship between ee and spe in terms of how they relate to each other. in addition, there are hardly any studies that investigated spe as a psychosocial resource mechanism for the issues of bo and ee. there is, therefore, a lack of, or an absence of studies that investigated the relationship between bo, ee and spe amongst employees in the south african public sector. burnout burnout is a prolonged response to chronic interpersonal stressors on the job (maslach & leiter, 2016). it is associated with emotional exhaustion (ex), depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur amongst various professionals (maslach & leiter, 2016). public sector employees in south africa do experience symptoms of bo (lehohla, 2016). several factors contributing to bo have been identified, such as low self-esteem or low confidence (maslach, schaufeli, & leiter, 2001); a high workload and lack of resources (de villiers & hsiao, 2017; schaufeli et al., 2009). public sector employees in south africa’s government tend to be affected by these factors, making them susceptible to bo. they further feel uncertain about their growth and career path (bosman et al., 2005), and experience symptoms of bo because of high job demands and lack of job resources (fragoso et al., 2016). since the 1990s, research focuses on positive aspects that impact positively on bo and has since then focused on ee as a strategy to deal with bo (rothmann & rothmann, 2010; schaufeli et al., 2009; schaufeli & taris, 2014). employee engagement research on ee includes aspects of work and personal engagement, studying ee on an individual and organisational level, and defining it as enthusiasm for work and taking positive action to further the organisation’s reputation and interests (nienaber & martins, 2015). employee engagement is associated with emotionally and intellectually engaged employees who are attached and committed to the organisation’s goals and its values (rajani & joshua, 2016). employee engagement is utilised in public sector institutions as a mechanism to attain positive outcomes for both the individual and the organisation (martins, 2015). numerous institutions have adopted this approach to combat bo and achieve optimal work performance (vigoda-gadot et al., 2012). however, the literature indicates that public sector employees still face a myriad of bo experiences (guan et al., 2017). these experiences include feeling unvalued, chronic fatigue and feeling disconnected from the objectives of their public institutions (bell & bell, 2010). researchers have explored other interventions of dealing with bo issues such as ee and spe (lu, sun, & du, 2016; qenani, macdougall, & sexton, 2014); however they were not in the south african context. self-perceived employability self-perceived employability refers to an individual’s perception of his or her capabilities of obtaining and retaining fulfilling work and having the knowledge, understanding, skills, experience and personal attributes to move self-sufficiently within the labour market (coetzee et al., 2016). it is associated with the individual’s perception of being employable, in control of his or her career and being independent. subsequently, it may result in improved job performance, resilience, successful careers, as well as better health and life satisfaction (qenani et al., 2014). individuals, who perceive themselves as employable, tend to be proactive, accountable and continuously advance their knowledge and skills for career progression (coetzee, oosthuizen, & stoltz, 2015). recent studies have found evidence of the negative relationship between bo and spe (lu et al., 2016). the trend is that individuals who self-perceive the inability to advance their employability skills over time are likely to continuously feel stressed, and they eventually experience bo (lu et al., 2016). self-perceived employability is seen as an internal resource that can protect individuals from stressful work environments (lu et al., 2016). there has been no investigation into the relationship between bo, ee and spe so far. research objective and value-add the objective of this study was to determine the relationship between bo, ee and spe amongst employees in the south african public sector. as highlighted, knowledge of the relationship between bo, ee and spe is important for public sector institutions in south africa to combat bo through a positive behaviour approach. this study adds to the body of research and knowledge of industrial and organisational (i/o) psychologists and human resource management (hrm) in conceptualising the factors moderating bo, ee and spe. knowledge of the nature and relationships between these constructs will enable researchers to provide valuable information and insight; diagnose and solve problems to improve the well-being of employees and work performance and reduce bo and its symptoms in employees. research methodology this study adopted a quantitative approach using a survey design. three key variables were identified for this study, namely public sector employees’ experience of bo, ee and perceived employability. the empirical relationship between these constructs was investigated by means of correlational statistical analysis, using the pearson correlation (r). all instruments utilised were standardised instruments and the sample was representative. research participants the study sample consisted of 158 participants. the population constituted permanently employed public sector employees in a non-human services government institution. a non-probability approach, using a convenience sampling method, was applied. most of the participants were african (75%) followed by white participants (25%). the african group included black (70%), coloured (4%) and indian (1%) races. fifty five per cent of the participants were married and 45.93% were unmarried, which comprised single, divorced and widowed participants. in terms of qualifications, most of the participants (58%) had obtained an undergraduate qualification, followed by 32% who had obtained a postgraduate qualification. the smallest group had obtained a matric qualification (10%). most of the participants were older than 35 years (73.4%) with the mean age being 42 years (standard deviation [sd] = 8.82). most participants had more than 10 years’ experience and 38.60% of the participants had less than 10 years’ work experience. the mean tenure was 15 years (sd = 10.3). measuring instruments data was collected by using a biographical questionnaire, the maslach bo inventory (mbi-ss); the ee dimensions scale (employee engagement instrument [eei]) and the employability attributes scale (eas). biographical questionnaire a biographical questionnaire was used to gather the biographical data of the participants such as age, gender, race, qualification, home language and marital status. the questionnaire comprised a set of multiple-choice options, where the respondents ticked the boxes pertaining to them. the biographical data provided a valuable analysis of bo, ee and spe amongst the various biographical groups. the maslach burnout inventory the mbi-ss consists of 16 items that constitute three scales, namely exhaustion (ex; five items), cynicism (cy; five items), and efficacy (ef; six items). all these items were rated on a seven-point rating scale starting from zero (never) to six (always). high scores on ex and cy and low scores on ef indicate bo (i.e. all ef items are reverse scored, which is denoted by ref). the mbi-ss meets the psychometric properties of validity (construct) and reliability (storm & rothmann, 2003). for the present study, cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the overall mbi-ss are greater or equal to 0.70. the cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the mbi dimensions were ex = 0.85; cy = 0.73; and professional ef = 0.76. the employee engagement instrument the eei of 50 items consisted of six subscales, namely customer service (six items), immediate manager (seven items), organisational commitment (six items), organisational satisfaction (nine items), strategy implementation (10 items) and team (12 items). the eei was rated on a five-point likert scale: 1 for strongly disagree; 2 for disagree; 3 for unsure; 4 for agree; 5 for strongly agree. a study by martins and ledimo (2016) confirmed the validity and reliability of the ee questionnaire for government institutions. the reliability coefficients of internal consistency, cronbach’s alpha coefficients, ranged between 0.816 and 0.946 (martins & ledimo, 2016). cronbach’s alpha coefficients of eei and their dimensions for the present study ranged from 0.82 to 0.96. the employability attributes scale the eas of 56 items constitutes eight subscales, namely career self-management (11 items), cultural competence (five items), self-efficacy (six items), career resilience (six items), sociability (seven items), entrepreneurial orientation (seven items), proactivity (seven items) and emotional literacy (seven items). high scores represent more perceived employability by the participants. according to potgieter and coetzee (2013), the eas scale meets the psychometric properties of validity (construct) and reliability. the reliability coefficients of internal consistency, cronbach’s alpha coefficients, range between 0.78 and 0.90 for each subscale (potgieter & coetzee, 2013). for this study, cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the eas and its sub-dimensions were therefore acceptable as they were within the range of 0.78 and 0.90. research procedure and ethical considerations the questionnaires were manually distributed to the participants. the informed consent form explained to the participants the purpose of the research, procedure, potential benefits, confidentiality, anonymity, voluntary participation, withdrawal and their rights regarding participating in the study. all participants willingly signed the informed consent form and participation was voluntary. the study used convenience sampling (raju & prabhu, 2019) for the data collection. the questionnaires were hand delivered to the participants’ offices. to ensure the honesty and integrity of the results, the participants were given ample time to complete the questionnaire and the researcher was available for any questions. completed questionnaires were kept secure, and the raw data was captured and converted to the statistical package for social sciences (spss), version 25 dataset. validity and reliability to ensure validity, standardised measuring instruments, appropriate data analysis techniques, models and theories relevant to the research were utilised. in addition, a representative sample was utilised to obtain an internal validity of the research findings. the following measures were taken to ensure the validity of this study: (1) effective planning and structure of the research design to ensure the validity of the research findings, (2) the use of models and theories relevant to the research topic, aim and problem statement, (3) ensuring that the selected constructs were valid, appropriate and applicable, (4) selecting accurate, appropriate and applicable measuring instruments, (5) selecting a representative sample to ensure external validity, (6) collecting, storing and analysing data electronically, (7) ensuring data authenticity by means of encryption and password protection, and (8) conducting appropriate and accurate data analysis. to ensure reliability, all instruments utilised were standardised instruments. the data was collected from only the south african public sector employees in a non-human services public sector organisation. the data analysis was conducted by using the spss software program version 25.0. to ensure the reliability of the measure, cronbach’s alpha coefficient (reliability analysis) was also computed. in terms of the research process, the following control mechanisms were implemented to ensure reliability: (1) the three measuring instruments used to collect data complied with stringent validity and reliability requirements; (2) only employees from the non-human services public sector institution were invited to participate; (3) all data collected was stored electronically by the administrator and access to this information was restricted to the researchers; (4) reliability in the analysis was ensured by the use of statistical packages (statistical package for the social sciences [spss] & statistical analysis system [sas]) to analyse the data, and (5) cronbach’s alpha coefficients were used to establish internal consistency and resultant reliabilities of the instruments used to collect data. statistical analysis the data was analysed with the spss, version 25.0. descriptive statistics were computed to describe the data in terms of sample composition and average scores on the bo inventory, the ee measurement, and the eas by using frequencies, means, and sds. correlational analysis was computed with the pearson correlation (r) to determine the strength of the relationships in terms of bo, ee and spe, as well as to determine the correlation between demographic variables and bo, ee and spe (levin, szabat, & stephen, 2016). multiple regression analysis was used to determine the relationship between ee and spe on bo. in terms of the significant value, the confidence interval level at 95% (p ≤ 0.05) was deemed to be statistically significant (cohen, 1992). since the data was normally distributed, the t-test for independent samples and analysis of variance (anova) were performed to determine the differences between groups. ethical consideration the researchers obtained ethical clearance from the university’s ethics review committee (rerc) to conduct the study. the researchers also obtained permission to collect data from the management of the organisation in which the current study was conducted. results descriptive statistics the mean scores for the mbi-ss (bo), eei (ee) and eas (spe) ranged between 3.25 and 4.61. the participants obtained a higher mean score on eas (m = 4.61), which could indicate that they perceived themselves as employable. the scores obtained on eei (m = 3.48; sd = 0.64) were at a moderate level, which could indicate that the participants agreed with the eei items to a reasonably fair extent, and therefore felt more or less engaged in their work. the participants obtained lower mean scores on bo (m = 3.25; sd = 0.77), which are indicative of less bo. burnout (maslach burnout inventory) the participants scored higher on professional ef (m = 3.25), which indicates their positive feelings about their work and feelings of competence. the participants scored lower on ex (m = 2.46; sd = 1.50) and cy (m = 2.10; sd = 1.29), thus indicating that the participants rarely felt emotionally drained and did not experience negative and impersonal attitudes and feelings towards other people. with regard to the skew, all the scales scored between 0.14 and 0.68, thus showing that the distribution is moderately skewed right. in terms of kurtosis, all the scores except for professional ef, scored between -0.55 and -0.01, representing a light-tailed distribution (howell, 2004). employee engagement (employee engagement instrument) in terms of the means, the participants scored higher means on team m = 3.9; sd = 0.73 and on organisational commitment m = 3.75; sd = 0.77. this shows that the participants could effectively engage in teams and that they were committed to their organisation. the participants obtained moderate scores on customer service (m = 3.36; sd = 0.79), immediate manager (m = 3.46; sd = 0.98) and organisational satisfaction (m = 3.47; sd = 0.85) variables. lower mean scores were obtained on strategy and implementation (m = 2.89; sd = 0.88). it is clear from the results that most of the participants agreed with the eei items, indicating they were feeling engaged with their work at a moderate level. the distribution is skewed to the left. all the scores on skew are between -1.5 and -0.08, thus showing that the distribution is moderately skewed left (howell, 2004). in terms of the kurtosis, for the overall eei instrument kurtosis, 0.84 indicates that the distribution is moderately skewed left, with the kurtosis sample score closer to zero, taking the shape of a normal distribution. self-perceived employability (employability attributes scale) the participants obtained a higher mean on self-efficacy (m = 4.78; sd = 0.69) and a relatively lower mean on the subscale sociability (m = 4.27; sd = 0.86). these scores indicate that the participants perceived themselves as employable. they saw themselves as capable of retaining and fulfilling their work (coetzee et al., 2016) as well as being in control of their careers. the skew for the eas scale and subscales is negatively skewed and has coefficients ranging between -0.07 and -0.47. these coefficients fall within the normality recommended range of -1 and +1 (howell, 2004). the kurtosis values ranged between -0.15 and 0.11, and since the scores are closer to zero, the shape of a normal distribution is reflected. correlation analysis between burnout, employee engagement and self-perceived employability table 1 indicates the existence of a significant negative correlation between bo and each of its dimensions (ex, cy and professional ef) and against ee and its dimensions (customer service, immediate manager, organisational commitment, organisational satisfaction, strategy implementation). the correlation coefficients between bo and its dimensions and against ee and its dimensions are all negative and they vary from r = –0.24 (negative medium effect size), to r = –0.67 (negative large effect size) at p ≤ 0.05. numerous studies identify ee as crucial for building modern public sectors and promoting the well-being of employees in government institutions (martins & ledimo, 2016; vigoda-gadot et al., 2012). therefore, the results of this study confirm this notion and support the stance that ee can be utilised in the south african public sector to reduce bo. this study, therefore, considers ee as an effective tool to approach the challenges related to bo amongst public sector employees to enhance service in public sector organisations. table 1: correlations between subscales of employee engagement and burnout: pearson product-moment correlation coefficients, n = 158. table 2 shows the correlation between bo and spe. the relationship between the overall bo and the overall employability is negative (r = –0.79; negative large effect size); however, it is not statistically significant (p ≤ 0.32). the strongest correlations were observed between professional ef (reverse coded), which significantly correlated with the following employability dimensions: with career self-management (p ≤ 0.025), career resilience (p ≤ 0.0529), sociability (p ≤ 0.0038), proactivity (p ≤ 0.0118), emotional literacy (p ≤ 0.029) and the overall employability variable (p ≤ 0.017). the correlations vary from r = –0.15 (negative small effect size) to r = –0.23 (negative small effect size). however, previous research shows that spe is a psychosocial meta-capacity or new mechanism for addressing employees’ psychosocial stressors (coetzee et al., 2016), and employees who possess spe as a personal resource experience fewer psychosocial stressors (de cuyper, raeder, van der heijden, & wittekind, 2012; lu et al., 2016). table 2: correlations between subscales of burnout and self-perceived employability: pearson product-moment correlation coefficients, n = 158, prob > |r| under h0: rho = 0. none of the dimensions of the employability scale correlated significantly with the ex and cy variables. the relationship between the overall bo and the overall employability was negative, but not significant. table 3 summarises the correlations between ee and spe. the results show a positive, but not significant, correlation between ee and spe (r = 0.11040; p ≤ 0.1673; positive small effect size). two dimensions of ee, namely customer service and strategy and implementation, correlated significantly with some of the dimensions of employability. the results of the study in terms of the levels of bo and the levels of ee differ from the findings of most studies conducted within the south african public sector. within the south african public sector context, numerous studies have reflected on the high levels of bo (maslach & leiter, 2016; schaufeli et al., 2009). studies have also reflected on persistent, negative, work-related issues where government departments and municipalities have to deal with numerous concerns regarding the quality of service delivery amidst limited resources (lehohla, 2016; rothmann, jackson, & kruger, 2003). table 3: correlations between subscales of employee engagement and self-perceived employability: pearson product-moment correlation coefficients, n = 158. customer service positively correlated significantly with the overall employability (p = 0.021) and the employability dimensions, namely career self-management (p = 0.0005), sociability (p = 0.034) and proactivity (p = 0.030). the correlations vary from r = 0.164 (small effect size) to r = 0.27 (medium effect size) at p < 0.05. this means that as the level of customer service positively increases, the variables overall employability, sociability and proactivity also increase. strategy and implementation correlated significantly and positively with career self-management (r = 0.22; p = 0.0054; small effect size) and sociability (r = 0.23; p = 0.0035; small size effect). the results show that the more the participants’ level of strategy and implementation positively increases, the more the levels of career self-management and sociability increase. table 4 provides the overall summary of the relationship between bo, ee and spe. employee engagement relates negatively with bo and the correlation is statistically significant (r = -0.56; p < 0.0001; negative large effect size). self-perceived employability relates negatively to bo but the correlation is not significant (r = –0.09647; p < 0.2279; small effect size). the strength of the relationship between bo and spe is weak and a conclusion in terms of the relationship cannot be accepted. there is a significant body of research on bo in human services occupations such as police, nurses, social workers, teachers and doctors within the south african public sector context (schaufeli et al., 2009; sôderfeldt, sôderfeldt, & warg, 1995). most of these studies have reported high levels of bo experienced by employees and low levels of ee. table 4: correlations between subscales of burnout, employee engagement and self-perceived employability: pearson product-moment correlation coefficients, n = 158, prob > |r| under h0: rho = 0. the current study was conducted in a non-human services public sector organisation where the mandate is performed behind a desk (office work) and does not involve serving people directly. it includes performing work at a professional, managerial or administrative level. the differences in terms of the nature of work and environment contributed to the findings. based on the correlational analysis, a negative and significant correlation between bo and ee was found. also, a negative but non-significant relationship between bo and spe was found. furthermore, a positive but non-significant relationship between ee and spe was found. positive and significant correlations were found between ee dimensions, namely customer service and strategy and implementation, as well as between employability dimensions, namely career self-management sociability and proactivity. multiple regression analysis a multiple regression analysis was used to determine the regression between bo, ee and spe, as well as the relationship between the demographic variables, bo, ee and spe. regression analysis with burnout as the dependent variable and employee engagement, self-perceived employability and demographics as the independent variables table 5 summarises the regression model between the biographical variables (age, gender, racial groups, marital status and tenure) and ee and its subscales (customer service, immediate manager, organisational commitment, organisational satisfaction, strategy and implementation, and team), spe and its subscales (career self-management, cultural competence, self-efficacy, career resilience, sociability, entrepreneurial orientation, proactivity, emotional literacy) as the independent variables and bo as the dependent variable. table 5: multiple regression statistics summary: burnout as dependent variable and employee engagement, self-perceived employability and demographics as independent variables. the regression of the ee subscales, spe subscales and demographic variables on bo produced a statistically significant model (f = 7.66; p < 0.0001), accounting for 56% (r² = 0.56; large practical size effect) of the variance in the bo variable. the regression of the demographic variables (age, qualification, marital status and gender) on bo was negative but not statistically significant. for race and tenure, the regression was positive, but not statistically significant. the regression of the ee subscales on bo was not statistically significant except for organisational satisfaction (p = -0.78; r < 0.0001) and team (p = 0.202; r = 0.0276). for the regression of spe on bo, only one of the dimensions of the ee, namely proactivity (p = –0.49 = –2.29; r = 0.0133) was statistically significant. regression analysis with burnout as the dependent variable and employee engagement and self-perceived employability as the independent variables as shown in table 6, the regression of the ee and spe variables on the bo variable produced a statistically significant model (f = 35.36; p < 0.0001), accounting for r² = 0.31 (large practical effect size) of the variance in the bo variable. the regression analysis in terms of the ee with boproduced a negative and statistically significant (standardised estimate = -0.81; pr < 0.00) regression. in terms of the regression between spe variables and bo, the regression was negative but no statistically significant regression was produced (standardised estimate = -0.02; pr < 0.79). table 6: multiple regression statistics summary: burnout as a dependent variable and employee engagement and self-perceived employability as an independent variable. burnout produced a negative and statistically significant regression with ee. burnout produced a negative but not statistically significant regression with spe. the regression of the demographic variables (age, qualification, marital status and gender) on bo was negative but not statistically significant. the ee subscales on bo for organisational satisfaction and team produced a statistically significant regression. the spe instrument on bo produced a statistically significant regression on proactivity. test for significant mean differences the test for significant mean differences was conducted for all three constructs regarding the demographics on age, marital status, race, gender, tenure and qualification. age no statistically significant mean differences were found between the participants who were below or equal to 35 years and the participants older than 35 years in terms of bo, ee and spe (table 7). some researchers found that age differs significantly across these groups (bezuidenhout, 2008; schaufeli & bakker, 2003), whilst others have found no statistically significant mean differences between age and the different groups (bo, ee and spe) (karli, 2016; luk et al., 2010; shukla, adhikari, & singh, 2015). table 7: significant mean differences: age. marital status table 8 shows that the mean scores and sds on all the dimensions for married and unmarried participants were similar and no significant differences were found. a study by asgari (2012) found that there was no significant difference between the groups regarding marital status. table 8: significant mean differences: marital status. race results on race indicate no significant mean differences between age and ee. however, on two of the subscales of ee, namely organisational commitment (black group, m = 3.81; and the white group, m = 3.52) and strategy implementation (black group, m = 2.99, and the white group, m = 2.56) significant mean differences were found between the racial groups. the results demonstrate that the black group obtained the highest mean score compared to the white group in terms of organisational commitment, showing that the black group experiences the dimension of organisational commitment significantly more positively than the white group. the black group also obtained a higher mean score compared to the white group in terms of strategy and implementation, and experienced this dimension of strategy and implementation significantly more positively than the white group. in terms of spe, statistically significant mean differences were found between the racial groups and spe and its subscales. overall, the mean scores of the black group (m = 4.68) were higher than the mean scores of the white group (m = 4.36). the significant mean scores for the subscales were as follows: self-efficacy (black group, m = 4.84; white group, m = 4.58), career resilience (black group, m = 4.64; white group, m = 4.32), sociability (black group, m = 4.4260; white group, m = 3.78), entrepreneurial orientation (black group, m = 4.7615; white group, m = 4.3828) and career self-management (black group, m = 4.86; white group, m = 4.21). the results show that black participants experienced spe significantly higher. these findings are consistent with findings by qenani et al. (2014), which confirmed the influence that race has in terms of spe. oosthuizen, coetzee and mntonintshi (2014) found that respondents from different race groups differed significantly in terms of entrepreneurial creativity. gender the results show no statistically significant mean differences between gender for bo, ee and spe. however, significant mean differences in gender were found in terms of spe dimensions, namely entrepreneurial orientation (males, m = 4.8; females, m = 4.58), and proactivity (males, m = 4.88; females, m = 4.62). male participants experienced the dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation and proactivity significantly more positively than female participants. these findings were consistent with the findings of other researchers who found that females tend to consider themselves less employable compared to men (qenani et al., 2014; vargas et al., 2018). the reasons for this trend could be many, including the issue of gender inequality in south africa. government has recognised issues of gender inequality and have initiated strategies and programmes towards achieving gender equality of employees in the workplace (dpsa, 2006). tenure tenure was clustered in participants with less or more than 10 years’ work experience. significant mean differences were found between ee (less than 10 year, m = 3.6498; 10 years and above, m = 3.37); customer service (less than 10 years, m = 3.58; 10 years and above, m = 3.23); organisational satisfaction (less than 10 years, m = 3.6630; 10 years and above, m = 3.35); and strategy and implementation (less than 10 years, m = 3.12; 10 years and above, m = 2.73). in terms of all the listed variables, the participants with less than 10 years of work experience were more positively engaged compared to the others. according to de lange, de witte and notelaers (2008), employees working in a single organisation for a long time tend to show lower levels of ee, whilst employees with fewer years of experience are more engaged. qualification finally, the results show that significant mean differences were found between qualification categories and the dimensions of ee, namely organisational commitment (participants with a matric qualification, m = 3.9444; participants with an undergraduate qualification, m = 3.8315; participants with a postgraduate qualification, m = 3.5392) and strategy and implementation (participants with a matric qualification, m = 3.25; participants with an undergraduate qualification, m = 2.94; participants with a postgraduate qualification, m = 2.67), in terms of organisational commitment. thus, the results show a trend that the ee level reduces as the respondents’ qualification levels increase (rothmann & rothmann, 2010). discussion the results indicate that employees experience low levels of bo and hardly suffer from physical and emotional work stressors. the moderate to high levels of ee shows that employees are proactive, productive, committed and attached to their work (martins & ledimo, 2016). the results regarding bo and ee differ from most results obtained by previous south african studies. they mainly focused on human services occupations (police, health care, social welfare) (palazzo, carlotto, & aerts, 2008; schaufeli et al., 2008; tsigilis, zachopoulou, & grammatikopoulos, 2006), whilst this study was conducted in a diplomatic, office-work environment that is characterised as non-human service occupations (brand-labuschagne et al., 2012). the results confirm the negative relationship between bo and ee, which is consistent with previous studies (rothmann & rothmann, 2010; schaufeli et al., 2009) and show that engaged employees are more productive and provide better customer service (nienaber & martins, 2015). they can better cope with work challenges, are more resilient and manage stressful situations better (maslach, 2011; moodley, 2010). considering the low scores in bo, the results confirm previous studies, showing that employees who possess more attributes of spe experience fewer symptoms of bo (lu et al., 2016). additionally, samples from the various demographic groups (race, qualifications, tenure and gender) differed significantly in their levels of ee and spe. no significant mean differences were found between bo and any of the biographical variables. a negative relationship exists between bo as the dependent variable and ee and spe as the independent variables. burnout was found to have a statistically significant, negative relationship with ee (as in previous studies), but no statistically significant relationship was found between bo and spe. engaged employees tend to be in control of their work situation (gupta & sharma, 2016; moodley, 2010), are happier, more productive, are competitive and provide better customer service than others (nienaber & martins, 2015). therefore, they experience lower bo levels, improved coping, resilience and stress management (maslach, 2011; moodley, 2010). the results indicated a statistically insignificant, negative relationship between bo and spe, opposing previous study results that revealed a negative relationship between spe and bo (lu et al., 2016). employees with high spe are proactive, focus on career progression (coetzee et al., 2015) and experience fewer symptoms of bo (lu et al., 2016). the results showed a positive but not significant correlation between ee and spe. customer service (ee dimension) positively correlated significantly with the spe as well as with career self-management, sociability and proactivity. by this, the participants demonstrated taking care of customers’ needs and providing professional quality service, whilst perceiving themselves as capable of managing their careers, being sociable and innovative. strategy and implementation also correlated significantly and positively with career self-management and sociability, showing encouragement and positive morale about the institution’s objectives. the results provided evidence that ee and spe negatively relate to bo. however, the correlation was only significant in terms of bo and ee, but not significant in terms of bo and spe, and it displayed that the sample perceived themselves as employable. they scored lower on bo and experienced lower levels of bo, supporting previous research and showing that employees who possess personal resources (e.g. spe) experience fewer symptoms of bo (lu et al., 2016). this study, as well as previous studies (asgari, 2012; anand et al., 2016), have not found significant differences between marital status and the different groups regarding all three constructs. researchers found that age differs significantly across these groups (bezuidenhout, 2008; schaufeli & bakker, 2003), whilst others have found no statistically significant mean differences between age and the different groups (bo, ee and sep) (luk et al., 2010; shukla et al., 2015; karli, 2016), as in this study. the results show that the male participants experienced the dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation and proactivity significantly more positively than the female participants. these results are consistent with research stating that females tend to consider themselves less employable compared to men (qenani et al., 2014; vargas et al., 2018). this could be rooted in gender inequality issues in south africa, as highlighted by the south african government (dpsa, 2006). the black group obtained higher mean scores in ee than the white group (in organisational commitment and strategy and implementation), meaning that the black group experienced these dimensions significantly more positively. these differences have been observed before (oosthuizen et al., 2014). however segal (2009) highlights contradictions, showing that black employees tend to show less ee compared to their white counterparts. the significant mean differences between spe and race were found on self-efficacy, career resilience, sociability, entrepreneurial orientation and career self-management. the results show that the black participants experienced spe significantly more positive than the white participants. the results support qenani et al. (2014), presenting the influence of race, whilst oosthuizen et al. (2014) show significant differences in terms of race and entrepreneurial creativity. the results further support barkhuizen and rothmann (2006), showing that ee levels decrease as the qualification level increases. significant mean differences were found between ee and its dimensions: customer service, organisational satisfaction, and strategy and implementation, showing participants with less than 10 years’ work experience being more positively engaged at work, thereby supporting de lange et al. (2008). conclusion and recommendations approaches to reduce bo have hardly considered ee and spe amongst employees before and should consider ee and spe as effective tools to enhance employees’ wellness, morale and productivity. improving ee and enhancing employees’ employability increases employee well-being. the increased well-being will positively impact on limiting bo and help alleviate employee bo. the current study showed that ee and spe were negatively related to bo. although the relations were only statistically significant between bo and ee, both the constructs appeared as effective tools for reducing bo and enhancing employees’ well-being and work productivity. strategies to alleviate or prevent bo should consider the differences observed between age, race, tenure, qualification, gender and marital status in terms of their ee and spe attributes. the majority of the black participants, males, those with fewer years of work experience, and the least qualified employees were more engaged and possessed relatively more of the employability attributes compared to the other groups. these results indicate that wellness programmes could aim to particularly foster members of a specific subgroup in the organisation to promote well-being. such programmes could enhance the understanding of these groups; about how their levels of ee and perceived employability influence their performance in terms of service delivery and how their health and wellness relate to their capability of being fully engaged and employable. in terms of recommendations, larger and in-depth studies are needed in white-collar institutions within south africa’s public sector to increase the understanding of the different concepts and their interrelationships. future studies should focus on exploring the relationship between bo and ee outside human services institutions to investigate the various relationships in more depth. it is also recommended to replicate this study in different institutions in south africa and different countries to validate the results and to generalise results based on larger populations. finally, it emphasises that future research should investigate spe as a psychosocial resource mechanism on the issues of bo and ee. on a practical note, i/o psychologists and hr practitioners should consider how ee and spe affect employees’ bo in their employee well-being programmes, training and courses, as well as in terms of creating employee awareness and healthy mindsets. limitations the correlational design was limited to examining only the strength and direction of the relations between the variables that were studied. as a result of the application of the convenience sampling approach, unequal distribution of the respondents in terms of gender groups was obtained, causing the need for the study to be replicated in broader samples and different public sector institutions but of a similar nature, for a more comprehensive conclusion to be drawn about the relationship. in addition, as the convenience sampling method was used, results are also not generalisable whereas a random sampling method may have improved the generalisability of the findings. acknowledgements the public service organisation and the respondents who participated in the study are acknowledged. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contribution n.z. was the project leader, and r.o. of the university of south africa and c.m. of the university of johannesburg wrote the manuscript. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is applicable to this article as new data were created and analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references anand, v.v., banu, c.v., rengarajan, v., thirumoorthy, g., rajkumar, v., & madhumitha, r. (2016). employee engagement – a study with special reference to postal employees in rural areas of thanjavur. indian journal of science and technology, 9(27), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.17485/ijst/2016/v9i11/8845 asgari, a. (2012). the effects of gender and marital status on burnout of english teachers in iran. pertanika journal of social sciences & humanities, 20(3), 635–644. barkhuizen, n., & rothmann, s. (2006). work engagement of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. management dynamics: journal of the southern african institute for management scientists, 15(1), 38–46. bell, d. s., & bell, d. e. (2010). definition of recovery in chronic fatigue syndrome. journal of iime, 4, 23–27. bezuidenhout, a. (2008). burnout, work engagement and sense of coherence in female academics at two tertiary institutions in south africa. unpublished doctoral dissertation. pretoria: university of south africa. bosman, j., rothmann, s., & buitendach, j.h. (2005). job insecurity, burnout and work engagement the impact of positive and negative affectivity. south african journal of industrial psychology, 31(4), 48–56. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v31i4.199 brand-labuschagne, l., mostert, k., rothmann, s., & rothmann, j.c. (2012). burnout and work engagement of south african blue-collar workers: the development of a new scale. southern african business review, 16(1), 58–93. coetzee, m., oosthuizen, r.m., & stoltz, e. (2015). psychosocial employability attributes as predictors of staff satisfaction with retention factors. south african journal of psychology, 46(2), 232–243. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246315595971 coetzee, m., roythorne-jacobs, h., & mensele, c. (2016). career counselling and guidance in the workplace: a manual for career practitioners. cape town: juta and company ltd. cohen, j. (1992). quantitative methods in psychology: a power primer. psychological bulletin, 112(1), 153–159. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155 de cuyper, n., raeder, s., van der heijden, b.i., & wittekind, a. (2012). the association between workers’ employability and burnout in a reorganization context: longitudinal evidence building upon the conservation of resources theory. journal of occupational health psychology, 17(2), 162–174. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027348 de lange, a.h., de witte, h., & notelaers, g. (2008). should i stay or should i go? examining longitudinal relations among job resources and work engagement for stayers versus movers. work & stress, 22(3), 201–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802390132 department of public service and administration (dpsa). (2015). annual report 2014/15. retrieved from http://www.dpsa.gov.za department of public service and administration (dpsa). (2016). annual performance plan 2015/16. retrieved from http://www.dpsa.gov.za de villiers, c.j., & hsiao, p.c.k. (2017). a review of accounting research in internationalising journals in the south african region. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 20(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v20i1.1729 fragoso, z.l., holcombe, k.j., mccluney, c.l., fisher, g.g., mcgonagle, a.k., & friebe, s.j. (2016). burnout and engagement: relative importance of predictors and outcomes in two healthcare worker samples. workplace health & safety, 64(10), 479–487. https://doi.org/10.1177/2165079916653414 guan, s., xiaerfuding, x., ning, l., lian, y., jiang, y., liu, j., & ng, t.b. (2017). effect of job strain on job burnout, mental fatigue and chronic diseases among civil servants in the xinjiang uygur autonomous region of china. international journal of environmental research and public health, 14(8), 872. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14080872 gupta, n., & sharma, v. (2016). exploring employee engagement – a way to better business performance. global business review, 17(3), 45s–63s. https://doi.org/10.1177/0972150916631082 hirayama, m., & fernando, s. (2016). burnout in surgeons and organisational interventions. journal of the royal society of medicine, 109(11), 400–403. https://doi.org/10.1177/0141076816666810 howell, d.c. (2004). fundamental statistics for the behavioral sciences (5th edn.). belmont, ca: thomson-brooks/cole. karli, u. (2016). adaptation and validation of self-perceived employability scale: an analysis of sports department students and graduates. educational research and reviews, 11(8), 848–859. kosuta, k. (2010). shifting sand: examining employee engagement in the public sector. athabasca university. february. lehohla, p. (2016). the state of basic service delivery in south africa: in-depth analysis of the community survey 2016 data. report no. 03-01-22, 2016. pretoria: statistics south africa. levin, d.m., szabat, k.a., & stephen, d.f. (2016). business statistics: a first course (7th edn.). harlow, essex: pearson education limited. lindén, m., salo, i., & jansson, a. (2016). organizational stressors and burnout in public librarians. journal of librarianship and information science, 50(2), 199–204. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000616666130 lu, c.q., sun, j.w., & du, d.y. (2016). the relationships between employability, emotional exhaustion, and turnover intention: the moderation of perceived career opportunity. journal of career development, 43(1), 37–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845315576372 luk, a.l., chan, b.p.s., cheong, s.w., & ko, s.k.k. (2010). an exploration of the burnout situation on teachers in two schools in macau. social indicator research, 95(3), 489–502. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-009-9533-7 martins, n. (2015). testing for measurement invariance for employee engagement across sectors in south africa. journal of contemporary management, 12(1), 757–774. martins, n., & ledimo, o. (2016). the measurement of employee engagement in government institutions. journal risk governance and control, 6(3), 18–25. https://doi.org/10.22495/rcgv6i3art3 maslach, c. (2011). burnout and engagement in the workplace: new perspectives. european health psychologist, 13(3), 44–47. https://doi.org/10.1037/e544732013-003 maslach, c., & leiter, m.p. (2016). understanding the burnout experience: recent research and its implications for psychiatry. world psychiatry, 15(2), 103–111. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20311 maslach, c., schaufeli, w.b., & leiter, m.p. (2001). job burnout. annual review of psychology, 52(1), 397–422. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397 mattke, s., liu, h.h., caloyers, j.p., huang, c.y., van busum, k.r., khodyakov, d., & shier, v. (2013). workplace wellness programs study. rand health quarterly, 3(2), 7. https://doi.org/10.7249/rr254 moodley, s.n. (2010). personality and work engagement in a financial institution. doctoral dissertation. cape town: university of south africa. nienaber, h., & martins, n. (2015). validating a scale measuring engagement in a south african context. journal of contemporary management, 12(1), 401–425. palazzo, l.d.s., carlotto, m.s., & aerts, d.r.g.de c. (2012). burnout syndrome: population-based study on public servants. revista de saude publica, 46(6), 1066–1073. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0034-89102013005000004 potgieter, i., & coetzee, m. (2013). employability attributes and personality preferences of postgraduate business management students. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i1.1064 qenani, e., macdougall, n., & sexton, c. (2014). an empirical study of self-perceived employability: improving the prospects for student employment success in an uncertain environment. active learning in higher education, 15(3), 199–213. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787414544875 rajani, s.t., & joshua, a.j. (2016). employee engagement: an imperative for creating job satisfaction in evolving workplaces. iosr journal of business and management, 18–21. raju, t., & prabhu, r. (2019). business research methods. mjp publisher. rothmann, s., jackson, l.t.b., & kruger, m.m. (2003). burnout and job stress in a local government: the moderating effects of sense of coherence. south african journal of industrial psychology, 29(4), 52–60. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v29i4.122 rothmann, s., & rothmann, jr. s. (2010). factors associated with employee engagement in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i2.925 schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2003). utrecht work engagement scale: preliminary manual. utrecht: utrecht occupational health psychology unit, utrecht university. schaufeli, w.b., leiter, m.p., & maslach, c. (2009). burnout: 35 years of research and practice. career development international, 14(3), 204–220. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430910966406 schaufeli, w. b., & taris, t. w. (2014). a critical review of the job demands-resources model: implications for improving work and health. bridging occupational, organizational and public health, 43–68. schaufeli, w.b., taris, t.w., & van rhenen, w. (2008). workaholism, burnout, and work engagement: three of a kind or three different kinds of employee well-being? international association of applied psychology, 57(2), 173–203. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2007.00285.x segal, b. (2009). employee engagement masks real differences in work attitudes between whites and minorities. new york, ny: sirota survey intelligence. shukla, s., adhikari, b., & singh, v. (2015). employee engagement-role of demographic variables and personality factors. amity global hrm review, 5, 65–73. sôderfeldt, m., sôderfeldt, b., & warg, l-e. (1995). burnout in social work. social work, 40(5), 638–646. storm, k., & rothmann, s. (2003). the validation of the utrecht work engagement scale in the south african police services. south african journal of industrial psychology, 29(4), 62–70. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v29i4.129 sunny, t. r., & joshua, a. j. (2016). employee engagement: an imperative for creating job satisfaction in evolving workplaces. iosr journal of business and management (iosr-jbm), 1(1), 18–21. tsigilis, n., zachopoulou, e., & grammatikopoulos, v. (2006). job satisfaction and burnout among greek early educators: a comparison between public and private sector employees. educational research and reviews, 1(8), 256–261. usman, m., & raja, n.s. (2013). impact of job burnout on organizational commitment of public and private sectors: a comparative study. middle-east journal of scientific research, 18(11), 1584–1591. van den broeck, a., vansteenkiste, m., de witte, h., & lens, w. (2008). explaining the relationships between job characteristics, burnout, and engagement: the role of basic psychological need satisfaction. an international journal of work, health & organisations, 22(3), 277–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802393672 van der vaart, l. (2012). employee well–being, turnover intention and perceived employability: a psychological contract approach. doctoral dissertation. potchefstroom: north-west university. vanhercke, d., de cuyper, n., & de witte, h. (2016). perceived employability and well-being: an overview. psihologia resurselor umane, 14(1), 8–18. vargas, r., sánchez-queija, m.i., rothwell, a., & parra, á. (2018). self-perceived employability in spain. education + training, 60(3), 226–237. https://doi.org/10.1108/et-03-2017-0037 vigoda-gadot, e., eldor, l., & schohat, l.m. (2012). engage them to public service: conceptualization and empirical examination of employee engagement in public administration. the american review of public administration, 43(5), 518–538. https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074012450943 4vanwyk.qxd hiv, or human immunodeficiency virus, is an organism that infects and kills white blood cells that play a crucial role in fighting off disease. hiv is a delicate virus that dies if it is exposed to air. it cannot be transmitted by casual contact as is the case with cold and influenza viruses. known methods of transmitting hiv include incidental or deliberate mixing of infected body fluids, unprotected sexual intercourse (both heterosexual and male homosexual), transmission through infected blood during transfusions, sharing of contaminated needles among illegal intravenous drug users, accidental “needle pricks” or other exposure to blood products of infected patients (such as contact of infected blood with eyes or mucous membranes or with a cut or lesion on the skin) among health care workers, and prenatal transmission from mother to foetus (firmansyah & kleiner, 1999). hiv/aids has reached epidemic proportions in south africa and has serious consequences for individuals as well as for south africa’s health resources and the economy. the negative impact of hiv/aids may adversely affect efforts directed at addressing structural problems, including high levels of unemployment, the skills shortage and high levels of income inequality. there are different theories that can be applied when testing people’s perceptions, for instance the ecological theory, the attitude theory and the attribution theory. for this research, it has been decided to use the attribution theory. attribution theory is seen as very relevant to the st udy of a person’s perceptions, event perceptions and at t it ude change, which can then lead to individuals impacting their own self-esteem, as well as their own levels of anxiet y. examples of self-attribution theory include sit uat ions which may be posit ive or negat ive. the attribution theory describes also how people judge others. they see behaviour, judge the behaviour in terms of intention of purpose, and then draw a conclusion, which in essence is an attributed disposition. inaccurate or not, this is a common human behaviour that transcends many social interactions (heider, 1944; jones & davis, 1965; kelley, 1967). “in psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of inquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organising sensory information. methods of st udying perception range from essentially biological or physiological approaches, through psychological approaches to the often abstract ‘thought-experiments’ of mental philosophy”. (wikipedia, 2006). the aim of this study was to assess the hr practitioners’ perceptions regarding their role and responsibility in the management of hiv/aids in industry. for this research, a quantitative design was used and a total of 65 hr practitioners (from hr officer to hr manager) responded by completing a semi-standarised questionnaire as well as a biographical questionnaire. two decades have passed since the onset of the epidemic that arose from the acquired immune deficiency syndrome, otherwise known as aids. the literat ure on aids is extensive, yet relatively little attention has been devoted to testing the percept ions of the different role players, and more specifically the youth on this disease. aids has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognised in 1981, making it of one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history. despite recent, improved access to antiretroviral treatment and care in many regions of the world, the aids epidemic claimed 3,1 million [2,8-3,6 million] lives in 2005; with more than half a million (570 000) thereof being children. the total number of people living hiv has reached its highest level: an estimated 40,3 million [36,7-45.3 million] people are now living with hiv. close to 5 million people were newly infected with the virus in 2005 (u naids & who, 2005). more than 90 per cent of all adult hiv infections occurred in developing countries and t wo-thirds were infected in sub-saharan africa. the south c de w van w yk workwell: research unit for people, policy and performance, school of behavioural sciences, north-west university (vaal triangle campus) vanderbijlpark abstract the central question to be examined revolved around an analysis of the perceptions of human resources practitioners regarding their role and responsibilit y in the management of hiv/aids in industry. a convenience sample of hr practitioners was used in a cross-sectional design. a questionnaire measuring the constructs of managing hiv/aids in industry, as well as a biographical questionnaire was administered. the questionnaire proved to be reliable. a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0,82 and 0,71 was obtained. descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. results indicated that hr practitioners experienced and perceived significant differences with regard to the implementation of their companies’ policy format ion and -implementat ion, training needs of managers and employees, mentoring/ coaching -approaches and other aids-related issues in terms of their perceptions regarding the management of hiv/aids. the findings revealed a gap of knowledge on managing hiv/aids existing among hr practitioners at all levels. while some hr practitioners had a detailed knowledge of the disease and its prevention, others were ignorant about it, but agreed that the management of hiv/aids can be seen as an integral part of their daily role and responsibility in industry. recommendations were proposed for future research, policy making and practice in the area of hiv/aids and the management thereof. key words hiv/aids, perceptions, hr managers, role and responsibility, management of hiv/aids human resources practitioners’ perceptions of their role and responsibility in managing hiv/aids in industry 29 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (3), 29-35 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (3), 29-35 african population was expected to grow from 43,7 million in 1999 to 51,3 million in 2010 in the absence of hiv/aids. however, because of the incidence of hiv/aids, the population is now expected to reach only 47 million in 2010 (kaiser family foundation, 2000). southern africa remains the epicentre of the global aids epidemic. new data from south africa shows hiv prevalence among pregnant woman has reached its highest levels to date: 29,5% [range 28,5-30,5%] of woman attending antenatal clinics were hiv-positive in 2004. prevalence was the highest among woman aged 25-34 years – more than one in three women was estimated to be living with hiv. among woman aged 20-24 years, almost one in three was infected. in the country’s worst affected province, kwazulu-natal, prevalence has reached 40%, while it remained exceptionally high at between 27% and 31% in the eastern cape, free state, gauteng, mpumalanga and north west provinces. (department of health, south africa 2005). it is estimated that the hiv-positive population in 2004 was approximately 3,83 million, which translates to an hivprevalence rate of 15,2% of the adult population. the accumulated aids deaths up to 2004 were estimated to be 1.94 million (statistics south africa, 2004). abt associates (2000) project that by 2010 the labour force will, in the absence of substitution, decline by 8 per cent for the highly skilled, 10 per cent for the skilled and 11-13 per cent for the semiand unskilled. quattek (2000) predicted an average decline of 10% in the labour force over the period 2000-2015, spread across all skills levels. as a result of this it may be difficult to maintain and increase the pool of sufficiently skilled people needed to match the skills demand as well as the expected economic growth. vass (2002) reported that this situation might not ease, as hiv/aids was likely to exacerbate the current short supply of skilled labour in the absence of sufficient replacements and retraining. according to van aardt (1999) about 21% of south africa’s workforce would be infected by 2010 and about 3 % will have had full-blown aids. in the same period, the number of employees lost to aids could amount to around 40 % to 50 % of the current workforce in some south african companies (kaiser family foundation, 2000). the epidemic also affects many people’s life expectancy at birth. during the period 1996-1999, the life expectancy in the era of aids in south africa declined from 63 to 55 years. in neighbouring countries also hard hit by the disease, namely botswana and zimbabwe, life expectancy dropped from 65 to 47 years and from 53 to 44 years respectively (sunter & whiteside, 2000). the ber (2006 p.9) reported: “the balance of evidence in south africa indicates that lower skilled (and income) people tend to have higher prevalence than the higher skilled (and better paid). this does not reflect racial factors only. according to dorrington (2002) the existing information shows a particular steep downward gradient in infection levels as we move from the semi-skilled job categories to middle and senior management level amongst blacks; in fact, it appears that hiv prevalence could be independent of race at senior management levels. table 1 indicated that a significant increase in the number of hiv-positive people in the various stages of the hiv/aids lifecycle, particularly the later stages, could be expected during the period 2002 to 2008. it also appeared from table 1 that the number of south africans in the early stages of the hiv/aids lifecycle would show only limited increase from about 1,8 million in 2002 to about 2,1 million in 2008 (17% growth rate). however, a far stronger increase (28%) is anticipated in the middle stages, namely from about 2,5 million in 2002 to about 3,1 million in 2008, while the strongest surge (140%) in the number of people was expected in the later stages of the hiv/aids lifecycle, namely from about 0,9 million in 2002 to about 2,2 million in 2008 (bmr, 2004). table 1 hiv-positive population by stage, 2002 to 2008 in south africa year early stages middle stages later stages total 2002 1 810 120 2 458 040 931 840 5 200 000 2004 1 659 080 2 815 480 1 425 440 5 900 000 2006 1 795 600 2 955 370 1 949 030 6 700 000 2008 2 123 250 3 142 500 2 234 250 7 500 000 source: bmr, 2004. vass (2002) reported that the macro-economic modelling results indicated that, given the impact of hiv/aids, labour force growth would decline, resulting in a smaller labour force compared to a one in a no-aids scenario. quattek (2000) predicted an 18% decline in the labour force by 2015, while abt/metropolitan predicted a decline of 21% by 2015 (ber 2001). the projected reduction in the labour force follows from the projected reduction in the population growth rate to zero per cent in 2009 and a negative growth rate of -0,5% by 2015. culture plays a vital role in determining the level of health of the individual, the family and the communit y. this is particularly relevant in the context of africa, where the values of extended family and community significantly influence the behaviour of the individual (airhihenbuwa & webster, 2004). the research of norman and carr (2003) also indicated that it is clear that culturally appropriate and stage-specific strategies are urgently needed. table 2 stages of hiv/aids used in assa 2002 stage description 1 who stage 1: acute hiv infection 2 who stage 2: early disease 3 who stage 3: late disease 4 who stage 4: aids 5 receiving antiretroviral treatment 6 discontinued antiretroviral treatment source: dorrington et al. (2004) as indicated in table 2, the ultimate stage of the virus is fullblown aids. at this stage, in most cases symptoms such as weight loss and balding start to show. chronic diarrhoea is also common. human resource practitioners, more specifically human resource managers, have broad responsibilities for managing multiple aspects of their organisation’s response the hiv/aids epidemic. macdonald and george (2002) were of the opinion that human resource managers ought to have a particularly important role to play in an organisational response to hiv/aids. it is these managers’ responsibility to manage problems in the workplace caused by hiv/aids at both an van w yk30 organisational and individual level. these officers are responsible for the formulation and implementation of policies and programmes and for the establishment of rules that ensure that those living with hiv/aids are protected from discrimination and provided with the best possible care. at the same time, they have responsibilities to protect the interests of the employer. in most cases these seemingly divergent demands coincide as it is in the best interests of the employer to prolong the productive life of employees living with hiv/aids and to minimise the numbers of infected employees through intensive workplace prevention interventions as well as through partnerships with community-based organisations. human resource managers and career practitioners ought to be aware of the basic challenges faced by hiv positive south africans, according to maloon, crous and crafford (2004). dickinson (2003 p.46) stated in his research: “thus, in asking whether managing hiv/aids in south african workplaces is just another duty the answer is that a new form of management is required in which the strengths of managerial structures and capacit y is combined with the enthusiasm and peer communication strength of bottom-up initiatives. this prevents enormous difficulties as south african companies take up the challenge of hiv/aids.” thus to conclude, the perceptions of the hr practitioners and managers on how they perceive their role and responsibility in the management of hiv/aids in industry are of utmost importance to industry. if they perceive that the management of hiv/aids in industry is an integral part of their role, it can have a positive impact in the fight against hiv/aids. however, if they perceive their role as a low-profile one and are rather ignorant towards the management of hiv/aids, it will definitely have a negative impact regarding the fight against hiv/aids in industry. research approach research design a cross-sectional survey design was used to achieve the study objectives (shaughnessy & zechmeister, 1997). it was decided for this research to use a cross-sectional survey design because it was the most appropriate design to use. according to burns and grove (1993), cross-sectional designs are appropriate where groups or subjects at different developmental stages are studied simultaneously. the survey technique of data collection gathers information from the target population by means of a questionnaire. this investigation was done by administering semi-structured questionnaires to 250 hr practitioners by means of e-mail. a convenience sample of the available hr practitioners was obtained and a total of 65 (n = 65) respondents completed the questionnaires. this represents a response rate of 26%. this response rate corresponds with the research of lim (2003), who had a response rate of 20% after a first mailing and 29% response rate out of 550 questionnaires after a second mailing. du plessis (2004) had a 38% response rate out of 350 questionnaires mailed/e-mailed to hr practitioners and hiv/aids consultants of operating mines, quarries and mineral plants situated in south africa. participants the group of hr practitioners who participated in the research consisted of hr directors (3%), hr managers (26%), senior hr practitioners (32%), and hr practitioners (38%). the biggest group of respondents are from the metals sector (23%), followed by the chemical sector (22%). the other respondents represented the following sectors: mining (16%), business service (9%), health (9%), education (6%), general government (6%), consumer manufacturing (3%), construction (3%) and machinery (3%). the majority of respondents (60%) worked in the gauteng province with the remaining provinces proving relatively equal representation in terms of the final sample. the group of respondents consisted of 66% males and 34% females. measuring instruments for the purpose of this research a semi-structured questionnaire was developed by the researcher. apart from the questionnaire, a biographical questionnaire (part a) was also distributed. the questionnaire consisted of three sub-scales, namely part b (responsibility regarding hiv/aids in the workplace), part c (hiv/aids) and part d (hiv/aids-perceptions. because the topic being studied is sensitive it was essential to assure respondents of anonymity and confidentiality. the questions posed, were closed-ended questions based on a 3-point revised likert scale (agree, unsure and disagree). this is a newly designed questionnaire. no data is available regarding the validit y and reliabilit y of the measuring instrument. statistical analysis the statistical analysis was carried out with the aid of the spss program (spss, 2003) and sas program (sas institute, 2000.) results a biographical questionnaire was developed to gather information about the demographic characteristics of the participants. information that was gathered included the following: position of hr practitioner, sector in which the company operates, province the company is situated, number of employees, male/female, skills-levels, labour turnover and absenteeism rate. the respondents indicated that the biggest group (28%) represents companies who employ between 1 000-4 999 employees, 26% with more than 5 000 employees and 17% who employ between 100-499 employees. the rest (17%) represent companies who employ less than 100 employees. the respondents reported that the biggest portions of their employees (57%) are semi-/unskilled, 24% skilled and 19% highly skilled. the respondents reported their latest % labour t urnover as: semi-/unskilled (2,8%), skilled (1,5%) and highly skilled (0,1%). they reported their latest absenteeism rate % as: semi-/unskilled (6%), skilled (2%) and highly skilled (0,2%). confirmatory factor analyses were carried out to determine the construct validity of section d: hiv/aids perceptions. section d consists of t wo scales, the first relating to perceptions regarding the impact of hiv-infected persons at the workplace, and the second section relating to perceptions regarding access to information regarding employees’ hiv stat us. a simple principal components analysis was done to verif y the construct validity of section d. two factors emerged, which together explained 39% of the total variance. table 3 descriptive statistics and cronbach’s alpha coefficients, skewness and kurtosis of the measuring instrument test and subscales n mean minimum sd skewness kurtosis � perceptions q42 65 22,01 14,00 5,40 0,657 0,102 0,82 perceptions q43 65 10,68 6,00 3,34 0,663 -0,02 0,71 managing hiv/aids in industry 31 as indicated by table 3, these two subscales demonstrated an adequate level of internal consistency, the first with a cronbach alpha of 0,82 and the second falling at 0,71. these compare favourably with the guideline of 0,70 as set by nunnally and bernstein (1994). according to hair et.al (1998), cronbach’s alpha value may be decreased to 0,6 in exploratory research. it can therefore be concluded that all factors are internally reliable. responsibility regarding hiv/aids the themes which addressed this part of the questionnaire identified whose responsibility hiv/aids is in the workplace, and social responsibility involvement towards the community and the employees. the respondents singled out human resources (28%) to be responsible for hiv/aids in the workplace, compared to 5% who designated top-management. the majority of the respondents (62%) reported that all the role-players (human resources, topmanagement, line-management and the trade unions) should all be responsible for the management of hiv/aids in the workplace. the majority of the respondents (56%) singled out community involvement as the biggest priority regarding social involvement of the companies. about two-thirds of the respondents (62%) reported that their company policy provides for the principle of being socially responsible towards the community and the employees. the rest of the respondents (38%) reported that their company policy makes provision of being socially responsible towards the communities and the employees “to some extent”. about half of the respondents (48%) indicated a “definitely yes” regarding the question: “do you believe that your company fulfils its task towards social responsibility?” half of the respondents (50%) reported “to some extent” and the minority of the respondents (2%) reported “not at all”. about one-fifth of the respondents (23%) indicated that their companies spend less than 1% of their companies’ gross income towards social responsibility. one-third of the respondents (34%) indicated that their companies spend between 1%-2% of their gross income towards social responsibility, while 20% reported expenditure of between 2%-3%, 15% between 3%-4% and 8% between 4%-5%. the majority of the respondents (84%) are of the opinion that, to be socially responsible, can improve their company’s image internationally and nationally. the element that was singled out as the most important element regarding social responsibility towards employees (60%) was “education of employees”. the element that was singled out as the least important element (34%) towards social responsibility was “employment of disabled employees”. there were mixed responses regarding the least important elements of social responsibility, namely: improvement of living standards (8%), medical/pension (11%), housing (13%), sport and recreation (16%) and transport for employees (16%). the element that was singled out as the most important element regarding social responsibility towards the community was “employment” (48%) while “sponsorships” (33%) was singled out to be the least important element. hiv/aids the themes which addressed this part of the questionnaire focused on: hiv/aids policy issues, hiv/aids programmes, the effect of hiv/aids on production, hiv/aids-related costs, hiv/aids-training, hiv-testing, counselling etc. the majority of the respondents (91%) reported that their company have a hiv/aids policy in place. a small portion (6%), were unsure and a few (3%) reported that their company did not have a hiv/aids policy in place. about one-third of the respondents (37%) indicated that their company’s hiv/aids policy has been in place for more than 4 years, while about half (45%) indicated a period of between 1-3 years, 15% indicated less than 1 year, while 3% indicated “not yet in place” the biggest portion of respondents (89%) reported an hiv/aids awareness programme, about three-quarters (76%) reported a voluntary counselling and testing programme, and more than two-thirds (70%) reported a hiv/aids care, support and treatment programme. about half of the respondents (54%) indicated that their companies do not make provision for antiretroviral therapy at the workplace. the majority of the respondents (58%) indicated that hiv/aids prevention programmes will have a small to moderate increase on the labour costs of their companies. only about half of the respondents (48%) reported that their companies conducted research to assess the impact of hiv/aids on the labour force, production costs and consumer base. table 4 results regarding the respondents’ views regarding the effect of hiv/aids on the production side of their companies no hiv/aids has led to: no small moderate large don’t impact impact impact impact know % % % % % 1 lower labour productivity 31 27 27 2 13 2 increased worker absenteeism 12 47 22 8 11 3 higher labour turnover rates 31 24 22 8 15 4 lost of experience and 37 24 14 10 15 vital skills 5 higher recruitment/ 28 30 15 12 15 training costs 6 higher employee benefit 27 33 20 8 12 costs table 4 summarises the percentages of respondents’ perceptions regarding the effect of hiv/aids on the production side of their companies. as indicated in table 4, more than half of the respondents (58%) indicated that hiv/aids will have no/small impact towards lower labour productivity. more than half of the respondents (61%) indicated that hiv/aids will have no/small impact towards a loss of experience and vital skills. only a few respondents indicated a large impact on: lowered labour productivity (2%), increased worker absenteeism (8%), larger labour turnover rates, loss of experience and vital skills (10%), higher recruitment and training costs and higher employee benefit costs (8%). the majority of the respondents (72%) reported that their company’s hiv/aids policy has been communicated to the employees. the rest of the respondents (14%) reported “no”, and the balance (14%) reported “not sure”. more than half of the respondents (59%) that the right of the employee with hiv/aids to privacy is more important than the right of the co-workers (41%) to know about potential health hazards. regarding the aspect of testing, the majority of the respondents (95%) reported that employees volunteered for testing. only a few of the respondents (3%) indicated that testing is mandatory for all employees and the balance of the respondents (2%) indicated that testing is mandatory for employees in high-risk groups. more than two-thirds of the respondents (68%) reported that informed consent should be obtained from the employees before any hiv-testing is carried out. only one-quarter of the van w yk32 respondents (24%) indicated that the costs, of voluntary or mandatory testing were covered in full by their company’s medical aid scheme. a small portion of the respondents (8%) reported being “partially covered”, a few (9%) reported that their company did not have a medical scheme, and the balance (29%) indicated “not covered”. awareness posters were reported as the most common method (93%) of communication regarding hiv/aids awareness/ education, while use of industrial theatre was less common (48%). the majority of the respondents (60%) indicated that their union/unions had taken a position similar to their own regarding the management of hiv/aids. more than half of the respondents (54%) reported that they used the labour relations act (code of good practice) as a basis for drawing up their aids policy/education campaign. about half of the respondents (42%) indicated that hiv/aids has had a significant adverse impact on their company (for example production, sales and profits). hiv/aids perceptions the themes which addressed this part of the questionnaire focused on respondents’ perceptions regarding the effect hiv/ aids would have on the workplace within the working context. table 5 results regarding the respondents’ perceptions of hivinfected persons in the workplace no. i believe that allowing hivagree disagree unsure total infected persons to work at the % % % % workplace will: 1 cause some employees to refuse job 62 22 16 100 assignments. 2 undermine company morale. 78 20 2 100 3 result in lost sales. 74 18 8 100 4 hurt the company image. 90 8 2 100 5 result in acts of violence. 86 9 5 100 6 increase our medical insurance costs. 32 15 53 100 7 cause us to lose our customers. 78 17 5 100 8 increase the number of grievances 59 26 15 100 and complaints. 9 diminish the ability of other 63 23 14 100 employees to concentrate on their work. 10 increase labour costs 23 23 54 100 11 disrupt the flow of work 49 17 34 100 12 cause some employees to quit. 59 25 16 100 13 undermine our ability to provide 65 18 17 100 service to clients 14 incur extra expenditure in hiring 34 26 40 100 additional labour to buffer against any work disruption. table 5 summarised the percentages of respondents indicating their perceptions of hiv-infected persons in the workplace. more than two-thirds (62%) of the 65 respondents indicated their agreement with statement 1 indicating that presence of hiv-infected persons would cause some employees to refuse job assignments. the majority (78%) of the respondents agreed with statement 2 indicating that the presence of hiv-infected persons in the workplace would undermine company morale. this corresponds with the results of statement 3, where 74% of the respondents agreed with the statement that the presence of hivinfected persons in the workplace would result in lost sales to their company. most (90%) of the respondents agreed with statement 4 indicating that hiv-infected employees would hurt the company image and the majority (86%) of the respondents felt that hivinfected persons at the workplace could result in acts of violence (statement 5). about half (53%) of the respondents were unsure about statement 6 indicating that accommodation of hivinfected employees could lead to an increase in the medical insurance costs of the company. one-third (32%) of the respondents agreed with this statement while 15% disagreed. the majority (78%) of the respondents felt that hiv-infected employees can cause that the company loses some customers (statement 7). more than half (59%) of the respondents were of the opinion that the number of grievances and complaints would increase (statement 8) and about the same number (63%) feel that it will diminish the ability of other employees to concentrate on their work (statement 9). more than half (54%) of the respondents were uncertain about the contents of statement 10 that hiv-infected employees could result in an increase in labour costs. about half (49%) of the respondents agreed with statement 11 that participation of hiv-infected persons at the workplace would disrupt the flow of work. more than half (59%) of the respondents agreed with statement 12 that the use of hiv-infected employees could cause some employees to quit their jobs. about two-thirds (65%) of the respondents agreed with the statement that job involvement of hiv-infected employees would undermine the ability of the company to provide service to clients. there were mixed results regarding statement 14 that hiv-infected persons would lead to increased expenditure due to hiring of additional labour to buffer work disruptions. table 6 results regarding the respondents’ perceptions of hivinfected persons in the workplace no. in context of the workplace agree disagree unsure total % % % % 1 employers should have access to 30 4 66 100 information about the outcome of employees’ aids tests without knowing the identities of these candidates. 2 potential employers should have 49 13 38 100 access to information about the outcome of employees’ aids tests, without knowing the identities of these test candidates. 3 workers who work around hiv40 18 42 100 infected employees should have access to information about the outcome of employees’ aids tests, without knowing the identities of these test candidates. 4 employers should have access to 71 5 24 100 information about the identities of employees who have aids tests. 5 potential employers should have 67 9 24 100 access to information about the identities of employees who have had aids tests. 6 workers who work around hiv75 10 15 100 infected employees should have access to information about the identities of employees who have had aids tests. the results of the respondents regarding their perceived attitudes towards hiv-infected persons in the workplace (with specific reference to access to information about the outcome of employees’ aids tests as well as the identities of employees who have had aids tests) were summarised in table 6. two-thirds (66%) of the respondents reported that they were uncertain if employers should have access to information about the outcome of employees’ aids tests without knowing the managing hiv/aids in industry 33 identities of these candidates (statement 1). about half (49%) of the respondents agreed with statement 2 that potential employers ought to have access to information about the outcome of employees’ aids tests. this corresponded with the results of statement 3 where 40% of the respondents agreed that workers who work in proximity to hiv-infected employees should have access to information about the outcome of employees’ aids tests, while 42% of the respondents were unsure. the majority (71%) of the respondents felt that employers, potential employers and workers should have access to information about the identities of employees who have had aids tests. the minority (8%) of the respondents disagreed, while 21% of the respondents were unsure. discussion the objectives of this study were to analyse the perceptions of hr practitioners regarding their role and responsibility in the management of hiv/aids in industry. an in-depth discussion of the results of the descriptive statistics of the individual variables fell beyond the scope of this research. a few remarks, however, were made regarding those factors with significant statistics. the following section dealt with the descriptive statistics of sections b, c and d of the questionnaire. from table 4, it was clear, that the respondents were of the opinion that hiv/aids has had a limited or moderate impact on lower labour productivity, increased worker absenteeism and higher labour turnover rates. furthermore, it was evident, that companies experienced a slight or moderate impact on increasing of higher employee benefit costs. in contrast to this “moderate” view, du plessis (2004, p. 289) reported: “less visible though, is the alarming impact hiv/aids is currently having on a company’s bottom line.” this stems from costs arising from lowered productivity due to those employees who prematurely died of the disease or before retirement age having to be replaced and this led to additional recruitment, training and vesting costs that incurred with regard to the replacement of employees. from table 5, it became evident, that on average 61% of the respondents agreed with the 14 negatively defined statements that hiv/aids would have a negative impact on the company. some of the major concerns were that hiv-infected persons at the workplace would hurt the company image (90%), result in acts of violence (86%), undermine company morale (78%) and cause the company to lose customers (78%). table 6 focused on the perceived attitudes of the respondents regarding their views on hiv-infected persons at the workplace. the results of table 6 on average indicated agreement (55%) that employers, potential employers and workers who worked closely with hiv-infected people ought to have access to information about the identities of employees who have had hiv tests. ten percent of the respondents disagreed (10%) with the statement and indicated “unsure” on average (35%) regarding the six elements of table 6. this research was administered only to the 250 respondents who mainly resident in gauteng, free state and north west province. therefore, one could argue that the findings are not necessarily a generalisation of all hr practitioners’ perceptions and views in all the economic sectors of south african regarding their role and responsibility in the management of hiv/aids. it does, however, serve as a point of reference for future research on this topic. one of the limitations of this research was that the questionnaire used was a self-report questionnaire. furthermore, the study was cross-sectional whereas the results of a longitudinal study might have been more useful. another limitation of this research was that it was only administered to respondents who have access to computer network and e-mail facilities. recommendations based on the results of this study, the following recommendations were proposed for future research in the area of hiv/aids with specific reference to the role of hr practitioners in the management of hiv/aids. � a fundamental responsibility of the hr practitioner is to develop a human resources plan for his or her organisation. any such plan must consider the possible impact of hiv/aids on the organisation in the short, medium and long term. � an aids preventative programme should be developed and implemented at all plants of a company to promote changes in lifestyle and to prevent the spread of hiv/aids. � awareness programmes can help in creating awareness and understanding of the disease; to address negative attitudes and misconceptions about hiv/aids. � awareness programmes should aim to change the social climate at the workplace and at home to support preventative behaviour. existing customs and traditions of workers should be considered when developing these programmes. � there should be sufficient training on how to deal with hivinfected workers and colleagues for co-workers at all levels in the organisation. recommendations for future research a major challenge for organisations in the future seems to be an urgent search for competitive advantage. in the south african context, this is an even a bigger challenge for companies facing the growing impact of hiv/aids at the workplace. companies that do attend to and manage hiv/aids in their workplace will have a decided advantage in this regard. in the light of the fact that limited research in the area of hiv/aids (with specific reference to the role of hr practitioners) had been done, further studies might on a wider scale be undertaken in order to generate a better and more general view of the attitudes, perceptions and awareness among hr practitioners of aids and aids-related issues in the work context. research on knowledge of hiv/aids and the practices of unprotected sex tends to be cross-sectional. future research needs to focus on longitudinal studies regarding the management of hiv/aids in the workplace. managers involved in the “softer sciences” like human resources practitioners should receive some training to have a better understanding of the economic impact of hiv/aids on their companies. hiv/aids has become a major threat to employment objectives on labour market efficiency. more research regarding the economic impact of hiv/aids in companies is needed. references abt associates inc. (2000). demographic impact of hiv/aids in south africa. sandton: abt associates inc. airhihenbuwa, c.o, & webster, j.de w. (2004). culture and african contexts of hiv/aids prevention, care and support. journal of social aspects of hiv/aids 1 (1),4 -13. ber, see bureau for economic research. bmr, see bureau of market research bureau for economic research. (2001). the macro-economic impact of hiv/aids in south africa. research note no 10. beo stellenbosch: university of stellenbosch. van w yk34 bureau for economic research. (2006). the macro-economic impact of hiv/aids under alternative inter vention scenarios (with specific reference to art) on the south african economy. ber stellenbosch: university of stellenbosch. bureau of market research. (2004). the projected economic impact of hiv/aids in south africa, 2003-2015. pretoria: unisa, bureau of market research (report no 325) caldwell, j.c. (2000). rethinking the african aids epidemic. population and development review, 26 (1), 117-135. cameron, e. (2005). witness to aids. cape town: tafelberg. department of health, south africa (2005). national hiv and syphilis antenatal sero-prevalence sur vey in south africa 2004. department of health. pretoria. de vos, a.s. (ed.), strydom, h, fouché, c.b, delport, c.s.l. (2002). research at grass roots. for the social sciences and human ser vice professions. pretoria: van schaik. dickinson, d. (2003). managing hiv/aids in the south african workplace: just another duty? south african journal of economic and management sciences, 6 (1),25-49. dickinson, d. (2004). corporate south africa’s response to hiv/aids: why so slow? journal of south african studies, 30 (3),627-649. dorrington, d. (2002). the demographic impact of hiv/aids in south africa by province, race and class. cape town: centre for actuarial research, university of cape town. dorrington, r.e, bradshaw, d, johnson, l & budlender, d. (2004). the demographic impact of hiv/aids in south africa. national indicators for 2004. cape town: centre for actuarial research, south african medical research council and actuarial society of south africa. du plessis, w. (2004). the social responsibility of the south african mining companies dealing with hiv/aids. potchefstroom: north-west university. thesis (phd). firmansyah, s, & kleiner, b.h. (1999). new developments concerning discrimination against workers with hiv or aids. equal opportunities international 18 (2/3/4),56 -59) garbus, l. 1998. hiv insite: south africa. http://hivinsite.ucsf international labour organisation. (2000). action against hiv/aids in africa: an initiative in the context of the world of work. geneva. govender, k.k. (2000). managing service quality: human resources management strategies. journal of industrial psychology, 26 (3), 47-51. hair, j.f, anderson, r.e, tatham, r.l. & black, w.c. (1998). multivariate data analysis. new jersey: prentice hall inc. heider, f. (1944). social perception and phenomenal causality. psychological review, 51, 358-374. jones, e.e., & davis, k.e. (1965). from acts to dispositions: the attribution process in person perception. in l. berkowitz (ed.), advances in experimental social psychology (2). new york: academic press. inc. kaiser family foundation. (2000). impending catastrophe revisited: an update on the hiv/aids epidemic in south africa. abt associates inc. kelly, h. (1967). attribution theory in social psychology. in d. levine (ed.), nebraska symposium on motivation. lincoln nb: university of nebraska press. kinghorn, a. & steinberg, m. (2000). hiv/aids in south africa: the impact and priorities. r.s.a. lee, g.j, venter, r. & bates, b. (2004. enterprise-based hiv/aids strategies: integration through organizational architecture. south african journal of business management, 35 (3), 13-22. lim, v.k.g & loo, g.k. (2000). hiv and the workplace: organisational consequences of hiring persons with hiv and attitudes towards disclosure of hiv-related information. international journal of manpower, 21 (2), 129-140. lim, v.k.g. (2003). managing hiv at the workplace: an empirical study of hiv and hr managers in singapore. journal of occupational health psychology, 8 (4), 235-246. macdonald, j & george, g. (2002). human resource managers. aids brief for professionals. health economics and hiv/aids research division, university of natal, durban. october: 1-6. maloon, d., crous, f. & crafford, a. (2004). work-related concerns of south africans living with hiv and aids. south african journal of industrial psychology, 30 (2),96-150. marais, h. (2000). to the edge: aids review 2000. centre for the study of aids: university of pretoria. neuman, w.l. (1997). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. boston: allyn and bacon. norman, l.r. & carr, r. (2003). the role of hiv knowledge on hiv-related behaviours: a hierarchical analysis of adults in trinidad. health education, 103 (3), 145-155. nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory (3rd ed.). new york: mcgraw-hill. quattek, k. (2000). the economic impact of aids on south africa: a dark cloud on the horizon. johannesburg: ing barings. sas institute. (2000). the sas system for windows: release 8.01. cary, nc: sas institute inc. shaugnessy, j.j & zechmeister, e.b. (1997). research methods in psychology (4th ed.) new york: mcgraw-hill. smith, j.j & krüger, j. (2005). perceptions of graduates regarding workplace expectations: an exploratory study. south african journal of business management, 36 (1), 23-31. spss inc. (2003). spss 12.0 for windows. chicago, il: author. statistics south africa. (2004). mid-year population estimates, south africa 2004. pretoria. stats sa, see statistics south africa. sunter, c. & whiteside, a. (2000). aids: the challenge for south africa. cape town: human e rousseau. unaids & who. (2005). aids epidemic update: december 2005. switzerland. van aardt, c. (1999, october 5-11). the impact of new demographic trends on the labour market. paper presented at the 1999 demsa conference, cape town (5-11 october). van wyk, c. de w, & tshivase, n.d. (2005). hiv/aids awareness and attitudes of mineworkers: a case study. south african journal of business management, 36 (1), 65-72. van wyk, c de w. (2005, 30 june 3 july). hiv/aids perceptions, attitudes and awareness of undergraduate students. paper presented at the fifth international conference on diversity in organisations, communities and nations. the institute of ethnic administrators, beijing, china. vass, j. (2002). the relationship between labour market dynamics and hiv/aids prevalence: a literature review. development policy research unit school of economics, university of cape town. wikipedia. retrieved 15 august, 2006, from, http://www. answers.com/topic/perception/ managing hiv/aids in industry 35 abstract introduction methodology results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) tawaziwa wushe college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa country cool air conditioning pvt ltd, harare, zimbabwe jacob shenje decision point consultants pvt ltd, harare, zimbabwe citation wushe, t., & shenje, j. (2019). the relationship between social media usage in the workplace and employee productivity in the public sector: case study of government departments in harare. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1116. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1116 original research the relationship between social media usage in the workplace and employee productivity in the public sector: case study of government departments in harare tawaziwa wushe, jacob shenje received: 16 aug. 2018; accepted: 18 apr. 2019; published: 05 nov. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the advent of social media has taken new dimensions becoming one of the most significant methods of how people communicate all over the world. in particular, the usage of social media and networking sites is a phenomenon that has brought great negative and positive impact to organisations and employees nowadays. research purpose: the primary aim of the study sought to determine the relationship between social media usage in the workplace and employee productivity in the public sector with particular reference to government departments in harare. motivation for the study: there have been rising concerns about the use of social media sites in the workplace because of loss of labour productivity through time wasted at work. research approach/design and method: the study adopted a positivist research approach because it had ontological assumptions of representationalism and objectivism. because of the nature of the research objectives, a descriptive research design was found to be necessary. a sample size of 278 management and employees from five selected government departments was targeted. structured questionnaires were used for the collection of relevant primary data. main findings: the study revealed that social media usage in the workplace resulted in significant drop in employees’ productivity because of time spent online keeping in touch with friends, sharing pictures and communicating with colleagues. practical/managerial implications: as social media cannot be completely eradicated during working hours, the human resources departments need to monitor deadlines and job deliverables with the need to ensure that jobs are performed efficiently. contribution/value-add: the study sought to fill the existing research gaps with regard to the use of social media at workplace and employee productivity. keywords: networking sites; performance; productivity; public sector; social media. introduction orientation the advent of social media as a technological innovation has taken new dimensions by becoming one of the most significant ways of how people communicate globally (awolusi, 2012; bolton, kabadayi, gruber, loureiro, & solnet, 2013; von, 2015). in particular, the usage of social media and networking sites such as whatsapp, facebook, skype, twitter, you tube, instagram and linkedin has become a phenomenon that has brought both negative and positive impact to various organisations and employees nowadays. according to sultana, abdullah and tabassum (2013) and tilahun (2016), more and more people have been using social networking sites to connect with colleagues, friends, family as well as making collaborations. the social media has indeed gained entry and popularity into the workplace where it has not only affected employee skills, abilities, knowledge, qualification and motivation levels but also productivity and job performance (munene, 2016; tilahun, 2016). thus, the ubiquity of these social media platforms in the workplace can no longer be ignored anymore because of their effect on employee productivity and performance. wasting time through social media activities is a huge hidden cost to any organisation. as noted by aguenza, al-kassem and mat som (2012), social media has become a time waster with more than 65% of employees globally visiting the sites at least once a day. in zimbabwe, there have been rising concerns about the use of social media sites in the workplace because of loss of labour productivity. indeed, there had been growing worry among government departments that employees had been wasting much time on these social media sites during working hours resulting in reduced productivity. for instance, it has been noted that, on average, employees spend at least 2 hours per day on facebook, whatsapp, skype and/or twitter in the workplace (mhiripiri & mutsvairo, 2013). in the face of slow and inefficient service delivery, government departments in harare had not thought of deeply looking into what had been eating up employee work hours without commensurate results. in some instances, staffs had been with their computer systems or mobile phones blogging or tweeting for their personal motives and gains during working hours (munene, 2016; shava, chinyamurindi, & somdyala, 2016). it also seems that government employees had been spending their time on social media networks to non-work-related activities such as creating personal relations, listening music and watching videos. when employees spend many hours on social media, performance in government departments is bound to be affected. one of the challenges facing government departments in harare has been to enhance productivity of the workforce to improve service delivery and avoid of scarce resources wastage. thus, the introduction of internet and smartphones has caused and raised issues of the relationship between social media usage and employee productivity in the workplace because of the time being spent on non-work-related activities. indeed, the introduction of smartphones has compounded the challenge in question and subsequently has become a distraction at work as employees can easily connect to social media sites. there had been considerable conflicting arguments among scholars on the impact of social media usage in the workplace on employee productivity. for instance, aknin, elizabeth, ashley, adam and michael (2013) and richards (2012) argue that employees who use social media sites in the workplace are 15% more productive than those who do not. alternatively, other scholars believe that social media use in the workplace has resulted in sharper employees’ lack of concentration and reduced work productivity. for instance, studies by razmerita, philips-wren and jain (2015) noted that the use of facebook at work results in a 1.5% decrease in productivity. therefore, the study sought to fill the existing research gap and resolve this debate by attempting to fulfil the following research objectives: determine the relationship between time spent on facebook and employee productivity. determine the relationship between time spent on whatsapp and employee productivity. establish the association between time spent on twitter and employee productivity. establish the association between time spent on skype and employee productivity. determine the relationship between time spent on linkedin and employee productivity. in line with the above research objectives, the following research hypotheses were tested at 5% level of significance: h1: time spent on facebook has a negative relationship with employee productivity. h2: time spent on whatsapp has a negative relationship with employee productivity. h3: time spent on twitter has a negative relationship with employee productivity. h4: time spent on skype positively has a negative relationship with employee productivity. h5: time spent on linkedin has a negative relationship with employee productivity. literature review concept of social media and online social networking social media can be described as an online service or platform that focuses on facilitating building of social networks or social relations among people who share the same or similar interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections (bolton et al., 2013). these online platforms allow individuals to have public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, view and traverse various lists of connections made by others within the system. examples of online social networking and social media sites include twitter, linkedin, facebook, skype, sphere, amazon, youtube, nexopia, 2go, ebay, bebo, badoo, hi5 and so on (holtzblatt, drury, weiss, damianos, & cuomo, 2013; twenge, 2010). these social media sites have general basic features like user names with personal passwords and biographical profiles of users. there has been growth in popularity of social media sites in both developing and developed countries and its advancement has promptly changed how organisations work and communicate. according to munar, gyimóthy and cai (2013), private and public organisations have now been forced to work with social media because of its effectiveness as a two-way communication and effective collaboration. despite scepticism on its value because of data leakage from staff gossiping freely in an open environment and phishing scams, there has been recognition by many organisations that social media and networking sites in the workplace result in improved employee productivity (cai, huang, & liu, 2018; harandi & abdolvand, 2018). the biggest concern of social media usage in the workplace has been the reduction on employee productivity from time wastage. theoretical model: distraction-conflict theory sanders, baron and moore (1978) explored the distraction-conflict theory in explaining how particular distraction can affect the performance of an individual on a given task. these distractions can be behavioural or psychological or social or non-social and are often triggered by competing activities or environmental stimuli (mushwana & bezuidenhout, 2014). according to the theory, distractions and interruptions consume employees’ time that could be spent on critical tasks. as such, individuals are subject to distractions caused by secondary tasks that disrupt their ability in the workplace (awolusi, 2012). the theory also states that distractions constitute any stimuli irrelevant to the task at hand which can produce attentional conflict between the primary task and the distractor (speier, valacichm, & vessey, 1999), for instance, when facebook distracts an employee, he or she may forget the information needed to process primary tasks and cues may be lost (ribière, haddad, & philippe vande, 2010). this cognitive difficulty is usually associated with time lags in regaining the mental state held before the distraction. as a result, actual productive time would be lost because of distraction (patel & jasani, 2010). using distraction-conflict theory, the study argues that checking a social media platform such as facebook, twitter, skype or youtube during working hours could result in employees processing multiple inputs (can & kaya, 2016; young, 2017). the theory provides insight into evaluating social media as an instrument that distracts employees from their primary tasks. when employees are exposed to interruption or distractions, these may affect mental attention and impair task processing. relationship between social media usage and employee productivity various studies have attempted to determine the relationship between social media usage in the workplace and employee productivity. social media has been credited for helping employees to become more productive and allow them to stay current with market trends as well as other issues important to consumers. as postulated by salanova, llorens and ventura (2014), the use of social media sites may actually increase employee productivity as they become connected to other skilled people through social media sites as well as improved communication channels and sharing of skills. in addition, using analytical tools, companies have been able to transform social networking sites like facebook or twitter into mines of market research information where businesses recognise trends as information about how customers interact with their employees (wilson, 2009). duff, brittany and sela (2015) also noted that social media platforms such as facebook, twitter and skype can allow employees to instantly see creative work of their colleagues and can help users to brainstorm new ideas. furthermore, wang, yang and chen (2016) expound that the usage of facebook has been credited with helping employees to be 9% more productive in the workplace. in the same vein, tarafdar, pullins and ragu-nathan (2015) established that the intensity of facebook use by employees in an organisation was related to life satisfaction and social trust. maier, laumer, weinert and weitzel (2015) also opine that facebook usage by employees can be the strength for organisations when used to expand networks and increase access. companies such as ibm have used social networking sites to enhance innovative behaviour by establishing its own internal social network called beehive, which allows activities such as photo-sharing and discussion groups among employees (aguenza et al., 2012; maier et al., 2015). in fact, abdulahi, samadi and gharleghi (2014) argue that social networking sites, such as facebook, twitter, skype and linkedin, encourage sociability and this is essential for growth and satisfaction in the workplace. a survey on 1731 participants recruited from mechanical turk concluded that there were positive associations between the distraction felt from social media such as facebook as well as youtube and employee productivity (hysa, mularczyk, & zdonek, 2015). however, there are other academics and practitioners who argue that social media usage in the workplace has a negative relationship with employee productivity. for instance, hysa et al. (2015) argue that the average internet user can spend, on average, 2 hours a day and 6 h per month on facebook in the workplace. a study in the united kingdom indicated that social media use in the workplace has been responsible for as much as £132 million per day of lost productivity and 233 million hours lost every month (gravili, 2010; jarrahi & sawyer, 2012). the productivity loss and time wasted in the workplace happen because some of these social media sites are addictive. organisations are also worried that social networking sites such as facebook and twitter are used by hackers to distribute malware using trusted accounts. consequently, this breaches a company’s security if employees click on malicious site links (cao, vogel, guo, liu, & gu, 2012). the other challenge for organisations on social media usage in the workplace has been the difficulty of distinguishing whether the employees post personal views or views of the company they work for. another negative consequence of using social networking sites in the workplace is the consumption of extra bandwidth that would end up affecting the efficiency of core business tasks. according to shami, nichols and chen (2014), social networking sites, such as youtube, are high-bandwidth sites that consume between 75% and 90% of bandwidth within most organisations. for instance, the use of facebook at work results in a 3.5% decrease in productivity. the wasted productivity would add up to money lost through wages and decreased efficiency. in a sample of over a thousand business professionals, employees admitted to routinely checking their facebook, linkedin and twitter ‘inboxes’ throughout the workday (munar et al., 2013). such routine checking of social media sites at work has been found to have negative effects. another survey study of more than 168 000 in france by ribière et al. (2010) found that 48% of employers believe that the use of social media in the workplace had a negative impact on employee productivity. flynn (2011) and kane (2017) also concluded that social networking platforms negatively affect employee’s performance by decreasing their abilities and close association with organisation. from the preceding literature discussion, it can be argued that the relationship between social media usage in the workplace and employee productivity offers inconsistent and inconclusive findings. some of the studies reviewed argued that there is a positive relationship between social media usage in the workplace and employee productivity, whilst other studies established negative correlation. thus, the study will seek to provide a conclusive answer on the effect of social media usage in the workplace on employee productivity. conceptual model based on the literature that has been reviewed, a conceptual model has been proposed that consists of the identified social media platforms discussed and employee productivity. these platforms include facebook, whatsapp, twitter, skype and linkedin. these social media platforms that widely appear in the literature are embedded within social media usage in the workplace and have been relatively essential in determining employee productivity. these social media platforms in this study are measured as multidimensional constructs whereby social media usage is the proxy for employee productivity. the diagram in figure 1 illustrates the relationship between independent variables (social media applications) and the dependent variable (employee productivity). figure 1: conceptual model. methodology research design the study adopted a descriptive research design because it helped the researchers to generalise and apply the findings beyond the situation in which the study was originally conducted. in addition, the use of descriptive research design assisted the researchers in generating testable hypotheses through deductivism. in line with suggestions by bryman and bell (2015), the use of descriptive research design helped the researchers in expanding more output for the study as it sought to determine how the use of social media in the workplace would cause changes in employee productivity. as such, the object of the study was to investigate the relationship between time spent on various media platforms as the independent variables and employee productivity as the dependent variable. more so, the use of descriptive research design also helped the researchers in minimising biases and any values that could contaminate the research process. as such, descriptive research design provided a self-corrective tool that checked credibility of primary data credibility and reduced the distortion because of researchers’ subjectivity. in addition, a descriptive research design would be able to detect the fine differences between respondents selected from various government departments. therefore, this would allow the researchers the opportunity to categorise social media usage at workplace using demographic variables. above all, the use of a descriptive research design would explicate the study problem by collecting numerical data and analyse using statistical tools (hair, 2015). as such, the use of a descriptive research design allowed the researchers to use consistent measurements that would stand the test of time and is free from biasness. population and sample size the population of the study was broadly defined as employees and management derived from selected government departments in harare. the study population was estimated at 1000 employees and management from five selected government departments in harare. thus, the choice of the population was driven by the need to extract informed and relevant information pertaining to the relationship between social media usage in the workplace and employee productivity in the public sector. from the study population of 1000 employees and management, it was critical to select a sample size that was representative of the whole target population. for the purposes of this study, the sample size was calculated using the following formula by wiid and diggines (2011): where n = expected sample size n = the population e = 0.05, the level of precision. from the above statistical formula, the sample size for the study at 5% level of significance was n = 1000/1+10 000 (0.052) = 278 respondents. sampling techniques after ascertaining the sample size, the researchers sought to pick the participants using the appropriate sampling techniques. accordingly, the study sample was divided into homogeneous groups that included five selected government departments in harare. the allocation of each stratum was performed using proportional sampling and this was calculated using the following formula: where ni= number of members in the sample from strata i for i = 1, 2….5 ni = number of members in the population from strata i for i = 1, 2, ……5 n = number of members in the entire population n = sample size. table 1 shows the proportional sampling derived from the selected government departments. table 1: proportional sampling. within the identified strata, simple random sampling technique was utilised. as the expectation of the study was to generalise the collected data to government departments in harare, simple random sampling was appropriate. the advantage of simple random sampling was that it permitted the estimation of the sampling error which could be minimised and calculated (zikmund, babin, carr, & griffin, 2013). research instrument structured questionnaires were used for the collection of relevant primary data from employees and management. the use of the structured questionnaires helped in capturing the attitudinal data of respondents. furthermore, survey questionnaires were simple to administer and helped in maintaining objectivity of the study whilst ensuring that the answers directly addressed issues at stake (easterby-smith, thorpe, & jackson, 2012). moreover, the questionnaires enabled the busy employees and management to complete them at their own convenience thereby ensuring a higher response rate for the study. structured questions used to measure the effect of social media usage at workplace on employee productivity were adapted from aguenza et al. (2012), naheed (2014) and tilahun and yeshambel (2016). a five-point likert scale was used to measure the relationship between social media variables and employee productivity. the likert scale gave the respondents the opportunity to indicate the degree of agreement or disagreement to a series of provided statements. the five-point likert scale gives the respondents more options to choose with point 1 indicating strong disagreement, 2 indicating disagreement, 3 showing neither agreement nor disagreement, 4 indicating agreement and 5 indicating strong agreement (malhotra, 2010; scandura & williams, 2013). the benefit of the likert scale type questions was that it made the questionnaire easy to construct and was relatively easy for respondents to understand how to use the scale. research procedure and ethical considerations the questionnaires were administered through the use of drop and pick method. this involved leaving the questionnaires with the respondents and then picking them at a later date when completed. the main advantage of the drop and pick method was that it resulted in significantly higher response rates (hair, black, babin, & anderson, 2010). the drop and pick method gave respondents enough time to answer the questionnaire because the researchers would come later to pick them. furtherance, the pick and drop method allowed the researchers to collect data from a large representative sample at relatively low cost per datum. to enable the participants to fully understand the context of the survey, an introductory brief was attached to the first page of the questionnaire. the cover letter stated that participation was completely voluntary, with assurance of strict confidentiality. during the dropping of the questionnaires, the researchers established rapport with the respondents to encourage them to respond to the data collection instruments accurately. the distribution of questionnaires began from 23 june 2018 to 23 july 2018. data analysis the collected data were collated, coded and entered statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 25. the statistical programme was used to analyse the demographic characteristic of the respondents and to obtain the result by frequencies and percentage. as the study was quantitative in nature, the findings were presented in simple descriptive statistics involving some tables and bar charts. pearson correlation techniques measured the relationship between the variables of social media and employee productivity. regression analysis was also employed for drawing results. ethical considerations the ethical considerations conserved in the study included anonymity of respondents, confidentiality of primary data as well as seeking permission to conduct research from relevant authorities such as management of the respective authorities. the researchers had ethical obligations to respect the rights, needs, values and desires of the respondents. accordingly, primary data collected from the respondents were treated with utmost confidentiality without any disclosure of their personal identity. the researcher promised confidentiality and did not ask for the names of the respondents. in line with recommendations by sekaran and bougie (2013), all the study respondents were assured that the primary data obtained from the study would be kept confidential, and hence, they could feel confident to express their opinion without fear and concern. the researchers also ensured that anonymity of the participants was maintained through the removal of any identifying characteristics before the dissemination of information. it was also assured that all collected data would be analysed and reported only in aggregate form. the questionnaire data were kept confidentially and respondents were assured of their right to withdraw at any time. the names of the respondents were not recorded and so all the data were rendered anonymous. results from a total of 278 randomly distributed questionnaires to the five selected government departments in the central business district of harare, the study managed to realise 210 questionnaires. this represented a response rate of 75.5% and was high enough to make reliable analysis and conclusions in relation to the effect of social media usage at workplace on employee productivity in the public sector. the response rate agrees with suggestions by mugenda and mugenda (2012) who argue that a response rate above 60% is adequate enough to make meaningful primary data analysis. a reliability test was performed on the study’s constructs (facebook, whatsapp, twitter, skype and linkedin) using the cronbach’s alpha test. according to salkind (2012), cronbach alpha measures whether the collected data will be good enough to be endured even more using advanced statistical procedures. babbie and mouton (2012) suggest that cronbach alpha values should be at least 0.7 to be acceptable. table 2 shows the cronbach’s alpha values. table 2: reliability test. from table 2, it can be seen that the cronbach alpha’s values for the study variables such as facebook (0.8), whatsapp (0.82), twitter (0.79), skype (0.75), linkedin (0.86) and employee productivity (0.81) were more than acceptable. thus, items in the study satisfactorily measured variables for the study. the researchers sought to determine the biographic data of the sample used for collecting primary data. in particular, background information relating to age, gender, monthly income, marital status and educational qualifications were analysed. all these are shown in table 3. table 3: demographic characteristics of the respondents. from table 3, majority of the respondents were men (54%) and the average age category for the respondents was 31–40 years (43%). this is an economically active and young group consisting of mainly millennials and generation k. more, so these are also frequent users of social media in both public and private organisations (razmerita et al., 2015). in addition, majority of the respondents (85%) had been with their respective government department for a period of at least 6 years. in terms of educational qualifications, most of the respondents (77%) had at least a university degree. as such, the respondents were educated enough to understand issues pertaining to the effect of social media usage at workplace on employee productivity in the public sector. this provided credibility that the findings from the survey were collected from respondents who understood and could interpret the questionnaire on their own. pearson correlation analysis was used to determine the level of relationship between the study’s independent variables of social media applications (whatsapp, facebook, skype, linkedin and twitter) and dependent variable of employee productivity. as these variables were largely continuous, pearson correlation was believed to be the most appropriate analysing technique in describing the direction and strength of the linear relationship (shami et al., 2014). this was also in line with creswell (2013) who argued that pearson correlation matrix can be used to measure relationships between independent and dependent variables in a study. table 4 shows the relationship among independent variables of social media use and the dependent variable of employee productivity. table 4: correlation analysis. based on the correlation matrix shown in table 4, facebook has a negative and significant correlation with employee productivity (r = -0.317, p < 0.05) at 0.05 level of significance. this invariably implies that any increase in the use of facebook by government employees during working hours will result in simultaneous decrease productivity in terms of work distraction, learning and knowledge sharing and morale improvement. thus, the hypothesis that time spent on facebook has a negative relationship with employee productivity is accepted based on the sampled data. the pearson correlation also showed that time spent on whatsapp has a negative and significant relationship with employee productivity (r = -0.225, p < 0.05). these findings imply if the government employees increase use of whatsapp during working hours, this will ultimately result in decreased employee productivity. thus, we accept the hypothesis that time spent on whatsapp has a negative relationship with employee productivity based on the sampled data. in addition, the study revealed that time spent on twitter at work showed a negative and significant correlation with employee productivity (r = -0.273, p < 0.05). the result invariably implies that any increase in time spent on twitter by employees during working hours would result in negative productivity. thus, we accept the hypothesis that time spent on twitter negatively affects productivity of employees at workplace on the basis of the sample data. the study also revealed a negative and significant negative relationship between time spent on skype during working hours and employee productivity (r = -0.408, p < 0.05). thus, the result implies that using skype during working hours will negatively affect employee productivity in the government departments. as such, we accept the hypothesis that time spent on skype positively has a negative relationship with employee productivity on the basis of the sampled data. furthermore, the survey findings disclosed a positive and significant relationship between linkedin and employee productivity (r = 0.502, p < 0.05). this implies that use of linkedin at work positively influences employee productivity in the government departments. thus, we reject the hypothesis that time spent on linkedin has a negative relationship with employee productivity on the basis of sampled data. regression analysis was used to identify the predictors of employee productivity as conceptualised in the research model. as such, regression analysis sought to identify how much each independent variable affected on the dependent variable. the findings are shown in table 5. table 5: regression analysis – model summary. from the above findings, the regression coefficient of all types of social media (whatsapp, facebook, skype, linkedin and twitter) was estimated at r = 0.452. the adjusted r2 coefficient of determination which shows the variation between in the dependent variable because of changes in the independent variable was r2 = 0.280. this shows that about 28% of employee productivity in the government departments can be explained by the five types of social media such as whatsapp, facebook, skype, linkedin and twitter. this shows that the whole model was significant. in other words, this means that there is an overall effect for social media use at workplace on employee productivity. one-way analysis of variance (anova) was used to analyse the significance of the various models in the study. the findings are shown in table 6. table 6: analysis of variance analysis (one-way analysis of variance).† table 6 shows that the model is statistically significant (sig. = 0.000), in which the f-value is equal to 15.852. the model shows that the significance level is less than 0.05, a sign of approval that there exists a relationship between employee productivity and independent variables of the study. a regression model was also used to allow a simultaneous analysis of the impact of the five variables. the results from the findings are shown in table 7. table 7: regression model results – coefficients.† from the findings, it was established that the study showed a statistical significant relationship with p < 0.05. moreover, the findings revealed that a unit increase in facebook usage at workplace would result in employee productivity declining by a factor of 0.477 (47.7%). in addition, a unit increase in whatsapp usage at workplace would lead to a decrease in employee productivity by factor of 0.416 (41.6%) and a unit increase in skype usage at workplace would result in declining employee productivity by a factor of 0.086 (8.6%). the study also revealed that a unit increase in twitter would lead to decrease in employee productivity by a factor of 0.038 (3.8%). however, it was revealed that a unit increase in linkedin usage at workplace would lead to an increase in employee productivity by factor of 0.216 (21.6%). from the findings, facebook (p = 0.000), whatsapp (p = 0.004), skype (p = 0.000), twitter (p = 0.001) and linkedin (p = 0.005) were all significant in predicting employee productivity in government departments because the p values were less than 0.05. thus, the findings vividly show the magnitude of the correlation between social media usage at workplace and employee productivity in the public sector. discussion the correlation results showed that time spent on social media applications such as whatsapp, twitter, skype and facebook had a negative relationship with employee productivity. the findings suggested that employees may be spending most their time on these social media platforms engaging in non-work-related activities. the regression model showed that the model was significant and that about 28% of employee productivity in the government departments could be explained by the five types of social media such as whatsapp, facebook, skype, linkedin and twitter. furthermore, the anova analysis showed that the model was statistically significant (sig. = 0.000), a sign of approval that there existed a relationship between employee productivity and independent variables of the study. more interesting, the findings revealed that a unit increase in usage of whatsapp, twitter, skype and facebook during working hours would result in employee productivity declining. these social media platforms have been widely linked with making individuals more self-centred and decrease in a person’s attention span in the workplace (cai et al., 2018; harandi & abdolvand, 2018). in relation to the findings, de wet, koekemoer and nel (2016) argued that using social media sites during working hours may actually decrease employee productivity. the findings also agree with a study in the united kingdom by jarrahi and sawyer (2012) which indicated that social media use in the workplace had been responsible for as much as £132 million per day of lost productivity and 233 million hours lost every month. from the findings, facebook (p = 0.000), whatsapp (p = 0.004), skype (p = 0.000), twitter (p = 0.001) and linkedin (p = 0.005) were all significant in predicting employee productivity in government departments because the p values were less than 0.05. thus, the findings vividly showed the magnitude of the correlation between social media usage at workplace and employee productivity in the public sector and was able to test all the research hypotheses. the correlation results also revealed that time spent on linkedin had a positive relationship with employee productivity. it was also revealed that a unit increase in linkedin usage at workplace would lead to an increase in employee productivity. this may be because of the fact that the platform is for mainly professionals from different disciplines sharing information and knowledge. through linkedin, employees have the opportunity to build relationships with mutual connections and colleagues in the same field. these findings concur with tarafdar et al. (2015) who noted that the usage of linkedin has been credited with helping employees to be 9% more productive in the workplace. in addition, the findings from the study agree with maier et al. (2015) who opine that linkedin usage by employees can be strengthened for organisations when used to expand networks and increase access. practical implications the findings from the study have several practical and theoretical implications. basically, it was indicated from the study that engaging in the use of social networking sites such as whatsapp, twitter, skype and facebook in the workplace shares a negative relationship with employee productivity. from a practical point of view, the study conveyed a number of implications to government departments and human resource departments, in particular. it can be reasonably concluded that professionals in charge of human resource departments in both private and public sectors would benefit from understanding the nature of relationships between time spent on social media platforms and employee productivity elicited by the study. understanding relationships between the social media usage and employee productivity can help reveal the underlying rationale for organisations to either permit or disallow the use of social media in the workplace. as suggested by the findings, the social interaction of employees with friends, colleagues and family members through social networking sites during working hours does not enhance their productivity. at the same time, it was revealed that linkedin can help employees to be more productive. this suggests that organisations should help their employees to interact with co-workers and colleagues whilst in the workplace in order to obtain better work-related outcomes. this is consistent with the work of tajvidi and karami (2017) who found that social and cognitive use of social media can have positive impact on employees’ routine and innovative performance at work. limitations and recommendations it should be noted that the growth of social media will continue and human resource practitioners in the government departments need to accept the reality. thus, use of social media at workplace cannot be stopped in the present day but can only be managed to yield positive employee productivity. based on the findings, there is the need for the government to put in regulations to ensure that time spent on social media during working hours is beneficial. in particular, the government departments can encourage employees to use social media to increase involvement, promote free flow of ideas, aid creativity and innovation. given that social media will continue to remain popular, it is of profound importance to design and support interventions that would meet employee expectations to help them give off their best. as social media cannot be completely eradicated during working hours, the human resources departments should monitor deadlines and job deliverables with the need to ensure that jobs are performed efficiently. the human resources departments should focus on employee’s behaviour towards using social media. in particular, it is important to design training programmes that will help employees to adjust habits of using social media at work. the study on the effect of social media usage at workplace on employee productivity in the public sector was based on selected government departments in harare. as such, the findings do not necessarily reflect the outlook of all government departments in the country. since that restricted generalizability of the results, future work should explore more government departments and cover each of the provinces of the country. future researches should also look at the impact of other social media network sites on employee productivity which were not discussed in the study. conclusion findings from the study validated the view that use of social media by employees during working hours can be counterproductive. the study concluded that time spent and frequency of visit to social media during working hours can have negative effect on employee productivity. the study also concluded that social media resulted in significant drop in employees’ productivity at workplace because of time spent online keeping in touch with friends, sharing pictures and communicating with colleagues. specifically, it was concluded that using facebook, twitter, whatsapp and skype during working hours can have a negative influence on employee productivity. however, only linkedin showed a significant positive relationship with employee productivity. these findings indicate that if not well managed, social media participation may lead to a loss of productivity. the study concluded that employees can participate in social media in the workplace for various reasons including work-related and non-work-related reasons. employee productivity can be enhanced if there are proper and effective ways of managing social media participation. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the researchers worked hand in glove during the course of the study. to make the research more productive and efficient, j.s. formulated the research problem and synthesised relevant literature review. he was also involved in the distribution and collection of questionnaires from targeted respondents. t.w. provided the research methodology section as well as construction of research instrument. both authors were involved in data collation, editing and analysis. the researchers also agreed on conclusions and recommendations. after completion of the research article, t.w. was involved in proofreading for grammar and logic. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abdulahi, a., samadi, b., & gharleghi, b. (2014). a study on the negative effects of social networking sites such as facebook among asia pacific university scholars in malaysia. international journal of business and social science, 5(10), 23–27. aguenza, b.b., al-kassem, a.h., & mat som, a.p. (2012). social media and productivity in the workplace: challenge and constraints. interdisciplinary journal of research in business, 2(2), 22–26. aknin, l.b., elizabeth, w.d., ashley, v.w., adam, m.g., & michael, i.n. (2013). making a difference matter: impacts unlocks the emotional benefits of pro-social spending. journal of economic behaviour and organization, 8(8), 90–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2013.01.008 awolusi, m.f. (2012). the impacts of social networking sites on workplace productivity. the journal of technology, management, and applied engineering, 28(1), 2–6. babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2012). the practice of social research. oxford: oxford university press. bolton, r.n., kabadayi, s., gruber, t., loureiro, y.k., & solnet, d. (2013). understanding generation y and their use of social media: a review and research agenda. journal of service management, 24(3), 245–267. https://doi.org/10.1108/09564231311326987 bryman, a. & bell, e. (2015). business research methods. oxford: oxford publications. cai, z., huang, q., & liu, h. (2018). improving the agility of employees through enterprise social media: the mediating role of psychological conditions. international journal of information management, 38(4), 52–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2017.09.001 can, l., & kaya, n. (2016). social networking sites addiction and the effect of attitude towards social network advertising. procedia-social and behavioural sciences, 235(6), 484–492. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.11.059 cao, x., vogel, d.r., guo, x., liu, h., & gu, j. (2012). understanding the influence of social media in the workplace: an integration of media synchronicity and social capital theories. in 45th hawaii international conference on system science (hicss), 04–07 january 2012, maui, hi, pp. 3938–3947. creswell, j.w. (2013). qualitative inquiry & research design choosing among five approaches (3rd edn.). london, thousand oaks. de wet, w., koekemoer, e., & nel, j.a. (2016). exploring the impact of information and communication technology on employees’ work and personal lives. south african journal of industrial psychology, 42(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v42i1.1330 duff, b.r. l., & sar, s. (2015). seeing the big picture: multitasking and perceptual processing influences on ad recognition. journal of advertising, 44(3), 173–184. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2014.967426 easterby-smith, m., thorpe, r., & jackson, p. (2012). management research (4th edn.). new jersey: prentice hall. flynn, b.m. (2011). do you facebook? networking with students online. college and research libraries news, 67(5), 306–307. gravili, g. (2010). can cooperation in virtual social networks help organizations manage knowledge? in proceedings of the european conference on information management & evaluation, cork, ireland, 13–14 september 2012, pp. 109–117. hair, j.f. (2015). essentials of business research methods. london: pearson education limited. hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2010). multivariate data analysis: a global perspective (7th edn.). london: pearson. harandi, s.r., & abdolvand, n. (2018). investigating the effect of online and offline workplace communication networks on employees’ job performance: considering the role of culture. journal of global information technology management, 21(1), 26–44. holtzblatt, l., drury, j.l., weiss, d., damianos, l.e., & cuomo, d. (2013). evaluating the uses and benefits of an enterprise social media platform. journal of social media for organizations, 1(1), 1. hysa, b., mularczyk, a., & zdonek, i. (2015). social media: the challenges and the future direction of the recruitment process in hrm area. studia ekonomiczne, 2, 34, 54–69. jarrahi, m.h., & sawyer, s. (2012). social technologies, informal knowledge practices, and the enterprise. journal of organizational computing and electronic commerce, 23(1–2), 110–137. https://doi.org/10.1080/10919392.2013.748613 kane, g.c. (2017). the evolutionary implications of social media for organizational knowledge management. information and organization, 27(1), 37–46. maier, c., laumer, s., weinert, c., & weitzel, t. (2015). the effects of techno stress and switching stress on discontinued use of social networking services: a study of facebook use. information systems journal, 25(3), 275–308. malhotra, n.k., (2010). marketing research: an applied orientation (6th edn.). new jersey: prentice hall. mhiripiri, n.a., & mutsvairo, b. (2013). social media, new icts and the challenges facing the zimbabwe democratic process. nairobi: igi-global publications. mugenda, o., & mugenda, a.g. (2012). research methods: quantitative and qualitative approaches. nairobi: acts. munar, a.m., gyimóthy, s., & cai, l. (2013). tourism social media: transformations in identity, community and culture (p. 37). new york: emerald group publishing. munene, y.m. (2016). effect of social media pertication in the workplace on employee productivity. international journal of advances in management and economics, 2(2), 141–150. mushwana, g., & bezuidenhout, h. (2014). social media policy in south africa. southern african journal of accountability and auditing research, 1(16), 63–74. naheed, t.j. (2014). impact of social networking on employee performance. business management and strategy, 5(2), 139–150. https://doi.org/10.5296/bms.v5i2.5978 patel, n., & jasani, h. (2010). social media security policies: guidelines for organizations. issues in information systems, xi(1), 628–634. razmerita, l., philips-wren, g., & jain, l.c. (2015). innovations in knowledge management: the impact of social media, semantic web and cloud computing. melbourne: springer. ribière, v.m., haddad, m., & philippe vande, w. (2010). the impact of national culture traits on the usage of web 2.0 technologies, vine, 40(3/4), 334–361. https://doi.org/10.1108/03055721011071458 richards, j. (2012). what has the internet ever done for employees? a review, map and research agenda. emerald, 34(1), 22–43. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425451211183246 salanova, m., llorens, s., & ventura, m. (2014). technostress: the dark side of technologies. in c. korunka & p. hoonakker (eds.), the impact of ict on quality of working life (pp. 87–103). berlin: springer. salkind, n.j. (2012). exploring research (8th edn.). new york: pearson. sanders, g.s., baron, r.s., & moore, d.l. (1978). distraction and social comparison as mediators of social facilitation effects. journal of experimental social psychology, 14(3), 291–303. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(78)90017-3 scandura, t.a., & williams, e.a. (2013). research methodology in management: current practices, trends, and implications for future research. academy of management journal, 43(6), 1248–1264. https://doi.org/10.2307/1556348 sekaran, u., & bougie, r. (2013). research methods for business: a skill building approach (6th edn.). new delhi: wiley. shami, n., nichols, j., & chen, j. (2014). social media participation and performance at work: a longitudinal study. in proceedings of the chi, 26 april–01 may 2014 (pp. 115–118). toronto, ontario, canada. https://doi/org/10.1145/2556288.2557417 shava, h., chinyamurindi, w.t., & somdyala, a. (2016). an investigation into the usage of mobile phones among technical and vocational educational and training students in south africa. south african journal of information management, 18(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajim.v18i1.716 speier, c., valacich, j.s., & vessey, i. (1999). the influence of task interruption on individual decision making. decision sciences, 30(2), 33–36. sultana, n., abdullah, a.m., & tabassum, a. (2013). exploring the communication barriers in private commercial banks of bangladesh. international journal of research studies in management, 2(1), 21–32. https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrsm.2012.140 tajvidi, r., & karami, a. (2017). the effect of social media on firm performance. computers in human behaviour, 30, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.09.026 tarafdar, m., pullins, e.b., & ragu-nathan, t.s. (2015). technostress: negative effect on performance and possible mitigations. information systems journal, 25(2), 103–132. https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12042 tilahun, m., & yeshambel, b. (2016). impact of online social networking on employees productivity at work place in university of gondar – a case study. international journal of computer applications, 8(1), 18–24. https://doi.org/10.5120/ijca2016907844 twenge, j.m. (2010). a review of the empirical evidence on generational differences in work attitudes. journal of business and psychology, 25(2), 201–210. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9165-6 von, v. (2015). facebook status updates: psychological correlates and consequences. retrieved from http://www.diss.fuberlin.de/diss/servlets/mcrfilenodeservlet/fudiss_derivate_000000018587/dissertation_grosse_deters.pdf. wang, m.-h., yang, t.-y., & chen, y.-s. (2016). how workers engage in social networking sites at work: a uses and gratification expectancy perspective. international journal of organizational innovation, 8(4), 161–176. wiid, j., & diggines, c. (2011). marketing research. cape town: juta and company ltd. wilson, l. (2009). facebook fixation harms student grades. the australian. retrieved from http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,24897,25325762-12332,00.html. young, j.a. (2017). facebook, twitter, and blogs: the adoption and utilization of social media in non-profit human service organizations. human service organizations: management, leadership & governance, 41(1), 44–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/23303131.2016.1192574 zikmund, w.g., babin, b.j., carr, j.c., & griffin, m. (2013). business research methods. new jersey: cengage learning. 2vanzylroodt.qxd “…while women are becoming more important in the business world, very few are holding truly top level jobs” (ellman, 1963). it seemed that concerns about gender fairness in employment had been a debated issue since the sixties as indicated by the above quote. previous studies indicated that men were holding pivotal positions in organisations (corporate board seats) and that women occupied positions of less influence, lower status and lower pay (humphries & grice, 1996; jackson, 2001). several measures were designed in an attempt to rectif y inequalities. measures to address gender inequality legislative intervention such as equal employment opportunity (eeo) and affirmative action (a a) policies were introduced in various countries across the globe to address this issue about fairness and discrimination in the workplace. however, it seemed, that inequality still persisted (humphries & grice, 1995). mavin (2001) argued that male career models and approaches remained, and that women were being disadvantaged when they stepped out to meet family responsibilities. women were subtly forced to choose between upward mobility in career and family stability in the home, or even a family at all. now if this problem existed from the sixties up to the twenty-first century and there was supportive legislation to abolish it, it would be a pertinent issue especially for an emerging market such as south africa. employment equity legislation, internationally and nationally, endeavored to ensure the equitable representation of women and other designated groups in all occupational categories and levels in the workplace (thomas, 2002). within these legislation and connecting literature various concepts were being used constantly. it should be useful to investigate what equal employment opportunity encompassed. employment equity was seen as a long-term programme to ensure that all employees have a fair chance in the workplace. it would be achieved when no person is denied employment opportunities or benefits for reasons unrelated to their abilities (thomas, 2002, toumishey, 2001). affirmative action was seen as a short-term strategy by which equality (employment equity) in the workplace would be achieved through the active elimination of systemic discrimination (thomas, 2002, toumishey, 2001). systemic discrimination occurred when groups of people, e.g. women were excluded from the workplace for reasons not related to job requirements. it resulted from entrenched policies/practices that were part of the normal operation of employment systems that unintentionally discriminated (toumishey, 2001). human (1996) saw affirmative action as the process whereby equal employment equity was created – cutting across all human resources practices such as selection, recruitment, induction, development, etc. this referred to a more holistic focus such as diversity management. diversit y management was a planned, systematic and comprehensive managerial process for developing an organisational environment in which all employees, with their similarities and differences, could contribute to the strategic and competitive advantage of the organisation, and where no-one was excluded on the basis of factors unrelated to productivity (thomas, 1997). both affirmative action and diversit y management should lead to equal employment opportunities, which was the ultimate goal. diversity in its fullest sense involved a broad range of human uniqueness -– personality, work style, perception and attitudes, values and lifestyle, work ethic, worldview and communication style. dickens (1994) who called it a holistic approach also supports this view of diversity management. however, she also emphasised that most diversity pogrammes focused on valuing ethnic and cultural diversity and not so much gender. mallon and cassell (1999) also stated that diversity management approaches moved beyond the limited remedial aspirations of traditional equal opportunities policies. the approach was about enhancing the contribution of each member of an organisation and creating an inclusive culture, the stimulus being business need rather than social justice. the next section provides a broad overview on international trends regarding gender equality. betsi van zyl gert roodt department of human resources management rau university abstract the primary objective of this study was to assess if there were any perceptual differences between gender groups regarding employment equity practices. a sample of 4729 participants from different companies and industries completed the employment equity questionnaire. results from an anova indicated that there were significant differences between gender groups, but only a small portion of the variance was explained by perceptual differences on employment equity practices. the instrument thus possesses some discriminant validity. further analyses on an item level indicated that there were significant differences between gender groups, but these differences were not attributable to gender stereotypes. specific employment equity practices were identified that need closer attention from management’s side to address gender discrimination. opsomming die primêre doelwit van hierdie studie was om vas te stel of daar enige perseptuele verskille tussen geslagsgroepe bestaan ten opsigte van werkgelykheidspraktyke. ’n steekproef van 4729 deelnemers uit verskillende ondernemings en bedrywe het die employment equity questionnaire voltooi. die resultate van ’n anova het aangedui dat daar beduidende verskille tussen geslagsgroepe bestaan, maar dat slegs ’n klein gedeelte van die variansie aan perseptuele verskille ten opsigte van werksgelykheidspraktyke toegeskryf kan word. die instrument beskik dus ook ’n mate van diskriminante geldigheid. verdere ontledings op itemvlak het aangedui dat daar betekenisvolle verskille tussen geslagsgroepe is, maar dat hierdie verskille nie aan geslagstereotipes toegeskryf kan word nie. spesifieke werkgelykheidspraktyke is geïdentifiseer wat nadere aandag deur die bestuurskader verdien om geslagsdiskriminasie aan te spreek. female perceptions on employment equity: is the glass ceiling cracking? requests for copies should be addressed to: b van zyl, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 13 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (2), 13-20 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (2), 13-20 some international trends on gender equality what had legislation achieved so far? the 1964 the civil rights law in the usa was amended and strengthened in the equal employment opportunities act in 1972. this act set up the equal employment opportunities commission (eeoc) which in turn set up the affirmative action plan. the affirmative action plan had made a significant impact on the progress of women at work, although it was not a guarantee against indirect forms of discrimination. it seems that the usa has had success with their legislation, but thomas (2002) pointed out that the focus had been on numbers. meyerson and fletcher (2000) indicated that women at the highest levels of business were rare. fortune 500 companies only boasted with 10% women at senior management level. less than 4% of ceo’s/presidents were female and less than 3% of top corporate earners. burke and mattis (2000) supported this. they stated that in 1998/1999 there were only two women fortune 500 ceo’s. in the usa in 1998 only a little more than 10% of women held board seats. currently there is a movement to abolish affirmative action because it is believed that the policy is counter-productive and not useful anymore (thomas, 2002). in canada 1996, the canadian minister of labour (alfonso gagliano) announced the new employment equity act and regulations. this act brought about changes to the employment equity act of 1986. it strengthened previous employment equity law by clarif ying employer’s responsibilities and giving the canadian human rights commission the authority to ensure compliance. thomas (2002) indicated that the first legislation did little to eliminate discriminatory policies and procedures and that the new legislation focused more on barriers to employment equity, organisational culture and systemic discrimination (including policies and procedures). in 1997 70% of corporate boards still did not have any female representation and only 6% of women were involved at top level. singh and sturges in burke and mattis (2000) stated that women and men also tend to occupy different managerial jobs, e.g. women in more “specialist” support roles such as marketing or personnel and men more in generalist positions that generally had higher status than support roles. an equal pay act was introduced in the uk in 1970. in 1984 equal pay for work of equal value amendments were introduced. unfortunately the equal pay (amendment) regulations 1984 had many loopholes. it had little effect on pay disparities between men and women. the average gross weekly earnings had only risen from 65% to 76,6% of men’s wages between 1970-1990. thomas (2002) indicated that the legislation in the uk was fragmentary and confusing. in uk in 1996 only 3,3% of directors were women and only in a non-executive capacity (burke & mattis, 2000). in the uk a two million rise in the number of women in work corresponded with a 2,8 million fall in the number of men. however, women still earned considerably less than men and were under represented at the higher levels of organisations (cassell, 1996). according to dickens (1994) women’s full-time gross weekly earnings amounted to 71,5% of that of men; hourly earnings were 78,9% of that of men. in terms of total remuneration packages women were disadvantaged in having less access to benefits such as companyprovided healthcare, pensions, company cars, etc. women in management positions received two-thirds of the average weekly earnings of male counterparts. in new zealand an equal pay act with the objective of pay equity for women was promulgated in 1972 as well as a human rights commission act in 1977 with the objective of equal employment opportunities for women. both of these acts led to the employment equity act of 1990. in australia and new zealand in 1997 there were only 4% of women on corporate boards. this act was repealed in 1999. it was found to be inconsistent. in the same year the employment contacts act was introduced and the principles of free market were applied to people. this act put the focus on individual contracts of employment and not historical arbitration to set wages. under the new contract women were able to negotiate and enforce contracts that suited their individual and family circumstances (humphries & grice, 1995). the next section takes a closer look at gender equality in the south african context. south african trends on gender equality the constitution of south africa guaranteed everyone the fundamental right of equality. the elimination of unfair discrimination and the adoption of positive measures to redress social imbalances were important components of this process and thus the employment equity act was a necessary step towards the achievement of the constitutional goals. the employment equity act was incrementally promulgated into law in 1999. human (1996) indicated that south african organisations were also playing the numbers game. they did not realise that affirmative action is the process of creating equal employment opportunity and that it required fundamental changes to the human resource culture. human (1996) argued that affirmative action/employment equit y both encompassed, and were encompassed by, the concept of managing diversity. women marched to the union buildings in 1956 and they sang a song: “wathint’ abafazi, wathint’ imbokotho, uzakufa!” translated it means you have tampered with the women. you have struck a grinding stone. the minister of labour said that the employment equity act gave the women another grinding stone – another powerful tool. according to him the act was a pledge to spare no effort in the struggle for gender equity (mdladlana, 1999a). on 29 july 1999 steve tshwete (at a function to launch affirmative action programme in the police force) made the following comment: “we do not only want to see leaders emerging from the male section. we want to see women being given positions in the command structures”. he also said that south africa has not yet arrived – where men and women were treated equally (mdladlana, 1999b). of the economically active population (eap) women comprised 39,85%, and only 27,45% of management. thomas (2002), using the breakwater monitor results of 1998 indicated a lower percentage – only 14% of managers are women. human (1996) indicated that in south africa, which has a strong patriarchial attitude, male managers doubted the business abilities of women. these attitudes led to practices, which inherently put women at a disadvantage through deeply entrenched stereotyping of gender. according to a report released in 1999 by the gender commission, most companies preferred employing men to women because of a lack of gender policy, lack of trust in women, cultural views and resistance by male employees (mdladlana, 1999a). the report also indicated a variance in income between men and women, for the same job. thomas (2002) supported this viewpoint by indicating that male wages were 43% higher that those of similarly qualified females in the same sectors and jobs. the ideology of male superiority was a system of beliefs that set a male standard, which became the yardstick with which women were judged when they entered male-dominated posts. they were set up for failure, blamed for any failures and through this process the myth that women were failures and that males were superior was reinforced (mdladlana, 1999a). mallon and cassell (1999) referred to a british research study conducted to investigate women’s perceptions of helping and hindering factors to their career development. four themes emerged from the study (also supported by jackson, 2001), namely: � the culture and values of the organization, based on the male career model (long hours and total availability); � family care responsibilities and the organisation attitude to it (children have a negative impact on career progression); � lack of training and breadth of skill (lack of credible performance management system and lack of mentorship); and � lack of self-confidence (stems from the need to balance home and work in an unsupportive environment and a feeling of inadequacy in both). van zyl, roodt14 it seemed that many women, approaching the top of the corporate ladder, abandoned it. jackson (2001) supported this notion. frustration and disillusionment fuelled the perceptions of women. so, the glass ceiling still remained. the term “glass ceiling” indicated those invisible barriers that kept women from rising above a certain level in organisations (jackson, 2001). it seemed that gender discrimination was so deeply embedded in organisational life that it was nearly invisible -systemic discrimination (cassell, 1996). bilineria in burke and mattis (2000) noted that even when women do all the right things and had the right competencies; they were still blocked from the inner most circles of power – corporate board level. new models were needed to support the career psychology of women. women should not be promoted in traditional ways – but alternative models of leadership should be developed to suit the unique environment, skills and abilities of women (humphries & grice, 1995). it seemed internationally that the equal employment opportunity legislation had not worked that well. legislation had brought the discrimination to the fore, but cannot curb systemic discrimination. in south africa, the employment equity act was seen as a tool to ensure the upward mobility of women in the labour market and to break the glass ceiling that had prevented women from growing and having the same access to job opportunities as their male counterparts (mdladlana, 1999a). would south africa fare any better? dickens (1994) predicted that the projected labour force between 1994 and 2006 would be 1,5 million of which 1,3 million would be female. women with children will constitute a major component of labour supply. it is argued that women could no longer be treated as second-class workers. employers would need to recognise career ambitions and domestic responsibilities. the only way to know how organisations would fare is by means of an employment equity audit. however, there still may be a possibility that an instrument used for assessing employment equity could still be biased and thereby further entrenching gender discrimination. against the background of the above-mentioned discussion the primary objective of this study was to determine whether there were gender differences with regard to perceptions on employment equity practices. a secondary objective of the study was to assess whether any items in the employment equity instrument were biased based on gender stereotypes. method sample a sample of convenience consisting of 4729 participants from various organisations across different industries such as the media, higher education, finances, chemical, motor manufacturing and it. the sample of convenience ranged between 24 years and 51 years of age with the biggest concentration in the 25-30 year age group. of the sample group, 33,5% were black, 10,4% were coloured, 3,8% were indian and 52,2% were white. in the total sample 49,4% were male and 50,6% were female. (see table 1). instrument a 134-item employment equity questionnaire developed by martins (1999) was used, based on the employment equity process. only 41 items were included in this study, as those items were generic across all nine companies representing different industries. examples of some of the items were: � “i know what employment equity is about”; � “in the company all people have the same opportunities for promotion”; � “affirmative actions placements should be linked to the availability of vacant positions in the company”; and � “in the company employees are encouraged to use/develop their own abilities and to improve them further”. table 1 biographical information on the participants age percentage 24 years and younger 14,2 25-30 years 19,2 31-35 years 13,9 36-40 years 14,5 41-45 years 15,5 46-50 years 11,0 51 years and older 11,6 total 100,0 race percentage black 33,5 coloured 10,4 indian 3,8 white 52,2 total: 100,0 gender percentage male 49,4 female 50,8 total 100,0 the items were based on issues such as training, promotions, affirmative action, wages, labour law and general management and leadership issues. the questionnaire comprised of four sections where section one to three required information on the employment equit y process and section four required biographical information. the response scales used for every item were categorical in nature and response categories were ranging from strongly disagree, disagree to agree and strongly agree. the medium used was english as all participants were comfortable with the language. procedure the questionnaires were distributed amongst samples of convenience through contact persons in different organisations. all information was treated with confidentiality; and total anonymity was ensured, as identities of participants could not be traced in any way. after completion the questionnaires were returned to the contact person in the particular organization and collected for further analysis. the data, in secondary form, were put to the avail of the current authors for research purposes. results analysis of the data was conducted in two stages. the first stage was focused on the two levels of factor analyses in order to ‘purif y’ the constructs and determine the reliability of the variables. the first stage is described in more detail below: first stage of the data analysis a t wo-level factor analysis was conducted to reduce the set of dimensions to more reasonable homogenous dimensions. on the first level, inter-correlations of the 41 items were executed first (this matrix is not displayed owing to a lack of space). a kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) test of sampling adequacy was employment equity 15 executed on the inter-correlation matrix and a highly acceptable coefficient of 0,976 was obtained. a bartlett’s test of sphericit y was also executed and yielded a chi-square of 100624,4 (p = 0,000). these values indicated that the item inter-correlat ion matrix was suitable for f urther factor analysis. eigenvalues of the unreduced item inter-correlation matrix were calculated and a number of factors were postulated based on kaiser’s (1961) criterion. according to table 2 five factors were postulated and they account for about 54% of the variance in the factor space. table 2 eigenvalues of the unreduced item inter-correlation matrix initial eigenvalues root eigenvalues % of variance % cumulative variance 1 16,125 39,329 39,329 2 2,145 5,232 44,561 3 1,485 3,623 48,184 4 1,152 2,809 50,993 5 1,133 2,763 53,756 6 0,994 2,425 56,181 7 0,916 2,234 58,415 8 0,902 2,199 60,613 9 0,827 2,018 62,632 10 0,819 1,997 64,629 11 0,783 1,910 66,639 12 0,706 1,723 68,262 13 0,697 1,701 69,963 14 0,667 1,628 71,591 15 0,636 1,551 73,142 16 0,627 1,629 74,671 17 0,591 1,442 76,113 18 0,585 1,428 77,641 18 0,551 1,344 78,884 20 0,549 1,340 80,225 21 0,539 1,316 81,640 22 0,487 1,189 82,729 23 0,476 1,161 83,890 24 0,461 1,125 85,015 25 0,452 1,101 86,117 26 0,447 1,091 87,208 27 0,435 1,061 88,269 28 0,417 1,016 89,285 29 0,411 1,002 90,287 30 0,402 0,980 91,267 31 0,393 0,958 92,225 32 0,378 0,922 93,147 33 0,372 0,907 94,053 34 0,363 0,886 94,938 35 0,339 0,826 95,764 36 0,337 0,821 96,686 37 0,318 0,776 97,360 38 0,304 0,742 98,102 39 0,276 0,673 98,775 40 0,265 0,646 99,421 41 0,237 0,579 100,000 trace = 41 principal axis factoring was used to generate a sorted and rotated factor matrix and the respective item-loadings on each postulated factor are reflected in table 3. table 3 sorted and rotated factor matrix of the first level factor analysis factor item 1 2 3 4 5 4 0,715 30 0,663 26 0,652 29 0,646 35 0,615 0,342 14 0,614 10 0,602 33 0,597 36 0,695 0,310 16 0,688 0,335 25 0,640 0,360 31 0,639 0,404 7 0,481 0,368 13 0,465 0,335 0,351 18 0,445 0,359 0,323 6 0,443 0,414 0,338 38 0,405 0,367 20 0,399 0,371 28 0,350 3 0,632 11 0,492 0,623 19 0,429 0,609 21 0,330 0,600 5 0,552 41 0,488 0,495 0,354 8 0,448 0,479 23 0,352 4 0,331 37 0,333 0,646 27 0,399 0,522 32 0,392 0,380 0,499 24 0,384 0,485 1 0,631 12 0,511 34 0,412 2 0,399 39 0,307 0,358 40 0,345 17 0,288 15 0,335 0,697 22 0,607 hereafter, sub-scores were calculated on all the postulated factors and they were inter-correlated. the inter-correlations (5 x 5) of these sub-scores are presented in table 4 and one can infer that all inter-correlations are significant on the 0,01 level. before the second level factor analysis was continued, a kmo measure of sampling adequacy was executed which yielded a coefficient of 0,813. the bartlett’s test of sphericity yielded a chi-square of 12985,91 (p = 0,000). the intercorrelation matrix of sub-scores was also suitable for further factor analysis. eigenvalues were again calculated on the unreduced intercorrelation matrix and a number of factors postulated according to kaiser’s (1961) criterion. as can be inferred from table 5, only one factor was postulated which explains about 64% variance in the factor space. van zyl, roodt16 table 4 inter-correlation of subscores (ss) ss1 ss2 ss3 ss4 ss5 ss1 1 0,812 0,783 0,564 0,381 ss2 0,812 1 0,707 0,522 0,326 ss3 0,783 0,707 1 0,471 0,329 ss4 0,564 0,522 0,471 1 0,473 ss5 0,381 0,326 0,329 0,473 1 all correlations are significant at the 0,01 level. table 5 eigenvalues of the unreduced inter-correlation matrix of subscores initial eigenvalues root eigenvalues % of variance % cumulative variance 1 3,202 64, 048 64,048 2 0,868 17,162 81,210 3 0,483 9,662 90,871 4 0,290 6,803 96,674 5 0,166 3,326 100,000 trace = 5 the factor-loadings of the sub-scores on the obtained, single scale are presented in table 6. table 6 factor loadings of subscores factor 1 h²j ss1 0,934 0,872 ss2 0,847 0,717 ss3 0,808 0,653 ss4 0,639 0,408 ss5 0,453 0,205 subsequently, a reliability analysis was conducted on this single scale and this yielded a coefficient alpha of 0,9593. the item statistics on this scale are reflected in table 7. these analyses conclude the first stage of the analysis and suggest that the scale used for further analyses, is sufficiently reliable. the second stage of the data analysis the second stage of the analysis was conducted to test if there were any significant differences between gender groups with regard to perceptions on employment equity practices. an anova was conducted for this purpose and the results are portrayed in table 8. the results from table 8 suggest that there are significant gender differences with regard to overall perceptions on employment equity practices. however, if the effects of unequal sample sizes are partialled out, only 4,1% of the variance can be attributed to differences in perceptions on employment equity practices. the proportion of variance explained, is practically insignificant and the discriminant validity of the employment equity questionnaire (this refers to the 41 items and not the item pool of 134 in the employment equity questionnaire) can therefore be questioned. table 7 item statistics and reliability analysis of employment equity instrument item scale mean if scale variance if corrected item alpha if item deleted item deleted total correlation item deleted 6 110,6900 389,2829 0,4414 0,9591 84 110,4181 393,0069 0,3233 0,9597 12 110,4379 383,1696 0,6517 0,9580 11 110,4726 387,7620 0,5353 0,9586 4 110,2068 383,7499 0,6274 0,9581 1 110,4441 380,5236 0,6648 0,9579 7 110,7951 379,4629 0,6817 0,9578 8 110,6786 382,7871 0,6068 0,9582 10 110,7568 378,8258 0,7497 0,9574 14 110,4944 380,7458 0,7164 0,9576 15 110,0340 380,5041 0,6419 0,9580 16 110,3698 392,2581 0,4280 0,9591 17 110,7720 379,8660 0,6734 0,9578 19 110,7111 379,4648 0,7136 0,9576 20 110,0406 394,9345 0,2957 0,9597 26 110,6481 380,0788 0,7050 0,9577 27 110,2502 394,1369 0,3177 0,9597 30 110,4836 383,3318 0,6800 0,9579 32 110,5094 384,9957 0,6369 0,9581 34 110,4864 384,4673 0,6642 0,9580 37 110,4699 384,0351 0,6298 0,9581 38 110,5227 392,7690 0,3399 0,9596 76 110,5991 384,5638 0,5970 0,9583 41 110,3075 390,5319 0,4584 0,9590 45 110,6572 381,4296 0,6961 0,9577 46 110,6164 380,9882 0,7331 0,9576 94 110,5331 388,8289 0,5050 0,9587 48 110,5931 383,3632 0,6533 0,9580 54 110,7583 379,1194 0,7121 0,9576 55 110,6669 379,9185 0,7328 0,9575 56 110,5342 382,0708 0,6857 0,9578 57 110,5580 389,1845 0,4773 0,9589 58 110,7585 379,9451 0,7101 0,9576 59 110,2692 392,0889 0,4150 0,9592 60 110,5743 380,0347 0,7158 0,9576 63 110,6746 380,9480 0,7117 0,9577 65 110,0459 385,7938 0,5097 0,9588 71 110,4974 381,7204 0,6684 0,9579 81 110,3605 393,7319 0,3895 0,9592 82 110,3866 393,2600 0,3951 0,9592 9 110,6976 383,7766 0,6120 0,9582 alpha = 0,9593 the fact that there are significant gender differences, takes the analysis one step further where the focus is on gender differences on an item level. cramer’s v was applied in this analysis and note should be taken that some differences (5%) on this level may be purely attributable to chance. results as displayed in table 9, should therefore be interpreted with caution. all the cramer’s v coefficients are statistically significant. all the items were scrutinised for stereotypical wording, to ensure that obtained response patterns were based on perceptual differences and not as a response to the wording of items. no item wordings could be detected that might have contributed to gender differences. employment equity 17 table 8 anova: comparing overall mean scores on gender perceptions gender mean std. n deviation male 2,7292 0,51452 2296 female 2,9122 0,35784 2349 total 2,8217 0,45160 4645 source type iii df mean f-ratio f(p) partial sum of square eta squares squared corrected 38,901 1 38,901 198,868 0,000 0,041 model intercept 36952,38 1 36952,4 188907,116 0,000 0,976 gender 38,901 1 38,901 198,868 0,000 0,041 error 908,224 4643 0,196 total 37931,69 4645 corrected 947,124 4644 total r squared = 0,041 (adjusted r squared – 0,041) table 9 cramer’s v test on item level item cramer’s v sig (p) 1 0,108 0,000 2 0,200 0,000 3 0,220 0,000 4 0,123 0,000 5 0,153 0,000 6 0,197 0,000 7 0,183 0,000 8 0,212 0,000 9 0,241 0,000 10 0,254 0,000 11 0,179 0,000 12 0,124 0,000 13 0,231 0,000 14 0,189 0,000 15 0,162 0,000 16 0,248 0,000 17 0,171 0,000 18 0,221 0,000 19 0,234 0,000 20 0,277 0,000 21 0,211 0,000 22 0,201 0,000 23 0,218 0,000 24 0,120 0,000 25 0,260 0,000 26 0,253 0,000 27 0,246 0,000 28 0,271 0,000 29 0,244 0,000 30 0,264 0,000 31 0,242 0,000 32 0,178 0,000 33 0,237 0,000 34 0,193 0,000 35 0,266 0,000 36 0,274 0,000 37 0,095 0,000 38 0,207 0,000 39 0,197 0,000 40 0,167 0,000 41 0,199 0,000 a cut-off value of 0,240 was applied to select the top 30% of the items. these 12 items are printed in bold and may reflect the employment equity practices where gender differences are the greatest. gender differences on these items will be discussed in more detail below: item 9 stated that managers and supervisors are good leaders. females (61,0%) experienced this issue more positively than their male counterparts (42,6%). 20,6% of males strongly disagreed while only 6,2% of females strongly disagreed. item 10 stated that management has the leadership to take the company successfully beyond the year 2000. females (68,2%) agreed while males (50,0%) agreed. but again 14,4% of males strongly disagreed while only 3,2% of females strongly disagreed. item 16 stated that the company cares for its employees. females (67,7%) agreed, while males (47,3%) agreed. again males (20,3%) disagreed strongly as opposed to females (5,8%) who disagreed strongly. items 25 and 26 dealt with issues pertaining the support the company renders towards training and development. females (70,6%) were more positive with regards to the company’s monetary contribution with their training as opposed to males (48,8%). however males (18,3%) disagreed more strongly than females (5,2%). females (59,8%) also indicated that their supervisors knew their training needs; whereas males (44,8%) agreed. however 19,0% of males strongly disagreed as opposed to 6,5% of females. on item 27 that dealt with the issue whether affirmative action is justified both male (55,1%) and female (76,5%) agreed, but again males (12,5%) disagreed more strongly than females (3,0%). on item 28, females (74,1%) and males (52,9%) agreed that relationships between different racial groups within their companies are good. yet again males (17,7%) disagreed more strongly than females (3,3%). on item 29 with regards to promotional issues males (42,7%) and females (61,6%) agreed that the most capable employees, irrespective of gender or race are selected for promotion. however males (23,3%) disagreed more strongly as well as opposed to females (7,5%). item 30 stated that the company is doing what it says regarding equal opportunities for all race groups, males (50,0%) and females (70,6%) agreed; but males (20,9%) disagreed more strongly than females (5,0%). item 31 stated that training programmes are available to help employees improve their skills to be promoted to higher positions in the company. females (70,6%) reacted more positively than their male counterparts (51,6%). males (15,4%) disagreed more strongly than the females (3,4%). on item 35 whether the participants did not feel discriminated against by the company, both male (50,0%) and female (71,0%) agreed. again males (19,4%) disagreed more strongly than females (4,6%). on item 36, females (70,2%) agreed that the company is managed effectively, whereas males (46,6%) agreed. males (18,9%) disagreed more strongly than the females (4,8%). discussion the primary purpose of the study was to determine if there were gender differences with regard to perceptions on employment equity practices. the results of the anova indicated that there were significant differences, although the proportion of variance explained was small. overall, females experienced the employment equity practices more positive than males, as reflected by their higher mean score. the results indicate that the employment equity questionnaire possesses some discriminant validit y. with this finding the main objective of the study was achieved. the secondary objective of the study was to assess if any items in the employment equity instrument were biased on gender stereot y pical grounds. although cramer’s v detected significant differences on all the items, no specific wording of any item reflected a negative stereotype towards gender groups. van zyl, roodt18 it can be concluded that the items are not biased towards gender groups. with this finding the secondary objective of the study was also achieved. a further scrutiny of 10 of the 12 items that yielded the highest cramer’s v coefficients, served as a basis for identif ying the employment equity issues females and males differ most on. these items suggested that females perceived the leadership in their companies in a more positive light than their male counterparts. females also experienced the companies to be more caring. females perceived their companies to be more supportive with regards to training and development as well as creating the environment to use the skills obtained as opposed to the male participants. in the literature review it became apparent that women indicated the opportunity for training and development as one of the usual barriers to their progression (mallon & cassell, 1999). the results however indicated the opposite where females perceived that their companies gave them support and opportunities in this regard. females indicated that they also believe that the training and development will assist employees in achieving higher positions. females indicated that they do not feel discriminated against and that they believe that the best candidate will be selected for promotions irrespective of gender or race. this position gives companies a good starting point. as stated earlier it seemed that females perceive the employment equity issues that were addressed in the audit as more positive than their male counterparts. although the general trend was to agree with the items, the female mean scores were generally higher than those of their male counterparts. it could be argued that females perceive the employment equity legislation as a tool by government to enforce equal opportunities. it is however, important to reflect a few cautionary thoughts on item construction that can further improve the discriminant validity of the questionnaire. more specifically, items should be unidirectional in meaning. items in the audit skimmed broad concepts reflective of employment equity issues such as race, gender, religion, language, etc. these issues were mostly grouped together when addressed in a particular item. this could have had an impact on the item responses, as it is not known on which issue the respondent might have focussed as the leading issue. this recommendation must also be seen in the context of the 41 items used as the overall model and dimension construction of the 134 items were not included in this study. it is argued that the legislation pertaining to employment equit y practices raised awareness of direct and indirect discriminatory practices. issues such as flexibility towards working women and child-rearing also addressed some of the issues that women globally raised as concerns (mdladlana, 1999a). however, systemic discrimination is deeply rooted not only in practices and procedures but in attitudes as well e.g. the male models of management and leadership as indicated by the british research study (mallon & cassell, 1999). in this sense an employment equity audit could be biased, because it does not drill down deep enough to bring these systemic discriminatory perceptions to the fore. it is also argued that employment equit y alone will not change systemic discrimination. literature (jackson, 2001) showed that a large number of women who have successfully climbed the corporate ladder disembark because the stereot y ping (and systemic discrimination) is too powerful at the top. the greatest limitation of the study is perhaps the fact that samples of convenience were used in all the companies from the different industries. findings can only be generalised to these companies, and not to other companies or to the wider industry as such. suggestions for further research are focused on the improvement on the employment equit y questionnaire. attention must be given to item format and the response scale format specifically. care needs to be taken that items cover all the domains of the specified construct sufficiently. items should preferably be in question format and should also avoid common pitfalls of item formulation. response scale formats should be changed to five-point intensity scales where only the extreme poles are anchored. the implications for companies it is important to note that true change does not only start in companies. it must start much earlier on – that is the way both male and female children are brought up. it is with early upbringing that stereotyping takes root. with that much said, however, companies now have the responsibility to eradicate systemic discrimination. companies should scrutinize their cultures to make sure that the dominant career model is not only based on the male perception of career success. companies should strive to achieve a fair balance between career planning opportunities and domestic responsibilities for women. appropriate mentorship schemes for women should facilitate the above process. these mentors should be female role models. this will mean that companies need to relook the average positions of women in their companies and their responsibilities. this should also facilitate the building of visible leadership models that are appropriate to women. companies must also ensure that their employment equity programmes move beyond the numbers game and truly embraces diversity and that it pays attention to gender issues. is the glass ceiling cracking? employment equity brought about visible cracks in the ceiling of male dominance, and women today are quite aware of these cracks. but there are still not enough women crawling through the cracks to put a positive end to a topic that has been discussed since 1963. acknowledgement the authors are indebted to prof nico martins of organisational diagnostics for providing the data set for conducting this research. the 41-item eeq used in this research was abstracted from a larger item pool collected across various organisations and does not constitute the original employment equity audit of prof martins. data collected from each organisation by means of the survey was suplemented by qualitative methods. the authors would like to thank riëtte eiselen and her staff from statcon at rau for their professional service and valuable contribution regarding the data analysis for this project. references adams, c. (ed). (1993). affirmative action in a democratic south africa. juta: kenwyn burke, j.r. & mattis, m.c. (ed). (2000). women on corporate boards of directors. international challenges and opportunities. kluwer academic publishers: dordrecht. coates, g. (1997). organisation man – women and organisational culture. sociological research online. vol. 2 no 3. retrieved from the word wide web on 21 june 1999: http://www.socresonline.org.uk davidson, m.j. & cooper, c.l. (1992). shattering the glass ceiling. the woman manager. paul chapman publishing: london dickens, l. (1994). the business case for women’s equality. employee relations, 16 (8). 5-18. ellman, s.e. (1963). managing women in business. prentice-hall: connecticut. human, l. (1996). managing workforce diversity: a critique and example from south africa. international journal of manpower, 17 (4/5), 46-64. employment equity 19 human resources development canada. (1996). new employment equity act and regulations strengthen canadian workplace. retrieved from the world wide web on 23 august 2002: http://labour-travail.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca. humphries, m. & grice, s. (1996). equal employment opportunity and the management of diversity. journal of organizational change management, 8 (5), 17-32. jackson, j.c. (2001). women middle managers’ perception of the glass ceiling. women in management review, 16 (1), 30-41. mallon, m. & cassell, c. (1999). what do women want? the journal of management development, 18 (2). 137-154. martins, n. (1999). questionnaire on employment equity. unpublished document. mavin, s. (2001). women’s career in theory and practice: time for change? women in management review, 16 (4), 183-192. mdladlana, m. (1999a). address: launch of the commission for ee and chapter 2 of the employment equity act. retrieved from the world wide web on 23 august 2002: http://www.labour.gov.za mdladlana, m. (1999b). speech: media launch of the chapter 3 of the employment equity act. retrieved from the world wide web on 23 august 2002:http://www.labour.gov.za meyerson, d.e. & fletcher, j.k. (2000). a modest manifesto for shattering the glass ceiling. har vard business review. janfeb, 127-136. sinclair, a. (2000). women within diversit y: risks and possibilities. women in management review, 15 (5/6), 237246. thomas, a. (1997). beyond aff irmative action. knowledge resources: randburg. thomas, a. (2002). employment equity in south africa: lessons from the global world. international journal of manpower, 23 (3), 237-255. toumishey, s.j. (2001). most frequently asked employment equity questions. retrieved from the world wide web on 23 august 2002. http://is.dal.ca/~eeequity/info/ question.htm van zyl, roodt20 abstract introduction purpose literature review research design results discussion practical implications limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) wesley r. pieters department of industrial psychology, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa department human sciences, psychology section, university of namibia, windhoek, namibia ebben van zyl department of industrial psychology, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa petrus nel department of industrial psychology, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa citation pieters, w.r., van zyl, e., & nel, p. (2019). job attitudes as a predictor of work engagement of the lecturing staff at the university of namibia. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1165. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1165 original research job attitudes as a predictor of work engagement of the lecturing staff at the university of namibia wesley r. pieters, ebben van zyl, petrus nel received: 08 feb. 2019; accepted: 12 june 2019; published: 29 oct. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: engaged employees contribute to the success and productivity of an organisation. satisfaction of basic psychological needs and organisational commitment (job attitudes) impact positively on work engagement of the lecturing staff. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of basic psychological need satisfaction and organisational commitment on work engagement of the lecturing staff. motivation for the study: organisations realise their objectives through their employees. when employees are not satisfied or committed at work, it can result in low levels of work engagement, absenteeism, exhaustion, cynicism, low productivity and turnover. research approach/design and method: a cross-sectional survey design was used to collect data of the lecturing staff at the university of namibia (n = 242). cronbach’s alpha coefficients, pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analyses were used to analyse the data. main findings: this study found a positive relationship between basic psychological need satisfaction, organisational commitment and work engagement. normative and affective commitment was found to be significant predictors of vigour, dedication and absorption (work engagement). practical/managerial implications: organisations need to include staff members in the decision-making process, allow employees to direct work-related activities, conduct team-building activities, provide training and development activities and regularly assess job satisfaction of the employees. contribution/value-add: the novelty of this study in namibia will add to knowledge within industrial or organisational psychology, encourage future research and guide the development of interventions. keywords: basic psychological need satisfaction; job attitudes, organisational commitment; work engagement, academic staff. introduction coetzee, schreuder and tladinyane (2007) found that because of the unstable and ever-changing working environment, employees’ motivation, loyalty and morale are negatively affected and may adversely impact their job attitudes and how they engage in their work. the degree to which employees experience work engagement impacts productivity at work. this seems to be the reality for different organisations, including tertiary education institutions. while doing research in academia, marques (2013) found that work overload, time pressures and unsupportive supervisors negatively impacted employees’ level of work engagement. if employees have the necessary physical and emotional resources to do their work, they become cognitively, emotionally and physically engaged in their work (janik, 2012). rothmann, barkhuizen and tytherleigh (2008) in their south african study found that academics face high work demands without receiving the necessary job resources. having a lack of job resources makes employees disengaged or they experience burnout. the relationship between employees’ work-role fit and work engagement was found to be significant. this means that when employees perceive their abilities as matching the job requirements (competence–basic psychological need satisfaction), they would be more engaged with their work (stander & rothmann, 2010; van zyl, deacon, & rothmann, 2010). work engagement predicted affective commitment of university staff (marques, 2013). this means that if employees are engaged within their work, they will also experience a certain level of psychological connection with the organisation and will want to remain with that organisation. another factor that related positively to work engagement was the position within the organisation. position (job level) influenced work engagement significantly. professors were found to be more dedicated than senior lecturers and more absorbed than junior and senior lecturers (barkhuizen & rothmann, 2006). this could be attributed to the type of work that professors are likely to get involved in. reaching the level of a professor indicates that the employee has contributed immensely to the discipline or profession. professors enjoy a reduced teaching load and have more time allocated to developmental activities that tend to be more enjoyable and rewarding when compared to the tasks assigned to junior and senior lecturers. resources are important to achieving job success. it was found that employees did not utilise their social and physical coping resources optimally and as a result reported higher levels of depression and anxiety. this was also coupled with their low level of help-seeking behaviour (pretorius, basson, & ongunbanjo, 2010). when employees are not aware of their work-related stressors or how it affects their overall coping and health, they are less likely to seek help. if employees are exposed to consistently high work demands without having the necessary help-seeking behaviour, they would continuously suffer from depression and anxiety. experiencing depression or anxiety could result in lower performance or even absenteeism because of illness (pretorius et al., 2010). these employees are likely to leave the organisation. du plooy and roodt (2010) found a negative relationship between work engagement and turnover intention. this means that when employees are actively engaged in the work of the organisation (experiencing vigour, dedication and absorption), they are less likely to experience turnover intention. takawira, coetzee and schreuder (2014) in their study of academic staff members in south africa also found a positive relation between work engagement and job embeddedness and a negative relation with turnover intention. based on the literature discussed, it is hypothesised that because of the regular changes in academia, employees’ level of motivation and loyalty is negatively affected. with these regular changes, employees’ workload is negatively affected and working without the needed job resources impacts the overall work engagement of employees. it was also noted that the level of work-role fit and position of employees impact their level of work engagement. when employees experience work engagement, they become more committed to the organisation. on the contrary, when employees work without the needed job resources, they experience anxiety, depression, low levels of work engagement and ultimately turnover intention. purpose this study is exploratory in nature as it is aimed at investigating the effect of basic psychological need satisfaction and organisational commitment on work engagement of the lecturing staff at the university of namibia (unam). being able to establish a relationship between job attitudes and work engagement will assist the university to develop interventions that could ensure employees remain engaged and productive. literature review basic psychological need satisfaction, organisational commitment and work engagement ryan and deci (2000) explained that basic psychological need satisfaction (autonomy, relatedness or belongingness and competence) is an important requirement for growth with regard to integrity and health. autonomy, as explained under the job characteristic model of work motivation, is characterised by how much independence employees have when deciding about how to execute their work tasks or goals; how to make decisions regarding the work; and how to plan, schedule and execute these duties (greenberg, 2011). the need for relatedness has to do with feeling connected to others within the organisation, a sense of communion, and developing close and intimate relations with others (deci & ryan, 2008; verstuyf, vansteenkiste, soenens, & boene, 2013). verstuyf et al. (2013) defined competence as the need to feel efficient and capable of reaching desired outcomes. when employees meet the requirements of their jobs and successfully execute their work duties, they satisfy the need for competence (viljoen & rothmann, 2009). apart from exploring the impact of basic psychological need satisfaction on work engagement, this study will also explore the impact of organisational commitment on work engagement. organisational commitment has been defined as the psychological link that employees have with the organisation, identifying with the organisation and its goals, exerting more effort towards the completion of tasks, making personal sacrifices and wanting to remain with that particular organisation (allen & meyer, 1996; luthans, 2005). meyer, allen and smith (1993) characterised organisational commitment by three dimensions: continuance, normative and affective commitment. continuance commitment is explained as employees’ commitment towards the organisation because of the costs associated with leaving. normative commitment deals with employees’ desire to stay because of a perceived obligation, remaining because the organisation has paid for further studies or a medical procedure. affective commitment is the psychological identification and emotional attachment towards the organisation and working towards achieving the goals and objectives of the organisation (meyer et al., 1993). before discussing the relationship between basic psychological need satisfaction and work engagement or the relationship between organisational commitment and work engagement, it is necessary to clearly define work engagement. work engagement is defined as a positive, fulfilling and affective emotional state characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption (bakker, schaufeli, leiter, & taris, 2008). engagement has also been defined as a motivating force that pushed employees to higher levels of performance. this force includes the attitudes and feelings towards the organisation and the work that employees do (wellins & concelman, 2007). engaged employees are characterised as feeling involved, committed, passionate and empowered. these employees also display these feelings and emotions in their behaviour and in the work that they do (mone & london, 2010). vigour can be defined as high levels of energy and mental resilience while working (schaufeli, 2014). these employees continue to work even when the tasks become somewhat difficult. dedication can be defined as the pride, self-worth and identity experienced when doing work (bakker, 2011). these employees regard the work that they do as important and meaningful. absorption is defined as the ability to be fully taken in by work activities, staying focussed, working without realising the time pass and stopping only once they are done with the assigned tasks (bakker & demerouti, 2008, schaufeli, 2014). katsaros, tsirikas and bani (2014) explain that job attitudes are employees’ overall assessment of their feelings and beliefs regarding their jobs and how committed they are towards the organisation. despite the conceptual and empirical distinctions between basic psychological need satisfaction (as part of job satisfaction) and organisational commitment (tett & meyer, 1993), it was also found that there are indeed theoretical and empirical commonalities between these variables. hulin (1991) and weiss (2002) supported this perspective and found considerable theoretical overlap, indicating that the only clear difference was the conceptual target. it was observed that basic psychological need satisfaction targets the position or work role within organisational commitment that encompasses the entire organisation. it was also found that affective commitment is both a consequence and correlate of job satisfaction (including basic psychological need satisfaction). this also emphasises the strong link between job satisfaction and organisational commitment, not only from a theoretical perspective of view but also from an empirical one (schleicher, hansen, & fox, 2010). harrison, newman and roth (2006) maintained that basic psychological need satisfaction and organisational commitment should be regarded as job attitudes owing to their fundamental evaluation of the job experiences. the positive relationship between basic psychological need satisfaction and organisational commitment is also important to understanding the collective impact on work engagement. kovjanic, schuh and jonas (2013) found that when employees experience positive attitudes towards their jobs (satisfaction in terms of autonomy, relatedness and competence), they will also be more likely to experience commitment, working towards the goals of the organisation and possibly improving productivity levels. a direct positive impact was found between basic psychological need satisfaction and organisational commitment and indirectly on job performance. this emphasises the importance of how basic psychological need satisfaction will impact employees’ commitment and ultimately their level of job performance (fu & deshpande, 2014). this was also supported by afzaal and afzaal (2013) and rokhman (2014) recording positive results between basic psychological need satisfaction and organisational commitment. ajala (2013) found that when employees are given the necessary supportive working environment (relatedness), they would also experience a higher level of basic psychological need satisfaction, good health and affective commitment. when the organisation provides a supportive working environment, which caters to the needs and interests of the employees, the level of emotional identification of employees would be enhanced, resulting in them wanting to work harder, going beyond the call of duty. educators who experience higher levels of autonomy (basic psychological need satisfaction) were also found to be more committed towards the organisation. this could be attributed to employees experiencing a higher psychological link, feeling part of the organisation (relatedness) as opposed to employees who do not experience a sense of autonomy in their work (janik, 2012). it was found that poor relations with coworkers (relatedness) negatively influenced employees’ level of organisational commitment (janik, 2012; marques, 2013). having unhealthy relations with colleagues could result in lower levels of commitment. dockel, basson and coetzee (2006) indicated that negative relations at work also negatively impact employees’ motivation to effectively contribute to the success of the organisation. the relationship between job attitudes and work engagement vansteenkiste et al. (2007) highlighted some studies that indicate that when employees satisfied their basic needs (need for autonomy, belongingness and competence), they were likely to experience positive work outcomes such as job commitment, job attitude, self-esteem and general health. when one looks at these findings, it seems likely that satisfying the basic psychological needs may also enhance employees’ level of engagement, reduce turnover intention and improve their overall health. janik (2012) found a positive correlation between emotional engagement, cognitive engagement and organisational commitment. this indicates that when employees are doing work that gives meaning to their lives, they feel like they are making an impact in the work that they do and they are also more likely to become more committed to the organisation (sardeshmukh, sharma, & golden, 2012). saks (2006) also found a positive relationship between work engagement and organisational commitment (affective). it was noted that affective commitment is instrumental in achieving higher levels of productivity within the organisation. another study by simons and buitendach (2013) also found a positive correlation between work engagement and organisational commitment. it was indicated that these variables have a reciprocal relationship, meaning that they both influence each other positively. the more the employees become committed to the organisation, the more likely they will become engaged and vice versa. based on the cognitive evaluation theory by ryan and deci (2000), employees’ level of motivation is influenced by social and working environmental factors. when employees evaluate the factors within the working environment (feedback, communication, autonomy, social context) as favourable, they are likely to experience motivation, performance, competence, well-being and organisational commitment. if the evaluation is negative, employees are likely to experience demotivation, disempowerment, poor performance, poor well-being and lack of commitment. employees require their basic psychological needs to be satisfied; through this satisfaction, they are likely to become more committed to the organisation and ultimately work towards the goals and objectives of the organisation (work engagement). the outcomes of job attitudes and work engagement it has been found that when an organisation has employees who experience positive job attitudes, this impacts positively on several levels. firstly, it impacts their level of commitment towards the organisation (mosadeghrad & ferdosi, 2013); secondly, it fosters emotions where employees wish to remain attached to the organisation (mensele & coetzee, 2014); thirdly, it negates the pressure from work demands (sardeshmukh et al., 2012) and finally, it means that employees are more likely to be positive about their abilities to complete their work tasks effectively while being more engaged in their work (stander & rothmann, 2010). field and buitendach (2011) found that employees who experience work engagement will become more committed (affective commitment). these employees will experience higher levels of well-being. this means that if organisations can enhance employees’ level of commitment, they will become more committed towards the organisation and experience higher levels of well-being. bakker et al. (2008) found that employees who experience engagement are less likely to experience exhaustion and cynicism (burnout). having healthy work relations acts as a coping mechanism when dealing with work and personal stress (oosthuizen & berndt, 2008). based on these findings, it makes sense to predict that if employees experience feelings of relatedness (basic psychological need satisfaction) and links (job embeddedness), they would also be able to cope better with the constant and ever-taxing working environment of academic staff members (manger & eikeland, 1990). this can also be considered in terms of the job demands-resources model of work engagement that explains the importance of how job resources positively help employees to cope better with job demands. the feelings of relatedness and collegial relations act as resources for employees to handle greater job demands and prevent further job stress. relations with coworkers (links–job embeddedness) had a negative relation with turnover intention. this means that when employees have good relations with fellow employees, they would also be less likely to want to leave the organisation (chang, wang, & huang, 2013). bakker (2011) found that engaged employees are more likely to create their own resources by asking for feedback from supervisors. engaged employees are more likely to engage in job crafting, adapting their needs with their personal knowledge, skills and abilities. in an effort to remain engaged, engaged employees might increase their job demands by taking on new projects to create more challenging work. when employees experience engagement, they experience vigour, dedication and absorption in their work. having the necessary job resources allows employees to become engaged in their work, but it also increases their level of job performance. this indicates that engaged employees contribute more effectively to the production and effectiveness of the organisation (bakker, 2011). joshi and sodhi (2011) in their study conducted in india also observed that work engagement has a direct impact on employee performance and business outcomes. bakker (2011) found that engaged employees are more likely to be open to new information, more productive and willing to do more. being open to new information allows employees to become more informed and might even influence their skills and abilities regarding the job. organisational citizenship behaviour (ocb) is behaviour that is voluntarily engaged into by employees without expecting compensation, and these duties are not necessarily part of the employees’ job description (mohamed, 2016). engaging in ocb, employees are also more likely to experience positive relations with colleagues and supervisors, improve mastery of tasks and become more competent. based on the literature discussed, basic psychological need satisfaction (autonomy, relatedness, competence) related positively to organisational commitment (affective normative, continuance). when employees’ basic psychological needs are satisfied, employees prefer to remain at the organisation and work towards achieving the goals and objectives of the organisation. basic psychological need satisfaction and organisational commitment positively impact work engagement levels of employees. if these needs of employees are satisfied, they remain with the organisation, contribute towards the success of the organisation, function efficiently even when work resources are limited, experience positive health and increase the productivity of the organisation. figure 1 presents the expected relationship between basic psychological need satisfaction and work engagement, organisational commitment and work engagement, and also the relationship between basic psychological need satisfaction and organisational commitment impacting work engagement. figure 1: theoretical relationship between basic psychological need satisfaction, organisational commitment and work engagement. based on the literature discussed, the following hypotheses have been developed: hypothesis 1: job attitudes (basic psychological need satisfaction) have a positive relationship with work engagement. hypothesis 2: job attitudes (organisational commitment) have a positive relationship with work engagement. hypothesis 3: job attitudes (basic psychological need satisfaction and organisational commitment) are significant predictors of work engagement. research design research approach making use of a questionnaire, a cross-sectional research design was used to collect data on the biographical variables of employees, basic psychological need satisfaction, organisational commitment and work engagement (creswell, 2003). making use of questionnaires allowed the researchers to access a large number of participants and gather information on a variety of attitudes. participants the study made use of the lecturing staff at the unam. questionnaires were delivered to the offices of the lecturers and collected after a few days. there is a total of 771 academics employed at unam, not all into lecturing. making use of convenience sampling, the lecturers who were available and willing to participate were approached. convenience sampling can be very useful, especially when time, resources and human resources are limited (etikan, musa, & alkassim, 2015). a total of 300 questionnaires were distributed and 242 useable questionnaires returned (81% response rate). participants comprised 128 females (52.9%) and 114 males (47.1%). the rest of the biographical details are presented in table 1. table 1: biographical details of the sample. measuring instruments the biographical information was collected using a questionnaire developed by the researchers to get information regarding the participants’ gender, age, tenure at unam, highest qualification obtained, marital status, number of dependents and position within the organisation. the work-related basic psychological need satisfaction scale (w-bns) was developed by van den broeck, vansteenkiste, de witte and lens (2008). the questionnaire assesses needs related to autonomy, competence and relatedness. example items include the following: autonomy – ‘i feel free to do my job the way i think it could best be done’; competence – ‘i feel competent in my job’ and relatedness – ‘at work i feel part of a group’. the questionnaire makes use of 18 items and a 5-point response scale (1 – strongly disagree to 5 – strongly agree). rothmann, diedericks and swart (2013) found reliablility for autonomy (0.78), competence (0.82) and relatedness (0.86). discriminant, criterion-related and predictive validity was found for the three-factor structure of basic psychological need satisfaction instrument (van den broeck, vansteenkiste, de witte, soenens, & lens, 2010). the organisational commitment questionnaire (ocq) was developed by allen and meyer (1996) to assess the employees’ level of commitment to the organisation. the questionnaire made use of 18 items (six items for each scale), measuring normative, effective and continuance commitment (brown, 2003). the response scale made use of a likert response scale from 1 to 5 (1 – strongly disagree to 5 – strongly agree), measuring continuance – ‘one of the few negative consequences of leaving this organisation would be the scarcity of available alternatives’; normative – ‘i would feel guilty if i leave my organisation right now’ and affective commitment – ‘i do not feel like “part of the family” at my organisation’. reliability was recorded for affective commitment (0.71), normative commitment (0.71) and continuance commitment (0.71) (pieters, 2015). khan, awang and ghouri (2014) found this instrument to be a valid measure for organisational commitment. the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) has been developed by schaufeli and bakker (2004). this questionnaire measures vigour – ‘i am bursting with energy in my work’; dedication – ‘i find the work that i do full of meaning and purpose’ and absorption – ‘time flies when i am working’. this self-report questionnaire response scale ranges from 0 (never) to 7 (always) with 17 items across the different dimensions. the uwes recorded cronbach’s alphas of 0.78–0.91 (janik, 2012). seppala et al. (2008) found good construct validity for the instrument. design this study made us aware of the survey method, using questionnaires to collect the data. the data were analysed using the statistical package for the social science (spss), participant information was kept confidential and participants were in no way harmed. the questionnaires are kept in a safe place for safety and future consideration. procedure after obtaining permission from the research and publication office at the unam, participants were approached to participate in the study. after explaining the purpose and objectives of the study, participants signed a consent form, indicating that they are participating willingly, may withdraw from the study at any time and were in no way coerced into participating. questionnaires were distributed at the different offices of lecturing staff and collected a few days later. participants were thanked for their time and questionnaires were stored away in a safe place. analysis it is expected that basic psychological need satisfaction and organisational commitment will have a positive relationship with work engagement. basic psychological need satisfaction and organisational commitment are expected to significantly predict work engagement of lecturing staff. statistical package for the social science version 24.0 (spss, 2016) was used to analyse the data. cronbach’s alpha coefficients and pearson’s correlation coefficients were used to determine the relationship between the variables. descriptive statistics were reported. multiple regression analyses were used to investigate whether job attitudes (basic psychological need satisfaction and organisational commitment) predicted work engagement. considering the correlation between affective and normative commitment, multicollinearity does not exist because the correlation is below r = 0.9, as explained by pallant (2005). ethical consideration ethical approval for the study was obtained from the faculty of economic and management sciences ethics committee (ethical clearance number: ufs-hsd2015/0562). results descriptive statistics and correlations the means, standard deviation (sd), cronbach’s alpha and correlations were analysed and recorded in table 2. table 2: descriptive statistics and pearson correlation coefficient. the following mean scores were reported: autonomy (21.55), relatedness (21.78), competence (17.27); affective commitment (21.35), continuance (17.12), normative commitment (19.95); vigour (28.96), dedication (24.66) and absorption (28.32). the following sd scores were reported: autonomy (4.23), relatedness (3.24), competence (2.08); affective commitment (4.34), continuance (4.65), normative commitment (4.47); vigour (5.57), dedication (5.05) and absorption (6.45). cronbach’s alphas were reported for autonomy (0.78), relatedness (0.81) and competence (0.81). cronbach’s alphas were recorded for continuance (0.75), normative commitment (0.77) and affective commitment (0.80). work engagement reported cronbach’s alphas for vigour (0.81), dedication (0.81) and absorption (0.82). it is clear from the results that all the scales are reliable; they concurred with nunnally’s (1978) estimates of 0.70 and above. table 2 depicts the positive relationship between the dimensions of basic psychological need satisfaction, organisational commitment and work engagement. this indicates that when employees experience satisfaction in terms of basic psychological need satisfaction, they are likely to become more committed towards the organisation and experience a higher level of work engagement. continuance commitment reported some negative relationships. specific correlations are presented in the table 2. multiple regression analyses multiple regression analyses were carried out to test hypothesis 3. in model 1, vigour (work engagement) was used as the dependent variable, with normative and affective commitments as the independent variables in step 1. autonomy, relatedness, competence and continuance commitment were excluded from the analysis because these dimensions do not meet the expected correlation of r = 0.3 (pallant, 2005). the results are reported in table 3. table 3: multiple regression with vigour (work engagement) being the dependent variable and normative and affective commitments (organisational commitment) the dependent variables. as can be seen from table 3, entry of normative and affective commitments at the first step of the regression analysis produced a statistically significant model (f(2,239) = 23.87; p < 0.00) and account for 16% of the variance. it appears that affective commitment (b = 0.32; t = 4.24; p < 0.00) is a significant predictor of vigour (work engagement). normative commitment was reported as an insignificant predictor of vigour (work engagement) (b = 0.13; t = 1.72; p < 0.09). multiple regression analyses were performed. the first model that was analysed used dedication (work engagement) as the dependent variable with normative and affective commitment as the independent variables (model 1). the results are reported in table 4. table 4: multiple regression with dedication (work engagement) being the dependent variable and normative and affective commitments (organisational commitment) the dependent variables. as can be seen from table 4, entry of normative and affective commitments at the first step of the regression analysis produced a statistically significant model (f(2,239) = 42.40; p < 0.00) and accounts for 25.6% of the variance. it appears that normative commitment (b = 0.19; t = 2.66; p < 0.01) and affective commitment (b = 0.38; t = 5.35; p < 0.00) are significant predictors of dedication (work engagement). multiple regression analyses were performed. the first model analysed and used dedication (work engagement) as the dependent variable and normative and affective commitments as the independent variables (model 1). the results are reported in table 5. table 5: multiple regression with absorption (work engagement) being the dependent variable and normative and affective commitments (organisational commitment) the dependent variables. as can be seen from table 5, entry of normative and affective commitments at the first step of the regression analysis produced a statistically significant model (f(2,239) = 23.33; p < 0.00) and accounts for 15.6% of the variance. it appears that normative commitment (b = 0.19; t = 2.51; p < 0.01) and affective commitment (b = 0.26; t = 3.48; p < 0.00) are significant predictors of absorption (work engagement). discussion outline of the results hypothesis 1 of the study investigated the relationship between job attitudes (basic psychological need satisfaction) and work engagement. autonomy, relatedness and competence reported positive relationships with vigour, dedication and absorption, supporting hypothesis 1. these findings are also supported by fu and deshpande (2014) and brinkmann and stapf (2005). when employees are included in decision-making process, they would persevere more than employees who are excluded from the decision-making process, and they would also be more hopeful about their impact. being included or allowed to direct work-related activities will also enhance the perceived level of significance of lecturers and possible improved acceptance and implementation of critical decisions. the self-determination theory (deci & ryan, 2008) demonstrates that when employees experience satisfaction regarding their need for autonomy, relatedness and competence, they would also experience autonomous motivation impacting engagement at work. employees who experience autonomous motivation can direct and control their own behaviour to the extent that these employees experience pleasure, persevere and perform effectively, even when it comes to complex tasks. these employees would also experience a higher level of competence, task significance and psychological meaningfulness in their work (baklaieva, 2016), and all these are negatively related to turnover intention. when employees have the required job resources, including autonomy, they would be less likely to want to leave (viljoen & rothmann, 2009). having good relations with colleagues and supervisors enhances commitment of employees that they identify with the organisation, ensuring that they would be able to work harder for longer because they feel part of the organisation (chang et al., 2013). having good relations with colleagues increases the chances of being assisted when asking for help. employees who are competent in what they do experience mastery and pride in their work. experiencing mastery in one’s work encourages employees take on more tasks, challenging tasks, and persevere even when faced with difficulty. hypothesis 2 investigated the positive relationship between job attitudes (organisational commitment) and work engagement. the results of this study supported the positive relationship between organisational commitment and work engagement. janik (2012) and sardeshmukh et al. (2012) also found a positive relationship between the variables. allen and meyer (1990) found that competence impacted positively on affective commitment. identifying with the goals and objectives of the organisation makes employees want to work towards the success of the organisation. when employees are provided with the needed resources, experience job satisfaction and support from the organisation, they are likely to want to remain part of the organisation (normative commitment). when employees are provided with good benefits and salaries, they would experience continuance commitment because the work opportunities outside the organisation are not as attractive as that of their current organisation. in this way, organisations can retain their top talent. normative and affective commitment predicted vigour, dedication and absorption (work engagement). these results support hypothesis 3 of the study. when organisations provide employees with enough job resources, good benefits and salaries, they are likely to want to remain in the organisation. employees would feel obligated to work towards the goals and objectives of the organisation. knowing that the organisation looks after the needs of the employees, employees would continue to work hard, persevere and remain engaged until their tasks are completed. identifying with the organisation’s goals and objectives makes it easier to execute work duties because it does not conflict with employees’ values and beliefs. affective commitment can be regarded as the desire component that is persistent and crucial within organisational commitment and for organisational effectiveness (mercurio, 2015). this study supports this view that emphasises the importance and effectiveness of affective commitment. practical implications autonomy, relatedness and competence were found to have some of the stronger relations with organisational commitment, specifically affective and normative commitments. affective and normative commitments were found to be significant predictors of vigour, dedication and absorption (work engagement). by enhancing basic psychological need satisfaction (autonomy, relatedness and competence), employees would become more committed towards the organisation, more engaged and improve on productivity. to enhance autonomy, employees should be included in decision-making. certain platforms should be availed to ensure that the lecturing staff can air their concerns and provide insight. being included in the decision-making process allows for a better understanding and implementation of these decisions. having a top-down approach to decision-making can frustrate employees and make implementation of these decisions difficult. at unam, employees are represented at some levels where decision-making takes place; however, more inclusion into the process could only benefit the implementation of decisions, productivity and work engagement of lecturers. to enhance relatedness among staff members, regular team-building sessions should be conducted. lecturing staff members have different teaching schedules and rarely meet each other. these staff members are likely to only meet at meetings or when accidentally running into each other in the passages. through team-building exercises, lecturing staff can get to know each other and how to better interact with each other. knowing what kind of person a colleague is will allow for improved interaction and understanding of each other and approaches to dealing with different situations. knowing one’s colleagues better will also allow for improved conflict resolution and the possible prevention of conflict. having good relations with colleagues will also enhance group synergy, departmental success and productivity. good relations with colleagues can enhance the negotiations regarding teaching load or modules. employees would also be more willing to assist each other when a colleague needs to attend to a person’s emergency or during work-related absence. employees should be allowed to improve their skills and abilities. the lecturing staff can enhance their competence through workshops, seminars, lectures, conferences or training sessions. employees should be assisted to develop a career plan; they should identify as to where they would like to be in the next 3–5 years and what training or development they would need to achieve their goals. supervisors and the organisation should ensure that the aims of the employees are in line with the organisation’s goals and objectives. supervisors and organisations should plan and provide the needed resources and support to help employees realise these goals. succession planning should be taken seriously and implemented. being an understudy can expose employees to opportunities to enhance their skills and abilities. to improve work engagement of employees, all teaching staff should experience autonomy, exposure to various skills, task significance, feedback and task identification. this means that the staff should be included in decision-making, allowed to decide how to execute their work-related duties and to utilise different skills, experience meaning in the work they do, receive feedback on work done and get to know their level of performance. academics should be paid equitable salaries and benefits; the inputs and outcomes of the job determine the importance and significance of the job. if education is the tool to alleviate poverty and enhance economic emancipation, institutions of higher learning and governmental organisations should budget and reward these academics accordingly. communication, specifically about performance, needs to be communicated openly and effectively. many organisations do performance evaluation because it is a requirement at the workplace instead of identifying the value it has for the employee and the organisation. employees need to be informed regularly about work-related activities within the workplace and know what is expected of them in the organisation. considering that job satisfaction is positively related to affective commitment, it is recommended that unam regularly evaluate employees’ level of job satisfaction and gauge what it is that would guarantee employee satisfaction. managers and supervisors within the university also need to ensure transparency and fairness within the organisation. when employees see their supervisors or managers engaging in equitable and transparent practices, they would also identify with the organisation and want to work towards the success of the organisation (affective commitment). affective commitment is also regarded as the strongest significant predictor of turnover intention, highlighting the importance of trying to nurture this feeling. limitations and recommendations some of the limitations experienced when conducting this study were limited access to the staff members. some campuses are located long distances from the central region, making it more challenging to obtain a representative sample. this study may also include specific aspects related to job satisfaction by focussing on the different domains of job satisfaction such as satisfaction with pay and benefits, nature of work or advancement opportunities. job satisfaction was found to be positively related to organisational commitment and work engagement. future studies could explore job satisfaction as part of the factors that impact work engagement. a longitudinal study could also help to see if the results of this study are true over time. considering the challenges with making use of questionnaires alone, future studies could explore the option of conducting interviews or observations about the levels of work engagement of the lecturing staff. perhaps, future studies could also focus on developing interventions and test how these suggestions may improve work engagement of academics at unam. conclusion this study found positive relationships between basic psychological need satisfaction and organisational commitment, basic psychological need satisfaction and work engagement, and organisational commitment and work engagement. normative and affective commitments predicted work engagement of the lecturing staff at the unam. employees should be included in the decision-making process and they should be allowed to direct work-related activities and to attend training and development initiatives. team building should be prioritised to enhance college relations. regular assessment of job satisfaction can ensure that employees remain committed and engaged at the organisation. acknowledgements the authors thank all the lecturing staff for taking part in the study and the university of the free state (ufs) for paying the publishing fees of the article. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions dr w.r. pieters was responsible for article writing, data collection and analysis. prof. e.v. zyl was responsible for article writing and editing. prof. p. nel was responsible for data analysis and editing. funding information this study was supported by the university of the free state (publishing of the article). data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references afzaal, h.s., & afzaal, t. (2013). an investigation of relationship among emotional intelligence, organizational commitment and job satisfaction: evidence from academics in brunei darussalam. international business research, 6(3), 217–228. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v6n3p217 ajala, e.m. (2013). quality of work life and workers wellbeing: the industrial social workers approach. ife psychologyia, 21(2), 46–56. allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization. journal of occupational psychology, 63, 1–18. allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1996). affective, continuance and normative to the organisation: an examination of the construct validity. journal of vocational behavior, 49(3), 252–276. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1996.0043 bakker, a.b. (2011). an evidence-based model of work engagement. current directions in psychological science, 20(4), 265–269. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721411414534 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2008). towards a model of work engagement. career development international, 13(3), 209–222. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430810870476 bakker, a.b., schaufeli, w.b., leiter, m.p., & taris, t.w. (2008). work engagement: an emerging concept in occupational health psychology. work and stress, 22(3), 187–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802393649 baklaieva, o. (2016). the relationship among meaningfulness of work, work engagement and intention to leave. unpublished master’s thesis for the degree of master of international marketing, university of management and economics, ukraine. barkhuizen, n., & rothmann, s. (2006). work engagement of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. management dynamics, 15(1), 38–48. brinkmann, r., & stapf, k. (2005). internal termination: if the job becomes the facade. munchen: c.h. beck verlag. brown, b.b. (2003). employees’ organizational commitment and their perception of supervisors’ relationship-oriented and task-oriented leadership behaviors. unpublished phd dissertation in human development. va: virginia polytechnic institute and state university, falls church, virginia. chang, w.., wang, y., & huang, t. (2013). work design-related antecedents of turnover intention: a multilevel approach. human resource management, 52(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21515 coetzee, m., schreuder, d., & tladinyane, r. (2007). organisational commitment and its relation to career anchors. southern african business review, 11(1), 65–86. creswell, j.w. (2003). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. deci, e.l., & ryan, r.m. (2008). facilitating optimal motivation and psychological well-being across life’s domains. canadian psychology, 49(1), 14–23. https://doi.org/10.1037/0708-5591.49.1.14 dockel, a., basson, j.s., & coetzee, m. (2006). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. south african journal of human resource management, 4(2), 20–28. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v4i2.91 du plooy, j., & roodt, g. (2010). work engagement, burnout and related constructs as predictors of turnover intentions. south african journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.910 etikan, i., musa, s.a., & alkassim, r.s. (2015). comparison of convenience sampling and purposive sampling. american journal of theoretical and applied statistics, 5(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajtas.20160501.11 field, l.k., & buitendach, j.h. (2011). happiness, work engagement and organisational commitment of support staff at a tertiary education institution in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i1.946 fu, w., & deshpande, s.p. (2014). the impact of caring climate, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment on job performance of employees in a china’s insurance company. journal of business ethics, 124(2), 339–349. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1876-y greenberg, j. (2011). behavior in organizations (10th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. harrison, d.a., newman, d.a., & roth, p.l. (2006). how important are job attitudes? meta-analytic comparisons of integrative behavioural outcomes and time sequences. academy of management journal, 49(2), 305–325. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2006.20786077 hulin, c.l. (1991). adaptation, persistence, and commitment in organizations. in m.d. dunnette, & l.m. hough (eds.), handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (2nd ed., vol. 2, pp. 445–505). palo alto, ca: consulting psychologist press. janik, m. (2012). well-being of educators in selected secondary schools in namibia. unpublished doctoral dissertation, windhoek: university of namibia. joshi, r.j., & sodhi, j.s. (2011). drivers of employee engagement in indian organisations. the indian journal of industrial relations, 47(1), 162–182. katsaros, k.k., tsirikas, a.n., & bani, s.n. (2014). exploring employees’ perceptions, job-related attitudes and characteristics during a planned organisational change. international journal of business science and applied management, 9(1), 36–50. khan, n.r., awang, m., & ghouri, a.m. (2014). organizational commitment construct: validity measure using sem. science international, 26(2), 897–902. kovjanic, s., schuh, s.c., & jonas, k. (2013). transformational leadership and performance: an experimental investigation of the mediating effects of basic needs satisfaction and work engagement. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 86(4), 543–555. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12022 luthans, f. (2005). organisational behavior (10th ed.). new york: mcgraw and hill. manger, t., & eikeland, o. (1990). factors predicting staff’s intentions to leave the university. higher education, 19(3), 281–291. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00133893 marques, l.a. (2013). antecedents and outcomes of work-related psychological well-being of staff members of the university of namibia. unpublished doctoral dissertation, windhoek: university of namibia. mercurio, z.a. (2015). affective commitment as a core essence of organizational commitment: an integrative literature review. human resource development review, 14(4), 389–414. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484315603612 mensele, c., & coetzee, m. (2014). job embeddedness, organisational commitment and voluntary turnover of academic staff at a higher education institution in south africa. south african journal of labour relations, 38(1), 9–30. meyer, j.p., allen, n.j., & smith, c. (1993). commitment to organisations and occupations: extension and test of a three component model conceptualization. journal of applied psychology, 78(4), 538–551. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.4.538 mohamed, w.s.e.d. (2016). investigating the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior among beni suef cement company employees. arabian journal of business and management review, 6(5), 2–7. mone, e.m., & london, m. (2010). employee engagement through effective performance management: a practical guide for managers. new york: routledge -taylor and francis group. mosadeghrad, a.m., & ferdosi, m. (2013). leadership, job satisfaction and organisational commitment in healthcare sector: proposing and testing a model. materia socio medica, 29(2), 121–126. https://doi.org/10.5455/msm.2013.25.121-126 nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory (2nd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. oosthuizen, t.f.j., & berndt, a.d. (2008). stress management among academic employees. journal of contemporary management, 5(1), 90–105. pallant, j. (2005). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using spss for windows (version 12). sydney: ligare. pieters, w.r. (2015). psychological empowerment and how it impacts on job satisfaction and organisational commitment of staff members at the university of namibia (unam). namibia journal of managerial sciences, 1(2), 98–120. pretorius, d., basson, w.j., & ogunbanjo, g.a. (2010). personality profile and coping resources of family medicine vocational trainees at the university of limpopo, south africa. south africa family practice, 52(5), 446–450. https://doi.org/10.1080/20786204.2010.10874023 rokhman, w. (2010). the effect of islamic work ethics on work outcomes. jbo – electronic. journal of business ethics and organization studies, 15(1), 21–27. rothmann, s., barkhuizen, n., & tytherleigh, m.y. (2008). model of work-related ill health of academic staff in a south african higher education institution. south african journal of higher education, 22(2), 404–422. https://doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v22i2.25794 rothmann, s., diedericks, e., & swart, j.p. (2013). manager relations, psychological need satisfaction and intention to leave in the agricultural sector. south african journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1129 ryan, r.m., & deci, e.l. (2000). self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development and well-being. american psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.68 saks, a.m. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169 sardeshmukh, s.r., sharma, d., & golden, t.d. (2012). impact of telework on exhaustion and job engagement: a job demands and job resources model. new technology, work and employment, 27(3), 193–207. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-005x.2012.00284.x schaufeli, w., & bakker, a. (2004). utrecht work engagement scale: preliminary manual. retrieved from https://www.wilmarschaufeli.nl/publications/schaufeli/test%20manuals/test_manual_uwes_english.pdf. schaufeli, w.b. (2014). what is engagement? in c. truss, k. alfes, r. delbridge, a. shantz, & e. soane (eds.), employee engagement in theory and practice (pp. 1–37). london: routledge. schleicher, d.j., hansen, d., & fox, k.e. (2010). job attitudes and work values. in s. zedeck (ed.), apa handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (vol. 3, pp. 137–190). washington, dc: apa. seppala, p., mauna, s., feldt, t., hakanen, j.j., kinnunen, u., tolvanen, a., & chaufeli, w.b. (2008). the construct validity of the utrecht work engagement scale: multisample and longitudinal evidence. journal of happiness studies, 10(4), 459–481. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-008-9100-y simons, j.c., & buitendach, j.h. (2013). psychological capital, work engagement and organisational commitment amongst call centre employees in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1071 spss. (2016). statistical package for the social sciences. (version 24.0) [computer software]. chicago, il: spss incorporated. stander, m.w., & rothmann, s. (2010). psychological empowerment, job insecurity and employee engagement. south african journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.849 takawira, n., coetzee, m., & schreuder, d. (2014). job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention of staff in a higher education institution: an exploratory study. south african journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.524 tett, r.p., & meyer, j.p. (1993). job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intention, and turnover: path analyses based on meta-analytic findings. personnel psychology, 46(2), 259–293. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1993.tb00874.x van den broeck, a., vansteenkiste, m., de witte, h., soenens, b., & lens, w. (2010). capturing autonomy, competence and relatedness at work: construction and initial validation of the work-related basic psychological need satisfaction scale. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 83(4), 981–1002. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317909x481382 van den broeck, a., vansteenkiste, m., de witte, h., & lens, w. (2008). explaining the relationship between job characteristics, burnout, and engagement: the role of basic psychological need satisfaction. work and stress, 22(3), 277–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802393672 van zyl, l.e., deacon, e., & rothmann, s. (2010). towards happiness: experiences of work-role fit, meaningfulness and work engagement of industrial/organisational psychologists in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.890 vansteenkiste, m., neyrinck, b., niemiec, c.p., soenens, b., de witte, h., & van den broeck, a. (2007). on the relations among work value orientations, psychological need satisfaction and job outcomes: a self-determination theory approach. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 80(2), 251–277. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317906x111024 verstuyf, j., vansteenkiste, m., soenens, b., & boone, l. (2013). daily ups and downs in women’s binge eating symptoms: the role of basic psychological needs, general self-control and emotional eating. journal of social and clinical psychology, 32(3), 335–361. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2013.32.3.335 viljoen, j.p., & rothmann, s. (2009). occupational stress, ill health and organisational commitment of employees at a university of technology. south african journal of industrial psychology, 35(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v35i1.730 weiss, h.m. (2002). deconstructing job satisfaction: separating evaluations, beliefs and affective experiences. human resource management review, 12(2), 173–194. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(02)00045-1 wellins, r., & concelman, j. (2007). culture of engagement. leadership excellence, 24(2), 19. abstract introduction literature review methodology results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) wesley r. pieters department of psychology and social work, faculty of health sciences and veterinary medicine, university of namibia, windhoek, namibia department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa ebben van zyl department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa petrus nel department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation pieters, w.r., van zyl, e., & nel, p. (2022). factors affecting lecturers’ decision to stay or leave academia, namibia. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1691. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1691 original research factors affecting lecturers’ decision to stay or leave academia, namibia wesley r. pieters, ebben van zyl, petrus nel received: 02 june 2021; accepted: 18 jan. 2022; published: 28 feb. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: attracting and retaining academic staff needs to become a priority for tertiary institutions. research purpose: instead of spending funds on replacing staff members, tertiary institutions need to invest in interventions to keep staff committed to and embedded into the organisation. motivation for the study: lecturing staff are valuable resources that need to be nurtured, taken care of, and retained to keep tertiary institutions functioning effectively. this study focused on factors that impact lecturing staff’s decision to stay at or leave the university of namibia. research approach/design and method: making use of quantitative research (a questionnaire), data was collected from lecturing staff (n = 242) to investigate the relationship between organisational commitment, job embeddedness and turnover intention. main findings: affective commitment, normative commitment, organisational fit and organisational sacrifices reported significant negative relationships with turnover intention. affective commitment, organisational fit and organisational sacrifice were found to be significant predictors of turnover intention. practical/managerial implications: including lecturing staff in the decision-making process, ensuring that there is an equitable exchange for their labour and being fair during interactions enhances psychological meaningfulness and affective commitment. providing career development opportunities enhances organisational fit, effectiveness of staff and reduces turnover intention. assessing the job demands-resources relationship remains of cardinal importance. contributions/value-add: provision of benefits, employees identifying with the organisation and having the needed resources mitigate the demands of the job, reduce exhaustion, enhance levels of commitment and decrease turnover intention. keywords: organisational commitment; job embeddedness; predicting turnover intention of academics. introduction the alarming rate at which academic staff members leave tertiary institutions could result in the ineffective functioning of this profession (bezuidenhout &; cilliers, 2011; derbew, gebrekiros, hailu, fekade, & mekasha, 2014). theron, barkhuizen and du plessis (2014) indicated that globally, the demand for academics in higher education will continue for the years to come. not many young academics are joining the ranks of tertiary education and universities still struggle to retain these rare human resources that are very expensive to develop and replace (soltis, agneessens, sasovova, & labianca, 2013; van schalkwyk, du toit, bothma, & rothmann, 2010). finding ways to retain and utilise them for the advancement of the institution will be beneficial to both parties, namely the institution and the employees. it was observed that younger academics are experiencing a higher level of turnover intention compared with older academics (gurmessa & tefera, 2019). these younger academics are needed for sustainability and continuation of academic institutions: the changing and unstable workplace and its profoundly negative impact on employee loyalty, morale, motivation and job security have led to a renewed interest in the motives and values that determine individuals’ psychological attachment to their organisations and occupations. (coetzee, schreuder, & tladinyane, 2007, p. 65) during crisis, employees require additional or extended amounts of support/resources from leaders and the organisation (ramlachan & beharry-ramraj, 2021). no study in namibia focusing on these variables is reported and limited literature is available related to academics in namibia. the job demands–resources theory was developed by bakker and demerouti (2007) to explain the interaction between the job demands and job resources employees experience at work. job demands include emotional, mental and physical expectations from work roles or the organisation. job resources include the psychological, emotional and social resources that not only mitigate the impact of the job demands but also motivate employees towards productivity (bakker & demerouti, 2007). it was found that depending on the interaction between job demands and job resources, employees could experience burnout or motivation/work engagement (haley, moster, & els, 2013). in line with the organisational equilibrium theory, perez (2008) and pieters (2018) observed that when disequilibrium exists within the organisation, employees may find ways to restore equilibrium by reducing their efforts before eventually leaving the organisation. firstly, this study will assess the relationship between organisational commitment, job embeddedness and turnover intention amongst lecturing staff in namibia. secondly, it will evaluate whether organisational commitment and job embeddedness predict turnover intention of namibian lecturing staff. literature review this section aims to discuss key literature regarding turnover intention, organisational commitment and job embeddedness. this section defines these variables, discusses some of the key antecedents and outcomes and how these variables are related. this study also discusses the gap in literature within the namibian academic context and the investigation focusing on the combination and collective effect of these variables on turnover intention. turnover intention ‘turnover intention reflects the (subjective) probability that an individual will change his or her job within a certain time period’ (sousa-poza & henneberger, 2004, p. 113). turnover intention is ‘an immediate precursor to actually leaving’ (medina, 2012, p. 5). turnover is ‘any permanent loss of employees from an organisation that have to be replaced’ (grobler, warnich, carrell, elbert, & hatfield, 2011, p. 667). based on these definitions, it seems likely that employees who experience turnover intention are likely to leave the organisation. it was observed that employees do not resign impulsively from organisations, instead they resign after some organisational changes take place that lead to negative job-related attitudes (soltis et al., 2013). rothmann and jordaan (2006) found that tertiary institutions have gone through some tremendous changes over the last few years. these changes have led to work-overload which, predicted turnover intention (pienaar, sieberhagen, & mostert, 2007; rothmann, barkhuizen, & tytherleigh, 2008). the covid-19 pandemic caused changes within academia such as blended learning, adding to the current challenges whilst amplifying the challenges related to inequality, skills deficit and digital divide amongst students, academics and parents (mhlanga, 2021). many times organisations do not provide the necessary job resources to facilitate these changes to ease the increased work demands. rothmann et al. (2008) and marques (2013) indicated that a lack of job resources increases employees’ turnover intention. working under conditions where the job demands outweigh the job resources is likely to lead to emotional exhaustion (gorgens-ekermans & kotze, 2020; ladebo, 2009) and work–family conflict (balogun & afolabi, 2019). the interaction between the employee and the organisation influences these job attitudes. monitoring and regular assessment of job attitudes can help with early diagnosis and intervention. the decision to work hard for the organisation or to leave the organisation is dependent on the interaction of the employee with the organisation (perez, 2008; russell & van sell, 2012). decision to leave the organisation is impacted by the perceived ease of movement, which is affected by other alternatives outside the organisation and the desire to move is also influenced by job satisfaction and the possibility of internal transfer. if there are many jobs available and the employee has the necessary skills and characteristics that are required, ease of movement will be increased (perez, 2008; russell & van sell, 2012). if the organisation is not offering market-related salaries and good employment conditions, which are being offered by other organisations, perceived desirability of movement would be high. job satisfaction remains an important consideration by the employee in the interaction (perez, 2008; russell & van sell, 2012). when the needs of employees are not met, they are likely to experience negative job attitudes and consider leaving the organisation. derbew et al. (2014) observed that there is a continuous outflow of academics from the universities in ethiopia. theron et al. (2014) highlighted that the need for competent academics will continue into the future. this loss of competent academics results in high staff recruitment costs, low staff morale (derbew et al., 2014), negative experience and growth of students. the staff who remain at the organisation may also be required to take on additional duties (role overload) whilst these vacancies are being filled. akpey-mensah and muchie (2020) indicated that the war on talent for competent and knowledgeable academics is ongoing and that these knowledgeable academics provide a competitive advantage for the institution. this emphasises the need for regular monitoring, being alert of the changes in job attitudes and preventing these negative consequences related to turnover. occupational stress amongst academics will continue to increase if no strategies and mechanisms are implemented to address the demands of the profession (du plessis, 2020). role overload predicted turnover intention of employees (pienaar et al., 2007). when employees have to perform many tasks (more tasks with less time) or some challenging tasks (complex tasks with same time) they will experience turnover intention (pienaar et al., 2007). the degree to which work overload impacts turnover intention is moderated by social support. work overload was found to be one of the strongest factors, which cause stress for academics (rothmann et al., 2008). apart from having to adjust to constant transformation of tertiary institutions, increased teaching and research demands and the diversity of students attending the universities, academics are further stressed by the poor quality of primary and secondary educational background of the students (rothmann et al., 2008). employees who are emotionally exhausted experience lower levels of commitment and will eventually resign (ladebo, 2009). apart from the push factors (pushing employees out of the organisation), a lack of career development opportunities in the organisation also contributes to the intention to leave. it was found that employees’ intention to leave was mostly attributed to lack of career development opportunities within the organisation (lavoie-tremblay et al., 2010). according to janik and rothmann (2015), work-role fit indirectly affected employees’ level of turnover intention because of the lack of psychological meaningful experiences for those employees. employees who experience healthy relationships at work would experience lower levels of turnover intention as compared with employees who do not experience good co-worker and supervisor relations (janik & rothmann, 2015). relatedness can be regarded as a resource, reducing turnover intention. it is important for organisations to have both internal and external equity when it comes to pay and benefits offered to employees (washeya & furst, 2021). base pay (market-related salary) was regarded as the strongest predictor of job satisfaction and is also one of the top factors for attracting and retaining staff members at work (snelgar, renard, & venter, 2013). an invaluable finding was that whilst low pay may influence an employee to leave the organisation higher pay may be unlikely to keep employees from leaving the organisation. it was emphasised that intrinsic rewards were as important as pay (smit, stanz, & bassin, 2015). these benefits influence job satisfaction of employees. khawaldeh, al muala and al ziadat (2014) found that job satisfaction directly influences turnover intention. some of the factors found to improve job satisfaction include training, participation in conferences, and monthly or annual incentives. reducing turnover intention by enhancing job satisfaction may cost the organisation less money compared to the cost of dealing with actual turnover. it was found that turnover leads to a loss of resources and increases costs (zhao et al., 2012). these costs include advertising of vacancies within the organisation, profit losses during the vacancy period, work duties to be divided amongst staff members who already have a full-work load, costs related to personnel recruitment and selection, developing the employees to a level of effective functioning and all these costs are repeated when an employee leaves the organisation. despite all these costs associated with turnover, organisations still tend to underestimate the appalling implications associated with turnover. organisational commitment organisational commitment can be defined as an employee’s willingness and identification with an organisation, wanting to remain at the organisation and investing efforts towards the achievement of organisational goals (allen & meyer, 1996; luthans, 2005). robbins (2003) indicated that organisational commitment may also be defined as identification with organisational goals and objectives. the bigger the overlap between an employees’ goal and the organisations’ goals and objectives, the higher the level of organisational commitment (robbins, 2003). employees become committed to the organisation because of different reasons, thus they experience different types of commitment. organisational commitment consists of three types of commitment. continuance commitment can be described as commitment towards the organisation in relation to the personal benefits associated with remaining at the organisation. continuance commitment flows into normative commitment. normative commitment can be defined as the type of commitment that relates to feelings of obligation to remain at the organisation (allen & meyer, 1996; meyer, allen, & smith, 1993). affective commitment is the emotional attachment, which the employee has for the organisation, the work that they do, and they feel the need to contribute effectively towards the success of the organisation and wish to remain part of it. affective commitment is the type of commitment that enhances productivity levels within the organisation (allen & meyer, 1996; meyer et al., 1993). the next section will focus on the different factors that influence organisational commitment. mor barak, nissly and lewin (2001) and du plooy and roodt (2010) observed that employees leave because of organisational or job-based factors. managers and policy developers can influence voluntary turnover or even prevent it from happening. it was found that role ambiguity negatively affected organisational commitment (dhurup & mahomed, 2011). when lecturing staff are not sure about their roles within the organisation, they would most likely be unable to contribute effectively to the organisation’s goals and experience lower levels of organisational commitment. on the other hand, procedural and distributive justice was found to influence organisational commitment of employees (akuzum, 2014). if employees regard organisational procedures to be fair and when benefits and punishment are fairly and equitably distributed, employees may experience higher levels of organisational commitment (akuzum, 2014). apart from organisational justice, other policies and procedures may also influence organisational commitment. job enrichment, the provision of the necessary work resources and support, having supportive colleagues and supervisors, experiencing co-worker involvement, enjoying positive managerial practices, organisational support (relatedness) and autonomy satisfaction would result in organisational commitment (ladebo, 2008, 2009; rothmann, diedericks, & swart, 2013; smit et al., 2015). these are aspects of the organisation that can be enhanced or addressed with the needed policies and improved procedures. organisational commitment can also hold other benefits for the employees and the organisation. a positive relationship was found between affective commitment, well-being and work engagement (field & buitendach, 2011). if organisations enhance organisational commitment (affective commitment), employees would also become healthier and more engaged in their work (field & buitendach, 2011). job embeddedness is another factor that has not been investigated extensively yet seems to play a key role in the turnover intention levels of employees. the following section will focus on defining job embeddedness and discuss some of the key antecedents and outcomes related to job embeddedness. job embeddedness job embeddedness is investigated as a variable that focuses on why employees remain at work (mitchell, holtom, lee, sablynski, & erez, 2001). it is not only important to understand why employees resign from the organisation but also what factors influence them to remain (holtom & inderrieden, 2006; mensele & coetzee, 2014). job embeddedness is part of the forces that impact the employees’ decision to stay with an organisation. this construct is one that looks at onand off-the-job influences. job embeddedness is regarded as the employee’s perception about the fit, links and sacrifices (mensele & coetzee, 2014). job embeddedness consists of the fit, links and sacrifice thus this study will evaluate these dimensions. fit is related to the employees’ perceived match between himself or herself and the organisation, what the job requires and the other employees within the organisation. if employees see that their skills and abilities match the requirements of the job, organisation and community they are more likely to also be better performers compared with employees who do not perceive a good fit (chinomona, dhurup, & chinomona, 2013). links are the relationships employees develop with other employees or the organisation. sacrifice is the losses an employee would endure when planning to leave the organisation; these include the benefits linked to being a member of the organisation or being related to the organisation (holtom & inderrieden, 2006). the links between these dimensions of job embeddedness will be further discussed in the following section. holmes, chapman and baghurst (2013) found that employees who are not valued owing to lack of training and mentoring, knowledgeable leadership and communication are likely to resign. the weaker the fit and links between the employees and the organisation, the lower the sacrifice and cost of leaving to the employees (holmes et al., 2013). organisations need to keep abreast of the needs of employees and factors that will retain them or motivate them to stay (job embeddedness). the formal and informal relations/ties (whom to ask for advice or help with a work-related task) employees experience within the organisation influence their overall level of job embeddedness (soltis et al., 2013). it was found that employees being frequently approached by many other colleagues for work-related advice increased their level of turnover intention significantly (soltis et al., 2013). the perception of employees plays a significant role in assessing this as a mentoring opportunity or as additional workload. being available for frequent advice can add to the workload. the following section will focus on the relationship between the variables in this study. organisational commitment, job embeddedness and turnover intention the global economy is becoming more knowledge-driven and when such knowledge is in short supply it gives organisations, which have employees with such knowledge, a competitive advantage (takawira, 2012). assessing how job embeddedness influences turnover intention is important in assisting tertiary institutions to retain knowledgeable staff in higher education (takawira, 2012). knowing what keeps employees at the organisation (pull factors) can be maintained or enhanced to retain employees. because of the emotional identification (affective commitment) to the organisation, service staff employees chose to remain at work (van dyk, coetzee, & tebele, 2013). affective commitment is a retention factor (employees want to experience affective commitment) thus, these employees would experience fit and links within the organisation and a high level of perceived sacrifice when planning to leave (van dyk et al., 2013). if black employees experience fit, they would have a stronger understanding of commitment, wanting to stay with the organisation (ferreira & coetzee, 2013). fit is also associated with affective commitment (identifying with the workplace), wanting to remain at the workplace (organisational commitment) and increasing effort (work engagement) amongst nurses (zhao et al., 2012). based on the literature discussed, a relationship is confirmed between job embeddedness and organisational commitment within these different contexts. a negative relationship was found amongst employees working at a state-owned enterprise in south africa between commitment and turnover intention (burger, 2014). when employees experience a psychological identification with an organisation, they remain committed and are less likely to resign (burger, 2014). identifying with the organisation encourages positive work attitudes and behaviour towards the organisation. according to ryan and harden (2014), job embeddedness is a psychological force that has the potential to influence information technology (it) workers to remain within the organisation as opposed to leaving (employee turnover). it is also observed that organisations need to be alerted to the fact that working environment changes could influence the degree of embeddedness and eventually possible voluntary employee turnover (ryan & harden, 2014). thus, tertiary institutions also need to remain vigilant on how changes affect employees’ embeddedness levels. job embeddedness predicted turnover intention better than work engagement amongst tertiary institution employees (takawira, coetzee, & schreuder, 2014). a negative relationship was found between links and turnover intention (chang et al., 2013; janik & rothmann, 2015; marques, 2013; takawira et al., 2014; wai, dandar, radosevich, brubaker, & kuo, 2014). when surgical staff, tertiary institution staff or teachers experience good interactions with supervisors and colleagues, they are likely to remain at work. relatedness is regarded as a resource. marques (2013), in her namibian study, found that relations with colleagues were regarded as one of the strongest factors that influenced turnover intention of academic staff members (administrative and lecturing staff). it was found by zhao et al. (2012) that high levels of job embeddedness increased loyalty towards the organisation (organisational commitment) and in turn reduced turnover intention for nurses. the relationship between organisational commitment, job embeddedness and turnover intention has been established in different countries amongst different types of employees, however limited literature exists that focuses on all these dimensions and their predictability as a collective. limited studies focus specifically on academic staff (excluding administrative staff) and even less studies in the namibian context. the following hypotheses were tested in this study: hypothesis 1a: affective, continuance and normative commitment are negatively related to turnover intention. hypothesis 1a º: affective, continuance and normative commitment are not negatively related to turnover intention. hypothesis 2a: organisational fit, links and sacrifices are negatively related to turnover intention. hypothesis 2aº: organisational fit, links and sacrifices are not negatively related to turnover intention. hypothesis 3a: affective, continuance and normative commitment, organisational fit, links and sacrifices are significant predictors of turnover intention. hypothesis 3aº: affective, continuance and normative commitment, organisational fit, links and sacrifices are not significant predictors of turnover intention. methodology design this study used a questionnaire (quantitative design, survey research). using a questionnaire, information was collected to compare the relationship between the variables under investigation. this study focused on employees (lecturers) working at the university of namibia (unam). the researchers distributed and collected questionnaires, allowing some time for the questionnaires to be completed during the spare time of the participants. participants by using convenience sampling, all lecturing staff members working at unam who were willing and available were approached for participation (creswell, 2003). a total of 242 questionnaires were completed and returned. this accounts for 81% of the total 300 questionnaires that were distributed. the sample consisted of n = 242 lecturers, 114 males and 128 females; additional information is presented here. measuring instruments biographical questionnaire the researchers used a biographical section specifically related to gender, age, tenure at unam, highest qualification obtained and rank within the organisation (see table 1). table 1: biographical details of sample. the organisational commitment questionnaire (ocq) by allen and meyer (1996) was used to measure organisational commitment. by using the 18-item version (six items per dimension), this study assessed normative, affective and continuance commitment (brown, 2003). it was a self-reported questionnaire that used a response scale (1 – strongly disagree to 5 – strongly agree). sample items included for continuance (‘one of the few negative consequences of leaving this organisation would be the scarcity of available alternatives’), normative (‘i would feel guilty if i leave my organisation right now’) and affective (‘i do not feel like “part of the family” at my organisation’) commitment. cronbach’s alphas previously found for organisational commitment include affective commitment 0.71, normative commitment 0.71 and continuance commitment 0.71 (pieters, 2015). the job embeddedness scale (jes) (mitchell et al., 2001) assessed links, fit and sacrifice (on the job and within the community). responses ranged from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). it measured links (‘how many co-workers do you interact with regularly?’), fit (‘my job utilises my skills and talents well’) and sacrifice (‘i would sacrifice a lot if i left this job’). acceptable alphas were reported by ferreira and coetzee (2013) (0.84 organisational fit, 0.77 organisational links, 0.87 organisational sacrifice). this study focused exclusively on the organisational dimensions. to measure turnover intention, the turnover intention scale (tis – 6) was used (bothma & roodt, 2013). it used a 5 point scale ranging from 1 (never or to no extent) to 5 (most of the time or to a large extent). bothma and roodt (2013) found cronbach’s alpha of 0.80. analysis this study used descriptive statistics to describe the data. inferential statistics was used to aid in explaining the relationship between the variables and make inferences. estimates of reliability, pearson’s product-moment correlation, and stepwise multiple regression analysis was used (spss, 2016). the data were normally distributed, thus parametric statistics was used. ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained from the university of the free state; university of namibia, ufs-hsd2015/0562, 24 november 2015. results descriptive statistics and correlations the mean, standard deviation (s.d.), cronbach’s alpha and correlations were analysed and reported in table 2. table 2: descriptive statistics and pearson correlation coefficient. it was observed by nunnally (1978) that acceptable cronbach’s alphas need to be higher than 0.70, however resi and judd (2000) later indicated that acceptable cronbach’s alphas can range between 0.60 and 0.80 for research. these cronbach’s alpha results indicate that the instruments were reliable for measuring the variables in this study. affective commitment reported a relationship with continuance commitment (r = –0.13, p < 0.05; small), normative commitment (r = 0.61, p < 0.05; large), organisational fit (r = 0.69, p < 0.05; large), organisational links (r = 0.33, p < 0.05; medium), organisational sacrifice (r = 0.50, p < 0.05; large) and turnover intention (r = –0.49, p < 0.05; medium). the negative relationship between affective commitment and turnover intention reject hypothesis 1aº. continuance commitment reported a relationship with normative commitment (r = 0.14, p < 0.05; small), organisational fit (r = -0.08, p < 0.05; small), organisational links (r = -0.07, p < 0.05; almost no relationship), organisational sacrifice (r = 0.03, p < 0.05; almost no relationship) and turnover intention (r = 0.15, p < 0.05; small). the positive relationship between continuance commitment and turnover intention fails to reject hypothesis 1aº. normative commitment reported a relationship with organisational fit (r = 0.52, p < 0.05; large), organisational links (r = 0.34, p < 0.05; medium), organisational sacrifice (r = 0.44, p < 0.05; medium) and turnover intention (r = –0.36, p < 0.05; medium). the negative relationship between normative commitment and turnover intention reject hypothesis 1aº. organisational fit reported a relationship with organisational links (r = 0.37, p < 0.05; medium), organisational sacrifice (r = 0.52, p < 0.05; large) and turnover intention (r = –0.41, p < 0.05; medium). the negative relationship between organisational fit and turnover intention reject hypothesis 2aº. organisational links reported a relationship with organisational sacrifice (r = 0.19, p < 0.05; small) and turnover intention (r = –0.10, p < 0.05; small). the negative relationship between organisational links and turnover intention reject hypothesis 2aº. organisational sacrifice reported a negative relationship with turnover intention (r = –0.37, p < 0.05; medium). the negative relationship between organisational sacrifice and turnover intention reject hypothesis 2aº. multiple regression analyses multiple regression analyses were utilised to test hypothesis 3aº. the first model utilised turnover intention as the dependent variable, with affective commitment, normative commitment as the dependent variables. in the second model, organisational fit and organisational sacrifice was added as part of the independent variables (model 2). results are presented in table 3. continuance commitment and links (job embeddedness) were excluded from the regression analysis because the correlation with turnover intention was less than 0.30. table 3: multiple regression with turnover intention the dependent variable and affective commitment, normative commitment (organisational commitment) and organisational fit, organisational sacrifice (job embeddedness) the independent variables. focusing on table 3, normative and affective commitment in step one of the regression analysis presented a statistically significant model (f(2.239) = 45.87; p < 0.00) and explained 27.7% of the variance. affective commitment (b = 0.46; t = 6.68; p < 0.00) is a significant predictor of turnover intention in this model. normative commitment (b = 0.09; t = 1.35; p < 0.18) was found to be an insignificant predictor of turnover intention in this model. in model 2, organisational fit and organisational sacrifice was introduced to produce a significant model (f(4.237) = 29.24; p < 0.00) and accounted for 33% of the variance in turnover intention. affective commitment (b = 0.29; t = 3.51; p < 0.00), organisational fit (b = 0.18; t = 2.40; p < 0.02) and organisational sacrifice (b = 0.19; t = 2.87; p < 0.00) were significant predictors of turnover intention in this model. this result rejects hypothesis 3aº of the study. normative commitment (b = 0.03; t = 0.39; p < 0.67) was an insignificant predictor of turnover intention. this result fails to reject hypothesis 3aº of the study. discussion this investigation aimed at exploring organisational commitment and job embeddedness factors that influence lecturing staff to remain or leave unam. continuance commitment reported a positive relationship with turnover intention. according to the staff development policy, unam pays for further studies and provides studying benefits to family members of staff members, it could be a factor that retains employees at unam. having a positive identification with the workplace, aims and objectives, employees would be willing to remain and work towards these goals and objectives (affective commitment) (du plooy & roodt, 2010). working for an organisation that provides employees with good benefits and working conditions, enhances continuance commitment, which has a negative relationship with turnover intention. however, this study found a positive association between continuance commitment and turnover intention. literature indicates that the benefits and working conditions should actually keep lecturing staff at unam but in this instance continuance commitment has a positive relationship with turnover intention. this could be because of lecturing staff’s perception of employability or that they do not regard these benefits or working conditions as important enough to stay, which was found by russell and van sell (2012). organisational fit, links and sacrifice reported a negative relationship with turnover intention. these results reject hypothesis 2aº of this study. employees who are provided with the needed job resources (marques, 2013), matching the expected duties (rothmann et al., 2008), they would stay at work. working for an organisation that employees identify with, an organisation that has similar values and objectives as the employee are likely to ensure that employees want to remain at the organisation (holmes et al., 2013). having good interactions and relationships with colleagues and supervisors ensures that employees experience positive emotions, motivating them to want to remain at the organisation (janik & rothmann, 2015; soltis et al., 2013). a negative relationship was found between organisational sacrifices and turnover intention. when unam can provide employees with the needed benefits, job resources, healthy working environment (smit et al., 2015) and work-related factors that positively impact job satisfaction (khawaldeh et al., 2014; lavoie-tremblay et al., 2010), employees are likely to want to stay at the organisation (snelgar et al., 2013). these employees who become more embedded experience higher levels of work engagement (zhao et al., 2012). continuance commitment and organisational links were not part of the regression analyses because the correlation with turnover intention is below the required limit (0.30). affective commitment, organisational fit and sacrifice are significant predictors of turnover intention of lecturing staff at unam. identifying with the workplace, experiencing a positive match between expectations and resources (janik & rothmann, 2015) and being provided with the needed resources, benefits and a conducive working environment, staff may be willing to remain at unam. it makes financial and business sense to retain academic staff instead of replacing and retraining new staff to levels of effective functioning. normative commitment was found to be an insignificant predictor of turnover intention for this study. practical implications this study may point to factors that influence the retention (through felt turnover intention) of academic staff in general, at unam. tertiary institutions need to be alert and attentive to the needs of lecturing staff. according to the three-dimensional model of organisational commitment, personal characteristics (what employees’ value in terms of work, what kind of work they find meaningful), satisfaction of basic psychological needs (autonomy, relatedness, competence), working experience and competence affects affective commitment. it is important for unam to know what employees’ values are and what kind of work enhances their meaningfulness, this may add to their levels of affective commitment and organisational fit. knowing this will ensure that the work is structured in such a way to enhance meaningfulness, ensure that the organisational objectives do not conflict with employee values or find ways to align these conflicting values. allowing employees opportunities to share their views, to make decisions within the organisation; safeguarding healthy working relationships between colleagues and supervisors and ensuring that employees have sufficient resources to match the job demands and the required skills and competencies to execute their work roles, positively influence their affective commitment. furthermore, providing a healthy interaction at work, ensuring that conflict resolution is performed amicably and employees have a platform to voice their concerns and procedures to resolve such issues will positively impact affective commitment. the university of namibia needs to make sure that lecturing staff are provided with the needed benefits, experience a good fit between expectations and resources, and fit between skills and work duties. the university of namibia needs to assess the workload of lecturing staff so that they do not experience work overload, burnout or intend to leave. to avoid burnout and still maximise the productivity of staff members, workload and general health should be monitored closely. in order to avoid emotional exhaustion, it is advised that wellness programmes should be implemented and functioning. through these wellness programmes lecturing staff may be able to reduce stress, live healthy and active lives to reduce emotional exhaustion. with the help of these wellness programmes, healthy staff members may experience a higher level of organisational commitment and lower turnover intention. it is also vital for the employees to have good relations with their colleagues and supervisors. good relations are fostered between lecturing staff, colleagues and supervisors, they are enhancing affective commitment and also reducing turnover intention. in order to retain all these benefits that comes with being a member of unam, lecturing staff will experience affective commitment and lower levels of turnover intention. considering that normative commitment flows from continuance commitment, unam needs to be aware of the necessities and expectations of employees. by providing lecturing staff with what they need ensures that they remain committed towards the organisations and want to perform on behalf of the workplace. the university of namibia needs to conduct an assessment to identify what it is that lecturing staff want and what they need to remain satisfied at the university. providing employees with training and development opportunities will improve their working experience, enhance their level of competence, increase affective commitment, improve organisational fit and reduce turnover intention. equipping employees with the required skills and abilities enhances their level of perceived competence, makes them want to take on more challenging tasks, improve their working experience and contribute positively to the success of the organisation. another way to enhance organisational fit can be by assessing the skills and abilities of the lecturing staff, identify where they would function best and what kinds of skills need to be invested in. by rotating staff to teach different modules they could identify a module that suits their style of teaching or knowledge better. lecturers prefer teaching certain modules for many years and at times may become complacent at teaching these modules. rotating modules every third year can ensure that lecturers remain relevant, up to date and passionate about the different aspects of their discipline. staff members need to grow and be exposed to career development opportunities. when staff members become stagnant, their teaching abilities become outdated, fail to inspire the students and staff lose interest/passion in what they do. exposing staff members to career development opportunities enhances their productivity levels and increases their intention to remain at unam. this study also found organisational sacrifice to be a key predictor of turnover intention. understanding what unam lecturing staff want or need will ensure that the university will be able to keep lecturing staff satisfied, content and wanting to remain as part of the organisation. once the institution caters to the needs to the lecturing staff, lecturers would also be more committed and work for the organisation. limitations and recommendations this study has some limitations. this study only focused on organisational commitment, job embeddedness and turnover intention. turnover intention may also be affected by many other variables that were excluded from this study. this is also highlighted by the multiple regression analysis done; indicating that organisational commitment and job embeddedness explains 33% of the changes in turnover intention of the target sample. considering that the sample was rather small, the findings may not be generalised to the population. it is thus recommended to conduct a similar study by focusing on the entire lecturing staff at unam. the study made use of questionnaires; future studies may consider using a qualitative design (interviews, focus group discussions). a qualitative study may also help to add to the deeper understanding of turnover intention. conclusion to retain lecturing staff, it remains critical for tertiary institutions to make drastic efforts to retain their staff members. this study confirms the significant impact of affective commitment on turnover intention. affective commitment was one of the most significant predictors of turnover intention. this study identified the importance of organisational fit, matching resources to job demands; matching skills to job roles and how it impacts on affective commitment. organisational links, healthy working relationships between colleagues and supervisors as well as the benefits associated with membership at unam also impacted on affective commitment. continuance commitment, normative commitment and organisational links were found to be insignificant predictors of turnover intention. normative commitment relates positively to affective commitment and affective commitment predicts turnover intention. organisational links reported a positive association with affective commitment, impacting on turnover intention. organisational links also reported a positive relationship with turnover intention, normative commitment and organisational fit. even though these variables are not significant predictors, they do impact turnover intention through other dimensions in this study. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions w.r.p. was responsible for conceptualisation, article writing, data collection, review and correspondence. e.v. was involved in conceptualisation, supervision, administration and funding acquisition. p.n. was involved in conceptualisation, data analysis, editing and supervision. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references akpey-mensah, t.l., & muchie, m. (2020). application of ubuntu as innovative human resources practice to retain academic staff at sunyani technical university, ghana. african journal of indigenous knowledge systems, 19(1), 47–57. akuzum, c. (2014). the effect of organisational justice and organisational cynicism on the organisational commitment: an application in primary education institutions. mevlana international journal of education, 4(3), 48–68. allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1996). affective, continuance and normative to the organisation: an examination of the construct validity. journal of vocational behavior, 49, 252–276. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1996.0043 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2007). the job demands-resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22(3), 309–323. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 balogun, a.g., & afolabi, o.a. (2019). examining the moderating roles of job demands and resources on the relation between work engagement and work-family conflict. south african journal of psychology, 49(4), 479–490. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246318818382 bezuidenhout, a., & cilliers, f. (2011). age, burnout, work engagement and sense of coherence in female academics at two south african universities. south african journal of labour relations, 35(1), 61–80. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.872 bothma, c.f.c., & roodt, g. (2013). the validation of the turnover intention scale. south african journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.507 brown, b.b. (2003). employees organizational commitment and their perception of supervisors’ relationship-oriented and task-oriented leadership behaviors. unpublished phd dissertation in human development. blacksburg, va: virginia polytechnic institute and state university. burger, e. (2014). investigating high turnover intention and a diminished level of organisational commitment as antecedents of accidents. unpublished masters dissertation. johannesburg: stellenbosch university. chang, w.a., wang, y., & huang, t. (2013). work design-related antecedents of turnover intention: a multilevel approach. human resource management, 52(1), 1–26. chinomona, r., chinomona, e., & dhurup, m. (2013). does employee perceptions of fit to job, fit to organisation and fit to community influence job performance? the case of zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector. south african journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.475 coetzee, m., schreuder, d., & tladinyane, r. (2007). organisational commitment and its relation to career anchors. southern african business review, 11(1), 65–86. creswell, j.w. (2003). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (2nd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. derbew, m., gebrekiros, d.h.h., hailu, a.d., fekade, d., & mekasha, a. (2014). turnover rate of academic faculty at the college of health sciences, addis ababa university: a 20-year analysis (1991–2011). annals of global health, 80(3), 236–237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aogh.2014.08.197 du plessis, m. (2020). model of coping with occupational stress of academics in a south african higher education institution. south african journal of industrial psychology, 46(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v46i0.1714 du plooy, j., & roodt, g. (2010). work engagement, burnout and related constructs as predictors of turnover intentions. south african journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.910 dhurup, m., & mahomed, f.e. (2011). role ambiguity, role conflict and work overload and their influence on job satisfaction of sports facilitators in public schools in the vaal triangle, south africa. african journal for physical, health education, recreation and dance, 17, 172–188. ferreira, n., & coetzee, m. (2013). the influence of job embeddedness on black employees’ organisational commitment. southern african business review, 17(3), 239–255. field, l.k., & buitendach, j.h. (2011). happiness, work engagement and organisational commitment of support staff at a tertiary education institution in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i1.946 gorgens-ekermans, g., & kotze, c. (2020). insights into the burnout development process: a study of call centre representatives. management dynamics, 29(2), 19–35. grobler, p.a., warnich, s., carrell, m.r., elbert, n.f., & hatfield, r.d. (2011). human resource management in south africa (4th ed.). beijing: cengage learning emea. gurmessa, z.b., & tefera, o. (2019). the effect of age on academic staff retention in higher education sector in sub-saharan africa. journal of educational studies, 18(1), 100–121. haley, l., moster, k., & els, c. (2013). burnout and work engagement for different age groups: examining group-level differences and predictors. journal of psychology in africa, 23(2), 283–296. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2013.10820625 holmes, p.d.m., chapman, t., & baghurts, t. (2013). employee job embeddedness: why people stay. international journal of business management and economic research, 4(5), 802–813. holtom, b.c., & inderrieden, e.j. (2006). integrating the unfolding model and job embeddedness model to better understand voluntary turnover. journal of managerial issues, 18(4), 435–452. janik, m., & rothmann, s. (2015). meaningful work and secondary school teachers’ intention to leave. south african journal of education, 35(2), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v35n2a1008 khawaldeh, k., al muala, a., & al ziadat, m.t. (2014). antecedents and mediators of turnover intention amoungst employees in private communication sector in jordan: a structural equation modelling (sem) approach. journal of management and sustainability, 4(3), 135–144. https://doi.org/10.5539/jms.v4n3p135 ladebo, o.l. (2008). perceived supervisory support and organisational citizenship behaviors: is job satisfaction a mediator? south african journal of industrial psychology, 38(3), 479–488. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124630803800303 ladebo, o.j. (2009). emotional exhaustion and strain reactions: perceived organisational support as a mediator. south african journal of psychology, 39(1), 46–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124630903900104 lavoie-tremblay, m., paquet, m., duchesne, m., santo, a., gavrancic, a., courcy, f., & gagnon, s. (2010). retaining nurses and other hospital workers: an integrational perspective of the work climate. journal of nursing scholarship, 42(4), 414–422. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1547-5069.2010.01370.x luthans, f. (2005). organisational behavior (10th ed.). new york, ny: mcgraw and hill. marques, l.a. (2013). antecedents and outcomes of work-related psychological well-being of staff members of the university of namibia. unpublished doctoral dissertation. windhoek: university of namibia. medina, e. (2012). job satisfaction and employee turnover intention: what does organizational culture have to do with it? unpublished master of arts thesis. columbia: columbia university. mensele, c., & coetzee, m. (2014). job embeddedness, organisational commitment and voluntary turnover of academic staff at a higher education institution in south africa. south african journal of labour relations, 38(1), 9–30. https://doi.org/10.25159/2520-3223/5898 meyer, j.p., allen, n.j., & smith, c. (1993). commitment to organisations and occupations: extension and test of a three component model conceptualization. journal of applied psychology, 87, 538–551. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.4.538 mhlanga, d. (2021). the fourth industrial revolution and covid-19 pandemic in south africa: the opportunities and challenges of introducing blended learning in education. journal of african education, 2(2), 15–42. https://doi.org/10.31920/2633-2930/2021/v2n2a1 mitchell, t.r., holtom, b.c., lee, t.w., sablynski, c.j., & erez, m. (2001). why people stay: using job embeddedness to predict voluntary turnover. academy of management journal, 44(6), 1102–1121. https://doi.org/10.2307/3069391 mor barak, m.e., nissly, j.a., & levin, a. (2001). antecedents to retention and turnover among child welfare, social worker, and other human service employees: what can we learn from past research? a review and metanalysis. social service review, 75(4), 625–661. https://doi.org/10.1086/323166 nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory (2nd ed.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. perez, m. (2008). turnover intent. unpublished research thesis for diploma in business administration thesis. zurich: university of zurich. pienaar, j., siebehagen, c.f., & mostert, k. (2007). investigating turnover intentions by role overload, job satisfaction and social support moderation. south african journal of industrial psychology, 33(2), 62–67. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v33i2.378 pieters, w.r. (2015). psychological empowerment and how it impacts on job satisfaction and organisational commitment of staff members at the university of namibia (unam). namibia journal of managerial sciences, 1(2), 98–120. pieters, w.r. (2018). the effect of job attitudes, job embeddedness and work engagement of turnover intention of academic staff at the university of namibia. unpublished doctorate dissertation. bloemfontein: university of the free state. ramlachan, k., & beharry-ramraj, a. (2021). the impact of covid-19 on employees, leadership competencies and human resource development. gender and behaviour, 19(1), 17219–17241. resi, h.t., & judd, c.m. (2000). handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology. cambridge: cambridge university press. robbins, s. (2003). organisational behavior (10th ed.). hoboken, nj: prentice hall. rothmann, s., barkhuizen, n., & tytherleigh, m.y. (2008). model of work-related ill health of academic staff in a south african higher education institution. south african journal of higher education, 22(2), 404–422. https://doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v22i2.25794 rothmann, s., diedericks, e., & swart, j.p. (2013). manager relations, psychological need satisfaction and intention to leave in the agricultural sector. south african journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1129 rothmann, s., & jordaan, g.m.e. (2006). job demands, job resources and work engagement of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. south african journal of industrial psychology, 32(4), 87–96. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v32i4.247 russell, c.j., & van sell, m. (2012). a closer look at decisions to quit. organisational behavior and human decision processes, 117, 125–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2011.09.002 ryan, s., & harden, g. (2014). job embeddedness of information technology professionals: the effects of gender. journal of computer information systems, 54(4), 52–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/08874417.2014.11645722 smit, w., stanz, k., & bassin, m. (2015). retention preferences and the relationship between total rewards, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisory support. south african journal of human resource management, 13(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.665 snelgar, r.j., renard, m., & venter, d. (2013). an empirical study of the reward preferences of south african employees. south african journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.351 soltis, s.m., agneessens, f., sasovova, z., & labianca, g. (2013). a social network perspective on turnover intentions: the role of distributive justice and social support. human resource management, 52(4), 561–584. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21542 sousa-poza, a., & henneberger, f. (2004). analyzing job mobility with job turnover intentions: an international comparative study. journal of economic issues, 38(1), 113–137. https://doi.org/10.1080/00213624.2004.11506667 spss. (2016). spss 24.0 for windows. chicago, il: spss incorporated. takawira, n. (2012). job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention of staff in a higher education institution. unpublished master’s dissertation. pretoria: university of south africa. takawira, n., coetzee, m., & schreuder, d. (2014). job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention of staff in a higher education institution: an exploratory study. south african journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.524 theron, m., barkhuizen, n., & du plessis, y. (2014). managing the academic talent void: investigating factors in academic turnover and retention in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 40, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1117 van dyk, j., coetzee, m., & tebele, c. (2013). organisational commitment and job embeddedness of service staff with critical and scarce skills. south african journal of labour relations, 37(1), 61–78. van schalkwyk, s., du toit, d.h., bothma, a.s., & rothmann, s. (2010). job insecurity, leadership empowerment behaviour, employee engagement and intention to leave in a petrochemical laboratory. south african journal of human resource management, 8(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.234 wai, p.y., dandar, v., radosevich, d.m., brubaker, l., & kuo, p.c. (2014). engagement, workplace satisfaction and retention of surgical specialists in academic medicine in the united states. journal of american college of surgeons, 219(1), 31–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2014.03.027 washeya, f.n., & furst, l.n. (2021). work related factors that influence the retention of professional nurses in the public health sector in windhoek, namibia. africa journal of nursing and midwifery, 23(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.25159/2520-5293/8665 zhao, x., sun, t., cao, q., li, c., duan, x., fan, l., & liu, y. (2012). the impact of work life on job embeddedness and affective commitment and their co-effect on turnover intention of nurses. journal of clinical nursing, 22, 780–788. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2012.04198.x abstract introduction research method and design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) melinde coetzee department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa nadia ferreira department human resource management, university of south africa, south africa ingrid potgieter department human resource management, university of south africa, south africa citation coetzee, m., ferreira, n., & potgieter, i. (2019). perceptions of sacrifice, workplace friendship and career concerns as explanatory mechanisms of employees’ organisational commitment. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1033. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1033 original research perceptions of sacrifice, workplace friendship and career concerns as explanatory mechanisms of employees’ organisational commitment melinde coetzee, nadia ferreira, ingrid potgieter received: 12 jan. 2018; accepted: 20 sept. 2018; published: 06 feb. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: employees’ psychological attachment to their organisation remains an important topic of inquiry for organisations concerned about improving their talent management practices for the purpose of retaining valuable human capital. research purpose: the aim of the study was to explore the constructs of job-embedded sacrifice, workplace friendship and career concerns as potential underlying explanatory mechanisms of employees’ affective, continuance and normative commitment towards the organisation. organisational attachment theory was utilised as theoretical framework to study the relations among the variables. motivation for the study: the notion of job-embedded sacrifice, workplace friendship, career concerns as explanatory mechanisms of employees’ affective, continuance and normative commitment in the south african higher education context is under-researched, and especially from the perspective of organisational attachment theory. research approach/design and method: a non-probability convenience sample (n = 200) of academic and administrative staff members employed in a south african higher educational institution participated in the study. a cross-sectional, quantitative research design approach was followed. multiple regression analysis was performed. main findings: person–job sacrifice positively predicted affective, continuance and normative commitment. perceptions of friendship opportunity accounted for the variance in affective commitment. high levels of work–life adjustment career concerns accounted for higher levels of affective and normative commitment. practical/managerial implications: addressing the underlying psychological needs espoused by employees’ perceptions of person–job sacrifice, friendship opportunity and work–life adjustment concerns are important to consider in human resource talent management practices. the constructs speak to employees’ sense of employment security which influences their organisational commitment. contribution/value-add: the study extends organisational attachment theory by offering insight into the role of person–job sacrifice, friendship opportunity in the workplace and work–life adjustment concerns in explaining employees’ organisational commitment. the new insights inform human resource retention practices for academic and administrative staff members in the higher education environment. introduction key focus of the study the demand and competition for highly qualified academics and competent administrative staff members have given rise to concerns about retaining valuable human capital in higher educational institutions (bushe, 2012; deas, 2017). employees’ psychological attachment to their organisation remains an important topic of inquiry for organisations concerned about improving their talent management practices (hassan, 2012; kontoghiorghes, 2016). research provides evidence that increased job satisfaction, positive behaviours and attitudes towards the organisation and decreased absenteeism and turnover are some of the positive consequences of psychological attachment (hassan, 2012; meyer, kam, goldenberg, & bremner, 2013; qureshi, frank, lambert, klahm, & smith, 2017). while using the organisational attachment theory (st. clair, 2000), the present study explores employees’ organisational commitment as an aspect of their psychological attachment (i.e. the psychological and emotional bond that exists between and individual and the organisation) (hassan, 2012; meyer & allen, 1991; st. clair, 2000). background of the study while research continues to confirm that organisational commitment is worth striving for, for both employees and organisations in the retention context, less attention has been given to the mechanisms accounting for individuals’ organisational commitment (hassan, 2012; meyer et al., 2013; solinger, hofmans, bal, & jansen, 2016; st. clair, 2000). to address this gap in research, the present study focuses on three constructs (i.e. job-embedded sacrifice, workplace friendships and career concerns) associated with employees’ relationship with the organisation and the job experiences that influence their membership within the organisation. more specifically, the aim of the study is to explore the constructs of job-embedded sacrifice, workplace friendship and career concerns as potential underlying explanatory mechanisms of employees’ affective, continuance and normative commitment towards the organisation. previous research indicates positive associations between organisational sacrifice and organisational commitment in the ict context (van dyk, 2012), workplace friendship and organisational commitment in the call centre environment (milner, russell, & siemers, 2010) and career concerns and organisational commitment in the general organisational context (coetzee, 2015). no previous studies have been conducted within the higher education sector that addressed these constructs. the current research extends organisational attachment theory by exploring the three constructs jointly in a single study as manifested in the south african higher educational environment. this approach allows for assessing the explanatory power of the three constructs in relation to meyer and allen’s (1991) three-component theory of organisational commitment (i.e. affective, continuance and normative commitment). moreover, the notion of job-embedded sacrifice, workplace friendship, career concerns and organisational commitment in the south african higher education context is under-researched. the findings of the study can therefore potentially add valuable new insights that could inform human resource retention practices for academic and administrative staff members. theoretical framework: organisational attachment theory attachment theory is a psychological model attempting to describe the dynamics of specific facets of long-term and short-term interpersonal relationships between humans (bowlby, 1979). attachment theory (bowlby, 1979; st. clair, 2000) proposes felt security as the goal of a behavioural system (i.e. the set of interrelated actions that lead to a specific goal). monitoring experienced levels of security, comparing them to desired levels and action to obtain the desired level of security in relation to caregiver figures are facets of the personal attachment system (bowlby, 1979). attachment theory explains the reasons why employees may remain with an organisation (st clair, 2000). employment security is seen as one of the major goals in the organisational behavioural system (st clair, 2000). in organisational attachment theory, the personal attachment system is seen as an analogue of personal attachment (i.e. enduring affective bonds) to the organisation as primary caregiver of employment security. workplace conditions, practices and experiences that negatively affect employees’ satisfaction may be perceived as potential threats to their employment security, which in turn, may affect their levels of commitment towards the organisation (st clair, 2000; wu, & parker, 2017). it is therefore important to note that employees’ psychological attachment to their organisation remains an important topic of inquiry for organisations concerned about improving their talent management practices for the purpose of retaining valuable human capital. organisational commitment organisational commitment denotes employees’ emotional attachment to the organisation (affective commitment), having a sense of obligation to the organisation (continuance commitment) or concerns about the perceived cost of leaving the organisation (normative commitment) (meyer & allen, 1991; meyer et al., 2012; qureshi et al., 2017). employees’ organisational commitment reflects their attitudes and behaviours towards the organisation that act as a stabilising force in the attachment system resulting in employees becoming committed to a particular course of action such as remaining with the organisation (meyer & allen, 1997; st clair, 2000). attitudinal commitment alludes to the process individuals follow in establishing relationship with their organisation while behavioural commitment reflects the inability to leave the current employment for a variety of reasons and the way that employees deal with the situation (meyer & allen, 1991). reflecting the emotional reasons for remaining with the current organisation, affective commitment is seen to originate from feelings such as loyalty, affection, warmth, belongingness, fondness and pleasure experiences in the workplace (jaros, jermier, koehler, & sincich, 1993; potgieter & ferreira, 2018). positive work experiences that foster the fulfilment of the basic psychological needs for feeling competent, belonging and constructive interaction with others, clarity of mutual expectations, consideration and support for individual needs increase employees’ affective commitment (meyer & allen, 1991, 1997). continuance commitment reflects a psychological state or mindset about the perceived threat of leaving the organisation (meyer & allen, 1991). such threats include the perceived cost associated with organisational investments such as pay, seniority, pension, social relationships and job-specific competencies, all of which facilitate a sense of employment security. employees do not want to lose certain benefits or advantages that the organisation may offer and will therefore remain at the organisation (allen & meyer, 1990; meyer & allen, 1991). normative commitment alludes to a sense of responsibility (obligation) to continue employment with a specific organisation. normative commitment develops as a result of beliefs that are internalised through socialisation processes, both familial and cultural, that occur both before and after entry into the organisation (meyer & allen, 1997). the mindset of desire reflected in affective commitment is seen to explain a wider range of employee behaviours than in the case of continuance and normative commitment. affective commitment creates emotional bonds that can make the employee develop a sense of obligation (normative commitment) towards the organisation (meyer & herscovitch, 2001). on the other hand, employees may exhibit normative commitment even though they do not feel affection for the organisation and are dissatisfied there. normative commitment can lead to continuance commitment owing to the emotional involvement with the organisation, which may lead to the desire for continuation (van dyk, 2012). in general, personal characteristics such as age, tenure, gender and ethnicity are also seen as important personal characteristics influencing individuals’ levels of organisational commitment because they provide an explanation of differences in organisational commitment (van dyk, 2012). commitment alludes to how employees respond to dissatisfaction with experiences and conditions at work (meyer & allen, 1997). seen through the lens of attachment theory (st clair, 2000), the psychological states of affective, continuance and normative commitment are temporary mindsets that are influenced by conditions and experiences in the organisational attachment system that either support employees’ sense of employment security or give rise to perceived threats to their employment security. the constructs of job-embedded sacrifice, workplace friendship and career concerns denote perceived work experiences and psychological needs that speak to employees’ sense of psychological security in the organisation. job-embedded sacrifice, workplace friendship and career concerns job-embedded sacrifice is a core facet of the construct of job embeddedness which refers to the selection of social, financial and psychological job and organisational conditions that affect employees’ decisions to remain in or leave their current job or organisation (ampofo, coetzer, & poisat, 2017; kaizad, holtom, hom, & newman, 2015). sacrifice refers to apparent psychological or material costs linked with leaving the work or organisation (mitchell, holtom, lee, sablynski, & erez, 2001). the more an employee would have to give up (financially or psychologically) by leaving a job or organisation, the more difficult it will be for the individual to end employment with the organisation (mitchell et al., 2001). job-embedded sacrifice comprises perceptions of person–job sacrifice and person–organisation sacrifice. person–job sacrifice denotes aspects of the job that provides a sense of security, such as having freedom and autonomy on the job, respect from people at work and promotional opportunities (mitchell et al., 2001). organisational factors that enhance a sense of employment security and that are seen to be sacrificed should one decide to leave the organisation include compensation and organisational benefits (i.e. healthcare and retirement) and prospects of continued employment at the company (mitchell et al., 2001). research indicates positive links between affective, continuance and normative commitment and person–job sacrifice and person–organisation sacrifice (van dyk, 2012). it was therefore also expected that high levels of perceived person–job and person–organisation sacrifice would positively relate to high levels of affective, continuance and normative commitment. seen through the lens of organisational attachment theory (st clair, 2000), high levels of sacrifice denote a high sense of employment security which the employee is not willing to sacrifice and which therefore may explain higher levels of affective, continuance and normative commitment. perceptions of workplace friendship opportunities and workplace friendship prevalence have important implications for employees’ perceptions of the overall employment relationship (nielsen, jex, & adams, 2000). friendship opportunities refer to the perceived chances an individual has to get to know, communicate and work together with other individuals in the same organisation. friendship prevalence refers to the feeling an individual has with regard to strong friendships at work, which are usually categorised by trust, confidence and a strong desire to interact and even socialise with outside the workplace (nielsen et al., 2000). friends at work are usually the persons that the individual works closely with and therefore may be seen to presumably have connections for career progress and for providing direction within the work environment (khaleel, chelliah, khalid, jamil, & manzoor, 2016). although workplace friendship may have differing criteria reliant on the cultural and demographical settings, positive perceptions of workplace friendship opportunities and friendship prevalence can meet employees’ psychological needs for affection, approval, social interaction and employment security and reduce interpersonal tensions and work stress (milner et al., 2010; nielsen et al., 2000). a number of research studies indicate that workplace friendships have positive outcomes within the work environment, such as increased job satisfaction (winstead, derlega, montgomery, & pilkington, 1995), increased organisational commitment and job performance and reduced turnover intention (milner et al., 2010; nielsen et al., 2000). similarly, it was expected that workplace friendship would relate positively to affective, continuance and normative commitment. seen through the theoretical lens of organisational attachment theory (st clair, 2000), the fulfilment of employees’ psychological needs for relatedness at work through opportunities for and the prevalence of friendship may, apart from perceived sacrifice, further enhance their sense of employment security and therefore contribute to explaining employees’ levels of affective, continuance and normative commitment. career concerns reflect employees’ current state of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their career development within an organisation. getting established in a workplace, fitting in with others and having opportunities for individual growth and development (i.e. developing competencies) while experiencing career and economic stability through the employment situation is a key concern for most employees. addressing employees’ need for career establishment provides a sense of employment security because of the fulfilment of employees’ psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness provided by the job (bester, 2017; coetzee, 2015; super, 1990). research also shows positive links between low career establishment concerns and work-related commitment (coetzee, 2015). employees’ career concerns may also revolve around adapting to changing organisational and external market conditions and ensuring that they remain employable through upskilling (i.e. amending one’s interests, talents and capabilities in order to create opportunities to fit in with the current working environment). career adaptation concerns may also include preoccupations about continuing one’s career development within the organisation or exploring opportunities elsewhere in order to sustain one’s marketability (coetzee, 2015). employees’ career adaptation concerns have been found to mediate the link between their passion for their work and their career satisfaction (bester, 2017). strong concerns about career adaptation, career renewal and employability are positively linked with lowered organisational commitment to the job or career in the current organisation and a high interest in external job opportunities in the job (coetzee, 2015). research also indicates a heightened concern about achieving work–life balance (takawira, 2017). work–life adjustment concerns involve the need to settle down, decreasing one’s workload and achieving work and personal life balance, which might also implicate withdrawing from ones’ paid occupation completely. addressing employees’ need for work–life adjustment results in higher levels of career satisfaction, which in turn, is associated with higher levels of organisational commitment (bester, 2017; takawira, 2017). employees’ career concerns involve cognitive appraisals of the current employment relationship and whether the organisational conditions support their career development needs as an aspect of their employment security. seen through the theoretical lens of organisational attachment theory (st clair, 2000), high levels of career concerns may reflect perceptions of impending threats to employment security if not addressed and are therefore expected to explain lower levels of affective, continuance and normative commitment. although the three constructs of job-embedded sacrifice, workplace friendship and career concerns all seem to influence employees’ general sense of organisational commitment, it is not clear how they relate to the affective, continuance and normative commitment components of the general construct. although the links between person–job sacrifice and person–organisation sacrifice and the three commitment constructs have been established in the ict context (van dyk, 2012), it is not clear whether this association will also be relevant to the higher education environment. similarly, the constructs of workplace friendship and career concerns are under-researched in the higher educational context and especially in relation to the three organisational commitment components. the objective of the research was therefore to explore whether job-embedded sacrifice (person–job sacrifice and person–organisation sacrifice), workplace friendship (workplace friendship opportunities and workplace friendship prevalence) and career concerns (career establishment preoccupations, career adaptation preoccupations and work–life adjustment preoccupations) significantly accounted for the variance in affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment as manifested in a sample of individuals employed in the higher education environment. the following research hypothesis was tested: research hypothesis: sacrifice, workplace friendship and career concerns predict employees’ affective, continuance and normative commitment towards the organisation. high levels of sacrifice and workplace friendship will account for high levels of commitment while high career concerns will account for low levels of commitment. the next section of the article will focus on the research design, which comprises the research approach and method, followed by the presentation of the results and a discussion of the findings. the article concludes with a brief summary of the key conclusions, implications for practice and recommendations for potential future research. research method and design research approach a cross-sectional quantitative research approach was followed in order to achieve the research objective. cross-sectional research involves individuals who differ on one key characteristic at one specific point in time (setia, 2016). participants a non-probability convenience sample of 200 (n = 200) permanently employed adults (60% female; 40% male) participated in the study. the participants were employed within a distance higher educational institution situated in gauteng, south africa. they were employed on an academic (58%) and administrative level (42%) and comprised predominantly white (52%) and black employees (48%). the participants were mostly in their early and middle career stages (78%, 26–55 years; 22%, 56–65 years) and had between 1 and 10 years (53%) and between 11 and 20 years (47%) of service at the institution. measuring instruments sacrifice the job embeddedness scale (jes) developed by mitchell et al. (2001) was utilised to measure the participants’ perceptions of person–job sacrifice (5 items, e.g. ‘i would sacrifice a lot if i left this job’) and person–organisation sacrifice (5 items, e.g. ‘the benefits are good on this job’). responses were measured on a six-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 6 = strongly agree). research by mitchell et al. (2001) provides evidence of the construct validity of the jes. the internal consistency reliability coefficients obtained in the present study were 0.80 for person–job sacrifice and 0.67 for person–organisation sacrifice. organisational commitment the organisational commitment scale (ocs) developed by meyer and allen (1997) was utilised to measure respondents’ affective commitment (8 items, e.g. ‘this organisation has a great deal of personal meaning for me’), continuance commitment (9 items, e.g. ‘too much in my life would be disrupted if i decided i wanted to leave my organisation now’) and normative commitment (6 items, e.g. ‘i would not leave my organisation right now because i have a sense of obligation to the people in it’). a seven-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 6 = strongly agree) was used for subject responses to each of the items. research by meyer and allen (1997) provides evidence of the construct validity of the ocs. the internal consistency reliability coefficients ranged between 0.75 and 0.86. workplace friendship the workplace friendship scale (wfs) developed by nielsen et al. (2000) was utilised to measure respondents’ perceptions of friendship opportunity (6 items, e.g. i am able to work with my co-workers to collectively solve problems’) and friendship prevalence (6 items, e.g. i socialise with co-workers outside the workplace). a five-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree) was used for subject responses to each of the items. research by nielsen (2000) provides evidence of the construct validity of the wfs. the internal consistency reliability coefficients obtained for friendship opportunity was 0.86 and for friendship prevalence was 0.81. career concerns the psychological career preoccupation scale (pcps) developed by coetzee (2015) was utilised to measure respondents’ career preoccupations in terms of career establishment (13 items; e.g. ‘to what extent are you concerned about advancing in your job or career?’), adaptation (5 items; e.g. ‘to what extent are you concerned about making a career change?’) and work–life adjustment (6 items; e.g. ‘to what extent are you concerned about reducing your current workload?). a five-point likert-type scale (1 = not concerned; 5 = extremely concerned) was used for subject responses to each of the items. research by takawira (2017) confirmed the construct validity of the pcps. the internal consistency reliability coefficients ranged between 0.86 and 0.93. research procedure the online survey facilities of the research institution were utilised to collect the data. the participants were invited to voluntarily participate in the study. each questionnaire comprised a cover letter inviting respondents to participate voluntarily in the research and reassuring them that all responses would be treated as anonymous and confidential. the cover letter further indicated that by completing the questionnaires and returning them, they as participants agree to use the results for research purposes only. statistical analysis descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations and cronbach’s alpha coefficients), pearson product–moment correlations and multiple regression analysis were conducted to achieve the objectives of the study. in order to counter the probability of a type i error, it was decided to set the significance value for interpreting the results at a 95% confidence level (p ≤ 0.05). the threshold value for multicollinearity concerns were set at r greater than 0.90 (hair, black, babin, & anderson, 2010). following the guidelines of tabachnick and fidell (2001), tolerance values ≤.10 were set as an indication of multicollinearity in the multiple regression analysis. the biographical variables of age, race, gender and tenure were included as control variables because previous research shows that these variables significantly influence individuals’ organisational commitment (van dyk, 2012). ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained from the higher distance educational institution and permission to conduct the study was obtained from the organisation. results descriptive statistics and correlations the reliability coefficients reported in table 1 show acceptable internal consistency reliability of the various scale variables. in terms of the control variables, table 1 shows that age had significant correlations with career adaptation preoccupations and work–life adjustment preoccupations, while race and tenure had significant correlations with all three of the career preoccupations (r ≥ −0.14 and r ≤ −0.32; p ≤ 0.05; small to moderate effect). race had also significant correlations with the two sacrifices, friendship opportunity and affective and normative commitment (r ≥ −0.20 and r ≤ −0.33; p ≤ 0.01; small to moderate effect). gender did not have any correlations with the variables. table 1: descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations. table 1 further shows that person–job sacrifice and person–organisation sacrifice had significant positive correlations with the three commitment variables (r ≥ 0.26 and r ≤ 0.44; p ≤ 0.001; moderate effect) and the two workplace friendship variables (r ≥ 0.21 and r ≤ 0.37; p ≤ 0.01; small to moderate effect). person–organisation sacrifice had also positive correlations with the career establishment and work–life adjustment preoccupations (r ≥ 0.17 and r ≤ 0.18; p ≤ 0.05; small effect). career establishment and work–life adjustment preoccupations had significant positive correlations with affective commitment (r ≥ 0.15 and r ≤ 0.26; p ≤ 0.05; small effect). work–life adjustment had also a positive correlation with normative commitment (r = 0.18; p = 0.01, small effect). friendship opportunity and friendship prevalence had significant positive correlations with affective and normative commitment (r ≥ 0.18 and r ≤ 0.35; p ≤ 0.05; small to moderate effect). multiple regression analysis three regression models were computed, one for each organisational commitment variable as dependent variable. the results are reported in table 2. the regression model for affective commitment explained 37% (adjusted r² = 0.37; large practical effect; f = 11.63, p = 0.0001) of the variance in affective commitment. age (β = 0.49; p ≤ 0.01) and race (β = −0.56; p ≤ 0.001) along with person–job sacrifice (β = 0.38; p ≤ 0.001), work–life adjustment preoccupations (β = 0.39; p ≤ 0.001) and friendship opportunity (β = 0.22; p ≤ 0.05) explained a significant proportion of the variance in affective commitment. the tolerance values were all above the threshold value of 0.10, indicating no threats of multicollinearity among the variables. table 2: multiple regression results. table 2 shows that the regression model for continuance commitment explained 8% (adjusted r² = 0.08; small practical effect; f = 2.62, p = 0.01) of the variance in continuance commitment. only person–job sacrifice (β = 0.23; p = 0.05) accounted for the variance in continuance commitment. the regression model for normative commitment explained 28 (adjusted r² = 0.28; large practical effect; f = 8.15, p = 0.001) of the variance in normative commitment. race (β = −1.07; p = 0.001), person–job sacrifice (β = 0.51; p = 0.001) and work–life adjustment preoccupations (β = 0.31; p = 0.05) accounted for the variance in normative commitment. the tolerance values were all above the threshold value of 0.10, indicating no threats of multicollinearity among the variables. the results provided evidence in support of the research hypothesis that sacrifice, career preoccupations and workplace friendship predict employees’ commitment towards the organisation. high levels of person–job sacrifice and friendship opportunity accounted for high levels of commitment. however, contrary to the research hypothesis expectation, high work–life adjustment concerns also accounted for high levels of commitment. discussion the study explored the constructs of job-embedded sacrifice, workplace friendship and career concerns as potential underlying explanatory mechanisms of employees’ affective, continuance and normative commitment towards the organisation. overall, the results highlighted perceptions of person–job sacrifice, friendship opportunity and work–life adjustment career concerns as explanatory mechanisms of the participants’ levels of affective commitment. perceptions of person–job sacrifice also significantly explained participants’ continuance and normative commitment, while preoccupations with work–life adjustment further explained normative commitment towards the organisation. the results suggest that perceptions of what one will have to sacrifice in terms of the job’s characteristics (i.e. freedom and autonomy to pursue goals), the respect gained from people and promotional opportunities may be important mechanisms in explaining employees’ affective, continuance and normative commitment. the findings corroborate previous research by van dyk (2012) conducted in the ict environment which also confirmed a significant positive link between person–job sacrifice and the three organisational commitment components. building on the basic premises of organisational attachment theory (st clair, 2000), the presence of job autonomy, being respected and having promotional opportunities seem to enhance employees’ sense of employment security and engender the desire to remain in the organisation. job autonomy addresses a basic psychological need that motivates and inspires employees to perform better at work (mcallister, harris, hochwarter, perrewé, & ferris, 2017) while lack of job autonomy generally functions as a source of conflict or tension between employees and their employing organisation (hassan, 2012). career development opportunities are seen as important for personal growth and fulfil the psychological need for developing the necessary competencies for sustained employability and expressing the self-concept at work. employees who see a future for themselves in the organisation by means of promotional opportunities may feel more secure in terms of the employment relationship and therefore more committed to remain in the organisation (deas, 2017). being respected by others and being promoted may also be seen as important perks that provide a sense of employment security and that an employee may be reluctant to sacrifice in the employment relationship (döckel, 2003). perceptions of workplace friendship opportunities address employees’ psychological need for relatedness which could explain the association with higher levels of affective commitment. attachment theory views connectedness as beneficial for human development because it engenders positive feelings of belonging within a particular social group or situation (schultheiss, 2003; yuen & yau, 2015). affective commitment is also seen to originate from feelings of belongingness in the workplace (jaros et al., 1993). building on the premises of organisational attachment theory (st clair, 2000), workplace friendships also serve as a source of intrinsic reward, support and information which may lead to employees feeling more secure in the employment relationship. the social support engendered by workplace friendships serves to form a holding environment for employees in which they feel safe and supported as members of the group (d’cruz & noronha, 2011; kahn, 2001). the results suggest that perceptions of workplace friendships may be important emotional reasons why employees desire to remain with the organisation. the findings corroborate the notion that friendship and co-worker relations are some of the emotional reasons that explain employees’ affective commitment (colquitt, lepine & wesson, 2017). contrary to the expectation that strong career concerns would explain lower levels of commitment, the results showed that high preoccupations with balancing one’s work and life, reducing one’s workload and settling down explained higher levels of affective commitment (i.e. feeling a strong sense of belonging to the organisation, desiring to remain with the organisation the rest of one’s career) and normative commitment (i.e. feeling obliged to remain because a sense of loyalty for what one gained from the organisation). the finding could be attributed to the premise that career concerns can either function as challenge appraisals (i.e. perception of a situation as having potential for growth) of the career situation or hindrance appraisals (i.e. frustrations because of being obstructed in pursuing self-relevant goals; searle & auton, 2015). it appears that in the context of the present study, work–life adjustment concerns functioned as challenge appraisals of the employment relationship. research indicates that organisational retention practices that address employees’ need for work–life balance and flexible work schedules enhance their organisational commitment (döckel, 2003). seen through the theoretical lens of organisational attachment theory (st clair, 2000), such working conditions may be seen to strengthen the employment relationship, which in turn explain the higher levels of affective and normative commitment. research also shows that work–life balance considerations by the organisation enhance employees’ job and career satisfaction (takawira, 2017). implications for theory and practice the findings extend organisational attachment theory (st clair, 2000) by utilising organisational attachment theory as theoretical framework in explaining the role of sacrifice, workplace friendship and career concerns in employees’ organisational commitment. exploring perceptions of person–job sacrifice, friendship opportunity and work–life adjustment concerns as explanatory mechanisms of participants’ levels of commitment, the findings offer deeper insights into why employees feel psychologically attached to and desire to remain in the organisation. practically, addressing the underlying psychological needs espoused by employees’ perceptions of person–job sacrifice, friendship opportunity and work/life adjustment concerns are important to consider in human resource talent management practices. the constructs speak to employees’ sense of employment security which influences their organisational commitment. human resource practices that support formal discussions with employees regarding their feelings about their jobs (i.e. offering adequate autonomy), relatedness with others (i.e. respect, workplace friendships and social support) and work–life balance policies and practices may facilitate commitment towards the organisation. limitations the study should be seen as an exploratory study because of the non-probability convenience sampling procedure applied. the findings are limited to the higher educational institution and the demographics of the sample who participated in the study and cannot be generalised to other occupational and demographical contexts. because of the cross-sectional quantitative research design, no cause–effect relations could be established. future longitudinal studies with larger sample sizes in various occupational contexts that provide a broader demographic representation of the south african population are recommended. single-source, self-report data can further introduce common method bias into the results. future studies should assess for common method bias. however, certain procedural remedies were followed to mitigate the effects of common method bias such as using various scale formats, unrelated measures and protecting the anonymity of the respondents. conclusion employees’ psychological attachment to their organisation remains an important topic of inquiry for organisations concerned about improving their talent management practices. drawing from organisational attachment theory, the findings of the study offer new insights into how employees’ perceptions of person–job sacrifice, workplace friendship opportunity and work–life adjustment concerns allude to their sense of employment security in the organisation which in turn accounts for higher levels of organisational commitment. human resource practitioners and managers could utilise the findings to inform the organisation’s talent management practices for the purpose of retaining valuable staff members. acknowledgements competing interests the authors hereby declare that they have no conflict of interest and that the manuscript has not been submitted elsewhere for either review or publication. authors’ contributions all three authors coordinated the data collection, conducted the data analysis and made a substantial contribution to the writing of the article. references allen, n. j., & meyer, j. p. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization. journal of occupational psychology, 63(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.x ampofo, e. y., coetzer, a., & poisat, p. (2017). relationships between job embeddedness and employees’ life satisfaction. employee relations: the international journal, 39(7), 951–966. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-10-2016-0199 bester, s. m. (2017). toward constructing a psychosocial model of career wellbeing for the south african working adult. (unpublished doctoral thesis), university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. bowlby, j. 1979. the making and breaking of affectional bonds. london: tavistock. bushe, b. (2012). factors that determine academic staff retention and commitment in private tertiary institutions in botswana: empirical review. global advanced research journal of management and business studies, 1(9), 278–299. coetzee, m. (2015). employees’ psychosocial career preoccupations in relation to their work-related commitment. southern african business review, 19(3), 30–47. colquitt, j. a., lepine, j. a., & wesson, m. j. (2017). organizational behavior: improving performance and commitment in the workplace (5th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill education. d’cruz, p., & noronha, e. (2011). the limits of workplace friendship. managerialist hrm and bystander behaviour in the context of workplace bullying. employee relations, 33(3), 269–288. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425451111121777 deas, a. j. (2017). constructing a psychological retention profile for diverse generational groups in the higher educational environment. (unpublished doctoral thesis), university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. döckel, a. (2003). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. (unpublished master’s thesis). university of pretoria, pretoria. hair, j. f., babin, b. j., & anderson, r. e. (2010). multivariate data analysis: a global perspective. (7th edn.). pearson education, upper saddle river. hassan, s. (2012). employee attachment to workplace: a review of organizational and occupational identification and commitment. international journal of organization theory and behavior, 15(3), 383–422. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijotb-15-03-2012-b002 jaros, s. j., jermier, j. m., koehler, j. w., & sincich, t. (1993). effects of continuance, affective, and moral commitment on the withdrawal process: an evaluation of eight structural equation models. academy of management journal, 36(5), 951–995. https://doi.org/10.2307/256642 kahn, w. a. (2001). holding environments at work. journal of applied behavioural science, 37(3), 260–279. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886301373001 kaizad, k., holtom, b. c., hom, p. w., & newman, a. (2015). job embeddedness: a multifocal theoretical extension. journal of applied psychology, 100(3), 641–659. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038919 khaleel, m., chelliah, s., khalid, j., jamil, m., & manzoor, f. (2016). employee engagement as an outcome of friendship at workplace: moderating role of job embeddedness. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 6(6), 2222–6990. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v6-i6/2171 kontoghiorghes, c. (2016). linking high performance organisational culture and talent management: satisfaction/motivation and organisational commitment as mediators. the international journal of human resource management, 27(16), 1833–1853. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1075572 mcallister, c. p., harris, j. n., hochwarter, w. a., perrewé, p. l., & ferris, g. r. (2017). got resources? a multi-sample constructive replication of perceived resource availability’s role in work passion-job outcomes relationships. journal of business and psychology, 32, 147–164. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-016-9441-1 meyer, j. p., & allen, n. j. (1991). a three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment. human resource management review, 1(1), 61–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/1053-4822(91)90011-z meyer, j. p., & allen, n. j. (1997). commitment in the workplace – theory, research and application. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. meyer, j. p., & herscovitch, l. (2001). commitment in the workplace: toward a general model. human resource management review, 11(3), 299–326. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(00)00053-x meyer, j. p., kam, c., goldenberg, i., & bremner, n. l. (2013). organizational commitment in the military: application of a profile approach. military psychology, 25(4), 381–401. https://doi.org/10.1037/mil0000007 meyer, j. p., stanley, d. j., jackson, t. a., mcinnis, k. j., maltin, e. r., & sheppard, l. (2012). affective, normative, and continuance commitment levels across cultures: a meta-analysis. journal of vocational behavior, 80(2), 225–245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.09.005 milner, k., russel, j., & siemers, i. (2010). friendship in socially isolating work environments. south african journal of psychology, 40(2), 204–213. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124631004000210 mitchell, t. r., holtom, b, lee, t. w., sablynski, c., & erez, m. (2001). why people stay: using job embeddedness to predict voluntary turnover. academy of management journal, 44(6), 1102–1121. nielsen, i. k., jex, s. m., & adams, g. a. (2000). development and validation of scores on a two-dimensional workplace friendship scale. educational and psychological measurement, 60(4), 628–643. https://doi.org/10.1177/00131640021970655 potgieter, i. l., & ferreira, n. (2018). female human resource professionals’ job embeddedness in relation to commitment foci: an exploratory study. acta commercii, 18(1), a493. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v18i1.493 qureshi, h., frank, j., lambert, e. g., klahm, c., & smith, b. (2017). organisational justice’s relationship with job satisfaction and organisational commitment among indian police. the police journal: theory, practice and principles, 90(1), 3–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032258x16662684 searle, b. j., & auton, j. c. (2015). the merits of measuring challenge and hindrance appraisals. anxiety, stress, & coping, 28, 121–143. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2014.931378 setia, m. s. (2016). methodology series module 3: cross-sectional studies. indian journal of dermatology, 61(3), 261–264. https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5154.182410 solinger, o. n., hofmans, j., bal, p. m., & jansen, p. g. w. (2016). bouncing back from psychological contract breach: how commitment recovers over time. journal of organizational behavior, 37, 494–514. https://doi.org/10.1002/job schultheiss, d. e. p. (2003). a relational approach to career counseling: theoretical integration and practical application. journal of counseling and development, 81(3), 301–310. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6678.2003.tb00257.x st. clair, l. (2000). organizational attachment: exploring the psychodynamics of the employment relationship. smithfield, ri: bryant college. super, d. e. (1990). a life-span, life-space approach to career development. in d. brown & l. brooks (eds.), career choice and development (2nd edn., pp. 197–261). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. tabachnick, b. g., & fidell, l. s. (2001). using multivariate statistics (4th edn.). boston, ma: allyn and bacon. takawira, n. (2017). constructing a psychosocial profile for enhancing the career success of south african professional women. (unpublished doctoral thesis), university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. yuen, m., & yau, j. (2015). relation of career adaptability to meaning in life and connectedness among adolescents in hong kong. journal of vocational behavior, 91, 147–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2015.10.003 van dyk, j. (2012). the relationship between organisational commitment, retention factors and perceived job embeddedness. (unpublished master’s dissertation), university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. winstead, b. a., derlega, v., montgomery, a. j., & pilkington, c. (1995). the quality of friendships at work and job satisfaction. journal of social and personal relationships. 12(2), 199–215. https://doi.org/10.117/0265407595122003 wu, c., & parker, s. k. (2017). the role of leader support in facilitating proactive work behaviour: a perspective from attachment theory. journal of management, 43(4), 1025–1049. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314544745 abstract introduction research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) vusi mthimkhulu department of psychology, college of human sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa hugo d. van der walt institute of open and distance learning research unit, college of education, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation mthimkhulu, v., & van der walt, h.d. (2021). exploring the relevancy of random and scheduled alcohol breathalyser testing in high-risk jobs within safety-sensitive work settings. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1632. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1632 project research registration: project number: 35353740 original research exploring the relevancy of random and scheduled alcohol breathalyser testing in high-risk jobs within safety-sensitive work settings vusi mthimkhulu, hugo d. van der walt received: 08 apr. 2021; accepted: 08 june 2021; published: 23 july 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: workplace testing is seen as a viable method in monitoring alcohol intoxication in the workplace. this article explored lived experiences of random and scheduled alcohol breathalyser testing to gain insights into meaning and understanding of the phenomenon under study. research purpose: random and scheduled testing are preferred techniques of assessing intoxication in the workplace. this article set to gain insights into whether behaviour can have an influence on the effectiveness of random and scheduled testing. the information can contribute to the ongoing debate on the efficacy of workplace testing and lays groundwork for future studies. motivation for the study: emergent data seem to suggest that the success of workplace testing in preventing alcohol and substance use in the workplace is indecisive. research approach/design and method: a qualitative method was employed to collect data from eight alcohol-consuming individuals who performed jobs considered safety-sensitive through semi-structured interviews. data were analysed through the application of an interpretative phenomenological analysis (ipa). main findings: findings revealed incidents of alcohol intoxication within the workplace in spite of random and scheduled testing in place. there seems to be a disregard for rules that prohibit intoxication in the workplace. money bribes seem to enable cheating on testing in the workplace. behaviour undercuts the goal of an alcohol-free workplace. practical implications: behaviour stemming from on-site intoxication and cheating on alcohol tests hinders on the goal of attaining an alcohol-free workplace. contribution/value-add: the analysis of behaviour could contribute to the ongoing debate regarding the efficacy of workplace testing. keywords: alcohol-free workplace; cheating on alcohol tests; high-risk jobs; on-site intoxication; random and scheduled testing safety-sensitive; alcohol breathalyser testing; cheating on alcohol test; safety-sensitive environment. introduction a definition of a healthy workplace has changed overtime to include health and wellness of individuals at work. according to world health organization (who), a healthy workplace is a space where individuals work together to achieve a vision for good health and well-being of workers (burton, 2010). old models of workspaces excluded health and wellness aspects and tended to focus wholly on the physical environment such as the building or office space. on the contrary, modern workspaces seem to take a holistic approach of the working environment by recognising health aspects such as well-being, lifestyle, social integration, organisational values and culture (burton, 2010). other workspaces have gone as far as including safety as a priority of a working environment (i.e. safety-sensitive). safety-sensitive work settings involve working groups that engage in high-risk and safety-related job functions (smook, ubbink, ryke, & strydom, 2017). these jobs comprise tasks that are likely to have a bearing on health and safety of all workers, for example an engineer in a chemical plant. for that reason, such workspaces tend to prohibit alcohol consumption and other substances because of concerns for safety in the workplace (hartwell, steele, park, & rodman, 1998). it is therefore common for such workspaces to implement alcohol and drug testing on employees to mitigate work-related risks caused by substance use (cook, 2014; olbina, hinze, & arduengo, 2011; swartz, 2004). workers also value the importance of safety in the workplace and tend to denounce any on-site alcohol consumption behaviour of their co-workers (olbina et al., 2011). despite this, incidents of intoxication seem to prevail in safety-sensitive working environments. this article explored lived experiences of alcohol-consuming individuals who perform jobs considered high-risk and exposed to random and scheduled testing in safety-sensitive settings to gain insights on behaviour under study. research purpose and objectives an alcoholand drug-free workplace is seen to contribute to sustainability and profitability of the workplace (olbina et al., 2011). to achieve this, organisations rely on workplace testing to lower intoxication in the workplace (carpenter, 2007). however, data have emerged indicating that the interpretation that workplace testing is effective in preventing alcohol consumption remains inconclusive (pidd & roche, 2014). this article explored, as a first step, lived experiences of alcohol-consuming individuals performing safety-sensitive jobs to gain better insight that can contribute towards the ongoing discourse regarding the workplace testing. by focussing on behaviour, it is possible to gain understanding of whether it can influence the effectiveness of random and scheduled testing techniques. the behavioural insights can therefore contribute to the debate on the usefulness of alcohol testing and its relevancy in the workplace. literature studies in canada and the united states of america have found that work-related incidents (including fatalities and accidents) in the workplace are associated with alcohol consumption (swartz, 2004; olbina et al., 2011; wuebker, 1986). according to wuebker (1986), safety-related incidents in the workplace were linked directly to mistakes made by workers than machines. thus, a single mistake by an employee because of alcohol consumption at work is likely to put the lives of other employees at risk, especially if those workers perform critical safety job functions (marques, jesus, olea, vairinhos, & jacinto, 2014). another study that evaluated the effect of blood alcohol concentration (bac) laws for driving a motor vehicle in canada has established that alcohol can impair cognitive functioning, hampering the individual’s ability to monitor ongoing interferences in the environment (blais, bellavance, marcil, & carnis, 2015). compatibly, nearly 5% of work-related injuries within the transport industry have been attributed to alcohol consumption during working hours (greenberg, hamilton, & toscano, 1999). these insights are a cause for concern because certain jobs considered high-risk within safety-sensitive work settings can involve operating a motor vehicle (i.e. forklift, truck or an ambulance). alcohol can therefore heighten the worker’s risk of causing an accident in the workplace, particularly when that worker performs a high-risk job (swartz, 2004). it is posited that between 1990 and 2013, the view has been that workplace testing was an effective strategy in preventing substance use or improving safety in the workplace (pidd & roche, 2014). for that reason, organisations tend to rely on testing to mitigate work-related risks because of concerns for safety stemming from intoxicated workers in the workplace (cook, 2014; olbina et al., 2011; swartz, 2004). organisations tend to adopt a combination of workplace testing policies and applicable legislation to monitor and manage alcohol consumption in the workplace (blais et al., 2015). in south africa, occupational health safety act (ohsa) plays a pivotal role in safeguarding health and safety of workers whose jobs are carried out in dangerous working conditions (occupational health and safety act 85 of 1993). in addition, section 10 of the ohs act, item (1–3), provides guidelines for dealing with intoxication by barring the intoxicated person(s) from entering the workplace (occupational health and safety act 85 of 1993). most workplaces in safety-sensitive industries (i.e. manufacturing, chemical, transport and mining) adhere to ohsa. to illustrate, the mining industry places the burden of safety in the workplace on its companies; however, workers also accept individual responsibility for their safety by adhering to safety regulation in the workplace (the mine health and safety act no 29, 1996). in instances where workers are found to be intoxicated in the workplace, schedule 8 of the code of good practice for dismissal embedded in the labour relations act no 66 of 1995 sets guidelines for employers wishing to exercise their right to discipline workers for intoxication by following a fair procedure (occupational health and safety act of 1993, 1993). the workplace policies and regulations are communicated to workers through pre-employment processes, training and induction and employee assistance programmes (hartwell et al., 1998; johns, 2016; phifer, 2016). another study in south africa has found that although alcohol consumption is a major problem, the challenge is that most researches on alcohol consumption and its impact in south africa have had difficulty in characterising the extent and distribution at the societal level of alcohol-related harm because of data constraints (fontes marx, london, harker burnhams, & ataguba, 2019). compatibly, the extent to which companies in south africa utilise workplace testing appear to be unrecorded apart from the vast information on suppliers of breathalyser instruments, which suggest a market demand for workplace testing. however, the south african labour guide has reported that 20% – 25% of injuries in the workplace involved employees under the influence of alcohol (rhys, 2021). for that reason, random testing within the south african context is perceived to lower incidence of workers abusing alcohol in the workplace (carpenter, 2007). random testing is a procedure that involves testing everyone or a particular group of employees unannounced without following regular testing schedule (phifer, 2016). as a result of unpredictive testing schedule, random testing has become a preferred technique of testing in the workplace because workers would not be aware of the testing schedule (marques et al., 2014; phifer, 2016). studies have also shown that random testing has a significant preventive effect on workers’ alcohol consumption patterns, thereby highlighting the positive influence on safety within the workplace (carpenter, 2007; cook, 2014; marques et al., 2014; phifer, 2016; workman, 2012). another common testing procedure is scheduled testing, which takes place daily on-site upon arrival and before workers commence work (phifer, 2016). scheduled testing is compulsory and known to employees as part of routine work procedures (marques et al., 2014; phifer, 2016). according to workman (2012), this testing procedure is likely to influence employee’s alcohol consumption patterns because testing is routine and known (workman, 2012). local and international studies seem to indicate that random and scheduled testing are common and preferred techniques of monitoring and managing intoxication in the workplace (carpenter, 2007; cook, 2014; marques et al., 2014; phifer, 2016; workman, 2012). then again, there is an indication that organisations aspire to the idea of a drug-free workplace, which strengthens the business case for workplace testing. for example, a drug-free workplace is perceived to lower the rates of employee absence, decrease the rates of employee compensation claims, improve safety performance and enhance productivity (olbina et al., 2011; phifer, 2016). employers’ organisation drug and alcohol testing industry association (datia) in the united states of america also offers workplace grants to its members on condition that they pledge commitment to drug-free workplaces (phifer, 2016). a drug-free working environment is therefore perceived to have positive influence on sustainability and profitability of a workplace (olbina et al., 2011). a study in australia has conducted a systematic qualitative review of relevant research articles published between january 1990 and january 2013 concerning the efficacy of drug (and alcohol) testing as a workplace strategy (pidd & roche, 2014). the review has revealed that the efficacy of workplace testing in preventing substance use or improving safety in the workplace is questionable (pidd & roche, 2014). the review examined in earlier studies between 2009 and 2013 found limitations in those studies because their focus was on a single industry (transport) and single occupation (drivers) (pidd & roche, 2014). the findings could therefore not be generalised to other industries or occupations (pidd & roche, 2014). furthermore, the studies under that period of review revealed the data to be unsatisfactory to conclude that workplace testing could prevent substance use or injuries (pidd & roche, 2014). this review by pidd and roche (2014) is perceived to be the broadest and most methodical qualitative approach undertaken thus far in reviewing the efficacy of workplace testing. although not proposed as the panacea to this contentious debate, this article argues against an avoidable mistake of swiftly removing what seems to work in the process of getting rid of problematic behaviour in the workplace. although the efficacy of workplace testing remains uncertain, its place in the workplace remains relevant especially because south africa is battling with substance abuse as both an individual and societal problem. in addition, the who found that out of the 48 countries in the african region, south africa had the highest per capita alcohol consumption (vellios & walbeek, 2018). correspondingly, south african community epidemiology network on drug use (sacendu) has established that alcohol is the most commonly abused substance in south africa (sutherland & ericson, 2010). thus, three out of four persons in the workplace are likely to be alcohol users (fourie, 2017). this article assessed human behaviour and whether behaviour has an influence on the effectiveness of random and scheduled testing. by exploring the lived experiences of alcohol-consuming individuals performing jobs considered high-risk within safety-sensitive where intoxication is barred can offer fresh insight towards the debate under study. according to bandura (1999), behaviour is the outcome of the interaction of three factors: the individual, the environment and the behaviour itself. in principle, the way individuals interpret the results of their personal behaviour changes their environment and their personal factors, which in turn changes behaviour (pajares, 2002). thus, the environment influences how an individual thinks and feels, which in turn influences his or her behaviour. the interaction between these factors can therefore offer understanding of behaviour. this article adopted this theoretical approach to gain insights into behaviour. research design research approach this article adopted an interpretivist qualitative approach, which enabled detailed discussions with the research participants in exploring to gain understanding of their lives and what was occurring in their lives as seen by them (gough & lyons, 2016). the qualitative approach was appropriate in streamlining lived experiences and preserving the true essence of individuals’ accounts as told by them and contributed in developing and strengthening multiple understandings and capturing the essence of meaning from individuals’ viewpoints (thanh, thi, & thanh, 2015). the qualitative approach was therefore deemed fit to seize the first-hand insights of the phenomenon under investigation (smith, flowers, & larkin, 2012). research strategy face-to-face interviews were a strategic move to seize in-depth insights from research participants on the topic. a maximum of an hour-long interview with each participant yielded detailed accounts of the worldview of participants as seen by them. the human contact enabled the participants to reflect on what is occurring in their lives, which enabled the researcher to capture true essence of lived experiences. this contact with research participants offered a window to a side of humanity (thanh et al., 2015). research method the study is exploratory in nature and seeks to gain new understanding into a topic under study (mayer, 2015). this article aimed to contribute towards the ongoing debate and to lay groundwork for future studies as opposed to articulating concluding proof under the topic at hand (mayer, 2015). the exploratory method was deemed fit in accordance with the aims and objectives of the study. research setting the data were collected within the johannesburg and midvaal area, south africa. the identified areas are located close to industrial sites that house various companies considered to be safety-sensitive (i.e. manufacturing, chemical, steel and mining). entrée and establishing researcher roles mr vusi mthimkhulu of this article is a postgraduate student at the university of south africa in pretoria. mr hugo denton van der walt is an academic staff member at the institute for open and distance learning (iodl), university of south africa in pretoria. the first researcher collected the data, analysed and interpreted it, whilst the second researcher oversaw the process and assisted in interpreting and structuring the research-reporting process. furthermore, the second researcher assisted with the application for permission from the university’s ethics committee. research participants and sampling the sample consisted of eight male individuals between the ages of 32 and 60 years. the individuals highlighted that they were prone to consuming alcohol outside working hours and performed tasks at work deemed safety-sensitive; thus, they were frequently exposed to random and scheduled alcohol testing procedures. a purposive snowball sampling technique was employed, which involved asking those who have already been approached to refer other individuals (within the similar inclusion criteria set out by the researcher) who may be interested in taking part in a study (smith, flowers, & larkin, 2012). data collection the interviews were conducted through the application of a face-to-face and semi-structured process that was applied by the researcher through an interview guide. this approach allowed capturing the dialogue real time in three different languages preferred by individuals under study (i.e. isizulu, sesotho and english). an interview guide consisted of 19 questions divided into 5 sections (i.e. part a – e). the structure of questions included 7 closed questions and 12 open-ended questions. the open-ended questions encouraged the participants to deliver detailed information under the discussion and allowed the researcher to pursue meaning. the closed questions included prompts to encourage engagement and bolster the conversation, which is consistent with interpretative phenomenological analysis (ipa) approach to assist with the flow of an interview process (smith et al., 2012). the questions were formulated with consideration of behaviour as the outcome of the interaction of three factors: the individual, the environment and the behaviour itself (bandura, 1999; pajares, 2002). the interviews were conducted for an hour and were recorded by using an electronic recorder to capture true accounts (verbatim) of individuals’ lived experiences and perceptions of the phenomenon under study (smith et al., 2012). interviews were later translated and transcribed to english for the data analysis processes (smith et al., 2012). strategies employed to ensure data quality and integrity the study ensured scientific rigour through the application of measures ensuring trustworthiness within the qualitative approach. these components were inclusive of credibility, dependability, transferability and confirmability (zhang & wildemuth, 2005). credibility this study achieved credibility through constant interaction between the authors of this article on coding methods to ensure that the themes were efficiently drawn from raw data and represented the experiences and perceptions of the sample. in addition, the second researcher is a trained in archiv für technik, lebenswelt und alltagssprache (atlas.ti) software coding processes. transferability in this study, transferability was achieved through the interpreted analysis of the data from atlas.ti. the raw data and the printed transcripts are available for audit or further research purposes (within the limits of ethical consideration discussed in the consent form). the availability of the coding methods in analysing data to deduce meaning also provides a basis to which other researchers could make their own conclusions about the findings of the study. dependability the transcribed interviews, field notes, reflective notes from the notebook and the codebook can be available on request in the event of an audit trial, thus ensuring dependability. confirmability in this study, the substantiation of field notes, interpretative notes from the codebook, the coding process followed and the appendices to the study are kept in a safe place for audit purposes. data analysis the data were analysed by employing an ipa, also known as hermeneutic phenomenology (smith et al., 2012). hermeneutics is concerned with the appreciation of language in interpreting messages that simplify the experiences and perceptions of the world as seen and experienced by the individuals as opposed to controlled methods that seek to offer neutral validation of the world (malterud, 2016). in addition, ipa is deemed appropriate to study a range of psychological topics, thus fitting for data analysis processes (smith et al., 2012). the analysis process therefore involved identifying patterns between emergent themes from data and developing them into superordinate and subordinate themes through the use of atlas.ti software. the themes belonging together were clustered and reduced into meaning according to the lived experiences and perceptions of the individuals under discussion. the collated codes and themes were further cross-checked and discussed until a consensus was reached. reporting style the topic under study identified four major themes. these themes focussed on the aspects of behaviour in accordance with literature under study. the findings were reported according to the themes, with each finding supported by direct quotations from the individuals under study. ethical considerations the individuals who took part in the discussion were given information sheets and consent forms that specified the purpose and aims of the research including the right to participate or withdraw from the research (voluntarily), privacy and confidentiality of information, limitation of anonymity and risks to potential harm. the information sheets and consent forms were discussed in detail prior to individuals signing consent to take part in research. the authors applied for permission from the ethics committee of the university of south africa (unisa), department of psychology (ref. no: perc-17401). individuals’ names were replaced with pseudo names (i.e. p1–p8) to protect identities and ensure anonymity. results four themes emerged during data analysis, namely (1) awareness of workplace testing policies and procedures, (2) interaction with working environment, (3) perceived control of behaviour and (4) meaning of lived experiences. the themes are discussed in detail in the next section. awareness of workplace testing policies and procedures the focus of this particular theme was to capture individuals’ knowledge, awareness and understanding of workplace policies and procedures that monitored intoxication in the workplace. the emphasis on policies and testing techniques was to seize insights into individual’s alertness to the working environment that prohibited intoxication when onsite. individuals emphasised knowledge of workplace policies and procedures. this corresponded with literature that organisations tend to communicate policies and procedures through workplace practices such as pre-employment processes, training, induction and employee assistance programmes (cook, 2014; hartwell et al., 1998; johns, 2016; phifer, 2016). the individuals were therefore not only familiar with workplace testing practices, but they also were continually aware of their existence and the penalties thereof. the following extracts have reference to awareness: ‘yes, we know about it, it was communicated, we consented and then we signed, you will be disciplined coming to work being under the influence of liquor.’ (p2, male, union representative) ‘it’s a rule they read you when they hired you because we work with dangerous things.’ (p8, male, machine operator) ‘it’s even there in induction, it’s rule number one because it falls under min. even if you are about 18 metres away from the gate, you should be sober.’ (p4, male, welder) random and scheduled testing were emphasised as common in the workplace, which concurred with the view that random and scheduled testing were predominant forms of testing in the workplace (cook, 2014; marques et al., 2014; phifer, 2016; workman, 2012). the individuals also revealed that testing for alcohol intensified on mondays and fridays, perhaps because of the closeness of these particular days to weekends when alcohol abuse is to be expected. this practice points to the gravity of the problem of intoxication in the workplace. the following excerpts indicated this practice: ‘it was random, especially on mondays and fridays.’ (p2, male, union representative) ‘testing is usually performed every day before they conduct their work, but more efficiently on mondays and fridays.’ (p1, male, policy enforcer) ‘they did a random test, but now they test every day, especially on mondays, and if they are suspicious that people are under the influence of alcohol.’ (p7, male, loading inspector) the data showed awareness of penalties if found intoxicated in the workplace. the data agreed with studies that organisations followed a procedural approach in dealing with penalties for intoxication in the workplace (cook, 2014; department of labour of south africa, 1993; olbina et al., 2011). it is however not clear whether this lenient approach is effective in deterring intoxication in the workplace: ‘the first time it’s a warning, second time it will be a serious warning, third time it will be a dismissal.’ (p2, male, union representative) ‘they send you home and that means you are being dismissed from work.’ (p3, male, chemical transport officer) ‘and tomorrow they find the very same percentage in you, now you should go to hearing; they dismiss you because that means you are not determined.’ (p6, male, rigger) interaction with working environment under this theme, the focus was on how workers interacted with the working environment that prohibited intoxication in the workplace. by emphasising interaction with working environment that prohibited intoxication, it was possible to gain insights into individuals’ thoughts and interpretations, which could provide insights on behaviour. according to social cognitive learning, behaviour can be viewed as the outcome of the interaction amongst the individual, environment and behaviour (pajares, 2002). data highlighted drunkenness onsite and money enabling intoxication in the workplace in spite of policies and procedures in place. the individuals’ actions under this theme interpreted the interaction amongst individuals, environment and behaviour as posited by bandura (1999) and pajares (2002). the following excerpts highlight this practice: ‘employees come in with alcohol and get it in with lunchbox or bags. he takes it somewhere cleverly as if he’s drinking a cold drink; meanwhile he’s doing his things [getting drunk on-site].’ (p8, male, machine operator) ‘when they’ve tested you and find that you are wrong you give them [security personnel] “coca cola” [street name for money] and you get in. r40 you get in.’ (p4, male, welder) ‘people will come to work drunk, you will just observe the behaviour when a person is doing something wrong.’ (p1, male, policy enforcer) ‘there was a day that we were going to lunch with this thing called sleeve (a brown article bag), mostly we put in plates [food containers], but on that day we’ve put in alcohol in them and sat at the back and began drinking inside the company.’ (p4, male, welder) data revealed inconsistencies in workplace testing, which corresponded with literature that testing devices tend to react to all members of the alcohol family such as medicine and yeast (workman, 2012). however, individuals seem to exploit this flaw in workplace testing procedures even when intoxicated from alcohol. this behaviour corresponded with a study that found high incidents of cheating on alcohol tests in the workplace (olbina et al., 2011). the following excerpts indicated this practice: ‘there was a day when it [breathalyser] made orange, i said i took a cough medicine and that i just ate fat cakes which have yeast; they said i should get in. i was drunk, i entered at work drunk.’ (p4, male, welder) ‘worcester sauce reduces that alcohol. others say you must chew a newspaper, others say eat 123 [not willi ng to disclose the method]. you know there’s something called a hangover, it’s yesterday’s [alcohol] you’re not drunk.’ (p6, male, rigger) ‘there’s a time i was drunk, i felt drunk, but when i blew it made three colours, red orange and green. green gives you a pass, orange it’s either you took a medication like borstol, alcophyllex and they have alcohol. red means you are drunk.’ (p4, male, welder) perceived control of behaviour this theme focussed on individuals’ beliefs regarding workplace testing in accordance with their own understanding of what was occurring in their lives. beliefs are perceived as a channel to psychological functioning of an individual (roddenberry, 2007). the individuals emphasised that the absence of testing would lead to abandoned self-control of behaviour and work-related incidents in the workplace. this insight concurred with the view that work-related incidents in the workplace tend to be associated with alcohol consumption (blais et al., 2015; olbina et al., 2011; swartz, 2004). the following data extracts point to these beliefs: ‘if you are not tested, there is nothing that will prove that i am under the influence.’ (p1, male, policy enforcer) ‘there would have been so many accidents because the only person who is not drinking is the manager. so if you were not tested, you wouldn’t have been able to control yourself.’ (p7, male, loading inspector) ‘it helped me a lot because i ended up being a drunk to a point where i never thought i could stop drinking; i stopped drinking, because of this testing thing.’ (p6, male, rigger) the data also highlighted incidents of excessive intoxication, especially during off duty periods. individuals believed that when they were free from work demands they could engage in alcohol drinking without consideration for time and limit. this behaviour is consistent with the view that alcohol is the most common and leading substance of abuse in the context of south africa (sutherland & ericson, 2010). quotations from data point to this behaviour: ‘when i am at home relaxing, isn’t it that i am not at work, i don’t have a limit, and i drink up until i feel that i am fine.’ (p7, male, loading inspector) ‘you drink and in the morning, you will still be drunk.’ (p8, male, machine operator) ‘trust me you can drink until 06:00 and still go to work; you know that there is nothing that will test me.’ (p1, male, policy enforcer) meaning of lived experiences the emphasis of this particular theme was to capture how individuals make sense of what is occurring in their life from their point of view. as with the ipa approach, the way in which individuals describe what is occurring in their lives as seen by them can illuminate how they experience and perceive a particular phenomenon (smith et al., 2012). individuals highlighted not only feelings of regret of past behaviour but also appreciation of the present moment where alcohol consumption seemed manageable, thus suggesting a behavioural change over time. the expressed sentiments were compatible with a view that awareness is an experience of oneself as being subject to past, present and future events (arp, 2007). the individuals’ change in behaviour is thus congruent with psychological functioning as determination to change one’s circumstances (roddenberry, 2007). the following extracts are individuals’ reflections on the topic at hand: ‘sometimes you come in the factory whilst still young, you see nothing wrong, even if they dismiss you, you can apply elsewhere, but when i sit and look at things, we were doing nonsense.’ (p4, male, welder) ‘when i think about my own situation, it was bad. you have to tell yourself one thing that you are no longer a young person. step by step you must be a man, you have to change and behave like a grown-up man. i no longer do that, coming to work under the influence of liquor.’ (p7, male, loading inspector) ‘my boss, before sending me home, said to me … do you see that you are playing with your children’s bread [livelihood]?’ (p6, male, rigger) the results have shown that the individuals were aware of policies and procedures that barred intoxication in the workplace; however, they entered the workplace intoxicated thereby undermining these measures in place. the interaction between the individuals and the working environment that barred intoxication yielded insights into onsite behaviour that undermined workplace policies and procedures related to workplace testing; in addition, money enabled this behaviour. although there is an indication of technical flaws in workplace testing such as failure to sufficiently distinguish between alcohol and yeast or medication, individuals deliberately manipulated this situation even when intoxicated with alcohol. the results revealed that drinking of alcohol is excessive in the absence of monitoring mechanism found in the workplace, that is random and or scheduled testing; thus, pointing to abandoned control in behaviour and impulsivity when alcohol is involved. the results showed that when individuals reflected on past experiences, individuals could conceive of abusing alcohol and getting intoxicated in the workplace as a cause for concern; however, this realisation seemed not imaginable at the time individuals contravened workplace policies and procedures. overall, the results have revealed the aspects of behaviour that are concerning in the light of the efforts to monitor and manage intoxication in the workplace. discussion the aim of this article was not to provide an answer to the ongoing debate on the effectiveness of workplace testing but set to explore insights into behaviour and its influence on the effectiveness of workplace testing. in so doing, the article examined the lived experiences of alcohol-consuming individuals performing jobs deemed to be high-risk within safety-sensitive. whilst the efficacy of workplace testing in deterring alcohol use remains inconclusive, this article has shown that behaviour plays a role in destabilising the efforts towards monitoring and managing intoxication in the workplace. three outcomes related to behaviour were established. firstly, the seeming disregard for workplace policies and procedures in spite of the possibility of dismissal from the workplace because of intoxication. workers risk entering work settings considered to be safety-sensitive to perform high-risk tasks whilst intoxicated in spite of the policies and procedures in place. this behaviour is a cause for concern. secondly, the behaviour of entering safety-sensitive work settings intoxicated demonstrates how individuals under study interact with their working environment, which prohibits this behaviour. moreover, such behaviour is problematic, as the incidents of cheating on alcohol tests tend to be high especially in work settings considered to be safety-sensitive (olbina et al., 2011). thirdly, the excessive consumption of alcohol off duty without consideration of limit provided a glimpse on the problem of substance abuse on and off the workplace. in addition, the data under this study have revealed that individuals believed that the absence of workplace testing could lead to a total loss of control is concerning. this insight concerning the incidents of intoxication that go undetected in the workplace is curios because undetected alcohol and drug use in the workplace is perceived to cost employers approximately 25% of the workers’ salaries (fourie, 2017). the outcomes of this study point to behaviour as having an influence in the attainment of an alcohol-free workplace by weakening the effectiveness of random and scheduled testing techniques. whilst testing techniques have reported apparent gaps (i.e. inconsistent in the outcome of testing results), individuals’ behaviour seem to play a major role in widening those gaps. behaviour should therefore be taken into consideration in the debate regarding the efficacy of workplace testing. limitations and recommendations the sample was male-dominant and consisted of individuals with shop floor, engineering and safety working backgrounds within the chemical and mining industries despite gender not being an emphasis of this article. this limitation in the study could be because of safety-sensitive industries dominated by men. the snowballing sampling technique was employed to attract a diverse and representative sample of research participants interested in taking part in the study; however, it was not possible to attract a representative sample. the article focussed exclusively on random and scheduled testing as dominant forms of testing in the workplace, which excluded other forms of testing that may have contributed to the strength of the debate. future research can therefore endeavour to close this gap by adopting a holistic approach in exploring various forms of workplace testing techniques and the contribution they could make on the debate. the study is based on the data collected from the johannesburg and midvaal area, which is a limitation. the results of the study could not be generalised. conclusion based on the results indicative within this study, the behaviour of alcohol-consuming individuals seems to play a role in the interfering workplace testing in the workplace. literature shows that random testing is perceived to be effective because workers are not aware of the testing schedule, although it is known and workers are permitted entry to workplace once soberness is determined (cook, 2014; marques et al., 2014; phifer, 2016; workman, 2012). however, the outcome of this study has shown that workers still enter the workplace intoxicated. this insight points to this behaviour as more problematic in spite of the drawbacks in testing techniques such as inconsistent readings (workman, 2012). at best, individuals seem to exploit these flaws in workplace testing techniques to remain on-site whilst intoxicated and earn a daily wage. organisations should therefore strengthen their monitoring mechanisms of intoxication on-site to deal with changing behaviour of workers in the workplace. as with shortcomings to any tools of trade, the inability of testing techniques to give reliable results consistently should not provide a gap that workers can exploit to their benefit. the bribes that enable intoxicated workers to enter dangerous work settings are indicative of impairment of cognitive functioning (blais et al., 2015). thus, safety is compromised both by workers and those in charge of monitoring their behaviour at the point of entry to the workplace. this insight interprets this behaviour as the outcome of the interaction amongst the individual, the environment and the behaviour itself specified in the literature (bandura, 1999; pajares, 2002). corrupt behaviour can be challenging to overcome if the corruptor (intoxicated workers) and the corrupted (safety personnel) work in unison to undermine the restriction of alcohol in the workplace. however, surveillance technology could assist in addressing the problem by removing those complicit in corrupt behaviour in the workplace. the footage can play a pivotal role as corroborating evidence during hearings regarding contravention of rules in the workplace. the excessive consumption of alcohol off-duty without consideration of limit is indicative of alcohol as a substance commonly abused in south africa (sutherland & ericson, 2010). whilst organisations monitor and manage the problem of intoxication in the workplace, it is important to take into consideration the extent of the problem in society. thus, the removal of workers found to be intoxicated in the workplace may be a temporary solution to a bigger problem when workers are returned to their communities, where the abuse of alcohol appears widespread. this article has provided insights into challenges facing organisations in their efforts to monitor and manage human behaviour in the workplace, which tend to frustrate those efforts. for that reason, random and scheduled testing seem relevant in the context of south africa in the light of behavioural insights gained in this article. ongoing research in this area of study is vital in contributing to workplace mechanisms to restrict intoxication in the workplace. acknowledgements competing interests the author(s) declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions v.m. drafted the article from the field research supervised by h.d. v.d. w. who also assisted with editing and refining the article prior to submission. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not for profit sectors. data availability the data for this particular study are restricted to accessibility on granting permission from the university of south africa. special permission should be granted from the institution to gain access to data. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references arp, r. (2007). consciousness and awareness switched-on rheostats: a response to de quincey. journal of consciousness studies, 13(3), 101–106. bandura, a., pastorelli, c., barbaranelli, c., & caprara, g.v. (1999). self-efficacy pathways to childhood depression. journal of personality and social psychology, 76, 258–69. blais, é., bellavance, f., marcil, a., & carnis, l. (2015). effects of introducing an administrative 0.05% blood alcohol concentration limit on law enforcement patterns and alcohol-related collisions in canada. accident analysis and prevention, 82, 101–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2015.04.038 burton, j. (2010). who healthy workplace framework and model: background and supporting literature and practices. retrieved from https://www.who.int/occupational_health/healthy_workplace_framework.pdf carpenter, c.s. (2007). workplace drug testing and worker drug use. health services research, 42(2), 795–810. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6773.2006.00632.x cook, s.b.l., destavola, l., saburova, & leon, d.a. (2014). acute alcohol-related dysfunction as a predictor of employment status in a longitudinal study of working-age men in izhevsk, russia. addiction, 109(1), 44–54. department of labour of south africa. (1995). labour relations act no.66 of 1995. fontes marx, m., london, l., harker burnhams, n., & ataguba, j. (2019). usability of existing alcohol survey data in south africa: a qualitative analysis. bmj open, 9(8), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-031560 fourie, r. (2017). fatigue, substance use and sick leave of employees in a mining environment (issue may). potchefstroom: north-west university. gough, b., & lyons, a. (2016). the future of qualitative research in psychology : accentuating the positive. integrative psychological and behavioral science, 50, 234–243. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-015-9320-8 greenberg, m., hamilton, r., & toscano, g. (1999). analysis of toxicology reports from the 1993–1994 census of fatal occupational injuries. compensation and working conditions fall, 26–28. hartwell, t. d., steele, p. d., park, t., & rodman, n. f. (1998). workplace alcohol-testing programs: prevalence and trends reveal that alcohol testing of employees is on the rise. monthly labor review, 121(6), 27–34. johns, d.v. (2016). the national labor relations board’s misapplication of weingarten rights to employer substance abuse testing programs. labor law journal, 67(1), 285–97. malterud, k. (2016). theory and interpretation in qualitative studies from general practice: why and how? scandinavian journal of public health, 44(2), 120–129. https://doi.org/10.1177/1403494815621181 marques, p.h., jesus, v., olea, s.a., vairinhos, v., & jacinto, c. (2014). the effect of alcohol and drug testing at the workplace on individual’ s occupational accident risk. safety science, 68, 108–120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2014.03.007 mayer, i. (2015). qualitative research with focus on qualitative data analysis. international journal of sales, retailing and marketing, 4(9), 53–68. mine health and safety council. (1996). mine health and safety act 29 of 1996 and regulations final booklet. mine healthy and safety council, no. 29: 1–588. retrieved n.d., from http://www.mhsc.org.za/site/sites/default/files/public/publications/mine health and safety act 29 of 1996 and regulations final booklet.pdf https://www.mhsc.org.za/sites/default/files/public/publications/mine health and safety act 29 of 1996 and regulatio. olbina, s., hinze, j., & arduengo, c. (2011). drug testing practices in the us construction industry in 2008. construction management and economics, 29, 1043–1057. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2011.631553 pajares, f. (2002). overview of social cognitive theory and of self-efficacy. 20, pp. 1–9. retrieved from http://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/pajares/eff.html phifer, r. (2016). a sensible approach to workplace drug testing for cannabis. journal of chemical health & safety, 24(2), 34–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchas.2016.06.004 pidd, k., & roche, a.m. (2014). how effective is drug testing as a workplace safety strategy? a systematic review of the evidence. accident analysis and prevention, 71, 154–165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2014.05.012 rhys, e. (2021). employers take note: claims for workplace injuries can be repudiated if alcohol-related. iol business report. retrieved from https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/opinion/employers-take-note-claims-for-workplace-injuries-can-be-repudiated-if-alcohol-related-b3253e93-cd90-4158-b727-8cb25702915b roddenburry, a, & renk, k. (2010). locus of control and self-efficacy: potential mediators of stress, illnes, and utilization of heath services in college students. child psychiatry & human development, 41(4), 353–70. https://doi.org/doi:10.1007/s10578-010-0173-6. shenai, v.a. (1993). occupational health and safety act, retrieved n.d., from https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/act85of1993.pdf. smith, j., flowers, p., & larkin, m. (2012). interpretative phenomenological analysis: theory, method and research. london, england: sage. smook, b., ubbink, m., ryke, e., & strydom, h. (2017). substance abuse and the workplace: a situation analysis. social work/maatskaplike werk, 54(2), 194–209. https://doi.org/10.15270/54-2-633 sutherland, m.e., & ericson, r. (2017). abuse, and treatment in people of african descent. journal of black studies, 41(1), 71–88. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934708331169 swartz, j. (2004). breath testing for prosecutors: targeting hardcore impaired drivers. alexandria, va: american prosecutors research institute. thanh, n.c., thi, t., & thanh, l. (2015). the interconnection between interpretivist paradigm and qualitative methods in education. american journal of educational science, 1(2), 24–27. vellios, n.g., & walbeek, c.p. (2018). self-reported alcohol use and binge drinking in south africa: evidence from the national income dynamics study, 2014–2015. samj, 108(1), 33–39. https://doi.org/10.7196/samj.2017.v108i1.12615 workman, t.e. (2012). the science behind breath testing for ethanol. university of massachusetts law review, 7(1), article 4. wuebker, l.j. (1986). safety locus of control as a predictor of industrial accidents and injuries. journal of business and psychology, 1(1), 19–30. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01014164 zhang, y., & wildemuth, b.m. (2005). qualitative analysis of content. human brain mapping, 30(7), 2197–2206. 7huysamenschepers.qxd leadership and creativity have been studied extensively but separately; it seems that there is a void in the literature with regard to the correlation between the two (kirkpatrick, 1991). furthermore, research on the importance of leadership as a key to success in business has been established. roodt (2001) and schlechter (2001) showed that creative traits can explain an increase in profits, a decrease in stock losses and also labour turnover. based on personal experience the researcher has found that one of the biggest challenges in leadership development is to identif y specific developmental needs, and focus training accordingly. even more problematic is the selection of creative people. leadership traits according to ackermann, schepers, lessing, and dannhauser (2000) research has made it clear that successful leaders are not like other people. the evidence indicates that there are certain core traits that significantly contribute to a business leader’s success. while none of the traits reviewed by stogdill (1948, 1974) were found in all studies to be associated with leadership, the consistency with which some traits were found to be associated with leadership and the magnit udes of these associations are impressive. for example, the traits that most consistently showed high correlations with leadership were intelligence (mann, 1959); dominance (dyson, fleitas and scioli, 1972; rychlak, 1963); self-esteem (bass, 1957); task ability (marak, 1964, bass, 1961); and sociability (kaess, witryol and nolan, 1961). kreitner and kinicki (2001, p. 555) states that we can no longer afford to ignore the implications of leadership traits because traits play a central role in how we perceive leaders. kirkpatrick and locke (1991) argue that there is less clear evidence for traits such as creativity, originality and flexibility. these authors believe that the key leadership traits help the leader to � acquire the necessary skills; � formulate an organisational vision, and an effective plan for pursuing it; � and take the necessary steps to implement the vision. if a positive correlation can be found between creativity and leadership style then the question arises as to whether some leaders are more creative than others. transformational and transactional leadership it appears from the literature that transformational leadership as conceptualised by burns (1978), is currently a major focus area. according to ackerman et al., (2000, p.58) transformational leadership, probably serves as the most appropriate style in managing the changes presently taking place in south african organisations. transactional leadership st yle focuses on interpersonal transactions between managers and employees. leaders are seen as engaging in behaviours that maintain a quality interaction between themselves and followers (kreitner & kinicki, 2001, p. 567). according to gibson (1997, p.313) the leader helps the followers identif y what must be done to accomplish the desired results, i.e. better quality output, more sales or services and reduced cost of production. in helping the followers identif y what must be done, the leader takes into consideration each person’s self-concept and esteem needs. transformational leadership is viewed as a special case of transactional leadership, and unlike the external rewards promised by transactional leaders, the employee’s reward is internal (gibson, 1997). transformational leadership according to bass and avolio (1985) transformat ional leaders motivate others to do more than they originally intended and often even more that they thought possible. they set more challenging expectat ions and t y pically achieve higher performance. transformational leaders do more with colleagues and followers than set up simple exchange agreements. r huysamen j m schepers j za aiman programme leadership in performance and change department of human resources rand afrikaans university abstract the article argues that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between leadership style and creativity. it was found that there is a higher statistically significant positive relation between transformational leadership style and creativity than between creativity and the other leadership styles. creativity (fluency of thought and originality) can partially be accounted for by the multifactor leadership questionnaire. to demonstrate this in the study, the researcher uses, firstly the multifactor leadership questionnaire to identif y leadership style, and secondly three measuring instruments that measure creativity. the argument is substantiated by the results of a statistical analysis of leadership style and creativity. opsomming hierdie artikel argumenteer dat daar ’n statisities-beduidende positiewe verband bestaan tussen leierskapstyl en kreatiwiteit. daar is bevind dat daar ’n hoër statisties-beduidende positiewe verband tussen transformasionele leierskapstyl en kreatiwiteit is as tussen kreatiwiteit en die ander leierskapstyle. kreatiwiteit (vlotheid van denke en oorspronklikheid) kan gedeeltelik verklaar word deur die veelfaktorleierskapvraelys (mlq). om dit te illustreer, gebruik die navorsers in hierdie studie die veelfaktorleierskapvraelys ten einde leierskapstyl te identifiseer en tweedens drie meetinstrumente wat kreatiwiteit meet. die argument word gesubstansieer deur die resultate van ’n statistiese ontleding van leierskapstyle en kreatiwiteit. the behavioural and personality correlates of transactional and transformational leadership requests for copies should be addressed to: r huysamen, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 53 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (2), 53-59 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (2), 53-59 creativity although there is seemingly less clear evidence of creativity as a trait that leaders possess, an abundance of research have been done on creativity as such (getzels, 1964; greeno, 1978; sternberg, 1999). divergent thinking and ideational fluency of thought according to guilford (1957) it is in divergent thinking that we find the most obvious indications of creativity. divergent thinking ability require individuals to produce several responses to a specific prompt. the more responses the individual produces, the higher the ideational fluency ability of the person (guilford,1962). associational fluency of thought creative thinking has been viewed by mednick (1962) as the recombining of associative elements that either meet specified requirements or are in some way useful. he argues that solutions may occur through mediation (combination via common elements). mednick (1967) argues that the greater the number of associations that an individual has with the requisite elements of a problem, the greater the probability of his reaching a creative solution. to assess creativity, mednick (1962) devised the remote associates test (rat). originality of thought originality of thought is defined by cougar (1995, p.370) as ‘the capacity to produce unusual ideas, solve problems in unusual ways, and use things and situations in an unusual manner’. originality consists of uniqueness and nonconformity with thought and action. barron (1955) argues that original must be defined relative to usual, and the degree of originality must be specified in terms of incidence of occurrence. thus the first criterion of an original response is that it should have a certain specifiable uncommonness. sternberg (1999, p.450) states that there appears to be consensus that the t wo defining characteristics of creativity are originality and usefulness. creativity and problem solving guilford (1957) argues that creative steps are necessary in solving new problems. a problem only exists because the situation presents the necessity for new productions of some kind. factors are abstractions of components from total activities. some of the components are recognised as being more creative than others, for example, qualities of originality and fluency. creativity is therefore not a gift possessed by rare and exceptional individuals (though some components are undeniably more creative), but all individuals are creative to some extent. this study has attempted to establish whether a correlation exists between creativity and behavioural leadership style. method this section describes the method that was employed in the study, including a description of the target population, raters and measuring instruments. participants/respondents all students currently enrolled for their mba and m.com. degrees comprised the population of interest. the unit of study (cooper, 1998, p.215) consisted of students who are busy with their master’s degrees in three different universities in the gauteng area in south africa. the sampling method used is non-probability sampling as defined by cooper (1998, p.237). for the purpose of this research judgement sampling was used as a type of purposive sampling. the researcher selected sample members who conformed to some attributes. the most common attribute of masters’ students is their work experience on managerial level. the researcher believes that although the use of students may imply homogeneous groups, this sample is more heterogeneous due to the fact that the respondents have managerial experience as a common attribute. the sample size (n) was 196. measuring instruments transformational leadership was measured by the multifactor leadership questionnaire (mlq) developed by bass and avolio (1985). the mlq measures a broad range of leadership style from laissez-fair to idealised influence. the mlq consists of 45 items loading on four factors that represent the full range model. ideational fluency and originality of thought were measured by two divergent thinking ability tests similar to those developed by chand and runco (1993). the first test assessed ideational fluency and originality of thought in respect of a concrete concept, eg. � list the uses of a paper clip, and the second test assessed ideational fluency and originality of thought in respect of an abstract concept, eg. � list the possible solutions for crime in sa. associational fluency of thought was measured by the remote associates test as developed by thompson (1993). complete records were obtained in respect of 178 participants. procedure the research procedure comprised the following steps: � the researcher administered the questionnaires in person. � respondents were told that confidentiality would be maintained. � respondents were asked to complete the multifactor leadership questionnaire answer sheet. it was explained to the respondents that the questionnaire consists of statements about typical leadership behaviour and they were asked to indicate how often they behave in a certain way. the items required that the respondents should indicate how strongly they identif y with the behaviour. because the questionnaire was self-explanatory the respondents did not have to provide their names. this took approximately 20 minutes. � respondents then completed the remote associates test. a number of practice examples were given before beginning the test. the amount of time allocated for the remote associates test was 20 minutes. � respondents then completed the two divergent thinking ability tests. explicit instructions were given in order to ensure that respondents understood that the alternatives generated should be different from one another. the respondents were asked to be as creative as possible when generating alternatives. the amount of time allocated was three minutes for each test. � all four sets of tests were stapled together for each respondent. � the researcher and two independent raters then evaluated the divergent thinking ability tests in order to establish originality of thought. a five-point scale for individual components was used where 1= very common and 5= very original. � the researcher evaluated the remote associates test. � all four tests were sent to the statistical consultation service at the rand afrikaans university for processing. results the factor analysis of the mlq two different types of instruments were used. firstly the mlq was used to identif y leadership style and secondly, three creativity measuring instruments, measuring fluency and originality of thought were used. the 45 items of the mlq were subjected to a principal factor analysis. the analysis was beased on 196 complete records. as a first step, the items were intercorrelated and the eigenvalues of the unreduced intercorrelation matrix were computed. as fifteen of the eigenvalues were greater than unity, fifteen factors were extracted and rotated to simple structure by means of a varimax rotation. huysamen, schepers, za aiman54 to overcome the effect of differential skewness of items, subscores in respect of each factor were computed by adding the items with high loadings on a factor, together. the subscores were then intercorrelated and subjected to a principal factor analysis. the eigenvalues of the unreduced intercorrelation matrix are presented in table 1. table 1 eigenvalues of unreduced intercorrelation matrix in respect of the mlq root eigenvalue % of variance cumulative % 1 3,911 26,071 26,071 2 1,411 9,406 35,477 3 1,233 8,218 43,695 4 1,182 7,881 51,576 5 0,958 6,384 57,960 6 0,910 6,069 64,029 7 0,787 5,247 69,276 8 0,769 5,128 74,405 9 0,730 4,865 79,270 10 0,648 4,319 83,588 11 0,628 4,188 87,776 12 0,575 3,835 91,611 13 0,483 3,217 94,829 14 0,434 2,892 97,721 15 0,342 2,279 100,000 trace 15,00 four factors were extracted, as four of the eigenvalues were greater than unity. factor 1 had substantial loadings on 16 items and factor 4 on 19 items yielding cronbach alphas of 0,767 and 0,885 respectively. factors 2 and 3 were poorly determined, having loadings on four and six items respectively. the reliability of the corresponding scales were 0,55 for factor 2 and 0,479 for factor 3. accordingly a three-factor solution was tried. factors 3 and 4 combined into a single factor with a reliability of 0,84. no items were lost. the reliability of factor 4 fell, however, from 0,88 to 0,847. the obtained factor matrix was rotated to simple structure by means of a direct oblimin rotation, as given in table 2. table 2 rotated factor matrix of the mlq (direct oblimin rotation) variables items k factor 1 factor 2 factor 3 h²j subtest 10 5,29 2 0,635 -0,252 0,178 0,679 subtest 8 9 1 0,577 0,018 -0,003 0,349 subtest 5 19,23,6 3 0,526 0,080 0,070 0,023 subtest 7 2,8,25 3 0,489 0,077 0,030 0,435 subtest 9 18,40 2 0,450 0,095 0,204 0,312 subtest 2 13,11,14,33,1 5 0,439 -0,040 0,222 0,428 subtest 15 7 1 -0,116 0,085 -0,066 0,253 subtest 4 12,28,20 3 -0,209 0,578 -0,087 0,329 subtest 14 3 1 0,061 0,511 -0,109 0,339 subtest 13 17 1 0,034 0,191 0,139 0,424 subtest 6 41,42 2 0,056 -0,030 0,623 0,416 subtest 1 31,36,44,16, 13 0,336 -0,050 0,593 0,225 37,35,30,38,32, 34,43,45,39 subtest 12 15 1 -0,070 -0,112 0,489 0,060 subtest 11 10,26,21 3 0,240 -0,090 0,486 0,260 subtest 3 27,22,24,4 4 0,018 0,034 0,141 0,035 number of items 45 17 5 23 4,547 per factor note: factor 3 has been reflected table 2 shows that three factors are reasonably well determined, with substantial loadings on all three. however, from an inspection of the communalities it is apparent that several of the subscores share only a small proportion of their variance with the other subscores. in order to identif y the obtained factors, the items associated with each factoe were grouped into categories as given by bass (1999). bass’s classification (1999) is presented in table 3. table 3 items associated with the three factors of the mlq items factor 1 factor 2 factor 3 transformational 9,10,15,21,25, 13 (with a 2,6,8,14,18,19, leadership 26,30,31,32 negative loading) 23,29,34 and 36 transactional 16,25 3,4,12,20,22,24 1,11 and 17 leadership and 27 nonnone 5,7 and 33 28 transactional leadership leadership 37,38,39,40,41, none none outcome 42,43,44 and 45 total number 20 11 14 of items note: categorisation of items according to bass (1999) table 3 shows that factor 1 is strongly representative of items categorised as transformational leadership and leadership outcome. there are only two items categorised as transactional leadership. factor 1 can therefore be identified as transformational leadership/leadership outcome. factor 2 is representat ive of items categorised as transactional leadership and non-transactional leadership (laissez faire). there is also one item with a negative loading, categorised as transformational leadership. the items listed as transactional leadership, all deal with failure to take action when required, and keeping track of mistakes, irregularities, failures and complaints. factor 2 was identified as non-transactional leadership. factor 3 is representative of items categorised as transformational leadership. there are three items categorised as transactional leadership. factor 3 is therefore identified as transformational/transactional leadership. for the purpose of this research the items in respect of each factor were compared to the items as given in table 3. the three factors of this research differ from those of bass (1999) in the sense that the factor analysis revealed some differences in the items grouped under the different factors. although this research also postulated three factors, the items that make up the three factors differ in minor ways: � bass (1999) argues that factor 1 represents transformational leadership/leadership outcome. the items are similar to factor 3 of this research. � according to bass’s research (1999), factor 2 represents the laissez faire leadership style (a finding confirmed by this research). however, the fact that only five items remained in factor 2 (after the three factor solution was done) decreased the reliability coefficients of both factors 2 and 3. these items focus more on the leaders’ ability to solve problems and rectif y mistakes. when problems are solved and mistakes rectified, the leader achieves an outcome. these items therefore do not focus on any specific leadership style. bass (1999) states that his factor 3 represents the transformational/transactional leadership style. the items are similar to factor 1 of this research. it is interesting to note that 65% of the items under factor 1 represent the transformational leadership style in its pure form. the researcher came to the behavioural and personality correlates 55 conclusion that the three factors of this research produced essentially the same categories of information as those produced by bass (1999) on leadership i.e. transformational/ transactional, laissez faire and transformational/leadership outcome. the intercorrelations bet ween the factors are presented in table 4. table 4 factor correlation matrix of the mlq factor 1 2 3 1 1,000 -0,134 0,522 2 -0,134 1,000 0,010 3 0,522 0,010 1,000 table 4 shows that factors 1 and 3 are positively correlated. three scales were formed corresponding to the three factors obtained. to determine the reliability of these scales, they were subjected to item analysis, using the np 50 program. the item statistics in respect of the first scale are presented in table 5. table 5 item analysis of scale 1 of the mlq mean of standard reliability item item deviation index of total of item item correlation item n xg sg rgxsg rgx a1 196. 2,526 1,139 0,407 0,345 a2 196. 2,816 0,881 0,352 0,400 a5 196. 3,393 1,064 0,482 0,453 a6 196. 2,740 1,042 0,338 0,324 a7 196. 3,439 1,008 0,290 0,288 a8 196. 3,168 0,938 0,460 0,491 a9 196. 3,184 0,904 0,493 0,545 a11 196. 2,888 1,090 0,571 0,524 a13 196. 3,291 0,896 0,547 0,610 a14 196. 3,265 0,823 0,506 0,615 a18 196. 3,087 0,927 0,365 0,394 a19 196. 3,010 1,146 0,475 0,414 a23 196. 3,143 0,911 0,560 0,615 a25 196. 3,010 0,982 0,339 0,345 a29 196. 3,464 0,774 0,372 0,481 a33 196. 2,801 1,299 0,515 0,396 a40 196. 3,051 0,802 0,464 0,578 cronbach alpha = 0,752 mean of test = 52,276 standard deviation of test = 7,536 number of items = 17 table 5 shows that the obtained reliability in respect of scale 1, is 0,752. the item total-correlations range from 0,288 to 0,615. the scale is internally consistent. no items were rejected. the reliability coefficient is sufficient for the purpose of this research. the item statistics in respect of the second scale are presented in table 6. table 6 shows that the obtained reliability, in respect of scale 2, is 0,494. the itemtotal correlations range from 0,482 to 0,628. none of the items were rejected, but there are too few items. the item statistics of the third scale are presented in table 7. table 6 item analysis of scale 2 of the mlq mean of standard reliability item item deviation index of total of item item correlation item n xg sg rgxsg rgx a3 196. 1,204 1,163 0,672 0,578 a12 196. 0,582 1,032 0,693 0,672 a17 196. 1,628 1,244 0,599 0,482 a20 196. 0,888 1,197 0,752 0,628 a28 196. 0,628 0,960 0,517 0,538 cronbach alpha = 0,494 mean of test = 4,929 standard deviation of test = 3,234 number of items = 5 table 7 item analysis of scale 3 of the mlq mean of standard reliability item item deviation index of total of item item correlation item n xg sg rgxsg rgx a4 196. 2,245 1,203 0,264 0,219 a10 196. 2,673 1,098 0,467 0,425 a15 196. 2,867 0,973 0,425 0,437 a16 196. 3,199 0,869 0,532 0,612 a21 196. 3,296 0,919 0,415 0,452 a22 196. 2,209 1,270 0,351 0,277 a24 196. 2,010 1,203 0,359 0,298 a26 196. 3,036 0,936 0,579 0,619 a27 196. 1,898 1,240 0,409 0,330 a30 196. 3,291 0,812 0,442 0,544 a31 196. 3,352 0,697 0,453 0,649 a32 196. 3,082 0,867 0,439 0,506 a34 196. 3,046 0,867 0,402 0,464 a35 196. 3,469 0,825 0,521 0,631 a36 196. 3,423 0,716 0,429 0,600 a37 196. 3,077 0,784 0,468 0,596 a38 196. 3,219 0,743 0,435 0,585 a39 196. 2,719 0,976 0,520 0,533 a41 196. 3,454 0,682 0,320 0,469 a42 196. 3,158 0,945 0,585 0,619 a43 196. 3,393 0,675 0,372 0,552 a44 196. 3,240 0,715 0,400 0,559 a45 196. 3,036 0,914 0,386 0,423 cronbach alpha = 0,837 mean of test = 68,393 standard deviation of test = 9,971 number of items = 23 table 7 shows that the obtained reliability of scale 3 is 0,837. the item-total correlations range form 0,219 to 0,649. none of the items were rejected. the scale consists of 23 items. factor analysis of creativity measures the three creativity ability tests measure fluency and originality of thought. the two divergent thinking ability tests measure fluency and originality of thought. the fluency of thought scores (scores 2 and 4) were calculated by adding the number of responses, and these responses were then subjected to an evaluation of originality (scores 1 and 3) by independent raters. four scores were derived from these fluency tests. huysamen, schepers, za aiman56 secondly, the remote associate test (rat) measures associational fluency of thought. this ability test is divided into two sections (scores 5 and 6) and comprises 15 items per section. scores are calculated by adding the number of correct responses for each item. two scores were derived from this test. the six derived scores of the creativity tests were subjected to a factor analysis. the analysis was based on a sample of 178 participants. as a first step, the six scores were intercorrelated and the eigenvalues of the intercorrelation matrix were determined. the obtained eigenvalues are given in table 8. table 8 eigenvalues of unreduced intercorrelation matrix of the creativity measures root eigenvalue % of variance cumulative % 1 2,764 46,064 46,064 2 0,943 15,723 61,787 3 0,731 12,187 73,974 4 0,609 10,147 84,120 5 0,559 9,309 93,429 6 0,394 6,571 100,000 trace 6 from table 8 it is clear that only one eigenvalue is greater than unity. accordingly only one factor was extracted and is given in table 9. table 9 factor matrix of the creativity measures factor 1 h²j score 1: paperclip (originality) 0,714 0,509 score 2: paperclip (fluency) 0,678 0,459 score 3: crime (originality) 0,670 0,449 score 4: crime (fluency) 0,477 0,228 score 5: rat 1 0,476 0,227 score 6: rat 2 0,532 0,283 from table 9 it is evident that all six scores have substantial loadings on the same factor. this factor represents fluency and originalit y of thought. scores 1 and 3 are comparable (originality of thought). scores 2 and 4 are comparable (f luency of thought). scores 5 and 6 are coded. the communalities of the six scores vary from 0,227 to 0,509. scores 4, 5 and 6 have the lowest communalities, indicating that they have less in common with the other measures, but are not necessarily poor measures of creativity. the means and standard deviations in respect of the creativity measures are presented in table 10. table 10 shows that the obtained reliability of the creativity scale is 0,735. none of the scores were rejected. the mean of the remote associates test 1 was lower than that of the other measuring instruments. fewer correct answers were found in respect of this measuring instrument. the mean of the crime rater total (originality) is slightly less than that of the other measuring instruments. table 11 shows the pearson product moment (cooper,1998) correlations between the three scales of the mlq and the seven scores of creativity. some of the variables are positively related and others are negatively related. table 10 means and standard deviations in respect of the creativity measures mean std dev n 1. paperclip (originality) 8,9719 4,4702 178 2. paperclip (fluency) 8,8371 5,2196 178 3. crime (originality) 6,1517 3,0018 178 4. crime (fluency) 8,5225 3,5815 178 5. rat 1 1,0337 0,9909 178 6. rat 2 9,1124 3,5668 178 cronbach alpha = 0,735 scale 1 (transformational/transactional) of the mlq correlated positively with all three creativity tests. although this scale represents both the transformational and transactional leadership styles, 65% of the items loaded on transformational leadership style. the lowest correlation was found between scale 1 (transformational/transactional) and score 3 (crime originality). there is a positive relation between scores 1 and 3 (r=0,481; p=0,01). scale 1 (transformational/transactional) has a positive relation with both scales of the rat. a positive relation was also found between scale 3 (transformational/leader outcome) and scale 1 (transformational/transactional) of the mlq (r=0,593; p=0,01). it is the researcher’s contention that the reason for this phenomenon can be found in the fact that both the scales are made up of items that measure transactional and transformational leadership styles. as would be expected scales 1 (transformational/transactional) and 2 (laissez faire leadership) are inversely related (r= –0.192; p=0,01). scale 3 (transformational/leadership outcome) is inversely related to the six fluency/originality scores, but should be reflected because factor 3 of the mlq has been reflected. two stepwise regression analyses were done. in the first analysis, scale 1 (transformational/transactional) of the mlq served as the independent variable and in the second analysis scales 1 (transformational/transactional) and 3 (transformational/ leader outcome) of the mlq were used. table 12 provides a model summary of the regression analysis of the independent variables on the dependent variable. the regression analyses indicate that only two predictor variables scales 1 and 2 hold promise of the mlq. a multiple correlation of 0,263 was obtained in terms of the first model, which indicates that 6,4% of the variance of fluency/originality can be accounted for by the first predictor variable, i.e. scale 1. a multiple correlation of 0,332 was obtained in terms of the second model, indicating that 10% of the variance in fluency/originality can be accounted for by scales 1 and 3. the combination of scales 1 and 3 therefore accounts for a greater proportion of the variance of creativity. table 13 gives the analysis of variance. from the analysis of variance it is clear that the linear regression accounts for a statistically significant proportion of the total variance. f(2,175) = 10,855; p(f)<0,01. all the regression coefficients are statistically significant. an estimate of creativity can be obtained from the following regression equation: y = 26,677 + 13,269 (mlq 1) – 8,319 (mlq 3) behavioural and personality correlates 57 ^ table 12 regerssion analysis of the independent variables on the dependent variable model summary model r r square adjusted std. error r square of estimate 1 0,263(a) 0,069 0,064 14,132 2 0,332(b) 0,110 0,100 13,86 a predictors: (constant), mlq 1 b predictors: (constant), mlq 1, mlq 3 from the standardised regression coefficients (ßeta coefficients) as given in table 13 it is clear that transformational/ transactional leadership (mlq 1) carries a greater weight in the equation than the transformational/leader outcome (mlq 3). table 13 analysis of variance multiple r: 0,332 r square: 0,110 adjusted r square: 0,100 source of variation df sum of mean squares square regression 2 4171,017 2085,51 residual 175 33620,51 192,117 f (2,175)=10,885; p (f) < 0,01 regression coefficients model regression std error standardised t p(t) coefficients of b coefficients b beta (constant) 26,677 8,075 3,304 0,001 mlq 1 13,269 2,850 0,407 4,656 0,000 mlq 3 -8,319 2,932 -0,248 -2,838 0,005 dependent variable: r tot predictors (constant) mlq 1, mlq 3 huysamen, schepers, za aiman58 table 11 pearson’s product moment correlations of mlq and measures of creativity correlations paperclip paperclip: crime in sa crime in remote remote r_tot mlq1 mlq2 mlq3 rater total total rater total sa: total associates associates test 1 test 2 paperclip pearson 1 0,486 ** 0,481 ** 0,240 ** 0,339 ** 0,425 ** 0,772 ** 0,208 ** 0,006 0,025 rater total correlation n 196 193 196 192 185 196 178 196 196 196 paperclip: pearson 0,486 ** 1 0,391 ** 0,405 ** 0,340 ** 0,318 ** 0,792 ** 0,158 * 0,049 -0,094 total correlation n 193 193 193 189 182 193 178 193 193 193 crime in sa pearson 0,481 ** 0,391 ** 1 0,439 ** 0,295 ** 0,279 ** 0,704 ** 0,144 * 0,040 -0,016 rater total correlation n 196 193 196 192 185 196 178 196 196 196 crime in pearson 0,240 ** 0,405 ** 0,439 ** 1 0,175 * 0,152 * 0,610 ** 0,167 * 0,105 0,001 sa: total correlation n 192 189 192 192 181 192 178 192 192 192 remote pearson 0,339 ** 0,340 ** 0,295 ** 0,175 * 1 0,301 ** 0,472 ** 0,194 ** -0,046 0,092 associates correlation test 1 n 185 182 185 181 185 185 178 185 185 185 remote pearson 0,425 ** 0,318 ** 0,279 ** 0,152 * 0,301 ** 1 0,634 ** 0,225 ** -0,069 0,007 associates correlation test 2 n 196 193 196 192 185 196 178 196 196 196 r_tot pearson 0,772 ** 0,792 ** 0,704 ** 0,610 ** 0,472 ** 0,634 ** 1 0,263 ** 0,009 -0,013 correlation n 178 178 178 178 178 178 178 178 178 178 mlq1 pearson 0,208 ** .158 * 0,144 * 0,167 * 0,194 ** 0,225 ** 0,263 ** 1 -0,192 ** 0,593 ** correlation n 196 193 196 192 185 196 178 196 196 196 mlq2 pearson 0,006 0,049 0,040 0,105 -0,046 -0,069 0,009 -0,192 ** 1 -0,153 * correlation n 196 193 196 192 185 196 178 196 196 196 mlq3 pearson 0,025 -0,094 -0,016 0,001 0,092 0,007 -0,013 0,593 ** -0,153 * 1 correlation n 196 193 196 192 185 196 178 196 196 196 **correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). discussion the researcher concludes that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between leadership style and creativity. there is a higher statistically significant positive relation between transformational leadership style and creativity than bet ween creativit y and the other leadership st yles. approximately 10% of the variance of creativity (fluency and originality of thought) can be accounted for by the mlq. in the light of the above-mentioned finding the mlq can be recommended as a test in the selection process. it would also be worthwhile pursuing means of upgrading the mlq. for the purpose of this investigation respondents were asked to rate themselves in respect of the mlq. it is recommended that if similar research is to be done in future, the superiors of the respondents should also complete the instrument and rate the respondents from their perspective (360° approach). despite the positive results obtained with the battery of creativity measures, certain reservations concerning them must be mentioned. two of the measuring instruments were pertinent to divergent thinking ability. the main drawback from a psychometric point of view, is that the measurement of divergent thinking necessitates an element of subjectivity in the scoring of the tests. even where the actual scoring procedure is objective, a subjective assumption is made to the effect that the score so obtained provides a measure of whatever the test is supposed to measure. even more questionable is the assumption that originality can be gauged by weighting responses in terms of the rarit y of their occurrence in the population. the possibility of rater bias must also be recognised. the correlations obtained by intercorrelating the creativity measures are generally so high as to suggest that the measures overlap to a considerable extent. this was also borne out by the general factor of creativity obtained in the factor analysis of the measures. since the measuring instruments were not designed for factor analysis per se, the finding of a general factor cannot be cited as proof that a general creativity factor exists, but it does suggest that the different instruments used do not measure separate factors beyond fluency of thought and originality. though there is evidence that creativity is manifested in leadership style, accurate judgements of creative ability can only be made with reference to an individual’s actual output. ideally the dependent variable should be validated against real life work performance. this can only be achieved if use can be made of experts, who have the knowledge and skills required. but given such an opportunity, one must recognise the possibility of rater bias. the remote associates test has shown promise as a predictor of associational fluency, an element of creativity. the biggest problem with this measuring instrument is the difficulty of establishing an objective and reliable scoring system for the south african context. problem – solving is a concept that relates to both leadership style and creativity. a problem – solving orientation was identified by the mlq (factor 3), but the ability to solve problems as such was not measured in this research as the instruments focussed on f luency of thought and originalit y. it is therefore recommended that a test that measures problem – solving ability should be included in future research. references ackermann, c.p., schepers, j.m., lessing, b.c., dannhauser, z. (2000). die faktorstruktuur van bass se veelfaktorleierskapvraelys in die suid-afrikaanse konteks. journal of industrial psychology, 26 (2), 58-65. bass, b.m. (1957). leadership opinions and related characteristics of salesmen and sales managers, in r.m. stogdill and a. e. coons (eds.), leader behavior its description and measurement, columbus: ohio state university, bureau of business research. bass, m.m. (1985). leadership and performance beyond expectations. new york: free press. bass, b.m., waldman, d.a., avolio, b.j., bebb, m. (1987). transformational leaders: the falling dominoes effect. group and organization studies, 12 pp.73-87. bass, b.m. (1999). two decades of research and development in transformational leaders. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 9 (1), 9-23 burns, j.m. (1978). leadership. new york: harper and row. chand, i, runco, m.a. (1993). problem finding skills as components of the creative process. journal of personality and individual differences, 14, 155-162. cooper, d. r. (1998). business research methods. singapoure: mcgraw-hill. pp. 30-32. couger, j. d. (1995). creative problem solving and opportunity finding, usa: boyd and fraser publishing company. dyson, j.w., fleitas, d.w., and scioli, f.p. (1972). the interaction bet ween leadership personalit y and decisional environments, journal of social psychology, 86 pp. 29-33. getzels, j.w. (1964). creative thinking, problem solving and instruction. in hilgard, e.r. (ed), theories of learning and instruction. chicago, il: university of chicago press. gibson, j.l, ivancevich, j. m. donnelly, j. h. (1997). organisations: behaviour, structure, process. usa: rob zwettler. p. 315-319. gill, j. and johnson, p. (1991). research methods for managers, london: paul chapman publishing ltd. guilford, j.p. (1957). creative abilities in the arts. psychological review, 64, 110-118. guilford, j.p. (1962). creativit y: its measurement and development, p.156-168. in: a source book for creative thinking. parnes, s.j. and harding, h.f., (eds). new york: charles scribner’s sons. jankowitz, a.d. (1991). business research projects, london: chapman and hall. kaess, w.a., witryol, s.l. and nolan, r.e. (1961). reliability, sex differences and validity in the leadership discussion group, journal of applied psychology, 45 pp. 345-350. kirkpatrick, s.a., locke, e.a. (1991). leadership: do traits matter? academy of management executive, 5 (2) p. 48. kreitner, r., kinicki, a. (2001). organizational behavior. (5th ed.) new york: mc graw -hill, pp. 548-571. mann, r.d. (1959). a review of the relationships between personality and performance in small groups. psychological bulletin, 56, 4 pp.241-270. marak, g.e. (1964). the evolution of leadership structure, sociometry, 27 pp. 174-182. mednick, s.a. (1962). the associative basis for the creative process. psychological review, 69, pp. 220-232. roodt, g. (2001). leadership still the cornerstone of success. management today, 17, (3), 8. schlechter, a. (2001). achieve performance excellence by practicing leadership effectively. management today, 17 (3), pp. 42-45. sternberg, r. j. (1999). handbook of creativity. united kingdom: cambridge university press. stogdill, r.m. (1948). personal factors associated with leadership: a survey of the literature. journal of psychology, 25 pp.35-71. thompson, t. (1993). remote associate problem sets in performance feedback paradigms. journal of personal and individual differences, 14, (1), pp.11-14. torrance, e.p. (1984). torrance tests of creative thinking, chicago: university of chicago press, p. 3. behavioural and personality correlates 59 abstract introduction research purpose literature review method data analysis ethical considerations results findings and discussion limitations of the study and recommendations for future research acknowledgements references footnotes about the author(s) heidi m. le sueur university of stellenbosch business school, faculty of economics and management studies, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa elaine boulton university of stellenbosch business school, faculty of economics and management studies, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa citation le sueur, h.m., & boulton, e. (2021). professional women and maternity transition: guidelines for maternity coaching in organisations. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1559. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1559 original research professional women and maternity transition: guidelines for maternity coaching in organisations heidi m. le sueur, elaine boulton received: 21 jan. 2021; accepted: 17 july 2021; published: 28 sept. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation and research purpose: there is a need to explore the role of maternity coaching in supporting and retaining professional women in south african organisations. therefore, this study investigated the experiences of professional women during their maternity transition into working mothers and explored how maternity coaching can be used as a strategic intervention to support these women. research design, approach and methodology: a qualitative inductive methodological approach was followed to gain an in-depth understanding of maternity coaching. the research strategy was cross-sectional and multi-perspective, consisting of 13 participants from 4 professional groups. main findings: the findings emphasise that maternity coaching can play a positive role in assisting both working women and organisations to successfully navigate the maternity transition phase. through the findings, it was established why maternity coaching is needed as a mechanism of support, how maternity coaching should be implemented and what should be included in the coaching conversations. practical managerial implications: this article provides a maternity transition coaching model with guidelines and recommendations for different professional groups in any organisation where maternity transition is experienced. the implications of this study are how maternity coaching can be implemented as a tool in dealing with retention of professional women during maternity transition and to increase gender diversity at the senior organisational level. contribution: the body of knowledge contributes to understanding the role of maternity coaching as an emerging form of transition coaching in organisations. a maternity transition coaching model was designed that is complemented by guidelines for implementing a maternity coaching programme that can be utilised by human resources personnel, senior management and coaches who are exposed to the adverse consequences of senior women leaving the organisations because of the challenges they face during maternity transition. keywords: coaching; maternity coaching; maternity transition; working mothers; professional women; retention. introduction the retention of valuable skills of women at work is critical – organisations cannot afford to lose skills as people are their principal assets. the current world of work is synonymous with ambiguity, change and uncertainty as a result of, among others, socio-economic and political instability and disruption (bennett, 2017; smith & campbell, 2010). organisations are challenged to sustain their profitability and grow their success under these difficult conditions. the sustainability of organisations requires a future-proof mindset when it comes to doing business, and managing their employees in particular. these circumstances have brought new challenges for human resource management (ye, wang, wendt, wu, & euwma, 2010). although the number of women in senior professional positions has improved in recent years, the literature indicates that the percentage of women in senior roles in organisations across the globe is still smaller compared to the number of male leaders (skinner, 2014). a positive relationship between the percentage of senior women in organisations and the organisation’s financial performance has been suggested by studies conducted in europe and the united states (us) (desvaux, devillard-hoellinger, & meaney, 2008). furthermore, the positive effects of diversity in organisational demographics include increased knowledge and perspectives (smith, morgan, king, hebl, & peddie, 2012). thus, employing and retaining women employees increases not only the much-needed female talent pool but also gender diversity. a question that remains is what suitable supporting mechanisms are needed to retain senior women at critical stages during their working life such as maternity transition. although the number of women returning to work after having children is on the increase, studies show that there is still a high proportion of women who choose or consider to ‘opt-out’ from the workplace after becoming mothers (bohrer et al., 2020; sparrow, 2008; still, 2006). their reasons for leaving are complex and influenced by several factors such as familial pull and organisational push that they experience at different times in their career (paustian-underdahl et al., 2019; zimmerman & clark, 2016). the transition to motherhood can be described as a critical turning point in a working woman’s life – a profoundly transformative experience (smith, 1999). this experience is characterised by changes in identity and a changed psychological contract with the employer (millward, 2006). the woman’s identity now includes the identity of both a mother and a working mother. given the paucity of professional women who are in senior roles in organisations, the retention of their skills in the workplace is paramount. it is for these reasons that this research responds to the call put forward by noon and van nieuwerburgh (2020) to develop enabling environments in organisations and explore specifically how maternity coaching can provide support for the transition of professional women into working mothers. research purpose the existing literature and empirical research on maternity coaching are limited, and where it does exist, it is based on overseas contexts, predominantly the united kingdom (uk), australia and the united states. the australian study by skinner (2014) indicated a positive experience where maternity coaching was provided. the maternity transition period is a time when feelings of vulnerability and low self-confidence are typically experienced; and maternity coaching sessions can provide a secure space and a place of containment for women in maternity transition (florent-treacy, 2009). a support process through coaching, for example, is needed to create a space for women that allows for ‘on and off ramps’ (hewlett, 2002, p.168) in this particular stage of their lives. the role of maternity coaching in supporting and ultimately retaining professional women in south african organisations has not been fully explored. the purpose of this exploratory research is to understand the role of maternity coaching in organisations where it is offered. furthermore, maternity coaching is an under-researched area in the overall study discipline of coaching. this article pioneers the exploration of this niche form of coaching in south african organisations by conceptualising a maternity coaching model with practical guidelines that emerged from the themes in the study and could be used to implement maternity coaching at work. whereas this study utilised the characteristics experienced by women working in south african-based organisations, the guidelines and recommendations for successful maternity coaching can be applied in any organisation that experiences challenges regarding the retention of professional women during and after maternity. literature review maternity coaching, an emerging supporting intervention mechanism, has been used for women in maternity transition in organisations in the uk since 2005 (sparrow, 2008). in her study on the influence of maternity coaching on women’s re-engagement with their careers post-maternity leave, filsinger (2012) asserts that maternity coaching is a new genre of coaching and its long-term impact on women and organisations is not yet fully understood. it is furthermore unclear how widespread maternity coaching is offered in south african organisations, and there is a lack of empirical research on coaching aimed at supporting professional women, for example those in middle level to senior roles, who have experienced the transition from maternity leave into motherhood. the next section provides an overview of the theories and empirical findings which informed this study. professional women in organisations this study focuses on ‘professional women’,1 a term that can be understood as women in middleto senior-level management positions or leadership roles. the latest thornton grant report stated that africa as a region was well ahead of the global average of senior roles in organisations being held by women in 2021 (africa: 39%; globally: 31%). globally, an increase in senior positions held by women by 2% was noted between 2019 and 2021 (thornton, 2021), an encouraging progress. yet, for south african organisations, a report from the south african women in leadership census conducted by the businesswomen’s association of south africa (bwasa) in 2017 paints a picture of an insufficient representation of women in corporations listed on the johannesburg stock exchange (jse). these reports indicate that organisations have made mixed progress in this respect regardless of the possible commercial benefits, explicitly financial performance of an organisation which could be achieved through gender diversity (hunt, layton, & prince, 2015; skinner, 2014; stout-rostron, 2013; vitzthum, 2017). reasons for the challenge to retain professional women are ‘multifaceted’ (vitzthum, 2017), ranging from different career phases and life stages, to barriers to women’s leadership careers, such as a harsh organisational culture and prevailing male leadership norms, and opting-out because of the complexity of the various roles a woman has to fulfil, specifically, when she transitions from a professional woman to a working mother. during this time, women reconsider their career aspirations or opt-out completely. women’s careers it has been recognised that the evolvement of women’s careers is different to those of men (liff & ward, 2001). according to clarke (2011), ‘roles, relationships and responsibilities such as spouses’ careers, child-bearing, child-rearing, and the care of elderly family members’ (p. 499) tend to shape a woman’s career. although men are also faced with these constraints, women have typically adopted the role of the primary caregiver, so their careers are most likely to be disrupted during the childbearing ages with a further consequence of family responsibilities (ackah & heaton, 2004, cited by clarke, 2011). recognising that women’s careers develop over time differently to those of men (o’neil & bilimoria, 2005), it is necessary to consider and understand what confronts women as they navigate the ‘professional labyrinth’ (eagly & carli, 2007). metaphorically speaking, the labyrinth signifies a journey punctuated with complexity and challenges women face during their careers (skinner, 2014). phrases such as ‘barriers’, ‘gender stereotypes’, ‘conscious and unconscious bias’, ‘glass ceiling’, ‘leadership norms’, ‘societal gender norms’ and ‘workplace culture’ characterise women’s experiences in the workplace (eagly & carli, 2007; skinner, 2014). it is argued that if these experiences are understood by the organisation, effective support can be given to ‘improve the situation’ (eagly & carli, 2007, p. 64), aiding the success of women in senior roles in general (ely & rhode, 2010, cited in skinner, 2014) and when professional women transition through maternity. maternity transition the journey to motherhood is a transformative experience. for women who undergo this experience, it is a significant period of intense physical, psychological and social changes (boz, özçetin, & teskereci, 2018; brown & hodges, 2016). therefore, the period of leaving the organisation to go on maternity leave and then transitioning back to the workplace can be challenging. this period includes a re-prioritisation of values and life goals, issues of self-confidence and role identity, trying to manage multiple roles and the ensuing potential role conflict (morris, 2008) as well as the questioning of the meaning of work (bussell, 2008; filsinger, 2012; spence, armour, driessen, lea, & north, 2016). it is a time characterised by sense-making, reflection and weighing up options with shifting perspectives towards their career, the organisation they work for and towards the world (bussell, 2008; mainiero & sullivan, 2005). changes in self-identity and changed psychological contracts are key components of how women try to make sense of their transition into motherhood, as reported in the study by millward (2006). for the purposes of this study, the transition experience of professional women is categorised into three phases: the ‘during pregnancy’ phase, the ‘during maternity leave’ phase and the ‘return-to-work post-maternity leave’ phase. during the third (last) phase, when the women as mothers return to the workplace, they encounter multiple organisational and family roles (being a worker, a mother and a working mother). the switching of these roles can be defined as either physical or psychological shifts between roles and domains (ashforth, kreiner, & fugate, 2000). the maternity transition and the various proverbial ‘hats’ that a woman wears in this process can result in role and identity conflict and confusion (grady & mccarthy, 2008), as she tries to manage and bring order to her environment. the complexity and strain of these various roles are experienced when the woman finds it difficult to meet the demands and expectations of these roles (voydanoff, 2002), or when she is concerned about her ability to perform optimally in both her roles in respect of work and family commitments (matthews, winkel, & wayne, 2014). transition theory with a focus on role and career transition in the workplace aids in understanding how individuals experience times of transition in their lives (anderson, goodman, & schlossberg, 2012; bridges, 1980; schlossberg, 1981), which is useful for this study on maternity transition. bridges (1980) and schlossberg (1981) describe the process of transition occurring in stages – a process of moving through the transition, letting go of the old and engaging with the new situation. as part of letting go, the professional woman may have to let go of the way things used to be, for example, working long hours or rethinking business travel when the baby arrives (laney, hall, anderson, & willingham, 2015). in his model, bridges (1980) introduced the idea of transition versus change, with transition being more complex than change. he argues that change is external and situational, whereas transition is a psychological process that people go through during which they come to terms with all the aspects of change. schlossberg (1981) further considers the element of self-perception and its role in the transition – the way an individual sees a situation and herself within that specific situation, a topic which could be explored during maternity coaching to help professional women making sense of their new situation. maternity coaching one of the objectives of maternity coaching is to re-integrate professional women with their careers once they return from maternity leave to the organisational context. maternity coaching thus offers an opportune time to assist women to map their career decisions following their maternity transition, such as opting-out or opting in-between (cabrera, 2007). maternity coaching was found to influence women’s re-engagement with their career development by preparing them at an emotional level, at a practical level and at a reflective level regarding their careers (filsinger, 2012). research by bussell (2008) found that the maternity transition period does not stop when a woman returns to work post-maternity leave, but rather continues until her child becomes independent. the lack of empirical data on the fundamental aspects of maternity coaching, such as the coaching skills of a maternity coach, the sequence of coaching sessions and specific guidelines for organisations to implement maternity coaching, has been responded to with this study. method research approach this qualitative exploratory study followed an inductive approach with the primary goal of ‘describing and understanding rather than explaining human behaviour’ (babbie & mouton, 2014, p. 270). qualitative research is rooted in a constructivist philosophical position and is concerned with how a complex social phenomena are experienced, interpreted and understood (bloomberg & volpe, 2008). this feature of qualitative research resonates with the study. research design a descriptive case study design, applied as an in-depth investigation, was conducted of a single case unit, namely maternity coaching (delport, fouché, & schurink, 2011). to gain a deeper understanding of the role of maternity coaching, a cross-sectional and multi-perspective research design was selected. triangulation was used firstly to check and establish validity in studies by analysing a research question from multiple perspectives (guion, diehl, & mcdonald, 2010), secondly to build the strength of inquiry (henning, van rensburg, & smit, 2004) and thirdly triangulation is rich, robust, comprehensive and well developed (creswell, 2009). a purposive sampling process was adopted to identify and select the research participants from four professional groups. with this selection process, it was possible to gather valuable information about maternity transition and maternity coaching (bloomberg & volpe, 2008; merriam, 1998). the demography of the four participant groups (consisting of 13 participants in total) is provided in table 1. table 1: rational and inclusion criteria for the four participant groups from different corporate organisations. a semi-structured interview was used to collect data because it has the potential to elicit participants’ ‘subjective reality’ (henning et al., 2004, p. 52) – what they feel, do, and think about the topic and ‘how they make meaning of their own lives, experiences, and cognitive processes’ (yin, 2011, p. 135). the interviews centred on the following topics: group 1: professional women who had received maternity coaching: individual maternity transition experience. maternity coaching experience. group 2: professional women who had not received maternity coaching: individual maternity transition experience. group 3: professional coaches: challenges that professional women face during maternity transition. approach to and impact of the maternity coaching programme. group 4: organisational stakeholders: purpose and contribution of the maternity coaching programme. participants who had a maternity coaching experience were prompted on their views about the strengths and weaknesses of the maternity coaching programme and on suggestions how to improve it. data analysis the data analytical cycle recommended by yin (2011) was followed in the present study and involved five steps: compiling and sorting filed notes into an electronic database; disassembling the data by assigning codes to the data; re-assembling the data into themes and categories; interpreting the re-assembled data; and drawing conclusions from the study relating to the interpretation of the data. the analysis was an ongoing, emerging and non-linear process (henning et al., 2004), which allowed for an iterative relationship with the raw data, and enabled cycling through the five steps more than once. the findings were interpreted in the context of literature presented in the literature section and with additional new literature responding to the themes that emerged. to give emphasis to the personal stories of the women who had experienced maternity transition with or without coaching, the researchers were compelled to use a pseudonym female name for each woman participant. code names were applied to the coaches and stakeholders (c1–c4 for the coaches and s1–s3 for the stakeholders). table 2 shows the sample groups and the names used during the analysis. table 2: sample groups with pseudonyms and code names. ethical considerations the ethical considerations were underpinned by the ethical code of stellenbosch university, which included the informed consent given by participants (ethical clearance number usb-2018-6536). appropriate measures were taken to ensure harm was minimalised to participants by following principles of participation, consent, anonymity and confidentiality (bloomberg & volpe, 2008). information about the purpose and process of the study was shared with the participants in a letter beforehand so that a voluntary and informed choice to participate in the study could be made (leedy & ormrod, 2013). results the findings from the thematic analysis have been synthesised and refer to the following three aspects: the ‘why’, the ‘how’ and the ‘what’ of maternity coaching. next follows a brief discussion of the findings in this study. findings and discussion the findings of this study point to maternity transition of professional women in organisations as being complex, challenging and transformative in nature. furthermore, maternity coaching was found to play a positive role in assisting the professional women and the organisations to progress through the maternity transition journey. the findings emphasise why maternity coaching is needed as a mechanism of support in maternity transition. they also indicate how maternity coaching should be implemented and what should typically be covered in the maternity coaching conversations. a maternity coaching framework was developed from the interpretation of the findings and related existing theories (creswell, 2009). this framework provides the guidelines for the different participant groups: professional women (two groups), professional coaches, and human resources practitioners and line managers. the ‘why’ of maternity coaching in making sense of the purpose of maternity coaching, it was first necessary to explore the maternity transition experience of professional women, for example those who did and those who did not receive maternity coaching, and secondly, why it was offered by companies represented in this study and by the coaches who had been contracted for their coaching services. these experiences, in turn, were divided into two categories: the maternity transition experience in the context of the work environment and the experiences during the three maternity transition phases. the maternity transition experience in the context of the work environment the findings from the experiences of women in the context of the work environment provide insights on the impact that organisational culture and organisational support had on the maternity transition experience. although organisational support is inextricably linked to organisational culture, it is presented separately here because of its prominence in the experiences of the working mothers, the organisational stakeholders and the coaches. time and hours of work can be seen as a manifestation of organisational culture and, as a result, time and hours have ‘multiple cultural meanings in organisations’, as suggested by cahusac and kanji (2014, p. 59). for example, working longer hours can be associated with male practices causing conflicting demands for women between career and family (watts, 2009; williams, 2001). in the present study, all working mother participants expressed the difficulty in keeping up with time-related expectations after returning from maternity leave, as illustrated by emma: ‘[whereas] i used to work until six in the evenings, i [now] had to start leaving at four, because i had to relieve my nanny. so that was a massive thing for me: to get up and say i have to leave now, or to decline a meeting when it was at five o’clock in the evening and i really can’t be there.’ (emma, professional woman not received coaching, p3) the topic of time that emerged in this study not only related to issues such as long hours, but also related to the lack of flexibility and role strain, which point to the need for an organisational culture that recognises and supports the working mother. this need for a supportive organisational culture also correlates with literature on the topic (see brown, 2010; cabrera, 2007; cahusac & kanji, 2014; hewlett & luce, 2005; mainiero & sullivan, 2005). organisational culture emerged as a prominent theme in both the interviews with the coaches and stakeholders. they offered examples where the organisational culture had influenced the maternity transition, the experiences of working mothers and, to varying degrees, their retention as talent. a stakeholder representative (s3) shared her experience of working mothers’ feelings that they had to leave because the organisational culture had not been family-friendly: ‘women just get punished, i mean that’s just the way it is … i ran a survey to understand career aspirations of women, and working mothers have said it’s really difficult to pursue their career, because of the lack of support and openness to flexible work time; working mothers and their many roles … they kind of see themselves being forced into a position where they [have to] leave (s3).’ the importance of an organisational culture in supporting working mothers and directly influencing the success of their maternity transition was highlighted in this study and in others, notably those by cabrera (2009a, 2009b), cahusac and kanji (2014) and ludeman (2009). the male-dominated representation in senior leadership roles was described by the coaches and stakeholders. coach c4 reflected that: ‘… women … are saying: there are not a lot of senior women in the workplace … when i come back to the office … who is there that looks and feels like me?’ (c4) one of the women participants (jen) also observed this experience: ‘i do think that the (pause) senior leaders in the team who mainly happen to be white males (giggle), they sort of lack a bit of sensitivity to apply to the working mom and [… um] females in general.’ (jen, professional woman received coaching, p1) the under-representation of women in leadership and senior roles was highlighted as a concern by the coaches and stakeholders, which, according to them, could translate into a male hegemonic organisational culture. the literature further suggests that the manifestation of male norms could result in a lack of maternal-related support – women feeling isolated and unable to fit in; a lack of family-friendly policies; a challenged work–life balance experienced by women; and an absence of female role models who are working mothers and leaders (cahusac & kanji, 2014; ludeman, 2009; stout-rostron, 2013; vitzthum, 2017). the second theme of organisational support is related to the maternity transition experience. a line manager’s role, support and involvement, in particular, were expressed by the women participants as key factors in their maternity transition experience. it was interesting to observe that where maternity coaching was received, the line manager’s role and attitude in how close or distant they remained towards the maternity transition journey were critically important to the women participants. this was explained by sarah when she was asked about her line manager’s involvement: ‘… i also think having a supportive line manager, and being in an organisation that supports you helps … you can go to as many coaching sessions as you want, if you don’t have a supportive line manager then you are going to struggle.’ (sarah, professional woman received coaching, p2) sarah’s experience highlights the importance of a leader’s role in embodying and creating an organisational culture that is family-friendly and supportive of working mothers (brown, 2010; bussell, 2008; cabrera, 2009a, 2009b; still, 2006; sullivan & mainiero, 2008). maternal support structures in organisations could include maternity leave benefits, policy procedure processes, a lactation room and contracting with the organisation prior to maternity leave. women participants said that they had to fend for themselves in finding out about maternal support and, in some cases, were still unsure about the organisation’s stance on the support. this lack of coordinated maternal support and the need for more open communication were discussed alongside descriptions of the organisational culture. the organisational culture was not experienced as conducive to have certain conversations by michelle and it exposed one’s vulnerability, as she stated: ‘it’s like some kind of discussion that we don’t talk about, like i feel maternity leave is a very … it’s a very difficult conversation to have. you kind of tell them you are pregnant and then deny it for how many months, but then you physically get bigger, then you go on maternity leave and then you quickly get re-introduced again. they pretend that nothing happened, you know.’ (michelle, professional woman received coaching, p3) the lack of support for the women participants who were in their transition process into motherhood dominated the interviews which revealed the following: a lack of acknowledgement of the multiple roles women have; a lack of psychological safety; a lack of support from line managers and female leaders in the organisation, specifically those who do not have children; a lack of conversations in the workplace about maternity transition and motherhood in general; and a lack of support by the entire organisational system. overall, it was evident that extensive support throughout the organisation was critical to ensure that the working mother experiences a positive, integrated and smooth journey back into the workplace as she re-engages with her career. the experiences during the three maternity transition phases the maternity transition experience is discussed in the context of the three phases of maternity transition. during the pre-maternity leave phase, women are typically work-focused. as a result, women participants experienced their pregnancy transition as stressful, fearful and overwhelming. some participants even considered concealing their pregnancy for as long as possible because of the fear (perceived or real) of the impact it might have on their careers and how their pregnancy would be received in the organisation. michelle admitted her fear and feelings of guilt: ‘[i] was still terrified to tell them that i was pregnant. i felt guilty and i felt like i was going to put the company under a lot of strain.’ (michelle, professional woman received coaching, p3) a study by haynes (2008) correspondingly confirmed that women were reluctant to disclose their pregnancy to their organisation in fear of jeopardising their careers. the pressure to perform exactly at the same level as before pregnancy was a result of self-pressure and/or perceived organisational expectations that was also emphasised in the work of murphy and zorn (1996) and millward (2006). the following two excerpts illustrate both the fear and ambition to fulfil the organisational performance expectations: ‘the anxiety that hit me after i fell pregnant was: will i still be able to put in that same effort that i’ve put in before – and that was like working until two or three in the morning – now that i’m pregnant?’ (rani, professional woman not received coaching, p2) jen referred to her pregnancy as a ‘side show’ in describing its possible impact on her performance: ‘life is already so busy, you don’t really stop too much to think about this little baby growing inside you’. thus, to meet performance expectations and to add value were common and prominent challenges facing the women participants. the pre-maternity phase is further characterised by changes in the physical body and the related effects such as fatigue, tiredness and physically growing bigger, therefore losing control over one’s body (millward, 2006; murphy & zorn, 1996). these changes and effects were also highlighted to varying degrees by the women participants in the present study. as the pregnancy progressed, the women mentioned that they had planned and prepared for the handover before going on maternity leave. handing over their work to a colleague or distributing it among the team, however, evoked further feelings of guilt among some of the participants. michelle described this as a ‘double bind’ of guilt—feeling guilty for handing over work to her colleagues and taking maternity leave. the importance of contracting with the line manager prior to going on leave on aspects such as the duration of maternity leave, expectations of engagement with the workplace during maternity leave and the handover to others were emphasised as important elements to manage this transition successfully, especially by those women who had received maternity coaching. a key aspect that emerged from the during maternity leave phase was the women’s adjustment in their transition from a ‘working woman’ to a ‘mother role’ identity. this transition requires a shift in identity, making sense of the new role as a mother, and adjusting and setting boundaries (millward, 2006). overall, women participants said that they had enjoyed their motherhood and the time spent with their baby to varying degrees. however, there were feelings of insecurity and uncertainty about their role back at work, especially during the first few weeks of maternity leave. although they felt that it was important to be fully on maternity leave without the burden of worrying about work, it was still important to all of them to have made some form of contact with their organisation during this time. the contact made by the line manager in particular was highlighted as valuable as confirmed by two participants: ‘i don’t know, you expect the odd message to say: “hope you’re well, how’s it going?,” but at the same time i’m like either, have they forgotten about me or they are just being pretty respectful and leaving me to be, and not think about work and them? (bianca).’ (bianca, professional woman not received coaching, p1) when rani received a congratulations call from her line manager she felt that she was being acknowledged: ‘congratulations, you had a baby, so awesome, we’re thinking of you’. another significant point in this phase lies in the preparation to return to work. it is a juncture that lee (1984) typified by feeling emotionally torn between leaving the child behind and returning to work, as sarah noted: ‘it was very-very-very hard for me [to] think about leaving my baby’. feelings of doubt regarding whether she would still be needed by the organisation and a lack of self-confidence in her ability to return to work and manage motherhood after the absence emerged in the interviews. this same sentiment was also illustrated by jen: ‘… well, it’s not really a big thing for everyone else that’s kind of carried on without you, for the last few months’. in their preparation to return to work, the women participants raised the consideration of support, specifically arranging childcare to ensure a smooth transition back into the workplace. the study revealed that working mothers found the return-to-work post-maternity leave phase to be difficult, especially the re-integration into the organisation. it was described as an emotional journey with physical demands, which rani testified: ‘i cried my heart out … (crying) … because i wanted to be there for my son, that was the biggest thing for me’. the physical demands on the women participants who had chosen to continue breastfeeding were pressuring them to find time to express milk in the workplace. michelle raised the concern that the absence of a dedicated space, such as a ‘lactation room’, and excusing oneself to express milk, was challenging and ‘embarrassing’. the overall theme in the early months upon return was associated with anxiety about the change in self, perceived change in the organisation and finding one’s way in the working mother journey. finally, the notion of career considerations (mainiero & sullivan, 2005), career decisions and working mothers’ dependency on their individual and family circumstances were highlighted by the women participants, leading to pragmatic conclusions, such as the one made by jen: ‘for now, i think i’ve made peace with the fact that […] i don’t want a massive, another sort of massive leap in my career.’ (jen, professional woman received coaching, p1) most of the coaches agreed that the women’s guilt feelings related to their perceived ability to fulfil performance expectations. this pressure, which they had placed on themselves to perform in exactly the same way prior to their pregnancy, was listed as a major contributor to the stress and anxiety the women participants typically experienced. millward (2006) found similar themes associated with changed psychological contracts, which relate to the fulfilment of mutual performance expectations between the employer and the employee. feedback on the maternity coaching experience was found to underline the positive role it played in supporting women who had returned to the organisation after their maternity leave, for example articulated by michelle: ‘the guilt and all of that … those are the type of things that you work on during maternity coaching, [it] helps you to see the long-term benefits, um [pause]… it is something that helps you keep perspective … and helps women stay in the workplace.’ (michelle, professional woman received coaching, p3) an overview of the synthesised themes derived from the interviews in responding to the ‘why’ of maternity coaching is provided in table 3. table 3: understanding the maternity transition experience: the ‘why’ of maternity coaching. these findings illustrate the complexity and transformative nature of the maternity transition experience, which is the basis why maternity coaching is needed and upon which the coaching intervention can be designed. the ‘how’ of maternity coaching the maternity coaching process was not experienced the same by the three women participants who had received maternity coaching, or by the coaches who and the organisation that offered maternity coaching. the study, however, revealed that the structure of the maternity coaching programme consisted typically of three phases, namely coaching during the pregnancy phase; coaching whilst on maternity leave; and coaching upon return to the workplace. these phases align with beacom’s maternity leave transition coaching model (beacom, 2013). the number of coaching sessions ranged from 4 to 10 with the nature of the conversations being both practical and psychological to assist the women to move through the transition. in some instances, depending on the organisation, line manager consultations were included as part of the maternity coaching programme, which entailed the coach meeting with the line manager to help them prepare and support the women during their maternity transition. sessions were held during the maternity leave period (usually two sessions) and upon return to work. the post-maternity sessions were typically scheduled to start around 6 weeks after the women returned to work and then again in 6to 8-month intervals. the overall number of coaching sessions and timing, especially at the post-maternity leave phase, depended on what had been contracted with the organisation as part of the maternity coaching programme. aspects such as costs and seniority or job levels would influence the structure of the maternity coaching programme. according to sarah, the maternity coaching journey was an ‘immensely positive’ experience for those women who had received it. it was described by women as a space where one was challenged but where they felt safe and secure; where they could be vulnerable and have time to think. michelle reflected on the benefit of being able to talk about her fears: ‘[t]he coach shared her own experiences and that of other women … this is what many women do … it was good to have a sounding board, and how i was feeling was kind of normalised.’ (michelle, professional woman received coaching, p3) the coaching journey as a safe ‘container’ for the women to be able to feel vulnerable and have a space to think was also emphasised by stout-rostron (2013). in describing their experience with the maternity coach, all three women participants reported that they had derived much benefit from it. they experienced relevance and a connection to the maternity coach because of the coach’s own maternity transition experience in an organisational context. the maternity coach was seen as a credible role model, mentioned by sarah: ‘[i] definitely think the fact that my coach was someone who was experienced and went through the same thing as well […] i think in this context it creates credibility.’ (sarah, professional woman received coaching, p2) these findings support liston-smith’s (2011) suggestion that a maternity coach who has also been through maternity transition is able to offer empathy and to be a mentor to the women. the ‘what’ of maternity coaching the ‘what’ of maternity coaching refers to the content covered in the maternity coaching sessions. as confirmed by the coaches, the overall aim of the coaching was to support women to effectively transfer from pregnancy into maternity leave and to retain them in the workplace upon their return. preparing and assisting the women in a safe space at an emotional and practical level were therefore necessary in the coaching sessions. as a result, the coaching sessions were structured to make provision for both practical and emotional conversations, for example, on their work and career. for example, during the pre-maternity phase sessions the women were encouraged to compile a ‘30-day plan’ as they prepared to handover their work before going on maternity leave. these conversations entailed role playing in, for example negotiating flexible work hours, maternity leave and other maternity benefits. overall, the nature of the coaching conversations during the pre-maternity phase focused on preparing the individual woman to go on maternity leave and to help her to develop courage to have difficult conversations with line managers. michelle reflected that: ‘[a] maternity coach does help … it gives you that boost to go and have that difficult conversation, and to realise that you are actually important enough to have that conversation.’ (michelle, professional woman received coaching, p3) during the maternity leave, the coaching conversations prepared the women to re-enter the organisation post-maternity leave. practical aspects, such as childcare, household support and the nature of their partners’ involvement, were discussed during these sessions. on a deeper level, it was a time when women had to work through a mixture of emotions – feelings of guilt in leaving the child to go to work; fear of re-entering the workplace; low levels of self-confidence in their abilities; uncertainty in balancing motherhood and work; and some women questioning whether to return to work at all. sarah described her feelings during this time and what she had shared during the coaching session: ‘i was enjoying being a mom and being at home … to leave my baby behind, the guilt was quite a lot for me to deal with. and just the fear of the unknown … there is a whole other part of your life that never existed before that you are responsible for. things would have probably changed at work. so it was scary going back.’ (sarah, professional woman received coaching, p2) from the conversations with coaches, it emerged that the sessions for the post-maternity leave phase centred on re-integration into the workplace and supporting the working woman who had now become a working mother. the topic of role re-construction was mentioned by michelle: ‘especially with a first child … you are like, i think there is a whole other role that you have now, you are now a mother’. themes such as the recurring guilt about working and leaving the child in someone else’s care, a work–life balance, family responsibilities, role conflict, and often, much later on the coaching journey, re-assessing one’s career aspirations and possibly conversations about another child were discussed. the coaches commented that the maternity coaching programme was tailor-made to every organisation’s needs, although the structure and content generally covered the aspects as mentioned in these findings. these findings contribute towards an in-depth understanding of the complexity of maternity transition at both a practical and psychological level, and broadening the knowledge of the extensive support required to assist professional women as they become working mothers. practical implications: maternity transition coaching model and guidelines the findings have practical implications for organisations on why maternity coaching is needed as a mechanism of support, how it can be implemented and what should be focussed on in the intervention. these three aspects provided the input for the maternity transition coaching model2 and the practical guidelines for the different groups. the maternity transition coaching model the maternity transition coaching model can be utilised by organisations to plan and implement the coaching. the maternity coaching, as depicted in figure 1, is positioned within an organisational system context, illustrated in the form of the outer circle, and the success of the maternity coaching programme is influenced by a supportive organisational culture and maternal support practices within the organisation. the three phases of maternity transition are shown in the centre of the model, with the maternity coaching sessions indicated in each phase. the themes of the coaching sessions are practical and psychologically directed to assist women towards successful maternity transition. these themes are illustrated with conversational themes in the model: situation, strategies, self and support. in the model, the coach moves on the axis of the outer circle and establishes a contract with the organisation and the women. figure 1: maternity transition coaching model. the maternity transition coaching model is supported by practical guidelines to ensure that the coaching programme is the intended supportive lever for professional women during maternity transition with the aim to retain middle to senior female leaders in organisations. guidelines and practical recommendations for maternity coaching the maternity transition coaching model can be used to plan a maternity coaching programme by considering firstly the guidelines and, secondly, the practical recommendations to the participating groups, namely the professional women, the coaches and the organisational stakeholders. guidelines the guidelines for implementing a maternity transition coaching programme are shown in table 4. an average of six to eight coaching sessions are recommended to complete the coaching programme. table 4: guidelines for implementing a maternity transition coaching programme. practical recommendations the following recommendations are made to the three participating groups when managing the maternity transition of professional women in organisations. professional women women should recognise that support is needed during this complex transition and accept support by undergoing maternity coaching. they should intentionally and consciously use maternity coaching to help navigate the transition successfully. women should pursue more open communication with the organisation on matters such as inclusion on work projects, career ambition, work travel, contact during maternity leave and other work expectations. women should re-engage and manage their own career objectives upon returning to the workplace by having conversations with line managers about career aspirations, timing of next career steps, managing the workload and career commitments. coaches the transition theory and process, together with its associated impact on identity and identity construction during maternity transition, should be highlighted in the development and training of maternity coaches. coaches should be mindful and aware of the role and impact of the organisational context and culture in supporting women. and, therefore, coaches should engage and give feedback to organisational stakeholders on aspects in the organisational context that could support or that may hinder the maternity transition. this should be done generalised to safeguard the confidentiality of the coaching relationship with the participants. organisational stakeholders, such as hr practitioners and line managers: support, in the form of maternity coaching, for example, should be provided to professional women, concentrating on both the physical and psychological challenges of maternity transition. the support could extend to parental and paternity coaching. it should be acknowledged that the organisational culture plays a critical role in supporting women in their maternity transition and enabling them to continue with their careers. it should be acknowledged that proactive, sound communication and knowledge of the various forms of maternal support (i.e. policies, procedures and processes), as well as the line manager’s support, are vital during a woman’s maternity transition journey. senior women leaders who are also working mothers could be mentors and role models, and assist and encourage other professional women to help ‘normalise’ the maternity transition. limitations of the study and recommendations for future research there are a number of limitations to this study. although several strategies (such as a researcher’s journal) were used to mitigate potential researcher bias and subjectivity, the study cannot be fully detached from the perceptions of the researcher. a further limitation was the small sample of 13 participants that was made up of four different groups for triangulation. all organisational stakeholders who participated in the study were females. although this was not the intention, it was a challenge to obtain consent from male line managers to participate in the study. as a result, the absence of gender diversity among the participating stakeholders was another limitation. the following suggestions are offered as areas for future research: investigating the development of a paternal coaching model as a possible support mechanism for parents that includes fathers in the workplace. exploring the longer-term benefits of the maternity transition coaching model and its impact on the retention of professional women in organisations, given that all the working mothers in this study remained with their respective organisations. further research on the use of the proposed maternity transition coaching model with its guidelines to better understand its meaningful application in organisations in this niche coaching area. conclusion the maternity transition process from a working professional woman to a working mother is riddled with internal and external complexities and challenges. the maternity coaching journey had a profound impact on those women participants in the study, not only at a practical level, but also at a psychological and a physical level. the participants perceived maternity transition coaching offered by their organisations to play a key role in assisting them with the transition. in addition, the organisational culture and other maternal support practices during each of the three maternity phases were considered crucial in enabling a positive and successful maternity transition. this study provides a comprehensive understanding and empirical evidence of the complex nature of the maternity transition process for working mothers in organisations. as a result, this study proposes a maternity transition coaching model underpinned by practical guidelines when introducing a maternity coaching programme as part of an organisation’s retention strategy. these guidelines can be applied by human resources personnel, senior management and coaches, who experience the adverse consequences of senior women leaving organisations as a result of maternity transition challenges. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions h.m.l.s. was the supervisor for e.b. during the research project and converted the dissertation into the journal article. funding information the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. data availability data that were used in the form of interviews, thematic analysis codes and themes are available upon request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors and the publisher(s). references ackah, c., & heaton, n. (2004). the reality of ‘new’ careers for men and women. journal of european industrial training, 28(2–4), 141–158, cited in clarke, m. (2011). advancing women’s careers through leadership development programmes. employee relations: the international journal, 33(5), 498–515. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090590410527582 anderson, m., goodman, j., & schlossberg, n.k. (2012). counselling adults in transition: linking scholssberg’s theory with practice in a diverse world. new york, ny: springer publishing company, inc. ashforth, b.e., kreiner, g.e., & fugate, m. (2000). all in a day’s work: boundaries and micro role transitions. academy of management review, 25(3), 472–491. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2000.3363315 babbie, e.r., & mouton, j. (2006). the practice of social research. london: oxford university press. beacom, a.m. (2013). the retain maternity leave transition coaching model: applying schlossberg’s transition theory to create a new model of executive coaching. doctoral dissertation. retrieved from proquest dissertations and thesis database. (umi 3557142). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ed552804 bennett, k. (2017). living and leading through uncertainty. randburg: kr publishing. bloomberg, l.d., & volpe, m. (2008). completing your qualitative dissertation: a roadmap from beginning to end. riverside county, ca: sage. bohrer, a., cardazone, g., cooper, m., coury, s., huang, j., krivkovich, a. … yee, l (2020). women in the workplace. corporate america is at a critical crossroads. mckinsey & company. lean in. retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace boz, i., özçetin, e., & teskereci, g. (2018). becoming a mother after infertility: a theoretical analysis. psikiyatride gűncel yaklasimlar. current approaches in psychiatry, 10(4), 506–521. https://doi.org/10.18863/pgy.382342 bridges, w. (1980). transitions: making sense of life’s changes. new york, ny: addisonwesley. brown, l.m. (2010). the relationship between motherhood and professional advancement: perceptions versus reality. employee relations, 32(5), 470–494. brown v., & hodges n.j. (2016). appearance and the transition to motherhood: an exploration of identity construction among new mothers. international textile and apparel association annual conference proceedings 73(1), 1–2. bussell, j. (2008). great expectations: can maternity coaching affect the retention of professional women? international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring, s2, 14–26. businesswomen’s association of south africa (bwasa). (2017). south african women in leadership census 2017. retrieved from https://bwasa.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/2017-bwasa-census-report.pdf cabrera, e. (2007). opting out and opting in: understanding the complexities of women’s career transitions. career development international, 12(3), 218–237. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430710745872 cabrera, e. (2009a). fixing the leaky pipeline: five ways to retain female talent. people and strategy, 32(1), 40–45. cabrera, e. (2009b). protean organizations: reshaping work and careers to retain female talent. career development international, 14(2), 186–201. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430910950773 cahusac, e., & kanji, s. (2014). giving up: how gendered organizational cultures push mothers out. gender, work and organization, 21(1), 57–69. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12011 clarke, m. (2011). advancing women’s careers through leadership development programmes. employee relations: the international journal, 33(5), 498–515. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425451111153871 creswell, j.w. (2009). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches (3rd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. delport, c.s.l., fouché, c.b., & schurink, w. (2011). chapter 18: theory and literature in qualitative research. in a.s. de vos, h. strydom, c.b. fouché, & c.s.l. delport (eds.), research at grass roots for the social sciences and human service professions (pp. 297–306). 4th ed. pretoria: van schaik publishers. desvaux, g., devillard-hoellinger, s., & meaney, m.c. (2008, october 3). a business case for women. mckinsey & company. forbes. retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/2008/10/03/business-women-economics-lead-cx_1003mckinsey.html#65da0fac2d5d eagly, a.h., & carli, l.l. (2007). women and the labyrinth of leadership. harvard business review, 85(9), 63–71. ely, r.j., & rhode, d.l. (2010). chapter 14: women and leadership: defining the challenges. in n. nohria and r. khurana (eds.), handbook of leadership theory and practice. new york, ny: harvard business press cited in skinner, s. (2014). understanding the importance of gender and leader identity formation in executive coaching for senior women. coaching: an international journal of theory, research and practice, 7(2), 102–114. https://doi.org/10.1080/17521882.2014.915864 filsinger, c. (2012). how maternity coaching can influence women’s re-engagement with their career development: a case study of a maternity coaching programme in uk-based private law firms. international journal of evidence based coaching & mentoring, june(6), 46–56. florent-treacy, e. (2009). behind the scenes in the identity laboratory: participants’ narratives of identity transition through group coaching in a leadership development programme. international psychology review, 4(1), 71–75. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1340332 grady, g., & mccarthy, a.m. (2008). work-life integration: experiences of mid-career professional working mothers. journal of managerial psychology, 23(5), 599–622. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940810884559 guion, l.a., diehl, d.c., & mcdonald, d. (2010). triangulation: establishing the validity of qualitative studies. oxford express, pp. 22–24. gainesville, fl: department of family, youth and community sciences; florida cooperative extension service; institute of food and agricultural sciences; university of florida. haynes, k. (2008). (re)figuring accounting and maternal bodies: the gendered embodiment of accounting professionals. accounting, organizations and society, 33(4–5), 328–348. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2007.04.003 henning, e., van rensburg, w., & smit, b. (2004). finding your way in qualitative research. pretoria: van schaik publishers. hewlett, s.a. (2002). creating a life: professional woman and the quest for children. new york, ny: miramax. hewlett, s.a., & luce, c.b. (2005). off-ramps and on-ramps keeping talented women on the road to success. harvard business review, 83(3), 43–54. retrieved from https://hbr.org/2005/03/off-ramps-and-on-ramps-keeping-talented-women-on-the-road-to-success hunt, v., layton, d., & prince, s. (2015). diversity matters. mckinsey & company. retrieved from https://assets.mckinsey.com/~/media/857f440109aa4d13a54d9c496d86ed58.ashx laney, e.k., hall, m.e., anderson, t.l., & willingham, m.m. (2015). becoming a mother: the influence of motherhood on women’s identity development. identity: an international journal of theory and research, 15(2), 126–145. lee, r.e. (1984). when mid-career mothers first return to work: counselling concerns. journal of counselling and development, 63(1), 35–39. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.1984.tb02676.x leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2013). practical research: planning and design (10th ed.). new jersey: pearson education, inc. liff, s., & ward, k. (2001). distorted views through the glass ceiling: the construction of women’s understandings of promotion and senior management. gender, work and organization, 8(1), 19–36. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0432.00120 liston-smith, j. (2011). becoming a parent. in j. passmore, & s. panchal (eds.), developmental coaching: life transitions and generational perspectives (pp. 91–114). london: routledge. ludeman, k. (2009). coaching with women. in j. passmore (ed.), diversity in coaching: working with gender, culture, race and age (pp. 237–254). london: kogan page. mainiero, l.a., & sullivan, s.e. (2005). kaleidoscope careers: an alternate explanation for the ‘opt-out’ revolution. academy of management executive, 19(1), 106–123. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2005.15841962 matthews, r.a., winkel, d.e., & wayne, j.h. (2014). a longitudinal examination of role overload and work-family conflict: the mediating role of interdomain transitions. journal of organisational behavior, 35(1), 72–91. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1855 merriam, s. (1998). qualitative research and case studies applications in education. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. millward, l. (2006). the transition to motherhood in an organisational context: an interpretative phenomenological analysis. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 79(3), 315–333. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317906x110322 morris, l. (2008). the experiences of women returning to work after maternity leave in the uk: summary of survey results. retrieved from http://www.nct.org.uk./sites/default/files/returningtowork-survey.pdf murphy, b.o., & zorn, t. (1996). gendered interaction in professional relationships. in j.t. wood (ed.), gendered relationships (pp. 213–232). mountain view, ca: mayfield. noon, h., & van nieuwerburgh, c. (2020). looking forward to going back? the experience of career decision-making for first-time mothers and the implications for coaches. international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring, 18(1), 88–102. o’neil, d., & bilimoria, d. (2005). women’s career development phases: idealism, endurance and reinvention. career development international, 10(3), 168–189. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430510598300 paustian-underdahl, s.c., eaton, a.a., mandeville, a., & little, l. m. (2019). pushed out or opting out? integrating perspectives on gender differences in withdrawal attitudes during pregnancy. journal of applied psychology, 104(8), 985–1002. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000394 schlossberg, n.k. (1981). a model for analyzing human adaptation to transition (j.m. whitely, ed.) the counselling psychologist, 9(2), 2–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/001100008100900202 skinner, s. (2014). understanding the importance of gender and leader identity formation in executive coaching for senior women. coaching: an international journal of theory, research and practice, 7(2), 102–114. https://doi.org/10.1080/17521882.2014.915864 smith, a.n., morgan, w.b., king, e.b., hebl, m.r., & peddie, c.i. (2012). the ins and outs of diversity management: the effect of authenticity on outsider perceptions and insider behaviours. journal of applied social psychology, 42(s1), e21–e55. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2012.01021.x smith, j.a. (1999). identity development during the transition to motherhood: an interpretative phenomenological analysis. journal of reproductive and infant psychology, 17(3), 281–299. https://doi.org/10.1080/02646839908404595 smith, r.b., & campbell, m. (2010). c-suite challenges and the economic meltdown: what’s next for senior leaders? hr people & strategy, 33(4), 22–30. sparrow, s. (2008, november 18). keeping mum. training & coaching today, pp. 18–19. spence, g.b., armour, m.r., driessen, d., lea, r., & north, j. (2016). contributing to coaching knowledge whilst learning how to research: a review and discussion of four student-coaching studies. coaching: an international journal of theory, research and practice, 9(2), 169–184. https://doi.org/10.1080/17521882.2016.1210188 still, m.c. (2006). the opt-out revolution in the united states: implications for modern organizations. managerial and decision economics, 27(2–3), 159–171. https://doi.org/10.1002/mde.1290 stout-rostron, s. (2013). gender issues in business coaching. in j. passmore, d.b. peterson, & t. freire (eds.), the wiley-blackwell handbook of the psychology of coaching and mentoring (pp. 155–174). chichester: wiley-blackwell. sullivan, s.e., & mainiero, l. (2008). using the kaleidoscope career model to understand the changing patterns of women’s careers: designing hrd programs that attract and retain women. advances in developing human resources, 10(1), 32–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422307310110 thornton, g. (2021). women in business: a window of opportunity. grant thornton international. retrieved from https://www.grantthornton.global/globalassets/1.-member-firms/global/insights/women-in-business/grant-thornton-women-in-business-2021-report.pdf vitzthum, c. (2017). how can maternity-return coaching complement structural organisational benefits? international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring, special issue (11), 44–56. voydanoff, p. (2002). linkages between the work-family interface and work, family, and individual outcomes: an integrative model. journal of family issues, 23(1), 138–164. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513x02023001007 watts, j. (2009). ‘allowed into a man’s world’ meanings of work-life balance: perspectives of women civil engineers as ‘minority’ workers in construction. gender, work & organisation, 16(1), 37–57. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2007.00352.x williams, j. (2001). unbending gender: why work and family conflict and what to do about it. new york, ny: oxford university press. ye, r., wang, x.-h., wendt, j.h., wu, j., & euwma, m.c. (2010). gender and managerial coaching across cultures: female managers are coaching more. the international journal of human resource management, 27(16), 1791–1812. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1075570 yin, r.k. (2011). qualitative research design from start to finish. new york, ny: the guilford press. zimmerman, l.m., & clark, m.a (2016). opting-out and opting-in: a review and agenda for future research, career development international, 21(6), 603–633. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi-10-2015-0137 footnotes 1. in this study, the term ‘professional women’ is interchangeably used with the terms ‘women’ and ‘working women’. 2. the term ‘transition’ was included in the model to emphasise the transitional process through the three phases of pre-, during and post-maternity periods. abstract introduction literature review research methods findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) shiksha gallow graduate school of business leadership, university of south africa, johannesburg, south africa jo nel department of english studies, university of limpopo, polokwane, south africa adri williams edupark, polokwane, south africa citation gallow, s., nel, j., & williams, a. (2020). a conceptual model to retain non-professionals in a private healthcare setting. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1281. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1281 original research a conceptual model to retain non-professionals in a private healthcare setting shiksha gallow, jo nel, adri williams received: 27 sept. 2019; accepted: 21 apr. 2020; published: 07 july 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: non-professionals are carriers of institutional knowledge and are essential to the effective functioning of healthcare institutions. however, most studies on retention in the healthcare environment focus on professionals. objective: the aim of this study was to develop a conceptual model pertaining to the retention of non-professionals in the healthcare sector. methods: a total of 72 non-professional and, for the purpose of contract, 116 professional employees were surveyed. the independent variables were job characteristics, job satisfaction and career anchors. the dependent variables were organisational commitment and intention to quit. the analysis focused on the way the independent variables correlated with the dependent variables. results: it was possible to identify individual elements in the independent variables that relate to the dependent variables. it was thus possible to extrapolate and develop a conceptual model for the retention of non-professionals in the healthcare sector. the results also revealed that, for the professionals, the independent variables were less effective in predicting retention. conclusion: a retention strategy that focuses on the specific variables could be effective for the retention of non-professionals. also, the independent variables used in this study do not predict retention in the professional group. it may thus be necessary to address retention for non-professionals and professionals in the healthcare sector differently. keywords: retention; conceptual model; pathology; job retention; career anchors. introduction orientation there are obvious reasons why staff turnover in the healthcare environment should be minimised. mazurenko, gupte and shan (2015) refer to important consequences: ‘decreased patient access, patient safety and quality of care leading to adverse outcomes’ of high staff turnover (p. 48). most studies on retention in the healthcare environment focus on professionals (e.g. geun, redman, & mccullagh, 2016; hayward, bungay, wolff, & macdonald, 2016; kaye & jordan-evans, 2014; yu & kang, 2016). this may have unintended and acute consequences, as the support staff – that is, the non-professionals – are carriers of institutional knowledge and are essential to the effective functioning of healthcare institutions (encinares & pullan, 2003; lin, yu, & zhang, 2014; vlastarakos & nikolopoulos, 2008). in this regard, selected previous research has shown that retention models for those on different staff levels differ (staggs & dunton, 2012; wheeler, halbesleben, & harris, 2012). retention (in general) has been associated with many antecedents, for example, task, organisational, personality and demographic factors (shahnawaz & jafri, 2009). task factors, such as job characteristics (chang, wang, & huang, 2013), organisational factors, for example, role conflict (tiplic, brandmo, & elstad, 2015), opportunities for career advancement and procedural fairness (shahzad, hayat, abbas, & bashir, 2011), as well as the work environment (duffield, roche, blay, & stasa, 2011; mi, 2016) and management leadership (leveck & jones, 1996) are said to influence turnover. factors such as locus of control, perceived organisational support, job satisfaction and organisational commitment (chiu, lin, tsai, & hsiao, 2005), and demographic factors, such as age (buengeler, homan, & voelpel, 2016) and age coupled with tenure similarity amongst employees (chang et al., 2013), have demonstrated an influence on retention. retention has been associated with compensation and benefits (jordan, 2009). research purposes and objectives within the domain of healthcare, retention was specifically associated with affective professional commitment, job satisfaction, organisational commitment and intention to change professions (parry, 2008). barak, nissly and levin (2001) point to burnout, job dissatisfaction, availability of employment alternatives, low organisational and professional commitment, stress and lack of social support as strong predictors of turnover or intention to leave. lack of career development and lack of training opportunities are also related to retention in the healthcare field (chipeta, 2014). jooste (2009) also states that healthcare professionals ‘expect that their performance will correlate with the rewards received from the organisation’ (p. 288). furthermore, race and skees (2010) report that retention within the healthcare domain is associated with good mentoring as is preceptorship (yonge, myrick, billay, & luhanga, 2007). in the past, job characteristics (ghosh, rai, chauhan, gupta, & singh, 2015; uruthirapathy & grant, 2015), job satisfaction (hudgins, 2016) and career anchors (guan et al., 2014; wen & liu, 2015) were also used in empirical research as antecedents to retention. the purpose of this study was to test the importance of job characteristics, job satisfaction and career anchors, in retaining non-professional in the private healthcare system. literature review job characteristics (ghosh et al., 2015) and job satisfaction (adegoke, atiyaye, abubakar, auta, & aboda, 2015) are closely related to retention. along similar lines, schein’s career anchors are often used as a predictor of retention (msondo, 2014; osuji, uzoka, aladi, & el-hussein, 2014). equally, intention to quit (lartey, cummings, & profetto-mcgrath, 2014) and organisational commitment (van dyk & coetzee, 2012) are often seen as proxies to retention. given the aforementioned, three antecedents to retention, namely, job characteristics, satisfaction and career anchors, were identified, as were two proxies to retention, namely, organisational commitment and intention to quit. according to the job-characteristic theory, skill variety (the range of tasks performed), task identity (the ability to complete the whole job from start to finish) and task significance (the impact of the job on others) contribute to the meaningfulness of the work, while autonomy (the extent of discretion and freedom an employee has over his or her tasks) and feedback (the extent to which the job provides the employee with information about the effectiveness of his or her performance) contribute to the motivation of the employee (hackman & oldham, 1975). wall, clegg and jackson (1978), almost 40 years ago, found that job characteristics are related to intrinsic motivation, job performance, job satisfaction as well as absenteeism and the retention of employees. it could well be expected that those variables still influence a person’s intention to remain in an organisation or be committed to it. the elements of job satisfaction, as proposed by hackman and oldham (1975), namely, job, pay, security, social, supervisor and growth satisfaction, as often referenced in academic literature (behson, 2010; debacker, 2013), are seldom explained in greater detail, and also not explained in the original instrument development document (hackman & oldham, 1974). however, it seems self-explanatory as is the link between satisfaction and turnover (adegoke, 2014). schein (1975) identified eight career anchors. these are the following: technical/functional (referring to individuals motivated by doing what they are good at and aim to grow in expertise in an area) general managerial (referring to individuals who want to lead others and aspire to decision-making and motivating others) autonomy/independence (referring to individuals who need a feeling of autonomy and independence and seek to work alone or in a situation which they can control) security/stability (referring to individuals who try to avoid uncertainty and tend to seek stability in their workplace entrepreneurial creativity (referring to those who are motivated by creating something new and bring new perspectives ideas to the fore) service/dedication to a cause (referring to those who want to see themselves as being of value, to other people, helping people or to a cause, such as animal rights) pure ch1allenge (referring to individuals who are motivated by success, promotion and recognition, as well as competing against others) lifestyle (referring to those concerned with work–life balance and seeing work as a means for doing things they view as being of value). from the aforementioned, it is evident that certain individuals would be attracted to certain work environments, while others would be repelled by a work environment that does not satisfy their needs. career anchors are enduring and would not be relinquished, even if the employee is faced with difficult career choices (gubler, biemann, tschopp, & grote, 2015). from the above, the link between these variables seems straightforward and well researched. however, studying the references to the variables, particularly those who make reference to the medical profession, it is evident that attention is only given to professionals in the field (alam & shahi, 2015; warmelink, wiegers, de cock, spelten, & hutton, 2015). none of the research reports listed here make any reference to support or administrative staff. the focus of this research was to assess whether all staff are cut from the same cloth, and if managers should treat all employees similarly, when the aim is to retain them. research methods research design the research was an exploratory study making use of a cross-sectional survey design. the aim was to assess the extent to which traditional antecedents to retention apply to non-professionals employed in the private healthcare environment. sampling the target population was all non-professional employees working in south africa in the private healthcare domain. for the purpose of the study, privately owned pathology laboratories were targeted. a list of employees with all their information was acquired from the human resource department of the different laboratories. all employees (professional and non-professional) were invited to participate in the study. ethical consideration ethical approval for this study was granted by unisa school of business leadership (unisa sbl’s) ethics committee. no ethical breaches occurred during the study. research plan after gaining permission to conduct the research from the different managers of the laboratories, and getting ethical clearance for the university, all employees were approached to complete five questionnaires: three on antecedents to retention and two that acted as proxies to retention. then, the data were captured and analysed to assess the level of overlap between the independent and the dependant variables. the results were used to develop a model for the retention of non-professional staff in the private healthcare environment. in the analysis, a distinction was made between professional and non-professional staff. those registered with statutory bodies such as the health professions council of south africa (hpcsa) or the south african nursing council (sanca) were deemed to be professionals and the rest were considered to be non-professionals. measuring instrument the job characteristic scale forms part of the job diagnostic survey (hackman & oldham, 1975) and consists of five sections, namely, skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback. the job diagnostic survey (hackman & oldham, 1975) also contains a measure called the job satisfaction scale, with sections called job, pay, security, social, supervisor and growth satisfaction. the career orientation inventory (coi) was developed by schein (1996) following de long (1982). it measures eight career anchors, namely, technical/functional competence, general managerial competence, autonomy, security/stability, entrepreneurial creativity, service/dedication to a cause, pure challenge as well as the career anchor lifestyle. the organizational commitment scale (allen & meyer, 1990) measures three-dimensional organisational commitment, focusing on affective, continuance and normative commitment. in this study, the focus will only be on the overall commitment score. the intention to quit questionnaire, adopted from arnold and feldman (1982), measures the intention to quit with a unidimensional four-item scale. all of these measures are well known in the organisational behaviour environment and display acceptable levels of reliability and validity and have been used in numerous studies. statistical analysis and decision-making statistical analysis focuses on correlations as well as on regression analysis. correlations were calculated to identify which of the independent variables overlapped the most with the dependent variables. statistically significant correlations (p < 0.01), with medium effect (r ≥ 0.30), as per cohen (1988), will be deemed as practically significant and will be included in the conceptual model (i.e. retention strategy). regression analysis will be used to identify how the group of variables (job characteristics, satisfaction and career anchors) together predict the dependent variables. r2 ≥ 0.20 would be deemed as practically significant; cohen (1988) states that when shared variance is greater than 20%, it may be interpreted as practically meaningful. findings in the section that follows, a description of the participants is provided as well as the results pertaining to the correlations between the constructs. the rest of the findings focus on the relationships between the independent (job characteristic, job satisfaction and career anchors) and dependent variables (organisational commitment and intention to quit). description of the participants in total, 188 respondents answered the questionnaires. amongst them, 53 (22.8 %) were male and 135 (71.8%) were female. the respondents’ ethnicity was as follows: 37.8% african, 23.9% caucasian, 20.7% asian and 17.6% mixed race. in total, 116 professionals and 72 non-professionals employees were surveyed. correlation between antecedents and proxies of retention in table 1, the correlation between job characteristics and intention to quit and organisational commitment per staff status are presented. table 1: correlation between job characteristics and intention to quit and organisational commitment per staff status. from table 1, it can be deduced that most job characteristics predict intention to quit in the non-professional group. this is also reflected in the regression coefficients, which is practically significant. providing skill variety, task significance and autonomy will retain employees. indeed, the feedback from the job itself seems to coincide with non-professional employees wanting to quit their jobs. note that none of the job characteristics seem to create commitment to the organisation, amongst the non-professionals. none of these traditional predictors of retention seem to be effective in the professional group. this also applies to organisational commitment. in table 2, results pertaining to career anchors and the proxies to retention are presented. table 2: correlation between career anchors and intention to quit and organisational commitment per staff status. from table 2, it can be inferred that an environment with high technical/functional competence, general managerial competence, security/stability and service/dedication to a cause retains employees (i.e. they do not want to quit). however, pure challenge seems to have a negative effect, causing employees to want to leave. even though none of the individual career anchors overlapped at a practical level with organisational commitment, the overall model, the regression model (see r2), suggests that it does indeed contribute to commitment. career anchor is, however, a much weaker predictor of organisational commitment than intention to quit. as was the case with job characteristics, none of the career anchor variables overlapped in a practical and meaningful manner with the proxies to retention in the professional group. career anchors thus predict intention to quit and organisational commitment amongst non-professionals, but fail to do that amongst the professionals in the healthcare system. the results pertaining to satisfaction, on the one hand, and the proxies of retention, on the other hand, are presented in table 3. table 3: correlation between satisfaction and intention to quit and organisational commitment per staff status. from table 3, it is evident that high levels of pay, security, social and supervisory satisfaction contribute to employees not intending to quit the organisation. it is interesting to note that only the possibility of growth (growth satisfaction) contributes to commitment to the organisation. not one of the other types of satisfaction, including pay satisfaction, contributed to commitment to the organisation. as was the case with the other variables, no practically significant shared variance was found in the professional group. job satisfaction is thus a poor predictor of proxies to retention amongst professionals in the healthcare system. in table 4, the results of the previous tables are combined to highlight where managers could focus their effort should the aim be to retain non-professional staff in the private healthcare sector. table 4: retention model for non-professional workers in the private healthcare environment. as can be noted from table 4, managers need to provide more inducements in the case of negative correlations and fewer in the case of positive correlations to retain non-professional staff. discussion from the analysis presented, it can be observed that job characteristics, satisfaction and career anchors overlap with intentions to quit. the values were r2 = 0.473, 0.736 and 0.674, respectively. this suggests that meeting career anchor expectations could be the best strategy to prevent non-professional staff from quitting. it is also important to note that only job satisfaction contributes to organisational commitment, with opportunities for growth as the primary driver in this case. it was possible to develop a retention strategy for non-professionals in the private healthcare sector. managers are urged to focus on the elements highlighted in table 4 when they strive to retain employees. although it may be important to focus on certain aspects, managers also need to be aware of the factors that do not contribute to retention. it is recommended that with regard to job characteristics, improved skill variety, task significance and autonomy will contribute to reducing intentions to quit, while feedback from the job itself seems to promote intentions to quit. it thus seems that when considering job characteristics, it would be unwise to design jobs that automatically provide feedback, if retention is the aim. considering the eight career anchors, five seem to influence the intention to quit. improving conditions that will strengthen the technical, managerial, security and service career anchors will diminish the inclination to want to quit, while stimulating the challenge career anchor will have the opposite effect. while general satisfaction with the job does not affect intentions to quit amongst non-professionals, satisfaction regarding pay, security, supervision and social interactions does. improving these conditions may curtail intentions to quit. an important finding from this research is that not intending to quit does not equate to commitment to the organisation. it may be inferred from these results that the concepts may have different meanings to the respondents and it seems as if different antecedents influence the two variables. perhaps, the most striking finding of the research is the inability of the independent variables to predict the proxies to retention in the professional group. this was the case for all the predictors and on all the sub-scales. this suggests that traditional antecedents to retention fail as predictors for professionals in the private healthcare sector. the implication is that different strategies may be necessary for the retention of different categories of employees. conclusion it has been noted from the existing literature that few retention strategies exist for public health workers, and more effective strategies are needed in south africa. the findings for this article have been derived from valid and concise research methods, and provide empirically based evidence to this effect. as previously discussed, meeting career anchor expectations could be the best strategy to prevent non-professional staff from quitting. alhassan and poku (2018), chipeta (2014), jiang and klein (1999), lee and park (2018), muller, bezuidenhout and jooste (2009) and weiss (2019) suggest that career-anchor-related interventions would influence retention. managers are thus encouraged to focus on career anchor ‘fulfilment’ as the most effective strategy to retain non-professionals in the private healthcare system. this study reinforces the idea that traditional retention strategies are suitable to retain non-professionals, and in addition highlights the importance of focussing on specific antecedents. it further accentuates the need to differentiate between retention strategies for professional and non-professionals. this is in line with the previous findings (see staggs & dunton, 2012; wheeler et al., 2012). the contribution of this study is providing a retention model using and contrasting several variables, namely, career anchors, job characteristics, job satisfaction, organisational commitment and intention to quit, in relation to the retention of non-professionals. a retention model for the healthcare non-professionals was developed. this model not only contributes to the body of knowledge, but is also a useful managerial tool to manage non-professionals (and professionals) in the health sector. acknowledgements the authors thank unisa school of business leadership (unisa sbl) for the support provided to conduct the study. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions s.g. was the main author, and the rest were co-authors. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references adegoke, a.a., atiyaye, f.b., abubakar, a.s., auta, a. & aboda, a. (2015). job satisfaction and retention of midwives in rural nigeria. midwifery, 31(10), 946–956. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.midw.2015.06.010 adegoke, t.g. (2014). effects of occupational stress on psychological well-being of police employees in ibadan metropolis, nigeria. african research review 8(1), 19–25. alam, t., & shahi, m. (2015). factors affecting job satisfaction, motivation and turnover rate of medical promotion officer (mpo) in pharmaceutical industry: a study based in khulna city. asian business review, 1(1), 126–131. https://doi.org/10.18034/abr.v1i2.324 alhassan, r.k., & poku, k.a. (2018). experiences of frontline nursing staff on workplace safety and occupational health hazards in two psychiatric hospitals in ghana. bmc public health, 18(1), 701. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5620-5 allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization. journal of occupational psychology, 61, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.x arnold, h., & feldman, d. (1982). a multivariate analysis of the determinants of job turnover. journal of applied psychology, 67(3), 350–360. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.67.3.350 barak, m.m., nissly, j.a., & levin, a. (2001). antecedents to retention and turnover among child welfare, social work, and other human service employees: what can we learn from past research? a review and meta-analysis. social service review, 75(4), 625–661. https://doi.org/10.1086/323166 behson, s.j. (2010). using relative weights to reanalyze ‘settled’ areas of organizational behavior research: the job characteristics model and organizational justice. international journal of management and information systems, 14(5), 43–55. https://doi.org/10.19030/ijmis.v14i5.12 buengeler, c., homan, a.c., & voelpel, s.c. (2016). the challenge of being a young manager: the effects of contingent reward and participative leadership on team-level turnover depend on leader age. journal of organizational behavior, 37(8), 1224–1245. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2101 chang, w.a., wang, y., & huang, t. (2013). work design-related antecedents of turnover intention: a multilevel approach. human resource management, 52(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21515 chipeta, j. (2014). factors that affect staff morale in tertiary hospitals in malawi: a case study of kamuzu central hospital. journal of human resource and sustainability studies, 2(4), 230–238. https://doi.org/10.4236/jhrss.2014.24024 chiu, c., lin, c., tsai, y.h., & hsiao, c. (2005). modeling turnover intentions and their antecedents using the locus of control as a moderator: a case of customer service employees. human resource development quarterly, 16(4), 481–499. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.1152 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioural sciences (2nd edn.). hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. debacker, j.p. (2013). instructional coach job satisfaction: an exploration of role stressors. doctoral dissertation, university of kansas, missouri kansas. de long, t.j. (1982). reexamining the career anchor model. personnel, 59(3), 60–61. duffield, c.m., roche, m.a., blay, n., & stasa, h. (2011). nursing unit managers, staff retention and the work environment. journal of clinical nursing, 20(1–2), 23–33. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2010.03478.x encinares, m., & pullan, s. (2003). the balancing act: collaboration between frontline forensic staff and hospital administration. journal of psychosocial nursing & mental health services, 41(12), 36–47. geun, h.g., redman, r.w., & mccullagh, m.c. (2016). turnover and associated factors in asian foreign-educated nurses. the journal of nursing administration, 46(5), 271–277. https://doi.org/10.1097/nna.0000000000000342 ghosh, p., rai, a., chauhan, r., gupta, n., & singh, a. (2015). exploring the moderating role of context satisfaction between job characteristics and turnover intention of employees of indian public sector banks. journal of management development, 34(8), 1019–1030. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd-10-2014-0138 guan, y., wen, y., chen, s., liu, h., si, w., liu, y., … dong, z. (2014). when do salary and job level predict career satisfaction and turnover intention among chinese managers? the role of perceived organizational career management and career anchor. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 23(4), 596–607. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2013.763403 gubler, m., biemann, t., tschopp, c., & grote, g. (2015). how career anchors differentiate managerial career trajectories: a sequence analysis perspective. journal of career development, 42(1), 412–430. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845315572891 hackman, j.r., & oldham, g.r. (1974). the job diagnostic survey: instrument for the diagnosis of jobs and the evaluation of job redesign projects. new haven, ct: yale university. hackman, j.r., & oldham, g.r. (1975). development of the job diagnostic survey. journal of applied psychology, 60(2), 159–170. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0076546 hayward, d., bungay, v., wolff, a.c., & macdonald, v. (2016). a qualitative study of experienced nurses’ voluntary turnover: learning from their perspectives. journal of clinical nursing, 25(9–10), 1336–1345. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.13210 hudgins, t.a. (2016). resilience, job satisfaction and anticipated turnover in nurse leaders. journal of nursing management, 24(1), e62–e69. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12289 hunt, d. (2014). does value congruence between nurses and supervisors effect job satisfaction and turnover? journal of nursing management, 22(5), 572–582. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12055 jiang, j.j., & klein, g. (1999). supervisor support and career anchor impact on the career satisfaction of the entry-level information systems professional. journal of management information systems, 16(3), 219–240. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421222.1999.11518262 jordan, z. (2009). magnet recognition and practice development: two journeys towards practice improvement in health care, journal of social welfare and management, 165(3), 757–761. kaye, b., & jordan-evans, s. (2014). love ‘em or lose ‘em: getting good people to stay. san francisco, ca: bernett-koehler. lartey, s., cummings, g., & profetto-mcgrath, j. (2014). interventions that promote retention of experienced registered nurses in health care settings: a systematic review. journal of nursing management, 22(8), 1027–1041. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12105 lee, j.a., & park, s.h. (2018). analysis of educational needs for career anchor and career development of nursing students. journal of the korea academia-industrial cooperation society, 19(4), 293–300. leveck, m.l., & jones, c.b. (1996). the nursing practice environment, staff retention, and quality of care. research in nursing and health, 19(4), 331–343. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1098-240x(199608)19:4<331::aid-nur7>3.0.co;2-j lin, z., yu, z., & zhang, l. (2014). performance outcomes of balanced scorecard application in hospital administration in china. china economic review (1043951x), 30(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2014.05.003 mazurenko, o., gupte, g., & shan, g. (2015). analyzing us nurse turnover: are nurses leaving their jobs or the profession itself? journal of hospital administration, 4(4), 48–56. https://doi.org/10.5430/jha.v4n4p48 mi, y. (2016). factors affecting turnover intention for new graduate nurses in three transition periods for job and work environment satisfaction. journal of continuing education in nursing, 47(3), 120–131. https://doi.org/10.3928/00220124-20160218-08 msondo, n.d.p. (2014). the relationship between career anchors and retention factors among women in technical functions within mining company. master’s thesis, university of south africa, johannesburg. muller, m., bezuidenhout, m., & jooste, k. (2009). healthcare service management. cape town: juta. osuji, j., uzoka, f.m., aladi, f., & el-hussein, m. (2014). understanding the factors that determine registered nurses’ turnover intentions. research and theory for nursing practice, 28(2), 140–161. https://doi.org/10.1891/1541-6577.28.2.140 parry, j. (2008). intention to leave the profession: antecedents and role in nurse turnover. journal of advanced nursing, 64(2), 157–167. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2008.04771.x race, t.k., & skees, j. (2010). changing tides: improving outcomes through mentorship on all levels of nursing. critical care nursing quarterly, 33(2), 163–176. https://doi.org/10.1097/cnq.0b013e3181d91475 schein, e.h. (1975). career anchors holds executives to their career paths. personnel, 52(3), 11–24. schein, e.h. (1996). career anchors revisited: implications for career development in the 21st century. academy of management executive, 10(4), 80–88. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.1996.3145321 shahnawaz, m.g., & jafri, m.h. (2009). exploring antecedents of employees turnover in india. abhigyan, 26(4), 25–40. shahzad, k., hayat, k., abbas, m., & bashir, s. (2011). antecedents of turnover and absenteeism: evidence from public sector institutions of pakistan. interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, 2(9), 108–120. staggs, v.s., & dunton, n. (2012). hospital and unit characteristics associated with nursing turnover include skill mix but not staffing level: an observational cross-sectional study. international journal of nursing studies, 49(9), 1138–1145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2012.03.009 tiplic, d., brandmo, c., & elstad, e. (2015). antecedents of norwegian beginning teachers’ turnover intentions. cambridge journal of education, 45(4), 451–474. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764x.2014.987642 uruthirapathy, a.a., & grant, g. (2015). the influence of job characteristics on it and non-it job professional’s turnover intentions. journal of management development, 34(6), 715–728. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd-03-2014-0025 van dyk, j., & coetzee, m. (2012). retention factors in relation to organisational commitment in medical and information technology services. sa journal of human resource management, 10(2), art. #433. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.433 vlastarakos, p.v., & nikolopoulos, t.p. (2008). the interdisciplinary model of hospital administration: do health professionals and managers look at it in the same way? european journal of public health, 18(1), 71–76. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckm042 wall, t., clegg, c., & jackson, p. (1978). an evaluation of the job characteristics model. journal of occupational psychology, 51(2), 83–196. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1978.tb00413.x warmelink, j., wiegers, t., de cock, p., spelten, e., & hutton, e.k. (2015). career plans of primary care midwives in the netherlands and their intentions to leave the current job. human resources for health, 29(13), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-015-0025-3 weiss, p.j. (2019). physicians, heal one another: a letter to healthcare administrators. in d.e. mccallister & t. hamilton (eds.), transforming the heart of practice (pp. 97–100). cham: springer. wen, y., & liu, l. (2015). career plateau and turnover intention in chinese employees: career anchor as moderator. social behavior and personality, 43(5), 757–766. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2015.43.5.757 wheeler, a.r., halbesleben, j.b., & harris, k.j. (2012). how job-level hrm effectiveness influences employee intent to turnover and workarounds in hospitals. journal of business research, 65(4), 547–554. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.02.020 yonge, o., myrick, f., billay, d., & luhanga, o. (2007). preceptorship and mentorship: not merely a matter of semantics. international journal of nursing education scholarship, 4(2), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.2202/1548-923x.1384 yu, m., & kang, k.j. (2016). factors affecting turnover intention for new graduate nurses in three transition periods for job and work environment satisfaction. journal of continuing education in nursing, 47(3), 120–131. https://doi.org/10.3928/00220124-20160218-08 abstract introduction research design and methodology findings and discussion surface acting genuine acting social and emotional support emotional labour coping strategies recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) nomonde f. ngcobo school of management, it, governance, faculty of law and management studies, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa nyashadzashe chiwawa school of management, it, governance, faculty of law and management studies, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa henry wissink school of management, it, governance, faculty of law and management studies, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa citation ngcobo, n.f., chiwawa, n., & wissink, h. (2022). emotional labour: the effects of genuine acting on employee performance in the service industry. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1583. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1583 original research emotional labour: the effects of genuine acting on employee performance in the service industry nomonde f. ngcobo, nyashadzashe chiwawa, henry wissink received: 23 feb. 2021; accepted: 23 nov. 2021; published: 24 feb. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: customers’ perceptions of service quality are influenced by the emotions exhibited by service personnel in service contacts. hence, organisations expect service employees to portray emotions that that are desired by the employer, in addition to their job expertise. research purpose: this paper demonstrates how emotional labour, which can have both functional and dysfunctional consequences for the individual and their organisations, is not restricted to interactions at the customer‐organisation interface but is becoming increasingly prevalent within all organisational communications. motivation for the study: boundary spanners play an important role for both the organisational reputation and customer satisfaction. however, literature on how emotional labour influences the way service employees execute their duties within the customer-service industry remains insufficient. research approach, design and method: this qualitative research purposively chose eight participants affiliated with the racecourse industry. data was analysed thematically. main findings: the study shows that genuine acting by hospitality boundary spanners helps them to act willingly, hence, less stressful. the findings further suggest that putting on an emotional mask has a negative effect on frontline employees as this makes them feel aloof from the events they encounter at work due to emotional disconnections caused by masking their true emotions. practical/managerial implications: service employees should perceive customer care as a psychological characteristic that requires a balance between voluntary self-management and employee’s regulation of consumers. contribution: this study extends the body of knowledge about the impacts of emotional labour, specifically the effects of genuine acting on hospitality employees. this contributes towards suggesting emotional labour coping strategies that can be implemented to mitigate possible negative consequences. keywords: emotional labour; boundary spanning; emotional labour; employee performance; genuine acting; hospitality; racecourse; surface acting; service industry. introduction background and organisational overview this article’s contribution lies in the application of the notion of emotional labour to racecourse customer-service industry. ‘horse racing’ is a prominent activity in south africa, with races held on a regular basis all throughout the country. the sport has a long and illustrious history in south africa, dating back to 1797, although the first race club meeting was recorded in 1802. the national horse racing authority, formerly known as the jockey club of south africa (established in 1882), is the country’s governing organisation for horse racing. phumelela gaming and leisure limited and gold circle are the two entities in charge of horse racing in south africa, with this study focusing on gold circle. the mission statement of gold circle is ‘to promote the thoroughbred racehorse through operating the sport of horseracing, wagering and gaming facilities, related leisure activities and media management’ (gold circle annual report, 2019). gold circle’s vision is ‘to be the leader in horseracing and wagering in africa and to command a significant position in the gaming industry’ (gold circle annual report, 2019). gold circle is a private company and was established in 2002. the purpose of gold circle’s business is to run racecourses and training centres for the benefit of the thoroughbred racing industry in the provinces of kwazulu-natal and the western cape, as well as operate wagering shops to facilitate betting on horse racing and other athletic activities. in the aforementioned provinces, gold circle owns and runs five racetracks. apart from its core business, gold circle is a community-oriented organisation that is involved in a number of charitable and social projects. the vodacom durban july and the j&b met, south africa’s two most commercial and well-known horse races, are organised by gold circle and held at gold circle racecourses. the vodacom durban july is held annually on the first saturday of july at greyville racetrack, and the j&b met is held annually on the last saturday of january at kenilworth racecourse. each year, more than 100 000 individuals attend these racing events (gold circle annual report, 2019). gold circle also offers a diversification of services for customers. the organisation operates 1000 limited pay-out machines around kwazulu-natal. according to bee powerdex, gold circle is rated aa. as a result, gold circle places a great emphasis on previously disadvantaged persons, and black economic empowerment (bee) is strong within the industry. gold circle employs over 2600 full-time and part-time workers, with 86% of them being african, mixed race or indian. in addition, gold circle is a partner in the phumelela-gold joint venture. this joint venture provides access to international racing activities as well as tellytrack, amongst other things. the majority of the organisation’s earnings come from commission on tote bets within the combined south african tote. gold circle has roughly 200 race meets per year, with kwazulu-natal hosting more than the western cape. gold circle has exclusive control of horseracing in kwazulu-natal and the western cape, with two of south africa’s most renowned racing events held in these regions. gold circle emphasises the importance of employees and organisational members on a regular basis (gold circle annual report, 2019). the organisation places a high priority on human resource development and satisfaction to enhance employee motivation. the tourism, hospitality, and sports education and training authority (theta) contributes a large sum of money to gold circle for training every year. employees and organisational members are continually emphasised by gold circle (gold circle annual report, 2019). as a result, gold circle is willing to invest for human capital and provide services to ensure that employees are always motivated. this is to ensure that the organisation’s operations are always ethical and efficient, starting at the lower levels of the organisational hierarchy. gold circle also constantly conducts surveys to identify employee and stakeholder needs. this is carried out to ensure that the requirements, opinions and perceptions of employees are considered whilst planning and developing human resources. service creation and consumption are relatively intangible, inseparable and heterogeneous, making it difficult for customers to distinguish service quality from the quality of the relationship during service delivery’ (pugh, groth, & hennig-thurau, 2011). as a result, ‘rather than only evaluating the discrete service or product being supplied, customers’ evaluations of the nature of the service contact become crucial to the whole experience of service interaction. the organisation has a great stake in how the service employee behaves in service interactions as the service employee works on the organisation’s boundary and performs boundary-spanning roles (sandmann, jordan, mull, & valentine, 2014). tushman and scanlan (1981) present boundary spanning as mostly referring to ‘the extent by which organizational units and teams are linked to relevant external resources through their communication relationships’. therefore, businesses try to monitor and control the interactions between their service employees and their clients, resulting in service workers being the target of a great deal of managerial attention. managerial attempts to motivate service employees for providing quality customer service have been the subject of organisational initiatives in numerous service sector disciplines (chiwawa & wissink, 2021; pugh et al., 2011). as customers’ perceptions of service quality are influenced by the emotions exhibited by service personnel in service contacts, organisations expect service employees to portray emotions that are desired by the employer, in addition to their job expertise (chiwawa & wissink, 2021). as felt emotions differ from those intended by the organisation, it takes effort on the part of the employee to express the appropriate emotions as directed by the organisation. emotional labour is the term used to describe this type of work. researchers are becoming increasingly interested in the utilisation of emotional labour in the workplace (scott & barnes, 2011). as a result, a thorough comprehension of the notion and its role in the nomological system is required. this study, therefore, attempts to explain how emotional labour influences the way sales employees execute their duties. the concept of emotional labour according to lazanyi (2010), emotional labour is characterised by two main regulation strategies: surface acting and deep acting. emotion and rationality are considered by many practitioners to be mutually exclusive concepts as encapsulated in the generally held belief that there is no place for emotions in today’s rational, task-oriented work environments (lazanyi, 2010). this illustrates that emotions and their expression are, in fact, controlled and managed in organisations by a wide range of formal and informal means, ensuring that certain emotions are expressed, whilst others are suppressed. very often, employees are expected to conform to these expectations about emotional display even when they conflict with inner feeling (scott & barnes, 2011). when this conflict results in individuals suppressing genuine emotion or expressing fake emotion, the work or effort involved in doing so is termed emotional labour. this demonstrates how emotional labour, which can have both functional and dysfunctional consequences for the individual and their organisations, is not restricted to interactions at the customer-organisation interface but is becoming increasingly prevalent within all organisational communications. hochschild (1983) defines emotional labour as the regulation or management of emotional expressions with others as part of one’s professional work role. emotional labour is parallel to physical labour; both are exertions that tend to require a lot of effort, but emotional labour is effort around emotions and tends to be dominant in service or caring work and physical labour is the effort with the body and tends to be dominant in non-service domains. this article adopts hochschild’s definition that depicts emotional labour as the process of managing feelings and expressions to fulfil the emotional requirements of a job. emotional labour refers to the invisible and often undervalued work involved in keeping other people comfortable and happy (ramachandran, jordan, troth, & lawrence, 2011). emotional labour is, therefore, the projection of certain emotions in the context of a job performance in service industries. this article seeks to explore the consequences of genuine acting on employees in the service industry. according to hochschild (1983), there are three types of emotional labour, which are surface acting, deep acting and genuine acting. employees performing the boundary-spanning roles need to balance their productivity and the way how customers perceive the organisation in terms of customer hospitality. the dominance of the customer over the production/service employee, and as a result of this, increasing use of emotional labour in the workplace furthers the need to understand what emotional labour is. in this regard, the present article reviews the literature to explain the concept ‘emotional labour’. in explaining emotional labour and its nomological network, the article discusses the factors that affect and are affected by it. hochschild (2003) asserts that conceptualisation of emotional labour involves impression management of service employees. these employees put effort to express emotions acceptable by customers. according to this perspective, the discrepancy between felt and expressed emotion is related to job stress and burnout. emotion work is the starting point for the understanding of emotional labour. hochschild (2003) used the term emotion work to refer to any attempt to modify the experience or expression of a consciously felt emotion. when the individual performs emotion work as a required part of her or his actual job performance, it is called emotional labour. callahan and mccollum (2002) claim that the term emotional work is appropriate for situations in which individuals are personally choosing to manage their emotions for their own not compensated benefits. the term “emotional labour” is appropriate only when emotion work is exchanged for something such as a wage or some other types of valued compensation. callahan and mccollum (2002) remark that not only such actions are performed for a wage, they are also under the control of others. thus, in organisational settings, emotional labour is under the control of organisations. based on these definitions, evaluating emotional work based on deep or surface acting would be the most appropriate for the study’s purpose and objectives and consequently classified emotional labour as deep or surface acting throughout the investigation. surface acting refers to the act of expressing emotions just on the surface in order to follow norms and regulations. to put it another way, employees use deceptive emotions like tone of voice, facial expressions and movements to make their emotions appear real in order to generate emotional expressions that comply with organisational norms. they control their behaviours to ensure that their feelings and attitudes appear to comply with rules and expectations, which means that they fake emotions to make them appear genuine when they are not. employees correct and control emotional expressions in the execution of surface acting, and the employees who engage in deep acting make an attempt to internalise the emotion (brotheridge & grandey, 2002). boundary spanners manage to feel the emotions required as social norms or organisational needs whilst pursuing organisational goals. genuine and surface acting lazanyi (2010) defines genuine acting as a process where emotions being felt match the displayed emotions. being a service employee is not all about displaying emotions that are not genuine, and some service employees do actually display their felt or genuine emotions because they enjoy their job. these employees find the required behaviour interesting, rewarding and positively challenging, and their motivation is oriented towards intrinsic rather than extrinsic rewards (mahoney, buboltz, buckner, & doverspike, 2011). according to smith (2014), employees who employ genuine acting use minimal mental effort when they display their truly felt emotions and this requires less effort from the employee when compared with surface or deep acting. zhang, wu and henke (2015) assert that deep acting and surface acting have yielded contrary outcomes in a number of studies. even when employees are experiencing unpleasant emotions, they fake or suppress their sensations and seem to be experiencing happy emotions. members of the organisation display their thoughts reflectively and mechanically through surface acting, without attempting to connect their true feelings with the company’s needs (grandey, 2000). as a result, surface acting is a passive approach to emotions, managing emotional expression just on the surface, not within (scott & barnes, 2011). surface acting causes negative consequences such as work stress and emotional dissonance (hochschild, 1983), and employees who engage in surface acting lose touch with their human nature and are more likely to burn out and defect (brotheridge & lee, 2002; grandey, 2000). hence, negative outcomes may result in lower service quality and a tarnished corporate image, not just for individuals but also for organisations. deep acting, on the other hand, entails going above and beyond to manage internal feeling in order to comply with organisational standards or regulations, and it denotes more active emotional control than surface acting (hochschild, 1983). to put it another way, rather than fabricating emotions, they express the ones they have, and more precisely, they strive to recall past experiences, ideas and images linked with that emotion (brotheridge & lee, 2002). smith (2014) argues that genuine acting may be the best form of acting for the individual because employees do not have to pretend to be something that they are not. employees are more likely to be satisfied in a job where they do not have to wear a mask during working hours’ (smith, 2014). guiding theoretical framework this study was guided by the boundary spanners model proposed by weerts and sandmann (2010). boundary spanners are members of an organisation who act as a link between a unit and its surroundings, and these units could be groups of people separated by geography, hierarchy or function (cross & parker, 2004). the term ‘boundary spanner’ is a broad term that encompasses a variety of meanings. the seminal definition by leifer and delbecq (1978) presents boundary spanners as ‘persons who operate at the perimeter or boundary of an organisation, doing organisational activities, and relating the organisation to factors outside it’. consistent with the preceding definitions, zhang et al. (2015:87) posit that ‘boundary spanning individuals are organisational members who function at the peripheral of an organisation and act as exchange agents between the organisation and its external environment’. the boundary-spanning theory has five main constructs, namely ‘technical’, ‘socioemotional orientation’, ‘technical-practical orientation’, ‘community orientation’ and ‘organisational orientation’ (sandmann et al., 2014). the technical variable is the extent to which an individual’s behaviours are focused on converting inputs into outputs in a way that improves an organisation’s or group’s performance (sandmann et al., 2014). the degree to which an individual’s activities support the development of others’ knowledge, skills, talents and needs, as well as the reward system and authority structures that exist in a team or organisation, is referred to as socioemotional orientation (zhang et al., 2015). the degree to which an individual’s behaviours are aligned with the interests of the community, a unified body of individuals with common interests outside the individual’s organisation is referred to as community orientation, whereas organisational orientation refers to the degree to which individuals’ behaviours are aligned with their organisation’s overarching mission, vision and interests (zhang et al., 2015). weerts and sandmann (2010:643) identified social closeness and task orientation as the two variables that differentiate the ways boundary spanners ‘lessen conflict and promote spanning goals (establishing a link between the organization’s internal networks and outside information sources)’. ‘task orientation’ refers to a person’s formal employment role and how it affects his or her interactions with others. boundary spanners may take on a leadership or advocacy role for boundary crossing, leading to a socioemotional or leadership task orientation. others will concentrate on technical and practical issues. personal traits and skill sets of persons in connection with others may also have an influence on the tasks that spanners execute. variations between ‘personal traits and skill sets’ could be influenced by these differences. the second domain, social closeness, is defined as ‘the extent to which the individual is aligned with the external partner in relation to the company that he or she represents’ (weerts & sandmann, 2010). social closeness is influenced by an individual’s position, just as it is by task orientation, but other personal and organisational factors, such as personal and professional background, experience, disciplinary expertise and loyalty, also play a role (cross & parker, 2004). research design and methodology this study employed a qualitative research methodology because of its ability to allow the researcher to solicit an in-depth understanding about certain experiences and processes. this was achieved by establishing the feelings of the participants, their opinions and the reasons behind the practices they perform. the approach was also adopted because of its suitability to exploring the meaning, purpose or reality of people’s attitudes and behaviours (harper & thompson, 2012). accordingly, this method was perceived to be suitable for this research because the study sought to investigate the acting attitudes and behaviours that are required to be displayed by sales assistants. the research setting was the greyville racecourse in durban, south africa. the target population in this study comprised the 305 sales assistants categorised as ‘betting assistants’, ‘cashiers’ and ‘supervisors/managers’. the sample size was eight participants, comprising two supervisors, three cashiers and three betting assistants. sales assistants who have been in the organisation for at least 1 year were targeted in this study because this period was considered long enough to provide in-depth information on the topic under study. participants were purposively chosen because the researchers wanted to include only those deemed suitable to provide information needed to answer the main research questions. the researchers used semi-structured in-depth interviews in this study as they enabled the researchers to gain an access to the participants’ in-depth perceptions and opinions and to gain insight into the research problem under study from the participants’ viewpoints. thematic analysis was used to analyse the data collected from the interviews as the study is qualitative in approach. ethical procedures were observed by obtaining a gatekeeper’s letter from the concerned racecourse, and an ethical clearance was obtained from the university of kwazulu natal. findings and discussion according to the findings of this research, some of the racecourse employees realise that their genuine feelings do not always conform to their duties. employees modify their display of emotions by deep acting or surface acting because one’s original and natural feeling is suppressed. deep acting and surface acting are the two common different types of acting. employees in surface acting adjust their displays without shaping inner feelings, whereas individuals in deep acting strive to modify feelings to match the appropriate display rules. accordingly, deep acting can be referred to as ‘faking in good faith’ because the goal is to appear genuine to the audience whilst surface acting can be referred to as ‘faking in bad faith’ because the employee follows the displayed guidelines in order to keep their job, not to benefit the consumer or the company. surface acting, deep acting, genuine acting and emotional labour coping mechanisms emerged as themes from the data. surface acting the findings revealed that service employees find surface acting as the most stressful type of emotional labour hence they disconnect their displayed emotions from their felt emotions. the study found that the effects of surface acting on sales assistants included feeling emotionally drained, anxiety and anger, low self-esteem, fatigue, decreased performance, feeling absent minded at work, clash of beliefs, mood swings and feeling of being dishonest to oneself. the findings further suggest that putting on an emotional mask has a negative effect on sales assistants at the racecourse because it makes them feel absent-minded or aloof from the events they encounter at work because of emotional disconnections caused by masking their emotions. the findings also indicate that putting on a mask negatively affects sales assistants’ moods and beliefs that they may hold of being true to themselves. the following verbatim confirms this position: ‘when you know that you are not yourself how can you work, and even have a good day at work, and perform well? i believe in being myself and staying true to myself rather than forcing myself to be someone else. so, if i am going to get to work and, obviously i get to work with this bad mood of being angry or whatever mood i am in … i am obviously not going to have a good day at all.’ (participant 2: supervisor, 2020) emotional labour, therefore, reveals that display rules may cause workers to show an unfelt emotion, causing emotional dissonance, which can lead to undesirable job outcomes like emotional exhaustion and burnout (diefendorff, morehart, & gabriel, 2010). this outcome agrees with diefendorff, croyle and gosserand (2005), who indicate that employees are more inclined to fake necessary emotions when they are experiencing bad feelings. grandey (2003) supports this claim by demonstrating that awareness of display norms is positively associated with deep acting but not with surface acting. this backs up the assumption that deep acting is a reaction to work demands, whilst surface acting is a reaction to work events rather than general rules. surface acting and deep acting may, however, moderate the relationship between awareness of display rules and emotional displays. this study also shows that pretending to have emotions that are not truly felt by the sales assistants has negative effects on sales assistants and their performance at work. pretending to have emotions not truly felt leads to being misjudged, which in turn affects performance at work and self-esteem negatively. this came to light when one of the participants had the following to say: ‘it is hard to pretend that one is in a good mood when you know deep down in your heart that you are angry or having a bad day because something happened at home. my work and performance get affected in a negative way because it feels like i am trying to be someone i am not.’ (participant 7: betting assistant, 2020) another participant had the following to say, in concurrence with the above quote: ‘faking a good mood sometimes causes anxiety because the pressure does not only come from the customers, but we sometimes get pressure from the supervisors and the management.’ (participant 4: cashier, 2020) in the same vein, employees stated that putting on an emotional performance can be emotionally demanding because customers are not always as nice as sales assistants are towards them: ‘it is emotionally demanding because you constantly have to suppress your emotions but at the end of the day it’s your job. this leaves you tired.’ (participant 1: betting assistant, 2020) in addition, not having to put on an act encourages sales assistants to become enthusiastic to carry out their work and to work hard, and as a result, it increases their performance. the above findings are in line with the findings by mahoney et al. (2011), who reported that employees who employ genuine acting in their attitude and emotion instead find the required behaviour interesting, rewarding and positively challenging. the motivation of such genuine acting by employees is oriented towards intrinsic rather than extrinsic rewards. the findings, therefore, suggest that not putting on an act in order to deal with customers exerts pressure for pretending on employees. the findings of this research further suggest that putting on an emotional act results in negative effects on hospitality employees because they end-up experiencing low self-esteem and fatigue. this experience is worsened by the fact that some customers do not reciprocate the appropriate emotional acts that racecourse employees display in order to serve customers better. this was confirmed as one of the interviewees had the following to say: ‘faking a good mood sometimes causes anxiety because the pressure does not only come from the customers, but we sometimes get pressure from the supervisors and the management.’ (participant 3: cashier, 2020) however, the study found that although displaying true emotions when dealing with customers has positive effects on sales assistants, displaying truly felt negative emotions works against the interests of the organisation. according to the responses presented above, faking a good mood has negative effects on sales assistants and in particular faking a good mood causes anger and anxiety. unfortunately, this anger and anxiety are sometimes taken out on the wrong people or objects. genuine acting contrary to the research finding presented above, not all employees require to pretend their emotions to meet the organisational expectations of presenting a happy mood. this is because some of the employees are naturally nice over and above the emotions expected by the organisation. most participants interviewed appeared to be positive people and expressed the view that they normally experience the emotions required by gold circle. one participant stated that: ‘i am a positive person by nature so showing positive emotions does not have any negative effects on me. but the fact that i have try to display certain feelings that i may not have at that time makes me somehow feel undermined.’ (participant 1: betting assistant, 2020) in agreement with the above perception, another betting assistant said: ‘i am genuinely a nice person and i never have to try hard to experience the emotions that are required by gold circle. this has no negative effect on me unless someone provokes me and then it becomes difficult to experience expected emotions.’ (participant 2: supervisor, 2020) the findings above suggest that most of the gold circle sales assistants have a positive attitude towards life, and therefore trying to experience the actual emotions that are required by the gold circle has no effect on them. nevertheless, sales assistants, sometimes, feel undermined by the process of trying to actually experience emotions that they do not have but expected to show at work. social and emotional support participants said that they receive social and emotional support although this support is not formalised and instead happens automatically because of the environment: ‘whenever i have a problem that i cannot handle by myself i do seek for support from my colleagues but otherwise i don’t allow work problems to ruin my day. i let things go easily.’ (participant 6: betting assistant, 2020) the above statement is supported by the supervisor who said that: ‘obviously as employees we are always there to support each other emotionally whenever there is a need. for example, when i first started at gold circle a customer was irritated because i kept repeating what he was saying when i was taking his bet, just to make sure the bet was correct. he swore at me and i got emotional, my colleagues came to me, told me i did nothing wrong and i should not take it personal the customer is just a grumpy customer.’ (participant 2: supervisor, 2020) the findings suggest that the environment at the gold circle greyville racecourse allows for the development of positive relationships between colleagues such that they are able to depend on each other in times of need. the findings further suggest that gold circle rotates staff so that they do not work with the same people all the time, and this helps them create social support relationships at the gold circle greyville racecourse. emotional labour coping strategies this research’s findings suggest that service employees do not receive any emotional labour-coping strategies or instructions from the employer. as a result, it is difficult for employees to know what to expect in an organisation that does not provide them with guidance about the stressors they may encounter, especially if those stressors can be as personal such as emotions. brook (2009) suggests that organisations should make it their priority to inform employees about the use of emotional labour in a workplace and should also inform them about the benefits and consequences that are aligned to emotional labour. this would help employees to be aware of and also to weigh up whether the benefits outdo the consequences and vice versa. brook (2009) further states that it is important that employees are aware of the emotional dissonance and the coping strategies that can be used to ensure their own well-being. the findings of this current study, however, indicate that despite the absence of structured emotional labour coping strategies by the employer, the racecourse employees support each other emotionally and that this plays a vital role in ensuring that their emotions are positive most of the time, which is critical in increasing performance. similar to the above finding, choi and kim (2015) reported that emotional support has positive effects on increasing a sense of personal accomplishment, which leads to increasing performance. however, the study by choi and kim (2015), also found that emotional support that employees received from their superiors have a greater effect on reducing the negative consequences of emotional labour than the emotional support of colleagues. in tandem with weerts and sandmann (2010), ‘this study also notes that social closeness, coupled with task orientation, define how boundary spanners reduce conflict whilst promoting spanning goals. boundary spanners may take on a leadership or advocate role when it comes to boundary crossing, resulting in a socioemotional or leadership task orientation. others will focus on technical and practical considerations. personal characteristics and skill sets of individuals in relation to others may have an impact on the tasks that boundary spanners complete. apart from just individual positions and task orientation influencing social closeness, other personal and organisational elements, such as personal and professional background, experience, disciplinary knowledge and loyalty, were also found to play a role. recommendations the study recommends that the service employees should make the work atmosphere good by developing relationships with their colleagues which leads to developing supportive structures. since the racecourse does not have formalised emotional labour coping strategies, the hospitality employees should rely on each other for social support and emotional support. the study also recommends that line managers be also available as team members to assist sales assistants with emotional support. it is further recommended that service employees should perceive customer care as a psychological characteristic that requires a balance between voluntary self-management and employee’s regulation of consumers. conclusion the purpose of the study is to explore the consequences of emotional labour, in particular the effects of genuine acting on employees at the racecourse to inform and suggest emotional labour coping strategies that can be implemented to mitigate possible negative consequences. to summarise, the study’s findings show that different types of emotional labour have different consequences for employees in the hospitality industry. because sales assistants are required to detach their expressed emotions from their actual emotions, surface acting appears to be the most demanding sort of emotional labour compared to other types. both deep and surface acting appeared to have a positive influence on the attitude, mode and performance of sales assistants. surface acting is a technique employed by service employees to mask bad feelings or to express emotions that they do not feel. emotional dissonance and weariness are linked to long-term usage of surface acting. service employees appear to constantly use surface acting, according to this study. during service interactions with consumers, service professionals at all levels use surface acting more than deep acting according to the general image. emotional weariness results in poor service quality and low morale. surface-acting employees are more likely to feel inauthentic over time and resort to depersonalisation as a justification mechanism. this study suggests that the use of surface acting has a significant impact on the well-being of service employees and the quality of services given at racecourses. these findings are important for racecourses because emotional exhaustion can lead to a decrease in service quality because of the amount of effort required by service providers to maintain a smile while dealing with difficult customers who believe they are always right and act as a second boss to the service provider. also, the participants indicated that the linkages between deep/surface acting and emotional labour work involvement impact customer stewardship in one way or another. an observation from the research sample shows that in emotional labour, deep acting, on the other hand, had no moderating effect. this shows that some of the deep-acting employees are already self-regulating in their customer service. customer care is a psychological characteristic that salespeople perceive, and it includes elements such as voluntary self-management and salesperson’s regulation of consumers. sustainable social contexts and structures are required to achieve this. human behaviours require thinking and feeling. as a result, research on employee feelings is just as vital as a study on cognitive and emotion is essential in organisations because feelings are based on human emotions. the ability to manage with emotions is linked to interpersonal relations in this period of high job stress. understanding the concept of ‘emotional labour’ and its role in the nomology network will aid in the explanation of many workplaces behavioural concerns. this concludes that the service employees make the work atmosphere good by developing relationships with their colleagues that lead to developing supportive structures. however, the racecourse does not have formalised emotional labour-coping strategies. the hospitality employees relied on each other for social support and emotional support. this study found that line managers were also available as team members to assist sales assistants with emotional support. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank all the interviewees for their time and cooperation and the anonymous reviewers for their feedback on an earlier draft of this article. the views expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the institution to which the authors are affiliated. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions n.f. n. and n.c. contributed to the conceptualisation, design and implementation of the research, to the analysis of the results and to the writing of the manuscript. h.w. did data curation, resources collection, supervision, edited and validated the manuscript and funding acquisition. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information the authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available upon special request from the corresponding author (n.f.n.). disclaimer the views expressed in the submitted article are those of the authors and not an official position of the institution or funder. references brook, p. (2009). the alienated heart: hochschild’s ‘emotional labour’ thesis and the anticapitalist politics of alienation. capital & class, 33(2), 7–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/030981680909800101 brotheridge, c.m. & grandey, a.a. (2002). emotional labor and burnout: comparing two perspectives of people work. journal of vocational behaviour, 60(1), 17–39. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2001.1815 brotheridge, c.m. & lee, r.t. (2002). testing a conservation of resources model of the dynamics of emotional labor. journal of occupational health psychology, 7(1), 57–67. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.7.1.57 callahan, j.l., & mccollum, e.e. (2002). conceptualizations of emotion research in organizational contexts. advances in developing human resources, 4(1), 4–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422302004001002 chiwawa, n., & wissink, h. (2021). determinants of employee engagement in the south african hospitality industry during covid-19 lockdown epoch: employee perception. african journal of hospitality, tourism and leisure, 10(2), 487–499. choi, y., & kim, k. (2015). the influence of emotional labour on burnout: centred on the stress coping strategy and moderating effect of social support. international journal of social science and humanity, 5, 583–588. https://doi.org/10.7763/ijssh.2015.v5.522 cross, r., & parker, a. (2004). charged up: creating energy in organizations. journal of organizational excellence, 23(4), 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1002/npr.20021 diefendorff, j., morehart, j., & gabriel, a. (2010). the influence of power and solidarity on emotional display rules at work. motivation and emotion, 34(2), 120–132. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-010-9167-8 diefendorff, j.m., croyle, m.h., & gosserand, r.h. (2005). the dimensionality and antecedents of emotional labor strategies. journal of vocational behavior, 66(2), 339–357. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2004.02.001 grandey, a.a. (2000). emotion regulation in the workplace: a new way to conceptualise emotional labour. journal of occupational health psychology, 5(1), 95–110. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.5.1.95 grandey, a.a. (2003). when ‘the show must go on’: surface acting and deep acting as determinants of emotional exhaustion and peer-rated service delivery. academy of management journal, 46(1), 86–96. https://doi.org/10.5465/30040678 harper, d., & thompson, a.r. (2012). qualitative research methods in mental health and psychotherapy: a guide for students and practitioners. chichester, west sussex: wiley-blackwell. hochschild, a.r. (1983). the managed heart: commercialisation of human feeling. berkeley, ca: university of california press. hochschild, a.r. (2003). the managed heart: commercialisation of human feeling (20th anniversary ed.). berkley, ca: university of california press. lazanyi, k. (2010). who benefits from emotional labour? applied studies in agribusiness and commerce. budapest: agroinform publishing house. leifer, r., & delbecq, a. (1978). organizational/environmental interchange: a model of boundary spanning activity. academy of management review, 3(1), 40–50. https://doi.org/10.2307/257575 mahoney, k.t., buboltz, w.c., buckner, j.e., & doverspike, d. (2011). emotional labour in american professors. journal of occupational health psychology, 16(4), 406–423. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025099 pugh, s.d., groth, m., & hennig-thurau, t. (2011). willing and able to fake emotions: a closer examination of the link between emotional dissonance and employee well-being. journal of applied psychology, 96(2), 377–390. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021395 ramachandran, y., jordan, p.j., troth, a.c., & lawrence, s.a. (2011). emotional intelligence, emotional labour and organisational citizenship behaviour in service environments. nathan: griffith university. sandmann, l.r., jordan, j.w., mull, c.d., & valentine, t. (2014). measuring boundary-spanning behaviours in community engagement. journal of higher education outreach and engagement, 18(3), 83–96. scott, b.a., & barnes, c.m. (2011). a multilevel field investigation of emotional labour, affect, work withdrawal, and gender. academy of management journal, 54(1), 116–136. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2011.59215086 smith, l. (2014). emotional labour an employee well-being in the hospitality industry. unpublished master’s thesis. cape town: university of cape town. tushman, m.l., & scanlan, t.j. (1981). boundary spanning individuals: their role in information transfer and their antecedents. academy of management journal, 24(2), 289–305. https://doi.org/10.5465/255842 weerts, d.j., & sandmann, l.r. (2010). community engagement and boundary-spanning roles at research universities. the journal of higher education, 81(6), 632–657. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2010.11779075 zhang, c., wu, f., & henke, jr, j.w. (2015). leveraging boundary spanning capabilities to encourage supplier investment: a comparative study. industrial marketing management, 49, 84–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2015.04.012 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 3 pp. 1 6 empirical research fiscal stimulation of human capital and resultant economic growth in south africa abstract the aim of the paper is to econometrically model the relationship between national fiscal expenditure on human capital (national education and training expenditure) and the efficiency of the human resource base in stimulating economic growth. data on government spending was collected from the south african reserve bank (sarb) quarterly bulletins (for the period 1979 – 2006). a functional form of a production function, namely the constant elasticity of substitution modelling (ces modelling), was employed to test the stated hypothesis. the results of the study indicate that fiscal stimulus of human capital in south africa does not translate into high technological change and ultimately higher economic growth rates. keywords: human capital, ces econometric modelling, endogenous growth theory, fiscal stimulus, economic growth the aim of the paper is to assess the relationship between fiscal expenditure on human capital (education and training) and the efficiency of the human resource base in stimulating economic growth. the null-hypothesis of this study is that increased fiscal stimulation of human capital in the form of increased national spending on education and training should improve the efficiency of the human resource base in the economy and ultimately result in higher levels of economic growth. the paper will propose that some structures be followed in order to measure the relationship between the fiscal stimulus of human capital (education and training expenditure) and economic growth in south africa. firstly, it is proposed that the correct functional form of the production function in south africa be chosen for modelling the impact on the efficiency of the human resource base and economic growth. secondly, the total factor productivity will be derived from the ces) functional form of the production function by using the kalman filter technique. the reason why the ces functional format was chosen is that this format is a general form of the production function that can take the form of different production functions. the kalman filter technique enabled the researchers to model the unobserved variables (in this study it was the technological change). lastly, the relationship between the fiscal stimulus of human capital and technological change will be assessed by using the granger causality test. the granger causality test was simply applied in order to determine the relationship between the technological change and spending on education and training. the theoretical background underpinning the relationship between fiscal stimulus of human capital and economic growth will be discussed in terms of the endogenous growth theory. the endogenous growth theory provides a scope for analysing the connection between fiscal policy and economic growth in general and is discussed in the next section. endogenous growth theory according to the endogenous growth model, the pace of technological change should have an economic explanation and factors such as the efficiency of human capital, education and training attainment and expenditure, to mention but a few, should affect technological change and therefore economic growth (gylfason, 1999). in the endogenous growth theory the path of economic growth is dictated by the level of technological change, which level is determined mostly by the efficiency of human capital, level of research and development (hereafter referred to as r&d), as well as learning by doing. the concept of endogenous growth is aligned to the fact that technological change is not exogenous (as stipulated by the neoclassical theory), but rather endogenous as it depends on the above factors. according to alfonso and werner (2005), public spending, especially education and training spending, can drive r&d to a more efficient level than one that would prevail in a pure market scenario and will therefore constitute an impetus for economic growth. temple (2000) remarked that the effectiveness of direct subsidies or tax credit for r&d may be enhanced by complementary education and training policies, aimed at improving or subsidising the supply of research inputs. the model of endogenous growth provides the very important insight that knowledge and skills are the key input in the creation of new ideas. this provides the most scientifically plausible justification for perceiving the fiscal stimulus of human capital as a central determinant of economic growth rates over a long time interval. the impact of the fiscal stimulus of human capital on economic growth is then seen as a longterm instead of a short-term relationship, suggesting that the consequences of a change in education and training policy will emerge fully only in the long term (weil, 2005). in view of these realities, the researcher can infer that the fiscal stimulus of human capital could affect technological change and ultimately economic growth. this is the path followed in this paper when the relationship between the fiscal stimulus of human capital (national budget spending on education gerhardus van zyl department of economics & econometrics university of johannesburg south africa lumengo bonga-bonga department of economics & econometrics university of johannesburg south africa correspondence to: gerhardus van zyl e-mail: hardusvz@uj.ac.za 1 empirical research van zyl & bonga-bonga vol. 6 no. 3 pp. 1 6sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za2 and training) and economic growth is measured, and this constitutes the first research objective. for the second research objective the granger causality test will be used to measure this particular relationship (more specifically the relationship between technological change and economic growth). this study specifically uses the national government budget for education and training expenditure as a proxy for the fiscal stimulus of human capital when measuring the impact on economic growth. the first reason for the above is that the marginal product on education and training expenditure (which defines how the change in education and training expenditure would affect the change in output) should be an appropriate indicator of the real return on education and training. secondly, if assessment of the relationship between government education and training expenditure and economic growth shows government education and training expenditure does not cause a change in output, it may lead to the conclusion that government education and training expenditure does not translate into efficient human capital formation or innovation. human capital development, innovation and skills accumulation are important ingredients for technological change, and therefore for economic growth according to the endogenous growth model. the prediction model and research method to model and estimate the production function from the ces production function there was a need to linearise the function in order to estimate the parameters of the model econometrically. two different approaches have been used to estimate the parameters of the ces production function: the direct and indirect approaches. with the direct method of estimation, the ces function is directly estimated from its non-linear form. ripatti and vilmunen (2001), for example, estimated a ces specification directly using non-linear, co-integration techniques. they nevertheless made some implicit assumptions with regard to unobservable variables such as the technological change level and implicitly restricted the number of common trends and co-integration vectors. this paper adopted the indirect method of estimation as proposed by nerlove (1967). nerlove’s two-step estimation consists of establishing the ratio of two marginal productivity conditions under perfect competition to estimate the elasticity of substitution in the first step. in the second step the elasticity of substitution obtained from the first step is used to compile a new series that is used to estimate the technological change coefficients and the scale of production. the linearised form is therefore: log q t = loga t +µ logv t (1) or log q t = loga 0 +λt +µ logv t (2) as the second-step estimation applies the kalman filter technique, equation 1 was used to capture the changing nature of a t . this paper extends nerlove’s estimation techniques by using hicks’ assumption of neutral technology (it is a kind of technology that is exogenous, impacted on by other variables) in the production function specification. the paper also estimates the long-term relationship between the variables in the first-step estimation by the introduction of the autoregressive distributed lag (hereafter referred to as ardl) co-integration technique, and then applies the kalman filter technique to estimate the unobservable variables and the scale of production parameters in the second step of estimation. the ardl is a logical way to test the relationship between variables by incorporating the lag effect. the ardl co-integration approach, as proposed by pesaran, shin and smith (1999), was applied to determine the longterm relationship of the variables included in the first-step linearisation, namely capital-labour ratio (log l k ) and the ratio of the price of capital and labour ( log ( l k p p )). as shown in appendix a, the former is integrated of order one, while the latter is integrated of order zero. this supported the use of the ardl co-integration technique. the kalman filter technique was applied for the second-step estimation that provided the final estimation of the south african aggregate production function. the paper supports the view that technological change (a t ) is not only seen as an unobserved component in the production function, but also as time varying (harvey, 1989). moreover, the researcher is of the opinion that the degree of the scale of production is not static for a long period as this can vary with the level of technological change. these considerations lead to the application of a technique that provides for unobservable variables and timevarying parameters, namely the kalman filter technique. results three different models were used in this study. the first model refers to the first step of nerlove’s linearisation of the ces function where the relationship between capital-labour ratio and the price of labour and capital is estimated. as explained above the aim is to obtain the value of the elasticity of substitution to be used in step two. the second model was used to estimate the production function. this refers to the second step in nerlove’s linearisation process. from this second estimation the technological change parameters were identified as timevarying coefficients. the last step aimed to assess whether the fiscal stimulus of human capital in south africa affected technological change and therefore economic growth. the data series used in this study consisted of the average capital labour ratio (lnratiocal), the ratio of average wages and the prime overdraft rates (lnwagint) as the proxy of the price of labour by the price of capital, logarithm of the gross domestic product (lngdp), the capital stock (k) and the employment level (l). these data series were obtained from various quarterly bulletins published by the south african reserve bank, as well as from the time series publication by statistics south africa. the estimation of the relationship between the capitallabour ratio and the ratio of capital-labour price using the above data, the ardl co-integration technique was applied to the equation log ( l k )=-( 1 1 +ρ ) log ( δ δ −1 )–( 1 1 +ρ ) log ( l k p p ) where the long-term relationship was to be determined between the average capital-labour ratio and the ratio of capital and labour price. the unit root test for stationarity of the two series provided mixed results: while there was strong evidence in favour of the existence of unit root for the lnwagint series, lnratiocal provided mixed results when different criteria selection for lags were applied. following the ardl co-integration technique as introduced by pesaran et al. (1999), this fact does not hinder the existence of the long-term relationship between the two series. as far as the lag selection (p) is concerned, this study employed the lag selection that minimises the akaike information criteria (hereafter referred to as aic). they are criteria used to select the best model. this revealed that a one-period lag was an appropriate selection for the model. the time series plot lnratiocal revealed a structural break around 1986. this was a result of 1986 being the period of south africa’s national state of emergency characterised by a huge outflow of capital. the ardl representation therefore introduced the dummy variable (dam) in its specification at that specific date. fiscal stimulation empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 3 pp. 1 6 the various statistics provided in table 1 reveal that the oneperiod lags level of the two variables is statistically significant. as the 99% critical value bounds for the f-distribution, under unrestricted intercept and restricted trend, is between 6.65 and 6.68 (bounds f-critical), these values are associated with k-number of variables equal to two as in appendix a. with the f-statistics of 52, clearly above the f-critical bounds, the null hypothesis is therefore rejected. this fact confirms the existence of a long-term relationship between lnratiocal and lnwagint. using the ardl approach to the estimation of the long-term relationship between capital-labour ratio and price of capital and labour ratio, the following long-term relationship was estimated (see table 2): lnratiocal= 11.39 – 0.12 lnwagint (4.91915) the above co-integrating equation, normalised for lnratiocal with the t-statistic in brackets, shows that the elasticity of substitution is below unity. its value equals 0.12 and it is statistically significant. the error-correction regression associated with the above long-term relationship is given in table 2. it shows that the error term coefficient is estimated to be -0.09, which is reasonably low, but highly significant. this in fact supports the hypothesis that there is a long-term relationship between lnratiocal and lnwagint. to test the hypothesis that σ=1, relating to the assumption of the cobb douglas function, a restriction of (1,-1) was imposed on the co-integrating vector from the co-integrating relationship between lnwagint and lnratiocal. the error-function, 3 dependent variable: dlnratiocal method: least squares variables coefficients standard error t-statistic probability c 1.171304 0.273326 4.285375 0.0003 dlnratiocal(-1) 0.193363 0.163575 1.182106 0.2487 dlnwagint -0.000203 0.007988 -0.025454 0.9799 dlnwagint(-1) -0.004217 0.007819 -0.539280 0.5947 lnratiocal(-1) -0.101799 0.023918 -4.256128 0.0003 lnwagint(-1) -0.011208 0.003882 -2.887142 0.0081 dam (correction term) -0.009866 0.005610 -1.758715 0.0914 r-squared 0.928614 mean dependent var 0.006918 adjusted r-squared 0.910768 s.d. dependent var 0.025833 s.e. of regression 0.007717 akaike info criterion -6.695142 sum squared residual 0.001429 schwarz criterion -6.371338 log likelihood 110.7747 f-statistic 52.03370 durbin-watson stat 2.195255 prob (f-statistic) 0.000000 table 1 ardl co-integration relationship between lnwagint and lnratiocal source: own estimation co-integrating equation: co-inteq1 lnratiocal(-1) 1.000000 lnwagint(-1) 0.123233 (0.02505) [4.91915] c -11.39462 error correction: d(lnratiocal) co-inteq1 -0.099400 (0.02197) [-4.52490] d(lnratiocal(-1)) 0.179802 (0.14757) [1.21845] d(lnwagint(-1)) -0.003780 (0.00748) [-0.50545] c 0.011546 (0.00427) [ 2.70441] dam -0.009163 (0.00517) [-1.77276] r-squared 0.927916 adj. r-squared 0.916826 table 2 error-correction form of the ration capital-labour, together with the co-integrating vectors note: t-statistics in bracket source: own estimation co-integrating equation c-inteq1 lnratiocal(-1) 1.000000 lnwagint(-1) -1.000000 c -10.89202 error correction: d(lnratiocal) d(lnwagint) co-inteq1 -0.000172 0.096276 (0.00321) (0.06338) [-0.05356] [1.51903] d(lnratiocal(-1)) 0.706233 -2.111496 (0.13381) (2.64368) [5.27785] [-0.79870] d(lnwagint(-1)) -0.012507 -0.000189 (0.00977) (0.19305) [-1.27997] [-0.00098] c 0.008854 0.059893 (0.00572) (0.11309) [ 1.54676] [0.52962] dam -0.011164 0.085143 (0.00716) (0.14153) [-1.55846] [0.60158] r-squared 0.871164 0.097183 adj. r-squared 0.851343 -0.041712 sum sq. resids 0.002579 1.006825 s.e. equation 0.009960 0.196784 f-statistic 43.95179 0.699685 log likelihood 101.6228 9.134282 akaike aic -6.233731 -0.266728 schwarz sc -6.002443 -0.035440 mean dependent 0.006918 0.095395 s.d. dependent 0.025833 0.192804 table 3 error correction form of the ratio capital-labour with restriction of the cointegrating vector note: t-statistics in bracket source: own estimation empirical research van zyl & bonga-bonga vol. 6 no. 3 pp. 1 6sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za4 a restriction of (1,-1) was imposed on the co-integrating vector from the co-integrating relationship between lnwagint and lnratiocal. the error-correction coefficient in table 3 shows little evidence in support of the cobb douglas hypothesis given that the error-correction coefficient from the d(ratiocal) error-correction equation is not statistically significant. the estimation of the aggregate production function after the estimation of the equation representing the relationship between the average capital-labour ratio and the unit labour cost and capital-cost ratio, the second step consisted of estimating the relationship represented by equation log q t = loga t +µ logv t , which allowed the estimation of the aggregate production function. the estimation of this relationship necessitated the determination of the composite series as in equation vt=(δlt -ρ+(1-δ)kt -ρ) ρ 1 given the time series on the quantity of labour, capital and the estimation of the elasticity of substitution, and consequently the parameter of substitution, the composite series v was therefore computed. it must be noted that the average value of the distribution parameter, δ, was obtained directly from the compensation of employees to gdp data, as published by statistics south africa, and not indirectly from equation lnratiocal= 11.39 – 0.12 lnwagint estimates. this was done in order to obtain estimates that were more accurate. the average value of δ amounted to 56%. v t is a composite series; its natural logarithm is represented as lnzedt in equation lngdpt = α t + μ t lnzed t + ξ t . the series lngdp represents the natural logarithm of gdp. α t is the natural logarithm of a t , as from equation ttt vaqlog loglog µ+= therefore, equation lngdpt = α t + μ t lnzed t + ξ t is a reformulated form of equation ttt vaqlog loglog µ+= . the kalman filter model in this study contains the following three equations: lngdpt = α t + μ t lnzed t + ξ t (3) α t = α t-1 + η 1t (4) μ t = μ t-1 + η 2t (5) equation 3 is the measurement equation and equations 4 and 5 are transition or state equations. ξ t , η 1t and η 2t are error terms for the measurement and transition equations respectively. the state vectors are assumed to evolve through time according to a random walk process. table 4 reports the estimation of the parameters of the kalman filter model. the specification equations, as in equations 3, 4 and 5, the results of which are reported in table 4, are as follows: lngdp = sv1 + sv2*lnzed + [var=exp(c (1))] sv1 = sv1 (-1) + [var(c (2))] sv2 = sv2 (-1) + [var(c (3))] sv1 represents the technological change state, while sv2 represents the scale of production state as specified in equations 4 and 5. the variances of the error terms of the measurement and states equations are the exponential function of c(1), c(2) and c(3) respectively and they are presented in table 4. figure 1 depicts the actual and forecast output obtained from the ces production function. the figure shows a good in-sample fit of the production function: this lends support for the use of the ces function as the best specification of the production function in south africa. the estimation of the relationship between education expenditure and technological change the granger causality test was conducted after confirming (from figure 2) that the relationship between technological change and education and training expenditure can be fitted into a linear model. if a variable z granger-causes variable y, then changes in z should precede changes in y, according to the granger causality test. it was important to determine whether education and training expenditure precedes or granger-causes any change in technological change or total factor productivity to influence the rate of economic growth. in determining whether z granger-causes y, the following steps were followed in implementing the granger causality test namely i) the current y was regressed on all lagged y terms and other variables with the exception of z (this is called a restricted regression and from this regression the restricted residual sum of squares, rss r, was obtained) ii) an unrestricted regression was run as in the first step (this time also including the lags of z) in order to obtain the unrestricted residual sum of squares, rss ur . futhermore, it was expected that z does not granger-cause y. that meant that lagged z terms were not the explanatory variables for y. to test this hypothesis, the f-test was applied: f= )/( /)( knrss mrssrss ur urr − − the f-test follows the f-distribution with m and (n-k) of degree of freedom. if the computed f-value was to exceed the critical f-value at the chosen level of significance, the null hypothesis would have been rejected, in which case z does not cause y. the unrestricted regression is written as follows: yt = it n i iy − = ∑ 1 α + ∑ = − n j jtjz 1 β + tµ (gujarati, 2003). included observations: 36 convergence achieved after 8 iteration coefficient c(1) -5.951714 c(2) -4104.135 c(3) -34.01757 final state root mse z-statistic prob. sv1 2.272882 0.684544 3.320288 0.0009 sv2 0.780553 0.047603 16.39699 0.0000 table 4 hyperparameters and final values of the state vector source: own estimation figure 1 dynamic fit of the production function (source: own construct) note: values of standard residuals , actual and predicted outputs are on the vertical axis. years are represented on the horizontal axis fiscal stimulation empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 3 pp. 1 6 in a bivariate var describing the relationship between y t and z t , z t does not granger-cause y t if the coefficient matrices jθ are lower triangular for all j:       t t z y =       2 1 c c +       )1( 22 )1( 21 )1( 11 0 θθ θ       − − 1 1 t t z y +       )2( 22 )2( 21 )2( 11 0 θθ θ       − − 2 2 t t z y +… +       )( 22 )( 21 )( 11 0 pp p θθ θ       − − pt pt z y +       t t 2 1 ε ε the above steps were followed to test whether education and training expenditure (the variable education) granger-causes technological change (the variable tech) in the light of the endogenous growth theory. two lags were used in table 5 and five in table 6. the number of lags selected, for example five, indicates whether education expenditure incurred in the past five years affects the current level of technological change. tables 5 and 6 show that the null-hypothesis (national education and training expenditure does granger-cause technological change) is rejected. this does not support the view that the fiscal stimulus of human capital (more specifically the various annual national amounts spent on education and training) in south africa translates into high technological change. this finding is quite important as it raises serious concern about the effectiveness of the fiscal stimulus of human capital (national government education and training expenditure) in south africa. the poor performance of the return of the fiscal stimulus of human capital, which acts as a deterrent to high and sustainable economic growth in south africa, may be explained by factors such as the inefficient structure of the education and training institutions, the small proportion of matriculants that pass mathematics, and so on. discussion the aim of the paper was to assess the relationship between fiscal expenditure on human capital and the efficiency of the human resource base in stimulating economic growth. the null hypothesis that government expenditure on education and training does cause an increase in the level of technological change was rejected. the failure to prove the null hypothesis that education expenditure does granger-cause technological changeindicated that there is an alarmingly poor return on national education and training expenditure in south africa. possible reasons why the return on the national education and training expenditure is not significant in south africa may include the misallocation of resources in education and training, the high drop out rate of pupils and the poor pass rate in mathematics and science subjects in grade 12. these facts confirm the skills crisis that south africa is currently experiencing. a follow-up study needs to be conducted on the finer details of the possible reasons why the fiscal stimulation of human capital does not render efficient and high returns for the south african economy. recommendations government expenditure on education and training should be more focussed. this entails closer cooperation with the private sector and other stakeholders in i) determining the problem employment areas (more specifically on skills development) and ii) the implementation of spending priorities. limitations of the study the study simply focussed on government expenditure on education and training, and the effectiveness of the seta structures were not part of the study. a follow-up study on the 5 note: education expenditures (in millions of rands) are represented on the vertical axis. technological change is presented on the horizontal axis figure 2 relationship between education expenditure and technological change (source: own construct) pairwise granger causality tests sample: 1971 2005 lags: 2 null hypothesis: observations f-statistic probability tech does not granger-cause education 33 0.14925 0.86204 education does not grangercause tech 0.34626 0.71031 table 5 causality test between education expenditure and technological change source: own calculation pairwise granger causality tests sample: 1971 2005 lags: 5 null hypothesis: observations f-statistic probability tech does not granger-cause education 30 0.58315 0.71262 education does not grangercause tech 1.51980 0.23061 table 6 causality test between education expenditure and technological change source: own calculation education 0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000 te ch 5 5.7 67 30 3 5.2 59 41 3 5.9 33 15 5 6.4 05 45 6.1 64 77 6.0 82 93 7 5.7 59 06 1 5.9 26 15 1 6.1 05 30 6 6.3 90 76 2 6.5 18 53 5 6.3 50 80 6 6.1 02 71 7 6.2 85 02 7 6.1 20 10 2 6.0 44 53 3 6.0 93 54 7 6.2 26 99 6.2 63 39 1 6.1 88 21 3 6.0 91 59 3 5.9 41 49 5.9 62 74 1 6.0 49 56 3 6.1 22 42 2 6.2 18 80 3 6.2 55 62 6.2 27 87 2 6.2 29 27 2 6.3 36 52 5 6.3 68 16 6 6.4 15 82 4 6.4 41 11 5 empirical research van zyl & bonga-bonga vol. 6 no. 3 pp. 1 6sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za effectiveness of the seta structures using the same econometric techniques would be a worthwhile academic exercise and the results of such a study will be beneficial to decision makers. references alfonso, a. & werner, e. (2005). quality of public finance and growth. working paper series 438, european central bank. gujarati, d. (2003). basic econometrics. (5th ed.). new york: mcgraw-hill. gylfason, t. (1999). principles of economic growth. oxford university press: oxford. harvey, a.c. (1989). forecasting, structural time series models and the kalman filter. cambridge: university press. nerlove, m. (1967). recent empirical studies of the ces and related production function. in m. brown (ed.). the theory and empirical analysis of production, new york: nber and columbia university press. pesaran, m.h., shin, y. & smith, r.j. (1999). bounds testing approaches to the analysis of long-run relationships. cambridge working paper in economics. university of cambridge. ripatti, a. & vilmunen, j. (2001). declining labour share evidence of a change in underlying production technology? bank of finland discussion paper 10/2001 90% 95% 99% k i(0) i(1) i(0) i(1) i(0) i(1) 0 6.58 6.58 8.21 8.21 11.79 11.79 1 4.04 4.78 4.94 5.73 6.84 7.84 2 3.17 4.14 3.79 4.85 5.15 6.39 3 2.72 3.77 3.23 4.35 4.29 5.61 4 2.45 3.52 2.86 4.01 3.74 5.06 5 2.26 3.35 2.62 3.79 3.41 4.68 6 2.12 3.23 2.45 3.61 3.15 4.43 7 2.03 3.13 2.32 3.50 2.96 4.26 source: pesaran, shin and smith (1999) temple, j. (2000). education and economic growth. paper presented at the hm treasury seminar on economic growth and government policy on 12 october 2000, united kingdom. weil, d.n. (2005). economic growth. new york: pearson education. appendix a critical value bound for the fstatistics, case with unrestricted intercept and no trend 6 http://www.hi.is/~gylfason/growth.htm abstract introduction research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) dumisani v. dhliwayo gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa mark h.r. bussin gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation dhliwayo, d.v., & bussin, m.h.r. (2019). accounting for uncontrollable factors in executive incentive scheme designs. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1084. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1084 original research accounting for uncontrollable factors in executive incentive scheme designs dumisani v. dhliwayo, mark h.r. bussin received: 09 june 2018; accepted: 19 feb. 2019; published: 22 july 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: classic agency theory posits that the impact of uncontrollable factors should be excluded from executive remuneration. existing research, however, shows a departure from this theory. research purpose: this study sought to determine the approaches organisations take and the reasons thereof to account for uncontrollable factors in the design of their executive incentive schemes. motivation for the study: there is little research in south africa on how organisations account for uncontrollable factors in the design of their incentive schemes. research approach/design and method: an exploratory qualitative research using semi-structured interviews was conducted. main findings: south african organisations are not strictly conforming to the classic agency theory prediction for uncontrollable factors as some allow the impact of uncontrollable factors to be included, and further, hybrid approaches may be applied. practical/managerial implications: the menu of approaches presented will aid designers of incentive schemes to identify a tried and tested approach to adopt or improve their incentive-related policies. contribution/value-add: an expanded list of uncontrollable factors identified from south africa’s uniqueness is presented. models for (1) accounting for uncontrollable factors in incentive schemes and (2) pay for individual performance versus firm performance dilemma are presented. these add to the body of existing literature. keywords: executive incentive schemes; remuneration; compensation; pay-for-luck; uncontrollable factors. introduction orientation executive remuneration is a burning issue with questions abounding around its fairness and, in some parts of the world, attempts to regulate its determination and disclosure issues (chiu, oxelheim, wihlborg, & zhang, 2016). for purposes of this research, executive means executive management – being the highest decision-making authority in the organisation after the governing body (institute of directors in southern africa, 2016). the variable element of executive remuneration is in many cases linked to corporate earnings, yet these earnings are affected by many factors that may be viewed as being outside the actions or control of executives. the terms ‘pay-for-luck’ and ‘luck’ have been coined as synonyms for uncontrollable factors and have been used by a number of researchers (brookman & thistle, 2013; campbell & thompson, 2015; chiu et al., 2016; jiménez-angueira & stuart, 2013; jouber & fakhfakh, 2012; mollerstrom, reme, & sørensen, 2015). in a south african context, shareholder activism around executive remuneration has been well documented. consider 2015, for example, when certain shareholders of capitec bank voted against the bank’s remuneration policy, citing their discontent with incentives that did not reflect the performance of executives (crotty, 2015). from another perspective, south africa grapples with inequality, which is measured on different scales. in bloomberg’s global chief executive officer (ceo) pay-to-average income ratio, south africa ranks worst, with ceos earning on average 541 times more than the average worker (lu & melin, 2016). in the united states, deloitte’s chief financial officer insights survey posed the question, ‘should forex swings affect incentive remuneration?’ this was after a shock strengthening of the us dollar caused major variations in corporate earnings. the results of the survey showed that 70% of chief financial officers (cfos) identified the issue as being relevant for their companies, while over 75% of these cfos did not plan to adjust their executive incentive schemes, arguing that the fates of the executives and shareholders should be parallel (deloitte, 2015). various attempts are being made to either guide or legislate the fairness of executive remuneration. in south africa, the now-retired king iii report stated in section 148 that in determining executive remuneration, uncontrollable factors affecting firm performance should only be considered to a limited extent (institute of directors in southern africa, 2009). the current king iv report on corporate governance in south africa is less explicit, recommending the reporting of performance measures and targets used to determine variable executive remuneration, adding that executive remuneration should be fair and responsible (institute of directors in southern africa, 2016). in the united states, the securities and exchange commission (sec) issued a proposed rule entitled ‘pay versus performance’, which seeks to improve shareholders’ ability to objectively assess the relationship between executive remuneration and corporate earnings (securities and exchange commission, 2015). research purpose and objectives this study was motivated by the need to understand the issues that principals and agents of organisations in south africa face, in as far as deciding how to account for the impact of uncontrollable factors in the design of their executive incentive schemes. some proponents argue for the explicit exclusion of gains from uncontrollable factors in the design of variable executive remuneration (bebchuk & fried, 2006; institute of directors in southern africa, 2017). the study is undertaken in the context of a prevailing environment of intense scrutiny of executive remuneration. by drawing on the views of key players in the remuneration policy-setting structures of a diverse range of organisations, this study aimed to determine the approaches organisations take and the reasons thereof to account for uncontrollable factors in the design of their executive incentive schemes. the collation of this information will assist designers and decision-makers of incentive schemes in the crafting of better rules. literature review agency theory and its challenges the setting of executive remuneration is anchored in the agency theory, which is concerned with the delegation relationship between one party as the principal and another party as the agent. according to eisenhardt (1989), in this relationship, two problems occur: (1) a conflict of goals between the principal and the agent and (2) the difficulty or economic feasibility of the principal validating what the agent is actually doing. in the context of this study, uncontrollable factors may be viewed differently, while establishing responsibility for such factors may prove to be difficult. according to bebchuk, fried and walker (2002), the optimal executive contract has to consider the attraction and retention of talent present in an agent, incentivise the agent to align to the interests of the principal and minimise residual loss – the cost to the principal caused by the abnormal activities of the agent. sun and shin (2014) state that the setting of executive remuneration involves the belief of board members that the activities of executives reflect corporate outcomes. the implication is, therefore, that the remuneration awarded to executive management will reflect the reward for those actions that the agent has deliberately taken and, by extrapolation, exclude the impact of uncontrollable factors (jouber & fakhfakh, 2012). other theories exist that also attempt to explain the relationship between principals and agents. freeman’s stakeholder theory (freeman, 1984), for example, looks beyond the traditional shareholder and manager relationship, recognising other stakeholders such as the broader classification of employees, governments, political groups and more. the theory also posits that various stakeholders use the organisation to accomplish numerous, and not always common, interest objectives (donaldson & preston, 1995). the agency theory is applied in this research because of its narrower and more intimate focus on the specific relationship between principals and agents and, in the current context, with the principal as the expected chief regulator of executive remuneration. pay for performance or luck? cărăușu (2015) posited that remuneration schemes enable shareholders to ensure that the quantum of benefits awarded to managers is entwined with the organisation’s performance. bebchuk and fried (2006) argue that the arm’s length assumption that exists in the pay-setting process has in fact strayed, particularly so in publicly traded organisations where managerial power actively shapes pay arrangements for managers. numerous quantitative studies have investigated whether or not there is a correlation between executive remuneration and firm performance (bertrand & mullainathan, 2001; chiu et al., 2016; feriozzi, 2011; garvey & milbourn, 2006). the direction of attention is illustrated by the recommendation of the us sec, that is, that registrants disclose in a clear manner ‘the relationship between executive remuneration actually paid and the financial performance of the registrant’ (securities and exchange commission, 2015, p. 1). in europe, recent regulations issued by the supervisory authorities aim to ‘fortify the correlation between the incentive pay and the organisation’s performance so that each manager can really contribute to the bank value creation, especially from a long-term perspective’ (d‘apolito & iannuzzi, 2017, p. 169). it would thus seem that both in the united states and europe, there is pressure for a correlation between executive remuneration and reported financial performance. if this is indeed the case, the pressure to align pay to company performance when there is an uncontrollable negative factor means that the performance input of an executive could be overshadowed with negative consequences such as demotivation. paulo and le roux (2016) formulated the paulo–le roux index that attempts to show the relationship between executive remuneration and the value added to the firm by the executive. the index is quantitative, drawing on audited financials of a firm implying uncontrollable factors are treated as endogenous. hölmstrom (1982) advocates for the exclusion of uncontrollable factors in the optimal remuneration contract. but what exactly is the process to determine whether a factor is exogenous or endogenous? researchers such as ford (1985) suggest that this process is informed by psychological factors. sun and shin (2014) introduce contextual factors to the process, arguing that the external environment influences the extent to which a decision-maker of executive remuneration would attribute cause to. by way of example, sun and shin (2014) postulate that principals may be concerned with the adverse impact of exogenous events on executives’ incentives leading to the risk of their departure. considering the findings of sun and shin (2014), specifically the granting of a greater number of stock options to ceos during a recession, it appears, therefore, that a battle of principle versus reality exists, which policy-makers have to seek a delicate balance. shareholder activism and income inequality in a study on the history of shareholder activism in the united states, gillan and starks (2007) found a marked increase in executive remuneration proposals for the years 2001 to 2005 against the years 1987 to 1994. according to greve (2014), south africa has followed global trends propelled by a large international shareholder base in the country. in bloomberg’s report on global ceo pay-to-average income ratio, south africa ranked worst, with ceos earning on average 541 times more than the average worker (lu & melin, 2016). given the growing concerns about executive remuneration and assuming that executives are indeed rewarded for favourable uncontrollable factors, and the same being deemed unacceptable by shareholders and society in general, a rise in shareholder activism with respect to executive remuneration would be expected. it is therefore clear that executive remuneration is in the spotlight, and thus by implication, so are its drivers, which include the impact of uncontrollable factors. the concept of fairness according to bol (2008), the traditional agency model has not recognised the importance of perceived fairness in remuneration contracting. employees seek distributive fairness – associated with the quantum of the remuneration, and procedural fairness – associated with the process used to arrive at the quantum of the remuneration. perceived unfairness breeds negative attitudes, which in turn leads to reduced motivation and possibly even negative actions by employees against the organisation. the remuneration committee forum, as an arm of the institute of directors of southern africa, notes that discussions on fair and responsible pay can be expected to yield differing views ‘as they depend on who the debate is held with’ (institute of directors in southern africa, 2017, p. 1). the forum’s guidance on fair executive remuneration is seen to be a bias towards high incentives alone, discouraging a number of practices. the facts on the ground are however different. bertrand and mullainathan (2001) in their research found that ceos were rewarded for positive gains from uncontrollable factors. in addition, bertrand and mullainathan (2001) found that this practice was stronger among poorly governed organisations, and this is also confirmed by the research of brookman and thistle (2013); feriozzi (2011); francis, hasan, john and sharma (2013); and garvey and milbourn (2006). in a related south african context, bussin and modau (2015) found a decline in the relationship between executive remuneration and the financial performance of a firm citing a move to non-performance measures which may speak of better governance. however, in south african state-owned entities (soes), bussin and ncube (2017) found a strong link between ceo and cfo pay to the financial performance of the soe. subsequent research by bezuidenhout, bussin, and coetzee (2018) on schedule 2 state-owned enterprises in south africa found a strong positive correlation between total ceo remuneration and operating profit, and a negative correlation between total ceo remuneration and net profit. in a test of fairness posed to cfos, deloitte (2015) researched the approaches organisations in the united states were following in response to the shock movement in the us dollar exchange rate. deloitte identified three schools of thought being: do nothing – arguing for the fate of executives to be tied to those of shareholders. when the tide is high everybody gains, and when it is down everybody loses. hold-harmless approach – arguing for the exclusion of gains and losses from uncontrollable factors. corridor approach – arguing for proportional accountability to management for some of the gains and losses from uncontrollable factors. the results of the survey showed that 75% of affected cfos did not plan to adjust their executive incentive schemes, arguing that the fates of the executives and shareholders should be parallel (deloitte, 2015). in attempting to explain the strong correlation between executive remuneration and gains from uncontrollable factors, researches have suggested that skimming, where a ceo gains control of the pay-setting process itself, was a likely cause for the observation (bertrand & mullainathan, 2001; garvey & milbourn, 2006). taking this view, it may be logically extrapolated that despite the negative impact of the stronger us dollar on executive incentive schemes, this was an odd occurrence where the uncontrollable factors negatively affected executive remuneration. for cfos to argue for intervention would in effect establish a principle, the ‘hold-harmless approach’, whereby gains from uncontrollable events, which appear to be the norm, would be excluded from incentives to the detriment of executives. in the greater scheme of things, ‘one bad year’ would be a small price to pay to ensure that skimming remains embedded in the pay-setting process of the organisation. the cumulative studies to date point to the existence of complexity in as far as fairness is concerned, and therefore, the issue is worthy of further research. the role of corporate governance in executive remuneration cărăușu (2015) asserted that through the use of policies, corporate governance serves as a mechanism to control, supervise and counsel an organisation, and ensures boundaries in the relations between principals and agents. a number of researchers found that good corporate governance mitigated the instances of executive remuneration being affected by benefits of uncontrollable factors (bertrand & mullainathan, 2001; jiménez-angueira & stuart, 2013; jouber & fakhfakh, 2012). bebchuk and fried (2004) advocated for ‘shareholder approval of executive remuneration plans that include features identified as “suspect” by those designing the arrangements’. it is, therefore, possible that principals could approve the award of executive remuneration that has been enhanced by the impact of uncontrollable factors if they deem the surrounding circumstances to be acceptable. the essence of the recommendation is thus that the decision is taken after full disclosure to the principals of the organisation. in summary it is evident that there are a range of views and justifications regarding how designers of executive incentive schemes ought to account for the impact of uncontrollable factors, each with their own repercussions, presenting agents and principals with rigorous analysis and choices to make in light of growing shareholder activism and income inequality concerns. research design research approach this study applied the qualitative approach utilising in-depth, semi-structured interviews. qualitative research explores and seeks to understand the meaning that a person or a group of people ascribe to a social or human problem (creswell, 2009). the subject of this research is associated with subjective matters of fairness and governance. questions of a ‘what’ nature were core to the research, that is, ‘what is the nature of the uncontrollable factors that businesses are confronted with?’ and ‘what interventions are in place to account for the impact of uncontrollable factors in the design of executive incentive schemes?’ in-depth interviews are useful when a researcher seeks to establish a deeper understanding of a respondent’s thoughts and behaviours (boyce & neale, 2006). the interviews gathered the views of participants at a set time, despite the fact that these views may have been formed over a period. a cross-sectional research was thus conducted. research strategy an interpretivist theoretical approach was adopted in the study. according to blaikie (2011): the study of social phenomena requires an understanding of the social worlds that people inhabit, which they have already interpreted by the meanings they produce and reproduce as a necessary part of their everyday activities together. (p. 509) creswell (2009) stated that the experiences of individuals lead to them developing subjective meanings of those occurrences. the way in which companies deal with the impact of uncontrollable factors reflects the collective opinion of individuals who have applied their minds to the various issues at hand. interpretivism is therefore aligned to the understanding that was sought through this research. research method research setting the research was conducted in south africa, drawing on corporate entities from a diverse range of industries represented in the south african economy such as mining, agriculture, insurance, retail, information technology and fast food. with many entities drawing on the services of external subject matter experts, leading practitioners in the remuneration consulting arena were also included. entrée and establishing researcher roles the research sought to interview individuals who influence the formulation of executive remuneration policy such as non-executive directors, executive directors, other senior executives and remuneration practitioners in the south african corporate environment. this was achieved by using key contacts of a leading south african remuneration practitioner. interviews were requested through emails and follow-up telephone calls, some of which were initially through gatekeepers in the form of personal assistants to the interviewees. research participants and sampling methods the research sought the participation of key actors in the remuneration arena who have significant influence. these included remuneration committee (remco) members and remuneration consultants. purposive non-probability sampling was utilised for this research. according to saunders and lewis (2012), when a researcher selects a purposive sample, judgement is used to actively choose those who will be best able to answer the research question and meet the objectives. fourteen representative participants, with a data saturation over-rider, were selected on the basis of diversity of the industries representing the south african economy to make up the sample. this covered mining, petrochemicals, pulp and paper manufacturing, banking, retail, and professional services to name a few. also, the inherent uncontrollable factors associated with some of these businesses, for example, commodity prices for mining, interest rates for banks and exchange rates generally across all sectors, were also considered. according to morgan (2012), in the majority of qualitative studies, the research goals accentuate an intimate understanding of a particular matter, and such goals are best attained through small sample sizes. data collection methods in the main, in-depth, face-to-face interviews were utilised as the primary data collection mechanism for this study. one interview was conducted by video conference, while five interviews were conducted by telephone. in-depth interviews encourage participants to explore in detail the subject under investigation in their own words (cook, 2012). according to cook (2012), the in-depth interview is one of the most applied methods of data collection in qualitative research. strategies employed to ensure data quality and integrity according to lincoln (2004), ‘trustworthiness criteria provide yardsticks by which the rigor, validity, systematic nature of methods employed, and findings of qualitative studies may be judged’ (p. 1145). the criteria for trust were addressed as follows in this research: credibility aims to show that the research was conducted accurately through the use of processes. the research describes the research setting, the population, the sample and theoretical framework in detail to ensure its integrity. replicability aims for consistency between researchers thereby placing more faith in the truth of the research findings (seale, 2004). the sample was made up of executives and remuneration consultants. this means that the study could be replicated in other companies across the country. transferability implies that the research results can be transferred to other contexts and situations beyond the scope of the study context (jensen, 2008b). a full picture of the context of the research, the research design and the respondents has been painted. this study could be undertaken in any country. dependability recognises that the research context is not static and a researcher may be confronted with situation quite different from what was expected (jensen, 2008a). the data collection process has been well documented, with preserved evidence in the form of audio recordings and professionally transcribed scripts. data analysis pope, ziebland and mays (2000) state that ‘qualitative research uses analytical categories to describe and explain social phenomena’ (p. 114). these categories can be established gradually from the data (inductively), or used at the onset or some later stage during the analysis (deductively), as a way of tackling the data (pope et al., 2000). in summary, the data collected during the research were analysed both deductively, with reference to the known, and inductively, for what was yet to be established. this was accomplished by arranging the interview outputs into similar emerging themes. ethical considerations ethical clearance was granted by the gordon institute of business science and participants were given the option not to participate as it was voluntary and anonymous. results this research was conducted with the aim of determining the approaches organisations take and the reasons thereof to account for uncontrollable factors in the design of their executive incentive schemes. the results are discussed under three broad headings. the nature of uncontrollable factors faced by organisations respondents were asked to identify the critical uncontrollable factors affecting their businesses, and in the case of the remuneration consultants, those that were common among their consulting clients. through a process of coding of the concepts identified in the transcribed interviews, the research identified 10 factors as presented in figure 1. these factors are discussed below. figure 1: the nature of uncontrollable factors confronting south african companies. macroeconomic factors: the most quoted factor was exchange rate fluctuations affecting either direct trade transactions or foreign-based operations. inflation did not feature as a major uncontrollable factor for the respondents in the interview sample. given the focus on inflation through inflation targeting by the south african monetary authorities, as well as the fact that south african inflation has been within the targeted parameters, businesses were unlikely to identify inflation as a major uncontrollable factor they were faced with either historically or recently. political factors: in many instances, the originating political event is seen manifesting itself in one or more uncontrollable factors. the memory of the impact of political events in the latter years of the zuma presidency in south africa was cited by some respondents. commodity and share price: the price of commodities and the price of shares were recurrent factors, the former being inherent to the associated industry and the latter experienced in organisations where share linked incentives are present. acts of god: some industries such as mining and agriculture were prone to physical or natural events beyond the influence of man. earth tremors affecting mining operations as well as the impact of drought on agricultural activities were cited. regulation: in developed economies and markets, regulation is seen as being uncontrollable in the context of the associated costs. decisions of others: this factor relates to the decisions of past decision-makers having an impact on the current incentive schemes. two respondents in the sample cited the impact of past debt decisions having a prolonged negative impact on the profitability of their organisations. credit risk: in a liability-based asset management business, the credit risk of instruments in their portfolio was cited as an uncontrollable factor in the context of the financial solutions offered by the business. unethical practices of competitors – bribery: a respondent in the highly competitive information technology industry cited the impact of competitors paying bribes to secure business to the disadvantage of the respondent’s ethical company. consolidation of metrics: some executives felt that the consolidation of metrics for different operations curtailed their incentives. it is not inconceivable to imagine that the dilution of a profitable operation in one country by a poorly performing operation in another country would be viewed as uncontrollable for the executive in the former operation. it is also unlikely that the agent in a poorly performing operation would complain about his or her incentive benefiting from another well-performing operation. concerns regarding the fairness of uncontrollable factors respondents in the research were asked if they had any concerns regarding the fairness, from any quarter, about the exclusion or inclusion of gains or losses from uncontrollable factors in incentive scheme pools. executives are incentivised to make the most of the conditions. in an environment of zero-based targets, often the principal is concerned about management setting conservative targets, so that the actual results reflect a greater stretch against the target and hence conducive for higher incentives. this setting may therefore have a bearing on how the effects of uncontrollable factors are dealt with when incentives are determined. a variety of concerns were expressed by the respondents, a few of which are included under the following subheadings. surprisingly, despite the sample being skewed towards executives, the majority of concerns raised were in the camp of the principal. the concerns were categorised into four broad themes as depicted in figure 2. figure 2: categories of concerns regarding uncontrollable factors. pay for performance concern: this concern is linked to the question, ‘are executives being rewarded for performance’? while uncontrollable factors and their impacts are acknowledged, respondents submitted that executives can make specific decisions that either mitigate the uncontrollable unfolding event or sometimes even allow for the maximisation of returns. respondent 7 expressed this assertion as follows: ‘so, i am saying that for me, when you look at uncontrollable factors, they are not totally uncontrollable. maybe you can’t control the factor, but you can plan for it. but not only in your budgeting, and, but in your strategy of the business … if you have a strategy in place, a business strategy, to cope with the so-called uncontrollable factors, then if you link variable pay to that, you will be in a much better position.’ (respondent 7, ceo remuneration consulting) the executive looks ahead and plans deliberate actions based on the predicted business environment. the uncontrollable factor is therefore not seen in isolation, but rather in a context. a hypothetical probing question was presented using an example of a tomato farm manager employed by the respondent. the farm manager grows and delivers product to the market at the ruling price. the question was crafted to create distance from the day-to-day experiences of the respondents, thus seeking out their philosophical position regarding uncontrollable factors. in the example, on day one, the ruling market price for tomatoes is r20.00 per kilogram, and the next day, it is r100.00 per kilogram. the question sought to establish how the respondent, as principal, would calculate the incentive to be awarded to the farm manager given the uncontrollable price gain. the more critical respondents expressed a view that for any uncontrollable factor, a thorough assessment must be made of that factor to establish whether the agent could have done something to respond to the factor. for instance, the farmer has the option to effect cost efficiency improvements or to schedule the delivery of the product to the market for best return. a more brutal view captured by respondent 10, a ceo for an executive search agency, was ‘but everybody lives and dies by the end results’, and therefore, performance is ultimately measured by the financial results. some respondents highlighted the linkage of critical assessments to the existence and quality of an experienced remco. these respondents reported that the lack of a knowledgeable and experienced remco usually resulted in greater concerns by principals and vice versa. respondent 2 commented: ‘i find that management often tries to argue that they were uncontrollable factors, but then they need careful scrutiny because managers for obvious reasons try to argue their own case … i think therein lies a safeguard that i am not convinced that all companies have. my experience with some of the companies that i have been consulting to is that the members of the remuneration committee are, not in my opinion, sufficiently knowledgeable about these matters, they are not sufficiently informed on remuneration trends, you know, guidelines from king and a whole lot of other things, and i am not sure if they would apply the same degree of scrutiny. so, then i expect that the shareholders would feel a lot more concerned.’ (respondent 2, human resources executive, mining) dilution of executive incentives: this concern referred to the inclusion or exclusion of uncontrollable factors that would result in reduced incentive pay and was expressed from the viewpoint of the agent. it was however observed that the reaction by agents to these dilutive concerns effectively became an associated concern for the principals as they cited the risk of executives exiting because of dissatisfaction with their incentives. in support of this, respondent 7 remarked: ‘the executives get grumpy, they get quite mobile, they can go to other companies, and companies say, oh, we better revisit our schemes, and the only thing they can do is look at the targets.’ (respondent 7, ceo, remuneration consulting) alignment concern: this largely principal-based concern relates to the perceived lack of alignment between what shareholders earn versus what executives earn. the examples cited were very much industry-specific and also spoke to the basis on which incentive targets were set, that is, either budget-based or growth-based. figure 3 succinctly illustrates the concern. figure 3: illustration of the lack of alignment. in the depiction above, where the bonus pool has been calculated as 50% of the stretch results, that is, actual profitability less budgeted profitability, the bonus pool is the same for both years at r50 million but funded from r300m profit in the prior year versus r200m profit in the current year. the principal would note a lack of alignment in that actual profits were lower by r100m, but the bonus pool stayed the same. respondent 6 recalled a year where the actual profit marginally missed the target, in part, because of the existence of uncontrollable factors. the actual profit was the organisation’s second highest recorded profit. consequently, the rules of the incentive scheme dictated that no incentives would be paid. the ceo felt that he would be hard-pressed to tell his executive team and other employees that in the year of the second highest profit, there would be no incentive payments, while the shareholders would be rewarded handsomely. quantum-based concerns: all the activities and policies around executive remuneration culminate in a determined quantum to be paid to executives. this quantum enters the judgement courts of various stakeholders. these stakeholders consider the quantum in light of all the known factors, but may not be in a position to specifically break down the contribution of each factor. uncontrollable factors, therefore, contribute to either high or low pay, and consequential concerns around the quantum of payment arise. in this research, the concerns were related to the retention of key executives on the lower end of the incentive quantum scale and to the excessive remuneration of executives at the top end of the incentive quantum scale. these concerns are illustrated in figure 4. figure 4: quantum-based concerns on the incentive pay scale. because of consecutive lower incentive payments that may have been affected by uncontrollable factors, and because of peer incentives, executives may opt to seek alternative employment where they believe they will experience a more favourable environment than their present. respondent 5, a human resources executive, in the petrochemicals industry, stated, ‘it’s starting to become a concern’, when referring to increasing staff turnover, which she believed was linked to a protracted period of ‘suboptimal’ bonuses. in contrast, respondent 4, with a dual role as principal and agent, remarked that he would be happy to see the exit of anyone in his organisation who left because of the negative impact of uncontrollable factors, expecting that agents should be committed through the highs and the lows. on the higher end of the incentive scale was expressed the concern captured in the term, ‘the unspoken rule’, which describes the preference of shareholders to see executive remuneration moderated downwards but never upwards. respondent 1, a human resources executive, in the banking industry, remarked ‘… and discretion should normally only be applied downwards and not upwards. that’s a bit of an unwritten rule, but institutional shareholders like it’. over and above the ‘unspoken rule’, the social challenges of south africa’s high-income inequality are also viewed to be part fuelled by the impact of favourable uncontrollable factors. approaches adopted by organisations for uncontrollable factors given the nature of uncontrollable factors and the concerns around them as expressed from the viewpoint of various stakeholders, the leading question sought to establish how then organisations design their schemes to accommodate the uncontrollable factor environment. broadly, companies were found to practice interventions at two possible levels, either primary approaches or secondary approaches. primary uncontrollable factor approaches these consider the nature of the uncontrollable factor and its associated characteristics, for example, its volatility, as well as some aspects of the organisational environment such as the target-setting philosophy. drawing on deloitte’s survey, the approaches adopted may be classified into four types: hands-off approach leaves things as they are without any intervention. the approach was favoured by environments that were non-volatile and, secondly, where a strong alignment culture existed. an alignment culture in the context of this research refers to an organisation where the fates of shareholders and executives are accepted to be the same. the agricultural sector is subject to events such as drought which can have severe consequences, yet the occurrences of droughts are infrequent, which makes them the exception rather than the norm, and as such, one organisation in the sample did not adjust incentives for the negative impact of drought. corridor approach allows for some of the impact of uncontrollable factors to flow through to incentive schemes. this approach attempts to regulate, within a pre-defined range, the negative or positive impact of uncontrollable factors. the approach is conducive for environments that are characterised by the following: zero-based targets: these consider the specific circumstances for the coming period, which may have no relationship to the prior period. one respondent stated that in his organisation, management tended to set conservative targets. consequently, the remco in that organisation imposed a price cap of 10% of the budgeted revenue price, either way. short-term incentive schemes (stis): most long-term incentive (lti) schemes mentioned by respondents were share-based. intrinsically, it is difficult to unwind the impact of uncontrollable factors from the value of a share, as that share value is the sum total of those factors and many others. in the long-term, uncontrollable factors tend to inform business cycles, which are inherently important to the value of the business. thus, it appears not to be common practice to try and unwind, whether in whole or part, the impact of uncontrollable factors in lti schemes, but conducive for stis. volatile factors or environment: when zero-based budgets were discussed, the underlying issue raised was the intent of management to set conservative budgets. however, zero-based budgets can be informed by factors subject to volatility, and the remco of the organisation may deem it necessary to restrict the upswings or downswings. again, the 10% price cap and floor mentioned above demonstrate the environment that appears to support the corridor approach. unwinding approach completely removes the impact of uncontrollable factors. the unwinding approach is an overextension of the corridor approach in that, instead of unwinding a portion of the impact of uncontrollable factors, the entire impact is unwound. the approach is conducive for environments similar to those observed for the corridor approach, but it would seem that each organisation decides the extent of application. in an sti scheme for a company in the mining industry, the effects of exchange rates and currencies were deemed by the organisation to be exogenous. hybrid approach is a combined application of some of the three approaches mentioned above. in this research, the hybrid approach combinations noted were (1) hands-off + corridor and (2) hands-off + unwinding, although the researcher could not see any limitation to any other combination given the right context. secondary uncontrollable factor approaches profits reflect the sum total of a multiple number of factors working together in the environment that the business operates in. the rand value of the incentives paid out to executives is of concern to many stakeholders. secondary interventions are those deployed to address the resultant output of the collective incentive process. the interventions identified through the research and described below are depicted in figure 5. figure 5: secondary uncontrollable factor interventions. first-line interventions entail the exercise of discretion and the use of weightings as moderators. discretion refers to the intervention of a remco in response to a unique situation. the discretionary interventions encountered included once-off ex gratia payments and retention payments clearly aimed at purging the exit of talent on account of the impact of an uncontrollable factor on the calculated incentive to be paid. from the executive’s view, a rand is a rand by any another name, all other things being equal. respondent 6 successfully sought the intervention of remco after his company posted the second highest profit, yet marginally missed its incentives target: ‘so i did go to remco, i did plead that we were very close to the target and that some consideration should be given for the fact that we got so close to the target. the target was a very big target, so it was close to 400 million. so the shareholders got practically everything they had expected, but management was going to get nothing. so i argued that we should at least get the minimum hurdle for achieving the target. that was the first thing i argued, and then i also argued for another discretionary to lift us above that, on the basis that we had made so much money.’ (respondent 6, ceo, sugar industry) weightings as moderators: conceptually, the use of these should be mutually exclusive to a primary intervention of a specific uncontrollable factor. in respondent 5’s entity, a slump in a commodity price eroded company earnings by 15%. the response of the remco was to reduce by more than half the weighting of the commodity impact, effectively reducing the negative exposure of executive incentives to the poor financial results. at a primary intervention level, the company did not adjust for movements in the price of the commodity, therefore practicing the hands-off approach. if they had adjusted at the primary level, then a weighting moderation would not have been necessary or justifiable. second-line interventions entail the imposition of caps to limit the incentives paid to executives. by capping the incentive awards, an attempt is being made to address the general concern of excessive executive remuneration, which, as discussed, can in part be attributed to the impact of favourable uncontrollable factors. while capping was widely applied, it does have its disadvantages. respondent 5 generally showed an adverse attitude to capping, describing what may be termed as a risk of complacent behaviour developing with executives as a result of capping. the respondent felt that management were likely to reduce effort once a capped target had been achieved. in contrast, respondent 10 asserted: ‘but there comes a point where the shareholders’ rewards should be more than the ceo’s reward … so an executive incentive scheme, in general, has a zero bottom sometimes, sometimes it’s not zero, but it’s never negative. show me an incentive scheme you’ve found, where if a company loses money, is in the red, and is having to look for funding, that the incentive scheme calls for executives to put in? … so if there is a cap on the bottom which let’s say is zero, why isn’t there a cap at the top? … and if the executive says but why can’t i have an unlimited upside, then those building the incentive schemes should say, then you should have an unlimited downside.’ (respondent 10, ceo, executive search agency) this is a compelling argument, and perhaps, one that might have been expressed more frequently had the sample contained more non-executive shareholders. reinforcing activities a number of respondents alluded to the importance of organisations not just focusing on the design of schemes but also focusing on how the input of stakeholders is sought and how stakeholders are informed about the remuneration policies of the organisation. the argument, therefore, is that the journey to the point of fairness can be enhanced through dialogue and communication. fairness is enhanced by understanding, and understanding is conveyed through engagement and transparent disclosure. respondents revealed that engagement thrives when it is supported by (1) proactiveness – seeking feedback from the shareholders; (2) delivery – timeously addressing the concerns raised by the stakeholders; and (3) critical mass – reaching a large portion of the organisation’s stakeholders with an interest in remuneration. transparent disclosure speaks to the full conveyance of the remuneration practices within the company to a greater audience through best practice. contributing respondents argue that disclosing policy and the decisions that a remuneration committee might have taken during a period contribute to a better remuneration environment. a model for uncontrollable factors based on the findings of this research, a model for accounting for uncontrollable factors in executive incentive scheme designs is presented in figure 6. the model shows stakeholder interests in the executive remuneration domain as an overarching context. the floor of the model shows the enabling activities titled ‘stakeholder engagement’ and ‘transparent disclosure’. between these two are three chronological levels of actions available to designers of incentive schemes. figure 6: a model to account for uncontrollable factors in incentive schemes. discussion this study sought to determine the approaches organisations take and the reasons thereof to account for uncontrollable factors in the design of their executive incentive schemes. outline of the results the main finding of this research is that south african organisations are not strictly conforming to the classic agency theory prediction for uncontrollable factors as some allow the impact of uncontrollable factors to be included. this finding is consistent with the findings of deloitte’s (2015) quantitative survey of the reaction of us organisations to significant exchange rate movements when it comes to their incentive schemes. the research findings further indicate that some organisations adopt hybrid approaches as opposed to a single approach. the primary driver for this departure from theory is that organisations advocate for recognition that, in as much as a factor is uncontrollable, an agent may have the opportunity to react to the event either as a strategy to mitigate the risk or to cease the opportunity and maximise returns. this finding is consistent with the research work of mollerstrom et al. (2015), who found that the spectators used in their experimental research, representing principals in the context of this research, were more concerned with the choices made by the agent rather than the cause. if agents can exercise currency hedging, the principal may deem it appropriate to allow for currency impacts to flow through to incentive schemes. at the heart of the discussion above is the dilemma between agent and principal in relation to paying for individual and organisation linked performance in an environment of uncontrollable factors. figure 7 captures this dilemma, starting with the financial performance of the organisation as influenced by uncontrollable factors being either good or bad. the individual performance of the executive is then introduced, with two possible outcomes under each firm performance outcome. next, the strength of the link of executive incentive pay to firm performance, as defined by the design of the performance management system, is introduced, with the strength assigned as high or low. the factors above predict an expected incentive payment which is either high or low. the principal and agent will react to this amount, giving consideration to the circumstances, reflecting either congruence or divergence in sentiments because of the derived incentive award. figure 7: the pay for individual versus firm performance dilemma. practical implications the types of uncontrollable factors at play in the south african environment were identified, and in-depth context was provided exposing a pool of valuable knowledge many other organisations will now have access to as they grapple with how to deal with the uncontrollable factors affecting their operations. the approaches or interventions being used by the different organisations offer a menu that will aid designers of incentive schemes to identify tried and tested approaches to inform their incentive-related policies. while the majority of approach offerings violate the default agency position regarding uncontrollable factors, the acceptance of these approaches by some principals and agents points to the need to update the literature, and for organisations and regulators such as the king committee, to reconsider long-established views or positions. in south africa, proponents who argue for the exclusion of uncontrollable factors from executive remuneration would be supported by the king recommendations, while those in the opposing ranks would have the burden of convincing the other party otherwise. this study reveals that when uncontrollable factors are critically analysed, alternative and possibly more appropriate and fairer views may be formed with the mutual consensus of all interested stakeholders. the south african forerunner organisations of stakeholder engagement and disclosure regarding executive remuneration, as described in this research, have reported improved climates concerning executive remuneration. by being proactive in stakeholder engagement, aiming to reach a critical mass of stakeholders and timeously addressing issues raised by stakeholders, lagging organisations that follow suit will likely experience the same gains. limitations and recommendations all research is prone to limitations. the findings derived from the small sample size made up of organisations cannot be extrapolated to, for example, private sector organisations, as the shareholder and executive relationship is likely to have a different context. conclusion the results of the research identified three broad themes of uncontrollable factors faced by south african companies: (1) pervasive uncontrollable factors; (2) industry-specific uncontrollable factors; and (3) organisation-specific uncontrollable factors. the findings of the research suggest that south african organisations are not strictly conforming to the classic agency theory prediction that uncontrollable factors are excluded from incentive remuneration. some organisations remove the impact of uncontrollable factors in line with classic agency theory prediction for uncontrollable factors. others depart from classic theory by allowing the impact of uncontrollable factors to be included either entirely or proportionally. further, hybrid approaches are also applied. these approaches were seen to be front line or primary mechanisms that organisations adopted. the primary driver for those organisations that choose to depart from classic theory is that organisations recognise the choice of the agent rather than the cause of the outcome which classic theory supports. the impact of uncontrollable factors on executive incentive pay raises concerns for both principal and agent. these concerns are rooted in the dilemma between agent and principal in relation to paying for individual and organisation linked performance in an environment of uncontrollable factors. how an uncontrollable factor is dealt with affects the attitude of both principal and agent. this then brought to the fore secondary mechanisms that organisations adopted. a recurrent finding was that the negative impact of uncontrollable factors increases the flight risk of executives. consequently, ‘rent’ payments in the form of ex gratia awards or retention payments to executives are commonly awarded by organisations. on the other hand, the positive impact of uncontrollable factors is seen to induce principals to impose limiting mechanisms such as incentive ceilings. worthy of mention are softer practices proactively followed by some organisations to improve the executive remuneration climate. active stakeholder engagement and executive remuneration disclosures are catalysts to a better executive remuneration environment. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the study was conducted by d.v.d. as part of his master’s in business administration research project in 2017. m.h.r.b. was d.v.d.’s supervisor and edited the work for publication. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views expressed in this article are those of the researcher and not an official position of any institution. references bebchuk, l. a., & fried, j. m. (2004). improving executive compensation. in pay without performance: the unfulfilled promise of executive compensation (pp. 1–9). havard university press. retrieved from http://eprints.cdlib.org/uc/item/4499k9wq%5cnabstract. bebchuk, l. a., & fried, j. m. (2006). pay without performance: overview of the issues. academy of management perspectives, 20, 5–24. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2006.19873407. bebchuk, l. a., fried, j. m., & walker, d. i. (2002). managerial power and rent extraction in the design of executive compensation. university of chicago law review, 69(3), 751–846. retrieved from http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5183&context=uclrev. bertrand, m., & mullainathan, s. (2001). are ceos rewarded for luck? the ones without principals are. the quarterly journal of economics, 116(3), 901–932. https://doi.org/10.1162/00335530152466269 bezuidenhout, m. l., bussin, m. h. r., & coetzee, m. (2018). the chief executive officer pay – performance relationship within south african state-owned entities. sa journal of human resource management, 16, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.983 blaikie, n. (2011). interpretivism. in a. bryman & t. f. liao (eds.), the sage encyclopedia of social science research methods (pp. 509–510). thousand oaks, ca: sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412950589 bol, j. c. (2008). subjectivity in compensation contracting. journal of accounting literature, 27(1), 1–24. retrieved from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=771565. boyce, c., & neale, p. (2006). conducting in-depth interviews: a guide for designing and conducting in-depth interviews for evaluation input. watertown, ma: pathfinder international. retrieved from http://dmeforpeace.org/sites/default/files/boyce_in depth interviews.pdf. brookman, j. t., & thistle, p. d. (2013). managerial compensation: luck, skill or labor markets? journal of corporate finance, 21(1), 252–268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2013.03.001 bussin, m. h. r., & modau, m. f. (2015). the relationship between chief executive officer remuneration and financial performance in south africa between 2006 and 2012. sa journal of human resource management, 13(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.668 bussin, m. h. r., & ncube, m. (2017). chief executive officer and chief financial officer compensation relationship to company performance in state-owned entities. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 20(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v20i1.1644 campbell, c. t., & thompson, m. e. (2015). why are ceos paid for good luck? an empirical comparison of explanations for pay-for-luck asymmetry. journal of corporate finance, 35, 247–264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2015.09.006 cărăușu, d.-n. (2015). monitor and control in companies: an agency theory approach. journal of public administration, finance and law, 2, 46–60. retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.uplib.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=943f5bb4-ec3f-4233-9da9-a70a977c5b6e%40sessionmgr102. chiu, h. h., oxelheim, l., wihlborg, c., & zhang, j. (2016). macroeconomic fluctuations as sources of luck in ceo compensation. journal of business ethics, 136(2), 371–384. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2520-1 cook, k. e. (2012). in-depth interview. in l. m. given (ed.), the sage encyclopedia of qualitative research methods (p. 423). thousand oaks, ca: sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412963909 creswell, j. w. (2009). the selection of a research approach. in v. knight, s. connelly, & m. power scott (eds.), research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (3rd edn., pp. 3–22). sage. retrieved from https://us.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/55588_chapter_1_sample_creswell_research_design_4e.pdf. crotty, a. (2015). shareholders revolt over exec cheques at agms. retrieved from http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/businesstimes/2015/05/31/shareholders-revolt-over-exec-cheques-at-agms. d‘apolito, e., & iannuzzi, a. p. (2017). incentive plans, pay-for-non-financial performance and esg criteria: evidence from the european banking sector. international business research, 10(10), 169–181. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v10n10p169 deloitte. (2015). should fx swings affect incentive compensation? deloitte cfo insights. deloitte. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/us/documents/finance/us-cfo-fx-affect-incentive-compensation.pdf. donaldson, t., & preston, l. e. (1995). stakeholder theory: concepts, evidence, corporations and its implications. academy of management, 20(1), 65–91. https://doi.org/10.2307/258887 eisenhardt, k. m. (1989). agency theory: an assessment and review. academy of management review, 14(1), 57–74. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1989.4279003 feriozzi, f. (2011). paying for observable luck. rand journal of economics, 42(2), 387–415. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-2171.2011.00138.x ford, j. d. (1985). the effects of causal attributions on decision makers’ responses to performance downturns. the academy of management review, 10(4), 770. https://doi.org/10.1109/acc.2015.7172209 francis, b., hasan, i., john, k., & sharma, z. (2013). asymmetric benchmarking of pay in firms. journal of corporate finance, 23, 39–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2013.07.004 freeman, r. e. (1984). strategic management: a stakeholder approach. boston, ma: pitman. garvey, g. t., & milbourn, t. t. (2006). asymmetric benchmarking in compensation: executives are rewarded for good luck but not penalized for bad. journal of financial economics, 82, 197–225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2004.01.006 gillan, s. l., & starks, l. t. (2007). the evolution of shareholder activism in the united states. journal of applied corporate finance, 19(1), 55–73. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9173-6 greve, n. (2014). study finds shareholder activism on the rise. retrieved from http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/study-finds-shareholder-activism-on-the-rise-2014-04-22/rep_id:4136. hölmstrom, b. (1982). moral hazard in teams. bell journal of economics, 13(2), 324–340. https://doi.org/10.2307/3003457 institute of directors in southern africa. (2009). king code of governance principles (king iii). https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839909332800 institute of directors in southern africa. (2016). king iv report on corporate governance for south africa 2016. retrieved from http://www.iodsa.co.za/resource/collection/684b68a7-b768-465c-8214-e3a007f15a5a/iodsa_king_iv_report_-_webversion.pdf. institute of directors in southern africa. (2017). fair and responsible remuneration. remuneration committee forum. retrieved from http://www.ey.com/publication/vwluassets/ey-iodsa-position-paper-6-march-2017/$file/ey-iodsa-position-paper-6-march-2017.pdf. jensen, d. (2008a). dependability. in l. m. given (ed.), the sage encyclopedia of qualitative research methods (pp. 100–101). thousand oaks, ca: sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412963909 jensen, d. (2008b). transferability. in l. m. given (ed.), the sage encyclopedia of qualitative research methods, pp. 886–887. thousand oaks, ca: sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412963909 jiménez-angueira, c. e., & stuart, n. v. (2013). relative performance evaluation, pay-for-luck, and double-dipping in ceo compensation. review of quantitative finance and accounting, 44(4), 701–732. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11156-013-0423-3 jouber, h., & fakhfakh, h. (2012). pay for luck: new evidences from the institutional determinants of ceos’ compensation. international journal of law and management, 54(6), 485–507. https://doi.org/10.1108/17542431211281963 lincoln, y. s. (2004). trustworthiness criteria. in m. b. lewis-beck, a. bryman, & t. f. liao (eds.), the sage encyclopedia of social science research methods (vol. 1, pp. 1145–1146). thousand oaks, ca: sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412950589 lu, w., & melin, a. (2016). the best (and worst) countries to be a woman. retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-16/ranking-where-to-work-to-be-a-rich-ceo-or-richer-than-neighbors. mollerstrom, j., reme, b. a., & sørensen, e. t. (2015). luck, choice and responsibility – an experimental study of fairness views. journal of public economics, 131, 33–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2015.08.010 morgan, d. l. (2012). sample size. in l. m. given (ed.), the sage encyclopedia of qualitative research methods (pp. 798–799). thousand oaks, ca: sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412963909 paulo, s., & le roux, p. (2016). the ‘pay ratio’ provision of the dodd-frank act 2010 and presentation of the paulo-le roux index. sa journal of human resource management, 14(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.803 pope, c., ziebland, s., & mays, n. (2000). analysing qualitative data. british medical journal, 320(7227), 114. retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&an=2704775&site=ehost-live&scope=site. saunders, m. n. k., & lewis, p. (2012). doing research in business & management. harlow: pearson higher ed. seale, c. (2004). replication/replicability in qualitative research. in m. s. lewis-beck, a. bryman, & t. f. liao (eds.), the sage encyclopedia of social science research methods (pp. 962–963). thousand oaks, ca: sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412950589 securities and exchange commission. (2015). proposed rule: pay versus performance. usa: securities and exchange commission. retrieved from https://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/2015/34-74835.pdf. sun, y., & shin, t. (2014). rewarding poor performance: why do boards of directors increase new options in response to ceo underwater options? corporate governance: an international review, 22(5), 408–421. https://doi.org/10.1111/corg.12065 abstract introduction literature review research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) hayley prinsloo gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa karl b. hofmeyr gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation prinsloo, h., & hofmeyr, k.b. (2022). organisational culture, frontline supervisory engagement and accountability, as drivers of safety behaviour in a platinum mining organisation. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1705. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1705 original research organisational culture, frontline supervisory engagement and accountability, as drivers of safety behaviour in a platinum mining organisation hayley prinsloo, karl b. hofmeyr received: 29 june 2021; accepted: 30 oct. 2021; published: 09 feb. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the mining industry plays a significant role in the south african economy. in 2020, the sector contributed r361.9 billion (7.9%) to the total gross domestic product. with almost half a million employees reporting to work in the south african mining industry each day, a relentless commitment to safety and health compliance is required to manage the inherent risks and hazards associated with the sector. research purpose: the objectives of this study sought to contribute to the body of research on organisational culture, frontline supervisory engagement and accountability as levers for enhancing organisational performance and creating sustainable competitive advantage through resilient safety behaviour. research approach: quantitative, confirmatory research methods were used to gain insight into the effect of organisational culture and safety climate on safety behaviour whilst examining the influencing effects of frontline supervisory engagement and accountability on safety behaviour in the process division of a single platinum mining organisation in south africa. main findings: the key findings indicate that the tendency of a supervisor to hold herself and her team accountable is positively correlated with good safety behaviour and is the strongest predictor of safety behaviour when considering safety climate and supervisory engagement and supervisory accountability. furthermore, safety climate was found to be a significant contributor to safety behaviour. practical implications: these results indicate that a significant influence exists between organisational culture, safety climate, supervisory accountability and safety behaviour. supervisory engagement, although found to be positively correlated, was not a statistically significant predictor of safety behaviour. keywords: safety behaviour; organisational culture; frontline supervision; accountability; engagement; safety climate. introduction orientation south africa is known for its wealth of mineral resources, but industry leaders trying to create sustainable value and competitive advantage face several challenges because of today’s rapidly changing and dynamic business environment (cao & ramesh, 2008; minerals council south africa, 2020). to remain competitive, many firms have been forced to prioritise operational efficiencies, which often results in leaner labour forces and additional productivity pressures on employees and organisations (hakanen, schaufeli, & ahola, 2008; minerals council south africa, 2020). within these constraints, firms are required to create and manage safe, secure and sustainable work environments (cummings et al., 2010; minerals council south africa, 2020). the mining industry plays a significant role in the south african economy. in 2020, the sector contributed r361.9 billion (7.9%) to the total gross domestic product and employed some 460 000 people (minerals council south africa, 2020). with almost half a million employees reporting to work in the south african mining industry each day, a relentless commitment to safety and health compliance is required to manage the inherent risks and hazards associated with the sector. in 2020, 58 fatalities were recorded in the sector, reflecting an increase of 18% from 2019 (department of mineral resources and energy, 2020). previous research has revealed that frontline leaders have a direct influence on the safety behaviour of individuals and that their leadership significantly influences team safety performance (fang, wu, & wu, 2015; lingard, cooke, & blismas, 2012). effective supervision sets and maintains high standards of performance and the physical aspects of the work environment and is critical to achieving and maintaining the desired safety culture (delbridge & lowe, 1997; weick, sutcliffe, & obstfeld, 1997). michael, guo, wiedenbach and ray (2006) observed that because workers rely on frontline leaders to delegate tasks and to support and guide the execution of complex work in a dynamic environment, frontline leaders can have a direct and substantial impact on a team’s safety behaviour and performance. however, it is important to understand what aspects of frontline leadership make it effective in driving safety behaviour and the successful management of risk. research purpose and objectives this study set out to contribute to the body of research on organisational culture, frontline supervisory engagement and accountability, as levers in enhancing organisational performance through resilient safety behaviour. it would investigate the effect of organisational culture on safety behaviour whilst examining the mediating effects of frontline supervisory engagement and accountability on safety behaviour. although these subjects have been comprehensively researched, they have not been thoroughly applied to frontline supervision and safety behaviour in the mining industry. literature review the literature review is structured to give an oversight into the definitions for safety behaviour, safety climate and culture and organisational culture to provide context for the review. thereafter, the importance of frontline supervision and the specific characteristics thereof are discussed before considering the antecedents of organisational culture, which may be used to leverage frontline supervisory skills in an effort to influence safety climate, behaviour and, ultimately, safety performance. safety behaviour and climate neal and griffin (2006, p. 946) defined safety behaviour as ‘the set of individual actions that meet or exceed particular role requirements in order to ensure workplace safety and reduced harm’. furthermore, safety behaviour can be categorised into both participation and compliance behaviours (neal & griffin, 2006; pousette, larsson, & törner, 2008; yang, zheng, liu, lu, & schaubroeck, 2019). participatory safety behaviours include taking personal initiative to ensure personal safety and the safety of others, whereas safety compliance refers to adherence to procedures, instructions and rules designed to improve safety (pousette et al., 2008; tholén, pousette, & törner, 2013; yang et al., 2019). despite there being a theoretical difference between safety participation and safety compliance, research on safety performance indicates that both are influenced by an employee’s willingness to exert extra effort to behave safely, and this is in turn influenced by organisational culture (neal & griffin, 2000; pousette et al., 2008; tholén et al., 2013). theoretical models and frameworks in safety literature do not adequately address why some individuals engage in more safety behaviours than others (yang et al., 2019). it was thus suggested that the safety climate of an organisation can have an independent effect on individual safety behaviour. this would give organisations the ability to target specific interventions related to an individual’s compliance with and participation in organisational safety practices (neal & griffin, 2006). organisational culture and safety climate several studies have tried to identify the antecedents to safety behaviour in the mining industry. stemn, bofinger, cliff and hassall (2019) defined safety behaviour in the mining industry as a reflection of the perceptions, values, behaviours, attitudes and values concerning safety that are shared by employees. lee and harrison (2000) defined safety culture as the perception of risk, behaviours, values and beliefs that employees hold regarding their safety in the organisation. organisational culture is defined as a collection of values, expectations and practices that advise and pre-empt the employees’ behaviour (al mazrouei, khalid, davidson, & abdallah, 2019). this implies that the concept of safety behaviour cannot be researched in isolation, and consideration must be given to the organisational culture (al mazrouei et al., 2019). safety climate describes how individuals within an organisation perceive how safe the work environment is, and this is influenced by several factors, many of which are discussed as antecedents to organisational culture. these include supervisory support or management values such as how concerned management is with the well-being of their employees and the levels of care and respect shown in dealings with employees (schneider, yost, kropp, kind, & lam, 2018) and organisational practices and work attributes such as access to training, safety system quality, communication, the provision of equipment and employee involvement in workplace safety (brown & leigh, 1996; morrison, upton, & cordery, 1997). whereas a range of studies have established sound predictive relationships between these factors and safety-related incidents such as accidents (brown & leigh, 1996; zohar, 2010), few studies have established links between specific organisational culture factors and safety climate. supervisors play an important role in modelling safety behaviour and priorities during their interactions with frontline employees. zohar and luria (2003) proposed that supervisory support for appropriate safety behaviour is informed by organisational culture and that this manifests in organisation-wide safety behaviour. furthermore, even though supervisors may have some discretion in how procedures are executed within their work groups, zohar and luria (2003) showed a positive relationship between organisational culture and work team safety climates. this suggests that a strong safety culture within an organisation should influence frontline supervisors to engage in behaviours that support workplace safety. in this light, this study hypothesises that a positive relationship exists between organisational practices, supervisory support, work attributes and safety climate: h1: aggregate perceptions of organisational practices are a significant predictor of safety climate. h2: aggregate perceptions of supervisory support are a significant predictor of safety climate. h3: aggregate perceptions of work attributes that are meaningful and empowering are a significant predictor of safety climate. frontline supervision and safety behaviour to address the issue of poor safety performance within the mining industry, academicians and practitioners have researched safety supervision as a possible way to improve the safety behaviour of employees. this emphasis on safety supervision is aligned with research that indicates that safety initiatives directed at supervisors are more effective at improving safety performance than initiatives directed at frontline employees (zohar & luria, 2003) and research that finds that supervisors have a greater influence over the safety attitudes of employees than co-workers do (dingsdan, biggs, & sheahan, 2008). frontline supervisors have a direct impact on the safety behaviour of employees. their leadership significantly influences team safety performance (fang et al., 2015; lingard et al., 2012). by virtue of their proximity to the workforce, frontline supervisors provide the first line of defence in managing risk, communicating organisational priorities and values and building relationships with individual team members (delbridge| & lowe, 1997; weick et al., 1997). several studies have investigated the impact of frontline supervision on the safety behaviour and performance of employees. hofmann and morgeson (1999) found that the relationship between a supervisor and her team had an influence on their commitment to safety and safety-related communication. for example, a positive relationship between a supervisor and her team led to fewer workplace accidents. supervisory accountability and safety compliance accountability is a central component in all organisations, societies and communities. without it, there would be no regard for consequences (hall, frink, & buckley, 2017; hochwarter et al., 2007). without accountability, coordinated undertakings would be difficult and organisations would find it difficult to operate efficiently (frink & klimoski, 1998). although accountability has clear benefits in relation to performance and efficiency, there are also negative consequences associated with heightened levels of accountability that contribute to job-induced tension, cognitive biases and job dissatisfaction (hall et al., 2017; hochwarter et al., 2007; frink & klimoski, 1998). hierarchical accountability is common in high-risk industries where relationships are based on supervisors holding power over an employee because of their position or rank (mccall & pruchnicki, 2017). it exists when there is a contractual agreement between a superior and a subordinate, whereby the subordinates are expected to deliver on their accepted responsibilities and provide an account for their performance (morrison, upton & cordery, 1997). accountability is an important but complex construct that requires further research (pearson & sutherland, 2017). theory on the accountability of frontline supervisors and the consequences for safety performance in a mining environment has not been well understood. given the work linking accountability and work performance, it is hypothesised that a frontline supervisor’s ability to hold team members and herself accountable is an important factor when motivating employee safety compliance: h4: the ability of frontline supervisors to hold employees and themselves accountable has a positive influence on safety behaviour. h5: aggregate perceptions of organisational practices are a significant predictor of supervisory accountability. h6: aggregate perceptions of supervisory support are a significant predictor of supervisory accountability. h7: aggregate perceptions of work attributes that are meaningful and empowering are a significant predictor of supervisory accountability. safety engagement organisational performance can be positively influenced by engaged employees and negatively impacted by actively disengaged employees (hewitt, 2012). muthuveloo, basbous, ping and long (2013) suggested that employees who work in environments, which require physical work, such as mining, may be resentful or unhappy leading to disengagement at work. it is thus important for platinum mining organisations to understand the key drivers of employee engagement as this could affect and improve organisational performance. sahoo and mishra (2012) found that when positively engaged, employees can form an emotional connection to an organisation, thus driving increased effort and individual performance. subrahmanian (2014) went on to classify antecedents of employee engagement to include organisational practices, job satisfaction and attributes and supportive, collaborative teams and supervision. these characteristics were supported by schaufeli, martínez, marques-pinto, salanova and bakker (2002) who suggested a framework for measuring engagement based on work attributes, supervisory support and organisational practices such as a safe and supportive workplace. work attributes as an antecedent to engagement work attributes are described as job-related characteristics that relate to the design or nature of the job, its challenges, required skill set, environment, safety and security, performance, remuneration and interpersonal relationships (chen & chiu, 2016). research completed by fairlie (2011) found a strong association between meaningful job attributes and employee performance and that those work attributes predicted engagement levels. farlie (2001) furthers this idea by showing that when an employee believes her job is fundamental, with a sense of meaning and purpose, it results in higher levels of engagement and interest in the work. most platinum mining operations in south africa are conventional mines, implying labour and heavy machinery intensive environments (kunda, frantz, & karachi, 2013). historically, mineworkers from this industry have been clear about these unfavourable conditions, demanding decent living wages and benefits in compensation for their work environment. employees tend to be more engaged when they are properly compensated for meaningful and challenging work (schaufeli et al., 2002). furthermore, when employees are encouraged to contribute to the decision-making process within their work environment, they are more likely to invest more time and effort into their work (schaufeli et al., 2002). supervisory support as an antecedent to employee engagement one of the key drivers of employee engagement suggested by schaufeli et al. (2002) is autonomy and an environment in which an employee understands that he has choice and control over the decisions he makes and takes full responsibility for these actions. employees who experience high levels of micromanagement exhibit active disengagement and an attitude of ‘i just do what i’m told, and it is not my fault if anything goes wrong’ (cardus, 2013). in south africa, mining organisations are still very hierarchical, authoritative and autocratic, and as such, it is likely that employees, particularly supervision and frontline workers, experience micromanagement during their daily routines. organisational practices as an antecedent to engagement schaufeli et al. (2002) defined factors such as work environment, team collaboration, leadership, interpersonal relationship with colleagues, career progression and training and development, organisational procedures and policies, compensation and safe and healthy workplaces as being key factors for employee engagement. mine employees are typically exposed to difficult and uncomfortable working conditions, long hours, treacherous conditions often with radical unionised environments and with extreme pressure to perform safely and productively: h8: aggregate frontline supervisor perceptions of engagement are significantly related to safety behaviour. h9: aggregate frontline supervisor perceptions of organisational practices are a significant predictor of supervisory engagement. h10: aggregate frontline supervisor perceptions of supervisory support are a significant predictor of supervisory engagement. h11: aggregate frontline supervisor perceptions of work attributes that are meaningful and empowering are a significant predictor of supervisory engagement. h12: aggregate frontline supervisor perceptions of work attributes that are meaningful and empowering are a significant predictor of supervisory engagement. although previous research has added greatly to the body of knowledge on the impact of leaders on safety behaviour, few studies have explored how safety behaviour is affected by work engagement and the felt accountability of frontline leaders. furthermore, few studies have researched that organisational culture values have the greatest impact on work engagement and individual accountability. research design the research was descriptive and exploratory in nature and was intended to identify the extent and nature of cause-and-effect relationships between supervisory work engagement, felt accountability and safety performance whilst providing a possible explanation for the quantified results by considering organisational culture and values (saunders & lewis, 2012). research approach this study was quantitative, allowing for both descriptive and confirmatory work to be carried out with the aim of making inferences about the findings related to a particular subject (saunders & lewis, 2018). the study used a mono quantitative method as the data collected was in numerical form. data were analysed using quantitative analysis techniques such as descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) for parametric testing and multiple linear regression analysis (saunders & lewis, 2012). research participants as the researchers had a list of all frontline supervisors in the organisation, probability sampling was applied. this sampling technique enabled the researchers to make statistical inferences about the population (saunders & lewis, 2012). a simple random sample method was followed using the ms excel random function, and a response rate of 80% was assumed. the required sample size, for a 95% confidence level with a 5% margin for error, was 108 (saunders & lewis, 2012). this is based on a total population of 157 frontline supervisors across the organisation’s process division operations. measuring instruments for this research, questionnaires from other research studies were used to measure the constructs identified. these questionnaires were found to produce accurate and reliable results when measuring safety behaviour and climate, engagement, accountability and organisational culture. in terms of ensuring validity and reliability, the researchers relied on previous research conducted in the same field of study to ensure validity and confirmed it using appropriate parametric testing. the researchers relied on cronbach’s alpha to establish the reliability of the instruments. safety climate and safety behaviour participants rated their safety behaviour using an established 12-item scale proposed by neal and griffin (2006) and used in yang, zheng, liu, lu and schaubroeck (2019). the scale consists of four subscales measuring safety climate, safety motivation, safety compliance and safety participation. to assess the discriminant validity of these four dimensions, a cfa using the maximum likelihood estimation (mle) method was considered and factors that were loaded incorrectly were removed. the discriminant validity between safety compliance and safety participation was not supported. this was consistent with the yang et al. (2019) study, and safety behaviour was collapsed to consist only of participation and motivation. supervisory work engagement participants rated their engagement using the utrecht work engagement scale as proposed by schaufeli et al. (2002). the scale consists of three subscales measuring vigour, dedication and absorption. to assess the discriminant validity of these dimensions, a cfa using the mle method was considered, and factors that were loaded incorrectly were removed. the discriminant validity of all factors was supported, consistent with results in the extensive literature. supervisory accountability participants rated their experience with accountability using the eight-item scale proposed by hochwarter, kacmar and ferris (2003). the scale consists of two subscales measuring job accountability and perceived accountability. the mle method was again considered, and the discriminant validity of both factors was supported. organisational culture factors participants rated factors of their organisational culture using the tested profile proposed in schneider, yost, kropp, kind and lam’s (2018) study of the organisational antecedents to workforce engagement. the scale consists of three subscales measuring organisational practices, supervisory support and work attributes. to assess the discriminant validity of these three dimensions, a cfa using the mle method was considered. the discriminant validity of all factors was supported, consistent with the results in schneider et al. (2018). research procedure data were collected through the distribution of surveys to identified frontline supervisors within the organisation. two distribution channels were used. where easy access to the employees was available, fieldworkers distributed printed copies of the questionnaires to identified employees and assisted with the accurate completion of the surveys. where access to employees was inconvenient because of constraints of distance, web-based surveys were emailed to the identified respondents. the structured questionnaire was used as the single data collection tool for this study. if necessary and for quality control purposes, efforts were made to ensure individuals completing the surveys fully understood the questions being asked, as well as the nature of the responses available. the questionnaires were designed to be simple and contained minimal free text fields in an effort to avoid mistakes. saunders and lewis (2018) recommend that a sample of the recorded data must be first reviewed in an effort to establish whether there is a high rate of error. in the event of an unacceptable error rate, all forms would be reviewed. this process was followed after 25 electronic responses had been received prior to conducting the written surveys. the survey was in english, and an interpreter was available if required. because data transfer may also result in input errors, outliers were double checked for incorrect inputs and duplication errors and free text was scrutinised. a total of 104 responses were collected, reflecting a response rate of 77%. of these 104 responses, 97% were included in the analysis and a small number of responses were excluded because they were either incomplete or incorrect. analysis the analysis approach was based on ranked data obtained from the measurement instruments using a likert scale. these data were analysed using the eqs 6 for windows and spss software. descriptive statistics were used to explain the data collected, and inferential statistical methods were used to test the significance of differences or relationships between responses. cronbach’s alpha was used to test for reliability in the research. confirmatory factor analysis was used to confirm the underlying structure amongst the factors in the survey and to test the hypotheses for relationships and influences between the observed variables – such as survey scores or likert scale ratings – and underlying variables or factors. correlation and regression methods were used to analyse and quantify the extent and nature of relationships between the different variables (barbars, 2015; hochwarter et al., 2007; schnieder et al., 2018). the hypotheses for the study were specifically related to the nature and direction of the relationship between the constructs. two variables were considered in this analysis. the correlation coefficient would give an indication of the direction of the relationship, positive or negative. the probability of these coefficients in the anova was considered when deciding on the significance of the predictability. the hypothesis would be accepted as significant if it yielded a p-value of less than 0.05. ethical considerations this research was approved by cut, free state, south africa. ethical clearance has been provided by the faculty research and innovation committee [03/05/17] in view of the cut research ethics and integrity framework, 2016 with reference number [management sciences 0717]. results the participants in this research were 104 frontline supervisors within the processing division of a large platinum mining organisation in south africa. of these participants, 87.1% were men, 11.9% were women and 1% preferred not to say what their gender was. these statistics compare well with reports from 2018 and 2019, which found inclusion rates of between 11% and 12% for women in the platinum mining sector (minerals council south africa, 2020). in terms of age and education, 49.8% of respondents were older than 40 and 52% of respondents had completed primary or secondary schooling. the remaining 48% of respondents indicated that they had tertiary or postgraduate education. of the 104 responses received, all participants indicated that they had supervised or currently were supervising a team of employees. furthermore, 67% of respondents indicated that they had more than 10 years of supervisory experience. almost a quarter (22%) of respondents indicated that they had been injured at their workplace and 58.3% of respondents stated that a member of a team who they supervised had been injured at work. most (86%) respondents indicated that they were the primary breadwinner in their families and 96.2% of respondents had between 1 and 15 dependents. many respondents (61%) indicated that they had between 1 and 4 dependents. safety climate the first objective of the research was to address the relationship between organisational factors and safety climate. although a range of studies have established sound predictive relationships between safety climate and safety-related incidents such as accidents (brown & leigh, 1996; zohar, 2010), few have established links between specific organisational factors and safety climate. it was proposed that factors such as organisational practices, supervisory support and work attributes within an organisation provide the context for the formation of specific safety perceptions and thus should predict safety climate. the three independent variables of organisational practices, supervisory support and work attributes were considered as factors of organisational culture and were analysed in a model for variance. based on the adjusted r2-value, 37.3% of the variance in safety climate could be attributed to organisational culture. considering the range of other organisational culture factors not considered in this research, a 37.3% variance was considered significant and thus a strong factor that organisational leadership should consider leveraging to create a positive and resilient safety climate. this result confirms the findings of wiegmann et al. (2004) and adds to the body of research required by zohar (2010). aggregate perceptions of organisational practices are a significant predictor of safety climate (h1) hypothesis 1 aimed to establish whether perceptions of organisational practices could be used to predict the safety culture of an organisation. the analysis using multiple linear regression analysis between organisational practices (independent variable) and safety climate (dependent variable) illustrated a positive, moderately strong relationship, with a correlation coefficient of 0.527 across 103 participants (see table 1). for the purposes of this research, examples of organisational practices included effective communication from senior leadership, transparent and fair recognition, compensation and opportunity for promotion, goal clarity and employee well-being. this result indicates that organisational practices that positively enhance perceptions of their organisation also positively influence the safety climate of the organisation. an analysis of variance indicated a significant correlation between organisational practices and safety climate when keeping all other independent variables stable, with a relative 0.970 improvement in safety climate for every movement in organisational practices. table 1: statistical tests applied to the research hypotheses. aggregate perceptions of supervisory support are a significant predictor of safety climate (h2) hypothesis 2 aimed to establish whether perceptions of supervisory support could be used to predict the safety climate of an organisation. the analysis illustrated a positive, moderately strong to strong relationship between supervisory support and safety climate. examples of supervisory support included active interest in growth and development; care and respect; encouragement for a fair, inclusive and diverse environment and useful communication. this result indicates that supervisory support that positively enhances perceptions of their organisation also positively influences the safety climate of the organisation. an analysis of variance suggests that supervisory support is the strongest predictor of safety climate when considering the organisational culture factors analysed. aggregate perceptions of work attributes are a significant predictor of safety climate (h3) a moderately strong relationship between work attributes and supervisory support was found to exist. examples of work attributes included personal accomplishment, autonomy to make decisions, transparent communication and feedback and the proper use of skills and abilities. this result indicates that work attributes that positively enhance perceptions of their organisation also positively influence the safety climate of the organisation. however, an analysis of variance indicated that work attributes were not significantly correlated with safety climate when keeping all other independent variables stable, with a relative 0.01 improvement in safety climate for every movement in work attributes. this result suggests that work attributes are an inadequate predictor of an organisation’s safety climate, despite a positive correlation between the two variables. an organisational culture that encourages safety is necessary for resilient safety performance. although organisational practices and supportive supervisory routines can provide an effective safety framework, it is ultimately the employee’s perception of the importance of safety to the organisation that governs safety behaviour. these results contribute to literature on safety by confirming that for resilient safety behaviour, an organisation requires both safety systems and an organisational culture that can support those systems. safety behaviour a further objective of the research was to determine the strength and direction of the relationship between safety climate and safety behaviour. although significant research has been undertaken to understand job performance as a dimension of safety performance, far less research has been conducted to determine how safety behaviour affects the number of incidents and accidents in the workplace (neal & griffin, 2006; yang et al., 2019) or the impact of safety climate on individual safety behaviour. research has shown that safety climate is an important predictor of safety behaviour and safety outcomes such as accidents and injury (neal & griffin, 2006; yang et al., 2019). this information is important as it empowers organisations with the ability to target specific interventions related to an individual’s compliance with motivation to participate and participation in organisational safety practices to improve safety performance. the three independent variables of safety climate, supervisory accountability and supervisory engagement were considered as factors of safety behaviour and were analysed for variance. based on the adjusted r2-value, 38.4% of the variance in safety behaviour could be attributed to climate and supervisory routines. considering the range of other factors not considered in this research, 38.4% variance was considered significant, and thus a strong factor that organisational leadership should consider leveraging to create a positive and resilient safety climate. aggregate perceptions of safety climate are significantly related to supervisory safety behaviour (h4) this hypothesis aimed to establish whether perceptions of safety climate could be used to predict the safety behaviour within the organisation. an analysis of variance indicated a significant correlation between safety climate and safety behaviour. these results are consistent with literature (christian, bradley, wallace, & burke, 2009; neal & griffin, 2006; yang et al., 2019) although the strength of the relationship is less robust and suggests that possible extrinsic factors such as supervisory accountability or engagement may be more important determinants of changes in safety behaviour. this complements research suggesting a positive and resilient relationship between a supervisor’s behaviours and safety performance (barling, loughlin, & kelloway, 2002; conchie & donald, 2009; conchie, taylor, & donald, 2012; kelloway, mullen, & francis, 2006; mullen & kelloway, 2009; törner & pousette, 2009). moreover, these results further motivate the critical and direct influence that frontline supervisors have on the safety behaviour within their teams (fang et al., 2015; lingard et al., 2012). supervisory accountability accountability is a central component in all organisations, societies and communities; without it there would be no regard for the consequences imposed by others (hall et al., 2017; hochwarter et al., 2007). a further objective of the research was therefore to understand how accountability for safety compliance influences safety behaviour. the ability of frontline supervisors to hold employees and themselves accountable has a positive influence on their safety behaviour (h5) can supervisory perceptions of accountability be used to predict the safety behaviour of supervisory employees? the analysis showed a positive, moderately strong relationship between supervisory accountability and safety behaviour. the analysis of variance indicated a significant correlation between supervisory accountability and safety behaviour when keeping all other independent variables stable. this result suggests that supervisory accountability is the strongest predictor of a supervisor’s safety behaviour, confirming that accountability has implications for all levels within an organisation or society (frink & klimoski, 1998; hall et al., 2017; hochwarter et al., 2007). aggregate perceptions of organisational practices are a significant predictor of supervisory accountability (h6) no significant correlation was found between the variables of supervisory accountability and organisational practices. this finding is aligned with antecedents to the accountability model developed by pearson and sutherland (2017), which did not find the meaning of work to be a factor considered in understanding an employee’s tendency to experience or exercise accountability. this finding adds to literature on accountability by suggesting that interventions based on improving an employee’s perception of the attributes of their work will not influence their tendency to be accountable for their performance, or more specifically, practise positive safety behaviours. aggregate perceptions of supervisory support are a significant predictor of supervisory accountability (h7) can perceptions of supervisory support be used to predict supervisory accountability? the analysis illustrated no significant relationship between supervisory accountability and supervisory support. this finding suggests that interventions based on improving a supervisor’s tendency to value, care for, respect and grow her team neither increase her tendency to exercise accountability, nor would it encourage a greater sense of perceived accountability. aggregate perceptions of work attributes that are meaningful and empowering are a significant predictor of supervisory accountability (h8) a multiple linear regression analysis between work attributes and supervisory accountability illustrated a positive, moderate relationship. this result indicates that work attributes can positively influence supervisory accountability, which will in turn have an impact on safety behaviour. an analysis of variance indicated a significant correlation between supervisory accountability and the work attributes of an organisational culture. this result also suggests that work attributes is the only predictor of supervisory accountability within the model for organisational culture considered. supervisory engagement safety engagement is defined as an employee’s inclination to exert extra effort to behave in a safe manner and the extent to which employees are enthusiastic about enacting safety behaviours (neal & griffin, 2006). despite the continuing interest in supervisory safety behaviours, there has been relatively little research on factors that influence supervisors’ engagement in their role of safety leadership. these results contribute to this field of research by describing the strength and direction of the relationship between supervisory engagement and safety behaviours and by providing a quantification of influential relationships between organisational culture factors and supervisory engagement to improve safety behaviours. aggregate frontline supervisor perceptions of engagement are a significant predictor of safety behaviour (h9) hypothesis 9 aimed to establish whether supervisory engagement could be used to predict safety behaviour within an organisation. the analysis illustrated a positive, moderate relationship between supervisory engagement and safety behaviour. examples of supervisory engagement included the vigour, dedication and motivation with which supervisors approached their work. this result indicates that higher levels of supervisory engagement positively influence safety behaviour within an organisation. however, an analysis of variance did not reveal a significant correlation between supervisory engagement and safety behaviour. this result suggests that supervisory engagement is an inadequate predictor of an organisation’s safety behaviour despite a positive correlation between the two variables. these outcomes contribute to literature on engagement, which has drawn a connection between higher levels of engagement and improved job performance. extrapolating this performance to safety behaviour, however, does not produce the same result and interventions related to improving engagement do not positively influence safety behaviour. an objective of the research was to investigate the relationship between factors of organisational culture and supervisory engagement. the three independent variables of organisational practices, supervisory support and work attributes were considered as factors of organisational culture and were analysed for variance with supervisory engagement as the dependent variable. based on the adjusted r2 value, 37.2% of the variance in supervisory engagement can be attributed to organisational culture. considering the range of other organisational culture factors not considered in this research, a 37.3% variance was considered significant, and thus a strong factor that organisational leadership should consider leveraging to create a more engaged supervisory workforce. sahoo and mishra (2012) identified career development, communication, empowerment, fair treatment and equal opportunities, cooperation, constructive performance feedback, salary and benefits, image, health and safety and overall employee well-being as being key drivers of employee engagement. these constructs were all included in the model for organisational culture. it is therefore unsurprising that the results confirm sahoo and mishra’s (2012) findings. aggregate frontline supervisor perceptions of organisational practices are a significant predictor of supervisory engagement (h10) can perceptions of organisational practices be used to predict the supervisory engagement levels within an organisation? the multiple linear regression analysis between organisational practices and supervisory engagement illustrated a positive, moderate relationship. however, an analysis of variance indicated no significant correlation between supervisory engagement and organisational practices when keeping all other independent variables stable, and thus organisational practices cannot be considered to accurately predict the level of supervisory engagement. this finding directly contradicts schneider et al. (2018), who found that organisational practices were the strongest correlate for workforce engagement. given that this research was conducted on only one organisation, it may not be that organisational practices are not significant predictors of supervisory engagement, but perhaps that these practices are not tangible enough for employees at the organisation in question, leading to an insignificant influence on supervisory engagement (schneider et al., 2018). aggregate frontline supervisor perceptions of supervisory support are a significant predictor of supervisory engagement (h11) can perceptions of supervisory support be used to predict the supervisory engagement levels within the organisation? the analysis illustrated a positive, moderately strong relationship between supervisory engagement and supervisory support. an analysis of variance indicated a significant correlation between supervisory engagement and levels of supervisory support when keeping all other independent variables stable and thus can be seen to accurately predict the level of supervisory engagement. this finding agrees with schneider et al. (2018), who found supervisory support to be strongly correlating with workforce engagement. aggregate frontline supervisor perceptions of work attributes that are meaningful and empowering are a significant predictor of supervisory engagement (h12) can perceptions of work attributes be used to predict supervisory engagement levels within the organisation? the correlation between work attributes and supervisory support illustrated a positive, moderately strong relationship. the analysis of variance indicated a significant correlation between supervisory engagement and the levels of work attributes in an organisational culture when keeping all other independent variables stable and thus can be seen to accurately predict the level of supervisory engagement. this result also suggests that work attributes are the strongest predictor of supervisory engagement within the model for organisational culture considered. in summary, after presenting the descriptive statistics and demographic profile for the sample, the results of a cfa were presented to prove the reliability and validity of the underlying structure. the validated model was used to test the identified hypotheses using multiple regression analysis to determine the nature – strength, direction and significance – of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. of the 12 hypotheses proposed, 5 were rejected because the independent variable was not a statistically significant predictor of the dependent variable. the validated model, updated with only accepted hypotheses and their correlation coefficients, is shown in figure 1. figure 1: proposed model using validated factor structure and indicating hypotheses with associated correlation coefficients. discussion outline of the results the results indicate that the tendency of a supervisor to hold herself, and her team accountable is positively correlated with good safety behaviour and is the strongest predictor of safety behaviour when considering safety climate, supervisory engagement and supervisory accountability, adding new data to the body of knowledge on accountability (pearson & sutherland, 2017). despite significant positive correlations existing between supervisory engagement, safety climate and safety behaviour, of the two independent variables, only safety climate was found to be a significant predictor of safety behaviour. these results are aligned with findings by hofmann and morgeson (1999), fang et al. (2015); lingard et al. (2012), delbridge and lowe (1997) and weick et al. (1997) and indicated that to improve safety behaviour, mining leaders need to focus on capacitating and empowering supervisors to hold their teams accountable and be accountable themselves. this should be followed by initiatives to improve the safety climate. safety climate was found to be a significant contributor to safety behaviour. all three organisational culture factors – organisational practices, supervisory support and work attributes – were found to be strong predictors, indicating a significant influence between organisational culture and safety climate and adding to the body of knowledge describing culture and climate (zohar & luria, 2003). to increase safety climate, and subsequent safety behaviour, leaders should focus on leveraging these characteristics to effect safety performance. the only significant organisational culture factor predictor for supervisory accountability was found to be work attributes, further adding to the body of knowledge (pearson & sutherland, 2017). organisational practices and supervisory support were not found to contribute to supervisory accountability. the strongest organisational culture factor predictor of safety climate was supervisory support, and this is important new knowledge, and previously no link between supervisory support and safety climate has been available. it thus seems prudent for organisational leaders to focus their efforts on increasing supervisory support behaviours and the work attributes of supervisors. such a focus is likely to result in the greatest indirect increase in safety behaviour and subsequent safety performance. although supervisory engagement was found to positively correlate with safety behaviour, it was not found to be a strong or significant predictor. these findings are aligned with sahoo and mishra (2012) and efforts to increase the engagement levels of supervisors would not go amiss, but the contribution of these efforts to safety behaviour and subsequent safety performance would not likely be substantial in the short to medium term. should initiatives be undertaken to increase supervisory engagement, the organisational culture factors that will produce the most significant contributions are, again, supervisory support and work attributes. practical implications the study indicates opportunities for platinum mine leadership and those responsible for employee health and safety at mines to tie together supervisory behaviour and organisational culture tools to address safety behaviour and performance. by creating a robust safety climate, mine leadership may not be addressing the inherent safety hazards associated with mining, but rather, they would be focussing on the human behaviour, attitudes and reactions to the work environment. the results of this study indicate that some of the traditional understanding of supervisory engagement and its positive effect on organisational performance may not be accurately extrapolated to influence safety behaviour. however, increasing supervisory accountability and safety climate by leveraging organisational culture is becoming more and more apparent in the quest to develop robust safety behavioural patterns amongst frontline employees in the platinum mining environment. whilst it is important for frontline supervisors and managers to acknowledge the important role they play in enforcing accountability within their teams, it is also imperative for them to recognise other organisational influences – such as supervisory support, work attributes and organisational practices – that affect safety behaviour. this is of importance given that positive safety behaviour impacts the number of injuries and incidents experienced on the mine. while the factor-based model derived was somewhat complex, the strong relationships between organisational culture and safety climate and behaviour, as well as supervisory accountability and safety behaviour create several opportunities for managers and business to analyse. the research specifically identified the strong and positive relationship between supervisory accountability and safety behaviour whilst identifying work attributes as the strongest organisational culture factor in trying to influence supervisory accountability. managers should thus ensure that frontline supervisors are equipped to act within an accountability framework and that all employees experience this accountability consistently: supervisors should take the time to understand the organisational culture of the workplace to promote the development of positive safety behaviour amongst their teams. this includes building social capital with their teams that can be interpreted as supervisory support, in promotion of the organisational vision, purpose and values of the firm. when administering a formal accountability framework, supervisors should use a combination of positive reinforcement and support systems that contribute to a better understanding of the work attributes and how these influence organisational effectiveness. consideration should be given to recognising positive safety behaviour through leading indicators as much as identifying detrimental safety behaviours. in addition, accountability in the form of rewards and recognition, incentives and remuneration can be used to create effective work management systems. of critical importance is the promotion and hiring of frontline supervisors. managers should ensure that the correct type of employee is promoted or hired into frontline supervisory positions. these employees should have a strong personal tendency to hold themselves and others accountable for poor safety performance and non-delivery and their personal values and ethical conduct should be strongly aligned with the organisational culture. developing a custom-made recruitment and selection process to ensure compliance with the culture will be helpful, as well as intentional training and development programmes, which capacitate and support frontline supervisors to act on the accountability framework of the organisation. frontline supervisors should put the required effort to ensure that the role or task attributed to an employee is well articulated and understood using simple and clear communication, instructions, performance measurement and consequence management. by eliminating ambiguity and by ensuring employees are adequately versed in the attributes of their task, individuals cannot claim that they did not know or understand and thus cannot be held accountable. the study also highlights the critical importance of an effective and well functionary frontline supervisory workforce. effective supervisors apply themselves not only physically, but cognitively and emotionally too, and given their proximity to the workforce, inadequate engagement or ineffective supervisory behaviours will inhibit how successfully an organisation’s strategy is operationalised. the hierarchical nature of mining organisations within south africa allows for safety interventions at the supervisory level, just above the level where most workplace injuries occur. by introducing better integrated training and supervisory behaviour modification programmes, it is expected that the benefits will be greater than worker targeted programmes. an important aspect of effective supervision is the ability to juggle multiple and competing priorities. interventions that focus on providing regular feedback on performance, specifically safety behaviour and safety-related decision making, will allow for supervisors to change their safety supervisory practices and improve perceptions of safety climate and behaviour. for business leadership, it will be important that adequate investment is made in training and development of supervision. organisational practices such as performance management, regular feedback and communication, fair and transparent succession planning, reward and recognition programmes were found to be strongly correlated with an improved supervisory safety climate. targeted interventions that capacitate supervisors with this knowledge and ability will allow for positive safety behavioural changes. work attributes, or characteristics, such as compensation and the nature of the work itself were found to strongly influence the tendency of the supervisor to exhibit accountable behaviour. mining working conditions are far from ideal and involve difficult, harsh and uncomfortable conditions that can negatively affect the perception of work attributes associated with mining supervision. business leadership will need to develop intentional strategies to combat these negative mediating effects on perceptions of work characteristics if supervisory accountability is to be prioritised and used to improve safety behaviours. limitations and recommendations the research was limited to a single organisation within the platinum mining industry, and thus, the findings may not be applicable to other organisations or indeed the rest of the industry. furthermore, a second limitation of the research methodology was the sample size. despite the total population being small, a sample size of just more than 100 is lower than ideal for completing confirmatory analysis and drawing statistical conclusions. furthermore, the population consisted of individuals whose home language may not be english and whose level of education might be limited. these factors might limit the findings of the research because of interpretation of certain constructs. the study was conducted as a static, cross-sectional survey, and as such, the results are limited to a static, one point in time view. this implies that responses to the constructs may be dependent on the mood of the participant. a supervisor who had just been held accountable by her manager may see the organisational culture more negatively than if she had experienced a more positive interaction. the research methodology employed was quantitative in nature and this is limited. the use of likert scale responses limits the amount of detail included, and as a result, it is improbable that sufficient data will be collected to offer explanatory answers to all the associations identified. furthermore, the survey was long, and it was observed that respondents were fatigued by the time it was over, possibly resulting in a rush to finish the survey. the population consisted of individuals whose home language might not be english and whose level of education might be limited. these factors might limit the findings of the research because of interpretation of certain constructs. conclusion literature confirms that supervision in the mining industry is critical to managing safety behaviour and performance. furthermore, literature affirms the importance of supervisory behaviours such as accountability and engagement in organisational performance. despite this, very little evidence exists as to how these supervisory behaviours impact safety performance within the mining industry, and how organisational culture factors influence these supervisory tendencies. this research attempted to close this gap in literature and the framework, which emerged provides a clear understanding as to which aspects of supervisory behaviour have the biggest impact on safety behaviour and which organisational factors could be used to modify supervisory behaviour most effectively in order to improve safety performance. this research contributes to literature by providing empirical evidence and key insights into the complexity of safety behaviour in the mining industry. furthermore, it is suggested that the research contributes to the practice of business leadership and management in providing a framework, which can be utilised by consultants, managers and supervisors looking to prioritise factors by level of impact to drive improved safety behaviours and organisational performance. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions the research was undertaken by h.p. the first draft of the article was written by h.p. k.b.h. supervised the research and co-wrote the article and prepared it for submission. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author references al mazrouei, m.a., khalid, k., davidson, r., & abdallah, s. (2019). impact of organizational culture and perceived process safety in the uae oil and gas industry. the qualitative report, 24(12), 3215–3238. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2019.3971 barbars, a. (2015). interaction between organisational culture and work engagement in an it department within a financial. journal of business management, 10(1691–5348), 106–148. barling, j., loughlin, c., & kelloway, e.k. (2002). development and test of a model linking safety-specific transformational leadership and occupational safety. journal of applied psychology, 87(3), 488–496. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.3.488 brown, s.p., & leigh, t.w. (1996). a new look at psychological climate and its relationship to job involvement, effort, and performance. journal of applied psychology, 81(4), 358–368. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.81.4.358 cao, l., & ramesh, b. (2008). agile requirements engineering practices: an empirical study. ieee software, 25(1), 60–67. https://doi.org/10.1109/ms.2008.1 cardus, m. (2013). the five levers of employee engagement. the journal for quality and participation, 36(2), 28–31. chen, c.h., & chiu, c.h. (2016). employing intergroup competition in multitouch design-based learning to foster student engagement, learning achievement, and creativity. computers & education, 103, 99–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.09.007 christian, m.s., bradley, j.c., wallace, j.c., & burke, m.j. (2009). workplace safety: a meta-analysis of the roles of person and situation factors. journal of applied psychology, 94(5), 1103–1127. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016172 conchie, s.m., & donald, i.j. (2009). the moderating role of safety-specific trust in the relation between safety-specific leadership and safety citizenship behaviors. journal of occupational health psychology, 14(2), 137–147. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014247 conchie, s.m., taylor, p.j., & donald, i.j. (2012). promoting safety voice through safety-specific transformational leadership: the mediator roles of two dimensions of trust. journal of occupational health psychology, 17(1), 105–115. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025101 cummings, g.g., macgregor, t., davey, m., lee, h., wong, c.a., lo, e., … stafford, e. (2010). leadership styles and outcome patterns for the nursing workforce and work environment: a systematic review. international journal of nursing studies, 47(3), 363–385. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2009.08.006 delbridge, r., & lowe, j. (1997). manufacturing control: supervisory systems on the new shop floor. sociology, 31(3), 409–426. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038597031003003 department of minerals and resources (2020). statement on the release of the 2019 mine health and safety statistics, https://www.dmr.gov.za/news-room/post/1839/statement-on-therelease-of-the-2019-mine-health-and-safety-statistics-24-january-2020 dingsdag, d.p., biggs, h.c., & sheahan, v.l. (2008). understanding and defining oh&s competency for construction site positions: worker perceptions, safety science, 46/2008, 619–633. fang, d., wu, c., & wu, h. (2015). impact of the supervisor on worker safety behaviour in construction projects. journal of management in engineering, 31(6), 04015001. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000355 fairlie, p. (2011). meaningful work, employee engagement, and other key employee outcomes: implications for human resource development. advances in developing human resources, 13(4), 508–525. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422311431679 frink, d.d., & klimoski, r.j. (1998). toward a theory of accountability in organizations and human resources management. in g.r. ferris (ed.), research in personnel and human resources management (vol. 16, pp. 1–50). greenwich, ct: jai press. hakanen, j.j., schaufeli, w.b., & ahola, k. (2008). the job demands-resources model: a three-year cross-lagged study of burnout, depression, commitment, and work engagement. work & stress: an international journal of work, health & organisations, 22(3), 224–241. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802379432 hall, a.t., frink, d.d., & buckley, m.r. (2017). an accountability account: a review and synthesis of the theoretical and empirical research on felt accountability. journal of organizational behavior, 38(2), 204–224. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2052 hewitt, a. (2012). 2012 trends in global employee engagement (p. 18). chicago: aon hewitt corp. hochwarter, w.a., ferris, g.r., gavin, m.b., perrewé, p.l., hall, a.t., & frink, d.d. (2007). political skill as neutralizer of felt accountability – job tension effects on job performance ratings: a longitudinal investigation. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 102(2), 226–239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2006.09.003 hochwarter, w.a., kacmar, c.j., & ferris, g.r. (2003). accountability at work: an examination of antecedents and consequences. paper presented at the annual meeting of the society of industrial and organizational psychology, orlando, fl. hofmann, d.a., & morgeson, f.p. (1999). safety-related behavior as a social exchange: the role of perceived organizational support and leader–member exchange. journal of applied psychology, 84(2), 286–296. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.84.2.286 kelloway, e.k., mullen, j., & francis, l. (2006). divergent effects of transformational and passive leadership on employee safety. journal of occupational health psychology, 11(1), 76–86. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.11.1.76 kunda, r., frantz, j., & karachi, f. (2013). prevalence and ergonomic risk factors of work-related musculoskeletal injuries amongst underground mine workers in zambia. journal of occupational health, 55(3), 211–217. https://doi.org/10.1539/joh.11-0175-fs lee, t., & harrison, k. (2000). assessing safety culture in nuclear power stations. safety science, 34(1–3), 61–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0925-7535(00)00007-2 lingard, h., cooke, t., & blismas, n. (2011). coworkers’ response to occupational health and safety: an overlooked dimension of group-level safety climate in the construction industry? engineering, construction and architectural management, 18(2), 159–175. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981111111139 mccall, j.r., & pruchnicki, s. (2017). just culture: a case study of accountability relationship boundaries influence on safety in high-consequence industries. safety science, 94, 143–151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2017.01.008 michael, j.h., guo, z.g., wiedenbeck, j.k., & ray, c.d. (2006). production supervisor impacts on subordinates’ safety outcomes: an investigation of leader-member exchange and safety communication. journal of safety research, 37(5), 469–477. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2006.06.004 minerals council south africa. (2020). minerals council president on ‘the state of the mining nation’ and publication of facts and figures pocketbook 2020. retrieved from https://www.mineralscouncil.org.za/special-features/1201-the-state-of-the-mining-nation morrison, d.l., upton, d.m., & cordery, j. (1997). organizational climate and skill utilization. paper presented to the 12th annual conference of the society for industrial and organizational psychology. april 1997. st. louis, mi. mullen, j., & kelloway, e.k. (2009). safety leadership: a longitudinal study of the effects of transformational leadership on safety outcomes. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 82(2), 253–272. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317908x325313 muthuveloo, r., basbous, o.k., ping, t.a., & long, c.s. (2013). antecedents of employee engagement in the manufacturing sector. american journal of applied sciences, 10(12), 1546. https://doi.org/10.3844/ajassp.2013.1546.1552 neal, a., griffin, m.a., & hart, p.m. (2000). the impact of organizational climate on safety climate and individual behavior. safety science, 34(1–3), 99–109. neal, a., & griffin, m.a. (2006). a study of the lagged relationships among safety climate, safety motivation, safety behaviour, and accidents at the individual and group levels. journal of applied psychology, 91(4), 946. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.4.946 pearson, h., & sutherland, m. (2017). the complexity of the antecedents influencing accountability in organisations. european business review, 29(4), 419–439. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr-08-2016-0106 pousette, a., larsson, s., & törner, m. (2008). safety climate cross-validation, strength and prediction of safety behaviour. safety science, 46(3), 398–404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2007.06.016 sahoo, c.k., & mishra, s. (2012). a framework towards employee engagement: the psu experience. asci journal of management, 42(1), 92–110. saunders, m., lewis, p.h.i.l.i.p., & thornhill, a.d.r.i.a.n. (2007). research methods. england: business students 4th edition pearson education limited. saunders, m.n., & lewis, p. (2018). doing research in business & management: an essential guide to planning your project. pearson. schaufeli, w.b., martínez, i., marques-pinto, a., salanova, m., & bakker, a.b. (2002). burnout and engagement in university students: a cross national study. journal of cross-cultural psychology, 33(5), 464–481. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022102033005003 schneider, b., yost, a.b., kropp, a., kind, c., & lam, h. (2018). workforce engagement: what it is, what drives it, and why it matters for organizational performance. journal of organizational behavior, 39(4), 462–480. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2244 stemn, e., bofinger, c., cliff, d., & hassall, m.e. (2019). examining the relationship between safety culture maturity and safety performance of the mining industry. safety science, 113, 345–355. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2018.12.008 subrahmanian, m. (2014). drivers of employee engagement in petroleum industry-a transformational framework. journal of human resource management, 24(14), 2741–2759 tholén, s.l., pousette, a., & törner, m. (2013). causal relations between psychosocial conditions, safety climate and safety behaviour – a multi-level investigation. safety science, 55, 62–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2012.12.013 törner, m., & pousette, a. (2009) safety in construction – a comprehensive description of the characteristics of high safety standards in construction work, form the combined perspective of supervisors and experienced workers. journal of safety research, 40(6), 399–409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2009.09.005 weick, k.e., sutcliffe, k.m., & obstfeld, d. (1997). organizing for high reliability: the mindful suppression of inertia. michigan: university of michigan, business school, research support. wiegmann, d.a., zhang, h., von thaden, t.l., sharma, g., & gibbons, a.m. (2004). safety culture: an integrative review. the international journal of aviation psychology, 14(2), 117–134. yang, l.q., zheng, x., liu, x., lu, c.q., & schaubroeck, j.m. (2019). abusive supervision, thwarted belongingness, and workplace safety: a group engagement perspective. journal of applied psychology, 105(3), 230–244. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000436 zohar, d. (2010). thirty years of safety climate research: reflections and future directions. accident analysis and prevention, 42(5), 1517–1522. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2009.12.019 zohar, d., & luria, g. (2003). the use of supervisory practices as leverage to improve safety behaviour: a cross level intervention model. journal of safety research, 34(5), 567–577. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2003.05.006 abstract introduction purpose literature review data and methods results assessing the outer model step 3: assessing the level of r2 discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) desere kokt department of business management, faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, bloemfontein, south africa william makumbe department of management studies, faculty of management, great zimbabwe university, harare, zimbabwe citation kokt, d., & makumbe, w., (2020). towards the innovative university: what is the role of organisational culture and knowledge sharing?. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1325. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1325 original research towards the innovative university: what is the role of organisational culture and knowledge sharing? desere kokt, william makumbe received: 22 jan. 2020; accepted: 13 oct. 2020; published: 08 dec. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: continuous innovation and knowledge sharing have become the linchpin of contemporary organisations, especially universities. universities thus need to create a conducive organisational culture to enable innovation and knowledge sharing. research purpose: this study aimed to contribute empirically to an understanding of how an innovative university can be realised in a developing country context. motivation for the study: as innovation and knowledge sharing remain a challenge for most southern african universities, this article provides a theoretical and empirical understanding of the positive influence of organisational culture on these variables. research approach/design and method: the study followed a survey design. a structured questionnaire was administered to a sample of 277 university staff members. a total of 195 questionnaires were collected for data analysis, yielding a response rate of 70.39%. data were interpreted using descriptive statistics and partial least squares structural equation modelling to analyse the relationship between the variables. main findings: the results indicated that the university under investigation had a dominant rational or clan culture orientation. a significant relationship was found between organisational culture and innovation and organisational culture and knowledge sharing. practical/managerial implications: the study proposes that innovation and knowledge sharing can best be realised within an adhocracy culture. strategic priorities were proposed to the management of the university to enhance the pervasiveness of these variables. contribution/value-add: the study provides empirical evidence of the positive effect of organisational culture on innovation and knowledge sharing, confirming that organisational culture is a predictor of both innovation and knowledge sharing. keywords: organisational culture; innovation; knowledge sharing; universities; developing country context. introduction the world of work, work itself and the composition of the workforce are being reshaped by sweeping global changes. these changes can be attributed mostly to globalisation and the emergence of the numerous technologies associated with the fourth industrial revolution (notably artificial intelligence, robotics, automated systems, etc.), thus creating the so-called ‘new world of work’. according to buchanan, kelley and hatch (2016), workforce diversity, the increased usage of digital technologies, the accelerated rate of business innovation and flexible working arrangements characterise the new world of work. the new world of work is enabled by the internet and various forms of information and communications technology (icts) (buchanan et al., 2016). this has a profound impact on the operations and design of organisations, leading to the dismantling of structural hierarchies and the adoption of more agile team-based organisational structures. given this wave of digitalisation, which is rapidly altering economies around the world, innovation and knowledge sharing are now more important than ever before (cirera & maloney, 2017). despite the potential benefits of innovation, developing countries are less innovative than developed countries (cirera & maloney, 2017). most research on innovation has been conducted through the developed country lens and has been perceived largely as a ‘first world’ activity. not only are developing countries less innovative than developed countries, cirera and maloney (2017) have also observed that the literature on innovation is very limited in developing countries compared to developed countries (büschgens, bausch, & balkin, 2013; fullwood, rowley, & delbridge, 2013; hogan & coote, 2014; naranjo-valencia, jiménez-jiménez, & sanz-valle, 2016). this also applies to innovation within the context of universities in developing countries. one way of enhancing innovation is by means of a conducive organisational culture as this can assist contemporary organisations to build collaborative and innovative cultures to enable them to adapt to a fast-changing external environment (mcdowell, agarwall, miller, okamoto, & page, 2016). this especially applies to universities, which are expected to be innovative, especially when it comes to teaching practices, research endeavours and stakeholder engagements. apart from training and developing graduates for the new world of work, innovative universities are more likely to contribute to solving societal problems through cutting-edge research. knowledge sharing is inextricably linked to innovation, and both concepts were investigated in this study. purpose universities need to be highly innovative in the new world of work. this implies a conducive organisational environment where individuals are encouraged to share ideas and interact in a meaningful way. the purpose of this study was thus to report on the impact of organisational culture on innovation and knowledge sharing within a university in the context of a developing country. literature review organisational culture the concept of ‘culture’ has an elongated history linked to anthropology, sociology and social psychology. these disciplines focus, in general, on the development and functioning of humans and human societies. in human societies, the interaction amongst individuals usually leads to the development of unique behavioural patterns – commonly referred to as ‘human culture’. human culture enables individuals to fit in as members of a particular society (bailey & peoples, 2002). it spells out the behaviour that is expected from individuals in order to belong to and be accepted as members of a particular society. the sanctioning of acceptable behaviour also applies to organisations, and individuals must conform to the demands and expectations of organisations – referred to as ‘organisational culture’. cameron and quinn (2006) noted that, from the early 1980s, the concept of ‘organisational culture’ began receiving serious attention from prominent scholars such as peters and waterman (1982) and schein (2004). through the diverse bodies of organisational culture research, many definitions have been proposed, perpetuating the state of definitional ambiguity of the concept (jahoda, 2012). for the purposes of this study, schein’s (2004) definition is used, namely, that organisational culture is the distinctive, basic underlying shared assumptions, espoused values, symbols, artefacts and attitudes that collectively describe an organisation. previous research has confirmed that a conducive organisational culture enhances innovation (see büschgens et al., 2013; glisson, 2015), specifically inter-functional cooperation (fernández sastre & vera, 2017), flexibility and risk-taking (naranjo-valencia et al., 2016) and participative decision-making (isaksen & isaksen, 2010). a conducive organisational culture also impacts positively knowledge sharing (rega, abu mansor, ramayah, & norhalimah, 2014). specific variables that have an effect on knowledge sharing include trust (chen, lin, & yen, 2014), attitudes and actions of managers (fullwood et al., 2013), opportunities for interaction (sandhu, jain, & ahmad, 2011) and a shared vision (lynch, 2015; rega et al., 2014). the competing values framework (cvf) was adopted to investigate organisational culture in the university context. the cvf is a robust measure of organisational culture and served as the theoretical framework for this study. it has been utilised as a framework for mapping organisations’ culture profiles and conducting comparative analysis in more than 10 000 organisations globally (cameron & quinn, 2006). the culture profiles are the clan or group culture, the adhocracy or developmental culture, the hierarchical culture and the rational or market culture. each quadrant is characterised by certain objectives or processes (kokt & van der merwe, 2009) as summarised in figure 1. figure 1: competing values framework. innovation according to cirera and maloney (2017), innovation is the introduction of new products, technologies, business processes and ideas in the market, as well as the invention of new ideas. innovation is associated with novelty in production, marketing and services, and continuous innovation can entail enhanced managerial practices, organisational processes and business models. the growing body of research on innovation spans across many disciplines, such as sociology, psychology, business administration and public management (damanpour & aravind, 2012). many researchers agree that innovation has a positive impact on competitive advantage (see crossan & apaydin, 2010; naranjo-valencia, jimenez-jimenez, & sanz-valle, 2010; petrakis, kostis, & valsamis, 2015). the growing body of literature also suggests that innovation enhances firm performance (see camisón & villar-lópez, 2014; gunday, ulusoy, kilic, & alpkan, 2011; silva, styles, & lages, 2017). knowledge sharing according to razmerita, kirchner and nielsen (2016), knowledge sharing is the process by which employees mutually exchange their tacit and explicit knowledge in order to create new knowledge. similar to organisational culture and innovation, knowledge sharing has become a widely researched topic. this can be ascribed to the emergence of the knowledge economy. previous research has suggested that knowledge sharing enhances organisational variables, such as competitive advantage (see li, roberts, yan & tan, 2014; navimipour & charband, 2016), innovation (see colombo, laursen, magnusson, & lamastra, 2011; kamaşak & bulutlar, 2010; obeidat & tarhini, 2016) and job satisfaction (see kianto, vanhala, & heilmann, 2016). data and methods research approach and design this study adheres to the ontological position of objectivism which asserts that social phenomena and their meanings exist independently from social actors. this means that there is a distant, neutral and non-interactive relationship between the researcher and the objects under investigation. also, the epistemological position of positivism was taken in this study, as is evident in the use of quantifiable observations that require statistical analysis (saunders, lewis, & thornhill, 2016). the study followed a quantitative research approach, which is consistent with similar studies on the topic (büschgens et al., 2013; fullwood et al., 2013; hogan & coote, 2013). the research design was a survey, and data were collected from a single southern african university. both academic and administrative staff members were included, and structured questionnaires were administered via surveymonkey. in the instruction section of the questionnaire, the anonymity and confidentiality of respondents were guaranteed. measures the data were gathered using a structured questionnaire. the reliability of the measurement model was determined using indicator reliability, convergent reliability, internal consistency reliability and discriminant validity. the reliability coefficients were found to be acceptable, as explained in detail in the results section of this article. participants the study population included all the staff members of a southern african university, that is, 956 individuals. this included both academic (340) and administrative (616) staff members. stratified random sampling was used to select individuals from the different sections and levels of the university. the human resource department of the university provided information on the organisational structure to enable stratified sampling. according to israel (1992), for any population between 900 and 1000, a sample of 277 is sufficient (at a confidence level of 95%). hence, the sample size was 277, of which 195 individuals completed the survey, representing a response rate of 70.39%. measuring instrument the structured questionnaire comprised a demographics section (which included gender, qualifications and position of participants within the university), an organisational culture section based on the cvf by cameron and quinn (2006), an innovation section based on dobni (2008) and a knowledge sharing section based on jolaee, md nor, khani and md yussoff (2014). research procedure and ethical consideration a self-administered questionnaire was employed and administered electronically via the surveymonkey platform. after obtaining permission from the university to conduct the study, respondents were approached to participate in the study. the cover letter of the questionnaire confirmed that all responses would be kept anonymous and that responses would only be used for research purposes. statistical analysis in line with current trends in research on organisational culture (see kamaşak & bulutlar, 2010; kokt & ramarumo, 2015; valmohammadi & roshanzamir, 2015) and innovation and knowledge sharing (see jolaee et al., 2014; naranjo-valencia et al., 2016), partial least squares structural equation modelling (pls-sem) was applied to validate the relationship amongst the three constructs (organisational culture, innovation and knowledge sharing). it was also used to measure the reliability and validity of the measurement items. ethical consideration this article followed all ethical standards for a research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. results the following section delineates the results of the study. it includes a brief demographic profile of the respondents and the construction of the structural equation model (sem). the demographic composition of the respondents was as follows: 53% men and 47% women. the majority of respondents (63%) had a master’s degree, 12% had a doctoral degree, 18% had a bachelor’s degree and 7% had a national certificate or diploma. the majority of respondents were appointed on a junior lecturer level (46%), 25% were on a senior lecturer level, 5% were on a professoriate level and 24% were appointed as administrative staff. assessing the outer model as all data variables significantly deviated from a normal distribution, the use of pls-sem was validated. the statistical package smartpls version 3.0 was used to conduct the pls-sem analysis. partial least squares structural equation modelling is a second-generation multivariate technique that is capable of carrying out a simultaneous assessment of the model of measurement (the relationships shared between constructs and their corresponding indicators) and the structural model, along with the objective of reducing the error variance (abdi et al., 2018). partial least squares structural equation modelling is also suitable when the goal of the study is to predict key target constructs and the research is exploratory in nature (hair, hult, ringle, & sarstedt, 2017). another reason that pls-sem was used in the study was the relatively low minimum sample size required to conduct the analysis. the minimum sample size for pls-sem should be equal to the larger of the following: (1) 10 times the largest number of formative indicators used to measure one construct or (2) 10 times the largest number of structural paths directed at a particular construct in the structural model. the minimum required sample size for the pls-sem analysis was therefore 20. clearly, the sample size in the study (n = 195) far exceeded the minimum requirement. the research model for the study is presented in figure 2. figure 2: the research model. the hypotheses for the research model were as follows: h1: organisational culture will positively influence innovation. h2: organisational culture will positively influence knowledge sharing. h3: knowledge sharing will positively influence innovation. reliability and validity to assess the reliability and validity of the measurement model, indicator reliability, convergent reliability, internal consistency reliability and discriminant validity were assessed. this is explained next. for indicator reliability, the reflective indicator loadings of >0.5 show that the item is a good measurement of a latent construct (hulland, 1999). however, according to hair et al. (2017), the indicator’s outer loadings should be higher than 0.70. indicators with outer loadings between 0.40 and 0.70 should be considered for removal only if the deletion would lead to an increase in composite reliability (cr) and an average variance extracted (ave) above the suggested threshold value. based on guidelines provided by hulland (1999), all items that had loadings of < 0.5 were removed from the measuring model, namely, cul-ac-05, cul-hc-03, in-ece-01, in-ece-02, in-oc-03, in-ol-05, in-ol-04 (refer to table 1). table 1: measurement model: first-order latent variables. hair et al. (2017) further advised that items with loadings below 0.7 and above 0.5 should be removed from the measurement model, but only if the removal would lead to an increase in cr and an ave above the suggested threshold value. therefore, the following items were also removed from the measuring model – cul-cc-01, cul-cc-03, cul-cc-04 and in-oc-05, in order to increase the ave of the related latent variables above the threshold value of 0.5. all indicator loadings were above the 0.5 thresholds (table 1), as prescribed by hulland (1999). furthermore, all indicator loadings exceeded the 0.7 thresholds, as prescribed by hair et al. (2017), except the following four items, which had loadings greater than 0.65 but smaller than 0.7: cul-cc-07, cul-hc-02, cul-rc-01 and cul-rc-04. convergent reliability is the extent to which a measure correlates positively with alternative measures of the same construct (hair et al., 2017). convergent reliability was assessed using the ave, which, according to bagozzi and yi (1988) and fornell and larcker (1981), should be greater than 0.5. the ave of all items in the measurement model of first-order constructs was above the 0.5 thresholds (table 1), indicating convergent reliability of the first-order latent variables. also, the ave of all items in the measurement model of second-order constructs was above the 0.5 thresholds, except for organisational culture, which was 0.322 (table 2). because the measurement of organisational culture consisted of four competing culture quadrants (clan, adhocracy, hierarchical and rational), it can be expected that these four organisational culture measures will not have the same high positive correlation as the innovation and knowledge sharing constructs used in the study. table 2: measurement model: second-order latent variables. internal consistency reliability can be assessed using cr and cronbach’s alpha (α). according to gefen, straub and boudreau (2000), cr should be greater than 0.7 in order to indicate an adequate internal consistency reliability. hair et al. (2017) emphasised that, in exploratory research, a lower bound of 0.60 to 0.70 is considered acceptable values for α. the cr of all items was above 0.7 and the α of all items above 0.6 (tables 1 and 2), indicating internal consistency reliability. discriminant validity is the extent to which a construct is truly distinct from other constructs by empirical standards. the most reliable method to assess discriminant validity is the heterotrait-monotrait ratio (htmt) of the correlations. hair et al. (2017) explained htmt as follows: htmt is the mean of all correlations of indicators across constructs measuring different constructs (i.e. the heterotrait-heteromethod correlations) relative to the (geometric) mean of the average correlations of indicators measuring the same construct (i.e. the monotrait-heteromethod correlations) and can be used for discriminant validity assessment. (p. 115) the htmt ratio should not exceed 0.9 (hair et al., 2017). no htmt ratio exceeded 0.9 (table 3) in the present study, indicating that the measurement model exhibits discriminant validity. table 3: heterotrait-monotrait ratio ratios. assessing the inner model the following procedure was followed in constructing the model. step 1: assessing structural model for collinearity issues multicollinearity occurs when two or more independent variables in a regression model are correlated and provide redundant information about the dependent variable. high multicollinearity can increase the standard error of estimates of the β’s (decreased reliability) and lead to confusing and misleading results (poole & o’farrell, 1971). the statistics in the current study indicated that the multicollinearity of all variables used in the structural model was well within the acceptable range, with all the tolerance values above 0.2 (field, 2009). this means that no high correlation of one independent variable with a combination of the other independent variables occurred in the model. step 2: assessing the significance and relevance of the structural model relationships the direct effects of all the hypothesised relationships were evaluated by means of bootstrapping analysis. bootstrapping is a resampling technique that draws a large number of subsamples from the original data (with replacement) and estimates models for each subsample. it is used to determine standard errors of coefficients to assess their statistical significance without relying on distributional assumptions (hair et al., 2017). the standardised βand t-values were calculated by the bootstrapping procedure with a resample of 5000. the results of the bootstrapping procedure are shown in table 4. table 4: path model results of structural equation modelling model. table 4 shows that a positive statistically significant relationship was found between culture and innovation ( β = 0.67, p < 0.001). therefore, h1 of the study is supported. also, a positive statistically significant positive relationship was found between culture and knowledge sharing ( β = 0.44, p < 0.001). therefore, h2 of the study is supported. however, no statistically significant relationship was found between knowledge sharing and innovation ( β = 0.058, p = 0.336). therefore, h3 of the study is not supported. step 3: assessing the level of r 2 r-squared measures the proportion of variance in a latent endogenous variable that is explained by exogenous variables expressed as a percentage (chinn, 1998). the r2 value of innovation was 0.482. this implies that organisational culture explained 48.2% of the variance in the innovation variable. the following guidelines presented by evans (1996) were used to interpret r2: very weak (0% – 4%), moderate (16% – 36%), strong (36% – 64%) and very strong (64% – 100%). from these guidelines, it can be concluded that organisational culture had a strong predictive power towards innovation. furthermore, knowledge sharing had an r 2 value of 0.197, which means that organisational culture explained 19.7% of the variability of the knowledge sharing variable, indicating a moderate predictive power according to evans (1996). step 4: assessing the effect size ( f 2) the assessment of the effect size of a construct evaluates whether the omitted construct has a substantive impact on the endogenous construct, which is also known as the effect size of the exogenous latent variable in the model. the assessment of this effect size follows cohen’s (1988) guideline, namely, 0.02 < f 2 < 0.15: weak effect; 0.15 < f 2 < 0.35: moderate effect; and f 2 > 0.35: strong effect. the effect size of knowledge sharing on innovation and organisational culture on innovation was calculated. the findings showed that organisational culture had a large effect size (0.689), meaning that it plays a crucial role in predicting innovation, whereas the effect size of knowledge sharing on innovation was close to zero (0.012), meaning that it does not play a role in predicting innovation. step 5: assessing the predictive relevance (q2) the predictive relevance (q2) of exogenous constructs is obtained by using the blindfolding procedure where every nth data point in the endogenous construct’s indicators is omitted to estimate the parameters with the remaining data points (henseler, ringle, & sinkovics, 2009). the assessment of this effect size follows cohen’s (1988) guidelines – 0.02 < q2 < 0.15: weak relevance; 0.15 < q2 < 0.35: moderate relevance; q2 > 0.35: strong relevance. the findings showed that knowledge sharing did not have predictive relevance (0.004), but that organisational culture portrayed a moderate level of relevance (0.214). figure 3 shows the structural equation model of organisational culture, knowledge sharing and innovation. figure 3: the structural equation model of organisational culture, knowledge sharing and innovation. culture profile of the university by using the loadings of the sem for the four organisational culture quadrants, the culture matrix of the organisation was constructed (figure 3). loadings reflect the degree to which each of the four culture dimensions is linked to the organisational culture (valmohammadi & roshanzamir, 2015). with the largest loading on rational culture (0.846), the organisational culture of the university can be best explained by this dimension (figure 4). the second dominant culture is the clan culture (0.832) (figure 4). the hierarchical culture received the lowest loading of 0.725 and the adhocracy culture received the second lowest (0.781) (figure 4). figure 4: the organisational culture profile of the university. discussion outline of the results the main objective of this study was to ascertain the impact of organisational culture on innovation and knowledge sharing at a southern african university. the culture profile in figure 4 shows that the university under investigation displayed a prominent rational culture with a secondary clan culture. this finding is consistent with cameron and quinn’s (2006) assertion that most organisations display a dominant culture and that, in more than 80% of cases, more than one culture type can be distinguished in an organisation, as in the current study. this is because, in general, stakeholders in organisations hold competing values that could lead to different goals and objectives. as indicated before, the rational culture is externally oriented with a control focus. this implies that the university is focused on accomplishments, productivity and profit or impact. employees are, thus, given clear goals and direction, and decisiveness is expected from managers and leaders. because of its external focus, the university emphasises maximum output and competitive advantage through instilling order. given their changing nature, contemporary universities are expected to be externally focused and in constant interaction with external stakeholders. this seems to explain the dominance of the rational culture in the university under study. universities need to develop and train graduates for the new world of work, drive new knowledge creation through research and innovation and be involved in the communities they serve – actions that all require an external focus. the clan culture, on the other hand, is more spontaneous, with an emphasis on commitment, morale and a concern for people. the clan culture is geared towards the development of human resources and focuses on discussion, participation and openness. thus, this culture is concerned with the internal maintenance of the socio-technical system. because of their collegial past, universities tend to place great emphasis on autonomy, long-term relationships, non-hierarchical structures, shared decision-making, informal relationships and mutual support (lynch, 2015). these values are also reflected and supported by the clan culture, which can explain its being the second most dominant culture type in this university. also, many african societies are collectivistic in nature, meaning that there is an emphasis on a tight social framework where individuals look after one another and decision-making is shared (hofstede, 2011). this stands in contrast to individualistic societies, where people prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of a group. these findings further show that organisational culture has a positive impact on innovation (β = 0.665, p < 0.001). therefore, a one-unit change in organisational culture has a positive impact of 67% on the innovation variable (see figure 3). this implies that university managers have to create a conducive organisational culture in order to advance the innovation agenda at their institution. a conducive organisational culture provides an environment in which mistakes are tolerated, creativity is encouraged, knowledge is shared extensively and risks can be taken. the findings correspond with those of zhu (2015) who concluded that dimensions of organisational culture are significantly associated with the technology-enhanced innovation amongst chinese universities. the findings of the current study indicate that organisational culture has a positive influence on knowledge sharing ( β = 0.444, p < 0.001). this implies that a one-unit change in organisational culture can have a positive impact of 44% on the knowledge sharing variable (figure 3). the implication for university managers is that they need to build knowledge sharing blocks, such as reward mechanisms for knowledge sharers, and create knowledge sharing infrastructure and a supportive organisational culture. a clan culture has a significant positive influence on knowledge sharing. the study found a weak relationship between knowledge sharing and innovation (β = 0.058, p = 0.336). thus, a one-unit change in knowledge sharing can result in a 5.8% change in innovation, which is not a statistically significant relationship. this means that university management would need to devise strategies to enhance knowledge sharing, for example, by creating a conducive organisational culture. in contrast, al-husseini and elbeltagi (2018) found that knowledge sharing processes were positively related to product and process innovation in iraqi higher education institutions. also alnesr and ramzani (2019) found a positive relationship between knowledge sharing and innovation in syrian public and private universities. the current study argues that the weak knowledge sharing–innovation relationship at the university under investigation can be traced to the university’s organisational culture profile. as established above, the dominant culture is the rational culture, whilst one of the weak cultures is the adhocracy culture. a rational culture is generally associated with competitive employee behaviours; hence, employees are more likely to pursue personal goals at the expense of organisational objectives. in a dominant rational culture organisation, knowledge is seen as a critical source of power and distinctiveness; given this, employees may be inhibited to voluntarily donate their knowledge to help colleagues (cavaliere & lombardi, 2015). when knowledge is not shared, social interaction is limited, organisational creativity is diminished and innovation is likely to be suppressed. on the other hand, an adhocracy culture is associated with high levels of entrepreneurship and risk taking. this implies that the adhocracy culture is most likely to support social interaction, which can stimulate employees towards exchanging ideas and opinions (cavaliere & lombardi, 2015). however, as the adhocracy culture is weak at the university under investigation, knowledge sharing is limited, affecting innovative behaviours. practical implications the findings of the study can be applied on a strategic level. university top management needs to initiate actions towards the development of a conducive organisational culture that enhances innovation and knowledge sharing. innovation and knowledge sharing are critical in driving the industrialisation and modernisation agenda. limitations and recommendations the empirical part of the study was conducted at only one university. it is, therefore, not possible to generalise the findings to other universities. the findings, however, provide some indication of the positive impact of organisational culture on innovation and knowledge sharing. based on the findings of the investigation and literature review, this study proposes strategic priorities for the university as follows: creating an adhocracy culture: as indicated before, the adhocracy culture enhances innovation and knowledge sharing (see cavaliere & lombardi, 2015; naranjo-valencia et al., 2016). adhocracy culture is associated with risk taking and high levels of entrepreneurship and creativity, which are all critical in facilitating a highly innovative environment. it is, therefore, recommended that university management fosters this culture. students, lecturers and non-academic staff members should be allowed to experiment with ideas to facilitate the process of innovation. creating innovation and knowledge-sharing goals: it is proposed that strategic innovation and knowledge-sharing goals should be developed and that all university efforts are aligned towards achieving them. innovation and knowledge-sharing goals should be part of the mission of the university and be well articulated to university stakeholders to ensure maximum effect. innovation training and mentorship: innovation training should help staff members and students undertake applied research, which can lead to innovative thinking. furthermore, mentorship would enable the transfer of knowledge, especially from role models from the industry who have launched successful companies and products. these role models can engage individual students in start-up ideas and business plans. government support: government is crucial in advancing the innovation agenda of universities; hence, universities have to solicit for government support. government should provide policies that support innovation in universities, for example, by granting customs duty rebate on imported innovation equipment, rewarding researchers for innovative ideas and providing land for the development of innovation infrastructure such as science parks. furthermore, government can also provide funding for cutting-edge research and platforms for knowledge sharing such as research symposiums. developing innovation infrastructure: innovation infrastructure is necessary to facilitate the whole process of starting innovative research and commercialising it. university managers can set up meeting rooms, incubation hubs, science parks and technology transfer offices, all of which would facilitate innovation at the university and the transfer of the same to the industry. moreover, the creation of innovation infrastructure would enhance knowledge sharing at the university. setting up an innovation fund: funding is a crucial element in helping researchers’ ideas become a reality. funding is required not only to purchase equipment for innovation, but also to reward innovation champions on the campuses. these funds can come from government or private stakeholders. creating an innovation movement: this movement would comprise a group of people who can spearhead innovations at the university. it can take the form of communities of practice (research teams). the university has to take the lead in creating such teams. this movement can also perform the role of celebrating innovators – which is an important activity. conducting similar studies at other universities: this study was conducted at a single university. it is thus recommended that similar studies should be carried out in other universities. conclusion this study presented statistical evidence of the positive relationship between organisational culture and innovation and between organisational culture and knowledge sharing. it also found that the culture profile of a university is essential in supporting innovation and knowledge sharing. the study concludes that the adhocracy culture, which is characterised by an environment of risk taking, flexibility, adaptation, supportive and capable leadership and a focus on continuous growth, best supports the development of an innovative university. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. author’s contributions w.m. constructed the literature review and performed the data gathering, as well as the first draft of the article. d.k. assisted with the overall aim of the study and refining of the article, results and conclusions. funding information funding for this study was provided by the central university of technology, free state. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abdi, k., mardani, a., senin, a.a., tupenaite, l., naimaviciene, j., kanapeckiene, l., & kutut, v. (2018). the effect of knowledge management, organizational culture and organizational learning on ivvovation in automotive industry. journal of business economics and management, 19(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.3846/jbem.2018.1477 al-husseini, s., & elbeltagi, i. (2018). the role of knowledge sharing in enhancing innovation: a comparative study of public and private higher education institutions in iraq. innovations in education and teaching international, 55(1), 23–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2015.1122544 alnesr, b., & ramzani, d.s.r. (2019). the mediating role of knowledge sharing between organizational culture and innovation in syrian public and private universities. iarjset, 6(1), 22–29. https://doi.org/10.17148/iarjset.2019.6104 bagozzi, r.p., & yi, y. (1988). on the evaluation of structural equation models. journal of the academy of maketing science, 16(1), 74–94. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02723327 bailey, g., & peoples, j. (2002). essentials of cultural anthropology. belmont, ny: wadsworth/thompson learning. buchanan, j., kelley, b., & hatch, a. (2016). digital workplace and culture: how digital technologies are changing the workforce and how enterprises can adapt and evolve. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/us/documents/human-capital/us-cons-digital-workplace-and-culture.pdf büschgens, t., bausch, a., & balkin, d.b. (2013). organizational culture and innovation: a meta-analytic review. journal of product innovation management, 30(4), 763–781. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpim.12021 cameron, k.s., & quinn, r.e. (2006). diagnosing and changing organizational culture, san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. camisón, c., & villar-lópez, a. (2014). organizational innovation as an enabler of technological innovation capabilities and firm performance. journal of business research, 67(1), 2891–2902. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2012.06.004 cavaliere, v., & lombardi, s. (2015). exploring different cultural configurations: how do they affect subsidiaries’ knowledge sharing behaviors? journal of knowledge management, 19(2), 141–163. https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-04-2014-0167 chen, y.h., lin, t.p., & yen, d.c. (2014). how to facilitate inter-organizational knowledge sharing: the impact of trust. information and management, 51(5), 568–578. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2014.03.007 chinn, w.w. (1998). the partial least squares approach to structural equation modelling. in g.a. marcoulides (ed.), modern methods for business research (pp. 295–336). new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates. cirera, x., & maloney, w.f. (2017). the innovation paradox: developing-country capabilities and the unrealized promise of tecnhological catch-up. retrieved from https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/28341/9781464811609.pdf cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). hillsdale, mi: lawrence erlbaum associates. colombo, m., laursen, k., magnusson, m., & lamastra, r.c. (2011). organizing interand intra-firm networks: what is the impact on innovation performance. industry and innovation, 18(6), 531–538. https://doi.org/10.1080/13662716.2011.601958 crossan, m.m., & apaydin, m. (2010). a multi-dimensional framework of organizational innovation: a systematic review of the literature. journal of management studies, 47(6), 1154–1191. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2009.00880.x damanpour, f., & aravind, d. (2012). managerial innovation: conceptions, processes, and antecedents. management and organization review, 8(2), 423–454. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8784.2011.00233.x dobni, c.b. (2008). measuring innovation culture in organizations. european journal of innovation management, 11(4), 539–559. https://doi.org/10.1108/14601060810911156 evans, j. (1996). straight forward statistics for the behavioral sceinces. pacific grove, ca: brooks/cole publishing. fernández sastre, j., & vera, c.e.v. (2017). cooperation for innovation in developing countries and its effects: evidence from ecuador. journal of technology management and innovation, 12(3), 48–57. https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-27242017000300005 field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss (3rd ed.). london: sage. fornell, c., & larcker, d.f. (1981). evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. journal of marketing research, 18(1), 39–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378101800104 fullwood, r., rowley, j., & delbridge, r. (2013). knowledge sharing amongst academics in uk universities. journal of knowledge management, 17(1), 123–136. https://doi.org/10.1108/13673271311300831 gefen, d., straub, d.w., & boudreau, m.c. (2000). structural equation modeling and regression: guidelines for research practice. communications of association for information systems, 4, 1–79. https://doi.org/10.17705/1cais.00407 glisson, c. (2015). the role of organizational culture and climate in innovation and effectiveness. human service organizations: management, leadership & governance, 39(4), 245–250. https://doi.org/10.1080/23303131.2015.1087770 gunday, g., ulusoy, g., kilic, k., & alpkan, l. (2011). effects of innovation types on firm performance. international journal of production economics, 133(3), 662–676. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2011.05.014 hair, j.f., hult, g.t.m., ringle, c., & sarstedt, m. (2017). a primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem). thousand oaks, ca: sage. henseler, j., ringle, c.m., & sinkovics, r.r. (2009). the use of partial least squares path modeling in international marketing. advances in international marketing, 20, 277–319. https://doi.org/10.1108/s1474-7979(2009)0000020014 hofstede, g. (2011). dimensionalizing cultures: the hofstede model in context. online readings in psychology and culture, 2(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1014 hogan, s. j., & coote, l. v. (2013). organizational culture, innovation, and performance: a test of schein's model. journal of business research, 67(8), 1609–1621. hogan, s.j., & coote, l.v. (2014). organizational culture, innovation, and performance: a test of schein’s model. journal of business research, 67(8), 1609–1621. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.09.007 hulland, j. (1999). use of partial least squares (pls) in strategic management research: a review of four recent studies. strategic management journal, 20(2), 195–204. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-0266(199902)20:2%3c195::aid-smj13%3e3.0.co;2-7 isaksen, s.g., & isaksen, e.j. (2010). the climate for creativity and innovation: and its relationship to empowerment, consumer insight, and ambiguity. creativity research unit, 10(spring), pp. 1012–1034. israel, g.d. (1992). determining sample size. retrieved from https://www.gjimt.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/2_glenn-d.-israel_determining-sample-size.pdf jahoda, g. (2012). critical reflections on some recent definitions of culture. culture and psychology, 18(3), 289–303. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067x12446229 jolaee, a., md nor, k., khani, n., & md yusoff, r. (2014). factors affecting knowledge sharing intention among academic staff. international journal of educational management, 28(4), 413–431. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijem-03-2013-0041 kamaşak, r., & bulutlar, f. (2010). the influence of knowledge sharing on innovation. european business review, 22(3), 306–317. https://doi.org/10.1108/09555341011040994 kianto, a., vanhala, m., & heilmann, p. (2016). the impact of knowledge management on job satisfaction. journal of knowledge management, 20(4), 621–636. https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-10-2015-0398 kokt, d., & ramarumo, r. (2015). the impact of organisational culture on job stress and burnout in graded accommodation establishments in the free state province, south africa. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 27(6), 1198–1213. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm-03-2014-0100 kokt, d., & van der merwe, c. (2009). using the competing values framework to investigate organisational culture in a private security company in south africa. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 12(3), 343–352. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v12i3.225 li, x., roberts, j., yan, y., & tan, h. (2014). knowledge sharing in china-uk higher education alliances. international business review, 23(2), 343–355. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2013.05.001 lynch, k. (2015). control by numbers: new managerialism and ranking in higher education. critical studies in education, 56(2), 190–207. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2014.949811 mcdowell, t., agarwal, d., miller, d., okamoto, t., & page, t. (2016). global human capital trends 2016. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/global/documents/humancapital/gx-dup-global-human-capital-trends-2016.pdf naranjo-valencia, j.c., jimenez-jimenez, d., & sanz-valle, r. (2010). organizational culture as determinant of product innovation. european journal of innovation management, 13(4), 466–480. https://doi.org/10.1108/14601061011086294 naranjo-valencia, j.c., jiménez-jiménez, d., & sanz-valle, r. (2016). studying the links between organizational culture, innovation, and performance in spanish companies. revista latinoamericana de psicologia, 48(1), 30–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rlp.2015.09.009 navimipour, j.n., & charband, y. (2016). knowledge sharing mechanisms and techniques in project teams: literature review, classification, and current trends. computers in human behavior, 62, 730–742. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.003 obeidat, m.r.y., & tarhini, a. (2016). a jordanian empirical study of the associations among transformational leadership, transactional leadership, knowledge sharing, job performance, and firm performance: a structural equation modelling approach. journal of management development, 35(2), 681–705. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd-09-2015-0134 parker, r., & bradley, l. (2000). organisational culture in the public sector: evidence from six organisations. the international journal of public sector management, 13(2), 125–141. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513550010338773 peters, t.j., & waterman, r.h. (1982). in search of excellence: lessons from america’s best run companies. new york, ny: harper & row. petrakis, p.e., kostis, p.c., & valsamis, d.g. (2015). innovation and competitiveness: culture as a long-term strategic instrument during the european great recession. journal of business research, 68(7), 1436–1438. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.01.029 poole, m.a., & o’farrell, p.n. (1971). the assumptions of the linear regression model. the institute of british geographers, 145–158. retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/bc11/336a6f637a44918d708b56efcc5fe9a2e3c8.pdf razmerita, l., kirchner, k., & nielsen, p. (2016). what factors influence knowledge sharing in organizations? a social dilemma perspective of social media communication. journal of knowledge management, 20(6), 1225–1246. https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-03-2016-0112 rega, s., abu mansor, n.n., ramayah, t., & norhalimah, i. (2014). why organisational culture drives knowledge sharing. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 129, 119–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.656 sandhu, m.s., jain, k.k., & ahmad, i.u.k. (2011). knowledge sharing among public sector employees: evidence from malaysia. international journal of public sector management, 24(3), 206–226. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513551111121347 saunders, m.l., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2016). research methods for business students. harlow: pearson education. schein, e.h. (2004). organizational culture and leadership. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. silva, g.m., styles, c., & lages, l.f. (2017). breakthrough innovation in international business: the impact of tech-innovation and market-innovation on performance. international business review, 26(2), 391–404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2016.10.001 valmohammadi, c., & roshanzamir, s. (2015). the guidelines of improvement: relations among organizational culture, tqm and performance. international journal of production economics, 164, 167–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2014.12.028 zhu, c. (2015). organisational culture and technology-enhanced innovation in higher education. pedagogy and education, 24(1), 65–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939x.2013.822414 abstract introduction literature review research method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) adele oosthuizen school of industrial psychology and human resource management, north-west university, south africa gerhard h. rabie school of industrial psychology and human resource management, north-west university, south africa leon t. de beer workwell research unit, north-west university, south africa citation oosthuizen, a., rabie, g.h., & de beer, l.t. (2018). investigating cyberloafing, organisational justice, work engagement and organisational trust of south african retail and manufacturing employees. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a1001. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.1001 original research investigating cyberloafing, organisational justice, work engagement and organisational trust of south african retail and manufacturing employees adele oosthuizen, gerhard h. rabie, leon t. de beer received: 16 oct. 2017; accepted: 12 feb. 2018; published: 03 may 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: understanding cyberloafing, organisational justice, work engagement and organisational trust will lead organisations to develop strategies to counter the consequences of cyberloafing. research purpose: this research explored the relationships between cyberloafing, organisational justice, work engagement and organisational trust among south african office workers in the retail and manufacturing industry. motivation for the study: cyberloafing, a prevalent way for office employees to engage in non-work-related activities during work time, is considered harmful to organisations. limited research exists about the relationship between cyberloafing and organisational justice, organisational trust and work engagement within south africa. research design, approach and method: a quantitative research design was followed. questionnaires were administered in the south african retail and manufacturing industry; a convenient sample of n = 224 was obtained. descriptive statistics, cronbach’s alpha coefficients, structural equation modelling and bootstrapping were used for data analysis. main findings: organisational justice was positively related to organisational trust while organisational trust was positively related to work engagement; work engagement related negatively to cyberloafing. organisational trust mediated the relationship between organisational justice and work engagement while work engagement mediated the relationship between organisational trust and cyberloafing. practical and managerial implications: strategies can be developed to enhance and warrant perceptions of organisational justice and fairness that will increase trust levels, leading to higher work engagement and decreased cyberloafing behaviour and resulting in higher productivity. contribution or value-add: the research revealed that when employees perceive their organisations as being fair, organisational trust will increase, leading to heightened work engagement levels and ultimately reducing cyberloafing behaviour. introduction the optimisation of employee productivity by means of technology has become an important issue for organisations (baturay & toker, 2015). technology such as computers and the internet has become synonymous with daily organisational operations (baturay & toker, 2015). employees now have the ability to work smarter, increase their work tempo and consequently their productivity (al-shuaibi, shamsudin & subramaniam, 2013). malhotra (2013), however, states that the implementation of new technology such as the internet in organisations may lead to new types of problems. one of these is the fact that employees are now provided with the opportunity to engage in a new form of counterproductive work behaviour (cwb), which is often referred to as ‘cyberloafing’ (lim, 2002). ‘cyberloafing’ refers to the use of company internet during work hours to engage in non-work-related activities (lim, 2002). cyberloafing differs from traditional loafing at work; it enables employees to engage in personal activities, while creating the illusion of being hard at work (jia & jia, 2015). the international data corporation specified that between 30% and 40% of employees use their organisation’s internet for non-work-related tasks (li, sarathy, zhang & luo, 2014) and that 30% of companies have terminated employees for cyberloafing behaviour (al-shuaibi et al., 2013; liberman, seidman, mckenna & buffardi, 2011). the ceo of keyscore indicated that the impact of cyberloafing on south african companies has not been estimated and that its impact may cost them millions of rands (benjamin, 2011). cyberloafing is therefore a prevalent threat within south african organisations. researchers have suggested that it would be beneficial to focus on understanding the motives behind engaging in cyberloafing rather than attempting to entirely eliminate the occurrence thereof (askew et al., 2014; blanchard & henle, 2008; krishnan, lim & teo, 2010). various reasons exist why employees engage in cyberloafing. these reasons relate to personality, situational and organisational factors (ozler & polat, 2012). lim (2002) refers to cyberloafing as an escape mechanism, especially when job demands exceed job resources. a popular motivator for cyberloafing is organisational justice. organisational justice refers to the perception of fairness between organisations and their employees (lim, 2005). studies have indicated that when employees perceive that organisational injustice has occurred, they tend to retaliate in order to restore justice by engaging in cyberloafing behaviour (ahmad & jamaluddin, 2009; de lara, 2009; lim, 2002). deconinck (2010) states that justice and trust are aspects of social exchange theory, which is introduced by the fair treatment of employees. blau points out that social exchange refers to ‘the voluntary actions of individuals that are motivated by the returns they are expected to bring and typically do in fact bring from others’ (blau, 1964, p. 91). the aforementioned authors therefore link organisational trust and organisational justice. in addition, when an employee perceives his or her organisation as being fair (showing justice), it results in an increase in trust, which in turn leads to improved work engagement (agarwal, 2014). work engagement refers to the situation in which an employee is passionate about his or her work and workplace (hassan & jubari, 2010). it is perceived as a positive experience; therefore, when employees display high levels of work engagement they tend to have more positive experiences (sonnentag, mojza, binnewies & scholl, 2008). the main purpose of this study was to examine the structural relationships between cyberloafing, organisational justice, organisational trust and work engagement and to examine possible mediating roles for organisational trust and work engagement. literature review cyberloafing cyberloafing is a prevalent form of cwb when employees retaliate against the organisation by deliberately decreasing their work contribution (jia, jia & karau, 2013). most researchers categorise cyberloafing as production deviance, because of the impact it has on employee productivity and organisational cost (lim, 2002; ozler & polat, 2012). production deviance refers to behaviours that infringe on organisational norms through low quality and quantity of completed work (hollinger & clark, 1982). research has shown that cyberloafing may either be destructive or constructive for organisations. it is destructive because of the negative consequences it holds. these negative consequences include loss of employee time and resources, disciplinary actions as well as problems with system security and functionality. in addition, cyberloafing may lead to lawsuits, specifically when confidentiality is breached and harassment occurs. all these consequences have vast financial repercussions associated with them (blanchard & henle, 2008; henle & blanchard, 2008; lim, 2002; malhotra, 2013). cyberloafing includes activities that lead to the unproductive use of company time (ozler & polat, 2012). these activities include browsing, sending emails, online gaming, watching videos, gambling, online shopping, social media activities, engaging in illegal activities, pornography sites, downloading and posting non-work-related information, as well as generating additional income (lim, 2002; henle & blanchard, 2008; sheikh, atashgah & adibzadegan, 2015). lim therefore defines cyberloafing as any voluntary act of employees using their companies’ internet access during office hours to surf non-job-related websites for personal purposes and to check (including receiving and sending) personal email as misuse of the internet (lim, 2002, p. 677). in order to understand employees’ tendencies to cyberloaf, individual and organisational factors should be investigated (malhotra, 2013). this study therefore focuses on the mediating relationship between organisational justice, which is an organisational factor, and organisational trust, work engagement and cyberloafing, which are all individual factors (al-shuaibi et al., 2013). organisational justice as an antecedent to cyberloafing organisational justice is considered a psychological construct. it is based on employees’ perceptions of whether they are treated fairly by their organisations and the way and manner in which their work is affected (moorman, 1991; rae & subramaniam, 2008). when unfair treatment is repeated, it is viewed as organisations being disrespectful towards their employees (rae & subramaniam, 2008). although different opinions have been aired as to whether organisational justice should be seen as informational and interactional justice, distributive, procedural and interactional justice are the three widely recognised types of organisational justice (katou, 2013). distributive justice is the perception of the fairness of how resources are distributed (salaries, promotions, selection, succession planning, seniority and status) (mey, werner & theron, 2014). procedural justice is concerned with the fairness of organisational decision-making procedures and whether decisions are consistent and justified (katou, 2013; mey et al., 2014). interactional justice refers to employees’ perceptions and reactions in terms of communication within the organisation and the manner in which they are treated with concern, dignity and respect (katou, 2013; mey et al., 2014). heponiemi et al. (2011) state that there are two main motivations for organisational justice to be essential: (1) organisational justice is connected to well-being, attitudes and employee productivity and (2) it is a safeguard between unfavourable factors and their negative influences. employees often use neutralisation techniques to justify engaging in cyberloafing (lim, 2005; rajah & lim, 2011). neutralisation techniques refer to the a priori rationalisations used by employees to justify their counterproductive behaviour. in lim’s (2005) study, the metaphor of a ledger was used as a neutralisation technique; employees accumulate credit and use it to justify engaging in cyberloafing. this is consistent with social exchange theory, organisational justice and neutralisation (polzer-debruyne, 2008). previous studies found that organisational justice influences employees’ cyberloafing behaviour (ahmad & jamaluddin, 2009; blau, yang & ward-cook, 2006; lim, 2002). page (2015) and restubog et al. (2011), however, found that organisational justice was not strongly related to cyberloafing. it is because of this inconsistency that these relationships were investigated in the current study. ambrose and schminke (2009) further indicated that when an employee experiences or reacts to injustice within his or her organisation, it is generally focused on their overall experience of injustice and not necessarily based on a specific injustice type. research has found that overall justice is related to each of the forms of organisational justice. therefore it can be said that overall justice can be used to accurately explain the attitudes and behaviours of employees in terms of organisational justice (schminke, arnaud & taylor, 2015). based on the aforementioned research, the current study suggests that overall organisational justice and cyberloafing are negatively related. thus, when employees perceive injustices to occur in their organisation it is likely that they will engage in cyberloafing. the mediating relationship between organisational justice and cyberloafing through organisational trust conceptualising organisational trust is a rather daunting task because the literature consists of various definitions and types thereof, each with its own influence on behaviour (farndale, hope-hailey & kelliher, 2011). rousseau, sitkin, burt and camerer (1998, p. 395) define organisational trust as ‘a psychological state comprising the intention to accept vulnerability based upon positive expectations of the intentions or behaviours of another’. this definition is widely accepted and used for the purpose of the current study. organisational trust is an important factor in the success of daily operations and is based on the interactions with various groups within the organisation (deconinck, 2010; katou, 2013; komodromos, 2013). when employees believe that their organisation will behave in a manner that is favourable and not harmful, organisational trust is likely to increase (lowry, posey, bennett & roberts, 2015). employees invest their talent, energy and time towards reaching organisational goals and make themselves vulnerable to the organisation (agarwal, 2014). thus, if there is a lack of trust in organisations, employees will not be willing to fully engage in their work functions because they will feel they have been betrayed (agarwal, 2014). organisational trust is a prominent factor when determining whether employees have the tendency to engage in cwb (alias, mohd rasdi, ismail & abu samah, 2013; lowry et al., 2015). therefore, it can be said that when organisations have gained their employees’ trust, employees are more likely to strive to achieve the organisation’s goals (alias et al., 2013). consequently, when there is a lack of trust, employees will engage in cwb such as cyberloafing (alias et al., 2013) and, in so doing, influence their performance (fourie, 2011). organisational trust encourages justice and fairness within organisations (komodromos, 2013). aryee, budhwar and chen (2002) and katou (2013) found that all three forms of organisational justice have an impact on organisational trust. in addition, farndale et al. (2011) and mey et al. (2014) discovered that a positive relationship exists between organisational trust and perceived organisational justice. consequently, the expectation is that if perceptions of organisational justice increase the trust employees have in the organisation will also increase and this in turn will reduce cyberloafing. thus, the current study investigated the mediating effect of organisational trust between organisational justice and cyberloafing. work engagement as a mediator in the relationship between organisational justice and cyberloafing research on work engagement has become an important topic within industry (rothmann & rothmann, 2010). environmental and individual factors are considered to be determinants of work engagement (xanthopoulou, bakker, demerouti & schaufeli, 2009). furthermore, individuals who function optimally and add in improving the organisation’s interest usually portray high work engagement (diedericks, 2012; lin, 2010). the most recognised perspective used within this study was brought forth by schaufeli, salanova, gonzález-romá and bakker (2002). this perspective defines work engagement as ‘positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption’ (schaufeli et al., 2002, p. 74). vigour refers to having exceptional levels of energy and cognitive resilience while devoting more time to one’s work tasks irrespective of any difficulties. dedication is often characterised by having enthusiasm, motivation, meaning, pride and challenge in one’s work. absorption is showed by being completely content with and concentrated on one’s work. therefore, engaged employees are passionate, dedicated and hard-working (schaufeli et al., 2002). there are four reasons why engaged employees tend to perform well in their jobs. these reasons relate to the experience of positive feelings, the improvement in overall health (psychological and physical), the creation of personal and job resources and the influence on others’ employment levels (bakker, schaufeli, leiter & taris, 2008). in contrast there are studies indicating that disengagement leads to distrust, burnout and low productivity (lin, 2010; ugwu, onyishi & rodríguez-sánchez, 2014). therefore, when organisational trust is high, employees will be more engaged. engaged employees are dedicated to their work because they find pleasure in it and demonstrate a willingness to go beyond what is expected (heine, 2013). limited research exists regarding the relationship between organisational justice and work engagement. studies had conflicting results (hassan & jubari, 2010; inoue et al., 2010; kim, del carmen triana, chung & oh, 2016). therefore this study aims at examining these relationships and suggests that a mediating relationship exists between organisational justice and cyberloafing through work engagement. katou (2013, 2015) further found a mediating effect between organisational justice, organisational trust and employee reactions (including work engagement). this indicates that when organisational justice is visible, organisational trust will develop and lead to a high level of work engagement. previous studies indicated that work engagement was positively and significantly related to distributive justice, procedural justice and interactional justice (agarwal, 2014; hassan & jubari, 2010; inoue et al., 2010; moliner, martínez-tur, ramos, peiró & cropanzano, 2008). therefore, when employees perceive that they are treated fairly, they will have a positive attitude towards their jobs and organisations, thus being more engaged (moliner et al., 2008) and less likely to engage in cyberloafing. employees will be more driven and involved when they perceive that organisational justice is present (inoue et al., 2010). research also found a positive link between organisational trust and work engagement (agarwal, 2014; chughtai & buckley, 2011; heine, 2013; lin, 2010; ugwu et al., 2014). although only procedural and interactional justice was measured, agarwal (2014) discovered that organisational trust mediates the relationship between organisational justice and work engagement. lin (2010) suggested that trust between the organisation and employees fosters employees that are more dedicated, innovative and energised. when an organisation fails to keep promises, employees feel the organisation has failed them, which leads to a decrease in trust and work engagement (lin, 2010). chughtai and buckley (2011) state that if supervisors display care, concern, respect and support towards their subordinates, a sense of obligation is developed among employees to respond to these actions with positive behaviours and attitudes. this may involve greater vigour, dedication and absorption (work engagement) (agarwal, 2014; chughtai & buckley, 2011) or cwb if employees feel that the organisation is unjust or cannot be trusted (de lara, 2009). in addition, employees with low engagement may engage in cwb in retaliation against an unfavourable work environment (ariani, 2013). koopmans, bernaards, hildebrandt, de vet and van der beek (2014) found a moderate positive correlation between cwb and overall work engagement as well as a weak to moderate negative correlation between cwb and work engagement subscales. this suggests that, when low levels of work engagement are present, employees will engage in cyberloafing. based on the aforementioned overview of the literature, this study made the following hypotheses (see figure 1): hypothesis 1a (h1a): there is a negative relationship between organisational justice and cyberloafing. hypothesis 1b (h1b): there is a positive relationship between organisational justice and organisational trust. hypothesis 1c (h1c): there is a positive relationship between organisational justice and work engagement. hypothesis 2 (h2): there is a negative relationship between organisational trust and cyberloafing. hypothesis 3a (h3a): there is a negative relationship between work engagement and cyberloafing. hypothesis 3b (h3b): there is a positive relationship between organisational trust and work engagement. hypothesis 4 (h4): work engagement mediates the relationship between organisational justice and cyberloafing. hypothesis 5 (h5): organisational trust mediates the relationship between organisational justice and cyberloafing. figure 1: hypothesised research model. research method research approach a quantitative cross-sectional research design was utilised to collect data to examine differences and relationships within the target population (creswell, 2014; de vos, strydom, fouché & delport, 2011). participants the population of this study was south african office workers within the retail and manufacturing industry who use their organisations’ internet access as part of their daily work operations. for purposes of this study a convenience non-probability sampling method was applied and participants were therefore selected based on their availability to the researcher (bryman & bell, 2015). employees were made aware of the research project. an electronic link to the survey was sent to office workers at the different locations of the organisation; 224 participants responded. this represents a response rate of 41%. all the questionnaires were workable and were analysed. table 1 represents a breakdown of the participants comprising the sample. table 1: characteristics of the participants (n = 224). the sample comprised 55.4% male and 44.6% female participants, from organisations within the retail and manufacturing industries. white participants represented 55.8% of the sample, followed by 27.7% black african, 7.1% coloured, 8% indian and 1.3% asian participants. in terms of households, 69.6% of participants were divorced or separated, while 18.8% were single or living alone. a total of 45.5% of participants had a grade 12 qualification, followed by 37.5% with a university degree, 10.7% with a diploma and 6.3% with a postgraduate degree. participants were mainly afrikaans (39.3%) and english (34.8%) speaking. data collection permission was obtained from the participating organisations, after which data were collected over a 4-week period. an email with the necessary information regarding the study and an electronic link to the survey were sent to potential participants. a follow-up email was sent after 1 week and another after 2 weeks. anonymity of participants was ensured by not requesting any information by which the participants could be identified. participation was voluntary in nature and no incentives were provided to participants for participating in the study. measuring instruments cyberloafing blanchard and henle’s (2008) adapted version of lim’s (2002) self-reporting cyberloafing scale was utilised to measure cyberloafing. the scale consists of 22 items, of which ‘checked non-work-related email’ and ‘visited newsgroups or bulletin boards’ are examples. a five-point likert-type scale ranging from ‘never’ (1) to ‘a great deal’ (5) was used. a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.84 for this scale was obtained by blanchard and henle (2008). restubog et al. (2011) obtained a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.94 for this scale. organisational trust the trust scale that was developed by gabarro and athos (1976) and adapted by robinson (1995) was used to measure trust. the instrument consists of 10 items (e.g. ‘i can expect my employer to treat me in a predictable and consistent manner’ as well as ‘my employer is always reliable’). the instrument used a five-point likert-type scale ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’. mey et al. (2014) found a cronbach’s alpha of 0.86. organisational justice the perceived overall justice (poj) scale developed by ambrose and schminke (2009) was used. the instrument contains six items (e.g. ‘in general, the treatment i receive around here is fair’). a seven-point likert-type scale was used ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ (1) to ‘strongly agree’ (7). furthermore, items poj2 and poj6 were reverse scored. in a study regarding job insecurity, organisational justice and employee performance, an alpha coefficient of 0.84 was found (wang, lu & siu, 2015). in addition, when also investigating a mediating effect of work engagement from uncertainty management theory perspective, a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.84 was obtained (wang et al., 2015). work engagement work engagement was measured by using the utrecht work engagement scale developed by schaufeli et al. (2002). the scale consists of nine items and measures the three dimensions of work engagement: vigour (three items, e.g. ‘when i get up in the morning, i feel like going to class/work’), dedication (three items, e.g. ‘i’m enthusiastic about my study/job’) and absorption (three items, e.g. ‘when i’m studying/working, i forget everything around me’). the instrument used a seven-point frequency scale ranging from 0 (never) to 7 (every day). storm and rothmann (2003) found acceptable internal consistency for the scale. statistical analysis the statistical analysis was conducted with mplus 7.31 (muthén & muthén, 2015). the study utilised structural equation modelling to test the research model. the mean and variance adjusted weighted least square estimation method was used, which is suitable for categorical data analysis (rhemtulla, brosseau-liard & savalei, 2012). specifically confirmatory factor analysis was further used to determine the factor loadings of the observed constructs in a measurement model. the goodness of fit was evaluated by examining the following fit indices against the cut-off criteria shown in parentheses: comparative fit index (cfi; ≥ 0.90), tucker–lewis index (tli; ≥ 0.90) and the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea; ≤ 0.08) (cudeck & browne, 1993; schermelleh-engel, moosbrugger & müller, 2003). the reliability of the instruments was determined by means of cronbach’s alpha. values of 0.70 and above were considered acceptable for the cronbach’s alpha coefficients (struwig & stead, 2001). in addition, correlations were determined between the latent constructs. the practical significance for correlation coefficients were viewed to be a medium practical effect if the values were 0.30 and above and a large practical effect if the values were 0.50 and above (cohen, 1992). structural regressions were then used to determine the direction and statistical significance of the beta coefficients, which were used to investigate hypotheses ha1–h3b. the parameters of the model were tested at an alpha level of 0.05 (p < 0.05). in addition, to investigate hypotheses 4 and 5, a mediation analysis was conducted using bootstrapping to obtain estimates and confidence intervals (cis). bootstrapping was set to 10 000 resampling draws and used to determine the indirect relationships between the constructs. when the ci did not include zero, the parameter was deemed to be significantly different from zero. results measurement models: fit, factor loadings, reliability and correlations the confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) results indicated that the measurement model adequately fitted the data (cfi = 0.94; tli = 0.93; rmsea = 0.05). interpretation of the model results therefore continued without any post hoc modifications to the model. table 3 presents the means, standard deviations and correlation matrix for the study variables, with the cronbach’s alpha coefficients on the diagonal in brackets for each construct. as can be seen from table 2, all of the individual items loaded significantly (p < 0.001) on the corresponding factors. normally, scored items are presented as positive values and reversed scored items are indicated with negative values. table 2: factor loadings for the latent variables. all the cronbach’s reliability coefficients were above the cut-off threshold (α ≥ 0.70), demonstrating acceptable internal consistency for all of the factors (table 3). specifically, the lowest value was for organisational justice (α = 0.73) and the highest value for cyberloafing (α = 0.93). the mean scores, adjusted for reversed items, showed that participants tended towards answering on the positive side (‘agree’) of the scales for organisational justice, organisational trust and work engagement but between ‘never’ and ‘rarely’ on the cyberloafing scale. in terms of the correlational relationships between the variables, the correlation matrix showed that cyberloafing was negatively correlated with work engagement (r = -0.21). the results, however, showed no significant correlations between cyberloafing and either organisational justice or trust (p > 0.05). furthermore, organisational justice was positively correlated with both organisational trust (r = 0.59; large practical effect) and work engagement (r = 0.26; borderline medium practical effect). organisational trust positively correlated with work engagement (r = 0.44; medium practical effect). organisational justice was therefore positively correlated with organisational trust and work engagement, as expected. table 3: reliabilities and correlation matrix for the latent variables. structural model fit and regression results in accordance with the research hypotheses (h1a–h3b), regression paths were added to the final measurement model to constitute the structural model. the structural model also fitted the data (cfi = 0.92; tli = 0.92; rmsea = 0.05). the results of the regressions are presented in table 4. table 4: regression results for the structural model. organisational justice had a positive relationship with organisational trust (β = 0.57, se = 0.04, p = 0.001; supporting h1b). furthermore, a statistically negative relationship was found between work engagement and cyberloafing (β = -0.23, se = 0.07, p = 0.001; supporting h3a). organisational trust had a positive relationship with work engagement (β = 0.41, se = 0.07, p = 0.001; supporting h3b). therefore, collectively, h1b, h3a and h3b were supported. however, h1a, h1c and h2 were rejected. figure 2 presents the regression relations between cyberloafing, organisational justice, organisational trust and work engagement. figure 2: structural model with significant regressions. indirect effects based on the significant regression results (as can be seen in figure 2) two potential indirect effects (mediation models) were possible, that is (1) the mediating role of organisational trust in the relationship between organisational justice and work engagement and (2) the mediating role of work engagement in the relationship between organisational trust and cyberloafing. it is important to note that no direct relationships were significant in this model from organisational to the mediated outcome cyberloafing – indicating only the potential for full mediating factors (indirect only) and not partial (complementary mediation models) (zhao, lynch & chen, 2010). a positive indirect effect of 0.24 from organisational justice to work engagement was found with organisational trust as mediator [ p < 0.001; 95% ci (0.14, 0.34)]. furthermore, work engagement was found to be a mediator in the relationship between organisational trust and cyberloafing, but this estimate was negative, indicating that organisational trust can reduce the occurrence of cyberloafing – but only through work engagement. neither of these two relationships had any significant direct effects on their respective outcome variables, indicating that potential hidden relationships were presented in the model and did not exist if not for the mediators. further, no significant effects were found for cyberloafing; consequently hypotheses 4 and 5 are rejected. discussion the main objective of this study was to investigate the relationships between cyberloafing, organisational justice, work engagement and organisational trust among office workers within the retail and manufacturing industry. the literature review that was conducted revealed that these constructs have not been researched together in a single study. this research further provided a more in-depth understanding of the relationships that exist between these four constructs. summary of findings the first objective was to examine the relationships between organisational justice, organisational trust, work engagement and cyberloafing. the results showed that the direct relationship between organisational justice and cyberloafing was not significant, nor was the direct relationship between organisational justice and work engagement; therefore, both h1a and h1c were rejected. the reason for this may be attributed to the exchange relationship where organisational justice is evaluated against the behaviour of the organisation, supervisor and employee (cohen-charash & spector, 2001). therefore, organisations may treat their employees fairly but they still continue to engage in cyberloafing because of supervisors or co-workers. it might be that employees still perceive that they are treated unfairly by these supervisors and co-workers. in addition, limited research exists on the relationship between organisational justice and work engagement. in this study employees might have felt that they were treated unfairly by their organisation. this can result in lower work engagement levels (wang et al., 2015). furthermore, most studies that found a relationship between organisational justice and work engagement measured organisational justice separately, which suggests that only certain factors are perceived to be unfair and not the entire organisation (hassan & jubari, 2010; inoue et al., 2010). no significant relationship was found between organisational trust and cyberloafing, which led to the rejection of h2. previous studies found a negative relationship between organisational trust and cwb; therefore, employees may engage in other forms of cwb and not only in cyberloafing to retaliate against their organisation (alias et al., 2013; lowry et al., 2015). the potential reason for the result may also be that cyberloafing has become an organisational norm (page, 2015) or that it is a constructive distraction to relieve stress and restore energy (lim & chen, 2012). this shows that, although employees believe that their employer has their best interest at heart, they will still engage in cyberloafing behaviour. as expected, the results indicated that a positive relationship exists between organisational justice and organisational trust, which supports h1b. this finding is supported by previous research by farndale et al. (2011) and mey et al. (2014), who found a positive relationship between organisational trust and perceived justice. these studies measured overall organisational justice. they further suggested that when employees perceive their organisations to be fair they will display higher levels of trust in management and the organisation. previous research has also found a positive relationship between procedural, distributive and interactional justice and organisational trust (agarwal, 2014; aryee et al., 2002; cohen-charash & spector, 2001; deconinck, 2010; katou, 2013; wong, wong & ngo, 2012). the final objectives were to examine whether organisational trust mediates the relationship between organisational justice and cyberloafing and further to determine whether work engagement mediates the relationship between organisational justice and cyberloafing. the current study, however, did not find these mediating relationships, therefore rejecting h4 and h5. these inconsistencies can be explained by employees trusting their organisations and feeling that they are being treated fairly. however, it is possible that employees engage in cyberloafing behaviour due to a low workload demand, boredom or because their work is not challenging enough and not due to a lack of trust or justice (page, 2015). furthermore, the current study investigated overall justice and did not investigate the types of justice separately as was done in studies where procedural, interactional and distributive justice were found to be related to work engagement (hassan & jubari, 2010; inoue et al., 2010). the participants may further experience injustice related to a procedure that is associated with a specific type of justice, which is not measured in this study, but influences work engagement levels. in addition, employees may retaliate against distrust or unfair treatment by engaging in other forms of cwb and not necessarily cyberloafing specifically. although the researcher did not explicitly hypothesise mediating relationships between organisational justice, work engagement or organisational trust and cyberloafing, these were also tested. the results revealed that there was indeed a significant mediating relationship between organisational trust, work engagement and cyberloafing, indicating that work engagement is the mechanism by means of which cyberloafing is suppressed when organisational trust is perceived. this also makes intuitive sense; when employees are engaged in their work, they are less likely to be busy with non-work activities. the results also showed that there was a mediating relationship between organisational justice and work engagement through organisational trust. this may indicate that when employees perceive their organisations to be fair, trust towards the organisation might increase, which in could turn lead to engaged employees. these relationships are consistent with previous research, which found that organisational trust and work engagement are related (agarwal, 2014; chughtai & buckley, 2011; heine, 2013; lin, 2010; ugwu et al., 2014). this research also support h3b, which stated that organisational trust had a significant relationship with work engagement. at least two other studies also found support for h3a; ariani (2013) as well as koopmans et al. (2014) found negative relationships between work engagement and cwb. counterproductive work behaviour is seen as the umbrella term under which cyberloafing is classified; hence it can be concluded that a negative relationship exists between cyberloafing and work engagement. this indicates that when employees feel that their organisations cannot be trusted, they might become disengaged, which could then lead to higher cyberloafing tendencies. therefore it can be postulated that cyberloafing behaviour might negatively influence the productivity of the employees. practical implications this study provides evidence that employee perceptions are important in the interest of preventing cyberloafing behaviours within south african organisations. consequently organisations should focus on the perceptions of their employees regarding organisational justice and trust, since two constructs influence employees’ work engagement levels. levels of work engagement in turn has been found to suppress cyberloafing behaviours. our results provide empirical support for greater fairness when it comes to decisions and procedures. organisations might consider monitoring systems to address cyberloafing as well, but scholars have suggested that having a cyberloafing monitoring system in place can have the reverse intended effect and decrease organisational trust and work engagement, which in turn influences employee morale and productivity negatively (gumbus & grodzinsky, 2009). however, it is also necessary to consider other factors that can impact cyberloafing, such as demographics, employee boredom, job dissatisfaction, self-regulation, intrinsic motivation and personality factors (jia & jia, 2015; kim et al., 2016; ozler & polat, 2012). limitations and direction for future research limitations of this study are related to the data collection and analysis process. the first limitation might be the manner in which the cyberloafing construct was measured. for example, cyberloafing was measured with a self-reported questionnaire; objective information might have provided a more accurate reflection of the participants’ internet usage behaviour. however, such data were unavailable for this study. it is further possible that common method bias influenced the correlations between the constructs. external validity (generalisability) can also be viewed as a possible limitation. external validity refers to how the interpretations and results can be generalised (polit & beck, 2010). this study was conducted within two sectors only; therefore research should focus on other sectors in order to generalise the outcomes to the entire south african population. furthermore, the sample size may have had a potential impact on the strengths of the relationships. another limitation relates to the manner in which organisational justice was measured. this study measured overall organisational justice, therefore excluding the three types of organisational justice. furthermore, the study could extend the measurement of organisational trust to the other types of organisational trust, such as supervisory trust. by focusing on a specific population, more definite conclusion and customised initiatives could be developed. lastly, a cross-sectional research design was used in this study, which had an impact on exploring causal relationships between constructs. conducting a longitudinal design to determine the causal effect between the constructs is suggested (rindfleisch, malter, ganesan & moorman, 2008). these recognised limitations can assist future researchers in defining future studies. in addition, limited research exists regarding the motivation behind cyberloafing. future research can therefore explore the relationship between cyberloafing and motivation. conclusion this study presented evidence of the relationships between organisational justice, organisational trust, work engagement and cyberloafing. specifically, when organisations are perceived to be fair, it increases organisational trust, which then leads to a higher level of work engagement and consequently reduces the occurrence of cyberloafing behaviour. organisations should therefore not neglect employees’ perceptions of fairness and trust; they should consider interventions to decrease unfair behaviour towards employees and to build employees’ trust and engagement levels. acknowledgements this article is based on a. oosthuizen’s mini-dissertation for the degree of magister commercii in industrial psychology at the potchefstroom campus, north-west university, south africa, available at http://dspace.nwu.ac.za/handle/10394/25627. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.o. was the master’s student who initialised the research topic, collected the data and wrote the majority of the article. g.h.r. was the main supervisor. l.t.d.b. was the co-supervisor and also assisted with the statistical calculations. references agarwal, u.a. (2014). linking justice, trust and innovative work behaviour to work engagement. personnel review, 43(1), 41–73. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-02-2012-0019 ahmad, z., & jamaluddin, h. (2009, june). employees’ attitude toward cyberloafing in malaysia. paper present at the international business information management association (ibima 12th), kuala lumpur, malaysia. alias, m., mohd rasdi, r., ismail, m., & abu samah, b. (2013). predictors of workplace deviant behaviour: hrd agenda for malaysian support personnel. european journal of training and development, 37(2), 161–182. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090591311301671 al-shuaibi, a.s., shamsudin, f.m., & subramaniam, c. (2013). do human resource management practices matter in reducing cyberloafing at work: evidence from jordan. journal of wei business and economics, 2(2), 1–11. ambrose, m.l., & schminke, m. (2009). the role of overall justice judgments in organizational justice research: a test of mediation. journal of applied psychology, 94(2), 491–500. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013203 ariani, d.w. (2013). the relationship between employee engagement, organizational citizenship behavior, and counterproductive work behavior. international journal of business administration, 4(2), 46–56. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijba.v4n2p46 aryee, s., budhwar, p.s., & chen, z.x. (2002). trust as a mediator of the relationship between organizational justice and work outcomes: test of a social exchange model. journal of organizational behaviour, 23(3), 267–285. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.138 askew, k., buckner, j.e., taing, m.u., ilie, a., bauer, j.a., & coovert, m.d. (2014). explaining cyberloafing: the role of the theory of planned behavior. computers in human behavior, 36(1), 510–519. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.04.006 bakker, a.b., schaufeli, w.b., leiter, m.p., & taris, t.w. (2008). work engagement: an emerging concept in occupational health psychology. work & stress: an international journal of work, health & organisations, 22(3), 187–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/026783708023936 baturay, m.h., & toker, s. (2015). an investigation of the impact of demographics on cyberloafing from an educational setting angle. computers in human behavior, 50(1), 358–366. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.03.081 benjamin, c. (2011, february 21). employees waste their time ‘cyber loafing’. business day. retrieved from http://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/business-day/20110221/281706906169486 blanchard, a.l., & henle, c.a. (2008). correlates of different forms of cyberloafing: the role of norms and external locus of control. computers in human behavior, 24(3), 1067–1084. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2007.03.008 blau, g., yang, y., & ward-cook, k. (2006). testing a measure of cyberloafing. journal of allied health, 35(1), 9–17. blau, p.m. (1964). exchange and power in social life. new york, ny: wiley. bryman, a., & bell, e. (2015). business research methods (4th ed.). new york, ny: oxford university press. chughtai, a.a., & buckley, f. (2011). work engagement: antecedents, the mediating role of learning goal orientation and job performance. career development international, 16(7), 684–705. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620431111187290 cohen-charash, y., & spector, p.e. (2001). the role of justice in organisations: a meta-analysis. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 86(2), 278–321. https://doi.org/10.1006/obhd.2001.2958 cohen, j. (1992). statistical power analysis. current directions in psychological science, 1(3), 98–101. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.ep10768783 creswell, j.w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. cudeck, r., & browne, m.w. (1993). alternative ways of assessing model fit. in k.a. bollen, & j. scott long (eds.), testing structural equation models (pp. 1–9). newbury park, ca: sage. deconinck, j.b. (2010). the effect of organizational justice, perceived organizational support, and perceived supervisor support on marketing employees’ level of trust. journal of business research, 63(12), 1349–1355. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2010.01.003 de lara, p.z. (2009). inequity, conflict, and compliance dilemma as causes of cyberloafing. international journal of conflict management, 20(2), 188–201. https://doi.org/10.1108/10444060910949630 de vos, a.s., strydom, h., fouché, c.b., & delport, c.s.l. (2011). research at grassroots: for the social sciences and human service professions (4th ed.). pretoria: van schaik publishers. diedericks, e. (2012). flourishing of employees in the information technology industry in south africa. (doctoral dissertation). retrieved from http://dspace.nwu.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10394/10278/diedericks_e.pdf?sequence=1 farndale, e., hope-hailey, v., & kelliher, c. (2011). high commitment performance management: the roles of justice and trust. personnel review, 40(1), 5–23. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481111095492 fourie, a. (2011). ’n beskrywend-diagnostiese ondersoek na die voorkoms van stres onder wingerdprodusente in die wes en noordkaap. (doctoral dissertation). stellenbosch: stellenbosch university. retrieved from http://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/6692 gabarro, j.j., & athos, j. (1976). interpersonal behavior: communication and understanding in relationships. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. gumbus, a., & grodzinsky, f. (2009). ethical and managerial implications of internet monitoring. in m.l. mackenzie, & s.l.r. rosenberg (eds.), emerging business theories for educators and practitioners (pp. 258–315). new york, ny: cambridge scholars press. hassan, a., & jubari, i.h. (2010). organizational justice and employee work engagement: lmx as mediator. journal for international business and entrepreneurship development, 5(2), 167–178. https://doi.org/10.1504/jibed.2010.037 heine, g. (2013). the influence of integrity and ethical leadership on trust and employee work engagement. (master’s thesis). retrieved from http://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/80031 henle, c.a., & blanchard, a.l. (2008). the interaction of work stressors and organizational sanctions on cyberloafing. journal of managerial issues, 20(3), 383–400. heponiemi, t., elovainio, m., kouvonen, a., kuusio, h., noro, a., finne-soveri, h., et al. (2011). the effects of ownership, staffing level and organizational justice on nurse commitment, involvement, and satisfaction: a questionnaire study. international journal of nursing studies, 48(2), 1551–1561. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2011.05.015 hollinger, r.c., & clark, j.p. (1982). formal and informal social controls of employee deviance. sociological quarterly, 23(3), 333–343. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1982.tb01016.x inoue, a., kawakami, n., ishizaki, m., shimazu, a., tsuchiya, m., tabata, m., et al. (2010). organizational justice, psychological distress, and work engagement in japanese workers. international archives of occupational and environmental health, 83(1), 29–38. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-009-0485-7 jia, h., jia, r., & karau, s. (2013). cyberloafing and personality: the impact of the big five traits and workplace situational factors. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 20(3), 358–365. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051813488208 jia, r., & jia, h.h. (2015). an individual trait-based investigation of employee cyberloafing. journal of information technology management, 26(1), 58–71. katou, a.a. (2013). justice, trust and employee reactions: an empirical examination of the hrm system. management research review, 36(7), 674–699. https://doi.org/10.1108/mrr-07-2012-0160 katou, a.a. (2015). transformational leadership and organizational performance: three serially mediating mechanisms. employee relations, 37(3), 329–353. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-05-2014-0056 kim, k., del carmen triana, m., chung, k., & oh, n. (2016). when do employees cyberloaf? an interactionist perspective examining personality, justice, and empowerment. human resource management, 55(6), 1041–1058. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21699 komodromos, m. (2013). employees’ perceptions of trust, fairness, and management of change using an organizational justice framework: a brief review of the literature. international journal of teaching and case studies, 4(1), 83–94. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijtcs.2013.053413 koopmans, l., bernaards, c.m., hildebrandt, v.h., de vet, h.c., & van der beek, a.j. (2014). construct validity of the individual work performance questionnaire. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 56(3), 331–337. https://doi.org/10.1097/jom.0000000000000113 krishnan, s., lim, v.k., & teo, t.s. (2010, december 12–15). how does personality matter? investigating the impact of big-five personality traits on cyberloafing. thirty first international conference on information systems, st. louis, mo. li, h., sarathy, r., zhang, j., & luo, x. (2014). exploring the effects of organizational justice, personal ethics and sanction on internet use policy compliance. information systems journal, 24(6), 479–502. https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12037 liberman, b., seidman, g., mckenna, k.y., & buffardi, l.e. (2011). employee job attitudes and organizational characteristics as predictors of cyberloafing. computers in human behavior, 27(6), 2192–2199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2011.06.015 lim, v. (2005, july 7–10). the moderating effect of neutralization technique on organizational justice and cyberloafing. pacific asia conference on information systems, pacis 2005, bangkok, thailand. lim, v.k. (2002). the it way of loafing on the job: cyberloafing, neutralizing and organizational justice. journal of organizational behavior, 23(5), 675–694. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.161 lim, v.k., & chen, d.j. (2012). cyberloafing at the workplace: gain or drain on work? behaviour & information technology, 31(4), 343–353. https://doi.org/10.1080/01449290903353054 lin, c.p. (2010). modeling corporate citizenship, organizational trust, and work engagement based on attachment theory. journal of business ethics, 94(4), 517–531. https://doi.org/10.1007a10551-009-0279-6 lowry, p.b., posey, c., bennett, r.b., & roberts, t.l. (2015). leveraging fairness and reactance theories to deter reactive computer abuse following enhanced organizational information security policies: an empirical study of the influence of counterfactual reasoning and organizational trust. information systems, 25(3), 193–273. https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12063 malhotra, s. (2013). cyber loafing – a holistic perspective. episteme: an online interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary & multi-cultural journal, 2(3), 1–13. mey, m., werner, a., & theron, a. (2014). the influence of perceptions of organizational trust and fairness on employee citizenship. problems and perspective in management, 12(3), 99–105. moliner, c., martínez-tur, v., ramos, j., peiró, j.m., & cropanzano, r. (2008). organizational justice and extra role customer service: the mediating role of well-being at work. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 17(3), 327–348. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320701743616 moorman, r.h. (1991). relationship between organizational justice and organizational citizenship behaviors: do fairness perceptions influence employee citizenship? journal of applied psychology, 76(6), 845–855. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.76.6.845 muthén, l.k., & muthén, b.o. (2015). mplus user’s guide (7th ed.). los angeles, ca: muthén & muthén. ozler, d.e., & polat, g. (2012). cyberloafing phenomenon in organisations: determinants and impacts. international journal of ebusiness and egovernment studies, 4(2), 2146–0744. page, d. (2015). teachers’ personal web use at work. behaviour & information technology, 34(5), 443–453. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929x.2014.928744 polit, d.f., & beck, c.t. (2010). generalization in quantitative and qualitative research: myths and strategies. international journal of nursing studies, 47(11), 1451–1458. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2010.06.004 polzer-debruyne, a.m. (2008). psychological and workplace attributes that influence personal web use (pwu). (doctoral dissertation). retrieved from http://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/772 rae, k., & subramaniam, n. (2008). quality of internal control procedures: antecedents and moderating effect on organizational justice and employee fraud. managerial auditing journal, 23(2), 104–124. https://doi.org/10.1108/02686900810839820 rajah, r., & lim, v.k. (2011, july 7–11). cyberloafing, neutralization and organizational citizenship behavior. paper presented at the 15th pacific asia conference on information systems, brisbane, australia. restubog, s.l., garcia, p.r., toledano, l.s., amarnani, r.k., tolentino, l.r., & tang, r.l. (2011). yielding to (cyber)-temptation: exploring the buffering role of self-control in the relationship between organizational justice and cyberloafing behavior in the workplace. journal of research in personality, 45(2), 247–251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2011.01.006 rhemtulla, m., brosseau-liard, p.e., & savalei, v. (2012). when can categorical variables be treated as continuous? a comparison of robust continuous and categorical sem estimation methods under suboptimal conditions. psychological methods, 17(1), 354–373. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029315 rindfleisch, a., malter, a.j., ganesan, s., & moorman, c. (2008). cross-sectional versus longitudinal survey research: concepts, findings, and guidelines. journal of marketing research, 45(3), 261–279. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.45.3.261 robinson, s.l. (1995). trust and breach of the psychological contract. administrative science quarterly, 41(4), 574–599. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393868 rothmann, s., & rothmann s., jr. (2010). factors associated with employee engagement in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i2.925 rousseau, d.m., sitkin, s.b., burt, r.s., & camerer, c. (1998). not so different after all: a cross-discipline view of trust. academy of management review, 23(3), 393–404. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1998.926617 schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzález-romá, a., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3(1), 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 schermelleh-engel, k., moosbrugger, h., & mϋller, h. (2003). evaluating the fit of structural equation models: tests of significance and descriptive goodness-of-fit measures. methods of psychological research online, 8(2), 23–74. schminke, m., arnaud, a., & taylor, r. (2015). ethics, values, and organizational justice: individuals, organisations, and beyond. journal of business ethics, 130(3), 727–736. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2251-3 sheikh, a., atashgah, m.s., & adibzadegan, m. (2015). the antecedents of cyberloafing: a case study in an iranian copper industry. computers in human behavior, 51(1), 172–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.04.042 sonnentag, s., mojza, e.j., binnewies, c., & scholl, a. (2008). being engaged at work and detached at home: a week-level study on work engagement, psychological detachment, and affect. work & stress, 22(3), 257–276. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802379440 storm, k., & rothmann, s. (2003). a psychometric analysis of the utrecht work engagement scale in the south african police service. sa journal of industrial psychology, 29(4), 62–70. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v29i4.129 struwig, f., & stead, g.b. (2001). planning, designing and reporting research. cape town: pearson education. ugwu, f.o., onyishi, i.e., & rodríguez-sánchez, a.m. (2014). linking organizational trust with employee engagement: the role of psychological empowerment. personnel review, 43(3), 377–400. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-11-2012-0198 wang, h.j., lu, c.q., & siu, o.l. (2015). job insecurity and job performance: the moderating role of organizational justice and the mediating role of work engagement. journal of applied psychology, 100(4), 1249–1258. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038330 wong, y.t., wong, c.s., & ngo, h.y. (2012). the effects of trust in organisation and perceived organizational support on organizational citizenship behaviour: a test of three competing models. the international journal of human resource management, 23(2), 278–293. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.610966 xanthopoulou, d., bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2009). reciprocal relationships between job resources, personal resources, and work engagement. journal of vocational behavior, 74(3), 235–244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2008.11.003 zhao, x., lynch, j.g., & chen, q. (2010). reconsidering baron and kenny: myths and truths about mediation analysis. journal of consumer research, 37(2), 197–206. https://doi.org/10.1086/651257 abstract introduction literature review research methodology discussion of findings limitations and recommendations concluding remarks acknowledgements references about the author(s) lukas i. ehlers gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation ehlers, l.i. (2021). is benevolence the pinnacle of an employment relations trust hierarchy? sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1655. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1655 original research is benevolence the pinnacle of an employment relations trust hierarchy? lukas i. ehlers received: 30 apr. 2021; accepted: 01 sept. 2021; published: 26 oct. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: employment relations trust (ert) is related to compliance, fairness, good faith and benevolence in such relations. benevolence is not a legal obligation in employment relations and will typically be displayed voluntarily. gaps in the literature suggested a need for a valid and reliable theory of employment relations benevolence and its relationship with trust in such relations. aim: this study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between benevolence and the development of trust in employment relations. setting: the study was undertaken in the gauteng province of the republic of south africa. methods: an exploratory quantitative research method was implemented to test two hypotheses emanating from a literature review. a questionnaire survey facilitated the collection of data from 83 purposefully sampled voluntary respondents, who were ordinary employees, managers and academics. statistical analysis was done to test the validity of two hypotheses. results: employment relations trust can be expected to develop through four distinct, overlapping and relatively predictable sequential stages, namely compliance, fairness, good faith and benevolence. benevolence can be assumed to be the last stage in this development process. conclusion: benevolence can be regarded as the erratic pinnacle of a four levelled theoretical hierarchy of ert. benevolence can occur before, during or after displays of compliance, fairness or good faith in employment relations. contribution: this theory of ert provides valid and reliable foundations for dealing with and researching a variety of aspects related to benevolence and trust in employment relations. keywords: employment; relations; trust; development; hierarchy; fairness; good faith; benevolence. introduction trust is the willingness of an entity (trustor) to rely on another entity (trustee) to behave in an agreed upon or expected manner. trust is widely regarded as a universal foundation for harmonious and productive human relations in societies, organisations, families and close personal relationships (covey, 2006; firmansyah, amelia, jamil, & minza, 2019; mcknight & chervany, 2014). mutual respect and trust in most societal relations, including employment relations, can be confidently expected to facilitate the achievement of mutually beneficial relationship objectives (kushitor et al., 2018). fawcett, fawcett and jin (2017) concluded that academic definitions of benevolence are divergent, and that the notion of benevolence is often ignored in trust-related research studies. nonetheless, findings from numerous studies confirmed the virtues of trust and benevolence in social relationships. mbuma (2019) concluded that trust and benevolence can be confidently assumed to be positive and desirable social conditions in supervisory relationships. another study confirmed that trustors typically prefer being friends with more benevolent people in their social circles (firmansyah et al., 2019). bell and mckague (2017) found that positive perceptions of benevolence resulted from positive value-maximising experiences in economic exchanges. hubbard, harbaugh, srivasta, degras and mayr (2016) found that benevolence and true concern are more evident during the exchanges of older adults in their social relationships. these findings strongly suggest that trust and benevolence are desirable social phenomena that are also desirable in employment relations. higher levels of trust and benevolence can be expected to be more prevalent in mature employment relationship that evolved through certain trust developing stages. the views of numerous authors suggested that employment relations trust (ert) may develop in a sequential hierarchal order, along the same lines as maslow’s hierarchy of needs (covey, 2006; ehlers, 2020; maslow, 1943; savolainen & ikonen, 2016; schilke & cook, 2013). a focussed literature search resulted in the location of numerous publications related to trust and benevolence in organisational contexts. however, the search failed to locate a recent publication that specifically dealt with integrated theoretical models of trust and benevolence in the context of employment relations. research objectives this study aimed to investigate and determine the stages through which ert develops and the specific nature and role of employment relations benevolence (erb) in this development process. the achievement of these objectives required that the validity of two alternative hypotheses be tested: h0: there is no evidence to support the validity of alternative hypotheses. h1: employment relations trust develops through distinctive sequential stages. h2: benevolence is the pinnacle of a theoretical hierarchy of employment relations trust. overview the remainder of this article contains a literature review, a discussion of the quantitative research methodology that was adopted in this study, a discussion of findings and an overview of the limitations and recommendations of the study. specific conclusions and recommendations are discussed in the section preceding the concluding remarks. literature review trust in labour relationships there are no laws that specifically order and protect high levels of trust in any societal, organisational or employment relationships. however, trust is generally regarded as the foundation of such relationships despite the numerous philosophical, legal, political, economic, sociological, psychological, moral and ethical variables that apply. there are numerous definitions, explanations and classifications of various forms of trust that can manifest in many different social contexts (covey, 2006; mcknight & chervany, 2014; stern & coleman, 2020). for the purpose of this study, trust will be defined as the willingness of a vulnerable trustor (e.g. an employee) to rely on a trustee (e.g. an employer or employer representative) to behave in an agreed upon or expected manner (starnes, truhon, & mccarthy, 2016). trust can be regarded as the backbone of employment relations. numerous studies concluded that organisational, supervisory relationship as well as ert levels are positively related to a wide variety of desirable organisational and employment relations outcomes (robbins & judge, 2017; searle & skinner, 2011). employment relations trust levels were also found to be positively related to positive perceptions of compliance, fairness and good faith in supervisory relationships, as well as positive perceptions of employment relations satisfaction and employment relations quality (ehlers, 2020; krot & lewicka, 2012). employers use a wide variety of criteria to assess the trustworthiness of their employees and can apply disciplinary procedures when breaches of trust are suspected (viviers & smit, 2015). however, most employees will assess the trustworthiness of their supervisors by judging their abilities (skills, competencies, means), benevolence (willingness to create benefits for subordinate) and integrity (predictability and reliability). an employee will not typically anticipate exploitation by an employer when employment relationship trust levels are perceived to be high and vice versa (mayer, schoorman, & davis, 2007). subordinate expectations, experiences and outcomes of previous trust exchanges will usually result in revised positive or negative perceptions of supervisor trustworthiness in future exchanges (robbins, judge, & campbell, 2017; starnes et al., 2016). low trust levels or distrust often result in job dissatisfaction, stress, complaints, formal grievances and other forms of employment relations conflict (ehlers, 2020). most employees in a trusting, positive or euphoric state of mind will typically not expect or fear malevolence, exploitation or withholding of benefits by an employer or employer representative. accordingly, they may subtly or openly expect and welcome displays of benevolence by a trustee. however, employees in distrusting, negative or distressed states could subtly or openly suspect and fear malevolence, exploitation or withholding of benefits by a trustee employer or employer representative. employee expectations of malevolence will make them doubt the sincerity of any sudden displays of ‘benevolence’ by their employers. the same behaviour forms can be expected to apply when an employer adopts the role of trustor and an employee adopts the role of trustee in employment relationships (kushitor et al., 2018; mayer et al., 2007; robbins & judge, 2017). table 1 contains definitions and criteria for analysing levels of trust, compliance, fairness and good faith in employment relations. the levels of trust, compliance, fairness and good faith in an employment relationship have been objectively estimated by recording the number of times that a characteristic of the condition manifests in an employment relationship. for example, a very low level of fairness can be assumed if at least one of five basic criteria for fairness is demonstrated in an employment relationship, and a very high level of fairness can be assumed if all five of the basic criteria for fairness are demonstrated in employment relationships (ehlers, 2020). table 1: compliance, fairness, good faith and trust in employment relations. several authors identified different stages in the development of trust in different contexts. covey (2006) believed that trust is a choice that develops through six consecutive waves, namely credibility, behaviour, organisational trust, market trust and societal trust. schilke and cook (2013) found that organisational trust develops through four stages, namely initiation, negotiation, formation and operation. savolainen and ikonen (2016) identified initiation, opening and progress as the three stages through which trust develops in teams. ehlers (2020) suggested that ert can be expected to develop through at least three stages, namely compliance, fairness and good faith. there is thus ample evidence to assume that trust develops through a few stages. benevolence in employment relations empowered people strive to inspire and empower others to look beyond self-interest and make differences and contributions in their workplace and societies. they are spiritually minded and typically display benevolence, generativity, humanism, integrity, justice, mutuality, receptivity, respect and responsibility in their relationships with other people (sarkar, 2017). the so-called golden rule (do unto others as you would have them do unto you) has strong spiritual roots and is commonly revered in most mainstream religions. an alternative version of the ‘golden rule’ (do not do unto others as you would not have them do unto you) is also often used as a guideline for moral and ethically sound exchanges in societal and organisational exchanges (rakhshani, 2017; simoncelli, 2020). other variations suggest that all human beings should only display behaviours that they want all other beings to display towards all other living beings (dalai lama, 2011; einstein, 1935; kant, 1785; schweitzer, 1987). countless variations of the ‘golden rule’ appear to have been conceived as an umbrella term for promoting certain forms of humane reciprocity in the exchanges between people in some or other social structure (rakhshani, 2017). it thus seems that obedience to a ‘golden rule’ in employment relations can facilitate intentional displays of trust inspiring behaviours such as compliance, fairness and good faith by employers or employees in such relations. many authors confirm that such behaviour often results in positive perceptions of the quality of human exchanges in employment relations. humane reciprocity appears to be a desirable social condition in good quality employment relationships (ehlers, 2020; sarkar, 2017; simoncelli, 2020). findings from recent studies strongly suggest that benevolence, as in the case with compliance, fairness and good faith, can also be expected to have a positive effect on organisational relations (sree & gunaseelan, 2018; starnes et al., 2016). benevolence can be defined as an intentional willingness to bring about some or other benefits without any expectation to receive anything in return (tullberg, 2012). it should be noted that beneficence occurs when a benefactor acts to the benefit of a beneficiary, with or without kind or charitable intentions, and that benevolence occurs when a benefactor acts to the benefit of a beneficiary with kind or charitable intentions (beauchamp, 2016; mayer et al., 2007). mere beneficence is thus not kindness or charity. benevolent behaviours have strong ethical, moral and spiritual foundations. benevolence is not a reciprocated action or obligation and often takes the form of an unpredicted, random or erratic display of goodwill or kindness. benevolent acts can also follow some or other awareness of related or unrelated inspiring benevolent behaviours that occurr in the environment of a benefactor or beneficiary (tullberg, 2012). nonetheless, benevolent benefactors will never have an egocentric motive when any form of unselfish, good, kind and charitable behaviours is displayed towards a beneficiary (capelletti et al., 2010). positive perceptions of benevolence in supervisory relationships can inspire and create stronger emotional bonds between supervisors and subordinates (xin tan & dahlia, 2016). benevolent leadership refers to ‘a state of individualised care’ in which organisational leaders allow their followers to rectify mistakes and avoid dishonour, amongst others (sree & gunaseelan, 2018). benevolent leaders will typically refrain from exploitative behaviours aimed at the deliberate promotion of self-interest, profit or personal gain at the expense of their followers (zapata, olsen, & martins, 2013). displays of benevolence by representatives of an employer, or leaders, often confirm that the employer is generally a trustworthy entity who is willing to act in the best interest of its employees or followers (shanock & eisenberger, 2006). likewise, employee displays of benevolence and integrity in supervisory relationships were found to engender feelings of obligation and trust in their direct supervisors (zapata et al., 2013). however, the absence of benevolence has been linked to higher levels of malevolent workplace behaviours such as exploiting employees or employers, abusing confidential information for personal gain, harassment, stress or even workplace violence (cappelletti, khalla, noguera, scouarnec, & voynnet fourboul, 2010). employee perceptions of malevolence, or non-benevolence, in their workplaces were found to be related to negative or destructive feelings about themselves or their work environments (xin tan & dahlia, 2016). however, law (2013) found that the encouragement of forgiveness in supervisory relationships is related to more positive perceptions of job satisfaction and diminished quit intentions amongst subordinates. no specific definitions or discussions of ‘employment relations benevolence (erb)’ were found in the literature. however, it appears logical to assume that erb will refer to any intended displays of benevolence by leaders or followers during any stage of an employment relationship (zapata et al., 2013). it can be confidently assumed that all forms or displays of erb will meet all criteria for compliance, fairness and good faith in all forms of employment relations (cappelletti et al., 2010: ehlers, 2020). alleged displays of erb that are in any way non-compliant, unfair or in bad faith could amount to some or other form of malevolence. such veiled erb should consequently be frowned upon (dimatteo, bird, & colquitt, 2011; viviers & smit, 2014: xin tan & dahlia, 2016). a minimum level of benevolence may be present in an employment relationship when at least one of five basic criteria for benevolence are met. conversely, it can be argued that a very near maximum level of ert may be present if all five criteria are met. table 2 provides an overview of the five basic criteria for benevolence in employment relations. table 2: employment relations benevolence. hierarchy theory smuts (1926) likened mountains to ladders of life or social hierarchies that exist to fulfil a purpose that originates at the peak of the hierarchy (smuts, 1926). many, if not most, natural and social phenomena display some or other hierarchical quality. therefore, hierarchy theory can be effectively applied to answer research questions in a wide variety of scientific disciplines (wu, 2013). the theories of darwin (1859) and smuts (1926) strongly suggest that humans, animals and plants evolve through a set of sequential hierarchal evolutionary stages before becoming a fulfilled whole. in the same vein, hierarchy theory proposes that the smaller related parts of whole entities can be structured into related categories that relate to each other in some form of distinctive pattern. numerous scientific fields rely on simpler and complex derivatives of hierarchy theory to explain the nature of phenomena (thomsen, 2020; wu, 2013). savolainen and ikonen (2016) demonstrated the applicability of hierarchy theory to trust development when they likened the development of trust in teams to the seeding (initiation), sprouting (opening) and growing (progress) to the hierarchal growth process that occurs in a tree. maslow’s hierarchy of human needs maslow’s hierarchy of needs is probably the most well-known example of a theoretical representation of a social hierarchy. this theory is a mainstay in many fields of psychology education, research and practice, and the content of related studies have provided excellent guidelines on the application of hierarchy theory in social sciences (ghatak & singh, 2019). maslow (1943) described the five categories in his original hierarchy of human needs as follows: fifth level – self-actualisation: people at this level are reality centred, cognitive of their own unique potential and able to differentiate between truth and falsehoods. they typically strive to live up to their own definition of material and/or spiritual fulfilment. fourth level – esteem: people at this level strive to satisfy their need for esteem by experiencing feelings of competence, recognition and achievement satisfaction. third level – love and belonging: people at this level strive to satisfy their need to bond with family, friends, work colleagues and other acquaintances. second level – safety needs: people at this level strive to satisfy their needs for security, order and stability to ensure their physical survival. first level (lowest) – physiological needs: people at this level strive to satisfy their basic existence needs, namely food, water, sleep, sex, steadiness and excretion. most people will focus their attention and effort to second-level needs after satisfying most of their first level needs. the same applies for needs at the third, fourth and fifth levels. however, maslow (1943) observed that some people elect to spend very little or no energy on achievement of needs in the first four levels in order to devote more time and energy to fulfilling their self-actualisation needs. these behaviours are not easily predicted and can subsequently be described as elusive, random and/or erratic. maslow’s expanded hierarchy of needs (1971) included two additional higher-order categories. cognitive needs (knowledge and understanding, curiosity, exploration, need for meaning and predictability) replaced self-actualisation as the fifth hierarchical level, whilst aesthetic needs (appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc.) were introduced as the sixth level. self-actualisation became the seventh and highest category in the expanded hierarchy. the expanded higher categories allowed for more effective analysis of relationships amongst religious, spiritual and psychological needs and behaviours of human beings (desmet & fokkinga, 2020). typical characteristics of theoretical hierarchies analysis of the information under sections 2.3 and 2.4 strongly suggests that most theoretical hierarchies will typically share at least seven characteristics. these are: theoretical hierarchies are distinctive ordered wholes. theoretical hierarchies have distinctive central themes. theoretical hierarchies have distinctive lowest categories. theoretical hierarchies have distinctive middle categories. theoretical hierarchies have distinctive highest categories. most people will satisfy most or all conditions in a lower category before attempting to satisfy any conditions in an adjacent higher category. some energy expending entities (e.g. people) may choose to focus all or most of their efforts on satisfying conditions in the highest category without attempting to satisfy all or most conditions in lower categories. research methodology a quantitative research methodology was adopted to explore and develop a new theory. gay and weaver (2011) and snow and thomas (1994) recommended that the following activities be performed during theory development: (1) identifying key constructs, concepts and variables, (2) describing relationships between phenomena and theoretical rationales, (3) determining boundary conditions of the theory, (4) developing a valid and reliable measure of key concepts and constructs, (5) establishing the nature of relationships between variables and (6) testing theory validity through critical experimentation and hypothesis testing. this study was concluded after determining and describing boundary conditions of the theory and recommending further development and validation requirements. even though larger samples are preferred in exploratory studies, many researchers agree that the integration of findings from literature reviews and statistical analysis of data from relatively small samples can result in trustworthy research findings (cresswell, 2014; cozby & bates, 2015; trotsuk, 2016). the following methodology was adopted in this study: study objectives, hypotheses and research methodology were defined. ethical clearance to conduct the study for purposes of this article was obtained from the gordon institute of business science (gibs) of the university of pretoria during august 2018. all guidelines for conducting ethical research under the auspices of gibs were adhered to in all phases of this study. a literature review on the nature of trust and benevolence in employment relations, as well as the nature of hierarchies was undertaken. a survey questionnaire was developed in accordance with guidelines in cozby and bates (2015) and cresswell (2014). the questionnaire included two biographical items relating to age and gender and 20 items dealing with relationships between different levels of trust and different levels of compliance, fairness, good faith and benevolence in employment relationships. questionnaire items and response options were specifically aimed at collecting data that was narrowly aligned with the research questions and hypotheses. this was done to ensure higher than adequate levels of questionnaire validity (ehlers, 2020; trotsuk, 2016). ten volunteers were requested to complete the questionnaire survey. they expressed positive sentiments and feedback after completing the questionnaire. a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.79 confirmed that the reliability and consistency of the questionnaire were relatively high (salkind, 2014). two separate datasets were collected. random and snowball sampling methods were used to collect the first dataset from 50 informed and consenting people who were employed in non-managerial positions. they all resided in the gauteng province of the republic of south africa (rsa). the second dataset was collected electronically, using an online survey on the google forms website. invitations to participate in the study was then sent to 75 hrm and lr academics and managers across the rsa. thirty three invitees completed the electronic survey within 1 month after being invited. the total sample size of 83 was assumed to be adequate for purposes of the study (cresswell, 2014; salkind, 2014; trotsuk, 2016). there were 43 males and 40 females in the sample. the average age of sample members was 30.88. the age of 46 respondents were between 25 and 40 years, whilst 37 respondents were older than 40 years. finally, data were captured in an electronic database, and statistical analysis procedures were implemented. discussion of findings validity of h1 h0 was rejected in favour of h1. it was confidently concluded that ert will typically develop through four distinct and predictable sequential stages in most employment relationships. however, less frequent random displays of fairness, good faith and benevolence can be confidently expected to occur from the onset of the relationship. random displays of fairness will be more typical than random displays of good faith, which will in turn be more typical than random displays of benevolence in employment relations. the following findings supported these conclusions: compliance, fairness, good faith and benevolence (cfgb) can be assumed to be four typical characteristics of ert. mean scores indicate that some or other level of compliance, fairness, good faith and benevolence can be confidently expected to be present in employment relations, irrespective of the levels of ert. figure 1 reflects perceived levels of cfgb at different levels of trust in employment relations: at face value, the contents of figure 1 confirm that the respective mean levels of cfgb levels appear to increase in accordance with increases in the levels of trust in employment relations. the following specific observations were made: respondents perceived far below average levels of cfgb in employment relations where lower levels of ert reside (x below 1). respondents perceived average levels of cfgb in employment relations where average levels of ert reside (x between 1 and 1.5). respondents perceived above average levels of cfgb in employment relations where higher levels of ert reside (x above 1.5). the perceived general levels of cfgb in employment relations are positively related to the levels of ert. all pearson correlation coefficients were statistically significant at p = 0.00 (c-t = 0.665; f-t = 0.689; g-t = 0.695; b-t = 0.663). the investigation of differences between sample groups with different demographic characteristics fell outside of the scope of this study. however, it is worth noting that mann–whitney u test results confirmed that managers and academics held more positive perceptions on the levels of fairness, good faith and benevolence at different ert levels. this could be the result of managers and academics being less likely to experience controlled, restrictive or even abusive employment relations practices (ilo, 2020; priesemuth, 2020). nonetheless, both sample groups perceived a positive relationship between increases in cfgb and ert. table 3 reflects the perceived levels of cfgb at different levels of ert and the statistical differences between perceptions of sample groups that are employed at different organisational levels. figure 1: compliance, fairness, good faith and benevolence at different trust levels. table 3: perceived compliance, fairness, good faith and benevolence levels: employment groups. data analysis confirmed that ert could be confidently expected to develop through four sequential stages, namely: first stage: compliance (mean of ranks = 1.43, logically rounded to 1); second stage: fairness (mean = 1.93, logically rounded to 2); third stage: good faith (mean = 2.76, logically rounded to 3); and fourth stage: benevolence (mean = 3.88, logically rounded to 4). each of the four stages of ert can be expected to have distinct onset, development and maturity phases. however, these phases should be regarded as dynamic phenomena that are relatively unpredictable. prediction of the characteristics and duration of these phases will be influenced by numerous variables in and around the employment relationship in which it manifests. unique overlaps may exist between the respective stages in the development of ert. the nature and duration of overlaps could vary in accordance with unique relationship environments and variables. validity of h2 h0 was rejected in favour of h2. benevolence can be regarded as the pinnacle of a theoretical hierarchy of ert if it is recognised that manifestations of benevolence in er are relatively predictable and often unpredictable, as is the case of self-actualisation in the maslow hierarchy of needs. the characteristics of ert development are narrowly aligned with the characteristics of theoretical hierarchies (see table 3). the following specific findings support these conclusions: benevolence can be described as a moral, ethical or spiritual value and/or need that gives rise to mutual benefit, equality and goodwill amongst human beings. benevolence is not a legal requirement in employment relations within free market economies. moreover, it was learnt that related concepts such as ‘workplace benevolence’ and ‘leadership benevolence’ often refer to behaviours that are more typical of fairness and good faith in employment relations. nonetheless, benevolence is distinctly different from fairness and good faith, and displays of fairness and good faith in employment relations should not be confused with displays of benevolence in such relations (beauchamp, 2016; capelletti et al., 2010; sree & gunaseelan, 2018; xin tan & dahlia, 2016; zapata et al., 2013). literature review and statistical analysis findings confirmed that true benevolence can be confidently expected to occur in employment relations, irrespective of the levels of trust that reside in such relations. statistical analysis findings confirmed that benevolence can be confidently regarded as the fourth stage in the development of ert (see confirming data under 4.1.v). however, as with the case of self-actualisation in the maslow hierarchy (maslow, 1943), benevolence can be confidently expected to appear randomly before, during or after any or all conditions related to compliance, fairness and good faith were met (beauchamp, 2016; capelletti et al., 2010; dietz & hartog, 2015; sree & gunaseelan, 2018; xin tan & dahlia, 2016; zapata et al., 2013) the characteristics of ert are narrowly aligned with the seven characteristics of theoretical hierarchies. table 4 compares these general criteria to the qualities of ert. table 4: characteristics of theoretical hierarchies. integrated findings definitions and characteristics of employment relations trust theory the characteristics of ert and cfgb were comprehensively described in tables 1 and 2. there are distinct differences between the characteristics of these phenomena. displays of compliance, fairness or good faith in employment relations typically requires mutual displays of some form of reciprocal beneficence. however, such forms of beneficence do not constitute displays of some or other forms of erb. boundary conditions the content of the literature review and general findings of this study strongly suggested that the following theoretical assertions be accepted as boundary conditions for further investigation or application of ert theory: ert is a whole construct that encapsulates four distinctive categories or overlapping stages through which trust is developed, namely compliance, fairness, good faith and benevolence. each of the four categories or stages can be related to lower or higher levels of ert, earlier or later stages of employment relationships, less or more legal regulation and less or more self-interest protection. trust is the central theme that rules behaviour in the whole. ert can be confidently expected to develop in four relatively predictable stages. however, atypical random manifestations of fairness, good faith, or benevolence can be expected to occur before, during or after establishing the parameters for compliance in employment relations. compliance is the first category, or development stage, in the hierarchy of ert. criteria for compliance with the constitution, common law contracting principles, statutory laws, policies and procedures are clearly defined and required in formally documented employment relations guidelines. they are typically fulfilled in such relationships. most employees and employers will typically focus on meeting all or most of the requirements for compliance in er before attempting to meet one or more requirement of fairness in er. compliance can be described as the primary or outlining feature of ert. there can be no employment relationship without proper definition of rights and duties of the parties to the relationship. fairness is the second category or development stage in the hierarchy of ert. awareness, objectivity, equity, consistency and reciprocity are basic criteria for fairness are mostly clearly defined and required in many formally documented employment relations guidelines. they are usually fulfilled in such relationships. most employees and employers will typically focus on meeting all or most of the requirements for fairness in er before attempting to meet one or more requirement of good faith in er. fairness can be described as the secondary or stabilising feature of ert that promotes compliance, harmony and stability in employment relations. random displays of fairness may also occur alongside displays of compliance at the onset and very early stages of an er trust relationship. good faith is the third category, or development stage, in the hierarchy of ert. interest, sincerity, respect, constructivity and consideration are basic criteria for good faith that are typically implicated in labour laws and related employment relations documents. they are sometimes fulfilled in such relationships. most employees and employers will typically focus on meeting all or most of the requirements for good faith in er before attempting to meet one or more requirement of benevolence in er. mutually beneficial employment relationship exchanges can be described as a tertiary or enhancing feature of ert that typically builds on compliance and fairness to promote harmonious, stable and productive employment relations. random displays of good faith may also occur alongside displays of compliance and fairness at the onset and early stages of an er trust relationship. benevolence is the fourth category or final development stage in the hierarchy of ert. kindness, goodwill, charity, unselfishness and sacrifice are five basic criteria for benevolence in er. these characteristics are not defined, implicated or required in any formally documented employment relations guidelines and can be described as a spiritually inspired employment relations phenomenon. demonstrations of benevolence in er are also less predictable than demonstrations of compliance, fairness and good faith. nonetheless, sequential manifestations of these conditions could be confidently expected to pave the way for benevolent er behaviours. benevolent employment relationship exchange can be regarded as quaternary or indulging feature of ert that will typically follow earlier displays of compliance, fairness and good faith in an er. benevolence can be confidently expected to promote harmonious, stable, productive and fulfilling employment relationships. random displays of benevolence can occur alongside displays of compliance, fairness and good faith before, during or after all the stages of ert has been fulfilled. sequential development of employment relations trust figure 2 illustrates the four relatively predictable sequential stages through which ert typically develops and the less predictable, elusive, erratic, non-sequential random occurrences of the phenomena that can occur in employment relations. the solid-coloured blocks to the right represent predictable sequential sequences, and the varying densities to the left represent the random occurrences of latter stages in earlier stages of ert development. all descriptions that were listed under 4.3.1 and all boundary conditions that were described under 4.3.2 are applicable to the content of figure 2. figure 2: sequential development of employment relations trust. employment relations trust as a theoretical hierarchy the development of ert can also be explained by means of a theoretical hierarchy in which benevolence represent an elusive and erratic pinnacle. figure 3 represents a theoretical hierarchy of ert. the pattern of energy release in this hierarchy can be likened to the patterns of energy release in the maslow hierarchy of needs. all descriptions that were listed under 4.3.1 and all boundary conditions that were described under 4.3.2 are applicable to the content of figure 3. figure 3: a theoretical hierarchy of employment relations trust. limitations and recommendations this study was concluded after establishing related concepts and boundary conditions of a general theory on the development of ert, as well as relationships between ert and compliance, fairness, good faith and, in particular, benevolence in employment relations. however, the final stage in the theory validation process entails critical experimentation and hypothesis testing studies in larger samples. expanded research instruments should be considered for this purpose. the research measurement that was developed and applied in this study was more than adequately valid and reliable for purposes of this study. however, the development of an expanded measure of ert should be seriously considered before undertaking further research into the validity of the theory that was developed in this study. it can be confidently expected that employment relations distrust (erd) will also develop through a few related stages that may be the opposite of ert development stages (e.g. non-compliance, unfairness, bad faith and malevolence). similar investigations can be conducted in accordance with the methodology that was adopted in this study. an appropriate research instrument should be developed for such studies. the moral, ethical and spiritual dimensions of ert were not considered or investigated in this study. further research into these phenomena could contribute to a better understanding of the nature of trust in modern employment relations. no specific conclusions or recommendations were made on the advent, size, duration and overlaps between the respective stages of ert. further investigations are thus needed. academics and managers perceived higher levels of fairness, good faith and benevolence at different ert levels. their perceptions may have been influenced by age, position or power variables. further investigations in much larger research samples could yield more definite conclusions in these regards. it seems as if ert can also be explained in the context of vortex theory (carrington, 2014) sap rings in large trees (denny, 2011) or spiral theory (matthes, 2015). figure 4 suggests potential relationships between the development of ert and the phenomena. figure 4: employment relations trust development in vortex and spiral contexts. despite the limitations, it can be confidently assumed that this study yielded adequately valid and reliable descriptions of related phenomena and boundary conditions that would be required to establish a coherent theory of the development of ert. it is therefore hoped that these findings can provide solid foundations for further related studies. concluding remarks this article reported on a study that was undertaken to investigate and determine the stages through which ert develops and the nature and role of benevolence in ert development. the achievement of these objectives required that the validity of two hypotheses be tested. findings from a literature review and statistical analysis of data were reviewed and integrated, and confident recommendations and conclusions were discussed under section integrated findings. descriptions and boundary conditions of a theory of ert were confidently recommended, and limitations of the study were described. it can be concluded that erb is the erratic pinnacle of a four levelled theoretical hierarchy of ert. however, erb may also occur before, during or after displays of compliance, fairness or good faith (see figure 3). however, compliance, fairness and to a lesser extent good faith are typical legally protected employment rights and duties in free market economies, but benevolence is not. employer and employee displays of compliance, fairness and good faith in free market-based employment relations are therefore mere displays of legally required reciprocal beneficence towards each other. such displays should subsequently not be mistaken for intentional displays of kindness, charity, goodwill, unselfishness or sacrifice (erb) towards employment relations partners. furthermore, it should be noted that displays of non-compliance, unfairness or bad faith will typically reduce trust and discourage intentional displays of benevolence in employment relations. nonetheless, erb can be regarded as a desirable organisational phenomenon. many societies through the ages believed that human beings have the moral capacity to do unto others as they would do unto themselves. such capacities could include appropriate displays of compliance, fairness, good faith, as well as benevolence in employment relations. smith (1759) once wrote: [h]ow selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it. in stark contrast, smith (1776) later wrote that ‘it is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest’. this statement is one on the revered mainstays of free market thinking in modern societies, and it is thus not likely that benevolence will become a legal requirement in free market economies or employment relations any time soon. nonetheless, the findings of this study confirm that intentional displays of humane reciprocity in all dimensions of employment relations are desirable organisational phenomena that are worth encouraging in all forms of employment relations. displays of compliance, fairness, good faith and benevolence can facilitate a wide range of desirable outcomes for all stakeholders in employment relations. it is hoped that the results of this study will provide a better understanding of the role and nature of benevolence in free market-based employment relations. acknowledgements competing interests the author has declared that no competing interests exist. author’s contributions l.i.e. is the sole author of this research article. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for a research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information the research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency or authors. references beauchamp, t. (2016). the principle of beneficence in applied ethics. in e.n. zalta (ed.), the stanford encyclopaedia of philosophy (winter 2016 ed.). retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/principle-beneficence/ bell, c.m., & mckague, k. (2009). fairness, uncertainty, trust, and benevolence. in c. moliner (ed.), organizational justice: international perspectives and conceptual advances (pp. 81–204). oxford: routledge. cappelletti, l., khalla, s., noguera, f., scouarnec, a., & voynnet fourboul, c. (2010). toward a new trend of managing people through benevolence? management & avenir, 36(6), 263–283. https://doi.org/10.3917/mav.036.0263 carrington, a.m. (2014). the vortex of violence: moving beyond the cycle and engaging clients in change. the british journal of social work, 44(2), 451–468. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcs116 covey, s. (2006). the speed of trust. the one thing that changes everything. london: simon & schuster. cozby, p., & bates, s. (2015). methods in behavioural research (12th ed.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill education. cresswell, j.w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods approaches (4th ed.). london: sage. dalai lama. (2011). the art of happiness in a troubled world. sydney: hachette australia. darwin, c. (1859). on the origin of species. london: murray. denny, m. (2011). tree hydraulics: how sap rises. european journal of physics, 33(1), 43. https://doi.org/10.1088/0143-0807/33/1/003 desmet, p., & fokkinga, s. (2020). beyond maslow’s pyramid: introducing a typology of thirteen fundamental needs for human-centered design. multimodal technologies and interaction, 38(4), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.3390/mti4030038 dietz, g., & hartog, d.n. (2015). measuring trust inside organisations. personnel review, 35(5), 557–588. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480610682299 dimatteo, l.a., bird, r.c., & colquitt, j.a. (2011). justice, labour, and the psychological contract, selected works. university of florida. retrieved from http://works.bepress.com/larry_dimatteo/6 ehlers, l.i. (2020). trust and perceptions of compliance, fairness and good faith in primary labour relationships. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 23(1), a3353. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v23i1.3353 einstein, a. 1935. the world as i see it (translated from the german by a. harris). london: john lane, the bodley head. fawcett, s.e., fawcett, a.m., & jin, y.h. (2017). i know it when i see it: the nature of trust, trustworthiness signals, and strategic trust construction. the international journal of logistics management, 28(4), 914–938. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijlm-11-2016-0268 firmansyah, m.r., amalia, r., faturochman, f., & minza, w.m. (2019). benevolence, competency, and integrity: which one is more influential on trust in friendships? jurnal psikologi, 18(1), 1–105. https://doi.org/10.14710/jp.18.1.91-105 gay, b., & weaver, s. (2011). theory building and paradigms: a primer on the nuances of theory construction. american international journal of contemporary research, 1(2), 24–32. ghatak, s., & singh, s. (2019). examining maslow’s hierarchy need theory in the social media adoption. fiib business review, 8(4), 292–302. https://doi.org/10.1177/2319714519882830 hubbard, j., harbaugh, w.t., srivasta, s., degras, d., & mayr, u. (2016). general benevolence dimension that links neural, psychological, economic, and life-span data on altruistic tendencies. journal of experimental psychology, 145(10), 1351–1358. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000209 international labour organisation (ilo). (2020). safe and healthy working environments free from violence and harassment. geneva: ilo publications. kant, i. (1785). grounding for the metaphysics of morals (third edition) with on a supposed right to lie because of philanthropic concerns. translated by james w. ellington (1993 – 92 p.). indianapolis: hackett publishing company. krot, k., & lewicka, d. (2012). the importance of trust in manager-employee relationships. international journal of electronic business management, 10(3), 224–233. kushitor, m.k., peterson, m.b., asante, p.y., dodoo, n.d., boatemaa, s., & awuah, r.b. (2018). community and individual sense of trust and psychological distress among the urban poor in accra, ghana. plos one, 13(9), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202818 law, m. (2013). exploring forgiveness: do benevolence and revenge associate with procedural justice, workplace satisfaction and intention to leave? international journal of management sciences and business research, 2(12), 167–179. maslow, a.h. (1943). a theory of human motivation. psychological review, 50(4), 370–396. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054346 maslow, a.h. (1971). the farther reaches of human nature. new york, ny: viking press. matthes, j. (2015). observing the ‘spiral’ in the spiral of silence. international journal of public opinion research, 27(2), 155–176. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edu032 mayer, r.c., schoorman, f.d., & davis, j.h. (2007). an integrative model of organizational trust: past, present, and future. academy of management review, 32(2), 344–354. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2007.24348410 mbuma, a. (2019). the role of perceived compliance, fairness and good faith in the establishment of trust in primary labour relationships. unpublished masters dissertation. pretoria: tshwane university of technology. mcknight, h., & chervany, n.l. (2014). trust and distrust definitions: one bite at a time. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220793934 ogunyemi, k. (2014). justice, care and benevolence as spurs to employee loyalty. international journal of academic research in management, 3(2), 110–125. priesemuth, m. (2020). time’s up for toxic workplaces. harvard business review. retrieved from https://hbr.org/2020/06/times-up-for-toxic-workplaces rakhshani, z. (2017). the golden rule and its consequences: a practical and effective solution for world peace. journal of history culture and art research, 6(1), 465–473. https://doi.org/10.7596/taksad.v6i1.754 robbins, s., judge, t., & campbell, t. (2017). organizational behaviour (2nd edn.). boston: pearson. salkind, n.j. (2014). statistics for people who think they hate statistics (5th ed.). los angeles, ca: sage. sarkar, a. (2017). leadership role in instilling workplace spirituality in organizations. purshartha, 10(2), 61–68. https://doi.org/10.21844/pajmes.v10i02.10570 savolainen, t.i., & ikonen, m. (2016). process dynamics of trust development: exploring and illustrating emergence in the team context. in s. jagd (ed.), trust, organizations and social interaction: studying trust as process within and between organizations (pp. 231–256). cheltenham: edward elgar. schilke, o., & cook, k.s. (2013). a cross-level process theory of trust development in interorganizational relationships. strategic organization, 11(3), 281–303. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476127012472096 schweitzer, a. (1987). civilization and ethics. in the philosophy of civilization, translated by c.t. campion. amherst, ny: prometheus books. searle, r.h., & skinner, d. (2011). trust and human resource management. cheltenham: edward elgar. shanock, l.r., & eisenberger, r. (2006). when supervisors feel supported: relationships with subordinates, perceived supervisor support, perceived organizational support, and performance. journal of applied psychology, 91(3), 689–695. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.3.689 simoncelli, d. (2020). from natural law to the golden rule: aquinas revisited. ethics, politics & society, 1(1), 15. https://doi.org/10.21814/eps.1.1.58 smith, a. (1759). the theory of moral sentiments. london: printed for a. millar, and a. kincaid and j. bell. smith, a. (1776). the wealth of nations. london: w. strahan & t. cadell. smuts, j.c. (1926). holism and evolution. london: macmillan. snow, c.c., & thomas, j.b. (1994). field research methods in strategic management: contributions to theory building and testing. journal of management studies, 31(4), 457–480. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.1994.tb00626.x sree, d.v., & gunaseelan, r. (2018). a study on mediating effect of altruistic behavior on benevolent leadership and psychological well-being. arabian journal of business and management review, 8(4), 1–7. starnes, b.j., truhon, s.a., & mccarthy, v. (2016). organisational trust: employee-employer relationships. retrieved from https://asq.org/hdl/2010/06/a-primer-on-organizational-trust.pdf stern, m.j., & coleman, k.j. (2015). the multidimensionality of trust: applications in collaborative natural resource management. society & natural resources, 28(2), 117–132. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2014.945062 tallant, j., & donati, d. (2020). trust: from the philosophical to the commervial. philosophy of management, 19, 3–19. thomsen, l. (2020). the developmental origins of social hierarchy: how infants and young children mentally represent and respond to power and status. current opinion in psychology, 33(june), 201–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.07.044 trotsuk, i. (2016). ‘“to trust or not to trust” is not the question; “how to study trust” is much more challenging task’. russian sociological review, 15(4), 57–75. https://doi.org/10.17323/1728-192x-2016-4-57-75 tullberg, j. (2012). the golden rule of benevolence versus, the silver rule of reciprocity. journal of religion and business ethics, 3, article 2. retrieved from https://via.library.depaul.edu/jrbe/vol3/iss1/2 viviers, d., & smit, d.m. (2014). a labour law perspective on the protection of persons in a vulnerable employment relationship in south africa. international journal of business and social research, 4(5), 59–71. wu, j. (2013). hierarchy theory: an overview in linking ecology and ethics for a changing world: values, philosophy, and action. in r. rozzi (ed.). linking ecology and ethics for a changing world (pp. 281–301). dordrecht: springer. xin tan, j., & dahlia, z. (2016). benevolent leadership and its organisational outcomes: a social exchange theory perspective. international journal of economics and management, 10(2), 343–364. zapata, c.p., olsen, j.e., & martins, l.l. (2013). social exchange from the supervisor’s perspective: employee trustworthiness as a predictor of interpersonal and informational justice. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 121(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2012.11.001 abstract introduction research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) mark h.r. bussin gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa natasha brigman gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa citation bussin, m.h.r., & brigman, n. (2019). evaluation of remuneration preferences of knowledge workers. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1075. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1075 original research evaluation of remuneration preferences of knowledge workers mark h.r. bussin, natasha brigman received: 07 may 2018; accepted: 06 sept. 2018; published: 05 feb. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: this research evaluates the remuneration preferences of knowledge workers as a retention strategy in an integrated international energy and chemical company, using the worldatwork total rewards model. research purpose: organisations may benefit from understanding their employees’ preferential remuneration benefits, in particular, knowledge workers as a scare skill requiring specific retention strategies. motivation for the study: to understand the remuneration preferences for the retention of a group of knowledge workers within a large organisation based in south africa. the research is necessary within organisations in south africa impacted by scarce skills and a need to attract and retain knowledge workers. if remuneration preferences are not considered as part of retention, there is a risk knowledge workers may leave for preferential opportunities. research approach/design and method: a total of 199 employees from a group of 1229 voluntarily participated in the survey. an electronic-based questionnaire was developed from the worldatwork rewards model. the results from the surveys were analysed with descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. main findings: no significance in reward strategies was found for age, level of performance or number of years of service. there was also no significant difference between the knowledge workers number of years of service and their intention to remain with the organisation. there was a significance in gender for benefits, flexibility and performance development preferences. practical/managerial implications: the development of retention strategies should consider reward preferences of male and female employees. contribution/value-add: knowledge workers’ reward preferences do not differ on demographic variables, except gender. this contradicts some literature in the area. introduction key focus of the study the right total reward strategy can deliver the right amount to the right people at the right time, for the right reasons (smit, 2013, p. 1). the context of employment is continuously changing with both demographic and economic pressures which include increasing life expectancy, declining birth rates, the higher flexibility of human capital to relocate through globalisation and the shift towards knowledge-based economies (tatoglu, glaister, & demirbag, 2016). as globalisation continues to increase, the talent available to organisations will also increase. however, the ability to attract, retain and motivate this talent will become difficult because of the increased turnover costs which comprise loss of corporate memory, productivity and intellectual and social capital. there are different costs associated with losing talented employees (schlechter, thompson, & bussin, 2014c). the direct costs include the cost of a new recruit, lost time, recruiting, interviewing, onboarding and the onboarding of the new employee. costs for losing an employee can be up to 2.5 times the annual salary paid for the job. the indirect financial costs include work disruptions, loss of knowledge, productivity, customers, mentors and even increased employee turnover (schlechter et al., 2014c). background of the study retaining knowledgeable employees is vital to the continual success of an organisation (balakrishnan & vijayalakshmi, 2014). organisations struggle to compete effectively to be the employer of choice (balakrishnan & vijayalakshmi, 2014): employee retention is more than rivalling your competition with higher wages. it’s about creating a work environment that nurtures diversity and mutual trust, providing challenging career opportunities, and treating people with respect and appreciation. (p. 69) boston consulting group estimates that there will be a worldwide shortage of knowledge workers of approximately 60 million by 2020 (pobst, 2014). employers are forced to compete to gain the talent and skills that are required to accomplish an organisation’s strategic objectives. an excess supply of labour is no longer available to camouflage ineffective human resource strategies (dawn & biswas, 2013). south africa is experiencing a skills crisis in general and retaining knowledge workers is difficult because of their unique attributes. this ‘scarcity of skills stimulates the open competition for talent and drives turnover higher’ (khoele & daya, 2014, p. 5). a lack of an inclusive environment and obstacles for advancement has been shown to increase the turnover rate (khoele & daya, 2014). trends from the research literature knowledge workers deal with complex problems where their daily tasks are unpredictable, multidisciplinary and not usually a task that is repetitive (jayasingam, govindasamy, & singh, 2016). this type of job requires the knowledge worker to utilise their mental abilities as their work has limited structure and cannot necessarily be standardised. knowledge workers have also been described as the workers who apply theoretical and analytical knowledge they have acquired through formal education to produce new products and services (jayasingam et al., 2016). their higher degree of expertise shifts the bargaining power in their favour as they seek less dependence on their employer and they can seek employment elsewhere. the harsh reality is that knowledge workers leave results in loss of organisational knowledge that can be highly costly to an organisation especially if any employee is highly skilled and talented (jayasingam et al., 2016). retaining knowledge workers is vastly different from traditional workers as they do not seek lifelong employment and security, rather they seek skills development and advancement opportunities (pobst, 2014). these types of employees are in demand as having their skills can improve an organisation’s competitive edge (pobst, 2014). retaining employees is not about updating compensation structures and having salaries higher than in the market. having money-only incentives is expensive and could potentially not get the desired result (bryant & allen, 2013). research objectives and problem statement in an ideal situation, organisations should fully understand the needs of their employees in terms of remuneration preferences. organisations should understand if their target type of employees would move jobs based on purely monetary compensation or do they prefer additional benefits such as flexible working arrangements, safety and security at the workplace, a work–life balance, recognition, personal development or various other remuneration options. this is important particularly to retain knowledge workers as the cost associated with replacing this knowledge far outweighs the cost of retaining them. the problem is that in reality organisations do not necessarily understand what remuneration preferences are, that are valued by employees. with the increased move towards globalisation, organisations no longer only face a threat of their knowledge workers moving within the region they operate in, instead they now compete for knowledge workers globally. there were mixed results regarding the knowledge workers’ remuneration preferences in the literature review by pobst (2014) and bryant and allen (2013). in this research, the total rewards model that consists of both financial and non-financial components was used to test remuneration preferences of the knowledge worker sample within the international energy and chemical companies based in south africa. from the literature review, it was discussed that both financial and non-financial rewards affect the retention of employees. some studies showed that knowledge workers have a preference of talent development versus compensation (khoele & daya, 2014). some studies have shown that the preferred reward for employees is compensation. a questionnaire was developed to understand knowledge workers’ remuneration preferences. in the questionnaire, respondents were questioned on each of the total rewards pillars: compensation benefits work–life effectiveness recognition performance management development and career opportunities. the following hypotheses were developed from the literature: hypothesis 1: knowledge workers rate rewards differently based on their age. hypothesis 2: high-performing knowledge workers (performance rating excellent performer e) value rewards differently from lower performing knowledge workers (full performer f). the literature review pointed to an interesting result that the longer an employee remains with an organisation, the less likely he or she is to leave the organisation (jayasingam et al., 2016). this could be attributed to many factors, including their commitment to the organisation, their family commitments, the lack of jobs available in the market and various other factors (jayasingam et al., 2016). for this study, we can measure the number of years the employee has worked for the organisation versus how many years they intend to continue working for the organisation. the exact reason for why they have chosen to stay would not be known. this resulted in the following hypothesis: hypothesis 3: knowledge workers working at the same organisation for a long period of time rate their preference to remain with the organisation differently compared to knowledge workers with shorter service. research conducted by khoele and daya (2014) indicated that the turnover rate is higher with younger employees within an organisation compared to older employees. some of the research alluded to the fact that older employees prefer stability, especially if they are closer to retirement so that they would be less inclined to leave the organisation. the literature also showed that younger employees are more focused on their career development and are willing to move between organisations to get the development they seek (khoele & daya, 2014). the following hypothesis was developed: hypothesis 4: younger age groups of knowledge workers differ in preference to leave the organisation compared to older knowledge workers. many studies showed the difference between reward preferences for men and women. one of the studies showed that more educated women tended to follow the same turnover pattern as men (wöcke & heymann, 2012). there could be many reasons for the difference in rewards preferences from woman requiring more work–life effectiveness because of family commitments, female employees experiencing the ‘glass ceiling’ in the organisation therefore choosing more development rewards or a host of other reasons. this study will determine their preference and not necessarily why this is their preference: hypothesis 5: the total rewards preferences will differ between male and female knowledge workers. potential value-add of the research an organisation that offers attractive remuneration packages to employees shows their employees that they do matter to the organisation, which consequently enhances their emotional bond with the organisation (coetzee, mitonga-monga, & swart, 2014, p. 7). research of this nature is beneficial to organisations within south africa as it is essential to retain knowledge workers. if ineffective retention and reward strategies are in place, there is a risk that knowledge workers will leave for preferential opportunities elsewhere which will ultimately be detrimental for the company, and possibly the future economic growth and development of south africa (theron, barkhuizen, & plessis, 2014). understanding how to incentivise and reward employees via the total reward factor model will retain knowledge workers and increase the attractiveness of working at the organisation. various studies on the total rewards factors have been conducted in many different fields, but none has been conducted particularly in a large south african international energy and chemicals company. this study will provide information for large companies such as this to ideally combine the total rewards factors to attract and retain knowledge workers. what will follow? this article will document a literature review defining the worldatwork total rewards model, knowledge workers, remuneration, turnover, retention and talent management to fully understand the scope of this study. the research methodology describing the sample, quantitative analysis to be performed and sample questionnaire will be discussed. finally, the report will end with the survey analysis and discussion, conclusion and limitations and assumptions of this article. synthesis and critical evaluation of the literature knowledge workers can be defined as employees who have specialty knowledge within their area of expertise and by applying this knowledge, they can benefit the organisation in making informed decisions on complex matters (jayasingam et al., 2016). theory on the knowledge-based view and information economics indicated that knowledge workers are actually tangible assets, which are strategically important resources that facilitate the establishment of a competitive advantage (jayasingam et al., 2016). knowledge workers of the 21st century display different characteristics compared to their counterparts of the previous century. these workers display high levels of mobility, realise that their skills are highly demanded and do not aim to have a job for a lifetime. this change in behaviour greatly impacts the way in which retention needs to be managed. the study conducted by khoele and daya (2014) describes this change as ‘moving from tending a dam to managing a river: the aim is not to prevent water from flowing, but to control its direction and speed’ (p. 2). knowledge workers continually search for development and advancement opportunities, lateral or upward, within their organisation. the research conducted by khoele and daya (2014) has clearly shown that knowledge workers will leave if they cannot advance within their organisations. organisations that focus on fostering growth and development will have lower turnover rates. information from exit interviews conducted show that respondents who had left because of their relationship with their manager cited lack of communication, no direction or feedback and lack of agreement on their development (khoele & daya, 2014). there is limited research conducted on the reasons for why people stay or leave an organisation in developing countries (theron et al., 2014). in the future, the demand for talented employees will far outweigh the supply at all levels within all industries. the following trends regarding retention of talent currently seen such as (dawn & biswas, 2013): approximately one-third of business failures can be attributed to poor hiring practice and the inability to attract and retain the correct talent. the cost of replacing an employee is up to three times the cost of the person being replaced. there is a large cost associated with working around underperformers. the cost of not attracting and retaining good talent has side effects which cannot be quantified including decreased productivity, lower employee morale and reputational damage. (p. 44) in a previous study investigating total rewards that retain staff, it is argued that employees who have the flexibility of a reward package aligned to their preference are more inclined to be loyal to the organisation (pregnolato, bussin, schlechter, town, & africa, 2017). south africa needs to retain the knowledge and experience that have been cultivated within the country. according to research that was conducted on the impact of demographic variables on voluntary labour turnover in south africa, it was found that various demographic variables such as age, race and gender influence individual turnover decisions (wöcke & heymann, 2012). it was further found that the level of education influences mobility more than race does. with regard to gender affecting employee turnover, it was established that the turnover trends of highly educated women resemble the turnover of men far more than that of less educated women. there is a forecasted shortage of skills in the next 15 years, particularly in the age bracket of 35–45 years. it is anticipated that the growth for demand in this bracket will increase by 25%, whilst the supply of labour will decrease by 15% which results in a 40% shortfall of skills if no action is taken (dawn & biswas, 2013). the ability to attract, retain and motivate this talent will become harder because of the increased turnover costs which comprise loss of corporate memory, productivity and intellectual and social capital. there are direct and indirect costs associated with losing talented employees (schlechter et al., 2014c). the direct costs include the cost of replacing the employee, downtime, recruiting, interviewing, onboarding and the training and development of the new employee. costs for losing an employee can be up to 2.5 times the annual salary paid for the job. the indirect financial costs include work disruptions, loss of knowledge, productivity, customers, mentors and even increased employee turnover (schlechter et al., 2014c). retaining key employees is critical to the long-term success of an organisation (balakrishnan & vijayalakshmi, 2014). the turnover of knowledge workers, especially in senior and management positions, has a detrimental effect on the productivity and profitability of an organisation. as stated by khoele & daya, 2014: high staff turnover is a cause for alarm, not only because of the costs associated with recruitment, selection and training, but also due to the increasing scarcity of experienced talent. (p. 1) knowledge workers represent an organisation’s competitive advantage and the loss of these workers not only results in monetary and knowledge loss but also in the unavailability of experienced talent to replace them. south africa is experiencing a skills crisis in general and retaining knowledge workers is difficult because of due to their unique attributes. this ‘scarcity of skills stimulates the open competition for talent and drives turnover higher’ (khoele & daya, 2014, p. 5). globalisation has enabled knowledge workers’ greater flexibility and higher mobility in the recent years; and in a survey conducted in large south african organisations, it was found that global mobility resulted in 21% of the total turnover (khoele & daya, 2014). ‘if sa is to prosper, high-skilled individuals should be recruited and retained – not pushed to find opportunities elsewhere’ and ‘in the knowledge economy, knowledge elites are the bedrock of success. if we are to learn from history, cultivating them should be our number one priority’ (fourie, 2016, p. 4). a reward is considered to be a significant tool to attract, stimulate motivation and ensure the retention of employees (bussin, van rooy, & africa, 2012). the ‘total rewards programme’ includes rewards of monetary value and rewards that are non-monetary. other benefits are included in non-monetary rewards. employees may focus on rewards that are monetary-based but their behaviour is influenced by the non-monetary rewards. from the study conducted on the retention of artisans within south africa (schlechter et al., 2014c), the following was noted: employees build a deeper relationship with their employer with increased motivation, engagement and commitment when there are both financial and non-financial rewards. increased flexibility also binds employees more strongly to the organisation as the organisation is able to cater for the employees’ individual needs. non-monetary rewards positively entice a psychological contract and leads to attracting and retaining talent. (p. 292) a financial reward is made up of compensation and benefits. a study was conducted to test the effect of financial and non-financial remuneration on lecturers’ performance and professionalism in asia (idris, hamzah, sudirman, & hamid, 2017). the results of the study showed that both financial and non-financial remuneration had a significant impact on the lecturers’ professionalism. the study further showed that financial compensation had a positive effect on the lecturers’ performance but non-financial compensation did not (idris et al., 2017). so, the lecturers’ performance was only influenced by financial compensation but their behaviour was affected by both financial and non-financial compensation. non-financial reward is made up of work–life effectiveness, recognition and performance management. a study conducted evaluating the impact of family and work–life balance on the performance of spanish-listed companies showed that introducing work–life balance practices into an organisation benefits the organisation in terms of talent retention, higher employee engagement, higher productivity, lower costs and overall better business results (benito-osorio, munoz-aguando, & villar, 2014). recognition can be described as the acknowledgement of employee actions, efforts, behaviour and performance both formal and informal. it is a part of the non-financial compensation that can be provided to employees and includes recognising achievements, promotion opportunities and providing development (idris et al., 2017). a survey conducted by idris et al. (2017) on various rewards found that employees regarded non-financial rewards higher than financial rewards. performance management is the alignment of organisational, team and individual goals to meet the business objectives. it is the establishment of expectations, skills, assessment and feedback and improvement. performance feedback has been shown to significantly improve performance (idris et al., 2017). it was also found that demographic variables such as gender, race and age had no significant impact on the outcome of this result. from this research, it shows that job attractiveness for knowledge workers is directly linked to financial rewards, specifically remuneration or compensation (schlechter, hung, & bussin, 2014b). the total rewards model was used in this evaluation to determine the most preferred reward for knowledge workers. the ranking from this study was in order of preference: remuneration and benefits, work–life balance and learning and career advancement (schlechter et al., 2014b). south africa is facing a greater problem of employee turnover because of the low supply of knowledge workers as a result of increased emigration and the lower standards of education. the employment equity report in 2004 indicated that the turnover rate between races significantly differed. white male employees turned over at a rate of 9.35% compared to africans, men and women, at 29.8% and other previously disadvantaged groups ranking at 14.1%. this result may potentially be the result of the employment equity act of 1998 as organisations are recruiting to meet the legislation. it was further found that this legislation had significant impacts on the psychological contracts of all groups with regard to faithfulness and career progression. african male managers were found to have the highest turnover rate because of the demand for them in the south african market as the legislation made them a wanted commodity (wöcke & heymann, 2012). employee retention is composed of a number of structured activities, which results in attracting employees, especially talented employees, to stay with the organisation (schlechter et al., 2014b). crucial retention factors combined with a well-defined human resource planning, recruitment and selection process are required to ensure that the organisation has a functioning retention strategy. research design research approach the research methodology followed was a quantitative method to reach the head-office-based population of approximately 1229 people in a junior management role and higher within a large integrated international energy and chemical companies based in south africa. a total of 199 volunteered to participate. primary data were sourced from electronic questionnaires. analysis was undertaken using descriptive statistics and factor analysis. research method research participants the participants in this study were 199 employees who volunteered to complete the survey. these employees were all based in the south african head office and all performed a role category from a junior management level to higher. as all of the employees are in a junior management role category or higher, these employees are considered as knowledge workers. there were no restrictions placed on the age of the participants or their number of years of service within the organisation. the unit of analysis was a group of employees who are knowledge workers within the head office of a south-african-based company. all of these employees were from different business operating entities within the company and they were regarded as knowledge workers. non-probability sampling was utilised as the researcher had no process to ensure that each part of the population could be present in the sample (saunders & lewis, 2012). convenience sampling was used as the population was readily available to the researcher. participants were therefore selected via convenience non-probability sampling for this research. measuring instruments a structured questionnaire was pre-developed from the information gathered in the literature survey. ratings were based on a five-point likert-type scale, where 1 is extremely negative and 5 is extremely positive. the questionnaire was focused around the worldatwork total reward strategy model. biographical information such as age, gender, highest academic qualification, level of work, race, job level, number of years with the company, number of years foreseen at the company and family status was requested. research procedure the questionnaire was distributed to employees in the organisation electronically. a total of 199 people responded and all questionnaires were kept confidential. a pilot questionnaire was performed with ten employees within sasol to ensure that the questionnaire was understandable. these participants are not included in the 199 respondents. statistical analysis the results from the surveys were analysed via descriptive statistics; frequencies were analysed together with inferential statistics. a cronbach’s alpha analysis and tests for significant difference were performed. results an online survey was sent out to 1229 knowledge workers based at the head office of an international integrated energy and chemicals company. a total of 199 responses were received. the description of the sample is outlined in this section. as a five-point likert scale was used to measure the respondents’ level of importance for each of the areas in this study, a cronbach’s alpha analysis was used to measure the internal consistency of the data and if the scale was reliable (see table 1). the cronbach’s alpha measures the items in each of the categories that are ultimately measuring the same underlying dimension. a cronbach’s alpha was performed on each of the reward categories and on the financial and non-financial rewards. table 1: cronbach’s alpha analysis. statistical results per hypothesis hypothesis 1 an analysis of variance (anova) test for differences was performed to determine if there was a significant difference in knowledge workers’ preferences for rewards based on their age (see table 2). a one-way anova analysis was performed where the independent variable was the knowledge workers’ age and the dependent variable was all the financial and non-financial rewards. the p-value was less than 0.05 and therefore significant. this sample did not have equal variances; therefore, it violated the assumption of homogeneity. the games–howell post-hoc analysis was performed. there was no significant difference in rewards preferences based on the knowledge workers’ age. this was in line with schlechter et al. (2014b) where it was also found that demographic variables such as gender, race and age had no significant impact on the outcome of this result. this result is in contrast to the work conducted by pregnolato et al. (2017), wöcke and heymann (2012) and khoele and daya (2014), where there was a significant deviation in rewards preferences noted at different ages. table 2: description data of sample – age (years). hypothesis 2 an independent test of differences was used to evaluate if there is a difference in rewards preference between high-performing knowledge workers versus lower performing knowledge workers. the independent variable performance of the knowledge work: higher performing (e) or low-performing (f) (see table 3). the dependent variable was their rewards preference which included financial and non-financial rewards. levene’s test for homogeneity of variances was checked to have a p-value of greater than 0.05 of the sample. in our sample, all of the variables have a p-value of greater than 0.05; therefore, the assumption of homogeneity of variances is valid. from the t-test for equality of means referring to the equal variances row, all of the p-values were greater than 0.05; therefore, there is no statistical significant difference at a 95% confidence level. table 3: descriptive sample data – last merit rating at the organisation. therefore, from the analysis, there is no significant difference between rewards preferences of high-performing knowledge workers versus lower performing knowledge workers. the null hypothesis can be accepted. performance therefore had no significant impact on the knowledge workers’ rewards preferences. hypothesis 3 an anova test for differences was performed to determine if there was a significant difference in knowledge workers’ preferences for remaining with the organisation based on the number of years served at the organisation (see table 4 and table 5). a one-way anova analysis was performed where the independent variable was the number of years with the organisation and the dependent variable was the participants’ intended years to stay with the organisation. the p-value was greater than 0.05 and therefore not significant. this sample validated the assumption of homogeneity; therefore, tukey’s honest significant difference (hsd) post hoc analysis was performed. there was no significant difference between the number of years a knowledge worker worked at an organisation and the number of years they intended to remain at the organisation. this is in contradiction to the study conducted by khoele and daya (2014) which showed that there is a correlation between the numbers of years an employee is with an organisation versus their retention. the longer an employee is with an organisation, the more likely they are to remain (khoele & daya, 2014). table 4: descriptive sample data – number of years with the organisation. table 5: descriptive sample data – length of time you intend to continue working for this organisation. hypothesis 4 an anova test for differences was performed to determine if there was a significant difference of knowledge workers’ preferences remaining with the organisation based on the participant’s age (see table 2). a one-way anova analysis was performed where the independent variable was the knowledge workers’ age and the dependent variable was the participants’ intended years to stay with the organisation. the p-value was less than 0.05 and therefore significant. this sample did not have equal variances; therefore, it violated the assumption of homogeneity. the games–howell post-hoc analysis was performed. there was no significant difference in intention to stay with the organisation dependent on the knowledge workers’ age. this is contradictory to many research studies which have shown that the age of employees has an impact on employee commitment, job embeddedness, employee’s psychological contract and turnover decision. the study conducted also indicated that younger employees are more eager to leave (wöcke & heymann, 2012). age was shown in some research to have an impact on retention and turnover with younger employees tending to leave whilst older employees stay (khoele & daya, 2014). hypothesis 5 an independent test of differences was used to evaluate if there is a difference in rewards preference between male and female knowledge workers. the independent variable was the knowledge workers’ gender, male or female (see table 6). the dependent variable was their rewards preference which included financial and non-financial rewards. from the analysis, there was a significant difference for all benefits (pension fund, medical allowance, car allowance, cell phone allowance, personal safety, on-site canteen, on-site gym, on-site medical centre, on-site car wash and on-site crèche), flexibility (flexible hours, telecommuting and comfortable work environment) and performance development (performance support, personal development plan, succession planning, training and mentorship) preferences based on gender, men or women. this result is in agreement with the outcome found by wöcke and heymann (2012). there could be many reasons for the difference in rewards preferences from female employees requiring more work–life effectiveness because of family commitments, female employees experiencing the ‘glass ceiling’ in the organisation and therefore choosing more development rewards or a host of other reasons. table 6: description data of sample – gender. discussion ‘if sa is to prosper, high-skilled individuals should be recruited and retained – not pushed to find opportunities elsewhere’ and ‘in the knowledge economy, knowledge elites are the bedrock of success. if we are to learn from history, cultivating them should be our number one priority’ (fourie, 2016, p. 4). the aim of this research was to understand the remuneration preferences for retention of a group of knowledge workers within a large organisation based in south africa. if this research was not conducted in organisations within south africa, knowledge workers will continue leaving for preferential opportunities elsewhere which will ultimately be detrimental for the future economic growth and development of south africa. understanding how to incentivise and reward employees via the total reward factor model will retain knowledge workers and increase the attractiveness of working at the organisation. various studies on the total rewards factors have been conducted in many different fields, but none has been carried out particularly in a large south african international energy and chemicals company. this study was conducted to provide information for large companies such as this to ideally combine the total rewards factors to attract and retain knowledge workers. in an ideal situation, organisations should fully understand the needs of their employees in terms of remuneration preferences. organisations should understand if their target type of employees would move jobs based on purely monetary compensation or do they prefer additional benefits such as flexible working arrangements, safety and security at the workplace, a work–life balance, recognition, personal development or various other remuneration options. this is important particularly to retain knowledge workers as the cost associated with replacing this knowledge far outweighs the cost of retaining them. the problem is that organisations do not necessarily understand what remuneration preferences are valued by employees. in large organisations, investigating each individual’s preference is a time-consuming task which may not be a priority to the organisation. this results in knowledge workers, who are vital to the organisations achievement of its strategy and maintaining its competitive edge, leaving because their reward preferences were not well understood. in spite of the lack of sufficient knowledge workers in south africa, organisations fail to recognise the importance in retaining the employees they have. if organisations continue to operate in this way, knowledge workers, who have much higher levels of mobility, have alternative options to either move to another organisation within south africa or to leave south africa. with the increased move towards globalisation, organisations no longer only face a threat of their knowledge workers moving within the region they operate instead they now compete for knowledge workers globally. the worldatwork total reward programmes was used to evaluate the knowledge workers’ rewards preferences via a quantitative research study. the ‘total rewards programme’ evaluated both rewards that are monetary-based and rewards that are non-monetary-based. monetary rewards consist of basic and variable pay and the ownership of shares. other benefits are included in non-monetary rewards. for the quantitative analysis, the population size was 1229 employees from a junior management role and higher. a total of 199 employees voluntarily participated in the survey, all knowledge workers of various qualification levels and race as indicated by table 7 and table 8. the sample was selected via convenience non-probability sampling. an electronic based questionnaire was developed from the worldatwork rewards model. the results from the surveys were analysed via various statistical methods, that is, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. table 7: description data of sample – race. table 8: descriptive sample data – qualifications. the main outcomes of the study were the following: there was no significant difference in rewards preferences based on the knowledge workers’ age, level of performance or number of years of service. there was also no significant difference between the knowledge workers’ number of years of service and their intention to remain with the organisation. from the analysis, there was a significant difference between male and female employees for benefits, flexibility and performance development preferences. implications for management organisations could benefit from understanding their employees’ preferential remuneration benefits, in particular knowledge workers in order to retain them. talent management systems need to be implemented in order to gain a competitive advantage through retaining valuable talent to execute the strategic intent of the organisation efficiently. with the skills shortage currently being experienced in south africa especially in the leadership, senior management, technical and engineering fields, the demand for talent is high. losing knowledgeable employees has a cost impact from both replacing the employee and attempting to rebuild the knowledge lost (schlechter et al., 2014c). organisations need to have their retention and talent development strategies in place to retain knowledge workers. understanding what remuneration preferences are favoured by knowledge workers could enable organisations to retain them. in a previous study investigating total rewards that retain states that employees who have the flexibility of a reward package aligned to their preference are more likely to remain with the organisation (pregnolato et al., 2017). retaining employees is not about revamping compensation systems and paying considerably above market as throwing money alone at valuable employees can be a risky and expensive endeavour (bryant & allen, 2013). south africa is in dire need of retaining the knowledge and experience that have been cultivated within the country. various studies have estimated that the replacement cost of losing a knowledgeable employee can potentially be up to 150% of the annual salary of the employee (theron et al., 2014). the loss of individuals includes both psychological and intangible consequences such as a loss of knowledge, experience, disrupted productivity, lower morale and additional stress (theron et al., 2014). globalisation has enabled knowledge workers’ greater flexibility and higher mobility in the recent years, and in a survey conducted in large south african organisations, it was found that global mobility resulted in 21% of the total turnover (khoele & daya, 2014). the turnover of knowledge workers especially in senior and management positions has a detrimental effect on the productivity and profitability of an organisation. as stated by khoele & daya, 2014: high staff turnover is a cause for alarm, not only because of the costs associated with recruitment, selection and training, but also due to the increasing scarcity of experienced talent. (p. 1) knowledge workers represent an organisation’s competitive advantage and the loss of these workers not only results in monetary and knowledge loss but also the unavailability of experienced talent to replace them. south africa is experiencing a skills crisis in general and retaining knowledge workers is difficult because of their unique attributes. this ‘scarcity of skills stimulates the open competition for talent and drives turnover higher’ (khoele & daya, 2014, p. 5) in addition to the high cost of losing, an employee has other effects such as work disruptions, loss of valuable organisational knowledge, strategic knowledge, loss in productivity, loss of mentors, diminished diversity and turnover contagion most likely will occur (bryant & allen, 2013; schlechter, faught, & bussin, 2014a). retaining key employees is critical to the long-term success of an organisation (balakrishnan & vijayalakshmi, 2014). in addition to the losses that accompany the turnover of knowledgeable employees, south africa is suffering from a major skills shortage especially in technical fields such as engineering (rasool & botha, 2011). south africa is losing a large number of its knowledge workers which will eventually disable the economy from competing globally (coetzee et al., 2014; rasool & botha, 2011). employers are forced to compete to gain the talent and skills that are required to accomplish the organisations’ strategic objectives. an excess supply of labour is no longer available to camouflage ineffective human resource strategies (dawn & biswas, 2013): a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach cannot be used to incentivise knowledge workers. there is a significant difference between reward preferences between the different genders and if the organisation wishes to increase the number of female representatives within its work force, these different needs will need to be actively addressed. other research showed that age has a significant impact on the retention of knowledge workers. it was not evident amongst the sample of knowledge workers in this large organisation. rewards preferences between high-performing knowledge workers and low-performing knowledge workers were shown to be statistically insignificant. limitations of the research the research was undertaken in one organisation with a specific culture and processes. this may limit the generalisability of the findings to other organisations and other emerging markets. the research could have been complemented by qualitative research methods to understand the motivation and drivers of employees more deeply. suggestions for future research there is limited research conducted on the reasons of why employees stay or leave an organisation in developing countries (theron et al., 2014). in addition to research into retention in organisations, the connection to reward and the impact on other organisational features is necessary. for instance, the culture, leadership perception, more information on non-financial rewards may all impact the retention of knowledge workers. it would also be useful to undertake a post hoc analysis of knowledge workers who have left organisations to investigate their reasons of leaving, and compare this with current employees’ perceptions. further research could also compare the reward preferences of knowledge workers in developed countries versus developing countries. conclusion there was no significant difference in rewards preferences based on the knowledge workers’ age, level of performance or number of years of service. there was also no significant difference between the knowledge workers’ number of years of service and their intention to remain with the organisation. from the analysis, it was found that there was a significant difference between male and female employees’ preferences of benefits, flexibility and performance development. knowledge workers’ reward preferences differ based on demographic variables such as gender. acknowledgements i acknowledge mark h.r. bussin (my supervisor), ronel nienaber for her assistance in attaining the sample data and my family members, navash brigman, roshila brigman and sunjith brigman, for their support. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions n.b. was responsible for project design and analysis. m.h.r.b. made intellectual and conceptual contribution. n.b. and m.h.r.b. wrote the manuscript. references balakrishnan, l., & vijayalakshmi, m. (2014). a study on retention strategy’s followed by education institutions in retaining qualified employees. sies journal of management, 10(1), 69–81. benito-osorio, d., munoz-aguando, l., & villar, c. (2014). the impact of family and work-life balance policies on the performance of spanish listed companies. aims management, 17(4), 214–236. bryant, p. c., & allen, d. g. (2013). compensation, benefits and employee turnover: hr strategies for retaining top talent. sage publications, 45(3), 171–175. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886368713494342 bussin, m., & van rooy, d. j. (2012). total rewards strategy for a multi-generational workforce in a financial institution. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.606 coetzee, m., mitonga-monga, j., & swart, b. (2014). human resource practices as predictors of engineering staff’s organisational commitment. sa journal of human resource management, october, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.604 dawn, s. k., & biswas, s. (2013). talent management: designing strategies. bi-annual journal of asian school of business management, vi(ii), 41–51. fourie, j. (2016). highly skilled migrants do matter. finweek, (november), 4. retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&an=119439636&site=ehost-live idris, m. h., hamzah, d., sudirman, i., & hamid, n. (2017). the relevance of financial and non-financial compensation on professionalism and lecturers performance: evidence from makassar private universities (indonesia). journal of asian development, 3(2), 162–180. https://doi.org/10.5296/jad.v3i2.11491 jayasingam, s., govindasamy, m., & garib singh, s. k. (2016). instilling affective commitment: insights on what makes knowledge workers want to stay. management research review, 39(3), 266–288. https://doi.org/10.1108/mrr-03-2014-0060 khoele, a., & daya, p. (2014). investigating the turnover of middle and senior managers in the pharmaceutical industry in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.562 pobst, g. f. (2014). meeting the challenge of knowledge worker shortages with strategic talent management, american journal of management, 14, 62–67. pregnolato, m., bussin, m. h. r., & schlechter, a. f. (2017). total rewards that retain: a study of demographic preferences. sa journal of human resource management, 15, 1–10. rasool, f., & botha, c. j. (2011). the nature, extent and effect of skills shortages on skills migration in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, july, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9il.287 saunders, m., & lewis, p. (2012). doing research in business and management. essex: england. pearson. schlechter, a., faught, c., & bussin, m. (2014a). total rewards: a study of artisan attraction and retention within a south african context. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–15. http://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.648 schlechter, a., hung, a., & bussin, m. (2014b). understanding talent attraction: the influence of financial rewards elements on perceived job attractiveness. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.647 schlechter, a., thompson, n. c., & bussin, m. (2014c). attractiveness of non-financial rewards for prospective knowledge workers an experimental investigation, 37(3), 274–295. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-06-2014-0077 smit, w. a. (2013). retention preferences from a multi-generation workforce perspective: the relationship between total rewards, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor support. thesis, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of pretoria. tatoglu, e., glaister, a. j., & demirbag, m. (2016). talent management motives and practices in an emerging market: a comparison between mnes and local firms. journal of world business, 51(2), 278–293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2015.11.001 theron, m., barkhuizen, n., & du plessis, y. (2014). managing the academic talent void: investigating factors in academic turnover and retention in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 2011, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1117 wöcke, a., & heymann, m. (2012). impact of demographic variables on voluntary labour turnover in south africa. the international journal of human resource management, 23(16), 3479–3494. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.639028 abstract introduction methodology literature review external factors observations and reflections relationship between environmental influences, employee resourcing strategies and firm performance acknowledgements references about the author(s) honest mupani department of human resource management, julius nyerere school of social sciences, great zimbabwe university, masvingo, zimbabwe crispen chipunza faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, free state, south africa citation mupani, h., & chipunza, c. (2019). environmental influences, employee resourcing strategies and small and medium-sized enterprises performance: case of south african small restaurants. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1104. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1104 original research environmental influences, employee resourcing strategies and small and medium-sized enterprises performance: case of south african small restaurants honest mupani, crispen chipunza received: 24 july 2018; accepted: 29 may 2019; published: 30 sept. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: small businesses’ contribution to economic growth and employment creation cannot be disputed in south africa, amid operating in an environment that is highly competitive and reports of small and medium-sized enterprise (sme) high failure rates, in general. in view of this, and to our knowledge, no known theoretical study has been conducted in south africa examining how certain environmental factors might influence the use of appropriate resourcing strategies for improved small businesses’ performance. research purpose: this theoretical article investigates the relationships between environmental influences, employee resourcing strategies and business performance among south african small restaurants. motivation for the study: there is a paucity of literature that has explored whether a relationship exists between the three variables among small restaurant businesses in south africa, justifying the need for such an investigation. research approach/design and method: this article, which is conceptual in nature, adopted a systematic literature review which entails combining all existing research literature related to the three variables so as to arrive at logical inferences. main findings: the research contends that a relationship exists between the three variables. practical/managerial implications: small businesses need to be aware of the environmental influences that may contribute to business failure so that they attune employee resourcing strategies to the environment to achieve high performance. contribution/value add: the article contributes to extant literature on the interplay between environmental factors, resourcing strategies and firm performance in small restaurant businesses of emerging economies. keywords: employee resourcing; sustained competitive advantage; firm performance; external environment; internal environment; resource based view; restaurants. introduction pressures of globalisation and international competition have compelled large and small organisations to design and implement employee resourcing strategies to fit the global, cultural and institutional and/or structural contingencies in their local context (aycan, 2005; bacon & hoque, 2005). in view of these complex environments, virtually every organisation, small or large, is actively seeking effective and efficient strategies of engaging the right people with right capabilities in the right jobs and striving to retain them (mahapatro, 2010). the continual search for best employee resourcing strategies assumes that people possess attributes that are rare, valuable, difficult to imitate and hard to substitute, and organisations that are able to attract, select and retain this resource should outperform those that do not have these attributes (burke & cooper, 2005). extant literature on small business performance (fatoki, 2011; matchaba-hove & vambe, 2014; mbizi et al., 2013; radipere & dhliwayo, 2014) has not adequately included other factors, such as employee resourcing strategies, which is about the acquisition, retention, development and effective utilisation of people that a business needs (armstrong, 2011). the reason why employee resourcing strategies have not been of concern to small businesses is because human resources functions are usually not given prominence in this sector, yet they take place daily (nyamwanza, 2014). the interest in small restaurants stems from the background that, like other small businesses in other sectors, in south africa, the sector has grown and is contributing immensely to the country’s gross domestic product (gdp) (zwane, du plessis, & slabbert, 2014). despite this need for employee resourcing strategies among both small and large organisations, research by gamage (2014) acknowledges the poor state of employee resourcing strategies among the small restaurant businesses. small restaurants’ lack of an established tradition of legitimate human resource activities implies that they often rely on a network of informal personal relations often tied to family connections, friendship and acquiescence. this is in line with nyamwanza’s (2014) view that most small business owners recruit their relatives and church members. with regard to source of information about prospective jobs, ghanaian small business owners and/or managers tended to rely exclusively on traditional sources, such as relatives and friends (asiedu-appiah, aduse-poku, & abeeku-bamfo, 2013). therefore, employee resourcing is done in ad hoc manner and this compromises the realisation of important organisational outcomes. yet, the adoption of proper employee resourcing strategies, such as doing succession planning, formalising recruitment and so on, is one way of ensuring the success itika, 2011). this article, therefore, argues that the pathway to improved firm performance demands small and medium-sized enterprises (sme) managers and/or owners to adopt a systemic, holistic approach to resourcing strategies – one in which organisational resourcing capabilities are attuned to environmental factors (both internal and external) to maximise competitive advantage and improve organisational performance. background of the study small and medium-sized enterprises in the hospitality industry, including small restaurant businesses, are critical drivers of developing economies (chimucheka, 2013; kishore, majumdar, & kiran, 2012) and south africa is no exception. the hospitality industry in south africa (zwane et al., 2014) has experienced significant growth, thus contributing immensely to employment creation. the industry is dominated by small businesses (zwane et al., 2014) and it offers more employment opportunities because of the diverse nature of the industry. the industry is expected to create 1 709 000 jobs (10.7% of total employment) by 2021 from 1 334 000 jobs (10.1% of total employment) in 2011 worldwide (world travel and tourism council [wttc], 2011). indeed, the hospitality industry is extremely labour intensive and a significant source of employment (international labour organisation, 2010). zwane et al. (2014) observe that the industry plays a significant role in the economy and remains a large contributor to south africa’s gdp. notwithstanding the criticality of this industry and spirited efforts by the south african government in assisting small businesses realise critical organisational outcomes through establishment of a dedicated ministry, there have been reports of poor performance by small businesses in the country (cant, erdis, & sephapo, 2014; mbonyane & ladzani, 2011; olawale & garwe, 2010). for example, cant et al. (2014) observed that two out of seven new small businesses in south africa survive in their first year, while the rest experience constraints. in an attempt to find reasons why small business fail, several factors have been suggested: lack of managerial competencies, lack of resources, and inability to respond to internal and external environmental changes (obasan, 2014). in terms of resources, known studies on small business performance (fatoki, 2011; matchaba-hove & vambe, 2014; mbizi et al., 2013; radipere & dhliwayo, 2014) have not included other factors such as employee resourcing strategies. in addition, in view of the central place of hospitality smes in the developing imperatives of african countries, their employee resourcing strategies are a critical element of human resource function to investigate, irrespective of the size, structure or activity of these firms (armstrong, 2011). previous studies by katua, mukulu and gachunga (2014) on employee resourcing strategies determined employee resourcing strategies in large hospitality firms; however, a grey area still exists regarding whether generalisability of employee resourcing strategies found in the hospitality industry in large firms in advanced economies can be extended to small hospitality firms in emerging economies such as south africa. this is particularly important, as hospitality smes are considered to have traits that may not be extrapolated to those in other economic sectors in the same region. for instance, hospitality industries are well known for having a lot of human resourcing challenges as they usually employ staff on short-term basis (international labour organisation, 2010). furthermore, the ability of these small hospitality businesses to respond to internal and external environmental changes is still questionable. njuguna-kinyua, munyoki and kibera (2014) argue that the characteristics and quality of the environment determine whether a firm will perform well or not. for example, an economic boom or downturn might have serious implications on the performance of small restaurant businesses. similarly, fatoki (2014) identifies internal factors – such as lack of management experience, lack of functional skills, poor staff training and development and poor attitudes towards customers – and external factors – such as competition, rising cost of doing business, lack of finance and crime – as impeding small businesses’ ability to expand and grow in south africa. based on all this evidence, it can be argued that there is still scope for further research in understanding the interplay between environmental factors, employee resourcing strategies and business performance among small restaurant businesses in developing economies. problem statement despite efforts by various scholars to document about small hospitality businesses’ challenges, as well as governments’ efforts to capacitate them, small restaurant businesses in south africa are still marred by a disturbing high failure rate (cant et al., 2014; mbonyane & ladzani, 2011) and this has been a cause of concern for policymakers. njuguna-kinyua et al. (2014) posit that businesses’ failure could be attributed to a number of factors, such as the inability to respond to the environmental uncertainty for increased performance. while this evidence can be applauded, the extent to which small restaurant businesses understand and respond to environmental imperatives for organisational performance is still a grey area to be explored in south africa. not only is an understanding of the environment by small restaurant businesses is important, but also, in today’s competitive business world, adopting the best employee resourcing strategies is always seen as contributing to the competitive advantage and increased business performance (mahapatro, 2010). however, what we currently know in the hospitality industry, especially small restaurants in south africa, is that exploitation of labour, casual, seasonal and part-time employment, is predominant in this industry (mwando et al., 2014). to that effect, ad hoc, rather than proper and well-structured, human resourcing strategies are adopted by small businesses, which results in high staff attrition because of low pay, long working hours, lack of training and career development, low productivity and business shrinkages (omolo, oginda, & oso, 2012). in addition, finding talented, competent and skilled workforce, retaining them and turnover remain a challenge among these businesses (zwane et al., 2014). furthermore, establishing formal resourcing strategies is an insurmountable task among south african smes, where such practices are often implemented arbitrarily, blindly ignored or paid lip service affecting the bottom line (nzonzo & matashu, 2014). while there is growing literature that explores human resourcing activities (armstrong, 2011; pilbeam & corbridge, 2010), there is a paucity of literature that explores the influence of human resource management (hrm) strategies, such as employee resourcing, on smes performance. therefore, research that explores the employee resourcing strategies of small restaurant firms in particular contributes to the intellectual debate on small restaurant business’ human resource practices and performance in developing economies (ateljevic, 2007; kibassa, 2012). interestingly so, employee resourcing strategies, such as workforce planning and succession planning, have remained a grey area in small restaurant business research. while there is convergence of literature on the contribution of environmental factors such as manager’s expertise and experience, institutional support, quality of human resources, economic growth, corruption and political stability to leveraging the adoption of effective employee resourcing strategies (adisa et al., 2017; česynienė, diskienė, & stankevičienė, 2013; ogunyomi & bruning, 2016; punia & sharma, 2015) and the value of environmental influences in heightening business performance (kraja & osmania, 2015; njuguna-kinyua et al., 2014), there is limited research that explores the interplay among environmental influences, employee resourcing strategies and performance of small restaurant businesses in a developing context. actually, literature search has revealed that there is a paucity of literature that explores whether a relationship exists between environmental influences, employee resourcing practices and sme performance. this theoretical article tries to close this gap by addressing the following research question: what is the relationship between environmental influences, employee resourcing strategies and performance of small restaurant businesses in south africa? objectives of the study the objectives of the study were: to identify, from the literature, the environmental factors that have implications for employee resourcing strategies among the small restaurant businesses in south africa to explore employee resourcing strategies employed by small restaurant businesses in south africa to ascertain the environmental factors that influence small restaurant businesses’ performance in south africa to identify specific environmental factors and employee resourcing strategies that could be adopted by small restaurant businesses in south africa for increased business performance. theoretical underpinnings an appreciation of the relationship between environmental influences, employee resourcing strategies and small firm performance is grounded in the resource based view (rbv) that seeks to explain sources of sustained competitive advantage. the rbv was propounded in the mid-1980s by wernerfelt (1984), rumelt (1984) and barney (1986) and has been used extensively in the analysis of organisational performance. the rbv has become one of the most salient theories in hrm that provides a new view on sources of sustained competitive advantage. thus, the rbv theory is relevant in assessing what small restaurant businesses could consider when choosing the best employee resourcing strategy which culminates in business performance. after all, the rbv framework implies that human resources may be of greater significance for smaller firms, as they often have to do more with fewer resources in order to remain competitive (sheehan, 2013). the rbv theory posits that the success or failure of a business lies in the calibre of its employees as well as the quality of their working relationships (ekwoaba, ikeije, & ufoma, 2015). this could also be applicable in the service industry including restaurant businesses where the success of the business depends on, among other resources, its employees (kusluvan et al., 2010). in the restaurant business, human resources are the first point of contact between the organisation and its customers and that first interaction is very vital as it determines future interactions (kusluvan et al., 2010). for example, if employees are rude and not friendly to customers, the business’ performance might be affected. thus, small restaurant businesses that are able to acquire talented and cheerful staff and retain them through better remuneration, training, career development programmes and giving them higher responsibility are likely to perform better than those that do not have these attributes (coetzee & stoltz, 2015). this is further supported by fugar, ashiboe-mensah and adinyira (2013) who argue that an organisation’s stock of skills and knowledge can only be increased through proper staff attraction, education and training. indeed, the rbv asserts that an organisation can gain a sustained competitive advantage by attracting, developing and retaining best human resources and the extent to which it controls its strategic resources (people working in the organisation) will determine its ability to obtain superior organisational performance (chidi, 2013). the rbv theory helps to examine the competitive environment facing the small restaurant business because of its focus on the role of the internal environment in guaranteeing sme performance. the theory identifies a business’ internal resources, core competencies and distinctive capabilities as important in the formulation of resource strategies that are needed to achieve important organisational outcomes (zubac, hubbard, & johnson, 2010). the theory regards an organisation’s internal resources as key determinants of positive business performance. halmaghi, iancu and băcilă (2017) identified owners, managers and leadership, employees, material resources and culture as constituting the internal business environment. within the context of small restaurant businesses, it is possible to argue that the business’ internal resources are likely to give return on capital if owners and/or managers are able to identify, develop, protect and deploy resources and capabilities residing in the business that will allow them to perform better than their competitors (zubac et al., 2010). one of the reasons why the rbv is important for small restaurants small businesses is its focus on the internal environment of a business in order to manage business uncertainties rather than merely capitalising on the business opportunities that are presented by the turbulent external environment (burton & rycroft-malone, 2014). this is a marked departure from previously perceived sources of sustained competitive advantage as outlined in studies by porter (1980, 1985) which are only based on the external business environment, an approach which tends to isolate an organisation’s business opportunities and threats. yet, literature argues that the exploitation of a business’ opportunities requires that the critical resources should be valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable (vrin) if positive results are to be realised. small restaurant businesses in this instance need to ensure vrin attributes reside in the business venture itself (zubac et al., 2010). it means that the small restaurant business’ internal resources and capabilities, especially their human resources, could be regarded as valuable only if they are likely to bring about sustained organisational performance. nyamubarwa, mupani and chiduuro (2013) concur that an organisation’s human resources are a key source of organisational performance, as they resultantly add value, are rare in the marketplace, difficult or impossible to imitate and cannot be easily substituted. the rbv theory emphasises that organisations must strive to be successful in obtaining and managing available valued resources (oghojafor, muo, & aduloju, 2012). within the context of small restaurant businesses, this entails that human resources should be effectively and efficiently identified, nurtured and utilised. this implies that human capital assets, such as employee knowledge, skills, experience, ability, personality, internal and external relationships, attitudes and behaviours, should be utilised appropriately to produce quality service, customer satisfaction and loyalty to ensure the availability of competitive advantage and successful organisational performance (kusluvan et al., 2010). thus, the rbv establishes the possibilities for small restaurant owners and/or managers to invest in human resources. the contingency theory was also roped in to explain the influence of external environmental factors on employee resourcing strategies and small business performance. according to dropulić (2013), the external environment is a powerful contingency variable that is at the foundation of contingency-based research and the most widely researched aspect of the environment is uncertainty. today’s businesses are operating in a turbulent macro-economic environment and this could explain why there is a high mortality rate of small businesses (muzenda, 2014). obason (2014) opines that in order to survive, businesses need to keep a close tab on the various activities that determine their continuity. in line with the argument, it can therefore be suggested that an organisation should be able to respond to environmental uncertainty if it is to survive in this environment (njuguna-kinyua et al., 2014). thus, adopting effective employee resourcing strategies could be a critical factor that enhances adaptation of small restaurant businesses to an increasingly complex and uncertain business environment in which they operate. the ability of owners and/or managers of small restaurant businesses to make good analysis of the unpredictable business environment by attracting and retaining critical staff is what eventually separates successful businesses from failing businesses. methodology the researchers adopted a systematic literature review recommended by ahmed, ahmad, ahmad and zakaria (2018) which is a repeatable process of combining all existing research literature related to environmental influences, employee resourcing strategies and sme performance. this was done to establish concepts, constructs, definitions and relationships of variables drawn from the literature to make logical inferences. to capture as many relevant studies as possible, the researchers conducted both automatic and manual search (frank & hatak, 2014). the researcher conducted automatic search in the main business source database of sciencedirect, google scholar, emarald and springerlink. a manual search was conducted in relevant peer-reviewed journals, such as, among others, african journal of business management, african journal of hospitality, tourism and leisure, european business review, european journal of business and management, global advanced research journal of management and business studies, interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, international business & economics research journal, international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, international journal of business management, international journal of manpower, journal of small business and enterprise development, journal of small business management, problems and perspectives in management, sa journal of human resource management, southern african business review, the international journal of human resource management and the journal of applied business research and tourism management. the researchers also utilised sources from conference papers, phd theses and book chapters for the research. finally, to get a broader perspective, the researchers used a variety of keywords to identify environmental factors (both internal and external), employee resourcing strategies (including workforce planning, recruitment and selection and staff retention) and firm performance (including growth, profitability and performance). although the researchers managed to get abundant literature on firm performance that qualified for inclusion in the review, they were more interested in studies that focused on smes. literature review restaurant businesses in south africa stats sa (2013) defines restaurants (whether small or large) as those enterprises which are involved in the sale and provision of meals and drinks, ordered from a menu, and prepared on the hospitality premises for their immediate consumption while the consumers are seated. the south african restaurant sector is represented by the restaurant association of south africa (rasa), which is a coalition of eating and drinking establishments. membership is drawn from fast food outlets, independent restaurants, coffee shops, casual dining establishments, hospital canteens, quick service restaurants, mobile restaurants and major franchise groups. the different restaurants in south africa (small and large) all provide convenient meals and there is a shift in the lifestyle of the people of south africa and the general growth in the disposable income (oni & matiza, 2014). senik, said and khalili (2012) attribute the sharp increase in the number of people visiting fast food restaurants, fine-dining or casual dining eateries to the fast-paced and busy life style schedule of people in south africa. on the other hand, oni and matiza (2014) attribute the growth of fast food consumption in south africa to the growth of the black middle class, with an increased household income and the participation of south african women in the labour force. while the growth in customer base of restaurants grows, the level of competition is also high among members in this industry, from retail chain stores to supermarkets and convenience stores which also offer ready-made food (senik et al., 2012). despite this competition, gain, food service – hotel restaurant institutional south africa hri sector report 2016 still contend that the south african food and beverage industry has generated total income that has increased by 11.5% in october 2014 as compared to october 2013, despite the recent global economic recession. what this means is that the restaurant business is a major contributor to the south african economic growth and development, especially employment. as a result, the nature of employment prevalent in the restaurant businesses in south africa is critical to comprehend because the industry seems to create many employment opportunities (makumbirofa & saayman, 2018). as mentioned previously, the seasonal nature of a restaurant business renders it labour intensive (vettori, 2017). the labour intensiveness of the hospitality industry, according to jinnah and cazarin (2015), makes the employees make or break the success of restaurant businesses as they become part and parcel of the whole intangible product range and are at the heart for excellent and prompt service delivery. coupled with this labour intensive nature, the industry, in countries like south africa, is characterised by irregular and increased working hours during holiday periods as consumers demand services, mostly after normal working hours and almost around the clock (makumbirofa & saayman, 2018).this situation exposes the restaurant business to unstable employment, casualisation of labour, low job status, long antisocial working hours and low pay and in some instances litigation cases pertaining to employment issues (jinnah & cazarin, 2015). all these challenges make employee resourcing for this industry a complex issue. employee resourcing strategies employee resourcing is the attraction, selection and retention as well as effective and efficient utilisation of human talent to achieve organisational goals (armstrong, 2011). it is postulated that good choices of human resources of businesses trigger firm performance or sustained competitive advantage (katou & budhwar, 2009). thus, employee resourcing should not be restricted to recruitment and selection (attracting employees) but rather developing and retaining high-quality people for certain skills in an organisation as well. armstrong (2011) asserts that employee resourcing strategies exist to provide the employees with skills required to support the business strategy and this culminates in achievement of firm performance. thus, small restaurants and other organisations need to craft employee resourcing strategies that will ensure the obtaining and retention of people they need to employ. adoption of employee resourcing strategies such as workforce planning, recruitment, selection and retention is likely to culminate in sustained organisational performance. employee resourcing strategies and small and medium-sized enterprises performance previous studies have shown that there is congruence between employee resourcing and firm performance (armstrong, 2011; katou, 2011; omolo et al., 2012). a study conducted by kotey and slade (2005) reported a positive association between hrm practices and performance of smes. ojokuku, sajuyigbe and ogunwoye’s (2014) research regarding the interplay of hrm practices and the performance of nigerian smes reported that hrm practices have significant impact on business performance. the authors (ojokuku et al., 2014) explained that the weak impact of selection processes could be attributed to the often arbitrary and subjective nature of the personal judgements of the owners and/or managers during selections. by the same way chidi and okpala (2012) established a positive relationship between recruitment practices and organisational performance. noe et al. (2006) established that there is a positive relationship between employee retention rates and employee performance. it can be inferred that retaining employees sustainably allows employees to internalise procedures and processes of effective task accomplishment, allowing them to gradually build the critical mass of skills and competencies relevant to superior performance. an empirical research conducted by katou and budhwar (2009) on 178 organisations operating in the greek manufacturing sector revealed that employee skills, attitudes and behaviour had an impact on firm performance. by the same token, such possession of skills and appropriate attitudes can be traced back to the appropriateness of recruitment strategies. however, it is not clear whether the employee resourcing strategies used in big organisations in previous studies apply to small restaurant businesses in the hospitality industry in developing contexts. what is known in some developing countries, such as south african smes, is that they also regard employee resourcing strategies as critical to firm performance. for example, a study conducted by neneh and van zyl (2012) on achieving optimal business performance through business practices in smes in the free state province of south africa established that those organisations that were implementing business practices, such as e-hrm, had higher chances of achieving better organisational performance. in contrast, however, nzonzo and matashu (2014) attributed the poor performance of south african small businesses to lack of clear employee resourcing policies and procedures where staff attraction is done through family lines and referrals. one may conclude that such practices make smes struggle to recruit and retain knowledge workers, and this might result in poor organisational outcomes. this assumption provides a strong case for small restaurant businesses to adopt employee resourcing strategies to achieve key organisational outcomes. we can, therefore, infer that employee resourcing strategies influence performance of small restaurant businesses within the hospitality industry. influence of internal and external environmental factors a reasonable proxy for exploring the challenges of adoption of employee resourcing strategies of smes and firm performance is to interrogate the key determinants of human resourcing strategies in smes. while there are a number of factors that shape such practices, they can be examined from a hierarchical perspective, namely personal factors (such as personal experience and professional exposure), institutional factors (e.g. ownership structure, firm size and established legitimate practices) and environmental factors (e.g. the sector to which smes belong and the level of unionism in the sector). these are elaborated in subsequent sections of this article. personal experience and professional exposure the professional background, education and prior exposure to employee resourcing strategies of small restaurant business owners and/or managers tend to influence their keenness to embrace formalised hrm practices. ateljevic’s (2007) study on new zealand small tourism firms reported that a more formalised approach to management of the business appears to be strongly associated with the owner and/or manager professional profiles and personal motivation of those involved in the tourism industry. nzonzo and matashu (2014) argue that managerial competencies of south african small business owners influence the extent to which they adopt workforce planning initiatives and formal staffing policies and procedures. the majority of these owners lacked secondary, let alone post-secondary, educational qualifications and training and this explains why most of them struggle. asiedu-appiah et al. (2013)’s research on the recruitment and selection practices of smes in ghana highlighted that owners’ and/or managers’ little or lack of expertise in contemporary recruitment and selection practices accounted for unsystematic and inconsistent implementation of such practices by small firms. previous experience in working in formal setting exposes the owners and/or managers to the benefits of employee resourcing strategies and they will likely implement formal resourcing practices (ovadje, 2010). this implies that owners and/or managers of hospitality smes with graduate education and who exited corporate organisations with strong employee resourcing strategies are more likely to imagine the corporate value of establishing and implementing formal human resourcing practices than their counterparts with lower levels of education and without exposure or experience with such practices. we infer from these studies that (1) managerial competencies influence adoption of formal employee resourcing strategies in smes culminating in firm performance and (2) owners and/or managers of hospitality smes with prior expertise and exposure to employee resourcing strategies are more likely to embrace and promote these practices in their businesses than those without such expertise and exposure. institutional considerations ownership structure compared to non-family-owned businesses, the employee resourcing strategies of family-owned businesses tend to be more exposed to the arbitrary whims of family members because of fragmented reporting structures and ad hoc managerial processes. al-jabari (2011) investigated on hrm practices of palestinian family-owned smes and found that firms rarely utilise a full and complementary range of human resource practices but relied on traditional patriarchal authoritarianism and denied their workers performance appraisal, training and development, promotion and healthcare. the research also established that smes relied on traditional methods of recruitment and selection such as word-of-mouth method by family members and promotions were riddled by favouritism and nepotism and appraisals that often targeted non-members exclusively. this has implications on the bottom line, suggesting the need for smes to distinguish management from ownership. constraints of firm size the smallness of hospitality businesses such as restaurants has some strong implications for the human resourcing budget and resourcing practices at large (nyamwanza, 2014). funding is considered critical for staffing of highly trained personnel with critical skills and competencies vital to organisational success. ovadje (2010) acknowledges that smes often have limited financial resources to meet the upfront yet substantial costs of implementing these human resourcing practices. ojokuku et al.’s (2014) study on the human resourcing practices of south-western nigerian smes revealed that firm size has significant influence (β = 0.320, p < 0.01) on hrm practice adoption. this implies that the implementation of hrm practices differs between firms with different sizes. they elaborated that compared to smes, larger firms are more inclined to develop complete and sophisticated human resource systems because of the need to spread out their costs, their higher level of managerial control and image consciousness because of their higher visibility in society (ojokuku et al., 2014). it can be inferred from these studies that firm size often has implications for the human resources budget as well as the extent of formalisation of human resources practices in firms including smes. established legitimate practices small and medium-sized enterprises often lack a firm foundation upon which to base their hrm practices. this lack of an established tradition of legitimate employee resourcing strategies by small firms implies that they often rely on a network of informal personal relations often tied to family connections, friendship and acquiescence (asiedu-appiah et al., 2013). these smes lack systematic and formalised employee resourcing procedures such as well-defined recruitment and selection policy and their performance appraisal was largely informal and owners and/or managers often struggle to attract qualified employees (asiedu-appiah et al., 2013). ovadje (2010) concurs and argues that small firms are often characterised by informality in relationships among employees and owners or managers, in systems, structures and people management practices. this could explain why smes face viability challenges as staffing is done in an ad hoc manner. external factors nature of the sector the hospitality industry is a service industry and the calibre of the employees has a bearing on the attainment of important organisational outcomes, more so in the small restaurant businesses where products are produced and consumed simultaneously and are made tangible in the personality, attitudes and behaviour of employees. the employees are part of the product, represent the organisation and help in shaping its image in the service industry (kusluvan et al., 2010). employee resourcing strategies used by the restaurant business have a bearing on the attainment of important organisational outcomes. this implies that if the business hires a wrong person for the job, this will make it vulnerable to failure. thus, the business should be able to attract skilled workforce who are capable to provide good customer care and efficient service, culminating in superior business performance. njuguna-kinyua et al. (2014) argue that the characteristics and quality of the environment will determine whether an sme will perform well or not. for example, oni & matiza (2014) posit that the growth rate of the restaurant industry is directly proportional to employment and consumer income. this implies that the restaurant industry depends on environmental influences such as individual customers’ disposable income, meaning that during economic prosperity there is greater spending at restaurants and in recessionary periods spending dwindles. thus, there is a need for smes to be responsive to these attributes to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty that are key ingredients for business survival, and south africa is no exception. economic environment high interest rates, low growth rates, declining exchange rates and high inflation rates affect an organisation’s ability to expand and operate and also the demand for goods and services (fatoki, 2011). additionally, orogbu, onyeizugbe, & chukwuma (2017) opine that economic environmental factors such as government tax revenue, exchange rate, interest rate and inflation rate have a significant negative effect on the performance of smes. it is not easy for smes in south africa to flourish, as the country’s financial and operating environment is not supportive in terms of access to capital, regulations and policies. this explains why there is a high mortality rate of smes in south africa during the start-up phase. south africa has one of the highest start-up failure rates in the world – as about 75% of new smes do not become established firms (olawale & garwe, 2010). this could be because of resource scarcity and unfriendly economic environment which force owners and/or managers of smes to settle for unskilled workforce and it affects their performance. it becomes critical therefore for small smes to be aware of the economic factors which influence adoption of employee resourcing strategies as it has important implications on the bottom line. observations and reflections full comprehension of the association among environmental influences, employee resourcing strategies and performance of small restaurant businesses demands an analysis of the external and internal environment in which these firms operate. in particular, the internal environment can be divided into two aspects: individual and institutional influences. individual influences on the formalisation of human resourcing strategies depend in part on the prior experience and exposure of the owner and/or manager to formalised employee resourcing strategies. we envisage that those owners and/or managers who come from large corporations with established tradition of hrm practices, or those who discern the value thereof, are more inclined to introduce formalised employee resourcing strategies than their counterparts without such experience. more so, personal experience in a formal setting is often considered to be perhaps the most important factor influencing the decision to adopt employee resourcing strategies (ovadje, 2010). a number of institutional practices, such as business ownership structure, the size of the firm and established legitimate employee resourcing strategies, have a significant influence on the chances of formalisation of employee resourcing strategies by small restaurant firms in south africa. in terms of ownership structure of the business, family-owned businesses which are run on paternalistic, authoritarian approach by individual founders are less likely to develop human resourcing strategies. this is because family values, desire for consensus among powerful family members and cohesion may interfere with the need to establish impersonal, professional hrm processes. the dominance of informal family loyalties may generate a sense of mutual obligation requiring few sophisticated hrm practices (bacon & hoque, 2005; baines & wheelock, 2000) and knowledge transfer into family-owned businesses may be constrained by their reluctance to bring in few outside managers with additional hrm skills, experience or knowledge (bacon & hoque, 2005). the firm size may limit the capacity of restaurant smes to employ hrm managers or hrm consultants who can widen the organisations’ familiarity with and wider scale rollout of formalised employee resourcing strategies. the budgetary constraints associated with sme firms may also limit organisational capacity to adopt computerised or electronic hrm practices, acquisition of hrm electronic software and ability to offer continual training including competitive compensation. the size of the organisation significantly shapes the organisation’s capacity to implement what lepak et al. (2006) regard as skill-enhancing hr practices, motivation-enhancing hr practices and opportunity-enhancing hr practices. the presence of external influences, such as the nature of sme sector and the level of unionism, may also shape the decisions to and extent of adoption of employee resourcing strategies. regarding the nature of the market, while there can be low barriers to entry for small restaurant firms, higher competition because of lack of product differentiation among such firms can negatively impact their financial returns, which invariably complicate the adoption of employee resourcing strategies. the complex government regulations can also shape the corporate governance and control systems, which influence the extent of uptake of formalised employee resourcing strategies. it is clear from the literature that employee resourcing strategies play a pivotal role in ensuring that smes achieve a sustained competitive advantage. however, we noted that there is a lack of formal employee resourcing strategies in smes and those firms that adopt them normally implement them in an ad hoc manner. most sme owners and/or managers are used to traditional patriarchal authoritarianism and they lack a firm foundation upon which to base their employee resourcing strategies. regarding recruitment and selection, smes rely on relatives and affinity-based networks (e.g. church members) who will not question managerial authority and are not recruited for their skills but loyalty. small and medium-sized enterprises also face challenges of resource paucity because of smallness, which forces them to rely on informal employee resourcing strategies, and this may impede their performance. employees tend to have no voice in the management of the firm and the owners are inclined to make unilateral executive decisions. we noted from the literature that those smes with formal employee resourcing strategies like recruitment and selection are better able to withstand the vagaries of the turbulent macroand institutional environment. this calls for a paradigm shift in the way smes owners and/or managers conduct their business – in particular a need to adopt those employee –resourcing strategies that impact important organisational outcomes. it was also affirmed that as most owners and/or managers of smes often lack prior exposure to and experience in employee resourcing strategies, their businesses tend to struggle to embrace formal employee resourcing strategies, which are regarded mistakenly as the preserve of large hospitality firms. however, the informal structures and hierarchies prevalent in smes may give them greater flexibility to adapt to the ever-changing environment unlike big businesses; therefore, there is a need to adopt a strategy that gives smes leverage as blind adoption of formal employee resourcing policies may yield unintended consequences. they may need to blend informal and informal policies contingent on the external and internal environments. as figure 1 illustrates, the proposed framework hypothesises that the environmental factors inform the adoption of employee resourcing strategies, culminating in increased business performance. figure 1: conceptual framework. relationship between environmental influences, employee resourcing strategies and firm performance evaluation of contribution this study makes contribution to the literature on sme performance in a developing context by investigating the relationship among environmental factors, employee resourcing strategies and performance of small restaurant firms. to our knowledge, while there is abundant literature on employee resourcing strategies, it is based extensively on the experiences of big organisations. there is limited research that explores the relationship among environmental factors, employee resourcing strategies and performance of restaurant smes. in this theoretical article, we established that superior organisational performance in smes is a function of convivial endogenous and exogenous work environment which will inform the adoption of employee resourcing strategies, culminating in realisation of important organisational outcomes. the research noted that there is a general lack of enthusiasm by sme owners and/or managers to adopt strong employee resourcing strategies, especially in family-owned smes where businesses tend to be run on a paternalistic authoritarian approach by individual founders. these rigidities and informality tend to undermine viability and sustainability of these businesses. to survive in this turbulent macro-economic environment, small restaurant businesses should adopt formal employee resourcing strategies that give firms a competitive advantage and guarantee increased organisational performance. furthermore, we propose that the employee resourcing strategies and firm performance relationship hinges on the following antecedent variables: personal experience and professional exposure, ownership structure, constraints of firm size, workforce skills mix, established legitimate practices, nature of the sector and the level of unionism. limitations this research focused on congruence between environmental influences, employee resourcing strategies and firm performance and discovered some limitations. it was noted that firm performance is a function of many other factors besides employee resourcing strategies, such as (un)availability of resources and leadership style among other factors. furthermore, the research emphasised particular hrm practices (mainly recruitment, selection and retention) leaving out reward management, employee relations and performance management, which are also critical for firm performance. furthermore, the study was carried out in the restaurant businesses in the free state province of south africa and it may be difficult to generalise the findings to restaurant businesses in other towns and cities in the country. future studies in this industry may need to increase the geographic location of the study by including more provinces so as to increase the generalisability. we also acknowledge that the article is a theoretical study and therefore there is a need to undertake future research to ascertain the extent to which these findings can be tested empirically. conclusion the research addresses the challenges of establishing and implementing formal resourcing strategies in restaurant smes to achieve superior organisational performance. it calls for the blending of internal and external environmental factors, which informs employee resourcing strategies, culminating in competitive advantage which if sustained consistently can trigger superior organisational performance. increased competition demands that sme owners and/or managers adopt systemic, holistic approaches to resourcing strategies by attuning organisational resourcing capabilities to the environmental factors to maximise competitive advantage and improve organisational performance. thus, the adoption of formal employee strategies will give restaurant smes a competitive advantage, which can bring about optimal firm performance. the fact that most struggling smes do not have formal hrm activities like employee resourcing calls for urgent adoption of formal resourcing strategies to turn around their fortunes. further research is needed to ascertain if resourcing strategies can be generalised to other industries. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank central university of technology for their assistance in conducting this research. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the article was extracted from the student’s (h.m.) research which is being supervised by c.c. who is doing a sterling work in shaping and providing direction to the thesis. ethical considerations ethical clearance has been provided by the faculty research and innovation committee in view of the cut research ethics and integrity framework, 2016 with reference number msc113/2114. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views expressed in this article are that of the authors and not an official position of the central university of technology. references adisa, a., osabutey, e., gbadamosi, g., & mordi, c. (2017). the challenges of employee resourcing: the perceptions of managers in nigeria. career development international, 22(6), 703–723. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi-01-2017-0003 ahmed, y.a., ahmad, m.n., ahmad, n., & zakaria, n.h. (2018). social media for knowledge-sharing: a systematic literature review. telematics and informatics, 37, 72–112. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2018.01.015 al-jabari, m.m.h. (2011). exploring the nature of human resource management practices at family businesses in palestine. international business and management, 3(2), 30–39. armstrong, m. (2011). a handbook of human resource management practice (10th edn.). london: kogan page. asiedu-appiah, f., aduse-poku, o., & abeeku-bamfo, b. (2013). an investigation into recruitment and selection practices of small and medium enterprises: evidencefrom ghana. global advanced research journal of management and business studies, 2, 175–188. ateljevic, j. (2007). small tourism firms and management practices in new zealand: the centre stage macro region. tourism management, 28, 307–316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2006.07.004 aycan, z. (2005). the interplay between cultural and institutional/structural contingencies in human resource management practices. the international journal of human resource management, 16, 1083–1119. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190500143956 baines, s., & wheelock, j. (2000). work and employment in small businesses: perpetuating and challenging gender traditions. gender, work and organization, 7(1), 45–56. bacon, n., & hoque, k. (2005). hrm in the sme sector: valuable employees and coercive networks. the international journal of human resource management, 16, 1976–1999. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190500314706 burke, r.,& cooper, c. (2005). the human resources revolution: why putting people. in r. burke, & c. cooper (eds.), reinventing human resource management: challenges and new directions (pp. 3–15). oxon: routledge. burton, c.r., & rycroft-malone, j. (2014). resource based view of the firm as a theoretical lens on the organisational consequences of quality improvement. international journal of health policy and management, 3, 113–115. https://doi.org/10.15171/ijhpm.2014.74 česynienė, r., diskienė, d., & stankevičienė, a. (2013). labour market trends and their impact on human resource management in lithuanian companies. ekonomika, 92(3), 123–140. https://doi.org/10.15388/ekon.2013.0.1619 chidi, c., & okpala, o. (2012). human capital resourcing practices and organisational performance: a study of selected organisations in lagos state, nigeria. in a. azcarate (ed.), theoretical and methodological approaches to social sciences and knowledge management, open access journal, 279–292, intechopen, madrid. chidi, o.c. (2013). recruitment practices and performance of unionised organisations in the food, beverage and tobacco industry in lagos state, nigeria. interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, 5(6), 359–384. chimucheka, t. (2013). the impact of entrepreneurship education on the establishment and survival of small, micro and medium enterprises (smmes). journal of economics, 4(2), 157–168. https://doi.org/10.1080/09765239.2013.11884975 coetzee, m., & stoltz, e. (2015). employees’ satisfaction with retention factors: exploring the role of career adaptability. journal of vocational behavior, 89, 83–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2015.04.012 dropulić, i. (2013). the effects of contingency factors on management control system: a study of manufacturing companies in croatia. ekonomska istraživanja – economic research special issue, 2013, 26(sup1), 369–382. ekwoaba, j.o., ikeije, u., & ufoma, n. (2015). the impact of recruitment and selection criteria on organizational performance. european centre for research training and development uk, 3(2), 22–33. fatoki, o.o. (2011). the impact of human, social and financial capital on the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (smes) in south africa. journal of social science, 29, 193–204. https://doi.org/10.1080/09718923.2011.11892970 fatoki, o. (2014). the causes of the failure of new small and medium enterprises in south africa. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(20), 922–927. frank, h., & hatak, i. (2014). doing a research literature review. in a. fayolle & m. wright (eds.), how to get published in the best entrepreneurship journals: a guide to steer your academic career (pp. 94–117). cheltenham: edward elgar. fugar, f.d.k., ashiboe-mensah, n.a., & adinyira, e. (2013). human capital theory: implications for the ghanaian construction industry development. journal of construction project management and innovation, 3(1), 464–479. gain report. (2016). food service – hotel restaurant institutional south africa hri sector report 2016, retrieved from https://gain.fas.usda.gov/recent%20gain%20publications/food%20service%20-%20hotel%20restaurant%20institutional_pretoria_south%20africa%20-%20republic%20of_12-2-2016.pdf. gamage, a.s. (2014). recruitment and selection practices in manufacturing smes in japan: an analysis of the link with business performance. ruhuna journal of management and finance, 1(1), 37–52. halmaghi, e.-e., iancu, d., & băcilă, m.-l. (2017). the organization’s internal environment and its importance in the organization’s development. international conference knowledge-based organization, xxiii(1), 378–381. https://doi.org/10.1515/kbo-2017-0062 international labour organisation. (2010). developments and challenges in the hospitality and tourism sector: issues paper for discussion at the global dialogue forum for the hotels, catering and tourism sector. geneva: international labour office. itika, j.s. (2011). fundamentals of human resource management: emerging experiences from africa. leiden: african studies centre/university of groningen/mzumbe university african studies centre. jinnah, z., & cazarin, r. (2015). miworc report n°11 making guests feel comfortable: migrancy and labour in the hospitality sector in south africa. johannesburg: african centre for migration & society, university of the witwatersrand. katou, a. (2011). test of a causal human resource management-performance linkage model: evidence from the greek manufacturing sector. international journal of business science and applied management, 6(1), 16–29. katua, n.t., mukulu, e., & gachunga, g.h. (2014). effect of employee resourcing strategies on the performance of commercial banks in kenya. international journal of education and research, 2, 1–20. katou, a.a., & budhwar, p.s. (2009). causal relationship between hrm policies and organisational performance: evidence from the greek manufacturing sector. european management journal, 1–15. kibassa, f.m. (2012). small business research: upon finding definitions of entrepreneurship, entrepreneur and small firms. european journal of business and management, 4(15), 158–167. kishore, k., majumdar, m., & kiran, v. (2012). innovative hr strategies for smes. iosr journal of business and management, 2(6), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.9790/487x-0260108 kotey, b., & slade, p. (2005). formal human resource management practices in small growing firms. journal of small business management, 43, 16–40. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-627x.2004.00123.x kraja, y.b., & osmani, e. (2015). importance of external and internal environment in creation of competitive advantage to smes. (case of smes, in the northern region of albania) european scientific journal, 11(13), 120–130. kusluvan, s., kusluvan, z., ilhan, i., & buyruk, l. (2010). the human dimension a review of human resources management issues in the tourism and hospitality industry. cornell hospitality quarterly, 51(2), 171–214. https://doi.org/10.1177/1938965510362871 lepak, d.p., liao, h., chung, y., & harden, e.e. (2006). a conceptual review of human resource management systems in strategic human resource management research. in j.j. martocchio (ed.), research in personnel and human resource management (pp. 217–271). greenwich, ct: jai. mahapatro, b.b. (2010). human resource management. new dehli: new age international publishers. makumbirofa, s., & saayman, a. (2018). forecasting demand for qualified labour in the south african hotel industry. journal of economic and financial sciences, 11(1), a189. https://doi.org/10.4102/jef.v11i1.189 matchaba-hove, t.m., & vambe, a.k. (2014). entrepreneurial orientation and performance of small businesses in the retail sector in the eastern cape province of south africa. journal of marketing and management, 5(2), 12–39. mbizi, r., hove, l., thondhlana, a., & kakava, n. (2013). innovation in smes: a review of its role to organisational performance and smes operations sustainability. interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, 4(11), 370–389. mbonyane, b., & ladzani, w. (2011). factors that hinder the growth of small businesses in south african townships. european business review, 23(6), 550–560. https://doi.org/10.1108/09555341111175390 muzenda, a. (2014). a conceptual model of the determinants of performance of tourism sector small and medium enterprises (smes). international journal of business and management invention, 3(1), 30–35. mwando, m.c., mamimine, p.w., kanokanga, f.p., & chimutingiza, f. (2014). challenges being faced by women in ascending to decision making positions in the hotel sector in zimbabwe. iosr journal of humanities and social science (iosr-jhss), 19(7), 131–136. neneh, n.b.j., & van zyl, j.h. (2012). achieving optimal business performance through business practices: evidence from smes in selected areas in south africa. southern african business review, 16, 118–144. njuguna-kinyua, j., munyoki, j., & kibera, f. (2014). influence of external organizational environment on performance of community-based hiv and aids organizations in nairobi county, kenya. european scientific journal, 10(28), 405–426. noe, r.a., hollenbeck, c., gerhart, b., & wright, g. (2006). human resources management – gaining a competitive advantage, 5th edn. new york: mcgraw-hill. nyamubarwa, w., mupani, h., & chiduuro, w. (2013). an analysis of the human resource practices in the mining industry in zimbabwe’s midlands province: a relook at the resource based view of managing human resources. iosr journal of humanities and social science, 17(1), 116–123. https://doi.org/10.9790/0837-171116123 nyamwanza, t. (2014). a review of culture and implementation strategy among smes in zimbabwe. management and administrative sciences review, 3, 334–342. https://doi.org/10.12735/jbm.v3i2p01 nzonzo, j.c., & matashu, m. (2014). an insight into the human resource management practices adopted by entrepreneurs in south africa. journal of small business and entrepreneurship development, 2(3 & 4), 73–87. obasan, k.a. (2014). the impact of business environment on the survival of small scale businesses in nigeria. international journal of management and business research, 4(3), 165–170. oghojafor, b.e.a., muo, f.i., & aduloju, s.a. (2012). organisational effectiveness: whom and what do we believe? advances in management & applied economics, 2(4), 81–108. ogunyomi, p., & bruning, n.s. (2016). human resource management and organizational performance of small and medium enterprises (smes) in nigeria. the international journal of human resource management, 27(6), 612–634. https://doi,org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1033640 ojokuku, r.m., sajuyigbe, a.s., & ogunwoye, a.b. (2014). human resource management practices and small scale business performance: evidence from osun state, south western nigeria. journal of emerging trends in economics and management sciences, 5, 1–6. olawale, f., & garwe, d. (2010). obstacles to the growth of new smes in south africa: a principal component analysis approach. african journal of business management, 4(5), 729–738. omolo, j.w., oginda, m.n., & oso, w.y. (2012). effect of recruitment and selection of employees on the performance of small and medium enterprises in kisumu municipality, kenya. international journal of human resource studies, 2(3), 139–150. oni, o.a., & matiza, t. (2014). factors influencing consumer choice of fast food outlet: the case of an american fast food franchise brand operating in a predominantly rural community. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(20), 802–808. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p802 orogbu, l., onyeizugbe, c.u., & chukwuma, e. (2017). economic environment of small and medium scale enterprises: implications on economic growth in nigeria. journal of economics, management and trade, 19(4),1–12. ovadje, f. (2010). the adoption of formal hrm practices by small firms in africa. journal of language, technology and entrepreneurship in africa, 2, 49–59. https://doi.org/10.4314/jolte.v2i2.61521 pilbeam, s., & corbridge, m. (2010). people resourcing: contemporary hrm in practice (4th edn.). essex, uk: pearson education limited. punia, m., & sharma, b. (2015). a comprehensive review of factors influencing hrm practices in manufacturing industries. journal of management engineering and information technology (jmeit), 2(2), 21–29. radipere, s., & dhliwayo, s. (2014). the role of age and business size on small business performance in the south african small enterprise sector. problems and perspectives in management, 12(4), 7–12. senik, r., said, r.m., & khalili, n.a.n. (2012). accounting information management among malaysian smes’ restaurants: preliminary observation. in international conference on management, economics and finance (icmef 2012) proceeding, 15th–16th october 2012, hilton hotel, kuching, sarawak, malaysia. sheehan, m. (2013). human resource management and performance: evidence from small and medium-sized firms. international small business journal. 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f0266242612465454 statistics south africa (stats sa). (2013). retrieved from http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/sastatistics/sastatistics2013.pdf vettori, s. (2017). the exploitation of migrant labour in the hospitality industry in south africa. african journal of hospitality, tourism and leisure, 6(4), 1–12. world travel & tourism council (wtcc). (2011). travel and tourism economic impact. london: wttc. zubac, a., hubbard, g., & johnson, l.w. (2010). the rbv and value creation: a managerial perspective. european business review, 22(5), 515–538. https://doi.org/10.1108/09555341011068921 zwane, f.n., du plessis, l., & slabbert, e. (2014). analysing the skills expectations of employers in the south african tourism industry. sa journal of human resource management, 12, 550–559. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.550 abstract introduction remuneration guidelines for south african state-owned enterprises theoretical framework research design research method results discussion limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) frans maloa department of industrial and organisational psychology, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation maloa, f. (2020). the relationship between the determinants of executive remuneration in south african state-owned enterprises. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1250. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1250 original research the relationship between the determinants of executive remuneration in south african state-owned enterprises frans maloa received: 26 june 2019; accepted: 02 sept. 2020; published: 19 nov. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: research on executive remuneration should be able to indicate the necessary elements and dimensions at work when deciding on an executive’s package. research purpose: the purpose of this article was to review a correlation of elements as determinants of executive remuneration. motivation for the study: the limited research on executive remuneration tends to focus on how executive pay varies with performance and less on the determinants of executive remuneration. research design and method: a quantitative research method was used. the target population consisted of executives from 21 south african state-owned enterprises (soes). the research design was a cross-sectional study. a categorical multiple regression analysis was performed. main findings: the research results seem to suggest that there is a significant statistical correlation between organisation size and type of industry; job function and type of industry; organisation size and job function; and the level of education and job function as a determinant of executive remuneration within the context of south african soes. however, the extent of the correlations between the determinants of executive remuneration is not the same. practical/managerial implications: the research results create awareness amongst human resources practitioners and consultants of the extent to which some of the determinants of remuneration may apply in practice. contribution/value-add: this study highlights the importance of probing further with the effect of size correlation in quantitative research in the context of executive remuneration. keywords: job function; organisation size; industry; level of education; state-owned enterprises. introduction executive remuneration has been a sensitive issue for a long time. researchers have shown a sustained interest in understanding the determinants of executive remuneration (bullock, stritch, & rainey, 2015; datta & iskandar-datta, 2014; pandher & currie, 2013), as well as the difference between executive remuneration and employee remuneration (magnan & martin, 2018). executive remuneration, both in terms of its quantum and the disparity between top and bottom wage earners, has become a major cause of social discontent, fuelling the debate on inequality (iodsa, 2016). the king iv report on corporate governance recognises that this has become a key governance issue, with major implications for long-term corporate sustainability. however, executives and employees may be paid differently because they perform different types of work and/or have different contractual agreements with the firm (magnan & martin, 2018). kelynhans (2018) contend that executives, in particular, have duties derived from the common law and the companies act 71 of 2008 as amended (the act), which include honesty, loyalty and good faith. in terms of the act, the fiduciary duties of executives are not only mandatory and unalterable, but also prescriptive and applicable to all companies. however, magnan and martin (2018) argue that the normative principles that define a just pay should be the same for both employees and executives. that is, when reporting on the structure of remuneration paid to employees below the executive level, an organisation should focus on its approach towards fair and responsible pay and its commitment to eliminate all instances of unjustified differentiation between employees doing work that is the same or substantially the same (green, 2018). besides, king iv recommends that arrangements be provided for in the policy that the remuneration of executive management is fair and responsible in the context of overall employee remuneration (iodsa, 2016). however, prior research has focused primarily on the remuneration of the chief executive officer (ceo) leaving out very little knowledge regarding the drivers of remuneration for other executives (nulla, 2013). besides, the limited research that has explored issues of executive remuneration tends to focus on how executive pay varies with performance and less on the determinants of executive remuneration (boivie, bednar, & barker, 2012; nulla, 2013). some studies focus on the performance indicators, such as headline earnings per share (heps), return on assets (roas), return on equity (roe), earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) and share price, as predictors of executive remuneration (bussin, 2018; deysel & kruger, 2015; kirstin & du toit, 2018). however, the predictors of remuneration are all of a financial nature and therefore tend to be endogenous (kirstin & du toit, 2018). conversely, novak and bilinski (2018) provide a social perspective and assert that the standard determinants of executive remuneration should include controls for managerial skills, employment contract risk, executive characteristics, corporate governance, investor monitoring and political capital. although research continues to proliferate, there remains a lack of interdisciplinary consensus regarding the primary forces shaping observable patterns of executive remuneration (nulla, 2013; scholtz & smit, 2012; van essen, otten, & carberry, 2012). moreover, empirical evidence from scholars has raised doubts about whether there is a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to remuneration (farid, conte, & lazarus, 2011). nonetheless, apanpa and farimade (2017) contend that for companies that operate in one location or have only one line of business, it is easier to adopt ‘a single one-size-fits-all’ approach to compensation. however, many organisations carry on businesses from multiple locations across continents or have subsidiaries operating in diverse sectors. these multinationals or conglomerates require even more details in defining their compensation philosophies to ensure alignment between human resources (hr) strategy and peculiar local market and industry practices (apanpa & farimade, 2017). meanwhile, executive remuneration remains a controversial topic, especially in south africa where the wealth gap between the rich and the poor is constantly on the increase (scholtz & smit, 2012). according to the global wage report 2018 and 2019, covering 70 countries and 80% of wage employees worldwide, south africa has the world’s highest wage inequality with the distribution of wealth between the rich and the poor at a gini coefficient score of 63.9. as a result, the difference in inequality has seen continued scrutiny of the executive pay by members of the public, consulting firms and the media (fin24 (2010); kpmg report, 2010; pwc report, 2018; schuitema, 2010). executive remuneration within the context of south african state-owned enterprises (soes) has also been subjected to scrutiny because soes are considered a relevant instrument for the implementation of public policies (bernier, 2014, 2015; del bo & florio, 2012; farmer, brown, reilly, & bevan, 2013; millward, 2011; oecd, 2005; papenfuß & schmidt, 2015). besides, the design of remuneration schemes is a key factor that affects the behaviour and awareness for acting in accordance with the overriding aims of the public authority (papenfuß & schmidt, 2015). because executive remuneration has remained a hot debate in south africa and the rest of the world, further research on the phenomenon remains important. the objective of this research is, therefore, not an examination of how much executives are paid (fleming & schaupp, 2011), but the exploration of the elements that determine the basis of executive remuneration within the context of south african soes. remuneration guidelines for south african state-owned enterprises a remuneration guideline for south african soes was established for the first time in 2007, following proposals by the department of public enterprises (dpe) to address issues concerning executive remuneration. the south african soe remuneration guideline resulted in soes categorised into four bands in terms of size and according to asset base and revenue. the model based on market data sourced from a survey conducted in over 600 south african companies suggested an annual guaranteed package for ceos and executive directors (eds) in companies that are of the size of soes. south african soes were categorised as follows: size 1–6: a small organisation categorised as band d. size 7–9: a medium organisation categorised as band c. size 11–12: a large organisation categorised as band b. size 13–16: a very large organisation categorised as band a. according to the guideline (dpe, 2007), the annual total guaranteed package of ceos and eds. should not exceed the median amount of the remuneration model developed by the dpe. state-owned enterprises categorised in bands b–d of the categorisation model should not motivate an offer for a total guaranteed package greater than the median in the band immediately above the one in which the soe is then located. furthermore, the guide states that the board must define a coherent rationale for the remuneration of other executives with the ceo, and that rationale should motivate executives to pursue the long-term growth and success of the company within an appropriate control framework, whilst demonstrating a clear relationship between key executive performance and remuneration. before implementation, the shareholder must indicate in writing that the remuneration of the ceo and eds conforms to this guideline. inflation adjustment increases should not exceed a percentage that is 0.5% less than the previous year’s officially reported rate of inflation. also, the remuneration of each ceo and ed should be disclosed following the companies act, public finance management act of 1999 (pfma) and king code ii, at the time. the guideline states that should a board seek to offer an annual guaranteed package that exceeds the median, the chairperson of the board has to seek approval from the shareholder. the chairperson has to prepare a detailed motivation to the shareholder, identifying a clear relationship between the key executive performance and the proposed annual total guaranteed package (south african soe remuneration guideline, 2007). the motivation has to include information expressing the value of the executive in the following context: impact on the economy. nature of competition. market capitalisation. complexity of industry. strategic freedom to act. from the guideline, it seems that executive remuneration within the south african soes is determined by internal factors, including the size of the organisation, asset base and revenue generated by the enterprise, and external factors, such as the impact on the economy, the nature of the competition and the complexity of the industry. in 2011, a new model, which would serve as an improvement on the 2007 model, was established. the minister of public enterprises told parliament’s standing committee on public accounts in march 2012 that the freezing of executives’ pay increases at all state-owned entities under his department would be in place until a proper remuneration policy was in place kgosana (2012a). in 2012, the deputy director general of the dpe presented a progress report on the work that had been conducted by the panel tasked with reviewing executives’ pay. amongst the recommendations was that the size and the asset value of each enterprise should not be taken into consideration when setting executive compensation (kgosana, 2012). if the recommendations of the panel were accepted, it meant the size and asset value of state-owned companies would not be accepted as a reason for paying executives at larger south african soes more than those at smaller south african soes. the department was also concerned about south african soes benchmarking themselves against johannesburg securities exchange (jse)-listed companies in terms of executive remuneration when their mandates were different from those of such companies (kgosana, 2012). thus, the remuneration guidelines were a strategic plan by the dpe to create a line of sight on how executives within soes could be remunerated accordingly towards delivering on the mandate of the government. nonetheless, there is not much, if any, written neither on the implementation nor on the evaluation of the revised 2011 guidelines. however, according to shackleton (2007), the evaluation of strategic plan and performance is normally conducted over a typically 3to 5-year business cycle. similarly, according to the framework for strategic plans and annual performance plans (2010) published by the treasury department, a strategic plan should cover a period of at least 5 years, ideally from the first planning cycle following an election, linked to the identified outcomes of the presidency. although plans may have a longer time frame, they should be revised at least every 5 years, and a new draft or revised strategic plan should generally be prepared for consideration early in the final year of the prior planning period. also, when budget programme structures are determined, it should be noted that much of what an institution carries out does not change from 1 year to the next; or even from one 5-year planning cycle to the next (national treasury, 2010). however, there are two challenges, which relate to the background for and motivation of the current study, namely: the revised 2011 guidelines have not been empirically tested 5 years after the implementation. besides, soes continue to employ the services of remuneration consultants to advise on executive remuneration in practice. nonetheless, there are various determinants and popularly known performance indicators of executive remuneration as mentioned previously (e.g. heps, roas, roe and share price), in practice. however, designing executive pay packages is not a simple and straightforward exercise. the practice requires a ‘balanced approach’ with a wide range of issues. for instance, carrasco-hernandez and sánchez-marín (2007) argued that the most suitable compensation design for executives varies according to the type of enterprise. other researchers have also tried to explain executive pay by consideration for differences in firm size (conyon & he, 2011; fernandes, ferreira, matos, & murphy, 2013; gruyter, 2013), the industry (martocchio, 2011), and the type of job function (datta gupta, poulsen, & villeval, 2013). the current study argues that besides the many variables considered in theory and practice, a correlation of some of those popularly used determinants has not been tested empirically, to see how they can improve the process of determining executive remuneration. the contribution of this research is, therefore, unique in that the few chosen elements, namely the organisation size, the type of industry, the job function and the level of education are correlated and statistically interrogated to reveal their significance and the extent to which they determine executive remuneration. following the brief background is an overview of the literature framework and hypotheses development, followed by a description of the methodology and the analysis process. theoretical framework given the lack of a generally accepted theory of executive remuneration, commentary in the academic and related literature attempting to theorise executive pay and the contingencies against which it is determined reveals a range of views (perkins & white, 2011). executive remuneration is best explained by a variety of theories that include the popularly referenced principal agency theory (commonly known as agency theory), contingency theory, social comparison theory, structural theory and human capital theory. the agency theory analyses the relationship that develops in an economic exchange between an employer (the principal) and an employee (the agent), which results in the wealth of the former benefiting from the decisions adopted by the latter (gomez-mejia, berrone, & franco-santos, 2010). many authors have chosen principal agency theory as their theoretical framework to establish the relations between the employer and the employee in the design of executive compensation reward schemes. remuneration also referred to as compensation, or reward, may be defined as ‘all forms of financial returns and tangible services and benefits employees receive’ (milkovich & newman, 2004, p. 3). remuneration for the set of employees, who, theoretically, have the highest impact on the effective definition and implementation of an organisation’s strategy is usually classified as executive remuneration. typically, this ends up being the top two layers of an organisation’s management hierarchy (ghose, 2011, p. 9). similarly, scholtz and smit (2012) viewed executive compensation as the total remuneration of eds of the company as disclosed in published annual reports. this includes directly quantifiable revenue streams as well as unquantifiable benefits, such as surplus utility and satisfaction. overall, executive remuneration includes the sum of base pay, bonuses, stock grants, stock options, and other forms of compensation and benefits (bognanno, 2010). however, for the current study, executive remuneration is restricted to the guaranteed pay or fixed component because it is more stable than the variable set by performance targets that may vary and not clearly defined across all organisations. nonetheless, empirical evidence from scholars has raised doubt about whether there is a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to remuneration (farid et al., 2011), and in defining their compensation philosophies to ensure alignment between hr strategy and peculiar local market/industry practices (apanpa & farimade, 2017). in theory, the level of remuneration should be determined upon the analysis of expected value creation by the managers and the decision of the proportion of that value that should be offered to those managers who contributed to generating those effects (marcinkowska, 2014). however, to define the concept operationally and break it down to observable and measurable behaviours means that the remuneration should be delineated into dimensions and elements that are measurable. nevertheless, gómez-mejia et al. (2010) contend that: [t]o the extent that there are intense interaction and overlap among predictors of executive pay at different levels of analysis, it may be quite difficult, if not impossible, to reliably disentangle the unique effect of one variable from another. (p. 140) as a result, there seems to be little consensus on the precise nature of the predictors of executive remuneration. it is for the same reason that the current study argues that because there is no one-size-fits-all approach, the determination of executive remuneration can be approached from various angles including investigating the correlations between the elements that have been confirmed in extant theory as the determinants of executive remuneration. thus, the current study postulates that there is a need to conduct further research in order to understand, in finer terms, the true extent of the relationship between elements of remuneration (nulla, 2013). the current research intends to test a correlation of various elements that include the organisation size, the type of industry, the job function and the level of education as determinants of executive remuneration within the context of south african soes. organisation size and type of industry as determinants of executive remuneration organisation size and type of industry as determinants of executive remuneration is best explained by reference to the contingency theory. according to pugh (1973), ‘contingency theory extends to include any variable that moderates the effect of an organisational characteristic on organisational performance’ cited in trevor (2011, p. 172). similarly, contextual factors, such as the type of industry and the size of the organisation, are contextually independent variables (ivs) upon which firms’ pay practices as a dependent variable (dv) is contingent (trevor, 2011). martocchio (2010) also contends that the industry in which an organisation operates influences the pay an executive receives. similarly, in a study conducted by bussin (2018), it was found that organisation size plays an influential role in ceo compensation levels in the mining industry. whilst agarwal (1981) argued that size is an important determinant of executive compensation because it represents a proxy for organisational complexity. in the same way, organisation size and type of industry, although investigated separately, were also found to be significant determinants of executive compensation within the context of south african soes (maloa & bussin, 2016). congruently, inferences have been drawn previously between the size of the organisation and the type of industry. for instance, a study conducted by milkovich, newman and gerhart (2014) established that labour-intensive industries, such as education and healthcare, tend to pay lower than technology-intensive industries, such as petroleum or pharmaceuticals, whereas professional services pay high. frydman and saks (2010) asserted that remuneration should rise along with increases in the size of the typical firm in the market. similarly, papenfuß and schmidt (2015) concluded that the studies of remuneration determinants show that firm size, ownership structure and the market/sector are a key factor in the level, design and development of top management remuneration. correspondingly, in most literature findings, remuneration tends to be highly correlated with organisation size, and with firm size measured by the number of employees, and total sales or asset base of the organisation (bouwman, 2013; edmans & gabaix, 2015; nourayi & daroca, 2008; nulla, 2013; sigler, 2011). therefore, ‘the preferred approach has been to benchmark each role against collected data from a bespoke comparator group, which in turn is determined by the size and industry considerations’ (ebrahimi & horak, 2018). despite the strong correlation between executive remuneration and the aggregate market value of firms (which may be an indication of size) as documented in recent decades, studies found a much lower correlation of the variables prior to the mid-1970s (gabaix & landier, 2008; hall & murphy, 2003; jensen, murphy & wruck, 2004). however, in comparison with the more recent decades, strong correlations were found, which may be owing to an upward trend in both variables instead of a causal effect of firm size on pay (frydman & saks, 2010). in view of the foregoing, the hypotheses to be tested are as follows: h(1): a statistically significant correlation exists between organisation size and the type of industry as a determinant of executive remuneration within the context of south african soes. h(2): the extent of the correlation between organisation size and type of industry as a determinant of executive remuneration is the same in the context of south african soes. job function and type of industry as determinants of executive remuneration job function and type of industry as determinants of executive remuneration is best explained by social comparison theory. boivie et al. (2012) contend that social comparison research on executive pay is based in large part on principles from equity theory and is at the centre of all compensation theory (wallace & fay, 1983). whilst much of the social comparison literature focuses on determining what individuals or groups are likely to serve as referents, evidence from ceo compensation literature shows that there are several possible referents individuals can use when making comparisons. to this end, remuneration professionals use regression analysis to establish pay rates for a set of jobs that are consistent with typical pay rates for jobs in the external market (martocchio, 2010). however, benchmarking ceo’s pay with their peer group has obvious drawbacks. benchmarking is one of the main reasons that executives’ pay rises ever higher (clifford, 2017). firstly, using peer group results in determining pay without explicit regard to value creation. secondly, using peer group has a ratcheting effect. that is, when multiple companies within a group try to meet or exceed the median, the median increases (larker & tayan, 2011; marcinkowska, 2014; papenfuß & schmidt, 2015). similarly, boivie et al. (2012) state that it is likely that this social comparison process of anchoring executive pay based on readily available and relevant comparison groups will work to push executive compensation higher. although benchmarking pay is aimed at remaining competitive, paying well below or above the typical market rate for jobs can create a competitive disadvantage for companies (martocchio, 2010). every time a ceo gets a generously benchmarked deal, he sets a higher baseline for the next time any leader has pay negotiations (clifford, 2017). in view of the foregoing, the hypotheses to be tested are as follows: h(3): a statistically significant correlation exists between job function and type of industry as a determinant of executive remuneration in the context of south african soes. h(4): the extent of the correlation between job function and type of industry as a determinant of executive remuneration is the same in the context of south african soes. organisation size and job function as determinants of executive remuneration organisation size and job function as determinants of executive remuneration are best explained by reference to the structural theory. defenders of structural theory argue that executive compensation is a direct function of the number of organisational levels. gomez-mejia et al. (2010) state that other things being equal, the taller the organisational structure, the greater the earnings of top executives. the best known rationale for this theory was provided by simon (1957) who argued that ‘organisations attempt to maintain appropriate salary differentials between management levels and establish these differentials, not in absolute terms, but as ratios’ (cited in gomez-mejia et al., 2010, p. 134). in a manner somewhat akin to traditional economic models, the structural perspective is very deterministic, with the earnings of executives being mechanically established as a function of the number of levels below them and a fixed percentage difference between their pay and that of their subordinates. according to the literature on executive remuneration, it tends to be highly correlated with organisation size. for example, according to milkovich et. al. (2014), ‘there is consistent evidence that large organisations tend to pay more than small ones’ (p. 226), presumably, because it requires greater skill to manage a larger complex company with higher growth prospects (bouwman, 2013). similarly, hijazi and bhatti (2007) contend that the link between executive pay and company size is not surprising given that a larger organisation is associated with greater responsibility, expected to be rewarded more. on the other hand, job function refers to the work content and its value (milkovich et al., 2014). work content refers to the work performed in a job and how it is carried out (tasks, behaviour and knowledge required), whilst value refers to the worth of the work: its relative contribution to the organisation objectives (milkovich et al., 2014). for remuneration purposes, job function is by functional groups, for example, finance, information technology (it) or personnel, or by work categories, such as administration or customer services, or by occupation, for example, scientists and it specialists (armstrong & brown, 2001; incomes data services, 2006b). similarly, jobs of similar complexity at each organisational level combine in the same salary band according to the functional job and experience requirements for each position (iodsa, 2018). this approach of using job function in remuneration is likely to figure where management believes that different occupations require different reward and career development practices (armstrong & brown, 2001). given the background, the hypotheses to be tested are as follows: h(5): a statistically significant correlation exists between the organisation size and job function as a determinant of executive remuneration in the context of south african soes. h(6): the extent of the correlation between the organisation size and job function as a determinant of executive remuneration is the same in the context of south african soes. level of education and job function as determinants of executive remuneration the level of education and job function as determinants of executive remuneration is best explained by reference to human capital theory. according to human capital theory, the acquisition of education increases knowledge and skills, which in turn leads to higher remuneration and personal rewards (becker, 1964; greve, benassi, & sti, 2010; ng & feldman, 2010; strober, 1990). amongst the many determinants of remuneration, human capital (e.g. education and work experience) is robustly and consistently related to salary level, the number of promotions, the number of job offers and the number of developmental opportunities (ng & feldman, 2010). according to the human capital perspective, accumulation of skills and knowledge gained through education and experience is a key element of executive compensation (sun, zhao, & yang, 2010). also, according to staff writer (2017), statistics south africa and analytico data show that there is graduation in monthly salary the more educated someone is, which highlights the urgency in maintaining a high level of education, as well as addressing crises, such as the staggering drop-out rate experienced in the country. similarly, ng and feldman (2010) state that the labour market rewards individuals for acquiring more human capital with access to better jobs, higher earnings and incentives to stay. researchers typically use ‘educated employees’ to refer to those individuals who hold at least bachelor’s degrees, which are generally necessary for entry into higher paying occupations and organisations (howard, 1986; ng & feldman, 2010; trusty & niles, 2004). chief executive officers are interested in leveraging their human capital to maximise remuneration (geletkanycz, boyd, & finkelstein, 2001; pandher & currie, 2013; peng, sun, & markóczy, 2014). consequently, organisations typically have to pay highly competitive wages to hire well-educated employees with considerable work experience (myers, griffith, & daugherty, 2004). according to staff writer (2017), tertiary education proves to be the key, with even a tertiary certificate resulting in a 67% jump in potential earnings, whilst a bachelor’s degree would see a 330% jump. in view of the foregoing, the hypotheses to be tested are as follows: h(7): a statistically significant correlation exists between the level of education and job function as a determinant of executive remuneration in the context of south african soes. h(8): the extent of the correlation between the level of education and job function as a determinant of executive remuneration is the same in the context of south african soes. against the aforementioned literature framework and hypotheses, it is anticipated that the correlations between the elements as hypothesised would create a common criterion according to which executive remuneration could be determined in the context of south african soes. the methodology adopted for this study is presented next. research design the study was both a descriptive and an explanatory research in which empirical research gathered quantitative data. the objective of descriptive research is to gain an accurate profile of events, persons or situations. the emphasis of explanatory research is on studying a problem to explain the relationship between variables (saunders et al., 2012). in other words, the current study was a descriptive–explanatory study (saunders, lewis, thornhill, 2012:170). the research strategy followed an experimental approach in which the researcher used hypotheses rather than research questions to anticipate whether or not a relationship existed between the variables under study. the design was cross-sectional to include data of all the 21 entities at one point in time. the current research was interested in the first 5 years of the business cycle after the guideline on executive remuneration had been revised in 2011. thus, the secondary data collected were on the 2015 annual financial statement valid until march 2016 of all the 21 schedule 2 south african soes. research method population and sample the target population consisted of 222 executives from 21 soes under schedule 2 organisations as defined in the pfma. the south african soes that currently fall under the schedule 2 soes are alexkor, accsa, armco, atnsa, broadband infraco, cef, idc, idt, land bank, pbmr, saa, sa express, safcol, dbsa, denel, eskom, transnet, safcol, sabc, sapo and telkom. the study used purposive sampling (also known as judgemental sampling) (saunders et. al., 2012). in purposive sampling, the sample is taken for a particular purpose (leedy & ormrod, 2013: 215). purposive sampling is a non-probability sampling technique that provides a range of alternatives to select samples, the majority of which include an element of subjective judgement (saunders et al., 2012). in purposive sampling, the researcher selects cases that will best enable him or her to meet research objectives. purposive sampling is often applied when working with small samples, such as in case study research and when the researcher wishes to select particular informative cases (neuman, 2005). thus, a purposive sample was relevant in the context of this study as the objective was to investigate the relationship between the determinants of remuneration of executives, which is a small sample compared with the general employees within an organisation. the purposive sampling consisted of executives who fall under the top management team as arranged according to paterson grading e – lower to f – upper (including ceos, directors and senior managers). on average, each enterprise consisted of 10 executives. the unit of analysis consisted of executives, type of industry, organisation size, job function and level of education. research procedure the research was conducted on secondary data analysis. the access of such data was through the internet. the researcher obtained measures of the focal variables from company annual statements available on the companies’ websites. the verification of the collected data was through hr personnel at some of the soes where information was not clear. the empirical data collected consisted of a salary corpus that contained information about the salary information of the executives, the size of the organisation (measured by the number of employees), job function (measured by the various categories of executive positions) and type of industry (e.g. transportation/freight logistics, defence, energy, forestry, telecommunications, development funding and aviation/aerospace). the researcher also consulted data available from bloomberg and macgregor. these websites were helpful to some extent. however, some of their data were not current in terms of executives that the company websites contain. the data collected on the variables under study were converted into different measurement scales. a nominal scale was applied to categorise data into seven types of industries. these groups were assigned code numbers that ranged from 1 to 7, but not in order of importance. these code numbers served as convenient category labels with no intrinsic value, other than to assign to one of the seven non-overlapping and mutually exclusive categories. an ordinal scale was applied to convert data on educational qualification. the reason to use the level of education as an ordinal scale is that an ordinal scale not only categorises the variables in such a way that denotes differences amongst the various categories, but it also rank orders them in some meaningful way. for example, the ordinal scale ranked qualifications from the lowest to the highest, assigning number 1 to a diploma, number 2 to a degree, number 3 to an honours degree, number 4 to a master’s degree and number 5 to a doctoral degree. the same treatment was applied for the categorisation of different job functions. for example, the scale categorised executives (including ceos, directors and senior managers) according to paterson grading e – lower to f – upper. the lowest grade was assigned number 1 and the highest grade was assigned number 5. the research design was cross-sectional. these are the data collected on the first 5 years of the business cycle after the guideline on executive remuneration had been revised in 2011. the data were based on the review of the 2015 annual financial statement. data processing the spss, version 20.0 (a statistical programme for social sciences) for statistical analysis was used to process the corpus of salary data of all the organisations under study. descriptive statistics (such as mean, standard deviation and range), frequency distribution (percentages), and correlation coefficients calculated and summarised variables numerically (saunders et al., 2007). statistical analysis the study applied the categorical regression analysis. categorical data refer to data whose values cannot be measured numerically, but classified into sets (categories) according to the characteristics that identify or describe the variable or placed rank order (berman brown & sanders, 2008). categorical data known as descriptive or nominal data make it possible to count the number of occurrences in each category of a variable (saunders et al., 2012). the study involved a multi-variable problem – that is, more than one iv is studied. a categorical multiple regression analysis was applied because according to albright et al. (2006), it represents an improvement over simple regression analysis and allows any number of explanatory variables in the analysis. for this particular study, a categorical regression analysis specified the extent of the relationship between the variables that fell into different categories, with a combination of interval, ordinal and nominal data. thus, the results were analysed using non-parametric testing. the current study used proportional-reduction-in-error interpretation (lambda) as one measure of establishing the relationship between variables. lambda is an asymmetrical measure of association suitable for use with nominal variables (frankfort-nachmias & leon-guerrero, 2006). lambda is relevant because the study measured the relationship between more than one variable at the nominal level. thus, for the relationship between nominal variables, which include industry and size of the organisation, job function and type of industry, and job function and size of the organisation, the researcher used the lambda test. for the relationship between the nominal variable (job function) and the ordinal variable (the level of qualification), the researcher used eta and chi-squared (χ2) tests. the chi-squared test was used to determine how closely observed frequencies or probabilities match. a chi-square is relevant as it can compute nominal, ordinal, interval or ratio data (leedy & ormrod, 2013). the researcher set the significance level criteria at 95% confidence interval level p ≤ 0.05 in order to counter the probability of a type 1 error. hypotheses are accepted or rejected based on statistical likelihood. a type 1 error occurs when a true null hypothesis is mistakenly rejected. a type 2 error occurs when a false null hypothesis is mistakenly accepted. the researcher indicates how sure he wants to be that he is not committing a type 1 error in the selection of an alpha level (johnson & reynolds, 2011). however, statistical significance provides the reader with only a partial explanation of the importance of the results (kirk, 1996). fisher (1925) proposed that when reporting research findings, researchers should also present measures of the strength of association or correlation ratios. that is, the statistical significance alone may not be enough without including the effect size as a measure. an effect size calculated from data is a descriptive statistic that conveys the estimated magnitude of a relationship between variables in terms of standard deviation units, thereby putting the magnitude of the difference into context (cohen, 1992). similarly, sullivan (2012) contends that the level of significance by itself does not predict effect size. unlike significance tests, the effect size is independent of sample size. sometimes a statistically significant result only means that the study had a large sample size. for this reason, p values become confounded because of their dependence on sample size. effect size differs from significance tests because it focuses on the meaning of the results and enables a comparison between variables for the researcher to judge the practical significance of quantitative research results. statistical significance, however, depends upon both sample size and effect size. for the reader to appreciate the magnitude or importance of a study’s findings, it is almost necessary to include some measure of effect size in the results section (apa, 2009, p. 34). effect sizes indicate categories, such as small, medium and large. the current research measures the effect size using different scores ranging from no correlation (0.00) to weak correlation (+0.01–0.09), moderate correlation (+0.10–0.29) to evidence of strong correlation (+0.30–0.99) and perfect correlation, strongest possible (+1.00). the measure is based on spss correlation coefficients as cited by britton (2014). ethical consideration ethical clearance was issued by the department of industrial and organisational psychology, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa (erc reference no. 2018_cems/iop_001). ethical clearance was received on 14 march 2018. results descriptive statistics the organisation size composition of the sample shows that the majority of executives in the sample were in organisation size (1001–10 000 employees) at 40.1% followed by organisation size (501–1000 employees) at 18%, organisation size (50–500 employees) at 17.1% and organisation size (10 001–50 000 employees) at 15.8%. the least represented is organisation size (50 001–100 000 employees) at 9%. table 1 also indicates that, on average, organisation size (50 001–100 000 employees) is leading in terms of the distribution of executive remuneration at (2606.55), followed by organisation size (10 001–50 000 employees) at (2197.66) and organisation size (501–1000 employees) at (1651.37). whilst organisation size (50–500 employees) at (1542.03) and organisation size (1001–10 000 employees) at (1376.15) were the lowest in terms of the distribution of executive compensation. table 1: remuneration distribution of the sample by organisation size (number of employees). the job function composition of the sample shows that administration is in the majority constituting (25.8%) followed by operations at (21.3%). the least represented job functions are it at (3.6%) followed by a dual role of strategy and finance at (2.7%), and strategy and admin at (2.3%). table 2 also indicates that, on average, strategy and finance at (2192.67) is leading in terms of the distribution of remuneration, followed by strategy at (2049.31) and it at (2053.88). research and development (1085.00) was the lowest in terms of the distribution of executive compensation. table 2: remuneration distribution of the sample by job function. the industry composition of the sample shows that entities in telecommunications are in the majority constituting 32.9%, followed by development funding at (18.0%), aviation and aerospace at (16.2%), and energy at (12.2%). the least represented industry at (6.3%) is defence. table 3 also indicates that, on average, transportation/freight logistics (2606.55), energy (1876.19), aviation and aerospace (1806.89), and development funding (1780.40) were leading in terms of the distribution of executive compensation. whilst defence (1471.79), telecommunications (1399.67) and forestry (1195.42) were the lowest in terms of the distribution of executive compensation. table 3: remuneration distribution of the sample by type of industry. the qualification composition of the sample shows that most executives possess a master’s degree at (53.6%), followed by those with a bachelor’s degree at (20.6%), an honours degree at (15.3%) and a doctoral degree at (5.7%). executives with a diploma are fewest in number at (4.8%). table 4 also indicates that, on average, executives with a bachelor’s degree (1782.33), a master’s degree (1762.20) and an honours degree (1751.06) were leading in terms of the distribution of remuneration. executives with a doctoral degree were the lowest (1563.75) whilst executives with a diploma were the least (1404.10) in terms of the distribution of executive remuneration in the sample. table 4: remuneration distribution of the sample by level of education. the relationship between the determinants of executive remuneration the results report on the correlation of the determinants of executive remuneration within the context of south african soes. in order to test the hypotheses, the product-moment correlation (r) was utilised. as mentioned above, the significance value was set at a 95% confidence interval level (p ≤ 0.05) in order to counter the probability of a type 1 error. however, the correlation between the variables under study is supplemented by the effect of size to reveal the depth of the correlation. for the current research, the strength of the correlation is measured using different categories of scores ranging from no correlation (0.00) to weak correlation (+0.01–0.09), moderate correlation (+0.10–0.29) to evidence of strong correlation (+0.30–0.99), and perfect correlation, strongest possible (+1.00) (britton, 2014). table 5 indicates the standard error (se) of the different correlation between the variables. the se error represents measures of spread. the higher the number, the more spread out the sample data to the mean. in the current study, 0.049 is the highest spread of the correlation between industry and organisation compared with the correlation between other variables as determinants of executive remuneration. the t-tests are hypothesis tests for the mean and use the t-distribution to determine statistical significance. a sample t-test determines whether the difference between the sample mean and the null hypothesis value is statistically significant. the chi-squared test of independence determines whether there is a statistically significant relationship between categorical variables. a chi-square represents the observed frequency for each combination of categorical variables. the test determines whether the entire set of differences exceeds a significance threshold. if the χ2 passes the limit, the results are statistically significant. a chi-square with a score of zero means the null hypothesis is accepted. larger values, for example 0.72 in this study, represent a greater difference between the sample data and the null hypothesis, and thus the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternate hypothesis is accepted. table 5: correlation coefficients indicating the relationships between the independent variables to executive remuneration. just like any other hypothesis tests, the testing incorporates degrees of freedom. degrees of freedom are the number of independent values that a statistical analysis can estimate. many families of distributions, like t and χ2, use degrees of freedom to specify which specific t or χ2 distribution is appropriate for different sample sizes and different numbers of model parameters. for example, for a χ2 test, a p-value that is less than or equal to 0.05 significance level indicates there is sufficient evidence to conclude that a relationship exists between the categorical variables. eta squared is the proportion of variance associated with one or more main effects, errors or interactions in anova. eta-squared ranges from 0 to 1 and indicates the proportion of overlap between the grouping variable (the iv) and the outcome variable. if the model has more than one iv, the researcher is advised to report the partial eta-squared for each (aaron, kromrey, & ferron, 1998; coe, 2002; thalheimer & cook, 2002; ward, 2002; wilkinson & apa, 1999). partial eta-squared indicates the percentage (%) of variance in the dv, for example, executive remuneration (dv), attributable to a particular (ivs) job function (13%) and level of education (30%). lambda is used to investigate the measure of association that is suitable for use with nominal variables. lambda was used to investigate the two variables under study. lambda is defined as an asymmetrical measure of association that is suitable for use with nominal variables (frankfort-nachmias & leon-guerrero, 2006). it may range from 0.0 to 1.0. lambda provides the researcher with an indication of the strength of the relationship between iv and dv. type of industry and organisation size according to the measure of nominal variables between the size of the organisation and type of industry, a p < 0.000* suggests that there is a statistically significant correlation between the two variables tested as determinants of executive remuneration. the significance level was at p < 0.05, that is, at a 95% confidence interval level. the results were also significant at the stringent significance level p < 0.01, that is, 99% confidence interval level. similarly, the t-tests of 7.227, the standard deviation of 0.049 and p = 0.000* suggest that there is a significant correlation between the size of the organisation and type of industry in south african soes. the symmetric lambda value of 0.433 also suggests that there is evidence of a strong correlation between the type of industry and the organisation size. overall, from this analysis, the hypothesis of the statistically significant relationship between the two variables is supported: h(1): a statistically significant correlation exists between organisation size and the type of industry as a determinant of executive remuneration within the context of south african soes. however, the results also suggest that the extent of the correlation between the type of industry and organisation size as determinants of executive remuneration is not the same within the context of south african soes. the organisation size lambda value of 0.504 suggests that there the organisation size is a stronger determinant of executive remuneration when compared with the type of industry lambda value of 0.369 with job function within the context of south african soes. from this analysis, the hypothesis on the extent of the relationship between the two variables is not supported: h(2): the extent of the correlation between organisation size and type of industry as a determinant of executive remuneration is not the same in the context of south african soes. the results suggest that the type of industry is less strong as a determinant of executive remuneration when compared with organisation size within the context of south african soes. type of industry and job function the measure of nominal variables between job function and type of industry, the result of the study at p < 0.003*, suggests that there is a significant correlation between the two variables as a determinant of executive remuneration. in addition, the t-tests 3.004, standard deviation 0.024 and p < 0.003* suggest that there is a significant correlation between the type of industry and job function as a determinant of executive remuneration within the context of south african soes. the hypothesis on the statistical significant correlation between the two variables is supported: h(3): a statistically significant correlation exists between the type of industry and job function as a determinant of executive remuneration within the context of south african soes. however, the extent of the correlation between the type of industry and job function as a determinant of executive remuneration is not the same within the context of south african soes. the symmetric lambda value of 0.074 may, however, suggest that there is evidence of a weak correlation between the type of industry and job function in relation to executive remuneration within the context of south african soes. in particular, a comparison of job function lambda value of 0.116 with industry lambda value of 0.027 suggests that the type of industry is a weaker determinant of executive remuneration when compared with job function within the context of south african soes. the hypothesis on the extent of the correlation between the two variables is not supported: h(4): the extent of the correlation between job function and type of industry as a determinant of executive remuneration is not the same in the context of south african soes. the results suggest that the type of industry is a weaker determinant of executive remuneration when compared with job function within the context of south african soes. organisation size and job function the measure of nominal variables between organisation size and job function indicates a significant p value of 0.036*. the result suggests that there is a significant correlation between the two variables as a determinant of executive remuneration within the context of south african soes. in addition, the t-tests of 2.102, standard deviation of 0.020 and p < 0.036* suggest that there is a significant correlation between the organisation size and job function as a determinant of executive remuneration. however, the symmetric lambda value of 0.044 may suggest that there is evidence of a weak correlation between organisation size and job function as a determinant of executive remuneration within the context of south african soes. nonetheless, the hypothesis on the statistical significant correlation between the two variables is supported: h(5): a statistically significant relationship exists between the organisation size and job function as a determinant of executive remuneration in the context of south african soes. however, the extent of the correlation between the organisation size and job function is not the same within the context of south african soes. further, a comparison of the organisation size lambda value of 0.030 to job function lambda value of 0.055 suggests that even though there is a weak correlation between the two variables towards remuneration, there is however a better correlation of the job function (0.055) to executive remuneration compared with the organisation size lambda of value 0.030 to executive remuneration. the hypothesis on the extent of the correlation between the two variables is not supported: h(6): the extent of the correlation between the organisation size and job function as a determinant of executive remuneration is not the same in the context of south african soes. the results suggest that the organisation size is a weaker determinant of executive remuneration when compared with job function within the context of south african soes. this may suggest that one cannot rely entirely on the size of the organisation according to which a job function could be compensated. level of education and job function the data were analysed using pearson χ2 test. the correlation between the level of qualifications (ordinal) and job function (nominal) was measured. the number of valid cases of executives sampled was 208, and these were evaluated to determine as to whether there was a significant correlation between the two variables as a determinant of executive remuneration. the p value, also called significant value (asymp. sig.), has a predictive value that is more important as an indicator of the relationship. the lower the significant value, the less likely it is that the two variables are independent (unrelated or not correlated). for this current study, the significant level selected is p value lower than 0.05, that is, at 95% confidence level. in this case, the measure of the two variables between job function (nominal) and level of qualifications (ordinal) indicates a significant p < 0.001*, which suggests that the two variables are, indeed, related as a determinant of executive remuneration within the context of south african soes. also, a significant correlation exists between the two variables, as the chi-square χ2 (1) = 72.0 is high, and the p < 0.001* is lower than the p-value 0.05. based on the results, the hypothesis of the statistically significant correlation between the two variables is supported: h(7): a statistically significant correlation exists between the level of qualifications and job function as a determinant of executive remuneration in the context of south african soes. however, the extent of the correlation between the level of qualifications and job function is not the same within the context of south african soes. the eta-squared was used to interpret the extent of the effect size as a determinant of executive remuneration. with the eta at 0.125 for job function and 0.303 for the level of qualifications, the result seems to suggest that the level of qualifications is a better determinant of executive remuneration when compared to the job function. in other words, the job function (iv) explained 13% of the variance in the dv (executive remuneration) compared with the level of education (iv) that explained 30% of the variance in the dv (executive remuneration). the hypothesis on the extent of the correlation between the two variables is not supported: h(8): the extent of the correlation between the level of education and job function as a determinant of executive remuneration is not the same in the context of south african soes. thus, the statistical correlation between the level of education and job function seems to suggest that the level of education is a better indicator and determinant of executive remuneration when compared with the job function within the context of south african soes. discussion a review of theory and the guidelines from the south african soes preceded the study on the determinants of executive remuneration. an empirical test was conducted on data 5 years after the revised guidelines was published in 2011. although the guidelines focussed on the size of the organisation amongst other factors, such as revenue, asset base, and external and internal factors, the empirical study in this research focused on some of the popularly used determinants of executive remuneration in theory and practice, and not on the guideline per se. the difference with the current study is that the variables that, in some research, are investigated individually in relation to executive remuneration are correlated in this study to reveal their extent to which they determine executive remuneration. the statistical correlation between the type of industry and organisation size suggests that there is a statistically significant correlation between the two variables tested as a determinant of executive remuneration. however, the extent of the relationship between the two variables seems to suggest that it is possible to estimate an executives’ package by relying more on the organisation size than the type of industry. the results seem consistent with previous studies and literature findings, which contend that remuneration tends to correlate with organisation size (bouwman, 2013; edmans & gabaix, 2015; nourayi & daroca, 2008; sigler, 2011). similarly, larger organisations require a higher level of responsibility and have more complex tasks, which may warrant higher pay (frydman & saks, 2010; oberholzer & theunissen, 2012; papenfuß & schmidt, 2015). the research results seem consistent with the tenet of the structural theory that argues that executive compensation is a direct function of the number of organisational levels an executive occupies. the results imply that executive remuneration should rise along with an increase in the size of a typical soe. the statistical correlation between the type of industry and job function suggests that there is a significant correlation between the two variables as a determinant of executive remuneration within the context of south african soes. however, the extent of the relationship between the two variables seems to suggest that there is evidence of a weak correlation between organisation size and job function as a determinant of executive remuneration within the context of south african soes. a comparison of job function lambda value of 0.116 with industry lambda value of 0.027 suggests that the type of industry may be a weaker determinant of executive remuneration when compared with job function within the context of south african soes. however, as the correlation between the two variables is weak, this may imply that it would be difficult to see the practical effect of one variable against another as a determinant of executive remuneration within the context of south african soes. the research results of the current study support those of larker and tayan (2011), marcinkowska (2014), papenfuß and schmidt (2015) who contend that the type of industry poses problems as a determinant of executive remuneration. using peer group or similar job function in the industry in which a job function could benchmark against a competitive disadvantage could arise resulting in stable median not achieved (larker & tayan, 2011, p. 247–248), and paying well below or well above the typical market rate for jobs. consistent with the contingency theory, the current research results imply that using peer group would have a ratcheting effect. when multiple soes try to meet or exceed the median, the median increases (larker & tayan, 2011; marcinkowska, 2014; papenfuß & schmidt, 2015). the implication for soes is that industry is, therefore, less reliable as a determinant of executive remuneration compared with job function within the context of south african soes. the statistical correlation between organisation size and job function seems to suggest that there is a significant correlation between the two variables as a determinant of executive remuneration within the context of south african soes. however, the symmetric lambda value of 0.044 may suggest that there is evidence of a weak correlation between organisation size and job function as a determinant of executive remuneration within the context of south african soes. a comparison of organisation size lambda value of 0.030 with job function lambda value of 0.055 suggests that the organisation size may be a weaker determinant of executive remuneration when compared with job function within the context of south african soes. however, as the correlation between the two variables is weak, this may imply that the practical effect of one variable against another as a determinant of executive remuneration may not indicate much of a difference within the context of south african soes. the finding contradicts that of previous studies (bouwman, 2013; edmans & gabaix, 2015; hijazi & bhatti, 2007; nourayi & daroca, 2008; sigler, 2011), which contend that remuneration tends to correlate highly with organisation size. the research results seem consistent with the tenet of the structural theory, which argues that executive compensation is a direct function of the number of organisational levels an executive occupies or the rank and order of the position within the organisation. the results may imply that executive remuneration should rise along with the complexity of the job function. however, as already indicated in this study that there is evidence of a weak correlation between the two variables, this may imply that it would be difficult to see the extent and practical effect of one variable against another as a determinant of executive remuneration within the context of south african soes. the statistical correlation between the level of education and job function suggests that there is a significant correlation between the two variables as determinants of executive remuneration within the context of south african soes. however, the extent of the relationship seems to suggest that the former is a better determinant of executive remuneration compared to the latter within the context of south african soes. in other words, the results seem to mean an executive with higher qualifications stood to earn more than another executive with lesser qualifications on a similar job function at another entity across the different soes. the result seems consistent with previous studies that contend that more education positively correlates to annual income and leads to higher remuneration and personal rewards (greve et al., 2010) and that organisations have to pay highly competitive wages in order to hire well-educated employees (denenga, 2012; myers et al., 2004). the research results also seem consistent with the major tenet of human capital theory that postulates that the acquisition of education increases knowledge and skills, which in turn leads to higher remuneration and personal rewards (becker, 1964; greve et al., 2010; ng & feldman, 2010; strober, 1990). practical implications what can we learn from this research? there are several important takeaways from this research. firstly, hr practitioners and remuneration specialists need to take into cognisance that the type of industry seems not to be a good determinant of executive remuneration within the context of south african soes. the lack of clearly defined industries in both the private and the public sector that are comparable to the soes seems to compound the problem. secondly, hr practitioners and remuneration specialists need to realise that whilst there is a strong correlation of organisation size to industry, this correlation is not as strong as reported by some previous research (bouwman, 2013; edmans & gabaix, 2015; nourayi & daroca, 2008; sigler, 2011) within the context of soes. the result seems to suggest that the hr division may need to identify criteria to define the size of the organisation as well as the industry for the soe sector. as suggested by seegers (pwc, 2010) cited in oberholzer and theunissen (2012), believes that new executive reward models tailored to specific businesses should be relevant and simple in terms of design and number of elements required. according to seegers, existing executive pay models have failed and what is needed is a business-specific, multi-element model to benchmark executive remuneration and a simple two-dimensional model will therefore not suffice. thus, identifying a single driver and its correlation to executive remuneration may restrict creativity and limit understanding and insight. in this study, the size of the organisation correlates to executive remuneration but less as a determinant compared with the job function may highlight how establishing the size of an soe differs when compared to how it is down in the private sector. with soes distinguished into four different categories according to the remuneration guidelines of 2007 revised in 2011, however, the issue with correct levels of the distribution of executive remuneration is still not resolved. another concern raised about benchmarking remuneration against jse-listed companies remains (kgosana, 2012). the soes (sector) do not seem to have an industry comparable to all entities as they differ in terms of the nature of their business and their developmental mandate. lastly, although the level of education has appeared as highly significant when correlated with job function, advisors and consultants should take precautions in the application. advising soes to adopt policies that would emphasise the level of education over the job function may underplay other elements, such as experience that is an element not tested in the current study. this study also demonstrates the advantages of secondary data analysis. it offers an opportunity to revert to documented information. the investigator is in a better position which may not necessarily be affected by the evolution of events and developments that may interfere or affect the collection of data, such as in the collection of primary data. documented information, especially on remuneration, can provide as much knowledge or even better insight as primary data collected using respondents. thus, the use of secondary data analysis can have a meaningful contribution to the application of executive remuneration in practice. secondary data also mitigate the challenges of collecting data on remuneration from respondents who may not necessarily know how the different levels are arrived at because such information could only be available to a few hr personnel. the article intends to stimulate debate amongst practitioners, some of whom may focus on one determinant of the executive remuneration when in practice it has shown that there may be more determinants at play when setting executive remuneration. some of the studies identified within the literature review continue to research executive remuneration, but there seems to be no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. the current study attempted to engage at the fundamental level by investigating the relationship between the popularly used determinants of executive remuneration. this study intended to highlight the fact that measuring executive remuneration should not be a complicated process. limitations and recommendations there are a plethora of elements in the determination of executive remuneration. however, this study investigated a few popularly used determinants in practice. although south african soes consist of 131 soes (national government directory: soes, 2020), only 21 schedule 2 soes were studied. the data collected were for a period of 5 years after the guidelines on executive remuneration had been revised and published. a follow-up study would be interesting to investigate if there has been any change in the relationship between the determinants after the first 5 years, that is, 10 years later, as at the end of 2020. conclusion the overall results seem to suggest that job function is a better determinant of executive remuneration when compared to the organisation size. however, the job function was even better when compared to the type of industry, but not when compared to the level of education within the context of south african soes. the current study highlights some of the aspects necessary to understand the theory and operations that underpin executive remuneration. the study also intended to create awareness of the need to probe further the extent of the significance of statistics and implications in practice. the study also stimulates further need to investigate the combination of more than two elements of executive remuneration. for example, a new study could investigate how job function relates to the size of the organisation and the type of industry as a determinant of an executive’s package. such a study could unveil further dynamics that characterise the determination of executive. hopefully, the multiple approaches would shrink the level of anxiety and provide more insight into the debatable topic of executive remuneration. the one-size-fits-all approach in executive remuneration has been highlighted in theory, as well as in this study. acknowledgements the author would like to acknowledge support from the human resources representatives from the different soes who confirmed data from the website and also offered more information for clarification. competing interests the author has declared that no competing interest exists. author’s contributions the author is solely responsible for the manuscript. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references aaron, b., kromrey, j.d., & ferron, j.m. (1998, november). equating r-based and d-based effect-size indices: problems with a commonly recommended formula. paper presented at the annual meeting of the florida educational research association, orlando, fl. (eric document reproduction service no. ed433353). agarwal, n.c. (1981). determinants of executive compensation. industrial relations, 20(1), 36–45. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-232x.1981.tb00180.x albright, s.c., winston, w.l., zappe, c.j., & broadie, m.n. (2009). data analysis & decision making with microsoft excel. australia: thomson south-western. apanpa, b., & farinmade, b. (2017). compensation philosophy: how do you intend to reward your employees? september. kpmg. retrieved from https://home.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/ng/pdf/tax/ng-compensation-philosophy.pdf armstrong, m., & brown, d. (2001). new dimensions in pay management. london: cipd. becker, g. (1964). human capital: a theoretical and empirical analysis with special reference to education. new york, ny: columbia university press. berman brown, r., & saunders, m. (2008) dealing with statistics: what you need to know. maidenhead: mcgraw-hill open university press. bernier, l. (2014). public enterprises as policy instruments: the importance of public entrepreneurship, journal of economic policy reform, 17(3), 253–266. https://doi.org/10.1080/17487870.2014.909312 bernier, l. (2015). public enterprises today: missions, performance and governance. brussels, belgium: pie-peter lang sa. bognanno, m. (2010). executive compensation: a brief review (no. 1002). department of economics, temple university. retrieved from http://ideas.repec.org/p/tem/wpaper/1002.html boivie, s., bednar, m.k., & barker, s.b. (2012). social comparison and reciprocity in director compensation. journal of management, 41(6), 1578–1603. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206312460680 bouwman, c. (2013). the geography of executive compensation. unpublished working paper. cleveland, oh: case western university. britton, d. (2014). spss etutor. a brief guide book. creative commons attribution-noncommercial-sharealike 3.0 unported license. retrieved from http://commons.esc.edu/spss/examining-relationships-among-variables/measures-ofassociation bullock, j.b., stritch, j.m., & rainey, h.g. (2015). international comparison of public and private employees’ work motives, attitudes, and perceived rewards. public administration review, 75(3), 479–489. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12356 bussin, m. (2018). chief executive officer compensation sensitivity in the south african mining industry. acta commercii, 18(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v18i1.573 carrasco-hernandez, a., & sánchez-marín, g. (2007). the determinants of employee compensation in family firms: empirical evidence. family business review, 20(3), 215–228. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6248.2007.00096.x clifford, s. (2017). how companies actually decide what to pay ceos. the atlantic. business. june 14. retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/06/how-companies-decide-ceo-pay/530127/ coe, r. (2002). it’s the effect size, stupid: what effect size is and why it is important. paper presented at the annual conference of british education research association, university of essex. cohen, j., (1992). quantitative methods in psychology: a power primer. psychological bulletin, 112(4), 155–159. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155 conyon, m., & he, l. (2011). executive compensation and corporate governance in china. journal of corporate finance, 17(4), 1158–1175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2011.04.006 datta gupta, n., poulsen, a., & villeval, m.c. (2013). gender matching and competitiveness: experimental evidence. economic inquiry, 51(1), 816–835. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7295.2011.00378.x datta, s., & iskandar-datta, m. (2014). upper-echelon executive human capital and compensation: generalist vs specialist skills. strategic management journal, 35(12), 1853–1866. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2267 del bo, c., & florio, m. (2012). public enterprises, planning and policy adoption: three welfare propositions. journal of economic policy reform, 15(4), 263–279. https://doi.org/10.1080/17487870.2012.722846 denenga, l. (2012). female wages and occupational advance under black economic empowerment in south africa. colgate academic review, 9, article 9. deysel, b., & kruger, j. (2015). the relationship between south african ceo compensation and company performance in the banking industry. southern african business review, 19(1), 137–169. https://doi.org/10.25159/1998-8125/5837 dpe. (2007). state-owned enterprises remuneration guidelines. part a: chairpersons & non-executive directors. part b: executive directors. retrieved from https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/seo-remuneration0.pdf ebrahimi, l., & horak, a. (2018). is executive benchmarking as we know it dead? executive directors: practices and remuneration trends report. pwc. retrieved from www.pwc.co.za/executive-directors-report edmans, a., & gabaix, x. (2016). executive compensation: a modern primer. journal of economic literature, 54(4), 1232–1287. https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.20161153 farid, m., conte, v., & lazarus, h. (2011). toward a general model for executive compensation. journal of management development, 30(1), 61–74. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621711111098370 farmer, m., brown, d., reilly, p., & bevan, s. (2013). executive remuneration in the united kingdom: will the coalition government’s latest reforms secure improvement and what else is required? compensation & benefits review, 45(1), 26–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886368713485037 fernandes, n, ferreira, m.a., matos, p., & murphy, k.j. (2013). are u.s. ceos paid more? new international evidence. review of financial studies, 26(2), 323–367. https://doi.org/10.1093/rfs/hhs122 fin24. (2010). eskom executive pay up 25%. fin24.com. retrieved from https://www.news24.com/fin24/companies/eskom-executive-pay-up-25-20100702 fisher, r.a. (1925). statistical methods for research workers. london: oliver & boyd. fleming, a.s., & schaupp, l.c. (2011). factor analysis of executive compensation determinants: survey evidence from executives and non-executive investors, corporate governance, 12(1), 16–41. frankfort-nachmias, c., & leon-guerrero, a. (2006). social statistics for a diverse society. thousand oaks, ca: pine forge press. frydman, c., & saks, r.e. (2010). executive compensation: a new view from a long-term perspective, 1936–2005. review of financial studies, 23(5), 2099–2138. https://doi.org/10.1093/rfs/hhp120 gabaix, x., & landier, a. (2008). why has ceo pay increased so much? the quarterly journal of economics, 123(1), 49–100. https://doi.org/10.1162/qjec.2008.123.1.49 geletkanycz, m.a., boyd, b.k., & finkelstein, s. (2001). the strategic value of ceo external directorate networks: implications for ceo compensation. strategic management journal, 22(9), 889–898. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.172 ghose, a. (2011). total rewards special: decoding executive compensation. compensation benefits. (march 15). aonhewitt. retrieved from http://www.peoplematters.in/article/2011/03/15/compensation-benefits/total-rewards-special-decoding-executivecompensation/882 gomez-mejia, l., berrone, p & franco-santos, m. (2010). compensation and organizational performance: theory, research, and practice. new york, ny: me sharpe. green, r. (2018). candid remuneration reporting and clear disclosure. in executive directors: practices and remuneration trends report (10th edn., july 2018). pricewaterhousecoopers. greve, a., benassi, m., & sti, a.d. (2010). exploring the contributions of human and social capital to productivity. international review of sociology–revue internationale de sociologie, 20(1), 35–58. hall, b.j., & murphy, k.j. (2003). the trouble with stock options. journal of economic perspectives, 17(3), 49–70. hijazi, s.t., & bhatti, k.k. (2007). determinants of executive compensation and its impact on organizational performance. compensation & benefits review, 39(2), 58–68. howard, a. (1986). college experiences and managerial performance. journal of applied psychology, 71(3), 530–552. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.71.3.530 iodsa. (2016). king iv provides critical guidance to help companies solve remuneration issues. institute of directors southern africa, november 21. retrieved from https://www.iodsa.co.za/news/318424/king-iv-provides-critical-guidance-to-help-companies-solve-remuneration-issues.htm iodsa. (2018). remuneration policy. southern africa: institute of directors. retrieved from https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.iodsa.co.za/resource/collection/f85f0cda-6820-4bba-a467-ed6ee14b0ee5/iodsa%20remuneration%20policy%202018.pdf jensen, m., murphy, k., & wruck, e. (2004). remuneration: where we’ve been, how we got to here, what are the problems, and how to fix them. ecgi working paper series in finance working paper series, no. 44. harvard university. johnson, j.b., & reynolds, h.t. (2011). political science research methods. london: sage. kgosana, c. (2012a). gigaba plans to curb executive pay. sowetan. march, 14. johannesburg, south africa. kgosana, c. (2012b). state challenged on directors’ pay freeze. sowetan. april, 25. kirk, r.e. (1996). practical significance: a concept whose time has come. educational and psychological measurement, 56(5), 746–759. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164496056005002 kirsten, e., & du toit, e. (2018). the relationship between remuneration and financial performance for companies listed on the johannesburg stock exchange. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 21(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v21i1.2004 kleynhans, m. (2018). corporate failures: their impact on executive remuneration. in executive directors: practices and remuneration trends report (10th edn., july 2018). pricewaterhousecoopers. kpmg forensic report. (2010). february 10, 2011. retrieved from www.pmg.org.za/report/20100831-south-african-airways-kpmg-report-briefing larker, d., & tayan, b. (2011). corporate governance matters. a closer look at organizational choices and their consequences. upper saddle river, nj: pearson education. leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2013). practical research: planning and design (10th edn.). boston, ma: pearson. magnan, m., & martin, d. (2018). executive compensation and employee remuneration: the flexible principles of justice in pay. journal of business ethics, 160(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3786-5 maloa, f., & bussin, m. (2016). determinants of executive compensation in south african state-owned enterprises. south african journal of labour relations, 40(1), 8–24. https://doi.org/10.25159/2520-3223/5857 marcinkowska, m. (2014). remuneration of bank managers–problems and potential solutions. argumenta oeconomica, 32(1), 41–74. martocchio, j.j. (2011). strategic compensation. upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. milkovich, g., & newman, j.m. (2004). compensation (8th edn.). new york, ny: mc graw-hill. milkovich, g.t., newman, j.m., & gerhart, b. (2014). compensation (11th edn.). international edition. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill/irwin. millward, r. (2011). public enterprise in the modern western world: an historical analysis. annals of public and cooperative economics, 82(4), 375–398. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8292.2011.00447.x myers, m.b., griffith, d.a, & daugherty, p.j. (2004). maximizing the human capital equation in logistics: education, experience, and skills. journal of business and logistics, 25(1), 211–232. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2158-1592.2004.tb00175.x national-government-directory: state-owned-enterprises-soes. (2020). retrieved from https://www.gov.za/about-government/contact-directory/sub-category/national-government-directory%3a-state-ownedenterprises-%28soes%29/pdf national treasury (2010). the framework for strategic plans and annual performance plan. retrieved from www.treasury.gov.za neill, j.t. (2008). why use effect sizes instead of significance testing in program evaluation? retrieved from http://www.wilderdom.com/research/effectsizes.html. neuman, w.l. (2005) social research methods (6th edn). london: pearson. nourayi, m., & daroca, f. (2008), ceo compensation, firm performance, and operational characteristics. managerial finance, 34(8), 562. https://doi.org/10.1108/03074350810874082 novak, j., & bilinski, p. (2018). social stigma and executive compensation. journal of banking & finance, 96, 169–184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2018.09.003 nulla, y.m. (2013). a combined study of canada’s top ceo compensation sectors – energy, metal and mining – an empirical study. strategic management quarterly, 1(1), 11–21. oberholzer, m., & theunissen, m. (2012). benchmarking of johannesburg stock exchange ceo compensation. international business & economics research journal (iber), 11(9), 1061–1076. https://doi.org/10.19030/iber.v11i9.7189 oecd. (2005). oecd guidelines on corporate governance of state-owned enterprises. oecd. publishing: paris, france. pandher, g., & currie, r. (2013). ceo compensation: a resource advantage and stakeholder-bargaining perspective. strategic management journal, 34(1), 22–41. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.1995 papenfuß, u., & schmidt, c. (2015). determinants of manager pay in german state-owned enterprises and international public policy implications: 3-year study for sectors, performance and gender (no. 137). working paper, universität leipzig, wirtschaftswissenschaftliche fakultät. peng, m.w., sun, s.l., & markóczy, l. (2014). human capital and ceo compensation during institutional transitions. journal of management studies, 52(1), 117–147. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12106 perkins, s.j., & white, g. (2011). reward management: alternatives, consequences and contexts (2nd edn.). london: chartered institute of personnel and development. public finance management act of 1999. retrieved from http://www.treasury.gov.za/ pugh, d.s. (1973). the measurement of organisation structures: does context determine form? organisational dynamics, 1(4), 19–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0090-2616(73)80021-x pwc (pricewaterhousecoopers). (2010). executive remuneration in need of a major makeover. pwc: 1–3, 23 july. retrieved from http://www.pwc.com/za/en/press-room/ pwc. (2018). executive directors’ practices and remuneration trends report. retrieved from https://www.bbrief.co.za/content/uploads/2018/07/executive-directors-practices-and-remuneration-trendsreport-2018.pdf saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2007). research methods for business students (4th edn.). harlow: financial times, prentice hall. saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2012). research methods for business students (6th edn.). harlow: pearson. scholtz, h.e., & smit, a. (2012). executive remuneration and company performance for south african companies listed on the alternative exchange (altx). southern african business review, 16(1), 22–38. schuitema, j. (2010). executive pay revised. moneyweb. retrieved from http://www.moneyweb.co.za/archive/executive-pay-revisited/ shackleton, c. (2007). developing key performance indicators for corporate communication in the information technology industry. mcom dissertation. pretoria: university of pretoria. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2263/24722 sigler, k.j. (2011), ceo compensation and company performance. business and economic journal, 31(1), 1–8. simon, h. (1957). models of man: social and rational. new york, ny: wiley. staff writer. (2017). how much you could earn based on your level of education in south africa. businesstech. retrieved from https://businesstech.co.za/news/finance/149531/how-much-you-could-earn-based-on-your-level-of-education-in-south-africa/ strober, m.h. (1990). human capital theory: implications for hr managers. industrial relations 29(2), 214–239. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-232x.1990.tb00752.x sullivan, g.m. (2012). faqs about effect size. journal of graduate medical education, 4(3), 283–284. https://doi.org/10.4300/jgme-d-12-00162.1 sun, s.l., zhao, x., & yang, h. (2010). executive compensation in asia: a critical review and outlook. asia pacific journal of management, 27(4), 775–802. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-010-9207-7 thalheimer, w., & cook, s. (2002). how to calculate effect sizes from published research: a simplified methodology. somerville, ma: a work-learning research publication (no. 1, pp. 1–9). retrieved from http://www.docstoc.com/docs/47860289/how-to-calculate-effect-sizes-from-published-research-a-simplified-methodology trevor, j. (2011). can pay be strategic? a critical exploration of strategic pay in practice. london: palgrave macmillan. trusty, j., & niles, s.g. (2004). realized potential or lost talent: high school variables and bachelor’s degree completion. career development quarterly, 53(1), 2–15. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2004.tb00651.x van essen, m., otten, s., & carberry, e.j. (2012). assessing managerial power theory: meta-analytic approach to understanding the determinants of ceo compensation. journal of management, 41(1), 164–202. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206311429378 wallace, m., & fay, c. (1983). compensation theory and practice: kent human resource management series. boston, ma: kent. ward, r.m. (2002). highly significant findings in psychology: a power and effect size survey. dissertations and master’s thesis (campus access). paper aai3053127. university of rhode island. kingston: digital commons network. retrieved from https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/dissertations/aai3053127 wilkinson, l., & apa. (1999). task force on statistical inference. statistical methods in psychology journals: guidelines and explanations. american psychologist, 54(8), 594–604. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.54.8.594 abstract introduction research problem aim literature review research design statistical analysis results reliability validity correlation and regression analyses discussion theoretical implications practical implications limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) navin g. matookchund graduate school of business leadership, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa renier steyn department of leadership and organisational behaviour, graduate school of business leadership, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation matookchund, n.g., & steyn, r. (2019). performance appraisal as an antecedent to innovation: an analysis of its importance relative to other human resource practices. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1219. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1219 original research performance appraisal as an antecedent to innovation: an analysis of its importance relative to other human resource practices navin g. matookchund, renier steyn received: 20 may 2019; accepted: 29 aug. 2019; published: 29 oct. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: innovation is essential to organisational survival, and several studies have shown that performance appraisals (pas) contribute to innovation. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to examine the importance of pa as an antecedent to innovation relative to other human resource practices (hrps). motivation for the study: the specific hrp drivers of innovation among employees and across organisations are not well specified, hindering appropriate resource allocation. research approach/design and method: the pa–innovation link was investigated among 3180 employees across 53 south african organisations, utilising a cross-sectional survey design involving quantitative data, and focusing on correlation and regression analyses. main findings: human resource practices accounted for approximately 10% of the variance in innovation when considering individual employees. performance appraisal was neither a common nor a unique predictor of innovation. when focusing on the link across organisations, a significant hrps–innovation link was established in approximately 60% of organisations, with pa playing a significant role as the predictor of innovation in 10 (out of 53) organisations. practical/managerial implications: other hrps, specifically supervisor support and staffing, played a much bigger role than pa in driving innovation of individuals, also across organisations. this specifies the relative importance of pa amongst other hrps. contribution/value-add: general managers, human resource practitioners and researchers can now use data-driven evidence to select specific hrps which significantly enhance innovation among employees and across organisations. keywords: human resource models; human resource practices; innovation; performance appraisal; south africa. introduction innovation is essential for an organisation to increase its performance and competitive position globally (abbaspour, 2015; le bas & lauzikas, 2009; ling & nasurdin, 2011). furthermore, innovation leads to competitive advantage (aryanto, fontana, & afiff, 2015; subramaniam & youndt, 2005). organisational survival in today’s harsh economic climate is dependent on innovation (abbaspour, 2015; ceylan, 2013; runfeng, 2011). in addition, innovation is vital for organisational advancement, success and survival (chang, gong, & shum, 2011; maier, brad, nicoara, & maier, 2014). although innovation is important, it is not possible to achieve innovation without allocating human resources to innovation initiatives and introducing suitable human resource practices (hrps) (kim & choi, 2014; le bas & lauzikas, 2009). also, according to chen and huang (2009), and cooke and saini (2010), it is important that hrps should be adopted to implement innovation within an organisation. in numerous studies, it has been empirically established that performance appraisal (pa) (aktharsha & sengottuvel, 2016; dalota & perju, 2010; runfeng, 2011), along with other hrps (aktharsha & sengottuvel, 2016; chang et al., 2011; dalota & perju, 2010), is an antecedent to innovation. referring to specific practices, numerous studies have shown that hrps, namely pa, employee participation, and rewards, contribute to innovation (dalota & perju, 2010; jimenez-jimenez & sanz-valle, 2005; laursen & foss, 2003). on the other hand, aktharsha and sengottuvel’s (2016) research revealed that three main hrps – pa, recruitment and selection, and compensation and rewards are significant predictors of knowledge sharing. many studies have empirically established that knowledge sharing plays an important role in predicting innovation (aktharsha & sengottuvel, 2016; subramaniam & youndt, 2005; wu & lee, 2013). wu and lee (2013) further suggest that training and development, and compensation and rewards significantly affect knowledge sharing and innovation. kim and choi (2014) also found that pa, reward and training enhance affective commitment, which, in turn, contributes to innovation. from the aforementioned discussion, it is evident that there is no consensus on the particular practices that drive innovation. more so, the relative importance of the different practices is not well known. it is also not surprising that much of the research on hrps and innovation is conducted primarily within the western context (al-bahussin & el-garaihy, 2013; katou, 2008). evidence of empirical research on the hrp–innovation relationship is lacking within the south african context. within the latter context, the specific drivers of innovation among employees and across organisations are not well specified. this study therefore attempted to create a clarity on the specific human resource drivers of innovation and contextualise the research within the south african context. although several empirical studies (e.g. al-bahussin & el-garaihy, 2013; aryanto, et al., 2015; katou, 2008) have uncovered a link between hrps and innovation, most of them were often single-company or single-industry driven and undertaken with relatively small samples. this study uses a relatively large sample (n > 3000) to investigate the relationship both among employees and within organisations. the majority of the research (e.g. le bas & lauzikas, 2009) has been limited to examining hrps as a single concept rather than as individual practices in their own right. becker and huselid (1998), in their seminal paper, along with others, such as tang, wei, snape and ng (2015), preferred a focus on a single concept. this study attempted to include several other hrps in the model. madmoli (2016), steyn (2012) and sun, aryee and law (2007) preferred to focus on multiple hrps. the focus of this research was on the individual practices, particularly pa, as this allows managers to make informed decisions about which practice to focus on, rather than improving human resources in general. research problem many studies (e.g. al-bahussin & el-garaihy, 2013; aryanto et al., 2015; katou, 2008) have shown that hrps contribute to innovation. however, appropriate quantification with regard to pa as an antecedent to innovation, relative to an array of individual hrps, both among employees and within south african organisations, is not sufficiently investigated. without this nuance of information on the individual hrp–innovation relationship, managers and human resource practitioners may inappropriately allocate resources to specific hrps, thus hindering organisational success. aim the aim of this article was to investigate the importance of pa as an antecedent to innovation, relative to an array of individual hrps, both among employees (in general) and within (specific) south african organisations. literature review there is widespread interest in human resources, and practitioners and researchers often debate the available hrp literature (keir, 2016). according to al-bahussin and el-garaihy (2013), human resources are important to organisations. ceylan (2013), cooke and saini (2010) and hayton (2005) indicate that research on hrps and innovation has increased considerably over the past few decades. similarly, according to delery and gupta (2016) and hayton (2005), the number of studies on hrps has increased dramatically in the last two decades. the number of journals dedicated to human resource management has increased substantially in the past few years, both in south africa and internationally. effective human resources have positive effects on performance in general. most successful organisations exploit hrps as tools to improve effectiveness and performance (denisi & pritchard, 2006; esu & inyang, 2009). hrps contribute to continuous improvement and success (ahmed, mohammad, & islam, 2013; hayton, 2005), and in addition, hrps are employed in organisations to serve many purposes. delery and doty (1996) and delery and gupta (2016) argue that hrps are important in trying to achieve organisational goals. human resources management consists of many practices. edralin (2010) suggests that hrps include pa, recruiting, compensation, selecting, training and development, and employee relations. cascio (2010), meanwhile, suggests that staffing, information sharing, pa, promotion systems, incentive systems and grievance procedures are the best hrps for 21st century firms. madmoli (2016) also argues that selection, training, job evaluation, rewarding, participation, recruiting, and information sharing are effective hrps. as a final example, sun et al. (2007) indicate that job security, training, promotion, appraisal and career paths are high-performance hrps. several studies have empirically established the hrp–innovation link (al-bahussin & el-garaihy, 2013; aryanto et al., 2015; katou, 2008). noe, hollenbeck, gerhart and wright (2008) also point out that hrps have been recognised to improve organisational performance by contributing to innovation, satisfaction and productivity. laursen and foss (2003), for example, found that seven out of nine hrps lead to innovation. dalota (2013) and looise and van riemsdijk (2004) indicate that hrps contribute to innovation, while jimenez-jimenez and sanz-valle (2005) and ling and nasurdin (2011) suggest that hrps have a major impact on innovation. theoretically, the focus on certain practices is explained. organisations routinely utilise a combination of hrps, or individual hrps, to either directly or indirectly gain competitive advantage (delery & doty, 1996; edralin, 2010; ling & nasurdin, 2011). as stated above, however, no consensus on the particular practices that drive innovation is available, particularly within the south african context. it is, however, not clear whether hrps are an effective driver of innovation in all organisations. the three major approaches to understanding human resource management are the universalistic, contingency and configurational perspectives (delery & doty, 1996; katou & budhwar, 2007). the universalistic perspective theorises that some hrps are generally superior to others in all organisations under any conditions (delery & doty, 1996; jeong & choi, 2016; katou, 2008). this suggests that organisations that accept these best practices achieve superior results (delery & doty, 1996; katou, 2008; steyn, 2012) and that strategy and hrps are equally free in influencing organisational performance (claus, 2003; lengnick-hall, lengnick-hall, andrade, & drake, 2009). the contingency perspective theorises that the choice of a certain set of hrps is reliant on strategy (katou, 2008; lengnick-hall et al., 2009). katou and budhwar (2007) state that there needs to be a fit between organisational and human resource strategy to influence performance. katou’s (2008) research suggests that a contingency perspective may mean that an innovation strategy determines hrps, or that human resource policy determines an innovation strategy for an organisation. meanwhile, the choice of innovation strategy for organisations depends on a specific bundle of hrps (dalota & perju, 2010; jimenez-jimenez & sanz-valle, 2005; laursen & foss, 2003). the configurational perspective, according to jeong and choi (2016) and lengnick-hall et al. (2009), theorises that groupings of certain hrps, rather than individual hrps, increase organisational performance as some practices reinforce one another. this implies that there are particular combinations of hrps that are the most suitable for improving performance. delery and doty (1996) opine that, for the configurational perspective, there should be both internal consistency of hrps (horizontal fit) and congruence of human resource systems and other organisational features (vertical fit). considering the three theoretical perspectives, all hrps uniformly correlating with innovation in all 53 organisations would provide proof of the hrp–innovation link being universalistic. should the relationship be a good fit for the configurational perspective, it might be expected that the results show specific patterns in the way in which hrps correlate with innovation across organisations. unfortunately, confirmation of a contingency perspective would require data on the strategic positions of the different organisations to have been gathered, but this was not done. the contingency perspective could, therefore, not be investigated. research design research approach a cross-sectional survey design, which concentrated on quantitative data, was employed. bryman (2012) and punch (1998) suggest that a quantitative research design procedure is suitable for this study as it readily allows the establishment of relationships between variables. the data utilised were gathered as part of a research project led by the second author of the study. the sample of organisations was a convenience sample. once the organisations had been identified, respondents were chosen at random from the organisation’s employee records. ultimately, the data comprised 3180 employees employed by 53 organisations within south africa, representing the private sector, parastatals and government departments. measuring instruments the hrp scale (nyawose, 2009) and the innovative work behaviour (iwb) questionnaire (de jong & den hartog, 2010) were employed in this study. human resource practices the hrp scale by nyawose (2009) was employed to assess the apparent effectiveness of hrps. this questionnaire comprised 21 statements, arranged according to seven hrps (training and development, compensation and rewards, pa, supervisor support, staffing, diversity management, and communication and information sharing) and with each hrp area containing three statements (table 1). respondents were invited to indicate their perceptions for each item on a five-point scale as follows: 1 (strongly disagree), 2 (disagree), 3 (not sure – uncertain), 4 (agree) and 5 (strongly agree). the lowest possible score would be 3, and the highest possible score would be 15, per hrp. also, in this study, the highest score obtained per hrp was 15, and the lowest score was 3. a high score would mean that respondents view hrps as effective and a low score would show dissatisfaction with hrps (steyn, 2012). nyawose (2009) reports reliability scores ranging from 0.74 to 0.93 for these hrps, plus significant correlations (in the expected direction), with outcomes such as occupational commitment and turnover intentions. furthermore, steyn (2012) and steyn and grobler (2014) report cronbach’s alphas of 0.87, 0.74, 0.81, 0.75 and 0.88 for five hrps, namely, compensation and rewards, staffing, pa, diversity management, and training and development, respectively. in the same study by steyn and grobler (2014), the results indicated that the hrp scale is both reliable and valid. to further support the validity of the hrp scale, steyn (2012) found that hrps correlated positively with job satisfaction and negatively with the intention to quit. table 1: constructs, items of the human resource practice scale, reliability coefficients and correlations between constructs and innovation. innovative work behaviour the iwb questionnaire from de jong and den hartog (2010) was selected to measure iwb. it consists of 10 questions. the questionnaire had to be modified for this study. no measurement scale was provided in the de jong and den hartog’s (2010) article. a scale was therefore introduced, ranging from (0) never to (6) always. the lowest score obtained was 0, and the highest score obtained was 60. the following is a question from the original iwb questionnaire: ‘[h]ow often does this employee … pay attention to issues that are not part of his daily work?’ (de jong & den hartog, 2010, p. 29). this format did not suit our study, which emphasises the views of individuals concerning their iwb. all 10 items of the questionnaire were thus amended to begin with ‘as an employee how often do you …’ instead of ‘how often does this employee …’. de jong and den hartog (2010) reported that the instrument is adequately reliable (cronbach’s alpha > 0.7). according to de jong and den hartog (2010), there is clear evidence that employee’s innovation outputs (r = 0.35; p < 0.01), participative leadership (r = 0.25; p < 0.01) and external work contacts (r = 0.27; p < 0.01) correlate with iwb, and this points to good criterion validity. the adapted version of the instrument was used for this study. statistical analysis the statistical package for social science (spss) was used to conduct all statistical analysis, except for the confirmatory factor analysis (cfa), which was performed using the lavaan package. firstly, frequencies were computed to provide biographical data on respondents. then, cronbach’s alphas were calculated to confirm the reliability of all instruments. based on recommendations from nunnally (1978) and ursachi, horodnic and zait (2015), all instruments with a cronbach’s alpha score of more than 0.7 were considered to possess adequate reliability. with regard to the validity of the hrp scale, cfa was used for the analysis. a seven-factor model of training and development, compensation and rewards, pa, supervisor support, staffing, diversity management, and communication and information sharing was tested. maximum likelihood estimation was selected, and the latent factors were standardised to allow free estimation of all factor loadings. awang (2012) and hair, black, babin and anderson (2009) suggest that the model fit is acceptable when the tucker–lewis index (tli) is greater than 0.9, the comparative fit index (cfi) is greater than 0.9 and the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) is less than 0.05. with regard to the validity of the iwb scale, as iwb was defined as a unidimensional construct (de jong & den hartog, 2010), the validity was only tested through specifying the amount of variance declared by the single factor. bateman and crant (1993) report a declared variance of around 0.30 as acceptable, when defending their unidimensional construct, and this guideline was also followed in this study. correlation coefficients were computed between hrps (as a single construct) and for innovation behaviour, both among employees and across organisations. pearson’s correlations (2-tailed) were utilised to define the extent of the relationship between the variables. these correlations were considered statistically significant at the 0.01 level. based on the guidelines set out by cohen (1988), the calculation of the practical significance of the alphas is as follows: r greater than 0.5 is deemed ‘large’, r greater than 0.3 but less than 0.5 is deemed ‘medium’ and r greater than 0.1 but less than 0.3 is deemed ‘small’. regression analyses were performed at the employee and organisational level. firstly, these analyses were executed to compute how the different subscales of hrps predict iwb. then, the subscales of hrps, which significantly and uniquely predict iwb, were identified. the ‘enter’ option in spss was selected for the regression analysis where all the hrps were regressed to predict innovation. the ‘stepwise’ option in spss was then selected for the regression analysis in order to identify the individual hrps which contribute uniquely and significantly to predicting innovation. finally, following the procedure set out by pallant (2013) and peck and devore (2011), the coefficient of determination in innovation was calculated by multiplying the r2 values by 100. when considering the models across organisations, validation of a universalistic model would be evident when all organisations display similar relationships between hrps and innovation, with little variation between organisations. another indicator of the universalistic perspective would be whether r2 was significant for the hrp–innovation link in all organisations. the same hrp subscales should relate to innovation across organisations, and the relative contribution of antecedents should be ranked similarly across organisations. validation of a configurational model would consist of establishing unique sequences in which hrps relate to innovation. validation of a configurational model would be seen if particular combinations of subscales frequently predict innovation, or should patterns of antecedents predict innovation significantly. ethical considerations ethical approval to conduct the study was obtained from the university of south africa, school of business leadership research ethics review committee, (ethics clearance number: 2018_sbl_dbl_003_sd). the data were gathered as per the ethics guidelines of the university of south africa (unisa), and authorisation was obtained from the unisa research ethics review committee to use the data as secondary data. results biographical data the sample consisted of 3180 employees drawn from 53 organisations within south africa. gender the respondents were grouped into two gender groups. the 2016 quarterly labour force survey points out that gender demographics across south africa is almost equally distributed (statistics south africa, 2016) and is closely aligned to the gender distribution in this study. a total of 1771 (55.7%) respondents logged their gender as male and 1372 (43.1%) recorded their gender as female, while for 37 (1.2%) respondents the data were missing. race the respondents were grouped into four race groups, and these data are aligned to the quarterly labour force survey in the sense that, in the larger south african context, black people make up the largest workforce group, followed by white people, mixed race people and asian people in descending order (statistics south africa, 2016). a total of 263 (8.3%) respondents were asian people, 1830 (57.5%) were black people, 263 (8.3%) were mixed race people and 787 (24.7%) were white people, while for 37 (1.2%) respondents the data were missing. age the 2016 quarterly labour force survey indicates that the age of the south african workforce ranges from 15 to 64 years (statistics south africa, 2016) and this is closely aligned to the respondents whose ages ranged from 20 to 72 years, with a mean of 37.81 and a standard deviation of 9.10 years. educational qualifications a total of 934 (29.4%) respondents held a bachelor’s degree or higher, 1274 (40.1%) possessed a diploma, 789 (24.8%) had matriculation and 143 (4.5%) had less than 12 years of schooling, while for 40 (1.3%) respondents the data were missing. management and tenure those in management positions totalled 1156 (36.4%), and those in non-management positions represented 1983 (62.4%), while for 41 (1.3%) respondents the data were missing. as far as tenure at their current employers is concerned, this varied between 1 month and 42 years, with a mean of 8.49 and a standard deviation of 7.45 years. economic sector a total of 1981 (62.3%) organisations fell within the private sector, 480 (15.1%) were parastatal and 719 (22.6%) were government departments, for example, the department of trade and industry, the department of tourism and so on. from the biographical data presented above, it is evident that the respondents represent a broad cross-section of the south african workforce. reliability the hrp scale consists of seven constructs, and each construct consists of three items (table 1). cronbach’s alphas for the individual constructs and instruments along with the correlations between the individual constructs and innovation are presented in the last two columns. validity evidence of validity of both instruments was based on confirmatory factor analyses. the hrp scale showed an acceptable fit in a tested confirmatory factor model, in a seven-factor model (training and development, compensation and rewards, pa, supervisor support, staffing, diversity management, and communication and information sharing). although the perfect model fit was not achieved, with a maximum likelihood chi-square of 1192.82, the degrees of freedom (df) being 168, and p < 0.001, as is the norm with large samples (vandenberg & lance, 2000), the less stringent test revealed a satisfactory fit. the tli of 0.963 was substantially larger than the cut-off score of 0.900 (satisfactory fit), a cfi of 0.931 was also considerably greater than the cut-off score of 0.900 (satisfactory fit) and a rmsea of 0.044 was lower than the cut-off score of 0.050 (good fit), with a 90% confidence interval from 0.042 to 0.047. as specified in the method section, the declared variance was reported only as a proof of validity. the single factor declared 52.775% of the variance in the instrument, with only one item with a loading of less than 0.5. this confirms the unidimensionality of the instrument, as reported by de jong and den hartog (2010). correlation and regression analyses the correlations between the individual hrp constructs and innovation are presented in table 1. table 2 presents the results pertaining to the relationship between hrps and innovation. table 2: total sample correlation and regression analyses (n = 3180). in column 2, depicting the relationship between hrps and innovation, it can be reported that r = 0.319. the correlation coefficient was statistically significant. when considering the practical significance, r is ‘medium’. considering the coefficient of determination, 10.2% of the variance in iwb is declared by hrps. it is, therefore, practically insignificant. the results of the regression are presented in column 3 where all the individual subscales are regressed to predict innovation. the ‘enter’ option in spss was selected for this analysis. it can be reported that r2adjusted = 0.107, depicting the relationship between all subscales of the hrp scale and innovation. the correlation coefficients were statistically significant. when considering the practical significance, r2adjusted is ‘small’. using all the subscales of the hrp scale allowed for 10.7% of the variance in iwb to be declared. in order to identify those individual hrps which contribute uniquely and significantly to predicting innovation, ‘stepwise’ regressions were performed, using the ‘stepwise’ option in spss. from column 4, it can be read that staffing, training and development, communication and information sharing, compensation and rewards, and supervisor support (listed in descending order of influence on innovation) of the hrp scale are the individual hrps that influence iwb uniquely and significantly. considering these important predictors, it is evident that pa and diversity management are neither common nor unique predictors of innovation. while the importance of pa as an antecedent to innovation relative to an array of individual hrps among employees has been established, it is, however, not clear whether the individual hrps are an effective driver of innovation in all organisations. the intention of the following analysis is to investigate the importance of pa as an antecedent to innovation, relative to an array of individual hrps within specific south african organisations. table 3 presents three columns (column 3 to column 5) of results for the individual samples drawn from the 53 organisations. in column 3, the correlation coefficients are presented for the hrps as a single construct and innovation. the results of the regression, where all the individual hrp subscales are regressed to predict innovation, are presented in column 4. column 5 presents the results where the individual hrp subscales that contribute uniquely and significantly to predicting innovation are identified. as it is not viable to present data for all 53 organisations in one table, a small section is presented here. however, table 3 is followed by a comprehensive summary of the complete table. table 3: organisation specific correlation and regression analyses (n = 60 per organisation). in column 2, depicting the relationship between hrps and innovation, measured per organisation, it can be reported that all organisations displayed statistically significant coefficients between the hrp scale and iwb, with p < 0.01 and p < 0.05. the average coefficient for all 53 organisations was 0.311. in total, 7/53 (13%) of the coefficients is deemed as being of high practical significance (r > 0.5), 25/53 (47%) of the coefficients is deemed as being of moderate practical significance (r > 0.3) and 21/53 (40%) of the coefficients is deemed as being of low practical significance (r > 0.1). when considering the results with regard to the practical significance of the coefficients between hrps and iwb, there is high practical significance in a smaller proportion (13%) of organisations when the hrp scale total scores correlated with innovation (figure 1). figure 1: practical significance of the correlation coefficients between human resource practices and innovation across organisations. in column 3, the results of the regression are presented where all the individual subscales of the hrp scale are regressed to predict innovation at organisational level. the ‘enter’ option in spss was selected for this analysis. it can be reported that all organisations displayed statistically significant coefficients between hrps and iwb, with p < 0.01. the average coefficient was 0.163. in total, 3/53 (6%) of the coefficients is deemed as being of high practical significance, 5/53 (9%) of the coefficients is deemed as being of moderate practical significance and 45/53 (85%) of the coefficients is deemed as being of low practical significance. when considering the results with regard to the practical significance of the coefficients between hrps and iwb, there is high practical significance in a smaller proportion (6%) of organisations when all the individual subscales of the hrp scale correlate with innovation (figure 2). the low iwb coefficients, in majority of the organisations, suggest that other factors must drive innovation. figure 2: practical significance of the regression coefficients between all subscales of the human resource practice scale and innovation across organisations. comparing the results in column 3 and column 4, it seems that following the correlation approach to calculate the coefficients between hrps (as a single construct) and innovation yielded better results than the use of the regression approach in which all the individual subscales of the hrp scale are regressed to predict innovation. the relationship when using the hrps as a single construct was larger than when using all the individual subscales of the hrp scale. this suggests both that hrp as a single construct is a better predictor of innovation and that a higher-level latent construct (which informs the total scores rather than the individual items) is responsible for the declared covariance. ‘stepwise’ regressions using the ‘stepwise’ option in spss were performed in column 4 in order to identify the individual hrp subscales which contribute uniquely and significantly to predict innovation at organisational level. this analysis served to test a hypothesis on the relative importance of pa across organisations, but more specifically, to find patterns amongst the hrp subscales which predict innovation. this was important to gain statistics on testing hypotheses on the universalistic and configurational perspectives of hrps. it can be reported that all organisations displayed statistically significant coefficients between the individual hrp subscales and iwb, with p < 0.01. the average coefficient was 0.216. in total, 2/45 (4%) of the coefficients is deemed as being of high practical significance, 8/45 (18%) of the coefficients is deemed as being of moderate practical significance and 35/45 (78%) of the coefficients is deemed as being of low practical significance, while there is missing data for eight organisations (organisations 4, 13, 24, 29, 39, 44, 47 and 53). the chains for the optimal models per organisation include 35 models with one variable, eight with two variables, one with three variables and one with five variables. organisation 38 had the most variables (five) in its optimal model. the most common subscales were supervisor support and staffing, as these items appear in 11 of the 45 models. the next most common subscales were training and development, and pa, as these appear in 10 of the models, followed by compensation and rewards that appears in six of the models. communication and information sharing was the least common variable as it appears in only five of the models. to detect evidence of sequences in the subscales predicting innovation, the two-variable models were analysed further. repeating patterns occurred in 3/8 (38%) cases with two-variable models (supervisor support and diversity management). discussion as stated earlier, no consensus on the particular practices that drive innovation is available. also, as stated before, much of the hrp–innovation research is conducted primarily within the western context. this study addresses the matter of clarity on specific drivers of innovation and contextualises the research within the south african context. furthermore, the respondents represented the south african workforce well in as far as gender, race and age were concerned. in addition, the biographical data were closely aligned with information presented in the quarterly labour force survey publication (statistics south africa, 2016). although studies have found a link between hrps and innovation, the research has often been slated for being single-company or single-industry driven and undertaken with relatively small samples. this study used a relatively large sample to explore the relationship both within and across organisations. the sample population consists of 3180 employees drawn from 53 organisations within south africa, representing the private sector, parastatals and government departments. the majority of the research has been limited to examine hrps as a single concept rather than as individual practices in their own right. this study attempted to include several other hrps in the model, and the focus was on the individual practices. the results revealed that the relationship between hrps (as a composite score) and innovation, although statistically significant, was practically insignificant. the relationship between all the individual subscales and innovation was also statistically significant but practically insignificant. focusing on the individual hrps, some were more effective in predicting innovation than others. the subscales that predict iwb are staffing, training and development, communication and information sharing, compensation and rewards, and supervisor support. considering these important predictors, it is evident that pa and diversity management are neither common nor unique predictors of innovation. this is not consistent with research conducted by dalota and perju (2010), jimenez-jimenez and sanz-valle (2005) and laursen and foss (2003), who present evidence that specific hrps, such as pa, result in innovation. the magnitude of the correlations between pa and iwb varied from 0.647 to 0.084. considering the finding regarding the correlation between hrps (as a composite score) and innovation within organisations, it can be concluded that a practically significant link was established in 60% of organisations. a statistically significant link was found in all organisations. there is low practical significance in 47% of the cases. the magnitude of the regression coefficients between pa and iwb varied from 0.649 to 0.004. considering the finding in which all the individual hrp subscales were regressed to predict innovation within organisations, it can be concluded that a practically significant link was established in 14% of organisations. however, a statistically significant link was found in all organisations. in a larger proportion of organisations (85% of the cases), there is low practical significance. the low iwb coefficients in majority of organisations suggest that other factors must drive innovation. focusing on the individual hrp subscales at organisational level, some were more effective in predicting innovation than others. it is evident that two (supervisor support and staffing) out of the seven subscales are common predictors. these elements are the primary drivers of innovation. therefore, should hrps be the primary mechanism used to drive innovation in an organisation, focus should be placed on these abovementioned aspects. considering the finding regarding the importance of pa compared to other hrps, it can be concluded that pa was a unique and significant predictor in 10 of the 53 organisations. however, pa was the dominant antecedent in eight of the 53 organisations. the results also show that pa is the second most important driver of innovation in comparison with the other hrps, while supervisor support and staffing have the most significant influence on innovation within organisations. although pa plays a less important role in influencing innovation within an organisation, it is evident that supervisor support and staffing play a much larger role in driving innovation at organisational level. this places the relative importance of pa amongst other hrps in perspective. it seems that the use of the correlation approach yielded better results than the use of the regression approach. the relationship was larger when using hrps as a total score, which is in line with the research conducted by jimenez-jimenez and sanz-valle (2005) and suggests that hrp as a total score is a better predictor of innovation and also that the total scores, rather than a latent construct, are responsible for the declared variance. support for the universalistic perspective was lacking in the correlation coefficients that were reported for hrp as a single construct and innovation behaviour per organisation. no consistency was found within organisations. the results of the regression analysis, where all the individual hrp subscales are regressed to predict innovation, also do not support the universalistic perspective. the results were inconsistent, and there were large variations between organisations. evidence supportive of the configurational perspective was limited, and no conclusive evidence of this was found as no specific sequences apply to all 53 organisations. the results of the regression analysis, where all the individual hrp subscales are regressed to predict innovation, show that there is partial support for the configurational perspective, as repeating patterns occur in 38% of the cases. this percentage is low. configurational fit could not, therefore, be fully supported as it is not applicable to all organisations. as stated earlier, no test for the contingency fit was performed as data on the strategic positions of the different organisations were not collected in order to perform an analysis. it is interesting to note that the findings in south africa in some regards are quite similar to those in the western context, and in other cases they are quite different. theoretical implications this study contributes to academic literature and theory on the hrps and innovation relationship within south africa, both within organisations and among employees. the research reveals that hrps are a driver of innovation, but that it accounts for approximately 10% of the variance in innovation when considering the sample of employees. the subscales of the hrp scale which drive innovation have been specified. furthermore, the importance and relative importance of pa as an antecedent to innovation in the workplace has been established. it has also been established that there are other hrps that have a far more significant influence on innovation than pa has. focusing on the hrp–innovation link within organisations, this research demonstrates that pa is a driver of innovation at organisational level, but only in some organisations. a high practically significant hrp–innovation link was established in 13% of organisations. the subscales of the hrp scale which drive innovation have been specified. these were, however, found in only some organisations. to complicate matters further, it was found that the composite score of hrps predicts innovation better than the individual subscales. this warrants further research on the psychometric properties of the hrp scale. moreover, the absolute importance of pa and other hrps, and its importance as an antecedent to innovation in the workplace, has been established. it has also been established that there are other hrps that have a far more significant influence on innovation than pa has at organisational level. this positioning of pa amongst other hrps is a valuable contribution to the body of knowledge. considering the applicability of the human resource models (universalistic or configurational perspective), it can be reported that there is no support for the universalistic perspective as no uniformity was found within organisations. however, there is some support for the configurational perspective as repeating patterns were found in the two-variable models, but the configurational fit could not be fully supported as no explicit patterns apply to all 53 organisations. practical implications the outcomes of the study shall benefit all interested parties and support managers and practitioners in focusing on the specific hrps that significantly enhance innovation. furthermore, the magnitude of the relationship has been quantified, and the attention of practitioners is drawn to the relative role of hrps as predictors of innovation within organisations. considering these important predictors, it is apparent that pa and diversity management are neither common nor unique predictors of innovation. focusing interventions on the identified aspects will enable managers and practitioners to improve their existing human resource systems significantly, aligning them to enhance innovation. this, however, comes with a warning as, although there is some commonality, it does not apply universally. additionally, the magnitude of the hrp–innovation relationship has been quantified across organisations. again, this differed widely across organisations as there are large variations between the coefficients. in very few organisations, pa is a practically significant driver of innovation. the attention of practitioners is thus also drawn to the relative role of pa as a predictor of innovation within organisations, relative to other hrps. although this study has provided confirmation that pa has a role in influencing innovation within an organisation, it is evident that supervisor support and staffing have a much greater role in driving innovation at organisational level. it is, therefore, recommended that practitioners should focus on supervisor support and staffing, as opposed to pa or the other hrps, and that this shift in emphasis might be at the source of innovation in organisations. these data would allow managers to enhance innovation behaviour and increase competitive advantage accordingly. limitations and recommendations this study has a few limitations that are noteworthy. firstly, the research design is cross-sectional in nature. cross-sectional studies are executed at a particular point in time and offer no indication of the sequence of events, thus making it difficult to infer causality (levin, 2006) from the study. however, an experimental or longitudinal research design is suggested to circumvent the restrictions posed by a cross-sectional design. secondly, the exclusive utilisation of respondents’ perceptions posed a restriction. the results may have been more explanatory had managers been incorporated into the reporting or had organisational statistics, such as registered patents, been utilised. multi-source and multi-method research is proposed. thirdly, the analysis was performed per organisation, and a sector analysis was excluded because of the total number of organisations per sector being considered unsatisfactory for statistical analysis. it can be anticipated that the unique sequences of items that predict innovation per organisation are confined to particular sectors in south africa, and research in this regard is therefore suggested. fourthly, cfa was used as the only method to confirm the validity of the hrp scale. confirmatory factor analysis is not the most stringent method for confirming discriminant validity as a stand-alone assessment; it is therefore suggested that exploratory factor analysis should be used in conjunction with cfa (farrell & rudd, 2009). lastly, the contingency model validation was impossible as data on the strategy of organisations were not gathered, which posed a further restriction. future researchers are encouraged to gather data on the present strategic position of organisations to be able to assess the applicability of all three models. conclusion the objective of the study was to examine the importance of pa as an antecedent to innovation relative to other hrps. the results showed that other hrps, specifically supervisor support and staffing, played a much bigger role than pa in driving innovation of individuals, also across organisations. this specifies the relative importance of pa amongst other hrps. managers, human resource practitioners and researchers can now use data-driven evidence to select specific hrps which significantly enhance innovation among employees and across organisations. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions n.g.m. was the main author of the article. r.s. was the supervisor of n.g.m and the co-author of the article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sector. data availability statement quantitative data were used in this study, and these data are available on written request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abbaspour, p. (2015). effect of strategic orientation and hrm strategies on organisational strategic performance: examining mediating role of strategic learning and innovation. an international peer-reviewed journal (trends in life sciences), 4(4), 125–132. ahmed, i., mohammad, s.k., & islam, t. (2013). the relationship between perceived fairness in performance appraisal and organisational citizenship behaviour in the banking sector of pakistan: the mediating role of organisational commitment. international journal of management and innovation, 5(2), 75–88. aktharsha, u.s., & sengottuvel, a. (2016). knowledge sharing behaviour and innovation capability: hrm practices in hospitals. scms journal of indian management, 13(1), 118–130. al-bahussin, s.a., & el-garaihy, w.h. (2013). the impact of human resource management practices, organisational culture, organisational innovation and knowledge management on organisational performance in large saudi organisations: structural equation modelling with conceptual framework. international journal of business and management, 8(22), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v8n22p1 aryanto, r., fontana, a., & afiff, a.z. (2015). strategic human resource management, innovation capability and performance: an empirical study in indonesia software industry. procedia – social and behavioural sciences, 211(1), 874–879. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.11.115 awang, z. (2012). structural equation modelling using amos graphic (1st edn.). shah alam: universiti teknologi mara press. bateman, t.s., & crant, j.m. (1993). the proactive component of organisational behaviour: a measure that correlates. journal of organisational behaviour, 14(2), 103–118. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030140202 becker, b.e., & huselid, m.a. (1998). high performance work systems and firm performance: a synthesis of research and managerial implications. research in personnel and human resource management, 16, 53–101. bryman, a.d. (2012). social research methods (4th edn.). new york: oxford university press. cascio, w.f. (2010). managing human resources: productivity, quality of work life, profits (8th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill irwin. ceylan, c. (2013). commitment-based hr practices, different types of innovation activities and firm innovation performance. international journal of human resource management, 24(1), 208–226. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.680601 chang, s., gong, y., & shum, c. (2011). promoting innovation in hospitality companies through human resource management practices. international journal of hospitality management, 30(4), 812–818. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2011.01.001 chen, c., & huang, j. (2009). strategic human resource practices and innovation performance – the mediating role of knowledge management capacity. journal of business research, 62(1), 104–114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2007.11.016 claus, l. (2003). similarities and differences in human resource management in the european union. thunderbird international business review, 45(1), 729–756. https://doi.org/10.1002/tie.10100 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioural sciences (2nd edn.). hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. cooke, f., & saini, d. (2010). (how) does the hr strategy support an innovation oriented business strategy? an investigation of institutional context and organisational practices in indian firms. human resource management, 49(3), 377–400. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20356 dalota, m. (2013). sms’s innovation and human resources management. romanian economic and business review, 8(3.1), 203–210. dalota, m., & perju, a. (2010). human resource management and the company’s innovation. romanian economic and business review, 5(4), 122–131. de jong, j., & den hartog, d. (2010). measuring innovative work behaviour. creativity and innovation management, 19(1), 23–36. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8691.2010.00547.x delery, j.e., & doty, d.h. (1996). modes of theorising in strategic human resource management: tests of universalistic, contingency, and configurational performance predictions. academy of management journal, 39(4), 802–835. delery, j., & gupta, n. (2016). human resource management practices and organisational effectiveness: internal fit matters, journal of organisational effectiveness: people and performance, 3(2), 139–163. https://doi.org/10.1108/joepp-03-2016-0028 denisi, a.s., & pritchard, r.d. (2006). performance appraisal, performance management and improving individual performance: a motivational framework. management and organisation review, 2(2), 253–277. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8784.2006.00042.x edralin, d.m. (2010). human resource management practices: drivers for stimulating corporate entrepreneurship in large companies in the philippines. dlsu business & economics review, 19(2), 25–41. https://doi.org/10.3860/ber.v19i2.1471 esu, b.b., & inyang, b.j. (2009). a case for performance management in the public sector in nigeria. international journal of business and management, 4(4), 98–105. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v4n4p98 farrell, a.m., & rudd, j.m. (2009). factor analysis and discriminant validity: a brief review of some practical issues. in australia-new zeeland marketing academy conference (anzmac) (pp. 1–9). melboure, australia. hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2009). multivariate data analysis (7th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson education international. hayton, j.c. (2005). promoting corporate entrepreneurship through human resource management practices: a review of empirical research. human resource management review, 15(1), 21–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2005.01.003 jeong, d.y., & choi, m. (2016). the impact of high-performance work systems on firm performance: the moderating effects of the human resource function’s influence. journal of management and organisation, 22(3), 328–348. https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2015.38 jimenez-jimenez, d., & sanz-valle, r. (2005). innovation and human resource management fit: an empirical study. international journal of manpower, 26(4), 364–381. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720510609555 katou, a.a. (2008). innovation and human resource management: the greek experience. organizacija, 41(3), 81–90. https://doi.org/10.2478/v10051-008-0009-3 katou, a.a., & budhwar, p.s. (2007). the effect of human resource management policies on organisational performance in greek manufacturing firms. thunderbird international business review, 49(1), 1–36. https://doi.org/10.1002/tie.20129 keir, m.y.a. (2016). staff perceptions of how human resource management practices influence organisational performance: mediating roles of organisational culture, employees’ commitment and employee retention in bahrain private universities. doctoral dissertation. cardiff: cardiff metropolitan university. kim, d., & choi, y. (2014). social exchange model between human resource management practices and innovation in software engineering. seoul journal of business, 20(2), 49–69. https://doi.org/10.35152/snusjb.2014.20.2.003 laursen, k., & foss, n.j. (2003). new human resource management practices, complementarities and the impact on innovation performance. cambridge journal of economics, 27(2), 243–263. https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/27.2.243 le bas, c., & lauzikas, m. (2009). the combination of innovation and human resource strategies: the case of information technology sector in lithuania. intellectual economics, 2(6), 18–29. lengnick-hall, m.l., lengnick-hall, c.a, andrade, l.s., & drake, b. (2009). strategic human resource management: the evolution of the field. human resource management review, 19(2009), 64–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2009.01.002 levin, k.a. (2006). study design iii: cross-sectional studies. evidence-based dentistry, 7(1), 24–25. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ebd.6400375 ling, t.c., & nasurdin, a.m. (2011). human resource management practices and organisational innovation: assessing the mediating role of knowledge management effectiveness. electronic journal of knowledge management, 9(2), 155–167. looise, j.k., & van riemsdijk, m. (2004). innovating organisations and hrm: a conceptual framework. management revue, 15(3), 277–287. https://doi.org/10.5771/0935-9915-2004-3-277 madmoli, z. (2016). investigating the relation between human resource management and organisational entrepreneurship: the mediating role of knowledge sharing by middle managers (case study: ahwaz pipe manufacturing company). international journal of humanities and cultural studies, 1(2016), 2739–2751. maier, a., brad, s., nicoara, d., & maier, d. (2014). innovation by developing human resources, ensuring the competitiveness and success of the organisation. procedia – social and behavioural sciences, 109(1), 645–648. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.12.521 noe, r.a., hollenbeck, j.r., gerhart, b., & wright, p.m. (2008). human resource management: gaining a competitive advantage (6th edn.). boston, ma: mcgraw-hill irwin. nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory (2nd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. nyawose, m. (2009). the relationship between human resources management practices, organisational commitment and turnover intentions amongst engineering professionals. unpublished master’s thesis. pretoria, south africa: university of south africa. pallant, j. (2013). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using ibm spss (5th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. peck, r., & devore, j.l. (2011). statistics: the exploration and analysis of data (7th edn.). san luis obispo, ca: cengage learning. punch, k.f. (1998). introduction to social research: quantitative and qualitative approaches (1st edn.). london: sage. runfeng, y. (2011). influence of goal orientation in performance appraisal on staff innovative behaviour: mediating effect of innovative climate. proceedings of the 8th international conference on innovation and management (pp. 445–451). kitakyushu, japan: yamaguchi university. statistics south africa. (2016). quarterly labour force survey – quarter 4: 2016 (statistical release p0211). retrieved from http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/p0211/p02114thquarter2016.pdf. steyn, r. (2012). human resource practices and employee attitudes: a study of individuals in ten south african companies. alternation, 5(2012), 167–184. steyn, r., & grobler, a. (2014). the relationship between human resource practices and employee attitudes in a travel agency. african journal of hospitality, tourism and leisure, 3(1), 1–10. subramaniam, m., & youndt, m.a. (2005). the influence of intellectual capital on the types of innovative capabilities. academy of management journal, 48(3), 450–463. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2005.17407911 sun, l.y., aryee, s., & law, k.s. (2007). high-performance human resource practices, citizenship behaviour, and organisational performance: a relational perspective. academy of management journal, 50(3), 558–577. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2007.25525821 tang, g., wei, l.q., snape, e., & ng, y.c. (2015). how effective human resource management promotes corporate entrepreneurship: evidence from china. the international journal of human resource management, 26(12), 1586–1601. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2014.953973 ursachi, g., horodnic, i.a., & zait, a. (2015). how reliable are measurement scales? external factors with indirect influence on reliability estimators. procedia economics and finance, 20(1), 679–686. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00123-9 vandenberg, r.j., & lance, c.e. (2000). a review and synthesis of the measurement invariance literature: suggestions, practices, and recommendations for organisational research. organisational research methods, 3(1), 4–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/109442810031002 wu, w.y., & lee, f.h. (2013). the influence of commitment-based hr practices and knowledge-sharing on employees’ innovation performance. african journal of business management, 7(24), 2381–2393. https://doi.org/10.5897/ajbm2013.6979 3smith.qxd the central theme of this article is a conceptualisation of the spirit ual life dimension. during the past t wo decades, literature – both popular and academic – has increasingly pointed to the importance of spirituality. however, definitions of spirit ualit y have remained uninformative. by concept ualising smith’s personal, interpersonal and professional leadership (pipl) perspective of the spiritual life dimension, a contribution can be made by shedding more light on human spirituality. the pipl perspective pipl is a multidisciplinary leadership paradigm that was developed in the mid-1990s by prof dawie (dpj) smith of the universit y of johannesburg. pipl has a holistic and multidimensional perspective on the human being, incorporating eight life dimensions: the spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, social, career, financial and ecological dimensions (smith, 2004a; verrier & smith, 2005b, p. 52). although pipl promotes balance across these life dimensions, it views the spiritual dimension (sd) as the core of the individual (verrier & smith, 2005b, p. 54). therefore problems and deficiencies in the sd will lead to problems in the other life dimensions. the importance of the spiritual life dimension awareness of the importance of spiritualit y in life and leadership is growing (fairholm, 1996; the australian organisation slam – spirituality, leadership, and management – in kale and shrivastava, 2003). aburdene (in workplace spirituality, 2005) refers to the quest for spirituality as “the greatest megatrend of our era”. teilhard de chardin (in cashman, 1998, p. 68) states: we are not human beings having a spiritual experience. we are spiritual beings having a human experience. zohar and marshall (2000, p. 13-14) assert that spiritual intelligence (sq): (a) is a guide “at the edge” between order and chaos; (b) points to the meaning and essential spirit of religion; (c) transcends the gap between self and other; (d) facilitates better understanding of self and what gives meaning to self; (e) enhances one’s personal potential, particularly in transcending the ego in favour of transpersonal values; (f) adds a deeper level of meaning to life; and (g) wrestles with fundamental questions about life issues such as good and evil, death and suffering. howard and wellbourn (2004, p. 35) state: spirituality helps us in our struggle to determine who we are (our being) and how to live our lives in this world (our doing). it combines our basic philosophy towards life, our vision and our values, with our conduct and practice. spirituality encompasses our ability to tap into our deepest resources, that part of ourselves which is unseen and mysterious, to develop our fullest potential. both this inward and outward journey give us the opportunity to discover and articulate our personal meaning and purpose in life… it is our spirituality, providing as it does a deeper identity, which guides us as we chart our way through life’s paradoxes. research design research approach the gap in knowledge a gap in knowledge regarding spirituality still exists, in that: there appears to be no universal definition for spirituality (garcia-zamor, 2003; hollins, 2005; ledger, 2005; tuck, 2004). klenke (2003) asserts that consensus on the meaning of spiritualit y remains elusive, partly because of its multidimensional nature. turner (1999) states that “some of its meaning is inevitably lost when attempts are made to capture it in a few words”. existing definitions are limited, vague and/or contradictory. bailin (2004) argues that many definitions of spirituality lack a strong conceptual base to give them coherence; consequently they are so vague that they fail to delineate a distinct realm of experience. klenke (2003) states that the problem in defining spirituality partly originates from the subjective nature of the concept itself – spirituality is “a mosaic of different aspects of human existence and means different things to different people”. smith’s pipl view of spirituality has not been formally noted in academic literature, although pipl has existed for a number of years as a field of study. therefore smith’s pipl definition can make a significant contribution in promoting understanding of the concept of spirituality. the elusive nature of the spirit notwithstanding any attempt to do so, ‘spirit’ or ‘spirituality’ cannot be truly defined. narayanasamy (in ledger, 2001) argues dawie smith marianne louw marianne8@absamail.co.za department of human resources management university of johannesburg abstract the focus of this article is a conceptualisation of the spiritual life dimension of the human being. the central perspective or approach is the personal, interpersonal and professional leadership (pipl) perspective developed by smith. pipl is a holistic wellness perspective that includes the personal, interpersonal and professional contexts of the individual’s life, and considers the anthropological characteristics, existential realities and phenomenology that humankind is faced with. pipl views the spiritual life dimension as the core of being human. in this article smith’s pipl perspective of the nature and manifestations of the spiritual life dimension in the existential world will be explored. key words pipl, spiritual life dimension, personal leadership conceptualisation of the spiritual life dimension: a personal and professional leadership perspective 19 sa journal of human resource management, 2007, 5 (1), 19-27 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2007, 5 (1), 19-27 that “spirituality is not readily amenable to definition or measurement”, while gibbons (in klenke, 2003) claims that no words in any human language are adequate or accurate when applied to spiritual realities. in operationalising the sd, one materialises it – leaving the realm of spirit. the degree to which one can define the spiritual dimension from an intellectual perspective is limited. despite this limitation this article should still make a worthwhile contribution. the research question in view of the gap in knowledge with regard to a conceptualisation of spirituality, the research question is: how is the construct ‘spiritual dimension’ conceptualised from smith’s pipl perspective? potential contributions of this study potential contributions of this study are: (a) documentation of smith’s pipl perspective on spiritualit y; (b) increased clarification of the concept of spirituality; (c) prioritisation of observational terms linked to the sd, from smith’s pipl perspective; (d) an operationalisation for a questionnaire design with a view to empirical research in the field of spirituality; and (e) a foundation for the promotion of spiritual awareness and understanding in the individual. existing conceptualisations of spirituality this art icle incor porates extensive and representat ive literat ure research on spiritualit y. however, existing views of spiritualit y are not very enlightening. secretan (1997, p. 3) refers to soul (meaning spirit) as “the immortal or spiritual part of us… our essence… the vital part of us that transcends our temporary existence”. the definition equates soul with spirit, and is vague. a valuable contribution to the study of spiritualit y has been made by zohar and marshall (2000; 2004). zohar and marshall (2000) provide useful information as to how spirit ualit y is experienced or what spirit ual intelligence (sq) enables one to do. for example, they describe sq as “the intelligence with which we address and solve problems of meaning and value, the intelligence with which we can place our actions and our lives in a wider, richer meaning-giving context, the intelligence with which we can assess that one course of action or one life-path is more meaningf ul than another”. a lthough this definit ion addresses important aspects of spiritualit y, it is limited in scope and specificit y. in a subsequent publication, zohar and marshall (2004, p. 79-80) cite t welve criteria for a person high in sq: self-awareness, spontaneit y, being visionand value-led, holism, compassion, celebration of diversit y, field independence, tendency to ask fundamental why? questions, abilit y to reframe, positive use of adversit y, humilit y and sense of vocat ion. a lthough these criteria generally contribute to an understanding of spirit ualit y, it is questionable whether all of them are exclusively spiritual. for instance, ‘holism’ – “the abilit y to see larger patterns” (zohar & marshall, 2004, p. 79) – and ‘the abilit y to reframe’ may also be viewed as mental capacities. several other concept ualisations of spiritualit y have been documented, brief ly associat ing certain characterist ics with spirit ualit y, shedding little or no light on their nat ure. because of their uninformative nat ure and their overall repetitiveness, these concept ualisations are not cited here. rather, they were analysed in terms of the individual spiritual characteristics to which they refer. table 1 is a summary of all the characteristics mentioned in t wo or more of the sources consulted, with reference to the relevant sources. for the sake of brevit y, a number was used instead of each source. the index to the sources occurs at the bottom of the table. table 1 summary of characteristics drawn from various conceptualisations of spirituality spiritual characteristic sources citing characteristic connectedness (also interconnectedness, 2; 3; 7; 13; 19; 26; 27; 28; relatedness, integration, unity, belonging and/ 31; 32; 42; 43; 46; 47; 49; or participation; specifically to the self, 52; 54; 58; 59; 62; 63; 65 other human and/or non-human beings, the universe, a higher being, all regarded as good, and/or larger purposes) differentiation from religion (spirituality 2; 4; 6; 11; 13; 27; 33; 34; differs from or goes beyond religion) 35; 38; 40; 42; 43; 45; 62; 51 meaning and purpose in life (a sense/ 1; 2; 3; 6; 7; 8; 10; 27; 28; expression of or search for meaning/purpose/ 31; 34; 35; 41; 43; 47; 60; fulfilment/vocation) 65; 66 essence (the essence of being, the core/centre 2; 4; 7; 13; 28; 40; 43; 44; or true self; beingness as a sense of the 53 existential or a personal state) well-being (or health/growth – also in other 7; 25; 39; 69; 56; 59; 61; 65 life dimensions) a sense of awe (or wonder about life, 3; 7; 17; 27; 28; 29; 43; 64 amazement, profound appreciation or a sense of reverence) values and beliefs (living one’s values/ 3; 5; 16; 26; 31; 35; 46; 47; priorities and deeply held personal beliefs) 65; 66 inwardness (or interiority; includes self3; 13; 20; 28; 48 knowledge, a profound sense of self, and authenticity) love (unconditional love, giving/experiencing love) 3; 7; 9; 27; 28; 43; 46; 53 belief in a higher power (or the beyond, god, a 12; 28; 42; 43; 58 supreme power/being or (guiding) force, the universal spirit/consciousness, or the source/ principle of life) inspiration (also creativity and imagination) 3; 7; 10; 22; 26; 43; 47 wholeness (or integrity/integration) 1; 3; 12; 30; 36; 40; 41; 65 intuition 24; 40; 58; 53; 57 seeking answers to existential questions (quest3; 17; 27; 43; 65; 66 ions about the infinite; endeavouring to make sense of life; a personal interpretation of life) transcendence (especially self-transcendence) 3; 27; 28; 31; 43 forgiveness 3; 7; 9; 27; 43 a mode of experience (an unmediated mode of 3; 20; 23; 50 knowing or experiencing; or awareness, heightened consciousness or intensity of experience) sustaining power (inner resource during 13; 27; 43 difficult times) wisdom 40; 79; 66 intangibility (metaphysical, non-material, 3; 9; 28 supernatural, immutable and invisible) faith 3; 9; 23 hope 3; 7; 9 peace (inner peace or peace of mind) 21; 60 gratitude 3; 14; 53 source of energy and motivation 7; 15; 18 spontaneity (living in and responsive to the 65; 66 moment) immortality (infinity, eternity and immortality) 3; 9 sense of harmony 7; 43 service 37; 6 holism 3; 66 index of sources (1) alexander in bailin, 2004; (2) ashmos & duchon, 2000; (3) bailin, 2004; (4) barnett, krel & sendry, 2000; (5) bell & taylor in lips-wiersma, 2002; (6) bradshaw, 1994; (7) brillhart, 2005; (8) byrne in ledger, 2005; (9) carr, 1996; (10) cash & gray, 2000; (11) cawley in ledger, 2005; (12) chiu, 2000; (13) conger, 1994; (14) cooper, 2000; (15) coyle in narayanasamy, 2004; (16) dalai lama in bailin, 2004; (17) dawkins in kale & shrivastava, 2003; (18) dyer, 2001; (19) eckersley in kale & shrivastava, 2003; (20) egan in bailin, 2004; (21) freijat in brillhart, 2005; (22) freshman, 1999; (23) glazer in bailin, 2004; (24) guillory, 2000; (25) haggart, 1996; (26) hammell, 2001; (27) heriot in ledger, 2005; (28) kale & shrivastava, 2003; (29) kearns in brillhart, 2005; (30) king & nicol, 1999; (31) klenke, 2003; (32) knestrick & lohri-posey, 2005; (33) korac-kakabadse, kouzmin & kakabadse, 2002; (34) ledger, 2005; (38) lerner, 2000; (35) lips-wiersma, 2002; (36) maddox, 2000; (37) marcic, 1997; (38) marques, dhiman & king, 2005; (39) mclaughlin, 2004; (40) mcmullen, 2003; (41) mitroff & denton, 1999a; (42) mitroff & denton, 1999b; (43) murray & zentner, 2001; (44) narayanasamy in ledger, 2005; (45) narayanasamy & ownes in ledger, 2005; (46) neal, 2000; (47) neck & milliman, 1994; (48) newby in bailin, 2004; (49) o’murchu in kale & shrivastava, 2003; (50) palmer in bailin, 2004; (51) patterson in king & nicol, 1999; (52) piedmont, 1999; (53) prescott, 2000; (54) reed, 1992; (55) riley, perna, tate, forchheimer, anderson & luera, 1998; (56) ross, 1995; (57) ruth-sahd in ruth-sahd & hendy, 2005; (58) sass, 2000; (59) smith in karren, hafen, smith & frandsen, 2002; (60) spirituality & health, 2005; (61) tuck, 2004; (62) vaill, 1998; (63) vokey, 2000; (64) wong in bailin, 2004; (65) zohar & marshall, 2000; (66) zohar & marshall, 2004 smith, louw20 these terms remain loose and cursory. a discussion of smith’s pipl view of the spiritual dimension will enrich its conceptualisation and will demonstrate the weaknesses and shortcomings of the above definitions. research methodology in this study, a non-empirical approach was followed. the two primary methods used were concept ual analysis and a literature study. smith’s conceptualisation of the spiritual life dimension was taken as a point of departure for this study, since – as the founder of pipl – he has defined the sd from a pipl perspective. his written works in this context were examined, and personal interviews were utilised to expand the various elements of his definition. publications by other authors as previously quoted by smith in relevant contexts, recommended by him or deemed to be in keeping with pipl philosophies and assumptions, were then analysed to further expand the definition. a detailed discussion of smith’s pipl view of the spiritual life dimension follows. spirituality within the broader pipl context the domain of pipl is the wellness of the ‘normal’ person (smith, 2005a). the broad objective of pipl is to guide his person in awareness and understanding of the essence of his/her own life, and in living a fulfilled life. some sources on spirituality are highly esoteric. yet, whatever one seeks to describe from a pipl perspective – which is always realistic – cannot remain on a theoretical or esoteric level but must be translated into concepts accessible by the ordinary person living everyday life. s/he must be enabled to experience the spiritual from within the material world. on earth, the spirit must adapt to the body, and not vice versa (smith, 2006b). therefore, pipl language always refers to spirit in the pursuable sense. in this choice of interpretation, pipl (smith, 2006b): (a) demonstrates to the ordinary person what is pursuable in terms of spirituality; (b) translates these concepts into understandable, digestible everyday terms, and emphasises the importance thereof; and (c) provides guidelines as to how one can attain these, bringing/guiding the person from his/her subconscious (the domain of psychology) to his/her higher consciousness (the level of the spirit). distinction between spirit and soul the pipl perspective distinguishes between soul and spirit (smith, 2006b). ‘soul’ is a synonym for ‘psyche’ and thus includes every thing st udied within psycholog y, e.g. personalit y, conditioning, the mind, emotions and the will (smith, 2004c:1). in psychology, these and other aspects of the psyche are studied to better understand and explain behaviour (smith, 2006b). although an important part of being human, the soul is not the essence of man – spirit is. steiner (in pastoll, 2006, p. 74) describes this relationship as follows: every human being has not only a physical body, but also an enduring soul or consciousness, consisting of thinking, feeling and will. living within and through the body and the soul, is the i or the true self – the spiritual and eternal part of the person. peirce (2002, p. 21-25) distinguishes between three components of consciousness: the subconscious mind (correlating with the psychological (soul) mind), the conscious mind (mind), and the superconscious mind (spirit). table 2 illustrates the distinctions between these three kinds of mind. table 2 pierce’s three minds superconscious subconscious conscious (spiritual) mind (psychological) mind (aware) mind correlates with ‘spirit’ correlates with ‘body’ correlates with ‘mind’ is the clear, collective is essentially primal is one’s sense of ‘i am’, consciousness the viewing point, or the ‘eye of the soul’ knows no fear, no is characterised by fear is the agent of free will, blocks, no ignorance driven and negative a moving point of emotions choice and personal identity contains higher contains all knowledge determines one’s purpose, the god’s of one’s physiological experiences; is “the eye view origins, and memories architect of our existence” of one’s instinctive reactions is the interconnection its memory is an creates a relationship or between individuality incomplete experience association; then registers and universality that the spirit has not a meaning fully digested intuition occurs as intuition occurs predominantly visual through one of the (frequently abstract) five sense or as an all-over ‘direct knowing’ according to smith (2006a, p. 3:3), the conscious mind draws its energy from the other two minds, particularly the one that is dominant in a person. smith (2006a, p. 3:3; 2006c) asserts that the subconscious mind (soul) is seated in the ego and is therefore driven by existential fear, whereas the higher or superconscious mind (spirit) is seated in connectedness to god and as such is love-driven. smith’s pipl conceptualisation of spirit the true depth of the spirit is intangible (smith, 2006b). voltaire (in smith & katz, 2006) wrote: “four thousand volumes of metaphysics will not teach us what the soul [spirit] is”. this article is an effort to translate ‘spirit’ to some more tangible terms. the essence of spirit: beingness according to smith (2006b), the essence of the spirit is beingness, i.e. where being finds expression. tolle (2005, p. 3) refers to one’s true nature (being) as “the ever-present i am: consciousness in its pure state prior to identification with form”, one’s “innermost invisible and indestructible essence” (p. 10). cashman (1998) describes being as consciousness in its pure form. the essential spiritual self has been described as: (a) “a source within ourselves that is replete and inexhaustible and forms part of a wider, sacred reality” (zohar & marshall, 2000, p. 155); (b) the inner ‘i’ who is both alone and universal (inchausti in zohar & marshall, 2000, p. 153); (c) the sense of awareness that one has throughout one’s life – from childhood to adulthood – which is timeless and ageless and does not change over time (prescott, 2000, p. 121-122). for smith (in smith & katz, 2006, p. 27), the spiritual self is “that vital part of us that transcends our temporary existence”. the ordinary person is ego-driven. to meet the spirit, one must divest oneself of ego. this process starts with awareness of one’s egocentrism, followed by the will to purification (smith, 2006b). figure 1 depicts smith’s pipl model of the journey from the ego self to spiritual being (smith & katz, 2006, p. 35). associated with the core of beingness are some primary manifestations of the spirit that lend insight into what the spirit represents – they are not spirit, but spirit may be known by them. these core manifestations, in turn, find expression in certain observable peripheral manifestations. below, the core (more fundamental) and peripheral (less fundamental) manifestations of spirit are discussed consecutively. spiritual life dimension 21 figure 1: smith’s pipl model of the journey from the ego self to spiritual being core manifestations of the spirit in smith’s pipl view, the following are core manifestations of spirit or spirituality: � love � living in the present � simplicity � authenticity � gratitude � stillness. love. according to smith (in smith & katz, 2006, p. 37), the spirit most wishes to ‘experience’ and express love. he quotes saint bernard: “love seeks no cause beyond itself and no fruit; it is its own fruit, its own enjoyment”. hawley (1993, p. 59-70) distinguishes between six different “landscapes” of love – each consecutive level progressing in intensity and scope, where only the sixth landscape attains the level of spirit: 1) love as desire (wanting love), characterised by possessiveness and envy; 2) emotional love, characterised by compassion and fondness; 3) love as action (doing love), characterised by giving and helping; 4) love as giving (selfless love), characterised by simplicity and freedom; 5) love as pure energ y (vibes of invisible movement), characterised by wisdom and ardour; and 6) love as spirit (being love), characterised by ultimate peace of mind. this (spiritual) level is the origin of love – where love is simple, expansive and infinite. it is impersonal, non-needy and detached; therefore it contains no fear. it is more fundamental than an attribute or an energy. it is peace, truth, life itself. the more one lives with it, the more it gains essence. according to dyer (2001, p. 14), love dissolves negativity, “by bathing it in higher frequencies, much as light dissolves darkness by its mere presence” (dyer, 2001, p. 11). cashman (1998, p. 144) states that love enables one to connect with all there is: “love is the road to being and the road from being to the world”. zohar and marshall (2000, p. 239) state that spiritual love is transformative: “it releases us into a higher expression of ourselves and allows the other to reach beyond himself”. one of the central characteristics of spiritual love is its unconditional nature: it is non-judgmental, uncritical and accepting (smith, 2006b). it goes far beyond the simplistic (and often egocentric) instances of worldly ‘love’. according to tolle (2005, p. 24), the latter is often merely “an extremely needy condition” that can turn into its opposite in an instant. according to cooper (2000, p. 57-58), love cannot exist when one’s mind predominates and one focuses on another person’s imperfection. that constitutes connection from ego to ego, which blocks the flow of love. the true, transcendental kind of love is inaccessible to the ordinary person, but in pipl terms it is translated to ‘acceptance’: one should learn to accept unconditionally. this ideal is pursuable and, to a degree, feasible (smith, 2006b). one should look for the best in each person and oneself, and treat others with respect (neal, 2000). living in the present. living completely in the ‘now’ (present) is to cherish no expectations or demands. from a pipl point of view, this can become an esoteric absurdity (smith, 2006b). tolle (2005) concedes that it is not feasible to live in the now if one is living in the material (egocentric) world. since true happiness can only be experienced in the now, this presents a problem: one cannot be in the now, and therefore cannot find happiness. tolle (2005) suggests a compromise: one should deal with the practical aspects of life, but otherwise focus on the now: “whereas before you dwelt in time and paid brief visits to the now have your dwelling place in the now and pay brief visits to past and future”. according to tolle (2005, p. 18-19), the present moment hardly exists to the ego, because the ego finds its identity in the past and seeks its fulfilment from the future. it misperceives the present it in the light of the past or projections of the future. according to selby (2004, p. 2), the mind’s chronic thought flows generates negative emotions that destroy one’s sense of peace, joy, and transcendence. dyer (2001, p. 25) advises one to “unlearn the false identification of your thoughts with your ego-senses and instead see yourself as a part of the infinite”. whether consciously or unconsciously, one is constantly choosing between being engaged in thoughts about life or in the direct experience of life (selby, 2004, p. 2). smith (in smith & katz, 2006, p. 38) asserts that the key to the sd consists in being “so utterly and completely present that no problem, no suffering, nothing that is not who you are in your essence, can survive in you”. in the now – the absence of time – all problems and suffering dissolve. when one surrenders to what is, the past loses its power. in pipl terms, the ‘now’ may be interpreted as one’s current situation. people tend to live for some event or occurrence in the future; therefore they do not truly live. smith’s pipl perspective is that one should live in (savour and appreciate) the moment that one is experiencing (smith, 2006b) and thus experience more quality of life. meditation is one practical way of doing this. simplicity. the more complex one arranges one’s life, the further one is moving away from spirit. simplicity moves away from the ego’s constant search after material things. it avoids smith, louw22 complexity and clutter in everything – in one’s home, work and relationships (smith, 2006b). according to cashman (1998, p. 168), living “from the outside in” – striving to improve the things in one’s life – leads to complicated and imbalanced lives. to simplif y life, one needs to distinguish between needs and wants, connect with one’s purpose and live according to one’s core values. importantly, simplicity is not poverty or pauperism (smith, 2006b). smith (in smith & katz, 2006, p. 41-42) asserts that simplicity is almost synonymous with authenticity. it is not merely that which is uncomplicated, but is demonstrated by a person who lives in the moment, responding spontaneously to life. s/he is utterly aware and accepts the “such-ness of life” completely. s/he has no future, and thus no ideals. an ideal causes inner division and conflict that moves one away from one’s centre to one’s periphery. self-acceptance is a prerequisite for a life of simplicity. simplicity cannot be produced directly; rather, it is a presence. authenticity. simplicity is linked to authenticity – they mutually support each other (smith, 2006b). essentially, living a simple life means expressing one’s true self. according to smith (in smith & katz, 2006, p. 39-40) to be authentic, one must be who one is – one’s spiritual self. authenticity finds expression in: (a) character and integrity; (b) simplicity; (c) acceptance of self and others; (d) character ethic – where personal success is a function of the integration of universal principles of effective living into character, as opposed to personality ethic – where personal success is defined as a function of personality and public image (covey, 1989, p. 18-19); (e) trust, as a result of trustworthy behaviour; (f) the ability to connect; (g) inside-out behaviour, which is an expression of the character ethic; and (h) truth and honesty. gratitude. gratitude, an appreciation of and contentment with what one has, is a fundamental attitude to life that is alien to the egocentric person (smith, 2006b). prescott (2000, p. 158) quotes albert einstein: “there are only two ways to live your life. one is as though nothing is a miracle. the other is as though everything is a miracle”. smith (in smith & katz, 2006, p. 40) states: “gratitude brings perspective to your real needs”. according to cooper (2000, p. 172-173), heartfelt gratitude unlocks the abundant resources of the universe. according to lerner (2000, p. 300), gratitude celebrates what is already there in one’s life. smith (in smith and katz, 2006, p. 42) states that living in the now produces gratitude. when one is grateful for something, it increases and multiplies (cooper, 2000, p. 176). cooper (2000, p. 178) terms this the law of gratitude, which is activated by, for instance, counting one’s blessings and giving praise generously. osho (1989:146-147) distinguishes bet ween gratefulness, thankfulness and gratitude. gratefulness is directed at the inside, and is the result of having wanted something and having received it. thankfulness is outward, for example towards a friend. it is a gratification of a desire being fulfilled. gratitude is not directed at anybody; neither is it a gratification of any desire. it arises from a person like a fragrance arises from a flower. stillness. according to smith (in smith & katz, 2006, p. 39), silence is “the womb of creation”. it cannot be achieved by merely refraining from speaking: it is not quantity, but quality. the key to entering the universal silence is leaving the realm of the mind (smith in smith & katz, 2006, p. 39). one has to quiet the voices of the subconscious to attain the higher consciousness (smith, 2006b). the mind creates ego, and thus division (smith in smith & katz, 2006, p. 39). one has to surrender completely to experience the bliss of silence (smith in smith & katz, 2006, p. 39). selby (2004, p. 1) states: “… only through regularly quieting the entire flow of thoughts, images, memories, and reflections that fill our minds can we regain intimate and fulfilling contact with sensory, int uitive, and heart-felt experiences that emerge when we shift into direct encounter with the world around us”. selby (2004, p. 7, 14) and tolle (2005, p. 16) assert that quieting the mind is a learned ability. tolle (2005, p. 15) advises that one listens to the voice of one’s mind as often as possible, distinguishing between the voice of the mind and the i am listening to it. as one becomes aware of one’s conscious presence – one’s deeper self – one’s thoughts lose their power and subside, because one is no longer energising the mind through identification with it. the resulting “gap of ‘no-mind’” has “no end to its depth” and produces inner stillness and peace. here one is highly alert and aware, but not thinking. this is the essence of meditation (p. 17). peripheral manifestations of the spirit from the core spiritual manifestations flow the peripheral manifestations below. these manifestations can also be seen as outcomes of living the primary manifestations of spirit: connectedness stewardship centeredness transcendence harmony total well-being peace congruency between one’s a sense of meaning true north and personal reality a sense of purpose positive expectations a sense of integration religious and/or moral and wholeness orientation an inner compass adding value to self and spontaneity others living what matters most an experience of profound (values) beauty service wisdom intuition connectedness. according to smith (in smith & katz, 2006, p. 43), connectedness includes a basic feeling of self-acceptance and being connected with one’s inner and outer self, with others and with the entire universe. connectedness flows from several core spiritual manifestations: (a) love for self, others and a higher power connects one to these beings; (b) living in the now connects one to one’s inner self and other beings in the now; (c) stillness enhances connection through disconnection from the ego (d) authenticity is self-connectedness; and (e) simplicity facilitates connectedness with the self by avoiding division within the self (being). neal (2000) likens the connected individual to a drop of water in the ocean – aware of his/her individual self, but also aware of his/her connection to the greater self. tolle (2005, p. 10) defines enlightenment as one’s natural state of “felt oneness with being… with something immeasurable and indestructible, something that, almost paradoxically, is essentially you and yet is much greater than you”. it is “finding your true nature beyond name and form”. centeredness. the core manifestations of stillness, authenticity and simplicity lead to a centred life. according to smith (in smith & katz, 2006, p. 43), to be off-centred in the greek sense of the word, is to be sinful or off-target – the opposite to being virtuous. the virtues of centeredness include a present-centeredness and a unity of inner calm and outward responsible action. harmony. living in the now leads to a sense of harmony (smith, 2006b) within one’s internal (spiritual, physical, mental and emotional) and external (social, financial, career and ecological) life dimensions (smith, 2005b). according to dyer (2001, p. 129), harmony is the natural state of being for the individual – it is the mind that creates disharmony. spirit is the “one unif ying force in the universe”. peace. living in the now leads to sense of peace (smith, 2006b; tolle, 2005, p. 17), “an inner state of well-being and calm” spiritual life dimension 23 (spirituality & health, 2005). to have peace is an active choice. in difficult circumstances, choosing peace is “an energising call to action that eliminates self-pity” (dyer, 2001, p. 149). a sense of meaning. meaning is found when one practises all of the core manifestations of the spirit (smith, 2006b). smith (2005b) describes meaning as “an inner experience in the present”. zohar & marshall (2000, p. 4) state: “we are driven, indeed we are defined, by a specifically human longing to find meaning and value in what we do and experience… to see our lives in some larger, meaning-giving context”. frankl (1984, p. 121) describes this search for meaning as “the primary motivation” of a human being. he (p. 135) asserts that meaning may be found in any circumstance – even hopeless, unchangeable situations. in this regard, he quotes nietzsche: “he who has a why to live for, can bear with almost any how”. a sense of purpose. purpose in life is harmony between the now and the future (smith, 2006b). cashman (1998, p. 67) states that purpose lends meaning and direction. whereas meaning is a present experience, purpose is located in one’s future (smith, 2005b) – something one continually moves towards. hillman (in zohar & marshall, 2000, p. 185) describes it as an original wholeness that must be recollected and lived. frankl (1984, p. 131) asserts that every person has a unique mission in life: “therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated”. purpose has been described as: (a) a strong need to make a contribution (zohar & marshall, 2004, p. 106); (b) the recurring theme of self nourishes “the continuous and future expressions of who we are” (brings in cashman, 1998, p. 66); and (c) “the call to become what we were meant to become” (jaworski in cashman, 1998, p. 70). a sense of integration and wholeness. wholeness is a sense of one’s own integrity (chiu, 2000; maddox, 2000; zohar & marshall, 2000, p. 190). an authentic life results in a sense of wholeness, “a oneness with who we are and an awareness of how we fit with our external environment” (king & nicol, 1999). an inner compass. stillness and being in the now enables one to access one’s “compass at the edge” (zohar & marshall, 2000, p. 13). in chaos theory, ‘the edge’ is the border between order and chaos, or the known and the unknown (p. 205). being at the edge stimulates creativity, but also causes uncertainty and fear (p. 13). through sq (a sense of inner balance) one can live with uncertainty and find an inner poise within it (p. 207). spontaneity. authenticity and being in the now invoke spontaneity, which is “a response to the centre – in ourselves, in others, and of universal existence itself” (zohar & marshall, 2000, p. 181). it is being “deeply responsive to the moment”, greeting life with the freshness of a child, without “the baggage of past conditioning”. it is “a radical openness to life’s possibilities and an existential readiness to become the person who i really am…” (zohar & marshall, 2004, p. 85-86). living what matters most (values). values are “what matters most” to a person (smith, 2005b). smith (1994, p. 186) quotes henry david thoreau: “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation” and ascribes this desperation to conforming to others’ values and ideals. this is a highly reactive and stressful (p. 190), and surrenders control of one’s life to other people (p. 186). by contrast, living with authenticity and simplicity and being ‘in the moment’ enables one to live one’s highest values. service. love wants to serve. bryant hinckley (in cashman, 1998, p. 128) views service as the dividing line between “those who help and those who hinder, those who lift and those who lean, those who contribute and those who only consume”. it considers giving better than receiving. practical examples of serving are giving encouragement, imparting sympathy, showing interest, building self-confidence and awakening hope in the hearts of others – in short, “to love them and to show it”. stewardship. stewardship is the opposite of ownership (fairholm, 1996), which connotes possession, control and proprietorship. stewardship connotes holding resources in trust for a temporary period and is based on self-directed free moral choice. both ends and means are vital to stewardship. cooper (2000, p. 107) states that everything in one’s life is “on loan to you”, a responsibility to take care of. authenticity – for instance, being trustworthy – produces good stewardship. the person living with simplicity is not after ownership, and thus makes a natural steward. transcendence. stillness and love facilitate transcendence. transcendence places the self in a wider context of meaning and value – beyond ego experience and even beyond human experience (zohar & marshall, 2000, p. 89). according to smith (2004b, p. 65), it is about transcending the ego for the greater good. frankl (1984, p. 133) asserts that self-actualisation is possible only as a by-product of self-transcendence – the more one serves others, the more one actualises oneself. total well-being. dr n lee smith (in karren, hafen, smith & frandsen, 2002, p. 439) defines spiritual health as “a state of well-being – not just the absence of disease”. spirituality is an integrative energy that enhances well-being in all aspects of the body, mind, emotions and spirit (brillhart, 2005; tuck, 2004). total well-being is achieved through living in the present (enjoying what is here and now), being authentic (whole), and simplicity (not craving after what one does not have). congruency between one’s true north and personal reality. smith (2005b) defines an individual’s ‘true north’ as one’s sense of one’s abiding purpose in one’s future. the more authentic a person is, the more congruence there will be between one’s purpose and direction, and one’s personal reality, to the extent that one can control that reality through one’s choices and actions. integrity is total congruence between who one is and what one does (p. 122). to king and nicol (1999), the quest to unite one’s inner and outer world provides a sense of alignment and order – a spiritual cohesiveness, which instils a sense of rightness and well-being. positive expectations – a sense of hope. hope is the restoration of the appetite for life itself, “and all the bliss that accompanies a renunciation of the search for meaning and power in the material world (dyer, 2001, p. 221). importantly, this hope is an inner state of being that may exist independently and even in spite of circumstances (p. 153). in escaping the problems and suffering created by the mind, stillness creates a sense of deep and abiding hope. religious and/or moral orientation. smith (1994, p. 215) states that one will only experience complete inner peace when one’s governing values, beliefs and behaviour line up with moral truth. this moral truth is one’s set of moral beliefs – deeply held inner convictions about life, its meaning, and how other people and/or a higher power expects one to behave. these beliefs may or may not be grounded in formal religion (cash, gray & rood, 2000). the degree to which one’s moral orientation finds expression in one’s life depends, amongst others, on one’s education, life experience, assertiveness and authenticity. adding value to self and others. as one moves away from ego towards a greater desire to serve, the desire to make a difference becomes a driving force (neal, 2000). creating value reconciles self-interest with the common interest (cashman, 1998, p. 185). the more one serves others, the more one cooperatively generates value-added contribution (p. 127). adding value is about enriching life rather than depleting life (p. 186), and is the result of one’s love for self and others. in pipl context, smith has singled out ‘adding value’ as one of the three a’s of fulfilling relationships. (the other two are authenticity and acceptance.) smith, louw24 an experience of profound beauty. being in the now creates the possibility of experiencing beauty (smith in smith & katz, 2006, p. 42). bailin (2004) refers to a recognition of and sensitivity to the wonder of one’s situation, openness to “the great virtues and powerful emotions inherent in the quest for understanding”, and a recognition of the possibilities for profound personal meaning afforded by this quest. inherent in this appreciation is “some sense that we are appropriately moved”. wisdom. spiritual intelligence (sq) embraces wisdom, as opposed to mere knowledge acquisition or mechanistic problem resolution (zohar & marshall, 2004, p. 64). zohar and marshall (2000, p. 244) assert that the natural progression towards higher sq leads from ref lection, through understanding, to wisdom. practising stillness will therefore increase one’s wisdom. mcmullen (2003) states: “with sq more is less; as you learn, the process may involve unlearning what other people have taught you”. intuition. intuition refers to knowledge and understanding beyond what one has been taught. it is the direct perception of truth (prescott, 2000, p. 126) by the higher (spiritual) mind (p. 13). spirituality expands one’s consciousness beyond the normal boundaries, heightening intuition and creativity (guillory, 2000; cash & gray, 2000). intuition lends perspective and the ability to see into things, or “in-sight” (prescott, 2000, p. 126). intuition is the result of practising stillness and being in the now. discussion interpretation earlier in this article it was demonstrated that a definite gap in knowledge existed in the study of the spiritual life dimension. smith’s pipl perspective reduces that gap by significantly contributing to the knowledge and understanding of the subject both by the scientist and the layperson. as regards the scientist, smith’s perspective offers the following that are lacking or even absent from the current body of knowledge: a comprehensive and descriptive conceptualisation. before commencing this study, many definitions of the spiritual life dimension had been scrutinised. at first glance, smith’s seemed to be more comprehensive. on closer examination, this impression was reinforced. no other conceptualisations could be found that provided a greater or even equal amount of specific information on the subject. a systematic approach. among the concept ualisations examined, smith’s was by far the most systematic. smith not only provides more information by discussing various manifestations of the spirit, but attempts to order and prioritise these into core (fundamental) and peripheral (less fundamental) manifestations. by his own admission (smith, 2006c), this prioritisation is not finalised as yet and is subject to change as his research continues. yet he remains the only author among the wide variety of sources consulted for this article who attempted such a prioritisation at all. balance between functional approach and emphasis on the intangibility of spirit. while in the research for this article smith’s conceptualisation was found the most functional, he also placed great emphasis on the intangibility and nondefinability of spirit. this leaves one with a sense of trust in smith as a scholar in the field of spirituality, and a clearer notion of the true nature of spirit. in this regard, smith’s reference to ‘manifestations’ of the spirit is a valuable contribution: the manifestations described in this article are not spirit themselves, but are the fruits by which spirit may be recognised. foundation for developing a questionnaire for measuring spirituality. smith has translated the concept of the spiritual life dimension (at a high level of abstraction) into distinct lowerlevel theoretical terms, which may now be further dissected into observational terms with little effort. emphasis on the dichotomy of spirit versus ego. smith’s emphasis on this dichotomy further clarifies the concept of spirituality: what springs from ego, cannot be spirit. although not the only author referring to this dichotomy, smith places it at the basis of his conceptualisation and lends it sufficient importance and clarification as to make a significant contribution in this regard. distinction between spirit and soul. although not the focus of this study, smith makes a clear distinction between spirit and soul that is evident even from the brief discussion in this article. this clarifies much of the confusion and incorrect terminology that are still prevalent in literature on spirituality. it also draws a clear line between spiritual intelligence (sq) and emotional intelligence (eq). descriptions of eq in literature – at times even in creditable sources – frequently include aspects that are in reality spiritual characteristics. smith’s contribution to the enhanced spirituality of the normal individual can be summarised in the following: clarification in functional terms of what spirit is. as much as there is confusion in scientific ranks about spirituality, even more pronounced is the ignorance of the normal individual of his/her true spirit nature. smith clarifies the difference between spirit and soul. he translates this abstract concept of spirit into functional terms that can be easily understood, and whereby the individual may measure and develop his/her own spirituality. indication of the route to spirituality. through his model of the journey from the ego self to spiritual being, smith maps out the route of spiritual growth. his conceptualisation of the manifestations of spirituality provide ‘street lamps’ that further illuminate this road. the scientific contribution of this article comprises the following: overview of concepts associated with the spiritual life dimension. this article represents extensive research into existing definitions of spirituality. table 1 is a summary of the main findings. documentation of smith’s pipl perspective of the spiritual life dimension. as mentioned previously, this perspective has existed for some time, but has not been formally documented in its entirety. operationalised theoretical framework for the development of a questionnaire for spirituality. this article presents smith’s conceptualisation of the spiritual life dimension in a sufficiently comprehensive and organised manner as to serve as an operationalised blueprint for the development of a questionnaire. recommendations for further research from a pipl perspective, the following would be meaningful: (a) more detailed documentation of each of the spiritual manifestations described in this article; and (b) from the previous, the standardisation of smith’s questionnaire to measure spirituality. from the literature review (summarised in table 1) and the discussion of smith’s conceptualisation in this article, it is recommended that such an instrument includes at least the following ten content criteria, in order of priority: (1) love; (2) stillness; (3) authenticity; (4) connectedness; (5) simplicity; (6) living in the now (present); (7) meaning in life; (8) inner peace; (9) gratitude; and (10) adding value. conclusion smith’s conceptualisation of the spiritual life dimension makes an extremely valuable contribution to this field of study in that it, by way of summary: (a) is comprehensive, descriptive and spiritual life dimension 25 functional; (b) offers a prioritisation of the manifestations of spirit; (c) paves the way for the development of a questionnaire design for the measurement of the spiritual life dimension; (d) distinguishes clearly between spirit and soul; (e) emphasises the dichotomy of spirit versus ego, and (f) maps out a route to spirituality. smith’s pipl view is that harmony must exist between the manifestations of spirit discussed in this article, and that such harmony leads to harmony with one’s external world and its demands. therefore the aim with pipl is to help the individual to bring these ends together and in so doing to find meaning. the uniqueness of smith’s pipl perspective is that it does not discard esoteric notions about the spirit, but translates them into realistic, functional terms (smith, 2006b). in this article, smith’s conceptualisation of the spiritual life dimension was dissected from the pipl perspective. this was done in an attempt to discover the true nature of spirit and to conceptualise it so that one may more efficiently guide a person along a spiritual journey. finally, however, it must be kept in mind that ultimately the spirit is one whole (smith, 2006b), much like the ocean constitutes a mass of indistinguishable water drops. references ashmos, d.p. & duchon, d. (2000). spirituality at work: a conceptualisation and measure. journal of management inquiry, 9 (2):134-145. retrieved from proquest electronic library via the universit y of johannesburg: http://0proquest.umi.com.raulib.rau.ac.za [date of access: 4 september 2004]. bailin, s. (2004). beyond the material and the mundane: spirituality and transcending. the journal of educational thought, 38 (3):223-236. retrieved from proquest electronic library via the universit y of johannesburg: http://0proquest.umi.com.raulib.rau.ac.za [date of access: 20 june 2005]. barnett, c.k.; krel, t.c. & sendry, j. (2000). learning to learn about spirituality: a categorical approach to introducing the topic into management courses. journal of management education, 24 (5), 562-579. bradshaw, a. (1994). limiting the lamp, the spiritual dimension of nursing care (second edition). london: scutari press. brillhart, b. (2005). a study of spirituality and life satisfaction among person with spinal cord injury. rehabilitation nursing, 30 (1):31-34. retrieved from proquest electronic library via the universit y of johannesburg: http://0proquest.umi.com.raulib.rau.ac.za [date of access: 20 june 2005]. carr, d. (1995). towards a distinctive conception of spiritual education. oxford review of education, 21 (1), 83-97. cash, k.c. & gray, g.r. (2000). a framework for accommodating religion and spirituality in the workplace. academy of the management executive, 14 (3), 124-34. cash, k.c.; gray, g.r. & rood, s.a. (2000). a framework for accommodating religion and spirituality in the workplace / executive commentary. the academy of management executive, 14 (3), 124-134. retrieved from proquest electronic library via the universit y of johannesburg: http://0proquest.umi.com.raulib.rau.ac.za [date of access: 4 september 2004]. cashman, k. (1998). leadership from the inside out: becoming a leader for life. provo: executive excellence. chiu, l. (2000). lived experience of spirituality in taiwanese women with breast cancer. western journal of nursing research, 22 (1), 29-53. conger, j. (1994). spirit at work: discovering spirituality in leadership. san francisco: jossey-bass. cooper, d. (2000). a little light on the spiritual laws. london: hodder & stoughton. covey, s.r. (1989). the 7 habits of highly effective people. london: simon & schuster. dyer, w.w. (2001). there’s a spiritual solution to every problem. london: thorsons. fairholm, g.w. (1996). spiritual leadership: fulfilling whole-self needs at work. leadership & organization development journal, 17 (5), 11. retrieved from proquest electronic library via the university of johannesburg: http://0-proquest.umi. com.raulib.rau.ac.za [date of access: 4 september 2004]. frankl, v.e. (1984). man’s search for meaning. new york: pocket books. freshman, b. (1999). an exploratory analysis of definitions and applications of spirituality in the workplace. journal of organizational change management, 12 (4), 318-27. garcia-zamor, j. (2003). workplace spiritualit y and organizational performance. public administration review, 63 (3), 355-363. retrieved from proquest electronic library via the university of johannesburg: http://0-proquest.umi.com. raulib.rau.ac.za [date of access: 4 september 2004]. guillory, w.a. (2000). the living organization: spirituality in the workplace. salt lake city, ut: innovations international inc. haggart, m. (1996). nursing the soul. complementary therapies in nurse midwifery, 2 (1), 17-20. hammell, k.w. (2001). intrinsicality: reconsidering spirituality, meaning(s) and mandates. canadian journal of occupational therapy, 68 (3), 186-194. hawley, j. (1993). reawakening the spirit in work: the power of dharmic management. san francisco: berrett-koehler. hollins, s. (2005). spirituality and religion: exploring the relationship. nursing management, 12 (6), 22-26. howard, s. & welbourn, d. (2004). the spirit at work phenomenon. london: azure. kale, s.h. & shrivastava, s. (2003). the enneagram system for enhancing workplace spirituality. the journal of management development, 22 (4), 308-328. retrieved from proquest electronic library via the university of johannesburg: http://0-proquest.umi.com.raulib.rau.ac.za [date of access: 4 september 2004]. karren, j.k.; hafen, b.q.; smith, n.l. & frandsen, k.j. (2002). mind/body health: the effects of attitudes, emotions, and relationships. san francisco: benjamin cummings. king, s. & nicol, d.m. (1999). organizational enhancement through recognition of individual spirituality: reflections of jaques and jung. journal of organizational change management, 12 (3), 234. retrieved from proquest electronic library via the universit y of johannesburg: http://0proquest.umi.com.raulib.rau.ac.za [date of access: 4 september 2004]. klenke, k. (2003). the “s” factor in leadership education, practice, and research. journal of education for business, 79 (1), 56. retrieved from proquest electronic library via the university of johannesburg: http://0-proquest.umi.com. raulib.rau.ac.za [date of access: 4 september 2004]. knestrick, j. & lohri-posey, b. (2005). spirituality and health: perceptions of older women in a rural senior high rise. journal of gerontological nursing, 31 (10), 44-50. korac-kakabadse, n., kouzmin, a. & kakabadse, a. (2002). spirituality and leadership praxis. journal of managerial psychology, 17 (3):165-182. ledger, s.d. (2005). the duty of nurses to meet patients’ spiritual and/or religious needs. british journal of nursing, 14 (4), 220-225. retrieved on june 20, 2005 from http://0proquest.umi.com.raulib.rau.ac.za on-line data base proquest electronic library (via the universit y of johannesburg). lerner, m. (2000). spirit matters. charlottesville, virginia: walsch. lips-wiersma, m. (2002). making conscious choices in doing research on workplace spirituality: utilizing the “holistic development model” to articulate values, assumptions and dogmas of the knower. journal of organizational change management, 16 (4), 406-425. retrieved from proquest smith, louw26 electronic library via the university of johannesburg: http://0-proquest.umi.com.raulib.rau.ac.za [date of access: 4 september 2004]. maddox, m. (2000). spiritual wellness in older women. journal of christian nursing, 17 (1), 27-29. marcic, d. (1997). managing with the wisdom of love: uncovering virtue in people and organizations. san francisco: jossey-bass. marques, j.; dhiman, s. & king, r. (2005). spirituality in the workplace: developing an integral model and a comprehensive definition. journal of american academy of business, cambridge, 7 (1), 81-91. retrieved from proquest electronic library via the university of johannesburg: http://0-proquest.umi.com.raulib.rau.ac.za [date of access: 20 december 2005]. mccormick, d.w. (1994). spirituality and management. journal of managerial psychology, 9:5-8. mclaughlin, d. (2004). incorporating individual spiritual beliefs in treatment of inpatient mental health consumers. perspectives in psychiatric care, 40 (3), 114-119. retrieved from proquest electronic library via the universit y of johannesburg: http://0-proquest.umi.com.raulib.rau.ac.za [date of access: 20 december 2005]. mcmullen, b. (2003). spiritual intelligence. student bmj, 11(mar). retrieved from proquest electronic library via the university of johannesburg: http://0-proquest.umi.com.raulib.rau.ac.za [date of access: 26 february 2004.] mitroff, l.i. & denton, e.a. (1999a). a spiritual audit of corporate america: a hard look at spirituality, religion, and values in the workplace. san francisco: jossey-boss. mitroff, l.i. & denton, e.a. (1999b). a study of spirituality in the workplace. sloan management review, 40 (4), 83-92. retrieved from proquest electronic library via the university of johannesburg: http://0-proquest.umi.com.raulib.rau.ac.za [date of access: 4 september 2004]. murray, r. & zentner, j. (2001). health promotion strategies through the life span (seventh edition). stanford: prentice hall. narayanasamy, a. (2004). the puzzle of spirituality for nursing: a guide to practical assessment. british journal of nursing, 13 (19):1140-1144. retrieved from proquest electronic library via the universit y of johannesburg: http://0proquest.umi.com.raulib.rau.ac.za [date of access: 20 december 2005]. neal, j. (2000). work as service to the divine: giving our gifts selflessly and with joy. the american behavioral scientist, 43 (8), 1316-1333. retrieved from proquest electronic library via the universit y of johannesburg: http://0proquest.umi.com.raulib.rau.ac.za [date of access: 4 september 2004]. neck, c.p. & milliman, j.f. (1994). thought self-leadership, finding spiritual fulfilment in organizational life. journal of managerial psychology, 9 (6), 9-16. osho (1989). god is dead. now zen is the only living truth. new york: st martin’s griffin. pastoll, b. (2006). spiritual science. odyssey, aug/sept, 74-75. piedmont, r.l. (1999). does spirituality represent the sixth factor of personality? spiritual transcendence and the fivefactor model. journal of personality, 67 (6), 985-1013. peirce, p. (2002). the intuitive way: a guide to living from inner wisdom. hillsboro, oregon: beyond words. prescott, s. (2000). realizing the self within. seattle, washington: elfin cove. reed, r.g. (1992). an emerging paradigm for the investigation of spirituality in nursing. research in nursing & health, 15 (5), 349-357. riley, b.b.; perna, r.; tate, d.g.; forchheimer, m.; anderson, c. & luera, g. (1998). types of spiritual well-being among persons with chronic illness: their relation to various forms of qualit y of life. archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation, 79, 258-264. ross, l. (1995). the spiritual dimension: its importance to patients’ health, well-being and quality of life and its implications for nursing practice. international journal of nursing studies, 32 (5), 457-468. ruth-sahd, l.a. & hendy, h.m. (2005). predictors of novice nurses’ use of intuition to guide patient care decisions. journal of nursing education, 44 (10), 450-458. retrieved from proquest electronic library via the university of johannesburg: http://0-proquest.umi.com.raulib.rau.ac.za [date of access: 30 december 2005]. sass, j.s. (2000). characterizing organizational spirituality: an organizational communication culture approach. communication studies, 51 (3):195-217. secretan, l.h.k. (1997). reclaiming higher ground: creating organisations that inspire the soul. alton, ontario: the secretan centre inc. selby, j. (2004). quiet your mind. london: rider. smith, d.p.j. (2004a). smith’s dimension model. unpublished lecture, 29 january. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. smith, d.p.j. (2004b). the pipl perspective on leadership. in reader of m.phil.-hrm class notes and articles on professional leadership, pp 65-66b. johannesburg: universit y of johannesburg. smith, d.p.j. (2004c). the psychological foundation of pipl. unpublished notes. johannesburg: universit y of johannesburg. smith, d.p.j. (2005a). individual pipl facilitation. unpublished lecture, 4 june. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. smith, d.p.j. (2005b). the concept spirituality. unpublished lecture. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. smith, d.p.j. (2006a). spiritual leadership: connecting with your authentic self (a three-day spiritual leadership development elective). johannesburg: university of johannesburg. smith, d.p.j. (2006b). the spiritual dimension from a pipl perspective. unpublished interview, 10 march, johannesburg. smith, d.p.j. (2006c). the spiritual dimension from a pipl perspective. unpublished interview, 15 august, johannesburg. smith, d.p.j. & katz, r. (2006). spiritual leadership: readings for mba elective. stellenbosch: business school, university of stellenbosch. smith, h.w. (1994). the 10 natural laws of successful time and life management: proven strategies for increased productivity and inner peace. new york: warner books. spiritualit y & health (2005). spiritual practice. http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/newsh/items/home/item _216.html. 28 december 2005. 15:00. tolle, e. (2005). the power of now: a guide to spiritual enlightenment. london: hodder and stoughton. tuck, i. (2004). development of a spirituality intervention to promote healing. journal of theory construction & testing, 8 (2), 67-71. retrieved from proquest electronic library via the university of johannesburg: http://0-proquest.umi.com. raulib.rau.ac.za [date of access: 20 december 2005]. turner, j. (1999). spirituality in the workplace. ca magazine, 132 (10), 41-42. vaill, p. (1989). managing as a performing art: new ideas for a world of chaotic change. san francisco: jossey-bass. verrier, d.r. & smith, d.p.j. (2005). a pipl model of executive facilitation. sa journal of human resource management, 3 (1), 51-60. vokey, d. (2000). longing to connect: spirituality in public schools. paideusis, 13 (2), 23-41. workplace spirituality (2005). megatrends 2010: the rise of conscious capitalism. http://www.workplacespiritualit y. info/1%20the%20power%20of%20spirit ualit y.html. 30 december 2005. 20:00. zohar, d. & marshall, i. (2000). sq: spiritual intelligence – the ultimate intelligence. london: bloomsbury. zohar, d. & marshall, i. (2004). spiritual capital: wealth we can live by. london: bloomsbury. spiritual life dimension 27 abstract introduction research design results discussion practical implications limitations and recommendations conclusion acknowledgements references footnote about the author(s) ajay m. jivan vantage lab, johannesburg, south africa citation jivan, a.m. (2020). a case study of the evolving management of leadership development in the retail banking sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1155. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1155 original research a case study of the evolving management of leadership development in the retail banking sector ajay m. jivan received: 09 jan. 2019; accepted: 10 feb. 2020; published: 18 mar. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: leadership and its development continue to be an urgent and critical priority for firms. as a field of practice and research, one observes that leadership development continues to be characterised by the failure to achieve its outcomes in spite of the scale of firms’ investment in it and the availability of a rich repertoire of developmental methods. therefore, there is a need to understand how leadership development is configured and managed within firms as a bounded function, as programmes and as learning and development processes. research purpose: the study explored how leadership development is articulated, configured and managed within the retail banking sector in south africa; in particular, the retail banks and the banking sector education and training authority (bankseta). motivation for the study: there is a dearth of research on how the purpose of leadership development is defined by and within firms and, relatedly, how the management of leadership development has evolved within these organisations. research approach/design and method: the research comprised a multi-site, qualitative case study that utilised semi-structured interviews at five retail banks, the bankseta and the local business school that hosted the bankseta international executive development programme (iedp). thematic analysis was used for the within and cross-case analysis of the data. main findings: the study illustrated how the institutional dynamics, contingencies and compromises inform the evolving management of leadership development within organisations. it traced the evolving purposes and the internal and external differentiation of the leadership development centres (ldcs) of the retail banks and the bankseta iedp. these illustrate how leadership development as a function, centre, programme and process is shaped over time. this includes the sampled stakeholders’ developing capabilities, their internal and external partnerships, their different positions, and the contestations and integration challenges they contend with. practical/managerial implications: the study provides insights on the evolving management of leadership development, in particular the capabilities, roles, partnerships and identity work that needs to be grappled with. contribution/value-add: the research can help practitioners diagnose and manage their firm’s evolving capabilities and detail a road map for managing and innovating leadership development. keywords: leadership development; innovation; partnerships; platform; disintermediation; intermediation. introduction leadership and its development appear to be a recurrent, pressing issue for firms in relation to their capabilities to set strategic direction and ensure sustainability (dongrie et al., 2015; volini et al., 2019). global surveys by multinational consultancies have stated that leadership development will remain a future priority for firms given the speed and scope of technological, economic, political, social and demographic changes and the impact thereof on the business landscape (bersin, 2014; dongrie et al., 2015; gurdjian, halbeisen, & lane, 2014; loew, 2015; volini et al., 2019). this means the pattern of increasing investment in leadership development interventions over time by firms will be sustained, and thus, the concomitant ‘proliferation of leadership development methods’ (italics added, hernez-broome & hughes, 2004, p. 25) will continue. in spite of the scale of investment by firms in leadership development interventions over time and the rich repertoire of methods that has developed, there is the persistent theme of the failure of these developmental interventions and of the crisis of leadership and firms in the literature (gurdjian et al., 2014; mabey & morrell, 2011). for example, failure is a prominent theme in the above cited global consultancy surveys and other reviews with c-suite executives, human resource (hr) executives and staff and other stakeholders (ready & conger, 2003). in relation to the crisis, references are made to large-scale firms such as enron, worldcom and lehmann brothers (mabey, egri, & parry, 2015). there is the paradox then of the increasing investment in leadership development and an expanding repertoire of developmental methods along with the failure and crisis of leadership and firms. this paradox can lead one to question how leadership development is articulated, configured and managed within firms, and of the related day-to-day organisational and lived realities. it poses the question of how leadership development has evolved and is made manageable within individual firms; that is, how it is made organisable, designable and deliverable. this requires a shift from the prevalent development methods-centred focus in the literature, which opens up spaces to explore how the management of leadership development has evolved within firms. for example, exploring how leadership development has evolved and is made manageable within firms as a bounded function, as programmes and as learning and development processes. research purpose and objectives the study explores the evolving configuration and management of leadership development in the south african context by focussing on a single sector, that is, the banks, and the banking sector education and training authority (bankseta) within the retail banking sector. through this, it explores how the tasks and work of managing, designing and delivering leadership development are taken up and managed by these various stakeholders. literature review the discussion places the debates on methods, contextualisation and customisation within the context of the supply-side and demand-side dynamics, that is, the logic and ‘push’ from the providers of development programmes and methods as well as the client, demand-side dynamics and ‘pull’. method centricity and proliferation (supply-side dynamics) over the more than four decades of investment in leadership development in modern firms, a range of methods have evolved, taking on generic, customised and proprietary forms (dongrie et al., 2015; henley business school, 2015; loew, 2015). this repertoire of methods includes formal curriculum or learning programmes; simulations; coaching, mentoring and 360° feedback; the emergence of corporate universities or in-house facilities; and the introduction of action learning, immersions and on-the-job learning (day & halpin, 2001; hernez-broome & hughes, 2004; yukl, 2010). although each method appears to command its own body of literature and set of best practices and practitioners, there is the ‘increasing use and recognition of the potency of a variety of developmental experiences’ (italics added, hernez-broome & hughes, 2004, p. 25). the advantage of variegated experiences could be that the leader-as-learner is presented with different forms of learning and opportunities in a variety of settings and formats. however, variety in itself may not provide the learning, consolidation and application required for the leader. one may need to ask what informs the design of these experiences and the leadership development programmes these are embedded within; and how integrated are the learning process and developmental experiences (billett, 2014; day, fleenor, atwater, sturm, & mckee, 2014; merriam, 2001b; mulcahy, cleveland, & aberton, 2015; tynjälä, 2008). these are questions of pedagogy, design and the nature and forms of integration.1 one could suggest that where these and contextualisation are not deliberately addressed then the variegated experiences could be at a disadvantage to the learner. although there is a rich repertoire of methods, in practice, it seems that there is the predominance of certain methods and learning delivery systems at certain times (loew, 2015). for example, coaching and on-the-job learning and development has emerged as the preferred method as well as digitalised learning and its management, such as e-learning, webinars, mobile learning formats and other technology-based mechanisms (henley business school, 2015). however, these changing preferences for certain methods and forms of delivery do not address the failure of leadership. this follows from observations that a significant proportion of leaders in firms are either not ready to lead, not leading effectively or failing to lead (loew, 2015; gurdjian et al., 2014). this is attributed to the lack of effective contextualisation of leadership development. in contrast, those pointing to a crisis of leadership and organisations argue that leadership and its development are not adequately conceptualised, as it continues to promote acontextual, leaderor individual-centred conceptions of leadership (mabey & morrell, 2011). contextualisation and customisation (demand-side dynamics) the lack of contextualisation refers to ‘the assumption that one size fits all and that the same group of skills or style of leadership is appropriate regardless of strategy, organizational culture, or ceo mandate’ (italics added, gurdjian et al., 2014, p. 121). the argument is that the same set of leadership methods, themes and programmes cannot be applied uniformly to a given organisation and its strategy, culture and different management layers. it requires customisation to fit the purposes and mandates of the firm. nor is there a uniform set of leadership skills, styles or competencies that these leadership methods and programmes can address (hollenbeck, mccall, & silzer, 2006; probert & james, 2011). the focus though remains on customisation for the individual manager–leader’s competencies. this focus on leader competencies and styles can be noted in research undertaken with south african samples as well (baicher, 2005; botha & classens, 2010; pillay, viviers, & mayer, 2013). although the authors variously point out the need to broaden perspective and critically explore the south african context, the focus remains on individual leader competencies and styles. botha et al. (2010), for example, in their research on management and leadership development in a south african retail bank suggest the need for ‘unique and diverse competencies’ (p. 80) for globalisation, cultural diversity and post-apartheid transformation challenges the banks face. however, they also note that ‘key values of african management [such as ‘ubuntu’] have several similarities to generic leadership competencies such as teamwork, supporting and cooperating and impact and influence’ (italics added, p. 80). there appears to be a tension in botha et al.’s (2010) framing of competencies as being both unique or context-bound and generic or universal. here, one could heed the concluding caution of baicher’s (2005) study to critically explore the different meanings and enactments of competencies by the various actors or stakeholders. a step further, one could critically interrogate the individualistic, decontextualised and universalistic assumptions of leadership and its development that the competency construct leads to; and also ask how the south african context evolves and is socially constructed (caroll, levy, & richmond, 2008; probert & james, 2011). this then opens the space to explore how the different stakeholders in the various banks attend to and give meaning to their sector and firm’s challenges and context in relation to leadership development. that is, how they make sense and give form to the challenges banks face such as post-apartheid transformation, financial inclusion, equity and socio-economic development as well as the changing basis of competitiveness, business model disruptions and regional and global positioning (bankseta, 2006, 2007, 2013; botha et al., 2010; coetzee, 2009; kostov, arun, & annim, 2014). the lack of contextualisation could also be understood as the disconnect between the learning and development within leadership development programmes and the contexts of the workplace. it repeats the historical criticism of business schools for their focus on academic rigour at the expense of business relevance (khurana, 2010; paton, chia, & burt, 2014). it poses the question of the relationship between business schools and firms as clients. relatedly, it asks of the process of customisation within firms and between these firms and the business schools. thus, it points to the need to explore the supplyand demand-side dynamics beyond the confines of the competency construct and methods-centred focus; and ask how leadership development is made manageable, designable and deliverable. conceptualising and locating leadership and its development the contextualisation and customisation of programmes and methods as well as the focus on manager–leader competencies do not address the criticisms of the crisis of leadership and organisations. these continue to promote acontextual, individualor leader-centred conceptions of leadership. thus, there is a lack of deliberation on the contestations on the loci of leadership and, relatedly, how one delimits the conceptual domain of leadership (avolio, walumbwa, & weber, 2009; fairhurst et al., 2010; uhl-bien, riggio, lowe, & carsten, 2014). yukl (2010) described the contrasting definitions and accounts of leadership as ‘reflect[ing] deep disagreements about the identification of leaders and leadership processes’ (p. 3), which are informed by different philosophical and theoretical assumptions and lenses. day and harrison (2007; day et al., 2014) suggested that leadership as a concept is continually evolving and will continue to do so. this follows from its complexity as well as multidimensionality, and the theoretical and empirical observation that leadership constructs can present differently at different levels of analysis and firms. it opens up the question of how leadership development evolves, manifests, is given meaning and is made manageable within firms and in their relationship with business schools and other providers. research design research approach the generic qualitative methodology (bergman, 2008; denzin & lincoln, 2008; merriam, 2001a; patton, 2002) and the case study design (merriam, 2001a; yin, 2003) are appropriate for the purpose of the study, as they help explore the varying meanings and perspectives of the sampled stakeholders. it draws out in detail the stakeholder’s perspectives to develop ‘thick descriptions’ of the phenomena being studied. research strategy and method the research comprises a multi-site, qualitative case study within the south african retail banking sector, which includes five retail banks, the bankseta and the local business school that hosted the bankseta international executive development programme (iedp). the research followed merriam’s (2001) and yin’s (2003) argument that case study is a research design or strategy in its own right. merriam (2001) defines case study as ‘intensive descriptions and analysis of a single unit or bounded system [the case]’ (p. 21). the purpose of a case study is to elucidate and understand the bounded system. the study utilised semi-structured, qualitative interviews for this purpose. research setting the research setting comprises the retail banks and the bankseta within the post-apartheid retail banking sector. the sector comprises a number of large and smaller banks. this is in terms of their relative weight of banking assets, retail banking market share and client base (maredza & ikhide, 2013). the large ‘big-four banks’ (p. 1362) are standard bank, nedbank, first national bank (which is part of the first rand group) and the absa bank. the smaller banks include african bank, capitec bank, postbank and ubank limited. the above banks host their own leadership development programmes. along with these banks’ programmes, the bankseta funds a sector-wide executive development programme, which aims to focus on historically disadvantaged individuals. the bankseta iedp is hosted at a local business school. it presents a stable, long-standing programme iterated over several years. the access to the bankseta programme hosted at a local business school and to the participating banks provided the researcher an opportunity to conduct an exploratory, sectoral case study. the business school programme managers provided the researcher an introduction by email to the bankseta staff and two cohorts of bankseta iedp delegates. the researcher then followed up with the respective persons by email and scheduled interviews with persons agreeing to participate in the research. the researcher also approached and made contact with the heads of the respective banks’ leadership development function through email, and telephonically followed up and scheduled interviews with those agreeing to participate in the research. research participants and sampling methods the research is a multi-site, embedded case study design rather than a single or holistic design; that is, it comprises multiple embedded units of analysis (yin, 2003). this means specific, embedded sites were selected within the retail banking sector. the case study utilised purposeful sampling within the sector. the sample consisted of the following 31 participants: three senior management from the bankseta management responsible for the bankseta iedp; seven senior managers of leadership development at the retail banks participating in the bankseta iedp (comprising the four large banks and one of the smaller banks); 12 delegates from the two cohorts from these respective banks attending the iedp; two programme managers and six faculty and coaches at the local business school where the iedp was hosted; and one senior programme manager at the south african subsidiary of an international business school that one of the banks utilised. data collection methods semi-structured, qualitative interviews were completed with all the participants from the various embedded units utilising interview schedules. the study initially aimed to utilise mixed-methods research at the different sites. however, the pilot study illustrated, for example, how the quantitative methods would narrow the exploration of the voices and perspectives of the research participants, especially given the time constraints of the participants and their limited availability to engage in surveys, journaling and/or interviews. more importantly, it highlighted the need to consider the banks’ concerns regarding the intellectual property of their customised leadership development and the sharing of proprietary and sensitive information on their leadership and its development to competitors through the research publication. data recording the researcher recorded the interviews utilising an audio recorder and took notes following a formal consent from the participant. audio recording helps with the quality of the transcription process and construction of the transcripts (evers, 2011) given the limitations of the researcher’s recollection and notes. strategies employed to ensure data quality and integrity to attain trustworthiness for qualitative research, the study utilised the triangulation of sources of data, sampling of contrasting and multi-sites and an audit trail and chain of evidence. on transcription, many authors suggested that there is no single standard or convention for it (evers, 2011; lapadat, 2000). the transcription strategy utilised depends on the purpose of the research and analysis within the context of time, funding and resource constraints. the transcription of the interviews was done in three phases of quality checks over the period of 12 months to ensure its quality. the third phase also served as a reflective process as per the method of data analysis. data analysis merriam’s (2001) description of the constant comparative method informed the building of an ‘interview log’ during the third phase of transcription; the researcher’s immersion in the data; the surfacing of ‘potentially relevant’ (p. 181) segments; the development of an ‘outline or classification system’ (p. 181) of categories or themes; and noting of emergent patterns with and across themes. the subsequent thematic analysis of the individual transcripts within the embedded units and then across these units provided the within and between case analysis to develop the required thick descriptions. ethical considerations the research participants were informed that their participation is both voluntary and anonymous, and they formally consented to their participation and recording. the names of the participants and the organisations are not included to maintain anonymity. for this reason, codes and pseudonyms are used. the limits of anonymity for the bankseta and business school were discussed with the relevant participants, who consented to their continuing participation within these limits. results the discussion explores the themes of institutional and individual journeys. these provide insights into how the articulation, configuration and management of leadership development evolved within the retail banks’ leadership development centres (ldcs) and the bankseta iedp. the section begins with the institutional journeys and explores the relevant subthemes as illustrated in table 1. then, it explores the individual journey and the subtheme of positions the individual stakeholders take up. table 1: themes and subthemes. leadership development centres of the banks competing purposes and the journey of formalisation the heads of the ldcs (henceforth shortened to holdcs) appear to be confronted with competing purposes that arise from contending demands and timeframes within their respective banks. they are meant to address the development of ‘future capability’ for the nascent changes and disruptions of the ‘volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (vuca)’ world while also addressing the present organisational leaders for the tasks of organisational ‘alignment’ and achievement of ‘business results’. they are required to develop pressing organisational ‘competency’ to help manage the immediate ‘business challenges’, and at the same time individualise development to address each manager–leader’s specific ‘gaps’ and needs as defined and framed by the bank’s competency framework and the leadership pipeline model (charan, drotter, & noel, 2011). these competing and shifting purposes confront them with the question: what does it mean for ‘leaders’ within the banks to ‘liv[e] the values’, ‘live the culture’, ‘instil the culture’ of the bank and ‘lead [within the particular bank’s] way’ as part of realising ‘business results’, while they also meant to challenge the present and future proof the bank for the vuca world. the below extracts provide a sense of the tensions and paradoxes within the holdcs’ engagement with the above question. they attempt to draw causal relations between leadership, culture and performance with ‘leaders’ as their lever and leverage: ‘[…]we believe that leadership drives culture that drives performance, if you want to change the culture of an organisation you’ve got to change the leadership. if you want to change the performance of an organisation it’s dependent on the culture you create which is dependent on the leadership.’ (holdc-1, male, head of leadership development centre at alarge retail bank) ‘[…] if we get these leaders to start changing and they truly become change agents, we will change the leadership culture in the group.’ (holdc-2, female, head of leadership development centre at a large retail bank) ‘we’re trying to define a culture. we’re striving for that. don’t really have it now. we are battling to package it correctly.’ (holdc-3, female, head of leadership development centre at a large retail bank) ‘[…] bringing about a change in how leadership is constituted, so that’s on the one hand and on the other hand transformation, so thinking more longer term for example.’ (holdc-4, female, head of leadership development centre at a large retail bank) ‘to bring all the other pieces together, it’s alignment to strategy, again that’s important. it is meeting people where they are at. it is not the one size fits all. there’s so many levers that you have to pull to put all these pieces together. i don’t think we’ve got one answer for it. we are busy working on a leadership strategy, development strategy for the next 3 years […] it’s not an easy concept to grapple with.’ (holdc-5, female, head of leadership development centre at a large retail bank) in the holdcs’ engagement with the above question, there seems to be the continual negotiation between them trying to find ‘space’ for ‘best practice’ in leadership development and their own aspirations, ‘stamp’ and critical ‘perspective’ thereof. more importantly, they are constantly navigating and negotiating their bank’s ‘level of maturity’ and ‘appetite’ in relation to leadership and its development. they need to consider what is ‘palatable’ to their bank and might bring about possible ‘resistance’. this forms part of the formalisation dynamics within their respective banks. this includes the ‘challenge[s]’ of ‘mainstreaming leadership’ within the organisation as a whole and the dynamics of formalising leadership development as a function and as the centre for leadership strategy, design and interventions within the banks. there appears to be continual tension between centralisation and decentralisation of leadership development. the above dynamics play out within the ‘hybrid’ hr structure that most of the banks appear to subscribe to and wherein the leadership function is located. the structure follows what is commonly (though erroneously) termed the ‘ulrich model’ (ulrich, 2015, p. 25) and comprises ‘centre(s) of expertise’ or ‘centres of excellence’, centralised shared services and decentralised hr business partners and services. some of the holdcs point to the tensions within the ‘hybrid’ structure; for example, the tensions with the business partners or performance management sub-function. while the other holdcs caution against leadership development being seen as an ‘hr thing’ and warns of the ‘silos’ in the hr structure and functions: ‘[…] the culture, the values, everything draws from the leadership point of view. so where does it sit? very interesting and we try and navigate through those complexities all the time. […] no there’s not an easy answer. who owns it? and that’s why i said if you’ve got a mandated office with the ceo maybe it – simpler. but again then it will be given to training and development to handle. it will be given to od to handle that piece so it all just sits all over the place.’ (holdc-5, female, head of leadership development centre at a large retail bank) journey of internal and external differentiation as the holdcs grapple with the implications of the competing purposes for the design and management of leadership development, these managers also wrestle with internal organisational dynamics and the evolving capabilities of the ldcs. they appear to define these capabilities through external and internal differentiation. they externally differentiate themselves from the business schools given their very location and perspective within the banks and attendant focus on the ‘alignment’, ‘standardisation’ and ‘customisation’ of leadership development to their banks’ purposes. this includes the opportunity to use digital and experiential modalities and various development methods and techniques outside of the traditional classroom or seminar. they frame the business school as being ‘academic’, ‘cognitive’, ‘classroom-based’ and focussed on ‘south african qualifications authority (saqa) compliance’. thus, they seem to invoke the traditional binary between academic rigour and business relevance (furlonger, 2015a, 2015b; khurana, 2010) that plagues discussions on business schools locally and internationally. the ldcs’ alignment, standardisation and customisation evolve as their internal capabilities and the differentiation of these develops over time. the internal differentiation can be distinguished as lines of development that the holdcs describe as ‘operational’, ‘programme’, ‘strategic’ and ‘design’. these suggest changes in the configuration of the ldcs. the operational line means the consolidation of a ‘project office’; a ‘well-oiled machine’, which has ‘battened down’ an efficient ‘administration’, ‘logistics’ and ‘infrastructure’ for procurement, scheduling and management of programmes. the programmatic line entails the formalisation of a ‘centre of expertise’ or ‘centre of excellence’ that ‘tie[s] everything together end to end’ to create an ‘overall journey’ and ‘learning integration’. the strategic line concerns the development of internal consultancy capabilities, and consequently, the ‘alignment’ of leadership development and its ‘link back to’ the business ‘strategy’. this also means engaging with the question of the ‘meaning’ of ‘leadership’ and the ‘future of leadership development’ within the bank. in the design line, there is the deliberate aspiration for a more open, relational, collaborative and dynamic forms of designing, developing and delivering leadership development. the whole leadership strategy and function and the intended nature of programmes and interventions are reimagined. different forms of partnerships for ‘co-design[ing]’ and ‘co-creat[ing]’ leadership development emerge as a core theme here. however, these are neither clear-cut phases or transitions from one line of development to the next nor do they imply a unidirectional evolution or singular trajectory in a vacuum. for example, one of the heads of an ldc states that, although one may conceptually differentiate these lines of development or ‘point of view[s]’, one needs to take a holistic perspective of the operational, programmatic, strategic and design facets of the leadership development function. the ‘success of your programme lies in how well you’ve rolled it out, and how well it’s landed, how well it’s been implemented’ and how well it speaks to the different ‘business demands’. along with this holistic perspective of the function, we need to also attend to how leadership development is presented to, and enacted within, the organisation. for example, one of the holdcs describes how ‘leadership development’ is made ‘palatable’ to the bank as pieces of ‘talent development’, ‘succession’ and ‘sustainability’ rather than as broad-based ‘transformative work’. furthermore, one needs to consider how, as these different lines of development unfold, the internal reconfiguration of the ldc transforms in tandem. for example, in one of the banks, the programme ‘facilitators’ are now serving as ‘learning integrators’ within and across programmes as the ldc’s strategic and design capabilities develop. this and the discussion on the evolving ldc opens up the question of how leadership development is integrated and the locus thereof. this locus is in part influenced by how the ldc and banks delimit the locus of leadership. most prevalent is individualistic, leader-centred conceptions of leadership. however, the holdcs do speak about broadening their own and their organisation’s conceptualisation of leadership, shifting to decentred, distributed and networked understandings and development of it. the above internal dynamics do not occur in a vacuum. there is a dynamic relation between their external and internal differentiation. thus, one finds the shift from seeing the business school as too ‘academic’ and focussed on ‘saqa compliance’ to being a space and means to challenge insular, organisational mindsets and assumptions. this includes challenging their respective bank leaders’ sole focus on, and solution-seeking for, their immediate ‘business challenges’ and financial performance. they call for a change in the partnerships with the business schools to ‘create a different model and a different level of thinking’. the below excerpts give a sense of the day-to-day negotiation of the competing purposes, different demands from the many line-functional management, the many emergent contingencies and constraints, and the ldcs’ internally developed capabilities from external and internal differentiation. for the first quoted holdc, it means ‘compromising’ on the positioning and practice of leadership development: ‘and sometimes i’m under time pressure, you know i’ve got to design a programme in 3 months, actually don’t have the time to design to the extent that i would like to. […] i’d really like to do some really, really intense transformative stuff, but it invariably ends up being moderated down […] it ends up looking like a mini mba which is really, really not what i want to do and i feel like i compromised myself in producing something like that.’ (holdc-4, female, head of leadership development centre at a large retail bank) ‘and i only exist to the extent that there’s demand for the programmes that i create.’ (holdc-4, female, head of leadership development centre at a large retail bank) ‘[…] biggest challenge always is that what i’m putting in place, does it have the right impact. will it help the business move forward? will it help the development of that individual? those are always the big strategic challenges that we face. and the underlining challenges that go with that is stuff like are we using the right vendors? do we have sufficient budget? are we involved in the right programmes? are we getting the return on the investment that we are looking for? are we getting the output that we require? and what is that output?’ (holdc-5, female, head of leadership development centre at a large retail bank) banking sector education and training authority international executive development programme the bankseta iedp, launched in 2005, illustrates a similar pattern of external and internal differentiation as with the banks’ ldcs. however, in the case of the bankseta, they differentiated their iedp from that of the leadership development programmes of the local banks. in addition, their internal programme capabilities developed as their framing of their purpose evolved together with their partnerships with international, local and then continental business schools and their international and later continental networks in africa. these capabilities involved the selection of delegates to the iedp, the logistics of onboarding the delegates to the programme from the respective banks and its design and delivery in collaboration with the various business schools. table 2 provides a chronological and thematic summary of the pattern of external and internal differentiation for the bankseta iedp. it illustrates how the bankseta’s purposes, capabilities, networks, partnerships and programme evolved together over the years. table 2: evolving banking sector education and training authority international executive development programme. partnerships and positions one of the thematic threads through the discussions on the design, delivery and management of leadership development is partnerships. this is clearly seen in the discussion on the banks’ ldcs and the bankseta iedp, which illustrates how partnerships evolve with their external and internal differentiation. this includes how they frame and see their organisational boundaries. for example, with their evolving capabilities, in particular along the strategic and design lines of development, one finds the heads of the banks’ ldcs calling for a reconfiguration to ‘create a different model and a different level of thinking’. they now seek to ‘co-design’ and ‘co-create’ leadership development with the business schools and other providers. this reconfiguration and the call to ‘co-design’ and ‘co-create’ require the stakeholders to understand the different positions that they take up with regard to leadership development. understanding these positions may help them clarify implicit assumptions, expectations, role conflicts, competing task demands and consequently identity issues that they bring into, and that emerge within, the partnerships. table 3 provides a summary of the positions the holdcs (as managers of the ldcs) and business school programme managers and faculty take up and the related aspects of the leadership journey of the delegates. the themes are drawn from those that emerged from the interviews with the holdcs, business school programme managers and bankseta iedp delegates. table 3: evolving positions. discussion the primary aim of the study was to explore how the articulation, configuration and management of leadership development have evolved within the retail banking sector. this provides insight into the day-to-day realities of leadership and its development within organisations, as there is a dearth of research on the many purposes and actual management of leadership development within firms and within the south african context. evolving leadership development and human resource journeys the study illustrates that leadership development is shaped by competing and shifting purposes, and that its management as a programme, function and ldc, and the firms it is undertaken within, are not static. they are continuously evolving and entail dynamic internal and external relations (with push and pull dynamics) and attempts at the alignment of leadership, culture, performance and business strategy. these layered institutional and individual journeys, at different levels of analysis, include the formalisation and institutionalisation of leadership development. an aspect of this is the location and embedding of leadership development within the hr management and development function. there are two possible avenues for exploring the journeys of leadership development and hr. the first concerns the question of how leadership development and the hr sub-functions evolve, separately and together, and the ways they may align or not. here, we could draw on the debates on the best fit and coherence of hr practices and sub-functions (becker, huselid, pickus, & spratt, 1997; choi, 2014; garavan, watson, carbery, & o’brien, 2015; huselid & becker, 2011). their argument is that fit and coherence is necessary both internally as a bundle of hr practices or hr system and externally with the firm and its business strategy. in this regard, the case study helps illustrate the dynamics, tensions and paradoxes in the attempts by the ldc management to achieve internal fit within their ‘hybrid’ hr structure as well as organisational and strategic fit. this brings us to the second avenue. we can locate the above question and the discussion on the ldc journey within the debates on the strategic value, roles and organisation of the hr function. in particular, david ulrich’s proposal for hr given the global prevalence of the ‘ulrich model’ (ulrich, 2015, p. 25) and the banks’ instantiation of it in its ‘hybrid’ hr structure (hird, marsh, & sparrow, 2009; pritchard, 2010; keegan, bitterling, sylva, & hoeksema, 2018; ulrich, 2015; ulrich, younger, & brockbank, 2008). it raises two issues. firstly, following hird et al. (2009), we need to weigh up the level of readiness and competence of the hr teams and function to implement ulrich’s proposals. secondly, we need to attend to how consulting companies interpreted and translated ulrich’s research and proposals into structural plans for firms. that is, how they translated the ways hr can deliver strategic value into a fixed structural design that is commonly though erroneously referred to as the ‘ulrich model’ (ulrich, 2015, p. 25). this opens up the possibility of reimaging the dynamic configuration of the hr function and the ldc as their capabilities mature, including how the tensions and paradoxes within this configuration and between various hr practices are enacted and worked through across organisational spaces and time. here, one could also consider how the continual tensions and paradoxes of centralisation and decentralisation are played out and negotiated. forms of leadership and learning and creating space as the programme, function, ldc and managers thereof evolve, they shape how formal, informal and non-formal learning takes shape and is facilitated and prioritised. in this way, they delimit the learning content, process and spaces as well as open up these as they develop and mature in their configuration and internal capabilities. the notion of learning spaces helps locate this understanding of leadership development within the broader debate on pedagogic space (see jivan & paile, 2019) and the inter-disciplinary debates on the ‘spatial turn’ (soja quoted in kostogriz, 2006, p. 176) in the various fields of the social sciences. it leads to an appreciation of space as socio-material realities, which are multi-faceted and comprise the material, structural, institutional, relational, discursive and experiential. this allows for the critical examination of contexts as the effects of socio-material realities and practices, rather than assuming that it is ‘pre-existing’ (edwards & miller, 2007, p. 269). together with the above understanding of leadership development as continuously evolving and dynamic, it suggests the need to interrogate how organisations frame, undertake and manage the ‘contextualisation’ of leadership develospment. it also opens up for exploration the locus of learning and learning spaces, as leadership and its development matures. for example, consider the shifting locus in the use of teacher and learner-centred modalities; the practices of pedagogy, andragogy and heutagogy (and the attendant conceptions of individual autonomy and dependent, guided and self-directed learning); and the incorporation of the workplace in the formal learning within programmes (merriam, 2001b; sandlin, wright, & clark, 2013). as one explores the locus of learning and spaces thereof, one could also explore the contestations on the locus of leadership as it and its development matures – from being leader-centred to being more decentred, distributed, shared and network-based. day (2001) and day and halpin (2001) have argued for the differentiation of leader and leadership development; and day and harrison (2007; day et al., 2011) later provided a model of ‘levels of complexity’ (2007, p. 361) of leadership and an attendant multilevel approach to leadership development. petrie (2011) similarly suggested that there is global ‘transition occurring from the old paradigm in which leadership resided in a person or role’ (p. 6) to a ‘new [paradigm] in which leadership is a collective process that is spread throughout networks of people’ (p. 6) within organisations. reimagining capabilities – partnerships, intermediation and disintermediation the call by the holdcs to ‘create a different model and a different level of thinking’, and ‘co-design’ and ‘co-create’ leadership development, suggests the need to reimagine partnerships, organisational boundaries and the capabilities these require. to help reimagine these, one could draw analogies to the current debates on technology platforms and platform strategies. the first analogy one could draw is to the present debates on proprietary, commercial platforms that serve the role of intermediation. for example, one can cite facebook, uber and airbnb as examples of intermediaries (van alstyne, parker, & choudary, 2016). in this case, the platform serves as an intermediary within an ecosystem comprising a network of consultants, facilitators and other providers of leadership development serving as ‘intellectual free agents [as well as their] corporate clients’ (world we work in, 2015, p. 2). it is argued that this helps ‘integrate divergent management disciplines, research areas, and learning methodologies’ (anderson & van wijk, 2010, p. 550) to address client needs and ‘customize and innovate beyond the boundaries of a single institution’ (anderson & van wijk, 2010, p. 550). thus, the locus of integration here is the client needs and the expertise that needs to be brought together to answer these needs. the second analogy one could draw, at the other end of the spectrum to intermediation, is disintermediation and decentralisation. here, one could cite the emergence of distributed ledger and associated technologies (such as block chains) that obviate the need for intermediation. these are meant to enable unmediated peer-to-peer interaction and token-based value exchange and economies, as well as the possibility of decentralised forms of organisation and self-sovereign or decentralised digital identities (rauchs et al., 2018). those leading disintermediation and decentralisation point out the dangers of centralised platforms and services such as facebook who capture and monopolise users and their data, and as intermediaries set out (overtly and covertly) the protocols or ‘rules’ for everyone and define and shape what is possible. centralised platforms and services will be an anathema to the decentred, distributed, shared and network-based conceptions of leadership; and for the emergent and process-based understanding and development of leadership. disintermediation and decentralisation through distributed technologies, token-based economies, decentralised forms of organisation and self-managed, decentralised digital identities may be more amenable and enabling for these forms of leadership and their development. these could provide an alternate platform for the emerging and multifaceted partnerships between the banks and their academic and other leadership development partners; and the boundary spanning between the supply and demand sides. however, the exact form and mechanisms this platform can take are not clear and these particular technologies and the concepts of disintermediation and decentralisation still need to mature. presently, it appears that disintermediation and decentralisation are defined negatively as ‘not intermediation’, which means that the frame of reference is the present forms of intermediation rather than a complete reimagining of these as well as the firms and the value chains and ecosystems they are embedded within. for the moment, though, we could consider how the other established fields of technologies and innovations are presently aligning: from digitalised learning and its management (including e-learning platforms, massive open online courses and the modularisation of learning content, and learning management systems) to artificial intelligence (specifically machine learning) and the cyber-physical systems of the fourth industrial revolution. positions and identity work the discussion on positions highlights the need to attend to the identity work of both the managers of leadership development and the delegates, and brings another dimension to the debates on it. it draws attention to the spatiotemporal and institutional setting of identity work. it has similarities with the findings of pritchard (2010) on the ‘identity-work’ (p. 177) of hr practitioners, especially with hr positioning itself in a strategic partnership with line and executive management in accordance with ulrich’s proposals. pritchard observes that ‘hr practitioners identify with a variety of roles and claim to operate differently in relation to a range of hr issues’ (p. 176). this negotiation of roles entails an ‘active engagement’ (p. 176) with their ‘self-identity’ ‘constructions’, resulting in shifts in their view of their profession and their own professional identity. caldwell’s (2004) research likewise found that the hr practitioners are ‘pragmatic realists’ (p. 202) rather than ‘purists’, when working with and through the ‘inner tensions of hrm’, and ‘reactive pragmatists’ (p. 203) in the ‘day-to-day’ (p. 203) operations. this distinction of practitioner pragmatism can help develop a more granular understanding of how they take up and negotiate the discussed positions. practical implications the study offers insights into how leadership development evolves within firms as a bounded function, centre, programme and learning and developmental process. this can help firms and their managers of leadership development to compare, diagnose, anticipate and manage their leadership development. it could alsso help business schools and other providers of leadership development to diagnose, anticipate and manage client firm’s competing needs and demands. table 4 provides practical suggestions in terms of the evolving management, design and delivery of leadership development. table 4: practical suggestions for leadership development centres and their partners. limitations and recommendations although providing insights from the perspective of the leadership development managers, the purposeful sampling is limited as it does not include the voices and perspectives of other stakeholders, such as the banks’ hr, line and executive management, and delegates who did not attend the bankseta iedp. a broader sample could provide a richer and holistic ‘picture’ of leadership development within organisations. the use of semi-structured interviews limited the study to the participants’ narrative accounts of their lived experience. the use of participant observation during actual programme design and delivery, for example, could provide richer data and thick descriptions thereof. where time and resources are not limiting, the possibility of ethnographic studies could also be considered. this could allow the researcher the exposure to the operational and strategic aspects of the business as well as the day-to-day functioning within hr and the ldc. the constraint to be considered is the concerns of the firms regarding their intellectual property, competitive advantage and sharing of sensitive hr and talent data. conclusion this study identifies the need to shift from a methods focus and centricity to explore how leadership development evolves as a bounded function, programme and learning and development process. it explores how the purpose, capabilities and configuration of leadership development evolve over time within a single sector. in this way, it opens up further avenues for research on leadership development and provides a road map for practitioners to diagnose, understand and manage their present capabilities and deliberately plot ways to innovate leadership development. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. author’s contributions i declare that i am the sole author of this research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views expressed in the submitted article are that of the author and not an official position of the institution or the funder. references anderson, j., & van wijk, g.j. (2010). customized executive learning: a business model for the twenty-first century. journal of management development, 29(6), 545–555. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621711011046512 avolio, b., walumbwa, f., & webesr, t.j. (2009). leadership: current theories, research, and future directions. annual review of psychology, 60, 421–449. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163621 baicher, r. (2005). leadership competencies of successful business leaders in south africa (phd thesis). unisa, pretoria. bankseta. (2006). expanding international executive horizons. bankseta newsletter, 7(2). retrieved from www.bankseta.org.za/downloads/newsletter_june06.pdf bankseta. (2007). iedp programme moves into third year of success. retrieved from http://www.skillsportal.co.za/content/iedp-programme-moves-third-year-success bankseta. (2013). skills programmes. retrieved from http://www.bankseta.org.za/skills_development?section=12&page=79 becker, b.e., huselid, m.a., pickus, p.s., & spratt, m.f. (1997). hr as a source of shareholder value: research and recommendations. human resource management, 36(1), 39–47. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-050x(199721)36:1%3c39::aid-hrm8%3e3.0.co;2-x bergman, m.m. (2008). the straw men of the qualitative-quantitative divide and their influence on mixed methods. in m.m. bergman (ed.), advances in mixed methods research (pp. 11–19). london: sage. bersin, j. (2014). leadership development factbook 2014. retrieved from http://marketing.bersin.com/leadership-development-factbook-2014.html billett, s. (2014). integrating learning experiences across tertiary education and practice settings: a socio-personal account. educational research review, 12, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2014.01.002 botha, s., & claassens, m. (2010). leadership competencies: the contribution of the bachelor in management and leadership (bml) to the development of leaders at first national bank, south africa. international business & economics research journal, 9(10), 77–88. caldwell, r. (2004). rhetoric, facts and self-fulfilling prophecies: exploring practitioners’ perceptions of progress in implementing hrm. industrial relations journal, 35(3), 196–215. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2338.2004.00309.x caroll, b., levy, l., & richmond, d. (2008). leadership as practice: challenging the competency paradigm. leadership, 4(4), 363–379. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715008095186 charan, r., drotter, s., & noel, j. (2011). the leadership pipeline. how to build the leadership powered company, san francisco, ca: jossey bass. choi, j.h. (2014). the hr–performance link using two differently measured hr practices. asia pacific journal of human resources, 52(3), 370–387. https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7941.12009 coetzee, j. (2009). personal or remote interaction? banking the unbanked in south africa. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 12(4), 448–461. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v12i4.188 day, d. (2001). leadership development: a review in context. leadership quarterly, 11(4), 581–613. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(00)00061-8 day, d., & halpin, s. (2001). leadership development: a review of industry best practice. retrieved from http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?=getrecord&metadataprefix=html&identifier=ada391440 day, d., & harrison, m.m. (2007). a multilevel, identity-based approach to leadership development. human resource management review, 17(4), 360–373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2007.08.007 day, d., & sin, h. (2011). longitudinal tests of an integrative model of leader development: charting and understanding developmental trajectories. leadership quarterly, 22, 545–560. day, d.v., fleenor, j.w., atwater, l.e., sturm, r.e., & mckee, r.a. (2014). advances in leader and leadership development: a review of 25 years of research and theory. the leadership quarterly, 25(1), 63–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.11.004 denzin, n.k., & lincoln, y.s. (2008). introduction: the discipline and practice of qualitative research. in n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds.), the sage handbook of qualitative research (pp. 1–32). london: sage. dongrie, v., haims, j., lamoureux, k., tauber, t., van loon, r., & wang, a. (2015). leadership: why a perennial issue? in j. bersin, d. agarwal, b. pelster, & j. schwartz (eds.), global human capital trends 2015. leading in the new world of work (pp. 17–24). westlake, tx: deliotte university press. edwards, r., & miller, k. (2007). putting the context into learning. pedagogy, culture & society, 15(3), 263–274. evers, j.c. (2011). from the past into the future. how technological developments change our ways of data collection, transcription and analysis. forum: qualitative social science research, 12(1), 2–32. fairhurst, g.t., & grant, d. (2010). the social construction of leadership: a sailing guide. management communication quarterly, 24(2), 171–210. https://doi.org/10.1177/0893318909359697 financial sector charter council. (2003). financial sector charter. retrieved from http://www.fscharter.co.za/page.php?p_id=149 furlonger, d. (2015a, september). treading carefully. african management education. financial mail, pp. 22–32. furlonger, d. (2015b). business schools: roles under fire. retrieved from http://www.financialmail.co.za/coverstory/2015/07/23/business-schools-roles-under-fire garavan, t.n., watson, s., carbery, r., & o’brien, f. (2015). the antecedents of leadership development practices in smes: the influence of hrm strategy and practice. international small business journal, 34(6), 870–890. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266242615594215 gurdjian, p., halbeisen, t., & lane, k. (2014). why leadership development programs fail. mckinsey quarterly, 1, 121–126. henley business school. (2015). corporate learning priorities 2015. using learning and development to achieve strategic business aims. retrieved from http://www.henley.ac.uk/files/pdf/exec-ed/2015_corporate_learning_survery.pdf hernez-broome, g., & hughes, r. (2004). leadership development: past, present and future. human resource planning, 24(1), 24–32. https://doi.org/10.1002/lia.1075 hird, m., marsh, c., & sparrow, p. (2009). hr delivery systems: re-engineered or over engineered? lancaster: centre for performance-led hr, lancaster university management school. retrieved from https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/media/lancaster-university/…/hrdeliverysystems.pdf hollenbeck, g.p., mccall, m.w., & silzer, r.f. (2006). leadership competency models. leadership quarterly, 17(4), 398–413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2006.04.003 huselid, m.a., & becker, b.e. (2010). bridging micro and macro domains: workforce differentiation and strategic human resource management. journal of management, 37(2), 421–428. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310373400 jivan, a., & paile, m. (2019). pedagogic and learning spaces of leadership development: a sectoral case study. south african journal of higher education, 33(4), 137–155. https://doi.org/10.20853/33-4-3150 keegan, a., bitterling, i., sylva, h., & hoeksema, l. (2018). organizing the hrm function: responses to paradoxes, variety, and dynamism. human resource management, 57(5), 1111–1126. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21893 khurana, r. (2010). from higher aims to hired hands: the social transformation of american business schools and the unfulfilled promise of management as a profession. princeton, nj: princeton university press. kostogriz, a. (2006). putting ‘space’ on the agenda of sociocultural research. mind, culture, and activity, 13(3), 176–190. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327884mca1303_2 kostov, p., arun, t.g., & annim, s. (2014). financial services to the unbanked: the case of the mzansi intervention in south africa. contemporary economics, 8(2), 191–206. https://doi.org/10.5709/ce.1897-9254.140 lapadat, j.c. (2000). problematizing transcription: purpose, paradigm and quality. international journal of social research methodology, 3(3), 203–219. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645570050083698 loew, l. (2015). state of leadership development 2015: the time to act is now. retrieved from http://www.ddiworld.com/ddi/media/trend-research/state-of-leadership-development_tr_brandon-hall.pdf?ext=.pdf mabey, c., & morrell, k. (2011). leadership in crisis: ‘events, my dear boy, events’. leadership, 7(2), 105–117. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715010394732 mabey, c., egri, c.p., & parry, k. (2015). from the special section editors: questions business schools don’t ask. academy of management learning & education, 14(4), 535–538. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2015.0302 maredza, a., & ikhide, s. (2013). dealing with the challenge of generating employment in south africa: does banking sector efficiency matter? the international business & economics research journal, 12(11), 1361–1372. https://doi.org/10.19030/iber.v12i11.8173 merriam, s.b. (2001a). qualitative research and case study applications in education. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass publishers. merriam, s.b. (2001b). andragogy and self-directed learning: pillars of adult learning theory. new directions for adult and continuing education, 2001(89), 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1002/ace.3 mulcahy, d., cleveland, b., & aberton, h. (2015). learning spaces and pedagogic change: envisioned, enacted and experienced. pedagogy, culture & society, 23(4), 575–595. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2015.1055128 paton, s., chia, r., & burt, g. (2014). relevance or ‘relevate’? how university business schools can add value through reflexively learning from strategic partnerships with business. management learning, 45(3), 267–288. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507613479541 patton, m.q. (2002). qualitative research and evaluation methods. london: sage. petrie, n. (2011). future trends in leadership development. center for creative leadership white paper. retrieved from http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/landing/futuretrends.pdf pillay, m., viviers, r., & mayer, c.h. (2013). the relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership styles in the south african petrochemical industry. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(1), 1–12. pritchard, k. (2010). becoming an hr strategic partner: tales of transition. human resource management journal, 20(2), 175–188. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2009.00107.x probert, j., & james, k.t. (2011). leadership development: crisis, opportunities and the leadership concept. leadership, 7(2), 137–150. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715010394810 rauchs, m., glidden, a., gordon, b., pieters, g., recanatini, m., rostand, f., … zhang, b. (2018). distributed ledger technology systems. a conceptual framework. cambridge: cambridge centre for alternative finance. ready, d.a., & conger, j.a. (2003). why leadership development efforts fail. mit sloan management review, 44(3), 83–90. sandlin, j.a., wright, r.r., & clark, c. (2013). reexamining theories of adult learning and adult development through the lenses of public pedagogy. adult education quarterly, 63(1), 3–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741713611415836 tfsa. (2007). south african banking executives choose toronto for prestigious training programme. retrieved from november 16, 2015, http://archive.newswire.ca/fr/story/33505/media-advisory-south-african-banking-executives-choose-toronto-for-prestigious-training-program tynjälä, p. (2008). perspectives into learning at the workplace. educational research review, 3(2), 130–154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2007.12.001 uhl-bien, m., riggio, r.e., lowe, k.b., & carsten, m.k. (2014). followership theory: a review and research agenda. leadership quarterly, 25(1), 83–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.11.007 ulrich, d. (2015). reflecting on the past and looking to the future: the importance of business structure. in p. cheese (ed.), changing hr operating models (pp. 23–26). london: cipd. ulrich, d., younger, j., & brockbank, w. (2008). the twenty-first-century hr organization. human resource management, 47(4), 829–850. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20247 van alstyne, m.w., parker, g.g., & choudary, s.p. (2016). pipelines, platforms, and the new rules of strategy. harvard business review, 94(4), 54–62. volini, e., schwartz, j., roy, i., hauptmann, m., van durme, y., denny, b., & bersin, j. (2019). leadership for the 21st century: the intersection of the traditional and the new. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/focus/human-capital-trends/2019/21st-century-leadership-challenges-and-development.html world we work in. (2015). the platform model for executive learning. retrieved from http://www.theworldweworkisn.com/pdfs/articles/the_platform_model_for_executive_learning_short_version.pdf yin, r. (2003). case study research. design and methods. london: sage. yukl, g. (2010). leadership in organizations (7th edn.). new york: pearson prentice hall. footnote 1. the case study explores the question of the design and integration of leadership development, wherein instructional and curriculum designs are discussed. however, a detailed discussion on design and integration is beyond the scope of the present article. abstract introduction research purpose and objectives literature review research methods results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) thobile p. mthupha department of business and information management services, faculty of management sciences tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa estelle bruhns department of business and information management services, faculty of management sciences tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa citation mthupha, t.p., & bruhns, e. (2022). human resource factors affecting enterprise resource planning acceptance. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1746. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1746 original research human resource factors affecting enterprise resource planning acceptance thobile p. mthupha, estelle bruhns received: 17 aug. 2021; accepted: 15 mar. 2022; published: 31 may 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: a section of the workforce in the studied entity was not fully appreciative of implemented enterprise resources planning (erp) systems. the study viewed that using human resource (hr) factors as external variables of the technology acceptance model (tam) could predict erp systems acceptance and assist the organisation’s erp systems acceptance levels. research purpose: the study focused on evaluating hr factors that affected erp system implementation at an identified government entity in south africa. motivation for the study: the findings of this study could help increase erp systems’ acceptance and utilisation. research approach/design and method: this study used structured questionnaires in a survey of 154 employees who were selected from a government entity using convenience sampling methods. data were analysed using descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling (sem). main findings: this study identified organisational support to users, training, employee motivation and job satisfaction as key hr factors that affected users’ attitudes and use of erp systems. practical implications: there is a need for improved coordination between operational departments and hr units in erp systems implementation as factors and organisational areas under an hr manager’s control play a major influence in erp acceptance and use. the hr function has an important role in managing the identified hr factors that, in turn, influence erp systems usage. contribution/value-add: this study established a critical link between hr-related factors and change and erp systems acceptance. it puts hr managers at the centre of technology acceptance in organisations as factors within their control determine user attitude and intentions towards such technologies. keywords: support; motivation; job satisfaction; change management; erp. introduction the state information technology agency (sita, 2020) highlighted a high rate of failure in the implementation of new information and communication technology (ict) projects in south african government departments and units. the sita (2020) further commented that poorly implemented or adopted ict systems eventually result in poor public service delivery as the new systems fail to support desired productivity and quality. this article will therefore contribute to the development of knowledge relating to enterprise resources planning (erp) implementation in the face of this stated literature gap. the sita (2020) considered the human resources (hr) aspect of digital transformation as a critical enabler of ict programme success by ‘providing an enabling environment supportive of the digital transformation’. this particular view motivated the focus of hr factors in erp implementation at the researched government entity. while south african government entities are discussed as facing severe challenges when it comes to ict projects because of a myriad of challenges, including hr-related factors, not much has been researched on erp implementation within the same government entities. some researchers such as muyambi (2019) studied erp implementation challenges but not from a hr perspective that tended to live the hr factors unaddressed. kannan, sujatha and seema (2011) asserted that hr practitioners play a critical role in technology and innovation acceptance in modern-day organisations. kaur, sidhu, sharma, narang and kaur (2014) also found that hr managers’ roles were changing and now included technology and business model support roles through recruiting and motivating the right human capital that supports organisational technological advances. human resource practitioners achieve this through managing various factors in their control. for this study, these factors were staff support, job satisfaction, employee motivation, training and change management. hence, the study focused on the implementation of erp systems and the effects of factors under the hr manager’s control in the acceptance and use of these systems. ağaoğlu, yurtkoru and ekmekçi (2015) stated that erp systems consist of a set of integrated software modules in a centralised database that through automation, integration of business processes, data sharing and real-time access to information enable an organisation to effectively and efficiently manage the utilisation of resources such as hr and materials, production, planning and finance. enterprise resources planning systems are designed to assist organisations to work more efficiently and effectively and with the successful implementation thereof these organisations can achieve a competitive advantage (bibi & hassan, 2014). several investigations reveal that erp systems implementation has a high failure rate averaging over 50% (matende & ogao, 2013). with the given view in mind, it was necessary to investigate the factors affecting the adoption of such systems at a south african government printing entity whose existence support the printing and publication of important government documents. research purpose and objectives the primary objective of this study focused on the implementation of erp systems and the effects of factors under the hr manager’s control in the acceptance and use of these systems. specifically, five factors were drawn from the literature, which include support, employee motivation, job satisfaction, change management and training. the study aimed to show how these factors independently and conjointly affected employees’ attitude towards using (atu), behavioural intention to use (biu), perceived usefulness (pu) and perceived ease of use (peou) of erps. the above-mentioned research objectives were motivated by resistance issues and a generally low adoption and knowledge of a 2012-implemented erp system at the studied government entity. literature review the decision to implement erp systems in an organisation must be well planned, and various technological and organisational issues must be managed carefully to avoid possible costly implementation failures (matende & ogao, 2013, p. 520). this literature reviews the various factors and components of the modified tam whose applicability to the government entity under study will eventually be tested in the data analysis section as illustrated in figure 1. figure 1: modified technology acceptance model. this review starts with attitude, change management, support, training, job satisfaction and employee motivation as organisational issues to consider when implementing erp systems. afterwards, components of the original tam are discussed. the external factors chosen for this study fall within the hr and organisational behaviour domains. this study being a case study external factors were considered for the model based on the specific situations at the government entity. attitude according to de waal and batenburg (2014), attitude is a feeling felt by users concerning change. users’ attitude on erp systems impacts their behaviours, namely the intent to utilise the system to its full potential and the intent to get assistance. if the user’s attitude is negative towards erp systems, their usage will decrease (esteves, 2014). consequently, a positive attitude encourages greater usage. negative attitudes are prevalent when there is low participation in erp activities and development (de waal & batenburg, 2014). in order to enhance the probability of positive attitudes in systems implementation processes, nwankpa (2015) recommended that users be provided with technical support and resources, while esteves (2014) recommended training. change management change management is a systematic activity that prepares employees for environmental changes within an organisation (hornstein, 2015). organisations need constant change to attract and retain customers, stay up to date with new and improved technology and be in a position to compete with rivals. the implementation of erp systems in an organisation is often accompanied by substantial changes in organisational structure, employees’ roles and jobs, reward systems, control and coordination mechanisms and working processes (rajan & baral, 2015). according to ramburn and seymour (2014), managing change is undoubtedly one of the principal concerns of erp systems implementation. inadequate communication channels and planning together with non-existent change management initiatives result in employees’ confusion, instability and resistance (matende & ogao, 2013). this study takes a view that change management is an organisational change dimension that hr is responsible for (el-dirani, hussein & hejase, 2019). support in erp systems use, user support relates to the technical assistance that users get when there is need. this assistance includes problem identification, error resolution, proper usage advice (vlasov, chebotarev, rakhimov, & kruglikov, 2017) and systems customisations to meet specific user needs (tarik, muharem, & taric, 2020). the quality of technical support that users get positively influences their perceptions of erps and increases adaptation potential (tarik et al., 2020). odoyo and ojera (2020) added that user support also includes strategic support from management, and this involves developing an environment where users are helped to deal with other non-technical challenges such as dealing with change (odoyo & ojera, 2020). this support also includes the provision of user training. training the measurable success of any organisation relies primarily on a competent, well-trained and accountable workforce. according to elnaga and imran (2013), employees are the most valuable asset of an organisation as they can positively and adversely affect its profitability and survival. according to shibly, abdullah and ahmed (2019, p. 1017), training is ‘the central factor for a successful new technology adoption by employees’. integrated erp systems are complex, thus making training crucial for an in-depth understanding of how the systems operate and their optimal uses. therefore, an organisation needs to plan for training programmes for its employees to enhance their required abilities and competencies in using the implemented erp systems (elnaga & imran, 2013). an understanding of effective training strategies is also pertinent to the investigation of the aspects influencing the use of erp systems (arasanmi, 2016). the comprehension of training strategies and the impact these have on employees’ work can lead to improved erp training outcomes (arasanmi, 2016). job satisfaction eslami and gharakhani (2012) defined job satisfaction as a pleasing emotional state experienced by a person when receiving a positive review of one’s output. the achievement of employees’ work objectives can affect and influence work productivity. according to aarabi, saman, wong, azadnia and zakuan (2012), erp systems are significant because they assist organisations to achieve their business objectives and increase employees’ productivity and operational efficiency in the work environment. the user’s level of satisfaction is improved by the quality of training and support, particularly system support and information transparency. studies have shown employees’ keenness to use erp systems because of their need for convenience and job satisfaction (roses, 2011). employee motivation according to tambovcevs and tambovceva (2013), motivation is an urge to achieve a specific desire, which leads an individual to become engaged in a behaviour. employee motivation, the willingness to adapt to a new technology, the capacity for learning, quality of training and knowledge sharing mechanisms are important drivers of erp systems use among employees (kwak, park, chung, & ghosh, 2011). to attain their benefits, erp systems must be used effectively and continuously, and it is, therefore, necessary for management to comprehend how to motivate the users towards such an effective and continued use (bhattacherjee & lin, 2015). a lack of motivational factors could result in the compelled use of erp systems, consequentially leading to disruptive behaviour that could adversely impact operational efficiency (recker, 2016). technology acceptance model the tam is a behavioural model based on ajzen and fishbein’s (1980) theory of reasoned action (tra). the development of the tam was first presented by fred davis in 1989. the tam states that when presenting new technology to users, their decisions about how and when to use the technology are affected by numerous aspects. system-salient beliefs related to the pu and the peou of technology influence a person’s intent to voluntarily utilise the technology (al-nawafleh, ali alsheikh, abdulllah, & tambi, 2019). thus, the tam is used for predicting and explaining user behaviour and it usage (davis, 1989). the variables of the tam are illustrated in figure 2. figure 2: technology acceptance model. the variables of the tam consist of peou, pu, atu, biu and actual system use. the pu and peou are the two most important determinants of system usage and intention to use (teo & zhou, 2014)and predictors of atu and biu (lule, omwansa, & waema, 2012). the previous research confirmed that tam is an acceptable model that represents an important theoretical framework to explain and predict technology acceptance behaviour (al-gahtani, 2016). the five variables of the tam are explained as follows: perceived usefulness davis (1989) defines pu as ‘the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance’. in the tam framework, pu is hypothesised to be the direct predictor of the intention to use the technology of interest (park, rhoads, hou, & lee, 2014). lin and wang (2012) indicated that pu is positively associated with continuance intention in the context of learning. perceived ease of use perceived ease of use is ‘the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort’ (davis, 1989). according to the tam, peou primarily influences intended acceptance (abdullah, ward, & ahmed, 2016). as with many technology-driven systems, the adoption of erp systems should be predicted by peou (davis, 1989). in the context of this study, peou refers to the extent to which users believe that their continued use of the erp systems is free of effort. if a system is relatively easy to use, individuals will be more willing to learn about its features and made continued use of it (hamid, razak, bakar, & abdullah, 2016). attitude towards using according to al-smadi (2012), atu described someone’s approving or disapproving evaluation with regard to the behaviour in question. according to tam, greater pu and peou of an information system will positively affect users’ atu. the atu influences the intention to utilise the system leading to the actual utilisation if such an intention is strong enough and is supported (al-smadi, 2012). behavioural intention to use concerning tam, biu defines the actual utilisation of an information system and thus ascertains technology acceptance (alharbi & drew, 2014; davis, 1989). teo et al. (2019) indicated that biu is a necessary process in behaviour and is the decisive factor before the actual behaviour appears. al-smadi (2012) stated that biu measures the depth of a person’s inclination to use a system. actual system use according to isaac, abdullah, ramayah and mutahar (2017), actual system use is defined as how frequently the technology is used and usage times. delone and mclean (2016) indicated that among the most important directions in technology usage is the need for assessing the impact of system usage on is success factors such as performance. according to tam, users accept to use a new system after their perception that the system is useful and easy to use (davis, 1989). external factors this study will substitute support, training, change management, job satisfaction and motivation as the external factors in the tam model. thus, critical hr factors that have been discussed as major drivers of employee attitude across the literature were examined within a tam context. summary of factors to constitute new model the model that will be tested in the article consists of pu, peou, atu, biu and actual system use as the original tam factors. the model will substitute support, training, change management, job satisfaction and motivation as the external factors in the tam model. except for this substitution, the original factors of the tam will be maintained. research methods research paradigm the research method was guided by the positivist paradigm. positivism is a paradigm primarily developed for the natural sciences. it focuses on the objectivity of findings and the use of systematic methods aimed at producing highly reliable results. research approach this study applied a quantitative research method using an explanatory research design. an explanatory study was relevant for testing tam as a model of interest to the study in as far as it relates to the five hr factors. research design a survey design was used for data collection that was analysed to examine the frequency and relationships between constructs such as support, motivation, job satisfaction, change management and training (salkind, 2014). descriptive research was used to rate and describe relevant factors that influence the effective implementation of erp systems, while structural equation modelling (sem) was used to test the relationships among hr and behavioural factors affecting erp systems use. population and sample the target population identified for the study was 256 administrative employees who worked with erp systems in the government entity. the researcher adopted the convenience non-probability sampling strategy to ensure the engagement of willing best-placed erp system users. with the total population of n = 256 end-users at the government entity, the researcher used the minimum sample size of n = 154 at a 5% margin of error and a 95% confidence interval. data collection processes data were collected using an online structured questionnaire. likert scale questions were used to rate the participants’ views on the tested variables. a pilot study was conducted and 15 questionnaires were tested to ensure that most of the possible obstacles and errors within the questionnaire could be identified and corrected before data collection commenced (babbie, 2013). cronbach’s alpha coefficient was utilised as a reliability measure to establish the internal stability statistics for this study. statistical analysis the study approach was to collect and rate data on the extent to which research participants were satisfied with the organisation’s management of erp support, training and change management. it then assessed the participant’s job satisfaction and motivation. the plan was to assess how the given external factors eventually influence atu, biu, peou and finally actual erp usage. prima facie, the hr factors were therefore independent variables that affected atu and the other behavioural elements in tam. descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. pearson’s chi-square test was used to test for correlations between defined variables. the results were regarded as significant if the probability value was below the 0.05 level of significance. stat v15 was used to analyse the data. structural equation modelling was used to test the hypothesis that the modified tam consisting of support, training, change management, job satisfaction and motivation as the external factors can explain erp systems usage at a government printing entity. under this hypothesis, pu, peou, atu and biu are tested for any moderation and/or mediation effect in the relationship between the given external factors and actual system use. structural equation modelling was performed using the partial least squares path modelling approach (pls-pm). research procedure and ethical considerations this study took full consideration of the fundamental research ethics, namely informed consent, anonymity and confidentiality, voluntary participation and permission to withdraw from the study. permission was obtained to conduct the research at a government entity of interest. ethical considerations the researchers will conduct the study according to the procedures and methods indicated in the approved proposal, particularly in terms of any undertakings and assurances made regarding the confidentiality of the collected data. the researchers will act within the parameters of any applicable national legislation, professional code of conduct, institutional guidelines and scientific standards relevant to the specific field of study (the faculty of management sciences research ethics committee tshwane university of technology fcre2018/fr/09/014-ms). results demographic results by gender, 61.04% were female and 38.96% were male respondents. by age group, 50.65% of the respondents were in the age group 24–42 years, 48.70% in the age group 43–54 years and 0.65% above 55 years. the majority of the respondents had either a diploma, degree or postgraduate qualification (89.60%). of interest is that 67.53% of the respondents were employed for more than 5 years at the entity. this indicates a relatively stable and experienced workforce that has worked with the erp systems in question for a considerable time. the data show that 44.16% of the respondents were from the finance department, 28.57% from the supply chain department and 27.27% from the production department. human resource factors the respondents’ likert scale ratings of statements on support, training, change management, job satisfaction and motivation are briefly discussed. on support, 62.3% of the respondents agreed they knew where to get assistance, 39.6% agreed that such assistance is provided by a specific person, while 52.6% disagreed they got assistance with erp. in the survey 44.8% agreed that specialised erp instruction was available to them, 79.2% agreed they went for training and 43.5% disagreed on receiving ongoing training. it is interesting to observe that only 47.4% of the respondents ‘agreed’ and 18.8% ‘strongly agreed’ that in their organisation change is communicated before it is implemented, which is very crucial. also, 29.9% disagreed that the organisation gave enough planning time for erp change. concerning job satisfaction, the results show that 85.1 and 74% agreed that their jobs were satisfying and fulfilling, respectively. also, 33.8% disagreed that they would prefer to spend the rest of their careers at the organisation. on motivation, 90.9% of respondents agreed that their manager motivated them, while 90.3% also agreed that their job enabled them to fully utilise their skills. at the same time, 26.6% did not believe they were recognised for their work, while 19.5% did not feel appreciated. generally, the respondents positively rated (agreed and strongly agreed) the entity’s performance on support, change management, training, job satisfaction and employee motivation. at the same time, there were small but considerable groups that negatively ranked the entity’s performance on the same variables. enterprise resources planning behavioural factors and perceived usefulness table 1 presents the descriptive statistics on pu, peou, biu and atu. a sample of 154 respondents was used. table 1: descriptive statistics – attitude, intention and usage factors. on average, the respondents were generally positive that using erp systems at the government entity would enhance their job performance (m = 1.9; s.d. = 0.79). it is evident from the results that pu of erp systems relates to better decision making, enhances confidence and effectiveness, and increases productivity in the work environment. on peou, they were positive that if a system is relatively easy to use, they will be more willing to learn about its features and ultimately continue using it (m = 1.98; s.d. = 0.61). a total of 83.1% of the respondents ‘agreed’ that erp systems do not require much effort to use. also, only 42.2% of the respondents believed that they become skilful while using erp systems. overall, on average, the data also indicate that the respondents were very positive on the biu of erp systems (m = 1.5; sd = 0.54). also, on average, the respondents were generally positive on use attitude (atu) towards erp systems (m = 2.2; sd = 0.87). factor analysis average variance explained (ave) is an indicator of how much the construct explains the variance of its observed variables (ravand & baghei, 2016). the final ave for the variables is shown in table 2. table 2: average variance loadings – model factors the given aves were observed once all statements and questions that had loadings below 0.5 were removed. in total, 11 statements with loadings ranging between -0.61 and 0.47 were removed. reliability tests cronbach’s alpha was used to evaluate how well grouped indicators measure their corresponding latent constructs or to test the internal consistency among the grouped variables (sanchez, 2013, p. 57). the alphas were as follows: pu (0.83), peou (0.83), biu (0.85), support (0.84), training (0.85), change management (0.83), job satisfaction (0.81), motivation (0.8) and atu (0.82). this means that the multiple items in each dimension reliably measured the same underlying construct as all alphas were above 0.7 (hatcher & o’rourke, 2013). tests for normality kurtosis and skewness tests were carried out to measure normal distribution. the results are shown in table 3: table 3: skewness and kurtosis tests for normality in all the variables, kurtosis fell within a range between -2.0 and 2.0, leading to a conclusion that the data were close to a normal distribution and therefore eligible for sem. pairwise correlation table 4 shows the association between the adopted tam model and the factors influencing the utilisation of the erp systems at the government entity. table 4: correlation between perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and independent variables. all the hr variables were positively correlated with attitude, indicating that a unit increase in each of these factors increased the attitude to use the erp systems. motivation had the strongest correlation coefficient with atu (r = 0.87, p < 0.05), followed by job satisfaction (r = 0.56, p < 0.05) and change management (r = 0.53, p < 0.05). change management was weakly and positively associated with pu (r = 0.225, p < 0.05), suggesting a unit increase in change management is likely to result in a 0.2 times increase in pu. job satisfaction was moderately and positively associated with pu (r = 0.473, p < 0.05), suggesting a unit increase in job satisfaction to use the system is likely to result in a 0.5 times increase in pu. motivation to use erp systems was moderately and positively associated with pu, (r = 0.441, p < 0.05), suggesting a unit increase in the respondents’ motivation to use the system is likely to result in a 0.6 times increase in pu. support (r = 188, p < 0.05) and training (r = 0.322, p < 0.05) were weakly and positively associated with attitudes to use erp systems. as support increases and training improves so do the respondents’ attitudes to using erp systems. the significant correlations among the given variables justify testing them in a single model. figure 3: adapted technology acceptance model and path analysis of variables. structural equation modelling results in the sem, the observed endogenous variables were biu, pu, peou and atu. these were the dependent variables, while atu and biu were also moderators. observed exogenous variables were support, training, change management, job satisfaction and motivation. the model used a maximum likelihood estimation method with the fitting target model log-likelihood of 764.64592. the results of relationships between variables are displayed here. the path analysis in figure 2 illustrates that there were five independent variables (exogenous) to atu, and each arrow depicts a structural equation. the direction of the arrow points to the dependent variable and points away from the independent variable. the second set of arrows points from atu towards two dependent variables in the sem, pu and peou directly and indirectly through biu. the path analysis provides the alternative direct and indirect causal pathways between support, training, change management, motivation, job satisfaction (exogenous variables) and two moderators biu and support. table 5 reflects the sem factors that influence the effective utilisation of erp systems. table 5: structural equation modelling factors that influence the effective utilisation of enterprise resources planning systems. human resource factors and attitude towards enterprise resources planning use there was a negative relationship between support in the use of erp systems and atu (b = -0.186, p < 0.05). this suggests that a unit drop in support for the utilisation of the erp systems is likely to result in an 18.6% decrease in atu; hence the lower the support, the lower or negative the attitudes to utilise erp systems. motivation was strongly related to atu (b = 1.47, p < 0.05). the results suggest that a unit improvement in employee motivation is bound to improve their attitude by over 100%. job satisfaction was negatively related to atu (b = -0.413, p < 0.05). the results suggest that as job satisfaction declines, so does the atu erp systems. when employees derive satisfaction from their job, they will have a positive attitude towards their work and will ensure that their productivity in the work environment is maximised. the erp training was positively related to atu (b = 0.140, p < 0.05). the results suggest that a unit improvement in training is likely to result in as much as a 14% increase in attitudes towards erp systems; hence, training is a predictor of attitudes in this respect but a weak moderator of pu. change management had nothing to do with employees’ atu of erp systems as its beta was not statistically significant at a 5% level. enterprise resources planning behavioural factors and perceived usefulness there was a positive relationship between the biu and erp systems and the pu (b = 0.846, p < 0.05). this suggests that a unit improvement in the biu of erp systems (willingness to use a system while performing a certain behaviour), is likely to result in as much as an 85% increase in the use of the system. hence, biu was a strong predictor of pu of erp systems. there was no relationship between the atu of erp systems and the pu (b = 0.077, p > 0.05). hence, atu had nothing to do with the pu of erp systems. there was a positive relationship between the biu of the erp systems and the peou of erp systems (b = 0.630, p < 0.05). this suggests that a unit improvement in the biu of the erp systems is likely to result in as much as a 63% increase in the peou of erp systems. hence, biu the erp or willingness to use the system while performing a certain behaviour was a moderate predictor of peou of erp systems. there was no relationship between the atu of erp systems and the pu (b = 0.041, p > 0.05). attitude towards using had nothing to do with peou of erp systems in this study. there was a positive relationship between the atu of erp systems and the biu of erp systems (b = 0.236, p < 0.05). this suggests that a unit improvement in atu of erp systems is likely to result in as much as a 24% increase in the biu of the system, hence atu was a predictor of biu of erp systems and a moderator of pu or the willingness to use a system while performing a certain behaviour. post model estimation kline (2005) suggested that at a minimum the following indices should be reported: the model chi-square, root mean square error of approximation (rmsea), comparative fit index (cfi) and standardised root mean squared residual (srmr). the model chi-square assesses the overall fit and the discrepancy between the sample and fitted covariance matrices, the p-value > 0.05, which denotes good fit. the rmsea is < 0.08, which indicates neither good nor bad fit. the cfi compares the fit of a target model to the fit of an independent, or null, model. the value (0.875) is below the cut-off good fit, cfi ≥ 0.90, suggesting some compromise in the model. the tucker lewis index (tli), an nfi of 0.675, indicates that the model improves the fit by 67.5% relative to the null model, below the recommended ≥ 0.95 tli value. however, going by hu and bentler (1999), cfi or ifi, with values greater than approximately 0.95, in combination with the srmr (good models < 0.08) or the rmsea (good models < 0.06) represent a good fit. the study’s model does not meet this full specification albeit its rmsea, cfi and srmr fall close. both baseline comparison indices fall below the goodness-of-fit cut-off points because of a sample size of < 200. the srmr is < 0.08, indicating model fit that is not good but cannot be taken to be too bad either. thus, the model is generally fit for its purpose, albeit there are a few compromises that require one to interpret the results with caution. discussion as far as the researcher could investigate, there are no other studies that combined the tam with support, training, change management, job satisfaction and motivation as external factors. however, several studies have captured relationships between one and more of these external factors with erp use, with some of the studies also not using the tam as a theoretical framework. one of the closest studies was that of rajan and baral (2015) who applied the tam in investigating erp use. they used different external factors, namely individual, organisational and technical factors, and training and organisational support (under organisational factors) were the only two subfactors in common with this study. overall, they found both factors to have a positive relationship with atu. human resource factors and attitude towards enterprise resources planning use there was a negative relationship between support in the use of erp systems and atu, suggesting that a drop in support will result in a decline in attitudes to using erp systems. the negative effect of support on atu reflects the views of nwankpa (2015) who recommended that information system (is) users be provided with technical support and resources as a way of facilitating the usage of such is. tsai, lee, liu, lin and chou (2012) also observed that users’ level of satisfaction with is is improved by the quality of training and support, particularly system support and information transparency they get as they make use of the systems. however, neither both studies were framed with the tam context nor did they contain all the external variables used in this study. a study by shibly et al. (2019) captured organisational support and training as critical components in erp use attitudes and behaviours. while it agrees with this study on the significance of organisational support in erp implementation it clashes with it in viewing training as significantly affecting erp implementation. shibly et al.’s (2019) study did not use the tam but like this study, it capture organisational support and training as a variable of interest in erp implementation. the non-significance of training as an influencer of atu is interesting considering the broader view that this factor is crucial in erp and ict systems in general, more so in an environment where ict skills are described as scarce. motivation was strongly related to atu. this resonates with the views shared by bhattacherjee & lin (2015) that to attain benefits, erp systems must be used effectively and continuously and it is, therefore, necessary for management to know how to motivate the users, thus ensuring that the systems are continually in use. kwak et al. (2011) assertion of the importance of motivation in the effective use of erps is also evident in the results. job satisfaction was negatively related to atu suggesting that as job satisfaction declines, so does the atu erp systems. the findings are consistent with the arguments by nwankpa and roumani (2014) who saw job satisfaction as a critical driver of erp usage among employees. however, the given studies did not look at motivation as an external tam factor or apply the general tam model as an analytical framework. in the findings, change management was not statistically significantly associated with employees’ atu of erp systems. this is despite various arguments and findings that positive change management will result in increased willingness to use is, including erp systems. for instance, tarhini, hone and ku (2015) found that erp systems implementation faced resistance despite improved processes and functionalities indicating the importance of change management in the process. while using tam, tarhini et al.’s (2015) study used different external factors with facilitating conditions, which captured change management as being the nearest factor to this study’s external factors and this might have affected the differences in results. there was a positive relationship between the biu and attitude towards erp systems. this finding resonates with the original tam by davis (1989), which hypothesised that an attitude of a positive technology use resulted in a positive biu and vice versa. furthermore, as predicted by the tam there was a positive relationship between the biu the erp systems and the peou of erp and between atu the erp systems and the biu erp. however, there was no relationship between the atu of erp systems and the pu as hypothesised by the original tam and substantiated by teo and zhou (2014). however, the sem results on the tam from these studies also did not incorporate support, training, change management, job satisfaction and motivation as external factors. the presence of different variables could therefore have affected the results. practical implications thus, the results point out that hr factors are important drivers and determinants of the actual usage of erp systems. such usage is, however, also affected by peou and erp usage behavioural intentions. management must take cognisance of important hr factors when implementing new is, specifically erps. while erps generally fall in the accounting and ict domains, hr functions are critical for driving employees and management towards developing the right attitudinal factors that will facilitate successful systems utilisation. this is in view of their cross-organisational nature that requires coordination across departments and their cross-organisational effects on information sharing, operational effectiveness and security (bibi & hassan, 2014). the hr managers must therefore provide adequate training support to employees and enhance erp utilisation (bibi & hassan, 2014). support could be provided using both online and direct or face-to-face interactions that are designed with users’ ict literacy in mind. limitations and recommendations as a limitation, the study used a sample from one government department. any references made in this study might not be representative of experiences in other government departments. the study makes the following recommendations: expert support must be readily available and accessible to address erp systems problems experienced by the users. to ensure continued optimal utilisation of the erp systems, the study recommends that specialised training must be intensified to realise organisational value from erp systems usage. management should provide incentives and recognition for the erp systems users to keep them motivated and satisfied with their jobs. the recommendations also centre on the need for improved coordination between operational departments and hr units to ensure the nexus between hr and technology is effectively brought out in erp systems planning and implementation. conclusion management must take cognisance of important hr factors when implementing new is, specifically erps. while erps generally fall in the accounting and ict domains, hr functions are critical for driving employees and management towards developing the right attitudinal factors that will facilitate successful systems utilisation. acknowledgements the authors thank the government printing works (gpws) management who allowed them to carry out the study in the workplace and those employees who participated. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions the research work was carried out by t.p.m. under the supervision of e.b. funding information the study was funded by the government printing works. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author (t.m.) upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views expressed in the submitted article are of the authors’ and not an official position of the institution they represent. references aarabi, m., saman, m., wong, k., azadnia, a., & zakuan, n. (2012). a comparative study on critical success factors (csfs) of erp systems implementation among smes and large firms in developing countries. international journal of advancements in computing technology, 4(9), 226–239. https://doi.org/10.4156/ijact.vol4.issue9.27 abdullah, f., ward, r. & ahmed, e. (2016). investigating the influence of the most commonly used external variables of tam on students’ perceived ease of use (peou) and perceived usefulness (pu) of e-portfolios. computers in human behavior, 63(c), 75–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.014 abu-shanab, e., abu-shehab, r., & khairallah, m. (2015). critical success factors for erp implementation: the case of jordan. international arab journal of technology, 4(1), 1–7. abu-shanab, e.a., & saleh, z., (2014). contributions of erp systems in jordan. international journal of business information systems, 15(2), 244–260. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijbis.2014.059255 ağaoğlu, m., yurtkoru, e.s., & ekmekçi, a.k. (2015). the effect of erp implementation csfs on business performance: an empirical study on users’ perception. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 210, 35–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.11.326 ajzen, i. & fishbein, m. (1980). understanding attitudes and predicting social behaviour. englewood clivs, nj: prentice-hall. alharbi, s., & drew, s. (2014). using the technology acceptance model in understanding academics’ behavioural intention to use learning management systems. international journal of advanced computer science and applications, 5(1), 143–155. al-gahtani, s.s. (2016). empirical investigation of e-learning acceptance and assimilation: a structural equation model. applied computing and informatics, 12(1), 27–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aci.2014.09.001 al-nawafleh, e.a., ali alsheikh, g.a., abdulllah, a.b., & tambi, a.m.a. (2019). review of the impact of service quality and subjective norms in tam among telecommunication customers in jordan. international journal of ethics and systems, 35(1), 12. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoes-07-2018-0101 al-smadi, m.o. (2012). factors affecting adoption of electronic banking: an analysis of the perspectives of banks’ customers. international journal of business and social science 3(17), 294–309. arasanmi, c. (2016). linking transfer intention to enterprise resource planning (erp) usage. in proceedings of new york international business and social science research conference, new york, 14–16 july 2016, (p. 16). babbie, e.r. (2013). the practice of social research. wadsworth cengage learning, carlifornia. bhattacherjee, a., & lin, c.-p. (2015). a unified model of it continuance: three complementary perspectives and crossover effects. european journal of information systems, 24(4), 364–373. https://doi.org/10.1057/ejis.2013.36 bibi, s. & hassan, m. (2014). factors affecting business process reengineering in erp implementation: a literature review. international review of management and business research, 2(1), 113–119. chintalapati, n. & daruri, v.s.k. (2017). examining the use of youtube as a learning resource in higher education: scale development and validation of tam model. telematics and informatics, 34(6), 853–860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.08.008 davis, f.d. (1989). perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. mis quarterly 13(3), 319–340. https://doi.org/10.2307/249008 de waal, b. m., & batenburg, r. (2014). the process and structure of user participation: a bpm system implementation case study. business process management journal. delone, w.h., & mclean, e.r. (2016). information systems success measurement. foundations and trends® in information systems, 2(1), 1–116. https://doi.org/10.1561/2900000005 el-dirani, a., hussein, m.m., & hejase, h.j. (2019). the role of human resources in change management: an exploratory study in lebanon. the journal of middle east and north africa sciences, 5(6), 1–13. elnaga, a., & imran, a. (2013). the effect of training on employee performance. european journal of business and management, 5(4), 137–147. eslami, j., & gharakhani, d. (2012). organizational commitment and job satisfaction. arpn journal of science and technology, 2(2), 85–91. esteves, j. m. (2014). an empirical identification and categorisation of training best practices for erp implementation projects. enterprise information systems, 8(6), 665–683. government, printing & works affairs, d.o.h. (2018). annual report. hamid, a.a., razak, f.z.a., bakar, a.a., & abdullah, w.s.w. (2016). the effects of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use on continuance intention to use e-government. procedia economics and finance, 35, 644–649. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(16)00079-4 hatcher, l. & o’rourke, n. (2013). a step-by-step approach to using sas for factor analysis and structural equation modeling. sas institute, cary, north carolina. hornstein, h. a. (2015). the integration of project management and organizational change management is now a necessity. international journal of project management, 33(2), 291–29. hu, l., & bentler, p. m. (1999). cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. structural equation modeling, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 isaac, o., abdullah, z., ramayah, t., & mutahar, a.m. (2017). internet usage within government institutions in yemen: an extended technology acceptance model (tam) with internet self-efficacy and performance impact. science international, 29(4), 737–747. kannan, s., sujatha, s., & seema, a. (2011). role of hr management in implementing and managing. in new technologies and innovations. conference: icemim(pp. 1–17). april 2011 international conference on engineering and information management, vellore, tamil nadu. kaur, m., sidhu, l.s., sharma, s., narang, s., & kaur, r. (2014). information technology in human resource management: a practical evaluation. compusoft, 3(12), 1437–1442. kline, t.j. (2005). psychological testing: a practical approach to design and evaluation. sage publications, new york. kwak, y.h., park, j., chung, b.y., & ghosh, s. (2011). understanding end-users’ acceptance of enterprise resource planning (erp) system in project-based sections. ieee transactions on engineering management, 59(2), 266–277. https://doi.org/10.1109/tem.2011.2111456 lin, w.-s., & wang, c.-h. (2012). antecedences to continued intentions of adopting e-learning system in blended learning instruction: a contingency framework based on models of information system success and task-technology fit. computers & education, 58(1), 88–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.07.008 lule, i., omwansa, t.k., & waema, t.m. (2012). application of technology acceptance model (tam) in m-banking adoption in kenya. international journal of computing & ict research 6(1), 31–43. matende, s., & ogao, p. (2013). enterprise resource planning (erp) system implementation: a case for user participation. procedia technology, 9, 518–526. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.protcy.2013.12.058 muyambi, o. (2019). an analysis of factors affecting implementation of sap in south africa public sector. durban: university of kwazulu-natal. nwankpa, j., & roumani, y. (2014). understanding the link between organizational learning capability and erp system usage: an empirical examination. computers in human behavior, 33, 224–234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.01.030 nwankpa, j.k. (2015). erp system usage and benefit: a model of antecedents and outcomes. computers in human behavior, 45, 335–344. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.12.019 odoyo, c.o., & ojero, b.p. (2020). impact of top management support on accounting information system: a case of enterprise resource planning (erp) system. universal journal of management, 8(1), 12–19. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujm.2020.080102 park, n., rhoads, m., hou, j., & lee, k.m. (2014). understanding the acceptance of teleconferencing systems among employees: an extension of the technology acceptance model. computers in human behavior, 39, 118–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.05.048 rajan, c.a., & baral, r. (2015). adoption of erp system: an empirical study of factors influencing the usage of erp and its impact on end user. iimb management review, 27(2), 105–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iimb.2015.04.008 ramburn, a., & seymour, l. (2014). key knowledge challenges impacting an erp implementation in an emerging economy context. journal of south african business research, 2014, 1–11. ravand, h., & baghaei, p. (2016). partial least squares structural equation modeling with r. practical assessment, research, and evaluation, 21(1), 11. recker, j. (2016). reasoning about discontinuance of information system use. neuropsychology review, 17(1), 2, 41–66. roses, l.k. (2011). antecedents of end-user satisfaction with an erp system in a transnational bank: evaluation of user satisfaction with information systems. jistem-journal of information systems and technology management 8(2), 389–406. https://doi.org/10.4301/s1807-17752011000200007 salkind, n.j. (2014). exploring research: pearson new international edition. pearson education, new york. sánchez, j. c. (2013). the impact of an entrepreneurship education program on entrepreneurial competencies and intention. journal of small business management, 51(3), 447–465. shibly, h.r., abdullah, a., & ahmed, e. (2019). the relationship between qrganizational factors and erp adoption. in european proceedings of social and behavioural sciences, pulau pinang, malaysia, pp. 1013–1019, 8–10 oct 2019. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2020.10.94 state information technology agency. (2020). 2020–2024 strategic plan – sita. pretoria: author. stokes, p. & wall, t. (2014). research methods. london: palgrave macmillan. tambovcevs, a., & tambovceva, t. (2013). erp system implementation: benefits and economic effectiveness. in proceedings of the 2013 international conference on systems, control, signal processing and informatics (scsi 2013) (pp. 215–221). greece, rhodes island, 16–19 july. tarhini, a., ammar, h., tarhini, t., & masa’deh, r. (2015). analysis of the critical success factors for erp implementation from stakeholders perspective: a systematic review. international business research, 8(4), 25–40. tarik, z., muharem, m., & tarik, m. (2020). solution and end-user efficiency in bosnia and herzegovina. tem journal, 9(4), 1562–1570. https://doi.org/10.18421/tem94-31 teo, t., & zhou, m. (2014). explaining the intention to use technology among university students: a structural equation modeling approach. journal of computing in higher education, 26(2), 124–142. teo, t., zhou, m., fan, a. c. w., huang, f. (2019). factors that influence university students’ intention to use moodle: a study in macau. educational technology research and development, 67(3), 749–766. tsai, w.-h., lee, k.-c., liu, j.-y., lin, s.-j., & chou, y.-w. (2012). the influence of enterprise resource planning (erp) systems’ performance on earnings management. enterprise information systems, 6(4), 491–517. https://doi.org/10.1080/17517575.2011.622414 vlasov, v., chebotarev, m., rakhimov, m., & kruglikov, m. (2020). ai user support system for sap erp. journal of physics, 913(2017), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/913/1/012001 zabukovsek, s.s., & bobek, s. (2013). tam-based external factors related to erp solutions acceptance in organizations. international journal of information systems and project management, 1(4), 25–38. abstract introduction research problem study results discussion recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) simbarashe zhuwao department of human resource management and labour relations, university of venda, thohoyandou, limpopo, south africa hlanganipai ngirande department of human resource management and labour relations, university of venda, thohoyandou, limpopo, south africa wiseman ndlovu department of human resource management and labour relations, university of venda, thohoyandou, limpopo, south africa sam t. setati department of business management, university of limpopo, sovenga, south africa citation zhuwao, s., ngirande, h., ndlovu, w., & setati, s.t. (2019). gender diversity, ethnic diversity and employee performance in a south african higher education institution. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1061. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1061 original research gender diversity, ethnic diversity and employee performance in a south african higher education institution simbarashe zhuwao, hlanganipai ngirande, wiseman ndlovu, sam t. setati received: 04 apr. 2018; accepted: 14 sept. 2018; published: 14 mar. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: although there has been an improvement in workforce diversity in south africa, gender and ethnicity issues such as discrimination, prejudice and sexual harassment prevail within organisations. this is because organisational leaders view diversity as a matter of legal compliance instead of as a value addition to organisational growth and profitability. based on this, it is important for organisations to understand the economic side of diversity and not just be content with having such a workforce. research purpose: this study investigated the effects of gender and ethnic diversity on the performance of employees in a selected higher education institution in south africa. motivation of the study: the study was conducted to determine whether gender and ethnic diversity influences the performance of employees in a higher education institution in south africa. it is believed that by doing so, the study may assist organisational leaders to determine strategies and best practices that will create culture that is inclusive rather than exclusive. research approach/design and method: a cross-sectional research design was used. a stratified random sample (n = 258) was chosen by dividing employees into homogeneous strata of academic and non-academic employees. a self-administered questionnaire was used to gather data. pearson product moment correlation and multiple regression analysis were performed. main findings: the results show that gender diversity and ethnic diversity are positively and significantly related to employee performance. the study recommends that higher education institutions implement effective diversity management policies and strategies to improve the effectiveness of gender and ethnic diversity towards the performance of employees. practical/managerial implications: the study recommends organisations to embrace diversity and not just abide by the affirmative action policies and be satisfied with having such a workforce. to achieve this, effective diversity management programmes such as diversity training and mentoring programmes should be implemented to ensure that all employees are properly trained on diversity issues. contribution/value add: first of all, the findings of this study will add to existing knowledge that will aid in the understanding of gender and ethnic diversity in general and its relevance to employee performance, which in turn leads to organisational performance. furthermore, this study will be an eye opener to organisational leaders and employees as it will help them to begin to see that diversity is a blessing rather than a matter of legal compliance. it will help organisations to see the need for having diversity and confirm that employees can work together despite their differences. introduction prior to independence, south african organisations were significantly shaped through social and political discrimination and inequalities of a racial, gender, institutional and spatial nature (cilliers, 2007). for instance, in the higher education sector, the domain of the academic workforce was characterised by racialisation and gendering, which left higher education institutions (heis), as homogeneous entities, dominated by a white and male academic and non-academic workforce (breetzke & hedding, 2016). post-1994; the new democratically elected government committed itself to institutionalising a new social order in all organisations by implementing diversity initiatives such as the affirmative action policy and employment equity act of 1998. these initiatives declared the need for organisations to respond better to human resources, redress previous discriminatory practices and ensure representation and equal opportunities for all (lumadi, 2011). owing to these regulatory directives, there has been an improvement in the workforce from a largely homogenous (white and male) workforce to an increasingly multi-ethnic and diverse workforce (lumadi, 2011). in the higher education sector, the education management information system showed that from 1994 there has been an increment of black people from 19% to 54% of the total staff, while women’s representation increased from 11% to 39% (department of higher education, 2015). nevertheless, gender and racial issues such as discrimination, prejudice, stereotypes, abuse and sexual harassment still loom as many black people and women are minimally recognised in organisations (veldsman, 2013). in addition, tribal discrimination among black people has been rampant, as some still possess the in-group and out-group mentality believed to be a by-product of the apartheid system. leboho (2017), in his study on workforce diversity, argues that gender and ethnic issues still prevail because most organisational leaders view diversity as a matter of legal compliance instead of as a valuable addition to organisational growth and profitability. if organisations employ women, for instance, simply for the sake of legal compliance, their male counterparts will segregate them, thus leading them to perform at a minimal level (carter, d’souza, simkins, & simpson, 2003). based on this, it is important for organisations to understand the effects of diversity and not just be content with having such a workforce; organisations should make sure that they exploit all the benefits that come from a diversified workforce and ensure that they devise strategies to reduce the negative consequences of diversity. it is to this end that this study seeks to investigate the effects of gender and ethnic diversity on the performance of employees. employee performance for organisations to become market leaders in this global capitalist market, there is a prime need for them to enhance the performance of employees (swaratsingh, 2015). employee performance is referred to as the ‘successful completion of tasks by a selected individual and measured by a supervisor or colleague, to pre-defined acceptable standards, while efficiently and effectively utilising available resources within a changing environment’ (tinofirei, 2011, p. 28). according to osabiya (2015), employee performance may be of benefit to both employees and organisation. osabiya explained that an employee who performs better has a lesser probability of quitting his or her job. this is based on vroom’s (1964) expectancy theory which suggests that a high-performance appraisal acts as a green light to employees for receiving more recognition, pay raise and promotion in the organisation (lazaroiu, 2015), hence influencing their decision to commit to their jobs (linz, good, & busch, 2015). also, high employee performance could result in increased organisational growth and profitability (osabiya, 2015). during the industrial revolution period, employee performance was perceived as a variable that was primarily dependent on ‘input’ aspects, such as financial resources (beziibwe, 2015). however, recent studies indicate that employee performance is broadly affected by numerous factors and among these factors is workforce diversity (alm & winberg, 2016; ntim, 2015; schwab, werbel, hofmann, & henriques, 2016). thus, this study will highlight the extent to which employee performance is influenced by gender and ethnic diversity. gender diversity with the increasing liberalisation of the south african labour force, fostered by various forms of workforce diversity initiatives such as the affirmative action policy, women are also equally participating at all positions in organisations (carelse, 2013; msimang, 2010). although with time women will be offered equal employment opportunities, a wall still exists between employer’s perceptions with regards to gender diversity (fernandez & lee, 2016). no country yet has ever completely eradicated gender issues such as discrimination, abuse and sexual harassment (sharma, 2015). women are considered less skilled and less qualified for many jobs (kundu, kundu, mor, & mor, 2017). previous studies have suggested that any organisation that considers gender diversity as one of its top priorities stands a chance to retain a talented workforce and increase its performance (sharma, 2016; emiko & eunmi, 2009; kochan et al., 2002b). various researchers have reviewed the relationship between gender diversity and employee performance. these researchers have different perspectives in terms of whether including women in organisations is beneficial to the organisation or not. campbell and minguez-vera (2008) argued that the presence and acknowledgement of women could positively stimulate their performance and increase organisational performance as they bring additional perspectives to decision-making. oxelheim (2006) gives examples of additional perspectives that women bring such as enhanced innovation capability, better global market insight and greater awareness of diverse customer needs. however, some researchers stated that the presence of women in organisations might not be of benefit, particularly if legal, political and societal demands for gender equality influence their appointment. previous empirical studies also produced mixed results. most empirical studies conducted in the last decade focused on large organisations in europe and the united stated (us). focusing on large firms in the us, erhardt, shrader and werbel (2003) found that gender diversity was positively related to employee and organisational performance. another study by adler (2001) in the us found that organisations that had a good reputation for employing and promoting women had the strongest rates of productivity and profitability and thus concluded that the presence of women in organisations positively correlates with increased employee and organisational productivity. in contrary to these findings, dobbin and jung (2012), in their study conducted in 120 financial firms in the us, concluded that gender diversity has no effect on employee performance and organisational performance. similarly, rose (2007) in his study conducted in danish firms found no significant link between gender diversity and employee performance. in spanish organisations, gallego, garcia and rodriguez (2010) also found that gender diversity was not significantly related to employee performance. given the contrary results, this study further investigates whether gender diversity correlates with employee performance in a higher education institution. therefore, from the aforementioned literature, the present study hypothesises that there is a relationship between gender diversity and employee performance. ethnic diversity ethnicity is referred to as the tribalistic grouping of people (makokolo, 2005). it designates diversity in religion, language, race and culture (maingi, 2015). globalisation and the implementation of workforce diversity initiatives such as affirmative action measures have played a significant role in influencing the adoption of ethnic diversity. because of its benefits, ethnic diversity has emerged as an economic driver in global business. according to dastane and eshegbe (2015), highly ethnically diverse organisations are in a better position to be creative and innovative (dastane & eshegbe, 2015). however, marx, pons and suri (2016) point out that for organisations to benefit from ethnic diversity, managers should have the knowledge and skills to manage diversity because it also comes with detrimental effects if not managed. according to the social identity and self-categorisation theory, when a workforce is ethnically diverse, it may result in psychological processes such as in-group liking, in-group attraction and, worst, in-group favouritism (tajfel & turner, 1986). the result of this may bring behavioural change to employees such that group members may only choose to favour members who belong to their ethnic background. this may also result in negative outcomes, for example, poor communication, less cooperation and less cohesiveness (ekot, 2017). furthermore, this may, to a greater extent, lead to conflicts, high turnover intention and minimal job satisfaction and performance (oerlemans, peeters, & schaufeli, 2001). various empirical studies yield mixed results on the relationship between ethnic diversity and employee performance. using a sample of 400 employees from malaysian organisations, weiliang, mun, fong and yuan (2011) found that there was a significant relationship between ethnic diversity and employee performance. similarly, earley and mosakowski (2000) found that ethnic diversity affected employee performance. also, in the us federal agencies, pitts (2009) found that ethnic diversity groups in the organisations influenced job performance outcomes. on a different note, in singapore manufacturing organisations, selvaraj (2015) found no significant relationship between gender and employee performance. mugge (2015) also found no link between ethnic diversity and employee performance in a study conducted in research and development organisations in netherlands. these studies show varied empirical results obtained in different environments and settings. given these mixed results, this study further investigates the relationship between ethnic diversity and employee performance in a higher education institution. from the aforementioned literature, the present study hypothesises that there is a relationship between ethnic diversity and employee performance. research problem although there has been an improvement in workforce diversity in south african organisations, gender and ethnicity issues like discrimination, prejudice and sexual harassment prevail within organisations. this is because organisational leaders view diversity as a matter of legal compliance, instead of as a value addition to organisational growth and profitability (leboho, 2017). as stated in the introduction, it is important for organisational leaders to understand the effects of diversity in their organisations, to be able to grasp its benefits and to ensure that they devise strategies to reduce the negative consequences of diversity. it is to this end that this study seeks to investigate the effects of gender and ethnic diversity on employee performance. furthermore, based on the theoretical and empirical findings, studies conducted on the effects of gender and ethnic diversity on employee performance have yielded contradictory results. furthermore, these studies were conducted in the european and north american contexts (campbell & minguez-vera, 2008; oxelheim, 2006; rose, 2007). therefore, this study builds upon this literature gap by exploring the effects of gender and ethnic diversity on employee performance in an hei in south africa. study objectives the objectives of the study are as follows: to determine whether there is a relationship between gender diversity and employee performance to determine whether there is a relationship between ethnic diversity and employee performance to determine which independent variable between gender and ethnic diversity contributes most to the variation of employee performance. in light of the aforementioned literature, research problem and objectives, figure 1 demonstrates the conceptual model with regard to determining whether gender diversity and ethnic diversity influence employee performance. figure 1: the relationship between gender diversity, ethnicity diversity and employee performance. study methodology the study adopted a quantitative research approach in the form of a cross-sectional research design. the total population size was 800 (n = 800) staff members who represented both the academic and non-academic workforce, and these formed the target population. a stratified random sampling technique was used to divide staff members into a homogeneous stratum of academic and non-academic employees. to determine the sample size from each stratum, the researcher used krejcie and morgan’s (1970) method of calculating sample size. based on krejcie and morgan’s (1970) method, the minimum recommended sample size for the university of venda is 267. to meet the recommended sample size, a total of 300 questionnaires were issued and 258 were filled and returned, thus representing an 86% response rate. measuring instruments elsaid’s (2012) 10-item workforce diversity questionnaire was used to measure the perceptions of employees on gender and ethnic diversity. the questionnaire was scored on a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). a sample question is: ‘there is equal opportunity for career growth and advancement for women in my organization’. the reliability of this scale was considered acceptable as indicated by a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.70 in a population of 300 middle managers at the egyptian pharmaceutical industry (elsaid, 2012). selvaraj’s (2015) 10-item employee performance questionnaire was used to assess the performance level of employees. it was scored on a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). a sample question is ‘i intentionally expend a great deal of effort in carrying out my job’. the reliability of this scale was considered satisfactory as shown by a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.84 in a population of 316 employees in singapore organisations (selvaraj, 2015). administering of the questionnaire the questionnaire was self-administered. permission was requested from the human resource management office of the institution to distribute the questionnaires. the anonymity and confidentiality of the information to be obtained from the questionnaires was emphasised to the human resource department and to the respondents in the cover letter. also, participants were informed of their rights regarding participation in the study and were given an opportunity to give their consent expressly. data analysis data were analysed through the use of the statistical package for social sciences (spss) program version 23 (ibm-spss institute, 2013). descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) were used to describe the data in a summary form. pearson correlation analysis was carried out to test the relationship between the independent variable (gender diversity and ethnic diversity) and the dependent variable (employee performance). furthermore, the multiple regression analysis was carried out to test which independent variable has the most significant influence on employee performance. the level of statistical significance was measured at p < 0.01. table 1: the stratification of the university employees. reliability analysis to test the internal consistency of the items, a reliability analysis was performed. table 2 shows that gender diversity was measured using five items and a coefficient alpha of 0.71 was obtained, while ethnic diversity was measured with seven items and a coefficient alpha of 0.78 was obtained. lastly, employee performance was measured with 10 items and a coefficient alpha of 0.83 was obtained. above all, the reliability scores were generally acceptable as they were above 0.70 (andrew, arora, bilmes, & livescu, 2013). table 2: reliability of gender diversity, ethnic diversity and employee performance. factor analysis because of the use of existing questionnaires that have been applied in various situations and settings, factors of these variables are already known. given this, it was perceived in this study that the systematic interdependence of the latent factors of commonality was known and therefore, in this regard, factor analysis was not performed in this study. study results descriptive statistics table 3 describes the demographic profile of the respondents. as shown in the table, females were the largest group (141 [54.7%]). in terms of ethnicity, the venda ethnic group was the largest (76 [29.5%]), followed by the tsonga (46 [17.8%]). table 3: demographic profile of the respondents. table 4 shows the percentage distribution of the respondents on gender issues at the university of venda. as shown in the table, 11.1% of the respondents disagreed that there were equal opportunities for career growth and advancement for women in the organisations while 49.4% agreed. for the statement, ‘the opposite gender can perform well and enjoy working with them’, 4.9% of our respondents disagreed, 16.0% of our respondents were neutral and 40.7% agreed with the statement. for the statement, ‘employees have not been discriminated [against] by employer during promotional opportunities based on gender’, the percentage distribution shows that 6.2% of our respondents disagreed with the statement, 12.3% were neutral and 43.2% agreed. for the statement, ‘dissimilarity in gender leads to poor performance’, 6.2% disagreed with the statement, 12.3% were neutral and 43.2% agreed with the statement. the frequency distribution of the respondents to the statement ‘a workforce of the same gender can easily form working groups’ indicates that 19.8% of our respondents strongly disagreed, 22.2% of the respondents were neutral and 49.4% agreed with the statement. table 4: central tendencies measurement: gender diversity. table 5 shows the percentage distribution of the respondents on ethnic issues at the university. for the statement ‘my ethnic background and my working with colleagues from different ethnic backgrounds influence my ability to carry out my task well’, 23.5% of our respondents strongly disagreed, 4.9% of our respondents were neutral and 43.2% agreed. for the statement ‘different languages used to communicate in the workplace do not create conflict among employees’, 23.5% of our respondents disagreed, 6.2% were neutral and 56.8% agreed. for the statement ‘i co-operate well with my colleagues of different ethnicity’, 7.4% of our respondents disagreed, 1.2% of our respondents were neutral and 40.7% agreed. for the statement ‘i develop low self-esteem in the workplace due to my ethnic background’, 45.7% of our respondents disagreed, 11.1% of our respondents were neutral and 17.3% agreed. for the statement ‘the language differences among employees affect group formation and cohesion’, the percentage distribution of the responses indicates that 28.4% of our respondents disagreed, 18.5% of our respondents were neutral and 32.1% agreed with the statement. table 5: central tendencies measurement: ethnic diversity. inferential statistics table 6 describes the results of the relationship between gender diversity and employee performance, showing that there is a positive and significant relationship between gender diversity and employee performance (r = 0.274, p = 0.000). table 6: correlation between gender diversity and employee performance. the relationship between ethnic diversity and employee performance was tested. based on the results shown in table 7, there is a positive and significant relationship between ethnic diversity and employee performance (r = 0.277, p = 0.000). table 7: the relationship between ethnic diversity and employee performance. to determine the extent to which the independent variables explain variation of employee performance, the model summary was computed. the results in table 8 show that the r-square value is 0.719, thus meaning that gender and ethnic diversity can explain 71.9% of the dependent variable (employee performance). however, it still leaves out 28.1% (100%, -71.9%) unexplained in this research. this implies that there are other additional important variables that have not been considered in this study and are important in explaining variation in employee performance. table 8: model summary. to examine the statistical significance of the regression model on whether it is a good descriptor for the relationship between the independent variables (gender diversity and ethnic diversity) and the dependent variable (employee performance), analysis of variance (anova) was performed. thus, the results in table 9 show that the model is a good descriptor of the relationship between the independent variables (gender diversity and ethnic diversity) and the dependent variable (employee performance) (f = 3.605; p = 0.000). this means that the independent variables (gender diversity and ethnic diversity) are significant in explaining variance in the dependent variable (employee performance). table 9: anova: statistical significance of the model. to compare which independent variable between gender diversity and ethnic diversity contributes most to the variation of employee performance, beta standardised coefficients were used. thus, the results in table 10 indicate that ethnic diversity contributed most to the variation of employee performance (β = 0.241; p = 0.000). table 10: gender diversity and ethnic diversity as predictors of employee performance. discussion the relationship between gender and employee performance from the findings, there is a significant positive relationship between gender diversity and employee performance (r = 0.274, p = 0.00) at the university of venda. the findings also showed that gender diversity has a high predictive power on employee performance. from the survey, most of the respondents agreed that the institution does not discriminate when it comes to hiring different genders and that it provides equal opportunities for women with regards to developing their careers. this shows that the management at the university of venda upholds diversity policies and implements their practices. this study does not support the claim by arokiasamy (2013) that organisational leaders prefer to hire more male employees than female because it is believed that the males have more capacity to be highly effective than female employees. based on the result of the data analysed in the hypothesis tested, it is evident that gender diversity has a significant relationship with employee performance. these findings are in conformity with erhardt (2008) and alder (2008), who stated that the mix of cognitive abilities of men and women could be the reason for this positive outcome. however, as stated by leboho (2017), issues such as discrimination and sexual harassment of the opposite gender can result in a negative effect of gender diversity on employee performance. in contrast, organisations that create an inclusive environment for all employees irrespective of gender and create policies that eliminate discrimination from the workplace can benefit from gender diversity (milliken & martins, 1996). a significant relationship between gender diversity and employee performance may also imply that some employees prefer to work with the opposite gender as long as they can do their job in a professional way. the relationship between ethnic diversity and employee performance the results also show that ethnic diversity is positively and significantly related to employee performance (r = 0.277, p = 0.00). this means that ethnic diversity positively affects employee performance at the university of venda. according to the social identity, social categorisation and similarity attraction theories, when a workforce is ethnically diverse, it could result in psychological processes like in-group liking, in-group attraction, and worst of all, in-group favouritism. this could also bring about many negative outcomes like less communication, less cooperation, less cohesiveness and even conflicts (tajfel & turner, 1986). however, given the results of this study, it seems the management of the institution is committed to managing the ethnic diversity of their workforce in ways that will help the organisation. the majority of the employees agree that they cooperate well with fellow colleagues of different ethnic background, meaning that there is no conflict irrespective of their languages. the finding is consistent with those of pitts (2009) and weiliang et al. (2011), who indicated that there is a significant relationship between ethnic diversity and employee performance. according to these studies, in ethnically diverse organisations, the ethnic identities of team members are less salient and, therefore, create less disruption to employee performance – thus explaining why a performance deficit was not evident in this study. conclusion the literature shows that most studies on the effects of gender and ethnic diversity on employee performance were conducted in the european and american contexts (adler, 2001; campbell & minguez-vera, 2008; erhardt, 2008; oxelheim, 2006). thus, the study was built upon this gap and conducted in a, hei in south africa. the study reveals that gender and ethnic diversity relates positively to employee performance. ethnic diversity was found to be the variable contributing the most to employee performance. therefore, it is concluded that employees at the university of venda acknowledge gender and ethnic diversity as a benefit to them, as they have shown positive perceptions of gender and ethnic diversity. this clearly shows that the management of the institution understand that promoting the inclusion of women and various ethnic groups adds value to the organisational performance. recommendations as the study results reveal, gender diversity and ethnic diversity positively affect employee performance. this shows that the university of venda acknowledges and accepts the need to have a diverse workforce. however, not all organisations are conscious of the significance of diversity. it is important for every organisation to embrace diversity and not just abide by the affirmative action policies and be satisfied with having such a workforce; organisations should ensure that they understand and exploit all the benefits that come from diversity and ensure they put strategies in place to minimise the negative consequences that may come from the in-group and out-group mentality. to achieve this, effective diversity management programmes such as diversity training and mentoring programmes should be implemented. the goals and objectives of these programmes must be constantly and clearly stated to all levels of the organisation and as well linked to the overall business goals. the study further recommends that organisations encourage the use of english as the common language in order to accommodate different ethnic groups in the institution. this prevents communication and ethnocentric conflicts, which can be destructive to the performance of employees (mwatumwa, 2016). for future research, the researcher recommends that this same study be conducted again but on a wider scope. that is, it should include more heis and increase the population size. the study can also be conducted comparatively by studying one organisation in an industry and another organisation. this will provide deeper understanding on diversity issues. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions z.s. was the main author of the article and project leader. n.h. was the co-supervisor of the master’s work. n. w. made conceptual contributions and subject alignment. s.t.s. was the main supervisor of the master’s work. references adler, r. d. (2008). women in the executive state correlate to high profile (manuscript submitted for publication, pepperdine university). alm, m., & winberg, j. (2016). how does gender diversity on corporate boards affect the firm financial performance? (bachelors thesis, university of gothenburg). arokiasamy, a. r. a. (2013). literature review on workforce diversity, employee performance and organizational goals: a concept paper. researchers world, 4(4), 58. beziibwe, a. s. (2015). the relationship between workplace diversity and organisational performance (doctoral dissertation). uganda: uganda technology and management university. breetzke, g. d., & hedding, d. w. (2016). the changing racial profile of academic staff at south african higher education institutions (heis). africa education review, 13(2), 147–164. campbell, k., & minguez-vera, a. (2008). gender diversity in the boardroom and firm financial performance. journal of business ethics, 83(3), 435–451. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9630-y carelse, k. (2013). employees’ perceptions towards workplace diversity in a financial institution operating in the western cape. masters dissertation, university of the western cape. carter, d. a., d’souza, f. p., simkins, b. j., & simpson, w. g. (2003). the diversity corporate board committees and financial performance. ssrn working paper series, newyork: us. cilliers, f. (2007). towards a systems of psychodynamic understanding to south african diversity. retrieved from http://www.mngt.walato.ac.nz/ejrot/cmsconference/2007/proceedings/psychoanalyst/cilliers.pdf dastane, o., & eshegbe, j. w. (2015). effect of diversity elements at the workplace: an empirical study. international journal of accounting and business management, 3(1), 62–69. department of higher education. (2015). transformation and restructuring: a new institutional landscape for higher education. revised version for 2010/11 – 2014/15. dhe, pretoria: south africa. dobbin, f., & jung, j. (2012). corporate board gender diversity and stock performance: the competence gap or institutional investor bias. north carolina review, 89(3), 809–839. earley, p., & mosakowski, e. (2000). creating hybrid team culture: an empirical test of transnational team functioning. academy of management journal, 43(1), 26–49. ekot, c. (2017). the effects of workforce diversity on employee performance in nigerian banking industry (a study of first bank nigeria ltd., ota branch). masters research, covenant university, nigeria. elsaid, a. m. (2012). the effects of cross cultural workforce diversity on employee performance in egyptian pharmaceutical organizations. business and management research, 1(4), 162–180. emiko, m., & eunmi, c. (2009). diversity management and the effects on employees’ organisational commitment: evidence from japan and korea. journal of world business, 44, 31–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2008.03.018 erhardt, l. n., shrader, c. b., & werbel, j. d. (2003). board of director diversity and firm performance corporate governance. an international review, 11(2), 102–110. erhardt, l. n. (2008). board of director diversity and firm financial performance. corporate governance. an international review, 11(2), 102–110. fernandez, s., & lee, h. (2016). the transformation of the south african public service: exploring the impact of racial and gender representation on organisational effectiveness. the journal of modern african studies, 54(1), 91–116. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022278x15000816 gallego, i., garcia, i. m., & rodriguez, l. (2010). the influence of gender diversity on corporate performance. revista de contabilidada-acounting review. 13(1), 54–68. ibm-spss institute. (2013). spss 12.0 for windows. chicago, il: spss. kochan, t., bezrukova, k., ely, r. jackson, d., & joshi, a. k. (2002b). the effects of diversity on business performance. human resource management journal, 42(1), 36–45. kochan, t., bezrukova, k., ely, r., jackson, s., joshi, a., & jehn, k. (2002a). the effects of diversity on business performance. alexandria, va: diversity research network. krejcie, r. v., & morgan, d. w. (1970). determining sample size for research activities. educational and psychological measurement, 30(3), 607–610. https://doi.org/10.1177/001316447003000308 kundu, s. c., & mor, a. (2017). workforce diversity and organisational performance: a study of it industry in india. employee relations, 39(2), 160–183. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-06-2015-0114 lazaroiu, g. (2015). work motivation and organizational behavior. contemporary readings in law and social justice, 7(2), 66. leboho, m. (2017). the relationship between gender diversity and corporate profitability: the top 100 companies on the jse ltd. masters research, university of johannesburg, south africa. linz, s., good, l. k., & busch, m. (2015). promoting worker loyalty: an empirical analysis. international journal of manpower, 36(2), 169–191. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijm-06-2013-0129 lumadi, m. w. (2011). managing diversity at higher education and training institutions: a daunting task. journal of diversity management, 3(4), 1–10. maingi, j. w. (2015). effect of workforce diversity on employee performance in kenya: a case of kenya school of government. strategic journal of business & change management, 2(2), 52–68. makokolo, m. (2005). minority indigenous peoples and ethnic diversity in kenya. london, uk: minority rights group international. marx, b., pons, v., & suri, t. (2016). diversity and team performance in a kenyan organisation. harvard business school, ma. milliken, f. j., & martins, l. l. (1996). searching for common threads: understanding the multiple effects of diversity on occupational groups. academy of management review, 21, 403–433. msimang, s. (2010). affirmative action in the new south africa: the politics of representation. law and equity accessed, 4, 25. mugge, l. (2015). where gender and ethnicity intersect: how dutch political parties recruit and select candidates. doctoral research, university of amsterdam, the netherlands. mwatumwa, a. s. (2016). effect of workforce diversity on employee work performance: a study of the county government of mombasa. masters dissertation, university of mombasa, kenya. ntim, c. g. (2015). broad diversity and organisational valuation. unraveling the effects of ethnicity and gender. journal of management & governance, 19(1), 167–195. oerlemans, w. g., peeters, m. c., & schaufeli, w. b. (2001). ethnic diversity at work: an overview of theories and research. retrieved from http://www.wilmarschaufeli.nl/publications/schaufeli/292.pdf osabiya, b. j. (2015). the effect of employee’s motivation on organizational performance. journal of public administration and policy research, 7(4), 62–75. oxelheim, l. (2006). a nordic perspective of corporate board diversity. norway: nordic innovation centre. pitts, d. (2009). diversity management, job satisfaction, and performance: evidence from us federal agencies. public administration review, 69(2), 328–338. rose, f. s. (2007). does female board representation influence firm performance? the danish evidence, corporate governance. an international review, 15(2), 404–413. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8683.2007.00570.x schwab, a., werbel, j. d., hofmann, h., & henriques, p. l. (2016). managerial gender diversity and firm performance: an integration of different theoretical perspectives. group & organization management, 41(1), 5–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601115588641 selvaraj, p. c. (2015). the effects of work force diversity on employee performance in singapore organisations. international journal of business administration, 6(2), 17–30. sharma, a. (2015). managing diversity and equality in the workplace. cogent business and management, 3, 1–14. sharma, a. (2016). managing diversity and equality in the workplace. cogent business & management, 3(1), 121–136. swaratsingh, k. (2015). enhancing workplace productivity and competitiveness in trinidad and tobago through ict adoption (doctoral dissertation, walden university). tajfel, h., & turner, j. c. (1986). social identity and intergroup relations. cambridge university press. tinofirei, c. (2011). the unique factors affecting employee performance in non-profit organisations (master’s dissertation, university of south africa). veldsman, d. m. (2013). perceptions of diversity management in a public sector. doctoral dissertation, university of the western cape, south africa. weiliang, e. c., mun, l. s., fong, t. s., & yuan, y. p. (2011). the effects of workforce diversity towards the employee performance in an organization. unpublished thesis, university tunku adbul rahman. welman, c., kruger, f., & mitchell, b. (2011). research methodology (3rd edn.). cape town, south africa: oxford university press. abstract introduction literature review research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) marcel weideman independent, johannesburg, south africa karl b. hofmeyr gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, illovo, johannesburg, south africa citation weideman, m., & hofmeyr, k.b. (2020). the influence of flexible work arrangements on employee engagement: an exploratory study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1209. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1209 original research the influence of flexible work arrangements on employee engagement: an exploratory study marcel weideman, karl b. hofmeyr received: 23 apr. 2019; accepted: 27 feb. 2020; published: 27 apr. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the influence of flexible work arrangements (fwas) on employee engagement. research purpose: this research was conducted to explore the influence of fwas on employee engagement in order to gain a richer understanding than what is offered in pre-existing literature, and to provide practical recommendations to practitioners through a proposed framework. motivation for the study: flexible work arrangements are becoming increasingly popular management practices within the business landscape. significant research has been conducted to understand the influence of fwas on various employee engagement constructs; however, these findings still show considerable variations and are highly inconsistent. research approach/design and method: this study used a qualitative mono method to explore the influence of fwas on employee engagement. qualitative, exploratory data allowed the researchers to gain new insights. a total of 23 semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were conducted. respondents comprised eight subject matter experts and 15 employees from six different organisations, across six different industries. interviews were analysed using a thematic analysis approach. main findings: this study found a positive relationship between fwas and employee engagement. it also revealed that fwas were positively associated with various employee engagement constructs found in the literature, with the most prominent finding showing positive influence of fwas on employee well-being. practical/managerial implications: this study further developed a proposed framework for the successful implementation of fwas to improve employee engagement. contribution/value-add: this study offers theoretical, methodological and practical implications for employee engagement and human resource development scholars and practitioners motivated to find ways to better manage fwas and improve employee engagement. keywords: flexible work arrangements; employee engagement; employee well-being; self-management; organisational culture. introduction flexible work arrangements (fwas) are employment practices that allow workers flexibility in how they perform their tasks. the most common forms of fwas include flexible working hours and working from home (allen, johnson, kiburz, & shockley, 2013). the attention paid to fwas has been fuelled by research that suggests positive correlations with employee engagement and job performance (bal & de lange, 2014; zeijen, peeters, & hakanen, 2018). the organisational costs associated with ignoring employees’ personal commitments include high absenteeism and employee turnover (kurtessis et al., 2017). in addition, fwas have been highlighted as policies that can assist in maintaining a work–life balance, employee well-being and productivity (caesens, marique, hanin, & stinglhamber, 2016). for organisations to improve their performance, further research into the influence of fwas on employee engagement is necessary (saks, 2006; zhong, wayne, & liden, 2015). employee engagement is defined as an employee’s cognitive, behavioural and affective energy reflected in his or her work performance (christian, garza, & slaughter, 2011). employee engagement has roused global interest of researchers and practitioners as organisations recognise the positive impact and competitive advantage that engaged employees bring to an organisation’s performance (kahn & heaphy, 2014). employee engagement results in the enhancement of various performance outcomes for organisations, including financial considerations, productivity, customer satisfaction, a decrease in employee absenteeism and an increase in overall product or service quality (bakker & demerouti, 2007). a study undertaken by towers watson (2017) across 50 organisations globally reported a 19.2% increase in operational income amongst organisations that showed high employee engagement. the study also noted a 3.74% higher operating margin in organisations with a high employee engagement score. a similar meta-analysis study reported positive correlations between employee engagement and profitability, customer satisfaction, safety, decreased absenteeism and a decrease in defective products (gallup, 2016). research purpose and objectives literature has suggested a relationship between fwas and various constructs of employee engagement (chen & fulmer, 2017). however, the number of variables that drive employee engagement is theoretically infinite. for organisations to improve their employee engagement and promote organisational performance and competitiveness, a better understanding of the contributing factors that influence employee engagement is needed (kahn & heaphy, 2014). this research set out to explore the influence that fwas have on employee engagement. the objective of this research was to establish why organisations in south africa implement fwas, investigate the employee engagement benefits that organisations perceive upon implementing fwas, understand the experiences of employees who make use of fwas through an employee engagement lens, determine the drawbacks of fwas and understand how fwas can be improved to promote employee engagement. literature review flexible work arrangements have gained considerable interest from both researchers and practitioners; however, the benefits of implementing fwas in organisations are still debated (allen et al., 2013). flexible work arrangements have been described as self-management practices that allow employees to control how they manage and allocate their resources in terms of time, attention and energy (allen et al., 2013). the two most common examples of fwas include flexitime, which allows employees to determine their work’s start and finish times (michel, kotrba, mitchelson, clark, & baltes, 2011), and flexplace, which allows employees to work remotely (allen et al., 2013). previous research has suggested that fwas can impact various constructs that have been associated with employee engagement, such as organisational commitment (bal & de lange, 2014). the organisational costs of ignoring personal commitments and responsibilities of employees include high absenteeism and turnover (kurtessis et al., 2017). gajendran and harrison (2007) suggest that providing employees with fwas will result in better talent retention as well as happier and more productive employees. flexible work arrangements flexibility is defined as the opportunity organisations provide to their employees regarding choice of where and when to work (allen et al., 2013). literature mentions about two types of flexibility within organisations. the first is referred to as irregular flexibility, which is a practice that allows employees to cope with an irregular amount of work over a given period (casper & harris, 2008). the second is regular flexibility, which refers to daily flexibility whereby employees can choose their work schedules, start and finish times, and job-sharing arrangements (bal & de lange, 2014). for the purpose of this study, regular flexibility will be used when referring to fwas. examples of fwas include flexitime (employees are able to choose their start and end times), compressed work weeks (working longer days and fewer days per week) and telecommuting (use of technology to stay connected) (michel et al., 2011). flexible work arrangements have gained significant interest amongst organisations globally. the world at work report (2015) reported that globally 80% of organisations offer employees some form of fwa. south african organisations and managers have been described as being conservative in terms of offering their employees the benefit of fwas (iol business report, 2017). a common motive for organisations to implement a flexible work arrangement policy is to assist employees to better balance their time, where commuting times consumed a major portion of employees’ time (chen & fulmer, 2017). a global traffic survey, conducted by tomtom in 2016, revealed that travel time in south africa is greatly affected by peak travel time congestion. an average of an additional 37 min per day’s travel time, during peak traffic, was added to the commute (tomtom traffic index, 2016). a study conducted by van ommeren and gutierrez-i-puigarnau (2011) showed a direct correlation between commute times and absenteeism. a further study found a significant relationship between commuting and stress (zhou et al., 2017). both absenteeism and stress related to work–life conflict are constructs used to determine levels of employee engagement (kurtessis et al., 2017). a study by thompson, payne and taylor (2015) revealed that younger generations entering the workplace generally favour having a greater choice over their work and non-work activities, being more inclined to blend the two at their own discretion, while the older generations prefer defined boundaries of work and non-work. flexible work arrangements have become an expectation of younger generations within the workplace (lyons & kuron, 2014). sweet, pitt-catsouphes and boone james (2016) discovered that older managers were less likely to implement fwas and that women were more inclined to use and implement such arrangements. employee engagement kahn (1990) defines employee engagement as a work situation whereby employees are engaged cognitively, physically and emotionally in their job roles. kahn (1990) further describes employee engagement as a state whereby employees find their work to be meaningful, to the extent where they choose to invest in their work with the objective of achieving personal and career growth. engaged employees execute their work with passion and energy (kahn & heaphy, 2014). employee engagement is broad in definition and theory (christian et al., 2011). there are three different constructs of employee engagements that seem consistent in the literature, namely, cognitive engagement (an employee’s focus on his or her work), emotional engagement (an employee’s sense of purpose and belonging) and behavioural or physical engagement (the amount of effort an employee is willing to put into his or her work) (shuck, adelson, & reio, 2017; zhong et al., 2015). to effectively interpret qualitative responses through an employee engagement lens, it was important to identify the most common antecedents of employee engagement. the antecedents that were most pronounced in the literature, in no particular order, were as follows: (1) discretionary effort, (2) job satisfaction, (3) employee well-being, (4) trust in the organisation, (5) organisational commitment, (6) intention to turnover and (7) organisational support (agarwal & gupta, 2018; bailey, madden, alfes, & fletcher, 2017; brunetto, teo, shacklock, & wharton, 2012; rich, lepine, & crawford, 2010; saks, 2006; shuck et al., 2017; zhong et al., 2015). flexible work arrangements and organisational commitment chen and fulmer (2017) found a positive relationship between fwas and organisational commitment. flexible scheduling and location, as opposed to working fewer hours, were found to be more positively associated with organisational commitment (chen & fulmer, 2017). however, the study noted that there was no significant difference between organisational commitment levels in those employees who make use of fwas and those who simply have the option of fwas but make no use of them. the study concluded that an increase in organisational commitment is not purely a result of making use of fwas, but that signalling and social exchange effects play a significant role in the increased organisational commitment outcome. there are, however, conflicting studies that portray fwas in a negative light. these studies argue that fwas may have unintended effects, such as an increase in work–life conflict and potential career penalties (hammer, neal, newsom, brockwood, & colton, 2005; leslie, manchester, park, & mehng, 2012). flexible work arrangements and work–life balance non-monetary policies such as fwas have been found to be effective life-coping strategies compared to monetary-funded initiatives such as health and well-being programmes, children facilities and supportive services (zheng, kashi, fan, molineux, & ee, 2015). researchers argue that fwas and managerial support and understanding enable employees to balance work with lifestyle and family commitments (skinner & chapman, 2013). flexible arrangements have been positively related to affective commitment and perceived organisational support and negatively related to intention to turnover (casper & harris, 2008). work–life balance has also become increasingly popular amongst millennials (lyons & kuron, 2014). the generation of millennials, first described by david food as the ‘baby boom echo’, was used to describe the generation born between 1980 and 1995 (burke & ng, 2006). a review of the popular literature suggests that millennials tend to seek instant gratification in terms of good remuneration, career advancement, challenging work, societal contribution and a work–life balance. millennials have reportedly seen their parents make immense sacrifice for their employers, only to fall victim to lay-offs, long working hours and family disruption. for these reasons, millennials tend to have a more holistic approach to their working lives and place high emphasis on work–life balance (dries, pepermans, & de kerpel, 2008). flexible work arrangements and organisational support and trust through the resource theory, cooper-thomas, xu and saks (2018) proposed that employee engagement is linked to emotions of warmth and caring. resources that promote warmth and caring are, therefore, more inclined to improve engagement. beigi, shirmohammadi and stewart (2018) stated that fwas are portrayed as being supportive in nature. it would be logical that employees who recognise fwas as ‘care’ shown by the organisation would lead to higher levels of engagement. the implementation of alternative working arrangements, such as working from home and flexible times, may be representative of an organisation’s trust towards their employees, which improves employee morale and motivation (hill, ferris, & martinson, 2003). this notion is supported by chen and fulmer (2017) who state that working from flexible locations may not necessarily improve job satisfaction, but the element of trust motivates employees to work harder in appreciation of the trust instilled in them. organisational support theory has become widely researched as it tends to explain employees’ relationships with their employers. the organisational support theory is made up of three antecedents: fairness, human resource practices and supervisor support (kurtessis et al., 2017). building on human resource practices and employee engagement, bal and de lange (2014) found that effective human resource management resulted in higher employee engagement. performance outcomes associated with employee engagement there are various performance outcomes that support employee engagement and the positive effects it has on an organisation’s performance. the constructs of employee engagement have been shown to have a positive impact on the employee’s work-related experience and state of mind, which leads to increased commitment, productivity and extra role behaviours within the workplace (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). the positive effects of engaged employees are well researched and recognised in the literature and businesses (shuck et al., 2017). there is consensus regarding the importance of engaged employees and associated benefits; however, there are no definitive findings around the factors that lead to employee engagement (bailey et al., 2017). various antecedents of employee engagement have been identified, including job satisfaction, employee well-being, employer trust, organisational commitment, intention to turnover and organisational support (shuck et al., 2017). however, further research is required to understand whether an organisation’s policy regarding its flexibility can influence the above-listed antecedents of employee engagement. figure 1 presents the summary of the relevant literature. figure 1: literature review summary. research design research approach and strategy given that the research recognised various influences that affect employee engagement, a pragmatic approach that involved being realistic and only focusing on the research questions and objectives was best suited for the study (saunders & lewis, 2012). the research was guided by what was possible and practical. a mono-method qualitative approach is defined as having a singular method of data collection (collis & hussey, 2014). the research used a singular qualitative research method consisting of semi-structured interviews with subject matter experts and employees who work within an organisation offering fwas. although the data collection was done through a mono-method, it is important to note that there were two aspects of the data collection: firstly, from the organisation’s perspective through the interviewing of subject matter experts (group a), and, secondly, from the employees working for the organisation offering fwas (group b). an inductive research approach is defined as the development of a theory as a result of analysing data that have already been collected (saunders & lewis, 2012). the research undertaken is broad and there are no models designed specifically to test fwas’ impact on employee engagement. given that the research is explorative in nature, the study looked at assessing current theory and developing the theory by conducting new research. the research conducted was exploratory in nature, which allowed the researchers to gain new insights, ask new questions and re-examine topics (saunders & lewis, 2012). this method was chosen as there is currently limited and inconclusive research available on the relationship between fwas and employee engagement. in-depth interviews using a mono-method as the research approach involved the collection of data from a sample group in a semi-structured format (saunders & lewis, 2012). research questions the research questions were formulated to better understand the influence of fwas on employee engagement. furthermore, the study aimed to uncover some of the drawbacks associated with fwas and gain an understanding of how fwas can be improved to promote employee engagement. research question 1: why do companies in south africa choose to implement flexible work arrangements? the aim of this question was to obtain a broad understanding of an organisation’s reasons for implementing fwas. as this was an exploratory study, the researchers could find themes in addition to the existing literature which have resulted from organisations implementing fwas. this research question would assist the researchers to understand what motivates organisations to adopt flexible working practices. the research question would further allow the researchers to gain insights into the benefits associated with the implementation of fwas. the interview questions were as follows: why did your organisation decide to implement fwas? what flexible work arrangement practices has your organisation implemented and who can use the arrangements? why those policies? why those people? research question 2: what perceived employee engagement benefits do organisations recognise from implementing fwas? research question 2 would explore the relationship that organisations observe between fwas and employee engagement. furthermore, it would help to understand the perceived benefits of fwas, and their association with employee engagement, from the company’s perspective. the researchers would also use the data gained from research question 2 to understand why the implementation of fwas is more successful in certain organisations than in others. the interview questions were as follows: what employee benefits have you observed? what benefits have you observed for the organisation? research question 3: what are employees’ lived experiences of fwas (through an employee engagement lens)? this question sought to understand how employees feel about fwas and whether it correlates with the organisation’s perceptions (as explored in research question 2). it would allow the researchers to understand whether the employees share the same views as the organisation or whether they had conflicting views. the researchers further aimed to understand which aspects of fwas employees like and which aspects they dislike, determining the potential positive and negative relationships with employee engagement. the interview questions were as follows: what is your understanding of fwas? which fwas do you use and why do you use them? what are your feelings and thoughts about fwas? what do you like and dislike about them? why do you think your organisation offers you fwas? how important is fwa to you? would you work for an organisation that doesn’t offer you fwas? why? research question 4: what are some of the drawbacks of fwa arrangements and how can fwas be improved to promote employee engagement? by better understanding the drawbacks and possible improvements to fwas the researchers aimed to operationalise fwas and provide practical recommendations to practitioners in an effort to improve employee engagement. the interview questions were as follows: what are some of the drawbacks of fwas within your organisation? how can fwas be improved to promote employee engagement? research participants the population for this study comprised subject matter experts who have been involved in implementing fwas or involved in assessing the successes and/or failures of the implemented practice (population a). interviewees were typically from the human resource department or within human capital and organisational development. the subject matter experts represented their experiences from the organisation’s perspective. the second population (population b) was classified as employees working within an organisation that offers fwas. the employees comprised those who use fwas and employees who have fwas at their disposal but do not use them. the employees were selected based on personal networks, referrals and snowball sampling. the researchers ensured that the employees were from various management levels and departments within the organisations in order to reduce bias. two population groups were used to align with the research questions, which distinguished between the views of the organisations and the views of employees working for the organisations. to broaden the study, the population was selected from various industries, namely, fast foods, financial services, medical insurance, biotechnology, supply chain and manufacturing. to limit the external influences of the perceived value of fwas, the research was limited to companies operating within the gauteng province in south africa. sampling method and size purposive sampling was chosen to select the sample participants (saunders & lewis, 2012). this deliberate selection allows the researchers to select the sample that is likely to produce focussed and valuable data to answer the research questions more informatively and economically than probability sampling (denscombe, 2007). convenience sampling based on the researchers’ personal networks was used to obtain interviews with subject matter experts and employees from the selected organisations. a total of 23 participants were interviewed (table 1). table 1: industry, function and level of the chosen sample. eight subject matter experts were interviewed (group a) across the six industries. in some organisations, where the initial respondent felt that one of their colleagues may be able to provide additional insights into the subject, more than one field expert was interviewed. group a of the sample group represented the views of the organisation and the respondent’s expert opinion, and therefore it was important to be pragmatic and consistent in the selection criteria. in addition to the field expert interviews, employees from the same organisations were interviewed (group b). a sample of two to four employees was interviewed per organisation, which resulted in a total of 15 employees. in order to answer the stated research questions, it was necessary to gain insights from both the organisation’s perspective and the lived experiences and views of the employees working within the organisation. as a result, two separate sets of questions were developed to interview respondents from the two groups. data collection method given the exploratory nature of the research study, a semi-structured interview with subject matter experts using open-ended questions was used as the research instrument. this provided the researchers the benefit of asking specific questions while simultaneously allowing the interviews to be flexible and to explore common relationships and themes that may emerge in more depth, without influencing the answers participants may give (saunders & lewis, 2012). semi-structured interviews were held for a sample of employees. interviews were all unaided and open-ended. respondents were encouraged to elaborate on their responses to increase the depth of their responses. data collection process interviews with subject matter experts the field expert interviews lasted between 25 min and 1 h per participant and were guided with timeframes per question. the purpose of semi-structured, open-ended questions was to allow participants to be more intimate while engaging and to acquire more data (gubrium & holstein, 2001). the second group to be interviewed comprised 15 employees working for the organisations offering fwas. the data collection process was executed in a manner similar to that of part a. the employee interviews lasted between 15 and 40 min. the voice recordings were transcribed into word documents and this, together with handwritten notes taken during the interviews, constituted the source of data that were then analysed (saunders & lewis, 2012). data recording and analysis the researcher used a thematic analysis approach. thematic analysis is defined as the clustering or categorising of method with the objective of finding patterns in the data (braun & clarke, 2006). the purpose of the thematic analysis is to use the patterns that emerged to answer the research questions. a thematic analysis approach is ideally suited to questions that can be answered through experiences, expert opinions and views of respondents (saunders & lewis, 2012). data from the recordings were transcribed and analysed to determine common patterns and trends across all the conducted interviews. key themes were identified using atlas.ti version 8, and data were transformed into a workable format in the form of relationship diagrams. the researchers avoided using a ranking system so that no theme was viewed as more significant than another (clarke & braun, 2016). data validity with reference to the research strategy, semi-structured interviews were used. the researcher was guided on structure by the literature and allowed for open-ended questions. because of the nature of this, the data collected will have validity, which is described as the extent to which the questions and measures accurately represent the concept (zikmund, babin, carr, & griffin, 2013). the literature review aspect of the research was also expected to identify whether there are any missed themes or gaps that should have emerged in literature, where previous researchers have suggested further research to be carried out. the guidance the literature review provided further demonstrated content validity (zikmund et al., 2013). a recent study conducted by shuck et al. (2017) revealed three sub-factors of employee engagement (i.e. cognitive, emotional and behavioural) as higher-order factors for employee engagement. the study conferred the employee engagement scale as valid and reliable. the researcher used these constructs found in the literature to ensure that the semi-structured interviews were conducted through an employee engagement lens and to probe respondents where necessary. data reliability reliability refers to the data collection and analysis being consistently accurate regardless of source (saunders & lewis, 2012). the researcher aimed to interview five field experts and 15 employees across five different organisations but, owing to sufficient resources, managed to interview six organisations, eight experts and 15 employees. ethical consideration this article followed all ethical standards for carrying out a research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. results the results presented are based on the themes that emerged from the qualitative analysis. the themes provide insights into why companies in south africa decide to implement fwas, the employee engagement benefit organisations recognise from implementing fwas, employees’ lived experiences of fwa and finally drawbacks and improvements of fwas for promoting employee engagement. results for research question 1: why do companies in south africa choose to implement flexible work arrangements? five constructs emerged from analysing the expert interview responses. cost saving associated with the implementation of flexible work arrangements all eight experts interviewed reported that there was an element of practicality around their decision to implement fwas. the practicality of what fwas allow was mentioned throughout the interview process even though this was not the primary motivation for all six organisations. two experts recognised an additional cost saving, such as utility usage, from having employees work remotely. five out of the six organisations had implemented a form of agile working spaces and used ‘hot desks’ as a means to accommodate more employees than available desks. the implementation of ‘hot desks’, where employees do not have a permanent workspace, allowed the respective organisations to save on costs associated with office space and, as a result, be able to employ more human capital than what the office could physically accommodate. flexible work arrangements perceived as a global trend and a new way of doing business the majority of the subject matter experts recognised that implementing fwas was the direction in which business was moving. five of the experts described the trend as an imperative to remain relevant as an organisation and believed that fwas are perceived as necessary for an organisation to remain attractive to employees. four of the experts mentioned how technology has enabled organisations to shift from traditional ways of communication towards modern forms of mobile communication, such as cell phones, laptops, online communication platforms and access to teleconference resources. the notion of employees being measured on output as opposed to the number of hours worked was a recurring theme shared by all of the experts interviewed. the experts interviewed noted that time spent in the office has become an outdated method by which to measure productivity. the experts shared the views that employee performance should be measured based on their output and performance, further suggesting that hours worked and time in the office is both an intangible and irrelevant measure. companies recognising employee needs and how flexible work arrangements accommodate these needs the overall consensus from the eight experts was that employee needs have become increasingly important as the concept of employee engagement has gained traction. experts also commented that in order to have happier and more engaged employees, companies need to take steps to look after their employees from a physical and psychological health perspective. it also became apparent that there was an overlap between responses referring to the catering to employee needs and the attraction and retention of talent. an evident theme was how organisations have recognised that employees differ in their approach to work and that one method of management cannot accommodate all individuals. recognising that employees are all individuals with different approaches and needs, the experts suggested that providing flexibility is essential to meet the needs of each employee. companies using flexible work arrangements to cater for millennials one of the reasons for implementing fwas was that organisations have recognised that different generations have different preferences and views when it comes to work. four of the eight experts mentioned that part of their decision to implement fwas within their organisation was because of the working demands of millennials. with regard to catering to younger generations, particular emphasis was placed on fostering a culture that encourages agility and innovation. interviewees echoed these views by stating that organisations that wish to be disruptive and innovative need to promote a work environment and create a culture around flexibility. companies recognising flexible work arrangements as a necessity to attract and retain talent the importance of providing fwas to attract and retain talent was highlighted as significant. experts felt that fwas are something employees have started to place significant value on. therefore, it is important to offer fwas as a part of an organisation’s value proposition as the employees place an increasing value on work–life balance. an important factor stressed by three of the experts was the necessity to remain relevant as an employer and that fwas allow employees to see the organisation as remaining relevant. results for research question 2: what perceived employee engagement benefits do organisations recognise from implementing flexible work arrangements? the aim of research question 2 was to understand the company’s perspective regarding perceived benefits of fwas associated with employee engagement. the views of the eight experts from the six organisations were analysed to develop the three constructs discussed below. higher engagement recognised from implementing flexible work arrangements three of the experts reported that fwas in their companies had a direct impact on an employee’s engagement. the experts also had a level of involvement in the rollout of employee engagement surveys and, although results cannot be directly attributed, they were confident that a relationship existed between offering fwas and employee engagement results. within one of the organisations, employee engagement surveys were conducted before and after the implementation of fwas, and the company representative attributed improvements, in part, to the implementation of fwas. another company expert emphasised the relationship between employee well-being and employee engagement and productivity. yet another interviewee explained the association between employee happiness and engagement levels, as well as increased output. the view shared by most of the experts was that there is a close relationship between employee happiness, well-being and their level of engagement and output. improvement in employees’ mental state and well-being when experts were asked regarding the benefits of implementing fwas, one of the major themes that emerged was the improved mental state that employees demonstrated. all of the experts mentioned that they had observed benefits that fwas have provided to employees. happiness was a construct supported by the majority of experts. the experts felt that fwas allow employees the autonomy to balance their own lives, which in turn makes them happier. trust was identified as an important driver of employee morale. the experts interviewed believe that by offering fwas to employees, the organisation conveys a message of trust to the employees. this was identified as a key attributor to their morale. the construct that attracted most of the comments from all experts dealt with employee well-being. experts felt that there was a clear improvement in the well-being of employees when they were allowed to better balance their work and personal life. one interviewee reported that fwas have a significant impact on employees’ stress levels and that, by offering fwas, employees remained more relaxed and less tense in the office environment. experts found that avoiding traffic had a significant impact on employee stress levels and overall well-being. their observation was that traffic causes stress and also has a direct impact on productivity because of time wasted during peak hour traffic. many of the experts also found that fwas offered employees the option to follow healthier and more active lifestyles. they noted that prior to the implementation of fwas employees would complain that they were unable to exercise because they did not have enough flexibility in the mornings and evenings. improved employee performance four of the company experts contended that employees tended to deliver better results when being measured based on outputs as opposed to time worked in the office. there was also agreement that the quality of work that employees were delivering was of a higher standard. this was attributed to employees not feeling rushed to finish at a certain time but rather being able to balance their working hours and focus on tasks. the notion recognising the fact that employees are also productive under different circumstances was taken into account and experts felt that providing flexibility allowed employees to maximise their productivity based on self-management practices. there was consensus from all the experts interviewed that having fwas promotes the culture of being output-focused. employees were held more accountable for their work when they were measured based on their output. it was an element of ‘we don’t care how and when you work, as long as the work gets done’. apart from improved productivity by being more output-focused, experts also felt that the traditional way of managing employees resulted in a lot of unproductive time because employees were measured based on intangible outcomes, such as arrival and departure times. another key concept that emerged was that employees were willing to give more to the organisation if they felt that the organisation was giving them something. experts noted that, by providing fwas, employees did not work any less but actually worked longer hours because there was no stipulated start and finish time in their day. experts also noted that there was a form of psychological contract where employees would give discretionary effort back to the organisation as a means of showing appreciation. results for research question 3: what are employees’ lived experiences of flexible work arrangements (through an employee engagement lens)? three constructs emerged from analysing the employee interview responses. work–life balance when employees were asked what their feelings and thoughts were about fwas, the most common theme that emerged was that they were able to balance their work with their personal life. all 15 employees agreed that fwas allowed them the flexibility to balance their personal lives with their working arrangements. examples provided by the interviewees included the ability to balance work and family conflict, such as fetching their children from school and spending time with them in the evening before they go to sleep. a common arrangement amongst parents was that they would get home earlier to spend time with their children and then work in the evenings after their children have gone to sleep. another example was related to reduced commute times. this was especially common amongst the employees who worked in densely populated areas, such as johannesburg and sandton. employees felt that avoiding traffic affected their day in terms of their mood and productivity. there were also many employees who mentioned how they manage to become more active with the use of fwas and many mentioned how they were able to go to gym in the morning or, in cases where fwas were more intensified, employees would go to the gymnasium during the day and then return to work. these employees felt that exercise during the day stimulated their thinking and increased their productivity. contrary to the majority of respondents, a few employees felt that working from home actually decreased their work–life balance because they struggled to differentiate work from personal time. one employee recognised the benefits of working remotely but felt that one of the downsides was that they started working longer hours because they did not know when to stop working. employees noted that although remote working had no definite start and finish time, the benefits outweighed the negatives, but it was something to become more cognisant about and that self-management strategies needed to be put in place to ensure there was a balance. employee morale employees also felt that having fwas made them enjoy working at the company. the main reason for this was that employees felt less stressed and happier and they also noted the same for their colleagues, which made for a more pleasant office environment. in addition to the importance of fwas for employees, many of the respondents referred to the fact that offering fwas reflected very positively on the company. most employees mentioned that they would be sceptical about companies that did not offer fwas as it sends a message that they are rigid in their thinking and lack trust in their employees. employees mentioned that they would not like to work for an organisation that did not portray flexibility or trust and they felt companies that do not offer fwas are not forward looking. productivity employees found that having fwas allowed them to be much more productive for numerous reasons. employees who reported into regional offices also found that having fwas seemed sensible, as their reporting lines were not in the same geographic regions and in some cases even in different time zones as a result of their direct reports being based in different countries. there was, therefore, a practical aspect associated with fwas. employees felt that all individuals were different and that they were able to use their preferences of working to be most productive. this is because fwas helped to cater to different individual preferences. some employees felt that they were more productive at different times of the day, as well as being more productive in different places. one employee mentioned that his job required a great deal of creative thinking and that they are most creative when they are in a comfortable environment, such as their holiday house or working from a coffee shop. the idea of individualism was common amongst the employees interviewed and there was consensus that everybody works differently. the majority of employees who had the option of working from home felt that they were more productive than when they worked remotely. a common view of employees was that the office can be very distracting. all of the companies used in the study had a form of agile workspaces and the office setups were mostly open. employees complained that open-plan offices have far too many distractions and can be very noisy, prohibiting productivity. a shared view of open offices was that it was difficult to focus on single tasks for long periods of time because of distractions and informal meetings taking place. there was also a temptation to socialise in the office. socialising in the office had perceived advantages, such as interdepartmental communication, but the disadvantage is that employees struggled to buckle down and get work done when deadlines were close. results for research question 4: what are some of the drawbacks of flexible work arrangements and how can flexible work arrangements be improved to promote employee engagement? this research question used the views of both the experts and the employees within the six chosen companies. the research question was differentiated into two parts. the first part of the question referred to the drawbacks associated with fwas and the second part refers to practical recommendations as to how fwas can be improved to promote employee engagement. part a: drawbacks of flexible work arrangements abuse of the flexible work arrangements policy: employees and experts were asked about the question of what some of the negatives associated with fwas were, to which the majority replied some form of abuse of the policy from their colleagues. most of the employees mentioned examples of where they have seen people take advantage of the policy and the effects that had on other people within the organisation. employees indicated that the fwas policy resulted in the comparison of who was working more and who was merely taking advantage of the policy. this created internal conflict, especially when work performance was negatively affected, and colleagues were ‘dropping the ball’. employees felt animosity towards their colleagues who abused the policy because they felt that they gave the policy a bad name and attached an unwanted stigma to it. a concern for the experts was that if they revoked the policy for those abusing it, they would become more disengaged. flexible work arrangements resulting in a breakdown of communication within the organisation a major drawback that was prevalent in the interviews was that fwas tended to restrict prompt communication within the organisation. employees noted that they often had difficulty getting work done when they were reliant on other employees who were using the fwas. team members’ working times and working spaces were misaligned and this caused challenges when projects required the input of various employees. many other employees agreed that it was imperative that everyone made a conscious effort to communicate with their team members at all times in order for fwas to be effective and not disruptive. one employee felt that fwas started changing the culture of the organisation in a negative way. the employee felt that the breakdown in communication came from the belief that the organisation was becoming too informal and that professionalism was lost because of this mind shift in the organisation. perceived fairness of the flexible work arrangements policy a further drawback, expressed by the subject matter experts and the employees of the organisations, was the fairness of the policy. inconsistency in the use and execution of the policy resulted in employees feeling demotivated and, in some cases, gave rise to resentment towards other employees and the organisation. the experts felt that the fwas policy was difficult to manage because much of it comprised informal arrangements made between managers and employees. the result of this was that there was a lack of coherency throughout the organisation. experts who implemented fwas also mentioned a challenge in the form of not being able to force the managers to adopt the practice and that it depended on their style of working. by having an incoherent policy, experts found that employees would compare their working arrangements with their peers in other departments and feel disappointed when they came to learn that they had less flexibility in their respective departments. one of the notable themes that emerged was that fwas cannot be applicable to the whole organisation because of the impracticality of the policy in certain functions of the business. an example of customer-facing roles, such as the customer services or sales teams, was noted as functions that needed to be available during certain hours for practical purposes. it was found that employees who did not receive these fwas, did not understand why they were excluded from the policy because the policy was not well defined and did not detail who can or cannot access or use the policy. technology readiness a drawback noted by the experts and employees was that technology was a prohibiting factor for the successful implementation of fwas. many of the employees complained that remote meetings were not very effective. employees felt that physical presence in meetings was more effective than employees trying to dial in remotely. the majority of employees felt that the standard of technology did not enable fruitful meetings because of poor sound quality. part b: improving flexible work arrangements to promote employee engagement part b of research question 4 aimed to provide practical solutions for the improvement of fwas, to promote employee engagement. three constructs were identified as elements that can assist in improving fwas to promote employee engagement. defining and communicating the flexible work arrangements policy one of the major challenges, which were mentioned in part a of research question 4, was that employees felt that the fwas policy was poorly defined. as a result, there was the perception that the policy is unfair and biased. experts and employees suggested that the policy would be implemented and perceived better by adopting transparency. the consensus was that if the policy was better defined there would be no room for misinterpretation, and it would address the concerns around fairness. in five out of the six organisations, the policy had a large element to it which was informal and left to the discretion of line managers who implemented the policy. the researchers found that participants were also not sure what the policy was and who they could approach about using the policy. receiving the buy-in from leadership and management the majority of experts and employees felt that fwas had failed in certain departments because the policy was not embraced by the organisation’s leadership team. one of the experts noted that the policy as a document is just one part of having fwas in an organisation. this was a common view of both the experts and employees. flexible work arrangement policies rely on line managers encouraging the use of the policies. many of the experts also felt that there needed to be a culture shift to adopt this practice and the only way that was attainable was by having the leadership of the company fully support and model the policy. resistance to change was a construct that continuously repeated itself when interviewing the experts. most of the experts were responsible for the implementation of the policy and they noted their biggest challenge was the resistance to adopt the policy by the management team. in one of the companies, it was noted that many of the managers in the organisation were not convinced about the effectiveness of the policy and that made it very difficult for the employees within their teams to comfortably make use of the policy. the expert attributed the lack of buy-in to biases that managers had about the policy. in order to successfully implement fwas, a trust relationship had to be instilled between managers and their employees. improved communication within the organisation the majority of experts and employees said that there needs to be improved communication within the organisation so that fwas do not compromise work being completed and avoid negative effects related to team dynamics and a delay in execution of work. most of the companies used in the study also noted that they have implemented ‘core hours’ to promote physical meetings within the office. core hours are defined as times, generally between 10:00 and 15:00, whereby employees need to be in the office so that they are available for meetings. communication between the manager and employee was noted as essential for fwas to be successful. employees should inform their managers and their colleagues as to where they are and when they are available. respondents expressed the importance of an open path of communication between a manager and an employee so that the employee’s personal circumstances can be understood and catered for by the manager and as a result the organisation can get the most out of that employee. discussion why do companies in south africa choose to implement flexible work arrangements? the data from the interviews suggest that a major incentive for companies to implement fwas involves the costs associated with office space and utility consumption. companies noted that office space has become a significant expense as the company expands and noted the impracticalities of having to move offices or redesign office space as they grow. flexible work arrangements were, therefore, perceived as a solution to extend staff without having to expand office space. this study investigated what employee’s thoughts were regarding why their organisation offers them fwas. the results indicated that employees who felt that fwas were granted because ‘the company cares’ had a more positive attitude towards the organisation when compared to employees who felt the organisation offered fwas purely as a profit-driven initiative. another feature of the results was the observation that companies have recognised that, in order to remain competitive, they need to attract and retain the best talent available (chabowski & mena, 2017). as a result, companies globally have started exploring ways to become more appealing to employees by implementing flexible working arrangements to encourage autonomy and work–life balance. research has highlighted a positive relationship between organisational support practices and employee performance (caesens et al., 2016; kurtessis et al., 2017). respondents in the research noted that fwas have become a popular practice. they also recognised many leading organisations as examples of companies who have high employee engagement and high-performing employees. a common reference that respondents used as a good example of flexible working and happy employees was ‘google’. gillett (2016) noted that one of the reasons the global giant ‘google’ has such a good reputation and is considered as one of the best companies to work for is because of their holistic view on flexible working. the results also found that organisations believed that output-based management has become a more effective management tool as opposed to traditional methods of judging employee performance. zeijen et al. (2018) mentioned that organisations have started to be more output focused and have incorporated self-management practices to encourage a more dynamic and decentralised approach to work. a common motive for organisations to implement a flexible work arrangement policy is to assist employees to better balance their time between work and their personal situations (chen & fulmer, 2017). kurtessis et al. (2017) argued that organisations cannot afford to ignore employees’ needs, as the results could be detrimental to the business. ignoring the needs of employees can cause significant loss in talent and result in high absenteeism (kurtessis et al., 2017). in the interviews, frequent mention was made about the fact that organisations need to cater to the needs of millennials. literature suggests that employee needs are changing and younger generations entering the working environment are not only motivated by monetary rewards but a balanced life has become an expectation (lyons & kuron, 2014). thompson et al. (2015) stated that younger generations prefer more autonomy and are more inclined to blend work and personal time at their own discretion. lyons and kuron (2014) suggested that millennials have become more demanding about having flexibility in their work. allen et al. (2013) went as far as saying that fwas were designed for younger generations entering the work environment. companies strive to achieve a competitive advantage by attracting and retaining the best talent. a primary reason companies decided to implement fwas was to remain relevant in the eyes of current and prospective employees. organisations recognised the fight for talent and mentioned that if you are not moving with the times and giving employees what they want, then they will simply leave. organisations therefore found fwas to form a part of their value proposition and all the experts interviewed demonstrated pride in the fact that their organisation offered fwas. the research found that experts and employees believe that fwas portray much about a company’s culture and values, which is a key factor in retaining and attracting talent. what perceived employee engagement benefits do organisations recognise from implementing flexible work arrangements? when the interviewees were asked whether fwas could be linked to improved employee engagement, there was a broad agreement that there were engagement benefits to be derived from implementing fwas. the views of three of the experts interviewed revealed that there was a direct relationship between fwas and employee engagement. the experts felt that after implementing fwas they were able to see the impact in their employee engagement survey results. however, two of the experts noted that there are too many other variables that impact the surveys and an increase in the employee engagement survey scores cannot be directly attributed to fwas. part of the justification the researchers used to conduct qualitative research was that it would be difficult to quantify a relationship between the two researched constructs based on various other factors that may have an impact on employee engagement survey results. timms et al. (2015) agreed that a limitation in quantifying the relationship between fwas and employee engagement is the external factor which can influence the perceived relationship. most of the experts agreed that there is a relationship between fwas and an employee’s engagement. many of the experts did not necessarily state a direct relationship but they suggested a knock-on effect whereby fwas impacted antecedents of employee engagement, such as employees’ happiness and well-being. the notion of employee happiness and employee well-being having an influence on employee engagement is widely supported in the literature (agarwal & gupta, 2018; bailey et al., 2017; shuck et al., 2017; zhong et al., 2015). the link between fwas and employee well-being was also discussed by interviewees. the experts interviewed found various benefits related to overall employees’ state of mind and well-being. benefits observed by the experts included employees’ happiness, their attitudes, energy levels, creativity, health, stress levels and sense of empowerment. employee well-being was a constant point mentioned by all of the experts interviewed. the experts found that fwas were a successful tool in allowing employees to improve their overall well-being associated with work–life balance and self-management. during the interview process, the experts noted that by offering employees fwas they saw an improvement in their attitude towards their work. they also noted that they found employees to be less stressed at work. this view is supported in literature by bakker and demerouti (2007). when asked about what employee performance benefits they recognised from implementing fwas, the majority stated that there was a positive relationship between giving employees the autonomy to carry out their work and their productivity and quality of their work. an increase in performance related to employees’ productivity, quality of work and internal and external customer satisfaction was mentioned. the notion that employees were more productive when given the option of having flexibility was based on the opinion that all employees are different, and they are all unique in when and where they are most productive. experts found that by providing fwas they could accommodate for different employee working styles. christian et al. (2011) found that self-management resulted in higher engagement and discretionary effort. literature also suggests that engagement increases with perceived autonomy (llorens, schaufeli, bakker, & salanova, 2007). the study found that there is an increase in productivity for the majority of employees; however, the experts did point out that there are employees who abuse the policy, and this naturally results in a decrease in employee performance. overall, the study found that productivity increased when employees used fwas. gajendran and harrison (2007) found that fwas are positively associated with increased productivity and employee attitudes. what are employees’ lived experiences of flexible work arrangements? the most prevalent theme emerging from the interviews with employees was that they experienced a better work–life balance as a result of fwas. employees gave various examples of how they were better able to balance their work–life by having fwas; these included less time spent on commutation, more family time and more time to do personal activities such as going to the gym and running errands. non-monetary initiatives by employers, such as fwas, are becoming increasingly popular as they have been recognised as successful practices to help employees better balance their lives (zheng et al., 2015). employers mentioned that fwas need to work in conjunction with other policies that help employees maintain a work–life balance, such as providing fitness facilities and health days. many of the employees interviewed said that fwas have allowed them to decrease their commute times, which was mentioned as a source of stress and lower productivity because of time wasted in traffic. this view is supported by the literature which states that commute times are found to result in stress (zhou et al., 2017) and absenteeism (van ommeren & gutierrez-i-puigarnau, 2011). some researchers have argued that fwas can negatively impact work–life balance because employees are unable to differentiate between work and personal time, especially when working from home (hill et al., 2003) and that working from home can increase stress (schmidt & neubach, 2007). only two employees out of the 15 interviewed felt that, by working from home, work–family conflict increased because they were not able to distance themselves from their work as there was technically no start and finish time. the results revealed that employees suggested that working from home requires discipline not only to perform their work but to know when to stop working. in addition to the positive impact on work–life balance, the study also found that morale also improved as a result of fwas: employees felt trusted and respected by their organisations. the majority of employees also reported that by offering fwas their organisation was practising its values. employees felt empowered when they were granted the autonomy to perform their work. one of the main facts that emerged from the data was the construct of trust. employees explained how they tend to feel more appreciated and motivated when their employer shows them trust through their fwas and, conversely, employees felt that being micromanaged showed a lack of trust which demotivated and disengaged them. chen and fulmer (2017) found that fwas promoted trust within employees, which results in more motivated and harder working employees. hill et al. (2003) also suggested that by showing employees trust, employee morale and motivation improve. employees also felt that they were more productive as a result of fwas. the reasons for increased productivity were related to less distraction when working from home, being able to work at times that they are most productive and having less work–family conflict that allowed them to be more focused on their work. another key concept that the results showed was that employees were more willing to put in extra effort in exchange for the flexibility shown by the organisation. this is referred to as discretionary effort in the literature, a primary output of employee engagement (agarwal & gupta, 2018; bailey et al., 2017; brunetto et al., 2012; rich et al., 2010; saks, 2006; shuck et al., 2017; zhong et al., 2015). drawbacks associated with flexible work arrangements one of the potential problems associated with offering fwas to employees is employees taking advantage of the policy and misusing the flexibility being offered. abuse of the policy included employees starting late and leaving early, employees claiming to work from home when undertaking personal activities and employees not achieving their work assignments as a result of not spending the necessary time on work activities. the abuse of the policy seemed to be the exception rather than the norm. the experts interviewed found it difficult to manage employees who were abusing the policy and suggested that revoking the flexibility for all would not be fair and taking it away from the individual would result in resentment and disengagement. a constant fact that was presented was that if the policy was better defined there would be no grey areas whereby employees could take advantage of the flexible arrangements provided. a concern raised by some employees was that communication had suffered as a consequence of colleagues having fwas. some concerns noted by employees were that their colleagues were unavailable for meetings and it was difficult to meet deadlines when relying on colleagues who were availing fwas. the results also showed that fwas often had a negative impact on the team dynamic, especially where communication was poor. this was often owing to the use of unreliable methods of technology to compensate for not being physically present in the office. timms et al. (2015) suggested that organisations implementing flexible working strategies need to ensure effective two-way communication to avoid a breakdown in communication within organisations. concerns were raised by the interviewees related to the perceived fairness of fwas. flexible work arrangements were at times implemented at the manager’s discretion and this could result in inconsistency across different managers and departments. the result of the inconsistency was that employees started comparing themselves to one another and questioning why some employees had more flexibility than others. the notion of favouritism was a concern raised by employees and it could result in feelings of injustice and resentment, ultimately causing employees to become disengaged with their work. perceived fairness was also largely impacted by the company’s culture and resistance to change. a number of employees noted that the culture of the organisation and perceptions of many managers did not support the notion of fwas. hegtvedt, clay-warner and ferrigno (2002) support the conception that a perceived lack of fairness around fwas results in resentment amongst employees. the study showed that employees who did not receive fwas were resentful to those who had fwas and as a result were less engaged. a further potential drawback of fwas was related to technology. inadequate technology readiness was closely associated with the breakdowns in communication. the study revealed that poor technology capabilities as a result of poor internet connectivity and inadequate telecommunications application software resulted in ineffective remote communication. it also showed that employees in more technically demanding roles that required the use of advanced software were unable to work remotely when connectivity to the local network was unavailable. experts and managers also noted that technology was a key enabler of successfully implementing fwas. a significant investment into enablers such as laptops and mobile data connectivity was imperative to successfully implement fwas. this finding is not prominent in the literature with the assumption that more developed countries, such as the united states, may be more technologically advanced. how flexible work arrangements can be improved to promote employee engagement? findings from the research suggest that companies that had poorly defined fwas were not successful in implementing fwas and as a result were not recognising its benefits. it also found that the arrangements were generally at the discretion of managers. a poorly defined policy also had an effect on the management process of fwas and the fairness of how the policy could be used and who was allowed to use the policy. to remove the bias associated with fwas, it was found that the policy needed to be more openly discussed. the study found that employees who had open communication about their personal circumstances with their managers and received well-defined fwas showed much higher levels of engagement than those employees who did not have this same level of openness and understanding with their managers. the study also found that it was imperative for managers to have a good understanding of the fwas policy and understand why the organisation has the policy. an organisation needs to foster a culture that encourages acceptance of the policy. unless the policy is embraced, inconsistencies and biases will remain, which will result in poor implementation and adoption by employees. literature has supported the notion that embracing the policy through an enabling culture is important (timms et al., 2015). literature has further supported the study’s findings by emphasising the importance of a two-way communication amongst managers and employees (timms et al., 2015). respondents emphasised the importance of management buying into the notion of fwas. the support from the leadership team was noted as essential for fwas to effectively drive employee engagement. the study found that fwas were often nothing more than a policy and that the lack of acceptance by management meant that the policy was more ‘lip service’ than actually becoming a part of the organisation’s culture and way of working. the study also found that having fwas in isolation was not an effective strategy to promote employee engagement. the study suggests that organisations need to incorporate other supportive practices and foster an agile working culture to successfully improve employee engagement. respondents noted that for companies to fully achieve the positive effects of fwas, improved communication was necessary. the study found that fwas are a relatively new arrangement and employees are often poorly equipped to communicate effectively without being physically present in the office. the study suggests that communication tools should be enhanced within organisations offering fwas. these tools include better use of information sharing platforms, which allow team members to be aware of one another’s working arrangements, as well as the overall improvement in etiquette related to informing one another about deadlines and attendance of meetings. the study also found that fwas’ success was highly dependent on line managers successfully managing the policy. the study found that the onus was on the managers to make fwas a success. without managers having good relationships with their employees, knowing what fwas they require and creating a psychological contract with their employees around the appropriate use of fwas, the practice would be a failure. conclusion the research set out to explore the influence of fwas on employee engagement. the study can be summarised into three main areas. the first area deals with the necessity for organisations to implement fwas. the researchers found five main reasons for why organisations in south africa have started implementing fwas. the reasons can be summarised into an overarching construct: that the business landscape is changing, and employee needs have become an important element for businesses to remain competitive (chabowski & mena, 2017). the second area of this study examined the employee engagement benefits to be gained from implementing fwas. the benefits associated with fwas can be summarised as work arrangements that impact positively overall employee well-being, a precondition for employee engagement (agarwal & gupta, 2018; bailey et al., 2017; brunetto et al., 2017; zhong et al., 2015). furthermore, fwas can promote employee productivity, which is a recognised outcome of employee engagement (kahn & heaphy, 2014). lastly, this study identified some of the drawbacks of fwas which included breakdowns in communication and a lack of fairness, which can result in various negative outcomes. a primary objective of the research was to provide practical recommendations to practitioners by understanding some of the drawbacks of fwas and to identify ways of improving fwas in order to promote employee engagement. through the conduction of a gap analysis, the research was able to identify drawbacks of fwas that were not recognised in the literature. most of the literature was based on quantitative studies that sought to find whether a relationship exists between fwas and constructs of employee engagement. these did not tend towards prioritising the drawbacks and seeking improvements for the practical implementation of fwas. the study found that poor management of fwas can have important negative effects on the business, including breakdown in communication and abuse of the policy by employees. the perceived fairness of the policy was found to be crucial in the successful implementation of the policy. literature advocates fairness as a prerequisite for employee well-being and engagement (caesens et al., 2016). it was further found that the readiness of technology as an enabler to remote working was overlooked by organisations implementing the practice. a proposed framework the aim of this study was to understand the influence of fwas on employee engagement but, more so, to understand why the relationship exists, what causes the relationship and how it can be improved to promote employee engagement. the framework below has been created as a summary and conceptualisation of the findings from the research (see figure 2). figure 2: flexible work arrangements framework. the framework has three key criteria for the successful implementation and management of fwas. the first criterion is to define and communicate the policy. this research found that poorly defined policies within organisations offering fwas resulted in a distorted perception of fairness. furthermore, employees showed disengagement when they did not have access to the policy without understanding the reason why. the research also proposes that a poorly defined policy was open to misinterpretation which resulted in some employees abusing the policy. by defining the policy well, employees also recognised that the organisation cares about them and supports them, which was found to be a key driver of employee engagement. core working hours should also be clearly communicated so that there is no misunderstanding around start and finish times and no breakdown in team meetings. the second criterion for successfully implementing fwas is to receive the buy-in from management. one of the biggest prohibiting factors found, which hampers employee engagement, was the lack of buy-in from management into the policy. it is essential for companies to fully embrace the policy and further have the company’s leadership team model the policy. biases need to be removed from the policy and this could be done by training managers about the policy and how to manage the policy. for fwas to be truly effective, the change needs to be embraced and biases need to be removed so that employees do not end up with feelings of guilt, resentment and reluctance to use the policy. these are all detrimental to employee engagement. the third criterion for implementing and managing fwas involves creating an enabling environment. based on the evidence found in the research, it is strongly suggested that an enabling culture is needed for fwas to effectively drive employee engagement. the environment should include practical factors. these include ensuring the necessary technology is available for employees to work remotely, ensuring the availability of communication platforms and, lastly, ensuring supporting practices are in place to compliment fwas. these supporting practices include agile workspaces, health promoting initiatives and a supportive working environment. the three criteria mentioned in the framework were found to positively affect various enablers of employee engagement, such as employee well-being, employees’ perception of fairness and support by the organisation, employees’ work–life balance, happiness and morale and their levels of job satisfaction. the successful management of fwas was also found to have a direct impact on employee engagement outcomes, such as productivity, talent attraction and retention, discretionary effort and organisational commitment. practical implications this research has proposed practical ways in which practitioners can successfully manage and implement fwas to promote employee engagement. the research has recognised that fwas have an influence on various constructs of employee engagement, which has become a necessary driver for businesses to gain a competitive advantage and enhance performance outcomes. the research has also uncovered gaps in the literature, which have been operationalised in the form of a framework to guide practitioners in successfully improving employee engagement within their organisations. the implications for business can be highlighted as follows: implementing fwas has become a necessity for organisations to save costs, cater for employees’ needs, attract and retain talent, and cater to variations in employees’ generational demands. flexible work arrangements are successful tools to promote employee well-being, which is necessary for employee engagement to proceed. employees recognise organisational support and autonomy as a sign of trust and respect and are more likely to display discretionary effort and commitment to the organisation. organisations need to recognise that not all employees have the same response to traditional working environments and, based on this notion, companies need to use fwas to cater to different working styles in order for employees to produce their best results. perceived fairness by employees is a major element when implementing policies. organisations need to recognise that fwas in isolation are not enough to improve employee well-being and that a specific culture is necessary to recognise the effects of employee engagement. limitations to implement fwas can have negative outcomes. it is necessary for organisations to first ensure that structural enablers, such as technology, are in place. the buy-in into the policy is an imperative for the implementation of fwas. implementing fwas with poor buy-in from management results in resentment and disengagement of employees. furthermore, the policy needs to be modelled by leadership within the business to remove biases and negativity around the policy. limitations the limitations of the study can be noted as follows: the relatively small sample size limits the ability to generalise the findings to other contexts. the study only used organisations that offer fwas, which may have encouraged bias in the study. the research was limited to multinational organisations across six different industries. the majority of employees interviewed were professionals with tangible outcomes. the results may have shown higher levels of abuse and difficulty in implementing fwas with employees whose work is less tangibly measured. four out of the eight subject matter experts interviewed were responsible for the implementation of fwas and could, therefore, be seen as being less objective. organisations used in the study had the reputation for already having high employee engagement and the effects of fwas could be somewhat distorted by other enabling cultural elements of employee engagement. suggestions for future research throughout the data-gathering process, the researchers noted potential themes emerging which were outside of the scope of research. these are, therefore, suggested as potential future research. there is little empirical evidence around different generational views of fwas. this qualitative study suggests that millennials value fwas significantly more than older generations; however, further research is required in this regard. the researchers found that women were perceived to value fwas more than men. further research around gender preferences to fwas will help better understand the value that different genders place on work–family conflict and fwas. the research was limited to organisations offering fwas and more focused on the positive effects of fwas. future research may reveal that there are many more drawbacks associated with fwas and it may be of value to study companies that do not have fwas and understand why they have decided not to implement the practice. the research found that open plan offices tended to disrupt employees. further research is required to understand the effects that open plan offices have on employee productivity and engagement. the literature has found varying results around the influence of fwas on employee engagement. this study has concluded that fwas have a positive influence on various constructs of employee engagement, with the most prevalent finding being that fwas promote employee well-being, which was observed as a key enabler of employee engagement. the research further recognised various gaps in the literature with regard to the drawbacks of fwas and further managed to create a framework which highlights the necessary criteria and climate needed to implement and manage fwas to promote employee engagement. the research has, therefore, not only contributed to the literature by supporting the notion of fwas influencing employee engagement, but also intends to contribute to the practice of management through the use of the ‘flexible work arrangements’ framework by managers and leaders who are trying to improve employee engagement through the advancement of flexible working practices. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions m.w. undertook the research under the supervision of prof. k.b. hofmeyr. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references agarwal, u., & gupta, v. (2018). relationships between job characteristics, work engagement, conscientiousness and managers’ turnover intentions. personnel review, 47(2), 353–377. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-09-2016-0229 allen, t., johnson, r., kiburz, k., & shockley, k. (2013). work-family conflict and flexible work arrangements: deconstructing flexibility. personnel psychology, 66(2), 345–376. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12012 bailey, c., madden, a., alfes, k., & fletcher, l. (2017). the meaning, antecedents and outcomes of employee engagement: a narrative synthesis. international journal of management reviews, 19(1), 31–53. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12077 bakker, a., & demerouti, e. (2007). the job demands-resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22(3), 309–328. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 bal, p., & de lange, a. (2014). from flexibility human resource management to employee engagement and perceived job performance across the lifespan: a multi sample study. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 88(1), 126–154. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12082 beigi, m., shirmohammadi, m., & stewart, j. (2018). flexible work arrangements and work–family conflict: a meta synthesis of qualitative studies among academics. human resource development review, 17(3), 314–336. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484318787628 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa brunetto, y., teo, s., shacklock, k., & farr-wharton, r. (2012). emotional intelligence, job satisfaction, well-being and engagement: explaining organisational commitment and turnover intentions in policing. human resource management journal, 22(4), 428–441. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2012.00198.x burke, r., & ng, e. (2006). the changing nature of work and organizations: implications for human resource management. human resource management review, 16(2), 86–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2006.03.006 caesens, g., marique, g., hanin, d., & stinglhamber, f. (2016). the relationship between perceived organizational support and proactive behaviour directed towards the organization. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 25(3), 398–411. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2015.1092960 casper, w., & harris, c. (2008). work-life benefits and organizational attachment: self-interest utility and signaling theory models. journal of vocational behavior, 72(1), 95–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2007.10.015 chabowski, b., & mena, j. (2017). a review of global competitiveness research: past advances and future directions. journal of international marketing, 25(4), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1509/jim.16.0053 chen, y., & fulmer, i. (2017). fine-tuning what we know about employees’ experience with flexible work arrangements and their job attitudes. human resource management, 57(1), 381–395. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21849 christian, m., garza, a., & slaughter, j. (2011). work engagement: a quantitative review and test of its relations with task and contextual performance. personnel psychology, 64(1), 89–136. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2010.01203.x clarke, v., & braun, v. (2016). thematic analysis. the journal of positive psychology, 12(3), 297–298. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2016.1262613 collis, j., & hussey, r. (2014). business research: a practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students (4th edn., p. 54). basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. cooper-thomas, h., xu, j., & m. saks, a. (2018). the differential value of resources in predicting employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 33(4/5), 326–344. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmp-12-2017-0449 denscombe, m. (2007). the good research guide for small scale research projects (3rd edn.). berkshire: open university press. dries, n., pepermans, r., & de kerpel, e. (2008). exploring four generations’ beliefs about career. journal of managerial psychology, 23(8), 907–928. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940810904394 gajendran, r., & harrison, d. (2007). the good, the bad, and the unknown about telecommuting: meta-analysis of psychological mediators and individual consequences. journal of applied psychology, 92(6), 1524–1541. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.6.1524 gallup, i. (2016). gallup q12® meta-analysis report. retrieved from http://news.gallup.com/reports/191489/q12-meta-analysis-report-2016.aspx gillett, r. (2016). 5 reasons google is the best place to work in america and no other company can touch it. retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/google-isthe-best-company-to-work-for-in-america-2016-4?ir=t gubrium, j., & holstein, j. (2001). handbook of interview research: context and method. thousand oaks, ca: sage. hammer, l., neal, m., newsom, j., brockwood, k., & colton, c. (2005). a longitudinal study of the effects of dual-earner couples’ utilization of family-friendly workplace supports on work and family outcomes. journal of applied psychology, 90(4), 799–810. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.90.4.799 hegtvedt, k., clay-warner, j., & ferrigno, e. (2002). reactions to injustice: factors affecting workers’ resentment toward family-friendly policies. social psychology quarterly, 65(4), 386. https://doi.org/10.2307/3090109 hill, e., ferris, m., & martinson, v. (2003). does it matter where you work? a comparison of how three work venues (traditional office, virtual office, and home office) influence aspects of work and personal/family life. journal of vocational behavior, 63(2), 220–241. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0001-8791(03)00042-3 iol business report. (2017). consequences of flexible working hours. retrieved n.d. from https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/careers/consequences-of-flexible-working-hours-9411450 kahn, w. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 33(4), 692–724. https://doi.org/10.5465/256287 kahn, w., & heaphy, e. (2014). relational contexts of personal engagement at work. in e. soane, a. shantz, k. alfes, r. delbridge & c. truss (eds.), employee engagement in theory and practice (pp. 15–17). new york, ny: routledge. kurtessis, j., eisenberger, r., ford, m., buffardi, l., stewart, k., & adis, c. (2017). perceived organizational support: a meta-analytic evaluation of organizational support theory. journal of management, 43(6), 1854–1884. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206315575554 leslie, l., manchester, c., park, t., & mehng, s. (2012). flexible work practices: a source of career premiums or penalties? academy of management journal, 55(6), 1407–1428. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.0651 llorens, s., schaufeli, w., bakker, a., & salanova, m. (2007). does a positive gain spiral of resources, efficacy beliefs and engagement exist? computers in human behavior, 23(1), 825–841. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2004.11.012 lyons, s., & kuron, l. (2014). generational differences in the workplace: a review of the evidence and directions for future research. journal of organizational behavior, 35(suppl 1), s139–s157. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1913 michel, j., kotrba, l., mitchelson, j., clark, m., & baltes, b. (2011). antecedents of work-family conflict: a meta-analytic review. journal of organizational behavior, 32(5), 689–725. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.695 rich, b., lepine, j., & crawford, e. (2010). job engagement: antecedents and effects on job performance. academy of management journal, 53(3), 617–635. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.51468988 saks, a. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169 saunders, m., & lewis, p. (2012). doing research in business and management: an essential guide to planning your project. harlow: pearson. schaufeli, w., & bakker, a. (2004). job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organizational behavior, 25(3), 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.248 schmidt, k., & neubach, b. (2007). self-control demands: a source of stress at work. international journal of stress management, 14(4), 398–416. https://doi.org/10.1037/10725245.14.4.398 shuck, b., adelson, j., & reio, t. (2017). the employee engagement scale: initial evidence for construct validity and implications for theory and practice. human resource management, 56(6), 953–977. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21811 skinner, n., & chapman, j. (2013). work-life balance and family friendly policies. evidence base, 2013(4), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.21307/eb-2013-002 sweet, s., pitt-catsouphes, m., & boone james, j. (2016). successes in changing flexible work arrangement use. work and occupations, 43(1), 75–109. https://doi.org/10.1177/0730888415595094 thompson, r., payne, s., & taylor, a. (2015). applicant attraction to flexible work arrangements: separating the influence of flextime and flexplace. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 88(4), 726–749. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12095 timms, c., brough, p., o’driscoll, m., kalliath, t., siu, o., sit, c., & lo, d. (2015). flexible work arrangements, work engagement, turnover intentions and psychological health. asia pacific journal of human resources, 53(1), 83–103. https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7941.12030 tomtom traffic index. (2016). retrieved n.d. from https://corporate.tomtom.com/static-files/5289c5aa-310c-4965-a4c0-516760a8a6fd towers watson. (2017). employee insights for a better employee experience: a panel discussion of companies leading the curve. retrieved from https://www.towerswatson.com/en-za/insights/newsletters/global/sustainablyengaged/2017/employee-insights-for-a-better-employee-experience van ommeren, j., & gutiérrez-i-puigarnau, e. (2011). are workers with a long commute less productive? an empirical analysis of absenteeism. regional science and urban economics, 41(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2010.07.005 world at work. (2015). trends in workplace flexibility. scottsdale, az. retrieved from https://www.worldatwork.org/da/10dc98de55/trends%20in%20workplace%20flexibility%20-%202015.pdf zeijen, m., peeters, m., & hakanen, j. (2018). workaholism versus work engagement and job crafting: what is the role of self-management strategies? human resource management journal, 28(2), 357–373. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12187 zheng, c., kashi, k., fan, d., molineux, j., & ee, m. (2015). impact of individual coping strategies and organisational work–life balance programmes on australian employee well-being. the international journal of human resource management, 27(5), 501–526. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1020447 zhong, l., wayne, s., & liden, r. (2015). job engagement, perceived organizational support, high-performance human resource practices, and cultural value orientations: a cross-level investigation. journal of organizational behavior, 37(6), 823–844. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2076 zhou, l., wang, m., chang, c., liu, s., zhan, y., & shi, j. (2017). commuting stress process and self-regulation at work: moderating roles of daily task significance, family interference with work, and commuting means efficacy. personnel psychology, 70(4), 891–922. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12219 zikmund, w.g., babin, b.j., carr, j.c., & griffin, m. (2013). business research methods. mason, oh: cengage. 4tloupart1.qxd many members of the public as well as members and employees in the military still see homosexual behaviour as incompatible with military service and a threat to the combat effectiveness of the military. people who are homosexual have been treated differently in most of the armed forces globally. bell and binnie (2002) writing on the gays and the military debate believe that the relationship between this debate and the wider question of sexual citizenship needs to be examined. they continue: at its simplest, of course, the argument is that denying homosexuals the right to fight for their country denies them full citizenship, given the continuing durability of the relationship between the citizen and the nation-state. this obviously sidesteps the crucial question of the legitimacy of such a strategy in the context of rights agitation. in the same manner as the debate on lesbian and gay marriage, the gays in the militar y debate is upheld by some as having a destabilizing, radical function: opening up one of the most heteronormative state institutions to homosexuals begins the task of undermining heteronormativity itself (emphasis added)(bell & binnie, 2002, p. 455). when south africa became a democratic country in 1994, a new constitution was introduced which is regarded as one the most liberal in the world. the bill of rights that is contained in chapter t wo of the constitution, is the cornerstone of democracy in south africa. it enshrines the rights of all people, including homosexuals, in our country and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom. according to the clause on equality, section 9 (3), “…the state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth”. it goes without saying that south african government departments including the department of defence (dod) had to align its departmental policies with the constitution of the country. the department of defense consequently drafted a code of good employment practice regarding sexual orientation in the workplace. the policy is now at an advanced stage of drafting and inputs are currently been awaited from local non-governmental organizations such as the gay and lesbian equality project. the south african military stands in sharp contrast to the military in both the usa’s and the uk’s ruling: “don’t ask, don’t tell. the south african department of defense acknowledges that homosexual people are an integral part of south african society and that they are only different in terms of their sexual preference. the dod also acknowledges that as an employer, it has members and employees of all sexual orientations. the dod’s code of good employment practice does not make any value judgment in this regard, but accepts differences in sexual orientation as a given. the code of good employment practice benedictor leah tlou willem schurink programme in leadership in performance and change in the department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract a are opportunity presented itself to undertake an explorative qualitative study of the perceptions and experiences of an authentic lesbian who was for some time an employee of the south african department of defence (dod). in order to capture, describe and reach an understanding of this woman’s experiences and worldviews, we employed a qualitative methodology, i.e. with her assistance an autobiographical sketch was constructed, and utilizing a variant of analytic induction (ai) and symbolic interactionism, we analysed and interpreted the material. according to qualitative requirements we provide in this article an account of the major steps taken during the execution of the case study. following the lowney-winslows ai approach (1981), we are convinced that our study provided one real case, which enhanced our intuitive understanding of lesbians working in the south african defence force. it namely served as a starting point for further research that could carry our case study on to a more formal implementation of ai, and particularly the execution of steps five through to seven. we feel convinced that the study was ethically properly and scientifically correctly executed and that it enabled us to obtain valuable and rich information on lesbianism and the south african military. for the benefit of the reader we present thando’s entire narrative. opsomming ’n unieke geleentheid het hom voorgedoen om ’n ekploratiewe kwalitatiewe studie van die persepsies en ervarings van ’n outentieke lesbiër wat vir ’n tyd lank werksaam was by die suid-afrikaanse departement van verdediging, te onderneem. ten einde die vrou se ondervindings en wêreldbeskouings vas te vang, te beskryf en ’n begrip daarvan op te bou, het ons ’n kwalitatiewe methodology benut, dit is, met die samewerking van die vrou, is ’n outobiografiese skets gekonstruuer, en het ons ’n vorm van analitiese induksie en simboliese interaksionisme benut. ooreenkomstig die vereistes vir kwalitatiewe navorsing verskaf ons in hierdie artikel ’n uiteensetting van die vernaamste stappe wat in die uitvoer van die studie geneem is. in navolging van die lowney-winslows ai benadering (1981), is ons daarvan oortuig dat die studie een ware geval daarstel wat ’n spontane begrip van lesbiërs in die suidafrikaanse weermag aanmoedig. dit dien naamlik as ’n beginpunt vir verdere navorsing wat hierdie gevallestudie na ’n meer formele implementering van ai, en in die besonder, die uitvoering van stappe 5 tot 7 kan neem. ons voel oortuig daarvan dat die studie eties behoorlik en wetenskaplik verantwoordelik van staple gestuur is en dat dit ons waardevolle en ryke inligting omtrend lesbinisme en die suid-afrikaanse weermag bied. vir die gerief van die leser word thando se volledige verhaal aangebied. a gay woman’s experiences during her career in the department of defence part: 1 – fleet of hope requests for copies should be addressed to: bl tlou, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 24 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (3), 24-34 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (3), 24-34 a gay woman’s experiences – part 1 25 conduct regarding sexual orientation in the workplace was drafted specifically to combat discrimination based on members’ sexual orientation in the department. in 2000 the chief directorate equal opport unities in conjunction with the centre conducted a study on the attitudes and perceptions of the dod population regarding the integration of gays and lesbians among its personnel for effect analysis. the research results gained by this quantitative st udy indicated substantial prejudice and stereot y pes with regard to gays and lesbians in the department. on eight of the ten statements contained in the questionnaire, the sample responded negatively in respect of the integration of gays and lesbians in the dod. exceptions were respondents of the office of the secretary for defence and to some extent respondents of the south african military health service (samhs). the latter two sub-groups were inclined to hold more positive attit udes regarding the integration of gays and lesbians. the general conclusion reached was that the respondents appear to be very divided on issues related to the integration of gays and lesbians in the department. these research results indicated the need for a dod code of good practice regarding sexual orientation in the workplace, which was subsequently drafted. the results of this study were also presented at the 4th biennial equal opportunit y research symposium held from 5-6 december 2001 at cocoa beach in florida, usa. issues that were raised centred on the question of the negative perceptions held by most of the african population and the more positive responses by the asian population of the dod regarding the integration of gays and lesbians. recommendations were made and one of them was to undertake a follow-up study in the form of focus groups in order to explore qualitatively the negative perceptions that prevail regarding the integration of gays and lesbians in the department. while research on african and asian members of the dod regarding their views on gays and lesbians is very important and must certainly receive attention, a rare opportunity presented itself to undertake a qualitative study of the perceptions and experiences of one former white female gay employee of the dod. this opportunity implied that we could learn first-hand of the experiences a gay woman, who worked for some time at the dod, had. more specifically, an opportunity presented itself to discover and describe how such people experience and handles the behaviour and perceptions of their heterosexual colleagues towards them. finally, there is a scarcity of scientific knowledge on homosexual/lesbian work1, and particularly the careers of gay women in the south africa’s military. while tlou discussed the proposed research with a colleague, he mentioned that he knows a gay female staff member of the dod who would be keen to participate in a research project. we discussed this opportunity and decided that tlou would contact the female employee, which she did. the woman indicated that she was indeed interested in participating in the study. aim this article is based on an in-depth study of one white gay female employee’s experiences and views of her homosexuality while she was working at the dod. the objective is to gain a better understanding of the problems facing gay female employees of the dod. research methodology in order to capture, describe and finally reach an understanding of the lesbian’s experiences during her career in the department of defense, a qualitative methodology was used. contact with gay women tlou met the first potential research participant to be known as lindi through one of her male colleagues that was on a military course with her. as they shared and talked about the work schedule and the studies, he became interested in her ma study. he then explained to her that if there is a need to interview or talk to a lesbian, he is ready to introduce her to a friend who would be willing to assist her. he made the initial contacts and provided tlou with his friend’s contact telephone numbers. tlou talked to lindi over the phone and they made an appointment to meet at lindi’s home. on 14 june 2002 tlou met lindi, her partner and her mother and after explaining the purpose of the survey lindi was prepared to be involved with the study. lindi is a white lesbian in the service of the department of defence. she is a very friendly person, kind and outspoken. she and her family gave tlou a warm welcome and tlou felt at ease and home. tlou’s general impression of the family was that they are kind and respectable people. when she was at lindi’s place other family members as well as another gay couple came to visit and tlou was also introduced to them. she felt quite comfortable and they invited her to join them for supper. enters thando tlou and lindi arranged to meet again on 2 july 2002 at 18h00 and also agreed to communicate via e-mail. on 24 june tlou received an e-mail whereby the research participant raised a concern regarding the study. when they met on 2 july she indicated that she felt that she was not the right person to assist tlou with her study since she has never had any personal experiences that she can write about because she was still “in the closet”, i.e. concealed her homosexuality. she further indicated that she knew someone who had negative experiences and who might be willing to assist with the study. tlou then agreed to be introduced to the second research participant so as to determine if she would be willing to assist with the proposed study. lindi made contact with the second research participant to be known as thando and she arranged for the two of them to meet. they made the initial contact via e-mail and telephonically and thereafter lindi, thando and tlou met on 7 august 2002. tlou was introduced to thando and explained the purpose of the study to her. after tlou answered the few questions thando had, she agreed to assist with the study. she agreed to write a sketch and promised to have the first draft ready on 17 august 2002. thando is a white lesbian who is confident and outspoken and she seemed very friendly from our their first contact. she worked for the department of defence for more than 10 years and left the service three years ago. the first draft of the sketch was received as arranged. after an email discussion with schurink, further questions and clarifications were forwarded to thando. on 22 august tlou met thando again and handed over information that was still required from her and she promised to have the report ready on 9 september 2002. during this meeting it was agreed that some detailed information would not be divulged since it may reveal thando’s identity and have some repercussions for some of her friends who still serves in the dod. thando also requested that the sketch should not be published in any dod magazine since her story may jeopardise her friends who are serving in the department and are still in the closet. the material obtained from this research should therefore be used for study purposes only. thando was re-assured that her identity would be kept confidential. thereafter thando and tlou kept contact through e-mail correspondence. the final report was received on 12 september 2002. as we already indicated thando’s sketch forms the basis of the article. but how credible is this story? this is the question we now turn to. tlou, schurink26 credibility of thando’s sketch in order to assist the reader to assess thando’s account we generally followed the guidelines provided by howard becker (1970) on establishing the credibility of case studies as well as more recent ideas on the trustworthiness of qualitative research in ensuring a quality study. the following were the key decisions we took: first, as already pointed out the substantive, question we had to address was: how does one authentic lesbian manage her military career? second, and flowing from the former question, our epistemological approach was that we wanted to generate, “subjective, soft” data in order to come to a interpretive understanding of lesbianism and military work in the south african context. therefore, as already indicated, we opted for a qualitative methodology. that is why we request thando to compile an essay briefly reviewing her total gay life but focusing on her career in the military. we did not proceed with any particular theory of lesbian work. nevertheless, after having received thando’s sketch, we did examine particular theoretical ideas about lesbianism in our attempt to make sense of it. while our analysis reflect some aspects of grounded theory (glaser & strauss, 1967), we feel that in general our approach is more in line with analytic induction (ai). but what does ai implies? manning (1991, p. 405) writes: analytic induction seeks to develop universal statements containing the essential futures of a phenomenon, or those things that are always found to cause or lie behind the existence of a social occurrence. the essential features are revealed, it is argued, when they are always present when the phenomenon is present; when they are absent, the phenomenon is itself absent. the definitional aspect of science is critical in analytic induction, and in the procedure redef inition and reconceptualization are often required to narrow the range of applicability or the scope of the theory. exceptions or negative cases assume a major significance, since the explanations aim for completeness and universality. traditionally, only a few selected cases are subjected to careful scrutiny (persons and families have been used). (emphasis in the original.) he continues by describing 7 specific steps formalized by cressey (1953) and concludes: in cressey’s statement we discover the core features of the method as practiced: def inition, tentative explanation, possible reformulation, and generalization. as he implies, the process may continue until a point of closure is achieved. this point is not defined in a straightfor ward manner (manning, 1991:408-409). gill and johnson (2002, p. 157) have the following to say: in sum, ai and analogous theory-building approaches ostensibly seek to capture aspects of the social world from the perspective of actors and allow the revision of hypotheses and conceptual structures through the analysis and elimination of negative cases. in doing so it attempts to maintain faithfulness to empirical data gathered f rom a relatively small number of cases (emphasis added). though our work bears a close connection to ai, specific features of our approach that we need to emphasise, include: i) we focused on one lesbian’s views about her life in the south african defence force. ii) we did not formalize specific hypotheses regarding lesbianism or lesbian work before the data were collected and did not formally examine or “test” any hypotheses drawn from the literature iii)we do provide a commentary in a subsequent article, in the light of a general sociological approach to lesbianism as well as of some ideas of scholars on homosexuality and the military, and propose some ideas with an eye to reformulation. following the lowney-winslows ai approach (1981), we feel our study provided one real case, which enhanced our intuitive understanding of lesbians working in the south african defence force. it served as a starting point for further research that could carry our case study on to a more formal implementation of ai, and particularly the execution of steps five through to seven. third, and following from our usage of ai, we made use of the symbolic interactionist perspective in which ai is embedded. we explain this perspective in greater detail below. fourth, in how human documents could be constructed, we noted that there are many different ways in which a person could express his/her personal life (cf. plummer, 2001). since we needed a human document, which would focus on a particular aspect of a woman’s life, namely how she as a south african white lesbian experienced her career in the defence force and one, which, at the same time would provide us with some sense of her overall life, we decided upon the topical life document. while we do not want to claim that the document that was finally constructed could be placed on the same shelf as such well-known classic life history documents as stanley ‘s delinquent life (shaw, 1966), or bogdan’s (1974) study of jane fry’s transsexuality, we are convinced that it represents a topical life document that provides a rather vivid description of thando’s experiences of her military career and her gay life. in sum: the data collection method utilised in the study was an autobiographical sketch. we are convinced that by using a life sketch or a combination of two autobiographies, i.e. topical autobiography and edited biography, we generated a comprehensive account of a local white lesbian’s experiences as a former employee of the south african department of defense. fifth, we edited thando’s life history in the sense of tlou asking her questions, and by requesting her to elaborate or clarif y certain aspects in her story that were not clear to us. she was able to respond to almost all the questions except where she had indicated that such information might compromise the identity of some of her colleagues and friends still serving in the dod. sixth, while ethics are particularly problematic in qualitative research including life history research emphasizing the flux and ever changing nature of human behaviour, we believe that we attended reasonably adequately to this. by employing pseudonames and deleing certain pieces that contained identifiable information we tried to ensure that neither thando nor anybody that she wrote about could be revealed when academics read the sketch/article. of course, while these tactics could make the risk of identification less likely, it can never be regarded as full proof. regarding hurt and harm, we tried as far as is reasonable to prevent that the writing of her story for academically purposes would cause thando harm or traumatize her. while thando did not make mention of any uncomfortably she had when writing her story, it might have occurred and that thando for some reason did not reveal it to us. another related aspect, is that of exploitation. since thando’s real identity had to remain confidential she did not gain any status for her account. finally, the fact that we requested thambo to write about her life, contributed to her life being changed. plummer (2001) describe this dilemma as follows: to speak traumas hitherto unnamed – of child abuse, of rape, of holocaust sur vival, of undiagnosed illness, of coming out as a transvestite – is to solidify and consolidate in words a kind of a life. and for this – in a way – the researcher becomes responsible. seventh, thando and us signed an informant consent form, thus indicating that she undertook the research voluntarily, that her identity, would be kept confidential and that neither her name a gay woman’s experiences – part 1 27 or anybody else’s, nor any identifiable information would occur in the research articles we would compile. eight, in light of the discovery of “life story scandals” or studies accused of treacherous and untrustworthy (cf. plummer 2001), we tried within the length limitation of this article, to account as fully as possible how the study was executed. ninth, while life history research can certainly not easily involved deceptions, we did ensure that thando had absolute clarity of what our research interests were and what we wanted her to do. tenth, we employed what has became known as member checks, i.e. to get people acquainted or related to the research participant or sketch writer, to check on the factual correctness of the story. in this study, we were able to control the intern validity of the life history after, thando, at our request, handed her story to a person that checked her account. finally, we employed what plummer (1983) autocritique, i.e. we asked thando herself to check the final version of her life sketch. she studied the draft article in order to ensure that her viewpoints and experiences were not interpreted out of context as well as to ensure that it did not contain any information that could reveal her identity and hurt her in any way. the draft, edited version of the sketch was e-mailed to her and she signed an agreement permitting us to use the sketch for scientific purposes. we now present a brief discussion of the theoretical perspective, symbolic interactionism, which, as already mentioned, guiding the study. symbolic interactionism as theoretical framework according to denzin (1970) symbolic interactionism rests on three basic assumptions. firstly, social reality as it is sensed, known and understood is a social production. interacting individuals produce and define their own definitions of situations. secondly, humans are assumed to be capable of engaging in “minded”, self-reflexive behaviour. they have the ability to shape and guide their own behaviour and that of others. finally, in the course of taking their own standpoint and fitting that standpoint to the behaviours of others, humans interact with one another. interaction is seen as the emergent, negotiated and often-unpredictable concern and is symbolic because it involves the manipulation of symbols, words, meanings and languages. the integral part of this perspective is the view that the social world of human beings is not made up of objects that have intrinsic meaning. the meaning of objects lies in the actions that human beings take towards them. human experience is such that the process of defining objects is ever changing, subject to redefinitions, relocations and realignments. the interactionist assumes that people learn their basic symbols, their conception of the self, and the definitions they attach to social objects through interaction with others. that is, interactionists regard human interaction as their basic source of data and regard faceto-face interaction to occur in social situations. according to goffman’s analysis in denzin (1970, p. 5-6) it is possible to assemble the following seven features of focused interaction: � focused interaction involves two or more individuals taking one another’s point of view. � interaction occurs in social settings, which can be physically located and described. � social objects fill social settings and will be acted on by the individuals under study. � when taking one another’s perspective, individuals use a set of rules that tacitly guide and shape their ongoing interaction; these rules may either be civil or legal in nature. � all interaction involves persons differentially related to one another. they may be strangers, friends, colleagues, enemies or politely civil acquaintances. the total amount of time two or more individuals spend in one another’s presence is termed the occasion of interaction. � every focused exchange between these individuals is termed an encounter. social situations furnish the occasions of interaction, which in turn produce the condition for encounters. � the interaction process is filtered through gendered social identities. according to schurink et al. (1994) symbolic interactionism emphasizes the diversity of social roles and subcultures as well as the manner in which individuals construct roles and identities through interaction with others. interpretation, according to symbolic interactionists, is neither an autonomous act nor does a specific force determine it. people can only come to know themselves or their own social identities through the responses of others. they typically develop shared perspectives or common definitions in a given situation since they interact and share experiences, problems and backgrounds. according to schurink (2002, p. 13) in terms of epistemology, i.e. accepted statements justif ying what the researcher believes to exist, the subject matter of his discipline/area of study, the qualitative researcher is subjective because s/he interacts with the subject (object of observation). data will be valid if the researcher does not impose his or her own ideas and preconceptions on the subjects during data collection. the epistemic imperative according to mouton (1996, p. 28) is committed to the search for truth. he applies the term epistemic in the original greek sense which means ‘truthful or certain knowledge’, in other words, knowledge that is well substantiated (as opposed to opinion) and hence provides us with an accurate representation of reality. the term ‘imperative’ implies a kind of ‘moral contract’ willingly entered into for the sake of greater good. the ‘epistemic imperative’ hence refers to the intrinsic moral and binding character that is inherent in the pursuit of ‘truthful knowledge’. he further contends that the search for the truth is not just another option or matter of choice. scientists who are engaged in scientific research are bound in a moral contract to commit themselves to the search for truth. violation of this imperative implies total rejection or suspension of the notion of science, i.e. another way of saying that the terms ‘science’ and ‘truth’ are intrinsically linked. epistemologically we attempt to capt ure, describe and eventually appreciate social reality, i.e. trying to gain insight into the perceptions and attitudes of one authentic former gay employee of the dod. we decided to select symbolic interactionism as theoretical framework for the study mainly because of the following two reasons: firstly, this perspective is primarily concerned with people’s views and interpretation of social reality. more specifically it was used in the present study to describe and capture the experiences and perceptions of one gay female former staff member of the department of defense. finally, various scholars believe that this perspective is particularly appropriate to illuminate homosexuality and especially the process whereby people develop a gay identity. in the preceding paragraphs the background to the article was sketched, the methodology was outlined, the author of the sketch was introduced and the theoretical underpinnings of the study presented. in the remainder of this article, we provide the entire sketch written by thando for the benefit of the reader. in order to keep the article within reasonable length, our social science commentary, that is, our analysis and interpretation of thando’s story and outlining its most salient implications will be dealt with in a separate article, part ii. tlou, schurink28 fleet of hope: thando’s autobiographical sketch i tried to write a story about my life in the defence force, but after a paragraph or two, i realised how closely tied up my personal life including family life and my military life was. born into a white middle class family in 1963 in the conser vative province of transvaal, (now known as gauteng) in pretoria, had many advantages for a young girl in sa. i was the youngest of four children, loved and pampered by my parents and siblings. i had a normal well-adjusted home life, filled with love, humour, hope and expectations. playing cowboys and indians, going on holidays with the family and enjoying the benefits of a strong family unit were an integral part of my growing up. if a negative needed to be found, i suppose being the youngest in the family by 15 years placed me in the same position as an only child. fortunately my parents encouraged and supported me to find stimulation in various activities namely ballet, tap dancing, horse riding, tennis and a love of reading amongst many others. background openness, honesty and transparency were part and parcel of the family tradition. issues were discussed and cleared up before they became problems. the oldest of the siblings had decided that she wanted a child but did not want matrimony and a permanent man in her life. the family support was fantastic and she moved into my parents’ home and became very close to me. my mother, being a working mother, could not always assist with schooling and all my teenage demands. my sister grace fitted the role of surrogate mother to perfection. she was being financially supported by my parents and stayed at home to look after her daughter as well as looking after me. she moved out with her daughter 3 years later and then decided to come out of the closet and announce to all that she was indeed gay and proud of it. i was 13 years old at that time and grace’s announcement regarding her sexual orientation changed my life dramatically. the image of a strong family unit disintegrated surprisingly fast. she was shunned as a family member and made to feel unwelcome. siblings avoided the issue by simply ignoring her existence and when it did surface it was a passionate and heated debate. we all argued about why she had decided to be gay, how long had she been gay and how long had she been lying to us. we analysed her previous relationships and wondered which of her friends were actually lovers. the biggest fear and anger was how it was going to affect her daughter. would she also be a social outcast, would she be ashamed of her mother and would she be able to cope? we were disappointed and outraged that she had brought this social shame on us. it was the topic of much talk amongst the wider family circle and we often bore the brunt of their laughter. for a 13 year old, innocent to the ways of the world, i felt totally betrayed by a sister who had in the past been a surrogate mother. i didn’t understand the social stigmas, the fear of the other members of the family of this unknown condition or the perceived humiliation this would bring to the family. i only understood that what had happened was wrong and bad and therefore needed to be punished. this family banishment lasted for 13 years. grace moved further and further away from the family circle and finally cut away completely when her daughter moved in with my parents. my life continued but with maybe a little less spontaneity than before. first boyfriend at 14. i remained a virgin only because it had been ingrained in my mind by family and the conser vative school i attended that pregnancy was a direct cause of intimacy. more boyfriends followed and at the age of 19, i entered into my first serious relationship with a man. we were both students and thought we had the world at our feet. it lasted 2 years. it ended when he married a girl he had got pregnant. i had really strong feelings for him; he was strong, we had a lot in common and we had planned a great future together. i don’t know if that was love but i felt comfortable and safe and happy. today i would probably describe my feelings for him as a huge learning cur ve. he betrayed me but i was stronger for it. my parents were great and looking back i have no feelings of regret. it was good while it lasted. subsequently he was arrested for fraud and jailed and i was left with a feeling that i had escaped just in time. my own social life was looking bleak after the break-up. my parents announced that they would be looking after my sister’s daughter, since they felt it was more appropriate. my sister had met a woman who displayed violent tendencies and my parents felt that they could provide her daughter with a more stable environment as well as look after her financially. my sister put up no resistance. this rocked me severely and i finally understood the homophobic reaction of my family. how could a mother give up her child? it had to be because she was gay. gay was bad, wasn’t it? i actively participated in anti homosexual discussions and debates. voicing my opinion to anyone who cared to listen. i was the typical “verbal gay basher”. whilst at university parties and boyfriends escalated even though i still didn’t sleep with any boyfriend. holding back because i never felt comfortable?? we were typical students. going away for weekends partied until the early hours of the morning. we all had the odd arguments about sex. i never felt quite comfortable with having sex even though i would sleep over, cuddle and pet but never slept with a boyfriend. the fear of pregnancy still a huge factor! i also believed that i hadn’t met the man of my dreams yet. i moved out at the age of 21 and worked part time. i was getting impatient with not having money, wanting my independence. it was with the blessing of my parents that i moved into a flat with a friend. the family members remaining in the fold????, were still close but the “lost daughter” remained a silent figure. feeble attempts were made by various family members to re-introduce grace but no favorable results were obtained. my parents were getting older and they wanted to reconcile the family. they started visiting my sister again. she had, during that time, found her soul mate and they had been living together for many years. however, her partner was never invited to join in the family activities. this placed everybody in a lose-lose situation. we couldn’t have the sister back because of her partner and she couldn’t have the family back with her partner. to keep everybody half satisfied she rather maintained her distance. the unthinkable happened at 22. i met a girl working with me. openly gay, she stood for everything i abhorred. i verbally attacked her and took any opportunity to insult her lover and friends. despite the insults, she became a friend. the irony of the situation was that i wanted to be in her company all the time. she resigned and left for durban. i followed her to durban because i started to realise that perhaps i wanted to be more than just a friend. not comfortable with the idea of perhaps being gay, i realised that i would have to follow her to find out what it was that i wanted from her. i was also terrified that the family would find out and it seemed so much easier away from the family. i believed she had to be aware of my growing feelings for her yet she never made any advances and i was becoming increasingly frustrated and confused. i was terrified but finally i made the bold move to tell her i was sexually attracted to her. it was a time of constant questioning of myself and my new lifestyle and trying to justify why i had made the move. i believe today that the reason i was so radically anti-gay was my way of trying to convince myself that i was not “made up of the same stuff” as grace. it was also a time of great anxiety that someone would find out about me and inform my parents. living away from home made it so much easier though and we were partners for 2 years. we were young, in love and believed that durban was our oyster, far away from prying eyes, insults and recriminations. we remained insular in our youthful exuberance, never meeting other straight or gay people. we were happy with each other and that seemed sufficient. it wasn’t sufficient however, and the relationship ended two years later. the reason was that i couldn’t come to terms with the idea that i was gay and on various occasions i set out to prove to myself a gay woman’s experiences – part 1 29 and anybody who cared to listen that i was attractive to men as well as attracted to them. obviously this caused many disagreements in our relationship. perhaps, both young enough to want to experience life and all it could offer, we just drifted apart. she left south africa, had a daughter and the last i heard, had settled down with a man in israel. i felt totally isolated. not quite sure about my sexuality, not sure how to handle the guilt of who i was and what i was. i couldn’t speak to my family for fear of their reaction and subsequent rejection and not knowing any other gay people i was at the lowest point in my life. my sister daisy, realising i was going through a troubled period in my life suggested i “find myself” overseas. i transferred my sexual problems overseas still not knowing how to handle the predicament in which i found myself. every woman i met i would assess in terms of her sexual orientation. i wanted to meet other lesbians but as it turned out i only met two, and never felt close enough to discuss my situation. i had one or two sexual encounters with men but nothing serious enough to even warrant remembering their names. after meeting my family in greece, i felt homesick enough to return to south africa. this was in 1986. i had made up my mind by then that i was bisexual and i possibly still would one day meet the man of my dreams, have kids and live with him forever. it just seemed the easiest way out. i believed that bisexuals were considered as young people experimenting and finding themselves. it was easy to hide behind that. career back home, i was pressurized into making appropriate career decisions and found myself looking at a picture of a female in uniform, graced with beauty, intelligence and style. this coupled to the general perception that many women in uniform were believed to be gay convinced me that i wanted to join the defense force. still not sure of my sexuality i was not interested in joining the army, perceiving the women to be “butch” and “undesirable” in the social context. whatever i was and whatever i was going to be, “butch” was not an option. i had no intention of loosing my femininity, dressing up in check shirts, big buckles, men’s boots and men’s pants. i still wanted to believe that i could be desirable to men and even if i was boyish and lived in jeans, it did not mean looking like a man. i believed a “butch” to be the stereotype with no make-up, short-cropped hair, large and masculine. basics i applied for and was accepted as a navy recruit and went to basics feeling more secure than i had in a long time. i felt part of a community and i immediately made friends with a fellow recruit who was gay and who knew many of the then gay females in the navy called swans. i entered a new world where drills, shining of boots, also known as “boning”, and sunset had new meaning. it also brought new meaning to the word homosexuality, discrimination and frustration. i was once again placed in a world where the mere mention of the word homosexuality was frowned upon. however, this time it was not on an emotional footing as with my parents and siblings. this time it was deemed dirty, portrayed as evil and definitely not correct. for the first time in my life, i was mixing, not with just a partner but a whole group of lesbians, yet, i was feeling even more isolated because of the barriers, reser vations and limitations from a homophobic military discipline. we were forced to be careful, forced to be underhanded and forced to be heterosexual. upon arriving in this brave new world of sailors, we were introduced to the “rights” and the “wrongs” of military life. this included, much to my surprise, an immediate and serious discussion regarding the bad elements in the sa navy. the majority of these “bad element swans” were junior ratings, even though some of them had been in the navy for many years but for some or other reason had always been overlooked for promotion. a small number of swans were promoted to senior rating ranks but they were placed in posts that didn’t have much future. we were cautioned not to be too friendly with these “undesirable characters” as it would jeopardize any plans we had of furthering our careers as well as placing labeling us as “one of the undesirables”. they were described as dangerous and manipulative – living unhealthy lifestyles – also described as only wanting to corrupt new recruits. reality within one week after completing basics i was brought face to face with the real intensity of the problem. just speaking to swans that were thought to be undesirable, brought the wrath of the “commander in charge of swans” down on us. veiled threats, verbal cautions and of course the endless psychological battering of those who were different were prevalent right from the start. the irony of the whole situation was that many of these women throwing stones, were themselves deemed “possible undesirables” but due to a fear of the system, a fear of victimization and a fear of ending up in a dead end job, they attacked homosexuality with everything they had. i have to say that this was the one and only time the word “lesbian” was ever used to my face in the sa navy. at the time i was shocked that the word could be bandied about without much regard for the hurt it was causing. gay seemed so much more friendly and acceptable. today the word is much less threatening and acceptable but in the 80’s it conjured up images of “total social outcasts”. realizing for the first time in my life that i had found a group of friends within the navy who felt the same way as i did, i was thrilled. cape town was a hive of active lesbianism with lesbian gatherings at pre-arranged clubs where everybody brought their own alcohol and eats, also known as “gatparties”, strong bonds and many relationships were formed and broken within the group. just being in the company of other swans made the idea of “being different” so much easier to accept. the strangest part of the whole subculture we lived in was that very few relationships were pursued with straight swans. it was an unwritten rule that the gay swans would not actively seek out and try and to convert straight swans. perhaps this was in part due to fear of military “justice”. i was transferred to pretoria and groomed to perform. i contributed in the only way i knew. be professional, be smart and keep your nose clean. the gay social setup in pretoria was very small and i initially only had contact with one naval lesbian who introduced me to the gay scene. i was aware of other lesbians in pretoria but life was guarded and your private life remained closed. now and then rumours started about infidelities with male counterparts, which suited me down to the ground. the less known about my life the happier i was. (even if he was married the attitude was – “oh well at least she is normal and not one of those!”) a rumour was started about a married senior rating and myself. the man was called in and told that if it was true, he needed to be more discreet. had that been a woman, both the woman and i would have been fed to the wolves. accelerated promotions followed, due to the belief of my immediate superiors that i was a good candidate for future success. security clearances were forever bandied about as the “gateway to heaven”. if you had a confidential clearance you qualified for promotion. the first question was always “are you a lesbian and do you have lesbian friends” – non committal answers were always sought, even to the point were you would rehearse the question with friends over and over again to answer in the appropriate manner when the dreaded question was f lung your way. this was common practice. if you didn’t get your clearance you were placed in a dead end job with no chance of promotion. this happened to many lesbians in the navy. i was fortunate. i was granted a confidential clearance, valid for ten years, first time around. being young and ambitious i was pretty sure at the time that i would not even last ten years in the navy and would therefore never have to undergo another inquisition. i felt that there might be better opportunities in the civilian world but i didn’t want to enter that world at the time. tlou, schurink30 the most feared directorate was intelligence and when you were summoned to see the head, you knew your number was up. the personal life of a lesbian swan was far removed from the military day-to-day activities. parties were always held at home and you were invited only on recommendation of trust from another lesbian swan. clubs were deemed far too dangerous but sometimes the need to mix with “our own kind” outweighed the adrenaline rush of fear. days after wards you would try to be as invisible as possible to avoid the dreaded call to intelligence. a colleague of mine was summoned a couple of days after being to a gay club and two days of accusations behind closed doors were thrown her way. she discussed the accusations with us some time later and confirmed that she had been seen by an undercover intelligence agent at the club. the undercover agent described what she had worn and what she had to drink, whom she had spoken to and what time she had left. obviously this could not be confirmed but it was interesting to note that she was one of the first swans to be placed on the retrenchment list. relationships i avoided the label for quite some time, perhaps because i had an excellent working relationship with my immediate superior as well as the fact that i did not have a permanent relationship in pretoria. i was seeing somebody in durban but it was a mutual holiday relationship and seemed very far removed from pretoria. however, i soon met a swan who had been transferred to pretoria, and we really hit it off. the scary part was that she was in the intelligence division and to top it all she was straight. we spent many weeks talking, becoming firm friends. she started putting two and two together and came up with four and finally one night after our usual dancing around various issues she made a move. she asked me if i was gay and she told me she wanted to be part of my life. i actually didn’t give her a straight answer but found myself on a roller coaster of emotions. i wanted her to know and i wanted her to be a part of my life. i was terrified. even though we had mutual trust as friends, she was intelligence. could this be a scam to place me in a compromising position? she convinced me that she was not “spying” and was really interested. it is not easy to keep a secret of such magnitude when you are opening your heart to someone. however, we moved towards an intimate relationship as any heterosexual relationship would. we moved very slowly into a relationship, initially spending a weekend out of town and talking about the repercussions, the advantages and why it may not be a good idea to get involved. i also came to the conclusion that she possibly had more to lose from this relationship. i had no responsibilities. i was young with money in my pocket and a place to stay. she was a single mother who needed to pursue her career. she was granted a state owned flat but i could not move in with her, as the system did not allow for this. if you were a single mother, which she was, divorced or married you qualified for a state owned house or flat. you were not however allowed boarders. she also could not stay in the naval accommodation, since they did not have facilities for children. this left us in a predicament. i could not live with her; she could not live with me at the naval accommodation. the only alternative was to count the pennies and buy a property that we could share since i was not prepared to rent a place. living with your partner. wow what an experience. two wellprepared bedrooms, your clothes are in your own cupboard, except those you share with your partner. always making sure no one knows what goes on in your life. it’s lying and faking; you could never really be yourself until you closed the door of your home behind you. at the time we were probably only true to each other. not allowing ourselves to show affection in front of her daughter, not being truthful at work about our social lives and even pretending to those in the apartments around us that i was only a visitor. clothes were packed in separate cupboards, bedrooms were designed to show our own identities and we had to have three rooms to prove that were sleeping separately. there were of course other problems. we could not have a combined subsidy, as we were not married. the property had to go into either her name or mine and at that time she could receive the better subsidy due to her rank and length of ser vice. we had to get by on trust. i had no official or legal hold on the property and even a personal contract did not hold much weight. it would not prevent her from placing us in debt if she used the property as surety. fortunately this never happened. this led to even more obvious consequences. this was a huge move for both of us as we were really exposing ourselves. how do you really keep something like this a secret? i was living with a woman!! it had to be a gay relationship. i was out in the eyes of the navy. mandy was called in and cautioned about her relationship and her security clearance was placed under scrutiny. we of course denied the existence of a gay relationship vehemently citing economic reasons at the risk of her losing her subsidy. she could not receive rent from me or her subsidy would be cancelled. you reach a stage in your life when you almost say – “to hell with the consequences”. we stayed together, still being discreet at work but started to be more open in the eyes of the social world around us. officers selection leadership positions came my way and a natural progression was to go on “officers selection”. physicals, psychological questionnaires and physical endurance tests known as “vasbyts” followed. when fellow candidates were asked for their choices as ideal officers based on leadership qualities, my name was on everyone’s list. however, the deciding authorities had other ideas and a very polite letter of refusal was forwarded to me with a small paragraph indicating that i may apply again at a later stage. a fellow candidate from my unit (also a high achiever – also studying, also receiving good merits and appraisals and also gay) was given a letter with a proviso not to apply again. life goes on unfortunately, due to the normal pressures of life as well as added pressures of economics, military duplicity and the pressure of being homosexual in a heterosexual world, we decided to part after four years and go our separate ways. we remained friends, split our joint finances and moved on. nothing nasty but we both felt the time had come to move on. at the same time i also decided that it was time to face my sister grace whom i had not communicated with for some years. mandy and i had made tentative moves towards reconciliation with her as she lived just around the corner from us. i suppose i felt that since she was also gay there was no reason for me not to approach her. she had been seeing her daughter on the odd occasion and i felt it was the right thing to do. i met her and her life partner and we immediately felt the deep bond we had had so many years before. compounded by the fact that we are both gay, i am happy to write that we are still very close, especially after her partner passed away. they were together for more than 15 years. relationship 2 i became very friendly with a colleague who had been a victim of a homophobic navy from way back in the early 80’s. we became partners and it was probably the happiest time of my naval life. we spent many hours together at work, finding we had so much in common. we felt a mutual attraction developing and even though we had known each other for many years within the navy we had never really spoken to each other on a personal basis. we started doing everything together and found that our common bond of friendship gave us a good headstart in our relationship. i had found what i was looking for: an emotional stable relationship with a strong, highly respected woman, totally loyal to the defence force and she loved me as fiercely as she loved life. a gay woman’s experiences – part 1 31 she had faced many years of discrimination in the 70’s and 80’s. a few examples are: you could only be promoted to the next rank if you had a confidential clearance. her promotion was kept back two years because she couldn’t get a confidential clearance. the intelligence department thought she was gay? the only way she could convince them that she was straight was to make an oath before god that she was not gay. this was really very difficult. this was serious stuff. she was lying and god knew it? anyway the promotion must have been more important. it worried her for a very long time though. in those years a gay woman just could not apply for officer’s selection. why? just seeing what happened to all the other great gay women applying and not being selected prevented her from going through the same embarrassment. having the intelligence department investigating your private life from the day you were born, she knew there was no way that they would not find out that she was gay. once again it is ironic to note that many of those fieldworkers investigating her were gay themselves. they all jumped out of the closet when the new government came into power. now that is what i call being moffie!!! house break-ins were the order of the day. weapons and jewelry never stolen! crockery and linen always remained neatly unpacked. photo albums were always opened, disturbed or moved. no evidence was ever found that it was an investigation, but the feeling was that perhaps, just perhaps, “our intelligence friends” were looking for some form of confirmation of her being gay. although just a suspicion, the invasion of privacy was deeply felt. your own personal mementos, letters and clothing were being touched by unknown people, perhaps being joked about and perhaps being insulted. she frequently recalled one incident when the military decided that they would send a signal and transfer all “the gay people” to pretoria headquarters to ensure they could keep an eye on them. the entire gay population was up in arms. everybody panicked (my partner was already in pretoria at the time.) a well-known judge decided to take the military to court for drafting his daughters to pretoria on the presumption that they were gay. (they both were!) the instruction was subsequently cancelled and everybody felt safe for a while. but many were on the gay list: lesbians in crime. this term sort of fits the general feeling that lesbians were regarded as nothing more than criminals. another incident was when a well-known gay club was raided. everybody “caught” swore under oath that they did not really know what the place was. of course nobody believed that! threats were made to publish names in newspapers!! nobody knows what the actual end result was but for many weeks the newspapers were studied intensely. fortunately all of this never stopped her. she still loves the military, is still loyal and still promotes the military to all and sundry. a new world in the 90’s we settled down as a married couple would. we both felt very comfortable with the fact that we were lesbians, that we had made a commitment to each other and we both found that everybody around us seemed more relaxed and accepting of our lifestyle. subsidy procedures had changed by then and we could coown a small house and lived openly as a gay couple. our neighbours became friends and our strong bond was the envy of all around us. we went to gay clubs with our gay friends even taking some of our straight friends along, had private parties at home with close colleagues, gay and straight. our dogs were our children, our home our protection and our love for each other our comfort. my parents were invited and they became regular visitors. i had always had a close relationship with them but had just kept my own private life very much apart from my family life. they never mentioned the fact that i was gay but it was evident that they were aware that i was happy. they had a good relationship with sarah (my lover) and they had softened their stance considerably towards my sister grace. it is the one regret that i have that i was never able to openly discuss the matter with them, but i always had appropriate excuses. “i didn’t want to disappoint them” “they were too old”. “they didn’t need to be involved”. they had been hurt by the whole grace saga and i didn’t feel that they deser ved to be hurt again. looking back, i believe they would have completely accepted my sexual orientation but i didn’t have the courage to face them with it. after the death of both my parents and four years down the line i still have not discussed the matter with my other siblings even though they are all aware of my sexual orientation. my sister daisy is totally homophobic and if the subject is brought up she either ignores the issue or derides it. that is the way she feels and i respect her opinion on it. my brother john is more relaxed and even though we have never openly spoken about my being gay, we will discuss homosexual issues and my homosexual friends in a very open manner. they all have their own married lives and families to contend with as well, so it is not as though my sexual orientation is a “top of mind” issue with them. there was an unspoken openness about our relationship. we never forced ourselves or our lifestyle on anybody. we were who we were. if you didn’t like it, that was fine, but we respected the fact that what you did behind closed doors was your life and we expected the same respect from others. traditional gay roles were never established. we were equal partners drawing strengths from each other. both worked in the garden, both did the cooking and both cleaned the house amongst other shared duties. i completed my degree, which i received after studying part time. i had majored in communication (and will be doing my honours next year) and we actively took part in sport. we spent some time overseas on holiday. the fear of intelligence was greatly reduced and the pressure of being gay was slowly but surely being replaced by a confidence in our relationship and ourselves. contributing factors may have been the retirement of the feared head of intelligence, the man who was legendary amongst the gay community as the man who could end your career as easily as clicking his fingers. soon after the introduction of the new constitution followed which catered for homosexuals as a minority group with rights. we were fortunate. all around us our gay friends were having relationship problems. even some of our straight friends parted. this made our love stronger. it seemed as though everybody was caught up in the “seven year itch” syndrome. previously strong relationships were becoming strained and partners were starting to look around for greener pastures. we were adamant this was not going to happen to us. at work, we became known as a couple yes, this is still in the navy! we had a close-knit family of friends, both straight and gay. young gay swans started asking us for advice and joining our sports team. the team, mostly gay girls, became unit-sporting heroes when we achieved. life was good and the navy (at least in our unit) seemed to be relaxing its views about what we were even though we were still being spoken about when attending sporting events and we were still being regarded as “those girls”. when attempting to break records we were reminded, “even though we are good, we don’t have to prove that we are better than men”. these constant behind the back reminders stayed but we all chose to ignore it. as stated earlier, by this time we had a strong circle of friends who were loyal and who accepted our sexual orientation. they invited us to parties and we reciprocated with invitations of our own. we openly discussed our lives with them and they did the same. because we were so accepting of who we were, the people around us were accepting our relationship as well. we never made a big deal of it but portrayed it as a natural relationship in a different way. we were accepted and liked by straight and gay alike that knew us. however, when we needed to go to other units or military bases it was still obvious that the social stigma was alive and well. men constantly tried to challenge us. trying to prove to us that we could tlou, schurink32 never be men and they were better than us. we never wanted to be men and sometimes it was just better to back down and not get into gender sensitive areas. we would assure them that it was ok. we were not trying to be better, more intelligent, and stronger – just trying to be ourselves in a world where we are all looking for our happiness. open hostility was never present however behind our back sniggers and remarks were continuous. you tend to develop a hard shell to block out the remarks and the hurtful actions and carry on with your lives. officers selection 2 i was advised by my superior that “perhaps the time was right” to re-apply for officers course. selection was on and once again i came out with top honors. requirements for passing were standard psychological testing, fitness tests; work related situational exams and panel discussions as well as teamwork and general obser vations. after discussions with my candidate assessment superior (the divisional officer of the candidates), instructors as well as discussions with the psychologists i was told that i was doing far better than what was required and acceptance was but a formality. the signal (notification memo) reflecting the chosen few was faxed to naval headquarters and an enthusiastic supporter of mine brought the selection list to me. during this time, an admiral received the written signal and decided to do a bit of impromptu investigation. approaching a colleague, she was asked in a vague manner whether she would respond to a gay off icer giving her orders. she replied in the negative. need i say more? i was at no time questioned by this man yet he decided on the basis of one reply that i was not off icer material. the signal that was off icially released had my name inserted one line lower than the original. one line lower meant – not accepted. at no time was any mention made as to the reasons for the non-acceptance. in fact at no stage was a letter of refusal e ven for warded to me. when i questioned the off icer in charge of selection he made a vague reference to the fact that no posts were available, but shortly after that two appointments were made in exactly the posts that i had requested. after confronting the female colleague she conf irmed being questioned by the admiral but also commented that she would have had no problem receiving orders from a lesbian especially if she had known it was i. it is a fact that people base their perceptions on stereotypes and only after getting past the wall of bias can you start showing who you truly are and what you are capable of. in the case of lesbians you have not only the disadvantage of being a woman in a male dominated environment but also the added disadvantage of being a lesbian. it highlighted the predicament many straight people were confronted with in the defense force and i suppose the whole world. once they knew you they could deal with the sexual direction you took but they were never completely at ease with it and found it easier to look the other way when backing was required. this has nothing to do with the fact that you are a lesbian. it is a human phenomenon that people are not that eager to stand up and fight or in this case, stand up and defend. when people have to defend something that is not totally familiar to them it is easier to back off and let you face your problems alone. the navy had its own code of ethics. their promotional policy was different to that of any other arm of the ser vice and it was run in a more conventional and traditional manner. a distinct “old boys club” existed where even straight females were left out in the cold. the gay colleague who had previously applied with me and been refused, applied for the second time. again with me. she was selected only after great pressure was applied from her direct superior. an admiral with the right stuff you might say. she left the ser vice after nine months as an off icer!!! a legal off icer and friend who had heard what had happened approached me and said i should fight the selection. when you have been emotionally hammered by men on a selection panel and knowing you will be faced by a jury of the same ilk it doesn’t really fill you with much hope of change. (the original selection panel had one female off icer present.) self esteem by this time, my self-esteem had taken a battering and i was questioning my qualities as a leader. how could i be a good leader if i am gay? perhaps the superiors are right and i should be seen, accommodated, reluctantly accepted but definitely not heard. subsequently i told the legal advisor not to take it further. looking back i was probably so brainwashed into thinking “we” as lesbians would always be branded and limited career-wise by the defense force that i never considered the new options and new rights in our lives granted to us in the new constitution. at my first mustering (specialized) course, i was placed first overall including camaraderie, academics and leadership and given glowing reports from all and sundry at the army college. my fellow army, samhs and air force students, many of them female and many of them overtly lesbian, did well and progressed to the ranks of majors and captains. the navy obviously didn’t agree. at the time this really made me angry and to some extent i still feel that the injustice within the navy ended many careers of people who were obvious choices within other arms of ser vice. you were never judged on your capabilities first. you were judged on your sexual orientation, then by your capabilities. i have subsequently changed my feelings and look at it as a great loss to the navy and not necessarily to myself. the result of the selection changed my opinion of the navy to some degree, but i had committed so much of my life to the navy that i thought i would put it behind me. life continued, perhaps not quite so willing to believe in the system and not quite so open about my lifestyle but without any major hitches. the navy could offer me only so much in terms of promotion and soon i would be at the highest possible rank that i “was capable of”. this with the prospect of at least another 25 years available to me in the defense force just didn’t sit comfortably with me. i started looking around and weighing up my options. civilian life i was offered a job at a media marketing company and suddenly found myself being faced with a life where i didn’t have to hide my sexual orientation, lie about my partner or fear reprisals from my superiors. i did at first because i didn’t feel comfortable speaking about it. i wasn’t sure what the response would be and i definitely didn’t know what would happen if they discovered my secret. to my great astonishment, when i finally made the disclosure it was met with blank stares of “so what?” it was almost more difficult to disclose it to people who didn’t find it scary, compromising or even threatening. how could they be so okay with it when i had been led to believe for more than a decade that it was not acceptable? what made people in the navy so narrow minded compared to civilians? the obvious deduction is that civilians are exposed to so much more, but i also believe it has to do with the environments we find ourselves in. the media is universally accepted as being more liberal and accepting. difference doesn’t mean challenge but more likely opportunity. self belief my self-image had been dented more than i had thought. i was not this female/male freak who corrupted girls. i was a wholly desirable female, educated, passionate about my country and the peoples within it and with every right to hold my head up high in society. i was very fortunate that the company i worked for believed in a gay woman’s experiences – part 1 33 “humankind”, specializing in cultural diversity. this placed me in a unique situation where the colleagues i worked with were open and unbiased to all races, sexual orientation and religions. the purpose of the company was to make people of south africa understand that it is not what we are but who we are that makes us so lucky to be part of a changing country faced with so many different people. conclusion it was a long road of self-discovery sometimes filled with self-doubt, guilt and anxiety but it was a road that led to my current lifestyle. i am involved with a great woman who loves and cares for me as a person of the world capable of leading nations, if perhaps not naval troops. looking back on my life i suppose, as with all people there are things i would have wanted to be different, things i would have done differently. perhaps i should have joined the army or samhs? perhaps i should have taken the officer selection issue further. i didn’t and that is that. however the most important thing i have learnt is that we have so much to be thankful for. there are still so much that we can do that there is no time to be wasted on regrets. i am happy, i have a great partner, i own a beautiful home and have a circle of friends and a family who loves me for who i am. what more do i need? in summation looking back on my time in the military, many incidents were relayed by friends, unfortunately some unsubstantiated. perhaps a few e vents were ne ver mentioned. howe ver, the feeling of insecurity within the military felt by all gay members was always present. the introduction of young lesbian swans changed the mood somewhat. they never felt the force of homophobia within the defense force and were quite happy and proud to show their sexual orientation. that seeped through the system and by the time i left, the overall mood was not fear, even though the older guard was still cautious. even though by far the majority of lesbians in the defense force had stable, mature and long relationships, this did not matter. the feeling was that you could flirt, seduce, fraternize and break marriages as long as you were “normal”. a straight woman could sleep around as much as she liked, but still be more highly regarded than a lesbian. as i mentioned earlier, we were judged more on our sexual orientation than on our capabilities and that was infuriating. to this day i still cannot understand the double standards. i cannot comment on present day issues since i have been out of the defense force now for three years. however, in the civilian context, much is being done to improve the lot of homosexuals in south africa, e.g. gay partners can adopt children together, the issue of legal marriages is being addressed in court at present and medical aid laws are being changed as we speak. conclusion from thando’s sketch outlining some of her experiences during her career in the department of defence, we feel that we obtained valuable and rich information on female homosexuality in the country and in the south african military context specifically. thando’s experiences as a former gay woman working in the department of defence shed some light on the conser vative attitude of south africa’s military irrespective of the rights its members have, including the right to be treated fairly irrespective of their sexual orientation. based on thando’s account we feel it is fair to conclude that although the law of our country permits homosexuality, it is still not an acceptable orientation in south africa and specifically the military context. negative perceptions and attitudes still prevail and these contribute to the phenomenon that most of the homosexuals in the military are still in the closet. it also seems reasonable to state that homosexuals are seen to be unsuitable for military service because they pose a security risk and that their presence in its units, disrupt group cohesion, morale and discipline. heinecken (1999: p.53) state that because of homophobic sentiments, gay soldiers are unable to function effectively in the military since the heterosexual majority does not want to socialize with them, and when in position of command, homosexual soldiers fail to demand the respect of their subordinates. all these evolve around one central issue, namely: accepting homosexuals in the military will undermine military effectiveness. however, it is important to note that most of these arguments are based on prejudice against homosexuals with no poof that their integration has undermined the operational effectiveness of the military. currently there are no scientific evidence that homosexual people are inherently less capable of military service than heterosexual men and women. furthermore, there is no explanation why discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is necessary to preserve the good order, discipline and morale. these few rather general remarks will suffice since we provide more comments in the subsequent article. references becker, h.s. 1970. sociological work: method and substance. new york: free press. bogdan, r. 1974. being different: the autobiography of jane fry. london: wiley. bogdan, r.c. & biklen, s.k. 1992. qualitative research for education: an introduction to theory and methods. second edition. needham heights, ma: allyn and bacon. bogdan, r. & taylor, s.j. 1975. introduction to qualitative research methods: a phenomenological approach to the social sciences. new york: john wiley and sons. constitution of the republic of south africa act 108. 1996. pretoria. government printers. cressey, d. other people’s money. new york: free press. denzin, n.k. 1970. the research act: a theoretical introduction to sociological methods. third edition. new jersey: prentice hall, inc. draft policy on non-discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in the department of defence. 2001. duckitt, j.h. 1984. attitudes of white south africans toward homosexuality. south african journal of sociology. 15 (2): 89-93. first, l. 1995. disclosure of a son’s homosexuality: a social constructionist perspective. master of arts. university of south africa: pretoria. gill, j. & johnson, p. (2002) research methods for managers. 3rd ed. thousand oaks, ca: sage . glaser, b.g. & strauss, a.l. 1967. the discovery of grounded theory. chicago, ill: aldine. gevisser, m. & camerson, e. (eds.). deviant desire. ohannesburg: ravan press. pp. 209-218. helm, b. 1973. deviant or variant? some sociological perspectives on homosexuality and its subculture. in: assa: sociology southern africa. papers from the first (sic) congress of the association for sociologists in southern africa. durban: the association. heinecken, l. 1998. social equality versus combat effectiveness: an institutional challenge for the military. african security review. 7 (6): 3-15. heinecken, l. 1999. the silent right: homosexuality and the military. african security review. 8 (5): 43-55. isaacs, g. 1979a. working with the male homosexual client: some major theoretical and clinical assumptions. part 1. unpublished mater’s dissertation. cape town: university of cape town. isaacs, g. 1979b. crisis inter vention as a form of therapy for persons with homosexual concerns: an experimental study. unpublished mater’s dissertation. cape town: university of cape town. tlou, schurink34 isaacs, g. 1985. gay oppression in south africa: social and psychological implications. unpublished paper presented at first national conference on homosecualit y. gay association of south africa. johannesburg, 31 may-2 june. isaacs, g. & mckendrick, b. 1992. male homosexuality in south africa. identity formation, culture, and crisis. cape town: oxford university press. joubert, d. 1974. ot dieselfde geslag: debat oor homoseksualitiet in 1968. (brandpunte 7). cape town: tafelberg. joubert, d, conradie, e.l., louw, d.j. & hurst, l.a. 1980. perspektiewe op homoseksualiteit. durbanville: uitgewery boshendal. kotze, c.g. 1975. die aard en betekenis van die homoseksuele subkultuur. the south african journal of sociology, 12 :91-88. krouse, m. 1994. the arista sisters, september 1984. a personal account of army drag. in: gevisser, m. & camerson, e. (eds.). deviant desire. johannesburg: ravan press. pp. 209-218. lowney, j., winslow, r.w. & winslow, v. 1981. deviant reality: alternative world views. second edition. boston: allyn & bacon, inc. manning, p.k. 1991. analytic induction. in: plummer, k. (ed.). symbolic interactionism. volume ii. contemporary issues. aldershot, hants, england: edward elgar publishing limited. pp. 273-183. miller, m. 1981. the coming out crisis of homosexuality: an affirmation of emergent identity. unpublished honours dissertation. cape town: university of cape town. mooney, l.a., knox, d. & schacht, c. 1997. understanding social problems. new york: west publishing co. plummer, k. 1983. documents of life: an introduction to the problems and literature of a humanistic method. london: george allen & unwin (publishers) ltd. plummer, k. 2001. documents of life 2. an invitation to a critical humanism. thousand oaks, ca: sage. redelinghuys, j.l. 1978. ’n psigodinamiese ondersoek na die verskynsel van lesbinisme binne ’n gesinstruktuur. ongepubliseerde m.a.verhandeling. pretoria: universiteit van pretoria. richardson, d. & seidman, s. 2002. introduction. in: richardson, d. & seidman, s. (eds.). handbook of lesbian and gay studies. thousand oaks, ca: sage. pp.1-12. schurink, w.j.1979a. seksuele misdaad. in: lötter, j.m., strijdom, h.g. & schurink, w.j. (reds.). eersterust: ’n sosiologiese studie van ’n kleurling-gemeenskap. (sexual crime in eersterust, a coloured community). pretoria: rgn, pp. 3-22 tot 3-22-91 (verslag s-63). schurink, w.j. 1981. gay-vroue: ’n sosiologiese verkenning van die leefwyse van ’n aantal lesbiërs aan die hand van outobiografiese sketse. [gay women: a sociological exploration of the lifestyle of some lesbians, based on autobiographic sketches.] pretoria: rgn (verslag s-74). schurink, w.j. 1986. gayness: a sociological perspective. paper delivered at mardi gay: gasa’s fourth anniversary convention, president holiday inn, johannesburg, 7-11 may. schurink, w.j. 1988. aids and the gay subculture: some sociological comments. paper presented at the aids congress. strategies for southern africa. sandton sun, johannesburg, 29 april 1 may. schurink, w.j. 1989. die realiteit van homoseksualisme: ’n sosiologies-kwalitatiewe ontleding. (the realit y of homosexualism: a sociological-qualitative analysis.) potchefstroom: potchefstroomse universiteit vir christelike hoër onderwys. (unpublished doctoral thesis.) schurink, w.j. 2002. the history of dha’kar’s life story. in: schurink, w.j. models of qualitative research. part two. doctoral programme: leadership in performance and change. department of human resource management, rau, johannesburg. 5 april. schurink, w.j. et al. 1994. prison health care ser vices: legislation, perception and statistics. pretoria: human sciences research council. schurink, w.j. 2001. models of qualitative research. part one: lectures. johannesburg: department of human resource management, rau. schurink, w.j. 2002. theoretical underpinnings of qualitative research: lecture two. johannesburg: department of human resource management, rau. schurink, w.j. 2002. capturing and storing soft data: lecture three. johannesburg: department of human resource management, rau. schurink, w.j. 2002. qualitative analysis: lecture four. johannesburg: department of human resource management, rau. schurink, w.j. 2002. brief notes on the usage of life history method in qualitative research. johannesburg: department of human resource management, rau. schurink w.j & schurink, e.m. 1982. the development of the gay personality. in: the seven ages of man. proceedings of a three day symposium presented by the department of nursing science in collaboration with the centre for continuing education of the university of port elizabeth. bergvlei: promex plastics. pp. 109-129. schurink & schurink, 1983. some characteristics of the homosexual subculture as reflected by a south african gay club. paper presented to criminology students. johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. schurink, e. m. & schurink, w.j. 1990. aids: lay perceptions of a group of gay men. pretoria: hsrc (report s-187). shaw, c. 1966. the jack roller: a delinquent boy’s own story. chicago: university of chicago press. strydom, k. 1972. die psigo-maatskaplike aspekte van homosesualiteit. unpublished ph.d. thesis. cape town: university of cape town. woolfson, l.r. 1980. psychological androgyny and gender identity in adult homosexual and heterosexual females. unpublished ph.d. thesis. pretoria: university of south africa. abstract introduction purpose literature review method results discussion limitations recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) imelda rodriques namwater, ministry of agriculture, water and forestry, windhoek, namibia department of human sciences, university of namibia, windhoek, namibia wesley r. pieters department of human sciences, university of namibia, windhoek, namibia citation rodriques, i., & pieters, w.r. (2019). assessing the predictors of satisfaction with life of employees in windhoek, namibia. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1145. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1145 original research assessing the predictors of satisfaction with life of employees in windhoek, namibia imelda rodriques, wesley r. pieters received: 26 nov. 2018; accepted: 29 june 2019; published: 28 oct. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: service delivering organisations are required to deliver quality services. it is of utmost importance to improve employees’ satisfaction with life which is consistent with an organisation’s effectiveness and efficiency. research purpose: this study investigated the impact of psychological capital (psycap) and general health on the satisfaction with life of employees of a parastatal and police officers in windhoek, namibia. motivation for the study: poor service delivery and little regard for customer service are a result of unhealthy and dissatisfied employees spiralling into poor service delivery and customer dissatisfaction. research approach, design and method: a quantitative research approach (questionnaire) was used to collect data on the biographical details, psycap, general health and employees’ satisfaction with life. the sample consisted of (n = 129) employees from a parastatal and (n = 152) employees of the namibian police force. main findings: psychological capital reported a positive relationship with satisfaction with life. general health reported a negative relationship with satisfaction with life. hope and social dysfunction were found to be significant predictors of satisfaction with life. practical and managerial implications: offering praise and recognition to hardworking employees enhances their self-efficacy, making them want to take on more challenging tasks while getting the needed guidance. implementing stress management or wellness programmes helps employees cope better with job demands and improves employees’ general health. contribution or value-add: based on the literature, this is the first study carried out in namibia on this topic, and it adds to existing knowledge within the customer service industry and paves the way for future researchers. this study will assist organisations in developing interventions aimed at keeping employees satisfied with life. keywords: psychological capital; general health; satisfaction with life; police officers; parastatal employees. introduction satisfaction with life has been defined as the overall assessment of an individual’s quality of life based on one’s own criteria (lucas, diener, & suh, 1996). this means that satisfaction with life is subjective; thus, different individuals will have different views about how satisfied they are with life. sung-mook and effy (1994), on the contrary, defined satisfaction with life as an emotional reaction of individuals to their life consisting of work-time, spare time and time after work as well as expressing individual satisfaction about life. this means that an individual’s satisfaction with life is impacted by both the individual’s personal and work life. thus, researches for the past three or more decades have concluded that job satisfaction is related to or spills over into satisfaction with life (rode, 2004). the two ought to be related because work is the central life activity for most people, and much of working peoples’ time is spent at their work. according to ioannou et al. (2015), employees who were dissatisfied with their job had low levels of general health as they experienced low vitality, low energy and increased physical pain. increased job satisfaction was linked to increased physical and mental health (ioannou et al., 2015). given the importance of employee well-being at work, it is crucial that managers invest more attention towards improving the working conditions of their employees. psychological capital (psycap) is an individual’s positive psychological state of development. this development is characterised by: (1) having confidence (self-efficacy) to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks; (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future; (3) persevering towards goals and, when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) to succeed; and (4) when overwhelmed by problems, difficulty, nourishment, bouncing back and even beyond (resilience) to attain success (luthans, youssef, & avolio, 2007). luthans and youssef (2004) defined psycap as a core psychological factor of positivity in general that goes beyond human and social capital to gain a competitive advantage through investment or development of ‘who you are’. based on this definition, at an individual level, psycap is a psychological resource that may fuel growth and performance. at an organisational level, psycap may provide leverage, return on investment and competitive advantage through improved employee performance (luthans, avolio, walumbwa, & li, 2005). general health entails a state of physical, mental and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, and this is a prerequisite for participation in a wide range of activities, for instance, work and education (who, 1948). health in the workplace is an increasing fixation for organisations. the fixation is attributed to the positive links that have been found between the well-being of employees, productivity and performance (fenton, roncancio, sing, sandhra, & carmichael, 2014). these links are also relevant to state-owned enterprises within namibia. abolghasemi and varaniyab (2010) showed that both resilience and perceived positive stress are positively related to life satisfaction, suggesting that an increase of resilience and a decrease of stress lead to increased life satisfaction. increased life satisfaction enables an individual to feel better and to develop resources for coping with life. evidence supports a relationship between the frequency of depression and anxiety or poor mental health with low job quality and work stress. this is the main factor as to why employers engage in interventions that promote health and encourage workplace well-being (fenton et al., 2014). the introduction of the state-owned enterprises act (2 of 2006) of namibia and its governance structures was aimed at ensuring that the performance of state-owned enterprises is maximised (amunkete, 2015). despite these efforts by the government to regulate state-owned enterprises and improve performance, to date the poor performance of state-owned enterprises remains a pertinent issue in namibia. state-owned enterprises need to take a positive approach that will recognise and leverage human resources for contribution to sustainable growth, competitive advantage and performance if they are to improve performance (amunkete, 2015). the namibian water services parastatal, namwater, where this study was conducted, has a high degree of autonomy, although its charges and sourcing of external financing are approved by the namibian government (ndokosho, 2006). the parastatal has been compounded by poor financial performance. this might lead to underinvestment and a weakening of infrastructure, and this can result in inefficiency of employees and declined service quality. similarly, for the police force (where the study was conducted), their work has been viewed as one of the most tiring and stressful jobs in the world (lu, liu, sui, guoyuan, & wang, 2015). it is stressful because of shift work, threats of violence, excessive paperwork, confrontational contact with the public, the militaristic nature of the work and having to deal with a bureaucratic organisational structure. according to the namibian police act (19 of 1990), the function of the police force shall be the preservation of the internal security of namibia, the maintenance of law and order, the investigation of any offence or alleged offence, the prevention of crime and the protection of life and property. in some cases, the police force fails to fulfil their functions (haidula, 2018). the police force may be perceived as unreliable and not meeting the objectives stipulated in their mandate. this can be seen in the way members of the public try to take justice into their own hands. purpose studies related to psycap in namibia are still novel and few studies (amunkete, 2015; ndokosho, 2006) have been undertaken into psycap and other related variables. most studies with a similar focus were conducted outside the namibian context. the researchers did not find any literature regarding the relationship between psycap, general health and satisfaction with life. according to the researchers’ knowledge, this will also be the first study to investigate the predictors of satisfaction with life in the namibian context. this study aims at investigating the relationship between these variables and the impact that psycap and general health have on the life and job satisfaction of employees of in-service delivering organisations. this study further aims to influence the perception of employers concerning the understanding and importance of life and job satisfaction in the organisation. literature review psychological capital and satisfaction with life life satisfaction can be partly viewed as the result of satisfaction with various life domains, which range from satisfaction within specific life domains to overall life satisfaction (rode, 2004). some scholars primarily attribute satisfaction with life to personality factors, and genetic and social–cognitive factors like goal-directed activity, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, environmental support and resources (mafini, surujlal, & dhurup, 2012). some people are born more optimistic and satisfied with life; some people have a certain personality disposition to be more satisfied and others are more or less satisfied depending on what they have or what is available in their environment in relation to what they regard as important (mafini et al., 2012). psychological capital is derived from the pob (positive organisational behaviour) foundation and criteria (luthans et al., 2007). psychological capital is a higher order core construct that fits into the various pob abilities of: (1) a construct being theory and evidence-based; (2) the construct needs to be positively oriented; (3) it should be validly and reliably measurable; (4) it needs to be open to development and management; and (5) lastly the construct should be related to desired and measurable work attitudes, behaviours and performance criteria for it to be included in pob (luthans & youssef-morgan, 2017). luthans (2002, p. 59) defined pob as ‘the study and application of positively oriented human resource strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed and effectively managed for performance improvement in today’s workplace’. psychological capital is a multidimensional construct associated with four positive psychological resources: hope, self-efficacy, resilience and optimism (luthans & youssef-morgan, 2017). these resources share a sense of control, intentionality and agentic goal pursuit. they also share the common theme of positive appraisal of circumstances and probability for success based on motivated effort and perseverance (luthans & youssef-morgan, 2017). these impact an individual’s satisfaction with life in relation to how motivated and persistent they are. according to avey, wernsing and mhatre (2011), self-efficacious individuals tend to have stronger beliefs in their abilities and capacities to perform various tasks that increase effort and persistence in the pursuit of their goals. high levels of hope help individuals generate the required agentic striving and pursue multiple pathways towards attainment of goals that lead to greater instances of successful outcomes. high levels of optimism help individuals maintain a positive perspective and expectations with regard to the outcomes. high levels of resilience assist individuals to overcome adversity and ‘bounce back’ from episodes of potential or actual failure. these are the features that characterise productive employees in the workforce, and this spills over to their job and life satisfaction (avey et al., 2011). this study indicated that psycap has a positive relationship with performance and job satisfaction; it is also a better predictor of these outcomes than its individual components (luthans, avolio, avey, & norman, 2007). findings indicate that operating conditions and the nature of work are significantly and negatively related to psychological distress (aazami, shamsuddin, akmal, & azami, 2015). they further stressed that these findings indicated that when work was perceived to be meaningful, important, enjoyable, and employees not being overwhelmed with paperwork, they experienced less psychological distress and higher levels of job satisfaction. psychological capital is believed to trigger cognitive, affective, conative and social mechanisms in people, leading to happiness and well-being. happy and healthy people tend to be more satisfied with their lives. avey, luthans, smith and palmer (2010) stated that employees’ psycap reinforces the potential value of taking different perspectives, appraising situations and circumstances in more positive, opportunistic, adaptive and promotion-focussed ways that enhance their well-being. general health and satisfaction with life satisfaction with life is the cognitive component of subjective well-being. health of employees within the workplace has been getting significant attention over the years. this attention is linked to positive outcomes such as increase in performance and productivity (fenton et al., 2014). the literature indicates that there is a large number of interventions aimed at raising physical activities, improved nutrition and reduced smoking at work. the common purpose of these interventions is to improve the quality of life and the productivity of workers and to reduce future health care cost associated with cardiovascular or non-transmittable diseases (fenton et al., 2014). there are hedonic and eudemonic aspects of well-being. hansen (2012) argued that the hedonic aspect of well-being refers to subjective emotions such as happiness and the experience of pleasure, and is characterised by the presence of positive moods and the absence of negative moods. the eudemonic aspect of well-being is more cognition based and focussed on the motivation individuals possess to achieve their goals, and thereby contributes to positive feelings. thus, focussing on well-being at work presents a valuable opportunity to benefit not only organisations but societies as well, which helps working individuals to feel happy, competent and satisfied in their roles. employees who achieve this are likely to be more creative, loyal and provide better customer satisfaction (hansen, 2012). the study by fenton et al. (2014) found a relationship between the frequency of depression and anxiety or poor mental health with low job quality and work stress. these are the leading factors as to why employers engage in interventions that promote health and encourage workplace well-being (fenton et al., 2014). reasons for these interventions have to do with employers’ need to increase employee morale or job satisfaction and reduce the spillover effect that ill health has on one’s co-workers, supervisors or family members (fenton et al., 2014). they further stated that research has identified some mental and physical health promotion programmes classified as employee assistance programmes (eaps) or health promotion programmes (hpps) and assessed their effectiveness. the eaps are wellness interventions in which employees receive short-term counselling for issues such as family problems or substance abuse. health promotion programmes constitute a more traditional approach that offers educational interventions aimed at supporting the development and maintenance of health-related behaviours conducive for the well-being of the overall workforce (fenton et al., 2014). the principle behind eap’s and hpp’s is that they improve health, and this reduces absenteeism and costs that leads to life satisfaction. the study by aazami et al. (2015) reported a relationship between satisfaction with life and general health, and well-being or health in the workplace. hence, there is potential of gains for organisations from intervening in employees’ health, which outweighs the costs of not intervening. this is similar with what other researchers found in their studies. aazami et al. (2015) found that satisfaction with the nature of one’s work significantly predicts sleep disorders, headaches and gastrointestinal problems. they also found that work stress conditions are associated with the development of psychosomatic complaints. poor working conditions are directly associated with job dissatisfaction and sleep shortness. well-being was also found to be related to a wide range of positive outcomes such as physical and psychological health and satisfaction with important life domains. faragher, cass and cooper (2018) stated that employees’ level of job satisfaction is a key factor influencing workers’ health. thus, there is a need for employers to support and promote the health and well-being of their employees, as well-being is a broad category of phenomena that includes people’s emotional responses, domain satisfaction and global judgements of life satisfaction (hansen, 2012). interventions to support health promotion in the workplace can reduce the cost of health care for employees which benefits organisations that have to pay the health insurance of their employees (fenton et al., 2014). furthermore, well-being plays a central role in creating flourishing societies focussing on well-being at work, thereby presenting a valuable opportunity to benefit societies as this helps working individuals to feel happy, competent and satisfied in their roles. psychological capital and general health psychological capital as representative of positive work-related psychological resources is related to measures of well-being, and it also adds a small but significant variance to well-being over time (avey et al., 2010). thus, positive resources such as employees’ psycap may lead to the desirable outcome of their psychological well-being over time. briefly, high levels of psycap lead to greater number of positive outcomes, and this intermediary mechanism perpetuates a process of optimal psychological functioning, which is well-being. the relationship between psycap and general health is supported by the conservation of resources (cor) theory (avey et al., 2010). psychological capital as a whole is a better predictor of job satisfaction and performance than each of the components of psycap (luthans et al., 2007). based on the aforementioned literature, the following hypotheses were developed: hypothesis 1: psychological capital has a positive relationship with satisfaction with life. hypothesis 2: general health has a negative relationship with satisfaction with life. hypothesis 3: psychological capital and general health are significant predictors of satisfaction with life. method research approach making use of the quantitative research method, a questionnaire was used to collect the biographical data of employees, psycap, general health and satisfaction with life. the researchers approached a parastatal that provides services to clients and the namibian police force. these organisations were approached at random. these organisations had to provide approval for research to be carried out with their employees. research was only carried out upon receiving approval for conducting research from the organisations. participants were approached; the purpose and how the data will be used were explained. after employees were informed of their rights to confidentiality and anonymity, those who were interested signed the consent form and completed the questionnaire. the participants were given a few days to complete the questionnaire and the researchers collected the questionnaires. participants had the option to withdraw from the study at any time or not to participate without fear of discrimination, victimisation or negative consequences. participants making use of non-probability sampling, participants who were available and willing were included from the namibian police force and namwater in windhoek. from namwater, 129 participants (45.9%) and 152 participants from the namibian police force (54.1%) took part in the study. in total, 300 questionnaires were distributed, and 281 questionnaires were returned (response rate 93.7%). the distribution between males and females was fairly even with 48% females (n = 135) and 52% males (n = 146). many participants were aged between 24 and 28 years (21%, n = 59), and a small portion were aged below 24 years of age (5.3%, n = 18). participants had worked for 7–8 years (18.9%, n = 53), and only 18 participants (6.4%) had worked for 11–15 years. with regard to marital status, 62.6% (n = 176) of the participants were single, and only two participants (0.7%) were widowed. majority of the sample (42%, n = 118) had 1–2 dependents, while 2.5% of the participants (n = 7) had 10 or more dependents. regarding qualifications, 69 participants (24.6%) had obtained honours degrees as their highest qualification, and 4.6% (n = 13) had a grade 12 certificate as their highest qualification. the remaining data of the biographical information are presented in table 1. table 1: biographical details of sample (n = 281). measuring instruments a demographic questionnaire developed by the researchers was used to obtain information about participants’ characteristics, including sex, age, tenure, marital status, number of dependents and highest qualification obtained. psychological capital was measured using the psycap scale developed by luthans et al. (2007). this scale evaluated employees’ level of psycap by focussing on the four psycap components or dimensions: hope, self-efficacy, resilience and optimism. the questionnaire consists of 24 items comprising four scales with six items per scale. these six items measure an individual’s ability to persevere towards goals and redirect paths to goals to succeed (hope). for example, ‘right now i see myself as being pretty successful at work’. the other six items measure an individual’s ability to have confidence to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks (efficacy), for example, ‘i feel confident helping to set targets or goals in my work area’. the following six items measure an individual’s ability to sustain and bounce back when affected by problems and adversity to attain success (resilience), for example, ‘i usually take stressful things at work in stride’. the last six items measure an individual’s ability to make a positive attribution and expectation about succeeding now and in the future (optimism), for example, ‘i always look on the bright side of things regarding my job’ (luthans et al., 2007). the response format of the questionnaire includes response choices in a six-point likert-type scale, with 1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=somewhat disagree, 4=somewhat agree, 5=agree and 6=strongly agree. in a study conducted in the namibian context, a reliability of α = 0.97 for the psycap questionnaire was found (amunkete, 2015). in the same study, the following reliabilities were found for the four psycap constructs: α = 0.84 (self-efficacy), α = 0.81 (hope), α = 0.63 (resilience) and α = 0.65 (optimism). to measure the general health of employees, the general health scale developed by goldberg and hillier (1979) was used. the scale consists of 28 items consisting of three subscales: somatic symptoms, for example, ‘been feeling run down and out of sorts?’; anxiety and insomnia, for example, ‘lost much sleep over worry?’; and social dysfunction (c scale), for example, ‘been managing to keep yourself busy and occupied?’ (goldberg & hillier, 1979). the questionnaire aims at assessing the level of general health on a four-point likert scale (from 1 = more than usual to 4 = much less usual). the cronbach’s alpha found for the general health questionnaire (ghq) reliability is of 0.85 (haidula, shino, plattner, & feinstein, 2003). the reliability for the general health subscales was the following: somatic symptoms α = 0.71, anxiety and insomnia α = 0.7, social dysfunction α = 0.81 and depression α = 0.88 (haidula et al., 2003). satisfaction with life was measured using the satisfaction with life scale developed by diener, emmons, larsen and griffin (1985) to describe how employees view their work and feel about life in general. this is a five-item scale designed to measure global cognitive judgements of one’s life satisfaction (diener et al., 1985). one of the sample item is: ‘in most ways my life is close to my ideal’. with a response format of a seven-point likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly agree to 7 = strongly agree, the reliability of the instrument is α = 0.86 (galanakis, lakioti, pezirkianidis, karakasidou, & stalikas, 2017). design the researchers used the quantitative approach, which is a process that is systematic and objective in its ways of using numerical data from a selected sample of the population, so that the findings are generalised to the population that is being studied (maree & pietersen, 2007). this method was used to collect information on psycap, general health and employees’ satisfaction with life. the research is descriptive in nature, and information was collected using questionnaires that will allow participants to rate their perceptions on a scale to describe psycap, general health and satisfaction with life. the researchers also used correlation to test for relationships between these variables and regression to test for predictability. analysis the data collected were analysed using the statistical package of social sciences version 24 (spss, 2016). this allowed the researcher to use graphs, pie charts and tables to present the data and to make correlations between variables. descriptive statistics, a data analysis technique used to describe demographic characteristics, behaviours or outcomes of a study (beins & mccathy, 2012), was used to convey the biographical results of the study. statistical package of social sciences’ reliability analysis technique, specifically the cronbach’s alpha technique, was used to test the consistency of instruments used in the study. this ensured that the results produced by the instruments were reliable. the researchers also made use of inferential statistics – the use of likelihood, or probability, to assess whether an event is common or unusual (beins & mccathy, 2012). the pearson product moment (pearson = r) was used to determine whether there was an association between the different variables of the study. making use of stepwise multiple regression, the predictability of the dependent variable was used with the inclusion of the independent variable. ethical considerations permission was obtained from the inspector general of the ministry of safety and security and the head of human resources of namwater. results descriptive statistics and correlations the data were analysed to determine the means, sds, cronbach’s alpha and correlations that are presented in table 2. table 2: descriptive statistics, reliability and pearson correlation coefficient. this study reported a mean of 28.74 for self-efficacy and an sd of 5.29. hope reported a mean of 28.86 and an sd of 4.69. somatic symptoms reported a mean of 11.56 and sd of 3.77. anxiety or insomnia reported a mean of 23.69 and an sd of 6.98. social dysfunction reported a mean of 8.93 and sd of 3.18. satisfaction with life reported a mean of 23.12 and sd of 6.56. cronbach’s alpha was also reported for self-efficacy of α = 0.80, α = 0.79 for hope, α = 0.74 for somatic symptoms, α = 87 for anxiety or insomnia, α = 0.79 for social dysfunction and α = 0.78 for satisfaction with life. optimism and resilience did not meet the expected reliability cut-off of α = 0.70 and were excluded from further analysis in the study. making use of the pearson correlation coefficient, the following relationships were found between the variables. psychological capital, self-efficacy, had a positive correlation with psycap-hope (r = 0.58, p < 0.05; large effect), and a negative correlation with somatic symptoms (general health) (r = −0.23, p < 0.05; small effect), with anxiety or insomnia (general health) (r = −0.26, p < 0.05; small effect), with social dysfunction (general health) (r = −0.18, p < 0.05; small effect) and a positive correlation with satisfaction with life (r = 0.27, p < 0.05; small effect). psycap-hope reported a negative relationship with somatic symptoms (general health) (r = −0.26, p < 0.05; small effect), with anxiety or insomnia (general health) (r = −0.38, p < 0.05; medium effect), with social dysfunction (general health) (r = −0.21, p < 0.05; small effect) and a positive relationship with satisfaction with life (r = 0.31, p < 0.05; medium effect). somatic symptoms (general health) reported a positive correlation with anxiety or insomnia (general health) (r = 0.64, p < 0.05; large effect), with social dysfunction (general health) (r = 0.31, p < 0.05; medium effect) and a negative correlation with satisfaction with life (r = −0.26, p < 0.05; small effect). anxiety or insomnia (general health) reported a positive correlation with social dysfunction (general health) (r = 0.54, p < 0.05; large effect) and a negative correlation with satisfaction with life (r = −0.33, p < 0.05; medium effect). social dysfunction (general health) reported a negative relationship with satisfaction with life (r = −0.30, p < 0.05; medium effect). multiple regression analyses to test hypothesis 3, multiple regression analyses were performed. in the first model, psycap (hope) was inserted into the relationship with satisfaction with life being the dependent variable. in model 2, anxiety or insomnia and social dysfunction (general health) were included into the model. in table 3, it can be seen that when psycap (hope) was introduced into model 1, it produced a significant model (f(1,259) = 27.64; p < 0.00) and accounts for about 10% of the variance (0.096%). it appears that psycap (hope) (β = 0.31; t = 5.26; p < 0.00) is a significant predictor of satisfaction with life. anxiety or insomnia and social dysfunction (general health) were introduced in model 2 to produce a significant model (f(3257) = 17.29; p < 0.00) and account for about 16.8% of the variance. it appears that psycap (hope) (β = 0.22; t = 3.51; p < 0.01) and social dysfunction (β = −0.17; t = −2.44; p < 0.02) are significant predictors of satisfaction with life. anxiety or insomnia (β = −0.16; t = −2.21; p < 0.28) was found not to be a significant predictor of satisfaction with life. table 3: multiple regression with satisfaction with life being the dependent variable and hope (psychological capital), anxiety or insomnia and social dysfunction (general health) the independent variables. discussion outline of the results hypothesis 1 of the study investigated the relationship between psycap and satisfaction with life. the results of this study support hypothesis 1. this study found a positive (small and medium) relationship between psycap (self-efficacy; hope) and satisfaction with life. if employees regard their abilities to be sufficient to execute their work duties, they would try harder and apply continuous effort to achieve their goals. being hopeful will increase the employees’ ability to continue working hard, believing in a positive outcome. mafini et al. (2012) indicated that personality factors also impact the levels of satisfaction of life. employees who are able to achieve at work enhance their self-efficacy and levels of hope. these employees are likely to also experience a higher level of job satisfaction and satisfaction with life (rode, 2004). the study found a negative relationship between general health (somatic symptoms, anxiety or insomnia and social dysfunction – negative dimensions) and satisfaction with life. the results support hypothesis 2 of the study. when employees suffer from physical ailments, are unable to sleep well or worry about things, they tend to have a negative interaction with others and they are likely to be less satisfied with life. ioannou et al. (2015) indicated that when employees are experiencing ill health, they are less likely to perform well at work or experience job satisfaction. when employees are experiencing higher levels of well-being, they are likely to experience pleasure in their jobs, become productive and experience higher levels of satisfaction with life (fenton et al., 2014). the findings of this study are also supported by abolghasemi and varaniyab (2010), who found that positive stress is positively related to satisfaction with life. somatic symptoms, anxiety or insomnia and social dysfunction are regarded as negative aspects of health, negatively impacting the satisfaction of life. fenton et al. (2014) indicated that eaps and hpps are interventions that improve the health and well-being of employees, improve their general health, reduce absenteeism and most likely increase employees’ satisfaction with life. based on the results of the study, psycap and general health are significant predictors of satisfaction with life. the results of this study support hypothesis 3. when employees are confident about their abilities, are more hopeful, experience good physical health, sleep well, are not too worried about matters beyond their control and are able to interact with customers and others well, they experience a higher level of satisfaction with life (abolghasemi & varaniyab, 2010; fenton et al., 2014; ioannou et al., 2015). practical implications self-efficacy shares some similarity with the agency (willpower) component of hope (herbert, 2011). on the contrary, hopeful thoughts are the beliefs that one can find pathways to desired goals and become motivated to use those pathways (herbert, 2011). self-efficacy has been conceptualised as individuals’ beliefs in their capabilities to mobilise motivation, cognitive resources and agency to exert control over a given event (hamill, 2003). thus, self-efficacy can be said to be an antecedent of hope. organisations need to provide employees with an environment that allows them to set goals that are inspiring, slightly challenging and realistic. with the guidance of supervisors, employees should be assisted to set a career path for themselves and be provided with the necessary resources to achieve these goals. when employees achieve these goals, they improve their self-belief and desire to achieve more challenging goals. in this way, employees become more determined to achieve goals at work and in turn the productivity of organisations improve. supervisors and managers may also praise and recognise hard-working employees who achieve organisational goals. praise and recognition enhance employees’ self-efficacy and motivate them to want to do more at work. when employees have a career plan or path, they are likely to also become more hopeful about the future. believing in a better future may ensure that employees will work harder and engage in work-related activities. by working harder, employees could be promoted to a better position within the organisation, with better benefits and hopefully a higher salary. mohiadin and mostafai (2012) indicated that when organisations are able to improve the self-efficacy of employees, they are likely to also enhance the employees’ satisfaction with life. self-efficacy can also be enhanced through training and development. when employees lack the necessary skills to execute their work duties, they are likely to perform poorly and have low self-efficacy. empowering employees with the necessary skills would increase their ability to perform better and perceive themselves as more competent at work. providing employees with medical aid benefits allows them to visit trained health care providers and get necessary treatment. considering that medical aid is an important benefit to employees, this also enhances their levels of job satisfaction and satisfaction with life. organisations, through their wellness offices, can invite health care service providers to demonstrate how to exercise effectively, discuss how to improve and maintain a healthy lifestyle or regularly assess the health status of employees. organisations can establish eaps and/or hpps at the work place. having access to these services would enhance employees’ health and well-being. by improving and helping employees to maintain a healthy lifestyle, organisations can enhance the longevity of their employees and also increase their productivity. this would also enhance the overall productivity of the organisation because employees would be more satisfied with the organisation and would want to ‘look after’ the interests of the organisation in the same way. it is important to note that the eaps and hpps should not only focus on the physical health and well-being of employees but also should be aimed at providing a holistic approach to health and well-being. psychological capital is negatively related to undesirable attitudes like cynicism, turnover intentions, work stress and anxiety but are positively related to organisational citizenship behaviours (luthans & youssef-morgan, 2017). psychological capital enhances job satisfaction, organisational commitment and psychological well-being of employees. limitations the following limitations were experienced while conducting the research. some questionnaires were not completed fully and thus had to be excluded from the study. data had to be collected over a period of 6 weeks because of time constraints experienced by participants. this study only focussed on namwater and namibian police force and did not reach even 60% of the population. the study focussed only on specific variables; however, the researchers noted that other variables, not focussed on in the study, may also impact the relationship and outcome of the study. recommendations while carrying out the study, the researchers noticed that there are a few studies conducted on this topic in the namibian context. thus, recommendations are given for longitudinal studies to be carried out on this topic. perhaps, future studies can also develop an intervention and evaluate how the development of psycap can have a positive impact on general health and satisfaction with life. considering that satisfaction with life may also be impacted by non-work issues, future research could also investigate the work–home interference as part of the factors that impact satisfaction with life. it is recommended that future studies should focus on other organisations and compare how experiences are different between organisations. conclusion this study confirmed the positive relationship between psycap and satisfaction with life and a negative relationship between general health and satisfaction with life. this study also confirmed that hope and social dysfunction are significant predictors of satisfaction with life. understanding the importance and benefits of psycap can be beneficial for employees and organisations as employees would experience improved general health and be more satisfied with life. organisations would be able to keep competent employees within the organisation for longer because they would be healthier and could work for more years, increase productivity and contribute to a healthy society. organisations need to understand their role in the lives of their employees and how a nurtured or less nurtured relationship can be instrumental or detrimental to the success of an organisation. organisations that invest in employees are able to get back what they have invested in their employees. acknowledgements the authors thank kauyolwa n. for assisting with data collection, and the employees from both the ministry of safety and security, and from namwater. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions i.r. was responsible for the literature review, data collection and article writing. w.r.p. was responsible for the data analysis, article writing and editing. funding information this study was supported by the university of namibia (publishing of the article). data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references aazami, s., shamsuddin, k., akmal, s., & azami, g. (2015). the relationship between job satisfaction and psychological or physical health among malaysian working women. penerbit universiti sains malaysia, 22(4), 40–46. abolghasemi, a., & varaniyab, s.t. (2010). resilience and perceived stress: predictors of life satisfaction in the students of success and failure. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 5, 748–752. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.07.178 amunkete, s.l.m.a.a. (2015). psychological capital in namibian state-owned enterprises: measurement, antecedents and outcomes. unpublished doctoral dissertation, north-west university, south africa. avey, j.b., luthans, f., smith, r.m., & palmer, n.f. (2010). impact of positive psychological capital on employee well-being over time. journal of occupational health psychology, 15(1), 17–28. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016998 avey, b.j., wernsing, t.s., & mhatre, k.h. (2011). a longitudinal analysis of positive psychological constructs and emotions on stress, anxiety, and well-being. journal of leadership and organizational studies, 18(2), 221. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051810397368 beins, b.c., & mccarthy, m.a. (2012). research methods and statistics. boston, ma: pearson. diener, e., emmons, r.a., larsen, r.j., & griffin, s. (1985). the satisfaction with life scale. journal of personality assessment, 49, 71–75. faragher, e.b., cass, m., & cooper, l.c. (2018). the relationship between job satisfaction and health: a meta-analysis. proceedings of the occupational and environmental medicine, 62, 105–112. https://doi.org/10.1136/oem.2002.006734 fenton, s.-j., roncancio, m.p., sing, m., sandhra, s., & carmichael, f. (2014, november 27). workplace well-being programs and their impact on employees and their employing organisations: a scoping review of the evidence base. a collaboration between health exchange & university of birmingham. retrieved from https://www.birmingham.ac.uk>ias. galanakis, m., lakioti, a., pezirkianidis, c., karakasidou, e., & stalikas, a. (2017). reliability and validity of the satisfaction with life scale (swls) in a greek sample. international journal of humanities and social studies, 5(2), 120–127. goldberg, d.p., & hillier, v.f. (1979). a scaled version of the general health questionnaire. psychological medicine, 9, 139–145. haidula, t. (2018). police failed us again. the namibian newspaper. retrieved from https://www.namibian.com.na/179306/archive-read/police-failed-us-again. haidula, l., shino, e., plattner, i., & feinstein, a. (2003). a namibian version of the 28 item general health questionnaire. south african psychiatry review, 6, 23–25. hamill, s.k. (2003). resilience and self-efficacy: the importance of efficacy beliefs and coping mechanisms in resilient adolescents. colgate university journal of the sciences, 35(6), 115–146. hansen, a.a. (2012). psychological capital; subjective well-being; burnout and job satisfaction amongst educators in the umlazi region. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of kwazulu-natal, south africa. herbert, m. (2011). an exploration of the relationships between psychological capital (hope, optimism, self-efficacy, resilience), occupational stress, burnout and employee engagement. unpublished master’s thesis, university of stellenbosch, south africa. ioannou, p., katsikavali, v., galanis, p., velonakis, e., papadatou, d., & sourtzi, p. (2015). impact of job satisfaction on greek nurses health-related quality of life. safety and health at work, 6(4), 324–328. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2015.07.010 lu, l., liu, l., sui, g., & wang, l. (2015). the associations of job stress and organizational identification with job satisfaction among chinese police officers: the mediating role of psychological capital. international journal of environment research and public health, 2015(12), 15088–15099. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph121214973 lucas, r.e., diener, e., & suh, e. (1996). discriminant validity of well-being measures. journal of personality and social psychology, 71(3), 616–628. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.71.3.616 luthans, f., avolio, b., walumbwa, f., & li, w. (2005). the psychological capital of chinese workers: exploring the relationship with performance. management and organization review, 1(2), 249–271. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8784.2005.00011.x luthans, f. (2002). the need for and meaning of positive organisational behaviour. journal of organisational behaviour, 23(6), 695–706. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.165 luthans, f., avolio, b.j., avey, j.b., & norman, s.m. (2007). positive psychological capital: measurement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. personnel psychology, 60(2), 541–572. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2007.00083.x luthans, f., & youssef-morgan, c.m. (2017). psychological capital: an evidence-based positive approach. annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behavior, 4(1), 339–366. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032516-113324 luthans, f., & youssef, c.m. (2004). human, social, and now positive psychological capital management. organizational dynamics, 33, 143–160. luthans, f., youssef, c.m., & avolio, b.j. (2007). psychological capital. new york: oxford university press. mafini, c., surujlal, j., & dhurup, m. (2012). event destination factors influencing the decision to attend international sports events: a post -2010 world cup analysis of local residents. african journal for physical, health education, recreation and dance, 18(1), 17–32. maree, j.g., & pietersen, j. (2007). the quantitative research process. in j. g. maree (ed.), first steps in research (pp. 145–153). pretoria: van schaik publishers. mohiadin, a.m., & mostafai, m.a. (2012). the relationship between self-efficacy and its subscales with mental health in university students. annals of biological research, 3(5), 2433–2438. ndokosho, j. (2006). assessment of management approaches in a public water utility. a case study of the namibia water corporation (namwater). unpublished master’s thesis, university of zimbabwe, zimbabwe. rode, j.c. (2004). job satisfaction and life satisfaction revisited: a longitudinal test of an integrated model. sage publications, 57(9), 1205–1230. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726704047143 spss. (2016). statistical package for the social sciences. (version 24.0) [computer software]. chicago, il: spss incorporated. sung-mook, h., & effy, g. (1994). the relationship of satisfaction with life to personality characteristics. journal of applied and interdisciplinary psychology, 128(5), 547–555. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.1994.9914912 world health organization (who). (1948). constitution of the world health organization. retrieved from https://www.who.int/governance/eb/who_constitution_en.pdf. 6vanjaarsveld.indd as south africans are becoming increasingly concerned about the critical role of the police in enforcing the rules that regulate life in our country, or the lack thereof, a growing interest is also developing in the characteristics and behaviour of police personnel. the ability of police members to fulfil the responsibilities of upholding the standards of society and of imposing its penalties may depend upon their personal values, personality and activities. hence, the examination of those factors along with such matters as police recruitment and socialisation is an important prerequisite to the investigation of police practices. without an understanding of the attributes of law enforcement personnel and the way in which they affect the performance of law enforcement duties, it is difficult to appreciate the broad implications of police actions in the maintenance of social order. according to rothmann and storm (2003) it is important to have a productive and healthy police force that serves as a contributor to the economic growth in south africa. eber (1991) re-examined several large–scale studies done on law enforcement candidates. he collected data in respect of more than 15 000 police candidates. the main measures were the two parts of the clinical analysis questionnaire (caq) (krug, cattell & ipat, 1980) where part i consists of the 16 personality factor questionnaire scales, and part ii consists of 12 measures of psychopathology. the most striking finding was the clear personality profile of law enforcement candidates in the united states. their personality profiles were characterised by a strong pattern of low anxiety, control and tough poise. lorr and strack (1994) administered the same instrument and used cluster analysis to examine the personality profile of police applicants. cluster analysis consists of grouping objects based on their similarity in certain characteristics, and creating certain subgroups or clusters. the aforementioned study revealed the existence of two different personality profiles. the majority group, very similar to what eber had described as “good policemen” (eber, 1991), was characterised by a high level of self-control, independence, extraversion and emotional stability (low neuroticism). the second group, similar to eber’s “bad policemen”, did not differ much from the aforementioned group in terms of independence, however, they did manifest a low level of control, introversion and a much higher level of anxiety. both of the abovementioned studies came to the same conclusion, namely, that there are some personality characteristics which apply to successful candidates in the police force. in a study of 120 police officers by knoetze and de bruin (2001), it is stated that high scores on trait anxiety form the basis of a number of criteria of psychopathology and that this specifically forms an integral component of post traumatic stress disorder (ptsd). hence, it is likely that police candidates with high scores on trait anxiety will be more likely to develop ptsd than those with low anxiety. a distinction between state and trait anxiety has become commonplace (spielberger, 1972, 1983). state anxiety is defined as an unpleasant emotional arousal in the face of threatening demands or dangers, thus being circumstantial. trait anxiety, on the other hand, reflects the existence of stable individual differences in the tendency to respond with state anxiety in the anticipation of threatening situations. it is expected that individuals with low trait anxiety will be more resistant to the negative effects of unusual situations than individuals with high anxiety. police officers with high scores on anxiety and neuroticism will be more prone to suffer the negative consequences of stressful situations and to develop ptsd. knoetze and de bruin (2001) further stipulate that prospective candidates should be assessed and those with high scores on trait anxiety should not be considered for operational police activities because they will be more prone to develop ptsd. anxiety and ptsd can have a devastating effect on the victim’s life as well as the lives of those people sharing his or her life. there have been several reports of suicidal behaviour, violence, depression, breakdown of family life, alcoholism and work incompetence by both researchers and police authorities. in the literature that follows it will become clear that it is of fundamental importance to get a better understanding of such a person’s personality in order to assist in creating a better support system for him/her. carson, butcher and mineka (1996, p. 128) maintain that the continuous perception of threat of a psychological nature leads to an increasingly narrow perceptual field and rigid cognitive processes. it thus becomes difficult for the person to see the situation objectively or to perceive the alternatives that are actually available. this often appears to be part of suicidal behaviour. this is supported by the study of knoetze and de bruin (2001) where it was determined that the number of year’s service by police candidates positively correlates with the development of ptsd in the presence of high anxiety. barlow and durand (1999, p. 138) describe ptsd as a severe, long-lasting emotional disorder in persons who have experienced emotional or physical stress that was of a magnitude which burgert van ja arsveld johann m schepers annetjieb@uj.ac.za dept of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract the principal objective of the study was to determine the personality profile of police recruits who are high on anxiety. a secondary objective was to determine whether there are gender and ethnic differences in the levels of anxiety of those police recruits. to investigate the stated objectives the neo personality inventory, locus of control inventory and the ipat anxiety scale were applied to 487 police recruits. complete records were obtained for 259 participants. in comparing the personality profiles of participants who are high on anxiety and those who are low, it turned out that the biggest differences were in respect of neuroticism, external locus of control and agreeableness. key words: personality profile, neuroticism, external control, agreeableness, anxiety, post traumatic stress-disorder, logistic regression. the personality profile of police recruits who are high on anxiety 51 sa journal of human resource management, 2007, 5 (2), 51-59 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2007, 5 (2), 51-59 van ja arsveld, schepers52 would be extremely traumatic for virtually anyone. examples of such traumata include combat experience, natural catastrophes, assault and serious accidents (e.g., automobile accidents, building fires). it is further speculated that the most likely events predisposing to the development of ptsd are situations of trauma and certain personality traits. in a study done by sims and sims (1998) of 70 police officers in the uk (59 men and 11 women) it was found that ptsd was associated with higher scores on rating scales of both depressive and anxiety symptomatology. alcohol consumption increases and social functioning at work and in marriage deteriorates with ptsd. the findings of sims and sims (1998) are similar to those of habermann (1997) who found that long-term exposure to stress and trauma also leads to ptsd symptomatology, again supported by knoetze and de bruin (2001), and to secondary psychopathology, like addiction. a similar study to the above two was done in the scottish police force (biggam, power, macdonald, carcary, & moodley, 1997) where it was found that ptsd is associated with symptoms of anxiety, somatic complaints, severe depression and social dysfunction. in a study by de jong, timmerman, and emmelkamp in the netherlands (1996), wherein they investigated the sur vey of recent life experiences for construct validity and possible associations with social support and somatic complaints, the authors came to the same conclusions as biggam et al. they state that there was a lower occurrence of ptsd if there were sufficient support groups to provide counselling for police officers who experienced traumatic experiences. these findings agree with the findings of barlow and durand (1999, p. 142) where they state that “in examining the factors contributing to who develop ptsd and who do not, it was found that social support was a very protective factor.” brown and grover (1998) in a study of 594 police officers found that the officers most at risk are those with a profile that exhibits a high negative attitude towards emotional expression (introversion) and low levels of social support. persons with ptsd have certain personality traits in common, besides the obvious criteria discussed in the dsm-vi. wilson, poole and trew (1997) found this in a study of all police officers who were involved in terrorist incidents in ireland between july 1993 and january 1994. they indicate that this would be an avenue for future research. they also found that 5% of the sample would meet the current criteria of ptsd. in addition, 25% of the officers reported symptoms consistent with at least mild to moderate depression. in the group with ptsd, the levels of depression were very high and were associated with high anxiety. in a study done by wearing and hart (1996a), involving 676 police officers, they came to the following conclusions: l ptsd is the result of a number of variables; l stable personality characteristics are the strongest determinants of police officers’ psychological well-being; l researchers should provide policy makers with information about the causes and consequences of ptsd; and l in terms of prevention, it is important to develop a supportive climate and to identif y high-risk persons at an early enough stage. wearing and hart (1996b) speculate that ptsd is one of the most common and debilitating psychological occurrences in the police force. they further suggest that it is the one biggest cause of depression, alcoholism, and suicide for law enforcement officers. it is not usual for law enforcement officers to seek psychological help. wearing and hart (1996) maintain that appropriate psychological measures should be developed based on personality and cognitive traits, in order to diagnose those at risk at recruitment stage. according to bartol (1996) there is a definite need for more research on anxiety and ptsd in the police force with specific reference to personality aspects. he also states that there is now more affinity towards personality assessments of police officers because of the severe psychological and physical consequences, but that little research has been done so far. mccafferty (1999, p. 179) further states that there are few statistics in the literature on personality types in the police force and that further research will help to understand police work and its effects on individuals. according to a study by gulle, tredoux and foster (1998), the south african police services has one of the highest rates in the world when it comes to psychopathology. it is further important to note the context of violence in which police officials are working in south africa. statistics support the view that south africa is an extremely violent country. van dijk (1996) indicated that over a period of five years, about 70 percent of the urban population in south africa were victimised at least once. being violently victimised in south africa has become a statistically normal feature in the urban and rural setting. south african police service figures indicate that in 1996 there were a total of 25 782 reported murders, 28 516 attempted murders and 12 860 car hijackings and in terms of sexual violence, there were a total of 50 481 rapes. as such, the homicide rate for south africa was estimated at about 61 per 100 000 inhabitants, making it almost the highest in the world. south african children are also struck hard with violence. in 1996, 20 333 crimes of a sexual nature were reported to child protection units, while there were 8 626 reported assaults of children. these statistics, however, are likely to underestimate the incidence of violence since it only reflects those crimes that are reported. post-traumatic stress disorder the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fourth edition or dsm-iv (american psychiatric association, 1994) describes the trigger event for ptsd as exposure to a traumatic event during which one feels fear, helplessness, or horror. afterwards, victims re-experience the event through memories and nightmares. when memories occur very suddenly and the victims find themselves reliving the event, they are having a flashback. victims avoid anything that reminds them of the trauma. they display a characteristic restriction or numbing of emotional responsiveness, which may be very disruptive to interpersonal relationships. the dsm-iv further states that victims unconsciously attempt to avoid the experience of emotion itself, like people with a panic disorder, since intense emotions could bring back memories of the trauma. finally, victims typically are chronically overaroused, easily startled, and quick to anger. as indicated in the dsm-iv, ptsd is subdivided into acute and chronic. acute ptsd can be diagnosed between one and three months after the event/s occurred. when ptsd continues longer than three months, it is considered chronic. chronic ptsd is usually associated with more prominent avoidance behaviours (davidson, hughes, blazer & george, 1991), as well as with more frequent co-occurrences of additional symptomatology such as social phobia, depression and alcoholism. there is also a high occurrence of suicide as a result of ptsd. in delayed onset ptsd, individuals show few if any symptoms immediately after a trauma, but later, perhaps years afterwards, they develop full-blown ptsd. why onset is delayed in some individuals is not yet clear (barlow & durand, 1999, p. 140). pertinent to the revision of psychiatric categories is the comorbid relationship between ptsd, anxiety and depression. angst and wicki (1990) report an 81% concordance between cases of ptsd and depression, whereas rubin and lesser (1990) indicate that between 20% and 90% of clients present with concomitant anxious and depressive disorders. the importance personality profile of police recruits 53 of this co-morbidity has been emphasised by keller and lavori (1990) in relation to the pathophysiology and course of the disorders and the formulation of treatment policy or prevention programmes, as well as lomax and pokorny (1988) in relation to suicide. hamilton (1988), and pollack, otto, rosenbaum, and sachs (1992) have also supported the views of keller and lovori, and lomax and pokorny. rothmann and storm (2003) investigated burnout in the south african police service and stated that in comparison with other occupations, police work is one of the most stressful, which is particularly true given the high levels of crime and violence in south africa. suicide in the police force most american studies report higher police suicide rates in comparison to the age-matched population. a survey carried out in germany by schmidtke, fricke and lester (1999), yielded higher suicide rates for police officers in comparison to a comparable age group. the most commonly used suicide method was shooting (71%). hypotheses often attribute high suicide rates among police officers to higher work stress than in other professions. other hypotheses implicate individual variables such as psychiatric illness, alcoholism, and interpersonal and marital problems. further defined, these are secondary psychopathology because of posttraumatic stress-disorder. the findings of shmidtke et al. (1999) are similar to those of vandenbos and bulatao (1996), namely that suicide in the police force are very high in comparison to the general population and is the direct result of their work and being exposed to violence and trauma. police suicide can be minimised by identif ying high-risk persons at an early stage. case studies of officers who have committed suicide revealed that most of them had suffered form symptoms of posttraumatic stress-disorder and that alcohol consumption played a role (violanti, 1996). violanti also found that suicide is the result of exposure to stress and traumatic incidents in the police force. the south african police service realised the urgent need for a suicide prevention programme when the suicide rate of the police force in the free state surpassed that of all other provinces in the country in 1994. between then and 1997 one in 365 free state police officers killed themselves. the psychological services, social work and spiritual services of the police service teamed up to research the problem and found that exposure to trauma and work stress were contributory factors (wech, 1998, p. 48). according to violanti, vena and petralia (1998), suicide is one of the biggest killers of police personnel. statement of problem the principal objective of the study was to determine the personality profile of police recruits who are high on anxiety. a secondary objective of the study was to determine whether there are gender and ethnic differences in the levels of anxiety. to investigate the stated objectives the following hypotheses were formulated: h1: there is a statistically significant difference in the vector of means of the personality variables of the participants who are high and those who are low on anxiety. h2: there is a statistically significant difference in the mean scores of the men and woman in respect of anxiety. h3: there is a statistically significant difference in the mean scores of white police recruits and black (african) police recruits in respect of anxiety. the following postulates were also investigated: postulate 1: a single factor underlines the ipat anxiety scale. postulate 2: the neo personality inventory (neo pi r tm) and locus of control inventory (lci) can be used to predict the participants’ level of anxiety as measured with the ipat anxiety scale. research design research approach a quantitative approach was followed in the execution of the study. the data were collected by means of a cross-sectional field survey. research method participants a convenience sample of 487 police recruits was drawn. they were tested as they entered the south african police force while on training at the police college in pretoria. the advantage of this was that they had not yet been exposed to the stresses and trauma associated with police work. no discrimination was made on the basis of gender, race, language, or age. the participants were subjected to three different batteries of tests. complete records were obtained for 387 recruits in respect of the ipat anxiety scale, however, there were three outliers which were removed from the sample. altogether 259 complete records were obtained in respect of the three batteries of tests that were applied. the ages of the recruits varied from 18 to 30 years, with a mean age of 25.14 years. the gender of one case was unknown. of the 383 cases, 90 were women and 293 were men. as far as ethnic groups are concerned, the police database indicates that of the participants in the study, 176 (45.8%) were african, 3 (0.8%) were coloured, 18 (4.69%) were indian and 187 (48.7%) were white. coloured and indian members were excluded from the study because of their low numbers in the sample. the results obtained for them would not have been significant. hence the sample was restricted to white and african members only. ethical issues all the research procedures followed protected the anonymity of the participants. no reference will be made to individual records and the results will only reflect group tendencies. all test scores will remain confidential. measuring instruments neo – personality inventory (revised) the neo personality inventory (neo pi – r) was developed to measure the five major dimensions of personality viz. neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. according to costa and mccrae (1992, p.44) the reliabilities of the five domains of form s range from 0.86 to 0.92. each domain comprises six facets, and their reliabilities range from 0.56 to 0.81 (p.44). as far as convergent validities are concerned, there is an impressive list of correlations with a host of measuring instruments (p.47). the coefficients listed vary from moderate to high in magnitude. ipat anxiety scale the ipat anxiety scale is based on the 16 personality factor questionnaire (16pf) of cattell (cattell, cattell & cattell, 1993). it measures the following five factors of the 16pf: 1. ipat – q3: perfectionism (-) 2. ipat – c: emotional stability (-) 3. ipat – l: vigilance (+) 4. ipat – o: apprehension (+) 5. ipat – q4: tension (+) according to owen and taljaard (1988) the reliability of the total score is 0.88 according to kuder–richardson formula 20. van ja arsveld, schepers54 locus of control inventory (1999) the locus of control inventory of schepers (1999) measures three constructs, viz. internal control, external control and autonomy. the reliabilities of the three constructs are 0.82, 0.87 and 0.88 respectively. all three scales are therefore internally highly consistent. the construct validity of the three scales has been repeatedly confirmed (schepers, gropp & geldenhuys, 2006). external control and internal control are essentially uncorrelated (r = 0.16) and not merely bipolar opposites. autonomy and internal control are substantially correlated (r = 0.56; p < 0.0001) and share 31.7% common variance of 56.3%, therefore both scales make a contribution of their own (schepers et al., 2006, p.7). as far as validity is concerned, it was found that internal control and autonomy are strongly related to psychological wellness, and external control negatively to stress management (schepers et al., 2006, p.1). results to determine the dimensionality of the ipat anxiety scale its scales were intercorrelated and subjected to a principal factor analysis. the matrix of intercorrelations is given in table 1, and the eigenvalues of the unreduced intercorrelation matrix is given in table 2. table 1 matrix of intercorrelations of the ipat-anxiety scales q3 c l o q4 ipat q3 ipat c ipat l ipat o ipat q4 1,000 0,376 0,300 0,437 0,553 0,376 1,000 0,250 0,404 0,457 0,300 0,250 1,000 0,264 0,370 0,437 0,404 0,264 1,000 0,535 0,553 0,457 0,370 0,535 1,000 note. n = 387 table 2 eigenvalues of unreduced intercorrelation matrix (5 x 5) root eigenvalue % of variance cumulative % 1 2 3 4 5 2,608 0,791 0,637 0,557 0,408 52,157 15,829 12,731 11,131 8,152 52,157 67,986 80,717 91,848 100,000 trace 5,000 table 1 shows that the measures are substantially correlated with one another, suggesting a one – factor – structure. table two shows that there is only one eigenvalue greater than unity, supporting the notion of a one – factor – solution according to kaiser’s criterion (1961). accordingly, one factor was extracted and is given in table 3. table 3 factor matrix variables factor h2j ipat q4 ipat q3 ipat o ipat c ipat l 0,817 0,670 0,658 0,575 0,436 0,667 0,449 0,433 0,330 0,190 from table 3 it is clear that all five measures of the ipat anxiety scale have substantial loadings on the single factor that was extracted. next, each of the ipat anxiet y scale measures were transformed to a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10. the transformed scores were then summed and a total score was computed for each of the respondents. the total scores were then transformed to give a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10. to examine the shape of the distribution of total scores, a box – and – whisker diagram was prepared and is shown in figure 1. figure 1: box-and-whisker diagram of anxiety scores from an inspection of figure 1 it is clear that the “boxplot” is perfectly symmetrical, suggesting a normal distribution of points. however, there were three outliers (beyond one interquartile range from the upper whisker of the plot) that needed to be removed. after removal of the three outliers, a histogram was prepared in respect of the 384 remaining participants. the resulting histogram is shown in figure 2. figure 2: histogram of anxiety scores from figure 2 it is clear that the distribution of the ipat anxiety scores is virtually a normal distribution. these scores will be used as criterion (dv) in the rest of the study. as previously mentioned, there were complete records for 259 participants, therefore the rest of the study is based on 259 cases. personality profile of police recruits 55 to test the first hypothesis, two contrasting groups were formed by taking the top and bottom 25% of the distribution of anxiety scores. the means and standard deviations of these two groups, in respect of the personality variables, are given in table 4. table 4 means and standard deviations of the personality variables in respect of the high and low anxiety groups variables high group low group mean standard deviation n mean standard deviation n neuroticism extraversion openness agreeableness conscientiousness autonomy external control internal control 59,604 44,425 46,532 44,801 44,298 47,262 56,544 47,931 7,835 8,362 8,995 7,552 8,575 9,539 9,797 10,116 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 41,742 53,765 49,970 55,309 54,013 51,641 44,203 52,260 6,802 8,354 10,382 9,571 7,535 8,161 7,833 8,298 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 from table 4 it is evident that there are large differences in the mean scores of the low and high groups in respect of neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and external control. to test for these differences, a multiple analysis of variance, followed by a series of one–way analyses of variance, were conducted. the manova indicated that there is a statistically significant difference in the vector of means of the personality variables of the participants who are high and those who are low on anxiety: wilks’ lambda was equal to 0.003 [f (8.119) = 4374.643; p = 0.000]. hypothesis 1 is therefore supported. to test where the differences lie, a series of one–way analyses of variance were conducted. the results are shown in table 5. table 5 series of one-way analyses of variance in respect of the various measures of personality dependent variable type iii sum of squares df mean square f p partial eta squared effect size neuro ticism extra version openness agreeableness conscientiousness autonomy external control internal control 10209,880 2791,808 378,234 3533,589 3020,352 613,662 4873,014 599,669 1, 126 1, 126 1, 126 1, 126 1, 126 1, 126 1, 126 1, 126 10209,880 2791,808 378,234 3533,589 3020,352 613,662 4873,014 599,669 189,684 39,968 4,009 47,548 46,362 7,788 61,944 7,006 0,000* 0,000* 0,047 0,000* 0,000* 0,006 0,000* 0,009 0,601 0,241 0,031 0,274 0,269 0,058 0,330 0,053 0,775 0,491 **** 0,523 0,519 **** 0,574 **** note. wilks’ lambda = 0,003; [f(8, 119) = 4374,643; p = 0,000] adjusted probability level (bonferroni) = 0,05/8 = 0,00625 *statistically significant from table 5 it would appear that all the mean differences are statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05), however, in doing many comparisons the probabilit y of falsely rejecting the null hy pothesis is raised. to decrease the odds of falsely rejecting the null hy pothesis when several statistical tests are done, the criterion for rejecting the null hy pothesis should be adjusted. in the present case, bonferroni’s test was used. the stated criterion (a ≤ 0.05) was divided by eight giving a probabilit y value of 0.00625 (mcguigan, 1983, p.151). using this probabilit y value, three of the comparisons were judged as not significant, namely the mean differences in respect of openness to experience, autonomy and internal control. the mean differences in respect of the other variables were highly significant. their effect sizes (2) varied from 0.491 to 0.775, signif ying real differences from a practical point of view. the personality profile of participants who are high on anxiety and those who are low on anxiety are depicted in figure 3. figure 3: personality profile of participants who are high on anxiety and those who are low on anxiety from an inspection of figure 3 it is clear that the biggest differences between the two groups are in respect of neuroticism, external control and agreeableness. the smallest mean differences are in respect of openness to experience, autonomy and internal control. to test whether the men and women differ in terms of their level of anxiety, their mean scores were compared by means of a t – test. the results of the t–test are given in table 6. table 6 t test: comparison groups in respect of anxiety women men mean sd n1 mean sd n2 levene f p t df p 48,498 10,872 56 50,166 10,060 203 0,300 0,584 -1,080 257 0,281 from table 6 it is clear that there are no gender difference in respect of anxiety: [t = -1.080 (df = 257) ; p = 0.281]. hypothesis 2 is therefore rejected. to test hypothesis 3, the mean scores of the africans and whites, in respect of anxiety, were compared by means of a t–test. the results of the comparison are given in table 7. van ja arsveld, schepers56 table 7 t test: comparison of ethnic groups in respect of anxiety africans whites mean sd n1 mean sd n2 levene f p t df p 52,627 8,064 108 47,788 11,146 151 14,422 0,000 4,054 256,958 0,000 from table 7 it is clear that there is a statistically significant difference in respect of anxiety between the two cultural groups: t = 4.054 (df = 256,958); p = 0.000]. hypothesis 3 is therefore supported. to examine postulate 2, a step-wise regression was done with the personality variables as predictors (iv) and anxiety as criterion (dv). as a first step in the analysis the various predictor variables and the criterion were intercorrelated. the matrix of intercorrelations is given in table 8. from table 8 it is clear that neuroticism and external control are substantially positively correlated with anxiety while agreeableness, extraversion and conscientiousness are moderately negatively correlated with anxiety. to determine the multiple correlation of the personality variables with anxiety a step-wise regression was done. the results are given in table 9. table 9 shows that a multiple correlation of 0.712 was obtained. this coefficient is statistically highly significant [f (3.255) = 87.267; p = 0.000]. this means that approximately 50% of the variance of the criterion is accounted for by the predictors (adjusted r – square = 0.501). the following variables were included in the regression equation: neuroticism, external control and agreeableness. from the beta coefficients it is clear that the biggest weight in the regression equation is carried by neuroticism (beta coefficient is equal to 0.563). all the regression coefficients are statistically significant. strong support for postulate 2 was therefore found. in order to predict the category membership of the ipat anxiety groups, viz. those who are low on anxiety (less than 41.656) and those who are high on anxiety (more than 57.650), a logistic regression was done. the results are given in table 10. from table 10 it is evident that according to wald’s test all the regression coefficients (b) are statistically significant. the odds of classif ying a person as belonging to group 1 (the high group), divided by the odds of classif ying him/her as belonging to group 2 (the low group), is given by the coefficient indicated as exp. (b). for instance, the odds ratio in respect of neuroticism is table 8 matrix of intercorrelations of the personality variables and anxiety variables ipatanxiety neuroticism extraversion open-ness agreeableness conscientiousness auto-nomy external control internal control ipat-anxiety neuroticism extraversion openness to experience agreeableness conscientiousness autonomy external control internal control 1,000 0,689* -0,343** -0,124* -0,430** -0,410** -0,193** 0,466** -0,205** 0,689** 1,000 -0,506** -0,276** -0,454** -0,663** -0,357** 0,494** -0,286** -0,343** -0,506** 1,000 0,451** 0,322** 0,491** 0,368** -0,214** 0,304** -0,124* -0,276** 0,451** 1,000 0,206** 0,307** 0,266** -0,187** 0,226** -0,430** -0,454** 0,322** 0,206** 1,000 0,369** 0,010 -0,368** 0,218** -0,410** -0,663** 0,491** 0,307** 0,369** 1,000 0,485** -0,383** 0,435** -0,193** -0,357** 0,368** 0,266** 0,010 0,485** 1,000 -0,227** 0,670** 0,466** 0,494** -0,214** -0,187** -0,368** -0,383** -0,227** 1,000 -0,300** -0,205** -0,286** 0,304** 0,226** 0,218** 0,435** 0,670** -0,300** 1,000 note. ** significant at the 0,01 level (2-tailed) * significant at the 0,05 level(2-tailed) table 9 stepwise regression of personality variables on anxiety (dv) analysis of variance source of variation df sum of squares mean square multiple r: 0,712 r square: 0,507 adjusted r square: 0,501 standard error of estimate: 7,2371482 regression residual total 3 255 258 13712,105 13355,960 27068,065 4570,702 52,376 f = 87,267 p = 0,000 variables in the equation independent variables b se b beta t-value p constant neuroticism external control agreeableness 19,135 0,588 0,153 -0,126 4,876 0,056 0,055 0,052 0,563 0,143 -0,122 3,924 10,471 2,783 -2,427 0,000 0,000 0,006 0,016 table 10 logistic regression: variables in equation variables in equation b se b wald df p exp (b) neuroticism external control constant 0,384 0,084 -23,582 0,080 0,040 4,523 22,968 4,437 27,183 1 1 1 0,000 0,035 0,000 1,469 1,087 0,000 table 11 predicted membership category according to logistic regression observed category predicted category percentage correct 1 low ipat 2 high ipat ipat groups: 1 low ipat (less than 41,656) 2 high ipat (more than 57,650) overall percentage 58 6 6 58 90,6% 90,6% 90,6% note. nagelkerke r square = 0,829 personality profile of police recruits 57 1.469. there is therefore a positive relation between neuroticism and the criterion of classification. the odds ratio in respect of external control is just above 1.0 and signifies a weak positive relation with the criterion of classification. in order to assess the accuracy of the regression equation in predicting the membership category of the two groups of anxiety (high vs. low), the percentage correct classifications in terms of high and low anxiety were calculated and are given in table 11. from table 11 it can be seen that the logistic model correctly classified 90.6% of the cases in respect of both the high and low group. the overall percentage of 90.6% is indeed impressive. the nagelkerke r–square of 0.829 gives an indication of the amount of variation in the dependent variable accounted for by the model (pallant, 2005, p.167). the following regression equation can be used to estimate the membership category (high vs. low) of new participants: p (high group) = 1 1 + e -(a + b1x1 + b2x2 + .. bkxk) where e = napierian log = 2.71828 a = constant b1= regression coefficient of first variable b2= regression coefficient of second variable bk= regression coefficient of k-th variable the following example will clarif y the issue: example person a’s score on neuroticism is 60 and on external control 70. p(high group) = 1 1 + e –(23.582 + 0.384x60 + 0.084x70) = 1 1 + e -5.338 = 1 1 + 0.005 = 0.995 if p (high group) ≥ 0.5 classif y respondent as high. if p (high group) < 0.5 then classif y respondent as low. person a clearly belongs to the high group. by contrast person x’s score on neuroticism is 30 and his score on external control is 40. p(high group) = 1 1 + e –(23.582 + 0.384x30 + 0.084×40) = 1 1 + e -8.702 = 0.000166 p (high group) < 0.5 therefore person x belongs to the low group. discussion the personality profile of police recruits who are high on anxiety the ipat anxiety scale was subjected to a principal factor analysis, and yielded one factor. next, a single score was calculated for each participant and standardised with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10. this score served as dependent variable (dv) throughout the study. to test the principal hypothesis of the study, two contrasting groups were formed by taking the top and bottom 25% of the distribution of anxiety scores. the manova that was conducted indicated that there is a statistically highly significant difference in the vector of means of the personality variables of participants who are high and those who are low on anxiety. applying the bonferroni test it was found that three of the eight comparisons were not significant (p < 0.006), namely those in respect of openness to experience, autonomy and internal control. the biggest differences were in respect of neuroticism, external control and agreeableness. the personality profiles of the two groups are depicted in figure 3. by means of a logistic regression it was possible to classif y 90.6% of the cases as belonging to the high or low anxiety group. the best predictors here were neuroticism and external control. costa and mccrae (1992) warn that the neuroticism scale “should not be viewed as a measure of psychopathology. it is possible to obtain a high score on the neuroticism scale without having any diagnosable psychiatric disorder” (p.14). according to them “individuals who score low on neuroticism are emotionally stable. they are usually calm, even-tempered, and relaxed, and they are able to face stressful situations without becoming upset or rattled” (p.15). by contrast with the foregoing, persons who are high on external control are “unable to manage stress in any shape or form. they are the direct antithesis of persons who are high on internal control and autonomy” (schepers, et al., 2006, p.8). from the foregoing it should be clear that persons with high scores on neuroticism and external control are unable to manage stress in any form without becoming very anxious. from the study of sims and sims (1998) it is clear that ptsd is associated with high scores on rating scales of both depressive and anxiety symptomatology. in an earlier study, habermann (1997) found that long-term exposure to stress and trauma also leads to ptsd symptomatology and to secondary psychopathology-like addiction. the neo pi–r and the lci can therefore effectively be used to screen out those candidates who would not be able to cope with high levels of stress. gender and ethnic differences in levels of anxiety no difference was found in the mean scores of the men and women in the sample, in respect of levels of anxiety. however in the comparison of africans and whites it was found that the africans scored higher than the whites. this fact should be kept in mind when selecting recruits for the police force. regression of neo pi–r and lci were used in a step-wise regression to predict the ipat anxiety scale. a multiple correlation of 0.712 was obtained, accounting for 50% of the variance of the criterion. neuroticism, external control and agreeableness were included in the regression equation. this confirms the usefulness of the two instruments in identif ying anxiety in the participants, and can be considered for use in the selection of police recruits. the instruments should now be applied to a much larger sample and norms should be prepared for a variety of groups. conclusion with reference to all the negative effects as discussed previously, especially the high suicide rates among south african police officials it becomes increasingly important for strict selection in this regard. members selected for operational duties should be mentally fit for both their own protection as well as those communities they are suppose to serve. it is recommended that the above factors should be included in the psychometric evaluation of new police recruits before placements. van ja arsveld, schepers58 weaknesses and limitation of the study includes the fact that only 259 complete records were obtained out of the 487 original participants. ideally follow up consultations and evaluation should also have taken place which unfortunately was not possible from a logistics point of view. further studies should also include the administration of a post-traumatic stress diagnostic scale on the same participants from this study to determine if respondents that now suffer from ptsd have had similar characteristics in terms of personality and locus of control when they entered the police force. acknowledgements i herewith wish to thank the following people whose support and contributions made this study possible: prof. johann schepers for his world-class advice, encyclopaedic knowledge, ability to interpret data, his belief in the value of this study and me, for the many hours he spent assisting me and for his tremendous moral support. thank you for always being available, even in your retirement. it really is very highly appreciated. the south african police service who provided the research data and support. in particular, anton grobler, deon meiring and riana botha. dr. riët te eiselen for advice concerning the statistical analysis of my data, and anneli hardy for all the computational work done for me. i value your help very highly. dr. jopie van rooyen & partners for their dedication to research and their supply of research materials and assistance to me in the scoring of tests. my mother, mrs. connie bruce for prayer and financial support. references abrams, r. (1996). assessing personality in chronic care populations. journal of mental health and aging, 2(3), 231 – 242. american psychiatric association. (1980). diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (3rd ed.). washington, dc: author. angst, j. & wicki, w. (1990). the zurich study: panic, agoraphobia and generalized anxiety disorder. journal of psychiatric research, 24, 21 – 22. barlow, d.h. & durand, v.m. (1999). abnormal psychology (2nd ed.). pacific grove, ca: international thompson publishing. bartol, c.r. (1996). police psychology: then, now and beyond. criminal justice and behaviour, 23(1), 70 – 89. biggam, f.h., power, k.g., macdonal, r.r., carcary, w.b., & moodley, e. (1997). self-perceived occupational stress and distress in a scottish police force. work and stress, 11(2), 118 – 133. bonaruis, h., holland, r., & rosenburg, s. (1981). personal construct psychology: recent advances in theory and practice. london: macmillan. brown, j. & grover, j. (1998). the role of moderating variables between stressor exposure and being distressed in a sample of serving police officers. personality and individual differences, 24(2), 181 – 185. carson, r.c., butcher j.n., & mineka s. (1996). abnormal psychology and modern life (10th ed.). new york: harper collins. cattell, r.b., cattell, a.k. & cattell, h.e. (1993). the sixteen personality factor questionnaire, (5th ed.). champaign il: institute for personality and ability testing, inc.. costa, p.t. & mccrae, r.r. (1992). revised neo personality inventory (neo pi – rtm) and neo five – factor inventory (neo – ffi). professional manual. florida: psychological assessment resources, inc.. daly, r.j. (1983). samuel pepys and posttraumatic stress-disorder. british journal of psychiatry, 143, 64 – 68. davidson, j.r.t., hughes, d.l., blazer, d.g., & george, l.k. (1991). posttraumatic stress in the community: an epidemiological study. journal of psychological medicine, 21, 721 – 731. de jong, g.m., timmerman, i.g.h., & emmelkamp, p.m.g. (1996). the survey of recent life experiences: a psychometric evaluation. journal of behavioural medicine, 19(6), 529 – 542. dunnett, g. (1988). phobias: a journey beyond neurosis. in f. fransella and l. thomas (eds), experiencing with personal construct psychology (pp. 319 – 328). london: routledge & kegan paul. eber, h.w. (1991). good cop includes bad cop: a supplementary concept of police brutality. paper presented at the annual meeting of the society of multivariate experimental psychology, albuquerque, nm. engler, b. (1985). personality theories: an introduction. boston: hopughton mifflin. gukke, g., tredoux, c., & foster, d. (1998). inherent and organisational stress in the saps: an empirical survey in the western cape. the south african journal of psychology, 28(3), 129 – 134. habermann, g.m. (1997). looking back and moving for ward: 50 years of new zealand psychology. wellington, nz: new zealand psychological society, inc. hamilton, m. (1988). distinguishing between anxiety and depressive disorders. in m. hersen and c.g. last (eds), handbook of anxiety disorders (pp. 143 – 155). new york: pergamon. kaiser, h.e. (1961). a note on guttman’s lower bound for the number of common factors. british journal of statistical psychology, 14(1), 1. keller, m.b., lavori, p.w. (1990) natural history of panic disorder. journal of psychiatric research, 24 (suppl. 1), 75. kelly, g.a. (1995). the psychology of personal constructs (vols. 1 & 2). new york: norton. kessler, r.c., sonnega, a., bromet, e., hughes, m., & nelson, c.b. (1995). posttraumatic stress-disorder in the national co-morbidity survey. archives of general psychiatry, 52, 1048 – 1060. knoetze, j. & de bruin, g. (2001). die verband tussen trekangs, diensjare en posttraumatiese stresversteuring by polisiebeamptes. acta academica, 33(2), 168 – 184. krug, s.e., cattell, r.b. & ipat (1980). clinical analysis questionnaire manual, champaigne, il: institute for personality and ability testing. lazarus, r. s. (i 991). emotion and adaptation. london: oxford university press. lomax, j.w. & pokorny, a.d. (1988). suicide and anxiety. in hersen and c.g. last (eds), handbook of anxiety disorders (pp. 552 – 563). new york: pergamon. lorr, m. & strack, s. (1994). personality profiles of police candidates. journal of clinical psychology, 50 (2), 200 – 207. mancuso, j.c., & hunter, k.v. (1983). anticipation, motivation, or emotion: the fundamental postulate after twentyfive years. in j. adams-webber and j.c. manusco (eds), applications of personal construct theory (pp. 73 – 92). ontario: academic. mccafferty, f.l. (1999). “the corruption process of a law enforcement officer”: reply. journal of the american academy of psychiatry and the law, 27(1), 179. mcguigan, f.j. (1983). experimental psychology: methods of research, (4th ed.). englewood cliffs, n.j.: prentice – hall. otto, m.w., pollack, m.h., sachs, g.s., o’neil, c.a., & rosenbaum, j.f. (1992). alcohol dependence in panic disorder patients. journal of psychiatric research, 26 (1), 29 – 38. personality profile of police recruits 59 owen, k. & taljaard, j.j. (1988). handleiding vir die gebruik van sielkundige en skolastiese toetse van ipen en die nipn. pretoria: raad vir geesteswetenskaplike navorsing. pallant, j. (2005). spss sur vival manual (2nd ed.). london: open university press. pollack, m.h., otto, m.w., rosenbaum, j.f. & sachs, g.s. (1992). personality disorders in patients with posttraumatic stressdisorder: association with childhood anxiety disorders, early trauma, co-morbidity, and chronicity. comprehensive psychiatry, 33 (2), 78 – 83. rothmann, s. & storm, k. (2003). burnout in the south african police ser vice. poster presented at the 11th european congress of work and organizational psychology, lisbon, portugal, 14-17 may 2003. rubin, r.t., & lesser, i.m. (1990). secondary depression in panic patients. journal of psychiatric research. journal of psychiatric research, 24, 78 – 79. schepers, j.m., gropp, l. & geldenhuys, d.j. (2006). the factor structure, metrical properties, and convergent validity of the third edition (1999) of the locus of control inventory. sa journal of industrial psychology, 32(2), 1 – 8. schmidke, a., fricke, s., & lester, d. (1999). suicide among german federal and state police officers. psychological reports, 84 (1), 157 – 166. sigel, i.e., & holmgren, a. (1983). a constructivist dialectic view of the development of a person: an update. in j. adamsweber and j.c. mancuso (eds), applications of personal construct theory (pp. 55 – 72). ontario: academic. sims, a.c.p., & sims, d. (1998). the phenomenology of posttraumatic stress-disorder: a symptomatic study of 70 victims of psychological trauma. psychopathology, 31(2), 96 – 112. spielberger, c. d. (1972). anxiety: current trends in theory and research. new york, n.y.: academic press. spielberger, c. d. (1983). manual for the state-trait anxiety inventory (stai). paloalto, ca: consulting psychologists press. vandenbos, g.r., & bulatao, e.q. (1996). violence on the job: identif ying risks and developing solutions. washington, dc: american psychological association. van dijk, j. (1996). victim empowerment and support in an international perspective. in l. camerer & j. nel, putting victims on the agenda, institute for security studies, monograph series, no. 7, pp. 18-30. violanti, j.m. (1996). police suicide: epidemic in blue. springfield, il, usa: charles c. thomas publisher. violanti, j.m., vena, j.e., & petralia, s. (1998). mortality of a police cohort. american journal of industrial medicine, 33(4), 366 – 373. wearing, a.j., & hart, p.m. (1996b). work and non-work coping strategies: their relation to personality, appraisal and life domain. stress medicine, 12(2), 93 – 103. welch, j. (1998). life savers: ipd people management award 1998 special issue. people management, 22, 46. wilson, f.c., poole, a.d., & trew, k. (1997). psychological distress in police officers following critical incidents. irish journal of psychology, 18(3), 321 – 340. winter, d. (1985). neurotic disorders: the curse of certainty. in e. button (ed.), personal construct theory and mental health (pp. 103 – 131). kent: croom helm. abstract introduction research question objectives of the study methodology evolutionary development of human relations theory of management assumptions of human relations theory of management and their reflective observations belongingness, inclusiveness, recognition and it’s reflective observations groups and social group within workplace and its reflective observations motivation by social, psychological and economic incentives and its reflective observations communication as power of manipulative influence and its reflective observations the implication of human relations theory of management to university practice and crisis management conclusion and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) bunmi i. omodan school of education studies, faculty of education, university of the free state, qwaqwa, south africa cias t. tsotetsi school of education studies, faculty of education, university of the free state, qwaqwa, south africa bekithemba dube school of education studies, faculty of education, university of the free state, qwaqwa, south africa citation omodan, b.i., tsotetsi, c.t., & dube, b. (2020). analysis of human relations theory of management: a quest to re-enact people’s management towards peace in university system. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1184. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1184 original research analysis of human relations theory of management: a quest to re-enact people’s management towards peace in university system bunmi i. omodan, cias t. tsotetsi, bekithemba dube received: 04 mar. 2019; accepted: 06 oct. 2020; published: 21 dec. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation research purpose: in response to social unrest that has eaten deep into the fabric of the university system in nigeria, this theoretical paper is positioned to respond by examining the human relations theory of management (hrtm) as a suggestible solution to the management of the incessant students’ oriented crisis in the system. the theory was argued towards exposing the dividends enjoy by organisational stakeholders emanating from the outcome of the hawthorne study. research approach and finding: the study adopted literature and observations as a research approach, while theoretical analysis was employed to interpret and make sense of hrtm. the analysis was considered from its evolutionary point of view; the development of human relation theory of management, the contributions of jacob moreno’s stoichiometry and mcgregor’s theory x and y. i further argued and justified that the assumptions of the theory such as; belongingness, inclusiveness and recognition, an informal or formal social group within a workplace, development of affinity in workplace, motivation, and communication are the roadmap to the people’s management. in the same vein, it becomes a useful tool for managing students’ unrest in universities. the relevant of the theory to crisis management was equally exemplified, coupled with the development of a theoretical model to better simplify the nexus between hrtm and crisis management. implication for management: observations were made based on the assumptions of the theory to respond to the vacuum hrtm supposed to have filled. the study conclusively recommends that; inclusive decision making, the committee system, motivation and communication should be paramount in managing the system to enable amicable relationships for better productivity, peace and relative tranquility. keywords: crisis management; human relations theory; people’s management; relationship. introduction educational institutions, such as public universities, are lucid miniature of micro-societies where the roles and influences of the administrators and managers can be investigated whether as an agent of development or otherwise. one of the most difficult activities of mankind all over the world is management (sheldreke, 2000). this is so because it has to do with the use of both human and material resources to actualise the goals and objectives of the organisation, especially in an academic community that comprises intellectuals such as teaching and non-teaching staff, as well as administrators and even students whose need and aspirations as individuals are dynamic in nature. these aspirations are directed at refining the society through the social and corporate efficiency of its members and products. to this end, it is pertinent to say that the essential roles being played by university education as an apparatus of social engineering cannot be under-rated. this, therefore, requires a dynamic and humanitarian strategy. despite the apparent benefits of university education to nation-building, the potentials of the university system in developing countries to fulfil its responsibility is frequently obstructed by long-standing problems bedevilling the system. that is why ekundayo and ajayi (2009) concluded that higher education in nigeria is in travail; the system is riddled with crises of various dimensions and magnitudes. amongst other maladies faced by universities is student unrest of various magnitudes. despite the efforts of government and other stakeholders to maintain relative peace and tranquillity in the management of university system, there has been an increase in unrest, ranging from trade unions and students’ oriented crisis in almost all the nigerian universities, most specifically in public universities. this was supported by the conclusion of omodan (2016) that the frequent industrial actions embarked upon by various trade unions in various tertiary institutions seem to have hindered the speedy actualisation of the set predetermined goals and objectives of tertiary institutions. even student-oriented crisis in nigeria, south africa and kenya, including western countries such as united states of america and sri lanka, is also not lagging behind, and this is evidenced in many relative crises that usually lead to closure of schools and boycotts of lectures by students, shooting, killing and sustenance of injuries during crises (akeusola, viatonu, & asikhia, 2012; dube & hlalel, 2018; premium times, 2017; virginia commonwealth university, 2012; weeramunda, 2008). this is to justify that student unrest is not only limited to nigeria but other countries and continents also face the problem. in examining the challenges of student unrest, university managers and administrators must be aware of these enormous responsibilities and be able to find a lasting solution to the problem. in place of this, one could argue that many universities are not actually meeting up with their predetermined goals and objectives, and therefore, call for the use and adoption of relevant mechanism, such as human relations theory of management (hrtm), in order to salvage the system. this is to say that this study is aiming at reconstructing the organisational management system, mostly universities, in order to effectively manage human capital for peace and tranquillity and also for productivity sake. this study, therefore, engages in a thorough explication of the hrtm with justifiable arguments towards the interrelatedness of hrtm and management of student unrest in the university system. research question in order to give direction to this theoretical exploration, the following research question is raised to pilot the study: how can hrtm be reconstructed to enhance people’s management and students’ oriented unrest in the university system? objectives of the study this study aims to reposition with critical analysis of the hrtm to enhance the people’s management and students’ oriented crisis in the university system. that is, the quintessential of hrtm is explored, analysed and redirected to respond to the management of human capital in the university system. to achieve the aims as mentioned above, the study explores: the nitty-gritty of hrtm, analyses and diagrammatically interprets the assumptions in line with how it could be used to respond to management of unrest. the veracity of the hrtm using observations and the literature to justify the assumption of hrtm to management of unrest in universities. methodology this study adopted observations and the literature on the student unrests in the universities in nigeria as a research approach. this was performed to argue the lacuna created using or not using hrtm. however, the theoretical deductions, observations and the supporting literature were analysed by theoretical analysis. theoretical analysis was described by dix (2007) as academic research that is based on theoretical decoration, analysis and interpretation. this is not a method that is generally applied to all studies but only applicable to researchers’ attitude and desires to make sense of the phenomenon about the chosen theory (fawcett & downs, 1986). this approach, according to jasso (1988), can influence design and research methodology; most notably the research that is based on a theoretical sense-making. the method under consideration, in my view, is a structured body of knowledge where the theoretical and conceptual materials are both the research process and the outcomes of the research. that is, the research process, findings and the conclusion are based on reflective arguments, experiences and belief of the researcher with reference to the theory. in order to implement theoretical analysis, i draw on the theoretical deductions, observations and the supporting literature, and subjected them to personal consensual, interpretational and social understanding for the purpose of making viable arguments. the following section discusses the presentation and the analysis of hrtm. evolutionary development of human relations theory of management human relations theory of management was developed from an empirical study of elton mayo and his associates such as roethlisberger, dixon and follett who carried out the study at the hawthorne plant of western electric near chicago, united states between 1920s and 1930s (ajayi & ayodele, 2011; barnard, 1938). the empirical research was designed to test the effect of lighting intensity on worker productivity, and the influence of human relations on work behaviour (mayo, 1933). this struggle in search of a suitable approach to management came as a result of the perceived inhumane holistic approach of classical approaches, such as scientific and administrative management theory. the failure of classical theories, therefore, gave birth to the human relations approach in an organisation, which came into actual existence in the 1930s as an alternative to the classical approach to organisational analysis (hartzell, 2017). this is because the classical theorists appear to have neglected and underemphasised the importance of humanism and socio-psychological aspects of individual’s behaviour as a panacea to organisational performance in the operations of the organisation (coombs, 2007). human relation school of thought appears to be a developmental deviation from the scientific and classical viewpoint that man was an economic animal who responds only to financial incentives. the principles of the classicist, according to ajayi and ayodele (2011), tend to create more problems at the place of work rather than solving them; this is because the classicist out-rightly failed to recognise human being as an essential part of the input, process and output of company (ajayi & ayodele, 2011). the hawthorne studies as it is popularly known (nwankwo, 2014; omodan, dube, & tsotetsi, 2018) consisted of several experiments, such as ‘the first relay assembly test room, the second relay assembly group, the medical splitting group, typewriting group and the bank writing observation room experiments’ which holds that attitudes, relationships, feelings of belonging, interpersonal skills, participative decision-making and effective communication play a key role in the performance and effectiveness of an organisation (lunenburg & ornstein, 2012; mayo, 1933). according to manoj (2016), in the hawthorne studies, it was briefly explained that both the social and psychological factors at the workplace alongside the physical conditions of the workplace determine the employees’ morale and output, non-economic rewards and sanctions significantly affect the workers’ behaviour, morale and output. the study further concluded that workers are not inert or isolated, unrelated individual; they are social animals; therefore, the workers tend to form small groups such as informal organisation within the organisation. finally, the hawthorne studies concluded that leadership style, style of supervision, communication and participation play a central role in workers’ behaviour, satisfaction and productivity (manoj, 2016). although it was not only mayo and his associates who contributed to the development of human relation approach, there are many contributors whose study also influence human relations movement, such as hurt lewin, jacob moreno and douglas mcgregor. hurt lewin originated research called group dynamics (lewin, lippitt, & white, 1939). the study assumed that a democratic group that gives members a sense of belonging and allows members to participate in decision-making actively is more productive in both personal and individual satisfaction and organisational goal achievement (ajayi & ayodele, 2011; lunenburg & ornstein, 2012). jacob moreno also made a significant contribution to the development of human relations theory and focused on the group interpersonal relationship in a sociometric technique (moreno, 1934). jacob levy moreno came up with a term called ‘sociometry’ from his first long-range sociometric study that took place between 1932 and 1938 at the girls training school hudson, new york. in the study, moreno used sociometric techniques for assigning residents to their respective residential cottages (hoffman, 2000). in the study, moreno (1953) found that assigning residence based on sociometry significantly reduced the number of runaways from the facility. moreno (1953) concluded that groups that comprise people with relatively similar affinity for one another will perform better than a group lacking such an effective relationship. that is, it shows how individuals associate and relate with each other when acting as a group towards a specified goal and target objectives (moreno, 1960). this is what borgatta (2007) expound to mean that when people are allowed to make their choice of things, actions and groups to relate with, it may effectively contribute to such individual effectiveness. therefore, that choices of people and choices of things are one of the important elements in all active human relations (moreno, 1953). like hurt lewin and jacob moreno, douglas mcgregor targeted the perspective of motivation in an organisation (yacoub, 2016). douglas mcgregor’s perspective on human relations management emanated in 1960 in his book titled ‘the human side of enterprise’. in the book, he proposed two theories viewing employees’ motivation in two dimensions. he labelled the perspectives ‘theory x and y’. the divergent perspective of the theories was premised on the management’s role in managing people for the economic benefit of the firm towards production (mcgregor, 1960). theory y assumes that people want to work, that they are responsible and self-motivated, that they want to succeed and that they understand their position in the company hierarchy (dininni, 2017; odionye, 2014). this is in contrary to theory x, which assumes that employees are naturally lazy and unmotivated, that they seek nothing more from their jobs than security and that they require discipline from without (mcgregor, 1960). in short, dininni (2017), therefore, argued from the dichotomy of theory x and y that human relations theory, rather than viewing the stakeholders as merely one more component in the company wheel, asserts that the organisation will prosper as it helps the employee thrive. hence, the underlying assumptions of hrtm were born out of experiments and outcomes of the hawthorne researchers most notably from their chief populariser who identified the importance of the human factor in organisations (ajayi & ayodele, 2011; mayo, 1933; nikolas, 2005). assumptions of human relations theory of management and their reflective observations the assumptions of the theory are as follows: the needs, such as belongingness, inclusiveness and recognition, determine workers’ morale than physical conditions of work environments; informal or formal social group within workplaces such as team effort, social conformity and group loyalty determines individual and group behaviours; people develop affinity for one another in the group that comprises individual with various affinities; employees are motivated by social and psychological needs coupled with economic incentives; communication, power, manipulative influence authority devoid of autocracy are important, and therefore, should be encouraged and developed in organisation (mayo, 1933; mcgregor, 1960; moreno, 1953). belongingness, inclusiveness, recognition and it’s reflective observations this is one of the assumptions of the hrtm that captures the inclusiveness of the subordinates and all organisational stakeholders into decision-making processes. this is shown in the statement from the conclusion of hawthorne studies that organisations should ensure subordinate’s sense of belonging through inclusiveness and recognition. this is also shown in the study of lunenburg and ornstein (2012) that the need to including but not limited to belongingness, inclusiveness and security is essential for worker’s morale and productivity than the condition of the physical environment alone. this assumption is categorised into three dimensions given by stoner and wandel (1988), which are assumptions, policies and expectations. according to them, assumptions are that people want to feel useful and relevant, people want to belong and to be recognised as individuals, and that these needs are more important than money in motivating people; policies are that the management should make subordinates useful and important, the management should keep subordinates informed and listen to their objections, and the management should allow subordinates some self-direction and self-control; expectation as part of the dimensions, as argued by them, is that when information is shared with the subordinates, and they are adequately involved in routine decisions, will satisfy their basic needs to belong, and will improve morale and reduce resistance to formal authorities. reflective observations decision-making as one of the existing crisis management strategies, according to nwankwo (2014, p. 108), is the process of choosing amongst alternative courses of action. hence, to be able to decide on what is appropriate action on any management matters, the managers or administrators need to know and understand not only the various alternative options that exist but also how the decision would be made, that is, whether it should be participatory or otherwise. students’ involvement in decision-making is not new phenomena but seems to be not taken seriously by the university administrators (sinclair, 2004). the concept of giving students the right to participate in the decision-making process emerged as a result of student movement agitation in the 1960s and early 1970s, and more recently developed in ‘student voice’ initiatives in schools (mager & nowak, 2012). the united nations convention on the rights of the children in 1989 also supported this concept by promoting the right to involve young people in decisions that affect their lives (mitra, 2009; rudduck & mcintyre, 2007). student involvement in decision-making in schools also refers to the participation of students in a collective decision-making process, dialogue between students and other relevant university administrators (adegun & arogundade, 2014). this is often seen as problematic to university administrators and other decision-makers, in general, because students are viewed as youngsters, unripe, therefore lacking the requisite knowledge needed to run the affairs of a school (mager & nowak, 2012). thus, neglecting students in participating in a decision that directly or indirectly affects them has been the bone of contention because of its negative output. that is why adegun (2003) concluded that the concerned people who are affected by the major decision of the school authority needed to be involved and carried along in decision-making to avoid conflict. it was observed that a lack of participatory decision-making in universities seems to have largely contributed to the rise of students’ oriented crises. this is evidenced in the 2011 students’ unrest in the then university of ado ekiti where students went on a rampage to fight against the university policy of ‘no school fees, no exam’. the school suffered significant damages, and students, to a large extent, also were affected. the university was shut down, and many were arrested, suspended and made to pay for the damages. not only in ekiti state university, many universities in south west recently went to the street to protest against what they termed obnoxious increment in school fees (mahmud, 2013). these destructive activities are associated with seemingly obnoxious government decision and policies, the poor state of facilities on campus and increase in school fees (omisade, 2014) in the universities such as university of lagos, lagos state university, olabisi onanbanjo university and ago iwoye (premium times, 2017). groups and social group within workplace and its reflective observations another assumption from the hawthorne study is the encouragement of group activities, social group interrelationship within the workplace such as team effort, social conformity and group loyalty, which determines individual and group behaviours towards productivities (mayo, 1933). nwankwo (2014) also corroborated hawthorne study by exemplifying that team spirit and sociological factors in the workplace have greater influence in determining individual and group behaviour in an organisation. that is, committee teamwork, social interrelationships lessen conflict between group(s), and aid social conformity and loyalty from the subordinates (nwankwo, 2014). this is supported by the findings of hawthorne’s study that production and satisfaction increased regardless of manipulation, and that human interrelationships are important contributing factors to workers’ productivity (lunenburg & ornstein, 2012). according to dininni (2017), the human relations theory has a landmark contribution to the evolution of administrative thought because its significance lies in discovering and emphasising the informal organizations, and facilitates teamwork and collaborations. however, the human relations theory not only brought about a revolution in the organisational analysis but also contributed significantly to the history of administrative thought by investigating the interconnectivity between supervisory practices and employee morale with the result that supervisory practices increase employee morale and productivity. this assumption also revealed how powerful is the nature of social relations in the organisations and redirects managers more towards the interpersonal aspects of organising (coombs, 2006). situational analysis according to ajayi and ayodele (2011), subgroups (committee system) within an organisation formally brought together to advise managers on a legitimate course of action on specific issues. the need for university administrators to effectively organise the human resources in the system for effective and efficient management strategies through committee system cannot be under-emphasised because it can also be seen as a device for achieving coordination of activities and sharing information amongst various departments of the school (nwachukwu, 1988). therefore, universities, including all levels of education, need to recognise the committee system for effective disposition of administrative duties and for the purpose of achieving school objectives (ogbomida, obano, & emmanuel, 2013). essential committees in nigerian universities as identified by ibukun (1997) include finance and general-purpose committee, security committee, development and promotion committee, admission committees, student affairs committee, research grants committee and ceremony committee. one would see from the above exploration that the committee system would lessen the frequent crises in the university system. this is supported by the observation of ikenwe (1998) and ogbomida et al. (2013) that committee system in institutional governance ordinarily aimed at promoting democratisation of administrative process and acted as catalysts that fast track the physical and intellectual growth of the system in a competitive world. this is an indication that various committees in universities are meant to serve as an advisory body: the think-tank offers relevant and useful advice on any issues or insurgences in schools including suggestions to the governing councils on how to manage every threat from all quarters that could lead to crises in the system. the incidences of violence against students by faceless individuals and incessant kidnapping and abduction of both staff and students have been on the rise because of the perceived lack of effective committee system (ogbomida et al., 2013). motivation by social, psychological and economic incentives and its reflective observations another assumption is born out of motivation, and this is obvious in the recommendation of hawthorne’s study that social and psychological needs alongside economic incentives motivate employees for better productivities (mayo, 1933). this was supported by mcgregor (1960) that the human relations concept did not go far from addressing people’s needs, satisfactions and strategies to accommodate those needs for better productivity. this is why wziątek-staśko (2015) concluded that non-recognition and non-appreciation of subordinates in the human resource management process might significantly reduce the effectiveness of managing the entire system because the needs for subordinates and other stakeholders cannot be ignored. in a dynamic organisation, managers are expected to create an atmosphere with which an employee will feel trusted and empowered to participate in the decisions-making process, by so doing, will enhance employee’s motivation level and organisational performance. that is why smith and rupp (2003) concluded that performance is the result of individual motivation and resistance to change. this was also supported by the conclusion of luthans and stajkovic (1999) that the advancement of rewards, monetary incentives and organisational behaviour, to a large extent, contribute to individual and corporate performance. therefore, determining and understanding the factors of employees’ motivation in the organisation are largely dependent on the satisfied and motivated workforce, because motivation influences even managers’ effectiveness (analoui, 2007). reflective observations all organisations, including educational organisation, always want to be successful; therefore, organisations irrespective of size and location strive to retain the best human recourses, acknowledging their critical role and influence on organisational effectiveness are not negotiable. to overcome these inevitable challenges, university management should create a healthy and positive motivational relationship within its students and other employees, and direct them towards task fulfilment (ferlazzo, 2015). when students feel more motivated to learn, they perform better academically and lessen their urge to agitate, improve classroom behaviour and gain a higher sense of self-esteem (nwankwo, 2014). unfortunately, data and the direct experience of many educators show that lack of motivation affects many of our students and appears to increase their cynical urge for actions (ferlazzo, 2015). that is why nwankwo (2014) described students’ motivation as the act of creating the drive or energy that propels a student to specifically positive actions that lead to his or her advancement and progress within and outside the institution. a student who is admitted to a university programme may get frustrated and even drop out of school as a result of numerous de-motivating factors, such as fear of examination, fear of unfriendly lecturers and administrative staff, fear of uncanny comparisons, unfriendly infrastructures amongst others, either from the school management or from the students themselves. therefore, interest and motivation are correlatively synonymous. individuals with a strong interest in a specific area are intrinsically motivated to succeed in that area of endeavour because individual interest tends to be stable and long-lasting (girmus, 2011). from the author’s observation and experience in numerous student unrests, however, it is evident that university authorities pose less or no recognition to these students’ motivating strategies, which, in turn, could lead to student unrest. this was supported by dobre (2013) that a few organisations consider the human capital as being their main asset, capable of leading them to success or if not motivated properly. thus, it is better to plan how to prevent crises than to manage it when it happens (ekundayo, 2012). communication as power of manipulative influence and its reflective observations communication, as one of the assumptions, also plays a central role in subordinate’s behaviour, satisfaction and productivity. this is why it was recommended that communication channels between various levels in the organisation should be developed (mayo, 1933; roethlisberger & dickson, 1939). that is why hrtm is frequently used to describe the way in which managers interact with their subordinates because this theory places great emphasis on information sharing and the involvement of subordinates in decision-making and the importance of intergroup co-operation (stoner & wandel, 1988). the implication of this theory, as affirmed by odionye (2014), is that the more frequent the interaction between any two groups, the higher the tendency to co-operate with each other. this theory is also linked to chester barnard’s study of 1938 titled ‘the functions of the executive’, which argued for a ‘human-based system of organization’, that is, the potential of every worker and the centrality of communication to the organising process (barnard, 1938). he drew attention away from formal organisational structures towards communication, co-operation and the informal organisation, and the result of the studies regarding human relations in the workplace shows that people want to have a sense of belonging and significance whilst being treated with value and respect (mayor, 1930). as argued by the author, this assumption believed that if management showed more concern for its employees, their satisfaction would increase relative peace and organisational productivity (mayor, 1930). however, even if we might say that the theorist under hrtm inherited trends from classical and scientific development, their theorisation and focus are more centred on human needs and qualities, and not on technology that dictated the optimal organisational forms of classicist (onday, 2016). in other words, it was on their motive to manage organisations from a human and humane point of view, as against the technological imperativeness of classicist. reflective observations communication in the university system is the ability of school management to convey or share ideas and feelings effectively to the staff and students with information being understood; otherwise, communication has not taken place. communication is seen as one of the factors that contribute to the success of any organisation because meaningful communication informs and educates people in the organisation at all levels and motivates them to support the strategy and mission set-out (barrett, 2002). although there are certain barriers for effective communication that has become inevitable for the university administrators to encounter, such as poor communication planning, conflict of interest, distrust of source, faulty translation, personal feelings and feelings of personal insecurity (ajayi & ayodele, 2012), these barriers make it complex, difficult and frustrating to achieve the aims and objectives with which communication intend to achieve (kolawole, 2017; nwankwo, 2014). often there have been disharmony and various crises amongst the stakeholders in most nigerian universities over communication gaps between the top (school management) and bottom (students), where mostly the students feel left out or kept in the dark from various happenings in the school. the aftermath of the rifts has always been unrest, and therefore, poses a negative implication on general productivity. in universities of nigeria, it appears that there are dissatisfactions amongst the students with the way the university administrators handle their communication system. during my encounter with the students’ leaders of ladoke akintola university, ogbomoso, i perceived that the real information about the positions of management on the then closure of the school as a result of the staff unpaid salary is not well disposed or i instead say the administrators have been political with the situation. this situation alone has led the students to embark on both peaceful and radical protest several times from 2017 to 2019. it appears that the perceived high level of students’ crisis in public universities by the students may not be unconnected with the way the school managers are managing their strategic mean of disseminating information from the top management to the entire stakeholders in the system. therefore, for any organisation that is working towards actualising its goals and objectives, the handler of information communication, communication planners and administrators must be up and doing with upward innovation and strategic thinking towards ensuring the actualisation of organisational goals. maybe that is why nwankwo (2014) concluded that people need the information to do their jobs or to take action. in other words, each person or group in an enterprise needs information to coordinate activities with others. the implication of human relations theory of management to university practice and crisis management the theory views human beings as individuals with differing psychological motivations, distinct and dynamic behaviour affecting performances. that is why oraemes (1997) emphasised that humanly treating students have an impact on the educational administration in several ways, which include the increasing effort to democratising the practise of educational administration. undie (2001) believed that advocates of democratic administrator should take steps to satisfy both motivational and psychological needs of university stakeholders, including students for better productivity. the implication of this theory, as affirmed by odionye (2014), is that the more frequent the interaction between any two groups, the higher the tendency to co-operate with each other. the human relations school of thought, which accentuated that treating students and employees in a human way, will have a significant influence on general administration in school system, is related to the recommendation of kimbrough and nunnery (1983) and oraemes (1997) that hrtm increases effort to democratise the practise of educational administration, most especially in tertiary institutions. likewise, it also laid emphasis on the responsibility of university administrators on the promotion of relationships between members of the organisation because harmony and high staff morale, according to kimbrough and nunnery (1983), were considered essential factors for improved organisational peace. meanwhile, this movement also presupposes an implementable strategy of dealing with both academic and non-academic staff, as well as students as a psychological being (michael, 2011). as human resources in university organisation comprised of the students, lecturers, administrative staff and school authorities, the approach of human relations in university means a practical investment in human resource with the right to participate in the determination of school goals and policies and to exercise professional judgement about what to do and how to empower the school environment (kulsreshtha, patel, & singh, 2016). human relation in the universities, therefore, means the ability of all stakeholders to be able to judge what and how to perform things and develop a harmonious relationship within the school environment. thus, the human relation is like a power given to people in universities to participate in the determination of school and educational goals and to exercise their judgements of what, why, how, when and where to perform things for the purpose of developing harmonious relationship within the school environment (kulsreshtha et al., 2016). this supported the report of singh (2000) that a peaceful school environment is the result of the harmonious relationship amongst the workforce. this theory is, therefore, unequivocally relevant to this article because of its trend towards power equalisation, reduction in the power and status differential between authorities and the subordinates (sridhar, 2014). it also exemplified the importance of effective communication as a panacea to smooth university operations, and it equally helps to explain why the university administrators should recognise various communication tools in order to ensure effective co-operation with inclusion and involvement of stakeholders in decision-making (odionye, 2014). if the students and their leaders including other staff are recognised with adequate participation in decision-making, most especially the issues that directly or indirectly concern their welfare, this will instil into them how significant they are to the development of the system (omodan et al., 2018). this psychological and situational motivation will, in turn, change students’ behaviour and other relevant to act responsibly, thereby ensuring a peaceful environment devoid of crises. theoretical model to justify the nexus between human relations theory of management and crisis management the following theoretical model (figure 1) formulated by the researcher in line with the assumptions/principles of hrtm will open more understanding of the relationship between this theory and the impetus of crises management in the university system. figure 1: crisis management model. the above-developed theoretical model indicates the process and practices in the university system, which leads to individual well-being, university effectiveness, societal well-being, and relative peace and tranquillity. the inputs involve the stakeholders, such as administrators, employee’s groups, students and students’ unions, and government. based on the above theory, it is assumed that situational inputs, such as decision-making, committee system, communication, dialogue and motivation, are stimuli to mutual relationships between all the organisational stakeholders. in the case of university system, which is the hallmark of this study, it is expedient of the university administrator to recognise all the situational input, because by so doing, it leads to concrete and outright recognition of human relation policies and assumptions, that is, making subordinate useful and important, keeping subordinates informed, listen to objections, as well as allowing subordinates’ self-direction and self-control. this is in support of the opinion of david (2013) and undie (2001) that a democratic system satisfies both the motivational and psychological needs of university stakeholders for better productivity. furthermore, when the obligation of human relation policy and assumptions are met, it leads to the commitment of all relevant stakeholders, they experience some self-competence and self-esteem, and they also feel satisfied and important. all these stimulate morals and reduce the spirit of resistance to some likely unpleasant issues. this is in consonance with the highlighted implication of maslow theory of motivation by lunenburg and ornstein (2012) that outstanding schools require leaders who have the ability to motivate people for self-reliance and self-actualisation, and to maximise their performance to grow professionally. to achieve this, university management/authorities are expected to know and be able to apply the basic postulations from this model. the resultant effect of this process is, therefore, the achievement of university goals and objectives, part of which are individual well-being, university effectiveness and process efficiency, societal well-being and above all, peace and tranquility, which stand as an output for this model. this showed that for university goals to be achieved, all apparatus of interand intra-relationships must be put in place to ensure unhindered processes. the overall management of all stakeholders, including students, will lead to the desired peace, harmonious relationships and development of university education, in general. this is in line with the recommendation of etadon (2013) that there should be a considerable improvement in the living and working environment of universities generally. conclusion and recommendations as universities are recognised as an ivory tower of knowledge consisting of many scholars, including students with various belief and wants, an organisational crisis is inevitable, but the ability of the school management to control and manage it makes them effective. therefore, every organisation should gear its devotion to crisis management. when the authority of these universities are people’s oriented and base their style of leadership on subordinates, such as students and staff; convey the decisions and policies of the management to the staff and students, form inclusive governance comprising all stakeholders, make use of committee system to solving issues, engage student in dialogue, ensure student motivation as well as provision of students personnel services. this, in turn, may ensure the harmonious relationships between these parties towards achieving the goals and objectives of the university system. finally, as the word management, according to ajayi and ayodele (2011), practically means getting things done, utilising both human and material recourses. the system is needed to be reconstructed where the managers and administrators in universities take cognisance of the above assumptions of hrtm. this is expedient because university management and administration are centred on the performance of executive duties, such as policy formulation and implementation, decision-making, controlling of the activities of the organisation amongst others for the overall achievement and most importantly to maintain peace and orderliness in the system. hence, there must be a careful arrangement and systematic use of both human and material resources, situations and opportunities for the achievement of the specified objectives in the system (nwankwo, 2014). based on the above analysis exposed from the postulations of hrtm, the following recommendations were made, and if these recommendations are strictly adhered to, this will enhance the management of people and crisis in university system for better productivity: inclusive decision-making: as participatory decision-making is argued and confirmed to be productive in managing the affairs of any organisation, it is hereby recommended that university manager and administrators should at all-time recognise the importance of other stakeholders in the process of decision-making most importantly in the matter and issues that concern them. recognising their importance is not enough but making their inputs and opinions counts is also necessary because this theory places great emphasis on the involvement of subordinate in decision-making the importance of intergroup co-operation stoner and wandel (1988) likewise. this was also supported by oraemes (1997) that proper recognition of hrtm enables the democratisation of educational institutions, most especially in tertiary institutions. committee system: as the university system is not different from other organisations based on its organograms and departmentalisation, unit and sub-units, it is expected from the authorities of the system to adopt the use of committee system, as this will enable efficient and effective utilisation of human resources and also enhance the spirit of delegation of power between the super-ordinates and the subordinates. this is recommended because the predominant function of committees in organisations, according to ajayi and ayodele (2011), is to advise managers on a legitimate course of action on specific issues. therefore, there is a need for universities administrators to effectively organise the human resources, including students, for effective and efficient management through committee system because it is a device for achieving coordination of activities amongst various departments of the universities (nwachukwu, 1988). motivation: motivation is one of the keys that drive human resources in any organisation, and if this phenomenon is adequately recognised and implemented in any organisation would go a long way in achieving the aims and objective of the organisation and also ensure meeting the needs of the stakeholders. it is evident that if employees are motivated by social and psychological needs coupled with economic incentives. this, according to nwankwo (2014), will lessen conflict potentials, and aid social conformity and loyalty of people to the organisation. therefore, university authorities should always ensure that the needs of all stakeholders, including students, such as belongingness, recognition, physical conditions of work environments and security, are met because it goes a long way in determining individual morale. communication: communication is the lifeline of any organisation; this is so because good and unambiguous dissemination of information in organisation solidify mutual relationships amongst the stakeholders. this is why barrett (2002) opined that communication is one of the strongest factors that contribute to the success of any organization because it informs, motivates and educates people in the organisation at all levels to support the strategy and mission set-out. university authorities should, therefore, ensure the use of various communication tools to ensure effective and efficient dissemination and utilisation of information. this is in support of odionye (2014) that university administrators should recognise various communication tools to ensure effective co-operation amongst stakeholders in the university system. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions b.i.o. is the principal researcher, c.t.t. is the supervisor, whilst b.d. is the co-supervisor. the article is an extract from phd thesis. all authors made huge contributions. ethical consideration this study is a part of a more extensive research study with ethical approval number ufs-hsd2018/1105 under the ethics committee of the university of the free state, south africa. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references adegun, o.a. (2003). sociology of education. ado-ekiti: petoa educational publisher. adegun, o.a., & arogundade, b.b. (2014). students’ participation in governance and organizational effectiveness in universities in nigeria. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(9), 2039–2117. ajayi, i.a., & ayodele, j.b. (2011). fundamentals of educational management. ado ekiti: green line publisher. ajayi, i.a. & ayodele, j.b. (2012). fundamentals of educational management. ado ekiti: green line publisher akeusola, o., viatonu, o., & asikhia, o.a. (2012). perceived causes and control of students’ crises in higher institutions in lagos state, nigeria. journal of education and practice, 3(10), 60–68. analoui, f. (2007). strategic human resource management. strategic human resource management. london: thomson. barnard, c.i. (1938). the function of an executive. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. barrett, d.j. (2002), change communication: using strategic employee communication to facilitate major change. corporate communications: an international journal, 7(4), 219–231. https://doi.org/10.1108/13563280210449804 borgatta, e.f. (2007). jacob l. moreno and sociometry: a mid-century reminiscence. social psychology quarterly, 70(4), 330–332. https://doi.org/10.1177/019027250707000404 coombs, w.t. (2006). the protective powers of crisis response strategies: managing reputational assets during a crisis. journal of promotion management, 12(3/4), 241–260. https://doi.org/10.1300/j057v12n03_13 coombs, w.t. (2007). ongoing crisis communication: planning, managing and responding (2nd ed.). london: sage publications ltd. david, a. (2013). students’ crisis in nigerian tertiary educational institutions: a review of the causes and management style. khazar journal of humanities & social sciences, 16(1), 56–76. dininni, j. (2017). human relations management theory. retrieved from https://www.business.com/articles/human-relations-management-theory/july/2017 dix, a. (2007). theoretical analysis and theory creation. retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d906/508247719b7c67af70ac13b88ec7a9d87203.pdf dobre, o. (2013). employee motivation and organizational performance. review of applied socio-economic research, 5(1), 53–60. dube, b., & hlalele, d. (2018). engaging critical emancipatory research as an alternative to mitigate school violence in south africa. educational research for social change, 7(2), 74–86. https://doi.org/10.17159/2221-4070/2018/v7i2a5 etadon, f.i. (2013). campus conflict involving students and university management in nigeria: a case study of the university of ibadan. international journal of education science, 5(3), 333–343. ekundayo, h.t. (2012). towards strengthening the relationship between trade unions and university management in nigeria. african research review: an international multidisciplinary journal. ethiopia, 6(2), 266–273. https://doi.org/10.4314/afrrev.v6i2.24 ekundayo, h.t., & ajayi, i.a. (2009). towards effective management of university education in nigeria. international ngo journal, 4(8), 342–347. fawcett, j., & downs, f. (1986). the relationship of theory and research. norwalk, ct: appleton century crofts. ferdous, j. (2016). organization theories: from classical perspective. international journal of business, economics and law, 9(2), 1–6. ferlazzo, l. (2015). creating the conditions for student motivation, student engagement, 19 march. retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/creating-conditions-for-student-motivationlarry-ferlazzo girmus, r.l. (2011). how to motivate your students. in new mexico state university-grants round-up conference, september 30–october 1, 2011, grants, nm. hartzell, s. (2017). neoclassical theory of management: the human relations approach. study.come. retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/neo-classical-theory-of-management-the-human-relations-approach.html#transcriptheader hoffman, c. (2000). introduction to sociometry. sociometry_intro_original.docx. retrieved from http://www.hoopandtree.org/cons_sociometry_introduction.pdf ibukun, w.o. (1997). educational management: theory and practice. ado-ekiti: green line publishers. ikenwe, e. (1998). the use of committees in higher institutions in bendel state (unpublished thesis). university of nigeria, nsukka. indabawa, s.l., & uba, h. (2014). human relations and behavioral science approach to motivation in selected business organizations in kano metropolis nigeria. european journal of business and management, 6(25), 168–174. jasso, g. (1988). principles of theoretical analysis author(s). sociological theory, 6(1), 1–2. https://doi.org/10.2307/201910 kimbrough, r.b., & nunnery, m.y. (1983). educational administration. an introduction. new york, ny: macmillan publishing co. inc. kolawole, a.o. (2017). organisational pressure and communication as determinates of quality of worklife of women in tertiary institutions in south west nigeria (ph.d thesis). ekiti state university, ado ekiti. kulsreshtha, a.k., patel, j.s., & singh, h. (2016). a study of the effect of human relations in school organization. retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8e82/b5827fc6d02a7cd8b9035eb81b4001ca3180.pdf lewin, k., lippitt, r., & white, r. (1939). pattern of aggressive behavior in experimentally created social climates. journal of social psychology, 10(2), 271–299. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1939.9713366 lunenburg, f.c., & ornstein, a.c. (2012). educational administration: concept and practices (6th ed.). new york: linda schreiber-ganster. luthans, f., & stajkovic, a.d. (1999). reinforce for performance: the need to go beyond pay and even rewards. the academy of management executive, 13(2), 49–57. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.1999.1899548 mager, u., & nowak, p. (2012). effects of student participation in decision making at school. a systematic review and synthesis of empirical research, educational research review, 7(12), 38–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2011.11.001 mahmud, a. (2013). abdul mahmud: the june 12, 1993 struggles: a personal account. the scoop. retrieved from http://www.thescoopng.com/2013/06/12/abdul-mahmud-the-june-12-1993-struggles-a-personal-account/ manoj, k.b.a. (2016). human relations theory (elton mayo). retrieved from https://polticsmania.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/human-relation-theory-elton-mayo.pdf mayo, e. (1933). the human problem of an industrial civilization. new york, ny: macmillan. mayor, e. (1930). motivation within an innovative work environment: an arm case study. retrieved from http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/arn mcgregor, d. (1960). the human side of enterprise. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. michael, p. (2011). human relations. retrieved from http://www.witipedia.com mitra, d.l. (2009). strengthening student voice initiatives in high schools: an examination of the supports needed for school-based youth–adult partnerships. youth and society, 40(3), 311–335. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118x08316211 moreno, j.l. (1934). who shall survive? beacon, new york, ny: beacon house. moreno, j.l. (1953). who shall survive? (rev. ed.). new york, ny: beacon house. moreno, j.l. (1960). the sociometry reader. glencoe, il: the free press. nikolas, r. (2005). human relations theory and people management. retrieved from https://www.corwin.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/9805_039184ch02.pdf nwachukwu, c.c. (1988). management, theory and practice. onitsha: africana feb publishers limted. nwankwo, j.i. (2014). management in education: modern approaches in educational management. ibadan: giraffe books. odionye, c.m. (2014). evaluation of crisis management strategies in selected universities in south-east nigeria (m.a dissertation). university of nigeria, nsukka. ogbomida, a.h., obano, e.j., & emmanuel, o.o. (2013). utilization of committee system in the administration of nigerian universities. academic research international, 4(4), 392–399. omisade, t. (2014). oau shut indefinitely after protests over increase in school fees. daily post. retrieved from http://dailypost.ng/2014/06/19/oau-shut-indefinitely-protests-increase-school-fees/ omodan, b.i. (2016). influence of trade unionism on management of tertiary institutions in ekiti state (m.ed. thesis). ekiti state university, ado ekiti. omodan, b.i., dube, b., & tsotetsi, c.t. (2018). collaborative governance and crisis management in nigerian universities: an exploration of students’ activism. in m.m. dichaba & m.a.o. sotayo (eds.), rethinking teaching and learning in the 21st century (pp. 48–68). pretoria: african academic research forum. onday, o. (2016). human resource theory: from hawthorne experiments of mayo to groupthink of janis. global journal of human resource management, 4(1), 95–110. oraemes, j.c. (1997). introduction to politics of education. port harcourt: bengray. premium times. (2017). university of ibadan suspends student union leaders. may 30, 2017. roethlisberger, f.j. & dickson, w.j. (1939). management and the worker. pp. xxiv, 615. cambridge, mass.: harvard university press. https://doi.org/10.1177/000271624020800170 rudduck, j., & mcintyre, d. (2007). improving learning through consulting pupils. new york, ny: routledge. sheldrake, r. (2000), ‘the “sense of being stared at” does not depend on known sensory clues’, biology forum, 93, 209–24. sinclair, r. (2004). participation in practice: making it meaningful, effective and sustainable. children and society, 18(2), 106–118. https://doi.org/10.1002/chi.817 singh, j. (2000). performance productivity and quality of frontline employees in service organizations. journal of marketing, 64(4), 15–34. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.64.2.15.17998 smith, a.d., & rupp, w.t. (2003). an examination of emerging strategy and sales performance: motivation, chaotic change and organizational structure. marketing intelligence and planning, 21(3), 156–167. https://doi.org/10.1108/02634500310474 sridhar, m.s. (2014). schools of management thought. indian space research organization. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224952289 stoner, a.f., & wandel, c. (1988). management (3rd ed.). new jersey: prentice hall. taylor, f.w. (1911/1947). principles of scientific management. new york, ny: harper and row publisher inc. (taylor’s ideas first come up in principles of scientific management. in 1911). undie, j. 2001. educational governance. calabar: tabson. virginia commonwealth university. (2012). threat assessment and violence prevention. policy statement and purpose, virginia commonwealth university. retrieved from https://policy.vcu.edu/sites/default/files/threat%20assessment%20and%20violence%20prevention.pdf weeramunda, a.j. (2008). socio political impact of student violence and indiscipline in universities and tertiary education institutes. research studies on tertiary education sector. national education commission sri lanka. wziątek-staśko, a. (2015). effective factors in enhancing managers’ job motivationcross-cultural context. management international conference, portoroz, slovenia. 28–30 may, 2015. yacoub, m. (2016). the influence of classical and human relations approaches in management today, a critical evaluation. management theories and philosophies module: university of south wales. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311949526 abstract introduction and background research problem and objectives results findings discussion limitations and recommendations for future research acknowledgements references about the author(s) kezell klinck faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, south africa sonia swanepoel faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, south africa citation klinck, k., & swanepoel, s. (2019). a performance management model addressing human factors in the north west provincial administration. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1021. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1021 original research a performance management model addressing human factors in the north west provincial administration kezell klinck, sonia swanepoel received: 07 dec. 2017; accepted: 16 oct. 2018; published: 13 feb. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the article investigated factors from several perspectives using human resources-related issues of governance, legislation, regulation, organisation, administration and communication, workplace sociology variables pertaining to social and psychological relationships and several other factors that have an impact on the complex matrix of determinants for performance improvement in the public service. research purpose: this article explored the human factors linked to the performance management (pm) processes and its impact on the effectiveness of service delivery in the north west provincial administration (nwpa). the article isolated the strengths and weaknesses of the system of performance assessment from the human relations perspective, technical usage, the structural–organisational and the strategic perspectives, uniformity, legislative compliance and other possibilities envisaged and emerging. motivation for the study: the study would deliver a successful and carefully crafted pm model that could be used to remedy the current performance situation through improved and effective communication channels, as well as ongoing feedback, leading to a more productive and motivated workforce. this would ultimately yield improved service delivery for the citizens of the north west province. research approach/design and method: to answer the main research questions, sub-questions and objectives of this study, several participants (permanent employees and managers) found in the departments within the nwpa had to respond to diverse instruments of inquiry (questionnaires, interview schedules, expert, operational, strategic and grass-roots opinion, etc.). the study took a sequential mixed-methods approach where interpretivist (qualitative) and positivist (quantitative) approaches were applied as the philosophy and descriptive statistics were used. main findings: the main findings highlighted all the human factors that mitigated against performance improvement in the nwpa. from the evidence gathered, some departments exhibited problematic manager–subordinate relationships, lack of training, no proper feedback, low staff morale leading to low job satisfaction, lack of leadership as well as broken channels of communication. practical/managerial implications: the findings revealed that it is important for the nwpa management to undertake the necessary efforts in order to adapt a new strategy and comprehensive model for improved performance, which would ultimately lead towards efficient and effective service delivery in the north west province. contribution/value-add: this paper explores the salient human factors to be taken into consideration during performance management in the north west provincial administration. introduction and background this study explored the human factors linked to the performance management (pm) processes and its impact on the effectiveness of service delivery in the north west province. bersin, agarwal, pelster and schwarts (2015) from deloitte touche tohmatsu limited, which is one of south african’s leading research companies for management, note in their report that the pm process affects most company challenges of leadership, engagement and capabilities. purpose the purpose of this study was to critically analyse the human factors (including the operational dynamics) involved in the current pm in the north west provincial administration (nwpa). among the issues identified to be placed under scrutiny in this article were three main clusters (i.e. human factors, performance environment and pm) as well as other factors or new themes identified by participants in order to expose, through an analysis, all human factors mitigating against improved performance within the nwpa departments. literature review this particular study will explore issues linked to a comprehensive, integrated model to address the problem, mainly of human factors in the performance equation within the nwpa. by pointing out all the human, spatial, temporal, structural and strategic elements in the pm processes within the nwpa, management would have a tool in the form of the model proposed in this study for senior managers to use in order to improve performance in the future. from both the qualitative and quantitative methods used, it became evident that, in agreement with o’boyle and aguinis (2012), olson (2013), and bersin (2014) the effectiveness of pm systems has long been questioned by many as they do not accurately reflect the way in which employees perform (kaplan & norton, 1992; matjila, maleka, & jordaan, 2015; metawie, 2005; nel et al., 2014; souhrada, 2016; swanepoel, erasmus, & schenk, 2010; tilley, smart, ross, & jackson, 2010; van wyk, 2014; wärnich, carrell, elbert, & hatfield, 2015). following concerns regarding the increasing service delivery protests in south africa, including the north west province, as noted by van der westhuizen (2005) and several interviews conducted by pule (2015), there has been a call for review and transformation of the pm process within the public service. performance management systems the human factor study of individual human performance in an organisation also looks at the individual (the smallest part within the organisation) as a system. as is the case with an organisation, individuals as a system also have certain inputs with which they join an organisation and that they release for as long as they are part of that organisation (nel et al., 2011) (figure 1). figure 1: a management systems model of the employee as a subsystem. failure to develop psychological attachment among employees means that an organisation may have to carry increased costs associated with more detailed and sophisticated control systems. however, when employees share the organisation’s goals and values, it could be interpreted as employees acting instinctively to benefit the organisation (nel et al., 2011). microsoft recently decided to disband its pm process after decades, realising that it was encouraging many of its top managers to leave the organisation (bersin, 2014). in a similar vein, olson (2013) emphasised that jack welch, ceo of general electric, influenced giants like ford and conco to mimic his policies, including ‘survivor-esque’ evaluations that guaranteed some workers to be graded as failures. the ‘rank the yank’ system popularised by jack welch while he was at general electric between 1981 and 2001 resulted in employees being pitted against their peers to avoid being labelled as losers (bersin, 2014). the bell curve, as illustrated in figure 2, reflects another disturbing situation. a normal distribution curve is a sample with an arithmetic average and an equal distribution above and below average like the curve shown in figure 2. figure 2: bell curve psychological testing: normal distribution, the myth of the bell curve. evident from the curve, in the area of people management, the model essentially says that there will be a small number of very high performers and an equivalent number of very low performers, with the bulk of employees clustered near the average. in the area of pm, this curve results in what we call ‘rank and yank’, a process that discriminates grossly against the so-called low performers (bersin, 2014). bersin (2014) states that various organisations force the scores into a normal distribution curve, using grades from one to five, where the best performers score a five and the lowest one point. this results in 10% of the staff receiving a grading of 1 (losers); similarly, 10% obtain a five (high performers), and most staff will receive average scores. if all employees are high performers some will still receive a low score. research problem and objectives the problem statement was that pm within the nwpa departments has contributed to the deterioration in performance and low morale within several levels of employees in the nwpa departments. research questions main research question: what is the role of human factors in the pm process within the nwpa? research sub-questions: which human factors are central to the promotion or disruption of performance improvement in the nwpa departments? what is the most suitable performance environment (or organisational communication) for improved performance? does the existing pm system promote service delivery in the province? research objectives the study focussed specifically on three main constructs (i.e. human factors, performance environment and pm) as well as other factors or new themes identified by participants, in order to answer the main research questions. the research objective was to identify key human factors that play a positive role in the performance environment in the departments within the north west province. thereafter it was necessary to isolate and identify those human factors from the current application of the pm process. finally, there was a need to establish an effective and efficient model leading towards performance improvement in the nwpa. this would enable management to improve performance in the nwpa. the potential value-add and contribution of the study this study could contribute towards more improved systems of communication, compliance, coordination and collaboration within the provincial performance environment, thereby creating a leaner, less bureaucratic model of pm. few studies to date have concentrated on the human communication systems that have militated against the inputs of pm at throughput stage or the organisational flaws that have seen a deterioration of the significant human adaptations across departments (e.g. managers’ forum formation) that would free the system of the bottlenecks that have proliferated to the extent of system decay. systems like the performance management and development system (pmds) stay too long in the organisation and are perceived to be aged in many ways that affect organisational human behaviour, as well as policy encounters (stoner, 1982). research strategy and design bless, higson-smith and sithole (2013) and mouton (2001) advised that research design is a blueprint that lays down a step-by-step outline and the procedures followed by the researcher in conducting a particular study. a sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach was used. sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach this study, which taps into sequential explanatory mixed-methodological approach, because of the multilevel nature of the population and multivariate nature of the cluster items, as suggested by gray (2014:58) as well roberts (2007:143), states that many of the observations on research experience made in qualitative research can be extended to quantitative research. the study used a sequential, explanatory, mixed-methods approach; thus, the strengths of one can make up for the shortcomings of the other (creswell & plano clark, 2011; johnson, onwuegbuzie, & turner 2007). the conjoint analysis of qualitative and quantitative data provided and enriched understanding of factors affecting human interactions and served to redirect the way pm is applied and to incorporate these factors. figure 3 is an illustration of the research approach moving from the qualitative method into the qualitative method as adopted by creswell and clark (2007). figure 3: sequence for application of mixed-methods. measuring instruments kent (2015:265) stated that ‘research methods may be mixed in terms of different sequences, for example phased, concurrent or overlapping’. in this study, the sequential mixed-methods were sometimes concurrent, sometimes phased and sometimes overlapping, because of the study’s multilevel and multivariate nature. it is always difficult and inappropriate to draw a clear distinction between qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection because of the overlap between the two (kumar, 2011). methods of collecting qualitative data include interview transcripts, field notes from observations, photographs, video and unobtrusive data. in order to achieve rigour, qualitative approaches aim at building trustworthiness, authenticity, credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability (gray, 2014). the measuring instruments that were applied (including the pilot study) are outlined in the following. pretesting of the research instrument a pilot study to test the research instrument – namely, the questionnaire – was conducted. as advised by maree and pietersen (2007) and best and khan (2006), the development of a questionnaire as a tool is critical for collecting data to prove or disapprove a research question. each of the questionnaires used in the four phases of the pilot in this study, to construct the final questionnaires, started with firstly the cover letter, which accompanied the questionnaire and outlined confidentiality, the research topic, time frame for collection and contact details of the researcher. all twelve departments took part in this pilot or pretest. kumar (2011) advised that pretesting a research instrument should entail an examination, often an understanding of each question and its meaning as understood by a respondent. the phases are outlined in figure 4. figure 4: quantitative multiphase process used for the pilot, the participants were n = 124 participants and for the purpose of this research’s final questionnaire the participants were n = 762 participants. the descriptions of the various questionnaires are presented in the following. phase 2.1: clustered comprehensive questionnaire the clustered bigger questionnaire comprised this phase. total pilot questionnaire participation was n = 61. this clustered questionnaire contained the following: section a of the questionnaire contained information regarding demographic information, such as years of employment, gender, age, job level, educational level and department. section b consisted of clustered sections, where cluster 1 contained questions pertaining to human factors. cluster 2 contained questions pertaining to pm process. cluster 3 contained questions pertaining to performance environment. cluster 4 contained questions pertaining to performance improvement. phase 2.2: shorter questionnaire this phase of this study consisted of two separate questionnaires to 50 respondents, split into clusters (selected on the basis of their salary levels) of managers classified under (a) the highly skilled managers or senior management services (sms), who are on salary levels 9–16 and (b) subordinates who are classified under the lower skilled level on salary levels 1–8. the sample size of this phase was n = 50 distributed questionnaires. the shorter questionnaire was reduced to 20 items. from the distributed questionnaires, 10 participants made up cluster a (managers) responded and 33 participants responded to the questionnaires, which was made up cluster b (subordinates from the two additional departments selected for this phase). the total number of participants was n = 43. phase 2.3: refined questionnaire participants from the final 2 out of the 12 provincial departments were used. in this phase, 20 questionnaires were administered among participants from both management and subordinate levels. the shortened questionnaire, which was constructed from the results of the pilot study, consisted of a 10-item questionnaire with a sample size of n = 20. the total number of participants was n = 20. phase 2.4: highly focussed questionnaire the questionnaire was incubated, developed and improved because of the constant appearance of key items deriving from the literature, interviews and the pilot study. this questionnaire consisted of 10 items, with a sample size of n = 735 participants which are permanently employed within the twelve provincial departments. a total number of questionnaires distributed: n = 800; actual collection and/or responses received: n = 762. data was collected from all four district offices, namely (1) ngaka modiri molema or mahikeng–mmabatho district; (2) dr ruth segomotsi mompati or vryburg; (3) dr kenneth kaunda or klerksdorp–matlosana; and (4) bojanala or rustenburg and brits district offices. qualitative method (interviews) for the qualitative data collection, table 1 provides a summary of how the required data was used, what sources were used and the strategies implied, as well as the data category used. kumar (2011) stressed that interviewing is a commonly used method of collecting information from people. table 1: summary of qualitative data collection sources and strategies used. structured interview schedule a structured interview schedule was used in both the face-to-face and focus group interviews. the questions posed during the interviews were categorised under the following headings: what is the purpose of employee performance management and development systems (pmds)? what are the main human factors that affect performance negatively in the workplace environment? what is the status of the performance environment in departments? is service delivery happening? does pm indicate a true reflection of the situation in the province? content comparative analysis the rationale of focus group construction for the purpose of content comparative analysis: the comparative content as outlined in figure 5 included the following: figure 5: content comparative analysis illustration. processes of pm that impact on human behaviours, knowledge or lack of it and relationships (all content gleaned from respondents regarding human behaviour of managers or subordinates’ attitudes, complaints, racism, favouritism, motivation, etc., that impacts pm and performance in general). knowledge levels of organisational, structural, legislative and strategic constructs of pm in general and the application of pm tools in particular within departments of the nwpa (training dimensions, record-keeping and knowledge management). include training of managers, uniformity and collaboration, consideration of subordinate employees in progression, that is, position and salary, and other variables mentioned in the thematic or clustering approach. content comparative analysis (figure 5) was used during the process to compare all levels and groups. quantitative method (questionnaires) for the quantitative data collection, table 2 provides a summary of how the required data was used, which sources were used and the strategies implied, as well as the data category used. table 2: summary of quantitative data collection sources and strategies. research approach methodological issues included the amount of in-depth detail that could be collected from the cases and the degree of generalisability that could be made about inferences from data collection (plowright, 2011). in this study, the sequential mixed-methods approach was used, where a qualitative method was followed by a quantitative one. among the three main paradigms that comprised the research process, namely positivism, interpretivism and realism, the researcher placed more focus on the second paradigm, namely interpretivism. the conjoint analysis of qualitative and quantitative data provided and enriched understanding of factors affecting human interactions and served to redirect the way pm is applied. research participants the research participants who took part in the study for both the qualitative and quantitative methods are described in the following. qualitative method eight participants took part in the face-to-face interviews, and 23 participants took part in the focus group interviews. in this study, there were a total of 31 qualitative research participants. among the 31 participants found for the interview phases of the study, n = 8 participants had been previously identified to form part of the interview phase as outlined in figure 6 and spanned three main levels: expert, strategic and operational. figure 6: sample size and levels of participants for the face-to-face interviews which were n = 8. for the focus group interviews, n = 23 participants took part in the interviews as outlined in figure 7. a group from grass-roots level (levels 1–8) was included to have a holistic view of the pm process in the nwpa. figure 7: sample size and levels of participants for the focus group interviews which were n = 23. kumar (2011) stated that the sample size does not occupy a significant place in qualitative research; it is determined by reaching the saturation point while collecting data instead of being fixed in advance. quantitative method for the quantitative part of this study, a total of 800 questionnaires were distributed among the permanently employed civil servants in all twelve departments of the nwpa. these questions cascaded from the pilot and subsequent multistage questionnaires. a total of 800 of the final questionnaire was distributed in all twelve of the provincial departments in the nwpa and the return rate was n = 762. descriptive statistics descriptive statistics are depicted in tables 1 and 2. for the purpose of this study, all twelve nwpa departments were included as the population, namely the office of the premier and the departments of health; finance; economy and enterprise development; education and sports development; social development; culture; arts and traditional affairs; tourism; rural environment and agricultural development; public works and roads; community safety and transport management; local government; and human settlements. table 3 depicts the population and sample used in this study. the national treasury headcount database record of statistics reveals that 59 619 public servants were employed in the nwpa as at december 2016. table 3: quantitative respondents’ response rate per north west provincial administration department. the study population consisted of twelve government departments in the nwpa with public servants in the categories of: lower skilled between levels 1 2 (plus) skilled ranging between levels 3 5 (plus) highly skilled production between levels 6 8, totalling 47 836 employees. the middle and more senior managers were employed within the nwpa in the categories of: highly skilled supervision or middle management services ranging between levels 9–12 (plus) senior and top management ranging from level 13 and upwards, totalling 11 783 employed public servants within the nwpa giving a round total of 47 836 together with the 11 783 equals to 59 619 public servants a purposive sampling technique was used for the purposes of this study. dudovskiy (2017) explains that purposive sampling (also known as judgment, selective or subjective sampling) is a sampling technique in which the researcher relies on his or her own judgment when choosing members of a population to participate in the study. because it is rarely practical to involve data collection from everyone, it is necessary to select a sample (gray, 2014). de vos, strydom, fouché and delport (2011) explain that there are four types of probability sampling, namely simple random sampling, systematic sampling, stratified sampling and cluster sampling, that can be applied for quantitative analysis. for purposes of this study, the calculation of the minimum sample size per department was based on a 90% confidence interval and only a 10% margin of error could be tolerated. the 90% confidence limit was chosen because of the large population and large samples from it. usually a lower margin of error is recommended when an analyst is faced with larger sample sizes. for this study the formula recommended by raosoft inc. (2004) that is normally used to conduct online surveys was utilised. the use of this calculation was based on normal distribution and was motivated by the fact that the sample used was more than 30. the sample size used in this study was more than the minimum of 382 recommended by krejcie and morgan (1970). all twelve departments within the province were significantly represented and the sample represented the overall population. results the clustering of variables drove the sampling design through the comparative nature of the questions. in this instance, onwuegbuzie and leach (2006) refer to pairwise sampling design, which was also elaborated on by allen, titsworth and hunt (2009), where study participants were compared. themes were used as a means to identify the results for both qualitative and quantitative methods and were presented with comments (because comparison of the results of both the qualitative and quantitative methods was done in line with the literature review content, research objectives and questions). the majority of respondents were in agreement with most of the factors outlined in the three main clusters. human factors addressed in line with the research topic, the following cluster 1 human factors were addressed; they became evident in the main findings analysed in the study and are thus presented in table 4: perceptions – lack thereof both management and subordinates communication – no effective communication channels feedback – no feedback from managers motivation – low staff morale placement – not done correctly and employees are wrongly placed job satisfaction – no job satisfaction in some areas leadership – poor leadership induction – no induction arranged for employees. table 4: integration and comparison of mixed-method results. in line with table 4, note should be taken of cluster 3 in relation to the performance environment (pe) results from the majority of the respondents that: management and subordinate relations – not good in some areas work ethics – no work ethics union relationships – not good relationship in some areas time frames – non-adherence to time frames support structures – there are structures in place, although not uniform in all nwpa departments resources – insufficient resources team building and teamwork – non-existent in some areas knowledge management – not good systems in place service delivery – not good service delivery in the north west province. in line with table 4, note should be taken of cluster 4 in relation to the performance management (pm) results from the majority of the respondents that: performance management not effectively used training and development – lack of effective training and no sufficient budget senior management training – senior managers to be trained and lower level staff to be aware of the challenges managers face rewards for good performance – lacking in some areas and no uniformity in applying rewards for performance. in line with table 4, note should be taken of other factors or new themes identified by participants, such as favouritism, racism, victimisation, use of the pm tool as punishment, no implementation of policies and prescripts, non-compliance, nepotism, low salaries and room for improvement. table 4 represents an integration and comparison of the mixed-method results as a means of summarising in alignment with the main clusters and themes. the themes were used as a means to identify the results for both the qualitative and quantitative methods as outlined in table 4 with comments, as the comparison was also done in line with the literature review. qualitative method (interviews) out of the total 31 participants, for the face-to-face interviews eight participants took part in the study. the gender makeup of the participants was as follows: seven males and one female. for the focus group interviews conducted, 23 participants took part in the focus group interviews conducted by the researcher. the gender breakdown was as follows: 8 male and 15 female participants. quantitative method (questionnaires) the results show that all mean responses were greater than the corresponding standard deviations. most employees had been employed for a period exceeding 10 years. this is evident from the mean response of 3.20 years of employment. most of these employees were females aged between 36 and 40 years. the mean response associated with qualifications of these employees was 4.21, suggesting that most of the employees had formal tertiary qualifications. the current job level for employees at all government departments is highly skilled production levels (see table 5). table 5: quantitative respondent, number of years employed, gender, age, job level and highest qualification. findings summary of the findings the study consisted of research questions and objectives, which were informed by previous literature. the management and employees within the nwpa are encouraged to take consideration of the study, particularly the proposed pm model. the three main clusters, including the fourth (other factors or new themes), which became evident through inputs during the interpretation of both qualitative and quantitative data, were all part of the study. the clustering of variables selected for the study represented the focus areas of the research theme and the research question: the human needs, relations and motivation cluster; the communication and operational dimension cluster; the leadership cluster; and the pm process cluster. the three main clusters of this research – dealing with (1) performance management, (2) human factors and (3) the performance environment – were coded and coloured. the main clusters were coded in the transcripts for faster identification of the three main themes, as depicted in figure 8. figure 8: qualitative method colour coding and clustering applied. concentration was placed on the areas of performance management, human factors, performance environment and as other factors or new themes identified by participants were found. the summary of findings is outlined in the following. cluster 1: performance management the link between performance and service delivery is very weak at present as evident in the findings outlined in table 6 from all the interviews conducted. the prevailing spirit of laissez-faire found to be prevalent within the departments needs to be eliminated by consciously resuscitating areas of motivation (rewards, recognition and remuneration) and strongly addressing issues such as nepotism and favouritism, as identified by participant 12 during the interview: ‘but in our department, some of them are, they are using a favouritism, instead of rating you accordingly they are using the excuses or their way how to perform that. they are using favourite, favouritism is there.’ (participant 12, female, expert level) table 6: quantified qualitative outcomes of themes for cluster 1: performance management. in addition, political deployment of unsuitable candidates should be addressed, according to participant 31, who responded by saying that: ‘people are brought without any subject matter, they know nothing, but you are required to work with them. you understand this comrade was brought here, he knows nothing, i’ve got to capacitate him on my own …’ ’ (participant 31, male, expert level) cluster 2: human factors the aim of the study was to isolate the human factors prevalent in the execution of the pm tool outlined under the literature review as well as the findings from the interviews in table 7. through information sourced from the literature review and the interviews conducted, including the questionnaires, which identified and exposed flaws (see table 4) identified in the three main clusters including the other factors that were identified during the interviews such as nepotism, favouritism, racism and so on, gaps and other misdemeanours in the current pm process. some of these human flaws may affect the morale, ethos and general outlook of what public service is all about: ‘because i think in that way then they would be much more encouraged and motivated to behave and adhere to the work ethics or the guidelines that have been stipulated so i think to like even a, a courtesy to say well done, you know feedback, encourages, it motivates it, it gives you a drive it can just give you, you know that boost to say keep going, keep you are doing well. with that, i guess my colleague is, is spot on, to say, service delivery is compromised because as a workforce, as government employees we are disgruntled and most of us can trace back our, lack of morale and poor motivation in pursuit of rendering the services that we promised our people back to this policy.’ (participant 13, male, expert level) table 7: quantified qualitative outcomes of themes for cluster 2: human factors. the political interference mentioned in the study has become one of the most disturbing aspects that impacts on relationships within the human resource (hr) space, where negative attitudes begin to grow. some of the comments from the interviews conducted indicated as follows: ‘most of the time you find that some of the forums are only constituted when required. you see, they are time related – in other words, they are not permanent’. (participant 1, male, strategic level) ‘[i]n terms of the forum, i will specifically talk about the provincial ‘batho pele’ forum that i know and i participate [in]. the other forums that are here, i cannot say much about them because i never been there but i, i am told they are there, ja.’ (participant 7, male, operational level) ‘our senior management (sms), they sit in departmental management committee (dmc) meetings; they come with the resolutions, but they don’t come back to, to their own dire … directorates. yes, in our department ee … your appeals forums they, they establish it when there’s a crisis, it’s not there, even the moderating, the moderating, they stand when it’s a pressure to them to say, no, we are waiting for the pmds; they just start now calling people, they must have a structure that is already there.’ (participant 11, male, expert level) cluster 3: performance environment among the findings in table 8, there were a significant number of negative occurrences of the theme of management and subordinate relationships at 15 out of 18, which significantly highlights the state of affairs in this category. with regard to union relationships, it is evident that significantly more respondents at 11 out of 17 agreed that there was not a good working relationship between the nwpa departments and the unions. regarding work ethic, it is evident that there is no work ethic in the departments as negative responses were significantly more frequent than positive responses. however, respondents felt that there is a modicum of team building and teamwork that is taking place, although to a lesser extent. table 8: quantified qualitative outcomes of themes for cluster 3: performance environment. knowledge management seems to have a much higher negative response rate than the positive meaning that km needs attention or needs to be improved. a few participants also highlighted the fact that time frames are problematic, as there seems to be non-adherence to deadlines. with regard to service delivery, it is evident that there is a need to improve service delivery, as the participants provided more negative responses than positive. cluster 4: emerging new factors the findings in table 9 indicate a significant number of respondents who agreed that there is favouritism in the departments; however, the themes of conflict and compliance were slightly more frequent than the rest of the responses. there is a need to improve and/or ensure that these themes are not militating against good performance and therefore they need attention and/or intervention. table 9: quantified qualitative outcomes of themes for cluster 4: emerging new factors. discussion the study investigated the current pm status quo in the province, where service delivery protests have been witnessed and have escalated proportionally. the pattern suggests that the entire pm system needs redress. manuel (2013) on the launch of the national development plan has clearly cited the escalating pitfalls in the pm process as a subset of poor service delivery. main recommendations proposed strategic input–throughput–output process the input–throughput–output process in figure 9 is aligned to the management systems model of the employee as a subsystem as depicted by nel et al. (2011). this alignment was done to assist in guiding the nwpa management or to equip them with an understanding of the phenomenon, leading towards performance improvement. the input–throughput–output process (see figure 9) could be used to determine specific activities that could be embarked upon by the nwpa with a view to improving service delivery for the citizens of the north west province. the model provides guidelines for the three levels: (1) strategic, expert, (2) operational and (3) grass-roots levels (see figure 9). figure 9: input–throughput–output process. the proposed pm model (see figure 10) also incorporated and aligned the input, throughput and output phases with the three main clusters (pm, human factors and performance environment) as well as other factors or new themes identified by participants. looking out for the interests of people we serve is what public service is all about (pule, 2015), as outlined in table 4. figure 10: performance management model. proposed performance management model the aim of the study was to design a model for improved performance. this model can be used to assist the nwpa to improve pm and ultimately service delivery in the province. the proposed pm model (figure 10), as suggested in this study, can provide guidance to improve the pm model in the north west provincial government. the findings derived from the research investigations and discussions have led to the identification of main themes, which resulted in the design of the model depicted in figure 10. based on the views expressed by various authors and researchers such as o’boyle and aguinis (2012), olson, (2013) and bersin (2014), the bell curve psychological testing or normal distribution is outdated (figure 2). according to the results, there were conflicting responses with respect to relationships between and among managers and employees. although most respondents agreed with these assertions, a reasonable number of them also disagreed. their mean response was 1.6, less than the standard deviation 0.499, and was almost skewed to 1, marking an agreement. some of the reasons given to support the disagreement were: lack of interaction between managers and employees, lack of transparency, arrogance displayed by some managers, unhealthy competition among managers themselves and flawed processes at their workplaces. some of the positive comments included availability of mentorship, especially to new appointees, and the way problems are addressed as they emerge. research has also revealed that there is a paucity of research related to cases where managers are contracted to pm and their subordinates are not (matjila, maleka, & jordaan, 2015). guidelines for implementation of the performance management model based on the results and conclusions of this study, the proposed model was developed specifically and uniquely for the nwpa. management of performance is a two-way process and requires interaction between the employee and employer. guideline 1 – performance management: like in the private sector, the public sector around the world faces pressures to improve service quality, to lower costs, to become more accountable, customer focussed and responsible to stakeholder needs (metawie, 2005). souhrada (2016) observed that after years of discussion, many organisations are now totally rethinking their pm processes – sometimes eliminating ratings and often focusing more heavily on coaching, feedback, development and agile goal management, setting expectations for what the business needs to get the work done. there is a need to review the current pm because it is clear that there are gaps in the system. guideline 2 – human factors: softer issues linked to human elements should not be taken lightly, as they most certainly have an impact (either positive or negative) at the end. proper and more effective planning towards improved performance and effective service delivery is therefore necessary to strategise more effectively for performance improvement, taking into consideration strategic alignment of the following: provincial and national treasury framework for managing performance or the accountability cycle legislative regulatory framework, which governs pm compliance principals captured in the book of the presidency guide, vision 2030 national development plan north west provincial integrated development strategy north west provincial pillars and concretes and the ‘triple r’ philosophy department strategic plan individual performance agreements employee work plans job design guideline 3 – performance environment: the factors linked to the performance environment should enable a well-functioning and conducive working environment, which positively supports and promotes improved performance. participant 11 at expert level was expressing frustration regarding the fact that the employee felt that there was a serious backlog of service delivery in the province. guideline 4 – implementation of the policies: directives must be done with effective support structures in place. knowledge of policies, uniformity of implementation and utilisation of sound support structures is ideal towards making the performance environment a success. limitations and recommendations for future research limitations from this study, it was evident that both the literature review and findings had contextual and applicability limits. the literature review findings cited in this article as acknowledged were directly linked (grouped into three main clusters) to the main research question, sub-questions and objectives of the study. these were based on the environmental context; as the study was confined only to the 12 departments within the nwpa, therefore the findings cannot be generalised. recommendations for future research this sequential mixed-methods study was confined to only the 12 departments of the nwpa. recommendations are thus made for possible future research, as it might be possible to compare other provincial departments through encouraging participation in a mixed-methods study so that a more solid and rigorous comparative study could be conducted. this would substantiate the proposed model in this study and propose possible revisions or changes to accommodate the unique situation as well as linking it to pm processes in other provinces. it may be necessary to add national departmental officials into the study as well. if the model is implemented and is working for the benefit of the vision and objectives set by the current government, then it might be necessary that the north west province be used as a pilot; the programme can then be rolled out to other provinces in the country and most probably further into other countries. in general, the study has outlined significant human factors that may build or derail the entire hr management system if red flags are not raised, addressed head-on and remedied. these daily service delivery protests that have become a common feature of the south african daily scenario are an indication of the disjuncture between the provincial government and its municipalities, communication gaps between the provincial and local managers, external as well as internal managers within departments. organisational communication demands that internal and external communication be managed through existing channels. many of these channels have been exposed as extinct in this study. conclusion the primary research objective of the study was met as a proposed process in the form of input, throughput and output as a start, linking it with the suggested pm model for performance improvement in the north west province for possible application in other provincial departments in the country and most probably further into other countries. the model has contributed to the body of knowledge in pm and towards performance improvement with reference to the nwpa. recommendations were provided, improving the pm process in the nwpa, which should ultimately contribute positively towards service delivery for the citizens. from the study, it became clear that several pm lapses exist within the nwpa departments. these lapses have contributed to the status quo of service delivery protests in most provinces. the present study has set the tone for further research in the area of pm, where deterioration in performance and erosion of morale has mitigated the performance status at all levels within the departments. this situation called for a closer look at the model, now referred to as the pm model. acknowledgements kezell klinck thanks the north-west university (nwu) for the bursary funding over the 3-year period as well as the faculty of commerce and administration for their funding contribution and support. special thanks to kezell klinck’s mentors dr s. mosime and prof. s. swanepoel for their excellent guidance and continued support. the author also thanks prof. moroke for her excellent research assistance. the information sessions and workshops organised through the office of prof. du plessis from the nwu business school provided guidance throughout the research journey. the two key emotional pillars of strength for kezell klinck throughout the 5 years were a dedicated and understanding husband, mr l. klinck, as well as a committed eldest daughter, ms a. laloo; this work would not have succeeded without the support of all the mentioned. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the study was conducted by k.k. as part of her phd study in business management at the north-west university, mafikeng campus. this article is an excerpt of the phd study. s.m. and s.s. were the promoters of the study. sadly, s.m. passed away before the completion of the study and thus k.k. and s.s. are the co-writers of the article. references allen, m., titsworth, s., & hunt, s. k. (2008). quantitative research in communication. london. sage publications. bersin, j. (2014). the myth of the bell curve. look for the hyper-performers. retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/johbersin/2014/02/19/the-myth-of-the-bell-curve-look-for-the-hyper-performers/#6a7bbe966bca bersin, j., agarwal, d., pelster, b., & schwarts, j. (2015). global human capital trends 2015: leading in the new world of work. united kingdom: deloitte university press. best, j. w. & kahn, j. v. (2006). research in education (10th edn.). boston, ma: allyn & bacon/pearson education. bless, c., higson-smith, c., & sithole, s. l. (2013). fundamentals of social research methods: an african perspective. cape town: juta. creswell, j. w., & clark, v. l. p. (2007). designing and conducting mixed-methods research. irvine, ca: sage. creswell, j. w., & plano clark, v. l. (2011). designing and conducting mixed methods research (2nd edn.). london: sage. de vos, a. s., strydom, h., fouché, c. b., & delport, c. s. l. (2011). research at grassroots for social science and human service professions. pretoria: van schaik publishers. dudovskiy, j. (2017). research methodology. purposive sampling. retrieved from http://research-methodology.net/sampling-in-primary-data-collection/purposive-sampling/ gray, d. e. (2014). doing research in the real world. los angeles: sage. heathfield, s. m., (2018). beyond hiring and firing: what is human resource management? retrieved from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/what-is-human-resource-management-1918143 johnson, r. b., onwuegbuzie, a. j., & turner, l. a. (2007). towards a definition of mixed methods research. journal of mixed methods research, 1(2), 112–113. https://doi.org/10.1177/1558689806298224 kaplan, r. s., & norton, d. p. (1992). the balanced scorecard: measures that drive performance. harvard business review, 70(1), 71–79. kent, r. (2015). analysing quantitative data. los angeles: sage. krejcie, r. v., & morgan, d. w. (1970). determining sample size for research activities. educational and psychological measurement, 30, 607–610. https://doi.org/10.1177/001316447003000308 kumar, r. (2011). research methodology: a step-by-step guide for beginners (3rd edn.). london: sage. maree, k., & pietersen, j. (2007). first steps in research (1st edn.). pretoria: van schaik publishers. pp. 172–180. matjila, t. s., maleka, m. j., & jordaan, c. (2015). branch managers’ perceptions regarding the performance management system in state-owned company. problems and perceptive in management, 13(3), 173–180. metawie, m. (2005). problems with the implementation of performance measurement systems in the public sector where performance is linked to pay: a literature review drawn from the uk. 3rd conference on performance measurements and management control. retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.104.9267&rep=rep1&type=pdf mouton, j. (2001). how to succeed in your masters and doctoral studies: a south african guide and research book. pretoria: van schaik. nel, p. s., werner, a., poist, p., sono, t., du plessis, a., ngalo, o., van hoek, l. & botha, c. (2011). human resource management. 8th ed. cape town: oxford university press. olson, e. g. (2013). microsoft, ge, and the futility of ranking employees. retrieved from http://fortune.com/2013/11/18/microsoft-ge-and-the-futility-of-ranking-employees/ o’boyle, jr. e., & aguinis, h. (2012). the best and the rest: revisiting the norm of normality of individual performance. personnel psychology, 65(1), 79–119. retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2011.01239.x/abstract onwuegbuzie, a. j., & leech, n. l. (2006). linking research questions to mixed methods data analysis procedures 1. the qualitative report, 11(3), 474–498. retrieved from https://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol11/iss3/3 plowright, d. (2011). using mixed methods. los angeles, london, new delhi: sage. pule, a. (2015). passion for the public service breeds success. public sector manager, 24–25. roberts, b. (2007). getting the most out of the research experience: what every researcher needs to know. london: sage. sainfo reporter (2013). south africa pushes for professional civil service. retrieved from http://www.southafrica.info/about/government/civil-service-040413 souhrada, k. (2016). performance management in the cloud: keeping employees engaged and motivated: transform an unpopular task into an integral part of your talent management strategy. retrieved from blogs.oracle.com/oracle stoner, j. a. f. (1982). management (2nd edn.). usa, englewood cliffs: prentice-hall swanepoel, b. j., erasmus, b. j., & schenk, h. w. (2010). south african human resource management: theory & practices. cape town. juta & co ltd. tilley, c., smart, v., ross, l., & jackson, n. (2010). new public sector performance management: making fiscal consolidation smarter. retrieved from https://www.cimaglobal.com/documents/thought_leadership_docs/new%20public%20sector%20performance%20management.pdf van der westhuizen, e. j. (2005). managing people in the 21st century. integrative public sector human resources management in sub-sahara africa. politela, 24(2), 142–160. van wyk, a. (2014). does s. africa really employ more civil servants than the us? the claim is false. retrieved from https://africacheck.org/reports/does-south-africa-really-employ-more-civil-servants-than-the-us-the-claim-is-false/ wärnich, s., carrell, m. r., elbert, n. f., & hatfield, r. d. (2015). human resource management in south africa (5th edn.). united kingdom: cenveo publisher services. abstract introduction empirical literature hypotheses development theoretical framework conceptual model research design results discussion practical implications limitation and directions for future research acknowledgements references about the author(s) lawrence abiwu school of management, it and governance, college of law and management studies, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa isabel martins school of management, it and governance, college of law and management studies, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa citation abiwu, l., & martins, i. (2022). talent development as a source of sustainable competitive advantage for higher education institutions during the covid-19 pandemic. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1777. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1777 original research talent development as a source of sustainable competitive advantage for higher education institutions during the covid-19 pandemic lawrence abiwu, isabel martins received: 20 sept. 2021; accepted: 12 july 2022; published: 18 oct. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic has had profound consequences on all sectors of the economy. this global pandemic threatens the sustainability of all sectors, including higher education. research purpose: this study aimed to investigate talent development strategies that promote the sustainability of higher education institutions during the covid-19 pandemic. motivation for the study: several higher education institutions are struggling to survive during the covid-19 pandemic. therefore, this study is motivated by the need to promote the sustainability of south african higher education institutions through talent development. research approach/design and method: a quantitative research approach was adopted to quantify the research phenomenon. a structured questionnaire was used to collect the data from 265 academics in three south african universities. the statistical package for the social sciences, version 27.0, was used to analyse the data. cronbach’s alpha coefficient and factor analysis were computed to determine the reliability and validity of the questionnaire. pearson’s correlations and regression analysis were used to determine the relationship between talent development strategies and sustainability. main findings: the results showed that talent development strategies (training and development as well as career development) positively influenced the sustainability of south african universities during the covid-19 pandemic. practical/managerial implications: universities can obtain sustainability through investment in their intellectual capital. this can be achieved through continuous training and development as well as career development. contribution/value-addition: the study expands on limited empirical research on talent development and sustainable competitive advantage. keywords: career development; covid-19; sustainability; talent development; talent management; training and development. introduction education remains one of the major linchpins of the socio-economic and political development of any nation (ekene & oluoch-suleh, 2015; shrivastava & shrivastava, 2014). a study by ekene and oluoch-suleh (2015) reveals that education contributes to a change in the individual, enhancing productivity and work efficiency. according to shrivastava and shrivastava (2014), recent evidence suggests that higher education institutions (heis) have the potential to produce both private and public benefits. from the perspectives of public good and the common good, heis may be seen as a sort of continuum in line with the aim of developing democratic political institutions that enable citizens to have a greater voice in the decisions that affect their well-being (locatelli, 2018). moreover, ranjan (2014) advocates that given the level of competition in the labour market, many heis are combining both theoretical and practical knowledge to develop professionals who have the conceptual clarity, analytical skill and academic knowledge to face development challenges successfully. valero and van reenen (2019) similarly point out that universities contribute to economic growth in different ways, including but not limited to: the supply of human capital, innovation, support for democratic values and demand effects. a study by valero and van reenen (2019) showed that a 10% increase in the number of universities in a region is associated with a 0.4% increase in gross domestic product (gdp) per capita. for instance, in south africa, a study conducted by dyason, rossouw and kleynhans (2019) reveal that every r1 million spent by north-west university resulted in a multiplier effect of r1.81 m in the economy. the study further showed that north-west university alone created more than 8565 jobs in 2015. although the social, political, technological and economic contribution of universities worldwide is well documented, they are faced with diverse challenges that affect their sustainability. these challenges relate to, among others, brain drain, access and enrolment, funding, shortage of critical skills and now the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic. among these challenges, the covid-19 pandemic had a more significant impact on the sustainability of heis. covid-19 pandemic is a global health emergency that emerged in december 2019 in wuhan city in hubei province, china. covid-19 outbreak is caused by the sars-cov-2 virus. however, the pandemic has spread across the world and created more epicentres in, for example, the united states of america (usa), united kingdom (uk), spain, italy, iran, japan, south korea and brazil (world health organization, 2020). south africa confirmed its first covid-19 infection on 05 march 2020. following the promulgation of the lockdown on 27 march 2020, the government of south africa issued regulations enforcing limitations of gatherings to 50 people among other measures such as travel restrictions, self-isolating and closing of schools (south african news agency, 2020). universities in south africa undertook precautionary measures following earlier concerns of a lack of urgency raised by the south african union of students (crawford et al., 2020). the pandemic has disrupted academic programmes in universities across different regions of the world, including south africa (mckibbin & fernando, 2021). it has been found that the covid-19 has changed the way universities will conduct their business going forward as academic programmes have been disrupted, resources reallocated, infrastructure development halted and staff working from home (murphy & wyness, 2020). wangenge-ouma and kupe (2020) observe that the spread of the covid-19 in south africa is interwoven into an existing socioeconomic context ridden with poverty and unsustainable inequalities. in view of this, south african heis faced an uncertain future as dwindling funds in the sector was a challenge. given the impact of the covid-19 pandemic, successful progression to emergency teaching of the institutions are still lagging behind hinges, among other factors, such as the availability of intellectual human capital (south african news agency, 2020). this implies that for universities to survive or achieve sustainable competitive advantage in this turbulent environment, it is perceived they will require highly skilled and talented employees. since the phrase ‘competition for talent’ was coined by mckinsey in 1998 (chambers, foulon, handfield-jones, hankin, & michaels, 1998), managing talent has widely been considered a tool for addressing human resource (hr) challenges that arise in the contemporary business environment (collings & isichei, 2018). talent is defined as the behaviour and actions that are superior to those taken by others, such as colleagues (branham, 2001). within the japanese culture, talent is conceptualised as the highest accomplishment after undergoing several years of training (tansley, 2011). according to the knowledge-based view of the firm, knowledge or talent is considered as a unique resource required to obtain and transform other resources (wernerfelt, 1984). likewise, barney (1991) postulates that for firms to gain competitive advantage, they require dynamic capabilities to transform resources. these assumptions are consistent with younas and bari (2020), who argue that because of the competition for talent, employers need to implement talent management (tm) practices to develop and retain their talent. the above discussion suggests that tm is considered an important tool that creates value or sustainable competitive advantage for organisations. talent management is considered a broad human resource management (hrm) strategy that organisations adopt to retain top talent and improve performance (sareen & mishra, 2016). in a typically competitive environment, tm focuses on determining employees’ strengths and weaknesses, which helps an organisation in developing strategies to compete with its rivals. talent management is defined as a process deemed to attract, develop, place, retain and integrate highly qualified workforce members (aytaç, 2015). based on the explanation, talent development constitutes one of the dimensions of tm that changes an organisation through both planned and unplanned training. fajčíková, fejfarová and urbancová (2016) believe that talent development constitutes the modern approach to hrm, which focuses on developing the potential and competencies of employees to obtain a competitive advantage. for bolander, werr and asplund (2017), talent development is a technique that nurtures talent. research suggests that different talent development practices contribute to enhancing employees’ capabilities, including training and development, organisational learning, career development, coaching and mentoring, and succession planning. however, this study concentrates only on learning, training and development as well as career development because it is perceived that these constructs have received little attention from scholarly studies. findings indicate that the talent development strategies such as training and development and career development impacted competitive advantage the most (almannai, arbab & darwish, 2017). despite the findings, extant literature still suggests that there is limited research in the south african context that investigates talent development strategies that create sustainable competitive advantage for universities during the covid-19. for instance, research suggests that organisational career development has a positive impact on career satisfaction. however, no prior empirical research investigates the relationship between career development and sustainable competitive advantage in heis (wickramaratne, 2020). against this background, this study seeks to examine the talent development strategies that promote the sustainability of universities in the covid-19 pandemic. empirical literature talent development strategies talent development is considered an organisational activity aimed at maintaining and enhancing employees’ careers, skills and knowledge to align them with the organisational strategic goals (de vos, de hauw, & van de heijden, 2011; forrier, sels, & stynen, 2009). there are different tm practices that contribute to developing intellectual capital within an organisation. however, as indicated above, this study focuses on training and development and career development. training and development are indispensable hr strategies for improving employees’ skills, knowledge, experience and competencies. the purpose of training is to address the gap between the requirements of a job and the present competence of the worker concerning job security and skills of the job holder (spr et al., 2015). obeidat and abdallah (2014) state that training and development enhance the efficiency of workers. training refers to workers’ deliberate and methodical effort to achieve superior performance in different areas (ahmad & bakar, 2003). on the other hand, development is an approach to studying whereby managerial employees acquire and utilise their knowledge, skills and capabilities to perform their responsibilities most effectively and efficiently (lamba & choudhary, 2013). career development comprises career planning and management. the former refers to how employees identify their skills, knowledge and ability to integrate their career goals (chetana & mohapatra, 2017). the latter involves preparing, developing, implementing and monitoring employee career plans and strategies (greenhaus, callanan, & godshalk, 2000). research (kong, cheung, & song, 2012; mcquade & maguire, 2005) reveals that career development significantly affects developing employees’ competencies, promoting their employability. church (2014) advocates that career development contributes to addressing the skills shortage in an organisation. sustainable competitive advantage researchers (barney 1991; penrose 1959; rumelt 1984) believe that competitive advantage represents the firm-internal non-imitable resources. according to barney (1991), competitive advantage is associated with a firm value-creating strategy, whose value cannot be imitated by rivals in the present or future. moreover, porter (1985) defines competitive advantage in three ways: cost, differentiation and focus with rivals who desire to set themselves apart from those perceived as stuck in the middle without competitive advantage. porter’s (1985) definition suggests that the ability of a firm to produce a product at a lower cost can lead to a competitive advantage. the other two dimensions of the definition relate to the value perceived by the customers who either see specific attractive elements in the offering (differentiation) or feel that all their needs are being met by that competitor’s offerings (focus) (henderson, 2011). peteraf and barney (2003) also point out that a firm’s competitive advantage can be measured using economic value. peteraf and barney (2003:314) refer to ‘economic value as the value created by an enterprise through the provision of a good or service’. thus, the difference between the perceived benefits gained by the purchasers of the good and the economic cost to the enterprise. for newbert (2008:752), competitive advantage is determined by the opportunities exploited by a firm, ‘degree to which the firm neutralised threats and reduced costs’. in their study, ibrahim and zayed (2018) argue that competitive advantage can only be created by having the right people. odonez de pablos (2004) believes that a sustainable competitive advantage stems from valuable company-specific resources that competitors cannot easily imitate. according to odonez de pablos (2004), human capital, relational capital and structural capital are sources of sustainable competitive advantage to firms. david and david (2013) share a similar opinion that competitive advantage is obtained when a firm does something better than its rivals or owns something that other firms desire. for rathod (2014), talent represents the most valuable resource of an organisation in achieving strategic goals and competitive advantage. another study found that indicators used to measure competitive advantage include product uniqueness, product quality and competitive price (kuncoro & suriani, 2018). research (ali & gatiti, 2020; bao, 2020) shows that universities globally, especially those in egypt, focus on innovative and creative processes to enable them to survive during the covid-19 pandemic. against this background, they started devising different e-learning programmes and using various online platforms to reach their diverse learners remotely and safely both effectively and efficiently without compromising the quality of education or adversely affecting students’ learning experience (adedoyin & soykan, 2020; bao, 2020). it has been suggested that achieving a sustainable competitive advantage requires investment in developing the tangible/intangible resources within the organisation, including knowledge (adel, zeinhom, & younis, 2021). from the discussion, it can be argued that there is no standard measurement of sustainable competitive advantage. however, this study adopts the kbv of the firm theory to measure sustainable competitive advantage. hypotheses development there is a common consensus among management researchers that competitive advantage stems from the internal talent and abilities that cannot be easily imitated, in contrast to the firm’s products and services. this assumption underscores the relevance of the kbv of the firm theory, which recognises human capital as a firm’s primary asset to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. a study conducted by gandhok and smith (2014) reveals that talent development has a positive effect in sustaining the organisational competitive advantage. these days, most employees are more interested in organisations that allow them to achieve their career and personal goals. continuous implementation of learning, training and development practices is vital, where firms are encouraged to design and implement new procedures to achieve their tasks, provide new technologies and have up-to-date skills and knowledge. according to rabbi, ahad, kousar and ali (2015), learning, training and development are considered the basis of a firm’s success. appelbaum and gallagher (2000) claim that continuous training helps an organisation learn and gain a competitive advantage. kireru, karanja and namusonge (2017), in their study, observe that development strategies contributed to building sustainability of firms. moreover, rabbi et al. (2015) conclude that tm strategies such as talent attraction, retention and development contribute to building a lasting competitive advantage in an organisation. in addition, research (morales-sánchez & pasamar, 2019; rawabdeh, nawafleh, alsari, & melhem, 2019; salas-vallina, alegre, & fernandez, 2017) organisational citizenship behaviour mediates the relationship between training and development and competitive advantage. considering the above, the following hypothesis was proposed: h1 there is a positive relationship between training and development and competitive advantage to achieve sustainable competitive advantage, many organisations are now implementing career development programmes as a creative way to meet the challenges of attraction, retention and motivation of their employees (erdogan, kraimer, & liden, 2004). research (barnett & bradley, 2007; baruch, 2006) suggests that organisations could meet the challenges of attraction, retention and motivation if they provide opportunities for their employees to develop their careers and increase their career satisfaction. the extended model of social cognitive career theory (lent & brown, 2006) suggests that the organisational support for career development belongs to a class of environmental support and resource that are specifically relevant to pursuing an individual’s career goals. according to osibanjo, oyewunmi and ojo (2014), career development is an ongoing effort by an organisation to enrich hrs in alignment with the employees and organisational needs. tang, wang and xiao (2015) also confirm that career growth and training opportunities help to meet needs of enterprises and employees. similarly, according to lyria, namusonge and karanja (2017), career management increases organisational performance. based on this, the following hypothesis was proposed: h2 there is a positive relationship between career development and competitive advantage theoretical framework the theoretical framework on which this research will be predicated is the kbv of the firm. the kbv of the firm considers knowledge as the most strategically significant resource of the firm (barney, 1991; grant, 1996; wernerfelt, 1984). from the kbv of the firm perspective, knowledge is considered a unique resource required to obtain and transform other resources (wernerfelt, 1984). likewise, barney (1991) postulates that firms need dynamic capabilities to convert resources to build a sustainable competitive advantage. the dynamic capabilities and resources are difficult to imitate (barney, 1991; foss & eriksen, 1995). the dynamic capability allows firms to build and reconfigure their capacities to compete in the ever-changing business environments (teece, pisano, & shuen, 1997). according to mcevily and chakravarthy (2002), tacit, specific and dynamic knowledge developed by firms through replication creates a sustainable competitive advantage. the proponents (boynton & victor, 1991; zack, 1999) of the kbv of the firm argue that the knowledge the firm possesses enhances the basis for its ability to compete. therefore, the assumptions of the kbv of the firm theory suggest that for universities to navigate this trying moment occasioned by covid-19, they will require knowledge workers who have explicit and tacit knowledge. this assertion underscores the importance of talent development, where employees are given opportunities to acquire skills, knowledge, experience and capabilities required to create value for their organisations. conceptual model the conceptual model that underpins the study is presented in figure 1. figure 1: talent development strategies that promote sustainability of higher education institutions. from figure 1, the sustainability of universities could be promoted through talent development strategies such as training and development and career development. training and development are considered the best hr strategies for achieving organisational success in this competitive labour market and dynamic business environment. thus, it is impossible for organisations to create a sustainable competitive advantage without continuous training and development. higher education institutions can create and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage by providing comprehensive training and development for their current staff. this assumption relates to a similar view expressed by singh and mohanty (2012), who argue that development programmes consistent with employees and organisational goals and aligned to the business strategy will deliver a competitive advantage. apart from training and development, career development also plays a vital role in promoting the sustainability of organisations. therefore, to obtain a sustainable competitive advantage, talent development programmes should enhance all talent and capabilities of employees. research design this section of the research describes the research approach, strategy and method adopted to empirically investigate the impact of talent development on competitive advantage. research method there are two main research approaches: deductive and inductive (saunders, lewis, & thornhill, 2009). however, this study adopted the deductive approach, which has its foundation in scientific or quantitative research. this approach concerns the shift from general to particular, beginning from a theory through formulating hypotheses, testing the hypotheses and reviewing them. the deductive approach was adopted because it uses rigorous scientific methods to gather and analyse numeric data (ravindran, 2019). research strategy descriptive research was carried out, which helped to describe the subject matter adequately and accurately. siedlecki (2020) believes that descriptive study aims to adequately describe the events as they occurred in their natural settings. this type of research design does not allow the researcher to manipulate the variables but only describes them and the sample. research approach the research adopted the cross-sectional study to collect and analyse the data from the respondents in the participating institutions. quantitative research was used to measure the subject matter by collecting and analysing numerical data (castellan, 2010). the study embraced quantitative method to contribute to the existing knowledge on tm, talent development and competitive advantage in a more in-depth way. this method of research helps to generate knowledge and create understanding about talent development strategies and sustainability. the quantitative research assists in the generalisation of the research findings (popay, rogers, & williams, 1998). additionally, in order to safeguard the credibility of the primary data gathered, validity and reliability need to be taken into account. data collection and analysis helped improve the credibility of the results because the researcher is independent of the investigation (denscombe, 1998). research location the study was conducted in three south african universities located in kwazulu-natal, gauteng and western cape province. a written permission letter was sent to each of these institutions for the gatekeeper’s letter. all the institutions have granted permission for the research to be conducted. an informed consent form was attached to the questionnaire, which contains vital information such as the nature and purpose of the study, voluntary participation and withdrawal from the study, confidentiality, anonymity of the data and contact details of the researcher. the respondents in this study include academics such as lecturers, senior lecturers, associate professors and full professors. the respondents were contacted via their email addresses and theses were retrieved from the institutional websites. the findings from the study were submitted to the three institutions, along with the recommendations. research participants and sampling methods the target population (n = 1800) of the study was the academics in the three universities. the ‘raosoft’ sample size calculator was used to determine the actual sample size, considering a 5% margin error and 95% confidence level. therefore, the sample size was calculated to be 317. a stratified sampling method was used to segregate the study population into different strata (etikan & bala, 2017). of the total sample (317), only 265 respondents completed the online survey. the demographic characteristics of the respondents showed that 50.6% were male, while 49.4% were female. with respect to the age of the respondents, the data showed that most of them were between 41–50 years (30.2%) and 51–60 years (29.8%). the results indicated that the larger proportion of the respondents were white people (38.9%) and african (30.6%). the educational background of the respondents revealed that 74% hold doctorates and 26% hold masters. the findings showed that 40% of the respondents were from institution b, 32.8% from institution c and 27.2% thus, institution a. the results further indicated that lecturers (31.3%), professors (29.1%) and senior lecturers (27.9%) represented the majority of the respondents. it was found that 32.1% and 21.9% of the respondents had work in their respective institutions between 6–10 and 11–15 years. in terms of employment status, 74.3% of the respondents were full-time employees within the three institutions. research collection method data were collected through an online survey using a structured questionnaire. the self-constructed research instrument was pre-tested before the study. the questionnaire was developed from empirical and theoretical framework. the pilot study was conducted at one of the universities in south africa between 25 february 2020 and 27 february 2020. the questionnaire was administered to five respondents who were exempted from the actual research. cronbach’s coefficient alpha and factor analysis were used to test the reliability and validity of the questionnaire. the results of the pilot study indicated that the questionnaire was reliable and valid. for example, the cronbach’s coefficient alpha score for talent development was 0.98, while competitive advantage was 0.96. moreover, the results of the measure of sampling adequacy were 0.915 (marvellous). statistically, the data set complied with the requirements of sampling adequacy and sphericity for exploratory factor analysis (efa) to be performed. the respondents in the three institutions were then contacted via email, and the link to the online survey was sent to them. measurement scale the study variables (talent development – training and development as well as career development and competitive) were measured on a 5-point scale, ranging from strongly agree (5) to strongly disagree (1). the questionnaire was constructed from literature review and theoretical frameworks. it comprised 15 items. of the total, 7 items were used to measure talent development, while 8 items measured sustainable competitive advantage. for example, the items that measured talent included knowledge transfer, training and development opportunities, creativity and innovativeness, career planning, organisational support and investment in employees. on the other hand, the items that measured competitive advantage included valuable resources (resources that are very distinctive from other resources), rare resource (resources that are very difficult for other institutions to acquire), resource that other universities cannot imitate, resource that is difficult to replace with another strategic equivalent and full utilisation of hrs to the best of their advantage. the respondents were asked to respond to each statement on the questionnaire. all the scale items were averaged to obtain an overall measure for each of the variables that form the basis of the research. as discussed above, the measuring instrument was validated and fit for this study. the cronbach’s coefficient alpha score for talent development was 0.98, while competitive advantage was 0.96. moreover, the results of the measure of sampling adequacy were 0.915 (marvellous). data storage the questionnaire was captured on google form (https://forms.gle/yizwjchjjxzwsmdj7) and distributed to the respondents. moreover, the institutions assisted in the data-collection process by placing the questionnaires on their websites to enable respondents to complete them. the respondents were informed of the date the link would be available. the data-collection process lasted from 01 may 2020 to 30 november 2020. the average time spent by the respondents to complete the online questionnaire was 30 min. the responses from the respondents were downloaded and stored on a personal computer with password protection. ethical considerations the research protocol (hssrec/00000852/2019) was approved by the university of kwazulu-natal humanities and social sciences research ethics committee. a written informed consent form was attached to the research instruments that contained important information such as research methods, procedures for the investigation, categories of the participants and benefits derived from the study. all the respondents have consented to participate in the study. concerning the confidentiality principle and provisions of the protection of personal information act (popia) of 2021, as amended, the respondents were assured that the information elicited would be used solely for its intended purposes. in accordance with the provisions of the popia, the respondents were assured that their personal information will not be accessed by unauthorised persons. they were also assured of the confidentiality clause in the informed consent form. regarding anonymity, the participants’ names were replaced by pseudonyms in the research and future publication, guarding their personal information. also, bias was eliminated by giving every element within the population the same opportunity to be included in the study. moreover, the research involves no incentives that influence the respondents to participate in the study. data analysis the statistical package for the social sciences (version 27.0) was used to analyse the data. cronbach’s alpha coefficient was computed to determine the reliability of the measuring instrument. cronbach’s coefficient alpha was computed to assess the reliability of the questionnaire. reliability score ranges from 0 to 1, with perfect reliability equaling 1 and no reliability equaling 0. statistically, the reliability score of 0.700 and above is considered acceptable. moreover, the validity of the measuring instrument was determined through efa. the efa, using the pattern matrix extraction method, was computed to reduce the number of factors in the questionnaire. based on the rule of thumb, items with loadings > 0.30 are regarded as highly significant when extracting the factors, making them more interpretable. kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) and bartlett’s tests were further employed to test the sampling adequacy. the kmo and bartlett’s tests measure the adequacy of the sample size, ranging from 0 to 1, reaching 1 when all the items are perfectly estimated without an error: where ≥ 0.90 = marvellous; ≥ 0.80 = meritorious; ≥ 0.70 = middling; ≥ 0.60 = mediocre; ≥ 0.50 = poor; < 0.50 = unacceptable. according to the rule of thumb, the kmo score should be 0.60 or higher to be significant (reddy & kulshrestha, 2019). the analysis and interpretation of the results are done using descriptive (mean, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (correlations and regression). correlations and multiple regression were employed to predict the influence of the independents’ variables (training and development and career development) on the dependent variable (sustainable competitive advantage). results table 1 summarises the reliability scores of the study. table 1: cronbach’s alpha. the reliability scores range from 0.69 (for training and development) to 0.95 (for competitive advantage), suggesting internal consistency. statistically, the results indicate a reasonable degree of reliability because they met the threshold. table 1 summarises the validity of the measuring instrument. from table 2, a closer inspection of the scree plot suggests that three factors could be extracted. these are labelled as follows: training and development (factor 1), career development (factor 2) and competitive advantage (factor 3). these three factors explained 69.60% of the variance of the measuring instrument. the items in the questionnaire indicated acceptable loadings of > 0.30. table 3 presents the results of the kmo and bartlett’s test. table 2: factor analysis. table 3: kaiser–meyer–olkin and bartlett’s tests. the results of the measure of sample adequacy (msa) were 0.906 (marvellous). from the statistical point of view, the requirements of sampling adequacy were met. thus, the sample was adequate for the factor analysis. the results of the descriptive statistics are depicted in table 4. table 4: descriptive statistics and the correlation matrix. in table 4, the items measuring career development (mean = 4.49), training and development (mean = 4.24) and competitive advantage (mean = 4.24) have very high mean scores, exceeding 3.00. statistically, it can be concluded that all the variables that form part of this study are highly significant. the results implied that the respondents perceived career development and training and development as the predictors of sustainable competitive advantage in south african universities. the pearson’s correlation indicated a moderate positive relationship between career development and competitive advantage (r = 0.409, p < 0.001). moreover, there was a moderate positive relationship between training and development and competitive advantage (r = 0.520, p < 0.001). table 5 summarises the results of the multiple regression. table 5: multiple regression. as summarised in table 5, the regression model suggests an r-squared value of 0.332% and an adjusted r-squared value of 0.326. this implies that the model (talent development strategies) predicts 33.2% of the variations in sustainable competitive advantage. this is significant (p < 0.001), meaning that there was a significant relationship between the independent variables (training and development and career development) and the dependent variable (sustainable competitive advantage). the results supported the stated hypotheses. the standardised beta and the corresponding p-values for training and development and career development (β = 0.284, p ˂ 0.001) and (β = 0.379, p ˂ 0.010), respectively, indicated that career development made the most considerable contribution to the model, followed by training and development. based on the results, it can be deduced that career development and training and development jointly served as predictors of sustainable competitive advantage in south african heis. hence, the hypotheses are supported. discussion according to kuncoro and suriani (2018), competition in the business environment is inevitable. kuncoro and suriani (2018) advocate that firms need to know customers’ expectations and changes in the business environment so as to compete with rivals. it has been argued that firms can obtain a sustainable competitive advantage when potential competitors cannot duplicate or it will cost much to imitate its strategies (kuncoro & suriani, 2018). levenson (2011) suggests that given the competition for talent, organisations must protect their human capital from eroding by ensuring that their employees’ skills, knowledge and experiences are constantly and regularly developed. the view expressed by levenson (2011) underscores the importance of talent development, which aims to maintain and enhance employees’ career, skills and knowledge to align them with the organisational strategic goals (de vos et al., 2011; forrier et al., 2009). it can therefore be argued that the sustainability of universities could be promoted through talent development strategies such as training and development and career development. singh and mohanty (2012) argue that development programmes consistent with employees and organisational goals and aligned to the business strategy will deliver a competitive advantage. moreover, rabbi et al. (2015) conclude that tm strategies such as talent attraction, retention and development contribute to building a lasting competitive advantage in an organisation. kireru et al. (2017), in their study, observe that talent development strategies contributed to building sustainability of firms. interestingly, previous research focused mainly only on tm and organisational performance. this study could be considered an important contribution to talent development and sustainable competitive advantage literature because of the scarcity of empirical research. the study was conducted to determine the impact of talent development on sustainable competitive advantage in south african universities during the covid-19 pandemic. the study empirically tested the developed conceptual model and hypotheses by collecting data from academics in three south african universities. the findings showed a significant positive relationship between training and development and competitive advantage during the covid-19 pandemic. the findings reaffirmed the results of previous research (gandhok & smith, 2014; rabbi et al., 2015). according to singh and mohanty (2012), development programmes consistent with employees and organisational goals and needs and aligned to the business strategy will deliver a competitive advantage. from the kbv standpoint, mcevily and chakravarthy (2002) argue that firms’ tacit, specific and dynamic knowledge through replication creates a sustainable competitive advantage. manenzhe and ngirande (2021) found a positive relationship between training and development and organisational citizenship behaviour. research shows that organisations with employees with high organisational citizenship behaviour have a competitive advantage (morales-sánchez & pasamar, 2019; rawabdeh et al., 2019; salas-vallina et al., 2017). additionally, the findings indicated a significant positive relationship between career development and sustainability of south african universities during the covid-19 pandemic. the results demonstrate that south african universities considered career development a vital tool for retaining and encouraging employees to enrich their skills and commitment to the organisation. moreover, the findings suggest that south african universities encouraged their staff to develop their knowledge and skills to remain competitive. these findings were consistent with the research undertaken by previous studies. for instance, in their study, osibanjo et al. (2014) found that career development is an ongoing effort by an organisation to enrich hrs in alignment with the employees and organisation needs. tang et al. (2015) argue that career growth and training opportunities help to meet needs of enterprises and employees. similarly, lyria et al. (2017) assert career management increases organisational performance. practical implications this study makes a significant contribution to the theory and practices for sustainable competitive advantage. the study empirically tested the model concerning the talent development strategies (training and development and career development) that promote the sustainability of universities. the study demonstrates that sustainable competitive advantage during the covid-19 pandemic could be created through training and development and career development. this indicates that the study is a step forward in better understanding how the competitive advantage in universities could be created during the covid-19 pandemic. this study will serve as the foundation for future research to test the model in different organisational contexts. the research findings have some managerial implications, which can help universities effectively achieve their desired goals. it is evident from the study that south african universities recognised academics as valuable resources that are very distinct from other resources. also, the findings indicated that south african universities recognised academics as essential resources that are difficult to replace with another strategic equivalent. in addition, the findings could contribute to human capital development in universities globally. thus, the results may be helpful to universities to intensify effort towards training and development and career development of their staff, as they have demonstrated to be significant determinants of promoting sustainability during the covid-19 pandemic. limitation and directions for future research the study was limited to only south african universities, making the generalisation of the findings to be limited because of the differences in an organisational context. given this limitation, future research should focus on different industries. moreover, although talent development, an aspect of tm, is a recent research concept that continues to attract research interest from practitioners and academics, there is still much room for further research in this area. conclusion given the war for talent, most firms are increasingly becoming aware that the investment in their intellectual capital will help create and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage in the long term. the findings widely acknowledged that training and development and career development created a sustainable competitive advantage for south african universities during the covid-19 pandemic. acknowledgements i would like to acknowledge prof. isabel martins (school of management, it and governance, ukzn) for dedicating her time to supervise this study. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions the contributions of the corresponding author include conceptualisation, methodology, formal analysis, investigation, writing-original draft, visualisation, project administration, software, validation and data curation, resources. the second author’s contributions include supervision and review and editing. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions contained in this journal articles are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy of the university of kwazulu-natal. references adel, h.m., zeinhom, g.a., & younis, r.a.a. (2021). from university social-responsibility to social-innovation strategy for quality accreditation and sustainable competitive advantage during covid-19 pandemic. journal of humanities and applied social sciences, vol. (ahead-of-print), no. (ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/jhass-04-2021-0086. adeosun, o.t., & ohiani, a.s. (2020). attracting and recruiting quality talent: firm perspectives. rajagiri management journal, 14(2), 107–120. https://doi.org/10.1108/ramj-05-2020-0016 ahmad, k.z., & bakar, r.a. (2003). the association between training and organizational commitment among white-collar workers in malaysia. international journal of training and development, 7(3), 166–185. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2419.00179 ali, m.y., & gatiti, p. (2020). the covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic: reflections on the roles of librarians and information professionals. health information and libraries journal, 37(2), 158–162. almannai, m.a.w., arbab, a.m., & darwish, s. (2017). the impact of talent management strategies on enhancement of competitive advantage in bahrain post. international journal of core engineering & management, 4, 1–17. appelbaum, s.h., & gallagher, j. (2000). the competitive advantage of organizational learning. journal of workplace learning, 12(2), 40–56. https://doi.org/10.1108/13665620010316000 aytaç, t. (2015). the relationship between teachers’ perception about school managers’ talent management leadership and the level of organizational commitment. eurasian journal of educational research, 15(59), 165–180. https://doi.org/10.14689/ejer.2015.59.10 bao, w. (2020). covid-19 and online teaching in higher education: a case study of peking university. human behavior and emerging technologies, 2(2), 113–115. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.191 barnett, r., & bradley, l. (2007). the impact of organizational support for career development on career satisfaction. career development international, 12(7), 617–636. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430710834396 barney, j. (1991). firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. journal of management, 17(1), 99–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700108 baruch, y. (2006). career development in organizations and beyond: balancing traditional and contemporary viewpoints. human resource management review, 16(2), 125–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2006.03.002 bolander, p., werr, a., & asplund, k. (2017). the practice of talent management: a framework and typology. personnel review, 46(8), 1523–1551. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-02-2016-0037 boynton, a.c., & victor, b. (1991). beyond flexibility: building and managing the dynamically stable organization. california management review, 34(1), 53–66. https://doi.org/10.2307/41166683 branham, l. (2001). keeping the people who keep you in business: 24 ways to hang on to your most valuable talent. new york, ny: american management association. castellan, c.m. (2010). quantitative and qualitative research: a view for clarity. international journal of education, 2(2), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.5296/ije.v2i2.446 chambers, e.g., foulon, m., handfield-jones, h., hankin, s.m., & michaels, e.g. (1998). the war for talents. the mckinsey quarterly, 3, 1–8. chetana, n., & mohapatra, a.k. (2017). career planning and career management as antecedents of career development: a study. asian journal of management, 8(3), 614–618. https://doi.org/10.5958/2321-5763.2017.00098.1 church, a.h. (2014). what do we know about developing leadership potential? organisational development practitioner, 46(3), 52–61. collings, d.g., & isichei, m. (2018). the shifting boundaries of global staffing: integrating global talent management, alternative forms of international assignments and non-employees into the discussion. the international journal of human resource management, 29(1), 165–187. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1380064 crawford, j., butler-henderson, k., rudolph, j., malkawi, b., glowatz, m., burton, r., & lam, s. (2020). covid-19: 20 countries’ higher education intra-period digital pedagogy responses. journal of applied learning & teaching, 3(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.37074/jalt.2020.3.1.7 david, f.r., & david, f.r. (2013). strategic management: concepts and cases: a competitive advantage approach. london: pearson. de vos, a., de hauw, s., & van de heijden, b.i.j.m. (2011). competency development and career success: the mediating role of employability. journal of vocational behaviour, 79, 438–447. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.05.010 denscombe, m. (1998). the good research for small – scale social research project. philadelphia, pa: open university press. dyason, d., rossouw, r., & kleynhans, e.p. (2019). economic impact assessment of a south african university campus: a case for promoting on-campus contact learning. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 22(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v22i1.3153 ekene, o.g., & oluoch-suleh, e. (2015). role of institutions of higher learning in enhancing sustainable development in kenya. journal of education and practice, 6(16), 91–102. erdogan, b., kraimer, m.l., & liden, r.c. (2004). work value congruence and intrinsic career success: the compensatory roles of leader-member exchange and perceived organizational support. personnel psychology, 57(2), 305–332. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2004.tb02493.x etikan, i., & bala, k. (2017). sampling and sampling methods. biometrics & biostatistics international journal, 5(6), 00149. https://doi.org/10.15406/bbij.2017.05.00149 fajčíková, a., fejfarová, m., & urbancová, h. (2016). employee development by talent management. scientific papers of the university of pardubice. series d, faculty of economics and administration, vol. 38, pp. 18–29. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10195/66832 forrier, a., sels, l., & stynen, d. (2009). career mobility at the intersection between agent and structure: a conceptual model. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 82(4), 739–759. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317909x470933 foss, n.j., & eriksen, b. (1995). competitive advantage and industry capabilities. in resource-based and evolutionary theories of the firm: towards a synthesis (pp. 43–69). boston, ma: springer. gandhok, t., & smith, r. (2014). rethinking cross-border talent management: the emerging markets perspective. asian management insights, 1, 25. grant, r.m. (1996). toward a knowledge-based theory of the firm. strategic management journal, 17(s2), 109–122. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250171110 greenhaus, j., callanan, g., & godshalk, v. (2000). career management (3rd ed.). fort worth, tx: dryden press. henderson, s. (2011). the development of competitive advantage through sustainable event management. worldwide hospitality and tourism themes, 3(3), 245–257. https://doi.org/10.1108/17554211111142202 ibrahim, s.n., & zayed, a. (2018). the impact of the integrated talent management on the competitive advantage in multinational corporations. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 8(7), 221–237. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v8-i7/4338 kireru, c., karanja, k., & namusonge, g.s. (2017). role of talent development process on competitive advantage of telecommunication firms in nairobi city county, kenya. international journal of managerial studies and research (ijmsr). international journal advances in social science and humanities, 5(8), 10–21. https://doi.org/10.20431/2349-0349.0508001 kong, h., cheung, c., & song, h. (2012). from hotel career management to employees’ career satisfaction: the mediating effect of career competency. international journal of hospitality management, 31(1), 76–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2011.03.002 kuncoro, w., & suriani, w.o. (2018). achieving sustainable competitive advantage through product innovation and market driving. asia pacific management review, 23(3), 186–192. lamba, s., & choudhary, n. (2013). impact of hrm practices on organizational commitment of employees. international journal of advancements in research & technology, 2(4), 407–423. lent, r.w., & brown, s.d. (2006). on conceptualizing and assessing social cognitive constructs in career research: a measurement guide. journal of career assessment, 14(1), 12–35. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072705281364 levenson, a. (2011). using targeted analytics to improve talent decisions. people and strategy, 34(2), 34–41. locatelli, r. (2018). education as a public and common good: reframing the governance of education in a changing context. unesco education, research and foresight: working papers, 22, pp. 1–17, iris publicatt. lyria, r.k., namusonge, g.s., & karanja, k. (2017). the effect of career management on organizational performance of firms listed in the nairobi securities exchange. journal of human resource and leadership, 1(3), 31–42. manenzhe, p.m., & ngirande, h. (2021). the influence of compensation, training and development on organisational citizenship behaviour. sa journal of industrial psychology, 47(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v47i0.1845 mcevily, s.k., & chakravarthy, b. (2002). the persistence of knowledge-based advantage: an empirical test for product performance and technological knowledge. strategic management journal, 23(4), 285–305. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.223 mckibbin, w., & fernando, r. (2021). the global macroeconomic impacts of covid-19: seven scenarios. asian economic papers, 20(2), 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1162/asep_a_00796 mcquade, e., & maguire, t. (2005). individuals and their employability. journal of european industrial training, 29(6), 447–456. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090590510610245 morales-sánchez, r., & pasamar, s. (2019). how to improve organisational citizenship behaviour by combining ability, motivation and opportunity. employee relations: the international journal, 2(2), 398–416. murphy, r., & wyness, g. (2020). minority report: the impact of predicted grades on university admissions of disadvantaged groups. cepeo working paper series no 20–07 centre for education policy and equalising opportunitites. ucl institute of education, london. newbert, s.l. (2008). value, rareness, competitive advantage, and performance: a conceptual level empirical investigation of the resource-based view of the firm. strategic management journal, 29(7), 745–768. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.686 obeidat, b.y., & abdallah, a.b. (2014). the relationships among human resource management practices, organizational commitment, and knowledge management processes: a structural equation modeling approach. international journal of business and management, 9(3), 9–15. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v9n3p9 ordonez de pablos, p. (2004). mapping human capital and organisational competitive advantage: a case study of european learning organisations. international journal of human resources development and management, 4(3), 256–266. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijhrdm.2004.004769 osibanjo, a.o., oyewunmi, a.e., & ojo, i.s. (2014). career development as a determinant of organizational growth: modelling the relationship between these constructs in the nigerian banking industry. american international journal of social sciences, 3(7), 67–76. penrose, e. (1959). the theory of the growth of the firm. oxford: basil blackwell. peteraf, m.a., & barney, j.b. (2003). unraveling the resource based tangle. managerial and decision economics, 24(4), 309–323. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijhrdm.2004.004769 popay, j., rogers, a., & williams, g. (1998). rationale and standards for the systematic review of qualitative literature in health services research. qualitative health research, 8(3), 341–351. https://doi.org/10.1177/104973239800800305 porter, m.e. (1985). competitive advantage. new york, ny: free press. rabbi, f., ahad, n., kousar, t., & ali, t. (2015). talent management as a source of competitive advantage. journal of asian business strategy, 5(9), 208–214. https://doi.org/10.18488/journal.1006/2015.5.9/1006.9.208.214 ranjan, r. (2014). private universities in india and quality of education. international journal of humanities social sciences and education (ijhsse), 1(9), 140–144. rathod, p. (2014). talent management: a strategy for competitive advantage. indian journal of research, 3(12), 55–57. ravindran, v. (2019). data analysis in qualitative research. indian journal of continuing nursing education, 20(1), 40–45. rawabdeh, m., nawafleh, s., alsari, h., & melhem, m.b. (2019). the mediating influence of organisational citizenship behaviour on employee job performance and staff incentive’s relationship. international journal of management practice, 12(2), 200–227. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijmp.2019.10018488 reddy, l.s., & kulshrestha, p. (2019). performing the kmo and bartlett’s test for factors estimating the warehouse efficiency inventory and customer contentment for e-retail supply chain. international journal of research, engineering and applied management, 5, 1–13. rumelt, r.p. (1984). towards a strategic theory of the firm. competitive strategic management, 26(3), 556–570. salas-vallina, a., alegre, j., & fernandez, r. (2017). happiness at work and organisational citizenship behaviour. international journal of manpower, 38(3), 470–488. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijm-10-2015-0163 sareen, p., & mishra, s. (2016). a study of talent management and its impact on performance of organizations. journal of business and management, 18(12), 66–73. saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2009). research methods for business students. new york, ny: pearson education. shrivastava, m., & shrivastava, s. (2014). political economy of higher education: comparing south africa to trends in the world. higher education, 67(6), 809–822. siedlecki, s.l. (2020). understanding descriptive research designs and methods. clinical nurse specialist, 34(1), 8–12. https://doi.org/10.1097/nur.0000000000000493 singh, r., & mohanty, m. (2012). impact of training practices on employee productivity: a comparative study. interscience management review (imr), 2(2), 74–88. south african news agency. (2020). coronavirus 101. retrieved from https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/coronavirus-101 spr, c.r., nor, c.s.m., kadiresan, v., kumar, r., mohamed, m.h., & rethinam, k. (2014). promoting employment security through training for employability. international journal of management, 3(1), 45–55. tang, c.y., wang, p., & xiao, s. (2015). research on the influence mechanism of moral leadership on the career growth of new employees. journal of southwest jiaotong university, 16, 104–114. tansley, c. (2011). what do we mean by the term ‘talent’ in talent management? industrial and commercial training, 43(5), 266–274. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197851111145853 teece, d.j., pisano, g., & shuen, a. (1997). dynamic capabilities and strategic management. strategic management journal, 18(7), 509–533. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-0266(199708)18:7%3c509::aid-smj882%3e3.0.co;2-z valero, a., & van reenen, j. (2019). the economic impact of universities: evidence from across the globe. economics of education review, 68(1), 53–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2018.09.001 wangenge-ouma, g., & kupe, t. (2020). uncertain times: re-imagining universities for new, sustainable futures. retrieved from https://www.usaf.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ wernerfelt, b. (1984). a resource-based view of the firm. strategic management journal, 5(2), 171–180. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250050207 wickramaratne, w.p.r. (2020). sustainability in career development: the impact of career development culture and career support of senior management on career satisfaction. emaj: emerging markets journal, 10(2), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.5195/emaj.2020.194 world health organization. (2020). definition of regional groupings. retrieved from https://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/definition_regions/en/ younas, m., & bari, m.w. (2020). the relationship between talent management practices and retention of generation ‘y’ employees: mediating role of competency development. economic research-ekonomska istraživanja, 33(1), 1330–1353. https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677x.2020.1748510 zack, m.h. (1999). developing a knowledge strategy. california management review, 41(3), 125–145. https://doi.org/10.2307/41166000 abstract introduction literature review research design results discussion practical implications limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) sulaiman o. atiku harold pupkewitz graduate school of business, namibia university of science and technology, windhoek, namibia idris o. ganiyu discipline of human resource management, school of management, it and governance, college of law and management, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa citation atiku, s.o., & ganiyu, i.o. (2022). flexible work options in higher educational institutions in times of crisis. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1693. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1693 original research flexible work options in higher educational institutions in times of crisis sulaiman o. atiku, idris o. ganiyu received: 05 june 2021; accepted: 21 sept. 2021; published: 03 aug. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the association between academic staff position and attitudes towards specific flexible work options in times of crisis. research purpose: this study examined employees’ perceptions towards flexible work options in times of crisis in institutions of higher learning operating in namibia. motivation for the study: despite the wide-ranging studies that have examined attitudes towards flexible work options in many organisations, little is known about attitudes towards flexible work options in higher education institutions in times of crisis. research approach/design and method: this study adopted a cross-sectional survey following a quantitative approach, using a structured questionnaire to gather information from the participants. the target population (956) of this study comprised academics and administrative staff working in the participating institutions. data were analysed from a sample of 465 respondents using the chi-square test of independence and the mann–whitney u test to test the research hypotheses. main findings: results show that academic staff position is positively associated with attitudes towards specific flexible work options in times of crisis. findings further indicate a significant association between gender and attitudes towards ‘early start-normal go, then friday afternoon off’. practical/managerial implications: insights from the research findings could be used to improve the implementation of flexible work options in the post-pandemic period. contribution/value-add: the study offers a perspective on the attitudes towards flexible work options in higher education institutions during a pandemic. keywords: attitudes; flexible work options; flexi-time options; gender; higher education institutions; covid-19 pandemic. introduction the coronavirus disease (covid-19) emerged in wuhan, china, in late 2019 (tirumalaraju, 2020). as a result of the global footprint of the virus in 2020, the world health organization (who) declared the covid-19 outbreak as a pandemic. the covid-19 could be adjudged as the worst pandemic and health crisis witnessed in the first three decades of the 21st century (burgess & sievertsen, 2020). the emergence of the global health crisis, otherwise referred to as covid-19, resulted in the disruption of work with most global economies forced into total or partial lockdown to break the chain of transmission thereby curtailing the spread of the pandemic. the global lockdown was informed by the safety precautions outlined by who (karatayev, anand, & bauch, 2020). the regulatory disruption by many governments across the globe to curtail the spread of covid-19 led to an economic crisis. the major crisis associated with covid-19 is health and economic crises. many businesses and educational institutions had no other option than to adjust their operations to militate against the covid-19 impact (karatayev et al., 2020; verma et al., 2020). the disruption in work implies that only businesses that provided essential services were allowed to continue to operate from their physical location, whilst non-essential businesses went into lockdown in compliance with the social distancing regulation of government. the global lockdown forced many businesses to adopt flexible work options to stay afloat. ‘flexibility’ refers to the measures put in place by employers for the employees to determine where and when to carry out job responsibilities (allen, johnson, kiburz, & shockley, 2013). therefore, flexible work options refer to the human resource management strategy aimed at helping organisations to cushion the adverse effect of environmental uncertainties by adopting variation on where and when job roles are performed (ganiyu, 2021; giannikis & mihail, 2011; weideman & hofmeyr, 2020). before the emergence of covid-19, flexible work options were adopted by organisations as work–life balance strategies to help employees cope with work and family stressors (ganiyu, fields, atiku, & derera, 2020; voudouris, 2004; weideman & hofmeyr, 2020). using flexible work options as work–life balance strategies enable organisations to retain and attract a high performing workforce. previous studies have examined the relationship between flexible work options and constructs such as employee productivity, employee commitment, employee engagement, and organisational outcomes (azar, khan, & van eerde, 2018; choi, 2018; giannikis & mihail, 2011). however, the global lockdown brought about a shift in focus as flexible work options are being adopted by many organisations and institutions of higher learning globally as an intervention strategy in compliance with lockdown regulations rather than a work–life balance strategy. higher education institutions across the globe were affected by the pandemic because of the lockdown of universities. the lockdown led to the transition from the traditional face-to-face modes of delivery to online teaching and learning approaches and providing academic support to students through virtual interaction. consequently, the use of technology for teaching and learning became essential for the advancement of academic activities across the globe during the crisis. there is a dearth of empirical studies on the use of flexible work options in times of crisis in institutions of higher learning in namibia. hence, it becomes imperative to provide empirical evidence on attitudes towards flexitime options in higher education institutions in times of crisis in namibia. therefore, this study examines employees’ perceptions towards flexible work options in times of crisis in institutions of higher learning operating in namibia. literature review flexible work options the global lockdown as a result of the covid-19 pandemic has stirred up unavoidable debate about flexible work options. managements of higher education institutions have realised that the adoption of appropriate flexible work options for different cadres of academic and non-academic staff could be an effective tool to remedy the adverse effect of the pandemic or lockdown on the educational system. therefore, flexible work options are perceived as a viable short-term measure to remedy the adverse effect of the lockdown on the educational system by transitioning to online teaching on an unprecedented scale whilst academic and non-academic staff work remotely (burgess & sievertsen, 2020). however, flexible work options are not limited to remote working. in other words, the flexible work option is more encompassing as it transcends the traditional 8 h a day work structure. the following are some of the flexible work options identified in the literature. remote working remote working, also known as telecommuting, is a situation whereby an employee is allowed to work outside of the office location (ganiyu, 2021; giannikis & mihail, 2011). the global lockdown and technological innovations are the major factors influencing businesses and higher education institutions to explore alternative work environments in which employees are allowed to work remotely. noonan and glass (2012) argued that remote working has been a catalyst for the expansion of work hours in response to employees’ need for additional work time in a developed country such as the united states of america (us). the expansion of work hours may result in work–family conflict. however, ansong and boateng (2018) examined the benefit of remote working in developing countries using ghana as a reference point; the finding of the study suggests that both the employers and the workforce benefit from the adoption of remote working. consistent with this finding, ganiyu (2021) suggested that remote working could be helpful in reducing employees’ carbon footprint on the environment as emissions resulting from regular travel to work are reduced. online teaching in higher education institutions may bring about a reduction in the amount of stationery used by the various institutions as all assessments are conducted online. in addition, the amount of emission produced as a result of staff and students commuting to the various study locations will equally be reduced. remote working is an approach to job scheduling made possible by new technological innovations such as mobile communication and the internet of things (warnich, carrell, elbert, & hatfield, 2018). for instance, belzunegui-eraso and erro-garcés (2020) posited that employees use terminals to create dial-up connections or to sustain uninterrupted online communications, which allow them to perform most or all of their assigned duties from home. employees may also use cloud storage and drop boxes to share data and documents from any location (warnich et al., 2018). however, an empirical study suggested that remote working does not work for certain people as it can promote feelings of loneliness, stagnation, work–family conflict, and even compulsive overworking (belzunegui-eraso & erro-garcés, 2020). teleworking chiru (2017) argued that the interest in teleworking began in the 1970s when the word telecommuting was used to describe working away from the workplace, mainly using telephone communication as a replacement for physical proximity. teleworking became popular in the 1990s, and recent studies show that it has become one of the most prominent bases of flexibility systems (mahler, 2012) with the hope that it will become much more adopted in the post-pandemic period. similarly, lyttelton, zang and musick (2020) claimed that the global pandemic has resulted in an unparalleled transition to remote work. before the covid-19 crisis, 16% of employees hardly spent quality time at home on an ordinary day and only one-third of all workers reported the ability to telework for most of the day. teleworking promotes flexibility in the workplace and reduces the environmental impact of carbon emissions through transportation to and from workplaces (baker et al., 2007; baltes et al., 1999; belzunegui-eraso & erro-garcés, 2020). in other words, teleworking helps employees reduce regular travel to work thereby reducing the impact of such travel on energy consumption and the environment. teleworking has been commonly viewed as a more sustainable mode of working during the global lockdown as compared with the traditional work arrangement because of its decreased reliance on transportation and consolidated office facilities, which results in sustained social distancing amongst the workforce (atiku, jeremiah, & boateng, 2020; chiru, 2017). empirical studies indicated a significant positive relationship between teleworking and job characteristics such as productivity and a lower risk of burnout (baert, lippens, moens, weytjens, & sterkens, 2020). however, lebopo, seymour and knoesen (2020) argued that whilst teleworking provides various benefits to firms, society and the workforce, it has not achieved the anticipated levels of adoption. shift work vedaa et al. (2016) explained that this style of work schedule rotates employees through the day and night shifts. a shift work option is enforced on a position or occupation such as security service, police, hotel or the health sector, where services are required at all times. employers are typically responsible for providing transportation to workers from their home, if necessary, to the workplace at the start of a shift and from the workplace to the residence at the end of a shift or paying a transportation allowance if the employee accepts this (podratz, 2004; rodgers, 1992; vedaa et al., 2016). atiku et al. (2020) suggested that shift work may not be categorised as a flexible work option, but may be regarded as a non-standardised work schedule. one of the benefits of the shift work option is that it allows the workforce to rotate their work schedule thereby having the time to honour other personal responsibilities (ganiyu, 2021; nakrošienė, bučiūnienė, & goštautaitė, 2019; vedaa et al., 2016). however, the shift work option can be challenging for employees as it alters their sleeping patterns, eating habits, and the amount of time they spend with their family and friends. based on the foregoing flexible work options, the following hypotheses are proposed: hypothesis 1: there is a significant association between age and attitudes towards specific flexible work options in times of crisis. hypothesis 2: there is a significant association between gender and attitudes towards specific flexible work options in times of crisis. hypothesis 3: there is a significant association between academic staff position and attitudes towards specific flexible work options in times of crisis. hypothesis 4: there is a significant association between administrative staff position and attitudes towards specific flexible work options in times of crisis. flexitime options the dynamic nature of the world of work and the pursuit of organisational excellence have resulted in many firms continually seeking superior capabilities, operational capacity and better work-related attitude required for gaining a competitive edge (nwekpa, offor, & ezezue, 2020; warnich et al., 2018). this leads to increased workload for the employees who must work past regular working hours, resulting in work–family conflict. the flexitime option was adopted as a work–life balance strategy to cushion the adverse effect of work–family conflict (ganiyu et al., 2020). the flexitime option is a structured system in which organisations plan a work schedule that allows employees to have autonomy on their working time within the overall period of the work specifications (atiku et al., 2020; nwekpa et al., 2020; tamunomiebi, 2018). matilal (2020) argued that flexitime is a situated practice rooted in a diverse adaptive sociotechnical environment. the flexitime options considered in this study include flexible lunchtime, early start-early go, early start-long lunch, early start-normal go, then friday afternoon off, and late start-late go. each of the flexi-options is discussed next. flexible lunchtime option the flexible lunchtime option is a job arrangement that enables workers to choose when they start and finish their workday, as well as how long they take their breaks, under agreed-upon condition established by management (bailyn, 1993; barber et al., 1992; janza, 2020). the flexible lunchtime option helps employees to schedule work around their other personal responsibilities thereby enhancing the employees’ work–life harmony. adopting the flexible lunchtime work option is often regarded as part of creating a family-friendly working atmosphere (choi, 2018; eaton, 2003; janza, 2020; pierce & dunham, 1992). according to yong (2015), these agreements have no impact on workers’ duties, the expectations that must be met or the average hours employed. empirical evidence revealed that the flexible lunchtime option promotes job versatility and organisational commitment (hill, miller, weiner, & colihan, 1998; janza, 2020; lewison, 2006). early start-early go most people need 7 to 8 h of sleep a night to feel rested and to be at their best. however, if the shift begins by 6 am, getting 7 or 8 h of sleep may be difficult (grzywacz & marks, 2000; totterdell, 2005). the commute is frequently the driving force behind the early start-early go times. totterdell (2005) argued that if you live in a city with heavy traffic, commuting between 8 am and 9 am could double or even triple your travel time. as a result, an earlier start time reduces commute time with both the night crew driving home and the day crew heading to work. according to warnich et al. (2018), flexible functioning must be managed effectively. early start-normal go, then friday afternoon off according to warnich et al. (2018), flexible working hours should be managed. if an employee wishes to work beyond regular business hours, that must be decided in advance by the employee and the management, and if there is inadequate or no work to be completed at the times the employee wants to work, they will not be allowed to work at the times they want (nwekpa et al., 2020). this style of work schedule would raise staff productivity whilst having few negative effects on the bottom line. according to totterdell (2005), versatility encourages staff to fulfil personal and family responsibilities whilst preventing burnout. early start-long lunch according to totterdell (2005), allowing workers to take longer lunch breaks during the day may contribute to improved productivity. this improves staff productivity by allowing employees to work around their family needs and other life commitments. miron (2014) concluded that whilst providing flexible scheduling can benefit both staff and the corporation, it also has drawbacks. allowing workers to take longer lunch breaks or work various hours in the office means that managers must keep a closer watch on them. managers must have confidence that their workers can finish tasks on time to fulfil all deadlines. miron (2014) and totterdell (2005) argued that if there is no consistent structure in place, this will potentially lead to misunderstandings and miscommunication between staff and supervisors. based on the foregoing flexitime options, the following hypotheses are proposed: hypothesis 5: there is a significant association between age and attitudes towards specific flexitime options in times of crisis. hypothesis 6: there is a significant association between gender and attitudes towards specific flexitime options in times of crisis. hypothesis 7: there is a significant association between academic staff position and attitudes towards specific flexitime options in times of crisis. hypothesis 8: there is a significant association between administrative staff position and attitudes towards specific flexitime options in times of crisis. research design research approach this study adopted a case study research design following a quantitative approach. a cross-sectional survey was incorporated using a structured questionnaire to gather information from respondents (creswell & hirose, 2019) concerning their perception of flexible work options in higher educational institutions during the pandemic. this study was conducted at institutions of higher learning in namibia. the participants of this study were all categories of academics and administrative staff in the institutions. the rationale behind collecting data from all staff categories was to gather information on the preferred flexitime options for further development of flexible work options in the post-covid-19 period. research participants the target population of this study comprised the academic and administrative staff in institutions of higher learning in namibia. the estimated population of the academic and administrative staff in the institutions was 956. this study adopted a convenience sampling technique following the ethical guidelines in social science research, which stipulate that no respondents should be forced to participate in a survey. the convenience sampling method is a non-probabilistic sampling technique (hayman, 2005; kossek et al., 1999; saunders & townsend, 2018) that helps in choosing respondents who are willing to participate in the survey. thus, convenience sampling was used in reaching out to respondents via their institutional email addresses. the link to complete the online survey and the survey introduction and the consent form were provided to respondents in the email. after 4 weeks of follow-up and gentle reminders to respondents regarding completion of the survey electronically if they had not done so, a total of 465 responses were retrieved. measuring instruments this study adopted a structured questionnaire to collect information on employees’ perception of flexible work options in the institutions of higher learning. the first section of the online survey contains three items gathering information on age group, gender and the position of respondents in the institutions. the second section contains 10 items, which were adapted from the flexible work options questionnaire (fwoq version 2) developed by albion (2004) and on the 17 statements developed by charron and lowe (2005). the items were adapted to gather information on two sub-sections: (1) perception of flexible work options in higher education institutions during the pandemic, and (2) the preferred flexitime options. the items on these subsections were designed on a 5-point likert rating scale, ranging from ‘1 – strongly disagree’ to ‘5 – strongly agree’. the last section contains an open-ended question useful in gathering additional comments from respondents regarding other opinions on flexible work options in higher education during the pandemic, relevant to the survey. the result of this grouping of statements helps to examine in detail the attitudes of employees towards flexible work options. the questionnaire was designed using esurveyspro, which offers an online survey software tool. respondents were able to complete the survey electronically using their smartphones, tablets and other personal computers or devices. the online survey tool was chosen to reach out to respondents whilst maintaining social distancing and encouraging virtual interaction during the pandemic. research procedure and ethical considerations the online survey tool (esurveyspro) adopted in this study ensured the anonymity of all participants by only providing a link to the survey in which anonymised data were obtained and downloaded in an excel format. this survey does not collect any information that discloses the identity of the participant or the identity of the participant’s workplace. the survey began with an introduction and an informed consent form emphasising that participation is voluntary. participants have the right to refuse to participate in this study and may withdraw from the study at any time. it was pointed out that the survey responses are confidential and anonymous, only aggregate information (no individual responses) was reported. based on the sampling techniques adopted in this study, the link to complete the survey online was provided to respondents. a total of 465) responses were retrieved online after 4 weeks of follow-up and gentle reminders to participants regarding completion of the online survey. statistical analysis this study adopted both descriptive and inferential statistics for data analysis. the data downloaded on an excel file was imported into the statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 27 for descriptive statistics (simple percentages, cross-tabulations, mean scores and standard deviation) and other preliminary analyses. perception of flexible work options was calculated using pearson’s chi-square test of association to discover if there is a relationship between the two categorical variables such as age and gender scores (franke, ho, & christie, 2012; herbst, 2020). also, pearson’s chi-square test was utilised to test the association between gender and preferred flexitime options in the institutions. the mann–whitney u test (pallant, 2020) was used in this study to examine the differences between two independent groups on a continuous measurement scale. the two independent groups assessed against the continuous measurement scale in this study are male and female. ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained from the namibia university of science and technology, rec/0320/061. results flexible work options were operationalised as remote working, teleworking, shift work and flexitime options. the flexitime options were categorised as: flexible lunchtime option, early start-early go, early start-long lunch, early start-normal go, then friday afternoon off and late start-late go. pearson’s chi-square test of association was conducted to examine the relationship between gender and the categories of flexible work options and flexitime options based on the perception of staff in the institutions. chi-square test of association compares the observed (count) frequencies of responses collected on each of the categories with the values that would be expected if there was no association between the categorical variables under investigation (pallant, 2020). the results reported in table 1 showcased the categorical variables (e.g. age group, gender and positions) and continuous variables (flexible work options such as remote working, teleworking, shift work and flexitime options) analysed using the chi-square tests of independence. the effect size of results was determined using cohen’s (1988) benchmarks (small = 0.01, medium = 0.30, large = 0.50) for effect size. cramer’s v (φc) reported in tables 1 and 2 were instrumental in determining the effect sizes of the chi-square tests of independence. table 1: comparisons of characteristics by flexible work options. table 2: comparisons of characteristics by flexitime options. a chi-square test for independence indicated no significant association between age and attitudes towards flexible work options in the institutions, x2 (9, n = 433) = 14.902, p > 0.05, φc = –0.109. similarly, there was no significant association between gender identification and attitudes towards flexible work options in the institutions, x2 (3, n = 433) = 4.147, p > 0.05, φc = –0.097. conversely, a significant association was found between categories of academic staff position and attitudes towards flexible work options, x2 (15, n = 231) = 33.403, p < 0.01, φc = –0.220. the study found a significant association in the proportion of academic staff in professorial cadre favouring flexitime (81.8%) in the institutions. in line with cohen’s (1988) benchmarks for effect size determination (φc = –0.220), one can infer that there was a small relationship between academic staff position and attitudes towards flexible work options in the institutions. pearson’s chi-square test of independence also revealed a significant association between categories of administrative staff position and attitudes towards flexible work options, x2 (15, n = 238) = 31.224, p < 0.01, φc = –0.209. a significant difference was found in the proportion of administrative staff (in senior supervisory cadre) favouring remote working and flexitime options (68.3%) in the institutions. in line with cohen’s (1988) benchmarks for effect size determination (φc = –0.209), one can infer that there was a small relationship between administrative staff position and attitudes towards flexible work options in the institutions. the results presented in table 1 show that demographic characteristics such as age and gender exert no statistical association with the perception of flexible work options in the institutions. academic and administrative staff positions provide a significant association with the attitudes towards remote working and flexitime options in the institutions. the comparisons of demographic and job characteristics by five flexitime options are presented in table 2. as indicated in table 2, the chi-square test of association indicates that age has no statistical influence on attitudes concerning flexitime options in the institutions, x2 (12, n = 268) = 15.257, p > 0.05, φc = –0.138. therefore, there is no significant association between age and attitudes concerning different flexitime options in the institutions. statistically, the pearson chi-square test indicates a significant relationship between gender identification and attitude towards flexible time options in the institutions [x2 (4, n = 268) = 14.660, p < 0.01, φc = –0.234]. the adjusted residuals comparing responses regarding early start-normal go, then friday afternoon off by males (t = –2.8) and females (t = 2.8) point to where the significant associations are between gender and flexitime options. the adjusted residual for males and early start-normal go, then friday afternoon off (t = –2.8) implies that the observed value (55) is lower than the expected (66.1). conversely, the adjusted residual for females and early start-normal go, then friday afternoon off (t = 2.8) implies that the observed value (106) is higher than the expected (94.9). there is a significant difference between gender identification and attitude towards early start-normal go, then friday afternoon off in the institutions. in line with cohen’s (1988) benchmarks for effect size (φc = –0.234), one can conclude that there was a small relationship between gender and attitude towards specific flexitime options in the institutions. the chi-square test of association between academic staff positions and attitudes towards specific flexitime options revealed a significant relationship between academic staff position and flexitime option [x2 (20, n = 123) = 37.734, p < 0.05, φc = –0.220]. the adjusted residuals for the levels of academic positions and flexitime options [professor and early start-long lunch (4.0); associate professor and early start-normal go, then friday afternoon off (–2.3); senior lecturer and late start-late go (2.3)] point to where the significant associations are between academic positions and preference for flexitime options. the effect size of the significant association was small (φc = –0.220) according to cohen’s benchmarks. hence, there is a significant association between academic staff positions and specific flexitime options in the institutions. the chi-square test of independence testing the association between administrative staff position and attitude towards flexitime options reveals that there is no significant association between administrative position and flexitime [x2 (20, n = 165) = 21.925, p > 0.05, φc = –0.182]. the mixed results imply that academic staff are the core staff of any higher educational institution. the use of flexitime options is more applicable to the academic staff in the institutions. the comparisons of responses on continuous variables by gender identification in the study are illustrated in table 3. table 3: comparisons of the responses from continuous variables by gender. the mann–whitney u test on the third item produced a significant difference in the perception of information technology (it) infrastructure in implementing flexible work options by males (md = 4, n =193) and females (md = 4, n = 272), u = 22329, z = –2.949, p = 0.003, r = 0.137. similarly, the mann–whitney u test for the fourth item measuring the influence of flexible work options on performance produced a significant difference in the responses by males (md = 4, n = 193) and females (md = 5, n = 272), u = 22594, z = –2.766, p = 0.006, r = 0.128. these results imply that males and females differ in their responses on the role of it infrastructure in implementing flexible work options and in their responses to the influence of flexible work options on performance in the institutions of higher learning. the results of items (1, 2 and 5) show that males and females do not differ in their responses to flexible work options. decisions reached on the hypotheses tested in this study are summarised in table 4. table 4: summary of results from the hypotheses. discussion the main objective of this study was to examine employees’ perceptions of flexible work options adopted in institutions of higher learning during the covid-19 pandemic in namibia. this study tested the influence of categorical variables on flexible work options and the specific flexitime options in institutions of higher learning during the covid-19 pandemic. many studies have established the place of flexible work options in addressing work–family stressors and as a work–life balance strategy in times of peace (allen et al., 2013; giannikis & mihail, 2011; tamunomiebi, 2018). similarly, attitudes towards flexible work options were investigated in developed countries before the pandemic (e.g. albion, 2004; giannikis & mihail, 2011). there is a dearth of studies that have investigated the attitudes towards flexible work options in higher education institutions during a pandemic. the unique contribution of this study to the existing body of literature is a piece of empirical evidence on the association between categorical variables and attitudes towards flexible work options in higher education institutions in times of crisis. this study established a significant relationship between academic staff position and attitudes towards specific flexible work options. the specific flexible work options empirically verified amongst the academic staff in times of crisis are remote working and flexitime options. similarly, a significant association is established between administrative staff position and attitudes towards specific flexible work options in times of crisis. the administrative staff in supervisory positions demonstrates a positive attitude towards remote working and flexitime options in times of crisis. the findings from a measure of attitudes towards flexible work options in times of crisis in higher educational institutions enhance understanding of the fwoq version 2 developed by albion (2004). the gap in gender differences (albion, 2004) is closed in this study based on the fact that males and females differ in their responses on the role of it infrastructure in implementing flexible work options. also, males and females differ in their responses to the influence of flexible work options on performance in institutions of higher learning. consistent with these findings, weideman and hofmeyr (2020) revealed that flexible work options such as flexitime options and remote working have a significant positive association with constructs such as employee engagement, job performance and employee well-being. in a similar vein, the finding of the study by atiku et al. (2020) suggested that the adoption of flexible work arrangements during the lockdown mediates the relationship between employers’ support and employees’ job performance in selected african countries. on account of the association between categorical variables and attitudes towards specific flexitime options in higher education institutions in times of crisis, this study established a significant association between gender and attitudes towards a specific flexitime option. the contribution to the existing body of literature on the specific flexitime options widely accepted by all categories of employees in higher educational institutions in times of crisis in africa is established through this study. practical implications the findings of this study suggest practical implications for human resources (hr) and management concerning the adoption of flexible work options in higher institutions of learning. specifically, this study found a significant association between academic staff position and attitude towards specific work options (remote working and flexitime option) for full professors in the institutions. for effective utilisation of staff members in this category in times of crisis and the post-pandemic period, it becomes imperative for hr to adopt flexible work options. professors are conscious of the professional codes of conduct in higher education and can be targeted for the effective implementation of flexible work options in higher education institutions. insights from the significant association between administrative staff in supervisory positions and attitudes towards specific work options (remote working and flexitime options) could be used to improve the implementation of flexible work options in the post-pandemic period. the administrative staff in supervisory roles preferred the use of remote working and flexitime options in institutions of higher learning operating in namibia. the hr departments may consider engaging the administrative staff in this category for effective institutionalisation of flexible work options and performance monitoring or evaluation. therefore, there is a need to develop performance management systems suitable for flexible work options in the post-pandemic period. for example, a performance management system that gives room for flexibility and involves employees, and their line managers in setting specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound objectives could enhance employees’ performance in the post-pandemic period. in terms of attitudes towards specific flexitime options in the participating institutions of higher learning in namibia, this study found a significant association between gender and a specific flexitime option. this study shows that gender identification is positively associated with attitudes towards early start-normal go, then friday afternoon off. the practical implication is that both academic staff and administrative staff in selected institutions of higher learning support the use of the early start-normal go, then friday afternoon off option by management. adoption of this flexitime option might produce a positive impact on work–life balance satisfaction and employee performance in the institutions. limitations and recommendations the results reported in this study emanated from statistical analysis based on attitudes towards flexible work options in the institutions of higher learning during the pandemic in namibia. the major limitation of this study is the use of a case study research design, which implies that the finding cannot be generalised to reflect the situations across higher education institutions in namibia. future research may require other private institutions of higher learning in the country to participate in the study to generalise the research findings in namibia. the other methodological limitation of this study could be traced to the use of a non-probability sampling technique (convenience sampling) because of ethical consideration and the use of an online survey tool based on the need to observe social distancing during the pandemic. therefore, future research should consider adopting a simple random sampling technique, which is more appropriate for the chi-square test of independence and mann–whitney u test carried out in this study. conclusion this study aimed at investigating the perception of flexible work options and attitudes towards different categories of flexitime options during the pandemic in the institutions of higher learning in namibia. the originality of this study dwells on the fact that there is a dearth of studies on the perception of flexible work options during a pandemic in namibia. based on the statistical evidence reported in the analysis section, this study holds that there is a significant relationship between gender identification and attitude towards flexitime options in higher education institutions. a larger percentage of academic and administrative staff preferred the flexitime option (early start-normal go, then friday afternoon off). there is statistical evidence to conclude that there is a significant difference in the attitude towards the role of it infrastructure in the implementation of flexible work options by male and female staff in the institutions. conclusively, this study submits that there is a significant association between flexible work options and employee performance in the institutions. hence, institutions of higher education operating in namibia need to embrace flexibility by putting in place state-of-the-art technology for proper implementation of remote working and teleworking in the post-pandemic period. acknowledgements the authors would like to express their gratitude to the hr business partners for their kind assistance during data collection. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions both the authors contributed equally to this work. funding information the research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this articles as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors, the publisher. references albion, m.j. (2004). a measure of attitudes towards flexible work options. australian journal of management, 29(2), 275–294. https://doi.org/10.1177/031289620402900207 allen, t., johnson, r., kiburz, k., & shockley, k. (2013). work-family conflict and flexible work arrangements: deconstructing flexibility. personnel psychology, 66(2), 345–376. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12012 ansong, e., & boateng, r. (2018). organisational adoption of telecommuting: evidence from a developing country. the electronic journal of information systems in developing countries, 84(1), e12008. https://doi.org/10.1002/isd2.12008 atiku, s.o., jeremiah, a., & boateng, f. (2020). perceptions of flexible work arrangements in selected african countries during the coronavirus pandemic. south african journal of business management, 51(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajbm.v51i1.2285 azar, s., khan, a., & van eerde, w. (2018). modelling linkages between flexible work arrangements’ use and organizational outcomes. journal of business research, 91, 134–143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.06.004 baert, s., lippens, l., moens, e., weytjens, j., & sterkens, p. (2020). the covid-19 crisis and telework: a research survey on experiences, expectations and hopes. retrieved from https://www.iza.org/publications/dp/13229/the-covid-19-crisis-and-telework-a-research-survey-on-experiences-expectations-and-hopes baker, e., avery, g.c., & crawford, j. (2007). satisfaction and perceived productivity when professionals work from home. research and practice in human resource management, 15(1), 37–62. baltes, b., briggs, t.e., huff, j.w., wright, j.a., & neuman, g.a. (1999). flexible and compressed workweek schedules: a meta-analysis of their effects on work-related criteria. journal of applied psychology, 84(4), 496–513. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.84.4.496 bailyn, l. (1993). breaking the mold: women, men, and time in the corporate world. new york, ny: the free press. barber, a.e., dunham, r., & formisano, r.a. (1992). the impact of flexible benefits on employee satisfaction: a field study. personnel psychology, 45(1), 55–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1992.tb00844.x belzunegui-eraso, a., & erro-garcés, a. (2020). teleworking in the context of the covid-19 crisis. sustainability, 12(9), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12093662 burgess, s., & sievertsen, h.h. (2020). schools, skills, and learning: the impact of covid-19 on education. retrieved from https://voxeu.org/article/impact-covid-19-education charron, f.k., & lowe, j.d. (2005). factors that affect accountant’s perceptions of alternative work options. accounting forum, 29, 191–206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accfor.2004.10.002 chiru, c., 2017. teleworking: evolution and trends in usa, eu and romania. economics, management & financial markets, 12(2), 222–229. choi, s. (2018). managing flexible work arrangements in government: testing the effects of institutional and managerial support. public personnel management, 47(1), 26–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026017738540 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). hillsdale, nj: erlbaum. creswell, j.w., & hirose, m. (2019). mixed methods and survey research in family medicine and community health. family medicine and community health, 7(2), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1136/fmch-2018-000086 eaton, s.c. (2003). if you can use them: flexible policies, organisational commitment, and perceived performance. industrial relations, 42(2), 145–166. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-232x.00285 franke, t.m., ho, t., & christie, c.a. (2012). the chi-square test: often used and more often misinterpreted. american journal of evaluation, 33(3), 448–458. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098214011426594 ganiyu, i.o. (2021). flexible work arrangements for green manufacturing. in s.o. atiku & t. fapohunda (eds.), human resource management practices for promoting sustainability (pp. 212–228). pennsylvania: igi global. http://doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-4522-5.ch012 ganiyu, i.o., fields, z., atiku, s.o., & derera, e. (2020). measuring the effectiveness of work-life balance strategies in the manufacturing sector. sa journal of human resource management, 18(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1216 giannikis, s.k., & mihail, d.m. (2011). flexible work arrangements in greece: a study of employee perceptions. the international journal of human resource management, 22(2), 417–432. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.540163 grzywacz, j.g., & marks, n.f. (2000). reconceptualizing the work-family interface: an ecological perspective on the correlates of positive and negative spillover between work and family. journal of occupational health psychology, 5(1), 111–126. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.5.1.111 hayman, j.r. (2005). psychometric assessment of an instrument designed to measure work/life balance. research and practice in human resource management, 13(1), 85–92. herbst, t.h. (2020). gender differences in self-perception accuracy: the confidence gap and women leaders’ underrepresentation in academia. sa journal of industrial psychology, 46(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v46i0.1704 hill, j.e., miller, b.c., weiner, s.p., & colihan, j. (1998). influences of the virtual office on aspects of work and work/life balance. personnel psychology, 51(3), 667–683. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1998.tb00256.x janza, n. (2020). what is flexitime (flexible work) and what are its advantages and disadvantages? spica online marketplace, 20 november 2020. [blog]. retrieved from https://www.spica.com/blog/flexitime-advantages-disadvantages karatayev, v.a., anand, m., & bauch, c.t. (2020). local lockdowns outperform global lockdown on the far side of the covid-19 epidemic curve. proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 117(39), 24575–24580. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2014385117 kossek, e.e., barber, a.e., & winters, d. (1999). using flexible schedules in the managerial world: the power of peers. human resource management, 38(1), 33–46. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-050x(199921)38:1%3c33::aid-hrm4%3e3.0.co;2-h lebopo, c.m., seymour, l.f., & knoesen, h. (2020, september). explaining factors affecting telework adoption in south african organisations pre-covid-19. in conference of the south african institute of computer scientists and information technologists 2020 (pp. 94–101), cape town: saicsit. lewison, j. (2006). the work/life balance sheet so far. journal of accountancy, 202(2), 45–50. lyttelton, t., zang, e., & musick, k. (2020). gender differences in telecommuting and implications for inequality at home and work. new haven, ct: yale university. mahler, j., 2012. the telework divide: managerial and personnel challenges of telework. review of public personnel administration, 32(4), 407–418. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x12458127 matilal, o. (2020). time matters: flexitime and women’s retention in the 24/7 workplace. in proceedings of 18th european conference on computer-supported cooperative work germany, 13 – 17 june 2020 (pp. 111–127). european society for socially embedded technologies (eusset), siegen. miron, a. (2014). employee relations management. eskill talent assessment platform, 23 july 2014. [blog]. retrieved from https://www.eskill.com/blog/getting-to-work-late/ nakrošienė, a., bučiūnienė, i., & goštautaitė, b. (2019). working from home: characteristics and outcomes of telework. international journal of manpowerm, 40(1), 87–101. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijm-07-2017-0172 noonan, m.c., & glass, j.l. (2012). the hard truth about telecommuting. monthly labor review, 135(6), 38–45. nwekpa, k.c., offor, p.g., & ezezue, b.o. (2020). work schedule flexibility and employee commitment: a study of nigerian breweries, ama, enugu, nigeria. international journal of development and management review, 15(1), 1–16. pallant, j. (2020). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using ibm spss. oxfordshire: routledge. pierce, j.l., & dunham, r.b. (1992). the 12-hour workday: a 48-hour, eight-day week. academy of management journal, 35(5), 1086–1999. https://doi.org/10.2307/256542 podratz, l.t. (2004). the nature of work-personal life balance (dissertation abstracts international), university of houston. rodgers, c.s. (1992). the flexible workplace: what have we learned? human resource management, 31(3), 183–199. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.3930310305 saunders, m.n.k., & townsend, k. (2018). choosing participants. in c. cassell, a. cunliffe, & g. grandy (eds.), handbook of qualitative business and management research methods (pp. 480–494). london: sage. tamunomiebi, m.d.p. (2018). flexi-time work practice and employee productivity in tertiary institutions in rivers state. international journal of economics and business management, 4(3), 1–10. tirumalaraju, d. (2020). covid-19 pandemic, declared by the world health organisation (who). pharmaceutical technology, 12 march 2020. retrieved from www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/news/who-declares-covid-19-pandemic/ totterdell, p. (2005). work schedules. in j. barling, e.k. kelloway, & m.r. frone (eds.), handbook of work stress (pp. 89–112). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412975995.n3 vedaa, o. harris, a., bjorvatn, b., waage, s., sivertsen, b., tucker, p., & pallese, s. (2016). systematic review of the relationship between quick returns in rotating shift work and health rotating shift work and health related outcomes. ergonomics, 59(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2015.1052020 verma, b.k., verma, m., verma, v.k., abdullah, r.b., nath, d.c., khan, h.t., & verma, v. (2020). global lockdown: an effective safeguard in responding to the threat of covid-19. journal of evaluation in clinical practice, 26(6), 1592–1598. https://doi.org/10.1111/jep.13483 voudouris, i. (2004). the use of flexible employment arrangements: some new evidence from greek firms. the international journal of human resource management, 15(1), 131–146. https://doi.org/10.1080/0958519032000157384 warnich, s. carrell, m.r., elbert, n.f., & hatfield, r.d. (2018). human resource management in south africa (6th ed.). cape town: cengage. weideman, m., & hofmeyr, k.b. (2020). the influence of flexible work arrangements on employee engagement: an exploratory study. sa journal of human resource management, 18(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1209 yong, s.m. (2015). job related factors and moderating effect of flexible work arrangement on job satisfaction among malaysian offshore outsourcing support employees (doctoral dissertation). university of utara. abstract introduction research design findings contribution and value of the study contributions and limitations of the study recommendations for further research acknowledgements references about the author(s) marianne louw department of human sciences, faculty of humanities, corner stone institute, observatory, cape town, south africa rachel barker department of communication science, faculty of humanities and social sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation louw, m., & barker, r. (2021). constructive interpersonal leadership relations in knowledge-based organisations: a theoretical framework. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1636. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1636 original research constructive interpersonal leadership relations in knowledge-based organisations: a theoretical framework marianne louw, rachel barker received: 17 apr. 2021; accepted: 16 oct. 2021; published: 17 dec. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: acknowledging the need for a deeper understanding of interpersonal communication as part of interpersonal leadership in knowledge-based organisational contexts. research purpose: this study aimed to propose a theoretically based definition of constructive interpersonal leadership relations (ilrs) and a generic model of ilr with guidelines for fostering constructive ilr in knowledge-based contexts. motivation for the study: emerging trends showed knowledge-based organisations presented unique sets of challenges for constructive ilr in south africa. research approach/design and method: we conducted a qualitative study using the interpretivist research paradigm. two convenience samples were used for the data collection: semi-structured in-depth interviews with eight experts in the field, and 31 questionnaires were sent to leaders or followers that examined the micro-perspective in knowledge-based organisations in south africa. the data analysis and interpretation were performed by thematic analysis. main findings: we established that the leader–follower dyad is the locus of interpersonal leadership, and that in constructive ilr, leaders or followers actively and mutually nurture the leader–follower dyad, that leaders oversee these relationships without using a formal hierarchy and that the leader–follower interaction has meaning on informational and relational levels. practical/managerial implications: the findings can be used by leaders in knowledge-based organisations as useful guidelines to create and maintain an organisational environment that is supportive of constructive ilr. contribution/value-add: this study provides insight into personal attributes relevant for ilr in knowledge-based organisational contexts. keywords: interpersonal leadership relations; interpersonal leadership communication; knowledge-based organisations; leader-follower dyad; symbolic interaction. introduction ‘[my leader] is a person of very few words, but there is a good understanding between us … we don’t have to continually reassure one another of the authenticity of the relationship … it’s based on mutual respect … in any organisation, the leader-follower relationship that undergirds that communication is of pivotal importance. i interact with other leaders who have a lot more of a buzz in their communication, yet the level of the interpersonal relationship is not as clear, and neither is the communication.’ (kate, 20 years of knowledge work, interview 8) orientation extensive research studies have been conducted on leadership and communication in organisations. a research study conducted by blake, leach, robbins, pike and needleman (2013) showed a significant relationship between leadership and employees’ intention to leave the organisation. several authors emphasised the importance of ethical leadership and the role of leaders’ behaviours in enhancing subordinates’ perceptions of task significance, motivation, job satisfaction, employee attitudes, emotional and interpersonal competencies, and change management (alban-metcalfe & alimo-metcalfe, 2013; gentry & sparks, 2012; hackman & johnson, 2013; piccolo, greenbaum, den hartog, & folger, 2010; riggio & lee, 2007). testa and sipe (2012) identified 20 important competency categories, which they labelled under ‘business savvy’, ‘people savvy’ and ‘self-savvy.’ in their resultant model, interpersonal communication is included under ‘people savvy.’ although this suggests a relationship between leadership and communication, this relationship has not been formalised at an interpersonal level. research purpose and objectives the purpose of this study was therefore to address this gap and obtain deeper insights and knowledge on the concept henceforth termed as interpersonal leadership relations (ilr), with specific reference to knowledge-based organisational contexts. the three main objectives were to propose the following: a theoretically based definition of constructive ilr, a generic model of ilr and guidelines for encouraging constructive ilr in knowledge-based contexts. literature review knowledge workers are appointed based on the knowledge of a specific subject matter, not their ability to perform manual labour (serrat, 2017). their work outputs are usually intangible, analytical, creative and often digital (jarrahi & thomson, 2017, p. 1073). in this study, the term ‘knowledge workers’ was defined as professional experts who produce, integrate and share specialist knowledge and ideas as their primary contribution to the organisation. indriati, tjakraatmadja, rudito and thoha (2016, p. 25) argued that knowledge-based organisations are critical for the capacity and future sustainability of many organisations by dispersing new knowledge and connecting ideas (goffee & jones, 2013). this emphasises the important role of leadership that tannenbaum et al. (2013, p. 24) defines as ‘interpersonal influence, exercised in situation and directed, through the communication process, toward the attainment of specified goals.’ hence, leadership is defined as interpersonal influence through (symbolic) communication towards a relational or functional goal. tannenbaum et al. (2013) further stated that leadership involves attempts by a leader (influencer) to affect (influence) the behaviour of a follower (influencee) or followers in a situation, where a follower is seen as the influencee whose behaviour is influenced through communication towards a relational or functional goal. in this research article, the concept of leader/followers is introduced because of the growing interest in active followership (hoption, 2014); the argument by howell and shamir (2005, p. 97) that followers play an ‘active role in constructing the leadership relationship, empowering the leader and influencing his or her behaviour, and ultimately determining the consequences of the leadership relationship,’ and that the focus is interpersonal. therefore, the concept ‘leader/follower’ denotes situations where interpersonal communication is taking place between an individual with the person directly above or below him or her in the organisational hierarchy. a leader/follower is considered as an individual who, as the situation requires, may alternatively lead or follow another individual in an interpersonal process of mutual influence towards a relational of functional goal. mcdermott (2009) identified the specific criteria for the degree to which an interaction is seen as interpersonal, of which the following are relevant to this context: a small number of communication participants, a face-to-face or otherwise immediate medium, feedback (which coincides with contemporary leadership approaches) and mutual influence (which is also in line with the latest leadership models). interpersonal leadership communication (ilc) is, therefore, defined as a symbolic interaction between two to five leaders and followers to share meaning and mutually influence each other at a relational and a functional level. watzlawick, beavin bavelas and jackson (2011) described the ongoing dyadic relationships (long-lasting relationships that are important to both partners, including some professional relationships) as open systems, and therefore, the leader–follower dyad (lfd) is considered as an open system. this study centres on the lfd between two employees who are directly and vertically linked in the organisational hierarchy. as the terms ‘leader-follower dyad (lfd)’ and ‘interpersonal leadership communication (ilc)’ are very strongly interrelated, the term ilr was adopted in this study to denote that relationship (not the leader or follower) as the locus of leadership in order to portray leadership communication between leader/followers as a process (as opposed to an event), and to indicate that ilc is explored within enduring dyads, rather than fleeting interactions. based on this discussion, the following definition was developed: constructive interpersonal leadership relations (ilr) in a knowledge-based organisational context is a dyadic process of symbolic communication between two expert leader/followers who mutually influence each other and share meaning to strengthen their relationship and to collaboratively transfer and apply knowledge to achieve organisational goals. the systems theory was used as the first metatheory of the study (littlejohn & foss, 2008) because of its emphasis on interdependence between leader/followers, rather than on individuals. it emphasises the importance of environmental influences on ilr, but at the same time allows for exploration of element attributes (individual leader/follower traits). the symbolic interactionism (si) theory was the second metatheory of the study (burns & devillé, 2017; tannenbaum et al., 2013) because from this perspective, meanings are social products of interaction. thus, the meaning of a word is not the object to which it refers but the response it evokes in the context. symbolic interactionists do not view ‘mind’ as primarily psychological but rather as social. they prefer to refer to ‘minding’ (a verb), which occurs when a leader/follower pauses to interpret a situation from the collective meanings that she or he has learned through social interaction. symbolic interactionists view people as social beings whose individual identities are emerging social products. this includes two aspects of the self: the self-as-process (the i) and the self-as-object (the me). a person is born with an i, his or her spontaneous response to social situations. the self-as-object develops through social interaction and directs the i. people constantly reflect on themselves and their relationships, engaging in mindful, symbolic action and negotiating meanings. the implications of si in this study are as follows: ilr is symbolic interaction, where meaning depends on mutual interpretation; meaning is co-created by leader/followers, is influenced by the context of the particular lfd, and is dynamic; ilr contributes to creating and modifying the organisation as a social institution; the identities of the leader/followers are social products that are influenced by ilr. therefore, an examination of ilr cannot focus on the leader to the exclusion of the follower and the context but must focus on the symbolic interaction. various theories of leadership are prevalent in a meta-analysis of empirical leadership studies published in prominent organisational behaviour journals (gill, 2011; glynn & dejordy, 2010; miller, 2002; winkler, 2010). the relative relevance of each perspective to this study is summarised, as shown in table 1. in the header row of the table, the metatheories are summarised, and in each column, the leadership perspectives are summarised in order of relevance to the metatheory. table 1: leadership perspectives relevant to this study. table 2 summarises the theoretical models of leadership communication that relates most to ilr in terms of the two metatheories (barrett, 2006; johansson, miller, & hamrin, 2014; mitchell, 2014; rokeach, 1973). table 2: interpersonal communication theories relevant to this study. as shown in table 2, it is postulated that the perspectives most pertinent to this study are social constructionism, the basic axioms of relational communication, rokeach’s comprehensive theory of change, the five axioms of relational communication and attribution theory. research design research approach a qualitative research approach was followed because it facilitates an in-depth investigation of complex data (ary, jacobs, irvine, & walker, 2018, p. 379; saldaña, 2016). qualitative research is more pragmatic than quantitative designs, and allows the exploration of unexpected data and rich data (locke, silverman, & spirduso, 2010). because ilc is a largely unexplored topic in communication research, a qualitative approach was deemed to be suitable for this study. research strategy and method sample 1 (ilr experts) consisted of eight semi-structured, in-depth interviews, whilst sample 2 (leader/followers working in knowledge-based contexts) consisted of a total 55 with a realised sample of 31 completed questionnaires. a phenomenological approach was used in the interviews (mostly through open-ended questions) to explore participants’ experiences and the meaning they make of those experiences. meaningfulness does not reside in the lived experience itself but is opened through intentional attention. as they reconstruct and reflect on their experience, participants engaged therein (schutz, 1967; seidman, 2013). research setting the unit of analysis is the phenomenon that is being studied and was identified as an individual, particularly, the individuals who expressed views on ilr and related phenomena relevant to this study (collis & hussey, 2017, p. 101). two populations were identified: population 1 included all individuals who are experts at ilr (e.g. authors, lecturers, training facilitators, business coaches and consultants in relevant fields), and population 2 comprised leader/followers practising ilr in knowledge-based organisations. sample 1 (interview participants) was drawn from population 1, whilst sample 2 (questionnaire participants) was selected from population 2. non-probability sampling (bryman & bell, 2015) was used, which is considered highly suitable for qualitative research and requires neither statistical representation nor scale. qualitative samples are often limited to a small number of locations or interests, so that the context of the study is known (ritchie et al., 2014). the following types of non-probability sampling were used: purposive sampling, where units are selected based on specific criteria, and convenience sampling, where units are recruited because they are easily accessible. through these sampling methods, two samples were recruited: sample 1 consisted of eight individuals who are experts in ilr and related fields. sample 2 consisted of 31 people who are known to the researchers and are interpersonal leader and followers in knowledge-based organisational contexts. data collection methods the following data collection methods were used: semi-structured in-depth interviews for sample 1 (experts) and questionnaires for sample 2 (leader/followers). semi-structured interviews are flexible and very suitable for qualitative studies. in this study, the interviews yielded rich data for describing ilr, and data saturation was reached after eight interviews. the questionnaires examined the micro-perspective and contained mostly open-ended questions and yielded interesting data, although not as rich as those from the interviews. the questions were distributed as follows: four questions were used for introductory and demographic information; one explored theme 1 (the organisational environment), seven focused on the participants’ ilr (theme 2); two questions examined individual leader/follower attributes (theme 3) within that relationship; and the concluding question allowed for any information that the participant wished to add. the response rate to the questionnaires, although adequate, was disappointing. in addition, two questionnaires had to be discarded, because participants had ostensibly misinterpreted the general aim of the questions. in order to ensure reliability and replicability of the findings, the 12 recommended transparency criteria proposed by anguinis and solariono (2019, p. 1292) were used to ensure translucence and replicability, and according to them, from an ‘ontological perspective is dominant in strategy in that a key goal is to produce replicable and cumulative knowledge.’ the following criteria were applied to the interviews to access the degree of transparency: the kind of qualitative method (interviews), insider–outsider continuum (relationship with participants or organisations), sampling procedures (non-probability sampling, specifically purposive and convenience sampling), relative importance of participants or cases (experts at ilr and leader/followers practising ilr in knowledge-based organisations), documenting interactions (transcriptions), saturation point (no new insights or themes), unexpected opportunities and challenges (changes in access to data), management of power imbalance (no influencing during the research process), data coding (descriptive coding), data analysis (implicit and explicit dimensions and structures during coding), and data disclosure (raw material, transcripts and recordings). trustworthiness was measured by four criteria: credibility (‘internal validity’ in positivistic research), transferability (‘external validity’ or ‘generalisability’ in positivistic research), dependability (‘reliability’ in positivistic research) and confirmability (‘objectivity’ in positivistic research) (maree, 2012; shenton, 2004). in order to ensure credibility, there was enough interaction between the researchers and the participants during the interviews, allowing for verbal and non-verbal communication cues, and clarification of questions and terms. the research findings were presented to the participants, and based on their responses, the study was found to be highly credible. in terms of transferability, the research methodology and conceptual framework are sufficiently detailed to enable other researchers to repeat the study, more than one data collection method was used, and interviews were transcribed. whilst findings will not be identical, other studies employing the same conceptual framework should produce comparable findings. in order to ensure dependability, the methodology and conceptual framework were described in ample detail to allow other researchers to repeat the study. a lay review was carried out, in that questionnaire participants were invited to judge the confirmability of the study and found it acceptable. no external party had a vested interest in a specific outcome. in terms of ethical considerations, ethical clearance was obtained from the university of south africa to continue with the study. informed consent was provided by all participants, and the confidentiality of their responses was ensured. no harm to participants was foreseen or noted. plagiarism was avoided through meticulous referencing to original authors, and by submitting the thesis to turnitin, a website employing software that checks for plagiarism. data analysis and reporting thematic analysis was used for the data analysis and interpretation method as a form of qualitative content analysis. according to cassell (2015), thematic analysis comprises the thematic grouping of textual data according to a template of codes, some of which are predefined and some of which emerge from the process of analysis and is therefore a flexible technique for semi-structured interviews. ryan and bernard (2003, p. 87) defined themes as ‘abstract (and often fuzzy) constructs that link… expressions found in text.’ this study was executed from a phenomenological stance, which, according to bazeley (2013), uses thematic statements to identify the elements of a phenomenon. hence, a primarily deductive approach to analysis was taken, where the texts were analysed for codes relating to themes already identified in the conceptual framework. four coding cycles were applied: pre-coded categories were used to develop questions for the interviews and questionnaires; codes were used to describe the themes and subthemes; coding was used to detect patterns between themes and subthemes; and then a theoretical framework for ilr was developed. whilst time-consuming, the thematic analysis yielded rich descriptions of ilr and made meaningful contributions towards establishing a theoretical framework. findings the findings are discussed in terms of the three research objectives of the study. objective 1: propose a definition of constructive interpersonal leadership relations based on the findings, constructive ilr in a knowledge-based organisational context is defined as follows: a dyadic process of symbolic interaction between two expert leader/followers who mutually influence each other and share meaning to strengthen their relationship and to collaboratively transfer and apply knowledge to achieve organisational goals. several significant concepts emerge from this definition. firstly, whilst a small group of communication participants could still engage in ilc, the focus of this study was on dyadic communication between two participants. it is posited that many of the tenets of dyadic ilc could also apply to small groups; however, it must also be assumed that group dynamics (absent in dyadic communication) would affect these or add others. furthermore, the adjective ‘expert’ denotes that these individuals possess knowledge and skills valuable to the organisation, and that they, therefore, constitute intellectual capital in the organisation. secondly, the term ‘leader/followers’ is used to denote a relationship, in which the leader and follower roles are not static but may be exchanged between the two communicators, based on superior knowledge in the particular context. this notion is emphasised by the reference to mutual influence, which is a systems principle and contradicts traditional views of the leader unilaterally influencing a passive follower. thirdly, the aim of ilr is to ‘share meaning’, a principle of si. therefore, in this context, shared meaning refers to both relational and informational meaning in accordance with the theory of relational communication. this shared meaning performs two purposes: the strengthening of the leader–follower relationship (the highest priority of the two), and the collaborative transference and application of knowledge (which often flows naturally from achieving the relational purpose) in service of organisational goals (the functional objective of knowledge workers as intellectual capital). fourthly, the term ‘constructive’ is used to denote ilr that enhances rather than detracts from relationship building and knowledge sharing. objective 2: develop a generic model of interpersonal leadership relations based on the findings of this study, figure 1 represents a generic model of ilr, containing the elements that are common to all instances of ilr in knowledge-based contexts. figure 1: general model of interpersonal leadership relations. as indicated in figure 1, the context is knowledge-based, and the focus is on any lfd (system) within that environment, consisting of two experts (knowledge workers) who constitute intellectual capital for the organisation. these experts are termed leader/followers because their leadership roles may shift according to the knowledge demands of the situation. both leader/followers engage in mutual symbolic interaction, sharing meaning at a relational level (to reinforce their relationship) and at an informational level (to transfer, develop and retain knowledge). in doing so, their communication is influenced by their values and competencies related to ilr. because of the symbolic interaction in the lfd (system), the dyad develops emergent properties that are unique to that relationship. the lfd may also contribute outputs to its organisational environment. according to the systems theory, any open system is influenced by its dynamic environment, and therefore, the constructs may vary in relevance as the time passes and economic, political and organisational environments change in unanticipated ways. objective 3: propose guidelines for an organisational environment that supports constructive interpersonal leadership relations table 3 summarises the findings on the key constructs of an organisational environment that supports constructive ilr. table 3: an organisational climate that supports constructive interpersonal leadership relations. it was found that the lfd (not the leader) is the locus of interpersonal leadership. this means that both leader/followers mutually nurture the lfd, and that leaders manage these relationships without using the formal hierarchy. the nature of the lfd is determined by verbal and non-verbal ilc. every leader–follower interaction has meaning on both an informational (content) level and a relational level (the implications of the communication for the lfd). two secondary research objectives were also addressed. the first was to describe interpersonal leader/followers’ experiences of ilr in knowledge-based contexts, with a view to understand what leader/followers consider constructive ilr. the relevant key constructs that emerged are summarised in table 4. table 4: constructive interpersonal leadership relations. the behaviours listed in table 4 are thus the those that interpersonal leaders could consider practising to strengthen their lfds and efficiently share and apply knowledge. in some cases, they also stand in direct contrast with specific destructive ilc behaviours that should be avoided in ilr. the second secondary research objective was to identify individual leader/follower attributes that enhance ilrs, as summarised in table 5. table 5: leader/follower attributes that enhance interpersonal leadership relations. the findings provided a description of the kind of organisational environment that enhances constructive ilr, a description of constructive ilr and leader/follower attributes that enhance constructive ilr. the findings revealed that an environment that enhances constructive ilr includes a collaborative leadership concept, workplace spirituality, cultural inclusivity and adaptation to advancing communication technology. within the lfd as a system, it was argued that constructive ilr is marked by the following aspects: active listening, supporting followers as unique individuals, respectful communication, considering followers’ perspectives, facilitating a sense of meaning and purpose, role-taking, awareness of attribution, constructive conflict management, fostering constructive relationship properties, and producing constructive system outputs into the organisation. finally, leader/follower traits that enhance constructive ilr were discussed in terms of values and competencies. contribution and value of the study the main contribution of this study is the proposed theoretical framework for ilr. this theoretical framework not only augment the existing knowledge of leadership communication but also substantiate that ilr is an important sub-discipline of communication. specifically, the centrality of the lfd in a knowledge-based organisation as viewed from a systems perspective and the role of symbolic interaction in and around that dyad were emphasised. apart from the proposed theoretical framework, the study makes several specific new contributions within each theme and presents an in-depth theoretical understanding of ilr from three different but related perspectives: the organisational environment (theme 1), the lfd itself (theme 2) and the individual leader/follower (theme 3). theme 1: the organisational environment a collaborative leadership concept was identified as a key construct in enhancing ilr in knowledge-based contexts. the following three shifts in the organisational culture required to enhance ilr were specified: hierarchy to transparency, control to empowerment and an individual focus to a team focus. two other contributions are the reference made to the term ‘relational capacity’ of an organisation (referring to the maximum size of an organisation before it becomes too hierarchical to support ilr), and that the physical office environment itself (such as an activity-based office) can flatten the organisational hierarchy and contribute to transparency and engagement. although it has been established in communication research that an autocratic leadership concept is limiting or even harmful to knowledge-based contexts and the followers within them, it has also been established that senior leaders have a strong influence on the leadership concept in an organisation. however, the research presented a description of how autocratic senior leaders in participants’ contexts perpetuate an autocratic leadership concept in the organisation as follows: by enforcing an authoritarian, patriarchal ethnic culture; by modelling to followers that autocratic leadership brings ‘ultimate success’ in the organisation; by expecting interpersonal leaders to imitate their autocratic leadership style and rewarding them when they do so; by interfering with and counter-influencing the followers of collaborative interpersonal leaders; and by openly ridiculing interpersonal leaders who have a supportive leadership style. thus, it is argued that interpersonal leaders in autocratic environments exercise collaborative or supportive leadership against great opposition and at great cost. theme 2: symbolic interaction in the leader-follower dyad the ilc behaviours that were perceived to be constructive or destructive by participants were identified and described. four dichotomies emerged that were discussed in conjunction with their typical relational meanings amongst participants, which was emphasised from the relational communication theory view. it was posited that participants who received aggressive communication experienced a wide range of negative emotions, together with a loss of confidence and the sense that their opinion was not valued. by contrast, those who received respectful communication felt confident, respected and motivated, and believed that their opinion was valued. furthermore, being blocked from communicating made participants feel silenced and even ‘useless’, whilst verbal affirmation of their strengths and contributions made them feel motivated and valued. thirdly, inattentiveness by their leader/followers led them to feel disrespected, unimportant or even angry. by contrast, when their leader/followers listened actively to them, they felt valued, empowered, and – interestingly – both trusted and trusting. fourthly, indirect communication from their leader/followers frustrated them, whilst supportive communication gave them a sense of confidence and worth and motivated them to do their work well and even pursue more responsibility. this study also identified the types of attributions to destructive ilc by leader/followers to indicate whether leader/followers view these attributions as acceptable reasons for the destructive behaviour. work pressures (concern with the quality or prompt completion of the task) and low eq (low emotional intelligence, or personal insecurity) were the attributions most often cited. notably, participants tended to view work pressures as an acceptable reason for negatively perceived behaviour, whilst low eq was generally not tolerated as an explanation for such behaviour. a pattern was also detected where participants who believed the reasons they attributed to their leader/followers’ destructive behaviour were acceptable explanations for such behaviour, also had positive attitudes towards their lfds. in terms of role taking (empathy), it was found that participants were generally very understanding of their leader/followers (given the latter’s circumstances) and tolerant of even destructive behaviour. in addition, participants emphasised the importance of understanding the other leader/follower’s emotions as an important aspect of role taking. typical approaches to conflict management in lfds included how participants perceived the approach in their dyad. the most prevalent and by far the most preferred approach was non-threatening, respectful face-to-face discussion, which was considered as the approach most likely to increase the quality of interaction and collaboration in the dyad. two other common approaches were being submissive (perceived extremely negatively) and avoiding or withdrawing from the conflict (perceived mostly negatively). it is also noteworthy that some participants reported that heavy workloads interfered with their ability to invest time and energy to fully resolve interpersonal conflict. leader/followers experienced a greater sense of meaning or purpose by experiencing the following because of symbolic interaction in the dyad: a sense of making a difference or contributing to a larger goal; experiencing professional growth; experiencing personal growth; and feeling respected, appreciated or useful. notably, the degree to which leader/followers experience a sense of meaning or purpose at work may also influence their decisions to remain in or leave the organisation. theme 3: leader/follower attributes that enhance interpersonal leadership relations the leader/follower values that contributed to constructive ilr were found to be honesty (also integrity, transparency, trustworthiness, ethical conduct or credibility), love (also care or supportiveness), respect, relationships (also communication and engagement), trust and professional excellence (described by several participants as good ‘work ethic’). it was found that trust requires personal beliefs in contrast with those typically held by autocratic leaders. an example of a constructive belief is the belief that people are basically good, well-intentioned and trustworthy. the leader/follower competencies that enhanced ilr were the following: listening skills (viewed as central by most participants), emotional communication competencies (particularly self-awareness, self-reflection and attending to others emotions), engagement skills, conflict management skills and multicultural competence (including generational skills). contributions and limitations of the study the main contribution of this study is the new proposed theoretical framework that confirmed the usefulness of the systems theory and si as valuable metatheories to explore ilr. from a managerial perspective, the theoretical framework can be used for interpersonal leadership training interventions, and as a valuable guide for appointing new leader/followers in the organisation. the main limitation is that it is a qualitative study based on two relatively small convenience samples, and therefore, the findings of this study cannot be generalised to a wider population. yet, according to ethiraj, gambardella and helfat (2016, p. 2191), ‘exact replication is not likely to be the most interesting form of replication in strategic management research … it is mostly interested in “quasi-replications”, which address the “robustness of prior studies to different empirical approaches or the generalisability of prior study’s findings to new contexts”.’ using the social constructionist perspective in this study, in which it is asserted that knowledge and theory cannot be generalised and universally applied, allows for quasi-replications through a combination of conceptual (same population and different procedures which can be generalised) and/or empirical (same procedures and a different population) replications. any theory can thus be only a partial reflection of a social reality that is too complex to be represented in a single theory (svensson, 2009, p. 192). it is also acknowledged that ilr in knowledge-based organisational contexts is too complex a phenomenon to definitively represent in a single theory. however, it is posited that the theoretical framework presented in this study provides useful guidelines for its practice. this was a cross-sectional study in that the data were collected at a specific point in time and not over a prolonged period. hence, the proposed theoretical framework was divided into a general model and a more detailed and specific framework for constructive ilr. the general model presents a generic overview based on a sound theoretical underpinning that already possess longevity that strengthens the feasibility thereof but will need to be reviewed in future. as self-reported viewpoints were used (information on ilr was not collected directly), the findings only reflected participants’ perceptions of ilr in their experience. however, objectivity was not the aim of this study, which instead had a phenomenological focus. it is argued that the representation of participants’ lived experiences makes a significant contribution to the discipline of communication. recommendations for further research it is recommended that this study be repeated over time with diverse samples to test and modify the theoretical framework, especially from international and multicultural perspectives. in addition, specific aspects of the framework may be tested through quantitative research employing larger samples. as the focus of this study was dyadic, the research exploring team dynamics related to ilr in small teams will make a valuable contribution. conclusion given the apparent complexities of ilr in knowledge-based organisations, it seems important to acknowledge the intrinsic heterogeneity and multiplicity of the concept, as well as the implications thereof. whilst some organisations may lend themselves naturally to the implementation of the constructs highlighted in the theoretical framework, in other contexts the complexity of fostering constructive ilr may present a greater challenge. to conclude, given the scarcity of research studies on this topic, this article is an important starting point for future research to clarify and consider the wider implications of ilr in theory and in practice, where the former may evoke enhancements in research, in general, and the latter may be across different areas and sectors. in this way, the different approaches can be investigated in different contexts and allow researchers to present complementary frameworks (or even measuring instruments) for the systematic analysis thereof. whilst this article outlined some of the basic concepts and approaches, much remains to be carried out and several options exist to extend this research. this is reflected in the following words of one of the participants in the study: ‘good irl as defined by the [study], is a constructive force in the workplace not only in terms of human relations, but also in terms of the work environment functioning more efficiently … if people believe in the meaning of what they do, and in the value of the people they work with and work for, it will deliver greater synergy and energy to the work quality and environment.’ (female participant, questionnaire 29) acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the article is based on a completed phd of dr m.l. under supervision of r.b. the draft article was compiled and written by m.l. r.b. updated the draft article, added relevant information, finalised or edited the article, formatted it in the required format and submitted it. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for a research without any direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research work received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, rachel barker, upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views expressed in the submitted article are those of the author and not an official position of the institution or funder. references alban-metcalfe, j., & alimo-metcalfe, b. (2013). reliability and validity of the leadership competencies and engaging leadership scale. international journal of public sector management, 26(1), 56–73. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513551311294281 anguinis, h., & solariono, a.m. (2019). transparency and replicability in qualitative research: the case of interviews with elite informants. strategic management journal, 40(8), 1291–1315. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3015 ary, d., jacobs, l.c., irvine, c.k.s., & walker, d.a. (2018). introduction to research in education (10th ed.). boston, ma: cengage. barrett, d.j. (2006). strong communication skills a must for today’s leaders. handbook of business strategy, 7(1), 385–390. https://doi.org/10.1108/10775730610619124 bazeley, p. (2013). qualitative data analysis: practical strategies. london: sage. blake, n., leach, l.s., robbins, w., pike, n., & needleman, j. (2013). healthy work environments and staff nurse retention: the relationship between communication, collaboration, and leadership in the pediatric intensive care unit. nursing administration quarterly, 37(4), 356–370. https://doi.org/10.1097/naq.0b013e3182a2fa47 bryman, a., & bell, e. (2015). business research methods (4th ed.). oxford: oxford university press. burns, t.r., & devillé, p. (2017). socio-economics: the approach of social systems theory in a forty-year perspective. economics and sociology, 10(2), 11–20. https://doi.org/10.14254/2071-789x.2017/10-2/1 cassell, c. (2015). conducting research interviews for business and management students. london: sage. collis, j., & hussey, r. (2017). cost and management accounting. london: macmillan press ltd. ethiraj, s.k., gambardella, a., & helfat, c.e. (2016). replication in strategic management. journal of strategic management, 37(11), 2191–2192. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2581 gentry, w., & sparks, t. (2012). a convergence/divergence perspective of leadership competencies managers believe are most important for success in organizations: a cross-cultural multilevel analysis of 40 countries. journal of business and psychology, 27(1), 15–30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-011-9212-y gill, r. (2011). theory and practice of leadership. london: sage. glynn, m.a., & dejordy, r. (2010). leadership through an organization behavior lens. in n. nohria & r. khurana (eds.), handbook of leadership theory and practice: a harvard business school centennial colloquium (pp. 119–160). boston, ma: harvard business press. goffee, r., & jones, g. (2013). cameo: authentic followership in the knowledge economy. in d. ladkin & c. spiller (eds.), authentic leadership: clashes, convergences and coalescences (pp. 208–219). cheltenham: edward elgar publishing. hackman, m.z., & johnson, c.e. (2013). leadership: a communication perspective (6th ed.). long grove, il: waveland press. hoption, c. (2014). learning and developing followership. journal of leadership education, 13(3), 129–137. howell, j., & shamir, b. (2005). the role of followers in the charismatic leadership process: relationships and their consequences. academy of management review, 30(1), 96–112. indriati, f., tjakraatmadja, j.h., rudito, b., & thoha, n. (2016). an integrated framework of the antecedents of knowledge-sharing behavior among lecturers. sains humanika, 8(1–2), 25–31. https://doi.org/10.11113/sh.v8n1-2.828 jarrahi, m.h., & thomson, l. (2017). the interplay between information practices and information context: the case of mobile knowledge workers. journal of the association for information science and technology, 68(5), 1073–1089. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23773 johansson, c., miller, v., & hamrin, s. (2014). conceptualizing communicative leadership. corporate communications: an international journal, 19(2), 147–165. https://doi.org/10.1108/ccij-02-2013-0007 littlejohn, s.w., & foss, k.a. (2008). theories of human communication (9th ed.). belmont, ca: wadsworth. locke, f., silverman, j., & spirduso, w. (2010). reading and understanding research. newberry park, ca: sage. maree, j. (2012). the ultimate aim of your studies: getting a manuscript published. in j. maree (eds.), complete your thesis or dissertation successfully: practical guidelines (pp. 210–243). cape town: juta. mcdermott, v. (2009). interpersonal communication theories. in s. littlejohn & k. foss (eds.), encyclopedia of communication theory (pp. 546–551). thousand oaks, ca: sage. miller, k. (2002). communication theories: perspectives, processes, and contexts. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. mitchell, c. (2014). leadership communication skills in a contemporary organisation: towards a conceptual framework. unpublished doctorate. bloemfontein: university of the free state. piccolo, r., greenbaum, r., den hartog, d., & folger, r. (2010). the relationship between ethical leadership and core job characteristics. journal of organizational behavior, 31(2–3), 259–278. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.627 riggio, r., & lee, j. (2007). emotional and interpersonal competencies and leader development. human resource management review, 17(4), 418–426. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2007.08.008 rokeach, m. (1973). the nature of human values. new york, ny: free press. ritchie, j., lewis, j., elam, g., tennant, r., & rahim, n. (2014). designing and selecting samples. in j. ritchie, j. lewis, c. mcnaughton nicholls & r. ormston (eds.), qualitative research pr actice: a guide for social science students and researchers (pp. 111–145). thousand oaks, ca: sage. ryan, g., & bernard, h. (2003). techniques to identify themes. field methods, 15, 85–109. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822x02239569 saldaña, j. (2016). the coding manual for qualitative researchers (3rd ed.). london: sage. schutz, a. (1967). the phenomenology of the social world. evanston, il: northwestern university press. seidman, i. (2013). interviewin g as qualitative research: a guide for researchers in education & the social sciences (4th ed.). new york: teachers college press. serrat, o. (2017). knowledge solutions. singapore: springer. shenton, a.k. (2004). strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research projects. education for information, 22(2), 63–75. https://doi.org/10.3233/efi-2004-22201 svensson, g. (2009). a counter intuitive view of the deductive research process: clockwise versus anti-clockwise approaches. european business review, 21(2), 191–196. https://doi.org/10.1108/09555340910940178 tannenbaum, r., weschler, i.r., & massarik, f. (2013). leadership and organization: a behavioural science approach. abingdon: routledge. testa, m., & sipe, l. (2012). service-leadership competencies for hospitality and tourism management. international journal of hospitality management, 31(3), 648–658. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2011.08.009 watzlawick, p., beavin bavelas, j., & jackson, d. (2011). pragmatics of human communication: a study of interactional patterns, pathologies, and paradoxes. new york: ww norton & company. winkler, i. (2010). contemporary leadership theories: enhancing the understanding of the complexity, subjectivity and dynamic of leadership. heidelberg: springer-verlag berlin heidelberg. abstract introduction purpose literature review method data collection data analysis and interpretation findings discussion practical implications limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) nelesh dhanpat department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa zanele p. buthelezi department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa marilyn r. joe department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa tshepo v. maphela department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa nonduduzo shongwe department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation dhanpat, n., buthelezi, z.p., joe, m.r., maphela, t.v., & shongwe, n. (2020). industry 4.0: the role of human resource professionals. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1302. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1302 original research industry 4.0: the role of human resource professionals nelesh dhanpat, zanele p. buthelezi, marilyn r. joe, tshepo v. maphela, nonduduzo shongwe received: 24 nov. 2019; accepted: 16 mar. 2020; published: 28 may 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: organisations are at the forefront of industry 4.0 and employees are witnessing the changes it brings. research purpose: the objective of this study was to explore the role of human resource (hr) professionals in navigating industry 4.0. motivation for the study: there is scant scientific research on the role of hr professionals in industry 4.0 within the south african context, although there are workshops and seminars in the field. research approach/design and method: a qualitative research approach is used within an interpretivist research paradigm. we interviewed a purposive sample of 12 hr professionals. semi-structured interviews were conducted to capture perceptions of hr professionals, and a thematic analysis was used to extract themes. main findings: seven prominent themes emerged revealing that hr professionals need to assume roles as strategic business partners and talent managers, necessitating hr competencies such as creative innovator, change agent, strategic partner and people enablement to take advantage of the opportunities of industry 4.0 and mitigate the associated challenges. practical/managerial implications: hr professionals can use the findings as a basis for considering their role in industry 4.0. we propose a preliminary holistic model for navigating industry 4.0. future researchers may use this study as a point of departure within the south african context. contribution/value-add: there is limited research on this topic matter and is a response to this. the study makes an important practical and scientific contribution to understanding the role of hr professionals as it affirms their function has become an essential part of industry 4.0. keywords: industry 4.0; hr professionals; competencies; industrial revolution; human resource management. introduction industry 4.0 is a phenomenon that is already upon us and to gain competitive advantage, organisations need to change their attitudes towards the changing environment. developed countries are already experiencing transformation caused by industry 4.0 in their manufacturing environments, and changes are anticipated to expand around the world in the next few years because industrial revolutions are always stimulated by the technological developments of a country. the areas affected by the transformation are not only relevant to manufacturing environment but will also have an impact on the essence of employees’ duties, which are likely to change employee prospects of the human resource (hr) profession (kazançoğlu & ozkan-özen, 2018). advanced technology is at the centre of the current industrial revolution (jesuthasan, 2017). digital technology is changing the workplace as it alters the way in which hrs connect with each other and the organisation (jesuthasan, 2017). a new revolution of innovative technology has arrived, in which artificial intelligence and machinery play a pivotal role in maximising productivity and enhancing wealth creation (schäfer, 2018). robotics are used in organisations to automate activities that are monotonous and easily understood, and artificial intelligence assists in complex decision-making through projecting algorithms (parry & battista, 2019). the concepts of industry 4.0 and fourth industrial revolution are used interchangeably in this study. purpose digitisation has an impact on human capital as their skills become redundant (rana & sharma, 2019). industry 4.0 presents the challenge of unemployment, although it has the potential to open doors for the creation of new jobs (naudé, 2019). it is therefore imperative that hr professionals remain relevant in the industry to keep their organisations up to date with the transition, as the implementation is unavoidable (ślusarczyk, 2018). there is a need to determine how hr professionals might be solution-drivers in the hr discipline and during the advent of industry 4.0. human resource professionals are concerned with overseeing the hr of organisations, which, through industry 4.0, will be affected by technological tools and innovative technology (jesuthasan, 2017). technological disruption, robotics and automation threaten to replace low-skilled, routine jobs (naudé, 2019). the increase in technological capability will not only cause an increase in unemployment but will also change the nature of work and the workforce because of the underlying trends in technology that accelerate job automation (rana & sharma, 2019; shava & hofisi, 2017). employee experiences and their work are encapsulated within human resources. there is a need to understand the influence of industry 4.0 not only on employees and their jobs, but also on the very nature of hr roles and associated functions. it is essential to evaluate the part that hr professionals will play during this revolution. the aim of this research is therefore to establish how factors associated with the fourth industrial revolution will influence the role of hr professionals. literature review industry 4.0 will necessitate certain new skills and competencies from employees (łupicka & grzybowska, 2018). however, before these changes influence the human capital, they influence hr professionals, forcing them to evaluate the functions and roles they play in industry 4.0, and to be the first to navigate their direction in this technologically driven revolution. the role of human resource professionals there are various roles hr professionals perform, namely, employee advocate, human capital developer, functional expert, strategic partner and leader (ulrich & brockbank, 2005). the role of hr professionals as employee advocates involves addressing the current needs of employees by listening and empathising with them (bakuwa, 2013; mamman, rees, bakuwa, branine, & kamoche, 2019). the employee advocacy role requires hr professionals to serve the interests of employees, as well as execute other roles towards stakeholders of the business that recruited the employee (mamman et al., 2019). this role can be used to mitigate the negative effects of anxiety and career doubt (rizvi, 2011), which is vital in industry 4.0 as the introduction of new of technology results in job collapse, deskilling, job insecurity and increasing inequities (de ruyter, brown, & burgess, 2019). human resource professionals as employee advocates need to engage with employees, establish personal career objectives for them and formulate a plan of action to achieve these objectives (de ruyter et al., 2019; sharma, 2012). the human capital developer role entails the management and development of employees to meet future needs of the organisation (mamman & kulaiby, 2014). the role of hr professionals as human capital developers involves overseeing and advancing hr collectively or individually, with the objective of equipping employees to thrive in the future (bakuwa, 2013). industry 4.0 brings about new technological advancements and job opportunities (de ruyter et al., 2019), and employees will therefore have to update their competencies as demanded by this new industry (özüdoğru, ergün, ammari, & görener, 2018). as such, employees will have to be retrained to accommodate this transformation. the functional expert (previously known as administrative expert) role is associated with the human capital practices that are key to the hr value (bakuwa, 2013). this role requires hr professionals to develop hr systems and arrange for hr development (hrd) audits to keep abreast of how hrd systems are functioning in the organisation (sharma, 2012). human resource professionals as functional experts contribute towards giving their organisation a competitive edge in terms of their human capital by selecting and hiring the best candidates (sharma, 2012). the strategic partner role of hr professionals comprises of dimensions such as consultant, business expert, knowledge manager, change agent and strategic hr planner who facilitate the hr systems to achieve the organisational goals (bakuwa, 2013). the strategic partner role requires hr professionals to identify the main areas requiring attention with regard to people and technology (sharma, 2012). strategic hr activities help boost the productivity of employees, and future productivity results should indicate how employees use technological innovations (al mamun, shamima, & islam, 2014). in the age of digitisation it is vital for hr professionals to become change agents; they need to assess the current state of the organisation, deal with employees’ resistance to change and provide employees with the necessary competencies to deal with changes (sharma, 2012; sheehan, de cieri, greenwood, & van buren, 2014). human resource should start by preparing the changes they will need to meet the needs of organisational digital transformation (diromualdo, el-khoury, & girimonte, 2018). in a leadership role, hr professionals are required to act as credible leaders and partner with other leaders to set and improve the level of strategic thinking (bakuwa, 2013; mamman & kulaiby, 2014; sheehan et al., 2014). the leader role relates to the credible activist competency of hr professionals, which requires them to be self-aware and dedicated to developing their profession (sheehan et al., 2014; ulrich, younger, brockbank, & ulrich, 2013). key competencies needed by human resource professionals in industry 4.0 in broadest terms, competencies required for industry 4.0 include technical, managerial and social. technical competencies refer to knowledge, skill or abilities needed to perform a specific task (feng & richards, 2018). managerial competencies are defined as skills and abilities for general problem-solving and decision-making (łupicka & grzybowska, 2018). social competencies are defined as the maintenance of interpersonal relationships in the organisation, in turn necessitating communication skills (łupicka & grzybowska, 2018). the hr competency study conducted by ulrich, younger, brockbank and ulrich (2012) narrows this broad overview and identifies a few fundamental competency domains, the first of which is a strategic positioner. this refers to the ability to interpret external trends (in the fourth industrial revolution, mainly centred around advancement in technology), integrate them into internal actions and communicate clearly the impact these have on their workforce (burmeister, lüttgens, & piller, 2016). in addition, a capability builder should possess the skill to build critical organisational capabilities (ulrich, younger, brockbank, & ulrich, 2011). with the amount of change taking place as a result of industry 4.0 (jesuthasan, 2017), being a change champion is a crucial competence to have – the ability to usher organisational change and implement change processes at the same pace that change is happening externally. lastly, technology proponents are vital because of the fact that we are in the digital age (jesuthasan, 2017). in addition to the above competencies, total reward stewards, analytics and compliance managers are also necessary. total rewards steward refers to having a scheme in place that will be meaningful and exciting to existing employees, as well as attract potential employees (prikshat, biswas, nankervis, & hoque, 2018). the analytics designer and interpreter competency describes an hr professional’s skill in using analytics to improve decision-making. lastly, compliance manager refers to the ability to use regulatory guidelines to manage processes related to compliance (prikshat et al., 2018). human resource operations and their effectiveness as the rate of automation increases, the required number of employees who perform redundant, process-based jobs will decrease, whether in production or the office environment (baldassari & roux, 2017). industry 4.0 is supported by technology and developments in production; however, hrs remain the cornerstone of it all (liboni, cezarino, jabbour, oliviera, & stefanelli, 2019), with the field of hrs involving the way in which people relate to one another, the way they relate to technologies and inventions developing in the industry and the way they relate to the new business model (liboni et al., 2019). it is imperative for organisations to align their hr practices and plans with industry 4.0, including areas such as the development of skills and employment of workforce (sivathanu & pillai, 2018). traditionally, the role of an hr department in an organisation is to manage all facets that relate to an employee’s cycle, from recruitment to exit phase (sivathanu & pillai, 2018). even though the role of hr is important to organisational development, in recent times, hr departments have been perceived to be an operational department with unproductive procedures that are aggravated by outdated technology (sivathanu & pillai, 2018). it is this study’s aim to investigate ways for hr departments to remain current with the advent of industry 4.0. method research approach this study employed a qualitative research approach. this approach was considered suitable for the study as it provided useful insights into how hr professionals understand the influence of industry 4.0. research philosophy this study adopted an interpretivist paradigm. the stance of the study was ontological in nature as it studied industry 4.0 (current reality) by exploring the role of hr professionals, interrogating the impact of industry 4.0 on them and establishing the competencies needed by hr professionals to operate in industry 4.0. population and sample the sample comprised 12 hr professionals. when findings are sufficient (box, 2014), which, in the case of this study, was deemed as having been reached after 12 interviews. a non-probability purposive sampling method was used to recruit hr professionals, which enabled the objectives of the study to be achieved. the researchers contacted professional bodies to gain access to senior-level hr professionals. all participants had to be employed at middle management or above and work within hr or the academic field of hr management. the sample comprised six men and six women. the mean age was 43 years, and in terms of ethnic distribution the sample had participants as follows: black people = 5, mixed race = 1, indian = 2 and white people = 4. the full biographical details of the participants are given in table 1. table 1: participant profile. research instrument semi-structured interviews were selected as the data collection strategy. the interviewer both used a prepared set of questions to urge the respondent to discuss the themes of interest, as well as formulated new questions during the interview (collis & hussey, 2014). an interview guide was developed based on the literature, which included open-ended questions. questions were formulated so as to encourage participation. probing questions were formulated to obtain rich data and active listening was required (leavy, 2017). the following are examples of questions that were posed in the interviews: describe how can hr assist in preparing the organisation for industry 4.0. describe the opportunities that industry 4.0 will bring about in terms of people management. describe how can hr assist in preparing the organisation for industry 4.0. data collection participants were approached individually through personal emails, and after agreeing to participation, an appropriate time for the interview was scheduled. on average the interviews last between 45 min and 60 min and were conducted at the convenience of the participant either at their office or via skype. interviews were tape recorded, and thereafter they were transcribed. data analysis and interpretation thematic analysis was used; this is a form of data analysis that encompasses classifying and arranging themes across a data set (braun & clarke, 2006). identifying common themes enables the researcher to record the fundamental meaning of the subject matter. trustworthiness of the data was ensured through lincoln and guaba’s (1985) criteria: credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. credibility was ensured by establishing whether the information provided by participants is reflected in the findings (esterberg, 2002). transferability was achieved by providing rich descriptions of the data (bowen, 2005). dependability of the research refers to the degree to which analysis processes or data collection instruments will obtain consistent results (saunders, lewis, & thornhill, 2015). the confirmability of the findings were ensured by presenting the words of the participants without interpretations made by the researcher the terms transferability, credibility, conformability and dependability are used to explain how trustworthy a study is (elo et al., 2014). these aspects are widely recommended by qualitative researchers and hence were incorporated into the study to ensure the integrity and quality of data (shenton, 2003). findings the purpose of this study was to understand the role of hr professionals in navigating industry 4.0. through thematic analysis seven themes were established and were perceived by hr professionals as significant for the role of hr professionals in industry 4.0. table 2 provides insights into the seven themes that emerged from the interview. table 2 provides the frequency with which each of the themes emerged. table 2 reveals that ‘hr’s role in industry 4.0’ occurred most frequently, and the sub-theme ‘hr delivery’ occurred the most. this was followed by ‘hr 4.0 competencies’ and ‘industry 4.0 in organisations’. the sub-themes that occurred most frequently were ‘change agent’ and ‘embracing new technology’, respectively. least frequent occurrences were ‘industry 4.0 and hr strategy’ and ‘challenges of 4.0’. table 2: themes and sub-themes identified from interviews. theme 1: industry 4.0 in organisations the findings relating to industry 4.0 in organisations included four sub-themes, namely, embracing new technology, new ways of work, automation and hr agility. embracing new technology participants stated that their organisations had embraced technology and information systems (p8), citing examples such as ‘the introduction of robotics in the production area to take over the duties that were more monotonous and also having [a] chatbot that assists employees in any it issues’ (p1). participant 5 noted that ‘the more technology-driven applications [that] come out there, the more business or opportunity there is out there to test those softwares’. new ways of work participants highlighted the need for new ways of work, such as ‘virtual worktops, flexi-hours because we couldn’t have our staff sitting for four hours in traffic’ (p5). participant 2 noted the importance of ‘culture and infrastructure’ working together with ‘policies and procedures’ to form the new way of work: ‘i think it’s important that fundamentally we need to review how we do things in our business, because the strategies that we used to use three–four years ago it’s not relevant anymore.’ (participant 4) automation with regard to automation, participants placed emphasis on the use of automation to perform manual tasks, even describing it as ‘a new evolution’ into ‘a more global … automated space’ (p3). other participants described specific automated systems in use at their companies, such as participant 10, who stated that one ‘can actually see the manpower through the app, and you can just use your finger to sign the document instead of doing it manually or otherwise’. participant 4 praised the system at his organisation, which dealt with ‘appointments … leave applications, … documentation for recruitment, for selection in terms of … most hr applications’. human resource agility one participant stated that an ‘agile environment … forms part and parcel of industry 4.0’ (p2), although one participant noted that: ‘[t]he focus on emerging technology has caused hr to amend its strategy to ensure that hr is ideally placed to be directly involved in the defining and fostering an organisational culture.’ (participant 1) ‘[w]e are slowly transitioning to people, but at a very slow pace and, purely because also there is, you have your organised labour which are your unions which also play a very vital role in the success of you transitioning and changing to the agility of the new hr.’ (participant 8) theme 2: industry 4.0 and human resource strategy industry 4.0 and hr strategy relates to the digitisation of work, delivery of hr work and reskilling of employees. digitisation of work the hr professionals noted that work has become digitised, citing examples such as the ‘automating [of] rule-based work’ (p3), robotics and even a chatbot (p8). delivery of human resource work participants also stated that industry 4.0 brings about changes in the delivery of hr work. participants alluded that ‘we are making strides in terms of improving the processes like … workflow management systems’ (p2). participant 5 noted a need to ‘basically change or transform hr or people engagement’ as he was ‘constantly dealing with people via technology if they are constantly working with … other virtual teams’, bringing into question the ‘human interactive’ (p5) element of hr. the difference in hr delivery because of automation may bring about a shift from people-orientated frustrations to system frustrations (p3). reskilling in addition, participants highlighted the importance of reskilling employees and stated that ‘the impact for us on the human capital management (hcm) side is huge. the technology is there but the skills are still following’ (p12). the further importance of looking to the future came to the fore, with participant 2 noting that one must ‘forecast and look at the talent, pipeline and the pool’ and ‘look at the future skills, the current skills that we have and how we’re going to get those people into the level that we want’ (p2). theme 3: developing 4.0 competencies the development of 4.0 competencies encompasses three sub-themes, namely, understanding the environment, development programmes and networking. understanding the environment in terms of understanding the industry environment, participants stressed the need for being aware of current trends and adapting as such. participant 2 warned against trying ‘to be safe’ or fostering a ‘culture of being reactive’, instead advocating to ‘increase our mind’ and ‘try new things’ (p2). participant 11 noted that current thinking may become irrelevant very quickly because of the rate of change and therefore advised that one should ‘be more proactive than reactive. we need to identify gaps in the market and explore them likewise’ (p11). ‘being culturally and socially aware in order to lead’ (p7) was given as markers of understanding the environment. development programmes participants placed emphasis on the need for ‘organisational development plans [that are] intentional and upfront’ (p8) that will assist hr in developing the competencies required in industry 4.0. ‘short courses, informal courses [and] attending workshops’ (p1) were some suggestions for learning new skills, although, as participant 12 noted, ‘some of these can be more attributes than skills’ that may ‘have to be developed by being involved in projects that are advanced and require artificial intelligence’ (p12). networking participants highlighted the importance of ‘networking, teamwork and coordinating with others’ (p12) in industry 4.0. they suggested that they may seek out a ‘collaboration space where [they are] able to network’ (p2). theme 4: human resource 4.0 competencies the combination of sub-themes that relate to hr competencies includes being a strategic partner, change agent and creative innovator and the aspect of people enablement. strategic partner participants stated that core competencies would include ‘strategic leadership’ (p6) and being ‘well-read so that they understand the trends’ (p7) whilst ‘looking long term’ (p6). a strategic leader would engage in ‘business partnering’ (p2) and be able to consider ‘the whole organisation systemically in terms of how the different facets or parts of the organisation will interact’ (p6). change agent participants highlighted the ways in which hr will need to be able to respond to the changes that industry 4.0 will usher in. they should ‘embrace change’ (p6) to be facilitators or ‘agents of change’ (p2), as well as ‘advise people on how to change things quickly’ (p4). they will need to be ‘resilient … [in] managing change right’ (p9) and show ‘agility … to quickly respond to changes’ (p11). creative innovator a number of the participants highlighted the need for ‘creativity’ (p11; p12) or ‘creative thinking’ (p10), ‘problem-solving’ (p11; p12) and ‘critical thinking’ (p10; p12) skills. participant 12 also identified the need for ‘emotional intelligence’. people enablement as an hr professional, one of the core competencies is knowing how to interact with people; in other words, the skill of ‘relationship management … [to] move people through change’ (p7). ‘emotional intelligence’ (p5) was once again highlighted because of the fact that ‘people are different’ (p5). participant 10 stated that ‘face-to-face interactions are essential to maintain relationships with clients’, as are ‘team-work and … coordinating with others’ (p12). theme 5: human resource’s role in industry 4.0 four sub-themes regarding hr’s role in industry 4.0 emerged, namely, hr delivery, reskilling needed, strategic shift and talent management. human resource delivery participants highlighted the changes in terms of hr delivery, especially with regard to online work and available data. ‘most of my day-to-day work [is] online’, stated one participant, who went on to add, ‘i certainly feel my job has been made easier. in terms of recruiting … put [a job advert] online and people apply there’ (p10). another explained, ‘we’ve got a lot of data and analytics coming through so we can really see and read into the data’ (p3). one participant predicted that ‘the next big thing in hr is going to be about behavioural science’ (p7) and that these data would enable us to forecast ‘future trends’ (p7). reskilling needed the participants mentioned the important need for hr professionals to improve their ‘skillset to match the advance[d] technology’ (p10) in preparation for ‘what the world of the future is likely to be’ (p4). another participant explained how she had been sent on a 4-month ‘fast-track upskilling programme’ (p12). as a result, her ‘skills are currently in demand’ (p12) because ‘all the other hr roles … will eventually be affected’ (p4). strategic shift participants highlighted the need for a strategic shift to ensure efficiency in industry 4.0. there is a greater focus on ensuring ‘that the systems are in line with the cultures and practices in that specific organisation’ (p9) and that influencing employees ‘is very much about them understanding the new ways of work’ (p7). human resource professionals’ roles have ‘become more consultative; it doesn’t stop with employees’ (p5). one needs ‘to be more proactive and engage with management and be more strategic on how we involve or implement change’ (p5). talent management with regard to talent management, participants emphasised the need to ‘be way more proactive’ (p12) in managing talent. instead of reacting to retrenchments, lack of skills or something to go wrong, this participant suggested proactive ‘workforce planning [to] find out what skills are needed, and … start upskilling people now’ (p12). other participants recommended that organisations should be asking questions such as ‘are we delivering the right services, and do we have the right people to deliver the right services?’ (p3) and, with the help of hr, taking action accordingly to make sure that the ‘right people [are] in the right places’ (p3), ‘that people are engaged and that they understand what this industry entails’ (p10). theme 6: challenges of 4.0 participants alluded that industry 4.0 will bring about uncertainty and adapting to change as major challenges. uncertainty participants indicated that majority of people have uncertainty about the future world of work. in an ‘environment where already we are faced with people who are skilled but are unemployed’ (p10), hr professionals will be required to manage the ‘people element’ (p6) of the system ‘because [employees] were never prepared for what’s coming’ (p2). one participant described this as ‘fear’ (p7), which may be a ‘problem that requires conflict management’ (p10) should job losses occur. adapting to change seven participants touched on the subject of change. some foresee ‘resistance’ (p7; p11) as ‘people are scared of change’ (as an extreme example mentioned by participant 1, afraid of being replaced by machines) but ‘scared of failing, too’ (p11). however, hr professionals can assist employees to ‘[adapt] to changes in the environment’ (p6) by ‘adopting new principles’ (p4) and ‘training people who will be able to be relevant in the industry’ (p6), beyond even the fourth industrial revolution and into the fifth (p6). theme 7: 4.0 opportunities the sub-themes that fall under 4.0 opportunities are innovation and improved systems, enhanced talent management and delivery of hr work. innovation and improved systems industry 4.0 brings about improved hr management systems and innovative ways of work as identified by the participants, such as ‘digital tools for planning, … processing, communication, payments and … digital tools to train’ (p6). participant 12 stated that ‘innovation will be an opportunity for organisations to grow and develop’, although participant 9 noted that they already had ‘improved workforce management systems right’. enhanced talent management according to participants, talent management will change in terms of ‘education and training systems’ (p12) and ‘better utilising people skills and talent’ (p8). ‘people will be more empowered in their roles because they can do their work remotely’ (p1), and hr professionals will be forced ‘to be more aware of what is the next person’s talents are’ (p8). delivery of work participants further indicated ‘changes in the organisation of work, with more remote and on-demand work becoming a standard’ (p12). there will be a ‘drive on how we better technology to engage with our employees’ (p8), with ‘virtual spaces [and] technological tools like zoom’ (p5) becoming more common and ‘face-to-face contact with people’ (p8) becoming less so. things will be ‘run by systems’ (p8), meaning that ‘the way people will do their jobs going forward might change dramatically’ (p4). discussion theme 1: industry 4.0 in organisations industry 4.0 is brought upon by technological developments and improvements that transform the way in which hr connects with each other and the organisation, and its impact on employees (jesuthasan, 2017). the findings suggested four sub-themes related to industry 4.0 in organisations, namely, embracing new technology, automation, new ways of work and hr agility. industry 4.0 brings about new technological developments such as robotics, artificial intelligence and automation that have the potential to change the world of work, the skills of employees and introduce new job opportunities (de ruyter et al., 2019). the findings of this research confirm the use of automation and artificial intelligence to optimise operations of day-to-day tasks but which otherwise may hinder the effectiveness of the hr division (gikopoulos, 2019). the research findings indicated the introduction of new working arrangements, including those of hr, as a result of industry 4.0, much of this through automation (rana & sharma, 2019). the findings suggested that hr should move towards a strategic and agile standpoint (rana & sharma, 2019). theme 2: industry 4.0 and human resource strategy industry 4.0 influences hr operations (liboni et al., 2019). strategic hr functions help enhance the productivity of employees, and future results should indicate how employees use technological innovations (al mamun et al., 2014). the findings suggested three sub-themes associated with industry 4.0 and hr strategy, namely, the digitisation of work, delivery of hr work and reskilling of employees. digitisation of work may enhance the effectiveness of operations; automation improves the effectiveness of hr departments by minimising costs, enabling operation at a faster pace and providing accurate data (liboni et al., 2019). the findings indicated a transformation in the delivery of hr operations, such as the automation of hr processes because of emerging technologies, resulting in efficient and leaner hr teams (liboni et al., 2019). findings furthermore suggested the need to reskill employees; hr will require training to use emerging applications (rana & sharma, 2019). theme 3: developing 4.0 competencies the transformational influence of industry 4.0 means that organisations and employees will need to place greater emphasis on developing competencies required in industry 4.0 (özüdoğru et al., 2018). the findings yielded three sub-themes, namely, understanding the environment, development programmes and networking. the development of employee competencies is one of the crucial factors needed to succeed in early stages of the transition towards digitisation (agostini & filippini, 2019). findings suggest the need for being aware of trends in the industry and being able to adapt. human resource should remain informed about technological shifts and remain adaptable to the changing labour market conditions to attract and retain staff and to develop new organisational models (liboni et al., 2019). moreover, participants emphasised the need for development programmes to fill the gap between current and required competencies. industry 4.0 brings about disruptive changes and requires a fast adaption (eberhard et al., 2017). core skills that are currently desired in jobs will include skills not yet considered crucial to the job today. therefore, organisations are required to provide their employees with development and training programmes (eberhard et al., 2017). participants indicated the importance of maintaining relationships with all stakeholders of a business and keeping abreast of technological innovations. this can be achieved by being informed of the changes through seeking information and resources (ślusarczyk, 2018). theme 4: human resource 4.0 competencies industry 4.0 is a revolution characterised by innovative technology where digitisation and artificial intelligence are the focal points in enhancing productivity (schäfer, 2018). therefore, it is imperative for hr competencies to follow suit and align with these foci. the findings proposed four sub-themes: change agent, strategic partner, creative innovator and people enablement. the results indicate that participants agree with the hr competency study by ulrich et al., (2012), naming change champion and strategic positioner as necessary hr competencies. as change agents, hr professionals need to be able to steer and adjust to change as well as guide implemented change strategies (ulrich et al., 2011). for appropriate strategies to be created, hr professionals need to be visible strategic partners who will interpret trends and integrate them within the organisation (ulrich et al., 2011). human resource builds value by enhancing the productivity and agility of human capital (ulrich et al., 2012); hence, it is necessary to have competencies that will resonate with the human capital of the organisation. it is for this reason that hr needs to play a more visible leadership role in the transformation towards digitisation within organisations (el-khoury, 2017). human resource professionals need to oversee the advancement of human talent within the organisation and ensure that they are equipped with skills to thrive in the future (bakuwa, 2013). also, the fact that the fourth industrial revolution is centred on advancement in technology (burmeister et al., 2016) means that hr professionals and the organisation at large need to be innovative to keep up with the technological advancements. this results in the need to be a creative innovator. this sentiment was noted by the participants, who mentioned that creativity and critical thinking will help organisations flourish in the fourth industrial revolution. lastly, a crucial competency needed is that of people enablement. for the hr professional to be an efficient leader and manage talent accordingly, good interaction or relational skills are needed. human resource professionals must possess the ability to foster relationships based on trust and reliability (ulrich et al., 2011). sound relationships, especially in times of change, have the potential to diminish resistance displayed by employees because of the trust and reliability created between employees and the hr professional. theme 5: human resource’s role in industry 4.0 there is a paradigm shift in the role of hr in transitioning into a strategic role that allows it to focus on broader aspects other than the administration role (dhanpat, 2015). with industry 4.0, the role of hr will change and thus require hr professionals to be strategic partners of the organisation (ulrich et al., 2013). the findings indicated that hr needs to ensure delivery, provide a strategic shift, contribute to reskilling needed and ensure effective talent management. participants suggested that there will be a change in terms of how hr delivers their work. currently, organisations deal with numerous people issues, such as improved mobility, an inter-generational workforce, changing digital job descriptions and work–life balance (rana & sharma, 2019). therefore, it is imperative that hr improves its function to be digitally savvy and agile to be able to manage the distinctive, hyper-connected workforce (rana & sharma, 2019). moreover, emerging technologies and a different generation of employees will change hr processes such as talent on-boarding and off-boarding, as well as learning and development (rana & sharma, 2019). thus, there is a need to reskill and upskill people to meet the changing demand of work, to ensure that employees have correct and pertinent skills to compete in industry 4.0 (pedron, 2018). participants also suggested that there is a growing need for hr to manage talent. technology has completely renewed the manner in which employees engage with their organisations (rana & sharma, 2019). therefore, it is important for hr to become responsive by shifting from a conventional, transactional scope of work (rana & sharma, 2019), that is ensuring that the organisation has the right people at the right time for the right jobs. this can be accomplished by hr being proactive and providing training and development that meets the requirements of industry 4.0. this will allow employers to capitalise on increasing performance and productivity of the workforce (ejovwokeoghene, yewande, oluseye, & joseph, 2018). theme 6: challenges of 4.0 as much as industry 4.0 will bring about great opportunities that can be leveraged, it also brings forth certain challenges. these challenges refer to things that might hinder the organisations from successfully implementing the changes or exploring new business opportunities brought about by industry 4.0 (prisecaru, 2016). the findings indicated two sub-themes, namely, uncertainty and adapting to change. participants suggest major challenges with industry 4.0 will be because of uncertainty because people do not know what to expect (prisecaru, 2016). several participants noted that the issue of possible job loss, as well as resistance to change, as people might not be comfortable to adapt their ways of working. resistance is a challenge faced by any organisation undergoing change (gupta, 2018); however, employers need to understand that there will be challenges like this and they need to act accordingly – adapting quickly and learning faster (gupta, 2018). strategic planning will become necessary to envisage possible challenges that could be faced in the future. organisations will need to be future-facing to develop action plans and adapt to change quickly. theme 7: 4.0 opportunities industry 4.0 is changing the way in which organisations work (jesuthasan, 2017). in trying to adapt to industry 4.0, organisations are forced to be innovative and think creatively. innovative thinking increases the likelihood of new jobs being conceived, thereby creating more opportunities in organisations (naudé, 2019). the findings suggested three sub-themes related to opportunities that arise as a result of industry 4.0, namely, innovation and improved systems, enhanced talent management and delivery of hr work. technology brings together different technical and scientific disciplines, creating new and innovative growth opportunities (xu, david, & kim, 2018), as well as improved and enhanced systems. as part of their leadership role, hr professionals should develop sound and promising talent strategies by examining the present strategy, improving upon this and implementing talent strategies aligned with the organisation’s goals that promote the investment of workforce training (deloitte global, 2018). delivery of work is changing because of improved technology, for example, making use of interactive voice-response systems to direct calls or using the internet to interact with customers (xu et al., 2018). in addition, improved technology also allows for delivery of work to be more efficient. practical implications there is scant scientific research on the role of hr professionals in industry 4.0 within the south african context, although there are workshops and seminars being presented within the field. the findings of the study will have implications for the advancement of knowledge of hr professionals and their role in industry 4.0. the study provides insights to hr professionals on navigating industry 4.0. qualitative insights were gained from hr professionals and hr academics. this category allowed to gauge insights provided by hr professionals in terms of industry and practice, although an academic perspective was considered necessary and can be used to assist hr professionals to acclimatise to industry 4.0 and to be prepared for the changes it brings. figure 1 shows a holistic model for hr professionals to navigate industry 4.0. the model encapsulates the environment of industry 4.0. it provides insights from the themes developed from this study to ensure that hr professionals are able, through a set of initiatives (networking, development programmes and understanding the environment), to develop competencies (strategic partner, people enablement, change agent and creative innovator), to navigate through industry 4.0 and hence ensure the effective delivery of hr work. figure 1: a holistic model for navigating industry 4.0 for human resource professionals. limitations and recommendations although this study provides rich insights into the role of hr professionals in navigating industry 4.0, the information obtained was based on participants’ subjective views. this was overcome through probing. the study was limited to hr professionals and academics, and thus the findings cannot be generalised to other professions. the participants in this study were lecturers, seniorand middle-level hr professionals. for future research, it is recommended that more senior-level hr professionals should be included in the sample, as well as industry 4.0 experts, to understand the role of hr in industry 4.0. it is recommended that this study be used as a point of departure for future research. in addition, hr professionals from organisations that are involved in industry 4.0 activities should be included in future research. future studies may seek to use quantitative research methods to validate the conclusions and findings of the study. conclusion this study set out to understand the role of hr professionals in industry 4.0. it provides new insights into the role of hr professionals in navigating industry 4.0. the study makes an important, practical and scientific contribution to the understanding of the role of hr professionals, as it affirms that the hr function has become an essential part of industry 4.0. findings indicate that hr professionals play a vital role and establish their competencies to generate opportunities and mitigate challenges that industry 4.0 brings to the field of hr. industry 4.0 presents uncertainties such as job loss, making it necessary for hr professionals to put human capital at ease and equip them with the skills needed to navigate industry 4.0. acknowledgements thank you to kevin walker for his language editing services. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions n.d. was the study leader and was responsible for consolidating and preparing the manuscript and conducted the data analysis. z.p.b, m.r.j, t.v.m., and n.s contributed to the report for their research project and were responsible for the collection and transcribing of data. ethical consideration in compliance with the university of johannesburg’s ethical clearance process, the participants’ right to confidentiality and anonymity was ensured. participation was on a voluntary basis and participants were granted the option to opt out of the study at any given time (saunders, lewis, & thornhill, 2015). participants were assured protection against anything harmful; they had the right of freedom of choice as well as the right to information (through a signed informed consent form) regarding the processes and results of the study. all information provided by participants in this study was kept anonymous and confidential. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references agostini, l., & filippini, r. (2019). organizational and managerial challenges in the path toward industry 4.0. european journal of innovation management, 22(3), 406–421. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejim-02-2018-0030 al mamun, m., shamima, n., & islam, m. (2014). human resources as strategic partner: source of sustainable competitive advantage. asa university review, 8(2), 71–79. bakuwa, r.c. (2013). exploring the hr professionals’ employee advocate role in a developing country: the case of malawi. australian journal of business and management research, 2(12), 39–48. baldassari, p., & roux, j.d. (2017). industry 4.0: preparing for the future of work. people & strategy, 40(3), 20–24. bowen, g. (2005). preparing a qualitative research-based dissertation: lessons learnt. the qualitative report, 10(2), 208–222. box, i. (2014). how many interviews are needed to in a qualitative research? is there any rule or popular practice? [researchgate]. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/post/how_many_interviews_are_needed_in_a_qualitative_research_is_there_any_rule_or_popular_practice braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa burmeister, c., lüttgens, d., & piller, f.t. (2016). business model innovation for industrie 4.0: why the ‘industrial internet’ mandate a new innovation. die unternehmung, 70(2), 124–152. https://doi.org/10.5771/0042-059x-2016-2-124 collis, j., & hussey, r. (2014). business research: a practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. new york, ny: palgrave macmillan higher education. deloitte global & the global business coalition. (2018). preparing tomorrows’ workforce for the fourth industrial revolution for business: a framework for action. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/global/documents/about-deloitte/gx-preparing-tomorrow-workforce-for-4ir.pdf. de ruyter, a., brown, m., & burgess, j. (2019). gig work and the fourth industrial revolution. journal of international affairs, 72(1), 37–50. dhanpat, n. (2015). turning the tide’ a new wave of hr: devolving hr capabilities to line managers. in pan pacific business conference (pp. 28–30). hanoi: pan pacific business association. diromualdo, a., el-khoury, d., & girimonte, f. (2018). hr in the digital age: how digital technology will change hr’s organization structure, processes and roles. strategic hr review, 17(5), 234–242. eberhard, b., podio, m., alonso, a.p., radovica, e., avotina, l., peiseniece, l., … solé-pla, j. (2017). smart work: the transformation of the labour market due to the fourth industrial revolution (i4. 0). international journal of business and economic sciences applied research, 10(3), 47–66. ejovwokeoghene, o.m., yewande, o.a., oluseye, o.o., & joseph, k.o. (2018). talent management as a determinant of firm performance: a conceptual approach. business and social sciences journal, 3(1), 21–32. elo, s., kääriäinen, m., kanste, o., pölkki, t., utriainen, k., & kyngäs, h. (2014). qualitative content analysis: a focus on trustworthiness. sage open, 4(1), 1–10. el-khoury, d. (2017). digital transformation and the world-class hr difference. strategic hr review, 16(2), 86–88. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr-01-2017-0001 esterberg, k.g. (2002). qualitative methods in social research. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. feng, y., & richards, l. (2018). a review of digital curation professional competencies: theory and current practices. records management journal, 28(1), 62–78. https://doi.org/10.1108/rmj-09-2016-0022 gikopoulos, j. (2019). alongside, not against: balancing man with machine in the hr function. strategic hr review, 18(2), 56–61. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr-12-2018-0103 gupta, s. (2018). organizational barriers to digital transformation (master of science thesis). stockholm: kth royal institute of technology. jesuthasan, r. (2017). hr’s new role: rethinking and enabling digital engagement. strategic hr review, 16(2), 60–65. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr-01-2017-0009 kazançoğlu, y., & ozkan-özen, y.d. (2018). analyzing workforce 4.0 in the fourth industrial revolution and proposing a road map from operations management perspective with fuzzy dematel. journal of enterprise information management, 31(6), 891–907. https://doi.org/10.1108/jeim-01-2017-0015 leavy, p. (2017). research design: quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, arts-based, and community-based participatory research approaches. new york, ny: guilford publications. liboni, l.b., cezarino, l.o., jabbour, c.j.c., oliveira, b.g., & stefanelli, n.o. (2019). smart industry and the pathways to hrm 4.0: implications for scm. supply chain management: an international journal, 24(1), 124–146. https://doi.org/10.1108/scm-03-2018-0150 lincoln, y.s., & guba, e.g. (1985). naturalistic inquiry. newbury park, ca: sage. łupicka, a., & grzybowska, k. (2018). key managerial competencies for industry 4.0-practitioners’, researchers’ and students’ opinions. logistics and transport, 3(39), 39–46. https://doi.org/10.26480/icemi.01.2017.250.253 mamman, a., & kulaiby, k.z. (2014). is ulrich’s model useful in understanding hr practitioners’ roles in non-western developing countries? an exploratory investigation across private and public sector organizations in the sultanate kingdom of oman. the international journal of human resource management, 25(20), 2811–2836. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2014.914053 mamman, a., rees, c.j., bakuwa, r., branine, m., & kamoche, k. (2019). employee advocacy in africa: the role of hr practitioners in malawi. employee relations, 41(1), 2–15. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-12-2017-0296 myers, m.d. (2013). qualitative research in business and management. london: sage. naudé, w. (2019). brilliant technologies and brave entrepreneurs. journal of international affairs, 72(1), 143–158. özüdoğru, a.g., ergün, e., ammari, d., & görener, a. (2018). how industry 4.0 changes business: a commercial perspective. international journal of commerce and finance, 4(1), 84–95. parry, e., & battista, v. (2019). the impact of emerging technologies on work: a review of the evidence and implications for the human resource function. emerald open research, 1(5), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.12688/emeraldopenres.12907.1 pedron, z. (2018). the skills revolution of the 21st century: it’s time to re-calibrate. journal of european university business school, 1(1), 1–116. prikshat, v., biswas, k., nankervis, a., & hoque, m.r. (2018). bangladesh hr professionals’ competencies: impact on firm performance and moderating effects of organisation life cycle. evidence-based hrm: a global forum for empirical scholarship, 6(2), 203–220. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebhrm-12-2017-0064 prisecaru, p. (2016). challenges of the fourth industrial revolution. knowledge horizons. economics, 8(1), 57–62. rana, g., & sharma, r. (2019). emerging human resource management practices in industry 4.0. strategic hr review, 18(4), 176–181. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr-01-2019-0003 rizvi, y. (2011). human capital development role of human resource (hr) during mergers and acquisitions. african journal of business management, 5(2), 261–268. saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2015). research methods for business students. new york, ny: pearson. schäfer, m. (2018). the fourth industrial revolution: how the eu can lead it. european view, 17(1), 5–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/1781685818762890 sharma, d. (2012). roles for hr professionals. integral review: a journal of management, 5(2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2012.37211eaa.001 shava, e., & hofisi, c. (2017). challenges and opportunities for public administration in the fourth industrial revolution. african journal of public affairs, 9(9), 203–215. sheehan, c., de cieri, h., greenwood, m., & van buren iii, h.j. (2014). hr professional role tensions: perceptions and responses of the top management team. human resource management, 53(1), 115–130. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21574 shenton, a.k. (2004). strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research projects. education for information, 22(2), 63–75. https://doi.org/10.3233/efi-2004-22201 sivathanu, b., & pillai, r. (2018). smart hr 4.0 – how industry 4.0 is disrupting hr. human resource management international digest, 26(4), 7–11. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid-04-2018-0059 ślusarczyk, b. (2018). industry 4.0: are we ready? polish journal of management studies, 17(1), 232–248. https://doi.org/10.17512/pjms.2018.17.1.19 ulrich, d., & brockbank, w. (2005). the hr value proposition. boston: harvard business press. ulrich, d., younger, j., brockbank, w., & ulrich, m. (2011). competencies for hr professionals working outside-in. retrieved from https://rblnet.s3.amazonaws.com/hrcs/2012/competencies%20for%20hr%20professionals%2working%20outside-in.pdf. ulrich, d., younger, j., brockbank, w., & ulrich, m. (2012). hr talent and the new hr competencies. strategic hr review, 11(4), 217–222. https://doi.org/10.1108/14754391211234940 ulrich, d., younger, j., brockbank, w., & ulrich, m. (2013). the state of the hr profession. human resource management, 52(3), 457–471. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21536 xu, m., david, j.m., & kim, s.h. (2018). the fourth industrial revolution: opportunities and challenges. international journal of financial research, 9(2), 90–95. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijfr.v9n2p90 abstract introduction research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) fidelis p. tsvangirai department of industrial psychology, university of fort hare, alice, south africa willie t. chinyamurindi department of business management, university of fort hare, east london, south africa citation tsvangirai, f.p., & chinyamurindi, w.t. (2019). the moderating effect of employee motivation on workplace surveillance and employee engagement amongst employees at the zimbabwe revenue authority. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1106. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1106 original research the moderating effect of employee motivation on workplace surveillance and employee engagement amongst employees at the zimbabwe revenue authority fidelis p. tsvangirai, willie t. chinyamurindi received: 27 july 2018; accepted: 12 sept. 2018; published: 23 apr. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the study took place at the zimbabwe revenue authority (zimra), an organisation noted to be undergoing varying challenges because of the macro-environmental issues in zimbabwe. research purpose: the study examined the moderating effect of employee motivation on workplace surveillance and employee engagement amongst employees at zimra. motivation for the study: calls exist for studies that explore how organisations can assist their employees, especially within contexts deemed to be difficult to operate in. research approach/design and method: this study adopted the positivist research philosophy and used the quantitative research approach. a self-administered questionnaire was sent to 364 respondents using an online survey. the study utilised the principles of structural equation modelling in analysing the data. main findings: the results are twofold. firstly, the results of the study show the existence of a relationship between workplace surveillance and employee engagement. secondly, this relationship is partially moderated by employee motivation. practical/managerial implications: there is need for zimra management to involve employees when making decisions on issues about workplace surveillance. such involvement may have an effect on outcomes such as engagement and motivation within the workplace. contribution/value-add: the study contributes to the body of knowledge by noting that employee motivation moderates the relationship between workplace surveillance and employee engagement. thus, the presence of workplace surveillance calls for more investment in employee motivation if employees are to remain engaged with their work. keywords: employee motivation; employee engagement; workplace surveillance; zimbabwe; human resources. introduction this research examines how the relationship between workplace surveillance and employee engagement is moderated by employee motivation amongst zimbabwe revenue authority (zimra) employees. whenever there is an employment contract, employees will be monitored in a certain way, and with the advent of modern technology, workplace surveillance is on the rise (steinfeld, 2017). according to zameer, ali, nisar and amir (2014), workplace challenges and organisational problems are not always caused by clients or customers but also by employees. employee engagement, according to shaheen and farooqi (2014), can be measured in three dimensions, namely, cognitive, physical and emotional. allen (2014) concluded that a worker who exhibits high levels in all three dimensions outlined by shaheen and farooqi (2014) is deemed to be highly engaged in their work. employee engagement, according to kahn (1990), is an old and widely researched concept but its conception as argued by sibanda (2016) is an emerging and widely researched topic. according to chang and teng (2017), motivation is the desire to accomplish individual and organisational goals. mafini, surujlal and dhurup (2013) concluded that in most cases, highly motivated employees are also engaged in their jobs and they get satisfaction from this. sarwar and abugre (2013) opined that organisational success thrives through employee motivation and managers need to properly manage employee motivation. rosenblat, kneese and danah (2014) noted that employers need to invest in workplace surveillance to reduce pilferage, increase productivity and avoid leakage of confidential information. moussa (2015) reiterates that employee motivation can be affected in a negative way by workplace surveillance if such a system is not properly implemented and managed. according to allen, walker, coopman and hart (2007), workplace surveillance refers to mechanisms adopted by management at work to ensure that all movements by employees are being seen. yerby (2013) also describes workplace surveillance as a system of ensuring that the employer is observing employees’ actions and movements at work. yamoah (2014) refers to workplace surveillance as the act of ensuring that all employees are working with tight supervision from management. zuboff (2015) reiterates that workplace surveillance is a management approach to make sure that employees apply themselves fully to their work during working hours without engaging in non-work-related activities. such surveillance can be done through mediums like logbooks, electronic or physical checking by supervisors. background to the study yamoah (2014) concluded that service delivery in public service organisations is hampered by low levels of employee engagement. as a parastatal that was formed and mandated to operate feeding into the fiscus, in terms of chapter 23:11 of the zimbabwe revenue authority act in 2001, zimra needs to deliver against all odds. research conducted by mafini and dlodlo (2014) in south african government departments on poor service delivery concluded that public service employees have low levels of engagement and this affects how they do their work. further, research has found that, generally, organisations in southern africa have poor performance, which emanates from disengaged and demotivated employees (mafini, 2015). because of continued congestion and slow turnaround times at zimbabwe’s main border posts, zimra’s motto denoting that the organisation is there to serve the public is far from being realised (muleya, 2014; sibanda, 2016). workplace surveillance and employee engagement are some of the reasons proffered in discussions on causes of poor service delivery in public organisations (yamoah, 2014). a lifestyle audit was conducted by zimra in 2016 to ascertain if there were any employees who could have attained their wealth fraudulently (vinga, 2017). this audit was not well received by employees, who felt that the exercise had a negative impact on their motivation levels (ncube, 2016). research by saltson and nsiah (2015) reiterated that it is important for organisations to ensure that they make business decisions that do not derail employee motivation lest employees sabotage the organisation. low remuneration at border posts was found to be a leading factor in causing low employee engagement amongst zimra employees, making them susceptible to corruption (huni, 2016; mundia, 2014). muleya (2014) went on to say that this system is effective when used by engaged employees, who can shrug off corruption advances, but with the current low levels of employee engagement at the border posts, the system is not living up to its purpose. research shows that a negative relationship exists between organisational behaviour and workplace surveillance (e.g. moussa, 2015; ncube, 2016; samaranayake & gamage, 2012; townsm & cobb, 2012; yerby 2013; zachary, 2013). according to zimra (2016), in 2016, the organisation put in place surveillance cameras worth $600 000 at the beitbridge border post, where most fraudsters and zimra employees are caught in illegal acts. despite these investments, empirical research is needed that continues to explore the relationships between psychological variables and interventions such as workplace surveillance. uniquely, this study examined the moderating effect of employee motivation on workplace surveillance and employee engagement amongst employees at zimra. this answers calls for studies of this nature (tomczak, lanzo, & aguinis, 2018). the authors note that other than being the zimbabwe customs environment and hard economic environment, the present study focuses on zimra because it sought to obtain information pertaining to the slow turnaround time at the border posts, which is a sign of poor service delivery that invites public backlash. zimra’s mandate has a great impact on the country’s gross domestic product and the organisation needs to deliver results to the fiscus. public organisations consequently often face the criticism that they do not deliver the quality of service expected (allen, 2014). it is important to invest much in employee motivation and employee engagement for maximum organisational performance (maduka & okafor, 2014). this context was critical in assisting this study in investigating whether workplace surveillance enhances or impedes employee engagement and whether employee motivation moderates the relationship between the two variables. mundia (2014) concluded that zimra’s skewed and poor remuneration is tainting employees’ levels of engagement, which is compounded by the heavy presence of workplace surveillance at all the border posts. sibanda, muchena and ncube (2014) added that it is difficult for employees to engage in their work and feel motivated when working under such bad conditions. this study is necessary in zimbabwe in that it ushers in possible solutions to manage the subdued economy of the country through human resources. the parliament of zimbabwe (2017) referred to a report by the industrial psychology consultancy that noted that employee engagement amongst zimbabwean parastatals in 2016 was at 40%, showing that 60% of employees in the parastatals are not engaged in their work. the rise of the unemployment rate in zimbabwe increased poverty levels to 72%, putting most citizens into abject poverty. the world bank (2017) then concluded that this is why the united nations human development index placed zimbabwe at number 173 out of a total of 187 countries, because the economy had literally collapsed. firstly, the country is experiencing a high labour turnover, averaging 19% per year because of an unstable economic setting (murongazvombo, 2015). secondly, within this high labour turnover, there is need for employers to find strategies not only to keep their employees motivated and engaged but also to monitor how they work. literature review this section focuses on discussing the literature around the three research constructs under this study. the discussion shows the relationship that exists amongst the three constructs guided by the literature. the literature reviewed under this section to ascertain the relationship that exists amongst these variables assisted the researchers in coming up with the study hypotheses. employee engagement and employee motivation according to ryan (2017), a universal definition for employee engagement cannot be ascertained because the concept borders around three main components, namely cognitive, emotional and behavioural. this complexity of having a universal definition for employee engagement was also echoed by ruck, welch and menara (2017), who concluded that because employee engagement hinges on cognitive, emotional and behavioural components, a universal definition cannot be proffered. devaroa, nan maxwell and morita (2017) conducted a study that focused on employee trust, employee engagement and employee motivation. the study found that employees who were disengaged and demotivated had no trust in their management and were ready to resign if they got the opportunity. an investigation on the relationship between employee engagement, employee motivation and employee absenteeism was conducted at the allied bank of pakistan by khan and iqbal (2013). the study concluded that employee motivation and employee engagement positively relate to the another. organisational performance usually suffers when employees are dissatisfied at the workplace, because such dissatisfaction leads to low engagement and low motivation (mafini & dlodlo, 2014). a study conducted by vilnai-yavetz and levina (2018) concluded that employees get engaged and motivated to do their work when they get support from the organisation. the study also noted that employee motivation positively relates to employee engagement regardless of the management approach. according to mafini and dlodlo (2014), empirical evidence on how employee motivation and engagement is affected by stringent management approaches is lacking in most developing countries. the lack of such empirical evidence in third world countries also motivated this study to close this gap. this literature has shown that it can be expected that employee motivation positively relates to employee engagement. because of this, the following hypothesis was formulated: h1: there is a positive relationship between employee engagement and employee motivation. workplace surveillance and employee engagement cordella and cordella (2017) found that a safe and efficient working environment is mainly attained when an organisation pays close attention to employee activities during working hours. however, it is unfortunate that in most cases such workplace surveillance measures are installed without employee input, and this negatively affects employee engagement (rosenblat et al., 2014). a study by bakar (2013) amongst the malaysian financial sector was conducted to ascertain the factors that negatively impact employee engagement and satisfaction in the workplace. this study found that employees do not like working under a context of surveillance, noting that it makes them feel untrusted. research has also found that employees do not like workplace surveillance measures because they make them feel that their rights are being infringed upon, ultimately leading to disengagement from work (moussa, 2015). workplace trust is negatively affected in an organisation that uses workplace surveillance and in most cases organisational success suffers from a disengaged workforce (rosenblatt et al., 2014). the impact of workplace surveillance on employee engagement has not yet been researched in zimbabwe. based on the mentioned literature, it can be expected that employee engagement and workplace surveillance negatively relate. the following hypothesis was formulated: h2: there is a negative relationship between employee engagement and workplace surveillance. employee motivation, employee engagement and workplace surveillance technology advancements have brought an increase in the use of workplace surveillance in the last two decades, removing such surveillance duties from the supervisors who used to observe and record employee actions manually (mayer, viviers, & tonelli, 2017). technological advancement has made it easy for organisations to observe and survey employee actions every second while they are working without physically observing them. technology is useful in gathering information that is necessary for performance evaluation, data analysis and decision-making; most employees understand this function of surveillance and such surveillance makes them feel motivated (gawke, marjan, gorgievski, & bakker, 2017). research by rosenblat et al. (2014) in the united states (us) found that data and word processing jobs are amongst the jobs that are heavily subjected to surveillance in many organisations. the authors also found that such surveillance had no impact on employee engagement and motivation in organisations that invested in employee cognitive engagement. a study to ascertain the impact of employee engagement and employee motivation on organisational performance found that employees are not motivated when they are working under surveillance and that it negatively affected their performance and that of the organisation (shahzadi, javed, pirzada, nasreen, & khanam, 2014). the study also found a positive relationship between employee motivation and employee engagement. according to lopez-valeiras, gomez-conde and lunkes (2017), such a finding points to the fact that employee motivation positively moderates the relationship that exists between workplace surveillance and employee engagement. the authors added that this shows that employee motivation positively impacts on employee engagement and ultimately the performance of the organisation, regardless of the presence of workplace surveillance. however, workplace surveillance negatively relates to employee motivation (desprochers & roussos, 2001). according to fuchs (2013), capitalists who want to ensure that employees waste no working time mostly use workplace surveillance. the study also concluded that such surveillance employed with a capitalist mentality negatively impacts on employees and usually leads to high rates of absenteeism, demotivation, low morale, high labour turnover and employee disengagement. fuchs (2013) highlights that there is heavy use of workplace surveillance in the capitalist economy when compared to other economic systems. a study by steinfeld (2017) concluded that investment by management in employee motivation gives positive results in organisational performance, and the use of workplace surveillance without proper management can negatively affect employee motivation and engagement. tomczak et al. (2018) note a trend within the literature (e.g. patsakis, charemis, papageorgiou, mermigas, & pirounias, 2018; tsakanikas & dagiuklas, 2017; ryan, 2017) indicating that a negative relationship exists between employee motivation and workplace surveillance. this often results in employees devising ways to circumvent the surveillance mechanisms in search of privacy and rights (yerby, 2013). further, concern is given to how such workplace surveillance measures also impact on employee morale and ultimately the industrial relations climate in the organisation (mayer et al., 2017). based on all of this, it can be expected that employee motivation moderates the relationship that exists between employee engagement and workplace surveillance. the following hypothesis was formulated: h3: employee motivation positively moderates the relationship between employee engagement and workplace surveillance. figure 1 depicts a model of the relationship between employee motivation, employee engagement and workplace surveillance. figure 1: a model of the relationship between employee motivation, employee engagement and workplace surveillance. research design research approach the study utilised a survey research design and was guided by the positivist research paradigm, which is quantitative and descriptive in nature. the validation of constructed theories was done using this paradigm; such analysis and validation would have been difficult with a qualitative approach. moreover, this paradigm was adopted because it enables production of information and data that is replicable over a long period of time. research participants the total population of the study was derived from staff and managers who were based at zimbabwe’s 10 main border posts, managed by zimra, whose overall population size was 4000. yamani’s (1964) formula was used to calculate the ideal sample size because it assists in attaining high accuracy, and a total of 364 responses were given by the formula. sampling approach the selection of zimra for the study was done on purpose because it manages the entry and exit points in zimbabwe, where slow turnaround time concerns were raised. because there are 10 border posts across the country, a census approach was employed to curb bias tendencies while ensuring representativeness. to make sure that the sample size was proportionate to the total population size, stratified random sampling was employed in determining the number of respondents per border post. pilot study, validity and reliability of the study instrument the study complied with content, construct and face validity. the reliability of the research instrument was measured using the cronbach’s alpha coefficient. stratified randoms sampling was used in identifying respondents for the pilot study. a number of authors (e.g. hertzog, 2008; lackey & wingate, 1998; nieswiadomy, 2002) recommended that a pilot study must be conducted using 10% of the total population that is poised to participate in the research, and this resulted in 36 respondents out of a total population sample of 364 being used. measuring instrument the research instrument that was used in data collection is the structured questionnaire, and example items for each research construct together with the original references per construct are given in table 1. table 1 depicts the measuring instrument used by this study. the previous research literature guided this study in formulating its research instrument. the research instrument had a total of 82 structured questions on a seven-point likert scale. table 1: reliability statistics of the research instrument. data collection and analysis procedure the respondents were advised not to include their personal details on the questionnaire for anonymity purposes. the objectives and consent form were detailed in a letter that accompanied the questionnaire via surveymonkey. to ascertain if respondents would face any difficulties in responding to the questionnaire, the questionnaire was subjected to a pilot study. stratified random sampling was adopted in identifying pilot study respondents and a total of 26 participated in the pilot study, distributed across all main border posts. the main research data collection was done using surveymonkey while the analysis of the conceptual framework and confirmatory factor analysis was done using structural equation modelling (sem). data analysis was also performed using the analysis of moment structure software. ethical considerations prior to data collection, the researcher sought ethical clearance through the university of fort hare research ethics committee (clearance number – chi221stsv01). the researcher applied for research permission from zimra management. results this section presents the study results. reliability tests the internal consistencies of reliability for employee motivation, employee engagement and workplace surveillance was measured in the study. according to cronbach (1951), research must accept all the cronbach’s alpha values above 0.7, while the most preferred values are those above 0.8. the reliability test for the research variables are presented in table 2. table 2: cronbach’s alpha. the data gathered and analysed gave the following cronbach’s alpha values for the research constructs under the study: employee motivation had 0.913, employee engagement had 0.768 and workplace surveillance had 0.765. these values give an overall cronbach’s alpha coefficient value of 0.778, depicting a good internal consistency of the questionnaire items for the three constructs. this shows that of the 80 statements listed for the three research constructs, there were none deleted. descriptive statistics the descriptive statistics denoting work experience, level of education, age, respondent’s position and gender are listed in table 3. table 3: demographic descriptive statistics. kaiser–meyer–olkin and bartlett’s test the bartlett’s test of sphericity value must be statistically significant at p < 0.05 with a kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) value of 0.6 or above to be considered suitable for factor analysis (pallant 2007). data suitability for factor analysis is indicated by bartlett’s test of sphericity. unsuitability of data for factor analysis is indicated by a non-significant (p > 0.05) bartlett’s test of sphericity. according to tabachnick and fidell (2007), kmo reports the amount of variance in the data that can be explained by the factors and is a measure of sampling adequacy. table 4 shows the kmo and bartlett’s test values. table 4: kaiser–meyer–olkin and bartlett’s test. table 4 shows the results of the sphericity test. the kmo value was 0.765, which exceeded the recommended value of 0.6. the bartlett’s test of sphericity value was significant (p < 0.05), therefore factor analysis was appropriate to analyse the data. only the first two components recorded eigenvalues above the threshold. confirmatory factor analysis a series of confirmatory factor analyses (cfa) were conducted on the data so as to validate the results of the data analysis. confirmatory factor analysis is used in the advanced states of the research process to test the theory about latent processes or to test specific hypotheses (pallant, 2007; tabachnick & fidell, 2007). chi-square (χ2) test for model fit this is the primary fit index test mostly used in measurement models. if the associated p-value is not significant (p > 0.05), this means there is no significant difference between the sample variance and covariance matrix and the model-implied variance and covariance matrix. table 5 shows the goodness of fit. table 5: goodness of fit. the chi-square test results presented in table 5 imply that the data fit the model well because it is showing a significant statistic (p < 0.05). the hypothesis that the research sought to explore was that employee motivation moderates the relationship between employee engagement and workplace surveillance. table 6 indicates the regression weights for the three variables. table 6: regression weights – employee motivation, surveillance and engagement. the full model showed that employee motivation has a positive significant relationship with employee engagement and a negative relationship with workplace surveillance. a series of cfa were conducted on the data to validate the results of the data analysis. cfa is used in the advanced states of the research process to test the theory about latent processes or to test specific hypotheses usually performed through sem (pallant, 2007; tabachnick & fidell, 2007). discussion the focus of the research was to analyse the moderating effect of employee motivation on the relationship that exists between employee engagement and workplace surveillance amongst employees at zimra. a detailed discussion on the research constructs in this relationship was done taking into consideration previous literature. the study found that employee motivation has a significant positive moderating impact on the relationship that exists between employee engagement and workplace surveillance. the findings of this study relate to previous research literature (gawke et al., 2017; rosenblat et al., 2014; steinfeld, 2017). the reviewed literature concluded that if workplace surveillance is to maintain a positive relationship with employee engagement moderated by employee motivation, there is need for a management approach that embraces employees in making such surveillance decisions. amongst other initiatives, the management approach can encompass consulting employees on all surveillance-related issues as opposed to dictating on such issues. the proffered literature shows that engaging employees when making decisions on workplace surveillance reduces the negative effect of surveillance on employee motivation and engagement. the similarity between the findings of this study and those of the reviewed literature shows that a motivated employee is an engaged employee who works harder for organisational success. the study found that employee engagement negatively relates to workplace surveillance, implying that the presence of workplace surveillance leads to employee disengagement; however, the study does not eliminate other factors that could have contributed to the negative relationship between these variables that were outside the scope of this article. the study also sought to analyse if employee motivation positively relates to employee engagement. the research found that employee motivation and employee engagement positively relate to each other. this result is in agreement with previous literature (devaroa et al., 2017; khan & iqbal, 2013; mafini & dlodlo, 2014; ruck et al., 2017; vilnai-yavetz & levina, 2018). the conclusion that employee motivation and employee engagement management can be done simultaneously is possible because a change in one variable positively affects the other. the study also aimed to examine if workplace surveillance negatively relates to employee motivation. the study found that a positive relationship exists between employee motivation and workplace surveillance. scarce literature supports this finding or the additional finding that when employees become aware that they are working under surveillance they derive motivation from that (desprochers & roussos, 2001). these authors went on to add that employees derive motivation from knowing that surveillance provides an objective source of work performance, which is important in performance evaluation and rewards. however, much of the literature found a negative relationship between these two variables (bakar, 2013; cordella & cordella, 2017; manzoor, 2012; mohamed & maimunah, 2015; moussa, 2015; potoski & calley, 2018), noting that employees hate working under surveillance. issues of worker’s rights and workplace trust are some of the key issues raised as the reason why employees are demotivated by workplace surveillance. practical implications of the study the study contributes to the existing body of knowledge regarding the moderating effect of employee motivation on the relationship between employee motivation and workplace surveillance. considering the heavy presence of workplace surveillance, zimra needs to invest in employee motivation because the study found that it is effective in moderating the relationship that exists between employee engagement and workplace surveillance. this result shows that management of employee motivation and employee engagement can be done at the same time, because a change in one variable positively affects the other. the results support the view that an engaged employee is a motivated employee, implying that zimra management can simply invest much in one variable and the other variable will be positively affected. the research findings show that there is a need for zimra to synchronise employee needs at work and the technology processes, to avoid a clash to the detriment of organisational interests. employee buy-in is important in implementing workplace surveillance solutions to avoid a sabotage of the system by employees. zimra needs to ensure that it does not frustrate its employees because of intensive use of workplace surveillance, considering that zimbabwe’s labour turnover is 19% as noted by sibanda (2016). limitations and recommendation for future study the research had notable limitations that need to be highlighted so that there is caution in applying these findings to the entire population in zimra. the first limitation is that the study used only permanent employees of zimra, who work at the border posts only. this excludes all other employees in many towns and urban areas, regardless of the fact that they work closely with zimra border posts. because of this limitation, there is a need to apply caution in generalising these findings to the entire population in zimra. in addition, data was collected using the surveymonkey method, and many organisations restrict surveymonkey messages from getting through to their corporate e-mail servers for security reasons. in addition, some targeted respondents did not have access to computers and the internet, and this affected the research’s response rate. because of this, there must be caution in adopting this data collection method and generalising the result. workplace surveillance is a new concept in zimbabwe and the concept has not received much research attention. this research focused on how employee motivation moderates the relationship between employee engagement and workplace surveillance. similar research in zimbabwe amongst other parastatals with a bigger sample size is an area worth researching to authenticate and/or verify the unique results that this study found, which went against vast amounts of literature. other variables interfere with how employee motivation moderates the relationship between employee engagement and workplace surveillance; however, this study did not look at those variables. these variables include but are not limited to remuneration, organisational culture and employee personality (lemon & palenchar, 2018; potoski & calley, 2018; sibanda, 2016). future research to ascertain how these variables moderate the relationship between the research constructs is critical. conclusion the study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on the moderating effect of employee motivation on the relationship between employee engagement and workplace surveillance. the findings of the study depict that employee motivation has a positive significance on the relationship between employee engagement and workplace surveillance. there is a need for zimra to involve employees in decisions that involve workplace surveillance to address employee engagement and employee motivation. there is a need for zimra to invest in employee motivation through involving them in decisions that affect their work. acknowledgements the authors acknowledge the support of all the respondents for taking part in the study. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions f.t. collected and analysed the data. he was responsible for writing the first two drafts of this article. w.t.c. supervised f.t. for his doctoral studies. he also oversaw the data analysis and writing of the article. references akafo, v., & boateng, p. a. (2015). impact of reward and recognition on job satisfaction and motivation. european journal of business and management, 7(24), 112–123. allen, m. (2014). employee engagement. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. allen, m. w., walker, l. k., coopman, s. j., & hart, j. l (2007). workplace surveillance and managing privacy boundaries. management communication quarterly, 21(2), 172–200. https://doi.org/10.1177/0893318907306033 bakar, r. b. (2013). understanding factors influencing employee engagement: a study of the financial sector in malaysia. doctoral dissertation. school of management business portfolio: rmit university. chang, j., & teng, c. (2017). intrinsic or extrinsic motivations for hospitality employees’ creativity: the moderating role of organisation-level regulatory focus. international journal of hospitality management, 60(7), 133–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2016.10.003 cordella, a., & cordella, t. (2017). motivations, monitoring technologies, and pay for performance. journal of economic behavior & organization, 133(7), 236–255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2016.10.016 cronbach, l. j., (1951). coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. psychometrika, 16(3), 297–334. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02310555 desprochers, s., & roussos, a. (2001). the jurisprudence of surveillance: a critical look at the laws of intimacy. working paper. lex electronica, 6(2), 23–43. devaroa, j., nan maxwell, n., & morita, h. (2017). training and intrinsic motivation in non-profit and for-profit organisations. journal of economic behavior &organization, 139(20), 196–213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2017.04.005 fuchs, c. (2013). political economy and surveillance theory. uppsala, sweden: uppsala university. gawke, j. c., marjan, j., gorgievski, m. j., & bakker, a. b. (2017). employee entrepreneurship and work engagement: a latent change score approach. journal of vocational behavior, 10(20), 88–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2017.03.002 hertzog, m. a. (2008). considerations in determining sample size for pilot studies. nursing and health journal, 1(31), 180–191. huni, s. (2016, january 03). border posts crackdown. ministerial team set up to curb smuggling. the sunday news, p. 8. kahn, w. a., (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 33(4), 692–724. khan, w., & iqbal, y. (2013). an investigation of the relationship between work motivation (intrinsic & extrinsic) and employee engagement. masters dissertation. umea school of business: umea university. lackey, n. r., & wingate, a. l. (1998). the pilot study: one key to research success. thousand oaks, ca: sage. lemon, l. l., & palenchar, m. j. (2018). public relations and zones of engagement: employees’ lived experiences and the fundamental nature of employee engagement. public relations review, 2(3), 61–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2018.01.002 lopez-valeiras, e., gomez-conde, j., & lunkes, r. j. (2017). employee reactions to the use of management control systems in hospitals: motivation vs threat. business horizons journal, 12(9), 221–229. maduka, c. e., & okafor, o. (2014). effect of motivation on employee productivity: a study of manufacturing companies in nnewi. international journal of managerial studies and research, 2(7), 137–147. mafini, c. (2015). predicting organisational performance through innovation, quality and inter-organisational systems: a public sector perspective. the journal of applied business research, 31(3), 939–952. https://doi.org/10.19030/jabr.v31i3.9227 mafini, c., & dlodlo, n. (2014). the relationship between extrinsic motivation, job satisfaction and life satisfaction amongst employees in a public organisation. south african journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1166 mafini, c., surujlal, j., & dhurup, m. (2013). the relationship between job satisfaction and job loyalty among municipal sports officers. african journal for physical, health education, recreation and dance, 19(1), 12–29. manzoor, q. (2012). impact of employees motivation on organizational effectiveness. european journal of business and management, 3(3), 36–44. mayer, c. h., viviers, r., & tonelli, l. (2017). ‘the fact that she just looked at me…’ narrations on shame in south african workplaces. south african journal of industrial psychology, 43(5), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v43i0.1385 mohamed, s. a., & maimunah, a. (2015). the influence of perceived organizational support on employees’ job performance. international journal of scientific and research publications, 5(4), 1–6. moussa, m. (2015). monitoring employee behavior through the use of technology and issues of employee privacy in america. sage open, april–june, 1–13. muleya, t. (2014, july 17). npa has potential to ease border challenges, features, opinion and analysis. the herald, p. 5. mundia, v. (2014). anti-corruption strategies of the zimbabwe revenue authority (zimra) customs department at beitbridge border post: a case-based analysis. unpublished master’s thesis, faculty of management science, stellenbosch university, south africa. murongazvombo, p. k. (2015). talent retention strategies in a competitive ict industry: case of twenty third century systems global (zimbabwe). unpublished master’s thesis, graduate school of business, bindura university of science education, zimbabwe. ncube, n. (2016, april 17). zimra intensifies fight against smuggling. the sunday news, p. 7. nieswiadomy, r. m. (2002). foundations of nursing research. london: sage. pallant, j. (2007). spss survival manual (3rd edn.), crows west, nsw: open university press. patsakis, c., charemis, a., papageorgiou, a., mermigas, d., & pirounias, s. (2018). the market’s response toward privacy and mass surveillance: the snowden aftermath. computers and security journal, 73(6), 194–206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2017.11.002 potoski, m., & calley, p. j. (2018). peer communication improves environmental employee engagement programs: evidence from quasi-experimental field. journal of cleaner production, 172(9), 1486–1500. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.10.252 rietzschel, e. f., slijkhuis, m., & van yperen, n. w. (2014). close monitoring as a contextual stimulator: how need for structure affects the relation between close monitoring and work outcomes. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 23(3), 394–404. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2012.752897 rosenblat, a., kneese, t., & danah, b. (2014). workplace surveillance data & society. thousand oaks, ca: sage. ruck, k., welch, m., & menara, b. (2017). employee voice: an antecedent to organisational engagement? public relations review, 43(2), 904–914. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2017.04.008 ryan, j. c. (2017). reflections on the conceptualization and operationalization of a set-theoretic approach to employee motivation and performance research. journal of innovation and knowledge, 2(6), 45–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2016.12.001 saltson, e., & nsiah, s. (2015). the mediating and moderating effect of motivation in the relationship between perceived organisational support and employee job performance. international journal of economics, commerce and management, 3(7), 654–667. samaranayake, v., & gamage, c. (2012). a managerial incentive for workplace electronic surveillance. iadis international journal on computer science and information systems, 7(2), 87–100. sarwar, s., & abugre, j. (2013). the influence of rewards and job satisfaction on employees in the service industry. the business & management review, 3(2), 22–32. shaheen, a., & farooqi, y. a. (2014). relationship among employee motivation, employee commitment, job involvement, employee engagement: a case study of university of gujrat, pakistan. international journal of multidisciplinary sciences and engineering, 5(9), 41–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2016.11.013 shahzadi, i., javed, a., pirzada, s. s., nasreen, s., & khanam, f. (2014). impact of employee motivation on employee performance. european journal of business and management, 6(23), 159–166. sibanda, f. (2016). leveraging on training to enhance employee performance: a case of zimbabwe revenue authority. unpublished master’s thesis, faculty of social sciences, midlands state university, zimbabwe. sibanda, p., muchena, t., & ncube, f. (2014). employee engagement and organisational performance in public sector organisations in zimbabwe. international journal of asian social science, 4(1), 89–99. steinfeld, n. (2017). track me, track me not: support and consent to state and private sector surveillance. telematics and informatics journal, 34(8), 1663–1672. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2017.07.012 tabachnick, b. g., & fidell, l. s. (2007). using multivariate statistics. belmont, ca: wadsworth. the parliament of zimbabwe. (2017). employee engagement survey. harare: government printers. the world bank. (2017). the world bank’s lending program in zimbabwe. new york: world bank and ifc. tomczak, d. l., lanzo, l. a., & aguinis, h. (2018). evidence-based recommendations for employee performance monitoring, business horizons journal, 33(7), 1–9. townsm, d. m., & cobb, l. m. (2012). notes on: gps technology; employee monitoring enters a new era. labor law journal, 63(6), 203–208. tsakanikas, v., & dagiuklas, t. (2017). video surveillance systems: current status and future trends. computers and electrical engineering journal, 22(1), 1–18. vilnai-yavetz, i., & levina, o. (2018). motivating social sharing of e-business content: intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, or crowding-out effect? journal of computers in human behavior, 79(5), 181–191. vinga, a. (2017, june 01). lifestyle audits unsettle zimra workers. the financial gazette, p. 5. yamani, y. (1964). statistics, an introduction analysis. new york: harpen and row publishing limited. yamoah, e. e. (2014). monitoring employee performance at the workplace. developing country studies. albany, ny: state of new york university press. yerby, j. (2013). legal and ethical issues of employee monitoring. online journal of applied knowledge management, 1(2), 44–55. zachary, m. k. (2013). invasion of privacy: the moment of intrusion. supervision, 74(4), 18–22. zameer, h., ali, s., nisar, w., & amir, m. (2014). the impact of the motivation on the employee’s performance in beverage industry of pakistan, international journal of academic research in accounting, finance and management sciences, 4(1), 293–298. zimra. (2016). revenue performance report for the year ending 31 december 2015. harare: zimra. zuboff, s. (2015). big other: surveillance capitalism and the prospects of an information civilization. journal of information technology, 30(3), 75–89. https://doi.org/10.1057/jit.2015.5 abstract introduction research design results discussion acknowledgements references appendix 1 about the author(s) renier steyn department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa gideon de bruin department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa citation steyn, r., & de bruin, g. (2018). investigating the validity of the human resource practices scale in south africa: measurement invariance across gender. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a1038. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.1038 original research investigating the validity of the human resource practices scale in south africa: measurement invariance across gender renier steyn, gideon de bruin received: 26 jan. 2018; accepted: 16 aug. 2018; published: 18 oct. 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the effective delivery of human resource management (hrm) services is often associated with positive organisational outcomes, including innovation. within the context of hrm service delivery, as well as within the scope of innovative behaviour, gender differences are often researched. research purpose: to effectively research the role of hrm services in organisations, including the effects thereof on innovation, instruments that yield valid and invariant measures for men and women are required. motivation for the study: to date no measurement invariance research on the human resource practices scale (hrps), with reference to gender, could be located. researchers and practitioners alike should be hesitant to use the hrps without such information. research approach/design and method: a cross-sectional quantitative survey design was used. the present study addressed the measurement invariance for the hrps across men and women, applying pairwise multigroup confirmatory factor analyses with robust maximum likelihood estimation to examine four levels of measurement invariance across the groups. data from 2936 employees, representing 52 south african organisations, were used. main findings: results support the construct validity of the hrps and demonstrate strict measurement invariance for the hrps across gender, which implies that the hrps yields scores with equivalent meaning, measurement units and measurement precision for men and women. practical/managerial implications: it will therefore be possible to test hypotheses regarding mean differences between men and women as well the relationship between the effective delivery of hrm services and positive organisational outcomes without fear that the hrps will yield gender-biased results. contribution/value-add: the research demonstrates that the items of the hrps are valid for both men and women, suggesting that men and women have similar experience of the workplace. this finding should advance debate and research regarding the segregated delivery of hrm services and gender matters in general. introduction gender (used in this text to refer to men and women) is a prominent variable within the workplace and life in general. several journals are dedicated to the topic (see gender, work, and organisations [wiley], gender in management: an international journal [emerald publishing], as well as the international journal of gender and entrepreneurship [emerald insight]). in some articles published in these journals the perceptions of men and women are compared, or measures of perceptions are used in models to test hypotheses related to gender differences (eagly, 1997; eagly & wood, 1999), often reporting differential outcomes based on gender. at a societal level, the constitution of the republic of south africa (act 106 of 1996), and particularly the bill of rights, and at a workplace level, the employment equity act (act 55 of 1998), promote equity, equal opportunity and fair treatment, specifically including gender as a source of unfair discrimination. though constituted, gender bias remains a source of tension at many work sites (koch, d’mello, & sackett, 2015) and it is often suggested that discrimination is directed against women (eagly & karau, 2002; ismail & nakkache, 2015). according to stamarski and son hing (2015), discrimination transpires in organisational structures and processes, which in turn affects human resource management (hrm) practices. hrm practices are those practices traditionally associated with hrm functions, ranging from job design to service termination (albrecht, bakker, gruman, macey, & saks, 2015). within this context, some authors report that gender discrimination exists widely, regardless of gender equality policies (patterson, bae, & lim, 2013). the persistence of gender inequality makes it therefore important to see gender inequality in organisations as a complex phenomenon (stamarski & son hing, 2015) – one that requires sophisticated models if it is to be explained (lips, 2013). lee cooke and xiao (2014) also express their concern and state that observed gender differences have serious repercussions for hrm practices, affecting job design, work organisation, career support, as well as work–life balance enterprises. despite the aforementioned concerns, dickens (1998) states that most writing and research on hrm does not make gender noticeable (except when the primary submission concerns women at work or equal opportunities) and that writing and research on the nature and perceptions regarding hrm practices tend to be gender-blind. in such writings employees are usually presented as disembodied. as acker (1992, p. 259) notes, the ‘fiction of the universal worker obscures the gendered effects of ostensibly gender-neutral processes and helps banish gender from theorising about the fundamental character of complex organisations’. dickens (1998) concludes that assuming equality across genders in the hrm domain forms part of grandiloquence rather than the reality and states that apparently gender-neutral hrm concepts and policies are in reality gendered and perpetuate, rather than contest, gender inequality. focusing on human capital models, lips (2013) states that there is a continuing debate in which various explanatory variables are used to explain the gender differences in workplace outcomes, arguing that many of the differences are the result not of discrimination but of other factors such as the different contributions men and women make in the workplace. most significant for this research is lips’s (2013) questioning of the utility or validity of many of the human capital ‘explanatory’ variables, stating that they (the explanatory variables) beg explanation themselves. purpose this research aims to analyse the validity of a measurement of hrm practices across men and women, testing if respondents interpret the measure in a conceptually similar manner. stated more operationally, the research aims to test whether the relationships between manifest indicator variables (scale items, subscales) and the underlying construct are the same across groups (bialosiewicz, murphy, & berry, 2013). the focus on measurement is important, as the employment equity act (act 55 of 1998) prohibits the use of instruments that have not been scientifically tested to demonstrate that they can be applied fairly to all employees and are not biased to any group. the focus on hrm practices is also important, as it is a major antecedent of organisational culture and knowledge management practices, leading to organisational innovation that is positively related to organisational performance (al-bahussin & el-garaihy, 2013). furthermore, this research has been prompted by the work of ismail and nakkache (2015), who explored gender differences in the experiences of hrm policies and whose results disaffirm the stereotypical pro-men conceptualisations. literature review two matters are reviewed. firstly, the contention that hrm practices constitute an antecedent to organisational outcomes is considered, and secondly the focus will be on ways in which hrm practices are measured. this review grounds the present research within the context of the present body of knowledge. hrm practices can positively influence employees’ attitudes and lift workplace performance, which will most likely affect organisational outcomes (kehoe & wright, 2013; messersmith, patel, lepak, & williams, 2011). research has highlighted the role of effective hrm practices in organisational effectiveness (combs, liu, hall, & ketchen, 2006; melton & meier, 2017; van esch, wei, & chiang, 2016). brewster, gooderham and mayrhofer (2016) state that the bulk of hrm research focuses on strategic hrm, implying an emphasis on the impact of hrm on organisational performance. it is therefore not surprising that the chartered institute of personnel and development (2016) encourages debate on how hrm can amplify its contribution toward organisational performance or that ulrich (2013, p. 16) urges executives to ‘see their human resource practices as a source of competitive advantage’ and a deliverer of results. the outcomes associated with effective hrm practices are not limited to organisational performance as a singular concept. links have also been found with flow (kasa & hassan, 2013), employee engagement (albrecht et al., 2015), employee satisfaction (prayogo, pranoto, & purba, 2017), organisational commitment (chambel, castanheira, & sobral, 2016) and retention (denkins, 2013), to mention only a few. increasingly, researchers have focused on the vital association between hrm and corporate entrepreneurship (dabic, ortiz-de-urbina-criado, & romero-martínez 2011; schmelter, mauer, börsch, & brettel, 2010; zhang & jia, 2010). the hrm–corporate entrepreneurship link has been established using both qualitative methodologies (amberg & mcgaughey, 2016; denkins, 2013; llego, 2015) and quantitative methodologies (ahmed, 2016; boadau & gil-ripoll, 2009; mustafa, richards, & ramos, 2013). when considering quantitative methodologies, the measurement of constructs is important. focusing specifically on the measurement of high-performance or effective hrm practices, some authors develop their own measures (e.g. madmoli, 2016; zhang & jia, 2010; ziyae, 2016) while others prefer to use standardised measures, such as the one developed by sun, aryee and law (2007; e.g. ahmed, 2016; mustafa, lundmark, & ramos, 2016; zhu, warner, & rowley, 2007) or gould-williams and davies (2005; e.g. alfes, shantz, & truss, 2012; boekhorst, singh, & frawley, 2015; jensen, patel, & messersmith, 2011). in this research, the focus will be on the human resource practices scale (hrps) (nyawose, 2009; steyn, 2012), a measure of effective hrm practices previously successfully used in the south african workplace, displaying acceptable reliability and validity properties (steyn, bezuidenhout, & grobler, 2017; steyn & grobler, 2014). some researchers prefer to present measurement of high-performance or effective hrm practices as a single construct (e.g. makongoso, gichira, & orwa, 2015; tang, wei, snape, & ng, 2015; zhang & jia, 2010), and this is how becker, huselid and becker (1998) present it in their seminal paper. others, however, perceive it as a multidimensional construct. in this regard, sun et al. (2007) list broad job design, selective staffing, internal mobility, employment security, extensive training, results-oriented appraisal and rewards, as well as employee participation, as elements of the construct. boadau and gil-ripoll’s (2009) instrument assesses elements named values and culture, job, internal communication, training, appraisal of diligence and performance, recruitment and selection, pay, induction and exit processes, workforce planning, climate and motivation, teamwork, change, leadership, industrial relations and career plan. as a last example, madmoli (2016) lists the following as elements to be assessed when one is interested in effective hrm: selection, training, job evaluation, rewarding, employees’ participation in current affairs, hiring competent experts, as well as the tendency of managers to share implicit and explicit knowledge among themselves. the hrps (nyawose, 2009; steyn, 2012) (the instrument used in this research) assesses seven hrm practices, namely training and development, compensation and rewards, performance management, supervisor support, staffing, diversity management, as well as internal communication. it may be important to note that the evaluation of hrm practices depends on the degree to which employees experience hrm practices as effective (kehoe & wright, 2013). building on this, and seeing the matter in the context created in the second and third paragraphs of this literature review, this research aims to analyse the extent to which men and women perceive concepts, as presented in the hrps instrument (nyawose, 2009; steyn, 2012), equivalently. the focus on measurement invariance stems from the comparisons often drawn between men and women, something that also happens in entrepreneurship research (haus, steinmetz, isidor, & kabst, 2013; henry, foss, & ahl, 2016; lim & envick, 2013) and when researching the hrm practices that act as antecedents to entrepreneurship (amberg & mcgaughey, 2016; dabic et al., 2011; mustafa et al., 2013). to the present no research on the invariance across gender of the hrps has been published, and this matter is thus unresolved. this research did not attempt to explain differences between men and women through identifying the most potent explanatory variables. rather, it focused on the validity of the explanatory variables themselves, as lips (2013) urges researchers to do. when asking questions regarding invariance, it takes into account whether differences in scores are real and whether the functioning of the measuring instruments is indeed equivalent for men and women. in some cases, instruments have indeed been found to function differently for males and females (pässler, beinicke, & hell, 2014; wetzel, böhnke, carstensen, ziegler, & ostendorf, 2013), while in other cases no such differentiation was noted (baker, caison, & meade, 2007; wei, chesnut, barnard-brak, stevens, & olivárez jr, 2014). within the context of hrm practices, some research has been conducted regarding the differential functioning of measures of individual hr practices across men and women (matthews & ritter, 2016; ployhart & holtz, 2008; xu, wubbena, & stewart, 2016), but no research could be located on measurement invariance in hrm practices scales that focus on multiple practices, nor on the hrps. ignoring the possibility of deferential functioning has the potential to compromise any substantive gender-based comparisons resulting from the measurement (salzberger, newton, & ewing, 2014). more so, the national institute of education and american psychological association standards lists differential validity and differential prediction as a major concern of test fairness (pässler et al., 2014). only once construct comparability (measurement invariance) is demonstrated does it become possible to interpret differences in test or scale scores as true representations of differences explained by group membership (wu, li, & zumbo, 2007). the aforementioned is in line with the requirements of the south african employment equity act (act 55 of 1998), which takes a strong stance against the adverse impact of psychometric testing. research design this study examines the hrps structure across 1652 men and 1284 women employees of 52 companies in south africa. full data were available across all of the companies concerned. all applicants completed the hrps in english (which is the lingua franca of high school and post-school education, as well as of business, in south africa). the objectives of the study were (1) to examine if the hrps structure could be replicated across gender groups, (2) to examine the level of measurement invariance attained across the groups and (3) to report on the psychometric properties of the hrps when used in south african organisations. the matter of measurement invariance is central to this research and to this article. measurement invariance relates to an observed score being reflective of an individual’s standing on a construct, independent of his or her group membership (mellenbergh, 1989; meredith, 1993; meredith & millsap, 1992; wu et al., 2007). within the context of factor analysis, measurement invariance means that the same latent variables are measured across groups, allowing for cross-group factor scores to be comparable (meredith, 1993; wu et al., 2007). typically four levels of measurement invariance are tested: (1) configural invariance, which tests if groups (men and women) have similar factor loading patterns; (2) weak invariance, testing for equality in unstandardised factor loadings; (3) strong invariance, testing for equal unstandardised factor loadings and intercepts (of the item regressions); and (4) strict invariance, testing for equal unstandardised factor loadings, intercepts and error variances (vandenberg & lance, 2000). as a final step, equivalence of the latent means of men and women on the seven factors was tested. multigroup confirmatory factor analysis is the de facto standard (chen, 2008) for use in investigating measurement invariance. method population and sampling the target population consisted of employees, at different levels of responsibility, who are exposed to various hrm practices. organisations with more than 50 employees were targeted as it was presumed that the hrm services would be formalised in these organisations and that a broad range of services would be available. measurement instrument the hrps (nyawose, 2009; steyn, 2012) was used to measure employees’ satisfaction with the hrm services delivered to them. the items were developed on a rational basis by examining the literature on hrm (nyawose, 2009). seven hrm practices were measured in this study, and the questionnaire consisted of 21 items. the hrps has a hierarchical structure, with each of the seven factors consisting of three items (see appendix 1). participants responded to the items on a five-point likert scale, ranging from ‘disagree strongly’ (1) to ‘agree strongly’ (5). for each of the seven hrm practices, the scores ranged from 3 to 15. a high score would be reflective of an individual who perceived the hrm practice as effective, whereas a low score would reflect that the participant was dissatisfied with the particular hrm practice. nyawose (2009) reported internal consistency reliabilities varying from 0.74 to 0.93. nyawose also reported statistically significant correlations with outcomes such as turnover intentions and occupational commitment. steyn (2012), only using five of the hrps scales, reported cronbach’s alphas of 0.88 for training and development, 0.87 for compensation and rewards, 0.81 for performance management, 0.74 for staffing and 0.75 for diversity management. steyn (2012) also reported significant correlations with turnover intentions and occupational commitment, and additionally with job satisfaction and employee engagement. overall, these results support the reliability and validity of the hrps for research use. participants the participants were 2936 employees (44.7% women), representing several public and private organisations based in south africa. the distribution of participants with respect to race and ethnicity was approximately as follows: 8% asian, 58% black people, 8% mixed ethnicity and 24% white people. the participants’ ages ranged between 20 and 72 years, with a mean of 37.8 years and with a standard deviation of 9.1. participants’ tenure at their present companies ranged from 1 month to 42 years, with an average of just more than 9 years and a standard deviation of 7.5 years. analysis the data were initially scanned for normality, after which measurement invariance was tested for. following the recommendations of vandenberg and lance (2000), pairwise multigroup confirmatory factor analyses (wu et al., 2007) with robust maximum likelihood estimation were used to examine configural, weak, strong and strict invariance across men and women, and as a final step equivalence of the latent means of men and women on the seven factors was tested. the analysis only focused on measurement differences between self-identified men and women. this divide (mainly) represents the biological sex and more traditional gender role identification prevalent in the south african society. it is acknowledged that in the present era gender identification is more fluid and that identification as a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (lgbt) individual may have more negative consequences (badgett, lau, sears, & ho, 2007; grant, mottet, tanis, harrison, herman, & keisling, 2011) than being labelled as a man or a woman. granting this, the present custom in south africa is to identify as a man or a woman in most formal organisational settings, and this custom was therefore followed in this study. the analyses were performed with the lavaan package (rosseel, 2012) in r (r core team, 2013). maximum likelihood chi-square (mlχ2), comparative fit index (cfi), root-mean-square error of approximation (rmsea) and bayesian information criterion (bic) were used to evaluate model fit across successively stringent levels of measurement invariance. findings are as follow: although highly desirable, it was expected that the hypotheses of perfect fit for the measurement models would be rejected, given that the χ2 statistic is very sensitive to sample size (in this case more than 3000) and is no longer relied upon as a basis for acceptance or rejection of a model fit (schermelleh-engel, moosbrugger, & müller, 2003; vandenberg 2006). however, a statistically significant difference in χ2 between a less constrained and a more constrained model was deemed as evident of a deteriorating model fit. a cfi > 0.95 is used as indicative of a good model fit (vandenberg & lance, 2000). when comparing models, vandenberg and lance (2000, p. 46) note that ‘changes in cfi of -0.01 or less indicate that the invariance hypothesis should not be rejected, but when the differences lie between -0.01 and -0.02, the researcher should be suspicious that differences exist. definite differences between models exist when the change in cfi is greater than -0.02’. vandenberg and lance (2000) suggest that a rmsea < 0.08 is acceptable. rmsea < 0.08 was used as indicative of overall fit. as no critical values for the change of rmsea could be located, the same principles as for ∆cfi were followed, where consecutive model fits were compared. the bic was used as a measure of comparative fit. models that generate lower bic values are generally preferred, and the absolute value was not interpreted. bic was therefore used to assess model deterioration, which was visible when bic values increase. these parameters were used when interpreting the measurement invariance results. once measurement invariance is established, more descriptive statistics on the hrps will be provided. these will include the factor loadings, descriptive statistics, including reliability information, as well as the correlations between the observed scores as well as the latent factors. last-mentioned will provide insight into the unior multidimensionality of the measurement of hrm practices. ethical consideration permission (2014_sbl_018_ca dated 27 february 2014) to conduct the research was obtained from the research ethics review committee of the graduate school of business leadership at the university of south africa before commencing with sampling. once approval had been obtained, a list of staff members was requested from the organisation’s hrm department. respondents were selected randomly from this list. the selected respondents were invited to a meeting at which the purpose of the research was explained. they were informed as to the nature of their participation, including that participation was completely voluntary. those who agreed to participate then completed a consent form specifying ethical issues, including confirmation regarding the anonymity of participation, confidentiality, the right to withdraw from participation at any time without any explanation or any adverse effects, and the fact that the data would be used for research purposes only. then only did they complete a hard copy of the questionnaire. results preliminary analysis showed that the skewness and kurtosis of the hrps items ranged from -0.08 to -0.97 and -0.99 to 0.79, respectively. none of the items demonstrated excessive deviation from normality and they appeared appropriate for factor analysis with robust maximum likelihood estimation (cf. loehlin & beaujean, 2017; mcdonald & ho, 2002). in each group, a baseline independent cluster confirmatory factor analysis model was specified in accordance with the structure given in appendix 1. the baseline models were identified by fixing the unstandardised factor loading of one item per targeted factor to unity. factor loadings of items on non-target factors were fixed at zero. factor loadings of the remaining items, factor covariances and error variances were freely estimated using robust maximum likelihood. mlχ2, cfi, rmsea and bic were used to evaluate model fit. the results pertaining to bic and χ2 changes are presented in table 1. table 1: chi-square test and change in chi-square statistics. as expected, the hypothesis of perfect fit for the configural invariance model was rejected (χ2(326) = 1341, p < 0.001). however, as evident from table 2, fit to the configural model as measured with cfi (= 0.97) and the rmsea (= 0.045) suggested a good fit. table 2: fit measures and changes in fit measures. tables 1 and 2 encapsulate the changes in fit across successively more stringent measurement invariance models with respect to the bic, cfi and rmsea. for each comparison, very small δcfi and δrmsea values were found (≤ 0.001 for all comparisons – see table 2). the lowest rmsea and bic values were observed for the strict invariance model (i.e. equal loadings, intercepts and error terms), suggesting that this model has the best chance of being successfully replicated in future studies. as a final step, the constraint of equal latent means across men and women was added, producing a statistically non-significant δχ2 (p = 0.998). in addition, the δcfi and δrmsea of ≥ 0.001 and ≥ 0.001, respectively (see table 2), indicated that the latent means of the males and females could be treated as equal. against the background of the support yielded by the δcfi and δrmsea for strict measurement invariance, table 3 shows the standardised factor loadings obtained for the total group (n = 2936). each factor was well defined and each item was a statistically significant (p < 0.001) indicator of its target factor. standardised loadings varied from 0.89 to 0.54. table 3: standardised factor loadings of the human resource practices scale items for men and women jointly. noting that latent means were assessed to be invariant, descriptive statistics on the observed hrps construct scores for men and women and reliability coefficients are presented in table 4. table 4: scale means, standard deviations and reliability coefficients on the human resource practices scale per gender. the range of the cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients of the hrps scales varied from 0.735 and 0.845 for men and 0.710 and 0.853 for women. the reliabilities of the seven scales were uniformly satisfactory and similar across men and women. given the evidence in support of strict measurement invariance these reliabilities can be assumed to be invariant across the groups. as a last step the correlations between the latent constructs as well as the scale scores were calculated and are presented in table 5. table 5: factor and scale correlations of the human resource practices scale. across the groups, medium-sized correlations between factors were observed, which points to some, but not excessive, overlap of the seven factors. this affirms the interrelatedness of the hrm functions (see becker et al., 1998) but shows that each scale measures a distinct aspect of hrm practices. discussion the objectives of the study were (1) to examine if the hrps structure could be replicated across gender groups, (2) to examine the level of measurement invariance attained across men and women and (3) to report on the psychometric properties of the hrps when used in south african organisations. the results of the maximum likelihood χ² suggest that the hypothesis of perfect fit for all the measurement models had to be rejected (see table 1). the cfi and rmsea evidenced that the degree of misfit across the models was relatively small (see table 2). this suggests that the hrps structure could be replicated across gender groups, at a configural or baseline level (objective 1). the δcfi values in table 2 revealed no detectable deteriorations in fit across successively stringent levels of measurement invariance (note that the cfi does not take model complexity into account). the δrmsea values showed improved fit with successively stringent models. indeed, the rmsea and bic, which both take model complexity into account, showed that the strict measurement invariance model yielded the best fit (see table 2). taken together, these results suggest that a measurement model with invariant factor loadings, intercepts and error variances for men and women is the most likely to be replicated across different studies. this also suggests that the highest level of invariance was achieved (objective 2). furthermore, the additional test of latent mean equality was met, which supplements the notion of invariance across men and women. in conducting this research the seldom-answered call for questioning the assumption of measurement invariance (tsaousis & kazi, 2013) was answered. these results are similar to the studies that found invariance when applying the same instrument to men and women (baker at al., 2007; wei et al., 2014; xu et al., 2016), suggesting that males and females are no different when they interpret the items of these instruments. as in the case of many other instruments, the hrps showed high levels of invariance, implying that gender differences in this regard are not significant. the statistics (objective 3) presented in table 4 reflect this equivalence. the research also affirms the multidimensional conceptualisation of hrm practices, as presented by nyawose (2009) and steyn (2012). contrary to the seminal work of becker et al. (1998), and many others (makongoso et al., 2015; tang et al., 2015; zhang & jia, 2010) who perceive hrm functioning as unidimensional, this research demonstrated that the hrm practices are distinct. this is in line with the conceptualisations of boadau and gil-ripoll (2009), madmoli (2016) and sun et al. (2007). as far as measurement is concerned, the multidimensionality of hrm practices affirmed here implies that items need to be assigned to each hrm practice, which requires longer questionnaires than when hrm practices are presented as unidimensional. practical implications this study contributes to addressing limitations in the existing literature and practice through validating the factorial structure of the hrps and its invariance across the gender spectrum. the results empower industrial psychologists in south africa to use the hrps to assess the level at which employees are satisfied with the delivery of hrm services across gender. the hrps is now in compliance with the specifications of the employment equity act (act 55 of 1998), specifying that gender comparisons be scientifically shown to be fair and not biased to either group. doing cross-gender comparisons is to be a matter of interest for practitioners involved in hrm efficiency, as some may be interested in reporting on discrimination related to gendered structures and practices. the distribution of men and women in the sample presents an over-representation of women when considering the demographics of the south african workforce (statistics south africa, 2016). a further limitation is that the elements included in the hrps may not comprehensively describe the entire hrm function. both these matters should be taken into consideration when using the instrument. while the focus of this research was on traditional gender-centred differences, and the possible differential treatment of men and women, it should be noted that discrimination against lgbt individuals is rife and considerable (badgett et al., 2007; grant et al., 2011). the magnitude of the reported discrimination against lgbt individuals as compared to those in more traditional gender roles should promote debate and research on differences in workplace experiences based on gender-related matters. conclusion the results provide ample evidence of measurement invariance of the hrps across gender in the workplace context in south africa and also support the veracity and stability of the elements among job incumbents in south africa. after establishing measurement invariance, it will be appropriate for researchers to proceed with testing substantial hypotheses about the means and interrelations between these latent constructs across groups (hirschfeld & von brachel, 2014). acknowledgements we gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the 2014 master of business leadership class at the graduate school of business leadership at the university of south africa for collecting the data. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions r.s. constructed the research as part of his doctoral degree and therefore wrote the concept paper. g.d.b was the supervisor of the study and assisted in doing the statistical analysis and writing the final manuscript. references acker, j. (1990). hierarchies, jobs, bodies: a theory of gendered organisations. gender and society, 4(2), 139–158. https://doi.org/10.1177/089124390004002002 ahmed, n. o. a. (2016). human resource management practices and corporate entrepreneurship: the mediating role of organizational commitment. international business management, 10(9), 1632–1638. al-bahussin, s. a., & el-garaihy, w. h. (2013). the impact of human resource management practices, organisational culture, organisational innovation and knowledge management on organisational performance in large saudi organisations: structural equation modeling with conceptual framework. international journal of business and management, 8(22), 1. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v8n22p1 albrecht, s. l., bakker, a. b., gruman, j. a., macey, w. h., & saks, a. m. (2015). employee engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: an integrated approach. journal of organizational effectiveness: people and performance, 2(1), 7–35. https://doi.org/10.1108/joepp-08-2014-0042 alfes, k., shantz, a., & truss, c. (2012). the link between perceived hrm practices, performance and well-being: the moderating effect of trust in the employer. human resource management journal, 22(4), 409–427. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12005 amberg, j. j., & mcgaughey, s. l. (2016). strategic human resource management and inertia in the corporate entrepreneurship of a multinational enterprise. the international journal of human resource management, 1–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1192051 badgett, m., lau, h., sears, b., & ho, d. (2007). bias in the workplace: consistent evidence of sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination. ucla: the williams institute retrieved august 23, 2016, from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5h3731xr baker, b., caison, a., & meade, a. (2007). assessing gender-related differential item functioning and predictive validity with the institutional integration scale. educational & psychological measurement, 67(3), 545–559. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164406292088 becker, b. e., huselid, m. a., & becker, b. e. (1998). high performance work systems and firm performance: a synthesis of research and managerial implications. research in personnel and human resource management, 16, 53–102. bialosiewicz, s., murphy, k., & berry, t. (2013). an introduction to measurement invariance testing: resource packet for participants. american evaluation association, 1–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1192051 boadau, j., & gil-ripoll, c. (2009). strategic human resources management as an antecedent to the balanced scorecard. psicología, 25(2), 123–134. boekhorst, j. a., singh, p., & frawley, s. (2015). what happens when hrm practices foster work intensity? exploring the impact on employee outcomes. academy of management proceedings, 1, 18415. https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2015.39 brewster, c., gooderham, p. n., & mayrhofer, w. (2016). human resource management: the promise, the performance, the consequences. journal of organizational effectiveness: people and performance, 3(2), 181–190. chambel, m. j., castanheira, f., & sobral, f. (2016). temporary agency versus permanent workers: a multigroup analysis of human resource management, work engagement and organizational commitment. economic and industrial democracy, 37(4), 665–689. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831x14550695 chen, f. f. (2008). what happens if we compare chopsticks with forks? the impact of making inappropriate invariance. journal of personality and social psychology, 95(5), 1005. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013193 cheung, g. w., & rensvold, r. b. (2002). evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. structural equation modeling, 9(2), 233–255. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328007sem0902_5 chartered institute of personnel and development. (2016). hr outlook: winter 2015–16: leaders’ views of our profession. retrieved from www.cipd.co.uk/binaries/hr-outlook_2016-winter-2015-16-leaders-views-of-our-profession.pdf combs, j., liu, y., hall, a., & ketchen, d. (2006). how much do high-performance work practices matter? a meta-analysis of their effects on organizational performance. personnel psychology, 59(3), 501–528. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2006.00045.x dabic, m., ortiz-de-urbina-criado, m., & romero-martínez, a. m. (2011). human resource management in entrepreneurial firms: a literature review. international journal of manpower, 32(1), 14–33. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437721111121206 denkins, t. w. (2013). the alignment of human resources and organizational culture in magnet hospitals: selection and job fit as an antecedent to retention and performance. doctoral dissertation, capella university, minneapolis, mn. dickens, l. (1998). what hrm means for gender equality. human resource management journal, 8(1), 23–40. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.1998.tb00157.x eagly, a. h. (1997). sex differences in social behavior: comparing social role theory and evolutionary psychology. american psychologist, 52(12), 1380–1383. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.52.12.1380.b eagly, a. h., & karau, s. j. (2002). role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders. psychological review, 109(3), 573–598. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.109.3.573 eagly, a. h., & wood, w. (1999). the origins of sex differences in human behavior: evolved dispositions versus social roles. american psychologist, 54(6), 408–423. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.54.6.408 gould-williams, j., & davies, f. (2005). using social exchange theory to predict the effects of hrm practice on employee outcomes. public management review, 7, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/1471903042000339392 grant, j. m., mottet, l., tanis, j. e., harrison, j., herman, j., & keisling, m. (2011). injustice at every turn: a report of the national transgender discrimination survey. retrieved from http://www.endtransdiscrimination.org/pdfs/ntds_report.pdf haus, i., steinmetz, h., isidor, r., & kabst, r. (2013). gender effects on entrepreneurial intention: a meta-analytical structural equation model. international journal of gender and entrepreneurship, 5(2), 130–156. https://doi.org/10.1108/17566261311328828 henry, c., foss, l., & ahl, h. (2016). gender and entrepreneurship research: a review of methodological approaches. international small business journal, 34(3), 217–241. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266242614549779 hirschfeld, g., & von brachel, r. (2014). improving multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis in r: a tutorial in measurement invariance with continuous and ordinal indicators. practical assessment, research & evaluation, 19(7). retrieved from http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=19&n=7 ismail, h. n., & nakkache, l. (2015). gender differences at work: experiencing human resource management policies in lebanese firms. global business review, 16(6), 907–919. https://doi.org/10.1177/0972150915597592 jensen, j. m., patel, p. c., & messersmith, j. (2011). exploring employee reactions to high performance work systems: is there a potential ‘dark side’? academy of management proceedings, 1, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2011.65869137 kasa, m., & hassan, z. (2013). antecedent and consequences of flow: lessons for developing human resources. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 97, 209–213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.224 kehoe, r. r., & wright, p. m. (2013). the impact of high-performance human resource practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. journal of management, 39(2), 366–391. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310365901 koch, a. j., d’mello, s. d., & sackett, p. r. (2015). a meta-analysis of gender stereotypes and bias in experimental simulations of employment decision making. journal of applied psychology, 100(1), 128. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036734 lee cooke, f., & xiao, y. (2014). gender roles and organizational hr practices: the case of women’s careers in accountancy and consultancy firms in china. human resource management, 53(1), 23–44. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21566 lim, s., & envick, b. r. (2013). gender and entrepreneurial orientation: a multi-country study. international entrepreneurship and management journal, 9(3), 465–482. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-011-0183-2 lips, h. m. (2013). the gender pay gap: challenging the rationalizations. sex roles, 68(3–4), 169–185. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-012-0165-z llego, b. (2015). the relationships between human resource management and entrepreneurship: case study sme in thailand. journal of social, behavioral, educational, economic, business and industrial engineering, 9(12), 4068–4072. loehlin, j. c., & beaujean, a. a. (2017). latent variable models: an introduction to factor, path, and structural equation analysis. new york: taylor & francis. madmoli, z. (2016). investigating the relation between human resource management and organizational entrepreneurship: the mediating role of knowledge sharing by middle managers. international journal of humanities and cultural studies, 1(1), 2739–2751. makongoso, m. o., gichira, r., & orwa, g. o. (2015). role of human resource management in governance on the growth of collective entrepreneurship in the agriculture sector, kenya. advances in social sciences research journal, 2(4), 16–31. https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.24.1067 matthews, r. a., & ritter, k.-j. (2016). a concise, content valid, gender invariant measure of workplace incivility. journal of occupational health psychology, 21(3), 352–365. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000017 mcdonald, r. p., & ho, m. h. r. (2002). principles and practice in reporting structural equation analyses. psychological methods, 7(1), 64. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989x.7.1.64 mellenbergh, g. j. (1989). item bias and item response theory. international journal of educational research, 13, 127–143. https://doi.org/10.1016/0883-0355(89)90002-5 melton, e. k., & meier, k. j. (2017). for the want of a nail: the interaction of managerial capacity and human resource management on organizational performance. public administration review, 77(1), 118–130. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12611 meredith, w. (1993). mi, factor analysis and factorial invariance. psychometrika, 58, 525–543. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02294825 meredith, w., & millsap, r. e. (1992). on the misuse of manifest variables in the detection of measurement invariance. psychometrika, 57(2), 289–311. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02294510 messersmith, j. g., patel, p. c., lepak, d. p., & williams, j. s. (2011). unlocking the black box: exploring the link between high-performance work systems and performance. journal of applied psychology, 96(6), 1105–1118. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024710 mustafa, m., lundmark, e., & ramos, h. m. (2016). untangling the relationship between human resource management and corporate entrepreneurship: the mediating effect of middle managers’ knowledge sharing. entrepreneurship research journal, 6(3), 273–295. https://doi.org/10.1515/erj-2015-0004 mustafa, m., richards, j., & ramos, h. m. (2013). high performance human resource practices and corporate entrepreneurship: the mediating effect of middle managers knowledge collecting and donating behaviour. asian academy of management journal, 18(2), 17–36. nyawose, m. (2009). the relationship between human resource management practices, organisational commitment and turnover intentions amongst engineering professionals. unpublished master’s thesis, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. pässler, k., beinicke, a., & hell, b. (2014). gender-related differential validity and differential prediction in interest inventories. journal of career assessment, 22(1), 138–152. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072713492934 patterson, l., bae, s. o., & lim, j. y. (2013). gender equality in korean firms: recent evidence from hr practitioners. asia pacific journal of human resources, 51(3), 364–381. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7941.2012.00045.x ployhart, r. e., & holtz, b. c. (2008). the diversity-validity dilemma: strategies for reducing racioethnic and sex subgroup differences and adverse impact in selection. personnel psychology, 61(1), 153–172. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2008.00109.x prayogo, l., pranoto, b., & purba, h. (2017). employee satisfaction analysis with human resource index. management science letters, 7(5), 233–240. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2017.2.003 r core team. (2013). r: a language and environment for statistical computing. r foundation for statistical computing, vienna, austria. retrieved from http://www.r-project.org/ rosseel, y. (2012). lavaan: an r package for structural equation modeling. journal of statistical software, 48(2), 1–36. retrieved from http://www.jstatsoft.org/v48/i02/ salzberger, t., newton, f. j., & ewing, m. t. (2014). detecting gender item bias and differential manifest response behavior: a rasch-based solution. journal of business research, 67(4), 598–607. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.02.045 schermelleh-engel, k., moosbrugger, h., & müller, h. (2003). evaluating the fit of structural equation models: tests of significance and descriptive goodness-of-fit measures. methods of psychological research online, 8(2), 23–74. schmelter, r., mauer, r., börsch, c., & brettel, m. (2010). boosting corporate entrepreneurship through hrm practices: evidence from german smes. human resource management, 49(4), 715–741. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20366 stamarski, c. s., & son hing, l. s. (2015). gender inequalities in the workplace: the effects of organizational structures, processes, practices, and decision makers’ sexism. frontiers in psychology, 16(6), 1400. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01400 statistics south africa. (2016). quarterly labour force survey: quarter 4: 2016 (statistical release p0211). retrieved from statistics south africa website: http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/p0211/p02114thquarter2016.pdf steyn, r. (2012). human resource practices and employee attitudes: a study of individuals in ten south african companies. alternation: interdisciplinary journal for the study of the arts and humanities in southern africa, 5, 167–184. steyn, r., bezuidenhout, m., & grobler, a. (2017). the relationship between human resource service delivery and affective organisational commitment: a comparative study of employees in the public and private sector, as well as state owned entities. sa journal of human resource management, 15, a841. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.841 steyn, r., & grobler, a. (2014). the relationship between human resource practices and employee attitudes in a travel agency. african journal of hospitality, tourism and leisure, 3(1), 1–10. sun, l. y., aryee, s., & law, k. s. (2007). high-performance human resource practices, citizenship behavior, and organizational performance: a relational perspective. academy of management journal, 50(3), 558–577. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2007.25525821 tang, g., wei, l. q., snape, e., & ng, y. c. (2015). how effective human resource management promotes corporate entrepreneurship: evidence from china. the international journal of human resource management, 26(12), 1586–1601. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2014.953973 tsaousis, i., & kazi, s. (2013). factorial invariance and latent mean differences of scores on trait emotional intelligence across gender and age. personality and individual differences, 54(2), 169–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.08.016 ulrich, d. (2013). human resource champions: the next agenda for adding value and delivering results. boston, ma: harvard business press. vandenberg, r. j. (2006). statistical and methodological myths and urban legends. organizational research methods, 9(2), 94–201. vandenberg, r. j., & lance, c. e. (2000). a review and synthesis of the measurement invariance literature: suggestions, practices, and recommendations for organizational research. organizational research methods, 3, 4–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/109442810031002 van esch, e., wei, l. q., & chiang, f. f. (2016). high-performance human resource practices and firm performance: the mediating role of employees’ competencies and the moderating role of climate for creativity. the international journal of human resource management, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1206031 wei, t., chesnut, s. r., barnard-brak, l., stevens, t., & olivárez jr, a. (2014). evaluating the mathematics interest inventory using item response theory: differential item functioning across gender and ethnicities. journal of psychoeducational assessment, 32(8), 747–761. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282914540449 wetzel, e., böhnke, j. r., carstensen, c. h., ziegler, m., & ostendorf, f. (2013). do individual response styles matter? assessing differential item functioning for men and women in the neo-pi-r. journal of individual differences, 34(2), 69. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000102 wu, a. d., li, z., & zumbo, b. d. (2007). decoding the meaning of factorial invariance and updating the practice of multi-group confirmatory factor analysis: a demonstration with timss data. practical assessment research & evaluation, 12(3). retrieved from http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=12&n=3 xu, l., wubbena, z., & stewart, t. (2016). measurement invariance of second-order factor model of the multifactor leadership questionnaire (mlq) across k-12 principal gender. journal of educational administration, 54(6), 727–748. https://doi.org/10.1108/jea-01-2015-0001 zhang, z., & jia, m. (2010). using social exchange theory to predict the effects of high-performance human resource practices on corporate entrepreneurship: evidence from china. human resource management, 49(4), 743–765. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20378 zhu, y., warner, m., & rowley, c. (2007). human resource management with ‘asian’ characteristics: a hybrid people-management system in east asia. the international journal of human resource management, 18(5), 745–768. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190701248133 ziyae, b. (2016). presenting an evaluation model of human resource management’s effect on corporate entrepreneurship. world journal of entrepreneurship, management and sustainable development, 12(3), 228–242. https://doi.org/10.1108/wjemsd-03-2016-0013 appendix 1 table 1-a1: constructs and items of the human resource practices scale. abstract introduction research purpose and objective literature review methods results discussion theoretical and managerial implications limitations and recommendations for future research acknowledgements references about the author(s) pfungwa dhliwayo department of industrial and organisational psychology, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa melinde coetzee department of industrial and organisational psychology, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation dhliwayo, p., & coetzee, m. (2020). cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence and personality types as predictors of job performance: exploring a model for personnel selection. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1348. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1348 original research cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence and personality types as predictors of job performance: exploring a model for personnel selection pfungwa dhliwayo, melinde coetzee received: 27 feb. 2020; accepted: 18 aug. 2020; published: 26 oct. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the process of personnel selection is essential for organisations because it ensures that only those candidates who are likely to contribute to the economic value of an organisation are chosen to fill job vacancies. research purpose: this research sought to explore cognitive intelligence (ci), ability emotional intelligence (ability ei), trait emotional intelligence (trait ei) and personality types as predictors of job performance with the view to propose a valid selection model for the zimbabwean organisational context. motivation for the study: in the personnel selection context, separate studies investigated the single predictive power of the constructs relevant to the study in different settings and studies. the role of personality types in selection is especially under-researched. research approach, design and method: the study utilised a cross-sectional survey design. the convenience sample constituted (n = 299) supervisory and professionally qualified, experienced specialists from various organisations in zimbabwe. the gama, aes, weis, mbti, form m and jps were administered. main findings: structural equation modelling indicated ci as the best predictor of job performance, followed by ability ei and then by personality types. trait ei could not account for any variance in job performance. practical implications/managerial implications: personnel selection models in the zimbabwean context could consider including the empirically demonstrated variables in selection practices. contribution/value-add: the research advanced personnel selection theory by empirically and scientifically identifying the core elements of, and proposing a personnel selection model for use by human resources practitioners and organisations in the african context. keywords: cognitive intelligence; ability emotional intelligence; trait emotional intelligence; personality type; personnel selection; job performance; organisational citizenship behaviour; task performance; emotional labour. introduction the process of personnel selection is essential for organisations because it ensures that only the candidates who can contribute to the economic value of an organisation are chosen to fill job vacancies (afshari, nikolić, & ćoćkalo, 2014; caldwell, beverage, & converse, 2018). in filling job vacancies, organisations use a variety of personnel selection methods and measures to ensure the best person–job fit (joseph & newman, 2010). the present study, thus, sought to explore a personnel selection model that could be applied with confidence in the zimbabwean and perhaps african organisational context. the practical utility of the study stems from employment malpractices, high labour turnover and brain drain that existed and still exist in the zimbabwean business sector from about 1998 to the present, as the country is characterised by economic recession (dumbu & chadamoyo, 2012; nguwi, 2014b; nyamubarwa, mupani, & chiduuro, 2013; zinyemba, 2014). thus, exploring a scientific valid personnel selection model is expected to assist organisations to still employ suitable people despite the aforementioned problems. the present study explored the constructs of cognitive intelligence (ci), ability emotional intelligence (ability ei), trait emotional intelligence (trait ei) and personality types as predictors of job performance. although the constructs of ci, ability ei, trait ei, personality and job performance are well known for their usefulness in personnel selection, there is a lack of research that studies these constructs jointly in a single study. prior studies, for example separate researches conducted by abraham (2004), aldosirya, alkhadher, alaqraa and anderson (2016), cote and miners (2006), lam and kirby (2002), mcnulty, mackay, lewis, lane and white (2016), murensky (2000), sony and mekoth (2016), tofighi, tirgari, fooladvandi, rasouli and jalal (2015), wolff, pescosolido and druskat (2002) and wong and law (2002), explored the influence of either one or two of the predictor variables (ci, ei and personality) on job performance. the separate studies present a gap in research because it may be difficult to compare the predictive power of the different constructs in a valid and reliable manner. even though joseph and newman (2010) and o’boyle, humphrey, pollack, hawver and story (2011) used meta-analyses to investigate the predictive power of the aforementioned predictor variables on job performance, the meta-analyses still have the same methodological drawbacks of reaching conclusions using separate studies. research purpose and objective this research sought to explore ci, ability ei, trait ei and personality types as predictors of job performance with the view to propose a valid personnel selection model for the zimbabwean organisational context. several studies investigated the single predictive power of these different constructs in the personnel selection context. moreover, the role of personality types in selection is especially under-researched. understanding the different predictive powers of the variables jointly in terms of job performance may help to construct an integrated personnel selection model that may help improve selection practices. the predictor variables of ci, and ability ei and trait ei are relevant to the study because research proved them to be theoretically valid and distinct constructs (joseph & newman, 2010; o’boyle et al., 2011). personality type (myers, 1987) is under-researched in the personnel selection context. although the trait factor theories, for example, the five factor model (costa & mccrae, 1992), have been extensively tested in personnel selection contexts, other personality theories such as the psychodynamic, social learning, humanistic and dispositional theories have been found to be less applicable to personnel selection contexts (feist & feist, 2009; myers, mccaulley, quenk, & hammer, 1998). even though the personality type theory is applicable to occupational settings, it has been mainly used for personnel development (chen, tian, miao, & chia, 2009; leary, reilly, & brown, 2009; myers et al., 1998) and may therefore need to be tested in personnel selection contexts. assessing the fidelity of personality types in combination with the constructs of ci, ability ei and trait ei and in relation to job performance from a selection predictive point of view would assist organisations to identify employee development needs at the personnel selection stage. literature review this section reviews the literature on personnel selection models, personnel selection practices in zimbabwe and the concepts of job performance, ci, ei and personality types. the section also reviews the literature on the association between the variables relevant to the study and ends by stating the research hypothesis. models of personnel selection human resources (hr) practitioners and industrial psychologists normally use a combination of personnel selection methods and measures, and this combination constitutes a personnel selection model (ployhart & schneider, 2012). there are a number of personnel selection methods, which include application forms, graphology, reference checks, job knowledge tests and the selection interview, most of which have been found to have low validity in predicting job performance (dale, 2003; gatewood, feild, & barrick, 2016; motowidlo, 2003; schmidt & hunter, 1998). on the contrary, there are psychological personnel selection measures such as ci, ei, personality and assessment centres, which are more scientific with better predictive validity (anastasi & urbina, 1997; cote & miners, 2006; gregory, 2004; hunter & hunter, 1984; joseph & newman, 2010; o’boyle et al., 2011). personnel selection involves the use of multiple methods and measures to be able to predict the multi-nature of the job performance criteria (ployhart & schneider, 2012). the underlying assumption of personnel selection models is that, as personnel selection measures are added to the model, the predictive validity is improved by way of incremental validity (hattrup, 2012). certain criteria must therefore characterise personnel selection models for them to predict job performance with fidelity. for example, each of the personnel selection methods or measures constituting a personnel selection model should be able to predict job performance at significant levels (joseph & newman, 2010). in addition, each personnel selection method or measure should be theoretically distinct from the constructs represented by other personnel selection methods or measures in the model to avoid redundancy (joseph & newman, 2010). from our review of the literature, we classified personnel selection models into two major categories. first, there are models whose objective is to automate the decision-making processes such as resume screening (kaluginaa & shvyduna, 2014; shehu & saeed, 2016). we labelled these models ‘efficiency personnel selection models’. efficiency-based personnel selection models suffer the drawback of being silent on the predictive power of the models, which is an important aspect of personnel selection. the second group consists of models that use regression techniques to determine the predictive power of different personnel selection measures and methods (joseph & newman, 2010; o’boyle et al., 2011; ployhart & schneider, 2012). we termed these models ‘predictive personnel selection models’. the proposed personnel selection model for our research was, thus, predictive in nature. personnel selection practices in zimbabwean organisations nguwi (2014a) states that many organisations in zimbabwe still depend on the traditional personnel selection methods, which include the review of professional resumes and the selection interview. this is despite the fact that research has already established the ineffectiveness of the aforementioned practices (nguwi, 2010). nguwi (2010) also points out that the pitfalls of personnel selection methods such as the unstructured interviews emanate from the subjectivity of the judgements and conclusion arrived at because of the lack of standardisation of the interview process, which results in biases. in addition, most organisations in zimbabwe engage in nepotism by employing their relatives and use unscientific personnel selection measures and methods (dumbu & chadamoyo, 2012; nyamubarwa et al., 2013, zinyemba, 2014). thus, if zimbabwean organisations fail to adopt valid personnel selection models, they may continue to employ unsuitable people, resulting in reduced employee performance capability. the study therefore sought to propose a scientific and valid model for personnel selection. job performance job performance refers to the engagement in behaviour aimed at achieving tasks and duties that contribute to the economic value of an organisation (bozionelos & singh, 2017; dan, zhang, & li, 2015; motowidlo, 2003; rich, lepine, & crawford, 2010). job performance encapsulates both results and behaviour. the results-based approach represents the outcome of job performance (rich et al., 2010). on the contrary, the behavioural approach to job performance is based on the notion that the behaviour is observable and provides a medium through which organisational results can be achieved (jundt, shoss, & huang, 2014; motowidlo, 2003; tufail, bashi, & shoukat, 2017). motowidlo (2003) argues that defining job performance from a behavioural point of view assists industrial psychologists to develop measures to assess how the results are achieved. thus, although the ultimate outcome of job performance (results) is the evidence of job performance, the behaviour engaged in by employees may also be important in explaining how the results were achieved, leading to the notion that job performance is a multi-factor criterion (williams & anderson, 1991). in the present study, job performance is conceptualised according to the multi-factor model and in terms of two main domains, namely task and contextual performance (bozionelos & singh, 2017; williams & anderson, 1991). task performance or in-role behaviour refers to the effectiveness in performing activities that contribute to the organisation’s technical core tasks and focusses on core production activities (borman & motowidlo, 1993; bozionelos & singh, 2017; jiao & hardie, 2009; miao, humphrey, & qian, 2017; varela, salgado, & lasio, 2010; williams & anderson, 1991). the term contextual performance, or organisational citizenship behaviour, refers to extra-role behaviours that contribute to organisational performance because they positively affect the psychological, social and organisational contexts of work (jiao & hardie, 2009; matula & uon, 2016; motowidlo, 2003). according to motowidlo (2003), contextual performance may take at least two forms: organisation citizenship behaviour directed towards the organisation (ocbo) and organisation citizenship behaviour directed towards other individuals (ocbi). organisation citizenship behaviour directed towards the organisation refers to individual effort aimed at assisting the organisation to achieve its objectives, and thus indirectly contributing to the economic value of the organisation (bozionelos & singh, 2017; motowidlo, 2003; williams & anderson, 1991). organisation citizenship behaviour directed towards other individuals occurs when individuals engage in behaviours that result in the improvement of their work colleagues’ job performance, for example assisting them with job tasks (borman & motowidlo, 1993; bozionelos & singh, 2017; williams & anderson, 1991). cognitive intelligence the concept of ci refers to the ability to think rationally and to solve factual, novel and complex problems and is regarded as a major determinant for the survival of species (gottfredson, 1997; jensen, 1998; lam & kirby, 2002; rindermann, 2007). gregory (2004) conceptualises ci as the ability to reason (acquiring knowledge and using it for future purposes), to learn and to adapt to one’s environment. spearman (1923) demonstrated that an individual’s performance on a variety of ci tests or subtests of intellectual effectiveness was determined by the general factor (g) and another factor (s) specific to the test or subtests (willis, dumont, & kaufman, 2011). according to spearman (1923, 1927a), performance on the subtests of ci was not influenced by a single specific factor (s), meaning that the more pervasive g was responsible for the performance (floyd, mcgrew, barry, raphael, & rodgers, 2009; willis et al., 2011). gregory (2004) argues that the g supports the s by way of providing a common supply of mental energy as and when it is needed. theories proposed by thurstone (1938), vernon (1950), sternberg’s (1985), gardner (1983, 1993, 1999), guilford (1967) and cattell (1941, 1971) support spearman’s (1904, 1923, 1927a) g and s. specifically, most of the theories acknowledge the presence of a g of ci that is pervasive and assists people to adapt to their environments. for this reason, we conceptualised ci as a unitary concept represented as general mental ability in line with spearman (1904, 1923, 1927a). emotional intelligence the concept of ei has attracted attention over the last three decades (gooty, gavin, ashkanasy, & thomas, 2014; joseph & newman, 2010; o’boyle et al., 2011; wu, 2011). the emergence of the ei theory arose because of the realisation that ci alone could not explain all antecedence of job performance and occupational outcomes (joseph & newman, 2010; o’boyle et al., 2011). thus, the ei theory was developed mainly to explain the importance of non-cognitive components of intelligence to occupational outcomes including job performance (murphy & janeke, 2010). murphy and janeke (2010) conceptualise ei as individuals’ traits or skills that help them to adapt to the environment by interpreting, managing and using theirs and others’ emotions to solve problems. some researchers such as mayer, salovey and caruso (2000) define ei as an ability to process emotional information cognitively, whereas others such as schutte, malouff and bhullar (2009) and schutte et al. (1998) argue that ei is a dispositional trait. the foregoing discourse resulted in two divergent conceptualisations of ei, that is ei as an ability and ei as a trait. ability emotional intelligence the conceptualisation of ei as an ability is based on the premise that ei is a set of cognitive abilities required for the processing of emotional information and the regulation of emotions (mayer & salovey, 1997; wong, law, & wong, 2004; wong, wong, & law, 2007; zeidner, matthews, & roberts, 2004). the main difference between ability ei and other types of ei is that ability ei test items require the choice of a correct answer (mayer et al., 2000). mayer et al. (2000) conceptualise ei in terms of the four branches, namely identification, understanding, usage and regulation of emotions. although ability ei is divided into the four-branch model, it is, however, unitary in nature, just like ci (mayer & salovey, 1997; mayer, salovey, & caruso, 2004; wong et al., 2004). trait emotional intelligence petrides, pita and kokkinaki (2007) define trait ei as a collection of emotion-related dispositions that can be assessed through self-reports. although theorists may vary in terms of its conceptualisation, trait ei can generally be described in terms of four factors, namely perception of emotion, managing own emotions, managing others’ emotions and utilisation of emotion (schutte et al., 2009). in contrast to ability ei, the definition of trait ei is straightforward because it is a non-cognitive affective construct and acknowledges that emotions are subjective (petrides et al., 2007). petrides and furnham (2003) argue that the conceptualisation of trait ei is robust because the construct is distinct from ci and personality. personality type the theory of psychological type (jung, 1921) underpins the personality type theory of myers and briggs (myers, 1987). the concept of psychological types was developed from a combination of the two attitudes (extraversion and introversion) and the four psychological functions (thinking, feeling, intuiting and sensing) (burger, 2014; feist & feist, 2009). myers and briggs (myers, 1987) extended jung’s (1921) theory by adding an auxiliary function (judging and perceiving) and the auxiliary function’s balancing role in extraversion and introversion (kirby & myers, 2000). the personality type theory, thus, consists of two attitudes and six psychological functions (myers, 1987). the attitudes and functions can be classified into four dichotomies and these are extraversion (e) versus introversion (i), sensing (s) versus intuition (n), thinking (t) versus feeling (f) and judging (j) versus perceiving (p) (kirby & myers, 2000). the four dichotomies produce 16 personality types, which describe personality in terms of a four-letter code (e.g. enfp) and described in more detail by kirby and myers (2000). according to myers (1987), the four dichotomies do not develop as balanced because this would result in undifferentiated personality. rather, one of the four dichotomies becomes dominant, giving direction to differentiated personality (mccaulley & martin, 1985, myers, 1987). associations between the constructs weak correlations have been found between ability ei and trait ei (brackett & mayer, 2003; goldenberg, matheson, & mantler, 2006; mayer, salovey, & caruso, 2002). low correlations have also been reported between ability ei and personality (austin, farrelly, black, & moore, 2007; joseph & newman, 2010). with regard to ci, correlations between ability ei and ci have been found to be moderate to high (austin, 2010; cote & miners, 2006; joseph & newman, 2010). in terms of job performance, gooty et al. (2014) found that ability ei was related to task performance. greenidge, devonish and alleyne (2014) found that the four dimensions of ability ei were positively correlated with organisational citizenship behaviour. a study by sony and mekoth (2016) shows that ability ei is positively correlated with job performance. fallon et al. (2014) found ability ei to be a predictor of job performance through better decision-making. however, meta-analysis has revealed that in predicting job performance, ability ei measures have very low incremental validity beyond ci (o’boyle et al., 2011). concerning the relationship between trait ei and personality type as measured by the myers–briggs type indicator (mbti), significant positive correlations have been found between trait ei and sensing–intuition, thinking–feeling and extraversion–introversion (higgs, 2001; leary et al., 2009). meta-analyses conducted by joseph and newman (2010) and o’boyle et al. (2011) reveal weak relationships between trait ei and ci as well as ability ei. research also provides evidence for trait ei from both explanatory and predictive viewpoints (hui-hua & schutte, 2015; mikolajczak, roy, verstrynge, & luminet, 2009). for example, wu (2011) found that trait ei significantly predicts job performance. jung and yoon (2012) found trait ei to predict organisational citizenship behaviour at significant levels. joseph and newman’s (2010) and o’boyle et al.’s (2011) meta-analyses revealed that trait ei has incremental validity beyond personality better than ability ei. schutte et al. (1998) note that people with high trait ei tend to perform better on difficult and frustrating tasks than those low on trait ei. trait ei has also been found to predict job performance better in high emotional than in low emotional labour jobs (joseph & newman, 2010; o’boyle et al., 2011). perry and ball (2005) found a significant correlation between intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence and the mbti personality types, with no significant relationship with trait ei. this seems to indicate that personality types and trait ei are two distinct constructs. a study by virmozelova and dimitrova (2013) revealed that sensing and introversion were negatively correlated with sharing emotions and empathy and optimism, whereas extraversion correlated positively with sharing emotions and empathy. johnson and miller (2003) showed that extraversion is significantly positively correlated with the total ei score as measured by the global personality inventory of schmit, kihm and robie (2000), as well as the subscales of self-awareness, social skills, motivation and empathy. johnson and miller (2003) also found a low-to-moderate negative correlation between mbti intuition and the total global personality inventory as well as on all the subscales. the observed negative and low correlation between the personality types and the rest of the global personality inventory ei scales suggests that trait ei and mbti conceptualisation of personality may be, to a larger extent, distinct constructs. it is therefore worth investigating the mbti in personnel selection contexts as it may have incremental validity in a personnel selection model. furnham, dissou, sloan and chamorro-premuzic (2007) note that studies on the relationship between personality types and ci are very few. furnham et al. (2007) demonstrated that personality as measured by the mbti showed that intuition and perceiving scores were positively and moderately correlated with both fluid and crystallised intelligence. this seems to be consistent with an earlier study by kaufman, mclean and lincoln (1996) in which individuals with high scores on intuition tended to score higher on ci. myers and mccaulley (1985) also found intuitive individuals to have higher ci. one would, therefore, argue that if some personality types are correlated with other psychological constructs relevant to occupational settings, then it is worth testing the personality type theory in personnel selection contexts. research on the relationship between personality types and job performance is limited (feist & feist, 2009). vincent, ward and denson (2013) found that the mbti’s intuition is associated with leadership performance. the mbti types have also been found to improve the quality of decision-making and problem solving (prince, 2015; sample, 2017), which is expected to lead to a better job performance. engineers high on judging and intuition were found to perform better on the job (carr, de la garza, & vorster, 2002). because the area of personality types and job performance seems under-researched, more research is needed to determine the utility of personality types in personnel selection. concerning the predictive power of ci, there is ubiquitous evidence, suggesting that ci predicts job performance across most, if not all, occupations (cote & miners, 2006; gottfredson, 1997; jensen, 1998; joseph & newman, 2010; lam & kirby, 2002; o’boyle et al., 2011; rindermann, 2007). based on a review of the research literature, the following research hypothesis was formulated: h1: cognitive intelligence, ability ei, trait ei and personality type significantly predict job performance. methods this section describes the research methodology in terms of the research design, the research participants, the measuring instruments, the research procedure, ethical considerations and data analysis. research design the study was exploratory in nature and utilised a cross-sectional survey design (leavy, 2017). the joint predictive power of ci, ability ei, trait ei and personality types in terms of job performance is not well understood and an under-researched phenomenon. participants the research participants consisted of a convenient sample (n = 299) of supervisory-level employees and professionally qualified and experienced specialists from five private and publicly listed organisations in zimbabwe. black african males (61.2%) and females (38.8%) represented the sample. almost half of the participants had more than 10 years’ tenure (49.5%) and the other half had less than 10 years’ tenure (50.5%). the 22–36 years age group (60.5%) was predominant in the sample. thus, a relatively young workforce of experienced and qualified specialists formed a majority of the sample. measuring instruments cognitive intelligence the construct was measured by means of the general ability measure for adults (gama; naglieri & bardos, 1997). the gama has 66 items and four subscales (matching, analogies, sequences and construction) and has proven reliability and validity (davis, bardos, & woodward, 2006; naglieri & bardos, 1997). ability emotional intelligence wong’s emotional intelligence scale (weis; wong et al., 2004) was administered. the weis is a forced-choice measure, designed to measure ei along four subscales (self-emotional appraisal, other’s emotional appraisal, use of emotion and regulation of emotion). the weis consists of 40 items (20 pairs of abilities and 20 scenarios). the weis is parsimonious and has proven reliability and validity (foo, elfenbein, tan, & aik, 2004; husina, santos, ramosa, & nordinb, 2013; wong et al., 2004; wong et al., 2007). trait emotional intelligence the assessing emotions scale (aes; schutte et al., 1998) was utilised. emotional intelligence is measured along four subscales (perception of emotion, managing own emotions, managing others’ emotions and utilisation of emotion). the aes consists of 33 items and the responses are recorded on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). the aes has proven reliability and validity (bastian, bums, & nettelbeck, 2005; brackett & mayer, 2003; schutte et al., 1998; schutte et al., 2009). personality type the mbti form m (myers et al., 1998) was administered. the mbti form m is a self-report personality measure. the scale consists of 93 items and the responses are interpreted along four bipolar scales which are extraversion–introversion (e/i), sensing–intuition (s/n), thinking–feeling (t/f) and judging–perceiving (j/p). these four bipolar categories were utilised in the statistical analyses as categorical data. the mbti form m has demonstrable reliability and validity (myers et al., 1998, myers & myers, 2009; tabachnick & fidell, 2001). job performance the job performance scale (jps) of williams and anderson (1991) was administered. the scale measures job performance through supervisory ratings along three subscales (ocbi, ocbo and in-role behaviours [task performance]). the scale consists of 21 items, with seven items in each of the three subscales. responses are recorded on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). the scale has good reliability and validity (organ, podsakoff, & mackenzie, 2006; williams & anderson, 1991). procedure the primary researcher, a registered industrial or occupational psychologist with the allied health practitioners council of zimbabwe, collected the data by means of scheduled contact sessions of at most 20 people, with participants completing the four measuring instruments. the jps was also emailed to participants’ supervisors, for them to provide information on the participants’ performance levels. the researcher recruited participants via an email message. data analysis the data were statistically analysed by using ibm spss version 22 (ibm, 2013) and the sas version 9.4 (sas, 2013) software programs. a harman’s single-factor test and confirmatory factor analysis (cfa one-factor solution) was conducted to test for common method variance (cmv) (tehseen, ramayah, & sajilan, 2017). cronbach’s alpha coefficients and composite reliability were computed for each scale. descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, cfa and structural equation modelling (sem) were performed. best fit indices included the root means square error of approximation (rmsea) and standardised root mean residual (srmr) of below < 0.08, and the comparative fit index (cfi) above > 0.90. the mbti personality types were treated as categorical data: e/i, s/n, t/f and j/p in the statistical analyses. ethical consideration permission to conduct the research was obtained from the participating organisations. the research institution (university of south africa) also granted ethics clearance. voluntary participation was honoured, and informed consent to utilise the data for research purposes was obtained from the participants. confidentiality and anonymity were respected and maintained. this article followed all ethical standards for carrying out research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. results testing for common method variance the harman’s one factor test revealed a lack of cmv for the aes (8.59%), jps (5.53%), mbti (9.16%) and the weis (3.47%). the one-factor cfas (see table 1) for these scales also indicated poor data fit which provided additional evidence that cmv was not a serious threat to the interpretation of the findings. the gama was excluded because it was a timed test and as a result had a number of missing responses. table 1: testing for common method variance. validity of the measurement model sas version 9.4 (sas, 2013) was used to test the discriminant validity of the overall measurement model. discriminant validity is important to assess for the presence of multi-collinearity among the constructs. three models (one factor solution, multi-factor solution and optimised multi-factor solution) were run as part of efforts to ascertain the validity of the measurement model. the optimised multi-factor cfa model (see model 3 in table 2) showed good model fit (i.e. lack of multi-collinearity) and as such provided evidence of discriminant validity among the various scales’ constructs: chi-square = 318.99/df = 213; chi-square/df = 1.50; p ≤ 0.001; rmsea = 0.05; srmr = 0.07; cfi = 0.90). we used the calis statistical procedure with a maximum likelihood (levenberg–marquardt optimisation method) to optimise the model fit. confirmatory factor analysis was not performed for the mbti because the scale has dichotomous subscales. the absence of multicollinearity shows that the predictor constructs were theoretically distinct and thus satisfied the criteria for a personnel selection model (hattrup, 2012; joseph & newman, 2010). table 2: construct validity of overall measurement model. descriptive statistics and internal consistency reliability table 3 shows the means and standard deviations and internal consistency reliability coefficients of the scales. the aes, jps, gama and weis had some of their subscales reliabilities below 0.70, which is the cut-off point for good internal consistency reliability (costa, van, abbott, & krass, 2015). for the overall scales reliabilities, only the weis had the cronbach’s alpha of below 0.70 (0.55). internal consistency reliability coefficients of ≥ 0.50 can, however, be acceptable for research purposes (taber, 2017). the alpha for the overall weis scores did not pose a serious threat to the interpretation of the results, but the low alpha was considered in the interpretation of the results. table 3: descriptive statistics and internal consistency reliability. bivariate correlations of the dependent and predictor variables the mbti scores were categorical, meaning that the bivariate correlations for the dependent and independent variables had to be computed by using non-parametric tests. the spearman’s correlation (sas version 9.4; sas, 2013) was therefore performed. the practical effect sizes for the bivariate correlations were interpreted in line with rashid, mondol, rahman and noman (2016). in terms of ci and ability ei, a negative correlation (r = −0.31, p ≤ 0.001; moderate practical effect) was observed between the overall gama and weis scales. for the ci and personality, positive correlations were observed between the gama and sensing–thinking (r = 0.18, p ≤ 0.05; small practical effect) and the gama and intuition–thinking (r = 0.18, p ≤ 0.05; small practical effect). negative correlations were, however, observed between the gama and sensing–feeling (r = −0.18, p ≤ 0.05; small practical effect) and the negative gama and intuition–feeling (r = −0.19, p ≤ 0.05; small practical effect). for ci and ei, there were no significant correlations between the overall gama and the aes (trait ei) and between the overall weis (ability ei) and aes. concerning ability ei and personality, there were positive correlations between the weis and intuition–feeling (r = 0.17, p ≤ 0.05; small practical effect) and the weis and sensing–feeling (r = 0.18; small practical effect, p ≤ 0.05). the weis was negatively correlated with the sensing–thinking dichotomy (r = −0.16, p ≤ 0.05; small practical effect). a significant positive correlation was found between trait ei (aes overall score) and the mbti intuition–feeling (r = 0.15, p ≤ 0.05; small practical effect). in summary, no correlations between the predictor variables were above r = 0.80, indicating the absence of multicollinearity and further demonstrating a discriminant validity of the measurement model (cohen, cohen, west, & aiken, 2013). the correlation between ci (gama) and jps was significant (r = 0.35, p ≤ 0.001; moderate practical effect). for ability ei (weis), the regulation of emotions was the only subscale that had a significant correlation with overall job performance (r = 0.18, p ≤ 0.05; small practical effect) and ocbi (r = 0.23, p ≤ 0.01; small practical effect). trait ei (overall aes) was significantly correlated with only task performance (r = 0.15, p ≤ 0.05; small practical effect), and the perception of emotion subscale was significantly correlated with both overall job performance (r = 0.15, p ≤ 0.05; small practical effect) and task performance (r = 0.20, p ≤ 0.05; small practical effect). in terms of personality, there was significant positive correlation between the sensing–thinking dichotomy and overall job performance (r = 0.15, p ≤ 0.05; small practical effect), showing that the thinking type is significantly correlated with job performance. the results revealed a significant positive correlation between the sensing–feeling dichotomy and ocbo (r = −0.15, p ≤ 0.05; small practical effect), demonstrating that the feeling type is negatively correlated with job performance. testing the research hypothesis: structural equation modelling sas version 9.4 (sas, 2013) was used to perform sem and path analysis. the calis procedure of covariance structure analysis with a maximum likelihood estimation was utilised. the various measures (ci, ability ei, trait ei and job performance) were treated as overall constructs and the mbti personality types as categorical construct types: e/i, s/n, t/f and j/p. four sem models were run and the results are reported in table 5. the four models had good fit statistics because the rmsea and srmr were below 0.08, and the cfi was above 0.90. table 4: bivariate correlations of the dependent and predictor variables. table 4 (continues...): bivariate correlations of the dependent and predictor variables. table 5: model fit statistics: structural equation models. table 6 shows the various path analyses for the four sem models using the latent variables. practical effect sizes were reported in line with cohen et al. (2013), and the pathways were all positive. for sem prediction model 1, only ci (gama) (β = 0.80; r2 = 0.65; large practical effect, p ≤ 0.001), ability ei (weis) (β = 0.64; r2 = 0.41; large practical effect, p ≤ 0.001) and personality (mbti) (β = 0.22; r2 = 0.05; small practical effect, p ≤ 0.05) loaded significantly onto job performance. concerning sem prediction model 2, only ci (gama) (β = 0.73; r2 = 0.54; large practical effect, p ≤ 0.001) and ability ei (weis) (β = 0.32; r2 = 0.10; small practical effect, p ≤ 0.01) loaded significantly onto the job performance criterion. structural equation modelling prediction model 3 shows that both types of ei did not load significantly onto job performance. in sem prediction model 4, only personality type (β = 0.24; r2 = 0.06; small practical effect, p ≤ 0.05) loaded significantly onto the job performance variable. the results show that ci was the best predictor of job performance, followed by ability ei, and then by personality. trait ei did not account for variance in job performance. table 6: path analysis of the structural equation modelling prediction models. the next step was to ascertain the best fit final sem model, and this was achieved by computing the chi-square comparisons tests. table 5 shows that the fit statistics of model 1 and model 2 were relatively better than those of model 3 and model 4. the results showed that sem prediction models 1 and 2 contained the majority of the predictor variables and had the highest variance in job performance explained by the predictor variables compared with models 3 and 4. thus, the chi-square comparison test was only performed for models 1 and 2 as illustrated in table 7. table 7: chi-square comparison: model 1 and model 2. table 7 shows that model 1 and model 2 (p = 0.64) were not significantly different, indicating that both models had relatively equal strengths in predicting job performance. however, choosing model 2 (with three predictor variables) ahead of model 1 (with all the four predictor variables) would result in reduction of the predictive power. this is because the incremental validity of 11% (65%  – 54%) from ci, 31% (41%  – 10%) from ability ei and 5% (absent in model 2) from personality would be lost. thus, we chose model 1 as the final sem prediction model for the study. figure 1 illustrates sem model 1. in summary, the results provided partial evidence in support of the research hypothesis. figure 1: the final structural equation modelling prediction model: model 1. discussion this research sought to propose an empirically valid personnel selection model for the zimbabwean context. the proposed selection model encompassed the influence of predictor variables, which included ci, ability ei, trait ei and the mbti personality types on job performance. the results showed that trait ei could not significantly predict job performance when combined with ci, ability ei and the mbti personality types. however, ci significantly predicted job performance (large practical effect), followed by ability ei (large practical effect) and then by personality types (small practical effect). the prominence of ci as the best predictor of job performance is in line with earlier research (schmidt & hunter, 2004) and extensive meta-analyses performed in the past decade (joseph & newman, 2010, o’boyle at al., 2011). from a selection predictive point of view, the criteria for a personnel selection model was not fully met because trait ei could not account for any variance in job performance. it is interesting to note that when paired alone, ability ei and trait ei were not significant predictors of job performance, suggesting that on their own, the trait ei and ability ei may not significantly predict job performance. however, ability ei could still be useful because it became a significant predictor of job performance when paired with ci. this is because when ci and ability ei are paired, organisations may be able to tap other emotional competencies important in predicting job performance. the outcome where personality types consistently predicted job performance with small practical effect corroborates past research where the personality types were not a strong predictor, but rather a useful personnel development tool (leary et al., 2009; sample, 2017; varvel, adams, pridie, & ulloa, 2004). thus, the research partially provided supportive evidence for the research hypothesis. theoretical and managerial implications the extensive review of the literature in a quest to hypothesise a theoretical personnel selection model to compare with the empirically manifested model contributed to the theory building. although personnel selection theory has been extended through combining results from different studies conducted previously in different settings or through meta-analyses (joseph & newman, 2010; o’boyle et al., 2011), the present study offers an empirical approach to theory building through the simultaneous investigation of the predictive power of the predictor variables. the present research may be the first of its kind in zimbabwe and in personnel selection research, where the influence of ci, ei (ability and trait) and personality type on job performance has been investigated in a single study. the proposed personnel selection model contributed to theory building and provides the basis for future research. the study presents a number of managerial implications for organisations in zimbabwe and beyond. measures of ci should form a significant part of personnel selection models because ci was found to explain the highest variance in job performance with large practical effect, confirming its pervasiveness in predicting job performance across most, if not all, occupations (joseph & newman, 2010; o’boyle et al., 2011). although ability ei may not predict job performance on its own, it is useful in the assessment of emotional and non-cognitive antecedents of job performance provided that it is paired with ci. the fact that personality types had a small practical effect in predicting job performance indicates that they may not be a strong predictor of job performance per se. rather hr practitioners should consider using personality type assessments in selection to identify personnel development needs or person–job fit. the development needs ought to be identified at the personnel selection stage to ensure the closest person–job fit and to achieve savings in investment in individual personnel development interventions, post-selection. although trait ei could not account for the variance in job performance, it could still be used to assess emotional competences such as decision-making, group functioning and interpersonal relations because overall trait ei was positively correlated with task performance and perception of emotion was positively correlated with task performance and overall job performance. the use of multi-criteria personnel selection and job performance measures has further managerial implications. for the present study, all the predictor variables and the criterion of job performance consisted of the overall scales and subscales to provide insight into the relationships between the overall predictor variable scales and subscales, and the job performance criteria and its subscales are in line with ployhart and schneider (2012). for example, it may be interesting to note that ci correlates more closely with task performance than contextual performance (ocbi and ocbo), something that should guide hr practitioners. organisations should therefore be guided accordingly in choosing personnel selection measures that are most appropriate to the relevant job performance criteria. limitations and recommendations for future research although the study offers theoretical and practical implications, the research had some limitations which should be considered as areas of improvement for future research. for example, the sample size for the present study was n = 299 and consisted of only supervisory staff, and professionally qualified and experienced specialists. future research should include larger sample sizes and a wide range of occupational levels for improved validity generalisation. because the present study was cross-sectional by design (leavy, 2017; teasdale & ivanich, 2017), future research may consider adopting longitudinal studies to gain more understanding of the behaviour of variables across life spans and cause–effect associations. where possible, future research could also use latent class analysis to develop profiles of high performers. conclusion the study enhanced personnel selection theory by identifying predictor variables that best predict job performance. although hr practitioners in zimbabwe and beyond could adopt the proposed personnel selection model, the research findings provided preliminary evidence of the utility of ci, ability ei, trait ei and personality, paving way for more research the area. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions all the authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abraham, r. (2004). emotional competence as antecedent to performance: a contingent framework. genetics, social, and general psychology monographs, 130(2), 117–143. https://doi.org/10.3200/mono.130.2.117-145 afshari, a.r., nikolić, m., & ćoćkalo, d. (2014). applications of fuzzy decision-making for personnel selection problem: a review. journal of engineering management and competitiveness (jemc), 4(2), 68–77. https://doi.org/10.5937/jemc1402068a aldosirya, k.s., alkhadher, o.h., alaqraa, e.m., & anderson, n. (2016). relationships between emotional intelligence and sales performance in kuwait. journal of work and organizational psychology, 32, 39–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rpto.2015.09.002 anastasi, a., & urbina, s. (1997). psychological testing. upper saddle river, nj: prentice-hall international. austin, e.j. (2010). measurement of ability emotional intelligence: results for two new tests. british journal of psychology, 101, 563–578. https://doi.org/10.1348/000712609x474370 austin, e.j., farrelly, d., black, c., & moore, h. (2007). emotional intelligence, machiavellianism and emotional manipulation: does el have a dark side? personality and individual differences, 43, 179–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.11.019 bastian, v.a., bums, n.r., & nettelbeck, t. (2005). emotional intelligence predicts life skills, but not as well as personality and cognitive abilities. personality and individual differences, 39, 1135–1145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2005.04.006 borman, w.c., & motowidlo, s.j. (1993). expanding the criterion domain to include elements of contextual performance. in n. schmitt & w.c. borman (eds.), personnel selection in organizations (pp. 71–98). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. bozionelos, n., & singh, s.k. (2017). the relationship of emotional intelligence with task and contextual performance: more than it meets the linear eye. personality and individual differences, 116, 206–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.04.059 brackett, m., & mayer, j.d. (2003). convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity of competing measures of emotional intelligence. personality and social psychology bulletin, 29, 1147–1158. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167203254596 burger, j.m. (2014). personality (9th edn.). stamford, ct: cengage learning. caldwell, c., beverage, m., & converse, p. (2018). selecting for flair factors: improving the selection process. business and management research, 7(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.5430/bmr.v7n1p1 carr, g.g.p.e., de la garza, j.m., & vorster, m.c (2002). relationship between personality traits and performance for engineering and architectural professionals providing design services. journal of management in engineering, 18(4), 158–166. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2002)18:4(158) cattell, r.b. (1941). some theoretical issues in adult intelligence testing. psychological bulletin, 38, 592–597. cattell, r.b. (1971). abilities: their structure, growth, and action. boston, ma: houghton mifflin. chen, j., tian, j.q., miao, d., & chia, r.c. (2009). item description in translated tests: cultural effects on factor structure of the chinese version of the myers-briggs type indicator-g. social behavior and personality, 37(1), 31–40. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2009.37.1.31 cohen, j., cohen, p., west, s.g., & aiken, l.s. (2013). applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences. new york, ny: routledge. costa, d., van, c., abbott, p., & krass, i. (2015). investigating general practitioner engagement with pharmacists in home medicines review. journal of interprofessional care, 1, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.3109/13561820.2015.1012253 costa, p.t., & mccrae, r.r. (1992). neo-pi-r: professional manual. odessa, fl: psychological assessment resources. cote, s., & miners, c.t.h. (2006). emotional intelligence, cognitive intelligence and job performance. administrative science quarterly, 51, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.2189/asqu.51.1.1 dale, m. (2003). a manager’s guide to recruitment & selection (2nd edn.). london: kogan page. dan, p., zhang, y., & li, z. (2015). predictive capability of cognitive ability and cognitive style for spaceflight emergency operation performance. international journal of industrial ergonomics, 54, 48–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ergon.2016.04.008 davis, a.s., bardos, a.n., & woodward, k.m. (2006). concurrent validity of the general ability measure for adults (gama) with sudden-onset neurological impairment. international journal of neuroscience, 116(10), 1215–1221. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207450500516511 dumbu, e., & chadamoyo, p. (2012). managerial deficiencies in the small and medium enterprises (smes) in the craft industry: an empirical evidence of smes at great zimbabwe in chief mugabe’s area. european journal of business and management, 4(10), 28–35. fallon, c.k., jaafar, a.r., panganiban, a.r., wohleber, r., matthews, g., kustubayeva, a.m., & roberts, r. (2014). emotional intelligence, cognitive ability and information search in tactical decision-making. personality and individual differences, 65, 24–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.01.029 feist, j., & feist, g.j. (2009). theories of personality (7th edn.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. floyd, r.g., mcgrew, k.s., barry, a., rafael, f., & rogers, j. (2009). general and specific effects on cattell-horn-carroll broad ability composites: analysis of the woodcock-johnson iii normative update cattell-horn-carroll factor clusters across development. school psychology review, 38(2), 249–265. foo, m.d., elfenbein, h.a., tan, h.h., & aik, v.c. (2004). emotional intelligence and negotiation: the tension between creating and claiming value. international journal of conflict management, 15(4), 411–429. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb022920 furnham, a., dissou, g., sloan, p., & chamorro-premuzic, t. (2007). personality and intelligence in business people: a study of two personality and two intelligence measures. journal of business psychology, 22, 99–109. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-007-9051-z gardner, h. (1983). frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. new york, ny: basic books. gardner, h. (1993). multiple intelligences: the theory in practice. new york, ny: basic books. gardner, h. (1999). intelligence reframed: multiple intelligences for the 21st century. new york, ny: basic books. gatewood, r., feild, h.s., & barrick, m. (2016). human resource selection (8th edn.). boston, ma: cengage learning. goldenberg, i., matheson, k., & mantler, j. (2006). the assessment of emotional intelligence: a comparison of performance-based and self-report methodologies. journal of personality assessment, 86(1), 33–45. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa8601_05 gooty, j., gavin, m.b., ashkanasy, m.n., & thomas, j.s. (2014). the wisdom of letting go and performance: the moderating role of emotional intelligence and discrete emotion. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 87, 392–413. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12053 gottfredson, l.s. (1997). why g matters: the complexity of everyday life. intelligence, 24, 79–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0160-2896(97)90014-3 greenidge, d., devonish, d., & alleyne, p. (2014). the relationship between ability-based emotional intelligence and contextual performance and counterproductive work behaviors: a test of the mediating effects of job satisfaction. human performance, 27, 225–242. https:/doi.org/10.1080/08959285.2014.913591 gregory, r.j. (2004). psychological testing: history, principles, and applications. new delhi: pearson education. guilford, j.p. (1967). the nature of human intelligence. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. hattrup, k. (2012). using composite predictors in personnel selection. in n. schmitt (ed.), the oxford handbook of personnel assessment and selection (pp. 297–322). new york, ny: oxford university press. higgs, m. (2001). is there a relationship between the myers-briggs type indicator and emotional intelligence? journal of managerial psychology, 16(7), 509–533. https://doi.org/10.1108/eum0000000006165 hui-hua, z., & schutte, n.s. (2015). personality, emotional intelligence and other-rated task performance. personality and individual differences, 87, 298–301 https:/doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.08.013 hunter, j.e., & hunter, r.f. (1984). validity and utility of alternative predictors of job performance. psychological bulletin, 96(1), 72–98. http://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.96.1.72 husina, w.n.i., santos, a., ramosa, h.m., & nordinb, m.s. (2013). the place of emotional intelligence in the ‘intelligence’ taxonomy: crystallized intelligence or fluid intelligence factor? social and behavioural sciences, 97, 214–223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.225 ibm. (2013). spss statistics for windows, version 22. armonk ny: ibm corp. jensen, a.r. (1998). the g factor: the science of mental ability. london: praeger. jiao, c., & hardie, t. (2009). nationality, cultural values and the relative importance of task performance and organizational citizenship behaviour in performance evaluation decisions. journal of comparative international management, 12(1), 17–28. johnson, d.a., & miller, j. (2003). emotional intelligence: construct validity findings from the global personality inventory. paper submitted for presentation at the 2003 annual conference of the society for industrial and organizational psychology. joseph, d.l., & newman, d.a. (2010). emotional intelligence: an integrative meta-analysis and cascading model. journal of applied psychology, 95(1), 54–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017286 jundt, d.k., shoss, m., & huang, j.l. (2014). individual adaptive performance in organizations: a review. journal of organizational behavior, 36(s1), s53–s71. https:/doi.org/10.1002/job.1955 jung, c.g. (1921). psychological types. princeton, nj: princeton university press. kaluginaa, e., & shvyduna, s. (2014). an effective personnel selection model. procedia computer science, 31, 1102–1106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2014.05.365 kaufman, a., mclean, j., & lincoln, a. (1996). the relationship of the myers-briggs type indicator (mbti) to iq level and the fluid and crystallized iq discrepancy on the kaufman adolescent and adult intelligence test (kait). assessment, 3, 225–239. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191196003003004 kirby, l., & myers, k. (2000). introduction to type. oxford: oxford psychological press. lam, t., & kirby, s.l. (2002). is emotional intelligence and advantage? an exploration of the impact of emotional and general intelligence on individual performance. journal of social psychology, 142(1), 133–143. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224540209603891 leary, m.m., reilly, m.d., & brown, f.w. (2009). a study of personality preferences and emotional intelligence. leadership & organization development journal, 30(5), 421–434. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730910968697 leavy, p. (2017). research design: quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, arts-based, and community-based participatory research approaches. new york, ny: the guilford press. matula, p., & uon, v. (2016). a causal relationship model work engagement affecting organizational citizenship behavior and job performance of professional nursing. middle-east journal of scientific research, 24(5), 1600–1605. mayer, j.d., & salovey, p. (1997). what is emotional intelligence? in p. salovey & d. sluyter (eds.), emotional development and emotional intelligence: educational implications (pp. 3–31). new york, ny: basic books. mayer, j.d., salovey, p., & caruso, d.r. (2000). models of emotional intelligence. in r. sternberg (ed.), handbook of intelligence (pp. 396–420). new york, ny: cambridge university press. mayer, j.d., salovey, p., & caruso, d.r. (2002). manual for the msceit mayer-salovey-caruso emotional intelligence test. toronto: multi-health systems. mayer, j.d., salovey, p., & caruso, d.r. (2004). emotional intelligence: theory, findings and implications. psychological inquiry, 15(3), 197–215. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1503_02 mccaulley, m.h., & martin, c.r. (1985). career assessment and the myers-briggs type indicator. journal of career assessment, 3(2), 219–239. https://doi.org/10.1177/106907279500300208 mcnulty, j.p., mackay, s.j., lewis, s.j., lane, s., & white, p. (2016). an international study of emotional intelligence in first year radiography students: the relationship to age, gender and culture. radiography, 22, 171–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radi.2015.10.008/ miao, c., humphrey, r.h., & qian, s. (2017). are the emotionally intelligent good citizens or counterproductive? a meta-analysis of emotional intelligence and its relationships with organizational citizenship behavior and counterproductive work behaviour. personality and individual differences, 116, 144–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.04.015 mikolajczak, m., roy, e., verstrynge, v., & luminet, o. (2009). an exploration of the moderating effect of trait emotional intelligence on memory and attention in neutral and stressful conditions. british journal of psychology, 100, 699–715. https://doi.org/10.1348/000712608x395522 motowidlo, s.j. (2003). job performance. in w.c. borman, d.r. ilgen, r.j. klimoski & b.i. weiner (eds.), handbook of psychology, vol. 12: industrial and organisational psychology (pp. 39–53). hoboken, nj: wiley. murphy, a., & janeke, h.c. (2010). the relationship between thinking styles and emotional intelligence: an exploratory study. south african journal of psychology, 39(3), 357–375. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124630903900310 myers, i.b. (1987). introduction to type. palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. myers, i.b., & mccaulley, m. (1985). manual: a guide to the development and use of the myers-briggs type indicator. palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists. myers, i.b., mccaulley, m.h., quenk, n.l., & hammer, a.l. (1998). mbti manual: a guide to the development and use of the myers-briggs type indicator (3rd edn.). palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. myers, p.b., & myers, k.d. (2009). mbti® form m manual supplement. mountain view, ca: cpp. naglieri, j.a., & bardos, a.n. (1997). gama (general ability measure for adults) manual. minneapolis, mn: ncs pearson. nguwi, m. (2010, august 13). psychometric testing: guide to good practice. the financial gazette. retrieved from http://www.financialgazette.co.zw/comment/5109-psychometric-testing-guide-to-good-practice.html nguwi, m. (2014a, november 12). best practice in selecting graduate trainees. the financial gazette. retrieved from http://www.financialgazette.co.zw/best-practice-in-selecting-graduate-trainees/ nguwi, m. (2014b, november 12). best practice in recruitment, selection. the financial gazette. retrieved from http://www.financialgazette.co.zw/best-practice-in-recruitment-selection/ nyamubarwa, w., mupani, h., & chiduuro, c. (2013). an analysis of the human resource practices in the mining industry in zimbabwe’s midlands province: a relook at the resource-based view of managing human resources. iosr journal of humanities and social science, 17(1), 16–123. https://doi.org/10.9790/0837-171116123 o’boyle, e., humphrey, r.h., pollack, j.m., hawver, t.h., & story, p. (2011). the relation between emotional intelligence and job performance: a meta-analysis. journal of organizational behavior, 32, 788–818. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.714 organ, d.w., podsakoff, p.m., & mackenzie, s.b. (2006). organizational citizenship behavior: its nature, antecedents, and consequences. new delhi: sage. perry, c., & ball, i. (2005). emotional intelligence and teaching: further validation evidence. issues in educational research, 15(2), 175–192. petrides, k.v., & furnham, a. (2003). trait emotional intelligence: behavioural validation in two studies of emotion recognition and reactivity to mood induction. european journal of personality, 17, 39–57. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.466 petrides, k.v., pita, r., & kokkinaki, f. (2007). the location of trait emotional intelligence in personality factor space. british journal of psychology, 98, 273–289. https://doi.org/10.1348/000712606x120618 ployhart, r.e., & schneider, b. (2012). the social and organizational context of personnel selection. in n. schmitt (ed.), the oxford handbook of personnel assessment and selection (pp. 48–61). new york, ny: oxford university press. prince, a.l. (2015). examining the relationship between leadership decision making styles and personality type within the department of defence. unpublished doctoral dissertation. norfolk, va: old dominion university. rashid, m.m., mondol, m.a.s., rahman, m.s., & noman, m.r.f. (2016). use of communication sources by the women beneficiaries of rdrs in income generating activities. international journal of agricultural extension, 3(3), 187–194. rich, b.l., lepine, j.a., & crawford, e.r. (2010). job engagement: antecedents and effects on job performance. academy of management journal, 53(3), 617–635. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.51468988 rindermann, h. (2007). the big g-factor of national cognitive ability. european journal of personality, 21, 767–787. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.658 sample, j. (2017). a review of the myers-briggs type indicator in public affairs education. journal of public affairs education, 23(4), 979–992. https://doi.org/10.1080/15236803.2017.12002300 sas. (2013). statistical analysis system, version 9.4. cary, nc: sas institute inc. schmidt, f.l., & hunter, j.e. (1998). the validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. psychological bulletin, 124, 262–274. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.124.2.262 schmidt, f.l., & hunter, j.e. (2004). general mental ability in the world of work: occupational attainment and job performance. journal of personality and social psychology, 86(1), 162–173. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.86.1.162 schmit, m.j., kihm, j.a., & robie, c. (2000). development of a global measure of personality. personnel psychology, 53(1), 153–193. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2000.tb00198.x schutte, n.s., malouff, j.m., & bhullar, n. (2009). the assessing emotions scale. in c. stough, d. saklofske & j. parker (eds.), the assessment of emotional intelligence (pp. 119–135). new york, ny: springer. schutte, n.s., malouff, j.m., hall, l.e., haggerty, d.j., cooper, j.t., golden, c.j., & dornheim, l. (1998). development and validation of a measure of emotional intelligence. personality and individual differences, 25, 167–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0191-8869(98)00001-4 shehu, m.a., & saeed, f. (2016). an adaptive personnel selection model for recruitment using domain-driven data mining. journal of theoretical and applied information technology, 91(1), 117–130. sony, m., & mekoth, n. (2016). the relationship between emotional intelligence, frontline employee adaptability, job satisfaction and job performance. journal of retailing and consumer services, 30, 20–32. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2015.12.003 spearman, c. (1904). ‘general intelligence’, objectively determined and measured. american journal of psychology, 15, 201–292. https://doi.org/10.2307/1412107 spearman, c. (1923). the nature of ‘intelligence’ and the principles of cognition. london: macmillan. spearman, c. (1927a). ‘general intelligence’, objectively determined and measured. american journal of psychology, 15, 201–293. https://doi.org/10.2307/1412107 sternberg, r. j. (1985). beyond iq: a triarchic theory of intelligence. cambridge: cambridge university press. tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2001). using multivariate statistics (4th edn.). needham heights, ma: allyn & bacon. taber, k.s. (2017). the use of cronbach’s alpha when developing and reporting research instruments in science education. research in science education, 48, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-016-9602-2 teasdale, b., & ivanich, j. (2017). longitudinal methods in substance use research. in j.b. vangeest, t.p. johnson & s.a. alemagno (eds.), research methods in the study of substance abuse. dordrecht, the netherlands: springer. tehseen, s., ramayah, t., & sajilan, s. (2017). testing and controlling for common method variance: a review of available methods. journal of management sciences, 4(2), 142–168. thurstone, l.l. (1938). primary mental abilities. chicago, il: university of chicago press. tofighi, m., tirgari, b., fooladvandi, m., rasouli, f., & jalali, m. (2015). relationship between emotional intelligence and organizational citizenship behavior in critical and emergency nurses in south-east of iran. ethiopian journal of health sciences, 25(1), 79–88. https://doi.org/10.4314/ejhs.v25i1.11 tufail, m.s., bashi, m., & shoukat, n. (2017). impact of job design on employee’s organizational citizenship behavior and counterproductive work behavior in the banking sector of faisalabad. city university research journal, special issue, aic, malaysia, 1, 224–235. varela, o.e., salgado, e.i., & lasio, m.v. (2010). the meaning of job performance in collectivistic and high power distance cultures. cross-cultural management: an international journal, 17(4), 407–426. https://doi.org/10.1108/13527601011086603 varvel, t., adams, s.g., pridie, s.j., & ulloa, b.c.r. (2004). team effectiveness and individual myers-briggs personality dimensions. journal of management in engineering, 20(4), 141–146. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)074297x(2004)20:4(141) vernon, p.e. (1950). the validation of civil service selection board procedures. occupational psychology, 24, 75–95. vincent, n., ward, l., & denson, l. (2013). personality preferences and their relationship to ego development in australian leadership program participants. journal of adult development, 20, 197–211. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-013-9171-9 virmozelova, n., & dimitrova, n. (2013). relationship between personality types conceptualized by c.g. jung and emotional intelligence. psychological thought, 6(2), 339–357. https://doi.org/10.5964/psyct.v6i2.83 williams, l., & anderson, s. (1991). job satisfaction and organizational commitment as predictors of organizational citizenship and in-role behaviors. journal of management, 17, 601–617. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700305 willis, o.j., dumont, r., & kaufman, a.s. (2011). factor analytic models of intelligence. in r.j. sternberg & s.b. kaufman (eds.), the cambridge handbook of intelligence (pp. 39–56). cambridge: cambridge university press. wolff, s.b., pescosolido, a.t., & druskat, v.u. (2002). emotional intelligence as the basis of leadership emergence in self-managing teams. leadership quarterly, 13, 505–522. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(02)00141-8 wong, c.s., & law, k.s. (2002). the effects of leader and follower emotional intelligence on performance and attitude: an exploratory study. leadership quarterly, 13, 243–274. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(02)00099-1 wong, c.s., law, k.s., & wong, p. (2004). developing and validating of a forced-choice emotional intelligence measure for chinese respondents in hong kong. asia pacific journal of management, 21, 535–559. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.3.483 wong, c., wong, p., & law, k.s. (2007). evidence of the practical utility of wong’s emotional intelligence scale in hong kong and mainland china. asia pacific journal of management, 24, 43–60. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-006-9024-1 wu, y. (2011). job stress and job performance among employees in the taiwanese finance sector: the role of emotional intelligence. social behavior and personality, 39(1), 21–32. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2011.39.1.21 zeidner, m., matthews, g., & roberts, r.d. (2004). emotional intelligence in the workplace: a critical review. applied psychology: an international review, 53(3), 371–399. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2004.00176.x zinyemba, z.a. (2014). the challenges of recruitment and selection of employees in zimbabwean companies. international journal of science and research, 3(1), 29–33. https://doi.org/www.ijsr.net abstract introduction literature review research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) lebogang n. setsena department of people management and development, faculty of management sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa christian t. botha department of people management and development, faculty of management sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa leigh-anne paul-dachapalli department of people management and development, faculty of management sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa citation setsena, l.n., botha, c.t., & paul-dachapalli, l-a. (2021). relationship between organisational commitment and effectiveness of human resource management practices in a south african information technology company. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1586. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1586 original research relationship between organisational commitment and effectiveness of human resource management practices in a south african information technology company lebogang n. setsena, christian t. botha, leigh-anne paul-dachapalli received: 27 feb. 2021; accepted: 12 may 2021; published: 28 july 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: this article presents the characteristics associated with organisational commitment levels and the perception of the effectiveness of human resource (hr) management practices in a south african information technology (it) company. research purpose: the objective of this research was to investigate whether there was a significant positive relationship between organisational commitment levels and the effectiveness of hr management practices amongst employees within the it company along the lines of age, gender, race, educational level and tenure. motivation for the study: companies are becoming increasingly interested in the promotion of commitment amongst employees because of the numerous benefits associated with organisational commitment, such as improved employee performance and reduced employee turnover. research approach/design and method: a quantitative research approach was used and a structured questionnaire, validated from previous studies, consisting of close-ended questions was used. a convenience sampling was used and a sample size of 309 participants was used to collect necessary data. data were collected and analysed using the stata v15 statistical analysis software. the results were interpreted with frequencies and percentages using tables and figures. main findings: the results indicated that a positive relationship between organisational commitment and hr management practices exist. in terms of variables, demographical groups vary. practical/managerial implications: mangers need to understand employees’ perceptions and attitudes towards the hr management practices employed in the organisation to determine whether these particular hr management practices achieve desirable outcomes. contribution/value-add: this study will contribute to an in-depth understanding of the effectiveness of hr management practices in managing the high turnover in organisations and to improve employee commitment in south african it companies. keywords: organisational commitment; affective commitment; continuance commitment; normative commitment; human resource management practices. introduction main focus of the study the effectiveness of human resource (hr) management on organisational commitment has been a key area of research in the past years, and several studies showed that a positive relationship exists between hr management practices and organisational commitment (şendoğdu, kocabacak, & güven, 2013, p. 819). this study is therefore conducted to investigate the relationship between organisational commitment and perceived effectiveness of hr management practices in a south african information technology (it) company. furthermore, it is hoped that this study will contribute to an in-depth understanding of the effectiveness of hr management practices in managing the turnover in organisations and to improve employee commitment in south african it companies. background and contextualisation of the study in south africa, insufficient research is available specific to it industry employees. research has shown that it employees appear to have strong tendencies to leave their organisations (latchigadu, 2016, p. 34). the company is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of it solutions. the major challenge is that the company referred in this study has failed to maintain lower employee turnover rates in the past 3 years. on average, 15 employees leave the organisation per month. the highest number of resignations was recorded during the fiscal year 2018 when 49 employees resigned encompassing of 24 (48.98%) female employees and 25 male employees (51.02%). this becomes a major concern because it employees have specialised skills and are difficult to replace (van dyk & coetzee, 2012, p. 1). most of the company’s money is spent on training and improving workers in their fields of expertise, and therefore losing employees with critical skills is a major issue. in the past, employees were searching for a better firm but in this era, companies are striving hard to attract, retain and increase employee commitment (hassan & mahmood, 2016, p. 23). literature review organisational commitment this study used meyer and allen’s three-component model in a quest to examine the various ways on how organisational commitment evolves and affects employee behaviour in the workplace. the three-component model stems from three distinct perspectives, namely affective commitment (emotional attachment), continuance commitment (cost) and normative commitment (responsibility) (meyer & allen, 1991). affective commitment refers to the emotional relationship that employees develop towards their organisation (mabaso, 2017, p. 99). research consistently shows that employees who are committed affectively will remain with the organisation because they desire to stay (coetzee, mitonga-monga, & swart, 2014; mitonga-monga & flotman, 2017). ferreira (2012, p. 3) researched that employees with affective commitment show emotional attitudes towards the organisation. they also have strong emotions and the desire to support the organisation’s goals and values (naik, 2012, p. 30). continuance commitment is theorised as the employees’ awareness and acknowledgement of the costs and consequences associated with leaving the organisation (ferreira, 2012, p. 3). employees continue to work for an organisation because employee cannot afford to leave (greenberg & baron, 2003, p. 162). becker (1960) found that employees who show continuance commitment rather stay with the organisation than to lose the investments they have accumulated throughout the years. nkomo’s (2013, p. 71) research indicates that this attitude occurs when employees are aware that there are lack of job alternatives available to them. researchers meyer and allen (1991, p. 67) refer to normative commitment as an emotion of obligation to remain with the organisation and continue employment. muleya (2017, p. 16) reports that normative commitment occurs when employees remain with the organisation because of an indebted obligation. ndjama’s (2015, p. 37) study indicates that normative commitment is influenced by social norms regarding the extent to which employees are or ought to be committed to their organisation. cohen (2007, p. 343) states that these employees strongly believe that it is ethical to be loyal to their organisation. for instance, tojari, esmaeili and majedi (2013, p. 165) found that when organisations train and invest in their employees, they might feel obligated to remain and repay the organisation by being loyal to their organisation. mabaso’s (2017, p. 100) study indicates that these obligatory feelings are based on employees’ appreciation for incentives they have received from the organisation, in terms of training and development. human resource management practices human resource management practices are considered to be one of the major factors influencing organisational commitment, which, in turn, may lead to the production of desired organisational outcomes (balgobind, 2007; coetzee et al., 2014; laka-mathebula, 2004). the question therefore arises as to which hr management practices lead to improved organisational effectiveness. research consistently shows that managers need to implement hr management practices that mould employees’ behaviours and attitudes to improve favourable outcomes and performances (obeidat, masa’deh, & abdallah, 2014, p. 10). tan and nasurdin (2011, p. 157) view hr management practice as a system that motivates, attracts, retains and develops workers to ensure the effective implementation and the survival of the organisation and its employees. coetzee et al. (2014, p. 3) state that hr management practices may also be regarded as systems and processes aimed at improving the organisation’s effectiveness and performance. coetzee et al.’s (2014) study further uncovered 13 critical hr management practices that south african organisations need to consider to achieve favourable outcomes and high performance. human resource management practices have therefore become essential in gaining a competitive advantage. these organisational hr practices were labelled as change management, communication, diversity and transformation, hr policies and procedures, innovation, job satisfaction, leadership, management style, performance, recognition, rewards and remuneration, training and development, and values and culture. a study by guchait (2007) uncovered eight effective hr management practices that affect employee commitment, and these hr management practices are relevant to the present study and include: training and development, performance appraisal, staffing, rewards, benefits, equal employment opportunities, good and safe working conditions and information sharing. each of these hr management practices is discussed below. training and development refers to the learning process that is aimed at helping employees to acquire and reinforce their skills, knowledge, experience and attitudes that employees need to perform their tasks efficiently and effectively to achieve the organisational goals (tsere, 2015, p. 6). although the present study is based in an it services company, dockel, basson and coetzee (2006, p. 22) highlight that it is significantly important to train employees on the latest technologies. this is to ensure that employees are well equipped with current and future skills that are demanded within the it industry. dockel et al.’s (2006, p. 22) study further indicates that employees feel valued after the organisation has invested in them through training, in turn, their affective commitment grows. performance appraisal refers to a systematic process for enhancing organisational performance by improving current and future performance of employees (armstrong, 2006, p. 495). shayo (2013, p. 9) reports that performance appraisal significantly contributes to the effectiveness of hr management because it is associated with organisational performance. performance appraisal is important because it appears to be a crucial part of any hr management system (farrell, 2013, p. 8). staffing is a critical hr management practice and that this process unquestionably plays a vital role in helping the organisation sustaining competitive advantage (brock & buckley, 2013, p. 272). george (2014, p. 13) views staffing as a process of attracting most suitable job applicants who have the skills, knowledge and abilities required to help the organisation achieve its goals and objectives. coetzee and schreuder (2010, p. 71) highlight that the importance of staffing is hiring talented and qualified employees with critical and scarce skills to help the organisation to remain competitive in the globalised business environment. rewards are the key factors that retain and attract the best employees, more especially when employees are demotivated or have many job alternatives (mabaso, 2015, p. 28). rewards are classified into two groups, namely extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. according to mabaso (2015, p. 28), extrinsic rewards are payoffs that organisations grant employees such as promotion, recognition, money and benefits, whereas intrinsic rewards are payoffs that are internally experienced and self-granted such as self-actualisation, self-esteem and a sense of accomplishment. this means that rewards play an important role by helping organisations to strengthen anticipated current and future performance. researchers coffie, boateng and coffie (2018, p. 173) found that a significant relationship between rewards and organisational commitment exists. meyer and smith (2000, p. 321) highlight that the ability of a company’s rewards practices to achieve emotional and normative commitment was largely influenced by the perceptions of procedural justice associated with the implementation of this factor. benefits can be viewed as indirect forms of the organisation’s rewards intended to help with the attainment of the hr management objectives of motivating, attracting and retaining employees (swanepoel, erasmus, schenk, & tshilongamulenzhe, 2014, p. 664). similarly, mabaso’s (2015, p. 13) study indicates that benefits are significant characteristics that organisations use to motivate, attract and retain talented employees. these benefits may be in a form of health club affiliation, relocating expenses, education fees, car and cell phone allowance (martocchio, 2013, p. 6). good and safe working conditions refer to the degree to which an organisation provides employees with satisfactory work hours, safe working facilities, autonomy, workloads and rest pauses, which are all determinants of the employee’s retention, job satisfaction and organisational commitment (mabaso, 2017, p. 82). he added the provision of good and safe working conditions in the workplace should be top priority in every organisation regardless of the type of services they offer or industry. a study by mrara (2010) found that providing good and safe working conditions to employee’s is significant in determining whether employees’ intentions are to stay with or leave the organisation. when employees feel that the employer offers them pleasant working conditions such as clean working environments, adequate equipment and tools, employees will find it easy to perform their jobs (peete, 2016, p. 22). contrary, when employees experience poor work and less satisfactory conditions in terms of noisy, unhygienic and facilities that lack ventilation, employees tend to be demotivated to get their work done (mabaso, 2015, p. 31). this implies that employees enjoy working under good and safe conditions, where they feel important and valued, they put in more effort to help the organisation to achieve its objectives (fauzi, ahmad, & gelaidan, 2013, p. 646). hence, mabaso (2015, p. 29) concluded that good and safe working conditions play a significant role as a motivating factor for employees’ satisfaction and commitment. equal employment opportunity is one of the most crucial hr management practice in organisations (peete, 2018, p. 61). kola’s (2012) study indicates that the south african government implemented a strategy known as affirmative action and subsequently introduced the employment equity act to redress the inequities caused by the apartheid era, where some employees were given more opportunities than their counterparts. for many years, researchers have been interested in the relationship between sharing of information and organisational commitment (laka-mathebula, 2004; meyer & allen, 1991). information sharing includes transparent hr policies and procedures (coetzee et al., 2014, p. 8). according to coffie et al. (2018, p. 174), information sharing ensures that employees are recognised in the decision-making process of the organisation and sends a signal to the employees that management respects their opinions and values their participation. this provides employees the assurance that the organisation values them and subsequently grows their affective commitment (meyer & allen, 1991, p. 62). research design research approach a quantitative survey design approach was used to achieve the objectives of the study. the research approach can be described as a cross-sectional field survey, where data were collected at one point in time. the design is suitable to study the relationship between the different variables of organisational commitment and hr management practices. questionnaires were used to collect primary data and data analysis used was both descriptive and inferential statistics. research method research participants the population consisted of 1500 employees in an it company in south africa and a sample of 309 was used. a convenience sampling was used. the participants who took part in this study in terms of demographics were 25.89% male participants and 74.11% female participants. in terms of race, 91.59% were black people, and 8.41% were white people. most of the participants were aged between 22 and 29 (85.44%) and 30 and 39 (10.36%), and less participants were between the ages of 40 and 65 (4.20%). most of the participants were single (89.97%) and married (7.77%), and less participants were divorced and widowed (2.26%). with regard to educational level, participants who held a higher certificate equivalent to grade 12 constituted 7.12% of the sample. the lowest percentage (3.24%) of participants possessed diplomas and advanced certificates. the majority of the participants 52.43% possessed a degree and advanced diploma this is followed by 30.42% participants that possess postgraduate degree. whilst 6.80% of participants possessed other qualifications. in terms of tenure, participants who completed the questionnaire had a tenure of service between 0 to 1 year comprised 61.17% between 2 and 5 years of tenure, 2.27% between 6 and 9 years of tenure, 1.29% between 10 and 15 years of tenure and 0.65% had 16 to 25 years of tenure. the majority of participants (70.87%) were employed at analyst level, followed by the other category, which constituted 19.74% of participants, whilst senior analyst represented 3.56%. the smallest participants were employed at associate manager level with 3.24% and managers with 2.59%. measuring instruments two measuring instruments were used in this study. to measure employees’ level of commitment, the organisational commitment questionnaire (ocq) (meyer & allen, 1991) was used. the ocq is used to measure employees’ affective commitment (eight items), continuance commitment (eight items) and normative commitment (eight items). a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) was used. with regard to internal consistency, meyer and allen (1997) reported the following cronbach’s alpha coefficients: affective (0.85), continuance (0.79) and normative commitment (0.73). although meyer and allen (1997) cronbach’s alpha coefficients findings were higher than 0.70, this study yielded acceptable cronbach’s alpha coefficients: affective (0.53), continuance (0.66) and normative commitment (0.69). the researchers decided to follow bryman and bell’s (2007, p. 164) recommendation of 0.50 that would be an acceptable threshold for an acceptable alpha score for this study. the human resource management practices questionnaire (hrmpq) which was wellestablished by (guchait, 2007) was used to measure employees’ perceptions regarding eight organisational hr practices. these practices are seen to affect employee commitment and are therefore deemed to be important for creating job satisfaction. the hrmpq that consists of 32 items measured on a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) was used. originally, the hrmpq instrument consists of 42 items; however, for this particular study, only 32 items were used. with regard to internal consistency, guchait (2007:32) reported the following cronbach’s alpha coefficients: training and development (0.82), performance appraisal (0.79), staffing (0.69), rewards (0.91), benefits (0.71), equal employment opportunities (0.78), good and safe working conditions (0.75) and information sharing (0.86). the present study yielded practically acceptable internal consistency reliabilities: training and development (0.83), performance appraisal (0.83), staffing (0.73), rewards (0.65), benefits (0.54), equal employment opportunities (0.78), good and safe working conditions (0.84), and information sharing (0.73). research procedure with regard to ethical considerations, the management at the it company of interest was approached and permission was granted to conduct the study. ethical clearance was issued by the research committee. an informed consent form was completed by the participants and by completing and returning the consent forms and questionnaires indicated that they had granted permission for their responses to the questionnaires to be utilised for the purpose of the study. participation was optional and the confidentiality of the participants was sustained. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for a research with direct contact with human or animal subjects. results the stata version 15 statistical analysis software was used for the analysis of data. descriptive statistics were reported in a form of frequencies and percentages. in terms of inferential statistics, the structural equation modelling (sem) using the partial least squares path modelling approach (pls-pm) was performed. bootstrapping was used to estimate the parameters and associated standard errors in the direct and indirect effect in the statistical analysis of the structural equation model through the non-parametric method. pearson’s chi-square test with a recommended and acceptable cut-off point of 0.05 was applied. if the p-value is less than 0.05, a significant relationship exists and if the p-value is greater than 0.05, a significant relationship does not exist (field, 2009). descriptive statistics respondents the research site was situated in an it company in gauteng, south africa. a total of 309 respondents participated in the study, and the response rate was 100%. the data presented in table 1 show more female participants (74.11%) than male participants (25.89%) who participated in the study. the data show that most respondents were african with 86.41%, followed by their white counterparts with 8.41%. mixed races represented 3.56% and the remaining 1.62% represented indian participants. the majority of the respondents (85.44%) were between the ages of 22 and 29 years. with regard to the education of the respondents, the majority of the respondents (52.43%) have degrees and advanced diplomas. in terms of tenure, the data show that 34.63% of the respondents who completed the questionnaire had a tenure of service between 0 and 1 year, 61.17% between 2 and 5 years of service, 2.27% between 6 and 9 years of service, 1.29% between 10 and 15 years of service and 0.65% had between 16 and 25 years of service. table 1: characteristics of participants. pearson’s chi-square test of significance the chi-square test was applied to all 24 ocq questionnaires and the different groups of the biographical variables, namely gender, race age, level of education and years of service. the interpretation was performed at alpha value of 0.05. thus, the association was declared significant if the p-value was found to be less than 0.05 (field, 2009, p. 688). the association between biographical variables and organisational commitment is explained below. the computed significance values of gender and the eight dimensions of affective commitment were greater than 0.05. hence, it is concluded that there is no significant association between gender and each dimension of affective commitment. this implies that the participants are not emotionally attached to their organisation. with regard to gender and continuance commitment, the results showed that a statistically significant association (p = 0.017) exists between the gender of the participants and the continuance commitment dimension for ‘staying with my organisation is a matter of necessity as much as desire’. this implies that gender influences the importance that employees attached to staying with their organisation are a matter of necessity as much as desire. the present study yielded that the computed significance values of the relationship between gender and the eight dimensions of normative commitment were greater than the acceptable value of 0.05. hence, it was concluded that there is no significant relationship between gender and each dimension of normative commitment. the present study yielded that gender is strongly associated with continuance and normative commitment. with regard to race and affective commitment, the results show that a statistically significant association (p = 0.018) exists between the race of the participants and the affective commitment dimension for ‘i think that i could easily become as attached to another organisation as i am to this one’. the results also reported that a statistically significant association (p = 0.024) exists between the race of the participants and the affective commitment dimension for ‘i do not feel a strong sense of belonging to my organisation’. the present study indicated that a statistically significant association (p = 0.004) exists between the race of the respondents and the continuance commitment dimension: ‘it would be very hard for me to leave my organisation right now, even if i wanted to’. the results also show that a statistically significant association (p = 0.002) exists between the race of the respondents and the continuance commitment dimension: ‘it would not be too costly for me to leave my organisation now’. the results further show that a statistically significant association (p = 0.027) exists between the race of the respondents and continuance commitment dimension: ‘staying with my organisation is a matter of necessity as much as desire’. the other dimensions of continuance commitment did not have a statistically significant relationship with race. furthermore, the present study showed that a statistically significant association (p = 0.014) exists between the race of the respondents and normative commitment dimension: ‘jumping from organisation to organisation does not seem at all unethical to me’. the results further show that a statistically significant association (p = 0.049) exists between the race of the respondents and normative commitment dimension: ‘i was taught to believe in the value of remaining loyal to one organisation’. the other dimensions of normative commitment did not have a statistically significant relationship with race. the study reported that all organisational levels had a positive relationship with participants’ race. with regard to age and affective commitment, the results showed that a statistically significant association (p = 0.026) exists between the age of the respondents and affective commitment dimension: ‘i do not feel like part of the family at my organisation’. the results also show that a statistically significant association (p = 0.030) exists between the age of the respondents and affective commitment dimension: ‘i do not feel emotionally attached to this organisation’. the other dimensions of affective commitment did not have a statistically significant relationship with age. the results showed that a statistically significant association (p = 0.044) exists between the age of the respondents and continuance commitment dimension: ‘i am not afraid of what might happen if i quit my job without having another one lined up’. the other dimensions of continuance commitment did not have a statistically significant relationship with age. furthermore, the results reported that the computed significance values of the relationship between age and the eight dimensions of normative commitment are greater than the acceptable value of 0.05. therefore, it is concluded that there is no significant relationship between age and each dimension of normative commitment. the present study yielded that participants’ age was strongly associated with affective and continuance commitment. the results showed that the computed significance values of the relationship between the educational level of the respondents and the eight dimensions of affective commitment are greater than the acceptable value of 0.05. therefore, it is concluded that there is no significant relationship between education and each dimension of affective commitment. with regard to continuance commitment, a statistically significant association exists between items b10 with a p-value of 0.005: ‘it would be very hard for me to leave my organisation right now, even if i wanted to’. as well as b13 with a p-value of 0.010: ‘staying with my organisation is a matter of necessity as much as desire’. in addition, the results showed that a statistically significant association (p = 0.001) exists between the educational level of the respondents and the normative commitment dimension for ‘i do not believe that a person must always be loyal to his or her organisation’. though, the other dimensions of normative commitment did not have a statistically significant relationship with education. the present study yielded that participants’ educational level was strongly associated with affective and continuance commitment. the results reported that the computed significance values of the relationship between position and the eight dimensions of affective commitment are greater than the acceptable value of 0.05. therefore, it is concluded that there is no significant relationship between position and each dimension of affective commitment. with regard to continuance commitment, a statistically significant association (p = 0.014) exists between the position held respondents and the continuance commitment dimension b10: ‘it would be very hard for me to leave my organisation right now, even if i wanted to’. the results also show that a statistically significant association (b13: p = 0.036 and b14: p = 0.048) exists between the educational level of the respondents and the continuance commitment dimension. with regard to tenure, the results showed that a statistically significant association (p = 0.030) exists between the years of service of the respondents and the affective commitment dimension: ‘i enjoy discussing my organisation with people outside it’. the results also showed that a statistically significant association (p = 0.002) exists between the years of service of the respondents and the continuance commitment dimension: ‘staying with my organisation is a matter of necessity as much as desire’. furthermore, it was reported that a statistically significant association (p = 0.012) exists between the years of service of the respondents and the normative commitment dimension: ‘i was taught to believe in the value of remaining loyal to one organisation’. however, the other dimensions of normative commitment did not have a statistically significant relationship with years of service worked at the organisation. the study reported that all organisational levels had a positive relationship with participants’ tenure. measurement model evaluation structural equation modelling process consists of two parts, namely the measurement model evaluation and the testing of the structural model. measurement model evaluation is intended to evaluate the validity and consistency of the manifest variables. validity of the variables is tested based on convergent and discriminant validity, and individual manifest reliability explains the variance of individual manifest relative to latent variable by calculating standardised outer loadings of the manifest variable, whilst, consistency evaluations are through individual manifest and construct reliability tests. factor and reliability analysis the results presented in table 2 showed that the cronbach’s alpha values for all the variables are between the cut-off point of 0.5 and 0.7. the dillon–goldstein’s rho for all the variables was above 0.7 that indicates homogeneity of the factor. the results suggest that all the variables are reliable with regard to internal consistency. the quality of a measurement model was examined by testing the convergent validity, which shows the degree to which the indicators under the constructs are related. convergent validity shows the amount of variance the indicators have in common: high factor loading and average variance extracted (ave). according to hair, black, babin and anderson (2014, p. 107), ave loadings above 0.5 are indicators of convergent validity. the results displayed in table 2 indicate that the ave loadings were above 0.5, except for continuance commitment with 0.3. the final model factor loadings are also reported in table 2. table 2: final model: revised assessment of the internal consistency. structural equation model results only variables that showed a positive significant relationship were reported. the results presented in figure 1 show that there is a positive significant relationship between training and development and normative commitment, β = 0.217 and confidence interval (ci) (0.062, 0.382). the results show that performance appraisal has a significant positive effect on normative commitment with β = 0.276 and ci (0.956, 0.439). the results further show that there is a positive significant relationship between staffing and continuance commitment β = 0.161 and ci (0.006, 0.338). with regard to information sharing and affective commitment, a positive significant relationship with β = −0.190 and ci (−0.333, −0.068) exists. the results also reported that there is a positive significant relationship between benefits and normative commitment, β = 0.118 and ci (0.004, 0.246). figure 1 also shows a positive significant relationship between good and safe working conditions and affective commitment with β = −0.292 and ci (−0.420, −0.140) exists. similarly, the results indicate a positive significant relationship between good and safe working conditions and continuance commitment with β = 0.336 and ci (0.160, 0.476). figure 1: structural model relationship between organisational commitment and human resource management practices. discussion this study contributes to the empirical research that coetzee et al. (2014), van dyk and coetzee (2012), coetzee and botha (2012), laka-mathebula (2004) and dockel (2003) conducted in the south african perspective. researchers have conducted previous research to investigate the relationship between organisational commitment and job satisfaction on employee performance and retention in south africa. however, not much has been done to investigate the hr management practices that have a major influence on employee commitment in it organisations. this study is one of the few that investigated the impact of organisational commitment levels and the effectiveness of hr management practices in a south african it company. therefore, this study’s results are anticipated to contribute to the existing literature on organisational commitment and hr management practices and to provide references to it organisations in south africa. outline of the results demographics and organisational commitment levels with regard to gender, the present study showed that a positive relationship exists between continuance and normative commitment and participants’ gender. the results are in agreement with the findings of khalili and asmawi (2012). they reported that gender is positively associated with continuance commitment. however, the present study contradicts the findings of van dyk and coetzee (2012). they showed that men seemed to have a significant relationship than their women counterparts on affective commitment. according to thabane (2016, p. 39), early research shows that gender’s impact on organisational commitment has produced inconsistent results. research performed by mathieu and zajac (1990) showed that female participants are affectively committed more to the organisation than men, whereas research by ngo and tsang (1998) showed no positive relationship between gender and organisational commitment. initially, the works of wahn (1998) highlighted that female participants are more affectively committed to the organisation than men. whilst a lot of evidence points to this conclusion, there should be a consideration that female participants have fewer employment opportunities than their counterparts. with regard to race, black participants were found to be more committed than their white counterparts. the results are consistent with martin and roodt (2008) and clinton-baker (2013); their results showed that black participants were more positive about their commitment to the organisation than white participants. opposingly, research performed by coetzee and schreuder (2010) reported that black managers seemed to have lower commitment levels compared to white managers. coetzee and botha (2012) reported that opposing findings on whether ethnicity affect organisational commitment that may be a result of differences in the conceptualisation of commitment. with regard to age, the present study reported that age had a statistically significant relationship with affective and continuance commitment. the findings appear to support that of laka-mathebula (2004). the study reported that age is positively associated with organisational commitment. bull (2005) found that younger employees have lower levels of commitment towards their organisation. peete’s (2016) study found that older employees have high levels of commitment because of investment they have accumulated over the years with their organisation. the present study yielded that participants’ educational level was strongly associated with affective and continuance commitment. joiner and bakalis’ (2006) study found that an employee’s educational level is positively related to organisational commitment. contrary, kargar’s (2012) study found no positive relationship between employees’ educational level and organisational commitment. if employees’ levels of education increase, their level of commitment will decrease (martin & roodt, 2008, p. 29). employees with high levels of education are exposed to more alternative opportunities of employment than employees with less qualifications (kelly, 2015, p. 34). the present study yielded that participants’ position is strongly associated with continuance and normative commitment. with regard to tenure, the study reported that all organisational levels had a positive relationship with participants’ tenure. the findings also seem to corroborate the study of anari (2012). the study showed that participants’ years of service are positively associated with organisational commitment. van dyk’s (2011) study found that employees with longer than 11 years and above are significantly associated with affective and normative commitment. the relationship between organisational commitment and human resource management practices according to the results, training and development has a strong, significant relation to normative commitment. literature shows that employees with normative commitment reflect feelings of obligation to stay with an organisation. employees feel that they need to stay with an organisation because it paid for their training and development. the result corroborates the finding of coetzee et al. (2014)., which was significantly related to normative commitment. martin (2011. p. 37) argues that training is a significant component attributing to high levels of organisational commitment. his study further reveals that the employee’s commitment levels increase subsequent to training. in addition, martin (2011, p. 37) reveals that the employee’s commitment and motivation for training is strongly positive. therefore, it is important for organisations to gain a competitive advantage using different training and development methods and, ultimately, assisting employees to acquire new skills and knowledge. managers should invest more in training and developing employees because the organisation is an it organisation and technology is rapidly changing, and this will help reinforce employees’ current and future skills, which will be required by the organisation and employees to perform their duties efficiently. performance appraisal has a strong significant relation with normative commitment. contrary, laka-mathebula (2004) found that the relationship between performance appraisal and organisational commitment is not very clear. if a company offers high-quality performance appraisal experience, it is likely to improve the perceived company obligations of the employees, which in turn could impact their attitudes and potentially their behaviours (mopalami, 2015, p. 35). therefore, it is highly recommended that managers should appraise employees fairly and equally. according to the findings of this study, staffing has a significant positive relation with continuance commitment. staffing is a critical hr management practice and that this process unquestionably plays a vital role in helping the organisation sustain competitive advantage (brock & buckley, 2013, p. 272). the findings of the present study are corroborated by coffie et al. (2018). they found that staffing has a significant positive relation with continuance commitment. managers should refrain from hiring people based on favouritism, but should employ talented and qualified employees to assist the organisation to achieve its current and future goals. with regard to rewards, the present study finding showed that rewards had no significant positive relation with affective, continuance and normative commitment. the findings contradict that of coffie et al. (2018). they found that a signification relationship between rewards and organisational commitment exists. furthermore, research performed by laka-mathebula (2004) found that reward systems, such as a higher wage base, share of earnings, bonuses and stock options for employees, act as incentives for employees to commit to organisational goals. it is therefore recommended that managers need to provide it professional with such rewards. dockel’s (2003) findings are in agreement by revealing that high technology employees want a competitive salary. the findings of the present study showed that information sharing had a significant positive relation with affective commitment. the results corroborate that of meyer and smith (2009). they reported that the sharing of information is positively correlated with affective commitment by building the trust of managers and the self-worth of workers. coetzee et al. (2014) agree by suggesting that information such as hr policies and procedures should be conveniently available to everyone in the organisation. with regard to equal employment opportunities, the results also show that the computed significance values of the relationship between equal employment opportunities and all dimensions of organisational commitment were negative. hence, it is concluded that there is no significant relationship between equal employment opportunities and each dimension of organisational commitment. this might suggest that employees are not treated fairly. the manner in which they are treated determines the level of their commitment towards the organisation (coetzee & botha, 2012, p. 9). employees begin to seek for alternative job opportunities once they feel that they are not treated fairly (van dyk & coetzee, 2012). according to coetzee and botha (2012), fair treatment in the organisation includes giving workers autonomy, treating workers with respect, giving workers equal responsibility and having expectations of workers. the positive relationship between organisational commitment and equal employment opportunities as a critical hr management practices is dependent on perceived equity by employees (peete, 2016, p. 23). human resource policies and procedures should be observed consistently in the organisation to ensure perception of fairness (coetzee et al., 2014; dockel, 2003). it is therefore encouraged that equal and fair employment opportunities should be given to all employees despite their race, age, gender, beliefs and culture. benefits showed a significant positive with normative commitment. mcmullen et al. (2009, p. 19) state that benefits, specifically healthcare benefits, are regarded as predictors of attracting and retaining talented employees, because competitors also provide employees benefits. lack of healthcare benefits often results in employee dissatisfaction and increased turnover and absenteeism (robbins & de cenzo, 2019, p. 314). managers should offer solid employee benefits that attract and help to retain talented employees, such as employee wellness programmes. recently, one of the important employee benefit trends is building a healthcare organisational culture as a manner to generate and retain a healthy, happy, active and productive workforce. mabaso (2015, p. 31) agrees by affirming that benefits are significant characteristics that organisations use to motivate, attract and retain talented employees. the results show a positive significant relationship between good and safe working conditions and affective and continuance commitment. in a workplace in which there are no adequate conditions, the motivation level of the employee decreases and this situation negatively affects the satisfaction of the employee (ozdemir, 2009, p. 104). according to mgiba (2015, p. 21), employees who perceive high limits in their working environment tend to be unhappy with their jobs. coetzee and botha (2012) agree by revealing that the way in which workers are treated determines the level of their commitment towards the organisation. therefore, managers should create a conducive and safe work environment, which is satisfying for employees to perform their duties efficiently. managerial implications based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that the organisation would likely improve employee commitment and attract and retain talented employees if they invest more in training and developing employees. this means that employees will meet the organisation’s required current and future skills, in order to remain competitive in the market. management should also appraise employees fairly. furthermore, the organisation should hire qualified and talented employees because employees who are not qualified tend to underperform. the organisation should further offer motivating rewards such as ‘employee of the month’ recognition and solid employee benefits such as wellness programmes to keep employees active, happy, healthy and productive. it is noteworthy to highlight that a conducive and safe work environment is significantly important to the success of the organisation. limitations of the study the results of this study should be considered with certain limitations in mind. firstly, the study conducted a cross-sectional research, which used a non-probability sampling technique. on account of the latter, the results cannot be generalised to the whole population. secondly, because of the nature of the company, some participants seemed sensitive about revealing confidential company information. this could have resulted in inadequate responses to the questionnaire, which made it difficult to carry out the research. lastly, the research was conducted in only one company, which makes it impossible to generalise the findings. recommendations similar studies could be conducted to investigate the impact of organisational commitment levels and the effectiveness of hr management practices at other organisations in south africa such as municipalities, government departments, academic institutions and the hospitality sector. similar studies could be conducted to investigate the relationship between organisational commitment, job satisfaction and the effectiveness of talent management. conclusion the objective of this research was to investigate whether there was a significant positive relationship between organisational commitment levels and the effectiveness of hr management practices. the results show that rewards and equal work opportunities have a negative relationship with employees’ levels of commitment. however, the findings show that there is a positive relationship between training and development, performance appraisal, staffing, information sharing, benefits and good workings, and commitment levels. these findings could assist managers to realise which hr management practices influence organisational commitment of employees particularly within the it sector in south africa. the results also show that there is a positive relationship between organisational commitment and demographics particularly gender, race, age, educational level and tenure. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions l.n.s. initiated the project as part of his m tech hrm degree. c.t.b. acted as a supervisor, and therefore involved from the conceptualisation of the project and l.p.d. acted as a co-supervisor. the authors wrote the article jointly as a team effort. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references anari, n.n. (2012). teachers: emotional intelligence, job satisfaction, and organisational commitment. journal of workplace learning, 24(4), 256–269. https://doi.org/10.1108/13665621211223379 armstrong, m. (2006). performance management: key strategies and guidelines (3rd edn.). london: kogan page. balgobind, p. (2007). the relationship between human resource management practices and organisational performance in the manufacturing sector of the beer industry in south africa. mba dissertation, pretoria: university of pretoria. becker, h.s. (1960). notes on the concept of commitment. american journal of sociology, 6(2), 32–42. https://doi.org/10.1086/222820 brock, m.e., & buckley, m.r. (2013). human resource functioning in an information society: practical suggestions and future implications. public personnel management, 42(2), 272–280. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026013487047 clinton-baker, m. (2013). the relationship between career anchors, organisational commitment and turnover intention. m.com dissertation, university of south africa, pretoria. coetzee, m., & botha, j. (2012). the languishment of employee commitment in the light of perceptions of fair treatment in the workplace. south african journal of human resource management, 10(2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.436 coetzee, m., & schreuder, d. (2010). personnel psychology: an applied perspective. cape town: oxford university press. coetzee, m., mitonga-monga, j., & swart, b. (2014). human resource practices as predictors of engineering staff’s organisational commitment. south african journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.604 coffie, r.b., boateng, k.a., & coffie, f. (2018). achieving organizational commitment through hrm practices: the ghanaian banking sector experience. international journal of business and management, 13(5), 171–184. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v13n5p171 cohen, a. (2007). commitment before and after an evaluation and reconceptualization of organizational commitment. human resource management review, 17(3), 336–354. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2007.05.001 döckel, a. (2003). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. m.com. dissertation, university of pretoria, pretoria. döckel, a., basson, j.s., & coetzee, m. (2006). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. south african journal of human resource management, 4(2), 20–28. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v4i2.91 farrell, a. (2013). an investigation into performance appraisal effectiveness from the perception of employees in an irish consumer services company. mba dissertation, national college of ireland. fauzi, n.f.b., ahmad, f., & gelaidan, h.m. (2013). the employee retention status in paddy and rice industry in malaysia. middle east journal of scientific research, 18(5), 642–650. ferreira, n. (2012). constructing a psychological career profile for staff retention. doctoral dissertation. pretoria: university of south africa. field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss (3rd edn.). london: sage. george, r.l. (2014). a critical investigation of recruitment and performance management in the import and export industry in cape town, south africa. doctoral dissertation, cape peninsula university of technology. greenberg, j., & baron, r.a. (2003). behaviour in organizations: understanding and managing the human side of work. trenton: prentice-hall international. guchait, p. (2007). human resource management practices and organizational commitment and intention to leave: the mediating role of perceived organizational support and psychological contracts. m.sc thesis, missouri-columbia: university of missouri-columbia. hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2014). multivariate data analysis. harlow: pearson. hassan, s., & mahmood, b. (2016). relationship between human resource management practices and organizational commitment of employees: an empirical study of textile sector in pakistan. international journal of academic research in accounting, finance, and management sciences, 6(1), 23–28. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarafms/v6-i1/1952 joiner, t.a., & bakalis, s. (2006). the antecedents of organisational commitment: the case of australian casual academics. international journal of educational management, 20(6), 439–452. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513540610683694 kargar, m. (2012). evaluation of organisational commitment of employees in university, case study: islamic azad university. journal of basic and applied scientific research, 2(5), 5017–5021. khalili, a., & asmawi, a. (2012). appraising the impact of gender differences on organizational commitment: empirical evidence from a private sme in iran. international journal of business and management, 7(5), 100–110. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v7n5p100 kola, m.i. (2012). managing employment equity in higher education in south africa. doctoral thesis. pretoria: university of south africa. laka-mathebula, m.r. (2004). modelling the relationship between organisational commitment, leadership style, management practices and organisational trust. doctoral dissertation, university of pretoria. latchigadu, c.m. (2016). the relationship between organisational culture and organisational commitment. m.com dissertation. pretoria: university of south africa. mabaso, m.c. (2015). the influence of rewards on talent attraction and retention at a further education and training college in gauteng. m.tech dissertation, vaal university of technology, vanderbijlpark. mabaso, m.c. (2017). the influence of rewards on job satisfaction and organisational commitment among academic staff selected universities of technology in south africa. doctoral dissertation, durban university of technology, durban. martin, a., & roodt, g. (2008). perceptions of organizational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intentions in a post-merger south african tertiary institution. south african journal of industrial psychology, 43(1), 23–31. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v34i1.415 martocchio, j.j. (2013). strategic compensation: a human resource management approach (7th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson. mathieu, j.e., & zajac, d.m. (1990). a review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates and consequences of organisational commitment. psychological bulletin, 108(7), 171–194. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.108.2.171 meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1991). a three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment. human resource management review, 1(1), 61–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/1053-4822(91)90011-z mgiba, s. (2015). job satisfaction and the intention to quit by employees in a steel manufacturing company in gauteng. m.tech dissertation, vaal university of technology, vanderbijlpark. mitonga-monga, j., & flotman, a.p. (2017). gender and work ethics culture as predictors of employees’ organisational commitment. journal of contemporary management, 14(1), 270–290. mrara, m.t. (2010). an investigation of turnover and retention factors of health professional employee within the eastern cape department of health. m.com dissertation, rhodes university, grahamstown. muleya, d. (2017). retention factors and employee organisational commitment at a higher education institution in south africa. m.com dissertation, university of venda, thohoyandou. naik, n.a. (2012). organisational culture and organisational commitment in a consulting firm. m.com. dissertation. pretoria: university of south africa. ndjama, j.d.n. (2015). employees’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility and the relationship with organisational commitment and intention to stay in a telecommunications company. m.tech dissertation, vaal university of technology, vanderbijlpark. nkomo, e. (2013). motivation, work values, organisational commitment and job satisfaction: age and generational cohort effects. m.com. dissertation. johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. obeidat, b., masa’deh, r., & abdallah, a. (2014). the relationships among human resource management practices, organizational commitment, and knowledge management processes: a structural equation modelling approach. international journal of business and management, 9(3), 9–26. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v9n3p9 ozdemir, s. (2009). factors influencing job satisfaction in azerbaijan companies. journal of qafqaz, 1(26), 102–108. peete, m.b. (2016). employees’ job satisfaction, organisational commitment and intention to stay at an international hotel in lesotho. m.tech dissertation, vaal university of technology, vanderbijlpark. robbins, s.p., & decenzo, d.a. (2019). fundamentals of human resource management (12th edn.). john wiley. şendoğdu, a., kocabacak, a., & güven, s. (2013). the relationship between human resource management practices and organizational commitment: a field study. procedia social and behavioural sciences, 99(6), 818–882. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.553 shayo, a.f. (2013). the effects of performance appraisal system on employees’ performance in the tanzanian community radios: a case of selected radios in dar es salaam. mba dissertation, open university of tanzania, dar es salaam. swanepoel, b.j., erasmus, b.j., schenk, h.w., & tshilongamulenzhe, t. (2014). south african human resource management: theory and practice (4th edn.). cape town: juta. tan, c.l., & nasurdin, a.m. (2011). human resource management practices and organizational innovation: assessing the mediating role of knowledge management effectiveness. electronic journal of knowledge management, 9(2), 155–167. thabane, l.j. (2016). the effect of job satisfaction on the organisational commitment of administrators at a university in gauteng. m.tech dissertation, vaal university of technology. tojari, f., esmaeilli, m.r., & majedi, n. (2013). the predictability of coaching efficacy on organisational commitment. european journal of experimental biology, 3(6), 164–171. tsere, a.a. (2015). impact of training to organizational commitment on government institutions: a case of ethics secretariat. mba dissertation, mzumbe university, mzumbe. van dyk, j. (2011). the relationship between organisational commitment, retention factors and perceived job embeddedness. m.com dissertation, university of south africa, pretoria. van dyk, j., & coetzee, m. (2012). retention factors in relation to organisational commitment in medical and information technology services. south african journal of human resource management, 10(2), 77–79. wahn, j. (1998). sex differences in the continuance component of organizational commitment. group and organization management, 23(3), 256–267. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601198233004 abstract introduction problem statement research questions literature review aim and purpose of the study research method and design entree and establishing researcher roles participants and sampling data collection methods recording of data data analyses research quality assurance findings and discussion discussion practical implications limitations of the study and recommendations for future research acknowledgements references about the author(s) ingrid l. potgieter department of human resource management, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa segopotse e. mokomane human resources staffing and client services, human resources (support department), university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation potgieter, i.l., & mokomane, s.e. (2020). implementation of human resource management functions in selected small manufacturing companies in ga-rankuwa industrial area, gauteng, south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1282. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1282 original research implementation of human resource management functions in selected small manufacturing companies in ga-rankuwa industrial area, gauteng, south africa ingrid l. potgieter, segopotse e. mokomane received: 30 sept. 2019; accepted: 16 june 2020; published: 31 aug. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: human resource management (hrm) is a fundamental element in the success of any organisation. research on hrm functions in medium and large organisations has been given much attention. however, few research studies have been conducted in assessing the importance and implementation of hrm functions in small companies. research purpose: the objective of this study was to investigate the implementation of hrm functions and its perceived importance in small manufacturing companies (smc), as well as the limitations or barriers to effective hrm implementation in smcs. the motivation for the study: human resource management functions play a strategic role in any organisation. literature studies indicate that relatively little is known about hrm functions in small businesses. this research aimed to contribute to the knowledge of hrm and enhance the understanding and importance of the hrm functions in smcs. research approach/design and method: a qualitative research design was followed. a convenience sampling technique was used with eight participants. data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews. main findings: the hrm functions of recruitment and orientation, general labour relations, human resource information systems (hris), performance management, training and development, and remuneration and benefit were informally implemented and acknowledged as crucial in smcs. the study further found that a limited budget, lack of resources and capacity, inadequate systems, ineffective employment relationships, lack of knowledge and understanding of hrm functions and business instability negatively affect smcs to implement all hrm functions within the business and therefore negatively influence the performance of the company. practical/managerial implications: all managers/owners and employees are aware of all the hrm functions that could enhance the performance and success of their organisation. contribution/value-add: the study findings will assist smcs to implement and understand the importance of hrm functions as well as the barriers to effective implementation of hrm functions. keywords: human resource management; hrm functions; small manufacturing companies; small businesses; general labour relations; training and development; performance management. introduction the research literature shows that several studies have been conducted in medium and large companies to assess the effectiveness of human resource management (hrm) functions. most of the medium and large companies have developed effective human resource (hr) strategies to manage their employees (bartram, 2005; chand & katou, 2007; cho, woods, jang, & erdem, 2006; kotter, 2014; malhotra & temponi, 2010; ogunyomi & bruning, 2016; olson & staley, 2012; pajo, coetzer, & guenole, 2010; psychogios, szamosi, prouska, & brewster, 2016). small companies, however, have not been given much attention in this regard. several definitions of small companies or small manufacturing enterprises (or small manufacturing company [smc]) are found in the literature. according to the australian fair work act (2009), small businesses employ less than 15 employees. the european union classifies a business as small if it employs fewer than 50 employees. totka (2013) defined a small business as an organisation where fewer than 500 employees are employed. according to prajapati (2018), financial turnover and capital are the main characteristics to classify a company as a small business. most definitions, however, seem to agree that a small business is defined by either the number of employees employed in the organisation or by its annual turnover. krishnan and scullion (2017) noted that smcs play an important role in the economy of any country. small businesses are confronted with challenges such as insufficient managerial skills, lack of trained staff, poor financial management, limited budget and technology, all of which impact negatively the business performance and success (karadag, 2015; mokomane, 2018). mokomane (2018) confirmed that although hr practices in smcs are done informally, a small business still encounters several challenges to the successful implementation of hrm functions. some of these challenges include limited budgets, lack of resources and capacity, inadequate systems, poor relationships between employer and employees and lack of hr knowledge and business instability. this article aims to broaden research on the implementation of hrm functions and its perceived importance in smcs, as well as the limitations or barriers to effective hrm implementation in selected smcs in the ga-rankuwa industrial area of the gauteng province. the findings from the research may contribute to the field of hrm. more specifically, this article contributes to the knowledge of human resources in terms of identifying which functions are implemented in smcs and how it relates to the perceived importance of the function. on a theoretical level, the research findings may be useful for future research, contribute to the knowledge of hrm and positively enhance the understanding and importance of the hrm functions in a small organisation. on a practical level, the research can be used by smcs to create awareness in terms of which functions are indeed crucial for the success of an organisation. in addition, recognition will be created in terms of the barriers to successful implementation of hrm. organisations can use this knowledge to implement the functions deemed necessary as well as to design strategies to reduce the identified barriers. problem statement global changes in the manufacturing setting directly influence the competitiveness of smcs in south africa. for an smc to be competitive, it should have policies and procedures to guide it to remain and maintain a competitive edge. in view of the above, this article aimed to investigate the implementation of hrm functions as guidance to competitiveness and its perceived importance for smcs, as well as the limitations and barriers to effective hrm implementation in smcs. the findings will address the problem of the limited information available with regard to hrm functions within smcs. research questions this article addressed the following research questions: which hrm functions are most commonly implemented in smcs? what is the perceived importance of the hrm functions implemented in smcs? what are the perceived limitations/barriers to effective hrm implementation in smcs? what recommendations can be made to improve hrm functions? literature review human resource management is a strategic approach to the effective management of employees within an organisation to gain and enhance competitive advantage and successful performance. several hrm functions were found in the literature, which can be used to manage employees successfully within an organisation. ogunyomi and bruning (2016:66) indicated that the core hrm functions include ‘(1) planning and recruitment, selection and induction; (2) performance management; (3) learning and development and (4) recognition and reward’. akpan (2011) added employee well-being to the core hrm functions. haslinda (2009) categorised hrm functions into recruitment and selection; compensation and benefits, labour and industrial relations; and safety and health management, training and development, performance appraisals management, career planning and development, and change management. according to psychogios et al. (2016), hrm in smes has mainly been studied in western countries or large economies (such as the east). it is therefore important to take typical hrm functions within the south african context into consideration. for this study, the hrm model of the south african board for people practices (sabpp) was adopted. the sabpp hrm model outlines the minimum set of hr practices that small, medium and large companies should apply to successfully and efficiently manage their employees. the sabpp hr system standards model consists of 13 hrm functions (see table 1). table 1: human resource management functions as categorised by the south african board for people practices. human resource management is a vital strategic partner in the business environment, as it ensures that the business has qualified employees to conduct daily business (jacobson & sowa, 2015; krishnan & scullion, 2017). the success of a business highly depends on the management of its employees and a proper established structure within the business (sheehan, 2014). the importance of implementing hrm functions in smcs is considered valuable and contributes to the organisational goals (ogunyomi & bruning, 2016; wu, 2014). if hrm functions are not implemented, the turnover rate of employees will increase and productivity will decrease (henning, 2019; shen, chanda, d’netto, & monga, 2009). an organisation may have trouble to resolve conflict owing to the lack of labour relations policies and procedures to handle employee relations matters (caldwell, truong, linh, & tuan, 2011). most small companies fail to apply hrm functions and, as a result, individuals are appointed in positions where they do not possess the relevant skills and knowledge (guest, 2011). employees in most smcs are not being trained or developed to improve on their current capacity; employees are unfairly remunerated, organisations typically encounter several grievances and, ultimately, it affects negatively the operations and success of the organisation (frick, malo, martinez, & schneider, 2012). previous research (krishnan & scullion, 2017; nolan & garavan, 2016) has revealed several reasons for the lack of implementation of hrm functions in smcs. some of the reasons identified by these authors include (1) a lack of guidelines or procedures to assist employees in understanding and practising hrm functions; (2) lack of hrm professionals to help organisations to implement the functions effectively; (3) insufficient managerial skills; (4) lack of trained staff; (5) poor financial management; (6) a limited budget to implement functions; and (7) lack of experience, skills and competence to perform and manage hrm functions. although it is important, it is not always possible for all smcs to implement all the hrm functions. it is however important to recognise which functions are vital for the organisational success. aim and purpose of the study ineffective implementation of hrm functions in small businesses can lead to lower productivity and a reduced competitive advantage (sikora & ferris, 2014). this study therefore aimed to investigate the implementation of hrm functions and its perceived importance in smcs, as well as the limitations and barriers to effective hrm implementation in smcs. research method and design research approach this study employed a qualitative research design with a descriptive research approach to determine the perceived importance of hrm functions implemented in smcs as well as limitations or barriers to effective hrm implementation in smcs. the researcher thus aimed to describe the precise lived experiences of the individuals without an assumption about the phenomenon under study (oliver, 2012). research strategy in this transcendental or descriptive phenomenological study, employees employed in smcs within the ga-rankuwa industrial area were interviewed. phenomenologists focused on describing what all participants have in common as they experience a phenomenon (giorgi, 2010). research setting the research setting refers to the physical environment in which the researcher conducts the interview (mannay, 2010). the research was conducted amongst smcs within the ga-rankuwa industrial area. the interviews were held at the participants’ workplace in a setting provided by the participants at an appropriate site of convenience. the research setting and physical environment are vital as these aspects can influence the outcome of the research (king & horrocks, 2010; terre blanche, durrheim, & painter, 2006). therefore, the researcher ensured that the interview setting was comfortable, allowed for privacy and that it was a quiet surrounding during the interviews. entree and establishing researcher roles the researcher plays different roles in the research. in this study, access to the research setting was undertaken by obtaining permission from the owners or managers of the relevant smcs within the ga-rankuwa industrial area. the researcher planned and conducted the interviews at the participants’ workplace. the researcher first explained the research process and obtained informed consent from the participants before commencing the interview. participants and sampling de queiroz (2007) defined delimitations as the determination of the boundaries and specific numbers of the cluster from the empirical study. this research only focused on smcs at ga-rankuwa industrial area (gauteng province). a convenience sampling technique was used to select the smcs in the area. therefore, smcs that were accessible to use and willing to participate were selected for the study. the study excluded other small companies and smcs from other provinces and other areas within gauteng province. this study, in particular, used a qualitative method approach to investigate the implementation of hrm functions and its perceived importance, as well as the limitations or barriers to hrm functions in smcs. the participants in this research were managers, supervisors, hr practitioners or officers and employees involved in hr administration. the sample was a minimum of eight participants within different smcs or until data saturation was reached. data collection methods data collection is the process of identifying the data collection methods to gather and measure information from a range of sources to obtain appropriate outcomes (brod, tesler, & christensen, 2009). a qualitative data collection method was used in this study. semi-structured interview questions were used as a data collection method concerning the perceptions of the implementation, perceived importance and limitations or barriers to hrm functions in smcs. semi-structured interviews were conducted with the following four open-ended questions (see table 2). table 2: interview questions. recording of data interviews were conducted in english, and all the participants were fluent in english. all the meetings were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and then checked by the researcher. the interviews were audio-recorded to ensure correctness, truth and quality of the data. recording of the interview ensured that the researcher correctly captured the qualitative data (tuffrey-wijne & butler, 2009). the transcripts were used in the data analysis process. both the audio recordings and transcripts were kept in a safe place to maintain confidentiality. data analyses data analysis is a process in which the data are broken down into smaller meaningful pieces to interpret and conceptualise it (bailey, 2008). the researcher ensured that preconceptions do not twist the meaning of the data discovered (lukka & modell, 2010). a categorising technique was used to analyse the data in this study (vaismoradi, turunen, & bondas, 2013). accordingly, similar data were grouped and conceptualised before axial coding was employed. open coding is applicable to analyse qualitative data by naming and categorising or grouping similar data, whereas axial coding links various categorised data obtained from open coding to relate to each other. most importantly, the analysis of the qualitative research methodology using the phenomenological approach allowed the researcher to discover and interpret participants’ lived experiences (sloan & bowe, 2014). research quality assurance peredaryenko and krauss (2013) noted that the main instrument in qualitative research is the researcher because the researcher observes, writes notes, speaks to participants, interprets and makes sense of the phenomenon under study. the researcher consulted theoretical literature applicable to the research topic and used a triangulation strategy to collect and compare multiple data sources to search for common themes to support the theory. a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews was used to control bias and provide valid and conclusive evidence. prior to the interviews, the researcher read a prepared background and purpose of the research to the participants. furthermore, the researcher created a positive interview environment before asking the participants to share their perspectives regarding the implementation of hrm functions, its perceived importance and limitations or barriers to effective hrm implementation within smcs. note-taking and a digital voice recorder were used to capture the interview proceedings. the use of this method was informed by the need to ensure trustworthiness and reliability of the data. this study thus made sure to establish trustworthiness in terms of credibility, authenticity, transferability, dependability and confirmability. ethical consideration ethical considerations focus on ensuring that the researcher adhered to ethical principles and that codes of ethics are not compromised during the study to protect the participants from any harmful practices (garriga & mele, 2004). ethical clearance and approval were obtained from the research institution and the organisations where the interviews were conducted (ethical clearance number: 2017_hrm_006). permission was obtained from the owners or managers of the relevant smcs within the industrial area to conduct the research. it was ensured that the ethics procedures of the institution were followed at all times. participants were provided with an inform consent form clearly stating the purpose of the qualitative study. they were assured of the rightness of their privacy, for example, the identity of the participants was kept anonymous, all the data were handled confidentially and participation was voluntary. also, participants signed the consent form to grant permission to partake in the study (welman, kruger, & mitchell, 2005). findings and discussion the section presents and discusses the research findings of the study in terms of phenomenological qualitative analysis. data analysis of the interview data yielded four themes relating to the implementation of hrm functions within smcs. the following themes were identified using tesch’s (1990) method of content analysis: (1) explanation of the implementation of hrm functions, (2) perceived importance of the hrm functions implemented in smcs, (3) perceived limitations or barriers to effective hrm implementation in smcs and (4) recommendations for improving hrm practices. the following section outlines the above-mentioned themes. theme 1: implementation of human resource management functions table 3 shows that 12 subthemes emerged from question 1 (regarding the implementation of hrm functions within smcs, which hrm functions are most commonly implemented within smcs?). the subthemes related to strategic hrm, recruitment, selection, orientation, hr training and development, labour relations, remuneration and benefits, performance management, hr information systems, manual hr administration, limited benefits and no performance bonuses. table 3: summary of the core themes about implementation and perceived importance of human resource management functions as well as perceived limitations or barriers to effective human resource management implementation in small manufacturing companies. table 3: summary of the core themes about implementation and perceived importance of human resource management functions as well as perceived limitations or barriers to effective human resource management implementation in small manufacturing companies. the findings revealed that of the eight smcs interviewed, participants confirmed that smcs implemented informal hr practices such as strategic hrm, recruitment, selection, orientation, training and development, labour relations, performance management, and remuneration and benefits. five participants confirmed that smcs used manual hr administration. human resource management functions such as competitive remuneration and benefits, talent management, organisational development, measuring hr success and human resource information systems (hris) were not implemented within the sampled smcs. human resource information systems was not predominant. however, participant 3 mentioned that internal systems are used to calculate hours, overtime and to pay salaries. therefore, it seems as if smcs implement hrm functions; however, it is carried out informally. based on the interviews, recruitment, orientation, training and development functions were mostly implemented by the rest of the sampled smcs. participant 6 emphasised that training and development are implemented; however, there is a lack of collective participation in training arrangements within the business. according to participants 4 and 8, the business makes a lower profit; however, employees are entitled to a year-end performance bonus. all the eight participants reported that they comply with labour legislation. however, the extent of compliance was not determined. from table 2, it could be further concluded that not all hrm functions were implemented within smcs. it is evident that informally some of the hrm functions are implemented. no formal policies and procedures seem to be in place for guiding the implementation and execution of hrm functions. theme 2: perceived importance of the human resource management functions implemented in small manufacturing companies table 3 shows that seven subthemes emerged from question 2 (i.e. what is the perceived importance of the hrm functions implemented in smcs?). the subthemes related to recruitment, remuneration and benefits, labour relations, performance management, hr information systems, orientation, and training and development. it is evident from table 2 that the importance of hrm functions in smcs includes the following: assisting companies to have successful recruitment and appointments; ensuring that small companies conduct successful job induction, providing correct salary and benefits administration, and motivating and increasing employees’ morale level. a transfer of skills through offering training to improve organisational performance is crucial. participants further emphasised that the perceived importance of hrm functions lies in assisting small companies to comply with relevant legislation, such as labour relations act, unemployment insurance act, basic conditions of employment act, and occupational health and safety. it can be concluded that the implementation of hrm functions is considered essential to ensure successful operation in smcs. it seems as if employees might think that having formal policies and procedures about hrm functions will ensure the effectiveness of hrm functions and increase productivity in smcs. theme 3: perceived limitations or barriers to effective human resource management implementation in small manufacturing companies table 3 shows that five subthemes emerged from question 3 (i.e. what are the perceived limitations or barriers to effective hrm implementation in smcs?). the subthemes related to ineffective employment relationships, lack of employee capacity, limited budget and resources, inadequate systems and lack of knowledge and understanding. as shown in table 3 the following limitations or barriers to the effective implementation of hrm in smcs were reported: (1) company encountered limited budget, (2) lack of resources and capacity, (3) inadequate systems, (4) a weak relationship between employer and employees (ineffective employment relationships), (5) business instability and lack of knowledge and understanding of hrm functions. it can be concluded that the above-mentioned barriers or limitations negatively affect smcs to implement all hrm functions within the business and, therefore, negatively influence the performance of the company. furthermore, the participants reported that they are unable to fulfil all hrm functions owing to limited budget and resources within the business. theme 4: recommendations for improving human resource management practices table 3 shows that five subthemes emerged from question 4 (i.e. what recommendations can be formulated for improving hrm practices?). the participants indicated the following recommendations for improving hrm practices: provide training and development opportunities; create awareness about the importance of hrm functions; implement hands-on management approach and top management buy-in in terms of managing employees, and adopt an anti-nepotism policy. discussion this study aimed to investigate the implementation of hrm functions and its perceived importance in smcs, as well as the limitations or barriers to effective hrm implementation in smcs. the study found that not all hrm functions were implemented within smcs because of lack of resources and capacity, lack of knowledge and understanding of senior management regarding hrm functions and limited budgets. it is evident that informally some of the hrm functions were implemented. no formal policies and procedures seem to be in place for guiding the implementation and execution of hrm functions, which is also confirmed by a study carried out by mtshokotshe (2018). the interpretations of the participants regarding the implementation of hrm functions and its perceived importance in smcs as well as the limitations or barriers to effective hrm implementation in smcs are similar to those indicated by the research literature (barret & mayson, 2007; mokomane, 2018; maldonado-guzman, garza-reyes, ponzon-castro & kumar, 2017). it was evident from the literature that small businesses are not equipped enough to respond to the environmental changes, which affect the business operations owing to the lack of strategic hrm (simsek & heavy, 2011). darcy, hill, mccabe and mcgovern (2014) stated that the lack of financial resources impacts negatively small companies to adopt some of the hrm functions, which concur with the findings of this study. schuler and jackson (2014) further buttressed that owner or manager buy-in is important because management perceptions can be a barrier to the implementation of hrm functions in the business environment. more specifically, the study found that hrm functions, such as talent management, organisational development, risk management and measuring hr success, were not implemented in smcs and not seen as important. strategic hrm and selection were implemented, but they were not seen as important. although they are very important hrm functions, it seems as if they were not essential for the survival of smcs. human resource information systems and remuneration and benefits were partially implemented, but they were seen as important hrm functions. the participants still considered hrm functions as important in smcs and every organisation; however, the lack of resources (skills, capital, personnel and knowledge) affects the full implementation of hrm functions in smcs (baumann-pauly, wickert, spence, & scherer, 2013; okoye & ezejiofor, 2013; terziovski, 2010). recruitment, labour relations, performance management, orientation, and training and development were implemented and indicated by the participants as important for smcs. it seems as if hrm functions were informally implemented. however, the participants feel it is essential that it should be formalised into policies and procedures. the research findings were presented in two forms. the study discussed the integration of the literature review and the empirical study. from eight smcs interviewed, the participants confirmed that smcs implemented informal hr practices, such as strategic hrm, recruitment, selection, orientation, training and development, labour relations, performance management, and remuneration and benefits. human resource management functions such as competitive remuneration and benefits, talent management, organisational development, measuring hr success and hris were found not implemented within the sampled smcs. the participants also confirmed that smcs used manual hr administration. one participant reported that internal systems are used to calculate hours, overtime and to pay salaries. the perceptions of participants regarding the implementation of hrm functions in smcs support previous studies in the literature. the literature indicated that hrm functions in small companies are inadequately implemented. malhotra and temponi (2010), mokomane (2018), and zhu and verstraeten (2013) underscored that small businesses do not usually use hris in the business environment. hussain, wallace and cornelius (2007) argued that small companies should learn from larger companies to utilise technology for various hr purposes. although hr practices in smcs are performed informally, it is evident that the implementation of hrm functions is considered important to ensure successful operation in smcs. albrecht, bakker, gruman, macey and saks (2015) asserted that hrm functions promote excellent communication and ensure that hrm policies and procedures are implemented. however, the participants might be of the view that having formal policies and procedures about hrm functions will ensure the effectiveness of the function and increase productivity in smcs. this study found that smcs encountered limitations or barriers to effective hrm implementation in smcs. the participants reported that limited budget and a lack of resources negatively affect smcs to implement all hrm functions within the business. several studies have also found that limited budget and a lack of resources are the most evident limitations or barriers encountered by the smcs (ahmer, 2013; darcy et al., 2014; jadhav, mantha, & rane, 2014; ongori & migiro, 2010). the participants provided recommendations for improving hrm practices in smcs. the most important recommendations provided by the participants were to provide training and development opportunities, create awareness about the importance of hrm functions, implement hands-on management approach and/or top management buy-in regarding managing employees and adopt the anti-nepotism policy. the above recommendations signify that all managers or owners and employees should get the appropriate training regarding the implementation of hrm functions. hands-on management approach and/or top management buy-in will assist managers to recognise employees’ input and gain more understanding of hrm functions in their business operations. it is necessary to create awareness regarding the importance of hrm functions to encourage smcs to implement all hrm functions. also, it is essential to implement anti-nepotism policy in smcs to prevent any form of preference about recruitment, salary or promotion of a close relative. the anti-nepotism policy will encourage healthy relationships in the workplace. managers or owners play a critical role in ensuring that business operation plans and long-term objectives are achieved. therefore, the manager needs to have extensive knowledge of hrm (dezdar & ainin, 2011; yates & paquette, 2011). both employer and employees should create a work environment that encourages engagement and ensures successful business operation (bakker, albrecht, & leiter, 2011; brown, 2013). owoyemi, oyelere and elegbede (2011) also emphasised that it is essential for both employees and managers to ensure the successful implementation of hrm functions in small companies. practical implications all managers or owners and employees must be aware of all the hrm functions that could enhance the performance and success of their organisation. the results of this study may guide smcs in terms of which functions are essential to implement for the survival of their business. although it is understandable that smcs do not see the need or have the resources to implement hris within their organisations, incorporating technology is becoming inevitable as we are entering fourth industrial revolution. (amaral, jorge, & pecas, 2019). awareness should be created that even though adopting and implementing hris may be costly, the long-term benefit that any organisation will gain from using technology will be far more than the initial cost. limitations of the study and recommendations for future research the study provided contributions regarding the implementation of hrm functions in smcs. there were limitations of the empirical study: participants in this study were employees of selected smcs within the ga-rankuwa industrial area (gauteng province). the research only focused on smcs in ga-rankuwa industrial area and excluded other small companies and smcs from other provinces and other regions of the gauteng province. thus, no generalisations can be made, as the perceptions of participants explored in this study could be representative of only the particular smcs that were included in the study. however, the participants’ responses may still be typical of what employees in south african workplace experience, thereby allowing for the transferability of the study findings (appleton, 1995; terre blanche et al. 2006). future studies integrating more participants from different sectors and provinces of south africa might reveal further insights into the implementation of hrm functions and its perceived importance as well as limitations or barriers to effective hrm implementation in smcs. conclusion human resource management functions play a vital role in ensuring that business operations are efficiently met to contribute to the overall objectives of the organisation. therefore, it is essential to implement interventions to enhance employment relationships and to create an understanding of hrm functions. for instance, it can be recommended that smcs have quarterly informal lunch breaks together or a team-building or sharing session to build rapport and increase satisfaction with employment relationships. online cheap or free crash courses on hrm functions, a free training programme by labour department or reading of hr magazines (workforce magazine, hr future and hr magazine) on hrm functions and its importance may be beneficial to the owners of smcs. this may reduce the limitations or barriers to the business, thereby leading to the effective implementation of hrm functions in smcs. small manufacturing companies implement hris on a small scale. however, smcs can rent services and software from the supplier, unlike purchasing a large, expensive hris. training and development opportunities should be provided to both employees and owners. for instance, on-the-job training and off-the-job training methods can be applied to educate both parties to obtain knowledge and improve the understanding of hrm functions. owners should support hr presentation within the business to create awareness about the importance of hrm functions in smcs. this will empower and encourage everyone to implement hrm functions successfully in the business environment. management should follow a more hands-on approach. human resource management functions in an organisation can be effectively implemented only if the owners or top management communicate the advantages of hr practice within the business environment. therefore, the implementation of hrm functions should be a collective teamwork from the top management or owners and employees. small manufacturing companies need to adopt an anti-nepotism policy. this can be done by involving employees in the process of developing the policy and procedure and communicating the approved policy and procedure to staff members. also, smcs need to provide training where required. based on the recommendations of the participants, the researcher made the following recommendations to improve the implementation of hrm functions in smcs: participants reported that smcs implemented informal hr practices. however, smcs need to formalise some of their hrm functions (such as developing clear policies and procedures in terms of recruitment, selection, training and development and performance management) within the business and ensure that those hrm functions that appear as important must be consistently implemented in smcs. acknowledgements this article is published from a masters dissertation completed by ms segopotse mokomane. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or positions of any affiliated agency of the authors. references ahmer, z. (2013). adoption of human resource information systems innovation in pakistani organizations. journal of quality and technology management, ix(ii), 25–50. akpan, e.i. (2011). effective safety and health management policy for improved performance of organisations in africa. african journal of economic and management studies, 1(2), 128–137. https://doi.org/10.1108/20400701011073455 albrecht, s.l., bakker, a.b., gruman, j.a., macey, w.h., & saks, a.m. (2015). employee engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: an integrated approach. journal of organizational effectiveness: people and performance, 2(1), 7–35. https://doi.org/10.1108/joepp-08-2014-0042 amaral, a., jorge, d., & pecas, p. (2019). small medium enterprises and industry 4.0: current models’ ineptitude and the proposal of a methodology to successfully implement industry 4.0 in small medium enterprises. procedia manufacturing, 41, 1103–1110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2019.10.039 appleton, j.v. (1995). analysing qualitative interview data: addressing issues of validity and reliability. journal of advanced nursing, 22(1), 278–308. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.1995.tb02653.x bailey, j. (2008). first steps in qualitative data analysis: transcribing. family practice, 25(2), 127–131. https://doi.org/10.1093/fampra/cmn003 baird, m., & williamson, s. (2010). women, work and industrial relations in 2009. journal of industrial relations, 52(3), 355–369. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022185610365644 bakker, a.b., albrecht, s.l., & leiter, m.p. (2011). work engagement: further reflections on the state of play. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 20(1), 74–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2010.546711 bani, m., bani, a., pourbagher, m., taghavi, m., & mansourian, m. (2014). measuring the relationship between equity and intellectual capital. management science letters, 4, 739–742. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2014.2.015 barrett, r., & mayson, s. (2007). human resource management in growing small firms. journal of small business and enterprise development, 14(2), 370–320. https://doi.org/10.1108/14626000710746727 bartram, t. (2005). small firms, big ideas: the adoption of human resource management in australian small firms. asia pacific journal of human resources, 43(1), 137–154. https://doi.org/10.1177/1038411105050311 batt, r., & banerjee, m. (2012). the scope and trajectory of strategic hr research: evidence from american and british journals. the international journal of human resource management, 23(9), 1739–1762. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.610933 baumann-pauly, d., wickert, c., spence, l.j., & scherer, a.g. (2013). organising corporate social responsibility in small and large firms: size matters. journal of business ethics, 115, 693–705. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1827-7 benedict, c.i. (2013). economic recession and investment on human resource information systems (hris). journal of management development, 32(4), 404–418. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621711311326383 bhengu, m.b., & bussin, m. (2012). the perceived effectiveness of employee share options as a mechanism of talent management in south africa. acta commercii, 12(1), 85–93. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v12i1.135 brod, m., tesler, l.e., & christensen, t.l. (2009). qualitative research and content validity: developing best practices based on science and experience. quality of life research, 18(9), 1263–1278. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-009-9540-9 brown, a. (2013). managing challenges in sustaining business excellence. international journal of quality & reliability management, 30(4), 461–475. https://doi.org/10.1108/02656711311308420 caldwell, c., truong, d.x., linh, p.t., & tuan, a. (2011). strategic human resource management as ethical stewardship. journal of business ethics, 98(1), 171–182. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0541-y ceylan, c. (2013). commitment-based hr practices, different types of innovation activities and firm innovation performance. the international journal of human resource management, 24(1), 208–226. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.680601 chan, s.h., & kuok, o.m. (2011). a study of human resources recruitment, selection, and retention issues in the hospitality and tourism industry in macau. journal of human resources in hospitality & tourism, 10(4), 421–441. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332845.2011.588579 chand, m., & katou, a.a. (2007). the impact of hrm practices on organisational performance in the indian hotel industry. employee relations, 29(6), 576–594. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425450710826096 cho, s., woods, r.h., jang, s., & erdem, m. (2006). measuring the impact of human resource management practices on hospitality firms performances. hospitality management, 25(2), 262–277. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2005.04.001 darcy, c., hill, j., mccabe, t.j., & mcgovern, p. (2014). a consideration of organisational sustainability in the sme context: a resource-based view and composite model. european journal of training and development, 38(5), 398–414. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejtd-10-2013-0108 davidson, m.c., timo, n., & wang, y. (2010). how much does labour turnover cost? a case study of australian fourand five-star hotels. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 22(4), 451–466. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596111011042686 de queiroz, k. (2007). species concepts and species delimitation. society of systematic biologists, 56(6), 879–886. https://doi.org/10.1080/10635150701701083 dezdar, s., & ainin, s. (2011). the influence of organisational factors on successful erp implementation. management decision, 49(6), 911–926. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251741111143603 dimba, b.a., & rugimbana, r. (2013). an assessment of the moderating role of employees’ cultural orientations amongst foreign manufacturing multinational companies in kenya. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.453 du plessis, j.v., & fouché, m.a. (2006). a practical guide to labour law (6th edn.). durban: lexisnexis butterworths. dulebohnn, j.h., & johnson, r.d. (2013). human resource metrics and decision support: a classification framework. human resource management review, 23(1), 71–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2012.06.005 frick, b., malo, m.a., martínez, p.g., & schneider, m. (2012). the demand for individual grievance procedures in germany and spain: labour law changes versus business cycle. estudios de economía aplicada, 30(1), 283–310. https://doi.org/10.25115/eea.v30i1.3389 garavan, t.n., carbery, r., & rock, a. (2012). mapping talent development: definition, scope and architecture. european journal of training and development, 36(1), 5–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090591211192601 garriga, e., & mele, d. (2004). corporate social responsibility theories: mapping the territory. journal of business ethics, 53(1/2), 51–71. https://doi.org/10.1023/b:busi.0000039399.90587.34 giorgi, a. (2010). phenomenology and the practice of science. existential analysis: journal of the society for existential analysis, 21(1), 3–22. grossman, r.m., & salas, e. (2011). the transfer of training: what really matters. international journal of training and development, 15(2), 103–120. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2419.2011.00373.x guest, d.e. (2011). human resource management and performance: still searching for some answers. human resource management journal, 21(1), 3–13. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2010.00164.x haslinda, a. (2009). evolving terms of human resource management and development. the journal of international social research, 2(9), 180–186. hayfield, n., & huxley, c. (2015). insider and outsider perspectives: reflections on researcher identities in research with lesbian and bisexual women. qualitative research in psychology, 12(2), 91–106. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2014.918224 henning, m. (2019). a conceptual approach to increase competitiveness in a typical south african manufacturing sme (doctoral dissertation). stellenbosch: stellenbosch university. hussain, z., wallace, j., & cornelius, n.e. (2007). the use and impact of human resource information systems on human resource management professionals. information & management, 44(1), 74–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2006.10.006 jacobson, w.s., & sowa, j.e. (2015). strategic human capital management in municipal government: an assessment of implementation practices. public personnel management, 44(3), 317–339. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026015591283 jadhav, j.r., mantha, s.s., & rane, s.b. (2014). exploring barriers in lean implementation. international journal of lean six sigma, 5(2), 122–148. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijlss-12-2012-0014 karadag, h. (2015). financial management challenges in small and medium-sized enterprises: a strategic management approach. emerging markets journal, 5(1), 26–40. https://doi.org/10.5195/emaj.2015.67 karakas, f., & manisaligil, a. (2012). reorienting self-directed learning for the creative digital era. european journal of training and development, 36(7), 712–731. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090591211255557 kaur, s. (2013). 360 degrees performance appraisal-benefits & shortcoming. international journal of emerging research in management & technology, 2(6), 83–88. keeling, k.a., mcgoldrick, p.j., & sadhu, h.s. (2013). staff word-of-mouth (swom) and retail employee recruitment. journal of retailing, 89(1), 88–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2012.11.003 kehoe, r.r., & wright, p.m. (2013). the impact of high-performance human resource practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. journal of management, 39(2), 366–391. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310365901 king, n., & horrocks, c. (2010). interviews in qualitative research. london: sage. kotter, john p. 2014. accelerate: building strategic agility for a faster-moving world. in american society for training & development (pp. 1–75). harvard: harvard business review press, boston. krishnan, t.n., & scullion, h. (2017). talent management and dynamic view of talent in small and medium enterprises. human resource management review, 27(3), 431–441. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2016.10.003 kumari, n. (2012). a study of the recruitment and selection process: smc global. industrial engineering letters, 2(1), 34–43. lengnick-hall, m.l., lengnick-hall, c.a., & rigsbee, c.m. (2013). strategic human resource management and supply chain orientation. human resource management review, 23(4), 366–377. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2012.07.002 louw-potgieter, j. (2012). evaluating human resource interventions. sa journal of human resource management, 10(3), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i3.420 lukka, k., & modell, s. (2010). validation in interpretive management accounting research. accounting, organisations and society, 35(4), 462–477. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2009.10.004 maldonado-guzman, g., garza-reyes, j.a., pinzon-castro, s.y., & kumar, v. (2017). barriers to innovation in service smes: evidence from mexico. industrial management & data systems, 117(8), 1669–1686. https://doi.org/10.1108/imds-08-2016-0339 malhotra, r., & temponi, c. (2010). critical decisions for erp integration: small business issues. international journal of information management, 30(1), 28–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2009.03.001 mannay, d. (2010). making the familiar strange: can visual research methods render the familiar setting more perceptible?. qualitative research, 10(1), 91–111. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794109348684 martin, p., & barnard, a. (2013). the experience of women in male-dominated occupations: a constructivist grounded theory inquiry. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1099 mercer, j. (2007). the challenges of insider research in educational institutions: wielding a double-edged sword and resolving delicate dilemmas. oxford review of education, 33(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054980601094651 meyer, m., roodt, g., & robbins, m. (2011). human resources risk management: governing people risks for improved performance. sa journal of human resource, 9(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.366 mokomane, s.e. (2018). implementation of human resource management functions in selected small manufacturing companies in the ga-rankuwa industrial area of gauteng province. unpublished dissertation, university of south africa, pretoria. mtshokotshe, z. (2018). the implementation of human resources management strategy within restaurants in east london. south africa. african journal of hospitality, tourism and leisure, 7(3), 2223–2814. nel, p.s. (2001). human resources management. in l. rose-innes (ed.), training and development of employees and career management at organisational level (pp. 466–535). cape town: oxford university press southern africa. nielsen, m.w. (2015). limits to meritocracy? gender in academic recruitment and promotion processes. science and public policy, 43(3), 1–14. nolan, c.t., & garavan, t.n. (2016). human resource development in smes: a systematic review of the literature. international journal of management reviews, 18(1), 85–107. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12062 ogunyomi, p., & bruning, n.s. (2016). human resource management and organisational performance of small and medium enterprises (smes) in nigeria. the international journal of human resource management, 27(6), 612–634. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1033640 okoye, p.v., & ezejiofor, r.a. (2013). the effect of human resources development on organizational productivity. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 3(10), 250–268. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v3-i10/295 oliver, c. (2012). critical realist grounded theory: a new approach for social work research. british journal of social work, 42(2), 371–387. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcr064 olson, d.l., & staley, j. (2012). case study of open-source enterprise resource planning implementation in a small business. enterprise information systems, 6(1), 79–94. https://doi.org/10.1080/17517575.2011.566697 ongori, h., & migiro, s.o. (2010). information and communication technologies adoption in smes: literature review. journal of chinese entrepreneurship, 2(1), 93–104. https://doi.org/10.1108/17561391011019041 owoyemi, o.a., oyelere, m., & elegbede, t. (2011). enhancing employees’ commitment to organisation through training. international journal of business and management, 6(7), 280–286. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v6n7p280 pajo, k., coetzer, a., & guenole, n. (2010). formal development opportunities and withdrawal behaviors by employees in small and medium-sized enterprises. journal of small business management, 48(3), 281–301. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-627x.2010.00295.x peredaryenko, m.s., & krauss, s.e. (2013). calibrating the human instrument: understanding the interviewing experience of novice qualitative researchers. the qualitative report, 18(43), 1–17. prajapati, p. (2018). small company and it exemptions under companies act. 2013. retrieved from https://www.legalwiz.in. przytuła, s. (2013). compensating expatriates in polish subsidiaries: pilot research findings. argumenta oeconomica, 1(30), 150–172. psychogios, a., szamosi, l.t., prouska, r., & brewster, c. (2016). a three-fold framework for understanding hrm practices in south-eastern european smes. employee relations, 38(3), 310–331. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-07-2014-0078 sabpp. (2013). national hr standards, johannesburg: south african busines people practices. schalk, r., timmerman, v., & van den heuvel, s. (2013). how strategic considerations influence decision making on e-hrm applications. human resource management review, 23(1), 84–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2012.06.008 schuler, r., & jackson, s.e. (2014). human resource management and organisational effectiveness: yesterday and today. journal of organizational effectiveness: people and performance, 1(1), 35–55. https://doi.org/10.1108/joepp-01-2014-0003 schultz, h.b. (2001). human resources management. in l. rose-innes (ed.), induction and staffing decisions (pp. 259–275). cape town: oxford university press southern africa. sheehan, m. (2014). human resource management and performance: evidence from small and medium-sized firms. international small business journal, 32(5), 545–570. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266242612465454 shen, j., chanda, a., d’netto, b., & monga, m. (2009). managing diversity through human resource management: an international perspective and conceptual framework. the international journal of human resource management, 20(2), 235–251. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190802670516 sikora, d.m., & ferris, g.r. (2014). strategic human resource practice implementation: the critical role of line management. human resource management review, 24(3), 271–281. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2014.03.008 simsek, z., & heavy, c. (2011). the mediating role of knowledge-based capital for corporate entrepreneurship effects on performance: a study of small to medium-sized firms. strategic entrepreneurship journal, 5(1), 81–100. https://doi.org/10.1002/sej.108 sloan, a., & bowe, b. (2014). phenomenology and hermeneutic phenomenology: the philosophy, the methodologies, and using hermeneutic phenomenology to investigate lecturers’ experiences of curriculum design. quality & quantity, 48(3), 1291–1303. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-013-9835-3 terre blanche, m., durrheim, k., & painter, d. (2006). research in practice: applied methods for the social sciences, cape town : uct press. terziovski, m. (2010). innovation practice and its performance implications in small and medium enterprises (smes) in the manufacturing sector: a resource-based view. strategic management journal, 31(8), 892–902. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.841 tesch, r. (1990). qualitative analysis types and software. new york, ny: falmer press. tomé, e. (2011). human resource development in the knowledge based and services driven economy. journal of european industrial training, 35(6), 524–539. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090591111150077 totka, m. (2013). how a small business can use big data. small business operations. retrieved from http://smallbiztrends.com/2013/05/small-business-can-use-big-data.html. tuffrey-wijne, i., & butler, g. (2009). co-researching with people with learning disabilities: an experience of involvement in qualitative data analysis. journal compilation, 13(2), 174–184. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1369-7625.2009.00576.x turner, n., swart, j., & maylor, h. (2013). mechanisms for managing ambidexterity: a review and research agenda. international journal of management reviews, 15(3), 317–332. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2012.00343.x vaismoradi, m., turunen, h., & bondas, t. (2013). content analysis and thematic analysis: implications for conducting a qualitative descriptive study. nursing and health sciences, 15(3), 398–405. https://doi.org/10.1111/nhs.12048 welman, j.c., kruger, s.j., & mitchell, b.c. (2005). research methodology (3rd edn.). cape town: oxford university press southern africa. wu, j.j. (2014). high performance human resource management and enterprise performance: mediating role of strategy implementation capability. manager’s journal, 1059(15), 131. yadav, r.k., & dabhade, n. (2013). performance management system in maharatna companies (a leading public sector undertaking) of india: a case study of b.h.e.l., bhopal (m.p.). international letters of social and humanistic sciences, 4, 49–69. https://doi.org/10.18052/www.scipress.com/ilshs.4.49 yadav, r.k., & dabhade, n. (2014). human resource planning and audit: a case study of heg limited. international letters of social and humanistic sciences, 5, 44–62. https://doi.org/10.18052/www.scipress.com/ilshs.16.44 yates, d., & paquette, s. (2011). emergency knowledge management and social media technologies: a case study. international journal of information management, 31(1), 6–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2010.10.001 zhu, y., & verstraeten, m. (2013). human resource management practices with vietnamese characteristics: a study of managers’ responses. asia pacific journal of human resources, 51(1), 152–174. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7941.2012.00057.x abstract introduction research design results discussion practical implications limitations of the study acknowledgements references about the author(s) mariette coetzee department of human resource management, school of management sciences, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa maryam moosa department of human resource management, school of management sciences, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation coetzee, m., & moosa, m., (2020). leadership contingencies in the retention of women in higher education. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1326. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1326 original research leadership contingencies in the retention of women in higher education mariette coetzee, maryam moosa received: 05 feb. 2020; accepted: 11 sept. 2020; published: 12 nov. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: providing leadership opportunities and eliminating barriers to advance to or remain in leadership positions may influence the retention of women at academic institutions. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to determine the impact of leadership contingencies on the retention of women. motivation for the study: women could be better equipped to succeed in leadership roles if more is known about the challenges they face to advance to or remain in leadership positions and how these challenges should be managed to ensure their retention. research approach/design and method: a quantitative research approach was followed in this study and a questionnaire was used to collect data. a non-probability simple random sample of 2000 female employees from an academic institution in south africa was drawn and a total of 311 questionnaires were completed, with a response rate 15.6%. principal axis factor analysis with a varimax rotation extracted six leadership contingency factors. main findings: the factor analysis identified six leadership contingencies that play a significant role in the retention of women in leadership positions: barriers to advancement, capabilities of women, acceptance of women as leaders, work–life balance, advancement opportunities and success beliefs. all of these factors were significantly related to retention factors, such as the fulfilment of unique needs, growth opportunities, recognition, pleasant work conditions, sound relationships and support. practical/managerial implications: this study contributes to a better understanding of the complexity in the career progression and retention of women in leadership positions. contribution/value-add: an understanding of challenges faced by women in leadership positions would enable organisations to implement retention strategies and allow institutions to capitalise on the value women could add to the management of academic institutions. keywords: retention; barriers to advancement; capabilities of women; work–life balance; advancement; success beliefs; leadership opportunities. introduction although the under-representation of women in top management positions is acknowledged, higher education institutions fail to make concerted efforts to retain women managers (ramohai, 2019). the few women who succeed in breaking the glass ceiling do not survive for a long period in these positions. the severity of the problem has not yet been acknowledged, with the department of higher education and training failing to provide formal statistics to expose the depth of the problem. according to the universities south africa forum (usaf, 2015), of the 26 public higher education institutions, only four have women as vice-chancellors. according to kapareliotis and miliopoulou (2019), women do not progress past the assistant professor level and the proportion of women decreases in higher hierarchy ranks (salinas & bagni, 2017). south africa’s progress in reducing or eliminating unequal representation of women in top management positions has been almost stagnant despite the ideological and policy commitments to gender equality (ramohai, 2019). although the number of women entering the workforce has been continuously increasing, only a small number of them manage to advance to management levels. according to scheepers, douman and moodley (2018), in south africa, women occupy only 23% of positions involved in making economic decisions and only 4% of chief executive officer positions. these statistics are only symptoms of a larger underlying disease where men are considered more worthy and valuable than women. the call by government to empower women has led to south african higher education institutions implementing programmes with the aim to capacitate women. however, the dissonance between such programmes and what happens in practice is visible in the institutional gender inequality that continues to exist. various studies have reported on the constraints faced by women who aspire to management positions. lekchiri, crowder, schnerre and eversole (2019) conducted a study at a tertiary institution in morocco and identified the following gender bias behaviours: abusive, verbal or physical or sexual harassment; unfair treatment; dismissal; and a lack of trust, recognition and acknowledgement. the most common constraints identified by various other studies include the glass ceiling, gender discrimination, organisational culture, work and family conflict, old boys network, stereotyping, poor support and personal characteristics (april & sikatali, 2019; cohen, dalton, holder-webb, & mcmillan, 2018; khalid & sekiguchi, 2019; tabassum, shafique, konstantopoulou, & arslan, 2019). according to shepered (2017), women within the south african higher education context experience marginalisation, under-representation and the glass ceiling as the major obstacles in their career progression. perhaps of greater concern to the field of human resource management is the high number of women managers leaving organisations today. according to ramohai (2019), women often leave their jobs for non-economic reasons and opt out of senior academic positions or move to other tertiary institutions for satisfaction reasons. satisfaction was mostly related to disgruntlements pertaining to institutional climate and practices. in line with the problems women encounter, deery (2008) reported that emotional exhaustion has been identified as a major cause of turnover of women in management positions. according to clark (2007), organisations are failing to retain women because of the organisation’s inability to accommodate women’s needs. there is a good case to be made for including women as part of management. according to willows and van der linde (2016), women’s ability to improve the corporate governance quality and the addition of soft skills provide tangible and intangible benefits that could translate into improved company performance. the inclusion of women at management levels further stimulates and fosters creativity and innovation. kengne (2016) also outlined the value women add to a business given their high monitoring skills and low-risk preferences. according to groenewald, odendaal and bezuidenhout (2019), female representation in top management structures brings informational and social diversity benefits. south africa is experiencing a state of crisis with regard to the availability of skilled or ‘knowledge workers’ (kerr-phillips & thomas, 2009). this fuels the problem, making it very difficult for organisations to replace talented employees, especially at management level. according to boxall (2017), gender diverse companies are 15% more likely to outperform the national industry mean. organisations are thus presented with an opportunity to capitalise on the contributions made by women should they invest in diversity management. according to scheepers et al. (2018), organisations could implement several talent management interventions to mitigate the challenges faced by women. cho and huang (2012) confirmed the significance of professional advancement as a retention factor because the absence of growth prospects can leave employees feeling dissatisfied and ultimately result in them leaving the organisation. ramohai (2019) supported this finding and stated that women resign or move to other institutions mostly because of a quest for growth. not only have women been prevented from advancing beyond certain management levels (glass ceiling phenomena), but also their appointment in senior positions took place at a slower pace. in contrast, men are appointed in leadership positions at an astounding pace (glass escalator phenomena) (jauhar & lau, 2018). women form an essential part of any workforce because they bring with them a wealth of experience and knowledge. jauhar and lau (2018) shared this viewpoint and see the promotion of women not only as an equity initiative but also as a necessity for sustainable national development. according to willows and van der linde (2016), women are a source of brainpower that should be utilised to gain a competitive advantage. organisations would, therefore, lose out on a valuable resource if the retention and advancement of women is not managed as a priority. according to zhong, blum and couch (2018), work is only a fragment of a woman’s multiple roles, of which the traditional role involved looking after the family. with the dual roles that women fulfil in the home and work spheres, they are however in desperate need of assistance to help them balance work and life. if organisations could implement strategies to assist women to balance work and life, they could retain women as a key resource. the world of work is changing and transforming continuously and one of the most important contributing factors to this is the role of women in the workplace. in south africa, the current rate of labour force participation of women is at 46.7% (down from 51.4% in 2016) (sa department of labour, 2016). women forming such a large portion of the workforce inevitably emphasises the need for organisations to implement work policies and practices that would cater for their needs. women in leadership positions women are not only entering the workforce but also emerging as leaders in their chosen fields (cubillo & brown, 2003). although the number of women in management and senior level positions has increased from 26% to 29%, this representation is dismal considering the fact that women make up nearly half of the workforce (vallie, 2018). it seems as if south africa is still struggling to accept the notion of a woman doing a man’s job – hence the intrinsic biases held by both men and women about women in top positions. currently, there are no female ceos running any of south africa’s 40 largest listed companies and women make up only one-fifth of the directors who serve on the boards of companies listed on the johannesburg stock exchange (mans-kemp, 2019). after decades of being disadvantaged and ignored, women are gradually breaking barriers to make their mark in the world of work. although women are entering the realm of management, this is taking place at a very slow pace. the poor representation of women in management positions is evident of a change in policy but not reform. hoobler, lemmon and wayne (2011) recognised that there are many obstacles to overcome before women would be equitably represented in leadership positions. women’s voyage into senior management, which previously was a male-dominated arena, has been far too slow and not on par with expectations, with the added pressure and prevalence of the gender pay gap (bosch, 2015). this indicates that women are achieving success, but not at the same pace as men, nor as fast as anticipated. obstacles faced by women who wish to advance to leadership positions compounding the problem of poor representation in leadership positions, women still are being paid less than their male counterparts (zhong et al., 2018). according to a report by price waterhouse coopers, 61% of women are remunerated below the median, whilst 63% of men are remunerated above the median (https://ewn.co.za/2018/08/16/survey-women-represent-only-20-of-senior-management-in-sa. accessed on 21 november 2019). one of the outcomes of women’s lack of advancement is the notorious ‘glass ceiling’. jauhar and lau (2018) defined the glass ceiling as an invisible barrier that hinders women from advancing beyond certain levels to reach top management positions in organisations. related to the barriers preventing women from advancing beyond a certain level, the golden skirts syndrome refers to a situation in which only a few well-connected women are selected to serve on multiple boards (mans-kemp, 2019). adding to the dilemma of gender inequality is the presence of the queen-bee syndrome. women who manage to advance to management positions are often responsible for the hindrance in the career progression of other women (april & sikatali, 2019). another phenomenon that is affecting women in the workplace is the presence of the ‘glass cliff’. women who break through the glass ceiling often end up on a glass cliff, where the glass cliff represents being appointed into precarious leadership positions in which they are doomed to fail (javadi et al., 2016). the glass cliff is also associated with sexism in the workplace (ryan, haslam, & postmes, 2007). women who make it into leadership positions will have to work exceptionally hard to prove their competence or succumb to the pressure of these challenges. the multiple roles expected of women have put the spotlight on the importance of women being able to maintain a balance between work and life. the majority of households in south africa are run by single mothers (statistics south africa, 2017). the new egalitarian gender roles have now put the spotlight on equality, whereby men are no longer the only breadwinners and women are no longer primarily responsible for the household (sweeting, bhaskar, benzeval, propham, & hunt, 2014). unless a mindset change on the role of women in the workplace is made, at home and in society at large, inequality will continue to exist in the workplace. greenhaus, ziegert and allen (2012) opined that organisations can help improve the work–life balance and diminish work–family conflict by supporting work–life balance initiatives. according to the top employers institute, 94% of certified employers in south africa report having specific diversity initiatives in place to help women progress into senior management. these initiatives include working flexitime (64%), compressed working hours (26%) and on-site crèche and nursing room facilities (25%) (boxall, 2017). there are many challenges facing women managers of the 21st century. according to ramohai and marumo (2016), these challenges are mostly attributed to power struggles that aim to subdue women to lower positions and create spaces for men in senior positions. gender narratives often paint women as being less effective, possessing unsavoury leadership styles and lacking leadership qualities (burkinshaw & white, 2017). the challenges that women face can be separated into either ‘push’ or ‘pull’ factors. push factors force women out of the organisation and include issues such as gender discrimination, lack of support, lack of advancement opportunities, domination, biases and abuse. pull factors entice a woman away from her job and include issues such as family and children responsibilities. in a study by kirai and mukulu (2012), the three most common challenges faced by women included gender discrimination (25%), work–life balance (30%) and a lack of support by the organisation (24%). other challenges included lack of support by family, lack of self-confidence and inefficient systems in the workplace. women indicated that they dealt with these challenges by working harder (15%), attempting to balance work and family responsibilities (12%) and ignoring detractors (13%) (kirai & mukulu, 2012). women also indicated that perseverance, focusing on priorities, consulting widely and seeking support were critical in assisting them to succeed in their leadership positions. according to mayer and may (2018), women leaders often experience thoughts and feelings of exclusion, marginalisation, voicelessness and a lack of authority. considering the numerous obstacles that women have to face in pursuing leadership positions, it is not surprising that such a low percentage of women manage to advance to and stay in leadership positions. retention it is not only the appointment of women as leaders that creates reason for concern but also the ability of organisations to retain the services of these women. leadership opportunities signify the prospect of employees being given the chance to advance in their careers, possibly into leadership positions. it denotes evolution and development as critical underlying concepts. factors such as career opportunities, training and development, employee well-being, promotion and opportunities for growth have all been highlighted as key retention factors (das & baruah, 2013; döckel, 2003; veldsman, 2003). each of these factors, in turn, embraces the same fundamental concept of growth, which is the major driver of leadership opportunities as a retention factor. employee retention is thus highly related to growth, advancement and development. from an overall retention perspective, six fundamental factors were identified as central to employee retention, as illustrated in figure 1 (döckel, basson, & coetzee, 2006). with reference to the retention of women, four of the six retention factors are directly related to leadership contingencies, namely, the training and development of women, support provided to women, opportunities afforded to women to advance their careers and assisting women to lead a balanced work and life. figure 1: retentionfactors. research design a quantitative research design was chosen for this study. the study used a cross-sectional, descriptive and exploratory research design in order to determine leadership contingencies and to determine the relationship between leadership contingencies and retention. a cross-sectional research design provided a general viewpoint on the research topic at the time when the study was conducted by surveying a selection of respondents with regard to a list of variables (kumar, 2014; welman, kruger, & mitchell, 2005). the descriptive analysis did not aim to draw conclusions on causality, but instead attempted to explore a specific situation at a specific point in time (leedy & ormrod, 2005; welman et al., 2005). exploratory research was conducted to investigate the research questions without providing binding or conclusive solutions to existing problems (terre blanche, durrheim, & painter, 2006). research method the type of data required largely determines the most appropriate method to be used. in line with the quantitative approach, a survey research method, which is particularly suitable for investigating a potential relationship between two or more variables, was chosen. after a careful review of the literature on the topics of retention and leadership, it was found that no suitable questionnaire existed to address the aims of this study. an instrument was thus developed to determine leadership constructs and the relationship between leadership and retention of women within the higher education context in south africa. population and sampling the study population consisted of 2732 female employees from an academic institution in south africa. a non-probability simple random sample of 2000 female employees was drawn. a total of 311 web-based questionnaires were completed, which resulted in a response rate of 15.6%. a list of all permanent female employees, categorised according to certain demographics, was obtained from the human resource department at the institution. measuring instrument a questionnaire was developed to measure women’s perceptions of and beliefs about leadership opportunities and how it affected their decisions to remain in the employment of the university. perceptions and beliefs were measured by means of a six-point likert interval scale. the statistics that were used for interval data included the mean (average score for a group), frequencies, standard deviation and pearson’s product moment correlation. research procedure after the research aims were formulated, the sample was determined. a web-based questionnaire was developed and submitted to a statistician for comments. a pre-test (pilot run) was performed to ensure that the questionnaire met the study’s expectations in terms of the information that had to be obtained. after ethical clearance was obtained, the survey link was e-mailed to the participants. all completed responses were automatically captured and downloaded into microsoft excel, to be used for statistical analysis using the statistical package for social sciences (spss), version 22.0. statistical analysis descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. correlation and multiple regression were used to determine the relationship between leadership factors and retention. a principal factor analysis was performed to identify leadership contingencies and retention factors. once the kaiser-meyer-olkin and bartlett’s test values had been determined, the analysis identified the number of factors to be extracted by means of eigenvalues. the kaiser criterion was used for the purpose of factor extraction. this study used varimax rotation to determine the factor matrix. all factor loadings greater than or equal to 0.30 were considered significant. cronbach’s alpha coefficients and inter-item correlation coefficients were used to assess the internal consistency of the questionnaire. the cronbach’s alpha coefficients were above 60% for all the factors identified, thus indicating that all the items measured the same attribute. all factors obtained cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranging from 0.61 to 0.87 without any items being deleted. descriptive statistics (e.g. mean, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis) were used to analyse the distribution of the values of each item included in the various factors. after the number of factors and the total variance were determined, the factor loadings in the pattern matrix were analysed and the factors were labelled. table 1 provides descriptive statistics and the results of the reliability analysis. table 1: leadership and retention factors: descriptives and cronbach’s alpha. ethical consideration ethical approval to conduct the study was obtained from the department of human resource management at the university of south africa (ethical clearance number: 2015_rpsc_092). results significant relationships existed between barriers to advancement and each of the retention variables (unique needs, growth, recognition, work conditions and relationships). work conditions (r = 0.26; p = 0.00; small practical effect) and relationships (r = 0.19; p = 0.00; small practical effect) provided positive correlations, whilst recognition (r = -0.38; p = 0.00; medium practical effect), growth (r = -0.25; p = 0.00; small practical effect) and unique needs (r = -0.22; p = 0.00; small practical effect) provided negative correlations. capabilities seemed to be the exception, with only one significant positive relationship found with work conditions (r = 0.23; p = 0.00; small practical effect). no significant relationship existed between capabilities and any of the other retention variables (unique needs, growth, recognition, relationships and support). in terms of this study, the high mean score obtained for this factor (capabilities: m = 4.81) shows that women believe in their capabilities and want to succeed in their careers. significant relationships existed between acceptance of women and the retention variables. the strongest positive relationship was with work conditions (r = 0.33; p = 0.00; medium practical effect), followed by support (r = 0.24; p = 0.00; small practical effect) and relationships (r = 0.23; p = 0.00; small practical effect). recognition (r = -0.37; p = 0.00; medium practical effect) had the strongest negative correlation with acceptance, trailed by unique needs and growth (r = -0.27; p =0.00; small practical effect). the retention variables were significantly related to work–life balance, except for growth, where no significant relationship existed. support (r = 0.37; p = 0.00; medium practical effect) had the strongest positive relationship with work–life balance, followed by relationships (r = 0.23; p = 0.00; small practical effect) and work conditions (r = 0.22; p = 0.00; small practical effect). unique needs (r = -0.24; p = 0.00; small practical effect) had the strongest negative correlation, whilst recognition (r = -0.14; p = 0.01; small practical effect) had the weakest negative correlation. advancement opportunities showed strong significant relationships with all the retention variables, with differences in the direction of the relationships. recognition (r = 0.61; p = 0.00; large practical effect), unique needs (r = 0.59; p = 0.00; large practical effect) and growth (r = 0.59; p = 0.00; large practical effect) showed strong positive relationships, whilst relationships (r = -0.37; p = 0.00; medium practical effect) displayed the strongest negative correlation with advancement, followed by work conditions (r = -0.32; p = 0.00; medium practical effect) and support (r = -0.28; p = 0.00; small practical effect). women believe that they are provided with advancement opportunities, as indicated by the high mean score obtained for the advancement factor (m = 4.20). success beliefs were significantly related to all of the retention variables. once again, positive and negative correlations were present. there were strong negative correlations between success beliefs and work conditions (r = -0.37; p = 0.00; medium practical effect), relationships (r = -0.33; p = 0.00; medium practical effect) and support (r = -0.18; p = 0.00; small practical effect). on the other hand, success beliefs showed a strong positive relationship with recognition (r = 0.49; p = 0.00; medium practical effect), growth (r = 0.45; p = 0.00; medium practical effect) and unique needs (r = 0.36; p = 0.00; medium practical effect). according to the mean score obtained for success beliefs (m = 4.08), women believe that self-belief is critical to advancement. regarding the relationship between leadership opportunities and retention, table 2 illustrates how various leadership opportunities and beliefs are linked to retention factors such as unique needs, growth, recognition, work conditions, relationships and support. table 2: bivariate correlations between the sub-scales of the leadership/retention questionnaire. regression analysis for leadership opportunities six separate standard multiple regression analysis models were calculated, one model for each of the six dependent variables of retention (unique needs, growth, recognition, work conditions, relationships and support). the results are shown in table 3. table 3: regression results for leadership contingencies and retention. unique needs the regression of the leadership variables on unique needs indicated a statistically significant result (f = 28.12; p ≤ 0.01), accounting for 34% (adjusted r² = 0.34; large practical effect) of the variance in unique needs. the only leadership contingency that indicated a statistically significant relationship with unique needs was advancement (β = 0.52; p = 0.00). growth the regression of the leadership variables on growth indicated a statistically significant result (f = 41.66; p ≤ 0.01), accounting for 44% (adjusted r² = 0.44; large practical effect) of the variance in growth. work–life balance (β = 0.24; p = 0.00), advancement (β = 0.56; p = 0.00) and success beliefs (β = 0.29; p = 0.00) were statistically significant predictors of growth. recognition the regression of leadership variables on recognition indicated a statistically significant result (f = 48.25; p ≤ 0.01), accounting for a high 48% (adjusted r² = 0.48; large practical effect) of the variance in recognition. barriers (β = -0.10; p = 0.05), acceptance (β = -0.12; p = 0.02), work–life balance (β = 0.20; p = 0.00), advancement (β = 0.51; p = 0.00) and success beliefs (β = 0.24; p = 0.00) indicated a statistically significant relationship. work conditions the regression of leadership variables on work conditions indicated a statistically significant result (f = 15.17; p ≤ 0.01), accounting for 22% (adjusted r² = 0.22; moderate practical effect) of the variance in work conditions. capabilities (β =0.22; p = 0.00), advancement (β = -0.22; p = 0.00) and success beliefs (β = -0.18; p = 0.00) were statistically significant predictors of work conditions. relationships the regression of leadership variables on relationships produced a statistically significant result (f = 11.53; p ≤ 0.01), accounting for 17% (adjusted r² = 0.17; moderate practical effect) of the variance in relationships. of the leadership constructs, advancement (β = -0.29; p = 0.00) and success beliefs (β = -0.17; p = 0.01) indicated a statistically significant relationship, with advancement as the highest significant predictor of relationships. support the regression of leadership variables on support indicated a statistically significant result (f = 11.78; p ≤ 0.01), accounting for 17% (adjusted r² = 0.19; moderate practical effect) of the variance in support. barriers (β = -0.13; p = 0.03), acceptance (β = 0.16; p = 0.01), work–life balance (β = 0.29; p = 0.00) and advancement (β = -0.18; p = 0.00) indicated a statistically significant relationship and acted as a predictor of support. discussion outline of the results the objective of this study was to determine the relationship between leadership contingencies and the retention of women. three leadership factors – barriers to advancement, acceptance and advancement opportunities – are intricately linked to the challenges that women face in advancing their careers or remaining in top leadership positions. the ‘glass ceiling’, ‘glass cliff’, leaking pipeline and ‘old boys’ phenomena represent the most common barriers to advancement (kapareliotis & miliopoulou, 2019). further obstacles in women’s path to advance include gender stereotypes (lips, 2013) and the gender pay gap (bishu & alkadry, 2016), the lack of acknowledgement by male colleagues or managers (kalaitzi, czabanowska, fowler-davis, & brand, 2017), the importance assigned to institutional beliefs, which deny women the approval they deserve (acceptance) and the absence of development opportunities (advancement) (thompson, 2015). women participants in this study expressed the difficulties they face in gaining recognition as experienced and qualified individuals. the women, however, reported favourably regarding the opportunities provided to take up leadership roles. the leadership factors – capabilities, success beliefs and work–life balance – were also identified as key factors in enabling women to advance to leadership positions. women have been working hard to level the playing field by obtaining more experience and improving their educational qualifications. this indicates that women have the capabilities required to succeed in leadership positions. in terms of this study, the high mean score obtained for this factor (capabilities: m = 4.81) shows that women believe that capabilities play a significant role in career advancement. closely linked to capabilities is women’s self-belief with regard to their leadership abilities. women of the 21st century are slowly breaking down barriers and using their self-belief to achieve their goals. this incorporates the factor of success beliefs, which shows that women have strong beliefs in their capability to thrive and triumph against all odds. women in middle management often do not put themselves forward for promotion because of a lack of self-confidence. these women underestimate their own abilities and are threatened by the ‘imposter syndrome’, which is a concept describing high-achieving individuals who are unable to internalise their accomplishments and are filled with an irrational fear of not being able to live up to expectations (boxall, 2017). according to tabassum et al. (2019), resilience and the ability to adapt to adversity are directly related to women managers’ career progression. work–life balance involves assisting women to maintain a balance between work and life so that they could take up leadership roles. this is one of the key topics of the new world of work and many organisations are trying to incorporate policies and procedures that support a more effective balance between work and life (barber, grawitch, & maloney, 2016). work–life balance is an important factor in being able to reach leadership positions or availing oneself of leadership opportunities. many women struggle with balancing the needs of work with the needs of the family, given the fact that the majority of women (52.4%) have one or more children below the age of 18 years, and an astounding 65.9% of women are the main contributors to the household in terms of income (statistics south africa, 2019). these women would thus require an effective strategy to balance work and life or to reduce work–life conflict because they have work, household and childcare responsibilities. an overall majority (79.1%) of women indicated that achieving a work–life balance was critical in managing a career (boxall, 2017). the results indicated that there was a direct relationship between leadership contingencies and the retention of women. the given discussion explains how leadership relates to each of the retention factors. barriers barriers such as stereotyping, bias, lack of role models, poor growth opportunities and the glass ceiling prevent women from advancing to leadership positions and imply unfavourable working conditions that could have a direct impact on women’s retention (april & sikatali, 2019). capabilities the relationship between capabilities and retention of women implies that the more capable women are in terms of being successful managers, the more likely it would be that their male colleagues might meet them with resistance. this could be because of male managers feeling intimidated by the capabilities of their female colleagues and ultimately making their working conditions unpleasant. according to ramohai (2019), women have to work extra hard to prove their worthiness. the belief that women cannot compete on equal footing with men emanates from a system of deep-rooted patriarchy that elevates the role of men over that of women. acceptance the challenges experienced by women in gaining acceptance from their male counterparts strongly influence their preparedness to take up leadership roles. if women struggle with being accepted in leadership positions in the workplace, relationships will suffer and they will not be given the support they require from the organisation. the acceptance of women as leaders thus acknowledges their expertise, and provides them with opportunities to grow, which have a direct impact on their retention. according to lekchiri et al. (2019), the lack of recognition and acknowledgement has serious implications for women managers’ self-esteem, stress levels, frustration, productivity and ultimately retention. work–life balance the more work–life conflict women experience, the more likely it is that these women would experience work conditions as non-supportive. conflict and other negative consequences, such as stress, low-quality work or poor working relationships and work–family conflict, would make it impossible for women to remain in a leadership position (harcar, 2007). various studies have confirmed the importance of work–life balance in enabling women to succeed as managers (april & sikatali, 2019; groenewald et al., 2019; kirai & mukulu, 2012). advancement opportunities when women are given advancement opportunities in the form of assuming leadership roles and are afforded further growth opportunities, they will perceive that their skills and abilities are being appreciated and their unique needs as women are fulfilled. these women will thus be more receptive to growth and development opportunities and, in return, will remain loyal to the organisation. according to ramohai (2019), two professional reasons are responsible for women opting out of management positions, namely, growth prospects and power dynamics within institutions. failure by institutions to capacitate women by creating growth opportunities raises questions about the value and worth institutions ascribe to women. success beliefs when women hold a strong conviction in their propensity for success in terms of reaching leadership positions, it instils confidence in them as being competent. confidence and self-efficacy play a significant role in persuading others to trust them and to invest in their expertise as leaders. women who see a future for themselves in an organisation are likely to remain with the organisation. kapareliotis and miliopoulou (2019) emphasised the role women play in understanding their potential, embracing critical assessments and making an effort to reflect on their capabilities and objectives. doubts about one’s ability to be successful will have an impact on an individual’s internal attributions and can lead to a decreased self-esteem, a warped self-concept and increased levels of stress and anxiety (lekchiri et al., 2019). the multiple regression analysis revealed the following relationships between leadership and retention. unique needs a positive relationship exists between advancement and unique needs. this means that if women have the opportunity to advance, it will address one of their most important unique needs and likely contribute to their retention. growth a positive relationship exists between growth and leadership, which implies that if organisations provide stimulating work and development opportunities to women, this would increase their retention as managers. recognition the results indicate that advancement is the highest predictor of recognition. a negative relationship exists between recognition and leadership, given the presence of barriers and lack of acceptance by male colleagues. this finding suggests that when organisations recognise women and are committed to their advancement, women are likely to experience fewer barriers to reach leadership positions and greater acceptance by their male colleagues and superiors. recognition and acknowledgement are also related to women’s belief in their own success and contribute positively towards their retention. work conditions advancement and success beliefs indicated a negative relationship with work conditions. this means that when women consider work conditions as poor, they would not be given chances to advance and would question their conviction of being able to succeed in reaching a higher position. on the other hand, capabilities indicated a positive relationship as a predictor of work conditions, which implies that if women perceive that they are considered incapable of reaching leadership positions, they would perceive work conditions as poor and consider quitting their jobs. relationships relationships with one’s supervisor are severely affected when organisations do not afford women advancement opportunities and when they begin to lose confidence in their ability to succeed in leadership positions. if women are denied the option to advance in their careers, it undeniably causes tension in the supervisor–subordinate relationship. this, in turn, could hamper retention efforts made by the organisation. support when women are accepted by their male counterparts and able to balance work and family responsibilities effectively, it is likely that organisations would support them in meeting work demands and managing their time. alternatively, a negative relationship exists between barriers and advancement when support is taken into consideration. this means that less support would be offered by the organisation if there are barriers hindering women’s progress into leadership positions and if there are no advancement opportunities available for them to pursue. practical implications although organisations can embark on a number of interventions to facilitate the advancement of women into leadership positions, strategies to retain women as leaders are also required. according to zhong et al. (2018), women should, however, take responsibility for their own advancement and can do that by making personal sacrifices, extending their job knowledge as far as possible, improving their educational qualifications and securing the support of their families. a key to career advancement is women’s preparedness to work hard, engage in networking and build sound interpersonal relationships. on the other hand, organisations should be aware of constraints that make it impossible for women to succeed in leadership roles. constraints such as the low credibility of women as leaders, family responsibility conflicts, non-supportive work environments, inequity in human resource practices (e.g. pay, promotion, training and well-being), biases and resistance/sabotage by male colleagues should be managed (zhong et al., 2018). according to scheepers et al. (2018), sponsorships should be considered as a strategy to advance talent management. sponsorships involve a powerful, influential person pledging public support to an individual groomed for a leadership position. this will prevent women from becoming designated failures because of the glass cliff phenomenon. with regard to tertiary institutions, kapareliotis and miliopoulou (2019) identified various strategies to eliminate institutional inequality. the pay gap in academia causes a vicious circle in which women often have to support the spouse who makes more money and thus end up sacrificing their careers. in addition, women are often identified as outsiders because public exposure and publications mostly apply to men, indicating that seniority, achievement and contributions are implicitly attributed to men. the absence of female symbolic representations should thus be addressed. the allocation of work can also send out a message of inequality when research activities are allocated to men whilst teaching activities are allocated to women. tabassum et al. (2019) recommended the implementation of mentorship or coaching programmes, establishing networks and support groups for women, providing role models and offering workshops to equip women with skills necessary to cope with the challenges of a leadership position. limitations of the study this study was conducted at a higher distance education institution and may not apply to organisations in other fields of practice or residential higher education institutions. the sample of this study was relatively small and was considered slightly biased because of the high representation of white respondents in comparison with black respondents in the sample. the findings of the study may, therefore, be more applicable to white women between the ages of 36 and 45 years who work in the academic field. conclusion this study identified six categories of leadership contingencies that have an impact on the retention of women: barriers to advancement, capabilities of women, acceptance of women, work–life balance, advancement opportunities and women’s success beliefs. leadership roles are important to women, and when leadership opportunities are not provided or barriers are not removed, the retention of women managers becomes problematic. this study supported previous research findings in that the retention of women managers is dependent on various factors and organisations need to make a concerted effort to eliminate gender inequality. policies alone do not guarantee gender equality. non-contextual factors such as attitudes and organisational culture towards women should also be transformed to facilitate the advancement and retention of women as leaders. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. author’s contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received a grant from the masters and doctoral support programme (mdsp), offered by unisa to its academic staff. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references april, k., & sikatali, n. (2019). personal and interpersonal assertiveness of female leaders in skilled technical roles. effective executive, xxii(4), 33–58. barber, l.k., grawitch, m.j., & maloney, p.w. (2016). work-life balance: contemporary perspectives. in m.j. grawitch & d.w. ballard (eds.), the psychologically healthy workplace: building a win-win environment for organizations and employees (pp. 111–133). washington, dc: american psychological association. bishu, s.g., & alkadry, m.g. (2016). a systematic review of the gender pay gap and factors that predict it. administration and society, 49(1), 65–104. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399716636928 bosch, a. (2015). reasons for the gender pay gap – what hr practitioners should know. in a. bosch (ed.), south african board for people practices women’s report 2015 (pp. 3–6). parktown: south african board for people practices. retrieved from http://sabpp.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/sabpp_womens-report-2015_web.pdf boxall, j. (2017). are sa women not ready for leadership positions? retrieved from https://www.gsb.uct.ac.za/po-sa-women-not-ready-for-leadership-positions burkinshaw, p., & white, k. (2017). fixing the women or fixing universities: women in he leadership. administrative sciences, 7(30), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci7030030 cho, v., & huang, x. (2012). professional commitment, organizational commitment, and the intention to leave for professional advancement: an empirical study on it professionals. information technology and people, 25(1), 31–54. https://doi.org/10.1108/09593841211204335 clark, d. (2007). why they leave: reasons executive women flee south african organisations. retrieved from http://www.leader.co.za/article.aspx?s=6&f=1&a=245 cohen, j.r., dalton, d.w., holder-webb, l.l., & mcmillan, j.j. (2018). an analysis of glass ceiling perceptions in the accounting profession. journal of business ethics, 164, 17–38. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-4054-4 cubillo, l., & brown, m. (2003). women into educational leadership and management: international differences? journal of educational administration, 41(3), 278–291. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578230310474421 das, b.l., & baruah, m. (2013). employee retention: a review of literature. iosr journal of business and management, 14(2), 8–16. https://doi.org/10.9790/487x-1420816 deery, m. (2008). talent management, work-life balance and retention strategies. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 20(7), 792–806. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596110810897619 döckel, a. (2003). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. unpublished mcom dissertation (human resource management). pretoria: university of pretoria. döckel, a., basson, j., & coetzee, m. (2006). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. south african journal of human resource management, 4(2), 20–28. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v4i2.91 greenhaus, j.h., ziegert, j.c., & allen, t.d. (2012). when family-supportive supervision matters: relations between multiple sources of support and work-family balance. journal of vocational behaviour, 80(2), 266–275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.10.008 groenewald, j., odendaal, e., & bezuidenhout, a. (2019). reasons why female audit managers resign from audit firms. southern african journal of accountability and auditing research, 21(1), 87–97. harcar, t. (2007). consequences of work-family conflict for working women and possible solutions: a conceptual model. journal of global strategic management, 2, 60–73. hoobler, j., lemmon, g., & wayne, s.j. (2011). women’s underrepresentation in upper management: new insights on a persistent problem. organizational dynamics, 40(3), 151–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2011.04.001 jauhar, j., & lau, v. (2018). the ‘glass ceiling’ and women’s career advancement to top management: the moderating effect of social support. global business and management research: an international journal, 10(1), 163–178. javadi, d., vega, j., etienne, c., wandira, s., doyle, y., & nishtar, s. (2016). women who lead: successes and challenges of five health leaders. health systems and reform, 2(3), 229–240. https://doi.org/10.1080/23288604.2016.1225471 kalaitzi, s., czabanowska, k., fowler-davis, s., & brand, h. (2017). women leadership barriers in healthcare, academia and business. equality, diversity and inclusion, 36(5), 457–474. https://doi.org/10.1108/edi-03-2017-0058 kapareliotis, i., & miliopoulou, g. (2019). gender bias in academia: an attempt to render the intangible tangible. advanced series in management, 22, 247–271. https://doi.org/10.1108/s1877-636120190000022013 kengne, b.d.s. (2016). mixed-gender ownership and financial performance of smes in south africa: a multidisciplinary analysis. international journal of gender and entrepreneurship, 8(2), 117–136. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijge-10-2014-0040 kerr-phillips, b., & thomas, a. (2009). macro and micro challenges for talent retention in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 7(1), 82–91. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.157 khalid, s., & sekiguchi, t. (2019). the mediating effect of glass ceiling beliefs in the relationship between women’s personality traits and their subjective career success. ntu management review, 29(3), 193–220. kirai, m.n., & mukulu, e. (2012). perceived organisational barriers to women career progression in kenya’s civil service. international journal of advances in management and economics, 1(6), 203–213. kumar, r. (2014). research methodology: a step-by-step guide for beginners (4th edn.). london: sage. leedy, p., & ormrod, j. (2005). practical research: planning and design. pearson, nj: pearson education. lekchiri, s., crowder, c., schnerre, a., & eversole, b.a.w. (2019). perceived workplace gender-bias and psychological impact. european journal of training and development, 43(3/4), 339–353. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejtd-09-2018-0088 lips, h.m. (2013). the gender pay gap: challenging the rationalizations. perceived equity, discrimination, and the limits of human capital models. sex roles, 68(3), 169–185. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-012-0165-z mans-kemp, n. (2019). ceo’s exit underscores how few south african women hold top jobs. retrieved from https://theconversation.com/ceos-exit-underscores-how-few-south-african-women-hold-top-jobs mayer, c., & may, m. (2018). of being a container through role definitions: voices from women leaders in organisational autoethnography. journal of organisational ethnography, 7(3), 373–387. https://doi.org/10.1108/joe-10-2017-0052 ramohai, j. (2019). women in senior management positions at south african universities: their movement in, out and across universities. gender in management: an international journal, 34(3), 217–232. https://doi.org/10.1108/gm-10-2017-0138 ramohai, j., & marumo, k. (2016). women in senior positions in south africa education: a reflection on voice and agency. alternative, 23(1), 135–157. ryan, m.k., haslam, s.a., & postmes, t. (2007). reactions to the glass cliff: gender differences in the explanations for the precariousness of women’s leadership positions. journal of organizational change management, 20(2), 182–197. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810710724748 sa department of labour. (2016). commission for employment equity annual report: 2015–2016. pretoria: department of labour. retrieved from https://www.labour.gov.za/dol/downloads/documents/annual-reports/employment-equity/2015-2016/16thceereport.pdf salinas, p.c., & bagni, c. (2017). gender equality from a european perspective: myth and reality. neuron, 96(4), 721–729. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2017.10.002 scheepers, c.b., douman, a., & moodley, p. (2018). sponsorship and social identity in advancement of women leaders in south africa. gender in management: an international journal, 33(6), 466–498. https://doi.org/10.1108/gm-06-2017-0076 shepered, s. (2017). why are there so few female leaders in higher education: a case of structure and agency. management in education, 31(2), 82–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/0892020617696631 statistics south africa. (2017). quarterly labour force survey: quarter 2 – 2017. pretoria: stats sa. statistics south africa. (2019). quarterly labour force survey: quarter 2 – 2019. pretoria: stats sa. sweeting, h., bhaskar, a., benzeval, m., propham, f., & hunt, k. (2014). changing gender roles and attitudes and their implications for well-being around the new millennium. social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 49(5), 791–809. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-013-0730-y tabassum, n., shafique, s., konstantopoulou, a., & arslan, a. (2019). antecedents of women managers’ resilience: conceptual discussion and implications for hrm. international journal of organisational analysis, 27(2), 241–268. terre blanche, m., durrheim, k., & painter, d. (2006). research in practice: applied methods for the social sciences. cape town: university of cape town press. thompson, b.m. (2015). succumbing, surviving, succeeding? women managers in academia. gender in management: an international journal, 30(5), 397–413. https://doi.org/10.1108/gm-08-2013-0095 universities south africa forum (usaf). (2015). annual report 2015: new strategic direction. pretoria: universities south africa. vallie, z. (2018). are women rising in senior management in sa? economy. retrieved from https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/economy/are-women-rising-in-senior-management-sa? veldsman, t. (2003). personal communication. internal research report. midrand: cs holdings. welman, c., kruger, f., & mitchell, b. (2005). research methodology (3rd edn.). cape town: oxford university press. willows, g., & van der linde, m. (2016). women representation on boards: a south african perspective. meditari accountancy research, 24(2), 211–225. https://doi.org/10.1108/medar-01-2016-0001 zhong, y., blum, s.c., & couch, s. (2018). facilitators and constraints: perceptions of gender differences on women’s career advancement. journal of tourism and hospitality management, 6(2), 61–72. https://doi.org/10.17265/2328-2169/2018.04.003 abstract introduction study methodology results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) adeboye adeleken gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa mark h.r. bussin gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation adeleken, a., & bussin, m.h.r. (2022). occupational segregation and gender pay gap dynamics in the formal sector of south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1660. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1660 original research occupational segregation and gender pay gap dynamics in the formal sector of south africa adeboye adeleken, mark h.r. bussin received: 08 may 2021; accepted: 15 feb. 2022; published: 25 mar. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the participation of women in the labour force in south africa has improved and, whilst the gender pay gap is narrowing, it remains persistent. gender integration in occupations has been slow, and there remains a strong association between income and factors such as gender and occupations. research purpose: this study aimed to investigate the effect of the improved labour force participation of women on occupational gender segregation. the term gender is used synonymously with sex in this article, referring to biological (rather than psychological) gender. motivation for study: status of occupational gender segregation is a good measure of effect of the increased labour force participation of women and narrowing the gender pay gap. research approach/design and method: a cross-sectional study with descriptive and analytic components was conducted. the gender representation and pay gap were determined in 10 job families, across six industries. main findings: seven occupations have achieved integration at various levels, and three occupations remain fully segregated. the gender pay gap in favour of men in male-dominated occupations is narrower than in female-dominated occupations. a statistically significantly large gap in favour of women was found in some male-dominated occupations. practical/managerial implications: convergence towards similar pay for work of similar value has been achieved in occupations in various industries. contribution/value-add: the number of men in an occupation, whilst still a causal factor in the pay gap, was found to no longer be sufficient to deduce that the income of that occupation would be higher, as postulated in literature. keywords: gender pay gap; occupational segregation; industry segregation; wage gap; discrimination; inequality. introduction research indicates improved labour force participation of women and a narrowed gender pay gap in various countries around the world, including south africa (bishu & alkadry, 2017; blau, brummund, & liu, 2013; steyn, 2012). a south african study of 1740 respondents from 29 organisations conducted by steyn and jackson (2015) found that, whilst the pay of men is mostly higher than that of women, the gap is not statistically significant. a similar trend was observed in a larger study by adelekan and bussin (2018) to have emerged at management levels. although women were found to now be better represented in all salary bands, they remain under-represented (adelekan & bussin, 2018). the narrowing of the gender pay gap has been linked to the greater presence of skilled women in formal employment and high-paying occupations (steyn & jackson, 2015). occupational gender segregation is a well-known causal and sustaining factor in gender pay inequality despite the work being of similar value. however, the extent of the effect of the influx of women into formal employment on the status of occupational segregation, especially in male-dominated occupations in south africa, is not known. nevertheless, it is documented in the literature that several occupations that were once male-dominated have become female-dominated (also referred to as ‘male occupations’ and ‘female occupations’, respectively) through a large influx of women (blau et al., 2013; pan, 2015). it is not known if this continuous influx has had the desired effect on occupational gender segregation – neutralising the majority of men in ‘male occupations’ – in south africa, or even tipped the scales to some occupations now being held by a majority of women. it would also be of interest to know whether any of these effects have been reversed although pan (2015) posits that female-dominated occupations becoming male-dominated rarely occurs (pan, 2015). the disaggregation and analysis of income data at the level of occupation and industry are essential to fully understand the effects of the policies and interventions implemented by the south african government and organisations to close the gender pay gap (paterson, 2010). this view is complemented by the suggestion of blau and kahn (2017) that, because of the continued importance of the effect of occupation and industry in the manifestation of a gender pay gap, more research focusing on gender differences in employment distributions and the causes is needed. it is important to assess the gender pay gap both in occupations and in industries to determine whether there is any truth to the argument of sceptics that a gender pay gap does not exist, or that the pay gap disappears, or at least shrinks substantially, once women’s employment choices are taken into account (ansel, 2017). study objectives the focus of this study was to investigate the effect of the influx of women into formal employment on occupational gender segregation and the gender pay gap in a wide variety of occupations and across selected industries. the aim was to improve our understanding of the achievements so far and to provide guidance to further strengthen interventions against the gender pay gap through greater precision, with measurable outcomes. three questions were answered to meet the objectives of the study: what is the status of occupational gender segregation? what is the status of the gender pay gap in each occupation type? how does the gender pay gap in each occupation type vary across industries? study methodology research approach a quantitative study approach was followed, and descriptive and inferential statistics were used to answer the research questions. research method the remuneration data analysed in this study were obtained from 21st century (pty) ltd., one of the largest reward consultancies in africa. the data were collected in a survey and the over 700 companies, 10 job families (an occupation comprising similar jobs), and six industries. assessments of the pay gap and occupational segregation were conducted within occupation types and industries. the occupation types reported on are: ‘compliance and risk, executive management, financial and accounting, human capital, information technology, logistics and procurement, marketing and sales, operational, secretarial, and technical and specialist’, as defined by 21st century (2018). the industries reported on are extractive, transformative, distributive services, producer services, social services, and personal services. table 1 lists the various industry classifications and key operations within these industries. table 1: description of industries represented in the study. sample the study sample consisted of 217 902 individuals, predominantly men, with 75 373 (34.6%) women, aged 18 years or older, and used predominantly in the private sector. study design this was a cross-sectional study with descriptive and analytic components. the motivations for the processing of data and quantitative methods used to answer the research questions were as described by adelekan and bussin (2018). unit of analysis the unit of the analysis was gender pay. ‘pay’ refers to annual income (guaranteed package). guaranteed package is defined as a basic salary plus benefits per year (adelekan & bussin, 2018). the median income is used as a reference point in the reporting, unless stated otherwise. the pay gap was calculated as the difference between the income of men and women as a percentage of the income of men (see williams, 2017) data analysis the analysis of employees’ annual income was conducted using stata 16.1 statistical software (statacorp, 2019) and included descriptive and inferential statistics. the study data, received in an excel spreadsheet, were cleaned and coded, and missing values were excluded from the analysis. the resulting sample size was 217 902. the gender distribution in the occupations and industries was measured and described. analysis of the gender pay gap in occupations and industries was conducted at five percentile points (p10, p25, p50, p75, and p95) in the distribution of the guaranteed package of the employees. median values were used in the measurement of the gender pay gap. the mann–whitney rank-sum test was used to conduct the inferential statistics. measurements were conducted at the 95% confidence level, and a p ≤ 0.05 signified statistical significance. the gender pay gap with a bigger p-value indicates convergence towards similar pay for work of similar value (see adelekan & bussin, 2018). ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained from the gordon institute of business science (gibs), university of pretoria, temp2016-01448 results the distribution of the study sample by occupation and gender is contained in figure 1. the distribution by occupation type ranges from 1.6% in executive management to 33.6% in operational, with 10.3% unmatched. the occupation types operational, technical and specialist and financial and accounting account for 63.7% of the employees. figure 1: study sample distribution graphical representation. gender distribution per occupation type is as follows: operational – 16 787 women and 56 432 men; technical and specialist – 9249 women and 32 279 men; financial and accounting – 16 323 women and 7626 men. men are in the majority in all occupations, except financial and accounting, human capital, marketing and sales and secretarial, where women are in the majority. across all six industries (as shown in table 2), women were found to be in the majority in the occupation types financial and accounting and secretarial. women are also in the majority in human capital across the industries, except in extractive. in the occupation type marketing and sales, women are in the majority in three industries: personal services, producer services and social services. table 2: population frequency by gender, job family and industry. the number of women in female-dominated occupations in the industries personal services, producer services, and social services is mostly more than double the number of men. whilst women are not in the majority in compliance and risk, they are more in number relative to men in compliance and risk at personal services, producer services and social services. when considering industries only (disregarding occupation types), women are in the majority in producer services and social services. the employees in executive management earn the highest median annual income (see table 3). the order of occupation types’ median annual income, from highest to the lowest, is ‘executive management, information technology, human capital, compliance and risk, technical and specialist, financial and accounting, secretarial, logistics and procurement, marketing and sales, and operational’. table 3: income distribution trends. men’s median pay was found to be higher than that of women in all occupation types, except logistics and procurement, operational, secretarial and technical and specialist. the observed gender pay gap in the occupations is as follows – compliance and risk: 2.9%, executive management: 8.6%, financial and accounting: 19.0%, human capital: 16.4%, information technology: 13.9%, marketing and sales: 3.6%, logistics and procurement: –41.0%, operational: –60.7%, secretarial: –92.0% and technical and specialist –0.8%. these gaps are all statistically significant, except in compliance and risk. in occupations where the gender pay gap is in the favour of men, a similar result was observed across the industries, with a few exceptions (table 4) – executive management in social services (–2.0%), financial and accounting in personal services (–1.9%), marketing and sales in distributive services (–120%) and personal services(–15.1%). table 4: occupational gender pay gap in the industry. women’s income was found to be superior in logistics and procurement, operational, secretarial and technical and specialist across most of the industries. the gender pay gap favouring women in logistics and procurement ranges from –23.5% (producer services) to –55.7% (transformative), in operational it ranges from –7.1% (social services) to –36.6% (personal services), in secretarial it ranges from –6.3% (personal services) to –67.6% (social services) and in technical and specialist it ranges from –1.5% (transformative) to –18.8% (personal services). women’s income is not superior in the following occupations and industries (pay gap in brackets): logistics and procurement in social services (4.4%), operational in extractive (2.4%) and producer services (0.5%), secretarial in extractive (3.0%) and technical and specialist in producer services (18.9%) and social services (17.2%). whilst in marketing and sales, the overall median income for women is lower than that of men, the income of women in marketing and sales in distributive services and personal services was found to be higher at every percentile point measured in the income distribution. discussion this section is arranged in accordance with the study questions. what is the status of occupational gender segregation? the study found that significantly more men than women are used in the formal sector. the implication is that women are still vastly under-represented in employment, and discrimination being a factor cannot be ruled out (gnesi, de santis, & cardinaleschi, 2016; steyn, 2012), as the fact remains that women constitute more than 50% of working-age adults in south africa (motsoeneng & kahn, 2014; steyn, 2012). the distribution of the study sample in occupations revealed that some occupations have remained fully segregated along gender lines, whilst others have achieved integration at various levels. an occupation in which the workforce consists of ≥ 75% women is referred to as a female occupation, ˂ 25% women represents a male occupation and both are considered segregated. a ratio of ˂ 75% and ˃ 25% in favour of either gender is considered an integrated occupation (hegewisch & hartmann, 2014). the distribution of the employees by gender in the occupations showed that three occupations – secretarial, technical and specialist, and operational – have remained fully segregated. secretarial remained predominantly female (91.0%), whilst technical and specialist (77.7%) and operational (77.1%) are predominantly male. financial and accounting, human capital and secretarial are traditional female occupations, typically in the domains of education, care, clerical work and cashiering (blau & kahn, 2017; gnesi et al., 2016; mcdowell, 2015). the following are traditional male occupations: marketing and sales, compliance and risk, executive management, information technology, logistics and procurement, operational and technical and specialist (blau et al., 2013; new jnches equality working group, 2011). the classification of occupation by gender has changed over time and varies across countries, mainly because of the entry of women into more prestigious and better-paying male occupations. this entry of women is known to have led to integration, tipping and re-segregation of occupations (blau et al., 2013; pan, 2015). for example, in the report by new joint negotiating committee for higher education staff (jnches) equality working group of 2011, it is indicated that men are in the majority in professional and elementary occupations, whilst women are in the majority in sales and customer service occupations. in south africa, the opposite is true at the moment (stats sa, 2020). the classification of occupation types and industries may differ across countries, which makes it difficult to compare findings. the lesser number of women in human capital in the extractive industry could be because of the manual and hostile nature of the work, which includes inflexible schedules and long work hours (hegewisch & hartmann, 2014; steyn & jackson, 2015; trade and industry committee, 2005). again, bias and discrimination against women in these environments cannot be ruled out as a contributory factor to the low numbers of women (bishu & alkadry, 2017). similarly, the high number of women in female-dominated occupations in the personal services, producer services and social services industries could be because of the nature of the work being more suited to the feminine nature (mcgrew, 2016). it is widely posited in the literature that many women prefer and work in service-oriented jobs (blau & kahn, 2007; gnesi et al., 2016; grybaite, 2006; luci, jütting, & morrisson, 2012; mcdowell, 2015). whilst the occupation types secretarial, technical specialist and operational remain heavily segregated, the remaining occupations have achieved integration at various levels. the integration observed could be suggesting a decline in occupational gender segregation. the study conducted by blau et al. (2013) established a decreasing trend of occupational segregation in the united states of america. in the present study, it was observed that the representation of women in the male-dominated occupations is 37.5% in compliance and risk, 36.6% in executive management, 34.4% in information technology and 26.7% in logistics and procurement. in the female-dominated occupations, the representation of men is 31.8% in finance and accounting, 38.8% in human capital and 46.2% in marketing and sales. marketing and sales could be approaching full integration – 49% representation of men, in line with the composition of the labour force (weeden, newhart, & gelbgiser, 2018). it is also possible that marketing and sales have reached the tipping point, meaning that it is in the process of becoming a female occupation, at which point it would be considered re-segregated. stats sa (2020) reported that men are in the majority in the ‘sales and services’ occupation type, which is similar to the occupation type marketing and sales reported in the present study. moreover, the grouping of jobs into either ‘sales and services’ or ‘marketing and sales’ may account for differences in results of comparisons. although a level of integration is evident in compliance and risk, executive management, financial and accounting, human capital, information technology and logistics and procurement, these occupation types still have a way to go in achieving full integration status. what is the status of the gender pay gap in each occupation type? hegewisch, liepman, hayes and hartman (2010) and mcgrew (2016) posit that a majority of men in an occupation is evidence that the occupation pays better than an occupation in which women are in the majority. in the present study, we found that overrepresentation of men in an occupation is not sufficient to support this assumption. in the present study, it was found that two scenarios increase the income of an occupation: (1) men being the majority and earning higher median incomes or (2) men earning higher median incomes without being in the majority. this finding differs from the report of hegewisch, williams and harbin (2012), which states: women’s median earnings are lower than men’s in nearly all occupations, whether they work in occupations predominantly done by women, occupations predominantly done by men, or occupations with a more even mix of men and women. (p. 1) in our study, we found that the median income of women is higher in four occupations, of which three are male-dominated occupations (see figure 2). nevertheless, in the occupations where women are the majority and earn higher median incomes, or only earn higher median incomes without being the majority, the income is lower. furthermore, it was found that, as the ratio of women to men increases in female occupations, the occupation’s income decreases. figure 2: occupation median income and sex composition. in the occupation types with the highest income, executive management, followed by information technology, and compliance and risk (in fourth place), men are in the majority and earn higher median incomes. this was found for almost all the industries under study and the percentile points considered in the income distribution. in human capital, the third-highest income, despite women being in the majority, men earn more than women. once again, this is the case across all industries and percentile points measured. in technical and specialist, which has the fifth-highest income, men were found to be in the majority, whilst the median income of women is higher from the 10th to the 50th percentile in five of the six industries. however, the median income in technical and specialist was found to be lower compared with similar male occupations, such as executive management, information technology and compliance and risk, in which women do not earn a higher income. financial and accounting was found to be a female occupation sharing similarities with human capital. women are in the majority, but the median income of men is higher than that of women at all percentile points and across the industries under study. the only difference is the ratio of women to men, which is 1.6 in human capital and 2.1 in financial and accounting. with more women relative to men in financial and accounting than in human capital, the median income in financial and accounting has dropped to the sixth-highest income, with slightly more than half of the income of human capital. secretarial, with the seventh-highest income, is a female occupation, with a women-to-men ratio of 10.1. the median income of women in this occupation across most of the industries and at all percentile points is higher than that of men. the higher proportion of women to men, especially at senior levels, could be attributed to the lower income of these female occupations. this observation is similar to the finding of weeden et al. (2018) that, as the percentage of women in an occupation increases, the median income in the occupation decreases. logistics and procurement, a male occupation, has the eighth-highest income of the occupations, and the income of women at the median is higher than men’s in most of the industries and at all percentile points. the presence of women in logistics and procurement is more pronounced than in technical and specialist, hence the lower median income measured in logistics and procurement. marketing and sales placed ninth in income. it is a female occupation, but the median income of men was found to be higher in most of the industries and at all percentile points. the relatively lower median income in marketing and sales could be due to the work schedule and structure of income in the occupation, that is, part-time and contract appointments, known to pay less, are common in this occupation type (aláez-aller, longás-garcía, & ullibarri-arce, 2011; blau & kahn, 2017; gnesi et al., 2016; nadler & stockdale, 2012), and the income structure often includes commission instead of, or in addition to, a salary (torpey, 2015). it is also possible that marketing and sales have not been attracting annual income increases at a level similar to that of other female occupations. another consideration is that marketing and sales, along with human capital and financial and accounting, may have feminised in recent times, and the new (female) entrants secured predominantly junior positions, whilst men retained their positions at senior levels (sinden, 2017). in operational, with the tenth-highest income, men are in the majority, but the income of women is higher at the 50th – 95th percentiles across most of the industries. the structure of income and the concentration of high-earning women in middle to top management may have contributed to the low income of the occupation type, compared with other male occupations. the gender pay gap in male occupations either narrows within a range of 2.9% – 13.9% or favours women in the range of –0.8% – –60.7%. despite this narrow status, information technology, executive management and compliance and risk remain male occupations, either in terms of majority and superior income (hegewisch & hartmann, 2014). however, the pay gap in compliance and risk is not statistically significant, showing convergence towards similar pay for work of similar value. however, the gender pay gap has widened in favour of women in technical and specialist (by –0.8%), logistics and procurement (by –41.0%) and operational (by –60.7%). the widened gap in favour of women could be because of the presence of more highly educated and skilled women in senior positions. according to buhai, portela, teulings and van vuuren (2014), income increases with seniority, whilst ebrahim (2017) described seniority as a justification for an income difference, regarded as fair. the entry of highly educated women into male occupations and the effect thereof on the narrowing of the gender pay gap is well documented in the literature (drolet & mumford, 2012; steyn, 2012; steyn & jackson, 2015). the lack of comparably skilled men could have been caused by the men who have moved to other occupations for fear of being stigmatised or due to a loss of occupational prestige as more women moved into the occupation (mcgrew, 2016; pan, 2015). it is also possible that the number of women in these male occupations has reached the critical tipping point described by pan (2015). the large gender pay gap favouring women in male occupations could also be an unintended consequence of government’s advocacy of employing women in senior positions (motsoeneng & kahn, 2014). women seem to have an established presence and prominence at every management level in logistics and procurement. in technical and specialist, women seem established in junior and middle management, whilst, in operational, women appear well represented in middle and top management. the higher income of these male occupations may have attracted more women (blau & kahn, 2017). the gender pay gap in female occupations varied similarly to those in male occupations. the pay gap in marketing and sales, human capital and financial and accounting was found to be in favour of men. this may be attributable to men enjoying greater promotional opportunities within female occupations, for example, nursing, a phenomenon documented by mcdowell (2015) and termed ‘the glass escalator’ by williams (1992) and ‘gender capital’ by huppatz and goodwin (2013). the gender pay gap tends to be larger in female occupations than in male occupations. amongst the female occupations with the smallest pay gap is marketing and sales (3.6%), where the likelihood of full integration in the near future seems promising. however, this occupation’s pay gap is larger than that of compliance and risk, which showed the smallest gender pay gap of the male occupations. similarly, the gender pay gap in secretarial is greater than in operational, whilst the gap in human capital, and financial and accounting is larger than in information technology, in favour of men. the gender pay gap in secretarial (in favour of women) is larger than in operational, and both have the biggest gender pay gap. the narrower gender pay gap in the male-dominated occupations may be due to highly skilled and educated women taking up employment in these occupations (ansel, 2017; blau & kahn, 2007; drolet & mumford, 2012; steyn & jackson, 2015). however, the relatively large gender pay gaps in female-dominated occupations could be because of either highly skilled professional women preferring not to taking up employment in these occupations, but moving to male occupations where the income is higher, with the rest of the women remaining mostly in junior positions. blau and kahn (2017) reported reduced representation of women in female occupations, including service jobs, whilst their presence is increasing in male occupations. it is worth noting that the income distribution in logistics and procurement, operational, secretarial and technical and specialist revealed three patterns of income superiority of women: a higher income at every point, a higher income from the median to the top point, or a higher income from the lower to the median point. how does the gender pay gap in each occupation type vary across industries? the gender pay gap in the occupations was found to vary in proportion, statistical significance, and the gender favoured, across the industries under study. the pay gap in favour of men in executive management was found across the industries and is statistically significant, except in social services and transformative – where it favours women. however, the pay gap in the latter two industries is not statistically significant, indicating convergence towards similar pay for work of similar value. a superior income was found for men in human capital, information technology, compliance and risk, financial and accounting, and marketing and sales across most oral industries. however, the incomes for human capital in producer services and social services and for information technology in personal services have converged towards similar pay for work of similar value. furthermore, the income for compliance and risk has also converged in distributive services, extractive, social services and transformative. for financial and accounting, there has been convergence in personal services. the gender pay gap was found to be in favour of men in financial and accounting. however, across the industries, the gender pay gap in personal services in favour of women has converged towards similar pay for work of similar value. similarly, in marketing and sales, large and statistically significant gender pay gaps in favour of women were observed in distributive services and personal services. this indicates the presence of women compared to men, in senior positions within the respective industries. the incomes for marketing and sales in social services have also converged. a gender pay gap favouring women was observed for logistics and procurement, operational, secretarial, and technical and specialist in some industries. the gender pay gap favouring women in logistics and procurement is large and statistically significant in more than half of the industries (distributive services, extractive, personal services and transformative). these gaps indicate the presence of few but skilled women in senior positions, whilst men, although in the majority, are mostly in junior positions with a lower income. furthermore, the gender pay gap in producer services and social services is not statistically significant, showing that women’s and men’s incomes in logistics and procurement in these industries have converged towards similar pay for work of similar value. the gender pay gap in favour of women in operational was found to be very large. across the industries, the gender pay gap in favour of women ranged from small to large – but statistically significant – in distributive services, personal services, social services and transformative. the gender pay gap in extractive is statistically significant and in favour of men, whilst in personal services, although the pay gap is in favour of men, the genders’ incomes have converged. for technical and specialist, a gender pay gap in favour of women was found for distributive services, extractive, personal services and transformative. the gender pay gap in producer services and social services is in favour of men. the gender pay gap is statistically significant across all industries, except in extractive, which showed pay convergence. in secretarial, the gender pay gap was found to be in favour of women in five industries. the gender pay gap is statistically significant in three industries (personal services, social services, and transformative), whilst the incomes have converged towards similar pay for work of similar value in distributive services and producer services. the gender pay gap in extractive was found to be in favour of men but has converged towards similar pay for work of similar value. although men have a small representation in secretarial, they earn an income comparable with that of women in extractive, distributive services and producer services. this observation could be associated with the gender capital or glass escalator phenomenon. limitations of the study the study data could not be used to measure trends in occupational gender composition and the gender pay gap over time. although the study sample was very large, generalisation of the findings should be done with caution, as the degree to which the sample is representative of the formal sector in south africa is not known. the results may be more applicable to the private sector than the public sector, as most of the organisations represented in the study were in the private sector. variations in the classification of jobs into occupation type and industry should be factored in when processing and applying the findings of this study. also, bias due to unclassified data could not be ruled out. areas where further studies are required similar studies are needed in the future to monitor progress towards targets and to refine interventions as needed. also, the reasons why statistically significant gender pay gaps favouring women emerged in male-dominated occupations need to be determined. could this be the unintended consequence of interventions, or is it attributable to the way in which these are implemented? such research would be useful in ensuring the desired goals are achieved. given the history of apartheid, it is also necessary to conduct research on the gender pay gap amongst and within race groups. implications for management the efforts of government and business in promoting gender equality and similar pay for work of similar value are bearing fruit. transformation has taken place but at a slow pace and have not met expectations. women have been able to move into male occupations, and the gender pay gap has narrowed. desegregation is coming into effect, as this study found that only a few occupations have remained fully segregated (less than 25% women), whilst one occupation is nearing full integration. achieving gender equality in all occupations is still far off target, evident in the gender composition of most of the occupations not being near full integration. the income in only one of the occupations has converged towards similar pay for work of similar value, and the gender pay gap in the other occupations and across industries varies. the gender pay gap in each occupation has remedied to similar pay for work of similar value in at least one industry. the detailed status of the gender pay gap in occupations and across industries reported in this study can be used to measure current gains and future progress towards gender equality in representation and similar pay for work of similar value. the results may also guide the refinement of targeted interventions and assist in monitoring the outcomes. recommendations the number of women in employment is still lower than it should be. transformation in gender composition and pay needs to be monitored more actively and addressed pro-actively. tax incentives could be introduced to promote gender representativity and similar pay for work of similar value at all levels in occupations and across industries. however, equity in pay and representation should also be targeted at attracting and retaining men in positions in occupations and across industries where an emerging large gender pay gap in favour of women is evident. conclusion evidence from this study suggests a decline in occupational segregation. however, three occupations have remained fully segregated – either predominantly female (secretarial) or predominantly male (operational and technical and specialist). the remaining occupations have achieved integration at various levels although these have retained either a female or male identity based on a majority gender. marketing and sales may either be re-segregating or approaching full integration. the number of men in an occupation alone is no longer sufficient grounds to assume that it pays better than another occupation. men’s income was found to be higher in the male occupations executive management, information technology and compliance and risk at most or all percentile points in the income distribution and across industries. the female occupation secretarial showed inverse characteristics, with the income of women being higher than that of men at all percentile points and across industries. income was found to be higher in male occupations where the median income gap favours men, followed by female occupations, where men enjoy a superior median income. the lowest-paying occupation was a male occupation, where women have a superior median income. men being in the majority and receiving a superior median income enhances the income of the occupation. furthermore, the presence of men with a superior median income in a female occupation was found to enhance the income of the occupation. however, income is lower in male occupations where women hold senior positions. the reductive effect of the entry of women into male occupations becomes clear as women ascend to senior positions, particularly evident in a superior income at the median of the income distribution. it was further found that, as the number of women in a female occupation increases, the income decreases. the lack of men at comparable levels in secretarial, logistics and procurement, and operational may have tipped the income scale, evident in the emergence of a large gender pay gap in favour of women. logistics and procurement and operational run the risk of becoming feminised overtime if interventions are not implemented to neutralise the gender pay gap in favour of women. a statistically significant gender pay gap in favour of either men or women persists in all occupations, except compliance and risk, where the incomes have converged towards similar pay for work of similar value. the pay in each occupation has achieved a measure of convergence towards similar pay for work of similar value in at least one industry. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references 21st century. (2018). paterson job evaluation. retrieved from https://www.21century.co.za/remuneration-training/paterson-job-evaluation-training-course/ adelekan, a.m., & bussin, m.h.r. (2018). gender pay gap in salary bands among employees in the formal sector of south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 16, a1018. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.1018 aláez-aller, r., longás-garcía, j.c., & ullibarri-arce, m. (2011). visualising gender wage differences in the european union. gender, work and organization, 18(suppl 1), e49–e87. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2009.00469.x ansel, b. (2017). do us women choose low-paid occupations, or do low-paid occupations choose them? washington center for equitable growth. retreived from https://equitablegrowth.org/do-u-s-women-choose-low-paid-occupations-or-do-low-paid-occupations-choose-them/ bishu, s.g., & alkadry, m.g. (2017). a systematic review of the gender pay gap and factors that predict it. administration and society, 49(1), 65–104. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399716636928 blau, f.d., brummund, p., & liu, a.y.h. (2013). trends in occupational segregation by gender 1970–2009: adjusting for the impact of changes in the occupational coding system. demography, 50(2), 471–492. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-012-0151-7 blau, f.d., & kahn, l.m. (2007). the gender pay gap: have women gone as far as they can? academy of management perspectives, 21(1), 7–23. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2007.24286161 blau, f.d., & kahn, l.m. (2017). the gender wage gap: extent, trends, & explanations. journal of economic literature, 55(3), 789–865. https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.20160995 buhai, i.s., portela, a.m., teulings, n.c., & van vuuren, a. (2014). returns to tenure or seniority? econometrica, 82(2), 705–730. https://doi.org/10.3982/ecta8688 drolet, m., & mumford, k. (2012). the gender pay gap for private-sector employees in canada and britain. british journal of industrial relations, 50(3), 529–553. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.2011.00868.x ebrahim, s. (2017). equal pay in terms of the employment equity act: the role of seniority, collective agreements and good industrial relations: pioneer foods (pty) ltd v workers against regression 2016 zalcct 14. potchefstroom electronic law journal, 20, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.17159/1727-3781/2017/v20i0a1524 gnesi, c., de santis, s., & cardinaleschi, s. (2016). the gender pay gap in italy: some evidence on the role of decentralized collective bargaining. estudios de economia aplicada, 34(1), 109–132. retrieved from https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/301/30143731006.pdf grybaite, v. (2006). analysis of theoretical approaches to gender pay gap. journal of business economics and management, 7(2), 85–91. https://doi.org/10.3846/16111699.2006.9636127 hegewisch, a., & hartmann, h. (2014). occupational segregation and the gender wage gap: a job half done. retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/key_workplace/1587/ hegewisch, a., liepman, h., hayes, j., & hartman, h. (2010). separate and not equal? gender segregation in the labor market and the gender wage gap. iwpr briefing paper, 377, 1–16. retrieved from https://iwpr.org/iwpr-issues/employment-and-earnings/separate-and-not-equal-gender-segregation-in-the-labor-market-and-the-gender-wage-gap/ hegewisch, a., williams, c., & harbin, v. (2012). the gender wage gap by occupation. institute for women’s policy research. retrieved from https://iwpr.org/publications/the-gender-wage-gap-by-occupation-2/ huppatz, k., & goodwin, s. (2013). masculinised jobs, feminised jobs and men’s ‘gender capital’ experiences: understanding occupational segregation in australia. journal of sociology, 49(2–3), 291–308. https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783313481743 luci, a., jütting, j., & morrisson, c. (2012). why do so many women end up in ‘bad jobs’? a cross-country assessment for developing countries. european journal of development research, 24(4), 530–549. https://doi.org/10.1057/ejdr.2011.54 mcdowell, j. (2015). masculinity and non-traditional occupations: men’s talk in women’s work. gender, work and organization, 22(3), 273–291. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12078 mcgrew, w. (2016). gender segregation at work: ‘separate but equal’ or ‘inefficient and unfair’. washington center for equitable growth. retieved from http://equitablegrowth.org/human-capital/gender-segregation-at-work-separate-but-equal-or-inequitable-and-inefficient motsoeneng, r.p., & kahn, s.b. (2014). gender equality in the south african public service: ideal or reality? journal of public administration, 49(4), 1060–1082. nadler, j.t., & stockdale, m.s. (2012). workplace gender bias: not just between strangers. north american journal of psychology, 14(2), 281–292. new jnches equality working group. (2011). the gender pay gap – a literature review. retreived from https://www.ucea.ac.uk/library/publications/gender-pay-gap-literature-review/ pan, j. (2015). gender segregation in occupations: the role of tipping and social interactions. journal of labor economics, 33(2), 365–408. https://doi.org/10.1086/678518 paterson, s. (2010). what’s the problem with gender-based analysis? gender mainstreaming policy and practice in canada. canadian public administration, 53(3), 395–416. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-7121.2010.00134.x sinden, e. (2017). exploring the gap between male and female employment in the south african workforce. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 8(6), 37. https://doi.org/10.1515/mjss-2017-0040 statacorp. (2019). stata statistical software: release 16.0. college station, tx: statacorp llc. stats sa. (2020). statistical release quarterly labour force survey. retrieved from http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/p0211/p02111stquarter2020.pdf steyn, r. (2012). expanding the suite of measures of gender-based discrimination: gender differences in ablution facilities in south africa. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 15(2), 222–234. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v15i2.212 steyn, r., & jackson, l. (2015). gender-based discrimination in south africa: a quantitative analysis of fairness of remuneration. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 18(2), a4. https://doi.org/10.17159/2222-3436/2015/v18n2a4 torpey, e. (2015). same occupation, different pay: how wages vary. retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/careeroutlook/2015/article/wage-differences.htm?view_full trade and industry committee. (2005). jobs for the girls: the effect of occupational segregation on the gender pay gap. retrieved from https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200405/cmselect/cmtrdind/300/300.pdf weeden, k.a., newhart, m., & gelbgiser, d. (2018). state of the union 2018: occupational segregation. the poverty and inequality report, stanford center on poverty and inequality. retrieved from https://inequality.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/pathways_sotu_2018_occupational-segregation.pdf williams, c.l. (1992). the glass escalator: hidden advantages for men in the ‘female’ professions. social problems, 39(3), 253–267. https://doi.org/10.2307/3096961 williams, j. (2017). the gender pay gap. in women vs. feminism (pp. 49–68). bingley: emerald publishing limited. abstract introduction literature review research method discussion limitations of the study acknowledgements references about the author(s) kaledi d. mehale department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa cookie m. govender department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa calvin m. mabaso department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation mehale, k.d., govender, c.m., & mabaso, c.m. (2021). maximising training evaluation for employee performance improvement. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1473. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1473 original research maximising training evaluation for employee performance improvement kaledi d. mehale, cookie m. govender, calvin m. mabaso received: 07 sept. 2020; accepted: 08 dec. 2020; published: 31 mar. 2021 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: employee performance is a vital aspect within organisations in south africa (sa). it is argued that poor performance can be addressed through training and development. performances should be evaluated before and after training interventions to ensure that training was beneficial to the employees. research purpose: the study intended to establish whether training evaluation conducted after training in the sa financial sector measures employee performance improvement. motivation for the study: most businesses invest in training and development interventions anticipating that employees will use what they have learned to improve their performance. there is limited recent empirical research on sa financial sector training evaluation tools, especially those that indicate employee performance improvement after training. main findings and discussion: the findings of this study indicate the following: sa financial organisations frequently use levels 1–3 (satisfaction; learning; application) of the kirkpatrick-phillips training evaluation tool; continuous employee performance improvement needs to be assessed more regularly, especially after training; and levels 4–5 (results; roi) of the kirkpatrick-phillips evaluation model are seldom measured due to a lack of skills, motivation, and resources. implications and contribution: there are significant implications for human resource development (hrd) professionals and managers within the sa financial sector. since there is a positive significant association with training evaluation and employee performance, relevant stakeholders must be aware that the purpose of training must be to improve and measure employee performance. this paper contributes theoretically to hrd management practices, training evaluations, and performance improvement. the practical contribution is the proposed training evaluation framework for performance improvement for stakeholders to use to ensure that hrd evaluations measures performance improvement. keywords: human resource development; training evaluation tools; performance improvement; kirkpatrick–phillips; evaluation framework; return on investment. introduction south african organisations have experienced tremendous challenges, changes and improvements since the country’s new democracy, 25 years ago. political and socio-economic changes necessitated the continuous training and development of employees so that they may be competent and have skills that are aligned with the organisational transformations that occurred. employee performance must be improved and transformed as it is important in the execution of organisational strategy and the achievement of business strategic objectives (imran & tanveer, 2015). training increases the knowledge, skills and abilities of the employees (almohaimmeed, 2017). managers need to have one-on-one sessions with employees before training interventions to undertake the following: discussing the benefits of attending the training, setting goals for learning and applying what they learn to improve job performance (imran & tanveer, 2015). employees are more likely to learn and benefit from the training when they are motivated to learn, when they perceive the work environment as supportive to their learning and when they are able to use their newly acquired knowledge and skills on the job (elnaga & imran, 2013). skill development is crucial within financial organisations to ensure that employees perform their tasks at the level that the job requires (elnaga & imran, 2013). effective training enables employees to execute job responsibilities that were difficult prior to training (hameed & waheed, 2011). human resource development (hrd) professionals and line managers have a responsibility to work collaboratively to design, deliver and evaluate training and development interventions which will increase the knowledge, skills and attitude of the employees (khan, khan, & khan, 2011). there is also a need for managers to use training evaluations to ascertain whether the employees could impart newly acquired knowledge to his or her team members, and whether the organisation’s money was well spent (mburumaina & waithaka, 2017). there is a degree of ambiguity on whether hrd professionals and line managers are measuring the employee performance improvement through training evaluation, especially within financial organisations in south africa (sa). previous research reveals that most managers are only assessing the learner’s reaction and the learning that occurs during the training intervention (yusoff et al., 2016). what is not clear, however, is whether managers and hrd professionals are measuring the application and implementation of training to improve employee performance. lack of support, resources, time and cost associated with training evaluation, and the lack of expertise on the part of hrd professionals, are the main reasons for not evaluating training at high levels that reveal the impact of hrd on business results (mburumaina & waithaka, 2017). human resource development professionals and managers must calculate training return on investment (roi) to ensure that it has positive impact on achieving business objectives and strategy (mara & govender, 2017). this article focuses on maximising training evaluation tools, measuring training effectiveness and impact on performance, use of the kirkpatrick–phillips five levels of evaluation and the relationship between training evaluation and improved employee performance. the purpose of the empirical study was to identify whether training evaluation reveals employee performance improvement after training interventions. the research objectives of this study were to identify the training evaluation tools used to evaluate the transfer of learning and to examine business benefits associated with measuring employee performance improvement after training interventions. this article contributes to research and practice. on a research level, the article contributes to the use of the qualitative semi-structured interview method and thematic analysis to correlate employee performance improvement with training evaluation tools. on a practical level, the proposed training evaluation framework for performance improvement encourages hrd professionals, line managers and employees to view training and development as investment opportunities that can benefit business strategy, rather than as a costly and burdensome budget item. the article consists of a literature review, research method, findings, discussion, limitations and conclusion. literature review the literature review is presented under the following topics: employee performance; importance of training intervention in enhancing performance; training evaluation; kirkpatrick–phillips training evaluation tool and linking training evaluation for performance improvement. employee performance employees are the most important asset, resource and building blocks of an organisation (imran & tanveer, 2015). the success or failure of the organisation depends on the performance of employees (hameed & waheed, 2011). improved performance is vital for most organisations; hence, managers devise strategies to improve performance and measure it from time to time (imran & tanveer, 2015). it is important for hrd professionals and line managers to answer five of these questions: what skills do our employees possess? what skills are needed for the future? can our employees develop their skills? how can employees receive the appropriate training? does employee performance improve after training? the answers to these questions are vital to the employee and organisational success, as innovative job performance is stimulated by personal motivation, awareness and ownership of the job role and responsibilities (hailesilasie, 2009). khan et al. (2011) confirm that organisational performance can be stimulated by training and learning opportunities; therefore, when organisations are facing challenges, they need to put more focus on improving employee performance (ahmed, rehman, asad, hussain, & bilal, 2013). performance deficiency can be overcome by implementing relevant training interventions (elnaga & imran, 2013). the performance gap can be closed by effective leadership, communication, employee development, tolerance to change, procedural justice and organisational culture (ahmed et al., 2013). there is a positive relationship between training and organisational performance (aragón, jiménez, & valle, 2014). high performing organisations emphasise these features: firstly, efficacy which is more focused on attracting and retaining talent; secondly, quality which focuses on sharing excellent practices (these organisations, therefore, tolerate poor performance on a minimal level); thirdly, innovation, characterised by originality, promotion of entrepreneurship and taking initiative; fourthly, customer service which is the belief in training employees so that they have a strong relationship with customers and finally branding and marketing, where the organisation focuses on building strong teams and partnerships with a shared and winning mentality (jesuthasan, 2013). importance of training intervention in enhancing performance human resource development involves implementing planned training and development interventions which teaches, instils and modifies competencies, attitudes, belief, knowledge, skills and behaviour through new learning experiences (aragón et al., 2014). employees need to continually learn new skills, how to use new tools and systems and stay abreast of technology just to keep up and meet job demands (hameed & waheed, 2011). optimal performance can be reached through employee training such as skills and technical training, management of development and employee orientation programmes (elnaga & imran, 2013). skills and technical training focus on achieving optimal performance, either because there is a performance gap or because there is a need for employee retraining because of technical changes (shaheen & khan, 2013). special training and development issues include, amongst others, organisation-wide competency needs, such as employee health, safety, wellness, cultural diversity and multicultural sensitivity (aragón et al., 2014). effective training should be threefold: involve a learning experience, be a planned learning activity and be designed in response to identified needs, in order to be effective (shaheen & khan, 2013). studies confirm that training is a good way to improve employee skills, knowledge and development opportunities (sherwani & mohammed, 2015). research reveals that training has a positive impact on employee performance (elnaga & imran, 2013); however, training will not be effective until the individual employee is fully motivated to attend. employees, who are willing to learn, readily participate in activities such as seminars, workshops, on-the-job and off-the-job training (hameed & waheed, 2011). training evaluation models justify that the effectiveness of training can be measured when individuals are motivated to use acquired knowledge and skills within the workplace to achieve organisational objectives (tai, 2004). training sessions assigned by management tend to lead to higher employee motivation than those where attendance is optional. training evaluation training programmes within financial organisations in sa are evaluated for various reasons. training evaluation plays a crucial role in providing feedback regarding how a specific training programme was offered (chan, 2016). the purpose of a training evaluation is to determine whether the learners have acquired the new skills and knowledge as a result of implementing the training intervention. it is a process to determine whether the design and delivery of the training programme have been met (shaheen et al., 2013). training evaluation is also a systematic process of measuring the quality of a training programme in terms of effectiveness to the organisation’s bottom line and how well the training is designed, delivered and managed (meyer, opperman, & dyrbye, 2003). according to short (2009), training evaluation should happen at different times as follows: before the training intervention (diagnostic evaluation); during the training intervention (formative evaluation); at the end of the training intervention (summative evaluation) and after the training intervention (longitudinal evaluation). once training is completed, employees return to their jobs hoping that they will perform effectively and get promoted. effective training evaluations should provide useful feedback to relevant stakeholders as follows: training facilitators, participants/learners, management, government, professionals and other relevant parties (chan, 2016). training evaluations can cascade into evaluations of the whole organisation, which should be linked to the measurement of the organisational performance (meyer et al., 2003). training evaluation is vital because it provides feedback that can be used to improve planned training, measure whether performance improved and whether there was a roi. evaluations can be efficient in meeting current business needs by solving past performance challenges and anticipating future opportunities for performance improvement. furthermore, evaluations are useful tools for the following reasons: providing an indication of various problems, including the lack of individual skills and knowledge; indicating the results of training activities and demonstrating efficacy; and providing clarity on what needs to be improved and what help is required for future additional plans of action (sharma & kurukshetra, 2012). kirkpatrick–phillips training evaluation tool the kirkpatrick–phillips training evaluation tool has a major impact on evaluation practices in most countries across the globe. in organisations that use this tool, most evaluation processes only focus on measuring level one (reaction), level two (learning) and level three (learner behaviour) and neglect level four (impact) and level five (roi) measurements because of a lack of knowledge and motivation (jasson & govender, 2017). according to phillips and phillips (2009), roi measures the return on the invested capital, indicating whether training costs paid off in improved employee and organisational performance and profits. the five levels of the kirkpatrick–phillips training evaluation model are presented in table 1. table 1: the kirkpatrick–phillips training evaluation model. level 1, reaction, is concerned with whether the training programme is aligned to the learners’ needs. this stage of evaluation should focus on the training content, programme structure, format, instructional techniques, facilitator’s abilities, training style and the quality of the learning environment. the trainees are asked to complete an evaluation questionnaire immediately after the training intervention to measure this level (meyer et al., 2003). level 2, learning, is the stage of the evaluation that focuses on whether learners understood and absorbed the knowledge, principles and skills taught. the trainees should be assessed before and after the training intervention to obtain an accurate picture of what was learned (ramiah, 2014). level 3, job application, focuses on how the trainee’s behaviour changes when they return to the work environment after training (ramiah, 2014). applying new learning to old jobs must be supportive. supportive learning application includes these elements: the desire to change; know what to do and how to do it; having the right climate and supportive learning conditions; ongoing reinforcement and monitoring; support in applying new learning in the workplace; learning achievement should be consistently assessed and learning transfer feedback should be provided (kirkpatrick & kirkpatrick, 2013). post-training performance appraisals should be conducted after several months so that the trainees can be given an opportunity to practise what they have learned and to measure whether training improved performance (meyer et al., 2003). level 4, business results, the results can be measured by assessing whether organisational goals or objectives have been achieved. this stage of evaluation focuses on assessing the changes in variables such as reduced turnover, reduced costs, improved efficiency, reduction in grievances and increase in quality and quantity of production (ramiah, 2014). level 5, roi, is the process whereby the monetary benefits that are obtained by the organisation over a period, in return, for the financial and other investment in training programmes are measured and calculated (meyer et al., 2003). most hrd professionals acknowledge that they must show a high training roi, so that they can maintain training funds and enhance their human resources status. admittedly, the calculation of roi is a very comprehensive part of the evaluation process (phillips & phillips, 2009). use of the kirkpatrick–phillips training evaluation tool requires a good evaluation plan, where the planner focuses on these six major tasks: development of a systematic evaluation approach; the use of informal and unplanned evaluation opportunities; type of evaluation tool to be used; determine the techniques on how evaluation of data should be collected; how data will be analysed and what judgement should be made regarding the training evaluation (ramiah, 2014). most evaluation processes only measure criteria in level 1 and level 2 to assess the trainee’s reaction and learning during the learning intervention (yusoff et al., 2016). level 3 is moderately used to assess whether training was transferred to job performance, whilst level 4, the results level, is the most critical and challenging stage of the evaluation process (kirkpatrick & kirkpatrick, 2013). level 5, roi measurement, is ignored by most organisations, as training facilitators find this evaluation phase the most difficult. trainers are unable to assess the results and then compare their findings to the costs of planning, delivering and evaluating the training programme. training or learning outcomes should be evaluated using pre-designed evaluation techniques. training evaluations indicate to hrd professionals, managers and the organisation on whether the training intervention was effective and beneficial to the employees (yusoff et al., 2016). training programmes are evaluated to establish whether the trainees are transferring what they have learned to the work environment and whether there was any performance improvement after training. therefore, the evaluation of training programmes is essential to the achievement of the business objectives. linking training evaluation to performance improvement organisations implement training programmes to gain real returns on the company’s investments (phillips & phillips, 2009). the most challenging aspect of managing the implementation of hrd strategies is to accurately evaluate whether employee behaviour and performance improved after a training intervention (almohaimmeed, 2017). training evaluation tools inform hrd professionals whether there was an increase in employee performance as expected (ramiah, 2014). it is the responsibility of the line manager to identify factors that can have a negative impact on the training programme and take steps to neutralise their effect on job performance (elnaga & imran, 2013). a good evaluation gives useful information to different stakeholders, namely, training providers, trainees/employees, management and other stakeholders (chan, 2016). the literature suggests that training should be planned to have a positive effect on performance (aragón et al., 2014). whilst some researchers such as shwerani and mohammed (2015) suggest that there is a positive relationship between training and performance, other researchers indicate that training has an indirect effect on employee performance and other organisational outcomes (tshukudu & nel, 2015). previous researchers have asserted that training evaluation must inform whether the training programme has been able to deliver its objectives (ramiah, 2014). the south african government and non-government agencies have been outsourcing evaluation studies in the past. currently, all south african government departments have established their own evaluation units. there has been an increase in the number, scope and quality of evaluations conducted in sa recently (abrahams, 2015). in the south african financial sector, training has generated performance improvement via the development of employee knowledge, skills, ability, competencies and behaviour in the banking industry (imran & tanveer, 2015). research method research design qualitative research was used to promoting a deep understanding of a natural setting, where human behaviour and events occur (creswell, 2014). in this study, face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data. semi-structured interviews also allowed the overall direction to be shaped by the participants’ view and experience. sample and participants the research population consisted of two south african financial organisations. non-probability sampling was used in this study. sampling in qualitative research is defined as the selection of specific sources from which data are gathered to address the research objectives (gentles, charles, ploeg, & mckibbon, 2015). purposive sampling was appropriate for the study in that professional judgement was used instead of randomly selecting organisations and participants (creswell, 2014). the researcher selected subject experts about the topic being studied, as well as in gathering detailed in-depth information. purposive sampling is a non-random strategy that does not need a set number of participants (etikan, musa, & alkassim, 2016). the researcher, therefore, decided to select a few people who were willing to provide the information by virtue of experience (bernard, 2002) because purposive sampling selects information-rich cases for in-depth study (gentles et al., 2015). it involves the identification and selection of participants who are well informed with the study topic (creswell, 2014). participants in this study were willing to share their experiences and opinions in a reflective manner. a total of 12 interviews were conducted. participants included two hrd professionals, four managers, two training providers, two performance management specialist and two employees/trainees. instrument this research study used the semi-structured interview as the instrument for data collection. a semi-structured interview is organised around topics that guide to ensure that points of interest are detailed and completed satisfactorily during the interview (mason, 2002). the aim was to achieve answers or responses to the research questions to achieve the research objectives. the researcher conducted one-on-one discussions with participants to understand whether employee performance improvement was measured using training evaluations. semi-structured interviews also allowed the researcher to have control over the line of questions to be explored (creswell, 2014). the interview was supported by an interview guide that included the pertinent secondary questions derived from this primary research question: can employee performance improvement be revealed through training evaluation? the interview guide also stipulated the study ethical considerations and request for participant consent (mason, 2002). semi-structured interviews allowed the overall direction of the study to be shaped by the participants’ views, experiences and narratives. the interviews enabled qualitative data collection efficiently and cost-effectively (o’keeffe, buytaert, mijic, brozovic, & sinha, 2016). whilst the semi-structured interviews provided an opportunity to gather previously unknown information, they were time-consuming, labour-intensive and required interviewer expertise (o’keeffe et al., 2016). procedure data were gathered from existing networks, by sending emails calling for participants willing to provide the relevant information. initial contact with participants was made by telephone to explain the purpose of the study and the procedure for participants during the interviews. one-on-one interviews were held face-to-face. during the interviews, the participants were asked to consent to being recorded to improve the authenticity, accuracy, reliability and validity of the data gathering process. the interview guide was used to ensure that the same questions were asked, the same topics were addressed, in the same way, in every interview (blumberg et al., 2014). data collection data recording ensures that information collected during the interview is captured and available at a later stage for more accurate interpretation (creswell & creswell, 2018). participants consented to the interview and recording by means of a digital voice recorder. this ensured transparency and improved the quality of the research study. field notes were also recorded during the interviews. field notes assisted the researchers in reflecting on collected data and on the data analysis process. eye contact and observation during the interviews assured participants that the researcher was listening attentively and showed respect and empathy. the researcher was paraphrasing what has been said by the participants to ensure that the participants were adequately understood. data analysis thematic analysis was used to analyse the transcribed data. thematic analysis involves identifying, analysing and interpreting similar experiences within the qualitative data. the flexibility of thematic analysis allowed the use of inductive reasoning that has a potential to provide rich, detailed and complex analysis (clarke & braun, 2013). inductive analysis allowed for back and forth interpretations between the themes and the database until a comprehensive set of themes and subthemes is established (creswell & creswell, 2018). quality of data the study is grounded in the fact that both the researchers and readers needed to trust the research findings presented (thomas & magilvy, 2011). the researcher was paraphrasing what has been said by the participants to ensure that the participants were adequately understood. this information was recorded to ensure the validity of responses. the concepts of data credibility, dependability, transferability and conformability were applied in addressing issues of trustworthiness in this study. gathered data and transcripts were always password protected and were only available to the researchers. ethical considerations ethical considerations are essential if the research involves human beings (mouton, 2001). the research methodology was discussed and accepted by all participants, and hence the study was conducted in a responsible way (blumberg, cooper, & schindler, 2014). these ethical guidelines were adhered to, thus ensuring that the rights of participants were protected: explaining the purpose of the study to the participants; obtaining informed participant consent and assuring participants that their identities will remain anonymous (blumberg et al., 2014). findings the following themes emerged from the interviews conducted. the themes arising from the semi-structured interview analysis are presented in line with the research objectives to understand whether employee performance can be improved through training evaluation within financial organisations in sa. the themes arise from 12 interview transcripts as all 12 participants selected for this study participated in the study. this amounts to a 100% participant response rate. themes were extracted from coded participant transcripts. the subthemes were derived from the common codes for each theme. five main themes and their subthemes are presented as the study findings. theme 1: performance improvement through training evaluation tools nine participants (75%) indicated that managers need to select appropriate training options to achieve a desired level of performance. they further explained that training delegates should be monitored and evaluated to ensure that they are applying what they have learnt from the training. other participants believe that training is unnecessary and time-consuming if there is no motivation to apply learnt skills and knowledge effectively. subtheme 1.1: preand post-assessment z: participants were asked how training evaluation was used to assess employee performance before and after training interventions. this was to establish whether financial organisations were using training evaluation tools to assess employee performance before training interventions and to establish how managers valued the frequency of feedback on employee performance in their respective divisions so that they can identify employee training gaps. two participants (17%) confirmed that they were using a training evaluation tool to assess employee knowledge and performance before training interventions. the responses from the participants are indicated as follows: ‘as the training provider, i hand out a training evaluation tool to assess the knowledge and performance level of the training delegates before the training intervention. i even give them a chance to discuss their knowledge and expectations from the training.’ (participant 2, female, 45 years) ‘i always evaluate the delegates before training intervention to ensure that i understand their skill and knowledge level before training.’ (participant 1, female, 39 years) seven participants (58%) indicated that regular performance improvement feedback to employees should be done on a frequent basis at one-on-one meetings to ensure that they understand what is expected from them in the workplace and to explain the organisational strategic objectives. responses from participants on the frequency of the performance improvement feedback from managers were indicated by the following verbatim statements: ‘i am assessing my team performance improvement through training evaluation once a year in order to provide learning and development department with my employees training needs. i feel that my method is not effective as it does not give me accurate information on whether the previous training has helped in improving employee performance. in terms of performance review, i normally have one-on-one sessions with my team every 3 months to review their performance.’ (participant 10, female, 47, years) ‘our supervisor just rates us during the midyear and final performance review. i feel that she should be assessing us every 3 months so that we can identify if there is any performance gap and request another training intervention if needed.’ (participant 6, female, 27 years) the participants also indicated that there was no consistency on how often performance reviews should be conducted within various departments within financial organisations. this suggests that performance reviews vary from one manager to another. this then presents a challenge for measuring whether training interventions have helped to improve performance or even to indicate if there is a training gap. in contrast, one of the participants highlighted that training evaluation is not supposed to assess performance improvement. the participant’s comment below suggests that there is no direct relationship between training evaluation and performance improvement: ‘the evaluation tool is merely assessing the training intervention and not the learner performance development.’ (participant 4, female, 55 years) theme 2: the training evaluation tool used participants were asked to identify the evaluation tool which they were currently using to evaluate training intervention effectiveness. this was to establish if participants were using a specific evaluation tool to assess performance improvement. six participants (50%) indicated that they were using the kirkpatrick–phillips training evaluation tool to assess whether employee performance had improved. the other six participants (50%) explained that they were using different tools to evaluate whether employee performance had improved after hrd/training interventions. subtheme 2.1: kirkpatrick–phillips training evaluation tool: the participants were then asked how they used the kirkpatrick–phillips evaluation tool to detect whether improved performance was noted. this determined which levels of the kirkpatrick–phillips evaluation tool they were using to assess performance improvement after training interventions. participants indicated that they used evaluation processes only to measure criteria in levels one, two and three of the evaluation tool. three participants (25%) indicated that they were using the kirkpatrick–phillips evaluation tool to assess the participants’ favourable reactions to the training intervention, if learners acquired the intended knowledge, skills or attributes based on their participation in the training intervention and if they then demonstrated behavioural change after training interventions. two participants (17%) indicated that they used the kirkpatrick–phillips training evaluation tool to determine the extent to which the employee applied the learned behaviour or knowledge after they have attended the training. they also indicated that they would like to determine the effect of training interventions on the business. they were interested in what resulted from the improved performance of the learner but did not know how to effectively measure that. participants’ responses are presented as follows: ‘i am using kirkpatrick–phillips level 1 and 2 to assess the reaction of learners’ towards the training and whether the learners have acquired intended knowledge.’ (participant 2, female, 45 years) ‘we use kirkpatrick–phillips as it is simple and basic – for lack of a better word. it is an effective tool for us as an organisation because of the large volumes of training interventions held across various departments. it also allows us to measure transfer and application of knowledge and skills.’ (participant 5, female, 38 years) the participants further indicated that some employees in the financial sector believe that evaluation tools should only be used to assess whether the training programme is linked to the learner’s needs. theme 3: relationship between training and employee performance the participants were asked to explain how the current training evaluation model assesses whether employee performance has improved after training interventions. the aim of this question was to understand whether line managers, performance managers, hrd professionals, training providers and employees within financial organisations in sa are benefitting from linking, using and respecting training evaluation as an effective management tool to reveal performance improvement after training interventions. participants’ responses indicated that there was a relationship between training and employee performance. relevant training interventions should be implemented for the sake of developing employee skills and enhancing employee performances. nine participants (75%) indicated that training interventions were improving employee skills, knowledge and productivity. seven participants (58%) also mentioned that they noticed employee behavioural changes after training intervention. two participants (17%) indicated that employees who attend training tend to be motivated to do their work and perform their work longer than those who do not. subtheme 3.1: employee skills and knowledge improvement: the participants were asked about the extent to which the training impacted on employee skills and knowledge. the participants confirmed that training is a good way to improve employee knowledge, skills and development opportunities. nine participants (75%) indicated that training influences the improvement of employee skills and knowledge which leads to better employee performance. six participants (50%) stressed that employee knowledge, skills and attitudes should be evaluated before training interventions to ensure that the correct interventions are used. the participants also mentioned that they should be allowed to evaluate themselves before and after training, as this will encourage them to apply what they have learned from training. some responses of the participants are presented as follows: ‘a detailed analysis of the necessary skills for the individual or team must be identified to ensure that the right intervention is used, reviewed, applied and assessed for improved performance.’ (participant 4, female, 55 years) ‘we are conducting training needs analysis to determine the type of training required to improve employee knowledge, skills and performance. most of our soft skills training are assisting in behaviour improvement.’ (participant 10, female, 40 years) theme 4: organisational benefits from training intervention a question was posed to explore the business benefits associated with measuring whether employee performance improved through training investments. the participants explained that the success or failure of an organisation depends on the quality of training offered to employees. training becomes an important element in the organisation if training procedures, standards and policies are followed as required. the organisation depends on the employee improved performance to achieve its objectives because employees play a significant role in the growth and innovation of the business. twelve participants (100%) indicated that the organisation was benefitting from training interventions. four participants (33%) indicated that training and developing employees were crucial but were expensive investments and resources that were draining to the organisation. participants indicated that it is, therefore, important to maximise the skills and knowledge of the trained employees in order to achieve the objectives of the organisation to sustain economic growth and maintain effective performance. subtheme 4.1: return on investment through training evaluation: to determine whether training evaluation tools are used to assess the roi, the participants responded that management was realising the importance of investing in training and development to improve business performance and productivity. it is the responsibility of hrd professionals and managers to evaluate whether there is monetary value in developing employees compared to the heavy cost of the training. eight participants (67%) indicated that training improves the availability and quality of employee output, which will, in turn, translate business performance into roi. however, 11 participants (92%) emphasised that training evaluation was not used to assess roi because of the challenges associated with measuring and calculating the roi of training interventions. the participant responses on roi measurement are presented as follows: ‘managers are not committed and competent to assess the roi.’ (participant 10, female, 40 years) ‘training assists in improving the broad-based black economic employment (bbbee) scorecard. bbbee encourages organisations to develop previously disadvantaged population of south africa including black, indian and coloured. most of the businesses are not willing to associate with companies that do not comply with bbbee requirements.’ (participant 3, male, 45 years) the participants indicated that it is very challenging to assess the roi stage of training evaluation. participants find it difficult and time-consuming to select the appropriate criteria, evaluation tool and formula to assess the roi. the evidence indicates that the impact, business results and cost–benefit analysis or roi of training intervention measurement will not be as strong as it could have been demonstrated or expected. theme 5: training evaluation improvement to determine how current training evaluation models or tools can be improved to ensure that hrd and training interventions improve performance, participants were asked whether they had other evaluation templates or tools to share with other managers in sa. the participants explained that most of the training programmes were predestined to fail, as training providers placed more emphasis on conducting the training programme than identifying or meeting the training needs. participants emphasised that the first hrd evaluation phase should involve the collaboration of hrd professionals and managers to ascertain the correct organisational hrd needs, requirements and goals. employees need to understand their job requirements, and the link between training and their individual performance. six participants (50%) indicated that hrd professionals, performance managers and line managers should be able to assess the specific skills, capacities and competencies of employees, as well as identify and distinguish factors that hinder effective performance. therefore, hrd professionals should establish precise, unbiased and realistic employee training needs whilst ensuring that employee performance improvement is critical and significant to achieving business results. subtheme 5.1: mentoring and coaching to improve employee performance: performance assessment timelines, nine participants (75%) responded that managers should hold transparent, open skills needs discussions with individuals and teams. discussion topics should include the following: awareness of business strategy; awareness of hrd strategy; how performance measurement will take place; what will be measured; what is expected from hrd interventions; hrd, mentoring and coaching goals and timelines; key performance areas and indicators (kpas and kpis); and equitable and fair rewards for improved performance. three participants (25%) also indicated that performance reviews should be transparent, authentic and acceptable. this suggests that managers should have continuous discussion with individuals to understand whether the training interventions were valuable and if training objectives were met. managers must also measure whether the current and future workforce is equipped to meet all hrd and business expectations. participants’ responses indicated that mentoring and coaching may be good hrd options as follows: ‘managers should ensure that feedback discussions take place regularly with accurate measures for improved performance or not.’ (participant 4, female, 55 years) ‘managers should have face-to-face coaching with employees on a regular basis to understand any employee challenges and intervene if there is a need to do so.’ (participant 9, female, 31 years) discussion the primary aim of the study was to explore whether training evaluations revealed that employee performance improved after training interventions were implemented in south african financial organisations. findings provided significant insight into whether employees are applying the acquired skills and knowledge on the job to improve their performance. five significant themes and subthemes indicate that participants understand and utilise hrd and training evaluation tools to measure employee performance improvement. significantly, training interventions are usually offered when employees are failing to meet the current work standards. training evaluation tools are used to assess the success of training interventions. what is evident in this research is that participants confirmed that the success of training interventions should be evaluated and verified just as the success of the organisational strategic business objectives is. ramiah (2014) agrees that effective training evaluation tools are required to ascertain if the organisation’s money was well spent when employees personally benefit from training. evaluation tools must measure whether trainees are imparting their newly acquired knowledge to their team members and improving their performance and business objectives. this study significantly confirms that south african financial managers use the kirkpatrick–philips evaluation tool to assess whether technical skills and behaviours of their employees improved after training. most participants (75%) in the financial organisations use training evaluations to observe both the extent to which the employees are applying their training and whether there is performance improvement afterwards by conducting one-on-one discussions once or twice a year to discuss employee performance improvement. employee ratings of their own behaviour and skills were accounted for in terms of learning and how they used the acquired knowledge and skills on the job. chan (2016) indicated that training evaluation is vital in providing feedback on how training impacts performance. findings, however, indicated that managers are not using the kirkpatrick-evaluation tool consistently and that it is not effective to evaluate performance once or twice a year. performance managers and employees suggested that managers need to give regular performance feedback to employees to ensure that the skills, knowledge and behaviour acquired from the training intervention are being practiced. their concerns align with jasson and govender (2017) who confirm that training evaluation in sa has been criticised as ineffective regardless of the choice of evaluation model, as it ignores roi measurements. both performance managers and line managers indicated that they have performance management processes in place to monitor employee performance progress against their job objectives or goals. performance management processes focus on identifying, measuring and dealing with employee performance gaps. the process enables, encourages, coordinates and supports employees to achieve their performance objectives. managers in the south african financial organisations stated that performance evaluation is not an event; it is an ongoing process consisting of various activities and actions. findings confirm that performance management systems should measure and analyse performance to determine training and development needs. elnaga and imran (2013) found that training and development bridge the gap between current performance and desired performance. whilst this study found that there is a relationship between training and performance, performance managers were sceptical of the relationship between training and employee performance improvement because training evaluation tools are not being used effectively. this study found that the success of the performance management system interrelates with the training efforts. most training benefits are easily achieved when training is planned, implemented and evaluated correctly. the significant themes and subthemes allowed for a practical training-performance framework to emerge from this study. figure 1 presents the proposed training evaluation framework for performance improvement. figure 1: proposed training evaluation framework for performance improvement. figure 1 demonstrates the phases in the framework that hrd professionals and managers can move through as they navigate the assessment of the employee performance, training, evaluation and improvement processes. this framework will work effectively to improve employee performance if managers and employees can adhere and apply it to their daily activities. the phases of the proposed training evaluation framework for improved performance are as follows: organisational strategy and objective: strategy for positive transfer of training should begin before the training intervention. organisations are in business to make profit and every business is under pressure to show how training contributes to business success or else it faces cost reduction and even outsourcing. departmental objectives and competencies plan: training activities should help to achieve the business strategy. therefore, each department must plan to integrate the business goal, training policies and actions. performance review and feedback: managers must optimise employee performance and contribution towards meeting the organisational objectives and goals. performance reviews allow managers and employees to analyse, examine and evaluate performance over a period. managers need to provide performance feedback, identify individual strengths and weaknesses and identify training needs. training needs: managers can use problem centred approaches (focuses on performance difficulties because of insufficient skills or knowledge) and profile comparison approaches (assesses person–organisation fit) to analyse training needs. training plan and intervention: human resource development professionals and managers must identify the budget, time and expertise required for training. although there are different training methods that can be implemented, the main purpose of training is to help employees learn so that they can perform their job successfully and innovatively. results from training interventions: there are several activities a trainer can implement during training to facilitate the transfer of learning. trainers must motivate learners by explaining the value of work skills and by using familiar examples. learners must establish a plan of action for applying the new learning to improve performance. transfer of training: after training interventions, managers must ensure that employees have immediate and frequent opportunities to practice what they have learned. managers must use the training evaluation tools frequently to assess performance improvement. employees should be rewarded for using new skills on the job. performance improvement: positive feedbacks from managers demonstrate support and create a positive transfer climate which leads to performance improvement. limitations of the study the study was limited to two financial organisations in the gauteng province of sa. a small convenient sample was used. findings may not be similar for other financial organisations in different provinces, or for organisations in other sectors. a larger sample and adding participants from other organisations could have improved the scope of this study and the transferability of the findings. conclusion the benefits of improving employee performance are lost when training and development intervention are not measured and managed well because of the complexities and challenges encountered during evaluation. figure 1 encourages hrd professionals, performance managers and line managers to conduct training needs assessments, implement training, measure it and determine if performance improved after training. this article confirms that there is a relationship between training evaluation and employee performance improvement, despite the challenges with time, skills, complexities and resources to accurately measure the roi of training. further research is recommended to explore the following: whether managers are trained to evaluate business results and roi; how coaching and mentoring encourage employees to apply learned skills, behaviours and knowledge after training interventions and whether the proposed training evaluation framework for performance improvement, as shown in figure 1, is a viable model for managers to measure performance improvement using training evaluation tools within the sa financial sector. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contribution k.d.m., c.m.g and c.m.m. contributed to the design and implementation of the research, to the analysis of the results and to the writing of the manuscript. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the view and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references abrahams, m.a. (2015). a review of the growth of monitoring and evaluation in south africa: monitoring and evaluation as a profession, an industry and a governance tool. african evaluation journal, 3(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/aej.v3i1.142 ahmed, z., rehman, z.u., asad, a., hussain, n., & bilal, a. (2013). the impact of organisational change on the employee’s performance in banking sector of pakistan. ethiopian international journal of multidisciplinary research, 1(1), 1–12. almohaimmeed, b.m.a. (2017). training and performance: a sign from saudi service organization. international business research, 10(11), 147–157. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v10n11p148 aragón, m.b., jiménez, d.j., & valle, r.s. (2014). training and performance. the meditating role of organizational learning. business research quarterly, 17(3), 161–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cede.2013.05.003 bernard, h.r. (2002). research methods in anthropology: qualitative and quantitative approaches (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. blumberg, b.f., cooper, d.r., & schindler, p.s. (2014). business research methods (4th edn.). london: mcgraw hill education. chan, k.c.m. (2016). a critical analysis of a program evaluation: a case study on the effectiveness of a teacher training program. asian journal of educational research, 4(5), 24–33. clarke, v., & braun, v. (2013). teaching thematic analysis: over-coming challenges and developing strategies for effective learning. the psychologist, 26(2), 120–123. creswell, j.w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (4th edn.). los angeles, ca: sage. creswell, j.w., & creswell, j.d. (2018). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (5th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. curado, c., & teixeira, s.m. (2014). training evaluation levels and roi: the case of a small logistics company. european journal of training and development, 38(9), 845–870. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejtd-05-2014-0037 etikan, i., musa, s.a., & alkassim, r.s. (2016). comparison of convenience sampling and purposive sampling. american journal of theoretical and applied statistics, 5(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajtas.20160501.11 elnaga, a., & imran, a. (2013). the effect of training on employee performance. european journal of business and management, 5(4), 137–147. gentles, s.j., charles, c., ploeg, j., & mckibbon, k.a. (2015). sampling in qualitative research: insight from overview of the methods literature. the qualitative report, 20(11), 1772–1789. hailesilasie, g. (2009). determinants of public employees’ performance: evidence from ethiopian public organizations. international journal of productivity and performance management, 58(3), 238–253. https://doi.org/10.1108/17410400910938841 hameed, a., & waheed, a. (2011). employee development and its affect on employee performance – a conceptual framework. international journal of business and social science, 2(13), 224–229. imran, m., & tanveer, a. (2015). impact of training and development on employees’ performance in banks of pakistan. european journal of training and development studies, 3(1), 22–44. jasson, c.c., & govender, c.m. (2017). measuring return on investment and risk in training – a business training evaluation model for managers and leaders. acta commercii, 17(1), a401. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v17i1.401 jesuthasan, r. (2013). performance management as a business discipline. people and strategy, 36(2), 58–71. khan, r.a.g., khan, f.a., & khan, m.a. (2011). impact of training and development on organizational performance. global journal of management and business research, 11(7), 63–68. kirkpatrick, j.d., & kirkpatrick, w.k. (2016). kirkpatrick’s four levels of training evaluation. alexandria, va: atd press. mason, j. (2002). qualitative researching (2nd edn.). sage. mburumaina, p., & waithfaka, p. (2017). effect of on-the-job training on performance of the kenya police service. journal of business and management, 19(9), 64–71. meyer, e., opperman, c., & dyrbye, c. (2003). measuring return on investment in training: practical guidelines for implementation. knowres publishing. mouton, j. (2001). how to succeed in your masters and doctoral studies: a south african guide and resource book. pretoria: van schaik. o’keeffe, j., buytaert, w., mijic, a., brozovic, n., & sinha, r. (2016). the use of semi-structured interviews for the characterisation of farmer irrigation practices. hydrology and earth system sciences, 20(5), 1911–1924. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-1911-2016 phillips, j., & phillips, p. (2009). using roi to demonstrate performance value in the public sector. performance improvement, 48(4), 22–28. https://doi.org/10.1002/pfi.20066 shaheen, a., naqvi, s., & khan, m. (2013). employees training and organizational performance: meditation by employee performance. interdisciplinary journal of contemporary business research, 5(4), 490–503. sharma, t., & kurukshetra, k.u. (2012). management of training and development: training process – an overview; role, responsibilities and challenges to training manager. retrieved from http://ddegjust.ac.in short, t. (2009). exploring the vacuum in training evaluation: is this a case of mission impossible? development and learning in organisations, 23(5), 15–18. https://doi.org/10.1108/14777280910982933 shwerani, k., & mohammed, n. (2015). an analysis of training and employee performance: a case study in a telecommunication company in erbil. international journal of social sciences & educational studies, 2(2), 74–82. tai, w. (2004). effects of training framing, general self-efficacy and training motivation on trainee’s training effectiveness. personnel review, 35(1), 51–65. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480610636786 thomas, e., & magilvy, j.k. (2011). qualitative rigor or research validity in qualitative research. journal for specialists in paediatric nursing, 16(2), 151–155. https://doi:10.1111/j.1744-6155.2011.00283.x tshukudu, t.t. & nel, d. (2015). strategies for evaluating training and development initiatives in public sector setting. african journal of public affairs, 8(3), 190–206. yusoff, m.a.m., ahmad, j., mansor, a.n., johari, r., othman, k., & hassan, n.c. (2016). evaluation of school-based assessment teacher training programme. creative education, 7(4), 627–638. https://doi.org/10.4236/ce.2016.74065 abstract introduction orientation research purpose and objectives literature review research design research method findings and discussion practical implications limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) shela mohatla gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, johannesburg, south africa mark bussin gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, johannesburg, south africa citation mohatla, s., & bussin, m. (2022). exploring the socialisation experiences of female board members, sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1710. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1710 original research exploring the socialisation experiences of female board members shela mohatla, mark bussin received: 12 june 2021; accepted: 18 jan. 2022; published: 22 apr. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the processes that newly appointed female board members undergo to gain the social knowledge and skills to migrate from outsiders to insiders are not well understood. research purpose: this study aimed to explore the socialisation experiences of female board members in south africa to determine whether the process is conducive to ensuring these individuals, as newcomers, are better equipped to navigate the challenges and nuances of the board in a short amount of time. motivation for the study: a paucity of research exists concerning organisational socialisation processes (onboarding) that new female board members undergo to acquire the skills and social knowledge required to migrate from outsiders to insiders. this study intended to fill the gap. research approach/design and method: a qualitative exploratory research method was followed. an inductive thematic analysis was conducted from semi-structured interviews consisting of 15 female board members from various industries. main findings: the board organisational socialisation process needs to be strategic, deliberate, collaborative and iterative. a conceptual framework was developed from the summary of findings. practical/managerial implications: there is a need for organisations to reassess how they perform board organisational socialisation to achieve its intended outcome and maximise the board’s performance and newcomer’s performance predisposed to challenges upon entry. contribution/value-add: using the proposed conceptual framework developed in this study, this research can lend itself useful to organisations, leaders and consultants involved in the socialisation of newcomers within non-traditional organisational structures. keywords: organisational socialisation; onboarding; newcomers; socialisation; female board members. introduction women in leadership positions have been a topic of discussion for many years (joshi, son, & roh, 2015; kossek & buzzanell, 2018). in academic literature and business forums, focus has been placed on the need and urgency to increase female representation in leadership positions in organisations and in government sectors (besley, folke, persson, & rickne, 2017; kossek & buzzanell, 2018). over the past decade, in particular, corporate board gender diversity has been a topical issue globally, yet women remain grossly underrepresented on boards (bertrand, black, jensen, & lleras-muney, 2019). some of these debates have been about the role of women in the boardroom and the motives behind their appointments in organisations (bertrand et al., 2019; glass & cook, 2016; park, 2018; seierstad, warner-søderholm, torchia, & huse, 2017). although studies have been conducted to understand the challenges and relational dynamics that women face post-appointment in leadership positions (bertrand et al., 2019; ercan, 2018; field, souther, & yore, 2020; glass & cook, 2016), few studies have been conducted to understand the experiences of women who serve on corporate boards in south africa. even less understood is the organisational socialisation processes (also known as onboarding) that new female board members undergo to acquire the skills and social knowledge required to migrate from being outsiders to insiders. korte and lin (2013) proposed a generally accepted understanding of the concept of organisational socialisation as a ‘process by which organisations help newcomers learn about their work and adjust to the workplace’ (p. 409). such a process is implemented in order to reduce uncertainty and work anxiety and promote performance in a short period of time (chao, o’leary-kelly, wolf, klein, & gardner, 1994; ellis et al., 2015). studies broadly place emphasis on the importance of organisational socialisation as an element of increasing positive newcomer experiences (allen, eby, chao, & bauer, 2017); yet, little is offered on effective socialisation processes required to achieve success in newcomer experiences of female board members. the south african population is made up of 51% women (statistics south africa, 2019). south africa is considered one of the leaders in its efforts to increase gender diversity on its corporate boards (eastman, rallis, & mazzucchelli, 2016). despite this, viviers, mans-kemp and fawcett (2017) and the business women’s association of south africa (2017) noted that south african women serving companies listed on the johannesburg stock exchange (jse) represent approximately one-fifth (20%) of all directors on the jse. orientation literature supports the benefits of increasing women on corporate boards (glass & cook, 2016; lai, srindhi, gul, & tsui, 2017; mcguinness, vieito, & wang, 2017; perrault, 2015; post & byron, 2015). research has indicated that female leaders contribute to increased innovation, stronger corporate governance, stronger corporate social responsibility, more diverse views, increased financial performance and increased quality of audit processes within organisations (glass & cook, 2016; lai et al., 2017; mcguinness et al., 2017). moreover, according to post and byron (2015), diversity in board composition ‘promotes activities related to boards’ primary responsibilities’ (p. 27). while improvements are made to address underrepresentation in south africa, the pace of increasing women on boards remains a challenge (viviers et al., 2017). according to the south african companies act no 71 of 2008 (republic of south africa, 2008), a director is considered a member of a company’s board. the board of directors is expected to manage the strategic affairs of the company on behalf of its shareholders (and stakeholders). it is incorporated by south african legislation (republic of south africa, 2008). while the minimum number of directors to serve on a board is regulated by the companies act no 71 of 2008 (republic of south africa, 2008), the diversity of its members in terms of culture, race and gender of the board composition and structure is not regulated (business women’s association of south africa, 2017). moreover, some board members are employees (executive directors) of the organisation, while others are not (non-executive directors). the jse only requires that companies listed on its stock exchange adhere to the principles of the king iv code, which in turn requires that a majority of the board comprise independent non-executive directors (institute of directors, south africa, 2016). whereas studies have addressed the socialisation experiences of newcomers and managers (delobbe, cooper-thomas, & de hoe, 2016; korte, brunhaver, & sheppard, 2015), the research gap is that few studies have focused on board members post-appointment. the iodsa ned nomination process research report (2020) posited that board members in south africa were usually offered a structured and formal process of induction post-appointment. one of the duties of a company secretary is to ensure that a proper induction is offered to board members upon entry (institute of directors, south africa, 2016). induction programmes are not to be confused with organisational socialisation. induction is described as a once-off subsection of organisational socialisation, whereas organisational socialisation as a whole is an all-encompassing process that facilitates newcomer adjustment in the organisation (coldwell, williamson, & talbot, 2019). there appears to be no comprehension of the standard against which female board members are socialised to become influential board members in the shortest amount of time. however, glass and cook (2016) hold that there would be obstacles unique to female leaders that will affect effective leadership. most studies do not consider the means to overcome the dynamics, subtleties and behavioural elements experienced by women appointed on corporate boards. there is a problem in that women’s integration into leadership positions is neither defined nor understood (glass & cook, 2016). in the boardroom, female board members are said to experience increased scrutiny over their male counterparts, the old boys club and undue pressure to assimilate (zajiji, wlison-prangley, & ndletyana, 2020). some women have reported experiencing tokenism, invisibility and hypervisibility in the boardroom as a result of underrepresentation (glass & cook, 2016; viviers et al., 2017) and thus have had to work harder to gain credibility (kakabadse et al., 2015). existent research has recognised the importance of organisational socialisation in adjusting newcomers to enhance role clarity, job satisfaction, more outstanding performance and lower turnover (ellis et al., 2015; nasr, el akremi, & coyle-shapiro, 2019). however, newcomer integration is relatively explained from the lens of employees in an organisation where there exists a manager and, most likely, other team members or peers (delobbe et al., 2016; ellis et al., 2015; korte et al., 2015). the deviation and reflection on a non-traditional sense of organisational design and structure are largely unexplored in socialisation research. this study aimed to expand on existing literature by exploring and providing insights into the socialisation experiences of newcomers that are understood to be predisposed to challenges upon entry. such newcomers do not typically form part of the traditional employer–employee relationship in the organisational structure. research purpose and objectives the purpose of this research was to explore the organisational socialisation experiences of female board members. the intention was to determine whether the socialisation process is conducive to ensuring that female board members, as newcomers, are better equipped to navigate the nuances of the board in a short amount of time. increasing female representation through targets may well be a short-term solution; however, changing culture may be a longer-term solution. the study aimed to expand on the organisational socialisation theoretical process by focusing on female board members in south africa. the aim was further to explore the effectiveness and value of the process concerning a group of individuals who are predisposed to challenges upon entry into the organisation. the research objectives were to: understand the kind of organisational socialisation (onboarding) process that female board members underwent; investigate the board’s criteria, policies and procedures for determining the socialisation processes; and explore how female board members found the process in terms of usefulness. literature review organisational socialisation is a process that is intended to ensure that newcomers in an organisation are well equipped and prepared to progressively integrate from being outsiders to insiders in the organisation (chao et al., 1994; delobbe et al., 2016). such processes are implemented in order to reduce uncertainty and work anxiety and promote performance in a short period of time (chao et al., 1994; ellis et al., 2015). king iv further stated that the board of directors has a responsibility to induct new members for these members to ensure meaningful contribution in the shortest amount of time (institute of directors, south africa, 2016). various literature focusing on organisational socialisation has placed emphasis on three pillars of significance in fostering and facilitating newcomer adjustment (delobbe et al., 2016; ellis, nifadkar, bauer, & erdogan, 2017). (1) organisational tactics (such as training facilities) offered by the organisation (allen et al., 2017; ellis et al., 2015), (2) relational resources using managerial and team member support (ellis et al., 2015) and (3) proactive behaviours of newcomers (ellis et al., 2017) are recognised as essential pillars during socialisation. such pillars have been given attention in exploring the experiences of newcomers in the socialisation process (nasr et al., 2019). it is further suggested that the exchange between newcomers and the socialisation facilitators during the socialisation process impacts newcomers’ obligation that is perceived by newcomers towards the organisation (delobbe et al., 2016). some scholars have based their assessment of organisational socialisation on the theory underpinning social exchanges to evaluate the value that is perceived in the relationship between the newcomer and other agents (delobbe et al., 2015; woodrow & guest, 2020). this study drew on social exchange theory as a theoretical framework that defines the influence that social exchange relationships have in the process of organisational socialisation. this study aimed to link the value and reciprocation of social exchanges with newcomer experiences. this theory was characterised and described by the seminal work of homans (1958). the researcher employed the social exchange theory to expand on the three key facilitators of organisational socialisation in the context of female board members. organisational socialisation tactics there is a body of literature that considers organisational socialisation tactics (such as formal training facilities and processes of integration offered by the organisation) through two lenses. on the one hand, socialisation tactics are formal and synonymous with institutional and standardised organisational socialisation processes (delobbe et al., 2016; ellis et al., 2015). on the other hand, there is an introduction of individual socialisation tactics, which are those considered to demonstrate a more informal and less structured approach to socialising newcomers such as proactive newcomer behaviour to initiate change (ellis et al., 2015) or relationship building at work. it is unclear whether the dichotomy and iterations of research on organisational socialisation tactics have brought about the understanding of newcomer experiences in totality. however, organisational socialisation tactics have been understood to yield positive outcomes, such as job satisfaction (allen et al., 2017). they have a direct influence on the newcomer adjustment process (ellis et al., 2017). separate studies have formulated varied conclusions about the socialisation tactics (nasr et al., 2019). one such conclusion, which supports ellis et al. (2017), is that socialisation processes require a level of comprehension of the synergy between formal and informal socialisation tactics (nasr et al., 2019). formal socialisation tactics, such as newcomer training, have been argued to be effective in enhancing role clarity of newcomers which, in turn, leads to higher job satisfaction and performance (delobbe et al., 2016; ellis et al., 2015; nasr et al., 2019). although support and consensus have been shown for formal or institutionalised socialisation tactics (liao, huang, & xiao, 2017; nasr et al., 2019), studies have highlighted the importance of informal socialisation tactics (nasr et al., 2019; nifadkar, 2020). nasr et al. (2019) argued that a formal and standardised format of socialising newcomers could negatively impact, and even lessen, the team member role in newcomers’ social integration, as newcomers perceive team members as providers of support. to address the challenge posed by nasr et al. (2019), suggestions have been made for a balance between the use formal and informal socialisation processes (nasr et al., 2019; nifadkar & bauer, 2016; trainer, jones, pendergraft, maupin, & carter, 2020). it has been suggested that organisations introduce team members or peers as an informal part of the formal process (nasr et al., 2019). in a more digital age, leidner, gonzalez and koch (2018) referred to technology use as a means of encouraging interaction with peers and relationship building. relational resources it is argued that relationships formed at work play a significant role in the socialisation process (chernyak-hai & rabenu, 2018). a reciprocal relationship is often formed between the employer and employee (delobbe et al., 2016; smith, gillespie, callan, fitzsimmons, & paulsen, 2017). this relationship would improve the process of newcomers adjusting to their new environment (delobbe et al., 2016; woodrow & guest, 2020) as socialisation is understood to be a period during which newcomers are faced with significant uncertainty and insecurity. these relationships are referred as relational resources. team members liu, bamberger, wang, shi and bacharach (2020) explored another dimension of organisational socialisation by placing emphasis on vicarious learning. this relates to newcomer behaviours that occur predominantly because of modelling and learning vicariously through peers or other team members and forming stronger bonds with those parties. ellis et al. (2015) defined this as part of relational resources that are explained as ‘aspects of the social environment that support positive integration and social acceptance’ (p. 18). studies have highlighted the significance of experienced team members as agents of socialisation for newcomers (nasr et al., 2019; ellis et al., 2015). newcomers, in this context, are understood to form relationships, particularly with team members, co-workers or peers, that facilitate a better adjustment process through informationsharing by team members (delobbe et al., 2016; ellis et al., 2015, 2017). whereas formal organisational socialisation tactics heighten role clarity, social integration is arguably increased by formal processes and team member support (nasr et al., 2019; trainer et al., 2020). however, it is argued that the quality of the relationship between the newcomer and team member is a key determinant of team member usefulness and value in the socialisation process. leader members an essential contribution to the literature on team members is the literature on supervisors or what is also referred to as leaders or managers (delobbe et al., 2016; redelinghuys, rothmann, & botha, 2020; sluss & thompson, 2012). ellis et al. (2017) and nifadkar and bauer (2016) suggested that part of the effective organisational socialisation process is the role played by the supervisor of the newcomers. in addition, delobbe et al. (2016) and matta and van dyne (2020) focused not only on the role of this agent but also on the quality of the relationship between the newcomer and the supervisor. therefore, the usefulness of supervisors in the socialisation process is only as practical as the quality thereof (delobbe et al., 2016; matta and van dyne, 2020). this suggests that the higher the quality of the relationship between newcomers and the leader member, the better the outcome of the socialisation process (nasr et al., 2019). for female board members, specifically, zajiji et al. (2020) suggest that the role of the chairman of the board is of significance in navigating the boardroom dynamics and increasing the quality of exchange between newcomers and other board members. according to the researchers on observation, it is clear from existing literature that team members and managers contribute to the socialisation process of newcomers. however, the findings from literature are inconclusive about the variations of these relationships that will heighten newcomer experiences, thereby improving newcomer adjustment. additionally, these forms of relationships have had limited testing against non-traditional work relationships such as a board of directors (chernyak-hai & rabenu, 2018). therefore, from the literature observed by the researcher, the behaviours that motivate the usefulness of these agents are less evident in the context of the newcomer’s experiences of board members. newcomer proactive behaviours according to allen et al. (2017) and trainer et al. (2020), an essential element in the success of the organisational socialisation process is that which is influenced by the self-regulation of newcomers much like organisational citizenship behaviour (tashtoush & eyupoglu, 2020). here, a significant emphasis is placed on newcomers’ self-efficacy, individual traits and characteristics (ozyilmaz, erdogan, & karaeminogullari, 2018; yu & davis, 2016). newcomers’ proactive behaviours are said to be a critical component for transitioning into active participants in the organisation (armstrong, van der lingen, lourens, & chen, 2018; yu & davis, 2016). whilst the theme of newcomer characteristics is broad, researchers have found that factors such as newcomer personality, learning, creativity, curiosity and prior work experiences have an impact on the organisational socialisation process (allen et al., 2017; tan et al., 2016; trainer et al., 2020; zajiji et al., 2020). moreover, ellis et al. (2015) and trainer et al. (2020) posited that personal characteristics and newcomer attributes positively affect the socialisation process. the symbiotic relationship between the perceptions formed by newcomers and those formed by managers seems helpful during socialisation (ellis et al., 2017; fuller et al., 2015). a summary of critical relationships that act as facilitators during the organisational socialisation process is demonstrated in a presumed framework in figure 1. figure 1: literature review organisational socialisation framework. research design the following sections convey the research approach, research strategy and research method employed in this study and are discussed under the relevant headings. research approach as the researcher intended to understand and explore the unknown regarding the socialisation process of female board members, a qualitative approach was selected for the study (creswell & poth, 2018). furthermore, the researcher intended to interpret and draw conclusions based on the information provided by participants from their own description of reality and alleged experiences, thus ensuring that the research followed an interpretivist approach (leitch, hill, & harrison, 2010). this research was based on an inductive approach as the researcher could conclude from the data obtained (creswell & poth, 2018). the researcher created propositions based on an analysis of the data in which participants had made meaning of their situation and experiences. this allowed for flexibility and the ability for the researcher to generate new theory (patton, 2002). a mono-method qualitative study was adopted as the researcher aimed to explore and comprehend the context of the participants (creswell & poth, 2018). the data were collected by conducting semi-structured interviews to gain more profound knowledge and understanding of the research topic, making the research design explorative (creswell & poth, 2018). in doing so, the researcher analysed data to understand and gain insights into newcomer experiences of female corporate board members which had not yet been explored (saunders & lewis, 2018). therefore, the research method was exploratory because the study was aimed at entering into a field that was yet to be explained (creswell & poth, 2018). research strategy the research was conducted in a specific time frame, which limited the time in which the report could be completed. consequently, the time horizon for the research was cross-sectional (saunders & lewis, 2018). this study aimed to explore and understand women’s experiences at a particular point in time in their lives to assess similarities and differences in their stories to conclude. for this reason, the research strategy was narrative (saunders & lewis, 2018). the researcher conducted in-depth interviews with semi-structured questions as this allowed the researcher to gain deeper insight into the explorative research (zikmund, babin, carr, & griffin, 2013). research method the following sections detailed the method in researching this study. research setting because of the global covid-19 pandemic, the intended face-to-face interviews were replaced with interviews through virtual conferencing facilities, such as microsoft teams or zoom. the interviews were professional and in a quiet setting where the participants seemed most comfortable. the interview sessions were guided, with limited control over the conversation from the researcher’s part. entrée and establishing researcher roles the researcher played the interviewer’s part by asking the questions and used software to transcribe the data. this is expanded on in the section ‘data recording’. research participants and sampling methods the target population for the research was women from organisations in south africa that had female board member representation. the researcher adopted purposive, non-probability, snowball sampling to ensure that access to the female board members, most of whom served on multiple boards, was obtained. the final sample of the research comprised 15 female board members from various industries including the financial sector, mining, construction, healthcare, consulting, education and legal fields to ensure triangulation. the participants varied in skills and qualifications and held positions of seniority in their respective careers. they served on boards as either executive directors, non-executive directors or a combination of the two. the sample included participants who had experience as board committee chair but none as chair of the board of directors. most participants were between 40 and 60 years of age, with the youngest women aged between 35 and 40 years. data collection methods data collection began only after the ethical clearance approval was received from the gordon institute of business science (gibs) research ethics committees. the questions asked to the participants (see table 1) were deduced from prearranged themes from secondary data retrieved from the reviewed literature (saunders & lewis, 2018). table 1: details of participants. the reviewed literature formed the foundation of the following research questions: what kind of organisational socialisation processes do female board members undergo and who played a role in the process? which criteria, policy and/or procedures, if any, were present in conducting of the socialisation process? how do female board members find/experience the socialisation process in terms of usefulness? all 15 interviews were scheduled telephonically or by email. disclosure of the recording, the interview process and confidentiality were confirmed with participants and reiterated at the beginning of each interview. the researcher informed participants about the purpose of the study. however, the interview guide questions were not provided to participants before the interview. in the introductory phase, participants were encouraged to speak freely and add further insights into their experiences. the interviewer utilised open-ended questions to encourage participants to feel free to provide complete and in-depth disclosure (creswell & poth, 2018). such questions were intended to provoke unexpected insights. finally, the participants were allowed to provide additional information or key insights they wished to express, to support the research objectives or solicit ideas for future research. data recording the otter.ai software was used for recording and transcribing the recordings into meaningful text, rather than using external resources, to heighten confidentiality. this software was not always 100% accurate. however, the researcher made sure to check errors on text against the recording shortly after each interview. the actual names of participants were not documented in the research. instead, participants were numerically classified, and their data were translated appropriately in a separate file. strategies employed to ensure data quality and integrity to ensure that the research was valid and reliable and to limit bias from the interviewer and participants, the researcher utilised a standard list of interview questions that formed the basis and guideline of the interviews. the researcher has outlined the research design and how the data were collected and analysed to increase credibility. they explained the research process and the tools and process to participants. participants were also informed of their right to withdraw from the conversation without penalty. transparency was practiced throughout the data collection process. the population in this study was limited to female board members and the data collection period was from 08 september 2020 to 18 october 2020. therefore, using the methodology discussed, it is believed that the study can be conducted on other board members or other groups of newcomers in similar markets. all interviews were recorded and documented in full and can therefore be confirmed to enhance dependability. the researcher ensured that coding and recoding were conducted systematically, and several times, using the atlas-ti software. data analysis on the first attempt of analysis, the research generated 60 codes. the researcher noted a significant reduction in codes by the time the eighth interview was being analysed. new codes being generated were less than 10 at that stage. in addition, no new codes and themes were produced as the researcher reached the 12th interview. the researcher coded and interpreted patterns to assess meaning, not frequency. common themes were identified from the data which was collected. in essence, an analysis was conducted to generate codes from the responses to build categories based on similarities. this was done several times. each interview was transcribed verbatim to formulate themes. these themes were subsequently categorised to derive codes that were repeatedly analysed to form various conclusions. the codes and categories were then analysed to generate themes that were, in turn, analysed to conclude and to elaborate on main categories. a thematic analysis was thus used to arrange data according to patterns and ideas identified repeatedly from the data (clarke & braun, 2017). findings and discussion the findings of this study provided further insights into the organisational socialisation process, particularly of newcomers who are predisposed to specific challenges. outline of the results there were several themes from the research results which the researcher found relevant to answer the research questions. the connection of the results from the interviews conducted and the reviewed literature of this study are discussed below. theme: key role players when analysing the nature of organisational processes undergone by participants, findings revealed the importance of various agents and facilitators in the socialisation of female board members. key to the findings was the role played by the chairman of the board, the company secretary, the committee chairman and the ceo and/or cfo. indications were that female board members expected the company secretary to play a key role in their socialisation process. this role was deemed a common factor in the experience of most participants. the company secretary was identified not only as a facilitator of the organisational socialisation process from an organisational point of view but also as a collaborator and enabler of the process. a collaborative, multipronged approach was, however, noted as a missing key factor by participants. ‘i don’t think it is the company’s secretary’s responsibility … it is a collective approach where each person should actually speak to their expertise or their field of responsibility’ (participant 7). the documented literature highlights the importance of formal organisational socialisation tactics. the company secretary’s role is part of the formal socialisation process in ensuring formal facilitation of the process. the quality of exchanges between the company secretary and that of the newcomers increased the newcomers’ feelings of trust and role clarity. however, participants indicated that they also required the involvement of a leader member, as suggested by ellis et al. (2017), nifadkar and bauer (2016) and zajiji et al. (2020). one participant referred to the active involvement of the board chairman in socialising new board members as something which adds usefulness to the entire process, ‘it does not mean that the chair should physically do everything himself or herself, but definitely they should be involved, you know why? because it adds gravitas to this thing’ (participant 2). relational resources outline the significance of a leader member and/or a team member to acclimate newcomers. the presence of the chairman of the board, as a leader, assisted in addressing the dynamics in the boardroom and enforcing a level of authority to the process of integration. this exchange, when positive, further increased team integration. theme: newcomer behaviour and time considerations it is asserted that the success of socialising newcomers has a great deal to do with the characteristics and individual attributes that the newcomers possess (allen et al., 2017; trainer et al., 2020). participants confirmed this assertion. with each participant, where the process of socialisation was found lacking or dissatisfactory, participants found ways to navigate the situation and to ensure that they carve their own way in making a success of the process. findings suggested two more propositions. firstly, unlike the personality or experience of board members (zajiji et al., 2020), participants seemed determined to make the socialisation process work because they felt that there was an expectation that they knew and understood what they were doing. this study found that the main source of proactive behaviours demonstrated by participants was the pressure to succeed and to perform at the highest level in the organisation as an expectation from the organisation and existing board members. participant 12 specifically referred to this as ‘silent pressures’. this finding is particularly consistent with the feeling of hypervisibility that women are inclined to feel in senior positions (settles et al., 2019). secondly, learning and curiosity were highlighted in literature as another factor that heightened proactive behaviours by newcomers (allen et al., 2017; tan, au, cooper-thomas, & aw, 2016; trainer et al., 2020). findings, in this regard, were consistent with the literature. some participants viewed organisational socialisation as a duty that came with the work of being a board member. participants viewed learning and curiosity as a standard item when seeking to be socialised as a newcomer; the two were not viewed as mutually exclusive. the responsibility that comes with being on a board increases the intensity in which participants demonstrated their commitment towards the organisation. from a timing point of view, irrespective of newcomer behaviours, participants found that the process was effectively not a process, but rather a one-time engagement over one or two sessions. this implies that what participants viewed as organisational socialisation was in fact an induction process, a subsection of organisational socialisation (coldwell et al., 2019). throughout the interview process, participants used the words ‘induction’ and ‘organisational socialisation’ interchangeably. time may be viewed as an organisational tactic. if the quality of training, for example, is also dependent on the length or frequency of exchange, then it is likely, from the findings, that participants would have felt valued thereby increasing job satisfaction. participants were specific that the absence of quality training because of time constraints suggested to them that the organisation viewed the socialisation process as a tick-box exercise for compliance purposes: ‘… i think from the company’s perspective they also just want to tick off that they have done it. it is just one of those tasks, they have got to do it every year and it is probably a bit frustrating if whenever there is a new director that joins, because for the company it seems a repetitive exercise but obviously for the board member it is a new learning.’ (participant 7) in relation to research question 1 (what kind of organisational socialisation processes do female board members undergo?), the following themes were derived: key role players. newcomer considerations. time considerations. figure 2 is a graphical representation of the summary. figure 2: summary of research question 1. theme: formal and informal organisational considerations findings, as summarised in figure 3, confirmed that congruence between literature and the results from the interviews of formal and informal organisational socialisation tactics were essential for board members. more importantly, findings indicated that the structured and procedural approach of socialisation was appreciated and that relational resources were equally valued for the process. participants stressed the importance of peer support to the extent that ‘peer mentorship’ (participant 5) was suggested as a consideration by the board to enhance the level of comfort and integration of members. moreover, one-on-one meetings with key members of the board and executive managers and site visits were highlighted by participants as crucial. relational aspects of good quality assisted in team integration. figure 3: summary of research question 2. what was surprising about these findings was that none of the participants had a solid measure of what it meant to be successfully integrated into the organisation. even more surprising was that organisations themselves did not proactively measure whether the intended objective of the process was achieved. in relation to research question 2 (which criteria, policy and/or procedures, if any, were present in conducting the socialisation process?), the following themes were derived: formal and informal organisational considerations. measurement of success. figure 3 is a graphical representation of the summary. theme: the usefulness of organisational socialisation when participants were asked what they found most and least helpful, not much was found not to be useful, other than the approach followed. findings demonstrated agreement with the literature. not only the emphasis was placed on the importance of female representation as a key component of the socialisation process for female newcomers but also the representation was heightened where female support was coming from women in positions of influence, such as committee chairmen. participant 5 agreed by emphasising: ‘that is the other part, the fact that there are other females within the board and we are playing key roles and helping a person to quickly become part of the team and to be at their best.’ findings further highlighted the significant difference in the manners in which female board members were socialised in relation to the size of the organisation. participants indicated that the informal and unstructured process was more likely to take place in smaller organisations, while the formalised and standardised socialisation process typically took place in larger organisations. this could be because of the compliance factor attached to larger organisations, which further explains the view of some participants that organisational socialisation felt to them like a tick-box exercise that organisations used merely to comply with regulatory requirements. even in the imperfect state of the socialisation process, almost all participants found value in their socialisation process (participants 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 13, & 14). however, what participants considered most useful varied between the use of technology, the representation of women on the board and the type of organisation. this was said to impact the kind of socialisation process that participants would receive, thereby increasing or decreasing the usefulness of the process to newcomers. in relation to research question 3 (how do female board members find/experience the socialisation process in terms of usefulness?), the following themes were derived: technology. characteristics of the board. characteristics of the organisation. figure 4 is a graphical representation of the summary. figure 4: summary of research question 3. practical implications the conceptual framework aims to expand and synthesise findings from the interviews with the reviewed literature to inform proposed concepts that can be of use to the board of organisations (see figure 5). figure 5: conceptual framework based on findings. the socialisation support mechanisms offered by the organisation should form part of the formalised, structured and standardised socialisation process tools. the assumption that board members are at a specific level and should therefore know everything about the organisation and its industry is a notion that should be reconsidered. board members are like other newcomers in any organisation. they are appointed from different industries with different levels of experience. the assumption that organisations have little to contribute to the socialisation process of board members, particularly those of female board members, must be addressed. this is a strategic imperative not only because women are said to be inclined to facing various challenges upon entry as board members (glass & cook, 2016) but also because the representation of women on boards is still lagging behind in south africa (viviers et al., 2017). the key proposed concepts of the framework are listed below to be expanded in a follow-up article: the company secretary. organisational socialisation tactics. relational resources. newcomer proactive behaviours. measurement tools. there is a need for the board to reassess how it performs its organisational socialisation to achieve the intended outcome out of the process. this is for the benefit of the board, the newcomers and ultimately the shareholders of the organisation. limitations and recommendations qualitative research is exposed to a certain degree of bias from the interviewer, the participants and the interpreter because it is subjective (shenton, 2004). there are several other limitations and drawbacks to this study. firstly, the researcher, as an interviewer, was a novice at conducting interviews. although the researcher conducted pilot interviews to test the flow of interview questions, the lack of expertise in interviewing skills might have compromised the research findings. secondly, the time allocation for the research was limited, thereby reducing the amount of time for data collection. thirdly, because the participants’ lived experiences were recorded at a specific point in time, the participants’ perspectives may be somewhat distorted. fourthly, because of the research sample size, findings cannot be generalised and assumed to represent the entire population. a larger sample may help ensure that the findings of the research are more robust. fifthly, the research excluded male board members and other minority groups which could, if included, contribute to further insights on the research topic. therefore, there was bias towards female board members. sixthly, the size of the board and that of the organisation were not taken into account. size may have a significant impact on the type of organisational socialisation practices in an organisation. lastly, some of the board members hold high profiles in publicly listed organisations and state-owned entities. some might have withheld some essential information because of the public nature of the research, albeit confidential. future researchers should conduct a study on the organisational socialisation experiences of organisations that do not have a company secretary to determine whether the process followed the findings similar to those stipulated in this research. this study focused on all female board members; it could be fruitful to examine the socialisation experiences of executive directors concerning those of non-executive directors. future research could further explore whether there is a difference in the socialisation experiences of male board members or other minority groups. in addition, understanding the expectation versus the reality of leader members and team members, as opposed to newcomers, could be helpful to get a holistic picture of the process and to explore mentorship concerning organisational socialisation. finally, technology has already had an impact on how work is conducted with consistent advancements and breakthroughs made (allen et al., 2017). a study on the effects of technological advancements in socialisation research could be explored further. conclusion the board of directors comprises a non-traditional structure that encompasses both employees (executive) and non-employees (non-executive) of the organisation. in addition, king iv requires that the board of directors be composed of a majority of independent non-executive directors (institute of directors, south africa, 2016). this means that the socialisation of newcomers on the board of directors is not typical of the traditional structure where there exists a manager, team members and day-to-day involvement in the organisation. as such, there is a need for the board to reassess how it performs its organisational socialisation to achieve the intended outcome out of the process. this is for the benefit of the board, the newcomers and ultimately the shareholders of the organisation. such a process needs to be strategic, deliberate and collaborative in approach to maximise the board’s performance as developed from the findings of the research. further attention needs to be paid to newcomers who are typically predisposed to challenges in a system lacking diversity for decades. as calls for greater gender equality are heightened in the workplace globally, so too must action be taken to ensure success in this plight to benefit women and other stakeholders alike. it is hoped that using the proposed conceptual framework for the socialisation of board members, this report can lend itself helpful to leaders and consultants involved in the socialisation of newcomers within non-traditional organisational structures. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contributions both the authors contributed to the design and implementation of the research, to the analysis of the results and to the writing of the manuscript. ethical considerations gibs ethics committee approved the research on 29 august 2020, (23325772). funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data that support the findings of this study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author, m.b.,. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references allen, t.d., eby, l.t., chao, g.t., & bauer, t.n. (2017). taking stock of two relational aspects of organizational life: tracing the history and shaping the future of socialization and mentoring research. journal of applied psychology, 102(3), 324–337. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000086 armstrong, a., van der lingen, e., lourens, r., & chen, j.y. (2018). towards a new model of grit within a cognitive-affective framework of self-regulation. south african journal of business management, 49(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajbm.v49i1.13 bertrand, m., black, s.e., jensen, s., & lleras-muney, a. (2019). breaking the glass ceiling? the effect of board quotas on female labour market outcomes in norway. review of economic studies, 86(1), 191–239. https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdy032 besley, t., folke, o., persson, t., & rickne, j. (2017). gender quotas and the crisis of the mediocre man: theory and evidence from sweden. american economic review, 107(8), 2204–2042. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20160080 business women’s association of south africa. (2017). bwasa south african: women in leadership census. women in leadership census, pp. 2–119. retrieved from https://bwasa.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/2017-bwasa-census-report.pdf chao, g.t., o’leary-kelly, a.m., klein, h.j., & gardner, p.d. (1994). organizational socialization: its content and consequences. journal of applied psychology, 79(5), 730–743. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.79.5.730 chernyak-hai, l., & rabenu, e. (2018). the new era workplace relationships: is social exchange theory still relevant? industrial and organizational psychology, 11(3), 456–481. https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2018.5 clarke, v., & braun, v. (2017). thematic analysis. journal of positive psychology, 12(3), 57–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2016.1262613 coldwell, d.a.l., williamson, m., & talbot, d. (2019). organizational socialization and ethical fit: a conceptual development by serendipity. personnel review, 48(2), 511–527. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-11-2017-0347 creswell, j.w., & poth, c.n. (2018). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches. thousand oaks, ca: sage. delobbe, n., cooper-thomas, h.d., & de hoe, r. (2016). a new look at the psychological contract during organizational socialization: the role of newcomers’ obligations at entry. journal of organizational behavior, 37(6), 845–867. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2078 eastman, m.t., rallis, d., & mazzucchelli, g. (2016). the tipping point: women on boards and financial performance. new york: msci esg research. ellis, a.m., bauer, t.n., mansfield, l.r., erdogan, b., truxillo, d.m., & simon, l.s. (2015). navigating uncharted waters: newcomer socialization through the lens of stress theory. journal of management, 41(1), 203–235. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314557525 ellis, a.m., nifadkar, s.s., bauer, t.n., & erdogan, b. (2017). newcomer adjustment: examining the role of managers’ perception of newcomer proactive behavior during organizational socialization. journal of applied psychology, 102(6), 993–1001. ercan, s. (2018). emirati women’s experience of job satisfaction: comparative effects of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. south african journal of business management, 49(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajbm.v49i1.4 field, l.c., souther, m., & yore, a.s. (2020). at the table but can’t break through the glass ceiling: board leadership positions elude diverse directors. journal of financial economics, 137(3), 787–814. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2020.04.001 fuller, b., marler, l.e., hester, k., & otondo, r.f. (2015). leader reactions to follower proactive behavior: giving credit when credit is due. human relations, 68(6), 879–898. glass, c., & cook, a. (2016). leading at the top: understanding women’s challenges above the glass ceiling. leadership quarterly, 27(1), 51–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2015.09.003 homans, g.c. (1958). social behavior as exchange. american journal of sociology, 63(6), 597–606. https://doi.org/10.1086/222355 institute of directors, south africa. (2016). king iv; report on corporate governance in south africa, 2016. sandton: the institute of directors southern africa. iodsa ned nomination process research report. (2020). insights into the recruitment, selection and appointment process of non-executive directors. retrieved from https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.iodsa.co.za/resource/resmgr/ned_2020/12_june_2020_final__-_ned_no.pdf joshi, a., son, j., & roh, h. (2015). when can women close the gap? a meta-analytic test of sex differences in performance and rewards. academy of management journal, 58(5), 1516–1545. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2013.0721 kakabadse, n.k., figueira, c., nicolopoulou, k., hong yang, j., kakabadse, a.p., & özbilgin, m.f. (2015). gender diversity and board performance: women’s experiences and perspectives. human resource management, 54(2), 265–281. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21694 korte, r., & lin, s. (2013). getting on board: organizational socialization and the contribution of social capital. human relations, 66(3), 407–428. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726712461927 korte, r., brunhaver, s., & sheppard, s. (2015). (mis) interpretations of organizational socialization: the expectations and experiences of newcomers and managers. human resource development quarterly, 26(2), 185–208. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21206 kossek, e.e., & buzzanell, p.m. (2018). women’s career equality and leadership in organizations: creating an evidence-based positive change. human resource management, 57(4), 813–822. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21936 lai, k.m.y., srinidhi, b., gul, f.a., & tsui, j.s.l. (2017). board gender diversity, auditor fees, and auditor choice. contemporary accounting research, 34(3), 1681–1714. https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.12313 leidner, d.e., gonzalez, e., & koch, h. (2018). an affordance perspective of enterprise social media and organizational socialization. journal of strategic information systems, 27(2), 117–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2018.03.003 leitch, c.m., hill, f.m., & harrison, r.t. (2010). the philosophy and practice of interpretivist research in entrepreneurship: quality, validation, and trust. organizational research methods, 13(1), 67–84. liao, j., huang, m., & xiao, b. (2017). promoting continual member participation in firm-hosted online brand communities: an organizational socialization approach. journal of business research, 71, 92–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.10.013 liu, s., bamberger, p., wang, m., shi, j., & bacharach, s.b. (2020). when onboarding becomes risky: extending social learning theory to explain newcomers’ adoption of heavy drinking with clients. human relations, 73(5), 682–710. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726719842653 matta, f.k., & van dyne, l. (2020). understanding the disparate behavioral consequences of lmx differentiation: the role of social comparison emotions. academy of management review, 45(1), 154–180. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2016.0264 mcguinness, p.b., vieito, j.p., & wang, m. (2017). the role of board gender and foreign ownership in the csr performance of chinese listed firms. journal of corporate finance, 42, 75–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2016.11.001 nasr, m.i., el akremi, a., & coyle-shapiro, j.a.m. (2019). synergy or substitution? the interactive effects of insiders’ fairness and support and organizational socialization tactics on newcomer role clarity and social integration. journal of organizational behavior, 40(6), 758–778. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2369 nifadkar, s.s. (2020). filling in the “blank slate”: examining newcomers’ schemas of supervisors during organizational socialization. journal of management, 46(5), 666–693. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206318807288 nifadkar, s.s., & bauer, t.n. (2016). breach of belongingness: newcomer relationship conflict, information, and task-related outcomes during organizational socialization. journal of applied psychology, 101(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000035 ozyilmaz, a., erdogan, b., & karaeminogullari, a. (2018). trust in organization as a moderator of the relationship between self-efficacy and workplace outcomes: a social cognitive theory-based examination. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 91(1), 181–204. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12189 park, b.j. (2018). what triggers firms to appoint outside directors beyond the legal minimum requirement? south african journal of business management, 49(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajbm.v49i1.319 patton, m.q. (2002). qualitative research and evaluation methods. thousand oaks, ca: sage. perrault, e. (2015). why does board gender diversity matter and how do we get there? the role of shareholder activism in deinstitutionalizing old boys’ networks. journal of business ethics, 128(1), 149–165. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2092-0 post, c., & byron, k. (2015). women on boards and firm financial performance: a meta-analysis. academy of management journal, 58(5), 1546–1571. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2013.0319 redelinghuys, k., rothmann, s., & botha, e. (2020). outcomes of leader empowering behaviour in a retail organisation. south african journal of business management, 51(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajbm.v51i1.1837 republic of south africa. (2008). companies act no. 71 of 2008. government gazette. (32121). saunders, m., & lewis, p. (2018). doing research in business and management (2nd ed.). edinburgh gate: pearson. seierstad, c., warner-søderholm, g., torchia, m., & huse, m. (2017). increasing the number of women on boards: the role of actors and processes. journal of business ethics, 141(2), 289–315. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2715-0 settles, i.h., buchanan, n.c.t., & dotson, k. (2019). scrutinized but not recognized: (in)visibility and hypervisibility experiences of faculty of color. journal of vocational behavior, 113 (september 2017), 62–74. shenton, a.k. (2004). strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research projects. education for information, 22(2), 63–75. sluss, d.m., & thompson, b.s. (2012). socializing the newcomer: the mediating role of leader–member exchange. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 119(1), 114–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2012.05.005 smith, l.g., gillespie, n., callan, v.j., fitzsimmons, t.w., & paulsen, n. (2017). injunctive and descriptive logics during newcomer socialization: the impact on organizational identification, trustworthiness, and self-efficacy. journal of organizational behavior, 38(4), 487–511. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2131 statistics south africa. (2019). midyear population estimate 2019. population estimates. pretoria: statistics south africa. tan, k.w.t., au, a.k.c., cooper-thomas, h.d., & aw, s.s.y. (2016). the effect of learning goal orientation and communal goal strivings on newcomer proactive behaviours and learning. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 89(2), 420–445. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12134 tashtoush, l., & eyupoglu, s.z. (2020). the relationship between human resource management practices and organisational citizenship behaviour. south african journal of business management, 51(1), 11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajbm.v51i1.1726 trainer, h.m., jones, j.m., pendergraft, j.g., maupin, c.k., & carter, d.r. (2020). team membership change “events”: a review and reconceptualization. group and organization management, 45(2), 219–251. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601120910848 viviers, s., mans-kemp, n., & fawcett, r. (2017). mechanisms to promote board gender diversity in south africa. acta commercii, 17(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v17i1.489 woodrow, c., & guest, d.e. (2020). pathways through organizational socialization: a longitudinal qualitative study based on the psychological contract. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 93(1), 110–133. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12285 yu, k.y.t., & davis, h.m. (2016). autonomy’s impact on newcomer proactive behaviour and socialization: a needs-supplies fit perspective. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 89(1), 172–197. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12116 zajiji, z., wilson-prangley, a., & ndletyana, d. (2020). board level (in) visibility and critical mass in south african companies. gender in management: an international journal, 36(1), 149–168. https://doi.org/10.1108/gm-12-2019-0267 zikmund, w., babin, b., carr, j., & griffin, m. (2013). business research methods. usa, south western: cengage learning. abstract introduction methodology results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) tawaziwa wushe college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa country cool air conditioning pvt ltd, harare, zimbabwe jacob shenje decision point consultants pvt ltd, harare, zimbabwe citation wushe, t., & shenje, j. (2019). an analysis of the relationship between occupational stress and employee job performance in public health care institutions: a case study of public hospitals in harare, sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1079. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1079 original research an analysis of the relationship between occupational stress and employee job performance in public health care institutions: a case study of public hospitals in harare tawaziwa wushe, jacob shenje received: 21 may 2018; accepted: 29 may 2019; published: 05 nov. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: occupational stress has become a major challenge for employers with potentially damaging physiological and psychological effects on employees as it negatively affects their health and contribution to the effectiveness of organisations. research purpose: the primary purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between occupational stress and employee job performance. motivation for the study: public health care employees such as doctors, nurses, midwives and laboratory technicians had become more likely to have higher workload and inflexible working hours as they keep up with the increasing demand. owing to shortages of staff, most of the health care employees had become stress ridden as they had to work for long working hours, face incompatible demands and find lack of support from superiors. research approach/design and method: a quantitative research design was adopted for the study. a structured questionnaire was developed, validated and distributed to 260 employees and management personnel working in five selected government departments. main findings: the study concluded that there is a negative relationship between increase in inflexibility in work hours and job performance. the findings also noted a negative relationship between work overload and job performance. practical/managerial implications: the data collected from this study might form part of policy-making for both the government and the management of public health care institutions. moreover, the findings on the stress factors affecting the performance of health care workers may be used to develop strategies and provide an environment that ensures improved employee performance. contribution/value-add: the study is expected to enrich the empirical evidence on the stressors in public health care institutions and also provide recommendations for practitioners in investigating the relationship between occupational stress and employee job performance in the public sector keywords: health care institutions; job performance; public sector; occupational stress; work overload; working environment. introduction orientation improving the performance of employees has become the subject of great interest to human resources practitioners and academics in both developing and developed nations (ganster & rosen, 2013; velnampy, 2013; whiting, 2016). however, occupational stress is now a major challenge for employers with potentially damaging physiological and psychological effects on employees as it negatively affects their health and contribution to the effectiveness of organisations. consequently, the costs of occupational stress have become a huge burden on private and public sector organisations. for instance, it is estimated that globally at least 3 billion employees face serious occupational stress problems, which negatively affect the performance, and organisations have lost trillions of dollars every year (beheshtifar & nazarian, 2015; tearle, 2013; whiting, 2016). in the same vein, studies by shuriquie and fitzpatrick (2015) revealed that occupational stress accounted for between 50% and 60% of all lost working days. in this regard, occupational stress has become a rapidly growing worldwide problem. more so, health care professionals, who spend most of their time at work, have been at risk of stress-related problems, with high rates of turnover, absenteeism and burnout (leap-han, 2012; sharifah, afiq, & siti, 2011). in zimbabwe, the public health sector had been lurching from one crisis to the other over the past two decades as the government struggled to pay employees and faced critical shortages of drugs in hospitals (daily news, 2017). according to the world health organization (2008), the zimbabwean health care system was among the best in the developing world. however, the public health care had been engulfed by poor working conditions with both doctors and nurses complaining about the poor state of hospital infrastructure. indeed, the sector had been facing serious operational challenges, including significant shortages of drugs, painkillers and manpower such as doctors and nurses. as noted by zina (2017), some public hospitals in harare had been facing unprecedented patient-doctor ratio of 1:12 000, which is high above the 1:200 prescribed by the united nations. with government freezing all recruitments for nurses and doctors in 2015, work place pressure characterised by long working hours had been growing day by day. the shortage of staff had also resulted in vacancy rates of over 50% for doctors, midwives and laboratory staff (tsutsumi & kawakami, 2014). the available health care employees in public hospitals had been contending with meagre salaries, lack of involvement in decision-making and heavy workload (zina, 2017). most of the health workers, including doctors, were being paid way below the poverty datum line with some getting a basic salary of $284.00 a month (daily news, 2017). in particular, junior doctors and nurses had been failing to make ends meet as the economic situation in the country had been deteriorating, resulting in the devaluation of their salaries. as noted by the zimbabwe nurses association, public health institutions had been facing not only human resources constraints but also a lack of proper equipment and poor employee remuneration (zina, 2017). as a result, nurses were being overworked, especially in rural areas where there had been a shortage of manpower. all in all, most of the government hospitals had been characterised by poor working conditions, inadequate bed linen and lack of protective clothing, which exposed employees to communicable diseases (daily news, 2017). thus, the health professionals in the public hospitals had been working under intense pressure and stress with poor salaries and a critical lack of supplies. as a result, it had become impossible for these professionals to do what they are supposed to do. owing to shortages of staff, most of the health care employees had become stress ridden as they had to work for long working hours and face incompatible demands and lack of support from superiors. for instance, most of the health care workers such as nurses and midwives sometimes would be on 24-hours duty, and the physical and psychological demands of their duties and responsibilities make them more vulnerable to high levels of workplace stress. the results of these stressors had been inefficiency as amplified by errors in prescriptions, lack of team work, staff turnover, numerous patients’ complaints, injuries and absenteeism (faraji, ramazani, & hedaiati, 2015). it should also be noted that there is dearth of literature on the impact of occupational stress on employee performance in the context of public health services sector in zimbabwe that can be utilised. majority of the studies have focused on american, european and asian countries with a huge gap existing in developing countries such as zimbabwe (al-malki, fitzgerald, & clark, 2011; tsutsumi & kawakami, 2014; vanishree, 2014). therefore, it was imperative to investigate the relationship between occupational stress and employees’ productivity in zimbabwe’s public health care sector with particular reference to public hospitals in harare. research purpose and objectives public health care employees such as doctors, nurses, midwives and laboratory technicians had become more likely to have higher workload and inflexible working hours as they keep up with the increasing demand. the primary purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between occupational stress and employee job performance. the specific objectives for the study included the following: establish the relationship between increase in inflexibility in work hours and employee job performance. determine the association between work overload and employee job performance. establish the relationship between working environment and employee job performance. literature review definitions of occupational stress occupational stress is a robust term that means various types of both physiological and psychological pressures that are felt and handled by employees at workplace. according to abebe and alemseged (2016), occupational stress includes physical or emotional factors resulting in bodily and mental imbalances of employees at the workplace. similarly, desa, yusooff, ibrahim and kadir (2014) define occupational stress as a condition of physical and psychological mental disorder that results from pressure. for nwokeocha (2015), occupational stress can be described as the response that employees experience when they face work demands and pressures beyond their knowledge, skills and abilities. as for rizwan, waseem and bukhari (2014), occupational stress involves reactions to various psychological and physical demands encountered by employees. the above definitions are largely restricted to the work environment and are triggered by work-related aspects. it should be noted that occupational stress is now a vital issue for every organisation because of its tendency to contribute towards employee inefficiency, absenteeism, turnover intentions and decreased job satisfaction. this is eluded by al-malki et al. (2011) and vanishree (2014) who argue that occupational stress has become a daunting challenge for employers because of its association with low employee productivity, increased absenteeism and other problems such as drug abuse, hypertension and other cardiovascular problems. employees in various work places experience various levels of stress. for instance, there are occupations where employees have to display emotions such as nursing, social work and teaching (hsu, huang, & huang, 2015). employees need a working environment where there is minimal distraction and where concentration will improve. transactional stress model the transactional stress model by lazarus and folkman (1984) has been influential in theorising studies on the impact of occupational stress on employee job performance. the theory assumes that cognitive appraisals have an important role to play role in the stress process of employees. the transactional model of stress arises from the estimation that some particular environmental demands are about to wear out individual resources and energy, thereby threatening individual’s well-being (faraji et al., 2015; ramos, alés, & sierra, 2014). this appraisal process involves an individual’s evaluation of a given encounter with respect to his or her well-being. these encounters can be categorised as benign-positive, irrelevant and stressful (truxillo, cadiz, rineer, zaniboni, & fraccaroli, 2012). on the basis of these appraisals, employees within an organisation can start coping processes, and this in turn stimulates reappraisal processes. the theory also argues that power and authority of the transaction would depend on the appraisal that binds the person and the environment. sources of occupational stress sources of occupational stress experienced by employees may differ from country to country and from each individual or group of employees, depending on personality, skills and circumstances (harzer & ruch, 2015; ijaz & khan, 2015). moreover, there are some jobs that produce more stress than others, and the broad sources of occupational stress include work relationships, organisational factors, personal factors and job characteristics (celik, 2013; malik & noreen, 2015). the organisational factors that cause stress include organisational structure and culture, management styles and career development. in the context of job characteristics, the causes of stress include intrinsic job demands, that is, if the nature of the job is repetitive, insufficient challenge or excessive job for one person and degree of autonomy. others are role conflict, that is, organisations’ expectations lead to confusion or do not meet job holders’ expectations and contractual terms. the main causes of stress include long working hours, management styles, poor salary packages and non-work factors such as relationships with family and workplace associates. additionally, aliya, maiya, farah and hina (2015) point out that job security is considered as the more common cause of occupational stress in the public sector. more so, it should be noted that occupational stress affects both employees and the organisations in terms of monetary and non-monetary costs (joy & radhakrishnan, 2013). there has been an increasing support for the argument that the role of employees in the organisation may initiate conditions that trigger stress for employees at work, thereby affecting the quality of work life. indeed, work overload is viewed as an important determinant that causes stress in the work settings. according to shah and hasnu (2013), work overload comprises heavy assignment of tasks, unreachable deadlines as well as long working hours. yaşlıoğlu, karagülle and baran (2014) argue that work overload happens when employees feel pressure on themselves and the demands of a situation would be larger than they can handle. findings by uriena, oscab and salmonesc (2016) from mexico and spain studies showed that if employees had lumber on their minds, they felt stress, ultimately dissipating their productivity level. another study by amponsah-tawiah and mensah (2016) from the ghanaian mining industry also identified a negative relationship between employee performance and work overload. sabherwal, ahuja, george and handa (2015) tested the relationship between work stressors such as workload pressure and job performance among faculty members in higher education institutions in pune and concluded that workload pressure had a negative effect on job performance. similarly, bojke (2015) found that both qualitative and quantitative work overload were responsible for decreasing the performance of the english national health service employees. zafar, ali, hameed and younas (2015) too found a negative correlation between work overload and job performance among employees in pakistan. furthermore, a cross-sectional study (gholamzadeh, sharif, & rad 2016) among nurses working in admission and emergency department in hospitals affiliated to shiraz university of medical sciences, iran, concluded that workload and inadequate monitory rewards were the prime reasons of causing stress in employees that led to reduced employee efficiency. a cross-sectional study on stress and its associated factors among ward nurses of kuala lumpur public hospital found that employees faced many expectations from direct boss, subordinates, colleagues and top management. the results of structural equation modelling on universities of peshawar by hashim, khattak and kee (2017) also suggested that employees who had heavy workloads were unable to establish a balance between work and family roles and displayed a poor performance in the service delivery process. an efficiently operated and carefully enforced comprehensive workplace flexibility programme can be a winning situation for both employees and employers. among the benefits to employers are improved work engagement, better recruitment outcomes and workforce retention, and enhanced productivity. such gains provide a competitive edge for any organisation. on the other hand, the benefits of workplace flexibility programmes to employees include reduced stress on the job, better work/family and work/life balance, and improved physical and mental health (hashim & hameed, 2012). having flexible working hours means employees can plan their everyday life in terms of social integration with family members and leisure activities. this phenomenon can be explained by the social exchange theory, which posits that human relationships are formed by using a subjective cost–benefit analysis and the comparison of alternatives (vanishree, 2014). it has also been noted by different scholars that increased inflexibility in working hours negatively affect employee job performance. inflexibility in work hours distorts the physical and mental health of an individual, which negatively affects the employees’ productivity. a study by amyx, sharma and alford (2014) in the united kingdom on salesperson performance and commitment indicated that the majority of employees were not happy with the current work culture, where they had to work extended hours and cope with inflexible working hours and deadlines. studies by mehta and singh (2015) on nurses working in critical care areas at a tertiary care teaching hospital, nepal, discovered that inflexible working hours had a negative impact on employee performance, leading to job dissatisfaction, decreased employees’ morale and increased job turnover. in addition, the study by rizwan et al. (2014) showed a negative relationship between inflexible working hours and employee job performance. on the other hand, suwati and gagah (2016) found that people working on inflexible hours showed health issues, more physiological disturbance and problems in sleep. furthermore, frimpong, helleringer and phillips (2011) conducted a research on the time and workplace flexibility among health workers from the upper east region of ghana. the study found that inflexible working hours had a negative relationship with employee performance, job satisfaction and work performance. the working environment is regarded as one of the most important resources of occupational stress. it consists of safety to employees, job security, good relations with co-workers, recognition for good performance and motivation for good performance (tahir et al., 2014). factors relating to the workplace, such as the quality of air, noise level and working relationship, can lead to the quality of working environment. other factors within the working environment such as wages, working hours, organisational structure and communication between employees and management also affect job performance (naharuddin & sadegi, 2013). organisations need to understand that their employees spend almost a day at work and that is the reason why they need to make sure working environment is conducive for employees to be productive, satisfied and engaged in the workplace. it should be elaborated that once employees realise that an organisation considers them important, they will have high level of commitment and a sense of ownership for that organisation. cavalheiro and moura (2008) explain that if employees are dissatisfied with their working environment, they tend to do their work very slowly and this directly affects the performance and overall productivity of the organisation. an exploratory study by okoyo and ezejiofor (2013) showed that working environment variables such as social support had a direct impact on job satisfaction and job performance among employees. the study also revealed that with good and effective supervision, employees’ performance level was high. in the same vein, another study by cavalheiro and moura (2008) on the job performance level among nurses working in intensive care units showed that if proper attention was given towards interpersonal relationships, recognition and supervision, the level of job performance would rise. similarly, abebe and alemseged (2016) found that employees who worked under difficult working conditions were generally dissatisfied. empirical studies there are various empirical studies that have been conducted to examine the relationship between occupational stress and job performance. a quantitative study by hasan, batool and fatima (2015) among private and government school teachers concluded that there was a negative and significant relationship between occupational stress and employee job productivity. another study by ramos et al. (2014) among spanish workers also revealed that there was a significant negative relationship between occupational stress and job performance. similarly, another study conducted by olaleye and arogundade (2013) on university administrators in south west nigeria found a negative relationship between occupational stress and job performance. in corroboration, ijaz and khan (2015) also noted that higher turnover rates and the propensity to leave had been associated with job dissatisfaction. zafar et al. (2015) analysed the impact of job stress on employee performance in the industrial sector of pakistan, and it was found that the presence of job-related stress can have negative impacts either on the employees or on the organisation. as expounded by gatchel and schultz (2012), occupational stress results in low job performance because of its psychological and financial importance to both the employees and employers. studies by ali, hassan, ali and bashir (2013) also revealed that occupation stress deposited adverse relationship on job attitudes, self-confidence, dissatisfaction with life and the upswing in turnover intentions. in agreement, fajana et al. (2011) noted that there was an undesirable correlation between occupational stress and job performance. this was also established by shuriquie, while and fitzpatrick (2015) in their studies on medical colleges who argued that anxiety, low self-esteem and motivation, mood variations declined the job performance and job satisfaction. sims and sun (2012) also found a positive relationship between organisational stress and turnover intention. studies on the impact of organisational stress on employee turnover intention have shown surprisingly very little consistency in findings, which may be because of the diversity of employees. thus, it may be argued that there are many reasons why people voluntarily quit from one organisation to another or why people choose to leave the organisation. in a meta-analysis study, muchhal (2014) found that high amount of occupational stress led to dissatisfaction with the job and low job performance. this deprived situation provided a favourable environment for turnover intentions among the employees. another research by assaf and alswalha (2013) revealed the negative association between job satisfaction and poor physical health, low psychological well-being and high level of occupational stress. a study by hasan, batool and fatima (2015) also highlighted the significant link between occupational stress and its contrary reactions such as sleep disorders, psychological problems, heart disease and low level of job performance, job satisfaction and rising turnover intentions. conceptual framework on the basis of the above literature, a conceptual framework has been proposed that consists of the identified occupational stress elements discussed and job performance. these include increase in inflexibility in work hours, work overload and working environment. these elements appear most in the literature, are embedded within the robust occupational stress context in the public health care sector and are relatively essential in determining employee job performance. thus, the occupational stress elements in this study are measured as multi-dimensional construct whereby occupational stress is the proxy for employee job performance. figure 1 illustrates the study’s conceptual framework. figure 1: conceptual framework. methodology research design a descriptive research design was used in collecting primary data from the respondents. descriptive research design was preferred because of its ability to answer questions such as who, how, what, which, when and how much (zikmund et al., 2013). more so, a descriptive research design ensured complete description of the situation, making sure that there was minimum bias in the collection of data and reduced errors in the interpretation of data (easterby-smith, thorpe, & jackson, 2012). moreover, this is a quantitative study as it sought to find answers to questions through analysis of numerical data. furthermore, the study used a quantitative research approach as it sought to measure variables and express any relationships between independent and dependent variables using inferential statistics such as correlations and regressions (fowler, 2013). the other purpose of a quantitative research approach was to collect primary numeric data and could be analysed using statistical techniques. population and sample size the study’s population consisted of health care employees and management personnel from three public hospitals in harare. these included nurses, doctors, midwives, laboratory technicians and nursing assistants. a total of 400 participants were randomly selected from the three main public hospitals in harare. it was expected that meaningful data pertaining to the relationship between occupational stress and job performance could be extracted from the population. because it was not possible to cover all the participants in the population, it was important to determine a sample size for the study. the sample size was calculated using the following statistical formula: using the above formula, a population of 400 participants would statistically require a sample size of 197 participants at 5% level of significance. sampling techniques probability sampling techniques were used in the study. in particular, stratified sampling was used to pick the study respondents from the three public hospitals. this consisted of splintering the target population into a series of various relevant strata and that made the sample representative (forbat & henderson, 2012). because the sample was divided into five strata, stratified sampling was found to be the most appropriate technique for selecting the participants from various professional hospitals. the allocation of each stratum was done using proportional sampling, and the findings are shown in table 1. table 1: proportional sampling. within each identified stratum, simple random sampling technique was then adopted. the advantage of simple random sampling was that it could protect the survey research strategy from selection bias by randomly picking the sample with equal probability to any other possible sample (mugenda & mugenda, 2009). research instrument structured questionnaires were used as the research instrument for gathering information that would produce desirable and reliable results from the respondents. questionnaires provided irreplaceable ways of determining attitudes, opinions and perceptions of individual behaviour for the study respondents. besides that, the use of questionnaire allowed the researchers to gather standardised and objective results. the questionnaire consisted of the first section, which extracted demographic data from the respondents such as age, gender, level of education, position and years of experience. the other sections focused on the relationship between increase in inflexibility in work hours and employee job performance, the association between work overload and employee job performance and the relationship between working environment and employee job performance. the study variables were measured using 5-point likert scale. this comprised several statements and questions designed to examine how strongly the subjects agreed or disagreed towards it. the 5-point likert scale was chosen because it facilitated robust statistical analysis, and responses were gathered in a standardised way. questions relating to occupational stress were measured using the niosh generic job stress questionnaire (faraji et al., 2015; shuriquie et al., 2015) and mbi-human services survey covering personal burnout and work-related burnout as two dimensions of burnout (rees & freeman, 2009). on the other hand, employee job performance was measured using organisational performance scale by mulki, jaramillo, goad and pesquera (2014). the questionnaire was first pretested before distribution to the respondents. the pilot test of the questionnaire provided the researcher the opportunity to gather information and test for logic prior to the actual sample, in order to improve its quality and efficiency (cohen & marion, 2011; krishnaswami & ranganatham, 2009). the pilot study also provided the researcher with the way information should be gathered. for this study, a total of 10 respondents were randomly selected from the sample. the internal consistency of the research instrument was measured by calculating cronbach’s alpha to determine general reliability. according to kock and lynn (2012), the closer the cronbach’s alpha is to 1, the higher will be the internal consistency reliability. as suggested by hair (2015), if the reliability is less than 0.60, it is considered as poor; if it is in the range of 0.70, it is considered as acceptable; and if it is more than 0.80, it is considered as good. the following table shows the cronbach’s alpha values for the study variables (table 2). table 2: reliability test. from table 2, the cronbach’s alpha for job performance is 0.837; for working environment, it is 0.811; for work overload, it is 0.851; and for inflexibility in work hours, it is 0.820. accordingly, the study variables can be considered good and extremely reliable as they have cronbach’s coefficients more than 0.8. research procedure and ethical considerations permission was sought from the management of the selected hospitals to conduct this survey. in addition, the researchers sought permission and written consent from all study participants. the researchers administered the questionnaires through the use of drop and pick method. the benefit of the drop and pick method was that respondents were given enough time to answer the questionnaire. as such, that resulted in significantly higher response rates. all the questionnaires distributed were accompanied with cover letter, which assured confidentiality of data and anonymity of respondents. the cover letter also explained the purpose of the study. all study respondents were assured that the primary data obtained from the study would be kept confidential, and hence, they could feel confident to express their opinion without fear and concern. the researchers also ensured that anonymity of the participants was maintained through the removal of any identifying characteristics before the dissemination of information. it was also assured that all collected data would be analysed and reported only in aggregate form. data analysis the process of primary data analysis includes inspecting, cleaning and modelling in order to have information to draw conclusions and suggest necessary recommendations. statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 25.0 was used to duly analyse the collected data. the software program was used to create data sheet for further statistical analysis. descriptive statistics in the form of frequency and percentages were used to summarise and organise the data, and inferential statistics were used to investigate the relationship between occupational stress and employee job performance. means and standard deviations were calculated for various dimensions of total quality management practices constructs. for analysis of the entire study, both correlation and regression analyses were used to establish the degree of relationship between occupational stress and employee job performance. correlation coefficient was used to measure relationships among various occupational stress variables and employee job performance at 95% confidence level. in order to know the most contributory of this relationship between the variables, the multiple regressions were conducted to predict the variance in a single dependent variable. in other words, multiple regression analysis was used to specify the most crucial variables for the relationship between occupational stress and employee job performance. ethical considerations the ethical considerations conserved in the study included anonymity of respondents, confidentiality of primary data as well as seeking permission to conduct research from relevant authorities such as the ministry of health and child welfare as well as the management of the respective public hospitals. results a total of 197 structured questionnaires were distributed by the researchers, of which 167 questionnaires were returned, and these formed the basis for further data analysis. the returned questionnaires represented a response rate of 84.8%. table 3 shows the study’s response rate. table 3: response rate. from the findings above, the response rate of 84.8% was considered high enough to produce valid expressions of opinion and satisfactorily generalise the results to the population. moreover, the high response was in line with hair, hult, ringle and sarstedt (2014) who recommend that a response rate above 70% is regarded as excellent and adequate for statistical data analysis. the study tested the distribution of the sample data set using kolmogorov–smirnov and shapiro–wilk tests. both the kolmogorov–smirnov test and shapiro–wilk test are arguably the most well-known non-parametric test of goodness of fit for the continuous cumulative distribution of given data samples (bryman & bell, 2015). more so, because the sample size was more than 50 respondents, the study used the kolmogorov–smirnov test in line with recommendations by kakkuri-knuuttila (2008) and sullivan (2011). the findings are tabulated in table 4. table 4: kolmogorov–smirnov test and shapiro–wilk test of normality. from the kolmogorov-smirnov test results in table 4, it has been indicated that the study variables were normally distributed. in particular, the total score of increase in inflexibility in work hours, work overload and working environment scales has the normal distribution because their respective significance levels are higher than 0.05. moreover, the significant values of the shapiro–wilk test were above 0.05 and this means that the data were a normal distribution. if significant values of the shapiro-wilk test were below 0.05, then the data would have significantly deviated from a normal distribution. the study first determined the demographic characteristics of the respondents in order to determine the suitability of the respondents in providing the required information for the validity of the study. this was also done in order to make a basis of making conclusions on the views that respondents provided on the impact of occupational stress on job performance. from the findings, it was found that majority were females (53%), and the average age category for the respondents was 31 years to 40 years (44%). in addition, majority of the respondents (95%) had been with their respective institutions for a period of at least 6 years. in terms of educational qualifications, most of the respondents had at least a professional diploma. table 5 summarises the demographic characteristics of the respondents. table 5: demographic characteristics of the respondents. descriptive statistics were used to show the validity of the research constructs. in particular, mean and standard deviations were used to measure central tendency and dispersion, respectively. the findings are tabulated in table 6. table 6: descriptive means and standard deviations. from table 6, the mean statistics of work overload (m = 3.947; standard deviation [sd] = 0.405) was the highest, which indicated that the participants viewed work overload as greatly affecting their performance at work. moreover, this indicates that work overload can result in both physical and mental stress, which then affects employee performance. the second highest mean score was from inflexible working hours (m = 3.612; sd = 0.681). the findings do show that inflexible working hours is also perceived as another area of concern by the respondents after work overload. in order to determine the relationship between occupational stress and job performance, pearson’s correlation analysis was used. table 7 represents the result of pearson’s correlation (r), which shows the relationship between the independent variables (increase in inflexibility in work hours, work overload and working environment) and dependent variable (job performance). table 7: correlation analysis. results from table 7 reveal that there is a negative relationship between increase in inflexibility in work hours and job performance (r = -0.03, p > 0.05). this implies that increase in inflexibility in work hours has an inverse effect on job performance at the selected public hospitals. these findings support the studies by amyx, sharma and alford (2014) in the united kingdom on salesperson performance and commitment, which indicated that the majority of employees were not happy with the current work culture, where they had to work extended hours and cope with inflexible working hours and deadlines. in addition, the findings concur with studies by mehta and singh (2015) on nurses working in critical care areas at a tertiary care teaching hospital, nepal, which concluded that inflexible working hours had a negative impact on employee performance, leading to job dissatisfaction, decreased employees’ morale and increased job turnover. in addition, the study by rizwan et al. (2014) showed a negative relationship between inflexible working hours and employee job performance. the findings also disclosed a negative relationship between work overload and job performance (r = -0.37-, p > 0.01), thus implying that work overload as an occupation stressor negatively influences employee job performance at the selected public hospitals in harare. the negative link between work overload and employees’ productivity is also supported by bojke (2015), who found that both qualitative and quantitative work overload were responsible for decreasing the performance of the english national health service employees. the findings also agree with a study by zafar et al. (2015), which found a negative correlation between work overload and job performance among employees in pakistan. furthermore, the study findings are in line with a cross-sectional study by gholamzadeh et al. (2016) among nurses working in admission and emergency department in hospitals affiliated to shiraz university of medical sciences, iran, which concluded that workload and inadequate monitory rewards were the prime reasons for causing stress in employees that led to reduced employee efficiency. the findings also revealed a significant positive relationship between working environment and job performance (r = 0.79, p < 0.05), which indicates that any improvement in working environment conditions would positively affect employee job performance at the public hospitals in harare. these findings are supported by cavalheiro and moura’s (2008) study on the job performance level among nurses working in intensive care units which revealed that if proper attention was given towards interpersonal relationships, recognition and supervision, the level of job performance would rise. similarly, the study findings agree with bahrami, barati and ghoroghchian (2016), which indicated that workplace environmental elements such as sufficient light, absence of noise, proper ventilation and layout arrangement substantially increased employee performance and productivity. regression analysis was performed to identify the predictors of job performance as conceptualised in the model. according to fapohunda (2012:108), regression analysis relates one dependent variable to a linear combination of independent variables. as such, regression sought to identify how much each independent variable has an impact on the dependent variable, and this is indicated in table 8. table 8: model summary. in table 8, r2 of 0.108 indicates that 10.8% of variation in employee performance is explained by the variation in the study’s independent variables. the percentage is good enough to determine the goodness of fit for the model. after taking into consideration the number of predictor variables in the model, the adjusted r2 yielded a 6.1% variation. this indicates that 6.1% of the changes on employee job performance could be attributed to the combined effect of the predictor variables of increase in inflexibility in work hours, work overload and working environment. these findings agree with a study by ramos et al. (2014) among spanish workers, which revealed that there was a significant negative relationship between occupational stress and job performance. similarly, the findings support another study conducted by olaleye and arogundade (2013) on university administrators in south-west nigeria, which revealed a negative relationship between occupational stress and job performance. finally, the study findings corroborate ijaz and khan (2015), who also noted that the impact of occupational stress on employee performance in the industrial sector of pakistan was negative and significant. multiple regression model was also used to simultaneously analyse the effect of different occupational stress variables on the independent variable of job performance. the results are listed in table 9. table 9: multiple regression analysis. table 9 shows the variation in dependent variable owing to each proxy of independent variable. increase in inflexibility in work hours causes -0.28% or 28% negative variation in employees’ job performance at the public hospitals in harare. likewise, the study showed that work overload causes -0.49 or 49% negative variation in employee job performance at the public hospitals in harare. further, the findings show that a unit increase in working environment would lead to a 0.67% or 67% positive increase in employee job performance at the public hospitals in harare. overall, working environment had the highest effect on the employee performance, whilst the other factors under study had negative effect on employee job performance. this is pointed out by liu, pan, wen, chen and lin (2010) in their study, which indicated that increase in both inflexibility in work hours and work overload has a negative effect on employees’ productivity, which supports the results of this study. furthermore, nwokeocha (2015) elucidates that inflexible working hours are negatively associated with the employees’ productivity, which supports the validity of these results. discussion practical implications the study sought to investigate the relationship between occupational stress in zimbabwean public health care institutions and its contribution to the performance of employees. the data collected from this study might form part of policy-making for both the government and the management of public health care institutions. moreover, the findings on the stress factors affecting the performance of health care workers may be used to develop strategies and provide an environment that ensures improved employee performance. through the study, it was found that both inflexible working hours and work overload had a negative relationship with employee job performance. limitations and recommendations from the research analysis, findings and conclusions, the study recommends that public health care hospitals should redesign jobs that overwhelm employees in order to reduce workloads and spread these out evenly. flexitime working time can also be considered by the management of public hospitals in some departments. additionally, there is the need for better communication channels so that information reaches employees in time for better preparation instead of last-minute communication, where employees would be spending long hours at the workplace to complete various tasks. indeed, organisational policies should be instituted that would make communication among the rank files liberalised and made easier. cooperation among the medical doctors, lab scientists, pharmacists, nurses and other members of the medical team should be strengthened. all the public health care employees should be made to understand that they are there to complement one another for good performance and productivity. more significantly, there is the need to conduct skills analysis and job evaluation in order to identify any staffing gaps as this will improve their performance and job satisfaction. the public hospitals should also strive to employ more workers to help lift too much workload of the workers. furthermore, the government should enact laws that protect employees generally and health workers in particular from the menace of occupational stress, which appears to characterise present-day work organisations. the government must also provide all the facilities for employees to do their work properly with no hesitation and facilitate all the needs of employees. the study was specifically focused on public health care hospitals in harare only. therefore, the findings from the study cannot be generalised to other public health care institutions outside harare. it is suggested that future research studies many be expanded to other provinces in the country as well as other sectors such as education, other government departments, tourism, banking, to check the causes and effects of occupational stress on employees’ productivity and performance. besides the variables of occupational stress discussed in this study, it is also suggested that other researchers include more job-related stress factors such as role conflict, role ambiguity, gender discrimination, demand pressure and other factors in order to make the research more comprehensive. conclusion in determining the relationship between occupational stress and employee job performance, the study revealed that both inflexible working hours and work overload were the main factors hindering the performance of health care employees because employees reached burnout level that they could no longer produce effectively. the study concluded that that there is a negative relationship between increase in inflexibility in work hours and job performance. this implied that increase in inflexibility in work hours has an inverse effect on job performance at the selected public hospitals. the findings also concluded a negative relationship between work overload and job performance, thus implying that work overload as an occupation stressor negatively influences employee job performance at the selected public hospitals in harare. however, the findings concluded that there was a significant positive relationship between working environment and job performance. this indicated that any improvement in working environment conditions would positively affect employee job performance at the public hospitals in harare. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the staff at the ministry of health and child welfare for providing relevant information throughout this research. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the researchers worked hand in glove during the course of the study. in order to make the research more productive and efficient, j.s. formulated the research problem and synthesised relevant literature review. he was also involved in the distribution and collection of questionnaires from targeted respondents. t.w. provided the research methodology section as well as the construction of research instrument. both authors were involved in data collation, editing and analysis. the researchers also agreed on conclusions and recommendation. after completion of the research article, t.w. was involved in proofreading for grammar and logic. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availibility statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abebe, m., & alemseged, f. (2016). hematologic abnormalities among children on harrt in jimma university specialized hospital south west ethiopia. ethiopian journal of health sciences, 19(9), 83–89. https://doi.org/10.4314/ejhs.v19i2.69420 ali, y., & basher, g.d. (2013). impact of stress on job performance: an empirical study of the employees of private sector universities of karachi, pakistan. research journal of management sciences, 3(7), 14–17. ali, m.s., hassan, j., ali, d.a., & bashir, j.n. (2013). integrative literature review: four emerging perspectives of employee engagement: an integrative literature review. human resource development review, 10(5), 304–328. al-malki, m., fitzgerald, g., & clark, m. (2011). health care system in saudi arabia: an overview. eastern mediterranean health journal, 17(10), 784–793. amponsah-tawiah, k., & mensah, j. (2016). occupational health and safety and organizational commitment: evidence from the ghanaian mining industry. safety and health at work, 7(3), 225–230. amyx, d., sharma, h.t., & alford, b.l. (2014). the effects of salesperson need for achievement and sales manager leader reward behaviour. journal of personal selling and sales management, 25(4), 345–359. assaf, a.m., & alswalha, a. (2013). environmental impacts of working conditions in paint factories workers in the hashemite kingdom of jordan, european scientific journal, 9(8), 66–73. bahrami, m.a., barati, o., & ghoroghchian, m.s. (2016). role of organizational climate in organizational commitment: the case of teaching hospitals. osong public health and research perspectives, 7(2), 96–100. beheshtifar, m., & nazarian, r. (2015). role of occupational stress in organizations. interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, 4(9), 648. bojke, c. (2015). productivity of the english national health service 2003–4 to 2009–10 (pp. 1–45). che research paper 76. london: centre for health economics. bryman, a., & bell, e. (2015). business research methods. oxford: oxford university press. cavalheiro, a.m., & moura, d.f. (2008). stress in nurses working in intensive care units. rev latino-americana, 16(1), 29–35. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0104-11692008000100005 celik, k. (2013). the effect of role ambiguity and role conflict on performance of vice principles: the mediating role of burnout. journal of educational research, 51, 195–214. cohen, l., & marion, l. (2011). research methods in education (7th edn.). london: routledge. daily news. (2017). hospitals run out of oxygen. retrieved from https://www.dailynews.co.zw/articles/2017/02/26/hospitals-run-out-of-oxygen. desa, a., yusooff, f., ibrahim, n., & kadir, n.a. (2014). a study of the relationship and influence of personality on job stress among academic administrators at a university. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 114, 355–359. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.12.711 easterby-smith, m., thorpe, r., & jackson, p. (2012). management research (4th edn.). london: pearson education. faraji, o., ramazani, a.a., & hedaiati, p. (2015). relationship between job characteristics and organizational commitment: a descriptive analytical study. iranian red crescent medical journal, 17(11), e19815. https://doi.org/10.5812/ircmj.19815 fajana, m., obisi, a., & oke, a. (2011): human resource management: an introduction. lagos: labofin and company. fapohunda, t.m. (2012). towards improved access to full employment and decent work for women in nigeria. international journal of humanities and social science, 2(8), 104–112. forbat, l., & henderson, j. (2012). theoretical and practical reflections on sharing transcripts with participants. qualitative health research, 15(8), 1114–1128. fowler, f.j. (2013). survey research methods. new jersey: sage. frimpong, j.a., helleringer, s., & phillips, j.f. (2011). does supervision improve health worker productivity? evidence from the upper east region of ghana. tropical medicine & international health, 16(10), 1225e33. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3156.2011.02824.x ganster, d.c., & rosen, c.c. (2013). work stress and employee health: a multidisciplinary review. journal of management, 39(5), 1085–1122. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206313475815 gatchel, r.j., & schultz, i.z. (2012). handbook of occupational health and wellness. new york: springer science and business media. gholamzadeh, s., sharif, f., & rad, f.d. (2016). sources of occupational stress and coping strategies among nurses who are working in admission and emergency department in hospitals affiliated to shiraz university of medical sciences, iran. iranian journal of nursing and midwifery research, 16(1), 42. hair, j.f. (2015). essentials of business research methods. london: pearson education limited. hair, j.f., hult, g.t.m., ringle, c.m., & sarstedt, m. (2014). a primer on partial least squares structural equation modelling. thousand oaks, ca. harzer, c., & ruch, w. (2015). the relationships of character strengths with coping, work-related stress, and job satisfaction. frontiers in psychology, 6, 165. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00165 hasan, i., batool, t., & fatima, s. (2015). life satisfaction and social support among private and government school teachers. european journal of business and social sciences, 4(8), 42–49. hashim, m., & hameed, f. (2012). human resource management in 21st century: issues & challenges & possible solutions to attain competitiveness. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 2(9), 44. hashim, m., khattak, m.a., & kee, d.m.h. (2017). impact of servant leadership on job satisfaction: a study of teaching faculty in universities of peshawar. abasyn journal of social sciences, 3(7), 68–75. hsu, s.h., huang, k.c., & huang, k.s. (2015). the relative study of social support, job satisfaction and wellbeing of military instructors – the case of high schools’ military instructors in yunlin, chiayi and tainan districts of taiwan. the journal of international management studies, 10(1), 41–49. ijaz, m., & khan, a. (2015). the relationship of big five personality traits with job satisfaction among banking employees. journal of applied environmental and biological sciences, 5(5), 129–138. joy, j., & radhakrishnan, d. (2013). a study on causes of work stress among tile factory workers in kannur district in kerala. international journal of scientific and research publications, 3(9), 13–18. kakkuri-knuuttila, m.-l., (2008). straddling between paradigms: a naturalistic philosophical case study on interpretive research in management accounting. accounting, organizations and society, 33(2–3), 267–291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2006.12.003 kock, n., & lynn, g.s. (2012). lateral collinearity and misleading results in variance-based sem: an illustration and recommendations, journal of the association for information systems, 13(7), 11–17. krishnaswami, o.r., & ranganatham, m. (2009). research methods. new delhi: himalaya publishing house. lazarus, r.s., & folkman, s. (1984). stress, appraisal, and coping. new york: springer. leap-han, s.b. (2012). job stress and coping mechanisms among nursing staff in public health services. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 2(7), 131–176. liu, w.-w., pan, f. -c., wen, p. -c., chen, s. -j., & lin, s. -h. (2010). job stressors and coping mechanisms among emergency department nurses in the armed force hospitals of taiwan. world academy of science, engineering and technology, 67, 144–151. malik, s., & noreen, s. (2015). perceived organizational support as a moderator of affective well-being and occupational stress among teachers. pakistan journal of commerce and social sciences, 9(3), 865–874. mehta, r.k., & singh, i.k. (2015). stress among nurses working in critical care areas at a tertiary care teaching hospital, nepal. journal of chitwan medical college, 4(4), 42–48. https://doi.org/10.3126/jcmc.v4i4.11972 muchhal, a. (2014). does role clarity explain employee-perceived service quality? international journal of service industry management, 17(5), 444–473. mugenda, o.m., & mugenda, a.g. (2009). research methods, quantitative and qualitative approaches. nairobi: act. mulki, j.p., jaramillo, f., goad, e.a., & pesquera, m.r. (2014). regulation of emotions, interpersonal conflict, and job performance for salespeople. journal of business research, 68(3), 623–630. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2014.08.009 naharuddin, n.m., & sadegi, m. (2013). factors of workplace environment that affect employees performance: a case study of miyazu malaysia. international journal of independent research and studies, 2(2), 66–78. nwokeocha, s.m. (2015). academic staff working conditions, organizational commitment and performance of nigerian universities. doctoral thesis. cambridge: anglia ruskin university. okoyo, g.h., & ezejiofor, o. (2013). incentive packages and employees’ attitude to work: a study of selected government parastatals in ogun state, south-west, nigeria. international journal of research in business and social sciences, 3(1), 63–74. olaleye, f.o., & arogundade, b.b. (2013). conflict management strategies of university administrators in south-west nigeria. kuwait chapter of arabian journal of business and management review, 2(6), 96–104. https://doi.org/10.12816/0001212 ramos, a.o., alés, y.b., & sierra, i.m. (2014). role stress and work engagement as antecedents of job satisfaction in spanish workers. journal of industrial engineering and management. jiem, 7(1), 360–372. rees, t., & freeman, l. (2009). matching social support with stressors: effects on factors underlying performance in tennis. psychology of sport and exercise, 5, 319–337. rizwan, m., waseem, a., & bukhari, s.a. (2014). antecedents of job stress and its impact on job performance and job satisfaction. international journal of learning and development, 4, 187e203. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijld.v4i2.6097 sabherwal, n., ahuja, d., george, m., & handa, a. (2015). a study on occupational stress among faculty members in higher education institutions in pune. sims journal of management research, 1(1), 18–23. shah, s.s.a., & hasnu, s.a.f. (2013). effect of job instability on job performance: banking sector of pakistan. journal of asian development studies, 2(1), 3–12. sharifah, z.s.y., afiq, i.m., & siti, s.d. (2011). stress and its associated factors amongst ward nurses in a public hospital kuala lumpur. malaysian journal of public health medicine, 11(1), 78–85. shuriquie, s., & fitzpatrick, n.k. (2015). job stress, job performance and organizational commitment in a multinational companies. international journal of business and social science, 2(20), 20–29. shuriquie, m., while, a., & fitzpatrick, j. (2015). nursing work in jordan: an example of nursing work in the middle east. journal of clinical nursing, 17(8), 999–1010. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2007.01973.x sims, r.l., & sun, p. (2012). work strain and intention to quit. international journal of stress management, 23(1), 23–43. sullivan, g.m. (2011). a primer on the validity of assessment instruments. journal of graduate medical education, 3(2), 119–120. https://doi.org/10.4300/jgme-d-11-00075.1 suwati, m., & gagah, e. (2016). influence of motivation work, career development and cultural organization on the job satisfaction and implications on the performance of employees. journal of management, 2(2), 23–29. tahir, p.g., ijaz, z., & salma, u. (2014). impact of working environment on employee’s productivity: a case study of banks and insurance companies in pakistan. european journal of business and management, 7(1), 329–346. tearle, p. (2013). work related stress. european journal of business and social sciences, 1(10), 73–80. truxillo, d.m., cadiz, d.m., rineer, j.r., zaniboni, s., & fraccaroli, f. (2012). a lifespan perspective on job design: fitting the job and the worker to promote job satisfaction, engagement, and performance. organizational psychology review, 2(4), 340–360. https://doi.org/10.1177/2041386612454043 tsutsumi, a., & kawakami, n. (2014). a review of empirical studies on the model of effort-reward imbalance at work: reducing occupational stress by implementing a new theory. social science & medicine, 59(11), 2335–2359. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.03.030 uriena, b., oscab, a., & salmonesc, l.g. (2016). role ambiguity, group cohesion and job satisfaction: a demands-resources model (jd-r) study from mexico and spain. journal of elsevier espan˜a, s.l.u, 11(1), 29–41. vanishree, p. (2014). the impact of role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload on job stress in small and medium scale industries. research journal of management sciences, 3(1), 10–13. velnampy, t. (2013). occupational stress and organizational commitment in private banks: a sri lankan experience. european journal of business and management, 5(7), 254–267. whiting, a. (2016). investigating the immediate and long term effects of job stressors on frontline service employees. international journal of marketing research, 28(4), 319–331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2011.05.006 world health organization. (2008). health workers for all and all for health workers. geneva: world health report. yaşlıoğlu, m., karagülle, a.ö., & baran, m. (2014). an empirical research on the relationship between job insecurity, job related stress and job satisfaction in logistics industry. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 99, 332–338. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.501 zafar, q., ali, a., hameed, t., ilyas, t., & younas, h.i. (2015). the influence of job stress on employees performance in pakistan. american journal of social science research, 1, 11–13. zikmund, w.g., babin, b.j., carr, j.c., & griffin, m. (2013). business research methods. la: cengage learning. zina. (2017). nurses embark on nationwide strike. press statement. harare: zimbabwe nurses association. abstract introduction purpose of the study theoretical framework and hypotheses development methods results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) molefe j. maleka department of people management and development, faculty of management sciences, tshwane university of technology, emalahleni campus, emalahleni, pretoria, south africa leigh-anne paul-dachapalli department of people management and development, faculty of management sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria campus, pretoria, south africa suzette c. ragadu department of people management and development, faculty of management sciences, tshwane university of technology, emalahleni campus, emalahleni, pretoria, south africa cecilia m. schultz department of people management and development, faculty of management sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria campus, pretoria, south africa lize van hoek department of people management and development, faculty of management sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria campus, pretoria, south africa citation maleka, m.j., paul-dachapalli, l.-a., ragadu, s.c., schultz, c.m., & van hoek, l. (2020). performance management, vigour, and training and development as predictors of job satisfaction in low-income workers. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1257. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1257 original research performance management, vigour, and training and development as predictors of job satisfaction in low-income workers molefe j. maleka, leigh-anne paul-dachapalli, suzette c. ragadu, cecilia m. schultz, lize van hoek received: 23 july 2019; accepted: 27 nov. 2019; published: 18 may 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: new insights into how managers can develop strategies to enhance job satisfaction, how researchers can use a different approach when collecting data by conducting a survey at a mall instead of an organisation, and an understanding of the relationship between performance management, vigour, and training and development of low-income workers form part of the orientation of this article. research purpose: the authors endeavoured to determine whether performance management, vigour, and training and development positively predicted the job satisfaction of low-income workers in the south african context. motivation for the study: little, if any, research exists about the relationships between performance management, vigour, and training and development as well as the job satisfaction of low-income workers in the south african context. research approach/design and method: the research approach was quantitative, descriptive and causal in nature. this study mostly comprised the units of analysis, namely low-income workers who were under-researched in the south african context. hence, 877 respondents were purposefully selected for this study. main findings: the results showed that performance management was the highest predictor of job satisfaction. the second highest predictor of job satisfaction was vigour, and the third highest predictor of job satisfaction was training and development. practical/managerial implications: this research will empower managers to develop strategies to enhance employees’ job satisfaction by paying attention to performance management, vigour, and training and development. contribution/value-add: this study was conducted on an under-researched sample, at a mall and suggested vigour as an intrinsic variable to be included in the herzberg job satisfaction model. keywords: performance management; vigour; training and development; job satisfaction; low-income workers. introduction job satisfaction can enhance the productivity of organisations. it is a salient construct to measure the human resource value chain (i.e. performance management, training and development, and talent management; lee, 2011). spector (1997) opines that to achieve job satisfaction, organisations should be guided by human values, primarily in terms of respect for and impartial treatment of employees, irrespective of their positions. job satisfaction leads to positive employee behaviours, while job dissatisfaction results in negative behaviours (amakiri & luke, 2015). additionally, job satisfaction is one of the determinants of successful organisations. for the purpose of this study, the focus was on performance management, training and development, as well as vigour, because these constructs are both extrinsic or external and intrinsic or internal (herzberg, 1968). it was previously found that when employees were deprived of training opportunities, they tended to become disgruntled (noland, 2014). in some instances, such employees even took the organisation to the dispute resolution body, lodged a grievance against the management or reported against the manager to trade union, arguing that it was an unfair labour practice (bendix, 2015). in addition to being dissatisfied, employees who are not trained cannot perform optimally to assist organisations to achieve their strategic objectives (amakiri & luke, 2015). according to the united nations human development report office (2016, pp. 199), south africa is ranked 119 of 188 countries ‘which put the country in the medium human development category’. research focusing on intrinsic satisfaction factors has revealed that in some cases, employees are engaged or have vigour when they work in organisations where managers do not treat them badly (seymour & geldenhuys, 2018) and give them meaningful work (kahn, 1990; nienaber & martins, 2016) and interesting tasks (bakker, 2017). this is a salient study because it developed a job satisfaction model using the structural equation model (sem) that can be used by managers who manage employees from the grey economy, or what levy and venter (2015) call non-core employees (i.e. part-time or casual employees). previous job satisfaction studies using sem and linear regression in the south african context focused on core employees working on permanent basis (castro & martins, 2010; maleka, skosona, & lekgothoane, 2016). hence, the research question for this study is as follows: are performance management, vigour, and training and development predictors of low-income workers’ job satisfaction? according to the tshwane research unit (2013), the population of tshwane was 2.4 million, almost 40% of whom were low-income workers who commute via metro rail. because of the exodus of prominent businesses and trade from the inner city, many smaller and informal businesses have exploded, thereby attracting low-income consumers and creating low-income jobs. historically, most employees in south africa were not earning living wages because they were not part of collective agreements (statistics south africa, 2014) whose implementation was associated with profit reduction (moll, 1993). purpose of the study little, if any, research exists on the relationships between performance management, vigour, and training and development as well as the job satisfaction of low-income workers in the south african context. this is a research gap, and the purpose of this study was therefore to determine whether performance management, vigour, and training and development positively predicted the job satisfaction of low-income workers in the south african context. theoretical framework and hypotheses development job satisfaction is an employee’s attitude towards, or how he or she is affected by, working conditions or experiences in the workplace (alessandri et al., 2012; locke, 1976). herzberg’s (1968) two-factor theory of job satisfaction discusses extrinsic (e.g. performance management and training and development) and intrinsic (e.g. vigour) satisfaction factors. according to herzberg (1968), intrinsic factors are known as motivation factors, while extrinsic factors are known as hygiene factors. he conducted a study on accountants and engineers who earned high wages and concluded that hygiene factors are temporary and are therefore not satisfiers. the next discussion is on the predictors of job satisfaction, namely performance management, training and development, and vigour. performance management as a predictor of job satisfaction for the purpose of this study, performance management focuses on an individual low-income worker. the purpose of performance management is to transmute the latent potential of an employee into performance by eliminating intermediate barriers to motivate employees to perform well for the achievement of shared goals (da silva gomes, 2016; nel, kirsten, swanepoel, erasmus, & jordan, 2017). performance management includes activities which guarantee that goals are consistently being met in an effective and efficient manner (mathur & prasad, 2014). over 50 years ago, herzberg (1968) spread awareness that when employees are satisfied with their jobs, they will perform well. judge, thoresen, bono and patton (2001) reviewed the literature available on this topic and presented a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance from about 312 studies. their qualitative results were inconsistent with regard to the satisfaction–performance relationship. similarly, bowling’s (2007) study results were inconclusive as to whether performance predicted job satisfaction. on the other hand, fisher’s (2003) as well as mcpherson and wang’s (2017) research revealed that employees who were performing well were more likely to be satisfied. therefore, the first hypothesis of this study can be stated as follows: h1: performance management predicts job satisfaction. vigour and job satisfaction vigour represents the extent to which employees engage in their work proactively, take initiative (chan, 2019) and are optimistic about their work (schaufeli & bakker, 2010). it should be noted that vigour does not appear in herzberg’s (1968) original two-factor model (busari, mughal, khan, rasool, & kiyani, 2017). in this article, we argue that it is an intrinsic factor because it is about vitality, high levels of energy and mental resilience (russell, 2003; schaufeli & bakker, 2010) and vivacity (shirom, 2003). performance management, on the other hand, is an extrinsic factor. previous research in south africa on low-income workers has revealed that they work under appalling working conditions (finnemore, 2009), are paid slave wages (bendix, 2010), work in insecure jobs and are not unionised (yu & roos, 2018). hence, they must have high mental strength and be motivated to enhance their satisfaction levels. in line with this accession, international research conducted on middle-income workers has revealed that invigorated employees are satisfied (de simone et al., 2014; gillet, huart, colombat, & fouquereau, 2013; macey & schneider, 2008; salanova, llorens, & schaufeli, 2011; silman, 2014; vansteenkiste et al., 2007) and stay with their organisations (saks, 2006). conversely, disengaged employees do not perform optimally (rayton, dodge, & d’analeze, 2012; ruhlman & siegman, 2009) because they have low satisfaction levels (yasin, fernando, & caputi, 2013). yalabik, popaitoon, chowne and rayton (2013) and barnes and collier (2013) opine that satisfaction with various job aspects is important for employees to become invigorated. usually, high-skilled, self-employed workers report higher levels of work engagement than workers employed with organisations (bujacz, bernhard-oettel, rigotti, & lindfors, 2017). hence, the second hypothesis of this study is as follows: h2: vigour positively predicts job satisfaction. training and development and job satisfaction the other extrinsic factor related to employees’ satisfaction is training and development (allen, shore, & griffeth, 2003; bakar, 2011; chaudhary & bhaskar, 2016; samuel & chipunza, 2009; schmidt, 2007; smit & cronje, 2002). erasmus, loedolff, mda and nel (2015) define training as ‘training and development is defined as a “planned acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities to carry out a specific task or job in a particular setting” erasmus, loedolff, mda and nel (2015, pp. 20).’ employees who are trained enable workplaces to become competitive (van aswegen, 2012). in a survey of employees in the united states and canada, 80% of the respondents indicated that training was a vital factor in their jobs because it increased their skills and abilities (community banker, 2001). research conducted amongst 575 it professionals found that dissatisfied employees attributed their discontentment to their inability to have training they wanted (melymuka, 2000). the commonality between melymuka’s (2000) and van aswegen’s (2012) studies is that they conducted their research in ‘big-budget’ organisations. the low-income workers in marabastad, where previous research was conducted, revealed that work in retail and wholesale economic sectors had low budgets for training. zeytinoglu, cooke, harry and chowhan (2008) indicate that internationally, workers in lower-paid jobs have less opportunity for training compared to workers in higher-paid jobs. organisations that can afford to train employees have the benefit that they manage to retain their employees (wagner, 2000). such organisations include training, which is one of herzberg’s extrinsic factors, as a benefit (maleka, 2012). organisations providing training and development programmes for their employees are able to achieve higher levels of employee satisfaction and have lower attrition rate (salas, burke, bowers, & wilson, 2001). hence, the third hypothesis of this study can be stated as follows: h3: training and development positively predicts job satisfaction. in the next section, the research approach, respondents, measuring instrument, procedure and statistical analysis are discussed. the conceptual model is displayed in figure 1. figure 1: performance management, vigour, and training and development. methods research approach the research approach that was deemed appropriate for this study was quantitative, descriptive and correlational in nature (bless, higson-smith, & sithole, 2013) because the researchers intended to quantify and measure the relationships between performance management, vigour, and training and development, as well as the job satisfaction, of low-income workers. procedure the authors were given permission by the university to collect data and were advised to act ethically when collecting the data. the instrument was presented to human resource management experts (spector, 2012) and pre-tested on 20 respondents in march 2016 to ensure that the questionnaire measured what it was intended to measure. participation in the study was voluntary, and respondents were informed that they could withdraw from the study if they felt uncomfortable about participating. furthermore, in order to ensure that respondents’ identities were kept confidential and anonymous, their names were not written on the instruments when they participated in the study (bless et al., 2013). measuring instrument in addition to biographical variables, the measuring instrument contained the following measuring scales: vigour (schaufeli, salanova, gonzalez-roma, & baker, 2002), performance management, training and development (van hoek, 2014) and job satisfaction (spector, 1985). performance management, job satisfaction, and training and development were measured on a five-point likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). vigour was measured on a seven-point likert scale (0 = never to 6 = always). in table 3, the average variance extracted (ave) scores were above 0.5, suggesting that convergent validity was achieved. to determine discriminant validity, the researchers followed the criteria proposed by fornell and larcker (1981), who state that there must be a correlation between the off-diagonal values and latent variables. the composite reliability (cr) values showed that the model was reliable, and the cronbach’s alpha values showed that the variables were reliable because it was above the threshold value of 0.7 as suggested by maree (2016). statistical analysis statistical analysis was conducted using amos version 25. the authors followed the guidelines for model fit indexes provided by hair, black, babin and anderson (2014). the following results were obtained: chi-squared (χ2 ) = p ≤ 0.05, root mean square error (rmsea) ≤ 0.07, comparative fit index (cfi) ≥ 0.90, goodness of fit index (gfi) ≥ 0.90 and tuckey–lewis index (tli) ≥ 0.90. construct validity was achieved by retaining factor loadings above a cut-off value of 0.3 (field, 2018) and by calculating ave (maleka, mmako, & swartz, 2017). structural equation model was conducted to test the hypotheses (byrne, 2010; castro & martins, 2010; maleka et al., 2017). hair et al. (2014) suggest that a sample size of 500 is appropriate to conduct sem. results in this section, descriptive and inferential statistics are discussed. descriptive statistics respondents the research site was situated in marabastad mall in gauteng, south africa. this mall is usually visited by low-income workers, but unfortunately the population size could not be determined. the respondents were selected using convenience sampling because the researchers did not have access to a sampling frame (leedy & ormrod, 2015; neuman, 2014). a total of 877 respondents participated in the study, and the response rate was 87.70%, since n = 1000 questionnaires were distributed. the response rate was therefore much higher than the 10% recommended in literature (bless et al., 2013). the data presented in table 1 show that more female participants (51.80%) than male participants participated in the study and that 72.30% of the respondents were full-time employees. the focus of the study was not on non-core employees (27.70%) but on core employees (72.30%); however, for the completeness of the study, we decided to include non-core employees as well to have a holistic view of participants and their views. the majority of respondents (27.20%) had qualifications ranging from grade 12 to a degree. most of the respondents (89.20%) were aged between 25 and 54 years. in total, 588 (67.00%) respondents were not unionised, and 21.60% of the respondents lived in a household with two to six members. table 1: distribution of respondents. on average, the respondents earned r7063.06 per month, which is within the low-income workers’ minimum wage range of r4500 to r10 000, as suggested by maleka et al. (2016). the average earning was above r3500, the suggested national minimum earnings in south africa. as observed in table 2, the performance management (pm) mean scores were just above the mid-point of 3, suggesting a moderate positive trend. in addition, a positive trend was observed with the training and development (td) and job satisfaction (js) items, with the exception of the following item: ‘i have a mentor that assists me with work-related matters’ (mean [m] = 2.97, standard deviation [sd] = 1.56). the following js items had a reverse score: ‘when i do a good job, i don’t receive the recognition for it that i should receive’ and ‘i don’t feel like the work i do is appreciated’. table 2: descriptive statistics. measurement model the correlations between independent variables or exogenous constructs (i.e. td, pm and vigour) were less than 0.7; hence, it can be argued that the assumption of multicollinearity was not violated (pallant, 2016). as mentioned previously, the ave scores were above 0.5, suggesting that convergent validity was achieved. the cr values showed that the model was reliable, and the cronbach’s alpha showed that the variables were reliable because it was above the threshold value of 0.7 as suggested by maree (2016). the data displayed in figure 2 and table 3 showed the correlations between predictors and js. the data showed positive relationships between td and pm (r = 0.59, large effect), vigour and pm (r = 0.65, large effect), vigour and js (r = 0.55, large effect), pm and js (r = 0.55, large effect), and td and js (r = 0.31, medium effect). all relationships were significant at the 0.05 level. the data displayed in figure 2 showed that the model was a good fit (χ2) (70) = 258.68, p = 0.00. according to hair et al.’s (2014) criteria, rmsea = 0.06, cfi = 0.93, gfi = 0.91 and tli = 0.92. figure 2: measurement model. pm, performance management; vi, vigour; td, training and development; js, job satisfaction. table 3: correlations, average variance extracted, composite reliability and cronbach’s alpha values. the data presented in figure 3 showed that both performance management (β = 0.36, p < 0.05) and vigour (β = 0.33, p < 0.05) positively predicted job satisfaction. lastly, the data indicated that td negatively predicted job satisfaction (β = −0.04, p < 0.05). performance management was the highest predictor of job satisfaction, and the job satisfaction equation was estimated as follows: y’ (job satisfaction) = 0.36 (performance management) + 0.33 (vigour) − 0.04 (training and development). figure 3: structural model relationship between performance management (pm), vigour (vi), training and development (td) and job satisfaction (js). discussion the purpose of the study was to determine the relationship between the job satisfaction of low-income workers in relation to performance management, vigour, and training and development. this study made a methodological contribution. unlike other studies in south africa and africa on job satisfaction where data were collected in the workplace (hansen, buitendach, & kanengoni, 2015; mitonga-monga, flotman, & cilliers, 2018), this study was conducted with low-income workers of a mall, as carried out in canada (zeng & honig, 2017). the second contribution of the study was that it tested paths from an under-researched sample. consistent with international research (fisher, 2003), the results showed that performance management positively predicted job satisfaction. this means that employees will be content when they are given positive feedback, appraised fairly and recognised for their performance (griffin, phillips, gully, & carrim, 2019). surprisingly, the data on the sem model showed that training and development did not positively predict job satisfaction, despite the measurement model showing a positive and significant relationship (r = 0.31, medium effect). this is known as a negative suppression effect (kline, 2011). schmidt (2007) found a strong positive relationship between training and job satisfaction. lowry, simon and kimberley (2002) and traut, larsen and fiemer (2000) also found a positive relationship between training and development and job satisfaction. organisations that offer valuable and effective training have more satisfied and committed employees (bartlett, 2001; tansky & cohen, 2001). employees who are satisfied with their jobs are willing to accept organisational goals and values, tend to be more motivated (jalajas & bommer, 1999), are willing to exert effort in the workplace and are likely to stay in the organisation (laschinger, finegan, & shamian, 2001). it can be argued that the constructs used to test path relationships were valid and reliable. all the predictors had factor loadings from 0.47 to 0.67, and hair et al. (2014) opine that such loadings, ave scores above 0.5 and cronbach’s alpha above 0.7 show that construct validity has been achieved and the constructs are unidimensional. thirdly, this study made a theoretical contribution by establishing that vigour is an intrinsic factor that was not originally included in herzberg’s two-factor model (refer to figure 3). earlier, it was argued that south african low-income workers work under appalling working conditions, having insecure jobs and many are not unionised (yu & roos, 2018). it is interesting to note that one of the vigour items, ‘i can continue working for very long periods at a time’, showed a negative trend (m = 3.33, sd = 1.79). conversely, the other two vigour items, which related to bursting with energy (m = 3.41, sd = 1.70) and having positive feelings (m = 3.52, sd = 1.63), showed positive trends. this finding confirms the earlier argument made in this article that though low-income workers work under appalling working conditions (finnemore, 2009), they invigorate themselves. other scholars have opined that invigorated employees are mentally motivated (russell, 2003; schaufeli & bakker, 2010), are vivacious (shirom, 2003), have high satisfaction levels (de simone et al., 2014; gillet et al., 2013), perform optimally (rayton et al., 2012) and do not embark on counterproductive behaviour such as resignation (saks, 2006). similarly, the study results are consistent with the results of an international study which showed that high-income workers had high levels of engagement (bujacz et al., 2017). table 4: hypothesis testing. figure 4 displays the intrinsic and extrinsic factors. the first two blocks are from herzberg’s original model. the third and fourth blocks are the ones that the authors of this article contribute to the discourse of herzberg’s theoretical framework. in this study, the data showed that low-income employees were invigorated even when they worked long hours and that they did not perceive training and development as having an effect on satisfaction. one of the logical factors is that in south africa, there is a high unemployment rate (bendix, 2015) and not coming to work being energised might have unintended consequences (e.g. being retrenched or dismissed for poor performance). because majority of the respondents (460 out of 877) did not have post-matric qualifications, they can be easily replaced as they do not have specialised skills. the only attribute that they can bring to workplace is vigour. moreover, 588 of 877 respondents were not unionised, suggesting that they were not protected. figure 4: intrinsic and extrinsic factors. practical implications it is crucial for the management to realise that they can influence the job satisfaction of low-income workers by addressing performance management, vigour, and training and development. if these aspects are ignored, management will risk of having low-income workers who are not satisfied with their jobs. when the performance of low-income workers is managed effectively, it may enhance the success of organisations. the information gathered on performance management may lead to improved recruitment and selection (staffing) decisions and may assist in identifying the training and development needs of low-income workers. if organisations do not have sufficient training budget, they can rotate employees so that they gain more skills. for example, ford motor company in southern africa trained low-income workers and moved from one to three shifts instead of opting for automation and gained more market share in the process (ginindza, 2019). this is one of the many examples that showed that the industrial revolution does not always lead to job shedding; instead, if implemented in a humanistic way, it can create more jobs and revenue for the organisation. management should invest time in engaging with low-income workers. one of the human resource management strategies to engage low-income workers is known as co-determination. through co-determination, in a south african bus organisation in the north-west province, nienaber and martins (2016) opined that low-income workers who were engaged felt satisfied, supported the organisation’s strategy and assisted it to be profitable. building healthy relationships with low-income workers is important, as trust is built and they become sincere towards management. if the management do not invest time in building these relationships and engaging with staff, they may face the risk of missing the heartbeat of an organisation. in 2012, when lonmin, a mining company in rustenburg, refused to engage low-income workers, it embarked on a long and violent unprotected strike and loss of revenue (maleka, 2018). issues such as vigour can be discussed, and ideas on how to improve vigour can be shared, as this helps to enhance job satisfaction. managers must invest time in the training and development of low-income workers and make them aware of better opportunities. these employees must be encouraged to attend available training and development initiatives. these training programmes are to form part of their personal development plans. in-house and/or external training and development opportunities can be introduced. if low-income employees are ignored, they may feel neglected and perceive that opportunities are only available for higher-income workers. managers can therefore ill afford not to invest in the training and development of low-income workers. recommendations the majority of respondents (72.30%) in this study were full-time employees, and hence, it is recommended that management should pay attention to the performance management, vigour, and training and development of these low-income workers in order to create an atmosphere in which they can have job satisfaction. management should therefore give relevant feedback on the performance of low-income workers, as well as identifying areas of skills development for these workers. these employees should also receive recognition, because they want to feel appreciated in the workplace. managers should engage with low-income workers with regard to their vigour, energy levels and ability to continue to work for long periods of time. furthermore, organisations should make aware their employees of training and development opportunities as well as the funding available to attend training and development courses. mentors can be introduced to assist low-income workers in their work-related matters. in order to enhance the job satisfaction of low-income workers, it is essential that the supervisor or direct manager be competent enough in doing his or her job, as well as showing an interest in the activities of these workers. being fair towards workers is also important. it is recommended that three strategies should be developed by human resource specialists in conjunction with line management to ensure effective performance management, vigour as well as training and development of low-income workers. first, a strategy has to be developed to engage low-income workers with human resource specialist to ensure they understand organisation’s performance management as well as initiate interventions where needed. second, in terms of vigour, a strategy (i.e. healthy eating habits, low consumption of sugar and physical exercise) should be developed to improve energy levels and workers’ ability to work for long hours. wellness experts should be consulted to ensure a holistic approach towards this end. lastly, a strategy should be developed to link training and development with performance and rewards for low-income workers. an alternative approach where the ‘voices’ of employees are explored qualitatively could supplement quantitative data to pave way for the future research. in addition, future research initiatives could focus on the evaluation research and the development of effective, uncomplicated and cost-effective performance management systems that include low-income employees. overall, more studies related to low-income workers can be conducted in order to improve job satisfaction and productivity amongst these employees. limitations one of the limitations of the study was that the authors did not have access to a sampling frame, and they, therefore, opted not to use probability sampling. although the sample was big, the results could not be generalised for all low-income workers. low-income workers of only one mall participated in this study. this study consisted of a once-off snapshot and cross-sectional design, with no causality tested. furthermore, the industry and job categories of the participants were not investigated in this study. conclusion the results of this study could help the management to realise the importance of investing in the performance management, vigour, and training and development of low-income workers in order to improve their job satisfaction. the study revealed a positive relationship between performance management and job satisfaction, as well as between vigour and job satisfaction. however, the relationship between training and development and job satisfaction was negative. management should understand that they have the ability to inspire low-income workers by evaluating their performance, giving proper feedback and encouraging them to attend training and development sessions. the realisation of the importance of vigour of these workers will also encourage managers to spend more time with them to create an energetic environment. the job satisfaction of low-income workers will then be positively affected. lastly, more research should be conducted to obtain rich information about what motivates low-income workers and how their productivity can be increased. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank prof stuart carr from the massey university, new zealand, for acting as a mentor. he is the founding member of global living organisational wage. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions all the authors were part of developing the measuring instrument. m.j.m. conceptualised this study, conducted the statistics and wrote the research methodology. rest of the authors wrote the remaining article. ethical consideration the proposal and questionnaire of the study were reviewed by a research ethics committee and an ethical clearance certificate (frec2015/fr/09/020-ms) was granted. funding information tshwane university of technology funded this research project. data availability statement data are available upon reasonable request from the author. disclaimer the authors hereby declare that the article submitted for publication is their own work and has not previously been submitted to any other journal for publication. references alessandri, g., veccione, m., tisak, j., deiana, g., caria, s., & caprara, g.v. (2012). the utility of positive orientation in predicting job performance and organisational citizenship behaviours. applied psychology: an international review, 61(4), 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2012.00511.x allen, d.g., shore, l.m., & griffeth, r.w. (2003). the role of perceived organizational support and supportive human resource practices in the turnover process. journal of management, 29(1), 99–118. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630302900107 amakiri, d., & luke, g.r. (2015). job design and employee absenteeism: a case study of some government parastatals in nigeria. international journal of secondary education, 3(6), 67–71. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijsedu.s.2015030601.11 bakar, a. (2011). the relationship between training and organisational performance through job satisfaction. international journal of industrial engineering and management science, 1(1), 20–26. bakker, a.b. (2017). strategic and proactive approaches to work engagement. organizational dynamics, 46(2), 67–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2017.04.002 barnes, d.c., & collier, j.e. (2013). investigating work engagement in the service environment. journal of services marketing, 27(6), 485–499. https://doi.org/10.1108/jsm-01-2012-0021 bartlett, k.r. (2001). the relationship between training and organizational commitment: a study in the health care field. human resource development quarterly, 12(4), 335–352. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.1001 bendix, s. (2010). industrial relations in south africa. cape town: juta. bendix, s. (2015). labour relations: a southern african perspective. cape town: juta. bless, l., higson-smith, c., & sithole, s.l. (2013). fundamentals of social research: an african perspective. cape town: juta. bowling, n.a. (2007). is the job satisfaction–job performance relationship spurious? a meta-analytic examination. journal of vocational behavior, 71(2), 167–185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2007.04.007 bujacz, a., bernhard-oettel, c., rigotti, t., & lindfors, p. (2017). task-level work engagement of self-employed and organizationally employed high-skilled workers. career development international, 2(6), 724–738. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi-05-2016-0083 busari, a.h., mughal, y.h., khan, s.n., rasool, s., & kiyani, a.a. (2017). analytical cognitive style moderation on promotion and turnover intention. journal of management development, 36(3), 438–464. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd-12-2015-0184 byrne, b.m. (2010). structural equation modelling with amos: basic concepts, application, and programming. new york: taylor & francis. castro, m.l., & martins, n. (2010). the relationship between organisational climate and employee satisfaction in a south african information and technology organisation. south african journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.800 chan, s.c.h. (2019). participative leadership and job satisfaction: the mediating role of work engagement and the moderating role of fun experienced at work. leadership & organization development journal, 40(3), 319–333. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-06-2018-0215 chaudhary, n.s., & bhaskar, p. (2016). training and development and job satisfaction in education sector. international journal of business quantitative economics and applied management research, 2(8), 89–97. da silva gomes, j.f. (2016). values, motivation, commitment, performance and rewards: analysis model. business process management journal, 22(6), 1139–1169. https://doi.org/10.1108/bpmj-09-2015-0132 de simone, s., lampis, j., lasio, d., serri, f., cicotto, g., & putzu, d. (2014). influences of work-family interface on job and life satisfaction. applied research in quality of life, 9(4), 831–861. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-013-9272-4 edrak, b.b., yin-fah, b.c., gharleghi, b., & seng, t.k. (2013). the effectiveness of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: a study of malaysian amway company’s direct sales forces. international journal of business and social science, 4(9), 96–103. erasmus, b., loedolff, p., mda, t., & nel, p. (2015). managing training and development (7th edn.). cape town: oxford university press. field, a. (2018). discovering statistics using ibm spss statistics (5th edn.). london: sage. finnemore, m. (2009). introduction to labour relations (10th edn.). cape town: lexisnexis. fisher, c.d. (2003). why do lay people believe that satisfaction and performance are correlated? possible sources of a common sense theory. journal of organizational behavior, 24(6), 753–777. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.219 fornell, c., & larcker, d.f. (1981). evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. journal of marketing research, 18(1), 39–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378101800104 gillet, n., huart, i., colombat, p., & fouquereau, e. (2013). perceived organizational support, motivation, and engagement among police officers. professional psychology: research and practice, 44(1), 46–55. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030066 ginindza, b. (2019). ford to create 1200 jobs as silverton plant expands. retrieved from https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/companies/ford-to-create-1200-jobs-as-silverton-plant-expands-29401379 griffin, r.w., phillips, j.m., gully, s.m., & carrim, n.m. (2019). organisational behaviour: managing people and organisations (south african edn.). london: cengage. hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2014). multivariate data analysis. harlow: pearson. hansen, a., buitendach, j.h., & kanengoni, h. (2015). psychological capital, subjective well-being, burnout and job satisfaction amongst educators in the umlazi region in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 13(1), a621. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.621 herzberg, f. (1968). work and the nature of man. london: granada. jalajas, d.s., & bommer, m. (1999). the influence of job motivation versus downsizing on individual behaviour. human resource development quarterly, 10(4), 329–341. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.3920100405 judge, t.a., thoresen, c.j., bono, j.e., & patton, g.k. (2001). the job satisfaction–job performance relationship: a qualitative and quantitative review. psychological bulletin, 127(3), 376–407. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.127.3.376 kahn, w.a. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 33(4), 692–724. https://doi.org/10.5465/256287 kline, r.b. (2011). principles and practice of structural equation modelling (3rd edn.). new york: guildford. laschinger, h.k.s., finegan, j., & shamian, j. (2001). the impact of workplace empowerment and organizational trust on staff nurses’ work satisfaction and organizational commitment. health care management review, 26(3), 7–23. https://doi.org/10.1097/00004010-200107000-00002 laseinde, o.t., & kanakana, g.m. (2017). in c.o. ijagbemi & h.m. campbell (eds.), interventions to skills development in the automotive manufacturing sector of south africa, skills development for sustainable manufacturing. intechopen. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.70305. retrieved from https://www.intechopen.com/books/skills-development-for-sustainable-manufacturing/interventions-to-skills-development-in-the-automotive-manufacturing-sector-of-south-africa lee, g.j. (2011). hr metrics: strategic and quantitative tools for people management. randburg: knowres. leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2015). practical research: planning and design (11th edn.). boston, ma: pearson. levy, r., & venter, a. (2015). labour relations in south africa (5th edn.). cape town: oxford university press. locke, e.a. (1976). the nature and causes of job satisfaction. in m.d. dunnette (ed.), handbook of industrial and organisational psychology (pp. 1297–1349). chicago, il: rand mcnally. lowry, d.s., simon, a., & kimberley, n. (2002). toward improved employment relations practices of casual employees in the new south wales registered clubs industry. human resource development quarterly, 13(1), 53–69. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.1013 macey, w.h., & schneider, b. (2008). the meaning of employee engagement. industrial and organizational psychology, 1(1), 3–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2007.0002.x maleka, m.j. (2012). an in-depth investigation of the factors contributing to employee dissatisfaction at the business application solution centre (basc), eskom. unpublished doctoral dissertation. pretoria: unisa. maleka, m.j. (2018). the biographical and human resource management predictors of union membership engagement of lowand middle-income workers. journal of economics and behavioral sciences, 10(1), 207–216. https://doi.org/10.22610/jebs.v10i1.2103 maleka, m.j., mmako, m., & swarts, i. (2017). antecedents of affective commitment of human resource management practitioners attending a professional body convention. journal of economics and behavioral sciences, 9(3), 121–132. https://doi.org/10.22610/jebs.v9i3.1751 maleka, m.j., skosona, t.b., & lekgothoane, p.j. (2016). work satisfaction of municipality employees while performing duties under the conditions of limited financial resources. public and municipal finance, 5(3), 39–46. https://doi.org/10.21511/pmf.5(3).2016.05 maree, k. (eds). (2016). first steps in research (2nd edn.). pretoria: van schaik. mathur, s., & prasad, r. (2014). job satisfaction a tool for performance management: a case study of a banking sector. international journal of management and international business studies, 4(2), 189–198. mcpherson, r., & wang, j. (2017). low-income low-qualified employees’ access to workplace learning. journal of workplace learning, 26(6/7), 462–473. https://doi.org/10.1108/jwl-10-2013-0084 melymuka, k. (2000, april 24). it’s the opportunities, stupid. computerworld. retrieved from https://www.computerworld.com/article/2593928/it-s-the-opportunities--stupid.html mitonga-monga, j., flotman, a., & cilliers, f. (2018). job satisfaction and its relationship with organisational commitment: a democratic republic of congo organisational perspective. acta commerciii, 18(1), a578. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v18i1.578 moll, p.g. (1993). black south african unions: relative wage effects in international perspective. industrial and labour relations review, 46(2), 320–335. https://doi.org/10.1177/001979399304600203 nel, p.s., kirsten, m., swanepoel, b.j., erasmus, b.j., & jordan, b. (2017). south african employment relations: theory and practice (8th edn.). pretoria: van schaik. neuman, w.l. (2014). basics of social research: qualitative and quantitative approaches (3rd edn.). harlow: pearson. nienaber, h., & martins, n. (eds.). (2016). employee engagement in a south african context. randburg: kr publishing. noland, c. (2014). teaching theory x and theory y in organisational communication. communication teacher, 28(3), 145–149. https://doi.org/10.1080/17404622.2014.911333 pallant, j. (2016). spss survival manual: a step-by-step guide to data analysis using imb spss (6th edn.). crows nest, nsw: allen & unwin. rayton, b.a., dodge, t., & d’analeze, s. (2012). employee engagement: the evidence. retrieved from https://engageforsuccess.org/employee-engagement-the-evidence ruhlman, j., & siegman, c. (2009, june 18). boosting engagement while cutting costs. gallup management journal. retrieved from https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/120884/boosting-engagement-cutting-costs.aspx russell, j.a. (2003). core affect and the psychological construction of emotion. psychological review, 110(1), 145–172. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.110.1.145 saks, a.m. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169 salanova, m., llorens, s., & schaufeli, w.b. (2011). ‘yes, i can, i feel good, and i just do it!’ on gain cycles and spirals of efficacy beliefs, affect, and engagement. applied psychology, 60(2), 255–285. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2010.00435.x salas, e., burke, c.s., bowers, c.a., & wilson, k.a. (2001). team training in the skies, does crew resource management (crm) training work? human factors. journal of the human factors and ergonomics society, 43(4), 641–674. https://doi.org/10.1518/001872001775870386 samuel, m.o., & chipunza, c. (2009). employee retention and turnover: using motivational variables as a panacea. african journal of business management, 3(8), 410–415. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2010). defining and measuring work engagement: bringing clarity to the concept. in a.b. bakker & m.p. leiter (eds.), work engagement: a handbook of essential theory and research (pp. 10–24). new york: psychology press. schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzalez-roma, v., & baker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a confirmatory approach. journal of happiness studies, 3(1), 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 schmidt, s.w. (2007). the relationship between satisfaction with workplace training and overall job satisfaction. human resource development quarterly, 18(2), 4. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.1216 seymour, a.w., & geldenhuys, d.j. (2018). the impact of team dialogue sessions on employee engagement in an information and communication technology company. sa journal of human resource management, 16(4), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.987 shirom, a. (2003). feeling vigorous at work? the construct of vigor and the study of positive affect in organizations. in p.l. perrewe & d.c. ganster (eds.), emotional and physiological processes and positive intervention strategies (pp. 135–164). retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/s1479-3555(03)03004-x silman, f. (2014). work-related basic need satisfaction as a predictor of work engagement among academic staff in turkey. south african journal of education, 34(3), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.15700/201409161119 smit, p.j., & cronje, g. (2002). management principles. cape town: juta. spector, p.e. (1985). measurement of human service staff satisfaction: development of job satisfaction survey. american journal of community psychology, 13(6), 693–713. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00929796 spector, p.e. (1997). job satisfaction: application, assessment, causes and consequences. thousand oaks, ca: sage. spector, p.e. (2012). industrial and organisational psychology: research and practice (6th edn.). new york: wiley. statistics south africa. (2014). quarterly labour force survey. retrieved from http://beta2.statssa.gov.za/publications/p0211/p02111stquarter2014.pdf tansky, j.w., & cohen, d.j. (2001). the relationship between organizational support, employee development, and organizational commitment: an empirical study. human resource development quarterly, 12(3), 285–300. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.15 traut, c.a., larsen, r., & fiemer, s.h. (2000). hanging on or fading out. public personnel management, 29(3), 343. https://doi.org/10.1177/009102600002900304 tshwane research unit. (2013). city of tshwane general and regional overview. retrieved from http://www.parliament.gov.za/content/tshwane_general_and_regions_report_2013.pdf united nations human development report office. (2016). briefing note for countries on the 2016 human development report. retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/zaf.pdf van aswegen, s. (2012). introduction to human resource management: fresh perspectives. cape town: pearson. van hoek, c.e. (2014). a competitive talent management strategy for a natural resources mining company in selected countries in africa. unpublished doctoral dissertation. pretoria: tshwane university of technology. vansteenkiste, m., neyrinck, b., niemiec, c.p., soenens, b., de witte, h., & van den broeck, a. (2007). on the relations among work value orientations, psychological need satisfaction and job outcomes: a self-determination theory approach. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 80(2), 251–277. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317906x111024 wagner, s. (2000). retention: finders, keepers. training and development, 54(8), 64–72. community banker. (2001). what drives employee satisfaction? community banker, 10(7), 42. yalabik, z.y., popaitoon, p., chowne, j.a., & rayton, b.a. (2013). work engagement as a mediator between employee attitudes and outcomes. the international journal of human resource management, 24(14), 2799–2823. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.763844 yasin, m., fernando, m., & caputi, p. (2013). transformational leadership and work engagement. leadership and organization development journal, 34(6), 532–550. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-10-2011-0110 yu, d., & roos, p. (2018). the south african labour market (6th edn.). pretoria: van schaik. zeng, z., & honig, b. (2017). can a living wage be a win-win policy? a study of living wage effects on employer and employee performance in hamilton. in r. phillips & c. wong (eds.), handbook of community well-being research. manchester: springer. zeytinoglu, i.u., cooke, g.b., harry, k., & chowhan, j. (2008). low paid workers and on the job training in canada. industrial relations, 63(1), 5–29. https://doi.org/10.7202/018120ar abstract introduction case study research design findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) tonja blom north-west university business school, north-west university, mafikeng, south africa yvonne du plessis north-west university business school, north-west university, mafikeng, south africa hamid kazeroony college of management and technology, walden university, minneapolis, united states citation blom, t., du plessis, y., & kazeroony, h. (2019). the role of electronic human resource management in diverse workforce efficiency. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1118. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1118 original research the role of electronic human resource management in diverse workforce efficiency tonja blom, yvonne du plessis, hamid kazeroony received: 20 aug. 2018; accepted: 06 may 2019; published: 30 sept. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: diversity management, focusing on developing and appreciating diverse ideas and building relations among diverse employees, and new electronic human resource management (e-hrm) approaches to employees, often leave employees feeling disrespected and indignant. thus, instead of human resource practitioners, harnessing the strategic role of e-hrm towards value creation for people and organisation, e-hrm has taken a dehumanising turn. research purpose: this research questioned how technological changes affecting e-hrm could optimise and enable diversity. motivation for the study: current literature does not adequately address this e-hrm dilemma impacting on hrm. research approach/design and method: a qualitative exploratory case study was used to determine how and to what extent the application of e-hrm technology implementation impacted on diversity management. the human niche and ecological model theories help explain the nature of employees’ interactional relationships and coping mechanisms when intervening factors such as e-hrm are introduced respectively. main findings: the research revealed disconnectedness between e-hrm, individuals and groups, affecting efficiency. further research is required to improve humanistic approaches for e-hrm implementations. practical/managerial implications: application of human niche theory may guide a more participative approach from the onset. leaders and managers who follow a pure transactional approach may fuel employee isolationism and hamper diversity management through technology in e-hrm. contribution/value-add: our findings provide insight into the unintended consequences of diversity. we indicated how e-hrm systems can lead to relational breakdown in a developing country context. technology should be integrated in managing diversity, and not just focused on operational efficiencies. keywords: ecological model; e-hrm; globalisation; human niche theory; humanistic; human resource management; diversity; technology integration; psychological reactance. introduction globalisation has resulted in the development of large, ever expanding, multinational organisations. such organisations, operating in a global, competitive environment, utilise technological processes to drive improved efficiency. complexities such as national regulatory requirements, diverse workforces and recognition of human dignity provide the rationale for human resource professionals and leaders to seek ways through which to improve diversity management. as a result, human activities and traditional human resource management (hrm) processes are being replaced with technology in electronic human resource management (e-hrm). increasing dependence on technology to interact, communicate and collaborate has resulted in the creation of a faceless environment. electronic human resource management challenges the concept of interpersonal relationship building in organisations, especially where diverse employee groups have to operate together. therefore, organisations are tasked to rethink diversity management, in particular to maintain interpersonal relationships and organisational cohesion. this research was performed in a multinational organisation. the parent organisation expected all affiliates to conform to global standards through similar operations. within this multinational organisation, human resources (hr), specifically e-hrm, was utilised as a tool to ensure standardisation across country boundaries. the researched organisation employed a diverse workforce. gender, ethnicity, race, colour, language, culture, religion and education contributed to the compilation of the diverse workforce. as diversity is a key concept of this research and represents a kaleidoscope of difference along a continuum (beck & cowen, 1996) which can be explained from multiple perspectives. d’netto, smith, da-gama-pinto and dima (2000, p. 78) described diversity as the differences ‘of race, ethnicity, gender, culture, age, sexual orientation, religion, language, socio-economic status, education, style, personality, family status, physical and mental ability’. research purpose and objectives technology plays a significant role in changing the way organisations work (deloitte, 2014) and dramatically impacts on the practice of human resources, and its influence is rapidly increasing (johnson, lukaszewski, & stone, 2017). the success of e-hrm largely depends on effective interactions between people and computers (gueutal & stone, 2005). many large multinational organisations have adopted e-hrm, making technology central to hr practices (e.g. kavanagh, thite, & johnson, 2015; stone, deadrick, lukaszewski, & johnson, 2015; strohmeier, 2007). for more than four decades, organisations have implemented e-hrm technology in the hope of achieving administrative and strategic benefits (marler & parry, 2016). unfortunately, e-hrm projects continue to report failures (martin & reddington, 2010; smale & heikkilä, 2009; tansley, newell, & williams, 2001) and achieve less than expected results (chapman & webster, 2003). despite the existence of recent reviews of e-hrm, bondarouk, parry and furtmueller (2017) state that we still lack a comprehensive understanding of factors affecting the consequences of e-hrm. bondarouk et al. (2017) found that technology, organisation and people affect the adoption of e-hrm. the resultant consequences of e-hrm relate to operational, relational and transformational processes (bondarouk et al., 2017). studies showed that hr professionals were unsuccessful in using technology to initiate and support strategic decisions (e.g. dery & wailes, 2005; marler & parry, 2016). human resource professionals primarily used e-hrm technology to simply support routine administrative hr tasks (ball, 2001; haines & lafleur, 2008; hussain, wallace, & cornelius, 2007). line managers reported contradictory results when using e-hrm (reddington & hyde, 2008). the potential of e-hrm was constrained by the complexities of people dynamics such as managing user acceptance when adapting new e-hrm systems (grant et al., 2009). the integration of hr technologies into organisational processes, such as recruitment and performance management and development, also failed to deliver on its promise of providing a positive solution for identifying the right human attributes with respect to diversity (kuhn & skuterud, 2000; mcmanus & ferguson, 2003; zusman & landis, 2002). generally, through globalisation, societies have been influenced by european and american cultures (ogihara & uchida, 2014) to accept technology integration into hr processes. these e-learnings range from providing training material to advanced content delivery (johnson & brown, 2017). sitzmann, kraiger, stewart and wisher (2006) found well-designed web-based training as effective as face-to-face training; however, designers must consider both student and instructor characteristics, communication, learner control and technology design (johnson & brown, 2017). conversely, training performance has been found to suffer when systems are complex and challenging to use (alavi, marakas, & yoo, 2002). a deeper understanding of human–computer interface design principles may enhance the effectiveness of e-learning (johnson et al., 2017), as students struggle to analyse complex data when delivered through mobile-learning (m-learning) (kaganer, giordano, brion, & tortoriello, 2013). it has been argued that the use of games in e-learning increases motivation and learning (salas, derouin, & littrell, 2005). other research suggests reduced satisfaction and engagement (foster, sheridan, irish, & frost, 2012). little focus has been placed on how technology design and human–computer interface issues affect hr outcomes (johnson et al., 2017). this has fuelled employee isolationism and led to transactional, rather than relational hr practices (stone et al., 2015). specifically, diversity management and new e-hrm approaches have taken a dehumanising turn (stebbins, 1989), leading to employees’ resistance (cummings & worley, 2005; senior & swailes, 2010), alienation and mistrust of e-hrm which has not been addressed adequately in current literature (francis, parkes, & reddington, 2014). the above outline of the research problem led to the formulation of the following research question: how can organisations optimise and enable diversity management through technological change, as opposed to remaining only a process-driven, functional and transactional technological implementation? the purpose of this article is to offer an answer to this question. the remainder of this article is structured as follows in order for it to achieve its aim. the next section contains the conceptual-theoretical framework against which the research was performed, followed by a report on the empirical investigation that was launched based on this framework. thereafter the findings and contribution are discussed. literature review as technology is integrated into the workplace and cultural diversity takes root as a global phenomenon, examining effective diversity management becomes imperative. organisations can benefit from appropriate implementation of diversity in the highly evolved technologically oriented workplace (zanoni, 2011) without becoming overly functionalistic (varey, wood-harper, & wood, 2002) or dehumanising individuals (stebbins, 1989). technology integration in human resource management (electronic human resource management) electronic-based hrm, labelled e-hrm (strohmeier, 2007), allows an entire business to be run from your computer or smartphone to support quick, data-driven decisions and performance management (marler & parry, 2016) – without face-to-face employee contact. according to bondarouk and ruël (2009), the term e-hrm covers all hr and technology integration mechanisms with the aim of creating value. electronic human resource management has been defined as a set of technology configurations that enable hrm activities through coordinating and controlling data, information and communication within and across organisational boundaries (marler & parry, 2016). technological changes to systems and processes are often undertaken from within an engineering or functionalist paradigm (varey et al., 2002). functionalist approaches are popular, widely accepted (samoilenko, 2008) and implemented with a fair amount of success (fitzgerald, 1997) as they promise consistent performance outcomes (patnayakuni, ruppel, & rai, 2006). however, functionalist approaches often fail or underperform (doherty & king, 2001; truex, baskerville, & travis, 2000; wynekoop & russo, 1995), and rigid adherence leads to dysfunctional technology application (chatterjee, sarker, & fuller, 2009). this paradigm often views technology as a substitute or replacement that questions (harmon, korn, light, & voida, 2016) and disrupts (horney, 2016) the status quo. as an emotional experience, this translates into a process of loss (kübler-ross, 1963). system success and failure is a direct consequence of the effectiveness of collaborative change management processes, which aim to mitigate the disruptive effects of system adoption (dwivedi et al., 2015). most often, this takes place in a complex business environment (bunker, levine, & woody, 2013). this highlights the importance of contextual understanding (dwivedi et al., 2015) as technology implementation involves more than just getting information technology artefacts to run (myers, 1994). within a change management context, blom (2015) builds on lewin’s (1951) three-step model, adding the importance of unfreezing, change and refreezing as a technical requirement but also as a people requirement. sherer, kohli and baron (2003) argue that technological success (and failure) is a direct consequence of the effectiveness of change management processes that mitigate the disruptive effects of technology implementation. effective change management is dependent on the identification of key issues that impede multiple and diverse organisational stakeholder engagement (sherer et al., 2003). technological implementation changes the way employees work and think, resulting in political changes, some people win and some lose (orlikowski & robey, 1991). digital technologies such as e-hrm often reflect adverse consequences for employees (spencer, 2017). integrating technology into hr has been influenced by stakeholder satisfaction and cost effectiveness (afiouni, karam, & el-hajj 2012; briscoe, schuler, & claus, 2009; reilly & williams 2003; stahl, mendenhall, & oddou, 2012). this presents challenges for hr transformation (stone & deadrick, 2015) such as reduced creativity and increased team diversity (egan, 2005), individual stress based on the concern for job loss (gowan, 2012) and lack of sufficient attention to individuals’ needs for dignity and life balance (cleveland, zinta, & cavanagh, 2015). in the context of the research performed, employees reported in the focus group sessions that they did not appreciate being treated like robots and numbers. in these sessions, employees said they felt disrespected, indignant and dehumanised. also, that employees did not take kindly to the transference of such a mechanistic culture driven by technology. the case study revealed that the top-performing group leaders were chosen to showcase the validity of this technological change initiative. the extent of e-hrm on a socio-emotional level in african contexts has not been researched. sykes (2015) laments the fact that despite progress in understanding the benefits of such integrated systems, little is known about support structures used to help employees’ cope with technology implementations. farndale, paauwe and hoeksema (2009) suggest that technology has the potential to create organisational change, but that such change must be enacted by managers and employees. we argue that the aim of e-hrm is to streamline processes which require people and technology to interact. as the socio-emotional impact of a faceless hr without relevant support structures is unclear and as e-hrm threatens individual and group freedom, it becomes difficult to realise this aim. globalisation and strategic human resource globalisation is an important construct even though there is no one recognised definition for globalisation (choo, halim, & keng-howe, 2010). the meaning differs depending on the doctrine (barnum & wolniansky, 1989). however, researchers agree that globalisation caused growing economic interdependence which affects individuals, business, industry and country (garrett, 2000; govindarajan & gupta, 2001; thoumrungroje & tansuhaj, 2004). human resource represents a key strategic resource (boudreau & ramstad, 1998) and hrm is critical to organisational success (barnes & adam, 2017). therefore, hr evolved into a strategic business partner (choo et al., 2010; garg & goel, 2016) with deliverable objectives (wan, kok, & ong, 2002). this has propelled hr in a new direction (stone & deadrick, 2015). european and american influence (ogihara & uchida, 2014) led to transactional, rather than relational hr practices (stone et al., 2015). today, the hr department must replace traditional hr practices for transformational practices to realise a tangible competitive advantage (lepak & snell, 1998; lepak, bartol, & erhardt, 2005). globalisation requires that organisations move away from outdated hr practices. however, it seems that hr has lost the way among transactional, relational, transformation and electronic paths. of concern though is that new practices could be potentially harmful while still not realising the ideal of streamlined processes. psychological reactance theory this technological change was heavily resisted. resistance largely contributed to project failure. although resistance to change is a recurring theme in the literature (e.g. cummings & worley, 2005; senior & swailes, 2010), organisations appear to be helpless in the face of rife resistance. fear and threat, whether elicited by anger or as a coping behaviour for fear (e.g. ivanov, pfau, & parker, 2009; lee & pfau, 1998; pfau et al., 2010), may heighten the desire to protect attitudes, especially if those attitudes are deemed important or relevant (miller & averbeck, in press). such a heightened state of motivation enhances resistance (miller et al., 2013). psychological reactance is an aversive affective reaction in response to rules and regulations that impinge on freedom and autonomy (brehm, 1966, 1972; brehm & brehm, 1981; wicklund, 1974). this reaction is common when individuals are forced to engage in specific behaviour. a perceived diminution in freedom ignites an emotional state, called psychological reactance which elicits behaviours that are intended to restore this autonomy (brehm, 1966, 1972; brehm & brehm, 1981; wicklund, 1974). reactance is experienced whenever a free behaviour is restricted (brehm, 1966, 1972; brehm & brehm, 1981; wicklund, 1974). dogmatic messages are perceived as threatening while less dogmatic messages result in less negative reactions (quick & stephenson, 2008). the physical characteristics of an environment can also provoke a form of reactance (levav & zhu, 2009). the motivation of reactance is to re-establish freedom. this motivation could be unconscious. reactance can provoke behaviours that oppose the rules or course of action that were imposed and encouraged (buller, borland, & burgoon, 1998). within this research, context, fear and anger as well as uncertainty largely contributed towards resistance. dogmatic communication aggravated resistance and fuelled the desire to re-establish perceived freedoms. diversity, inclusion and human resource theories in addition to the diversity definition given above, diversity also relates to social, psychological and demographic differences in background, income, marital status, religious beliefs, experiences, perspectives and status within the organisational hierarchy (e.g. cox, 1993; jackson & ruderman, 1996; loden, rosener, & rosener, 1991). diversity management is defined as initiatives that can increase commitments, interaction, performance and creativity by individuals (ivancevich & gilbert, 2000) as individuals feel included in the organisation (mor barak, 2015). for this article, diversity is defined as differences and similarities with respect to gender, race, ethnicity, psychological frame, culture and world view. human resource theories have been developed based on european american assumptions about the cultural values of homogeneous individuals in organisations (gelfand, erez, & aycan, 2007; stone & deadrick, 2015). gollner, andersen, gollner and webster (2015) emphasise the importance of assessing cultural dynamics when integrating technology. in the south african context, elements of individualism and collectivism are practiced by various cultural groups (van dyk & de kock, 2004) and are likely to have various economic effects (gorodnichenko & roland, 2011). given growing diversity in organisations, creating inclusive environments becomes important (nishii & rich, 2014). nishii (2013, p. 1754) states: ‘in inclusive environments, individuals of all backgrounds-not just members of historically powerful identity groups are fairly treated, valued for who they are, and included in core decision making’. according to mor barak and daya (2014): [a]n exclusionary workplace is based on the perception that all workers need to conform to pre-established organizational values and norms (determined by its ‘mainstream’), the inclusive workplace is based on a pluralistic value frame that respects all cultural perspectives represented among its employees. (pp. 393–394) inclusion involves equal opportunity for members of socially marginalised groups, thus allowing all to participate and contribute while providing opportunities and support for members of non-marginalised groups, permitting full engagement at all levels of the organisation as well as being authentically themselves. within this multinational and diverse organisation in south africa, utilising diversity markers such as gender, race, ethnicity, culture, religion, language and education could potentially exclude and divide, thereby resulting in detrimental economic outcomes. in an attempt to move away from such diversity markers, we turned to ecological and human niche theory. ecological and human niche theory general system’s theory (bertalanffy, 1973) influenced haeckel’s 1868 ecological theory (naess, 1989) which explains the interaction of organisms with the environment and their interdependencies. as touched on earlier, lewin (1951) took a psychological perspective, demonstrating that a person’s behaviour is the function of their interaction with the environment. bookchin (1980) sought a non-hierarchical society where human beings, without gender, race and class categorisation, could live interdependently without environmental domination. naess (1989) argued that the complexity and diversity of the ecosystem protects it from destruction. human niche theory unfolds the nature of interaction and adaptation of the organism and environment. it describes how organisations create social spaces, providing access to resources, determining the nature of the interaction between organisms and organisations and allowing for organisms’ adaptability as organisations change (putnam & archibald, 2016). palmer, coe and steadman (2016) included social in the human niche theory, addressing the evolution of organisms’ successive generations, in an environment built on the previous mental models, expanding the relationships and interactions, creating new homeostasis (palmer et al., 2016). human niche theory (laubscher, 2013) extends graves’s (1974) double-helix system which emphasises questions of existence and coping mechanisms. helix i represents internal (e.g. genetic make-up, inherited characteristics, tendencies and native intelligences) and external (the social and physical factors impinging on the individual or group that define the context in which choices are made) conditions of existence. helix ii represents coping methods, displayed as attitudes and behaviours in response to ‘why’ questions. laubscher (2013) believes that 65% of people in africa belong to a human niche which has the capacity to connect and form groups. identity is defined in the interrelatedness with each other and self is not identified as a separate entity, but in relation to the collective. such individuals will sacrifice the self for the group. here, the group is typically organised in a circular form. organisations are complex systems and technology, not integrated into the relevant collective system, further ads to the complexity. answering existentialistic questions with interrelated awareness (human niche theory) and realising the impact of environmental interaction (ecological theory) on behaviour may shed light on how technology may be utilised in hr systems to optimise workplace diversity. it seems that more ‘human sensitive’ hr systems are called for when technological expansion is required. being mindful of the psycho-social impact of technology in a diverse society, acknowledging the significance of multiple elements such as a diverse workforce and african cultural dynamics may improve technology integration when integrated into a coherent wholeness. this may also ring true for middle eastern, asian and american cultural dynamics; however, this case relates to south africa as part of the african continent. case study the backdrop of this case study was the motor manufacturing industry in south africa. initial cost justifications were performed in 2008, and again in 2009 and 2010. the project commenced in 2011, in a large, process-driven and authoritarian manufacturing company (n = 5256 employees) in south africa. this company had a diverse employment composition. employees embarked upon a total working time (twt) technological system implementation to enable the measurement and improvement of labour efficiency. the workforce comprised different genders, age groups, cultural groups and levels of education. at the onset of the project, man-hour-per-unit (mhu) was used as an efficiency measurement tool and based on an ideal situation, assuming that every employee spends 7.58 h working. such timing is unrealistic given nature breaks, training and medical station visits. utilising an inaccurate mhu resulted in incorrect labour allocations, which affected wages. a more accurate calculation was needed to ensure optimal labour allocation. this radical change initiative and standard implementation would enable management to have real-time data available for decision-making at the touch of a button. the data would account for every minute of the employee’s time spent while in the production facility. such data would assist agile decision-making in the global arena. the project did not consider and account for the sensitive nature of the data, the impact on the human psyche when under constant observation and the possible implication when the take-home-wage is affected. the change initiative involved four manufacturing plants and required change from the lowest levels of employees to senior managers and impacted five hierarchical levels. a further three upper hierarchical levels would utilise the collected data for strategic planning, human resource decisions, pay allocation, costing and supply chain decisions. to illustrate, a senior manager would have numerous reporting section managers. group leaders would report to one section manager. group leaders are responsible for several team leaders who, in turn, are responsible for various team members. team member, team leader and group leader activities would be monitored to determine time spent away from the production line. this data would then be utilised for high-level decision-making such as (1) hourly pay, (2) parts costs and (3) number of labourers required in each production process. to realise this technological change implementation, the objectives were: (1) exposing and quantifying inefficiencies that effect actual twt, (2) designing a system to capture and track actual twt across all plants, (3) achieving optimal labour allocation through a true mhu calculation and (4) determining the average time per part assembly. this change would completely alter working data factors. the successful deployment, implementation and daily use of this new system would thus depend on the co-operation of the diverse workforce. breaking down the project-specific male or female demographics indicates a dominant male profile (85%) which is true in most manufacturing plants in south africa. structurally, team members report to team leaders and team leaders, in turn, report to group leaders. the group leaders affected were n = 224. these group leaders were shadowed by their international counterparts. this meant that, on a daily basis, group leaders were followed, observed, taught and monitored throughout the production process by a foreigner. their international counterparts all spoke a different language and constituted a homogenous group. this technological change required daily capturing by group leaders. the amount of time spent by every team leader and team member had to be captured. the amount of time spent was to be indicated as absent, early out, late in, quality, training and/or time spent in the medical facility. initial investigation indicated that less than half of the group leaders had previous experience in and training on using a personal computer. thus, group leader computer training was added to the project plan and resulted in a secondary project. a top-down communication approach was followed which filtered information through the many hierarchical levels. time and attendance, absenteeism, leave and general work methods are governed through this hierarchy. similarly, punitive action because of non-compliance is meted out through this hierarchy. given the large number of employees involved, the communication function resided with the general manager of each production area. the top-down line of communication followed the organisational hierarchy from general manager to senior manager, from section managers to group leaders and from team leaders to team members. ensuring correct communication through such a long line of communication proved challenging. many employees felt that information was shared on a need-to-know basis. rumours were common and employees on the production line became withdrawn, quiet, inhibited and unresponsive. research design research aim the aim of the investigation was to explore how and to what extent technological change was implemented in a diverse, multicultural organisation. research design, strategy and method the research was qualitative, utilising an exploratory case study design and content analysis. data collection was performed through in-depth semi-structured interviews, focus group sessions, solicited company data, field notes and observations. the in-depth semi-structured interviews aimed to understand the concept of technological change as viewed by senior management. the focus groups explored the impact of technological change on employee performance. minutes and project work documents were utilised to contextualise transactional work processes and the impact thereof on work performance. observations in the workplace of employees’ behaviours and activities provided understanding of employee engagement (or not), productivity, attitude and work behaviour in relation to the technological change. data collection eight in-depth semi-structured interviews were led with senior managers. each of the four focus group sessions comprised seven employees from middle and senior management. four focus group sessions were led. participants were selected based on the relevance of their involvement in the technological change project. therefore, all participants were directly involved in the execution of strategic change initiatives. theoretical sampling was employed to identify subsequent participants and to add sources as the research progressed. the in-depth semi-structured interviews lasted between 60 and 90 min and were recorded. the researcher took notes during the interviews, jotting down prominent issues, subjects and areas of focus. the interviews were transcribed within 5 days of the interview. a memo was written subsequent to each interview. if required, a follow-up meeting with the participant was arranged to ensure correctness and to clarify any items which required further elaboration. focus group sessions were conducted utilising a semi-structured discussion format. questions were asked and participants were free to engage (or not) with other group members. the focus group sessions mixed participants from various departments. the focus group sessions lasted between 50 minutes and 60 minutes and were recorded. these sessions were transcribed within 5 days. a memo on the prominent issues and focus areas was written subsequent to each focus group session. if required, a follow-up meeting was arranged to ensure correctness and to clarify any items which required further elaboration. data analysis comparative content analysis (neuendorf, 2002) was used to systematically analyse the data transcriptions. concepts related to the research question were identified. a classification scheme was developed from the concepts to produce categories. an example of categories is displayed in table 1, indicating the contributing participant against concepts such as inclusivity, participation, resistance, stress and disempowerment. relational maps were drawn to assist with linkages between concepts. an example of such a map is displayed in figure 1. figure 1: relational map example. table 1: summary of categories (example). the classification scheme was continually compared and reworked (berg, 1998) through continued, line-by-line searches for similar and distinct concepts. emerging patterns were reviewed to confirm understanding based on the results (patton, 2015). concepts were developed into themes and sub-themes which were linked to theory. the research attempted not to simplify what was observed. special efforts were made to recognise the multifaceted dimensions relating to technological change and diversity. the multiple sources of data gathering illuminated the research from different angles. quality data were ensured through trustworthiness dependability, confirmability, replicability and transferability ethical considerations ethical clearance and approval to perform research was obtained from the school of business leaders, university of south africa. all participants gave informed consent. confidentiality and anonymity were ensured. prior to the focus group sessions, the names of participants were shared with other participants. this was performed to ensure that all parties were comfortable to share in the focus group sessions. it was repeatedly stated that participation was voluntary and withdrawal from the process was possible at any time. findings technology integration the findings confirmed that e-hrm was implemented in this particular organisation to streamline hrm processes in order to improve competitiveness. also, that e-hrm will probably not be implemented successfully if people and technology fail to interact with each other. this case confirmed the findings of varey et al. (2002) who stated that technology changes are often undertaken from within an engineering or functionalist paradigm. further, that such an approach is primarily undertaken to ensure consistent performance outcomes. also that such a functionalist paradigm more often than not fails or underperforms and that rigid adherence to functional principles leads to dysfunctional technology application. typical responses towards this technological implementation were: ‘profits are more important than people.’ (f1.1, female, middle manager) ‘organisations are firstly concerned about profits.’ (f1.2, male, middle manager) ‘the aim of change is to improve profit.’ (f2.3, female, senior manager) globalisation the role of hrm in contemporary competitive industry is critical to organisational success and the belief that an organisation’s human capital represents a key strategic resource is accepted. also, that hr has evolved to a strategic business partner. however, from an employee’s perspective, the following was said: ‘no process regarding the impact of business change.’ (p1, male, ceo [chief executive officer]) ‘strategy does not encompass change.’ (p1, male, ceo) ‘strategic plans on change are non-existent.’ (p4, female, snr management) ‘senior staff [have] no strategic plans for change.’ (p5, male, ceo) ‘there is no strategy for change.’ (p1, male, ceo) ‘strategy should encompass change, but it does not.’ (p1, male, ceo) ‘the future of the organisation is in the hands of the employees.’ (p1, male, ceo) ‘empowerment is not understood.’ (p17, male, snr management) ‘we must empower people during change. we don’t.’ (p17, male, snr management) regarding hr and the role of hr in change, the following summarises typical responses: ‘there is no planning for change and everybody think[s] they are change managers.’ (p17, male, snr [senior] management) ‘no change knowledge can cause harm.’ (f1.1, female, middle management) ‘managers don’t have change knowledge which makes change worse.’ (f1.4, female, middle management) ‘… ashamed of what change managers do.’ (f2.5, male, middle management) ‘not everybody in hr can do change. hr often does not help change.’ (f1.3, female, middle management) psychological reactance theory employees who were integral to the project’s success heavily resisted this project. the technological implementation threatened the freedom of employees who were responsible for data capturing. as such, employees refused to capture data as they felt watched. the traumatic nature of the project resulted in employees’ feeling uncertain, disempowered and fearful. reactance was experienced whenever a free behaviour was restricted or monitored. as rigidity increased, the perceived threat increased, resulting in serious resistance. employee reactions confirmed the above: ‘no buy-in will result in resistance.’ (p17, male, snr management) ‘different messages create fear. uncertainty creates fear.’ (f1.1, female, middle management) ‘stress plays a huge role.’ (f4.1, female, middle management) ‘employees operate from a fear perspective.’ (f3.2, male, middle management) ‘employees’ first reaction to change is fear. their second reaction is scepticism. is this change really required?’ (f3.5, male, middle management) ‘management must convince people to participate in change and potentially lose their job. change impacts on the individual.’ (f2.2, male, middle management) responses illustrated how fear, anger and anxiety harmed employees: ‘people who trust your leadership might lose their jobs.’ (f3.2, male, management) ‘change is very traumatic.’ (f4.5, female, middle management) ‘all should benefit through the change. this does not always happen.’ (f3.2, male, middle management) ‘employees must be involved’. ‘involvement improves acceptance.’ (f2.4, male, middle management) ‘involvement makes implementation easier. involvement improves buy-in. involvement means change.’ (f2.4, male, middle management) ‘poor communication worsened my resistance.’ (f1.1, female, middle management) ‘i felt helpless because nobody explained the change’. ‘… [i] resisted as a result of a loss of autonomy.’ (f4.2, male, middle management) ‘i resisted because i did not understand why’. ‘… resistant to the process.’ (f1.1, female, middle management) ‘my change attitude was negative.’ (f4.5, female, middle management) ‘i resisted because of past experiences.’ (f3.6, female, middle management) ‘i felt sceptic[al].’ (p20, male, senior regional management) ‘reduced autonomy resulted in negativity.’ (p4, female, senior management) ‘reduced autonomy results in change failure.’ (p4, female, senior management) ‘change reduces autonomy.’ (p4, female, senior management) ‘no involvement, no participation.’ (f2.1, male, middle management) ‘disempowerment’. ‘reduced autonomy.’ (f3.4, male, middle management) ‘… [i] don’t know your employees. i don’t know their circumstances, but then i expect them to follow me.’ (p1, male, ceo) the responses of resisting employees could be summarised as: ‘people don’t know where they are expected to go. that’s why they resist.’ (f1.1, female, middle management) ‘people are apprehensive and careful.’ (p20, male, senior regional management) ‘people don’t’ want to go to the uncertain. they rather stay with what they know.’ (f4.6, male, middle management) diversity the research outcomes revealed that older employees (elders) in the collective workgroups determine who does what (roles and responsibilities). this is contrary to organisational practice where work roles are determined by job descriptions. the elders perceived new technology as threatening to individuals and teams, and as extreme ‘super’-vision. different thinking processes were also at play during the implementation of this change. this technological change superseded diversity markers such as race, ethnicity and gender as different groups (management vs employees) displayed different ways of thinking about the change. management perceived the change as: ‘change preparation is important. it is important to show people what the change looks like, but we don’t do it.’ (p20, male, senior regional management) ‘organisations see where they are going to and then see if the change has what is needed. if not, further change is introduced.’ (p1, male, ceo) ‘mechanistic planning happens to an extent.’ (p1, male, ceo) ‘change is inevitable.’ (f4.1, female, middle management) ‘positive change, the organisation will thrive. negative change, the organisation will die.’ (p1, male, ceo) ‘change will happen.’ (p1, male, ceo) employees perceived the change as: ‘change is done roughly.’ (f1.1, female, middle management) ‘deadlines are always missed’. ‘there is no planning.’ (f4.1, female, middle management) ‘lack of planning.’ (f4.1, female, middle management) ‘no schedule for changes.’ (f4.1, female, middle management) ‘poor planning.’ (f4.2, male, middle management) ‘there is no change preparation.’ (f4.2, male, middle management) ‘sometimes there is a plan, but the plan is never shared.’ (f4.3, male, middle management) ‘the organisation is mostly reactive to change.’ (f4.3, male, middle management) ‘change was all over the show.’ (f4.1, female, middle management) ‘change was very messy.’ (f4.1, female, middle management) ‘excluded.’ (f4.3, male, middle management) ‘no one understands why.’ (f4.3, male, middle management) ‘things are just done.’ (f4.1, female, middle management) ‘management does not handle stress correctly.’ (f4.1, female, middle management) ‘change is about empires, power games and then spending a lot of money on damage control in the end. it demotivates me.’ (f4.1, female, middle management) ‘i felt demotivated and disempowered.’ (f4.2, male, middle management) ‘i was not empowered to deal with the change.’ (p4, female, senior management) ‘i was uninvolved.’ (p4, female, senior management) ‘i would have followed if i understood.’ (f3.5, male, middle management) ‘i have my way of thinking, but i did not understand the changes.’ (f3.5, male, middle management) ecological and human niche theory the case revealed the importance and impact of environmental interaction. compliant employees became highly resistant as their interaction with the environment was challenged by technology. the power of the hierarchical system (both formal and informal) was also displayed: ‘communication is very difficult in a structured environment.’ (p4, female, senior management) ‘middle management is a big obstacle to change.’ (p5, male, ceo) ‘middle management obstructs change.’ (p5, male, ceo) ‘… implements non-workable solutions.’ (f4.1, female, middle management) ‘management’s … narrow view … instant gratification and power games … creates disaster.’ (f4.1, female, middle management) the case also illustrated the relevance of human niche theory in a diverse setting. native intelligences (via elders or informal structures) overruled management decisions. the social and physical factors determined how the group would oppose choices, thereby ensuring failure of the project. further, as the group perceived to be threatened, an innate capacity to connect was exposed. identity was sacrificed and vested back into the group – for cohesion, defence and protection. management was placed into an opposing corner. from these divergent views, finding commonality becomes extremely difficult. the following verbatim responses were made towards management: ‘… understand what motivates people.’ (p13, male, senior regional manager) ‘management must show the end picture.’ (p13, male, senior regional manager) ‘management must know their employees.’ (p1, male, ceo) ‘management is not aware of people.’ (p1, male, ceo) ‘management empowers the wrong people’. (f2.3, female, middle management) despite the fact that the organisation has an employee assistance programme, the following responses indicate a severe lack of support. ‘nobody cares about people’s personal stress.’ (f2.3, female, middle management) ‘i felt stressed because of the uncertainty.’ (f2.3, female, middle management) ‘there was no help available.’ (f1.1, female, middle management) ‘the organisation does not know how to handle employee stress levels.’ (f1.1, female, middle management) ‘organisations do not handle stress correctly, not even in stable times. more so during change.’ (f2.4, male, middle management) ‘organisations pay lip service to stress.’ (f1.11, female, middle management) ‘… damage to people.’ (f2.3, female, middle management) ‘i don’t want to come to work ….’ (f2.3, female, middle management) discussion outline of results our research revealed a multiple-level disconnect between e-hrm, organisation and employees (individuals and groups) because of mechanistic technology implementation. we characterised this disconnect as ‘negative psycho-socio emotions’ in play during the process of technological change implementation. such disconnect increased feelings of stress, fear and anxiety, limiting individuals from fully engaging with the organisation. furthermore, this disconnect seemed to be perpetuated by neglecting human diversity when implementing e-hrm to optimise business efficiency. this project was the antithesis of how change should be done given the drastic conversion in work methods. it can be equated to subjecting employees to constant surveillance, as if they are ‘tracked by a device’. this severely infringes on personal privacy. no change management process was followed as change management was not viewed as important by the developing and implementation team, which is typical in mechanistic technology project implementation. three years after commencement, the project was still not active and could therefore be classified as an attempted technological change that failed based on time, cost, quality and beneficial change delivery. this project resulted in a lose-lose situation, in reduced creativity and increased individual stress. given the lack of change management process, the disruptive effects of technology implementation could not be mitigated. the rigid adherence of a functionalist paradigm with overly functionalistic approaches resulted in human reactance and dysfunctional technology implication. an awareness of some of the discussed aspects could have assisted the organisation in harnessing key strategic resources, relational practices and increased competitive advance. practical implications theoretically, it seems as if we know exactly what to do and even how to do it, but are just not doing it. by utilising human niche theory, which respects diversity of people, success could have been achieved. instead of assuming technology as an efficiency mechanism in all contexts and that people will just be able to perform through ‘plug and play’, much has to be understood about change implementation in general and technological change in particular in diverse cultural groupings. within an african context, application of human niche theory should have guided a more participative approach from the onset. influential (elder) employees could have been involved as pivotal role players as opposed to employees with hierarchical or positional power. circular discussion groups with such elders and employees, through a participative approach, could give opportunity to lower level employees to be part of the narrative. this narrative could have been shared through storytelling and/or an organisational theatre to ensure wider understanding of the objectives which would have resulted in increased employee buy-in. more time should have been spent to train leaders to become e-literate and not assume that everybody knows technology. a more humanistic approach, inclusive of understanding human niche theory as opposed to purely transactional approaches for capital gain, is pledged when technological change is initiated. inadvertently, such an approach will be multidimensional. of course, this implies that organisational leaders know and understand their employees’ diversity. this could create a platform for inclusion, as well as increased meaning and value for individuals and organisations. this case study illustrated how technology in e-hrm fuels employee isolationism and hampers managing diversity. as employee isolationism increases, employees increasingly feel under threat, reducing productivity. as top-down communication through the hierarchical structure struggles to enable participation, feelings of isolation increase. this can easily become a vicious cycle, furthering employee isolationism and further reducing the potential benefits of diversity. given the potential negative impact, future research is required into the effects of technology utilisation on diversity management in diverse cultural settings. conclusion our findings provide insight into the surprisingly unintended consequences of diversity and how it affects e-hrm implementation. we also indicated how e-hrm systems can lead to enhanced relational breakdown in a developing country context. technology should be integrated in managing diversity, as a mechanism of streamlining the e-hrm system and not just focused on operational efficiencies in the 21st century. such a complimentary approach will enable strategic e-hrm to create value for people and the organisation. if technology is implemented without sensitivity to human diversity, it could result in maladaptive socio-emotional responses and deviations, causing social withdrawal, damage and isolation that diminish the intent of managing diversity. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions t.b. was the primary researcher. y.d.p. and h.k. assisted with data analysis and interpretation. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references afiouni, f., karam, c. m., & el-hajj, h. (2012). the hr value proposition model in the arab middle east: identifying the contours of an arab middle eastern hr model. the international journal of human resource management, 24(10), 1895–1932. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.722559 alavi, m., marakas, g. m., & yoo, y. (2002). a comparative study of distributed learning environments on learning outcomes. information systems research, 13(4), 404–415. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.13.4.404.72 ball, k. s. (2001). the use of human resource information systems: a survey. personnel review, 30, 677–693. https://doi.org/10.1108/eum0000000005979 barnes, e., & adam, c. (2017). the importance of human resources in a globalised economy: a conceptual framework. canadian journal of applied science and technology, 5(2), 134–142. barnum, c., & wolniansky, n. (1989). globalization: moving a step beyond the international firm. management review, 78(1), 30–34. beck, d. e., & cowan, c. c. (1996). spiral dynamics: mastering values, leadership and change. oxford: blackwell publishers. berg, b. (1998). content analysis. in b. berg (ed.), qualitative research methods for the social sciences (pp. 233–252). boston, ma: allyn & bacon. bertalanffy, l. v. (1973). general system theory: foundations, development, applications (rev. edn.). new york: g. braziller. blom, t. (2015). fusing organisational change and leadership into a practical roadmap for south-african organisations, unpublished doctoral thesis, unisa graduate school of business leadership. midrand. bondarouk, t., parry, e., & furtmueller, e. (2017). electronic hrm: four decades of research on adoption and consequences. the international journal of human resource management, 28(1), 98–131. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1245672 bondarouk, t. v., & ruël, h. j. m. (2009). electronic human resource management: challenges in the digital era. the international journal of human resource management, 20(3), 505–514. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190802707235 bookchin, m. (1980). toward an ecological society. montreal: black rose. boudreau, j. w., & ramstad, p. m. (1998). human resource metrics: can measures be strategic? working paper (pp. 98–10). ithaca, ny: cahrs/cornell university. brehm, j. w. (1966). a theory of psychological reactance. new york: academic press. brehm, j. w. (1972). responses to loss of freedom: a theory of psychological reactance. morristown, nj: general learning press. brehm, j. w., & brehm, s. s. (1981). psychological reactance: a theory of freedom and control. san diego, ca: academic press. briscoe, d. r., schuler, r. s., & claus, l. (2009). international human resource management: policies and practices for multinational enterprises (3rd edn.). london: routledge. buller, d. b., borland, r., & burgoon, m. (1998). impact of behavioural intention on effectiveness of message features: evidence from the family sun safety project. human communication research, 24, 433–453. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.1998.tb00424.x bunker, d., levine, l., & woody, c. (2013). repertoires of collaboration for disaster management: negotiating emergent and dynamic systems success. in proceedings of grand successes and failures in it ifip wg8.6 working conference bangalore, india, 27–29 june. chapman, d. s., & webster, j. (2003). the use of technologies in the recruiting, screening, and selection processes for job candidates. international journal of selection and assessment, 11(2–3), 113–120. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00234 chatterjee, s., sarker, s., & fuller, m. (2009). ethical information systems development: a baumanian postmodernist perspective. journal of the association for information systems, 10(11), article 3. https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00214 choo, s. s., halim, h., & keng-howe, i. c. (2010). the impact of globalisation on strategic human resources management: the mediating role of ceo in hr. international journal of business studies, 18(1), 101–124. cleveland, j. n., zinta, s. b., & cavanagh, t. (2015). the future of hr is rh: respect for humanity at work. human resource management review, 25(2), 146–161. https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00214 cox, t. h. (1993). cultural diversity in organization: theory, research and practice. san francisco, ca: berrett-koehler. cummings, t. g., &worley, c. g. (2005). organisation development and change. mason, oh: thomson. deloitte. (2014). deloitte report – global human capital trends 2014: engaging the 21st century workforce. a report by deloitte consulting llp and bersin by deloitte, deloitte university press, deloitte touche tohmatsu limited, retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/ar/documents/human-capital/arg_hc_global-human-capital-trends-2014_09062014%20(1).pdf dery, k., & wailes, n. (2005). necessary but not sufficient: erps and strategic hrm. strategic change, 14(5), 265–272. https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00214 doherty, n. f., & king, m. (2001). an investigation of the factors affecting the successful treatment of organisational issues in systems development projects. european journal of information systems, 10(3), 147–160. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000401 d’netto, b., smith, d., da-gama-pinto, c. d. g., & australia department of immigration and multicultural affairs (dima). (2000). diversity management: benefits, challenges and strategies. nsw: department of immigration and multicultural affairs. new south whales. dwivedi, y., wastell, d., laumer, s., henriksen, h., myers, m., bunker, d., … srivastava, s. (2015). database: applied science & technology source. information systems frontiers, 17(1), 143–157. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-014-9500-y egan, t. m. (2005). creativity in the context of team diversity: team leader perspectives. advances in developing human resources, 7(2), 207–225. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422305274526 farndale, e., paauwe, j., & hoeksema, l. (2009). in-sourcing hr: shared service centres in the netherlands. the international journal of human resource management, 20(3), 544–561. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190802707300 fitzgerald, b. (1997). the use of systems development methodologies in practice: a field study. information systems journal, 7(3), 201–212. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190802707300 foster, j. a., sheridan, p. k., irish, r., & frost, g. s. (2012). gamification as a strategy for promoting deeper investigation in a reverse engineering activity. paper presented at the 2012 american society for engineering education conference, university of toronto, toronto, 10 june 2012. francis, h., parkes, c., & reddington, m. (2014). e-hr and international hrm: a critical perspective on the discursive framing of e-hr. international journal of human resource management, 25(10), 1327–1350. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.870309 garg, p., & goel, a. (2016). emerging issues of human resource management in global context. jagran journal of commerce and economics, 3(5), 36–42. garrett, g. (2000). the causes of globalization. comparative political studies, 33, 941–991. gelfand, m. j., erez, m., & aycan, z. (2007). cross-cultural organizational behavior. annual review of psychology, 58(1), 479–514. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085559 gollner, j., andersen, r, gollner, k., & webster, t. (2015). a study of the usefulness of deploying a questionnaire to identify cultural dynamics potentially affecting a content-management project. ieee transactions on professional communication, 58(3), 289–308. https://doi.org/10.1109/tpc.2016.2516638 gorodnichenko, y., & roland, g. (2011). which dimensions of culture matter for long-run growth? american economic review papers and proceedings, 101(3), 492–498. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.101.3.492 govindarajan, v., & gupta, a. k. (2001). the quest for global dominance. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. gowan, m. a. (2012). employability, well-being, and job satisfaction following a job loss. journal of managerial psychology, 27(8), 780–798. https://doi.org/10.1109/tpc.2016.2516638 grant, d., dery, k., hall, r., wailes, n., & wiblen, s. (2009, july). human resource information systems (hris): an unrealized potential. paper presented at the chartered institute of personnel and development, 2009, nottingham. retrieved from http://www.ilera-directory.org/15thworldcongress/files/papers/track_1/wed_w3_dery.pdf graves, c. w. (1974, april). human nature prepares for a momentous leap, the futurist, pp. 72–87. gueutal, h. g., & stone, d. l. (2005). the brave new world of ehr: human resource management in the digital age. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. haines, v. y., & lafleur, g. (2008). information technology usage and human resource roles and effectiveness. human resource management, 47(3), 525–540. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20230 harmon, e., korn, m., light, a., & voida, a. (2016). designing against the status quo. dis 2016 companion, june 4 – 8: 65 – 68. proceedings of the 2016 acm conference companion publication on designing interactive systems, brisbane, qld, australia. https://doi.org/10.1145/2908805.2913020 horney, n. (2016). the gig economy: a disruptor requiring hr agility. people + strategy: the professional journal of hr people and strategy, 39(3), 20–27. hussain, z., wallace, j., & cornelius, n. e. (2007). the use and impact of human resource information systems on human resource management professionals. information and management, 44, 74–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2006.10.006 ivancevich, j. m., & gilbert, j. a. (2000). diversity management: time for a new approach. public personnel management, 29(1), 75–92. https://doi.org/10.1177/009102600002900106 ivanov, b., pfau, m., & parker, k. (2009). the attitude base as a moderator of the effectiveness of inoculation strategy. communication monographs, 76(1), 47–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637750802682471 jackson, s. e., & ruderman, m. n. (1996). diversity in work teams: research paradigms for a changing workplace. washington, dc: american psychological association. johnson, r. d., & brown, k. g. (2017). e-learning. in g. hertel, d. stone, r. d. johnson, & j. passmore (eds.), the wiley-blackwell handbook of the psychology of the internet at work (pp. 369–400). chichester: wiley blackwell. johnson, r. d., lukaszewski, k. m., & stone, d. l. (2017). the importance of the interface between humans and computers on the effectiveness of ehrm. transactions on human computer interaction, 9(1), 23–33. https://doi.org/10.17705/1thci.00087 kaganer, e., giordano, g. a., brion, s., & tortoriello, m. (2013). media tablets for mobile learning. communications of the acm, 56(11), 68–75. https://doi.org/10.1145/2500494 kavanagh, m. j., thite, m., & johnson, r. d. (2015). human resource information systems: basics, applications, and future directions (3rd edn.) thousand oaks, ca: sage. kübler-ross, e. (1963). on death and dying. new york: macmillan. kuhn, p., & skuterud, m. (2000). job search methods: internet versus traditional. monthly labor review, 123(10), 3–11. laubscher, l. (2013). human niches – spiral dynamics for africa, unpublished doctoral thesis, the da vinci institute for technology management, johannesburg. lee, w., & pfau, m. (1998). the effectiveness of cognitive and affective inoculation appeals in conferring resistance against cognitive and affective attacks. paper presented at the annual conference of the international communication association, jerusalem, israel. lepak, d. p., & snell, s. a. (1998). virtual hr: strategic human resource management in the 21st century. human resource management review, 8(3), 215–234. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(98)90003-1 lepak, d. p., bartol, k. m., & erhardt, n. l. (2005). a contingency framework for the delivery of hr practices. human resource management review, 15(2), 139–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2005.06.001 levav, j., & zhu, r. (2009). seeking freedom though variety. journal of consumer research, 36(4), 600–610. https://doi.org/10.1086/599556 lewin, k. (1951). defining the field at a given time. in d. cartwright (ed.), field theory in social science (pp. 1–520). new york: harper & brothers. loden, m., rosener, j. b., & rosener, j. (1991). workforce america! managing diversity as a vital resource. homewood, il: irwin/ mcgraw hill. marler, j., & parry, e. (2016). human resource management, strategic involvement and e-hrm technology. the international journal of human resource management, 27(19), 2233–2253. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1091980 martin, g., & reddington, m. (2010). theorising the links between e-hr and strategic hrm: a model, case illustration and reflections. the international journal of human resource management, 21(5), 1553–1574. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2010.500483 mcmanus, m. a., & ferguson, m. w. (2003). biodata, personality, and demographic differences of recruits from threes sources. international journal of selection and assessment, 11(2–3), 175–183. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00241 miller, c. h., & averbeck, j. m. (in press). hedonic relevance and outcome relevant involvement. electronic journal of communication, 23(3). miller, c. h., ivanov, b., sims, j., compton, j., harrison, k. j., parker, k. a., … averbeck, j. m. (2013). boosting the potency of resistance: combining the motivational forces of inoculation and psychological reactance. human communication research, 39(1), 127–155. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2012.01438.x mor barak, m. e. (2015). inclusion is the key to diversity management, but what is inclusion? human service organizations: management, leadership & governance, 39(2), 83–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/23303131.2015.1035599 mor barak, m. e., & daya, p. (2014). fostering inclusion from the inside out to create an inclusive workplace. in b. m. ferdman & b. r. deane (eds.), diversity at work: the practice of inclusion (pp. 391–412). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. myers, m. d. (1994). a disaster for everyone to see: an interpretive analysis of a failed is project. accounting, management and information technologies, 4(4), 185–201. https://doi.org/10.1016/0959-8022(94)90022-1 naess, a. (1989). ecology, community and lifestyle: outline of an ecosophy. translated by david rothenberg. cambridge: cambridge university press. neuendorf, k. (2002). the content analysis guidebook. thousand oaks, ca: sage. nishii, l. h. (2013). the benefits of climate for inclusion for gender-diverse groups. academy of management journal, 56(6), 1754–1774. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2009.0823 nishii, l. h., & rich, r. e. (2014). creating inclusive climates in diverse organizations. in b. m. ferdman & b. r. deane (eds.), diversity at work: the practice of inclusion (pp. 205–228). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. ogihara, y., & uchida, y. (2014). does individualism bring happiness? negative effects of individualism on interpersonal relationships and happiness. frontiers in psychology, 5(135), 1–8. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00135 orlikowski, w. j., & robey, d. (1991). information technology and the structuring of organizations. information systems research, 2(2), 143–169. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2.2.143 palmer, c. t., coe, k., & steadman, l. b. (2016). reconceptualizing the human social niche: how it came to exist and how it is changing. current anthropology, 3, 181. https://doi.org/10.1086/685703 patnayakuni, r. ruppel, c. p., & rai, a. (2006). managing the complementarity of knowledge integration and process formalization for systems development performance. journal of the association for information systems, 7(8), 545–567. https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00097 patton, m. q. (2015). qualitative research & evaluation methods: integrating theory and practice (4th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. pfau, m., banas, j., semmler, s. m., deatrick, l., lane, l., mason, a., … underhill, j. (2010). role and impact of involvement and enhanced threat in resistance. communication quarterly, 58(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/01463370903520307 putnam, r. c., & archibald, m. (2016). specialization and the survival of self-help organizations. sociological forum, 31(1), 72. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12227 quick, b. l., & stephenson, m. t. (2008). examining the role of trait reactance and sensation seeking on perceived threat, state reactance, and reactance restoration. human communication research, 34, 448–476. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2008.00328.x reddington, m., & hyde, c. (2008). the impact of e-hr on line managers and employees in the uk: benefits, problems, and prospects. in m. g. reddington & h. alexander (eds.), technology, outsourcing and transforming hr: potentials, problems, and guidance for practitioners (pp. 35–59). oxford: butterworth-heinemann/elsevier. reilly, p., & williams, t. (2003). how to get best value from hr: the shared services option. gower: aldershot. salas, e., derouin, r., & littrell, l. (2005). research based guidelines for distance learning: what we know so far. in h. g. gueutal & d. l. stone (eds.), the brave new world of ehr: human resources management in the digital age (pp. 104–137). san francisco, ca: jossey bass. samoilenko, s. (2008). information systems fitness and risk in is development: insights and implications from chaos and complex systems theories. information systems frontiers, 10(3), 281–292. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-008-9078-3 senior, b., & swailes, s. (2010). organisational change. harlow: pearson education. sherer, s., kohli, r., & baron, a. (2003). complementary investment in change management and it investment payoff. information systems frontiers, 5(3), 321–333. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1025609613076 sitzmann, t., kraiger, k., stewart, d., & wisher, r. (2006). the comparative effectiveness of web-based and classroom instruction: a meta-analysis. personnel psychology, 59(3), 623–664. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2006.00049.x smale, a., & heikkilä, j. p. (2009). it-based integration of hrm in a foreign mnc subsidiary: a micro-political perspective. in t. bondarouk, h. ruel, k. guiderdoni-jourdain, & e. oiry (eds.), handbook of research on e-transformation and human resources management technologies: organizational outcomes and challenges, (pp. 153–170). hershey, pa: igi global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60566-304-3.ch009 spencer, d. (2017). work in and beyond the second machine age: the politics of production and digital technologies. work, employment and society, 31(1), 142–152. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017016645716 stahl, g., mendenhall, m. e., & oddou, g. r. (2012). readings and cases in international human resource management and organizational behavior (5th edn.). london: routledge. stebbins, m. w. (1989). downsizing with ‘mafia model’ consultants. business forum, 45, 45–47. stone, d. l., & deadrick, d. l. (2015). challenges and opportunities affecting the future of human resource management. human resource management review, 25(2), 139–145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.01.003 stone, d. l., deadrick, d. l., lukaszewski, k. m., & johnson, r. (2015). the influence of technology on the future of human resource management. human resource management review, 25(2), 216–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.01.002 strohmeier, s. (2007). research in e-hrm: review and implications. human resource management review, 17, 19–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2006.11.002 sykes, t. a. (2015). support structures and their impacts on employee outcomes: a longitudinal field study of an enterprise system implementation. mis quarterly, 39(2), 473–495. https://doi.org/10.25300/misq/2015/39.2.09 tansley, c., newell, s., & williams, h. (2001). effecting hrm-style practices through an integrated human resource information system. personnel review, 30(3), 351–371. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480110385870 thoumrungroje, p., & tansuhaj, p. (2004). globalization effects, co-marketing alliances and performance. journal of american academy of business, cambridge, 5(1/2), 495–502. truex, d., baskerville, r., & travis, j. (2000). amethodical systems development: the deferred meaning of systems development methods. accounting, management and information technologies, 10(1), 53–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0959-8022(99)00009-0 van dyk, g., & de kock, f. (2004). the relevance of the individualism – collectivism (ic) factor for the management of diversity in the south african national defence force. sa journal of industrial psychology, 30(2), 90–95. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v30i2.15 varey, r. j., wood-harper, t., & wood, b. (2002). a theoretical review of management and information systems using a critical communications theory. journal of information technology (routledge, ltd.), 17, 229–239. https://doi.org/10.1080/0268396022000017725 wan, d., kok, v., & ong, c. h. (2002). strategic human resource management and organizational performance in singapore. sage publication, 34, 33–42. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886368702034004006 wicklund, r. a. (1974). freedom and reactance. potomac, md: lawrence erlbaum. wynekoop, j. l., & russo, n. l. (1995). systems development methodologies: unanswered questions. journal of information technology, 10(2), 65–73. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886368702034004006 zanoni, p. (2011). diversity in the lean automobile factory: doing class through gender, disability and age. organization, 18(1), 105–127. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508410378216 zusman, r. r., & landis, r. s. (2002). applicant preferences for web-based versus traditional job postings. computer in human behavior, 18(3), 285–296. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0747-5632(01)00046-2 abstract introduction research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) matthew marembo department of industrial psychology, university of fort hare, south africa willie t. chinyamurindi department of business management, university of fort hare, south africa citation marembo, m., & chinyamurindi, w.t. (2018). impact of demographic variables on emotional intelligence levels amongst a sample of early career academics at a south african higher education institution. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a1051. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.1051 original research impact of demographic variables on emotional intelligence levels amongst a sample of early career academics at a south african higher education institution matthew marembo, willie t. chinyamurindi received: 01 mar. 2018; accepted: 23 aug. 2018; published: 07 nov. 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: emotional intelligence (ei) is highlighted by the literature as an important attribute that enables an individual to cope with changes and pressures in the work environment and subsequently yields consistent performance. however, some scholars debate the role of demographic diversities and their impact on levels of ei amongst individuals. research purpose: this study examined the influence of demographic variables on ei levels amongst early career academics (ecas). motivation for the study: the study interrogates demographic variables and ei, two issues important in the 21st-century workforce setting. the relationship between the two may be of value to the debate surrounding the success of early career professionals in the higher education sector. the success of ecas should be of importance to institutions of higher learning. research approach/design and method: a quantitative approach was followed in conducting the study. data were collected from a sample of 220 ecas in a selected university in south africa. a self-administered questionnaire was sent to the participants using surveymonkey online data collection tool. ei was measured using the schutte emotional intelligence scale. main findings: significant ei level differences were observed based on the participants’ ethnic background. however, no significant differences in ei levels could be found based on the respondents’ gender, age and work experience. practical/managerial implications: the findings may be relevant to career management and human resources forecasting. contribution/value-add: the study adds to the literature on ei and career success of early career professionals. introduction emotional intelligence (ei) is increasingly gaining empirical attention as a predictor of individual productivity and performance (bande, fernández-ferrín, varela, & jaramillo, 2015). despite the criticism in terms of instruments of measurement (antonakis & dietz, 2011; murphy, 2014), many authors agree that ei impacts individual performance (e.g. bissessar, 2011; moon & hur, 2011; steyn, 2010; vratskikh, masadeh, al-lozi, & maqableh, 2016). according to pradhan, jena and sing (2017), ei is positively related with self-efficacy, which is an important attribute of psychological capital. this makes the subject of ei important because organisations continue to search for ways that may enable their human capital to perform consistently. in this regard, keeping ei levels high is especially important as it is highly associated with an individual’s ability to cope with diversity and change (bande et al., 2015; kaufmann & wagner, 2017). every profession has its challenges that may cause psychological stress and upset the professionals’ emotional balance (oatley & johnson-laird, 2014). however, this study asserts that early career academics (ecas) may be facing a higher degree of emotional imbalance. this is because of an argument that the ecas are entering into academia at a time that the profession is experiencing dramatic changes that are complicating the requirements and standards of entry (coates, goedegebuure, & meek, 2015). furthermore, the academic profession has grown more competitive as instigated by increased human capital mobility across national and continental borders (coates et al., 2015). in view of this, the global economy has grown to be knowledge-driven, making research an integral part of the academic field (andrés, asongu, & amavilah, 2015). the per-annum enrolment in institutions of higher learning has been on the rise for the past two decades (coates et al., 2015). early career academics are usually contracted to facilitate and assess the junior classes, which consist of more students than senior or higher level classes (brock, 2010). furthermore, the professional work of the academics requires interpersonal connectedness. all these circumstances may instigate negative emotions, and when not managed properly, individual efficiency and effectiveness may be hampered. given this, ei comes into play based on the assertions that it can enhance communication effectiveness (jorfi, yaccob, & shah, 2011; smith, ciarrochi, & heaven, 2008), academic achievement (kumar & muniandy, 2012), work and organisational psychology (bissessar, 2011; moon & hur, 2011; vratskikh et al., 2016) and individual psychological wellness (steyn, 2010). therefore, it follows that an individual’s level of ei becomes important as it may determine the level of one’s performance in different aspects. however, the individual’s level of ei may be influenced by several factors. according to pooja and kumar (2016), ei levels can be explained by biological, psychological and social factors. some scholars promote the idea that ei is improvable probably through some enhancement programmes and awareness workshops (ebrahimi, khoshsima, & zare behtash, 2018). taking from the assertions made by hemalatha (2014) and kónya, matic´ and pavlovic´ (2016), this study focused on the demographic variables (age, gender, work experience and ethnic background) as predictors of the level of ei. research purpose and objectives the demographic make-up of the workforce may be the basis for differences in terms of perceptions, values and attitudes amongst employees (pooja & kumar, 2016). at a time of globalisation, the gender, age and ethnic distribution are increasingly changing because of cross-national and cross-continent mobility of labour (james & steger, 2014). the academic profession in south africa has experienced some changes as a result of foreign academics’ mobility and also policy provisions that seek to redress the inequalities (coates et al., 2015). thus, the changes to the demographic profile of the academic workforce are increasingly shifting more than before. despite these changes, the academics are expected to perform at the best of their ability. emotional intelligence as a predictor of individual performance may be affected by the changing demographic variables because more differences in values, priorities and culture are presented (shukla & srivastava, 2016). in addition, many scholars continue to call for the interrogation of ei as far as performance is involved because criticism still exists on the measurement of both ei and performance (antonakis, ashkanasy, & dasborough, 2009; fiori & antonakis, 2011). as that may be, the literature focuses on proving the role of ei on performance (bailey, 2015). little research exists on matters influencing the level of ei, and the studies that focused on enhancing ei did not do so in the context of ecas. the primary objective of this study was to investigate how some demographic variables influence the ei levels amongst ecas in a selected university in south africa. furthermore, the study sought to identify the existent demographic variables and establish their relationship with ei amongst ecas. the article provides a literature review on ei, demographical variables and the relationship between the two. this is followed by an overview of the research design utilised to carry out the study. findings of the study are also presented as well as recommendations for ecas, management of institutions of higher learning and proposals for future research. literature review emotional intelligence kumar and muniandy (2012) defined ei as the rightful or sound use of the discovered emotions in making decisions and taking behavioural actions. similarly, according to serrat (2017), ei is a process or state of being that enables one to accomplish expected end goals by managing one’s behaviour and the behaviour of those near. ei involves being sensitive to emotions of self and others. the term ei first appeared in 1964 from the work by beldoch and this was proceeded by leuner in 1966 (serrat, 2017). major developments on the concept of ei appeared in the work by gardner (1983) who highlighted the existence of multiple intelligences in explaining one’s cognitive ability. the term gained popularity outside the academic circles through the writings of goleman (1995) who described ei as an array of skills and attributes that influence leadership performance. this, however, sparked a scientific debate which provided the groundwork for the divide between ability and trait conceptions of ei. the ability model developed by salovey and mayer (1990) defines ei as an ability to robustly reason with emotions to enlighten the thought process. common under the ability conception are the four ability dimensions, namely recognition of emotions, understanding emotions, managing emotions and utilising emotions (mayer, caruso, & salovey, 2016). this study utilises the trait model of ei which according to petrides, pita and kokkinaki (2007) is a set of emotional self-perceptions usually found at the lower levels of personality hierarchies. petrides (2011) argues that trait ei cannot be classified under the conception of the human cognitive ability. trait ei exhibits an individual to be the only one with direct access to information that shapes his or her judgements of various emotional phenomena (bozionelos & singh, 2017). in this regard, trait ei is the only operational definition that acknowledges the inherent subjectivity of the emotional context (petrides, 2011). trait ei is a collection of self-perceptions and in this light many self-report instruments have been developed to measure trait ei and these include swinburne university emotional intelligence test, trait emotional intelligence questionnaire, eq-i 2.0 and the schutte emotional intelligence scale (seis). the researchers adopted the seis developed by schutte et al. (1998) which has been used extensively in the literature and can be employed as a short measure of global trait ei (petrides, 2011). though the seis was developed off the ei model by salovey and mayer (1990), it is closely associated with the eq-i model of ei and it is a limited measure of trait ei (petrides et al., 2007) bar-on (2010) made an empirical inquiry in which ei was found to be highly associated with positive psychology, which includes individual performance, happiness, well-being and an individual’s meaning of life. botma (2009) reports similar findings citing that ei is very instrumental in avoiding and coping with stressful situations and burnout. thus, emotional skills to manage stressors become important in ultimately enhancing or maintaining an individual’s psychological and physiological well-being. the studies reviewed also show that in south africa, scholars are starting to apply the construct ei to different contexts. dippenaar and schaap (2017) took the context of coaching ei and social intelligence amongst leaders in a financial services sector. ramesar, koortzen and oosthuizen (2009) related ei to stress management context. there is also growing interest in the applicability of ei to the higher education context given that it is linked to enhanced personal and group performance (black, 2015). according to vandervoort (2006), there are potentially many personal, interpersonal and societal benefits in incorporating ei in higher education. since zysberg, orenshtein, gimmon and robinson (2017) found ei to be important in reducing burnout amongst school educators, the same can be expected for academic professionals at a higher education level. chengting, jijun, yuan, wei and xuqun (2015) also report that ei and workplace social support protect educators from burnout. this is justified by the finding that the teaching process stirs inner emotions emanating from dealing with heavy workloads of class facilitation assessment and research activities (armour, 2012). research is becoming an important part of the performance benchmarks in higher education leadership and teaching and as such ei can be viewed as a significant contributor taking from the submission by collins and cooper (2014) in their conceptual article which concluded that ei is useful in advancing qualitative research and building up novice researchers. however, in the south african context, little research is available in modelling ei in the higher education context. mayer, oosthuizen and surtee (2017) conducted a qualitative study on 23 south african women leaders in higher education institutions. results revealed that these women leaders referred more to the intrapersonal aspect of ei, followed by the interpersonal and then emotional management. the importance of the study by mayer et al. (2017) is that it examined and explored original context-specific insights on ei in higher education in south africa and it informs on ei training. this study therefore has significance on what is known about ei and its application in higher education in south africa. emotional intelligence and demographic variables studies exist that examined whether levels of ei vary across different demographic variables of individuals (e.g. jorfi et al., 2011; kumar & muniandy, 2012; pooja & kumar, 2016; sergio, dungca, & ormita, 2015; shukla & srivastava, 2016). the common demographic variables studied include but are not limited to age, gender, educational qualifications, work experience, job position and marital status (sergio et al., 2015). the interest in studying these demographic variables against ei has spiralled because human resources managers and other concerned organisational authorities are of late experiencing demographic diversity at a higher level both internal and external to their organisations (shukla & srivastava, 2016). notably, no study has investigated ei and demographic variables amongst ecas. gender according to jorfi et al. (2011) gender constitutes a complex set of interwoven cultural values that consciously or unconsciously influence an individual’s perception of himself or herself as a woman or man, an individual’s typical expectations on women and men and the kind of results an individual anticipates to achieve. literature exists that postulates gender as a predictor of people’s aspirations, perspectives, behaviours and attitudes (jorfi et al., 2011; pooja & kumar, 2016; shukla & srivastava, 2016). mixed conclusions on gender differences and ei are observed in prior studies. sergio et al. (2015) found some significant differences in ei levels based on the gender of call centre representatives. this is supported by jorfi et al. (2011) who emphasise that women are more socially skilful than men, and hence differences in ei are present. in a study on retail employees by shukla and srivastava (2016), an independent pearson correlation was conducted and found significant differences in the scores of ei based on respondents’ gender with female respondents scoring higher than their male counterparts. female employees in the indian service sector also scored higher in ei than the male employees (pooja & kumar, 2016). the reason for women scoring higher on ei may be ascribed to their traditional primary roles of caregiving to children which give them awareness and responsiveness to human non-verbal expressions and emotions (frank, baron-cohen, & ganzel, 2015). even though many studies found significant differences based on gender, other studies could not find these differences (gunkel, schlägel, & engle, 2013; kumar & muniandy, 2012). this is because gender roles are converging and thereby placing both men and women in similar circumstances which may see them adapt more or less the same. this is to say that the influence of gender on the level of ei in individuals is still under study and as research continues to be carried out on the subject of ei, a trend on gender influence may become visible in future (kumar & muniandy, 2012). in addition, as men are increasingly becoming caregivers to their children and other dependents, a neurological adaptation to social skilfulness may be observed in years to come and the gender influence may become complex (gunkel et al., 2013). age age is believed to be associated with the level of social adaptability and awareness (frank et al., 2015). older members of the society are assumed to have gone through many more circumstances than the younger counterparts and hence would have developed better flexibility and adaptability in their social interactions and in dealing with their own emotions (sergio et al., 2015). findings on polytechnic lecturers by kumar and muniandy (2012) reveal that ei rises with age up to 50 years and tends to decline as the subjects grow beyond 50 years. this positive relationship between age and ei is supported by jorfi et al. (2011), in the literature review on educational administrations in iran. a study by chen, peng and kirk (2015) on chinese and american adults concluded that age was positively related to emotional appraisal and regulation in self and negatively related to appraisal and use of emotion in others. college students in bermuda and trinidad had their age significantly related to their ei levels (bissessar, 2011). even though the reported positive correlation between age and ei is contested, it is clear that the research on the matter is ongoing and changes to the existing trends might or might not materialise. work experience the time that an individual spends in a certain field of profession is important for the individual to become exposed, acquainted and versed in the dynamics of the profession (shukla & srivastava, 2016). the longer the time spent in the profession, the greater the experience, adaptability and knowledge that is gained by the individual. in this regard, it is deemed logical that individuals with more work experience possess higher levels of ei than those who are novices to the respective profession. according to jorfi et al. (2011), employee work experience is positively related to ei meaning that ei increases with the number of years one has served in a profession. this finding is supported by kumar and muniandy (2012) who found ei to significantly vary with lecturers’ teaching experience. in a study on retail employees by shukla and srivastava (2016), the findings corroborated work experience differences in trait ei. emotional intelligence value increases with an increase in the number of years of work experience and reaches its peak when the employee has worked for around 16–20 years, with a further increase in the years of work experience causing the ei value to fall for the employees (pooja & kumar, 2016). however, sergio et al. (2015) argue that work tenure, which translates to work experience, has no significant relationship with the ei amongst call centre employees in the middle east, iran, pakistan, russia, india and the philippines. even though mixed findings on the influence of work experience on ei exist, work experience can be considered an important aspect in today’s work environment that needs good social skills and sound self-management towards the achievement of goals (sergio et al., 2015; shukla & srivastava, 2016). ethnicity and nationality ethnicity background and/or nationality has been found in social studies to corroborate differences in beliefs, values and disturbance handling processes (maduramente, 2015). at a time of globalisation and growing diversity, understanding how nationality and ethnicity backgrounds affect employees’ well-being, decision making and productivity is important. in one cross-cultural study, ei differences were observed in terms of the respondents’ nationality (ang, rockstuhl, & tan, 2015; sergio et al., 2015). this result is supported by dewi, halim and derksen (2017), who found that ei competencies varied significantly across three ethnic groups in indonesia. however, hossein (2015) in his doctoral thesis on leaders carried out a quantitative analysis of the relationship between ei and nationality. the result showed no significant differences in the trait ei and the nationality of the interviewed leaders. robertson (2010) also found no significant relationship between ei and the ethnicity of respondents in an urban school. the reason may be that those from different ethnic groups employed in the school could have been endowed with rich adaptability competencies to work in diverse cultures hence. based on this, it can be expected that: h1: there are significant differences in the ecas’ ei levels on the basis of their gender, age, working experience and ethnicity. research design research approach the study followed the quantitative nature in which data were collected from numerous respondents by means of a self-administered questionnaire and statistical tests were carried out to meet the main objective of the study, which was to examine the influence of demographical variables on the level of ei amongst ecas. research participants the population of interest in this study was the ecas at a rural south african campus in the eastern cape province. the ecas being referred to in this study were defined according to the following criteria: all doctoral candidates helping with research supervision and facilitation of classes. all postdoctoral fellows. research assistants, time-on-task lecturers. lecturers or researchers still within 8 years of their first academic appointment or research practice. using the criteria determined above, the population amounted to 401 participants. in collecting data, the researchers send the research instrument to those that were readily available and willing to take part in the study and a total of 220 responses were qualified for data analysis. this was satisfactory for the study because the number surpassed the predetermined raosoft sample size of 158 at 5% margin of error and 50% expected response rate. measuring instruments the study employed a self-administered questionnaire that had two sections. the first section had questions on the demographic aspects of respondents that included gender, age, faculty, position held, work experience and ethnical background. the second section consisted of the seis (schutte et al., 1998) which was used to measure ei. a final 33-item scale was developed by schutte et al. (1998) from an initial 62 items. the seis is composed of 33 likert scale items ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). there are three reverse-scored items on the seis which are item 5 (‘i find it hard to understand the non-verbal messages of other people’), 28 (‘when i am faced with a challenge, i give up because i believe i will fail’) and 33 (‘it is difficult for me to understand why people feel the way they do’). a principal-components, orthogonal rotation reduced the 62 items to four factors in which 33 items loaded to one factor which represented all the dimensions of ei from the salovey and mayer (1990). schutte et al. (1998) obtained a reliability value of 0.90 for the whole scale. in this study, the cronbach’s alpha for the 33 items on the seis is 0.797 (see table 1) and this value is between 0.7 and 0.8. this means that the items on the scale have an acceptable internal consistency in measuring the construct ei. the obtained cronbach’s alpha is within the range reported by jonker and vosloo (2008) of between 0.7 and 0.8. however, it is marginally lower than the 0.9 obtained by thomas, cassady and heller (2017). this prior research is evidence that the seis is a consistent measure of ei. table 1: cronbach’s reliability test. research procedure and ethical considerations in collecting the data, the researchers physically distributed the questionnaires and also utilised the online surveymonkey, whereby targeted respondents followed a link that was sent through to their personal emails. follow-ups were made both in person and through the personal email. respondents’ identity was kept confidential and so were the responses that were given which were treated with care to ensure anonymity and to prevent any damage to the person or the respondent. the researchers also ensured that the participants signed the consent form as evidence of their agreement to participate in the study. statistical analysis the data collected were entered into the statistical package for social sciences version 22 software for analysis. frequency distribution tables were utilised to summarise the demographic features of the data from the sample and measures. analysis of variance (anova), chi-square test and ordinal (proportional odds) regression analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses to the study. ethical consideration the proposal and questionnaire of the study were reviewed by a research ethics committee and an ethical clearance certificate (rec-270710-028-ra level 1) was granted. ethical clearance reference number: chi191smar01. results demographic frequency distribution the findings indicated that there were 95 (43.2%) men and 125 (56.8%) women. in terms of the participants’ age, 30.9% (n = 68) indicated to be aged between 20 and 30 years, 46.8% (n = 103) were aged between 31 and 40 years, 19.1% (n = 42) were aged between 41 and 50 and only 7 (3.2%) were older than 50 years. of the 220 participants, 2 did not indicate the positions they hold in their respective departments. of the respondents, 76 (34.9%) were full-time lecturers, 19 (8.7%) were senior lecturers, 41 (18.8%) were postdoctoral fellows, 48 (22%) were doctoral candidates and lastly 34 (15.6%) were research assistants or time-on-task staff. despite the fact that all the participants were categorised as ecas, their level of experience was not the same. of the respondents, 28.7% (n = 62) were still within two years of experience, 33.3% (n = 72) had 3–4 years of experience and 38% (n = 82) had between 5 and 8 years of experience. another important profile for the participants was their ethnic group. one hundred and ninety-six respondents were black africans, 17 were white and four were mixed race. three indicated ‘other’ but did not state their race. based on table 2, 22 out of the 33 items on the seis do have means that are above their median value. in addition, the modal scores for 30 out of the 33 items were 4 or 5. this is evidence that the ecas surveyed generally showed their agreement with the ei attributes as far as the items on the seis can tell. these findings suggest that ecas do possess high levels of ei. table 2: descriptive statistics on the schutte emotional intelligence scale. hypothesis testing the proportional odds ordinal regression analysis was conducted on the data to test the hypothesis that the demographical variables (gender, age, working experience and nationality and ethnicity) significantly influence levels of ei amongst ecas. ordinal regression works well under the assumptions that there is non-multicollinearity amongst the independent variables and that each independent variable has an identical effect at each cumulative split of the ordinal-dependent variable. the multicollinearity diagnosis showed all the variance inflator factor values to be less than the threshold of three showing that there were no significant issues of multicollinearity amongst the independent variables. this meant that ordinal regression was applicable to the data. in conducting the ordinal regression analysis, it was important to test whether the study model is better than the null model, which is without factors or covariates. a p-value of 0.031 (table 3) was obtained meaning that the study model is basically better than the null model. table 3: goodness of fit test. following the goodness of fit test is important. the assumed null hypothesis here is that the study model is adequately relative to a perfect model. in this regard, a good result is to fail to reject the null hypothesis. the study calculated the pearson and deviance p-values to be 0.999 and 0.994, respectively (see table 4). the p-values are both more than the 0.05 threshold and this means that there is no significant statistical information to reject the null hypothesis. table 4: proportional odds chi-square test. the test of parallel lines is also known as the test for proportional odds assumption. the null hypothesis under the assumption is that the slope coefficients in the model are the same across response categories (and lines of the same slope are parallel). the goal here was to fail to reject the null hypothesis because this would prove the study model to be good. the p-value for the test of parallel lines is 0.94 (see table 5), which is greater than the threshold 0.05. this means that there is not enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis and a conclusion can be made that the proportional odds assumption holds for the study model. lastly, a most important aspect of the proportional odds analysis is the parameter estimates, and in this case, the results are shown in table 6. table 5: test for parallel lines. table 6: parameter estimates. the column ‘estimate’ gives information on the log odds of the independent variables. one unit increase in age (from a younger age group to the next older group) multiplies the odds of scoring high in ei by log (-0.241), which is 0.786 given that other variables are held constant. however, the p-value of 0.422 shows that the differences in age of respondents do not significantly affect the propensity of scoring high levels of ei. the working experience of respondents has an estimated beta of 0.153, which means that a unit increase in the number of years of experience multiplies the odds of scoring high levels of ei by 16.5% given that the other independent variables are held constant. this means that ei levels were rising by the length of work experience; however, the change is not significant as shown by the p-value of 0.59, which is greater than the significant level 0.05. the estimate for gender = 1 (male participants) is 0.241, which is above zero and this shows that keeping other independent variables constant, the male participants are 27.2% more likely to score high level of ei than their female counterparts. this is because the odds ratio is greater than 0. despite the difference in the scoring of ei level for male and female participants as exhibited by the odds ratio, the p-value on this is 0.566, thus, greater than the threshold of 0.05 indicating that the differences in the scoring of ei levels are not significant based on the gender. in terms of ethnicity of the participants, africans had an estimated ratio of 0.292, which is greater than zero and this shows that the african participants had a cumulative ratio of 34% chance of scoring higher scores of ei than were the participants belonging to the ‘other’ race which was used as the reference group. the white participants had an odds ratio of 1.552 and when exponentiated meant that the magnitude of them scoring high on ei than the ‘other’ race was 4.723 times. the mixed race group had a beta or odds ratio of -1.816 and this is less than zero. this means that the mixed race group scored low on ei than the reference ‘other’ ethnicity group. in essence, the mixed race scored lower level of ei by a cumulative odds ratio of 0.163 times that of the ‘other’ race. an exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the seis data and four factors had eigen values greater than 1. these factors were interpreted as an expression of emotions, use of emotions, and a perception of emotion and regulation of emotion. chi-square and anova tests were performed in terms of gender and the other three factors, respectively. these tests were carried out in order to substantiate the findings from the proportional odds test. table 7 shows the obtained p-values after running the respective chi-square and anova tests. all the p-values, but one, are greater than the significant level of 0.05, and this is evidence that even though some differences are observed amongst participants based on their gender, age, working experience and ethnic background, the differences are not significant. the only significant differences (p = 0.018) are observed for ethnic background on the ‘perception of emotion’ factor. table 7: p-values on chi-square and analysis of variance. discussion outline of results the main objective of the study was to investigate the influence of demographic variables on the level of ei amongst ecas at a selected institution. in this regard, there were some differences observed for the ei responses based on gender. even though the differences were found to be insignificant, male participants were reported to be more likely to score low on ei than the female participants. the insignificant differences may be explained by the changing of gender roles and the exposition of similar work and family challenges for both the male and female participants. even though the study observed some differences in the level of ei scores based on participants’ work experience, the differences were not significant. this may be explained by the fact that the participants were all ecas and do face similar work and career challenges, and therefore, their ei levels may not significantly differ. the study observed an unexpected result as far as participants’ age was concerned. the older participants showed more probability to score low on ei than the younger participants. however, the difference observed was statistically deemed insignificant. this finding is opposed by chen et al. (2015) and frank et al. (2015), who reported a positive relationship between respondents’ age and their level of ei. in terms of the participants’ ethnicity, differences amongst groups were observed. the white participants scored higher on ei than all other groups. the african participants scored higher than the mixed race and the ‘other’ whilst the mixed race participants scored the least ei scores. it is possible that the mixed race and ‘other’ respondents scored the least as a result of the fact that they were significantly less represented than the black and white respondents. however, the differences were deemed insignificant as a result of the lack of statistical evidence. the responses on the perception of emotion factor were found to significantly differ with participants’ ethnic background. the difference may be explained in line with the effect of globalisation in which the workforce in an organisation is becoming significantly mixed as labour mobility across continents and nation increases (hossein, 2015; robertson, 2010). only a few studies also report significant differences in ei based on the race variable (dewi et al., 2017; sergio et al., 2015). importantly, in line with the main hypothesis of the study, the demographic variables studied did not collectively significantly influence the level of ei amongst ecas even though differences were observed. practical implications the respondents to the study indicated to belong to different groups or categories of varying demographic variables. this observation proves that the academic workforce demographics are increasingly becoming diversified and therefore inquiries into demographic dynamics are important (ang et al., 2015; maduramente, 2015). this study focused on the ecas, their demographical attributes and their ei levels. the results obtained in this study are therefore important for career counselling and personal career development (casper & storz, 2016). the issue of demographics encourages career counsellors to personalise their services based on demographical attributes (savickas, 2011). the levels of ei amongst the ecas show that ei is yet an important aspect of individual development, adaptation and performance. because some differences between male and female levels of ei were observed, the human resource manager may need to continue to make efforts to reduce this difference as far as is possible to avoid sexism in making inferences concerning perspectives (frank et al., 2015). significant differences were found amongst ecas of different ethnic backgrounds with respect to the perception of emotion. in this regard, the cultural gap seems to be still visible in the workplace as well as in the academic profession. this implies that more cross-cultural interaction and more team-building activities are still needful in order to continue to foster common ground and reasoning amongst individuals in the same profession (dewi et al., 2017). otherwise, racial inferences may continue to sprout, even out of contexts. thus, organisations nowadays desire to hire individuals who exhibit high adaptability and flexibility needful to be effective in circumstances where diversity is present. the study also reported some differences in the level of ei based on the years of experience. though the differences were proven insignificant, ei scores rose with the years of experience. this may imply that ecas may need to endure their circumstances hoping that with more experience they become an effective manager of their own productivity and development. however, in order to gain experience, security of jobs is important. ecas are mostly in non-permanent position (matthews, lodge, & bosanquet, 2014; sutherland & taylor, 2011) and this might be an unfavourable predicament as far as career advancement is concerned. in terms of the age of respondents, the study reported that the younger respondents scored higher ei scores than their older counterparts. this is contrary to the expectation that as people grow older, they become more experienced and mature to handle some circumstances that the younger generation struggle with (chen et al., 2015; sergio et al., 2015). the unexpected finding of this study shows the complexities inherent in a diverse workforce whereby things might not always seem to be as they appear to be. in this light, there is a need for continuous information gathering and assessment of the workforce in order to have more informed decisions on matters that pertain to personnel. the presence of many factors affecting the personality, decisions and behaviours of individuals implies that change is imminent and therefore interval analysis of gaps and differences may be necessary. limitations and recommendations this study was conducted under some limitations. external validity was compromised because the sample surveyed was selected through non-probability sampling procedure and also the data were collected from only one selected university. in this light, caution needs to be exercised in generalising findings to all the ecas in the country or other institutions. secondly, this study is part of a bigger project in which respondents had to answer questions pertaining to more than one variable on a self-administered instrument. this made the study risk to spurious variance as a result of the measurement instrument and not the constructs. despite the fact that the sample size used was sufficient for the purposes of this study, it must be noted that the sample did not sufficiently represent the characteristics of the population of interest. lastly, ei is exhibited in theory as a personality trait or ability which is influenced by various factors. this study only included four demographic variables, which do not exhaustively represent all the factors that influence ei. caution should also be taken in generalising the findings of this study. regardless of the mentioned limitations to this study, the obtained findings may still be relevant to practice for ecas, career counsellors and institutions of higher learning. conclusion this study contributes to the literature of ei and ecas. the findings of the study have implications on ecas as they seek to personally grow and develop in their career, institutions of higher learning and their human resources functions and career counsellors. differences in the levels of ei amongst ecas were observed based on the various demographic variables. even though the majority of these differences were statistically insignificant, it can be stated that the demographic variables may have a real impact on ei. the study suggests that further research needs be conducted in which comparisons can be made between early career professionals and those already established. acknowledgements the researchers are indebted to the govan mbeki research and development centre at the university of fort hare for the financial support and workshops which also became a point of contact with respondents. competing interests the authors declare that there were no personal circumstances, relationships and financial gain that influenced them in data collection, analysis, interpretation and reporting. authors’ contributions m.m. was the principal researcher whilst w.t.c. was the supervisor (promoter) of the research. the researchers also declare that the views expressed in this study are their own and not the official position of any institution. references andrés, a. r., asongu, s. a., & amavilah, v. (2015). the impact of formal institutions on knowledge economy. journal of the knowledge economy, 6(4), 1034–1062. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-013-0174-3 ang, s., rockstuhl, t., & tan, m. l. (2015). cultural intelligence and competencies. international encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences, 5(2), 433–439. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-097086-8.25050-2 antonakis, j., ashkanasy, n. m., & dasborough, m. t. (2009). does leadership need emotional intelligence? the leadership quarterly, 20(2), 247–261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.01.006 antonakis, j., & dietz, j. (2011). more on testing for validity instead of looking for it. personality and individual differences, 50(3), 418–421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.10.008 armour, b. (2012). emotional intelligence and learning & teaching in higher education: implications for bioscience education. investigations in university teaching and learning, 8, 4–10. bailey, s. (2015). emotional intelligence predicts job performance. the 7 traits that help managers relate. retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/sebastianbailey/2015/03/05/emotional-intelligence-predicts-job-performance-the-7-traits-that-help-managers-relate/#64251e2c4124 bande, b., fernández-ferrín, p., varela, j. a., & jaramillo, f. (2015). emotions and salesperson propensity to leave: the effects of emotional intelligence and resilience. industrial marketing management, 44, 142–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2014.10.011 bar-on, r. (2010). emotional intelligence: an integral part of positive psychology. south african journal of psychology, 40(1), 54–62. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124631004000106 beldoch, m. (1964). sensitivity to expression of emotional meaning in three modes of communication. in j. r. davitz (ed.), the communication of emotional meaning (pp. 31–42). new york: mcgraw-hill. bissessar, c. (2011). gender, age differences and emotional intelligences: implications for workforce development, the university of the west indies, jamaica. black, m. (2015). advancing emotional intelligence (ei) in higher education curriculum: the advantage for students, their future careers and employers. posters, 8. retrieved from https://epublications.bond.edu.au/learn_teach_posters2015/8 botma, n. (2009). emotion experience, emotional intelligence and well-being in south africa (doctoral dissertation). north-west university depository. bozionelos, n., & singh, s. k. (2017). the relationship of emotional intelligence with task and contextual performance: more than it meets the linear eye. personality and individual differences, 116, 206–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.04.059 brock, t. (2010). young adults and higher education: barriers and breakthroughs to success. future of children, 20(1), 109–132. https://doi.org/10.1353/foc.0.0040 casper, s., & storz, c. (2016). bounded careers in creative industries: surprising patterns in video games. industry and innovation, 24(3), 213–248. https://doi.org/10.1080/13662716.2016.1224705 chen, y., peng, y., & kirk, r. (2015). age differences in emotional intelligence: cross-cultural evidence from american and chinese adults. the gerontologist, 55(2), 79–91. chengting, j., jijun, l., yuan, l., wei, f., & xuqun, y. (2015). the mediating role of workplace social support on the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and teacher burnout. teaching and teacher education, 51, 58–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2015.06.001 coates, h., goedegebuure, l., & meek, v. l. (2015). increasing the attractiveness of the academic profession: a challenge for management. in u. teichler & w. cummings (eds.), forming, recruiting and managing the academic profession. the changing academy – the changing academic profession in international comparative perspective (vol. 14, pp. 297–315). cham: springer. collins, c., & cooper, j. (2014). emotional intelligence and the qualitative researcher. international journal of qualitative methods, 13, 88–103. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940691401300134 dewi, z. l., halim, m. s., & derksen, j. (2018). emotional intelligence competencies of three different ethnic groups in indonesia. asian ethnicity, 19(1), 36–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2017.1310615 dippenaar, m., & schaap, p. (2017). the impact of coaching on the emotional and social intelligence competencies of leaders. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 20(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v20i1.1460 ebrahimi, m. r., khoshsima, h., & zare behtash, e. (2018). the impacts of emotional intelligence enhancement on iranian intermediate efl learners writing skill. international journal of instruction, 11(1), 437–452. https://doi.org/10.12973/iji.2018.11130a fiori, m., & antonakis, j. (2011). the ability model of emotional intelligence: searching for valid measures. personality and individual differences, 50(3), 329–334. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.10.010 frank, c. k., baron-cohen, s., & ganzel, b. l. (2015). sex differences in the neural basis of false-belief and pragmatic language comprehension. neuroimage, 105, 300–311. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.09.041 gardner, h. (1983). frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. new york: basic books. goleman, d. (1995). emotional intelligence: why it can matter more than iq. new york: bantam books. gunkel, m., schlägel, c., & engle, r. l. (2013). culture’s influence on emotional intelligence: an empirical study of nine countries. journal of international management, 20(2), 256–274. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2013.10.002 hemalatha, s. (2016). an empirical study on impact of demographic factors on emotional intelligence. international journal of commerce and business management, 7(2), 413–416. https://doi.org/10.15740/has/ijcbm/7.2/413-416 hossein, r. n. (2015). the effect of nationality differences on the emotional intelligence of leaders (doctoral thesis). walden dissertations and doctoral studies. james, p., & steger, m. b. (2014). a genealogy of globalization: the career of a concept. globalizations, 11(4), 417–434. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2014.951186 jonker, c. s., & vosloo, c. (2008). the psychometric properties of the schutte emotional intelligence scale. south african journal for industrial psychology, 34, 21–30. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v34i2.689 jorfi, h., yaccob, h. f. b., & shah, i. m. (2011). the relationship between demographic variables, emotional intelligence, communication effectiveness, motivation, and job satisfaction. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 1(1), 35–58. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss.v1i1.7 kaufmann, l., & wagner, c. m. (2017). affective diversity and emotional intelligence in cross-functional sourcing teams. journal of purchasing and supply management, 23(1), 5–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pursup.2016.07.004 kónya, v., matić, d., & pavlović, j. (2016). the influence of demographics, job characteristics and characteristics of organizations on employee commitment. acta polytechnica hungarica, 13(3), 119–138. kumar, j. a., & muniandy, b. (2012). the influence of demographic profiles on emotional intelligence: a study on polytechnic lecturers in malaysia. international online journal of educational sciences, 4(1), 62–70. maduramente, a. m. g. (2015). the effect of emotional intelligence, ethnic identity, and ethnicity on college adjustment (ub theses and dissertations in the proquest database). univeristy of buffalo, new york. matthews, k. e., lodge, j. m., & bosanquet, a. (2014). early career academic perceptions, attitudes and professional development activities: questioning the teaching and research gap to further academic development. international journal for academic development, 19(2), 112–124. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144x.2012.724421 mayer, c.-h., oosthuizen, r. m., & surtee, s. (2017). emotional intelligence in south african women leaders in higher education. south african journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 43(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073916639667 mayer, j. d., caruso, d. r., & salovey, p. (2016). the ability model of emotional intelligence: principles and updates. emotion review, 8(4), 290–300. moon, t. w., & hur, w. (2011). emotional intelligence, emotional exhaustion, and job performance. social behavior and personality: an international journal, 39(8), 1087–1096. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2011.39.8.1087 murphy, k. r. (2014). a critique of emotional intelligence: what are the problems and how can they be fixed? new york: psychology press. oatley, k., & johnson-laird, p. n. (2014). cognitive approaches to emotion. trends in cognitive sciences, 18, 134–140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.12.004 petrides, k. v. (2011). ability and trait emotional intelligence. in t. chamorro-premuzic, a. furnham, & s. von stumm (eds.), the blackwell-wiley handbook of individual differences (pp. 656–678). new york: wiley. petrides, k. v., pita, r., & kokkinaki, f. (2007). the location of trait emotional intelligence in personality factor space. british journal of psychology, 98, 273–289. https://doi.org/10.1348/000712606x120618 pooja, p., & kumar, p. (2016). demographic variables and its effect on emotional intelligence: a study on indian service sector employees. annals of neurosciences, 23(1), 18–24. https://doi.org/10.1159/000443552 pradhan, r. k., jena, l. k., & singh, s. k. (2017). examining the role of emotional intelligence between organizational learning and adaptive performance in indian manufacturing industries. journal of workplace learning, 29(3), 235–247. https://doi.org/10.1108/jwl-05-2016-0046 ramesar, s., koortzen, p., & oosthuizen, r. m. (2009). the relationship between emotional intelligence and stress management. south african journal of industrial psychology, 35(1), 39–48. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v35i1.443 robertson, e. (2010). what is the relationship between emotional intelligence and administrative advancement in an urban school division? virginia: vcu scholars compass. salovey, p., & mayer, j. d. (1990). emotional intelligence. imagination, cognition and personality, 9(3), 185–211. https://doi.org/10.2190/dugg-p24e-52wk-6cdg savickas, m. (2011). career counseling. washington, dc: american psychological association. schutte, n. s., malouff, j. m., hall, l. e., haggerty, d. j., cooper, j. t., golden, c. j., & dornheim, l. (1998). development and validation of a measure of emotional intelligence. personality and individual differences, 25, 167–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0191-8869(98)00001-4 sergio, r. p., dungca, a. l., & ormita, l. a. g. (2015). the demographic variables and emotional intelligence as correlates of work values: a cross-cultural examination towards organisational change. journal of economics, business and management, 3(2), 167–175. https://doi.org/10.7763/joebm.2015.v3.175 serrat, o. (2017). understanding and developing emotional intelligence (pp. 329–339). singapore: knowledge solutions, springer. shukla, a., & srivastava, r. (2016). examining the effect of emotional intelligence on socio-demographic variable and job stress among retail employees. cogent business & management, 3(1), 1201905–1201923. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2016.1201905 smith, l., ciarrochi, j., & heaven, p. c. l. (2008). the stability and change of trait emotional intelligence, conflict communication patterns, and relationship satisfaction: a one-year longitudinal study. personality and individual differences, 45, 738–743. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2008.07.023 steyn, t. s. (2010). the role of gender in the relationship between emotional intelligence and psychological well-being. master’s dissertation clinical psychology, north-west universit: potchefstroom. sutherland, k., & taylor, l. (2011). the development of identity, agency and community in the early stages of the academic career. international journal for academic development, 16(3), 183–186. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144x.2011.596698 thomas, c., cassady, j., & heller, m. (2017). the influence of emotional intelligence, cognitive test anxiety, and coping strategies on undergraduate academic performance. learning and individual differences, 55, 40–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2017.03.001 vandervoort, d. j. (2006). the importance of emotional intelligence in higher education. current psychology, 25(1), 4–7. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-006-1011-7 vratskikh, i., masa’deh, r., al-lozi, m., & maqableh, m. (2016). the impact of emotional intelligence on job performance via the mediating role of job satisfaction. international journal of business and management, 11(2), 69–91. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v11n2p69 zysberg, l., orenshtein, c., gimmon, e., & robinson, r. (2017). the role of affect and emotion to cope with stressful situations. international journal of stress management, 24(1), 122–136. https://doi.org/10.1037/str0000028 3martins.indd in an increasingly competitive and t urbulent business environment the effective resourcing, management and retention of human capital remain crucial factors of organisational survival, adaptation and competitive advantage (michaels, hardfield-jones & axelrod, 2001; robinson, 2006). managing retention and keeping labour turnover to target (particularly with regard to core employees or knowledge workers) has become a key strategic issue for organisations (dö ckel, basson & coetzee, 2006). in this regard it is widely recognised that the satisfaction level of these employees is a critical part of attracting and retaining them (lawler & finegold, 2000; pollitt, 2005; robinson, 2006). buckingham (2001) states that when such employees leave the organisation loses an essential element of human capital and this loss may be compounded if they join a competitor. these demands on organisations have led to a renewed interest in employee attitude surveys in an attempt to establish why people leave and what may be done to retain them (pollitt, 2005; robinson, 2006). in agreement with this, rollinson (2005) states that the attention given to organisational culture and employee satisfaction surveys as a means of predicting employees’ commitment to and satisfaction with the company is one of the most prominent trends in organisations today. another prominent current trend in organisations is the focus on the leadership ability, preferred style and competence of senior managers, because of the growing evidence regarding the influence of leaders’ personality traits, emotional intelligence and leadership competencies on the productivity, satisfaction and general experiences of employees’ quality of worklife (carmeli, 2003; kotze, 2004; mcmurray, 2003; whetton & cameron, 2002). research indicates that not only do leaders’ values and behaviour shape organisational culture but their preferred approach to the management of their subordinates also helps to form the organisation culture (martin, 2005; mcmurray, 2003). moreover, high emotional intelligence is increasingly being regarded as a key component of effective management skills and a necessity for attaining sustainable results (carmeli, 2003; salovey & mayer, 1990). research findings by carmeli (2003) which indicate a direct and significant relationship between emotional intelligence and withdrawal intentions from the organisation emphasise the important role that managers’ emotional intelligence may have in retaining valuable organisation members. furthermore, research also indicates a link between leaders’ emotional competence and their preferred personality type (coetzee, martins, basson & muller, 2006; higgs, 2001). according to myers, mccaulley, quenk and hammer (2003), personality type can be useful in analysing leaders’ preferred styles as a significant characteristic of organisational culture. against this background, this research firstly sets out to investigate employees’ experiences of their organisation’s culture and their general satisfaction levels. secondly, the research aims to explore the perceived emotional competency and dominant personality type (as measured by the myersbriggs type indicator) of senior management as a measure of managers’ leadership style from which potential explanations for employees’ satisfaction levels and experiences of the organisation’s culture can be derived. the myers-briggs type indicator (mbti) is a well-known and well-respected instrument for providing valuable information on how to understand leaders’ behavioural dynamics and how these influence organisational culture (coetzee et al, 2006; myers et al, 2003). the findings may prove to be useful for industrial and organisational psychologists, organisation development practitioners and human resource practitioners in understanding the variables that influence employees’ satisfaction and experiences of their company’s organisational culture. the findings may also help to explain why various biographical groups within a company vary or differ in their experiences of the company. such an understanding will help to inform employment and retention strategies and leader development initiatives in the south african organisational context. nico martins department of industrial and organisational psychology university of south africa melinde coetzee department of industrial and organisational psychology university of south africa coetzm1@unisa.ac.za abstract the purpose of this study was to investigate employees’ experiences of their organisation’s culture and general satisfaction levels and to explore whether potential explanations for these could be derived from measures of the perceived emotional competency and dominant personality type of senior management as aspects of their predominant leadership style. the south african culture instrument (saci), an employee satisfaction survey questionnaire and the 360 degree emotional competency profiler (ecp) were administered to a sample of 181 (saci), 170 (employee satisfaction survey questionnaire) and 88 (ecp) volunteer employees of a south african engineering company. all nine senior directors voluntary participated in completing the mbti, form g. the results indicated significant differences between the various biographical groups regarding the measured dimensions. the ecp and mbti results showed the affective and social aspects of leadership behaviour to be a development area for senior management. this study makes an important contribution to the expanding body of knowledge that focuses on the evaluation of organisational factors and leader attributes that influence the motivation, commitment and satisfaction of employees in south african organisations. key words: employee retention, employee satisfaction, emotional competency, emotional intelligence, leadership style, organisational culture, organisational effectiveness, personality type organisational culture, employee satisfaction, perceived leader emotional competency and personality type: an exploratory study in a south african engineering company 20 sa journal of human resource management, 2007, 5 (2), 20-32 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2007, 5 (2), 20-32 culture satisfaction and emotional competencies 21 organisational culture researchers have formulated various definitions of organisational culture. some definitions focus on elements such as assumptions, beliefs and values, others expand the concept to include the way things are done, norms, behaviours and artefacts. for the purpose of this research organisational culture is regarded as an integrated pattern of human behaviour, which is unique to a particular organisation and which originated as a result of the organisation’s survival process and integration with its environment. as culture directs the organisation to goal attainment, newly appointed employees must be taught the correct way of behaving (martins, 1989:15). various researchers have emphasised the importance of organisational culture. according to ivancevich, konopaske and matteson (2005), organisational culture influences employees to be good citizens and to “go along”, the rationale being that a strong culture provides shared values that ensure that everyone in the organisation is on the same track. culture enhances organisational commitment and increases the consistency of employee behaviour (martins & martins, 2003). various researchers report findings which indicate organisational culture as a force that influences both employee behaviour and the success of a company (davidson, 2004; denison, 1990; denison & mishra, 1995). in this regard, pollitt (2005) reports research findings that indicate organisational culture as the strongest strategic lever in creating an engaged and committed workforce. corporate culture is something that is not static and although difficult to change, can be made more performance enhancing by investigating its characteristics (kotter & heskett, 1992; smit & cronje, 1997). organisational culture provides the underlying values, beliefs and principles that serve as a foundation for an organisation’s management system, as well as the set of management practices and behaviours that both exemplify and reinforce those basic principles. these principles and practices endure because they have meaning for the members of an organisation (denison, 1990). a formal measurement of organisational management practices by means of culture surveys help employees to describe their experiences of the organisational culture (mcmurray, 2003). organisational practices are regarded as the core elements that characterise the organisation’s culture and generally include the following four major dimensions and sub-elements (eskildsen & dahlgaard, 2000; martins & martins, 2002): policy and strategy l the vision and mission determine employees’ understanding of the vision, mission and values of the organisation and how these can be transformed into measurable team goals and objectives. l the external environment determines the degree of focus on external and internal customers and also employees’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the community involvement via corporate social investment strategies. l the means to achieve objectives determine the way in which organisational structure and support mechanisms contribute to the organisation’s effectiveness. l the organisation’s image focuses on whether the outside world regards it as a sought-after employer. management processes l management processes focus on the way in which management processes take place in the organisation – such processes include people management, decision-making, goal formulation, innovation processes, managing change, control processes and communication. people l employee needs and objectives focus on employees’ perceptions of the integration of their needs and objectives with those of the organisation, work/life balance and physical work environment. l interpersonal relationships focus on the relationship between managers and personnel, particularly in terms of the management of conflict, diversity and interdepartmental relations. leadership l leadership focuses on specific areas that strengthen leadership, as perceived by employees. the people and leadership elements are regarded as forming part of the informal organisation that exerts a significant influence on employee behaviour. a lack of congruence between employee and organisational values, goals, relationships and behavioural norms may well undermine broader organisational initiatives (robinson, 2006). people are unpredictable and have diverse needs, attitudes and motivations, and the informal organisation can serve to satisf y the social and psychological needs of employees. employee preferences as to how they wish to be managed and how they experience the dominant leadership style also influence the way that culture develops (martin, 2005; mcmurray, 2003) in this regard, although organisational culture appears to have common properties, researchers emphasise evidence of the existence of dominant cultures and a number of subcultures in most large organisations (robbins, 2005; deal & kennedy, 1982; kotter & heskett, 1992). research by harris and ogbonna (1997) indicates that employees at different levels in an organisational hierarchy have different views of organisational culture. according to martins and von der ohe (2006), variables such as departmental groupings, geographical distribution, occupational categories, race, gender and age groups including the influence and style of the manager all play a role in the formation of sub-cultures. a core focus of this study was therefore to investigate how the various biographical groups that participated in this study varied in terms of their experiences of the organisation. employee satisfaction employee satisfaction is described as a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from an employee’s appraisal of his or her company environment or company experience (rollinson, 2005). employee satisfaction is closely related to job satisfaction and the intention to leave or stay with the organisation (robinson, 2006). there is convincing evidence that where job satisfaction is high labour turnover is reduced (aamodt, 2007; tett & meyer, 1993). job satisfaction is therefore probably one of those experiences of work that make it less likely that an employee will think about leaving even if there are available opportunities. however, if job satisfaction is absent and there are other opportunities, turnover could well increase. employee satisfaction is also closely related to employees’ needs and work expectations. individual motivation, levels of satisfaction and work performance are determined by the comparative strength of needs and expectations of various biographical groups and the extent to which they are met (aamodt, 2007; robinson, 2006). employees’ needs and expectations can be related to certain aspects of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation and relational motivation. extrinsic motivation relates to valued outcomes, which are external and provided by others such as compensation, promotion, opportunities for learning and growth, praise and recognition. intrinsic motivation is related to valued outcomes or benefits that come from the individual himself (or herself) such as feelings of satisfaction, wellbeing, quality of work life, supervisor support, competence, selfesteem, accomplishment, respect, fair treatment and being informed (buchanan & huczynski, 2004; kotze, 2004; robinson, 2006). relational motivation relates to aspects such as social relationships and friendships, affiliation and group functioning (robinson 2006). research by döck el et al (2006) indicates martins, coetzee22 extrinsic and intrinsic factors such as compensation, supervisor support and work/life balance policies as significant factors in retaining high technology employees. training and development and career opportunities were also found to be significant retention factors (kochanski & ledford, 2001; mcelroy, 2001). emotional intelligence emotional intelligence describes the extent to which individuals are able to tap into their feelings and emotions as a source of energy to guide their thinking and actions (salovey & mayer, 1990). the scope of emotional intelligence includes the verbal and nonverbal appraisal and expression of emotion, the regulation of emotion in the self and others, and the utilisation of emotional content in problem solving (mayer & salovey, 1993). this ability entails a unique set of competencies described by the so-called mixed models of emotional intelligence (mandell & pherwani, 2003; wolmarans, 2002) and includes, for example, competencies such as the following: l emotional literacy (individuals’ awareness and understanding of their own and other people’s emotions); l self-regard (individuals’ assessment of and respect for their own worth as an equal human being); l self-management (individuals’ ability to manage stress and harness energy to create a state of wellness and healthy balance between body, mind and soul); l self-motivation (individuals’ ability to create a challenging vision and set stretching goals; to remain focused and optimistic in spite of setbacks; to take action everyday and remain committed to a cause; and to take responsibility for one’s successes and failures); l change resilience (individuals’ ability to remain flexible and open to new ideas and people, advocating the imperative for change and innovation when appropriate, with due concern and consideration for the emotional impact of change on people); l interpersonal relations (individuals’ intuitive understanding of, and deep level of caring and compassion for people; a real concern for their well-being, growth and development, and joy and recognition for their successes); and l integration of head and heart (individuals’ ability to make decisions and solve problems with due consideration of both facts and feelings, and with the commitment to create winwin solutions that serve both the goals and the relationships concerned (wolmarans & martins, 2001). emotional intelligence develops over a person’s life span and individuals’ ability to demonstrate emotionally competent behaviour can be enhanced through training (ashkanasy & daus, 2005; locke, 2005). emotional intelligence is regarded as being more important in influencing leaders’ job success and performance than traditional general mental intelligence (goleman, 2001; kanfer & kantrowitz, 2002; wong & law, 2002). emotionally intelligent leaders are thought to achieve greater overall organisational performance (carmeli, 2003; miller, 1999). they appear to be more committed to their organisation, and use positive emotions to envision major improvements in organisational functioning (palmer, jansen & coetzee, 2006). moreover, emotionally intelligent leaders are thought to use emotions to improve their decision making. they seem to be able to instil a sense of enthusiasm, trust and co-operation within and amongst employees (stuart & pauquet, 2001). collins (2001) found that managers who had higher emotion management skills had subordinates who had higher levels of organisational commitment. personality type psychological type theory views differences in personality as being orderly and consistent. these differences are due to basic differences in the way individuals prefer to use their perception and judgement (siegel, smith & mosca, 2001). perception (p) is the preference that relates to living in a spontaneous and flexible way, with the ability to stay open to new information. perception in this framework refers to the sensing and intuition mental functions as different ways of attending to and gathering information. sensors (s) rely on information that is practical and has useful applications. these are oriented in the present and focus on living life as it is. people who prefer intuition (n) pay attention to their insights and look for underlying meanings or relationships. they are future oriented and focus on making changes (hirsh & kummerow, 1993). judgement (j) involves an orderly planned approach to conclusions about what we perceive. judgement, in this framework, refers directly to the mental processes of thinking and feeling, which are both rational ways of making decisions and reaching conclusions. to people who prefer thinking (t), it is the logical reasons and consequences that are important in making a decision. on the other hand, to people who prefer feeling (f), that which is of personal value to them and to others is the key in making a decision. while thinking types have and use values and emotions to decide, these are used only to support their logical conclusions. while feeling types use logic and reason to decide, these are used only to support their values-based conclusions (hirsh & kummerow, 1993). one of the four mental functions (sensing, intuition, thinking, feeling) is dominant within an individual profile, revealing the individual’s favoured process. the preferred dominant function forms the core identity and direction for the overall personality (myers et al, 2003). according to psychological type theory, people are also energised in t wo ways. people with a preference for extraversion (e) draw energy from the outer world – people, events, and things in their environment. people with a preference for introversion (i), draw energy from their inner world of ideas, emotions, and impressions (siegel et al, 2001). based on these preference descriptions, there are 16 personality types which can be measured by the myers-briggs type indicator (mbti). problem investigated in the light of the aforegoing, this research firstly sets out to investigate employees’ experiences of their organisation’s culture and their general satisfaction levels. secondly, the research aims to explore the perceived emotional competency and dominant personality type (as measured by the myersbriggs type indicator) of senior management as a measure of managers’ leadership style from which potential explanations for employees’ satisfaction levels and experiences of the organisation’s culture can be derived. although the research design wasn’t aimed at determining causality of employees’ experiences of the organisation’s culture and their general satisfaction levels, it was assumed that an exploration of the perceived emotional competency and personality type of leaders would provide a measure of illumination for the core findings. considering the exploratory nature of this study, it was expected that the findings would stimulate further research initiatives concerning the link between leader emotional competency, personality type, organisational culture and employee satisfaction in the south african organisational context. this project was initiated by the engineering company to determine the reasons for increased turnover over a period of eighteen months after the first survey (organisational culture survey) was undertaken. the time lapse between the organisational culture survey and the employee satisfaction survey was taken into consideration in the interpretation of the results. culture satisfaction and emotional competencies 23 research design research approach a survey design was used to achieve the research objective (shaughnessy & zechmeister, 1997). research method participants in total, one hundred and eighty one (181) employees from a south african company in the engineering industry participated in the organisational culture survey and, after eight months, one hundred and seventy (170) in the employee satisfaction survey. table 1 provides an overview of the biographical groups that participated in the two surveys. from these results, it can be inferred that the majority of respondents belonged to production, were from the esp group, with ages ranging between 26 and 35 years and were predominantly white and female. it is important to note that fewer employees participated in the second survey (181 versus 170) and that the “no response” rate is higher in the second survey. after carefully selecting peers, superiors and subordinates to participate in the 360° degree evaluation process, 88 employees participated in assessing the nine senior managers’ emotional competency by means of the 360 degree emotional competency profiler. this evaluation was done electronically: this not only ensured confidentiality of the evaluations but also that the selected evaluators sent back their evaluations. all nine senior directors (of whom eight were white males and 1 was a black male) voluntarily completed the mbti. table 1 biographical variables category surveys culture employee satisfaction frequency % frequency % job level directors 23 12.7 12 7.1 management 22 12.2 21 12.4 production staff 73 40.3 73 42.9 support staff 62 34.3 58 34.1 no response 1 0.5 6 3.5 total 100 100 departments corporate 33 18.2 27 15.9 esp 72 39.8 57 33.5 msp 41 22.7 34 20.0 branch 30 16.6 44 25.9 no response 5 2.7 8 4.7 total 100 100 age younger than 25 years 7 3.9 16 9.4 26 to 35 years 82 45.3 71 41.8 36 to 45 years 46 25.4 43 25.3 46 to 55 years 35 19.3 27 15.9 56 to 65 years 7 3.9 6 3.5 66 years and older 4 2.2 0 0.0 no response 7 4.1 total 100 100 race african 26 14.4 30 17.6 coloured 1 0.6 6 3.5 asian 4 2.2 4 2.4 white 148 81.8 122 71.8 no response 2 1.0 8 4.7 total 100 100 category surveys culture employee satisfaction frequency % frequency % gender male 87 48.1 79 46.5 female 91 50.3 80 47.1 no response 3 1.6 11 6.4 total 100 100 measuring instruments four measuring instruments, namely the south african culture instrument (saci) (martins, 1989), an employee satisfaction survey questionnaire, the 360 degree emotional competency profiler (ecp) (wolmarans & martins, 2001) and the myersbriggs type indicator, form g (mbti) (myers & mccaulley, 1985) were used in the present study. a biographical questionnaire was used to obtain personal details of the participants. south african organisational culture instrument (saci) the south african culture instrument (saci) has been used since 1989 for various organisational culture studies. the overall reliability (cronbach coefficient alpha) of the saci was measured at 0.933 and the internal consistency of the dimensions between 0.655 and 0.932 (martins, martins & terblanche, 2004). the questionnaire includes the following 18 dimensions (martins, 1989; 2000): vision and mission; control; communication; decision-making; innovation; employee needs and objectives; corporate social investment; physical environment; management of change; training and development; organisational structure; manager and worker; interdepartmental relations; diversit y; work/life balance; leadership; client focus; people management. all the items in the culture questionnaire require the respondent to respond on a 5-point likert scale, where a low rating (1) indicates that the respondents strongly disagree and a high rating (5) that they strongly agree. the questionnaire is then scored for each of the various dimensions. all factors are scored such that a low score indicates non-acceptance of the cultural dimension, while a high score indicates acceptance of the cultural dimension. employee satisfaction survey the questionnaire was specifically developed for this organisation after intense interviews and focus groups and therefore included some overlapping dimensions with the saci. the first phase was to develop themes (dimensions) after which statements were compiled. the questionnaire consists of eleven (11) dimensions (communication, compensation, diversity, fairness, job satisfaction, opportunities for growth, performance management, respect for employees, respect for management, teamwork, work/life balance) which measured employees’ levels of satisfaction with the organisational culture on a more personal level than the measures of the saci. the procedure for completion of the employee satisfaction survey is exactly the same as described for the saci. the cronbach’s alpha coefficients are portrayed in table 2. the reliability coefficients range between 0.8562 and 0.9186. a suitable criterion for instruments in the early stages of development is seen to be 0.5 to 0.6 although for established scales it would typically be about 0.7 (nunnally, 1967). no factor analysis was done owing to the small ratio of participants to the number of statements. 360° emotional competency profiler (ecp) the ecp was used to determine the participants’ current emotional competence. the ecp questionnaire consists of seven sub-scales and 46 items. the ecp uses two four-point likert scales to measure levels of current emotional competence martins, coetzee24 and the importance of those emotional competence behaviours to the individual being assessed. high scores on the current emotional competence behaviour scales indicate that the individual being assessed exhibits this behaviour. a high score on the importance of behaviour scale indicates that the particular emotional competence behaviour is important for the person being assessed. low scores on the current behaviour scale indicates the absence of such behaviour, while low scores on the importance of behaviour scale indicate that the particular emotional competence behaviour is unimportant for the person being assessed. only the current behaviour scale applied to the research as the concern was the actual demonstration of emotionally competent behaviour as perceived by employees. table 2 reliability coefficients for contents of the employee satisfaction survey dimensions cronbach’s alpha initial reliability coefficient number of items final reliability coefficient number of items personal expression 0.8996 6 0.8996 6 work/life balance 0.8983 7 0.8983 7 teamwork 0.8909 5 0.8909 5 performance management 0.8866 7 0.8866 7 respect for management 0.8805 9 0.9186 8 communication 0.8725 4 0.8725 4 respect for employees 0.8648 6 0.8708 5 opportunities for growth 0.8572 7 0.8572 7 fairness 0.8385 4 0.8886 3 compensation 0.8271 4 0.8709 3 job satisfaction 0.5997 7 0.8562 6 content validity of the ecp was built into the instrument and tested by developing a construct definition of each emotional competence behavioural cluster. item analysis indicates that the items in the sub-test clusters possess acceptable internal consistency (wolmarans & martins, 2001). wolmarans and martins (2001) report the following cronbach alpha coefficients for the seven sub-scales: emotional literacy (0.863); self-esteem/self-regard (0.872); self-management (0.851); self-motivation (0.911); change resilience (0.933); interpersonal relations (0.953); and integration of head/ heart (0.903). the overall reliability of the ecp was reported to be 0.981. myers-briggs type indicator, form g (mbti) the well-established mbti, form g, was used for this research project to measure the personality preferences of the participants. the mbti, form g, is a self-reporting instrument and consists of three parts. part i contains 26 items; part ii, 45 items and part iii, 55 items. overall, the individual has to respond to 126 items. the mbti is a questionnaire-style instrument consisting of items arranged in a forced-choice format. for each item, subjects are provided two responses to choose between. the objective of the mbti is to classif y an individual into one of the 16 personality types (myers et al, 2003). while there are different views on many aspects of the validity of the mbti, there is general agreement on its high levels of face validity (mccrae & costa, 1988). in presenting reliability results in the mbti manual, myers et al. (2003) have examined internal consistencies based on alpha coefficients, none of which are below 0.7 for the mbti scales. test-retest reliabilities also show consistency over time. procedure all employees were invited to participate in the organisational culture and employee satisfaction surveys. as far as the ecp is concerned, the non-randomly selected raters of peers, superiors and subordinates were approached by the participating managers who briefed them on the rationale underlying the study. since the ecp items are self-explanatory, no specific training on the emotional intelligence competencies was provided to the raters. the process applicable to the completion of the questionnaires was also explained to the raters. upon completion of the questionnaires, feedback was given to the participating managers on their personal results. the questionnaires were scored electronically. statistical analysis the statistical analysis was carried out with the help of the sas programme (sas instit ute, 2000). cronbach alpha coefficients were calculated to assess the internal consistency (reliability) of the employee satisfaction survey questionnaire (clark & watson, 1995). regarding the organisational culture survey and employee satisfaction surveys, the analysis of variance and t-test approaches were chosen as appropriate strategies for achieving the objective of the st udy. the biographical groups such as job levels, gender, race and departments were regarded as the independent variables and the cultural dimensions as the dependent variables. a cut-off point of p<0.05 was set for the interpretation of the statistical significance of the results. given the research aim of this study, only descriptive statistics, that is, frequencies, means and standard deviations were calculated and interpreted for the subscales of the ecp. for the purpose of this research only the ratings of employees were used in analyzing and discussing the findings. the subscale item ratings were also statistically ranked from the highest to the lowest mean average scores as rated by the respondents to enhance interpretation of the results. results the first step in the analysis of the data was to explore how the job levels, different departments, race, gender and age groups of the participant sample perceive the respective organisational culture. the results of the analysis of variance for the organisational culture dimensions displayed in tables 3 to 7 show that the most significant differences between the biographical groups are between the gender (11 dimensions) and job level (14 dimensions) groups, followed by the race (7 dimensions), age (4 dimensions) and departments (2 dimensions). overall the results show that employees at the senior job levels and males seem to experience most of the cultural dimensions significantly more positively than the other groups. closer inspection of the results shows that females, production staff, whites and employees below the age of 35 experienced the organisational structure as significantly less positive than other groups. females also seem to have significantly more negative perceptions of the organisation’s vision and mission, decision-making style, communication processes, and the relations between managers and workers and departments. as far as job levels are concerned, the support staff seems significantly less positive about leaders’consideration for their needs and objectives and the physical work environment. the production staff indicated significantly more negative responses regarding training and development opportunities and the organisation’s client focus. the white employees (who predominated in the sample) view the leadership style also significantly more negative than the black employees. it is interesting to note that the directors and associates group seems to have significantly less positive experiences regarding work/life balance issues. culture satisfaction and emotional competencies 25 table 3 organisational culture: anova summary table for the job levels as the independent variables and the dimensions as the dependent variables dimension source ss df ms f sig. vision and mission between groups 5.251 2 2.626 10.197 0.000** within groups 45.316 176 .257 total 50.567 178 management processes: control between groups 11.474 2 5.737 12.259 0.000** within groups 82.368 176 .468 total 93.842 178 communication between groups 4.600 2 2.300 4.809 0.009** within groups 84.661 177 .478 total 89.262 179 management of change between groups 6.044 2 3.022 9.209 0.000** within groups 58.083 177 .328 total 64.127 179 innovation between groups 3.315 2 1.658 5.561 0.005** within groups 52.764 177 .298 total 56.079 179 employee needs between groups 4.256 2 2.126 4.446 0.013* within groups 84.649 177 .478 total 88.901 179 external environment: client focus between groups 2.189 2 1.0954 4.094 0.018* within groups 47.330 177 .267 total 49.519 179 corporate and social investment between groups 2.269 2 1.134 3.135 0.046* within groups 64.059 177 .362 total 66.328 179 physical environment between groups 3.672 2 1.836 3.544 0.031* within groups 91.710 177 .518 total 95.383 179 employee needs and objectives: training and development between groups 2.741 2 1.371 3.543 0.031* within groups 68.082 176 .387 total 70.823 178 interpersonal relations: people management between groups 6.472 2 3.236 7.025 0.001** within groups 81.541 177 .461 total 88.014 179 manager vs worker between groups 5.037 2 2.519 3.825 0.024* within groups 115.889 176 .658 total 120.926 178 diversity strategy between groups 2.491 2 1.246 4.622 0.011* within groups 47.426 176 .269 total 49.917 178 means to achieve objectives: organisational structure between groups 1.997 2 .998 3.052 0.050* within groups 57.569 176 .327 total 59.566 178 work/life balance between groups 10.895 2 5.448 5.874 0.003** within groups 163.230 176 .927 total 174.125 178 ** p <0.01 * p<0.05 table 4 organisational culture: anova summary table of race groups as the independent variables and the dimensions as the dependent variables dimension source ss df ms f sig. management processes: communication between groups 2.957 1 2.957 6.081 0.015* within groups 86.075 177 .486 total 89.033 178 organisational structure between groups 2.161 1 2.161 6.652 0.011* within groups 57.182 176 .325 total 59.343 177 decision-making between groups 4.344 1 4.344 8.094 0.005** within groups 94.460 176 .537 total 98.804 177 employee needs and objectives between groups 1.985 1 1.985 3.963 0.048* within groups 88.681 177 .501 total 90.666 178 employee needs and objectives: training and development between groups 2.546 1 2.546 6.638 0.011* within groups 67.501 176 .384 total 70.047 177 leadership between groups 2.444 1 2.444 5.618 0.019* within groups 76.558 176 .435 total 79.002 177 means to achieve objectives: work/ life balance between groups 7.184 1 7.184 7.579 0.007** within groups 166.826 176 .948 total 174.010 177 ** p <0.01 * p<0.05 table 5 organisational culture: anova summary table of age groups as the independent variables and the dimensions as the dependent variables dimension source ss df ms f sig. vision and mission between groups 1.908 2 .954 3.377 0.036* within groups 49.997 177 .282 total 51.905 179 external environment: client focus between groups 3.088 2 1.544 5.916 0.003** within groups 46.456 178 .261 total 49.544 180 corporate social investment between groups 2.615 2 1.308 3.650 0.028* within groups 63.759 178 .358 total 66.374 180 means to achieve objectives: organisational structure between groups 2.011 2 1.005 3.092 0.048* within groups 57.555 177 .325 total 59.566 179 ** p <0.01 * p<0.05 martins, coetzee26 table 6 organisational culture: summary table for the departments as the independent variables and the dimensions as the dependent variables dimension source ss df ms f sig. external environment: client focus between groups 2.041 2 1.021 3.766 0.025* within groups 46.879 173 .271 total 48.920 175 means to achieve objectives: physical environment between groups 6.025 2 3.012 5.755 0.004** within groups 90.551 173 .523 total 96.576 175 within groups * *p <0.01 *p<0.05 table 7 organisational culture: anova summary table for the gender groups as the independent variables and the dimensions as the dependent variables dimension source ss df ms f sig. vision and mission between groups 1.421 1 1.421 5.041 0.026* within groups 49.333 175 .282 total 50.754 176 management processes: communication between groups 2.475 1 2.475 5.111 0.025* within groups 85.242 176 .484 total 87.717 177 decision-making between groups 4.196 1 4.196 7.888 0.006** within groups 93.089 175 .532 total 97.285 176 innovation between groups 2.502 1 2.502 8.339 0.004** within groups 52.804 176 .300 total 55.307 177 management of change between groups 2.574 1 2.574 7.816 0.006** within groups 57.964 176 .329 total 60.538 177 external environment: corporate social investment between groups 2.203 1 2.203 6.073 0.015* within groups 63.842 176 .363 total 66.045 177 means to achieve objectives: physical environment between groups 2.700 1 2.700 5.144 0.025* within groups 92.391 176 .525 total 95.091 177 organisational structure between groups 1.774 1 1.774 5.503 0.020* within groups 56.406 175 .322 total 58.180 176 interpersonal relationships: manager vs worker between groups 3.366 1 3.366 5.256 0.023* within groups 112.097 175 .641 total 115.463 176 interdepartmental relations between groups 2.512 1 2.512 4.807 0.030* within groups 91.461 175 .523 total 93.974 176 diversity strategy between groups 2.159 1 2.159 8.292 0.004** within groups 45.576 175 .260 47.736 176 ** p <0.01 * p<0.05 the second step in the analysis of the data was to explore participants’ employee satisfaction levels with regard to their job levels, race, gender, age groups and departments. the results of the analysis of variance for the employee satisfaction survey are shown in table 8. tables 9 and 10 give a summary of the key significant findings for the organisational culture and employee satisfaction dimensions respectively. an investigation of the findings show that the age group below 35 years, the production staff and black employees appear to be significantly dissatisfied with their compensation. the corporate department seems to be significantly more dissatisfied with issues such as work/life balance, respect for management, opportunities for growth and fairness. the black employees appear to be significantly more dissatisfied with certain aspects of diversity. table 8 employee satisfaction survey: anova summary table for the biographical groups as the independent variables and the dimensions as the dependent variable dimension group source ss df ms f sig. compensation job level between groups 11.098 2 5.549 6.376 0.002** within groups 124.448 143 .870 total 135.546 145 respect for management departments between groups 5.967 3 1.989 3.835 0.011* within groups 72.598 140 .519 total 78.565 143 opportunities for growth departments between groups 5.619 3 1.873 3.000 0.033* within groups 87.398 140 .624 total 93.017 143 work/life balance departments between groups 8.650 3 2.883 3.820 0.011* within groups 105.678 140 .755 total 114.328 143 fairness departments between groups 8.887 3 2.962 4.057 0.008** within groups 102.236 140 .730 total 111.123 143 compensation age between groups 6.888 2 3.444 3.908 0.022* within groups 124.266 141 .881 total 131.154 143 compensation race between groups 7.455 1 7.455 8.728 0.004** within groups 121.294 142 .854 total 128.749 143 diversity race between groups 3.673 1 3.673 4.902 0.028* within groups 106.392 142 .749 total 110.065 143 ** p <0.01 * p<0.05 culture satisfaction and emotional competencies 27 table 9 summary of significant differences by dimension and biographical group for the culture survey culture dimension biographical group means sd significant difference vision and mission gender male: 4.12 female: 3.94 total: 4.03 0.528 0.534 0.537 * job levels a: 4.33 b: 3.94 c: 3.93 total: 4.04 0.421 0.504 0.566 0.533 ** age <35: 3.94 36-45: 4.04 46>: 4.19 total: 4.03 0.540 0.559 0.484 0.538 * control job levels a: 3.94 b: 3.71 c: 3.78 total: 3.81 0.778 0.721 0.624 0.725 ** communication gender male: 3.75 female: 3.52 total: 3.63 0.651 0.736 0.704 * job levels a: 3.90 b: 3.59 c: 3.50 total: 3.64 0.617 0.579 0.847 0.706 ** race black: 3.92 white: 3.58 total: 3.64 0.669 0.703 0.707 * decisionmaking gender male: 3.77 female: 3.46 total: 3.61 0.700 0.756 0.743 ** race black: 3.95 white: 3.54 total: 3.61 0.650 0.748 0.747 ** innovation gender male: 4.00 female: 3.76 total: 3.88 0.470 0.613 0.559 ** job levels a: 4.11 b: 3.84 c: 3.77 total: 3.88 0.463 0.456 0.682 0.560 ** employee needs and objectives job levels a: 4.16 b: 3.83 c: 3.78 total: 3.89 0.634 0.610 0.813 0.705 * race black: 4.12 white: 3.84 total: 3.89 0.544 0.737 0.714 * corporate social investment gender male: 3.77 female: 3.99 total: 3.88 0.604 0.600 0.611 * age <35: 3.93 36-45: 3.68 46>: 3.99 total: 3.88 0.567 0.652 0.602 0.607 * physical environment gender male: 3.94 female: 3.69 total: 3.81 0.720 0.729 0.733 * departments corporate & branch: 3.85 esp: 3.96 msp: 3.49 total: 3.81 0.764 0.668 0.753 0.743 ** job levels a: 4.00 b: 3.85 c: 3.63 total: 3.81 0.707 0.685 0.768 0.730 * management of change gender job levels male: 4.03 female: 3.79 total: 3.91 a: 4.23 b: 3.79 c: 3.82 total: 3.91 0.541 0.604 0.584 0.458 0.554 0.663 0.599 ** ** training and development job levels a: 3.89 b: 3.58 c: 3.64 total: 3.68 0.511 0.602 0.711 0.631 * race black: 3.94 white: 3.62 total: 3.68 0.538 0.635 0.629 * organisational structure gender male: 3.75 female: 3.55 total: 3.65 0.541 0.592 0.575 * job levels a: 3.84 b: 3.58 c: 3.61 total: 3.65 0.555 0.531 0.627 0.578 * race black: 3.89 white: 3.60 total: 3.65 0.521 0.579 0.579 * age <35: 3.56 36-45: 3.68 46>: 3.81 total: 3.65 0.569 0.642 0.491 0.577 * manager vs worker gender job levels male: 3.80 female: 3.53 total: 3.66 a: 3.87 b: 3.71 c: 3.44 total: 3.66 0.729 0.863 0.810 0.792 0.685 0.950 0.824 * * interdepartmental relations gender male: 3.85 female: 3.61 total: 3.73 0.657 0.782 0.731 * diversity gender male: 3.86 female: 3.64 total: 3.75 0.507 0.514 0.521 ** job levels a: 3.95 b: 3.70 c: 3.66 total: 3.75 0.490 0.491 0.569 0.530 * work /life balance job levels a: 3.00 b: 3.62 c: 3.49 total: 3.42 1.116 0.747 1.062 0.989 ** race black: 3.85 white: 3.32 total: 3.41 0.896 0.990 0.992 ** leadership race black: 4.37 white: 4.07 total: 4.12 0.514 0.686 0.668 * client focus departments corporate & branch: 4.08 esp: 3.84 msp: 3.95 total: 3.95 0.464 0.479 0.584 0.529 * job levels a: 4.14 b: 3.87 c: 3.93 total: 3.95 0.480 0.496 0.566 0.526 * age <35: 3.84 36-45: 3.97 46>: 4.16 total: 3.96 0.519 0.593 0.392 0.525 ** people management job levels a: 3.70 b: 3.22 c: 3.39 total: 3.40 0.644 0.699 0.679 0.701 ** ** p < 0.01 * p < 0.05 a: directors & associates/ b: production/ c: support staff martins, coetzee28 table 10 summary of significant differences by dimension and biographical group for the employee satisfaction survey dimension biographical group mean sd significant difference compensation job levels a: 3.45 b: 2.72 c: 2.89 total: 2.93 0.799 0.987 0.932 0.967 ** age <35: 2.76 36-45: 3.15 46>: 3.24 total: 2.95 0.989 0.881 0.853 0.958 * race black: 2.57 white: 3.09 total: 2.96 1.033 0.886 0.949 ** work/life balance departments corporate: 2.83 esp: 3.30 msp: 3.51 branch: 3.53 total: 3.33 0.989 0.860 0.830 0.831 0.894 * respect for management departments corporate: 3.57 esp: 3.94 msp: 4.19 branch: 4.09 total: 3.97 0.963 0.752 0.595 0.584 0.741 ** opportunities for growth departments corporate: 3.18 esp: 3.67 msp: 3.30 branch: 3.61 total: 3.50 0.915 0.734 0.847 0.732 0.807 * fairness departments corporate: 2.90 esp: 3.61 msp: 3.56 branch: 3.45 total: 3.43 1.129 0.810 0.733 0.803 0.882 ** personal experience/ diversity race black: 3.17 white: 3.54 total: 3.44 0.974 0.827 0.877 * ** p < 0.01 *p < 0.05 a: directors & associates/ b: production/ c: support staff the third step in the analysis of the data was to investigate how employees perceive the emotional intelligence competencies of the nine senior directors. tables 11 to 13 give an overview of the results of the nine managers for their current emotional competency behaviour. an investigation of the results shows that the senior directors were perceived to be particularly competent in demonstrating self-motivation and self-esteem. more specifically, these competencies seem to be reflected in their willingness to take on challenges, remaining committed to a cause in spite of obstacles and remaining focused on their vision and goals for the company. development areas appear to be their ability to interpret other people’s emotions correctly, identif ying underlying emotional causes of conflict, being open to criticism from others and building consensus on common ground. the final step in the analysis of the data was to determine the dominant personality type of the sample of senior managers who participated in the study. the sample constituted 2 entjs, 2 estjs, 2 intjs, 1 intp, 1 enfp, and 1 istj as the range of personality types. the extraverted-judging (ej) personality preference appears to be the predominant personality type for the sample of participating leaders, followed by the thinking (t) preference and the intuitive (n) preference. figure 1 provides an overview of the key measurements that were done to achieve the objective of this study. table 11 means and standard deviations of subscales: ecp current behaviour (other-ratings: n=88) scale current behaviour mean sd self-motivation 3.24 0.671 self-esteem/self-regard 3.15 0.735 interpersonal relations 3.09 0.714 self-management 3.03 0.773 integration of head and heart 3.03 0.665 change resilience 3.04 0.646 emotional literacy 3.00 0.702 table 12 ecp: five highest ranked items: current behaviour (otherratings: n=88) scale & item current behaviour mean sd self-esteem/self-regard 10. willing to take on challenges 3.60 0.598 self-motivation 22. remains committed to a cause in spite of obstacles 3.43 0.621 self-motivation 26. remains focused on vision and goals 3.33 0.690 emotional literacy 3. is aware of and understands his/her feelings 3.30 0.531 self-esteem/self-regard 12. walks the talk 3.28 0.742 table 13 ecp: five lowest ranked items (other-ratings: n=88) scale & item current behaviour mean sd self-esteem 13. publicly admits mistakes 2.68 0.810 emotional literacy 6. interprets other people’s emotions correctly 2.69 0.684 change resilience 32. accepts criticism and learns from it 2.75 0.630 integration of head and heart 45. identifies underlying emotional causes of conflict 2.85 0.664 integration of head and heart 47. builds consensus on common ground 2.89 0.724 culture satisfaction and emotional competencies 29 discussion in the introduction it was pointed out that organisational culture and employee satisfaction surveys are regarded as an important means of predicting employees’ commitment to and satisfaction with the company (rollinson, 2005). the point was also made that managers’ emotional competency and personality attributes have a significant effect on organisational culture and thus employees’ intention to withdraw from or stay in the organisation (carmeli, 2003; kotze, 2004; mcmurray, 2003). the goal of the study was therefore firstly to explore how different biographical groups of employees’ experience and feel about their organisation’s culture. the second goal of the study was to explore whether employees’ perceptions about the senior managers’ emotional intelligence competencies and the managers’ dominant personality type could provide possible explanations for employees’ experiences. as far as the culture survey is concerned, the results overall indicate that the organisational structure evoked significant less positive experiences from females, whites, production staff and the age group below 35. it appears from the results that the less positive experiences regarding the leadership style, in particular communication, control, and decision making could be probable causes for these experiences. in addition the more negative experiences by females and support staff regarding acknowledgement of diversity, inter departmental relations and the relationship between managers and workers indicate an apparent need for a more emotionally supportive environment. research findings on gender differences indicate gender as a moderator in employee attitude research (kidd & smewing, 2001; smith, smits & hoy, 1998). their findings suggest a positive linear relationship between supervisor support and commitment for women in particular. women also have a greater need for emotionally supportive work environments as a source of career satisfaction (nabi, 2001). overall the employee satisfaction results also suggest that the production staff, black employees and the age group below 35 are more dissatisfied with their compensation. these findings confirm research by dö ckel et al (2006) which indicates compensation as a significant factor in retaining high technology employees. research data reported by keaveny and inderrieden (2000) further suggest that when a job is more interesting, has greater job security and better benefits and opportunities for advancement than elsewhere in the industry, employees are more satisfied with a given level of compensation. zemke, raines and filipczak (2000) suggest management behaviour such as participation in decision making and high quality leadership as more important than compensation in building commitment in younger workers. campion, medsker and higgs (1993) found a positive and significant correlation between employee satisfaction and the presence of communication and cooperation between work groups. positive and significant correlations were also found between employee satisfaction and workload sharing and between employee satisfaction and social support. directors and associates seemed to have unique needs related to interpersonal support. they showed significantly lower levels of satisfaction with regard to opportunities for growth and work/ life balance as intrinsic motivational aspects. these findings suggest a fast-paced environment which could have an adverse impact on participants’ long-term job satisfaction and quality of worklife (kotze, 2004). a study conducted by burke (2002) also showed that both men and women place high value on organisational values and practices that support work-personal life balance. when these are present, both groups also reported greater joy in work, greater job and career satisfaction, less intention to quit, less job stress, greater family satisfaction and higher levels of emotional wellbeing. the major cause of dissatisfaction for the black participants seemed to be their experience of management practices related to diversity and being treated fairly. research findings by pollitt (2005) also indicate that management practice and perceptions of fairness and equity are much more important factors than demographics in driving employee enthusiasm and engagement. research by eskildsen and dahlgaard (2000) showed that an organisation can improve employees’ satisfaction by focusing on improving organisational performance regarding issues such as leader behaviour, management practices and processes that enhance employee feelings and perceptions of empowerment, involvement, recognition and growth opportunities. furthermore, leadership behaviour and management practices that address employees’ need for creative challenges and quality of work/life also facilitate employee satisfaction. leaders’ perceived emotional competency & personality types ecp mbti l client focus l control l communication l corporate social investment l decision making l diversity l employee needs and objectives l innovation l interdepartmental relations l leadership l manager vs worker l management of change l organisational structure l people management l physical environment l training and development l vision and mission l work/life balance l *communication l compensation l *diversity l fairness l job satisfaction l opportunities for growth l performance management l respect for employees l respect for management l teamwork l *work/life balance (stress in workplace) first order l attendance l creativity/innovation l communication l problem solving l productivity l recruiting success l turnover l work quality l workgroup cohesiveness second order l achievement of formal organisational goals l market share l profitability culture saci employee satisfaction implications for organisational peformance *employees’ personal experience of aspect measured by the saci figure 1: overview of measurement martins, coetzee30 the findings related to the emotional competency of the senior directors who participated in this study overall show that they were perceived to be highly confident, self-motivated and committed in pursuing and achieving the company’s vision and goals. in this regard, they appeared to be perceived as being strong in their ability to solve problems and in directing their behaviour in social encounters to achieve personal goals. the affective and social aspects of emotionally intelligent behaviour appeared to be perceived by the participants as an area for development. the affective aspect relates to the self-regulatory and self-management abilities of the managers (which include abilities such as managing stress and creating a state of wellness) and their ability to access, generate, express and regulate their emotions appropriately. the social aspect relates to the managers’ ability to manage their emotions appropriately in their social relationships, particularly with regard to handling conflict and emotions stemming from it (baron, 1997; cooper & sawaf, 2000; george, 2002; martinezpons, 2000; orbach, 1999). similar findings for the south african management context are reported by coetzee (2005) and palmer et al (2006). the dominant entj profile and in particular the thinking (t) and judging (j) personalit y t y pes also suggest that the senior management group is highly task-focused, appears to favour creating logical order and struct ure in the organisation and prefer to use the process of logic in pursuit of organisational goals. participants appear to favour being decisive and making decisions quickly and with confidence. thinking-judging t y pes tend to be objective, detached and “hard-headed” and tend to put emotions and the needs of others aside (myers et al, 2003). the thinking-judging preference therefore implies that the group of senior managers who participated in this st udy value efficiency, set high standards and value competence. however, in the process they appear to give less attention and energ y to people-related behaviours that contribute to effective managing and leading (myers et al, 2003). these include, for example, behaviours such as involvement of employees in decision-making and being open to employees’ subjective needs related to extrinsic, intrinsic and relational motivation-related factors. the overrepresentation of south african managers who prefer the combination of thinking and judging on the mbti is well documented in a wide variet y of st udies (coetzee et al, 2006; coetzee, fouché, rothmann & theron, 2000; de beer & van der walt, 1999; du toit, coetzee & visser, 2005). these findings could offer a probable explanation for the experiences of particularly females and support staff regarding the leaders’ communication, control and decisionmaking st yle as well as manager-worker relationships as reported by the organisational cult ure and employee satisfaction survey results. in addition, the findings regarding the perceived emotional competency and dominant taskdriven personalit y t y pe of the leaders also suggest probable reasons for the negative work/life balance experiences of the directors and associates. however, causalit y assumptions such as these need to be empirically validated by means of further research initiatives. implications the findings have important implicat ions for the organisation’s current employment and retention practices. practices that match the needs of the individual with those of the organisation are likely to result in higher levels of satisfaction, commitment and performance (dö ckel et al, 2006; michaels et al, 2001; robinson, 2006). appelbaum, bailey, berg and kalleberg (2000) found a significant link bet ween management behaviour related to recruitment, selection and training; extrinsic, intrinsic and relational employee motivation-related factors; as well as practices designed to secure involvement and participation in decisionmaking and organisational performance and employee commitment levels. furthermore, as expected from previous research, managers in the western organisational context tend to support rational approaches to decision-making, which emphasise creating challenging visions, setting “stretching” goals and demonstrating the self-confidence in achieving these targets in an objective, detached and “hard-headed” manner. emotions are typically put aside as the logic is followed wherever it leads (myers et al, 2003). it is therefore recommended that leader development efforts focus on instilling an awareness in senior managers of how their behaviour (particularly showing respect for employees’ needs, the degree of support and encouragement they provide, the trust they demonstrate in employees’ ability and the overall effectiveness of their current leadership behaviour) influences the degree to which employees feel committed to the organisation and are motivated to perform (robinson, 2006). in particular, management needs to pay attention to the following issues that influence employees' satisfaction and sense of wellbeing: l effectiveness of communications about company performance and employees’ contribution to this; l employees’ satisfaction and feelings of being treated fairly with respect to performance appraisal methods; l pay and benefits, sense of job security and career advancement opportunities; l involvement in decisions affecting the job or work; l positive and supportive relations with managers; l levels of job satisfaction stemming from degree of influence felt over the job; l work/life balance; and l the amount of respect gained and a sense of achievement in doing the job (bowen, gilliland & folger, 1999; kotze, 2004; purcell et al, 2003). myers et al (2003) state that one of the hardest tasks for extraverted (e)-thinking (t) managers is recognising the process of decision-making which involves the information and recognition seeking, inclusion and support needs of others. practitioners could use 360-degree feedback instruments such as employed in this study and other inventories to provide practical, specific feedback to managers about their style and its impact. in particular, feedback should help managers to identif y common strengths and weaknesses in leadership competencies according to personality type. the findings of this study clearly show the daunting challenges that managers in south african organisations face. south african managers need to pay attention to efforts that attempt to reconcile the needs of the organisation with those of the employees. they also need to implement human resource strategies and management practices that not only further the organisation’s performance but at the same time satisf y the quality of work life and extrinsic, intrinsic and relational motivation-related needs of a diverse group of employees. this includes improving the way things get done to ensure the long term effectiveness and success of the organisation in a dynamic competitive business environment. to facilitate this process, the continuous development of managerial leadership at all levels in the organisation will remain essential (kotze, 2004). limitations and recommendations for future research this study was a preliminary exploration of the perceived emotional competency and personality types of the senior managers in an attempt to illuminate probable reasons for employees’ perceptions of the organisational culture and their levels of satisfaction. however, the relationship between the probable internal causalit y (the assessed emotional competencies and personality types) and the external causality (the organisational culture and employee satisfaction findings) need to be empirically validated by means of more rigorous measures and larger sample sizes. this could not be done in the culture satisfaction and emotional competencies 31 current study because of the small sample of senior managers and the fact that the sample of employees was restricted to a single company. this limits the possibility of generalising the findings. future research could focus on extending surveys of this nature to a broader range of companies and senior managers. despite the limitations, the findings of this study are regarded as an important contribution to the expanding body of knowledge that focuses on the evaluation of organisational factors and leader attributes that influence the motivation, commitment and satisfaction of employees in south african organisations. references aamodt, m.g. (2007). industrial/organisational psychology: an applied approach. belmont, ca: thomson higher education. appelbaum, e., barley, t., berg, p. & kalleberg, a. (2000). manufacturing advantage: why high performance systems pay off. london: ilr press. ashkanasy, n.m. & daus, c.s. (2005). rumors of the death of emotional intelligence in organizational behavior are vastly exaggerated. journal of organizational behavior, 26, 441-452. bar-on, r. (1997). bar-on emotional quotient inventory: facilitator’s resource manual. toronto: multi-health systems. bowen, d., gilliland, s. & folger, r. (1999). hrm and service fairness: how being fair with employees spills over to customers. in r. schuler & s. jackson (eds.), strategic human resource management. oxford: blackwell. buchanan, d. & huczynski, a. (2004). organisational behaviour: an introductory text. harlow, ft: prentice-hall. buckingham, m. (2001). what a waste. people management, 11 october, 1-3. burke, r.j. (2002). organisational values, job experiences and satisfactions among managerial and professional women and men:advantage men? women in management review, 17(5), 228-236. campion, m.a. & medsker, g. & higgs, c. (1993). relations between work group characteristics and effectiveness: implications for designing effective work groups. personnel psychology, 46(4), 823-850. carmeli, a. (2003). the relationship between emotional intelligence and work attitudes, behaviour and outcomes: an examination among senior managers. journal of managerial psychology, 18(8), 788-813. clark, l. a. & watson, d. (1995). constructing validity: basic issues in objective scale development. psychological assessment, 7, 309–319. coetzee, m. (2005). the relationship between personality preferences, self-esteem and emotional competence. dlitt et phil (industrial and organisational psychology) thesis, university of south africa: pretoria. coetzee, m., martins, n., basson, j.s. & muller, h. (2006). the relationship between personality preferences, selfesteem and emotional competence. sa journal of industrial psychology, 32(2), 64-73. coetzee, s.c., fouché, w.j., rothmann, s. & theron, n. (2000). the personality preferences of business lecturers and students at a tertiary education institution. bestuursdinamika, 9(1), 65-94. collins, v.l. (2001). emotional intelligence and leadership success. doctoral dissertation, university of nebraska, lincoln, ne. cooper, r.k. & sawaf, a. (2000). executive eq: emotional intelligence in business. new york: texere publishing limited. davidson, g.m. (2004). organisational culture and financial performance in a south african investment bank. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of south africa, pretoria. deal, t.e. & kennedy, a.a. (1982). corporate cultures: the rites and rituals of corporate life. reading, ms: addison-wesley. de beer, j. & van der walt, s. (1999). the myers-briggs type indicator in south africa: psychometric research perspectives. johannesburg: jopie van rooyen & partners. denison, d.r. (1990). corporate culture and organizational effectiveness. new york: john wiley. denison, d.r. & mishra, a.k. (1995). toward a theory of organizational culture and effectiveness. organisation science, 6 (2), 204-223. döck el, a., basson, j.s. & coetzee, m. (2006). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. sa journal of human resource management, 4(2), 20-28. du toit, f., coetzee, s. & visser, d. (2005). the relationship between personality type and sense of coherence among technical workers. southern african business review, 9(1), 51-65. eskildsen, j.k. & dahlgaard, j.j. (2000). a causal model for employee satisfaction. total quality management, 11(8), 1081-1094. george, j.m. (2000). emotions and leadership: the role of emotional intelligence. human relations, 53, 1027-1041. goleman, d.(2001). an ei-based theory of performance. in c. cherniss & d. goleman (eds.), the emotionally intelligent workplace (p. 27). san francisco: jossey-bass. harris, l.c. & ogbonna, e. (1997). a three-perspective approach to understanding culture in retail organizations. personnel review, 7(2), 104-123. higgs, m. (2001). is there a relationship between the myersbriggs type indicator and emotional intelligence? journal of managerial psychology, 16 (7), 509-533. hirsh, s.k. & kummerow, j.m. (1993). introduction to type in organisations. palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. ivancevich, j.m., konopaske, r. & matteson, m.t. (2005). organizational behaviour and management, 7th edition. boston: mcgraw-hill. kanfer, r. & kantrowitz, t.m. (2002). emotion regulation: command and control of emotion in work life. in r.g. lord, r.j. klimoski, & r. kanfer (eds.), emotions in the workplace: understanding the structure and role of emotions in organizational behaviour ( pp 429-472). new york: josseybass. keaveny, t.j. & inderrieden, e.j. (2000). gender differences in pay satisfaction and pay expectations. journal of managerial issues, 12(3), 363-380. kidd, j.m. & smewing, c. (2001). the role of the supervisor in career and organizational commitment. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 10(1), 25-40. kochanski, j. & ledford, g. (2001). “how to keep me”: retaining technical professionals. research technology management, 44(3), 31–38. kotter, j.p. & heskett, j.l. (1992). corporate culture and performance. new york: free press. kotze, t. (2004). quality of work life: what managers need to know. management today, 20(6), 38-41. lawler, e.e. & finegold, d. (2000). individualising the organisation: past, present and future. organisational dynamics, 29(1), 1-15. locke, e.a. (2005). why emotional intelligence is an invalid concept. journal of organizational behavior, 26, 425431. mandell, b. & pherwani, s. (2003). relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership style: a gender comparison. journal of business and psychology, 17(3), 387-404. martinez-pons, m. (2000). emotional intelligence as a selfregulatory process: a social-cognitive view. imagination, cognition, and personality, 19, 331-350. martin, j. (2005). organisational behaviour and management. london: thomson. martins, n. (1989). organisasiekultuur in ‘n finansiële instelling/ organisational culture in a financial institution. unpublished dphil-thesis. university of pretoria, pretoria. martins, e. & martins, n. (2002). an organisational culture model to promote creativity and innovation. sa journal of industrial psychology, 28(4), 54-65. martins, coetzee32 martins, n. & martins, e.c. (2003). organisational culture. in s.p. odendaal, a. odendaal & g. roodt (eds.), organisational behaviour: global and southern african perspectives ( pp. 379400). cape town: pearson education. martins, n., martins, e.c. & terblanche, f. (2004). an organizational culture model to stimulate creativity and innovation in an university library. advances in library administration and organisation, 21. martins, n. & von der ohe, h. (2006). detecting sub-cultures in an organisation. southern african business review, 10(2), 130-149. mayer, j.d. & salovey, p. (1993). the intelligence of emotional intelligence. intelligence, 17, 433-442. mccrae, r. & costa, p. (1988). re-interpreting the myers-briggs type indicator from the perspective of the five-factor model of personality. journal of personality and social psychology, 130, 385-396. mcelroy, j. c. (2001). managing workplace commitment by putting people first. human resources management review, 11, 327–335. mcmurray, a.j. (2003). the relationship between organizational climate and organizational culture. the journal of american academy of business, 3(1), 1-8. michaels, e., hardfield-jones, h. & axelrod, b. (2001). the war for talent. harvard business school press. miller, m. (1999). emotional intelligence helps managers succeed. credit union magazine, 65, 25-26. myers, i.b. & mccaulley, m.h. (1985). manual: a guide to the development and use of the myers-briggs type indicator. palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. myers, i.b., mccaulley, m.h., quenk, n.l., & hammer, a.l. (2003). mbti manual: a guide to the development and use of the myers-briggs type indicator. palo alto, california: consulting psychologists press, inc. nabi, g.r. (2001). the relationship between hrm, social support and subjective career success among men and women. international journal of manpower, 22(5), 457-471. nunnally, j. & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory (3rd ed.). new york: mcgraw-hill. orbach, s. (1999). towards emotional literacy. london: little brown & company. palmer, p.n., jansen, c.a. & coetzee, m. (2006). perceptions of south african managers’ emotional intelligence: a preliminary investigation. southern african business review,10 (1), 91-110. pollitt, d. (2005). diversity is about more than observing the letter of the law. human resource management international digest, 13(4), 37-40. purcell, j., kinnie, n., hutchinson, s., rayton, b. & swart, j. (2003). understanding the people and performance link: unlocking the black box. cipd research report, london: cipd. robbins, s.p. (2005). organizational behaviour, 11th edition. upper saddle river, nj: prentice-hall. robinson, i. (2006). human resource management in organisations. london: chartered institute of personnel and development. rollinson, d. (2005). organisational behaviour and analysis: an integrated approach. london: prentice-hall. salovey, p. & mayer, j.d. (1990). emotional intelligence. imagination, cognition, and personality, 9, 185-211. sas institute. (2000). the sas system for windows: release 9.1. cary: sas institute inc. shaughnessy, j.j. & zechmeister, e.b. (1997). research methods in psychology. new york: mcgraw-hill. siegel, p.h., smith, j.w. & mosca, j.b. (2001). mentoring relationships and interpersonal orientation. leadership & organisation development journal, 22(3), 114-125. smith, p.l., smits, s.j. & hoy, f. (1998). employee work attitudes: the subtle effect of gender. human relations, 51, 649-666. smit, p.j. & cronje, g.j. de j. (eds.). (1997). management principles. kenwyn: juta. stuart,a.d. & pauquet, a. (2001). emotional intelligence as a determinant of leadership potential. journal of industrial psychology, 27(3), 30-34. tett, r.p. & meyer, j.p. (1993). job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intention and turnover, path analysis based on meta-analytical findings. personnel psychology, 46, 259-293. whetton, d.a. & cameron, k.s. (2002). developing management skills. new jersey: prentice-hall. wolmarans, s. (2002). emotional competencies of the future. obtained directly from the author. wolmarans, s. & martins, n. (2001). the 360 degree emotional competency prof iler. unpublished manual. johannesburg: organisational diagnostics and learning link international. wong, c. & law, k.s. (2002). the effects of leader and follower emotional intelligence on performance and attitude. the leadership quarterly, 13(3), 243-274. zemke, r., raines, c., & filipczak, b. (2000). generations at work: managing the clash of veterans, boomers, xers and nexters in your workplace. washington, dc: american management association. abstract introduction literature review theoretical framework research design and methods ethical clearance limitations findings summary of findings recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) annette a.j. venter deans office, faculty of engineering and the built environment, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa research and innovation unit, faculty of business and management sciences, cape peninsula university of technology, pretoria, south africa tessie h.h. herbst office of the deputy-vice chancellor: teaching, learning and technology, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa chux g. iwu research and innovation unit, faculty of business and management sciences, cape peninsula university of technology, pretoria, south africa citation venter, a.a.j., herbst, t.h.h., & iwu, c.g. (2019). what will it take to make a successful administrative professional in the fourth industrial revolution?. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1224. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1224 original research what will it take to make a successful administrative professional in the fourth industrial revolution? annette a.j. venter, tessie h.h. herbst, chux g. iwu received: 21 may 2019; accepted: 16 sept. 2019; published: 29 nov. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the rapid economic developments of the last decade have been driven by the impact of revolutionary developments in information and communication technologies. these technological developments have irreversibly and significantly affected the role of an administrative professional with regard to assimilation, processing and utilisation of information. research purpose: this study investigates the impact of global and national key drivers of change and transformation on the skills requirements of administrative professionals with the aim of developing a future-focused success profile to enable them to be effective in the new world of work. motivation for the study: the study is motivated by the personal experience of one of the researchers, and her observation of the impact of technological advances and the necessity for administrative professionals to integrate new skills, knowledge and attitudes into the new world of work. research approach/design and method: this study followed a mixed methods approach, using both pragmatist and constructivist paradigms. the pragmatist approach provides meaning through the natural work environment of an administrative professional, whilst a constructivist approach is followed to compile a whole-brain success profile. from a sample of 354, a total of 219 responses were received, which represent a response rate of 62%. data were collected through a visual analogue scale-type questionnaire. main findings: the findings reveal that the skill requirements for the future success of an administrative professional involve proficiency to function from all quadrants of the whole-brain model. practical/managerial implications: the curricula of undergraduate qualifications should be adapted to allow for shorter credit-bearing skill modules in line with the latest trends in technology, because the profession of administrative professionals is mainly skill-based. in addition, owing to the focus of the study on the new world of work, the findings could be related to most occupations. contribution or value-add: this study contributes to the construction of a future-focused whole-brain model, according to the functional skills, essential skills and emerging skills required for optimal effectiveness of administrative professionals in the future-focused world of work. keywords: functional; essential future skills; emerging future skills; administrative professionals; fourth industrial revolution introduction the revolutionary developments in information and communication technologies have impact not only on administrative professional’s work environment but also on their future roles and accompanying thinking processes. more importantly, the traditional skills of administrative professionals have become obsolete, with a shift towards executive support, which entails skills at a more advanced level. authors such as domeyer (2005) and rorbak (2012) confirm that the increasingly complex and specialised effects of rapid developments in information technology and its diversity in business environment pose a challenge to the existing work behaviours. this also requires that administrative professionals acquire more knowledge on a variety of subjects, and that they apply more skills than at any other point in the history of the profession. technological changes have also had a significant impact on the role of administrative professionals with regard to the assimilation, processing and utilisation of information. a combination of technical expertise and desirable personal attributes contributes to the career success and effectiveness of administrative professionals. several researchers (ensminger, surry, porter, & wright, 2004; hollis-turner, 2008, p. ii) emphasise the importance of ‘a perceived need to change old methods’ and ‘the need for developing psychological ownership and competencies by employees in order to successfully facilitate change within an organisation’. the call to adapt to new ways of thinking in the new world of work led venter (2011) to investigate the ideal profile of preferred thinking styles of a contemporary administrative professional. the results revealed that the current preferred thinking styles of administrative professionals might be inadequate for performing effectively in the newly developing world of work. the necessity for administrative professionals to develop from a predominantly left-brain thinking preference to become whole-brain thinkers, by incorporating right-brain thinking in executing their roles effectively, emerged from this study. the contemporary administrative professional would continue to need left-brain thinking skills to function effectively. however, based on venter’s findings, such thinking needs to be complemented by right-brain thinking in order for the administrative professional to function more effectively in the new world of work. the whole-brain thinking equips a person to develop the skills to interpret managerial styles as well as resolve business problems pertaining to production, planning, communication, teamwork and reaching goals. whole-brain thinking also provides an invaluable basis for understanding processes of thinking and the interrelation of knowledge, skills and competence (herrmann & herrmann-nehdi, 2015; neethling & rutherford, 2005). herrmann (1995) asserts that the: [c]ompetence to perform a given task comes through training and experience and can be developed to reasonable, even superior levels whether or not the person is attracted to that task. (p. 76) thinking that is associated with the whole-brain concept (herrmann & herrmann-nehdi, 2015) emerged in research conducted by the world economic forum (2016), which found that an immense disruption of skills arose from the onset of the fourth industrial revolution (4ir). this article is a response to bussin and brigman’s (2019) statement that key demographic and economic drivers of change continuously change the context of employment, which will lead to a shortage of 60 million knowledge workers worldwide by 2020. in addition, this study is based on the recommendations of a previous study by venter (2011), who came to the conclusion that administrative professionals henceforth need to complement their predominantly left-brain thinking with right-brain thinking to function effectively in the new world of work. the significance of this study therefore lies in its attempt to determine the impact of global key drivers of change on the future-focused whole-brain success profile for optimal effectiveness of administrative professionals in the future world of work. literature review the economic characteristics of the world have changed dramatically. societies have evolved over four industrial revolutions from a group of farmers to consumers sharing their experiences in a knowledge-based society. to transition amongst economies requires a different way of thinking. thinking associated with the left brain emerged during the agrarian economy, the industrial economy and the information age. the industrial economy fostered quality and productivity. electronics, technological developments and global competition characterised the digital age. the ability to acquire and apply theoretical and analytical knowledge distinguished knowledge workers. the service economy emphasised proficiency, it increased productivity and strove for quality in goods and services (bloem et al., 2014; ferreira & teixeira, 2013; herrmann, 1995; hosany & witham, 2010; howes, 2016; kamel, melo, de souza, lima, & lopes, 2008; oecd, 2000; pine & gilmore, 1998, 2001; pink, 2005; pompidou, 2007; rowson & mcgilchrist, 2013; seltzer & bentley, 1999; ubs, 2016). with the emergence of the experience economy, a diverse set of skills came to the fore, with new technologies that engaged customers with experiences that involve and create emotions and affective memories, where different dimensions of sensory, social and spiritual stimulants focus on providing customers with holistic and long-lasting personal experiences. the emotional response of the creators and the empathisers at the delivery of a service appeals to the limbic system, and consequently to the right brain, which controls the limbic system (ferreira & teixeira, 2013; herrmann, 1995; hosany & witham, 2010; kamel et al., 2008; pine & gilmore, 1998). in addition, the conceptual age required the mastering of a new set of skills, including empathy, creativity and storytelling, which reflect right-brain thinking. the emphasis on right-brain thinking continues with the economic realm of relationships. the rise of social media gave brands and consumers a variety of platforms for conversations and connections, thus a different means of communication and social skills (huitt, 2007; pink, 2005; smith, n.d.; stanfield & o’hare, 2013). thinking associated with whole-brain thinking emerged in research by the world economic forum (2016), which found that there is an immense disruption to skills, driven by extreme automation and connectivity through artificial intelligence that has set the stage for the sharing economy (4ir). this has implications for the skill set that includes social and cognitive abilities as well as technical skills, resource management, processing (e.g. active listening, critical thinking and monitoring self and others), content skills (e.g. active learning, oral expression, reading comprehension, written expression, information, communication and technology literacy), system skills (such as judgement and decision-making and system analysis) and complex problem-solving abilities. in addition, for the workforce to be successful, it needs to go beyond these skills, namely to be flexible and to be able to adapt to change (anderson & rainie, 2012; bloem et al., 2014; herrmann & herrmann-nehdi, 2015; quilligan, 2015; ubs, 2016). the focus of the study is on the impact of global key drivers of change in the south african context and the impact thereof on administrative professionals. as stated by the ubs (2016), these global key drivers of change would have a negative impact on highly repetitive low-skill and medium-skill occupations. although south africa is a young participant in these global trends, the key drivers of change have a significant impact on the current political and economic dialogue. recognising the impact of changing economic structures on the future would continue to expand the ability of south africa to grow globally by placing a competitive impetus on all south africans (cilliers, hughes, & moyer, 2011; fear, botha, young, rautenbach, & groenewald, 2009; silke, 2011). the department of higher education and training (2016) has compiled the national skills development strategy (nsds iii) progress report 2011–2016 to serve as a key driving force in improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the skills development system. it also promotes partnerships between employers and public education institutions (including technical and vocational education and training colleges, universities, universities of technology, private training providers and sector education and training authorities) (department of higher education and training, 2016; skills development facilitator guide, 2013). in keeping with the need to recognise the impact of key drivers of change, the african union points out on their website (https://www.un.org/en/africa/osaa/pdf/au/agenda2063.pdf) that the african agenda 2063 serves as a masterplan for transforming africa into a global powerhouse of the future. of specific relevance is the aim to ‘[c]atalyse education and skills revolution and actively promote science, technology, research and innovation, to build knowledge, human capital, capabilities and skills to drive innovations […] for the african century’ (african union commission, 2015). the characteristics of the new world of work, known as the ‘key drivers of change’ served as a guide to test the impact of global and national key drivers of change and transformation on the application of new knowledge and skills of administrative professionals in a south african context. the guide, as illustrated in figure 1, is adopted from burton and shelton (2010), davies, fiddler and gorbis (2011) and the world economic forum (2016) to constitute a framework of emerging key drivers of change that transform global society and marketplace. figure 1: a guide for the key drivers of change. the increasingly complex and specialised effects of the explosion of information technology and its diversity in the business environment not only challenge existing work behaviours but also require administrative professionals to acquire more knowledge on a variety of subjects, and apply more skills, than at any other point in the history of the profession. they have also impacted significantly the role of administrative professionals with regard to the assimilation, processing and utilisation of information. a combination of technical expertise and desirable personal attributes contributes to the career success and effectiveness of administrative professionals. to successfully change within an organisation, employees should develop psychological ownership and new competencies (domeyer, 2005; ensminger et al., 2004; hollis-turner, 2008; rorbak, 2012). other factors that impact the effectiveness of administrative professionals were revealed in studies conducted by ferreira and van antwerpen (2011) and van antwerpen and ferreira (2016) amongst administrative support staff in the south african public service. the factors that are relevant to the subject are, amongst others, promises that are not kept with regard to skills improvement, such as attending training courses, ignorance regarding inclusion of centralised decision-making, and faster and more powerful computer hardware. the results of venter’s (2011) investigation into the ideal thinking style preference profile of administrative professionals revealed that the preferred thinking styles of administrative professionals might be inadequate for performing effectively in the newly developing world of work. what also emerged is the necessity for them to develop from a predominantly left-brain thinking preference to become whole-brain thinkers by incorporating right-brain thinking in executing their roles effectively. according to herrmann (1995), left-brain thinking relates to hard thinking processing, such as to organise information logically, analyse problems and solutions, rational, criteria and logical reasoning, quantitative issues and activities. thus, left-brain thinking needs to be complemented by nonlinear and non-verbal right-brain thinking such as visual, conceptual, imaginative, spatial and simultaneous processes for administrative professionals to function more effectively in the new world of work. whole-brain thinking equips a person to develop the skills to interpret managerial styles as well as to resolve business problems pertaining to production, planning, communication, teamwork and reaching goals. it also provides an invaluable basis for understanding processes of thinking, and the interrelation of knowledge, skills and competence (herrmann & herrmann-nehdi, 2015; neethling & rutherford, 2005). the brain constantly changes when it learns a new skill set, for example a technical or a financial skill. once the process of thinking is understood and utilised to support and enhance the effectiveness of employees, problem-solving, innovation, communication and achieving individual and company goals are promoted. professionals are able to adapt to the continuous pace and the extent of change more effectively, and they could access different thinking styles that could provide appropriate responses to changing situations. although individuals choose to solve problems in their preferred thinking style, access to all thinking styles is necessary to solve more complex problems. individuals can adopt different thinking styles according to different tasks and situations. whole-brain thinking encourages a person to complement less preferred thinking style preferences instead of disregarding the lack of necessary skills, which may cause anxiety and stress. furthermore, the new world of work encourages a shift within educational institutions and the workforce. the historically separate worlds of work and learning originally focused on predominantly left-brain thinking and teaching. this was evident in the service economy, where knowledge workers excelled in left-brain thinking and were distinguished for ‘their ability to acquire and apply theoretical and analytical knowledge’ (pink, p.16) (de boer & van den berg, 2001; harypursat, 2005; herrmann, 2005; jensen, 2007; kruger, 2008; neethling & rutherford, 2005; samuel & kohun, 2010; sternberg, 1994; van niekerk, 2007). theoretical framework considering that the purpose of this study was to discover and interpret the impact of global key drivers of change on administrative professionals for effective performance in the changing world of work from a whole-brain perspective, the relevant key whole-brain human information processing theories were considered. these theories include herrmann’s whole brain® model (herrmann, 1996; herrmann & herrmann-nehdi, 2015), taggart’s whole-brain human information processing theory (taggart, 1980; taggart & valenzi, 1990; taggart, valenzi, zalka, & lowe, 1997), sternberg’s theory of thinking styles (sternberg, 1990, 1994) and kirton’s model of cognitive style (cassidy, 2004; coffield, moseley, hall, & ecclestone, 2004; kumar, 2014; stum, 2009). consequently, herrmann’s whole brain® theory has been chosen, given that the characteristics of the theory mainly encourage whole-brain development. herrmann’s whole brain® theory thus serves as a conceptual framework for this study with the aim of constructing a future-focused whole-brain success profile. in addition, herrmann’s whole brain® theory is chosen as herrmann is acknowledged as the father of brain dominance technology in literature (de boer, du toit, & bothma, 2015). furthermore, his research provides a valid approach towards a theory for understanding how the brain processes information. he illustrates this through the four-quadrant model, which presents four modes of thinking and learning, not only two hemispheres, and is based on the whole brain® theory comprising the following key concepts (alghraibeh, 2015; herrmann, 1996): thinking styles are featured as neither good or bad, right or wrong. the thinking style shows a preference for mental activity that is quite different from the efficiency of performing that activity. thinking styles tend to be constant over time. application of the model can harness cognitive diversity, such as improving the efficiency of teams and individuals, and for better problem-solving, decision-making, communication and management. the model is holistic and has factorial and construct validity when applied in the fields of business and education. moreover, the whole brain® theory promotes professional development by encouraging the development of less preferred thinking styles. consequently, herrmann believes that thinking style flexibility supports responses to meet particular situational demands. herrmann’s whole brain® model and the herrmann brain dominance instrument (hbdi) represent one of the six recommended models in education and training. furthermore, herrmann’s whole-brain approach provides evidence that using multiple thinking styles promotes development of students’ full potential and deeper learning (coffield et al., 2004; herrmann, 1995; herrmann & herrmann-nehdi, 2015; martins, 2015). the triune brain theory and the left-brain/right-brain theory facilitated the development of herrmann’s whole brain® model. popularisation of this theory was formed by clinical evidence provided by robert ornstein, roger sperry, joseph bogen and michael gazzanaga. these two hemispheres communicate with each other by means of connectors called the corpus callosum, the hippocampal commissure and the anterior commissure. herrmann combined the elements of maclean’s triune brain model and sperry’s theories into a four-part model representing the whole brain® model (herrmann, 1996, p. 15). the four-quadrant model therefore serves as an organising principle of how the brain works, namely that the four thinking styles metaphorically represent the two halves of the cerebral cortex (sperry) and the two halves of the limbic system (maclean). as illustrated in figure 2, the cerebral mode represents the cognitive modes associated with the cortex, demonstrating quadrants a and d of herrmann’s whole brain® model. quadrants b and c represent the more visceral and emotional modes associated with the limbic system (herrmann, 1996). figure 2: the triune brain theory combined with the left-brain/right-brain theory which emerged into the four-quadrant concept. the above explanation of the whole brain® theory serves to interpret the results of the study and to construct a future-focused whole-brain model. the herrmann whole brain® model also forms the core of a future-focused whole-brain model, as illustrated in figure 3. figure 3: core of the future-focused whole-brain model. rapid economic developments of the past decade have had an irreversible impact on the set of skills and thinking processes of administrative professionals who are expected to apply 20th-century skills and knowledge in a new world of work. therefore, administrative professionals have to adjust from the execution of duties on the instruction of managers, as was expected in the service economy, to the demands of the experience economy to the skills of innovation and creativity. the relationship economy has prompted a shift towards another conformation, namely interpersonal and intuitive skills. consumers are sharing their experiences of trademarks and services on social media. therefore, social media create a different platform for administrative professionals to communicate and connect with clients. flexibility and adaptability are skills required not only for the sharing economy but also for transition into 4ir, which is driven by extreme automation and connectivity through artificial intelligence. administrative professionals should obtain a skill set which is beyond that of functional skills to execute their role effectively. research design and methods research approach the research followed an embedded mixed methods approach. the research was conducted in three phases. in phase 1, international and national investigations were conducted through email enquiries sent to various international and national associations of administrative professionals to establish whether they had undergone a formal skillset survey to determine current gaps in the competencies and capabilities of administrative professionals. in the international investigation, the international association of administrative professionals (iaap) and a committee member of the association of administrative professionals, new zealand (aapnz) provided data that had emerged from their respective skillset surveys. the national investigation revealed that the administrative professional associations had not conducted a formal skillset survey, and a national skills survey was therefore conducted in phase 3. phase 2 consisted of a review of the literature to uncover the gaps in knowledge and the lack of skills according to the mental preferences of herrmann’s whole brain® model. a sequential exploratory design was employed for phase 3 to produce the quantitative data that emanated from a structured survey questionnaire which assessed what impact the key drivers of change had on administrative professionals becoming whole-brain thinkers, so as to execute their role more effectively. an analysis was undertaken, where descriptive statistics were used to source primary data. the qualitative data that emerged from the semi-structured interviews that investigated the required future competencies and capabilities of administrative professionals were then analysed by means of qualitative content analysis. the three-phase data-gathering process was followed to construct a future-focused whole-brain success profile to demonstrate the impact of global key drivers of change in terms of the future functional skills, the essential skills and the emerging skills required for optimal effectiveness. research participants only phase 3 included participants. reporting on quantitative and qualitative data was therefore captured in this phase. members of the association for office professionals of south africa (opsa) completed the survey questionnaire online. from the target population (n = 354), a total of 219 responses were received, representing a response rate of 62%. a pilot test was conducted with 10 respondents from the target population, who were dispersed over a wide geographical area. for the purpose of the semi-structured interviews, two administrative professionals from the industry were dentified and invited by the association for opsa to participate. the chairperson of the department of office management and technology’s academic advisory committee at the tshwane university of technology identified an academic advisory committee representative to participate. the remainder of the sample group, namely the education and training professional, manager and subject curriculum practitioner, was made up of professionals from the tshwane university of technology. measuring instruments a survey questionnaire was designed for phase 3 as a measuring instrument to gather data based on the national skills survey. the questionnaire was divided into three sections: section a elicited biographical information, such as age, geographical location of employer, current position, duration of current or related work experience, industry, professional membership, highest level of education and enrolment status. section b was compiled based on the data emanating from the international investigation (phase 1), future-focused models, such as the future work skills 2020 of davies et al. (2011) and burton and shelton’s (2010) lifelong learning skills, and a literature review. the visual analogue scale (vas) was applied to this section (green & taylor, 2009; hasson & arnetz cited in musangu & kekwaletswe, 2012, p. 63–64; svensson, 2001). section b had the following categories, with four to five questions for each category: office administration, and organisational and time management information and communication technology management of meetings communication interpersonal skills, such as team working, project and event management, supervising of staff, conflict resolution, public relations and customer service/relations thinking skills, such as problem-solving, commercial awareness, personal commercial awareness development and outside-the-box/innovative thinking personal qualities, such as social adaptability and self-management emotional intelligence. section c comprised the following two open-ended questions: are there any other skills that you regard as essential skills for future success that are not mentioned in the questionnaire? in which of these do you need development? inferential statistics the alternative hypothesis (h1) postulated that there is a relationship between the demographic profile of administrative professionals in south african companies and the current level of knowledge and skills. the findings revealed that there was a significant relationship between the following: age and office administration, organisational, and time management, information and communication technology and web-based applications (table 1). considering that most of the respondents are employed as personal assistants, it could be possible that they are exposed to higher levels of knowledge and skills regarding the mentioned questions. in addition, the significant relationship could be attributed to the perception that the current multigenerational workforce has about learning. length of service and office administration, and organisational and time management. given the current multigenerational nature of the workforce, the only assumption that could be made regarding the significant relationship depicted in table 2 is similar to that indicated above (see table 1). table 1: relationship between age and items. table 2: relationship between length of service and items. data collection procedure the software surveymonkeytm served as a diagnostic and anonymous online assessment tool for collecting quantitative data. the opsa distributed the hyperlink of surveymonkeytm website to their members through their terrific tuesday electronic newsletter. qualitative data were gathered by means of semi-structured interviews that addressed the main categories of section b of the survey questionnaire. invitations to participate in the survey were sent by means of email invitations to prospective participants outlining the purpose of the investigation. the participating professionals were interviewed in their respective work environments. the recording of the interviews was carried out with an audio-recording pen. data analysis the skills and knowledge gaps that emerged from the three data-gathering phases were categorised according to the four thinking preferences of herrmann’s whole brain® model, namely the international investigation in phase 1, and the literature review in phase 2. phase 3 comprised quantitative findings from the national skills survey and qualitative findings that emerged from semi-structured interviews. with regard to the analysis of qualitative data by means of qualitative content analysis, eight main themes and related sub-themes of the semi-structured interview questionnaire were identified from the survey questionnaire. the entire transcribed text was arranged into themes and categories using the software atlas.ti™ version 8, and codes were assigned. the results from the survey questionnaire, phase 3, were analysed by means of descriptive statistics, which employed the statistical package for social sciences (spss) (couper, tourangeau, conrad, & singer, 2006). the descriptive statistics, in this case the mean value, were obtained from the interval-scaled items of the current knowledge and skills in category b. frequencies were analysed together with inferential statistics. a cronbach’s alpha analysis and tests for significant differences were performed. it is evident from the data in table 3 that 9 of the 10 main categories in category b were reliable for testing inter-item consistency, that is cronbach’s alpha (α) > 0.7. table 3: cronbach’s alpha (α) for the sub-scales of the measurement. ethical clearance the researcher obtained written consent from the research ethics committee of the cape peninsula university of technology to engage with human participants from public and private sectors. written consent was also obtained from an association for administrative professionals, namely the association for opsa that they would distribute the survey questionnaire to their members on behalf of the researcher for the quantitative data-gathering process. participants agreed to participate in the survey by means of an online implied consent. limitations negotiations with regard to the distribution of the survey questionnaire by the professional association, opsa proved a time-consuming process. the researcher distributed the letter of informed consent to chief executive officers (ceos) of three professional associations. communication with them was a time-consuming process, considering that being the ceo of a professional association was not their primary occupation. therefore, responses to emails were delayed, with the result that the period for approving the informed consent was extended. this trend was also experienced during the pilot study and the comprehensive survey. the professional association had to post numerous reminder emails, and consequently the window period had to be extended. in view of the fact that maximum participation in the survey was limited to one province, greater participation in other eight provinces would have added value to the study. another limitation was that the study was based on a self-assessment (respondents’ own perception of their current proficiency), and not an assessment of skills. regarding assessment of skills, it should be taken into consideration that van antwerpen (2013) found that testing of skills and competencies could be time-consuming. low response rate from the target population could also be considered a limitation of the study. ethical consideration ethical clearance to conduct the study was obtained from the faculty of business and management sciences’ research ethics committee (clearance number: 212306383). findings phase 1 the findings revealed that although skills and knowledge gaps were reflected in all four thinking quadrants, the impact of global and national key drivers of change reflected that skills were also required in the right-brain thinking quadrants, for example working independently, adaptability, virtual meeting management, creative ways to address projects and problems, human resource processes, supervision and training of co-workers, team participation and a different level of oral, written and interpersonal communication. phase 2 the results derived from the literature review in phase 2 supported the findings of an international investigation conducted in phase 1. however, the following additional skills and knowledge gaps were identified in phase 2: information and communication technology and web-based applications, data analysis and presentation, data-based decisions, communication awareness of the knowledge business and trends managing information in terms of acquire, evaluate, organise, maintain, interpret and communicate, technology knowledge of teleconferencing, skype and software for virtual meetings. these thinking processes utilise technical skills (what is needed) to serve as a tool for tasks, for example for research to be effective (what to do) and are related to the upper left thinking processes (quadrant a). managing resources by identifying, organising and planning and allocating time, money, materials and facilities. thinking in this quadrant, namely the lower left thinking processes (quadrant b) asks ‘how to’ in order to succeed in, for example, office administration, and organisational and time management. emotional intelligence, which includes interpersonal skills such as emotional and social skills, which promote working with people and building relationships related to the lower right-thinking processes, namely in quadrant c. phase 3 in table 3, the results of the current level of skills and knowledge are ranked in the descending order of the mean score. for the purpose of determining the mean value of the skills gap, all results of skills in the respective categories with a mean value lower than 6 were considered as skills gaps. it is noticeable from the summary that the respondents indicated their skills as relatively high on the vas, except in the category of web-based applications, which yielded a relatively lower value compared to other categories. in brief, the national skills survey conducted amongst administrative professionals in private and the public sectors determined the current gaps in competencies and capabilities to comply with the future world of work. phase 3 of the data-gathering process was thus based on the skills and knowledge gaps that emerged from the national skills survey and the semi-structured interviews. it is evident that the results of the national perspective obtained from the skills survey were not consistent with the results emanating from the international investigation and literature study. overall, there appears to be no shortage of skills in the south african context. thus, the respondents were of the opinion that they were up to standard as far as future skill requirements were concerned. the only skill shortages identified were in the category of web-based applications, as these responses recorded the lowest overall mean value, namely 5.3190. table 4: summary of the mean values of all categories. in the category of information and communication technology, some skills are regarded as not necessary skills gaps but these might hinder respondents in the future world of work because these items received lower mean values. these are electronic records management (7.92), social networking sites (7.83), internet phone services (7.43) and conducting research (7.20). according to the literature, these technology skills are vital skills for the future world of work. it is important to note that the results obtained are a reflection of respondents’ self-assessment of their level of proficiency in these skills categories. a performance-based assessment might have yielded different results. inconsistent with these findings are the findings of computer literacy skills that emanated from a study conducted by van antwerpen and ferreira (2016) amongst administrative employees in the gauteng public service. the findings of the practical test revealed that the level of competency was very low and that there was a lack of typing and keyboard skills. taking into account the impact of future skill requirements, as reflected in the guides for the key drivers of change (see figure 1), it could be deduced that the future skill requirements have not had a negative impact at national level. although no significant knowledge and skill gaps were perceived, according to the results of the national skills survey, as depicted in table 1, it was found that the mentioned skills would continue to be important skills needed to remain effective in the next 10 years. it could be assumed that at the rate at which technology is changing, gaps in skills are most likely to arise, considering the feedback received from the open-ended questions regarding the increasing need for additional training or training at an advance level or for the purpose of improving current skills. considering the relatively lower mean value (5.3190) (see table 1) for the category of web-based applications as well as for the category of demand for training, namely 24.02% in skills related to web-based applications, it seems that skills in web-based applications are regarded as a gap. summary of findings figure 4 depicts a future-focused model for whole-brain thinking, which shows the impact of revolutionary developments in information and communication technology on the current work environment of administrative professionals and the future role and accompanying thinking processes. the knowledge and skills required by administrative professionals for optimal efficiency were determined during the data-gathering process, namely in phases 1, 2 and 3. the knowledge and skills required to comply with and perform according to the demands of the changing world of work have been categorised as functional future skills, which constitute the first layer around herrmann’s four quadrants at the core of the future-focused model (see figure 4), followed by essential future skills, with emerging future skills in the outer layer. figure 4: future-focused whole-brain model. the four quadrants are displayed in figure 4, namely analytical (a), organise (b), personalise (c) and strategic (d), which show different thinking preferences. the activities allocated to these four thinking profiles are as follows: quadrant a represents activities that involve analysing, dissecting, solving problems logically and getting facts. these activities are preferred by the ‘theorists’, or the rational self. the organisers, or the safekeeping self, of quadrant b prefer detailed, sequential, structured and linear activities. activities that consider people, team participation, emotional intelligence and social and humanistic interests are represented in quadrant c. these activities are preferred by humanitarians, or the feeling self. intuitive, holistic, conceptualising, adventurous and risk-taking activities are preferred by innovators, or the experimental self, of quadrant d (herrmann, 1996, pp. 20–23). the functional future skills circle displays the basic skills and knowledge and the interpersonal skills that administrative professionals require to execute their work effectively, irrespective of the socio-economic, geopolitical and demographic key drivers of the changing economy. it is evident that administrative professionals at functional level require thinking in all four quadrants. a skillset much different from the functional future skillset is required in the circle representing essential future skills. a difference worth mentioning between the essential future skills layer and the functional future skills layer of quadrant a is that a more advanced computational skillset is required in the former layer, for example audio and video technology, digital technology, system thinking, data analysis and presentation, and data-based decisions. more resources have to be allocated in the essential future skills layer of quadrant b, namely organising time, assignments and projects, and streamlining tasks. skills such as training and mentoring of co-workers, effective negotiation, listening skills, and social and emotional intelligence are essential skills of quadrant c. being flexible with working arrangements, process skills, such as conceptualising and critical thinking, and novel and adaptive thinking differentiate the two layers of quadrant d. from the emerging future skills circle of quadrant a, it is apparent that the biggest impact is on the field of information and communication technology in terms of cloud technology, project management software and mobile internet technology. quadrant c shows that conflict management in terms of poor time management and communication is an emerging future skill. another emerging future skill of creating and developing a virtual corporate event is evident in quadrant d. recommendations this section provides recommendations for curriculum development and continuous professional development. recommendations for curriculum development considering the rapid pace of technology development, and the profession of administrative professionals being mainly skills-based, the current formal training of 3 years should be reconsidered. by the time administrative professionals enter the workplace, they run the risk of their skills being outdated. the curriculum should be adapted to allow for shorter modular credit-bearing skill programmes in line with the latest trends in technology. this would provide administrative professionals with a more flexible approach to improve their qualifications. bearing in mind that the highest qualification of most south african administrative professionals is a diploma, this recommendation could address the need for improvement in their qualifications. as discussed in phase 1, this would align their level of qualifications with the international benchmark, namely completing a higher-level qualification to fill gaps in knowledge. recommendations for continuous professional development the role of administrative professionals has definitely changed over the years, and evidence exists that their role would continue to evolve in the future. to adapt to and manage that change, a variety of avenues are available for professional development, for example training courses available through their employer, work shadowing, webinars or podcasts and attending conferences. opportunities for continuous training and development should be provided by means of short-learning programmes and refresher courses to allow administrative professionals acquire necessary skills of advanced levels. this would enable them to function and perform at an advance level in accordance with their new and more challenging and diversified roles. although van antwerpen (2013) believes that continuous training and development of administrative employees is important, she mentions some of the challenges experienced in south africa’s public service environment that cause training not adding value to performance. these challenges are inadequate employee training and development, lack of appropriate skills assessment, and additional dimension of strategic value. businesses in private and public sectors should therefore continuously invest in training and development to ensure reskilling of administrative employees. of particular importance is continuous training and development in the areas of advanced web-based applications, emotional intelligence, flexibility, adaptability to change, leadership and presentation skills. these opportunities should make provision for administrative professionals’ preferred methods of learning as indicated in the survey, that is, to obtain experience in their work environment, and to obtain training away from the office by means of books, articles and manuals. in this regard, application of hbdi could assist administrative professionals to identify their areas of strength and the areas that they need to develop so that they could select relevant continuous professional development opportunities. in addition to their usual responsibilities, administrative professionals are expected to take on a variety of new tasks, and they, therefore, require continuous professional development in these new tasks. examples of these tasks include internet research and market analysis, office management, marketing, human resources, finance, event management, support for multiple leaders or executives, making independent decisions up to a specified monetary value, holding specific industry experience, leading a project team and managing a budget. recommendations for further study the findings related to the skills category on information and communication technology are inconsistent with the findings of a computer literacy skills assessment that emanated from the study conducted by van antwerpen and ferreira (2016) amongst administrative employees in the gauteng public service. this inconsistency might be because of the fact that respondents did not reveal their actual computer literacy skills in a survey questionnaire used in this research. it is therefore recommended that additional research be conducted by means of practical assessments to determine the actual levels of computer-based competency. conclusion based on the results of the study, the future-focused success profile for administrative professionals illustrates that they have to become whole-brain thinkers, incorporating right-brain thinking in order to execute their roles effectively. thus, the future-focused whole-brain model offered in this study allows for optimal effectiveness of administrative professionals in the future world of work. in addition, owing to the focus of the study on the new world of work, the findings could be related to most of the occupations. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions dr h.h. herbst and prof. c.g. iwu supervised the first author’s (a.j.v.) doctoral study. funding information the financial assistance of the national research foundation (nrf) towards the research is acknowledged. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references african union commission. (2015). african agenda 2063: the africa we want. retrieved from https://www.un.org/en/africa/osaa/pdf/au/agenda2063.pdf. alghraibeh, a.m.a. (2015). learning and thinking styles based on whole brain theory in relation to emotional intelligence. open access library journal, 2(5):1–14. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1101436. anderson, j.q., & rainie, l. (2012). millennials will benefit and suffer due to their hyper connected lives. washington, dc: pew research center. retrieved from https://www.pewinternet.org/2012/02/29/millennials-will-benefit-and-suffer-due-to-their-hyperconnected-lives-2/. bloem, j., van doorn, m., duivestein, s., excoffier, d., maas, r., & van ommeren, e. (2014). the fourth industrial revolution: things to tighten the link between it and ot. sogeti vint. retrieved from https://www.fr.sogeti.com/globalassets/global/downloads/reports/vint-research-3-the-fourth-industrial-revolution. burton, s., & shelton, n. (2010). office procedures for the 21st century (8th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson education. bussin, m.h.r., & brigman, n. (2019). evaluation of remuneration preferences of knowledge workers. sa journal of human resource management, 17:1–10. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1075 cassidy, s. (2004). learning styles: an overview of theories, models, and measures. educational psychology, 24(4), 419–444. retrieved from https://acdowddesigns.com/sfsu_860_11/ls_overview.pdf. cathsseta. (2013). skills development facilitator guide. retrieved from https://www.cathsseta.org.za/. cilliers, j., hughes, b., & moyer, j. (2011). african futures 2050: the next forty years. iss monograph 175. pretoria, south africa: institute for security services. retrieved from https://www.issafrica.org/publications. coffield, f., moseley, d., hall, e., & ecclestone, k. (2004). learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning: a systematic and critical review. london: learning and skills research centre. retrieved from https//www.lsrc.ac.uk. couper, m.p., tourangeau, r., conrad, f.g., & singer, e. (2006). evaluating the effectiveness of visual analog scales: a web experiment. social science computer review, 24(2), 227–245. davies, a., fidler, d., & gorbis, m. (2011). future work skills 2020. palo alto, ca: institute for the future for the university of phoenix research institute. retrieved from https://www.iftf.org/uploads/media/sr-1382a_upri_future_work_skills_sm.pdf. de boer, a.-l., du toit, p.h., & bothma, t.j.d. (2015). activating whole brain® innovation: a means of nourishing multiple intelligence in higher education. td the journal for transdisciplinary research in southern africa, 11(2), 55–72. retrieved from https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/51114/deboer_activating_2015.pdf?sequence=1. de boer, a.-l., & van den berg, d. (2001). the value of the herrmann brain dominance instrument (hbdi) in facilitating effective teaching and learning of criminology. acta criminologica, 14(1), 119–129. retrieved from https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.505.2882&rep=rep1&type=pdf. department of higher education and training. (2016). national skills development strategy (nsds iii) progress report 2011–2016. pretoria, south africa: department of higher education and training. retrieved from www.wrseta.org.za/. domeyer, d. (2005). the office of the future presents a world of opportunity for administrative professionals. office pro, 65(16), 12. retrieved from https://www.iaap-hq.org. ensminger, d.c., surry, d.w., porter, b.e., & wright, d. (2004). factors contributing to the successful implementation of technology innovations. journal of educational technology & society, 7(3), 61–72. retrieved from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/75445/. fear, u., botha, n., young, c., rautenbach, j., & groenewald, f. (2009). skills development: developing people for the future of business. new york, ny: deloitte touche tohmatsu. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/za/en.html. ferreira, e., & van antwerpen, s. (2011). productivity and morale of administrative employees in the south african public service. african journal of business management, 5(32), 12606–12614. retrieved from https://www.academicjournals.org/ajbm. ferreira, h., & teixeira, a.a.c. (2013). ‘welcome to the experience economy’: assessing the influence of customer experience literature through bibliometric analysis. fep working papers. porto, portugal: university of porto. retrieved from https://wps.fep.up.pt/wps/wp481.pdf. green, n., & taylor, k. (2009). use of the visual analogue scale (vas) for assessment of discomfort in office workers. wellnomics® white paper. christchurch, new zealand: wellnomics limited. retrieved from https://www.workpace.com/assets/uploads/white-papers/wellnomics-white-paper-use-of-visual-analogue-scale-for-assessment-of-discomfort-in-office-workers.pdf. harypursat, r. (2005). the thinking styles of it students and practitioners. unpublished master’s thesis, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa. herrmann, n. (1995). the creative brain. kingsport, tn: quebecor printing book group. herrmann, n. (1996). the whole brain business book. new york: mcgraw-hill. herrmann, n., & herrmann-nehdi, a. (2015). the whole brain business book (2nd edn.) new york: mcgraw-hill. hollis-turner, s.l. (2008). higher education business writing practices in office management and technology programmes and in related workplaces. unpublished master’s thesis, cape peninsula university of technology, cape town, south africa. hosany, s., & witham, m. (2010). dimensions of cruisers’ experiences, satisfaction and intention to recommend. journal of travel research, 49(3), 351–364. retrieved from https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1032.4933&rep=rep1&type=pdf. howes, a. (2016). the relevance of skills to innovation during the british industrial revolution, 1651-1851. rhode island: brown university. retrieved from https://eh.net/eha/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/howes.pdf. huitt, w.g. (2007). success in the conceptual age: another paradigm shift. paper presented at the 32nd annual meeting of the georgia educational research association, savannah, ga. retrieved from https://edpsycinteractive.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/conceptual-age.pdf. jensen, e. (2007). introduction to brain-compatible learning (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: corwin press. kamel, j.a.n., melo, a.m., de souza, b.m.l., lima, j.m.b., & lopes, p.h.d.-m. (2008). experience economy. paper presented at the iv national congress of excellence in management on environmental responsibilities of organisations in niteroi, brazil. retrieved from https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.624.6797&rep=rep1&type=pdf. kruger, j. (2008). linkages between emotional intelligence and coping strategies in mastering new educational technologies. unpublished doctoral thesis, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. kumar, s. (2014). a study on cognitive styles of j. b. t. trainees in hamirpur district of himachal pradesh state with respect to gender, locale, stream, and family status. european academic research, ii(3), 3770–3788. retrieved from https://www.euacademic.org/uploadarticle/650.pdf. martins, m.j. (2015). ned herrmann model: team innovation by complementarity and diversity. retrieved from https://fenix.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/downloadfile/563568428717782/19%20ned%20herrmann%20mjm.pdf. musangu, l.m., & kekwaletswe, r.m. (2012). comparison of likert scale with visual analogue scale for strategic information systems planning measurements: a preliminary study. proceedings of the iadis international conference information systems 2012, is 2012. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289951107_comparison_of_likert_scale_with_visual_analogue_scale_for_strategic_information_systems_planning_measurements_a_preliminary_study. neethling, k., & rutherford, r. (2005). creativity uncovered. midrand, south africa: solutionsfinding. neethling, k., & rutherford, r. (2009). am i clever or am i stupid? vanderbijlpark, south africa: carpe diem boeke. oecd. (2000). the service economy. science technology industry (sti) business and industry policy forum series. paris, france: oecd. retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/sti/ind/2090561.pdf. pine ii, b.j., & gilmore, j.h. (1998). welcome to the experience economy. harvard business review, 76(4), 97–105. retrieved from https://www.hbsp.harvard.edu. pine ii, b.j., & gilmore, j.h. (2001). welcome to the experience economy. it’s no longer just about healing: patients want a personal transformation. health forum journal, 44(5), 10–6, 2. retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10181589. pink, d.h. (2005). a whole new mind: moving from the information age to the conceptual age. new york: penguin group. pompidou, a. (2007). scenarios for the future: how might ip regimes evolve by 2025? what global legitimacy might such regimes have? munich: european patent office. quilligan, a. (2015). the fourth industrial revolution: when digital technology meets the shop floor. accenture industrial software solutions. fifth cambridge wireless prestigious lecture on 12 february 2015. retrieved from https://www.cambridgewireless.co.uk/news/2015/feb/12/48540-accentures-aiden-quilligan-takes-to-the-floo/. rorbak, s.c. (2012). the elite secretary: the definitive guide to a successful career. bloomington, in: iuniverse. rowson, j., & mcgilchrist, i. (2013). divided brain, divided world: why the best part of us struggles to be heard. retrieved from https://www.thersa.org/globalassets/pdfs/blogs/rsa-divided-brain-divided-world.pdf. samuel, r.e., & kohun, f.g. (2010). managing perceived coping behavior while mentoring doctoral students. international journal of doctoral studies, 5:29–37. retrieved from https://ijds.org/volume5/ijdsv5p029-037samue291.pdf. seltzer, k., & bentley, t. (1999). the creative age: knowledge and skills for the new economy. london: demos. retrieved from https://www.demos.co.uk/files/thecreativeage.pdf. silke, d. (2011). tracking the future: top trends that will shape south africa and the world. cape town, south africa: tafelberg. smith, a.t. (n.d.). literacy in the conceptual age and the future of the agenda for education in a democracy. retrieved from https://www.units.miamioh.edu/nnerjournal/pdf%20files/2009%20nner%20journal%20pdf/art-5%20literacy%20in%20the%20conceptual%20age%20smith%2010-09.pdf. stanfield, i., & o’hare, k. (2013). the rise of the relationship economy: what it means for brands and brand research. retrieved from https://www.gfk.com/en-gb/search/search-results/?q=rise%20of%20the%20relationship%20economy%20-%20what%20it%20means%20for%20brands%20and%20brand%20research. sternberg, r.j. (1990). thinking styles: keys to understanding student performance. the phi delta kappan, 71(5), 366–371. retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/20404156. sternberg, r.j. (1994). allowing for thinking styles. educational leadership, 52(3), 36–40. retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ej492910. stum, j. (2009). kirton’s adaption-innovation theory: managing cognitive styles in times of diversity and change. emerging leadership journeys, 2(1), 66–78. retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/25b9/017bc53f30f202bde1769e4a440703d67081.pdf. svensson, e. (2001). guidelines to statistical evaluation of data from rating scales and questionnaires. journal of rehabilitation medicine, 33(1), 47–48. retrieved from https://www.medicaljournals.se/jrm/. taggart, w. (1980). human information processing styles and the information systems architect in the psc systemeering model. paper presented at the 17th annual computer personnel research conference, miami, fl. retrieved from https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=800085.802732. taggart, w., & valenzi, e. (1990). assessing rational and intuitive styles: a human information processing metaphor. journal of management studies, 27(2), 149–172. retrieved from https://ftp.the-intuitive-self.org/website/documents/publications/rational_intuitive.pdf. taggart, w.m., valenzi, e., zalka, l., & lowe, k.b. (1997). rational and intuitive styles: commensurability across respondent characteristics. psychological reports, 80(1), 23–33. retrieved from https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/k_lowe_rational_1997.pdf. ubs. (2016). extreme automation and connectivity: the global, regional, and investment implications of the fourth industrial revolution. ubs white paper for the world economic forum annual meeting 2016. retrieved from https://www.tadviser.ru/images/b/b7/extreme_automation_and_connectivity_the_global%2c_regional%2c_and_investment_implications_of_the_fourth_industrial_revolution.pdf. van antwerpen, s. (2013). key success factors influencing the productivity of administrative employees in the south african public sector. unpublished doctoral thesis, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa. van antwerpen, s., & ferreira, e. (2016). contributing factors to poor service delivery by administrative employees in the gauteng public service in south africa. africa development, xli(1), 81–98. retrieved from https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ad/article/viewfile/153826/143413. van niekerk, t. (2007). toepasbareaspekteuitbreinnavorsingsliteratuur op klavieronderrigvir beginners met spesifiekeverwysingna die heelbreinmodel van ned herrmann. ongepubliseerdedoktoraleproefskrif.pretoria, suid-afrika: universiteit van pretoria. venter, a.j. (2011). thinking style preference profile of the contemporary administrative professional. unpublished master’s dissertation, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa. world economic forum. (2016). the future of jobs: employment, skills and workforce strategy for the fourth industrial revolution. cologny, switzerland: world economic forum. retrieved from https://www3.weforum.org/docs/wef_future_of_jobs.pdf. abstract current context and challenges in the local government terrain the significance of trust in a public sector performance environment methodological concepts and design the context findings trust, performance, job evaluation and performance management acknowledgements references about the author(s) zwelinzima j. ndevu school of public leadership, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa citation ndevu, z.j. (2019). trust and organisational performance: a grounded theory approach for a south african district municipality. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1158. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1158 original research trust and organisational performance: a grounded theory approach for a south african district municipality zwelinzima j. ndevu received: 16 jan. 2019; accepted: 10 apr. 2019; published: 26 june 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: a key role of local government in providing transparent, honest, accountable, efficient and effective service delivery to the communities they serve is determined by a number of plans, designs, actions and implementation. trust among communities in the organisational set up is key in the success or failure of the efforts of the municipal entity and affects their individual and group performance. research purpose: this study examines the relationship between trust and performance within a municipal environment and its effect on service delivery. motivation for the study: the lack of sufficient and usable knowledge and information on the issue created the need for this research project that is an on-going effort dissecting and analysing key human resources challenges in the public sector. research approach/design and method: following a brief outline of the legislation, rules and regulations that determine the responsibilities of local government in south africa and the context of the study, the qualitative method and design of focus groups as the key instrument of data collection was identified and analysed. main findings: the results of the study pointed to the lack of trust among leadership and employees at all organisational levels. practical/managerial implications: the existence of mistrust and problems identified in the process of performance management and evaluation has negative consequences on employee performance in the municipality. contribution/value-add: the study findings have opened new doors to understanding key elements of organisational performance as the topic has received very scant attention in south african research literature. keywords: trust; organisational performance; grounded theory approach; south african district municipality; public sector. current context and challenges in the local government terrain a synopsis of key issues and challenges facing south africa’s local government terrain is important in the context of this article. rooted in the country’s first democratic constitution mainly sections 40(1), 41(1), and 153(a) (rsa, 1996), the structure, functions, administrative systems and its key priorities towards citizens are outlined mainly in terms of budgeting and planning for development. the constitutional dictates were expanded with considerable details through the white paper on local government that identified the foundations and building process of ‘developmental local government’ (rsa, 1998a, pp. 17–18). it set the systemic and structural foundations of organisational and strategic priorities around the integrated development planning (idp) as well as that of performance management, a fundamental cog in municipal success. such legislation was expanded in many ways through the introduction of the white paper on local government (rsa, 1998a, pp. 92–93) that set up both the tone and priorities in the path of enhancing communities’ quality of life in key areas such as job creation, safety and health, education and recreation. inevitably such arduous tasks could only be achieved through the continuous, coordinated, cooperative strategies, decisions and actions of the country’s three layers of government, despite the fact that this sphere of government is the foundation of citizen-based service delivery (mopaki & mutono, 2016, pp. 4–5). the values espoused in the white paper on local government (rsa, 1998a, pp. 93–94) are accountability at all levels of service delivery; high priority in excellence in quality in the service outputs; emphasis on integrated development; accessibility and non-discriminatory access to all services; value for money and high quality at all levels of service delivery and affordability; and impact on local industry and commerce. within these values and refined parameters, the municipal service excellence has to take place at highly diversified sectors of activities ranging from electricity, sanitation and water needs to produce markets and licenses, parks and tourism, libraries and security, economic and financial policing, and city planning. the local government: municipal structures act (117 of 1998) (rsa, 1998b) concretised the political and administrative structure of the municipal entities in terms of their types and categories, functions, divisions and powers and the strict regulations for political and administrative leaders and their expected duties and responsibilities in guaranteeing accountable, effective and efficient service delivery. these priorities were expanded in detail in the municipal systems act (32 of 2000) that underlines the key elements of the political and administrative relationships in terms of functions, processes and performance expectations on their parts, cooperative mechanisms and key responsibilities of the political and administrative leaderships (rsa, 2000a). the municipal systems act (act 32 of 2000) deals directly with frameworks of municipal planning, resource utilisation, and organisation systems and processes, including performance management systems. it deals with strategic plans and initiatives, financial and policy frameworks and initiatives, municipal structures and priorities, intergovernmental relationships, functional and systemic guidelines and imperatives, the prioritisation of the idp and its key guidelines in response of budgeting; public participation; spatial frameworks, disaster management initiatives; institutional priorities; communication and information channels that could lead to good governance; grassroots democratisation and sustainable community development (gibson, 2006, p. 7; rsa, 2000a; williams, 2006, p. 197). the municipal planning and performance management regulations (mppmr) outlines the compulsory municipal ‘performance management system’ based on a cycle of organisational planning, measuring, monitoring, reviewing, assessing, reporting and improving through organisation and management of all employees (rsa, 2001). its dictates are compliant with all requirements of the municipal systems act and are clear on the operational imperatives of the systems, processes, stages, operations and management at all organisational levels. the duties, responsibilities and roles of everyone in the organisation are outlined as the processes of planning, designing and implementing measures dictated by idp and through the stages of citizen participation. active public participation as the foundation of an accountable and effective municipality is also considered the key to the implementation, and expansion of local sustainable development that will cement high levels of trust to the country’s intergovernmental system is the key to the priorities set by the national development plan (ndp). in its honest analysis and prognosis, the ndp has outlined the key hurdles in the realisation of the goals set, despite significant progress made in a number of municipalities both in the urban and rural areas of the country. this despite the relentless challenges of expanding urbanisation, in-migration, widening of the poverty cycle, and problems and challenges that have been identified in the research undertaken by the national planning committee. as expected there was also a wide array of weaknesses and challenges identified in municipalities that have been described as within the parameters of ‘an enabling environment’, institutional capacity and the ‘macro context’. issues in the ‘enabling environment’ terrain included lack of financial viability, serious infrastructure gaps, weak understanding of the powers and functions and role of the districts, lack of planning alignment among the three spheres of government, weak financial systems and political in-fighting. institutional capacity problems were related to the lack of political leadership, staff capacity weaknesses and gaps, high staff turnover, lack of policy understanding, factionalism and political deployments, poor values and staff attitudes, weak council performances, lack of stability, accountability and transparency and lack of legal compliance. in the ‘macro context’ the issues that dominated were high unemployment, poverty and inequality, infrastructural backlogs, lack of active public participation, social ills such as drug abuse, hiv/aids, crime and gender-based violence, weak revenue bases, political dynamics, weak education system and the continuous stream of urbanisation and in-migration (national public commission, 2014, p. 438). the fundamental challenges identified in the ndp in regard to municipalities in the ndp’s ‘summary section’ were related to systems developments, operational guidelines at all operational levels, weak functional systems and procedures, capacity gaps, lack of long-term approach in the efforts to building local government capacity, weaknesses in provincial and national oversight and weaknesses in public mobilisation as dictated by the legislation, rules and regulations (national public commission, 2014, p. 438). the significance of trust in a public sector performance environment an appropriate conflict-free employment relations strategy is the key to a successful organisation, and the most fundamental element of such a strategy is deeply rooted on common trust permeating all sections, divisions, leadership, management and all employees (belle, 2014, pp. 114–115). organisational and state procedures and rules are significant in shaping and determining organisational imperatives, structures, systems, strategies, plans and actions of an entity, but in the final analysis the quality of existing relations depends on the levels of trust. trust is founded and cemented mainly through the strategies, plans and actions of the leadership and higher management levels of an organisation. international research has shown conclusively that trust among key stakeholders in an organisational set up is a key element in the success of the entity. this means that trust or the lack of it within a public sector entity such as a municipality will have direct and/or indirect effects on individual or group performance (boerner, eisenbeiss, & griesser, 2007, p. 19; hassan & hatmaker, 2015, pp. 1130–1131). the latest report of the world economic forum in respect of world competitiveness (schwab, 2017) indicated that south africa has been ranked as the worst of 137 countries in the list in terms of the relationship between employer and employee. covering both the private and the public sector the report links directly this outcome to the very low levels. the report through its analysis identifies mistrust between employers and employees in south africa as a phenomenon with historical roots that has been perpetrated and exacerbated by the country’s lack of capacity in training, retaining and attracting talent, poor reliance on management and the existing high inequality levels, unemployment and poverty (schwab, 2017, pp. 14–15). the existence of an efficient and effective state and a well-functioning market has direct and indirect positive effects on continuous economic and social growth and development enhanced by corrupt-free competitiveness and gdp growth. on the contrary, unhealthy relations between employees and management in both sectors bear direct negative impacts on organisational performance, which bears serious threats in both sectors’ ability to constructively build a more productive and equitable future for themselves and all citizens of the country as a whole (belle, 2014, pp. 115–116; fernandez, 2008, pp. 176–177). the existence of a wide range of laws, rules and regulations identified above in respect of the public service systems and processes pinpoints the existence of a statutory framework that is seemingly enabling to all workplaces to adopt, plan and implement commonly agreed aims, objectives, strategies and plans in respect to all work-related aspects, collective bargaining and resolution of disputes in a collegial and legally bound manner. the existence or not of such priorities cements or destroys trust within an organisation, especially a municipality, an entity empowered legally to be the foundation of community-based efficient and effective service delivery. the existence of trust within a municipality is instrumental in building and cementing cooperation, coordination, synergy and collective decision-making and planning, whilst mistrust is instrumental in creating and perpetrating divisions. subsequently, the possibilities of an escalation of professional, personal, political and systemic organisational conflicts could result in the damaging of existing relationships and in the long-run organisational stability and efficiency (caillier, 2014, pp. 220–221). there is the perception, also confirmed in empirical studies, that widely spread mistrust can be eased out through strict and thoroughly observed reliance on existing rules and regulations that could lead to higher productivity and better performance. such a perception is founded on the confirmed belief (or reality) that when high levels of trust exist within an organisation, employees have higher degrees of job satisfaction, motivation, self-belief, discipline and solid performance. in such a trust-driven organisational environment, the resolution of conflict is faster because of general agreements on key issues among the key elements of leadership, management and employees (belle, 2014, pp. 112–113; boerner et al., 2007, pp. 17–18). such a vision within a municipality would be the foundation of accountability, transparency, honesty and high-performance levels leading to service delivery excellence, and the development of new, fresh professional identities and relationships committed to the principles of the ndp. the realities facing municipal employees in south africa have been researched extensively at a number of levels, and there is no doubt that they are unique at most levels of their operational, functional and systemic existence. this is because most of them are classified as ‘micro-environments’ in terms of human resources realities. the municipalities that can be classified as ‘mega environments’ (mainly found in the urban areas) are, to a large extent, more complicated at all levels not only because of their size but also the difference of the wider spectrum of interests created by the relationships between politicians and administrators, or politicians and the private sector service providers, among other. the diversification of service delivery targets is also a key issue of difference (van wart, 2011). lack of harmonious cooperation and coordination within an organisation as a result of mistrust towards leadership, management or existing plans and decisions leads to frustration, dereliction of duty, withdrawal, absenteeism and lack of motivation. poor work performance, ill-discipline and perpetual ignorance of duties and responsibilities have also been described as results of mistrust (wright & pandey, 2010, pp. 77–79). the foundation stone of trust building is employee participation summarised in the phrase ‘an employee must be given a voice’, pointing to collaboration, understanding and trust building. this could become a reality through the opening of communication channels, regular strategy, tactics, monitoring and evaluating meetings and socials. such an eventuality is the exactly opposite of the ‘top-down approach’. in municipalities, the latter approach is represented by the political leadership (mayor, speaker and senior councillor) or the administrative sector (municipal manager, chief financial officer, etc.). the most used types of ‘top-down communications’ include ‘leadership team briefings’, electronic communication with announcements and/or instructions when need arises, or employee surveys mainly associated with employee performance cards. when the obsession with outcomes overtakes the importance of communication, information sharing and serious and honest engagement, trust tends to diminish (vermeeren, kuipers, & steijn, 2013, pp. 175–176). existing power relations that have become a common feature in municipalities are rooted on a number of realities such as political or administrative battles over resources, monopoly of knowledge and/or existing opportunities for corruption. they lead to a ‘professional distance’ between leaders, managers and employees that becomes the foundation of mistrust as employees feel alienated from existing municipal realities, knowledge, opportunities and decisions. all these are kept away from them in a situation where the leaders’ and managers’ authority cannot be challenged (cho & lee, 2011, pp. 945–946). it is thus the leadership’s decision and prerogative to take the initiative in providing employees with the opportunities to participate actively in decision-making, to have a clear picture and understanding of decisions made by leadership and management and to see their own consultation and input on key issues regarding themselves and the communities they serve as their duty and responsibility. it is only when such an accountable, transparent, fair and collegial process of decision-making is followed that trust is built through continuous commitment that finds its organisational manifestation in voluntary cooperation, coordination and synergy that are guided by solid, fruitful and creative performance (hassan & hatmaker, 2015, pp. 1128–1129). employee performance is directly and indirectly related to an individual or group belief that leadership and senior management involve and value employee contribution to most, if not all, aspects of the organisation. this is how trust becomes a reality (schultz & van der walt, 2015). given the challenges facing human resources leaderships and practitioners throughout the organisational terrain in all societal sectors, the only organisational culture that guarantees solid and efficient employee performance is the one characterised by active participation at all levels, continuous up-skilling and development, and collective support relations at all levels involving leadership, management and all employees (warnich, carrell, elbert, & hatfield, 2015). it is only such an environment where core organisational aspects can be discussed, agreed upon and planned in terms of administrative, legal, regulatory, financial, budgetary requirements, risk management and effective structures, systems and processes (hall, pilbeam, & corbridge, 2013, pp. 22–23; schuler & jackson, 2007). trust cements a culture of inclusivity, fairness and collegiality, and has been accepted as such by the principled position on the matter on behalf of the international labour organisation (ilo) that has described fair labour practices, equal and participatory treatment, freedom of expression, association and participation as the fundamental rights of employees and the foundation of common trust (rainey, 2014, pp. 22–23). the article aspires to empirically analyse the relationship between trust and organisational performance within an organisation through the utilisation of a case study of a south african district municipality. methodological concepts and design the utilisation of grounded theory was the basis of the methodology used in the project. it was used to create categories from the data collected through content analysis. the analysis and dissection of data that are coded into categories led to the identification of common themes and their inter-relationships. coding is based on the identification of keywords, phrases and codes that lead to comparisons of emerging categories of data (corbin, strauss, & strauss, 2014). the qualitative research methodology that was utilised in this study focuses on personal views of individual with knowledge and understanding of their professional and organisational environment as well as their own interpretations of structures, systems and processes (creswell, 2013). the strategies behind the success of a qualitative study have been analysed by maxwell (2010, pp. 12–13), who advocated the creation of linkages of the information gained, their impact and significance of sentences, words and narratives and their utilisation. the data interpretation began with the arrangement of themes, content and deductions that led to the translation of meanings and inductive analysis. this process leads to specific categories as the researcher gets closer to the data, a fact leading to an analytical explanation from the data (allan, 2003, pp. 7–8; harwell, 2011, pp. 147–148). the focus group that was utilised in this instance as the data collection tool allowed the participants to express themselves fully to semi-structured and open-ended questions directly and indirectly related to organisational and structural realities, their problems and challenges. their feelings, knowledge, experience and attitudes were the information data (rome, 2015). the sample chosen to participate in the two focus groups consisted of 20 selected municipal organisation stakeholders and role players with the knowledge, expertise and direct involvement with all key aspects of the municipal environment and included five municipal councillors, five section directors, four managers and three staff working in all different sections of the establishment. three active ward committee members also participated. these selections were principally based on the advice of hoijer (2008, pp. 284–285) and palys and atchison (2012). the substantial amount of data collected through the focus group was dissected through the process of content analysis (bryman, 2011) of the transcribed and field notes kept by the researcher and the moderators through a careful analytical process and technique. this occurred through the data coding process that led to the themes for interpretation and analysis. following the end of the focus group, the transcribed document was presented to all participants for inspection and/or comment regarding its authenticity. their position that it was a true reflection of what transpired in the group serves a guarantee of the project’s reliability. ethical considerations verbal consent was obtained from all participants in the study. confidentiality and anonymity of all respondents was guaranteed. the context this article utilises the experiences of staff of an eastern cape entity, the joe gqabi district municipality (jgdm), facing over the years relatively high levels of poverty, in need of basic services such as basic infrastructure, water and sanitation. it comprises three local municipalities, walter sisulu, senqu and elundini, with a population of 373 000 people in 2016 of which 32.6% are between the ages of 0 to 14 years. it has 105 000 households of which 17 500 (16.48% of the total number) are ‘very formal dwelling units’. the backlog for formal dwelling units stood at 37 100 in 2016 (ecsecc, 2017, p. 11). there is a large number of people infected with hiv (44 800 in 2016), an annual increase of 2.77% since 2006 representing at the time more than 12% of the total population. the ‘official’ unemployment figure in 2016 stood at 28 000, up by 4500 in 2006 (23 400 then) (ecsecc, 2017, p. 12). utilising the ‘upper poverty line definition’, the municipality in 2016 was home to 239 000 people living in poverty, whilst 40.09% of the municipality’s households (n = 41 200) had flush toilets, 21.43% of households had piped water inside the dwelling, 23.40% (n = 24 400) had piped water inside the yard and 9890 (9.26% of the households) had electricity for lighting only in 2016, 75 500 (70.68%) households had electricity for lighting and other purposes and a total number of 21 400 (20.06%) households did not use electricity (department of statistics south africa, 2016). findings the questions set for discussion in the focus groups were formulated around a number of themes that dealt with a variety of issues and challenges. trust and performance were the key factors underlying all these issues as despite the fact that all participants have common aims and objectives, it was hypothesised and expected that their beliefs, attitudes and opinions would differ for a number of reasons. it was expected that the common beliefs of all participants would be in accordance with the key aims and objectives of every municipality basically the promotion of a healthy environment free of corruption, economic and social community development rooted on the unity of all political and administrative officials and the active public participation of all citizens. after the completion of the focus groups, the documents were transcribed. the coding and categorisation were undertaken following the dictates of content analysis. relationship between political office bearers, managers and community stakeholders throughout the world and in south africa there is the belief that politicians and administrative leadership management are key components of service delivery, hence they play a major role in planning and implementation from beginning to the end supported by the active participation of their communities. it is known that such relationships in south africa in particular have been the centre of many debates, especially as there has been a very comprehensive legislation, rules and regulations that determine the nature, duties and responsibilities of these positions. the relationship between political leadership and leaders in municipalities in south africa has been problematic for a number of reasons as empirical research has shown concretely (mantzaris & pillay, 2014; ngamlana, 2011). the existence of a cooperative, collaborative, moral and synergetic relationship between the two can only benefit both the entity and the affected communities. colluding or antagonistic relationships between the two could be proven catastrophic as they are a barrier to synergic and comprehensive initiatives at all strategic and operational levels, structures and processes (mantzaris & pillay, 2014, pp. 17–18). the focus groups in the present project produced a diversified array of opinions on the issue, the main difference being that of political leaders and administrators. whilst the politicians were adamant that the relationship between the two was strong and cordial, the administrators described the circumstances as difficult because there were strong differences in the way fundamental issues of service delivery were approached and debated. the administrators’ position was that there was a strong belief among politicians that fundamentals of proper and legally bound administration were of a secondary nature and that the most fundamental political reality was ‘service delivery’. this was directly connected to the needs and demands of their constituencies, a reality that led to divisions, given that service delivery was needed by everyone. the position described above meant that the most powerful of the politicians had the upper hand in convincing the municipal council that their ward or area was the municipal priority. according to the administrative respondents, the gist of the matter was that political and personal priorities were considered more important than those of ‘the common good’. such an attitude, it was believed, was detrimental to the functionality of the municipality because political ambitions were considered above the priorities and needs of the communities. such behaviour, the administrative staff felt, raised a number of questions in respect of collegiality, trust, understanding and cooperation as there was a strong feeling that the relationship was not equal as it should be, but one of dominance, authority and power. it was evident that it was very difficult for the leadership of the administrative sector to trust the elected leaders of communities, and this had dented accountability, transparency and effectiveness at all organisational levels as it negatively affected staff performance. such a position was strongly disputed by the political leaders who insisted that if they did not follow the dictates of the country’s legislation they would not be elected again by the people. their position as the guarantors of political, economic, financial and social stability meant that their political role in the oversight of the entity was the foundation of success. their main function, they believed, was the stability and advancement of the municipality, hence the collaboration and coordination of the administrative and political leaderships were of paramount importance. it was, thus, the responsibility of the administrative sector to follow the leadership, supervision and oversight of the political leaders. this is because the political leaders had both the responsibility and the commitment to increase the levels of administrative performance at all organisational levels of the entity. this meant that the municipal political leadership felt strongly that the most important management structure in the entity, the municipal council, was instrumental in supporting the smooth operation, planning and implementing of organisational priorities and it was up to the administrative component to plan and implement accordingly. the evidence of lack of trust points to the perception or reality of political interference that leads to performance deficiencies that on occasions are also related to fear, intimidation, skewed instructions and the like (mantzaris & pillay, 2014, p. 23). the politicisation of the country’s administrative terrain that has led to mistrust and inferior administrative performance, dysfunction and instability has been explored vividly in the final report of the then department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs (2009). poor political management and the lack of distinction between the administrative and political leaderships were thought to be the foundations of existing problems in many municipalities (cameron, 2007, 2010). participation of municipal stakeholders in the design, planning and implementation of service delivery decisions and targets active participation of all municipal stakeholders, especially the communities, is a legal and regulatory requirement identified clearly in the white paper on transforming public services delivery (the batho pele paper) (rsa, 1998a). the significance of this priority lies in the legal and social dictate that politicians and administrators are obligated to be transparent and accountable to all citizens regarding the planning and implementation of high standard service delivery after consulting with communities at all levels and phases of planning and implementing of services in the context of the integrated development plans (idps). these processes, followed up by assessment, monitoring and evaluation, should be done according to the principles of courtesy, transparency, integrity and open access to information. in case promised services are not delivered, obligatory comprehensive explanations to communities regarding the reasons for existing gaps and future remedies are due. one of the key priorities, demands, duties and responsibilities of all stakeholders, mentioned above, is their direct and active participation in the idp meetings, both in their preparatory and final stages. on this particular instance, there was an almost unanimous acceptance on the part of the political and administrative leadership that the key representatives of the groups ensure their attendance of these meetings. this participation was, however, not matched by the community representatives, according to the ward committee members in the focus groups. it was stated that the communication and information channels used by the relevant municipal authorities have been over the years dysfunctional and did not follow the existing rules and regulations. this was the fault of both the political and administrative sectors of the municipality. the key reasons provided by the ward committee members regarding their position on the issue were what they called the political dominance of the ‘senior politicians’, the councillors and those close to them. they were described as the dominant force at all levels of decision-making in the terrain of service delivery, utilising senior administrators and consultants close to them in planning, designing and controlling the budgets and financial issues related to local service delivery. this was the strategy planned especially by those who aspired to higher positions in the municipal environment. the representatives of the community in the focus groups including the ward committee members made clear their position that the trust that should be a non-negotiable reality as a pre-condition for the realisation of effective and efficient service delivery was almost a rarity in the relationship among political and administrative leaders. this had led to seriously negative relations within the administrative sector and a downturn in individual professional performance as employees with different political allegiances felt obligated to ‘toe the line’ of their chosen politicians. it was strongly felt that such an environment was the result of open or ‘hidden’ nepotism and organisational and power relations. employee engagement and satisfaction, communication skills and open channels for dialogue given the organisational particularities of the municipality, it is inevitable that a wide array of functions such as external and internal auditing, solid financial management and risk management are crucial, but direct engagement communication and satisfaction are of key importance as open paths to direct dialogue. when such processes are in place, trust among employees and leadership increases and the possible implementation of organisational changes on the part of leadership and management is accepted. engagement and communication are in all organisational forms; the prerogative of leadership that espouses success through efforts that ensure employees’ successful engagement, communication channels and appreciation at all levels. these are integral ingredients of strategic and tactical steps of planning ahead proactively (rainey, 2014, pp. 128–129). employee engagement guarantees trust, loyalty and honesty, and these are strengthened by continuous and informative communication coupled with training at all organisational levels. successful training at a number of levels, subjects and skills can be instrumental in cementing and enhancing trust, problem-solving, talent and career development, and workplace satisfaction (belle, 2014, p. 128). the responses to the question pinpointed a number of key issues pointing to the realities of service delivery backlogs and problematic relationships as their foundation. politicians and senior administrators, to a large extent, indicated that the channels of communication to all employees under their own jurisdiction were well established in all sections and operational layers. this was described by both groups of participants as a relationship combining both formal and informal channels of information and communication. the same groups were adamant that their relationships with their communities were those of integrity and accountability and would or could not be achieved without the synergic and cooperative relationship among themselves. however, when it came down to the relations among themselves as key actors and factors in the planning, designing and implementing the structures, systems and processes leading to effective and efficient service delivery, there were different responses. whilst there was a strong response on the part of the politicians who declared that their relationship with public servants was cordial, professional, transparent and accountable, such sentiments were not shared equally by the latter. there were examples provided on their part pinpointing the lack of accountability and poor communication towards the administrative employees and communities from the senior political leadership, factional fights among different groups of councillors who on occasions were also joined by administrative employees belonging to a variety of professional ranks and efforts to manipulate tenders and other aspects of supply chain and procurement principles and interference in internal and external audits. the politicians’ influence in the appointment of outside consultants was also mentioned on occasions. the administrative leadership also mentioned the poor understanding and ability of municipal councillors to comprehend legislation rules, regulations and internal municipal documents adjusted by the ministry to help better and more efficient functionality of the entity. it was stated that these realities have created serious problems for the municipal employees and their performance because there was uncertainty in regard to the way forward for the municipality. these attitudes reinforce the existence of a lack of trust of the administrative leadership towards the elected representatives. similar sentiments were expressed by the representatives of the ward committees. however, their criticism did not only target the elected politicians but also the administrative leadership and staff who were seen not only as victims of political factionalism, but also as integral part of it. this was also described as a reason that the various administrative systems were not as functional as they should be. the ward committee member’s position was that the tension among the groups had serious negative effects on performance evident in both sides. the ward committee members also raised the issue of the role of the regional secretary of the african national congress, the majority party in the municipality, and his influence in employment of staff, redeployment of party members to a wide variety of positions and the repercussions of such actions for both the municipality and the party. it was strongly felt that such moves and the appointment of incompetent and occasionally corrupt cadres created serious problems and challenges both for the party and the municipality. such moves, it was believed, eroded trust, widened contractions and created a seriously disturbed group of employees from the top to the bottom of the organisational pyramid. trust, performance, job evaluation and performance management the legislation rules and regulations in regard to performance dynamics and imperatives for all government layers in south africa provide comprehensive guidelines dictating the principles of implementation of a performance management system for municipalities in terms of targets, monitoring, reviewing of both political and administrative sections of the entity, as well as indicators. these are to appear in an annual performance report, and are audited by the auditor general. the legislation states clearly that community involvement in setting up indicators, targets and review is important (rsa, 2000b). the mppmr (rsa, 2001) provides regulations in regard to employee contracts and performance agreement as well as methodologies and criteria for the performance system, including the issues of addressing underperformance. job evaluation relates to questions regarding an employee’s duties, responsibilities tasks and outputs that are related to a specific job, its relationships with other jobs and functions, and their content and organisational context. evaluation leads to job classification and enrichment that could lead to restructuring. it is the job and not the employee that is evaluated in this process, including the content and responsibilities attached as well as the organisation’s plans and priorities that could be instrumental in redesigning jobs and the initiations and planning of enrichment of developmental programmes related to specialised training (selden & sowa, 2011, pp. 255–256). a performance evaluation, on the contrary, is the process and method utilised for the evaluation of the job performed by an employee. it is an integral part of official rules and regulations as well as an integral part of personal and professional development as a general, systematic and continuous assessment of performance and productivity. the performance evaluation is directly related to the designated duties and responsibilities bestowed upon the employee that are connected to established organisational objectives and criteria. in the process, weaknesses, strengths, talent, accomplishments and career development are considered (den hartog, boselie, & paaiwe, 2004, p. 556). there were a variety of questions in the focus groups as there was a general feeling among both political and administrative leaders that the municipality has faced both problems and challenges over the years over this issue. in the preliminary discussions, it was widely accepted by all sides of the participants that mutual trust was crucial in the successful operationalisation of the municipality’s organisational strategies, tactics, planning and implementation. it was agreed that trust is the foundation of solid and fruitful performance at all organisational levels of the municipality. thus, each question associated with the issues is analysed accordingly. availability of information determining objectives, measurements and targets in job and performance evaluation there were diverse views in response to the question whether information for determining objectives, measurements and targets is readily available to all. politicians were adamant that the municipal council ensured that the political oversight exercised guaranteed that all information determining objectives, measurements and targets in job and performance evaluation was available in the interests of transparency and integrity in the administrative terrain. this meant that the municipal council followed all legislative dictates, rules and regulations in response to the needs of job and performance evaluation. the administrative leadership was in dispute of the politicians’ position that the job and performance evaluation processes and systems were strictly an administration function and even the final responsibility for outcomes and outputs was planned, designed, implemented and handled by themselves. they indicated that the political oversight on the part of the council ‘was just a formality’ for councillors. the representatives of the ward committees believed that the problem related to the lack of information relating and determining objectives, measurements and targets in job and performance evaluation was rooted on the relationship among politicians themselves as well as their different groups and the administrative leadership and employees. they opined that political factionalism has been deeply rooted over the years and was a barrier to the development of the municipality. it was this political element that dented the relationship between elected and administrative leaders and followers. this diversity of opinions of the key role players in the municipality indicates a clear lack of trust between decision-making stakeholders in the state entity that in most cases leads employees feeling alienated from their organisational duties and responsibilities and has negative repercussions on their individual and collective performance (den hartog et al., 2004, p. 558). final performance evaluation involvement the final evaluation of the instrument utilised to measure employees demands the direct and indirect involvement of the key stakeholders in the municipality. such involvement guarantees that the decisions taken in regard to performance and job evaluation and scoreboards take into account the realisation of strategies associated with all aspects of the fundamentals of service delivery objectives and targets as included in the idp and the budgets which in many cases are limited because of the low revenue base of the municipality. the political and administrative leaders participating in the group agreed that such a process faced challenges when dealing with the issues. these were basically related to lack of capacity in a number of key departments, budget and time constraints, and lack of coordination and synergy in a number of organisational entities that were crucial. the participating administrators also identified ‘politically dictated agendas’ in the municipal council and non-professional management of the process as problems and challenges. the above sentiments were shared by the ward committees’ representatives in their totality. given the crucial significance of collective decisions in respect of the very professional future of employees at all professional levels, it can be understood that the existing circumstances outlined above lead to serious implementation problems and challenges and erode the employee trust towards their elected and workplace leaderships. this lack of trust has serious negatives repercussion on employees’ performance (chiang & birtch, 2010, p. 129; selden & sowa, 2011, p. 252). stakeholders’ attitude towards performance improvement approach the responses of both administrative and political leadership participants underlined a lack of positive attitude towards the performance improvement approach that has been used. this position was based on the belief of both sets of stakeholders that it is very difficult under the present circumstances in the municipality to set up clear goals and a workable strategy for a number of reasons such as the shrinking of the revenue base, the existing budgeting constraints and the organisational weaknesses. the latter (organisational weaknesses) was more emphasised by the elected leadership that had a strong belief that the entity has been hampered by serious capacity gaps and weaknesses that do not allow serious implementation of the performance management initiatives to rectify the existing situation. a number of employees, however, supported by the ward committee members believed that senior political and administrative managements have not been willing to take decisions supporting the majority of employees through serious performance improvement and development as well as planning and commitment to support its implementation. these groups of participants, although agreeing that there were skills gaps within the organisational terrain of the municipality, indicated that many employees operating at all levels of the municipality had the qualifications, knowledge and skills sufficient for them to play a serious role in the planning and implementation of performance in the municipality. the assessment of beliefs, attitudes, opinions and statements of key stakeholders in the municipality indicates that the trust among employees and the key stakeholders has been all but eroded and the subsequent present position vis-à-vis performance improvement approach is inimical to the majority of employees (denisi & pritchard, 2006, pp. 256–257; judge, thoresen, bono, & patton, 2011, p. 377). fairness of staff performance management and evaluation within a municipality, the implementation of performance evaluation and management relies on technical, political, administrative and organisational factors (not necessarily in that order) (selden, ingraham, & jacobson, 2001, pp. 599–600). this means that the leadership and management, both elected and administrative, need to act with honesty, fairness, transparency and integrity in such processes so that trust, motivation and job satisfaction among all employees are realised (denisi & pritchard, 2006, pp. 254–255; mayer & gavin, 2005, p. 876). whilst both elected and administrative leaderships agreed that there was fairness in the process, the ward committee members and employees’ representatives were adamant that such a review system is ‘non-existent’ because of the lack of leadership commitment, communication to all employees, transparency and integrity. the latter responses and attitudes signify a deeply rooted lack of trust. conclusion this article was based on a wider empirical study of a district municipality in the eastern cape and examined the relationship between trust and employee performance evaluation and management and its effect on service delivery. it is a subject that has not received sufficient attention in south african human resources literature. the empirical dimension of the project was based on a literature review of existing literature of concepts and the country’s relevant legislation as well as the case study method, a qualitative process that utilised a focus groups consisting of all municipal stakeholders as the key instrument of data collection. the analysis of data showed conclusively an existence of problems and challenges facing the relationship among elected and administrative leaders. these are directly and indirectly related to power relationships and political factionalism, as well as employee capacity gaps, lack of active participation, information sharing and budget constraints. although it is evident that all stakeholders have identified the importance of job and performance evaluation, management and development as well as measures and targets, the opinions regarding sharing information, channels, planning and implementation were divided among stakeholders. employees and community-based participants were adamant that these elements of transparency, integrity, legality and collegiality are not met and the lack of commitment from leadership exacerbates the lack of trust among key stakeholders, especially employees and the wider community. mistrust in the process of performance evaluation management and improvement results in employee negativity and has negative consequences for service delivery. acknowledgements this opinion paper is based partly on the author’s dissertation ‘a performance management model for supporting improved local government service delivery: a case study of the joe gqabi district municipality’. the dissertation can be found at http://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/98102. the author acknowledges the contribution of the participants in the article. competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. authors’ contributions z.j.n. was the sole investigator and author of this study. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references allan, g. (2003). a critique of using grounded theory as a research method. journal of business research methods, 2(1), 1–10. belle, n. (2014). leading to make a difference: a field experiment on the performance effects of transformational leadership, perceived social impact, and public service motivation. journal of public administration research and theory, 24(1), 109–136. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mut033 boerner, s., eisenbeiss, s. a., & griesser, d. (2007). follower behavior and organizational performance: the impact of transformational leaders. organizational studies, 13(3), 15–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/10717919070130030201 bryman, a. (2011). business research methods. cambridge: oxford university press. caillier, j. g. (2014). toward a better understanding of the relationship between transformational leadership, public service motivation, mission valence, and employee performance: a preliminary study. public personnel management, 43(2), 218–239. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026014528478 cameron, r. (2007). metropolitan government in south africa: the limits of formal reorganisation. in j. p. collin & m. robertson (eds.) governing metropolises: profiles of issues and experiments on four continents, pp. 345–371. quebec city: presses del’ universite laval. cameron, r (2010). redefining political administration relationships in south africa. international review of administrative sciences, 76(4), 676–701. chiang, f., & birtch, t. (2010). appraising performance across borders: an empirical examination of the purposes and practices of performance appraisal in a multi-country context. journal of management studies, 47(7), 1365–1393. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2010.00937.x cho, y. j., & lee, j. w. (2011). perceived trustworthiness of supervisors, employee satisfaction and cooperation. public management review, 13(7), 941–965. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2011.589610 corbin, j., strauss, a., & strauss, a. l. (2014). basics of qualitative research. los angeles, ca: sage. creswell, j. w. (2013). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th edn.). los angeles, ca: sage. den hartog, d., boselie, p., & paaiwe, j. (2004). performance management: a model and research agenda. applied psychology: an international review, 53(4), 556–560. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2004.00188.x denisi, a., & pritchard, r. (2006). performance appraisal, performance management, and improving individual performance: a motivational framework. management and organization review, 2(2), 253–277. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8784.2006.00042.x department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs. (2009). state of local government in south africa: national state of local government assessment. working document. pretoria: government printers. department of statistics south africa. (2016). community survey. pretoria: statistics south africa. eastern cape socio economic council (ecsecc). (2017). joe gqabi district municipality socio-economic review and outlook, april. east london: eastern cape socio economic council. fernandez, s. (2008). examining the effects of leadership behavior on employee perceptions of performance and job satisfaction. public performance and management review, 32(2), 175–205. https://doi.org/10.2753/pmr1530-9576320201 gibson, c. m. (2006). citizens at the center: a new approach to civic engagement. washington, dc. retrieved from http://www.casefoundation.org/pressroom/publications/citizens-at-the-center. hall, d., pilbeam, s., & corbridge, m. (2013). contemporary themes in strategic people management. a case-based approach. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. harwell, m. r. (2011). research design in qualitative/quantitative. in c. f. conrad & r. c. serlin (eds.), the sage handbook for research in education: pursuing ideas as the keystone of exemplary inquiry, pp. 147–163. los angeles, ca: sage. hassan, s., & hatmaker, d. m. (2015). leadership and performance of public employees: effects of the quality and characteristics of manager-employee relationships. journal of public administration research and theory, 25(4), 1127–1155. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muu002 hoijer, b. (2008). ontological assumptions and generalisations in qualitative (audience) research. europe journal of communication, 23(3), 275–294. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323108092536 judge, t. a., thoresen, c. j., bono, j. e., & patton, g. k. (2001). the job satisfaction-job performance relationship: a qualitative and quantitative review. psychological bulletin, 127(3), 376–407. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.127.3.376 mantzaris, e., & pillay, p. (2014). navigating through the political/administrative corruption conundrum south african case studies. african journal of public affairs, 7(2), 17–26. maxwell, j. a. (2010). qualitative research design: an interactive approach (3rd edn.). los angeles, ca: sage. mayer, c. m., & gavin, m. b. (2005). trust in management and performance: who minds the shop while the employees watch the boss. academy of management journal, 48(5), 874–888. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2005.18803928 mopaki, o., & mutono, a. (2016). the balanced scorecard system as a performance measurement tool for public sector organisations: the case of the media information communications technology sector education training authority, republic of south africa. british journal of applied science & technology, 8(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.9734/bjast/2016/29531 national public commission. (2014). national development plan 2030 our future-make it. pretoria: government printers. ngamlana, n. (2011). politics and administration: the blurred line [online]. retrieved from http://www.afesis.org.za/local-governance-politics-and-administration-the-blurred-line. palys, t., & atchison, c. (2012). qualitative research in the digital era: obstacles and opportunities. international journal of qualitative methods, 11(4), 352–367. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940691201100404 rainey, h. g. (2014). understanding and managing public organizations. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. republic of south africa (rsa). (1996). constitution of the republic of south africa. pretoria: government printers. republic of south africa (rsa). (1997). water services act (act 108 of 1997). pretoria: government printers. republic of south africa (rsa). (1998a). white paper on local government, 1998. pretoria: government printers. republic of south africa (rsa). (1998b). skills development act (act 97 of 1998). pretoria: government printers. republic of south africa (rsa). (2000a). local government: municipal systems (act 32 of 2000). pretoria: government printers. republic of south africa (rsa). (2000b). local government: municipal structures amendment (act 33 of 2000). pretoria: government printers. republic of south africa (rsa). (2001). municipal planning and performance management regulations. 2001. regulation no 7146 in government notice r 796 in government gazette 22605. pretoria: government printers. rome, g. r. (2015). focus groups in qualitative research. retrieved from http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/2087. schuler, r. s., & jackson, s. e. (2007). strategic human resource management (2nd edn.). london: blackwell publishing ltd. schultz, c., & van der walt, h. (2015). reinventing hr. randburg: knowledge resources. schwab, c. (2017). the global competitiveness report 2017–2018. geneva: world economic forum. selden, s. c., ingraham, p. w., & jacobson, w. (2001). human resource practices in state government: findings from a national survey. public administration review, 61(5), 598–607. https://doi.org/10.1111/0033-3352.00130 selden, s. c., & sowa, j. (2011). performance management and appraisal in human service organizations: management and staff perspectives. public personnel management, 40(3), 251–264. https://doi.org/10.1177/009102601104000305 van wart, m. (2011). dynamics of leadership in public service: theory and practice. new york: routledge. vermeeren, b., kuipers, b., & steijn, b. (2013). does leadership style make a difference? linking hrm, job satisfaction, and organizational performance. review of public personnel administration, 34(2), 174–195. warnich, s., carrell, m. r., elbert, n. f., & hatfield, r. d. (2015). south african human resource management: theory & practice (5th edn.). london: cengage learning. williams, j. j. (2006). community participation: lessons from post-apartheid south africa. journal of policy studies, 27(3), 197–216. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x13510853 wright, b., & pandey, s. (2010). transformational leadership in the public sector: does structure matter? journal of public administration research and theory, 20(1), 75–89. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mup003 abstract introduction literature review hypotheses development research method results discussion implications and future study acknowledgements references about the author(s) alex winarno department of business administration, faculty communication and business, telkom university, bandung, indonesia arif p. prasetio department of business management telecommunication and information, faculty of economy and business, universitas telkom, bandung, indonesia buchruddin s. luturlean department of business administration, faculty communication and business, telkom university, bandung, indonesia shinta k. wardhani department of business management telecommunication and information, faculty of economy and business, universitas telkom, bandung, indonesia citation winarno, a., prasetio, a.p., luturlean, b.s., & wardhani, s.k. (2022). the link between perceived human resource practices, perceived organisational support and employee engagement: a mediation model for turnover intention. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1802. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1802 original research the link between perceived human resource practices, perceived organisational support and employee engagement: a mediation model for turnover intention alex winarno, arif p. prasetio, buchruddin s. luturlean, shinta k. wardhani received: 16 oct. 2021; accepted: 18 mar. 2022; published: 28 apr. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: effective human resource practices (hrp) that include recruitment, orientation, training, career development, compensation and industrial relations that suit the needs of employees can improve the psychological aspects of organisational support and employee engagement (ee) that have an impact on minimising employees’ turnover intention (ti). research purpose: to analyse the effect of human resources practices, perceived organisational support and ee in minimising employees’ ti in a state-owned transportation company. motivation for the study: this study provides an in-depth analysis of factors affecting employees’ intention to leave and recommends solutions to develop a conductive, productive working atmosphere. identifying the employee’s intention to leave is important in controlling turnover. research approach/design and method: the study was conducted based on the social exchange theory. the researcher used a nonprobability, convenience sampling method and distributed 450 questionnaires to respondents with the help of the hr department. about 377 questionnaires were returned and met the criteria for data processing. the study uses a quantitative approach; data processing uses sem procedures. main findings: this research found that effective hrp in accordance with the needs of employees have a direct and significant influence on the increased perceived organisational support and ee. however, hrp was found not to affect ti. further analysis shows that perceived organisational support and ee simultaneously act as mediating variables that link hrp and ti. practical/managerial implications: the positive behaviour of employees can be developed through the company’s effort of establishing a conducive, supportive work environment for employees. contribution/value-add: studies related to work behaviour in state-owned enterprise (soes) are important so that human resource leaders or managers and other policymakers have a broader point of view when putting together hr programmes, considering that they have a big impact on employees and enterprises. however, cross-sectional data collection makes the generalisation rate of the findings should be carefully observed. keywords: hr practices; perceived organisation support; employee engagement; turnover intention; state-owned enterprise. introduction a reliable, experienced human resource is amongst the most fundamental assets of a company, particularly the public transport company. failure to obtain such resources is likely to result in suboptimal products and service delivery. companies are necessary to provide developmental programmes to keep employees’ skills updated. in addition, it is also pivotal to establish a conducive, supportive work environment to make employees feel comfortable and eventually contribute to the company’s competitive advantage. one of the challenges companies face is related to turnover issues. an excessive turnover rate can potentially hinder the company’s operation and cause losses. hence, retaining well-performed employees and maintaining turnover rates at a healthy level can bring positive expected results such as better efficiency, effectiveness, productivity, and higher company profits (hur & hawley, 2019; ogony & majola, 2018). in contrast, failure to perform proper management is likely to adversely affect the company (palesciuc, 2019). turnover issues are currently faced by both private and government owned companies in indonesia. however, studies in the indonesian context investigating turnover are still limited. in general, employees in state-owned transportation enterprise rarely leave their organisation as they have clear compensation and pension guarantees. however, the leaving of an employee with central roles may significantly affect the company. it should also be emphasised that today’s employee composition comprises individuals from different generations such as baby boomers, generation x, generation y and millennials. this diversity can affect the company’s work condition and lead to a high turnover rate when improperly managed (prahadi, 2015). in this regard, the present study aims to analyse the turnover rate and its underlying factors amongst employees in a soe. employee’s intention to leave indicates the future possibility that employees may leave. intention to leave refers to an employee’s attitude, whilst the action of leaving the company is often called turnover. this study particularly focuses on the resignation submitted by employees. the term intention to leave refers to the state in which employees are planning their leave but have not realised it (chen et al., 2014). studies in the indonesian setting have reported a range of factors causing employees’ turnover, such as the compensation system (permana, mukzam, & ruhana, 2015), organisational support (kusuma & mujiati, 2017), stress levels (yuda & ardana, 2017), job satisfaction (pawesti & wikansari, 2016), organisational commitment (irbayuni, 2012), career development (bibowo & masdupi, 2015) and employee engagement (ee) (artiningrum & satrya, 2016). to analyse the employees’ turnover rate, it is necessary to identify the employees’ intention to leave. research purpose and objectives identifying the employee’s intention to leave is important in controlling turnover. by knowing the intention, the company can take concrete steps to prevent it whilst improving the internal conditions to minimise employees’ intention to leave in the future. this study used human resource practices (hrp) as the independent variable and perceived organisation support (pos) and engagement employees (ee) as the mediating variable. the study applied the theory of social exchange (cook & rice, 2006), which believes that individuals who receive positive treatment are likely to provide similar feedback. the present study provides an in-depth analysis of factors affecting employees’ intention to leave and recommends solutions to develop a conducive, productive working atmosphere. literature review human resource practice and turnover intention enterprises with effective hr management practices indicate their serious investment in employees. such practice can improve employees’ work–life quality as they have a pleasant job, a promising opportunity to develop and a promising career path, in addition to an enjoyable work atmosphere. effective human resources management contributes to the formation of positive attitudes and behaviours of employees, amongst others; improving work–life and family balance (singh, nandan, & chawla, 2015), increasing the intention to stay (kehoe & wright, 2013), increasing the tendency of productive behaviour (kura, shamsudin, umrani, & saleh, 2019), affective commitment (naeem, mirza, ayyub, & lodhi, 2017), lowering absenteeism (vermeeren et al., 2014), and also lowering the turnover rate (alfes, shantz, truss, & soane, 2013). studies on the effect of effective human resources management on turnover rates have been conducted worldwide, including australia (ang, bartram, mcneil, leggat, & stanton, 2013), belgia (marescaux, winne, & sels, 2013), china (zhong, wayne, & liden, 2015), india (guchait & cho, 2010), iran (karatepe & vatankhah, 2014) and italy (russo & buonocore, 2012). different findings reported by these studies imply that the practice may vary from one organisation to another. perceived organisation support, engagement and turnover intention previous studies report that pos positively affects engagement whilst negatively affecting turnover (park, newman, zhang, wu, & hooke, 2015). based on the social exchange theory, an enterprise with policies showing support to employees may develop their positive feelings and minimise their turnover intention (ti). the reciprocal principle holds that individuals tend to feel obliged to help or reciprocate kindness to others who have helped them (gouldner, 1960). the individuals or employees who feel the support from their organisation are likely to develop a feeling of obligation to reciprocate the ‘goodness’ with positive attitudes and behaviours (eisenberger, armeli, rexwinkel, lynch, & rhoades, 2001). individuals with sufficient support from their organisation are likely to exhibit more engagement with their job and stay. table 1 shows the findings of previous studies on the effect of pos on ti. table 2 displays findings on pos-to-engagement relationships, and table 3 summarises the relationship between engagement and ti. table 1: relationship between perceived organisation support and turnover intention. table 2: relationship between perceived organisation support and engagement. table 3: relationship between engagement and turnover intention. mediation role of perceived organisation support and engagement before developing a hypothesis for this study, it is necessary to first understand whether pos and employees’ engagement have a role in mediating the relationship between hrp and ti. tables 4 and 5 present the findings of mediation analysis that has been conducted in several countries using samples from diverse industries. it appears from these results that pos can act as mediation in the relationship between hrp and ti as well as between hrp and ee. however, engagement also performs the same function in the relationship between hrp with ti and pos with ti. table 4: mediation of perceived organisation support on turnover intention. table 5: mediation of engagement on turnover intention. hypotheses development based on the study of the article discussed, this study will determine six direct relationship hypotheses and three hypotheses related to mediation testing. here are each of these hypotheses: hypothesis 1 (h1): hrp will have a significant negative effect on turnover intention (ti). hypothesis 2 (h2): hrp will have a significant positive effect on pos. hypothesis 3 (h3): hrp will have a significant negative effect on engagement. hypothesis 4 (h4): pos will have a significant negative effect on turnover intention (ti). hypothesis 5 (h5): pos will have a significant positive effect on engagement. hypothesis 6 (h6): engagement will have a significant negative effect on turnover intention (ti). hypothesis 7 (h7): pos will play a significant role as mediation in the relationship between hrp and turnover intention (ti). hypothesis 8 (h8): engagement will play a significant role as mediation in the relationship between hrp and turnover intention (ti). hypothesis 9 (h9): pos and engagement will simultaneously play a significant role as mediation in the relationship between hrp and turnover intention (ti). research method participants and procedures the present study was conducted in a soe in bandung, indonesia. this was a branch office of a public transportation company. the researcher applied nonprobability convenience sampling methods and distributed 450 questionnaires to employees through the hr department. of 450 questionnaires, 377 questionnaires were returned (response rate 83.78%). table 6 displays the demographic data of respondents in this study. table 6: demographic characteristic. measurement questionnaire as a research instrument used in this study comprised 59 items. thirty-three items were used to measure hrp, six items to measure pos and six items to measure ti and 14 items to measure ee. the question for measuring hrp is developed based on the concept of tessema and soeters (2006) with examples of items as follows; ‘management has a strong commitment to the training programs’ and ‘the results of performance assessment are used as the basis for decisions on training and career development’. the cronbach’s alpha of this variable was 0.980. questions for pos and ti using items contained in the article prasetio, luturlean, anggadwita and prameswari (2020). there are six question items for pos with examples of ‘the enterprise cares about my welfare’ and ‘the enterprise respects and value my contribution’. cronbach’s alpha is 0.961. examples of questions for ti are ‘often thinking of quitting from work’ and ‘actively look for better employment opportunities’. cronbach’s alpha is 0.925. to measure ee, researchers used items developed by schaufeli, salanova, gonzals-roma and bakker (2002) consisting of 14 questions. examples for the question are ‘proud of the work that i do’ and ‘my work is full of meaning and purpose’ with cronbach’s alpha 0.956. the whole question has six alternative answer options from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. results relationship between variables table 7 shows the relationships between variables. the direction and significance of the relationship are in accordance with the researchers’ guesses. it appears that the correlation between hrp and pos is relatively very strong. whilst the correlation between hrp with engagement and pos with engagement includes medium. correlations between hrp, pos, and engagement with ti show negative (opposite) directions with relatively weak values. table 7: mean, standard deviation, correlation. hypotheses testing to examine the hypotheses of the direct effect of hrp on ti and the indirect effect through pos and engagement, we use spss with macro process from hayes (2018). the process is performed to investigate whether there is any mediation. the first step is to present the regression result, showed in table 8 that is also used to answer hypotheses h1–h6. there are two hypotheses that do not support. h1 does not support, which means there is no direct effect of hrp on ti (p-value > 0.05), and h4 does not support, which reveals there is no direct effect of pos on ti (p > 0.05). h2, h3, h5, and h6 are all, respectively, supported. table 8: regression analysis. the next step is to examine the possibility of mediation by pos and engagement. based on the work of hayes (2018), a variable is said to have a mediating role if the bootstrap result shows that the upper level and lower level confidence interval (ulci and llci) values do not contain zero (0). table 9 provides the result. as mentioned earlier, hrp does not have a direct effect on ti. regarding the role of pos as mediation, we also have no evidence that supports the idea (ulci and llci contain zero). perceived organisation support will not play a significant role as mediation in the relationship between hrp and ti. hypothesis h7 is not supported. however, the h8 hypothesis is supported; engagement has a mediation role as ulci and llci do not contain zero. the interesting things are when pos is combined with engagement, then they both play a significant role in mediation; thus h9 was supported. we can safely mention that the intervention of pos and engagement can change the relationship model between hrp and ti. table 9: effect of human resource practice on turnover intention. discussion it is quite surprising that hrp and pos do not have a significant effect on ti. the finding of the present study is different from previous studies. respondents in this study viewed that hrp alone is insufficient to make them stay in the organisation. this finding supports previous studies reporting the insignificant effect of hrp on ti (russo & buonocore, 2012; zhong et al., 2015). when measuring the effect of pos on it, we found at least two articles that provide the same result with our study. they were studies conducted by wilson and chaudhry (2017) at the it industry in india and maertz, griffith, campbell and allen (2007) on social workers in the united states, reporting no significant relationship between pos and ti. the contribution of this research is to strengthen the findings of previous research, which examined the public transportation industry sector in indonesia. these results prove to hr managers that hr practice hardly brings the same result all the time. therefore, a variety of methods should be done to handle the problems and conditions of each company. the result of this study supports the findings of the previous study whilst contradicting others. we have proven that hrp has a significant and positive effect on pos and engagement, consistent with findings from pohl, vonthron and closon (2017). alfes et al. (2013), and kura et al. (2019). in terms of the effect of pos on engagement, this study also supports the findings of al-omar et al. (2019) and ott et al. (2018). finally, we also have similar findings with boakye et al. (2019), wang et al. (2020), and memon et al. (2020) who report the negative effect of engagement on ti. the result regarding the mediation role also contradicts some previous studies. kuvaas (2008) reports that pos does not mediate the relationship between hrp and ti, whilst allen et al. (2003), in contrast, report the significant result. our study seems to support the finding of kuvaas (2008). employees in the soes stated that the combination of effective hrp and adequate pos does not necessarily make them stay. however, employees with strong engagement tend to consider staying and helping the organisation achieve its goals. our finding on the mediating role of engagement in the relationship between hrp and ti is consistent with memon et al. (2020) and alfes et al. (2013). our model exhibits a smaller deviation compared to models in previous studies. implications and future study despite its contribution to the field of hr and organisational behaviour, some limitations of this study were noticed. the first limitation relates to the sampling method. samples of the study were employees of soes in bandung and did not represent all soe employees in indonesia, thus limiting the generalisability of the study. future studies are suggested to involve employees in several cities, at least in java island as indonesia’s most populated island. the second limitation relates to the data collection procedure. researchers were assisted by the hr department in distributing and collecting questionnaires. researchers used a nonprobability method with convenience sampling. this method was selected by considering the employees’ tight schedule that the presence of researchers to perform probability methods can interfere with the enterprise’s operations. ideally, researchers can determine samples more accurately so that the results of the study are stronger. however, when it comes to interactions with employees in the enterprise, it is relatively difficult to realise. to minimise irregularities, it is recommended that samples be taken above 50% of the population in one office. the third limitation lies in the nature of data collection that uses a self-report questionnaire. although participants have been ensured with confidentiality and the instrument has met the reliability and validity, self-reporting is prone to a deviation that may fail to represent the respondents’ condition. however, researchers have tried several ways to minimise bias in each respondent’s answer. a qualitative study can provide broader and deeper insights from employees’ lens. conclusion human resources practices in indonesia still vary. whilst some companies put serious attention on their employees, other companies just simply have hr programmes. this condition happens both in privateand state-owned enterprises. the soe where the present study was conducted was considered to have effective hr practices. further studies are also required to improve human resources management in other soes. further research can explore the application of human resource practices in private and soes in indonesia at various degrees with more samples to depict human resources management in indonesia both in terms of recruitment, training and development, compensation, job assessment, career development, industrial relations management, as well as the provision of occupational safety and health guarantees. furthermore, it is also necessary to examine the impact of the implementation of human resources practices on performance. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions all the authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author (a.w.) upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references albrecht, s.l., & marty, a. (2017). personality, self-efficacy, and job resources and their associations with employee engagement, affective commitment, and turnover intentions. the international journal of human resource management, 31(5), 657–681. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1362660 alfes, k., shantz, a.d., truss, c., & soane, e.c. (2013). the link between perceived human resource management practices, engagement and employee behavior: a moderated mediation model. the international journal of human resource management, 24(2), 330–351. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.679950 allen, d.g., shore, l.m., & griffeth, r.w. (2003). the role of perceived organizational support and supportive human resource practices in the turnover process. journal of management, 29(1), 99–118. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630302900107 al-omar, h.a., arafah, a.m., barakat, j.m., almutairi, r.d., khurshid, f., & al sultan, m.s. (2019). the impact of perceived organizational support and resilience on pharmacists’ engagement in their stressful and competitive workplaces in saudi arabia. saudi pharmaceutical journal, 27(7), 1044–1052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsps.2019.08.007 ang, s.h., bartram, t., mcneil, n., leggat, s.g., & stanton, p. (2013). the effects of high-performance work systems on hospital employees’ work attitudes and intention to leave: a multi-level occupational group analysis. the international journal of human resource management, 24(16), 3086–3114. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.775029 artiningrum, b., & satrya, a. (2016). analysis of the influence of career management, training satisfaction, pay satisfaction on turnover intention and the role of mediation organizational engagement in banking sector employees. sriwijaya journal of management and business, 14(3), 337–352. bibowo, a., & masdupi, e. (2015). effect of job satisfaction, compensation, and career development on turnover intention of employees of bank syariah mandiri padang branch. journal of management of unp, 3(3), 62–77. boakye, k.g., apenteng, b.a., hanna, m.d., kimsey, l., mase, w.a., opoku, s.t., … peden, a. (2019). the impact of interpersonal support, supervisory support, and employee engagement on employee turnover intentions: differences between financially distressed and highly financially hospitals. health care management review, 46(2), 135–144. https://doi.org/10.1097/hmr.0000000000000251 chen, m.-l., su, z.-y., lo, c.-l., chiu, c.-h., hu, y.-h., & shieh, t.-y. (2014). an empirical study on the factors influencing the turnover intention of dentists in hospitals in taiwan. journal of dental sciences, 9(4), 332–334. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jds.2013.01.003 cook, k.s., & rice, e. (2006). social exchange theory. in j. delamater (ed.), the handbook of social psychology (pp. 53–76). new york, ny: springer. djatmiko, t., prasetio, a.p., & azis, e. (2020). perceived organization support as a mediator in the relationship between effective human resources practice and employee engagement in indonesia. jurnal aplikasi manajemen, 18(2), 307–317. https://doi.org/10.21776/ub.jam.2020.018.02.11 eisenberger, r., armeli, s., rexwinkel, b., lynch, p.d., & rhoades, l. (2001). reciprocation of perceived organizational support. journal of applied psychology, 86(1), 42–51. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.1.42 gouldner, a.w. (1960). the norm of reciprocity: a preliminary statement. american sociological review, 25(2), 161–178. https://doi.org/10.2307/2092623 guchait, p., & cho, s.h. (2010). the impact of human resource management practices on intention to leave of employees in the service industry in india: the mediating role of organizational commitment. international journal of human resource management, 21(8), 1228–1247. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2010.483845 haivas, s., hofmans, j., & papermans, r. (2013). volunteer engagement and intention to quit from a self-determination theory perspective. journal of applied social psychology, 43(9), 1869–1880. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12149 hayes, a.f. (2018). introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: a regression-based approach. 2nd ed. new york, ny: the gilford press. hui, c., wong, a., & tjosvold, d. (2010). turnover intention and performance in china the role of positive affectivity, chinese values, perceived organizational support, and constructive controversy. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 80(4), 735–751. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317906x171037 hur, h., & hawley, j. (2019). turnover behavior among us government employees. international review of administrative sciences, 86(4), 641–656. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852318823913 irbayuni, s. (2012). effect of compensation, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment to the desire to move work at pt. energy resources surabaya. neo-business journal, 6(1), 76–87. karatepe, o.m., & vatankhah, s. (2014). the effects of high-performance work practices on perceived organizational support and turnover intentions: evidence from the airline industry. journal of human resources in hospitality and tourism, 13(2), 103–119. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332845.2014.847292 kehoe, r.r., & wright, p.m. (2013). the impact of high-performance human resource practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. journal of management, 39(2), 366–391. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310365901 kumar, m., jauhari, h., rastogi, a., & sivakumar, s. (2018). managerial support for development and turnover intention: roles of organizational support, work engagement and job satisfaction. journal of organizational change management, 31(1), 135–153. https://doi.org/10.1108/jocm-06-2017-0232. kura, k.m., shamsudin, f.m., umrani, w.a., & salleh, n.m. (2019). linking human resource development practices to counterproductive work behaviour: does employee engagement matter. journal of african business, 20(4), 472–488. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228916.2019.1583974 kusuma, k.i.p., & mujiati, n.w. (2017). the influence of perceived organizational support and organizational commitment to employee turnover intention at alila hotel ubud. e-jurnal manajemen unud, 6(10), 5748–5774. kuvaas, b. (2008). an exploration of how the employee–organization relationship affects the linkage between perception of developmental human resource practices and employee outcomes. journal of management studies, 45(1), 1–25. maertz, c.p., griffith, r.w., campbell, n.s., & allen, d.g. (2007). the effects of perceived organizational support and perceived supervisor support on employee turnover. journal of organizational behavior, 28(8), 1059–1075. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.472 marescaux, e., winne, s.d., & sels, l. (2013). hr practices and hrm outcomes: the role of basic need satisfaction. personnel review, 42(1), 4–27. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481311285200 memon, m.a., salleh, r., mirza, m.z., cheah, j.h., ting, h., ahmad, m.s., & tariq, a. (2020). satisfaction matters: the relationships between hrm practices, work engagement and turnover intentions. international journal of manpower, 42(1), 21–50. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijm-04-2018-0127 naeem, a., mirza, n.h., ayyub, r.m., & lodhi, r.n. (2017). hrm practices and faculty’s knowledge sharing behavior: mediation of affective commitment and affect-based trust. studies in higher education, 44(3), 499–512. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2017.1378635 ogony, s.m., & majola, b.k. (2018). factors causing employees turnover in the public service, south africa. journal of management and administration, 1, 77–100. ott, a.r., haun, v.c., & binnewies, c. (2018). negative work reflection, personal resources, and work engagement: the moderating role of perceived organizational support. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 28(1), 110–123. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2018.1550076 palesciuc, i. (2019). consequences of employee turnover on organizational performance, viewed march 2021, from https://www.performancemagazine.org/consequences-employee-turnover/. park, j.h., newman, a., zhang, l., wu, c., & hooke, a. (2015). mentoring functions and turnover intention the mediating role of perceived organizational support. the international journal of human resource management, 27(11), 1173–1191. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1062038 pawesti, r., & wikansari, r. (2016). effect of job satisfaction on employee turnover intention in indonesia. journal ecopsy, 3(2), 49–67. https://doi.org/10.20527/ecopsy.v3i2.2649 permana, m.y.a., mukzam, m.d., & ruhana, i. (2015). effect of financial and non-financial compensation on turnover intention. (study on employees of pt. pln (persero) apj malang). journal of business administration, 25(2), 1–16. pohl, s., vonthron, a.m., & closon, c. (2017). human resources practices as predictors of organizational citizenship behavior: the role of job breadth and organizational support. journal of management and organization, 25(2), 224–238. https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2017.14 prahadi, y.y. (2015). high talent turnover, here’s the trigger, viewed july 2021, from https://swa.co.id/swa/trends/management/turnover-talent-tinggi-ini-dia-pemicunya-survei. prasetio, a.p., luturlean, b.s., anggadwita, g., & prameswari, d.a. (2020). how employee perceived organizational support and the mediation of work stress can reduce voluntary employees’ turnover level: a case in indonesia private organizations. test engineering and management journal, 83, 14710–14719. russo, m., & buonocore, f. (2012). the relationship between work-family enrichment and nurse turnover. journal of managerial psychology, 27(3), 216–236. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683941211205790 schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzals-roma, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two-sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3, 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 shi, x. (crystal), & gordon, s. (2020). organizational support versus supervisor support: the impact on hospitality managers’ psychological contract and work engagement. international journal of hospitality management, 87, 102374. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2019.102374 silva, r.s., cappellozza, a., & costa, l.v. (2014). o impacto do suporte organizacional e do comprometimento afetivo sobre a rotatividade. revista de administração imed, 4(3), 314–329. https://doi.org/10.18256/2237-7956/raimed.v4n3p314-329 singh, t., nandan, s., & chawla, g. (2015). hr service dimensions of quality of work life factors: it enabled services perspectives in india. international journal indian culture and business management, 10(4), 460–474. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijicbm.2015.069647 shuck, b., twyford, d., reio jr, t.g., & suck, a. (2014). human resource development practices and employee engagement; examining the connection with employee turnover intention. human resource development quarterly, 25(2), 239–270. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21190 tessema, m.t., & soeters, j.l. (2006). challenges and prospects of hrm in developing countries: testing the hrm–performance link in the eritrean civil service. the international journal of human resource management, 17(1), 86–105. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190500366532 vermeeren, b., steijn, b., tummers, l., lankhaar, m., poerstamper, r.j., & van beek, s. (2014). hrm and its effect on employee, organizational and financial outcomes in health care organizations. human resources for health, 12(35), 35–49. https://doi.org/10.1186/1478-4491-12-35 wang, c., xu, j., zhang, t.c., & li, q.m. (2020). effects of professional identity on turnover intention in china’s hotel employees: the mediating role of employee engagement and job satisfaction. journal of hospitality and tourism management, 45, 10–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2020.07.002 wilson, m.s., & chaudhry, a. (2017). can empowerment and organizational support for development stem turnover? it depends on power distance. south asian journal of human resources management, 4(1), 72–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/2322093717705278 yongxing, g., hongfei, d., baoguo, x., & lei, m. (2017). work engagement and job performance: the moderating role of perceived organizational support. social and organizational psychology, 33(3), 708–713. https://doi.org/10.6018/analesps.33.3.238571 yuda, i.b.d.p., & ardana, i.k. (2017). pengaruh kepuasan kerja dan stres kerja terhadap turnover intention pada karyawan hotel holiday inn express. e-jurnal manajemen unud, 6(10), 5319–5347. zhong, l., wayne, s.j., & liden, r.c. (2015). job engagement, perceived organizational support, high-performance human resource practices, and cultural value orientations: a cross-level investigation. journal of organizational behavior, 37(6), 823–844. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2076 sajhrm 17(1)_2019_contents.indd http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access table of contents i page i of iii original research team coaching in the workplace: critical success factors for implementation badelisile m. maseko, rene van wyk, aletta odendaal sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1125 | 30 april 2019 original research talent management in the south african construction industry sydwell shikweni, willem schurink, rene van wyk sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1094 | 27 may 2019 original research buridan’s ass syndrome: dilemma of the human resources practitioner in workplace bullying manasseh mokgolo, antoni barnard sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1124 | 24 june 2019 original research trust and organisational performance: a grounded theory approach for a south african district municipality zwelinzima j. ndevu sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1158 | 26 june 2019 original research the relationship between chief executive officer compensation and the size and industry of south african state-owned enterprises mariette coetzee, magda l. bezuidenhout sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1120 | 26 june 2019 original research applying duoethnography to position researcher identity in management research lisa c. kinnear, shaun ruggunan sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1056 | 10 july 2019 original research a total rewards framework for the attraction of generation y employees born 1981–2000 in south africa mark h.r. bussin, keshia mohamed-padayachee, philip serumaga-zake sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1066 | 11 july 2019 original research accounting for uncontrollable factors in executive incentive scheme designs dumisani v. dhliwayo, mark h.r. bussin sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1084 | 22 july 2019 original research satisfaction with retention factors in relation to job embeddedness of public school teachers ronny shibiti sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1161 | 06 august 2019 95 106 118 129 140 150 161 175 188 table of contents i original research the impact of psychological contracts on employee engagement at a university of technology vinessa naidoo, ishana abarantyne, robert rugimbana sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1039 | 15 january 2019 original research strategic priorities for cultivating commitment amongst academic staff: the militating effect of workplace spirituality desere kokt, esther p. palmer sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1054 | 16 january 2019 original research evaluation of remuneration preferences of knowledge workers mark h.r. bussin, natasha brigman sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1075 | 05 february 2019 original research perceptions of sacrifice, workplace friendship and career concerns as explanatory mechanisms of employees’ organisational commitment melinde coetzee, nadia ferreira, ingrid potgieter sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1033 | 06 february 2019 original research a performance management model addressing human factors in the north west provincial administration kezell klinck, sonia swanepoel sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1021 | 13 february 2019 original research gender diversity, ethnic diversity and employee performance in a south african higher education institution simbarashe zhuwao, hlanganipai ngirande, wiseman ndlovu, sam t. setati sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1061 | 14 march 2019 original research measurement of the perceptions of human resource practices in a seemingly collectivistic culture anton grobler, sonja grobler, rose mathafena sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1069 | 08 april 2019 original research subjective experiences of employment equity in south african organisations rudolf m. oosthuizen, louise tonelli, claude-hélène mayer sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1074 | 08 april 2019 original research the moderating effect of employee motivation on workplace surveillance and employee engagement amongst employees at the zimbabwe revenue authority fidelis p. tsvangirai, willie t. chinyamurindi sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1106 | 23 april 2019 1 12 20 30 39 56 64 75 87 vol 17 (2019) issn: 1683-7584 (print) | issn: 2071-078x (online)sa journal of human resource management http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access table of contents ii page ii of iii original research job and personal resources as mediators in the relationship between iron-ore mineworkers’ job demands and work engagement martina kotzé, petrus nel sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1183 | 27 august 2019 original research debunking the one-size-fits-all approach to human resource management: a review of human resource practices in small and medium-sized enterprise firms willard nyamubarwa, crispen chipunza sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1108 | 27 august 2019 original research employees’ perceived effectiveness of the performance management system at a north-west provincial government department pheagane i. modipane, petrus a. botha, tonja blom sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1081 | 02 september 2019 original research the relationship between perceived organisational support, organisational commitment and turnover intention among employees in a selected organisation in the aviation industry maahierah satardien, rukhsana jano, bright mahembe sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1123 | 05 september 2019 original research managerial interpersonal competencies and the performance of familyand non-family-owned small and medium-sized enterprises in zimbabwe and south africa nhamo mashavira, crispen chipunza, dennis y. dzansi sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1130 | 05 september 2019 original research a guiding framework for multi-stakeholder contracting in executive coaching zelda burger, salome van coller-peter sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1114 | 19 september 2019 original research the role of electronic human resource management in diverse workforce efficiency tonja blom, yvonne du plessis, hamid kazeroony sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1118 | 30 september 2019 original research environmental influences, employee resourcing strategies and small and medium-sized enterprises performance: case of south african small restaurants honest mupani, crispen chipunza sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1104 | 30 september 2019 original research how coaching aligns the psychological contract between the young millennial professional and the organisation chantelle solomon, salome van coller-peter sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1146 | 30 september 2019 197 206 212 224 232 247 258 270 281 original research exploring talent management execution in the ministry of justice in the namibian public sector kristofina filippus, cecilia m. schultz sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1162 | 07 october 2019 original research the impact of job description and career prospect on job satisfaction: a quantitative study in mauritius ketan s. ramhit sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1092 | 09 october 2019 original research promoting a positive work experience for south african domestic workers bridget de villiers, michelle taylor sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1206 | 15 october 2019 original research psychological contract inducements and expectations conveyed to potential employees on organisations’ websites jaco van niekerk, pharny chrysler-fox, rene van wyk sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1113 | 22 october 2019 original research the mediating role of planned behaviour on deterrence initiatives aimed at managing local government workplace compliance sithenkosi lungisa, ogochukwu nzewi, samuel o. olutuase sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1058 | 23 october 2019 original research assessing the predictors of satisfaction with life of employees in windhoek, namibia imelda rodriques, wesley r. pieters sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1145 | 28 october 2019 original research job attitudes as a predictor of work engagement of the lecturing staff at the university of namibia wesley r. pieters, ebben van zyl, petrus nel sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1165 | 29 october 2019 original research entrepreneurial alertness and self-efficacy: a focus on social values and innovation performance boris urban sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1132 | 29 october 2019 original research performance appraisal as an antecedent to innovation: an analysis of its importance relative to other human resource practices navin g. matookchund, renier steyn sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1219 | 29 october 2019 292 301 308 321 332 343 352 363 372 http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access table of contents iii page iii of iii original research an analysis of the relationship between occupational stress and employee job performance in public health care institutions: a case study of public hospitals in harare tawaziwa wushe, jacob shenje sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1079 | 05 november 2019 original research the relationship between social media usage in the workplace and employee productivity in the public sector: case study of government departments in harare tawaziwa wushe, jacob shenje sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1116 | 05 november 2019 original research the role of neuroleadership in work engagement leigh a. zwaan, rica viljoen, dorrian aiken sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1172 | 11 november 2019 original research to flex or not to flex? flexible work arrangements amongst software developers in an emerging economy wilhelmus j. conradie, jeremias j. de klerk sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1175 | 12 november 2019 original research resistance to change, work engagement and psychological capital of academics in an open distance learning work environment johanna c. diedericks, frans cilliers, adéle bezuidenhout sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1142 | 12 november 2019 original research personality and job engagement among municipal workers in the eastern cape province, south africa tatenda s. mhlanga, themba q. mjoli, shingirayi f. chamisa sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1188 | 13 november 2019 original research the antecedents of employee engagement and their effect on public sector service delivery: the case study of government departments in harare tawaziwa wushe, jacob shenje sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1082 | 13 november 2019 383 394 404 413 425 439 450 original research environmental health community service: confronting the human resource challenges patience mbola, izanne s. human, paula e. melariri sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1135 | 18 november 2019 original research developing a team performance framework utilising neethling’s thinking style preference instrument yvonne t. joubert, christine swart sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1203 | 26 november 2019 original research psychological strengths: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of muslim women leaders fahrial amla, johanna h. buitendach sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1185 | 26 november 2019 original research the impact of training and assessment register (tar) on productivity in the automotive parts manufacturing organisation in south africa robert w.d. zondo sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1179 | 28 november 2019 original research a comparative analysis of the antecedents and consequences of employee satisfaction for urban and rural healthcare workers in kwazulu-natal province, south africa brian tawana, nicolene e. barkhuizen, yvonne du plessis sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1080 | 29 november 2019 original research what will it take to make a successful administrative professional in the fourth industrial revolution? annette a.j. venter, tessie h.h. herbst, chux g. iwu sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1224 | 29 november 2019 reviewer acknowledgement sa journal of human resource management | vol 17 | a1284 | 13 december 2019 461 471 482 496 504 513 527 http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access page 1 of 1 reviewer acknowledgement acknowledgement to reviewers in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for the sa journal of human resource management, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on https:// sajhrm.co.za for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a reviewer. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at https://sajhrm. co.za 2. in your ‘user home’ [https://sajhrm.co.za/ index.php/sajhrm/user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest(s). 3. it is good practice as a reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to the sa journal of human resource management. please do not hesitate to contact us if you require assistance in performing this task. publisher: publishing@aosis.co.za tel: +27 21 975 2602 tel: 086 1000 381 sa journal of human resource management recognises the value and importance of peer reviewers in the overall publication process – not only in shaping individual manuscripts, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank the following reviewers who participated in shaping this volume of the sa journal of human resource management. we appreciate the time taken to perform your review(s) successfully. ayşe e. yogun abimbola o. windapo aleksandra m. furtak alex asakitikpi alex hakuzimana amanda werner anita bosch anita j. de bruyn aretha williams arien strasheim barney j. erasmus bejoy j. thomas bennie j. linde blessing chabaya boris urban bridget de villiers calvin m. mabaso caren b. scheepers carolina m. henn cecilia m. schultz charles cobbinah charlotte mokoatle chris w. callaghan christel marais cookie m. govender cordelia volker crystal hoole doret botha eileen f. koekemoer elizabeth c. rudolph elrie botha elsabe diedericks emelda m. petersen esther p. palmer eugene p. hontiveros frances de klerk frans maloa freda van der walt george mavunga gerda van dijk gerhard bezuidenhout gerhard h. rabie ghada a. el-kot gilton g. klerck guinevere m. lourens ingrid l. potgieter jacob shenje jacques myburgh jealous n.a. sungwa jenika gobind johann f. burden johanna c. diedericks john walsh kakoli sen karen luyt kgope p. moalusi krishna k. govender leon t. de beer letitia van der merwe liezl diedericks lisa c. kinnear lize e. van hoek lizelle rossouw louise engelbrecht lungisa sithenkosi lusanda sekaja madelyn geldenhuys maelekanyo c. mulaudzi magda l. bezuidenhout mankolo x. lethoko maria sachane marieta du plessis mark h.r. bussin massad a. alatawi melanie j. bushney melissa jacobs mezgebu yitayal michael c. glensor mihir k. shome mperekeng b. naumi nadia ferreira nasima m.h. carrim nelesh dhanpat nicky h.d. terblanche nicole m. dodd nirmal k. betchoo norizan azizan ntsako i. makamu nuraan agherdien obianuju e. okeke-uzodike olorunjuwon m. samuel petcharat lovichakorntikul peter p. khaola petrus nel pharny chrysler-fox pierre a. joubert piet c. bester rachele paver rene van wyk rethabile mabojane richard g. chazuza royal mabe rudolf m. oosthuizen ruth m. albertyn sanjay k. singh santoshi sengupta shingirayi f. chamisa sonal agarwal sonja grobler sumei van antwerpen suneel kumar suvera boodhoo sybert mutereko tarek h. abdeen tawaziwa wushe thapelo chaacha tinashe t. harry tonja blom wellington b. zondi wesley r. pieters yvonne du plessis zamokuhle w. shabane http://www.sajhrm.co.za� https://sajhrm.co.za� https://sajhrm.co.za� https://sajhrm.co.za� https://sajhrm.co.za� https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/user https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/user mailto:publishing@aosis.co.za s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 3 pp. 22 33 empirical research abstract the aim of this study was to develop a model to assist a south african information technology company with its organisational redesign interventions. a modernist qualitative methodology, with casing as research strategy and grounded theory as a data analysis method, was used to develop a model. expert research participants were selected by means of purposive sampling. their experience of the company’s redesign process was explored in order to develop the model. multiple data collection methods were used. literature on current organisation downsizing was reviewed. the focus group discussions culminated in the formulation of the organisation redesign model. recommendations were made for future research. johann burden gert roodt department of human resource management university of johannesburg south africa correspondence to: johann burden e-mail: johann.burden@absamail.co.za 22 downsizing may take several forms. companies reorganise and restructure to increase efficiency or economics of scale, delayer to eliminate particular layers of bureaucracy and reduce payroll expenses, outsource certain functions in order to focus more resources on key competencies, and use contingent workers to meet demand increases and help keep payroll costs down (abbasi & hollman, 1998). throughout the early 1990s, the news media issued reports of major north american companies announcing layoffs of several thousand employees. currently, companies large and small are still cutting jobs at a rate never seen before in the history of the united states. however, cut-and-slash tactics do not necessarily result in high performance, and the productivity-enhancing role of downsizing has been exaggerated. in many cases, downsizing is not only ill considered, but also inappropriate a knee-jerk reaction to bad times. companies, particularly those that are bloated and non-competitive, tend to turn to layoffs when they cannot solve fundamental problems (abbasi & hollman, 1998). one of the major challenges of business leadership is to heighten competitive advantage through a smoother management process that involves less employee dislocation. given the corrosive effect and poor record of downsizing, many companies are searching for more attractive ways to become mean and lean and more competitive in the global marketplace. they see downsizing as a strategy for achieving greater earnings and productivity and improving their financial position. downsizing is particularly tantalising to companies that are deeply in debt (fisher & white, 2000). in appreciating the downsizing phenomenon in south africa, an open systems perspective of employment relations (see nel, swanepoel, kirsten, erasmus & tsabadi, 2005) is quite helpful. from this framework it makes sense to state that employment relations in democratised national states are confronted with various social changes. from nel et al.’s (2005, pp. 25-31) excellent discussion of the possible interplay between employment dynamics and workplace variables in south africa, the following can be drawn: socio-economic factors• . south africa’s economic growth rate, inflation, taxation and interest rates could affect its employment relations, which in turn may result in various interrelated phenomena, such as (1) too few job opportunities; (2) unemployment; (3) envy, conflict and violence; (4) employee stress; (5) absenteeism; (6) low employee performance; (7) poor organisational competitiveness; (8) restructuring of business processes and downsizing of staff; (9) poor economic growth; (10) labour action, which negatively impacts on foreign investment; and (11) organised mass stay-away or protest actions, which contribute to management-employee conflict. social and political dynamics• . the political transformation culminating in south africa’s first democratic election in 1994 led to various legislative changes, including those dealing with the country’s labour market and employment relations. not only employer representatives but also trade unions have a major interest in labour legislation. organised labour, particularly cosato (congress of south african trade unions), a federation of trade unions, is actively involved not only in general local political processes but also in international politics. the particular nature of trade unions in organisations and in the broader south african society is influenced by developments in the country’s socio-political dispensation, including (1) greater involvement of workers in management decisions; (2) inflated expectations resulting from election processes which, in turn, lead to workers and the unemployed pressurising both government and employers to “deliver”; (3) pressure on the private sector to substantially contribute towards reducing poverty and raising living standards and on employers to ensure that “not only all employees, irrespective of race, gender, etc., share in the same housing assistance benefits, but that even those who have traditionally been deprived of such benefits should now be treated more favourably” (nel et al., 2005, p. 28); (4) the spilling over of crime into organisations, often exacerbated by violence and intimidation, resulting in organisations taking measures to ensure the safety and security of staff; (5) increasing involvement of business in the education and development of their workforce and the communities in which they are located: “if employees are not developed, it may not only lead to inferior productivity levels and capacity/competency-related cases for the termination of their services, but may also threaten the continued existence of the organisation, affecting job creation which is so necessary for socio-economic growth and social stability in the country” (nel et al., 2005, pp. 2829), and making provision for changing societal values, keywords: grounded theory, downsizing, redesign, organisational downsizing, south african it company the development of an organisational redesign model empirical research burden & roodt vol. 6 no. 3 pp. 22 33sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za23 e.g. increasingly involving women in the business and professional world and introducing devices to deal with maternity and paternity leave, childcare and flexitime); (6) increasing transparency and democratic decision-making in organisations; and (7) the pressure on organisations to illustrate that they care about the environment and the impact of their operations on it. organisation-related variables• . the following factors within the workforce may interact with the dynamics of employment relations: (1) management’s decision on how to grow the organisation over the short, medium and long term, which might entail entering new markets, expanding the organisation by establishing new operations in new regions, regaining market share, reducing labour costs and cutting back on certain activities, amalgamating with other organisations, dismissing workers, fair staff retrenchment practices and consultation with workers and/or their representatives; (2) organisational structuring, including structures for communication and control, decentralisation and collective bargaining; and (3) ownership, size, geographic distribution and location of the organisation. the preceding variables clearly illustrate the multi-facetedness of employment relations dynamics and their interrelationship with various factors within and outside businesses, spanning from local political and economic developments to global trends. it should already be clear that south africa as a recently democratised nation has particular complexities with regard to employment relations. given south africa’s urgent need to meet global demands, the extreme complexity of its organisational restructuring, the frequency and haphazardness of its downsizing initiatives, and the resultant protracted litigation and delays in restructuring, the lack of scientific work on the practice of downsizing is astonishing. according to budros (1999, p. 69), this is also the case in the united states, where there is little serious theoretical or empirical work on the issue. as cameron (1994, p. 183) puts it, “downsizing may be the most pervasive yet understudied business phenomenon; we have approached this phenomenon atheoretically and the number of systematic studies on it is paltry”. from the aforementioned it should be clear that organisational downsizing is not only a complex phenomenon but also thorny to implement. the situation is further complicated with south africa’s complex legal framework requiring a welldefined process for organisational downsizing assisting local organisations in effecting the process without running the risk of being economically unfair. definition of the problem according to africa news service (2001, p. 1), labour is fighting rationalisation in both the motor and mining industries that is causing a job loss bloodbath in south africa. this approach by local unions makes it very difficult for organisations to restructure their operations to remain competitive. more specifically, there is continued pressure on south african organisations to restructure their operations without retrenching employees, mainly because of its developing economy and because of the inheritance of injustice practices accompanying apartheid. it should be emphasised that south african organisations do not understand downsizing too well, resulting in many organisations making mistakes during their interventions which, in turn, cost them dearly from an economic and legislative perspective. research questions from a social science research perspective the following broad questions come to mind: how should south african businesses intermittently • manage organisational redesign? what are the internal and external triggers that lead to • organisational redesign? what are the phases that impact organisational redesign?• aims and objectives of the study the aim of the study was to develop an organisational redesign model in south african businesses. more particularly, the objectives of the study were as follows: to employ a qualitative methodology to establish and • describe the experiences and views of staff of a downsizing intervention recently implemented by their organisation in order to generate knowledge to determine its feasibility, including shortcomings and proposals for improvement. to apply insights gained from employees’ experiences and • perspectives as well as usable abstract scholarly concepts found in the literature on organisational and human resource management and leadership, in order to re-define the downsizing practices and policies of the organisation. to compile guidelines that will facilitate the implementation • of downsizing interventions by south african businesses. research design three aspects are normally included in the design; the research approach, utilising a case study as a research strategy, and the research methodology (mouton & marais, 1988). research approach according to mouton and marais (1988, pp. 20-21) a researcher should be aware of his or her own meta-theoretical values or beliefs or particular philosophical assumptions. these assumptions should not influence the way in which the research will be conducted, but can constitute an “intellectual climate” for particular beliefs in the nature of a social reality that can impact the “qualities of postulates”. key scientific beliefs ontological position. ritchie and lewis (2004, pp. 11-23) believe that social reality implies three broad but distinct positions: (1) realism, i.e. claiming the existence of an external reality existing independently from people’s beliefs about or understanding of it; (2) materialism, i.e. posing the existence of a real world but emphasising only the material features that embrace reality; and (3) idealism, i.e. asserting that reality is only knowable through the human mind and specifically by means of socially constructed meanings. the researcher (first author) believes that it is only through experience and understanding of their social environment that individuals are able to attach meaning to it. this belief informed his wish to study the construction of the managers and some executives of his company in respect of the downsizing interventions that the company had experienced (as reflected by their meanings, experiences, understandings, ideas, views, stories, biographies, words, actions, reactions, interactions, situations, social relations, social and cultural practices and processes, rules and ethical values and belief systems). more particularly, he wanted to explore, describe and appreciate their concrete experiences and perspectives of a new downsizing process. therefore he set out to explicate their everyday experiences and viewpoints to the best of his ability, illuminated these with the aid of abstract concepts extracted from the literature and developed a scientific process that could be applied by the company in refining its downsizing interventions. development of an organisational redesign model empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 3 pp. 22 33 24 epistemological position. dick (1999, p. 306) states that: “epistemology, or the theory of knowledge, is a branch of philosophy concerned with a general treatment of the nature, origins, scope and limits of human knowledge, its pre-suppositions and basis”. the first author’s epistemological perspective is that a scientific process for organisational downsizing can be developed by employing unstructured flexible methods of inquiry to capture, describe and appreciate the rich experiences of current users of his company’s downsizing process. choosing a modernist qualitative research approach. denzin and lincoln (2003) state that the history of qualitative research is defined more by “breaks and ruptures than by clear evolutionary, progressive movement from one stage to the next”. the first moment, defined as the traditional period, was from the early twentieth century until just after the end of the second world war. this period was followed by the modernist age, the second moment, up until the 1970s. during this period, attempts were made to formalise methods and processes in qualitative research and, as a result, many texts were written. most importantly, it was during the latter stage of this period that glaser and strauss (1967) further formalised approaches to qualitative analysis to enhance the rigour of data collection and analysis. the fundamental principles underpinning this approach to qualitative research have continued to be elaborated on by strauss (1987) and strauss and corbin (1990). according to denzin (1989), the modernist paradigm is still a relevant research approach today. denzin (1989) states that qualitative researchers have choices that they did not have twenty years ago. the first author chose the modernist qualitative approach because of the rigour of data collection and analysis. case study as a research strategy babbie and mouton (2004, p. 640) define case study research as an intensive investigation of a single unit. this unit varies from individual people, families, communities, social groups, organisations and institutions, to events and countries. yin (2003) describes the case study as a research strategy that comprises a holistic method that covers the logic of design including the scope, data collection methods and specific approaches to the analysis of the data. firstly, the case study in an empirical inquiry seeks to understand present-day phenomena within a real world context, where the boundaries between the phenomena and the context are not clearly evident. secondly, the author points out that multiple data collection and analysis methods are an important part of the definition as a distinctive situation needs to be dealt with, in which there are many more variables of interest than data points that rely on multiple sources of evidence. this is in line with my epistemological position. studies of organisations and institutions entail an in-depth study of an organisation, company, corporation, trade union, etc. however, organisational studies have many foci, including best practice, policy implementation and evaluation, human resources practices, management and organisational issues, organisational culture, processes of change and re-engineering, and so on (babbie & mouton, 2004, p. 281). according to eisenhardt (2002, p. 12), case study research can be based on single or multiple-case studies, and regardless of being single or multiple may be exploratory, descriptive or explanatory. the first author opted for a single exploratory case study as he intended to explore and describe employees’ social construction of his company’s recently implemented downsizing intervention and, based on this, he provided a social science basis for this process. moreover, because of the study’s qualitative nature, the strategy of case study was used to formulate theory and grounded theory was used as the data analysis method which is ideally suited for case study as a research strategy because it was designed to develop theory (strauss & corbin, 1990). research methodology the word methodology in research is defined as “the logic of implementing scientific methods in the study of reality” (mouton & marais, 1988). the first author considered the following components of research methodology: the research setting• the way in which entreé was achieved• the sampling methods employed• data collection methods used• the way in which the data was recorded and managed• the analysis of the data• strategies used to ensure the quality of the research• reporting style followed• ethical considerations applied • research setting the study was undertaken in a 25-year old south african ict company’s gauteng-based operations. employing more than 4000 employees, nearly 30% of whom are from previously disadvantaged backgrounds, the company, as integrator of competitive, innovative business solutions based on information and communications technology (ict) has offices in all major centres of the country. these regional offices provide a single interface to clients and are supported by a combination of ict competency centres employing some of the country’s leading experts in their particular fields. furthermore, a corporate services team provides hr, commercial, financial, marketing and communication support. the organisation runs missioncritical ict systems for many jse-listed organisations and manages products, services and solutions for key public sector organisations, parastatal enterprises and a host of mediumsized emergent companies. regarding the downsizing process: senior executives made the decision to use the process and were party to the execution thereof. the managers had to buy into the process prior to its implementation. thereafter, they had to use the process. the regional human resources practitioners had to ensure that the process was implemented according to its original design. it should be clear that all parties had a common interest in the process and in ensuring that it was continuously enhanced. entrée and establishing researcher roles bogdan and taylor (1975, pp. 30-37) state that the researcher normally gains access to an organisational setting by requesting the permission of those in charge. we refer to the people who have the power as ‘gatekeepers’. the first author had officially obtained permission by the ceo of the organisation to commence with the study. this letter granted him permission to use the identified participants. furthermore, he held a discussion with these employees indicating the importance of the research to the organisation. all the participants in the organisation had already agreed to participate in this study. the first author had a personal relationship with each of the senior executives who had a vested interest in the study. it was important to them that a proper scientific downsizing process be developed by using the organisation. the regional human resources practitioner reporting to him was equally interested in the study, as the sooner the organisation developed an organisational downsizing process, the easier it would be to monitor an official process that can be justified during future possible downsizing interventions. these participants knew that the interviews would be recorded and that the first author would be making additional notes after each of the interviews, in order to appreciate the employees’ social construction of the innovation and, together with key theoretical concepts, develop the downsizing process. one aspect that is related to the researcher’s role and which deserves attention here is managing the qualitative researcher’s subjectivity. while this aspect has been receiving increased empirical research burden & roodt vol. 6 no. 3 pp. 22 33sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za25 attention amongst qualitative researchers resulting in a substantial literature, the following will suffice: “different to quantitative researchers when we study • social reality qualitatively, we do not believe that we can be detached from our research in an attempt to limit, if not avoid, bias. we are convinced that we need to become immersed in people, social situations, and any social reality we study. amongst others, we assume varying interactive social roles when we observe, interview and interact with people in order to collect and capture data, interpret them, and finally validate our reconstructions of social worlds. in our interaction with our research participants we put the main emphasis on the necessity of a skilled and properly prepared person in contrast to some instrument like a questionnaire. but how do we deal with our own experiences and viewpoints? we explicate them as far as possible, inter alia, in memoirs, project diaries or natural histories and/or auto-ethnographics. in short, we strive towards what erickson (1973) and mason (1996) respectively term disciplined subjectivity and reflexivity. this implies a critical self-examination of our roles as researchers throughout the entire research process”. (mcmillan & shumacher, 2001) (emphasis in the original). the first author also employed what are known as ‘peer • debriefers’ (mcmillan & shumacher, 2001) to assist him with his critical self-examination of his researcher role. in addition to his promoter, he utilised fellow students and colleagues here. sampling the first author decided to select his sample on the basis of his knowledge of the people who had the best possible knowledge of the current organisational downsizing process and would therefore be in the best position to make a contribution to the study. this type of sampling is called purposive sampling (ritchie & lewis, 2004, p. 80). based on his own experience of the company and its employees he selected two top executives, four senior managers who had applied the particular process before and one regional human resources consultant who was the custodian of the process. after he had obtained data from these employees on the company’s downsizing process and tapped his own knowledge on the issue, he extracted data from organisational documents and derived insights from the scientific literature. the use of additional data sources was based on the need to support the themes, patterns and “emerging” concepts that he derived from the primary data collection. the strategy described above is closely related to theoretical sampling which is mainly associated with grounded theory. glaser and strauss (1967, p. 45) define theoretical sampling as the process of data collection for generating theory whereby the analyst sets up codes, analyses data and decides what data to collect next and where to find them, in order to gradually develop a theory. ritchie and lewis (2004, p. 80) refer to grounded theory as: “a strategy where the researcher samples incidents, people or units on the basis of their potential contribution to the development and testing of theoretical constructs. the process is iterative, as the researcher picks an initial sample, analyses the data and selects a further sample in order to refine emerging categories and theories. this process is continued until the researcher reaches “data saturation”, or a point when no new insights can be extracted through expanding the sample further ( bryman, 2004, p. 305). data collection methods denzin and lincoln (2003, p. 37) state that the researcher has several methods for collecting data. they range from the interview (individual and focus group interviews, referring to a number of individuals with the same background, interests, values and norms who interact with one another in such a way that each person influences and is influenced by the other persons, (schurink, 2004a) to direct observation for the analysis of artefacts, documents (solicited and unsolicited) and cultural records, and the use of visual materials or personal experience. the first author made use of both solicited and unsolicited documents. the first author also used one-on-one structured interviews which is the predominant mode of data collection in social science research (de vos, strydom, fouche & delport, 2005). finally, he applied focus group discussions with all the participants that were selected via purposive and theoretical sampling techniques. “focus” means that the discussion taking place in the group is limited to the specific theme under investigation. a focus group interview can thus be described as a purposive discussion of a specific topic or related topics, preferably taking place between eight to ten individuals with a similar background and common interests. he annotated his observations extensively during the interview; these annotations eventually became part of the field notes he prepared afterwards. recording of data field notes and transcriptions of recorded interviews are considered traditional means of recording data (schurink, 2004a, p. 11). he made use of both of these. transcribed recorded interviews. according to bogdan and biklen (2003, p. 124), it is important to transcribe sections on a tape that specifically address the concerns of the research. in the present study all interviews were recorded with the consent of the participants and the tapes were sent to professional transcribers for typing. field notes. according to de vos et al. (2005, p. 285) field notes are made by qualitative researchers of everything they see or hear. field notes consist of two kinds of materials. the first kind is descriptive – the concern is to provide a word picture of the setting, people, actions and conversations as observed. it is by far the most extensive part of the field notes and represents the researcher’s best effort to objectively record the details of what has occurred in the field. the second field note variety is reflective – it captures more of the observer’s frame of mind, ideas and concerns. it is a more personal account of the course of the inquiry. the emphasis is on speculation, feelings, problems, ideas, hunches, impressions and prejudices. it is about what you think you are learning, what you are going to do next, and what the outcome of the study is going to be. the first author used both descriptive and reflective field notes in his research. data analysis data analysis basically involves data reduction, data display, conclusion drawing and verification. analysis involves working with data, organising them, tying them into manageable units, synthesising them, searching for patterns, discovering what is important and what is to be learnt, and what to tell others (schurink, 2004a). the first author employed grounded theory as a formal qualitative data analysis approach in his study. grounded theory according to goulding (2002, pp. 38-43), grounded theory can be traced to symbolic interactionism, the origins of which lie in the work of charles cooley (1864-1929) and george herbert mead (1863-1931). using the principles of symbolic interactionism as a basic foundation, two american scholars, corbin and strauss (1990), set out to develop a more defined and systematic procedure for collecting and analysing qualitative data. the method they developed was labelled grounded theory to reflect the source of the developed theory, which is ultimately the behaviour, words and actions of those under study. they both believe in (1) the need to get out in the field if development of an organisational redesign model empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 3 pp. 22 33 26 one wants to understand what is going on; (2) the importance of theory grounded in reality; (3) the continually evolving nature of experience in the field for the subjects and researcher; (4) the active role of persons in shaping the worlds they live in through the process of symbolic interaction; (5) continuous change and process and the variability and complexity of life; and (6) the interrelationship between subjects’ meanings and their actions (glaser, 1992, p. 16). strauss and corbin (1998, p. 22) state that however illuminating or even “revolutionary” the idea of theorising must be, development of an idea into theory still necessitates that an idea be explored fully and be considered from many different angles or perspectives. it is also important to follow through with the implications of a theory. those formulations and implications lead to “research activity” that entails making decisions about and acting in relation to many questions throughout the research process – what, when, where, how, who and so on. also, any hypothesis and propositions derived from the data must be continuously “checked out” against incoming data, and then modified, extended or deleted as necessary. according to glaser and strauss (1968, p. 3), the developed theory should (1) enable prediction and explanation of behaviour; (2) be useful in theoretical advances in sociology; (3) be applicable in practice; (4) provide a perspective on behaviour; (5) guide and provide a style for research on particular areas of behaviour; and (6) provide clear enough categories and hypotheses so that crucial ones can be verified in present and future research. grounded theory has split into two camps, each subtly distinguished by its own ideographic procedures. on the one hand, glaser (1978) stresses the interpretive, contextual and emergent nature of theory development, whereas the late strauss appears to have emphasised highly complex and systematic coding techniques. strauss and corbin (1990) exemplify this rupture with their presentation of multiple coding procedures such as open, axial and selective coding, and techniques of comparison that are now used to advance analysis by intentional manipulation of data in a variety of ways. the first author used the corbin and strauss (1990) method of grounded theory as it was more structured than the original approach developed by glaser and strauss (1968). once he had completed his application of grounded theory he conducted an extensive literature review on downsizing, whereafter he used the final step in the corbin and strauss (1990) method of grounded theory, the conditional matrix, to develop the model on organisational redesign. dimensional analysis and conditional matrix according to goulding (2002, p. 79), dimensional analysis, a newcomer, was pioneered by schatzman and strauss (1973). in order to move the interpretation from a descriptive to an explanatory level it is necessary to have a framework for identifying the relationship between and across emerging phenomena. dimensional analysis uses as its foundation conditions, processes, contexts and consequences that can be shown to affect the outcome of the informant’s story. the first author used the dimensional analysis to build a structure or methodological perspective for analysis and explanation. he collected and scrutinised all the data until a critical mass of dimensions was assembled that represented emerging pathways with explanatory power. a grounded model as in dimensional analysis employs similar strategies for describing and developing theoretical frameworks. he asked the following four questions: what were the conditions of the action?• what were the interactions between the actors?• what were their actions and strategies?• what were the consequences of the actions? • he then placed the data in a framework of: causal conditions• the phenomenon• intervening conditions• interactional strategies• the dimensional analysis was followed by conditional matrixing. according to corbin and strauss (1990, p. 11), it is useful when describing economic conditions, cultural values, political trends and social movements to think in terms of a conditional matrix. the matrix suggests a set of decreasingly inclusive circles embracing different conditions, beginning with the broad ones just noted and moving inward to conditions progressively narrower in scope. the conditional matrix and particularly the notion that “the analysis of the setting must not be restricted to the conditions that bear immediately on the phenomenon of central interest” is a source of conflict between researchers adopting the strauss and corbin approach and those using the principles advocated by glaser (goulding, 2002, p. 88). he applied a simpler conditional matrix (partington, 2000) consisting of four concentric circles labelled as follows: external actions• internal actions• management cognition• action • this has been derived from the s-o-r theory which is concerned with how people’s understanding of their environment leads to action. this matrix enabled him to understand the interrelationships between the various core categories that assisted him with the development of the model of organisational redesign. memos. glaser and strauss (1968, pp. 83-84) define a memo as “the theorising write-up of ideas about codes and their relationships as they strike the analyst while coding … it can be a sentence, a paragraph or a few pages … it exhausts the analyst’s momentary ideation based on data with perhaps little conceptual elaboration.” the first author made extensive use of memos. strategies used to ensure quality research schurink (2004c) contends that there are apparently at present at least three distinct perspectives on assessing the quality of qualitative research (see cutliffe, 2000). qualitative and quantitative research should be evaluated by the same measures; qualitative research should be evaluated by standards that have been particularly developed for it (holloway & wheeler, 2002). more recently, lincoln and guba (1985) developed the concepts of trustworthiness and authenticity as parallel and alternative criteria. in addition to peer debriefing, to which the first author has already referred, he also employed member validation or host recognition, authenticity and trustworthiness, credibility, reflectivity, transferability and triangulation to ensure quality research. member validation, or host recognition according to schurink (2004d), member validation or host recognition entails inviting research participants to comment on the adequacy of the researcher’s interpretations; comments are then fed back into the research findings. the first author continuously discussed his developing account of managers’ social construction of his company’s downsizing process with them, particularly to search for contradictions to his findings (see murphy & dingwall, 2003, p. 191). authenticity and trustworthiness these are reflected by “careful documentation of the process of research and the decisions made along the way” (daymon & holloway, 2002, p. 93). the first author carefully documented the process of his research and the decisions he made along the empirical research burden & roodt vol. 6 no. 3 pp. 22 33sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za27 way. the following criteria have been proposed for assessing trustworthiness and authenticity: credibility schurink (2004d) advises that to be credible, a researcher should be able to demonstrate as far as possible what he planned and executed in such a manner that the social construction of the transformation in his company could be accurately described. in order to accomplish credibility, the first author kept, inter alia, a project journal, or natural history, which enabled him to provide a chronological exposition of the decisions, notably the key decisions, he took during the research. reflectivity for murphy & dingwall (2003), reflectivity constitutes a level of self-conscious reflection upon the ways in which the findings of research are inevitably shaped by the research process itself and for an analysis that takes this into account. the first author increasingly realised during the study that he had to foster his capability for reflectivity. as indicated, he kept a project diary so as to engage in self-conscious reflections upon his impact upon the research participants, had regular discussions with debriefers to create some distance between the research process and himself and, finally, especially during field note compilation, considered possible reasons for the research participants’ particular behaviour during the interviews. transferability according to seale (2000), “transferability replaces the notion of external validity or generalisability, and refers to the researcher’s task of assisting the reader to transfer research findings of single case studies or small-scale worlds to similar settings”. in the present study the challenge was to unpack the complexity of downsizing in such a way that it would lead to the modification and/or improvement of the current practice in the company, or in companies with similar characteristics. triangulation according to ritchie and lewis (2004, p. 43) triangulation involves the use of different methods and sources to check the integrity of, or extend, inferences drawn from the data. according to ritchie and lewis (2004, p. 43) triangulation has been adopted and developed as a concept by qualitative researchers as a means of investigating the ‘convergence’ of both the data and the conclusions derived from them. it is also often cited as one of the central ways of “validating” qualitative research evidence. the first author used different methods and sources to check the integrity of inferences that were drawn from the data. reporting it is important for the researcher to explain to the reader the type of writing style which is to be followed in writing up the study. the writing style which was used by the first author to write up this article was mainly the scientific tale. bruner (1986) in sparkes (2002, p.31) explains that the scientific explanations aim to be formal, logical and, where possible, shows mathematical logic. such explanations are framed to be paradigmatic or logico-scientific in mode of thought. ethics the first author agreed with the position generally held in social science research communities regarding ethics, and specifically with the ethical code of the department of human resource management at the university of johannesburg. therefore, he: (1) conducted the research overtly; (2) drafted an informed consent form,, outlining the aim of the research, its nature, what was expected from research participants, and assurances that all information obtained in the study would be used only for research purposes, and that all participants’ names, including his company’s name, and identifying particulars would be treated confidentially at all times; (3) accepted no person’s research contribution unless the informed consent form had been duly signed by professor schurink and himself on the one hand, and the research participant on the other; and (4) negotiated responsibilities and guarantees with his company before he began the study. data analysis tool used the first author had to select the most appropriate data analysis tool which was well suited to grounded theory atlas.ti v 5.0. computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (caqdas) according to bryman (2004), one of the most notable developments in qualitative research in recent years has been the arrival of computer-assisted software (caqdas) that facilitates the analysis of qualitative data. according to muhr (2004, pp. 1-3), atlas.ti v 5.0 is a powerful workbench for the qualitative analysis of large bodies of textual, graphical, audio and video data. it offers a variety of tools for accomplishing the tasks associated with any systematic approach to understanding data, e.g. data that cannot be meaningfully analysed by formal statistical approaches. atlas offers tools to manage, extract, compare, explore and reassemble meaningful pieces from large amounts of data in a creative and flexible yet systematic way. atlas was of great use to the first author. it aided open coding and expedited the analysis of large volumes of text. it assisted him to generate 107 open codes, 78 categories and 23 core categories (derived through the selective coding process) which ultimately constituted the definition of the organisational redesign model. definition of the model mouton (2002, p. 196) suggests that “models present phenomena systematically by identifying patterns and regularities among variables. they explain the relationships between core categories heuristically”. based on this definition, the first author constructed a model for organisational redesign that consists of 23 steps. locke (2003) refers to various examples in organisational studies where grounded theory was used to develop models. the first author is of the opinion that the “theory” in grounded theory does not (and should not) refer to the building of one theoretical concept “theory” only, but should also (rather) entail at least the possible development of conceptual frameworks that include theories, typologies and models, and at best the construction of any intellectual tool or building block of science (see mouton, 2002). the sor theory and the model of organisational redesign on the face of it, the assumptions behind grounded theory’s symbolic interactionist origins match this premise and are in line with the broad aim of s-o-r theories. partington (2000) believes that management actions are not always observable in an objective way, because social processes are rarely reducible to absolute laws. for research into management action some of the events in management behaviour are only observable and accessible through the subjective accounts of managers and other organisational actors. as mentioned previously, matrices based on the sor theory enabled the first author to understand the interrelationships between the various core categories that assisted him with the development of the model of organisational redesign. furthermore, the s-o-r theory provides a ‘thinking structure’ that will support management cognition in an assimilated way – something which is necessary for mode 2 management research. development of an organisational redesign model empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 3 pp. 22 33 28 figure 1 a model for organisation redesign empirical research burden & roodt vol. 6 no. 3 pp. 22 33sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za step 3: business audit at this stage the organisation, responding to the above triggers, conducts a desktop audit, which entails a thorough financial analysis of under-performing business units. once it is clear that corrective action is required, the executive committee has to issue the instruction to redesign the organisation. this is the first step in the s-o-r theory where management takes control and is called the “management cognition phase”. step 4: manager initiates the process the executive committee instructs the affected line managers to redesign their business. they initiate the process by discussing possible redesign options within their business with the human resources division. it is important that the affected managers agree with the executive committee that action is indeed necessary. if not, their buy-in will not be achieved. this step is in line with the s-o-r theory and forms part of the management cognition phase where management is in control of the action they set out to take. step 5: initial communication initial communication consists of an internal and an external process. with regard to the internal process, the ceo is required to communicate by e-mail with the following audiences: line managers, the employee communication forum (a consultative body representing the interests of the employees) and the remainder of the organisation. the message has to be broad, informing the audiences that the organisation is investigating under-performing business units and will disclose the selected action as soon as possible. this prevents employees from spreading rumours and harming the organisation. with regard to the external process the ceo and his top executives should personally visit the organisation’s key clients while the relevant account executives should meet the smaller clients. the message must be broad and exactly the same as the message to the internal audiences, that is, that the organisation faces a business problem, is investigating it and will take appropriate action once it understands the extent of the problem. this step is in line with the s-o-r theory and part of the management cognition phase where management is in control of the action. step 6: high-level planning meeting the purpose of this meeting is to decide on the action to be taken. the human resources practitioners and their manager, the line managers of the business units concerned, the executive team and heads of the business units, and the relevant executive committee member accountable for them must participate in the meeting. the planning meeting must first determine the commencement date of the intervention, outline the timeframe for the process and emphasise the speed of executing a decision once it has been taken to minimise disruption within the business. there must also be a clear understanding of the estimated cost of the intervention, although precise calculations are out of the question at this stage. it is important that the envisaged outcomes of the process should be a long-term solution. the meeting must create a clear understanding of how the end result will be achieved, define what the new organisational structure will look like and clearly indicate the best option, such as redundancy, transfer of people or restructuring of the business, and the number of functions that will be falling away. finally, the meeting should also cover all the possible implications of the process: (1) the legal requirements must be implemented correctly; (2) the contractual obligations with clients must be observed; (3) moral and ethical considerations must be looked at (for example, if the christmas season falls in the middle of the timeframe of the process, the process results the model for organisational redesign which will now be discussed is presented in fig. 1. step 1: external triggers two types of external triggers may initiate organisational redesign, namely changes in the business of clients and institutional triggers. changes in the business of clients include: (1) the clients cannot afford the services of the organisation any longer; (2) the organisation terminates its contracts with clients when they do not renew their contracts; (3) clients restructure their businesses and no longer require the services procured from the organisation; (4) clients cancel their contracts with the organisation for a variety of reasons; (5) clients do not further require the organisation to render services any longer; and (6) a change in market demands as a result of an economic downturn, which may necessitate clients to cut expenditure on external services. institutional triggers include: (1) the wealth concerns of the shareholders, which cause them to demand higher returns on their investment; (2) black empowerment forces supported by the charters applicable to the organisation, forcing it to redesign its business to ensure better black representation; and (3) health and safety legislation incumbent on clients that calls upon an organisation from a different sector to cancel its business with these clients because this legislation is industryspecific and compromises the organisation’s effectiveness. the external triggers correspond with the s-o-r theory in that they act as external stimuli for organisations to redesign their business. step 2: internal triggers a number of internal triggers may force an organisation to restructure its business. first, there is financial performance, which includes: (1) cost savings by the organisation; (2) poor financial performance of business units within the organisation; (3) unreasonable expenses created by the organisation or some of its business units; (4) a lack of profitability in the organisation as a whole, or one or more of its business units; (5) losses suffered within the organisation or some of its business units; and (6) budget constraints that prevent the organisation from expanding or carrying the prevailing cost structure. second is a change in the business strategy of the organisation, which includes: (1) amalgamation of departments due to the duplication of functions; (2) closure of particular business units because they perform non-core business; (3) restructuring of business operations where there are too many employees or a non-core product line is closed; (4) reorganisation of some of its business to reduce some management layers because management salaries are too high; (5) redesign of business processes that are inefficient; and (6) redesign of the organisation to ensure better black representation at all levels. third are mergers and acquisitions, such as when the organisation acquires another itc business or merges with another itc company. the increase in employees, duplication of functions and other inefficiencies will force the organisation to restructure. fourth is outsourcing, such as when the organisation takes over non-core business from clients, which leads to duplication of functions, which in turn has to be eliminated. finally, business inefficiencies may lead to redesign. these inefficiencies include: (1) unproductive employees; (2) poor management practices; and (3) ineffective and inefficient business processes. all of them result in losses for the organisation. these internal triggers are in line with the s-o-r theory in that all of them act as stimuli for organisations to consider remedial action. 29 development of an organisational redesign model empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 3 pp. 22 33 might be delayed); (4) the implications of the intervention for the business must be estimated as accurately as possible; (5) the impact of the intervention on clients, employees and the rest of the organisation must be assessed; (6) concerns raised by the managers about the task of supporting the process in its entirety have to be clarified; (7) the roles of the various audiences and the expectations of the managers should be addressed so as to clear up any unrealistic expectations; (8) a detailed communication plan should be worked out; and (9) the process must be monitored and the organisation alerted to the seriousness of problems. the outcome of this meeting is a broad plan incorporating the above points, and it should be signed by all attendees. the plan should provide the decision makers with sufficient high-level information to decide if the intervention must proceed or not. this step is in line with the s-o-r theory and its management cognition phase – management is in control of the desired action. step 7: approval of the group executive: human resources for commencement the group executive: human resources must provide approval for the commencement of the process once the initial plan has been signed by all the audiences. this also assures him/ that the process can be implemented successfully and allows him/to allocate the resources for the implementation of the intervention. this step is in line with the s-o-r theory and is part of the management cognition phase – management is in control of the desired action. step 8: detailed planning meeting this is the second planning meeting and is aimed at determining the details of the process to ensure its successful implementation. the following audiences must be present: (1) the human resources practitioner who is the custodian of the process; (2) the senior human resources manager (who is responsible for all the human resource issues related to the intervention); (3) the line managers of the affected business units; (4) the executive team of these business units; (5) the heads of the business units; and (6) the relevant executive committee member (who is overall accountable for the performance of the affected units). once the details of the intervention have been determined, a plan is drawn up accordingly. the plan must cover the specifics of the timeframe, that is, it must provide the commencement date and spell out the duration of the process. speed of execution of the process must be emphasised. communication must be planned in line with the content of the detailed plan, the communication must be well timed and the communication process must be determined. the specific outcomes of the intervention must be defined, that is, the plan must be shown to be viable, and the accountabilities of the respective audiences and the monitoring of the intervention must be set out. a new structure must be designed. the design must include the following: (1) the layout of the new structure; (2) new functions in the structure; (3) job grades; (4) salary levels; (5) job profiles; and (6) job specifications of the new functions. all the specific implications must be taken into account: (1) the legal implications if the intervention is incorrectly implemented as well as contingency plans to cover any problem that may arise; (2) specific contractual obligations to clients and what impact the intervention may have on the organisation’s ability to comply with these obligations; (3) specific moral and ethical considerations; (4) the extent of intervention in the business; (5) the impact of the intervention on clients, employees and the rest of the organisation; (6) the specific policy implications and their cost; and (7) the minimisation of risks to the organisation. the specific costs of the intervention must be calculated, including the exact costs that the organisation can save, the specific cost implications of the intervention and whether the organisation can afford the intervention. finally, the expectations of the audiences must be clarified, particularly those of the managers. this step is in line with the s-o-r theory and is part of the management cognition phase where management is in control of the desired action. step 9: information meeting the purpose of this meeting is to share the details of the plan with the relevant audiences. the meeting must be attended by all affected line managers, the relevant executive committee member (because he/and the group executive: human resources are jointly accountable for the successful implementation of the intervention), and the employee communication forum member representing the affected employees. the detailed plan is shared with the attendees and they are encouraged to disclose their concerns and make recommendations. the plan is then updated and finalised. this step is in line with the s-o-r theory and is part of the management cognition phase where management is in control of the desired action. step 10: issuing of the consultation letter the step, which is the first step in line with the s-o-r theory, takes cognisance of the labour relations act, 66 of 1995, as amended in 2002. the act requires that a letter be issued to the affected employees that reflects the organisation’s intention to consult with them on the organisational redesign. the specific information required in the letter is set out in section 189. this letter must precede the commencement of the organisational intervention. step 11: second communication this communication is directed at internal as well as external audiences and is the second step in terms of the s-o-r theory. the internal communication has to be addressed to the following audiences: the line managers, the executive committee member concerned, and the affected and non-affected employees of the business unit where the redesign takes place. the executive committee member initiates the communication. the message must be clear, succinct and consistent across the organisation, and must contextualise the intervention by mentioning which employees are likely to be affected, the duration of the process, reasons why the organisation has decided to embark on the intervention, the detail of the process, affected positions, and the view of the organisation on the state of its business and the areas that are affected. the timing of the message is important. all audiences should receive the communication at the same time to prevent rumours from spreading. regarding the external communication the following audiences have to be addressed: the affected key clients (large revenuegenerating accounts) and the affected non-key clients (small revenue-generating accounts). the ceo and the top executives must communicate in person with the key clients and the appropriate account executive must communicate in person with the smaller clients. the message should be clear, consistent and persuasive, and must contextualise the process, explain compliance with service level agreements (slas), set out the duration of the process, reasons for the intervention, details of the process, extent of the intervention, affected business units and affected positions. step 12: consultation meeting (clarification) the face-to-face consultation meeting required by the labour relations act is the third step in terms of the s-o-r theory. the 30 empirical research burden & roodt vol. 6 no. 3 pp. 22 33sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za step 20: populating the structure the top management structure is populated first, after which the process is devolved to the next levels. each employee receives the formal feedback of the interview panel. during the feedback session the human resources practitioner is present to ensure that the organisation is not exposed to legal risks and to handle any emotional outbursts that might be directed towards the manager who provides feedback. this step is the eleventh step in terms of the s-o-r theory. step 21: issuing letters to employees the successful employees receive formal letters of appointment, after which they attend an internal workshop to work through their negative experiences of the intervention. they also get an opportunity to raise concerns about the process and to suggest improvements. they resume their work in their new positions. the unsuccessful employees receive letters of regret and attend an internal outplacement workshop. during this workshop they get an opportunity to deal with their being unsuccessful, and are guided towards managing their emotions and preparing cvs for possible positions elsewhere in the organisation. this consultation is informed by the stipulations of the labour relations act. the employees are invited to apply for voluntary redundancy and may leave the organisation as soon as their application has been approved. information on employees applying for alternative positions elsewhere in the organisation is regularly presented to line managers and the human resources division for consideration. if the employees are not placed in a suitable position by the end of the consultation period, they receive a confirmation of retrenchment letter that specifies their gratuity payment. this also occurs in terms of the labour relations act. on acceptance of the letter their services are formally terminated. this is the twelfth step in terms of the s-o-r theory. step 22: process evaluation the intervention must be evaluated in terms of internal outcomes: whether it has improved productivity; the extent of “new blood” in the structure; whether the business is more effective and efficient and more profitable; if employees are correctly placed in terms of their skills; and the extent to which “dead wood” has been cut. external outcomes are also evaluated: do clients view the intervention as positive; is the business now aligned with market demands; was the time span adequate; was the process too constrained by the law and too risk adverse; and did the implementation period affect productivity and effectiveness. should negative outcomes be detected during the intervention they must be eliminated by the improvement of the overall process. the process is reviewed with the affected units at the conclusion of the intervention. this is the thirteenth step in terms of the s-o-r theory. step 23: monitoring and managing the process the human resources practitioner who is the custodian of the intervention must ensure that a counselling system is in place for employees and managers during the process. he/she must also ensure that the process does not deviate from the project plan; that everybody involved in the process adheres to the labour relations act; that decision makers are available to take important decisions; that emotional distress among employees is monitored (anger, guilt, criticism of management, tension, resistance, uncooperativeness, rumours, negativity, aggression, low morale and unproductivity); and that decision makers are contacted to institute remedial action as soon as problems occur. research assessing the consequences of organisational downsizing has primarily centred on the effects of being a layoff survivor and the experience of job insecurity. it suggests that employees suffer from decreased job satisfaction (ashford, lee & bobko, 1989), a greater incidence of reported illness (cottington, matthews, talbot & kuller, 1986; dooley, rook & catalano, 1987; kuhnert, sims & lahey, 1989; probst, 1998), and meeting must be attended by the affected line managers, the affected employees, the relevant business executives, the group executive: human resources or group manager: human resources (who conducts the meeting) and the employee communication forum representative (who represents the interests of the affected employees). the purpose of this meeting is to clarify any information in the first letter that is unclear to the employees. the employees are permitted to raise any concerns about the process. step 13: written representations by employees as stipulated by the labour relations act, the affected employees get an opportunity to make written representations to the organisation on how they believe the organisation should approach the redesign. this represents the fourth step in terms of the s-o-r theory. employees may also make suggestions on how the organisation may prevent job losses and are given an opportunity to consult with their respective legal advisors or trade union representatives to document their concerns and/or suggestions. this is the fifth step in terms of the s-o-r theory. step 14: written replies by the organisation in line with the labour relations act the organisation must reply in writing to the representations of the employees, and does so in consultation with its legal advisors. this is to eliminate any legal risks for the organisation. this step boils down to the sixth step in terms of the s-o-r theory. step 15: introducing the new organisational structure the organisation provides the affected employees with the new organisational structure in electronic and hard copy. this enables the affected employees to see which positions are available and which have fallen away. the relevant job grades, job titles, salary levels, job profiles and job specifications are also given. step 16: inviting written applications the employees are invited to submit written applications for the positions to the human resources practitioner who is the custodian of the process. they include a cryptic cv and a synopsis of their aspirations. where the managers feel that the employees can add value to certain roles, they should encourage the employees to apply for the relevant positions. this step is the seventh step in terms of the s-o-r theory. step 17: schedule interviews the human resources practitioner who is the custodian of the process schedules interviews with the relevant line managers, business executives and human resources practitioners based on the written applications. this step is the eighth step in terms of the s-o-r theory. step 18: conducting interviews panel interviews are conducted with all the employees who submitted applications. the panel consists of the relevant business executive (compulsory), the line managers and the human resources practitioners. the latter conduct the first part of the interview to assess whether the candidate complies with the behavioural requirements of the job; the line managers conduct the second part of the interview to ensure that the candidate meets the technical requirements of the job. this step is the ninth step in terms of the s-o-r theory. step 19: discussing the findings a formal meeting is scheduled with all the members of the interview panel. the purpose is to discuss the suitability of the candidates based on the results of the interviews. this process is formal and the meeting is chaired by the group manager: human resources to ensure objectivity. this step is the tenth step in terms of the s-o-r theory. 31 development of an organisational redesign model empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 3 pp. 22 33 increased psychological stress (dekker & schaufeli, 1991). the research also found that the more dissatisfied employees are with their perceived job security, the more frequently they will engage in absenteeism, tardiness and task avoidance (probst, 1998). discussion insights the first author gained the following insights into organisational redesign: this highly contentious business phenomenon was not • well researched and scientific models for addressing this important organisational change were lacking in south africa in south africa the first author found only one model of • downsizing, namely that of donald (1995). however, as the current labour relations act was promulgated in 1996 and amended in 2002, a new redesign model was required that would take cognisance of the act’s section on redesign interventions south african organisations, like organisations abroad, • restructured intuitively or did “knee-jerking” which will expose them from a legislative perspective these insights supported the aim of his study, namely to develop an organisational redesign model to guide south african organisations within the ict sector with their redesign interventions. the objectives have been achieved: a model for organisational redesign has been developed • to assist south african businesses intermittently to manage their organisational redesign interventions the internal and external triggers that lead to • organisational redesign have been identified and incorporated into the organisational redesign model the phases that impact on organisational redesign have • been identified and incorporated into the organisational redesign model discoveries the first author discovered the following: he applied grounded theory in quite a pure manner, • consulting existing theoretical concepts only at the end to consolidate his insights. applying a conditional matrix in particular represented • an important step forward in the application of grounded theory, as conditional matrices are generally absent from local grounded theory studies. the model of organisational redesign incorporates • current south african labour relations legislation, which the participants identified as an important inherent requirement for the organisational redesign model. the study led to the first author’s company updating and • amending its policies so as to incorporate all the steps outlined in the model. limitations the following limitations were identified: the newly developed organisational redesign model can • only assist other south african it organisations, with similar organisational characteristics in their downsizing interventions. the study only focussed on the development of the model • and did not consult employees who went through the redesign intervention of the company to incorporate their perspectives into the research. this could have yielded different perspectives to the model. it was difficult to obtain the co-operation of these employees as they were still very angry with the organisation’s downsizing interventions. suggestions for further research the first author makes the following suggestions: • a model must be developed on how to deal with employees who remain behind after an organisational redesign, particularly within the context of different reactions to the intervention among different race groups. • although he is certain that the model could be used in other organisations in the information technology sector, the applicability of the model across industries should be studied. • the conceptual integration of the model of organisational redesign with the s-o-r theory (a behaviouristic paradigm) and the mode 2 management process (action-related management) should be empirically studied. mode 2 management researchers show concern for the gap between academe and practice, advocating for research aimed at advancing the interests of the latter. it is trans-disciplinary, and as such less likely to bring with it mature theoretical frameworks developed within the boundaries of particular academic disciplines. it underscores the importance of accessing the tacit knowledge of organisational actors (locke, 2003, p. 96). acknowledgements the authors would like to thank mrs ina stahmer for editing the article. the first author would like to thank professor willem schurink for assisting him as his promoter during his doctoral studies. references abbasi, s.m. & hollman, k.w. (1998). the myth and realities of downsizing. records management quarterly, 32(2), 31-37. africa news service. (2001). going global costs workers. march 1, p. 1-3. ashford, s., lee, c. & bobko, p. (1989). content, causes and consequences of job insecurity: a theory based measure and substantive test. academy of management journal, 32, 803-829. babbie, e. & mouton, j. (2004). the practice of social research. oxford: oxford university press. bogdan, r.c. & biklen, s.k. (2003). qualitative research for education. an introduction to theory and methods. (4th ed.). boston: pearson education group. bogdan, r.c. & taylor, s.j. (1975). introduction to qualitative research methods: a phenomenological approach to the social sciences. new york: john wiley. boneva, b., kraut, r. & frohlich, d. (2001). using e-mail for personal relationship: the difference gender makes. (community studies of the internet). american behavioural scientist, 45(3), 530. bryman, a. (2004). social research methods (2nd ed.). new york: oxford university press budros, a. (1999). a conceptual framework for analyzing why organizations downsize. organizational science, 10(1), 6982. cameron, k.s. (1994). guest editor’s note: investigating organizational downsizing-fundamental issues. human resource management, 33, 183-188. cappelli, p. et al. (1997). change at work. new york: oxford university press. cottington, e.m., matthews, k.a., talbot, e. & kuller, l.h. (1986). occupational stress, suppressed anger, and hypertension. psychosomatic medicine, 48, 249-260. cutliffe, j.r. (2000). methodological issues in grounded theory. journal of advanced nursing, 31(36), 1476-1485. 32 empirical research burden & roodt vol. 6 no. 3 pp. 22 33sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za locke, k. (2003). grounded theory in management research. thousand oaks: sage publications. mason, j. (1996). qualitative researching. thousand oaks: sage publications. mcmillan, j.h. & shumacher, s. (2001). research in education. a conceptual introduction. (5th ed.). new york: longman. mouton, j. (2002). understanding social research. pretoria: van schaik publishers. mouton, j. & marais, h.c. (1990). basic concepts in the methodology of the social sciences. pretoria: hsrc. muhr, t. (2004). scientific development software. online journal, l(3). 411. murphy, e. & dingwall, r. (2003). qualitative methods and health policy research. new york: aldine de gruyter. nel, p.s., swanepoel, b.j., kirsten, m., erasmus, b.j. & tsabadi, m.j. (2005). south african employment relations: theory and practice. 5th ed. pretoria: van schaik publishers partington, d. (2000). building grounded theories of management action. british journal of management, 11, 91102. probst, t.m. (1998). antecedents and consequences of job insecurity: development and test of an integrated model. unpublished doctoral dissertation, urbana: university of illinois at urbana-champaign. ritchie, j. & lewis, j. (2004). qualitative research practice: a guide for social science students and researchers. london: sage publishers. schatzman, l. & strauss, a.l. (1973). field research: strategies for a natural sociology. englewood cliffs: prentice hall. schurink, w.j. (2004a, february). lecture ten: data analysis. paper presented at key features of a humanistic approach to social science research, university of johannesburg, waterkloof glen, pretoria. schurink, w.j. (2004b, february). lecture seven: data collection methods: focus groups. paper presented at key features of a humanistic approach to social science research, university of johannesburg, waterkloof glen, pretoria. schurink, w.j. (2004c, february). lecture twelve: qualitative research report writing. paper presented at key features of a humanistic approach to social science research, university of johannesburg, waterkloof glen, pretoria. schurink, w.j. (2004d, february). lecture thirteen: evaluating qualitative research. paper presented at key features of a humanistic approach to social science research, university of johannesburg, waterkloof glen, pretoria. schurink, w.j. (2005). qualitative research design: part 1 lecture notes to d-and mstudents from the leadership in performance and change program at university of johannesburg, johannesburg. seale, c. (1999). the quality of qualitative research. london: sage publications. sparkes, a. c. (2002). telling tales in sport and physical activity: a qualitative journey. champaign: human kinetics. strauss, a.l. (1987). qualitative analysis for social scientists. cambridge: cambridge university press. strauss, a. & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research: grounded theory and procedures and techniques. london: sage publications. strauss, a. & corbin, j. (1998). basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. (2nd ed.). thousand oaks: sage publications. yin, r.k. (2003). case study research: design and methods.(3rd ed.). thousand oaks: sage publications. daymon, c. & holloway, i. (2002). qualitative research and marketing communications. london: routledge. dekker, s.w. & schaufeli, c. (1991). the effects of job insecurity on psychological health and withdrawal: a longitudinal study. australian psychologist, 30, 57-63. denzin, n.k. (1989). interpretative interactionism. thousand oaks: sage. denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. (2003) the landscape of qualitative research: theories and issues. (2nd ed.) london: sage publications. de vos, a.s., strydom, h., fouche, c.b., & delport, c.s.l. (2005). research at grass roots: for the social sciences and human service professions. (2nd ed.). pretoria: van schaik publishers. dick, a.l. (1999) epistemological positions and library and information science, library quarterly, 69(3), 305-325. donald, c.h.m. (1995). the experience of managers responsible for retrenchment the development of a dynamic process model and analysis of role stress. unpublished doctoral thesis. university of cape town: cape town. dooley, d., rook, k. & catalano, r. (1987). job and non-job stressors and their moderators. journal of occupational psychology, 60, 123-132. eisenhardt, k.m. (2002). building theories from case study research. in a.m. huberman & m.b. miles. the qualitative researcher’s companion. london: sage publications. erickson, f. (1973). what makes school ethnography “ethnographic”? anthropology and education quarterly, 9, 5869. ferrie, j.e., shipley, m.j., marmot, m.g., stansifeld, s. & smith, g.d. (1998a). an uncertain future: the health effects of threats to employment security in white-collar men and women. american journal of public health, 88, 1030-1036. ferrie, j.e., shipley, m.j., marmot, .g., stansfield, s. & smith, g.d. (1998b). the health effects of major organizational change and job insecurity. social science medicine, 46, 243-254. fisher, s.r. & white, m.a. (2000). downsizing a learning organization: are there hidden costs? academy of management review, 25(1), 224-237. glaser, b.g. (1978). theoretical sensitivity: advances in the methodology of grounded theory, mill valley: sociology press. glaser, b.g. (1992). basics of grounded theory analysis. emergence versus forcing. mill valley: sociology press. glaser, b.g. & strauss, a.l. (1967). the discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. chicago: aldine. glaser, b.g. & strauss, a.l. (1968). the discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. london: weidenfeld and nicolson. goulding, c. (2002). grounded theory: a practical guide for management, business and market researchers. london: sage publications. holloway, i. & wheeler, s. (2002). qualitative research in nursing. (2nd ed.). oxford: blackwell science ltd. kivimaki, m., vahtera, j., pentti, j. & ferrie, j. (2000). factors underlying the effects of organizational downsizing on health of employees: longitudinal cohort studies. british medical journal, 320, 971-976. kuhnert. k., sims, r. & lahey, m. (1989). the relationship between job security and employees’ health. group and organizational studies, 14, 339-410. lincoln, y.s. & guba, e.g. (1985). naturalistic enquiry. beverly hills: sage publications. 33 7hall.qxd prior to the 1970’s the human resource (hr) function existed primarily as an administrative and transactional function (gaines-robinson & robinson, 2005). as the business environment changed and people issues became more complex, expectations of the hr function also changed. today, businesses are dealing with the challenges of globalisation, value-chains, profitability, organisational transformation, technology and the attraction and retention of intellectual capital (ulrich, 1997). they are operating in a more complex, competitive and challenging environment (gaines-robinson & robinson, 2005). change is constant and increased uncertainty has resulted in a new set of dynamics emerging in organisations (wheatley, 2003). organisations can no longer easily predict the future and therefore have to focus on the capabilities and competencies that lead to adaptability (hosking, 2006). companies are faced with changing demographics as the workforce ages and becomes more diverse (macdonald, 2003) and the generation gap poses a challenge as each age group exhibits differences in motivation, communication st yles and work values (kaye, scheef & thielfoldt, 2003). the nature of the employment relationship is in itself continuously changing, with conventional employment contracts being replaced by temporary, contract and projectbased work (sartain, 2003). within such a complex and continuously chancing environment hr is well positioned to assist organisations in dealing with these challenges. hr practices can enhance an organisation’s competitive advantage (boudreau & ramstad, 2003) by specifically focusing on the retention, optimisation and competitiveness of talent or human capital, and by managing organisational change (lawler, ulrich, fitz-enz & madden, 2004; ulrich, 1997). however, this requires traditional hr to change its focus and consider what it actually does, what it delivers to the organisation, how it adds value and how it may measure its contribution to business results (ulrich, 1997). hr outputs and business strategy should be closely aligned, which implies a need for hr professionals to understand the business, its needs and strategies, and even its market or shareholder value (ulrich & smallwood, 2003). true hr transformation arises when hr is able to add value not only to staff, but also to customers and shareholders (ulrich & brockbank, 2005). these new demands mean that hr can no longer function as a back-office support function, but rather as a key contributing partner; in a leadership capacity, in its own right. many models have been proposed of what the new, redesigned hr function and its associated roles should look like. a key role evidenced in the literature is that of hr as a strategic business partner. this role implies an active involvement in and understanding of business and strategic issues, and an alignment of hr, business and strategic goals (ulrich, 1997). it also involves developing credibility and trust with organisational leaders, identif ying and supporting strategic projects and focusing on long-term organisational needs (gaines-robinson & robinson, 2005). at a less strategic level, hr also needs to partner with line management to deliver an end result that is a unique combination of hr and line contributions (ulrich, 1997). hr should coach managers to improve their people skills, empowering them to deal with their own people issues (hunter & saunders, 2005). this role has been taken a step further to the point where hr professionals act as creators or drivers of the business, understanding both internal and external stakeholders (ulrich & brockbank, 2005). another key focus of the new hr function is that of change management. hr is required, with management, to overcome obstacles to change, sustain change, and improve teamwork and productivity (lawler et al., 2004). they need to help set strategic direction, ensure decisions are made timeously, and ensure that resource systems provide adequate support. hr should also engage all stakeholders and gain their commitment to ensure that the implementation of strategic initiatives is successful (brockbank, 2003). the proposed models differ in their view of hr’s administrative role. some see it as essential in the delivery of an efficient support function (ulrich, 1997) whilst others advocate the removal or reduction of administrative and transactional functions through the use of outsourcing services and technology (gaines-robinson & robinson, 2005). the latter requires an improvement in hr technology skills and the abilit y to choose technolog y that contributes to overall efficiency and competitiveness (fletcher, 2005). there is a counter-argument to outsourcing that argues that it distances hr from employees. there are also issues pertaining to the quality of outsourced services. as a result, many companies are bringing outsourced functions, such as recruitment, back inhouse (business day, 2005). it is obvious that in order to fulfill any of these proposed new roles, hr professionals will need to develop a new set of skills, caron hall linda fourie programme in industrial psychology department of human resource management university of johannesburg lfourie@uj.ac.za abstract the information technology (it) industry is one that is characterised by rapid change and a heavy reliance on human skills. a study was conducted to qualitatively explore the role of the human resource (hr) function in the south african it industry. semi-structured individual and focus group interviews with professionals in this function highlighted many opportunities for hr to render a more strategic role in an environment where a skills shortage and many related problem areas exist. the implications of these findings are discussed and proposals for redefining the role of hr in the specific industry are offered. key words changed role of hr, hr in it industry, challenges of the hr practitioner exploring the role of the human resource function in the south african information technology industry 54 sa journal of human resource management, 2007, 5 (1), 54-64 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2007, 5 (1), 54-64 capabilities and competencies (jeffay & bicos, 2003). they firstly need to manage their own change and be able to adapt to constantly changing circumstances (henson, 2005). they further need to develop the capabilities of speed, implementation, innovation and integration (ulrich, 1997). they require customer relationship management skills that are crucial in delivering solutions that add value to the organisation (hunter & saunders, 2005). they need not only generic consultancy skills, but also specific project management skills, along with the ability to be creative and flexible (green, 2002). skills in the areas of finance, business understanding, cultural sensitivity and negotiation are also required (bear, 2004). despite all these required changes, hr still needs to retain focus on its primary function, namely that of human resource management. these professionals still need to own, maintain, and keep abreast of an hr body of knowledge that defines best practices and solutions for hr issues, thereby making them experts in their field (ulrich & brockbank, 2005). despite the deliberations on what hr should deliver, look like, and what skills are needed, hr transformation is in fact rare (lawler et al., 2004). while the shift to a more strategic function is conceptually easy, it is far more difficult to implement on a day-to-day basis. members of the traditional hr community may also not be able to make the transition and, as a result, it is postulated that this community is likely to shrink by 40% – 50% (hunter & saunders, 2005). there are also questions pertaining to hr’s developmental routes, which have not changed to fit the new hr requirements (hunter & saunders, 2005). for this reason there is an increasing trend to bring in skilled operational professionals, with no hr experience, to build operational capability within the hr function. technology, furthermore, which could serve as a transformation enabler, often has a high cost and companies are reluctant to spend money in this area, as it is regarded as a non-critical expense. the result is that hr appears trapped in its traditional role. the need for a changed hr function and associated new roles are apparent. yet, there appears to be conflict between the need for change and the actual implementation thereof. theoretically it is clear where hr should be aiming, yet implementation of these changes in practice is problematic. whilst it is acknowledged that hr professionals are at an important cross-roads (lawler et al., 2004), there is speculation as to whether the function truly adds value and whether it is actually necessary at all (van der westhuizen, van vuuren & visser, 2003). it is against the above-mentioned background that this study was undertaken to determine what roles hr professionals currently fulfill – specifically within the information technology (it) industry in south africa – with the intention to propose a redefinition of these roles to suit current needs and challenges. since it is an industry subject to rapid change and technological advances, and at the same time heavily reliant on human skills (or ‘intellectual capital’) it was argued that hr had a meaningful role to play within the industry, provided that it had adapted itself to the particular needs and challenges of the industry. in this respect note was taken of the view that the role of hr as a strategic or business partner is likely to be even more evident in so-called high-tech companies (business day, 2005). globally the it industry experienced a period of rapid change and growth during the period 1999 – 2000 (lessard & baldwin, 2003), specifically in the area of internet-based, or ‘dot-com’, companies. it share prices grew phenomenally reaching all time share price highs. however, many of the so-called ‘dot-com’ companies lacked supporting technology and their business plans and models had no solid base. not surprisingly, in 2001, many of these companies failed and took many of the established it vendors with them. as a result, a period of restructuring and focus on earnings ensued and many it companies were forced to consolidate, downsize and retrench. from 2004 onwards the industry has once again exhibited signs of growth, with a current growth rate of 8, 5% per annum (burrows, 2006). yet, it is still faced with many challenges. in south africa specific challenges exist. for one, the advent of a second network operator will require vast it skills and services in an industry that is widely believed to be characterised by a skills shortage. in addition, black economic empowerment (bee) and the proposed information and communication technology (ict) charter – which is intended to provide a code of good practice for the transformation of the it industry – poses a big challenge, specifically to multinationals, who are unwilling to sell ownership and who may consider disinvestment as a result. against this background a debate also rages as to whether the above-mentioned skills shortage, presumably caused by rapid technological changes and increased specialisation (burrows, 2005), actually exists. some argue that the skills are available, but the need to find previously disadvantaged staff in a traditionally white male industry is forcing companies to disregard white males, who have the required skills (burrows, 2006). whether true or not, in a buoyant recruitment market, companies are continually required to invest more and more in their staff, whilst always facing the danger that their highlyskilled staff (especially those from designated groups) will be headhunted by the opposition (burrows, 2005). it staff are also becoming more selective in terms of which companies they work for and companies are required to be more creative in terms of gaining and retaining their ‘intellectual capital’ (gqubule, 2006). from the above it was apparent that the it industry was subject to many of the changes prevalent in the business world at large, and it was hoped to reveal through this study findings that could assist both the industry and hr professionals to re-invent and reposition hr within this industry to optimise its contribution, both at a strategic and a change management level. the following research question was consequently formulated: how do hr professionals in the it industry view their work, with specific reference to the challenges that they experience? through the insights gained from these professionals it was hoped to provide some guidelines to inform the required changes and possible realignment of hr. research design research approach a research approach was chosen that would allow for hr professionals in the it industry to openly share their personal experiences of the challenges that they face in their work. this was in line with our own scientific beliefs, or ontology, as to the nature of social phenomena, supporting a social constructionist point of view. we believe that perceptions of hr in the it industry are continually being created by the actors within it. we wanted to uncover what the individual participants believed their own challenges to be and wanted to understand how they understood and experienced their specific circumstances. the study was explorative in nature, and therefore a broadly qualitative research approach was chosen. a quantitative approach was rejected as it was felt that the variables under consideration, namely the challenges hr faces (and the roles they fulfill in this regard) were probably too broad to be made quantifiable without breaking them down into much smaller, precise components; the focus was particularly on the broader, higher-level roles. a mixed approach using both quantitative and qualitative approaches could have been applicable, yet was rejected as it would have been too extensive and time intensive, given the scope and purpose of the study. in terms of our epistemolog y, we aimed to gain an understanding of the challenges and roles of hr professionals operating in the south african it sector by using unstructured, flexible methods (burden, 2006). the intention was to collect “thick and rich descriptions” (rubin & rubin, 1995, p. 34) from participants to guide our understanding and interpretation of role of the human resource function 55 the information gained from them. such a relatively unstructured and flexible research approach was deemed appropriate because of its naturalistic perspective and its focus on an interpretive understanding of human experience (denzin & lincoln, 2003). the paradigm of enquiry within which this research was undertaken can therefore be described as interpretive. schurink (2003) described the interpretive (and related constructivist paradigms) as focusing on “particular situated actors” who are made up of “events and phenomena through long-lasting processes of interaction that include history, language and action”. it was pre-supposed that the research participants had a shared “social reality” that had been “built up over time” through a “shared history, experience and communication” of being in the it industry specifically. a case study design was employed since it can be regarded as a building block for data collection frequently associated with qualitative research (burton, 2000). according to babbie and mouton (2005) a case study design facilitates an intensive investigation of a single unit which can be an individual case study, community studies, social group studies, studies of organisations and institutions, studies of events, roles and relationships, and studies of countries and nations. this study implied an in-depth investigation of members of a social group (hr professionals) all employed within the same organisational context (it industry). in order to overcome the issue of ‘representativeness’, multiple participants from different organisations in the it industry were used to make the case study “more compelling and more robust” (burton, 2000, p. 224). methodology methods of data collection included interviewing and strategies of enquiry included grounded theory. data gathering through interviewing rather than through questionnaires was chosen to enable participants to reflect upon issues that were pertinent to themselves, and to do so at length. it was also felt that talking, rather than having to write anything down, would make the flow of information more natural and uninhibited. information given in an interview could also be clarified and further elaborated upon, if necessary. an interview also provided an opportunity to give participants feedback and personal assurance about the way in which the information would be used. the interviews were semi-structured as we had a specific topic that we wanted to explore, and had limited time within which to do so. the interview was deliberately guided in the direction of the topic through the use of preplanned questions. both individual and focus group interviews were conducted. participants a non-probability purposive sampling strategy was followed specifically targeting hr professionals operating in the south african it sector who we believed most likely to give the “greatest possible insight” into the research topic (esterberg, 2002). the sampling was done from the participants in the annual watson wyatt it industry salary survey. this survey has 40 participating companies, all of whom operate in the south african it sector. the survey was initially established in the early 1990’s as a small focus group for hardware companies, to benchmark common jobs and compare salary packages. the focus group was eventually extended to include software companies, and in 1996, microsoft facilitated the introduction of global survey administrators, watson wyatt, to manage and distribute the survey. since 2002 a local company, lmo services, has been administrating the survey in association with watson wyatt. the information provided by the survey is used by participating companies as the basis for their remuneration plans and strategies. (one of the researchers has personally participated in the watson wyatt survey, and can therefore be regarded as an ‘insider’). an initial e-mail was sent out to all the potential hr participants, inviting participation. this was followed with telephonic requests for interviews. ten companies agreed to participate in the research study and, in all cases, interviews were held with either the hr director or hr manager, or the most senior hr person in the organisation. a breakdown of the participant sample appears in table 1. table 1: research participants comownership job title years qualifipany experience cations no. current hr it position industry 1 multinational hr manager 5 8 6 hons 2 sa group executive: hr 14 34 14 phd 3 multinational hr manager 25 38 25 mcom 4 sa group hr & 5 25 10 ma transformation mngr 5 multinational senior hr manager: 4 19 9 mcom africa 6 multinational hr director 1.5 12 3 diploma 7 multinational hr manager 6,5 8 6,5 ma 8 sa hr manager 1 4 6 ma 9 multinational hr generalist 20 20 22 diploma 10 multinational hr consultant 2,5 5 2,5 hons procedure pre-interview preparation involved sending an e-mail to participants confirming the date, time and venue agreed to earlier. seven individual and two focus group interviews were conducted. participants’ rights to privacy were acknowledged and each participant was given a clear explanation of the research purpose, as well as the research process to be followed during the interview. as an industry ‘insider’, and in some cases competitor, this was particularly relevant to reassure the participants that confidentialit y would be maintained. a first pilot interview was conducted and the following two open-ended questions were posed: � what are the major challenges facing you as an hr professional operating in the south african it industry? � what is the effect of this on your hr function? the richness of data that was solicited during this first pilot interview was deemed acceptable. however, the single participant was so forthcoming about personal experiences pertaining to the topic – which we regarded as both relevant and a source of rich data – that it was decided to include a third question for purposes of the subsequent interviews: � what is the effect of all of this on you personally? all the interviews were recorded by means of an electronic recording device, transcribed verbatim and stored in a secure location. data analysis the process of data analysis was approached with the intention of “bringing order, structure, and interpretation to the mass of collected data” (marshall & rossman, 1999, p. 150). interview data was analysed by means of strategies appropriate within a grounded theory approach, as suggested by strauss and corbin (1990). manual, open-coded, thematic content analysis was used as main procedure (see berg, 1995; mouton, 2001) to reduce the initial bulk of data to workable proportions. axial coding was then deployed to connect the open codes into broader themes or categories. these categories were determined inductively, by immersion in the data, and by grounding these in the data hall, fourie56 through specific data excerpts. finally, the axial codes were organised into three core themes on the basis of conceptual similarity or congruence (babbie & mouton, 2005). themes were defined and interpreted using (1) personal experience as human resources professionals and (2) the theoretical knowledge acquired during formal academic studies in industrial psychology. this posed specific challenges in that closeness to the topic could, at the same time, act both as a threat and an opportunity for informed insights. special care was taken, therefore, to remain rigorous, focused, professional and reasonably objective. the coding process was started by going through each transcribed interview and identif ying key words, phrases and sentences. these were then placed onto a chart and data from each subsequent interview was added to the same chart. after all the individual interviews had been conducted, coloured markers were used on the chart to identif y areas of commonality. these identified areas were then transferred onto a spreadsheet, given category names and divided into broad themes. once the data from the individual interviews had been coded and categorised, the themes were presented to the two focus groups in a visual format. care was taken to not have direct competitors together in the same focus group, as this could have restricted their conversation. each group was asked to comment on the relevance and commonality of the findings based on their own experiences, which allowed the opportunity for further exploration of any emerging perspectives. the discussions were again recorded and transcribed in full. an observer or note-taker was not deemed necessary due to the small number of participants in each group. however, field notes were made after each interview. ethical considerations in congruence with both the ethical position generally held by social science research communities, and the university of johannesburg, faculty of management’s ethical guidelines for conducting research, an informed consent form for all participants (explaining the purpose of the research, the arrangement that information would be recorded, and that all information would remain confidential) was drafted. the informed consent form was signed by both parties prior to any data being recorded. with reference to the quality of the research endeavour it was accepted that qualitative research does not address issues pertaining to reliability and validity in the same manner as quantitative research; it is rather more concerned with the notion of trustworthiness, which can generally be addressed through the concepts of credibilit y, transferabilit y, dependability and confirmability (babbie & mouton, 2005). a number of strategies were employed to enhance the quality of the research in line with the above criteria. these included (1) the use of both individual and focus group interviews to enhance data triangulation, (2) the continuation of the data collection process until it was felt that a point of saturation had been reached, (3) the keeping of field and methodological notes (consisting of code notes, actual coding products, and theoretical notes to explore the inductive reasoning behind the category formation) and (4) the use of a peer debriefing process by submitting an initial draft of this report to a colleague in the industry (who had recently completed his doctoral thesis and whose suggestions were incorporated into the final document). in addition, the criterion of transferability was addressed, firstly, through the use of purposive sampling methods and, secondly, through the use of “thick” (babbie & mouton, 2005, p. 277), detailed descriptions of the research setting, context and process. a confirmability audit trail was created through the storage of all data, as well as all field, methodological and theoretical notes in a systematic hard copy file. the individual interviews were conducted over the period february to april 2006, and the focus group interviews took place in july 2006, making the total period of data gathering six months. industry changes were monitored during this time, but none were perceived to have any significant impact on individual responses. the above process of data analysis rendered the following findings. findings the process of open-coded, thematic data analysis described above, led to the identification of three core themes: (1) industry-specific organisational challenges, (2) role of hr and (3) effect of hr roles on individuals in hr. theme 1: industry-specific organisational challenges within this first core theme, three sub-themes, each consisting of a number of related open codes, were identified. these three sub-themes related to (1) the nature of the industry, (2) attraction and retention of staff and (3) strategic requirements for hr. nature of the industry the it industry was referred to as a fast, aggressive industry. it was described by the participants as one of rapid change, aggressive targets and fierce competition, a dynamic industry that can be exciting and challenging to be in: “… a fast, very fast paced industry…very high targets, very high expectations”, “you’ve got to be faster, quicker, you’ve got to be more dynamic…you’ve got to be cleverer than your opposition”, “… it’s a new, fairly new industry and it’s exciting and it’s sexy”. it was further described as profit and budget driven, with a strong focus on profits and budgets that are strictly controlled: “… single-minded focus on business profit”, “we are expected to conquer the world with no budget”. the industry was further characterised by a lack of focus on people. there was a perception that the participants’ organisations are not focused on people and people management: “there’s no people management going on”, “i think people bandy around the idea of people being the most valuable asset … but i don’t think in the south african context we do particularly well in that context”. stress and burnout were identified as a further feature of the industry. the pace of work and the high incidence of change within organisations were perceived as having a negative effect on the people within it: “… so the pressure is tremendous on the people … one of the reasons why we lose them, they can’t keep up the pace, it’s not possible for any person”, “it takes convincing, it takes reason, and it takes a will on the part of people to change, but i think people do get a little bit to the point where they get battle and change weary”, “burnout is a huge issue”. high performance expectations were identified as a fifth feature of the it industry. the need for high performance also means adopting a hard approach to performance management, where unsatisfactory performance is not tolerated: “if they don’t perform they’re out”, “you’ve got this needs improving kind of element, so there’s that kind of almost like a wash-out”. combining all the above features produced a first axial code that characterised the south african it industry as a fast, aggressive industry where monetary considerations are paramount, high performance expectations exist, and employees are relatively uncared for. attraction and retention of staff further analysis of the data produced a second sub-theme concerned with the attraction and retention of staff. five related open codes have reference. the first open code referred to a perceived skills shortage. the market is viewed as being relatively small in terms of the skills that are available and the demand for skills is clearly outweighing the supply, creating a fiercely competitive market: “i think the market is very small”, “there are more and more of our competitors wanting the same kind of people … the demand is higher than the supply”, “it’s an industry where there’s lots of mobility, while you have limited capacity of role of the human resource function 57 skills that are available in the market … retention becomes a key challenge”, “… war on talent, war for talent … they are all fighting for the same people”. the second open code referred to the notion of discerning employees. exacerbating the perceived skills shortage is the fact that individuals within the sector are also becoming more discerning, requiring companies to do more than just the usual to retain and attract staff: “people are more demanding in terms of career development and we need to keep on doing better things to try and keep people”, “it requires companies to do something else in addition to salaries”, “there needs to be something special about the company that the individual will want to come and work for you.” a third open code referred to an expressed need for specific competencies/profiles that are required to be able to cope with the nature of the industry. rapid change requires adaptability and flexibility: “the it environment changes so quickly, you need people that are adaptable, flexible, can cope with the change”, “the technology has moved so fast that the people haven’t necessarily acclimatised, the business mechanisms, thinking patterns haven’t adjusted”, “globalisation requires that you have to be adaptive, extremely adaptive”, “they want a particular mould, and we’re battling in the market”. in this environment, ‘poaching’ appears common, whereby organisations pay higher than average salaries in order to entice staff away from existing employers. this contributes to the notion of a ‘sellers’ market, where candidates have high salary expectations, possibly due to their knowledge of the skills shortage. in an industry where profit is a key driver, the impact of this can be significant in terms of its contribution to employment costs: “your competitors start paying a premium for attracting people or taking people away from you … all of a sudden your cost of employment escalates”, “if it’s a black person and he’s good and they want them, they get them, they pay them anything”, “… a salary war … they’re all paying slightly more, so it’s just lifting the salaries and salary bands”, “where the skill set is there, the salaries and expectations of those candidates is just way out of what we are willing to pay”. this is particularly rife among employment equity (ee) staff, where the skills shortage is particularly hard felt. a fourth open code referred to the challenges pertaining to ee staff in particular. all participants were faced with the issue of finding ‘black’ skill at senior professional and management levels. whilst many of the participants’ companies were introducing initiatives to address the shortage of ee skill, this is not having an immediate effect in terms of rectif ying the problem, but is rather seen as a longer term solution. participants also felt that this problem was added to by the fact that the industry had an historical problem in this respect, as ee issues were not previously addressed with any degree of commitment: “it’s probably not addressing diversity or employment equity at the level that we want”, “we really struggle to get the demographics right”, “we are now developing capability for employment equity candidates … but they are not adequate, especially when you move to senior levels”, “this was an industry … that was fairly isolated from transformation perspectives”, “clearly the it industry has been dominated by males and mainly white males”. the fifth open code referred to leadership development which is also linked to the skills shortage and ee challenges, as organisations are not able to find the skill externally in the market, nor are the initiatives being put in place to deliver leaders as quickly as they would like them to: “we’re weak in a strong pipeline of people coming through”, “we have a need to grow and de velop leaders”. combining the above five features produced a second axial code that characterised the south african it industry as one where a serious skills shortage exists, especially with reference to so-called ‘black skills’ to comply with bee and ee requirements. this is particularly relevant at senior professional and leadership levels where development initiatives are not producing results soon enough. this has led to a market where there is fierce competition for skilled staff and where employees, well aware of their scarcity, are in a position to demand ever higher remuneration in a market that is strongly profit driven. strategic requirements for hr a third sub-theme emerged relating to a strategic requirement for hr. this sub-theme developed from two related open codes. the first referred to the need to grow and maintain profitability which, coupled with the legislative demand to transform, was regarded as a very challenging balancing act: “that’s the challenge – to meet the labour laws challenges, to meet the bee stuff and so on, but at the same time meet our targets and grow at the rate that they want us to grow”, “it’s to try and balance your strategic endeavour with also trying to transform your business.” the second referred to the participants’ acknowledgement of a move towards a stronger focus on the people element and a possible greater requirement for hr type activities: “so the new focus is on people management”, “… how to in fact build a people-based culture and what does that in fact mean”, “… there’s a realisation that there’s a need for hr … we need to nurture our people”. the second core theme related to the role of hr against the background of these industry-specific organisational challenges. theme 2: role of hr within the second core theme a further three sub-themes, each consisting of a number of related open codes, were identified. these three sub-themes related to (1) the fact that hr roles have changed, (2) the nature of the emerging roles and (3) the challenge for existing hr practitioners to actually effect change. changed hr role when asked what the effect of the organisational challenges was on the hr function, the participants started describing the various roles that they were fulfilling. in the first place there was a clear acknowledgement that the role of hr had changed significantly from what it was in the past, and that there was a need to continue evolving: “hr’s role has totally changed. if i think about the role that i fulfilled five years ago versus the role i fulfill today, it’s very different”, “hr has to operate differently”, “gone are the days that you could say i am taking on a cheap resource … that hr has become a ‘cushy’ job, it has become an extremely demanding role”, “in the next two years (hr) are going to have radically changed their jobs, everyone of them, radically, from what they were trained to do to what we now require of them”. the role of hr was previously seen as being rather detached from the actual business, and having limited impact in terms of the outcomes of initiatives: “… used to say, well hey, we tried this and whatever …”, “we just used to just always dream up programmes and say ok, well we can do that, now we have to take so many things into consideration”. the role is now perceived as being far more complex, requiring a different type of individual to fulfill it successfully. it requires a more senior professional who is able to manage the increased complexity: “… it’s definitely more complex in terms of the demands”, “they are all highly professional people”, “it forces you to employ people at that level, whereas in the past you could have probably got away with less”, “… it’s definitely scaled in terms of the level of individual that you need in hr, ‘cos it’s a more strategic role”. nature of emerging role the first role to emerge was that of a business partner, who works very closely with management, who understands the nature and direction of the business, and who is essentially an operational manager and leader in their own right: “… closer to the actual leadership team … hr’s working much closer to the business today”, “so hr has become really an operationally involved executive, sitting at strategy, but also making sure hall, fourie58 strategy is executed”, “your job is the whole time to be with managers, the whole time the managers and people”, “it’s a requirement that they understand the place in history where they’re at, and the direction of the business, and the direction of the global business”, “they now are in an operational zone … suddenly this hr person actually has a line function which includes the development of a whole pile of things, a new procurement mechanism, a new enterprise development issue, social responsibility”, “if you have no influence, that is: it’s all about leadership and persuasion, at a strategic level, then you’re dead in the water”. this role is facilitated by the use of outsourcing and technology, which enables hr to move away from transactional based work and to focus more on strategic contributions. there is recognition that, for the move to a business partner to take place, the day-to-day transactional hr work needs to be removed: “we’re also outsourcing more than we did in the past, the whole aim is obviously to be able to focus more on core hr consulting”, “technology is obviously assisting hugely … if i look at transactional stuff, we just don’t do it, it’s all automated … everything’s on-line”, “the systems do most of the stuff and the admin is minimal”. one of the participants had also moved toward a shared service centre concept in order to facilitate the role of business partner: “we started implementing a shared ser vices centre, which actually helps to gradually migrate some of the transactional hr … so that hr can … provide more of the strategic consulting ser vice”. a second role that emerged was that of hr as a generalist. this does not imply that hr professionals should have a broad but shallow knowledge, but rather that they are required to have an in-depth, expert knowledge of a broad range of hr issues, as well as some which may be outside the realm of traditional hr: “if you look at a generalist role it’s able to deal with a variety of issues from compensation to recruitment. in our case, we can’t get deeply involved with each topic, you need to understand what the issues are, you need to come up with a strategy, you need to either source someone in or you need to get a task team together and focus on that and move on”, “this job here is a generalist job, it’s actually a general manager’s job … it’s got a human resource element to it, but actually it’s a general manager of the business job”, “you have to be a knowledge expert, you’ve got to have an exceedingly good knowledge of all these various things … you are expected to be yes, a jill or jack of all trades, but you are expected to be a master of them all, as well”, “you expect people to be multi-skilled”. the abilit y to operate outside of traditional hr, using non-traditional hr skills, appears to be becoming increasingly important, and could be linked to the increased complexity of the function: “the skills sets that they’re now required to have … are dramatically different, and in fact they’re business skills, not hr skills”, “… but it is a requirement today that you suddenly are a public relations person”, “if you hired me today here, you’d be looking for a lawyer”, “your specialisation is a global specialisation”, “not one of them have had outside hr experience, and that’s a problem”, “i think one needs a lot of organisational sav vy”, “you’ve got to be good at negotiating”. the multinational participants also expressed the need to be able to operate in a global context: “a person has responsibilities locally, but they are part of a functional team at a regional level”, “… worldwide standards that’s got to be complied with, irrespective of our labour laws”. a third role was that problem-solver, specifically in the area of people relations, whereby hr is expected to manage the relationship between management and employees, especially the difficult issues, so that management is freed up to focus on the business side of things: “ … .try and develop a magic wand that can take these issues away from business”, “that’s your job, motivating, encouraging, resolving problems”, “you have this mediator role quite a lot of times where the staff member will come to you and says he or she is unhappy about this issue”, “i deal with the issues that go wrong, and the issues that nobody knows what to do with, so i deal with the exceptions … so they see me as a corporate problem-solver”. in terms of problem-solving, a number of participants also described their role as a ‘counselor’, a function that is linked to the high levels of stress and burnout: “people coming to you, they can’t take this anymore or whatever, and you’ve got to, you know, talk to them and try and get them motivated again, try and resolve the issue”, “you would have to spend a lot of time talking to people and you cannot give guarantees, so you’ve got to kind of placate and you’ve got to talk to people, counsel even”, “i spend a lot of time in personal counseling conversations with people”, “it is, i believe, attributed to levels of stress”. some, however, viewed their role almost as the antithesis of this. it appears that in difficult times, or when dealing with difficult situations, hr can become the cause of stress and tension, almost an enemy against the people they are supposed to look after: “you are always seen as an area that could be regarded as an enemy of people”, “… people that have got to be sacked”. the role of problem-solver is also evident in the relationship between line management and hr, which was perceived as a difficult one. whilst hr is working closer to management, there is a perception that hr gets called in to do the ‘dirty work’, the tasks that are unpleasant and not particularly enjoyed by managers. there is also a perception that line management lack an understanding of what hr actually does, and the amount of work that is required on an ongoing basis: “you cannot approach business without hr being an absolute partner-in-crime … who is the bad wolf who will assist line managers to get rid of people, or to discipline people or to get people to toe the line? it’s hr, together with line”, “… line managers will position hr as the enemies who are there to cull people, if you can put it that crudely, and they love us on the one hand, but they hate us on the other hand”, “you don’t have a great deal of support base ‘cos there’s no real supporters around you”, “what we also did was to reposition hr, which i think is very important, it needs to be repositioned appropriately within the organisation to say … what role does hr fulfill now?”, “i don’t think that the business really understands the amount of work that goes into an hr department … the perception is you hire and you fire … and why is my medical aid wrong?” challenge for hr practitioners despite the challenges implied by the roles described above, there was a perception that this was an opportunity for hr to elevate itself and take up a position of greater importance: “it must be one of the most exciting hr departments there can be”, “… you are actually looking at opportunities to shine, that you’ve never been given before … anybody can take those opportunities and do much more with their lives”, “hr, the role of hr, can become the doorkeeper rather than the backroom boy”, “i can see that business partnership role being much stronger than 5 years ago, which is good for me as an hr professional. i mean that’s where we always said that’s where it needs to go”, “i think actually for those who grow into the challenge it’s going to be great, because it gives them a whole new developmental thrust if you like, they’ve got a whole new job thing and it’s a more senior job that an hr job used to be”. however, one participant cautioned that the existing hr people may not be able to make this change: “not everyone is going to change, not everyone’s capable and i’m not sure they want to, to be frank”. the core theme discussed immediately above related to the role of hr against the background of the industry-specific organisational challenges discussed earlier. the third core theme that emerged referred to the emotional effects of both the context within which they work, and the impact of their roles as hr professionals on the individual participants. theme 3: effect of hr roles on individuals in describing the hr role the participants freely spoke about the effects on individuals in these roles, often reflecting on the effects upon themselves personally. this lead to the third and final core theme: effects of hr roles on individuals operating within hr. the following sub-themes emerged: role of the human resource function 59 inherent conflict inherent conflict in the role of an hr professional emerged strongly as a sub-theme, particularly in terms of what the role is expected to deliver. as mentioned previously, hr is often expected to do the unpleasant tasks, involving dismissing or disciplining employees, and yet they are also expected to be the ones who look after employees’ interests; roles that are at opposite ends of the spectrum. the nature, or personality, of the person who goes into hr, was also seen as possibly at odds with the expectations of the role. this conflict often also creates a moral or ethical dilemma for the hr practitioner: “who is the bad wolf who will assist line managers to get rid of people, or to discipline people or to get people to toe the line? hr … that places a tremendous amount of conflict in the minds of hr practitioners”, “you’re meant to be nice and presentable and sweet … and at the same time you’re also meant to be tough, and … stamp your foot and make things happen … there’s a conflict, a disconnect”, “the roles … fundamentally different from the personality sets, not necessarily the skills sets”, “when i go to church i sometimes question myself whether the things that i’m expected to do at work are aligned with my christian beliefs”. job pressures the second sub-theme related to the high pressure which the participants felt themselves to be under. this pressure stemmed from having to keep abreast of current developments and having to continually update and expand their own skill sets: “i must make sure that i am up to speed with the business, i must keep up with the change and also be very proactive”, “you’ve got to make sure that you read widely, that you spend enough time researching things”, “we’ve got to give and be the source of competitive advantage … so you have to spend vast amounts of time on reading, studying the law, having a look at where you can save costs”, “i have long ago realised i needed to expand my skill sets”. the nature of the work also adds to the pressure, as does the sheer volume of work they are expected to complete: “you’ve always got problems …”, “the people that you hire within an hr team … have to be able to not get irritated when they’re multi-tasking and someone walks in … and they have to drop everything, and they do need to handle high levels of stress and pressure”, “… there’s a lot of work, a lot, lot, lot of work”. the ability to deliver results also adds to the high pressure: “hr performance is measured”, “if you’re not delivering competitive advantage, they say what’s wrong with you …”, “a broad concept, value-add … performance, you do what you say you are going to do”. long hours and burnout in order to cope with the demands of the role, the participants are working long hours: “there’s just not enough hours in the day, that’s the reality, so it forces you to spend vast amounts of time after hours …”, “i have to burn the candle at both ends and in the middle”. one participant attributed this to the actual industry itself, post ulating that long hours were an expectation, if one wanted to be successful: “i think most it companies are the same … if you want to make it, you’ve got to be seen to be working late, and you’ve got to be seen to work on the weekends. it’s an expectation”. the demands and the associated long hours are creating high levels of stress, and the use of the word ‘burnout’ was common. work-life balance was an issue, where work appears to be taking precedent over personal and leisure time: “… which puts a hell of a lot of demand and strain on an hr practitioner”, “many hr practitioners, senior people, suffer from burnout because of these demands”, “i’m starting to draw on my own personal energy as opposed to my professional energy”, “you’ve got to make personal sacrifices. the sacrifices of family, of your own leisure”, “i’ve seen people who are involved in these er practices and sustained that kind of pressure for eight or nine months, and then all of a sudden collapse”, “it goes back to the burnout sort of issue, where you’re working long hours and you’re just slogging and slogging and slogging and it just doesn’t seem to come to an end”. whilst there is an awareness of the likelihood of burnout, the reality appears to be that little is done to prevent it. dissatisfaction, despondency and often resignation are the end result: “i think they sometimes get despondent because they get no recognition, i think that’s very difficult for them”, “you just cannot, you just can’t continue to work and work and work like that, eventually somewhere the rope’s got to break, it’s got to snap”, i’ve had people resign because they said they just can’t take the pressure”. the three core themes identified above (1) industry-specific organisational challenges, (2) role of hr and (3) effects of hr roles on individuals in hr are discussed next. discussion the findings from the study confirmed what was evident in the literature regarding the nature of the it industry generally. the industry was indeed described as fast-paced, dynamic, and characterized by rapid change. an emphasis on performance was also evident, both financially and individually. despite the reliance on people and their skills, it was not viewed as an industry where people management played a strong role. high demands, with little support, seemed to result in high levels of stress and burnout. research participants placed specific emphasis on the current skills shortage. the industry was described as small, with limited skills capacity and the current demand for skills is clearly out weighing the supply, resulting in fierce competition, or a ‘talent war’. this leaves companies in a position where they have to do more than just pay people equitable salaries; they need to find ‘intangible’ attraction measures that distinguish them from their competitors. ggubule (2006) concurred with this, arguing that traditional rewards and benefits are regarded as standard in a ‘seller’s market’. whilst the skills shortage is real, companies are also very specific about the type of individual that they recruit, as a certain type of person, an almost unique ‘profile’, is required to survive in the industry. adaptability and flexibility were identified as key competencies in this regard. in this environment of a ‘talent war’ poaching is rife, especially among employment equity (ee) candidates. the lack of available ee skills is particularly seen at professional and managerial level, resulting in the payment of higher and higher premiums. in an industry that was traditionally dominated by white males, many initiatives have been put in place, and may well bear fruit in years to come, but they are not addressing the problem as it stands now. the skills shortage leads to ‘poaching’, where companies identif y staff at their competitors and approach them directly with the aim of enticing them away, usually on the basis of better jobs and higher salaries. as more and more companies do this, companies have to fight to attract the best resources, whilst at the same time, try to retain their existing resources from the attraction efforts of other companies. bee was also confirmed as a challenge in the industry, particularly among multinationals, who have limited options in terms of selling shares in the business. compounding this is the need to maintain profitability, amidst a delicate balancing act in terms of meeting both legislative and shareholder requirements. figure 1 captures most of the above scenario graphically, and highlights the apparent need for an increased focus on peoplerelated activities. the findings also confirmed the apparent need for hr to change the way it operates, specifically in terms of its strategic focus. this increased complexity has resulted in the need for more senior, professional people to fulfill the role and within this context, specific roles emerged. the first role, namely that of a business partner, corresponded with the views strongly advocated in the cited literature. it was suggested that hr is working closer to hall, fourie60 organisational leadership and management and is more involved at both a strategic and operational level. leadership and influence were mentioned as key capabilities that hr requires in order to fulfill their role as business partners, or establish what bear (2004) terms “credibility”. referring to the change agent role specifically cited in the literature review earlier, both focus groups viewed this role as an integrated part of the business partnership role (as opposed to ulrich’s (1997) view thereof as a separate change agent role). participants felt that in such a rapidly changing environment, keeping up with changes meant keeping in touch with the business and ensuring that required changes were translated into action. figure 1: industry challenges the second role evident from the literature, namely that of a generalist, was also confirmed through the research. however, in line with the views of ulrich and brockbank (2005), the study confirmed the need for hr to remain an expert in its own field, possibly implying even higher levels of competence and skill. the participants felt that they needed to have a broad, yet in-depth, range of knowledge pertaining to all matters relating to hr, as well as matters not traditionally perceived as hr related, such as public relations, general management, and globalisation. the third role identified from the research namely that of a problem-solver was not distinctly specified in the literature. it may well fit into the role of change agent, which is described as assisting organisations in facilitating change. however, the participants described a more specific role whereby they are expected to solve a range of people issues, either for or with line management. a sub-role identified in this theme was that of a counselor. this may be similar to ulrich and brockbank’s ‘employee advocate’ role (2005), which is seen as someone caring, listening, and responding to employee needs. whilst the ‘employee advocate’ role involves proposing better, more fair policies relating to employees, the research suggested that this is possibly more of a psychological counseling role, largely necessitated by the high levels of stress and burnout in the industry. the problem-solver role, however, often implies a degree of inherent conflict, as hr is expected to handle the tough, unpleasant issues, such as disciplinary matters and retrenchment, which often cause employees’ distress. the old view of hr being there to hire and fire is still evident, as hr gets called in by line management when difficult actions need to be taken against employees. hr is clearly in a difficult position as they can be caught between employees and management. they are required to be there for employees, but can also be perceived as ‘enemies’ when labour action is required. with reference to hr’s administrative role, the research findings concurred with gaines-robinson and robinson’s (2005) view that, certainly at a senior hr management level, there was a complete move away from transactional-based work. this was facilitated by the use of technology, outsourcing and shared service centres which freed up time to focus more on the business partner role. the above findings are graphically depicted in figure 2 below. figure 2: changed hr role whilst the implied changes for hr in the it industry is apparent from figure 2, the research did indicate that many opportunities exist in this regard, and that the time has possibly never been better for hr to elevate itself to become an integral part of the business. there was a cautionary note, however, that not all hr people would necessarily be able to transition into this ‘new’ role. the key factor in this regard was believed to be the possible emotional impact or consequences that the industry and the specific hr roles within that industry, could have on individuals in those roles. conflict was identified as an inherent part of the job. there was also a concern that the traditional people-oriented hr person might not be able to cope with these demands. furthermore, the hr role was seen as one of constant high pressure. this arose from the need to keep oneself at the forefront of recent developments, both in the hr field and in the it industry itself, as well as the nature of the work, which is often highly emotive. the sheer volume of work was also seen as a contributory factor, as was the need to deliver quality output. this resulted in hr people working long hours, with a negative impact on work-life balance and burnout as a real possibility. bear (2004) argued that burnout could also be caused by the “increased scrutiny” on, and the higher expectations of hr people. the scope of the effects of all the above-mentioned changes on individuals in these hr roles, are depicted in figure 3. figure 3: effect of hr roles on individuals the nature of the it industry, the changed role of hr within this industry and the effect of both of these on individuals operating within hr have to be taken note of by both the industry and the hr professionals operating within this industry. conclusion and recommendations the it industry is, and will probably remain, a key industry in modern day economies worldwide. however, it is evident that the industry is faced with many people-related challenges, role of the human resource function 61 especially the attraction and retention of uniquely skilled employees, and the management of high levels of stress and burnout. it is against this background that hr is believed to be in a position to make a meaningful contribution, provided it can reposition itself as a business partner, a generalist and hr expert at the same time, and a problem-solver across many contexts. the industry is hugely reliant upon human capital and there appears to be a huge need for human resource interventions, at both a management and employee level. this does indeed create opportunities for hr within the industry in terms of becoming significant contributors to the business. whether this opportunity will be taken up, however, seems to depend largely on the credibility of hr individuals themselves, and their ability to develop their skills in time to meet the demands and thereby change the perception of what hr is about, and what it can do. the findings of the study have implications for many stakeholders. firstly, key decision-makers in the it industry have to accept that the industry is one that attracts intelligent, professional and hard-working people. yet, the industry is rife with stress and burnout, which may partly be as a result of the lack of focus on people management and people issues. the industry needs to recognise that its core competitiveness stems primarily from its people, and therefore look at initiatives to adequately address its people issues. the issue of stress and burnout across all levels of employees is of particular concern. it is a known fact that stress has a negative impact on performance, at an individual and organisational level (muchinsky, 2003). all companies within the industry are encouraged to assess their current levels of stress and burnout and develop initiatives to combat this. another crucial issue is the need to attract and retain staff which is currently primarily addressed at individual company level. consideration should be given to address the problem at industry level. developing basic levels of employee benefits and actively marketing the industry as an employer of choice could be some of the ways to promote the industry among potential job-seekers, even attracting skills from other industries. an analysis of what other industries do in this respect could offer valuable insights. the lack of a long-term view of the skills shortage in the it industry should also be a major concern to all stakeholders. whilst technological advances and the associated skill sets that go with them are, to a certain degree, hard to predict, the industry appears to be dealing with the problem at a micro-level rather than a macro-level. many companies are trying to develop skills within their own organisations and only a few are collaborating at a higher level on joint initiatives to solve the bigger problem of building up a national skills pool. the culture of ‘poaching’ that appears to be the order of the day was seen by most participants to be ultimately harmful in the long run; yet, the demands of the business were such that they were forced to continue. secondly, key decision-makers in the it industry have to recognise the need for highly qualified, senior, professional and experienced hr people to operate at a strategic level and to deal with the many people-related challenges unique to the industry. this will have implications for the recruitment and selection of hr people in future, where the competency profiles will have to reflect the raised expectations of these roles. these competencies should ideally include an understanding of business strategy, an in-depth knowledge of all hr areas, as well as skills in the areas of problem-solving, negotiation and counseling. organisations in the it industry should furthermore realise that the current lack of budgetary support is forcing hr people into a situation where they are trying to do everything themselves, with negative consequences for both the organisation and themselves. in an industry with such high expectations and tight financial controls (and where people are not a key focus), spending money on people-related issues appears to be a major problem. ironically, spending money on hr issues could lead to higher productivity and hence better performance. if money were available, hr practitioners could bring in some of the specialist skills that they themselves lack, thereby providing services so desperately required. an example would be the use of employee assistance programmes (eap’s) where counseling services are made available to employees at the company’s cost. this would enable employees to have professional support and, at the same time, take some pressure off hr who could then focus on other issues. thirdly, hr practitioners in the it industry should reflect on the serious long-term consequences of them finding neither the time, nor the resources, to focus on long-term planning. whilst reactively dealing with the effects of change, very little is done to increase the core competencies of adaptability, flexibility and change readiness, either in themselves, or in their employees. in this respect, it was evident from the research that, whilst all the participants experienced similar problems, a lack of communication between hr professionals in the industry exists. one possible solution would be to create a forum where practitioners could come together and share ideas and issues in a safe, confidential manner. cross-skilling and training initiatives to address areas of development could also be a function of the forum. many senior hr people are operating in the industry, and the use of coaching and mentoring could have beneficial effects, especially in many smaller organisations that often have only one hr person. the support that such an initiative could provide could also help to alleviate some of the stress experienced by hr professionals. fourthly, academic institutions offering training for hr practitioners should take note of the emerging roles and align their curricula to fully prepare students for these. in this process, specific high-level skills and competencies (such as individual counseling skills that are more adequately addressed in the curricula of industrial psychologists) should be clearly identified to ensure that adequate training is provided. despite all the inherent challenges alluded to above, the hr professionals interviewed all seemed excited and positive about the future. they saw scope and opportunities for hr to make a more strategic and valuable contribution, provided that they could face and meet the demands that the largely changed expectations placed on them. limitations of the study and suggestions for further research this study was conducted solely within the it industry, and should therefore not be made applicable to other industries without reserve. furthermore, selected participants were at a senior level in their organisations, either in a managerial or director position; the views of more junior hr people could differ as they are probably more involved at an operational level, and slightly distanced from the more strategic levels of the business and the organisations’ management structure. junior employees are probably also less exposed to difficult situations or decisions, which may lead to differences in their views of the hr environments within which they operate. an extended study incorporating inputs from other levels of hr staff could therefore possibly add value. given the nature of the it industry, it would furthermore be interesting to assess the effect of the industry on other functional groups within it (for example, technical staff). in addition, a similar study among hr professionals operating in another industry would also be of interest, and would furthermore aid in ascertaining possible generalisability of the findings. finally, the views of the senior management from the participating companies could possibly shed some light on the relationship between management and hr, and possibly explain some of the conflict pertaining to different roles and expectations. hall, fourie62 of particular value would be further research to establish means to quantif y the contribution of hr in real terms. whilst many participants referred to the high expectations of hr, little reference was made as to how these are actually measured. the development of an hr measurement tool could possibly assist in determining the ‘real’ bottom line contribution, thereby elevating the position of hr by acknowledging its contribution in a quantifiable manner. further exploration of each identified core and subtheme could also be of interest. the issue of stress and burnout is obviously of major importance, and further research could help to understand (1) the causes and consequences of stress and burnout, (2) implications for companies, hr and individual employees and (3) possible remedial actions. a study on the skills shortage would also be beneficial to determine (1) the current and fut ure skills requirements, (2) the future supply of potential it employees as evidenced by registrations at training providers and (3) the relevance of it training curricula currently being taught. this study could also be supported by a critical assessment of the mathematics and science training at school level, and the impact thereof on future it employees. finally, the development of employee effectiveness and change readiness programmes for the it industry specifically, could also be of great value. given the importance of the it industry globally and the unique hr-related challenges in the industry specifically, focused and continued research in many areas are probably not only desirable in the short term, but crucial in the long term. it is hoped that this study highlighted some of the areas requiring urgent attention, from both an industry and hr point of view. references aamodt, m.g. (2004). applied industrial/organizational psychology. belmont, ca: wadsworth/thomson. babbie, e. & mouton, j. (2005). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford university press. bear, d.j. (2004). the evolving hr function. books 24×7.com: human resources institute. berg, b.l. (1995). qualitative research methods for the social sciences. boston, ma: allyn & bacon. boudreau, j.w. & ramstad, p. (2003). strategic hrm measurement: from justif ying hr to strategic talent leadership. in m. effron, r. gandossy & m. goldsmith (eds.). human resources in the 21st century. hoboken, nj: john wiley. brockbank, w. (2003). convergence of hr: leadership and change management. in m. effron, r. gandossy & m. goldsmith (eds.). human resources in the 21st century. hoboken, nj: john wiley. burden, f.j. (2006). the development of an organisational redesign model: a south africa case study. (unpublished doctoral thesis). johannesburg: university of johannesburg. burrows, t. (2005). hr’s bee question: organic growth or bought skills? itweb brainstorm, march 2005, pp. 108-109. burrows, t. (2006). the it skills cupboard is bare. itweb brainstorm, april 2006, pp. 72-73. burton, d. (2000). the use of case studies in social science research. in d. burton (ed.). research training for social scientists. london: sage. business day management review (2005). is hr friend or foe? depends on who’s asking the question. business day, august 2005, pp. 10-11. denzin, n. k. & lincoln, y. s. (2003). collecting and interpreting qualitative materials (2nd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. draft black economic empowerment charter for the ict sector. may 2005. http://ictcharter.org.za esterberg, k.g. (2002). qualitative methods in social research. boston, ma: mcgraw-hill. evans, c. (2003). managing for knowledge: hr’s strategic role. books 24×7.com: butterworth-heinemann. fletcher, p.a.k. (2005). from personnel administration to business-driven human capital management – the transformation of the role of hr in the digital age. in h.g. gueutal & d.l. stone (eds.). the brave new world of ehr: human resources in the digital age. books 24×7.com: josseybass. gaines-robinson, d. & robinson, j.c. (2005). strategic business partner: aligning people strategies with business goals. books 24×7.com: berrett-koehler. gqubule, t. (2006). the real retainer. financial mail, 187 (1), p. 50. green, m.e. (2002). internal human resources consulting: why doesn’t your staff get it? public personnel management. 31 (1), pp. 111-119. guba, e.g. & lincoln, y.s. (1994). competing paradigms in qualitative research. in n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds.). handbook of qualitative research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. henson, r. (2005). the next decade of hr – trends, technologies, and recommendations. in h.g. gueutal & d.l. stone (eds.). the brave new world of ehr: human resources in the digital age. books 24×7.com: jossey-bass. hosking, a. (2006). business strategy and hr. hr future, march 2006. hunter, i. & saunders, j. (2005). transforming hr: how to get shared ser vices, outsourcing and business partnership to deliver what you want. books 24×7.com: thorogood. jeffay, j. & bicos, s.k. (2003). managing for execution: hr delivery imperatives for the 21st century. in m. effron, r. gandossy & m. goldsmith (eds.). human resources in the 21st century. hoboken, nj: john wiley. kaye, b., scheef, d. & thielfoldt, d. (2003). engaging the generations. in m. effron, r. gandossy & m. goldsmith (eds.). human resources in the 21st century. hoboken, nj: john wiley. lawler, e.e., ulrich, d., fitz-enz, j. & madden, j.c. (2004). human resources business process outsourcing: transforming how hr gets its work done. books 24×7.com: john wiley & sons. lessard, b. & baldwin, s. (2003). netslaves 2:0: tales of “sur viving” the great tech gold rush. books24×7.com: allworth press. macdonald, j.r. (2003). profession at a crossroads. in m. effron, r. gandossy & m. goldsmith (eds.). human resources in the 21st century. hoboken, nj: john wiley. marshall, c. & rossman, g.b. (1999). designing qualitative research (3rd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: age. mouton, j. (2001). how to succeed in your masters and doctoral studies. pretoria: van schaik. muchinsky, p.m. (2003). psychology applied to work (7th ed.). belmont, ca: thomson wadsworth. neuman, w.l. (2000). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. needham heights, ma: allyn & bacon. rothwell, w.j., prescott, r.k. & taylor, m.w. (1998). the strategic human resource leader. books 24×7.com: davies-black publishing. rubin, h.j. & rubin, i.s. (1995). qualitative inter viewing: the art of hearing data. london: sage. sartain, l. (2003). getting extraordinary results from ordinary people. in m. effron, r. gandossy & m. goldsmith (eds.). human resources in the 21st century. hoboken, nj: john wiley. saunders, m., lewis, p. & thornhill, a. (2003). research methods for business students (3rd ed.). essex, england: pearson education. schurink, w. (2003). qualitative research in management and organisational studies with reference to recent south african research. sa journal of human resource management, 1 (3), pp. 2-14. role of the human resource function 63 schurink, w. (2005). qualitative research design part i. lecture notes for post-graduate study school at university of johannesburg, 17–21 january 2005. strauss, a. & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research. newbury park, ca: sage publications. swanepoel, b. (ed.), erasmus, b., van wyk, m. & schenk, h. (2003). south african human resource management: theory and practice (3rd ed.). lansdowne, cape town: juta. ulrich, d. (1997). human resource champions. boston, ma: harvard business school press. ulrich, d. & brockbank, w. (2005). the hr value proposition. boston, ma: harvard business school press. ulrich, d. & smallwood, n. (2003). what’s next for the people function? a missing link for delivering value. in m. effron, r. gandossy & m. goldsmith (eds.). human resources in the 21st century. hoboken, nj: john wiley. van der westhuizen, c., van vuuren, l.j. & visser, d. (2003). human resource management as a profession in south africa: practitioners’ perspectives. sa journal of human resources management, 1 (2), pp. 1-12. vegter, i. (2005). telkom unleashed. itweb brainstorm, dec 04/jan 05, pp. 27-29. wheatley, m. (2003). when change is out of our control. in m. effron, r. gandossy & m. goldsmith (eds.). human resources in the 21st century. hoboken, nj: john wiley. hall, fourie64 abstract introduction synthesis and critical evaluation of the literature research approach and design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) mark h.r. bussin gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, johannesburg, south africa keshia mohamed-padayachee school of business leadership, university of south africa, johannesburg, south africa philip serumaga-zake school of business leadership, university of south africa, johannesburg, south africa citation bussin, m.h.r., mohamed-padayachee, k., & serumaga-zake, p. (2019). a total rewards framework for the attraction of generation y employees born 1981–2000 in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1066. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1066 original research a total rewards framework for the attraction of generation y employees born 1981–2000 in south africa mark h.r. bussin, keshia mohamed-padayachee, philip serumaga-zake received: 14 apr. 2018; accepted: 11 feb. 2019; published: 11 july 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the workforce is changing, as employers aim to attract qualified individuals from generation y, born 1981–2000, but strategies for attraction require adaption, as the ‘one-size-fits-all’ model no longer works for today’s multigenerational workforce. research purpose: determining what changes and priorities organisations need to consider for their total rewards frameworks to attract youth employees. motivation for the study: companies offer employees historical benefits that they do not want or value. this is important when one considers the attraction of generation y to organisations, as they are increasingly becoming a formidable factor in an organisations’ success and sustainability. the motivation for this study was understanding what rewards are aligned with the aspirations of this skilled generation, to attract them. research approach/design and method: a sequential mixed-method approach was followed, where data were collected, using quantitative and qualitative methods. a questionnaire was distributed and a response rate of 276 participants from seven of the nine provinces in south africa achieved. interviews were conducted where 11 participants validated the quantitative findings. main findings: seven reward categories were found to affect generation y’s attraction to organisations, (1) leadership and environment (2) benefits (3) performance incentives (4) individual development (5) safe, secure working environment (6) work–life balance and resources and (7) performance recognition. practical/managerial implications: a different approach is required for the attraction of generation y. contribution/value-add: no empirical study exists that authenticates total rewards models for generation y, identifying the most important reward preferences and developing a new, more effective total rewards framework. keywords: generational theories; youth attraction; generation y; total rewards model; remuneration and benefits. introduction organisational environments are characterised by increasing shortages of skilled labour, and it has become imperative to design employment systems that prioritise human resources to create a competitive advantage (holland, sheenan, & de cieri, 2007). human resource practice initiatives can help to attract skilled labour to gain and retain competitive advantage (pahuja & dalal, 2012). rewards drive employee morale; therefore, employee rewards distribution has always loomed large in organisations (appelbaum, serena, & shapiro, 2005). with labour costs sometimes accounting for more than 50% of the total costs of doing business, strategic management of human capital assets is of primary importance. for employees, an equitable rewards distribution system signals management’s emphasis on valuing employees (datta, 2012). incentives play an important role in attracting, motivating, rewarding, energising and retaining employees, and a ‘one-size-fits-all’ plan is not appropriate for today’s multigenerational workplace (nelson, 1999). flexible work arrangements and other initiatives aimed at enhancing quality of life have universal appeal (nelson, 1999). the focus and purpose of the present study was to identify what rewards for attraction are important to skilled and qualified youth, generation y employees born in the years 1981–2000, regarding the reward categories of identified total rewards models. background to the study the idea of total rewards emerged in the 1990s, and in 2000 worldatwork introduced its first total rewards model. the worldatwork total rewards model was intended to advance the concept of rewards and help practitioners think about and execute remuneration in new ways. from 2000 to 2005, the body of knowledge associated with total rewards became more robust as practitioners experienced the power of integrated strategies. during the past two decades, various total rewards models were published. each approach presents a unique point of view, but all recognise the importance of leveraging multiple programmes, practices and cultural dynamics to satisfy and engage the best employees, contributing to improved business performance and results (wang, 2012). it has become clear that the battle for talent involves much more than highly effective, strategically designed compensation and benefits programmes. while these programmes remain critical, the most successful companies have realised that they must take a much broader look at the factors involved in attraction, motivation, and retention. they must employ all the factors – including compensation, benefits, work–life, performance recognition, development and career opportunities – to their strategic advantage (wang, 2012). understanding the external and internal rewards that incentivise skilled and qualified youths is important to determine what changes and priorities organisations need to consider for their total rewards strategies to attract youths entering the workforce. this study will inform organisations regarding the total rewards they can incorporate into their total reward strategies. trends from the research literature employers apply total rewards models without considering the differing needs of employees (bussin & toerien, 2015). employers need to design reward practices that will support the achievement of business goals and motivate employees to perform at uninterruptedly high levels (armstrong, 2010). creating a combination of transactional and relational rewards is required to attract high-performance employees (worldatwork, 2015). further, while attraction has been closely related to transactional rewards, such as pay and benefits, more is required to attract this future workforce (bussin & toerien, 2015), which this study addresses. research objective this study was intended to determine the reward priorities of generation y, representing youth employees born between 1981 and 2000, to develop a more relevant total rewards framework, compared to other generations, for their attraction to private and public organisations in south africa. an objective of the study was to determine the reward priorities of youth employees to develop a more relevant total rewards framework for attraction. in view of this, the study aimed to answer the following research questions: which rewards factors attract generation y to organisations? how can a total rewards framework for the attraction of generation y be best conceptualised? this study was aimed at developing a total rewards framework for the attraction of the youth by attempting to answer the aforementioned research questions. value-add of the study the research results will aid the understanding of generation y reward preferences through an appropriate reward framework. the study further proposes a total rewards framework for the attraction of generation y, making a positive contribution to managing rewards in a challenging work environment, thereby contributing to existing literature. the study, thus, contributes to the body of knowledge and is beneficial to academics, practitioners and students in the field of human resource management. what will follow in the subsequent section the article provides a critical evaluation of the literature and summary of the themes emerging from the research findings, setting the context, highlighting the dynamics of the problem and demonstrating the importance of the research question. synthesis and critical evaluation of the literature generational theory today’s workplace consists of three generations – baby boomers (born 1946–1964), generation x (born 1965–1980) and generation y (born 1981–2000) – who have each been influenced by the events of their time, therein creating new challenges for employers (kapoor & solomon, 2011). the research reviewed all three of these generations, with a specific emphasis on generation y as representing youth employees. while the outgoing generation of baby boomers and the existing workforce of generation x have shaped the working environment of today, the emerging generation y will contribute to shaping the workforce over the years to come. the south african national youth policy (2009, p. 39) defines ‘youths’ as persons between the ages of 14 and 35 years. this wide scope of youths includes those who have been exposed to different socio political and historical experiences and spans a 20-year life cycle. howe and strauss (1991, p. 14) define a ‘generation’ as a unique cohort born within a period of about 20 years, whose boundaries are fixed by peer personality. the group encounters key historical events and social trends while occupying the same phase of life. bell and narz (2007) describe generations as defined by demographics and key life events that shape, at least to some degree, distinctive generational characteristics. based on these definitions, the researcher identified the parallel between the south african national youth policy (2009) and howe and strauss’s (1991) generational theories to describe today’s youth employee as opposed to those of the past. the study is focused on youths born from 1981 to 2000, aligned with the definition of the south african national youth policy (2009, p. 39) and the description of generation y of howe and strauss (1991, p. 14). for a reward strategy to be effective, it is necessary to collect data on the preferences of employees, so that an organisation can devise appropriate rewards strategies and assess the influence thereof on employees’ attraction and retention. this study used generation theory and selected total rewards models, with an emphasis on the worldatwork (2015) total rewards model, to identify the potential rewards factors that attract the youth to organisations. the worldatwork (2015) total rewards model provides a comprehensive list of monetary and non-monetary rewards to employees in exchange for their time, talents, efforts and results. these include the categories of remuneration, benefits, work–life balance, performance and recognition, and development and career opportunities, which are considered by organisations to be the preferences desired by older generations but not necessarily those of the youth. in addition, the model, unlike some of the other models reviewed, such as the hay group model (2008), does not consider work culture and climate, leadership and direction, work environment, a compelling future, and career (dalton, thompson, & price, 1977; hardigree, 2008; lawrence, arthur, & hall, 1995) and environmental awards (see also zingheim & schuster, 2000). each generation’s priorities or preferences vary, as well as their views regarding work (bussin & toerien, 2015). it is increasingly important that organisations offer more of what future generations of employees prefer, rather than what organisations perceive they need (angeline, 2011). the ideal, therefore, is to ask the youth what their preferences are. this study was therefore aimed at filling this gap by attempting to answer the aforementioned research questions and test the research hypothesis described later. total rewards systems a total rewards system encompasses the reward framework for an organisation and the strategy to attract and retain talent (armstrong, 2010; hay group, 2008; towers watson, 2012b; worldatwork, 2015; zingheim & schuster, 2000). as the war for talent intensifies and competition between organisations increases, it is vital that companies create a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining talent (holland et al., 2007). per tsede and kutin (2013) and worldatwork (2015), total reward is an integral element of reward management and is the combination of financial and non-financial rewards given to employees in exchange for their efforts. over the last decade, as the external environment has become more turbulent, organisations have sought initiatives to ensure the recruitment of a high-quality workforce (bussin & toerien, 2015). many organisations have attempted to remedy this problem by simply offering increased pay (worldatwork, 2015). while this may provide some respite in the form of a short-term solution, this approach may not deliver the best results (angeline, 2011). realising the shortcomings of this approach, some organisations have turned to wider reward mechanisms, but up to now none has managed to improve on the existing total rewards models (silverman & reily, 2003); this study was intended to close this gap. there is no total rewards framework that has been developed based on the preferences of this generation. the objective of this study was therefore to develop a more comprehensive and effective total rewards framework for the attraction of youth to organisations. some of the most popular total rewards frameworks were considered, namely, those of armstrong (2010), hay group (2008), towers watson (2012b), worldatwork (2015) and zingheim and schuster (2000). table 1 provides a summary of the components of the selected total rewards models considered in the measuring instruments of this study. table 1: summary of total rewards categories and elements. the categories and associated elements as depicted in table 1 were used to compile the survey questionnaire that was used to collect quantitative data during phase i of the research and the interview questions that were posed to collect qualitative data during phase ii. it was hypothesised that the youth of generation y are different from previous generations, as found by angeline (2011), bussin and toerien (2015), bell and narz (2007), holland et al. (2007) and howe and strauss (1991), and understanding what they prefer is critical to an organisation’s success; it is equal to understanding customers’ needs and wants. it is increasingly important that organisations offer more of what future generations of employees prefer, rather than what organisations perceive they need (angeline, 2011). the ideal, therefore, is to ask the youth what their preferences are. this study was aimed at filling this gap by attempting to answer the first research question: ‘how can a total rewards framework for the youth be conceptualised best?’ the hypotheses derived from this research question were as follows: ‘there is an association between the reward categories (e.g. remuneration, benefits, performance recognition, etc.) that attract employees to organisations and the generation to which they belong’. the key to attracting the youth in the workplace is understanding what they prefer and providing it in a way that they find meaningful. according to the literature, the youth are different from previous generations, and understanding what they prefer is significant to an organisation’s success (bussin & toerien, 2015). the next section discusses the research design and approach adopted in this study and how the researcher went about answering the research question. research approach and design the philosophies regarding research approaches that the researcher applied in this research study were ontology and epistemology. both aspects of ontology, namely subjectivism and objectivism, were applied in this study. the researcher used a deductive approach and hypothesis testing to study phenomena and interpret the data. the epistemological position the present study took was to investigate what intrinsic and extrinsic rewards the youth value – what attracts them to organisations. the pragmatic paradigm was applied in this study. under this paradigm, researchers focus on the research question (polit & beck, 2012); to derive knowledge about the problem (creswell, 2014; polit & beck, 2012). the researcher utilised a sequential mixed-methods approach to explore and guide the evaluation of the reward categories and elements of a total rewards model. subsequently, it was determined what changes needed to be made on the existing worldatwork (2015) total rewards model to develop a more effective total rewards framework for attraction of the youth to organisations. combining the quantitative and the qualitative methodologies was necessary. the qualitative results were used to explain and interpret the findings of the quantitative phase of the study (creswell, 2014). in this study, the mixing of the two methodologies provided the ability to statistically analyse the scientific data, while recognising the environmental factors that influence the youth’s decision-making. qualitative methods were used in the first phase of the study to explore the phenomenon and come up with the hypothesis to be tested using quantitative methods in the second phase. then factor analysis was completed to categorise the key concepts into rewards categories that comprised the building blocks of the framework. research methodology data were firstly collected through questionnaires. a survey questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data from professional and organisational databases and face-to-face distribution, and it reached participants from seven of the nine provinces in south africa. other responses, 0.39%, came from swaziland and the ivory coast. respondents from the other generations came from the population of employees in organisations where the questionnaire was distributed and professional databases and from colleges and universities. thereafter, abstract and descriptive research, in the form of semi-structured interviews, was conducted. phase ii entailed a qualitative study in which interviews were conducted to collect detailed qualitative data to explain and interpret the results of phase i. a semi-structured interview guide was used. rich and in-depth information aided validation of the preliminary conclusions drawn from the quantitative data collected in phase i, by adding explanations and interpretations of the identified significant relationships between the key variables and the factors that are considered to affect the attraction of the youth in organisations. the qualitative results filled the gaps in the explanations and interpretations of the results of the quantitative research. target population and sample the target population for the quantitative phase of the study comprised undergraduate and postgraduate students from colleges and universities in gauteng, cape town and kwazulu-natal, as well as qualified and skilled employees including youth working in both private and public organisations. in addition, the researcher distributed the questionnaire to organisation and professional databases. the target population for the qualitative phase of the study included youth respondents, managers and human resource (hr) professionals residing in gauteng province, one of the most densely populated provinces in south africa based on the population data of south africa central statistic services (2013), representing both the public and private sectors while ensuring representation from the other provinces through electronic distribution of the questionnaire. sampling methods non-probability methods (i.e. convenient, snowball and purposive sampling methods) were applied. convenient sampling as applied ensured that inputs were received from qualified youths and industry experts. snowball sampling was applied to locate potential key informants. purposive sampling was used with specific characteristics such as age and skilled employees, ensuring that the right decisions were made about which interviewees were best suited to the study and could provide the required information (burns & grove, 1993; de vaus & de vaus, 2001), using a selection criterion that was based on the researcher’s expert opinion (tongco, 2007). quantitative methods draft questionnaires were distributed, using convenience sampling, to a pilot group of 10 respondents, as no previous questionnaire existed for research of this nature. the questionnaire was validated, and changes were made by modifying and making the questions clearer before it was administered. the researcher distributed 450 questionnaires, of which 276 usable questionnaires were received – a response rate of 61.3%. of the 276 questionnaires, 72.88% came from respondents in private (52.23%) and public (20.65%) organisations, 14.17% came from those in universities and 13.12% represented other sectors. over-sampling ensured that the researcher received enough responses to represent each different generation (i.e. sample size of 450). the highest frequency of responses was from respondents born 1981–2000 (57.14%); the second-highest response rate was from respondents born 1965–1980 (33.2%), and the lowest was from respondents born 1946–1964 (9.65%). this represented the profile of the current age demographics in the work environment, with the youth being the next-largest generation in the workforce, followed by those who will soon retire (borngraber-berthelsen, 2008). the 9.65% responses from respondents born 1946–1964 might not have been adequate to do a comprehensive comparison, so the results need to be interpreted with caution in this regard. however, by using the mixed-methods approach, the researcher succeeded in triangulating the data, which increased the validity and reliability of the study. the sample size was based on the central limit theorem, which recommends that the sample size should be at least 30 for the normality assumption not to be violated regardless of the shape of the distribution (ghasemi & zahediasl, 2012). the questionnaire as a measuring instrument included a section requesting demographic data to compile a demographic profile of the respondents. table 2 provides a summary of the demographic questions. these questions yielded facts about the respondents, which the researcher analysed according to frequency, to determine the profile of respondents born from 1981 to 2000, to compare it to the profiles of employees born from 1946 to 1964 and 1965 to 1980. table 2: questions related to demographic data. in the next section of the questionnaire, 30 closed-ended matrix questions for attraction were answered using the likert scale, which provided respondents with a standardised set of response choices based on five categories, ranging from 5 (very important) to 1 (not important at all). the closed-ended questions were a combination of facts, knowledge and intent related to reward categories and elements from the total rewards models (remuneration, benefits, performance recognition, career development and work–life) and other literature (safety and security and social support), as described in table 1. the questionnaire further included open-ended questions testing if the researcher had excluded any reward elements available in the respondents’ organisations or the larger external environment that they deemed important. in addition, rank order questions were included. respondents had to rank their reward preferences on the likert scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being the least important and 5 the most important. research participants table 3 provides a summary table of the profile of the respondents who participated during the quantitative phase of the study. table 3: demographic results: summary table of research participants. data analysis of the quantitative methods statistical data analysis was used to profile the respondents born from 1981 to 2000 (i.e. generation y) compared to the profiles of employees born from 1946 to 1964 (i.e. boomers) and 1965 to 1980 (i.e. generation x). frequency distributions, standard deviations, means, graphs and charts were used. multivariate analysis was then conducted, to compare the results by birth year group, total rewards elements and demographic characteristics to determine if there were significant relationships between the three generations. multivariate statistical analyses and non-parametric tests included chi-square tests and kruskal–wallis and factor analysis, which were performed to test the null hypotheses. the kruskal–wallis test was used because the assumption of the chi-square test that none of the cells of the contingency table should have an expected frequency of less than five was violated and the variables were grouped by year of birth. reliability and validity of the scale cronbach’s coefficient was used to measure the reliability of the questionnaire. the results of 0.827 for attraction for the 30 items were deemed a good result, as these indicated a high degree of reliability and consistency of the questionnaire items (hair, black, babin, anderson, & tatham, 2006). qualitative methods the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews. the interview guide was developed based on the set of themes derived from the questionnaire utilised in phase i of the research. the questions were then aligned with the hypotheses being tested, the research objectives and the outcomes of the quantitative research. for the qualitative phase, race and gender profiles of the interviewees were diverse and well represented. of those interviewed, three were married and eight were single or had never been married. of the eight interviewees, seven were living on their own and one was living with parents. years of birth ranged from 1981 to 1990, and experience ranged from 2 weeks to 14 years. the interview guide contained predetermined themes and open-ended interview questions that were formulated by the researcher, as no relevant interview guide existed. a pilot interview was conducted to determine the understanding of the question and duration of the interview. following the pilot interview the researcher, who was the interviewer, was satisfied with the outcome data which were gathered by means of 11 interviews. the interviews were audio-recorded, except for the telephonic interviews. the sample size was guided by the saturation point principle (mason, 2010). the interviews were fully transcribed verbatim using transcription software (https://transcribe.wreally.com). the two telephonic interviews were transcribed from handwritten notes immediately following the telephonic interviews. data analysis of the qualitative methods the data was categorised into themes, trends and patterns, around which a narrative was written. member checking was conducted by comparing answers of participants for understanding of the questions posed and where required additional explanations were provided. following the quantitative data analysis, the preliminary findings were shared during the interviews, which allowed participants to validate the preliminary findings, provide additional information and inputs if necessary. the participants were able to explain the relationships found through the analysis of the responses to the questionnaires. the frequency analysis of the codes was then conducted. spearman’s rho (also spearman’s rank correlation coefficient) was calculated to determine if there was a relationship between the groups’ codes, based on frequency values. there was no requirement for normality, as it is a non-parametric statistic. reliability and validity using the mixed-methods approach and triangulation increased the credibility of the data. the researcher conducted the interviews, ensuring the interviews were electronically recorded and then transcribed; data collection was not limited to taking notes during the interviews, which guaranteed that no information was missed or misinterpreted during the analysis. ethical considerations ethical clearance was granted by the university of south africa (unisa) ethics committee. approval was received from the professional associations. a publicly funded institution gave the researcher permission to conduct the research, followed by a parastatal. during the research, the researcher gained permission from professors and senior lecturers to distribute the survey questionnaires to graduate and postgraduate students. participation was voluntary, and informed consent was obtained from each participant. participants were assured that the information they shared would be kept confidential and that their anonymity was guaranteed. research ethics review committee (gsbl crerc) ref no: 2015:sbl/dbl_019_fa. results respondents answered the quantitative questions on a defined likert scale, and the results from these responses are presented in table 4 by the total rewards element (in the left column), with corresponding year of birth across and frequency of response downwards. the highlighted numbers indicate the highest percentages by group. table 4: frequency analysis: attraction. considering the results in table 3, the highest degree of similarity was found between the three groups, 1946–1964, 1965–1980 and 1981–2000, for career and growth opportunities, learning and development opportunities, resources, retirement fund, supportive management and salary or pay. the 1981–2000 group scored highest for career and growth opportunities, learning and development opportunities, retirement fund, medical aid and salary or pay. for respondents born 1965–1980 and 1981–2000, the lowest-scored reward elements included smaller bonuses intermittently and lower base salary with unlimited bonus potential. figure 1 shows the top seven preferences for the three groups, 1946–1964, 1965–1980 and 1981–2000, for attraction based on the results of the frequency analysis in table 3. figure 1: quantitative findings: top seven rewards for attraction. frequency distribution for attraction table 5 below describes the frequency distributions of the variables used to investigate the factors of attraction of the youth to organisations. for the group born 1946–1964, the median was high, ranging between 3 and 5, indicating that most respondents gave positive responses, except to higher base salary with limited bonus. the distributions were negatively skewed, indicating that there was less variability in this group and, therefore, more consensus. table 5: frequency distribution for attraction. for the groups born 1965–1980 and 1981–2000, the median was high, ranging between 4 and 5 in most instances, indicating that most respondents gave positive responses and there was a high degree of consensus within the groups. the standard deviation was relatively small, and the data were concentrated near the mean. the distributions were negatively skewed. total reward categories’ ranking in this section of the questionnaire, the researcher tested how respondents would summarise their preferences. the question was further included to test the consistency in responses against that of the previous section. the question posed in the questionnaire was: ‘on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the least important and 5 the most important, how do you rank the following by importance when deciding to join an organisation?’ (i.e. remuneration, benefits, social support, security and safety, work–life, career development opportunities and performance recognition). table 6 provides a summary of the groups’ responses; the highlighted areas are the top-ranked categories, greater than 50% for attraction, as these are the ones that were considered for the developed total rewards framework for the youth. the results indicated that the group born 1946–1965 had strong preferences, with performance recognition ranked highest for this group for attraction followed by career development and remuneration. for the group born 1965–1980, the highest ranked for attraction was remuneration. the top-ranked for the group born 1981–2000 was career development. table 6: total rewards categories: ranking attraction. hypothesis testing results for attraction the researcher tested evidence from the sample that either supported the hypothesis (h0) or rejected it and supported the alternative hypothesis (ha). a non-parametric test was used to verify the equality of variances in the sample (homogeneity of variance) – p> 0.05 (nordstokke & zumbo, 2010). the kruskal–wallis test, a non-parametric test, was performed to test the null hypotheses because the assumption of the chi-square test that none of the cells of the contingency table should have an expected frequency of less than 5 was violated. variables were grouped by year of birth. the significance level of the chi-square value (i.e. probability) being > 0.05 indicated that there was no statistically significant association between 20 of the 30 variables and that the null hypothesis was not rejected. ten showed a significant difference between the youth generation born 1981–2000 and the previous generations born 1946–1964 and 1965–1980. the alternative hypotheses for these elements were correct; however, because for more than 50% of elements the null hypotheses were not rejected, the overall finding was that, for attraction, the youth have rewards preferences like those of previous generations. figure 2 presents the hypothesis outcomes of the significant differences for attraction. figure 2: hypothesis test summary of significant differences for attraction. based on the results from the quantitative findings, leave proved to be more important to youths than to the other generations. furthermore, the youth value employee discounts more than what the other generations do. the results for higher base salary with limited bonus potential and lower base salary with unlimited bonus potential indicated that the youth do not value these two components. the results imply that leave is the reward preference for the youth and should be considered by organisations when trying to attract them. from the findings, although it appears that career development is important to all age groups, it is more important to youths than to older generations. this might be explained by the mere fact that at a young age, an employee aspires to develop his or her career unlike an older person, who in most cases might have developed his or hers already. this was the same for the results for career and growth opportunities, learning and development, experience working in different organisations to maximise career growth and experience working in different organisations to maximise career earnings potential, these are important to all age groups but more important to youths than older generations. the preference of youths regarding long-term job security and a safe work environment is different to that of older generations. factor analysis factor analysis was then completed, using ibm spss® software, to determine the common factors among the observed correlated variables. data were summarised so that relationships and patterns could easily be interpreted and understood (yong & pearce, 2013). based on the scores, factor analysis looked at the similarities and differences between the scores observed; the variables of interest of the objects were then grouped into clusters with others with similar scores (diamantopoulos & schlegelmilch, 2000). table 7 provides a summary outcome of all 30 variables for attraction. nine components were extracted from the data, which explained 67.4% of the variability in the data for attraction. table 7: factor analysis for attraction: respondents born 1981–2000. ranking the reward factors from the quantitative and qualitative findings the youth reward preferences identified from the results of the frequency analysis for attraction of the youth to organisations in order of importance were: (1) career development, (2) benefits, (3) remuneration, safety and security, (4) resources, (5) social support, (6) safety and security and (7) career development and work–life. factor analysis extracted nine reward preferences for attraction. the ranking of the reward factors determined in the study through factor analysis was (1) social support and environment, (2) benefits, (3) performance incentives, (4) career and individual development, (5) work–life, (6) informal recognition, (7) remuneration and formal recognition, (8) traditional remuneration and (9) non-traditional remuneration. this implies that the most important reward preferences for the youth, in order of importance, are (1) social support, development and environment, (2) benefits and (3) performance incentives. the results from the qualitative findings determined the association between the total reward categories for attraction. from the qualitative data analysis, the top reward preferences were found to be (1) leadership and environment (emerged theme), career development, security, flexibility and pay; (2) benefits (retirement fund, medical aid, leave); (3) performance incentives (longand short-term incentives, share options); (4) individual development, a safe and secure working environment; (5) work–life and resources (employee discounts, extended time off, tools to execute work, wellness); (6) informal recognition and non-financial rewards; and (7) formal recognition and lump sum annual bonus payments. these categories were created by factor analysis. the results of the quantitative research were then integrated with the results of the qualitative research, which informed the development of a new total rewards framework. after integrating the results from the quantitative and qualitative findings, for attraction, the top reward preferences were found to be (1) leadership and environment, career development, security, flexibility and pay; (2) benefits (retirement fund, medical aid, leave); (3) performance incentives (longand short-term incentives, share options); (4) individual development, a safe and secure working environment; (5) work–life and resources (employee discounts, extended time off, tools to execute work, wellness); (6) informal recognition and non-financial rewards; and (7) formal recognition and lump sum annual bonus payments. the framework is shown in figure 3. figure 3: total rewards framework for the youth. based on the findings, the existing total rewards models are relevant as proposed by the different authors, but a model that better reflects the preferences of the youth would be more effective. discussion this study set out to evaluate the effectiveness of the reward categories of the total rewards models and other elements for attraction, with specific emphasis on the youth. the aim was to identify the factors of attraction of the youth and, subsequently, to develop a more relevant total rewards framework for the youth by improving on the existing total rewards models, such as that described by worldatwork (2015). it aimed to answer the following research questions: which rewards factors attract generation y to organisations? how can a total rewards framework for the attraction of generation y be conceptualised best? to ensure rigour and enhance the credibility of the study, the researcher assessed whether generational theories could be applied as predictors of what would attract the youth. the study utilised the reward categories of the identified total rewards models, customised with elements from the literature. generational theory the findings, based on the similarity of the responses in the quantitative and qualitative phases of the research, support the literature and the similarities between generations posited by howe and strauss (1991, 2007), who developed similar collective personae. the research highlights that each generation has distinct characteristics that affect how the war for talent is waged (twenge, 2010) and will therefore require a different approach for attraction. this implies that, if the framework is applied in an organisation, the organisation will be able to attract the youth more effectively, because it includes all the preferences of the youth. after addressing the objectives, the researcher was able to develop a more effective total rewards framework for the youth and answer the research questions. the total rewards framework for the youth that was developed after considering all the important preferences of the youth is shown in figure 3. this new framework can be regarded as an improved or modified version of the worldatwork (2015) framework, with additional reward components. a total rewards framework for the attraction of generation y employees born 1981–2000 leadership, environment, career development, security, flexibility and pay in the present study, according to the qualitative data analysis, leadership and environment was rated the highest of all the categories, for attraction. this included the elements supportive management and work environment, resources, safe and secure work environment, career and growth opportunities, learning and development opportunities, longer-term job security, salary or pay and flexible work arrangements. supportive management and work environment it is clear from the results that organisations that focus on leadership and developing talent will be in a stronger position to retain key employees as the war for talent intensifies (boxall & purcell, 2011). like the worldatwork (2015) total rewards model and some other models, the themes of culture and work environment emerged in response to the open-ended questions in the quantitative phase of the study, which the researcher grouped with supportive work environment. this was validated during the qualitative phase, when interviewees indicated that the culture of an organisation was very important for attraction of the youth. resources youths value tools and devices, to the point that they would use their own in the workplace. the devices and tools given to them to perform their work were rated as very important in both the qualitative and quantitative phases of the research. safe and secure work environment the elements that formed part of this category for attraction were long-term job security and safe and secure work environment. long-term job security and a safe and secure work environment are important to the youth. longer-term job security longer-term job security (>12 months) was ranked as very important in the quantitative phase, and in the qualitative phase it was important for some of the youth interviewed but not all. long-term job security is important to the youth, but they consider pay more important. they will also sacrifice security for job satisfaction and opportunities to grow and learn. they are not afraid of risks but take calculated risks, as purported by howe and strauss (2007). career, growth and learning and development opportunities these elements represent opportunities designed to enhance employees’ applied skills and competencies. as described by worldatwork (2015) in their total rewards model, development encourages employees to perform better and enables leaders to advance their people strategies. this aspect includes a plan for employees to advance their own career goals and may include advancement to a more responsible position in an organisation. the organisation supports career advancement internally, so that talented employees are deployed in positions that enable them to deliver their greatest value to the organisation (quinn, anderson, & finkelstein, 1997). salary or pay the respondents rated an attractive salary or pay as important. the qualitative phase of the present study indicated that companies need to pay market-related salaries to attract the youth. salary and other monetary benefits are a significant consideration for the youth, as they are for previous generations. this finding supports those of martin and tulgan (2006) and rollsjö (2009). the qualitative phase of the research illustrated that youths are not unrealistic about their earning potential, but they do want to be paid market-related salaries. they are also aware that their qualifications and years of experience impact their earning potential. this result contradicts the literature stating that promotion is very important to members of generation y but that they want this with minimal effort, perhaps reflecting a sense of entitlement that is the product of a pampered upbringing (ng, schweitzer, & lyons, 2010, corporate leadership council [clc], 2008). this generation ‘wants it all and wants it now’ in terms of better pay and benefits, rapid advancement, work–life balance, interesting and challenging work, and contributing to society (ng et al., 2010, p. 282). the reason for this was not investigated in the present study. benefits benefits ranked second in importance for attraction. the study found that the most important benefits, in rank order, are retirement fund, medical aid and leave. a benefit that youths find important that emerged from the quantitative phase of the present study was study leave. they want a work–life balance and therefore do not want to take annual leave when their study leave becomes depleted. youth find the current allocation of study leave insufficient. sabbaticals or other scheduled time reductions were ranked fifth for attraction. performance incentives ranking third for attraction was longand short-term incentives and share options. career and individual development ranking fourth for attraction, career and individual development includes formal coaching or mentoring programmes, experience working in different organisations to maximise career progression, experience working in different organisations to maximise career earnings potential, corporate social responsibility and a 13th cheque. work–life balance and resources ranking fifth for attraction, this factor included employee discounts, sabbaticals or other scheduled time reductions, the employee wellness offering and flexible work arrangements. analysis of the responses to the open-ended questions in both the quantitative and qualitative phases highlighted the importance of a work–life balance to the youth. recognition recognition ranked sixth for attraction. the elements included in this factor are informal recognition, and non-financial rewards. being recognised and rewarded is a need of the youth. this research found that both formal and informal recognition motivate them, but not in equal measure. formal recognition was rated higher than informal recognition in the questionnaire section of the study, and informal rated higher during the interviews. formal recognition this research found that formal recognition drives and encourages the youth. this finding supports that of rollsjö (2009). youths grew up receiving rewards for good behaviour and are expecting the same in their work life. it was found that both formal and informal recognition are motivational. spontaneity and fun in the work environment appealed to 60% of the youth interviewees. one of the themes that emerged during the interviews was the need of young employees to receive feedback. when they do not receive this feedback, they will source it from their managers. the researcher considered the results of both phases i and ii and reviewed the literature, to develop an accurate and defendable set of rewards for the youth; these rewards were investigated empirically. this new framework can be regarded as an improved or modified version of the total rewards framework, with additional reward categories. this implies that, if the framework is applied in an organisation, the organisation will be able to attract and retain the youth more effectively, because it includes all the preferences of the youth. the framework was informed by a scientific study, in which the data that were collected were objectively analysed. the sample of college and university students might have had a negative impact on the findings of the study and consequently its credibility because of its being a homogeneous sample that lacked a wide range of perspectives. furthermore, the racial composition of the sample might also have impacted negatively on the representativeness of the sample. conclusion and recommendation the preceding sections summarised the research findings. this section offers recommendations based on the study findings and makes recommendations for future research. the findings of the present study support those of the clc (2008) that customised reward frameworks positively impact levels of skilled labour attraction to organisations, leading to greater levels of productivity and improved organisational performance. a different approach is required for the attraction of the youth, and the one-size-fits-all approach of the past will not be sufficient in the future. for organisations to survive in the long-term, they need to offer customised solutions for attracting and retaining the youth. future research opportunities the focus of this research was on the rewards preferences of skilled, and undergraduate and postgraduate young employees. future studies could include non-graduates. acknowledgements the author would like to thank the university of south africa, school of business leadership for their assistance in conducting this research. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.h.r.b. was the principal supervisor and was responsible for the design of the project and writing up the article. k.m.p. was the researcher and responsible for the design of the project, fieldwork and writing up the research and article. p.s.-z. was the assistant supervisor and was responsible for writing up the article. funding information funding for this study was provided by the university of south africa, school of business leadership. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references angeline, t. (2011). managing generational diversity at the workplace: expectations and perceptions of different generations of employees. african journal of business management, 5(2), 249–255. appelbaum, s. h., serena, m., & shapiro, b. t. (2005). generation ‘x’ and the boomers: an analysis of realities and myths. management research news, 28(1), 1–33. https://doi.org/10.1108/01409170510784751 armstrong, m. (2010). armstrong’s essential human resource management practice: a guide to people management. london: kogan page publishers. bell, n. s., & narz, m. (2007). meeting the challenges of age diversity in the workplace. the cpa journal, 77(2), 56. borngraber-berthelsen, m. a. (2008). recruiting and retaining generation y: a new workforce (unpublished doctoral dissertation). aalborg university, aalborg, denmark. boxall, p., & purcell, j. (2011). strategy and human resource management. london: macmillan international higher education. burns, n., & grove, s. k. (1993). the practice of nursing research, critique and utilization. london: wp saunders. bussin, m., & toerien, w. c. (2015). influence of reward preferences in attracting, retaining, and motivating knowledge workers in south african information technology companies. acta commercii, 15(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v15i1.290 corporate leadership council (clc). (2008). improving employee performance in the economic downturn. washington, dc: corporate executive board. creswell, j. w. (2014). a concise introduction to mixed methods research. london: sage. dalton, g. w., thompson, p. h., & price, r. l. (1977). the four stages of professional careers – a new look at performance by professionals. organizational dynamics, 6(1), 19–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(77)90033-x datta, p. (2012). an applied organizational rewards distribution system. management decision, 50(3), 479–501. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251741211216241 de vaus, d. a., & de vaus, d. (2001). research design in social research. london: sage. diamantopoulos, a., & schlegelmilch, b. b. (2000). taking the fear out of data analysis: a step-by-step approach (no. 118). singapore: cengage learning emea. ghasemi, a., & zahediasl, s. (2012). normality tests for statistical analysis: a guide for non-statisticians. international journal of endocrinology and metabolism, 10(2), 486. https://doi.org/10.5812/ijem.3505 hair, j. f., black, w. c., babin, b. j., anderson, r. e., & tatham, r. l. (2006). multivariate data analysis (vol. 6). upper saddle river, nj: pearson, prentice hall. hardigree, a. e. (2008). work generativity from a life cycle, career stage model, and gender-role perspective: an examination of individual differences and moderating factors that influence work generativity in managers (doctoral dissertation). rice university. hay group. (2008). the hay group total reward framework. haygroup.com. retrieved from www.haygroup.com. herzberg, f. (1987). one more time: how do you motivate employees? harvard business review, 65(5), 109. holland, p., sheehan, c., & de cieri, h. (2007). attracting and retaining talent: exploring human resources development trends in australia. human resource development international, 10(3), 247–262. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678860701515158 howe, n., & strauss, w. (1991). generations: the history of america’s future, 1584 to 2069 (p. 538). new york: william morrow & company. howe, n., & strauss, w. (2007). the next 20 years: how customer and workforce attitudes will evolve. harvard business review, 85(7–8), 41–52. kapoor, c., & solomon, n. (2011). understanding and managing generational differences in the workplace. worldwide hospitality and tourism themes, 3(4), 308–318. https://doi.org/10.1108/17554211111162435 lawrence, b. s., arthur, m. b., & hall, d. t. (eds.). (1995). handbook of career theory. oxford: cambridge university press. martin, c. a., & tulgan, b. (2006). managing the generation mix: from urgency to opportunity. portland: human resource development. mason, m. (2010, august). sample size and saturation in phd studies using qualitative interviews. in forum qualitative sozialforschung/forum: qualitative social research (vol. 11, no. 3), art. 8. retrieved from http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs100387. nelson, b. (1999). incentives for all generations. nelson motivation inc. retrieved from https://www.inc.com/articles/1999/02/16431.html. ng, e. s., schweitzer, l., & lyons, s. t. (2010). new generation, great expectations: a field study of the millennial generation. journal of business and psychology, 25(2), 281–292. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9159-4 nordstokke, d. w., & zumbo, b. d. (2010). a new nonparametric levene test for equal variances. psicologica: international journal of methodology and experimental psychology, 31(2), 401–430. pahuja, s., & dalal, r. c. (2012). achieving competitive advantage through hr practices: a case study. journal of strategic human resource management, 1(2), 35. polit, d. f., & beck, c. t. (eds.). (2012). sampling in qualitative research. in nursing research: generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice (pp. 515–528). philadelphia, pa: wolters kluwer/lippincott williams & wilkins. quinn, j. b., anderson, p., & finkelstein, s. (1997). managing professional intellect: making the most of the best. in d.a. klein (ed.), the strategic management of intellectual capital (pp. 87–98). harvard business review. boston, ma: harvard business press. rollsjö, å. (2009). attraction and retention of generation y employees. sweden: baltic business school, university of kalmar. silverman, m., & reilly, p. a. (2003). how flexible is total reward? brighton: institute for employment studies. south africa central statistic services. (2013). statistical release. p0211.4.2. pretoria: central statistical services. south african national youth policy. (2009). assa projections in budlender. cape town: oxford university press southern africa. tongco, m. d. c. (2007). purposive sampling as a tool for informant selection. ethnobotany research and applications, 5, 147–158. https://doi.org/10.17348/era.5.0.147-158 towers watson. (2012a). 2012 global workforce study: engagement at risk: driving strong performance in a volatile global environment. new york: towers watson. towers watson. (2012b). total rewards strategies for the 21st century. towerswatson.com. retrieved from http://hdl.voced.edu.au/10707/277125. tsede, o. a., & kutin, e. (2013). total reward concept: a key motivational tool for corporate ghana. business and economic research, 3(2), 173–182. https://doi.org/10.5296/ber.v3i2.4291 twenge, j. m. (2010). a review of the empirical evidence on generational differences in work attitudes. journal of business and psychology, 25(2), 201–210. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9165-6 wang, w. (2012). the way we work: past, present, and future. virtual work and human interaction research (pp. 1–9). igi global. charlotte, nc: university of north carolina. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-0963-1 worldatwork. (2015). the worldatwork handbook of compensation, benefits and total rewards: a comprehensive guide for hr professionals. scottsdale, az: wiley. yong, a. g., & pearce, s. (2013). a beginner’s guide to factor analysis: focusing on exploratory factor analysis. tutorials in quantitative methods for psychology, 9(2), 79–94. https://doi.org/10.20982/tqmp.09.2.p079 zingheim, p. k., & schuster, j. r. (2000). pay people right!: breakthrough reward strategies to create great companies. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass publishers. 7sutherland.indd the changing and evolving global economy has become increasingly competitive (murtagh, 2006). many enterprises have realised that the only distinguishing factors of truly outstanding organisations are the attitudes and behaviours of their employees (forrester, 2000; tschohl, 1998; lawler, 1992; quinn & speitzer, 1997). in order to enhance organisational productivity and competitiveness, it has become necessary for employees to provide outstanding performance in the face of constantly changing heterogeneous services and the changing needs of customers (meihem, 2004). organisations have attempted to achieve a competitive advantage through the implementation of mechanisms that will allow them to select and retain employees who would outperform their competitors (avis, kudish & fortunato, 2002; brymer, 1991; lashley, 1999; meihem, 2004). research on employee performance has shown that a multitude of situational and dispositional factors could possibly influence an employee’s performance (rothmann & coetzer, 2003). situational factors include (but are not limited to) organisational policies and procedures, management practices, autonomy, and teamwork (liao & chuang, 2004; svyantek, bott, goodman & bernal, 2003). dispositional factors refer to factors or variables that include personality characteristics, needs, attitudes, preferences, cognitive ability, emotional intelligence, and motives (douglas, frink & ferris, 2004; mount, barrick & strauss, 1999; rothman & coetzer, 2003). in light of the magnitude of possible situational and dispositional factors that have been shown to influence employee performance, it was decided to explore the relationship between some of the situational and dispositional factors prevalent in current research on employee performance. one prominent situational factor that has been shown to influence employee performance is employee empowerment. employee empowerment has been shown to influence performance on both a psychological and organisational level (bekker & crous, 1998; liden, wayne & sparrowe, 2000; randolph, 1995; sparrowe, 2004; spreitzer, 1995; spreitzer, kizilos & nason, 1997). the most widely researched dispositional personality factor shown to influence employee performance is conscientiousness (barrick, mount & judge, 2001; goldberg, 1990; johnson, 2003; rosse, stecher, miller & levin, 1998; wright, kacmar, mcmahan & deleeuw, 1995). conscientiousness forms part of the five-factor model of personality which represents a structure of inter-correlated traits which include neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness (mccrae & costa, 1997). the effects of empowerment and conscientiousness on employee performance have been researched extensively within the american and european contexts (rothman & coetzer, 2003). however, the interrelatedness of empowerment, conscientiousness and employee performance has not yet been thoroughly empirically researched in the south african work context. the south african work context is unique and distinct from other contexts. it can be described as an environment where situational factors are extensively governed by laws like the labour relations act (66 of 1995), and where discrimination of employees on the basis of dispositional factors remains highly controversial (rothman & coetzer, 2003). the importance and interrelatedness of employee performance, conscientiousness and empowerment may assist the south african employer in gaining the knowledge needed to become more competitive through heightened employee performance. outstanding employee performance has always been a desired outcome for organisations. according to meihem (2004), employee performance can be seen as one of the most important factors of any successful business. employers have nevertheless struggled to implement methods and initiatives that will enhance the performance of their existing employees (avis et al. 2002). in spite of well-intended attempts, many of these initiatives have not led to improved employee performance (argyris, 1998). the concept of employee performance has been defined as a multi-dimensional construct (campbell, mccloy, oppler & sager, 1993; rothmann & coetzer, 2003). campbell et al. (1993) defined employee performance as individual behaviours that are related to organisational goals. in addition, employee performance has been conceptualised as an indication of how well employees perform in their jobs, the initiatives they take, their creativity in solving problems and the resourceful way in which they utilise their resources, time and energy (rothman & coetzer, 2003; schepers, 1994). employee performance can be broken up into two conceptually distinct components, namely, contextual performance and task performance (borman & motowidlo, 1997; borman & van scotter, 1994). contextual performance is characterised by activities that employees are not necessarily contracted to perform, but which are necessary for the achievement of organisational goals (sv yantek et al. 2003). these activities are riët te sutherland gideon p de bruin freddie crous* fcrous@uj.ac.za programme in industrial psychology department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract this study examined the relationship between conscientiousness, empowerment and job performance among information technology professionals. an employee empowerment questionnaire (eeq), a conscientiousness scale and a social desirability scale were administered to 101 information technology customer service engineers. managers completed a performance evaluation questionnaire (peq) for each customer service engineer. the results indicated a significant relationship between conscientiousness and empowerment. a curvilinear relationship was found between empowerment and performance. the practical and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed. key words: personality, consciousness, empowerment, job performance the relation between conscientiousness, empowerment and performance 60 sa journal of human resource management, 2007, 5 (2),60-67 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2007, 5 (2), 60-67 conscientiousness, empowerment and performance 61 not necessarily assessed by traditional performance appraisal tools. behaviours associated with contextual performance are discretionary in nature and include volunteering for tasks which are not formally part of the job, demonstrating effort, assisting and cooperating with others, following organisational rules and procedures, or supporting organisational objectives (beatty, murphy & cleveland, 2001; borman & van scotter, 1994; speier & frese, 1997). task performance refers to employees’ performance on specific job-related activities. task performance differs greatly bet ween jobs and is assessed by means of performance evaluat ion systems. behaviours associated with task performance include the transforming of raw materials into goods and services, the distribution of products and the coordination and supervision of activities (borman & motowidlo, 1997). task performance is best predicted by cognitive variables, whereas context ual performance is best predicted by dispositional or personalit y variables (beatt y, murphy & cleveland, 2001; borman & van scotter, 1994; liao & chuang, 2004; van scotter & motowidlo, 1996). against the background of the supporting research, the inference could be made that context ual performance would be predicted by factors inherent to an employee and could form the basis on which successful, productive employees are selected. many industrial psychologists have researched employees’ inherent characteristics with the main purpose of identif ying personality characteristics or traits that will predict employee performance (rothmann & coetzer, 2003). svantek et al. (2003) showed that personality is the best predictor of context ual performance and employees who performed effectively in this domain were more likely to behave in a methodical, empathetic manner and be more focused on achievement. conscientiousness has proved to be the best trait predictor of contextual performance in the workplace (barrick & mount, 1993; barrick & mount, 1991; hogan, rybicki, motowidlo & borman, 1998; ladd & henry, 2000; mcneely & meglino, 1994; organ 1994). barrick and mount (1991) examined the validity of the big five personality model for various occupational groups and criterion types. it was found that the importance of conscientiousness could be generalised across most occupational groups and criterion types. conscientiousness is defined in various ways (roberts, chernyshenko, stark & goldberg, 2005). according to roberts et al. (2005) there is little agreement about the specific facets that make up each of the big five traits. roberts et al. (2005) indicated that a possible reason for this inconsistency may be the relative newness of the big five model of personality. mount and barrick (1995) attempted to define conscientiousness by separating it into achievement and dependability. achievement is the ability of an employee to work hard and meet goals, whereas dependability is the interpersonal component of conscientiousness that involves responsibility and dutifulness. kaplan and saccuzzo (2001) defined conscientiousness as the degree to which an individual perseveres, is responsible and is organised. taylor and de bruin (2006) provided a south african perspective in defining conscientiousness. they defined it as the degree of effectiveness and efficiency with which an individual plans, organises and carries out tasks (taylor & de bruin, 2006). from this perspective, taylor and de bruin (2006) identified five facets that make up the construct of conscientiousness. the facets can be identified as order (the tendency to be neat, tidy and methodical); self-discipline (the tendency to start and carry through tasks to their completion); effort (the tendency to set and attain ambitious goals); dutifulness (the tendency to keep to one’s principles, moral obligations and to be reliable and dependable) and prudence (the tendency to check facts and think through tasks and actions). according to taylor and de bruin's (2006) definition, an individual with a high level of conscientiousness acts purposefully, displays behaviour that is strong-willed, determined and detail oriented. by contrast, an individual with a low level of conscientiousness displays the tendency to be careless in working towards goals, is lazy and tends to be irresponsible and impulsive. the conscientiousness – employee performance relationship has shown much potential in explaining employee behaviour. significant correlations bet ween conscientiousness and employee performance have been found (barrick & mount, 1993; barrick & mount, 1991; sackett & wannek, 1996). it is reasonable to expect that employees who report a high level of conscientiousness will be more likely than employees who report lower levels, to engage in goal-directed, strong-willed and determined behaviour, which employers would evaluate favourably. funder (1994) suggests that conscientiousness and its associated behaviours could be influenced by situational factors in the work context. situational factors in the workplace could hinder or support the display of conscientious behaviours that would, in turn, influence employee performance. the influence of situational factors on personality has been a controversial issue in personality research (pervin, 1997). this controversy suggests that context ual or sit uational factors can influence how individuals will act, and as a result an individual’s behaviour will not depend on consistent personality characteristics alone. most agree that both the person’s personality and the situation should be considered when interpreting behaviour (pervin, 1997). mischel (1977, as cited in gellatly & irving, 2001), suggests that situational factors could be evaluated as being either limiting or supportive of the individual’s likelihood to convey personality-related behaviours. individuals who experience situational factors as constraining would, in all probability, express less trait-associated behaviour. this supports funder’s (1994) suggestion that the display of conscientious behaviour in the work context may be influenced by limiting or supportive situational factors. in order to further explore the relationship between employee performance, conscientiousness and the influence of situational factors, employee empowerment was identified as one of the prominent situational factors researched in organisational and employee psychology. employee empowerment and its impact on the work environment have been researched for over 60 years (nykodym, simonetti, nielsen & welling, 1994). interest in the influence of employee empowerment on performance began with an interest in worker participation during the 1940s. empowerment came into its own during the 1980s and was brought to light in the studies of block (1988). empirical research has been accumulated on the predictive relationship between employee empowerment and important work-related outcomes (liden, wayne & sparrow, 2000; spreitzer, 1995; spreitzer et al. 1997). empowerment has been empirically shown to affect employee performance (liden et al., 2000; spreitzer et al. 1997). researchers in the area of empowerment have struggled to define the concept of empowerment. many have argued that empowerment can only be defined by the specific organisation that wishes to implement it (arg yris, 1998; honold, 1997). in spite of the controversy surrounding the concept, it is clear that a general theme exists in all definitions of empowerment. most definitions agree that empowerment is concerned with providing employees with latit ude, authorit y and discretion in task and context-related behaviours (melhem, 2004). sutherland, de bruin, crous62 liden and arad (1996) described empowerment in terms of two separate perspectives. firstly, they viewed empowerment as having a macro perspective which focuses on factors such as organisational structures and policies. this macro perspective was expanded on by others and was conceptualised as the empowerment climate (quinn & spreitzer, 1997). the empowerment climate can be defined by organisational structures and policies, team work, information sharing and decision making on an organisational level (bekker & crous, 1998; randolph, 1995). key organisational practices associated with the empowerment climate include information sharing, autonomy through boundaries, and team accountability (randolph, 1995; seibert, silver & randolph, 2004). information sharing refers to the sharing of potentially sensitive organisational information with employees throughout the organisation. autonomy through boundaries refers to organisational structures and practices that assist employees in autonomous behaviour, the setting of work goals and procedures and any other area of responsibility. team accountability implies that teams in organisations are the mechanisms of decision making and performance (randolph, 1995; seibert, silver & randolph, 2004). the second view of empowerment, identified by liden and arad (1996), is the micro perspective which focuses on empowerment as an intrinsic motivator. it was expanded to create the concept of psychological empowerment (quin & spreitzer, 1997). psychological empowerment focuses on what an individual needs to feel or experience in order to be an empowered worker (spreitzer, 1996; thomas & velthouse, 1990). thomas and velthouse (1990) conceptualised a model of psychological empowerment, which was later expanded on by spreitzer (1995). the model suggested that psychological empowerment consists of four cognitions – a sense of meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact. a sense of meaning can be described as the value one places on work; it refers to the meaning or purpose of the fit between the needs of one’s work role and one’s values, beliefs and behaviours. competence can be described as an individual’s belief in his or her capabilities as an employee; i.e. the skills and abilities necessary to successfully perform performance-related activities. self-determination can be described as the individual’s belief that autonomy or control exists in the way in which tasks and activities are performed. impact refers to the employee’s perception that organisational outcomes can be influenced by their activities and that their contribution can make a difference. spreitzer (1995) showed that all four of the cognitions contained in the model of psychological empowerment combine to create a single unitary mutually inclusive construct. if any one of the four cognitions is eliminated from the model, overall empowerment will be eliminated. seibert, silver and randolph (2004) supported a conceptual link between the empowerment climate and psychological empowerment. the empowerment climate inf luences the employee’s experience of empowerment in the organisation. consequently, psychological empowerment and the empowerment climate cannot be seen as being mutually exclusive, but are interrelated concepts of overall empowerment. hence, the implication is that an individual cannot perceive an environment as being psychologically empowering if the empowerment climate is limited. if an employee reports a high level of psychological empowerment, an elevated empowerment climate would also exist. as a result, employees who report high levels of empowerment perceive their environment as being autonomous, rich in information, high in team-related practices, a place were a sense of meaning can be derived, where employees have the necessary skills and abilities to perform their roles and tasks and where their contributions make a difference. the establishment of the combined concept of employee empowerment as an important situational factor in predicting employee performance can easily be reviewed in terms of the original suggestion made by funder (1994), which indicates that personality traits and their associated behaviours could be influenced by situational factors in the work context. we could, as a result, expect employees who report a high level of conscientiousness and a high level of empowerment to be favourably assessed on performance. this is due to the support provided by the empowering work context (autonomous, rich in information) in facilitating conscientious behaviour, which would result in favourable performance evaluations. if employees report a high level of conscientiousness and a low level of empowerment, the rigid and restricted environment associated with low levels of empowerment would restrain the display of conscientious behaviour, which would lead to a lower performance evaluation by managers. research conducted on the relationship between conscientiousness, employee performance and autonomy support these evaluations (barrick & mount, 1993; barrick, mount & strauss, 1993; gelattly & irving, 2001). researchers have shown that the relationship between conscientiousness and employee performance is influenced by autonomy. autonomy, as researched in these contexts, relates directly to the definition and description of employee empowerment as an environmental framework in which employees are given more latitude, authority and discretion in behaviour (gelattly & irving, 2001). funder (1994) further suggested that an employee’s task performance—as defined by borman and motowidlo (1997)—is susceptible to situational factors. one possible explanation is that organisational policies and procedures, management practices, autonomy and team work (empowerment factors) create the framework in which employees are able to distribute goods, transform raw materials and coordinate or supervise activities (task performance). if the level of empowerment is low and employees perform tasks in a constricted, rigid and dependent environment; task performance amongst employees will be highly regulated, restricted and similar. by contrast, if the level of empowerment is high the organisation is more relaxed, autonomous and less rigid; as a result task performance will be flexible and differential. the level of empowerment would, for that reason, influence an employee’s task performance. according to gelattly and irving (2001), empowerment not only influences task performance but is also important in explaining contextual performance. gelattly and irving (2001) argue that due to the voluntary and discretionary nature of contextual performance, one would expect some of the roles which employees are expected to perform, to either be facilitated or inhibited by the expression of these discretionary and voluntary behaviours. if an employee reports low levels of empowerment (low autonomy, dependence, rigid work processes and procedures), it is reasonable to expect an emphasis on prescribed roles and tasks and less focus on additional discretionary and voluntary behaviours (contextual behaviours). it is apparent that if an employee reports higher levels of empowerment the employee would attend to a wider range of behaviours including task and context-related activities. the level of empowerment would, as a result, influence both task and contextual performance. therefore, it could be suggested that the level of empowerment as a combined factor of empowerment climate and psychological empowerment could influence the display of conscientious behaviour, which would, in turn, influence the employee’s performance. in light of this, the researchers hypothesised that employees who report high levels of empowerment and high levels of conscientiousness would receive more favourable performance ratings. the proposed interrelatedness between conscientiousness, empowerment, and employee performance suggests that social desirability could possibly influence these relations. due to the fact that employees’ self-report information can conscientiousness, empowerment and performance 63 easily be faked or distorted, it could be seen as a possible influencing factor in the relationship between conscientiousness and empowerment (rothman & coetzer, 2003). due to this possibility it is hypothesised that empowerment is positively related to conscientiousness, and that this would not be influenced by social desirability. the interrelatedness and reciprocal nature of the relationship between conscientiousness, empowerment, and employee performance brought us to empirically evaluate the mutual and exclusive relationships between these constructs. the purpose of the study was to evaluate the relationship between employee performance, conscientiousness and empowerment in a south african context. method participants the research was conducted within a service delivery-focused information technolog y environment. the participants were 101 customer service engineers of diverse ages, educational backgrounds and work experience. the participants were representative of customer service engineers employed in information technolog y customer support services within the south african banking sector. the participants were drawn from various geographic locations throughout south africa, for instance towns or cities like cape town, port elizabeth, east london, pretoria, polokwane, durban, johannesburg, bloemfontein, kimberley, upington, bethlehem, welkom, klerksdorp, rustenburg, nelspruit and middelburg). nine direct managers also participated in an aspect of the study. participants were asked to indicate their language preference. the responses were as follows: 33% were english; 55% afrikaans; 1% pedi; 2% xhosa; 1% northern sotho; 1% south sotho; 2% tswana; 3% zulu, and 3% of the population’s home language was not defined by the list provided. only 5% of the participants were woman. this corresponds with the gender ratio within the information technology environment. the average age of the respondents was 30.98 years with a standard deviation of 7.94 years. measuring instruments three separate measuring instruments were used. the employee empowerment questionnaire (eeq) and the conscientiousness scale of the basic traits inventory were administered to all customer engineers. a biographical information questionnaire requesting age, years of service and language preference was included. the performance evaluation questionnaire (peq) was completed by the nine identified direct managers of the sample, as well as their immediate superiors. the employee empowerment questionnaire (eeq) was constructed by cloete, crous and schepers (2002). this tool was developed from a questionnaire originally created by scott and jaffe (1992). the eeq measures a combined concept of empowerment, which includes the empowerment climate and psychological empowerment. the dimensions assessed are: clarity of purpose, morale, fairness, recognition, teamwork, participation, communication, and healthy environment. the employee empowerment questionnaire (eeq) consists of 90 items that measure the employee’s self-reported level of empowerment within the organisation. the questionnaire uses a four-point scale in order to allow for a varied response rate— from very unfavourable to extremely favourable. in a factor analysis done by cloete et al. (2002) the eeq only loaded on one factor of empowerment, which represents a combined view of psychological empowerment and the empowerment climate. the scores obtained in this study may be described as reliable (cronbach’s α = 0.98). the performance evaluation questionnaire was developed by schepers (1994). according to schepers (1994) work performance is a function of knowledge and technical management ability; it includes social intelligence, leadership skills, persistence, conceptual skills and healthy human relationships. this questionnaire includes the assessment of task and contextual performance. according to schepers (1994) technical knowledge or task performance plays a bigger role in lower job levels than in higher job levels and the conceptual performance component plays a bigger role in higher job levels than lower job levels. the questionnaire is designed to be completed by employees’ direct managers or supervisors. the performance evaluation questionnaire consists of 30 items that cover three identified categories, namely work accomplishment, creativity, and management ability. the questionnaire uses a nine-point scale which allows for a varied response rate – from “not at all” to “very well”. due to the fact that most of the employees were not in managerial positions only the 20 items relating to work accomplishment and creativity were administered. the performance evaluation questionnaire was utilised to obtain a management perception of employee performance which would include both task and contextual performance. the scores obtained in this study may be described as reliable (cronbach’s α = 0.97). the conscientiousness scale of the basic traits inventory was used to measure the customer service engineer’s conscientiousness personality trait. the basic traits inventory, developed by taylor (2004), is a cross-culturally valid five factor model personality inventory for the south african population. the inventory consists of 173 items that are grouped according to their respective facets namely extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness. items are rated on a five-point likert scale, with a response range varying from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. the basic traits inventory’s conscientiousness scale consists of 41 items which include items that measure the following facets of conscientiousness: effort in setting and attaining goals; the tendency to keep everything neat and tidy (order); the tendency to keep to own principles, moral obligations and reliability (dutifulness); the tendency to think issues through carefully and check facts (prudence) and the ability to start a task and carry it through to its completion (self-discipline) (taylor, 2004). the scores obtained in this study may be described as reliable (cronbach’s α = 0.94). social desirability was measured with a 11-item scale, which is a short form of the marlow crowne scale. the reliability of the scores obtained in this study may be described as sufficiently reliable for research purposes (cronbach’s a = 0.69). procedure the eeq and conscientiousness scales were distributed to the entire sample of customer service engineers and to nine of their immediate managers. the two questionnaires were distributed by means of the organisation’s intranet mailing service, and were completed by participants in various locations at different times. the completed questionnaires were returned via the organisation’s internal mailing system. the performance evaluation questionnaire was also distributed through the internal mailing system to the nine managerial participants for the supervisory evaluation of each of the customer service engineers. results the descriptive statistics and correlations of the performance, empowerment, conscientiousness and social desirability scales are given in table 1. sutherland, de bruin, crous64 table 1 correlations and descriptive statistics of the performance, empowerment and social desirability scales correlations performance empowerment conscientiousness social desirability performance 1.000 empowerment -0.065 1.000 conscientiousness 0.038 0.435** 1.000 social desirability -0.134 0.356** 0.481** 1.000 descriptive statistics mean 136.91 433.07 161.91 17.47 standard deviation 22.93 64.395 17.824 4.72 cronbach alfa 0.968 0.981 0.944 0.687 **correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) inspection of table 1 shows a non-significant and essentially zero correlation between performance and empowerment (r = –0.065, p = 0.524). the correlation between conscientiousness and performance is also non-significant (r = 0.038, p = 0.643). similarly the correlation between social desirability and performance is also non-significant (r = 0.134, p = 0.186). conscientiousness and empowerment, however, are significantly correlated (r = 0.435, p < 0.001), with approximately 19% shared variance (r2 = 0.189). social desirability and empowerment are also significantly correlated (r = 0.356, p < 0.001) with approximately 13% shared variance (r2 = 0.127). finally, social desirability and conscientiousness are also significantly correlated (r = 0.481, p < 0.001), with approximately 23% shared variance (r2 = 0.23). the correlation between empowerment and conscientiousness, with the effect of social desirability partialled out, is statistically significant and moderately strong (rpartial = 0.316, p < 0.002). a hierarchical regression analysis was conducted with performance as the dependent variable and social desirability, empowerment and conscientiousness as independent variables. social desirability was entered as the first step of the analysis, with empowerment and conscientiousness entered as a block in the second step. this procedure was followed to allow an examination of the relations of performance with empowerment and conscientiousness, while controlling for the effects of social desirability. the first step of the hierarchical analysis showed that social desirability is weakly and non-significantly related to performance [r2 = 0.018, f (1,97) = 1.778, p = 0.186]. comparisons between steps 1 and 2 of the hierarchical analysis showed that empowerment and conscientiousness did not make a significant contribution to the explanation of performance after controlling for social desirability [δr2 = 0.017, f (2,95) = 0.848, p = 0.432]. with all three independent variables included, the squared multiple correlation was small and non-significant [r2 = 0.036, f (2,95) = 1.226, p = 0.304], suggesting that the linear combination of social desirability, empowerment and conscientiousness explained a small and non-significant portion of the variance in performance (approximately 3.6%). failure to establish the hypothesised linear relation bet ween employee performances on the one hand, and empowerment and conscientiousness on the other, led to the exploration of the possibility of curvilinear relations bet ween the variables. the aim at this stage of the analysis was exploration, and because much statistical power is needed to detect curvilinear relations we relaxed the criterion for statistical significance to α = 0.10. the quadratic terms of empowerment and conscientious ness were added as a third step in the hierarchical mult iple regression, which explained an addit ional 5.1% of the variance in job performance [δr2 = 0.051, f(2, 93), p = 0.079]. inspect ion of the regression coefficients at the third step showed that the quadratic term of empowerment made a statistically significant contribution over and above the other variables in the model [t = -2.256, p = 0.026], but that the quadratic term of conscientiousness did not make a statistically significant contribution [t = 0.924, p = 0.358]. in view of these results we constructed a simplified hierarchical model with empowerment as the only independent variable at the first step of the analysis, and the quadratic term of empowerment added at the second step. overall, empowerment and its quadratic term explained approximately 4.1% of the variance in job performance, which is statistically nonsignificant [r2 = 0.041, f(2, 96), p = 0.137]. however, the quadratic term did lead to a statistically significant improvement in the amount of variance explained [δr2 = 0.036, f(1, 96), p = 0.06]. figure 1: curvilinear relation of empowerment and performance figure 1 plots the predicted job performance values against empowerment and clearly shows the curvilinear relation bet ween the variables. it appears that the highest level of job performance is achieved with moderate degrees of empowerment, but that low levels of empowerment and high levels of empowerment are associated with relatively weaker job performance. discussion the relations bet ween empowerment, conscientiousness and employee performance were examined. on the basis of prior empirical findings it was hy pothesised that employees who report high levels of conscientiousness and high levels of empowerment would receive more favourable performance ratings. it was further hy pothesised 200 300 400 500 600 empowerment 120.00000 125.00000 130.00000 135.00000 140.00000 145.00000 u n s ta n d a rd iz e d p re d ic te d v a lu e conscientiousness, empowerment and performance 65 that conscientiousness and empowerment are positively related, and that this correlation is not due to the inf luence of socially desirabilit y. the discussion will firstly address the relation bet ween empowerment and conscientiousness. in accordance with the hypothesis, it appears that individuals who are high in conscientiousness report high levels of empowerment, whereas individuals who are low in conscientiousness report low levels of empowerment. partialling out the influence of socially desirable responding did not alter the relation bet ween conscientiousness and empowerment. ones, viswesvaran and reis (1996), and barrick and mount (1996) previously indicated that social desirability has little effect on the predictive validity of any of the big five personality traits, which include conscientiousness. one explanation for the positive relationship bet ween conscientiousness and empowerment may be found by considering the behaviours associated with conscientiousness. employees who report high levels of conscientiousness may be expected to display behaviours and attitudes such as selfdiscipline, sustained effort in goal setting and attainment, dutifulness in adhering to moral principles and obligations, and the tendency to think facts through (barrick et al. 2001; taylor, 2004). all things being equal, it appears that such employees may be trusted to behave responsibly and in accordance with organisational goals, rules and policies. by contrast, individuals who are low in conscientiousness may not display the desirable behaviours and attitudes listed above and may not be trusted to behave responsibly and in accordance with organisational goals, rules and policies. in addition, individuals who are low in conscientiousness may be more likely to engage in counterproductive behaviours in the workplace (taylor 2004; rothman & coetzer, 2003). against this background managers may be more likely to create empowering environments for individuals who are high in conscientiousness, than for individuals who are low in conscientiousness. as regards the first hypothesis, the results showed that neither empowerment nor conscientiousness was significantly related to job performance as rated by employees’ supervisors. when combined, the two variables also failed to explain a significant portion of the variance in job performance. results did, however, show a weak but noticeable curvilinear relation between empowerment and performance. the non-significant relation bet ween conscientiousness and performance found in this study runs counter to a substantial number of studies and meta-analyses that have established a positive relation bet ween conscientiousness and job performance (barrick & mount, 1993; barrick & mount, 1991; sackett & wannek, 1996). a post hoc explanation for the lack of a significant relation bet ween conscientiousness and job performance is that the information technology service delivery environment is highly structured and controlled. in such an environment where there are very strict rules and norms in regard to work behaviour there may be little room for a trait such as conscientiousness to manifest in real working behaviour. by contrast, the effects of conscientiousness may manifest more clearly in an environment where individuals have greater latit ude and choice in regard to working behaviour (mischel, 1997; gellatly & irving, 2001). for instance, in an environment characterised by an absence of direct supervision one may expect an individual who is high in conscientiousness to adhere to rules and norms to a greater extent than an individual who is low in conscientiousness. by contrast, in an environment with close and strict supervision, employees have little choice in regard to their working behaviours and little difference may be observed bet ween individuals who are high or low in conscientiousness, respectively. the observed curvilinear relation between empowerment and job performance is of potential interest. however, note that the observed relation was weak and was not hypothesised in advance. hence, replication of the curvilinear relation is essential. nonetheless, the finding does suggest that very high levels of empowerment can be as detrimental to job performance as very low levels. finding the optimal level of empowerment may be a factor that contributes to job performance. this optimal level may interact with personality and working environments, which means that one single optimal level will not apply to all persons and all environments. overall, the relations bet ween job performance on the one hand, and empowerment and conscientiousness on the other, appear to be complex, interactive and non-linear. on the basis of our results and theory, it could be speculated that individuals who are high in conscientiousness are likely to prefer structured environments. however, they are also the individuals who are most likely to be “empowered” by managers and supervisors, which may result in them working in less structured environments. this may lead to lowered job satisfaction, but possibly not lowered job performance. by contrast, individuals who are low in conscientiousness are likely to prefer loosely structured environments, but are most likely to be closely supervised by managers and supervisors, which may result in them working in wellstructured environments. moreover, given an environment which is high in empowerment, individuals who are high in conscientiousness may outperform those who are low in conscientiousness even though the latter group may feel more comfortable in that environment. these are issues that may be addressed in further research. there are many other factors (not included in this study) that may inf luence the observed relations bet ween empowerment, conscientiousness and performance. one important factor is the nat ure of the measurement of performance. we relied exclusively on managers’ ratings of the participants and it is possible that stronger results may have been obtained if we had also included selfreports and other, more objective measures of performance. gender is another factor that may moderate the observed relations. in this study the participants were mostly men, but it is possible that the relation bet ween empowerment and performance might differ for men and women. this needs to be examined in future studies. references argyris, c. (1998). empowerment: the emperor’s new clothes. har vard business review, 76(3), 98-105. avis, j.m., kudisch, j.d. & fortunato, v.j. (2002). examining the incremental validity and adverse impact of cognitive ability and conscientiousness on job performance. journal of business and psychology, 17(1), 87-105. barrick, m.r., mitchell, t.r. & stewart, g.l. (2003). situational and motivational influences on traits behaviour relationships. in m.r. barrick, & a.m. ryan, (eds.). personality and work: reconsidering the role of personality in oganizations, (pp. 6082). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. barrick, m.r., mount, m.k., & judge, t.a. (2001). personality and performance at the beginning of the new millennium: what do we know and where do we go next? international journal of selection and assessment, 9(1/2), 9-30. barrick, m.r. & mount, m.k. (1996). effects of impression management and self-deception on the predictive validity of personality constructs. journal of applied psychology, 81(3), 261-272. barrick, m.r. & mount, m.k. (1993). autonomy as moderator of the relationship between the big five personality dimensions and job performance. journal of applied psychology, 78(1), 111-118. sutherland, de bruin, crous66 barrick, m.r., mount, m.k. & strauss, j.p. (1993). conscientiousness and performance of sales representatives: test for the mediating effect of goal setting. journal of applied psychology, 78(5), 715-722. barrick, m.r. & mount, m.k. (1991). the big five personality dimensions and job performance: a meta-analysis. personnel psychology, 44(1), 1-26. beatty jnr. j.c., murphy, k.r. & cleveland, j.n. (2001). the relation between personality and contextual performance in “strong” versus “weak” situations. human performance, 14(2), 125-148. bekker, q.e. & crous, f. (1998). demystif ying empowerment. journal of industrial psychology, 24(2), 34-43. block, p. (1988). the empowered manager: positive political skills at work. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. borman, w.c, & motowidlo, s.j. (1997). task performance and contextual performance: the meaning for personnel selection research. human performance, 10(2), 99-109. borman, w.c. & van scotter, s.j. (1994). evidence that task performance should be distinguished from contextual performance. journal of applied psychology, 79(3), 425-480. brymer, r.a. (1991). employee empowerment: a guest driven leadership strategy. the cornell hra quarterly, 32(1), 58-68. campbell, j.p., mccloy, r.a., oppler, s.h. & sager, c.e. (1993). a theory of performance. in n. schmidt, & w.c. borman, w.c. (eds.). personnel selection in organisations (pp. 35-70). san francisco: jossey-bass. cloete, v.j. crous, f. & schepers, j.m. (2002). the construction and evaluation of a scale of employee empowerment. sa journal of industrial psychology. 28(2), 31-36. douglas, c., frink, d.d. & ferris, g.r. (2004). emotional intelligence as moderator of the relationship between conscientiousness and performance. journal of leadership and organizational studies, 10(3), 1-13. forrester, r. (2000). empowerment: rejuvenating a potent idea. the academy of management executive, 14(3), 67–81. funder, d.c. (1994). explaining traits. psychological inquiry, 5(2), 125-127. gellatly, i.r. & irving, p.g. (2001). personality, autonomy and contextual performance of managers. human performance, 14(3), 231-245. goldberg, l.r. (1990). an alternative “description of personality”: the big five factor structure. journal of personality and social psychology, 59(6), 1216-1229. gregory, r.j. (2000). psychological testing: history, principles and applications (3rd ed.). boston, ma: allyn & bacon. guion, r.m. & gottier, r.f. (1965). validity of personality measures in personnel selection. personnel psychology, 18(2), 135-164. hogan, r. & roberts, b.w. (2000). a socio-analytical perspective on person-environment interaction. in w.b. walsh, k.h. craik, & r.h. price, (eds), person-environment psychology: new directions and perspectives (2nd ed.) (pp. 1-23). new york: lawrence erlbaum. hogan, j., rybicki, s.l., motowidlo, s.j. & borman, w.c. (1998). relations between contextual performance, personality and occupational advancement. human performance, 11(2/3), 189-207. honold, l. (1997). a review of the literature on employee empowerment. empowerment in organizations, 5(4), 202-212. hough, m.h., eaton, n.k., dunette, m.d., kamp, j.d. & mccloy, r.a. (1990). criterion-related validities of personality constructs and the effects of response distortion on those validities. journal of applied psychology, 75(5), 581-595. juta’s statute editors. (2005). labour relations act 66 of 1995. juta: craighall. johnson, j.w. (2003). toward a better understanding of the relationship between personality and individual job performance. in m. barrick & a.m. ryan (eds.), personality and work: reconsidering the role of personality in organizations (pp. 83-119). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. kaplan, r.m., & saccuzzo, d.p. (2001). psychological testing: principles, applications and issues (5th edition). belmont, ca: wadsworth. ladd, d. & henry, r.a. (2000). helping co-workers and helping the organization: the role of support perceptions, exchange ideology and conscientiousness. journal of applied social psychology, 30(10), 2028-2049. lashley, c. (1999). employee empowerment in services: a framework for analysis. personnel review, 28(3), 169-173. lawler, e.e. (1992). the ultimate advantage: creating the highinvolvement organization. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. lawler, e.e. (1996). from the ground up: six principles for building the new logic corporation. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. liao, h. & chuang, a. (2004). a multilevel investigation of factors influencing employee service performance and customer outcomes. academy of management journal, 47(1), 41-58. liden, r.c. & arad, s. (1996). a power perspective of empowerment and work groups: implications for human resources management research. research in personnel and human resources management, 14, 205-251. liden, r.c., wayne, s.j. & sparrowe, r.t. (2000). an examination of the of the mediating role of psychological empowerment on the relations between the job, interpersonal relationships and work outcomes. journal of applied psychology, 85(3), 407-416 mccrae, r.r. & costa, p.t. (1997). personality trait structure as human universal. american psychologist, 52(5), 509-516. mcneely, b.l. & meglino, b.m. (1994). the role of dispositional and situational antecedents in pro-social organisational behaviour: an examination of the intended beneficiaries of pro-social behaviour. journal of applied psychology, 79(6), 836-844. meihem, y. (2004). the antecedents of customer-contact employees’ empowerment. employee relations, 26(1), 72-93. mischel, w. (1977). the interaction of person and situation. in magnusson, d & endler, n.s (eds.), personality at the crossroads: current issues in interactional psychology (pp. 333352). new york: lawrence erlbaum. mohammed, s., mathieu, j.e. & bartlett, a.l. (2002). technical administrative task performance, leadership, task performance, and contextual performance: considering the influence of teamand task-related composition variables. journal of organizational behavior, 23(7), 795-814. mount, m.k., barrick, m.b. & strauss, j.p. (1999). the joint relationship of conscientiousness and ability with performance: test of the interaction hypothesis. journal of management, 25(5), 707-721. mount, m.k. & barrick, m.r. (1995). the big five personality dimensions: implications for research and practice in human resources management. research in personnel and human resources management, 13, 153-200. murtha, t.c., kanfer, r. & ackerman, p.l. (1996). towards an interaction taxonomy of personality and situations: an integrative situational – dispositional representation of personality traits. journal of personality and social psychology, 71(1), 193-207. murtagh, j. (2006). global economy: your competition is on steroids. hudson valley. business journal, 17(3), 22-22. nykodym, n., simonetti, j.l, nielsen, w.r. & welling, b. (1994). employee empowerment. empowerment in organizations. 2(3), 45 – 55. ones, d.s., viswesvaran, c. & reiss, a.d. (1996). role of social desirability in personality testing for personnel selection: the red herring. journal of applied psychology, 81(6), 660-679. organ, d.w. (1994). personality and organizational citizenship behavior. journal of management, 20(2), 465-478. pervin, l.a. (1997). the science of personality. new york: wiley. pervin, l.a. (1984). current controversies and issues in personality (2nd edition). new york: wiley. quinn, r.e. & spreitzer, g.m. (1997). the road to empowerment: seven questions every leader should consider. organizational dynamics, 26(2), 37-49. conscientiousness, empowerment and performance 67 randolph, w.a. (1995). navigating the journey to empowerment. organizational dynamics, 23(4), 19-32. roberts, b.w., chernyshenko, o.s., stark, s. & goldberg, l.r. (2005). the structure of conscientiousness: and empirical investigation based on seven major personality questionnaires. personnel psychology, 58(1), 103-139. rosse, j.g., stecher, m.d., miller, j.l. & levin, r.a. (1998). the impact of response distortion on pre-employment personality testing and hiring decisions. journal of applied psychology, 83(6), 634-644. rothmann, s. & coetzer, e.p. (2003). the big five personality dimensions and job performance. sa journal of industrial psychology. 29(1), 68-74. sackett, p.r. & wannek, j.e. (1996). new development in the use of measures of honesty, integrity, conscientiousness, dependability, trustworthiness and reliability of personnel selection. personnel psychology, 49, 787-830. schepers, j.m. (1994). die konstruksie en evaluering van ‘n prestasiebeoordelingsvraelys vir nie-akademiese personeel. johannesburg: rau. scott, c.d. & jaffe, d.t. (1992). empowerment: building a committed workforce. london: kogon page. seibert, s.e., silver, s.r. & randolph, w.a. (2004). taking empowerment to the next level: a multiple level model of empowerment, performance and satisfaction. academy of management journal, 47(3), 332-350.. sparrowe, r.t. (2004). empowerment in the hospitality industry: an exploration of antecedents and outcomes. journal of hospitality & tourism research, 17(3), 51-73. speier, c. & frese, m. (1997). generalized self-efficacy as a mediator and moderator between control and complexity at work and personal initiative: a longitudinal field study in east germany. human performance, 10(2), 171-192. spreitzer, g.m., kizilos, m.a. & nason, s.w. (1997). a dimensional analysis of the relationship between psychological empowerment and effectiveness, satisfaction and strain. journal of management, 23(5), 679-704. spreitzer, g.m. (1996). social structural characteristics of psychological empowerment. academy of management journal, 39(2), 483-504. spreitzer, g.m. (1995). psychological empowerment in the workplace: dimensions, measurement and validation. academy of management journal, 38(5), 1442-1465. bott, j.p., svyantek, d.j., goodman, s.a. & bernal, d.s. (2003). expanding the performance domain: who says nice guys finish last? international journal of organizational analysis, 11(2), 137-152. taylor, n & de bruin, g.p. (2006)). basic traits inventory: technical manual. johannesburg: jopie van rooyen and partners. thomas, k.w. & velthouse, b.a. (1990). cognitive elements of empowerment: an “interpretive” model of intrinsic task motivation. academy of management review, 15(4), 666-681. thoresen, c.j., bliese, p.d., bradley, j.c. & thoresen, j.d. (2004). the big five personality traits and individual job performance growth trajectories in maintenance and transitional job stages. journal of applied psychology, 89(5), 835-853. tschohl, j. (1998). empowerment – the key to quality service. managing ser vice quality, 8(6), 421-425. van scotter, j.r. & motowidlo, s.j. (1996). interpersonal facilitation and job dedication as separate facets of contextual performance. journal of applied psychology, 81(5), 525-531. wright, p.m., kacmar, k.m., mcmahan, g.c. & deleeuw, k. (1995). cognitive ability as a moderator between personality and job performance. journal of management, 21(6), 11291141. abstract introduction research methodology research findings discussion of findings acknowledgements references about the author(s) nhamo mashavira department of business management, faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, bloemfontein, free state, south africa crispen chipunza department of business management, faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, bloemfontein, free state, south africa dennis y. dzansi department of business management, faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, bloemfontein, free state, south africa citation mashavira, n., chipunza, c., & dzansi, d.y. (2019). managerial interpersonal competencies and the performance of familyand non-family-owned small and medium-sized enterprises in zimbabwe and south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1130. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1130 original research managerial interpersonal competencies and the performance of familyand non-family-owned small and medium-sized enterprises in zimbabwe and south africa nhamo mashavira, crispen chipunza, dennis y. dzansi received: 08 oct. 2018; accepted: 20 mar. 2019; published: 05 sept. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: regardless of the contribution done by small and medium-sized enterprises (smes) in modern economies, and the critical role managerial interpersonal competencies play in sustaining these enterprises, no known comparative study has been conducted in smes in developing economies. research purpose: this study purposed to establish the impact of managerial interpersonal competencies on sme performance as measured by innovation and return on investment (roi) in both family-owned smes (fosmes) and non-family-owned smes (nfosmes) in zimbabwe and south africa. motivations for the study: efforts at understanding managerial competencies and firm performance among smes have taken a holistic approach, using all known managerial competencies; yet, recently, there is acknowledgement that interpersonal competencies are more effective in business sustainability than other competencies. with this observation, the need to extent this finding in other contexts among fosmes and nfosmes in developing countries becomes apparent. research approach/design and method: the study whose design was a descriptive comparative case study adopted a quantitative approach. main findings: the study found a positive and significant relationship between managerial interpersonal competencies and firm performance as measured by innovation and roi in fosmes in both countries. practical/managerial implications: nfosmes may need to focus their training on interpersonal competencies for managers in order to be sustainable. for fosmes, continuous enhancement of managerial interpersonal competencies is important as it promotes innovation and business sustainability. contribution/value-add: the study helps fill the lacuna between research and practice with respect to managerial interpersonal competencies in fosmes and nfosmes in the two countries. keywords: interpersonal competencies; performance; small and medium-sized enterprises (smes); zimbabwe; south africa. introduction numerically, small and medium-sized enterprises (smes) dominate the global business stage (ayyagari, demirgüç-kunt, & maksimovic, 2011; ramukumba, 2014). a publication following a meeting of the organisation for economic cooperation and development (oecd) council at ministerial level (2017) suggests that in developing countries, smes are the largest forms of businesses contributing approximately to 60% of the countries’ gross domestic products (gdps), employing about 70% of the population, and are major players in value beneficiation – creating between 50% and 60% of it. in zimbabwe, smes employ at least 57% of the productive population in the country, and over 3.5 million people own small businesses (finscope micro, small and medium enterprises survey, 2012). like in zimbabwe, in south africa, smes account for about 91% of the formal business entities, contributing to about 51% to 57% of the gdp and providing almost 60% of employment (cant & wiid, 2013; kongolo, 2010). in spite of their prominence, it is deplorable to note that south african small businesses do not make it past the second year of trading with failure rates as high as 63% (cant & wiid, 2013). according to neneh and van zyl (2012), the number of smes in south africa that fail in their fifth year varies between 50% and 95%, and about 75% of new smes do not become established firms – one of the highest failure rates in the world. similarly, about 60% of smes in zimbabwe do not perform well and usually fail in their first year, while 25% fail within the first 3 years (mudavanhu, bindu, chigusiwa, & muchabaiwa, 2011; small enterprises development corporation [sedco], 2004). orientation fatoki (2014) attributes the high sme failure rate in south africa to internal causes related to lack of management and functional skills among managers. the finscope micro, small and medium enterprises survey (2012) reveals that 46% of the adult population in zimbabwe who are sme owners have little to no exposure to any managerial knowledge or skills. commenting on this scenario, goriwondo (2013) argues that the reason is because the majority of these smes operating in zimbabwe are born out of necessity. an investigation of the poor performance of smes by gombarume and mavhundutse (2014) reveals that lack of requisite skills among managers and owners had a bearing on the performance of their businesses. lack of managerial skills is ubiquitous in both fosmes and nfosmes (diederichs, 2014; maas, 2014) in the two countries. the aforementioned findings have made smes’ performance an interesting area and subject of research among scholars (alasadi & abdelrahim, 2007; jarvis, curran, kitching, & lightfoot, 2000), who point out that, among the many factors that could be attributed to the performance of smes, managerial interpersonal competencies (ic) should not be ignored, because studies (heaphy & dutton, 2008; stoetzer, 2010) show that positive human relations drive organisations. consequently, this study investigates the relationship between managerial ic and firm performance in fosmes and nfosmes in the two countries. research purpose and objectives interpersonal or soft skills are those attributes or aptitudes that allow a person to perform their job more effectively (combs, yongmei, hall, & ketchen, 2006). they deal with the emotional side of things, determine the quality of interactions with stakeholders in a firm and help improve the manager’s ability to relate well with key stakeholders (employees, suppliers and so on) – which in itself is a driver of superior firm performance. the relationship between managerial competencies and business performance still remains an essential issue within organisational literature (mitchelmore & rowley, 2010). however, studies linking managerial competencies and firm performance (combs et al., 2006; laguna, wiechetek, & talik, 2012) have only been conducted in single contexts with little or no differentiation of fosmes or nfosmes. yet, scholars (derbarliev & janeska-iliev, 2015; dyer, 2006) acknowledge that differences might exist between managing a family business and a non-family business, even in terms of managerial competencies needed for performance, because the two differ in terms of purpose, decision-making and stakeholders. while the above evidence is applauded in terms of advancing theoretical understanding on the role of managerial competencies in family and non-family business performance, there still remains dearth of evidence on how managerial ic in particular are related to the performance of fosmes and nfosmes in zimbabwe and south africa, where support for smes has seen the countries appointing a responsible ministry and where there are exponential growths of smes yearly (kongolo, 2010; the finscope micro, small and medium enterprises survey, 2012). moreover, literature (laguna et al., 2012; sidek & mohamad, 2014) on managerial ic does not provide sufficient explanation on their role in the success of smes in two contexts in a single study. the under-exploration of this relationship, particularly in both fosmes and nfosmes in emerging economies like zimbabwe and south africa, provides a platform for further investigating the phenomenon. based on this, the aim of this study was to determine and compare the impact of managerial ic on the performance of fosmes and nfosmes in zimbabwe and south africa, and it is guided by the following objectives: to find out the managerial ic of owner-managers in fosmes and nfosmes in zimbabwe and south africa. to determine the performance of fosmes and nfosmes in zimbabwe and south africa as measured by innovation and return on investment (roi) over a period of 2 years. to assess the impact of managerial ic of managers–owners in fosmes and nfosmes in zimbabwe and south africa on the businesses’ performance. problem background in zimbabwe, approximately 80% of enterprises are either family-owned or non-family-owned and are mainly small to medium-sized (sikomwe, mhonde, mbetu, mavhiki, & mapetere, 2012). although, literature on fosmes is subsumed and overlaps with that on nfosmes, fosmes have exceptional characteristics (craig & lindsay, 2002; getz & carlsen, 2000). for example, the mere involvement of family in ownership, management and governance, makes fosmes different from their other counterparts (chu, 2009; klein, astrachan, & smyrnios, 2005). in addition, the two enterprises may differ with respect to the purpose of the business – profit making or sustainability, succession issues and how decisions are made (chalus-sauvannet, deschamps, & cisneros, 2016). however, the emergence of these types of smes in zimbabwe was a result of the harsh economic conditions which have seen many workers losing jobs and joining the informal market (zindiye, chiliya, & masocha, 2012). similarly, in south africa, the adverse economic conditions, ageing entrepreneurs, and the current unemployment rate standing at around 26% (kesper, 2000; kingdon & knight, 2000) led to around 250 000 people being involved in starting their own businesses (adcorp, 2012). the low survival and high failure rates of both fosmes and nfosmes in south africa are attributed to lack of or poor managerial competencies of the owner-managers of the firms (herrington, kew, simrie, & turton, 2011; rambe & makhalemele, 2015). similarly, an investigation of challenges faced by smes in chitungwiza, zimbabwe, gombarume and mavhundutse (2014) reveals that 45% of their respondents felt that they had no requisite managerial competencies in the management of their business. however, the aforementioned findings can be criticised for just stating lack of managerial competencies as causal to sme failure, without specifying specific competencies responsible for such failures. literature (asumeng, 2014; hawi, alkhodary, & hashem, 2015) state that besides managerial ic, a plethora of other managerial competencies exist. literature review managerial competencies the concept competence is multi-faceted and has many applications. a key challenge in the competence literature is that there are numerous definitions of the term (hayton & mcevoy, 2006; hoffmann, 1999) and that the terms ‘skills, expertise, acumen and competency’, despite being interrelated, are sometimes used interchangeably in literature (smith & morse, 2005). according to strebler, robinson and heron (1997), two key meanings or uses of the term ‘competency’ exist: competency as behaviours that an individual demonstrates and competencies as minimum standards of performance. however, regarding the term ‘managerial competency’, it is frequently used when competencies possessed by successful managers are discussed (abraham, kams, shaw, & mena, 2001; childs & gibson, 2010). although it is inevitable that successful management of smes requires owner-managers to possess a wide range of competencies, there is a general lack of consensus among scholars on components of managerial competencies as well as their classifications (rambe & makhalemele, 2015). extant literature (amstrong, 2012; mitchelmore & rowley, 2010) suggest that over 400 different competencies can be found and that different proposals as to their grouping exist. agut, grau and peiró (2003) posit that the traditional approach to competence distinguishes two interrelated types of managerial competencies technical and generic. technical competencies allow an effective performance of specific tasks, which are mostly programmed, and technical and competent management would therefore entail effective performance of technical tasks and coping with non-programmed events. however, regarding family-owned businesses, as the business grows, technical skills begin to diminish in their significance, with generic qualities such as commitment to the business, respect of employees, intelligence and creativity increasing in their significance (yordanova, 2012). managerial interpersonal competencies managerial ic (also known as generic, soft or human skills) encompass the knowledge and ability to work with people or are simply called people skills (katz, 1955; sidek & mohamad, 2014). these competencies cover individual characteristics like attitudes, motivation or personality traits that enable one to cope with less programmed and technical tasks and more generic job situations such as the initiative to implement new plans (agut et al., 2003). managerial ic benefit small enterprises in the following ways: they enable diversity, conflict and change management and empower owners–managers to motivate, lead and evaluate employee performance (nieman & bennett, 2006). they also enable coordination, planning and trust (robbins & hunsaker, 2006); empower owners with the ability to understand their subordinates and to know what motivates them (bateman & snell, 2009); and help managers to be more reflective and self-directed (hager, holland, & beckett, 2002). combs et al. (2006) admit that ic are important to entrepreneurs as they allow them not only to function optimally in today’s high-performing organisations, but even makes them outperform competition. the resource-based view the foundations of the resource-based view (rbv) of the firm can be found in the work by penrose in 1959 who regarded the firm as an administrative institution and a collection of both physical and human productive resources (curado, 2006). it is probably the only claim to a ‘new’ theory of the firm that strategic management as a field can make (conner, 1991; peteraf, 1993), because other theories originate from either economics or sociology. in 1984, wernerfelt coined the term ‘resource-based view’ and considered the firm as a bundle of resources that are semi-permanently tied to the firm. a seminal paper by habbershon and williams (1999) provides the starting point for the rbv in the family business. the paper coins the term ‘familiness of the firm’ to those resource bundles that are distinctive to a firm as a result of family involvement (habbershon & williams, 1999). in this instance, it can be suggested that the resources and capabilities of the family business as a unit, the individual members and the firm interact to contribute to the overall performance of the business. the resource-based perspective has an intra-organisational focus and argues that performance is a result of firm-specific resources and capabilities (barney, ketchen, & wright, 2011). the basis of the rbv is that effective organisations will find their future competitiveness on the development of unique capabilities, which often may be implicit or intangible in their nature. according to katua, mukulu and gachunga (2014), a firm’s resources can be grouped into tangible (technological, financial, physical and human) and intangible (reputation, brand-name and know-how) resources. on the one hand, grant (1991) classifies tangible resources into either financial or physical assets. intangible resources, on the other hand, could be assets or skills. as assets they may take the form of intellectual property assets (hall, 1992), organisational assets (barney, 1991) or reputational assets (roberts & dowling, 2002). intangible resources that are skills may include human capabilities (hall, 1992; day, 1994). most researchers (lockett & thompson, 2001; ray, barney, & muhanna, 2004), however, argue from a strategic point of view that intangible resources are often the most important ones. regarding fosmes and nfosmes, their most important resource resides in the intangible skills of their human capital. surprisingly, early works on family businesses (beckhard & dyer, 1983; lansberg, 1983) made the assumption that family influence makes a difference, but did not explicitly argue why. on the contrary, recent studies (arregle, hitt, simon, & very, 2007; carney, 2005) offer clearer rationale for differences. for example, the positive attributes of fosmes’ human capital, which include warm, friendly and intimate relationships (horton, 1986), are regarded as the potential for deep firm-specific tacit knowledge (sirmon & hitt, 2003) and unusual commitment (horton, 1986). contrastingly, employees in non-family businesses may not show greater commitment and cooperation (dawson, 2012) and may not be willing to forego pay in the short term in view of long-term gains. it seems that participation by family members in both business and family relationships in their personal and professional lives increases their complexity and generates a unique context for human capital compared to their non-family counterparts (sirmon & hitt, 2003). human capital leads to a sustainable competitive advantage when they are firm-specific, rare, valuable, inimitable and non-substitutable. literature on rbv (barney, 1986a, 1986b, 1991; rumelt, 1987; wernerfelt, 1984) suggest that competitive advantage and performance results are a result of firm-specific resources and capabilities that are costly to copy by other competitors. while resources such as natural resources, technology, economies of scale and finance can create value, the rbv argues that these sources of value are not only available to all but also easy to copy if compared to such a complex resource like the human resource (barney, 1991). in the context of this study, the integration of family and business in fosmes creates several significant and distinctive characteristics when compared to their other counterparts. for instance, the potential for the early involvement of children in the family business is more likely to produce profound levels of firm-specific tacit knowledge (sirmon & hitt, 2003). tacit knowledge, which is difficult to visualise or codify, may be transferred through direct exposure and experience, giving family firms the potential to have deeper levels of firm-specific knowledge than their non-family counterparts (sirmon & hitt, 2003). measuring small and medium-sized enterprise’s performance performance measurement of smes helps improve their performance and chances of survival (kirsten, vermaak, & wolmarans, 2015). ogiogio (2005) admits that measuring performance aids organisations measure, monitor and evaluate performance, as well as define and set benchmarks that help in the implementation of performance improvement plans. performance measurement also allows for the design of performance tracking systems, guide organisational growth and development, and make accountability for results easy (ogiogio, 2005). however, utrilla and torralega (2012) caution that as the unique feature of family businesses results from the family business interaction, performance measures should therefore reflect the duality between business and family. families often value activities and products quite highly to the extent of de-emphasising financial performance such as firm value, profits, equity or asset returns (astrachan & pieper, 2010). relying solely on financial measures could thus be misleading. in view of this, owners/managers of modern smes have adopted a hybrid approach in which both financial and non-financial measures to determine firm performance are used (chong, 2008). studies that ignore this in their performance measures may not yield results that accurately depict the characteristics of family businesses, because such studies are likely to ignore the possibility that these enterprises might be willing to sacrifice financial success for other issues (utrilla & torralega, 2012). even though there is a general agreement that the traditional (or lagging) financial measures are still valid and relevant, they need to be balanced with more contemporary, intangible and externally oriented measures like employee satisfaction, innovation and so on (bititci, firat, & garengo, 2013; yip et al., 2009). in addition, it is the realisation that performance research in family enterprises may be more complex than single-metric performance (astrachan & pieper, 2010) that led to the adoption of a non-financial measure (product and process innovation) and a financial measure (roi) as measures of business performance in this study. for any venture, whether large or small, family or non-family, profitability is crucial for it to remain a sound going concern (lkhagvasuren & xuexi, 2014). compromises on profitability are likely to have adverse effects on both the capitalisation and expansion of a business. profitability frequently measured by roi has, by convention, been used to measure performance and is extensively regarded as the ultimate bottom line test of success (farooq, 2014). it is however disturbing to note that way back in 1990, feeser and willard observed that the scarce use of profitability measures such as roi or roa (return on assets) in smes could be attributed to the fact that financial data may not easily be available for these ventures or that such measures were not considered appropriate for small enterprises. however, begley (1995) proves that profitability measures are rather the most suitable in smes even in the presence of other measures. shepherd and wiklund (2009) even question results from studies using subjective performance measures (like product and process innovation) only, which would hardly ever be validated by objective measures (such as roi). it is upon this background that this study had to settle for roi as one of the measures of sme performance. product and process innovation (simply referred to as innovation in this study) initiatives are known to augment the long-term performance of a firm (classen, carree, van gils, & peters, 2014; kraus, harms, & fink, 2011). innovations serve as major driving forces for entrepreneurship at both firm and national levels (kraus et al., 2011). however, the uptake of innovation in fosmes and nfosmes could be different as innovation is a high-risk endeavour that involves large, upfront and mostly irreversible expenses, and yet, success of innovations is not guaranteed (classen et al., 2014). past studies (cabrera-suárez, de saa-pérez, & garcía-almeida, 2001; carney, 2005) often bemoan the lack of innovation in family businesses; yet, other studies (craig & moores, 2006; zahra, 2005) suggest a relationship between involvement of family and innovation outcomes. recent studies (classen et al., 2014; rößl, fink, & kraus, 2010) could therefore be right to suggest that there is a general dearth of research regarding the innovative behaviours of family firms. worse still, in the sme context, werner, schröder and chlosta (2014) observe that differences in innovation activities between fosmes and nfosmes remain inconclusive. in spite of this, the fact that innovation facilitates an sme’s ability to adapt to ever-changing market circumstances through the introduction of new and refined products (ireland, covin, donald, & kuratko, 2009) made the researchers choose it as another measure of sme performance. managerial interpersonal competencies and small and medium-sized enterprise performance there is a dearth of literature on managerial ic and sme performance, notwithstanding that smes are in the majority and that the field of family business research is gaining impetus (de massis, frattini, & lichtenthaler, 2012; sharma, chrisman, & gersick, 2012). the family setup is likely to present fascinating scenarios for the competence–performance nexus. for instance, a family’s desire to keep control of their firm may present access hurdles to venture capital investment opportunities, creating incongruity between managerial ic and innovation projects (gomez-mejía, cruz, berrone, & de castro, 2011). furthermore, family businesses may lack infrastructural capabilities such as technology or appropriate managerial competencies that can lead to lower performance and that many resource constraints faced by smes are often found in family firms (eddleston, kellermanns, & sarathy, 2008). interestingly, as familial altruism tends to treat people for who they are and not for what they do (dekker, lybaert, steijvers, depaire, & mercken, 2013) and places more emphasis on family agendas and other social agendas like social cohesion, issues of managerial ic are likely to be given peripheral considerations. contrastingly, a study by yordanova (2012) on bulgarian family firms establishes that as the business grows, technical skills may begin to diminish in their significance, with qualities such as commitment to the business, respect of employees, intelligence and creativity increasing in their significance. the aforementioned findings by yordanova (2012) imply that with the passage of time, the growth of family businesses would require more managerial ic than technical competencies. in view of this, we can hypothesise that in both fosmes and nfosmes: h1: there is a significant positive relationship between managerial ic and firm performance as measured by innovation. h2: there is a significant positive relationship between managerial ic and firm performance as measured by roi. another study by nkosi, bounds and goldman (2015) on the skills required for the management of black-owned small enterprises in soweto, south africa, finds out that the following ic were cardinal for the development of the businesses, namely interacting with customers, staff and suppliers in an effective way; solving conflicts; acquiring customers by word of mouth and referrals; going an extra mile for customers; building positive relationships with staff and customers; and relating to people easily. interestingly, the aforementioned managerial ic correspond with most of the competencies labelled under the categories of team management and technical non-finance in a related study by velegrakis et al. (2009) of relevant competencies required by european sme managers. although the aforementioned studies fall short of differentiating family from non-family smes, their findings significantly contributed to the fledgling body of knowledge. an investigation on the impact of managerial competencies on the performance of smes in the buffalo city municipality, eastern cape province, south africa, by tarwirei (2015) finds out that high performance of smes was linked to managers’ technical and business skills and that the ability to outperform industry rivals and increase productivity was dependent on human skill. this confirms that managerial interpersonal skills help individuals perform effectively and directly contribute to a firm’s growth (rahman, mokhtar, yassin, & hamzah, 2011; sidek & mohamad, 2014). regarding zimbabwe, there is an apparent lacuna in respect of studies on managerial ic in her smes. the few studies conducted (gwatsvaira & mtisi, 2016; mudavanhu et al., 2011; sandada & mangwandi, 2015) do not isolate specific managerial ic, but rather consider managerial competence among a host of other factors affecting business performance. worse still, the aforementioned studies are not clear on whether the firms are large organisations or smes, or on whether they are family or non-family. they fell into the pervasive tendency of lumping together family businesses and small businesses and then either use sme or family firm as a generic term, because a majority of smes internationally are family-owned (lee, 2006). it is therefore important to note that the managerial interpersonal competency–performance nexus is not a straightforward one. the nexus is mediated by many organisational (e.g. an organisation’s strategic information technology competencies, competitive service delivery, marketing strategies, job performance–related factors) and environmental factors (e.g. physical location of an enterprise, the industry where the business is located, government regulation and outside influences if a firm operates as a franchise of a bigger international corporation), whose contingencies have numerous implications for firm growth, survival and profitability (rambe & makhalemele, 2015). research methodology research design this investigation employed a case study descriptive comparative research design whose advantage is that it may be realised in the context of either qualitative or quantitative research (bryman & bell, 2007). the case study descriptive comparative research design has the advantage that it embodies the logic of comparison, in that, it implies that we can understand social phenomena better when they are compared in relation to two or more meaningfully contrasting cases (familyand non-family-owned furniture manufacturing smes in zimbabwe’s harare province and south africa’s gauteng province) or situations (bryman & bell, 2007). research approach the study adopted a descriptive quantitative approach. the purpose of quantitative research is to quantify a research problem, to measure and count issues, and then to generalise these findings to a broader population (hennink, hutter, & bailey, 2011). the quantitative approach has the advantage that it may be used to answer questions about relationships among measured variables with the purpose of explaining, predicting and controlling phenomena (leedy & ormrod, 2005). it is more appropriate for determining the extent of a problem, issue or phenomena (kumar, 2005), such as the impact of managerial ic on the performance of fosmes and nfosmes in the two countries under study. research participants the target population in the study were all fosmes and nfosmes in furniture manufacturing in zimbabwe’s harare province and south africa’s gauteng province. the two provinces, harare and gauteng, in the two countries under study, were chosen because of the high concentration of furniture manufacturing smes in them (gauteng industrial policy framework, 2010–2014; madzivanzira, 2011). as some of the smes are not registered for fear of taxation and associated levies, no comprehensive databases (sikomwe et al., 2012; visser & chiloane-tsoka, 2014) could be found from agencies such as the small enterprises development corporation (sedco) in zimbabwe or the small enterprise development agency (seda) in south africa and even from the parent ministries. despite the relatively high concentration of furniture manufacturing smes in the two provinces, these enterprises are not in the majority, and therefore, census sampling was adopted. census sampling involves a study of every member of a given population, and according to the statistical law of large numbers, the bigger the sample size, the more accurately it will represent the population (gravetter & forzano, 2009). a total of 105 and 106 questionnaires were completed by owners/managers of both fosmes and nfosmes in furniture manufacturing in harare and gauteng provinces, respectively. research instruments one self-constructed structured questionnaire to collect data from the two countries was designed. the self -constructed items measured managerial ic, roi and innovation. as advised by sangoseni, hellman and hill (2013), in order to ensure face validity of the instrument, an expert was engaged to look at the items in the questionnaire and agreed that the items were a valid measure of the concepts. the questionnaires were pre-coded for statistical analysis. closed questions used in most sections gave respondents the opportunity to choose one or more response choices from a number provided (de vos, strydom fouché, & delport, 2011). section a on biographical information comprised of dichotomous questions, closed questions and open-ended questions requiring at most two-phrased answers. the rest of the questionnaire comprised of five-point likert-scaled questions, where respondents indicated the degree to which they either agreed or their attitude regarding the extent to which a particular phenomenon was used (de vos et al., 2011; neuman, 2006). research procedure the questionnaire was subjected to pilot testing on smes in the hoteling sector before data were collected on full scale. pilot testing was performed to allow for modifications on the instrument that were deemed necessary in order to increase its reliability (de vos et al., 2011; neuman, 2006). the services of four trained research assistants were enlisted in both countries. questionnaires were hand delivered. respondents were given time to complete the questionnaires before the field workers collected them the following day. this has a tendency to raise response rates because of the personal contact and also because the fieldworkers did not bother respondents during inconvenient times (de vos et al., 2011). data for 2015 and 2016 were collected. statistical analysis as the data were quantitative in nature, the statistical package for social sciences (spss) statistics version 20 was used for descriptive statistics. group difference analysis was conducted on analysis of a moment structures (amos) version 24 to check whether there was statistical difference in the structural model between fosmes and nfosmes. ethical considerations the researchers were sensitive to avoid disruption of work processes during the administration of questionnaires. lunch hours were at times used and questionnaires were occasionally left behind to be collected when convenient. the researchers also required that consent be obtained from participations, and the cover page contained a provision for respondents to withdraw at any time. respondents were informed of the purposes the information shall be used for and the authority the researchers had to collect information – which was a letter from the ethics committee of the faculty of management, central university of technology, south africa. furthermore, respondents’ input was to be confidential as data had to be stored in such a way as to preclude any unauthorised access. this was achieved by storing data in lockable cabinets and removing all identifying information. research findings managerial interpersonal competencies descriptive statistics were used to make comparison between zimbabwean and south african smes. table 1 shows the averages on mean responses for the seven items that measured different dimensions of managerial ic from the questionnaire. table 1: managerial interpersonal competencies in zimbabwean and south african small and medium-sized enterprises. interpersonal competencies-managerial interpersonal competencies, zimbabwe and south africa a mean above 3 (the median point) on the five-point likert scale suggested that most respondents agreed with items from a given construct. firm performance tables 2 shows the chosen indicators of performance in respective smes in the two countries. table 2: innovation and return on investment in zimbabwean and south african small and medium-sized enterprises from table 2, average innovation means lying between 3.83 and 4.49 indicate that entrepreneurs in the two kinds of businesses in the two countries were agreeable to the respective items on the questionnaire, although south african owners and/or managers were more agreeable. the final measurement model the three items that finally constituted the construct managerial ic and the five constituting innovation (inn) had a mean of 4. in addition, constructs constituting roi had a mean above 3.5. these means suggest that most respondents were in agreement with the respective items on the questionnaire. after refinement, the following final measurement model was adopted: the final measurement model is not interested in the relationships per se, but serves to confirm the structure of the scales. the measurement model helps to relate measured variables to latent variables. the final measurement model confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) showed acceptable model fit indices: degrees of freedom (df) = 1.73; goodness-of-fit index (gfi) = 0.853; adjusted goodness-of-fit index (agfi) = 0.800; comparative fit index (cfi) = 0.906; tucker-lewis index (tli) = 0.887; root mean square of approximation (rmsea) = 0.042; p-value associated with test on rmsea (pclose) = 0.995. with these satisfactory model fit indices, the reliability and validity of the scales were tested. reliability and validity of scales as data collection instruments were self-made, issues to do with their psychometric characteristics are very germane. reliability pertains to the degree of consistency and stability in instruments, while validity demonstrates that a particular instrument measures what it purports to measure (cohen, manion, & morrison, 2011; cooper & schindler, 2014). table 3 presents the results of reliability and convergent validity of scales used in the structural equation model. table 3: reliability and convergent validity of the scales. the cronbach’s alpha values and construct reliability (cr) values suggest that the scales were reliable because the values were very close and in most cases were way above 0.7. the construct ic, for instance, had a cronbach’s alpha value of 0.691. this suggests that the three items forming ic measure the construct at 69.1%. convergent and discriminant validity are considered as the subtypes of construct validity (trochim, 2006). the convergent validity assesses the extent to which items converge or share a high proportion of the variance in common (hair, black, babin, & anderson, 2014). the convergent validity of a scale is assessed by the factor loading of each item (above 0.5), the item-total correlation (itc) (above 0.5) and the ave (above 0.5). table 3 shows that the factors load well in the constructs (factor loadings > 0.5). the itc values also indicate decent values except for ic4, which is equal to 0.465. the ave is the average percentage of variation explained among the items of a construct. the following formula was used to calculate the ave: figure 1: final measurement model. even though the ave values of the construct ic (ave= 0.430) are below 0.5, it is marginally below 0.5. the values of the factor loading and itc support to some extent the convergent validity of these scales. regarding discriminant validity, it measures the extent to which a construct discriminates from other constructs in the model. to establish discriminant validity, the researcher needs to show that measures that should not be related are actually not related (trochim, 2006). the distinctiveness of a construct is measured in terms of how much the construct correlates with other constructs and how uniquely the measured items represent only this single construct (hair et al., 2014). to assess the discriminant validity of the scale, the . should be greater than the correlation coefficient in the correlation matrix. table 4 summarises the discriminant values of the constructs. table 4: correlation matrix to assess discriminant validity. to ensure discriminant validity, of a specific construct should be above all the correlation coefficients of this construct with other constructs (ahmad, wilson, & kummerow, 2016). as indicated on table 4, the correlation matrix confirms that there is discriminant validity. after the validity and reliability of the scales as well as the fit of the measurement model were confirmed, the hypotheses were tested with the structural model. testing hypotheses with the structural model the hypotheses were tested through the structural model. the structural model helps to relate latent variables to one another. the model showed the following acceptable model fit indices: df= 1.995; gfi= 0.883; agfi= 0.841; cfi= 0.916; tli= 0.898; rmsea= 0.040; pclose= 1.000. figure 2 below shows the structural model. figure 2: the structural model. figure 2 shows the hypothesised relationships in the study, and table 5 summarises the result for each hypothesised relationship. table 5: results for each hypothesised relationship. the column labelled regression weight refers to the strength of the relationship. the p-value determines whether the relationship is significant or not. when p < 0.05, the relationship is deemed statistically significant. according to these results, ic is a critical factor that significantly affects both inn and roi. table 5 shows that the two hypotheses were accepted. group difference analysis using structural equation modelling this subsection investigates how each relationship on the model varies across groups. the two hypothesised relationship tested are as follows: h1: there is a significant positive relationship between managerial ic and firm performance as measured by innovation. h2: there is a significant positive relationship between managerial ic and firm performance as measured by roi. group difference analysis was conducted on amos 24 to check whether there is a statistical difference in the structural model between fosmes and nfosmes. the two models below were built and tested following the structural equation modelling (sem) approach. figures 3 and 4 depict the two models. figure 3: family-owned small and medium-sized enterprises. figure 4: non-family-owned small and medium-sized enterprises. the two models show acceptable fit indices df= 1.995; gfi= 0.883; agfi= 0.841; cfi= 0.916; tli= 0.898; rmsea= 0.040; pclose= 1.000. table 6 presents the regression weights of the relationships emerging in the model among fosmes and nfosmes. table 6: group difference analysis. in the context of both types of businesses the models in figures 3 and 4 seems to be stable and provides more significant relationships in both countries. table 6 also demonstrates that the two models fits both types businesses. in both models, the two hypotheses are validated since the relationships in the models are deemed to be significant. in both fosmes and nfosmes in the two countries, the two hypotheses were accepted. in table 6, p-values less than 0.05 for both fosmes and nfosmes imply significant relationships between managerial ic and firm performance as measured by both innovation and roi exists. discussion of findings managerial interpersonal competencies table 1 shows no significant differences on managerial ic in both fosmes and non-fosmes in the two countries. this is quite interesting given that most zimbabwean managers and owner-managers had secondary education qualifications, while a majority of their south african counterparts had diplomas. by 2008, zimbabwe had experienced a 50% decline in economic growth and a 60% closure in factories (zindiye et al., 2012). most of the retrenched employees who used to run the factories were forced into entrepreneurial activities. their competencies could therefore have accrued from years of working in the factories, in spite of their relatively inferior paper qualifications. it can therefore be concluded that mere paper qualifications have no significant contribution to a manager’s human skills. firm performance table 2 indicates that south african family entrepreneurs were more agreeable – meaning that for the years 2015 and 2016, both roi and process and product innovation levels were high in these enterprises when compared to their zimbabwean counterparts. family firms have been regarded to be not as innovative and more prone to be risk-averse than non-family firms, because of capital constraints and the closeness of the family (allio, 2004; carney, 2005). more recent findings by spriggs, yu, deeds and sorenson (2013) suggest that even where a firm has innovative capacity, collaboration among many owners (as the case may be in family firms) may limit the use of innovative capacity to promote business performance. contrary to the aforementioned studies, findings from this study show that south african family-owned smes (fosmes) had the highest innovation. their zimbabwean family-owned counterparts had the least. this difference can be explained by the fact that furniture and solid wood processing is a well-established manufacturing industry within south africa (seda, 2012) and is the highest net exporting sector and had the best performance figures between 1995 and 1999 (erasmus, 2004). this suggests not only better resourced firms but a conducive environment for innovation as well, translating to better performance (as measured by roi) when compared to their struggling zimbabwean counterparts (sachikonye & sibanda, 2016). regarding roi, an average mean of 3.71 for family-owned and 3.52 for non-family-owned zimbabwean smes; means of 4.06 and 3.83, respectively, for their south african counterparts indicate that most entrepreneurs in the two types of businesses in the two countries were agreeable to the questionnaire items measuring roi. although roi was generally high across the firms, differences in respect of roi between the firms were not that significant. a study by zapata, brito and triay (2014) analysing the differences in financial management practices between family and non-family smes in the textile industry located in yucatan, mexico, showed that family smes show lower profitability than non-family smes. these findings were not corroborated by this study, whose findings suggest that fosmes have a slight edge over their counterparts. it could be true that pertaining to the economic performance of fosmes, no consensus exists regarding whether family businesses perform better in terms of turnover, profitability (e.g. roi) or return on equity (european foundation for the improvement of living and working conditions, 2002). group difference analysis from structural equation modelling as shown in table 6, the two hypotheses mentioned below were accepted in both fosmes and in nfosmes in the two countries: h1: there is a significant positive relationship between managerial ic and firm performance as measured by innovation. h2: there is a significant positive relationship between managerial ic and firm performance as measured by roi. these findings are interesting in that they are contrary to research findings (block, miller, jaskiewicz, & spiegel, 2013; gomez-mejía et al., 2011) which suggest that the desire by a family to keep control of their firm represents an access hurdle to venture capital investment opportunities, creating incongruity between managerial competencies and innovation projects (block et al., 2013; gomez-mejía et al., 2011). this study rather establishes a significant positive relationship between managerial ic and firm performance in both fosmes and nfosmes in the two countries as measured by innovation and roi. it even goes contrary to findings that suggest that family-owned firms often lack infrastructural capabilities such as technology or appropriate managerial competencies leading to lower performance (eddleston et al., 2008). rather, it acknowledges that family members’ contact with the business since childhood (burkart, panunzi, & shleifer, 2003) and other such kinship considerations may give the firms a competitive advantage. this resonates very well with the rbv which holds that participation of family members in the business increases their complexity and generates a unique context for human capital when compared to their non-family counterparts (sirmon & hitt, 2003). the integration of family and business in fosmes is more likely to create several significant and distinctive advantages in terms of managerial ic and firm performance. for instance, the early involvement of children in the family business has the potential to produce profound levels of firm-specific tacit knowledge (sirmon & hitt, 2003). in addition, family firm stewardship governance has also been associated with innovativeness (craig & dibrell, 2006; dibrell & moeller, 2011), strategic flexibility (zahra, hayton, neubaum, dibrell, & craig, 2008) and enterprise performance (craig & dibrell, 2006). family firm stewardship governance facilitates steward behaviours, such as helping behaviours and high levels of commitment, which are requisite to superior firm performance. however, comparisons of studies in respect of fosmes get complicated because of the diverse definitions of what constitutes a family firm. definitions of family vary from country to country, and even within a country (sharma, 2013). the two hypotheses were also accepted in nfosmes, suggesting significant positive relationships between managerial ic and firm performance as measured by innovation and roi. these results corroborate those from a study by sidek and mohamad (2014) carried out among small microfinance participants in malaysia. the study made use of data collected form microfinance participants in the two states of kelantan and terengganu. the study found that all the managerial competency dimensions namely; generic (managerial ic), technical, and conceptual skills had positive and significant impact on the growth of small businesses. in a related investigation on the impact of managerial competencies on the performance of smes in the buffalo city municipality in the eastern cape province, tarwirei (2015) found that high performance of smes was linked to managers’ technical and business skills; and that the ability to outperform industry rivals and increase productivity was dependent on human skill (or managerial ic). however, different criteria and dimensions used to measure sme performance (whether objective or subjective measures) confuse comparison of studies. furthermore, research distinguishing fobs and non-fobs has revealed mixed results (dyer, 2006; sharma, 2004). in spite of the methodological concerns raised in the comparative researches performed, the differences between family and non-family firms found in previous studies could be because of demographic sample differences such as size, age, type of industry and location – instead of ‘real’ differences between groups (jorissen, laveren, martens, & reheul, 2005). however, this aforementioned observations did not hold for the current study even though 42% of the participants were derived from fosmes. by way of conclusion, the observation by rettab and azzam (2011) that the relative performance of fobs versus non-fobs is an empirical question and the prevalence of evidence from diverse studies is what eventually shapes the meta view of the superiority of one business over the other seems valid. limitations and direction for future studies the main limitation of this study lies in poor record keeping by mainly survivalist start-ups whose record keeping is often in shambles-making the measurement of such a construct as roi over the 2-year period tricky. in addition, the study focused on furniture manufacturing smes only, giving us a relatively small sample size. the small sample size resulted in a goodness-of-fit index (gfi) visibly below 0.9 on the final model. future studies could consider incorporating larger sample sizes that would not only increase the generalisability of findings but would further stabilise the models envisaged in this study. future studies could consider replicating this study in other provinces and in smes other than those in furniture manufacturing. furthermore, as business practices evolve, new managerial ic critical to success are likely to emerge because competencies themselves are dynamic and not static – changing in accordance with changing business trends. as such, future studies may have to include such competencies as do measure corporate governance capabilities and ethical conduct likely to have a bearing on management’s ic. conclusion and recommendations the study established significant positive relationships between managerial ic and firm performance in both fosmes and nfosmes in zimbabwe’s harare and south africa’s gauteng provinces as measured by innovation and roi. performance of smes semed not to be influenced by their mode of ownership. the results also suggest that family members’ contact with the business since childhood and kinship considerations were not a liability but rather gave firms the same advantages as their other counterparts. furthermore, family firm stewardship governance facilitates steward behaviours, such as helping behaviours and high levels of commitment, resulting in comparable performance. therefore, the assumption emanating from a resource-based view that participation by family members in both business and family relationships in their personal and professional lives, increases their complexity and generates a unique context for human capital that could lead to better performance when compared to their non-family counterparts could not be sustained by the current study. survival of smes cannot be overemphasised, given the pivotal role they play on both global and national business markets. firstly, concerted effort should be put towards financing smes for management training and competence development if smes are to maintain their leverage on managerial ic. this could be achieved through recapitalisation of the sedco in zimbabwe, and in south africa’s gauteng province, the provincial government may have to extend similar support to furniture manufacturing smes. in addition, there is need to increase competencies internally through deliberate human resource development initiatives informed by robust performance management systems. in the same vein, it is recommended that smes design cheap management information systems and even use social media platforms aggressively to enhance managerial interpersonal relationship building efforts. contributions of the study this study is unique in that it adopted a cross-national comparative approach rarely used in prior studies. it is one of its own kind performed in the two countries so far that explored the nexus between managerial ic and the performance of fosmes and nfosmes. the study is also unique in that it affords comparisons of fosmes and nfosmes, where variant agency relationships obtain as a result of differences in the mode of ownership. in addition, it adopted a hybrid approach in the measurement of performance, making use of a traditional financial measure (roi) and a more subjective measure (product and process innovation). this again is a digression from some school of thought that prefer use of the objective method in the measurement of business performance, arguing that subjective measurements may change depending on differing personality traits or various organisational positions, causing incoherence and doubts in drawing comparisons (yildiz & karakas, 2012). yet, bititci et al. (2013) caution that generally the measures to be used to assess and compare the performance of different smes should be balanced by including both financial and non-financial measures. acknowledgements the researchers would like to thank the four research assistants – students at great zimbabwe university – who assisted with data collection. they are also grateful to the funding availed by the central university of technology, free state, south africa, to the principal author who, at the time of writing this article, is a doctoral student at the institution. the funding catered for data collection in gauteng, south africa, only. funding from the research board of great zimbabwe university, where the student is a fulltime senior lecturer in the department of human resource management, enabled data collection in harare, zimbabwe. the researchers are extremely grateful to the two institutions. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions n.m. did problem formulation, data collection and review of literature. c.c. did data analysis and helped in results and discussions sections. d.y.d. did the overall proof reading, editing, and alignment of issues. funding information this study was funded by the research board, great zimbabwe university, and the university research and innovation committee, central university of technology, free state, south africa. data availability statement data sharing is applicable to this article as new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views expressed in this article are not in any way an official position of the two aforementioned funding institutions but are entirely views of the two concerned authors. references abraham, s.e., kams, l.a., shaw, k., & mena, m.a. (2001). managerial competencies and the managerial performance appraisal process. journal of management development, 20(10), 842–852. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710110410842 adcorp analytics. (2012). the crisis in south africa’s small business sector, manufacturing circle (2011). manufacturing bulletin, 1–16. agut, s., grau, r., & peiró, j.m. (2003). individual and contextual influences on managerial competency needs. journal of management development, 22(10), 906–918. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710310505494 ahmad, n.h., wilson, c., & kummerow, l. (2011). a cross-cultural insight into the competency-mix of sme entrepreneurs in australia and malaysia. international journal of business and management science, 4(1), 33–50. alasadi, r., & abdelrahim, a. (2007). critical analysis and modelling of small business performance, case study: syria. journal of asia entrepreneurship and sustainability, 3(2), 5–22. allio, m. (2004). family businesses: their virtues. vices and strategic path, strategy and leadership, 32, 24–34. https://doi.org/10.1108/10878570410576704 amstrong, m. (2012). a handbook of human resource management practice (12th ed.). london: kogan page publishers. arregle, j., hitt, m.a., simon, d.g., & very, p. (2007). the development of organizational social capital: attributes of family firms. journal of management studies, 44(1), 73–95. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2007.00665.x astrachan, j.h., & pieper, t.m. (2010). welcome from the editor, journal of family business strategy retrieved from http://www.elsevierscitech.com/lmfile/otherformat/main.pdf, on 8/05/2016 at 1:30 pm. asumeng, m. (2014). managerial competency models: a critical review and proposed holistic-domain model. journal of management research, 6(4), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.5296/jmr.v6i4.5596 ayyagari, m., demirgüç-kunt, a., & maksimovic, v. (2011). small vs. young firms across the world – contribution to employment, job creation, and growth. policy research working paper 5631. washington, dc: the world bank development research group. barney, j.b. (1986a). strategic factor markets: expectations, luck and business strategy. management science, 32(10), 1231–1241. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.32.10.1231 barney, j.b. (1986b). organizational culture: can it be a source of competitive advantage? academy of management review, 11(3), 656–665. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1986.4306261 barney, j.b. (1991). firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. journal of management, 17(1), 99–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700108 barney, j.b., ketchen, d.e., jr., & wright, m. (2011). the future of resource-based theory: revitalization or decline? journal of management, 37(5), 1299–1315. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310391805 bateman, t.s., & snell, s. (2009). management: leading & collaborating in a competitive world. new york: mcgraw-hill education. beckhard, r., & dyer, w.g. (1983). managing continuity in the family-owned business. organizational dynamics, 12(1), 5–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(83)90022-0 begley, t.m. (1995). using founder status, age of firm, and company growth rate as the basis for distinguishing entrepreneurs from managers of smaller businesses. journal of business venturing, 10(3), 249–263. bititci, u., firat, s.u.o., & garengo, p. (2013). how to compare performances of firms operating in different sectors? production planning and control, 24(12), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2011.643829 block, j., miller, d., jaskiewicz, p., & spiegel, f. (2013). economic and technological importance of innovations in large family and founder firms: an analysis of patent data. family business review, 26(2), 180–199. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894486513477454 bryman, a., & bell, e. (2007). business research methods. 2nd edn. hong kong; oxford university press. burkart, m., panunzi, f., & shleifer, a. (2003). family firms. journal of finance, 58, 2167–2201. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6261.00601 cabrera-suárez, k., de saa-pérez, p., & garcía-almeida, d. (2001). the succession process from a resource and knowledge-based view of the family firm. family business review, 14(1), 37–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6248.2001.00037.x cant, m.c., & wiid, j.a. (2013). establishing the challenges affecting south african smes. international business & economics research journal, 12(6), 707–716. https://doi.org/10.19030/iber.v12i6.7869 carney, m. (2005). corporate governance and competitive advantage in family-controlled firms. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 29(3), 249–65. chalus-sauvannet, m, deschamps, b., & cisneros, l. (2016). unexpected succession: when children return to take over the family business. journal of small business management, 54(2), 714–731. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsbm.12167 childs, p., & gibson, p. (2010). graduating professional engineers and management skills-are they adequate for the workplace? 3rd international symposium for engineering education, university college cork, ireland, pp. 1–9. chong, g.h. (2008). measuring performance of small-and-medium sized enterprises: the grounded theory approach. journal of business and public affairs, 2(1), 1–10. classen, n., carree, m., van gils, a., & peters, b. (2014). innovation in family and non-family smes: an exploratory analysis. small business economics, 42, 595–609. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-013-9490-z chu, w. (2009). the influence of family ownership on sme performance: evidence from public firms in taiwan. small business economics, 33, 353–373. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-009-9178-6 combs, j.g., yongmei, l., hall, a., & ketchen, d. (2006). how much do high-performance work practices matter? a meta-analysis of their effects on organizational performance. personnel psychology, 59(3), 501–528. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2006.00045.x conner, k.r. (1991). a historical comparison of resource-based theory and five schools of thought within industrial organization economics: do we have a new theory of the firm? journal of management, 17(1), 121–154. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700109 cohen, l., manion, l., & morrison, k. (2011). research methods in education (7th ed.). london: routledge. cooper, d.r., & schindler, p.s. (2014). business research methods (12th ed.). boston, ma: mcgraw-hill. craig, j., & dibrell, c. (2006). the natural environment, innovation, and firm performance: a comparative study. family business review, 19, 275–288. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6248.2006.00075.x craig, j., & lindsay, n.j. (2002). incorporating the family dynamic into the entrepreneurship process. journal of small business and enterprise development, 9(4), 416–430. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6248.2006.00056.x craig, j., & moores, k. (2006). a 10-year longitudinal investigation of strategy, systems, and environment on innovation in family firms. family business review, 19(1), 1–10. curado, c. (2006). the knowledge based-view of the firm: from theoretical origins to future implications, iseg – universidade técnica de lisboa, department of management. working paper series, working paper 1/2006. new york: oxford university press. day, g.s. (1994). the capabilities of market-driven organizations. journal of marketing, 58(4), 37–52. dawson, a. (2012). human capital in family businesses: focusing on the individual level. journal of family business strategy, 3(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfbs.2011.12.001 dekker, j.c., lybaert, n., steijvers, t., depaire, b., & mercken, r. (2013). family firm types based on the professionalization construct: exploratory research. family business review, 26(1), 81–99. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894486512445614 derbarliev, s., & janeska-iliev, a. (2015). family business characteristics and differences: some insights from the developing countries. conference: international conference challenges of europe: growth, competitiveness and inequality, split – hvar. de ansorena, a. (1996). 15 pasos para la selección de personal con éxito: métodos e instrumentos [fifteen steps for successful personnel selection: methods and tools]. barcelona: paidós. de massis, a., frattini, f., & lichtenthaler, u. (2012). research on technological innovation in family firms: present debates and future directions. family business review, 26(1), 10–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894486512466258 de vos, a.s., strydom, h., fouché, c.b., & delport, c.s.l. (2011). research at grassroots: for the social sciences and human services professions (4th ed.). cape town: van schaik publishers. dibrell, c., & moeller, m. (2011). the impact of a service-dominant focus strategy and stewardship culture on organizational innovativeness in family-owned businesses. journal of family business strategy, 2(1), 43–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfbs.2011.01.004 diederichs, a. (2014). centuries of success. retrieved from www.succeed.co.za dyer, w.g., jr. (2006). examining the family effect on firm performance. family business review, 19(4), 253–273. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6248.2006.00074.x eddleston, k.a., kellermanns, f.w., & sarathy, r. (2008). resource configuration in family firms: linking resources, strategic planning and technological opportunities to performance. journal of management studies, 45, 26–50. erasmus, j.c. (2004). profile of the furniture sub-sector in south africa. research conducted for the forest industries sector education and training authority, human sciences research council employment and economic policy research (eepr). pretoria; human sciences research council. european foundation for the improvement of living and working conditions. (2002). family businesses: do they perform better? retrieved from http://londoneconomics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/101-comparing-the-economic-performance-of-family-businesses-and-non-family-businesses.pdf farooq, r. (2014). a clever approach to measure organizational performance: an overview. indian journal of management, 7(5), 34–46. fatoki, o. (2014). the impact of managerial competencies on the performance of immigrantowned enterprises in south africa. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(6), 141–144. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n6p141 fini, r., grimaldi, r., marzocchi, g.l., & sobrero, m. (2010). the determinants of corporate entrepreneurial intentions within small and newly established firms. entrepreneurship theory and practice, baylor university, 387–414. finscope msme survey zimbabwe. (2012). fin mark trust. retrieved from https://finmark.org.za/finscope-msme-survey-zimbabwe-2012/ frimpong, c.y. (2013). smes as an engine of social and economic development in africa. retrieved from https://www.modernghana.com/news/478225/1/smes-as-an-engine-of-social-and-economic-developme.html. gauteng industrial policy framework. (2010–2014). gauteng province economic development. republic of south africa. gauteng province; economic development department. getz, d., & carlsen, j. (2000). characteristics and goals of familyand owner-operated businesses in the rural tourism and hospitality sectors. tourism management, 21, 547–560. gravetter, f.j., & forzano, l.a.b. (2009). research methods for the behavioral sciences. belmont, ca: wadsworth cengage learning. grant, r.m. (1991). the resource-based theory of competitive advantage: implications for strategy formulation. california management review, 33(3), 114–135. https://doi.org/10.2307/41166664 gomez-mejia, l.r., cruz, c., berrone, p., & de castro, j. (2011). the bind that ties, socioemotional wealth preservation in family firms. the academy of management annals, 5(1), 653–707. https://doi.org/10.5465/19416520.2011.593320 gombarume, f.b., & mavhundutse, s. (2014). challenges faced by small to medium scale enterprises: a case study of chitungwiza, zimbabwe. greener journal of business and management studies, 4(4), 103–107. https://doi.org/10.15580/gjbms.2014.4.102113910 goriwondo, w.m. (2013). requisite managerial skills for small to medium enterprises (smes) to enhance development and business growth. industrial and manufacturing engineering, national university of science and technology, newspaper articles, 1–4. gwatsvaira, o., & mtisi, s. (2016). an investigation into the factors contributing to lack of growth of small and medium enterprises (smes) in the furniture manufacturing industry in kelvin north, bulawayo, zimbabwe, 4(12), 1–12. habbershon, t.g., & williams, m.l. (1999). a resource-based framework for assessing the strategic advantages of family firms. family business review, 12(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6248.1999.00001.x hager, p., holland, s., & beckett, d. (2002). enhancing the learning and employability of fraduates: the role of generic skills. paper presented at the business/higher education round table, melbourne. hall, r. (1992). the strategic analysis of intangible assets. strategic management journal, 13, 135–144. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250130205 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2014). multivariate data analysis (7th ed.). edinburgh gate: pearson education limited. hayton, j.c., & mcevoy, m. (2006). guest editor’s note. human resource management, 45(3), 291–294. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20127 hawi, r.o., alkhodary, d., & hashem, t. (2015). managerial competencies and organisations performance. international journal of management sciences, 5(1), 723–735. heaphy, e., & dutton, e.d. (2008). positive social interactions and the human body at work: linking organizations and physiology. the academy of management review, 33(1), 137–162. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2008.27749365 hellriegel, d., jackson, s.e., slocum, j., staude, g., amos, t., klopper, h.b., louw, l., & oosthuizen, t. (2008). management. (3rd south african ed.). cape town: oxford university press. hennink, m., hutter, i., & bailey, j. (2011). qualitative research methods. london: sage. herrington, m., kew, j., simrie, m., & turton, n. (2011). global entrepreneurship monitor: 2011 south africa report. cape town: university of cape town graduate school of business. hoffmann, t. (1999). the meanings of competency. journal of european industrial training, 23(6), 275–286. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090599910284650 horton, t.p. (1986). managing in a family way. management review, 75(2), 3–14. ireland, r.d., covin, j.g., donald, f., & kuratko, d.f. (2009). conceptualizing corporate entrepreneurship strategy, entrepreneurship. theory practice, 33(1), 19–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2008.00279.x jarvis, r., curran, j., kitching, j., & lightfoot, g. (2000). the use of quantitative and qualitative criteria in the measurement of performance in small firms. journal of small business and enterprise development, 7, 123–134. https://doi.org/10.1108/eum0000000006834 jorissen, a., laveren, e., martens, r., & reheul, a. (2005). real versus sample-based differences in comparative family business research. family business review, xviii(3), 229–246. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6248.2005.00044.x katz, r.l. (1955). skills of an effective administrator. harvard business review, 33(1), 33–42. katua, n.t., mukulu, e., & gachunga, h. (2014). effect of employee resourcing strategies on the performance of commercial banks in kenya. international journal of education and research, 2(1), 1–20. kesper, a. (2000). failing or not aiming to grow? manufacturing smmes and their contributions to employment growth in south africa. trade and industrial policy secretariat. tips working paper 15. johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. kingdon, g., & knight, j. (2000). the incidence of unemployment in south africa, centre for the study of african economies, economics department,2000 annual forum at glenburn lodge, muldersdrift: university of oxford. kirsten, e., vermaak, f., & wolmarans, h. (2015). performance measurement in small and medium enterprises: south african accountants’ view. journal of economic and financial sciences, 8(1), 13–34. klein, s., astrachan, j.h., & smyrnios, k. (2005). the f-pec scale of family influence: a proposal for solving the family business definition problem. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 29(3), 321–339. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2005.00086.x kongolo, m. (2010). job creation versus job shedding and the role of smes in economic development. african journal of business management, 4(11), 2288–2295. kraus, s., harms, r., & fink, m. (2011). family firm research: sketching a research field. international journal of entrepreneurship & innovation management, 13(1), 32–47. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijeim.2011.038446 kumar, r. (2005). research methodology: a step-by –step guide for beginners. 2nd edn. london: sage. laguna, m., wiechetek, m., & talik, w. (2012). the competencies of managers and their business success. central european business review, 1(3), 7–13. https://doi.org/10.18267/j.cebr.25 lansberg, i.s. (1983). managing human resources in family firms: the problem of institutional overlap. organizational dynamics, 13, 39–46. lee, j. (2006). family firm performance: further evidence. family business review, 19(2), 103–114. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6248.2006.00060.x leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2005). practical research: planning & design. new york: pearson merrill prentice hall. lkhagvasuren, t., & xuexi, h. (2014). analysis of the returns of small and medium-sized enterprises in mongolia. journal of finance and accounting, 2(3), 41–47. lockett, a., & thompson, s. (2001). the resource-based view and economics. journal of management, 6, 723–754. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630102700608 maas, g. (2014). entering the family business. in g. nieman & c. nieuwenhuizen (eds.), entrepreneurship: a south african perspective (3rd ed., pp. 235–248). pretoria: van schaik publishers. madzivanzira, a. (2011). smes key to economic recovery, the patriot, retrieved from http://www.thepatriot.co.zw/old_posts/smes-key-to-economic-recovery/. manufacturing circle (2012), quarterly review, third quarter. mitchelmore, s., & rowley, j. (2010). entrepreneurial competencies: a literature review and development agenda. international journal of entrepreneurial behavior& research, 16(2), 92–111. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552551011026995 mudavanhu, v., bindu, s., chigusiwa, l., & muchabaiwa, l. (2011). determinants of small and medium enterprises failure in zimbabwe: a case study of bindura. international journal of economics and research, 2(5), 82–89. neneh, n.b., & van zyl, j.h. (2012). achieving optimal business performance through business practices: evidence from smes in selected areas in south africa. retrieved from http://www.unisa.ac.za/contents/faculties/service_dept/docs/sabview_16_3_chap_6.pdf. neuman, w.l. (2006). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches (6th ed.). boston, ma: pearson education inc. nieman, g., & bennett, a. (2006). business management: a value chain approach. pretoria: van schaik publishers. nkosi, e., bounds, m., & goldman, g., (2013). skills required for the management of black owned small enterprises in soweto. acta commercii, 13(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v13i1.186 oecd. (2017, june 7–8). enhancing the contributions of smes in a global and digitalised economy. meeting of the oecd council at ministerial level paris. ogiogio, g. (2005). measuring performance of interventions in capacity building: some fundamentals. the african capacity building foundation occasional running paper 4, pp. 1–21. nairobi: afican capacity building foundation. penrose, e. (1959). the theory of the growth of the firm. new york: wiley. peteraf, m.a. (1993). the cornerstone of competitive advantage; a resource – based view. strategic management journal, 14, 179–191. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250140303 rahman, s., mokhtar, s.b., yassin, r.m., & hamzah, m.i.m. (2011). generic skills among technical students in malaysia. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 15, 3713–3717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.04.361 rambe, p., & makhalemele, n. (2015). relationship between managerial competencies of owners/managers of emerging technology firms and business performance: a conceptual framework of internet cafés performance in south africa. international business & economics research journal, 14(4), 678–692. https://doi.org/10.19030/iber.v14i4.9357 ramukumba, t. (2014). overcoming smes challenges through critical success factors: a case of smes in the western cape province, south africa. economic and business review, 16(1), 19–38. ray, g, barney, j.b., & muhanna, w.a. (2004). capabilities, business processes, and competitive advantage: choosing the dependent variable in empirical tests of the resource-based view. strategic management journal, 25, 23–37. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.366 rettab, b., & azzam, a. (2011). performance of family and non-family firms with self-selection: evidence from dubai. modern economy, 2, 625–632. https://doi.org/10.4236/me.2011.24070 robbins, r., & hunsaker, p. (2006). training in interpersonal skills: tips for managing people at work, upper saddle river, nj: prentice-hall. roberts, p.w., & dowling, g.r. (2002). corporate reputation and sustained superior financial performance. strategic management journal, 23, 1077–1093. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.274 rößl, d., fink, m., & kraus, s. (2010). are family firms fit for innovation? towards an agenda for empirical research. international journal of entrepreneurial venturing, 2(3/4), 366–380. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijev.2010.037118 rumelt, r.p. (1987). theory, strategy, and entrepreneurship. in d. j. teece (ed.), the competitive challenge (pp. 137–158). cambridge, ma: ballinger publishing company. sedco. (2004). regional assessments reports. gweru: mambo. small enterprise development agency (seda). (2012), research on the performance of the manufacturing sector, umjwali market research. sachikonye, s., & sibanda, m. (2016). an assessment of smes’ financing by commercial banks in zimbabwe. acta universitatis danubius. œconomica), 12(6), 213–224. sandada, m., & mangwandi, l. (2015). an assessment of the influence of selected smes on the performance of small to medium sized family owned businesses in the zimbabwe retail sector. audoe 11(5), 5–16. sangoseni, o., hellman, m., & hill, c. (2013). development and validation of a questionnaire to assess the effect of online learning on behaviors, attitude and clinical practices of physical therapists in united states regarding of evidence‑based practice. internet journal of allied health science practice, 11, 1–12. sharma, p. (2004). an overview of the field of family business studies: current status and directions for the future. family business review, xvii(1), 1–36. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6248.2004.00001. sharma, p., chrisman, j.j., & gersick, k.e. (2012). 25 years of family business review: reflections on the past and perspectives for the future. family bussiness review, 25, 5–15. sidek, s., & mohamad, m.r. (2014). managerial competencies and small business growth: empirical evidence from microfinance participants. ijms, 21(1), 39–59. sikomwe, s., mhonde, c., mbetu, k.c., mavhiki, s., & mapetere, d. (2012). critical perspectives on succession planning in the commuter transport sector in zimbabwe. international journal of business and social science, 3(5), 230–241. sirmon, d.g., & hitt, m.a (2003). managing resources: linking unique resources, management and wealth creation in family firms. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 27, 339–358. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-8520.t01-1-00013 smith, b., & morse, e. (2005). entrepreneurial competencies: literature review and best practices. canada, ottawa: small business policy branch. spriggs, m., yu, a., deeds, d., & sorenson, r.l. (2013). too many cooks in the kitchen: innovative capacity, collaborative network orientation, and performance in small family businesses. family business review, 26(32), 32–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894486512468600 stoetzer, u. (2010). interpersonal relationships at work organization working conditions and health. stockholm: karolinka institute publishers. strebler, m., robinson, d., & heron, p. (1997). getting the best out of your competencies. brighton: institute of employment studies, university of sussex. tarwirei, m.d. (2015). the impact of managerial competencies on the performance of smes in the buffalo city municipality, a dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the masters degree in business management in the faculty of management and commerce, university of fort hare. trochim, w.m.k. (2006). convergent & discriminant validity, retrieved from https://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/convdisc.php. utrilla, p.n., & torralega, f.a.g. (2012). family businesses: how to measure their performance. african journal of business management, 6(12), 4612–4621. velegrakis, g., morgado, l., & dominguez, c. et al. (2009). sme managers’ required entrepreneurship and business competences (poster), in centeris. conference on enterprise information systems. esposende, portugal: utad, pp. 725–726. visser, t., & chiloane-tsoka, e. (2014). an exploration into family business and smes in south africa. problems and perspectives in management, 12(4), 427–432. werner, s., & chlosta, s. (2018). driving factors of innovation in family and non-family smes. small business economics, 50(1), 201–218. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-017-9884-4 wernerfelt, b. (1984). a resource-based view of the firm (1984). strategic management journal, 5(2), 171–180. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250050207 yildiz, s., & karakas, a. (2012). defining methods and criteria for measuring business performance: a comparative research between the literature in turkey and foreign. 8th international strategic management conference, procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 58, 1091–1102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.1090 yip, g.s., devinney, t.m., & johnson, g. (2009). measuring long term superior performance: the uk’s long-term superior performers 1984–2003. long range planning, 42, 390–413. yordanova, d. (2012). development and selection of successors in family firms: evidence from bulgaria. in annual book of sofia university ‘st. kliment ohridski’, 10, 91–103. zahra, s.a. (2005). entrepreneurial riskttaking in family firms. family business review, 18(1), 23–40. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6248.2005.00028.x zahra, s.a., hayton, j.c., neubaum, d.o., dibrell, c., & craig, j. (2008). culture of family commitment and strategic flexibility: the moderating effect of stewardship. entrepreneurship: theory & practice, 32, 1035–1054.s. zapata, m.i.b., brito, a.e.p., & triay, j.h.b. (2014). financial management in the family and non-family sme’s in the textile industry in mexico. accounting & taxation, 6(2), 49–57. zindiye, s., chiliya, n., & masocha, r., (2012). the impact of government and other institutions’ support on the performance of small and, medium enterprises in the manufacturing sector in harare, zimbabwe. the international journal of business management, economics research, 3(6), 655–667. abstract introduction research design research results and findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) charles cobbinah department of business management, university of fort hare, south africa willie t. chinyamurindi department of business management, university of fort hare, south africa citation cobbinah, c., & chinyamurindi, w.t. (2018). motivational factors for engaging in dirty work entrepreneurship among a sample of african immigrant entrepreneurs in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a1025. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.1025 original research motivational factors for engaging in dirty work entrepreneurship among a sample of african immigrant entrepreneurs in south africa charles cobbinah, willie t. chinyamurindi received: 08 dec. 2017; accepted: 29 may 2018; published: 30 oct. 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: south africa is witnessing a large number of african immigrants coming into the country. these immigrants seek formal and informal employment. one sector favoured is ‘dirty work’ within the informal sector. research purpose: to investigate the immigrants’ motivational factors influencing migration and dirty work entrepreneurship in south africa. motivation for the study: because of the dynamic nature of political and economic circumstances that affect a country’s employment options, calls have been made for empirical focus on understanding the career development processes of neglected sample groups such as immigrants and even those engaged in dirty work. research approach/design and method: a qualitative research approach was utilised based on the narratives and stories of 27 immigrant entrepreneurs in the informal sector engaged in dirty work careers. main findings: three narratives emerged as motivating factors for migrating: (1) socio-economic issues, (2) lack of opportunities and (3) experience of a new life. furthermore, three motivational factors led into dirty work careers: (1) challenges of breaking into formal employment because of immigration rules, (2) motivation from social networks the immigrants belong to and (3) an enterprising spirit, driven by ambition. practical/managerial implications: based on the findings, interventions can be proposed to assist not only those engaged in dirty work but also migrants and citizens seeking opportunities in this sector. contribution/value add: this study advances the literature in dirty work research within a south african context. further, the study gives currency to an often neglected yet important sample group in dirty work entrepreneurship, who also happen to be immigrants. introduction small, micro and medium enterprises (smmes) offer great economic value in alleviating poverty (charman, petersen, piper, liedeman, & legg, 2017; peberdy & rogerson, 2000). within these enterprises are careers classified as ‘dirty work’ because of the association taint and precarious connotations that accompany them (ashforth, kreiner, clark, & fugate, 2017; budlender & fauvelle-aymar, 2014; hughes, 1958). informal sector careers such as hairdressing, shoe repairing, vulcanising, masonry and others fall under physical and social dirty work (ashforth & kreiner, 2014). as an international trend, south african society perceives dirty work as undesirable and therefore extends the perceived dirty nature of the work to the people who perform it (ashforth & kreiner, 2014; bickmeier, lopina, & rogelberg, 2014; crush, 2011). the associated social stigmatisation devalues both formal and informal sector dirty workers and fosters an inferiority complex (ashforth et al., 2017; berkelaar, buzzanell, kisselburgh, tan, & shen, 2012). dirty work careers offer opportunities for a significant number of african immigrants (hart & acs, 2011; vinogradov & jorgensen, 2017). however, in south africa, this category of immigrants who are not in the formal sector is stratified and stigma is affixed to them (crush, 2000; peberdy & rogerson, 2000). therefore immigrants choosing stigmatised career paths suggest underlying motives influencing these choices. despite the rise in immigrant dirty work entrepreneurship (e.g. fatoki & patswawaire, 2012; kalitanyi & visser, 2010), notably little research within a south african context exists. this research seeks to respond to these calls made and contribute towards immigrants’ career development processes (crush, 2017; greyling, 2016). research purpose and objective the study explored immigrants’ motivational factors in migrating and entrance into dirty work careers in the eastern cape province of south africa. this became relevant in the following ways. foremost, dirty work is known to exist and hence such unusual but crucial careers ought to be performed just as mainstream labour (ashforth & kreiner, 2014; miller & breton-miller, 2017). in the case of south africa, budlender and fauvelle-aymar (2014) report that the percentage of immigrants working in the informal sector (where dirty work persists) is almost twice as high as that of citizens. all this supports the arguments for the need to understand the economic gains and important roles played by immigrants in the host country (neves & du toit, 2012; van den bergh & du plessis, 2012). secondly, south africa is currently the largest economy in africa but it has its own share of unskilled, undereducated and unemployed black and mixed-race citizens whose formal sector prospects are impacted (broussard, 2017; statistics south africa, 2017). within these groups, those without matric (grade 12) constitute more than 58% of the unemployment rate (stats sa, 2013). these citizens may experience socio-economic conditions and hardships often synonymous with immigrants (broussard, 2017). further, the south african informal sector economy has an insignificant impact on the economic development agenda (charman et al., 2017). there is general lack of interest and readiness to work in precarious working conditions (budlender & fauvelle-aymar, 2014). this may contribute to workforce shortages as well as the marginalisation of dirty workers (berkelaar et al., 2012). calls exist for the expansion of informal economic activities and entrepreneurship to stimulate economic growth in marginalised communities (charman et al., 2017; crush, 2011). however, the immigrants’ dominance in the informal sector and settlements often result in severe hostility manifestations such as xenophobic attacks (crush, 2000; kalitanyi & visser, 2010), hence the need to identify and address factors that may affect the lived experiences of dirty workers. the main research question guiding this study was: what factors (given the south african context) influence entry into the host country and dirty work entrepreneurship in the informal sector? factors influencing immigrant movements this study uses a push–pull plus concept (van hear, bakewell, & long, 2017) as one of its theoretical bases. it stresses the significance of different internal and external forces driving international mobility. several studies have attempted to explain what factors push people out of their country and pull them towards another (harry, dodd, & chinyamurindi, 2017; selmer & lauring, 2011; van hear et al., 2017). while push factors are internal drivers within the home country, pull factors are external within the host country. individuals and the circumstances serving as their motivation for migration vary (harry et al., 2017). it all depends on the type of individual, demographics, economics, political conditions, ethnicity, race and gender, among others (pheko, 2014; selmer & lauring, 2011). studies on skilled african expatriates cite worsening economic and political conditions and stagnant career development as the main push factors and the reverse of such conditions – stability, security and better work environments – form pull factors for migrating (harry et al., 2017; van den bergh & du plessis, 2012). generally, motivation for migrating from less developed countries to a more highly developed one includes escape from adverse situations for employment opportunities, financial success and life change (harry et al., 2017; selmer & lauring, 2011). given the complexity surrounding push and pull drivers and growing theories, there are arguments for the need for more empirical research into modern-day african immigrants within the context of developing countries (van hear et al., 2017). through this, the role played by motivational factors and their association with dirty work entrepreneurship could be established. factors influencing immigrants’ involvement in dirty work two models are considered as influencing entry into dirty work. firstly, the model of entrepreneurial careers (mec) of dyer (1994) and second, the model of challenge-based entrepreneurship (mcbe) by miller and breton-miller (2017). in the mec, career socialisation and the antecedents that influence career choice address immigrants’ career dynamics and dilemmas. the antecedents (individual, social and economic) are classified by dyer (1994) as factors that influence an entrepreneur’s career decision-making. similarly, in the mcbe, four aspects play a role in immigrants’ entrepreneurship journey. these are (1) the types of challenges such as socio-cultural, economic, cognitive, physical and emotional; (2) conditions and experiences; (3) adaptive requirements and (4) outcomes. bridging these models suggests that experiences in struggling to overcome challenges in life may translate into a positive work attitude and discipline. dyer (1994, p. 10) notes that people from deprived homes marked with poverty and parental neglect become ‘highly impulsive, reject authority figures, have persistent feelings of rejection and isolation’. this leads to inferior linguistic skills and cultural adaptation even if they migrate (aliaga-isla & rialp, 2012; ruiz, ibarreche, peterson, & guerrero, 2017). on this subject, various literature links adverse economic factors to educational quality and one’s ability to find acceptable employment (bontis, crossan, & hulland, 2002; dimov, 2007). additionally, immigrants often find themselves outside the mainstream labour markets because of work restrictions, local laws and various hiring practices (bogan & darity, 2008; hart & acs, 2011). this creates unemployment, a sense of loss and leads to unusual types of work or consideration of self-employment (block, kohn, miller, & ullrich, 2015; masurel, nijkamp, tastan, & vindigni, 2002; minniti & nardone, 2006). when the challenges become conditions, socialisation forms adaptive measures to compensate and reach an outcome (dyer, 1994; miller & breton-miller, 2017). the need for engaging other individual entrepreneurs has been found as one of the means of seeking social learning in the opportunity development process (dutta & crossan, 2005; kautonen & palmroos, 2010). an immigrant may appeal to fellow immigrants for vocational aid and social support (aliaga-isla & rialp, 2012; miller & breton-miller, 2017). this gives an indication that life challenges and hardships may induce special entrepreneur conditions for coping with such circumstances. research design research approach a qualitative research approach based on narratives and stories of individual participants was adopted. this approach brought about the deeper understanding of the immigrants’ motivational factors in an expanded form. the strength of qualitative research in studies related to immigrants and entrepreneurship is the enhancement of participants’ free flow and expression concerning the phenomenon under-study in their natural setting (cohen, manion, & morrison, 2011; pheko, 2014). this allowed collection of relevant information from participants because stories ‘act in people’s lives in ways that matter deeply’ (smith, 2016, p. 202). research strategy in-depth interviews with probing were conducted to allow individual participants to put their lived experiences in a narrative context for the attainment of the richest source of information (smith, 2016). interviewing helped in eliciting ‘meaning-making’ stories and reflections from those lived experiences and in understanding the rationale behind participants’ responses (chinyamurindi, 2016, 2017; saldana, 2009). research method sampling and participants out of a group of african immigrant owners in dirty work careers operating in east london, 27 participants (19 males and 8 females from 7 different countries) were selected to participate in the research. a non-probability sampling method with a snowball sampling technique was employed in selecting participants (cohen et al., 2011). the following inclusion and exclusion criteria were used to select participants: (1) a participant had to be self-expatriated, (2) a participant had to establish his or her own dirty work business from scratch and (3) a participant had to be the one responsible for managing such a business. the criteria were further used by the key informants in the recruiting process. this ensured consistency in the information gathered from the participants’ experiences in dirty work. the participants’ demographic characteristics are illustrated in table 1. table 1: participant profiles. data collection methods a carefully developed interview guide with open-ended questions was utilised for the interviews. prior to every interview, the participants were briefed thoroughly and reassured of their rights and responsibilities in the participation in the research (miles, huberman, & saldana, 2014). the interviews were conducted at times and in places (mostly at the business premises) identified by the participants as convenient. the interviews were conducted between april 2017 and august 2017 and lasted a maximum of 63 min. recording of the data data analysis completed transcriptions were imported to qsr nvivo version 11 for better data management and analysis (woods, paulus, atkins, & macklin, 2016). the three levels of meaning-making adopted from previous research (chinyamurindi, 2016, chinyamurindi 2017; harry et al., 2017; richards, 2015) formed the data analysis procedure. in level 1, an indwelling process started. each interview was read and the audio recordings listened to multiple times to understand and connect participants’ lived experiences in migration and dirty work (smith, 2016; toolis & hammack, 2015). stories and structure were identified from the data. level 2 helped to classify responses into meaningful categories where the factors, their meanings and quotes based on their consistencies across the stories narrated by the individual participants were identified (chinyamurindi, 2016; saldana, 2009). level 3 helped to analyse the content of the narrative accounts gathered as well as the factors that served as themes (richards, 2015; saldana, 2009). strategies to ensure data quality and reporting strict guidelines were followed to ensure data quality and reporting. firstly, an interview guide was designed and reviewed by experts and was piloted in the validation process. secondly, data collection lasted for a 5-month period, which allowed a relaxed atmosphere with adequate researcher reflections and accurate transcription. data collection stopped only when the researchers were convinced that data saturation was reached, whereby no new information was extracted from the analysis. the researchers checked and verified the factors that emerged to reduce subjectivity and optimise the validity of the analysis as well as the internal reliability of the research (miles et al., 2014). ethical considerations this research followed the institutional ethical requirements. participants were served with letters and consent forms detailing the objectives, confidentiality issues and their right to participation (miles et al., 2014). research results and findings drawing from the data analysis, two main findings emerged. while the first finding was the motivating factors for leaving the home country, the second was the motivation to enter into dirty work in the host country. tables 2 and 3 present the summary of the findings. table 2: motivating factors for leaving home country. table 3: motivational factors for dirty work. motivating factors to migrate table 2 presents the three considered motivational factors for migrating from the home country. the first two factors can be considered as push factors while the third one forms a pull factor. the first factor, socio-economic issues, covers the home country’s poor economy, poverty, parental and personal hardship, living and financial constraints. this factor was summed up as having influenced most of the participants’ education and infringed on their competitive abilities and hence the decision for migrating (see table 2 for illustrating quotes). the stories of two participants, victoria and alfred, can be cited as examples. for victoria: ‘i did finish senior secondary school (matric) and i passed very well but [had] no money to carry on, no opportunities for me. i became eager to travel; you know; my country is hard economically i needed to leave …’ (victoria, female, hairdresser, ghana) to alfred, experiencing hardships because of socio-economic issues coupled with inadequate skill was difficult to manage. he explained: ‘things were bad back home for me and my family … i was facing severe challenges. there was no money, adequate food and resources and i was a bright guy but i couldn’t pass form six very well. i didn’t get a job back home and i knew that i can get a job when i come to south africa …’ (alfred, male, carpenter, zimbabwe) a second factor motivating participants’ decision to migrate was the lack of comparable opportunities especially in the area of jobs and remuneration (more quotes in table 2). although some of the participants cited that they were not idle in the home country, most of them perceived better achievements abroad. one participant, chanda, despite working as a professional hairdresser, felt the limitation in such career and hence sought to relive her shattered dreams elsewhere. in her narration she mentioned: ‘in my country those who have [become] established already are fine but some of us who were in the informal business like hairdressing – it’s not easy, it [is] just struggling and hand to mouth affairs … so it was difficult to make it big with this hairdressing there.’ (chanda, female, hairdresser, zambia) in addition to the two identified factors contributing to participants’ decision to migrate, the need for a new life experience outside their home country was cherished. ‘i decided to travel because my petty trading business wasn’t meeting my dream target. i knew there was no way to overcome all the difficulties and become somebody at home at that time … i used to see those who come from abroad and how they were progressing in life so i was motivated; that is why i’m here and still forcing [myself] to work hard to succeed.’ (kentana, male, rubble removals, mozambique) in addition to the illustrating quotes (table 2) and that of kentana, the desire to make life better in the host country to compensate for the impacts of experienced socio-economic hardship became a motivational source for migrating. the study also focused on the motivation for indulging in dirty work entrepreneurship. the immigrants’ motivational factors in becoming dirty work entrepreneurs the challenge of breaking into formal employment because of immigration rules became a route to dirty work entrepreneurship. although prior to migration, some participants anticipated finding jobs in the formal sector, informal sector dirty work became a career option. this was because of lack of meeting work permit requirements or failure to attain documentation on time (illustrating quotes in table 3). for example, bless, with his honours degree, had the prospect of finding a befitting job affected. as stated below: ‘when i came, acquiring a document became a problem as the policies were changed so often. as things were delayed, i opted to enter into the informal sector and work in the salon rather for the time being while sorting out my documentation … i was thinking i was going to get a job as a banker, teacher or manager in a company but none came my way because of documents delay …’ (bless, male, hairdresser, nigeria) this factor influenced the participants’ plans, perceptions about careers and their stigma as well as entrepreneurship intentions and behaviours. the story of prince appears to reveal this: ‘i became stranded in a way since i needed to sort out my documentation and at the same time needed money to survive … by the look of things, i found that documentation was a problem as per requirements, a company needs to have your work permit of which at that time i was not having but i knew … i can manage my own small business in the informal sector. i will say i might have entered into the formal sector if i had the document …’ (prince, male, carpenter, ghana) the second motivating factor emanated from the social networks immigrants belong to (more quotes in table 3). newer immigrants sought support in the form of jobs and skills from the established ones. in return, the established immigrants accepted such requests. the participants (except one) attributed dirty work career involvement to this factor. for example, joseph arrived without a certificate, skill or capital and lacked valid documents; despite this he turned into a dirty work entrepreneur through others. he explains: ‘when i came to south africa in 2005, i joined other foreigners who were doing these jobs already so they took me and taught me how to do [these] carpentry and tiling jobs … i spent about one year three months for carpentry and tiling took me about six months. i then worked with these artisans before i left … besides that, there was nothing immediate for me to do since i was not having documents.’ (joseph, male, carpenter, mozambique) similarly, patience, despite being a professional hairstylist before migrating, still had to connect and depend on established immigrants for support. she narrated: ‘i was a professional hairdresser already … it’s just that nobody comes with capital to start a business. so that was why i worked with somebody to get some money to buy the needed tools to start my own salon business … so i worked for someone for a while to get a paper and also to know the market and how things work here.’ (patience, female, hairdresser, ghana) finally, an enterprising spirit driven by ambition (further quotes in table 3) was a motivating factor paving the way to dirty work entrepreneurship. in all cases, despite being accepted at a place of work at a time of need, participants were still sceptical and eager to break out and establish their own careers. amon put it succinctly: ‘when i came, i started working as a chef but in a small business and the salary was not good enough for me to survive. so i left and started working in a construction industry. the pay was not much … then my uncle employed me in his tree felling business … i started doing all the jobs but he pays me little portion, so i said to myself, why can’t i do my own thing to be my own boss? so i bought one machine to start with.’ (amon, male, tree felling, zimbabwe) drawing from the strong desire to succeed in the host country, in some instances, participants such as prince relied on income analysis discourse as a measure to influence the rationale to become self-employed. he said: ‘i started from the salon working for somebody but i felt that i was underpaid and cheated in a way. i did my own analysis from the income we were generating at the salon and how much i was paid, so this motivated me to take the necessary steps to save and leave and set up my own business and utilise my main skill …’ (prince, male, carpenter, ghana) even participants such as shan who had once had a formal job discontinued it because of the urgent zeal to succeed. he narrated: ‘when art business was bad, i looked for employment in the formal sector as a driver, but there too the salary was not good so after two years i decided to be self-employed so that i can make something for myself. i didn’t want to be addicted to this small monthly salary and job, because there could be retrenchment, or the business can collapse, and then i can get stuck in life … so i started this rubble removals business in 2006.’ (shan, male, rubble removal, zimbabwe) the main motivating factor was the search for greater financial independence and individual economic stability en route to overturning past experiences of hardship. hence, dirty work entrepreneurship forms part of their economic emancipation. discussion outline of the findings this study investigated the motivating factors of african immigrants leaving their home countries for south africa. these factors are as follows: (1) socio-economic issues, (2) lack of competitive opportunities and (3) the desire to experience a new life abroad. their interactions, experiences and relationships with adverse circumstances in their home country called for migration in order to redefine their life. the motivating factors for being involved in dirty work career entrepreneurship are (1) problems with immigration paperwork, (2) social network involvement and (3) an enterprising spirit. thus, the document challenges encountered forced the participants to make use of their social networks and the need to be independent dirty work entrepreneurs was drawn from ambitious enterprising spirit. although the former factors served as push factors for leaving home countries and the later formed the pull factors for being dirty workers in the host country, great challenges formed part of the immigrants’ successful stories in adaptability. relating main findings to the literature in this study, the adverse socio-economic conditions experienced by the participants influenced the decision to migrate, and this is consistent with previous studies. people, especially those from less developed countries, migrate to disassociate themselves from challenges faced in the home country (harry et al., 2017; van den bergh & du plessis, 2012). however, political factors were not considered as a push factor by the participants, as they were by skilled immigrants (harry et al., 2017); rather the participants emphasised the role of perceived poor economic status in their home countries coupled with socio-economic hardships. this factor also contributed to educational constraint (bontis et al., 2002) as many participants failed to realise their educational potential. the lack of opportunities also topped up as a push factor (van hear et al., 2017). it reinforced participants’ internal desires to self-migrate (harry et al., 2017) and formed the roadmap for justifying the pull factors from the host country. this confirms prior findings that employment, financial and improved living prospects motivate immigrants to migrate (harry et al., 2017; selmer & lauring, 2011). as demonstrated in previous studies, the lack of work permits excluded and restricted the participants from formal jobs (bogan & darity, 2008; minniti & nardone, 2006). perhaps this is because the sample generally was unskilled immigrants. however, in this study, permits were not a prerequisite for hiring by established immigrant managers, through whom the participants were absorbed into informal sector dirty work careers. this is well supported by studies that place unemployment and illegality among the primary factors of immigrants becoming entrepreneurs out of necessity (block et al., 2015; bontis et al., 2002). in line with the literature, the social networks provided immigrants with informal training and learning (aliaga-isla & rialp, 2012), skill acquisition and enhancement (kautonen & palmroos, 2010), employment and information sharing (masurel et al., 2002; ruiz et al., 2017). however, engagement with their social networks became a temporary mechanism for coping with challenges. documentation shortfall, the inability to fit into corporate jobs because of inadequate skills and education and lack of initial capital to set up business in the informal sector influenced this association. in addition, because the social network was deemed as a last resort, the participants fully utilised the opportunities therein to develop their dirty work careers. according to theories, challenges faced in their home and host countries evoked action, shaped their attitude towards reality and forced them to meet those challenges with social networking and hard work (dimov, 2007; miller & breton-miller, 2017). for an immigrant to become an independent entrepreneur out of necessity requires an enterprising spirit (block et al., 2015) solely driven by strong ambition. uniquely to this study, the participants considered this factor to breed the breakout attributes driving their self-employment prospects. these attributes included vigorous analysis of (1) income and expenditure, (2) remuneration and work effort and (3) employment and stability, as well as positive jealousy (desire to reach the employer’s position), discontentment and a sense of urgency regarding success. their considerations accelerated the participants’ motives for skill, knowledge and resource acquisition while employed so that they could then take on high risk endeavours in dirty work. these attributes might explain why immigrants dominate informal sector activities in the host country over citizens (budlender & fauvelle-armar, 2014). this current research adds that immigrants remain more dissatisfied as dirty work employees than by the associated distasteful nature of the employment; however, their satisfaction is restored when they become self-employed in dirty work. practical implication many countries, including developing ones, are experiencing an influx of unskilled and undereducated international immigrants (fatoki & patswawairi; 2012; vinogradov & jorgensen, 2017). however, they should not be viewed in a negative light but as a valuable human resource with a hidden talent for vital dirty work entrepreneurship. the immigrants lacked adequate skills, advanced educational qualifications, financial capital upon arrival and battled with barriers in the host country. however, from their account, within an average of three years, they advanced in dirty work careers. this valuable ability to deal with unwelcome situations may encourage citizens or immigrants seeking access to a new life. inspiration could be drawn from the immigrants’ utilisation of social networks to learn, perfect skills and accumulate resources (aliaga-isla & rialp, 2012; ruiz et al., 2017). in addition, the significance attached to dirty work employment irrespective of little remuneration and greater taint (ashforth et al., 2017) with the aim of tapping it for informal learning opportunities is worth adapting. this is an essential factor for citizens without or with matric but with no skills or formal employment to consider. the enterprising spirit as narrated could be used as an empowerment tool for breaking the circle of the ‘once employed remained employed’ attitude of some people. importantly, having knowledge about the depth of constraints immigrants’ experience, their resilience, strategies and motivations for overcoming such difficulties may equip people in similar circumstances. it may lead to alteration of hostile perceptions harboured against them and help to expand smme economic activities in the informal sector (charman et al., 2017). as a heterogeneous group, immigrants require future research to deeply and widely look into their motivating factors for surviving in host countries without becoming homeless. with this, it could be established how this wealth of entrepreneurship characteristics became ingrained in this category of immigrants. this is essential because this research suggests that african immigrants fine-tune their innate entrepreneurship characteristics to easily adapt to dirty work careers in the host country. limitations the findings of this research should be cautiously interpreted and applied but are not generalisable based on some limitations. firstly, the sample consisted of immigrants (who happened to be unskilled) from only seven different african countries residing in south africa, with varying cultural situations. secondly, the dirty work businesses from which participants were selected were smmes with very few (involving five or fewer) employees, and those businesses varied in nature. thirdly, only three locations in one town, mainly composed of african immigrant businesses, made up the demographic. furthermore, only participants known to have established businesses and managed them by themselves were involved in the study. conclusion currently, because of advances in communication systems and human interactions, opportunities are easily spotted from abroad and this has led to migration between developed and developing countries. many skilled or unskilled individuals can easily self-migrate. as a result, many unskilled and undereducated migrants have joined dirty work careers. however, research about this category of immigrants in this type of career is still limited. this study contributes to the understanding of the motivating factors underlying the decision to migrate and participate in dirty work entrepreneurship as a career path in south africa. this research finding lays the basis for future research on immigrants and dirty work. acknowledgements the authors thank all the participants of this study. furthermore, the authors wish to thank the govan mbeki research development centre at the university of fort hare for providing funding to conduct this study. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions c.c. collected and analysed the data. he was responsible for writing the first two drafts of this paper. w.c. supervised c.c.’s postdoctoral fellowship. he also oversaw the data analysis and writing of the article. funding generous funding to conduct this study was provided by the govan mbeki research development centre at the university of fort hare. references aliaga-isla, r., & rialp, a. (2012). how do information and experiences play a role in the discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities? the case of latin-american immigrants in barcelona. latin american review, 13, 59–80. https://doi.org/10.1080/10978526.2012.675866 ashforth, b. f., & kreiner, g. e. (2014). dirty work and dirtier work: differences in countering physical, social and moral taint. management and organisation review, 10(1), 81–108. https://doi.org/10.1111/more.12044 ashforth, b. e., kreiner, g. e., clark, m. a., & fugate, m. (2017). congruence work in stigmatized occupations: a managerial lens on employee fit with dirty work. journal of organisational behaviour, 38, 1260–1279. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2201 bickmeier, r., lopina, e. c., & rogelberg, s. g. (2014). dirty work, well-being and performance. in m. veldhovan & r. peccei (eds.), well-being and performance at work (pp. 1–16). london: psychology press. block, j., kohn, k., miller, d., & ullrich, k. (2015). necessity entrepreneurship and competitive strategy. small business economics, 44(1), 37–54. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-014-9589-x bogan, v., & darity, w. (2008). culture and entrepreneurship? african american and immigrant self-employment in the united states. the journal of socio-economics, 37(5), 1999–2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2007.10.010 bontis, n., crossan, m. m., & hullard, j. (2002). managing an organizational learning system by aligning stocks and flows. journal of management studies, 39(4), 437–469. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.t01-1-00299 broussard, n. h. (2017). immigration and the labour market outcomes of natives in developing countries: a case study of south africa. economic development and cultural change, 65(3), 389–424. https://doi.org/10.1086/690648 budlender, d., & fauvelle-aymar, c. (2014). migration and employment in southern africa: statistical and econometric analysis of internal and international migrants in statistics south africa’s labour market data. migration for work consortium (miworc) policy brief, 6(2), 1–92. berkelaar, b. l., buzzanell, p. m., kisselburgh, l. g., tan, w., & shen, y. (2012). first, it’s dirty. second, it’s dangerous. third, it’s insulting: urban chinese children talk about dirty work. communication monographs, 79(1), 93–114. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2011.646490 charman, a. j. e., petersen, l. m., piper, l. e., liedeman, r., & legg, t. (2017). small area census approach to measure the township informal economy in south africa. journal of mixed methods research, 11(1), 36–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1558689815572024 chinyamurindi, w. t. (2016). using narrative analysis to understand factors influencing career choice amongst a sample of distance learning students in south africa. south african journal of psychology, 46(3), 390–400. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246315623662 chinyamurindi, w. t. (2017). ‘mind the gap’ – experiences of previously disadvantaged individuals studying by distance learning: a case of selected unisa students in the eastern cape. progressio, 39(1), 34–48. https://doi.org/10.25159/0256-8853/1938 cohen, l., manion, l., & morrison, k. (2011). planning educational research. research methods in education. new york: routledge. crush, j. (2000). the dark side of democracy: migration, xenophobia and human rights in south africa. international migration, 38(6), 103–123. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2435.00145 crush, j. (2011). complex movements, confused responses: labour migration in south africa. samp policy brief, 25, 1–27. crush, j. (2017). informal migrant entrepreneurship and inclusive growth in south africa, zimbabwe and mozambique. cape town; southern african migration programme. dimov, d. (2007). beyond the single-person, single-insight attribution in understanding entrepreneurial opportunities. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 31(5), 713–731. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2007.00196.x dutta, d. k., & crossan, m. m. (2005). the nature of entrepreneurial opportunities: understanding the process using the 4i organizational learning framework. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 29(4), 425–449. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2005.00092.x dyer, w. g. (1994). toward a theory of entrepreneurial careers. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 19(2), 7–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/104225879501900202 fatoki, o., & patswawairei, t. (2012). the motivations and obstacles to immigrant entrepreneurship in south africa. journal of social sciences, 32(2), 133–142. greyling, t. (2016). the expected well-being of urban refugees and asylum-seekers in johannesburg. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 19(2), 232–248. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v19i2.1317 harry, t. t., dodd, n. m., & chinyamurindi, w. t. (2017). using narratives to understand the motivational factors and experience of being a self-initiated academic expatriate in south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 15(0), a797. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.797 hart, d. m., & acs, z. j. (2011). high-tech immigrant entrepreneurship in the united states. economic development quarterly, 25(2), 116–129. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891242410394336 hughes, e. c. (1958). men and their work. glencoe: free press. kalitanyi, v., & visser, k. (2010). african immigrants in south africa: job takers or job creators?. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 13(4), 376–390. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v13i4.91 kautonen, t., & palmroos, j. (2010). the impact of a necessity based start-up on subsequent entrepreneurial satisfaction. international entrepreneurship and management journal, 6(3), 285–300. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-008-0104-1 masurel, e., nijkamp, p., tastan, m., & vindigni, g. (2002). motivations and performance conditions for ethnic entrepreneurship. growth and change, 33(2), 238–260. https://doi.org/10.1111/0017-4815.00189 miles, m. b., huberman, a. m., & saldana, j. (2014). qualitative data analysis: a methods sourcebook. california: sage. miller, d., & breton-miller, i. (2017). underdog entrepreneurs: a model of challenge-based entrepreneurship. entrepreneurial theory and practice, 41(1), 7–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/etap.12253 minniti, m., & nardone, c. (2006). ethnicity, immigration and entrepreneurial behaviour (summary). frontiers of entrepreneurship research, 26(12), article 3. http://digitalknowledge.babson.edu/fer/vol26/iss12/3. accessed: 13/03/17. neves, d., & du toit, a. (2012). money and sociality in south african informal economy, africa, 82, 131–149. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0001972011000763 peberdy, s., & rogerson, c. (2000). transnationalism and non-south african entrepreneurs in south africa’s small, medium and micro-enterprise (smme) economy. canadian journal of african studies, 34(1), 20–40. pheko, m. m. (2014). batswana female managers career experiences and perspectives on corporate mobility and success. south african journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.445 richards, l. (2015). handling qualitative data: a practical guide (3rd ed.). dorchester: sage. ruiz, m., ibarreche, s., peterson, l. t., & guerrero, l. (2017). the impact of immigrant acculturation and job search information on entrepreneurship opportunity. international journal of entrepreneurship and small business, 31(2), 288–308. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijesb.2017.10004853 saldana, j. (2009). the coding manual for qualitative researchers. london: sage. selmer, j., & lauring, j. (2011). acquired demographics and reasons to relocate among self-initiated expatriates. international journal of human resource management, 22, 2055–2070. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.580176 smith, b. (2016). ‘narrative analysis’, in e. lyons & a. coyle (eds.), analysing qualitative data in psychology (pp. 202–221). thousand oaks, ca: sage. statistics south africa. (2013). quarterly labour force survey: quarter 2, 2013. retrieved from http://microdata.worldbank.org/index.php/catalog/1634 statistics south africa. (2017). quarterly labour force survey: quarter 1, 2017. retrieved from http://statssa.gov.za/publications/po211/po2112ndquartey2016.pdf toolis, e. e., & hammack, p. l. (2015). the lived experience of homeless youth: a narrative approach. american psychological association, 2(2), 50–68. van den bergh, r., & du plessis, y. (2012). highly skilled migrant women: a career development framework. journal of management development, 31(2), 142–158. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621711211199485 van hear, n., bakewell, o., & long, k. (2017). push-pull plus: reconsidering the drivers of migration. journal of ethnic and migration studies, 44(6), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2017.1384135 vinogradov, e., & jorgensen, e. j. b. (2017). differences in international opportunity identification between native and immigrant entrepreneurs. journal of international entrepreneurship, 15, 207–228. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10843-016-0197-5 woods, m., paulus, t., atkins, d. p., & macklin, r. (2016). advancing qualitative research using qualitative data analysis software (qdas)? reviewing potential versus practice in published studies using atas. ti and nvivo, 1994–2013. social science computer review, 34(5), 597–617. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439315596311 174---12 nov 2009 [final version].indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #174 (page number not for citation purposes) human performance variation analysis: a process for human performance problem solving authors: anerie rademeyer1 yvonne du plessis1 charles h. kepner1 affi liations: 1department of human resource management, university of pretoria, south africa correspondence to: anerie rademeyer e-mail: anerie@ switchedondevelopment.com postal address: po box 524, auckland park, 2006, south africa keywords: root cause analysis; human performance assessment; human performance resolution; human performance improvement; performance management dates: received: 05 nov. 2008 accepted: 06 mar. 2009 published: 28 may 2009 how to cite this article: rademeyer, a., du plessis, y., & kepner, c.h. (2009). human performance variation analysis: a process for human performance problem solving. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), art. #174, 9 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.174 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. abstract problem-solving ability is a much sought-after trait in executives, especially if it includes the ability to solve human performance problems. this paper proposes a systematic root cause analysis process that effectively and consistently uncovers the root causes of human performance problems and controls the causes in a way that prevents the problems from recurring. applying action research the study brings into being a human performance variation analysis (hpva) process, which consists of three phases: (1) performance variation assessment, (2) performance variation analysis, and (3) performance variation resolution. the hpva provides much-needed capability in solving human performance problems in organisations. introduction according to a survey of 1 000 executives conducted by caliper associates, reported in the wall street journal by hal lancaster (hoenig, 2002, p. 338), problem-solving ability is a much sought-after trait in executives, especially if it includes the ability to solve human performance problems. human performance is an important aspect of any organisation’s performance, but, unlike other areas of company performance, so far, the root cause of human performance or non-performance has not been assessed from a root cause analysis point of view. the origins of root cause analysis can be traced to the broader fi eld of total quality management, or tqm (andersen & fagerhaug, 2006, p. 12). root cause analysis has been defi ned as 'a structured investigation that aims to identify the true cause of a problem and the actions necessary to eliminate it' (neal, watson, hicks, porter & hill, 2004, p. 75). root cause analysis originated in the fi eld of engineering, and, during the last three decades, it has been applied in fi elds such as aerospace, transportation, nuclear power, chemical processing, pollution control, information technology, manufacturing and health care (cheryl gray instructional design, n.d.). it is evident from this list that the fi eld of human resource management has not hitherto been an area in which root cause analysis has been applied. the research objective of this study was to apply and test a root cause analysis process that would uncover the causes of human performance problems. the authors believe that human performance problems require the same detailed scrutiny and attention that problems in the fi elds mentioned above do. according to piskurich (2002, pp. 57–58) and rothwell, hohne and king (2000, pp. 67–71), the most common analysis tools used to examine human performance are brainstorming, cause-and-effect analysis (also known as the fi shbone or ishikawa diagram) and the fi ve why’s technique. on the basis of their extensive experience in the fi eld of root cause analysis, the researchers recognise these techniques as robust and useful. however, these techniques do have a number of shortcomings and, as a result, are used with limited success in identifying the root causes of human performance problems. firstly, they lack a precise, agreed-upon defi nition of the required or desired performance. secondly, they lack a means of identifying what information is relevant. thirdly, they cannot identify sources of relevant, needed information, or those that can best judge the degree to which the conclusion explains the variation. fourthly, they do not give guidance as to the remedial or corrective action that should be taken, which leads to much uncertainty and a trial-and-error adaptation of the action. the result is often confusion, mistrust, resentment and an erosion of loyalty to management. what is needed is a logical and verifi able process that can establish a data point on the basis of which relevant information can be recognised and gathered and against which the conclusion can be evaluated to gain confi rmed knowledge of the root cause of the human performance problem concerned. a process is also required to facilitate the sharing of information between the manager or supervisor and the performer of an action – they should become partners in formulating ideas and conclusions based on the facts and on their combined knowledge and experience. the main aim of this paper is to report on a root cause analysis process that can assist managers and supervisors to uncover and solve the root causes of uncontrolled variations in human performance and thereby become effective problem solvers of human performance problems. research design research approach a root cause analysis process was explored in human performance by means of a qualitative research approach, using action research. according to hopkins (1993, cited in gabel, 1995), the action research framework is the most appropriate method for recognising the existence of shortcomings, because it allows a researcher to adopt an initial stance with regard to the problem(s), formulate a plan, carry out an investigation, evaluate the outcomes and develop further strategies in an iterative fashion. according to mcniff and whitehead (2006, p. 45), action research has two main purposes, namely fi rst, to contribute to new practices and, second, to contribute to new theory. they argue that the 27vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 9 original research rademeyer, du plessis & kepner sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 4 (page number not for citation purposes) 28 main social purposes of action research include that it aims to improve workplace practices by improving learning, to promote the ongoing democratic evaluation of learning and practices, and to create good social order by influencing the education of social formations (mcniff & whitehead, 2006, p. 32). action research is significant if the researcher can generate and test the theory in relation to his or her own learning, the learning of others in workplaces and social situations, and education regarding social formations (mcniff & whitehead, 2006, p. 233). research strategy the strategy used in this study was to explore a root cause analysis process that was initially developed and to refine it for human performance variation analysis. the initial root cause analysis process was applied and modified repeatedly in the light of what was observed or of the feedback that was received from respondents. therefore, the protocol followed in this study was iterative or cyclical and was aimed at developing a deeper understanding of the performance problem and the required solution. the strategy consisted of the following steps (macisaac, 1996, p. 2): realising a problem – realising that some kind of improvement or change was needed in the cause analysis approach that is currently used in performance management. planning – developing a better understanding of the problem and planning for the intervention. action – carrying out the intervention. feedback – collecting pertinent feedback during and about the intervention. reflection and revision – using reflection to develop a new intervention from the body of previous knowledge, and carrying out a new intervention until a sufficient solution for the problem was achieved. the above steps occurred in more or less the same sequence throughout the study. the realisation of the problem led to planning and the planning was in turn embedded in the action, feedback, reflection and revision. the steps were repeated until a sufficient solution to the problem that was initially identified had been developed, namely the development of a root cause analysis process for uncontrolled variations in human performance. research method research setting the root cause analysis process was tested in two organisations – the first test was conducted on a voluntary basis with a group of students at a university in italy that was founded in 1991 and offers undergraduate, graduate and executive programmes to local and international students; the second test was conducted with a consulting firm in south africa that was founded in 1986 and specialises in the fields of root cause analysis, decision making, project management, innovation, and six sigma, which is a data-driven methodology for identifying and eliminating the causes of defects and variation in manufacturing and business processes. these two organisations were appropriate for this study because they either had experience in root cause analysis or worked with variations in human performance. entrée and establishing researcher roles access was negotiated and gained to the university through the university’s associate director and the managing partner of cimba business advisement, who led the testing process and coached students during their applications. the researchers contacted and liaised directly with the consultants at the south african consulting firm, after permission was obtained from the managing director. sampling a purposive convenience sampling technique was applied, as action research was involved and participants had to understand the process. the root cause analysis process was tested by 29 students who were doing their master’s degrees in counselling psychology at the chosen university. five of the ten consultants at the consulting firm in south africa also volunteered to test the root cause analysis process. these five respondents had between five months’ and 25 years’ experience in the root cause analysis field. although these sample sizes seem relatively small, the comments cited from miles & huberman (1994, p. 27) and jones (2002, p. 4) below confirm that appropriate sample size has less to do with the actual numbers of participants than with the quality and depth of information elicited through the research process. 'qualitative researchers usually work with small samples of people, nested in their context and studied in-depth' (miles & huberman, 1994, p. 27). according to patton (1990, cited in jones, 2002, p. 4), 'sample size depends on what you want to know, the purpose of the inquiry, what’s at stake, what will be useful, what will have credibility, and what can be done with available time and resources'. patton (1990, cited in jones, 2002, p. 4) suggests that the researcher must establish a minimum sample size based on the number of participants needed to provide 'reasonable coverage of the phenomenon given the purpose of the study'. data-collection methods the purpose of data gathering is to generate evidence to support researchers’ claim to knowledge. action research was chosen as the best research method for this study, because it is a cyclical, iterative process that is rigorous, responsive, flexible and can contribute to the refinement of a root cause analysis process, as undertaken in this study. when looking for data during action research, one looks for episodes of practice that will produce evidence of one’s own learning, as well as the learning of others (mcniff & whitehead, 2006, p. 137). the study followed three iterative cycles of development and testing. cycle 1 an initial root cause analysis process (not reported here) was verified by a one-on-one consultation with the manager of a sales consultant who was not expanding the business through existing and new customers; a one-on-one consultation with the supervisor of a front-line employee who was tardy at doing certain jobs and following work procedures; and a case study of a repairman who was not following the company’s sales lead programme. the lessons learned from this cycle were used to improve areas in the root cause analysis process that required further refinement for human performance root cause analysis. cycle 2 29 students who were doing their master’s degrees in counselling psychology at a university in italy tested the root cause analysis process by applying the process to their own situations. the following are examples of the type of situations to which they applied the root cause analysis process: a performer who: is late and/or absent from meetings.• ignores e-mails, calls and messages and has not met with • the supervisor for three weeks. does not complete the test in the allocated time.• does not consistently interact socially.• does not attend classes.• breaks the law by stealing.• the students received a worksheet and process questions as support materials. the worksheets were reviewed to identify information gaps. based on these worksheets and feedback received from the managing partner of cimba business advisement, who led the session, further improvements were made to the root cause analysis process. vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 9 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #174 (page number not for citation purposes) a process for human performance problem solving 29 cycle 3 five expert consultants in the root cause analysis field at a south african organisation volunteered to test the root cause analysis process by applying it to a case study. according to emory and cooper (1991, p. 143), 'a single, well-designed case study can provide a major challenge to a theory and provide a source of new hypotheses and constructs at the same time.' the case study that was used in this study was sourced from an international company that specialises in root cause analysis, decision making, project management and innovation. it describes a human performance problem that the organisation experienced, namely a high error rate on claims transactions due to incorrect data input by one of its employees. the five expert consultants completed the case study application, individually and at their own pace, by following the process questions and completing the worksheet. they also completed a feedback guide after the application. the worksheets were reviewed for information gaps and incorrect information, while the feedback guides were reviewed for common themes that suggested further improvements. the results were used to make final changes to the root cause analysis process. recording of data a root cause analysis worksheet and feedback guide was developed to record data during and after the application of the root cause analysis process. the purposes of obtaining feedback from participants were to: judge how well the root cause analysis process works.• identify problem areas that required further improvement.• evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the root cause • analysis process. determine the value of the root cause analysis process in • practice. the overall aim of the feedback was to develop a better • quality root cause analysis process. feedback from the university students was obtained in the following formats: root cause analysis worksheets completed by the students • who had applied the root cause analysis process to their own situations. numerous telephonic discussions with the managing • partner at cimba business advisement who championed this testing phase. feedback was obtained from the consultants at the south african consulting firm in the following formats: root cause analysis worksheets and feedback guides • completed by the consultants who had applied the root cause analysis process to the case study. personal notes kept of informal discussions with the • consultants to obtain supplementary information about their applications of the root cause analysis process. open dialogue between the researcher and respondents played an important role during this phase of the study, with all five respondents contributing to the development of the best solution. in qualitative research, a researcher’s objectivity is of the utmost importance. according to glesne and peshkin (1992, cited in thomas, 2003, p. 2), care must be taken to prevent the researcher from 'contaminating' the data through personal involvement with the research subjects. to avoid contamination of the data, the following guidelines were applied during the testing process: being open to the ideas and views of the people to whom • the root cause analysis process was applied. trusting the root cause analysis process and not following • a usual way of thinking and working. not taking shortcuts, but rather putting energy and effort • into the application. instead of referring to 'objectivity', lincoln and guba (1985, cited in hoepfl, 1997, p. 60) prefer to talk about the 'confirmability' of the research. this refers to 'the degree to which the researcher can demonstrate the neutrality of the research interpretations' (lincoln & guba, 1985, cited in hoepfl, 1997, p. 60) by providing an audit trail. the following audit trail was kept from the above process applications to comply with the requirements of confirmability: raw data• process notes• personal notes• the preliminary development information• data analysis.• the purpose of data analysis is to produce evidence and to establish the trustworthiness of a claim. generating evidence is a rigorous process that involves the following (mcniff & whitehead, 2006, p. 148): making a claim to knowledge, by saying one knows • something now that was not known before and adding it to the public body of knowledge establishing criteria and standards of judgement• searching the data archive and selecting data• generating evidence.• the data gathered during this study was analysed in the following ways: original worksheets were reviewed to identify information • gaps and/or incorrect information. through these analyses, potential problem areas in the root cause analysis process were identified. respondents’ feedback sheets were analysed for the • following: concepts, words or situations that described most of the ° feedback. themes or trends that represented most of the feedback. ° golden threads that ran through all the feedback. this process helped make sense of the feedback and identified the areas in the root cause analysis process that needed further improvement. strategies to ensure quality research a consideration of quality is fundamental to all research and is the responsibility of the researcher in ensuring research rigour. lincoln and guba (1985, cited in shah & corley, 2006, p. 1829) explain that because qualitative research is 'based on a different set of ontological and epistemological assumptions' than quantitative research, the traditional notions of validity and reliability as applied in quantitative research should be replaced by an alternative set of criteria for qualitative research reflecting trustworthiness, namely credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. table 1 outlines a set of specific actions a researcher can take to help meet each of these criteria. the following actions were taken during the study to ensure the trustworthiness of the research: a • sound research methodology was followed to ensure the advancement of knowledge the appropriate level of confidentiality was maintained • throughout the research, by ensuring that the respondents and performers whose performance was evaluated remained anonymous respondent involvement and participation were voluntarily • and were encouraged at all stages of the research process permission was obtained from the organisations who • participated in the research to allow their students/ employees to participate in the research respondents were allowed to do their applications • independently and to complete their own worksheets vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 9 original research rademeyer, du plessis & kepner sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 4 (page number not for citation purposes) 30 debriefings were conducted with champions/respondents • after process applications records and notes were kept of debriefings and discussions • with champions/respondents a project archive was kept of all original worksheets and • feedback guides to substantiate the research findings. reporting reporting is an essential element in action research. while most research findings are never reported directly to those from whom the data were collected, feedback is essential in action research if management and other organisational members are to be persuaded of the need for action (wilson, 2000). the following methods can be applied in reporting action research (brown, 1999): involving others, such as participants, friends or • collaborative friends, in the research sharing ideas and research experiences with visitors• oral reports and seminar-style discussions• presenting information in graphic form• audiovisual presentations • exhibiting findings• acting on the results • disseminating findings through computer networks • publishing written reports. • the results of this study are reported with the aim of sharing the research knowledge and of developing managers and supervisors in the field of human performance management. it was therefore decided that the most effective way to report the outcomes of this study would be to use the information to develop a root cause analysis training programme that focuses on variations in human performance. findings the human performance variation analysis (hpva) process was tested in real-life situations, as well as against a case study. data analysis of the process worksheets and feedback guides indicated the following: the hpva process, as developed in this study, can • successfully reveal the causes of poor performance if different people apply the process using the same set of • data, they will reach the same conclusion the hpva process can assist managers in analysing the • human performance situation effectively before identifying possible solutions, thereby addressing the human performance problem in the most effective way the hpva process provides a map for working through a human performance problem. it helps an analyst to gather all the relevant information that will lead to the discovery of the root cause of a human performance problem, and ensures that all the relevant information is considered before reaching conclusions and taking corrective action. the hpva process should, however, only be applied if the situation meets the following criteria: the performance, job or situation under investigation is • critical. it is likely that the human performance problem will worsen • if no action is taken. the level of performance that the performer is expected to • achieve is practical, achievable and realistic. if it is not, the standard needs to be revisited first. the supervisor or manager and performer share the • same understanding of the expected or required level of performance (the standard). the cause for the human performance problem is unknown • and is difficult to find. the costs and benefits of solving the human performance • problem outweigh the costs and benefits of not addressing it. if the above criteria are met, then there is a strong likelihood that the organisation is facing a human performance problem that requires deeper analysis. in such a case, the hpva process can be applied to reveal the cause(s) of the performance problem(s). figure 1 presents a graphic depiction of the phases and steps in the hpva process. the process is discussed in detail below. part 1: performance variation assessment part 1 of the hpva process identifies, and clearly and specifically defines and describes, firstly, the person whose performance is to be analysed and, secondly, the performance problem that needs to be analysed and solved. this ensures that everyone has a shared understanding of the situation and that the analysis is focused. part 1 of the hpva process consists of five steps, as depicted in figure 1, and discussed below. step 1: identify the performer step 1 of the process is to identify the specific person, or persons, whose performance is causing concern (what is the person’s name?). different human performance problems have different causes and, therefore, the analyst should ideally focus on a specific, single performer. if one wants to analyse the performance of a group, it is important to check that all the members of the group are performing exactly the same job or task and display exactly the same performance problem. step 2: describe the performance requirement the performance requirement represents the performance standard and correct behaviour, as well as the performance goals and expectations regarding the performance output. the performance requirement provides a performance baseline or reference point. in this step, the expected or required level of performance should be written down. table 1 methods to ensure the quality of qualitative research (shah & corley, 2006, p. 1830) traditional criteria quantitative qualitative criteria trustworthiness methods of meeting trustworthiness internal validity credibility extended engagement in the field triangulation of data types peer debriefing member checks external validity transferability detailed (thick) description of: concepts and categories in the • grounded theory structures and processes related • to process revealed in the data reliability dependability purposive and theoretical sampling informants’ confidentiality protected inquiry audit of data-collection, management and analysis processes objectivity confirmability explicit separation of first order and second order findings meticulous data management and recording: verbatim transcriptions of • interviews careful notes of observations• clear notes on theoretical and • methodological decisions accurate records of contacts and • interviews vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 9 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #174 (page number not for citation purposes) a process for human performance problem solving 31 step 3: describe the actual performance in this step, the actual performance must be described in specific detail (exactly what does the performer currently do, or not do? how does the performer perform the job or task?). the purpose of this step is to gain more knowledge about the specific problem situation. the most valid source of information in step 3 is to observe the actual performance. what has been observed must then be put into words as accurately as possible. step 4: describe the performance variation to determine the performance variation, one needs to compare the authenticated performance requirement to the performer’s actual performance and describe the human performance problem in specific terms. the performance problem is the discrepancy between the desired performance and what actually happens. if the discrepancy is undesirable for the specific job or performer, then the situation calls for further action. the analysis of the performance problem should not focus on a symptom of the problem, but must describe the real issue at hand – the problem that lies behind the symptom – in specific terms. a specific problem description that will sharpen the analysis should meet the following criteria (ammerman, 1997, pp. 10–11): it focuses on the gap between what is and what should be• it states the effect – what is wrong (not why it is wrong)• it is measurable – for example, how often, how much, when • – and avoids references to broad and ambiguous categories such as 'morale', 'productivity', and 'communication' it is stated in a positive manner and describes the painful • effects of the problem it avoids 'lack of' and 'no' statements, as they imply • solutions it highlights the significance of effects, and may state • areas of discomfort, hurt or annoyance, or how people are affected. step 5: describe the performance variation details if one has no information about the performance problem, this could lead to a situation where facts are twisted to suit theories, instead of theories generated to suit the facts. the purpose of this step is the following: to ensure proper data collection about the human • performance problem. to make the problem details visible to everyone • concerned. to ensure that there are no misunderstandings, but that • there is a shared understanding of the problem situation instead. this step focuses on facts about the human performance problem, stated as straightforwardly and as objectively as possible. the analyst records what he or she sees. the problem description must be as free of error and uncertainty as possible. a good starting point is to determine what one knows for sure, what one believes to be true, and what one does not know. consulting the right people during this step helps to ensure that validated, factual information is recorded. the best sources of information are people who have first-hand knowledge about and experience of the specific job that is being analysed. when one approaches other stakeholders or sources of information, the quality of the questions will determine the quality of the answers. therefore, one should keep questions to the various stakeholders sharp and concise to ensure that their answers will add worthwhile information to the analysis. to give an exact description of the problem situation, the analyst needs to gather information by asking a series of specific questions. questions are the key to identifying and describing the details that will lead the analyst to the cause of the human performance problem. in this step, questions relating to the following dimensions are asked: the performer, by name, whose performance is causing • concern the job or task in which the undesired performance or • behaviour has been noticed the specific performance or behaviour that does not meet • the expectation the geographic location in which the undesired performance • or behaviour has been noted or reported when in clock or calendar time the performance problem • occurred for the first time – knowing the time will help establish the relationship between the performance problem and other occurrences the times or frequencies at which the performance problem • is noticed or reported. the following types of information are recorded in an is-is not matrix for each of the above dimensions: information about what the human performance problem • is: the information recorded must be factual. if the is information cannot be recorded for any of the above figure 1 the human performance variation analysis (hpva) process and steps (authors’ own) start end vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 9 variation original research rademeyer, du plessis & kepner sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 4 (page number not for citation purposes) 32 dimensions, it means that the details about the performance problem are incomplete. in this instance, the analyst needs to reach out to new sources of information that may potentially have the information he or she is still seeking. information about what the human performance problem • is not: this type of information indicates the boundaries or limits of the performance problem. these boundaries separate what the human performance problem is and what lies outside and is not part of the problem. the information gathered during this step in the hpva process will serve as a screening tool later in the analysis to test possible causes against. testing possible causes on paper is much cheaper than verifying each possible cause in practice. part 2: human performance variation analysis part 2 of the hpva process has been designed to be completed jointly by the manager or supervisor and the performer. the aim is to get the most accurate information about why the human performance problem exists. it is difficult to solve a problem when different people all have a different understanding of the problem and its causes. it should be borne in mind that the person performing the job or task is most likely to know what is causing the performance problem. applying the hpva process jointly, firstly, helps set a collaborative process in motion between the performer and the manager or supervisor and, secondly, clarifies each person’s role in addressing the performance problem. the ultimate purpose of part 2 of the hpva process is to identify the root cause of the human performance problem. this part of the hpva process consists of three steps, as depicted in figure 1, and as discussed below. step 1: identify contributing factors the factors that affect human performance are numerous and diverse. therefore, the aim of the first step of this phase is to list everything that is special or unique of the is when compared to the is not and to record all changes that have taken place. all the unique factors that were either present (what is) or absent (what is not), in other words what is missing or ineffective and could have caused or contributed to the human performance problem, must be recorded. this step focuses on the following categories of human performance factors: factors that pertain to the performer, for example his or her • skills, competency, capacity, motives and suitability for the job or task factors that pertain to the job or task, for example the job • design, the complexity of the job, workload, workflow, information, policies, procedures and supervision factors that pertain to the performance itself, for example • the job expectations, consequences and feedback factors that pertain to the geographic location where the • job or task is performed, for example the physical working conditions, resources and job aids factors that pertain to the date and time at which the • performance problem occurred for the first time factors that pertain to the times and frequency at which the • performance problem is noticed. both the experience and the intuition of the analyst are useful tools in this step of the hpva process. it is important that one keeps digging into the problem’s details for as long as new information or information that has previously been overlooked is discovered. in some instances, it might even be necessary to involve or seek out ideas and additional information from other people who have special skills and knowledge and to incorporate this information into the analysis. one of the most valuable sources of information is the experience and opinion of those who are the closest to the scene of action. one needs to use everything one knows to understand what could have caused the human performance problem. as an analyst, one knows that one has reached the point of saturation when the same information is repeated and no new information about the performance problem surfaces. step 2: crystallise the most likely causes usually, different factors come together to constitute a cause. once all the factors that might have caused or contributed to the human performance problem have been identified, the analyst can start to hypothesise possible causes for the performance problem. this is done in the following ways: evaluating all the factors that were listed and identifying • the ones that have failed or were missing. this involves describing how each of the failing or missing factors was ineffective and why it was ineffective. describing how each factor, or a combination of factors, • could have caused the performance problem, or could have prevented the performer from performing to standard. asking 'how could the performance problem have • occurred?' asking 'how could' instead of 'why' at this stage in the hpva process ensures that possible causes are identified that go beyond the ones that are merely the most likely ones. according to paradies and unger (2000, p. 36), humans have a negative emotional response to the question 'why' if it is asked during a root cause analysis process. the above process will result in a list of reasons that can be used separately, or as combinations, to phrase specific statements or hypotheses that explain why the performance problem occurred. step 3: identify the root cause this step in the hpva process aims to achieve the following: it eliminates apparent and presumptive cause statements • that the performance problem details do not support it selects the most plausible cause that requires further • verification it identifies the root cause of the human performance • problem that requires corrective action. step 3 in part 2 of the hpva process requires the use of information and reasoning skills based on logic to support or eliminate possible causes. there are three stages to pass through before a possible cause can be confirmed to be the root cause of the performance problem: proving the cause on paper: • any possible cause is merely speculation until it has been confirmed or proved. the identification of a possible cause needs to be based on fact. in the hpva process, each possible cause statement should be checked against what is known about the performance problem, as recorded in the is-is not matrix. if a cause statement is true for the specific performance problem, then it must, firstly, account for all the performance problem details (‘this explains that’) for both the problem (what is) and comparable (is not) situations and, secondly, make logical and practical sense. in other words, a cause statement will be proven if it explains all the performance problem details in the is-is not matrix, without exception and without many assumptions. confirming the cause in real life: • a likely explanation is not guaranteed to identify the precise cause of the human performance problem. the precise cause can only be determined when evidence or hard data has been collected that confirms the likely cause in real life. therefore, the aim of this step is to deliberately seek evidence to prove that the identified cause for the human performance problem is the correct one. this is done by conducting an independent experiment in which the cause must produce exactly the same human performance problem that is causing concern or by finding independent evidence that confirms the link between the cause and the effect. determining the root cause:• knowing what has happened and being able to prove and confirm it is essential in preventing the cause from vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 9 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #174 (page number not for citation purposes) a process for human performance problem solving 33 recurring. moreover, knowing why it has happened is a vital part of managing human performance in future. the basic principle of cause and effect is that every action has at least one conditional cause that existed in time before the action set in motion the chain of events that led to the undesirable effect. therefore, the aim of this step is to identify the conditional cause(s) that existed in time when the performance problem occurred. the conditional cause(s) is the true root cause(s) for the human performance problem. therefore, the only way to prevent recurrence of the same performance problem due to the same root cause(s) is to address the conditional cause(s). the following criteria help to establish whether or not the identified cause is the root cause (ammerman, 1997, pp. 68–69): the human performance problem would not have ° occurred had the cause not been present. the human performance problem will not recur due to the ° same causal factor if the cause is corrected or eliminated. correction or elimination of the cause will prevent ° recurrence of similar conditions. part 3: performance variation resolution like part 2, part 3 of the hpva process has been designed to be completed jointly by the manager or supervisor and the performer. involving the performer in this part of the process is important, because he or she is the person who will be responsible for implementing the solution and making it successful. the advantage of making the performer responsible is that he or she knows the situation best, that he or she knows what the solution entails, and that it makes the person who will work with the solution responsible for its implementation. management would, however, need to take responsibility for any corrective actions that are related to management issues. the aim of part 3 of the hpva process is to develop an action plan that would rectify the human performance problem and set things right again. this part of the hpva process consists of three steps, as depicted in figure 1, and discussed below. step 1: select the best workable solution step 1 in part 3 of the hpva process identifies and lists all corrective actions required to address the root cause of the problem to prevent the human performance problem from recurring, or to greatly reduce the probability that the human performance problem will recur due to the same root cause. the individual and/or collective actions that need to be taken should be listed. corrective actions are the countermeasures taken against the root or contributing causes (ammerman, 1997, p. 71). the goal is, firstly, to draw on the experience, knowledge and judgement of the best information sources to create a pool of ideas and, secondly, to select the best actions from the possibilities available that would correct the causes of the specific human performance problem under review. the following requirements need to be considered when selecting actions: the action must add value – it must prevent the recurrence • of the human performance problem by eliminating or reducing the root cause. it must be feasible to implement the action with current • or readily obtainable resources, considering the time, costs and other resources that the action will require for successful implementation and continued effectiveness. taking the action must be cheaper than leaving the human performance problem unresolved. it must be within the capability of the organisation to • implement the action and the action must be compatible with the organisation’s other commitments and policies. the action must be acceptable to others in the organisation • and must be free, or relatively free, from negative effects on other areas and people. finally, when selecting a solution, the analyst must put him or herself in the performer’s position and ask himor herself whether the proposed actions steps are realistic in view of the performance situation. step 2: conduct a risk assessment the initial action plan that contains the corrective actions needs to go through a process of inspection and improvement before it can be considered adequate. the aim of step 2 is to ensure that the action plan is practical for its implementation, by anticipating and avoiding or minimising any adverse effects, risks or negative consequences that could arise as a result of the corrective actions. the following sequence is followed in this step of the hpva process: investigate the mechanics of the plan, as well as other • areas and activities in the organisation and the external environment, and anticipate any potential risks as a result of the corrective actions. list these risks. identify and list ways to avoid or prevent these risks.• investigate the mechanics of the plan, as well as other • areas and activities in the organisation and the external environment, and anticipate potential negative side effects as a result of the corrective actions. identify ways to minimise these potential negative side • effects if they do occur. reach agreement on the most effective and viable preventive • and contingent actions. update the action plan by incorporating the selected • preventive and contingent actions. step 3: finalise the action plan the final action plan must be practical, workable and realistic. it must include the following: the name of the person responsible for each action step.• the name of the person responsible for monitoring the plan • and giving feedback. a list of cost-effective actions that will correct the conditional • causes and will prevent the human performance problem from recurring, or greatly reduce the probability that the human performance problem will recur due to the same root cause. a list of cost-effective actions that will avoid or minimise • any adverse effects, risks or negative consequences that could arise as a result of the corrective actions. the sequence of events that must be carried out. • information on when each action needs to be implemented.• discussion this study enabled the development of a root cause analysis process that can assist managers and supervisors with uncovering and solving the root causes of uncontrolled variations in human performance and thereby become effective problem solvers of human performance problems. this process is involved as it entails multiple steps that have to be followed. the hpva promises many benefits from both a situational and a process point of view. however, the study also had some limitations, which are also discussed in more detail below. benefits the hpva process can be applied in any of three potential situations. the first is a friendly, cooperative and collaborative situation (‘let’s sit down together and resolve this problem’). the second is a neutral situation (‘one way or another, i have to solve this problem to keep things going’). the third is a hostile situation (‘somebody messed up and heads are about to roll’). in the latter case, it can be expected that stakeholder involvement will be defensive with excuses and different kinds of evasive tactics. in this instance, using the hpva process to prove the cause objectively is vital. vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 9 original research rademeyer, du plessis & kepner sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 4 (page number not for citation purposes) 34 applying the hpva process offers the following benefits: it provides a systematic map to uncover and solve • uncontrolled variations in human performance it provides a tool that helps determine what information is • relevant, how to make sense of all the information available to the analyst and how to organise the information in a sensible manner it does not solve human performance problems by blame • fixing or finger pointing, but by following a collaborative, cooperative process it gives the performer a vehicle through which he or she can • actively participate in his or her performance discussion in an open and honest way it focuses the people involved on information gathering • and cause identification, so that they can avoid the trap of being too solution-oriented it provides a tool that creates a shared understanding and a • common reality based on all the perspectives of the human performance problem it brings different people from different levels and/or areas • together to discuss human performance problems, to learn, to create a factual basis and to make progress in analysing a human performance problem it provides a testing base against which possible causes can • be evaluated, to confirm which one is the root cause. it provides a tool to develop an action plan that would solve • the root cause and prevent the source(s) of the problem from recurring it provides a tool to avoid any negative consequences due to • the corrective action(s) taken it can empower managers and supervisors and increase • their confidence in dealing with human performance problems it provides a tool with which human performance • management can be standardised throughout the organisation. limitations as much as possible was done during the study to identify potential limitations and to do whatever was possible to compensate for them. the study did, however, suffer from the following limitations: the hpva process was tested by 29 master’s degree • students, five expert consultants and two consultation sessions with clients. although the process was tested using both real-life situations and case studies, it should be applied to many more situations before it can be regarded as truly reliable. testing the process in as many real-life situations as possible will provide further lessons faster than any other method. while developing the hpva process, the researchers’ own • experience in root cause analysis was brought to bear, including knowledge of some of the weaknesses of many of the existing problem-solving techniques. this might, however, raise a question of objectivity towards certain root cause analysis tools and techniques. however, the rationale for including the is-is not matrix in the hpva process was the fact that it is one of the few methods available to establish an objective data point that indicates the relevant information needed and against which the conclusions can be evaluated. in all instances, convenience sampling was used. when • selecting the students, the researchers were looking for a group of people who would all have real-life situations to apply the hpva process to. when selecting the group of consultants, the researchers were looking for people who have root cause analysis experience. in both instances, the aim was also to protect the confidentiality and uniqueness of the hpva process. because people were used who were conveniently available to test the process, this might affect the degree of generalisability of the hpva process. when the group of 29 master’s degree students tested the • hpva process, a managing partner at cimba business advisement srl. (società a responsabilità limitata) led the session and coached the students during their applications. although he is a highly skilled and experienced consultant and root cause analysis facilitator, the researchers did not have direct access to the students. as a result, some information might have gone missing in the feedback. contributions the study adds value to the human resource management body of knowledge as well as practical applications in a number of ways: the research has provided managers and supervisors with • a tool to uncover the root causes of uncontrolled variations in human performance effectively and consistently. the study has provided a root cause analysis tool that will, • first, allow managers and supervisors and performers to formulate ideas and conclusions based not only on the facts, but also on their knowledge and experience (the process will lead them to apply their own thinking to find the cause(s) of problems and the best solution), and, second, bring different people from different levels and/or areas together to discuss human performance problems and create a shared understanding and common reality based on their different perspectives of the performance problem (performers will become partners in sharing information, finding the cause and developing the best solution). the study has provided a root cause analysis tool that • can be used to identify measures to solve the root cause, prevent it from recurring, and sustain the new, improved level of performance. technical experts who have advanced to a managerial or • supervisory level no longer need to fear or steer clear of addressing human performance problems. the study has provided them with a human performance management tool that has the same structure as the cause analysis techniques they apply to technical, machine-related problems. the study provides organisations with a root cause analysis • tool with which human performance management can be standardised throughout the organisation. recommendations according to de jager (2002, p. 14), action research could generate more questions than answers. also, the development of a root cause analysis process such as the hpva process evolves from continuous testing and refinement. therefore, this study should not be regarded as the end of the road, but merely as the start of a lifelong journey. the following may be regarded as further research opportunities: research on the degree of success the hpva process would • have as a performance improvement tool, by focusing on and solving causes of controlled variations in human performance research on managers’ and supervisors’ and performers’ • trust in the hpva process as a fair and reliable root cause analysis tool research on the success rate of the hpva process – the • number of human performance problems solved the first time round a scientific measurement of the benefits reaped from • applying the hpva process research to determine in which dimension(s) of the hpva • process – the performer, job or task, geographic location or time – most of the root causes of performance variations fall research on the extent to which the hpva process adds • credibility in respect of fairness and increases loyalty and commitment to both the manager and company vol. 7 no. 1 page 8 of 9 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #174 (page number not for citation purposes) a process for human performance problem solving 35 research to determine whether the hpva process would • enhance positive future collaboration between the manager/supervisor and the performer research to determine whether the hpva process with its • openness and inclusion of broader sources of information would create trust and better working relationships between the manager/supervisor and the performer research to determine whether the hpva process would • boost the performer’s morale and motivation and enhance cooperation. conclusion people do not purposefully want to attract negative attention, or arrive at work with the intention of performing poorly. the reality, however, is that people are human and make mistakes. therefore, performance problems are likely to occur. with straightforward, common human performance problems – for example, issuing the wrong application form to customers – it is common sense to try a series of quick and tested solutions starting with the most simple and the cheapest before moving on to those that take longer and cost more. however, when human performance problems of greater complexity occur – for example, a sudden increase in report mistakes – it may not be as simple or easy as applying a quick fix solution. in fact, the quick fix may do more harm than good. in these instances, a systematic process – such as the hpva process – is needed to analyse the human performance problem. only once the root cause has been identified can the most appropriate solution to the problem be developed. according to kepner and iikubo (1996, p. 200), the problems people face today are so complex that no one person can be sure of having all the answers. facing a problem requires us to find out more, ask the advice of others and gather suggestions. the challenge is to think deeper and further ahead. according to hoenig (2002, p. 338), 'improved problem-solving capability is the ultimate competitive advantage, and the best organisations are increasing the sophistication with which they systematise their problem-solving processes.' if organisations want to solve human performance problems, the manager or supervisor and performer need to pool their best knowledge and ideas to find the cause and develop solutions to such performance problems. the hpva root cause analysis tool can facilitate the sharing of information between the manager or supervisor and performer and will make the analysis of the human performance problem more collaborative. it offers an advance in the management of human performance and provides a sought-after capability for problem solving, namely the ability to solve human performance problems. references ammerman, m. (1997). the root cause analysis handbook: a simplified approach to identifying, correcting and reporting workplace errors. new york: productivity press. andersen, b., & fagerhaug, t. (2006). root cause analysis: simplified tools and techniques. milwaukee: asq quality press. brown, m.e. (1999). action research. retrieved november 20, 2008, from http://www.southernct.edu/~brownm/act7. html cheryl gray instructional design. (n.d.). a brief history of root cause analysis. retrieved june 5, 2008, from http://www. cherylgray.com/rca/history.html de jager, a. (2002). an integrated and holistic approach to assessment in outcome-based learning in south africa. unpublished doctoral thesis, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. retrieved may 15, 2008, from http://hagar.up.ac.za/ catts/learner/de_jager_annette/phd/table_of_content.htm emory, c.w., & cooper, d.r. (1991). business research methods. homewood: richard d. irwin. gabel, d. (1995). an introduction to action research. retrieved july 27, 2006, from http://physicsed.buffalostate.edu/danowner/ actionrsch.html hoenig, c. (2002). developing exceptional problem-solving skills. in j. glasspool (ed.), business. the ultimate resource. london: bloomsbury. hoepfl, m.c. (1997). choosing qualitative research: a primer for technology education researchers. journal of technology education, 9(1), 47–63. jones, s.r. (2002). (re)writing the word: methodological strategies and issues in qualitative research. journal of college student development, july/august, 1–12. retrieved april 1, 2008, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3752/ is_200207/ai_n9121404 kepner, c.h., & iikubo, h. (1996) managing beyond the ordinary. new york: amacom. macisaac, d. (1996). an introduction to action research. retrieved march 11, 2008, from http://physcised.buffalostate.edu/ danowner/actionrsch.html mcniff, j., & whitehead, j. (2006). all you need to know about action research. london: sage. miles, m.b., & huberman, a.m. (1994). qualitative data analysis. thousand oaks: sage. neal, l.a., watson, d., hicks, t., porter, m., & hill, d. (2004). root cause analysis applied to the investigation of serious untoward incidents in mental health services. psychiatric bulletin, 28, 75–77. paradies, m., & unger, l. (2000). taproot – the system for root cause analysis, problem investigation, and proactive improvement. knoxville: system improvements. piskurich, g.m. (2002). hpi essentials. alexandria, va: american society for training and development. rothwell, w.j., hohne, c.k., & king, s.b. (2000). human performance improvement. houston: gulf. shah, s.k., & corley, k.g. (2006). building better theory by bridging the quantitative-qualitative divide. journal of management studies, 43(8), 1821–1835. thomas, r.m. (2003). blending qualitative and quantitative research methods in theses and dissertations. thousand oaks: corwin. wilson, t.d. (2000). recent trends in user studies: action research and qualitative methods. information research, 5(3). retrieved november 20, 2008, from http://informationr. net/ir/5-3/paper76.html vol. 7 no. 1 page 9 of 9 abstract introduction methodology data analysis performance management in the small and medium-sized enterprise firm evaluation of contribution acknowledgements references about the author(s) willard nyamubarwa faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, bloemfontein, south africa crispen chipunza faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, bloemfontein, south africa citation nyamubarwa, w., & chipunza, c. (2019). debunking the one-size-fits-all approach to human resource management: a review of human resource practices in small and medium-sized enterprise firms. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1108. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1108 original research debunking the one-size-fits-all approach to human resource management: a review of human resource practices in small and medium-sized enterprise firms willard nyamubarwa, crispen chipunza received: 03 aug. 2018; accepted: 18 apr. 2019; published: 27 aug. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: this article argues that the best practice approach (bpa) to hrm fails to capture the peculiarities of hr practices in small and medium-sized enterprises (smes). the article instead articulates the view that the different and unique traits inherent in smes firms allows the firms to adopt distinct hr practices, which may not cohere with the prescriptive one-size-fits-all view which bpa advocates. research purpose: the article aims to further the thesis that the long-held bpa approach to hrm does not always apply to sme firms given their unique characteristics which renders hr prescriptions applied in large firms invalid in sme firms. research approach/design and method: as a theoretical article, a systematic literature review was conducted to draw findings and conclusions. main findings: the article concludes that the eclectic nature of sme hr practices complicates the extent of generalisability of such practices across organisational settings, thus showing that hr practices that work in sme firms cannot be applied in large firms with equal success. practical/managerial implications: the findings provide a platform to enhance the understanding surrounding managing human resources in sme firms by revealing the differences between people management in sme firms as compared to their larger counterparts. contribution/value-add: the article is groundbreaking as it has opened new avenues in the quest to understand the nature and contribution of hrm in sme firms. keywords: best practice approach; human resource management; small and medium-sized enterprises; recruitment; training; performance management; rewards management. introduction there is no universally accepted definition of what constitutes a small business, and as a result, as berisha and pula (2015) report, what may be regarded in one country as a small business, would often be regarded as a medium-sized or even as a large enterprise elsewhere in the world. in south africa, the national small business act of 2004 categorises small businesses into the following distinct groups: micro, very small, small and medium enterprises with the category size based on the financial performance as well as the number of employees in each enterprise. in light of this, this article’s definition of an sme firm considers all categories of sme firms as stipulated in the small business act of 2004 ranging from micro enterprises with a turnover that is less than the annual value-added tax (vat) registration limit and employing less than 10 employees, to medium-sized enterprises which employ up to 200 employees. meanwhile, according to psychogios, szamosi, prouska and brewster (2016), people management issues in sme firms are associated with informality, instability, authoritarianism and conflict. this article seeks to contest this widely held notion that smes’ hr practices are minimalist in nature and therefore cast doubt on the applicability to large enterprises. these negative connotations are best explored in a study by harney and nolan (2014) who concluded that as most smes cannot afford to have professional hr departments, their hr practices are poor and characterised by inadequate health and safety systems and low-trade union activity, creating frictional conflict leading to higher absenteeism and high turnover. to further compound this challenge, the mainstream literature suggests that hr practices in sme firms are derived from large enterprises and are unreflectively imposed on smes without regard to their unique set up (saridakis, muñoz-torres, & johnstone, 2013; sheehan, 2014). as a result, there is a growing consensus that the mainstream hr literature ignores the peculiarities of smes such as their limited budgets; dominance by the owner-manager and their agility in the face of uncertainty, which lend themselves to adopt distinct hr practices that may not cohere with the prescriptive one-size-fits-all view, which bpa advocates (wiesner & innes, 2010). therefore, these unique characteristics of sme firms have led to the manifestation of hr in smes in two divergent perspectives: the ‘small is beautiful’ and the ‘bleak house’ perspectives. the ‘bleak house’ model views people management in smes as characterised by employee exploitation, low wages and long working hours. on the other hand, the ‘small is beautiful’ approach views hr in smes as characterised by decent wages, pleasant working conditions and a healthy mutually beneficial relationship between the employees and the sme owner-manager (richbell, szerb, & vitai, 2010; wilkinson, 1999; woodhams & lupton, 2006). problem statement this article argues that most hr literature view smes as scaled-down versions of big enterprises, notwithstanding the uniqueness of such firms as reflected by their small size and their resource limitations (dundon & wilkinson, 2009). as such, the most common theme running across this literature, which takes motivation from the bpa, is that, hr practices that are tried and tested in big companies may also be applied and used in small firms with equal success (psychogios et al., 2016; tsai, 2010). this reasoning is derived from the seminal paper by welsh and white (1981) who claim that smes are essentially the same as large firms but on a smaller scale and therefore what is ideal for large firms applies in equal measure to sme firms. the problem with this minimalist and reductionist perspective to the practice of human resource management (hrm) is that it ignores the unique set of environmental circumstances inherent in sme firms that make hr practices therein unique and different from what prevails in large firms. therefore, this article seeks to explore the veracity of the bpa-inspired view that a prescribed set of hr practices can be applied generically to all organisations big or small with the same result or may be, as sheehan (2014) notes there is a distinctive difference in approach to people management between small and large firms, and these different approaches are beneficial to either size of enterprise. theoretical underpinnings according to cunningham (2010), there are glaring differences of opinion on what constitutes hrm in sme firms. on the one hand, wilkinson (1999) describes people management methods in smes as ‘harmonious’ as compared to those in larger firms granted that the small size of sme firms creates a family-like environment that spawns good working conditions such as open communication channels, flexibility of work practices and low levels of conflict. on the other hand, some scholars (bacon, ackers, storey, & coates, 1996; sisson, 1993) claim hr management in sme firms represents a ‘bleak house’ scenario where the small firm setting is fertile ground for informality, instability, authoritarianism and conflict. this ‘bleak house’ phenomenon is unpacked by psychogios et al. (2016) who reaffirm that this indicates that hr practices in sme firms are unique given the fact that most smes do not have professional hr departments, and as a result, their hr practices are best described as informal and reactive and are associated with poor working conditions. this article therefore seeks to lay bare literature that explores this minimalist and reductionist perspective to the practice of hrm in smes, which follow the bpa-driven approach that hr practices can be applied generically to all organisations big or small with the same successful results. methodology this article is attempting to explore the validity of the perception that, hr practices are generic and therefore can be applied with success in any organisation, of any shape and size. in the interest of striking a balance between the most recent literature trends and the need for an in-depth analysis, a systematic search of literature was conducted and the identified studies were matched against a number of criteria. firstly on peer-reviewed journals the literature search was conducted on the following academic databases academic search premier, eric, business source elite and business source premier using the key terms ‘hr practices in sme firms’. as recommended by bergh (2012) this article used boolean logic to refine the literature searches to the range of 100–150 hits per keyword search. this had the effect of focusing the literature searches on the core thesis proposed in this article. in addition, selective searches were carried out on google scholar using the same search terminology to widen the literature reach. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the faculty of management sciences of the central university of technology, free state (reference 090214). data analysis given the qualitative approach adopted to produce this article, a thematic analysis was applied to produce meanings and draw conclusions in this article. according to braun and clarke (2006) thematic analysis involves the repeated reading and analysing of texts and the identification of key themes and concepts drawn from across diverse literature claims. likewise, this article used thematic analysis to isolate literature that reveals that hr practices in sme firms are unique and appropriate for their size and resource constraints. observations and reflections as previously reported, the practice of hr in sme firms is unique as compared to what prevails in big enterprises. this uniqueness stems from the sme firm’s dependence on the owner-manager’s management styles, the small size of the firm and its flexibility in the face of the uncertainty of the operating environment. fabi, raymond and lacoursière (2009) concur and report that this uncertainty often leads to informality in the practice of hr given the fact that the owner-manager who at most times is not an hr expert would not be in a position to manage the effect of such uncertainties in the management of human resources stemming from the operating environment. in fact, as cameron and miller (2008) explain, sme firms prefer the independence and flexibility associated with operating informally, forcing them to disregard the prescriptive one-size-fits-all view, which bpa advocates. the argument is therefore made that an informal approach to people management is more suited to small firms because it is associated with flexibility, in which flexibility assists them in coping with the operational uncertainty that characterises their operating environment (matejun, 2014). meanwhile, according to pittino, visintin, lenger and sternad (2016) given the small size of sme firms, their employees enjoy a feeling of proximity to the owner–managers which creates feelings of commitment, loyalty and generally good working conditions in sme firms (wiesner & innes, 2010). thus, in this case, the sme owner-manager assumes a paternalistic role and strives to keep every employee happy through the application of hr practices that appeal to the interest of every employee in the firm (pittino et al., 2016). this is different from what prevails in larger firms where the practice of hr is impersonal and sometimes impersonal and autocratic as it is a product of, and driven by, formal policies and procedures (harney & dundon, 2006). this indicates that the unique traits of smes lend themselves to adopt distinct hr practices which may not cohere with the prescriptive one-size-fits-all view which bpa advocates. additionally, the sme owner-manager occupies a strong decision-making position in firms, and as a result, the owner–managers exert considerable personal influence on business practices including the practice of hr (lobonțiua & lobonțiua, 2014). as a result, many sme firms prefer not to have professionally run hr departments, and major hr decisions are usually made solely by the owner-manager who may not be an hr expert in the first place (fabi et al., 2009; kotey & slade, 2005; rauf, 2016). even in the rare cases where hr professionals are employed, it is still the owner-manager who naturally assumes responsibility over people management and other key business activities in the firm (kroon, voorde, & timmers, 2013). although this arrangement contrasts with people management in large organisations where professional hr managers are employed to provide guidance in hr issues (wiesner & innes, 2010), this article surmises that it does not follow that there is anything wrong with hr management in sme firms but rather shows that hr practices in smes are unique and suited to the structural and environmental circumstances of sme firms. recruitment practices in the small and medium-sized enterprise firm methods used to recruit employees in sme firms are unique and at variance with methods used in larger firms (cameron & miller, 2008). as bacon and hoque (2005) reaffirm, smes tend to recruit most of their employees from among their close kinship ties and not from the open labour market like large firms. this requires only a few and unsophisticated hrm competencies thus rendering the whole recruitment exercise ad hoc and informal. this is in contrast to the situation in larger enterprises that are forced to adopt standardised recruitment practices that allow the firm to operate flexibly on the recruitment market (young-thelin, & black, 2012). all of these, as bacon and hoque (2005) note, place high value on the recruited employees, which in turn leads to a sustained competitive advantage for the firm as proposed by barney (1991) in his resource-based view approach to the management of employees in organisations. from the foregoing analysis, the authors conclude that sme firms face a number of challenges when recruiting capable employees, because they apply what may appear to be less appealing, hiring channels such as social networks and walk-ins in contrast to the more robust recruitment methods used by large enterprises. however, as literature has revealed, recruitment practices used by smes augur well with these resource-constrained firms owing to the fact that such recruitment practices are cheap and therefore best suited to sme firms that at most face resource limitations. in other words, this supports the proposition that hr practices cannot be generically applied to all organisations big or small with the same result. training in the small and medium-sized enterprise firm in the discipline of hrm, training is viewed as an essential contributor to the improvement of employee competence (armstrong, 2013). thus, training in hr is viewed as an exercise that should be done sorely to improve the individual employee’s ability to contribute better towards the achievement of the firm’s objectives. this is not the case in sme firms where, as leach (2011) notes, employees are trained according to what best suits their personal interests which at most times is not in tandem with the firm’s objectives. as a result, as young-thelin and black (2012) note, like all hr functions, formal training is less likely to be provided in smes as many owner–managers view training in smes as inefficient and not contributing to firm objectives. where training is given, the training is mostly informal, short-term and in-house with little or no provision for management development (kotey & slade, 2005). according to guercin and milanesi (2016) this clearly shows the fault lines in sme training practices confirming that hrm in sme firms represents a minimalist and reductionist perspective to the practice of hrm as compared to large firms. kotey and folker (2007) take an alternative viewpoint and argue that such training is most appropriate in smes as it is geared towards meeting the business needs of sme firms, which tend to vary from time to time. in light of this view, this article concludes that this state of affairs indicates that even though training in sme firms is informal and ad hoc, this is in sync with basic training needs of most sme firms, thus showing that hr practices in sme firms should not carry stereotypes of depravity derived from the bpa approach. they should be viewed as a different and unique approach-to-strategy, which is useful in sme firms. performance management in the small and medium-sized enterprise firm according to forth and bryson (2018), performance management is a continuous process of aligning the goals of employees with those of the organisation they work for. what this implies is that performance management entails regular evaluation of employee performance to ensure that at all times, employees will contribute to the organisation’s objectives (ogunyomi & bruning, 2016). in other words, performance management is the process of designing and executing hr interventions that can aid in the enhancement of employee performance (yusoff, razak, zainol, & hassan, 2018). meanwhile, sme firms, like any other form of business enterprise, also need to constantly conduct performance appraisal to constantly realign employee performance with firm interests (cunningham, 2010). however, a perusal of the performance appraisal methods used in sme firms shows that they are significantly different from those used in large firms, thus showing that hr practices in sme firms are radically different from those in large firms. according to steijvers, lybaert and dekker (2012), given the fact that hr in sme firms is the responsibility of the owner-manager who may not possess any hr expertise, many such owner–managers perceive formal performance appraisal system as time consuming and complex. therefore, the most common appraisal methods within smes are narrative descriptions of employee performance and the use of rating scales (ahmad & alaskari, 2014). this scenario is explained by the fact that by working alongside employees, sme owner–managers can directly observe employee activities and take corrective measures almost immediately, therefore indicating that performance management in sme firms is mainly informal and a continuous process (ahmad & alaskari, 2014; kotey & folker, 2007). this informality should not indicate any negativity often associated with the practice of hr in sme firms but should instead be viewed as lending credence to the proposition that hr practices cannot be generically applied to all organisations big or small with the same result. rewards management in the small and medium-sized enterprise firm according to michiels, voordeckers, lybaert and steijvers (2012), sme firms are less likely to be perceived as the first-choice employers by potential employees in the labour market. this is given the fact that sme firms suffer from resource limitations (dundon & wilkinson, 2018)), and as a result, this hinders their ability to offer attractive reward packages required to retain highly talented employees (long, ajagbe, & kowang, 2013). sme firms counterbalance this by taking advantage of reward savings stemming from agency relationships. michiels et al. (2012) explain that the small family-like environment in sme firms engenders a feeling of kinship, altruism and loyalty between the owner-manager and the rest of the employees. this familial environment aligns the interest of the owner-manager with that of the rest of the employees thus eradicating any need for agency payments. this implies that any agency cost that a normal firm would encounter to align managerial interests to those of the rest of the employees will be done away with, given that any possible acts of self-interest will be tempered by the lure of kinship, altruism and loyalty (michiels et al., 2012). this line of thinking leaves the author to conclude that unlike the widely held bpa prescriptions, the reward management systems in sme firms are most appropriate given their size, resource constraints and environmental influence. evaluation of contribution this theoretical article is an attempt to draw the line between hr practices in sme firms and those prevailing in larger businesses. the article does this by exploring the veracity of the bpa-based perception that a prescribed set of hr practices can be applied generically to all organisations big or small with the same result. in other words, there is a distinctive difference in approach to people management between small and large firms, and these different approaches are beneficial to either size of enterprises. the article therefore makes a significant contribution to the field of hrm in smes by revealing how the unique nature of people management practices in small firms debunks the commonly held perception that hr practices in small firms are inferior to those used in large organisations. firstly, the findings of the article show that hr practices in sme firms are at best described as a spectrum of stereotypes. this is drawn from the observations that hrs in smes are widely viewed as informal, emergent and reactive, partly because of the owner-manager’s sole role in making hr decisions and partly from the idiosyncrasies associated with sme firms (singh & vohra, 2009). this explains the unique nature of hr practices that characterise firms that are glaringly absent in larger firms. on the basis of these arguments, one may conclude that hr practices in sme firms can also be described as stereotypically characterised with unique, eclectic and appropriate for sme firms. secondly, research focusing on understanding the nature hr practices in smes has been generally passive, partly because of the bpa-driven belief that hr practices can be universally applied to all kind of firms with equal success (tsai, sengupta, & edwards, 2007). this article casts aspersions to this view and seeks to assert that, on the contrary, hr practices that work in sme firms are different from and may not work in larger enterprises. this may be linked to the claims by cunningham (2010) who presented the thesis claim that, sme firms are not a ‘scaled-down’ version of large firms, and as such, the unique structure as determined by its small size and resource limitations is revealed in the nature of its hr practices, which are significantly different from those of large firms. finally, the article provides a basis for testing theories that are commonly applied to explain hr management in both large and small organisations. the article therefore explores the applicability of the agency theory and the resource-based view theory by explaining hr practices in sme firms. the findings help us to reconcile the previous conflicting arguments about the applicability of these theories to explain hr practices in sme firms. conclusion from the foregoing, this article has shown that sme firms often have a unique approach to the practice of hrm which captures the peculiarities of sme firms (birdthistle, 2006; reid & adams, 2001). as such, hr practices in smes tend to be informal and reactive to the needs of the firm. this article concludes that this state of affairs does not reflect anything wrong with the practice of hr in sme firms but rather explains the unique nature of hr practices that characterise sme firms, which are glaringly absent in larger firms. recommendations given the theoretical nature of this study, it follows that this article is based on the reasoning and perceptions by different scholars and not on empirical research. this same theoretical view can be challenged on an equal footing by drawing on alternative existing literature to make new theoretical propositions that prove that hr practices in sme firms are similar to those in large enterprises. as a result, it is recommended that future researchers take it from here and conduct empirical research to validate the finding of this article. implications for future research future researchers are challenged to tunnel deeper and question the nature of the hr management practised in sme firms. indeed, research should be carried out that will further entrench the view that hr practices in sme firms are unique and most appropriate for the structural environment characterising sme firms. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions this article is derived from the phd thesis of w.n. entitled ‘development and testing of a framework for the formalisation of hr practices among small family-owned accommodation firms in south africa’. c.c. was the phd supervisor and was responsible for methodology, data analysis and editing of this article. funding information the authors acknowledge that funding for the production of this article was kindly made available by the central university of technology, free state. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references ahmad, m. m., & alaskari, o. (2014). development of assessment methodology for improving performance in sme’s. performance management, 63(4), 477–498. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-06-2013-0108 armstrong, m. (2013). armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice (13th ed.). london: kogan page. bacon, n., ackers, p., storey, j., & coates, d. (1996). it’s a small world: managing human resources in small businesses. the international journal of human resource management, 7(1), 82–100. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585199600000119 bacon, n., & hoque, k. (2005). hrm in the sme sector: valuable employees and coercive networks. the international journal of human resource management, 16(11), 1976–1999. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190500314706 barney, j. (1991). firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. journal of management, 17(1), 99–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700108 bergh, g. (2012). systematic review in international development. london: internal. berisha, g., & pula, j. s. (2015). defining small and medium enterprises: a critical review. academic journal of business, administration, law and social sciences, 1(1), 17–28. birdthistle, n. (2006). small family businesses as learning organisations: an irish study. phd thesis. brisbane: griffith university. braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. cameron, l., & miller, p. (2008). enhancing hr practices in smes using the concept of relationship marketing. in proceedings of the sme entrepreneurship global conference 2008: creating sustainable entrepreneurship eco-system and high-performance smes (pp. 1–16). melbourne, australia. cunningham, l. x. (2010). managing human resources in smes in a transition economy: evidence from china (phd thesis). the international journal of human resource management, 21(12), 2120–2141. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2010.509620 dekker, j., lybaert, n., steijvers, t., & depaire, a. b. (2015). the effect of family business professionalization as a multidimensional construct on firm performance. journal of small business management, 53(2), 516–538. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsbm.12082 dundon, t., & wilkinson, a. (2009). hrm in small and medium sized enterprises (smes). in g. wood, human resource management. a critical approach (pp. 130–147). london: routledge. dundon, t., & wilkinson, a. (2018). hrm in small and medium-sized enterprises (smes). in g. wood, & collings, d. g. (eds.), human resource management: a critical introduction (pp. 1–32). london: routledge. fabi, b., raymond, l., & lacoursière, r. (2009). strategic alignment of hrm practices in manufacturing smes: a gestalts perspective. journal of small business and enterprise development, 16(1), 7–25. https://doi.org/10.1108/14626000910932854 forth, j., & bryson, a. (2018). the impact of management practices on sme performance. bonn, germany: iza institute of labour economics. guercin, s., & milanesi, m. (2016). interaction approach and liabilities: a case analysis of start-up firms. journal of business-to-business marketing, 23(4), 293–309. https://doi.org/10.1080/1051712x.2016.1250595 harney, b., & dundon, t. (2006). capturing complexity: developing an integrated approach to analysing hrm in smes. human resource management journal, 16(1), 48–73. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2006.00004.x harney, b., & nolan, c. (2014). hrm in small and medium-sized firms (smes). in b. harney, strategic hrm: research and practice in ireland (pp. 153–169). dublin: blackhall/orpen. kotey, b., & folker, c. (2007). employee training in smes: effect of size and firm type – family and non-family. journal of small business management, 45, 214–238. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-627x.2007.00210.x kotey, b., & slade, p. (2005). formal human resource management practices in small growing firms. journal of small business management, 43(1), 16–40. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-627x.2004.00123.x kroon, b., voorde, k., & timmers, j. (2013). high performance work practices in small firms: a resource-poverty and strategic decision-making perspective. small business economics, 41(1), 71–91. http://doi.org/10.1177/0266242616637415 leach, p. (2011). family businesses: the essentials. london: profile books. lobonțiua, g., & lobonțiua, m. (2014). the owner-manager and the functional management of the small firm. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 124, 552–561. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.02.519 long, c. s., ajagbe, m. a., & kowang, t. o. (2014). addressing the issues on employees’ turnover intention in the perspective of hrm practices in sme. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 129, 99–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.653 matejun, m. (2014). the role of flexibility in building the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises. management, 18(1), 152–168. https://doi.org/10.2478/manment-2014-0012 michiels, a., voordeckers, w., lybaert, n., & steijvers, t. (2012). ceo compensation in private family firms: pay-for-performance and the moderating role of ownership and management. family business review, 26(2), 140–160. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894486512454731 ogunyomi, p., & bruning, n. (2016). human resource management and organisational performance of small and medium enterprises (smes) in nigeria. the international journal of human resource management, 27(6), 612–634. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1033640 pittino, d., visintin, f., lenger, t., & sternad, d. (2016). are high performance work practices really necessary in family smes? an analysis of the impact on employee retention. journal of family business strategy, 7(2), 75–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfbs.2016.04.002 psychogios, a., szamosi, l., prouska, r., & brewster, c. (2016). a three-fold framework for understanding hrm practices in south-eastern european smes. employee relations, 38(3), 1–38. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-07-2014-0078 rauf, m. a. (2016). hrm effectivity in small and medium-sized enterprises: a multiple cross-case study of pakistani and dutch smes. phd thesis. university of twente. reid, r. s., & adams, j. s. (2001). human resource management – a survey of practices within family and non-family firms. journal of european industrial training, 25(6), 310–320. richbell, s., szerb, l., & vitai, z. (2010). hrm in the hungarian sme sector. employee relations, 32(3), 262–280. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425451011038799 saridakis, g., muñoz-torres, r., & johnstone, s. (2013). do human resource practices enhance organisational commitment in smes with low employee satisfaction? british journal of management, 24(3), 445–458. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2012.00814.x sheehan, m. (2014). human resource management and performance: evidence from small and medium-sized firms. international small business journal, 32(5), 545–570. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266242612465454 singh, m., & vohra, n. (2009). level of formalisation of human resource management in small and medium enterprises in india. journal of entrepreneurship, 18(1), 95–116. sisson, k. (1993). in search of hrm. british journal of industrial relations, 31(2), 201–210. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1993.tb00389.x steijvers, t., lybaert, n., & dekker, j. (2012). formal human resource practices in family firms. journal of family business management, 7(2), 151–165. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfbm-07-2016-0016 tsai, c., sengupta, s., & edwards, p. (2007). when and why is small beautiful? human relations, 60, 1779–1808. tsai, c.-j. (2010). hrm in smes: homogeneity or heterogeneity? a study of taiwanese high-tech firms. the international journal of human resource management, 21(10), 1689–1711. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2010.500490 welsh, j. a., & white, j. f. (1981). a small business is not a little big business. harvard business review, 59(4), 18. https://doi.org/10.1177/026624268200100115 wiesner, r., & innes, p. (2010). bleak house or bright prospect? hrm in australian smes over 1998–2008. asia pacific journal of human resources, 48(2), 151–184. https://doi.org/10.1177/1038411110368465 wilkinson, a. (1999). employment relations in smes. employee relations, 21(3), 206–217. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425459910273062 woodhams, c., & lupton, b. (2006). does size matter? gender-based equal opportunity in uk small and medium enterprises. women in management review, 21(2), 143–169. https://doi.org/10.1108/09649420610650710 young-thelin, l., & black, k. (2012). a case study of human resource practices in small hotels in sweden. journal of human resources in hospitality & tourism, 11(4), 327–353. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332845.2012.690683 yusoff, m. n., razak, r. c., zainol, f. a., & hassan, h. (2018). entrepreneurial orientation and usage of external business support for smes. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 8(1), 1–11. abstract introduction literature review research methodology findings and discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) chantelle solomon management coaching, university of stellenbosch business school, stellenbosch university, cape town, south africa salome van coller-peter management coaching, university of stellenbosch business school, stellenbosch university, cape town, south africa citation solomon, c., & van coller-peter, s. (2019). how coaching aligns the psychological contract between the young millennial professional and the organisation. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1146. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1146 original research how coaching aligns the psychological contract between the young millennial professional and the organisation chantelle solomon, salome van coller-peter received: 03 dec. 2018; accepted: 28 may 2019; published: 30 sept. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: coaching has the potential to align the expectations between young millennial professionals and their organisations as coaching in a business context should result in mutually beneficial outcomes valued by both the coachee and the organisation. research purpose: the research reported in this article explored how coaching contributes to the alignment of the psychological contract between an organisation and the young millennial professional. motivation for the study: the work-related preferences and expectations of millennials can result in misalignment in the psychological contract between organisations and young millennial professionals, negatively affecting their level of engagement; performance and tenure. there is a paucity of research into building psychological contract mutuality and the coaching of millennials. research approach/design and method: a phenomenological approach within a qualitative research design was followed. this included semi-structured interviews with seven young millennial professionals who had been coached and email interviews with five coaches who had coached young millennial professionals. main findings: coaching can enhance the psychological contract between young millennial professionals and their organisations, particularly with regard to career development. alignment in expectations regarding career development may result in improved performance; enhanced affective commitment and lower turnover. practical/managerial implications: coaching is a viable strategy for organisations to engage and retain their young millennial professionals by cultivating psychological contract alignment in the employer-employee relationship. contribution/value-add: this research supplements the limited body of knowledge on building psychological contract mutuality and coaching efficacy for young millennials. keywords: coaching; millennials; millennial professionals; psychological contract; career development; generational differences. introduction there are three generations working alongside each other in the workplace today. engaging, managing and retaining millennials is topical (sinek, 2016, cited in gosse, 2017 ) with many managers wondering whether it is just their own perception or whether what inspires, motivates and challenges this young generation of workers really is different from that of previous generations (twenge & campbell, 2012). according to a report by pricewaterhousecoopers one of the biggest talent challenges for organisations is attracting and retaining these younger workers (pwc, 2011). a survey conducted by deloitte (2016) revealed that globally, two-thirds of millennials expect to leave their current organisation in 5 years. millennials in emerging markets are the least loyal to their current organisation. in south africa, 76% of millennials expect to leave their current organisation in 5 years (deloitte, 2016). the work-related preferences and expectations of millennials can result in misalignment in the psychological contract (pc) between organisations and young millennial professionals (ymps), which can negatively affect their level of engagement, performance and tenure. young millennial professionals just entering the workplace have expectations of mutual obligations between themselves and their organisations. as ymps have grown up with significantly different experiences, technology and culture than previous generations, they are perceived to have different work-related preferences that shape their expectations (coetzee, ferreira, & shunmugum, 2017; lub, blomme, & bal, 2011). similarly, organisations have expectations of the mutual commitments between themselves and these young professionals. psychological contracts (pcs) are ‘an individual’s beliefs concerning reciprocal obligations’ in the employment relationship (rousseau, 1990, p. 9). pc fulfilment and its suggested business benefits are more likely to materialise if the parties agree about their obligations towards each other (rousseau, 2001). a salient characteristic of pcs is the individual’s perception that the understanding regarding reciprocal obligations is mutual. with pcs operating on the perception of agreement, the key challenge for pcs is how to create and maintain mutuality between the parties (rousseau, 2001). coaching, in a business context, should result in mutually beneficial outcomes of value to both the coachee and the organisation (kahn, 2014) begging the question as to how coaching might contribute to aligning the pc between these young workers and their organisations. research purpose this article reports on a study exploring how coaching contributes towards aligning the pc between ymps and their organisations. in the study, ymps were defined as individuals under the age of 30 who have just embarked on their careers or who are building their career within an organisation in a corporate environment. our focus on individuals under the age of 30 addressed the topical nature of managing millennials and their expectations in the workplace. although extensive research has been carried out on the consequences of pc violations between parties (rousseau, 2001), a smaller body of research is focused on how pcs between individuals and organisations are formed and maintained and how they change over time. similarly, there is a paucity of scholarly research specifically addressing coaching millennials: only one peer-reviewed article (franklin, 2015) was identified. insights from this article provide management-, human resourceand coaching practitioners with a clearer idea of which benefits from coaching may contribute towards cultivating mutuality in pcs between ymp’s and their organisations. it also sheds light on the content dimensions of millennials pcs, which may be met through coaching. lastly, it highlights the potential business benefits that can flow to the organisation, influencing the engagement and retention of these workers. literature review firstly, the literature provides insights into the generation known as millennials. secondly, aspects of pc theory that influence alignment are emphasised, namely the concept of mutuality, and the formation, maintenance and change of pcs as well as their content. finally, the potential of coaching as a contributing factor towards aligning the pc between ymps and their organisation is presented. although the origins of the pc date back to the 1960s, most scholarly research on pcs cite denise rousseau’s work as the original source. rousseau’s voice is predominant regarding the underlying concepts of pc theory presented in this article. who are the millennials? millennials are the largest generation in history (pwc, 2011). millennials have been entering the workplace approximately from the year 2000, and will comprise 50% of the worldwide workforce by 2020 (pwc, 2011). they will soon outnumber their generation x predecessors (born 1965–1980) in the workplace, and are no longer considered the leaders of tomorrow, but the leaders of today (deloitte, 2016). millenials’ formative experiences, their characteristics and values as a generation are highlighted first. born between the early 1980s and late 1990s (twenge, 2010), millennials grew up during times of economic prosperity, the rise of the internet, the fall of the berlin wall and the war on terror following the attacks on the twin towers on 11 september 2001 (dries, pepermans, & de kerpel 2008; twenge & campbell, 2012). media and popular literature portray millennials as idealistic, optimistic, confident, not cowed by authority (alsop, 2008), innovative and adaptive and not fearing change (wasserman, 2017). it is postulated that although they come across as confident and articulate, millennials have lower self-esteem than earlier generations, and require constant reassurance (gosse, 2017). parenting strategies such as helicopter parenting (wasserman, 2017), where parents are overprotective of their children, have led to young adults with higher levels of anxiety, without mechanisms to cope with stress or failure (gosse, 2017). constant access to the internet and social media has influenced millennial-relationships with their peers and other generations (gosse, 2017). they are portrayed as shallow, unable to form meaningful relationships and loyal to others only for as long as it suits them (twenge & campbell, 2012). within the workplace, millennials are recognised for using their technological shrewdness to enhance their productivity, efficiency and collaboration with others (burrows, 2013). they desire to shape their workplace (burrows, 2013) and can be influential brand ambassadors if they buy into an organisation’s purpose (wasserman, 2017). millennials are also apparently ‘tough to manage’ (gosse, 2017) often popularly described as entitled, lazy and inappropriately demanding (alsop, 2008). this techno-generation prefers to communicate electronically rather than face to face (myers & sadaghiani, 2010). in addition, they are eager to move onto new and different challenges at work (ng, schweitzer, & lyons, 2010). technology has exacerbated their sense of impatience, feeding the instant gratification tendencies of these young people who are used to getting what they want as soon as they want it (gosse, 2017). the work-related expectations of millennials are embodied in their pcs. certain key constructs of pc theory relevant to this article are addressed next, considering their influence on millennials pcs where applicable. the psychological contract the pc is specifically concerned with the expectations of inputs and outcomes exchanged in the employer-employee relationship. rousseau defined the pc as ‘individual beliefs regarding terms of an exchange agreement between individuals and their organisation’ (rousseau 1995, p. 9). according to rousseau, beliefs become contractual where an employee believes they are obliged to perform or behave in a particular way (for example, high performance, sacrifices, and managing their own careers) and that the employer has particular obligations towards them (high pay, promotion, and training and development) (rousseau, 1990). research over the last 30 years supports that employees are motivated to reciprocate what they believe to be commitments fulfilled by their organisation and promised inducements. psychological contract mutuality psychological contracts are more likely to be fulfilled if there is agreement between employee and employer on their obligations towards each other. shared understanding aligns behaviour, reduces insecurity and encourages reliance on anticipated future exchanges (rousseau, 2004). this leads to higher productivity and more supportive and constructive interactions between individuals and organisations (dabos & rousseau, 2004; rousseau, 1995, 2001). the absence of mutuality in pcs can result in assumptions that promises are unfulfilled, pc breach and violation (ye, cardon, & rivera, 2012), which in turn influence employee attitudes and performance outcomes (coyle-shapiro & kessler, 2000; ye et al., 2012). employment relationships can be easier to sustain with mutuality in place (persson & wasieleski, 2015). research on factors contributing to a shared understanding in pcs is limited (dabos & rousseau, 2004). mutuality is fostered where information relevant to the context of the exchange is shared openly and frequently between the parties, leading to collective frames of reference (dabos & rousseau, 2004). sharing of information between the parties to the pc is crucial to its sustainability. psychological contracts require sense-making in the working environment as they are premised on perceptions, expectations and emotions (persson & wasieleski, 2015). a further challenge is how to motivate employees to share their knowledge to produce mutuality (rousseau, 2001) as motivation is influenced by both individual and contextual factors (persson & wasieleski, 2015). formation, maintenance and change of psychological contracts psychological contracts are a form of schema (rousseau, 2001). a schema is constructed from experience, subsequently influencing how later information is processed and organised (stein, 1992, cited in rousseau, 2001). psychological contract schemas are shaped by pre-employment experiences, recruitment interactions, early socialisation in an organisation (rousseau, 2001), interactions with managers, co-workers and human resource processes (dabos & rousseau, 2004). broader societal factors and economic and organisational changes also influence pc construction. as schemas, pcs are initially incomplete and require fleshing out over time. psychological contracts often become more complex and more implicit as the employment relationship develops (rousseau, 2004). as pcs achieve a level of completeness, these schemas become relatively stable and resistant to change. experiences are subsequently viewed through the lens of the existing schema (rousseau, 2001). individuals from different generational cohorts experience different circumstances and events during their formative life-stage and create different schemas about their world of work, resulting in the development of ‘generationally specific perceived employer obligations’ (lub, bal, blomme, & schalk, 2016, p. 655). these schemas influence the content of pcs and an individual’s sense-making around reciprocity and mutuality that should be demonstrated by parties to the employment arrangement (dabos & rousseau, 2004; lub et al., 2016). various formative experiences may have shaped millennials’ schemas about the world of work. millennials grew up in a prosperous yet uncertain global economic climate, and lived through the 2002 dot-com bubble burst and 2008 global financial crisis (gosse, 2017). they watched as several major corporations (enron, arthur andersen, barings bank) were brought to their knees through unethical leadership and dubious business practices (twenge & campbell, 2012), and saw their own parents’ commitment to their careers being ‘rewarded’ by downsizing and retrenchments (lyons & kuron, 2014). the advancement of the internet has influenced their values, and they are comfortable in fast-paced high-tech environments (lub et al., 2016). psychological contract construction is further shaped by socialisation in the organisation and organisational changes rooted in societal trends. hess and jepsen (2009) assert that restructuring and downsizing, technological changes and other labour market changes have resulted in a pc shift from an organisational career to a protean career. in a protean career, employees take responsibility for their own career management, aiming to build skills to enhance their employability. the organisation is expected to afford opportunities to grow and develop at work (hess & jepsen, 2009). content of psychological contracts since the parties to a pc have their personal perception of the obligations implicit in the contract, it is difficult to define and evaluate the precise content of the pc (freese & schalk, 2005; persson & wasieleski, 2015). rousseau adopted the distinction of transactional and relational contracts, and defined features of these contracts in the workplace using dimensions such as focus, time frame, stability, scope and tangibility. other researchers have identified a variety of pc content dimensions such as job content, reward and job security (herriot, manning, & kidd, 1997; kultalahti & viitala, 2015; lub et al., 2016). the content dimension perspective was adopted in this study in line with more recent studies on millennials and their pcs (de hauw & de vos, 2010; kultalahti & viitala, 2015; lub et al., 2016). the literature revealed that millennials value meaningful work (dries et al., 2008), challenging, interesting and varied job content (de hauw & de vos, 2010; kultalahti & viitala, 2015) and a supportive and nurturing work environment (kultalahti & viitala, 2015). they appreciate a social atmosphere and cooperation between colleagues at work (cennamo & gardner, 2011; wong, gardiner, lang, & coulon, 2008). millennials expect supervisors to set high demands and provide clear direction, balanced with a degree of flexibility to do things their way, and to learn by trial and error (kultalahti & viitala, 2015). evidence suggests that millennials have a higher need for recognition and appreciation (wong et al., 2008) and value regular feedback more often (kultalahti & viitala, 2015; wasserman, 2017). salary is as important for millennials as for previous generations (dries et al., 2008; lub et al., 2011), though they prize instant bonuses and various perks when recognised for their contributions (kultalahti & viitala, 2015). a decline in work-centrality alongside an increase in leisure values (twenge, campbell, hoffman, & lance, 2010; wray-lake, syvertsen, briddell, osgood, & flanagan, 2011) supports the perception that millennials ‘work to live’ rather than ‘live to work’ (lyons & kuron, 2014). they appreciate respect for their personal circumstances and expect reciprocal flexibility regarding working hours (cennamo & gardner, 2011; de hauw & de vos, 2010). young millennials appear willing to sacrifice work–life balance in the interim to find a satisfying career. millennials value self-actualisation through growth and development (kultalahti & viitala, 2015; lub et al., 2011). millennials are expected to manage their own careers, for example through demonstrating visibility behaviours and generating their own career opportunities; in return they expect their employer to provide training and development opportunities and assist in realising their career opportunities (hess & jepsen, 2009). as these beliefs are from the perspective of the millennial employee only, aligning or creating mutuality in the pc with their organisation requires articulating and negotiating such beliefs with appropriate agents of the organisation. in the following section, the potential of coaching to cultivate mutuality in pcs is explored with reference to research into coaching efficacy. coaching and cultivating mutuality in psychological contracts coaching in the workplace is a goal-focused and reflective learning partnership between a coach and a coachee (icf, 2017; jones, woods, & guillaume, 2016), focused on facilitating sustainable changes in thinking, feeling and behaviour (douglas & mccauley, 1999) that result in the attainment of mutually beneficial outcomes valued by the coachee and the organisation (kahn, 2014). in this study, we focused on external coaches involved in one-on-one discussions with coachees owing to our interest in coaching’s impact in its purest sense rather than where a manager uses a coaching leadership style. a key aspect to cultivating mutuality in pcs is frequent and open sharing of information between the parties. prior to and after this event, there is a need for individual sense-making and delving into the beliefs around reciprocal obligations implicit in the pc, as well as for the motivation to share information. in this context, it is our contention that coaching may provide an appropriate vehicle for such sense-making and exploration regarding beliefs and motivations to take place. because no clear empirical links have been made between pcs and coaching, we explored coaching’s potential to produce alignment in pcs by examining the empirical evidence supporting coaching effectiveness. the question asked in reviewing the literature around coaching efficacy was, ‘what recognised effects of coaching can potentially contribute towards cultivating mutuality in pcs between an employee and their organisation?’ the research on coaching effectiveness reveals a number of benefits of coaching that may contribute towards cultivating mutuality in pcs. kombarakaran, yang, baker and fernandes (2008) found that coaching resulted in increased communication and an improved relationship with direct supervisors citing ‘better understanding of how to work with my manager’ (kombarakaran et al., 2008:85). improved relationships in the workplace was a clear theme in reported coaching benefits in the sherpa 2017 executive coaching survey (sherpa coaching, 2017). better relationships and more communication may positively influence an individual’s motivation to share information related to their pc beliefs with their managers, increase the frequency and openness of sharing, and provide a useful approach to situations where perceived differences in pc obligations arise (rousseau, 2001). le sueur and tapela (2018) found that coaching raised awareness about coachees’ perceptions of themselves. kombarakaran et al. (2008:83) noted that coaching resulted in a ‘better understanding of personal strengths’. this personal insight and growing confidence about their own abilities gained through increased self-awareness (grant, curtayne, & burton, 2009) may potentially influence pc mutuality by helping individuals to make sense of their beliefs in the reciprocal obligations between themselves and the company, and to identify what is important to them and what their motivations are. improved clarity of expectations and the enhanced ability to define performance goals more clearly (kombarakaran et al., 2008) may allow individuals to be more confident to articulate their perspectives in sharing such information with their managers or working to resolve perceived differences in their pcs. as millennials place high value on work-life balance (kultalahti & viitala, 2015), coaching may help them to address their needs for balance with agents of the organisation more effectively (simpson, 2010), influencing mutuality of the pc in this specific area. research methodology research approach this study utilised constructivist phenomenological principles within the exploratory qualitative research genre. this approach was considered appropriate because we wanted to understand and describe the core commonality of how the lived experience of being coached contributed to aligning the pc between ymps and their organisations (creswell, 2007) on the basis of the multiple realities and collective reconstructions of the research participants (denzin & lincoln, 2005). babbie and mouton (2015) support this approach, saying that exploratory qualitative research emphasises describing and understanding a phenomenon from the social actors’ perspectives, rather than explaining it. sampling strategy and population purposive sampling, a method characteristic of qualitative phenomenological research design (babbie & mouton, 2015), was used to identify participants. the most likely source of data was ymp’s who had been coached in their organisations (coachee participants) as well as coaches who had coached this population group (coach participants). collecting data from coach participants as well as coachee participants was a form of triangulation used to enhance the credibility of the study (babbie & mouton, 2015). potential candidates were approached through two avenues, namely requesting permission from organisations themselves and via personal networking. key inclusion criteria were that coachee participants be younger than 30 years old to fit within the definition of ‘ymp’ for this study, and have been coached, not mentored. similarly, coach participants must have coached, not mentored, ymps under the age of 30 in organisations. seven coachee participants were sourced across four corporate organisations in south africa. five coach participants were sourced, of which four were external coaches in private practice, and one was an internal coach in a corporate organisation. there were an equal number of male and female participants across the entire sample. the contexts in which the coaching took place were individual coaching supporting a development or internship programme, or stand-alone individual coaching where the desired outcomes from the coaching differed between individuals. all coachee participants had experienced at least six coaching sessions sponsored by the organisation. coaches described their experiences referring to the ymps they had coached to date. data collection semi-structured interviews were conducted with coachees and email conversations with coach participants. the coachee one-on-one interviews were conducted from 25 april 2017 to 14 june 2017. semi-structured interviews allowed flexibility via probing questions, producing richer and more detailed responses (babbie & mouton, 2015). the interview guide explored coachee’s perceptions of the outcomes they realised from the coaching process and investigated the contribution of these outcomes to the alignment of the pc between themselves and their organisations. the interview guide was constructed based on the indicators of pcs identified in the literature (rabionet, 2011). email interviews were used to collect data from coach participants. selecting the email interview method of data collection allowed for obtaining rich descriptions (gibson, 2010) and, at the same time, working more timeand cost-efficiently. these questions explored coaches’ experience of coaching ymps, their perception of the professional and personal outcomes for these young workers from the coaching and more specifically their sense of how the coaching contributed to aligning the pc between these young professionals and the organisation. email responses were carefully reviewed and follow-up questions were asked for clarification or elaboration where required (gibson, 2010). from 25 april to 4 july 2017, between two and four emails were exchanged with each coach participant. data analysis within the inductive analysis framework, the researcher chose to use the thematic analysis approach of braun and clarke (2006) as it supports the exploration of individual perspectives, enabling interpretation of the broader meaning of what participants have said (crowe, inder, & porter, 2015). the researcher immersed herself in the data, identified and coded the data that met the research objectives, clustered the codes into categories and then analysed the data to uncover emergent themes and relationships. having reviewed the themes, the researcher considered the relationship between them and identified the quotes that provided rich data to support her findings. thereafter, the researcher wrote up the narrative on the basis of the integration of the analysis described above. ethical considerations ethical boundaries of both the coaching profession and the researcher’s academic institution were applied from conception to collection and analysis of the data. participants acknowledged their awareness of their rights as participants of the study by signing informed consent documents. in two instances, organisational permission to gain access to coachee participants was obtained. participation of candidates from these organisations was voluntary even if the organisation agreed to grant access to the participants. each participant was assigned an alpha character to assure anonymity throughout the study; furthermore, findings and insights were represented on an aggregated basis. findings and discussion findings in respect of key outcomes from coaching experienced by coachee participants (randomly coded a to g) and how they perceived that these outcomes contributed towards aligning their pc with their organisation are presented in this section. corroborative observations from coach participants (randomly coded v to z) are included where relevant. coachees revealed that enhanced awareness, improved confidence and increased ability and motivation to handle tough conversations are three key outcomes of coaching that contributed towards aligning their pc with their organisation. enhanced awareness enhanced awareness was experienced in three distinct areas, namely deeper self-awareness, a growing awareness of self-responsibility and a more realistic sense of the value they bring to the organisation. coachee participants in this study gained deeper self-awareness into these aspects: their personality, their thinking and assumptions (b, c & f), exploration of their values (b & f), recognition of the strengths and areas of development (c & f), appreciation of their behaviours and how these behaviours influence their interactions in the organisation (c & f) and understanding of what they want from life and work on the basis of knowing who they are (c, e & f). both le sueur and tapela (2018) and kombarakaran et al. (2008) cited enhanced self-awareness as a benefit of coaching. the clearer sense of their identity and self-appreciation raised their awareness about what they wanted regarding their development and career progression. coachee participants appeared to become more intentional about the next step in their careers, an outcome supported by simpson (2010) as described in the quote below: ‘[i]t’s raised awareness about who i am and what i want, what i enjoy, where my strengths lie, where my weaknesses are … i want to use my strengths and make sure that they remain strengths. i also want to work on my weaknesses and turn them into strengths if possible. that made me very deliberate about where i want to go into the organisation.’ (participant c, male, coachee) coachee participants recognised through coaching that it is their responsibility to pursue their goals (d & f). coach x observed that ‘the realisation of personal accountability’ is an outcome of coaching for these young workers. jones et al. (2016, p. 252) claim that coaching helps to instil self-responsibility as coaching is focused on active learning and gives the coachee control over their learning and development. acknowledging self-responsibility through coaching may help ymps grasp that they must take the first step to raise awareness of their pc beliefs with their organisation, especially where they perceive differences in the understanding of the obligations. both coachee (c & e) and coach participants (x & v) perceived that coaching enhanced the young workers’ awareness of their value in the organisation, for example: ‘it really helped me professionally understand myself and know what i offer as an individual.’ (participant e, female, coachee) le sueur and tapela (2018) noted that coaching raises awareness about individuals’ contribution to their work. with millennials often popularly characterised as egocentric and entitled (alsop, 2008), perspective taking is a further benefit of self-awareness (silvia & o’brien, 2004) for these young workers as highlighted by this comment: ‘the world does not owe you anything … something i’ve realised more through coaching. i should not come to [company xyz] being young and black [and a chartered accountant] and expect myself to be promoted on the basis that they needed me … i need to add value, show my worth to the organisation.’ (participant f, male, coachee) our sense is that a more accurate view of the value that they bring moderates ymps’ beliefs concerning the reciprocal obligations between themselves and the organisation, potentially creating a frame for more credible pc discussions between employee and employer. improved confidence coachees experienced increased confidence in the areas of speaking up and taking action regarding their development. coachees highlighted that their growing confidence flowed from enhanced self-awareness (c, e), a notion supported by henderson (2016). coachees felt more confident to ask for help (b & g) and to challenge situations that did not feel right for them (c & g). coachees described having more confidence to raise awareness of themselves, their abilities and their beliefs regarding elements of their pcs with their organisation (c & d). coach x affirmed this finding: ‘its [coaching] also enabled them to find a voice and be able to have honest and specific conversations with the organisation re their expectations as well.’ (participant x, female, coach) coachee participants perceived that they are responsible for taking action regarding their career development in their organisations (c, f & g) confirming the pc shift from an organisational to a protean career, where employees take on their own career management alluded to by hess and jepsen (2009) and low, bordia and bordia (2016). furthermore, they felt strongly that their increased confidence from coaching was a catalyst to act on their development as demonstrated in one coachee’s statement: ‘it’s not just me coming in here to do a job. it is also about the job developing me and if it doesn’t i’m more confident now to do something about it.’ (participant c, male, coachee) the changed behaviours of speaking up about reciprocal obligations and taking action regarding personal development needs are significant in the context of this research. speaking up implies that ymps may feel more confident to communicate their pc beliefs with their organisation, thus enhancing the potential for pc alignment and fulfilment. further, because millennials acknowledge that the organisation expects them to manage their own career (hess & jepsen, 2009), having confidence to take action regarding their own development and career progression might contribute towards fulfilment of the organisation’s expectations of the employee. individuals’ efficacy and motivation to handle tough conversations conversations regarding beliefs in pc obligations are potentially difficult as they may expose opposing opinions, and results or relationships may be at stake. coachee participants perceived that coaching helped them in their approach to these conversations. as one coachee expressed: ‘… the method, maybe how and when as well … finding a way to raise it as an issue, a mature way … not just complaining … i found the right situation to raise my issues, the right places. i was able to communicate better with less of making it seem as if it’s a personal attack against someone.’ (participant d, female, coachee) coaches confirmed that coaching has helped their clients to have hard conversations that address situations where they had identified differences in the understanding of the obligations between themselves and the organisation (x & y). some coachee participants observed that they had open and reasonably frequent communication with their managers regarding their pc beliefs (d & f). kombarakaran et al. (2008) cited dialogue that is more effective and open communication between individuals and their managers as an outcome of coaching. it appears that (having improved their skills to address tough conversations) they were motivated to have potentially difficult conversations more frequently to ensure mutuality. this is consistent with grenny, patterson, maxfield, mcmillan and switzler’s argument that increased motivation often follows enhanced capability (2013). the business benefit is that productive conversations are held more regularly, thus enhancing the potential for pc alignment and fulfilment. although the majority of research participants in the studies on coaching effectiveness are executives at seniorand middle-management levels, there is commonality in the reported benefits from literature and the key outcomes described by the coachees in this study – namely that of enhanced awareness and increased communication with managers described by the coachees in this study. this suggests that ymps may experience similar effects from being coached as more senior individuals in the organisation regardless of their generation. psychological contract content dimensions where alignment was enhanced through coaching coachee participants highlighted three areas where coaching played a role in enhancing the mutuality in the pc between themselves and their organisations, namely alignment of values (b), fit within the organisation (c&f) and career development (all coachee participants). consistent with lub et al.’s (2016) findings, coachees believed that they are expected to take responsibility for their own career development (a, c, f & g). in addition, they believed that where they do engage in individual career development activities, such as speaking up about their development needs, they expect help and support from the organisation to achieve their objectives. one coachee states this clearly: ‘… the expectation of the company is that if you’re interested in developing your career you’ll make the first move. you are provided with mentors, coaches and things like that, but you also need to, kind of, ask as well. on the other hand, my expectation is that if i do ask, i expect my manager to help me …’ (participant c, male, coachee) coachees expressed that perceived fulfilment of the pc through the career management support they receive from the organisation influenced them in two pertinent ways: it encouraged them to step up to what they believe to be their obligations to the organisation in terms of their current or future roles (b, f & g). coachee f described this obligation as a ‘higher level of engagement with his body of work’. coachee g spoke about learning the most he can from the coaching to be ready to step into his next role. coyle-shapiro and kessler (2002) made similar findings postulating, ‘perceived employer fulfilment of their obligations creates an obligation on employees to reciprocate and this takes the form of a cognitive upward adjustment in employees’ obligations to their employer’ (coyle-shapiro & kessler, 2002, p. 83). secondly, the respondents appeared reluctant to leave their organisations for other opportunities, including financial benefits (b, c & f) as explicitly set out by one coachee: ‘i sometimes get offers on linkedin or offers from other companies, even though the money is more … it’s very hard for me to take any other offers seriously, especially when i consider things that the company has taken me through and the money that they’ve spent on developing me as a person.’ (participant c, male, coachee) this attachment implies a strong affective commitment towards the organisation. affective commitment refers to an employee’s identification with an organisation’s goals and values; they feel a strong emotional connection to the organisation and the work they do (conway, guest, sturges, & liefooghe, 2005). higher affective commitment suggests that millennials’ need for meaningful work (dries et al., 2008) and a sense of purpose (deloitte, 2016) are met. conway et al. (2005) confirmed that this suggested a link between pc fulfilment relating to career development and affective commitment. zhao, wayne, glibkowski and bravo (2007) found that affective commitment is positively associated with actual performance and lower turnover. coach participants observed that coachees might perceive receiving coaching as a key aspect of the organisation fulfilling their pc beliefs regarding career development. this observation is illustrated in this comment: ‘i think they feel that the company appreciates them and acknowledges their potential (typically only the top performers who have been earmarked for fast track promotion are exposed to coaching). it plants a seed for future personal development …’ (participant z, male, coach) aspects that stood out from the coaches’ input are that the millennials who received coaching felt that the organisation cared for them (y); they felt acknowledged and appreciated (y, z & v). coachee participants indicated that being coached fulfilled an aspect of their pc; they felt that the company invested in them because they had recognised their potential (c, e & f). according to festing and schafer (2014), coaching reflects the notion of an investment in a long-term and stable relationship with an employee, and relays important signals to talented individuals in organisations. our sense of these findings is that coaching contributes to the fulfilment of ymps’ pcs by meeting their needs for growth and development (lub et al., 2011) in a supportive, nurturing work environment (kultalahti & viitala, 2015), as well as their need for recognition and appreciation (kultalahti & viitala, 2015; wong et al., 2008). a more fulfilled pc in turn may lead to suggested outcomes such as improved performance, job satisfaction and organisational commitment (festing & schafer, 2014). practical implications the implications that can be practically applied by managers, human resource practitioners and coaches are: positioning coaching as an investment in the coachee is the first step towards pc fulfilment in the content dimensions of career development, reward (which includes recognition) and tenure. using coaching as a viable strategy for organisations to cultivate pc alignment with their ymps, either implicitly or explicitly and particularly in the psychological content dimension of career development. conversations concerning reciprocal obligations are potentially difficult as there may be opposing opinions and high stakes involved. it is suggested that coaching outcomes include equipping coachees with the skills and motivation to have tough and productive conversations with their managers and other agents of the organisation. other practical implications all three professional groups can consider as a result of this study are: coaching may promote more robust and credible discussions between managers and ymps regarding their reciprocal obligations in the employer-employee relationship. ymp’s who have been coached may realise the benefits of coaching such as enhanced self-awareness, improved confidence and ability to have tough conversations earlier on in their careers. this could boost their leadership development as well as their organisational effectiveness. limitations of the study and recommendations for future research to explore the phenomenon in question, seven ymps who had experienced coaching were interviewed. the addition of five coaches’ perspectives enhanced the richness and credibility of the data collected. future research, where only coachee perspectives are collected, might consider extending the number of coachee participants interviewed to at least 10 to 12 respondents to ensure that data saturation is achieved. some suggestions for further research emanating from this study are: the findings of this study are from the perspective of the ymps and the coaches only. future researchers may consider obtaining evidence from managers of the coachee participants. this might provide a complete and potentially more balanced perspective of the phenomenon. because the coaching of millennials is an under-researched topic, further exploration of how millennials experience coaching, and some of the other outcomes millennials realise through coaching would be a useful contribution to the literature. there is limited research into the content of pcs from the perspective of both the employee and the employer, and a dearth of research into pc mutuality. with 50% of millennials already in formal leadership positions (deloitte, 2016), there is an opportunity to explore the content of the pc from the respective views of the millennials employees and their millennials managers. it would be interesting to investigate whether pc mutuality is in any way influenced by the fact that both employee and employer are of the same generation. conclusion this study sheds light on the role of coaching in aligning expectations between ymps and their organisations. where ymp coachees achieve certain internal outcomes from a coaching process, they may be motivated to take up behaviours that contribute towards cultivating mutuality in the pc between themselves and their organisation. leedham’s (2005) coaching benefits pyramid model resonated with our findings. he suggested that realising inner personal benefits from coaching, such as clarity and improved confidence, lays the foundation for achieving outer personal benefits such as change in behaviours, or enhanced knowledge, skills and understanding, ultimately leading to business benefits. figure 1 is a pyramid adapted by adding the specific findings of the present study as related to leedham’s model. figure 1: coaching and psychological contract alignment pyramid. the coaching and pc alignment pyramid suggests that coaching can viably contribute to the alignment of the pc between the ymp and their organisation. this alignment may be initiated via the realisation of inner personal benefits for the coachee from the coaching as described by the coachee participants in this study: coachees gained an enhanced awareness of who they are (strengths, personality, and values) and what they want from life and work. they were able to articulate their development needs and direction more clearly. they became more aware of their responsibility to raise their pc beliefs with the organisation. their more accurate view of the value they bring to the organisation appeared to moderate their pc beliefs, potentially creating a frame for more credible discussions regarding reciprocal obligations. coachees noticed that improved confidence flowed from their enhanced personal insight. the perceived outer personal benefits experienced by the coachee participants and affirmed by the coach participants were: coachees observed that their improved confidence enabled them to speak up more credibly about their strengths and contributions, and to hold conversations that contributed towards clarifying the organisation’s expectations of them, and what they expected in return. further, it appears that coaching assisted them in their ability to handle tough conversations, imparting both the skills and motivation to have candid and respectful conversations with their managers regarding their pc beliefs. coachees noticed that they were more confident to take action concerning their own development. as organisations now expect employees to manage their own careers, this may contribute towards fulfilment of the organisation’s expectations on the part of the employee. with the improved behaviours and enhanced skills in place, it appears from this study that the potential for both the coachee and the organisation to realise pc alignment and fulfilment particularly in the content dimension of career development is enhanced. mutuality in the reciprocal obligations regarding career development speaks directly to the millennials’ need for self-actualisation through growth and development and contributes to providing the supportive and nurturing work environment in which millennials thrive. perceived fulfilment of their pc in this area of career development encouraged the ymps to adopt a higher level of engagement with what they saw as their obligations to the organisation in terms of their current and future roles, thus positively influencing their performance. it enhanced their affective commitment, implying that these young workers felt a strong emotional attachment to the organisation and their work. they identified with the organisation’s goal and values, which in turn met their need for meaningful work. higher affective commitment is positively associated with actual performance and lower turnover (zhao et al., 2007). psychological contract mutuality and fulfilment flowing from coaching outcomes may result in ymps who perform at a higher level of engagement and see their future growth and career aspirations being realised in the organisation, specifically addressing the challenge faced by organisations to engage and retain ymps. mutually beneficial outcomes valued by both the coachee and the organisation are realised. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions c.s. conducted the research as part of her dissertation for the fulfilment of the degree of master of philosophy in management coaching and wrote the article. s.v.c.-p. supervised the research and reviewed and edited the article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references alsop, r. (2008). the trophy kids group up: how the millennial generation is shaping up the workplace. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2015). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford university press southern africa (pty) ltd. braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa burrows, t. (2013). managing the millennial gap. retrieved from https://mg.co.za/article/2013-08-30-00-managing-the-millennial-gap. cennamo, l., & gardner, d. (2011). generational differences in work values, outcomes and person-organisation values fit. ieee engineering management review, 39(2), 24–36. https://doi.org/10.1109/emr.2011.5876170 coetzee, m., ferreira, n., & shunmugum, c. (2017). psychological career resources, career adaptability and work engagement of generational cohorts in the media industry. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a868. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.868 conway, n., guest, d., sturges, j., & liefooghe, a. (2005). managing the career deal: the psychological contract as a framework for understanding career management, organizational commitment and work behavior. journal of organisational behavior, 26, 821–838. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.341 coyle-shapiro, j., & kessler, i. (2000). consequences of the psychological contract for the employment relationship: a large-scale survey. journal of management studies, 37(7), 903–930. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00210 coyle-shapiro, j.a.m., & kessler, i. (2002). exploring reciprocity through the lens of the psychological contract: employee and employer perspectives. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 11(1), 69–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320143000852 creswell, j.w. (2007). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among the five traditions (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. crowe, m., inder, m., & porter, r. (2015). conducting qualitative research in mental health: thematic and content analyses. australian & new zealand journal of psychiatry, 49(7), 616–623. https://doi.org/10.1177/0004867415582053 dabos, g.e., & rousseau, d.m. (2004). mutuality and reciprocity in the psychological contracts of employees and employers. journal of applied psychology, 89(1), 52–72. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.1.52 de hauw, s., & de vos, a. (2010). millennials’ career perspective and psychological contract expectations: does the recession lead to lowered expectations? journal of business and psychology, 25(2), 293–302. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9162-9 deloitte. (2016). the deloitte 2016 millennial survey: executive summary. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/global/documents/about-deloitte/gx-millenial-survey-2016-exec-summary.pdf. denzin, n.k., & lincoln, y.s. (2005). the sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. douglas, c., & mccauley, c.d. (1999). formal developmental relationships: a survey of organizational practices. human resource development quarterly, 10(1), 203–220. dries, n., pepermans, r., & de kerpel, e. (2008). exploring four generations’ beliefs about career: is ‘satisfied’ the new ‘successful’? journal of managerial psychology, 23(8), 907–928. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940810904394 festing, m., & schafer, l. (2014). generational challenges to talent management: a framework for talent retention based on the psychological contract perspective. journal of world business, 49(2), 262–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2013.11.010 franklin, h. (2015). coaching millennial leaders: life stage versus the times we live in. international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring, special issue, (9), 63–76. freese, c., & schalk, r. (2005). how to measure the psychological contract? a critical criteria-based review of measures. south african journal of psychology, 38(2), 269–286. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124630803800202 gibson, l. (2010). using email interviews. realities toolkit# 09. esrc national centre for research methods. retrieved from www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/morgancentre/realities/toolkits/email-interviews/index.html gosse, d. (2017). transcript of simon sinek’s millennials in the workplace interview. retrieved from http://ochen.com/transcript-of-simon-sineks-millennials-in-the-workplace-interview. grant, m.a., curtayne, l., & burton, g. (2009). executive coaching enhances goal attainment, resilience and workplace well-being: a randomised controlled study. the journal of positive psychology, 4(5), 396–407. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760902992456 grenny, j., patterson, k., maxfield, d., mcmillan, r., & switzler, a. (2013). influencer: the new science of leading change (2nd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill education. henderson, g. 2016. the link between confidence and self-awareness. retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/link-between-confidence-self-awareness-grant-henderson. herriot, p., manning, w.e.g., & kidd, j.m. (1997). the content of the psychological contract. british journal of management, 8(2), 151–162. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.0047 hess, n., & jepsen, d.m. (2009). career stage and generational differences in psychological contracts. career development international, 14(3), 261–283. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430910966433 international coaching federation (icf). (2017). retrieved from https://www.coachfederation.org/need/landing.cfm?itemnumber=978&navitemnumber=567. jones, r.j., woods, s.a., & guillaume, y.r.f. (2016). the effectiveness of workplace coaching: a meta-analysis of learning and performance outcomes from coaching. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 89(2), 249–277. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12119 kahn, m.s. (2014). coaching on the axis: working with complexity in business and executive coaching. london: karnac books. kombarakaran, f.a., yang, j.a., baker, m.n., & fernandes, p.b. (2008). executive coaching: it works! consulting psychology journal practice and research, 60(1), 78–90. https://doi.org/10.1037/1065-9293.60.1.78 kultalahti, s., & viitala, r. 2015. generation y – challenging clients for hrm. journal of managerial psychology, 30(1), 101–114. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmp-08-2014-0230 leedham, m. (2005). the coaching scorecard: a holistic approach to evaluating the benefits of business coaching. international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring, 3(2), 30–44. le sueur, h.m., & tapela, v. (2018). conditions for coaching to contribute to the adjustment of black african professionals. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a946. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.946 low, c.h., bordia, p., & bordia, s. (2016). what do employees want and why? an exploration of employees’ preferred psychological contract elements across career stages. human relations, 69(7), 1457–1481. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726715616468 lub, x.d., bal, p.m., blomme, r.j., & schalk, r. (2016). one job, one deal…or not: do generations respond differently to psychological contract fulfillment? the international journal of human resource management, 27(6), 653–680. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1035304 lub, x.d., blomme, r.j., & bal, p.m. (2011). psychological contract and organisational citizenship behaviour: a new deal for new generations? advances in hospitality and leisure, 7, 109–130. https://doi.org/10.1108/s1745-3542(2011)0000007010 lyons, s.t., & kuron, l. (2014). generational differences in the workplace: a review of evidence and directions for future research. journal of organisational behaviour, 35, 139–157. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1913 myers, k.k., & sadaghiani, k. (2010). millennials in the workplace: a communication perspective on millennials’ organizational relationships and performance. journal of business and psychology, 25(2), 225–238. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9172-7 ng, e.s.w., schweitzer, l., & lyons, s.t. (2010). new generation, great expectations: a field study of the millennial generation. journal of business and psychology, 25(2), 281–292. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9159-4 persson, s., & wasieleski, d. (2015). the seasons of the psychological contract: overcoming the silent transformations of the employer-employee relationship. human resource management review, 25(4), 368–383. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.02.003 pwc. (2011). geny reshaping the workplace. retrieved from https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/managing-tomorrows-people/future-of-work/assets/reshaping-the-workplace.pdf. rabionet, s.e. (2011). how i learned to design and conduct semi-structured interviews: an ongoing and continuous journey. the qualitative report, 16(2), 563–566. rousseau, d.m. (1990). new hire perceptions of their own and their employer’s obligations: a study of psychological contracts. journal of organizational behavior, 11(5), 389–400. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030110506 rousseau, d.m. (1995). psychological contracts in organizations: understanding written and unwritten agreements. thousand oaks, ca: sage. rousseau, d.m. (2001). schema, promise and mutuality: the building blocks of the psychological contract. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 74(4), 511–541. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317901167505 rousseau, d.m. (2004). psychological contracts. academy of management executive, 18(1), 120–127. sherpa coaching. (2017). sherpa executive coaching survey public report 2017. retrieved from http://www.sherpacoaching.com/annual-executive-coaching-survey/. silvia, p.j., & o’brien, m.e. (2004). self-awareness and constructive functioning: revisiting ‘the human dilemma’. journal of social and clinical psychology, 23(4), 475–489. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.23.4.475.40307 simpson, j. (2010). in what ways does coaching contribute to effective leadership development? international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring, 4(10), 114–133. twenge, j.m. (2010). a review of the empirical evidence on generational differences in work attitudes. journal of business and psychology, 25(2), 201–210. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9165-6 twenge, j.m., & campbell, s.m. (2012). who are the millennials? empirical evidence for generational differences in work values, attitudes and personality. in e. ng, s.t. lyons, & l. schweitzer (eds.), managing the new workforce: international perspectives on the millennial generation (pp. 1–19). cheltenham: edward elgar publishing limited. twenge, j.m., campbell, s.m., hoffman, b.r., & lance, c.e. (2010). generational differences in work values: leisure and extrinsic values increasing, social and intrinsic values decreasing. journal of management, 36, 1117–1142. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206309352246 wasserman, h. 2017. managing millennials. retrieved from http://www.fin24.com/finweek/featured/managing-millennials-20170306. wong, m., gardiner, e., lang, w., & coulon, l. (2008). generational differences in personality and motivation: do they exist and what are the implications for the workplace? journal of managerial psychology, 23(8), 878–890. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940810904376 wray-lake, l., syvertsen, a.k., briddell, l., osgood, d.w., & flanagan, c.a. (2011). exploring the changing meaning of work for american high school seniors from 1976 to 2005. youth & society, 43, 1110–1135. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118x10381367 ye, j., cardon, m.s., & rivera, e. (2012). a mutuality perspective of psychological contracts regarding career development and job security. journal of business research, 65(3), 294–301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.03.006 zhao, h., wayne, s., glibkowksi, b., & bravo, j. (2007). the impact of psychological contract breach on related work-outcomes: meta analysis. personnel psychology, 60, 647–680. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2007.00087.x abstract introduction literature review data and methods results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) mothepane seqhobane department of business management, faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, bloemfontein, south africa desere kokt department of business management, faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, bloemfontein, south africa citation seqhobane, m., & kokt, d. (2021). how do job characteristics influence the motivation of millennial hospitality employees? sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1698. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1698 original research how do job characteristics influence the motivation of millennial hospitality employees? mothepane seqhobane, desere kokt received: 06 june 2021; accepted: 20 aug. 2021; published: 20 oct. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: employee retention remains an ongoing challenge for the hospitality industry, especially given the nature of the industry (an often-hectic work environment, long-working hours and perceived poor compensation). the industry also fails to retain millennial employees, which is a grave concern. research purpose: the investigation studied the impact of job characteristics on the motivation of millennial hospitality employees. the job characteristics model of hackman and oldham served as the theoretical guide. motivation for the study: in addressing the retention issues that the hospitality industry faces, the study provides theoretical and empirical insight on the impact that job characteristics have on the motivation of millennial hospitality employees. research approach/design: the study employed a quantitative research approach. a structured questionnaire was administered to 96 millennial hospitality employees using questionpro. targeted snowball sampling was used to identify respondents. partial least squares (pls) structured equation modelling (sem) was applied to determine the relationship between the variables. main findings: the empirical findings revealed a positive relationship amongst task variety, task significance and feedback towards motivation, but a negative relationship between autonomy and task identity towards motivation. practical/managerial implications: prospective hospitality employees need to be well informed about the challenges of working in the hospitality industry. contribution/value added: autonomy and task identity emerged as factors that do not contribute to the motivation of hospitality employees. millennial hospitality employees were, however, motivated by task significance, task variety and feedback. keywords: job characteristics; motivation; millennials; generational cohorts; hospitality industry; retention; partial least squares (pls) structured equation modelling (sem). introduction with the advent of the 21st century, the world of work has experienced drastic changes, mainly because of the advances of all forms of information communication technology (ict) and the internet (fadtech4u admin, 2018; natter, 2018; zappa, 2014). advances in digital technology, together with globalisation, have created a highly competitive work environment that is increasingly becoming digital and virtual (padhye, 2018). digitalisation has not only introduced an influx of new job opportunities (e.g. social media managers, digital marketers, data specialists, application developers), but has also increased the demand for new competencies. increased digitalisation and virtualisation have created a new world of work that emphasises on both technical skills (e.g. data analysis, technical writing) and soft skills (e.g. communication, intercultural understanding). apart from the challenges posed by increased digitalisation and virtualisation, another defining characteristic of the new world of work is increased workforce diversity. workforce diversity implies that individuals with different characteristics (such as gender, age, language, sexuality, education and work background) are employed in organisations (samuels, 2018). contemporary organisations also consist of individuals from different generational cohorts, notably baby boomers (individuals born roughly between 1945 and 1965), generation x (born roughly between 1964 and 1980), millennials (born roughly between 1980 and 1995), and generation z (born roughly between 1996 and 2010) (francis & hoefel, 2018). millennials currently constitute more than 50% of the global workforce (deloitte, 2018). this is likely to increase in the future. millennials have brought a new dynamic to the workplace (kane, 2018). millennials are comfortable using various forms of digital technology, and they generally expect good work–life balance, good pay and benefits, opportunities for advancement, meaningful work experiences and a nurturing work environment. they are often impatient to wait for promotions, and want more than just a job (ng, schweitzer, & lyons, 2010). an organisation’s mission, vision and values are very important to them, as they want to know where they fit into the bigger picture. monetary compensation is not the only reward for millennials, as they generally value good working relations, a flexible working environment and recognition from supervisors and or managers. millennials are generally peer oriented and need to be treated as individuals (hewlett, sherbin, & sumberg, 2009). the focus of this study is on the hospitality industry as one of the largest industries in the world. hospitality is the largest sector within the tourism industry and the term ‘tourism and hospitality industry’ applies widely (wttc, 2017). because of its potential for economic growth and job creation, the hospitality industry is a crucial part of any economy (fredericks, 2018). the outbreak of covid-19 2019/2020 has, however, had a devastating impact on the hospitality industry globally, as countries closed their international borders and all forms of travel and tourism ceased. before the outbreak of the pandemic, the hospitality industry accounted for one out of every 10 jobs worldwide. in south africa, the industry provided about 740 000 direct and over 1.5 million indirect job opportunities across the economy (voyagesafrica, 2020). although many students pursue careers in the hospitality industry, they typically leave the industry within a period of 6 years (giang, 2013). therefore, the industry experiences persistent turnover and retention challenges. purpose given the retention challenges the hospitality industry faces, owners or managers of accommodation establishments need to be aware of ways in which millennial employees can be motivated. this article investigated the extent to which job characteristics influence the motivation of millennial hospitality employees. literature review the job characteristics model and millennial hospitality employees the workplace of the 1960s was characterised by repetitive processes that often resulted in demotivation and monotony amongst employees (young, 2018). it is for this reason that hackman and oldham developed and introduced the job characteristics model (jcm). the model was based on the idea that the key to maintaining motivation is the job itself (luenendonk, 2017). the jcm was verified and tested on 658 employees who worked in 62 different jobs in 7 organisations, with reliable and conclusive results. the researchers found that less interesting jobs reduced the motivation and productivity of employees. they further noted that varied tasks improved employee motivation and increased productivity. according to them, with meaningful tasks and effective communication, employees are likely to be more engaged with their roles and have an increased sense of responsibility (hackman & oldham, 1976). because the jcm has been scientifically validated, even in the south african context (steyn & vawda, 2014), its five job characteristics could be used as a checklist for job creation or job review. this model has universal applicability and can be applied to any role (jed, li, & brokkshire, 2007; westerman, 2007). the jcm posits five core dimensions, namely, skills variety (the required skills and abilities expected from job holders), task identity (the completion of a whole or identifiable piece of work, not just a small part), task significance (the perceivable impact of the job on the lives of other people), autonomy (the extent of a job holder can decide how jobs can be performed) and feedback (information about job performance). these dimensions influence three critical psychological states (meaningfulness, responsibility and knowledge of results) which, in turn, influence some personal and work outcomes (such as motivation, job satisfaction, growth satisfaction, lower absenteeism, lower turnover and work effectiveness). as human capital forms the backbone of all organisations in the new world of work, the recruitment and retention of millennials challenge both governments and private sector institutions in their ongoing quest to secure suitably skilled human capital (hussein, 2018). millennials are the future managers and business leaders; therefore, it is imperative to attract and retain them in the hospitality industry. diamandis (2015) reckoned that, irrespective of the sector, millennials are the most important demographic group to consider in the workforce today. currently, organisations mostly employ four generational cohorts, namely baby boomers, generation x, millennials and generation z. each of these cohorts has different perspectives of work and life in general shaped by the environments and historical timeframes they were exposed to when growing up. according to dimock (2019), millennials grew up in the shadow of the iraq and afghanistan wars, which contributed to the intense polarisation that have shaped the prevailing global political environment. in south africa, most millennials experienced the 2008 elections in which their vote became part of the political conversation (johnstone, 2018; main & writer, 2017). ruiz and davis (2017) confirmed that employee turnover is a pressing challenge for the hospitality industry. some of the reasons for the high employee turnover in the hospitality industry are long hours, challenges in work–life balance and poor compensation (van zyl, 2011). mbane (2017) found a strong correlation between fair compensation and employee retention in the hospitality industry. mbane (2017) and ali and stafford (2017) also found that job satisfaction factors in the hospitality industry, like relationships with colleagues, meaningful work, professional development, work engagement, fair working hours and health care, had a positive impact on millennial employees’ intentions to quit. ruiz and davis (2017) further reported that millennials in full-service restaurants require engaged learning, positive working conditions, including managers who can encourage good working relationships and the availability of growth opportunities. similarly, elsbury (2018) argued that millennials can be retained by providing a positive company culture, showing trust in them and offering them professional development opportunities. the 2018 deloitte report stated that 38% of millennials are likely to stay with the organisation if their employer supports the local community. this can involve projects such as recycling programmes, volunteer opportunities and community outreaches. millennials often seek advice from peers and mentors. according to asghar (2014), millennials can work hard and display good work ethics, but they do not appreciate blind orders. they regard the best person for the job as the one who does it best, not necessarily the most senior person in the workplace. therefore, millennials often question the ‘starting at the bottom’ approach that applies in many organisations. millennials generally believe that respect should be earned and not demanded (hannus, 2016). research by diamandis (2015) revealed that millennials are motivated by continuous training and development, flexibility and remuneration. apart from this, millennial employees value a fulfilling job and work–life balance (walters & ford, 2019). motivation the term ‘motivation’ derived from its latin root word movere meaning ‘to stimulate’. behind every human action, there is a motive, which is why it is important for management to provide incentives for people to work hard and stay with the organisation. according to pakdel (2013), the origin of motivation can be viewed as a singular determinant of human thoughts, feelings and actions. motivation works with other determinants such as cognition, emotions and habits, and it has both extrinsic (involving external rewards like money, bonuses, gifts, etc.) and intrinsic (when individuals are internally motivated about something) components (chand, 2018; hannus, 2016). being motivated can energise individuals to perform well in their jobs, thus producing behaviour that supports the organisation in reaching its goals (pakdel, 2013). motivated individuals are more likely to take initiative, apply their skills and put in extra effort into achieving goals (nel et al., 2014). enhancing individual motivation should be part of planned managerial processes where organisations support individual development and advancement (chand, 2018). in conceptualising motivation in the work context, hertzberg’s two-factor theory identifies two factors, namely, hygiene factors and motivators. hygiene factors are aspects that need to be in place for individuals to not be dissatisfied (e.g. working conditions) and motivators elicit performance from employees such as recognition and praise (hertzberg, 1968). hertzberg’s two-factor theory supports the notion that attitude towards work can determine success or failure, hence its applicability to this study (nel et al., 2014). for the sake of this study, the motivational factors were grouped into dissatisfiers and satisfiers. dissatisfiers included aspects such as working conditions, salary and benefits and supervision, whilst satisfiers included recognition, responsibility, interesting work, growth, challenging work, achievement and continuous learning (thurston, 2013). data and methods research approach this study adhered to objectivism as ontological stance as the researchers believed that employees exist in an independent reality. this aligns with the epistemological stance of positivism which views the world in an objective way through data collection and interpretation (cheung, 2019). positivism asserts that only knowledge confirmed through observation can be considered genuine as such knowledge is based on verifiable facts (bless et al., 2016). positivism was, therefore, regarded as an appropriate paradigm for this study. considering the focus of the study, a quantitative research approach was adopted (kumar, 2014). measures the data were gathered using a structured questionnaire, and partial least square (pls)-structured equation modelling (sem) was applied to determine the relationships between the variables. participants as a result of the devastating impacts of the covid-19 pandemic, many hospitality establishments had to either close down or place employees on temporary leave. this added to the challenges of gathering the data for this investigation. targeted snowball sampling was thus used to reach millennial hospitality employees. snowball sampling is a non-probability sampling technique in which existing acquaintances are used to recruit new respondents (leedy & ormrod, 2015). existing acquaintances (specifically alumni) from the hospitality management department of the central university of technology (cut), free state were targeted for data collection. the researchers obtained access to the names and contact numbers of all the hospitality management alumni since 2014 as these records were up to date. it was confirmed that all respondents were millennial employess of the hospitality sector before disseminating the questionnaire. questionpro was used to administer the structured questionnaire. respondents were approached via email and whatsapp with the link as attachment. the questionnaire was disseminated to 136 millennial hospitality employees, of which 96 responded with completed questionnaires. this yielded a response rate of 71%. measuring instrument consistent with a quantitative research approach, a structured questionnaire was used to gather data from participants. a structured questionnaire is a primary measuring instrument with which data in survey research were collected (cheung, 2019). the questionnaire for this study consisted of two sections: section a captured the perceived job characteristics of millennials based on the jcm designed by hackman and oldham (hackman & oldham, 1976; luenendonk, 2017). section b measured the level of motivation of millennial employees based on herzberg’s (1968) two-factor theory. design the study followed a survey research design and only millennial hospitality employees were included. as the records were available, the hopsitality management alumni of cut that completed their qualifications (either diploma or btech) since 2014 were included in the study. analysis as indicated before, pls-sem was used to determine the relationship between the variables. ethical considerations this study adhered to all relevant ethical research standards. participants were informed that their participation was voluntary and that all information provided would be treated as anonymous and confidential. results because all data variables significantly deviated from a normal distribution, the use of pls-sem was justified. the pls-sem analysis was selected instead of regression analysis as normality of constructs is an assumption for conducting regression analysis but not an assumption for conducting pls-sem. the statistical package, smartpls version 3.0, was employed to conduct the pls-sem analysis. the study adhered to the minimum sample size for conducting a pls-sem analysis, namely equal to the larger of the following: (1) 10 times the largest number of formative indicators used to measure one construct, or (2) 10 times the largest number of structural paths directed at a particular construct in the structural model (hair, hult, ringle, & sarstedt, 2017). the research model in figure 1 shows the largest number of structural paths directed at the construct. therefore, the minimum required sample size for the pls-sem analysis was 50 (hair et al., 2017). figure 1: research model. the hypotheses for the study were formulated as follows: h1: there is a statistically significant relationship between autonomy and the motivation of millennial hospitality employees. h2: there is a statistically significant relationship between providing feedback and the motivation of millennial hospitality employees. h3: there is a statistically significant relationship between skills variety and the motivation of millennial hospitality employees. h4: there is a statistically significant relationship between task identity and the motivation of millennial hospitality employees. h5: there is a statistically significant relationship between task significance and the motivation of millennial hospitality employees. the evaluation of the pls-sem model for the study was done in a two-stage process, which included assessing both the outer and the inner model. assessing the outer model before testing for a significant relationship in the structural model, the measurement model must be evaluated first (fornell & larcker, 1981). this involves ascertaining reliability and validity (ramayah, lee, & in, 2011). reliability tests aim to find stability and the consistency of the measuring instrument, whereas validity tests assess how accurate the instrument measures a particular concept (janadari, subramaniam ramalu, wei, & abdullah, 2016). in order to assess the reliability and validity of the measurement model, the following were assessed: indicator reliability; convergent validity; internal consistency reliability and discriminant validity. reliability and validity indicator reliability according to hulland (1999), reflective indicator loadings of > 0.5 show that the item is a good measurement of a latent construct. therefore, all items with indicator loadings lower than 0.5 were removed namely: (feedback) fd3, (task identity) ti4, (task significance) ts1, (task variety) sv2, sv5, (motivation) mot3, mot7, mot9, mot10, mot12, mot14, mot15, mot16, mot17, mot18, mot19, mot20, mot22. the only indicator not meeting the 0.5 threshold was (feedback) fd4 with a value of 0.497 only slightly below the threshold value of 0.5. the fd4 indicator was not removed as this would have led to the feedback construct having only two indicators. according to ringle, sarstedt and straub (2012), a minimum number of three indicators is necessary for the measurement of each construct in order to ensure content validity. because of all indicators exceeding the 0.5 loading value (except one), it can, therefore, be concluded that all constructs exhibit indicator reliability. the factor loadings are presented in table 1. table 1: factor loadings. convergent validity convergent validity is the extent to which a measure correlates positively with alternative measures of the same construct (hair et al., 2017). convergent validity is assessed using the average variance extracted (ave), which is the average variance shared between a construct and its measures (janadari et al., 2016). according to bagozzi and yi (1988), as well as fornell and larcker (1981), the ave should be greater than 0.5. for autonomy (0.662), feedback (0.612) and skills variety (0.540), the aves were above the 0.5 threshold, whilst for the other three constructs, namely motivation (0.414), task identity (0.445) and task significance (0.490), they were only slightly below 0.5. internal consistency reliability internal consistency reliability can be assessed using the composite reliability (cr) of a construct. gefen, straub and boudreau (2000) explained that the cr should be greater than 0.7 in order to indicate adequate internal consistency reliability. the composite reliability constructs were as follows: autonomy 0.852; feedback 0.817; motivation 0.884; task variety 0.777; task identity 0.700 and task significance 0.742. as all the cr scores were above 0.70, good internal consistency was achieved. discriminant validity discriminant validity is the extent to which a construct is truly distinct from other constructs by empirical standards. according to hair et al. (2017), discriminant validity implies that a ‘construct is unique and captures phenomena not represented by other constructs in the model’. to assess the discriminant validity of the measurement in the study, the fornell-larcker criterion was used. this criterion compares the square root of the ave values with the latent variable correlations. specifically, the square root of each construct’s ave should be greater than its highest correlation with any other construct (janadari et al., 2016). the square root of the ave of each latent variable is shown diagonally in bold in table 2, along with the correlations of the latent variable with other latent variables. table 2 illustrates that the square root of the ave of each latent variable was indeed higher than any correlation with any other latent variable, also indicating the discriminant validity of the measurement model. table 2: fornell-larcker criterion. assessing the inner model the assessment of the structural model of the study was conducted in three steps: assessing the significance and relevance of the structural model relationships, assessing the level of r2 and finding the effect size (f2). step 1: assess the significance and relevance of the structural model relationship the direct effects of all the hypothesised relationships were evaluated by making use of bootstrapping analysis. bootstrapping is a resampling technique that draws a large number of subsamples from the original data (with replacement) and estimates models for each subsample. it is used to determine standard errors of coefficients to assess their statistical significance without relying on distributional assumptions (hair et al., 2017). the standardised beta and t-values were calculated by the bootstrapping procedure with a resample of 5000. the results of the bootstrapping procedure are shown in table 3. table 3: path model results of structured equation modelling model. according to table 3, a positive statistically significant relationship was found between feedback and motivation (β = 0.255, p = 0.045). h2 of the study was, therefore, supported. a positive statistically significant relationship was also found between skills variety and motivation (β = 0.248, p = 0.045). h3 of the study was, therefore, supported. lastly, a positive statistically significant relationship was found between task significance and motivation (β = 0.238, p = 0.026). h5 of the study was, therefore, supported. in contrast, table 3 shows no statistically significant relationship between autonomy and motivation (β = 0.133, p = 0.295), and task identify and motivation (β = 0.072, p = 0.537). therefore, h1 and h4 of the study were rejected. step 2: assess the level of r2 the r2 measures the proportion of variance in a latent endogenous construct that is explained by other exogenous constructs expressed as a percentage (chin, 1988). exogenous constructs are independent constructs in all equations in which they appear. on the other hand, endogenous constructs are dependent constructs in at least one equation, although they may be independent variables in other equations in the system. the r2 value of motivation was 0.51, which implies that a combination of feedback, skills variety and task significance explains 51% of the variance in the motivation of millennial hospitality employees. according to cohen (1992), r2 values of 0.12 or below indicate a low effect size, values between 0.13 and 0.25 indicate medium effect size and values of 0.26 or above indicate high effect size. from these guidelines, it is evident that a combination of feedback, skills variety and task significance constructs had a high predictive power towards the motivation of millennial hospitality employees. step 3: assess the effect size the assessment of the effect size of a construct evaluates whether the omitted construct has a substantive impact on the endogenous construct, which is also known as the effect size of the exogenous latent variable on the model. the assessment of this effect size follows cohen’s (1992) guidelines, which are as follows: 0.02 < = f2 < 0.15: weak effect; 0.15 < = f2 < 0.35: moderate effect; f2 > 0.35: strong effect. the effect sizes of the three constructs which had a statistically significant relationship with motivation are as follows: feedback (0.085), skills variety (0.077) and task significance (0.071). these constructs had a weak effect size in the prediction of motivation. this means that, in the absence of one of these constructs, the other two constructs will still be able to predict the motivation of millennial hospitality employees. the above constitutes the pls-sem model for the study, which is presented above in figure 2. figure 2: the partial least squares structured equation modelling model for the impact of job characteristics on the motivation of millennial employees. discussion outline of the results the findings of the study indicate a positive relationship between task variety (0.248, p = 0.045), task significance (0.238, p = 0.026) and feedback (0.255, p = 0.045) towards motivation. in contrast, the study found a negative relationship between task identity (0.072, p = 0.537) and autonomy (0.133, p = 0.295) towards motivation. the results will be discussed taking into consideration the characteristics of millennials and the challenges of working in the hospitality industry. working in the hospitality industry exposes employees to a variety of tasks (task variety construct). as the industry is customer-centred and people-oriented, staff are expected to perform a variety of tasks, for example, dealing with customer complaints, making reservations and performing other administration-related duties, checking that venues adhere to customer specifications and planning and managing events. this can relate to the need of millennials to perform challenging work that requires continuous personal and professional development. millennials are motivated by employers that offer career opportunities, leadership development programmes and job security (matthewman, 2015). some sections of the industry (like large hotel groups) do offer continuous training and development opportunities, as well as lucrative career opportunities, whilst smaller establishments may not be as progressive. these findings closely relate to those of kemboi, biwott, chenuos and rutto (2013) who found that task variety is positively associated with job performance in the healthcare industry. task significance refers to the belief that the work one performs has a positive impact on others. this directly relates to the needs of millennials to have a positive impact on society – whether through the organisations that employ them, or through self-employment. doing a job that relates to their inner values can create a sense of purpose and meaning for millennial employees. in this sense, millennials actively seek purpose and meaning in their jobs (walters & ford, 2019). feedback is important for millennials as they continuously seek advice on their current performance and require praise for good performance. they generally want to build trust relationships with their supervisors and or managers and are open to engage in mentorship programmes (bass, 2017). as mentioned earlier, millennials do not appreciate blind orders, and they often question the ‘starting from the bottom’ approach. they also believe that respect should be earned and the best person for the job is the one that does it well (hannus, 2016). this can be problematic in the hospitality industry as it is often the more senior staff that plan and coordinate activities usually to the expectations of paying customers. autonomy relates to providing employees the freedom to decide on how and when they want to execute tasks. working in the hospitality industry often involves a hectic work schedule and long hours (van zyl, 2011). also, teamwork is often expected in performing tasks (like preparing meals, planning events and setting up venues), which implies that employees need to cultivate good interpersonal and communication skills. this labour-intensive and customer-oriented industry may not leave a lot of room for autonomy in performing jobs. as millennials crave autonomy and flexibility in doing their jobs, this can be at odds with the working conditions in the industry (diamandis, 2015). this can, in part, explain why autonomy does not relate to motivation in this study. similar findings were recorded by sá and moura sá (2014), namely that autonomy scored the lowest in their research on call centre employees. similarly, sever and malbašić (2019) also found that autonomy rated the lowest amongst croatian millennial employees, which supports the fact that this aspect is important for millennials. task identity refers to doing tasks from beginning to end with a visible outcome. millennials require certainty on what is expected from them in the work context and how they fit into the structure of the organisation. they also generally demand good remuneration (walters & ford, 2019). because of the highly operational nature of working in the hospitality industry, not all establishments have clearly defined structures and roles. thus, staff are often expected to perform a variety of tasks at all levels of the organisation. there is also a perception that hospitality work is often degrading and exploitative, offering low remuneration and taken as a last resort (wood, 1997). as mentioned previously, both remuneration and recognition are important to millennial employees (mbane, 2017; rizzo, 2016), which can partly explain the low predictive score of task identity towards motivation. other research on job characteristics includes that of johari and yahya (2016) who found that task significance and feedback significantly influenced the job performance of public servants. similarly, renier and vawda (2014) found that task variety, task significance, task identity, feedback and autonomy correlated positively to the job satisfaction of south african white-collar workers. they also determined that all five job characteristics were weak predictors of perceived stress and depression. practical implications according to montgomery and spragg (2017), millennial employees have the highest turnover rates compared to other generational cohorts. they are also the least satisfied with their jobs. this is a cause of concern especially for the hospitality industry with its retention challenges. the empirical findings of this investigation revealed that autonomy and task identity do not contribute to the motivation of millennial hopsitality employees. the findings further show that hospitality managers and leaders also need to put effort into recruiting and selecting candidates who have realistic expectations of working in the industry. realistic expectations also need to be cultivated at universities and all other centres that train prospective hopsitality industry employees. limitations and recommendations the study focused only on millennial hospitality employees; therefore, the findings of study cannot be generalised to hospitality employees of all generational cohorts. the small sample size can be a limitation. it is further suggested that similar studies be conducted in other industries to ascertain whether similar results are reported. the following recommendations are proposed to enhance the motivation of millennial hospitality employees: prospective employees (including hospitality management students) need to be informed about the expectations of working in the hospitality industry. it is imperative that they have realistic expectations upon entering the industry. realistic expectations can be created by means of work-integrated learning and other experimental learning programmes offered by universities and other training centres, including learnerships. these programmes need to expose students and prospective hospitality employees to the nature of the job and what they can expect once they are employed in the industry. hospitality leaders and managers have an important role to play in giving students access to their establishments to gain practical experience in the industry. as teamwork and dealing with various stakeholders are an integral part of working in the hospitality industry, it is critical that team work and interpersonal skills, including intercultural and communication skills, be developed as part of hospitality management programmes at universities and other training centres. conclusion in addressing the persisting retention challenges the hospitality industry faces, the objective of this article was to investigate the impact of job characteristics on the motivation of millennial hospitality employees. the main findings indicated a positive relationship amongst task significance, task variety and feedback towards the motivation of millennial hospitality employees. however, no significant relationships were found between autonomy and task identity towards the motivation. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. author’s contributions m.s. performed the literature review and conducted the data gathering. she also compiled the first draft of the article. d.k. assisted with the overall objectives of the study and refined the literature section as well as the results and conclusion. funding information the study was funded by both the central university of technology, free state and the national research foundation (nrf). data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article and no new data were created and analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors, and the publisher/s. references ali, f., & stafford, c. (2017). job satisfaction in the hotel industry: how significant are employees’ age and educational level hospitality. retrieved from https://www.srqmagazine.com/srq-daily/2017-07-17/6615_job-satisfaction-in-the-hotel-industry-how-significant-are-employees-age-and-educational-level/ asghar, r. (2014). study: millennials work ethic is in the eyes of the beholder. retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/robasghar/2014/01/29/study-millennials-work-ethic-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#6af57d9235df bass, b. (2017). millennials (by a millennial). retrieved from https://medium.com/@biancabass/how-to-actually-motivate-millennials-by-a-millennial-c49864f51776 bagozzi, r., & yi, y. (1988). on the evaluation of structural equation models. journal of the academy of maketing science, 16(1), 74–94. bless, c., smith, c., & sithole, s. (2016). fundamentals of social research methods (5th ed.). cape town: juta. chand, s. (2018). motivation: concept and significance of motivation. retrieved from http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/motivation/motivation-concept-and-significance-of-motivation/28020 cheung, a. (2019). structured questionnaires. retrieved from https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2f978-94-007-0753-5_2888 chin, w.w. (1988). the partial least squares approach to structural equation modelling. modern methods for business research, 295(2), 295–336. cohen, j. (1992). a power primer. psychological bulletin, 112(1), 155–159. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155 deloitte. (2018). introduction: the rise of the social enterprise: 2018 global human capital trends. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/focus/human-capital-trends/2018/introduction.html diamandis, p. (2015). why the millennials are the most important generation yet. retrieved from https://singularityhub.com/2015/06/02/millennials elsbury, k. (2018). five proven tactics for hiring and retaining millennial employees. retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/yec/2018/03/01/five-proven-tactics-for-hiring-and-retaining-millennial-employees/#12f82eae2deb fadtech4u admin. (2018). what are some everyday examples of digital technology? retrieved from http://fadtech4u.com/what-are-some-everyday-examples-of-digital-technology/ fornell, c., & larcker, d. (1981). evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. journal of marketing research, 18(1), 39–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378101800104 francis, t., & hoefel, f. (2018). ‘true gen’: generation z and its implications for companies. retrieved january 29, 2020, from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/true-gen-generation-z-and-its-implications-for-companies fredericks, r. (2018). the benefits of tourism in growing africa’s economy. retrieved from https://www.bizcommunity.africa/article/410/595/180501.html gefen, d., straub, d., & boudreau, m. (2000). structural equation modeling and regression: guideline for research practice. communications of association for information systems, 4, 1–79. giang, v. (2013). here are the strengths and weaknesses of millennials, gen x, and boomers. retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/how-millennials-gen-x-and-boomers-shape-the-workplace-2013-9?ir=t hackman, j.r., & oldham, r.g. (1976). motivation through the design of work: test of a theory. organizational behavior and human performance, 16(2), 250–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(76)90016-7 hair, j.f., hult, g.t.m., ringle, c., & sarstedt, m. (2017). a primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem) (2nd ed.). cape town: sage. hannus, s. (2016). traits of the millennial generation: motivation and leadership. retrieved from http://epub.lib.aalto.fi/en/ethesis/pdf/14662/hse_ethesis_14662.pdf herzberg, f. (1968). one more time: how do you motivate your employees. harvard business review, 46(1), 53–62. hewlett, a.s., sherbin, l., & sumberg, k. (2009). how gen y & boomers will reshape your agenda. retrieved from https://hbr.org/2009/07/how-gen-y-boomers-will-reshape-your-agenda hulland, j. (1999). use of partial least squares (pls) in strategic management research: a review of four recent studies. strategic management journal, 20(2), 195–204. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-0266(199902)20:2%3c195::aid-smj13%3e3.0.co;2-7 hussein, a. (2018). test of hackman and oldham’s job characteristics model at general media sector. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 8(1), 352–371. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v8-i1/3813 janadari, m.p.n., subramaniam ramalu, s., wei, c.c., & abdullah, o.y. (2016). evaluation of measurment and structural model of the reflective model constructs in pls-sem. in proceedings of the sixth international symposium of south eastern university of sri lanka, september 2016 (pp. 187–194). jed, d., li, r., & brokkshire, d. (2007). analysing the job characteristics model: new support from a cross-section of establishments. the international journal of human resource management, 18(6), 986–1003. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190701321211 johari, j., & yahya, k.k. (2016). job characteristics, work involvement, and job performance of public servants. european journal of training of development, 40(7), 554–575. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejtd-07-2015-0051 johnstone, a. (2018). who are millennials, baby boomers and generation z? generation groups explained. retrieved from https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/5505402/millennials-baby-boomers-generation-groups-z-y-x-explained/ kane, s. (2018). the common characteristics of generation y professionals. retrieved from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/common-characteristics-of-generation-y-professionals-2164683 kemboi, a., biwott, g., chenuos, n., & rutto, a. (2013). skill variety, feedback and employee performance: a case of moi teaching and referral hospital eldoret. european journal of business and management, 5(19), 155. kumar, r. (2014). resaerch methodology: a step by step guide for beginners (4th ed.). california: sage. leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. 2015. practical research: planning and design. (11th ed.). hoboken, nj: pearson. luenendonk, m. (2017). understanding the job characteristics model (including job enrichment). retrieved from https://www.cleverism.com/job-characteristics-model/ main, d., & writer, s. (2017). who are the millennials? retrieved from https://www.livescience.com/38061-millennials-generation-y.html matthewman, j. (2015). generation y employees – what defines and drives them? retrieved from https://www.thenational.ae/business/generation-y-employees-what-defines-and-drives-them-1.9835 mbane, t. (2017). employee retention in selected hotels in cape town, south africa. masters dissertation. cape town: cape peninsula university of technology. montgomery, t., & spragg, t. (2017). hospitality industry labor shortage: a mixed-methods investigation. retrieved from https://osucascades.edu/sites/osucascades.edu/files/research/labor_shortage_tmm.pdf natter, e. (2018). examples of different forms of technology-mediated communication. retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-different-forms-technologymediated-communication-34313.html nel, p., werner, a., botha, c., du plessis, a., mey, m., ngalo, o., van hoek, l. (2014). human resource management (9th ed.). cape town: oxford university press. ng, e.s., schweitzer, l., & lyons, s. (2010). new generation, great expectations: a field study of the millennial generation. journal of business and psychology, 25(2), 281–292. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9159-4 padhye, u. (2018). numeric codes: definition and classification. retrieved from http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/computer-science/number-system/numeric-codes-definition-and-classification/85197 pakdel, b. (2013). the historical context of motivation and analysis theories individual motivation. international journal of humanities and social science, 3(18), 240–246. ramayah, t., lee, j.w., & in, j.b. (2011). network collaboration and performance in the tourism sector. service business, 5(4), 411–428. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11628-011-0120-z renier, s., & vawda, n. (2014). job characteristics: their relationship to job satisfaction, stress and depression. journal of psychology in africa, 24(3), 281–284. ringle, c.m., sarstedt, m., & straub, d.w. (2012). a critical look at use of pls-sem. mis quarterly, 36(1), iii–xiv. https://doi.org/10.2307/41410402 rizzo, o. (2016). attracting and retaining millennial employees. retrieved from http://lodgingmagazine.com/attracting-and-retaining-millennial-employees/ ruiz, c., & davis, a. (2017). strategies to retain millennial employees at full-service restaurants. international journal of applied management and technology, 16(1), 166–185. https://doi.org/10.5590/ijamt.2017.16.1.11 sa, a., & moura sá, p. (2014). job characteristics and their implications on the satisfaction levels of call center employees: a study on a large telecommunications company. review of business management, 16(53), 658–676. samuels, m. (2018). what is digital transformation? everything you need to know about how technology is reshaping business. retrieved from https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-digital-transformation-everything-you-need-to-know-about-how-technology-is-reshaping/ sever, s., & malbašić, i. (2019). mananaging employee motivation with the job charateristics model. dubrovnik international economic meeting, 4(1), 55–63. steyn, r., & vawda, n. (2014). job characteristics: their relationship to job satisfaction, stress and depression. journal of psychology in africa, 24(3), 281–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2014.906076 thurston, h. (2013). motivation. retrieved from https://getrevising.co.uk/grids/motivation van zyl, m.a. (2011). employee turnover in a financial institution. retrieved from https://dspace.nwu.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10394/7273/vanzyl_ma.pdf?sequence=2 voyagesafrica. (2020). south africa’s tourism industry survey report reveals a fragile sector. retrieved from https://voyagesafriq.com/2020/05/14/south-africas-tourism-industry-survey-report-reveals-a-fragile-sector/ walters, r., & ford, c. (2019). what motivates millennials to change jobs? retrieved from https://www.robertwalters.com/content/dam/robert-walters/corporate/news-and-pr/files/whitepapers/attracting-and-retaining-millennials-uk.pdf westerman, j. (2007). generational preferences for work environment fit: effects on employee outcomes. career development international, 22(2), 150–161. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430710733631 wood, r. (1997). working in hotels and catering (2nd ed.). london: international thomson. wttc (world travel and tourism council). (2017). travel & tourism economic impact: tanzania. retrieved from https://wttc.org/research/economic-impact young, j. (2018). heroes of employee engagement: no. 8 greg r. oldham & j. richard hackman. retrieved from https://peakon.com/blog/future-work/hackman-oldham-job-characteristics-model/ zappa, m. (2014). 14 emerging digital technologies that will change the world. retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/13-emerging-digital-technologies-2014-4?ir=t 155---12 nov 2009.indd [final vesion].indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #155 (page number not for citation purposes) mapping a transformation from a traditional to an entrepreneurial organisation: a south african case authors: septimus serfontein1 johan s. basson1 johann burden1 affi liations: 1department of human resource management, university of pretoria, south africa correspondence to: johann burden e-mail: johann.burden@absamail. co.za postal address: po box 524, auckland park, 2006, south africa keywords: grounded theory; organisational change; organisational transformation; case study approach; south african manufacturing company dates: received 24 july 2008 accepted: 20 mar. 2009 published: 21 may 2009 how to cite this article: serfontein, s., basson, j.s., & burden, j. (2009). mapping a transformation from a traditional to an entrepreneurial organisation: a south african case. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), art. #155, 14 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.155 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. abstract this study conceptualises the transformation of a company within a corporate environment after facing a crisis precipitated by several internal and external factors. a modernist qualitative research methodology was followed in order to understand transformational change as a phenomenon and to establish a set of principles practitioners can apply. multiple data sources were used and the case study approach was applied to capture and interpret the emergent principles of the change process during the transformation. grounded theory was used in the analysis of data. the result was a high-performance company that meets the criteria of an entrepreneurial unit in a corporate environment. the study provides practical guidelines for the transformation of a company and the implementation of factors such as strategy, the redesign of structures, organisational culture, leadership and communication. introduction pettigrew, woodman and cameron (2001) refer to the relative youth and interdisciplinary nature of organisational change and development, but state that the real challenge is to ‘develop knowledge in the image of science while also contributing to practice and policy making’ (p. 697). several writers have acknowledged that context and action are inseparable, that theories of change ought to explain continuity and that time must be an essential part of investigations of change if processes are to be uncovered (greenwood & hinings, 1996; van de ven, angle & poole, 1989). on the other hand, the fi eld of organisational change is not mature enough as yet to understand the dynamics and effects of time, process, discontinuity and context (pettigrew et al., 2001). they state a need to search for general patterns of change, but in such a search more focus is required on several interconnected analytical issues, inter alia: time, history, process and action• the link between change processes and organisational performance outcomes• the partnerships between scholars and practitioners in studying organisational change• time, processes and action: in the context of organisational change, events and chronologies must be identifi ed to use as stepping stones in the search for patterns and structures. this will enable the researcher to identify patterns in the process of change and will catch reality in fl ight. pettigrew et al. (2001) believe it is safe to assume that the past is alive in the present and may be shaping the emerging future. change processes and organisational performance outcomes: according to pettigrew, woodman & cameron (2001), more clarity must be obtained on why and how certain organisations consistently perform better than others. researchers have to seek the link between change capacity and actions towards better organisational performance and the dynamic and holistic appreciation of both processes and outcomes. the advantage is clear: firstly, the outcome provides a focal point for the whole investigation, particularly when the process involves the collection and analysis of data over a long period. secondly, there is the possibility of exploring how and why variations in context and process infl uence variability in observed performance outcomes. partnerships of scholars and practitioners: pettigrew et al. (2001) believe that it is recognised that knowledge derives not only from individual thought, but from collective processes of networking and interpersonal communication. this statement particularly refers to the key role players in organisational change, namely scholars and practitioners. partnership between these role players is vital. the research challenge how does a company in a newly formed merger, experiencing the pain of a crisis brought about by cultural differences, diminishing profi ts and internal organisational turmoil transform itself into a highperforming entrepreneurial unit in a larger corporate structure? after a successful transformation, the company explored by this research, although controlling only 30% of the group’s international assets and utilising only 28% of the group’s manpower, contributed almost 80% to the group’s profi ts. the change started in october 1997 when the company experienced the crisis in question. in 1997 the company was the south african subsidiary of a larger international company in the wax business. at that stage, it was hierarchically structured and bureaucratically controlled. business decisions were made by the management board in germany. within fi ve years, the company was transformed into a highly successful entrepreneurial unit within the existing corporate environment, displaying the requirements of corporate entrepreneurship as described by thomson and mcnamara (2001, p. 671). individuals displayed entrepreneurship and teams were led by intrapreneurs, or corporate champions who promoted entrepreneurial behaviour. they proactively engaged in risky projects and new innovative administrative procedures and products and services were created that facilitated organisational renewal and growth. 49vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 14 original research serfontein, basson & burden sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 15 5 (page number not for citation purposes) 50 characteristics of a turbulent environment environmental turbulences are characterised by perceived dynamism, hostility and complexity. dynamism refers to changes that occur in an organisation’s environment because of technological and market shifts. as a result of these shifts, organisations are pressurised to revise their technological assets and to build new capabilities or to risk failure (covin & covin, 1990; prahalad, 1999). hostility results from unfavourable changes in the market through proliferation of rivals, shifts in the ways companies position themselves, adverse regulatory changes or increased government protectionist policies (miller, 1983). environmental hostility is linked to globalisation and the resultant intensity of competition in a particular industry and the distortion of a previous structural and competitive equilibrium (nohria & garcia-pont, 1991). environmental complexity refers to the degree of homogeneity or heterogeneity among environmental elements (robbins, 2003). this may result from the perceived interconnectedness of the different external forces that influence a company’s operation. uncertainty about the company’s environment makes it difficult to plan ahead. responses to environmental turbulence a well-known brand, industry knowledge, preferential access to distribution channels, proprietary physical assets and a robust patent portfolio are still of enormous value to ensuring loyal customers, but these advantages are slowly being undermined by environmental turbulence. organisations respond to turbulence in many different ways. popular responses involve outsourcing, leasing and renting, shorter product life cycles, more frequent buying and selling, more frequent changes in contracts, a switch from mechanical to process technologies, a change from manufacturing to service economies and from central to local control. quick fixes are often characterised by convulsive reorganisations, colossal write-offs, downsizing and indiscriminate, across-the-board lay-offs (senior & fleming, 2006). downsizing is particularly appealing to companies that are deeply in debt (fisher & white, 2000). large sample studies indicate that lay-off announcements generally have a negative effect on market-adjusted equity values (franz, crawford & dwyer, 1998; lee 1997). in an effort to cope with the many challenges of the business environment, companies also enter into joint ventures, alliances, mergers and acquisitions. these are seen as ideal for managing risk and uncertain markets, sharing the cost of large-scale capital investments, and injecting a newfound entrepreneurial spirit into maturing businesses (bamford, ernst & fubini, 2004). short-term gains companies that engage in cost-cutting often end up with more problems than profits. research published in us news and report (1992) showed that downsizing, cost-cutting and quick fixes had initially caused a spurt in share price and performance. this was followed by a long, painful slide. the study does not deny the sometimes staggering short-term gains that can be made by downsizing and cost-cutting. what it does show is that downsizing is often tantamount to amputating assets, resulting in a medium-term reduction in performance. this viewpoint is upheld in several other studies (hall, rosenthal & wade, 1993; mabert & schmenner, 1997). success rate of alliances in 2001, bamford et al. (2004) assessed the outcomes of more than 200 alliance announcements during the previous decade. they found a success rate of only 53%. these failures were mainly ascribed to wrong strategies, incompatible partners, inequitable or unrealistic deals and weak management. it therefore appears as if a company’s ability to respond to environmental turbulence is not about handling a one-time crisis, rebounding from a setback or downsizing the workforce. even carefully deciding on what makes business sense at a particular point, such as entering into a contractual alliance, is no guarantee for success, unless the changes inherent to these strategic decisions are managed effectively. organisational change van tonder (2004b) is of the opinion that change is a process which is dynamic, time-bound, and non-discrete, evident in a difference in the state and/or condition within a state of an entity (p.6). organisational change is no different from change in general. van de ven and poole (1995, cited in van tonder, 2004c, p. 54) differentiate organisational change only through the addition of the term organisation, which contextualises the change. organisational change can therefore be seen as an initiative that alters critical organisational processes which, in turn, influence individual behaviour, which subsequently impact on organisational outcomes (porras & silvers, 1991). organisational transformation to go beyond the process that defines organisational change, activities must be directed at the basic character of an organisation. van tonder (2004c) equates organisational transformation with second-order change, which is multi-dimensional, multilevel, qualitative, discontinuous and radical and involves a paradigmatic shift. cummings and worley (2005, p. 499) cite that the change goes far beyond improving the existing organisation or the status quo, but is rather concerned with a change in organisational assumptions about its functioning and how it relates to the environment. this implies that members perceive, think and behave differently at work. tuschman, newman and romanelli (1986) observe that transformational change occurs in response to at least three kinds of disruptions: industry discontinuities • product life cycle shifts • internal company dynamics • these disruptions severely shock organisations and push them to alter business strategy, structure, systems and procedures. transformational change can be distinguished from other forms of organisational change in the following ways: transformations entail significant shifts in corporate • philosophy and values and in the numerous structures and organisational arrangements that shape members’ behaviour. not only is the magnitude of change greater ‘but the change fundamentally alters the qualitative nature of the organisation’ (cummings & worley, 2005; nutt & backoff, 1997). interventions revolve around culture change, self-design, organisational learning and knowledge management. transformational change can be seen as a transfiguration • from one state to another and the successive state of being (hill & collis, 2000; kilmann, 1995; marshak, 1993). this signifies a change in an organisation’s mode of existence and functioning (van tonder, 2004c). transformational change involves reshaping the organisation’s culture and design elements. these changes are characterised as systemic and revolutionary because the entire nature of the organisation is altered fundamentally (hamel & välikangas, 2003; van tonder, 2004c). this view indicates that the impact of transformational change is at the organisational paradigm level. transformational change is particularly pertinent to changing • the different features of an organisation, such as structure, information systems, human resource practices and work design (maijer, tsui & hinings, 1993). these features need to be changed together and in a coordinated fashion so that vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 14 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #155 (page number not for citation purposes) transformation from a traditional to an entrepreneurial organisation 51 they can mutually support one another and the new cultural views and assumptions (miller & friesen, 1984). transformational change can be distinguished from other • types of strategic change by its attention to the people side of the organisation. blumenthal and haspeslagh (1994) emphasise sustainability of change through behavioural change, for which the measure of ‘success’ is the longterm financial success of the organisation. for change to be labelled transformational, a majority of individuals in an organisation must change their behaviour (blumenthal & haspeslagh, 1994; king, 1997). transformational change can be described as a totally new • state of being out of the remaining of the old state – a new state that is unknown until it begins to take shape (ackerman, 1986). transformational change is therefore distinguished from other forms of change such as developmental change and transitional change. a key feature of organisational transformation is the active • role of senior executives and line managers in all phases of the change process (waldersee, 1997). to conclude, transformational change is a far more comprehensive and complex concept of change. it is a form of change that could unfold quite rapidly to a point where the impact will be irreversible and evident in the organisation’s character, form and appearance. this state and appearance could be quite different from the pretransformation state of the organisation (van tonder, 2004c). in pursuit of entrepreneurship the outcome of a transformation is often the emergence of numerous new organisational forms in an effort to ensure continuous strategic renewal (chakravarthy & gargiulo, 1998). it appears as if these forms are distinguishable by two factors: an emphasis on bottom-up entrepreneurship• reliance on a cooperative network that allows these • entrepreneurial units to share their competencies echols and neck (1998) maintain that the best blueprint to survive in the dynamic environment of the 21st century is firstly, hiring and rewarding employees who demonstrate entrepreneurial behaviours and secondly, adopting structures that facilitate these behaviours. contemporary business pressures are also forcing organisations to identify and place managers in entrepreneurial roles and emulate an entrepreneurial environment so that these managers may operate relatively free within the larger organisational structure. luczkiw (2002) believes that entrepreneurial units will eventually replace most bureaucratic and hierarchical structures, and that these entrepreneurial units will emerge on the edge of existing structures. a pertinent question is whether large companies can be entrepreneurial? the challenge to large companies is to encourage a sense of innovation, autonomy and entrepreneurship, despite the required structure and systems of the bureaucracy. another challenge is to leverage their resource advantage while acting quickly, efficiently and effectively and to move faster than specialised, newer and smaller organisations (figueroa & conceica, 2000). it seems logical that the emergence of entrepreneurial units and the replacement of hierarchical structures must invariably also lead to a change in leadership. changes in the workplace will demand another type of leadership. a flatter organisational hierarchy with its shrinking management ranks and less bureaucracy, coupled with the need for greater speed, better customer responsiveness and ongoing innovation, will require leaders who are visionaries, can solve problems, can make timely decisions and can accept risk (fernald & solomon, 2001). definition of the problem organisations find themselves in a turbulent environment and respond to turbulence by engaging in different forms of change, including transformational change. organisational change research illuminates the need to identify events and chronologies as stepping stones in these change interventions to establish patterns and structures. coinciding with this, the requirement exists to find a clear, holistic link between change processes and organisational performance outcomes. this quest to map the process of change offers the challenge to generate knowledge collectively to the benefit of both practitioners and scholars (pettigrew et al. 2001). the research problem statement initially raised several research questions, viz.: what internal and external factors could trigger a • transformation? what events, processes and patterns will surface • chronologically during the transformation? how can scholars and practitioners utilise knowledge • derived from the transformation in their respective performance domains? the aim of the research was to develop a conceptual framework of events, processes and patterns over the duration of a transformation from a traditional, functionally structured organisation to an entrepreneurial unit within a corporate environment. research design three aspects are normally included in the research design, namely the research approach, the utilisation of a case study as a research strategy and the research methodology (mouton & marais, 1988). research approach denzin and lincoln (2000) describe qualitative research as a ‘complex interconnected family of terms, concepts and assumptions’ (p. 1048). in this section, the research paradigm selected by the authors will be defended. to further set the research foundation, the authors’ ontological and epistemological beliefs are stated, which in turn set the criteria for the selection of the appropriate research strategy. key scientific beliefs according to mouton and marais (1988, pp. 20–21), a researcher should be aware of his or her own metatheoretical values or beliefs or particular philosophical assumptions. these assumptions should not influence the way in which the research will be conducted, but can constitute an ‘intellectual climate’ for particular beliefs in the nature of a social reality that can impact the ‘qualities of postulates’. ontological position: an ontological position concerns the researcher’s views and the very nature and essence of a social reality. to test this principle, it is helpful to understand what the alternatives are, as mason (2002) aptly describes. the ontological perspective of the authors suggest that social reality is not only based on objective notions and cannot be controlled or predicted, but is also subjectively constituted. according to schurink (2005), it is important for researchers to understand the impact that ontology has on the chosen research topic. the authors believe that the notion of transforming a traditional organisation to an entrepreneurial organisation is at best a subjective concept. peoples’ ideas, views, actions, reactions, interactions, social relations, social and cultural practices, rules and values reflect their experiences. they furthermore determined how these experiences and understanding brought about a change in peoples’ perceptions, thinking and behaviour (cummings & worley, 2005), how it contributed to fundamentally altering the company’s assumptions about its functioning and relations with its environment (cummings & worley, 2005, p. 499) and how it eventually changed the features of the company (maijer et al., 1993). ritchie and lewis (2004, p. 21) vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 14 original research serfontein, basson & burden sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 15 5 (page number not for citation purposes) 52 refer to the importance of the researcher’s interpretation because ‘deeper insights can be obtained by synthesizing, interlocking and comparing the accounts of a number of respondents’. the research participants were therefore engaged in the study in a manner that involved them more deeply than would have been the case in research of the quantitative, positivist tradition. it was therefore critical for the researcher to obtain a ‘thick description’ from the respondents’ perspective, while also contextualising this so as to be able to compare meaningfully the observations between respondents. this is also in line with the interpretive perspective, which is usually a feature associated with the qualitative research tradition, as discussed. the authors, however, realise that context utilisation is not only an intellectual ‘understanding’, but that it is just as much a matter of maturity, judgement, common sense and emotional balance (gummesson, 2000, p. 4). neither academic research nor management experience is therefore enough. the personality of the scientist is still a key research instrument. as a result of the aforementioned, the authors also believe that changes in the perception, thinking and behaviour of people in an organisation predispose them to successfully progress through a process of change, displaying distinct changes in behaviour as the process evolves from one phase to another. epistemological position: epistemology refers to what might represent knowledge or evidence in the social world according to the researcher (mason, 2002). a researcher’s epistemology is literally his or her theory of knowledge, and should therefore consider the principles and rules by which decisions on social phenomena can be known, and how knowledge can be demonstrated. epistemological questions should therefore direct the researcher in considering the philosophical issues involved, while carefully contemplating exactly what is acceptable evidence or knowledge of social phenomena to explain social reality (mason, 2002, p. 16). the authors accept that the choice of criteria used to assess the quality of research and consulting work is different and that the sourcing of the criteria they used to evaluate the research findings could have been different, as the researcher primarily worked with the consultant paradigm and not the scientific paradigm, particularly in the earlier stages of research (gummesson, 2000). in this regard, the authors believe that multiple unstructured data-gathering methods are necessary to capture the activities and experiences of people who are involved in a transformational process of changing a traditional organisation into an entrepreneurial one. given the aforementioned explication, the authors believe that the researcher was able to demonstrate that his ontological and epistemological positions are closely aligned to those of the qualitative, modernistic approach. choosing a modernist qualitative research approach: denzin and lincoln (2003) describe the emergence of qualitative research over several periods, or what they term historical ‘moments’. some common ground exists among these moments and is all still currently relevant in different research circumstances. denzin and lincoln state that the history of qualitative research is defined more by ‘breaks and ruptures than by clear evolutionary, progressive movement from one stage to the next’(2003, p. 21). the first moment is defined as the traditional period, and existed from the early 20th century until just after the end of world war ii. this period was followed by the second moment, namely the modernist age, which lasted until the 1970s. during this period, attempts were made to formalise methods and processes in qualitative research. during the latter stage of this period, glaser and strauss (1967) further formalised approaches to qualitative analysis to enhance the rigour of data collection and analysis. strauss (1987) and strauss and corbin (1990) continued to elaborate on the fundamental principles underpinning this approach to qualitative research. according to denzin (1988), the modernist paradigm is still a relevant research approach today. in this study, a modernist qualitative research approach was deemed more appropriate because of the volume and complexity of the data and the desire to understand transformational change as a phenomenon. reality had to be understood to discover meaning. furthermore, the fact that the researcher was involved in the transformation (as consultant) and formed part of the object of investigation required the use of qualitative methods (guba & lincoln, 1994, p. 108). case study as a research strategy yin (2003) describes the case study as a research strategy comprising a holistic method that covers the logic of design, including the scope, data-collection methods, as well as specific approaches to the analysis of the data. yin (2003) points out that the case study is firstly an empirical inquiry that seeks to understand present-day phenomena within a real world context, where the boundaries between the phenomena and the context are not clearly evident. secondly, multiple data-collection and data-analysis methods are an important part of the definition, as a distinctive situation needs to be dealt with, in which there are many more variables of interest than data points that rely on multiple sources of evidence. this is in line with the researcher’s epistemological position. from the above, the authors placed the single case study, which the researcher had selected to use, in the inductive research tradition, specifically considering that theory will be built from research data and the application of methods as suggested by bryman and bell (2007, p. 64) and carlile and christensen (2005). these authors argue that a case study is also a vehicle for theory generation and theory testing. the researcher followed a single exploratory and intrinsic case study method in describing and exploring employees’ experiences regarding their understanding and implementation of a transformational process aimed at changing a traditional organisation into an entrepreneurial one. in this regard the authors recognise the usefulness of the case study method in capturing the emerging and changing properties during an organisational transformation (barley, 1990; stake, 2000). as a result of the aforementioned statement, case studies can also have the function of generating hypotheses and building theories (eisenhardt, 1989). research methodology the word ‘methodology’ in research is defined as ‘the logic of implementing scientific methods in the study of reality’ (mouton & marais, 1988). the researcher considered the following components of research methodology: the research setting• the way in which entrée was achieved• the sampling methods employed• data-collection methods used• the way in which the data were recorded and managed• the analysis of the data• strategies used to ensure the quality of the research• reporting style followed• ethical considerations applied. • research setting the research was conducted in a south african subsidiary of a larger international company in the wax business. the total staff complement of 400 people was involved. over a six-year period this number was gradually reduced to just over 300. vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 14 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #155 (page number not for citation purposes) transformation from a traditional to an entrepreneurial organisation 53 entrée and establishing researcher roles access or entrée to the research setting is usually undertaken by obtaining permission from the highest levels of authority. this authority needs to vest in individuals who are able and willing to make the research setting accessible to the researcher and are referred to as ‘gatekeepers’ (bogdan and biklen 2003, pp. 7576). in this particular case the researcher was appointed as a consultant by the management board in germany in october 1997 to guide and facilitate an organisational transformation process in the south african subsidiary. from the beginning his intention was to record a detailed account of the process. as a consultant he brought with him experience gained over 25 years, working as an organisation development consultant and industrial psychologist. as the project evolved, the value of the work from a research perspective was realised. as he engaged in the research he was obliged to switch from the consultant paradigm to the scientific paradigm. however, critical consideration needs to be given to establishing a researcher role and the researcher’s attitudes. the boundaries of this role require careful contemplation, definition and differentiation. to counter the possibility of research bias as a result of the consulting role and to ensure that good quality of research was maintained, the researcher relied on multiple sources of data (stake, 1995; yin, 1994), establishing a chain of evidence (soy, 1996) and having the draft case study report reviewed by key informants (yin, 1984). the researcher was acutely aware of the criticism against the use of a single case (tellis, 1997) and was particularly careful to avoid misrepresentation. he allowed for both triangulation of data sources and analytical perspectives in order to increase the accuracy of findings in the case and to offer viable alternative explanations, where required (patton, 1999). sampling in qualitative research, information-rich data needs to be collected that will yield thick descriptions. it was therefore important to decide how the sample was to be framed and developed to enable a draft protocol to be designed (schurink, 2007). mason (2002) defines purposive sampling as the selection of groups or categories to study on the basis of their relevance to the research questions, the researcher’s theoretical position and analytical framework, his or her analytical practice and, most importantly, the argument being developed. the aim was to collect data with a view of enabling theory to emerge as that data are simultaneously recorded, coded and analysed. this is part of a cyclical process that is repeated until theory emerges, and data saturation is reached. the different roles in which the researcher operated (consultant and expert resource) necessitated that theoretical sampling be utilised in its purest form as the only sampling technique used in the research. the following participants were used: management board• management team• project team • a cross-section of employees as represented in the various • focus groups samples of the total work force• self-managing teams• leaders of business units.• the researcher was acutely aware during the sampling process not to be gender biased, which babbie and mouton (2004, pp. 37–38) refer to as critical feminism: standpoint epistemology. data-collection methods the primary purpose of effective data collection is to ensure that the researcher’s understanding of the problem is enriched as much as possible. a variety of data-collection techniques needs to be considered when undertaking qualitative research to ensure that information-rich data is collected (patton, 1987). mason (2002) states that the researcher needs to be clear on the methodological implications of his or her choices. qualitative research lends itself to methods of data generation that are sensitive to the social context, and are able to integrate different methods and sources of data, using techniques such as triangulation. in this research the researcher relied on data sources such as one-on-one unstructured interviews, consultant reports, group interviews, observations, surveys, focus groups, strategic and operational plans, minutes of meetings, designs of workshops, designs of interventions and personal notes (field notes). one-on-one unstructured interviews: according to mason (2002), interviewing is the most widely used technique in the qualitative paradigm and he refers to two main typologies of qualitative interviewing, namely the in-depth interview and the structured interview. mason suggests that the term unstructured interview is a misnomer, as no qualitative interview lacks structure completely. initially, pilot interviews were conducted and the interview guideline and content were modified as the change process evolved and more insights, experience and understanding were gained into transformation as a phenomenon. documents: according to bryman and bell, documents that reside within a research setting are important data objects, predominantly in qualitative research, that are ‘waiting to be assembled and analysed’ (2007, p. 553). bryman and bell (2007) draw another distinction, namely that of organisational documents, which are highly relevant to management research. the latter was extensively used, particularly at the start of the transformation and for the period when the new managing director (md) championed the change effort. focus groups: the classical definition of a focus group was given by smith in 1954 when he referred to the term group interviewing as ‘being limited to those situations where the assembled group is small enough to permit genuine discussion among all its members’ (cited in breakwell, hammond & fifeschaw, 2000, p. 304). focus group participants were selected to represent various levels and functions within the company. they were utilised in several roles, e.g. to analyse existing processes, to assess the impact of a particular intervention at shop floor level, to test the applicability of certain design principles and to perform redesign work. all these activities directly impacted on the final result. surveys: survey samples can offer a very effective sample frame for a qualitative study (ritchie & lewis, 2004). the authors state that ‘although qualitative samples themselves are not designed to be statistically representative it can be useful for the sample frame from which they are selected to do so’ (ritchie & lewis, 2004, p. 90). a survey must be seen as a rich source of data to support purposive sampling, but to be effective it has to meet the requirements of comprehensiveness, diversity and lack of bias. in the study surveys were used to assess which values drove behaviour initially, but on several occasions during the implementation stages the researcher relied on surveys to monitor progress in regard to the entrenchment of values. surveys were also successfully utilised to evaluate the organisation as an entrepreneurial business as experienced by employees, and they were also used a year later to answer the question of how sustainable the change was. given the fact that the total population was involved in the surveys, sample frames were not generated. the need for diversity was always stressed to prevent the researcher in vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 14 original research serfontein, basson & burden sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 15 5 (page number not for citation purposes) 54 his capacity as consultant from leaning towards contacting people who are thought likely to give a positive account. the survey population varied between 82% and 86% of the overall complement. the authors regard the percentage as realistic because of people on leave or ill on a particular day. all people on shift could not leave the operation, which necessitated several sittings during a particular day to administer questionnaires. the fact that a relationship existed between the project team/ consultant and the employees smoothed the way to participation in these surveys. the choice of purposive selection criteria was influenced by the aim of the study, the research questions and relevant literature originating from other research. criteria that were considered included age, gender, ethnic origin, regional location, employment activity and business unit. the choice of variables differed from one survey to another. the primary criteria were those that the researcher considered most important to the subject and objectives of the survey (ritchie & lewis, 2004). recording of data field notes and transcriptions of taped interviews are considered traditional means of recording data (schurink, 2004, p. 11). the researcher extensively made use of field notes and applied transcriptions in a modified way. field notes: according to de vos, strydom, fouché & delport (2005, p. 285), field notes are made by qualitative researchers of everything they see or hear. schurink (2004, p. 12) believes that the successful outcome of a participant observation study in particular, but also other forms of qualitative research, are dependent on detailed, accurate and extensive field notes. field notes consist of two kinds of materials. the first kind is descriptive – to provide a verbal picture of the setting, people, actions and conversations as observed. the second field note variety is reflective – capturing more of the observer’s frame of mind, ideas and concerns. both were performed using the consultant paradigm. because of the voluminous nature of the data collected, it was later organised into a comprehensive primary package. data were edited, redundancies sorted out and parts were fitted together (this time using the scientific paradigm). the data were now ready for access chronologically, at a level beyond raw data. the case record contained 385 sources, covering the period august 1997 to september 2003. the researcher compiled a project diary to capture the deployment of the study, used auto-ethnographical sketches describing his experiences and thoughts on the transformation process and memos in which he noted his ideas and insights on the meaning of the data. transcriptions of interviews: according to bogdan and biklen (2003, p. 124), it is important to transcribe sections on a tape that specifically address the concerns of the research. in this particular case the project was simply too comprehensive, too intense and too results-orientated to use the classic method of tape recording interviews and transcribing them. credibility of the consultant was another consideration for not following this approach. this was particularly true for the start of the project, when a crisis climate prevailed. data were therefore noted as completely as possible during the interview, followed by a period of reflection and consolidation after the interview. afterwards (usually on the same day) interview notes and observations were dictated and typed – which amounts to a form of transcription. data analysis data analysis in the modernist paradigm began around the time of descartes and involves gaining knowledge through a reliance on reason (locke, 2003). locke (2003) reiterates that the paradigm involves the utilisation of formal methods. grounded theory fits into the later stage of the modernist phase of qualitative research. grounded theory, as an analytical framework, fits in with a modernistic and inductive approach. grounded theory split into two camps, each subtly distinguished by its own ideographic procedures. whereas glaser (1978) stresses the interpretive, contextual and emergent nature of theory development, the late strauss appears to have emphasised highly complex and systematic coding techniques. strauss and corbin (1990) exemplify this rupture with their presentation of multiple coding procedures such as open, axial and selective coding, and techniques of comparison that are now used to enhance analysis by intentional manipulation of data in a number of ways. glaser (1978) only speaks of open and selective coding. strauss (1987) believes that clarification of the process is achieved by distinguishing three stages of naming and comparing activity, as mentioned above. the researcher decided to manually employ the techniques used by strauss and corbin (1990) because he required the coding procedure that their technique suggests in order to develop a procedure for analysing the transformational process. grounded theory has been successfully applied to studies in organisational change and innovation (carrero, peiró & soloman, 2000; lowe, 1995; price, 1994). grounded theory and theory: glaser and strauss make much of the difference between substantive and formal theory: by substantive theory we mean that theory developed for a substantive or empirical area of sociological inquiry, such as patient care, race relations, and professional education, delinquency, or research organizations. by formal theory, we mean that theory developed for a formal, or conceptual, area of sociological inquiry, such as stigma, deviant behaviour, formal organization, socialization … (glaser & strauss, 1967, p. 32) they view formal theory as the sociologist’s (scientist’s) goal. however, they insist that to be valid, formal theory must be developed from a substantive grounding in concrete social situations. in organisation studies many theories are substantive; decision making and leadership being two instances. substantive theories may even be developed for issues associated with working in virtual organisations or managing contingent workers. when reference is made to formal theory it usually refers to those areas of inquiry that operate at a high level of generality, such as systems theory, agency theory and contingency theory (locke, 2003). the product of this study was the development of a conceptual framework (typology) for organisational transformation. the characteristics of this product are described in the section ‘definition of the conceptual framework’. execution of grounded theory: as already mentioned, the reseacher used many data-collection methods and relied on a multitude of data sources that posed a challenge to him regarding how to analyse the magnitude of information in a meaningful way. as consultant the reseacher was very close to the data for most of the period of the research. it is, however, important to note that the researcher was engaged in different relationships with the data at different times, which included direct involvement as a consultant at the beginning, indirect involvement as an expert resource to the human resource (hr) manager when the new md championed the change, and in an objective role as a researcher after the decision to engage in a scientific study. the researcher allowed the process to be concluded into a documented case study that reflected the integrated storyline of vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 14 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #155 (page number not for citation purposes) transformation from a traditional to an entrepreneurial organisation 55 the transformational process from beginning to end. thereafter, the researcher decided to analyse all the raw data, applying manual coding structures to identify the related concepts within this transformational process in accordance with the integrated storyline of the documented case study. the researcher commenced with open coding. open coding: strauss and corbin (1998, p. 101) define open coding as the analytic process through which concepts are identified and their properties and dimensions discovered in the data. during open coding the data are broken down into discreet parts. these are then closely compared for similarities and differences, after which questions are asked about the phenomenon embedded in the data. in fact, grounded theory is often referred to in the literature as the constant comparative method of analysis (glaser & strauss, 1967). the researcher analysed consultant reports, focus group responses, minutes of meetings, workshop outcomes, personal notes, survey results and the transcripts of the personal interviews by breaking them into distinct units of meaning per line of text and then identifying key words or phrases of the phenomenon under investigation. he tried to establish a link between a passage of text of any length and some general theme related to transformation as a phenomenon. therefore, the theoretical concepts were set aside and a pure grounded theory approach was followed, that is, coding was used as the only means of establishing what the generated data revealed about the phenomenon. axial coding: axial coding is the process of relating categories to their sub-categories (strauss & corbin, 1998, p. 123) to create code families. the term axial derives from the fact that coding occurs around the axis of a category, linking categories at the level of properties and dimensions. de vos et al. (2005, p. 348) define axial coding as a set of procedures whereby data are put back together in new ways after open coding, by making connections between categories. this enabled the researcher to identify the various elements of the process in no particular and logical heuristic relationship. though open and axial coding are distinct analytic procedures, the researcher alternated between the two when he engaged in analysis. selective coding: selective coding is not very different from axial coding, but takes place at a higher, more abstract level of analysis. de vos et al. (2005, p. 349) mention that selective coding entails the process of selecting the core categories, systematically relating them to other categories, validating those relationships, and filling in categories that need further refinement and development. these steps are not necessarily taken in linear sequence, nor are they distinct in actual practice (strauss & corbin, 1998). the researcher performed selective coding and defined the core categories (supercodes) manually, which eventually defined the periods and phases in the integrated storyline of the case. in summary, the application of grounded theory used in the study is best described by suddaby (2006, p. 7) ‘as a jumble of literature, consultation, data collection, and analysis conducted in ongoing iterations that produce many relatively fuzzy categories that, over time, reduce to fewer, clearer conceptual structures’. continuous refining of findings: the coding process was aided by the researcher continuously applying a plan, do and review process during the transformation, which mainly involved management, the project team and focus groups. in the coding process this action research element helped ‘to make key decisions about which categories to focus on, where to collect the next iteration of data and, perhaps most importantly, the meaning to be ascribed to units of data’ (burden, 2006, p.31). comparison with existing theory: as a final step to provide theoretical legitimacy to transformation as a phenomenon and to help interpret results, the researcher compared this end result with existing theory and contemporary thinking on change and transformation as well as the entrepreneurial organisation. definition of the conceptual framework: according to mouton (2002, p. 195), a typology may be defined as a conceptual framework in which phenomena are classified in terms of characteristics that they have in common with other phenomena. classification is one of the more basic functions of conceptual frameworks. based on this definition, the researcher constructed a conceptual framework for a transformational change from a traditionally managed organisation to a successful entrepreneurial unit in a corporate environment. this conceptual framework highlights strategy as a key element, and explains a transformation process that evolves over three distinct periods, with periods one and three manifesting in distinct phases, each with its own unique set of variables in dynamic interaction with one another, contributing to the overall transformational outcome: an entrepreneurial company in a corporate environment. strategies used to ensure quality research schurink (2004) contends that there are apparently at least three distinct perspectives on assessing the quality of qualitative research (see cutliffe, 2000): qualitative and quantitative research should be evaluated by the same measures; qualitative research should be evaluated by standards that have been particularly developed for it; and ‘criteriology’ (holloway & wheeler, 2002). lincoln and guba (1985) developed the concepts of trustworthiness and authenticity as parallel and alternative criteria. in addition to peer debriefing, to which the researcher has already referred, he also employed member validation or host recognition, authenticity and trustworthiness, credibility, reflectivity, transferability and triangulation to ensure quality research. member validation or host recognition: according to schurink (2004), member validation or host recognition entails inviting research participants to comment on the adequacy of the researcher’s interpretations, after which said comments are fed back into the research findings. in his initial consulting role, the researcher continuously discussed his developing account of the participants’ social construction of the company’s transformational process with them, particularly to search for contradictions (see murphy & dingwall, 2003, p. 191). authenticity and trustworthiness: these are reflected by ‘careful documentation of the process of research and the decisions made along the way’ (daymon & holloway, 2002, p. 93). this was done by the researcher. the following criteria are proposed for assessing trustworthiness and authenticity: credibility: schurink (2004) advises that, in order to be credible, a researcher should be able to demonstrate as far as possible what he or she has planned and executed in such a manner that the social construction of the transformation in his or her company could be accurately described. in order to accomplish credibility, the researcher in his role as consultant kept, inter alia, a project journal, or natural history, which enabled him to provide a chronological exposition of the decisions, notably the key decisions, he took during the research. reflectivity: for murphy and dingwall, (2003), reflectivity constitutes a level of self-conscious reflection on the ways in which the findings of research are inevitably shaped by the research process itself and for an analysis that takes this into account. in his role as consultant, the researcher increasingly realised that he had to foster his capability for reflectivity. as indicated, he kept a project diary in order to engage in self-conscious reflections to assess his impact on the research participants, had regular vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 14 original research serfontein, basson & burden sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 15 5 (page number not for citation purposes) 56 discussions with debriefers to create some distance between the research process and himself and, finally, especially during field note compilation, considered possible reasons for the research participants’ particular behaviour during the interviews. transferability: according to seale, [t]ransferability replaces the notion of external validity or generalisability, and refers to the researcher’s task of assisting the reader to transfer research findings of single case studies or smallscale worlds to similar settings. (seale, 2000:n.p.) in the present study the challenge was to unpack the complexity of the transformation process using the consultant paradigm in such a way that it led to the modification and/or improvement of the current practice in the company. using the scientific paradigm after deciding to engage in the research, the researcher extrapolated his findings as possible guidelines for practitioners engaged in similar transformations in similar organisations. triangulation: according to ritchie and lewis (2004, p. 43), triangulation involves the use of different methods and sources to check the integrity of or extend inferences drawn from the data. the researcher used different methods and sources to check the integrity of the data and inferences drawn from the data. reporting it is important for the researcher to explain to the reader what writing style was followed in writing up the study. the writing style that was used to write up this article was mainly the scientific tale. bruner (1986, cited in sparks, 2002, p. 31) explains that scientific explanations aim to be formal, logical and, where possible, show mathematical logic. such explanations are framed to be paradigmatic or logico-scientific in mode of thought. ethics the authors are aware that the researcher’s direct involvement in the case as the consultant, who guided the transformation, could result in a subject-object trap. the researcher admits that his involvement in the planning and deployment of the transformation and his personal relations with the project leader, project members and key staff in particular could have biased his handling of data. as a consultant his past experience of the research variables could have influenced the audit trial. these possibilities cannot be ignored. with this in mind, the researcher remained open to the question of whether these factors were influencing his work or not. boucher (2003) maintains that selfreflexivity is the key, not whether a researcher holds subjectivist, inter-subjectivist or objectivist assumptions or what theories and methods he uses. the researcher believes he has applied to himself the same rigour of analysis that he applied to those he researched. he furthermore subscribed to the code of ethics of the faculty of economic and management sciences of the university of pretoria to ensure that sound ethics were adhered to during the duration of the study. findings the conceptual framework for organisational transformation is presented in figure 1. this will now be discussed. elements of the conceptual framework strategy the transformation was driven by strategy. strategy provides direction and constitutes the first step in defining the business. strategy provides cohesion and legitimacy and is composed of a vision, mission, strategic priorities, objectives and values. the vision is essential because it transcends the status quo, providing a link between what is now taking place and what the organisation aspires to build in the future. it creates a healthy tension, positive energy and unlocks essential skills, talents and resources to make it happen. in the company under study, an overall business goal of 15% earnings before interest and tax (ebit) to be attained by the end of 2002 was set. the project team/consultant-championed period this alliance championed the transformation process until the start of implementation. it happened by default. a leadership void was created as a result of the resignation of a chief executive officer (ceo), followed by a second ceo who was only appointed in a temporary capacity. a third ceo was appointed, but as a foreigner struggled to establish cohesion within the figure 1 a conceptual framework for organisational transformation vol. 7 no. 1 page 8 of 14 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #155 (page number not for citation purposes) transformation from a traditional to an entrepreneurial organisation 57 management team. this left the transformation without a proper guiding coalition at executive level, which threatened the credibility of the change effort. the project team/consultant alliance proceeded very cautiously because of tension between the management board and management team, mistrust by lower levels of the change initiative and the radical nature of the transformation – once the intentions became known. the crisis: several internal and external factors precipitated the initial crisis, which resulted in the decision to enter into a large scale transformation instead of a process of incremental change. contracting: this included the preliminary definition of the problem, exchange of expectations between the major parties and clarification of roles. it also involved building rapport and establishing a working relationship with each key stakeholder. aligning stakeholders with strategy: alignment started with the verification of existing data and reaching a common understanding of the major problem areas. it was recognised that strategy (direction) was the first weakness to be addressed. two strategic alignment sessions followed, involving the two major stakeholders: the management board and the company’s management team. it is important to note that the intent of the strategy was not to design an entrepreneurial organisation (the end state) but rather to create a company that could meet the challenges of the business environment with the necessary innovation, flexibility and resilience. the strategic alignment process also assisted stakeholders to conceptualise the integration of business and transformation, which justified the appointment of a project team. creating a readiness for change: readiness for change involves the correct understanding why change is necessary and establishing a sense of urgency (kotter 1995). positive energy has to replace the negative energy that usually characterises a crisis. this phase included the appointment and training of project team members and the drafting of a communication plan, including the official launch. it also saw the introduction of the plan-do-review process, which became a regular feature of the transformation. redesigning structures and assessing the culture: this phase started with benchmarking to a sister company in germany, which had started a transformation more than a year earlier. as stipulated by the strategy, structure became the first focus for change. a new vehicle for strategy was needed. the intent was to design an organisation with the innovation, flexibility and resilience to meet the challenges of the market. it started with an analysis of core processes across the value chain. simultaneously, simulations were conducted for all leaders, project members and members of focus groups to challenge their paradigms in regard to clients, the business processes, values, structures, authority, team performance and the principles underpinning redesign. with the help of the project team and focus group members, a first-order redesign was prepared. core processes now mirrored a value stream that pointed to the client. a guiding coalition was formed between the project team, management team and leaders at lower levels to portray common support for the new structure. the new structure was approved at the november 1998 board meeting and an implementation plan was requested. it was decided that a pilot phase would form the start of the implementation. preparing for the implementation of the new structure: leaders of self-managing teams were appointed and a communication programme was launched that dealt with resistance that now took on new forms. a special task force was appointed to investigate information technology (it) needs and design an it system that would augment the new structure. team leaders were equipped for their new roles. the period in which the change initiative was transferred to the new managing director the leadership void was finally addressed when a new md was appointed in july 1999 to head the south african operation. his track record was that of an entrepreneurial leader. his style was markedly different from that of his predecessors. he acted like a typical entrepreneurial leader by doing the following: he went to europe and negotiated an agreement with the • management board, who gave him autonomy to run the business he spent a few weeks studying practices, assessing attitudes • and scrutinising the transformation’s achievements up to date he announced that the strategy, new structure and core • values would accommodate all his expectations he took accountability for the transformation and in a • brilliant political move terminated the project, disbanded the project team and appointed the project leader as his hr manager – thereby reducing the consultant’s role to that of a specialist resource he added his own branding to the transformation, which • included involvement of families in strategy; creating a common vocabulary; emphasising the concept of a global business; removing inconsistencies from the new structure; aligning strategy, structure, discipline and reinforcing implementation as the leaders’ responsibility. this generated much energy at management level and created positive expectations at all levels. people were excited about their new leader and regarded his approach to business as an adventure worthy of engagement. phases in the period championed by the leader when the transfer was completed, the md was ready to move resolutely into implementation. it is important to note that he seldom referred to an entrepreneurial unit as the outcome of his efforts; he merely reinforced and adapted strategy, key principles of design and values. in so doing he gave concrete meaning to the original strategic intent: to design an organisation with the innovation, flexibility and resilience to meet market challenges. four phases in the period championed by the md crystallised: the year of structure (october 1999 to june 2000)• the year of margins (july 2000 to june 2001)• the year of detail (july 2001 to june 2002)• the year of alternatives (july 2002 to june 2003)• year of structure: he was determined that people should understand the thinking behind the structure and how it worked: a process-driven structure was different from a hierarchical one, and the company’s mission was about producing and selling. as part of the implementation of the new structure, he initiated several actions, such as re-employment of secretaries into more meaningful roles; outsourcing non-value-adding functions; retrenching temporary and redundant staff; making computer literacy compulsory for all; encouraging people to make their own decisions; improving the interface with the management board; making teamwork a strategic driver; identifying and developing competencies and reinforcing values as the driver of behaviour. in summary, implementation of the new structure was not only directed at the structure per se, but at the smooth integration of strategy, structure, culture, people, processes and technology across the value chain. year of margins: after the implementation of the new structure, the md became aware of several weaknesses: measurement was inadequate, customer service was poor, knowledge of competitors and forecasting accuracy was lacking and staff did not fully understand the meaning of business and profitmaking. this led to the phase that can be referred to as the year of margins. this involved several actions and brought the company closer to becoming an entrepreneurial unit. these actions included evaluating gross margins and the relationships vol. 7 no. 1 page 9 of 14 original research serfontein, basson & burden sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 15 5 (page number not for citation purposes) matching the criteria of an entrepreneurial unit in a corporate environment the aim of the study was to develop a conceptual framework of events, processes and patterns over the duration of a transformation from a traditional, functionally structured organisation to an entrepreneurial unit within a corporate environment. the remaining question is ‘how close did the company come to match the characteristics typical of an entrepreneurial unit?’ in an effort to answer the question whether the company has indeed achieved entrepreneurial status, several criteria were selected, which included inter alia business performance, strategy, structure, the development of new products and markets, the management of risk, the optimisation of systems and the management of human resources. business performance the linkage between corporate entrepreneurship and a company’s performance has been empirically documented in methodologically rigorous research (covin 1999; twomey & harris, 2000; zahra, hayton, marcel & o’neill, 2001). in this particular case, business results over the period 1997 to 2003 reflect a quantum leap. revenue increased from r442.24 m in 1997 to r1172.00m in june 2003; ebit escalated from r3.09 m in 1997 to r187.70 m in june 2003. the overall business goal of 15% nett ebit was achieved six months ahead of schedule. despite these impressive results, the company succeeded in maintaining an impeccable safety record. strategy at the beginning of the transformation, the new strategy and vision guided the thinking. as the transformation progressed, both strategy and vision became more pronounced. over a fiveyear period the company changed from marketing products to marketing applications, resulting in a market-focused structure, which involved global business units facing the major clients. the strong emphasis on a shared vision, strategy and values allowed leadership to successfully create a purpose, a set of principles to guide the change and a common will (kuratko & welsch, 2001; scharmer, 2000; twomey & harris, 2000). the shift from production to marketing was a major change; shifting from the commodity market to the consumer market was a quantum leap. the same could be said for their efforts to apply downward integration into higher-value concepts. they therefore successfully met the challenge to leverage their existing resource advantage (figueroa & conceica, 2000). their strategy to build people capacity materialised in higher productivity, more staff loyalty and improved results. the majority of the people changed their behaviour (blumenthal & haspeslagh, 1994). the generation of entrepreneurship formed an integral part of a process of continuous strategic renewal (chakravarthy & gargiulo, 1998; covin & miles, 2000). these results are particularly imposing if it is taken into account that new strategic initiatives were engaged without capital investment. structure the decision to design the company’s structure around the value chain was of great significance. it changed the underlying paradigm of employees from a function to the market (hewson consulting group, 2000). a focus on core processes resulted in a structure that was more flexible and adaptable (echols & neck, 1998). core processes represented a stream of value creation as perceived by the client. each value chain was a business unit that added value (entreplexity, 2002). technical processes, structures, people, hardware and information systems were aligned to optimise business value chains. value chains were client-driven and staff members were empowered through membership of selfbetween variable and fixed cost; introducing the war room and sound measurement; establishing the order book principle; building an entrepreneurial culture and launching a companywide incentive scheme and performance-navigation process. the purpose of the war room was to reflect the position of the company on a particular day. this required a sound measurement system. the war room process started with small, informal meetings in each of the business units, followed by a meeting in the war room. here information was discussed and integrated by representatives to form a total picture of the company in terms of ebit and profit/loss on a daily basis. each person became a generalist who understood all aspects of the operation, grasped the economy in which the business was operating and felt confident to keep the interests of the total company in mind. this also honed their decision-making abilities. the order book concept offered the md the opportunity to enter into his coaching role by using discussions regarding the order book to challenge incorrect assumptions and decisions. errors were used as opportunities to explain business principles. learning was reinforced by financial management training. these actions directly contributed to the establishment of an entrepreneurial culture. staff members became entrepreneurs in both thinking and doing. to experience risk on a personal level, members of management could place a certain percentage of their salaries on risk. return of this investment was based on the performance of the company at the end of the financial year, in ebit terms. performance was defined as the degree to which the budget was exceeded. the rest of the staff also participated in an incentive scheme, based on performance of the company in ebit terms. year of detail: relaxed attitudes and an overly confident way of doing things led to short-cuts being taken and facts being generalised. the md realised that staff were losing sight of detail – yet detail affected processes, cost, quality, systems, customer requirements, etc. to keep staff alert and focussed, the md urged them to ask the question, ‘what is in the detail?’ and encouraged them to challenge measurements. he introduced a dashboard that created a connection between what every person should measure daily and the company’s measurements as a whole. architecture made provision for indexes varying from financial results to customer value, and from operational excellence to shared learning. on any day of the month the specific position of the company in regard to these indexes was known to everybody. in this way information systems nurtured innovation, encouraging the discussions of innovative ideas on cost reduction and the improvement of processes, products and services (woodward, 2001). furthermore, by attending to detail they were rethinking the business and reshaping their own paradigms. year of alternatives: on close analysis it can be argued that the first three phases could still be seen as efforts to improve the company’s health. the year of alternatives must be viewed as the first of the efforts by the leader to promote growth. this phase involved the following: the consideration of alternative products and services, and • how they would fit into strategy analysis of inputs to the value chain• a scan of the total value chain to optimise the entire process• this phase resulted in a serious consideration of alternative feedstock sources. on the client-end of the value chain, task forces were formed to attend to new wax applications in cosmetics, health, polishes and emulsions. 58 vol. 7 no. 1 page 10 of 14 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #155 (page number not for citation purposes) transformation from a traditional to an entrepreneurial organisation managing teams within business units. they now took full accountability for their own results (pinchot & pinchot, 1993). the structure therefore correlated with the typical structural characteristics of the entrepreneurial organisation: a business design that faced the client directly, and the use of profit centres and managers in direct contact with the market (hewson consulting group, 2000). new products and markets the company never relied solely on research. they entered new markets, fully utilising existing knowledge within the business units and working diligently to understand these new markets. by understanding these markets and anticipating their reaction, they challenged them and entered them with relative ease. examples of such new products and markets were: semi-refined wax• the production of drilling fluids with improved value • applications offering a unique raw material to the cosmetic industry• a mosquito net with a slow-release repellent• various products in the health sector• fischer tropsch exfoliating beads.• managing risk the company received a mandate from the management board to introduce new products autonomously (after asking for the mandate). at high risk to themselves, they claimed the mandate to appoint key executives at their own discretion. discretionary powers in regard to the following were also claimed by the company’s leadership: to identify new client groups (a regional mandate)• to update existing products (a board mandate)• to initiate experimental products (self-claimed)• to modify product processes (self-claimed).• risk taking is regarded as a salient quality of the entrepreneurial organisation (accenture, 2001; luczkiw, 2002). in this regard management took high risks with the design of the process (value chain)-driven structure, the empowerment of employees at lower levels and the remuneration system. there is also sufficient evidence of high tolerance for risk in markets and with regard to products (e.g. new business in health, cosmetics and candles.) they even took the risk of enforcing discipline in the pricing strategy within the candle industry. technological changes and outsourcing per se involved a certain level of risk on the part of management. in the same vein procedures, systems and methods, which were promoted at corporate level, were continuously challenged. systems optimisation information systems were upgraded, customised and adapted to support structures and aid daily decision making at various levels. systems were made cost-effective. twelve days after yearend, the system announced audited results. end-of-the-month results could be predicted with 95% accuracy. it was evident that the business had succeeded in taking control of it, while delivering value through the use of technology (woodward, 2001). human resource management the management of human resources formed an integral part of the company’s strategy formulation and implementation. the hr manager acted as a catalyst on numerous occasions and the hr function served as a powerful link in shaping behaviour, entrenching a new culture and developing the company’s ability to be entrepreneurial (rosner, 2000; twomey & harris, 2000). the hr function played a key role in the development of teams and team leaders. competencies were assessed and enhanced at every level. mentorship programmes were successfully introduced and the psychological and personal wellbeing of staff was supported. the company had a powerful training and development policy, and all employees at lower levels met the minimum requirements of the national qualifications forum. several internship and learnership agreements were in place and the company was actively involved in the development of entrepreneurs within the local community. culture the company’s five core values were understood and the associated behaviours were well entrenched. other characteristics of the culture included ownership of business results, a willingness to take personal accountability, freedom of decision making and discipline at all levels. the five core values and these other work practices were effectively managed to support entrepreneurship throughout the company (kemolgor, 2002). rewards and remuneration the company could boast a non-cap incentive scheme, based on ebit and safety modifiers, which reinforced good performance (chisholm, 1987; pinchot & pinchot, 1978). performance-related incentives, measured against ebit, existed at management levels, thereby decreasing the fixed cost component and increasing the risk component. the soundness of this system was proved by the leaders’ decision to discontinue the corporate share option scheme. leadership the md’s leadership clearly promoted entrepreneurship among people. he was willing to sacrifice control over operational details and showed a keen preference to provide resources instead of giving orders. according to kemolgor (2002), such practice is a key component in getting people to think differently. his leadership style matched the qualities of transformational leadership as cited by nanus (1992), kotter (1995), and nutt and backoff (1997). performance management business performance formed an integral part of performance management. scorecards in the business units and self-managing teams were linked to strategic deliverables and were evaluated monthly. individual performance was measured against business objectives and made provision for assessment of a person’s competencies and the degree to which he or she was living up to the company’s values. the principle of self-management was nurtured throughout (chaston, badger & sadler-smith, 2001). sustainability of change in september 2003 a climate survey was conducted among a sample of 266 employees (82% of the permanent staff component). the results confirmed the claim that the company had indeed become entrepreneurial and affirmed the sustainability of changes, despite the control and innate bureaucratic attributes of the corporate environment to which the staff had been exposed since january 2002 (when the remaining shares were purchased by the south african owner). in conclusion, judging by whatever means, there can be little doubt that the transformation to an entrepreneurial company was a success. it is fair to conclude that the company succeeded in regenerating itself (hamel & välikangas, 2003; scharmer, 2000), qualifying for all four forms of entrepreneurship (coven & miles, 1999): sustained generation, organisation rejuvenation, strategic renewal and domain redefinition. discussion the authors gained the following insights into organisational transformation: key factors such as strategy, the involvement of large • numbers from the workforce, the consolidation of 59vol. 7 no. 1 page 11 of 14 original research serfontein, basson & burden sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 15 5 (page number not for citation purposes) bogdan, r.c., & biklen, s.k. (2003). qualitative research for education: an introduction to theory and methods. (4th edn.). boston: pearson education group. boucher, g.w. (2003). the necessity of including the researcher in one’s research. retrieved january 7, 2003, from http://www. iol.ie/e ˜ mazzoldi/toolsforchange/postmet/research.html breakwell, g.m., hammond, s., & fife-schaw, c. (2000). research methods in psychology. london: sage. burden f.j. (2006). the development of a south african redesign model – a south african case study. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa. carlile, p.r., & christensen, c.m. (2005). the cycles of theory building in management research. harvard business school division of research (working paper 02 – 016). carrero, v., peiró, j.m., & soloman, m. (2000). studying radical organizational innovation through grounded theory. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 9, 489–514. chakravarthy, b., & gargiulo, m. (1998). maintaining leadership legitimacy in the transition to new organizational forms. journal of management studies, 35(4), 437–456. chaston, i., badger, b., & sadler-smith, e. (2001). organizational learning: an empirical assessment of process in small u.k. manufacturing firms. journal of small business management, 39(2), 139–151. chisholm, t.a. (1987). entrepreneurship and bureaucracy. sam advanced management journal, summer, 36–40. covin, j.g. (1999). corporate entrepreneurship and the pursuit of competitive advantage. entrepreneurship: theory and practice, 23(3), 47–63. cummings, t.g., & worley, c.g. (2005). organisation development and change. (7th edn.). australia: south-western college. cutliffe, j.r. (2000). methodological issues in grounded theory. journal of advanced nursing, 31(36), 1476–1485. daymon, c., & holloway, i. (2002). qualitative research and marketing communications. london: routledge. denzin, n.k. (1988). qualitative analysis for social scientists. contemporary sociology, 17(3), 430–432. denzin, n.k., & lincoln, y.s. (2000). strategies of inquiry. in n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds.), handbook of qualitative research. thousand oaks: sage. denzin, n.k., & lincoln, y.s. (2003). the landscape of qualitative research: theories and issues. (2nd edn.). london: sage. de vos, a.s., strydom, h., fouché, c.b., & delport, c.s.l. (2002). research at grass roots: for the social sciences and human service professions. (2nd edn.). pretoria. van schaik publishers. echols, a.e., & neck, c.p. (1998). the impact of behaviours and structure on corporate entrepreneurial success. journal of managerial psychology, 13(1/2), 38–47. eisenhardt, k.m. (1989). building theories from case study research. academy of management review, 14, 532–550. entreplexity. (2002). creating an entrepreneurial culture on the edge of order and chaos. retrieved november 23, 2005, from http:// www.entreplexity.ca/resources/pdfs/entculture fernald, l.w., & solomon, g.t. (2001). entrepreneurial leadership: oxymoron or new paradigm? in d.f. kuratko & h.p. welsch (eds.), strategic entrepreneurial growth. fort worth: harcourt college publishers. figueroa, e., & conceica, p. (2000). re-thinking the innovation process in large organizations: a case study of 3m. journal of engineering technology management, 17, 93–109. fisher, s.r., & white, m.a. (2000). downsizing a learning organization: are there hidden costs? academy of management review, 25(1), 224–237. franz, d.r., crawford, d., & dwyer, d.j. (1998). downsizing, corporate performance and shareholder wealth. midamerican journal of business, 13(1), 11–19. glaser, b.g. (1978). theoretical sensitivity: advances in the methodology of grounded theory. mill valley: sociology press. glaser, b.g., & strauss, a.l. (1967). the discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. chicago: aldine. structure, appropriate leadership, continuous and wellplanned communication and the role of human resources are significant in transformational change. these factors complement one another, particularly if they are managed in a coordinated manner. when an entrepreneurial leader uses his or her positional • power in a calculated manner to obtain autonomy for driving a transformation, the resulting dynamics at human level necessitate a substitute leader, acting on an informal level to care for people maintenance. a consultant can play a key role in structuring a • transformation, obtaining alignment between various stakeholders, facilitating strategic direction, equipping leaders, project members and others for their respective duties during a transformation, etc. yet, only the leader can implement change successfully. without appropriate and committed leadership who can • use positional power to make resources available, reward achievements and establish a culture of discipline, changes in strategy, structures, processes and systems are not sustainable. in transformational change the end state evolves as the • transformation unfolds. therefore, the emphasis is more on process than preconceived outcome. these insights supported the aim of this study, namely to develop a conceptual framework of events, processes and patterns over the duration of a transformation from a traditional, functionally structured organisation to an entrepreneurial unit within a corporate environment. the authors furthermore discovered the following: the grounded theory methodology assisted the researcher • greatly in making sense of the volumes of data collected over a six-year period and contributed directly to the development of the conceptual framework the resourcefulness of surveys during the data-collection and • data-verification phases in qualitative research augmented data analysis and contributed to the richness of the overall results of the transformation. the following limitations were identified: engaging in the roles of consultant and researcher, although • not simultaneously, might have resulted in a degree of subjectivity not anticipated and not adequately calculated studying the variables in transformation over a six-year • period is complicated by the demands of organisational realities, thereby risking the process of scientific enquiry being obscured. the following suggestion for further research is made: although the authors are certain that the conceptual • framework could be used in other organisations within the manufacturing sector, the applicability of this framework across industries should be studied. references accenture. (2001). liberating the entrepreneurial spirit. retrieved september 15, 2002, from http://www.accenture.com ackerman, l.s. (1986). development, transition or transformation: the question of change in organizations. od practitioner, december, 1–8. babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2004). the practice of social research. oxford: oxford university press. bamford, j., ernst, d., & fubini, d.g. (2004). launching a worldclass joint venture. harvard business review, february, 90– 100. barley, s. (1990). images of imaging: notes on doing longitudinal fieldwork. organisation science, 1, 220–247. blumenthal, b., & haspeslagh, p. (1994). toward a definition of corporate transformation. sloan management review, 35, 101–107. 60 vol. 7 no. 1 page 12 of 14 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #155 (page number not for citation purposes) transformation from a traditional to an entrepreneurial organisation greenwood, r., & higgens, c.r. (1996), understanding radical change: bringing together the old and new institutionalism. academy of management review, 21, 1022-1054. guba, e., & lincoln, y. (1994). competing paradigms in qualitative research. in n.k. denzin & t.s. lincoln (eds.), handbook of qualitative research. thousand oaks: sage. gummesson, e. (2000). qualitative methods in management research. (2nd edn.). london: sage. hall, g., rosenthal, j., & wade, j. (1993). how to make reengineering really work. harvard business review, november/december, 119–131. hamel, g., & välikangas, l. (2003). the quest for resilience. harvard business review, september, 52-63. hewson consulting group. (2000). making a compelling business case for crm. retrieved november 23, 2005, from http:// whitepapers.zdnet.com hill, f.m., & collis, l.k. (2000). a descriptive and analytical model of organisational transformation. international journal of quality & reliability management, 17(9), 966–983. holloway, i., & wheeler, s. (2002). qualitative research in nursing. (2nd edn.). oxford: blackwell science. kemolgor, b.h. (2002). a comparative analysis of corporate entrepreneurial orientation between selected firms in the netherlands and the usa. entrepreneurship & regional development, 14, 67–87. kilmann, r. (1995). a holistic program and critical success factors of corporate transformation. european management journal, 13(2), 175–186. king, w.r. (1997). organizational transformation. information systems management, spring, 63–65. kotter, j.p. (1995). leading change: why transformation efforts fail. harvard business review, march/april, 12–20. kuratko, d.f., & welsch, h.p. (2001). strategic entrepreneurial growth. fort worth: harcourt college publishers. lee, p.m. (1997). a comparative analysis of layoff announcements stock price reactions in the united states and japan. strategic management journal, 18, 879–894. lincoln, y.s., & guba, e.g. (1985). naturalistic inquiry. beverly hills: sage. locke, k. (2003). grounded theory in management research. thousand oaks: sage. lowe, a. (1995). small hotel survival. in b. glaser (ed.), grounded theory 1984–1994 (pp. 589–612). mill valley: sociology press. luczkiw, e. (2002). global enterprise: instilling the spirit. learning strategies for the new millennium. retrieved november 23, 2005, from http//.www.cefe.net/forum/luszkiw. mabert, v.a., & schmenner, r.w. (1997). assessing the roller coaster of downsizing. (business management), business horizons, july/august, 40(4), 45–54. maijer, a., tsui, a., & hinings, c. 1993. configurational approaches to organisational analysis. academy of management journal, 36, 1175–1195. marshak, r.j. (1993). managing the metaphors of change. organizational dynamics, 22(1), 44–56. miller, d. (1983). the correlates of entrepreneurship in three types of firms. management science, 29, 770–791. miller, d., & friesen, p. (1984). organisations: a quantum view. englewood cliffs: prentice hall. mouton, j. (2002). understanding social research. pretoria: van schaik publishers. mouton, j., & marais, h.c. (1988). basic concepts in the methodology of the social sciences. pretoria: human sciences research council press. murphy, e., & dingwall, r. (2003). qualitative methods and health policy research. new york: aldine de gruyter. nanus, b. (1992). visionary leadership. san francisco: josseybass. nohria, n., & garcia-pont, c. (1991). global strategic linkages and industry structure. strategic management journal, 12, 105–124. nutt p., & backoff, r. (1997). facilitating transformational change. journal of applied behavioural science, 33, 490–508. patton, m.q. (1987). how to use qualitative methods in evaluation. newbury park: sage. patton, m.q. (1999). on enhancing the quality and credibility of quantitative analysis. health services research, 34(5), part 2, december, 1189–1208. pettigrew, a.m., woodman, r.w., & cameron, k.m. (2001). studying organizational change and development: challenges for future research. the academy of management journal, 44(4), 697–713. pinchot, g., & pinchot, e.s. (1978). intra-corporate entrepreneurship. retrieved september 03, 2002, from http//www.intrapreneur. com/mainpages/history/intracorp.html pinchot, g., & pinchot, e.s. (1993). how intelligent organizations meet today’s challenges. retrieved november 23, 2005, from http//www.simplerwork.com/library/c10.htm porras, j.l., & silvers, r.c. (1991). organizational development and transformation. in m.r. rosenzweig & l.w. porter (eds.), annual review of psychology, 42, 51–78. prahalad, c.k. (1999). transforming internal governance: the challenge for multinationals. sloan management review, summer, 5–13. price, j.l. (1994). organisational turnover: an illustration of the grounded theory approach to theory construction. in b. glaser (ed.), more grounded theory methodology: a reader (pp. 323–334). mill valley: sociology press. ritchie, j., & lewis, j. (2004). qualitative research practice: a guide for social science students and researchers. london: sage. robbins, s.p. (2003). organizational behaviour. (10th edn.). englewood cliffs: prentice-hall. rosner, b. (2000). nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit. workforce, 79(10), 96. scharmer, c.o. (2000, may). presensing: learning from the future as it emerges. paper presented at the conference on knowledge and innovation, helsinki school of economics, finland. schurink, w.j. (2004). qualitative research introducing key features of an interpretative approach to social science research: lecture eleven b: grounded theory [handout]. johannesburg, south africa: university of johannesburg: phd in leadership in performance and change. schurink, w.j. (2005). qualitative research design: part 1 [handout]. johannesburg, south africa: university of johannesburg: phd and ma in leadership in performance and change. schurink, w.j. (2007). qualitative research design: part 1 [handout]. johannesburg, south africa: university of johannesburg: phd in leadership in performance and change. scott, j. (1990). matter of record: documentary sources in social research. cambridge: polity press. seale, c. (2000). the quality of qualitative research. london: sage. senior, b., & fleming, j. (2006). organizational change. (3rd edn.). pearson education: prentice hall. soy, s.k. (1996). the case study as a research method. retrieved january 06, 2003, from http://fiat.gslis.utexas.edu/ nssoy/ usesusers/1391d1b.htm sparks, a.c. (2002). telling tales in sport and physical activity: a qualitative journey. leeds: human kinetics. stake, r.e. (1995). the art of case research. newbury park: sage. strauss, a.l. (1987). qualitative analysis for social scientists. cambridge: cambridge university press. strauss, a., & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research: grounded theory and procedures and techniques. london: sage. strauss, a., & corbin, j. (1998). basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks: sage. suddaby, r. (2006). from the editors: what grounded theory is not. academy of management journal, 49(4), 633–642. tellis, w. (1997). application of a case study methodology. the qualitative report, 3(3). retrieved november 22, 2002, from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/qr/qr3-3/tellis2.htm thomson, n., & mcnamara, p. (2001). achieving post-acquisition success: the role of corporate entrepreneurship. long range planning 34, 669–697. tuschman, m.l., newman, w.h., & romanelli, e. (1986). convergence and upheaval: managing the unsteady pace of organizational evolution. california management review, 29(1), 20–44. 61vol. 7 no. 1 page 13 of 14 original research serfontein, basson & burden sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 15 5 (page number not for citation purposes) waldersee, r. (1997). becoming a learning organization: the transformation of the workplace. journal of management development, 16, 262–274. woodward, c. (2001). creating information systems harmony: challenging old principles of is governance. csc research services. retrieved september 10, 2002, from http://www. csc.com/businesstransformation/6.shtml yin, r.k. (1984). case study research: design and methods. newbury park: sage. yin, r.k. (1994). case study research: design and methods. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks: sage. yin, r. k. (2003). case study research: design and methods. (3rd edn., vol. 5). thousand oaks: sage. zahra, s., hayton, j., marcel, j., & o’neill, h. (2001). fostering entrepreneurship during international expansion: managing key challenges. european management journal, 19(4), 359–369. twomey, d.f., & harris, d.l. (2000). from strategy to corporate outcomes: aligning human resources management systems with entrepreneurial intent. international journal of commerce and management, 10(3/4), 43–56. us news and report. (1992). amputating assets, 4 may. van de ven, a.h., & poole, m.s. (1995). explaining development and change in organizations. academy of management review, 20, 510–540. van de ven, a.h., angle, h.l., & poole m.s. (1989). research on the management of innovation: the minnisota studies, new york: bellinger/harper & row. van tonder, c.l. (2004a). the march of time and the “evolution” of change. sa journal of industrial psychology, 30(3), 41–52. van tonder, c.l. (2004b). organisational change: theory and practice. pretoria: van schaik. van tonder, c.l. (2004c). “organisational transformation”: wavering on the edge of transformation. sa journal of industrial psychology, 30(3), 53–64. 62 vol. 7 no. 1 page 14 of 14 abstract introduction research methodology discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) jyoti bhadana amity college of commerce and finance, amity university, noida, uttar pradesh (auup), india neelam saxena amity centre for entrepreneurship development, amity university, noida, uttar pradesh (auup), india. archana bhatia department of commerce, d.a.v centenary college, faridabad, haryana, india citation bhadana, j., saxena, n., & bhatia, a. (2022). uttar pradesh academics’ occupational stress, organisational work environment and work-life balance: a quantitative study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1639. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1639 original research uttar pradesh academics’ occupational stress, organisational work environment and work-life balance: a quantitative study jyoti bhadana, neelam saxena, archana bhatia received: 15 apr. 2021; accepted: 01 feb. 2022; published: 03 june 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: in today’s fast-paced workplace, the notion of work-life balance is becoming increasingly relevant. work-life balance has emerged as a critical area of human resource management, attracting the attention of government, researchers, and professionals in search of innovative ways to boost employee morale, retain employees, and provide employers with tools to help them achieve a better work-life balance. employees’ emotional and physical health’s are both affected by an unhealthy work environment. stress was viewed as a sign of weakness in many businesses. research purpose: this study investigates the mediating effect of occupational stress on the relationship between work-life balance (wlb) and organisational work environment among academics, as well as the moderating effect of demographic variables such as gender, job levels, and marital status of this relationship. research approach/design and method: using a survey method, primary data was collected from academics working in india. a structured questionnaire was drafted and introduced as a method for data collection. respondents were chosen using a judgemental sampling method. to test the hypothesis, the mediating effect and moderating effect were used, and the statistical regression analysis was done with the help of professor andrew’s process macro and partial least squares smart (pls). main findings: the organisational work environment had a significant impact on the wlb of academics employed at higher education institutes in india. when comparing male and female academics, the effect of the organisational work environment on occupational stress was found to be higher for female academics. for academics at various job levels, the impact of the organisational work environment on occupational stress was found to be significant. marital status had no significant moderating association effect on academics between wlb, occupational stress, and organisational work environment. implications: institutions are encouraged to provide family-friendly policies and create a good work environment for academics that helps decrease the stress level, improve the wlb and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of academics. contribution: an investigation into relationships between work-life balance, occupational stress and working environment holds a number of implications in the management of educational set-up. this research might be very useful to school administrators in terms of improving work-life balance and reducing occupational stress among academics, in order to create a work environment that everyone is glad to be a part of. as a result, academic institutions’ organisational efficiency and effectiveness will improve. keywords: occupational stress; work-life balance; organisational work environment; academics; india. introduction occupational stress has been associated with negative physical, emotional, and physiological health effects (chaplain, 2008; guglielmi, simbula, & depolo, 2009). academic life is becoming increasingly difficult as academic careers become more strenuous. stress among academics is dangerous, because it may lead to burnout and mental illness, resulting in inefficient work performance, poor academic success, and a lower quality of life for both staff and students. a country’s success is entirely dependent on the expertise and professionalism of human capital (dornyei, 2001). the educational system is the backbone for the progress of any country. scientific and technical advances are heavily reliant on the educational environment, as well as highly motivated and committed academics. work-life is an important part of everyday life. teaching is a challenging and stressful job that is related to negative outcomes such as attrition, stress, and job dissatisfaction (ingersoll, merrill, & may, 2014). academics are stressed out due to the demanding job environment. occupational stress has a negative effect on academics’ physical and emotional health, as well as their work satisfaction (goddard, o’brien, & goddard, 2006). blix et al. (1994) conveyed that 66% of 400 academics at a university in the united states experienced extreme levels of stress at work. a major percentage of this stress is caused by a scarcity of resources. workplace stress has a negative impact on the work-life balance (wlb). work-related stress is related to unfavourable health issues such as cardiovascular problems, heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure, headaches, asthma, and dizziness (khan, shah, khan, & gul, 2012). as more women enter the teaching profession and women work equally outside the home, the education sector has undergone significant changes. in today’s scenario, both couples are working to support financially and both are struggling to balance their private as well as professional lives (ehrhart, mayer, & ziegert, 2012). women, in comparison to men, are under much stress. working women in india face a number of challenges in terms of fulfilling their professional duties and advancing their careers. the family system prevents them from starting or continuing their careers and the culture can be a hindrance at times. in india, it is customary for men to be responsible for the family’s financial needs, while women are expected to stay at home and care for the family (rehman & roomi, 2012). research purpose, objectives, and hypotheses this article is an effort to identify the mediating impact of occupational stress on the relationship between organisational work environment and wlb among academics. as described earlier in the manuscript, this study examines the moderating effects of selected demographic variables linked to the profiles of the respondents, such as gender, designation, marital status, occupational stress on the relationship between wlb, and organisational work environment among academics. this study examines the following hypotheses: hypothesis 1: occupational stress plays a significant mediating role between the organisation’s work environment and wlb. hypothesis 2: demographic factors, such as gender, designation, and marital status, significantly moderate the mediation impact of occupational stress on the relationship between organisational work environment and wlb. literature review work-life balance work-life balance is described as ‘an employee’s effort towards effectively completing both the work and life responsibilities in such a way that the roles of one domain have no negative impact on the other’. (parkers & langford, 2008). according to sirgy and lee (2018), satisfaction with work-life is described as ‘a balanced allocation of time and psychological resources in work and non-work life’. maintaining a wlb is important for working professionals. failure to strike a wlb has a negative impact on teachers’ effectiveness (saif, malik, & awan, 2010). job satisfaction has positively influenced wlb and work overload (virick, lilly, & casper, 2007). job demands have an adverse impact on wlb (chiang, birtch, & kwan, 2010). hans, mubeen, mishra and al-badi (2015) examined that the remaining task at hand negatively affects wlb. long work hours are one of the primary causes of not maintaining the balance between work and life. the study conducted by de simone, cicotto and lampis (2016) discovered that high work-life conflict is related to lower productivity, inefficiency, lack of achievement, retention, commitment, and success, and a high degree of stress. padmasiri and mahalekamge (2016) discovered a strong link between marital status, gender, and wlb. they also discovered that married people had a lower degree of wlb than their colleagues. occupational stress selye (1956) was the first to define stress as a stimulus-response relationship. since then, it has been described in a variety of ways, and while the terminology varies, the meaning is essentially the same, depending on how people react to stress. stress is described as the adaptation or variation of organisational effort, flexibility, and employee empowerment, which resulted in changing work requirements and ambiguity. furthermore, losing employment stability increases the possibility of job role stress (cooper & dewe, 2004). several studies have found that university employees are highly stressed (tai, ng, & lim, 2019). skaalvik and skaalvik (2011) found that teachers are experiencing occupational stress because of increasing paperwork, more frequent meetings and phone calls, progressively changing visit arrangements with guardians, and investment in several school improvement works. major et al. (2002) discovered that more extended hours of work (e.g. work-life irregularity) causes gloom and stress. the investigation by kinman and jones (2003) has corroborated this result, and found that working an extra hour is likely to result in anxiety, depression, and coronary heart disease. hasan and azad (2014) examined that non-government teachers were profoundly stressed in contrast with government teachers. according to jeyaraj (2013), private school teachers have a higher level of tension at work and lower levels of happiness than government school teachers. weber and cummings (2003) researchers have explored the negative connection between work-family struggle and diverse occupational results. kieschke and schaarschmidt (2008) stated that every year, approximately 41% of teachers quit their job because of increasing workloads. bell, rajendran and theiler (2012) found that the main occupational stress among academicians is time pressure, poor workplace, regulatory issues, understudied conduct, and changes in the instructive framework. dickson-swift et al. (2009) examined that institution conditions such as large and mixed classes, lack of healthy relationships among peer workers and inadequate salaries are the main reasons for increasing occupational stress in teaching profession. kong, yang, zhang, wang, and feng (2020) demonstrated that work stress and job satisfaction are partially mediated by life quality. enhancing one’s quality of life can help boost job satisfaction and reduce workplace stress. organisational work-environment work environment is defined as a setting that exists specifically for the purpose of performing a task. the work environment is the setting in which academics carry out their duties in an organisation. a pleasant and congenial work atmosphere can aid in the orderly and faultless completion of duties. workload has a significant positive impact on stress. work environment has a significant positive impact on performance. in a boring work environment, workers will be less active in their actions, perhaps leading to higher job-related stress. putra, gede and darmaputra (2020), desa, khoon and asaari (2018) and manaf, matin and zulaikha (2019) discovered a strong negative correlation between work environment and work-related stress. if the organisation’s work environment is favourable or enjoyable, it will give good support to workers at work (hartinah et al., 2020). the workplace stands out as a potentially significant source of stress due to the time spent in this environment (erkutlu & chafra, 2006). job stress is typically characterised as an employee’s feelings of job-related hardness, tension, anxiety, annoyance, concern, emotional weariness, and discomfort (armstrong & griffin, 2004). ratnawati and amri (2013) discovered that an employee’s perception of the work environment has an impact on their job behaviour in the workplace. the work environment includes not just physical but also a non-physical work environment, such as the manager’s leadership. while both directions of interference are essential, the work-to-non-work route is more prevalent. changes in the labour force and family composition have made it more difficult for many working people to balance job and family life (winslow 2005). the majority of people say work interferes with their personal and social lives. work-family conflict (wfc) is usually characterised as ‘a type of inter-role conflict in which the role constraints from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some way’. (greenhaus & beutell, 1985). the bidirectional perspective of wfc is explicitly depicted in the definition of wfc, which distinguishes between work interfering with family and family interfering with work. in many industries, the lines between ‘work’ and ‘non-work’ have become increasingly blurred, and time and energy for personal life and leisure may be lost as a result of constant work pressure. magadley (2021), examined work-family conflict from a gender perspective among academics. academics, both male and female, face work-family conflict, but women face it more severely due to the persistence of traditional gender norms in society. wfc was found to have harmful consequences on both men and women, although there are still gender inequalities, with women suffering the brunt of the load. both men and women use comparable ways to deal with wfc. (wilton & ross, 2017). (wilton & ross, 2017). work-family conflict and family-work conflict (fwc) were first conceptualised as bidirectional in nature, with work causing conflict with family and family causing conflict with work (allen, herst, bruck, & sutton, 2000). is work interfering with your personal life? we discovered that the majority of people say work interferes with their home and leisure time (schieman, glavin, & milkie, 2009). consistent with netemeyer, boles and mcmurrian (1996), wfc and fwc are separate but related kinds of inter-role conflict. family and work realms are incompatible, and the responsibilities of one position make the other difficult or impossible to perform (mansour & tremblay, 2018). work-family conflict and fwc are not mutually exclusive; the existence of one does not imply the presence or absence of the other (aryee, srinivas, & tan, 2005; lu, ocola, & chen, 2009). the two primary elements of everyone’s life are their family and their job. all organisations are concerned with maintaining and sustaining the equilibrium between them. however, it is worth noting that the literature focuses mostly on wfc, with little attention paid to fwc (powell, 2018; wayne, butts, casper, & allen, 2017). dankova and ahmethodzic (2021) revealed that academics’ jobs take up a significant portion of their lives; as a result, their perspective on wlb is unique, with them frequently choosing work above personal life. researcher focused on how work impacts the family, rather than taking into account how work affects the family (crouter 1984). an institution should set policies and promote a positive work environment for academics to reduce stress, improve wlb, and enhance academic efficiency and effectiveness. research gap numerous studies in various professions, organisations, and sectors have looked into occupational stress, wlb, and the organisational work environment individually. to our knowledge, no other academic studies on the mediating effect of occupational stress on the relationship between wlb, and the organisational work environment in the indian context have been conducted (ren & caudle, 2020). the following research examined together occupational stress, wlb, and working environment among academics, for testing the hypothesis. in this research, we investigated the function of various demographic factors such as gender, marital status, and job levels. the number of scientific papers published in this field is still low. because of these reasons, this topic has been exposed as an area of research gap, and that became our focus for further research. in several jobs, elevated levels of stress are related to a loss of wlb (wallace, 2005; wong & lin, 2007). research methodology population and sampling for this study, the population consisted of different universities (n = 950) located in uttar pradesh, india. a judgmental sampling method was used to select academics from the various universities in uttar pradesh. the standard structured questionnaires were distributed personally and through e-mail to 950 respondents. a total of 389 respondents completed the survey online. data collection using a survey method, primary data was collected from university academics working in india. to design the google forms questionnaire based on the study’s needs, certain items were borrowed from the following three questionnaires: eighteen items on wlb were taken from banu (2014) questionnaire. twenty-eight items on occupational stress were taken from gmelch and burns (1994) questionnaire. ten items on the work environment were taken from the (moos, 1994) questionnaire. the standard structured questionnaires on occupational stress, wlb, and organisational work environment were used for the study as a data collection tool. the occupational stress questionnaire contained 18 items on a 7-point scale with five factors, while the wlb questionnaire had 28 items on a 7-point scale with four factors and the organisational work environment questionnaire had 10 items on a 7-point scale with 10 factors. the questionnaires were distributed to the academics to collect the data. the surveys were delivered to the university academics in person and via e-mail. the survey was performed online using google forms by the academics. to test the hypothesis, the mediating and moderating effects were applied. the statistical regression analysis was done with the help of prof. andrew hayes’ process macro and smart pls. ethical considerations this research is the authors’ original work, and the higher education institution has provided an ethical certificate as partial fulfilment for a postgraduate certification. this is to certify that the research paper submitted is an outcome of her independent and original work. she has duly acknowledged all the sources from which the ideas and extracts have been taken. the respondents willingly agreed to participate in the study. to reduce the risk of a confidentiality breach, the google form platform was password protected. to safeguard the privacy of the respondents, their data was de-identified online. the author was responsible for evaluating the proposed research to ensure adequate provisions to protect the privacy of participants and to maintain the confidentiality of data. individuals may only be willing to share information for research purposes with an understanding that the information will remain protected from disclosure outside of the research setting or from unauthorised persons. the project is free from any plagiarism and has not been submitted elsewhere for publication. data analysis and discussion mediation test: the mediation test was carried out using the process macro developed by prof. andrew hayes. the organisation’s work environment was considered an exogenous variable, occupational stress as a mediating variable, and wlb as an endogenous variable. the mediation test was performed in different stages. it starts by applying the following regression model: the above equation examines the effect of the organisation’s work environment on occupational stress. this relationship explains the possibility of mediation effects of occupational stress on the relationship between the organisation’s work environment and wlb. table 2 represents the results of regression analysis applied as in equation 1. table 1: summary of past studies. table 2: results of regression analysis. table 2 represent the significant negative impact of an organisation’s work environment on the occupational stress of the academics working in higher education institutions. the positive responses related to the organisational work environment of the higher educational institutes will help reduce the occupational stress of academics. the f statistics indicate the significant statistical fitness of the regression model. the r square of the model is 0.0727 indicating the percentage of variance in occupational stress that can be explained by the organisation’s work environment. furthermore, the mediation effect is examined with the help of the following equation: this equation helps in examining the direct as well as the indirect effect of the organisation’s work environment on the wlb of academics working at higher education institutes in india. the results of equation 2 are shown in table 3. table 3: direct and indirect effects. table 3 demonstrates that the organisational work environment and the occupational stress have a significant effect on the wlb of the academics working with higher education institutions in india. the organisational work environment of higher education institutes has a significant positive impact on the wlb of academics. however, occupational stress has been shown to have a substantial impact on the wlb of the academics working in higher education institutions. positive responses related to the organisational work environment in the higher educational institutes will help to reduce the occupational stress of the academics. the f-statistics indicate the significant statistical fitness of the regression model. the r square of the model is 0.509 showing the percentage of variance in wlb, which is described with the help of the regression model. using occupational stress as the mediating variable, the significant direct and indirect effect for the relationship between organisational work environment and wlb confirms the significant mediating role. discussion the moderating effect of gender the moderating effect of gender (male and female faculty members) in indian universities on the relationship between wlb, occupational stress, and organisational work environment is examined. the gender of the academics is assumed as a categorical variable in group moderation analysis. table 4 represents the direct as well as the indirect effect of the organisation’s work environment on the wlb using occupational stress as the mediating variable. table 4: direct and indirect effect of the organisational work environment on the work-life balance using occupational stress as the mediating variable. the following hypothesis is assumed to be tested in the group moderation effect: h1: ‘there exists no significant moderating effect of the gender of academics on the relationship between wlb, occupational stress, and organisation work environment’. table 5 indicates the significant difference between the male and female academics with respect to the relationship between the organisation’s work environment and occupational stress. the impact of the organisational work environment on occupational stress is found to be higher for female academics as compared to male academics. female academics are affected by the organisation’s work environment in the opposite way as male academics, which have an insignificant relationship between the organisation’s work environment and occupational stress. women in india are equipped with various skills, and as a result, they are more affected by an adverse work environment. however, the moderation effect of gender is found to be insignificant on the relationship between occupational stress and wlb and work environment. table 6 demonstrates the results of the moderation analysis. table 5: the moderation effect of gender. table 6: the moderation effect of designation. designation the relationship between wlb, occupational stress, and organisational work environment is investigated using the moderating effect of designation (assistant professor, associate professor, professor) in indian universities. the designation of the academics is assumed as a categorical variable in moderation analysis. the following hypothesis is assumed to be tested in the group moderation effect: h1: ‘there exists no significant moderating effect of the designation of academics on the relationship between wlb, occupational stress, and organisation work environment’. table 6 demonstrates the results of the moderation analysis. in terms of the relationship between the organisation’s work environment and occupational stress, table 6 shows that there is a significant difference among academics with different designations. the impact of the organisational work environment on occupational stress is found to be significant for academics with a different designation. however, no difference is found concerning the designation of the academics. in the case of the association between occupational stress and wlb, the effect is found to be significant for professors, but insignificant for assistant professors and associate professors. thus, the impact of occupational stress on wlb was found to be higher in the case of professors. in the case of the impact of organisational work environment on occupational stress, the effect is found to be significant for academics with different designations. however, the impact is found to be the same for all designations. marital status for the relationship between wlb, occupational stress, and organisational work environment, the moderating effect of marital status (unmarried and married) in higher education in indian universities is investigated. the marital status of academics is assumed as a categorical variable in moderation analysis. the following hypothesis is assumed to be tested in the group moderation effect: h1: ‘there exists no significant moderating effect of the marital status of academics on the relationship between wlb, occupational stress, and organisation work environment’. table 7 demonstrates the results of the moderation analysis. table 7: the moderation effect of marital status. table 7 indicates the significant impact between the different relationships included in the study for the academics with different marital statuses. however, the p-value of t statistics is more than a 5% level of significance. thus, it can be concluded that there exists no significant moderating effect of the marital status of both married and unmarried academics on the relationship between occupational stress, organisational work environment, and wlb. conclusion our study examines the mediating effect of occupational stress on the relationship between organisational work environment and wlb, which has not been looked into before in the academic literature. the organisational work environment, as well as occupational stress, has a significant influence on the wlb of the academics within higher education institutes in india. the impact of the work environment be higher for female academics as compared to male academics. wilton and ross (2017) revealed that female academics experience more stress compared to male academics. with regard to the effect of occupational stress on wlb, the effect is found to be significant for professors but insignificant for assistant professors and associate professors. the effect of the organisational work environment on occupational stress was found to be significant for academics with different designations. this result is supported by adebiyi (2013) who found that teaching experience has an impact on stress. abbas, roger and asadullah (2012) revealed that less experienced teachers or teachers who had less than 5 years of experience are more stressed than experienced teachers. academicians’ marital status has no significant effect on the relationship between wlb, occupational stress, and organisational work environment. this research might be very useful to school administrators in terms of improving work-life balance and reducing occupational stress among academics, in order to create a work environment that everyone is glad to be a part of. as a result, academic institutions’ organisational efficiency and effectiveness will improve. limitations and future research the study’s shortcomings should be addressed first; only quantitative data were obtained. both qualitative and quantitative data methods could be utilised in future research. because india is such a large country, it was impossible to cover the full length and width of the country. data collection was challenging because most academics do not have enough time to respond. some respondents were so preoccupied with their daily tasks that they were unable to complete the survey. there had to be much follow-up and reminders to receive the responses. as a result, the sample size could not surpass 389. only teachers from management colleges were surveyed for this study. different sampling components derived from other fields of higher education may be investigated by future researchers. acknowledgements the researcher would like to thank the participants of this research and the research supervisor for the support and encouragement throughout the study. competing interests the authors have declared that they have no competing interest. authors’ contributions j.b. conceived and planned the experiments and carried out the experiments. n.s and a.b. contributed to sample preparation. j.b. contributed to the interpretation of the results. j.b. took the lead in writing the manuscript. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data is available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author (j.b.). disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abbas, s.g., roger, a., & asadullah, m.a. (2012). impact of organizational role stressors on faculty stress & burnout (an exploratory analysis of a public sector university of pakistan). in 4 ème colloque international (iseor-aom) (p. 18). jan 2012. lyon: france. adebiyi, d.r. (2013). occupational stress among academic staff of ekiti state university, ado-ekiti. european scientific journal, 9(4), 202–208. adeoye, e.a., & durosaro, i.a. (2002). correlates of stress among female academics at the university of ilorin. nigerian journal of sociology of education, 5, 130–139. allen, t.d., herst, d.e., bruck, c.s., & sutton, m. (2000). consequences associated with work-to-family conflict: a review and agenda for future research. journal of occupational health psychology, 5(2), 278. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.5.2.278 armstrong, g.s., & griffin, m.l. (2004). does the job matter? comparing correlates of stress among treatment and correctional staff in prisons. journal of criminal justice, 32(6), 577–592. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2004.08.007 aryee, s., srinivas, e.s., & tan, h.h. (2005). rhythms of life: antecedents and outcomes of work-family balance in employed parents. journal of applied psychology, 90(1), 132. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.90.1.132 banu, r.a., & duraipandian, k. (2014). development of instrument to measure work-life balance of it professionals in chennai. international journal of management, 5(11), 21–33. behzad, i., arezo, k., & mohammadi, n. (2014). association between quality of work life and occupational stresses in personnel of social security organization in hamadan province, ir iran. e3 journal of medical research, 3(4), 42–45. bell, a.s., rajendran, d., & theiler, s. (2012). job stress, wellbeing, work-life balance and work-life conflict among australian academics. e-journal of applied psychology, 8(1), 25–37. https://doi.org/10.7790/ejap.v8i1.320 blix, a.g., cruise, r.j., mitchell, b.m., & blix, g.g. (1994). occupational stress among university teachers. educational research, 36(2), 157–169. https://doi.org/10.1080/0013188940360205 bokti, n.l.m., & talib, m.a. (2009). a preliminary study on occupational stress and job satisfaction among male navy personnel at a naval base in lumut, malaysia. the journal of international social research, 2(9), 299–307. bolhari, a., rezaeean, a., bolhari, j., & zare, f. (2012). the impact of occupational stress on quality of work life among the staff of e-workspace. international journal of psychological and behavioral sciences, 6(7), 1739–1743. chadha, m., sood, k., & malhotra, s. (2012). effects of organizational stress on quality of life of primary and secondary school teachers. delhi psychiatry journal, 15(2), 342–346. chaplain, r.p. (2008). stress and psychological distress among trainee secondary teachers in england. educational psychology, 28(2), 195–209. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410701491858 chiang, f.f., birtch, t.a., & kwan, h.k. (2010). the moderating roles of job control and work-life balance practices on employee stress in the hotel and catering industry. international journal of hospitality management, 29(1), 25–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2009.04.005 chitra, d., & mahalakshmi, v. (2012). a study on employees perception on quality of work life and job satisfaction in manufacturing organization – an empirical study. trade & commerce, 1(2), 175–184. cooper, c.l., & dewe, p.j. (2004). stress: a brief story. oxford: blackwell. crouter, a.c. (1984). spillover from family to work: the neglected side of the work-family interface. human relations, 37(6), 425–441. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872678403700601 dankova, k., & ahmethodzic, a. (2021). the life eclipse: when work moves to your home. retrieved from http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9048670 desa, n.m., khoon, t.l., & asaari, m.h.a.h. (2018). work stress toward work environment, management support, and employee satisfaction among employees of public organizations. international journal of asian social science, 8(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.18488/journal.1.2018.81.1.11 de simone, s., cicotto, g., & lampis, j. (2016). occupational stress, job satisfaction and physical health in teachers. european review of applied psychology, 66(2), 65–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erap.2016.03.002 dickson-swift, v., james, e.l., kippen, s., & liamputtong, p. (2009). researching sensitive topics: qualitative research as emotion work. qualitative research, 9(1), 61–79. dörnyei, z. (2001). new themes and approaches in second language motivation research. annual review of applied linguistics, 21(1), 43–59. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0267190501000034 ehrhart, k.h., mayer, d.m., & ziegert, j.c. (2012). web-based recruitment in the millennial generation: work-life balance, website usability, and organizational attraction. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 21(6), 850–874. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2011.598652 erkutlu, h.v., & chafra, j. (2006). relationship between leadership power bases and job stress of subordinates: example from boutique hotels. management research news, 29(5), 285–297. https://doi.org/10.1108/01409170610674419 gmelch, w.h., & burns, j.s. (1994). sources of stress for academic department chairpersons. journal of educational administration, 32(1), 79–94. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578239410051862 goddard, r., o’brien, p., & goddard, m. (2006). work environment predictors of beginning teacher burnout. british educational research journal, 32(6), 857–874. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920600989511 greenhaus, j.h., & beutell, n.j. (1985). sources of conflict between work and family roles. academy of management review, 10(1), 76–88. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1985.4277352 guglielmi, d., simbula, s., & depolo, m. (2009). job demands-resources model: uno strumento per la valutazione dei fattori di rischio nella scuola. psicologia dell’educazione e della formazione, 11(3). hans, a., mubeen, s.a., mishra, n., & al-badi, a.h.h. (2015). a study on occupational stress and quality of work life (qwl) in private colleges of oman (muscat). global business & management research, 7(3), 55–68. hartinah, s., suharso, p., umam, r., syazali, m., lestari, b., roslina, r., & jermsittiparsert, k. (2020). retracted: teacher’s performance management: the role of principal’s leadership, work environment and motivation in tegal city, indonesia. management science letters, 10(1), 235–246. hasan, a., & azad, m. (2014). a study of occupational stress of primary school teachers. education confab, 3(4), 11–19. ingersoll, r., merrill, l., & may, h. (2014). what are the effects of teacher education and preparation on beginning teacher attrition? cpre research reports. https://doi.org/10.12698/cpre.2014.rr82 ismail, a., yao, a., & yunus, n.k.y. (2009). relationship between occupational stress and job satisfaction: an empirical study in malaysia. romanian economic journal, 12(34), 3–30. jeyaraj, s.s. (2013). occupational stress among the teachers of the higher secondary schools in madurai district, tamil nadu. iosr journal of business and management, 7(5), 63–79. https://doi.org/10.9790/487x-0756376 khan, a., shah, i.m., khan, s., & gul, s. (2012). teachers’ stress, performance & resources. international review of social sciences and humanities, 2(2), 10–23. kieschke, u., & schaarschmidt, u. (2008). professional commitment and health among teachers in germany: a typological approach. learning and instruction, 18(5), 429–437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2008.06.005 kinman, g., & jones, f. (2003). ‘running up the down escalator’: stressors and strains in uk academics. quality in higher education, 9(1), 21–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/13538320308162 kong, w., yang, y., zhang, f., wang, h., & feng, d. (2020). mediating role of occupational stress and job satisfaction on the relationship between neuroticism and quality of life among chinese civil servants: a structural equation model. health and quality of life outcomes, 18(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12955-020-01295-2 kumar, d., & deo, j.m. (2011). stress and work life of college teachers. journal of the indian academy of applied psychology, 37(1), 78–85. lu, g., ocola, l.e., & chen, j. (2009). reduced graphene oxide for room-temperature gas sensors. nanotechnology, 20(44), 445–502. https://doi.org/10.1088/0957-4484/20/44/445502 magadley, w. (2021). moonlighting in academia: a study of gender differences in work-family conflict among academics. community, work & family, 24(3), 237–256. https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2019.1678458 major, v.s., klein, k.j., & ehrhart, m.g. (2002). work time, work interference with family, and psychological distress. journal of applied psychology, 87(3), 427. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.3.427 manaf, a., matin, m., & zulaikha, s. (2019). effect of work environment and work loads on the performance of police educators in sepolwan lemdiklat polri. international journal for educational and vocational studies, 1(5), 461–466. https://doi.org/10.29103/ijevs.v1i5.1714 mansour, s., & tremblay, d.g. (2018). work–family conflict/family–work conflict, job stress, burnout and intention to leave in the hotel industry in quebec (canada): moderating role of need for family friendly practices as ‘resource passageways’. the international journal of human resource management, 29(16), 2399–2430. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1239216 moos, r.h. (1994). work environment scale manual: development, applications, research: a social climate scale. consulting psychologists press. mostert, f.f., nell, k., mostert, k., & rothmann, s. (2008). outcomes of occupational stress in a higher education institution. southern african business review, 12(3), 102–127. retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc92877 nasiripour, a.a., raeisi, p., & shabanikia, h. (2009). occupational stress among rural health workers in mashhad district. northeast iran, 9(1), 21–29. netemeyer, r.g., boles, j.s., & mcmurrian, r. (1996). development and validation of work–family conflict and family–work conflict scales. journal of applied psychology, 81(4), 400. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.81.4.400 pabla, d.m. (2012). occupational stress amongst teachers of professional colleges in punjab. indian journal of research, 1(9), 112–113. padmasiri, m.k.d., &mahalekamge, w.g.s. (2016). impact of demographical factors on work life balance among academic staff of university of kelaniya, sri lanka. journal of education and vocational research, 7(1), 54–59. https://doi.org/10.22610/jevr.v7i1.1223 parkers, l.p., & langford, p.h. (2008). work-life balance or work-life alignment. journal of management & organization, 14(3), 267–284. https://doi.org/10.5172/jmo.837.14.3.267 powell, g.n. (2018). women and men in management. thousand oaks, ca: sage. putra, i.n.b.c., gede, i.h.h.s.p., & darmaputra, e. (2020). the effect of work stress on front office employees performance: a case study at inaya putri bali hotel. retreived from https://doi.org/10.2991/aebmr.k.201222.041 ratnawati & amri, k. (2013). pengaruhkeadilanorganisasional, kepercayaan pada atasanterhadapperilakukewargaanorganisasi (organizational citizenship behavior). jurnal ekonomi manajemen dan bisnis, 1(1), 56–73. rehman, s., & roomi, m.a. (2012). gender and work-life balance: a phenomenological study of women entrepreneurs in pakistan. journal of small business and enterprise development, 19(2), 209–228. https://doi.org/10.1108/14626001211223865 ren, x., & caudle, d.j. (2020). balancing academia and family life: the gendered strains and struggles between the uk and china compared. gender in management, 35(2), 141–165. https://doi.org/10.1108/gm-06-2019-0093 sabarirajan, a., & geethanjali, n. (2011). a study on quality of work life and organizational performance among the employees of public and private banks in dindigul. international journal of economics and research, 2(6), 38–45. saif, m.i., malik, m.i., & awan, m.z. (2011). employee work satisfaction and work-life balance: a pakistani perspective. interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, 3(5), 606–617. schieman, s., glavin, p., & milkie, m.a. (2009). when work interferes with life: work-nonwork interference and the influence of work-related demands and resources. american sociological review, 74(6), 966–988. https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240907400606 selye, h. (1956). the stress of life. the journal of bone & joint surgery: april 1957, 39(2), 479. sh, k., & sh, p. (2014). the relationship between quality of work life, job stress, job satisfaction and citizenship behavior in oshnaviyeh hospital’s staff. journal of patient safety & quality improvement, 2(2), 77–81. sirgy, m.j., & lee, d.j. (2018). work-life balance: an integrative review. applied research in quality of life, 13(1), 229–254. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-017-9509-8 skaalvik, e.m., & skaalvik, s. (2011). teacher job satisfaction and motivation to leave the teaching profession: relations with school context, feeling of belonging, and emotional exhaustion. teaching and teacher education, 27(6), 1029–1038. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2011.04.001 srinivas, k.r., nagesh, m.r., & pallavi, g.s. (2014). a study on quality of work life at dunlop polymers pvt, ltd, mysore. asia pacific journal of research, 1(13), 112–120. tai, k.l., ng, y.g., & lim, p.y. (2019). systematic review on the prevalence of illness and stress and their associated risk factors among educators in malaysia. plos one, 14(5), e0217430. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217430 tashi, k. (2014). occupational stress among bhutanese teachers. asian journal of management sciences & education, 3(2), 71–79. virick, m., lilly, j.d., & casper, w.j. (2007). doing more with less: an analysis of work life balance among layoff survivors. career development international, 12(5), 463–480. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430710773772 wallace, j. (2005). job stress, depression and work-to-family conflict: a test of the strain and buffer hypotheses. relations industrielles/industrial relations, 60(3), 510–539. https://doi.org/10.7202/012157ar wayne, j.h., butts, m.m., casper, w.j., & allen, t.d. (2017). in search of balance: a conceptual and empirical integration of multiple meanings of work–family balance. personnel psychology, 70(1), 167–210. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12132 weber, l.j., & cummings, a.l. (2003). research and theory: relationships among spirituality, social support and childhood maltreatment in university students. counseling and values, 47(2), 82–95. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-007x.2003.tb00226.x wilton, s., & ross, l. (2017). flexibility, sacrifice and insecurity: a canadian study assessing the challenges of balancing work and family in academia. journal of feminist family therapy, 29(1–2), 66–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/08952833.2016.1272663 winslow, s. (2005). work-family conflict, gender, and parenthood, 1977–1997. journal of family issues, 26(6), 727–755. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513x05277522 wong, j.y., & lin, j.h. (2007). the role of job control and job support in adjusting service employee’s work-to-leisure conflict. tourism management, 28(3), 726–735. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2006.05.003 4walbrugroodt.qxd clarifying concepts in the employment equity context since the early 1960’s one finds traces of federally sponsored equal employment laws that have been enacted prohibiting workplace discrimination based on age, colour, disability, national origin, race, religion and sexual orientation. but what is meant by these terms that are so interchangeably used? loden (1996, p.14), in her book on implementing diversit y, defined diversit y as “those important human characteristics that impact individuals’ values, opportunities, and perceptions of self and others”. in her definition of diversity in a workplace, she included primary dimensions such as age, ethnicity, gender, mental/physical abilities and characteristics, race and sexual orientation. secondary dimensions of diversit y include items such as communication st yle, education, family status, military experience, religion, first language, geographic location, income, work experience, work style and organisational role. according to noe, hollenbeck, gerhart and wright (2000, p.77), equal employment opportunit y (eeo) referred to “the government’s attempt to ensure that all individuals have an equal chance for employment, regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin”. while the equal employment opportunit y legislation encouraged nondiscrimination, they offered no specific guidelines for correcting historic patterns of exclusion and discrimination. affirmative action measures were designed to level the playing field. the term ‘affirmative action’ has been used in various countries such as malaysia, india, sri-lanka and the united states to describe various equity policies. one also needs to distinguish between affirmative action as a means of redressing inequality, and reverse discrimination, which preferentially advantages certain groups at the expense of others. thomas (1992, p.3) argued that affirmative action “can be viewed as a pro-active development tool to overcome...constraints and more effectively mobilize latent resources in order to stimulate overall development”. according to thomas, various dimensions of affirmative action exist, and they include the political sphere and the decision-making process, education and cult ure, breakdown in segregation in social life, sport, entertainment and recreation, housing and residential infrastructure, welfare services, black business advancement, job/employee advancement and training, symbolism and the historical perspective. as can be seen from the above definitions, diversit y management is a tool that can be used to achieve equal employment opportunit y or employment equit y (ee), depending on the perspective one wants to attach to it. from a business perspective it should therefore be addressed from a holistic view. it should form part of an integrated strategic business model addressed in its entirety. some international trends on employment equity and age goldberg (2000), in her article on age discrimination, argued that the median age of employees in the united states has risen dramatically. she estimated that by the year 2030 there would be four times as many people over the age of 65 years as there were in 1960, and that the labour force participation of this age category will have to increase by 25% to maintain a constant total employment – to – population ratio from 2005 onward. this proves that there is definitely an increase in the number of older employees needed for employment in various categories. furthermore, goldberg (2000) found that many americans are leaving the workforce because they are downsized, displaced or disillusioned. she also stated that most people look forward to retirement because they are tired of stressful or unpleasant jobs and not because they are tired of working. the positive news, however, is that due to technological advances, many citizens are doing things they did not think were possible in the past. ashley walbrugh gert roodt department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract the focus of this article is on response differences with regard to employment equity practices within nine south african companies from different industries, as well as whether the employment equity questionnaire is a reliable tool for measuring employment equity practices. a convenience sample of 4729 participants in the field survey provided the secondary data for this study. the employment equity questionnaire yielded a high alpha coefficient of 0,96. the main findings were that differences in responses between age categories do exist, but only a small percentage of the variance could be ascribed to differences in employment equity practices. in addition to this, the south african companies show the same trends, with regard to age discrimination, as other countries like the united states and britain. this finding could therefore serve as a lead indicator for proactive measures – to ensure that the same mistakes from other countries are not repeated here. opsomming die fokus van hierdie artikel is op responsverskille met betrekking tot gelyke werkgeleentheidpraktyke binne nege suid-afrikaanse maatskappye in verskeie industrieë en ook of die employment equity questionnaire ’n betroubare instrument is om gelyke werkgeleentheidpraktyke te meet. ’n geleentheidsteekproef van 4729 deelnemers in die veldopname het die sekondêre data vir hierdie studie voorsien. die employment equity questionnaire het ’n hoë alfakoëffisiënt van 0,96 opgelewer. die hoofbevindinge is dat daar verskille in response tussen ouderdomsgroepe bestaan, maar dat slegs ’n klein proporsie van die variansie aan verskille in gelyke werkgeleenthede toegeskryf kan word. in aansluiting hiermee, wys suid-afrikaanse maatkappye dieselfde tendens met betrekking tot ouderdomsdiskriminasie as ander lande soos die vsa en brittanje. hierdie bevinding moet as ’n kernaanwyser vir proaktiewe maatstawwe beskou word – sodat dieselfde foute van ander lande nie hier herhaal word nie. different age groups’ response to employment equity practices requests for copies should be addressed to: a walbrugh, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 28 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (2), 28-39 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (2), 28-39 today’s seniors are participating in athletic competitions, pursue college degrees, and continue to work full-time in a different profession or part-time in the same profession. despite this positive news, the american association for retired persons – a arp (2002) has found that age discrimination still exist, and in some cases, more subtle than others. discrimination includes refusing to hire or promote older workers, coercing them to retire, targeting them when a workforce reduction exercise is necessary and curtailing their benefits. other forms of discrimination include limiting their training and development opportunities, job responsibilities and duties. whether blatant or subtle, it is regarded as discrimination and is against the law. despite to the technological advances mentioned earlier, woolnough (2000) found that older people find it hard to find and keep jobs in the information technolog y industry. woolnough (2000, p.2) still believed that the it industry is ageist, especially where the belief still exist that to be successful in this sector, one needs to be 25 years old. adding to this, she states that the assumption is still made that “older people can’t and won’t want to learn”. this supports the a arp’s view, and supports that, despite anti-discrimination legislation, discrimination against the aged still exist. recent movement in the us legislation has been interesting. although legislation like the age discrimination act of 1975 and the us code specifically prohibit discrimination against the aged in any way, one still finds different opinions on this issue. a recent study by the us code (sec 623, 1967) revealed that older workers find themselves disadvantaged in their efforts to retain employment, and especially to regain employment when displaced from jobs. in addition, the setting of arbitrary age limits regardless of potential for performance has become common practice. the study also revealed a high incidence of unemployment with a resultant deterioration of skills, morale, and employer acceptability. even though the legislation prohibits unfair discrimination against the aged, one finds that, over time, discriminatory practices have become almost “best practice”. it was in this light that, based on a supreme court finding in 1989 in public retirement system of ohio versus betts, the congress found legislative action necessary. this was to restore the original congressional intent in passing and amending the age discrimination in employment act of 1967 (29 u.s.c. 621 et seq.). the original intention was to prohibit the discrimination against older workers in all employee benefits, except when agebased reductions in employee benefit plans are justified by significant cost reductions. current amendments to this act is the doing away with statutory retirement at the age of 65 years, propagating that employees should be allowed to work beyond the retirement age, provided that they can still perform the duties required. a london based organisation, help the aged, in its policy statement (2002, p.1) strongly spoke out against age discrimination. in this statement, they state that “ageism and age discrimination exist routinely in british society and go to a large extent unnoticed and unchallenged”. like the united states, britain is following pretty much the same route with regards to the introduction of new legislation. according to help the aged (2002, p.1) the national framework for older people requires that age discrimination should be “rooted out”. in addition to this, european law requires that the uk should ban age discrimination in employment by 2006. the british government is currently consulting on this issue. recent moves in this regard is that the government, by virtue of the human rights act (act 1998 commencement no 2), wants to pursue the objectives of equality and diversity through a proposal to establish a single equality commission to cover all forms of discrimination. research conducted by mcgregor (2000) in new zealand, revealed similar findings as in the usa and the uk. mcgregor (2000) found that discrimination on the grounds of age was followed by discrimination in matters of promotion, and by discrimination within the workplace culture. she found that slightly more women than men reported discrimination (13,6% as against 10,7%). mcgregor (2000) also found that age discrimination cases were significantly under-reported. the report speculates that this could be because workers are unaware that on-the-job discrimination can be grounds for complaint. in summary therefore, even though various countries are geographically dispersed, the same occurrences exist with regard to age discrimination. it appears that everywhere governments are waking up to the call from the aged to continue to work as long as they can add value. the article will now focus on age patterns in employment equity in a south african context. a south-african perspective on employment equity and age in the context of black advancement, affirmative action can be traced back to the middle seventies. according to deloitte & touche (2001) the 1976 riots led to the fact that companies, especially multinationals were placed under pressure from their origins either to divest from south africa, or to embark on intensive black advancement programmes. this pressure would subsequently evolve into the sullivan code in 1977, which eventually lost its impact after the then president p w botha’s rubicon speech in the late eighties. the wiehahn commission was instrumental in legislating trade unions. their rapid growth, the formation of the udf, the imposition of a state of emergency, and the formation of comprehensive anti-apartheid act of 1986 led to affirmative action once again gaining impetus, only soon to lose it again as expectations were being met. in february 1992 came the unbanning of political organisations and the release of political prisoners, resulting in again intense affirmative action initiatives. in 1993 south africa was in transition from an apartheid system, to a non-racial, non-sexist democracy and because of the imbalances caused by apartheid, there was much talk of affirmative action, but no policy or guidelines existed. the release of the white paper on reconstruction and development (notice no. 1954 of 1994) highlighted the need for business to bring forward viable options. the pac and azapo also had affirmative action proposals in their economic policy position. the pressure to implement affirmative action grew, and it was felt that if major business failed to come up with proposals, then a future democratic government would have to impose affirmative action policy and guidelines. the framework for non-discriminatory legislation was captured in the constitution of the new south africa. according to chapter two in the constitution (1996) under bill of rights section 7(1) it states that the bill is “the cornerstone of democracy, and it affirms the democratic values of dignity, equality and freedom”. on equality section 9(3) clearly states that “the state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth” (own emphasis). the labour relations act (act 66 of 1995), the forerunner of the employment equity act (act 55 of 1998), set the wheels in motion for employment equity. the labour relations act (act 66 of 1995) states in chapter 8, section 187(f) that “any employer who amongst others dismiss an employee based on amongst others age, is guilty of an automatic unfair dismissal” (own emphasis). the employment equity act states in chapter 2 section 6(1) that “no person may unfairly discriminate, directly or indirectly, against age group response to employment equity 29 an employee in an employment policy or practice on grounds including age” (own emphasis). the main aim of this act was the removal of all obstacles to equality of opportunity (including age) and the implementation of affirmative action measures. as part of the enforcement of the employment equity act (act 55 of 1998), the department of labour required companies to report on progress made towards achieving set goals. the first reports were submitted in october 2000. apart from systems problems experienced by the department, the results were devastating. the department of labour (2000) released a report that stated that no significant improvement in the representation of designated employees since the baseline profiles of 1998. interestingly, the report does not reflect on age barriers to employment equity in any of its forms or reporting structures. this is quite contradictory, given the fact that age discrimination is quite prominent in the sa constitution, as well as in the employment equity act and in the labour relations act. comparatively speaking, it appears that south africa is pretty much going down the same route as international predecessors in this field, and might also find government enforcing the intent of legislation quite soon. the current hiv/aids pandemic in south africa might force decision-makers to critically review the position on employing the aged and will be discussed broader in the section that deals with age as an element of employment equity. in the next section, more focus will be given to one dimension of equity, namely age. age as an element of employment equity schein’s (1978) typology of three career stages is widely reported in the literature. the early career stage is associated with career establishment, development of work values and career anchors. during this stage young adults seek opportunities for advancement, social status and recognition. the main tasks in the early career stage revolve around career establishment and career achievement (schreuder & theron, 2001). it is therefore expected that career entrants will be able to deal with challenges of employment equity in a creative way. during the mid-career stage adults are grappling with issues around redefining one’s identity, clarif ying one’s values and philosophy of life and adjusting to changes in family life. it is also during this stage that the mid-life crisis can occur (gerdes, moore, ochse & van ede, 1988). individuals are dealing with existence related issues in life such as “what have i achieved?” or “where am i going?” remaining productive during this stage can be hampered with issues such as job-loss, obsolescence and discrimination (schreuder & theron, 2001). it can therefore be expected that adults in the mid-career stage will respond more negatively to ee practices. during the late career stage individuals are dealing with declining physical and mental abilities, due to general ageing or poor health. according to robbins (2001), worldwide, the importance of age is increasing mainly due to three reasons. firstly, there is a widespread belief that job performance deteriorates with an increase in age. regardless whether it is true or not, a lot of people believe it and act on it. secondly, there is the reality that the workforce is aging. workers in the 55 and older category are the fastest growing sector of the labour force. the third reason, for all intents and purposes in the us, mandatory retirement has been outlawed, thus meaning that no us workers have to retire at the age of 70 years. the perceptions, robbins (2001) further stated, of older workers, are mixed. some hold various positive qualities like experience, judgment, a strong work ethic, and commitment to quality. in contrast older workers are also seen as less flexible and being resistant to new technology. this negatively affects the hiring of older workers in times when companies go through change and are seeking younger flexible employees. what effect does age really have on turnover, absenteeism, productivit y and satisfaction? mcevoy and cascio (1989) have shown that the older you get, the less likely you are going to quit your job. as employees get older, they have fewer opportunities, and in many cases become less ambiguous. their studies have also shown that the elderly are less likely to resign as they are seeking benefits such as longer paid leave, medical aid, and better pension benefits. another perception to be dealt with is that age is positively related to absenteeism. one can argue that if they are less likely to quit, then they will be more willing to come to work more regularly. studies have actually shown that there is a positive relationship between age and absenteeism, but it is partially a function of whether the absence is avoidable or unavoidable. in general, older employees have lower rates of avoidable absenteeism than younger employees, but show higher rates of unavoidable absenteeism. this can mainly be due to the general poorer health that comes with aging as well as the longer recovery period when injured (mcevoy & cascio, 1989). mcevoy and cascio (1989) reported in the same study there is also a widespread belief that productivity declines with aging, and the assumption is made that the person’s speed, agility, strength and coordination decay over time. this might cause boredom and lack of intellectual stimulation. the evidence, however, contradicts these beliefs. studies conducted in hardware stores that staffed the store with over 50’s have proven to be more productive than “younger” stores. these studies have also shown that age and job performance is unrelated. this finding seems to be true for both professional and nonprofessional jobs. the conclusion was that the nat ural requirements of the job are not extreme enough for any decline in physical skills due to age, to have an impact on productivity. the last concern to deal with, focuses on the relation between age and satisfaction. here, the evidence is mixed. most studies show a positive association between age and satisfaction, at least up to 60 years. other studies, however, have found a u-shaped curve. mcevoy and cascio (1989) found that with professionals, satisfaction tends to continuously increase, whereas it falls with non-professionals. in the south-african context, as in many other parts of the world, there is also another influence to consider and that is the impact of the hiv/aids pandemic. the us census bureau (2002) projected south africa’s population pyramid in different age categories up to the year 2050. according to this projection by the us census bureau (2002), there will be a dramatic decrease in the younger population categories, especially in the economic active population, as well as the infant and younger age categories. conversely, the older age categories showed a steady increase. assuming that these projections are correct, it will mean that companies might be forced to revert to “older” employees to source employment from. there simply will not be enough younger people to employ. this will also mean that legislators might have to revisit statutory retirement age legislation. south africa might soon find itself in the situation, where companies cannot afford to let older employees go on retirement. if allowed to do so, while there is no steady inflow of skills into the company, they might find themselves in a “skills drain” situation. given these projections, as well as what is happening in the rest of the world, that it is quite clear that employment equity is becoming more of a strategic issue than what most want to give it credit. it is therefore crucial that one understands employment equity in totality, but also the different domains underpinning it. walbrugh, roodt30 figure 1: projected population growth for south africa the next section deals with a conceptual framework for an employment equity strategy, specifically focusing on the different domains making up the conceptual model. conceptual framework for an employment equity (ee) strategy human (2001) argued that many organisations have simply “tacked” initiatives such as management of diversity and employment equity onto a human resources function which, in many cases, is not supporting the main business agenda of the organisation. according to human, the challenge for companies is: � to align the hr strategy with the business strategy of the company, to create an integrated hr strateg y that incorporates employment equity, skills development, and labour relations. � to clearly define the roles and responsibilities with respect to these issues and performance management and monitoring processes relating thereto. � to put in place practical processes while responsibilities need to be assigned at departmental level, for only this way can real progress be achieved. components of an integrated employment equity framework/strategy given the points made above, business strateg y of any organisation pre-determines the broader hr strategy, and hence, what is possible in terms of employment equity and education and training. human’s (2000) experience in other companies and countries suggest that employment equity initiatives and human resources strategies need to be integrated for optimal results. adding to this, as many of the activities take place in a line function, line management also has to be held accountable for them. in many cases this responsibility is relegated to hr or transformation sections, and this practice is unsound. these service departments provide line with advice and should be competent to do so. they also play a key role in the setting of policies, procedures, integration, monitoring and evaluation. the following is a schematic diagram of the human (2000) model. figure 2: a conceptual framework for an integrated employment equity strategy the following are critical success factors/domains that are regarded as pre-requisites for effective and integrated ee, training and education/human resources strategy. strategic alignment where possible, ee should be identified as a key strategic issue and is managed in the same way as other strategic goals. the ceo also understands ee and its potential advantages and is age group response to employment equity 31 committed to its implementation and monitoring. for ee to be successful, it is crucial that all levels understand and is committed and understands its relevance to the organisation. line managers should have specific measurable ee objectives as part of their performance contracts. likewise, nonperformance should have sanction of rewards. employees through out the organisation are regularly consulted about ee; communication on the ee strategy is effective and there is a clear understanding of the strateg y and roles and responsibilities of all role players. staffing and people management in this domain, workforce, succession and individual career plans should be in place while numerical goals (race, gender, age, disability targets) are set and stringently monitored. reasonable accommodation is made to accommodate people with disabilities and recruitment, selection and promotion policies are fair. the fallacy that ee equals the lowering of standards should be countered through motivation and productivity improvement measures. managers should also have the commitment and skills to develop their subordinates and become competent in managing diversity. employees on the other hand must have clear job objectives and performance standards, and receive honest feedback on a frequent basis. managing diversity a basis for an effective people management culture is a belief in the basic equality and dignity of all people, as people, irrespective of position, race, gender, physical and mental ability, wealth, sexual orientation and age. some schools of thought believe that age can be used to discriminate fairly. the above understanding should be underpinned by a respect for individuals and understand the negative effects of stereotyping. there should also be the belief that all people, provided that they are managed and developed correctly, have a great deal to offer the company. such beliefs would inevitable lead to people being matched to jobs based on required criteria, rather than stereotypes. in addition, there should be an understanding of how people express their different cultural and religious beliefs, and these should be accommodated as far as possible. these differences in ethnic culture, eating habits, dress, religion, levels of physical ability, etc. would be seen as enriching. the varied backgrounds (not varied in performance) create the context in which new customers, suppliers and other stakeholders can be discovered. human (2000) also found that where managers steer away from stereotyping towards assessing of people on job-related criteria, genuine employment equity could take place. these managers begin to take personal responsibility for effective interaction with employees and create a dignified and respectful environment where employees are treated as individuals. they further provide positive, constructive feedback based on job performance rather than “writing people off”. these managers also identif y training needs in consultation with employees and they are based on development needs. agreed career plans are based on strengths and development areas and they are used to motivate and retain individuals. such managers interact socially with all groups, while designated group members have the same responsibilities and accountabilities as white colleagues. policies and procedures do not discriminate against designated employees while the same benefits apply to all employees. commercial equity/contracting the objective with commercial equit y/contracting is to contribute to the development of a stable socio-economic environment by supporting the growth and development of smme’s (small medium and micro enterprises). these entrepreneurs from designated backgrounds are placed in long lasting, profitable and sustainable commercial relationships with the company. the organisation also assists with the development of female and black-owned business and where possible, the product/services needed are purchased from black empowered businesses. role of human resources in employment equity the human resources department normally has a high level of credibility and is actively and positively committed to ee issues. they also play a key role in the development of policies, procedures, co-ordination, integration, support, monitoring and evaluation of ee initiatives. purpose of this study as noted earlier in this article, all indications are that with regard to employment equity, and more specifically age discrimination, south africa should avoid moving in the same direction as other overseas countries. the primary aim of this study was to determine whether response differences among different age categories exist on employment equity practices of respondents from different companies. the secondary objective of the study was to determine the internal consistency of the employment equity questionnaire that was used. method methodological design the methodological design followed in this study can be broadly categorized as empirical and quantitative in nature. the data for the current study can be typed as secondary because it was obtained from the developers of the employment equity questionnaire and not generated by the researchers themselves. the approach followed in the study can be described as retrospective or ex post facto research. participants a total of nine south african companies completed the employment equity questionnaire, and they included employees (% in parentheses) from companies from the electronic media (32,8%), banking (41,6%), vehicle manufacturing (3,5%), retail (1,5%), chemical (1,1%), information technology (16,6%) and tertiary education (2,8%) sectors. in reference to table 1, a total of 4729 respondents participated, constituting the sample of convenience. with regards to the age categories, the sample was divided into seven categories. the 24 years and younger category constituted 14,1%, the 25 to 30 years category 19,0%, the 31 to 35 years category 13,7%, the 36 to 40 years category 14,4%, the 41 to 45 years category 15,3%. the 46 to 50 years category 10.9%, and the 51 years and older category constituted 11,5% of the sample. a total of 84 responses was missing and constituted 1,1% of the sample. in terms of racial distribution, the sample was well represented. a total of 23,3% was black, 7,2% were coloured, 2,6% were indian/asian and 36,2% were white. a total of 30,7% did not respond on this category. all south africa’s official language groups were represented in the sample. afrikaans was the most predominant language group with 51,8% representation, while english had 20,2% representation. other languages represented were ndebele (0,9%), northern sotho (4,1%), southern sotho (2,3%), swazi (0,7%), tsonga (2,4%), tswana (9,2%), venda (0,7%), zulu (3,8%), and other languages represented 0,6% of the population. a total of 3,2% responses were missing from the sample. walbrugh, roodt32 tabble 1 biographical data of the sample frequency % company distribution valid electronic media 1549 32,8 banking 1055 22,3 banking 914 19,3 vehicle manufacturing 166 3,5 retail 70 1,5 chemical 52 1,1 information technology 526 11,1 education 138 2,8 information technology 258 5,5 total 4728 missing system 1 total 4729 100 age distribution valid 24 years and younger 665 14,1 25 to 30 years 699 19,0 31 to 35 years 649 13,7 36 to 40 years 680 14,4 41 to 45 years 724 15,3 46 to 50 years 614 10,9 51 years and older 644 11,5 total 4675 98,9 missing system 84 1,1 total 4729 100 race distribution valid black 1100 23,3 coloured 341 7,2 indian/asian 125 2,6 white 1713 36,2 total 3279 69,3 missing system 1450 30,7 total 4729 100 language distribution valid afrikaans 2451 51,8 english 957 20,2 ndebele 41 0,9 north sotho 195 4,1 south sotho 110 2,3 swezi 33 0,7 tsongo 115 2,4 tswana 435 9,2 venda 32 0,7 zulu 161 3,8 other 30 0,6 total 4580 96,8 missing system 149 3,2 total 4729 100 gender distribution valid male 2296 48.5 female 2349 49.7 total 4645 98.2 missing system 84 1.8 total 4729 100 with regards to gender distribution, 48,5% were male, while 49,7% were female. a total of 1,8% of the responses were missing. measuring instrument martins (1999) developed the employment equity questionnaire. it consisted of 146 questions and is divided into 4 sections/domains. section 1,2 and 3 required information on the employment equity process. section 4 consists of a couple of questions on biographical information, such as age and qualifications. compared to the conceptual framework (figure 1), sections 1, 2 and 3 deal with diversit y management, monitoring and communication, contracting, staffing and people management, skills development, role of human resources, targets, audit processes, and performance management. only 41 items common to all nine companies participating in the survey were used in the current study. participants were asked to mark their responses to the questions with a cross (x) on a rating scale. the scale consisted of four categories, and they are: 1 = strongly disagree 2 = disagree 3 = agree 4 = strongly agree the respondents’ ratings were determined by the measure they either agreed or disagreed with the statement made in each question. in addition, they were asked to mark all the questions and only to choose one answer per question. the following are some examples of the sample items used in the employment equity questionnaire (1999): item 33. i think in (name of company) recruitment takes place without unfair discrimination in terms of race, gender, religion, disability, age, etc. item 38. an effort is made by management to convey information to me in such a way that i understand it. item 94. in my department employees are encouraged to use/develop their own skills/abilities and to improve them further. procedure martins (1999) approached the participating companies to conduct the survey in participation with a company called organisational diagnostics (1999). the participants inside the companies were selected on a voluntary basis. participants were briefed by a facilitator and asked to complete the questionnaire. participants were assured that the information was going to be treated as confidential, and that the questionnaire was going to be filled in anonymously. participants were also assisted by facilitators when questions had to be translated into their own languages. they were asked to complete the hard copy questionnaire as honestly as possible and each question had reference to the employment equity process. the data collected by martins was put in secondary format to the avail of the researchers for the purposes of this study. results the statistical analysis of the data was conducted in two phases, i.e. a factor analytical phase and an inferential statistical analysis phase. the following is a more detailed description of the analyses that were conducted. first phase of the data analysis the factor analyses were conducted on two levels. in the first level analysis, the 41 items of the questionnaire were intercorrelated. the suitability of the inter-correlation matrix for factor analysis was tested by means of a kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy and the bartlett’s test for sphericity. these results are presented in table 2. the obtained values indicate that the matrix is suitable for factor analysis. age group response to employment equity 33 table 2 kmo and bartlett’s test: first level factorisation kmo and bartlett’s test kmo measure of sample adequacy 0,976 bartlett’s test of sphericity approx. chi-square 100624,4 df 820 sig. 0,000 the eigenvalues of the unreduced item inter-correlation matrix were then calculated and are depicted in table 3. table 3 eigenvalues of the unreduced item inter-correlation matrix initial eigenvalues root eigenvalues % of variance cumulative % 1 16,125 39,329 39,329 2 2,145 5,232 44,561 3 1,485 3,623 48,184 4 1,162 2,809 50,993 5 1,133 2,763 53,766 6 0,994 2,425 56,181 7 0,916 2,234 58,415 8 0,902 2,199 60,613 9 0,827 2,018 62,632 10 0,819 1,997 64,829 11 0,783 1,910 66,539 12 0,706 1,723 68,262 13 0,697 1,701 69,963 14 0,667 1,626 71,591 15 0,636 1,551 73,142 16 0,627 1,529 74,671 17 0,591 1,442 76,113 18 0,585 1,428 77,541 19 0,551 1,344 78,884 20 0,549 1,340 80,225 21 0,539 1,316 81,540 22 0,487 1,189 82,729 23 0,476 1,161 83,890 24 0,461 1,125 85,015 25 0,452 1,101 86,117 26 0,447 1,091 87,208 27 0,435 1,061 88,269 28 0,417 1,016 89,285 29 0,411 1,002 90,287 30 0,402 0,980 91,267 31 0,393 0,958 92,225 32 0,378 0,922 93,147 33 0,372 0,907 94,053 34 0,363 0,885 94,938 35 0,339 0,826 95,764 36 0,337 0,821 96,585 37 0,318 0,775 97,360 38 0,304 0,742 98,102 39 0,276 0,673 98,775 40 0,265 0,646 99,421 41 0,237 0,579 100,000 trace 41,00 the next step was to postulate the number of factors. according to kaiser’s (1961) criterion (eigenvalues larger than unity), five factors were postulated as depicted in table 3. table 4 sorted and rotated factor matrix of the first level factor analysis factor item 1 2 3 4 5 4 0,715 30 0,663 26 0,652 29 0,646 35 0,615 0,342 14 0,614 10 0,602 33 0,597 36 0,695 0,310 16 0,688 0,335 25 0,640 0,360 31 0,639 0,404 7 0,481 0,368 13 0,465 0,335 0,351 18 0,445 0,359 0,323 6 0,443 0,414 0,338 38 0,405 0,367 20 0,399 0,371 28 0,350 3 0,632 11 0,492 0,623 19 0,429 0,609 21 0,330 0,600 5 0,552 41 0,488 0,495 0,354 8 0,448 0,479 23 0,352 4 0,331 37 0,333 0,646 27 0,399 0,522 32 0,392 0,380 0,499 24 0,384 0,485 1 0,631 12 0,511 34 0,412 2 0,399 39 0,307 0,358 40 0,345 17 0,288 15 0,335 0,697 22 0,607 these five postulated factors explained 54% of the variance in the factor space. the sorted and rotated factor matrix appears in table 4, indicating item-loadings on the five postulated factors. sub-scores on these five factors were calculated and intercorrelated as shown in table 5. table 5 inter-correlation of sub-scores (ss) ss 1 ss 2 ss 3 ss 4 ss 5 sub-score 1 1 0,812 0,783 0,564 0,381 sub-score 2 0,812 1 0,707 0,522 0,326 sub-score 3 0,783 0,707 1 0,471 0,329 sub-score 4 0,564 0,522 0,471 1 0,473 sub-score 5 0,381 0,326 0,329 0,473 all correlations are significant at the 0,01 level (2-tailed) walbrugh, roodt34 this inter-correlation matrix of sub-scores was also tested for its suitability for factor analysis. a kmo measure of sampling adequacy and bartlett’s test for sphericity yielded acceptable results as can be inferred from table 6. table 6 kmo and bartlett’s test: second level factorisation kmo and bartlett’s test kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy 0,813 bartlett’s test of sphericity approx. chi-square 12985,91 df 10 sig. 0,000 eigenvalues were calculated on this inter-correlation matrix. only one factor was postulated according to kaiser’s (1961) criterion. this factor explained 64% variance in the factor space as shown in table 7. table 7 eigenvalues on the unreduced inter-correlation matrix of subscores root eigenvalues % of variance cumulative % 1 3,202 64,048 64,048 2 0,858 17,162 81,210 3 0,483 9,662 90,871 4 0,290 5,803 96,674 5 0,166 3,326 100,0 trace = 5 table 8 depicts the loadings of subscores on the single postulated factor. all loadings were higher than 0,450. table 8 sub-score loadings on postulated single factor subscores factor 1 h²j 1 0,934 0,872 2 0,847 0,717 3 0,808 0,653 4 0,639 0,408 5 0,453 0,205 in table 9, the results of a reliability analysis are reflected in terms of item means, item variances, item-test correlations and item reliabilities. a coefficient of alpha of 0,96 was obtained for the scale. this indicates that the employment equit y questionnaire is highly reliable to measure ee practices, thus satisf ying the secondary objective of the study. table 9 reliability analysis on employment equity questionnaire item scale mean scale variance corrected item alpha of total correlation item deleted q6 110,6900 389,2829 0,4414 0,9591 q84 110,4181 393,0069 0,3233 9,9597 q12 110,4379 383,1696 0,6517 0,9580 q11 110,4726 387,7620 0,5353 0,9586 q4 110,2068 383,7499 0,6274 0,9581 q1 110,4441 380,5236 0,6648 0,9579 q7 110,7951 379,4629 0,6817 0,9578 q8 110,6786 382,7871 0,6068 0,9582 q10 110,7568 378,8258 0,7497 0,9574 q14 110,4944 380,7458 0,7164 0,9576 q15 110,0340 380,5041 0,6419 0,9580 q16 110,3698 392,2581 0,4280 0,9591 q17 110,7720 379,8660 0,6734 0,9578 q19 110,7111 379,4648 0,7136 0,9576 q20 110,0406 394,9345 0,2957 0,9597 q26 110,6481 380,0788 0,7050 0,9577 q27 110,2502 394,1369 0,3177 0,9597 q30 110,4836 383,3318 0,6800 0,9579 q32 1105094 384,9957 0,6369 0,9581 q34 110,4864 384,4673 0,6642 0,9580 q37 110,4699 384,0351 0,6298 0,9581 q38 110,5227 392,7690 0,3399 0,9596 q76 110,5991 384,5638 0,5970 0,9583 q41 110,3075 390,5319 0,4584 0,9590 q45 110,6572 381,4296 0,6961 0,9577 q46 110,6164 380,9882 0,7331 0,9576 q94 110,5331 388,8289 0,5050 0,9587 q48 110,5931 383,3632 0,6533 0,9580 q54 110,7583 379,1194 0,7121 0,9576 q55 110,6669 379,9185 0,7328 0,9575 q56 110,5342 382,0708 0,6857 0,9578 q57 110,5580 389,1845 0,4773 0,9589 q58 110,7585 379,9451 0,7101 0,9576 q59 110,2692 392,0889 0,4150 0,9592 q60 110,5743 380,0347 0,7158 0,9576 q63 110,6746 380,9480 0,7117 0,9577 q65 110,0459 385,7938 0,5097 0,9588 q71 110,4974 381,7204 0,6684 0,9579 q81 110,3605 393,7319 0,3895 0,9592 q82 110,3866 393,2600 0,3951 0,9592 q9 110,6976 383,7766 0,6120 0,9592 alpha = 0,96 on face value, the employment equity questionnaire showed validity. by examining the items closer, however, despite the alpha coefficient of 0,96, it was found that some of the 41 items were not clear in their focus or addressed multiple issues. this aspect will be discussed in more detail under ‘discussion’. second phase of the data analyses the main objective of the study was to determine whether there were response differences between the various age categories with respect to employment equity practices. the mean employment equity scores for different age categories are presented in table 10. from this table, it is clear that there are observable differences in mean employment equity scores. age group response to employment equity 35 the equalit y of error variances for the different mean scores was calculated with a levene’s test (see table 11). the results indicate that the error variances are not equal and that the dunnett post hoc tests should therefore be interpreted. table 10 mean employment equity scores per age category age category mean standard deviation n 24 years and younger 2,9302 0,38142 665 25-30 years 2,8912 0,38360 899 31-35 years 2,8629 0,40559 649 36-40 years 2,7623 0,50052 680 41-45 years 2,6653 0,50469 724 46-50 years 2,7497 0,49638 514 51 years and older 2,8687 0,44360 544 total 2,8195 0,45343 4675 table 11 levene’s test of equality of error variance f df1 df2 sig. 20,684 6 4668 0,000 tests the null hypothesis that the error variance of the dependent variable is equal across groups. an anova was conducted to test for the significance of different mean scores in different age categories. the results of the anova indicate that significant differences were found between mean employment equity scores for different age groups (see table 12). in order to eliminate the effect of unequal or large sample sizes the range was squared which yielded a partial eta squared of 0,04. this indicates that only 4% of the variance in response differences could be ascribed to differences in employment equity practices. this is of low practical significance. table 12 anova – comparison of employment equity scores for age categories source type 111 sum df mean squares f-ratio p(f) of squares corrected model 38,111 6 6,352 32,129 0,000 intercept 36033,259 1 36033,259 182266,1 0,000 age 38,111 6 6,352 32,129 0,000 error 922,844 4668 0,198 total 38123,990 4675 corrected total 960,955 4674 r squared = 0,04 (adjusted r squared = 0,038) to determine how each age category differed in response as compared to the rest of the age categories, multiple post hoc comparisons were conducted, using the dunnett post hoc test. significant differences in scores between different age categories are evident from table 13. the following section provides a discussion of these findings. table 13 dunnett t3 post hoc test – dependent variable: factor 1 (i) age (j) age mean standard significance difference 24 years and younger 25-30 years 0,0389 0,01956 0,633 31-35 years 0,0673* 0,02173 0,041 36-40 years 0,1779* 0,02423 0,000 41-45 years 0,2649* 0,02389 0,000 46-50 years 0,1806* 0,02642 0,000 51 years and 0,0614 0,02409 0,208 older 25 – 30 years 24 years and -0,0389 0,01956 0,633 younger 31-35 years 0,0283 0,02042 0,977 36-40 years 0,1390* 0,02307 0,000 41-45 years 0,2260* 0,02270 0,000 46-50 years 0,1416* 0,02536 0,000 51 years and 0,0225 0,02292 1,000 older 31 – 35 years 24 years and -0,0673* 0,02173 0,041 younger 25–30 years -0,0283 0,02042 0,977 36-40 years 0,1106* 0,02494 0,000 41-45 years 0,1976* 0,02460 0,000 46-50 years 0,1132* 0,02707 0,001 51 years and -0,0058 0,02480 1,000 older 36 – 40 years 24 years and -0,1779* 0,02423 0,000 younger 25-30 years -0,1390* 0,02307 0,000 31-35 years -0,1106* 0,02494 0,000 41-45 years 0,0870* 0,02684 0,025 46-50 years 0,0260 0,02912 1,000 51 years and -0,1165* 0,02702 0,000 older 41 – 45 years 24 years and -0,6490* 0,02389 0,000 younger 25–30 years -0,2260* 0,02270 0,000 31-35 years -0,1976* 0,02460 0,000 36-40 years -0,0870* 0,02684 0,025 46-50 years -0,0844 0,02883 0,071 51 years and -0,2035* 0,02671 0,000 older 46 – 50 years 24 years and -0,1805* 0,02642 0,000 younger 25–30 years -0,1416* 0,02536 0,000 31-35 years -0,1132* 0,02707 0,001 36-40 years -0,0026 0,02912 1,000 41 – 45 years 0,0844 0,02883 0,071 51 years and older-0,1191* 0,02900 0,001 51 years and older 24 years and younger-0,0614 0,02409 0,206 25–30 years -0,0225 0,02292 1,000 31-35 years 0,0058 0,02480 1,000 36-40 years 0,1165* 0,02702 0,000 41 – 45 years 0,2035* 0,02671 0,000 46-50 years 0,1191* 0,02900 0,001 *significant on < 0,05 level walbrugh, roodt36 discussion the data were generated by a sample of convenience constituted from voluntary respondents working in different organisations. the findings of this study can therefore only be generalised to the respondents of participating companies of this study and not to any other company or industry outside the current sampling frame. a reliability analysis was conducted on single scale obtained from the second level factor analysis by calculating item means, item variance, item-test correlations and item reliabilities. a coefficient alpha of 0,96 was obtained for the scale. this provides evidence that the employment equity questionnaire is highly reliable to measure ee practices, thus satisf ying the secondary objective of the study. in terms of the primary objective of the study, to determine if differences in responses on employment equity practices between different age categories do exist, a series of statistical procedures were conducted. the test results of the anova indicated that overall significant differences in the responses of the various age categories do exist, but that only 4% of the variance in mean difference scores could be attributed to differences in employment equity practices. this small portion of variance is practically insignificant. the discriminant validity of the questionnaire (consisting of only 41 items of a pool of 146 items) in this respect can thus be questioned. the following differences between age groups were identified by using post hoc contrast tests: it was found that the 24 years and younger category is more positive towards employment equity practices than the age groups between 31-50 years, excluding the group older than 51 years where there is no significant difference with the contrast group. the four age groups between 31 and 50 years were more negatively inclined. this could possibly be ascribed to young and energetic entrants into the labour market. the era of employment equity also brought with it more opportunities and career options to choose from. the global nature of job opportunities is also attractive to career entrants who are still mobile and mostly without family ties. this finding ties in with schein’s (1978) view on the early career stage and the accompanying developmental tasks of career establishment and achievement (schreuder & theron, 2001). likewise the 25-30 years category feels significantly more positive on employment equit y practices than the three 3650 year groups, excluding the group older than 51 years where there is again no significant difference. these three ment ioned groups responded more negat ively on employment equit y practices. the group of 31-35 years responded significantly more positive on employment equity than the three groups between 36-50 years, excluding the group older than 51 years where there was no difference. the three mentioned groups responded more negatively on employment equity practices. this could possibly be ascribed to the fact that people want to settle down in careers after the age of 35 years, people start getting married and want to have children. the negativity of this group can be explained from the perspective of the mid-career stage, where people are often also facing the mid-life crisis and other existence related issues (schreuder & theron, 2001). ee practices are therefore perceived as extremely negative and as thwarting career expectations. the differences in responses could also be as a result that competition for jobs are fiercer as more racial groups “contend” for positions and promotions. this is also the age when people start moving into higher income brackets and people not in favour of employment equity could perceive this as a threat. they could feel that the same equal opportunities are not available to “their children” or to themselves. this negative attitude could also be ascribed to the fact that these employees feel exploited and resisting the change. typically one would expect people in this category to coach and mentor young employees. the negativity could be a result of an unwillingness to share their experiences and transfer of knowledge. the negativity could also be as a result of the blatant or subtle discrimination as stated by goldberg (2000) where older employees often feel disillusioned if they are discriminated against. the age group between 36-40 years responded significantly more positive than the category between 41-45 years and more negatively than the one category older than 51 years and the three categories younger than 35 years. this could be due to the fact that for the 41-45 year group, it is easier to identif y with the older categories. suddenly, talks of “early retirement” are not so far-fetched anymore. employees in this category also see themselves as “being there” very soon. typically people in this category could “look down upon” the younger generation. those who are more negative about employment equity, could see the youngsters “getting the opportunities we never had”. because the younger generation is perceived to have more energy and ambition, they could also be perceived as a threat. this group may also feel that they are being pushed out. overall, it appears as if the younger groups (<35) feel progressively more positive about employment equit y practices than the older group (35-50), excluding the age group older than 51 years who feels more positive again about employment equity. the 51 and older category shows a significantly positive attitude. it might be that they do not feel threatened by younger employees anymore. it could also be that they know that statutory they have to retire and their focus lies there. also at this age, traditionally, people have made their mark in life and become less ambitious or adopt a more balanced life style (schreuder & theron, 2001). another assumption could be that as mcgregor (2000) stated, that the people are not aware that they are not aware that they are discriminated against, thus leaving high incidents of discrimination under-reported. this study did not focus on exactly which areas of human’s (2000) conceptual model the differences in responses lie. assuming that the population growth predictions (figure 1) are correct, south africa is soon going to find itself in deep trouble with regards to availability of skilled labour in the younger age categories. apart from possible skills-exits to other countries, the impact of hiv/aids might contribute to this. in relation to the human (2000) model (figure 2), companies will have to change their policies and procedures to accommodate older employees. they should work with government to also revisit the concept of statutory retirement age of 65 years for men and 60 years for women. this is consistent with findings of goldberg (2000) who stated that shortages will exist in employment of older age categories. according to the predictions, the younger categories are going to become less, thus forcing older categories to stay in employment longer. as it is happening currently in the world arena, it might also be worthwhile to consider forging a proactive partnership with government to formulate legislation to ensure that existing legislation against age discrimination is enforced, as was the case with the age discrimination act of 1067 (29 u.s.c. 621 et seq.) in the united states, and the human rights act 1998 (commencement no. 2) order 2000. implications for managers from a management of diversity perspective, people have to be trained and consulted, and employment equity strategies should be communicated effectively. companies will also have to revisit their benefit structures. as stated by thomas (1992) affirmative action initiatives can be deployed to address people’s needs in a holistic manner. people’s needs, like medical cover, pension benefits, etc., change, as they grow age group response to employment equity 37 older and should be addressed. companies could therefore consider more flexible work practices on how conditions of employment are applied. virtual offices might be considered as this will ensure older people can work from home and do not have to face fears of accidents, of being mugged, or of extensive travelling. as per the human (2000) model, companies also need to ensure that ee is addressed in a systematic fashion and that results are measured in a performance management format. many older people can still feel they “have what it takes” to deliver outputs. targets could also be considered for age distribution, as is the case with race and gender currently and trends in age patterns should be monitored. the aged might become a scarce resource. organisations should also take into consideration the career stage of those people affected by ee practices. companies should not shy away from their post-employment responsibilities in terms of further training and development, entrepreneurship opportunities or even job creation. companies can also invest in the younger age categories to “keep them alive”. the drastic drop in younger categories as predicted in figure 1 could be as a result of hiv/aids and preventative initiatives should be run in conjunction with schools and tertiary institutions. time and money should also be invested in training and education of aids counselors and peer educators to “educate” the younger generations. inside these companies, the human resources departments need to play a more prominent role in managing diversit y programs, the setting of creative policies and procedures. they should also run initiatives of change management, especially to change perceptions of older people. the roles of older employees can also change to a more coaching/mentoring role. this will become their job to train younger employees and to transfer years of experience and knowledge. in closure, even though south africa is tailing the western world in employment equity practices, sa is flowing down that same stream, and will be facing the same challenges. why not learn from others’ mistakes so that sa can go through the learning curve quicker? politicians and policy makers need to change their mind-sets by revisiting the constitution and other relevant legislation and start to take charge of age related issues in employment equity. recommendations for future research the questionnaire (the 41 items used in this research) itself can be reviewed to make it even more valid and reliable. the grouping of the questions can also be considered to more clearly address the domains of the conceptual model used. an area where the instrument can be improved is the composition of the items used. some of the items were described vaguely, for example, question 26 states that “the company cares for it’s employees” and question 41 states that “my co-workers and i talk openly with one another”. it was not quite clear how these questions relate to employment equity. talking openly does not indicate that the company is actually practicing sound employment equity. it was also found that some of the questions were “double barrelled”. question 6 for example, states that: “i think all our employees display a good image in their contact with the public, their relationship with their colleagues and their general behaviour at work.” this question could measure three different items, i.e. good image with customers, employees’ relationships with colleagues, and, employees’ behaviour at work. another example is found in question 45 where it states that “i am happy with the amount of time, money and energy the company is spending on employee development”. once again, if the rater crossed a score 4, does this mean that he/she agrees with the amount of money spent on every employee, the amount of time spent, or the amount of energy spent. the question would automatically arise: how does one measure the amount of energy spent? instead of leaving an item open to interpretation, it can be constructed in such a way that every item only measures one aspect of employment equity. addressing these aspects may improve the discriminant validity of the questionnaire. it must however be noted that these recommendations only focus on the 41 items used for this study and cannot be generalized to the remaining 105 items of the questionnaire. in future, companies also have to determine which aspects of employment equity contribute to most significant differences and focus their strategies on those areas. as can be seen from the findings in this article, companies will have to be more creative on how they contract and apply conditions of employment to older employees. a study can be conducted on what benefits should be reviewed and how. policies and procedures could also be addressed as part of this research. the actual impact of hiv/aids on younger age categories can be researched and how the impact of the pandemic can be countered with more effective human resource strategies. acknowledgement the authors are indebted to prof nico martins of organisational diagnostics for providing the data set for conducting this research. the 41-item eeq used in this research was abstracted from a larger item pool collected across various organisations and does not constitute the original employment equity audit of prof martins. data collected from each organisation by means of the survey was supplemented by qualitive methods. the authors would like to thank riëtte eiselen and her staff from statcon at r au for their professional service and valuable contribution regarding the data analysis for this project. references deloitte & touche (2001). employment equity, fsa surveys. department of labour (2000). employment equity report, director of the department of labour, submitted to national government. gerdes, l.c., moore, c., ochse, r. & van ede, d. (1988). the developing adult. durban: butterworths. goldberg, b. (2002). age works: what corporate america must do to sur vive the ageing of the workforce, new york: the free press. human, l., bluen, s. & davies, r. (1999). baking a new cake – how to succeed at employment equity, johannesburg: knowledge resources. human, l. (2000), a conceptual framework for an integrated ee/hr/skills strategy. presentation made to the de beers hr stratman in june 2002. human@mweb.co.za. human, l. (2001). cost or catalyst? some comments on the business case and conditions for effective employment equity. south african mercantile law journal, pp. 1-33. human, l. (2002). a conceptual framework for an integrated ee/hr/skills strategy. leedy, p. d. (1996). practical research, new york: macmillan publishing company. loden, m. (1996). implementing diversity, boston: mcgraw-hill, boston. martins, n. (1999). questionnaire on employment equity. in association with ernest & young. unpublished document. walbrugh, roodt38 mcevoy, g. m. & cascio, w. f. (1989). cumulative evidence of the relationship bet ween employee age and job performance, journal of applied psychology. february, 1989 mcgregor, j., (2000). discrimination against older workers – significant and under-reported, new zealand, massey news publications. noe, r. a. & hollenbeck, j. r. (2000). human resource management, boston: mcgraw-hill. organisational diagnostics (1999). employment equity questionnaire. unpublished document. policy statement (2002). help the aged. a london based organisation. jenny.havis@helptheaged.org.uk. republic of south africa (1997) the basic conditions of employment act, act 75 of 1997, government gazette no. 18491, 5 december 1997. republic of south africa (1998) the employment equity act, act 55 of 1998, government gazette no. 19370, 19 october 1998. republic of south africa (1998), the skills development act, act 97 of 1998, government gazette no 19420, 2 november 1998. republic of south africa (1999),the constitution of south africa, act 108 of 1996, government gazette no. 19862, 19 march 1999. republic of south africa (2002), the labour relations act as amended, act 66 of 1995, government gazette no. 23540, 24 june 2002 robbins, s. p. (2001). organisational behaviour, new jersey: prentice-hall. schein, e. (1978). career dynamics: matching individual and organisational needs. reading, ma.: addison wesley. schreuder, a.m.g. & theron, a.l. (2001). careers: an organisational perspective. landsdowne: juta. the policy book (2002). the american association for retired persons. the british government, the human rights act of 1998, commencement no 2, order october, 2000 the united states code, the age discrimination in employment act, act of 1967, pub. l.90 – 202. thomas, w. (1992). affirmative action as a development tool in the sa business interface, cape town chamber of commerce, august, 12. thomas, a. & robertshaw, d. (1999). achieving employment equity, johannesburg: knowledge resources. us census bureau (2002). http://www.census.gov republic of south africa (1994). white paper on reconstruction and development. notice no. 1954 of 1994, government gazette no. 16085, 15 november 1994. woolnough r. (2000). age-old problem, computer weekly, march 16. age group response to employment equity 39 reviewer acknowledgement open accesshttp://www.sajhrm.co.za page 1 of 1 sa journal of human resource management recognises the value and importance of the peer reviewer in the overall publication process – not only in shaping the individual manuscript, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank all reviewers who participated in shaping this volume of sa journal of human resource management: a. esmeray yogun adele bezuidenhout aleksandra m. furtak amanda werner ameeta jaga andre de la harpe annelize van niekerk bridget de villiers bright mahembe carin hill cecilia schultz charles gilbert christine janse van rensburg claude-helene mayer coen j. geldenhuys cookie m. govender crystal hoole desere kokt devaguptapu n. venkatesh dominique e. uwizeyimana eileen koekemoer elizabeth c. rudolph elrie botha eugene hontiveros farzaneh bayat felicity asiedu-appiah frances de klerk friederike baasner-weihs gerhard bezuidenhout golda crisostomo hardus van zyl ingrid potgieter j. (mias) de klerk johann f. burden johanna diedericks khutso manyaka krishna govender liezl diedericks lize a.e. booysen lize van hoek lizelle brink louw botha magda bezuidenhout magdaline borchardt marieta du plessis mark bussin melanie bushney melanie bryant melissa jacobs michelle mey muhammad hoque nadia ferreira nelesh dhanpat nicole m. dodd nirmal k. betchoo olorunjuwon samuel paul k. kariuki paul smit penny m. abbott phokela lugisani pierre a. joubert pieter schaap rene van wyk richard chazuza ronel kleynhans roslyn t. de braine ruth m. albertyn salome van coller-peter sandra perks sanet van der westhuizen shingirayi chamisa sonal agarwal sonia swanepoel sumari o’neil suvera boodhoo tapal dulababu tarek abdeen thapelo chaacha willie t. chinyamurindi wilma coetzer yilmaz akgunduz yvonne t. joubert zukelwa baqo in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for sa journal of human resource management, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on http://www.sajhrm.co.za for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a reviewer. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at http://www. sajhrm.co.za 2. in your ‘user home’ [http://www.sajhrm. co.za/index.php/sajhrm/ user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest. 3. it is good practice as reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to sa journal of human resource management. please do not hesitate to contact us if you require assistance in performing this task. publisher: publishing@aosis.co.za tel: +27 21 975 2602 fax: +27 21 975 4635 we appreciate the time taken to perform your review successfully. acknowledgement to reviewers http://www.sajhrm.co.za http://www.sajhrm.co.za http://www.sajhrm.co.za http://www.sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/user http://www.sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/user http://www.sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/user abstract introduction literature review research design research method data collection data analysis results and findings discussion practical implications limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) jennifer c. nzonzo nwu business school, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, mafikeng campus, mafikeng, south africa yvonne du plessis nwu business school, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, mafikeng campus, mafikeng, south africa citation nzonzo, j.c., & du plessis, y. (2020). critical success factors for integrating talent management strategies with wellness interventions. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1353. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1353 research project number: 00228 original research critical success factors for integrating talent management strategies with wellness interventions jennifer c. nzonzo, yvonne du plessis received: 02 mar. 2020; accepted: 28 july 2020; published: 28 sept. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the current demands in organisations continue to challenge the need for creative, flexible and responsive talent to ensure customers’ needs are met. this demanding environment puts more emphasis on employee wellness management to ensure talent efficiency and effectiveness. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to determine the critical success factors that influence the adoption and integration of talent management strategies with wellness interventions. motivation of the study: there is limited research on a holistic and integrated approach of how talent management strategies should be effectively integrated with wellness interventions in organisations. research approach/design and method: a qualitative enquiry was adopted where 10 in-depth interviews with human resource professionals within south african organisations were conducted. the transcribed interviews were analysed using the thematic analysis process. main findings: the qualitative results showed that the organisational environment inextricably influenced the adoption and integration of talent management strategies and wellness interventions. in addition, the most critical success factor realised for this study was the establishment of a talent-wellness organisational culture. practical/managerial implications: human resource professionals should have an in-depth understanding of the impact of holistic talent management and wellness strategies in their organisations. contribution/value addition: this study brought to the fore that talent management without aligned wellness interventions will not optimise talent. it also indicated the critical success factors essential for integrating talent management strategies with wellness interventions. keywords: employee wellness; competitive advantage; human resource management; talent management; management strategies. introduction orientation modern-day organisations are facing many managerial challenges as a result of internationalisation and globalisation, which intensify the competition for talent (brouwer, veldkamp, & vroom, 2019; perera & karunarathne, 2019; xing & cheng, 2019). as such, strategies on how to attract and retain employees in an ever-changing business environment are currently the concern of every manager (azma, farahbakhsh, safarzad, & farahnaki, 2019; morgan, 2019; suleman & ogbette, 2019; van zyl, mathafena, & ras, 2017). given the practical management reality of modern-day organisations, managers face the dilemma of integrating talent management strategies with wellness interventions. on the one hand, the uncertainty of the external environment makes it difficult for organisations to predict supply and demand of talent in the external labour market. on the other hand, it is also difficult for organisations to attract and implement wellness interventions, and develop and retain talent (collings, mellahi, & cascio, 2019; dong, 2019). for instance, hoole and bonnema (2015) highlighted that over the past few years focus has shifted towards people-centric practices that emphasise on positive psychology. the focus has been aligned with the need to effectively manage talent by paying more attention to the intellectual skills and capabilities that contribute to health and well-being (moloi & adelowotan, 2019). however, even though there is an abundance of health improvement programmes, there has been limited research on how health programmes can be effectively integrated with talent management initiatives. a common problem encountered in the wellness programmes is the overwhelming amount of information available to employees and issues that have to do with confidentiality. as a result, some health promotion programmes lack accountability and sense of community, and feedback mechanisms are more likely to fail (blackwell et al., 2019). as a result, organisations need creative, flexible and responsive employees to create new ideas and meet customers’ needs (azma et al., 2019; morgan, 2019; suleman & ogbette, 2019; van zyl et al., 2017; xing & cheng, 2019). retention of a positive and motivated employee is very important for an organization’s success. high employee turnover increases the expenses and also has a negative impact on the organization’s morale (battista, 2019; rajenderan & zawawi, 2019). in this article, the literature on talent management and wellness will be explored. thereafter, the research methodology, findings and theoretical and managerial implications are outlined. the last section provides concluding remarks and the agenda for further research. research purpose and objectives the purpose of this study was to determine the critical success factors that influence the adoption and integration of talent management strategies with wellness interventions. the main objectives of this research are (1) to explore the extent to which organisational context influences the adoption and integration of talent management strategies with wellness interventions and (2) to identify the critical success factors that influence the integration of talent management strategies with wellness interventions. literature review the literature regarding the core constructs of talent management and workplace wellness programmes in organisations will be explained along with the holistic integration of talent management and workplace wellness initiatives. talent management although there is no consistent definition of talent management, scholars generally pay attention to exclusiveness and inclusiveness of the talent system that is the performance or potential key positions, internal development and training of talent or the introduction of external labour. xing and cheng (2019) define: [t]alent management as the process of recruiting, identifying, developing, managing and retaining key talents through effective technology and management means, so as to help enterprises and individuals to make the best use of their long-term advantages and provide sustainable talent supply for organisation. (p. 1) from this definition, we can therefore deduce that employees’ motivation is the driving force that energises the employees to excel physically, cognitively and behaviourally in achieving and sustaining organisational objectives with a sense of devotion and purpose. therefore, talent management strategies provide requisite stimulus to employees to demonstrate their best in tangible and intangible abilities with a focus on improving organisational performance (al-hussaini, turi, altamimi, khan, & ahmad, 2019). workplace wellness field and louw (2012, p. 4) define wellness as workplace health promotion activities designed to improve and support healthy behaviour of employees. in addition, hettler (1980) posits that wellness is characterised by four constructs, physical, emotional, psychological and social wellness, which are can be further defined: physical wellness refers to the lifestyle behavioural changes made by employees to ensure good health and live in a balanced state of body, mind and spirit. emotional wellness refers to the ability of individuals to be aware of, understand and accept emotions and their impact on others at work. psychological wellness refers to the state of positive relationships with others, which contribute to personal growth and development. social wellness refers to the state of employees’ relationships, social stability and social harmony. the combined perspective of wellness and health creates a complex view of relationships that are not clearly defined by wellness and health’s current theoretical models. whilst some of the ambiguities can be resolved as terminology and definitions become more precise, other gaps in our knowledge necessitate rigorous construct development and empirical testing for research on wellness (hartley & young, 2019; whitaker, 2019). thus, wellness and well-being are used interchangeably with common constructs being physical, emotional, psychological and social wellness in this article. a holistic integration of talent management and wellness interventions the multi-perspective of talent management is valuable for the development of talent management research, but traditional academic research is rarely integrated or linked in a broader perspective (azma et al., 2019). to strengthen the theoretical basis of talent management, it is necessary to build and integrate human resource management and organisational behaviour theory and practice (brouwer et al., 2019). hence, talent philosophies that capture human resource (hr) managers’ inherent beliefs about the value and instrumentality of talent will influence how they perceive, interpret or adopt talent-centric practices (dong, 2019; meyers, van woerkom, paauwe, & dries, 2019). the interface amongst wellness, well-being, talent and performance depicted in figure 1 identifies two interrelated sets of health and well-being effects on performance. the first effect is on the physical, psychological and behavioural consequences. the second effect is on productivity, absenteeism and profitability (danna & griffin, 1999). finally, talent management interlinks antecedents, health, well-being and performance. thus, an organisation should implement talent management strategies such as attraction, development, deployment and retention in order to improve the health and well-being of employees, which will ultimately have an impact on individual and organisational performance. figure 1: the interface between wellness, talent and performance. positive organisational behaviour studies, for instance, conducted by avey, luthans, smith, and palmer (2010) and bakker and schaufeli (2008), highlight the view that business leaders and employee well-being experts should play the role of stressing the link between positive organisational outcomes and wellness. some employees interpret employee well-being messages in a way that is negative. this negative reaction is attributed to employees feeling that participating in wellness programmes is tantamount to conforming to organisational practices, such as addressing the symptoms of workplace bullying and work overload. as a result, these negative reactions to wellness interventions can impact the primary, secondary and tertiary level wellness interventions as follows: primary level interventions influence the extent to which employees adapt to their environment (rothmann, 2013) secondary level interventions influence the use of cognitive behavioural approaches in improving employee well-being (rothmann, 2013) tertiary interventions influence the psychological well-being (rothmann, 2013). it is also evident that wellness interventions at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels mentioned before not only address negative aspects (such as workplace bullying and work overload), but also result in positive outcomes for employees and the organisation. the use of self-reporting techniques to assess the impact of wellness in organisations is often prone to bias (sieberhagen, pienaar, & els, 2009), which ultimately negatively affects the efforts to integrate talent management strategies with wellness interventions in organisations. therefore, from a critical and practical point of view, hr professionals and wellness specialists should develop an in-depth understanding of the antecedents, processes and performance outcomes that allow the integration of wellness interventions with talent management strategies, as depicted in figure 1. research design research approach a phenomenological approach was adopted to explore the hr professionals’ perceptions about talent management and workplace wellness as well as the critical success factors towards integrating talent management strategies with wellness interventions. phenomenology is a form of qualitative research that seeks a deeper understanding and documents common experiences of individuals on specific matters. the research process is very important as it enables researchers to construct meanings and arrive at more profound understandings (bryman & bell, 2011). research method research participants the population was drawn from hr professionals who are experienced in managing talent and wellness programmes within south african organisations. table 1 sets out the demographic profile of the 10 interviewees who participated in this study. the number of participants chosen for the study is in accordance with the qualitative research guidelines of creswell (1998), mason (2010) and bryman and bell (2011), who recommend that a minimum sample size of five is adequate for phenomenological research; however, the researchers did not only select five participants as they were seeking for data saturation (creswell, 1998). purposive sampling was the primary sampling method utilised. with this technique, participants were grouped according to their hr professional level and sector. the snowballing technique was utilised as the secondary sampling method. this technique enabled participants with whom contact had already been established to refer other participants who met the required criteria and who could potentially participate in or contribute to the study (bryman & bell, 2011). twelve participants voluntarily made themselves available for the initial selection. however, only 10 were interviewed due to the unavailability of the other participants and 10 were sufficient as data saturation started to set in with the eighth participant. in accordance with ethical protocols and guidelines, all the participants’ names were de-identified. table 1: demographic profile of human resource professionals as participants. table 1 provides an overview of the demographic profiles of the 10 interviewees who participated in this study. all participants interviewed had at least a postgraduate degree. years spent working as an hr professional varied from 1 to 10 years and above. the next section sets out the data collection and analysis method and processes adopted. data collection data were collected through semi-structured interviews. an interview protocol was developed to guide the interview process. the protocol was premised on key findings from the literature pertaining to talent management strategies and wellness interventions. the interview protocol comprised three sections. the first section focused on participants’ perceptions and conceptual understanding of ‘employee wellness’ interventions in their organisations. the second section focused on their conceptual understanding of ‘talent management’. the third section focused on their perceptions and experiences regarding the critical success factors for the ‘integration of talent management strategies and wellness interventions’. research procedure prior to the commencement of the study, ethical clearance was obtained from the university. in addition, permission to conduct research was obtained from the south african board for people practices. participation in the research was voluntary. the interview process involved the following five stages and observed ethical research practices at all times: stage 1: invitation to participate in interviews (explanatory statement was included with the formal invitation letter and consent for voluntary participation). stage 2: scheduling of interviews after acceptance of invitation to participate. stage 3: confirmation of the interview time and voluntary consent to participate. stage 4: permission to record interview. stage 5: interview conducted. all interviews were recorded with consent and transcribed by the researcher for data analysis. data analysis thematic analysis, as described by braun and clarke (2014), creswell (1998), eriksson and kovalainen (2015), neuman and robson (2012), saldaña (2015) and wilson (1998), was applied in this study. firstly, the transcripts were read as primary data sources at least three times to acquire a good understanding and insight of the content. this was followed by writing notes (thoughts/ideas/initial impressions). the next stage involved open coding in order to generate initial codes (manifesting data). this was followed by labelling similar codes, for example, emotional health with emotional wellness. the next stage involved axial coding of the data, which involved relating the codes (categories and concepts) to each other. this was followed by grouping categories/chunks (e.g. impact of physical wellness, motivation for development and drivers of talent retention). the last stage involved the formulation of themes and subthemes. ethical consideration ethical clearance was obtained prior to the commencement of the study from north-west university (clearance number nwu-00228-16-a9). results and findings there were three themes and related subthemes, as indicated in figure 2, were identified as a result of the thematic analysis process. figure 2: themes and subthemes identified from data analysis. theme 1: determinants of employee well-being subtheme 1: physical well-being subtheme 2: psychological well-being subtheme 3: emotional well-being subtheme 4: social well-being theme 2: talent management determinants subtheme 1: talent attraction strategies subtheme 2: talent development practices subtheme 3: talent engagement and retention strategies theme 3: talent–wellness critical success factors in table 2, each of the three themes and their related subthemes are indicated and showcased with evidence quotes from the participants. table 2: themes and subthemes with corresponding evidence quotes from participants. theme 1: determinants of wellness in describing the conceptualisation of wellness, most participants highlighted that wellness is the ability of a person or an employee to take care of themselves psychologically, emotionally, spiritually, physically, socially and mentally. some of the excerpts from the interviews include the following comments: ‘employee well-being relates to how the employee feels emotionally, physically, socially, psychologically within their workplace. more importantly, it contributes to social stability in the organisation. however, it is very difficult to determine the level of employee well-being. sometimes employees project a certain face to avoid people around them knowing what they are going through.’ (participant b, male, middle) ‘employee well-being is a holistic process that includes general health, mental health, emotional health, spiritual health and functioning, it needs to be a holistic process that all employees feel they are part and parcel of the organisation.’ (participant g, female, senior) ‘it is not really easy to tell at face value the well-being of an employee … people can put on a mask; you can hear from the grapevine that employees are going through a traumatic experience.’ (participant c, female, junior) subtheme 1: physical well-being most of the participants alluded to the fact that poor physical well-being ultimately affects employee performance. for instance, one participant explained that: ‘healthy and happy employees are committed to the organisation. if employees are not so fit and have health issues and they are constantly off sick because they are in pain that affects the operations of the business.’ (participant h, female, senior) subtheme 2: psychological well-being psychological well-being was considered to be of paramount importance by the participants. most of the participants alluded to the fact that psychological well-being was linked to employees finding meaning in their jobs. thus, participant c (female, junior) highlighted that ‘there is a need for congruency between personal and organisational goals. hr professionals need to find a balance between employee goals and organisational goals.’ subtheme 3: emotional well-being the majority of the participants mentioned the importance of managing emotions in the workplace. as participant a (female , junior) explained, ‘when the emotional well-being is balanced, the output of the work will increase.’ similar sentiments were voiced by highlighting the following: ‘if i am not emotionally connected or passionate about my job, i will not be able to perform to the maximum, hence organisational goals will not be achieved. it is not only evident in facial expression, but it is also evident in tasks that have to be completed.’ (participant c, female, junior) subtheme 4: social well-being the results also revealed that social well-being influences work relationships. participants a, b, d, e, f and i expressed that social well-being also affects relationships outside the workplace. social well-being includes satisfaction with peers as well as satisfaction and exchange relationships with leaders. the analysis also revealed that giving and receiving social support is a predictor of well-being, as one of the participants said: ‘most employees leave jobs because of bad managers. managers should be open and provide constructive feedback. employees need to be properly communicated to as they are the cornerstone of the organisation.’ (participant f, male, senior) likewise, participant h revealed that: … if employees are requested to work beyond their capacity and capability, this may ultimately contribute to the breakdown of work relationships and may impact negatively on the organisation.’ theme 2: determinants of talent and talent management participants revealed that talent is the capability that an employee or a job seeker has that can improve organisational performance. some of the conceptualisations of talent are included in the following excerpts: ‘it is the unique capability that makes one stand out exceptionally from others.’ (participant c, female, junior) ‘it is a natural god-given skill that one has. it is not something that is taught but something that comes easily without being taught.’ (participant d, female, middle) ‘talent is a term that confuses me. it is a term that has always been there as a general term; it is supposed to mean that people are talented. because not everyone is talented, but they can be a risk to the organisation.’ (participant i, male, senior) the subthemes refer to talent management and how it is perceived by the participants. subtheme 1: talent attraction strategies in describing the talent attraction strategies their organisations have adopted, most of the participants indicated that the image portrayed by an organisation to the outside world is very important, as a good compensation package alone may not attract employees effectively. there are certain push and pull factors involved, including looking for work as a push factor and pull factors such as the organisation’s reputation and remuneration. participants a, b, c, d, e, j and i mentioned certain push and pull factors. participant g (female, senior) puts it nicely: ‘… an organisation should be an employer of choice; culture should be talent centric as employees need to be treated as customers … that will definitely attract talent …’ subtheme 2: talent development strategies in explaining talent development practices, the participants described a variety of practices and perspectives, which were mostly to do with strategic alignment issues. these included the organisational climate, training needs, type of job or occupation, motive for development, compulsory or voluntary nature of training, relevance of training, needs analysis and resources. most of the perspectives were based on practical experiences, which are highlighted in some of the interview extracts below: ‘when you train employees, you are giving them more skills or you are empowering them or exposing them to more talent.’ (participant a, female, junior) participant b (male, middle) affirmed participant a’s opinion, that ‘it depends on how you make it compulsory. rather make it voluntary or make it compulsory but, make sure that the employees see the value of the training.’ subtheme 3: talent engagement and retention strategies most of the participants highlighted the importance of engaging and retaining talent and the need for customised retention strategies. the findings reveal that most organisations have financial and non-financial retention strategies in place to deal with this issue. for example, a participant mentioned that: ‘even when employees are well skilled or well trained, the possibility of them leaving an organisation is there. so, in terms of an organisation retaining the talent they have trained, they have to introduce incentives, so that employees are retained.’ (participant a, female, junior) with regard to the notion of whether the same retention strategies should be adopted across the different generations, she explained that it would not be ideal as ‘one needle does not work for everybody to avoid infection’, which implies a customised approach to engaging and retaining staff. in support of engaging and retaining talent, a participant provided an example of an employee who resigned mainly because she did not find meaning in her job. her views were as follows: ‘a young lady in my company actually resigned because she wanted her input to be considered more than having instructions to be handed down. she did not want to be confined in structures and processes; she wanted a flexible workplace.’ (participant h, female, senior) given the important insights brought to the fore by the participants, the results show a special relationship between the workplace wellness subthemes and the talent retention and development subthemes. the results indicate that talent retention and development, and workplace wellness influence each other. employees who are financially satisfied and able to grow and develop in a conducive work environment are bound to be happy and productive and will not necessarily show the intension to quit. theme 3: integrated talent–wellness success factors all participants were aware of the need to optimise the integration of talent and wellness in the organisation. the majority of the participants indicated that wellness was not effectively integrated in the talent management process in their organisations, with only one participant indicating that integration only existed at the higher level in their organisation. however, despite efforts made by their organisations to introduce and manage wellness programmes, most participants stressed that they face challenges regarding the management and implementation of wellness programmes. some of the interview excerpts in this regard are shown below: ‘there are issues of perception on the importance of the wellness programmes, some employees may not be comfortable to do an hiv test in the workplace mainly because of disclosure issues. although the legislation clearly stipulates that privacy has to be respected, some employees may fear that their information may be divulged; this ultimately impacts their commitment to the whole process and how we manage talent.’ (participant e, male, senior) ‘there is a disconnect between talent management practice and employee well-being practice; there is a need for hr and wellness professionals to be actively involved in the talent management process.’ (participant b, male, middle) hence, the integration should not be a major challenge as it is the responsibility of hr professionals to ensure that the integration is optimised. discussion this discussion of results and findings will be based on the two objectives stated earlier. the first part of the discussion will be based on the extent to which organisational context influences the adoption and integration of talent management strategies with wellness interventions, followed by the critical success factors found to influence talent–wellness integration. organisations most probably will influence the overall well-being of employees – which is physical, psychological, emotional, and social well-being, and ultimately affect talent management, organisational productivity and performance. some of the participants mentioned that managers must show interest in employees and develop their ability to acknowledge and support employees’ wellness in order to ensure talent is used optimally. although employees and managers may come from different backgrounds, managers must put in effort to build good relationships with employees, which will make it easier to detect if employees are well or not. this supports the theoretical findings by bakker and schaufeli (2008), danna and griffin (1999), field and louw (2012), hettler (1980) and pereira and karunarathne (2019) on the determinants of well-being. it was also affirmed that if employees feel valued, are appreciated and not taken for granted, they will put in more psychological and emotional effort into their work. therefore, psychological safety is harnessed as employees are able to commit themselves fully and freely to their role without fearing negative consequences when they experience their organisations to be supportive and trusting (blackwell et al., 2019; hartley & young, 2019; o’connor & crowley-henry, 2019; whitaker, 2019). clear communication of goals is very important as this ensures that the goals are accommodated by the employees and the employees feel valued and part of the goals (mulki, jaramillo, & locander, 2006; painter-morland, kirk, deslandes, & tansley, 2019). positive psychology was also found to play a role in talent management as the positive emotions improve emotional well-being (de simone, 2014). majority of the participants expressed the importance of emotional well-being (under theme 1, subtheme 3) to be a pivotal part of a healthy organisational life. this means that negative emotions should be effectively managed not to depress talent. the emotional climate within the organisation should promote positive emotions to flourish, which will outweigh deviant behaviours and contribute to positive emotional well-being. we can, therefore, infer from these qualitative findings that positive relationships and social networks improve well-being (levi, 1994). the findings also revealed that the relationship between line managers and employees is very important for well-being and talent management. ultimately good talent managers work diligently to preserve positive relationships among all members of an organization. establishing good relationships with employees, thus helping to create a positive work environment (mahajan, 2019). with this in mind, once employees perceive that the organisations value them as a result of managerial behaviour, they will reciprocate these ‘good deeds’ with positive job attitudes and behaviours. hence, line managers and employees orient themselves towards a general norm of reciprocity where trust is a critical factor (renee-baptiste, 2008). employees are more engaged at work when their managers care about them, thus enhancing their well-being (de simone, 2014). thus, when assessing the factors affecting well-being, it must be recognised that a given factor may be good for some individuals but may be bad for others, or good in some situations but bad in others (levi, 1994). line managers should play a crucial role in managing the workforce towards the achievement of organisational performance. the promotion of social relationships by line managers is positively associated with promoting social well-being (renee-baptiste, 2008). employees are more engaged at work when their managers care about them, thus enhancing their well-being (de simone, 2014). the results of this analysis further support findings by botha, bussin, and de swardt (2011) that an organisation’s people strategy delivers on the employer brand promise where the value proposition that the organisation articulates is reflected by the attention paid to people management strategies. thus, the need for an integrated approach to the management of talent in an effort to attract and retain talent has been recognised by many authors (azma et al., 2019; dhanpat, manakana, mbacaza, mokone, & mtongana, 2019; ncube, 2018; schutte, barkhuizen, & van der sluis, 2015). furthermore, crowley-henry, benson and al ariss (2019) emphasised that, in order to attract, develop and retain key employees in organisations, it is important to understand the nature and context of their careers. thus, williams, chen-bowers, lankford and wolff (2019) highlighted the role hr professional play in ensuring that training and development practices are aligned with the organisational strategy. as such, training and development practices should also consider the group or network influence over career decisions and orientations. the integration of the talent management process with wellness interventions is seen to improve employees’ healthy behaviours, reduce healthcare costs, improve productivity, ensure job satisfaction, minimise job burnout and reduce absenteeism (alexander & fry, 2019; coyle, abel, sedani, holes, & dinkel, 2019; einav, lee, & levin, 2019; hartley & young, 2019; ncube, 2018; warehime et al., 2019). the importance of the organisational context in facilitating the holistic integration of talent management and wellness interventions was also found in this study. with any talent management approach, it is critical to be aligned with the broader organisational strategy. the environment surrounding the organisation is also taken into account when assessing the organisational strategy. prior to developing the workforce plan, an evaluation of previous initiatives, an assessment of the workforce profile and talent performance and the behaviours to date, are carried out (obeidat, al-khateeb, abdallah, & masa’deh, 2019). the hr professionals were identified as the most important stakeholder in facilitating this integration. other important stakeholders were ceos, line managers, supervisors, heads of departments and employees. this, therefore, affirms our findings on the important stakeholders in talent management and wellness (crowley-henry et al., 2019; danna & griffin, 1999; lowensteyn et al., 2019; nthebe, barkhuizen, & schutte, 2016; warehime et al., 2019; rothmans, 2013). thus, to effectively manage talent in organisations, workplace wellness must focus on three levels, as proposed by rothman (2013), setiawati (2019) and sabharwal, kiel and hijal-moghrabi (2019): primary level interventions should focus on adjusting or eliminating the dysfunctional effects of the workplace that affect the management of talent. secondary level interventions should focus on increasing awareness amongst employees with the use of cognitive approaches that enhance the talent and wellness integration process. tertiary level interventions should focus on improving overall employee well-being. thus, the most critical success factor realised by this study for integrating talent management strategies with wellness interventions is the establishment of a talent–wellness organisational culture. this should be enabled by the following subcritical factors: top management support clear strategic communication and directions for talent–wellness strategies stakeholder involvement (senior management, human resources and wellness specialists, senior management, line managers and employees) manager–employee relationship organisational wellness interventions that address physical, psychological, emotional and social well-being effective talent management processes (attraction, deployments, development and engagement) inclusive and fair organisational people practices. practical implications the implications of the study outcomes are of paramount importance to managers, hr professionals, wellness specialists, policy makers and academics. firstly, the findings call for an understanding of the determinants of holistic employee well-being (physical, psychological, emotional and social) and talent management (attraction, deployment, development and retention). furthermore, a comprehension of the profound impact of wellness on talent and thus on overall employee (talent) functioning and the extent to which talent contributes to organisational goals and outcomes is outlined. the management of employee well-being is very important as it is inextricably linked to the extent to which talent is effectively managed. this ultimately contributes to the creation of psychologically healthy workplace, which focuses on improving employee involvement, health and safety, employee growth and development, work–life balance and employee recognition (einav et al., 2019; meyers et al., 2019; o’connor & crowley-henry, 2019; painter-morland et al., 2019). secondly, hr professionals should have an in-depth understanding of the impact of the talent management and wellness strategies on their organisations. thus, hr professionals should effectively optimise the integration of employee well-being in the talent management process by committing resources and time. in the event that an organisation has been plagued by the covid-19 pandemic and possible future challenges fails to establish a talent–wellness organisational culture that promotes positive flourishing, it is likely not to perform as efficiently and effectively as it could as talent might be lost irrespective of talent management strategies employed. it is likely not to perform as efficiently and effectively as it could as talent might be lost irrespective of talent management strategies employed. limitations and recommendations this study has a few limitations that need to be acknowledged. findings cannot be generalised as a limited sample size based on qualitative methodology was used in this study. the complexity of both talent management and workplace wellness makes it difficult to capture the extent of possible data through one qualitative study. more research on talent–wellness is proposed to be qualitative or quantitative. future research also needs to test our research findings with a quantitative study and pay more attention to the development of wellness and talent management integrated frameworks or models in different contexts. the integrated frameworks or models should explore the extent to which these models and definitions are applied in practice and whether they differ in different areas, scales and countries. thus, when comprehensive measurements of well-being are contemplated, including subjective, eudemonic and social aspects, this stable level is probably the most appropriate (de simone, 2014; hofmann et al., 2014; warehime et al., 2019). finally, there is also much scope for other researchers to extend the discussions in this paper to a multi-level domain, exploring the spillover effects of exclusive wellness and talent management interventions across the individual employee, organisational and societal levels. conclusion this study provided qualitative evidence that organisational context influences the adoption and integration of talent management strategies with wellness interventions. wellness interventions must be viewed to be positive and integrated into talent management. the critical success factors that are perceived to influence the integration of talent management strategies with wellness interventions were identified and discussed. a talent–wellness organisational culture was found to be the main critical success factor with related subcritical factors. findings also suggest that there is a need to understand the determinants of workplace wellness interventions and how they can positively impact talent management. based on findings from the current study, future research efforts may focus on engaging employees at all levels of the organisation in talent management, establishing a talent–wellness culture and having a talent–wellness coordinator or committee to facilitate implementation. acknowledgements j.c.n. collected data as part of her phd research project, and ethical clearance and permission to publish were provided by the nwu ethics committee. y.d.p. was the supervisor and contributed to writing the paper. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions all authors equally contributed to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data will be available for 10 years as per requirements of north-west university. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution of the authors. references alexander, r., & fry, a. (2019). strategic design and the future of work-and-wellness. design for health, 3(1), 135–154. https://doi.org/10.1080/24735132.2019.1584024 al-hussaini, s.h., turi, j.a., altamimi, a.n.a., khan, m.a., & ahmad, m. (2019). impact of talent management strategies on employee performance behaviour with the mediating role of talent management outputs. archives of business research, 7(3), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.14738/abr.73.6309 avey, j.b., luthans, f., smith, r.m., & palmer, n.f. (2010). impact of positive psychological capital on employee well-being over time. journal of occupational health psychology, 15(1), 17–27. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016998 azma, f., farahbakhsh, m.t., safarzad, r., & farahnaki, e. (2019). investigating relationship of talent management and organisational entrepreneurship. international journal of life sciences & earth sciences, 2(1), 25–37. https://doi.org/10.31295/ijle.v2n1.76 bakker, a.b., & schaufeli, w.b. (2008). positive organisational behavior: engaged employees in flourishing organisations. journal of organisational behavior, 29(2), 147–154. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.515 battista, l., amaya, m., mitchell, l., melnyk, b., andridge, r., & kaye, g. (2019). the role of manager support in a workplace wellness champion programme. community engagement conference, january 23–24. columbus, oh: the ohio state university. blackwell, j., collins, m., scribner, c., guillen, j., moses, k., & gregory-mercado, k. (2019). health and wellness coaching implemented by trainees: impact in worksite wellness. global advances in health and medicine, 8, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f2164956119831226 botha, a., bussin, m., & de swardt, l. (2011). an employer brand predictive model for talent attraction and retention. sa journal of human resource management, 9(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.388 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2014). what can ‘thematic analysis’ offer health and wellbeing researchers? international journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being, 9(1), 26152. https://doi.org/10.3402/qhw.v9.26152 brouwer, a.j., veldkamp, b. p., and von davier, m. (2019). the design and validation of the renewed systems-oriented talent management model. in b.p. veldkamp, & m. von davier (eds.), theoretical and practical advances in computer-based educational measurement (pp. 47–71). cham: springer. bryman, a., & bell, e. (2011). business research methods (3rd edn.). new york, ny: oxford university press. collings, d.g., mellahi, k., & cascio, w.f. (2018). global talent management and performance in multinational enterprises: a multilevel perspective. journal of management, 45(2), 540–566. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206318757018 creswell, j.w. (1998). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five traditions. los angeles, ca: sage. crowley-henry, m., benson, e.t., & al ariss, a. (2019). linking talent management to traditional and boundary less career orientations: research propositions and future directions. european management review, 16(1), 5–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12304 danna, k., & griffin, r.w. (1999). health and well-being in the workplace: a review and synthesis of the literature. journal of management, 25(3), 357–384. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639902500305 de simone, s. (2014). conceptualizing wellbeing in the workplace. international journal of business and social science, 5(12), 118–122. dhanpat, n., manakana, t., mbacaza, j., mokone, d., & mtongana, b. (2019). exploring retention factors and job security of nurses in gauteng public hospitals in south africa. african journal of economic and management studies, 10(1), 57–71. https://doi.org/10.1108/ajems-10-2018-0311 dong, y. (2019). optimization of talent flow model under flexible human resource management. 5th international conference on economics, management and humanities science (ecomhs 2019), francis academic press, uk. einav, l., lee, s., & levin, j. (2019). the impact of financial incentives on health and health care: evidence from a large wellness programme. health economics, 28(2), 261–279. https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.3840 eriksson, p., & kovalainen, a. (2015). qualitative methods in business research: a practical guide to social research. london: sage. field, c., & louw, j. (2012). a theory-driven evaluation of a wellness initiative: original research. sa journal of human resource management, 10(3), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i3.427 hartley, s.w., & young, c.a. (2019). wellness in business education: the convergence of theory, practice, and lifestyle. journal of education for business, 94(4), 271–278. https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2018.1524741 hettler, b. (1980). wellness promotion on a university campus. family and community health, 3(1), 77–95. https://doi.org/10.1097/00003727-198005000-00008 hofmann, w., luhmann, m., fisher, r.r., vohs, k.d., & baumeister, r.f. (2014). yes, but are they happy? effects of trait self-control on affective well-being and life satisfaction. journal of personality, 82(4), 265–277. hoole, c., & bonnema, j. (2015). work engagement and meaningful work across generational cohorts. sa journal of human resource management, 13(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.681 levi, l. (1994). work, worker and wellbeing: an overview. work & stress, 8(2), 79–83. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678379408259981 lowensteyn, i., berberian, v., berger, c., da costa, d., joseph, l., & grover, s.a. (2019). the sustainability of a workplace wellness programme that incorporates gamification principles: participant engagement and health benefits after 2 years. american journal of health promotion, 33(6), 850–858. mahajan, a. (2019). relationship of talent management with organisational culture: a discussion paper. indian journal of industrial relations, 54(3), 471–481. mason, m. (2010). sample size and saturation in phd studies using qualitative interviews. qualitative social research, 11(3), 1–19. meyers, m.c., van woerkom, m., paauwe, j., & dries, n. (2019). hr managers’ talent philosophies: prevalence and relationships with perceived talent management practices. the international journal of human resource management, 31(4), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2019.1579747 moloi, t., & adelowotan, m. (2019). the disclosure of decision-useful information on human capital: the perspectives of preparers of corporate annual reports. african journal of business and economic research, 14(1), 157–176. https://doi.org/10.31920/1750-4562/2019/v14n1a8 morgan, d.b. (2019). management strategies for reducing voluntary employee turnover in small professional service firms. doctoral dissertation, walden university. mulki, j.p., jaramillo, f., & locander, w.b. (2006). emotional exhaustion and organisational deviance: can the right job and a leader’s style make a difference? journal of business research, 59(12), 1222–1230. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2006.09.001 ncube, s. (2018) workplace wellness, organisational commitment and retention in an insurance company in south africa. doctoral dissertation, unisa. neuman, w.l., & robson, k. (2012). qualitative interviewing. basics of social research qualitative and quantitative approaches (custom edition for the university of guelph) (pp. 187–203). boston, ma: pearson education. nthebe, k., barkhuizen, n., & schutte, n. (2016). rewards: a predictor of well-being and service quality of school principals in the north-west province. sa journal of human resource management, 14(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.711 obeidat, b., al-khateeb, a., abdallah, a.a., & masa’deh, r.e. (2019). reviewing the mediating role of work/life balance and motivational drivers of employee engagement on the relationship between talent management and organisation performance. journal of social sciences (coes&rj-jss), 8(2), 306–326. https://doi.org/10.25255/jss.2019.8.2.306.326 o’connor, e.p., & crowley-henry, m. (2019). exploring the relationship between exclusive talent management, perceived organisational justice and employee engagement: bridging the literature. journal of business ethics, 156(4), 903–917. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3543-1 painter-morland, m., kirk, s., deslandes, g., & tansley, c. (2019). talent management: the good, the bad, and the possible. european management review, 16(1), 135–146. https://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12171 perera, k.e.p., & karunarathne, r.a.i.c. (2019). the impact of non-financial rewards on organizational attractiveness. asian journal of empirical research, 9(6), 157–165. rajenderan, m., & zawawi, d. (2019). leaky pipeline syndrome in information and communication technology (ict) industry of malaysia: a conceptual study on female career barriers and retention management. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 9(2), 1158–1174. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v9-i2/5672 renee-baptiste, n. (2008). tightening the link between employee wellbeing at work and performance: a new dimension for hrm. management decision, 46(2), 284–309. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740810854168 rothmann, s. (2013). from happiness to flourishing at work: a southern african perspective. well-being research in south africa (pp. 123–151). springer: dordrecht. sabharwal, m., kiel, l.d., & hijal-moghrabi, i. (2019). best practices in local government wellness programmes: the benefits of organisational investment and performance monitoring. review of public personnel administration, 39(1), 24–45. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x16682817 saldaña, j. (2015). the coding manual for qualitative researchers. los angeles, ca: sage. schutte, n., barkhuizen, n., & van der sluis, l. (2015). exploring the current application of professional competencies in human resource management in the south african context. sa journal of human resource management, 13(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.724 setiawati, l. (2019). internal communication obstacles in the implementation of employee value proposition: viewed from state-owned company. international journal of applied business research, 1(2), 140–154. https://doi.org/10.35313/ijabr.v1i02.60 sieberhagen, c., pienaar, j., & els, c. (2011). management of employee wellness in south africa: employer, service provider and union perspectives: original research. sa journal of human resource management, 9(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.305 suleman, a.o., & ogbette, a.s. (2019). human resource management: implications of outsourcing in public organisations in nigeria. human resource management, 9(2), 27–31. van zyl, e.s., mathafena, r.b., & ras, j. (2017). the development of a talent management framework for the private sector. sa journal of human resource management, 15(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.820 warehime, s., coyle, b., abel, k., sedani, a., holes, j., & dinkel, d. (2019). a qualitative exploration of a worksite wellness mini-grant programme. environmental health insights, 13(1), 1178630219839016. https://doi.org/10.1177/1178630219839016 whitaker, j. (2019). from health care to self-care: workplace wellness programmes and health discrimination. doctoral dissertation. williams, d.f., chen-bowers, n., lankford, t., & wolff, m.b. (2019). designing an organisational profile to inform leadership of employee well-being, easna research notes, 7(3), 1–8. wilson, v.a. (1998). qualitative research:an introduction, purposes, methodology, criteria for judgment, and a rationale for mixed methodology. eric document retrieval service (edrs), ed423285, queen’s adaptive technology centre. xing, s., & chen, q. (2019). the literature review and future prospects of talent management research in china. in the first international symposium on management and social sciences (ismss 2019). paris: atlantis press. abstract introduction method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) desere kokt department of business management, central university of technology, south africa esther p. palmer department of business management, central university of technology, south africa citation kokt, d., & palmer, e.p. (2019). strategic priorities for cultivating commitment amongst academic staff: the militating effect of workplace spirituality. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1054. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1054 original research strategic priorities for cultivating commitment amongst academic staff: the militating effect of workplace spirituality desere kokt, esther p. palmer received: 14 mar. 2018; accepted: 06 sept. 2018; published: 16 jan. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: organisational commitment remains an ongoing concern for organisations, especially universities that often struggle to retain academic staff. universities cannot operate or fulfil their mandate to society without the critical competencies of academic staff. research purpose: this investigation focused on workplace spirituality as a militating factor in enhancing the commitment of academic staff. motivation for the study: as organisational commitment remains a challenge for universities, this article contributes to a theoretical and empirical understanding of the militating influence of workplace spirituality. the study is underpinned by social learning theory and proposes strategic priorities to universities – informed by an empirical study conducted amongst academic staff members at a south african university. research approach/design and method: the study employed a quantitative research approach and a structured questionnaire was administered to 285 academic staff members (ranging from junior lecturers to professors) of a south african university. the research design was a survey and, as a single university formed part of the study, regression analysis was used to establish the relationship between workplace spirituality and organisational commitment. main findings: the empirical findings showed a strong linear relationship between workplace spirituality and organisational commitment. a regression formula was developed to statistically calculate the commitment score of individuals. practical/managerial implications: the study proposed strategic priorities that may be useful to university management and human resource practitioners to cultivate increased commitment amongst academic staff. contribution/value-add: the study contributed empirical evidence of the militating effect of workplace spirituality on organisational commitment, implying that workplace spirituality is a predictor for organisational commitment. introduction globalisation and its pervasive influence has led to substantial changes and challenges in organisations. prominent amongst these are increased digitalisation and virtualisation of the workplace, as well as increased diversity and an emphasis on the skills of employees (deloitte, 2017). in this sense universities play an important role in supplying business and industry with suitably qualified knowledge workers. universities are mandated to meet the changing needs of the modern organisation and assist in socio-economic development through appropriate education and training programmes. universities can only achieve this if they employ competent academic staff in the different disciplines and programmes they offer. it is, however, a concern that universities often struggle to attract and retain academic staff (lynch, 2014; selesho, africa, & naile, 2014). in previous generations universities had a strong collegial ethos and structuring – this was characterised by informal structures and decision-making, long-term relationships and largely unregulated work regimes. this implied that academic staff experienced more autonomy, interdependence and mutual support. in the globalised world this collegial character of universities has evolved into increasing managerialism. managerialism is characterised by the adaptation of ‘private sector tools in public sector organisations’ (lynch, 2015). managerialism finds meaning in the managerial elements of organising, the rigorous evaluation of work, an emphasis on output over input, close monitoring of employee performance and the use of performance indicators and rankings (lynch, 2014). it can thus be argued that increased managerialism may have severe implications for job satisfaction, morale and the commitment of academic staff. as contemporary employees have a need to find purpose and meaning in their jobs, the concept of workplace spirituality has gained prominence (see chawla & guda, 2010, 2013; mohan & uys, 2006; van tonder & ramdass, 2009). it can be argued that a spiritual workplace gives credence to nourishing the inner life of employees, which is essential in enhancing well-being and a sense of belonging amongst employees (chawla & guda, 2013; fry & slocum, 2008; mohan & uys, 2006; van tonder & ramdass, 2009). because of diminishing collegialism, as explained above, workplace spirituality may compensate for the challenges associated with managerialism – which is outputand performance-driven. instilling a spiritual workplace can have positive implications for the talent management practices of universities, which are under continuous pressure to attract and retain highly qualified academic staff. although related, workplace spirituality is different from spirituality (the religious processes associated with organised religion) and religion (which is concerned with faith) (marques, 2006). despite extensive studies (see cooper-hakim & viswesvaran, 2005; mathieu & zajac, 1990; meyer, stanley, herscovitch, & topolnytsky, 2002; riketta, 2002) on the predictors and antecedents of organisational commitment, empirical research on the impact of workplace spirituality on organisational commitment in the university context remains scarce. there are, however, some investigations that focus on commitment in the university context (see churchman, 2006; fanggida, rolland, suryana, efendi, & hilmiana, 2016; mowday, porter, & steers, 1982), but they are mostly confined to first-world countries with little emphasis on developing countries. purpose the article proposes that workplace spirituality has a militating effect on organisational commitment. with social learning theory as theoretical framework and considering the findings of an empirical study conducted at a south african university, the article proposes strategic priorities to enhance the organisational commitment of academic staff. literature review organisational commitment the concept of ‘organisational commitment’ has evolved since the 1960s to include some consensus that it implies the willingness of employees to exert more effort in performing their jobs, displaying a strong desire to stay with an organisation and an inclination to subscribe to the major goals and values of an organisation (alderfer, porter, & lawler, 1968). in later definitions the psychological dimension of organisational commitment emerges (see meyer, allen, & gellatly, 1990; mcmahon, 2007) and it is explained in terms of the dynamic psychological state that is constructed by an employee based on the experiences of the employee in the work situation. there is extensive empirical evidence that attests to the advantages of a strongly committed workforce (ahiauzu & asawo, 2009; meyer & maltin, 2010; morrow, 2011; nehmeh, 2009; rego & pina e cunha, 2008; wainaina, iravo, & waititu, 2014) and consensus that committed employees are more likely to attend work regularly, perform effectively and be good organisational citizens. this article adopted the three-component model (tcm) of meyer and allen (2004) as a means of investigating organisational commitment in the university context. the tcm employee commitment survey has been confirmed as a rigorous measure of organisational commitment (meyer, stanley, & parfyonova, 2012; wasti, 2005). according to the tcm, organisational commitment comprises affective, normative and continuance commitment. affective commitment refers to commitment based on the emotional ties the employee develops with the organisation, normative commitment reflects commitment based on the perceived obligation towards an organisation, rooted in the norms of reciprocity, and continuance commitment involves commitment based on the perceived costs, both economically and socially, of leaving the organisation. commitment is thus viewed as a psychological state that (1) characterises the employee–organisation relationship and (2) influences the decision to continue or discontinue membership with the organisation (wasti, 2005). because of its applicability, bandura’s social learning theory serves as the theoretical framework for this study (bandura, 1971). social learning theory postulates that learning is a social phenomenon driven by the human capacity to continuously learn by observing the behaviour of others. this can elicit emotional responses, both positive and negative, depending on the affective reactions of those setting the example. this links directly to organisational commitment, specifically affective commitment, which refers to the emotional attachments employees are likely to form with an organisation, thus supporting the applicability of the theory (rego & pina e cunha, 2008). workplace spirituality as indicated before, contemporary employees have a greater need to be engaged in their work and to make a meaningful contribution to the organisation (chawla & guda, 2013; fry & slocum, 2008; van tonder & ramdass, 2009). ‘workplace spirituality’ relates the desires of employees to live integrated, holistic lives, including recognition and acceptance of their spirituality in the work context (aravamudhan & khrishmaveni, 2014). by analysing literature (see binbakr & ahmed, 2015; mohamed & ruth, 2016; wainaina et al., 2014) three distinct components of workplace spirituality emerge – sense of meaning, sense of purpose and a sense of community or connectedness with others. for the sake of this study, workplace spirituality can be explained as a dynamic process through which individuals express personal values within the organisational context in search of a greater sense of meaning and purpose through their connectedness and community with others. when employees experience meaning and purpose in their work they are more likely to experience higher levels of self-esteem and are less likely to become alienated and detached from their work. a sense of community or connectedness is likely to lead to the awakening of an inner sense (spirituality), which can be viewed as a metaphysical part of humans and the work they perform – an awareness of something beyond the world as we know it. according to ashforth and pratt (2003) this ‘something’ can include other people, a cause, nature or a belief in a higher power. the findings of numerous studies (see benefiel, 2003; biberman & whitty, 1997; brown, 2003; delbecq, 1999; eisler & montouori, 2003; fry, 2003; giacalone & jurkiewicz, 2003; kinjerski & skrypnek, 2004; krishnakumar & neck, 2002; leigh, 1997; wagner-marsh & conely, 1999) postulate that workplace spirituality has a positive relationship with the following variables: honesty and trust, kindness and fairness, creativity, increased profits, morale, organisation performance and development, productivity and reduced absenteeism and turnover. method research approach the ontological position of the study adheres to objectivism, as the researchers believe that reality lies outside the subjective experiences of respondents. this aligns with the epistemological stance of positivism that entails obtaining objective knowledge through deductive or theory testing approaches. from an organisational perspective, positivism supports the notion that an organisation, as a society, can be viewed as an existing entity or social substructure that can be objectively studied (jakobsen, 2013). positivism was, therefore, regarded as an appropriate paradigm for this study. it further allows for results to be replicated by other researchers. considering the aim of the study and the relatively large population, a quantitative research approach was thus adopted (robson & mccartan, 2015). measures the data was gathered using a structured questionnaire, and cronbach’s alpha was applied to verify the internal consistency of the questionnaire. an alpha score above 0.75 is generally accepted as an indication of high reliability, while a score between 0.50 and 0.75 indicates moderate reliability. cronbach’s alpha was calculated for both the workplace spirituality and organisational commitment sections of the questionnaire. an alpha value of 0.95 was recorded for the workplace spirituality section, confirming excellent reliability. for the organisational commitment section an alpha score of 0.53 was recorded. the lower alpha score is because of the diverse measurement items (affective, normative and continuance commitment) and the smaller number of items. however, this section of the questionnaire can still be regarded as reliable. participants a structured questionnaire was administered to 285 academic staff members (ranging from junior lecturers to professors) at a south african university. questionpro was used to administer the questionnaire and a link to the questionnaire was emailed to the respondents. as indicated before, all academic staff members of the university were targeted. the necessary permission was obtained from the university to conduct the investigation. in total, 174 respondents successfully completed the questionnaire – yielding a response rate of 61%. measuring instrument the questionnaire was structured and consisted of two sections: section a captured workplace spirituality and section b organisational commitment. section a integrated the following survey instruments – spirit at work (based on kinjerski & skrypnek, 2004), spiritual perspectives (based on reed, 1986), finding meaning and purpose at work (duchon & plowman, 2005), as well as the organisational spiritual values instrument of kolodinsky, giacalone and jurkiewicz (2008). section b was based on the tcm of meyer and allen (2004) that measured affective, normative and continuance commitment. design the study followed a survey research design and a single south african university formed part of the study. analysis both descriptive and inferential statistics were performed on the data and regression analysis was used to establish whether there was a relationship between workplace spirituality and organisational commitment. results the following section reports the results of the empirical study. table 1 provides a synopsis of the workplace spirituality scores. the scores were captured on a six-point likert scale with the following values: 1 (strongly disagree), 2 (disagree), 3 (slightly disagree), 4 (slightly agree), 5 (agree) and 6 (strongly agree). table 1: descriptive statistics for workplace spirituality. it is evident from table 1 that most of the average means scores reflect ‘agree’ and ‘strongly agree’ responses, meaning most of the items had positive responses. the average scores for the different dimensions of workplace spirituality (namely, sense of meaning, sense of purpose and sense of community) were also calculated. they are reflected in table 2. table 2: average scores for workplace spirituality dimensions. the items depicting sense of meaning accounted for the highest contribution (79%) to workplace spirituality, followed by sense of purpose (77%). sense of community yielded the lowest score. the average workplace spirituality score for academic staff members was 76%. table 3 reports the organisational commitment scores. the responses were captured on a five-point likert scale (1– strongly disagree, 2 – disagree, 3 – neither disagree nor agree, 4 – agree, 5 – strongly agree). table 3: descriptive statistics for organisational commitment. table 3 shows that the average mean scores of the organisational commitment section vary between 3 and 4. table 4 displays the organisational commitment dimensions (affective, normative and continuance commitment). table 4: organisational commitment dimensions. table 4 shows that an average organisational commitment score of 61% was recorded. affective commitment received the highest score of 60% and continuance commitment the lowest (58%). regression analyses regression analysis was performed to determine whether there is a relationship between workplace spirituality (independent variable) and organisational commitment (dependant variable). the scatter plot in figure 1 indicates the findings. figure 1: regression line of workplace spirituality versus organisational commitment. y, organisational commitment; ws, workplace spirituality. figure 1 shows an upward sloping relationship, which indicates that there is a strong positive linear relationship between workplace spirituality and organisational commitment. table 5 highlights the results of the regression analysis, illustrating the dependence of organisational commitment on the employees’ perception of workplace spirituality. the regression analysis showed a relationship of r = 0.434 and r2 = 0.19. this indicates that 19% of the variation in organisational commitment could be explained by workplace spirituality. the remaining 81% is explained by other variables. table 5: regression analysis for workplace spirituality and organisational commitment. the regression analysis confirms that there is a linear relationship between workplace spirituality and organisational commitment. workplace spirituality can therefore be regarded as a predictor of organisational commitment. table 3 also shows that the p-value for the f-test of overall significance is p < 0.00, which is less than the specified 0.05. this provides support for the statistical significance of the regression model. the following regression equation is derived from the preceding results and could be useful for future research: discussion outline of the results regarding overall workplace spirituality, table 2 shows that the average scores for sense of meaning and sense of purpose were higher than those for sense of community. the overall ws score was 76%. table 3 shows that normative commitment received the highest average score, followed by affective commitment and then continuance commitment. this implies that academics feel some obligation to stay with the university and that they have emotional ties with the university. respondents scored lowest on the continuance commitment dimension, which pertains to the economic and social cost of leaving the university. this correlates with the findings of binbakr and ahmed (2015) amongst faculty members in saudi arabia, where the affective commitment was 85%, the normative commitment score 73% and the continuance commitment 52%. other studies (see gutierrez, candela, & carver, 2012; rego & pina e cunha, 2008) also show a tendency for continuance commitment to score the lowest. mohamed and ruth (2016) found that meaningful work positively affects continuance commitment amongst public school teachers in egypt. other studies (see chawla & guda, 2010; javanmard, 2012; osman-gani, hashim, & ismail, 2013) also found that sense of meaning and sense of purpose were associated with the affective and normative commitment of employees. milliman, czaplewski and ferguson (2003) found that workplace spirituality also explained positive work attitudes such as organisational commitment and intentions to leave, emphasising that meaningful work reduces the likelihood of quitting. according to mohamed and ruth (2016) spirituality in the workplace is important for creating a healthy work environment where employees feel valued and where they purposefully contribute to the success of the organisation. the regression analysis indicated that there was a positive linear relationship between workplace spirituality and organisational commitment. it can thus be concluded that ws is a statistically significant predictor of employee commitment, as 19% of the variation in oc was explained by ws. irrespective of the established linear relationship between workplace spirituality and organisational commitment, it is valuable to note that the average oc score (60%) of academic staff at the university was lower than the average ws score (71%). this may be attributed to increased managerialism in the university, which may lead to lower levels of oc amongst academic staff (lynch, 2015). the higher workplace spirituality average, however, does suggest that academic staff at the university find some meaning, purpose and sense of community in what they do. practical implications the practical implications of the study lie on a strategic level as top management needs to initiate actions that could contribute to the development of a spiritual workplace. top management and academic leaders should support and create spaces for ws to prosper and for academic staff to find purpose and meaning in their careers. positive employer–employee engagement and open communication is likely to support ws and increase the commitment levels of academic staff. spiritual values should also be incorporated into organisational development (such as seminars and workshops) and change processes (such as instilling and supporting spiritual values). limitations and recommendations a major limitation of this study is that the empirical study was only conducted at one university. it is therefore not possible to generalise the findings to other universities. the findings, however, provide some indication of the militating effect of ws on organisational commitment. based on the premise that human beings are part of social structures and that they learn through observation and interaction, as encapsulated by social learning theory, as well as the findings of the empirical investigation, the following strategic priorities are proposed to universities: policy frameworks and governance: the institutional human resource departments, in collaboration with academic leaders, should develop policies that encourage and support commitment through workplace spirituality principles. spiritual values like honesty, trust, humility, compassion and service should be enabled by the culture of the university and new academic staff members should be recruited based on their ability to align themselves with these values. organisational culture: an enabling organisational culture is not possible if leaders at the top do not set the example. no organisation can prosper without strong, ethical leaders that set clear and achievable goals to subordinates. an enabling organisational culture and strong leadership thus precedes organisational commitment and for that matter variables such as ws. it is suggested that academic leadership should draw from the lessons of covey’s principle-centred leadership. this involves personal trustworthiness, interpersonal trust, managerial empowerment and organisational alignment, which are likely to create spiritually centred leaders. if leaders are perceived as credible, increased levels of commitment are likely to result (covey & gulledge, 1992). instilling spiritual values: it is further recommended that continuous professional development of academic staff should not only be regarded or evaluated from a financial point of view but also viewed in terms of the spiritual growth it provides to create increased meaning and purpose in the work they do. creating platforms for enhanced workplace spirituality: mechanisms should be put in place to help academic staff experience a connection between their individual vision, mission and values and those of the university to improve commitment levels. platforms like intrapersonal interventions (i.e. self-reflection, exploring the job as a calling; introducing quality circles, etc.), interpersonal interventions (i.e. employee development programmes focusing on human values and work–life balance) and group interventions (i.e. spiritual team-building exercises, spiritual leadership development) should be created to stimulate organisational learning. measuring the commitment levels of future employees: the selection process for academic staff members should incorporate measurement of the potential organisational commitment level of incumbents, using the measure of the organisational commitment (oc) score = 26.2 + 0.101 × workplace spirituality (ws) score) as derived from this study. this could form part of psychological testing during selection to determine future commitment levels to the university. commitment measuring as a management tool: academic leaders can also use the preceding equation as a managerial tool to add information to an existing employee’s level of commitment to the university. this could contribute to establishing an organisational culture that would be conducive to increased workplace spirituality and subsequently to increased retention and commitment. performance management that incorporates the spiritual dimensions: from a performance management perspective, it is imperative that academic staff members be equally appraised on their ‘existence/being’ and behaviour as on their productivity and outputs. the performance management system should incorporate values that will help academic staff members believe that their activities have meaning beyond the economic benefits for the university or self-gratification. studies of a similar nature should be conducted at universities: given the infancy of studies pertaining to the impact of workplace spirituality on organisational commitment at universities in south africa, further empirical research in the field can lead to more generalisable findings. conclusion the aim of this article was to address the continuous challenge of oc by theoretically and empirically investigating the militating effect of ws. the main finding showed a positive linear relationship between workplace spirituality and organisational commitment, which led to proposing strategic priorities of value for academic managers and human resource practitioners alike. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions d.k. conceptualised and wrote the article. e.p.p. assisted with the literature review and performed data collection for the study. references ahiauzu, a., & asawo, s. (2009). unwavering hope and workers’ commitment in the nigerian manufacturing industry: a study in workplace spirituality. business renaissance quarterly, 4(1), 105–124. retrieved from http://fw8pk7vf4q.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:utf-8&rfr_id=info:sid/proq%3aabiglobal&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=business+renaissance+quarterly&rft.atitle=unwavering+hope+ alderfer, c. p., porter, l. w., & lawler, e. e. (1968). managerial attitudes and performance. administrative science quarterly, 13(1), 177. https://doi.org/10.2307/2391269 aravamudhan, n. r., & khrishmaveni, r. (2014). spirituality at work place – an emerging template for organization capacity building? purushartha, 7(1), 63–78. ashforth, b. e., & pratt, m. g. (2003). institutionalized spirituality: an oxymoron? in c. giacalone & r. a. jurkiewicz (eds.), handbook of workplace spirituality and organizational performance, (pp. 93–107). new york, nj: me sharpe. bandura, a. (1971). social learning theory. new york: general learning press. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1978.tb01621.x benefiel, m. (2003). irreconcilable foes? the discourse of spirituality and the discourse of organizational science. sage journals, 10(2), 383–391. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508403010002012 biberman, j., & whitty, m. (1997). a postmodern spiritual future for work. journal of organizational change management, 10(2), 130–138. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534819710160790 binbakr, m. b., & ahmed, e. i. (2015). an empirical investigation of faculty members’ organizational commitment in the kingdom of saudi arabia. american journal of educational research, 3(8), 1020–1026. https://doi.org/10.12691/education-3-8-12 brown, r. b. (2003). organizational spirituality: the sceptic’s version. sage journals, 10(2), 393–400. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508403010002013 chawla, v., & guda, s. (2010). individual spirituality at work and its relationship with job satisfaction, propensity to leave and job commitment: an exploratory study among sales professionals. journal of human values, 16(2), 157–167. https://doi.org/10.1177/097168581001600203 chawla, v., & guda, s. (2013). workplace spirituality as a precursor to relationship-oriented selling characteristics. journal of business ethics, 115(1), 63–73. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1370-y churchman, d. (2006). institutional commitments, individual compromises: identity-related responses to compromise in an australian university. journal of higher education policy and management, 28(1), 3–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600800500283676 cooper-hakim, a., & viswesvaran, c. (2005). the construct of work commitment: testing an integrative framework. psychological bulletin, 131(2), 241–259. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.131.2.241 covey, s. r., & gulledge, k. (1992). principle-centered leadership. the journal for quality and participation, 15(4), 70. https://doi.org/10.1108/17506200710779521 delbecq, l. a. (1999). christian spirituality and contemporary business leadership. journal of organizational business management, 12(4), 345–349. deloitte. (2017). 2017 deloitte global human capital trends. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/global/documents/about-deloitte/central-europe/ceduchon, d., & plowman, d. a. (2005). nurturing the spirit at work: impact on work unit performance. retrieved from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/managementfacpub/65 eisler, r., & montouori, a. (2003). the human side of spirituality. in c. l. giacalone & r. a. jurkiewicz (eds.), handbook of workplace spirituality and organizational performance (pp. 46–56). new york: armorok. fanggida, e., rolland, e., suryana, y., efendi, n., & hilmiana. (2016). effect of a spirituality workplace on organizational commitment and job satisfaction. (study on the lecturer of private universities in the kupang city -indonesia). procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 219, 639–646. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.05.045 fry, l. w. (2003). toward a theory of spiritual leadership. leadership quarterly, 14(6), 693–727. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2003.09.001 fry, l. w., & slocum, j. w. (2008). maximizing the triple bottom line through spiritual leadership. organizational dynamics, 37(1), 86–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2007.11.004 giacalone, r. a., & jurkiewicz, c. (2003). toward a science of workplace spirituality. in c. l. giacalone, and r. a. jurkiewicz (eds.), handbook of workplace spirituality and organizational performance (pp. 3–28). new york: armonk. gutierrez, a. p., candela, l. l., & carver, l. (2012). the structural relationships between organizational commitment, global job satisfaction, developmental experiences, work values, organizational support, and person-organization fit among nursing faculty. journal of advanced nursing, 68(7), 1601–1614. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2012.05990.x jakobsen, t. g. (2013). theory of science: what is positivism. popular social science. retrieved from http://www.popularsocialscience.com/2013/02/15/theory-of-science-what-is-positivism/6/12/2016 javanmard, h. (2012). the impact of spirituality on work performance. the indian journal of science and technology, 5(1), 113–145. kinjerski, v. m., & skrypnek, b. j. (2004). defining spirit at work: finding common ground. journal of organizational change management, 17(1), 26–42. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810410511288 kolodinsky, r. w., giacalone, r. a., & jurkiewicz, c. l. (2008). workplace values and outcomes: exploring personal, organizational, and interactive workplace spirituality. journal of business ethics, 81(2), 465–480. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9507-0 krishnakumar, s., & neck, c. p. (2002). the “what”, “why” and “how” of spirituality in the workplace. journal of managerial psychology, 17(3), 153–164. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940210423060 leigh, p. (1997). the new spirit at work. training & development, 51, 26–33. lynch, k. (2014). new managerialism: the impact on education. concept, 5(3), 1–11. lynch, k. (2015). control by numbers: new managerialism and ranking in higher education. critical studies in education, 56(2), 190–207. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2014.949811 marques, j. f. (2006). the spiritual worker: an examination of the ripple effect that enhances quality of life inand outside the work environment. journal of management development, 25(9), 884–895. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710610692089 mathieu, j. e., & zajac, d. m. (1990). a review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of organizational commitment. psychological bulletin, 108(2), 171–194. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.108.2.171 mcmahon, b. (2007). organizational commitment, relationship commitment and their association with attachment style and locus of control. georgia institute of technology. retrieved from http://www.livingdementia.com/downloads/newsletters/2011/jul_aug/organization_relationship_locus_of_control.pdf meyer, j. p., & allen, n. j. (2004). tcm employee commitment survey academic users guide 2004. retrieved from http://employeecommitment.com/tcm-employee-commitment-survey-academic-package-2004.pdf meyer, j. p., allen, n. j., & gellatly, i. r. (1990). affective and continuance commitment to the organization: evaluation of measures and analysis of concurrent and time-lagged relations. journal of applied psychology, 75(6), 710–720. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.75.6.710 meyer, j. p., & maltin, e. r. (2010). employee commitment and well-being: a critical review, theoretical framework and research agenda. journal of vocational behavior, 77(2), 323–337. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2010.04.007 meyer, j. p., stanley, d. j., herscovitch, l., & topolnytsky, l. (2002). affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization: a meta-analysis of antecendents, correlates and consequences. journal of vocational behaviour, 61(1), 20–52. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2001.1842 meyer, j. p., stanley, l. j., & parfyonova, n. m. (2012). employee commitment in context: the nature and implication of commitment profiles. journal of vocational behavior, 80(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.07.002 milliman, j., czaplewski, a. j., & ferguson, j. (2003). workplace spirituality and employee work attitudes: an exploratory empirical assessment. journal of organizational change management, 16(4), 426–447. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810310484172 mohamed, m., & ruth, a. (2016). workplace spirituality and organizational commitment: a study on the public schools teachers in menoufia (egypt). african journal of business management, 10(10), 247–255. https://doi.org/10.5897/ajbm2016.8031 mohan, d. l., & uys, k. (2006). towards living with meaning and purpose: spiritual perspectives of people at work. sa journal of industrial psychology, 32(1), 53–59. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v32i1.228 morrow, p. c. (2011), managing organizational commitment: insights from longitudinal research. journal of vocational behaviour, 79, 18–35. mowday, r., porter, l., & steers, r. (1982). employee organization linkages. in p. warr (ed.), organizational and pccupational psychology (pp. 219–229). new york: academic press. nehmeh, r. (2009). what is organizational commitment, why should managers what it in their workforce and is there any cost-effective way to secure it? retrieved from https://www.smcuniversity.com/working_papers/ranya_nehmeh_-_what_is_organizational_commitment,_why_should_managers_want_it_in_their_workforce_and_is_there_any_cost_effective_way_to_secure_it.pdf osman-gani, a. m., hashim, j., & ismail, y. (2013). establishing linkages between religiosity and spirituality on employee performance. employee relations, 35(4), 360–376. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-04-2012-0030 reed, p. g. (1986). religiousness among terminally ill and healthy adults. research in nursing and health, 9(1), 35–41. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.4770090107 rego, a., & pina e cunha, m. (2008). workplace spirituality and organizational commitment: an empirical study. journal of organizational change management, 21(1), 53–75. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810810847039 riketta, m. (2002). attitudinal organizational commitment and job performance: a meta-analysis. journal of organizational behavior, 23(3), 257–266. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.141 robson, c., & mccartan, k. (2015). real world research: a resource for users of social science research methods in applied settings. london: wiley and sons. selesho, j. m., africa, s., & naile, i. (2014). academic staff retention as a human resource factor: university perspective. international business & economics research journal, 13(2), 295–305. van tonder, c. l., & ramdass, p. (2009). a spirited workplace: employee perspectives on the meaning of workplace spirituality. sa journal of human resource management, 7(1), 230–242. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.207 wagner-marsh, f., & conely, j. (1999). the fourth wave: the spiritually based firm. journal of organizational change management, 12(4), 292–301. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534819910282135 wainaina, l., iravo, m., & waititu, a. (2014). effect of employee participation in decision making on the organizational commitment amongst academic staff in the private and public universities in kenya. international journal of advanced research in management and social sciences, 3(12), 131–142. wasti, s. a. (2005). commitment profiles: combinations of organizational commitment forms and job outcomes. journal of vocational behavior, 67(2), 290–308. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2004.07.002 abstract introduction method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) marieta du plessis department of industrial psychology, university of the western cape, south africa adre b. boshoff department of industrial psychology, university of the western cape, south africa citation du plessis, m., & boshoff, a.b. (2018). the role of psychological capital in the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a1007. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.1007 original research the role of psychological capital in the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement marieta du plessis, adre b. boshoff received: 09 nov. 2017; accepted: 31 july 2018; published: 15 oct. 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the focus on positive psychology in the workplace includes interest in engagement of employees and the conditions and/or characteristics that explain variance in engagement levels. research purpose: psychological capital (psycap) can be used as a substitute or enhancer for leadership in the development of work engagement in cases where the individual has a high level of psycap. motivation for the study: with work engagement becoming increasingly critical to the competitiveness of today’s organisations, there is a need to better understand the role of leadership and psychological strengths that support work engagement among employees. research approach/design and method: in the quantitative study (on the responses of 647 managers from a national private healthcare organisation), the mediating and moderating role of psychological capital (psycap) on the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement was tested. main findings: psychological capital partially mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement. similarly, psycap was also a moderator of the relationship, although the main effects remained significant. practical/managerial implications: organisations and leaders should focus on developing a high level of psycap within their followers in order to retain high levels of work engagement. contribution/value-add: the role of psycap in the leadership–engagement relationship indicates that individuals can draw from their psycap to improve work engagement. introduction the number of studies on engagement of employees has increased rapidly over the past two decades (bakker & albrecht, 2018). from a workplace perspective, engagement of employees is a desirable characteristic of the workforce in the creation of peak performance (bakker, demerouti, & sanz-vergal, 2014). even though the engagement of more than a million employees has been studied (bargagliotti, 2012), it is anticipated that employee engagement will remain an important concern for countries and organisations who seek to increase labour productivity (gallup, 2013). not only does engagement enhance important organisational outcomes, it also has positive effects on the psychological well-being of employees (robertson & cooper, 2009). thus, from a psychological perspective, the growth and interest in the field of positive psychology, with its focus on happiness, human strengths and optimal functioning (seligman & csikszentmihalyi, 2000), gave impetus to the interest in engagement. seligman (2011) proposed that engagement is regarded as one of the routes to happiness as well as one of the dimensions of human flourishing. leaders play an important role in creating a climate of engagement within the organisation (kahn & heaphy, 2014). when leaders support, encourage and develop their employees, employees are more likely to have a high level of engagement (harter & adkins, 2015). harter and adkins (2015) proposed that up to 70% of the variance in engagement scores can be ascribed to leader behaviours. against the background of positive organisational behaviour, luthans and avolio (2003) conceptualised a positive form of leadership, which is termed ‘authentic leadership’. authentic leaders have a well-developed capacity to process information about themselves (including their values, beliefs, goals and feelings); they have clarity regarding their personal identity and have an ability to adjust their leadership behaviours to the needs and preferences of their followers, while still acting in accordance to their personal identity (chan, hannah, & gardner, 2005). an important part of authentic leadership includes the personal identification of the employee with the leader. through this identification, authentic leaders influence the thinking and behaviour of members of the organisation (sparrowe, 2005). the positive modelling of authentic leaders fosters internalised regulation processes among followers, which contribute to greater levels of well-being and engagement (deci, connell, & ryan, 1989). avolio and gardner (2005) state that these exchanges would possibly assist individuals to find meaning and purpose in their jobs and craft jobs that best suit their strengths, and the leader would also encourage individuals to persist in their work-related efforts. these actions may result in enhancing employees’ vigour, dedication and absorption in their work. leaders furthermore have an influence on their followers’ positive psychological states and psychological capital (psycap) by increasing followers’ self-confidence and creating hope, optimism and resilience (ilies, morgeson, & nahrgang, 2005; mäkikangas, feldt, kinnunen, & mauno, 2013). avolio and mhatre (2012) suggest that, although research on authentic leadership continues to grow, researchers should also explore a broader range of mediating and moderating mechanisms in an attempt to explain the authentic leadership construct and its relationship with other organisational variables. for instance, hsieh and wang (2015) reported that employee trust mediates the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement. it should be considered that not all employees’ needs are the same and that employees also have psychological capacities that could influence how they interpret and integrate their leader’s supportive behaviours into their work behaviours. followers who are led by authentic leaders feel more efficacy and take greater ownership of their work, as well as being more resilient and hopeful (rego, sousa, marques, & pina e cunha, 2012). similarly, employees who have more personal resources (including self-efficacy, optimism and resilience) have higher levels of work engagement (mäkikangas et al., 2013). however, authors have suggested that specific leadership styles may be more effective for some followers than for others (conger & kanungo, 1998; pillai & meindl, 1998), and hence the followers’ characteristics would act as a moderator of the influence of the leader. it may be valuable to explore the role of psycap because of its predictive properties in explaining peak performance. purpose psycap could intervene in the relationship between broad contextual and leadership factors, such as authentic leadership (avey, wernsing, & luthans, 2008), and individual outcomes, such as organisational citizenship behaviour and work performance (luthans, norman, avolio & avey, 2008; norman, avey, nimnicht, & pigeon, 2010). as psycap seems to be instrumental in facilitating the impact of a positive organisational context on various desirable outcomes (youssef & luthans, 2012), it was proposed that psycap mediates the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement. it was further proposed that psycap could be a mechanism through which individuals adapt their responses to attain higher levels of work engagement. high psycap levels offer employees cognitive (i.e. efficacy), motivational (i.e. hope) and other positive psychological strengths (such as resilience and optimism) (sweetman, luthans, avey & luthans, 2011), which may assist them in immersing themselves fully in their work apart from the influence of leadership support. thus, the moderating effect of psycap on the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement was studied. literature review authentic leadership luthans and avolio (2003) conceptualised a positive form of leadership, which is termed ‘authentic leadership’. authentic leadership draws from both positive psychological capacities of the leader and a highly developed organisational context. these factors, in turn, result in greater self-awareness and self-regulated positive behaviours on the part of the leader. authentic leadership comprises self-awareness, relational transparency, internalised moral perspective and balanced processing (avolio & mhatre, 2012). self-awareness is defined as an individual’s accurate knowledge of his or her own strengths and weaknesses and the way one makes sense of the world. relational transparency involves appropriate self-disclosure and a genuine presentation of oneself to other people. balanced processing includes the collection and use of objective, relevant information and balancing this with beliefs that are held, even if the objective information challenges prior beliefs. an internalised moral perspective would influence an individual to act with self-determination and self-regulation, rather than acting in accordance with situational demands (avolio, walumbwa, & weber, 2009). the theory of authentic leadership emphasises positive and developmental interactions between leaders and followers (woolley, caza, & levy, 2011). avolio, gardner, walumbwa, luthans and may (2004) proposed a theoretical framework that links authentic leadership to the attitudes and behaviours of followers. according to avolio et al. (2004), authentic leaders influence their followers’ attitudes and behaviours by creating a sense of personal and social identification and setting high moral values and standards. for instance, authentic leaders would use role modelling to display high moral standards to their followers in order for the followers’ values and beliefs to become more similar to those of the leaders (gardner, avolio, luthans, may, & walumbwa, 2005). another example would be the leader’s concern regarding a follower’s transparent and genuine discussion of his or her own vulnerabilities, thereby emphasising the constant focus on growth and development of the follower as well as the leader (avolio et al., 2004). followers’ personal and social identification with authentic leaders has been shown to lead to higher levels of hope (snyder, irving, & anderson, 1991) and trust (avolio et al., 2004; chan et al., 2005; gardner et al., 2005). hsieh and wang (2015) reported that employee trust mediates the relationship between the leader’s level of authentic leadership and follower work engagement. furthermore, positive emotions (avolio et al., 2004; chan et al., 2005) and positive states (luthans, youssef, & avolio, 2007), including higher levels of psycap (munyaka, boshoff, pietersen, & snelgar, 2017), have also resulted from identification of followers with leaders. jensen and luthans (2006) reported that employee perceptions of authentic leadership were the strongest predictor of employee job satisfaction, organisational commitment and work happiness. further empirical research has demonstrated a positive relationship between the frequency with which authentic leadership is exhibited and the job performance of followers (peterson, walumbwa, avolio, & fredrickson, 2010, cited in cameron & spreitzer, 2012). authentic leadership was found to play an important role in the psycap development of the follower (luthans, avolio, avey & norman, 2007; woolley et al., 2011). it has also been empirically established that psycap and a positive organisational context are antecedents of authentic leadership development (petersen, 2015). hence, it becomes clear that authentic leadership theory ascribes an important role to the psycap of leaders and followers. psychological capital bearing in mind the criteria for constructs to be included in psycap (luthans, 2002), the positive constructs of efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience met the inclusion criteria (luthans, youssef, & avolio, 2007). these writers termed the combination of these positive constructs as psycap. psycap is defined as follows: an individual’s positive psychological state of development that is characterised by: (1) having confidence (self-efficacy) to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks; (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future; (3) persevering toward goals, and, when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to succeed; and (4) when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond (resilience) to attain success. (p. 3) apart from the importance of each of the four constructs, the synergistic phenomenon of overall psycap has been shown to have a higher correlation with performance outcomes than any of the four individual constructs (luthans, avolio, et al., 2007). this finding is consistent with hobfall’s (2002) psychological resource theory, which suggests that some constructs are best understood as indicators of broader underlying factors as they may interact synergistically to produce differentiated behaviours over time and different contexts. as a result, psycap is classified as a second-order (or higher-order) construct that includes the first-order factors of efficacy, hope, resilience and optimism but also the synergy and shared variance between these four dimensions (avey, reichard, luthans, & mhatre, 2011; luthans & youssef-morgan, 2017). a meta-analysis of psycap revealed that a number of studies have tested the relationship between psycap and various employee attitudes, behaviours and performance (avey et al., 2011). these writers argue that individuals who possess a high level of psycap are likely to be energised and produce effort that leads to higher levels of performance over extended periods of time. psycap has been positively correlated to employee performance and satisfaction (luthans, avolio et al., 2007), as well as organisational commitment and psychological well-being at work (avey et al., 2011). self-efficacy, hope, resilience and optimism, as well as overall psycap, have also been shown to have positive relationships with work engagement (simons & buitendach, 2013). psycap has also been found to mediate the relationship between a supportive organisational climate and performance (luthans et al., 2008). furthermore, huang and luthans (2014) reported that psycap mediated the relationship between learning goal orientation and creativity. luthans, luthans and luthans (2004) reported that, as with human and social capital, psycap may be developed and used in the workplace. psycap capacities are psychological states, as opposed to fixed traits, and are therefore open to development through methods such as role modelling, social persuasion, mastery experiences or performance attainments (luthans et al., 2004). by utilising these development techniques, leaders may have a significant role to play in the development of the psycap of their employees. work engagement schaufeli and bakker (2003) explain work engagement as a positively satisfying, work-related state of mind that is exemplified by vigour, absorption and dedication. bakker and demerouti (2008) state that vigour is characterised by high energy levels and mental resilience while working, whereas absorption signifies being fully concentrated during one’s work, with time passing quickly and difficulty being experienced in separating oneself from work. dedication encompasses being involved in one’s work and experiencing significance, enthusiasm, inspiration, pride and challenge. in further exploring the work engagement construct, it is important to stress that employees’ psychological presence in their roles is still at the core of the work engagement construct. work engagement is believed to be rooted in the theory of authenticity. authenticity is based on the belief that there can be value in displaying one’s whole self that can be utilised to the benefit of work (rothbard & patil, 2012). authentic leadership helps followers to satisfy their own needs, develop themselves and set goals that are in concordance with their own values and beliefs (gardner et al., 2005). studies have demonstrated a positive relationship between work engagement and performance (cameron & spreitzer, 2012). work engagement has been linked to increased organisational citizenship behaviours (rich, lepine, & crawford, 2010), enhanced overall performance, high levels of job satisfaction and reduced levels of turnover intention (bakker & demerouti, 2008). with regard to the antecedents of work engagement, studies have shown that personal resources such as self-efficacy, optimism (xanthopoulou, bakker, demerouti, & schaufeli, 2007) and resilience (bakker, 2009) are important antecedents of work engagement. these personal resources assist engaged employees to control and impact their work environment in a positive manner (alesandri, consiglio, luthans, & borgogni, 2018; luthans et al., 2008). self-efficacy, optimism and resilience are described as dimensions of psycap, and hence it can be deducted that psycap could also be an antecedent of work engagement. the proposed link was tested in an empirical study by simons and buitendach (2013), who confirmed the relationship between dimensions of psycap and work engagement. authentic leadership has also been shown to significantly predict work engagement (penger & cˇerne, 2014). moreover, giallonardo, wong and iwasiw (2010) found higher levels of work engagement when employees perceived authentic leadership behaviour in their leader. low levels of engagement have been found in many countries (robertson & cooper, 2010), including south africa (rothmann, 2017). maslach, schaufeli and leiter (2001) theorised that the impact of the changing world of work is demonstrated in the expectations imposed on employees. these expectations include expending more time and effort and possessing greater skills and flexibility, while the organisation, on the other hand, is offering less in terms of career opportunities, employment and job security. there is also a general lack of supportive leadership behaviours to assist employees to deal with the job demands they face. dissatisfied employees are not committed to an organisation and they are also frequently absent from work in an attempt to cope with or escape from the high work demands (rothmann, 2017). organisations with a disengaged workforce may experience severe financial constraints and also lack the competitive edge to survive in the market. it is therefore important for management to focus on ways in which to enhance those aspects of the job that will make employees feel energetic, dedicated and engaged in their work (mostert & rathbone, 2001). for the purpose of the present study, the possible influence of psycap on the hypothetical relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement was explored. method the research design was quantitative in nature and a survey was used to collect the empirical data. a composite questionnaire containing the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) (schaufeli & bakker, 2003), psycap questionnaire (pcq) (luthans et al., 2007) and the authentic leadership questionnaire (alq) (walumbwa, avolio, gardner, wernsing, & peterson, 2008) was electronically completed by 647 managers from a national organisation in the healthcare industry in south africa. research procedure the sample for the study was selected through purposive sampling. the requirements that were set for participation in the study were access to a computer and the internet, and acceptable english literacy, as the questions required respondents to be able to differentiate between fine nuances of behaviour described in words. employees from all branches of the organisation were included. eight hundred and fifty-five members of the organisation met these characteristics and were invited to respond to the survey. after the process of data gathering, 670 responses were recorded. however some of these responses were incomplete and had to be excluded from the sample. therefore, the survey response rate of usable responses was calculated as 76% (n = 647). participants the sample consisted mostly of female (77% of the sample) and afrikaans-speaking (66%) respondents. further to this, the largest proportion of the sample was managers (81%). the respondents’ ages ranged from 25 to 63, with an average age of 45 years (sd = 8.08). although some respondents were quite new to the organisation, the mean tenure of the respondents were 11 years (sd = 6.197). the mean reporting period to current manager of 4 years (sd = 4.046) also indicates a fairly stable workforce at the managerial level. measurement instruments the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) items are scored on a seven-point likert scale (0 = ‘never’ to 6 = ‘always’). previous south african studies reported scores from the uwes to have good internal consistency reliability ranging from 0.78 for vigour and 0.89 for dedication to 0.78 for absorption (storm & rothmann, 2003). using the uwes as unidimensional, laba and geldenhuys (2016) reported a cronbach’s alpha reliability of 0.90. the internal reliability of scores from the unidimensional uwes in the present study sample was 0.92. the pcq consists of 24 items to measure the four dimensions, namely self-efficacy, hope, resilience and optimism. it is scored on a six point likert scale, ranging from 1 (‘strongly disagree’) to 6 (‘strongly agree’). scores from the pcq had evidence of adequate reliability ranging from 0.67 to 0.90 (görgens-ekermans & herbert, 2013; simons & buitendach, 2013). the internal reliability of scores from the pcq in the present sample was 0.89. the alq comprises 16 items to measure four subscales of authentic leadership, namely self-awareness, relational transparency, balanced processing and internalised moral perspective (luthans & avolio, 2003). it is scored on a five-point likert scale with the item responses ranging from 0 (‘not at all’) to 4 (‘frequently’). a previous south african study using a healthcare industry sample reported reliability coefficients of 0.93 for scores from the alq (stander, de beer, & stander, 2015). the internal reliability of scores from the alq in the present study was 0.95. data analysis procedure descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data, which include pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis (which was also used for mediation and moderation analysis). spss version 24 was employed for the analysis, and the process macro (hayes, 2013) was utilised for the mediation and moderation analysis. ethical consideration ethical clearance was received from the university of the western cape ethics committee (reference number 13/5/36). the information page and informed consent contained in the electronic questionnaire utilised for the data collection at the participating organisation assisted to ensure ethical practice. firstly, it provided an explanation of the nature and rationale for the research. secondly, it informed participants that their participation in the research study was voluntary and that they could withdraw from the study at any time prior to submission of their responses. participants were also informed that their non-participation or withdrawal from the research would not be known to anybody other than themselves and therefore there would be no consequences should they decide not to participate. thirdly, the information page explained that the responses would be kept anonymous and that it would not be possible, in any way, to trace the responses back to individuals. if the participants wanted to discuss any aspect related to the research, the contact details of both the researcher and the research supervisor were given. results the relationships between authentic leadership, psychological capital and work engagement authentic leadership and psycap respectively correlated 0.314 and 0.578 with work engagement. all correlations were significant at the 0.01 level. the cronbach’s alpha reliability analysis also indicated acceptable reliability, ranging from 0.89 for the pcq24 to 0.95 for the alq. the results are displayed in table 1. table 1: descriptive statistics and correlations between the variables (n = 647). when comparing the mean item score of the research sample with the norm scales provided in the uwes-17 manual, the healthcare industry sample can be described as – on average – having a high level of work engagement. a mean of 4.67–5.53 indicates that respondents feel engaged in their work ‘often’ to ‘very often’ or ‘once a week’ to ‘a few times a week’. similarly, the sample tended to have high levels of psycap and scored their leaders as having high levels of authentic leadership. the mediating role of psychological capital multiple regression analyses were conducted to assess each component of the mediation model. the independent variable for the analyses was authentic leadership (x), the dependent variable was work engagement (y) and psycap was the proposed mediator (m). firstly, it was found that authentic leadership was positively associated with work engagement (β = 0.12, t [2, 647] = 3.410, p = 0.0007). it was also found that authentic leadership was positively related to psycap (β = 0.20, t [2, 647] = 7.91, p = 0.000). lastly, results indicated that the mediator, psycap, was positively associated with work engagement (β = 0.80, t [2, 647] = 15.00, p = 0.0000). because all three of the relationships were significant, mediation analyses were carried out using the bootstrapping method with bias-corrected confidence estimates (hayes, 2013). the 95% confidence interval (ci) of the indirect effects was obtained with 5000 bootstrap resamples. results of the mediation analysis confirmed the mediating role of psycap in the relation between authentic leadership and work engagement (β = 0.16; ci = 0.12–0.21). as the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement remained significant (β = 0.12, t [2, 647] = 3.42, p = 0.0007) when controlling for psycap, partial mediation of psycap is suggested. figure 1 provides a display of the results. figure 1: indirect effect of authentic leadership on work engagement through psychological capital. psycap, psychological capital. the moderating role of psychological capital the process macro was applied to determine the potential moderating effect of a third variable on the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement (x and y). mean centring was done for all the variables in an effort to reduce multicollinearity. in order to confirm whether the third variable has a moderation effect on the relationship between the two variables (x and y), it must be proven that the nature of this relationship changes as the values of the moderating variable (m) changes, according to hayes (2013). the variables explained a combined 35.6% (f [3, 643] = 118.63, p < 0.001, r2 = 0.3563) of the variance in work engagement. the detailed results are displayed in table 2. table 2: moderation analysis with psychological capital as moderator (n = 647) and work engagement as dependent variable. from table 2 it can be seen that both predictors remained statistically significant, with authentic leadership b = 0.12, t (643) = 4.04, p = 0.00 and psycap b = 0.78, t (643) = 15.18, p = 0.00. in other words, for every one unit increase in authentic leadership, there is a 0.12 increase in work engagement. similarly, for every one unit increase in psycap there is a 0.78 increase in work engagement. the interaction variable (i.e. psycap * authentic leadership is also statistically significant at the p > 0.05 level (b = -0.13, t [643] = -2.47, p = 0.01). in order to create a better understanding of the moderating effect of psycap on the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement, simple slopes for different levels of psycap were investigated. the different psycap levels present the mean and plus or minus one standard deviation from the mean. for ease of reference, these categories will be called ‘low psycap’ (mean minus one sd), ‘average psycap’ (mean) and ‘high psycap’ (mean plus one sd). these slopes are presented in table 3. table 3: conditional effects of authentic leadership on work engagement at different levels of psychological capital. from the analysis of the conditional effects of authentic leadership on work engagement at low, average and high levels of psycap, it becomes apparent that the effect of psycap on the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement is statistically significant for the low psycap (b = 0.19, t [643] = 4.69, p = 0.00) and average psycap (b = 0.12, t [643] = 4.04, p = 0.00) groups. however, there is no statistically significant relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement for the high psycap group (b = 0.06, t [643] = 1.42, p = 0.16). in other words, every unit of authentic leadership provides an increase of 0.19 in work engagement for those with low psycap levels and an increase of 0.12 for those with average psycap levels. it therefore seems that the impact of authentic leadership on work engagement decreases as the level of psycap increase. discussion although no other studies have reported on the mediating role of psycap between authentic leadership and work engagement, psycap has been found to mediate the relationship between authentic leadership and performance (wang, sui, luthans, wang, & wu, 2014). avey et al. (2008) stated that employees with higher levels of psycap tend to proactively facilitate positive changes in the organisation. therefore, it seems that psycap is important in facilitating the impact of a positive organisational context on desired workplace outcomes. authentic leadership does have a direct influence on work engagement. however, this influence is increased as a result of the mediating role of psycap. in practical terms this means that an individual’s perception of the authentic leadership behaviours of their leader will influence their level of work engagement. if this individual also has high levels of psycap, they may interpret their leader’s behaviour more positively. therefore, there will be an increased influence of such leadership behaviour on their work engagement. considering the results of the moderating effect of psycap on the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement found in the present sample, it becomes evident that as the psycap levels of respondents increase, the influence of the leader’s behaviour on the respondent’s level of work engagement becomes less important. wang et al. (2014) found that a higher level of performance was achieved when a lack of psycap was complemented with high levels of authentic leadership. similar to the findings of the present study, wang et al. (2014) conclude that the impact or need for authentic leadership is decreased when the employee already has a high level of psycap. wang et al. (2014) stated that psycap may have a complementary role to leadership rather than a supplementary role. the supplementary role is the more common approach to leadership where a leader’s influence is enhanced by followers’ characteristics. complementary congruity theory (kiesler, 1983) suggests that leaders and followers coordinate their actions by one party acting dominant and the other then being expected to be submissive (and thus, the leader might not always be the dominant party). following the thinking of complementary congruity and the classical substitutes for leadership theory, wang et al. (2014) speculates that follower psycap could be viewed as a substitute for authentic leadership. practical implications the results of the present study indicate that psycap explains the biggest unique proportion of the variance in work engagement. hence, for organisations trying to improve the levels of employee work engagement and decrease dependence on leadership intervention, psycap development may prove useful. specifically, individuals with a high level of psycap rely on their own psycap rather than the authentic behaviours of their leaders in order to improve their work engagement. therefore, human resource professionals could provide psycap training and micro-interventions that could impact the level of work engagement in a positive manner. development activities such as the psychological capital intervention (luthans et al., 2007; luthans & youssef-morgan, 2017) could be used as short training sessions. the content could include activities such as goal-setting, generating pathways and options to attain the set goals, considering possible obstacles to attainment of the goal, sharing the goal with other participants and being encouraged through their feedback, and reflection on past successes and stressors to build resilience. individual coaching and mentoring would also be a viable method to develop psycap (luthans et al., 2007). novel techniques such as video games and gamification techniques also show promise for the development of psycap (luthans & youssef-morgan, 2017). limitations and recommendations with regard to methodological choices for future research, it is suggested that longitudinal studies should be conducted to determine the relationships between the variables over time. one of the characteristics of psycap and work engagement is that both are state-like in nature. even though both variables have been shown to be stable over a period of time, longitudinal research is needed to determine whether there is also stability in the relationships between the variables. allesandri et al. (2018) reported that more than two waves of data may be needed to improve the helpfulness of the findings. furthermore, hierarchical levels of analysis can also be utilised. this could include studying the leadership impact on work engagement by utilising nested models that would measure the impact of a specific leader’s behaviour on the work engagement of employees. moreover, studying the psychometric variables at the group and organisational levels can also offer valuable insights to understanding positive employee behaviour in the workplace. in addition, the definition of authentic leadership (luthans & avolio, 2003) indicates that authentic leadership draws from a highly developed organisational context. this context includes the organisation’s vision, strategy and culture, which act as antecedents of authentic leadership development on organisations. in the case where the organisational culture is negative, with abusive leadership and dominant organisational politics, authentic leadership is unlikely to develop and thrive (luthans & youssef-morgan, 2017). thus, the influence of the organisational context should be considered in future studies on authentic leadership. conclusion in the present study, the role of psycap in the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement was explored. psycap explained a large proportion of the variance in work engagement for all employees. for individuals with high levels of psycap, the authentic leadership behaviours they perceived in their leader did not have a significant influence on their levels of work engagement. thus, the development of hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism in employees may be a viable option to improve levels of employee work engagement. acknowledgements this work is based on research supported in part by the national research foundation (nrf) of south africa. any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and the nrf does not accept any liability in this regard. this work is based on the phd work of the first author: du plessis (2014). the authors also acknowledge the research organisation for their support in facilitating the data collection. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.d.p. was responsible for all writing, data gathering and data analysis. a.b.b. was the supervisor of this phd research study and reviewed the draft and final version of the manuscript. references alessandri, g., consiglio, c., luthans, f., & borgogni, l. (2018). testing a dynamic model of the impact of psychological capital on work engagement and job performance. career development international, 23(1), 33–47. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi-11-2016-0210 avey, j. b., reichard, r. j., luthans, f., & mhatre, k. h. (2011). meta-analysis of the impact of positive psychological capital on employee attitudes, behaviors and performance. human resource development quarterly, 22(2), 127–152. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.20070 avey, j. b., wernsing, t. s., & luthans, f. (2008). can positive employees help positive organizational change? impact of psychological capital and emotions on relevant attitudes and behaviors. the journal of applied behavioral science, 44(1), 48–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886307311470 avolio, b. j., & gardner, w. l. (2005). authentic leadership development: getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. leadership quarterly, 16, 315–338. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.001 avolio, b. j., gardner, w. l., walumbwa, f. o., luthans, f., & may, d. r. (2004). unlocking the mask: a look at the process by which authentic leaders impact follower attitudes and behaviors. the leadership quarterly, 15, 801–823. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2004.09.003 avolio, b. j., & mhatre, k. h. (2012). advances in theory and research on authentic leadership. in k. s. cameron, & g. m. spreitzer (eds.), the oxford handbook of positive organizational scholarship (pp. 773–783). new york: oxford university press. avolio, b. j., walumbwa, f. o., & weber, t. j. (2009). leadership: current theories, research and future directions. annual review of psychology, 60, 421–449. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163621 bakker, a. b. (2009). building engagement in the workplace. in r. j. burke & c. l. cooper (eds.), the peak performing organization (pp. 50–72). oxon, uk: routledge. bakker, a. b., & albrecht, s. (2018). work engagement: current trends. career development international, 23(1), 4–11. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi-11-2017-0207 bakker, a. b., & demerouti, e. (2008). towards a model of work engagement. career development international, 12, 209–223. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430810870476 bakker, a. b., demerouti, e., & sanz-vergel, a. i. (2014). burnout and work engagement: the jd–r approach. annual review of organizational psychology and organizational of behaviour, 1(1), 389–411. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091235 bargagliotti, l. (2012). work engagement in nursing: a concept analysis. journal of advanced nursing, 68(6), 1414–1428. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2011.05859.x cameron, k. s., & spreitzer, g. m. (2012). introduction: what is positive about positive organizational scholarship? in k. s. cameron, & g. m. spreitzer (eds.), the oxford handbook of positive organizational scholarship (pp. 1–14). new york: oxford university press. chan, a. y. l. h., hannah, s. t., & gardner, w. l. (2005). veritable authentic leadership: emergence, functioning, and impacts. in w. l. gardner, b. j. avolio, & f. o. walumbwa (eds.), authentic leadership theory and practice: origins, effects, and development (vol. 3, pp. 3–41). new york: elsevier. conger, j. a., & kanungo, r. n. (1998). charismatic leadership in organizations. thousand oaks, ca: sage. deci, e. l., connell, j. p., & ryan, r. m. (1989). self-determination in a work organization. journal of applied psychology, 74(4), 580. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.74.4.580 du plessis, m. (2014). the relationship between authentic leadership, psychological capital, followership and work engagement. unpublished phd dissertation, university of the western cape. retrieved from http://etd.uwc.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11394/3903/du%20plessis_phd_2014.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y gallup. (2013). state of the global workplace: employee engagement insights for business leaders worldwide. washington, dc: gallup. gardner, w. l., avolio, b. j., luthans, f., may, d. r., & walumbwa, f. (2005). ‘can you see the real me?’ a self-based model of authentic leader and follower development. the leadership quarterly, 16, 343–372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.003 giallonardo, l. m., wong, c. a., & iwasiw, c. l. (2010). authentic leadership of preceptors: predictor of new graduate nurses’ work engagement and job satisfaction. journal of nursing management, 18(8), 993–1003. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2834.2010.01126.x görgens-ekermans, g., & herbert, m. (2013). psychological capital: internal and external validity of the psychological capital questionnaire (pcq-24) on a south african sample. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1131 harter, j., & adkins, a. (2015). what great managers do to engage employees. harvard business review. retrieved from: https://hbr.org/2015/04/what-great-managers-do-to-engageemployees hayes, a. f. (2013). introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: a regression-based approach. new york: guilford press. hobfoll, s. e. (2002). social and psychological resources and adaptation. review of general psychology, 6(4), 307–324. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.6.4.307 hsieh, c-c., & wang, d-s. (2015). does supervisor-perceived authentic leadership influence employee work engagement through employee-perceived authentic leadership and employee trust? the international journal of human resource management, 26(18), 2329–2348. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1025234 huang, l., & luthans, f. (2014). towards better understanding of the learning goal orientation-creativity relationship: the role of positive psychological capital. applied psychology, 64(2), 444–472. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12028 ilies, r., morgeson, f. p., & nahrgang, j. d. (2005). authentic leadership and eudaemonic well-being: understanding leader–follower outcomes. the leadership quarterly, 16, 373–394. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.002 jensen, s. m., & luthans, f. (2006). entrepreneurs as authentic leaders: impact on employees’ attitudes. leadership and organizational development journal, 27(7), 646–666. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730610709273 kahn, w. a., & heaphy, e. d. (2014). relational context of personal engagement at work. in c. truss, r. delbridge, e. soane, k. alfes, & a. shantz (eds.), employee engagement in theory and practice (pp. 163–179). london, uk: routledge. kiesler, d. j. (1983). the 1982 interpersonal circle: a taxonomy for complementarity in human transactions. psychological review, 90(3), 185. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.90.3.185 laba, k., & geldenhuys, m. (2016). psychological availability and work engagement: the moderating role of sex and race. journal of psychology in africa, 26(2), 107–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2016.1163888 luthans, f. (2002). positive organizational behavior: developing and managing psychological strengths. academy of management executive, 16, 57–75. luthans, f., & avolio, b. j. (2003). authentic leadership: a positive developmental approach. in k. s. cameron, j. e. dutton, & r. e. quinn (eds.), positive organizational scholarship: foundations of a new discipline (pp. 241–258). san francisco, ca: berrett-koehler. luthans, f., avolio, b. j., avey, j. b., & norman, s. m. (2007). positive psychological capital: measurement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. personnel psychology, 60, 541–572. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2002.6640181 luthans, f., luthans, k. w., & luthans, b. c. (2004). positive psychological capital: beyond human and social capital. business horizons, 47(1), 45–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2003.11.007 luthans, f., norman, s. m., avolio, b. j., & avey, j. b. (2008). the mediating role of psychological capital in the supportive organizational climate-employee performance relationship. journal of organizational behavior, 29(2), 219–238. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.507 luthans, f., youssef, c. m., & avolio, b. j. (2007). psychological capital: developing the human capital edge. oxford, england: oxford university press. luthans, f., & youssef-morgan, c. m. (2017). psychological capital: an evidence-based positive approach. annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behavior, 4, 339–366. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032516-113324 mäkikangas, a., feldt, t., kinnunen, u., & mauno, s. (2013). does personality matter? research on individual differences in occupational well-being, in a. b. bakker, (ed.), advances in positive organizational psychology (vol. 1, pp. 107–143). bingley: emerald. maslach, c., schaufeli, w. b., & leiter, m. p. (2001). job burnout. annual review of psychology, 52, 397–422. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397 mostert, k., & rathbone, a. d. (2001). work characteristics, work-home interaction and engagement of employees in the mining industry. management dynamics, 16(2), 36–52. munyaka, s. a., boshoff, a. b., pietersen, j., & snelgar, r. (2017). the relationships between authentic leadership, psychological capital, psychological climate, team commitment and intention to quit. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 43, a1430. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v43i0.1430 norman, s. m., avey, j. b., nimnicht, j. l., & pigeon, n. g. (2010). the interactive effects of psychological capital and organizational identity on employee organizational citizenship and deviance behaviours. journal of leadership and organization studies, 17(4), 380–391. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051809353764 penger, s., & černe, m. (2014). authentic leadership, employees’ job satisfaction, and work engagement: a hierarchical linear modelling approach. economic research, 27(1), 508–526. https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677x.2014.974340 petersen, k. (2015). authentic leadership and unit outcomes: additive and interactive contributions of climate and psychological capital. phd thesis, bellevue university of bellevue, ne. pillai, r., & meindl, j. r. (1998). context and charisma: a ‘meso’ level examination of the relationship of organic structure, collectivism, and crisis to charismatic leadership. journal of management, 24, 643–671. rego, a., sousa, f., marques, c., & pina e cunha, m. (2012). authentic leadership promoting employees’ psychological capital and creativity. journal of business research, 65(3), 429–437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.10.003 rich, b. l., lepine, j. a., & crawford, e. r. (2010). job engagement: antecedents and effects on job performance. academy of management journal, 53(3), 617–635. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.51468988 robertson, i. t., & cooper, c. l. (2010). full engagement: the integration of employee engagement and psychological well-being. leadership & organization development journal, 31(4), 324–336. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437731011043348 rothbard, n. p., & patil, s. v. (2012). being there: work engagement and positive organizational scholarship. in k. s. cameron, & g. m. spreitzer (eds.), the oxford handbook of positive organizational scholarship (pp. 56–69). new york: oxford university press. rothmann, s. (2017). employee engagement. in l. g. oades, m. steger, a. delle-fave, & j. passmore (eds.), the wiley-blackwell handbook of the psychology of positivity and strengths-based approaches at work, (pp. 317–341). wiley: chichester. schaufeli, w. b., & bakker, a. b. (2003). uwes utrecht work engagement scale: preliminary manual (version 1). utrecht university: occupational health psychology unit. seligman, m. e. p. (2011). flourish: a new understanding of happiness and well-being – and how to achieve them. london, uk: nicolas brealey. seligman, m. e. p., & csikszentmihalyi, m. (2000). positive psychology: an introduction. american psychologist, 55, 5–14. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.5 simons, j. c., & buitendach, j. h. (2013). psychological capital, work engagement and organisational commitment amongst call centre employees in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1071 snyder, c. r., irving, l. m., & anderson, j. r. (1991). hope and health. handbook of social and clinical psychology: the health perspective, 162, 285–305. sparrowe, r. t. (2005). authentic leadership and the narrative self. the leadership quarterly, 16(3), 419–439. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.004 stander, f. w., de beer, l. t., & stander, m. (2015). authentic leadership as a source of optimism, trust in the organisation and work engagement in the public health care sector. sa journal of human resource management, 13(1), 12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.675 storm, k., & rothmann, s. (2003). a psychometric analysis of the utrecht work engagement scale in the south african police service. sa journal of industrial psychology, 29(4), 62–70. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v29i4.129 sweetman, d., luthans, f., avey, j. b., & luthans, b. c. (2011). relationship between positive psychological capital and creative performance. canadian journal of administrative sciences/revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration, 28(1), 4–13. https://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.175 walumbwa, f. o., avolio, b. j., gardner, w. l., wernsing, t. s., & peterson, s. j. (2008). authentic leadership: development and validation of a theory-based measure. journal of management, 34, 89–126. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206307308913 wang, h., sui, y., luthans, f., wang, d., & wu, y. (2014). impact of authentic leadership on performance: role of followers’ positive psychological capital and relational processes. journal of organizational behavior, 35, 5–21. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1850 woolley, l., caza, a., & levy, l. (2011). authentic leadership and follower development: psychological capital, positive work climate, and gender. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 18(4), 438–448. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051810382013 xanthopoulou, d., bakker, a. b., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w. b. (2009). work engagement and financial returns: a diary study on the role of job and personal resources. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 82, 183–200. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317908x285633 youssef, c. m., & luthans, f. (2012). psychological capital: meaning, findings and future directions. in k. s. cameron, & g. m. spreitzer (eds.), the oxford handbook of positive organizational scholarship (pp. 17–27). new york: oxford university press. abstract introduction research design results ethical considerations discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) vinessa naidoo business school, tshwane university of technology, south africa ishana abarantyne business school, tshwane university of technology, south africa robert rugimbana business school, tshwane university of technology, south africa citation naidoo, v., abarantyne, i., & rugimbana, r. (2019). the impact of psychological contracts on employee engagement at a university of technology. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1039. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1039 original research the impact of psychological contracts on employee engagement at a university of technology vinessa naidoo, ishana abarantyne, robert rugimbana received: 28 jan. 2018; accepted: 29 aug. 2018; published: 15 jan. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: changing organisational dynamics have caused a need for organisations to understand the employment relationship processes and outcomes in order to improve organisational effectiveness, increase productivity and retain talented employees. research purpose: the purpose of the study is to determine which elements of the academic employee’s psychological contract are impacting employee engagement at a university of technology. motivation for the study: the study was motivated by the findings of a 2013 climate survey at an institute of higher education, indicating that many employees were dissatisfied and believed that their expectations were not met by the organisation. research approach/design and method: a quantitative technique via online questionnaires was employed for data collection. the sample size was 400 out of 900 academic staff members. main findings: the study confirmed that most employees appear to have developed a positive psychological contract. it indicated, however, that many employees may be experiencing discord in the employment relationship. both transactional and relational elements of the psychological contract appeared to be essential to academic employees. practical/managerial implications: the study identified factors of importance to academic employees that should be considered in the compilation of retention policies. contribution/value-add: the results of the study could contribute towards addressing some of the challenges by creating a better understanding of the needs of academic employees and the impact of psychological contract fulfilment and breach. this could benefit the higher education sector as a whole. introduction for an organisation to achieve its strategic objectives and obtain a competitive advantage, it must be committed to appointing, developing, sustaining and retaining the right people with the appropriate skills (devi, 2009, p. 3). south african institutions of higher education face the challenge that a significant number of academics will retire in the near future. the knowledge of these academics and specialist employees is viewed as a very important source of wealth in which competitive advantage lies (gupta, aggarwal, samaria, sarda, & bucha, 2012, p. 737). these knowledge workers have a high degree of expertise, education and experience and their primary purpose involves the creation, distribution and application of knowledge (davenport, 2005, p. 10). should institutions be unable to obtain, develop and retain such talented employees, they will be unable to produce high-quality graduates to contribute towards the economy nor fulfil their objective of expanding their institutions (badat, 2010, pp. 5–45). to do so certain expectations of the employee need to be met by the employer. these expectations of the employee form an unwritten contract referred to as a ‘psychological contract’ (aggarwal & bhargava, 2009, p. 238). the concept of the psychological contract is a framework applied as a means of understanding and managing employment relations (conway & briner, 2002, p. 287). when the employee perceives a breach in this contract, hope and trust are lost, levels of engagement plummet and the employee is more likely to consider leaving the organisation (rayton & yalabik, 2014, p. 2386). a climate survey conducted at an institute of higher education in pretoria during 2013 indicated that many employees were dissatisfied, believed that their trust had been betrayed and that their expectations were not being met by the organisation. by implication the employees may perceive a breach in their psychological contract with the organisation. the possibility of the organisation losing valuable employees was largely the motivation for this study. when understanding the impact of the psychological contract on staff retention better, the organisation might be able to fulfil employees’ expectations to a larger extent and thus prevent the loss of these employees. the main objective was therefore to determine the impact of the psychological contract on employee engagement at an institute of higher education. in order to reach the objective, the research question was stated as follows: what elements of the academic employee’s psychological contract have impacted academic employee engagement at an institute of higher education in pretoria, gauteng? because limited studies have been conducted on the nature of the relationship between psychological contracts and employee engagement (bruce, zeynep, & yalabik, 2014, p. 2384), particularly in the higher education sector, this study will add greatly to the body of academic knowledge. the study focused mainly on the use of the psychological contract as a tool towards improving levels of employee engagement and retention at a university of technology in pretoria, gauteng. literature review brief overview of psychological contracts barnard’s theory of equilibrium of 1938 referred to an employment relationship as an exchange, suggesting that an employee’s continued participation in an organisation depended on adequate rewards received from the employer (coyle-shapiro & parzafall, 2008, p. 24). the term ‘psychological contract’ was first used by argyris in the early 1960s. this contract focuses explicitly on employees’ perceptions of the employment deal (höglund, 2012, p. 127). at the basis of the psychological contract is social exchange theory, based on the principal of reciprocity. reciprocity implies that an individual feels obliged to reciprocate when receiving a benefit (sonnenberg, koene, & paauwe, 2011, p. 666). development of the psychological contract while the terms of an employment contract are formal and legally binding, psychological contracts are informal, subjective in nature, not legally binding and lacking in clarity. coyle-shapiro (2002, p. 930) maintains that the formation of the psychological contract begins even before an individual starts at a new job and then goes through various stages of development. this process continues over more or less the first year of employment and includes perceptions of the fulfilment or the violation of promised obligations. once formed, psychological contracts are quite stable and resistant to change (tomprou & nikolaou, 2011, p. 358). factors influencing the development of psychological contracts aggarwal and bhargava (2009, p. 11) illustrate the role of some of the factors influencing employees’ promissory expectations by citing previous studies. table 1 presents a summary of their findings. table 1: factors influencing the development of psychological contracts. types of psychological contracts psychological contracts are categorised in terms of two underlying dimensions, transactional and relational. transactional contracts refer to a narrow range of behaviours over a limited time period, emphasising financial rewards in exchange for a fairly tightly defined set of employee behaviours. relational contracts, on the other hand, are based on a longer-term relationship where a broader range of benefits and opportunities are provided in exchange for a deeper and more extensive commitment to the organisation. these contracts tend to be more unstructured, uncertain and open-ended and to rely on a higher level of trust (coyle-shapiro & parzefall, 2008, p. 13; middlemiss, 2011, p. 33). a considerable overlap has been identified, with aspects such as pay being present in both. content of the psychological contract the content of a psychological contract is important because it establishes the deal between employee and organisation. guest and conway (1998) indicated that the content of the psychological contract consists of trust, fairness and the delivery of the deal. trust can be defined as a willingness to be vulnerable to the actions of another party (mayer, davis, & schoorman, 1995, p. 712). it is closely interlinked with mutual obligations and is built over a certain period, creating an exchange relationship. middlemiss (2011, p. 42) suggested that trust is present in all psychological contracts and underpins transactional as well as relational obligations. cohen (2013, p. 606) emphasises the role of fairness perceptions in shaping employee attitudes, particularly organisational commitment. managers and other organisational agents must be sensitive to employees’ perceptions about how they are treated, to ensure that perceptions of unfairness do not damage the employment relationship. fair treatment of employees not only fosters trust but also influences outcomes such as employee engagement. organisations should therefore be transparent and have regular communication with employees. supervisors should be well trained with good interpersonal skills and should treat their subordinates with respect (aggarwal, 2014, p. 61). the deal refers to the obligations included in the psychological contract. these include job content, job security, training and development, rewards and benefits, fair pay, good working conditions and future career prospects (atkinson & cuthbert, 2006, p. 649). in a study of academic psychological contracts, shen (2010, p. 584) found that the most desirable obligation for academics was the provision of a safe workplace. other academic-specific items include providing funding and time off for research, which are additional to the constructs of the general psychological contract. relationship between the psychological contract and turnover intentions because the psychological contract is based on the norm of reciprocity, it can be inferred that an employee will reciprocate fulfilled promises with loyalty and lower turnover intentions. literature on turnover intention indicates employee attitudes such as organisational commitment and job satisfaction to be the main causes of turnover intention. the higher the level of job satisfaction and organisational commitment an employee experiences, the lower the turnover intentions. one of the reasons that organisational efforts to limit turnover intentions do not always deliver the expected results is because human resources managers do not focus on the inducements that are important to employees when they develop retention policies. they devote much time to the financial inducements in their retention policies, but they should shift their focus to factors that employees deem important, such as social atmosphere and job content, rather than focusing only on extrinsic factors such as work–life balance and financial rewards. they should consider what their employees value and how they evaluate the organisation’s efforts towards retention management if they are to contribute in a cost-efficient way to the strategic objectives of the organisation (de vos & meganck, 2008, p. 56, 58). in other words, they should consider the psychological contract rather than the actual contract alone. george (2015, p. 114, 116) found that turnover intention factors for professional workers at the organisational level, such as management style, pleasant working experience, adequate resources, a degree of flexibility, being part of a team, opportunity to learn new skills or for advancement, are important. at the job level, a degree of autonomy, flexibility in workload decisions, transparent and fair pay decisions, opportunity for employees to craft their jobs and suitable work–life balance are important. these factors that were found to be important in the retention of professional employees are also commonly mentioned in relation to psychological contract breach, suggesting that a relationship exists between turnover intentions and psychological contract breach. academic contract fulfilment management in the higher education sector may find that the concept of a psychological contract offers a powerful means of organisational leverage in pursuit of employee retention and higher levels of employee organisational commitment. shen (2010, p. 584) found that the overall level of academic psychological contract fulfilment is low with the least fulfilled contents of the psychological contract being fair promotion, consultation, recognition of contributions, providing funding for research and pay equity. the most fulfilled elements are the provision of adequate training, reasonable workload, the provision of resources to do work and the provision of adequate time for research. the effects of psychological contract fulfilment or breach bal, de cooman and mol (2013, p. 110) found that psychological contract fulfilment results in an increase in work engagement, positive attitude towards the job and lower turnover intentions. employees become more motivated to invest in their work and contribute more to the organisation, indicating higher levels of employee engagement (rayton & yalabik, 2014, p. 4). in addition, psychological contract fulfilment could also act as a buffer against the negative effects of various job demands such as highly stressful conditions, thereby contributing positively to employee health and well-being (parzefall & hakanen, 2010, p. 5). contract breach, on the other hand, refers to the event where either party fails to fulfil the perceived obligations. this leads to the erosion of trust and a breakdown in the employment relationship. parzefall and coyle-shapiro (2011, p. 13) emphasise the role of cognitive processes on perceptions of breach and their outcomes. factors such as trust, perceived organisational support and support from supervisors and mentors may help in mitigating the negative outcomes of psychological contract breach. they also state that the effect will be more severe when perceived as intentional rather than caused by environmental factors or an honest misunderstanding. responses to psychological contract breach empirical evidence (cassar, 2001; hui, lee, & rousseau, 2004; pate, martin, & mcgoldrick, 2003) suggests that psychological contract breach is associated with and impacts negatively on a wide range of employee attitudes and behaviours such as psychological contract violation, intentions to leave the organisation, reduced trust in the organisation, employee motivation, in-role job performance, organisational citizenship behaviour, employee engagement, intentions to quit, turnover, increased cynicism, lower job satisfaction, organisational commitment and poor mental health outcomes (deery, iverson, & walsh, 2006, p. 169; flower, demir, mcwilliams, & johnson, 2015, p. 107). employee retention according to de vos and meganck (2008, p. 45), employee retention refers to the ability of an organisation to retain its employees. it can be defined as the ability to hold onto those employees an organisation wants to keep for longer than the competitors. allen, bryant and vardaman (2010, p. 60) suggest that effective retention management requires ongoing diagnosis of the nature and causes of turnover. it requires a strategic approach to determine the largest impact of retention on organisational success and the development of an appropriately targeted and organised bundle of retention initiatives. talent cannot easily be imitated and can be a valuable strategic tool in the pursuit of a successful organisation. there are several negative implications when critical talent leaves to take up positions with a competitor. these include: the loss of knowledge and expertise the likelihood of critical information falling into a competitor’s hands the need for considerable investment to hire and train replacements. despite the efforts of human resource managers, employee turnover is often prevalent. it results in a drain on management time and creates pressures in workforce planning and service delivery. intangible costs include the negative impact on culture and employee morale, adverse effects on social capital and the erosion of organisational memory. the average turnover costs for a full-time professional employee in the private sector have been estimated to be as high as 150% of the employee’s annual compensation package (pitts, marvel, & fernandez, 2011, p. 751). pitts et al. (2011, p. 752) cluster the factors usually associated with turnover into three categories, namely demographic factors, workplace satisfaction factors and organisational or relational factors. retention of professional workers professional workers are a group of people who are involved in the same kind of work and belong to a specific profession. they often display high levels of expertise, autonomy, a belief in the regulation of the profession by its members and a belief in the importance of the specific profession. professional workers are loyal to and identify with both the profession and their organisation (george, 2015, p. 102, 103). employee engagement according to devi (2009, p. 3), engaged employees help organisations to perform better. engagement in this regard refers to the level that an employee’s heart and mind is being captured by an organisation (kaye & jordan-evans, 2003, p. 11). it can be characterised by energy, involvement and positive interaction in the workplace and is regarded as an important concept for enhancing staff recruitment and retention. definition of engagement academic literature provides a number of definitions for employee engagement. kahn (1990, p. 694) defines it as the ‘harnessing of organizational members’ selves to their work roles’. engagement is a multidimensional construct where an employee can be emotionally, cognitively or physically engaged. the more employees are engaged in each dimension, the higher the overall level of personal engagement. emotional engagement: this entails connecting in a meaningful way with co-workers and managers. when employees feel that their opinions count and that their managers are interested in their development, they respond positively to their managers, contributing to managerial and organisational effectiveness. cognitive engagement: it speaks of an employee who is acutely aware of their mission and role in the work environment. when employees understand their purpose in the organisation and are given opportunities to grow and excel and constantly attempt to progress, they are more likely to be successful. therefore, employees who are able to connect with others in the work environment, who know what is expected of them and who experience meaning in their work, are engaged (luthans & peterson, 2002, p. 378). schaufelli (2002), as quoted by parzefall and hakanen (2010, p. 6), defines conceptualised engagement as consisting of three components, namely vigour, dedication, and absorption. these are explained below: vigour refers to a high level of positive energy at work, resilience and willingness to invest one’s efforts even in the face of difficulties. dedication refers to being strongly involved in one’s work and includes feelings of inspiration, a sense of significance and enthusiasm about one’s work. absorption is characterised by being fully concentrated and happily engrossed in one’s work, whereby time passes quickly and it becomes difficult to detach from work (p. 6). levels of engagement overall engagement levels internationally are not very high. many economies worldwide pay the price for active disengagement. empirical evidence (gallup, 2013), reveals that less than 36% of employees worldwide are engaged. the rest are either not engaged, neutral or actively disengaged (bhattacharya, 2015, p. 299; gallup, 2013, p. 17). the gallup survey (2013, p. 29, 56, 59) found that south africa has one of the highest percentages of actively disengaged employees in the world, with only 9% engaged, 46% not engaged and 45% actively disengaged. gallup (2013) explains: not engaged or neutral: employees who are not engaged are not hostile or disruptive but are merely unconcerned with important organisational activities. actively disengaged: these employees are on a mission to damage an organisation. they have a higher rate of absenteeism and are more likely to quit than engaged employees. engaged employees: this group of employees is involved in, enthusiastic about and psychologically committed to their jobs. they help to build an organisation and are in an emotional and psychological state that goes beyond having a merely satisfactory experience at work to one of 100% psychological commitment to their roles (p. 19). benefits of engagement chughtai and buckley (2013, p. 397) suggest that engagement is a vital source of competitive advantage, particularly in knowledge-intensive organisations. engaged employees are most likely to drive innovation, growth and revenue, build new products and services, generate new ideas and ultimately help spur the economy. because of their strong emotional connection to their organisation, they are willing to go the extra mile. engagement contributes to meaningful business outcomes such as productivity, profitability, customer satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviour and superior performance (gallup, 2013, p. 29). based on the knowledge gained from the literature review and in support of the main research question, this study set out to answer the following subquestions: what are academic employees’ perceptions of the outcomes of psychological contract fulfilment or breach? what is the current state of the academic employees’ psychological contract? what transactional or relational elements of the psychological contract are important to academic employees? what are the factors that influence discontent in the employment relationship? what are academic employees’ perceptions of the current retention practices at their organisation? the article will proceed in explaining the methodology of the study as well as the results obtained from the data. it will also present recommendations to institutes of higher educations as well as for future research. research design this research falls under a positivistic paradigm with emphasis on a deductive approach. the study predominantly relied on quantitative data and the employment of a survey questionnaire, which is aligned with the characteristics of positivistic research (neuman, 2006). methods of this study the study was conducted in the social world using the quantitative research paradigm. the research is both descriptive and analytical in nature and data were collected through a standard questionnaire. a survey questionnaire was deemed the most appropriate method for this study, allowing insight into the motivations, beliefs and attitudes of the respondents. it offers a greater possibility of anonymity, is better for sensitive and personal topics and is cost-effective. it also provides an overview of a representative sample of a large population and allows easy comparison with other studies that use similar questions (punnett & shenkar, 2004, p. 136). population and sample the target population for this study comprised permanent and fixed-term academic employees across all six faculties of a university of technology in pretoria, gauteng. academics from the lowest level (junior lecturer) to the highest level (professor) were targeted in view of the practical implications, specifically the significant costs associated with the loss of talented employees in the higher education sector. the population measured 800 permanent and 100 fixed-term academic employees. a total stratified random sample of 300 academic employees was chosen for the study. a sample from each faculty was selected in proportion to the size of the faculty in relation to the population as a whole. a pilot test was performed by 30 academic employees who were contacted personally. the indication was that the questionnaire was in a suitable format and the questions clear and easy to understand, although somewhat lengthy. data collection primary as well as secondary data were collected for this study. the main sources of secondary data were various journals, internet articles, research articles and textbooks. primary data were collected via a self-administered questionnaire. the link to the online questionnaire was distributed on 22 september 2016 with a 4-month response window. the response rate was fairly slow because of student protest action that took place nationally at higher education institutions during that period. a reasonable sample of 230 responses was received, representing a response rate of 57.5%. a total of 23 responses were incomplete; therefore only 207 responses were included in the study. data management because participation in this study was online and the data were presented in excel spreadsheets, it did not have to be manually encoded, captured or cleaned, eliminating errors. a range of descriptive and inferential data analysis techniques were conducted on the primary data collected in order to address the research question. the research results were presented as graphical and descriptive statistics. bar graphs, frequency tables and percentages were calculated using stata version 13 statistical software. the mean, standard deviation median, minimum and maximum values were produced for categorical variables. the chi-square test was used to test for association between any two categorical variables. the interpretation was performed at ɑ = 0.05. thus, the association was declared significant if the p-value was found to be less than 0.05. the chi-square was found appropriate in determining the significance of the relationship between categorical variables of the sample. pearson’s r was used, where the level of measurement of both variables presumes the properties of interval-level (numerical) data. to analyse data from the open-ended questions, quantitative content analysis was used to extract common themes through frequency counts. the textual information was reduced and its properties, such as the frequencies of most used keywords, were systematically identified, in the content of the open-ended questions. results the questionnaire standardised questionnaires on psychological contracts were adapted in order to include items that were deemed relevant to the higher education sector. the questionnaire consisted of three sections with the ‘introduction’ section addressing the demographic information of the respondents. the ‘research design’ section dealt with the perception of the respondents regarding ten factors influencing the psychological contract. these were fairness, trust, the deal, transactional and relational elements, breach, violation, job satisfaction, organisational commitment, employee engagement and intentions to quit or stay. the ‘results’ section presented three open-ended questions dealing with turnover intentions. demographic information the participants of the study were mostly male employees and 80% were in the age group of 30–59 years of age. the average time of employment at the current position was 5 years, with 40% of the respondents being employed for less than 6 years and 12.4% for more than 20 years; 78% were permanently employed. the main qualification of the respondents was a doctorate degree followed by a master’s degree. very few respondents were in leadership positions with only 1% acting as deans or assistant deans. heads of department accounted for 7.83% and section heads for 5.65%. only 26.52% of the respondents had been promoted within the organisation. reliability analysis cronbach’s alpha was applied to measure the instrument’s internal consistency. when the alpha is 0.70 or higher, it is considered acceptable in most social science research situations. the results for the subscales are presented in table 2. from the table it is clear that the result for each is well above this accepted value, indicating that the study was reliable. table 2: results from cronbach’s alpha. response to the survey items section 1: psychological contract the responses to the items measuring fairness in the institute indicate many different perceptions. of note is that 26.57% of the respondents perceived some form of discrimination to be present. the responses to victimisation and bullying were equally positive and negative with a large percentage of uncertainty regarding the handling of sexual harassment incidents. the issues dealt with in this section – victimisation, bullying, discrimination and sexual harassment – are not necessarily widely reported on in an organisation, as they are of a sensitive nature; therefore many employees might not be aware if they did actually occur, and if they did, how the organisation dealt with it. the pattern of responses for the element of trust indicated that while most participants seemed to place a high level of trust in the employer to keep their promises, be honest and open and treat them fairly, a substantial percentage did not feel the same way. the percentages of agreeing with the statements was mostly in the vicinity of 50%, with the exception of honesty and truthfulness, where only 35.75% agreed. on measuring the perceptions of the deal, a number of specific items were presented. the participants’ highest responses in specific categories were as follows: training: 41.55% of participants believed that the organisation did well in keeping their training commitments. rewards: 28.99% felt that the organisation rewarded good job performance poorly, and 14.49% felt that it rewarded it extremely poorly. environment: 42.03% of participants believed that the organisation did well in providing a safe working environment and 26.57% believed it did marginally well. job security: a significant 44.93% of participants believed that the organisation did well in providing job security. promotion: 30.92% of participants believed that the organisation did well in providing a fair opportunity for promotion. challenge: 38.16% of participants believed that the organisation did well, and 28.50% marginally well, in providing them with challenging work. protean career: 31.88% of participants believed that the organisation did well, and 20.29% marginally poorly in skills development that they could use even if they left and joined another organisation. pay increase: 24.64% of participants believed that the organisation did poorly, and 26.57% extremely poorly, in providing salary increases based on performance. human resource policies: 27.05% of participants believed that the organisation was fair and consistent in the application of human resources policies, processes and practices. autonomy: 31.88% of participants believed that the organisation enabled them to be autonomous in the various facets of their work. recognition: 18.84% of participants believed that the organisation did poorly, and a significant 27.05% extremely poorly, in recognising their contribution to the organisation. the findings of this study suggest that both transactional and relational elements of the psychological contract were important to the participants. all elements, both relational and transactional in nature, elicited responses of 80% and higher. the highest responses recorded were for the elements of promotion at 92.27%, support at 90.33%, job security at 94.69%, initiative at 90.34%, abilities at 97.10% and work–life balance at 91.31%. the most important top three elements were promotion, measuring 92.27% (transactional), job security at 94.69% (relational) and abilities at 97.10% (relational). the opportunity to use their skills and abilities effectively (97.10%) is the most important relational element to participants. the element ‘being able to use your initiative’ is somewhat related to abilities and also elicited a high response (90.34%). it is clear that participants want to be given the opportunity to effectively use their skills, abilities and initiative. job security (94.69%) was the second most important relational element. traditionally academic institutions are seen to provide job security that one does not necessarily find in the private sector. promotion (92.27%), the only transactional element, was considered the third most important element by participants. section 2: outcomes of fulfilment or breach the data collected indicated that positive psychological contracts appear to exist among participants. this is portrayed by the significant 50% of participants whose responses indicated that they did not perceive their contracts being breached. those who did not share this positive view varied between a significant 30.92% and 37.68%. the results regarding violation of the psychological contract were very much in line with these responses. it is necessary, however, to take note of the respondents who did not agree with the statement. feelings of frustration, betrayal and anger were reported by 34.78%, 23.18% and 18.84%, respectively. the findings of this study showed that most employees were satisfied with their jobs; 85.51% of participants indicated that they were satisfied with their jobs while 89.86% disagreed with the statement that in general, they did not like their jobs. an overwhelming 90.82% of participants indicated that they liked working at the organisation. because the majority of the respondents were satisfied with their jobs, there is no surprise in the fact that the majority also indicated organisational commitment. once again there was a substantial number who seemed to lack commitment. the responses to the statements regarding levels of engagement suggested that most employees see themselves as constructively engaged at their workplaces, with high agreeable rates for knowing what is expected of them (91.79%), having materials and equipment available (76.81%), opportunities to exercise their natural abilities (78.26%), having a positive relationship with supervisors (74.88%), knowing the mission and purpose of their jobs (84.54%) and feeling that their opinion counts (79.22%). there were, however, a few notable exceptions: recognition: the statement indicating that participants received recognition for good work in the last 7 days had the highest number of respondents disagreeing, at 65.70%. this response indicated a disgruntled workforce who felt that their contributions were not being appreciated. only 27.06% of respondents felt that their efforts were recognised. quality: while 53.62% agreed with the statement that fellow colleagues are committed to doing quality work, a large percentage (31.40%) disagreed that there was a commitment to producing quality work. this is especially concerning for knowledge workers such as academics, as quality is an integral component of their work. development: almost half of the participants (46.37%) disagreed that someone encouraged their development, while 48.31% agreed with the statement that someone encouraged their development. progress: the statement regarding progress asked if the participants’ progress were addressed by any one during the past 6 months. alarmingly, 58.94% of participants disagreed that their progress had been addressed in the past 6 months, while 33.82% agreed that this had taken place. as for the intentions to quit, a large percentage of respondents indicated that they were not actively looking for alternative employment and that there was some gain in staying with the institute. of concern, though, is the 35.75% of respondents who were often thinking about leaving and the 24.64% who were actively looking for alternative employment. descriptive statistics by means of the stata version 13 statistical software, the descriptive statistics for each set of variables were calculated. the mean, standard deviation, median, minimum and maximum values were produced for categorical variables. the median value was 4 for all the scales where the seven-point likert scale was used. for the items of fairness, trust, breach, job satisfaction, organisation commitment and employee engagement the median was higher than the mean, indicating that the data were negatively skewed. the other four items, namely the deal, transactional or relational elements, violation of the contract and intentions to quit, had a median score lower than the mean, indicating that the data were positively skewed. inferential statistics the chi-square test of association was performed in order to identify variables of significance. from the analysis it became clear that the ages of the participants had a significant influence on most statements, while leadership was much less significant, with only two p-values below 0.05. these statements dealt with fair opportunity for promotion as well as the recognition of contributions. the results were that employees in non-leadership positions responded more positively to the statements. the relationship between the respondents’ positions and the deal turned out to be highly significant, with 10 out of 14 statements resulting in a p-value below 0.05. the results of the association between the position and organisational commitment delivered low indications of significance. further to the chi-square, the anova test was also applied to identify significant relations between variables. the results indicated that tenure carried the most weight in influencing the participants’ perceptions. responses to the open-ended questions the last section of the questionnaire consisted of open-ended questions that requested participants to nominate the most important reasons that employees stay with their organisations, why employees leave and the actual practices implemented at the organisation to enhance employee retention. the most frequently cited reasons for employees staying with the organisation were as follows: competitive and fair remuneration – 14% recognition for contribution to the department, organisation and the profession – 10% career development – personal and professional growth and development – 9% job security – 9% the most frequently cited reasons for employees leaving an organisation were as follows: management: poor leadership, favouritism, conflict, low staff morale – 13% unfair treatment – 12% discrimination: based on culture and race – 11% poor and unsafe work environment, perpetuated by student unrest – 9% victimisation: particularly by managers – 8% inconsistent or no promotion opportunities – 8% heavy workload – 6% recognition: no recognition for contributions to the department, faculty or organisation – 6% the most recommended retention practices were as follows: support: from managers and faculty in terms of growth and development of academics, including women – 11% competitive remuneration and performance-based packages – 9% promotion – 6% a significant 55% of participants indicated that the organisation did not have any retention practices in place to retain talented employees. most of the recommended retention practices overlapped with the reasons why employees would leave the organisation, suggesting that management should consider implementing some of these recommendations from employees in order to retain them. ethical considerations during the period of study, the essential ethical considerations were followed. written approval was obtained from the ethics committee of tshwane university of technology for the study to be conducted at the university. the process included submission of the proposal, the questionnaire and the informed consent form for survey participants. permission was also obtained to make use of an anonymous online data collection system, question pro, to collect data from a sample of randomly selected academic employees, in all six faculties at the institution. discussion the main research question of this study was: what elements of the academic employee’s psychological contract have impacted academic employee engagement at tshwane university of technology? as the psychological contract fulfilment or breach has a direct influence on employee engagement, the study posted questions to determine the perceptions of the employees regarding these aspects. the findings indicated that the majority of the participants did not experience contract breach or violation. a significant percentage, however, felt that the organisation failed to keep promises made to them. according to parzefall and coyle-shapiro (2011), there will be a decline in an employee’s contribution to an organisation once the trust relationship has been damaged. it can therefore be concluded that a number of employees at the organisation might experience high turnover intentions. it was also recorded that feelings of frustration (34.78%), betrayal (23.18%) and anger (18.84%) were experienced by some participants. deery et al. (2006) as well as flower et al. (2015) pointed out that these feelings could lead to organisational cynicism, which in turn leads to poor performance, low morale, high absenteeism, turnover, disillusionment, job dissatisfaction and fewer citizenship behaviours. the majority of employees indicated that they were satisfied with their jobs, in general, liked their jobs and liked working at the organisation, indicating high levels of job satisfaction. this is in contrast to the literature by shen (2010), who reported that serious contract violation may exist in the higher education sector, which will have a considerable negative effect on organisational performance. as most participants were experiencing job satisfaction, lower levels of turnover intentions were reported. the exception for this was for the middle-aged group, who reported lower levels of commitment with higher levels of turnover intentions. the study found that both transactional and relational elements of the psychological contract were essential to academic employees. this is contrast to the findings of shen (2010), who indicated that academic psychological contracts tend to be more transactional in nature. the findings suggested that a reasonably positive psychological contract existed among employees; however, a substantial number of employees perceived that they were being treated unfairly, did not trust the organisation and did not believe that the organisation would honour the deal. the employees were also unanimous in indicating that except for one retention practice, which they perceived as ineffective, the organisation had no retention practices or policies in place. recommendations: psychological contract breach and fulfilment based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations are presented to the organisation. organisational agents must ensure that a realistic perception of the organisation is presented to prospective employees and be aware of promises made during this process. policy or procedure changes must be communicated and explained clearly to manage possible breach. efforts must be made to foster a trusting and quality relationship between employees, the organisation and its agents. the organisation must regularly assess the changes in employees’ expectations of the organisation and what the organisation needs to contribute. management should consider the factors contributing to intentions to quit when determining retention strategies for the organisation and ensure that they are integrated into policies and practices at the organisation. the organisation should invest in the employees and commit to making them feel valued and important. included in this is encouragement and feedback on the employees’ progress by managers and supervisors. some of the above can be achieved by effective management practices. the organisation must therefore ensure that managers possess the required management skills instead of using management jobs as promotional opportunities for career paths. managers with the right talents are able to support, position, empower and engage their staff. they must be held accountable for their employees’ engagement. organisations should coach managers to take an active role in building engagement plans with their employees. they should define engagement goals in everyday terms for employees and make them meaningful to employees’ day-to-day experiences. regular discussions and integration of engagement into daily interactions and activities enhance engagement. managers should be aware of the factors most relevant to engagement among their employees and use every interaction with an employee as an opportunity to improve engagement levels and inspire discretionary effort. the organisation should further offer inducements such as teamwork, pleasant working conditions, considerate treatment of employees, growth opportunities, skill enhancement and abundant training opportunities, creating the perception that there is a future with the organisation. practices such as flexible working hours, which best support employees in balancing their work and home environments, should also be considered. the most important factors that emerged from the transactional and relational elements were promotion, job security and the use of abilities and initiative. management should consider these needs and ensure that they are able to fulfil them to the best of their ability. recommendations: retention practices the most recommended retention practices were as follows: support: from managers and faculty in terms of growth and development of academics, particularly women competitive remuneration and performance-based packages promotions management should consider urgently implementing a retention strategy that is relevant to employees in higher education, taking into consideration what academic employees value. the organisation should assess why such a significant number of participants have intentions to leave the organisation, particularly those within the age group of 30–39. the organisation should strive to build a positive and strong organisational culture and assist new employees in adopting the culture of the organisation, which enhances commitment and satisfaction and improves retention. implications for theory this study contributes the application of the psychological contract to engagement and retention management in a higher education context. not many studies have been conducted in this field; therefore the study provides further insight into this phenomenon. the results of the study contribute to psychological contract literature. the study advances an understanding of academic employees’ views of what they believe is important in terms of the psychological contract and employee retention and how this relates to behavioural and attitudinal outcomes such as engagement, organisational commitment and job satisfaction. implications for policy and practice the study brought into focus salient inducements such as competitive and fair remuneration, recognition of contributions, career development and job security that are specific to the psychology contracts of academic employees. when considering retention policies for the organisation, the organisation must include suggested inducements such as training for protean careers. for organisations to be effective in managing the psychological contract, they must abandon commonly held views of what employees value. the study assisted in identifying what the respondents viewed as important, making a valuable contribution to the understanding of knowledge workers. in addition, employees should be part of the engagement process when determining organisational strategies regarding retention, employee engagement and job satisfaction. this will reduce the gap between promises made to employees and reality experienced and ensure greater levels of retention and engagement of talented employees, which is a critical factor for competitive advantage in organisations. limitations and suggestions for future research the study focused on a single higher education institution and academic employees only. the results can therefore not be generalised to all institutions of higher education and the views of the support staff of the organisation. another important limitation is that the perceptions of organisational agents such as human resources managers, on whether employees were fulfilling their part of the psychological contract, were not explored. further research including perceptions from both the organisation and employees is necessary to assess the impact of psychological contracts on employment relationships. another limitation faced is that in adopting a secondary data set as the basis for analysis, the questionnaire was limited with regard to certain aspects such as psychological contract breach and violation, as well as trust. the questionnaire also explores justice to a limited extent, the focus being on interactional rather than on distributive or procedural justice. surveys, via questionnaires, are subject to bias, as they are instruments that are reported on by an individual. the impact of this bias nature could result in responses from the sample being over-reported or under-reported. the following themes for further research emerged: a mixed methods research approach could be used with the existing sample, as well as support staff, expanding the scope of well-structured interviews to include not only employees but other parties such as organisational agents. the study was limited to a single higher education institution. further studies could include other institutions of higher education in south africa. this would provide a national perspective on psychological contracts in higher education institutions in south africa. contribution of the study there have been limited studies conducted on the relationship between psychological contracts and employee engagement. the results of this study add greatly to the body of academic knowledge on the psychological contract and employee engagement. the results of this study also add to the understanding of the nature of the academic psychological contract, which could assist higher education institutions in managing it. it also creates a better understanding of the needs of academic employees and the impact of psychological contract fulfilment and breach. this could benefit the higher education sector as a whole. conclusion the purpose of this study was to assess whether the current state of academic employees’ psychological contracts has impacted their levels of employee engagement. a review of the literature indicated a gap within the body of knowledge with respect to the academic psychological contract. the objective of the study was to investigate and attempt to answer the main research question: ‘what elements of the academic employee’s psychological contract have impacted on academic employee engagement at a university of technology?’ the researchers believe that valuable findings and recommendations stem from this work. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions i.a. conducted the study and all data collection. r.r. was the first supervisor, guiding the student and overseeing the collection of the data and ethical conduct of the student. v.n. was the co-supervisor, ensuring the accuracy of data presentation. references aggarwal, u. (2014). linking justice, trust and innovative work behaviour to work engagement. personnel review, 43(1), 41–73. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-02-2012-0019 aggarwal, u., & bhargava, s. (2009). reviewing the relationship between human resource practices and psychological contract and their impact on employee attitude and behaviours: a conceptual model. journal of european industrial training, 33(1), 4–31. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090590910924351 allen, d. g., bryant, p. c., & vardaman, j.m. (2010). retaining talent: replacing misconceptions with evidence-based strategies. the academy of management perspectives, 24(2), 48–64. argyris, c. (1960). understanding organizational behavior. homewood: dorsey press. atkinson, c., & cuthbert, p. (2006). does one size fit all? a study of the psychological contract in the uk working population. international journal of manpower, 27(7), 647–665. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720610708266 badat, s. (2010). the challenges of transformation in higher education and training institutions in south africa. johannesburg: development bank of southern africa, 1–56. bal, p. m., de cooman, r., & mol, s. t. (2013). dynamics of psychological contracts with work engagement and turnover intention: the influence of organizational tenure. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 22(1), 107–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2011.626198 bhattacharya, y. (2015). employee engagement as a predictor of seafarer retention: a study among indian officers. the asian journal of shipping and logistics, 31(2), 295–318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajsl.2015.06.007 blancero, d. m., delcampo, r. g., & marron, g. f. (2007). perception of fairness in psychological contracts by hispanic business professionals: an empirical study in united states. international journal of management, 24(2), 364–375. bruce, a., zeynep, r., & yalabik, y. (2014). work engagement, psychological contract breach and job satisfaction. the international journal of human resources management, 25, 2382–2400. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.876440 cassar, v. (2001). violating psychological contract terms amongst maltese public service employees: occurrence and relationships. journal of managerial psychology, 16(3), 194–208. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940110385749 chughtai, a. a., & buckley, f. (2013). exploring the impact of trust on research scientists’ work engagement: evidence from irish science research centres. personnel review, 42(4), 396–421. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-06-2011-0097 cohen, a. (2013). a global evaluation of organizational fairness and its relationship to psychological contracts. career development international, 18(6), 589–609. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi-01-2013-0011 conway, n., & briner, r. b. (2002). a daily diary study of affective responses to psychological contract breach and exceeded promises. journal of organisational behaviour, 23, 287–302. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.139 coyle-shapiro, j. a. m. (2002). a psychological contract perspective on organizational citizenship behavior. journal of organizational behavior, 23(8), 927–946. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.173 coyle-shapiro, j. m., & parzefall, m. (2008). psychological contracts. the sage handbook of organizational behavior, 1, 17–34. davenport, t. h. (2005). thinking for a living: how to get better performance and results from knowledge workers. boston, ma: harvard business school press. deery, s. j., iverson, r. d., & walsh, j. t. (2006). ‘toward a better understanding of psychological contract breach: a study of customer service employees’, journal of applied psychology, 91(1), 169, 774–781. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.1.166 devi, v. (2009). employee engagement is a two-way street. human resources management international digest, 17(2), 3–4. https://doi.org/10.1108/09670730910940186 de vos, a., & meganck, a. (2008). what hr managers do versus what employees value: exploring both parties’ views on retention management from a psychological contract perspective. personnel review, 38(1), 45–60. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480910920705 flower, r., demir, d., mcwilliams, j., & johnson, d. (2015). perceptions of fairness in the psychological contracts of allied health professionals. asia-pacific journal of business administration, 7(2), 106–116. https://doi.org/10.1108/apjba-03-2015-0022 freese, c., & schalk, r. (1996). implications of differences in psychological contracts for human resource management. journal of work and organizational psychology, 5(4), 501–509. gallup. (2013). engagement at work: its effect on performance continues in tough economic times. retrieved from https://www.gallup.com/services/176657/engagement-work-effect-performance-continues-tough-economic-times.aspx george, c. (2015). retaining professional workers: what makes them stay? employee relations, 37(1), 102–121. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-10-2013-0151 guest, d. e., & conway, n. (1998). fairness and work and the psychological contract. london: institute of personnel and development. gupta, b., aggarwal, a., samaria, p., sarda, p., & bucha, r. (2012). organisational commitment & psychological contract in knowledge sharing behaviour. the indian journal of industrial relations, 47(4), 737–749. höglund, m. (2012). quid pro quo? examining talent management through the lens of psychological contracts. personnel review, 41(2), 126–142. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481211199991 hui, c., lee, c., & rousseau, d. m. (2004). psychological contract and organizational citizenship behavior in china: investigating generalizability and instrumentality. journal of applied psychology, 89(2), 311–321. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.2.311 kahn, w. a. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 33(4), 692–724. kaye, b., & jordan-evans, s. (2003). love it, don’t leave it: 26 ways to get what you want at work. oakland, ca: berrett-koehler publishers. luthans, f., & peterson, s. j. (2002). employee engagement and manager self-efficacy: implications for managerial effectiveness and development. journal of management development, 21(5), 376–387. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710210426864 martin, g., staines, h., & pate, j. (1998). the new psychological contract: exploring the relationship between job security and career development. human resource management journal, 6(3), 20–40. mayer, r. c., davis, j. h., & schoorman, f. d. (1995). an integrative model of organizational trust. academy of management review, 20(3), 709–734. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1995.9508080335 middlemiss, s. (2011). the psychological contract and implied contractual terms: synchronous or asynchronous models? international journal of law and management, 53(1), 32–50. https://doi.org/10.1108/17542431111111872 neuman, w. l. (2006). analysis of qualitative data. social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. boston, ma: pearson. parzefall, m. r., & coyle-shapiro, j. a. (2011). making sense of psychological contract breach. journal of managerial psychology, 26(1), 12–27. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683941111099592 parzefall, m. r., & hakanen, j. (2010). psychological contract and its motivational and health-enhancing properties. journal of managerial psychology, 25(1), 4–21. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683941011013849 pate, j., martin, g., & mcgoldrick, j. (2003). the impact of psychological contract violation on employee attitudes and behaviour. employee relations, 25(6), 557–573. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425450310501306 pitts, d., marvel, j., & fernandez, s. (2011). so hard to say goodbye? turnover intention among us federal employees. public administration review, 71(5), 751–760. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2011.02414.x punnett, b. j., & shenkar, o. (2004). handbook for international management research. ann arbor, mi: university of michigan press. rayton, b. a., & yalabik, z. y. (2014). work engagement, psychological contract breach and job satisfaction. the international journal of human resource management, 25, 2382–2400. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.876440 shen, j. (2010). university academics’ psychological contracts and their fulfilment. journal of management development, 29(6), 575–591. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621711011046549 singh, r. (1998). redefining psychological contracts with the us workforce: a critical task for strategic human resource management planners in the 1990’s. human resource management, 37(1), 61–69. sonnenberg, m., koene, b., & paauwe, j. (2011). balancing hrm: the psychological contract of employees: a multi-level study. personnel review, 40(6), 664–683. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481111169625 tomprou, m., & nikolaou, i. (2011). a model of psychological contract creation upon organizational entry. career development international, 16(4), 342–363. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620431111158779 winter, r., & jackson, b. (2006). state of psychological contract: manager and employee perspective within an australian credit union. employee relations, 5, 421–434. abstract introduction literature review research purpose and objectives results discussion limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) fahrial amla school of applied human sciences, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa johanna h. buitendach school of applied human sciences, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa citation amla, f., & buitendach, j.h. (2019). psychological strengths: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of muslim women leaders. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1185. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1185 original research psychological strengths: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of muslim women leaders fahrial amla, johanna h. buitendach received: 13 mar. 2019; accepted: 27 aug. 2019; published: 26 nov. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the nature and representation of psychological strengths is an emerging area of positive psychology. individual differences occur in strengths profiles between people, which may be attributed to educational, occupational, gender and cultural influences and can be qualitatively explored using interpretative phenomenological analysis (ipa). the application of strengths measurement is underway in south africa, but locally developed, context-specific strengths taxonomies are currently lacking, as well as research linking psychological strengths and leadership. muslim women in leadership deal with general gender-related leadership challenges as well as specific cultural and religious issues, and the application of psychological strengths may serve as enabling factors. research purpose: this study aimed to explore and describe the psychological strengths demonstrated by a minority sub-population of south african women leaders in the workplace. motivation for the study: psychological strengths are linked to flourishing and well-being. understanding their representation and their context of application can enhance both the academic literature and organisational practices surrounding them. a minority leadership group of muslim women were appointed for this study, bearing in mind their particular leadership challenges and the enabling strengths they employ as a point of interest, as possible indicators for future strengths and leadership development initiatives. research approach/design and method: qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 muslim women leaders from various employment industries who held senior management or leadership roles. ipa method was used for the analysis and interpretation of the results. main findings: interpretative phenomenological analysis of the interview data revealed a taxonomy of 28 psychological strengths, which were categorised as cognitive, emotional, interpersonal, values/motives or behavioural. practical/managerial implications: the strengths may be focussed on for leadership development and it is recommended that the study should be replicated across various cultural groups to identify and develop the strengths that occur in the diversity of leaders within the south african work context. contribution/value-add: this exploratory study contributes to the knowledge base of psychological strengths. it also highlights specific strengths to be considered when implementing leadership development programmes, particularly those for muslim women in south african workplaces. keywords: psychological strengths; interpretative phenomenological analysis; positive psychology; leadership; women (or gender) and work. introduction orientation psychological strengths form one of the main branches of the field of positive psychology and constitute the characteristics that promote enabling positive thoughts, emotions and behaviours (keenan & mostert, 2013). they are significantly linked to individual psychological well-being (macaskill & denovan, 2014), effective and engaged leadership in organisations (buckingham & clifton, 2001; harter, schmidt, & hayes, 2002) and academic achievement in postgraduate scholars (van der westhuizen, de beer, & bekwa, 2011). as an emerging sub-field of positive psychology, there is significant interest in the conceptualisation, classification, measurement and development of strengths. there had initially been emphasis on singular or a few strength-type concepts in academic literature, such as on wisdom (staudinger & leipold, 2003), empathy (zhou, valiente, & eisenberg, 2003), hardiness (maddi, 2006) and optimism (deptula, cohen, philipsen, & ey, 2006), to name but a few. the formalisation of the field of positive psychology since the 1998 american psychological association (apa) presidential address of martin seligman, promoted a more complete science and practice of positive psychology by enhancing well-being and happiness in addition to understanding human suffering (seligman, steen, park, & peterson, 2005). subsequently, assessment questionnaires and classifications were published as the strengthsfinder by buckingham and clifton (2001) and the character strengths-based values in action inventory of strengths (via-is) (park, peterson, & seligman, 2006). strength-based research and practice in south africa is a recent but growing phenomenon, primarily adopting western developed strengths instruments. this study provides an alternate approach using the qualitative method of interpretative phenomenological analysis (ipa) to explore and derive context-specific south african based strengths with the aim of contributing to local taxonomies, bearing in mind that the environment can either constrain or enhance the development of individual psychological strengths (stokols, 2003). the context for the exploration of strengths for this article is a minority, niche population of south african muslim women who work within leadership capacities. the reason is that women across racial divides were socially and economically disadvantaged before the implementation of the employment equity act 55 of 1998 (department of labour, 1998). in addition, muslim women apparently encounter religious and cultural barriers that impact their career advancement (ahmed, 2008). psychological strengths serve as enablers during adversity (goodman, disabato, & kashdan, 2019) and exploring their representation at more defined samples could provide a clearer picture of the application of various strengths in work contexts. literature review positive psychological strengths positive psychological strengths form one of the focus areas of the field of positive psychology, which is a broad term to describe the study of positive emotion, character and institutions (seligman & csikszentmihalyi, 2000; seligman et al. 2005). positive psychology seeks to understand what makes life worth living, contribute to improving people’s lives (seligman, 2011) and fulfil one of the original goals of the profession of psychology, which was to build human strengths and nurture genius; however, this intention became neglected by mainstream psychology because of the first and second world wars and subsequent focus on negative mental health (seligman et al. 2005). according to clifton and harter (2003), psychological strengths have the potential to foster near-perfect performance and arise when talents are refined and applied together with knowledge and skills to yield greater positive outcomes. strengths development was initially promoted by buckingham and clifton (2001) as a means to make employees happier and more engaged and enable managers to be better leaders (kaiser & overfield, 2011). a study by the corporate leadership council reported in the work of biswas-diener, kashdan and minhas (2011) found that performance in a group of managers increased significantly when they were given feedback on their areas of strength, while those who were informed of their weaknesses subsequently showed poorer performance. although strengths may theoretically be easier to develop than competencies, the overuse of a strength beyond the point of performance can compromise effectiveness (kaiser & overfield, 2011). strengths application should therefore be regulated as appropriate to the situational context. strengths measurement the identification of strengths may be facilitated using interviews or psychometric strengths instruments. the strengthsfinder (buckingham & clifton, 2001; rath, 2007) assesses people’s natural talents as ‘signature themes’. when these talents are combined with knowledge and skill, they mature as strengths. of the 34 strengths indicated, the highest scoring, top five measured for an individual, would be focussed on for development. the realise 2 strengths profiler consists of 60 possible strengths, of which scored results are presented according to a candidate’s realised and unrealised strengths, learned behaviours and weaknesses (linley, willars, & biswas-diener, 2010). the values in action (via) strengths classification (park et al. 2006) measures 24 ‘character strengths’ which fall under six broad categories that represent positive character (wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance and transcendence). the strengthscope (brook & brewerton, 2006) identifies 24 strengths as underlying qualities that energise an individual and can potentially be performed well at. these are categorised as emotional, relational, thinking and execution strengths, with the top seven scoring strengths being regarded as significant. some conceptually similar or related strengths occur between these instruments – empathy on the strengthscope and strengthsfinder and empathic connection on realise2, as well as the similarity between ‘creativity’ on the strengthscope, realise 2 and via and ‘ideation’ on the strengthsfinder. the preceding measurement instruments of strengths are mainly administered online to international candidates, but south african norms are available for the strengthscope. the comparison of strengths measured by these instruments is presented in figure 1. figure 1: comparison of strengths measurement instrument themes. strengths classification as mentioned above, variations of conceptualised strengths have been presented according to themes and categories (aspinwall & staudinger, 2003; carr, 2004; peterson & seligman, 2003), but research on strengths has not yet arrived at a unitary taxonomy which clarifies the various forms and expressions of human strengths (compton, 2005; goodman et al. 2019). psychological strengths are generally acknowledged to be stable over time and rooted in personality. it is argued by goodman et al. (2019) that rather than being a new concept, strengths are an adaptive expression of normal personality traits. for example, positive strength adjectives of being efficient, organised and thorough can be linked to the five-factor personality trait of ‘conscientiousness’ and its facets of competence, order, dutifulness, achievement striving and self-discipline (carr, 2004). furthermore, studies on the relationship between global personality factors and psychological strengths have found lower levels of neuroticism–anxiety on personality and aggression–hostility on temperament to be associated with higher levels of resilience and character strengths (hutchinson, stuart, & pretorius 2010). an alternate definition of strengths by goodman et al. (2019) is that they are dispositional qualities that people possess to enhance their well-being. apart from their conceptualisation, other confounding issues surrounding strengths are whether to represent them based on their adaptiveness or functionality, whether subjective or objective measurement is appropriate, if specific value or ethics systems should be consulted, or which stakeholder perceptions of change should be used. in addition, unlike the psychological pathology model where the direction of improvement or progression is known as the state of normal functioning, determining the direction or ‘prognosis’ of a strength is a greater challenge (aspinwall & staudinger, 2003). assessment of strengths is currently approached using quantitative questionnaires that generate a list of ‘top strengths’, but do not provide information about the way that these strengths interact with one another and how they then translate into behaviour is hardly known (biswas-diener et al. 2011). the constellation of strengths drawn from one individual would differ from another and even strengths within a constellation may appear to contradict each other (e.g. consistency vs. adaptability). a promising model of strengths and healthy psychological growth has been proposed by snyder and lopez (2004) to explain how the concepts of strengths, healthy processes and fulfilments interplay to promote the ‘good life’. according to the model, each individual possesses a unique set of strengths which serve the achievement of optimal mental health and personal fulfilment. south african studies on psychological strengths are still sparse. a correlational study was conducted between the personality types of the myers-briggs type indicator (mbti) and the factors of the strengthscope (taylor & morgan, 2015), and an instrument measuring the perceived organisational support for strength use (possu) was developed by keenan and mostert (2013). to date there have been no strengths-based instruments designed and developed for south africa. a qualitative doctoral study of psychological strengths of public servants attending an employee assistance programme revealed some psychological strengths similar to those measured on quantitative strengths questionnaires, including having faith in self and others, quality connections with others, insight, self-regulation and self-control, hope, open-mindedness, optimism, commitment, courage, accepting oneself and persistence (ndhlovu, 2010). thus far, academic literature on psychological strengths in relation to leadership and gender is lacking and may hold value in enabling performance and well-being in support of transformational legislation which aims to enhance representativity of previously disadvantaged women in the workplace. muslim women and leadership in south africa as a south african muslim woman, it is an observation of the researcher that muslim women are infrequently found in leadership positions in organisations, but there is a lack of national official or academic documented employment data to substantiate this. conservative cultural conditioning, international islamophobia (terman, 2017) and south africa’s history of racial and gender discrimination suggest that muslim women arising as workplace leaders may be somewhat challenging. although south africa is a secular country, organisations’ operational requirements may precede religious practices, typically with minority non-christian groups (carrim, 2015). corporate cultures embedded with western norms may also be intolerant of minority religions and hold non-practising muslim employees as a benchmark for compliance rather than be flexible with those who are religiously practising. also, corporate dress codes may or may not be accommodating of more conservative attire for muslim women and donning of a headscarf ‘hijab’, provide for halal meals and allow the observation of prayer times. in workplaces where promotions are dependent on socialising with more senior levels of management, also known as ‘old boys clubs’, muslim employees are likely to be disadvantaged particularly if such events involve the consumption of alcohol. furthermore, practising muslim women may choose to refrain from establishing close relationships with senior male colleagues to get ahead in their careers (carrim, 2017). career progression of women in south africa, regardless of religious affiliation, can be challenged because of a variety of factors such as patriarchy, education, work–life balance (april, dreyer, & blass 2007), organisational structures and cultural, racial, gender, family and personal belief systems as well as prejudice, stereotyping (damons, 2009; łaba, 2011) and bullying (leo & reid, 2013). these could compound the extent of the challenges encountered by muslim women in the workplace and demand greater levels of resilience and adaptability to advance in leadership roles. research purpose and objectives given the dearth of south african research on psychological strengths, the purpose of this study was to explore the positive psychological strengths represented in a specific south african leadership context. the contributions of the study are intended to be both theoretical and practical. south african research on the implementation of positive psychological concepts at work is still sparse, and this study is an effort to contribute to the growing ‘global’ body of positive psychological research and practice in relation to leadership. from a practical workplace perspective, the study examines the positive psychological factors that muslim women perceive to be supportive of their successful leadership in the workplace. the qualitative research objective of the study was therefore to explore the psychological strengths manifested by muslim women who occupy leadership roles in the workplace. research design research approach the research methodology selected for the study is a qualitative approach. research strategy and method semi-structured interviews were used to derive the psychological strengths of participants. the guidelines for the ipa (smith, 2004) qualitative method were applied in this study, which prescribes a minimal number of interview questions and purposive sampling. research participants and sampling the criteria for establishing a purposive sample had to be based on knowledge of the population being studied, its elements and the purpose of the study (palinkas et al., 2015) and these were stipulated as being a muslim women and having experience in a leadership role or senior management. to identify muslim women leaders, professional south african muslim boards were approached for referrals and these organisations included the islamic medical association, the minara chamber of commerce and the institute for learning and motivation. rather than drawing a random sample, email invitations stating the criteria were extended to all the referrals of which 15 participants consented to participate, whose residential locations included durban, pietermaritzburg and johannesburg. description of participants many of the participants held positions where they functioned in more than one industry or held dual or multiple roles. collectively, the participants held occupations in the healthcare industry (public and private), textile and hospitality industries, higher education, financial institutions, media and communications and a non-governmental organisation (ngo). positions they held included those of manager, director, university dean, senior lecturer, activist, head of department, head of hospital unit and chief executive officer (ceo). fourteen of the participants were indian muslims (93%) and one participant was a white muslim (7%). an overview of the age, qualifications and family status of the research participants is presented in table 1. table 1: descriptive overview of participants. data collection methods individual participants were interviewed at their places of work and the semi-structured interviews conducted elicited responses on the leadership and strengths experiences of the participants. participants were provided with the same standard set of questions which enquired what their leadership roles entailed, what challenges they experienced as leaders and the strengths employed in these cases as well as opportunities encountered and the strengths employed in these instances. the interviews were audio recorded, with participant consent, and thereafter transcribed verbatim. data recording and analysis transcriptions of the interviews were analysed according to the recommended guidelines of ipa. the approach aims to assimilate a complete understanding of a participant’s lived experience, by engaging in a double hermeneutic of understanding the participant’s understanding of their experience and recording these observations (smith, 2004). practically, this was done by listening to the participants as they were being audio-recorded, reflecting this understanding to them by paraphrasing and summarising comments back to the participant for confirmation. for example, the following participant statement was responded to by the interviewer ‘having a mentor opened doors for you?’ as a reflective question to probe an issue further: ‘[i]t was very difficult to get into a management position, because if it was between me and a colleague and the colleague was male, then the male got it. that’s what i have realised. if it was female versus female then it was easier to get in there. so it was a huge struggle getting into a management role because everyone wants management experience and unless you found a mentor that was willing to give you the opportunity to get into the role or someone who saw your potential.’ (participant x/alias, gender, age/profession/grade) intermittently, short reflective statements were used by the interviewer to check that the understanding was clear, without disrupting the flow of the participant’s narration. following the interview, the researcher was required to engage with and interpret the transcript according to four prescribed steps: initial case analysis, connecting and clustering the themes, continuing analysis of other cases and master table of themes, and writing up results (smith, 2004). the characteristic features of ipa are consistent with the aims of this research, namely, idiographic, inductive and interrogative, because individual cases were studied until closure was achieved on all conceptual themes from the raw results. this was done before moving on to the next case, with comparisons of convergence and divergence of themes subsequently being done between the participants’ arising themes. being idiographic, an intense study of the individual was done, and being inductive involved condensing raw data into summative descriptions or concepts which were then linked (smith, 2011). a total of 28 sub-themes were derived from the analysis of the interview data and these reflected strengths which were not subject to strict predefining criteria, but rather were accepted as those positive cognitive or affective characteristics, coping resources or values that participants conveyed as meaningful to them in enabling their progress or overcoming difficult situations in their interviews. conceptually similar strengths were categorised as themes and recorded as cognitive, emotional, interpersonal, values or motives and behavioural strengths for easier reference. the method allows for the emergence of unanticipated themes during analysis. in addition, as an interrogative method (smith, 2011), the results of the analysis are evaluated for their confirmation or contrast against empirical literature. this is elaborated on in the discussion of the results. role of the researcher and strategies to ensure data quality and integrity using an idiographic research approach like ipa assists to understand individual experiences in-depth (smith, 2017). being suitable for applied psychology research (hefferon & gill-rodriguez, 2011), ipa is concerned with meaning-making on the part of both participant and researcher and examines people’s perceptions of major experiences that happen to them and elicit a reflective cognitive response and emotions related to the experience. the reflective sense and meaning-making is shared with the interviewing researcher who, in turn, interprets the participant’s interpretation of an experience (smith, 2018). this allows for the researcher to understand the experiences of the research participants from their own perceptions of their leadership experiences and the strengths they applied in those contexts. during the interview the researcher simultaneously analyses while collecting information during the interview process itself and the interviewer is accountable for the context that the questions provide for the interviewee’s responses (klenke, 2008). the role of the researcher as interviewer is to make sense of and capture the psychological world of the participant, belief systems and perceptions, the content, and the complexity of the meanings created about these (smith, 2004). themes are captured from the sequential process of initial case analysis, clustering of the themes, continuing analysis of other cases and repeating the process through to a master table of themes, and writing up of the results (smith, 2004). both the interviewing process and data analysis require attentiveness and consistency on the part of the researcher to maintain the credibility and reliability of the resulting themes. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for qualitative research involving the interviewing of human subjects, particularly the protection of confidentiality. results excerpts from the 15 participant transcripts (p1–p15) follow, with the derived sub-themes being in support of the strengths constructs. theme 1: cognitive strengths participants narrated strengths related to thinking and problem-solving and the variations as sub-themes included innovation, learning, strategic thinking, insight, resourcefulness, complex problem-solving and judgement. innovation was regarded as re-inventing the way that something is done (p7), identifying obstacles and limitations and using technology to change how things are done for more positive results and remaining relevant and ahead of competition (p12). change and development were viewed as important to benefit future generations (p13): ‘i always looked at how you could improve the service and how you could change the attitudes of people.’ (p7) ‘i have always had the ability to sort of identify what the obstacles are and then problem solve and see how we can get around it and sort of utilising innovation and technology to break those barriers and take the company forward. so that for me will be the positive issue or aspect.’ (p12) ‘i’m not looking for a fat salary, i don’t need it. i’m not looking for a title because it doesn’t really excite me at all. i’m looking for innovation, i’m looking for development, i’m looking for change.’ (p13) ‘women are far more invested in the success and the strength of the future generations because as a mother that is what you want, you want a better future for your children, no matter where you sit in this world, or in society, no matter what religion, all mothers want the same thing. they’ve been through hardships themselves, they’ve had to sacrifice, they’ve had to suffer and it’s just natural that they want better for their children. and i think that is a root desire.’ learning was described as the ability to open the mind to other possibilities, ideas and experiences (p2), an openness to making mistakes and learning from them (p4), and being a life-long learner (p10): ‘the capacity to open your mind to other possibilities.’ (p2) ‘i’m open to new learning and i believe that if you allow others to do it they will become more responsible.’ (p4) strategic connecting encapsulated applying a systems approach to understanding issues, identifying overlapping and interconnected information and concepts (p13), and applying strategic thinking (p15): ‘expressed a tendency to apply a systems approach to understanding how issues related to one another as ‘overlaps’ and to identify patterns in information and data and draw meaningful interpretations from them. she described being skilled at ‘connecting different people’ to unlock opportunities through their interaction and sharing of ideas.’ (p13) ‘“strategic thinking” was regarded by participant 15 as a strength that ‘anyone could develop.’ (p15) resourcefulness describes coming up with creative solutions when conventional knowledge or other resources are lacking (p4, p14): ‘if you had to have a project tomorrow and say syria or palestine or somalia or somebody needs money tomorrow, i’m telling you those women, they don’t even know the strengths they have … the women will do everything’; ‘in the time he was not getting an income, how i let the food stretch, how i saved, how i didn’t eat meat or the luxuries … i used to go stand outside my father’s factory at four o’ clock in the morning to go and sell turkish scarves or whatever i could do because that was when the flea market concept had just come out … they are small kids and my husband’s away overseas somewhere and i’d be standing there until 11/12 for the day, and then trying to sell whatever i can and that is my money is going to be the next week’s milk and bread and keep us going. and i tried to do so many things.’ (p4) ‘this participant emphasised the need to be resourceful in the area and to be able to come up with solutions quickly in order to deal with the problems related to poverty in the area where she taught.’ (p14) insight was explained as the recognition of individual differences and patterns in behaviour (p7), as well as being able to analyse the core issues that have an impact on business and behaviours by being intuitively attentive to what is happening inside and outside the organisation (p12): ‘in her understanding, people are different, ‘there are so many types of people so you just have to deal with different types of people and see how it goes’ by communicating with them at a level they relate to.’ (p7) ‘getting feedback from everybody, clients, from employees’ from suppliers, you know. so i think that listening and being attentive to where you are as a business. that’s one of the most vital things because if you don’t listen, you won’t know how to take your company forward. you, you going to quickly become stale or you going to become irrelevant or the competition is going to be one step ahead of you.’ (p12) problem-solving was regarded as the ability to deconstruct and resolving complex problems by analysing and negotiating various elements and coming to relevant solutions (p13): ‘a whole lot of different conflicting forces in our economy and that has direct impact on healthcare. and i really think that it’s quite a complicated interesting environment. and as complicated as it is, it’s always exciting because there’s such huge challenges in it, so that’s what really drove me towards, always working towards the most difficult and most complicated place i could be.’ (p13) judgement/balanced decision-making involved being able to make decisions by being compassionate and considerate of other people, yet also able to make tougher business decisions, suggested a balanced approach (p14): ‘and i think my entire nature is that i’m ruled by my heart, and not my head, i’m ruled by my heart most of the time, i do, i’m a tough decision-maker when it comes to financial etiquette in a business, strategies to save money, strategies to keep the business afloat. i’m very clear there when it comes to the business side.’ (p14) theme 2: emotional strengths emotional strengths related by the participants included perseverance (also described as commitment/determination); there were concepts related to self-confidence, adaptability, courage, independence, compassion, discipline and humour. perseverance as a sub-theme involved participants patiently persisting at a cause despite the obstacles encountered (p4, p15), remaining determined and working hard at realising opportunities (p6, p7). it was also described as showing commitment to a chosen path and committing oneself for the long term (p14): ‘i think determination is one of the very important skills if you want to be a leader, constantly pushing, persevering, uh, you have to be very patient, you have to be tolerant.’ (p4) ‘perseverance was described as ‘standing by something believed to be true even when confronted by disagreement.’ (p15) ‘this participant stated that it was necessary to be ‘persistent’ and maintain a ‘sense of self-worth’.’ (p9) ‘this participant demonstrates determination by ‘working extremely hard’, ‘being clear’ about what she wants and ‘seizing opportunities’ that arise.’ (p6) ‘so as more people will try and block or say something unpleasant, the more determined i became that i will overcome it. i didn’t let it crush me. i always tell (the same to) so many girls that come to talk to me.’ (p7) ‘to keep leadership going, you must be in it for the long run. you must be in there to stay. you can’t say that today i want to do this and then tomorrow you‘re not endorsing that.’ (p14) confidence the participants made reference to confidence by having a sense of conviction and certainty about their decisions (p5), acknowledging their self-worth and upholding personal rights (p1, p6, 14), demonstrating assertiveness (p6), self-awareness and acceptance and valuing personal strengths (p4), and being assured about personal actions so that others would be comfortable to reciprocate with their trust and support (p11, 15): ‘you got to know where you need to be … if you have contradictions within yourself you not going to be a good leader so you need to know exactly what it is, where you want to be, you need to be very clear on your policies, your procedures, your goals, who you are … people cannot see contradiction in you.’ (p5) ‘the participant changed her stance from ‘there was one staff who sort of, she wanted to be the person in charge and yet i knew that wasn’t her role, that was my role but at that time i sort of allowed it’, ‘need to fit in and please everyone’, to a kind of metamorphosis as she describes having ‘come sort of, not full circle, but i’m almost there’, ‘internally i’ve overcome those challenges’, ‘i have got more confidence in myself, realise that this is who i am, this is what i have to offer… even career-wise, if you can’t appreciate or value it then i don’t want to be part of your system’, ‘i’ve realised that you’ve got to stay true to yourself and if you stay true to yourself people will value you for who you are.’ (p1) ‘this participant explained that it became easier to assert herself as she progressed to more senior roles. in her own working environment, assertiveness was considered a ‘masculine trait.’ (p6) ‘you must know two years had gone, some say grief takes two years. so i had gone through the processes of you know the whole five processes. and i had come to the realisation that it’s my life, and whatever i did now is for me, not for him, not for anybody else, it’s for me. and i’m also an important person, who’s worthy and there’s value attached to me and it wasn’t now sacrificing for everybody else and mostly for him, which i did do.’ (p4) ‘it needs to be apparent to others that a leader has confidence in order to gain their trust and support ‘your staff look to you if you display confidence, when you stand up to do a presentation and if you’re not really clued up or you’re not really good at it, there’s no confidence at all. and when you’ve got self-confidence and when you display those characters you also gain a lot of trust, your colleagues and everybody else.’ (p11) ‘the participant referred to being confident that the effort put into a task was sufficient and the quality of the end result was of a good standard and not ‘requiring assurance or validation by someone else’. in order to gain respect and be listened to in a male-dominated environment, displaying social confidence and maintaining one’s presence, the participant stated ‘you have to have this commanding presence and i don’t mean by shouting at everybody or being rude. you have to tell them what you want, why you want it and you have to be clear to do it with a firm voice.’ (p15) adaptability was conveyed as the ability to reframe negative situations positively and build on the positive aspects (p7, p4), to adjust her behavioural approach to different audiences (p5), apply new learning to changing circumstances (p3) and adopt a flexible approach to meeting varying demands as contexts change (p11): ‘the participant described adopting a change in perception and to focus in a positive, constructive way: ‘you realise it’s a tough life to live but you just make yourself strong and you carry on. and you carry on with what’s your important things in your life. so you focus back on your studies, you focus back on your work, you focus back on your ibadat [prayer].’ (p4) ‘when criticised or having to deal with negative attitudes, she would ignore and deflect anything negative, not take it to heart and regard such information as a projection of the other person, ‘i just ignored everybody who was negative, i dismissed the negative comments, and i didn’t hold it against the person. i treated them like i treated everyone else and said look, they have to learn and it’s their problem and not mine.’ (p7) ‘when dealing with people at the same level of authority the participant approaches them with ‘a much harder masculine leadership style’, particularly if her authority is threatened. at a staff level she adapted with a much more ‘people-oriented’ approach and her staff seem to be particularly receptive and responsive to her leadership style. again, she adapted to a ‘softer, motherly and feminine role’ when interacting with her children at home.’ (p5) ‘adaptability was described as the ability to ‘adjust positively to changing circumstances and apply new learning.’ (p3) ‘according to the participant, there needs to be some flexibility in approach in order to balance and accommodate both religious and work responsibilities. her work environment enables and allows her to observe fasting and her prayers so in return, she makes herself available and still attends meetings and dinners that may extend beyond normal work hours.’ (p11) courage was narrated as being able to motivate oneself despite the fear of adverse consequences (p2, p9), and being able to maintain integrity in spite of the fear of persecution for doing so (p13): ‘you encounter the might of big corporates and they are then basically trying to bring you down to size and you then know you’ve got to rethink your strategy and motivate yourself to keep on going.’ (p2) independence was considered by a participant to be linked to personal accountability for independent actions (p4), maintaining personal principles even if they differed from the social context (p6) and being comfortable with making decisions without assistance from others (p15): ‘so that is now how i have looked at my journey, my journey is straight towards allah (god). i came into this world alone and i’m going to leave this world alone. nobody is going to be with me. and then i will have to face allah one day. so now my destination is him, my journey here and everything i do now is for him.’ (p4) ‘the participant explained that not being able to make independent decisions filtered into relationships in the workplace and her case differed from her observations of others ‘i have been on my own now for about fifteen, sixteen years and i have always made the decisions whether it was about having a child, work, moving, buying a car or buying a house i made those decisions. i didn’t have to look at my husband for guidance or approval and that kind of rolled out to my work as well.’ (p15) compassion translated as being considerate towards others over personal ambitions (p9, p13) and caring for and showing interested in the welfare of people (p14): ‘i think women have more compassion and as doctors, make excellent doctors … i think in general women have a great inner strength, not super-ambitious as men are … you know it’s a female characteristic to be fair in your dealings and be honest. because you‘re not super-ambitious, you‘re not going to step on other people’s toes to reach where you want to be.’ (p9) ‘i felt that as a clinician, yes we can provide brilliant care, but we just scratching the surface, we not actually changing the root of the problem, and that’s what drove me towards economics … i wanted to understand. and you know with healthcare the hardest part for many people is when they are encountered with a disease or their children are and most people are ‘can we actually afford this treatment?.’ (p13) ‘i think my leadership style is very, very compassionate. i’m a compassionate leader and i think my entire nature is that i’m ruled by my heart, and not my head …, i’m always loved people that i work with and i try to find that connection with them so that i’m able to lead from within and not from outside and people will only accept your leadership if you are trusting and i love that trust to be created, whether it’s a beggar or whether it’s somebody that doesn’t have’, ‘i think that women care for everybody. and that’s a difference you know, that’s a difference in terms of the gender. men make good leaders but women, a woman leader takes it a little further and that makes them special and remembered.’ (p14) discipline suggests that strict personal and religious standards are applied by the participant, not willing to compromise on values (p6), and the exercise of self-control and applying principles consistently (p9): ‘there is (pressure to conform) but you need to stand your ground; ‘i don’t attend because firstly it’s in the evening, and sort of the main reason they have it, is so that they can have a drink. so i was asked by a few reps, why don’t i come, so i said to them that, you know that’s not my lifestyle, i mean i am not coming there for a drink and i have other means of getting educational updates, so it’s not an absolute for me to come. so, when they invite me to present, then i will go and present, but i don’t stay …’ (p6) ‘you know we have to be disciplined to follow the rituals of our prayers and i think that the five pillars are so important in islam and nothing about islam is unjust or something that you can’t do or difficult to do, it’s in the capability of all humans to do the basic requirements for islam.’ (p9) humour was put forward by a single participant, as being able to view issues less seriously, discuss them in a light-hearted manner, de-personalise and reflect on events jokingly (p7): ‘the participant commented that life could not be taken too seriously and being able to depersonalise and laugh about an event helped to put it behind her; ‘a gentle no got them sorted out [laughs]. you must see the funny side of life as well.’ (p7) theme 3: interpersonal strengths interpersonal strengths were those positive characteristics presented by the participants that enabled their relationships with others, including the sub-themes of building and managing relationships, diversity, persuasiveness, community and empowering others. building relationships was described through exhibiting warmth, friendliness and showing others that they are valued (p5), being able to communicate with people at their level by applying empathy (p8, p10, p14), building strategic relationships with key stakeholders (p11) and maintaining strategic alliances (p13): ‘… when they went to vote i told them everything, i told them about my granny … and they laughed at me and i said now go in for the referendum and freakin’ go and vote yes. and they all came back and said they voted yes … because we love you so much and you broke our heart with your stories.’ (p5) ‘yeah, so i think that a leader should be a peoples’ person, and not up there and somebody who people are afraid of but someone who they feel they can come and talk to but they can also have an element of respect for them. they know, you know what, she is leader and we need to respect the particular terms of the contract by which we are bound to whatever it is she is leading, uhm but by the same token she’s our sister, she’s our friend and we can talk to her.’ (p8) ‘i prefer to hold the hands of people, they are some very nice leaderships sayings like, you either move up pulling people up or stepping on people, so i prefer to pull people up.’ (p10) ‘maintaining relationships with these stakeholders is multi-faceted and complex’, ‘i mean it’s a huge thing it’s very complicated, involves complicated relationships with the doctors, with the professionals, it’s a financially very complicated system and socially and politically it’s also quite an important system.’ (p13) embracing diversity was defined by being able to co-exist and accept others who may be different (p2), treating people equally regardless of their background (p10), transcending barriers such as ideologies, race, age, economic status, culture and relating to individuals (p8), and challenging and resolving stereotypes (p12): ‘this is something that you know i found out about very early on because we lived in a society that was very segregated and so you didn’t get to meet people from other groups … you’re so closed off and conditioned (to discriminate).’ (p2) ‘being a south african muslim woman and being a leader, you have to know how to break down barriers because there are a lot of them in our community, whether it’s between women in parda and women in hijab or women in hijab and women who don’t wear hijab or black people and white people or white people and indian people or, there are so many barriers, ideological, racial, income-based, age-based, and in order to break down these barriers you need to be a very understanding person, you need to have a lot of empathy, you have to have a good listening ear, you’ve got to be kind, you’ve got to be just, you’ve got to be non-oppressive… but you also have to be firm and you have to be accountable and you always need to hear both sides the story as well (fair) and you always have to really think things through.’ (p8) persuasion strengths related to being able to negotiate terms with other stakeholders, motivate others to accept a personal point of view or preferences (p6, p10), guiding others to apply their own strengths (p7); conveying ideas and giving direction to others, gaining their buy-in and boosting morale (p11): ‘when having to negotiate terms at work, it helps to have a persuasive approach, particularly when having to deal with senior members of the organisational hierarchy. she also had to persuade her parents to allow her to continue with studies in medicine and overseas.’ (p6) ‘she used a gentle approach to guide their actions by conveying information in a kind rather than authoritative manner, highlighting what they had done well and suggesting areas that they could improve upon. wording her messages positively also made it easier for her to gain buy-in and acceptance; ‘i get their buy-in all the time, i think it’s being kind. i think they are young people who are struggling to do this work, they are battling in difficult circumstances and we have to see through all that.’ (p7) ‘her staff is cohesive as a group and she stated that she gains their buy-in and support by motivating the benefits of a course of action rather than directing others.’ (p10) ‘she found it important to be able to relate strategic ideas to others and give direction to the team, as well as communicate to gain team buy-in and boost morale. in the home context, she favoured negotiation skills for defining commitments and responsibilities with partners.’ (p11) community collaboration was described as viewing people and the events between them as interconnected, identifying that the purpose of human beings is to help one another to benefit collectively (p1), collaborating with others as part of a greater whole, fostering a sense of togetherness, and having individual actions an impact on the whole, improving conditions for others (p13) and enabling the development of the greater community (p14): ‘participant conveyed that people and events are related and inter-connected recurred ‘i think our purpose is to serve others and to benefit others and in that way we benefit ourselves.’ (p1) ‘it’s the commitment to sort of, collaborate to a oneness. and to understand that people can do bad things and they might get away with it, they actually might succeed. but at the end of the day you defeating yourself because there is a sense of oneness, there is a sense of we are all here together, if we could only see it.’ (p13) empowerment is the strength of enabling others with knowledge, skills and resources, and respecting them as capable of helping themselves to improve (p10). the need to elevate the status of others was rooted in the struggles of in her own background (p14): ‘she came from ‘a very poor background and i always feel for the poor. so that passion, that commitment, that selflessness and i think that genuine love …’ (p14) theme 4: values strengths values and motivational strengths as a theme related to integrity and having a sense of purpose, taking initiative focussing on achieving excellence. participants were mindful of applying justice and being respectful and authenticity was raised by a single participant. integrity arose on sub-themes of honesty and transparency when exercising judgement (p3, p9), maintaining ethical relationships with staff and stakeholders without discrimination (p8), applying ethics and islamic principles personally and in one’s organisation (p10) and by being conscious of and standing up for what is right (p13): ‘the most important thing is communication in our field’, ‘you have to be absolutely fair and transparent because whenever you do things as a leader, if it’s questioned you must be able to justify it properly and i think that’s extremely important for me in leadership, is transparency and fairness in everything.’ (p3) ‘participant 8’s values of non-discrimination and promoting islam through the organisation as a universal religion rather than reserved for indians. the exposure to tariq ramadaan’s lectures on ethics influenced her employment practices and the appointment of staff was ‘strategic’, as she deliberately employed a multiracial staff complement in order to ‘demonopolise islam’ and recognises her staff for their merits rather than the colour of their skin.’ (p8) ‘people are not fools, they may succumb to leadership because they may be afraid of leadership but they will never be truly motivated by a leader who is not consistent and who doesn’t display integrity … if you look at the great leaders of our times, the one thing that has always come first is their integrity, their consistency. the fact that they are one person, whether they sitting with government, with private sector or labour, they carry the same voice and i’m thinking of mandela because he’s the greatest example of integrity so that i think is a male and a female thing, and it’s not to say that most leaders don’t have integrity, but integrity needs to be backed up with courage and that is what a lot of our leaders lack, a lot of our leaders are scared to live their integrity because they fear that they will be persecuted or they will not be allowed to grow on their path of growth if they are courageous and they stand strong to their integrity.’ (p13) purpose was evident in the participants’ sense of contributing to a greater good and serving society (p1, p4), pursuing a career that cultivates a passion (p8, p14) and being driven to make a difference in a subject one is passionate about (p10, p13): ‘the purpose of people is to serve and benefit others.’ (p1) ‘the participant’s significant passion was writing and she decided to abandon university studies after completing her first year very successfully in favour of a technikon diploma in journalism. ‘and it was not seen as being, you know politically correct if i can use that term, if you got an a aggregate to go to tech. so there was kind of subtle pressure not from my immediate family but from within myself and society to go the university route as opposed to the tech route.’ (p8) ‘you got to innately believe and love what you doing and then you will be a good leader’, ‘you got to believe as a leader, whether it’s a leader in the community that i’m in, whether it’s a leader of that i’m doing a programme with women, or it’s a talk or whether it’s a financial seminar i’m involved with. if those things you don’t have the passion for, those things you [are] never going to be a good leader [at] and that’s my strength.’ (p14) ‘i think academia was the place to be irrespective of that fact that if i was in private or public professional practice the salary would have been much higher. i love what i do and sometimes i can’t wait to get to work, so it’s great here.’ (p10) ‘sometimes you don’t decide what your passion is but you are given a passion. and you can either ignore it or you can follow it. and i think that force, that passion was so strong within me that it almost, it overcame the negativity, the doubt, i mean the doubt and uncertainty did get me down a lot of times but there was that constant push internal push … constant desire to push forward and that was quite powerful.’ (p13) initiative was described as identifying and acting on opportunities (p1, p2, p15), making a motivated and conscious effort to achieve goals (p2, p7) and acting to effect improvements (p9): ‘so i approached the directors and put in a proposal and we setting up an optometry practice in the next six months.’ (p1) ‘those times we were engaging in these different struggles and how lonely it actually was and this was say like fifteen, twenty years ago. so, a lot has changed since then … the paths have in a sense been created to enable younger muslim women to get into those spaces because others have done it and gone there … but we need more, that’s the issue.’ (p2) ‘you need to develop that passion and that only comes from doing it yourself because no one is going to come and do that for you. so, i find that many women who perhaps are interested, they don’t necessarily make as much effort as they could … what i think tends to happen … once women, muslim women in particular, marry, there’s this sense that they’ve got to deal with … the family home and domestic commitments they have to deal with and extended family situation and so on.’ (p2) ‘the training programmes she implemented in hospitals early in her career, paved the way for greater research and development and led to her expertise in her field: ‘you initiate something and you find it is successful. for example, i initiated teaching of [staff] in the [hospital] and i found it to work very, very well.’ (p7) ‘showing initiative by creating a syllabus for herself and others, when she found that this was lacking. compiling the syllabus made a significant contribution to her speciality in her field.’ (p9) excellence was described as the achievement of best results (p9, p10) and contributing a high standard of performance (p1, p9, p11): ‘[b]because of the work i delivered and the success rate of the students i was allocated, every semester there was an increase in the number of students they were allocating to me …’, ‘i built the clinic, it’s good motivation, that even my boss said ‘when you were here you did a good job.’ (p1) ‘consistently achieved top grades in her studies.’ (p9) ‘much of the successful changes that participant 11 had put into place were because of the fact that she was ‘driven to perform’ and had ‘direction’, expressing pride in her achievements.’ (p11) respect was described as showing humility by relating to others at their level without feeling self-important, having non-judgemental regard for people as human beings, as well as self-respect (p2, p7): ‘a leader should be a ‘regular person’ who is able to relate to others at the same level.’ (p2) ‘basic respect for other individuals as human beings, not judging them for their opinions even if these were negatively directed at her, having respect for people’s ability and capability and respect for her patients were derived from her responses. self-respect was also evident, as she recognised her own value and stood by her principles when challenged.’ (p7) justice was defined as dealing with people with fairness and equality (p8, p9): ‘justice and equality were promoted over an organisational hierarchy and participant 8 was conscious and careful about the type of language used to communicate with employees so that they would not perceive differences between each other and encouraged working together rather than underneath each other.’ (p8) ‘this participant emphasised the quality of justice, as ‘staff must not see you as being unjust then you will never get their cooperation’; ‘islam teaches you to be just and [in] my role as a leader i was just in all my undertakings, so that helped.’ (p9) authenticity was expressed as being true to oneself, accepting the positive and negative aspects of oneself, being transparent about views and appraisals of issues and acting consistently with these, as well as the exploration and living of personal potential (p1, p10): ‘very important to be true to yourself and lies in the end will just lead to negative repercussions. so, i think it’s very important to be true to yourself and being positive about who you are and not trying to fit someone else’s shoes.’ (p1) theme 5: behavioural strength self-management describes a single strength category related to being organised and able to multi-task (p4, p10, p11, p14), clearly defining goals and working in a structured manner to achieve them (p6) and the importance of being able to apply effective time management, prioritisation and delegation (p8). from the interview responses, self-management was mentioned as necessary to deal with the major difficulty of maintaining a balance between work and family life responsibilities: ‘coordinate multiple activities.’ (p10) ‘if you’re not organised, you’re not a leader.’ (p11) ‘so i say women can multi-task and i don’t think that women are using all of their facets that they could. or we also become very complacent in this role.’ (p14) ‘i used to do everything for the organisation initially, the marketing, the admin, the fundraising, everything, and it took its toll on me because as a mother i found that i didn’t have time to do a lot of things and also i didn’t have the time to make enough money to sustain myself because i felt uncomfortable about taking … so essentially, i’m director, i’m also trustee and i’m the founding member right, and basically currently my roles have evolved so as i take on new staff my roles become reduced.’ (p8) discussion the objective of this study was to explore the psychological strengths of muslim women in leadership roles in the workplace. with regard to the broader categories as themes, the emotional strengths sub-themes occurred most frequently between the participants, followed by values or motivational strengths (29 and 27 interview references to these sub-themes, respectively). individual sub-themes that featured more prominently in frequency between the participants were confidence, building relationships, having a sense of purpose, initiative and self-management. these would therefore appear as the strengths considered to be more important to muslim women leaders, in a south african context. all of the derived cognitive strengths except insight were in common with either the via, strengthscope, realise 2 or strengthsfinder definitions. wen, butler and koutstaal (2012) defined ‘insight’ as applicable to problems that were ill-defined and the solver would adaptively restructure the problem, reset the goal state and search processes to reach a new goal state. this occurs through a process of meaning-making, appraisal and revision of a situation and interpreting it to discern the significance. similar to the emotional strengths, each of the subthemes could be compared with psychological strengths found on existing quantitative measures (figure 1). these strengths also concur with a south african doctoral study which identified persistence, perseverance and assertiveness, together with strong interpersonal communication skills, to be useful in navigating barriers to women’s advancement and potential sources of stress such as family responsibility and gender issues (zulu, 2007). in addition, a chinese study linked higher levels of emotional strengths to greater life satisfaction (chan, 2009). the interpersonal strengths of this study complement previous studies of women leaders which yielded negotiation and persuasion skills based on engagement and genuine understanding (greenberg & sweeney, 2005), applying an inclusive and team-oriented approach, showing a willingness to take risks (caliper, 2014), communicating directly and valuing relationships (april & dreyer, 2007). they also alluded to being authentic, kind, embracing the diversity of others and encouraging equality, and being compassionate and cooperative (caliper, 2014). beyond the cognitive, emotional and interpersonal abilities identified as strengths, the participants also conveyed personal values which they reported to live by, and apply. the strength of having a sense of purpose and being passionate about a particular cause or activity was not represented with the quantitative strengths measures but has been alluded to in logotherapy (frankl, 1963) and the japanese concept of ikigai, or having a purpose in life (garcia & miralles, 2016). the self-management strength in the behavioural category is somewhat different from the other characteristic-type strengths by reflecting a skill but could possibly be linked to the execution cluster of the strengthscope which measures efficiency, flexibility and self-improvement. an overview of the results (table 2) suggests that many strengths may be captured using a quantitative strengths instrument, but may overlook some important context-specific strengths such as insight, purpose and self-management in this study which were convergent themes from the participants. secondly, but not less importantly, strengths were perceived as relevant by the participants in both positive and negative circumstances, and the participants tended to speak of them with a long-standing conviction rather than abilities to be used on an ad hoc basis and they regarded strengths to be developable over time. thirdly, given that women leaders in general face a number of challenges that affect their career progression, capturing the strengths of women leaders on extended south african samples may lead to a finding of some key strengths that can be applied vigorously in leadership development programmes for women. the study succeeded in exploring and generating a taxonomy of strengths which can be compared across sub-populations and quantitative measures of strengths. furthermore, ipa interviews should be considered as a supplementary method to the more common method of questionnaires for a richer representation and understanding of psychological strengths. table 2: overview of psychological strengths of muslim women leaders. limitations and recommendations limitations related to the methodology of the study include that the derived strengths were fairly descriptive, but perhaps not exhaustive. it is possible that participants may have overlooked some of their individual strengths when relating their experiences as these may not have been consciously obvious to the participants. secondly, the method of ipa calls for much smaller samples with the argument that ‘less is more’ and greater depth of analysis is achieved. the larger sample of this study was in line with the supervising university sample requirements for doctoral research, and it is the opinion of the researcher that because a full analysis of one case occurs before moving to the next, there is no impulsive aggregation of themes across cases and the integrity of idiographic analysis can be maintained while also generating a broader range of rich themes, by adhering to the process of ipa. although the study contributes theoretically to psychological strengths and has practical value for leadership development, it is recommended that the study be duplicated across other sub-populations in the south african context, according to gender, cultural, religious or occupational membership, for example, to expand on and develop a theoretical understanding of contextual psychological strengths, and ultimately a local taxonomy. in response to the dilemma of classifying human strengths, it is submitted that they can, indeed, be complex and composed of personality traits, states and cognitive abilities and the results of this study did not show particular preference to any currently established strengths framework. a criticism of the strengths approach latches onto the fact that strengths may be used inappropriately, but this can be moderated by creating awareness of strengths by firstly identifying them and adjusting their use as appropriate to the context. meta-cognitive awareness and emotional intelligence may play a positive role in moderating the application of strengths and the relationships with these constructs may be an area for further empirical investigation. conclusion the objective of this study was to explore the nature of psychological strengths of a sample of leaders who are female and belong to the islamic faith, within a south african work context. the results contribute to the field of positive psychology by providing for a taxonomy of psychological strengths which roughly fitted into the conceptual categories of cognitive strengths, emotional strengths, interpersonal strengths, values/motivational strengths and a single behavioural strength. by adopting an ipa approach, the resulting taxonomy mimicked a range of strengths that were dispersed across other established quantitative strengths measures, but not comprehensively by any one particular measure. it is highly possible that using a quantitative measure of individual strengths may fail to substantially capture a representative profile, potentially missing those relevant to the individual’s personal context. novel strengths included insight, purpose and self-management. while some strengths were narrated in relation to religious background or experiences, leadership context examples featured prominently in the descriptions of psychological strengths applied and it is anticipated that there were more strengths in common between women in leadership roles with some cultural and religious variations. the outcomes of the study suggest that the methodology of ipa succeeded in providing a comprehensive list of strengths. it would be valuable to extend the ipa approach of strengths assessment to other south african leadership populations which may reveal additional strengths and a more inclusive taxonomy could be developed to support leadership development in a diverse workplace. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions f.a. was the project leader and was responsible for the project design, analysis and interpretation of results. j.h.b. made conceptual contributions and supervised the doctoral study. funding information funding assistance from the national research foundation is gratefully acknowledged. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as new data that was created or analysed in this study was derived from individual interviews with personally identifiable information. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references ahmed, r. (2008). attitudes towards muslim women. unpublished master’s dissertation. durban: university of kwazulu-natal. april, k., dreyer, s., & blass, e. (2007). gender impediments to the south african boardroom. south african journal of labour relations, 31(2), 51–67. april, k.a., & dreyer, s. (2007). gender unplugged in the executive boardroom, effective executive. rondebosch: university of cape town. aspinwall, l.g., & staudinger, u.m. (2003). a psychology of human strengths: some central issues of an emerging field. in l.g. aspinwall & u.m. staudinger (eds.), a psychology of human strengths: fundamental questions and future directions for a positive psychology (pp. 9–22). washington, dc: american psychological association. biswas-diener, r., kashdan, t.b. & minhas, g. (2011). a dynamic approach to psychological strength development and intervention. the journal of positive psychology, 6(2), 106–118. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2010.545429 brook, j., & brewerton, p. (2006). strengthscope technical manual. london: strengths partnership. buckingham, m., & clifton, d.o. (2001). now, discover your strengths. london: simon & schuster. caliper. (2014). women leaders research paper (whitepaper). princeton, nj: caliper. retrieved from https://www.calipercorp.com. carr, a. (2004). positive psychology: the science of happiness and human strengths. east sussex: brunner-routledge. carrim, n.m.h. (2015). managing religious diversity in the south african workplace. in s. groschl & r. bendl (eds.), religious diversity in the workplace (pp. 113–136). farnham: grower. carrim, n.m.h. (2017). to be or not to be: muslim identities in south africa. in j. mahadevan & j.c. mayer (eds.), islam, workplace diversity and reflexive hrm (pp. 77–94). pretoria: routledge. chan, d.w. (2009). the hierarchy of strengths: their relationships with subjective well-being among chinese teachers in hong kong. teaching and teacher education, 25, 867–875. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2009.01.010 clifton, d.o., & harter, j.k. (2003). investing in strengths. in k.s. cameron, b.j.e. dutton & c.r.e. quinn (eds.), positive organisational scholarship (pp. 111–121). san francisco, ca: berrett-koehler publishers. excerpt chapter 8. retrieved from https://bfeild.typepad.com/transcending_leadership/investing%20in%20strengths.pdf. compton, w.c. (2005). an introduction to positive psychology. belmont, ca: wadsworth. damons, m.h. (2009). the performance of female principals in the management of selected secondary schools in the gauteng province. melvin harold. unpublished thesis. university of johannesburg. retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10210/237 department of labour. (1998). employment equity act, no. 55 of 1998. retrieved from https://www.labour.gov.za. deptula, d.p., cohen, r., phillipsen, l.c. & ey, s. (2006). expecting the best: the relation between peer optimism and social competence. the journal of positive psychology, 1(3), 130–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760600613685 frankl, v.e. (1963). man’s search for meaning. new york: simon & schuster. garcia, h., & miralles, f. (2016). ikigai: the japanese secret to a long and happy life. london: penguin. goodman, f.r., disabato, d.j., & kashdan, t.b. (2019). integrating psychological strengths under the umbrella of personality science: rethinking the definition, measurement, and modification of strengths. the journal of positive psychology, 14(1), 61–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2018.1528380 greenberg, h., & sweeney, p. (2005). the qualities that distinguish women leaders. princeton, nj: caliper corp. harter, j.k., schmidt, f.l., & hayes, t.l. (2002). business-unit-level relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: a meta-analysis. journal of applied psychology, 87, 268–279. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.2.268 hefferon, k., & gil-rodriguez, e. (2011). interpretative phenomenological analysis. the psychologist, 24(10), 756–759. retrieved from https://www.thepsychologist.org.uk/archive/archive_home.cfm?volumeid=24&editionid=206&articleid=1930. hutchinson, a.k., stuart, a.d., & pretorius, h.g. (2010). biological contributions to well-being: the relationships amongst temperament, character strengths and resilience. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i2.844 kaiser, r.b., & overfield, d.v. (2011). strengths, strengths overused and lop-sided leadership. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 63(2), 89–109. http://doi.org/10.1037/a0024470 keenan, e.m., & mostert, k. (2013). perceived organisational support for strengths use: the factorial validity and reliability of a new scale in the banking industry. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i1.1052 klenke, k. (2008). qualitative research in the study of leadership. bingley: emerald group. łaba, k. (2011). themes in south african studies on women in the workplace. in a. bosch (ed.), the south african board for people practices women’s report 2011 (pp. 33–37). parktown: sabpp. leo, l., & reid, r. (2013). gender and workplace bullying. in a. bosch (ed.), south african board for people practices women’s report 2013 (pp. 26–30). parktown: sabpp. linley, p.a., willars, j., & biswas-diener, r. (2010). the strengths book. coventry: capp press. macaskill, a., & denovan, a. (2014). assessing psychological health: the contribution of psychological strengths. british journal of guidance & counselling, 42(3), 320–337, https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2014.898739 maddi, s.r. (2006). hardiness: the courage to grow from stresses. the journal of positive psychology, 1(3), 160–168. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760600619609 ndhlovu, j.n. (2010). exploring positive psychological strengths in employees attending eap in the public service: a qualitative study. doctoral dissertation. pretoria: university of south africa. palinkas, l.a., horwitz, s.m., green, c.a., wisdom, j.p. duan, n., & hoagwood, k. (2015). purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation research. administration and policy in mental health and mental health services research, 42(5), 533–544. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-013-0528-y park, n., peterson, c., & seligman, m.e.p. (2006). character strengths in fifty-four nations and the fifty us states. the journal of positive psychology, 1(3), 118–129. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760600619567 peterson, c., & seligman, m.e.p. (2003). character strengths and virtues: a handbook and classification. washington, dc: american psychological association. rath, t. (2007). strengthsfinder 2.0. new york: gallup. seligman, m.e.p. (2011). flourish: a visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. new york: simon & schuster. seligman, m.e.p., & csikszentmihalyi, m. (2000). positive psychology: an introduction. american psychologist, 55(1), 5–14. http://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.5 seligman, m.e.p., steen, t.a., park, n., & peterson, c. (2005). positive psychology progress: empirical validation of interventions. american psychologist, 60(5), 410–421. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.60.5.410 smith, j.a. (2004). reflecting on the development of interpretative phenomenological analysis and its contribution to qualitative research in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 1, 39–54. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088704qp004oa smith, j.a. (2011). evaluating the contribution of interpretative phenomenological analysis. health psychology review, 5(1), 9–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2010.510659 smith, j.a. (2017). interpretative phenomenological analysis: getting at lived experience. the journal of positive psychology, 12(3), 303–304. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2016.1262622 smith, j.a. (2018). participants and researchers searching for meaning: conceptual developments for interpretative phenomenological analysis. qualitative research in psychology, 12(3), 303–304. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2018.1540648 snyder, c.r., & lopez, s.j. (2004). the future of positive psychological assessment: making a difference. in s.j. lopez & c.r. snyder (eds.), positive psychological assessment: a handbook of models and measures (pp. 461–468). new york: oxford university press. staudinger, u.m., & leipold, b. (2003). the assessment of wisdom-related performance. in s.j. lopez & c. r. snyder (eds.), positive psychological assessment: a handbook of models and measures (pp. 171–184). washington, dc: american psychological association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10612-000 strengthscope. (2010). strengthscope technical manual. london: strengthscope. stokols, d. (2003). the ecology of human strengths. in l.g. aspinwall & u.m staudinger (eds.), a psychology of human strengths: fundamental questions and future directions for a positive psychology (pp. 331–343). washington, dc: american psychological association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10566-023 taylor, n., & morgan, b. (2015). brief technical report on the relationship between work-related strengths and personality types. johannesburg: jvr psychometrics. terman, r. (2017). islamophobia and media portrayals of muslim women: a computational text analysis of us news coverage. international studies quarterly, 61(3), 489–502. https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqx051 van der westhuizen, s., de beer, m., & bekwa, n. (2011). psychological strengths as predictors of postgraduate students’ academic achievement. journal of psychology in africa, 21(3), 473–478. wen, m., butler, l.t., & koutstaal, w. (2012). improving insight and non-insight problem solving with brief interventions. british journal of psychology, 104(1), 97–118. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.2012.02107.x zhou, q., valiente, c., & eisenberg, n. (2003). empathy and its measurement. in s.j. lopez (ed.), positive psychological assessment: a handbook of tools and measures (pp. 269–284). washington, dc: american psychological association. zulu, c.b. (2007). a comparative study of women in management in higher education in south africa and the united kingdom. doctoral thesis. pretoria: university of south africa. abstract introduction and background research purpose and objectives literature review research methodology results discussion practical implications limitations and recommendations for further research acknowledgements references about the author(s) lloyd mphahlele faculty of management sciences, tshwane school for business, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa leigh-anne p. dachapalli department people management and development, faculty of management sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa citation mphahlele, l., & dachapalli, l-a.p. (2022). the influence of performance management systems on employee job satisfaction levels at a telecommunications company in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1804. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1804 original research the influence of performance management systems on employee job satisfaction levels at a telecommunications company in south africa lloyd mphahlele, leigh-anne p. dachapalli received: 22 jan. 2021; accepted: 19 july 2022; published: 31 aug. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: given the importance of employee job satisfaction to organisational success, job satisfaction is still a common element for any organisation to be successful. research purpose: to determine to what extent employee perceptions of performance management impact job satisfaction. motivation for the study: this study was motivated by the relative paucity of extant literature considering the relationship between employee job satisfaction and the implementation of performance management systems within telecommunications companies in south africa. research approach/design and method: a survey-based quantitative approach was employed to collect data from 300 employees in a telecommunications company in south africa. the survey instrument comprised items measuring perceptions of performance management and the performance management system and an adapted minnesota satisfaction questionnaire (msq) that was used to evaluate job satisfaction. survey items were accompanied by a five-point likert-type scale. a nonprobability convenience sampling method was adopted. main findings: the results showed that perceived policy implementation and perceived fairness have a positive and significant effect on job satisfaction, with perceived fairness having a greater overall effect. practical/managerial implications: the implementation of a performance management system should be predicated on fairness and all due efforts to underline and communicate the fairness of the system, coupled with consistent policy implementation, can improve employee job satisfaction. contribution/value-add: this study more broadly illustrates the importance of perceived fairness and consistent policy application in the implementation of a performance management system to overall employee job satisfaction. keywords: performance management; performance management system; job satisfaction; performance appraisal; telecommunications company. introduction and background employees are central to the success of any organisation, as they are the key resource in ensuring that strategic activities are executed with a high degree of diligence and timing. to this end, performance management systems are tools and mechanisms that enable organisations to evaluate the performance of employees and which have the potential to impact employee job satisfaction (js) in either a positive or a negative way, depending on the manner in which the system is implemented (demartini, 2014). within the south african telecommunications sector, strong growth over the past 5 years has given way to a substantially more competitive environment, especially considering the move from voice to data communication. as a result, the profit margins of established telecommunications companies are set to shrink in the near term through the reduction in data prices, which offsets potential gains in higher data volumes. efficiencies that can be gained through staff retention by reducing integration and training costs, as well as efficiencies related to improved performance, are both related to js. improving and maintaining levels of js is thus of key importance for telecommunications companies as they seek to maintain profit margins. furthermore, as deloitte point out in their south african telecommunications sentiment index 2020 (2019), telecoms is south africa’s most negatively viewed industry, underlining the importance of systems aimed at tracking and increasing, or maintaining, js levels with the industry. research purpose and objectives the purpose of this study was to establish whether a performance management system has an influence on employee js, focusing on a telecommunications company in south africa. the objectives of this study were to: determine these employee perceptions of a performance management system determine their levels of js determine whether there was a relationship between perceptions of the performance management system and levels of js determine whether there were specific factors linked to the performance management system that had a greater or lesser influence on levels of js. literature review the purpose of a performance management system is, essentially, to ensure that employees deliver on what management expects of them. demartini (2014) defines a performance management system as comprising evolving mechanisms that are both formal and informal and which are geared at both conveying objectives assigned by management and (more broadly) at aiding management through analysis and planning, as well as through performance review and through the facilitation of organisational learning and change. singh (2010) underlines the concrete and participatory nature of performance management systems, concluding that an effective system is capable of increasing productivity and generating employee enthusiasm, thereby resulting in higher employee retention and improved client satisfaction. the process of performance management consists, for greve (2003), of the creation of objective, feasible, sustainable and credible measures, together with procedures and practices that ultimately allow for the measurement of employee performance and that can, through performance feedback, become an engine for organisational learning (greve & gaba, 2020). typically, the performance management process includes four main stages, these being planning, mentoring and coaching, reviewing and rewarding. an effective performance management system not only drives improved performance in individual terms, but it also enables the communication of organisational objectives in broader terms, and it is furthermore seen by greve (2003) as a means to achieve employee satisfaction through better understanding of common goals. the factors that contribute to an effective performance management system include the communication of an understanding of organisational culture and strategy together with managerial expectations. the nature of performance management as a system that channels feedback between employees and management further implies that development planning, together with coaching and coupled with performance and development reviews, are essential elements of a successful performance management system (barth & de beer, 2017). such a system, as underlined by barth and de beer (2017), aims at improving and reinforcing the ability and capacity of employees to fulfil managerial expectation. finally, recognition and reward, in line with performance, and on both a formal and an informal basis, as well as respect and trust, are hallmarks of an effective performance management system, supporting and sustaining employees in their accomplishment of organisational objectives (barth & de beer, 2017). performance management systems can be seen as inherently linked to js insofar as job satisfaction is predicated on an employee’s feeling of having accomplished a task that has importance and ‘value worth recognition’, as wicker (2011) notes. performance management systems reinforce this sense of accomplishment through the communication of objectives that are seen as valuable to the organisation and in the assessment of the accomplishments of employees. abekah-nkrumah and atinga (2013) further elaborate on the question of trust, which, for them, stimulates js and performance and is another hallmark of a successful performance management system. they underline the importance of management in the exercise of workplace justice and the powerful role that js plays in influencing both outcomes and employee behaviour, with an absence of managerial fairness leading to employee turnover as a result of employee dissatisfaction. this point of view is reinforced by selden and sowa (2011), who found positive linkages between performance management and turnover, js, job enjoyment and employee job commitment, emphasising the motivational role that a judiciously implemented performance management system can have. globally, the structure of a job – that is, the degree to which individual tasks have been clearly determined, coupled with the inclusion of employees, harnessing their creativity and innovation and thus empowering them, as well as the provision of opportunities for growth and appropriate levels of renumeration – are crucial to high levels of employee satisfaction (jaksic & jaksic, 2013). viewed in this light, performance management systems are powerful tools that lay the framework for the structure of a given job, and when judiciously implemented, they achieve the aforementioned tasks of determination, inclusion and empowerment through feedback, communication and review. jaksic and jaksic (2013) further underline the necessary satisfaction of the key stakeholders (employees) in defining the mission, strategy and aims of a given organisation which, as guest (2009) points out, is subject to changing expectations, which vary in both educational and in generational terms and in which a performance management system as a tool for feedback has an important role to play. the relationship between good performance management and js has been further illustrated by a number of studies (howel & avolio, 2013; koech & namusonge, 2012; ololube, dudafa, uriah, & agbor, 2013), with both amanchukwu, stanley and olulube (2015) and howel and avolio (2013) concurring that the perception of fairness in performance management is a key trait. to this end, the present study seeks to validate these findings, considering the importance of perceived fairness in the application of a performance management system and the manner in which this affects js. sharma, sharma and agarwal (2016), while focusing on the question of performance management perceptions within the context of the indian subcontinent, raise interesting points regarding the necessity of establishing what the baseline perception of performance management is within various socio-economic and cultural climates. insights garnered from further analyses centred on different contexts will allow for both the untangling of the complex relationship between performance management and organisational performance, as well as a better understanding of the manner in which various factors, including but not limited to accuracy and fairness, impact performance management more broadly. the present study thus seeks to consider employee perceptions of performance management on js levels within the context of a south african telecommunications company, adding considerations specific to this context to the more global body of work. the importance of js, and performance management systems as a mediator and vehicle for js, can also be read in terms of employee retention, as pauwe (2004) notes. performance management is a manner in which an organisation can identify those who have not been able to comply with the stated goals, allowing an organisation to retain only those employees who have proven themselves. lewis, linganiso and karodia (2015), in their study on perceptions of performance management in a radiology department at a hospital in gauteng, south africa, revealed several negative trends insofar as over 40% of employees canvassed expressed a lack of motivation following performance review. in the same study, 50% of participants were of the opinion that performance management did not function. suggested improvements to the performance management system and the implementation thereof within the radiology department of the gauteng hospital included the provision of nonfinancial rewards and improved opportunities for the development of interpersonal relations within the department. these improvements sought to improve js through the reduction of what the study reported as dissatisfaction with the implementation of the performance management system. the present study seeks to consider whether the dissatisfaction regarding performance management and its consequent impact on js, as reported by lewis et al. (2015), is part of a general trend or whether it is site or industry specific. research methodology research approach, design and method the study adopted a quantitative approach and a descriptive and correlational research design. this was deemed appropriate in a study that sought to collect data describing the perceptions of employees of performance management, performance management systems and levels of js in order to generalise the findings to a broader population. data were collected using the survey method in the form of a questionnaire administered to the respondents. population and sampling technique the target population comprised approximately 500 employees employed in the business network unit of a south african telecommunications company. these employees held the position of line manager, specialist or ‘other’. an initial sample of 300 respondents was planned, with a sample size of 150 regarded as adequate for the study. a nonprobability convenience sampling method was adopted. a final sample of 236 respondents was obtained, thus indicating a response rate of 79%. measuring instrument the survey questionnaire comprised three sections. section a gathered demographic and other variables including gender, age, position held, years of service and level of education. sections b and c contained items accompanied by a five-point likert-type scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5) and measured respondents’ perceptions of performance management and the performance management process, and their levels of js, respectively. items linked to performance management were developed following a review of relevant literature. items linked to js were measured using an adapted version of the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire (msq). data collection after obtaining permission from a telecommunication company in south africa to conduct the study, questionnaires (300) were distributed online to the employees through the surveymonkey platform. a covering letter was attached to each questionnaire that described the nature, purpose and objectives of the study and assured the respondents that their responses would be kept anonymous. ethical clearance was granted for this study (reference number rec/2016/05/003). data analysis the data retrieved from the questionnaires that were completed by the respondents were coded according to the variables and captured in statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 24. validity and reliability of the measuring instrument the validity of the measuring instrument was established by making use of exploratory factor analysis. four subscales emerged, these being labelled ‘policy implementation’ (p), ‘knowledge and training’ (kt), ‘fairness’ (f) and ‘job satisfaction’. all subscales demonstrated cronbach’s alpha coefficients exceeding 0.70, with the exception of the ‘knowledge and training’ subscale that obtained a coefficient of 0.54. the cronbach’s alpha coefficients are presented in table 1. table 1: cronbach’s alpha coefficients for subscales. ethical considerations ethical approval to conduct this study was obtained from the tshwane university of technology (ref. no. frec2015/fr/10/005-ms). results demographic information descriptive analysis was carried out to obtain the frequency distributions of the demographic variables, which were gender, age, race, position at work, work experience and education level. the results of this analysis are illustrated in table 2. table 2: demographic profile of respondents (n = 236). the majority of respondents were male (84%), with most falling in the age range of 36–45 years of age (43%). the majority of respondents (55%) were specialists, with most having between 6 and 19 years of experience (73%), and the majority held a diploma or 3-year degree (50%). mean scores and standard deviations for performance management or performance management system and job satisfaction table 3 presents the mean scores and standard deviations in relation to employee perception regarding performance management or the performance management system and their levels of js, as measured for each of the 33 items. an aggregate mean score and standard deviation is provided for overall js, as well as for each of the subscales that emerged for the performance management or performance management system scale of the questionnaire. in this study, a scale of 1.0–1.49 tended towards strongly disagree, 1.51–2.49 towards disagree, 2.51–3.49 towards neutral and 3.51–4.49 towards agree, with 4.51–5 being indicative of a response that tends towards strongly agree. table 3: mean scores and standard deviations for performance management and job satisfaction (n = 236). at a subdimensional level, the results show that employees had a neutral perception of performance management regarding policy implementation (p) and fairness (f), as evidenced by the mean values of 3.21, and 2.84, respectively. job satisfaction, with a mean score of 2.91, also tended towards a neutral perception, whereas kt, with a score of 3.83, fell into the scale signalling agreement. the results from the descriptive analysis furthermore show that employees had a neutral perception overall as concerns their level of js, as evidenced by the mean value (2.91). this is also shown in figure 1. figure 1: employee perception of performance management and job satisfaction at a subdimension level. in this study, out of the 18 items assessing perceptions of performance management or the performance management system, most of the responses received expressed the neutral option. respondents disagreed with the statement f6 (‘i receive praise for doing a good job’), with the result having a mean value of 2.33. relationship between performance management or performance management system and job satisfaction in order to ascertain whether performance management contributes to js, correlation and regression analyses were undertaken. when factor analysis, as a measure of validity prior to further inferential testing, was applied to the 33 items of performance management and js subdimensions to test for construct validity, only 25 items were found to meet a minimum threshold of 0.4, as recommended by field (2009). the items that could not meet the minimum requirement of 0.4 were p1, p2, kt1, kt2, kt3, kt4, kt5, kt6, f1, f2, f3 and f4, including the entire ‘knowledge and training’ subscale, and these items were removed from further inferential analysis. table 4 details the results of the correlation analysis and table 5 the results of the regression analysis. the analysis in table 5 contains both alpha and regression coefficients; β, which is the standardised beta coefficient; seb, which is the standard error of the coefficient of determination; and r2, which is the coefficient of determination used to measure the explanatory power of predictor variables (subdimensions of performance management) against the dependent variable (that is, js). table 4: correlation analysis. table 5: regression analysis. given that policy implementation and fairness are the independent variables while js is the dependent variable, it is clear that a positive and moderate relationship exists between the two performance management subdimensions (policy implementation and fairness), as well as between each of the performance management subdimensions and overall js. thus, taking the results of the regression analysis into account, (p < 0.001, r = 0.54, β = 0.54), a positive relationship can be drawn between policy implementation and js at the telecommunications company in south africa (at a significance level of p < 0.001). policy implementation can thus lead to overall js, consistent with the findings of both howell and avolio (2013) and koech and namusonge (2012). furthermore, a positive relationship between fairness in performance management and js (p < 0.001, r = 0.67, β = 0.67) can be accepted at a significance level of p < 0.001. thus, fairness in performance management can lead to overall js, which is in line with the conclusions that both koech and namusonge (2012) and ololube et al. (2013) drew. in conclusion, the results show that policy implementation and perceived fairness had a positive significance effect on overall js. the results further show that perceived fairness has a greater effect on overall js than policy implementation. discussion the main objective of the study was to establish if a performance management system has an impact on the js of employees. the findings of the study indicate that respondents gave neutral responses to the questions regarding policy implementation (average score of 3.21), fairness (2.73) and js (3.15). a closer look at the results of the js section of the questionnaire show that while the question es1 (‘i get a feeling of accomplishment from my job’) elicited a mean response of 3.83 (agree), with a standard deviation of 0.83, question es14 (‘there are opportunities for workplace advancement’) elicited a mean response of 1.74 (disagree), with a standard deviation of 0.91. this seeming contradiction in workplace satisfaction as arising out of a feeling of accomplishment in the absence of opportunities for advancement is further problematised by the result of question es4, ‘there are opportunities for advancement within the company’ (mean score of 3.76 with a standard deviation of 0.99). while the standard deviation of the responses is relatively high, indicative of inconsistency, the responses nevertheless may reflect the perception of workplace advancement as taking place within the broader company (thus interdepartmental promotions) as opposed to within a given department (intradepartmental promotion). this contradiction warrants further investigation. while the questions pertaining to kt did not pass the 0.4 threshold of factor analysis, the particularly high scores for kt2 (‘there is enough training regarding performance management’, mean score of 4.24, standard deviation of 0.78), kt3 (‘i understand what a performance management system is’, mean score of 3.96, with a standard deviation of 0.60) and kt4 (‘i can explain what a performance management system is about’, mean score of 4.24, with a standard deviation of 0.82) are noteworthy. these scores illustrate the positive communication that has been undertaken regarding performance management and the success with which the goals and processes of the performance management system have been conveyed. further analysis showed that both policy implementation (p < 0.001, r = 0.54, β = 0.54) and perceived fairness (p < 0.001, r = 0.67, β = 0.67) have an impact on js, with fairness having a more significant overall impact. while these findings concur with amanchukwu et al. (2015) and howel and avolio (2013) in that the perception of fairness has a key role to play in performance management, it is only partially in line with the findings of lewis et al. (2013), who underlined the demotivation that resulted from performance review at a public hospital in gauteng. lewis et al. (2013) amplify their results in considering the fact that feedback may only be given during reviews, and their article furthermore highlights what can be interpreted as a perceived lack of objectivity, where the majority of respondents to their study considered that ‘managers give the best score to everyone’ (2013, p. 18). while the questions directly addressing fairness in the study by lewis et al. (‘assessments of my performance are consistently fair’) elicited responses of ‘strongly agree’ in 13.89% of cases and ‘agree’ in 44.44% of cases, with 25% of respondents disagreeing and 5.55% strongly disagreeing (2013, p. 16), the fairness score of 2.73 in the present study is indicative of a weaker perception of overall fairness as regards performance management. furthermore, in the present study, the score of 2.33 related to the question of praise can be seen to concur with the lack of regular feedback outside the formal review process that lewis et al. point to. while the study undertaken by lewis et al. (2013) did not specifically address the question of js and the relation of performance management to js, the question of objectivity and implementation was raised. for the health care workers who formed the basis of the study by lewis et al., it was considered that their profession (together with vocational ideas of service related to healthcare) influenced their perception of remuneration, which elicited globally positive responses in contrast to the present study, where salary satisfaction was neutral (with an average score of 3.11). nevertheless, the present study has shown that there is a clearly positive relationship between performance management systems, more particularly the perceived fairness and implementation thereof, and js. although employees responded neutrally to the js questionnaire overall, what did emerge was the importance of employees experiencing a sense of job accomplishment. practical implications the practical implications of this study can be considered from a managerial point of view in terms of specific survey questions that elicited unsatisfactory responses and identifying remedies to the problems raised by the respondents; in this way, positive perceptions of performance management systems may be increased. the question concerning the regularity of performance reviews (p2) scored a mean value of 2.70, which tends towards the ‘neutral’ response. while the standard deviation revealed some inconsistency of response (1.11), it is nonetheless recommended that line managers schedule regular performance review dates and communicate frequently about the importance of these reviews to ensure that these appointments are taken seriously and honoured. the question regarding the professional demeanour of the managers (p4) scored a mean value of 2.67, with a standard deviation of 0.94, which indicates that the employees had a neutral response to the question as to whether line managers handle the performance management sessions (such as goal setting and reviews) in a manner that is, in their opinion, professional. line managers should thus formalise performance management sessions and ensure that records of such meetings are accurately kept, with the necessary follow-ups regularly undertaken within the performance management circle. these findings are echoed by the question regarding the appropriate implementation of company policy (p5) with a score of 2.54 and standard deviation of 0.87, showing the neutrality and ambivalence felt by the respondents, reinforcing the need for better policy implementation. regarding the relationship between compensation and performance (f1), the mean value of 2.80 (standard deviation of 1.32) indicates that the employees responded neutrally to the statement that the compensation that they receive is linked to their own performance. this response can be regarded as subjective insofar as employees generally consider themselves to be performing at the highest level, and this subjectivity is reinforced by the high standard deviation that shows inconsistency in their overall perception. further questions regarding the uniformity of application (f2) and whether only excellent workers are rewarded by performance management systems (f4) elicited an equally neutral response (2.80 and 2.52 respectively), with equally high standard deviations (1.33 and 1.16). this can be contrasted to the question regarding fair working conditions across departments (f5), which, while tending towards a neutral response (2.87), nevertheless has a much greater degree of consistency, with a standard deviation of 0.87. line managers should thus be clear in their explanations during feedback sessions regarding the way compensation is matched to performance (in order to reduce the high variability in perception). goals and the way they are measured must be clear in order for employees to understand the manner in which they are compensated according to their performance. the agreement regarding the response that tends towards neutral concerning fair working conditions across departments, as reflected in the low standard deviation, stands out and is indicative of a perceived inconsistency in the working conditions across departments and should be addressed by more rigorous cross-departmental application of company policy. interdepartmental inconsistency is also underlined in the response to f2 (uniformity of performance management system application across departments), which had a response tending towards neutral with a high degree of variability, possibly indicative of varied perceptions across departments. regarding whether only excellent performers or hard workers are rewarded by performance management systems (f4), employee responses tend towards neutral, illustrating that they do not necessarily believe that the system rewards hard workers. thus, human resource departments should play a central role in evaluating the portfolio of evidence that is provided by the employees together with line managers in order to ensure a more objective application of the policy, which will also address the high degree of variability in the response. respondents reported a mean value of 2.33 with a standard deviation of 1.04 concerning the praise they receive for good work (f6), indicating a response that tends towards neutral but again reflects a significant variability. as a remedy, line managers should make an effort to ensure that time is taken for consistent, deserving, positive feedback, thus avoiding the perception that feedback is only given in negative circumstances, and ensuring a more homogenous application of the policy in order to reduce variability. question es6 illustrated a neutral opinion regarding managerial decision-making (mean value of 2.78 with a standard deviation of 0.93), and while the standard deviation shows some variability in the response, line managers should nevertheless invest more time in educating themselves with regards to the performance management system so as to be able to justify their decisions through their depth of understanding of the process, providing adequate answers to employee queries. the application of company policies (es12) similarly scored neutrally with a mean value of 2.54 and a standard deviation of 0.87, which indicates the ambivalence with which employees view the appropriate implementation of policy. company policies should be clear and consistent; in areas where there is ambiguity, an effort should be made to review and update them accordingly. the challenge lies in the application of this by line managers, which is inconsistent. salary satisfaction, as measured against work undertaken (es13), scored a mean value of 3.11 with a standard deviation of 0.94, which can be interpreted as a neutral response. clear job descriptions should be provided with changes to the job description explained; an explanation that illustrates the replacement of previous tasks or goals with new ones will underline a view of progress and not of the mere addition of new tasks. limitations and recommendations for further research the study was focused on a particular telecommunications company in south africa and does not represent the broad spectrum of telecommunications companies in south africa. this means that the generalisations and inferences that can be drawn from the study are limited and can be viewed as encouraging further intra-industry studies. a further limitation arises insofar as the study was conducted using quantitative research methods; the questionnaire was thus structured and did not allow much room for free form comments. further studies of a qualitative nature, including focus groups and other forms of interviews, could give a better idea of the industry-specific constraints of this fast-paced industry. a common thread regarding employee perception of performance management that was raised in the course of the study was the consistently neutral opinion held by employees regarding managerial fairness in the application of performance management. future research should thus more clearly focus on the question of management fairness in the application of performance management, allowing for a more granular understanding of the roots of the perception. conclusion there is a clear link between performance management and employee js, more specifically as this relates to the implementation of performance management systems and the perceived fairness thereof. while employees believe that performance management systems are both needed and important, they consistently report neutral sentiments regarding the manner in which the system is applied. they are neutral as concerns perceived managerial fairness in application; this neutrality in opinion runs counter to the very purpose of a performance management system, which is built to improve relations between management and employees. furthermore, the high levels of standard deviation across all question responses are possibly indicative of the inconsistent application of the performance management system, insofar as a performance management system is geared at homogenising employee expectations and managerial experience in a consistent and procedurally understood manner. the high levels of variability in employee perception of performance management thus run contrary to the principles of a good performance management system and are indicative of poor implementation or coordination of the performance management system both across departments and in general. one of the critical points raised by respondents is that performance reviews are not regularly undertaken, which can very well create problems leading to negative employee appraisal, given that the entire cycle is not taken into consideration. based on the above recommendations, the company should consider integrating performance management into the day-to-day routines of the department to avoid any pressure regarding the submission of appraisal ratings to management. the system should furthermore be a two-way structure, wherein the onus not only lies with the manager but also with the employee, who is empowered to prompt the manager regarding the fulfilment of performance management obligations in a consistent and clear manner. more broadly, and of more general interest to the question of the relationship between performance management and js, fairness, arising in no small part out of the consistent application of procedures, can be seen as key. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions l.m. initiated the project as part of his mba degree. l.p.d. acted as supervisor and was therefore involved in the conceptualisation of the project. the authors wrote this article jointly as a team effort. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views expressed in this article are those of the not an official position of the tshwane university of technology. references abekah-nkrumah, g., & ayimbillah atinga, r. (2013). exploring the link between organisational justice and job satisfaction and performance in ghanaian hospitals: do demographic factors play a mediating role? international journal of workplace health management, 6(3), 189–204. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijwhm-04-2011-0011 amanchukwu, r.n., stanley, g.j., & olulube, n.p. (2015). a review of leadership theories, principles and styles and their relevance to educational management. journal of scientific management, 5(1), 6–14. barth, a.l., & de beer, w.d. (2017). performance management success: a best practices and implementation guide for leaders and managers of all organizations. cham: springer. deloitte. (2019). south african telecommunications senitment index 2020. switzerland: deloitte. demartini, c. (2014). performance management systems. berlin: springer-verlag. field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss (3rd ed.). london: sage. greve, h.r. (2003). organizational learning from performance feedback. cambridge: cambridge university press. greve, h.r., & gaba, v. (2020). performance feedback in organisations and groups: common themes. in l. argote & j.m. levine (eds.), the oxford handbook of group and organisational learning (pp. 315–337). oxford: oxford university press. guest, d. (2009). corporate performance and employee wellbeing. the journal of industrial relations, 44(3), 335–358. https://doi.org/10.1111/1472-9296.00053 howel, j.m., & avolio, b.j. (2013). transformational leadership, transactional leadership, locus of control and support for innovations: key predictors of consolidated performance. journal of applied psychology, 78(6), 891–903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.6.891 jaksic, m., & jaksic, m. (2013). performance management and employee satisfaction. montenegrin journal of economics, 9(1), 85–92. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2468629 koech, p.m., & namusonge, g. (2012). the effects of leadership styles on organizational performance at state corporations in kenya. international journal of business & commerce, 2(1), 1–12. lewis, s., linganiso, x., & karodia, a. (2015). investigating employee perceptions of performance management at the department of radiology in a public hospital in gauteng. oman chapter of arabian journal of business and management review, 5(1), 9–39. https://doi.org/10.12816/0019103 mphahlele, l. (2018). the impact of the performance management system on employees’ job satisfaction levels at a telecommunications company in south africa. mba dissertation, tshwane university of technology, pretoria. ololube, n.p., dudafa, u.j., uriah, o.a., & agbor, c.n. (2013). education for development: impediments to the globalization of higher education in nigeria. international journal of educational foundations and management, 1(2), 109–130. pauwe, j. (2004). hrm and performance. netherlands: oxford university press. selden, s., & sowa, j.e. (2011). performance management and human appraisal in service organizations: management and staff perspectives. public personnel management, 40(3), 251–264. https://doi.org/10.1177/009102601104000305 sharma, n., sharma, t., & agarwal, m. (2016). measuring employee perception of performance management system effectiveness. employee relations, 38(2), 224–247. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-01-2015-0006 singh, b.d. (2010). performance management system. new delhi: excel books. wicker, d. (2011). job satisfaction. bloomington, in: authorhouse. 158-sabelo-version4-30 april 2009.indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 3 pp. 14 21 empirical research shift–share analysis of manufacturing as a measuring instrument for human resource management abstract shift-share analysis of employment as a measuring instrument for human resource management is proposed by this study. the results obtained through this technique can assist human resource management on the macro-level in making informed and strategic decisions regarding future employment practices and trends. this technique is often applied to studies of economic geography, and is illustrated in this article through its application to the estimation of future employment potential of manufacturing industries of south africa’s southern district municipality. the economy in this region is mainly dependent on gold mining, which is declining as gold reserves are becoming depleted. as a result, a large section of the area’s population will be unemployed in future, causing adversity and other development needs. shift-share analysis provides insight into the shifts of employment in the various sectors over time, as well as insight into the national share effect on employment in the region, including the regional-industrial mix and the competitive share effects. it was found that the sectors with the highest employment creation potential are: transport equipment, wood and paper products, metal products, and furniture. some suggestions are also made regarding the ways that this information can be utilised in human resource management. ewert pj kleynhans school of economics north-west university south africa moloto j sekhobela department of logistics vaal university of technology south africa correspondence to: ewert pj kleynhans e-mail: ewert.kleynhans@nwu.ac.za 14 keywords: manufacturing, job creation, economic geography, shift-share analysis, industrial development the creation of job opportunities is a constant problem in modern economic systems, especially in economies that are declining. when the economy closes down, or when certain industries close down, it leads to crises on a macrolevel. the ability to determine which industries have the potential for future development and creation of employment opportunities is important, but unfortunately not an easy task. in this regard, shift-share analysis of employment can be implemented with ease as a measuring instrument for human resource management. in an attempt to create employment in a sustainable fashion and ensure future growth and development, the results offered by this technique can assist human resource managers and policymakers on a macro-level in making informed and strategic decisions regarding future employment prospects and tendencies. the technique of shift-share analysis is illustrated with a focus on the development, structure and dynamics of employment in the manufacturing industries of south africa’s southern district municipality. this methodology is often applied to studies of economic geography (see for example the office of social and economic trend analysis (seta)’s website http://www.seta. iastate.edu/takecharge/shiftshare.aspx?state=ia&fips=19001& cityfips). the southern district municipality of south africa is located on the south-eastern boarder of the north west province and consists of the five local municipalities of klerksdorp (matlosana), potchefstroom, ventersdorp, merafong city and maquassi hills (wolmaransstad). its economy relies mainly on mining and to some extent on agriculture and manufacturing (statssa, 2006:12). as gold mining is declining in the area, other sectors have to be developed in order to answer to the future pressures of unemployment and other developmental needs in the area. this study wishes to contribute to the identification of industries that offer potential and suggest some implications that the results might offer for human resources management. this paper is structured as follows: the next section discusses the decline of employment in the mining industry and reasons why manufacturing might be a solution to the problem, as well as a literature study that focuses on some of the relevant findings with regard to the subject matter. this provides a problem statement and some motivation as to why this study is necessary. then attention is directed to the research design, concentrating on the research approach, the database used and the research methodology that centres primarily on shift-share analysis. thereafter, the results of the study are presented. here an empirical decomposition of employment within the region is made, distinguishing between the national share effect, industry mix effect, competitive share effect and total regional employment changes, and shifts over time are determined for the various manufacturing industries. growing and declining sectors are identified to predict employment changes and to analyse the sectors that contribute most to employment creation and growth. finally, a comparison between the national and provincial analysis was done to ensure that the results were significant and to determine the implications of the results for the southern district municipality. the last section provides a summary and discussion of the implications of this study, especially with regard to the management of human resources. declining employment in the mining industry in 2005, the chamber of mines (2005:25) reported that gold production was steadily declining in south africa, even at a time when the country experienced an economic growth rate of empirical research kleynhans & sekhobela vol. 6 no. 3 pp. 14 21sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za 5.8% (statssa, 2008:3). since 1996, gold production has declined at a steady rate, decreasing by 60.1% during the last decade and, with that, south africa’s contribution as a percentage of total world production of gold has also decreased. “the impact of the low rand gold price, costs and restructuring in certain operations affected the viability of a large proportion of the sector, especially in the first half of 2005. gold production declined by 13.1% to 297.3 tons, the lowest level of production since 1923” (the chamber of mines, 2005). according to statistics south africa (2007:6), gold production decreased by 5.2% during july 2007 when compared to july 2006. the southern district municipality (sdm) is a miningdominated area, but mines have a limited lifespan and most of them are closing down, thereby negatively affecting employment in the region. this is confirmed by dyason (2005:81) who asserts that the negative gdp growth rate in klerksdorp (a city in the sdm with the highest number of economically-active people) is mainly due to the decrease in mining activity and the diminished role that mining is beginning to play in the south african economy. as gold production deteriorates, employment is also declining. the number of workers decreased from 342 439 in 1996 to 137 611 in 2005, representing a decline of 40% (chamber of mines, 2005:28). an example is the closing of two mines in stilfontein, located in the southern district municipality, during 2005, where 6 500 miners lost their jobs. later that year the mines reopened after simmer & jack mines ltd bought them, but reemploying only 3 000 people (jansen, 2007:30). downscaling and retrenchments in a region lead to anxiety, stress, demotivation, demoralisation and a general decline in productivity and efficiency of workers within the company, as well as in the community (spector, 2006:351). this may also lead to unrest among trade union members. badly managed downsizing efforts can easily spill over into a negative image of the company in the eyes of the community in which it operates (grobler, wärnich, carrell, elbert & hatfield, 2006:241), obstructing human resource strategies. a large number of unemployed people is also to the detriment of companies and may lead to criminal activity and public unrest.’ conflict management, as well as change management, are therefore essential. according to grobler et al. (2006:246), section 189 of the labour relations amendment act 12 of 2002 requires a joint consensus-seeking approach. this also makes sense. it is important that companies pay special attention to employees who lost their jobs, and assist them in finding alternative employment (grobler et al., 2006:241). communication in an understanding manner and also within a company’s external network is important. it would be to the advantage of the mining and other supporting companies, as well as to the government, if solutions can be found in time. it would be ideal if employees retrenched from one company could be strategically redeployed in other companies with future growth potential. if human resources predictions and future estimates could be carried out timely and action plans, retraining and infrastructure could be conducted in such a way that employees might experience the change as part of their career development (grobler et al., 2006:249), without any reduction in their quality of life (grobler et al., 2006:24), it may enhance companies’ human resource strategies. organisational change and development is not easy to implement (spector, 2006:352). insight into the way that industries are going to develop and what their future needs are going to be are necessary beforehand. addressing these challenges successfully requires accurate, concrete and measurable predictions of the future, and it is in this regard that shift-share analysis offers an effective tool for human resource managers. it provides research instruments that can present quantified, reliable and valid information that is also internally 15 consist and content viable (spector, 2006:33-37). the following section illustrates the value of shift-share analysis, illustrating case examples from literature, and also discuss the reason why manufacturing is regarded as an opportunity for future employment creation. manufacturing as an engine of growth: literature study to compensate for job losses, some researchers see manufacturing industries as a possible engine of growth, especially with regard to employment opportunities (kleynhans, 2003:3). in his research of the south-eastern provinces of china, golley (2002:780) found that above-average performance in manufacturing led to industrial agglomeration and growth. this led to higher growth rates of gdp and per capita gdp. manufacturing in mexico between 1990 and 2002 did not respond to other economic variables, except chains of industrial clusters and location-specific initiatives (mollick, cortez-rayas & olivas-moncisvais, 2006:114). currently only 3.2% of the workforce of the southern district municipality (sdm) works in the manufacturing sector. in order to improve the economic outlook of the region, diversification of its economic structure should occur (dyason, 2005:81). labour force growth is, according to armstrong and taylor (2000:114), one of the determinants of output growth in manufacturing and since some industries have more growth potential than others, the particular mix of industries in which a region specialises has an effect on the region’s employment and growth performance. knowledge concerning growth trends will assist in the understanding of employment patterns at regional level. according to shearmur and polèse (2007:454), smaller and more specialised regions need employment opportunities in order to survive. there is no evidence to suggest a straightforward and unique approach to employment creation and retention at local level. however, research has shown that slow-growing areas are usually more specialised in declining industries that are often primary and first-transformation manufacturing (shearmur & polèse, 2007:453-461). shift share analysis can indicate what specific labour and training facilities might be required for future growth. graham and spence (1998:516) consider shift-share analysis as a most widely-used methodology in regional and urban research. the social and economic trend analysis office (seta) in the usa, for example, has a shift-share calculator, which can analyse chosen data on their website for any state, city or county in america, for use in community and regional planning and management (seta, 2008). kobayashi and roper (2004:430) regards shift-share analysis as a method to measure the effect of the industrial mix and regional share between the growth of a region and the national growth rate. shift-share analysis is a method used in economic geography to analyse and examine, among others, employment changes and it is a simple tool for disaggregating the components of employment growth (peh & wong, 1999:322). patterson (1991:211), bendavid-val (1993:68) and ray (1995:21) state that shift-share analysis is a technique of disaggregating regional employment growth into three components, which are the national share, industry mix and regional competitive share. bendavid-val (1993:67) takes the point further and regards shiftshare analysis as a tool in identifying opportunities for altering the composition of regional economies in order to find a means to improve their performance. the following section pays attention to the empirical study that was conducted on the various manufacturing industries in the southern district municipality (sdm) of south africa. measuring instrument for human resource management empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 3 pp. 14 21 16 research design research approach the traditional and static shift-share analysis method was utilised in this study to conduct an empirical investigation and to determine employment patterns and potential in the southern district municipality’s manufacturing industry. both the country (south africa) and the province (north west province) were used as reference areas. shift-share analysis was the preferred method for this study because it provides reasonable and easily-interpretable results due to its simple logic, analytical clarity and relatively accessible data requirements (dinc & hayes, 2005:375). research methodology database the rex-database of global insight (2007) was utilised in this study. the database provides adequate data series for this study as it provides not only national figures of indicators, like employment and gross value added, but also detail on provincial, municipal and magisterial level, including a breakdown of the various industrial sub-divisions, for example, electrical machinery, basic metals, and food and beverages. to conduct this study the totals of the managerial districts that are located in the southern district municipality (sdm) were compiled and used as a single area. shift-share analysis methodology shift-share analysis is defined by the macmillan dictionary of modern economics (pearce, 1986:386) as a technique used to analyse regional employment and/or economic growth. the region’s actual growth is compared with the national growth rate, showing the growth that would have occurred at the regional level if each industry in the region were growing at the same rate as the national growth rate of that industry. according to muskens and koops (2006:3), the “shift” is the differential growth due to the difference between the actual or observed growth and the expected structural growth, while the “share” is the structural growth that would have been observed if each industry in the region grew at the national growth rate. if employment in the region actually grew at a rate of g r , the growth that would have been observed if the region grew at the national rate is g e and the growth rate of the national economy is g n, then the components of regional growth can be calculated as follows: structural component equals g e g n – this is an indication of the effect of the region’s industrial structure on the growth performance. if this component is positive, then the regional industries are growing faster than the national average economic growth rate, and if this component is negative, then the regional industries are growing slower than the national average economic growth rate and losing jobs. shift-share analysis can, according to lann (2007), be used to show, among others, a region’s competitiveness, how well a region’s mix of industries is performing, how individual industries and sectors are doing and to analyse the individual industry or the economy as a whole. the residual component, g r g e, is the “unexplained” part of regional competitive growth that contains region-specific factors. if it is positive, the region is growing faster than its industrial structure would predict. when this component is negative, industrial growth is below the industrial structure’s potential. dinc and hayes (2005:376) made the following assumptions regarding the traditional static shift-share model: regional technology is similar to the reference area• regional labour is as productive as the reference area• regional demand patterns are similar to reference area • averages the traditional model ignores international and • interregional trade these assumptions are criticised for being too idealistic and remote from real life situations. mayor and pérez (2007:545) and wilson, chern, ping and robinson (2005:165) are in agreement about the inability of the static shift-share analysis to capture changes in the intermediate stages between the initial and the final periods of analysis. this problem is alleviated to some extent by dividing one’s research period into more time periods and comparing these intervals, like 1995-2000 and 2000-2005. graham and spence (1998:516), ray (1995:26) and patterson (1991:214) criticise shift-share analysis for being atheoretical and unable to demonstrate causality. it decomposes employment changes into various components, but cannot determine the cause of regional employment growth and it cannot guarantee or test the separation of the national, industrial and regional variables into statistically-independent variables. the authors of this paper do not necessarily agree with these points of criticism, as the analysis is based purely on averages of location. van der merwe (2006:7) criticised various studies on shift-share analysis for lacking consistency in notation, definitive equations and terminology. however, shift-share analysis remains a useful tool for supplying data to policymakers in order to interpret, among others, changes in the industrial structure of their economies (wilson et al., 2005:164). restrictions on the availability of data, especially on a municipal level, make the application of shift-share analysis ideal for this study using the rex database. although the shift-share analysis method has some drawbacks, it was preferred in this study as it summarised and identified specific factors that answered the research question. this study employs a combination of the notation, equations and approaches of lann (2007), van der merwe (2006) and bendavidval (1993). the notation and equations used were adjusted to suit the conditions of this study. employment growth in the region is disaggregated into three components: national share effect (n), industry mix effect (m) and the regional competitive share effect (s). the sum of these three components gives the total change in regional employment (r), thus r = n + m + s (mayor & lópez, 2008:125). variable r represents the total number of employment opportunities added or lost in the region as a net effect of national growth, industry mix and regional components. the region’s potential employment growth is represented by n, assuming that the region’s employment is growing at the national average growth rate, while m is the proportion of regional employment among faster and slower growing regional sectors relative to the national average growth rate, and s describes how sectors in the region perform relative to the national averages of the same sectors. the next section considers changes in national employment, the national share effect (n), the industry mix (m), the regional competitive share (s) and the total change in regional employment (r). the specific methodology that was followed at each step will be explained as the results unfold. results changes in national employment the changes in national employment for 1996 to 2006 are summarised in table 1. the third column of the table gives the total change in employment values. these e (v) values are the differences between national employment in the final and initial periods of analysis. where e (v) is the employment change in absolute terms, etf is the total employment in the final period and eti is the total employment in the initial period. in table 1, e (v) is -30 373, which indicates the total number of employment lost during that time (as the sign is negative in this instance). national average e (%) is defined as the growth rate of employment expressed as a percentage. empirical research kleynhans & sekhobela vol. 6 no. 3 pp. 14 21sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za17 during the research period, national average growth in employment declined by 2% as indicated in table 1. however, there were some sectors that experienced positive growth on a national level, namely wood and paper products, metal products, transport equipment and furniture at 26%, 12%, 40% and 13% respectively. in the period under review, these sectors added among them a total of 125 366 new employment opportunities to the economy. job creation through training on a national front in these industries, for example, might be most efficient. the total national employment did, however, decline by 30 373 jobs, which implies that the remaining sectors (food and beverages, textile and clothes, fuel and petroleum products, other non-metal minerals, electrical machines and electronic equipment) declined by a total of 155 739 jobs. the largest decline in employment was 44% in electrical machines, while the lowest was food and beverages at -13%. fuel and petroleum recorded no significant change during the research period, resulting in a national average growth in employment of 0%. the change in regional employment is considered in the following section. total change in regional employment (r) the total change in regional employment (r) is the difference between the total regional employment in the final and initial periods. according to table 2, r equals -2 345. a negative total employment change (r) suggests a loss of 2 345 job opportunities in the southern district municipality region. total percentage change in regional employment r (%) is the growth rate of employment expressed as a percentage. according to table 2, r (%) is -24%. this figure represents a decline in the region’s employment. comparing this figure to the national average growth rate of -2% (table 1), it can be observed that the region’s employment growth rate in manufacturing is declining twelve times faster than the national average. specific interventions with regard to job creation in this municipal district is therefore necessary. the changes in regional employment for the southern district municipality for the period 1996 to 2006 are summarised in table 2. the data in table 2 indicates that employment declined for all sectors, except the transport equipment sector, which increased by 6%. the highest decline, 56%, is in electrical machines, while the lowest decline, 5%, is recorded in the wood and paper products sector. the following section considers the difference in regional and national employment growth. national share effect (n) the national share effect shows the extent to which regional employment would have grown had each of its sectors and, therefore, the total region, grown at the same rate as the national average employment growth. the national share effect (n) is estimated as: n = eti 1 [e %] + eti 2 [e %] + . . . + eti n [e %] (eq. 1) where n is the national share of the manufacturing industry, e is the regional employment in sectors 1, 2 . . . up to n in the initial period ti and e % is the national average employment growth rate. table 3 shows the values of the national share effect (n) of the southern district municipality for 1996 to 2006. the internal composition of the various industrial sectors within a region also has an effect on the shifts in the labour figures and is considered in the next section. table 1 changes in national employment in south africa employment employment change sector 1996 2006 value e(v ) percentage e % food & beverages 221426 192355 -29071 -13 textile, clothes & leatherworks 260112 189571 -70541 -27 wood & paper products 165959 209605 43646 26 chemical fuel & petroleum products 177349 177137 -212 0 other non-metal minerals 75687 61187 -14500 -19 metal products 276446 310322 33876 12 electrical machines 86689 48533 -38156 -44 electronic equipment 24090 20831 -3259 -14 transport equipment 96274 134385 38111 40 furniture 73105 82838 9733 13 total 1457137 1426764 -30373 -2 source: rex data, 2007 (raw data used in our calculations to derive these figures) table 2 changes in regional employment in the southern district municipality sector employment numbers employment change 1996 2006 r r (%) food & beverages 3051 2096 -955 -31 textile, clothes & leatherworks 532 311 -221 -42 wood & paper products 610 581 -29 -5 chemical, fuel & petroleum products 1589 1194 -395 -25 other non-metal minerals 786 470 -316 -40 metal products 1978 1748 -230 -12 electrical machines 147 64 -83 -56 electronic equipment 169 105 -64 -38 transport equipment 382 406 24 6 furniture 635 559 -76 -12 total 9879 7534 -2345 -24 source: rex data, 2007 (raw data used in our calculations to derive these figures) from table 3 the total national share effect is -198. thus, the region would have lost 198 jobs in the period under review if it grew at the national average growth rate of -2%. however, the actual decline in the region is 2 345, which is approximately twelve times the total national share effect of 198. therefore, something in the regional manufacturing happened that resulted in a total difference of minus 2 147 [-2 345-(-198)] between the national and the regional sectors. according to the methodological section of the research design above, this difference is captured in the last column of table 3 and is accounted for by the industry mix (m) and the regional competitive shares (s), as: r = n+m+s then r-n = m+s but r-n = -2147 therefore m+s = -2147 (eq. 2) measuring instrument for human resource management empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 3 pp. 14 21 18 the extent to which the region deviates from the national average growth rate is attributable to the fact that the regional manufacturing industry includes sectors that are growing faster and slower than the national growth rate. this is illustrated in table 4 and is considered in the next section. industry mix effect (m) the industry mix effect (m) of the southern district municipality from 1996 to 2006 is summarised in table 4. the industry mix component shows how the region’s industrial structure factors into its overall employment growth performance (seta, 2008:2). when local employment is concentrated in the fast-growing sectors, the rate of local employment growth would exceed the national average. if the regional employment was concentrated in slow growing sectors, the growth rate of regional employment would be lower than the national economy-wide average. the industry mix effect is calculated as a product of the region’s sectoral employment in the initial year and the marginal rate of growth. the marginal rate of growth (mr) is the difference between the national sectoral growth and the national average growth (third column in table 4). the total regional industry mix (m) equals 51 according to table 4. this positive figure suggests that the region’s industrial structure is such that there is a high concentration of employment in sectors that are growing faster than the national average growth rate. the region’s industrial structure is contributing positively to the overall employment growth by offsetting the loss of 198 jobs due to the national share effect by 147 (–198 + 51) (see table 5). in this way, the industry mix had a soothing effect by minimising job losses in the region. sectors that have a positive industry mix are growing faster than the national average growth rate and those that are negative are growing more slowly. table 4 indicates the fastgrowing sectors as wood and paper, fuel and petroleum, metal products, transport equipment and furniture. the province has some advantage in this regard and human resource managers should capitalise on these industries, strengthening their human capital. the slow-growing sectors, according to table 4, are food and beverages, textile and clothes, other non-metal minerals, electrical machines and electronic equipment. every region has specific characteristics, which presents it with a particular competitive edge and this has an influence on the employment trends and changes of that region. the regional competitive share effect of the industries in the region therefore influences the employment dynamics of the region and this is considered in the following section. regional competitive share effect (s) the regional competitive share effect describes how sectors in a region perform relative to the national averages of the same sectors. this is calculated by multiplying the base year employment in each regional sector with the margin between the regional sector’s growth rate and the national average growth rate of that sector (seta, 2008:2). this is simply the difference between r, n and m. a positive regional competitive share effect suggests that the region increased its share of employment in that industry, while a negative competitive share component suggests that the region’s employment share eroded during the period under investigation (mayor & lópez, 2008:125). according to table 5, the negative total regional competitive share effect suggests that the region’s employment declined by 2 198 job opportunities (as -2 345 (-198) -51 = -2 198). all the sectors indicate negative figures, implying that all sectors experienced job losses due to the regional competitive share effect, except for transport equipment, which has a positive table 3 national share effect (n) in the southern district municipality sector 1996 n r r – n food & beverages 3051 -61 -955 -894 textile, clothes & leatherworks 532 -11 -221 -210 wood & paper products 610 -12 -29 -17 chem., fuel & petroleum products 1589 -32 -395 -363 other non-metal minerals 786 -16 -316 -300 metal products 1978 -40 -230 -190 electrical machines 147 -3 -83 -80 electronic equipment 169 -3 -64 -61 transport equipment 382 -8 24 32 furniture 635 -13 -76 -63 total 9879 -198 -2345 -2147 source: rex data, 2007 (raw data used in our calculations to derive these figures) table 4 industry mix effect (m) in the southern district municipality employment growth % sector national sector national average mr eti (1996) m food & beverages -13 -2 -11 3051 -336 textile, clothes & leatherworks -27 -2 -25 532 -133 wood & paper products 26 -2 28 610 171 chemical, fuel & petroleum products 0 -2 2 1589 32 other non-metal minerals -19 -2 -17 786 -134 metal products 12 -2 14 1978 277 electrical machines -44 -2 -42 147 -62 electronic equipment -14 -2 -12 169 -20 transport equipment 40 -2 42 382 160 furniture 13 -2 15 635 95 total 9879 51 source: rex data, 2007 (raw data of the database used to derive these figures). regional competitive share of 192, which translates into 192 new jobs to the region. in fact, the sdmregion has a very large competitive disadvantage and human resource managers have to focus on measures that could improve the competitiveness of the industries by improving the efficiency of their human capital, through improvement in productivity, ergonomics and further training, for example. next to the regional competitive share effect, table 5 also summarises the national share effect, industrial mix effect and the total change in employment, as well as the shift-share effects on employment in the individual sectors, on which the following section is based. empirical research kleynhans & sekhobela vol. 6 no. 3 pp. 14 21sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za19 table 5 regional competitive share (s), industry mix (m), national share (n) and total change in regional employment (r) in the southern district municipality sector 1996 2006 r n m s food & beverages 3051 2096 -955 -61 -336 -558 textile & clothes 532 311 -221 -11 -133 -77 wood & paper products 610 581 -29 -12 171 -188 chemical, fuel & petroleum products 1589 1194 -395 -32 32 -395 other non-metal minerals 786 470 -316 -16 -134 -166 metal products 1978 1748 -230 -40 277 -467 electrical machines 147 64 -83 -3 -62 -18 electronic equipment 169 105 -64 -3 -20 -41 transport equipment 382 406 24 -8 -160 192 furniture 635 559 -76 -13 95 -158 total 9879 7534 -2345 -198 51 -2198 source: rex data, 2007 (raw data of the database used to calculate these figures) sectoral analysis analysis of the individual manufacturing sectors of the southern district municipality was done in this section, with reference to table 5, which resembles the equation r = n + m + s. for example, the transport equipment sector has a positive total change in regional employment of 24. the transport sector did, however, lose some jobs due to the national share effect (-8) and a lot due to an unfavourable industrial mix (-160); but due to its strong regional competitive share effect (+192) it was able to enjoy a net growth in employment. this increase in employment is determined as: 24 = -8 + (-160) + 192; hence the number of job opportunities in this sector in 2006 was: 406 = 382 + 24 as compared to 382 during 1996. the other individual sectors are analysed in a similar manner. investigating the various industrial manufacturing sectors of the sdm municipal district individually, it can be inferred that the sectors with the highest employment creation potential are transport equipment, wood and paper products, electronic equipment, electrical machines and furniture. these sectors experienced the lowest decline in employment during the decade investigated. when the relative size of the individual sectors is taken into consideration, the top performers are still important, except for electronic and electrical machinery and equipment, which performed far worse, while metal products and fuel and petroleum products move up to the third and fifth spaces, respectively (see table 6). this does not mean that other sectors are less important, but that the above-mentioned sectors are outstanding and deserve special attention because they are capable of enhancing the much-needed industrial growth and development in a region that was previously dominated by mining, which is declining at an alarming rate. table 6 illustrates the size of job creation or losses relative to the particular sector. this enables per capita comparisons between sectors. table 5 might give the wrong impression when a very large sector experiences some growth in absolute terms. for example, furniture and electrical machinery lost approximately the same number of workers (76 & 83) during the past decade (see table 5), but the furniture sector is approximately four times larger than the electrical machinery sector. table 6 therefore shows a decline of only 12% in furniture employment, but electrical machinery lost 56.5% of the jobs in that particular sector. table 6 also shows the growth rate share that each effect (n, m & s) has on the whole (r). this also enables ranking of the various industries in terms of the various effects. it can be seen from table 6 that the sector for transport equipment experienced the highest job creation rate, both in total figures, as well as in the share, relative to the size of the particular sector (6.3%). training and other measures improving the productivity of human capital and supply of artisans to this sector should therefore be a priority for human resource managers to ensure employment and resettlement opportunities in the future. on the other hand, the non-metallic metals sector experienced an absolute job loss of 316 jobs, which implies that it lies in the eighth place of these ten manufacturing sub-sectors. however, table 6 shows that this sector ranks best in the sdm-region when it comes to the national share effect, as well as the regional competitive share effect. in relation to the industrial mix in this region, transport was second best, with electronic equipment in the first place and chemicals, fuel and petroleum products third. this is probably due to the university, colleges and other educational and research institutions in the region. with regard to the effect of the national share, the transport sector was the worst of all sectors with its competitive share effect only in the sixth place. if this sector is to be favoured in future, these challenges will have to be addressed. in relation to all the other effects, the electronic equipment sector is wanting when it comes to the creation of employment, and does not deserve much attention in the region. the wood and paper products sector was identified as the second strongest job provider, but its national share and industrial mix both ended in seventh place. the industrial mix and regional competitive share of the sector for metal products also deserve attention. when the size of the sector is taken into consideration, electrical machinery has a very low job creation potential with regard to all the various share effects. leading sectors in the region, with regard to the regional competitive share effect, are non-metallic minerals, wood and paper, and textiles and clothing. in conclusion, it seems that with regard to absolute figures or in relation to the size of particular sectors, the sectors with the highest future employment creation potential are transport equipment, wood and paper products, metal products, and furniture, in order of merit, although nonmetallic products also has some advantages in its favour. other aspects of the study a similar study was conducted using the gross value-added or gross regional products of the various sectors in the sdmregion and similar results were obtained. the study also considered the shift-share analysis changes of manufacturing in the southern district municipality by comparing the industries in the region to national and provincial data. as with the case where value-added data was concerned, it also confirmed the findings above. discussion in this study, shift-share analysis of employment was proposed as a measuring instrument for human resource management. the results obtained through this technique can assist human resource management on the macro-level in making informed and strategic decisions regarding future employment practices and trends. measuring instrument for human resource management empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 3 pp. 14 21 20 as an illustration the structure and dynamics of employment in the manufacturing industries of the southern district municipality (sdm) of south africa were investigated, using the methodology of shift-share analysis. alternatively, productivity or competitiveness indexes could have been estimated for the various sectors in the region (e.g. kleynhans, 2006:61), or viable clusters could have been identified (e.g. suleman, 1998), or micro-economic optimal location estimates could be determined. this might be advisable for further research, especially if those indexes are based on information obtained from new industrial surveys. shiftshare analysis was, however, preferred for this study because it disclosed spatial shifts of employment in the context of the economic geography over time. it also broke it down to the individual sub-sectors and revealed specific effects that explain these dynamics. it indicated the national effect on labour in the region, as well as the effects of the region’s industrial mix and competitive share on the creation of labour. the results obtained can be utilised in human resource management. they enable managers to predict future trends and potential of industries. conflict and change management can be eased if employees can be redeployed after retrenchment to sectors where there is a demand for their skills. this would be to the benefit of the workers and is fair to them. it may be regarded as a continuation of their careers, and even promotion (grobler et al., 2006:303). it will also enhance the motivation, productivity and efficiency of the remaining employees in the company (spector, 2006:351). when large numbers of workers start losing their jobs, as is the case in the mining and related industries in the southern district municipality (sdm), government has a responsibility to assist these people and the companies involved, in order to create employment and evade criminal activity and public unrest. in co-operation with companies in the region government can, for example, disseminate information regarding investment opportunities in the industries that have been identified using shift-share analysis, and provide supporting infrastructure, finance, vocational and industry related training and training facilities. this will also alleviate the shortage of trained artisans and technical personnel in the country (kleynhans, 2006:60). this will also be an investment for government as the funds spent on the improvement of human capital resources will later be saved by social support services, and will lead to larger returns to government, through taxes on the income of those workers that gained alternative employment in the sector 1996 2006 r r-growth rate from 1996 n%δ m%δ s%δ r=n+ m+s % food & beverage 3051 2096 -955 -31.3 -2.00 -11.0 -18.3 -31 textile & clothes 532 311 -221 -41.5 -2.07 -25.0 -14.5 -42 wood & paper 610 581 -29 -4.8 -1.97 28.0 -30.8 -5 chemical & petroleum 1589 1194 -395 -24.9 -2.01 2.0 -24.9 -25 other non-metal 786 470 -316 -40.2 -2.04 -17.0 -21.1 -40 metal products 1978 1748 -230 -11.6 -2.02 14.0 -23.6 -12 electrical machines 147 64 -83 -56.5 -2.04 -42.2 -12.2 -56 electronic equipment 169 105 -64 -37.9 -1.78 -11.8 -24.3 -38 transport equipment 382 406 24 6.3 -2.09 -41.9 50.3 6 furniture 635.0 559.0 -76.0 -12.0 -2.05 15.0 -24.9 -12.0 source: rex data, 2007 (raw data used in our calculations to derive these figures) table 6 percentage contribution to the relevant sector identified industries. it will also motivate workers, increasing productivity, and will improve the image of government. the rationale for this study was based on the fact that the sdmregion is highly dependent on gold mining, and production is declining as their gold reserves are becoming depleted. this trend has persisted over a long period: as spadavecchia (2007:44) reports, the total mining production for the three months ending in july 2007, after seasonal adjustment, decreased by 1% compared to the previous three months. according to statssa, this was owing to a decrease of 1.7% in the production of gold and a decrease of 0.9% in the production in non-gold minerals. in 2005, nine mines employing 69 061 workers and producing 125 tons annually, were in a marginal or loss-making position. this means that a large section of the people in the area will be unemployed in the near future if this and other accompanying development needs are not addressed in time. this study aimed at identifying industries that offer potential for future employment growth. to summarise, this study found that the sectors with the highest employment creation potential in the sdm-region are transport equipment, wood and paper products, electronic equipment and electrical machines, and furniture, and they merit attention in future development initiatives. when the relative size of the individual sectors are taken into consideration, these top performers are still important, excluding electronic and electrical machinery and equipment, which did far worse, while metal products, as well as fuel and petroleum products rise in importance. the transport equipment sector experienced the highest job creation rate, both in total figures as well as in the share, relative to the size of that particular sector. on the other hand, the non-metallic metals sector experienced the worst absolute job losses in relation to most sectors, but this sector ranked best in the sdm-region when it comes to the national share effect, as well as the regional competitive share effect. in relation to the industrial mix in this region, transport was second best, with electronic equipment in the first place and fuel and petroleum products third. with regard to the national share effect, the transport sector was the worst of all the sectors with its competitive share effect only in the sixth place. if this sector is to be favoured in future, these challenges will have to be addressed. in relation to all the other effects, the electronic equipment sector is wanting when it comes to the creation of employment, and does not deserve much attention. empirical research kleynhans & sekhobela vol. 6 no. 3 pp. 14 21sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za lann, r. (2005). shift-share analysis: mix and share analysis. georgia: economic development institute. georgia institute of technology (georgia tech). retrieved 07 august 2007, from http://www.cherry.gatech.edu/6602/present/shiftshare analysis.ppt 6. mayor, m. & lópez, a.j. (2008). spatial shift-share analysis versus spatial filtering: an application to spanish employment data. empirical economics. 34, 123–142. mayor, m., lópez, a.j. & pérez, r. (2007). forecasting regional employment with shift-share and arima modelling. regional studies, 41(4), 543-551. mollick, a.v., cortez-rayas, a. & olivas-moncisvais, r.a. (2006). local labor markets in u.s.–mexican border cities and the impact of maquiladora production. the annals of regional science, 40, 95-116. muskens, j. & koops, o. (2006). regina: a model of economic growth prospects for dutch regions. netherlands: tno built environment and geosciences. patterson, m.g. (1991). a note on the formulation of a full analogue regression model of the shift-share method. journal of regional science, 31(2), 211-216. pearce, d. w. (ed.) (1986). macmillan dictionary of modern economics. 3rd ed. pretoria: van schaik. peh, k. & wong, f. (1999). growth in singapore’s export markets, 1991-96: a shift-share analysis. asian economic journal, 13(3), 321-340. ray, m.a. (1995). employment in the ec, efta, and the eea: a regional analysis. journal of economics and finance, 19(2), 19-28. seta. (2008). the shift-share analysis for adair county, office of social & economic trend analysis. ames. retrieved 15 april 2008, from the world wide web: http://www.seta.iastate.edu/takecharge/shiftshare.aspx?st ate=ia&fips=19001&cityfips shearmur, m. & polèse, m. (2007). do local factors explain local employment growth: evidence from canada, 1971-2001. regional studies, 41(4), 453-471, june. spadavecchia, o. (2007). sa gold output fell 5,2% y-on-y in july. mining weekly. 11 sep., 15, 44. spector, p.e. (2008). industrial and organisational psychology: research and practice. new york: john wiley statssa. (2008). gross domestic product: fourth quarter 2007. statistical release p0441. statistics south africa. 26 feb. 2008. statssa. (2007). mining: production and sales. statistical release p204.1 pretoria: statssa. statssa. (2006). provincial profile 2004: north west report no. 0091-06 (2004). pretoria: statssa. suleman, a. (1998). the competitiveness and comparative advantages of south africa’s manufacturing sector with reference to the provinces. unpublished doctoral thesis, potchefstroom: potchefstroom university. van der merwe, j. (2006). shift-share analysis: an alternative study of regional growth with panel data. unpublished honours mini-dissertation, potchefstroom: north-west university. wanberg, c.r. & banas, j.t. 2000. predictors and outcomes of openness to change in reorganising workplace. journal of applied psychology, 85, 132-142. wilson, p., chern, t.s., ping, t.s. & robinson, e. (2005). assessing singapore’s export competitiveness through dynamic shiftshare analysis. asian economic bulletin, 22(2), 160-185. finally, wood and paper products was the second strongest job provider, but with regard to the national share and its industrial mix, employment opportunities were lost in both. the industrial mix and regional competitive share of the sector for metal products also deserve attention. in relation to the regional competitive share effect, the leading sectors in the region are non-metallic minerals, wood and paper, and textiles and clothing. in conclusion, it seems that with regard to absolute figures and in relation to the size of particular sectors, the sectors with the highest future employment creation potential are transport equipment, wood and paper products, metal products, and furniture, in order of merit, although non-metallic products also has some advantages in its favour. these findings have clearly illustrated the value that shift-share analysis can offer to human resource management and future strategic planning formulation. authors’ note this article is based on a paper delivered at the 2008 international conference for business, in honolulu, hawaii. recommendations were incorporated. references armstrong, h. & taylor, j. (2002). regional economics and policy. new york: harvester. bendavid-val, a. (1993). regional and local economic analysis for practitioners. new york: prager. chamber of mines of south africa. (2005). facts & figures 2005. marshalltown: chamber of mines. dinc, m. & hayes, k. (2005). productivity, international trade and reference area interactions in shift-share analysis: some operational notes. growth and change, 36(3), 374-394. dyason, d. (2005). manufacturing exports and transport costs from south africa’s secondary cities. unpublished masters dissertation, potchefstroom: north-west university. global insight. (southern africa). (2007). rex-database. http:// www.globalinsight.co.za/ golley, j. (2002). regional patterns of industrial development during china’s economic transition. economics of transition, 10(3), 761-801. graham, d.j. & spence, n. (1998). a productivity growth interpretation of the labour demand shift-share model. regional studies, 32(6), 515-525. grobler, p.a., wärnich, s, carrell, m.r., elbert, n.f. & hatfield, r.d. (2006). human resource management in south africa. london: thomson. jansen, i. (2007). stilfontein – healed, but scars remain. solidarity, 5, 30. kleynhans, e.p.j. (2006). the role of human capital in the competitive platform of south african industries. south african journal of human resource management, 4 (3), 55-62. kleynhans, e.p.j. (2003). the competitive platform for industrial development in south africa. unpublished doctoral thesis, potchefstroom: potchefstroom university. kobayashi, n. & roper, s. (2004). industrial structure and manufacturing growth during japan’s bubble and postbubble economies. regional studies, 38(4), 429-444. 21 abstract introduction methodology and research design results and findings discussion recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) mariette coetzee department of human resource management, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa magda l. bezuidenhout department of human resource management, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation coetzee, m., & bezuidenhout, m.l. (2019). the relationship between chief executive officer compensation and the size and industry of south african state-owned enterprises. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1120. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1120 original research the relationship between chief executive officer compensation and the size and industry of south african state-owned enterprises mariette coetzee, magda l. bezuidenhout received: 05 sept. 2018; accepted: 14 feb. 2019; published: 26 june 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: concerns about exorbitant executive compensation are making headlines, because executives receive lucrative packages despite state-owned enterprises (soes) performing poorly. it appears as if chief executive officers (ceos) are not being held accountable for the performance of the soes. research purpose: the purpose of the study was to determine whether the size and the industry of an soe had an impact on ceo compensation packages. motivation for the study: a greater understanding of the relationship between ceo remuneration and the size and type of industry of soes would assist with the standardisation of ceo remuneration and linking ceo pay to soe performance. research approach/design and method: a multiple regression analysis on a pooled dataset of 162 panel observations was conducted over a 9-year period. financial data of 18 soes were extracted from the mcgregor bfa database and the annual reports of soes. main findings: the findings show that the size of an soe does not influence the total compensation of ceos. however, larger soes pay larger bonuses due to these soes being in a stronger financial position to offer lucrative bonuses. ceo’s remuneration was aligned within certain industries. practical/managerial implications: the findings emphasise the need to link ceo compensation with soe performance. standardisation in setting ceo compensation and implementing performance contracts should be considered. contribution/value-add: the study confirms that ceo pay is not linked to performance and not justified when considering soe size or industry. keywords: ceo compensation; company performance; fixed pay; industry; short-term incentive; soe size; state-owned enterprises; total compensation. introduction concerns about exorbitant executive compensation are not new, as noises were made back in 2008 about executives receiving lucrative packages despite state-owned enterprises (soes) performing poorly. the former minister of finance, trevor manuel, expressed the concern that excessive salaries were unjustified in the context of south africa’s 23% unemployment rate (theunissen, 2010). despite financial constraints, and in some cases major losses, chief executive officers (ceos) in these soes receive compensation packages that are up to 11 times more than the average salary of employees (businesstech, 2017). bussin and ngube (2017) further noted that the increasing income gap in south africa between rich and poor, split alongside racial lines, has caused various questions to be raised about the apparently excessive top management compensation. state-owned enterprises, which are independent companies that are partially or wholly owned by the government, play a significant role in the south african economy. the four largest local soes are transnet, denel, telkom and eskom (wendy owens & associates, 2013). state-owned enterprises, unlike private companies, receive the greater part of their revenue from the national treasury (tax revenue) and are primarily tasked to provide a service to the public (bezuidenhout, bussin, & coetzee, 2018). it seems, however, as if the bulk of funding is used for compensation purposes, rather than investing in service delivery (ngwenya & khumalo, 2012). despite the attention executive compensation has received, it appears as if government has become morally paralysed and unwilling to take action to ensure equality for all. the pay gaps between ceos and average employees among the nine prominent soes showed that the average employee earned r58 9964.00, and the average ceo was paid r5.53 million (businesstech, 2017). given the widening gap between rich and poor, the disappearance of the middle class and the increasing number of people living below the breadline, it has become necessary to review those practices that threaten good governance and undermine equality (mhlanga, 2018). the main criticism pertains to the widening gap between executive compensation and that of other employees. the share of total income going to the top 10% income earners in south africa is 60% – 65%. in europe it is 30% – 35%; in the united states it is 45% – 50%; and in brazil it is 50% – 55% (smith, 2017). there is a general consensus that executive compensation has become excessive, given that (1) executive pay is inequitable relative to other employees’ pay and (2) the amounts are unjustified, compared to the soes’ performance (nichols & subramaniam, 2001). maloa and bussin (2016) postulate that research should be able to indicate how executive compensation is arrived at, and show all the necessary elements and dimensions at work when determining executive compensation. despite soes being the principal drivers of the formal sector of the economy, providing the bulk of economic growth, the performance of soes frequently comes under public scrutiny (kanyane & sausi, 2015). state-owned enterprises are further central to advancing national objectives through providing economic and social infrastructure, and play a vital role in terms of the direct services they provide (mokoena, 2017). the underperformance of soes drain state finances and this has implications on south africa’s fiscus (enca 2016). over the past few years, the return on assets of soes has been declining, yet their liabilities have been increasing (enca, 2016). extrapolated over the long-term, it implies a potential bankruptcy of these soes (enca, 2016). several south african soes had to be rescued by government to keep them afloat. corruption and mismanagement have also been blamed for the billions of rand in losses which these companies have recorded in recent years (mutiso, 2016). during 2009, government paid r1.4 billion to the south african broadcasting corporation (sabc). the total amount of financial assistance to the sabc was r2.24 billion (bn) over 4 years, while other soes received r243.25bn during this period (harris, 2009). in 2015, the government spent nearly 10% of its total annual budget in servicing debts and paying to help struggling soes. for example, south african airways (saa) reported a loss of r2.5bn during 2015. smit (2016) reports that saa received a total of r29bn in bailout funds, loan guarantees and convertible loans since the 2004/2005 financial year. broadband infracro required r500m during 2015 to help sustain its operations, having incurred losses since 2010 – it has only survived to date because of bailouts received from government (mutiso, 2016). the south african post office (sapo) received a r650m bailout, despite reports of fraud by the public protector (sabc news, 2016). it seems as if south africa still lags behind in terms of implementing measures to curb exorbitant ceo compensation packages. given the above challenges in local soes and unprecedented government policy interventions, the need for further research appears to be justified, especially as existing research has not managed to deliver a simplified understanding of the determinants of executive compensation in the south african context. the first purpose of this research was to determine whether there is a relationship between ceo compensation and company size. this purpose is based on a phd study by bezuidenhout (2016) and to this end, two sub-questions were set: sub-question 1: is there a relationship between ceo fixed pay and the size of the soe? sub-question 2: is there a relationship between ceo total compensation and the size of the soe? duffhues and kabir (2008) and goh and gupta (2010), among others, postulate that the type of industry within which a company operates significantly influences the ceo’s compensation. the second research objective was to determine whether the industry in which an soe operates has an effect on ceo compensation. here, the two sub-questions were: sub-question 1: is there a relationship between ceo fixed pay and the industry in which the soe operates? sub-question 2: is there a relationship between ceo total compensation and the industry in which the soe operates? this article argues that the type of industry and company size in setting executive compensation within south african soes offers an explanation on how executive compensation is determined. it further provides insight on how challenges and constraints experienced in setting executive compensation could be overcome. the results should inform decisions about standard practices to control the perceived excessive pay of ceos within south african soes. chief executive officer compensation the ceo, who is appointed by the board of directors, is responsible for leading the company in achieving its corporate goals (shaw, 2011). mascarenhas (2009) elaborated on the responsibilities of ceos and identified eight key responsibilities: developing growth avenues, raising productivity, competing for talent, managing diverse risks, tightening corporate governance, incorporating sustainability, creating innovation models and building new infrastructure. the role of the ceo is difficult, and requires the skills and competencies of well-educated and knowledgeable individuals. such talent is scarce. for companies to attract and retain ceos, these individuals have to be properly rewarded (kim, kogut, & yang, 2013). compensation is a broad concept, but for the purposes of this study – and as defined by 21st century pay solutions group (2012) – ceo compensation encompasses: fixed pay – basic salary and employee benefits variable pay – short-term incentives (stis) (annual cash bonuses) total compensation – fixed pay plus stis. executive compensation packages usually consist of basic salary, benefits, stis and long-term incentives (ltis), and therefore a combination of fixed and variable pay (bussin, 2012). the fixed portion includes salary and other benefits not linked to the performance, whereas the variable portion differs according to the results of various measures of company performance (21st century pay solutions group 2012). according to bebchuk, fried and walker (2002), one of the significant problems is the pervasive influence the ceo has on the pay-setting process. under such conditions, pay-setting could easily turn into a wealth-skimming process (ulrich, 2010). ferrarini, moloney and vespro (2003) suggest that current pay-setting practices involve a number of structural defects that make it possible for self-serving executives to hide enormous wealth transfers from shareholders. chief executive officer compensation in south africa the wage gap continues to be a challenge in south africa’s unequal society. in 2014, mergence investment managers conducted an analysis of pay practices among the top 10 companies listed on the johannesburg stock exchange (jse) and found an upward trend over the past 5 years, with the gap between total compensation and average employee compensation increasing from just under 120 times in 2009 to over 140 times in 2013 (lamprecht, 2014). the trend seems to have been driven by real increases in compensation packages, instead of mere variability in bonuses and share grants (lamprecht, 2014). high levels of inequality are of global concern because it is detrimental to economic growth and fails to eradicate poverty (pricewaterhousecoopers, 2014). a study by theunissen (2010) revealed that the ceos of all soes earned a mean salary 2.9 times higher than that of the state president. this difference is indicative of sizeable wage gaps which, according to tijdens and van klaveren (2012), cannot be explained by visible or invisible workplace or employee characteristics. the mergence investment managers’ analysis of variable compensation packages in 2012 and 2013 furthermore showed that approximately 50% of ceos received 100% or more of the value of their fixed pay as variable compensation (bezuidenhout, 2016; lamprecht, 2014). given this dire state of affairs, measures have been put in place to address concerns regarding ceo compensation. in this regard, the king iv report on corporate governance focuses on ceo compensation. unfortunately, the report refers to fairness and responsibility but no clear guidelines are provided on exactly how ceo compensation needs to be determined. the report does, however, recognise that ceo compensation should be determined in the context of overall employee compensation in the organisation (myburgh & de costa, 2017). in 2010, the department of public enterprise (dpe) commissioned a compensation review with the purpose of determining the degree to which soe compensation practices comply with dpe guidelines. noteworthy findings revealed that soes do not follow the guidelines, and there is no standardisation in the way compensation is determined, nor were employment contracts, detailing the tasks and responsibilities of ceos, compiled (crafford, 2012). despite non-compliance with dpe guidelines, no further actions were taken by the dpe to review the guidelines with regards to soe compensation practices. a key problem with the current soe compensation framework is the non-existence of a centralised authority to oversee such compensation, resulting in soe boards and ceos determining their own pay structures (massie, collier, & crotty, 2014). the link between chief executive officer compensation and company size the allocation theory of control (rosen, 1992) states: in a market equilibrium, the most talented executives occupy top positions in the largest firms, where the marginal productivity of their actions is greatly magnified over the many people below them to whom they are linked’. (p. 182) this implies that there should be a direct relationship between ceo compensation and the size of the company when the market is balanced. in much of the literature (canarella & gasparyan, 2008; finkelstein & hambrick, 1988; mcknight, 1996), the relationship between a company’s size and the ceo’s salary is linked to job complexity (agarwal 1981; mcknight, tomkins, weir, & hobson, 2000). as executives’ jobs become more complex, they receive higher levels of compensation (rankin, 2006). as an organisation grows and becomes more complex to manage, the level of knowledge and understanding required of the ceo becomes more challenging (mcknight et al. 2000). a company’s size therefore reflects the demand for a high-quality ceo which, in turn, relates to the ceos level of compensation (deysel, 2013; rankin, 2006). various studies have outlined a positive correlation between executive compensation and company size (lippert & moore, 1994; menozzi, erbetta, fraquelli, & vannoni, 2011; morton & blair, 2013; van blerck, 2012; zhou, 2010). a reasonable notion is that one would expect a larger company to be in a stronger financial position to offer lucrative compensation packages (jeppson, smith & stone, 2009; morton & blair, 2013). oberholzer and theunissen (2012) and janssen-plas (2009) postulate that larger companies require executives to assume a higher level of responsibility and perform tasks that are more complex – thus justifying higher pay. chalmers, koh and stapledon (2006), ciscel (1974) and finkelstein and hambrick (1988) reveal that company size is considered the strongest determinant of ceo compensation, when measured in terms of total assets. agarwal (1981), however, argues that even though prior research found a statistical relationship between company size and executive compensation, it is unclear what aspect of company size relates to the level of executive compensation. shah, javed and abbas (2009) found weaker relationships between company size, measured by sales and executive compensation, than was suggested by previous researchers, and argue that organisational size is not the primary determinant of ceo compensation. in their study of the south african banking sector, deysel and kruger (2015) found no correlation between ceo compensation and company size. ngwenya and khumalo (2012) in their study on south african soes found a positive relationship between ceo base salaries and the size of the soe as measured by total revenue and number of assets. according to lin, kuo and wang (2013), company size is the most important determinant of ceo compensation. it thus seems as if there are mixed results about the relationship between company size and ceo pay. the rule of thumb is that a ceo’s pay increases by 3% for every 10% increase in company size (van blerck, 2012). in addition, company size is likely to affect the expertise required of the ceo, hence explaining higher compensation of ceos in large companies (rankin, 2006). the link between chief executive officer compensation and the industry in which the company operates dai (2014, p. 212) postulates that the industry factor has two main effects on executive compensation. firstly, different industries with differences in profit models, profit level and risk lead to different executive compensation. generally, the stronger the industry competition, the higher the level of executive compensation. secondly, intense competition will improve the liquidity of the executives. because of this, enterprises would compete in the labour market for talented executives (dai, 2014). a similar situation applies to south african soes. given the profit level and risk, the ceo of sa post office earns, on average, r536 000.00 as compared to r8.9m earned by the ceo of eskom (businesstech, 2017) research results linking ceo compensation to company performance differ across industry sectors. the results of related studies, particularly in south africa, vary and are inconclusive, as many did not consider whether the company performance measures chosen bore any relation to executive compensation in different industries (blair, 2014). the contingency theory suggests that executives’ compensation is affected by how the organisation would like to compare itself with similar organisations in that industry. maloa (2016) posits that this includes, among others, a consideration of current industry competition for the soe, and the nature of the industry and its prospects. dai (2014) found that the industry has a significant influence on executive compensation within chinese listed firms. maloa and bussin (2016) supported this viewpoint and found that in the context of south african soes, the type of industry contributes significantly and positively to executive compensation. methodology and research design the research made use of a positivistic philosophy and a deductive approach. the research methodology was, in essence, descriptive, exploratory and archival in nature, while the time horizon was longitudinal. the methodology was quantitative, as that allowed the researchers to identify relationships among two or more variables and, based on the results, to confirm or challenge existing theories or practices. the quantitative research approach made use of descriptive and inferential statistics. data collection given that the researcher collected information from public companies’ annual reports, which had been subjected to financial audit, the data were regarded as accurate and credible. population and sampling the population of the study comprised 21 schedule 2 soes operating in south africa. an soe was included only if the annual reports were available on either the mcgregor bfa database or the company website, and it had a 9-year financial history which revealed the ceo’s compensation. eighteen soes were subsequently included in this study. dependent variables this study used two components of ceo compensation: fixed pay, and total compensation (fixed pay, stis and employee benefits – the sum of the other types of cash payments, employers’ contributions to medical aid, group life and pension or provident funds). as a rule, severance packages were not included; only the compensation paid out during the active career of the ceo. independent variables this study focused on company size and industry as independent variables. to determine the size of the soes, this study used the dpe’s organisation size grid (categorised according to revenue or assets) (see table 1). based on this grid, soes were categorised as small (1), medium (2), large (3) or very large (4). table 1: state-owned enterprise categorisation – assets and revenue. the target population for the study was schedule 2 soes. using the definition of the public finance management act, all soes that were not schedule 2 public entities were eliminated, and a population was then defined. a total of 21 soes were identified as schedule 2 soes, and were therefore included in the study. because of the small target population, which is uncharacteristic of quantitative samples, the researchers did not make use of any sampling methodology. a schedule 2 soe was included in the study only if two criteria were met. first of all, the annual reports of the soe had to be available on either the company website or on the mcgregor bfa database. secondly, only soes were considered where a 9-year financial history was available. this had to include the ceos compensation. after implementing the selection criteria for inclusion, 18 of the 21 soes were included in the study. the 18 soes studied resided under different industries, which included transportation or freight logistics, defence, energy, forestry, telecommunications, development funding and aviation and aerospace. data analysis this study used the statistical package for the social science programme (spss version 22) for the descriptive analysis of the data. eviews (version 8), a software package for econometric analysis, forecasting and statistics, was used to run multiple regression models on the pooled dataset comprising a cross-section of 18 soes over a 9-year period. in an article, polakow (2015) questions the use of standard statistical techniques in financial analysis that ignore autocorrelation and stationarity. using eviews (econometric modelling) addressed these concerns. multiple regressions were used to study the separate and collective contributions of organisation size and industry towards variances in ceo compensation components. according to albright, winston, zappe and broadie (2009), multiple regressions represent an improvement on simple regressions, because they allow any number of explanatory variables to be included in the analysis. in all the regressions, preliminary analyses were conducted to determine whether any of the assumptions had been violated. further, to ensure that stationarity and serial correlation concerns were addressed, an auto-regressive term (ar1) was included in the regression. an iterative process was followed to determine the optimum regression model. ethical considerations secondary data, such as ceos remuneration and the organisations’ financial performance, was collected from the annual reports of soes. appropriate statistical techniques were used and information was not manipulated. unisa provided ethical clearance for the study. results and findings descriptive statistics table 2 provides a summary of the various tests performed on ceo compensation components, with 162 observations between 2006 and 2014. table 2: chief executive officer compensation components for dataset (2006‒2014). according to the data in table 2, ceos earned on average r2.8m in fixed pay and a further r1.1m in stis. total compensation amounted to r4.6m per year (r388 597.00 per month). the highest total compensation was r19 108 837.00, but this amount was identified as an outlier and probably included a severance payout. chief executive officer compensation components the ceo compensation components – fixed pay and total compensation – were the dependent variables for all 18 soes under study. fixed pay the median of fixed pay had increased steadily from r1.67m to r3m from 2006 to 2014: an average year-on-year increase of 8% and a total increase of 82%. table 3 summarises fixed pay for the period under study. table 3: fixed pay (r‘ 000) (2006–2014). as can be expected, fixed pay continued to grow, regardless of weakening market conditions during 2008/2009 and 2011. fixed salaries are often determined according to market surveys; therefore, the proportion of fixed pay is, in most cases, not expected to decline during periods of poor financial performance (kuboya, 2014). as in the case of any other ordinary employee’s salary, it is rare for fixed pay to decline during an economic downturn (shaw, 2011). the increase in the median of fixed pay for the 2006/2007 financial year was highest, at 23%, with the lowest increase for the 2009/2010 financial year at 3%. this may have been because of the fallout of the global economic slowdown. a decrease in fixed pay was experienced in the following financial years: -0.85% in 2007/2008, −4% in both 2012/2013 and the 2013/2014 financial years. figure 1 illustrates the mean and median for fixed pay tabulated in table 3. while inflation was not taken into consideration, it is evident from the graph that the increase in the mean and median fluctuated throughout the period under analysis. figure 1: fixed pay (2006–2014). clearly, ceos’ fixed pay did not experience the runaway growth claimed in the media. there was a slight increase in the median of fixed pay during 2007, with the highest noted in 2012, which suggests that the august 2011 stock market fall did not have an effect on ceos’ fixed pay. total compensation table 4 summarises total compensation for the period under study. table 4: total compensation (r‘ 000) (2006–2014). total compensation, as reflected in the median value, increased from r2 325 750.00 to r4 490 227.27 over the 9-year period – an average year-on-year increase of 9% and a total increase of 93%. the increase in total compensation during the 2006/2007 financial year was the highest at 35%. a decline of 13% in total compensation was found for the 2009/2010 financial year, and in 2012/2013, at 12%. a possible explanation for the 2009/2010 decline could be the fallout from the economic recession, while that of 2013 might be because of the great number of ceos who were acting during that period. the median of total compensation increased to its highest level in 2014 (see figure 2). figure 2: total remuneration (2006–2014). clearly, total compensation fluctuated during the period under study. at face value, the trend above appears to mirror that of certain components of company performance. company size company size was included as a dummy variable in the regression analysis, with medium company size used as a reference category, because none of the enterprises fell into the classification of small company. the researchers applied the following categorisation: large company (3) and very large company (4). relationship between chief executive officer compensation and state-owned enterprise size the first objective of this study was to determine whether there is a relationship between ceo compensation components and company size. relationship between fixed pay and state-owned enterprise size the regression model included 119 unbalanced panel observations and 17 cross-sectional units over a period of 9 years. the regression model was run with an optimum model, where it was determined which (1) company performance measures (turnover, net profit and irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure) and (2) ceo demographic variables had an effect on fixed pay (bezuidenhout, 2016). table 5 provides the results of the optimum model of the pooled multiple regression analysis. table 5: regression analysis – fixed pay and company size. the results in table 5 (p < 0.00) indicate that company size did not explain the variance in fixed pay. it can therefore be inferred that company size would not play a role in the setting of ceos’ fixed pay. relationship between total compensation and state-owned enterprise size a regression analysis was performed with the optimum model where it was determined which company performance measures had an effect on total compensation (operating profit, net profit, liquidity ratio, return on capital employed and irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure). table 6 provides the results of the pooled multiple regression analysis. table 6: regression analysis – total compensation and company size. the last regression model, model 2, was regarded as the optimum model, as the f-statistic increased to 38.06. the optimum model indicated that 65% (adjusted r2 = 0.65) of the variance in total compensation, over and above the components of company performance, was explained by company size. it is thus possible to infer that company size affects ceos’ total compensation (although not significantly) in very large soes. the results suggest that the total compensation of ceos is determined, irrespective of how large the company is. however, when it comes to the payment of bonuses, larger companies pay larger bonuses. those payments are, however, not linked to company performance, which explains why ceos continue to receive bonuses despite soes having to be rescued by government. industry the second objective of this study was to determine whether there is a relationship between ceo compensation components and soe industry. industry was included as a dummy variable in the regression analysis. relationship between fixed pay and industry the regression model included 144 unbalanced panel observations and 18 cross-sectional data over a period of 9 years. a regression analysis was performed with the optimum model, where it was determined which company performance measures had an effect on fixed pay (turnover, net profit and total irregular expenditure) (bezuidenhout, 2016). refer to table 7 for the results of the pooled multiple regression analysis. table 7: regression analysis – fixed pay and company industry. the last regression model, model 3, was regarded as the optimum model, as the f-statistic increased to 52.28. the results in table 7 (p < 0.00) indicate that company industry explains the variance in fixed pay. it is possible to infer that company industry affects ceo fixed pay in soes in the energy sector. relationship between total compensation and industry the regression model included 144 unbalanced panel observations and 18 cross-sectional data variables over a period of 9 years. a regression analysis was performed with the optimum model where it was determined which company performance measures had an effect on total compensation (operating profit, net profit, total irregular expenditure, liquidity ratio and return on capital employed). table 8 provides the results of the pooled multiple regression analysis. table 8: regression analysis – total compensation and company industry. the last regression model, model 3, was regarded as the optimum model, as the f-statistic increased to 37.09. model 3 indicates that 65% (adjusted r2 = 0.64) of the variance in total compensation, over and above the components of company performance, was explained by company industry. it can therefore be inferred that company industry affects ceo total compensation in soes in the forestry sector. table 9 provides a summary of the findings as regards the relationship between compensation components, company size and industry. table 9: relationship between chief executive officer compensation components, company size and industry. discussion this study aimed to determine whether there was a relationship between the ceo compensation components and an soe’s size and the industry in which it operates. this is in line with rosen’s allocation theory of control which states that: in a market equilibrium, the most talented executives occupy top positions in the largest firms, where the marginal productivity of their actions is greatly magnified over the many people below them to whom they are linked. (rosen, 1992:182) this reasoning provides a theoretical basis for a positive relationship between ceo compensation and company size (zhou, 2010). deysel (2013) posits that company size is an important variable, which is often mentioned by compensation committees as a reason for above-average ceo compensation packages. jeppson et al. (2009) support the findings of this study, confirming that the compensation of ceos of larger companies is higher. a possible reason is that larger companies have more operations, subsidiaries and layers of management for the ceo to manage (lippert & moore, 1994). furthermore, larger companies require a higher level of responsibility of ceos; their tasks are more complex, and greater value is therefore placed on ceos making the right decisions (janssen-plas, 2009). findings from this study show that industry affects both fixed pay and total compensation with regard to the energy and the forestry sector. the findings from this study seem to align with those of duffhues and kabir (2008), goh and gupta (2010) and maloa and bussin (2016). practical and managerial implications the findings of this study offer new insights into the importance of company size and industry for the design, development and management of executive compensation practices, especially in the south african soe environment. it further provides insight into research and practice in establishing ceo compensation in south african soes. even though ceos want to be paid more for their skills, experience and performance, soes’ resources are limited and they face budgetary constraints. this forces compensation managers to address a basic economical fact, namely that of scarcity. in the war for talent and limited skills in the market, companies compete for competent ceos. the reward committees of soes thus have to consider the following issues when setting executive pay levels: the size of the organisation has an influence, depending on how the soe compares in size to similar organisations. the challenges presented by the industry within which the soe operates. it is acknowledged that south african soes have limited benchmarking opportunities when setting executive pay levels (maloa, 2015a). this should, however, not excuse human resource practitioners from exercising due diligence when managing executive pay levels. recommendations in managing the compensation of ceos in a fair and responsible manner, it is recommended that relevant stakeholders consider the following: the development of an overarching framework for remunerating the ceos of schedule 2 soes, in line with recommendations by the presidential review committee on soes. inconsistencies and a lack of checks and balances exist in the implementation of transformation involving executive compensation. compensation specialists should enforce compliance with the employment equity act (eea), 55 of 1998, which requires employers to take measures to progressively reduce a disproportionate income differential and to institute an equal-pay-for-equal-work philosophy (maloa, 2015b). that soe remuneration committees continue to manage total compensation for soe executives to ensure that company size is not used as the main reason for high total compensation. conclusion this study aimed to contribute to a better understanding of ceo compensation. much of the public debate on ceo compensation has highlighted the steady erosion of income equality, and the growing wage gap that has accelerated in recent years. of great concern were not only the exorbitant compensation packages of ceos, but also the poor performance of south african soes. there is an urgent need to hold ceos accountable for soe performance. high unemployment, the downgrading of south africa to junk status, social unrest, service delivery strikes and (perhaps most importantly) the vast majority struggling to make ends meet are all indicators of a need for proper governance and ethical leadership in soes. this research has contributed to a better understanding of measuring and setting ceo compensation against indicators that are significant to a particular industry as well as company size. however, the willingness and ability of soes to implement and apply the findings remains to be seen. acknowledgements this article is based on the doctoral thesis ‘the relationship between ceo remuneration and company performance in south african state owned entities’, published in 2016 by unisa, pretoria. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.c. wrote the article and was the co-supervisor for the study. m.l.b. provided assistance with the presentation of the results. this research is based on the phd study of m.l.b. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views expressed in this article are the views of the authors and do not represent the position of the university of south africa. references 21st century pay solutions group. (2012). strategic management and operational effectiveness work streams of state owned entities: development of compensation practices and policies in soes to enable harmonisation amongst soes in south africa. retrieved from http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/electronicreport/downloads/volume_4/strategic_management_operational_effectiveness/prc_project_document_february_2012.pdf agarwal, n. c. (1981). determinants of executive compensation. industrial relations: a journal of economy and society, 20(1), 36–45. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-232x.1981.tb00180.x albright, s. c., winston, w. l., zappe, c. j., & broadie, m. n. (2009). data analysis and decision making with microsoft excel. belmont: thomson south-western. bebchuk, l. a., fried, j. m., & walker, d. i. (2002). managerial power and rent extraction in the design of executive compensation. nber working paper series. retrieved from http://www.nber/org/papers/w9068 bezuidenhout, m. l. (2016). the relationship between ceo remuneration and company performance in south african state-owned entities. doctoral thesis. pretoria: university of south africa. bezuidenhout, m. l., bussin, m. h. r., & coetzee, m. (2018). the chief executive officer pay-for performance relationship within south african state-owned entities. south african journal of human resource management, 16(0), a983. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.983 blair, c. (2014). financial indicators of company performance in different industries that affect ceo pay in south africa. mba dissertation. university of cumbria. businesstech. (2017). ceo vs employee salaries at eskom, saa and other state companies. retrieved from https://businesstech.co.za/news/wealth/194164/ceo-vs-employee-salaries-at-eskom-saa-and-other-state-companies/ bussin, m. (2012). the compensation handbook for africa (2nd ed.). randburg: knowres publishing. bussin, m. h. r., & ngcube, m. (2017). chief executive office and chief financial officer compensation relationship to company performance in state-owned entities. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 20(1), a1644. retrieved from https://sajems.org/index.php/sajems/article/view/1644/954 canarella, g., & gasparyan, a. (2008). new insights into executive compensation and firm performance: evidence from a panel of “new economy” firms, 1996–2002. managerial finance, 34(8), 537–554. https://doi.org/10.1108/03074350810874064 chalmers, k., koh, p. s., & stapledon, g. (2006). the determinants of ceo compensation. rent extraction or labor demand? british accounting review, 38(3), 259–275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bar.2006.01.003 ciscel, d. h. (1974). determinants of executive compensation. southern economic journal, 40, 613–617. https://doi.org/10.2307/1056379 crafford, d. (2012). soe compensation and wage gap analysis. position paper prepared for the presidential soe review committee. retrieved from http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/electronicreport/downloads/volume_3/strategic_management_operationala_effectiveness/remuneration_policies_of_soes_taking_into_account_wage.doc dai, y. (2014). research on influencing factors of executive compensation in china’s monopoly industries. open journal of business management, 2(3), 210–218. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojbm.2014.23026 department of public enterprises (dpe). (2007). state-owned enterprises compensation guidelines, part b: executive directors. departmental report. retrieved from http://www.dpe.gov.za/res/seob.pdf deysel, b., & kruger, j. (2015). the relationship between south african ceo compensation and company performance in the banking industry. retrieved from http://www.unisa.ac.za/contents/faculties/service_dept/docs/sabview_19_1_chap7.pdf deysel, b. c. (2013). the relationship between south african ceo compensation and company performance in the banking industry. unpublished dissertation, university of south africa, pretoria. duffhues, p., & kabir, r. (2008). is the pay-performance relationship always positive? evidence from the netherlands. journal of multinational financial management, 18, 45–60. retrieved from http://www:elsevier.com/locate/econbase enca. (2016). soes under scrutiny after state of capture report. retrieved from https://www.enca.com/south-africa/soes-under-scrutiny-after-state-of-capture-report. ferrarini, g., moloney, n., & vespro, c. (2003). executive compensation in the eu: comparative law and practice. retrieved from http://www.ssrn.com finkelstein, s., & hambrick, d. c. (1988). chief executive compensation: a synthesis and reconciliation. strategic management journal, 9(6), 543–558. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250090603 goh, l., & gupta, a. (2010). executive compensation, compensation consultants, and shopping for opinion: evidence from the united kingdom. journal of accounting, auditing and finance, 25(4), 607–643. https://doi.org/10.1177/0148558x1002500407 harris, t. (2009). parastatal privatisation would save sa billions – tim harris. politicsweb. retrieved from http://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/parastatal-privatisation-would-save-sa-billions--t janssen-plas, j. (2009). the netherlands and its relation to firm performance. unpublished master’s thesis. rotterdam: erasmus university. retrieved from https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/5048/m256-janssen-plas_283278.pdf jeppson, c. t., smith, w. w., & stone, r. s. (2009). ceo compensation and firm performance: is there any relationship? journal of business & economics research, 7(11), 81–93. kanyane, m., & sausi, k. (2015). reviewing state-owned entities’ governance landscape in south africa. african journal of business ethics, 9(1), 28–41. retrieved from http://www.google.co.za/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=18&ved=2ahukewiiyac6na7eahvfomakhyklaoy4chawmad6bagdeai&url=http%3a%2f%2fajobe.journals.ac.za%2fpub%2farticle%2fdownload%2f81%2f102&usg=aovvaw3y-c7lyvkvl5pcyi8lz65i kim, j., kogut, b., & yang, j. (2013). executive compensation, fat cats and best athletes. retrieved from http://ssrn.com/abstract=1948531 kuboya, d. (2014). a critical analysis of executive compensation and company performance for south african listed companies. unpublished master’s dissertation. stellenbosch: university of stellenbosch. lamprecht, i. (2014, may 29). is ceo pay excessive? moneyweb. retrieved from http://www.mergence.co.za/media/11166/moneyweb_is%20ceo%20pay%20excessive_29%20may%2014.pdf lin, d., kuo, h., & wang, h. (2013). chief executive compensation: an empirical study of fat-cat ceos. international journal of business and finance research, 7(2), 27–42. lippert, r. l., & moore, w. t. (1994). compensation contracts of chief executive officers: determinants of pay-performance sensitivity. journal of financial research, 17(3), 321–332. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6803.1994.tb00195.x maloa, f. (2015a). type of industry as a pay benchmarking trend, challenges and constraint in executive remuneration. corporate ownership & control, 12(3), 155–163. http://doi.org/10.22495/cocv12i3c1p4 maloa, f. (2015b). transformation as an element of executive compensation in south african state-owned entities. problems and perspectives in management, 13(4), 43–51. retrieved from https://businessperspectives.org/journals_free/ppm/2015/ppm_2015_04_maloa.pdf maloa, f. (2016). executive compensation: industry and job family effects. international journal of public administration, 40(3), 284–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2015.1107739 maloa, f., & bussin, m. (2016). determinants of executive compensation in south african state-owned enterprises. south african journal of labour relations, 40(1), 18–24. mascarenhas, b. (2009). the emerging ceo agenda. journal of international management, 15(3), 245–250. https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2015.1107739 massie, k., collier, d., & crotty, a. (2014). executive salaries in south africa: who should have a say on pay? auckland park: jacana. mcknight, p. j., (1996). an explanation of top executive pay: a uk study. british journal of industrial relations, 34(4), 557–566. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1996.tb00490.x mcknight, p. j., tomkins, c., weir, c., & hobson, d. (2000). ceo age and top executive pay: a uk empirical study. journal of management and governance, 4(3), 173–187. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1026755428942 menozzi, a., erbetta, f., fraquelli, g., & vannoni, d. (2011). the determinants of board compensation in soes: an application to italian local public entities. working paper no. 231. retrieved from http://www.carloalberto.org/assets/working-papers/no.231.pdf mhlanga, t. (2018). more billionaires but wealth gap between rich and poor widens. mail & guardian. retrieved from https://mg.co.za/article/2018-01-23-more-billionaires-but-wealth-gap-between-rich-and-poor-widdens. mokoena, s. (2017). state-owned enterprises come under spotlight during budget vote debate. retrieved from https://www.parliament.gov.za/news/state-owned-enterprises-come-under-spotlight-during-budget-vote-debate morton, b., & blair, c. (2013). what determines executive & non-executive pay? hr future. retrieved from http://www.sara.co.za/sara/file%20storage/documents/articles/2013%20december%20-%20what%20determines%20executive%20and%20non-executive%20pay%20-%20chris%20blair%20and%20bryden%20morton.pdf mutiso, l. (2016, march 02). nine south african state-owned companies that could be privatized. afkinsider. retrieved from http://afkinsider.com/120490/state-owned-companies-in-south-africa-that-should-be-privatized/#sthash.5wl7hmy0.dpuf myburgh, f., & de costa, a. (2017). the key differences between king iii and king iv. retrieved from http://www.polity.org.za/article/the-key-differences-between-king-iii-and-king-iv-2017-01-11 ngwenya, s., & khumalo, m. (2012). ceo compensation and performance of state-owned enterprises in south africa. corporate ownership and control, 10(1a), 97–109. https://doi.org/10.22495/cocv10i1art9 nichols, d., & subramaniam, c. (2001). executive compensation: excessive or equitable? journal of business ethics, 29(4), 339–351. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1010764828523 oberholzer, m., & theunissen, m. (2012). benchmarking of johannesburg stock exchange ceo compensation. international business & economics research journal (iber), 11(9), 1061–1076. https://doi.org/10.19030/iber.v11i9.7189 polakow, d. a. (2015). if a portfolio manager who cannot count finds as a four-leaf clover, is he still lucky? investment analysts journal, 39(72), 53–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/10293523.2010.11082523 pricewaterhousecoopers. (2014). executive directors’ compensation: practices and trends report. retrieved from http://www.pwc.co.za/en/publications/executive-directors-report.jhtml rankin, m. (2006). determinants of executive compensation: australian evidence. unpublished doctoral thesis. australia: rmit university. rosen, s. (1992). contracts and the market for executives. in l. werin & h. wijkander (eds.), contract economics (pp. 182–183). malden, ma: blackwell. sabc news. (2016, march 02). ramaphosa calls for phasing out of non-viable state-owned enterprises. retrieved from http://www.sabc.co.za/news/a/895968004be2e5f89fbb9f96fb2bb898/ramaphosa-calls-for-phasing-out-of-non-viable-state-owned-enterprises shah, s. z. a., javed, t., & abbas, m. (2009). determinants of ceo compensation: empirical evidence from pakistani listed companies. international research journal of finance and economics, 32, 148–159. shaw, p. (2011). ceo pay-performance sensitivity in south african financial services company. mba research report. pretoria: university of pretoria. smit, c. (2016, february). budget 2016: more revenue a must or sa heads to junk. retrieved from http://www.fin24.com/budget/budget-2016-more-revenue-a-must-or-sa-heads-to-junk-20160219 smith, m. c. (2017). how inequality is wrecking sa’s economy, and what we can do about it. retrieved from https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2017-10-16-alarming-statistics--how--sas-economy-suffers-from-inequality/ theunissen, p. 2010. remuneration and benefits review of state owned enterprises. presentation by solidarity on invitation of the department of public enterprises. retrieved from www.navorsing.co.za/wp-content/upload tijdens, k. g., & van klaveren, m. (2012). frozen in time: gender pay gap unchanged for 10 years. brussels: ituc report. retrieved form https://www.ituc-csi.org/img/pdf/pay_gap_en_final.pdf ulrich, n. (2010). disclosure of executive compensation as a corporate governance control measure in south african listed companies. unpublished doctoral thesis. pretoria: university of south africa. van blerck, t. g. (2012). the relationship between executive compensation at financial institutions and economic value added. unpublished master’s thesis. pretoria: university of pretoria. wendy owens & associates. (2013). the role and significance of state owned enterprises, public entities and other public bodies in the promotion of urban growth and development in south africa. prepared for the iudf panel of experts. retrieved from http://www.cogta.gov.za/cgta_2016/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/iudf-state-owned-enteprises.pdf zhou, x. (2010). ceo pay, firms size and corporate performance: evidence from canada. canadian journal of economics, 33(1), 213–251. https://doi.org/10.1111/0008-4085.00013 6grigoriadis.qxd background to the study the use of pay-for-performance, and in particular the use of incentive schemes has increased dramatically since 1987 in fortune 1000 corporations (lawler, 2003), and in a recent survey of reward practices conducted by worldatwork, it was reported that approximately 66% of companies in the united states use variable pay beyond their executive levels. this is an increase from 59% in 1995 (wilson, 2003). historically, high-performing employees could expect to receive bigger salary increases than their lower-performing peers, especially when annual merit increases were averaging higher as a result of increasing inflation, but today, it has become increasingly more difficult to differentiate between the salaries of individual employees based on high or low performance. in order to supplement these merit increases, many companies have started implementing pay-for-performance incentive schemes (orens and elliot, 2002). there is thus globally a trend towards implementing performance-based incentive schemes, and in particular an increase in the use of incentive schemes for employees other than executives. in south africa, variable pay and in particular incentive schemes have been implemented successfully for executives and sales staff across organisations, whereas most often, middle managers do not reap the benefits of such incentive programmes. the focus of this study therefore was to determine what the current practice is with regard to short-term incentive schemes for middle managers, as very little empirical research has been done in this regard. short-term incentive schemes in particular are defined as incentive schemes where the measurement period is around one year and payments are in cash e.g. profit share, gain share, commission and bonus scheme (bussin, 2003). commission schemes were, however, excluded from this study as they are mainly used for sales employees, and a need existed to determine what the incentive scheme practices are with regard to non-sales middle management employees. middle managers are considered to be those employees at around the paterson d-band level. when looking at a traditional hierarchical organisation, middle managers are those employees below senior managerial level and above the supervisory or junior management level. the professional specialists often fall into this employee category. motivation/rationale for the study there is a lack of empirical research and literature on the problem, and a pressing need in the market exists for this research. the reasons for focusing on middle managers are that they are often the group of employees where little emphasis is placed on the manner in which their rewards are structured. this research has aimed to address this knowledge gap with specific reference to the south african market. literature on short-term incentive schemes the literature on short-term incentive schemes is contradictory. there are proponents as well as sceptics to be found in the literature. research has more often than not found that incentives do not motivate people or have a significant positive impact on their performance (kohn, 1993), but it can be argued that a lack of sufficient rewards or dissatisfaction with the current reward system does tend to demotivate people and have a negative effect on their performance (thorpe & homan, 2000). it is thus critical to “get it right” as regards to incentives, as a shortfall in this area is likely to have negative consequences if not applied correctly. there is ample evidence though that result-based incentive schemes, especially at the individual level, can greatly increase company performance (gerhart & rynes, 2003). in research done by bussin and huysamen (2004), it was also found that the short-term incentive policy was also one of the areas that had the greatest positive impact in private organisations. shortterm incentives are thus a strong area of focus in organisations, and specifically when amending the organisation’s remuneration policy. bussin and huysamen (2004) found that a change in the short-term incentive policy in private; parastatal and public sector organisations was one of the top five changes in order of extent of change that changed most in the remuneration policy. there is some research to be found in the literature with regard to the factors or design principles that need to be taken into consideration when designing and implementing an incentive scheme. there is, however, substantial literature available on the dynamics of executive and sales incentive schemes (gerhart & rynes, 2003), and much research has been published on what is considered best practice with regard to incentive schemes for executives and sales employees, but very little research has focused on middle managers (scott, mcmullen, wallace & morajda, 2004). chrisilla grigoriadis cgrigoriadis@cellc.co.za mark bussin department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract this study aimed to determine what the current practice is with regard to short-term incentive schemes for middle managers. this was done by means of a quantitative study through a structured research survey completed by a sample of forty-eight organisations. the design elements, performance measures and payout practices of the various schemes in use were surveyed, as well as the participants’ view on the perceived effectiveness of their short-term incentive schemes. evidence shows that the majority of organisations have a short-term incentive scheme in place for middle managers, and that the type of scheme used in most of the organisations is a performance-related bonus scheme, introduced mainly to drive business performance and reward superior performance. key words incentives schemes, scheme effectiveness, middle management current practice with regard to short-term incentive schemes for middle managers 45 sa journal of human resource management, 2007, 5 (1), 45-53 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2007, 5 (1), 45-53 grigoriadis, bussin46 according to freher (2002), the annual incentive scheme has the greatest potential to inf luence individual behaviour and enhance business results. a properly designed annual incentive scheme can assist organisations in achieving the desired performance based on critical tactical success factors. he is also of the opinion that an individual manager sees selection to an annual incentive scheme as a key step on his/her career ladder, and that participation in such a scheme has considerable monetary as well as symbolic value. he emphasises further though, that a line of sight for inclusion into a management incentive programme is critical. in other words, participation should only extend to individuals who can truly influence (directly or as a significant member of a team) the planned performance measures. research done by döckel, basson and coetzee (2006) shows that compensation has a strong significant relation to organisational commitment – specifically for high-technology employees. sutherland (2004) has established in her research that incentives/bonuses and/or variable pay are the fifth most important item considered by knowledge workers when considering to stay or leave their current organisation. bloedorn, also (2002) asserts that incentives can expand the team committed to delivering results and that they can cause employees, individually and collectively, to focus their attention on the company’s goals and identif y with shareholder interests. the literature encourages organisations to take eligibility for incentive schemes deeper down into their organisations (bloedorn, 2002), but it provides no or very little guidelines to that effect. objectives of the study the value-add of this research will firstly be theoretical, as it will influence thinking about short-term incentive schemes, and will build towards a theory or framework with regard to short-term incentives for middle managers. secondly, the value of this research will be practical in the sense that the research will highlight the current practices in short-term incentive schemes, and this will provide organisations with a way forward with which to implement these schemes at middle management level. it is anticipated that, through this research, organisations will be alerted to what the design elements are that make up a short-term incentive scheme for middle managers. it should, however, be pointed out that this research has identified certain current practice elements, but it is critical that when organisations design short-term incentive schemes for middle managers that they customise the incentive scheme to fit their individual business’ needs, which is what a large organisation did as part of their becoming one of the best companies to work for (van dyk & herholdt, 2004). research design research approach this was an empirical st udy. a quantitative research methodology was followed and the research was conducted by means of a cross-sectional, explorative survey. survey research is a method of quantitative research whereby “a sample of a chosen population can be studied to discover the relative incidence, distribution, and interrelations of sociological and psychological variables” (kerlinger & lee, 2000, p. 599). in this research a sample of forty eight organisations was studied with respect to their short-term incentive schemes for middle management. survey research is well suited to a problem such as this, as it is an economical and accurate manner in which a great deal of information can be gathered from a large population (kerlinger & lee, 2000). research methodology participants/respondents. the research questionnaire was sent out to all the organisations (about five thousand) on the database of a large south african remuneration consulting firm. as this was an existing population being surveyed, the sampling strategy can be considered to be accidental or convenience sampling (kerlinger & lee, 2000). fort y-eight organisations participated in this st udy. the research questionnaires were completed by the person who is primarily responsible for the remuneration and reward management function at each participating organisation. these respondents were identified as human resources and reward professionals; ceo’s and finance managers. the research questionnaire was completed by respondents from a variety of industry sectors. the classification and definition of the industry sectors used were those normally used by the remuneration consultancy whose database of organisations was surveyed. the industry sectors of the participating organisations can be seen in table 1. table 1 participating organisations: industry sector industry sector percentage of participants producer services 27% transformative 23% distributive services 17% other (mostly information technology) 13% social services 10% extractive 8% personal services 2% the largest group of the participating organisations is in the producer services sector, which are typically organisations in banking and financial services; insurance; real estate; engineering; accounting; consulting; legal services; and miscellaneous business services. the workforce size of the various participating organisations can be seen in table 2. table 2 participating organisations: workforce size industry sector percentage of participants less than 150 17% 150 – 500 25% 501 – 2000 25% 2001 – 10 000 23% 10 001 plus 10% the range of the workforce size of the participating organisations is quite wide, as it includes both very large and quite small organisations. in table 3, the descriptive statistics relating to the various organisations’ workforce sizes can be viewed. short-term incentive scheme 47 table 3 participating organisations: workforce size descriptive statistics descriptive statistic value mean 3797 median/50th percentile 1164 standard deviation 7446 minimum 32 maximum 42769 range 42737 25th percentile 223 75th percentile 3269 skewness 3,65 kurtosis 16,1 measuring instrument/methods of data gathering. the measuring instrument used in this study was a structured research questionnaire. a suitable questionnaire was developed and then piloted with a small sample of reward experts and academics before being sent out to the research participants. job evaluation correlation tables were included in the questionnaires to participants; to allow the participants to complete the questionnaire with reference to the correct employee group. it was made clear that the category of staff this research applied to was middle managers. the questionnaire contained both factual items exploring the short-term incentive schemes in use by organisations, as well as perceivedeffectiveness questions. the basis for these perceived effectiveness questions were aspects that are usually considered by remuneration professionals as important in establishing the effectiveness of their schemes. a likert scale was used for these questions. a likert scale is also known as a summative rating scale that requires the respondent to respond to several statements that are clearly favourable or unfavourable concerning the topic being measured (elmes, kantowitz & roediger iii, 1999). open-ended questions were also included in the questionnaire to generate authentic responses from participants. data from the questionnaires was further supplemented by follow-up telephonic interviews where necessary, to enhance the quality of the data collected. statistical analysis/treatment of the data. the response data from the questionnaires circulated was the source for data analysis, as well as any follow-up telephonic interviews. descriptive statistics are the primary method by which the factual data is portrayed. this reflects the research results visually, and is a suitable method of data analysis, as the sample of research participants is limited. a secondary analysis was done on the participating organisations’ size and industry sector, to determine whether there was in fact a relationship bet ween the participating organisations’ biographical data and the various elements researched in the survey. no significant trends were however found between the participating organisations’ biographical data and the other elements researched in this survey. where there was an opportunity to provide a free-text response, these responses were examined to establish the similarities to responses provided by other participants. these responses were used in determining common areas of difficulties experienced by organisations, and common areas of advice for other organisations about to embark on the use of short-term incentive schemes for their middle managers. results the specific areas explored by this survey were shortterm incentive schemes in use by the participating organisations at middle management level with respect to the design elements, performance measures, payout practices as well as the effectiveness of these schemes as perceived by the respondents. of the forty eight organisations surveyed, 77% indicated that they had a short-term incentive scheme in place for their middle managers, while 23% of the respondents had no such scheme in place. the organisations that did not have a short-term incentive scheme in place were questioned about their reasons for not having such a scheme. table 4 reflects their responses. table 4 reasons why participating organisations do not have a short-term incentive scheme for middle managers reasons for not introducing a scheme percentage the organisation has considered it, and we will start 55% implementing short-term incentive schemes for middle managers in the near future other (more information is required on incentive schemes, 27% and there are limited resources to implement these schemes) there is no need for short-term incentive schemes for middle 9% managers in our organisation the organisation uses other reward/recognition schemes to 9% incentivise our middle managers more than half the organisations have considered implementing short-term incentive schemes and may start implementing them for middle managers in the near future. the organisations that do have a short-term incentive scheme in place for their middle managers were asked to indicate what the reasons were that they considered in introducing the scheme. their responses are reflected in table 5. table 5 reasons for introducing a short-term incentive scheme for middle managers reasons for introducing the sti percentage of respondents who agreed with the statement to drive business performance 97,3% to reward superior performance 91,9% to improve employee motivation 78,4% to increase retention 70,3% to drive business strategy 64,9% to communicate goals and objectives 44,4% to share wealth 43,2% to address a particular business issue 29,7% the two main reasons for introducing a short-term incentive scheme at middle management level are to drive business performance, and to reward superior performance. of the 77% of participants that have a short-term incentive scheme in place, the majority (89%) of organisations have only one short-term incentive scheme in place for their middle grigoriadis, bussin48 managers, while only 11% have two schemes in place. as regards the type of scheme the organisation used, the results are reflected in table 6. table 6 types of short-term incentive scheme used by participating organisations type of scheme in use percentage of organisations using the particular short-term incentive scheme bonus scheme 84% profit-sharing scheme 14% gain-sharing scheme 3% other sti 8% the definitions of these short term incentive schemes were provided in the questionnaires and are the definitions normally used by the remuneration consultancy whose database of organisations was surveyed. bonus schemes are defined as usually having between 4 and 7 measures which are carefully chosen to drive business strategy. these targets are typically quantitative and qualitative in nature and are usually expressed as threshold (budget), target and stretch target. gainsharing is typically a company wide, formula based scheme for lower level staff aimed primarily at improving productivity. it differs from profit sharing in that it has measures and employees lower down can control and exclude items in the income statement like tax, depreciation, bad debt and other economic factors that might influence profit. in a profit share scheme, the bonus is a predetermined percentage of the organisation’s profits, usually also dependant on the achievement of other objectives as well. only the data for the participants using bonus schemes will be reported in this article. there are very few organisations using profit-sharing (14%); gain-sharing (3%), and other short-term incentive schemes (8%). eligibility in most cases, all the middle managers in the organisations were eligible to participate in the scheme. twenty two per cent of organisations involved the eligible employees in the design and development of the scheme, and where the eligible employees fell under a bargaining unit, only 14% of organisations involved key stakeholders from the bargaining unit in the development and design of the scheme. where eligible employees were however involved, this happened mostly through a committee or forum where some of the eligible employees would be present. this is a significant finding, as it is critical to the success of the scheme to involve eligible employees in the design of the scheme (thorpe & homan, 2000). responsibilities with regard to short-term incentive schemes participating organisations were questioned as to who the primary person(s) are who is (are) responsible for the design; initial implementation; communication; administration and reviewing of their short-term incentive schemes. the results as displayed in table 7 are applicable to bonus schemes only, as this is the scheme which 84% of the organisations have in place in their organisations. from table 7, it is clear that many of the responsibilities relating to the design elements of short-term incentives are largely human resources and remuneration responsibilities. forty seven percent of organisations review their bonus scheme once a year and 44% review the scheme as and when required. fifty nine percent of respondents have had the bonus schemes in their organisations in existence for longer than three years. performance measures as can be seen in table 8, sixty percent of responding organisations use between three and five performance criteria or performance measures in their bonus scheme. they have indicated that the nature of these performance criteria can be quantitative, qualitative, financial, or non-financial, although in the majority of cases a financial measurement is involved. the number and type of performance measures used in a scheme is significant as this inf luences the middle manager’s ability to achieve these targets and receive a payout (gerhart & rynes, 2003), (pfeffer and sutton, 2006) and (freher, 2002). table 8 number of performance measures that need to be met, before a payout can be made average number of measures percentage of respondents having this in bonus scheme number of measures in their scheme 0 3% 1 10% 2 10% 3 20% 4 33% 5 7% 6 3% 8 3% 9 3% 11 3% 12 3% grand total 100% table 7 responsible person(s) for the various design elements in a bonus scheme bonus scheme design remuneration human line management finance remuneration ceo other (committee other elements manager resources consultants of remuneration; (remco and hr and line board) development and design 22% 13% 9% 27% 16% 13% initial implementation 34% 28% 13% 6% 3% 16% communication 22% 34% 16% 3% 13% 12% day-to-day administration 22% 46% 13% 13% 6% reviewing the scheme 37% 16% 3% 3% 19% 6% 16% short-term incentive scheme 49 in 59% of the cases, these performance criteria are set by the top management of the organisation, followed by the departmental manager in conjunction with the individual employee (22%). the primary method by which compliance with these performance criteria is measured is by means of a performance management system (69%). in 88% of the organisations, a certain performance criterion, referred to as a trigger, needs to be met first before the bonus scheme can pay out. this is usually the financial performance of the company, followed by the requirement that the individual employee and the department must achieve certain performance goals. payouts on the scheme the payouts in the bonus scheme are funded from the organisation budget. payout on the scheme is, however, not guaranteed as certain performance measures need to be achieved first. sixty nine per cent of organisations using a bonus scheme have indicated that these schemes pay out once a year. participants were questioned about the various proportions that certain performance measures contribute towards a 100% payout on the bonus scheme. the ranges in each group of performance measures ranged from 0% -100% for each category, and the ranges where the majority of participants responded, are indicated in table 9. due to the wide range of responses reflected, the results should be interpreted with care. table 9 proportional contribution of performance measures towards payout on a bonus scheme type of performance proportional percentage of measures contribution towards respondents who a 100% payout on indicated in this the scheme range group wide/organisation measures 20% 50% 38% business unit/division measures 25% 40% 64% individual performance measures 30% 60% 70% there is thus a heavier proportional contribution of individual performance measures, than group wide or organisation measures at middle management level. the line of sight for middle managers to contribute towards the organisational success measures, e.g. profit is less than it might be for senior executives. the individual performance measures are thus more heavily weighted as these can be influenced directly by the middle managers. seventy five per cent of organisations cap their payout in the bonus scheme at a certain percentage or amount. participants were requested to supply actual payout figures for 2004, 2005 and 2006. due to the wide range of responses (from 0% 200% of the individual employee’s guaranteed annual package), the median payouts were calculated. the results are depicted in table 10, and should again be interpreted with care. table 10 payouts of bouns schemes in 2004-2006 2004 2005 2006 median payout per year as a % of 12% 11% 9% total guaranteed package mean payout per year as a % of total 30% 28% 18% guaranteed package ranges of payouts per year as a % 0%-200% 4%-87% 0%-115% of total guaranteed package perceived effectiveness dimensions the participants were requested to rate twenty perceived effectiveness dimensions with regard to the shortterm incentive schemes in their organisations on a likert scale that ranged from strongly disagree (1), to strongly agree (5). they were requested to respond as to how they currently perceive the scheme. the mean responses were also calculated. a reliability statistic of chronbach’s alpha was calculated at 0,901. chronbach’s alpha is used to assess the internal consistency reliability of an instrument that has different scoring and response scales, such as a likert scale (kerlinger & lee, 2000). the instrument used here to assess the perceived effectiveness of short-term incentive schemes thus has a high internal consistency. the instrument is reliable, and the items can be considered homogeneous. the actual percentage of the participants’ responses to the significant items on the scale is reflected in table 11, and is sorted according to the highest mean responses. common difficulties experienced with the schemes, and advice to organisations about to embark on the implementation of short-term incentive schemes participants were asked to indicate what difficulties they were currently experiencing with their short-term incentive schemes in their respective organisations. their responses were free-text to encourage authentic responses. some of the responses are summarised in table 12. finally, participants were questioned as to what they would recommend to organisations about to embark on a short-term incentive scheme. some of their responses, which were free-text, are summarised in table 13. the participating organisations seem to experience common areas of difficulties when implementing short-term incentive schemes and their advice to other organisations concern the prevention of some of the difficulties that they themselves have experienced. grigoriadis, bussin50 table 12 common difficulties experienced with short-term incentive schemes benchmarking and obtaining accurate competitor information developing and determining objective performance criteria or measures, and having an objective performance management system – which is a prerequisite for an incentive scheme determining the weighting of company; team and the individual performance measures the limited funds available, that in turn prohibit the payment of a bonus even though bonuses aren’t guaranteed, employees start to see them as a 13th cheque (something they are entitled to) – they therefore do not want to have to perform to earn a bonus it is very hard to give the “bad news” when there is no bonus participating employees perceive the scheme as being subjective and unfair, and they don’t trust the scheme the scheme is often poorly communicated line managers don’t understand the scheme table 13 advice to organisations about to embark on short-term incentive schemes do a proper benchmarking and analysis obtain board and ceo buy-in (also line manager buy-in) consultation with participating employees (focus groups) to get their buy-in ensure that a proper performance management system is in place and that it is applied consistently have clear rules that are properly communicated and consistently applied get the performance measures in the scheme right and hold firm onto them. don’t keep moving the goalposts. the scheme will lose its credibility communicate performance regularly during the assessment period be clear about what behaviours you are incentivising, as you may get what you pay for keep it simple. use the scheme as a reward system and not as a system to manage the business tailor-make incentives (allow for flexibility and choice) be transparent in the allocation process consider having a moderation process in place track consistency and fairness of the system discussion this study aimed to determine the short-term incentive practices at middle management level with regard to the type of schemes used, their design elements, performance measures and payout practices. their perceived effectiveness by the respondents was also measured. the move towards implementing short-term incentive schemes for middle managers is gaining popularity as 77% of the organisations surveyed already had at least one such scheme in place. of the other 23% of the organisations that do not have a short-term incentive scheme in place, 55% cited that they have considered it and that they may start implementing short-term incentive schemes in the near future. the two main reasons for introducing short-term incentive schemes for middle management, as reflected in table 5, are to drive business performance (97%) and to reward superior performance (91.9%). a total of 78.4% of organisations also introduced the scheme to improve employee motivation. this is a large and convincing number of participants. a recent similar study conducted in the united kingdom reports that only 31% of respondents indicated that they introduced the scheme to “motivate & incentivise staff” (armstrong & thompson, 2006, p.26). in another survey of a similar nature conducted in the united states of america, the primary objective of the variable pay programme was to improve organisation or team financial performance (65% of respondents) (scott; mcmullan; wallace and moradja, 2004). it appears as though we are being influenced more by the american school of thought than by the british. even though the literature has on numerous occasions indicated that it is critical to the success of the scheme to involve eligible employees in the design of the scheme (thorpe & homan, 2000) and to increase ownership and acceptance of the scheme (armstrong, 2002), only 22% of the participants in this survey involve their eligible employees in the development and design table 11 perceived effectiveness of short-term incentive schemes item mean strongly disagree neither agree agree strongly agree response disagree nor disagree the scheme has a positive influence on individual performance 3,92 2,8% 8,3% 5,6% 61,1% 22,2% targets and goals the scheme has a positive influence on company/organisation 3,89 2,8% 5,6% 8,3% 66,7% 16,7% performance targets and goals the scheme drives positive behavioural performance 3,61 2,8% 8,3% 22,2% 58,3% 8,3% the scheme results in an increase in employee morale over the long 3,61 2,8% 8,3% 22,2% 58,3% 8,3% term (4 months +) the scheme is effective in motivating participating employees to 3,61 2,8% 8,3% 22,2% 58,3% 8,3% reach the required performance measures the participating employees buyinto the scheme 3,61 2,8% 8,3% 22,2% 58,3% 8,3% the current performance management system supports the short3,61 5,6% 22,2% 2,8% 44,4% 25,0% term incentive scheme employees feel that they can achieve the performance measures 3,5 5,6% 8,3% 19,4% 63,9% 2,8% that have been set the short-term incentive scheme is able to differentiate significantly 3,5 8,3% 19,4% 13,9% 30,6% 27,8% between poor performing and high-performing employees the participating employees have no disputes with regard to the scheme 3,44 0,0% 19,4% 25,0% 47,2% 8,3% the employees who participate in the scheme experience the 3,36 0,0% 22,2% 27,8% 41,7% 8,3% scheme positively the scheme results in an increase in employee morale over the 3,36 0,0% 22,2% 27,8% 41,7% 8,3% short term (13 months) the participating employees perceive the scheme as fair 3,36 0,0% 22,2% 27,8% 41,7% 8,3% the scheme results in increased teamwork amongst participating 3,36 0,0% 16,7% 36,1% 41,7% 5,6% employees it is relatively easy to set performance measures for the scheme 3,33 2,8% 16,7% 33,3% 38,9% 8,3% the short-term incentive scheme is able to create sufficient wealth 3,22 13,9% 16,7% 16,7% 38,9% 13,9% for high performing employees the scheme serves as an effective retention tool 3,14 5,6% 22,2% 30,6% 36,1% 5,6% the scheme attracts high talent for the organisation 3,08 5,6% 22,2% 38,9% 25,0% 8,3% participation in the scheme leads to unhealthy competition among the 2,22 22,2% 44,4% 22,2% 11,1% 0,0% participating employees short-term incentive scheme 51 of the scheme. this lack of involvement may lead to a lack of trust between management and employees, and gerhart & rynes (2003) indicate that these schemes may well be undermined as a result of this lack of trust. this lack of involvement, however, does not seem to be a factor of major concern to the participants as reflected in table 11, as 50% of participants believe that the participating employees experience the scheme positively; 52% believe that participating employees perceive the scheme as being fair, 63.9% believe that the participating employees buy into the scheme; and 55.5% believe that the participating employees have no disputes with regard to the scheme. this is however the perception of the participating organisations and not the employees themselves. this research found that a convincing number of respondents participate in bonus schemes as their scheme of choice (84%), and that they also believe this is the most effective scheme for middle managers. as table 7 indicates, the function responsible for the design, implementation, communication and administration of bonus schemes is still largely a human resources and remuneration function. very few respondents indicated that line management was responsible for the implementation (13%), communication (16%) and day-to-day administration (13%) of the bonus scheme, yet they also indicated (table 12) that a common difficulty experienced with the scheme is that line managers do not understand the scheme. this, according to beer and canon (2004) can result in significant problems with implementation of the scheme that is often insufficiently acknowledged by practitioners. organisations often underestimate the time and effort that need to be consumed by managers to implement and administer a new variable pay system (cox, 2005). armstrong (2002) is of the opinion that an important element in the ideal performance-related pay model is that the responsibility and ‘ownership’ of the system should be assigned to line managers. organisations should therefore consider educating their line managers to be able to understand these schemes and in turn to be able to set effective, clear and fair performance measures, and as a result, they must be able to differentiate successfully bet ween the highand poorperforming employees reporting into them. performance measures and the performance management system even though the most preferred performance measures are financial in nature, the participants indicated that they use quantitative, qualitative, financial, or non-financial performance measures. a combination of these is ideal for middle managers, as their ability to influence financial targets is more limited than that of the executives in their organisations. if the measures are perceived to be too far removed for individual employees to influence, the scheme’s effectiveness is questionable (gerhart & rynes, 2003). as a result, middle managers and professionals are often also measured by “softer” and more qualitative performance measures (thorpe & homan, 2000). nevertheless, it is critical that incentive scheme performance measures shouldn’t be too complex or difficult for the participants to understand and influence (pfeffer and sutton, 2006), and that a line-of-sight relationship must exist between the participants and the scheme’s performance measures (freher, 2002). the literature is divided as regards the number of performance measures that should be used in a bonus scheme, but it is interesting to find that 60% of responding organisations in this study have between three and five performance measures that need to be achieved first before a payout can be made from the bonus scheme. this is a good number of measures to use. not too many not to be able to achieve the targets, and not too few to make the achievement of targets too easy. participants responded mostly neutral as to the ease of setting accurate performance measures. however, 66.6% believe that the participating employees feel that they can achieve the performance measures that have been set. this is, however, the opinion of the respondents in this survey, and not that of the participating employees themselves. the primary method by which these performance measures are measured is by means of a performance management system (69%). reliable performance data is thus a “must have” for variable pay programmes to work (orens and elliott, 2002). care should be taken during the performance assessment, as not to use subjectivity (thorpe & homan, 2000). a total of 69.4% of respondents in the survey believe that the current performance management system supports the short-term incentive scheme. payouts in the bonus scheme in 88% of the organisations, a certain performance hurdle or moderating factor, often called a trigger, needs to be achieved first before the bonus scheme can pay out. this is usually the financial performance of the company, followed by the individual employee and the department achieving certain performance goals. slightly more than half (58.4%) of respondents (table 11), believe that the current incentive scheme is able to differentiate significantly between high and low performers. this is not ideal, as one of the main reasons to introduce a bonus scheme is to differentiate between high and low performers (orens and elliot, 2002). participants are divided in response to the question of whether the scheme is able to create sufficient wealth for highperforming employees. rynes, gerhart and minette (2004) are of the opinion that the aspect of pay that will most directly motivate performance will be the extent to which pay is contingent on performance. i.e. if there is no real differentiation in pay-for-performance between high and low performers, there will be no real differentiation in their performance. the converse is also true. when pay is sharply differentiated on the basis of performance, pay is a very effective motivator indeed. as table 9 indicates, the majority of participants in this research use three different groups of performance measures where individual performance measures count more than group wide measures towards a hundred percent payout on the scheme. this is concurrent with freher’s (2002) recommendations that the scheme should have a proper balance among corporate, business unit, and individual performance. this is also indicative of the line-of-sight principle, in that middle managers will have more influence over their own and their department’s performance than the company’s performance. it makes sense though that the company performance measure also counts towards the bonus payout, as the company needs to be performing before a performance bonus can be paid out in any event. the influence of short-term incentive schemes on performance, motivation and retention of middle managers a total of 83.3% of respondents in this survey believe that the short-term incentive scheme has a positive influence on individual performance, and 83,4% believe the scheme will positively influence company performance. this corresponds to gerhart & rynes’ (2003) suggestion that there is ample evidence that results-based incentive plans can greatly increase performance. incentives can only spark motivation if employees grigoriadis, bussin52 have enough information to work effectively and if other organisational systems and technologies are not main roadblocks to performance (pfeffer and sutton, 2006). seventy eight per cent of respondents in the survey introduced a short-term incentive scheme to improve employee motivation and 72.2 % believe that the scheme actually motivates the employees to reach the required performance standards. participants are divided in their beliefs as to whether the scheme acts as an effective retention tool or whether the scheme is able to attract high talent to the organisation. a framework for short-term incentive schemes in south africa an objective of this study was to build towards a framework of current practice with regard to short-term incentive schemes for middle managers, to be able to assist remuneration practitioners in organisations. to this effect, a summary of the results of this study is indicated in table 14 for short-term incentive schemes in general, and in table 15 for bonus schemes in particular. table 14 common design elements regarding short-term incentive schemes for middle managers in south africa design element summary of survey responses the prevalence of using short-term 77% of organisations surveyed use a incentive schemes for middle short-term incentive scheme for their managers middle managers reasons for introducing a shortto drive business performance, and to term incentive scheme reward superior performance eligibility to participate in the all employees at middle management schemes level involvement of participating very little or none at all employees most commonly used scheme bonus scheme table 15 common design elements regarding bonus shemes for middle managers in south africa design element survey responses summary responsibility for development ceo and remuneration manager and design of bonus scheme responsibility for initial remuneration manager and human implementation of bonus scheme resources responsibility for communicating human resources and the the scheme remuneration manager responsibility for day-to-day human resources administration of scheme responsibility for reviewing the remuneration manager scheme how regularly the scheme needs once a year, or when required to be reviewed the number of performance measures in the bonus scheme 3 5 responsibility for setting the main top management, followed by the performance measures individual employee in conjunction with department and line management how these performance measures performance management system are measured funding of the scheme budgeted for the use of triggers or moderators company, division and individual before a payout can be made targets need to be achieved frequency of payouts once a year as 84% of the participating organisations use a bonus scheme for their middle managers, the common design elements regarding bonus schemes only are summarised in table 15. validity and reliability of the study although this study surveyed a relatively small sample of organisations, the size and sectors of the organisations surveyed are quite broad. the results are able to provide the reader with a perspective on what the current practices are with regard to short-term incentive schemes for middle managers. this is the first empirical study of this nature in south africa, and the reliability of the results can be increased by replicating the study with a larger sample of organisations. limitations of this research this study aimed to determine the practices with regard to short-term incentive schemes for middle managers. the middle manager category is quite broad, and with hindsight, it would have been more valuable had the individual subgrade categories been surveyed. it was hoped that the different organisation sectors and organisation sizes would have significantly different practices with regard to their shortterm incentive schemes, however, no significant differences were found. value-add of this study this study has added significant value to the practice and perceptions of short-term incentive schemes for middle managers. readers have an idea as to how other professionals in charge of these schemes experience their effectiveness, and they now have a guide with regard to the design elements/features that are inherent in short-term incentive schemes. consulting organisations have conducted some surveys to determine certain elements of short-term incentive schemes. however, these were never empirical studies, and they didn’t focus on middle managers specifically. it is hoped that this research has added to the broad body of knowledge about remuneration and reward management in south africa. suggestions for future research in this research, the participating organisations were asked to rate their perceived effectiveness of the schemes. it would be ideal if this research could be done where the participating employees themselves are asked to rate their perceived effectiveness of the scheme. armstrong (2002) also recommends that organisations have the effectiveness of their performancerelated pay programmes evaluated by the people participating in the scheme. he advises, however, that the organisation should be prepared to take action based on these results. another suggestion for future research is to determine whether incentive schemes actually achieve the results that they were introduced for in the first place in organisations, namely to drive business performance; reward superior performance and improve employee motivation. it would also be beneficial if future researchers could test the hypothesis of whether a lack of involvement by eligible employees in the development and design of bonus schemes actually leads to a lack of trust between eligible employees and the management of the organisation, and whether this has a negative effect on the scheme. the development of an effectiveness measure would also be very useful, where all the relevant effectiveness dimensions are surveyed, and some sort of standardised scoring mechanism can be used. conclusion short-term incentive schemes for middle managers is a vehicle that is mostly used to increase and reward superior performance. only some of the participating organisations experience these schemes as effective in achieving the aims of the schemes. the most popular scheme to use at middle short-term incentive scheme 53 management level is a bonus scheme where there is a combination of individual; team and organisation-wide performance measures that contribute towards a payout on the scheme. the participating organisations in this research, however, still experience some difficulties when implementing these schemes. south african organisations should in future allocate significant time and effort to the planning and design of these schemes, and ensure that the majority of employees and line managers buy into the scheme and perceive the scheme as fair. the buy-in from both employees and line managers is critical if these schemes are going to succeed into future, and have the effect desired by organisations. references armstrong, m. (2002). employee reward. (3rd ed.). cipd: wiltshire armstrong, m., thompson, p. (eds) (2006). what is happening in bonus schemes today: part 2 – survey findings 2006. ereward.co.uk, 42 beer, m., canon, m.d. (2004). the promise and peril in implementing pay-for performance. human resource management, 43 (1), 3 bloedorn, j.d. (2002). a pay-for-performance model. in chingos,p.(eds) paying for performance: a guide to compensation management. (2nd ed.). john wiley & sons: ny bussin, m. (2003). unpublished doctor of commerce research report, johannesburg: rand afrikaans university bussin, m., huysamen, d. (2004). factors driving changes to remuneration policy and outcomes. sa journal of human resource management, 2 (2), 45-54 cox, a. (2005). the outcomes of variable pay systems: tales of multiple costs and unforeseen consequences. international journal of human resource management, 16 (8), 1475-1497 döckel, a., basson, j.s., coetzee, m. (2006). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. sa journal of human resource management. 4 (2), 20-28 elmes, d.g., kantowitz, b.h., roediger iii, h.l. (1999). research methods in psychology. (6th ed). brooks/cole: ca freher, e.w. (2002). designing the annual management incentive plan. in chingos, p. (eds), paying for performance: a guide to compensation management. (2nd ed). john wiley & sons: ny gerhart, b., rynes, s.l. (2003). compensation: theory, evidence, and strategic implications. sage: ca kerlinger, f.n., lee, h.b. (2000). foundations of behavioural research. 4th ed. harcourt: orlando khon, a. (1993). why incentive plans cannot work. har vard business review. hbs press. usa: boston lawler, e.e. (2003). pay practices in fortune 1000 corporations. worldatwork journal. 12 (4) orens, r.m., elliot, v.j.(2002). variable pay programs: pay for results in chingos, p. (eds). paying for performance: a guide to compensation management. (2nd ed). john wiley & sons: ny pfeffer, j., sutton, r.i. (2006). what’s wrong with pay-forperformance. industrial management. rynes, s.l., gerhart, b., minette, k.a. (2004). the importance of pay in employee motivation: discrepancies between what people say and what they do. human resource management. 43 (4), 381-394 scott, d., mcmullen, t.d., wallace, m., morajda, d. (2004). annual cash incentives for managerial and professional employees. worldatwork journal. 4th quarter sutherland, m.m. (2004). factors affecting the retention of knowledge workers. unpublished doctor of commerce research dissertation. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university thorpe, r., homan,g. (2000). strategic reward systems. prentice hall: great britain van dyk, l., herholdt, j. (2004). transforming your employment brand: the absa experience. knowres publishing:randburg wilson, t.b. (2003). innovative reward systems for the changing workplace. (2nd ed.). mcgraw-hill:ny abstract introduction literature review: theoretical concepts underpinning the study research methods results discussion theoretical contributions practical managerial implications limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) rose b. mathafena department graduate school for business leadership, faculty leadership and organisational behaviour, university of south africa, midrand, south africa anton grobler department graduate school for business leadership, faculty leadership and organisational behaviour, university of south africa, midrand, south africa citation mathafena, r.b., & grobler, a. (2020). the effectiveness of human resources practices in driving proactive experimentation and risk-taking work behaviours in organisations. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1259. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1259 original research the effectiveness of human resources practices in driving proactive experimentation and risk-taking work behaviours in organisations rose b. mathafena, anton grobler received: 31 july 2019; accepted: 06 oct. 2020; published: 04 dec. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: proactive experimentation and risk-taking employee behaviours have received considerable attention both empirically and conceptually in organisational learning and development studies, as well as in relation to organisational innovation, entrepreneurship, creativity and continuous improvement capacity. purpose: the purpose of the study is to determine the extent to which the perceived human resources practices as well as the person–job fit contribute towards proactive experimentation and risk-taking organisational behaviours. motivations for the study: substantial gaps remain as to how, to what extent and, also, which human resources practices impact on certain organisational outcomes, and more particularly with experimentation and risk-taking. research design and methodology: the cross sectional and survey designs were applied in this empirical study. a total of 609 respondents from the diverse south african companies in the private sector participated in the study. convenience sampling was employed by the field workers in the distribution of the surveys. main findings: the regression and correlation analysis indicated a significant relationship between the human resources practices (of training and development, participation in decision-making, rewards) and person-to-job fit with experimentation and risk-taking, whilst recruitment reported somewhat a non-significant and low contribution. practical managerial implications: organisational management will be better enabled to propose concrete human resources strategies necessary for cultivating proactive work behaviours impacting on performance and competitiveness. value add: the outcomes of the research corroborate with existing literature according to which rewards, participation in decision-making, training and development, as well as person–job fit are essential for the creation of the conditions which cultivate proactive and productive work behaviours. keywords: proactive experimentation; risk-taking; human esources; person–job fit; proactive work behaviour. introduction organisational competitive environment organisations operate in increasingly competitive and highly volatile environments (guinot, chiva, & mallen, 2016); in order to secure the required sustainable growth, development and high performance (kalmuka & acar, 2015), the initiatives contributing towards continuous improvement, organisational learning (liu, luo, & shi, 2002), adaptation to change, and innovation need attention (chiva, alegre, & lapiedra 2008). previous research demonstrates that proactive employee behaviours, such as learning and development (dermol & čater, 2013), continuous improvement (tohidi & jabbari, 2012), development of new and creative ideas (sutanto, 2017), innovation and entrepreneurship (arshi & burns, 2018; kalmuka & acar, 2015), are driven and underpinned by action-based behaviours such as experimentation and risk-taking (kreiser & davis, 2010; miron & hudson, 2014; tsai & luan, 2016). proactive experimentation and risk-taking employee behaviours have received considerable attention both empirically and conceptually in organisational learning and development studies (kreiser & davis, 2010; liu, luo, & shi, 2002; miron & hudson, 2014), as well as in relation to organisational innovation, entrepreneurship (arshi & burns, 2018), creativity and continuous improvement capacity (sutanto, 2017). the study conducted by suartha and suprapti (2016) iterates that proactive employee behaviours enable the identification of opportunities in the market environment leading to product, process and strategy adaptations which are geared towards value-addition business improvement and growth. the propensity of employees to take the initiative has risky and experimental elements to it because of the potential investment of resources in novel and uncertain business (riabacke, 2006) and also leading to the introduction change. there are several lines of evidence indicating that experimentation and risk-taking behaviours are associated with organisational learning capability and innovation, which improves organisational performance (kalmuka & acar, 2015; kreiser & davis, 2010; tsai & luan, 2016). the aspects of innovation and organisational learning may entail the exploitation and exploration of value-generating business opportunities in response to the changing technological, economic, social and market patterns (farrell, 2000). this study focuses on the proactive and healthy experimentation and risk-taking work behaviour, and not on the dysfunctional, destructive, reckless and irresponsible approach towards risk, which carries predictable negative consequences (anderson & galinsky, 2006). according to guinot, chiva and mallen (2016), organisations which are capable of identifying, acting and adapting to competitive and dynamic environments through learning, (chiva, alegre, & lapiedra, 2007) risk-taking and proactivity are better positioned to remain sustainable and competitive (tsai & luan, 2016). organisations face major challenges of continuously finding ways to cultivate work environments with high capacity for learning (kalmuka & acar, 2015; sutanto, 2017). although much research has been performed in areas of innovation, organisational learning, entrepreneurship and creativity (arshi & burns, 2018; kalmuka & acar, 2015; miron & hudson, 2014; sutanto, 2017; tohidi & jabbari, 2012), which makes several referrals to experimentation and risk-taking behaviours, the contributory role of human resources practices in this regard has not been sufficiently investigated. various human resource studies have been conducted to assess the impact and value-addition of human resources policies, practices and processes towards the business strategy, overall organisational competitiveness and contribution towards capability development (delaney & huselid, 1996; kehoe & wright, 2013). nonetheless, there are still knowledge and research gaps about antecedents for experimentation and risk-taking propensity, and how this behaviour can be better encouraged and enhanced in organisations (tsai & luan, 2016). in the recent years, research has reported positive linkages between human resources practices, and also organisational performance (boon, den hartog, boselie, & paauwe, 2011), and the positive behavioural outcomes such as motivation, commitment and mitigated turnover intentions (kehoe & wright, 2013). substantial gaps remain as to how, to what extent and, also, which human resources practices impact on certain organisational outcomes, and more particularly with experimentation and risk-taking. this study in particular intends to examine whether the human resources interventions, operationalised as training and development, participation in decision-making, rewards, and recruitment and selection (edvardsson, 2008; leat & el-kot, 2007), translate into improved experimentation as well as risk-taking employee behaviours. in doing so, the human capital practices are examined to determine whether they are a contributor and a mechanism which positively impact on the desirable performance behaviours. additionally, these practices are examined to explore the extent to which person–job fit impacts on the improvement of experimentation and risk-taking employee behaviours. these concepts are important to study as wiklund and shepherd (2011) argue that entrepreneurial orientation characterised by attributes of innovation, risk-taking and proactiveness is consistently linked to the outputs such as active experimentation, new product developments and adaptations of market routes and products. experimentation and risk-taking work activities are required for the successful development and implementation of new and creative ideas (spicer & sadler-smith, 2006), the finding of productive ways of solving business problems and also improving business capability for continuous adaptations to dynamic and changing markets (onağ, tepeci, & başalp, 2014). research purpose and objectives the study hypothesises that proactive experimentation and risk-taking employee behaviours in organisations could be improved and influenced by human resource aspects of training and development, participation in decision-making, rewards, and recruitment and selection, as well as person–job fit. it aims to determine if person–job fit has an effect on experimentation and risk-taking employee behaviour. lastly, the study seeks to explore the mediating effect of person–job fit on the relationship between the human resources practices – of training and development, participation in decision-making, rewards, and recruitment and selection – and experimentation and risk-taking employee behaviours. the objectives of the study are as follows: determine the relationship between experimentation and (1) training and development, (2) participation in decision-making, (3) rewards, and (4) recruitment and selection. determine the relationship between risk-taking and (1) training and development, (2) participation in decision-making, (3) rewards and (4) recruitment and selection. determine the relationship between person–job fit, experimentation and risk-taking. test the mediating effects of person–job fit on the relationship between experimenting employee behaviours and (1) training and development, (2) participation in decision-making, (3) rewards and (4) recruitment and selection. test the mediating effects of person–job fit on the relationship between risk-taking employee behaviours and (1) training and development, (2) participation in decision-making, (3) rewards and (4) recruitment and selection. literature review: theoretical concepts underpinning the study experimentation and risk-taking employee work behaviour chiva et al. (2008) suggest that employee experimentation and risk-taking behaviours are bi-dimensional concepts and an integral element of organisational learning capacity, together with team dialogue, external networking and participation in decision-making. experimenting employee behaviours experimenting employee behaviours refers to the measure of freedom an employee has to exploit and pursue new and improved ways of performing their tasks (terziovski, 2001). on the other hand, experimentation from an organisational and managerial perspective refers to the extent to which their ideas and suggestions are attended to, and the manner in which they are dealt with (onağ, tepeci, & başalp, 2014). experimentation from an organisational learning perspective can be either through exploration or through exploitation (wiklund & shepherd, 2011). exploitation entails capitalisation on the existing competencies and practices, through continuous improvement, refining, re-modelling of existing products or services and the adaptation of processes (kane & alavi, 2007). exploration, on the other hand, is about venturing into new ideas and introducing products, services and processes which are new and unknown to the organisation (kane & alavi, 2007). essentially exploration generates internal variance between knowledge possessed and the learning required, which is outside of the organisation’s existing capabilities, knowledge base and skills and provides opportunities for learning and a potential for innovativeness. learning organisations allow for new ideas and suggestions to be accommodated through trials, making adjustments to work processes, critical questioning of existing practices and searching for new and improved work methodologies (chiva et al., 2008). risk-taking behaviours risk-taking behaviours allude to tolerance for risk, uncertainty, ambiguity and errors from the employee, managerial and organisational perspectives (chiva et al., 2008). risk-taking inclinations come with and carry the assumption that making mistakes and occurrence of failure is part of organisational learning (cannon & edmondson, 2005). exploration of new and novel ideas brings with it some level of risk and uncertainty because of variability in skills, resources and competence requirements for implementing new ventures (wiklund & shepherd, 2011). as per chiva et al. (2008), organisational change and learning is facilitated through tolerance for risk-taking and acceptance of mistakes as a learning platform, and also the view that learning can be derived from reflecting on the success and failure arising from risk-taking initiatives of which the insights can unearth business opportunities. furthermore, risk-taking entails the willingness to take up business opportunities that may be profitable or bring about losses (tsai & luan, 2016). according to wiklund and shepherd (2011), proactive and learning organisational cultures do not necessarily hold a paralysing view of failure; however, failure is seen as an ordinary occurrence, providing opportunities for learning and a potential for innovativeness. urban (2015) states that risk-taking behaviours include employee involvement in projects such as innovations, new product and process development, as well as pursuing new opportunities, including new technologies and new market possibilities with the aim of creating value. human resources practice empirical findings of bhatti and qureshi (2007), kehoe and wright (2013) and sung and choi (2014) support the positive and significant relationships between human capital practices and organisational performance outcomes. the literature analysis of boon et al. (2011) iterates that human capital elements are able to motivate as well as create enabling systems and mechanisms which promote proactive and improved performance-related behaviours. as per mathews (2006), human resources activities are intended to enhance positive contribution towards the creation, improvement and maintenance of organisational competitiveness through the acquisition, development and retention of high-quality human capital skills in the organisation. han, chiang and chang (2010) view human capital as a strategic asset of the organisation in which tacit and intangible knowledge is contained and embedded. human resources systems on the other hand are meant to discover and unleash the human capital outputs through motivation, engagement, commitment and learning in order to achieve organisational performance. participation in decision-making in relation to experimentation and risk-taking kuratko, hornsby and covin (2014) assert that employees with decision-making latitude and freedom from excessive oversight concerning their work are likely to participate in risk and experimentation activities which are creative, innovative and entrepreneurial in nature. han et al. (2010) support the premise that employees who participate in decision-making are closely attached to organisational strategic objectives. additionally, participation in decision-making creates a sense of ownership, commitment and responsible self and job management in the work context. the spirit of democracy and altruism experienced through participation in decision-making also leads to feelings of psychological ownership and creates a sense of belonging. furthermore, human needs for growth, development and self-actualisation are realised, which in turn cultivates high performance, continuous improvement and increased commitment. irawanto (2015) found participation to be critical for employee work motivation, as it is a mental and emotional process reflective of employee contribution towards organisational success, which has long-term loyalty and commitment implications. bhatti and qureshi’s (2007) study reported a strong relationship between employee participation in decision-making and job satisfaction, employee commitment and productivity. han et al. (2010) argue that the involvement of employees ignites their commitment and psychological ownership, which translates into positive attitudes and behaviours. furthermore, involvement appeals to the humanistic needs for achievement, inclusion and having a sense of contribution. kuyea and sulaimonb (2011) emphasise the significant need for enterprises to involve employees in decision-making processes as a possible means to improve performance during and in uncertain times characterised by highly competitive market variables. their findings also suggested that firms that involve employees in decision-making outperform their competitors. the literature presentation suggests that employee participation in key organisational decisions, positively enhances employee behaviours and attitudes which are critical for performance improvement. considering these arguments pertaining to the relationship between proactive organisational behaviours and participation in decision-making, the study proposes to determine the relationship between participation in decision-making and experimentation and risk-taking. training and development in relation to experimentation and risk-taking sung and choi (2014) associate the investment in learning and development with the development of the competitive human capital pool within an organisation. exposure to broad perspectives, new insights, knowledge and skills creates opportunities for new idea generation, creativity and constructive inputs towards performance improvements. although training and development is a contributor towards innovation, generated knowledge and ideas still need to be translated into actionable activities requiring experimentation and risk-taking. development interventions delivered through human resources provide skills and competence required to adapt and cope with change, as well as for the development of creativity, innovation, problem solving and proactive work behaviours (mathews, 2006). according dermol and čater (2013), training leads to learning, development and growth of employees, which positively improves performance, productivity and adaptation to market developments. in other words, impactful training drives behaviours, which in turn generates business results. niazi (2011) strongly recommends training and development interventions which are aligned to organisational performance and strategic requirements in order to impact on competitiveness. according to falola, osibanjo and ojo (2014), training and development is critical in enabling adaptive abilities of employees to the changing business and technological environment for better performance and increased knowledge needed for creativity and problem solving. in the context of proactive and performance-enhancing interventions, training and development which characterises skills, knowledge and competence acquisition may stimulate creativity, innovation and continuous improvement at a task, process, service and product level, and if actioned, could result in work activities requiring experimentation and risk-taking work behaviours. therefore, the study proposes to examine the relationship between training and development and experimentation and risk-taking. recruitment and selection in relation to experimentation and risk-taking organisations need to adopt proactive human resources practices of recruitment and selection by employing people with required attributes, which will directly contribute towards challenging of conventions, problem solving, knowledge generation and exploratory learning. steiber and alänge (2013) found that innovativeness of the organisation is reflective of their human capital commitment, skills diversity and depth in competence, for which recruitment matters. employment processes are critical for filtering in the recruits who have cognitive abilities, values and the required role–knowledge fit. martins and terblanche (2003) argue that innovative, creative and risk-taking organisational cultures are supported by the recruitment, selection and appointment of employees with the required traits with regard to knowledge, inquisitiveness, risk-taking, diversity and creativity. ahmad and schroeder (2002) are of the view that an organisation with the right training, systems, processes, communication strategy, teamwork and empowerment in improving quality management systems has the right enablers in place; however, without the recruitment of the right people all these efforts are undermined and become less impactful. hsiao, chang, huang and chen (2011) strongly argue for a rigorous recruitment and selection process to improve the quality of recruitment decision, as it impacts on the organisational capacity and capability. recruitment and selections ensure the attraction and acquisition of high-quality talent with the matching knowledge, skills, attitudes, experience and values which are specific to the job and organisation’s requirements. the selection methods and processes must have the required reliability to improve the quality and accuracy of recruitment decisions, supportive of organisational performance and the strategic goals (fong, ooi, tan, lee, & chong, 2011). taking the arguments from the previously discussed literature into account, the study proposes to examine the relationship between recruitment and selection and experimentation and risk-taking. rewards in relation to experimentation and risk-taking research on corporate entrepreneurship has identified organisational reward systems as one of the dimensions which support and encourage risk-taking and innovation, which drives entrepreneurial tendencies amongst employees (kuratko et al., 2014). the rewarding of employees for learning, generating and experimenting with new ideas for improvements, is as important as rewarding them for tangible productive outputs (nafukho, graham, & muyia, 2009). the literature analysis conducted by jerez-gómez, céspedes-lorente and valle-cabrera (2005) proposes that compensation systems should be designed to drive individual and team behaviours towards organisational strategic outputs. desired behaviours should be rewarded so that they become dominant and part of the organisational culture. furthermore, skills-based pay is associated with learning orientation and experimentation. jerez-gómez et al. (2005) advocate for high pay incentives for employees who are willing to experiment, innovate and search for new ideas before they are even tested, and it is important to note that this suggestion carries with it an element of risk and the possibility of failure. outcome-based pay reduces activities with a high element of uncertainty and risk. whilst on the other hand, long-term incentives are suited for rewarding those who are willing to learn, continuously improve and introduce creative and new ideas whose results could be realised in a longer term. alpkan, bulut, gunday, ulusoy and kilic (2010) assert that organisations requiring entrepreneurial and risk-taking behaviour must be able to reward people as inventors and entrepreneurs, and the organisational environment must provide support for risky outcomes by avoiding harsh punishment for the failure associated with experimentation and risk-taking. hsieh and chen (2011), being motivated by the strategic approach to implementing rewards, argue that rewards must be designed to attract, retain and motivate employees, as employees contribute towards strategic objectives and competitive advantage of the organisation. kwon, hewitt and hein’s (2013) total reward study found that high-performing companies align their rewards to the business strategy, and clearly illustrate the link between the total rewards to business, and the business to employees’ performance and behaviours. drawing from the motivation theories, both compensation and rewards have potential to re-enforce proactive and positive performance-related behaviours, which are rewarded and recognised by the organisation (fong et al., 2011). the study proposes that rewards positively contribute towards the improvement of experimentation and risk-taking employee behaviours. person–job fit in relation to experimentation and risk-taking according to lu, wang, lu, du and bakker (2014), as well as kristof-brown (2000), person–job fit refers to the match and congruence between a person’s characteristics and also job characteristics. primarily, the perceived fit occurs when a person’s skills, abilities, knowledge, experience and competence match with that of the job requirements and demands. the essence of this theory proposes that the more the person’s characteristics are aligned to the job, the more likely they are to meet performance and task requirements. iplik, kilic and yalcin (2011) assert that fit is associated with positive outcomes such as commitment, motivation, job satisfaction and also job-related stress. the consequences of poor job fit are poor performance, human resources problems, turnover and absenteeism. li and hung’s (2010) empirical findings suggested that person–job fit is correlated to job performance, as well as organisational citizenship behaviours. furthermore, technical knowledge and information literacy related to the job improves person–job fit considerably. the study conducted by june and mahmood (2011) reported a significant relationship between person–job fit, competency and performance, and further recommends that role ambiguity be overcome through adequate information sharing and communication pertaining to the role. based on the aforementioned literature review on person–job fit, employee performance and behavioural outcomes, the study proposes to establish the link between person–job fit with both experimentation and risk-taking employee behaviours. indirect effect: the mediating role of person–job fit boon et al. (2011) assert that person–job fit is about the match between the individual’s skills, abilities, competencies, experience and knowledge in relation to the job tasks and responsibilities. importantly, human resources practices, such as recruitment, learning and development, are critical in facilitating person–job fit, with the rewards to encourage motivation towards performance and participation in critical organisational projects. hartog et al.’s (2011) study found a significant relationship between human resources practices and person–job fit. additionally, person–job fit was found to have mediating effects on relationship between human resource practices and performance outcomes, work attitudes and behaviours. li and hung (2010) recognise the role of person–job fit as a predictor of work performance as well as having mediating effects related to work outcomes. table 1 summarises the research hypothesis, which will enable the study to address the research objectives through the relevant statistical procedures. table 1: summary of the research hypothesis. research methods settings, study population and sampling strategy in order to investigate the relationships between the operationalised human capital practices, person–job fit and also organisational learning capability elements of experimentation and risk-taking, an empirical study was conducted from employees of various private and public sector organisations in south africa. the diverse industries represented consisted of tourism, consulting, energy, banking, information technology, health, manufacturing, agriculture and also chemical. convenience sampling was employed, as it was deemed appropriate in the context to yield adequate response levels (leedy & ormrod, 2016). the final sample consisted of a total 609 responses which were received after manually clearing the missing data of less than 1.4%. in total 30.2% were management, whilst 69.8% were non-management. the average tenure of employees is 7 years. a total of 40.4% were in core positions, and the remainder in support. the average age of the participants is 36 years. participants in the core positions account for a total of 49%. research approach and design the study takes the ontological position of objectivism, with a positivistic epistemology. according to botma, greeff, mulaudzi and wright (2010), epistemology determines the methodologies, theories and procedure application throughout the research process. therefore, a quantitative and non-experimental research approach was adopted. leedy and ormrod (2016) highlight that descriptive quantitative research entails the identification and exploration of characteristics of the phenomenon and possible correlations amongst the multiple phenomena. a self-administered questionnaire survey design was utilised for data collection purposes. the questionnaires which are in english were distributed by the master’s students who are part of a team-based research programme. the students were required to obtain 60 responses from their organisations; furthermore, the returned responses with missing values were excluded from the analysis. measuring instruments the instruments utilised for the data collection purposes are the perceived human resources practices, person-to-job fit and also the organisational learning capacity instrument with a specific focus on the variables of experimentation and risk-taking. perceived human resources practices the scale developed by boon et al. (2011) measures the employees’ perceptions of human resources practices in their respective organisation. most human resources high performance and best practice systems are incorporated in the instruments such as autonomy, recruitment and selection, rewards, job security, work-life balance, teamwork and autonomy. the reported cronbach’s alpha in the recent south africa study for human resources operationalised sub-scales are 0.82 for training, 0.85 for participation, 0.87 for rewards and 0.87 for recruitment and selection (grobler, grobler, & mathafena, 2019), which is indicative of high internal reliability in accordance with pallant (2016). the sub-scales consist of a total of 23 items and are on a five-point likert scale where the participants were to indicate the extent of their disagreement or agreement from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). the first items read as follows: training and development the opportunity to follow training, courses and workshops; participation the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes; rewards performance-related pay; and recruitment and selection critical selection of new employees. person-to-job fit the scale developed by cable and de rue (2002) intends to measure the extent to which the participants perceive themselves to be fitting to the organisation’s values and culture and also whether their skills match to the job demands. the scale pertaining to job demands and skills fit tested to have high reliability with a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.84 for a multiple company study, and 0.89 for a single company study (cable & de rue, 2002), whilst grobler’s (2016) multiple empirical studies reported mean cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.89. one of the six items of the scale reads as follows: the match is very good between the demands of my job and my personal skills. the scale for person-to-job fit was administered with a five-point likert scale, ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). experimentation and risk-taking behaviours organisational learning capacity instrument, which was developed and validated by chiva, alegre and lapiedra (2007), was used to derive the sub-scales of experimentation and risk-taking behaviours. the confirmatory factor analysis reported the composite reliabilities for experimentation as 0.78 and risk-taking as 0.65, and the cronbach’s alphas of 0.89 and 0.74 respectively. the instruments consist of a seven-point likert scale, ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7). the first items for each sub-scale read as follows: experimentation people here receive support and encouragement when presenting new ideas and risk-taking ‘people are encouraged to take risks in this organisation’. data analysis the statistical analysis was conducted using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 25 and also the process procedure for spss version 3.1. the analysis included the descriptive statistics (means, standard deviation), and the internal consistency of the instruments was determined by the cronbach’s alpha coefficients (with 0.70 as guideline) (pallant, 2016). correlations and multiple regression analysis were conducted through pearson product moment. mediation analysis was conducted to test the indirect effect of person–job fit on both experimentation and risk-taking employee behaviours (dependent variables), as well as the independent variables of training and development, participation in decision-making, rewards and also recruitment. results table 2 indicates the output of the descriptive statistics. the true mean value in the population falls within the stipulated ranges, at 95% confidence interval levels (pallant, 2016). furthermore, the original mean scores were compared with the 5% trimmed mean, the differences across the variables were low and ranging from 0.01, 0.02 to 0.03. this indicated that the extreme scores do not influence the mean. kolmogorov–smirnov and shapiro–wilk statistics was utilised to assess the normality of the distribution of the scores (pallant, 2016), which reported 0.000 statistical significance in that the values are less than 0.05 which violates the assumption of normality of distribution. nonetheless, this is common with larger samples according to (pallant, 2016). furthermore, a visual inspection of the histograms and the normal q-q plot was conducted in the background. both the histograms and the normal q-q plot were reasonably normal. griffin and steinbrecher (2013) recommend acceptable values for skewness as being (-3 to +3) and kurtosis (-10 to +10), the descriptive report provided are within the recommended ranges of griffin and steinbrecher (2013). the internal consistency of the human resources, person–job fit and also experimentation and risk-taking scales were reported to be good with the cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients being between 0.76 and 0.92. table 2: descriptive statistics. the pearson product-moment correlation coefficient according to pallant (2016), assisted in the analysis of the strength of the relationship between experimentation and training and development, participation in decision-making, rewards, recruitment and selection as well as person-to-job fit (table 3). similarly, the same determination was conducted for risk-taking. with regards to experimentation behaviour, high correlation was identified in terms of rewards (r = 0.50; p ˂ 0.01), with medium correlation for participation in decision-making (r = 0.49; p ˂ 0.01), training and development (r = 0.46; p ˂ 0.01) and person–job fit (r = 0.44; p ˂ 0.01), and a low correlation for recruitment and selection (r = 0.12; p ˂ 0.01). table 3: correlation analysis (n = 609). the strength of the relationships between risk-taking behaviour and other variables indicated medium strength for rewards (r = 0.37; p ˂ 0.001), participation in decision-making (r = 0.36; p ˂ 0.001), training and development (r = 0.34; p ˂ 0.001) and person–job fit (r = 0.32; p ˂ 0.001), and low relationship for recruitment and selection (r = 0.15; p ˂ 0.001). furthermore, the correlations between the independent variables were not too high, and are below 0.62, in order to avoid the inclusion of two variables with bivariate correlation of 0.70 and more. the model summary (table 4) r square value indicates a total variance of 34% in experimenting employee behaviours when all the independent variables are entered into the model, whilst the total variance of 18% is explained by the influence of the collective independent variables on risk-taking behaviours. both the contributions are statistically significant at p ˂ 0.001 for both experimentation and risk-taking. table 4: regression analysis. multicollinearity tested negatively (table 5), with all the tolerance values for both experimentation and risk-taking behaviour being higher than 0.10. furthermore, the variance inflation factor (vif) reported less than 10 based on pallant (2016). the results for experimentation indicate statistically significant unique contribution by rewards (β = 0.23, p ˂ 0.001), participation in decision-making (β = 0.20, p ˂ 0.001), person–job fit (β = 0.16, p ˂ 0.001) and training and development (β = 0.15, p ˂ 0.001), and non-significant and low contribution by recruitment and selection (β = -0.07, p ˂ 0.001). the unique contribution for risk-taking behaviour indicated rewards (β = 0.17, p ˂ 0.001), person–job fit (β = 0.13, p ˂ 0.001), participation in decision-making (β = 0.11, p ˂ 0.001), whilst training and development (β = 0.09, p ˂ 0.001) and recruitment and selection (β = 0.02, p ˂ 0.001) made a non-significant and low contribution. table 5: unique contribution indicated by the coefficients. mediation analysis was conducted through process model 4, which is based on the simple principles of linearity applicable to regression analysis (field, 2018; hayes & preacher, 2014). the analysis purposed to assess if the relationship between the human resources practices, which is operationalised as training and development, participation in decision-making, rewards and recruitment and selection (independent variables), and the dependent variables of experimentation and risk-taking, can be explained by the mediating variable of person–job fit. the mediating effect of person–job fit on both experimentation and risk-taking were analysed separately. the analysis indicated that there is a significant indirect effect of training and development (0.29), participation in decision-making (0.26), rewards (0.27) and recruitment and selection (0.09) on experimentation through person–job fit. additionally, a significant indirect effect of training and development (0.20), participation in decision-making (0.18), rewards (0.18) and recruitment and selection (0.06) on risk-taking through person–job fit was determined. the indirect effects analysis was set at 95% bootstrap confidence intervals based on 5000 bootstrap samples (hayes et al. 2014). the total effects (kane & ashbaugh, 2017) results indicated the impact of training and development, participation in decision-making, rewards and also recruitment and selection on experimentation and risk taking, without the mediating effect of person–job fit (excluded). the direct effect analysis indicates the impact of training and development, participation in decision-making, rewards and recruitment and selection, as well as person–job fit, as both independent variables. mediation has occurred, as highlighted by the size of the indirect effect, though relatively low for recruitment and selection (b = 0.09, 95% ci [0.04; 0.15]) in the experimentation analysis, and also b = 0.06, 95% ci (0.03; 0.10) for risk-taking. importantly, all the confidence intervals do not contain zero, which alludes to the occurrences of mediation for all the variables (kane & ashbaugh, 2017) as reported in table 6. table 6: mediation analysis. discussion the findings definitively suggest that the human resources practices have a positive relationship as well as an impact on the employee’s behavioural outcomes of experimentation and risk-taking. these findings are consistent with the previous research which emphasises the criticality of human resources practices in positively influencing organisational behavioural and performance outcomes. the empirical findings of niazi (2011) and falola et al. (2014) corroborate the current study which suggests that training and development is critical for improving business skills, knowledge and competencies, which are critical for performance improvement leading to organisational competitiveness. similar to the outcomes of bhatti and qureshi (2007), kuyea and sulaimonb (2011) and han et al. (2010), participation in decision-making by employees yields positive organisational behavioural outcomes and enhanced performance. the literature analysis of hsieh and chen (2011) and kwon et al. (2013) emphasise the criticality of linking employee behaviour and performance outcomes to rewards which support the overall organisational strategy. amongst all the human resources dimensions tested, recruitment surprisingly has a low contribution towards improving experimentation and risk-taking work behaviours. the consistently low reports on recruitment and selection are counter-intuitive, especially if recruitment and selection is considered critical in attracting skills into organisations (steiber & alänge, 2013), for performance improvement purposes. person–job fit has shown to have both a positive relationship and influence on the proactive experimentation and risk-taking work behaviours. the empirical findings of this study on person–job fit are supported by the results of li and hung (2010) and june and mahmood (2011), which suggest that a person’s competence, knowledge, skills and experience positively influence job and task performance, which may influence motivation, engagement and commitment behaviours. there is a significant indirect effect of human resources practices – operationalised as training and development, participation in decision making, rewards and recruitment and selection – on experimentation and risk-taking work behaviours, through person–job fit. this finding confirms that person–job fit is both a mediator as well as a predictor of organisational behavioural and performance outcomes (boon et al., 2011; li & hung, 2010). in general, the key empirical findings of this study support the predictions that human resources practices positively impact on the cultivation and enablement of proactive experimentation and risk-taking work behaviour. furthermore, person–organisational fit mediates the relationship between the human resource practices and the proactive experimentation and risk-taking work behaviour. theoretical contributions the research makes very important contributions to the literature of organisational performance and human resources. firstly, the empirical analysis demonstrates how and which human resources practices affect organisational performance. to our knowledge, there are few studies which have been conducted on the impact of human resources on the proactive employee behaviours, such as experimentation and risk-taking, which still needs further uncovering and exploration. however, the research on human resource contribution towards influencing organisational outcomes such as performance, motivation and commitment has gained solid progression and still holds strong potential for further research (ahmad & schroeder, 2002; bhatti & qureshi, 2007; han et al., 2010; niazi, 2011), more specifically on organisational learning-related behaviours such as experimentation and risk-taking which are critical in organisational creativity, innovation and continuous improvement-related work activities. these findings are consistent with organisational learning theory which aims to improve organisational innovation, entrepreneurship, creativity and continuous improvement capacity in order to improve organisational competitiveness. secondly, the findings iterate that proactive employee behaviours enable the identification of opportunities in the market environment leading to product, process and strategy adaptations which are geared towards value-addition, business improvement and growth. finally viewing of human resources practices as strategic enablers, which contribute towards organisational effectiveness, performance and competitiveness, reveals the economic and value-adding contribution of the human resources field. practical managerial implications the overall contribution of the study was to offer management and the human resources function some empirical and theoretical grounding towards the enhancement of organisational performance which impacts on organisational competitiveness and sustainability. the distinction between the operationalised human resources dimensions which impact on experimentation and risk-taking behaviours has been examined and highlighted. in fact, the study has revealed and demonstrated that training and development, participation in decision-making, rewards and person–job fit significantly contribute towards proactive work behaviours. organisational management can propose concrete human resources strategies for changes necessary towards improving experimentation and risk-taking work behaviours, which underline innovativeness, continuous improvement, organisational learning and creativity outcomes. although recruitment and selection indicated a low relationship and impact on experimentation and risk-taking behaviours, ahmad and schroeder (2002), as well as hsiao et al. (2011), assert that recruitment and selection is a critical human resource function. the recruitment function identifies and attracts key talent to the organisation which fits with organisational and job requirements as far as behaviour, skills, knowledge and competence are concerned; in contrast, the outcome of this analysis suggests a lesser role of recruitment as far as experimentation and risk-taking work behaviour is concerned. limitations and recommendations despite the modest contributions of this study, a few limitations exist which point to the direction of future research. firstly, experimentation and risk-taking are rather complex work behavioural concepts that need to be studied further, and more specifically, what enhances and improves them. the study emphasised on the specific human resources aspects, but it would be interesting to conduct future studies which focus on the impact of organisational strategy, organisational structural configuration as well as leadership. qualitative studies utilising interviews, asking participants to identify organisational factors which improve proactive experimentation and risk-taking employee behaviour would be beneficial. additionally, the study adopted its once off survey design format rendering the results exploratory and developmental, which necessitates repeated longitudinal research in this type of study. conclusion the results of the study demonstrated the criticality of human resource interventions in supporting and enabling organisational performance and behavioural outcomes, and more specifically with proactive behaviours of experimentation and risk-taking, which underpin initiatives such as continuous improvement, innovation and creativity at process, product and service levels. the important outcomes of the research are that rewards, participation in decision-making, training and development, as well as person–job fit are essential for the creation of conditions which cultivate proactive and productive organisational behavioural outcomes. acknowledgements competing interests the authors confirm that there is no conflict of interest. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. r.b.m. was involved in execution and writing of the study. a.g. is the data owner, and provided leadership oversight and guidance for the study. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. ethical consideration ethical clearance was approved by the ethics committee of the business school. the permission to conduct research was granted by the participating organisation’s authority figures (ref #:2018 _sbl _003_ca). data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references ahmad, s., & schroeder, r.g. (2002). the importance of recruitment and selection process for sustainability of total quality management. international journal of quality & reliability management, 19(5), 540–550. https://doi.org/10.1108/02656710210427511 alpkan, l., bulut, c., gunday, g., ulusoy, g., & kilic, k. (2010). organizational support for intrapreneurship and its interaction with human capital to enhance innovative performance. management decision, 48(5), 732–755. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251741011043902 anderson, c., & galinsky, a.d. (2006). power, optimism, and risk-taking. european journal of social psychology, 36(4), 511–536. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.324 arshi, t., & burns, p. (2018). entrepreneurial architecture: a framework to promote innovation in large firms. the journal of entrepreneurship, 27(2), 151–179. https://doi.org/10.1177/0971355718781245 bhatti, k.k., & qureshi, t.m. (2007). impact of employee participation on job satisfaction, employee commitment and employee productivity. international review of business research papers, 3(2), 54–68. boon, c., den hartog, d.n., boselie, p., & paauwe, j. (2011). the relationship between perceptions of hr practices and employee outcomes: examining the role of person–organisation and person–job fit. the international journal of human resource management, 22(1), 138–162. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.538978 botma, y., greeff, m., mulaudzi, f.m., & wright, s.c.d. (2010). research in health sciences (1st edn.). cape town: pearson education. cable, d.m., & de rue, d.s. (2002). the convergent and discriminant validity of subjective fit perceptions. journal of applied psychology, 87(5), 875–884. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.87.5.875 cannon, m.d., & edmondson, a.c.e. (2005). failing to learn and learning to fail (intelligently): how great organizations put failure to work to innovate and improve. long range planning, 38(3), 299–319. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2005.04.005 chiva, r., alegre, j., & lapiedra, r. (2007). measuring organisational learning capability among the workforce. international journal of manpower, 28(3/4), 224–242. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720710755227 chiva, r., alegre, j., & lapiedra, r. (2008). assessing the impact of organizational learning capability on product innovation performance: an empirical test. technovation, 28(6), 315–326. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2007.09.003 corine boon ,c. deanne n. den hartog , paul boselie & jaap paauwe (2011) the relationship between perceptions of hr practices and employee outcomes: examining the role of person–organisation and person–job fit, the international journal of human resource management, 22:01, 138-162, doi: 10.1080/09585192.2011.538978 delaney, j.t., & huselid, m.a. (1996). the impact of human resource management practices on the perceptions of organisational performance. academy of management journal, 39(4), 949–969. https://doi.org/10.2307/256718 dermol, v., & čater, t. (2013). the influence of training and training transfer factors on organisational learning and performance. personnel review, 42(3), 324–348. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481311320435 edvardsson, i.r. (2008). hrm and knowledge management. employee relations, 3(5), 553–561. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425450810888303 falola, h.o., osibanjo, a.o., & ojo, s.i. (2014). effectiveness of training and development on employees’ performance and organisation competitiveness in the nigerian banking industry. bulletin of the transilvania university of braşov, series volume – economic sciences, 7(56), 161–170. farrell, m.a. (2000). developing a market-oriented learning organisation. australian journal of management, 25(2), 201–221. https://doi.org/10.1177/031289620002500205 field, a. (2018). discovering statistics using ibm spss statistics (5th edn.). london: sage. fong, c., ooi, k., tan, b., lee, v., & chong, a. (2011). hrm practices and knowledge sharing: an empirical study. journal of manpower, 32(6), 704–723. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437721111158288 griffin, m.m., & steinbrecher, t.d. (2013). large-scale datasets in special education research. international review of research in developmental disabilities, 45, 155–181. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-407760-7.00004-9 grobler, a. (2016). person-organisational fit: a revised structural configuration. journal of applied business research, 32(5), 1419–1434. https://doi.org/10.19030/jabr.v32i5.9769 grobler, a., grobler, s., & mathafena, r. (2019). measurement of the perceptions of human resource practices in a seemingly collectivistic culture. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17, article 1069. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1069 guinot, j., chiva, r., & mallen, f. (2016). linking altruism and organizational learning capability: a study from excellent human resources management organizations in spain. journal of business ethics, 138, 349–364. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2603-7 han, t.s., chiang, h.h., & chang, a. (2010) employee participation in decision making, psychological ownership and knowledge sharing: mediating role of organizational commitment in taiwanese high-tech organizations. the international journal of human resource management, 21(12), 2218–2233. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2010.509625 hayes, a.f., & preacher, k.j. (2014). statistical mediation analysis with a multi-categorical independent variable. british journal of mathematical and statistical psychology, 67, 451–470. https://doi.org/10.1111/bmsp.12028 hsiao, w., chang, t., huang, m., & chen, y. (2011). selection criteria of recruitment for information systems employees: using the analytic hierarchy process (ahp) method. african journal of business management, 5(15), 6201–6209. hsieh, y.h., & chen, h.m. (2011). strategic fit among business competitive strategy, human resource strategy and reward system. academy of strategic management journal, 10(2), 11–32. iplik, f.n., kilic, k.c., & yalcin, a. (2011). the simultaneous effects of person organization and person job fit on turkish hotel managers. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 23(5), 644–661. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596111111143386 irawanto, d.w. (2015). employee participation in decision-making: evidence from a state-owned enterprise in indonesia. management, 20(1), 159–172. jerez-gómez, p., céspedes-lorente, j., & valle-cabrera, r. (2005). organizational learning and compensation strategies: evidence from the spanish chemical industry. human resource management, 44(3), 279–299. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20071 june, s., & mahmood, r. (2011). the relationship between role ambiguity, competency and person-job fit with the job performance of employees in the service sector smes in malaysia. business management dynamics, 1(2), 79–98. kalmuka, g., & acar, a.z. (2015). the mediating role of organizational learning capability on the relationship between innovation and firm’s performance: a conceptual framework. in c. zehir & e.e. özdemir (eds.), procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 4th international conference on leadership, technology, innovation and business management (vol. 210, pp. 164–169). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.11.355 kane, g.c., & alavi, m. (2007). information technology and organizational learning: an investigation of exploration and exploitation processes. organization science, 18(5), 796–812. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1070.0286 kane, l., & ashbaugh, a.r. (2017). simple and parallel mediation: a tutorial exploring anxiety sensitivity, sensation seeking, and gender. the quantitative methods for psychology, 13(3), 148–165. https://doi.org/10.20982/tqmp.13.3.p148 kehoe, r.r., & wright, p.m. (2013). the impact of high-performance human resource practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. journal of management, 39(2), 366–391. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310365901 kreiser, p.m., & davis, j. (2010). entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance: the unique impact of innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking. journal of small business & entrepreneurship, 23(1), 39–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/08276331.2010.10593472 kristof-brown, a.l. (2000). perceived applicant fit: distinguishing between recruiters’ perceptions of person-job and person-organization fit. personnel psychology, 53(3), 643–671. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2000.tb00217.x kuratko, d.f., hornsby, j.s., & covin, j.g. (2014). diagnosing a firm’s internal environment for corporate entrepreneurship. business horizons, 57(1), 37–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2013.08.009 kuyea, o.l., & sulaimonb, a.a. (2011). employee involvement in decision making and firms performance in the manufacturing sector in nigeria. serbian journal of management, 6(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.5937/sjm1101001k kwon, j., hewitt, a., & hein, p. (2013). employee benefits in a total rewards framework. benefits quarterly, 29(1), 32–38. leat, m., & el-kot, g. (2007). hrm practices in egypt: the influence of national context? the international journal of human resource management, 18(1), 147–158. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190601068557 leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2016). practical research: planning and design (11th edn.). boston, ma: pearson education. li, c., & hung, c. (2010). an examination of the mediating role of person job fit in relations between information literacy and work outcomes. journal of workplace learning, 22(5), 306–318. https://doi.org/10.1108/13665621011053217 liu, s.s., luo, x., & shi, y. (2002). integrating customer orientation, corporate entrepreneurship, and learning orientation in organizations-in-transition: an empirical study. international journal of research in marketing, 19(4), 367–382. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0167-8116(02)00098-8 lu, c., wang, h., lu, j., du, d., & bakker, a.b. (2014). does work engagement increase person–job fit? the role of job crafting and job insecurity. journal of vocational behavior, 84(2), 142–152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.12.004 martins, e.c., & terblanche, f. (2003). building organisational culture that stimulates creativity and innovation. european journal of innovation management, 6(1), 64–74. https://doi.org/10.1108/14601060310456337 mathews, p. (2006). the role of mentoring in promoting organizational competitiveness. competitiveness: review. international business journal, 16(2), 158–169. https://doi.org/10.1108/10595420610760743 miron, w., & hudson, d. (2014). enabling employee entrepreneurship in large technology firms. technology innovation management review, 4(2), 23–32. https://doi.org/10.22215/timreview/766 nafukho, f.m., graham, c.m., & muyia, m.h. (2009). determining the relationship among organizational learning dimensions of a small size business enterprise. journal of european industrial training, 33(1), 32–51. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090590910924360 niazi, a.s. (2011). training and development strategy and its role in organizational performance. journal of public administration and governance, 1(2), 42–57. https://doi.org/10.5296/jpag.v1i2.862 onağ, a.o., tepeci, m., & başalp, a.a. (2014). organizational learning capability and its impact on firm innovativeness. in m. özşahin (ed.), procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 10th international strategic management conference (vol. 150, pp. 708–717). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.09.029 pallant, j. (2016). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using spss program (6th edn.). london: mcgraw-hill education. riabacke, a. (2006). managerial decision making under risk and uncertainty. iaeng international journal of computer science, 32(4), 1–7. spicer, d.p., & sadler-smith, e. (2006). organizational learning in smaller manufacturing firms. international small business journal, 24(2), 133–158. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266242606061836 steiber, a., & alänge, s. (2013). a corporate system for continuous innovation: the case of google inc. european journal of innovation management, 16(2), 243–264. https://doi.org/10.1108/14601061311324566 suartha, n., & suprapti, n.w.s. (2016). entrepreneurship for students: the relationship between individual entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial intention. european journal of business and management, 8(11), 45–52. sung, s.y., & choi, j.n. (2014). do organizations spend wisely on employees? effects of training and development investments on learning and innovation in organizations. journal of organizational behavior, 35(3), 393–412. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1897 sutanto, e.m. (2017). the influence of organizational learning capability and organizational creativity on organizational innovation of universities in east java, indonesia. asia pacific management review, 22(3), 128–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmrv.2016.11.002 terziovski, m. (2001). the effects of continuous improvement and innovation management practice on small to medium enterprise (sme) performance. parkville: faculty of economics and commerce, the university of melbourne. pp. 1–22. tohidi, h., & jabbari, m.m. (2012). measuring organizational learning capability. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 31, 428–432. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.12.079 tsai, h., & luan, c. (2016). what makes firms embrace risks? a risk-taking capability perspective. business research quarterly, 19(3), 219–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brq.2016.01.002 urban, b. (2015). corporate entrepreneurship. in r. venter & b. urban (eds.), entrepreneurship theory in practice (3rd edn., pp. 512–547). cape town: oxford southern africa. wiklund, j., & shepherd, d.a. (2011). where to from here? eo-as-experimentation, failure, and distribution of outcomes. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 35(5), 925–946. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2011.00454.x abstract introduction research objectives method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) renjini m. joseph department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa adele thomas department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa penny abbott department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation joseph, r.m., thomas, a., & abbott, p. (2021). information technology competencies for entry-level human resource strategic partners. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1327. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1327 original research information technology competencies for entry-level human resource strategic partners renjini m. joseph, adele thomas, penny abbott received: 03 feb. 2020; accepted: 11 feb. 2021; published: 12 may 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: advances in information technology (it) have prompted the transition of the human resource management (hrm) function from being administrative to strategic. whilst it has been established that it has an important role in such a transition, it is not clear to what extent the development of it competencies would enable hrm professionals to be strategic. research purpose: the purpose of the article is to determine the it competencies that will enable entry-level south african hrm professionals to be strategic partners to business. motivation for the study: the findings of this study will contribute to the effective use of hr technology, thereby mitigating risk and enriching the role of the hr function in local organisations. the use of technology within the hrm function can be enhanced leading to improved data-driven people decisions. research approach, design and method: a quantitative research design using a cross-sectional survey was employed. data collected from 252 hr professionals were analysed using exploratory factor analysis (efa). multiple regression was used to establish the relationship between the identified factors and strategic business partnering. main findings: the results produced a three-factor model consisting of: (1) technologising employee processes, (2) processing data expertly and (3) translating external trends. these factors explained 34% of the variance in strategic business partnering. practical implications: the results of this study have implications for organisations with hrm functions and for higher education institutions (heis) offering hrm qualifications. organisations should utilise the identified competencies when hiring and developing entry-level strategic hrm business partners. higher education institutions should develop curriculum that would prepare graduates to be effective hrm professionals. contributions or value-add: this study adds to the limited research on it competencies required of hrm professionals to contribute as strategic business partners. keywords: human resource business partners; exploratory factor analysis; human resource graduate; human resource management; human resource education. introduction the human resource management (hrm) function has been evolving over the years and quite substantially during the last two decades, because of the rapid technological and related advances in the world of work (marler & fisher, 2013). the hrm profession also continues to evolve to accommodate changes both external and internal to the organisation (binuyo & brevis-landsberg, 2014; marler & fisher, 2013; samkarpad, 2013). specifically, the use of human resource (hr) technology has altered how hrm professionals address their functions, through the reduction of transactional costs, the increase of capacity and flexibility of hr information and the improvement of the reach and richness of such information (martin & reddington, 2010; nam, 2019). these changes imply that the hr professional need to understand hr technology. however, hr professionals have traditionally selected hrm as a career because it emphasises ‘people skills’ (heneman, 1999). competencies required to utilise hr technology effectively may differ from such traditional competencies expected of an hr professional. several competency frameworks have been developed to identify the new competencies that are required of hrm professionals (coetzer & sitlington, 2014; nam, 2019; suen & yang, 2013). however, these frameworks do not detail information technology (it) competencies, especially in relation to hr professionals’ ability to strategically partner with business (poba-nzaou, uwizeyemungu, & stanate, 2016; suen & yang, 2013). additionally, existing competency frameworks imply that each hr professional must exhibit a large number of competencies independently, which may be an onerous expectation (mamman & al kulaiby, 2014; ulrich, kryscynski, ulrich, brockbank, & slade, 2016). human resource professionals may play different roles within their organisation, depending on the organisational size, their seniority and other factors (banerjee, bandyopadhyay, & acharya, 2013). thus, competencies of hrm professionals may vary according to seniority. this study aims to identify it competencies that will enable entry-level south african hr professionals to be strategic partners to business. in a study in south africa, joseph (2019) identified it competencies that are expected of entry-level hr professionals through a delphi process incorporating the views of 25 local experts. this article extends the findings of the study to determine the importance of the various it competencies required of entry-level hrm professionals to be strategic business partners, which has also not been examined sufficiently in the literature. this study excludes competencies outside of the use of hr technology and information, which may be expected of such professionals because of the general evolution of hrm in organisations. theoretically, this study has roots in human capital theory, whereby people’s learning and learning capacities compare to other resources utilised in obtaining organisational success (nafukho, hairston, & brooks, 2004). thus, human capital theory attempts to clarify how education and training can be a form of investment in hrs. from the same perspective, education is viewed as deliberate ventures to prepare the labour force and increase productivity of both individuals and organisations (nafukho et al., 2004). thus, the identification of it competencies will guide the development of hrm curricula in higher education institutions (heis), which, in turn, will lead to better equipped present and future workplace-ready for hrm professionals. by improving the utilisation of hr information, such professionals will also support organisations in south africa by providing strategic solutions to business partners. furthermore, the identification of it competencies for entry-level hrm professionals will enable organisations to determine which skills sets professionals must bring to the organisation. research objectives the objectives of this study are: to establish the factors associated with it competencies that enable entry-level hrm professionals to be strategic partners to business to determine how the identified it competencies required of entry-level hr professionals relate to strategic business partnering. competencies and behavioural indicators competencies have been described as the knowledge, skills and attributes an individual should have to perform a particular task (mcclelland, 1973; mcevoy et al., 2005; younger, brockbank, & ulrich, 2012). competencies are also described as broad concepts that incorporate demonstrable performance outputs and behavioural inputs, and are variously categorised as behavioural or technical in nature (chartered institute of personnel and development [cipd], 2014). spencer and spencer (1993) describe competencies as underlying characteristics that have causal relationships to superior job or situational performance. for the purpose of this study, the description and categorisation offered by mcclelland (1973) is used. whilst mcclelland describes competencies as knowledge, skills and attributes, it may not be possible to identify a particular competency as knowledge, skill or attribute exclusively. in order for someone to display competence in a particular area, a combination of knowledge, skills and attributes relevant to a particular area must be exhibited. in such instances, isolating only the knowledge, skill or attribute associated with that area may be challenging. competencies, or behavioural indicators that comprise competencies, can be written either formatively or reflectively. reflective indicators enable an individual to reflect on whether a competency is indicated (brinckmann, 2007), whilst formative indicators enable an individual to improve at a selected competency. formative competencies pinpoint what indicators people must possess to be considered competent (brinckmann, 2007). in this study, competencies are described using formative behavioural indicators. human resource technology human resource technology encompasses the use of integrated software and hardware for automating various hr tasks in organisations (hawking, stein, & foster, 2004). human resource information can be extracted and applied to make strategic hr decisions (nagendra & deshpande, 2014). the use of technology reduces administrative load, allowing hr professionals to focus on their strategic role. furthermore, improved hr information analysis heightens the strategic contribution that the hr function could make to organisational success (kovach, hughes, fagan, & maggitti, 2002). the use of hr information systems (hriss) is viewed as an opportunity for organisations to ensure that their hr function participates more in the operations of the organisation (barrett & oborn, 2013; sadiq, khan, & ikhlaq, 2012; stone & deadrick, 2015). whilst some organisations use hriss to reduce costs and to facilitate improved communication, others use such systems to re-orient hr operations which, in turn, improves the strategic contribution of the hr function (sadiq et al., 2012; zhang & wang, 2006). the use of hr technology can highlight areas of hr risk. proper monitoring and analysis of hr information can prompt hr professionals to take actions to minimise negative risk and maximise positive risk (farndale, paauwe, & boselie, 2010). contrarily, by not using hr information, hr professionals potentially expose themselves and their organisations to different forms of risk. paul and mitlacher (2008) argue that strategy-oriented hr risk systems can facilitate the transition of the hr function towards being more professional and strategic. amidst all the research related to the role of technology in the hr function and its ability to contribute strategically, the competencies of the hr professionals interacting with these hriss are seldom discussed (poba-nzaou et al., 2016). studies indicate that, in many organisations, hriss are used in such a way that it supports the administrative role, rather than the strategic role played by the hr function (barrett & oborn, 2013; sadiq et al., 2012). thus, the inability of hr functions to transition from administrative to strategic contributors may be because hr professionals may not have the competencies to work with hriss or the data obtained through such systems (ulrich, younger, brockbank, & ulrich, 2013). strategic business partnering at a basic level, strategic hr business partners are expected to concentrate on business as opposed to focusing only on employees (ulrich, 2013). according to colbert (2004), strategic hrm originates from two foundational assertions. firstly, the hrs of an organisation are of strategic importance to the organisation’s success in formulating and implementing strategy. the second assertion is that organisational hrm practices contribute to the development of strategic capability within its hrs pools. thus, strategic hrm is closely affiliated to the resource-based view of competitive advantage in the organisation’s resource base (colbert, 2004). thus, organisations need to study and optimise hrm practices and the use of technology in doing so, in order to develop its strategic capability. human resource professionals are now expected to do more than they used to, because with the strategic orientation of the function, hr professionals are now looked to for organisational design and systems, as well as their change management expertise (ramlall, 2006). however, typically, organisational management and employees view hrm as a support function and a cost centre, which primarily focuses on employees, as opposed to contributing to formulate and implement strategy (kryscynski, reeves, stice-lusvardi, ulrich, & russell, 2018; lawler & mohrman, 2003). strategic hr business partners, however, should be able to identify talent, recognise critical positions and plan for development and succession (hutcheson, 2004). this implies that although organisations would like to be strategic about managing their people, they may not be suitably prepared. use of information technology in strategic human resource management a study conducted by ankrah and sokro (2012) in ghana concluded that the use of hris in organisations leads to improved strategic decision-making. using hris improves the quality of information, which enables fact-based decision-making in the hr function, which, in turn, leads to a greater commitment to employee development in organisations. although the study established that the use of an hris leads to operational savings in terms of cost and time (ankrah & sokro, 2012), the authors note that organisations must carefully consider hris planning, implementation and longevity, if they are to maximise their return on investment. haines and lafleur (2008) note that hr functions are information intensive. there are studies that report on the positive impact it and hr practices have had on firms’ performance (huselid, 2018). the transformation of the hr function has been credited to the availability of it and its use in streamlining and improving the efficiency of core and administrative services. furthermore, with enterprise resource planning, the hr function can improve its efficiency and become more involved, strategically speaking, in the organisation. contradicting the findings of the studies mentioned above, research by quinn and brockbank (2006) found that the effect of hr technology on business performance is not strategically significant. this implies that hr technology is not crucial, unless it can be linked to business performance. quinn and brockbank (2006) indicate that there may thus not be a need for complex technology, intricate service delivery and design models, or rigorous data analysis systems within hr functions. the abovementioned contradictions also suggest that the utilisation of technology for strategic purposes may not depend on the technology itself, but possibly the competence of hr professionals in using the technology available to them. this view is strengthened by the fact that employees without hr qualifications are being employed in the hrm function (bondarouk & ruël, 2013), although heneman (1999) remarks that it is the combination of people and analytical competencies that makes for a value-adding hrm professional. organisations may have limited choice related to such appointments, as many hr qualifications do not develop these competencies. such non-hr appointments damage the credibility of the profession, heightening calls to identify what competencies hrm professionals should have, and what technological competencies they need in particular. information technology competencies the introduction of hr technology implies that hrm professionals have access to more detailed employment indicators, which should enable them to better forecast labour trends and hiring needs. this change in itself indicates a need to revisit hrm professionals’ competencies (schramm, 2006). furthermore, understanding technology enables hrm professionals to speak the language of business, as technology is embedded in almost every aspect of business (schramm, 2006). a sound grasp of technology will enable hrm professionals to collaborate, organise work, build teams and develop new knowledge and skills, which can help create organisational and human capital. most importantly, hrm processes can be streamlined with the use of technology to free up resources to make a strategic contribution to the business (schramm, 2006). johnson and king (2002) point out that it is critical to evaluate whether the educational qualifications developed for the profession to sufficiently prepare graduates with the required competencies, especially given the number of changes hrm has undergone. managing hr technology systems is complex, and therefore, hrm professionals with strong it competencies will be in demand for some time to come (marler & parry, 2016). leading companies expect entry-level hrm professionals to be strategic business partners who can align themselves with other business functions, in order for the organisation to achieve success (johnson & king, 2002). if technology causes fundamental changes to the hrm function, then these must also be reflected in hrm-related education (hempel, 2004). these concerns were noted in the early 2000s and considering that hr education has not evolved to accommodate these considerations, the hr profession faces the risk of not transforming itself fast enough to adjust to the changes in the larger global economy. by contrast, as reported by johnson and king (2002), whilst traditional hr and industrial relations (irs) competencies are incorporated into curricula, there is little intent to develop business-aligned competencies. if hrm students are not taught basic it competencies at the university level, a great deal of time and resources will have to be invested to make those graduates effective in the workplace (autor, 2015). additionally, organisations may not be willing to invest in what they perceive to be a support function (mondore, douthitt, & carson, 2011). addressing technology in professional education, and not just as an ‘add-on’ training course, will facilitate the development of an hr graduate who would expedite the transition of the role of the hr professional from administrative to more strategic (lawler, levenson, & boudreau, 2004). relatively few publications focus on the it competencies hrm professionals require. although a variety of competency frameworks have been developed to enable these professionals to become more strategic (caldwell, 2008; cohen, 2015; lee & yu, 2013; thite, budhwar, &wilkinson, 2014; younger et al., 2012), only a few appear to be pertinent to the area of it competencies (joseph, 2019; poba-nzaou et al., 2016; schramm, 2006). whilst all these competency frameworks suggest that it competencies are necessary for hrm professionals to be strategic, only a few publications in this field describe what these actually entail. whilst the impact of it on the hrm function and its services to the organisation is studied both conceptually and empirically, the literature on it competencies has been predominantly conceptual (hempel, 2004; schramm, 2006). an empirical study in the area used competencies identified in the literature (both in the it and hr fields), but the sample used in that instance was limited, consisting only of working students (poba-nzaou et al., 2016). the study also did not take into consideration the various levels of experience, which hrm professionals have. thus, this study aims to determine the it competencies that will enable entry-level hrm professionals to be strategic partners to business, and the extent to which these it competencies enable strategic partnering. method research design, setting and respondents the study used a quantitative research approach and is cross-sectional in nature. a survey incorporating the competencies identified in the study by joseph (2019) was pilot-tested and subsequently distributed to more than 2500 hrm professionals to determine the extent to which they thought that the identified competencies will enable entry-level hrm professionals to be strategic partners to business. the questionnaire included 27 it competencies, incorporating 45 behavioural indicators (joseph, 2019). the respondents needed to have at least a year of experience in the field of hrm to determine the importance of it competencies and their relationship with strategic business partnering. therefore, hr professionals with at least 1 year of experience, with varied educational backgrounds and from different sectors, were chosen as respondents. volunteer sampling was used, as the respondents were self-selected. two forms of questionnaire design were used, namely a delivery-and-collection questionnaire and a web questionnaire. out of the 339 responses that were collected, 252 were utilisable. the target population of the study were hrm professionals. the sample consisted of 66% women and 34% men. a total of 43.7% of the respondents had postgraduate qualifications, whilst 54.3% had a degree or diploma and 2% had matric qualifications. a total of 86.1% of respondents have either completed or are currently pursuing an hr qualification. and 70.2% of the respondents had more than 8 years of experience, with an additional 16.3% having between 5 and 8 years of experience. a total of 5.6% of respondents had below 3 years of experience. all results were reported with integrity and objectivity. respondents were made aware of the purpose of the study. all respondents gave their consent before participating in the survey. participation was voluntary and respondents could withdraw from the study at any time. privacy was maintained by keeping all responses private and secure. all participants’ information remained confidential. data analyses the statistical analysis methods included cronbach’s alpha coefficient, bartlett’s test of sphericity, the kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy, catell’s scree test, parallel analysis and exploratory factor analysis (efa) using maximum likelihood and promax rotation. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient was measured to test reliability, associated with the accuracy and precision of a measuring instrument (suhr & shay, 2009). testing the reliability of the questionnaire used in this study also helped determine the relationships between the various items, which was the second purpose of testing the reliability. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient scores of all categories were in the acceptable range of 0.70–0.95 (cohen, manion, & morrison, 2013), which implies that the survey items were strongly correlated. thus, the items were considered for further analysis and interpretation, as the internal consistency was high enough to be deemed reliable. further, the researcher used efa to determine whether a factor, or several factors, could summarise the larger set of items, and to explore the interrelationships amongst the various items. exploratory factor analysis is appropriate to explore the main dimensions that enable the generation of a theory or model from a relatively large set of latent constructs (suhr, 2006). tabachnick and fidell (2007) suggest that the sample size must be greater than five times the number of items, if a sample is to be considered suitable for factor analysis. considering that there were 36 items including demographic items, with a sample size of 252, more than seven times the number of items, the sample size was deemed suitable for factor analysis. the extraction technique used was maximum likelihood factoring (pallant, 2016), which is considered the best choice when data are relatively normally distributed (costello & osborne, 2005). bartlett’s test of sphericity and the kmo measure of sampling adequacy were considered to assess the factorability of the data. bartlett’s test should be statistically significant at p < 0.05, and the kmo measure should have a value of 0.6 or above (pallant, 2016; tabachnick & fidell, 2007). the p value for bartlett’s test was lower than 0.05. furthermore, the kmo value was higher than 0.60. thus, efa was considered appropriate for the next step in the analysis. following factor analysis, the researcher examined the variables that could be attributed to each factor and gave the factor a name or theme. such labelling is considered subjective, theoretical and inductive in nature (williams, brown, & onsman, 2010). the factors identified during this phase explained most of the responses. the results of the online survey and the development of the factors of the proposed it competencies were based on the findings of the efa. the data generated from the survey responses were sufficient, reliable and valid. furthermore, the researcher used multiple regression to test the relationship between the identified it competencies and strategic business partnering. the assumptions of linearity and ‘no multicollinearity’ were met. ethical considerations the college of business economics research ethics committee approved ethical clearance for this study on 04 may 2016 with the ethical clearance number: ippm-2017-168 (d). results categorising the identified competencies the parallel analysis suggested three factors. furthermore, based on the scree test (used to assist in decisions regarding the number of factors), three factors were retained for further investigation. the three factors identified had initial eigenvalues exceeding 1. the initial factors explain 44.0%, 7.6% and 5.3% of the variance, respectively, which is 57% of the variance in total. on inspecting the associated scree plot, a break was seen after the third factor. therefore, using the scree test, three factors were retained for further investigation. table 1 depicts the pattern matrix that indicates oblique rotation and the factor loadings of the various items. the communalities of all items are above 0.3. table 1: pattern matrix and communalities. factor 1: technologising employee processes in examining the items that grouped within the first factor and their relationships, the first factor was collectively named ‘technologising employee processes’ – as it captures the various behavioural indicators that group within this factor into a larger component. the highest item loaded at 0.917 and the lowest at 0.336. thus, the factor showed a number of strong loadings and all items loaded strongly on factor 1. none of the items were dropped, as none of them had low loadings. moreover, the purpose of the efa was not to remove items, but to categorise them. the factor entitled ‘technologising employee processes’ had a high cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.954) and the mean inter-item correlation was 0.509, indicating that the factor has high internal consistency. factor 2: processing data expertly on analysing the relationships amongst the items that grouped within the second factor, the factor was labelled ‘processing data expertly’. the name of this factor is a representation of the various behavioural indicators that cluster within this factor. the factor showed a number of strong loadings and all items loaded strongly on factor 2. the highest item loaded at 0.815 and the lowest item loaded at 0.389. once again, none of the items were dropped. the factor entitled ‘processing data expertly’ has a high cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.898) and the mean inter-item correlation was 0.406, which imply that the factor has high internal consistency. factor 3: translating external trends finally, three items clustered to form a third factor. the relationships amongst the items that group within this third factor were analysed to term this factor ‘translating external trends’. the factor name aptly characterises the behavioural indicators that cluster within this factor. the loading pattern indicates the highest item loading at 0.935 and the lowest loading at 0.568. all items loaded strongly on factor 3. this analysis indicates that the three items may be collapsed into one factor. none of the items were dropped. the factor entitled ‘translating external trends’ has a high cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.892) and the mean inter-item correlation was 0.732. thus, the three factors obtained through the efa were used to categorise the various identified it competencies. once the identified it competencies were categorised, the relationship between it competencies and strategic business partnering was investigated. relationship between information technology competencies and strategic business partnering multiple regression was used to determine the relationship between the identified it competency themes and strategic business partnering. for multiple regression to be used, various assumptions need to be met, and therefore, these were first tested. collinearity diagnostics was performed as part of the multiple regression procedure to identify any problems related to multicollinearity. the results are presented in table 2. table 2: extract from the coefficient table in multiple regression analysis. as the tolerance value was not less than 0.1 for any of the factors, the possibility of multicollinearity was rejected. variation inflation factor (vif) values below 5 also reject multicollinearity; thus, the assumption of multicollinearity was met in this model. an inspection of the normal probability plot (p-p) of the regression standardised residual and the scatterplot also revealed no major deviations from normality. one outlier was identified in the scatterplot. as the number of outliers was small, when compared to the sample, no action was deemed necessary. the mahalanobis distances produced by the multiple regression programmes were also inspected to check for outliers. the critical value of the mahalanobis distance for two independent variables was 13.82 (tabachnick & fidell, 2007). on analysing the mahalanobis distance of all the cases, only one case had a high value (14.055). considering that there was only one outlier, it was decided not to remove the case for further analysis. furthermore, it was identified that no items had a cook’s distance of more than 1. in fact, the highest cook’s distance was 0.128, indicating that no single case had any undue influence on the results of the model as a whole. the correlations between the various factors are provided in table 3. table 3: correlations between identified factors and strategic business partnering. all independent variables showed a correlation coefficient higher than 0.3. factor 1 and factor 2, namely technologising employee processes and processing data expertly, correlated substantially with strategic business partnering (r = 0.582 and r = 0.467, respectively). the analysis of variance (anova) table, as shown in table 4, indicates that the model reached statistical significance. table 4: analysis of variance table for the multiple regression analysis. a multiple linear regression was calculated to predict strategic business partnering based on technologising employee processes (factor 1), processing data expertly (factor 2) and translating external trends (factor 3). expressed as a percentage, the three identified factors explained 34.0% of the variance in strategic business partnering, as indicated in table 5. table 5: model summary table for the multiple regression analysis. to compare the extent to which each of the factors contributed to the prediction of strategic business partnering, the standardised beta values in table 2 were used. the largest beta coefficient was associated with factor 1, which implies that the factor makes a unique contribution towards explaining strategic business partnering, when the variance explained by the other factors in the model is controlled for. the beta values for factors 2 and 3 were much lower, indicating a contribution to strategic business partnering, although less than factor 1. table 2 also indicates that factor 1 made a statistically significant unique contribution to the equation. the statistically significant values of both the other factors were high, which can possibly be explained by the overlap amongst the independent variables. to summarise, the results of the multiple regression analysis indicated that the three factors collectively explained 34% of the variance in strategic business partnering. additionally, all three factors correlated strongly with strategic business partnering. the first, technologising employee processes, was particularly significant. discussion outline of the results the survey was utilised to identify the combination of the it competencies that would most closely relate with strategic business partnering. the first competency category, which requires entry-level hrm professionals to technologise employee processes, refers to them designing systems, running processes and using technology with the intention of providing strategic outputs to business. this particular factor features competencies related to business process and leveraging technology. thus, understanding business processes and leveraging technology are deemed necessary for entry-level hrm professionals if they are to be strategic partners to business. the second competency category, processing data expertly, also links quite strongly with strategic partnering. without data, there is no way of strategically partnering with business. data are the instruments through which strategic partnerships can be strengthened. even in this factor, there are some competencies that can be considered business process competencies. with reference to the third competency category, awareness and use of social media enable entry-level hrm professionals to adapt quickly to trends, making the information they provide relevant and effective. the combination of the three factors explains more than a third of the variance in strategic business partnering, which is considered to be significant. factor 1: technologising employee processes the first factor, entitled ‘technologising employee processes’, refers to the entry-level hrm professional being the intercessor or link between technology and the people processes in the organisation. the literature supports this finding, in that hrm professionals must be comfortable with hr technology from the onset (hussain & prowse, 2004; quinn & brockbank, 2006). human resource it is widely used and is important for the daily operations of hrm functions (hussain & prowse, 2004). whilst the use of it in hr enables increased efficiency, effectiveness and integration, hussain and prowse (2004) note that early use of hr it is almost always for operational purposes. the findings of this study imply that the operational management of hr it systems may be something entry-level hrm professionals should be doing. pretorius (2009) states that how the hrm function is performed and managed in an organisation must be radically changed before technology can empower that function. pretorius (2009) further suggests that the competitive advantage that good hr technology provides is the information it produces, which then affects the quality of decisions. there are contrasting views about the importance of technology for the hrm function. selmer and chiu (2004), in identifying competencies, only mention technology under the ‘innovation’ role that the hrm executive may perform, but they do not refer to hrm technology in their discussion of that role. in most competency frameworks, hr processes and technology are some of the last competencies to be included, being least correlated with hr success. however, this study suggests that unless hr technological competencies are valued appropriately, some higher order competencies (such as strategic business partnering, change and innovation) may not be of much value within the hrm function. so, whilst these competencies may not be important for hr executives, they are vital for entry-level hrm professionals. this assertion is supported by the fact that this factor makes the strongest unique contribution to strategic business partnering competencies for entry-level hrm professionals. factor 2: processing data expertly the second identified factor was named ‘processing data expertly’. most of the competencies clustered within this factor refer to data processing, analysis and management. the literature backs the finding that the competencies identified in this category are important for hrm professionals (farndale et al., 2010). for farndale et al. (2010), the hrm functions in multinational corporations focus on their administrative processes, strongly emphasising data and metrics. several studies support the need for analytical abilities in hrm professionals. there is, however, also an argument that data analytics is not an hrm professional’s job (isson & harriott, 2016), but it has been identified that a basic understanding of data processing will be helpful (kryscynski et al., 2018). some argue that data analytics competencies are not necessarily it competencies, as data are products of it. nevertheless, in this study, it was identified that factors 1 and 2 were highly correlated. thus, data-processing competencies are considered it competencies for the purposes of this study. for data to be accurate, there must be a clear link between people, processes and technology. in other words, having this competency category is not sufficient – it is not stand-alone. in fact, in many instances, organisations have poor data. human resource management professionals do not know how to fix data or how to process them, even if the processes are fine. this mutual dependence explains the high correlation between these categories. the findings of this study support the idea that entry-level hrm professionals must not only be comfortable with data, but must also be experts at processing, and not necessarily analysing, data. the findings further imply that the analysis may happen at a senior level, but entry-level hrm professionals must understand the basics, so that they can collect and process data in order for analysis at senior levels to be effective. factor 3: translating external trends the third factor identified refers to external trends. kryscynski et al. (2018) agree that hr professionals who identify important trends create more value for the business. appreciating external trends enables hrm professionals to understand how such trends can assist the organisation in meeting its needs. for example, when flexible working grew as a concept, an hrm professional who understood the trend would have prepared policies, processes and systems to accommodate this, giving employees an opportunity to do flexi work. the quicker the adaptation, the more strategic the contribution the hrm professional can make to the organisation. also, this factor included social media competencies and an awareness of trends and new products in technology. in this study, it was identified that this factor makes only a limited contribution to strategic business partnering. boudreau (2014) and poba-nzaou et al. (2016) interpret the identified competencies in their respective studies as not sufficient for strategic business partnering. the competencies that cluster within this factor are thus recognised to not be strategic in isolation, but are beneficial to strategic business partnering, if exhibited by entry-level hrm professionals. furthermore, these findings are in line with the point made by boudreau (2014) that hrm functions are not at the forefront of addressing organisational dilemmas or external trends. an hrm professional who can interpret external trends can strategically advise on the impact that recent phenomena such as globalisation and the fourth industrial revolution can have on the employees and potential employees of an organisation. the competencies that hrm professionals possess in relation to linking employee processes to technology and data processing will also enable them to make decisions related to various trends, and to report back on the success of any associated initiatives. ignoring these competencies and being unable to scope out external trends can pose a threat to the organisation as a whole and to the hrm function in particular, preventing the entity from being able to respond to such trends (phelps, 2010). thus, interpreting external trends is a necessary it competency for any entry-level hrm professional. the results of this study suggest that the identified it competencies correlate significantly with strategic business partnering. a limited number of studies have linked it competencies and strategic business partnering. uti (2016) discusses that being a technology proponent is significantly but weakly correlated with the strategic partnering role of hrm professionals. being a technology proponent had one of the weaker correlations when compared to other competency areas – the pearson’s correlation coefficient value was only 0.304. notably, most other studies found that the use of it in hrm can increase its strategic contribution (barrett & oborn, 2013; bondarouk & ruël, 2013; martin & reddington, 2010), but few studies have linked it competencies with strategic business partnering (uti, 2016). uti’s (2016) findings, in association with the findings of this study, can be interpreted in several ways. one perspective is that being a technology proponent is considered important for entry-level hrm professionals. when considering the other competencies expected of senior hrm professionals (being a strategic positioner, a change champion and an hr innovator), the competencies associated with a technology proponent may become less significant. entry-level hrm professionals can, however, exhibit these competencies, thus making their contributions strategic and enabling them to play an important and necessary role in both the hrm function and the organisation. hussain and prowse (2004) also suggest that each set of hrm professionals uses hr it differently. thus, whilst senior hrm professionals may support the use of technology for organisational processes, entry-level hrm professionals should focus on technologising employee processes and ensuring that the data obtained through various it systems are useable. secondly, there may be a specific need for it competencies amongst hrm professionals specifically in south african industries. thus, the findings of this study suggest that south african entry-level hrm professionals have to focus on the technical aspects of business processes and data analysis, for several reasons: firstly, it affords them an opportunity to understand the business and to grapple with the intricacies of people processes. secondly, it positions them as contributors to the overall hr strategy of the organisation. also, through the effective use of technology, they can arrive at a detailed understanding of the administrative processes within the organisation, and of how the organisation functions. another reason for focusing on it competencies and associated expertise is that becoming proficient should make them more effective as senior hrm professionals later on in their careers. practical implications organisations may use the identified it competencies to ensure that they hire the right entry-level hrm professional, especially if they would like their hrm function to contribute strategically to the organisation. human resource management professionals with analytical abilities show higher overall individual performance, creating greater value for both the external and internal stakeholders of the organisation (kryscynski et al., 2018). in some instances, hiring the right individual may not be sufficient. organisations might consider incorporating the identified competencies into their performance management processes. human resource technology organisations must also encourage the development of hr analytical skills at entry level. many organisations choose to purchase basic hr technology, as their hrm function may not have the capability to use advanced versions. thus, by developing the identified competencies in entry-level hrm professionals, both hr technology organisations and their clients can benefit. further, it is suggested that the identified it competencies be developed at the graduate level. the findings of this study indicate that hrm graduates do not need a complex or deep understanding of technology. it seems to be more important that entry-level hrm colleagues must be exposed to the use of technology in various hr processes, and to the management of the resulting data. they do not need to know highly sophisticated data-analysis techniques either, but should rather be exposed to more fundamental concepts pertaining to the processing of data, such that data can be used for rigorous decision making. furthermore, they must have a solid understanding of the hr functional processes and how it can be incorporated into existing processes. higher education institutions in south africa must expose hrm students to at least an hris or e-hrm application during their qualification. although this may be performed by introducing a stand-alone module in the curriculum, it is advisable that the e-hrm application be integrated into existing modules (jones & hoell, 2005). by appreciating the use of data for making decisions at university level, hrm graduates will be well prepared to manage it applications in the organisations in which they work. furthermore, it is suggested that hr-simulated environments be introduced at tertiary institutions, so that pre-graduates can become comfortable utilising technology. the development of the identified it competencies alone will by no means be sufficient to ensure that hrm practitioners are capable of serving as strategic partners to business. as this study identified, hrm graduates must also possess several non-it competencies. for example, abbott (2011) emphasises the need for such graduates to have an understanding of ethics, and of the socioeconomic context in which the country functions. limitations and recommendations for future research the current study did not take into consideration organisational factors such as the size, nature of the business and organisational culture, which fell outside of the scope of this undertaking. an investigation into the relationship between the identified it competencies and the various organisational factors will be useful for determining whether it competencies vary, depending on organisational factors such as those mentioned earlier. this study identified those it competencies that will enable entry-level hrm professionals to be strategic business partners. as hr technology can enable strategic partnering within the hrm function at all levels, it is recommended that the it competencies required of mid-level and senior hrm professionals be studied in detail. the study implies that competency categories may be interrelated. in this instance, business process and data analysis competencies were found to be highly correlated. this has implications for the way hrm work is distributed amongst various professionals, and the way hr technology is trained. thus, it is recommended that the correlation amongst various competency categories in diverse competency frameworks be studied further. such investigations can help to determine which competencies are complementary in nature. the identified it competencies can be utilised to develop curricula, as discussed previously. it would be of value to determine the role of the curriculum in delivering hrm graduates who can become strategic business partners. furthermore, as suggested, various instructional strategies can be employed to develop the it competencies identified here. a range of theoretical and practical activities and related outcomes can be utilised. it is important that such activities be evaluated from an educational perspective. in addition, the effectiveness of such strategies in developing entry-level hr strategic partners is an area for formal research and investigation. the use of technology in hrm qualifications is another area that must be closely scrutinised. using technology at different levels of complexity may develop diverse competencies in hrm graduates. it is recommended that the effects and outcomes of such use of technology be studied comprehensively. the assessment of the identified competencies is another area that might deliver interesting findings. conclusion the first objective of this study was to group the identified it competencies into specific categories. following the efa, the competencies clustered within three factors: technologising employee processes, processing data expertly and translating external trends. thus, the broader it competency groups were identified. the evidence from this study suggests that entry-level hrm professionals are expected to focus on internal hr processes, as well as day-to-day operational activities. as the results show, they can contribute to strategic business partnering to a moderate extent. in other words, by focusing on their functional and operational roles, they will be able to contribute as strategic business partners. the second objective of this study was to determine how it competencies required of entry-level hr professionals relate to strategic business partnering. the relationships between the identified it competencies and strategic business partnering were identified through the multiple regression analyses. it was found that the identified it competencies explained 34% of the variance in strategic business partnering – a considerable proportion. thus, the study showed that the identified it competencies explained a significant amount of variance in strategic business partnering, which means that the identified it competencies are necessary for entry-level hrm professionals who wish to contribute by serving as strategic business partners. before attempting to use people data to contribute strategically to an organisation, the hrm professionals working within this function must be sure about the quality, consistency, accuracy and integrity of that data. without confidence in the collected data, making an effective strategic contribution may be difficult. the entry-level hrm professional may be crucial in ensuring that the data obtained can be utilised strategically. the competencies identified here indicate that if junior hrm professionals focus on technologising hr business processes and are capable of processing data proficiently, with an awareness of how to translate external technological trends, they can contribute to strategic business partnering to a large extent. higher education institutions, corporate organisations and professional bodies have a role to play in ensuring that an effective entry-level hrm professional is developed and supported. if this is performed, data-driven and strategic hrm can aid the function in addressing the future challenges facing the world of work. industrial revolutions not only influence the way business operates, but also the operations of organisational functions, work psychology and organisational culture. this study signals that a new intellect is required of the hrm professional, if businesses seek to be equipped for the fourth industrial revolution. with a process-orientated perspective and an analytical outlook, and without disregarding its foundation of employee advocacy, the hrm function can evolve to facilitate how organisations navigate the fourth industrial revolution. acknowledgements the results discussed in this article are part of a larger study performed to fulfil the requirements of a doctoral qualification. r.m.j. was the doctoral candidate and a.t. and p.a. were her study guides. a special word of gratitude to prof. brandon morgan is conveyed for his assistance with the data analyses. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions r.m.j. designed the study under the supervision of a.t. and p.a., r.m.j. conducted the research and was the main writer of the manuscript. a.t. and p.a. contributed to the analyses of results and writing of the manuscript. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abbott, p. (2011). human resources management in the south african socio-economic context. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. ankrah, e., & sokro, e. (2012). human resource information system as a strategic tool in human resource management. problems of management in the 21st century, 5, 6–15. autor, d.h. (2015). why are there still so many jobs? the history and future of workplace automation. journal of economic perspectives, 29(3), 3–30. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.29.3.3 banerjee, a., bandyopadhyay, t., & acharya, p. (2013). data analytics: hyped up aspirations or true potential? vikalpa, 38(4), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1177/0256090920130401 barrett, m., & oborn, e. (2013). envisioning e-hrm and strategic hr: taking seriously identity, innovative practice, and service. journal of strategic information systems, 22(3), 252–256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2013.07.002 binuyo, a.o., & brevis-landsberg, t. (2014). does information and communication technologies contribute to organization performance? evidence from nigerian universities. problems and perspectives in management, 12(1), 152–160. retrieved from http://0-search.ebscohost.com.ujlink.uj.ac.za/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ecn&an=1444659&site=ehost-live&scope=site bondarouk, t., & ruël, h. (2013). the strategic value of e-hrm: results from an exploratory study in a governmental organization. the international journal of human resource management, 24(2), 391–414. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.675142 boudreau, j.w. (2014). will hr’s grasp match its reach? an estimable profession grown complacent and outpaced. organizational dynamics, 43(3), 189–197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2014.08.005 brinckmann, j. (2007). competence of top management teams and success of new technology-based firms. frankfurt: die deutsche nationalbibliothek. retrieved from https://books.google.co.za/books?id=wizyucqnzbmc&pg=pa173&lpg=pa173&dq=reflective+and+formative+indicators+competency&source=bl&ots=7yyevqqj7y&sig=acfu3u36f_wrpgcdhcq63g32l9uwrt8gpw&hl=en&sa=x&ved=2ahukewienup8pz_hahxcthuihvsecrgq6aewbhoecagqaq#v=onepage& caldwell, r. (2008). hr business partner competency models: re-contextualising effectiveness. human resource management journal, 18(3), 275–294. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2008.00071.x chartered institute of personnel and development (cipd). (2014). competence and competency frameworks – factsheets – cipd. retrieved from http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/competence-competency-frameworks.aspx coetzer, a., & sitlington, h. (2014). what knowledge, skills and attitudes should strategic hrm students acquire? a delphi study. asia pacific journal of human resources, 52(2), 155–172. https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7941.12008 cohen, d.j. (2015). hr past, present and future: a call for consistent practices and a focus on competencies. human resource management review, 25(2), 205–215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.01.006 cohen, l., manion, l., & morrison, k. (2013). validity and reliability. research methods in education. colbert, b.a. (2004). the complex resource-based view: implications for theory and practice in strategic human resource management. academy of management review, 29(3), 341–358. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2004.13670987 costello, a.b., & osborne, j.w. (2005). best practices in exploratory factor analysis: four recommendations for getting the most from your analysis. practical assessment, research & evaluation, 10(7), 1–9. farndale, e., paauwe, j., & boselie, p. (2010). an exploratory study of governance in the intra-firm human resources supply chain. human resource management, 49(5), 849–868. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20387 haines, iii, v.y., & lafleur, g. (2008). information technology usage and human resource roles and effectiveness. human resource management, 47(3), 525–540. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20230 hawking, p., stein, a., & foster, s. (2004). e-hr and employee self service : a case study of a victorian public sector organisation. journal of issues in informing science and information technology, 1, 1019–1026. https://doi.org/10.28945/2757 hempel, p.s. (2004). preparing the hr profession for technology and information work. human resource management: published in cooperation with the school of business administration, the university of michigan and in alliance with the society of human resources management, 43(2–3), 163–177. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20013 heneman, r.l. (1999). emphasizing analytical skills in hr graduate education: the ohio state university mlhr program. human resource management, 38(2), 131–134. huselid, m.a. (2018). the science and practice of workforce analytics: introduction to the hrm special issue. human resource management, 57(3), 679–684. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21916 hussain, z., & prowse, p. (2004). human resource information systems (hris) as means of fulfilling job roles more professionally for human resource (hr) managers (no. 04/07). bradford: university school of management. https://doi.org/10.1.1.199.1721 hutcheson, j. (2004). from black sheep to aspiring business partner: hr’s turnaround at delaware investments. journal of organizational excellence, 23(3), 33–43. https://doi.org/10.1002/npr.20014 isson, j.p., & harriott, j.s. (2016). people analytics in the era of big data. hoboken, nj: wiley. johnson, c.d., & king, j. (2002). are we properly training future hr/ir practitioners? a review of the curricula. human resource management review, 12(4), 539–554. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(02)00076-1 jones, w.j., & hoell, r.c. (2005). human resource information system courses : an examination of instructional methods. journal of information systems education, 16(3), 321–328. joseph, r.m. (2019). an information technology competency framework for entry level human resource strategic partners [unpublished doctoral thesis]. university of johannesburg. kovach, k.a.k., hughes, a.a.a., fagan, p., & maggitti, p.g. (2002). administrative and strategic advantages of hris. employment relations today, 29(2), 43–48. https://doi.org/10.1002/ert.10039 kryscynski, d., reeves, c., stice-lusvardi, r., ulrich, m., & russell, g. (2018). analytical abilities and the performance of hr professionals. human resource management, 57(3), 715–738. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21854 lawler, iii, e.e., levenson, a., & boudreau, j.w. (2004). hr metrics and analytics: use and impact. human resource planning, 27(4), 27–36. lawler, iii, e.e., & mohrman, s.a. (2003). hr as a strategic partner: what does it take to make it happen? human resource planning, 26(3), 15–29. retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&an=10964093&site=eds-live lee, e., & yu, k.s. (2013). how are global hr competency models evolving for the future? retrieved from http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/student/17/ mamman, a., & al kulaiby, k.z. (2014). is ulrich’s model useful in understanding hr practitioners’ roles in non-western developing countries? an exploratory investigation across private and public sector organizations in the sultanate kingdom of oman. international journal of human resource management, 25(20), 2811–2836. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2014.914053 marler, j.h., & fisher, s.l. (2013). an evidence-based review of e-hrm and strategic human resource management. human resource management review, 23(1), 18–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2012.06.002 marler, j.h., & parry, e. (2016). human resource management, strategic involvement and e-hrm technology. the international journal of human resource management, 27(19), 2233–2253. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1091980 martin, g., & reddington, m. (2010). theorising the links between e-hr and strategic hrm: a model, case illustration and reflections. the international journal of human resource management, 21(10), 1553–1574. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2010.500483 mcclelland, d. (1973). testing for competence rather than for ‘intelligence’. american psychologist, 28(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0034092 mcevoy, g.m., hayton, j.c., warnick, a.p., mumford, t.v., hanks, s.h., & blahna, m.j. (2005). a competency-based model for developing human resource professionals. journal of management education, 29(3), 383–402. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562904267538 mondore, s., douthitt, s., & carson, m. (2011). maximizing the impact and effectiveness of hr analytics to drive business outcomes. people & strategy, 34(2), 20–27. retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=63165744&lang=de&site=ehost-live nafukho, f.m., hairston, n., & brooks, k. (2004). human capital theory: implications for human resource development. human resource development international, 7(4), 545–551. https://doi.org/10.1080/1367886042000299843 nagendra, a., & deshpande, m. (2014). human resource information systems (hris) in hr planning and development in mid to large sized organizations. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 133, 61–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.04.169 nam, t. (2019). technology usage, expected job sustainability, and perceived job insecurity. technological forecasting and social change, 138(july 2018), 155–165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2018.08.017 pallant, j. (2016). spss survival manual. a step by step buide to data analysis using ibm spss (6th edn.). new york, ny: open university press. paul, c., & mitlacher, l. (2008). expanding risk management systems: human resources and german banks. strategic change, 17(1/2), 21–33. https://doi.org/10.1002/jsc.813 phelps, r. (2010). managing people in a changing world. human resource management key trends in human capital a global perspective 2010. pwc saratoga report, 1–43. poba-nzaou, p., uwizeyemungu, s., & stanate, a.n. (2016). empirically derived it competencies profiles for human resource managers: a working hr student’s perspective. journal of higher education theory and practice, 16(2), 11–30. pretorius, o. (2009). hr technology, creating more noise or the flywheel for transformation? in global hr summit, 1–21. quinn, r.w., & brockbank, w. (2006). the development of strategic human resource professionals at bae systems. human resource management, 45(3), 477–494. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20120 ramlall, s.j. (2006). identifying and understanding hr competencies and their relationship to organizational practices. applied h.r.m. research, 11(1), 27–38. https://doi.org/psychologicalscience sadiq, u., khan, a.f., & ikhlaq, k. (2012). the impact of information systems on the performance of human resources department. journal of business studies quarterly, 3(4), 77–91. samkarpad, s. (2013). status of human resource information systems (hris) in universities and affiliated colleges in hyderabad. the iup journal of organizational behaviour, 12(2), 20–42. retrieved from http://ssrn.com/abstract=2278048 schramm, j. (2006). hr technology competencies: new roles for hr professionals. 2006 shrm research quarterly, 1–11. selmer, j., & chiu, r. (2004). required human resources competencies in the future: a framework for developing hr executives in hong kong. journal of world business, 39(4), 324–336. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2004.08.001 spencer, l.m., & spencer, s.m. (1993). competence at work: models for superior performance. new york, ny: wiley. stone, d.l., & deadrick, d.l. (2015). challenges and opportunities affecting the future of human resource management. human resource management review, 25(2), 139–145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.01.003 suen, h.-y., & yang, j.-m. (2013). hr professionalism in the computing environment: predicting job performance within different hr roles. international management review, 9(1), 19–32. suhr, d. (2006). exploratory or confirmatory factor analysis? statistics and data analysis, 200(31). https://doi.org/10.1002/da.20406 suhr, d., & shay, m. (2009). guidelines for reliability , confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis. in conference proceedings of the westerns users of sas software, 1–15. tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2007). using multivariate statistics (7th edn.). boston, ma: pearson. thite, m., budhwar, p., & wilkinson, a. (2014). global hr roles and factors influencing their development: evidence from emerging indian it services multinationals. human resource management, 53(6), 921–946. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21621 ulrich, d. (2013). human resource champions: the next agenda for adding value and delivering results. boston, ma: harvard business press. ulrich, d., younger, j., brockbank, w., & ulrich, m. (2013). the state of the hr profession. human resource management, 52(3), 457–471. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21536 ulrich, m., kryscynski, d., ulrich, d., brockbank, w., & slade, j. (2016). 2016 hr competency model. in human resource competency conference (pp. 1–83). may 2016. michigan. uti, c.a. (2016). the mediating effect of strategic partner role in the relationship between human resource competencies and organizational performance in the nigerian banking sector. journal of marketing and management, 7(2), 77–94. williams, b., brown, t., & onsman, a. (2010). exploratory factor analysis : a five-step guide for novices. australasian journal of paramadicine, 8(3), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.33151/ajp.8.3.93 younger, j., brockbank, w., & ulrich, m. (2012). hr from the outside in: six competencies for the future of human resources. new york: mcgraw hill professional zhang, l., & wang, h. (2006). intelligent information processing in human resource management: an implementation case in china. expert systems, 23(5), 356–369. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0394.2006.00416.x abstract introduction research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) leigh a. zwaan department of personal and professional leadership, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa hpcsa, pretoria, south africa rica viljoen mandala consulting, johannesburg, south africa dorrian aiken integral coaching canada, ottawa, on, canada comensa, cape town, south africa time to think sa, cape town, south africa leadership development, university of stellenbosch business school, cape town, south africa citation zwaan, l.a., viljoen, r., & aiken, d. (2019). the role of neuroleadership in work engagement. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1172. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1172 original research the role of neuroleadership in work engagement leigh a. zwaan, rica viljoen, dorrian aiken received: 18 feb. 2019; accepted: 29 july 2019; published: 11 nov. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: research communicated in this article contributes to the fields of neuroleadership and work engagement, and explores the use of integral theory’s all quadrants all lines (aqal) four-quadrant model. it also applies the general method of theory-building research in applied disciplines. research purpose: the aim of this article is to determine the role that neuroleadership plays in improving work engagement. motivation for the study: human resource development lacks focus in theoretical research because of a lack of clarity of the connections between research and practice and a lack of interest in abstract theoretical issues (storberg-walker, 2006). recent technological advances providing an insight into the biological and physiological bases of social interaction have presented new information on being engaged at work. research approach/design and method: the researcher applied the general method of theory-building in applied disciplines to structure the qualitative research approach (lynham, 2002). main findings: findings deduced from the case study show how organisations apply work engagement. findings from meta-triangulation and bracketing present an engageinmind framework for neuroleadership and work engagement. overall findings confirmed that the engageinmind framework is relevant and can be applied. findings further include the review of the application in business and recommendations for improvement. practical/managerial implications: the insights derived from this research propose that neuroleadership improves work engagement through its psychological, neurobiological, sociological and organisational dimensions, as presented in the engageinmind framework. contribution/value-add: the engageinmind framework is the key contribution of this article. keywords: work engagement; neuroleadership; human resources; integral theory; the general method of theory-building; meta-triangulation; multi-paradigm; aqal four quadrants. introduction orientation understanding human consciousness and linking it to the physical functioning of our social brain contributes to the understanding of human motivation and assists organisations in creating and sustaining higher levels of motivation and engagement (badenhorst, 2015; brown & brüne, 2012; mobbs & mcfarland, 2010; viljoen-terblanche, 2009). although there is an increasing need for literature on work engagement, particularly linked to organisational performance, it has been noted that academic research lacks when compared to practitioner developments (robinson, perryman, & hayday, 2004). human resource development (hrd) specifically lacks focus in theoretical research because of an absence of clarity of the connections between research and practice, and a lack of interest in abstract theoretical issues (lynham, 2000; storberg-walker, 2006). recent technological advances providing insight into the biological and physiological bases of social interaction (badenhorst, 2015) have presented new information on being engaged at work. an integrated approach is therefore needed to explore work engagement while contributing to the hrd theoretical body of knowledge. this research sought to integrate various developments within neuroscience in the areas of leadership development (neuroleadership) and engagement as proposed by the general method of theory-building. the findings communicated in this article contribute to the field of hrd. this research explored the use of integral theory’s aqal four-quadrant model (wilber, 1997, 2000) and the application of the general method of theory-building research in applied disciplines (lynham, 2000, 2002). research purpose and objectives the research approach adopted was the general method of theory-building, a comprehensive theory-building method for applied discipline (lynham, 2002; nielsen, 2010), a case study approach and a qualitative research approach. when using the general method of theory-building, the researcher applies meta-triangulation, building theory from multiple paradigms (lewis & grimes, 1999). the researcher also applies an inductive, practitioner-based research to theory approach using a case study (rule & john, 2011). case study research investigates a real-life phenomenon in detail in its environmental context. the aim of this research was to determine the role of neuroleadership in improving work engagement. neuroleadership focusses on organisational and employee-related aspects on how the brain and its underlying neuronal processes influence employees and their leaders (ghadiri, habermacher, & peters, 2012; rock & cox, 2012). many definitions of work engagement exist. for the purpose of this article, the researcher refers to kahn’s (1990) definition of employees expressing themselves physically, cognitively, emotionally and mentally. to this end, the researcher considered: how work engagement had been applied and managed in organisations; what suitable integrative framework emerged from theory to integrate neuroleadership and work engagement; what are neuroleadership and work engagement integration points; how can the theories be placed into an integrated framework that allows for ease of reference and understanding; and to what extent will this integrated framework be accepted in business by senior human resource professionals? literature review most research into consciousness and behaviour, according to wilber (1997), has anchors in the physical brain, which, according to rock and schwartz (2006), is reshaping views of the field of organisational behaviour. work engagement constitutes an earlier term for describing employee engagement (dulagil, 2012) and these terms are often used interchangeably (nienaber & martins, 2016; schaufeli, 2013). kahn (1990) defined engagement as a state noted by the employment of the preferred self cognitively, affectively and physically when experiencing meaningfulness, safety and availability in work roles. given the cognitive, affective and physical link to engagement, there is, however, little integration of research on the brain and engagement. research on engagement focusses, according to rock and tang (2009), mostly on the degree to which engagement impacts organisational performance. the application of social cognitive neuroscience in the corporate environment marks a fundamental shift in the application of organisational knowledge about human beings (brown & brüne, 2012), so much so that the application of neuroscience in the organisation became a defined field in 2008, called neuroleadership (mobbs & mcfarland, 2010; ringleb, rock, & ancona, 2012). neuroleadership is essentially focussed on bringing the hard science to the social field of leadership (ringleb, rock, & acona, 2014). neuroleadership is about the application of neuroscience to leadership development, management training, change management, education, consulting and coaching (ghadiri et al., 2012; ringleb & rock, 2008). neuroleadership focusses on organisational and employee-related aspects and on how the brain and its underlying neuronal processes influence employees and their leaders (ghadiri et al., 2012). the field of neuroleadership aims at understanding how neuroscience can be applied to improve leadership practices, change management efforts, innovation, creativity and employee engagement (schaufenbuel, 2014). advances in the field of neuroscience added significantly to the understanding of leadership development (ghadiri et al., 2012; waldman, balthazard, & peterson, 2011). the manner in which the human brain can support leaders through synchronising the science of cognition and behaviour is now evident (kiefer & pulvermüller, 2012; ringleb et al., 2014). a neural basis is formed for social inferences about feelings, thoughts and intentions of others, allowing for understanding the impact of emotions on others and ourselves, and how that relates to our success and failure (kiefer & pulvermüller, 2012). neuroleadership’s organising framework is based on four dimensions, namely, decision-making and problem-solving, emotional regulation, collaboration and facilitating change (ringleb & rock, 2008). decision-making and problem-solving are focussed primarily on social decision-making in the realm of leadership development (lieberman & eisenberger, 2009; ringleb et al., 2014). emotional regulation within the context of leadership development is important as it affects decision-making (lieberman & eisenberger, 2009; ringleb et al., 2014). collaboration is critical within leadership as humans have a need to belong and tend to avoid social exclusion (lieberman & eisenberger, 2009; rock & cox, 2012). facilitating change is about changing habits, and changing habits is about changing neural pathways (duhigg, 2012; rock & tang, 2009). effective navigation in an organisation requires the cognitive, emotional and physical expression of employees (badenhorst, 2015; kahn, 1990; rock & tang, 2009). macey and schneider (2008) support a more inclusive view as they state that the field of work engagement is characterised by the absence of a dominant paradigm, which has resulted in a growing diversity of research theories and perspectives. instead of following a reductionist approach to work engagement, the focus is on the integration of theories towards a multi-paradigm framework. this will be performed by using an integral approach. according to wilber (1997), integral approaches are ways to integrate existing paradigms into an interrelated network known as meta-paradigms (wilber, 1997). in order to respond to the current world of work, organisations are using new technologies, changing structures, redesigning work and improving work processes (badenhorst, 2015; lawler, 2012). these changes have a significant impact on human resources and ways in which human resource functions should operate. abbott (2013) agrees that a key role of a human resource practitioner is that of employee champion or employee advocate. ulrich, younger, brockbank and ulrich (2013) stated that human resource practitioners should be equal partners that bring knowledge of organisational behaviour when implementing a business strategy, and should be partners to the business working to create value for employees, customers, shareholders, communities and management. in this role of strategic human resource management (abbott, 2013; kane, crawford, & grant, 1999), human resource practitioners must provide the expertise to create a true marketplace differentiation through leveraging human resources (abbott, 2013; paine, 2008). in a chaotic complex world with increasingly competitive markets, a volatile economic climate, globalisation and demands for constant change, where competition is vicious and organisations are fighting for survival, the dependence on employees has become critical (bussin, christos, & bergh, 2017; robertson-smith & markwick, 2009). bussin et al. (2017) added that the uncertainty in the workplace results in an unstable employee–employer relationship, which affects the employee’s job performance and commitment towards the organisation. the current trend to drive sustainable organisational success is that of employee engagement (bussin et al., 2017; robertson-smith & markwick, 2009). therefore, in summary, the role of human resources is crucial in driving employee engagement and even more critical in providing inputs into various initiatives that impact engagement. this study recognises this role and engages with human resources to add insight and criticism in terms of confirming or disconfirming the framework and the application of the framework within the business. research design research approach the researcher applied the general method of theory-building for applied disciplines to structure the qualitative research approach (lynham, 2002; nielsen, 2010). this method consists of five phases: conceptualisation, operationalisation, confirmation or disconfirmation, application and ongoing refinement. the discussion on the research approach below will follow the structure of the five phases. this format will also be applied when discussing the findings. the conceptualisation phase of the general method of theory-building requires that the researcher formulate the initial idea in a way that best depicts the phenomenon, issue or problem relevant in the world context (lynham, 2000, 2002; swanson & chermack, 2013). the purpose is to create an informed conceptual framework that explains the dynamics, problem or phenomenon that is the focus of the theory (lynham, 2002; storberg-walker, 2006; swanson & chermack, 2013). qualitative methods used for theory-building research include case studies, grounded theory and social constructivist approaches (lynham, 2002; strauss & corbin, 1998). the researcher used a case study to inform the conceptual development of the theory and to investigate how work engagement was applied in organisations. sources of data used to document this case study were observation (as the researcher was employed by the case study organisation during that time period) and documentation, including minutes of forums held, and archival records, including survey data and solicited data such as the culture, values and employee engagement results. data were gathered over a 5-year period at a fast-moving consumer goods (fmcg) organisation in south africa. a case study database was compiled in chronological order to allow for a time-series review. the operationalisation phase of the general method of theory-building provides the connection between the conceptual phase and the practical phase (lynham, 2000; storberg-walker, 2006). the outcome is an operationalised theoretical framework. the process of meta-triangulation (lewis & grimes, 1999) was applied to construct the integral framework. meta-triangulation comprises three phases: groundwork, data analysis and theory building. within the process of groundwork, bracketing was applied to assist with identifying all facets of the phenomenon being studied, to differentiate among the sets of assumptions, to prevent bias and to allow for the formulation of new constructs (lewis & grimes, 1999). the tool used for bracketing was the aqal four-quadrant framework by ken wilber (1997). all quadrants all lines is the fundamental tool in integral theory and is defined as ‘a map of maps, or a meta-theory that incorporates the core truths from hundreds of other theories’ (wilber, patten, leonard, & morelli, 2008, p. 12). leadership dimensions were mapped using existing literature including wrights’ (2008) leadership view in the four quadrants, volckmann’s (2014) elements of leadership quadrants, landrum and gardner’s (2012) integral theory of the firm and crowther’s (2010) integral theory of leadership. fourteen secondary case sources (journals, thesis, unpublished papers and articles) were used exploring neuroleadership and work engagement and were mapped by using the aqal four-quadrant model. conjecture inversion was used to determine the role of neuroleadership in work engagement. conjecture inversion involves reframing research questions in paradigms to identify overlaps and gaps in understanding (lewis & grimes, 1999). the question, ‘what role does neuroleadership play in improving work engagement?’, was asked along psychological, behavioural, social and organisational dimensions. paradigm lenses revealed a prominent neuroleadership role in work engagement predominantly in psychological (mindfulness and emotional intelligence), behavioural (hormone profiles), social (culture, collaboration and social pain) and organisational dimensions. the combination of these dimensions was labelled the engageinmind framework. the confirmation or disconfirmation phase in the general method of theory-building research involves the planning, design, implementation and evaluation of a research agenda for confirming or disconfirming the theoretical framework (lynham, 2000; nielsen, 2010; swanson & chermack, 2013). if adequately addressed, according to storberg-walker (2006), the outcome of this phase is a confirmed theory that can be used with some confidence. a purposeful sampling technique was used to ensure the identification and selection of individuals who were representative of, experienced in and knowledgeable about the topic being studied. semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight senior human resource professionals across fmcg, retail and wholesale, health care and financial services. to ensure a meaningful engagement on the integration of neuroleadership and work engagement, the researcher used a positioning survey to familiarise the participants with the topics. the positioning survey was distributed to each of the eight senior human resource professionals. the positioning survey was adapted from the mindfulness attention and awareness scale, the assessing emotions scale and the healthy lifestyle and personal control survey. the survey was used to position the study dimensions with the participants; hence, apart from the descriptive statistics based on the biographical information of the participants, no deductions for this study were made from the survey. a semi-structured interview guide was compiled by using the engageinmind framework. in this interview guide, mindfulness and emotional intelligence were combined into one section under mindfulness to reflect the ‘i’ quadrant. telephonic and face-to-face interviews were conducted with the participants. data were captured on interview guides via note-taking, and reflection notes were documented afterwards. the application phase of the general method of theory-building involves application of the theory to the issue in the world of practice (lynham, 2002; storberg-walker, 2006). application of the theory could guide or enable further study, inquiry and understanding of the theory in action (lynham, 2002; storberg-walker, 2006). the application of the theory allows the theory to be judged for usefulness and relevance for improved action and problem-solving (lynham, 2000). two focus groups were conducted, based on convenience sampling, with a total of 10 human resource professionals, including specialists and generalists in a retail organisation located in cape town. ongoing refinement and development of the general method of theory-building is a recursive and ongoing process that is required to keep the theory current (lynham, 2000; storberg-walker, 2006). this phase requires the continual refinement and application of the theory (storberg-walker, 2006). this section of the process incorporates the recommendations for future research. research strategy the qualitative research approaches used in this study include a case study, meta-triangulation, semi-structured interviews and focus groups. research method research setting research documented in this article was conducted in the field of human resources. the case study was documented on the evolution of work engagement in an fmcg company in the western cape over a 5-year period. consequent interviews and focus groups involved human resource professionals across industries and geographic location within south africa. entrée and establishing researcher roles the researcher was appointed in an organisation and leadership development position in the organisation where the case study was documented. this allowed the researcher direct access to documents and observations as culture and climate discussions slowly progressed to work engagement in an organisation going through a process of large-scale change. the researcher documented the case study as part of research conducted in her doctoral degree. the case study was approved and signed off by the group human resource executive of the organisation. research participants and sampling methods sampling for the semi-structured interviews was performed using a purposeful sample of eight senior human resource development professionals across the fmcg, retail and wholesale, health care and financial services. the sample comprised predominantly male participants. the average age of the participants ranged from 41 to 52 years. average tenure showed more than 15 years in a human resource role. participants represented retail and consumer, fmcg, agriculture, financial services and health care. dissemination in company size ranged from small (less than 4999) to large (more than 20 000). sampling for the focus groups was conducted using a convenience sample of human resource specialists and generalists. participants in the first focus group session consisted of specialists and those in the second focus group session consisted of generalists. there was one male and eight female participants. age range was predominantly between 22 and 40 years, with years of service mostly evenly spread within the ranges of 1–10, 11–19 and 20–29 years. data collection methods data were collected throughout the 5-year case study period through observation (as the researcher was employed by the case study organisation during that time period). documentation included minutes of forums held and archival records (survey data and solicited data such as the culture, values and employee engagement results). meta-triangulation data collection included reviewing all full-text neuroleadership journal articles and selecting the relevant articles using bracketing within the aqal four-quadrant model. once bracketing was complete, 14 case studies were reviewed based on secondary data to further map the dimensions of neuroleadership. types of engagement (trait, behavioural, collective and contextual) were mapped on the aqal four-quadrant model. data collected during the semi-structured interviews were compiled using the positioning survey (for biographical information). data in focus groups were collected using a recorder for one focus group and by note-taking for the other focus group. data recording the researcher had initially positioned the use of a recording device; however, the participants were uneasy with the suggestion. the researcher recorded the data from the semi-structured interviews verbatim. in the first focus group session, the researcher positioned and used the recording device. on completion of the session, the researcher had a debriefing session on what worked and what did not. unanimous feedback was provided regarding the recording device and the potential limitations it placed on the conversation. the researcher therefore opted not to use the recording device in the second focus group session. strategies employed to ensure data quality and integrity five aspects of quality criteria were applied in this research, namely, credibility, transferability, dependability, confirmability and authenticity (lincoln, lynham, & guba, 2011). to ensure credibility, the research applied activities such as prolonged engagement (a 5-year case study), triangulation of sources (minutes, survey results, interviews and focus groups), member checking and debriefing with other researchers. transferability was applied through researcher’s field notes and observations captured during data collection. to ensure confirmability, the researcher tried to ensure transparent reporting by reflecting the participant’s actual feedback and not the researcher’s interpretation. authenticity was applied through member checking and the researcher included human resource practitioners because their strategy and implementation practices could change as a result of the research. data analysis during the theory-building approach, various methods of data analysis were applied. case study data analysis included constructing a chronological case study database based over the 5 years comprising documents such as forum minutes, surveys, previous focus group data and presentations. this is a popular analytical technique in case study research according to yin (2009), as it allows the researcher to trace an event over time. content analysis, a coding operation that allows for the transformation of raw data into standardised data (babbie & mouton, 2001), was also applied. this allowed a view on how work engagement is applied in organisations. data analysis of the 14 case studies gathered as part of building a theoretical framework included an itinerary in the form of a planned order of paradigm analysis using a systematic series of analysis for information processing. the itinerary applied was the aqal four-quadrant model. coding, involving the break down, interpretation and conceptualising of data, was used. paradigm brackets were applied beginning with coding cases and articles written from the same perspective. this was then categorised into the aqal four-quadrant framework. themes were analysed that span paradigms and aided in the meta-theorising and forming of the integrated framework. the data analysis resulting from the semi-structured interviews and the focus groups included the structuring and coding of the note-taking, text and field notes obtained. this was reduced and categorised using labels in the form of codes. meaningful themes were identified and relationships and patterns of relevance were documented. reporting style the reporting style addresses the research objectives. it also follows the structure of the five-phased approach by using the general method of theory-building research in applied disciplines. the main findings are described in the section that follows. ethical consideration this article was deduced from the author’s doctoral thesis, entitled ‘the role of neuroleadership in work engagement’. the researcher was aware of the ethical requirements during this research journey. the researcher was employed and hence immersed in the case organisation. this heightened sensitivity regarding documents shared, references made and information published within this article. the researcher maintains that there was no violation of privacy or confidentiality. to ensure that sensitive information was not recorded for publication in this article, the researcher asked the human resource executive of the case organisation to review and approve the case study documented. participation in the qualitative research (interviews and focus groups) was voluntary, and no participant was forced to partake in the research. the researcher was confident in undertaking the proposed research and complied with the university of johannesburg’s ethical code. results the aim of this research was to determine the role of neuroleadership in work engagement. to this end, the researcher considered (1) how work engagement had been applied and managed in organisations, (2) a suitable integrative framework to integrate neuroleadership and work engagement, (3) neuroleadership and work engagement integration points, (4) incorporating the integration points into framework and (5) reviewing the framework’s acceptance in business by human resource professionals. data results revealed three themes that addressed the research objective on how work engagement is applied in organisations. firstly, organisations are measuring engagement using various surveys mostly relating to job satisfaction. secondly, organisations are implementing organisation-wide interventions to address the concerns, but these interventions are not necessarily holistic. thirdly, organisations were implementing changes dictated by a complex environment without proactively considering or managing the impact on engagement. the research objective regarding a holistic framework that theoretically combines neuroleadership and work engagement conceptually revealed a working alignment with ken wilber’s (2000) integral theory’s aqal four-quadrant framework. findings resulted from meta-triangulation and bracketing to map the integration points of neuroleadership and work engagement. in the interior: individual quadrant, mindfulness and emotional intelligence surfaced as positive dimensions regarding work engagement. in the exterior: individual quadrant, the biology of a leader, surfaced as a positive contributor to work engagement. the collective: interior quadrant revealed status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness (scarf) as impactful in relation to work engagement. in the collective: exterior, an organisation growth mindset, seemed to be the greatest contributor to work engagement. based on the discussion above and applied bracketing from meta-triangulation, an integrated framework for neuroleadership and work engagement is presented in figure 1. figure 1: engageinmind framework. figure 1 shows the outer layer of the circle being the classifications used in the aqal four-quadrant model. these are interior: individual; exterior: individual; interior: collective; and exterior: collective. the next layer includes leadership mapped out by wright (2008) and supported by volckmann (2014), landrum and gardner (2012) and crowther (2010). these include dimensions of leadership: who i am; leadership: behaviour; leadership: relatedness; leadership: my environment. types of engagement (trait, behavioural, collective and contextual) are shown in the next layer, followed by neuroleadership (psychological, neurological, sociological and organisational). interventions including mindfulness, emotional intelligence, biology of a leader, scarf and organisation growth mindset were overlaid per quadrant based on neuroleadership and positive impact on engagement as revealed in the literature review. findings resulting from the semi-structured interviews showed that seven out of eight senior human resource professionals confirmed that the engageinmind framework can improve work engagement and can be applied in organisations. key themes were highlighted, namely, that there is a limited understanding and exposure to neuroleadership, there is relevance in applying the neuroleadership dimensions in relation to work engagement and there is a need for an integrated approach when implementing a framework or model. four themes were identified during the focus group sessions. the first theme was busyness in the organisation context. included in this theme was the expression of not having enough time for bathroom or lunch breaks because of the pace of the organisation. the second key theme was implementation on a smaller scale. the participants highlighted that the framework is better applied with individuals or in small teams and suggested ‘rolling out in small chunks’. the third theme related to organisation culture. the participants stressed that the framework needs to be linked to the organisation culture quoting that the success of the implementation will ‘depend on the culture’ and a ‘culture shift’. the fourth and the most referenced theme was around selling and packaging. the participants mentioned that the way the engageinmind framework is packaged will impact how it is implemented. the participants recommend linking the framework to benefits and focussing on how it enhances becoming an effective leader and how it will enable business results. understanding the themes is important as they relate to how the human resource practitioner will champion or advocate initiatives (ulrich et al., 2013). human resource practitioners must provide the expertise on manners of how to create true marketplace differentiation (abbott, 2013; paine, 2008). overall, the results show an acceptance of the engageinmind framework by human resource professionals, with some recommendations for improvement in the application phase. discussion outline of the results the insights from the study propose that the role of neuroleadership in improving work engagement is through its psychological, neurobiological, sociological and organisational dimensions. these are manifested in interventions such as mindfulness (including emotional intelligence), the biology of a leader (including diet, sleep and exercise), scarf and organisation growth mindset, presented in the engageinmind framework. in an applied discipline, such as human resources, practitioners are relied on to be equal partners that bring knowledge of organisational behaviour when implementing business strategy. the general method of theory-building provided the ideal method to facilitate, structure, inform and test assumptions of knowledge before implementing it as a business strategy. in this case, the general method of theory-building allowed the researcher or practitioner with a methodology to review neuroleadership and its role in work engagement from conceptualisation to operationalisation, to confirming or disconfirming, to application, to ongoing refinement. with the methodology in place, all aspects relating to the two concepts (neuroleadership and work engagement) needed to be considered. this was performed using the aqal four-quadrant model. the research findings at this stage focussed merely on the understanding of the role neuroleadership plays in work engagement. there are prospects for further studies utilising the engageinmind framework together with the general method of theory-building to map out and test human resource or organisation development initiatives to ensure an integrative and applicable approach to driving human resource or people strategies in organisations. practical implications the integrated engageinmind framework deduced from this study could provide a base to map any or all human resource focus areas. whether it is neuroleadership and work engagement, or performance management and productivity, or employee experience and the people value proposition, or organisational communication strategy and digital platforms, the framework allows for a consolidated view of organisation-wide initiative instead of the current piecemeal approach that is often adopted. senior human resource professionals in this study have voiced their frustrations with the current complexity and stresses at work and the need to drive relevant interventions in an integrative way. whether an organisation drives a culture of high performance, engagement, employee experience, service orientation or consumer focus, the engageinmind framework allows for customisation in relation to what the organisation wants to achieve. it considers individual insight and awareness, behavioural outcomes, social and community interaction and the context in which the organisation operates. the general method of theory-building gives a methodology for testing the application. limitations the researcher was employed in the organisation referred to in the documented case. although this allowed for intimate access to culture, the findings may reflect the researcher’s subjective interpretation. the researcher included and referenced documentation, including minutes, survey results and research reports where possible. in addition, because of the association with the organisation, the researcher is more aware of potentially sensitive information affecting the organisation’s reputation. to this end, the researcher might have been more reserved with regard to the extent of disclosure of some information. this therefore needs to be noted as a potential limitation. the aqal four-quadrant model used in this research was applied in its most basic form. only the quadrants were used in the form of individual interior, individual exterior, collective interior and collective exterior. wilber (2000) indicated that to accurately refer to ‘integral’ all five categories, namely four quadrants, levels and lines of evelopment, states of consciousness and types must be used. the researcher acknowledges that the engageinmind framework mapped to the aqal four-quadrant model is therefore not ‘integral’ in its comprehensive definition but just a map that considers the four quadrant dimensions. another limitation of the study is the number of participants that took part in the focus groups during the application phase. although sufficient representation was noted for focus groups with human resource specialists (seven), only three human resource generalists are represented. the researcher requested additional representation but found response in this regard to be low. the consolidation of the two focus group results shows similar themes that surfaced and can be generalised when viewing application or rollouts from the perspective of human resource professionals regarding initiatives in organisations this should however be noted as a limitation. also, the researcher focussed on human resource practitioners as the change shapers and agents within organisations. the research was limited to this target population and was not extended to include other employees within the organisation. conclusion neuroleadership is one of the fastest growing areas of interest in contemporary science. the insights gained from this study enable the author to propose an integrated and more refined way of approaching work engagement interventions using recent discoveries from the field of neuroleadership. the study provides three key contributions to the field of human resource management. firstly, there is a difference in the intentional academic definitions of engagement versus how organisations apply engagement through the use of culture surveys, value surveys, climate measurements and pulse surveys. the definition and process of engagement is generically applied in organisations. secondly, the study contributes to the field of hrd by connecting research and practice on two abstract theoretical issues – neuroleadership and work engagement. thirdly, the study shows that the need for an integrated approach to large-scale initiatives is of key importance, but it is to be applied in the context of busy landscapes and busy professionals that seek simplicity in application. the study highlights the need to translate well-researched constructs into the business context and ensure that the human resource advocate understands, supports and relays it to the broader business. the research findings focussed on the understanding of the role of neuroleadership in work engagement. there are prospects for further studies utilising the engageinmind framework together with the general method of theory-building to map out and test human resource or organisational development initiatives to ensure an integrative and applicable approach to driving human resource or people strategies in organisations. the integrated framework deduced from this study could provide a base to map any or all human resource focus areas. the framework allows for the consolidated view of organisation-wide initiatives instead of the current piecemeal approach that is often adopted. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no personal or financial relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions l.a.z. submitted this article in line with a phd thesis written on neuroleadership and work engagement. prof. r. viljoen served as the supervisor for the thesis and also supervised this article. dr d. aiken was the co-supervisor and the field supervisor for the work presented in the thesis and this article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abbott, p. (2013). the human resource function contribution to human development in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.408 babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2001). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford university. badenhorst, c. (2015). identifying and managing the impact of neuroleadership during organisational change. an unpublished thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the master of business, in the department of management & marketing, faculty of creative industries & business at unitec institute of technology. brown, e.c., & brüne, m. (2012). the role of prediction in social neuroscience. frontiers in human neuroscience, 6, 147. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00147 bussin, m., christos, d., & bergh, v. (2017). what would organisational design look like in uber times? hr future, august 2017, pp. 36–38. crowther, s. (2010). implications of integral theory for contemporary leadership. leadership advance online, 20, 1–7. duhigg, c. (2012). the power of habit: why we do what we do in life and business (vol. 34, p. 10). new york: random house. dulagil, a. (2012). the relationship of employee engagement and wellbeing to organisational and student outcomes. sbs hdr student conference. paper 1. retrieved from http://ro.uow.edu.au/sbshdr/2012/papers/1. ghadiri, a., habermacher, a., & peters, t. (2012). neuroscience for business. in neuroleadership (pp. 17–53). berlin, heidelberg: springer. kahn, w.a. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 33, 692–724. https://doi.org/10.5465/256287 kane, b., crawford, j., & grant, d. (1999). barriers to effective hrm. international journal of manpower, 20(8), 494–516. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437729910302705 kiefer, m., & pulvermüller, f. (2012). conceptual representations in mind and brain: theoretical developments, current evidence and future directions. cortex, 48(7), 805–825. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2011.04.006 landrum, n., & gardner, c. (2012). an integral theory perspective on the firm. international journal of business insights and transformation, 4(3), 74–79. lawler, e. (2012). effective human resource management: a global analysis. stanford, ca: stanford university press. lewis, m.w., & grimes, a.i. (1999). metatriangulation: building theory from multiple paradigms. academy of management review, 24(4), 672–690. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1999.2553247 lieberman, m.d., & eisenberger, n.i. (2009). pains and pleasures of social life. science, 323(5916), 890–891. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1170008 lincoln, y.s., lynham, s.a., & guba, e.g. (2011). paradigmatic controversies, contradictions, and emerging confluences, revisited. in n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds.), the sage handbook of qualitative research (vol. 4, pp. 97–128). los angeles, ca: sage. lynham, s.a. (2000). theory building in the human resource development profession. human resource development quarterly, 11(2), 159. https://doi.org/10.1002/1532-1096(200022)11:2%3c159::aid-hrdq5%3e3.0.co;2-e lynham, s.a. (2002). the general method of theory-building research in applied disciplines. advances in developing human resources, 4(3), 221–241. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422302043002 macey, w.h., & schneider, b. (2008). the meaning of employee engagement. industrial and organizational psychology, 1(1), 3–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2007.0002.x mobbs, d., & mcfarland, n. (2010). the neuroscience of motivation. neuroleadership journal, 3, 43–52. nielsen, r.p. (2010). practitioner-based theory building in organizational ethics. journal of business ethics, 93(3), 401–406. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0229-3 nienaber, h., & martins, n. (2016). employee engagement in a south african context. randburg: kr publishing. paine, s. (2008, february). the emerging role of hr practitioners’ expectations, challenges and trends. unpublished master of business thesis. unitec. ringleb, a., & rock, d. (2008). the emerging field of neuroleadership. neuroleadership journal, 1, 3–19. ringleb, a., rock, d., & conser, j. (2010). neuroleadership in 2010. neuroleadership journal, 3, 1–21. ringleb, a.h., rock, d., & ancona, c. (2012). neuroleadership in 2011 and 2012. neuroleadership journal, 4, 5–39. robertson-smith, g., & markwick, c. (2009). employee engagement: a review of current thinking. brighton: institute for employment studies. robinson, d., perryman, s., & hayday, s. (2004). the drivers of employee engagement. report. brighton: institute for employment studies. rock, d., & cox, c. (2012). scarf in 2012: updating the social neuroscience of collaborating with others. neuroleadership journal, 4(4), 1–16. rock, d., & schwartz, j. (2006). the neuroscience of leadership. strategy & business, 43, 71–79. rock, d., & tang, y. (2009). neuroscience of engagement. neuroleadership journal, 2, 15–21. rule, p., & john, v. (2011). your guide to case study research. pretoria: van schaik. schaufeli, w.b. (2013). what is engagement? in c. truss, k. alfes, r. delbridge, a. shantz, & e. soane (eds.), employee engagement in theory and practice. london: routledge. schaufenbuel, k. (2014). the neuroscience of leadership: practical applications. chapelhill, nc: unc executive development. storberg-walker, j. (2006). from imagination to application: making the case for the general method of theory-building research in applied disciplines. human resource development international, 9(2), 227–259. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678860600616420 strauss, a., & corbin, j. (1998). basics of qualitative research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. swanson, r.a., & chermack, t.j. (2013). theory building in applied disciplines. san francisco, ca: berrett-koehler publishers. ulrich, d., younger, j., brockbank, w., & ulrich, m.d. (2013). the state of the hr profession. human resource management, 52(3), 457–471. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21536 viljoen-terblanche, r.c. (2009). sustainable organisational transformation through inclusivity. doctoral dissertation. university of johannesburg. volckmann, r. (2014). generativity, transdisciplinarity, and integral leadership. world futures, 70(3–4), 248–265. https://doi.org/10.1080/02604027.2014.934644 waldman, d.a., balthazard, p.a., & peterson, s.j. (2011). leadership and neuroscience: can we revolutionize the way that inspirational leaders are identified and developed? academy of management perspectives, 25(1), 60–74. wilber, k. (1997). the eye of spirit: an integral vision for a world gone slightly made. boston, ma: shambhala publications. wilber, k. (2000). a theory of everything: an integral vision for business, politics, science, and spirituality. boston, ma: shambhala publications. wilber, k., patten, t., leonard, a., & morelli, m. (2008). integral life practice: a 21st-century blueprint for physical health, emotional balance, mental clarity, and spiritual awakening. boston, ma: shambhala publications. wright, s. (2008). an exploration of integral leadership. the coaching project inc. retrieved from http://www.thecoachingproject.com/wpcontent/uploads/introduction_to_integral_leadership.pdf yin, r.k. (2009). case study research: design and methods (applied social research methods). london, singapore: sage. abstract introduction research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) tolulope v. balogun department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the western cape, bellville, cape town, south africa bright mahembe department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the western cape, bellville, cape town, south africa charles allen-ile department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the western cape, bellville, cape town, south africa citation balogun, t.v., mahembe, b., & allen-ile, c. (2020). a confirmatory factor analytic study of an authentic leadership measure in nigeria. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1235. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1235 research project registration: project number: 15/6/44 original research a confirmatory factor analytic study of an authentic leadership measure in nigeria tolulope v. balogun, bright mahembe, charles allen-ile received: 30 may 2019; accepted: 04 feb. 2020; published: 30 mar. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: authentic leadership has been identified as one of the competencies for effective leaders. research purpose: the primary goal of the present study was to test, on a nigerian sample, the psychometric properties of the authentic leadership inventory (ali) developed by neider and schriesheim. motivation for the study: various instruments have been developed to measure authentic leadership, with the ali being one of the widely used questionnaires. there is a need to assess the reliability and construct validity of the ali on a nigerian sample owing to paucity of studies on its psychometric properties in this setting. research approach/design and method: a non-probability sample consisting of 213 bank employees working in nigeria was studied. the ali was used to measure authentic leadership, and its reliability was evaluated using spss, while construct validity was assessed through confirmatory factory analyses in the linear structural relations (lisrel) programme. main findings: moderate levels of reliability were found for the subscales of the ali. reasonable model fit with the data was found for the firstand second-order as well as the bi-factor and single-factor measurement models through confirmatory factor analyses (cfa). practical/managerial implications: although the ali demonstrated reasonable model fit for the cfa models tested in this study, the reliability coefficients of the relational transparency and internalised moral perspective subscales were below the 0.70 threshold. in addition, the discriminant validity of the self-awareness and the internalised moral perspective subscales was not achieved. contribution/value-add: the study promotes the use of reliable and valid instruments in nigeria by confirming the psychometric properties of the ali. keywords: authentic leadership; internal consistency; goodness-of-fit; construct validity; bi-factor. introduction the expression of an authentic self is a fundamental requirement in leadership (covelli & mason, 2017; goffee & jones, 2005). authentic leadership is a challenge that most organisations are faced with. it is generally defined as a leader’s ability to display high levels of self-awareness, relational transparency, internalised moral perspective and balanced processing (johnson, 2019; kotzé & nel, 2019; luthans & avolio, 2003). self-awareness alludes to the leader’s awareness of his or her own strengths and weaknesses; relational transparency indicates a leader’s open expression of his or her thoughts and feelings while being guided by his or her internalised moral perspective in the form of values and self-regulation in decision-making. the decisions are made after an in-depth and balanced processing of all the facts at the leader’s disposal – through balanced processing (kotzé & nel, 2019). there is an anticipated authenticity that every follower demands of a leader – to be real, trustworthy, sincere, dependable, genuine, just and honest. luthans and avolio (2003) referred to authenticity as the congruence between what one says, is and does, while avolio, gardner, walumbwa, luthans and may (2004, p. 802) citing mccain and salter (2004) referred to the importance of being authentic as learning to love honesty and upholding of justice, ‘not just for their effect on personal circumstances’ but for their impact on humanity and on the world at large. when authentic characteristics are demonstrated by the leader, followers are motivated to adhere to or obey the leader’s rules and initiate more commitment towards the organisation. goffee and jones (2005) and datta (2015) furthermore proposed that only subordinates or followers can attest that a leader is authentic. it thus implies that leaders cannot classify themselves as authentic but can only be observed as authentic by other people. authentic leaders advance factual lives, and their followers are motivated to do the same. authentic leaders actively pass to their followers, a desire for fulfilment, a drive for success and psychological capacities needed for high-level performance and commitment (johnson, 2019; kotzé & nel, 2019). citing gardner and schermerhorn, avolio et al. (2004) noted that the duty of an authentic leader is to cultivate optimism in followers. avolio (1999) clarified that authentic leaders act in accordance with their intrinsic personal values and convictions. they do this to build credibility and win the respect and trust of followers by encouraging diverse viewpoints and building networks of collaborative relationships such that they lead in a manner that followers recognise as authentic. these actions exhibited by an authentic leader will subsequently propel the employees or the followers to act in a similarly authentic manner, which consequently will become a basis to create a stable organisational culture. although the authentic leadership construct is not a new theory, there are still few divergent opinions about what authentic leadership really portrays and how it stands out from other effective leadership styles like transformational leadership. it has even been argued that conceptually, authentic leadership intersects with some other forms of positive leadership behaviours (avolio & gardner, 2005). however, in spite of the dissenting opinions that persist, most scholars have noted and accepted authentic leadership and its four dimensions as a distinct, separate leadership construct (gardner, cogliser, davis, & dickens, 2011; johnson, 2019; klenke, 2007; kotzé & nel, 2019; yammarino, dionne, schriesheim, & dansereau, 2008), with some researchers engaged in refining its theoretical models (gardner, avolio, luthans, may, & walumbwa, 2005; ilies, morgeson, & nahrgang, 2005), some in redeveloping its measures of assessment (luthans, avolio, avey, & norman, 2007; neider & schriesheim, 2011; walumbwa, avolio, gardner, wernsing, & peterson, 2008) and others preoccupied with testing for antecedents, consequences, mediators and moderators (alok, 2014; gardner et al., 2011). furthermore, avolio and gardner (2005) stated that authentic leadership behaviours form the basis and act as a solid foundation on which sincere transformational leadership behaviours can be constructed. therefore, in spite of the similarities between authentic leadership and transformational leadership, and the expectations of followers to see ideal role models and inspirers in their leaders who adopt these leadership behaviours, there are still distinct, well-defined differences that distinguish them. walumbwa et al. (2008) have conceptualised the authentic leadership construct as a leadership behaviour that is typified by robust self-awareness, uncommon relational transparency, exceptional internalised moral perspective and unequivocal balanced information processing for ethical decision-making. although the authentic leadership theory developed by luthans and avolio (2003) is priceless, as it promoted scholarly attention and provided a significant basis for the leadership construct, several authors (avolio & gardner, 2005; gardner et al., 2005; ilies et al., 2005; walumbwa et al., 2008) have built on their work and created a better understanding of the construct, of which walumbwa et al. (2008) had endeavoured to produce the most generally accepted definition of authentic leadership within the literature (banks, mccauley, gardner, & guler, 2016). as a sequel to the authentic leadership questionnaire (alq) by walumbwa et al. (2008), the authentic leadership inventory (ali) was developed by neider and schriesheim (2011). the authors developed the ali on the basis of the four-dimensional instrument, which was operationalised and conceptualised by walumbwa et al. (2008). the authors developed the ali because of some of their misgivings about the alq (walumbwa et al., 2008) with regard to its reliability and validity (van der vaart, stander, & rothmann, 2015). subsequently, in spite of the efforts that have been made in the western world to clarify the authentic leadership construct and to present a most appropriate reliable scale to assess the construct, very little work has been carried out in the african context around the reliability and validity of the ali. two south african studies, van der vaart et al. (2015) and stander, de beer and stander (2015), established that the ali shows an acceptable fit, with the majority of the variables exhibiting satisfactory reliability estimates between 0.60 and 0.93. it is against these underpinning discussions that this study sought to test the psychometric properties of the ali in a nigerian sample. this study therefore tests the reliability and construct validity of the ali so as to determine whether the original factor structure developed in the united states by neider and schriesheim (2011) can be confirmed on a nigerian sample. aim of the study the main objective of the study was to ascertain the reliability and construct validity of the ali developed in the united states by neider and schriesheim (2011) on a nigerian sample. the specific objectives of the study were to confirm the: reliability of the ali by computing the cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients for each of the subscales construct validity of the ali by testing the firstand second-order model goodness-of-fit using confirmatory factor analyses (cfa) discriminant validity of the ali. contribution to the field authentic leadership has been found to significantly influence followers’ trust in the leader and the development of positive emotions in the workplace (agote, aramburu, & lines, 2016) as well as help foster creativity and innovativeness (müceldili, turan, & erdil, 2013). it also promotes team commitment and the development of both psychological capital and psychological climate (munyaka, boshoff, pietersen, & snelgar, 2017). the importance of authentic leadership necessitated the need to ascertain the reliability and validity of its measurement using the ali. therefore, the major contribution of the current study is that it adds to the board of knowledge on the psychometric properties of the ali in the nigerian context. authentic leadership theory harter dated back authenticity as a concept to the ancient greek philosophers who described the term to mean ‘know thyself’ and ‘to thine own self be true’ (avolio et al., 2004), although ilies et al. (2005) differed by indicating that authenticity far exceeds being true to oneself. harter (2002, p. 382) classified authenticity as ‘owning one’s personal experiences, be they thoughts, emotions, needs, preferences or beliefs, processes captured by the injunction to know oneself’. using the theory and concept of authenticity, luthans and avolio (2003) described authentic leadership as a process in which the core components are ‘self-awareness and self-regulated positive behaviours on the part of leaders and associates, fostering positive self-development’. authentic leaders are (avolio et al., 2004): [t]hose individuals who are deeply aware of how they think and behave and are perceived by others as being aware of their own and others’ values/moral perspective, knowledge, and strengths; aware of the context in which they operate; and who are confident, hopeful, optimistic, resilient, and high on moral character. (p. 802) kark and shamir (2013) proposed that authentic leaders have what it takes to boost and motivate their followers such that they can be much more dedicated, enthusiastic, engrossed and engaged in their work roles (avolio et al., 2004). northhouse (2015) proposed three models of authentic leadership based on the previous work of avolio and gardner (2005), eagly (2005), shamir and eilam (2005) and walumbwa et al. (2008). these models are the intrapersonal, developmental and interpersonal models. the intrapersonal authentic leadership model is rooted on self-concept and how self-concept relates to the leader’s actions (shamir & eilam, 2005). these authors stated that authentic leadership is characterised by genuine leadership, conviction, originality and action based on values. secondly, avolio and gardner (2005) and walumbwa et al. (2008) described authentic leadership as a developmental style of leadership. they proposed that leadership can be cultivated, nurtured and developed over a lifetime and can be triggered by major life events. these authors support their argument on the developmental model of four components: self-awareness, internalised moral perspective, balanced processing and relational transparency. thirdly, the interpersonal definition of authentic leadership by eagly (2005) noted that leadership is created by a joint effort between the leader and the follower. leaders create the change they desire when they amend their message in accordance to their followers’ values, while followers also realise intended outcomes when they identify with the leader’s values. furthermore, george (2003), george, sims, mclean and mayer (2007) and terry (1993) introduced two practical approaches to authentic leadership. terry’s approach was an action/practice-centred model, which suggests that leaders should endeavour to do what is right. it lays emphasis on the action of the leader or leadership in a particular situation. the author developed an authentic action wheel to assist leaders with their problems by detecting the problem on the diagnostic wheel and then tactically selecting a suitable response to address the problem. on the contrary, george (2003) and george and sims (2007) developed a leader characteristic model, which suggests that leaders have genuine desire to serve others. the authors’ approach of authentic leadership is characterised by the following: understanding of purpose, strong values, trusting relationships, self-discipline and actions taken from the heart. for the purpose of this study, however, authentic leadership is conceptualised on the developmental model, which is based on the four-component model of authentic leadership modified from the works of gardner et al. (2005), ilies et al. (2005) and luthans and avolio (2003). authentic leadership is therefore defined as “a pattern of leader behaviour that draws upon and promotes both positive psychological capacities and a positive ethical climate, to foster greater self-awareness, an internalised moral perspective, balanced processing of information, and relational transparency on the part of leaders working with followers, fostering positive self-development” (walumbwa et al., 2008, p. 94). self-awareness self-awareness is a never-ending process of personal examination and re-evaluation by leaders of their own competences, abilities, strengths, weaknesses, limitations, beliefs and moral principles. they are fully aware of the impact they make on people, acknowledge those around them and fully understand how people perceive them. relational transparency relational transparency refers to the openness exhibited by the leader towards his or her followers. the leader properly balances his or her own thoughts, beliefs and principles with the right emotions. he or she promotes a level of honesty and sincerity with others, which encourages others to willingly reciprocate such positive attributes (gardner et al., 2005). this kind of relationship fosters trust between the followers and the leadership. balanced processing the leader solicits sufficient opinions, ideas and suggestions from the followers and objectively analyses them before reaching a conclusion. such leaders often solicit viewpoints that oppose their deeply held standpoint (gardner et al., 2005). internalised moral perspective this is an ‘internalized and integrated form of self-regulation’ (ryan & deci, 2003). it is the degree to which the leader sets a high standard for moral and ethical conduct. this form of self-regulation is guided by positive ethical foundation, which is adhered to by the leader in spite of conflicting societal pressures or organisational norms. this is expressed in decision-making and behaviour, which is consistent with these internalised values (gardner et al., 2005). authentic leadership measurement most popular among the authentic leadership assessment scales are the two multidimensional scales: ali by neider and schriesheim (2011) and the alq by walumbwa et al. (2008). both the ali and alq measure four similar theoretically related components, such as self-awareness, relational transparency, internalised moral perspective and balanced processing. previous studies have utilised the alq in an african context. the alq was administered in kenya on working adults from 11 different american multinational companies (walumbwa et al., 2008); namibia with employees from a state-owned enterprise (amunkete & rothmann, 2015); south africa from a private sector healthcare organisation (du plessis, 2014); and two other manufacturing organisations (munyaka et al., 2017; roux, 2010). walumbwa et al. (2008) confirmed both the convergent and discriminant validity of the alq and reported a coefficient alpha of 0.93 for the alq. the authors reported an item factor loading ranging between 0.62 and 0.93 in the initial study: with self-awareness of 0.92, transparency of 0.87, moral/ethical perspective of 0.76 and balanced processing of 0.81 (walumbwa et al., 2008). several other authors, including alok and israel (2012), clapp-smith, vogelgesang and avey (2009), walumbwa, avolio and hartnell (2010), walumbwa, wang, wang, schaubroeck and avolio (2010), wang and hsieh (2013) and wang, sui, luthans, wang and wu (2014), have validated the reliability of the alq. the four-dimensional structure of authentic leadership was validated by the results by walumbwa et al. (2008) as well as roux (2010), which demonstrated an acceptable fit. the ali was developed by neider and schriesheim (2011) in the united states on the basis of the four-dimensional instrument, which was operationalised and conceptualised by walumbwa et al. (2008). the authors developed the ali because of the scepticisms raised regarding the original alq (walumbwa et al., 2008). they asserted that ‘the instrument was not available for commercial use – future use for research purposes was going to become challenging’, the ‘content analysis was very subjective’ and that walumbwa et al. (2008) found that a ‘second-order factor model fitted the data significantly better than a first-order factor model’ (van der vaart et al., 2015). relational transparency was measured by three items; self-awareness by three items; internalised moral perspective by four items; and balanced processing by four items. the authors administered the ali in america within three different groups. the results of the analyses from their second study proved that construct, content and discriminant validity as well as internal consistency were supported. in a south african quantitative cross-sectional study comprising of 244 employees that worked in a south african mining company, van der vaart et al. (2015) also established that the ali shows an acceptable fit, with the majority of the variables exhibiting satisfactory reliability estimates between 0.60 and 0.93. the authors, however, noted that the balanced processing component of the ali was below acceptable reliability estimates (0.43) – ‘my leader uses his/her core beliefs to make decisions’ had the lowest loading on authentic leadership (β = 0.48, p < 0.001) and therefore needed additional work and improvement. similar to the findings of neider and schriesheim (2011), items 1 and 6 were removed from the analyses. in another south african study, stander et al. (2015) indicated the reliability (α = 0.93) of the ali as was the case in the studies of neider and schriesheim (2011) and stander et al. (2015). previous studies found acceptable reliabilities with cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranging between 0.74 and 0.90 (men & stacks, 2014; neider & schriesheim, 2011). the present study this study, therefore, assessed the reliability and construct validity of the ali on a sample of employees in the nigerian banking sector. research design research approach to realise the objectives of the study, a quantitative research design was used through structural equation modelling (sem). research method sample the respondents who participated in the study were bank employees with at least 12 years of schooling and proficiency in english. the respondents had a direct supervisor or manager to whom they reported as the survey required respondents to evaluate their leader’s authenticity. the sample consisted of 213 bank employees comprising female (46.8%) and male (53.2%) employees. the majority (47.4%) fell in the 31–40 age category. the ethnic distribution in the sample was highly skewed with 96.7% black people, 0.55% mixed race, 2.2% white people and 0.55% asians. the majority (98.1%) of the respondents had a matric qualification as their highest level of education. measuring instrument the composite questionnaire composed of a biographical questionnaire and the ali developed by neider and schriesheim (2011). the respondents were asked to rate their leader’s authenticity and indicate demographic variables such as their reporting unit, tenure in the bank, age of respondent, gender, ethnicity, highest educational qualification obtained and position held in their organisation. authentic leadership was measured using the original ali (neider & schriesheim, 2011). the ali measures four theoretically related components, such as self-awareness (four items), for example, ‘my leader is clearly aware of the impact he or she has on others’; relational transparency (four items), for example, ‘my leader admits mistakes when they occur’; internalised moral perspective (four items), for example, ‘my leader uses his or her core beliefs to makes decisions’; and balanced processing (four items), for example, ‘my leader carefully listens to alternative perspectives before reaching a conclusion’. respondents were asked to rate their current supervisor/manager on a 5-point likert scale, ranging from 1 = disagree strongly to 5 = agree strongly. research procedure and ethical considerations initially, the researcher developed a google form where the ali was included. this form was then forwarded to recipients through a snowballing sampling method. this course of action was taken so as to have access to more respondents and to allow the respondents easy accessibility to the questionnaire because many of the bank employees have internet access. however, this route was discarded because of a very low feedback and turnaround rate – about 10 questionnaires were completed in a space of about 6 weeks. as a result, the questionnaires were then printed and copies were distributed to participants. permission to conduct the present study was obtained from all necessary authorities prior to the commencement of the study. permission from the university’s research ethics committee was received. informed consent was obtained from the respondents before they completed the questionnaires. the respondents were informed of the purpose of the research and assured of the anonymity and confidentiality of the data obtained. their voluntary participation in the study was emphasised. statistical analysis the analyses utilised in this study were the following: (1) item analysis, to determine the reliability of the scales; (2) exploratory factor analysis (efa), to ascertain scale dimensionality; and (3) and sem, to determine the construct validity of the ali. structural equation modelling structural equation modelling is a technique that brings to the fore the nature of the hypothesised covariate relationships between the observed and the latent variables, as indicated in the measurement and structural models (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). the measurement model describes the quality of the relationships between the manifest or observed variables and the latent variables while the structural model describes the nature of the relationships between the latent variables themselves (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). confirmatory factor analysis lisrel 8.80 (jöreskog & sörbom, 2006b) was used to test the uni-dimensional, firstand second-order as well as the bi-factor cfa on the ali to determine the fit of the models. robust maximum likelihood (rml) estimation was used as the default parameter estimation method in the case of a lack of multivariate normality in the data (jöreskog & sörbom, 1996). the evaluation of the authentic leadership inventory first-order model the evaluation of the ali cfa models was based on the following indices: the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea); root mean square residual (rmr); the goodness-of-fit index (gfi); normed fit index (nfi); non-normed fit index (nnfi); comparative fit index (cfi); incremental fit index (ifi); and the relative fit index (rfi). the rmsea is generally regarded as one of the most informative fit indices, as it tests for the closeness of fit in the null hypothesis (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000; schumacker & lomax, 2016). root mean square error of approximation values below 0.05 are suggestive of good fit, those between 0.05 and under 0.08 suggest reasonable fit, values between 0.08 and 0.10 denote mediocre fit and values >0.10 indicate poor fit (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). the rmr presents the average value of the difference between the sample covariance (variance) and a fitted (model-implied) covariance (variance). in other words, it is a summary measure of fitted residuals (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000; hair et al., 2010). the gfi depicts how closely the model comes to perfectly reproducing the observed covariance matrix. the gfi is usually recommended as the most reliable measure of the model fit (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). the values of the gfi greater than 0.90 are usually considered as indicating acceptable fit (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). for model comparative purposes, the rfi, ifi, the bentler–bonett nnfi, the bentler–bonett nfi and the cfi (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000; schumacker & lomax, 2016) are recommended. values greater than 0.90 are usually regarded as acceptable (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). results missing values missing values were addressed through the use of multiple imputations (jöreskog & sörbom, 2006a). this technique allowed the missing values to be substituted with values derived from averages with the aid of simulation (jöreskog & sörbom, 2006a; rubin, 2004). the final sample size was 213; no cases were deleted. item analysis using the spss version 25 (spss inc., 2017), item and dimensional analyses were performed on the items of the ali. two of the internal consistency coefficients of the ali missed the acceptable cut-off level (α > 0.70) (nunnally & bernstein, 1994) (table 1). the four ali subscales were found to be uni-dimensional, and the variance explained by each of the factors was generally above 50% (table 1) with the exception of the internalised moral perspective subscale. the correlations among the four latent ali dimensions are shown in table 2. the correlations are within reasonable limits and not above 0.90, as this could indicate multi-collinearity (pallant, 2016; tabachnick & fidell, 2013). table 1: reliability and exploratory factor analysis output for the authentic leadership inventory dimensions. table 2: inter-correlations between latent authentic leadership inventory dimensions, average variance extracted and shared variance estimates (n = 213). evaluating the fit of the measurement model confirmatory factor analysis was carried out on the items of the ali through lisrel 8.80 (du toit, du toit, mels, & cheng, 2008; jöreskog & sörbom, 2006a) to evaluate the construct validity of the measurement models. the ali measurement model was considered as an exogenous variable; list-wise deletion and the rml estimation method were utilised to produce the required estimates. the normalised data set was used for subsequent analyses. goodness-of-fit of the first-order, second-order, bi-factor and single-factor measurement models table 3 shows that the three authentic leadership measurement models tested in the present study show similar levels of fit with regard to the cfi, rmsea and srmr. both first-order and second-order measurement models indicate reasonable model fit. in terms of the cfi, the first-order and second-order measurement models show a similar value of 0.97, while the bi-factor model cfi is slightly higher with a value of 0.98. in terms of the srmr, the bi-factor model marginally missed the accepted 0.05 cut-off level, compared to the other models. the gfi values for all the models with the exception of the bi-factor model missed the 0.90 cut-off. an overall look at the fit indices of the three models indicates that the bi-factor model fit indices are generally within the acceptable fit cut-off levels, compared to the first-order, second-order and single-factor models. this lends some support to the possibility that the ali measures a general construct (i.e. authentic leadership). table 3: goodness-of-fit indices obtained for the authentic leadership inventory first-order and single-factor measurement models. neider and schriesheim (2011) argued that the four authentic leadership dimensions – self-awareness, relational transparency, balanced processing and internalised and moral perspective – have a higher order factor, namely, authentic leadership (neider & schriesheim, 2011). the second-order model explains that authentic leadership is a higher order factor that explains why the four authentic leadership dimensions are correlated. in the second-order factor model, there is no direct relationship between the target authentic leadership trait and the items. in fact, the four authentic leadership dimensions indicate an indirect effect (nel & van zyl, 2015), thereby mediating upon the relationship. according to nel and van zyl (2015), the presence of a higher order factor can be determined by using a bi-factor model, which enables the researcher to determine ‘the degree to which items reflect a common trait’ and ‘the degree to which they reflect sub-traits’ (i.e. observed variables of the ali) (nel & van zyl, 2015, p. 5). table 4 shows that six of the 16 items have higher loadings on the general factor, compared to the group factors, while three items have similar loadings. this indicates that although the influence of the general factor is not dominant, it still has some influence on the group factors. table 4: standardised factor loadings for the bi-factor (authentic leadership inventory, n = 213). the completely standardised factor loadings are shown in table 4. the values shown in the completely standardised solution loading matrix indicate the average change expressed in standard deviations in the item associated with one standard deviation change in the latent variable (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). the factor loadings of the items are generally significant (> 0.30) with the exception of the item auth7. parameter estimates the unstandardised gamma matrix shows the strength of the relationship and the influence of the exogenous latent variable (authentic leadership) on its manifest variables. the parameters are significant (p < 0.05) if t-values are ≥│1.96│ (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). the t-values show that the four dimensions are significant indicators of the authentic leadership higher order factor, as the t-values are greater than 1.96. the results are shown in table 5. table 5: unstandardised gamma matrix. discriminant validity in this study, discriminant validity was assessed by comparing the average variance extracted (ave) of each construct with the shared variance between constructs (farrell, 2010). the ave reflects the average proportion of variance in the indicator variables, which is accounted for by the latent variable relative to the variance because of measurement error (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). if the ave for each construct is greater than its shared variance with any other construct, discriminant validity is supported. in this case, the shared variance estimates between the self-awareness subscale and the internalised moral perspective subscales were marginally greater than the ave estimates for each of the constructs (table 2). according to diamantopoulos and siguaw (2000), values less than 0.50 for the ave indicate that measurement errors account for a greater proportion of the variance in the indicators so much so that the underlying variable itself raises some doubts about the soundness of the latent variable. in this case, the four ave values are generally below 0.50, thereby creating some doubts on the four latent variables. power assessment power assessment was conducted using the rweb (1.03) translation of the statistical analysis system (sas) syntax (preacher & coffman, 2006). this syntax is used to derive the power estimates for the tests of exact and close fit. in the current study, the inputs for the analysis comprised a significance level of 0.05, a sample size of 213 and 100 degrees of freedom (table 6). a reasonably large power value of 0.9280824 for the test of exact fit was obtained. in this case, the authors rejected the null hypothesis of exact fit. the power of the test of close fit obtained was 0.9671278, which was high implying that, in the conditions that characterised this specific study, one would reject approximately 96.7% of incorrect models, thereby instilling some confidence in the model. table 6: power assessment for the structural model for the tests of exact and close fit. discussion this study sought to assess the transportability of the ali by neider and schriesheim (2011) by ascertaining its reliability and construct validity on a nigerian sample. summary of the research results the cronbach’s alpha values obtained indicate that the reliability coefficients for the four dimensions of the four ali subscales indicate moderate reliability with two of the coefficients slightly below the 0.70 threshold and the other two coefficients marginally above the 0.70 threshold (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). when treated as a uni-dimensional scale, the cronbach’s alpha coefficient was high (α = 0.90). this is not completely in tandem with the high reliability coefficients obtained by men and stacks (2014), neider and schriesheim (2011) and stander et al. (2015), although van der vaart et al. (2015) in a south african study established satisfactory reliability estimates between 0.60 and 0.93. as a result of the limited number of ali items, efforts to improve the reliability coefficients are not possible. the four ali subscales were found to be uni-dimensional and accounted for more than 50% of the variance with the exception of the internalised moral perspective subscale, which accounted for 44.4% of the variance. in terms of construct validity, the firstand second-order, bi-factor and single-factor measurement models showed reasonable model fit to the data. the fit indices were, surprisingly, within the same range. in addition, the authors also tested for discriminant validity in which one of the shared variance estimates were marginally greater than the ave estimates for each of the constructs raising some doubts on the discriminant validity of the self-awareness and the internalised moral perspective subscales. the ave estimates obtained for the four ali subscales were below 0.50 raising some doubts on the soundness of the indicators and/or the latent variables themselves (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). limitations of the study and suggestions for future research although the study was less skewed in terms of gender, the sample may not be representative of the nigerian sample given that a non-probability sampling technique was used. this technique affects the generalisability of the findings. future studies should replicate the study using bigger and culturally diverse samples. more conclusive research on the psychometric properties of the ali is required. future studies should also determine the measurement equivalence and measurement invariance of the ali across different nigerian cultural groups. conclusion the findings from the present study caution that using a more randomised sampling technique and the use of the ali in leadership research in nigeria should explore more diverse demographic variables in the population. however, given the original premise that necessitated the present investigation, it can safely be concluded that the ali would be an adequate instrument, whose psychometric properties have somewhat been confirmed, for studying the construct of authentic leadership among a nigerian research population. acknowledgements thank you to all those who made this study a success. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions t.v.b. (university of western cape), the project leader, was responsible for data collection and article write-up – the project is based on her phd dissertation; c.a.-i. was responsible for the article write-up; and b.m. was responsible for the article write-up and statistical analyses. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. ethical consideration permission from the university’s research ethics committee was received. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references agote, l., aramburu, n., & lines, r. (2016). authentic leadership perception, trust in the leader, and followers’ emotions in organizational change processes. journal of applied behavioral science, 52(1), 35–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886315617531 alok, k. (2014). authentic leadership and psychological ownership: investigation of interrelations. leadership & organization development journal, 35(4), 266–285. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-06-2012-0080 alok, k., & israel, d. (2012). authentic leadership & work engagement. indian journal of industrial relations, 47(3), 498–510. amunkete, s., & rothmann, s. (2015). authentic leadership, psychological capital, job satisfaction and intention to leave in state-owned enterprises. journal of psychology in africa, 25(4), 271–281. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2015.1078082 avolio, b.j. (1999). full leadership development: building the vital forces in organizations. thousand oaks, ca: sage. avolio, b.j., & gardner, w.l. (2005). authentic leadership development: getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. the leadership quarterly, 16(3), 315–338. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.001 avolio, b.j., gardner, w.l., walumbwa, f., luthans, f., & may, d.r. (2004). unlocking the mask: a look at the process by which authentic leaders impact follower attitudes and behaviours. leadership quarterly, 15(6), 801–823. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2004.09.003 banks, g.c., mccauley, k.d., gardner, w.l., & guler, c.e. (2016). a meta-analytic review of authentic and transformational leadership: a test for redundancy. leadership quarterly, 27(4), 634–652. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2016.02.006 clapp-smith, r., vogelgesang, g.r., & avey, j.b. (2009). the mediating role of trust at the group level of analysis. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 15(3), 227–240. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051808326596 covelli, b., & mason, i. (2017). linking theory to practice: authentic leadership. academy of strategic management journal, 16(3), 1–10. datta, b. (2015). assessing the effectiveness of authentic leadership. international journal of leadership studies, 9(1), 62–75. diamantopoulos, a., siguaw, j.a., & siguaw, j.a. (2000). introducing lisrel: a guide for the uninitiated. thousand oaks, ca: sage. du plessis, m. (2014). the relationship between authentic leadership, psychological capital, followership and work engagement. phd dissertation, cape town: university of the western cape. du toit, s., du toit, m., mels, g., & cheng, y. (2008). lisrel for windows: simplis syntax files. scientific software international. retrieved from http://www.ssicentral.com eagly, a.h. (2005). achieving relational authenticity in leadership: does gender matter? leadership quarterly, 16(3), 459–474. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.007 farrell, a.m. (2010). insufficient discriminant validity: a comment on bove, pervan, beatty, and shiu (2009). journal of business research, 63(3), 324–327. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2009.05.003 gardner, w.l., avolio, b.j., luthans, f., may, d.r., & walumbwa, f. (2005). ‘can you see the real me?’ a self-based model of authentic leader and follower development. the leadership quarterly, 16(3), 343–372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.003 gardner, w.l., cogliser, c.c., davis, k.m., & dickens, m.p. (2011). authentic leadership: a review of the literature and research agenda. the leadership quarterly, 22(6), 1120–1145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.09.007 george, b. (2003). authentic leadership. rediscovering the secrets to creating lasting value. jossey-bass. retrieved from https://www.wiley.com/en-us/authentic+leadership%3a+rediscovering+the+secrets+to+creating+lasting+value-p-9780787969134 george, b., & sims, p. (2007). true north: discover your authentic leadership. jossey-bass. retrieved from https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/true-north-discover/9780787987510/ george, b., sims, p., mclean, a.n., & mayer, d. (2007, february). discovering your authentic leadership. harvard business review, 87(2), 129–138. goffee, r., & jones, g. (2005). managing authenticity: the paradox of great leadership. harvard business review, 87–94. retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.uwc.ac.za/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=58cfdc03-dd0f-4acf-be74-6c63598aa987%40sessionmgr4005&hid=4209 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2010). multivariate data analysis: a global perspective (7th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson. harter, s. (2002). authenticity. in c.r. snyder & s.j. lopez (eds.), handbook of positive psychology (p. 382). london: oxford university press. ibm corporation. (2017). ibm spss statistics for windows, version 25.0. armonk, ny: author. ilies, r., morgeson, f.p., & nahrgang, j.d. (2005). authentic leadership and eudaemonic well-being: understanding leader–follower outcomes. the leadership quarterly, 16(3), 373–394. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.002 johnson, s.l. (2019). authentic leadership theory and practical applications in nuclear medicine. journal of nuclear medicine technology, 47(3), 181–188. https://doi.org/10.2967/jnmt.118.222851 jöreskog, k.g., & sörbom, d. (1996). prelis 2 user’s reference guide: a program for multivariate data screening and data summarization: a preprocessor for lisrel. mooresville, in: scientific software. jöreskog, k.g., & sörbom, d. (2006a). an introduction to lisrel 8. 80 for windows. retrieved from www.ssicentral.com/lisrel/techdocs/session1.pdf jöreskog, k.g., & sörbom, d. (2006b). lisrel for windows (version 8.80) [computer software]. lincolnwood, il: scientific software international. retrieved from http://www.ssicentral.com/lisrel/references.html kark, r., & shamir, b. (2003). the dual effect of transformational leadership: priming relational and collective selves and further effects on followers. in b. avolio & f. yammarino (eds.), transformatio nal and charismatic leadership: the road ahead, 2, (vol. 2, pp. 67–91). oxford: elsevier science. klenke, k. (2007). authentic leadership: a self, leader, and spiritual identity perspective. international journal of leadership studies, 3(1), 68–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2007.03.003 kotzé, m., & nel, p. (2019). job and personal resources as mediators in the relationship between iron-ore mineworkers’ job demands and work engagement. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17, a1183. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1183 luthans, f., & avolio, b.j. (2003). authentic leadership: a positive development approach. in k.s. cameron, j.e. dutton & r.e. quinn (eds.), positive organizational scholarship (pp. 241–261). retrieved from https://scholar.google.co.za/scholar?hl=en&q=authentic+leadership%3a+a+positive+developmental+approach&btng=&as_sdt=1%2c5&as_sdtp= luthans, f., avolio, b.j., avey, j.b., & norman, s.m. (2007). positive psychological capital: measurement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. personnel psychology, 60, 541–572. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2007.00083.x mccain, j., & salter, m. (2004). why courag e matters: the way to a braver life (1st edn.). new york: random house. men, l.r., & stacks, d. (2014). the effects of authentic leadership on strategic internal communication and employee-organization relationships. journal of public relations research, 26(4), 301–324. https://doi.org/10.1080/1062726x.2014.908720 müceldili, b., turan, h., & erdil, o. (2013). the influence of authentic leadership on creativity and innovativeness. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 99, 673–681. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.538 munyaka, s.a., boshoff, a.b., pietersen, j., & snelgar, r. (2017). the relationships between authentic leadership, psychological capital, psychological climate, team commitment and intention to quit. sa journal of industrial psychology, 43(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v43i0.1430 neider, l.l., & schriesheim, c.a. (2011). the authentic leadership inventory (ali): development and empirical tests. leadership quarterly, 22(6), 1146–1164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.09.008 nel, p., & van zyl, e. (2015). assessing the psychometric properties of the revised and abbreviated self-leadership questionnaires. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.661 northouse, p.g. (2015). leadership: theory and practice (7th edn.). los angeles: sage. nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. pallant, j. (2016). spss survival manual a step by step guide to data analysis using spss program (6th edn.). london: mcgraw-hill education. preacher, k.j., & coffman, d.l. (2006). computing power and minimum sample size for rmsea [computer software]. retrieved from http://quantpsy.org roux, s. (2010). the relationship between authentic leadership, optimism, self-efficacy and work engagement: an exploratory study. doctoral dissertation. stellenbosch: university of stellenbosch. rubin, d.b. (2004). multiple imputation for nonresponse in surveys. new york: wiley. ryan, r.m., & deci, e.l. (2003). on assimilating identities to the self: a self-determination theory perspective on internalization and integrity within cultures. in m.r. leary & j.p. tangney (eds.), handbook of self and identity (pp. 253–272). new york: guilford press. schumacker, r.e., & lomax, r.g. (2016). a beginner’s guide to structural equation modeling (4th edn.). new york: routledge. shamir, b., & eilam, g. (2005). ‘what’s your story?’ a life-stories approach to authentic leadership development. leadership quarterly, 16(3), 395–417. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.005 stander, f.w., de beer, l.t., & stander, m.w. (2015). authentic leadership as a source of optimism, trust in the organization and work engagement in the public health care sector. sa journal of human resource management, 13(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.675 tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2013). using multivariate statistics (6th edn.). new york: allyn & bacon/pearson education. terry, r.w. (1993). authentic leadership: courage in action (6th edn.). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. van der vaart, l., stander, m., & rothmann, s. (2015). the validation of the authentic leadership inventory (ali). in unpublished manuscript, optentia research focus area (p. 6). vanderbijlpark: north-west university. retrieved from http://www.ianrothmann.com/download.php?conferenceid=37 walumbwa, f., avolio, b.j., & hartnell, c.a. (2010). an investigation of the relationships among leader and follower psychological capital, service climate and job performance. personnel psychology, 63, 937–963. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2010.01193.x walumbwa, f., avolio, b.j., gardner, w.l., wernsing, t.s., & peterson, s.j. (2008). authentic leadership: development and validation of a theory-based measure. journal of management, 34(1), 89–126. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206307308913 walumbwa, f., wang, p., wang, h., schaubroeck, j., & avolio, b.j. (2010). retracted: psychological processes linking authentic leadership to follower behaviours. leadership quarterly, 21(5), 901–914. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.07.015 wang, d.-s., & hsieh, c.-c. (2013). the effect of authentic leadership on employee trust and employee engagement. social behaviour and personality, 41(4), 613–624. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2013.41.4.613 wang, h., sui, y., luthans, f., wang, d., & wu, y. (2014). impact of authentic leadership on performance: role of followers’ positive psychological capital and relational processes. journal of organizational behaviour, 35, 5–21. https://doi.org/10.1002/job yammarino, f.j., dionne, s.d., schriesheim, c.a., & dansereau, f. (2008). authentic leadership and positive organizational behaviour: a meso, multi-level perspective. leadership quarterly, 19(6), 693–707. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2008.09.004 abstract introduction research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) ketan s. ramhit school of economic and business sciences, university of the witwatersrand, johannesburg, south africa citation ramhit, k.s. (2019). the impact of job description and career prospect on job satisfaction: a quantitative study in mauritius. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1092. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1092 original research the impact of job description and career prospect on job satisfaction: a quantitative study in mauritius ketan s. ramhit received: 25 june 2018; accepted: 29 may 2019; published: 09 oct. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: literature shows that job description and career prospect are connected to job satisfaction and it is seen that, in mauritius, job description and career prospect impact job satisfaction. research purpose: the purpose of the study was to determine the relationship between job description, career prospect and job satisfaction in mauritius. motivation for the study: it has been noticed that employees are dissatisfied when they perform duties outside their job description and also when they see that they do not have a good career prospect. despite the existence of several researches, limited research exists in the mauritian context. the outcome will provide significant relevance to existing knowledge. research approach/design and method: a quantitative approach was adopted and a survey was conducted in a multinational company in mauritius. a sample of 132 employees was chosen. main findings: this research unravelled significant negative relationships between job description, career prospect and job satisfaction. the results revealed that, when duties are not well described or when duties are not in line with current responsibilities, the employees are dissatisfied. similarly, the greater the chances that employees are not given the opportunity to get promoted, the more they are dissatisfied. practical/managerial implications: human resource practitioners, managers and team leaders need to recognise that employee’s moods influence the work pattern in the organisation and a clear job description and an appropriate career plan should exist. contribution/value-add: literature on the relationship between job description, career prospect and job satisfaction in the context of mauritius is almost inexistent. this study will add to existing knowledge. keywords: job description; career prospect; job satisfaction; multinational; mauritius; business process outsourcing. introduction orientation job satisfaction has always stimulated the interest of researchers in the field of human resource because of its impact on both a company’s and individual’s performance. with the rising number of multinational companies, decision-makers face various challenges to improve job satisfaction (westover, 2012). iles and judge (2004, p. 383) provide evidence that job satisfaction is an evaluative judgement made by people in particular situations and these situations trigger different types of behavior (millar & tessar, 1989) and the observations made by iles and judge (2004) further consolidated the fact that the workplace predicts job satisfaction. therefore, relative to the situations, employees will either like or dislike their jobs (robbins & judge, 2013, p. 82), helping researchers to better understand the consequences of job dissatisfaction. statistics mauritius (2018) reported that in the year 2018, among the unemployed people in mauritius, 31% have quit their previous job positions because of job dissatisfaction. this number seems insignificant but cannot be neglected as it raises the questions such as why people are dissatisfied with their current or past job. robbins and judge (2013, p. 73) indicate that a person’s feelings towards a job depend on what the latter has understood after the person has evaluated what the job is about and what responsibilities the job entails. therefore, depending on what the job can give to the employee, the latter will either hold a feeling towards or hold a relationship with that particular job, and that feeling can either be positive or negative (robbins & judge, 2013, p. 74). there are various constituents forming part of a job that influences employees’ feelings towards their respective job position and, according to locke (1976), there are elements that determine how much employees are pleased with their job. therefore, it is deduced that there are factors that make the job less pleasurable (locke, 1976) and the attitudes of employees change when they face certain situations, which do not coincide with their expectations (iles & judge, 2004). a wide range human resource management research on job satisfaction exists, yet research on job description and career prospect in mauritius is limited. this study gears towards two major situations faced by employees: (1) ‘performing duties outside job description’ and (2) ‘limited career prospect’. these two variables are considered inherent because employees expect their job positions to offer them the desired indulgence (armstrong, 2012; robbins & judge, 2013), if not, they lose interest in their day-to-day tasks (armstrong, 2006). research purpose, research objectives and hypotheses this study seeks to determine the respective effects and impacts of job description and career prospect on job satisfaction. the objective is to empirically determine whether relationships exist between job description, career prospect and job satisfaction in the mauritian context. job satisfaction is regarded as the outcome variable while job description and career prospect are the predictor variables. based on literature, the following hypotheses were developed: hypothesis 1 (h1): job description will negatively impact job satisfaction in the mauritian context. hypothesis 2 (h2): career prospect will negatively impact job satisfaction in the mauritian context. literature review definition of job satisfaction job satisfaction is extensively investigated worldwide (iles & judge, 2004; lumley, coetzee, tladinyane, & ferreira, 2011) and has become a very important factor in human resource management (waqas et al., 2014) and organisational behavior (robbins & judge, 2013). for locke (1976, p. 1297), job satisfaction is ‘a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences’. locke’s (1976) definition clearly explains that individuals are mentally and emotionally affected by different experiences that particular job positions provide, influencing their opinion following evaluation and appreciation of their encounter at work (iles & judge, 2004). in the same vein, mullins (2002) argued that ‘needs and expectation at work’ would influence the level of job satisfaction because employees become self-concerned about what they could achieve as a reward in the workplace (bhojak & shakdwipee, 2014). robbins and judge (2013) explain that job satisfaction describes how an employee feels about the job, that is, if a person holds positive attitudes toward a job, the latter is satisfied (armstrong, 2006). conversely, if a person is not pleased with the job, then the latter is dissatisfied (armstrong, 2006). job satisfaction can thus be defined as ‘the attitudes and feelings people have about their work’ (armstrong & taylor, 2014, p. 177), which influences ‘the extent to which an individual’s abilities match the requirements of the job’ (kozlowski, 2012, p. 379). all the above discussions clearly affirm that job satisfaction influences both the moral state and the behavior of employees. with respect to different situations and preferences, employees either draw pleasure out of their job position or they are displeased. various studies in different sectors (mathieu, fabi, lacoursière, & raymond, 2012; olawale, folusollesanmi, & olarewaju, 2016; wen, muthuveloo, & teoh, 2018) have provided evidence that intention to quit is linked with job satisfaction. it confirms the claim that job dissatisfaction is among the different reasons among employees to quit their current job position. despite several studies on job satisfaction in multinational companies (eg andreassi, lawter, brockerhoff, & rutigliano, 2014), little has been done in the context of mauritius. thus, this study would contribute further to existing literature to understand two factors under the lens of this study, which affect job satisfaction in the mauritian context. performing duties outside job description according to the pay research bureau (prb) report 2008 of the prime minister’s office of mauritius, the holder of a post has ‘to perform any other cognate duties’ (pay research bureau report, 2008, para. 10.4) and the term ‘cognate duties’ has never been defined. with increase in misinterpretation and lack of specific explanation of the terms, the ministry recommended that in every case the terms ‘cognate duties’ show up in schemes of service, they should be reinstated as: [o]ther duties directly related to the main duties listed above or related to the delivery of the output and results expected from incumbents in the roles ascribed to them according to their postings. (pay research bureau report 2008, para. 10.8) it is deduced that a job description enables employees to get acquainted with a job (brannick, levine, & morgeson, 2007) but when they are faced with duties, which have not been mentioned in the job description, they begin to doubt whether they are made for these positions (lane, 2005; robbins & judge, 2013) and their familiarity with the job begins to decline (brannick et al., 2007). robbins (1996) explains that a job description provides a formal relationship between an employee and the organisation. he also added that a job description is a guide for the incumbent to follow and to enable the employee to perform duties within the norms of the organisation (statt, 2004). a job description thus provides ‘a list of duties that a person should do, the responsibilities that need to be undertaken’ (dessler, 2013, p. 105) and what the organisation expects from the employee (marsden, caffrey, & mccaffery, 2013). it should not be mistaken for job specification, which describes what criteria a person should meet and what the job asks for (sparrow, 2000), and these criteria help managers to conceptualise the scope of duties suitable for the employee (schell & kieshauer, 1987). sanchez and levine (2009) postulated that a job description represents the minimum activities that the employee is committed to perform. this means that an employee may be expected to perform duties that are not included in the job description (national labor relations board, 2008) because each job cannot be finitely defined (itika, 2011). however, ‘the duties should be in line with the key responsibilities expected from the incumbent’ (royer, 2009) and ‘should not overlap’ (lane, 2005, p. 368) or conflict (armstrong, 2012; robbins, 1996; robbins & judge, 2013) with the main functions and obligations. quah and campbell (1994) argued that many individuals have the tendency to be intolerant towards performing duties that they were not aware of (cordes & dougherty, 1993; lepine, zhang, crawford, & rich, 2016). the absence of clear and specific information of the job (quah & campbell, 1994) increases the inaccuracy of job descriptions and employees are forced to perform duties outside the job description (el-hajji, 2011). incumbents thus fail to understand the real nature of the duties because they find their expectations more and more complex to understand (armstrong, 2012; lane, 2005; robbins & judge, 2013). limited career prospect monis and sreedhara (2011) acknowledged that one of the prominent causes of employees leaving multinational companies (mncs) is because of the lack of career opportunities. they also recognised that literature on the relationship between career prospects and job satisfaction in mncs is quite limited. in a study on job satisfaction among youths in mauritius, kisto (2016) provided evidence that among the various reasons for them leaving employment includes lack of career advancement. the study of kisto (2016) revealed that lack of opportunities for advancement is a determinant of job satisfaction because this variable affects youths both mentally and emotionally contributing to their dissatisfaction with their current job positions. as part of locke’s (1976) definition of job satisfaction and the conclusive remarks of kisto (2016), it can be deduced that offering employees with appropriate career opportunities would make job experience ‘pleasurable’. advancement in the organisation by many is regarded as a self-actualizing factor. having promotion opportunities would allow employees to achieve ‘self-fulfillment and accomplishment through personal growth’ (maslow, 1943) and not able to fulfill this need would cause the employee to lose interest in the current job (iles & judge, 2004). employees usually opt for a job position in which the probabilities of getting promoted or the chances of acquiring professional growths are high (okurame, 2012). schömann and hilbert (1998) hypothesized that fixed-term contracts contribute to poor career prospects and mcginnity and mertens (2002) further discussed that temporary employment also adds to poor career prospects. in some situations, employees choose to even leave the company because of lack of promotion (shahi, 2012). following a publication in 2012, deloitte consulting llp mentioned that an appropriate job leveling should provide logical career paths. the report further pointed out that job leveling will be easier when job titles and job competencies are aligned (deloitte consulting llp, 2015). similarly, division of levels within an organisation will create increasing circumstances for career growth (spencer & muchnick, 2015), which deliberately explains why currently some companies have limited career prospects. relationship between performing duties outside job description, limited career prospect and job satisfaction belias, koustelios, sdrolias and aspridis (2014) discussed that employees are dissatisfied when they do not have a clear understanding of their jobs. in a research in the public sector employment, addae, parboteeah and velinor (2008) posited that employees do not perform effectively as expected when they do not have clear information on their roles. this notion was also shared by um and harrison (1998) when they provided evidence that decrease in the level of job satisfaction is directly linked with employees who do not perform duties as described in their job descriptions. several researches (ali, raheem, nawaz, & imamuddin, 2014; monis & sreedhara, 2011; rast & tourani, 2012) have determined that a relationship exists between career prospects and job satisfaction. belias et al. (2014) also identified that employees are dissatisfied because they are not given the chance to have a better career prospect to prove their competences. in a study on job satisfaction in slovakia, hajdukova, klementova and klementova (2015) brought up the notion of ‘self-realisation’, a determinant of job satisfaction linked with career prospect. hajdukova et al. (2015) explain that ‘self-realisation’ is a stimulus that allows individuals to make the necessary efforts and use their skills and intellects to accomplish their desires and needs to reap the associated benefits. it is thus understood that, with the lack of career prospects, people would not be able to obtain the power to fulfill his or her ambitions. research design research approach a quantitative approach was used for this study and self-administered questionnaires were used to achieve the research objectives. research method participants, sampling and procedures the participants are employees in a multinational company dealing with customers worldwide and operating on a 24/7 basis. to obtain a viable sample (n = 132) (see table 1), random sampling (thompson, 2012) was used in this study. questionnaires were distributed and collected via personal visits using hard-copies. the data was transcribed and processed through statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 22 (2013). table 1: characteristics of respondents. measuring instruments viewpoints and conclusions were extracted from literature review and specific questions were formulated. the questionnaire was divided into four sections with three sections dedicated to statements pertaining to job description, career prospect and job satisfaction, respectively. the last section was devoted to demographics to describe the characteristics of the sample such as marital status, age and tenure. under job description, six statements were formulated to extract information on situations and issues related to how far tasks match employees’ respective job description. the statements were adapted from the minnesota job description questionnaire (weiss, dawis, england, & lofquist, 1967). under career prospect, seven statements were devised to obtain facts about the importance of career plans and development in the life of employees. for the purpose of this section, the items were reproduced from the spector’s job satisfaction survey (jss) (spector, 1985) and the manual for the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire (msq) (weiss et al., 1967). lastly, 10 items were developed under job satisfaction to pull out occurrences related to job description. the items were adapted from spector’s job satisfaction survey (spector, 1985, 1994). the items were aggregated under each construct (job description, career prospect and job satisfaction) using spss version 22 (2013). a 3-point likert scale (jacoby & mattel, 1971) was used to offer respondents a choice of three responses to express their perceptions on how much they agree or disagree with each statement with a neutral point being ‘neutral’. a score was allocated to each choice namely disagree = 1; neutral = 2 and agree = 3. validity and reliability pilot testing allowed the researcher to address any issues with the questionnaire that was developed for this study. one manager, two team leaders and seven employees were randomly chosen and were requested to fill in the questionnaire to point out any typographical mistakes that could have slipped; secondly, to ensure that the items were clear and well-designed and finally to have an insight on the best average time required when filling in the questionnaire. on the other hand, to increase reliability, test-retest procedure (lavrakas, 2008) was undertaken among 20 employees a few days after addressing issues identified during pilot testing to increase consistency of the survey questionnaire. the measuring instrument yielded a cronbach’s alpha value = 0.81 for the n = 132 sample indicating good internal reliability. research procedure permission was asked from the participating company and ethical clearance was obtained after the company was provided with a list of ethical measures. after the assurance that participants would voluntarily complete the questionnaires, hard-copies of questionnaires were distributed along with a covering letter explaining the aim, purpose and objectives of the research along with all the ethical measures regarding confidentiality and anonymity. to obtain informed consent, participants were also explained how the data would be used and who would use them. participants were given a week to complete the questionnaires and they were informed that they could quit from the process at any time without any punitive action. statistical analysis to process the collected data, the spss version 22 (2013) software was used. cross-sectional research was carried out to determine the impact between job description, career prospect and job satisfaction within a multinational company in mauritius. pearson’s product-moment correlation and regression were conducted to test the hypotheses under study results correlational statistics job description (r = −0.569, ρ = 0.000) is significant and its coefficient is negative indicating that the greater the proportion of performing duties outside the job description, the lower the job satisfaction. null hypothesis is rejected implying that job description negatively impacts job satisfaction in the mauritian context. on the other hand, there is a strong negative relationship between career prospect (r = −0.788, ρ = 0.000) and job satisfaction, indicating that the greater the chances of career prospect being limited, the lower the job satisfaction levels. null hypothesis is also rejected showing evidence that career prospect negatively impacts job satisfaction in the mauritian context. regression analysis the total variability (r2 = 0.324) shows that 32.4% of all variances indicate that job description (table 3) is a good predictor of job satisfaction and adjusted r2 is indicative of medium effect size, according to cohen’s (1988) effect size classification. table 4 shows that the regression analysis is statistically significant, f (1, 130) = 62.279, ρ = 0.000, indicating that the construct predicts the dependent variable, job satisfaction. a moderate negative linear regression (β = −0.569, ρ = 0.000) can, therefore, be established that job description is predictor of low job satisfaction, f (1, 130) = 62.279, ρ = 0.000, and performing duties outside the job description accounts for 31.9% of the explained variability in the level of job satisfaction. table 2: pearson’s product-moment correlation of job description, career prospect and job satisfaction. table 3: summary of regression of job description and job satisfaction. table 4: analysis of variance (anova)? summary of regression of job description and job satisfaction. in table 5, the total variability, (r2 = 0.621) shows that 62.1% of all variances indicate that career prospect is a good predictor of job satisfaction and adjusted r2 is indicative of large effect size, as per cohen’s (1988) effect size classification. the regression analysis is statistically significant, f (1, 130) = 213.026, ρ = 0.000, showing that the model statistically predicts the dependent variable, job satisfaction (table 6). a strong negative linear regression (β = −0.788, ρ = 0.000) can, therefore, be established that career prospect significantly predicts low job satisfaction, f (1, 130) = 213.026, ρ = 0.000, and limited career prospect accounts for 61.8% of the explained variability in the level of job satisfaction. table 5: summary of regression of career prospect and job satisfaction. table 6: analysis of variance (anova)? summary of regression of career prospect and job satisfaction. discussion outline of the results product-moment correlation analysis showed that there is a significant association between job description, career prospect and job satisfaction (p = 0.000). the result also revealed that there is a negative correlation between job description and job satisfaction, and a negative correlation between career prospect and job satisfaction. the outcomes prove the relevance and importance of both predictor variables at the workplace. the results demonstrated that employees do feel that they perform duties outside their job descriptions within the company and respondents show moderate resentment towards the issue leading to low satisfaction. these findings are consistent with similar arguments of quah and campbell (1994) and belias et al. (2014), where unclear information of the job increases the inaccuracy of job description forcing individuals to perform duties outside their job description (el-hajji, 2011). being uncertain of their roles, employees more likely perform poorly (addae et al., 2008). although there is a lack of research to understand this relationship, the outcomes of this study do provide evidence that job description impacts on job satisfaction. consequently, the impact of this variable on job satisfaction being moderate explains that the level of job satisfaction would decrease whenever clarity of job descriptions is low. it is because employees do not tolerate any mismatch between what they are doing and what they actually should be doing (cordes & dougherty, 1993; lepine et al., 2016). on the other hand, based on the findings regarding limited career prospects, incumbents show low satisfaction meaning that career prospects highly influence job satisfaction among individuals. it means that it is important for a company to have proper career opportunities, development or plans. it can also be concluded that there is a relationship, but the relationship does not establish that the levels of these opportunities are low. the findings are consistent with similar studies, which have reported that limited career opportunities decrease job satisfaction. the outcomes corroborate with the arguments of ali et al. (2014), monis and sreedhara (2011) and rast and tourani (2012) that career prospects are determinant of job satisfaction. the study reveals that whenever the chances of career opportunities are low, the higher is the impact on job satisfaction among employees (kisto, 2016), exhibiting low job satisfaction. practical implications research that relates job description and career prospect with job satisfaction in the mauritian context is almost non-existent. to tighten this restriction, these dimensions have not been highly explored in a multinational company in mauritius. the findings of this study, thus, contribute to limited knowledge regarding the relationship of job description and career prospect with job satisfaction and to a broad body of literature on job satisfaction. the research also adds to existing body of knowledge and discipline in a developing country. the findings of this study confirm that when individuals perform duties outside the job description and are provided with limited career prospects, job satisfaction would be negatively affected. the results also bring human resource practitioners, managers and team leaders into the light that the impact of both predictors range from moderate to high which should raise their concern and understand how important these variables are. limitations and recommendations the first limitation pertains to the study being undertaken in one company only and the sample that was taken might not be a representative of all the other multinational companies in mauritius. secondly, a larger sample from different multinational companies in mauritius would provide a better understanding of the relationships between the variables. it is because a bigger sample size would have provided more evidence on whether individuals do perform duties outside their job descriptions and whether they do have limited career prospect in mncs in mauritius. the relationship between the variables with job satisfaction could further be established. thirdly, it is recommended that demographics be linked with the relationships and impacts of the variables under study. the research could unveil deeper causation of low job satisfaction. fourthly, demographics cross-linked with the predictors and their impact on job satisfaction would enhance understanding of the existence of cultural bias. conclusion the aim was to determine the relationships between job description, career prospect and job satisfaction in a business process outsourcing (bpo) company in mauritius. the results showed that the questionnaire used for this study to collect data was valid and reliable. correlational analysis yielded negative association between job description, career prospect and job satisfaction. the analysis indicates that whenever the level of the predictor variable would increase, the lower would be the job satisfaction. this outcome explains that whenever an employee performs more duties that are outside the job description, the lower will be his or her satisfaction towards the job. similarly, whenever an employee becomes aware of career prospect being limited, job satisfaction decreases. to accentuate on the impact of the predictor variables on job satisfaction, regression analysis further pointed that the lower the job satisfaction, the higher is the impact on the employees. the hypotheses have been tested statistically and the objectives of the study have been met that confirmed the claims, arguments and findings in literature. acknowledgements the author sincerely thanks the managing director who agreed to the administration of the questionnaires and all the participants who agreed to fill them. he specially thanks his wife for encouraging him throughout this research. competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. authors’ contributions k.s.r. undertook all the stages of this research without any assistance, ranging from the formulation of the methodology, data collection, statistical analysis and interpretation and writing up of the literature review. ethical considerations a letter of authorisation was sought in writing from the multinational company (mnc). a written statement was provided to the company regarding anonymity of participants. no information was asked from them that could identify the company or the people. the data have never been shared and have been used solely for the purpose of this study. the data have neither been made available to the company nor to any other parties. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views expressed in this article are the author’s own and not an official position of the institution. references addae, h.m., parboteeah, k.p., & velinor, n. (2008). role stressors and organisational commitment: public sector employment in st. lucia. international journal of manpower, 26(6), 567–582. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720810904220 ali, w.u., raheem, a.r., nawaz, a., & imamuddin, k. (2014). impact of stress on job performance: an empirical study of the employees of private sector universities of karachi, pakistan. research journal of management sciences, 3(7), 14–17. andreassi, j.k., lawter, l., brockerhoff, m., & rutigliano, p.j. (2014). cultural impact of human resource practices on job satisfaction: a global study across 48 countries. cross cultural management: an international journal, 21(1), 55–77. https://doi.org/10.1108/ccm-05-2012-0044 armstrong, m. (2006). a handbook of human resource management (10th edn.). cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. armstrong, m. (2012). armstrong’s handbook of human resource management (12th edn.). hampshire, uk: ashford color press. armstrong, m., & taylor, s. (2014). armstrong’s handbook of human resource management (13th edn.). hampshire, uk: ashford colour press. belias, d., koustelios, a., sdrolias, l., & aspridis, g. (2014). job satisfaction, role conflict and autonomy of employees in the greek banking organisation. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 175(2015), 324–333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.1207 bhojak, y., & shakdwipee, p. (2014). a study of employee satisfaction with special reference to “manufacturing industries”. international journal of modern communication technologies & research, 2(8), 22–28. brannick, m.t., levine, e.l., & morgeson, f.p. (2007). job and work analysis: methods, research and applications for human resource management (2nd ed). thousand oaks, ca: sage. cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd edn.). hillsdale, nj: lawrence earlbaum associates. cordes, c., & dougherty, t. (1993). a review and an integration of research on job burnout. academy of management review, 18(4), 621–656. https://doi.org/10.2307/258593 deloitte consulting llp. (2015). job architecture: laying the building blocks of effective human capital management. deloitte development llc. retrieved from http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/us/documents/human-capital/us-cons-job-architecture-041315.pdf. dessler, g. (2013). human resource, management (13th edn.). new jersey, usa: prentice hall. el-hajji, m.a. (2011). some recent trends in writing job description for the purpose of job evaluation: a reflective view. american international journal of contemporary research, 1(3), 6–14. hajdukova, a., klementova, j., & klementova, j. (2015). the job satisfaction as a regulator of the working behaviour. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 190(2015), 471–476. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.05.028 iles, r., & judge, t.a. (2004). an experience-sampling measure of job satisfaction and its relationships with affectivity, mood at work, job beliefs, and general job satisfaction. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 13(3), 367–389. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320444000137 itika, j.s., (2011). fundamentals of human resources management: emerging experiences from africa. leiden: african studies centre. jacoby, j., & mattel, m.s. (1971). three-point likert scales are good enough. journal of marketing research, 8(4), 495–500. https://doi.org/10.2307/3150242 kisto, m. (2016). determinants of youth job satisfaction in mauritius. international journal of scientific and technology research, 5(12), 129–132. kozlowski, w.j. (2012). the oxford handbook of organisational psychology (vol. 1). new york: oxford university press. lane, l.l. (2005). by all means communicate: an overview of basic speech communication (2nd edn.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. lavrakas, p.j. (2008). encyclopedia of survey research methods. thousand oaks, ca: sage. lepine, m.a., zhang, t., crawford, e.r., & rich, b.l. (2016). turning their pain to gain: charismatic leader influence on follower stress appraisal and job performance. academy of management journal, 59(3), 1036–1059. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2013.0778 locke, e.a. (1976). the nature and causes of job satisfaction. in m.d. dunnette (edn.), handbook of industrial and organisational psychology (pp. 1297–1349). chicago, il: rand mcnally. lumley, e.j., coetzee, m.r., tladinyane, r., & ferreira, n. (2011). exploring the job satisfaction and organisational commitment of employees in the information technology environment. southern african business review, 15(1), 100–118. marsden, p., caffrey, m., & mccaffery, j. (2013). human resources management assessment approach. washington, dc: usaid. maslow, a.h. (1943). a theory of human motivation. psychological review, 50(4), 370–396. mathieu, c., fabi, b., lacoursière, r., & raymond, l. (2012). the role of supervisory behavior, job satisfaction and organisational commitment on employee turnover. journal of management & organisation, 22(1), 113–129. https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2015.25 mcginnity, f., & mertens, a. (2002, february). fixed-term contracts in east and west germany: low wages, poor prospects? paper presented at the gsoep2002 international conference, berlin, germany. monis, h., & sreedhara, t.n. (2011). employee satisfaction with career development practices: a comparative study of indian and foreign mnc bpo firms. journal of arts science & commerce, 2(1), 110–122. millar, m.g., & tesser, a. (1989). the effects of affective-cognitive consistency and thought on the attitude-behavior relation. journal of experimental social psychology, 25(2), 189–202. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(89)90012-7 mullins, l.j. (2002). management and organisational behaviour (6th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. national labor relations board. (2008). decisions and orders of the national labor relations board. washington, dc: us government printing service. okurame, d. (2012). impact of career growth prospects and formal mentoring on organisational citizenship behaviour. leadership and organisation development journal, 33(1), 66–85. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437731211193124 olawale, a.r., folusollesanmi, j., & olarewaju, a.a. (2016). job satisfaction, turnover intention and organisational commitment. bvimsr’s journal of management research, 8(2), 102–114. pay research bureau report. (2008). general background and related issues and conditions of service: review of schemes of service and qualifications. retrieved from http://civilservice.govmu.org/english/documents/circulars/circulars%20-%20library/circulars%202008%20-%20library/circular%20letters%202008/cl35.pdf. quah, j., & campbell, k.m. (1994). role conflict and role ambiguity as factors in work stress among managers in singapore: some moderator variables. research and practice in human resource management, 2(1), 21–33. rast, s., & tourani, a. (2012). evaluation of employee’s job satisfaction and role of gender difference: am empirical study at airline industry in iran. international journal of business and social science, 3(7), 91–100. robbins, s.p. (1998). organisational behaviour: concepts, controversies, applications (7th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. robbins, s.p., & judge, t.a. (2013). organisational behavior (15th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. royer, k.p. (2009). job descriptions and job analyses in practice: how research and application differ. (unpublished doctoral dissertation). depaul university, chicago, united states. sanchez, j.i., & levine, e.l. (2009). what is (or should be) the difference between competency modelling and traditional job analysis? human resource management review, 19(1), 53–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2008.10.002 schell, b.a.b., & kieshauer, m.l. (1987). beyond the job description: managing for performance. the american journal of occupational therapy, 41(5), 305–309. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.41.5.305 schömann, k., & hilbert, c. (1998). the youth labour market in germany – a new target group for german labour market policies? vierteljahrshefte zur wirtschaftsforschung, 67(4), 272–285. shahi, t.a. (2012). factors affecting job satisfaction, motivation and turnover rate of medical promotion officer (mpo) in pharmaceutical industry: a study based in khulna city. asian business review, 1(1), 126–131. sparrow, p. (2000). new employee behaviours, work designs and forms of work organisation: what is in store for future of work? journal of managerial psychology, 15(3), 202–218. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940010320561 spector, p.e. (1985). measurement of human service staff satisfaction: development of the job satisfaction survey. american journal of community psychology, 13(6), 693–713. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00929796 spector, p.e. (1994). job satisfaction survey. tampa, fl: university of south florida. spencer, j., & muchnick, m. (2015). should we undo the flat organisation: accommodating needy millennial generation worker. european journal of contemporary economics and management, 2(2), 14–28. https://doi.org/10.19044/elp.v2no2a2 statistics mauritius. (2018). labour force, employment and unemployment-year 2018 [pdf file]. retrieved from http://statsmauritius.govmu.org/english/publications/documents/2019/e11450/lf_emp_unemp_yr18.pdf. statt, d. (2004). psychology and the world of work (2nd edn.). hampshire, uk: palgrave macmillan. thompson, s.k. (2012). sampling. hoboken, nj: wiley. um, m., & harrison, d.f. (1998). role stressors, burnout, mediators, and job satisfaction: a stress-strain-outcome model and an empirical test. social work research, 22(2), 100–115. https://doi.org/10.1093/swr/22.2.100 waqas, a., bashir, u., sattar, m.f., abdullah, h.m., hussain, i., ali, m.a., et al. (2014). factors influencing job satisfaction and its impact on job loyalty. international journal of learning & development, 4(2), 142–161. weiss, d.j., dawis, r.v., england, g.w., & lofquist, l.h. (1967). minnesota job description questionnaire. minneapolis, mn: university of minnesota. wen, c.t., muthuveloo, r., & teoh, a.p. (2018). factors influencing job satisfaction: a perspective of millennials in malaysia multinational (mnc) companies. global business and management research: an international journal, 10(1), 48–66. westover, j.h. (2008). a cross-national analysis of job quality characteristics and perceived job satisfaction in a changing world economy: implications for public administrators managing a multicultural workforce. international review of public administration, 13(2), 129–144. https://doi.org/10.1080/12294659.2008.10805126 166--12 nov 2009 [final version].indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #166 (page number not for citation purposes) authors: lizelle wentzel1 chenell buys1 karina mostert1 affi liations: 1faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, south africa correspondence to: karina mostert e-mail: karina.mostert@nwu.ac.za keywords: work; personal life; interaction; strategies; secondary school educators dates: received: 25 sep. 2008 accepted: 10 jan. 2009 published: 30 may 2009 how to cite this article: wentzel, l., buys, c., & mostert, k. (2009). work and personal life: which strategies do secondary school educators use to deal with the interaction? sa journal of human resource mangement/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), art. #166, 9 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.166 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. abstract the general objective of this study was to investigate which strategies secondary school educators use to deal with the interaction between their work and personal lives. a nonprobability purposive voluntary sample (n = 21) was taken of secondary school educators from the potchefstroom and promosa areas in the north west province. data was collected through a phenomenological method of semi-structured in-depth interviews and was analysed by the use of content analysis. strategies that were reported by the educators included support and understanding from important others, work satisfaction, keeping work and personal life apart, acceptance of their teaching environment, planning ahead, experiencing teaching as a calling, experience in the educational fi eld, communication, religion or prayer, doing exercise and staying active, and doing the work that is expected of them. introduction education plays a fundamental role in south africa, where a high premium is set on accomplishing a range of critical objectives such as social transformation, technological innovation and individual empowerment. subsequently, increasing pressure is placed on education to contribute its share towards meeting the social demands originating from the pursuit of those objectives (marais & meier, 2004). in addition, education provides a learner with new skills and knowledge that must enable him or her to function in a modern society. furthermore, education has been considered as an instrument for illuminating structures of oppression and providing learners with the tools to amend those oppressive structures in society (vandeyar, 2003). recently, the idea of teachers experiencing excessive stress has received deserved attention. stress and burnout among educators have also become much talked about phenomena and have increasingly been acknowledged as widespread problems and global concerns (jackson & rothmann, 2006; montgomery, mostert & jackson, 2005a). as the demands on educators and schools increase, so does the incidence of stress in the teaching profession (shulze & steyn, 2007). it has also been shown that teacher stress is related to many different work outcomes, such as turnover intentions, job performance and job satisfaction (geving, 2007). in addition, the stress that educators experience can have serious implications for their physical and mental health. today, many teachers complain about low morale and stress-related illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes, ulcers and heart attacks, whereas others plan to leave the profession and take early retirement (olivier & venter, 2003). the new political dispensation that has been taking place in south africa since the fi rst democratic elections in 1994 gave rise to the socio-cultural and socio-economic transformation taking place today (horn, 2006). educational structures within the south african context are infl uenced by this transformation and increased demands are being placed on educators (montgomery et al., 2005a). educators must cope with demands such as increased specialisation, the growing scope of syllabuses, lack of discipline in schools, the abolishment of corporal punishment, unmotivated learners, learners’ negative attitudes towards themselves, redeployment, retrenchments (right-sizing) and retirement packages for teachers, large pupil-teacher ratios and a new curriculum approach (niehaus, myburgh & kok, 1996; olivier & venter, 2003; schulze & steyn, 2007). moreover, the new outcomes-based education (obe) approach, the management style of principals, new governing bodies for schools, the high crime rate in the country, coping with current political change and corruption in state departments are all contributing to the increased demands that are being placed on educators (marais, 1992). these problems manifest in various forms of destructive behaviour such as alcohol abuse, absenteeism, diffi culties in setting priorities in their work and personal lives and destructive relations between educators and learners, educators and colleagues and educators and their families (myburgh & poggenpoel, 2002; van wyk, 2004). this ultimately results in poor quality of life (van wyk, 2004). therefore, it seems important and relevant to investigate not only the work lives of teachers, but also their personal lives and the interaction between these two domains. the relationship between work life and personal life is an issue that now commands growing attention in both the public and private sectors. all things considered, work and family (personal) life are the two domains of human activity in which fully employed individuals spend about two-thirds of their time (one-third in each). the essence of the relationship between work life and family life today is that the two domains overlap and interact (nollen, 1986). this interaction is increasing due to changes in family structures (e.g. single parents, dual-career couples and fathers heavily involved in parenting), increased participation by women in the labour force, and technological changes (e.g. mobile phones and portable computers) that enable job tasks to be performed in a variety of locations (carnicer, sánchez & pérez, 2004; hill, miller, weiner & colihan, 1998). in addition, psychological and physical boundaries between work and personal life have become more blurred as organisations become increasingly virtual and more people work at or from home for all or part of the week using information and communication technologies (montgomery, panagopoulou, peeters & schaufeli, 2005b). consequently, work and family roles have gradually become more intertwined and men and work and personal life: which strategies do secondary school educators use to deal with the interaction? 9vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 9 original research wentzel, buys & mostert sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 16 6 (page number not for citation purposes) 10 women are increasingly concerned about managing the conflict experienced in fulfilling the dual demands and responsibilities of work and family roles (montgomery et al., 2005b; o’driscoll, brough & kalliath, 2004). for many workers, this has created the potential for interference or conflict to occur between their work and family lives (hill et al., 1998). previous research indicates that in some instances work interferes with family life (work-to-family conflict), and in other situations family responsibilities interfere with life at work (family-to-work conflict) (eby, casper, lockwood, bordeaux & brinleya, 2005). greenhaus and beuttell (1985) describe work-family conflict as a form of inter-role conflict in which responsibilities from the work and family domains are not compatible. furthermore, work-family conflict has been shown to have an unfavourable relation with a variety of variables associated with employee work life, home life, and general health and well-being. greater health risks for working parents, lowered performance in the parental role, lowered productivity at work, less life satisfaction, anxiety and work stress are all variables that can be associated with the unfavourable experience of workfamily conflict (allen, herst, bruck & sutton, 2000; greenhaus & beutell, 1985; kelly & voydanoff, 1985; kossek & ozeki, 1998; small & riley, 1990). it would therefore seem reasonable that the conflict between the work and family domains is of increasing concern in today’s organisational environment (howard, donofrio & boles, 2004). duxbury (2004) stresses the importance of using coping strategies to efficiently deal with work-life issues. to attain good work-personal life interaction (wpli), coping strategies have to be integrated by the individuals themselves as well as by the organisation. the organisational initiatives being promoted to assist employees to cope with work and personal life have a tendency to be discussed under the general rubric of familyfriendly organisational policies or reimbursement (frone, 2003). the literature has focused on the ways that organisations can ‘manage the situation’ by generating flexible working policies or arrangements (rotondo, carlson & kincaid, 2002). such flexibility is, obviously, a possible means of reducing stress linked with work-family conflict (warren & johnson, 1995). however, such policies and arrangements are still not available to everybody. several employees, particularly those working in smaller organisations, do not enjoy benefits like flexitime, on-site day care, career-break schemes, and informal support networks (rotondo et al., 2002) the capacity to cope with the stress created from the instantaneous demands of work and family is often a function of the capabilities of the individual (rotondo et al., 2002). the ways people cope with stress and daily living also influence their psychological, physical and social well-being (pienaar & rothmann, 2003). furthermore, work-related stress is rather serious among secondary school educators, threatens their health, and affects work behaviour and performance (pei & guoli, 2007). a study by schulze and steyn (2007) among secondary school educators indicated that individual educators have to accept the responsibility to acquire coping skills to deal efficiently with the demands of the occupation. with this in mind, it is significant to note that being a secondary school educator is one of the ten toughest professions in south africa and therefore it is necessary to develop appropriate programmes to help educators develop coping skills (schulze & steyn, 2007). hence, in light of the above discussion, the objective of this study is to determine which strategies secondary school educators use to deal with wpli issues. work-personal life interaction over the past 25 years, researchers, social commentators, organisational managers and people in general have expressed considerable concern about work-family issues (o’driscoll et al., 2004). in most studies, work and family are regarded as two conflicting domains – work conflicts with family and family conflicts with work (mostert, 2006). as a result, the most widely referred to definition of work-family conflict is that of greenhaus and beutell (1985, p. 77), which states that work-family conflict is ‘a form of inter-role conflict in which the role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respect. that is, participation in the work (family) role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in the family (work) role’. this definition implies a bi-directional dimension in that work can interfere with home (work-home interference; whi) and that home can interfere with work (home-work interference, hwi) (frone, 2003). furthermore, greenhaus and beutell (1985) outlined three distinct forms of work-family conflict, including time-based conflict (i.e. incompatible time demands between work and family), strain-based conflict (e.g. affective overspill from one domain to the other), and behaviour-based conflict (e.g. where in-role behaviour in one domain is incompatible with role behaviour in the other domain). common antecedents of wpli include gender, family status, work involvement and work demands. women, individuals with children, more highly job involved individuals and individuals experiencing greater job demands typically report more negative interaction between their work and personal lives (burke, 2004). according to demerouti, geurts and kompier (2004b), research findings consistently support that work characteristics are mainly antecedents of negative influence from work, and that home characteristics are the major antecedents of negative influence from the personal life domain. on the other hand, consequences of wpli can be grouped into two categories: those dealing with attitudes regarding job and family life (e.g. satisfaction), and those which signify some aspect of well-being (such as psychological strain or physical health). research evidence is consistent and overwhelming – a perception that work and family life interfere with each other is associated with dissatisfaction with both the job and personal life, along with reduced feelings of well-being (or, conversely, heightened psychological and physical strain) (o’driscoll et al., 2004). coping a wide range of coping strategies exist, and the most common and widespread coping taxonomy was proposed by lazarus and folkman (1984). these authors define coping as the cognitive and behavioural efforts individuals use to manage taxing demands appraised as exceeding their personal resources. they suggest that coping has two main functions: the regulation of distressing emotions (emotion-focused coping) and doing something to positively change the problem causing the distress (problemfocused coping). problem-focused coping refers to efforts directed at doing something productive about the conditions that harm, threaten or challenge, or to change or manage the type of stress (shaw, 1999). these include, for instance, active coping such as eliciting instrumental social support, drawing on work flexibility and planning and the suppression of competing activities. emotion-focused coping refers to efforts aimed at regulating the emotion itself, or reducing psycho logical distress in order to help sustain equilibrium (aldwin & revenson, 1987). such strategies include focusing on and venting emotions, mental disengagement, positive reassessment, acceptance and denial (steward & donald, 2006). also, folkman and lazarus (1988) found that people used considerably less planful problemsolving and distancing in situations that involved concern for a loved one’s well-being and that more planful problem-solving and self-control were used in situations that involved a goal at work. endler and parker (1990) acknowledge that the third basic strategy that may be used in coping with stress is avoidance. avoidance can include either person-oriented or task-oriented strategies. avoidance differs from problemand emotion-focused coping in that avoiding a situation actually removes the person from the stressful situation, whereas problemand emotion-focused coping may help the person deal with the stressful situation while vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 9 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #166 (page number not for citation purposes) secondary school educators’ strategies for work-life interaction 11 he or she remains in it (kowalski & crocker, 2001). additionally, an avenue that is in need of investigation is the coping process through which individuals deal with work–family conflict. it may be that certain types of coping mechanisms are used more frequently and effectively by some groups rather than others (carlson & kacmar, 2000). a more recent study conducted by toth (2005) among managers in a multinational corporation in hungary found that men and women have different views of work-life balance and adopt different coping strategies to deal with work and family commitments. it was generally found that work-life balance is constructed as an individual, rather than a corporate responsibility and this also generates gendered inequalities. furthermore, crooker, smith and tabak (2002) state that chosen coping behaviours or reaction patterns are a function of individual differences such as personality types, individual resourcefulness, or attitudes and beliefs. crooker, smith and tabak (2002) also mention that diverse personalities cope with uncertainty in different ways, determining experienced worklife balance as well as individual outcomes such as stress levels and organisational outcomes such as work behaviours. additionally, research by brink and de la rey (2001) found that south african businesswomen make use of both emotional and problem-focused coping strategies to deal with workfamily conflict. these strategies include positive reappraisal, planful problem solving, exercising self-control and seeking social support. they also found that women who use cognitive appraisal (control) as a coping strategy are less likely to choose escape-avoidance as a coping strategy to manage the situation. findings of a research project undertaken by rotondo et al. (2002) investigate the effectiveness of different coping styles to deal with work–family conflict. they found that avoidance/ resignation coping is associated with higher levels of work– family conflict, and help-seeking and direct action coping tools used at home were associated with lower family-work conflict. also, in a more recent study by steward and donald (2006) it was shown that spouses whose partners are absent due to frequent business travel use both problemand emotion-focused coping to deal with their partners’ absence. the main coping resources that the spouses made use of included work flexibility and social support. according to carlson and perrewe (1999), social support may be an imperative coping mechanism against the strain of workfamily conflict through its impact on perceived stressors. this proposes that individuals who develop strong social support networks at work and at home may in reality perceive fewer stressors in their organisational and family life. also, social support has been suggested to moderate the consequences of work-family role conflict on the well-being of dual-career couples (kirrane & buckley, 2004). other aspects of coping behaviour have been studied by beutell and greenhaus (1983), who found that tradition-oriented women tend to adopt non-functional coping strategies when dealing with intense work-family conflict. also, in a study done by beehr, johnson, nieva and hurrel (1995) among 177 police officers and their spouses it was found that emotion-focused coping (e.g. putting the situation in perspective) was effective in reducing many of the strains reported by police officers. also, it was found that police officers’ use of religion as a coping strategy may be beneficial for their spouses. in a study done by matsui, ohsawa and onglatco (1995), it was found that family role definition (i.e. re-negotiating role expectations, altering one’s attitudes and viewpoints about role expectations) was an efficient coping strategy for dealing with family-to-work overspill among japanese working women. furthermore, research by edwards and rothbard (2000) suggests that the active separation of work and family may also be seen as a way of coping with stress from either domain, or as a way of maintaining a preferred degree of connection between work and family. in addition to the aforementioned, a study by wallis and price (2003) amongst a group of twenty single working mothers with pre-school age children found that nine of the women in this sample tried to reduce conflict between work and family by separating the two via segmentation, whereby each domain is kept separate in terms of time, physical location, attitudes and behaviour. moreover, there is some evidence that effective coping responses to work-family conflict can eradicate or lessen both job-related and home distress (lazarus & folkman, 1984). however, there is still a limited amount of research in the field of occupational health psychology regarding the relationship between coping and work-home interaction. research design research approach a qualitative design from a phenomenological approach was used. in this approach, the researchers were interested in the meaning educators attributed to their experiences of reality, their world and their relationships. the educators’ cognitive experiences had to be understood and defined because it was only through that that the true essence of the educators’ experience could be realised (rothmann, gerber, lubbe, sieberhagen & rothmann, 1998). table 1 characteristics of the participants item category frequency percentage (%) gender male 7 33.3 female 14 66.7 age 20–29 years 1 4.8 30–39 years 12 57.1 40–49 years 5 23.8 50–69 years 3 14.3 race white 7 33.3 coloured 4 19.0 african 10 47.6 qualification university degree 6 28.6 postgraduate degree 7 33.3 technicon diploma 2 9.5 technical college 2 9.5 other 3 14.3 marital status married 15 71.4 not married 6 28.6 parental status no children 1 4.8 one child 4 19.0 two children 10 47.7 three children 5 23.8 four children 1 4.8 teaching experience 2–9 years 5 23.8 10–19 years 11 52.4 20–29 years 3 14.3 30–39 years 2 9.5 vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 9 original research wentzel, buys & mostert sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 16 6 (page number not for citation purposes) 12 research strategy the study’s unit of analysis was individual educators and the case study as a familiar design was chosen. the study comprised of multiple case studies within the context of a more distinct exploratory approach. a sample size of 21 secondary school educators was chosen. furthermore, both the first and second researcher approached the secondary school educators to share their stories and experiences. descriptive information of the sample is given in table 1. as can be seen in table 1, the participants were predominantly female (66.7%). in total, 47.6% were african, 33.3% were white and 19.0% were coloured. most of the participants were between the ages of 30–39 years (57.1%). regarding marital status, 71.4% of the participants were married, and 47.7% of the participants had two children. more than half of the participants (52.4%) had been teaching for 10 – 19 years. research method research setting the interview was held in a relaxed environment (e.g. classrooms and homes) where attention was given to the climate and atmosphere of the room. where necessary, and in order to ensure that the interview was not interrupted, a ‘do not disturb’ sign was placed outside the door. ensuring that the participant was at ease, the researchers introduced themselves in a friendly and warm manner and explained the context of the interview. entrée and establishing researcher role consent to conduct the research was received from the department of education and participating schools. the headmasters of the respective schools acted as mediators and were provided with information about the research project, as well as with the selection criteria for the identification of possible participants. the headmasters provided the researchers with the names and contact details of educators willing to participate. criteria for inclusion in this research were educators who 1) were working in the selected schools in the potchefstroom and promosa area; 2) had at least two years’ work experience; and 3) were willing to participate in the research and prepared to have a tape-recorded interview with the researchers. the possible participants were contacted and interviews were scheduled with them. of these participants, 21 were interviewed, after which the data was saturated (woods & catanzaro, 1988). sampling the population consisted of a non-probability purposive voluntary sample of secondary school educators in the potchefstroom and promosa area (n = 21). data collection methods a semi-structured interview, based on the phenomenological paradigm was used in this research. the researchers studied the phenomenon without predetermined expectations of categories and tried to understand the data from the perspective of the participant. the interview was informal and non-directive, with the central question: ‘you have a work life and a personal life. can you tell me which strategies you use to deal with the interaction between these two domains?’. the researchers asked the question and made sure that the participants understood the question. a pilot study was carried out to improve the success and effectiveness of the investigation (de vos, strydom, fouché, poggenpoel & schurink, 1998). the pilot study assisted the researchers in making the necessary modifications of the datagathering instrument. the interview schedule was evaluated by an expert for appropriateness before the main investigation proceeded. the pilot study also ensured that the researchers were able to use non-directive dialogue techniques. the researchers faced the participant squarely in a relaxed way, had an open body posture and leaned slightly forward to ensure that the participant was comfortable during the whole interview. the researchers also kept eye contact with the participant at all times. non-directive dialogue techniques like minimal verbal responses (e.g. ‘mm-mm, yes, i see’), paraphrasing (stating the participant’s words in another form with the same meaning), clarification (e.g. ‘can you tell me more about…’ ‘you seem to be saying...’), reflection (e.g. ‘so, you believe that…’), reflective summary (e.g. ‘so what you’re saying…’) and silence were used to assist the participants to share their experiences. socialdesirable responses were also minimised by making use of these dialogue techniques. rephrasing and repetition of questions were used in order to gain credibility of information. the researchers strived to promote validity by spending enough time with the participant in order to establish a rapport. immediately after each interview, the field notes regarding that interview were written down. the field notes included both the empirical observation and interpretations. the researchers wrote down their emotions, preconceptions, expectations and prejudices so that they could be developed in the final product. recording of data the interview was tape-recorded with the permission of the participant and it was also emphasised that the identity of the participant would remain anonymous and that the participant could withdraw from the study at any time. data analysis the interviews were transcribed verbatim and then coded by the researchers by means of content analysis. content analysis consists of various steps (giorgi, 1985; kerlinger, 1986). firstly, the content that needed to be analysed was universalised, defined and categorised. secondly, the sub-units, namely words and themes of the analysis, were determined. the researchers read the responded notes in order to form an overall picture. afterwards, the researchers once again read the notes in order to determine the themes. the words that were used by the participant were the smallest analysis that was made. a sub-theme is usually a sentence and is more difficult but also more useful to analyse. sub-themes were combined in order to determine the themes. the analysis of the information was continued until repeated themes were identified. thirdly, the data was cleared of unnecessary information and the meaning of the rest of the sub-units was determined by linking it to the whole picture. lastly, the concrete language of the participants was converted into scientific language and concepts. the precise words of the participants were used in support, based on gained insights, integration and synthesis. the number of objects per category was counted and placed in order of preference. the trustworthiness of the content analysis was promoted by the coding that was done by the researchers and a co-coder. a literature-control was done to investigate relevant research in order to determine the comparativeness and uniqueness of the current research (krefting, 1991). strategies to enhance the quality of data guba’s model for qualitative research (guba, 1981; krefting, 1991; lincoln & guba, 1985) was applied in order to ensure the trustworthiness of the findings. attention was given to the principles of credibility (checking the truth value of the findings), by means of field notes, triangulation, peer examination and independent coding; transferability (ensuring applicability of the findings), through comparison of sufficient descriptive data, as well as dense description of the data; dependability (ensuring consistency of the findings), by means of an audit, keeping of the raw material, giving a full description of the research method, applying the same procedure throughout, triangulation, peer examination and the code-recode procedure; conformability (which was accomplished by using the criterion of neutrality or freedom from bias), by keeping an appropriate distance in order not to influence the research, as well as triangulation and the code-recode procedure. vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 9 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #166 (page number not for citation purposes) secondary school educators’ strategies for work-life interaction 13 also, conducting research is an ethical enterprise. research ethics provide researchers with a code of moral guidelines on how to conduct research in a morally acceptable way. the following was applied at all times to retain an ethical climate (struwig & stead, 2001): the researchers were honest, fair and respectful towards the participants and did not attempt to mislead or deceive the research participants. the researchers respected the rights and dignity of others. this included respecting the privacy, confidentiality and autonomy of the research participants. the researchers were also mindful to cultural and individual differences among people, such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, language and socio-economic status. the researchers therefore did not knowingly discriminate against people based on such factors. the welfare of others was a major concern. the researchers avoided or minimised any harm befalling the research participant as a result of interaction with them. the major themes that emerged from the data were discussed and enforced by quotations from participants. where necessary, quotations were adapted to read without effort and to make more sense. results the findings of this study were organised into major themes concerning the strategies that educators use to cope with the interaction between work and personal life. table 2 shows the themes and the frequency of the responses for male and female participants, as well as the frequency that the theme was mentioned for the total group. educators experienced certain aspects that helped them to deal with the interaction between their demanding work environment and personal lives. the various strategies that they made use of are discussed next. theme 1: support and understanding from important others one aspect that was found to facilitate educators’ interaction between their work and personal lives was support and understanding from people in their work environment (e.g. headmaster and colleagues), as well as people in their personal lives (e.g. spouses, partners, family and friends). support and understanding from people in the work environment was prominent in the following responses: ‘we (educators) are a small group, but we can also support each other’; ‘if one of us decides to study further, then our colleagues help us, they go out of their way to help and support us’. reasons why educators viewed their spouse as supportive included that the spouses knew what responsibilities teaching entailed and helped with duties at home such as cooking and caring for children: ‘fortunately my husband knows how to table 2 major strategies that educators use to deal with the interaction between work and personal life major themes frequency of male responses frequency of female responses total responses support and understanding from important others1. 3 7 10 work satisfaction2. 3 5 8 keeping work and personal life apart3. 4 3 7 acceptance of the teaching environment4. 2 4 6 planning ahead5. 0 5 5 teaching as a calling6. 1 4 5 experience7. 2 2 4 communication8. 1 2 3 religion or prayer9. 0 3 3 partaking in exercise and staying active10. 0 2 2 doing the work that is expected of you11. 0 1 1 cook, even when i had the babies he helped me feed the child and i had his support.’ furthermore, the support educators experience from their spouses was sometimes from spouses in the same field of work (education): ‘when an educator is married to another educator it makes the house circumstances a lot better. they know the same daily routine, programme and a person understands each other’s circumstances better’; ‘my husband is also in education, which makes it easier’. the perception was that spouses understood the educational circumstances and gave advice or assisted with the workload. theme 2: work satisfaction the interviews also indicated that educators’ work satisfaction facilitated the interaction between work and family life. one of the participants indicated: ‘i enjoy it incredibly, i am mad about education and i like children’. this suggested that educators experienced work satisfaction because of their fondness of education, teaching and working with children. some of the educators also indicated that they enjoyed the subjects that they taught at school: ‘... i enjoy teaching and i enjoy my subject...’. other educators were of the opinion that money does not matter and that one should not be in education for the money, seeing that it is a well-known fact that educators are poorly remunerated: ‘i am one of the lucky ones that are happy and satisfied and money is not everything to me’. as a result, educators’ work satisfaction seemed to help the interaction between their work (demanding work environment) and their personal lives. theme 3: keeping work and personal life apart some of the participants revealed that they deal with the interaction between their work and personal lives by actively trying to keep work and personal life apart. in was clear from the interviews that the educators tried to keep work and personal life apart by finishing their work at school and not taking it home. also, they tried not to let work problems interfere with their home situation and vice versa: ‘if a thing happens here (school) no matter what it is, i don’t take it home. certain things that happen here have nothing to do with my family’; ‘...when i have problems at home i will never bring them to work…’; ‘… when i leave work i leave the ones at work and i concentrate on the ones at home because if i cluster them together they are going to frustrate and confuse me’. in other words, work and personal life were viewed as two separate spheres. therefore, problems that could exist between these two spheres are reduced by keeping the spheres apart. theme 4: acceptance of the teaching environment educators also stated that they got used to the teaching environment and accepted the educational circumstances. the participants stated: ‘a person get [sic] used to the situation here. at this stage it doesn’t bother you anymore’; ‘it is almost part of our job description, you take it as it comes, basically’. one of the participants indicated that one has to make education vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 9 original research wentzel, buys & mostert sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 16 6 (page number not for citation purposes) 14 part of your personal life: ‘you have to make this work part of your personal life, and when you have decided this, you have to accept it’. another participant was of the opinion that not only do you have to accept the teaching environment, but it makes the interaction easier if your family accept it as well: ‘i am married to the school. luckily my family have accepted this’. theme 5: planning ahead apart from the abovementioned, educators also perceived planning ahead to be tremendously important. ‘a person must do good planning. this is how you cope in your house and your personal life and with all your children and with all your schoolwork, to handle everything you must do good planning’; ‘so, you plan your stuff to fit in with your personal life and your personal life to fit in with your work life’. according to one of the educators planning ahead is all about managing one’s time efficiently and finding a balance: ‘... you must plan your time incredibly well, otherwise your work accumulates and comes down all at once. you must find that balance’. theme 6: teaching as a calling also contributing to the aspect of work satisfaction was educators’ experience of teaching as a calling: ‘teaching is not an occupation, it is a calling’; ‘i would not have been in education if it wasn’t a calling’. because educators perceived teaching as a calling they also stated that their salaries were of little importance. what was deemed of importance was the intrinsic motivation from the children (feelings of helping them succeed). the following quotations related to this: ‘the salary is not much but it is not what teaching is about’; ‘the only place that you get something back is from the children’; ‘the nice thing about it all is that when one of them finished studying or if they go studying and they come and show you that they are accepted… that is for me in itself the acknowledgement as educator’. theme 7: experience the educators also indicated that experience helped them to cope with demanding aspects of their work. educators’ experience allowed them to collect material aids and gain knowledge and learning experience in their subjects to help cope with the demanding aspects of their work environment. participants made the following remarks: ‘because of longer experience, we have empathy with others that we see cannot handle it’; ‘i have a whole bank of tests and exam papers that a person builds up through the years, which you use and then change a little’; ‘if you have been teaching for a few years you build up a basis...’. one of the respondents mentioned that because he has been in education for so many years he has to do minimal preparation for his classes: ‘i have been in education so long ... i do the minimum work at home because i know my subject so well that i do not have to do preparation’. theme 8: communication it was found that educators believed that communication was very important, and that it helps to talk to someone when you experience problems at either work or home. people that educators talked to included a spouse or partner, principal and pastor: ‘… i know where to go. we have the principal and the deputies. if there is something that is not going well i go to them and at home it’s my husband. i even taught the children to talk because if you keep quiet you are not solving anything …’; ‘... i talk to my fiancée, and he also helps me.…and he gives me advice’. one of the educators even pointed out that she watches educational television shows that help her cope with the interaction between her work and personal lives: ‘...i watch oprah and dr. phil and their programmes helps [sic] me to cope...’. theme 9: religion or prayer it also became evident during the research that educators relied on their religion to help them with the problems that they were experiencing. when times were tough, they prayed and believed that everything would get better. statements that reflected this finding include: ‘praying … i pray to god, that’s my only tool. i pray and god helps me to believe that i am a christian and i am born again…’; ‘...i pray and talk to god when i have stress...’. moreover, educators not only prayed for themselves and for their problems but they also prayed for the children at school: ‘so when i have problems with the children at school i pray for them and i believe that god can hear us and that he answers. it’s important to go to church, to believe that god is there’. theme 10: exercising and staying active one of the educators mentioned that she enjoyed going to the gym after school and that this relieved her of her stress: ‘when i come home from school with a lot of stress, i go to the gym and when i come back i am fine’. another teacher reported that staying active and keeping busy helped: ‘i love to keep busy and i don’t like just sitting down. i am active and it helps me…’. theme 11: doing the work that is expected of you it also seemed that actively finishing the work that should be completed contributed significantly to feeling less stressed: ‘… if you experience a heavy workload it is better to start doing the work. when i am not overloaded with work, i don’t have stress. when i have a lot of work in front of me, i feel stressed, but if i finish the work the stress decreases’. discussion despite their short working days and unrivalled holidays, almost half of all educators who retire on health grounds cite psychological problems caused by the pressure of work. trade unions declare that research proves that teaching is one of the most stressful occupations in south africa (tighe, 2007). however, not only do educators experience demands in their work lives, but in their personal lives as well. according to rotondo et al. (2002), managing these competing demands from the work and family domains causes formidable stress for many employees; stress which, in turn, can lead to health risks and other unpleasant outcomes. research shows that the eradication of distress is mainly achieved through effective coping strategies (lazarus & folkman, 1984). the chronic nature of most contemporary stressors (like work-family conflict) requires individuals to constantly cope in order to ease the distress. in light of the above, the objective of this study was to investigate which strategies secondary school educators use to deal with the interaction between their work and personal lives. various strategies were reported by the educators. firstly, it became evident during the interviews that support and understanding from important others (e.g. headmaster, colleagues and spouse) helped educators to deal with interaction issues. similar to the findings of grzywacz and marks (2000), respondents indicated that their social support at the workplace and support from their spouses seemed to contribute to positive interaction between both domains. other authors have also found that social support from supervisors and partners is of great importance in reducing work-family conflict due to work stress and involvement (carnicer et al., 2004). it has also been well-documented that the role of social support at work improves employees’ health and well-being. in particular, supervisor support has been found to facilitate employee job satisfaction, staff development, on-thejob learning and organisational commitment (kirrane & buckley, 2004). consistent with this reasoning, it was found that social support was also viewed as a significant resource that could promote effective coping and enhance employee well-being in the face of work-personal life stress (repetti, 1989; weiss, 1990). consequently, this support from work and family could reduce demanding aspects of a job and simultaneously increase their willingness to do so (demerouti, geurts, bakker & euwema, 2004c). work satisfaction was another aspect that was mentioned by the educators. however, geurts and dikkers (2002) found that among the attitudinal consequences, job satisfaction is most vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 9 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #166 (page number not for citation purposes) secondary school educators’ strategies for work-life interaction 15 frequently related to work-family conflict. also, many of the educators stated that keeping their work and personal life apart was beneficial in dealing with wpli issues. according to lewis and cooper (2005), some employees can integrate or harmonise their work and personal lives by deciding to keep them fairly separate. additionally, according to montgomery et al. (2005b), these educators follow a segregation-style of interaction since they arrange their lives in such a way that home and work are two distinct domains. from the interviews it could be seen that educators perceived this segregation-style as helping them to deal with the interaction between their work and personal lives. in addition to the aforementioned, the respondents also mentioned experiencing teaching as a calling as another strategy. apart from experiencing teaching as a calling, educators perceived acceptance of the teaching environment to be an essential part of facilitating work and personal life. according to kirchmeyer (1993), strategies that aim to alter one’s own attitude about what demands can reasonably be met in both domains seem to be more efficient in coping with high demands from both domains than strategies that aim to alter the attitudes or behaviours of others. educators also viewed planning ahead to be useful in dealing with wpli. literature confirms this finding. according to shaw (1999), planning can be seen as a problemfocused coping strategy. furthermore, according to lazarus and folkman (1984), problem-focused coping strategies intend to deal actively with the problem. also, mostert and oosthuizen (2006) found that problem-solving coping predicts lower levels of negative work-home interference. some of the educators also mentioned communication (e.g. talking to one’s spouse, pastor and partner) as another useful way to cope with wpli issues. moreover, religion and prayer was a different aspect that was mentioned by the educators. literature also supports this finding. a study by beehr et al. (1995) studied the use of coping strategies and found that police officers used religion as a coping strategy to deal with both work and non-work strain. lastly, partaking in exercise and staying active and doing the work that is expected of you were also seen as strategies to deal with wpli. however, according to mostert and oosthuizen (2006), using distracting activities, such as daydreaming and watching more television than usual as well as engaging more in other activities (e.g. sport) to avoid dealing with the problem is found to be an unsuccessful strategy to deal with demanding aspects of the job, and unhelpful in evading negative overspill to the home. all of the coping strategies discussed above may also be referred to as resources that educators make use of to better cope with the demands that they experience in both their work and personal lives. recent empirical evidence suggests that demanding aspects in the work or family domain (or both) are mainly related to conflict, but resources such as control and support are related to positive overspill (geurts & demerouti, 2003; grzywacz & marks, 2000). these resources enhance the employee’s well-being and help him or her to manage both work and personal life demands. on the one hand, these resources may eradicate the impact of demanding working conditions, and help employees to avoid unnecessary strain. on the other hand, they may improve an employee’s motivation and performance (demerouti, bakker & bulters, 2004a). limitations and recommendations although the research showed promising results, it is also important to note some limitations of this study. the first limitation was regarding the use of a qualitative research design, which made it difficult to obtain co-operation from participating educators because of their limited amount of time. secondly, the use of a homogeneous sample, namely secondary school educators only from the district in the north west educational department made the study’s ability to generalise to other education departments in south africa limited. there were also conceptual limitations regarding the understanding of the words ‘interaction’ and ‘personal life’. despite these limitations, this study has important implications for organisations and for future research. it is recommended that the department of education, headmasters and educators are made aware of what it means for work and personal life to be integrated and to be made aware of the consequences of leading an unbalanced life. furthermore, it is recommended that work-oriented interventions (e.g. teaching educators to deal more effectively with experienced demands from their work and personal lives) and secondary-level interventions (e.g. time management, conflict resolution techniques and coping strategies) be implemented to improve the relationship between educators and the workplace (school). the most important recommendation for future research is that a quantitative study is done designing an assessment instrument using the qualitative information obtained in this study as a basis. it is recommended that this instrument focusses on helping individuals to create a healthy balance between their work and personal lives by determining which strategies are actually effective in dealing with wpli. further, it is also recommended that future research must focus more on a longitudinal design. information from partners, adolescents, children or supervisors could also be used to gain new insights and perspectives on the relationship between work, personal life and coping. finally, future research must focus on all of the cultural and language groups in south africa. apart from this, future research must be directed at cross-national comparative studies. author’s note the material described in this article is based upon work supported by the national research foundation under reference number 20050801000025. references aldwin, c.m., & revenson, t.a. (1987). does coping help? a re-examination of the relation between coping and mental health. journal of personality and social psychology, 53(2), 337– 345. allen, t.d., herst, d.e., bruck, c.s., & sutton, m. (2000). consequences associated with work-to-family conflict: a review and agenda for future research. journal of occupational health psychology, 5(2), 278–308. beehr, t.a., johnson, l.b., nieva, r., & hurrell, j.j. (1995). occupational stress: coping of police and their spouses. journal of organizational behavior, 16(1), 3–28. beutell, n.j., & greenhaus, j.h. (1983). integration of home and non-home roles: women’s conflict and coping behaviour. journal of applied psychology, 68(3), 43–48. brink, b., & de la rey, c. (2001). work-family interaction strain: coping strategies used by successful women in the public, corporate and self-employed sectors of the economy. south african journal of psychology, 31(4), 55–61. burke, r.j. (2004). work and family integration. equal opportunities international, 23(1/2), 1–5. carlson, d.s., & kacmar, k.m. (2000). work-family conflict in the organization: do life role values make a difference? journal of management, 26(5), 1031–1054. carlson, d.s., & perrewe, p.l. (1999). the role of social support in the stressor-strain relationship: an examination of workfamily conflict. journal of management, 25(4), 513–540. carnicer, m.p.d.l., sánchez, a.m., & pérez, m.p. (2004). workfamily conflict in a southern european country. journal of managerial psychology, 19(5), 466–489. crooker, k.j., smith, f.l., & tabak, f. (2002). creating work-life balance: a model of pluralism across life domains. human resource development review, 1(4), 387–419. de vos, a.s., strydom, h., fouché, c.b., poggenpoel, m., & schurink, e. (1998). research at grassroots: a primer for the caring professions. pretoria: van schaik. demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., & bulters, a.j. (2004a). the loss spiral of work pressure, work-home interference and exhaustion: reciprocal relations in a three-wave study. journal of vocational behavior, 64(1), 131–149. vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 9 original research wentzel, buys & mostert sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 16 6 (page number not for citation purposes) 16 demerouti, e., geurts, s.a.e., & kompier, m. (2004b). positive and negative work-home interaction: prevalence and correlates. equal opportunities international, 23(1/2), 6–35. demerouti, e., geurts, s.a.e., bakker, a.b., & euwema, m. (2004c). the impact of shiftwork on work-home conflict, job attitudes and health. ergonomics, 47(9), 987–1002. duxbury, l. (2004). dealing with work-life issues in the workplace: standing still is not an option. kingston, ontario: industrial relations centre. eby, l.t., casper, w.j., lockwood, a., bordeaux, c., & brinleya, a. (2005). work and family research in io/ob: content analysis and review of the literature (1980–2002). journal of vocational behavior, 66(1), 124–197. edwards, j.r., & rothbard, n.p. (2000). mechanisms linking work and family: clarifying the relationship between work and family constructs. academy of management review, 25(1), 178–199. endler, n.s., & parker, j.d.a. (1990). multidimensional assessment of coping: a critical evaluation. journal of personality and social psychology, 58, 844–854. folkman, s., & lazarus, r.s. (1988). ways of coping questionnaire: permission set, manual, test booklet, scoring key (research edn.). california: mind garden. frone, m.r. (2003). work-family balance. in j.c. quick & l.e. tetrick (eds.), the handbook of occupational health psychology. washington, dc: american psychological association. geurts, s.a.e., & dikkers, j.s.e. (2002, may). the work-nonwork interface: what do we know and where should we go? paper presented at the european academy of management conference, stockholm, sweden. geurts, s.a.e., & demerouti, e. (2003). work/non-work interface: a review of theories and findings. in m.j. schabracq, j.a.m. winnubst & c.l. cooper (eds.), handbook of work and health psychology. chichester: wiley. geving, a.m. (2007). identifying the types of student and teacher behaviours associated with teacher stress. teaching and teacher education, 23(5), 624–640. giorgi, a. (1985). sketch of a psychological phenomenological method. in a. giorgi (ed.), phenomenology and psychological research. pittsburgh: duquesne university press. greenhaus, j., & beutell, n. (1985). sources of conflict between work and family roles. academy of management review, 10, 76–88. grzywacz, j.g., & marks, n.f. (2000). reconceptualizing the work-family interface: an ecological perspective on the correlates of positive and negative spillover between work and family. journal of occupational health psychology, 5(1), 111–126. guba, e.g. (1981). criteria for assessing the trustworthiness of naturalistic inquiries. educational resources information centre annual review paper, 29, 75–91. hill, e., miller, b., weiner, s., & colihan, j. (1998). influences of the virtual office on aspects of work and work/life balance. personnel psychology, 51(3), 667–684. horn, g. (2006). educational solutions to improve the employability of senior high school learners. south african journal of education, 26(1), 113–128. howard, w.g., donofrio, h., & boles, j.s. (2004). interdomain work-family, family-work conflict and police work satisfaction. policing: an international journal of police strategies & management, 27(3), 380–395. jackson, l., & rothmann, s. (2006). occupational stress, organisational commitment, and ill-health of educators in the north west province. south african journal of education, 26(1), 75–95. kelly, r., & voydanoff, p. (1985). work-family role strain among employed parents. family relations, 34(3), 367–374. kerlinger, f.n. (1986). foundations of behavioral research. (3rd edn.). fort worth: harcourt brace college. kirchmeyer, c. (1993). nonwork-to-work spillover. a more balanced view of the experiences and coping of professional women and men. sex roles, 28, 531–552. kirrane, m., & buckley, f. (2004). the influence of support relationships on work-family conflict: differentiating emotional from instrumental support. equal opportunities international, 23(1/2), 78–96. kossek, e.e., & ozeki, c. (1998). work–family conflict, policies, and the job-life satisfaction relationship: a review and directions for organizational behaviour-human resources research. journal of applied psychology, 83, 139–149. kowalski, k.c., & crocker, p.r.e. (2001). development and validation of the coping function questionnaire for adolescents in sport. journal of sport and exercise psychology, 23(2), 136–155. krefting, l. (1991). rigor in qualitative research: the assessment of trustworthiness. the american journal of occupational therapy, 45(3), 214–222. lazarus, r.s., & folkman, s. (1984). stress, appraisal, and coping. new york: springer. lewis, s., & cooper, c. (2005). work-life integration: case studies of organizational change. chichester: john wiley. lincoln, y.s., & guba, e.a. (1985). naturalistic inquiry. london: sage. marais, j.l. (1992). faktore wat stres veroorsaak by onderwysers in die oranje-vrystaat en kaapprovinsie. suid-afrikaanse tydskrif vir opvoedkunde, 12(3), 205–309. marais, p., & meier, c. (2004). hear our voices: student teachers’ experiences during practical teaching. african education review, 1(2), 220–233. matsui, t., ohsawa, t., & onglatco, m.l. (1995). work–family conflict and the stress-buffering effects of husband support and coping behavior among japanese married working women. journal of vocational behavior, 47(2), 178–192. montgomery, a., mostert, k., & jackson, l. (2005a). burnout and health of primary school educators in the north west province. south african journal of education, 25(4), 266–272. montgomery, a.j., panagopoulou, e.p., peeters, m.c.w., & schaufeli, w.b. (2005b). the meaning of work and home. community, work and family, 8(2), 141–161. mostert, k. (2006, april). work-home interaction research in south africa: measurement, prevalence and the relationship with wellbeing. paper presented at the south african positive psychology conference, potchefstroom, south africa. mostert, k., & oosthuizen, b. (2006). job characteristics and coping strategies associated with negative and positive work-home interference in a nursing environment. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 9(4), 429–443. myburgh, c.p.h., & poggenpoel, m. (2002). teachers’ experience of their school environment – implications for health promotion. education, 123, 260–268. niehaus, l., myburgh, c.p.h., & kok, j.c. (1995). selfhandhawingsvermoë van hoërskoolonderwysers. suidafrikaanse tydskrif vir opvoedkunde, 15(2), 71–78. nollen, s.d. (1986). business programs for work-family problems. labour law journal, 37(8); 480–484. o’driscoll, m.p., brough, p., & kalliath, t.j. (2004). work/ family conflict, psychological well-being, satisfaction and social support: a longitudinal study in new zealand. equal opportunities international, 23(1/2), 1–5. olivier, m.a.j., & venter, d.j.l. (2003). the extent and causes of stress in teachers in the george region. south african journal of education, 23(3), 186–192. pei, w., & guoli, z. (2007). survey of occupational stress of secondary and elementary school teachers and the lessons learned. chinese education and society, 40(5), 32–39. pienaar, j., & rothmann, s. (2003). coping strategies in the south african police service. south african journal of industrial psychology, 29(4), 81–90. repetti, r.l. (1989). effects of daily workload on subsequent behaviour during marital interaction: the roles of social withdrawal and spouse support. journal of personality and social psychology, 57(4), 651–659. rothmann, j.c., gerber, j.j., lubbe, m.s., sieberhagen, g.v.d.m., & rothmann, s. (1998). pharmacy students’ experiences of the contents of pharmacy education: a phenomenological study. the international journal of pharmacy practice, 6, 30–37. vol. 7 no. 1 page 8 of 9 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #166 (page number not for citation purposes) secondary school educators’ strategies for work-life interaction rotondo, d.m., carlson, d.s., & kincaid, j.f. (2002). coping with multiple dimensions of work-family conflict. personnel review, 32(3), 275–296. schulze, s., & steyn, t. (2007). stressors in the professional lives of south african secondary school educators. south african journal of education, 27(4), 619–707. shaw, c. (1999). a framework for the study of coping, illness behaviour and outcomes. journal of advanced nursing, 29(5), 1246–1255. small, s., & riley, d. (1990). towards a multidimensional assessment of work conflict into family life. journal of marriage and the family, 52(1), 56–61. steward, m., & donald, f.m. (2006). spouses’ experiences of their partners’ absences due to frequent business travel. south african journal of psychology, 36(1), 103–125. struwig, f.w., & stead, g.b. (2001). planning, designing and reporting research. cape town: pearson education. tighe, m. (2007, 3 april). stress drives teachers to quit. sunday times, p.3. toth, h. (2005). gendered dilemmas of work-life balance in hungary. women in management review, 20(5), 361–375. van wyk, l. (2004). the relationship between procrastination and stress in the life of the high school teacher. unpublished masters dissertation, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. vandeyar, s. (2003). the jagged paths to multicultural education: international experiences and south africa’s response in the new dispensation. south african journal of education, 23(3), 193–198. wallis, t., & price, l. (2003). the relationship between workfamily conflict and central life interests amongst single working mothers. south african journal of industrial psychology, 29(1), 26–31. warren, j.a., & johnson, p.j. (1995). the impact of workplace support on work-family role strain. family relations, 44(2), 163–169. weiss, r.s. (1990). bringing home work stress. in j. eckenrode & s. gore (eds.), stress between work and family. new york: plenum press. woods, n.f., & catanzaro, m. (1988). nursing research: theory and practice. st louis: mosbey. 17vol. 7 no. 1 page 9 of 9 abstract introduction literature review method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) avesh inderjeet leadership cluster, faculty of economic and business science, gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, sandton, south africa caren b. scheepers leadership cluster, faculty of economic and business science, gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, sandton, south africa citation inderjeet, a., & scheepers, c.b. (2022). the influence of follower orientation on follower behaviour in the leadership process. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1718. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1718 original research the influence of follower orientation on follower behaviour in the leadership process avesh inderjeet, caren b. scheepers received: 30 june 2021; accepted: 18 feb. 2022; published: 30 mar. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: whilst extensive literature is available on leadership, followership is under-researched. this study, therefore, pays attention to specific follower behaviours that can influence the leadership process and follower behaviours that are passive. research purpose: this study offers deeper insights into followership behaviours and their influence on the leadership process. motivation for the study: by extending the original research in china of carsten, uhl-bien and huang on followership, the current study endeavours to apply these existing scales in a different cultural setting. the study investigated the relationship between followers’ orientation, namely proactively identifying problems or passive role orientation and their voice behaviour and upward delegation. research approach/design and method: primary data on followership orientation and behaviour were gathered from 287 surveyed respondents across different industries in south africa, correlation tests and multiple regression methods were used. main findings: the results show that the perception of followers that they need to proactively identify problems (co-production orientation) is positively associated with the tendency of followers to communicate their opinions on work issues. the perception of followers that they do not need to be involved in decision-making is negatively associated with voice behaviour. practical/managerial implications: managers and human resources professionals should consider assessing employees’ followership orientation during recruitment and selection. employee development programmes should also focus on reorienting employees towards constructive followership, characterised by co-creation of solutions, which actively contributes towards effective leadership processes. contribution/value addition: this study spanned across industries and uniquely shows the importance of role orientation of followers and how the traditional approach of focusing on leadership development might have negatively influenced followers’ perception of their roles. keywords: leadership; followership; co-production; passive role orientation; voice behaviour; upward delegation. introduction in their critique of the theoretical foundation for the leader–follower relationship, gottfredson, wright and heaphy (2020) recommend a deeper understanding of the dynamics of followership in this relationship. although bastardoz and van vugt (2019, p. 81) maintain that ‘it is a truism that there can be no leaders without followers’, the concept of followership has not been sufficiently explored in the literature. in the bi-directional relationship between leader and follower, the role played by the latter must not be understated. morris (2012) laments that the followership domain remains overshadowed by the leadership field. similar to morris’ (2012) orientation, the current study adopts a follower-focused approach to ensure that followers are the central focus of the study, both theoretically and methodologically. in contrast to studies that considered followers from the perspective of leaders, this study explores what followers believe about followers and their behaviours, aligned to a recent south african study by matshoba-ramuedzisi (2021). as businesses and organisations evolve, traditional methods of thinking are being questioned. in the past, change practitioners, leaders and even followers believed that strong leadership was needed to accomplish organisational goals (cummings, worley, & donovan, 2020). organisational success, however, is now thought to be based on interconnected units that involve all parts of the organisation, including followers (junker & van dick, 2014). although leadership has a significant role to play in the performance of formal and informal organisations (du plessis & boshoff, 2018), followership and its associated behaviours require further research (acquaah, zoogah, & kwesiga, 2013; andert, platt, & alexakis, 2011; carsten, uhl-bien, west, patera, & mcgregor, 2010). specifically, studies need to inquire into traits or motivations that may influence effective followership. insight into followership could benefit the design of the costly leadership development programmes in organisations, which could enhance the return on investment from these programmes. followership is generally defined in two ways in the literature. firstly, it is defined in terms of a rank, role, or position perspective, using the role theory approach (biddle, 1986). this includes manager-subordinate relationships, or leader-follower relationships in the context of business, called organisational role theory (wickham & parker, 2007). roles create specific expectations for employees’ own behaviours and those of others. role theory in the organisational context refers to social systems that are task-oriented and hierarchical. secondly, an alternative to the organisational role theory approach is the social constructionist approach to followership (uhl-bien, riggio, lowe, & carsten, 2014). according to this approach, followership is an interaction that creates leadership by combined acts of leading and following. lührmann and eberl (2007) state that leadership is relational, a social phenomenon resulting from leader–follower interactions. the leadership process is thus defined as the interaction between leader and follower, during which outcomes are generated. acquaah et al. (2013, p. 171) advise that ‘african culture is heavily leader-centric but recognizes the indispensable role of followers in effectuating leadership. yet, we lack models of effective followership’. matshoba-ramuedzisi (2021) summarises these perspectives on followership and highlights that a follower-centric perspective acknowledges followers as social constructors of leadership. by focussing on the question: what leads followers to exhibit constructive behaviours?, the present study contributes to the body of knowledge by deepening the understanding of the antecedents to follower behaviours in leader–follower relationships. it looks beyond the impact of leadership on follower outcomes because the perspective that organisational outcomes are solely the function of leadership is limited. aligned with shamir’s (2007) aim to understand the deeper roots of followership in the leadership process (bastardoz & van vugt, 2019). during research for this study, using digital tools such as google scholar, searches for followership showed approximately 23 500 results, whereas those for leadership showed 3 950 000 results. this points to an abundance of research around leadership but not enough into the significance of followership. understanding follower contributions to leadership is, thus, a worthwhile area of focus for this study. the current study, thus, seeks to contribute to the theory development in followership research by extending the work of carsten, uhl-bien and huang (2017). the original study draws on role theory to operationalise the study in dyads of managers and subordinates. the study of carsten et al. (2017) was carried out in china, and the researchers observed that they saw no reason why the organisational context of their study should be different from international organisations. they did, however, point out the potential for cultural differences. these environmental or contextual differences between the original study and the present study might offer a unique contribution. we applied the study by carsten et al. (2017) in a south african environment to offer evidence of followership in this unique cultural context that differs from that in china in terms of china having higher power distance than the general south african population (see globe study in house et al., 2004; hofstede, 2011). in conducting this research on the african continent, we wish to contribute to the growing body of knowledge by african scholars, in accordance with the observations of nkomo (2011), lerutla and steyn (2021), vilakati and schurink (2021) and sanda (2017) that leadership studies were predominantly conducted in europe and the americas, which raise arguments as to whether their assumptions hold true for those leaders (and followers) operating in the african firm environment. literature review leadership and followership dinh et al. (2014) state that the topic of leadership has generated diverse theories as an outcome of the increase in scholarly research over the last decade. the discussion now illustrates this diversity: sanda and arthur (2017) refer to the complexity of the leadership process by which a person influences followers; however, meindl (1995) and meindl and ehrlich (1987) warn against romanticising leadership, as if leadership were a phenomenon, whereby leaders deliver it to followers. oc and bashshur (2013) explain that leadership is not something delivered independent of recipients, leadership is co-created. yukl (2012), in fact, defines leadership in a way that could be performed by multiple individuals. because there is a difference between people in positions of leadership and leadership itself, leadership is either a matter of location or a matter of interaction and influence. the idea that companies are shaped solely by their leaders is challenged by the followership literature (schneider, gardner, hinojosa, & marin, 2014). the current study perceives leaders as individuals who have a differential influence on the initiation, direction and coordination of a group and, followers as those who freely accept the influence of leaders, in line with the definitions of bastardoz and van vugt (2019). research into followership, specifically follower behaviour, is gaining momentum (oc & bashshur, 2013; uhl-bien et al., 2014), and followers are recognised as not being monolithic (bastardoz & van vugt, 2019). many authors have defined the role of followers as passive in its orientation to the leadership process (carsten et al., 2010; oc & bashshur, 2013; sronce & arendt, 2009). followers are acknowledged as necessary, but not as necessary as leaders, to accomplish goals (oc & bashshur, 2013). ford and harding (2018) believe that followers are helpless conformists who are only driven once persuaded by their leader. this unidirectional focus on the influence of leaders on followers perceives followers exclusively as passive recipients of the leadership influence (oc & bashshur, 2013). earlier definitions of leadership tended to define it in terms of maintaining group cohesion and taking initiative, whereas followership requires decisions about which leaders to follow, as well as when and where to follow them (vugt, 2006). fairhurst and uhl-bien (2012), however, refer to the interaction between a leader and followers as a ‘relational view’ (p. 1). they posit that leadership is created through social interactions and the relationship between a leader and followers. this relational view, or relational dynamics, is further defined by uhl-bien et al. (2014) as a mutual influence process in which followers engage with leaders. earlier theories, such as the leader–member exchange (lmx) theory, emphasise the engagement model between leaders and followers, and how these relationships culminate in effective leadership outcomes (graen, 1995; liden & graen, 1980). leader–member exchange theory goes as far as to refer to the relationship as dyadic, or two-way, in which one influences the other. theory development across the past decade has, therefore, culminated in an understanding that the leader–member exchange is relational, as opposed to one-sided, and that this relationship is key to driving the outcomes or consequences of the work unit (oc & bashshur, 2013). oc (2018), in more recent research, posits that follower traits are important predictors of leadership creation. uhl-bien et al. (2014) suggest that in the process of leadership, without followers and follower behaviour, there is no leadership. we can, therefore, infer that the study of followers is key to just understanding how the leadership process is affected by follower orientation. in this regard, we adhere to the call by shamir (2007) to reverse the lens in leadership research by addressing the role of followers in the effectiveness of leadership. theoretical foundation and hypotheses development role theory and role orientation theory role theory is the theoretical foundation for the study. biddle (1986) explains that role theory concerns one of the most important features of social life, characteristic behaviour patterns or roles. according to role theory, people are members of social positions and hold expectations for their own behaviours and those of others. already in the sixties, katz and kahn (1966) emphasised the importance of the perception around requirements of a role, which in turn influences the behaviour associated with the role. zaleznik, also in the sixties (originally in 1965, more recently cited in 2004), referred to the expectations derived from a hierarchical position, when he asked whether the mystique around leadership is merely a holdover from our childhood, that is, a sense of dependency and a longing for good and heroic parents? hollander (2009) likewise noted the importance of the origin of the traditional power asymmetric view of the leader–follower relationship as beginning with parent–child relations. hollander (1992) declares, however: in short, leadership is a process, not a person … leaders do command greater attention and influence, but followers can affect and even constrain leaders’ activity in more than passing ways, as has been shown in a variety of studies. (p. 71) drawing on role theory, role orientation theory explains that a role orientation would reflect an employee’s goals, responsibilities and aspirations within the work environment. the role orientation perspective defines followership as a role (behaviour) played by subordinates in the organisational hierarchy. for example, parker (2000) suggests that employees who define their role broadly, namely a flexible role orientation, would take responsibility for longer-term goals and will be more proactive in seeking opportunities, than those who define their role more narrowly. narrow role orientations would mean that followers would define some tasks as not being their jobs, called ‘job myopia’ (parker, 2007, p. 403). parker’s (2007) research is relevant to the current study, because it found that individual-level flexible role orientations, as cognitive-motivational mechanisms, had a mediating effect on proactive work behaviours. carter et al. (2014) agree that followership role orientations are cognitive belief structures and schema around what the follower role means in relation to the leader. shamir (2007) explains that followers are co-producers in the leadership process. the notion of followers being co-producers is consistent with the social-cognitive theory of bandura (1977), which suggests that according to parker, williams and turner (2006), employees could be reflective, self-regulating agents who are not only products but also producers of their environment. kelley (1992) agrees and offers the concept of exemplary followers who can augment leadership processes. hollander (1992) noted in this regard: despite the imbalance of power, influence can be exerted in both roles [leaders and followers], as part of a social exchange … effective leadership is more likely to be achieved through reciprocity and the potential for two-way influence than through a reliance on power over others. (p. 71) co-production orientation refers to the enhancement of work unit effectiveness when followers who display qualities such as independence, commitment, self-motivation, courage and honesty (uhl-bien et al., 2014) engage and work with the leader to drive outcomes (carsten et al., 2017; shamir 2007). implicit followership theory (ift) defines the prototype followers as typically ‘hardworking, productive, excited and loyal, while anti-prototype followers are defined as arrogant, soft-spoken or rude’ (sy, 2010, p. 2). hollander (1992, p. 71), however, observes that ‘the usual expectation of the leader role as active and the follower role as passive is misconceived even in traditional hierarchies’. the question might be asked: do followers perceive their roles as active co-contributors to the leadership process? the current study, therefore, investigates followers’ perceptions about their own roles in the leadership process. building on the work of shamir et al. (2007), uhl-bien et al. (2014) and carsten et al. (2017), it is important to understand how followers enact their co-production and passive role orientations. one of the ways in which followers could enact their respective role orientations is employee voice behaviour (kumar & mishra, 2016). whilst the original framework of hirschman (1970) included exit or withdrawal, as well as raising or voicing of concerns and loyalty, the current study aligns to the organisational behaviour (ob) perspective of voice behaviour. wilkinson, barry and morrison (2020) recently explain that in the ob domain, voice is defined as an attempt to change rather than escape from an objectionable state of affairs. voice behaviour, as noted by van dyne and lepine (1998), includes the degree to which employees act on interests that go beyond the self, who are assumed to be acting not just to vent or complain, but to bring about constructive change. the focus is on the microlevel factors that encourage or discourage voice, and voice is portrayed as an individual-level, discretionary, proactive behaviour. followers committed to assisting the organisation by engaging in voice behaviour are, therefore, seen to encourage constructive change. in this regard, ford, ford and d’amelio (2008) found that employees who voice resistance can be a resource for organisational change. lapierre, bremner and mcmullan (2012) refer to this as pro-active followership and argue that these followers constructively challenge a leader’s decisions and ideas by voicing their own ideas and concerns. carsten and uhl-bien (2012) refer to voice behaviour as a positive form of expression that helps advance organisations. this means that followers with a strong co-production orientation will speak up. morrison (2014) supports this argument, stating that employees who engage in upward voice behaviour may offer information about problems, whilst employees who withhold information may deprive the organisation of useful information. based on these arguments, the authors of the current study formulated hypotheses aligned to the original study of carsten et al. (2017): hypothesis 1: co-production orientation is positively associated with voice behaviour hypothesis 2: passive role orientation is negatively associated with voice behaviour according to yukl and fu (1999), when delegation occurs, the authority for decisions is owned by the follower, whereas when there is consultation, the authority for decisions stays with the leader. although consultation is inclusive, some followers will not take responsibility for decisions and transfer the onus onto the leader. morand (1996) highlights that relative power and status are displayed through patterns of everyday face-to-face activity. he explains that supervisors are said to treat their subordinates in an authoritarian manner and subordinates in turn defer to superiors. applied to followership, followers with passive role orientation are found to be deferent to the leader’s knowledge, accepting and supporting the leader’s initiative while remaining loyal in the process (carsten et al., 2010). these followers tend to refrain from decision making and allow for the work unit’s responsibility to remain with the leader and his or her influence (carsten et al., 2017; gebert, heinitz, & buengeler, 2016). lapierre et al. (2012) argue that these behaviours are congruent with the traditional view of followers being unquestioning, loyal and less gifted. kellerman (2007) contributes a follower level of the engagement continuum, where the level of engagement ranges from being isolated and disengaged, to a bystander and taking the path of least resistance, as well as to being committed and deeply involved. the transfer of responsibility is usually because of employees’ feeling, and they do not have the skills to fix a problem or they believe that it is not their responsibility to do so (carsten et al., 2017). by contrast, there are followers, described as co-production orientated, who would rather take responsibility for problems and remedying issues by not engaging in the upward delegation. followers who exhibit passive role orientation, however, may engage in the upward delegation. this is congruent with the findings of carsten et al. (2010), who state that those with passive role orientation followership traits could possibly resist engaging in opportunities that encourage the leadership process and with those of lapierre et al. (2012), who claim that followers with passive role orientation offer high deference to leaders and refrain from questioning their suggestions. the following hypotheses were developed based on these arguments: hypothesis 3: co-production orientation is negatively associated with upward delegation. hypothesis 4: passive role orientation is positively associated with upward delegation. figure 1 shows the conceptual framework for the current study with hypotheses 1–4. figure 1: conceptual model of the study. south african context blair and bligh (2018) emphasise that africa is one of the regions that are underrepresented in followership theory development. the current study is conducted in south africa that adds to its contextual contribution within followership literature. matshoba-ramuedzisi (2021) also highlighted that because south africa is grouped under the sub-saharan africa cluster in the globe study (house et al., 2004), it is important to review followership studies in this region. matshoba-ramuedzisi (2021) reports that the studies are limited; however, an interesting study in uganda (ofumbi, 2017) revealed that the acholi people enact their followership through a process of observation and the response can either solicit no actions or actions to uphold or change the status quo. the responses of followers include obedience and deference and participation alongside leaders or intervention. the response of followers is important to investigate especially when leaders are ineffective and when they are vindictive or malevolent towards followers. singh and bodhanua (2013) conducted a south african study and found that followers are powerful actors who in turn influence other individuals, the organisation itself and the environment in which the organisation is embedded, and studies on followership should, therefore, consider organisational and environmental contexts that contribute how followers think, act and how they perceive their roles, themselves and their duties. this south african study also found that ‘there is still a tendency to glorify leaders at the expense of recognizing and understanding the people who choose to follow such leaders’ (singh & bodhanua, 2013, p. 513). other sub-saharan africa studies include the studies by thomas (2014) who applied the kelley 20-question followership style survey and found that the rwandan sample had a significant smaller number of exemplary followers than an american sample. du plessis and boshoff (2018) found that followership is a significant influence on employee work engagement. the study by carsten et al. (2017) included respondents from a chinese company across 366 dyads samples. they state that in chinese culture, leaders understand that there are harmonious relationships between themselves and their followers, and that authority is granted by the followers through deference (mcelhatton & jackson, 2012). the authors claim that these results can be generalised across the world. however, differences in power distance between china and south africa might challenge this claim. power distance refers to the expectation that there is an unequal distribution of power (hofstede, 2011) between leaders and followers. the globe study (‘house et al., 2004’) found that the power distance for chinese culture was considered very high (chinese sample = 3.1). in south africa, however, there were varying power distances for each ethnic group (black people = 3.65, white people = 2.64), according to the globe study (house et al., 2004). this suggests that the results across different countries may be dissimilar as lmx relationships have been revealed to be affected by differences in power distance (anand, vidyarthi, & rolnicki, 2017) across different ethnic groups. power distance, for example, affects the communication between leaders and followers (anand et al., 2017), which, in turn, can lead to differences in the strength of the correlations than in the carsten et al. (2017) china study. the present study, therefore, aims to contribute to theory development in followership literature, by offering results in a different cultural context and offering data on followership from a follower perspective. method research philosophy, sample population and unit of analysis the philosophy behind the methodology is positivism, whilst the methodological approach is deductive (saunders, lewis, & thornhill, 2009). the population and unit of analysis are individual employees in corporate businesses in south africa. the perception of these employees about their own followership was the unit of analysis. the target population sample, therefore, was followers, which means employees who had managers, as the present study investigated role orientations within a hierarchical context. they had to be employees who had work experience at corporate businesses to be able to have the experience of being a follower while reporting to a manager. we were, therefore, interested in a general population of employees who would have work experience and who were reporting to a manager. the researchers worked in corporate businesses and utilised non-probability convenience sampling and targeted their colleagues in their own networks, who had work experience and who were reporting to managers. the focus of the current study was on how the respondent perceived followership, and the questions, therefore, revolved around how the respondents interacted with their manager. the level of management was not part of the research questions. the perceptions of the respondent were important, regardless of the level of management the respondent was at or the level of management of the manager. the researchers were interested in perceptions around followership throughout the organisation. except for the chief executive officer (ceo) of a company, the rest of the employees would perceive themselves as having a manager whom they report to and the current study was targeting this broad definition of employees. it is, therefore, difficult to establish the total population from which the sample was drawn. as johnston, mclaughlin, rouhani and bartels (2017) advised, the total number of the employees who had experience of working in organisations and were reporting to managers (called n) was considered to be unknown in this study. the survey questionnaire included biographical questions to ensure that the respondents met the criteria of the target population. in table 1, the frequencies and percentages of the sample are displayed for each biographical question. the biographical questions include gender, age, how long the respondents were working for their current employer, number of employees at the company to ascertain the size of the organisation, the duration of working with their current manager and the hours per week interacting with their current manager, the industry the respondent was working in and which race group the respondent belonged to. it was important to note the number of employees, because small organisations might not have a hierarchical structure where there are employees responding to managers. because the current study considers followership within this hierarchy of manager and follower, the researchers deem it important to ascertain the size of the organisation. table 1: sample characteristics with frequencies. the researchers monitored whether the respondents had in fact answered the questions on their interaction with their manager and the time of reporting to their current manager. all respondents completed these questions, and therefore they were not excluded from the analysis based on these criteria. the researchers requested their colleagues to forward the survey link to their colleagues who met the criteria, namely having work experience and reporting to a manager in an organisation. the sampling method includes purposive, snowball sampling because of the fact that the respondents were asked to forward the link of the questionnaire to those in their networks who had work experience and reported to managers in their organisations. in summary, we focused on the micro-level analysis of an individual employee on followership. data gathering the survey strategy ensured participant confidentiality as personal information that could be used to identify respondents was not requested (saunders et al., 2009). an internet-mediated questionnaire tool (saunders et al., 2009), survey monkey (‘survey monkey’, 2018), was used to create, publish and gather responses for the survey. this allowed for ease of access by respondents and real-time updates on the progress of sampling. this was not an open survey, and only those employees in the network of the researchers who met the criteria of the sample population (being followers reporting to managers and having work experience in corporate businesses) received the survey link. incompleteness was handled during data analysis by the removal of incomplete responses (hair, black, babin, & anderson, 2010). a pilot test was administered to 17 respondents to understand the suitability and representativeness of the questions, test for face and content validity and to ensure that scale items were clear and understandable (saunders et al., 2009; zikmund, babin, carr, & griffin, 2013). this number was deemed suitable because of the expected power effect in the range of 0.2–0.5 (cohen, 1992). some responses to the pilot study revealed errors that included incorrect scale item labelling in certain questions and members of the pilot study reported language errors. these were corrected prior to the distribution of the final survey. the researchers did not send out the survey link to these pilot respondents and therefore assumed that they did not form part of the final survey respondents. however, the researchers acknowledge that because of the fact that the respondents were asked to forward the survey link to their colleagues, it could have caused the initial pilot respondents to complete the questionnaire again and which in turn could have caused response bias. this is, therefore, a limitation in the survey design of the present study. because of the fact that personal information, like names and surnames and companies’ names, was not requested, the researchers could not control for this potential limitation. the survey consisted of questions that took approximately 15 min to complete. respondents were told the purpose of the study and then informed of their voluntary participation and the ability to exit the survey at any time. nineteen questions relating to the constructs were asked. the final section of the survey requested demographic information as described above. no information concerning the date of birth, identity number, contact details or other personal information was requested. a total of 310 responses were received (n = 310). after the response period lapsed, the data were exported into an excel file. the data were assessed using ibm statistical package for the social sciences (spss) statistics version 24 (ibm spss, 2016). whilst the original study by carsten et al. (2017) was conducted in one industry, the current study spanned various industries. measurement of variables the research instrument is a self-completed, structured survey questionnaire (zikmund et al., 2013). the questionnaire used a likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), with questions relating to co-production orientation, passive role orientation, voice behaviour and upward delegation. co-production: this construct was measured by five items from the scale of carsten and uhl-bien (2012), with cronbach’s alpha, 0.90. sample items included, followers should be on the lookout for suggestions they can offer to superiors, and followers should communicate their opinions, even when they know leaders may disagree. passive role-orientation: this construct was measured using four items from the scale of carsten et al. (2017). sample items included: because one is a follower, he and/or she does not have to worry about being involved in decision-making; and being a follower means that you don’t have to think about changing the way work gets done. the cronbach’s alpha of the scale was 0.93. voice behaviour: the construct was assessed using six items from the scale of van dyne and lepine (1998). sample items included: i communicate my opinions about work issues to my manager even if my opinion is different and others disagree with me; and i develop and make recommendations to my manager concerning issues that affect my work. the cronbach’s alpha of the scale was 0.89. upward delegation: four items were used to measure this variable adapted from the scale of carsten et al. (2017). sample items for the upward delegation included: how often do you pass problems along to your manager rather than taking care of them yourself?; and how often do you pass responsibility for problems to your manager? the cronbach’s alpha of the scale was 0.92. the questionnaire was similar to the one used in the study by carsten et al. (2017), except that those concerning the impact of followership on leadership were not included. this is because the present study focuses only on the antecedents of followership, particularly how followers’ own beliefs or orientations influence their follower behaviour, within the cultural context of south africa. statistical tests to understand the sample, initial information was presented as descriptive statistics. the demographic characteristics of the dataset were reported as frequencies. the results of the questionnaire were tested for consistency, validity, reliability and inter-item correlation using cronbach’s alpha test (tavakol & dennick, 2011) (see table 2 with cronbach’s alpha values). confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) was used to confirm convergent validity. comparative fit index (cfi) was also used to measure the variables and their relation to the construct. to complete an exploratory factor analysis (efa) on the constructs, the kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) coefficient was used to test for sampling adequacy. the bartlett test of sphericity was used to test the suitability of data reduction. table 2: list of questionnaire items with factor loadings. to test for correlation, the karl pearson’ coefficient of correlation test was used (winter, gosling, & potter, 2016). this correlation test makes use of cohen’s effect size, whereby an effect size of 0–0.2 is termed small, 0.2–0.5 is termed medium and greater than 0.5 is termed large (cohen, 1992). regression analyses were undertaken to offer a more robust analyses of the relationships and an analysis of variance (anova) to analyse strengths of relationships. control variables were included in the correlation test. sample characteristics and descriptive statistics are provided below, and table 1 offers a summary of the frequencies and percentages of specific sample characteristics. of the 310 responses that were received (n = 310), 11 respondent questionnaires were rejected from the final analysis as 50% or fewer questions were answered. twelve respondents’ questionnaires were removed as they did not answer the racial demographic question. the reason for this decision was that the researchers assumed that in the south african context, race is an important diversity dimension; however, in the discussion of limitations of the current study, this decision is evaluated. any responses with between 50% and 99% completion rate were imputed by taking the average of that question and using that for the missing value (per question). so, if a question had an average of 5.2, any missing value was replaced with 5.2. this was done per question for missing responses. analysis was conducted on the remaining 287 samples (n = 287). in terms of race, the white population represented 24.7% of the sample, whilst the black population represented 13.9% and the indian population represented 52.6% of the sample. the mixed race population was 5.2% and asian, 2.1% and others 1.4%. more than 65% of the sample worked in organisations with 500 or more employees. more than 50% of respondents were between the ages of 31 and 40 years. males made up 59.04% of the sample, whilst females made up 40.96% of the sample. working for one’s current manager for between 0 and 2 years represented 51.92% of the sample, whilst between 3 and 5 years represented 30.7% of the sample. the remainder worked for their manager for 6–10 years and represented 11.5% or more of the sample (11–15 years: 2.4% and more than 15 years: 3.5%). this question was not a reflection of work experience; instead, it referred to the current manager only. because most respondents were more than 31 years of age, they would have had adequate work experience to answer questions about their experience of reporting to managers and therefore their perception of followership. with regard to the duration of working for their current employer, 23.7% of respondents indicated that they have been working for 0–2 years for their current employer, whereas 26.5% of respondents indicated that they have been working for 3–5 years and 24% for 6–10 years and 17.8% for more than 15 years. these findings show that the respondents had adequate work experience to report on their perceptions around followership. the demographic questions included a list of 12 industries where respondents had to indicate in which industry they were working. these industries included mining, telecommunications, manufacturing, financial services, forestry, etc. there was also an ‘others’ category where respondents could indicate their industries, and therefore there were 22 industries in total. this ‘other’ category is a limitation in the current study as it made it difficult to ascertain and code the category of industry the respondent was working in. nonetheless, the current study wanted to source respondents from various industries, and it was not essential to identify the specific industry that the respondents were working in for the purposes of the study on followership. the researchers distributed the link to their contacts within the telecommunications and financial industries; however, because of the fact that the researchers requested these contacts to distribute the link to their colleagues (using snowball sampling), it made it difficult to ascertain exactly in which industries these respondents were working. under the section ‘limitations and future research’, these limitations are discussed. ethical considerations the university pretoria gordon institute of business science ethics committee granted the ethical clearance, after reviewing our questionnaire and all ethical considerations. see attached ethical clearance letter from our committee. no ref no. 20 june 2018. results the questionnaire used by carsten et al. (2017) was used and tested for reliability and consistency using cronbach’s alphas and tested for validity using cfa and efa. table 2 shows each questionnaire item as well as factor loadings. table 3: statistical results on mean, standard deviation, kaiser-meyer-olkin, comparative fit index and standardised root mean square residual. for this research, the sample (n = 287) was tested for reliability using cronbach’s alpha test (tavakol & dennick, 2011). table 3 shows the results for cronbach’s alpha. there was a problem with one item (question 16) as part of the upward delegation construct, and it has to be removed. because cronbach’s alpha for each variable was greater than 0.7, all remaining questions were kept for the analysis (hair et al., 2010). to complete a factor analysis on the sample and constructs, the kmo coefficient was used to test for sampling adequacy, and the bartlett test of sphericity was used to test the suitability of data reduction (kaiser, 1974). the bartlett test revealed suitable principal component analysis (pca) values for all constructs (all p < 0.05). table 3 shows that the mean for the dependent variables, where co-production orientation was 5.025, whereas the other role orientation variable, namely passive role orientation was 2.223. in terms of the predictor/independent variables, the values for voice behaviour were 5.073 and for upward delegation 2.274. the cfa (cfi) outputs, used to measure the variables and their relation to the construct, show the model fit and strength of the relationship. the standardised root mean square residual (srmr) for each construct is less than 0.08, and cfi is greater than 0.9 (cfi > 0.9), which shows that the model is a good fit. table 3 contains these results. the analysis was continued using correlation and regression analyses as more robust tests, and the control variables were also included in the analysis, and table 4 offers the results. table 4: correlations between control variables, dependent and independent/predictor variables. the pearson correlations presented in table 4 show that there was a significant positive correlation between the age of respondents and their duration of working for their current manager. this means that the older the respondents, the longer they worked for their current manager. the age of the respondent also had a positive relationship with co-production orientation (0.148 at the 5% level of significance) and a negative relationship with passive role orientation (–0.145 at the 5% level of significance). co-production orientation had a significant negative relationship with the upward delegation at the smaller than 0.001 level of significance (0.184 at the 0.001 level of significance), however, a significant positive relationship with voice behaviour (0.423 at the 0.001 level of significance). passive role orientation had a significant positive relationship with the upward delegation at the 0.001 level of significance (0.280 at the 0.001 level of significance). passive role orientation had, however, a significant negative relationship with voice behaviour (–0.345 at the 0.001 level of significance). table 5 shows the regression model for hypotheses 1–4. this table shows the r-square and adjusted r-square as well as the standard error of the estimate. table 5: regression model for hypotheses 1–4 (model 1–4). table 6 offers the results of the anova with the f-statistic and whether it is significant. table 6: anova for hypotheses 1–4: dependent variables and predictor variables. table 7 shows the results for the regression unstandardised and standardised coefficients for hypotheses 1–4, showing beta and significance. table 7: regression unstandardised and standardised coefficients for hypotheses 1–4, showing beta and significance. the tables illustrate why the hypotheses 1–4 showed significant relationships. hypothesis 1 stated that co-production orientation is positively associated with voice behaviour. a significant regression model fit was found with a significant f-statistic of 62.086 and an r-square of 0.179. the adjusted r-square statistic highlights that 17.6% of the dependent variable: voice behaviour is explained by the independent/predictor variable, namely co-production orientation. the regression coefficient for the co-production construct orientation was found to be significant with a beta coefficient of 0.423 and a p-value of less than 0.01. therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected at the 1% significance level. hypothesis 2 stated that passive role orientation is negatively associated with voice behaviour. a significant regression model fit was found with a significant f-statistic of 38.597 and an r-square of 0.119. the adjusted r-square statistic highlights that 11.6% of the dependent variable: voice behaviour is explained by the independent/predictor variable, namely passive role orientation. the regression coefficient for the voice behaviour construct orientation was found to be significant with a beta coefficient of –0.345 and a p-value of less than 0.01. therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected at the 1% significance level. hypothesis 3 stated that co-production orientation is negatively associated with upward delegation. a significant regression model fit was found with a significant f-statistic of 9.957 and an r-square of 0.034. the adjusted r-square statistic highlights that 3% of the dependent variable: upward delegation is explained by the independent/predictor variable, namely co-production orientation. the regression coefficient for the co-production construct orientation was found to be significant with a beta coefficient of –0.184 and a p-value of less than 0.01. therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected at the 1% significance level. hypothesis 4 stated that passive role orientation is positively associated with upward delegation. a significant regression model fit was found with a significant f-statistic of 24.317 and an r-square of 0.079. the adjusted r-square statistic highlights that 7.5% of the dependent variable: upward delegation is explained by the independent/predictor variable, namely passive role orientation. the regression coefficient for the passive role orientation was found to be significant with a beta coefficient of 0.280, and a p-value of less than 0.01. therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected at the 1% significance level. with regard to differences between race groups, initial correlation analyses indicated significant differences between the white people and black people groups, however, when applying more robust tests, namely multiple regression, there were no significant differences in indian people, white people or black people race groups’ role orientations or followership behaviours. discussion existing literature emphasises leaders’ perceptions about followers (gottfredson et al., 2020). this leader-centric perspective is also evident in africa (acquaah et al., 2013; singh & bodhanua, 2013). the current study investigated followers’ perception about followership. the present research sought to contribute findings to address the dearth of followership research in sub-saharan africa, as observed by matshoba-ramuedzisi (2021). investigating the influence of followership on the leadership process challenges the idea that companies are shaped solely by their leaders (schneider et al., 2014). having argued for the necessity of followership for leadership to exist (oc & bashshur, 2013), this research found two types of follower behaviour (voice behaviour and upward delegation) that are associated with two types of orientation (co-production and passive role orientation). both constructs influence the outcomes of a collective work unit. in cases where followers perceive their roles as merely subordinates, they will have a passive role orientation and contribute less to the leadership process, as they would restrict themselves to think that ‘it is not my job’, as parker (2000) explained. the current study makes an important contribution by confirming the hypotheses that for the current sample of followers in south africa, those who do not perceive themselves as co-producers of the leadership process (shamir, 2007) would not voice their opinions and would defer accountability to their leaders (carsten et al., 2017). the hypotheses are systematically discussed below: hypothesis 1 confirmed that followers who exhibit co-operative behaviour communicate more frequently with their leaders and speak up about organisational issues, make recommendations, suggest alternative opinions, voice ideas and tend to be more engaged (uhl-bien et al., 2014). they are also inclined to be active contributors to the leadership process (carstens et al., 2017), taking on responsibility and suggesting ways of getting things done, challenging leaders and their assumptions, exhibiting pro-active behaviour and able to identify issues affecting the organisation (shamir, 2007). as hypothesis 3 was confirmed, followers who have a co-production orientation refrain from upward delegation. followers with a passive role orientation (hypothesis 2) did not tend to necessarily suggest solutions and defer problems to their leaders (hypothesis 4). these followers avoid decision-making and taking on more responsibility, are indifferent towards changing the way work gets done and defer accountability for the outcome of a unit (morrison, 2014). drawing on role theory (katz & kahn, 1966), the current study confirms that role orientations indeed influenced the behaviour of followers from their own perspective. more than 50% of the respondents were between 31 and 40 years and therefore had adequate work experience and mostly in corporate organisations of more than 500 employees. these respondents in our sample realise that their own perceptions of their roles influence their behaviour. whilst these hypotheses had been confirmed, it appears that the role theory lens in isolation is not adequate to understand the phenomena of followership in the south african environment. it appears that the social constructionism perspective (carsten et al., 2010) might be more ideal to view followership as it allows for a broader interpretation of roles and places emphasis on the exchange relationships between leaders and followers. more flexible role orientations or role reversals and perhaps even a moving away from roles per se might be required to enhance followership in south african organisations. limitations and further research response bias may be prevalent when data are collected from hierarchical structures as questions are typically answered to protect relationships (furnham, 1986; zikmund et al., 2013). pilot studies also pose a concern as respondents may respond differently to a survey if they have previously experienced it, resulting from social desirability bias (furnham, 1986). the authors also acknowledge the possibility of respondent carelessness (huang, curran, keeney, poposki, & deshon, 2012). further limitations include that the study made use of a single source of respondents to assess both the independent/predictor and independent variables and relied on a cross-sectional study and because of the fact that the present design was not an experimental design, the regression analysis presented an inability to test for causality. as mentioned under the sampling section, the current study’s design poses important limitations, and researchers would need to take caution in interpreting the results, and the limitations are decreasing the probability of generalising the results to the total population. the convenience non-probability sampling method is a limitation, and the snowball sampling of respondents sending the survey link to their colleagues could have caused the pilot respondents to be part of the final respondents, which the researchers could not have control over. the researchers also did not use the 12 respondents’ data from the initial 310 respondents, who did not complete the question about their race. whilst the researchers considered race to be important in the context of south african’s history, race as control variable was not significant, and in retrospect, the exclusion of these 12 respondents’ data poses a limitation of the current study. in future studies, the researchers would recommend not to exclude respondents’ questionnaires from a total sample when they do not complete the question about race. because the current study targeted respondents in a range of industries, the respondents were spread across industries. the inclusion of an industry category called ‘other’ is another limitation in the current study, which resulted in uncertainty around the category of the industry that a respondent represented. future research could use a standardised list of industries and rather not offer the ‘other’ category as a choice to respondents in the demographic questions. constructs, other than voice behaviour and upward delegation, such as taking initiative, attitude, constructive and dysfunctional resistance and obedience, could be considered in future studies. furthermore, other mediating factors such as organisational context and environment might be included in research designs going forward. another suggestion for further research is to use demographic information to present a different perspective on the constructs, based on followers’ tenure, size of organisation and possibly the duration of interaction with a manager. whilst the current study did not find significant differences in how different race groups in south africa perceived followership role orientation and subsequent follower behaviours, future studies could explore with longitudinal qualitative studies how followers socially construct their perceptions and ultimately contribute to the leadership process. the current study points to the limitations of role theory in explaining followership and therefore contributes that the lens used in future studies might require a more flexible approach. the theory used as a departure point could influence the hypotheses and the instruments used in assessing these and therefore, future studies could use social constructionism (uhl-bien et al., 2014), social exchange theory (set, blau, 1964) and/or social-cognitive theory of bandura (1977) to emphasise the agency of followers in co-producing leadership. implications for practice deconstructing the influence that followers contribute to the leadership process offers a great deal of potential for leadership and management studies. for example, this knowledge has benefits for organisational change and development. the results of the study assist managers and subordinates to better understand the traits of followers (co-produce outcomes or remain passive in their role orientation) and their links to employee voice behaviour or upward delegation. armed with this understanding, leaders could adopt different leadership styles, based on the follower’s orientation, to better manage and delegate work. for example, in cases where a follower is prone to deflect responsibility by upward delegation, the leader could consider the detrimental impact on productivity over the longer term and therefore adapt his or her approach. the leader could give the follower feedback on the consequences of his and/or her behaviour for the effective running of the business. without being prescriptive, a leader could, for instance, profile a specific follower, based on his or her orientation, and then use this understanding to communicate more effectively with this subordinate. the findings also have implications for understanding the organisational fit of employees, based on their orientation and behaviour. they could assist managers, change practitioners, human resource teams and even executives to identify which follower behaviours determine and affect their orientation and contribution towards organisational outcomes. the fit between leaders and followers is also influenced by the follower’s orientation and is, therefore, an important variable to consider when matching leaders and followers. during recruitment, understanding these behaviours can influence the selection of candidates, especially if they display passive role orientation behaviours. the questionnaire used in this study could be used in recruitment as pre-screening exercises to assess orientation so that more informed decisions can be made about suitable candidates. the research instrument used in this study could even be administered to existing employees as part of regular follower assessments. this would give organisations a view of the prevalent behaviour orientations and, where necessary, encourage them to adapt to, or transform, the way in which followers orient themselves. by identifying these behaviours, organisations could even reward or recognise employees who exhibit voice behaviour and refrain from upward delegation. there is also value for followers themselves as the findings give them a better understanding of their sometimes-subconscious behaviours. understanding their own orientations may encourage them to adopt or do away with certain behaviours to be more effective within their organisations. as the research was conducted with a sample featuring diverse demographics from across south africa, without any industry specificity, it is applicable to most leader–follower or manager–subordinate relationships within organisations across the country. organisations should also pay attention to reorienting leaders towards constructive leadership that is not resistant to followers voicing their opinions. conclusion whilst the sampling method has limitations, the research presented in this article highlights the importance of follower behaviours and their effects on the bi-directional leadership process. this study extends the work of carsten et al. (2017) beyond china to south africa. within this population, it was revealed that voice behaviour and upward delegation are associated with followers with co-production and passive role orientations, respectively. an understanding of these behaviours and orientations can impact the way change practitioners, leaders and followers interact with one another. constructive followership, characterised by the co-creation of solutions that actively contribute towards effective leadership processes, should be encouraged. acknowledgements the article is based on research conducted by avesh inderjeet in 2018 towards the fulfilment of requirements for a master in business administration degree at the university of pretoria, gordon institute of business science (gibs). prof caren brenda scheepers at gibs was his supervisor for the study. see the full thesis at https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/71698/inderjeet_follower_2019.pdf?seque= competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions a.i. conducted the design, data gathering and literature review for the study, prof c.b.s. was the supervisor of the study and assisted in the write up as well as editing and preparing the manuscript for publication. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data are available on request from the secured database at the university of pretoria and data are stored without identifiers. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references acquaah, m., zoogah, d.b., & kwesiga, e.n. (2013). advancing africa through management knowledge and practice: the way forward. african journal of economic and management studies, 4(2), 164–176. https://doi.org/10.1108/ajems-04-2013-0036 anand, s., vidyarthi, p., & rolnicki, s. (2017). leader-member exchange and organizational citizenship behaviors: contextual effects of leader power distance and group task interdependence. the leadership quarterly, 29(4), 489–500. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2017.11.002 andert, d., platt, a., & alexakis, g. (2011). alternative, grassroots and rogue leadership: a case for alternating leaders in organisations. the journal of applied business research, 27(2), 53–61. https://doi.org/10.19030/jabr.v27i2.4139 bandura, a. (1977). social learning theory. new york, ny: prentice-hall. bastardoz, n., & van vugt, m. (2019). the nature of followership: evolutionary analysis and review. the leadership quarterly, 30(1), 81–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2018.09.004 biddle, b.j. (1986). developments in role theory. annual review of sociology, 12, 67–92. retrieved from http://www2.ece.ohio-state.edu/~passino/roletheory-biddle-1986.pdf blair, b. a., & bligh, m. c. (2018). looking for leadership in all the wrong places: the impact of culture on proactive followership and follower dissent. journal of social issues, 74(1), 129–143. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12260 blau, p.m. (1964). justice in social exchange. sociological inquiry, 34(2), 193–206. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682x.1964.tb00583.x carsten, m.k., & uhl-bien, m. (2012). follower beliefs in the co-production of leadership: examining upward communication and the moderating role of context. journal of psychology, 220(4), 210–220. https://doi.org/10.1027/2151-2604/a000115 carsten, m.k., uhl-bien, m., & huang, l. (2017). leader perceptions and motivation as outcomes of followership role orientation and behavior. leadership, 14(6), 731–756. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715017720306 carsten, m.k., uhl-bien, m., west, b.j., patera, j.l., & mcgregor, r. (2010). exploring social constructions of followership: a qualitative study. leadership quarterly, 21(3), 543–562. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.03.015 carter, s.m., & greer, c.r. (2013). strategic leadership: values, styles, and organizational performance. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 20(4), 375–393. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051812471724 cohen, j. (1992). quantitative methods in psychology. psychological bulletin (vol. 112). retrieved from http://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~schaller/528readings/cohen1992.pdf cummings, t., worley, c.g., & donovan, p. (2020). organization development and change (emea edition). san francisco, ca: cengage learning. dinh, j.e., lord, r.g., gardner, w.l., meuser, j.d., liden, r.c., & hu, j. (2014). leadership theory and research in the new millennium: current theoretical trends and changing perspectives. the leadership quarterly, 25, 36–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.11.005 du plessis, m., & boshoff, a.b. (2018). the role of psychological capital in the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement. south african journal of human resources management, 16(0), a1007. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.1007 fairhurst, g.t., & uhl-bien, m. (2012). organizational discourse analysis (oda): examining leadership as a relational process. the leadership quarterly, 23, 1043–1062. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2012.10.005 ford, j.d., ford, l.w., & d’amelio, a. (2008). resistance to change: the rest of the story. academy of management review, 33(2), 362–377. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2008.31193235 ford, j., & harding, n. (2018). followers in leadership theory: fiction, fantasy and illusion. leadership, 14, 3–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715015621372 furnham, a. (1986). response bias, social desirability and dissimulation (p. 7). oxford: pergamon press ltd. gebert, d., heinitz, k., & buengeler, c. (2016). leaders’ charismatic leadership and followers’ commitment – the moderating dynamics of value erosion at the societal level. the leadership quarterly, 27, 98–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2015.08.006 gottfredson, r.k., wright, s.l., & heaphy, e.d. (2020). a critique of the leader-member exchange construct: back to square one. the leadership quarterly, 31(6), 101385. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2020.101385 graen, g.b. (1995). relationship-based approach to leadership. the leadership quarterly, 6(2), 219–247. https://doi.org/10.1016/1048-9843(95)90036-5 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2010). multivariate data analysis: global edition (7th ed.). london: pearson prentice hall. hirschman, a.o. (1970). exit, voice and loyalty: responses to decline in firms, organizations and states. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. hofstede, g. (2011). dimensionalizing cultures: the hofstede model in context. online readings in psychology and culture, 2(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1014 hollander, e.p. (1992). the essential interdependence of leadership and followership. current directions in psychological science, 1(2), 71–75. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.ep11509752 hollander, e.p. (2009). inclusive leadership: the essential leader-follower relationship. new york, ny: routledge. house, r., hanges, p. j., javidan, m., dortfman, p. w., & gupta, v. (2004). culture, leadership and organizations. the globe study of 62 societies. sage. https://www.amazon.com/culture-leadership-organizations-globe-societies/dp/0761924019?asin=0761924019&revisionid=&format=4&depth=1 huang, j.l., curran, p.g., keeney, j., poposki, e.m., & deshon, r.p. (2012). detecting and deterring insufficient effort responding to surveys. journal of business and psychology, 27(1), 99–114. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-011-9231-8 ibm spss. (2016). ibm spss statistics 24 core system user’s guide. retrieved from https://www.ibm.com/products/spss-statistics johnston, l.g., mclaughlin, k.r., rouhani, s.a., & bartels, s.a. (2017). measuring a hidden population: a novel technique to estimate the population size of women with sexual violence-related pregnancies in south kivu province, democratic republic of congo. journal of epidemiology and global health, 7(1), 45–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jegh.2016.08.003 junker, n.m., & van dick, r. (2014). implicit theories in organizational settings: a systematic review and research agenda of implicit leadership and followership theories. the leadership quarterly, 25, 1154–1173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2014.09.002 kaiser, h.f. (1974). an index of factorial simplicity. psychometrika, 39(1), 31–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02291575 katz, d., & kahn, r.l. (1966). the social psychology of organizations. new york, ny: wiley. kellerman, b. (2007). what every leader needs to know about followers. harvard business review, 85(12), 84–91. kelley, r. (1992). the power of followership: how to create leaders people want to follow, and followers who lead themselves. new york, ny: broadway business. kumar, k.k., & mishra, s.k. (2016). subordinate-superior upward communication: power, politics and political skill. human resource management, 56(6), 1015–1037. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21814 lapierre, l.m., bremner, n.l., & mcmullan, a.d. (2012). strength in numbers: how employees’ acts of followership can influence their manager’s charismatic leadership behavior. journal of psychology, 220(4), 251–261. https://doi.org/10.1027/2151-2604/a000119 lerutla, m., & steyn, r. (2021). african business leadership: perspectives from aspiring young leaders. south african journal of human resources management, 19(0), a1467. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1467 liden, r.c., & graen, g. (1980). generalizability of the vertical dyad linkage model of leadership. academy of management journal, 23(3), 451–465. https://doi.org/10.5465/255511 lührmann, t., & eberl, p. (2007). leadership and identity construction: reframing the leader-follower interaction from an identity theory perspective. leadership, 3(1), 115–127. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715007073070 matshoba-ramuedzisi, m.t. (2021). followership constructs and behaviours in a complex organisation: a south african perspective. an unpublished doctoral thesis. pretoria: university pretoria. mcelhatton, e., & jackson, b. (2012). paradox in harmony: formulating a chinese model of leadership. leadership, 8(4), 441–461. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715012444054 meindl, j.r. (1995). the romance of leadership as a follower-centric theory: a social constructionist approach. the leadership quarterly, 6(3), 329–341. https://doi.org/10.1016/1048-9843(95)90012-8 meindl, j.r., & ehrlich, s.b. (1987). the romance of leadership and the evaluation of organizational performance. academy of management journal, 30(1), 91–109. https://doi.org/10.2307/255897 morand, d.a. (1996). dominance, deference, and egalitarianism in organizational interaction: a sociolinguistic analysis of power and politeness. organization science, 7(5), 544–556. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.7.5.544 morris, r. (2012). constructions of following from a relational perspective: a follower-focused study. journal of leadership education, 13(4), 51–62. https://doi.org/10.12806/v13/i4/c7 morrison, e.w. (2014). employee voice and silence. annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behavior, 1(1), 173–197. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091328 nkomo, s.m. (2011). a postcolonial and anti-colonial reading of ‘african’ leadership and management in organization studies: tensions, contradictions and possibilities. organization, 18(3), 365–386. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508411398731 oc, b. (2018). contextual leadership: a systematic review of how contextual factors shape leadership and its outcomes. the leadership quarterly, 29(1), 218–235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2017.12.004 oc, b., & bashshur, m.r. (2013). followership, leadership and social influence. the leadership quarterly, 24, 919–934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.10.006 ofumbi, d.w. (2017). followership construction among the acholi people in uganda. unpublished doctoral thesis. la mirada: biola university. parker, s.k. (2000). from passive to proactive motivation: the importance of flexible role orientations and role breadth self-efficacy. applied psychology: an international review, 49(3), 447–469. https://doi.org/10.1111/1464-0597.00025 parker, s.k. (2007). that is my job: how employees’ role orientation affects their job performance. human relations, 60(3), 403–434. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726707076684 parker, s.k., williams, h.m., & turner, n. (2006). modelling the antecedents of proactive behaviour at work. journal of applied psychology, 91(3), 636–652. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.3.636 saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2009). doing research in business and management. an essential guide to planning your project. london: pearson. sanda, m.-a. (2017). guest editorial: leadership and organizational development in africa. african journal of economic and management studies, 8(3), 254–261. https://doi.org/10.1108/ajems-05-2017-0098 sanda, m.-a., & arthur, n.a.d. (2017). relational impact of authentic and transactional leadership styles on employee creativity. the role of work-related flow and climate for innovation. african journal of economic and management studies, 8(3), 274–295. https://doi.org/10.1108/ajems-07-2016-0098 schneider, a., gardner, w.l., hinojosa, a., & marin, a. (2014). emotional responses of leaders to passive versus active members. leadership, 10(4), 412–436. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715013504424 shamir, b. (2007). from passive recipients to active co-producers: followers’ roles in the leadership process. in b. shamir, r. pillai, m.c. bligh, & m. uhl-bien (eds.), follower-centered perspectives on leadership. charlotte, nc: information age. pp. ix–xxix. singh, n., & bodhanya, s. (2013). followership in contemporary organisations: a south african perspective. journal of contemporary management, 10(1), 498–516. sronce, r., & arendt, l.a. (2009). demonstrating the interplay of leaders and followers. journal of management education, 33(6), 699–724. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562908330726 survey monkey. (2018). retrieved from https://www.surveymonkey.com/user/sign-in/?ut_source=megamenu sy, t. (2010). what do you think of followers? examining the content, structure, and consequences of implicit followership theories. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 113(2), 73–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2010.06.001 tavakol, m., & dennick, r. (2011). making sense of cronbach’s alpha. international journal of medical education, 2, 53–55. https://doi.org/10.5116/ijme.4dfb.8dfd thomas, d. (2014). comparison of rwandan and american followership styles. journal of leadership education, 13(4), 124–135. https://doi.org/10.12806/v13/i4/c13 uhl-bien, m., riggio, r.e., lowe, k.b., & carsten, m.k. (2014). followership theory: a review and research agenda. the leadership quarterly, 25, 83–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.11.007 van dyne, l., & lepine, j.a. (1998). helping and voice extra-role behaviors: evidence of construct and predictive validity. academy of management journal, 41(1), 108–119. https://doi.org/10.5465/256902 vilakati, v.m., & schurink, w.j. (2021). an explorative-descriptive qualitative-constructivist study of three african leaders’ experiences andperceptions regarding the translation of shared african human values into leadership and business practice. south african journal of human resources management, 19(0), a1433. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1433 vugt, m.v. (2006). evolutionary origins of leadership and followership. personality and social psychology review, 10, 354–371. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr1004_5 wickham, m., & parker, m. (2007). reconceptualising organisational role theory for contemporary organisational contexts. journal of managerial psychology, 22(5), 440–464. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710757182 wilkinson, a., barry, m., & morrison, e. (2020). toward an integration of research on employee voice. human resource management review, 30(1), 100677. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2018.12.001 winter, j.c.f., gosling, s.d., & potter, j. (2016). comparing the pearson and spearman correlation coefficients across distributions and sample sizes: a tutorial using simulations and empirical data. psychological methods, 21(3), 273–290. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000079.supp yukl, g. (2012). effective leadership behavior: what we know and what questions need more attention. academy of management perspectives, 26(4), 66–85. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2012.0088 yukl, g., & fu, p.p. (1999). determinant of delegation and consultation by managers. journal of organizational behaviour, 20(2), 219–232. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199903)20:2%3c219::aid-job922%3e3.0.co;2-8 zaleznik, a. (1965). interpersonal relations in organizations. in j.g. march (ed.), handbook of organizations (pp. 574–613). chicago, il: rand mcnaly & co. zaleznik, a. (2004). managers and leaders: are they different? harvard business review. retrieved from https://hbr.org/2004/01/managers-and-leaders-are-they-different zikmund, w., babin, b., carr, j., & griffin, m. (2013). business research methods. bunbury: south-west publishing. abstract introduction literature review research design empirical analysis: results and interpretation ethical consideration empirical results: research questions 1–3 acknowledgements references appendix 1: car guarding models appendix 2: day labouring wage robustness model footnotes about the author(s) mosima ngwenya school of economic sciences, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa phillip f. blaauw school of economic sciences, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa anmar pretorius school of economic sciences, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa carike claassen school of economic sciences, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa rinie schenck dst/nrf/csir chair in waste and society, faculty of community and health sciences, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa citation ngwenya, m., blaauw, p.f., pretorius, a., claassen, c., & schenck, r. (2020). skills-related underemployment amongst south africa’s informally employed and self-employed: a case study of potchefstroom. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1308. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1308 research project registration: project number: 14/3/10 original research skills-related underemployment amongst south africa’s informally employed and self-employed: a case study of potchefstroom mosima ngwenya, phillip f. blaauw, anmar pretorius, carike claassen, rinie schenck received: 09 dec. 2019; accepted: 02 sept. 2020; published: 16 nov. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: mainstream development theory views the informal sector as a shock absorber in an economic crisis. south africa’s informal sector is smaller than that of many developing countries and very little research has investigated underemployment in marginal informal economic activities. purpose: this study investigated the prevalence of skills-related underemployment as well as the possible determinants and impact thereof on the income and poverty of car guards, day labourers and waste pickers in potchefstroom. motivation: there is a need to expand the debate on skills-related underemployment to the informal sector in order to improve our understanding of the shock absorber role of the informal sector and the implications of underemployment for the labour market. research design and method: a cross-sectional survey design yielded the data for the analysis. ordinary least square and probit analysis were used as the statistical methods of analyses to answer the three research questions. main findings: almost half (48%) of all the respondents experience skills-related underemployment (vocational over-skilling). age and gender (for car guards), previous formal employment and day labour experience (day labourers) increase the likelihood of skills-related unemployment. practical implications: the findings question the shock absorber role of informal employment and self-employment in south africa in times of economic crisis. alternative theoretical approaches deserve consideration. contribution/value added: the prevalence of skills-related underemployment in the informal sector points towards the inefficient allocation of labour resources in south africa. the study paves the way for studies with a broader geographical scope and qualitative focus. keywords: underemployment; informal sector; day labour; waste picking; car guards. introduction the south african economy is facing the worst economic downturn since the great depression of the 1930s. thus far, it is estimated that the economy has contracted by 7% in the wake of the devastating corona virus disease 2019 (covid 19) pandemic in 2020 (karrim, 2020). a recent study by 30 social science researchers from five south african universities indicated that around 3 million people have lost their jobs or income streams between february and april 2020. two million of these are women. the results further indicated that pre-existing inequalities have been exacerbated in this process (karrim, 2020). the job and income losses found in the study were concentrated amongst already disadvantaged people, including african people, women, low-wage earners and manual labourers (karrim, 2020). many of these low-wage earners and manual labourers are informally employed or self-employed. fourie (2018) stated that one in six labour force participants is employed in the informal sector. this equates to about 5 million people working in the informal sector before the pandemic (francis & valodia 2020). mainstream views in development economics postulate that informal employment acts as a shock absorber for the formal economy in the event of an economic crisis (rogan, 2016; szirmai, 2005; francis & valodia, 2020). the argument is that when someone loses a formal job, they take up informal work as informal work is perceived to be free of barriers to entry. workers will therefore simply move into this part of the economy and undertake some informal activity (rogan, 2016; francis & valodia, 2020). the assumption is often that job losses in formal sector industries lead to an increase in the number of workers who create their own work through informal self-employment. internationally, evidence both supports and refutes this claim (fallon & lucas, 2002; rogan, 2016; verick, 2010). this contradiction in the evidence suggests that an economic shock or crisis may have different impacts on informal employment, both within and across countries (rogan, 2016). for example, unlike other developing countries, south africa has both very high unemployment and relatively low informal employment (kingdon & knight, 2001; rogan, 2016; francis & valodia, 2020). in addition, the south african informal sector is long term in nature, with limited prospects of a return to the formal sector once the transition to informality is made (blaauw, louw, & schenck, 2006). the current economic downturn, therefore, places renewed question marks behind the theoretical shock absorber function of south africa’s informal sector. we hypothesise that the possible prevalence of underemployment in informal employment and self-employment activities renders any unqualified reliance on the informal sector as shock absorber in difficult economic times, a strategy with serious long-term consequences for lives and livelihoods. the research questions emanating from the above background and hypotheses are as follows: how prevalent is skills-related underemployment in informal employment and self-employment activities in south africa’s local economies? what are the possible factors increasing the likelihood of a day labourer, waste picker or car guard being skills-related underemployed? what are the effects that skills-related underemployment may have on the income and poverty levels of the participants in these activities – given the theoretical shock absorber function ascribed to it by orthodox development economics? the long-term nature of south africa’s informal sector necessitates opening up this research agenda in order to appreciate the effect of long-term unemployment on the informally waged and self-employed. knowledge about issues of underemployment in the informal sector can help us to improve our appreciation of the shock absorber function of south africa’s informal economy – assisting in tailoring more effective labour market policies. as the economy faces even more uncertainty in the wake of the covid 19 pandemic, unemployment numbers are increasing. therefore, the informal sector conversation has to be louder. studies involving the informal sector of south africa have investigated aspects such as barriers to entry, challenges to survival in the informal sector and research into specific informal industry activities. however, very little research has investigated possible underemployment prevailing in marginal lower tier informal economic activities, such as day labouring, car guarding and waste picking (beukes, fransman, murozvi, & yu, 2016). this article aims to contribute towards filling the gap in the literature regarding skills-related underemployment in the informal sector. the main objective following the above research questions is to investigate the prevalence and possible causes and effects of skills-related underemployment in informal employment activities of car guarding, day labouring and landfill waste picking, using potchefstroom as a case study. the overarching motivation of the article is to improve our understanding of the south african informal economy’s role as shock absorber in times of economic distress, stimulate debate on skills-related underemployment in the informal sector and create a platform for future studies to investigate finer nuances that could not be captured in this study. felstead and green (2003) describe skills-related underemployment as a mismatch between an employee’s skills and the skills that are required for them to conduct their job. the skills in question can either be of an educational or vocational nature; both of which can further be classified as overeducation or over-skilling, respectively (beukes et al., 2016). a more formal definition is provided by the 16th international conference of labour statisticians, which defines skills-related underemployed persons as individuals who, during the week of reference, were both willing and available to change their current employment to one that better utilises their skills (greenwood, 1999). the importance of investigating skills-related underemployment in the labour market is highlighted by beukes et al. (2016) and gibbons (2016) who argue that although the underemployed receive an income, they can also be susceptible to the same social and economic problems that are encountered by the unemployed, because they do not reach their true earnings potential. if this is the case in the informal economy, we have to re-evaluate the role of the informal economy as shock absorber in difficult economic times. the underemployed also experience low job satisfaction and adverse psychological effects, which negatively impact on their productivity levels (lu, 2017; sloane, 2014). potchefstroom was selected for this case study because various informal employment activities, including car guarding, day labouring and landfill waste picking, are observed in the town, which makes it an ideal setting for an exploratory study of this kind. the study empirically explored the presence of skills-related underemployment and the possible effects it may have on the income and poverty levels of the participants in these informal employment and self-employment activities. the income and poverty estimations are intended to shed light on the impact that skills-related underemployment may have on the welfare and living standards of those employed in these informal sub-sectors. a probit analysis was also conducted to examine factors that could possibly contribute towards skills-related underemployment in these informal sub-sectors. the rest of the article is structured as follows. a review of the limited literature in this field of study is provided; followed by a brief discussion on the theoretical constructs and measurement of skills-related underemployment, research methodology, results, discussion and conclusion. literature review international literature has extensively researched skills-related underemployment in the formal sector (abel & deitz, 2014; battu & zakariya, 2015; borghans & de grip, 2000; diem, 2015; feldman, 1996; felstead & green, 2013; mcguinness, 2006; wilkins & wooden, 2011). however, no known studies have been conducted exclusively in the informal sector. likewise, only a few studies have been conducted in south africa on this topic, most of which have focused on the formal sector, except for a regression analysis by beukes et al. (2016). furthermore, apart from the study conducted by beukes et al. (2016), in which the informal sector is briefly mentioned, skills-related underemployment in the informal sector of south africa has not been specifically investigated until now. constructs of underemployment skills-related underemployment consists of two distinct sub-constructs: overeducation and over-skilling (flisi, goglio, meroni, rodrigues, & vera-toscana, 2014). literature classifies overeducation and over-skilling as separate entities that are not highly correlated and have very little overlap (battu & zakariya, 2015; flisi et al., 2014; mavromaras, mcguinness, o’leary, sloane, & fok, 2007). overeducation refers to a situation in which an individual is employed in a job that requires a lower level of education than their actual educational attainment level (mcguinness, 2006; tsai, 2010). the other component of skills-related underemployment is over-skilling or skills mismatch. over-skilling occurs when an individual’s skills or work experience are higher than what is required for their current employment (mckee-ryan & harvey, 2011). over-skilling is also seen as a broader term than overeducation, as it encapsulates various skills, abilities and knowledge that an individual may have accumulated outside of a formal education system (mavromaras, mcguinness, & fok, 2009). the notion of work experience has different levels of relevance for the three informal activities considered in the case study. for example, day labourers can benefit directly if they have experience in the building industry and skills related to bricklaying, etc. however, for car guards, work experience in the security industry may be beneficial. skills-related underemployment theories the most recurrent theories related to skills-related underemployment are human capital theory,1 relative deprivation theory, job competition theory and assignment theory. relative deprivation theory posits that people’s level of job satisfaction is partly related to their desires and expectations with regard to their employment (feldman, leana, & bolino, 2002). job competition theory arguably provides one of the most direct economic models regarding skills-related underemployment. the model proposes that workers are seen as being ‘employable’ if their level of education, gender or age ranks them high enough to lower training costs for the firm (borghans & de grip, 2000; herrera & merceron, 2013). lastly, sattinger’s assignment theory consists of two fundamental concepts. the first claims that activities required in each type of job are different (sattinger, 2012), and the second aspect is that ‘frictions’ and information asymmetry in the labour market make it difficult for jobseekers and firms to align the skills sets of jobseekers with the skill requirements of firms (sattinger, 2012). as feldman (1996) suggests, this theory is also only indirectly linked to the issue of skills-related underemployed amongst the informally wage employed and those who are informally self-employed. there is, therefore, not a singular unambiguous theory linked to skills-related unemployment in the informal economy. measuring skills-related underemployment according to wilkins and wooden (2011), skills-related underemployment, from an educational perspective (overeducation), can be objectively measured using the following approaches, which were proposed by mcguinness (2006): calculating the difference between the mean levels of education of other individuals who are employed in the same occupation as the individual who considers himself or herself to be skills-related underemployed. comparing the individual’s education level with the educational level that is required for the job that he or she is employed in. in terms of over-skilling, felstead and green (2013) infer that individuals are classified as skills-related underemployed when their qualifications are higher than what was required of them to obtain employment as well as when they can identify an inability to utilise their skills in their job. determinants of skills-related underemployment in various studies, economic conditions have been identified as one of the precursors of skills-related underemployment (abel & deitz, 2014; feldman, 1996; gibbons, 2016; mckee-ryan & harvey, 2011). according to feldman (1996), negative economic conditions (e.g. the world financial crisis of 2009 or the fallout of the covid 19 pandemic) that occur at industry or firm level can also lead to an increase in skills-related underemployment through mechanisms that are similar to those associated with economic downturns. schoeman, botha and blaauw (2010), using data from 1970 to 2004, found that technological changes are one of the main contributing factors to persistently high skills-related underemployment in south africa. firms increasingly require higher skilled workers because of transformations in production techniques (oecd, 2014). the probability of being skills-related underemployed can also be influenced by the type of qualification that an individual has (abel & deitz, 2014). graduates with more non-specialised degrees, such as liberal arts or business, were up to three times more likely to be skills-related underemployed than those with more specialised degrees such as engineering or nursing (abel & deitz, 2014; diem, 2015; iriondo & velázquez, 2014). conversely, having qualifications in mathematics, medicine, engineering and education reduced the probability of skills-related underemployment (chevalier & lindley, 2007). the effects of skills-related underemployment skills-related underemployment is associated with various adverse effects, the most common of which pertains to income (herrera & merceron, 2013; mcguinness, 2006; wilkins & wooden, 2010). job dissatisfaction is another negative outcome of skills-related underemployment as postulated by the relative deprivation theory. skills-related underemployment theoretically not only affects the individual’s current employment outcomes but can also negatively impact the trajectory of their careers. according to mckee-ryan and harvey (2011), individuals who incur penalties because of skills-related underemployment often continue to be skills-related underemployed years after their first instance of being underemployed (abel & deitz, 2014; iriondo & velázquez, 2010). prevalence of skills-related underemployment skills-related underemployment is more prevalent amongst certain demographic groups and generally affects the most vulnerable portion of the labour market. in terms of gender, women are more affected by skills-related underemployment than men (diem, 2015). the demographics of skills-related underemployment also extend to race. similarly, age also influences the propensity of an individual’s susceptibility to being skills-related underemployed (jensen & slack, 2003; virick, 2011). from a south african perspective, data from the last quarter of 2014 show that skills-related underemployment has increased significantly from 1.5 million in 1995 to 4.3 million in 2014, as a proportion of south africa’s employed labour force (beukes et al., 2016). of this portion, black south africans accounted for a disproportionate share at 81.19% in 2014 (beukes et al., 2016). beukes et al. (2016) also report that south african women experience a higher incidence of skills-related underemployment at 53.3% as opposed to men at 46.7%. the majority of skills underutilisation in south africa is found in the urban formal sector at 64.62%, followed by the urban informal sector at 10.67% (beukes et al., 2016). in the aftermath of the covid 19 pandemic, the magnitude and proportion of the informal sector’s share of skills underutilisation are expected to increase as more people are expected to seek employment or self-employment opportunities in the lower tiers of the informal sector such as day labouring, waste picking and car guarding. this may have adverse consequences for the ability of the informal economy to act as a shock absorber in this crisis. in terms of occupations, those who work in ‘elementary occupations’ as well as domestic workers reported the highest incidence of skills-related underemployment at 55.6% and 14.75%, respectively (beukes et al., 2016). the prevalence of skills-related underemployment in south africa, as per the finding of beukes et al. (2016), is indicative of its endemic presence in both the formal and the informal labour markets of south africa. however, an empirical approach will have to be employed in order to draw parallels between the existing theory and the skills-related underemployment in the informal sector. research design research approach a quantitative approach in the form of a cross-sectional survey design was appropriate to seek answers for the study’s research questions. each of the three informal activity groupings was interviewed one after the other within the same municipal area, for example, potchefstroom. research method the cross-sectional methodology that is employed in this study follows the structure and survey design used by researchers who have investigated the same informal sub-sectors that are explored in this study (blaauw & bothma, 2003; schenck & louw, 2005; viljoen, blaauw, & schenck, 2018). blaauw and bothma (2003) used a cross-sectional survey and interviewed all available car guards in bloemfontein using a questionnaire with closedand open-ended questions. schenck and louw (2005) explored the socio-economic circumstances of day labourers in elardus park (pretoria) using a similar approach and research design. viljoen et al. (2018) interviewed almost 1000 waste pickers across south africa using a cross-sectional survey with a questionnaire that was piloted in a study in pretoria (schenck & blaauw, 2011) before their countrywide study. measuring instrument klinck and swanepoel (2019) confirm the importance of a suitable questionnaire as critical for collecting data to answer, prove or disapprove a given research question. the article uses quantitative cross-sectional data collected through questionnaires that were designed in accordance with the format used in the car guard study of blaauw and bothma (2003) and used in other day labour (blaauw et al., 2006; schenck & louw, 2005) and waste picker research (viljoen et al., 2018). the questionnaires for this study were piloted by these authors (some of whom are also involved in this study) and extensively used in various previous surveys amongst these three groupings of the informal economy in the last decade (see e.g. viljoen et al. (2018) and blaauw et al. (2006) for a detailed exposition of the development of these survey instruments). the aforementioned studies can therefore be regarded as a precursor and pilot study for this study of the three sub-sectors of informal employment in the local economy of potchefstroom. in the procedure that was followed, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected at the same time in each survey. research procedure and ethical considerations fieldworkers were recruited to conduct the surveys and relevant training was provided to them by the authors. the fieldwork commenced in phases from october 2014 (car guard surveys amongst 47 car guards), november and december 2014 (71 day labour surveys) until march 2016 when the landfill waste pickers (17) were interviewed. on each occasion, all the car guards, day labourers and waste pickers who were encountered were asked whether they would be willing to participate. the response rate was more than 90%, with very few possible respondents not willing to participate. even though the absolute numbers of each sample is relatively small, more than 90% of the research population were included in each sample. this provided an important measure of reliability for the results. the chosen statistical techniques were all appropriate for the number of observations with enough degrees of freedom in each case. all required ethical clearances were obtained and accepted ethical principles were followed at all times. statistical analysis: estimation techniques and underemployment classification scheme the study employs three estimation techniques, namely, ordinary least square (ols), probit analysis and correlation matrices. the use of income as a dependent variable in the ols regression is to provide answers to the third research question, for example, what effects skills-related underemployment may have on the income and poverty levels of the informally employed and self-employed in the sample. it is further motivated by the consistently negative income effect that is linked to skills-related underemployment in various studies (herrera & merceron, 2013; mcguinness, 2006; wilkins & wooden, 2010). the probit analyses are primarily aimed at firstly identifying determinants that could possibly increase the likelihood of being skills-related underemployed, and secondly the potential role that skills-related underemployment could play in increasing the likelihood of living below the poverty line as an informal worker. lastly, correlation matrices were used for the waste pickers group because of sample size restriction; only 17 respondents were found (the day when the fieldwork was attempted, it was raining heavily ), which impedes the probability of making meaningful inferences through regression analysis. to estimate the poverty probit regressions, minimum poverty thresholds were selected for each informal sub-sector according to the year in which the data were collected. in terms of the car guarding and day labouring poverty probit analyses, the study uses a poverty line of r1252.00, which is based on the 2014 march per capita poverty line provided by budlender, leibbrandt and woolard (2015). r1307.00 is the poverty line that was selected for the waste pickers’ income analysis; this is based on the march 2015 poverty line, which was constructed by budlender et al. (2015). the use of these poverty lines is motivated by the fact that these minimum poverty thresholds were estimated according to a ‘subsistence level of living’ based on food and non-food items (budlender et al., 2015). for the purpose of estimating the proposed regressions, a classification scheme was designed to create an underemployment variable in accordance with the definition of skills-related underemployment as well as the objectives of this study. the variable ‘under’, as it is used in this study, represents skills-related underemployment in the form of a dummy variable, where 1 is assigned to respondents who are classified as being skills-related underemployed and 0 is assigned to those who are ‘adequately’ employed. table 1 gives an outline of the classification framework and the rationale behind each binary assignment. this is followed by an empirical section that details the estimation results and a discussion of each finding. table 1: skills-related underemployment classification scheme. empirical analysis: results and interpretation type of skills-related underemployment in each informal sub-sector the type of skills-related underemployment that is prevalent in each informal sub-sector was determined by comparing the percentage of skills-related underemployed respondents who were overeducated with those who were over-skilled. the baseline for overeducation was set at secondary school attainment, whilst over-skilling included both formal vocation training and informal vocational training.2 one can argue that given the type of job, no education is needed. studies have shown that in some instances the level of education can play a role in the income of day labourers as it enhances communication skills (blaauw et al., 2006). the same applies to waste pickers as the ability to focus on the recyclables with the most value and comparing different buy-back centres with differentiated prices may benefit from improved education levels (viljoen et al., 2018). we, therefore, included it in the study in the interest of completeness.3 table 2 shows that a disproportionate number of waste pickers are skills-related underemployed because of their vocational skills qualifications and the accompanying effect in the definition used. only a small portion of the respondents in each sub-sector have completed secondary-level schooling. the results show that over-skilling, as opposed to overeducation, is the main form of skills-related underemployment across all three sub-sectors. table 2: type of skills-related underemployment.3 ethical consideration senate research committee of the university of the western cape approved the methodology and ethics of the following research project by: prof. c. schenck (social work), research project: the socio economic aspects of day laboring in south africa. registration no: 14/3/10. any amendments, extension or other modifications to the protocol must be submitted to the ethics committee for approval. the committee must be informed of any serious adverse event and/or termination of the study. ethical clearance was received on 17 june 2014. empirical results: research questions 1–3 all estimated regressions were first corrected for heteroscedasticity using the white’s adjustment option, and probit analyses were adjusted using the huber/white standard errors and covariance adjustment. the results of all three sub-sectors are first provided in three sections, followed by a general discussion and comparison of results across all three informal sub-sectors. to rationally analyse all three models (income, underemployment and poverty) used to answer research questions 2 and 3, the presence and extent of skills-related underemployment had to be established (research question 1). the proportion of underemployed respondents was calculated as the number of respondents who were classified as being skills-related underemployed, according to the framework provided in table 1, as a percentage of the total number of respondents in each sample. based on this, more than 48% of the respondents across all three informal sub-sectors were found to be underemployed. the highest incidence was in the informal car guarding sector (74%), which could be a result of the basic security qualification that is required to formally operate as a car guard. the explanatory variables used in the income and probit models (for research questions 3 and 2, respectively) were chosen from the survey questions that were deemed most applicable to each sub-sector. the income models use the calculated average monthly income. the dependent variable for the poverty models is a binary variable where 1 was assigned to respondents whose average monthly income placed them below the poverty threshold, and 0 to those who were above it. results from the income and poverty models will give an indication of the potential impact that skills-related underemployment could possibly have on the living standards and welfare of the respondents (research question 3). lastly, the underemployment models used the previously classified dummy variable ‘under’ to identify possible factors that might have led to underemployment amongst some of the respondents of these informal sectors (research question 2). the car guarding sub-sector race and gender were not included in the income equations of the car guarding sector because their distributions were severely skewed, which negatively affected the models; 68% of the respondents are black and 77% are male. similarly, educational attainments lower than secondary school were combined into one dummy variable (dumlowed), which allows for a more even distribution of the education variable. in terms of the age of the respondents, dummy variables were created to capture the possible age group effects; ‘young’ refers to the age group 18–24, ‘middage’ refers to age group 35–50 and ‘old’ refers to age group of 50 and older for the purpose of this study. age was also deconstructed for the underemployment probit analysis. the dummy variable ‘vul_age’ represents respondents who are categorised as being either young or old because these age groups are more susceptible to skills-related underemployment (jensen & slack, 2003; virick, 2011). other regressors in the models are the number of days the car guard works (workdays), a dummy variable (formal) that shows whether they work as a formal or informal car guard as well as their years of work experience (work_exp); the dummy variable ‘male’ is included in the underemployment probit analysis. table 3 gives a summary of the effect of skills-related underemployment on income, the determinants that increase the likelihood of being skills-related underemployed and the potential role of skills-related underemployment in increasing the likelihood of living below the poverty line.4 table 3: car guarding: income effects, determinants of underemployment and likelihood of increased poverty. according to the ols model (with income as dependent variable to investigate research question 3), the number of days worked, working as a formal car guard, being skills-related underemployed as well as educational attainment all have a statistically significant relationship with the income of the car guards. the robustness of these variables is further substantiated by models 1 and 2 in appendices 1 and 2. this confirms a possible relationship between the income of the car guards and the three variables. skills-related underemployment has a negative and weakly significant relationship with income in this sub-sector, for example, skills-related underemployment may be reflected in the levels of income earned by car guards in the sample. the underemployment probit shows that only age and gender have a statistically significant relationship with the probability of being skills-related underemployed in the car guarding sector. the sign of the age dummy is positive, which seems to indicate that being a younger or older car guard (vulnerable age) could possibly increase the likelihood of being skills-related underemployed in the potchefstroom car guarding sector. however, the sign of the male dummy is positive, which is contrary to underemployment theory. this could be attributed to the distribution problems that are associated with this variable in the data set or because the likelihood of being underemployed according to gender ‘varies across demographics and work-related factors’ (beukes et al., 2016). the poverty probit found that none of the hypothesised variables have a significant relationship with the poverty levels of the car guards. the day labouring sub-sector the income variable for the day labouring sub-sector is based on information provided by day labourers regarding their best monthly income during the year of reference. the variable ‘negotiated’ is a dummy variable that shows whether a day labourer negotiated wages with a potential employer and ‘reserve’ represents the reservation wage of each respondent. variables indicating whether a day labourer was recently hired as a bricklayer, painter or plumber are also included based on the findings that day labourers’ wages can be positively influenced by this factor (blaauw et al., 2006) the variable ‘primary’ was included to determine the possible impact of education on day labourers’ wages, and the variable ‘under’ represents skills-related underemployment. furthermore, the years of experience as a day labourer are also included (dl_exp) under the assumption that a day labourer who has many years of day labouring experience has a higher probability of being employed and receives good wages than day labourers with fewer years of day labouring experience. in addition to the variables that are used for the wage model, the variable ‘fulltime’ is used in the underemployment probit analysis as a proxy variable, which represents years of experience as a previous formal sector employee. the underlying rationale behind this is that having experience in the formal sector increases the likelihood of being skills-related underemployed, and this could also be the case in the informal sector. likewise, years of day labouring experience (dl_exp) are also included in this model to assess the impact of additional years of experience on the likelihood of day labouring experience. using these work experience variables is also supported by the findings of beukes et al. (2016) who established ‘a significantly convex relationship between years of work experience and the likelihood of underemployment’. the poverty probit analysis uses ‘person-specific’ attributes, which could possibly contribute towards the poverty levels of the day labourers in conjunction with being skills-related underemployed. including these variables could also assist in determining whether the determinants of poverty in the day labouring sector are exogenously or endogenously determined. table 4 presents the effect of skills-related underemployment on income, the determinants that increase the likelihood of being skills-related underemployed, and the potential role of skills-related underemployment in increasing the likelihood of living below the poverty line. table 4: day labouring: income effects, determinants of underemployment and likelihood of increased poverty. the results of the income model show that negotiating wages, educational attainment, reservation wage, having day labouring experience and being previously hired as a bricklayer are statistically significantly associated with the day labouring wage market in potchefstroom. the variables that represent wage negotiation and educational attainment appear to have the biggest impact on obtaining a good monthly wage, because they have the largest coefficients. furthermore, the signs of the coefficients of both these variables indicate that day labourers, who negotiate their wages and have higher educational attainment than primary school, could receive higher wages. the underemployment variable, although not significant, has a positive sign that could indicate that being underemployed in the day labouring market could have a positive effect on wages. this could be caused by employers preferring to hire an over-skilled day labourer as opposed to one with very little skills and experience. the statistical significance of education and work experience in this model emphasises the ‘erosion’ of income when skills are not adequately employed (almeida, fernando, & hannif, 2014; beukes et al., 2016). appendices 1 and 2 presents a model using the respondents’ worst monthly income as a robustness check for the variables that are statistically significant in this model; educational attainment is the only variable that was not found to be statistically significant in this model. this could be explained by the fact day labourers are typically hired for their vocational skills, and their educational attainment does not play a role in the vast majority of the jobs they are hired for. the underemployment probit model shows that day labouring experience and previous formal work experience both have a statistically significant link with the probability of being underemployed. the coefficients of both variables also have a positive sign, indicating that having work experience may be associated with the probability of being skills-related underemployed, much like in the formal sector. according to the results of the poverty probit-model, negotiating wages and educational attainment have a statistically significant relationship with poverty that is found amongst day labourers in potchefstroom. according to the signs of the coefficients, negotiating wages may reduce the probability of being poor and day labourers with only primary level schooling could have a higher likelihood of living below the poverty line than their more educated counterparts. reservation wages and underemployment are not, however, significantly associated with poverty in this sector. the fact that underemployment is not statistically significant could signify that there could be labour demand factors that have a larger influence on poverty in this sub-sector. the waste picking sub-sector the waste picker sample consists of only 17 respondents, rendering accurate regression analysis impractical. this section is therefore aimed at a descriptive, as opposed to regression-based analysis. correlation matrices are, however, used to determine the possible correlations amongst certain choice variables. the income analysis for the waste pickers was conducted with correlation matrices and was aimed at detecting variables that may be associated with the income levels of the waste pickers. according to asteriou and hall (2011), a correlation result of 0.90 is indicative of a significant relationship between variables. age, educational attainment, being skills-related underemployed and having previous work experience in the formal sector were selected as possible correlates with income. variables such as gender and race were not normally distributed and were eliminated to avoid bias. furthermore, income was calculated based on the respondents’ answers regarding their best average income in a good week or a bad week; these were then multiplied by four to arrive at a monthly income. table 5 presents the results of the waste picker analysis. table 5: waste picker correlation matrix: the possible association of skills-related underemployment on income. according to the results of table 5, none of the explanatory variables are highly correlated with the income of the waste pickers. the correlation coefficient for underemployment is very low and its sign is negative. probit models could not be estimated to identify potential determinants of underemployment in this sub-sector because of a lack of variation in the variables of interest; likewise, poverty probit models could not be conducted. further discussion and conclusion south africa is in the midst of a global pandemic and the worst economic contraction since the great depression of the 1930s (karrim, 2020). this places renewed focus on the shock absorber function of the informal sector as propagated by orthodox development economic theory. with significant job losses, the expectation is that many of the unemployed will take up temporary employment or self-employment in the informal sector (rogan, 2016; szirmai, 2005; francis & valodia, 2020). however, existing literature points out that south africa has in fact a relatively smaller but more permanent informal sector than other developing countries (kingdon & knight, 2001; rogan, 2016; francis & valodia, 2020). what has not been researched within the south african context are issues of underemployment within an informal economy context – even though this can potentially impact the viability of the informal sector as shock absorber in times of crisis. this study investigated skills-related underemployment in three informal sector activities in the local economy of potchefstroom to determine the presence and prevalence of skills-related underemployment amongst car guards, day labourers and waste pickers as well as investigate the possible determinants of underemployment and its impact on income and poverty levels. the study found that skills-related underemployment is present amongst almost half (48%) of all the respondents across all three informal sub-sectors in potchefstroom. the prevalence of skills-related underemployment in these informal sub-sectors can possibly point towards the inefficient allocation of labour resources in south africa. the fact that vocational over-skilling is the most prevalent type of skills-related underemployment could be indicative of information asymmetry or job competition in the vocation skills market. regarding the second research question, the probit analysis shows that older male car guards have a higher probability of being skills-related unemployed. in the case of day labourers, previous experience in the formal sector and longer day labour experience are positively associated with an increased probability of being skills-related underemployed. the presence and determining factors of skills-related underemployment found in this study highlight the danger of assuming that the informal sector can be a successful shock absorber in this crisis. the issue of underemployment in the informal sector will increase in scope and magnitude as more and more people who lost formal sector jobs attempt to earn some income in activities such as car guarding or informal wage employment (day labouring). this begs the third research question as to what possible impact skills-related underemployment may have on income and poverty levels in these activities. results from our empirical analysis show that skills-related underemployment amongst potchefstroom’s car guards is negatively (albeit weakly in terms of statistical significance) associated with income earned. amongst the day labourers, the relationship is not statistically significant and the sign of the coefficient is actually positive. given these results, the fact that issues of underemployment are not significantly related to poverty levels is not surprising. given the small sample size of the waste picker sample, such inferences could not be made. a number of potential areas for further studies can be identified from the results. one particular issue is looking at the sensitivity of the number of over-skilled informal economy participants to different definitions of ‘over-skilled’. refining the survey instruments can assist in obtaining survey data that allows for this type of analysis. larger samples across various provinces should also be considered in order to circumvent the limitations of this study’s empirical analysis. furthermore, issues of low levels of job satisfaction and adverse psychological effects related to skills-related unemployment in the informal sector, which negatively impact the productivity levels, need to be investigated as these are important labour market implications from an industrial relations and human resources’ perspective and not just the informal sector. the results of the study ask of us to consider alternative theoretical explanations for the role of the informal sector in the south african economy and labour market. the informal sector’s role as shock absorber may be a more limited one in south africa. the alternative theoretical explanation of an employer of last resort and often the second best alternative to formal employment requires attention too. this being said, the permanent nature and critical role of south africa’s informal sector in providing livelihoods for millions of south africans, as pointed out recently by fourie (2018), are not challenged by these results. although this is a relatively small study, it is the first study (that we know of) that compared three sets of informal workers in one local economic setting. this is an important contribution and point of departure to start understanding the important role of the informal sector in south africa. more studies covering more local economies such as the metropoles is an important road map for future studies instead of single studies of single groupings, for example, day labourers, waste pickers, car guards and street vendors. such studies will point the way to a better theoretical understanding of the uniqueness of the south african context. the advent of car guarding, for example, is not something that formed part of the background when mainstream development economic theories on the informal sector were developed. furthermore, south africa has further characteristics such as high levels of migration with informal employment such as day labouring playing a different role within the context of the reception country compared to that of day labouring in the united states (theodore et al., 2015). including different theoretical roles and issues of underemployment in the informal sector in the debate and discourse on the various challenges facing the south african labour market and its participants may enhance the depth of the discussion. this will enhance our understanding of the labour market challenges faced by south africa beyond the mere snapshot provided when considering unemployment rates and other labour market indicators in isolation. acknowledgements the authors express their sincere gratitude for the valuable comments received from the anonymous referees of the journal. all mistakes remain our own. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.n. did the literature review, the data analysis and wrote the first draft of the results. p.f.b. conceptualised the study, conducted the fieldwork and provided support in the data analysis and the editing of the first draft of the article. c.c. assisted in the conception of the study, conducted the fieldwork and assisted in the editing of the article. a.p. guided the empirical work and writing up of the results. r.s. conducted fieldwork and assisted in editing the first draft of the article. all authors were involved in the editing of the manuscript and the approval of the final version of the article. funding information the authors gratefully acknowledge the funding received from the study from the dst-nrf centre of excellence in food security. data availability statement the data are owned by the nwu. disclaimer the views expressed in the submitted article are those of the authors and not an official position of the institutions or funders. references abel, j.r., & deitz, r. (2014). underemployment in the early careers of college graduates following the great recession. new york, ny: federal reserve bank of new york staff reports. almeida, s., fernando, m., & hannif, z. (2014). human capital theory: explaining the underutilisation of skilled immigrants in australia. wollongong: university of wollongong. asteriou, d., & hall, s.g. (2011). applied econometrics. new york, ny: palgrave macmillan. battu, h., & zakariya, z. (2015). overskilling and overeducation in malaysia. aberdeen, sd: centre for european labour market research. beukes, r., fransman, t., murozvi, s., & yu, d. (2016). underemployment in south africa. economic research of southern africa, working paper no. 575. university of cape town. blaauw, p.f., & bothma, l.j. (2003). informal labour markets as a solution for unemployment in south africa – a case study of car guards in bloemfontein. south african journal of human resource management, 1(2), 40–44. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v1i2.14 blaauw, p.f., louw, h., & schenck, c.j. (2006). the employment history of day labourers in south africa and the income they earn: a case study of day labourers in pretoria. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 9(4), 458–471. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v9i4.1034 borghans, l., & de grip, a. (2000). the overeducated worker? the economics of skill utilization. cheltenham: edward elgar publishing limited. budlender, j., leibbrandt, m., & woolard, i. (2015). south african poverty lines: a review and two new money-metric thresholds. southern africa labour and development research unit, paper no. 151. university of cape town. chevalier, a., & lindley, j. (2007). over-education and the skills of uk graduates. london: centre for the economics of education. diem, a. (2015). overeducation among graduates from universities of applied sciences: determinants and consequences. journal of economic and financial studies, 3(2), 63–77. https://doi.org/10.18533/jefs.v3i02.105 fallon, p.r., & lucas, r.e.b. (2002). the impact of financial crises on labor markets, household incomes, and poverty – a review of evidence. world bank research observer, 17(1), 21–46. https://doi.org/10.1093/wbro/17.1.21 feldman, d.c. (1996). the nature of underemployment. journal of management, 22(3), 385–407. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639602200302 feldman, d.c., leana, c.r., & bolino, m.c. (2002). underemployment and relative deprivation among re-employed executives. journal of occupational and organization psychology, 75(4), 453–471. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317902321119682 felstead, a., & green, f. (2013). skills in focus: underutilization, overqualification and skills mismatch: patterns and trends. edinburgh: joint skills committee. flisi, s., goglio, v., meroni, e.c., rodrigues, m., & vera-toscana, e. (2014). measuring occupational mismatch: overeducation and overskill in europe. evidence from piaac. brussels, be: european commissionjoint research center. fourie, f.c.v.n. (2018). creating jobs, reducing poverty iii: barriers to entry and growth in the informal sector – and business cycle vulnerabilities. retrieved from http://www.econ3x3.org/article/creating-jobs-reducing-poverty-iii-barriers-entry-and-growth-informal-sector-%e2%80%93-and-business francis, d., & valodia, i. (2020). south africa needs to focus urgently on how covid-19 will reshape its labour market. retrieved from https://www.wits.ac.za/scis/publications/opinion/sa-needs-to-focus-on-how-covid-19-will-reshape-labour-market/ gibbons, s. (2016). the lived experience of underemployed first-generation college graduates. doctoral dissertation. montreal: mcgill university. greenwood, a.d. (1999). international definitions and prospects of underemployment statistics. geneva: international labour organization. herrera, j., & merceron, s. (2013). underemployment and job mismatch in sub-saharan africa. in p. de vreyer & f. roubaud (eds.), urban labor markets in sub-saharan africa (pp. 83–107). washington, dc: world bank. iriondo, i., & velázquez, f.j. (2014). the effects of overeducation and overskilling on graduate wages: evidence from spain. madrid: complutense university of madrid. jensen, l., & slack, t. (2003). underemployment in america: measurement and evidence. american journal of community psychology, 32(17), 21–31. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1025686621578 karrim, a. (2020). millions have lost their jobs during the lockdown, impacting social welfare and food poverty. retrieved from https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/millions-have-lost-their-jobs-during-the-lockdown-impacting-social-welfare-and-food-poverty-20200716 kingdon, g.g., & knight, j. (2001). why high open unemployment and small informal sector in south africa? centre for the study of african economies, department of economics, university of oxford. retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4ca5/a3a73018fb58a2de59e62dc510140fca92a0.pdf klinck, k., & swanepoel, s. (2019). a performance management model addressing human factors in the north west provincial administration. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17, a1021. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1021 lu, m.s. (2017). a study on the phenomenon of overeducation in china and its trend analysis. open journal of social sciences, 5, 191–204. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2017.51015 mavromaras, k., mcguinness, s., & fok, y.k. (2009). assessing the incidence and wage effects of overskilling in the australian labour market. the economic record, 85(268), 60–72. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4932.2008.00529.x mavromaras, k., mcguinness, s., o’leary, n., sloane, p., & fok, y.k. (2007). the problem of overskilling in australia and britain. bonn: institute for the study of labour. mcguinness, s. (2006). overeducation in the labour market. journal of economic surveys, 20(3), 388–418. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0950-0804.2006.00284.x mckee-ryan, f.m., & harvey, j. (2011). ‘i have a job, but….’: a review of underemployment. journal of management, 37(4), 962–996. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206311398134 oecd. (2014). preventing unemployment and underemployment form becoming structural. paris: organisation of economic co-operation and development. rogan, m. (2016). informal employment and the global financial crisis in a middle-income country. retrieved from https://www.wiego.org/blog/informal-employment-and-global-financial-crisis-middle-income-country sattinger, m. (2012). assignment models and quantitative mismatches. albany, ny: university of albany. schenck, c.j., & louw, h. (2005). an exploratory study on day labourers in elardus park pretoria. social work/maatskaplike werk, 41(1), 84–95. schenck, r., & blaauw, p.f. (2011). the work and lives of street waste pickers in pretoria – a case study of recycling in south africa’s urban informal economy. urban forum, 22(4), 411–430. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-011-9125-x schoeman, c.h., botha, i., & blaauw, p.f. (2010). labour conflict and the persistence of macro underemployment in south africa. south african journal of economics and management sciences, 13(3), 272–292. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v13i3.23 sloane, p.j. (2014). overeducation, skills mismatches, and labour market outcomes for college graduates. bonn: institute of labor economics. szirmai, a. (2005). the dynamics of socio-economic development – an introduction. cambridge: cambridge university press. theodore, n., blaauw, d., schenck, c., valenzuela, jr. a., schoeman, c., & meléndez, e. (2015). day labor, informality and vulnerability in south africa and the united states. international journal of manpower, 36(1), 807–823. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijm-01-2014-0036 tsai, y. (2010). returns to overeducation: a longitudinal analysis of the u.s labor market. economics of education review, 29(4), 606–617. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2010.01.001 verick, s. (2010). unravelling the impact of the global financial crisis on the south african labour market. international labour office employment, working paper no.48. geneva: international labour office. viljoen, j.m.m., blaauw, p.f., & schenck, r. (2018). ‘sometimes you don’t make enough to buy food’: an analysis of south african street waste pickers’ income. journal of economic and financial sciences, 11(1), a186. https://doi.org/10.4102/jef.v11i1.186 virick, m. (2011). underemployment and older workers. in d.c. maynard & d.c. feldman (eds.), underemployment: psychological, economic and social challenges (pp. 81–103). new york, ny: springer. wilkins, r., & wooden, m. (2011). economic approaches to studying underemployment. melbourne: melbourne institute of applied economic and social research. appendix 1: car guarding models table 1-a1: income models including race and gender. table 2-a1: income robustness models. appendix 2: day labouring wage robustness model table 1-a2: income model with the worst monthly wage. footnotes 1. human capital theory is one of the dominant theories that are linked to skills-related underemployment (beukes et al., 2016; fernando, fernando, & hannif, 2014; gibbons, 2016). this theory does not directly explain skills-related underemployment but explains the contribution of skills-related underemployment to market failure because it stands in direct contrast to ideal labour market outcomes (beukes et al., 2016; fernando et al., 2014). one does not expect any sort of misalignment such as the one described here in any market underpinned by perfectly competitive markets that does not leave any excess demand or supply of labour (clearing markets), such as becker’s human capital model. in light of this point, we do not discuss the human capital theory in further detail here. 2. informal vocational training within the context of this study refers to various vocational skills that the person acquired through on the job training but for which he or she did not receive a certificate or diploma from an accredited training institute. 3. looking at the sensitivity of these numbers to different definitions of ‘over’ would have been the ideal. this is unfortunately not possible, given the characteristics of the research population and the type of data we were able to collect. the measure used therefore constitutes the most practical measure in the context of this study. 4. the mcfadden r2 is a specific version of the pseudo r2 quoted by e-views as part of the results or outputs of a binary logit model such as these. http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access sa journal of human resource management issn: (online) 2071-078x, (print) 1683-7584 page 1 of 1 corrigendum read online: scan this qr code with your smart phone or mobile device to read online. authors: natasha nel1 j. alewyn nel1 byron g. adams2,3 leon t. de beer1 affiliations: 1workwell research unit, north-west university, potchefstroom campus, south africa 2department of culture studies, tilburg university, the netherlands 3department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, kingsway campus, south africa corresponding author: leon de beer, debeer.leon@nwu.ac.za dates: published: 30 nov. 2017 how to cite this article: nel, n., nel, j.a., adams, b.g., & de beer, l.t. (2017). corrigendum: assessing cultural intelligence, personality and identity amongst young white afrikaans-speaking students: a preliminary study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a1008. https://doi. org/10.4102/sajhrm. v15i0.1008 in the version of this article initially published, the correlation in table 2 between ‘1. cognitive cq‘ (row 1, column 1) and ‘5. conscientiousness’ (row 5, column 1) was mistakenly reported as 1.13. the actual value should have been 0.13. similarly, the correlation between ‘3. motivational cq’ (row 3, column 3) and ‘7. extroversion’ (row 7, column 3) was mistakenly reported as 1.21. the actual value should have been 0.21. lastly, the correlation between ‘2. metacognitive cq’ (row 2, column 2) and ‘6. emotional stability’ (row 6, column 2) was mistakenly reported as 1.30. the actual value should have been 0.30. an updated table 2 is presented here: corrigendum: assessing cultural intelligence, personality and identity amongst young white afrikaans-speaking students: a preliminary study read online: scan this qr code with your smart phone or mobile device to read online. note: doi of original article: http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.643 copyright: © 2017. the authors. licensee: aosis. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. table 2: correlation coefficients between cultural intelligence, personality and identity. variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 1. cognitive cq 1.00 2. metacognitive cq 0.42† 1.00 3. motivational cq 0.48† 0.54‡ 1.00 4. behavioural cq 0.52‡ 0.55‡ 0.58‡ 1.00 5. conscientiousness 0.13 0.33† 0.25 0.31† 1.00 6. emotional stability 0.28 0.30 0.26 0.34† 0.35† 1.00 7. extroversion 0.24 0.31† 0.21 0.31† 0.51† 0.57† 1.00 8. facilitating 0.13 0.40† 0.30† 0.26 0.45† 0.39† 0.49† 1.00 9. integrity 0.15 0.22 0.16 0.20 0.38† 0.47† 0.57† 0.38† 1.00 10. intellect 0.18 0.47† 0.34† 0.33† 0.66‡ 0.40† 0.60‡ 0.61† 0.40† 1.00 11. openness 0.19 0.42† 0.31† 0.32† 0.67‡ 0.40† 0.63† 0.64† 0.46† 0.82† 1.00 12. relationship harmony 0.29 0.25 0.27 0.34† 0.17 0.58† 0.56† 0.33† 0.40† 0.42† 0.40† 1.00 13. soft-heartedness 0.29 0.17 0.23 0.35† -0.01 0.56† 0.42† 0.08‡ 0.30† 0.16 0.11 0.79† 1.00 14. personal identity -0.11 0.10 0.03 0.01 0.45† -0.23 0.10 0.20 0.01 0.40† 0.39† -0.19 0.38† 1.00 15. ethnic identity -0.06 0.06 -0.01 0.09 0.35† 0.18 0.22 0.29 0.18 0.28 0.40† 0.06 0.03 0.30† 1.00 16. religious identity 0.16 0.23 0.07 0.20 0.27 0.22 0.26 0.30† 0.26 0.29 0.38† 0.12 0.01 0.14 0.32† cq, cultural intelligence. †, correlation is significant at the 0.01 level. ‡, correlation is practically significant r ≥ 0.30 (medium effect). the error has been corrected in the pdf version of the article. the authors apologise for any inconvenience caused. http://www.sajhrm.co.za mailto:debeer.leon@nwu.ac.za https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.1008 https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.1008 https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.1008 http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.1008=pdf&date_stamp=2017-11-30 http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.643 abstract introduction research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) craig carlson gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, illovo, south africa mark h.r. bussin gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, illovo, south africa citation carlson, c., & bussin, m.h.r. (2020). relationship between executive pay and company financial performance in south african state-owned entities. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1211. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1211 original research relationship between executive pay and company financial performance in south african state-owned entities craig carlson, mark h.r. bussin received: 26 apr. 2019; accepted: 27 feb. 2020; published: 14 may 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: executive pay has been increasing; however, company performance has not been increasing proportionally. this could be due to an agency problem, resulting in executive pay not aligning with the shareholders’ desired company performance. research purpose: the purpose of this research was to establish if there was a relationship between the total pay of the chief executive officer and their company’s financial performance in south african schedule 2 state-owned entities (soes). motivation for the study: a review of literature revealed conflicting views regarding the relationship between executive pay and company financial performance. there were limited studies conducted in south africa, especially considering soes. research approach/design and method: this research was a quantitative, archival study using 8 years of secondary data from south african schedule 2 soes. spearman’s rank-order correlation was used to evaluate the relationship. main findings: one significant weak positive relationship was observed when considering the net profit or loss metric of financial performance. hence, there was no conclusive relationship between executive pay and company financial performance, which supported the proposition that there is an agency problem in south african soes. practical/managerial implications: there is a distinct need for an all-encompassing soe legislation framework to standardise pay structure and reporting requirements. additionally, accurate measures of performance are necessary to overcome the agency problem. contribution/value-add: this research adds to the limited knowledge base regarding the relationship between executive pay and company financial performance in south african soes. it also identified the need to incorporate non-financial metrics to influence executive pay. keywords: agency theory; company financial performance; executive pay; south africa; state-owned entities. introduction key focus of the study there has been a marked increase in executive pay, and there is recognition that remuneration arrangements are no longer aligned with the interests of the shareholder (frydman & jenter, 2010). this may be because of flaws in the governance processes that dictate the arrangements (bebchuk & fried, 2005). the compensation policy of the company is considered as one of the most important factors that contribute to its success and is a controversial topic (jensen & murphy, 1990; o’reilly & main, 2010). background of the study erick, kefah and nyaoga (2014) raised an interesting point: if executives are not adequately paid, then there may be a situation of inadequate incentive to perform. furthermore, deysel and kruger (2015) indicated that there needs to be a balance between longand short-term pay, as well as keeping the market value of the executive role in mind. murphy (1998) noted that if executives were only paid a fixed salary, there would be little incentive to improve company performance because they do not get paid in relation to the performance. more recent literature indicates that there appears to be a trend towards the pay strategy of executives moving away from performance-related elements (bussin & modau, 2015). again, there seems to be a conflict between the patterns regarding the structuring of executive pay. trends from the research literature there has been a significant amount of research that has been conducted on the relationship between executive pay, considering the chief executive officer (ceo) only, and the associated company performance. a summary of this research is detailed in table 1. the existing research has covered a wide range of countries and industries, and there was a high level of variance in the observed results. it was noted that 56.5% of previous studies reviewed showed a significant relationship of varying strength between executive pay and company performance. the remaining 43.5% found no significant relationship at all. hence, it can be seen that there is currently no decisive conclusion regarding this relationship. further to this, there are limited studies applicable to the south african market. of these studies, only two considered the state-owned entity (soe) environment, namely, studies by bezuidenhout (2016) and ngwenya and khumalo (2012). table 1: summary of existing literature highlighting the key findings and the relationship between executive pay and company financial performance. research objectives the problem is that executive pay (otherwise known as remuneration or compensation) is on the increase, whilst associated company performance is stagnating or even declining. this perception of a lack of performance is noted by marshall and lee (2016) where the pay of the ceo – as the lead executive of the company – does not reflect the long-term performance of the company. on the other hand, schumpeter (2012) captured the argument that executives are remunerated for improving their company’s performance. according to jensen and murphy (1990) – contrary to the literature at the time – executive pay was worsening with respect to company performance. therefore, the primary objective of this study was to evaluate whether there was a relationship between executive pay and associated company financial performance, within the context of south african soes. the potential value-add of the study the findings of this study contribute to the existing body of literature surrounding the pay–performance relationship, specifically in the soe environment. synthesis and critical evaluation of the literature executive roles and responsibilities perhaps, the most common premise surrounding the role of the executive is that their effectiveness has significant consequences on their associated company (hambrick & quigley, 2014). according to jensen and murphy (1990), hambrick and quigley (2014), as well as bussin (2015), this effect is most pronounced when considering the ceo. whilst the ceos may be limited in their actions because of the structure and culture of their company (hambrick & quigley, 2014), the ceos typically assume the greatest responsibility and accountability for a company and the associated performance on behalf of the board and stakeholders (bussin & modau, 2015). executive pay executive pay typically refers to the remuneration paid to the ceo and other senior executives in the company (bussin, 2016; frydman & jenter, 2010). components of executive pay: executive pay has several components making up the total package. a description of these is provided in figure 1 (21st century pay solutions, 2010; bussin, 2016). it should be noted that long-term incentives (ltis) are not commonly included in studies as a result of the erratic nature of their pay-outs, which can cause unsubstantiated influences during the chosen research period. figure 1: graphical representation of the components of executive pay. agency theory and executive pay: within agency theory, the principal–agent relationship becomes apparent when the ownership of the company is not with the individual in control, which creates two distinct players (bussin, 2015). the principal would be the company owner, and the agent would be the delegated manager for the principal (jensen & meckling, 1976). in the research problem being addressed, the principal would be the shareholders, whilst the agent would be the executive. bebchuk and fried (2005) introduced a concept called ‘arm’s-length contracting’ as the agents seek to maximise their returns, whilst principals desire to deliver on shareholder expectations. hence, remuneration packages should be designed to align the objectives of the executive decision-makers and their shareholders for the major benefit of the company (bruce, buck, & main, 2005). according to agency theory, when a principal–agent problem arises, there is a situation where the agent has created an agenda that conflicts with the principal’s interests, detracting from the desire to maximise company profits (attaway, 2000; bosse & phillips, 2016; o’reilly & main, 2010). to prevent this problem from arising, and to align the interests of the principal and the agent, incentives are offered combined with clear performance measurement metrics (bussin, 2015; deysel & kruger, 2015; luo, 2015). corporate governance is a mechanism used to align the interests of the agent and the principal (bussin, 2015). this is achieved in south africa through (but not limited to) the companies act, act no. 71 of 2008 (companies act) and the king report on corporate governance for south africa (king report), which give clear indications that executive pay should align with company performance (arries, 2014; price waterhouse coopers, 2012). company performance there is no single definition of company performance, and it can consist of various inputs and measures. typically, performance is considered on accounting-based and market-based measures (attaway, 2000). murphy (1998) is of the opinion that accounting measures should be used to describe company performance. these accounting measures should include absolute financial metrics, as well as financial performance ratios. other researchers believe that the absolute performance measures (such as revenue and profit) are ideal because they are observable measures from audited annual financial statements (tosi, werner, katz, & gomez-mejia, 2000). previous studies have included return on equity (roe) as the predominant definition of performance (attaway, 2000; bussin & modau, 2015; bussin & nel, 2015; de wet, 2012). ngwenya and khumalo (2012) argued that roe can be manipulated to improve the ratio; hence, using return on assets (roa) is a more reliable measure. state-owned entities state-owned entities are autonomous companies that play an essential role in the south african economy. they are owned (at least in part) by the south african government. these companies fulfil specific functions and are expected to operate within the governing legislation to promote effective and efficient service delivery (wendy ovens & associates, 2013). state-owned entities differ from a typical company as a result of their positioning between the public and corporate environments. an implication of this is that the south african government is empowered as both the supervisory body and a majority (or sometimes sole) stakeholder (arries, 2014). it does not preclude the soe from performing profit-making activities to generate returns for their stakeholders. the source of funds for soes, outside of normal business operations, is the state. odainkey and simpson (2013) proposed that soe performance is a measure of how well the problem of agency theory has been addressed. the performance of soes is supported by the implementation of good corporate governance. arries (2014) highlighted that soes need to comply with more legislation and laws than regular companies, inclusive of the constitution of the republic of south africa, the companies act, the public finance mismanagement act, as well as the king report. based on this, it is apparent that there is no fully inclusive soe legislation framework in south africa (presidential review commission, 2012). existing literature on executive pay and company performance of the 23 studies reviewed (as detailed in table 1), 10 were from south africa, three from kenya and the remaining 10 from across the northern hemisphere (north america, europe and asia). the studies covered a wide range of business sectors, of which only two focussed on soes. the period of research varied across the studies, where the average research period was 7 years. from the existing literature reviewed, there was no consensus as to whether there was a relationship between executive pay and company financial performance. of the 23 studies considered, 13 showed that there was a significant relationship of various strengths, and 10 showed no significant relationship. the metrics used varied from study to study, whilst the most common were roe (16 studies), roa (11 studies), revenue (seven studies), earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda – six studies) and solvency ratio (four studies). research design research approach this research entailed a desktop study of an archival nature using secondary data to define the dependent and independent variables (saunders, lewis, & thornhill, 2012). this study was ex-post facto where the characteristics of the variables were reported rather than manipulated (cooper & schindler, 2014). this study considered panel data, and therefore a longer period of study allows for a more reliable set of results to be achieved (hsiao, 2007). the research period was chosen to be 8 years from 2009 to 2016. this period was not extended further into the past, as the researchers did not want to introduce potential instabilities in the data as a result of the global financial crisis in 2008 (campello, graham, & harvey, 2010). the pay–performance relationship was considered for each company included in the study as well as the complete dataset. research method research participants this study was limited to south african schedule 2 soes (21 companies) that had published audited annual reports for the period from 2009 to 2016 (8 years). this was chosen primarily as a result of the fiduciary and corporate governance regulations where these companies were required to submit audited financial statements as well as disclose their executive pay. if comprehensive data for the research period was not available for a company, that company was excluded from the study reducing the companies included to 14. unit of analysis the two units of analysis for this research were executive pay and company financial performance. the metrics used to describe these variables are discussed in the sections that follow. dependent variable: based on the literature reviewed, the following metrics were considered to define executive pay, as was depicted in figure 1 (21st century pay solutions, 2010): fixed pay (base pay and employee benefits) variable pay (short-term incentives only) total pay (fixed pay + variable pay). for this research, only total executive pay was considered, which excluded the effects of lti. as a result of the erratic nature of lti pay-outs, there would have been unsubstantiated influence introduced during the research period. independent variables: in this research, the independent variable was the company financial performance. as described by murphy (1998), the most commonly understood and used measures of company performance are accounting figures. it is also important to note that the use of multiple metrics to describe performance should provide better conclusions than a single metric (brown & caylor, 2006). the existing literature highlighted the most commonly used metrics which were considered as the metrics for this research: revenue: revenue (or turnover) is the money that is received by a company through normal business activities during a specified period (graham & winfield, 2010; ward & price, 2017). operating profit or loss: operating profit or loss is also known as gross profit or loss, profit or loss before tax or ebitda (graham & winfield, 2010; ward & price, 2017). the operating profit or loss is a measure of the cost-effectiveness of a company’s business operations. net profit or loss: net profit or loss – also termed net income or profit or loss after tax – is the absolute measure of accounting profit (graham & winfield, 2010). return on equity: the roe is often used to describe how well a company is performing. this is due to it being the ratio of net profit or loss and total equity invested by the shareholders (graham & winfield, 2010). return on assets: the roa is the ratio that considers how well a company has been able to use the available assets (graham & winfield, 2010). this takes into consideration the acquisition and utilisation of the assets. solvency ratio: the solvency ratio, or debt ratio, considers the ratio between the total assets and total liabilities of the company. this indicates the proportion of the company assets that have been financed by debt, with a higher value indicating higher risk (graham & winfield, 2010). research procedure sources and nature of data this study utilised secondary data that were obtained from the mcgregor bureau for financial analysis (bfa) database. where the required information was not available from the database, the annual reports of the companies were used to source the data. the financial information obtained from the database was verified by the researchers using the annual reports, whilst the executive pay was sourced exclusively from the company annual reports. treatment of data to ensure accurate statistical analysis of panel data, the raw data collected were transformed to take into account differences (polakow, 2010). this transformation removed the effects of stationarity. the transformation was carried out in two steps. the first step was taking the difference between each dataset. in the second step, the mean and standard deviation of the total dataset was considered and used to normalise the data. this normalisation process ensured that the data had a zero mean, as well as unit variance (field, 2009). statistical analysis data analysis typically involves the cleaning and organising of data, describing the data and finally answering the research questions using inferential statistics (trochim, 2006). this was achieved using a three-stage approach. descriptive statistics the first stage of analysis was the determination of the descriptive statistics. this information not only informed the researchers as to the trends observed for each variable but also served the purpose of facilitating the transformation of the data. diagnosis checking the second stage was diagnosis testing. testing for assumptions (also known as diagnosis checking) was an important step performed to understand the dataset such that the correct statistical tools was identified and utilised. one of the fundamental assumptions of most statistics is normality of the data (razali & wah, 2011). if the data support the assumption of normality, it implies that the data conform to a normal distribution. the data set was tested for normality using the shapiro–wilk’s test, as it is suitable for smaller sample sizes (razali & wah, 2011). a test for differences was required to determine if there were significant differences in the sample means across multiple populations (wegner, 2016). for this research, a one-way analysis of variance (anova) was performed to determine whether there were significant differences. autocorrelation is a concern for time-series, panel and longitudinal data – all of which apply to this research. this is because of the fact that autocorrelation would effectively reduce the number of independent observations (field, 2009). the dataset was tested for autocorrelation using the durbin–watson test (field, 2009). correlation analysis bivariate correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship (in terms of strength and direction) between the dependent and independent variables (cooper & schindler, 2014; pallant, 2007). for this study, the spearman’s rank-order correlation coefficient was calculated as it was a non-parametric test that can also be used for parametric data. the results of the test were interpreted using table 2 (nel, 2012). table 2: correlation coefficient strength interpretation. ethical consideration this article followed all ethical standards for carrying out research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. results the dataset for this research encompassed 14 companies across 8 years. hence, 112 separate cases were considered for the descriptive statistics portion of the results. as this was panel data, to ensure stationarity, a difference between the years was taken. this had the effect of reducing the total number of cases to 98 for the diagnosis checking and to evaluate the research objective. measures of executive pay this study defined executive pay as the total pay (the sum of fixed pay and variable pay). interestingly, in 2013, there was a marked decline in executive pay (17.67% average year-on-year decrease from 2012), with half of the companies in the sample exhibiting this declining trend. aside from the exception to the trend in 2013, there was still an average growth in total pay of 28.68% over the 8 year research period, or a year-on-year average increase of 5.00%. measures of company performance the financial performance measures adopted for this research included revenue, operating profit or loss, net profit or loss, roe, roa and the solvency ratio. revenue over the research period, there was an increase of 43.77% in revenue, or an average increase of 5.47% year-on-year. operating profit or loss there was an increase in the overall mean operating profit or loss from r286 million to r586 million, equating to an increase of 104.90% over the research period. this equated to an average 13.11% increase year-on-year. aside from 2014 and 2015, there was a relatively linear increase year-on-year. there was always at least one company during the research period that reported an operating loss during the financial year. whilst there were some companies that recorded losses, on average, the operating profit was increasing at a faster rate than the revenue. net profit or loss the net profit was found to be decreasing by an average of 9.54% year-on-year. similar to operating profit or loss, there was a significant reduction in the 2015 financial year for the net profit or loss. this was the only year in the period where a net loss was reported on average for the companies in the study. in contrast to revenue and operating profit or loss, net profit or loss was decreasing during the research period. return on equity the roe was calculated for each of the 8 years and was found to be highly variable during the research period, showing positive returns in 5 of the 8 years, and negative returns in 3 years. return on assets the roa was calculated for each of the 8 years. there was an initial increase in the roa from 2009 until 2011 (30.51% and 105.81%, respectively, increase each year). from 2012 onwards, the trend was decreasing with an average decrease of 21.47% over the next 3 years. in 2015 and 2016, there was a mean loss reported on assets. there appears to be a general decreasing trend over the reporting period. solvency ratio the final financial metric that was considered to define company performance was the solvency ratio. initially, there was a 71.01% increase in the mean solvency ratio in 2010. after this initial increase, there was a downward trend until 2015 (with an average decrease of 9.46% year-on-year). in 2016, there was an 8.13% increase again in the solvency ratio. even with the fluctuation observed with the solvency ratio, the general trend was one of a decline, and there was an increase in the solvency ratio during the research period. diagnosis checking tests for normality the shapiro–wilk’s test was used to test the data for normality. the significance level for each of the variables considered (dependent and independent) were all below 0.05. hence, it can be concluded that the dataset violates the assumption of normality, indicating that the variables deviate from a normal distribution. test for differences to determine whether there were any differences between each of the years in the research period (the group), a one-way anova was performed. there were no significant differences between the groups. test for autocorrelation the values for the durbin–watson statistic were found to be between the threshold limits of 1.5 and 2.5 to disregard the effects of autocorrelation in the dataset. key results the aim of this research was to determine whether there was a relationship between executive pay and company financial performance. the sections that follow detail the results of the correlation analysis performed. in the results tables, the significant correlation coefficients have an indicator whether it was significant at the p < 0.05 level or the p < 0.01 level. the sign in front of the correlation coefficient indicates whether the relationship was positive or negative. the strength provides the interpretation of the correlation coefficient, using the ranges in table 2 as a reference. the total pay for the ceos of each of the 14 companies was evaluated against the six financial metrics identified, implying that there were 84 potential relationships investigated. from the results presented in table 3, the total pay and associated company financial performance was not consistent across the different companies. however, there were a greater number of strong or better correlations (57.14%) in the sample, with 20 of the 84 relationships (23.81%) showing a statistically significant coefficient. these significant relationships were all very strong, with nine related to operating profit or loss, six related to revenue and three related to net profit or loss. there were no significant results observed for roa. table 3: relationship significance and strength between total pay and company performance over the research period. only three companies showed no significant relationship between total pay and company performance, although some of the correlation coefficients were strong. this study sought to determine whether there was a relationship between executive pay and company performance in south african schedule 2 soes. when considering the overall dataset results, as seen in table 4, there was one significant correlation between total pay and net profit or loss. whilst the relationship was observed to be significant, the actual relationship was weak. hence, it can be concluded that there is a weak relationship between total pay and company performance in south african schedule 2 soes. table 4: summary of relationship between executive pay and company performance. discussion of the six metrics used to define company financial performance, only net profit or loss showed a significant positive weak relationship with total executive pay when considering the total dataset. the remaining metrics showed non-significant, negligible results. when considering the metrics used to define company financial performance, the results observed in this research supported the consensus of the previous studies for five of the six metrics (operating profit or loss, net profit or loss, roe, roa and solvency ratio). the only metric where the literature indicated there should have been a significant relationship, and where none was observed, was for revenue. these are further discussed below. revenue when considering the companies included in this study separately, six of the 14 showed a significant, very strong relationship. however, when considering the total dataset, there was a non-significant, negligible relationship. this non-significant result supports the findings of ngwenya and khumalo (2012) and gigliotti (2013). however, there were a number of previous studies that found results contrary to this observation, which showed significant relationships of various strengths (bezuidenhout, 2016; scholtz & smit, 2012; theku, 2014; van der laan et al., 2010; zhou, 2010). of the studies reviewed, it appears that the results of this research contradict the majority of the studies that included revenue as a measure of performance. operating profit or loss interestingly, the operating profit or loss metric showed the greatest number of significant correlations (nine of 14 soes) when considering the individual companies associated with total executive pay. when considering the whole dataset, it was found that there was a non-significant, negligible positive relationship with total pay. this set of non-significant results supports the findings of four other authors (bezuidenhout, 2016; deysel & kruger, 2015; scholtz & smit, 2012; van der laan et al., 2010), whereas two other studies disagreed with the results of this research (shaw, 2011; theku, 2014). it appears that the majority of research tends to agree that operating profit or loss exhibits no significant relationship with executive pay. net profit or loss when considering the net profit or loss, only three of 14 soes yielded significant, very strong relationships. there was a different result observed when considering the total dataset where a significant weak positive relationship was seen. shaw (2011) exhibited similar results as observed in this; however, the strength of the correlation was stronger. similarly, bezuidenhout (2016) reported a significant weak to moderate relationship, but the relationship was negative in comparison to the positive relationship observed in this study. as net profit or loss is not one of the more common performance metrics used in research on this topic, the conclusion is not as robust. it appears that there could be a weak relationship between executive pay and net profit or loss. return on equity the roe was one of the most popular metrics used in the previous studies reviewed, with 16 of 23 studies using roe as a metric. the results of this study showed that there was no significant relationship observed between total executive pay and roe in the total dataset. the same (or similar) results were observed by aduda (2011), bezuidenhout (2016), busaule (2014), deysel and kruger (2015), gigliotti (2013), lam et al. (2013), shaw (2011), theku (2014), uyanik (2017) and van blerck (2012). in comparison to this, six authors observed results that differed from those presented in this research. zhou (2010), sigler (2011) and de wet (2012), as well as raithatha and komera (2016), showed a significant positive relationship of different strengths. bussin and nel (2015) found that there was a negative relationship. finally, bussin and modau (2015) noted a significant relationship that appeared to be declining over the research period. whilst roe is one of the most common metrics used to define company performance, the evidence from previous studies, as well as this study, points towards roe not exhibiting a relationship with executive pay. return on assets the roa was the only financial performance metric used in this research that did not have any significant observations when considering the individual soes. it is also important to note that all observations for the total dataset were negligible. this finding supports the findings of five other studies (aduda, 2011; gigliotti, 2013; lam et al., 2013; luo, 2015; ngwenya & khumalo, 2012). there were a number of other researchers who found significant positive relationships between executive pay and roa. these included de wet (2012) – strong relationship; rahman (2017) – negligible relationship; raithatha and komera (2016) – moderate relationship; and theku (2014) and uyanik (2017) – weak relationship. the evidence is not conclusive regarding the relationship between executive pay and roa. however, the results of this study improve the validity of the non-significant relationship observed. solvency ratio there was a majority of non-significant results observed for this performance metric. an interesting result was the number of negative relationships (of varying strength). for the overall dataset, a non-significant, positive, negligible relationship was observed. this result supported all three of the previous studies that used the solvency ratio as a performance metric (bezuidenhout, 2016; lam et al., 2013; shaw, 2011). from the evidence observed in previous studies and this research, it can be concluded that there is no significant relationship between executive pay and solvency. principal research findings it was observed in this study that there was limited evidence regarding the pay–performance relationship of soes. executive pay was considered using total pay only, and company financial performance was defined using six metrics (revenue, operating profit or loss, net profit or loss, roe, return on assets and solvency ratio). the pay–performance relationship was considered for each of the 14 soes included in the study as well as the dataset as a whole. whilst there were significant relationships observed, executive pay in the south african schedule 2 soe environment showed no conclusive relationship with company financial performance. considering the total executive pay, there was only one significant relationship observed with net profit or loss which was weak. these results were similar to shaw (2011). whilst there were only weak relationships observed for some of the absolute financial measures, there were no significant relationships observed for the financial ratios. this supports the findings of tosi et al. (2000). these results support the proposition that there is an agency problem existent in south african soes. recommendations based on the results observed in this research, several considerations need to be catered for regarding the structuring of executive pay. the most important consideration needs to be addressed at a government level – the development of an all-encompassing soe legislation framework as proposed by the presidential review commission (2012). this will standardise the manner in which soes structure the pay of executives, as well as the reporting requirements. this would improve the quality and reliability of the data, as well as improve the relationship between executive pay and company performance. further to this, executive performance needs to be evaluated accurately to determine its impact on the performance of the company. jensen, murphy and wruck (2004) indicated that the incorrect performance measures lead to inappropriate pay. gopalan, horn and milbourn (2017) recommended a number of ways in which the attitude of the ceo can become more performance driven. this could include the use of multiple performance metrics, increasing pay based on the risk they are exposed to, reward relative to competitors and the inclusion of non-financial targets to ensure that the bottom line does not become the sole focus. if executive performance can be aligned to the expectations of the shareholder, then the agency problem that exists can be alleviated. conclusion an agency problem appears to exist in south african schedule 2 soes, where the ceos are being paid in a manner than does not reflect the performance of their companies. this research showed that the pay–performance relationship was tenuous at best, with only weak significant correlations considering executive total pay and company financial performance. hence, there was no conclusive relationship between executive pay and company financial performance in south african schedule 2 soes. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions c.c. conducted the research and m.b. cowrote this article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references 21st century pay solutions. (2010). global reward trends. retrieved from https://www.saica.co.za/portals/0/about/committees/global reward trends.pdf aduda, j. (2011). the relationship between executive compensation and firm performance in the kenyan banking sector. journal of accounting and taxation, 3(6), 130–139. alves, p., couto, e., & francisco, p. (2016). executive pay and performance in portuguese listed companies. research in international business and finance, 37, 184–195. arries, c. (2014). a comparative study on specific governance elements in the state-owned entities overseen by the department of public enterprises (dpe) and the department of transport (dot) in south africa. stellenbosch: stellenbosch university. attaway, m.c. (2000). a study of the relationship between company performance and ceo compensation. american business review, 18(1), 77–85. bebchuk, l.a., & fried, j.m. (2005). pay without performance: overview of the issues. journal of applied corporate finance, 17(4), 8–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6622.2005.00056.x bezuidenhout, m.l. (2016). the relationship between ceo remuneration and company performance in south african state-owned entities. johannesburg: university of south africa. bosse, d.a., & phillips, r.a. (2016). agency theory and bounded self-interest. academy of management review, 41(2), 276–297. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2013.0420 brown, l.d., & caylor, m.l. (2006). corporate governance and firm valuation. journal of accounting and public policy, 25(4), 409–434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2006.05.005 bruce, a., buck, t., & main, b.g.m. (2005). top executive remuneration: a view from europe. journal of management studies, 42(7), 1493–1506. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2005.00553.x busaule, d.m. (2014). the relationship between financial performance and executive compensation of commercial banks in kenya. nairobi: university of nairobi. bussin, m. (2015). ceo pay-performance sensitivity in the south african context. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 18(2), 232–244. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v18i2.838 bussin, m. (2016). the remuneration handbook for africa (3rd edn.). randburg: knowres publishing. bussin, m., & modau, m.f. (2015). the relationship between chief executive officer remuneration and financial performance in south africa between 2006 and 2012. south african journal of human resource management, 13(1), a668. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.668 bussin, m., & nel, m. (2015). relationship between ceo remuneration and company financial performance in the south african retail and consumer goods sector. acta commercii, 15(1), a240. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v15i1.240 campello, m., graham, j.r., & harvey, c.r. (2010). the real effects of financial constraints: evidence from a financial crisis. journal of financial economics, 97(3), 470–487. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2010.02.009 cooper, d.r., & schindler, p.s. (2014). business research methods (12th edn.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill/irwin. de wet, j.h.vh. (2012). executive compensation and the eva and mva performance of south african listed companies. southern african business review, 16(3), 57–80. deysel, b., & kruger, j. (2015). the relationship between south african ceo compensation and company performance in the banking industry. southern african business review, 19(1), 137–169. https://doi.org/10.25159/1998-8125/5837 erick, t.k., kefah, b.a., & nyaoga, r.b. (2014). the relationship between executive compensation and financial performance of insurance companies in kenya. research journal of finance and accounting, 5(1), 113–122. field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss (3rd edn.). london: sage. frydman, c., & jenter, d. (2010). ceo compensation. annual review of financial economics, 2, 75–102. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-financial-120209-133958 gigliotti, m. (2013). the compensation of top managers and the performance of italian firms. international journal of human resource management, 24(4), 889–903. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.702317 gopalan, r., horn, j., & milbourn, t. (2017). compensation targets that work. harvard business review, 95(5), 102–107. graham, m., & winfield, j. (2010). understanding financial statements. cape town: cape business seminars. hambrick, d.c., & quigley, t.j. (2014). toward more accurate contextualization of the ceo effect on firm performance. strategic management journal, 35(4), 473–491. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2108 hsiao, c. (2007). panel data analysis-advantages and challenges. test, 16(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11749-007-0046-x jensen, m.c., & meckling, w.h. (1976). theory of the firm: managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure. journal of financial economics, 3(4), 305–360. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-405x(76)90026-x jensen, m. c., & murphy, k. j. (1990). ceo incentives—it’s not how much you pay, but how. journal of applied corporate finance, 3(3), 36–49. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6622.1990.tb00207.x jensen, m.c., murphy, k.j., & wruck, e.g. (2004). remuneration: where we’ve been, how we got to here, what are the problems, and how to fix them. working paper no. 44/2004. european corporate governance institute. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.561305 jensen, m.c., murphy, k.j., & wruck, e.g. (2004). remuneration: where we’ve been, how we got to here, what are the problems, and how to fix them. ecgi finance working paper no. 44/2004. brussels, belgium: european corporate governance institute. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.561305 lam, k.c.k., mcguinness, p.b., & vieito, j.p. (2013). ceo gender, executive compensation and firm performance in chinese-listed enterprises. pacific basin finance journal, 21(1), 1136–1159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pacfin.2012.08.006 luo, y. (2015). ceo power, ownership structure and pay performance in chinese banking. journal of economics and business, 82, 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconbus.2015.04.003 marshall, r., & lee, l.-e. (2016). are ceos paid for performance? evaluating the effectiveness of equity incentives. new york, usa: msci inc. murphy, k.j. (1999). executive compensation. in o. ashenfelter & d. card (eds.), handbook of labor economics (vol. 3, pp. 2486–2557). san diego, usa: north-holland. nel, m. (2012). sensitivity of guaranteed cost to company of ceos in the south african retail and consumer goods sector. johannesburg: gordon institute of business science. ngwenya, s., & khumalo, m. (2012). ceo compensation and performance of state owned enterprises in south africa. corporate ownership and control, 10(1 a), 97–109. https://doi.org/10.22495/cocv10i1art9 odainkey, h.n., & simpson, s.n.y. (2013). ensuring accountability in state-owned enterprises: examining the role of annual reports from a middle income country’s perspective. the journal of institute of public enterprise, 36(1&2), 1–20. o’reilly, c.a., & main, b.g.m. (2010). economic and psychological perspectives on ceo compensation: a review and synthesis. industrial and corporate change, 19(3), 675–712. https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dtp050 pallant, j. (2007). spss survival manual (3rd edn.). new york, ny: open university press. polakow, d. (2010). if a portfolio manager who cannot count finds a four-leaf clover, is he still lucky ? investment analysts journal, 39(72), 53–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/10293523.2010.11082523 presidential review commission. (2012). growing the economy-bridging the gap: presidential review committee on state-owned entities. pretoria: the presidency of the republic of south africa. price waterhouse coopers. (2012). state-owned companies: the new companies act, pfma and king iii in perspective. retrieved from https://www.pwc.co.za/en/assets/pdf/companies-act-steering-point-4.pdf rahman, m. (2017). determinants of ceo compensation: empirical evidence from listed banks of bangladesh. in the 7th international conference of the japanese accounting review. 7 january 2017. kobe, japan. raithatha, m., & komera, s. (2016). executive compensation and firm performance: evidence from indian firms. iimb management review, 28(3), 160–169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iimb.2016.07.002 razali, n.m., & wah, y.b. (2011). power comparisons of shapiro-wilk, kolmogorov-smirnov, lilliefors and anderson-darling tests. journal of statistical modeling and analytics, 2(1), 21–33. saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2012). research methods for business students (6th edn.). harlow, uk: pearson education ltd. scholtz, h.e., & smit, a. (2012). executive remuneration and company performance for south african companies listed on the alternative exchange (altx). southern african business review, 16(1), 22–38. shaw, p. (2011). ceo pay-performance sensitivity in south african financial services companies. johannesburg: gordon institute of business science. sigler, k. (2011). ceo compensation and company performance. business and economic journal, 2011(31), 1–8. theku, m. (2014). ceo compensation sensitivity to performance in the south african mining industry. johannesburg: gordon institute of business science. the economist. (2012). american chief executives are not overpaid. in the economist, 8 september 2012, p. 58. london, uk: the economist group ltd. tosi, h.l., werner, s., katz, j.p., & gomez-mejia, l.r. (2000). how much does performance matter? a meta-analysis of ceo pay studies. journal of management, 26(2), 301–339. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630002600207 trochim, w.m.k. (2006). the research methods knowledge base. retrieved from https://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb uyanik, o. (2017). fair value, firm performance ratios and ceo compensation. småland: linnaeus university. van blerck, t.g. (2012). the relationship between executive remuneration at financial institutions and economic value added. johannesburg: gordon institute of business science. van der laan, g., van ees, h., & van witteloostuijn, a. (2010). is pay related to performance in the netherlands? an analysis of dutch executive compensation, 2002–2006. the economist, 158(2), 123–149. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10645-010-9140-7 ward, m., & price, a. (2017). turning vision into value. johannesburg: van schaik publishers. wegner, t. (2016). applied business statistics: methods and excel-based applications. cape town: juta & company, ltd. wendy ovens & associates. (2013). the role and significance of state owned enterprises, public entities and other public bodies in the promotion of urban growth and development in south africa. johannesburg: wendy oven & associates. zhou, x. (2010). ceo pay, firm size, and corporate performance: evidence from canada. the canadian journal of economics, 33(1), 213–251. https://doi.org/10.1111/0008-4085.00013 177--9 nov 2009 [final version].indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #177 (page number not for citation purposes) applying the burke–litwin model as a diagnostic framework for assessing organisational effectiveness authors: nico martins1 melinde coetzee1 affi liations: 1department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: nico martins e-mail: martin@unisa.ac.za postal address: department of industrial and organisational psychology, po box 392, unisa, 0003, south africa keywords: burke–litwin model of organisational performance and change; organisational diagnosis; organisational effectiveness; transactional factors; transformational factors dates: received: 19 nov. 2008 accepted: 16 july 2009 published: 11 sept. 2009 how to cite this article: martins, n., & coetzee, m. (2009). applying the burke–litwin model as a diagnostic framework for assessing organisational effectiveness. sa journal of human resource management/ sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), art. #177, 13 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.177 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. abstract this exploratory study investigated the utility of the burke–litwin model as a diagnostic framework for assessing the factors affecting organisational effectiveness. the research setting consisted of an international company, with a population comprising representatives of more than 17 different nationalities. the purposive sampling method was used to involve employee participants (n = 147) in focus groups and executive managers (n = 11) in semi-structured probing interviews. the factors identifi ed related to both the transformational and transactional dimensions of the burke–litwin model. the fi ndings add to the existing literature on factors causing organisational effectiveness and ineffectiveness in cross-cultural organisational contexts. 144vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 13 introduction organisations are continually searching for innovative ways of enhancing competitiveness, as evolving external forces, such as changing demographics, globalisation and technology, require managers to rapidly rethink and retool their organisational management strategies (whitfi eld & landeros, 2006). in this regard, organisational leaders and theorists increasingly view organisational diagnosis as a key element in developing and maintaining competitive advantage (lee & brower, 2006). although the current literature on organisations offers a diverse array of theories on the construct of organisational effectiveness, virtually all such theories acknowledge the importance of organisational effectiveness and its relation to improved organisational performance (baruch & ramalho, 2006; lee & brower, 2006). organisational effectiveness illustrates the soundness of an organisation’s culture, processes and structure in terms of its overall system performance (french & bell, 1999). the practical use of assessing organisational effectiveness stems from the intent to analyse the present state of an organisation to improve the performance of the organisation in accordance with diagnostic fi ndings (lee & brower, 2006). assessing organisational effectiveness by means of a well-planned and well-executed diagnostic process is, therefore, generally assumed to form part of a broad organisational management strategy aimed at improving overall system management (cummings & worley, 2005; french & bell, 1999). the use of such a diagnostic process provides an organisation with the systematic knowledge that it needs to design a set of appropriate intervention activities that should improve overall organisational effectiveness (van tonder & dietrichsen, 2008). diagnosis entails understanding a system’s current functioning. more specifi cally, harrison (cited in van tonder & dietrichsen, 2008:137) describes organisational diagnosis as consisting of investigations that draw on concepts, models and methods from the behavioural sciences. such investigations are generally aimed at examining an organisation’s current state, at helping clients fi nd ways to solve problems, or at enhancing organisational effectiveness. organisational diagnosis is also regarded as a collaborative process embarked on between organisation members and an organisational development (od) consultant. the process involves collecting pertinent information about current operations, analysing the data obtained, and drawing conclusions regarding potential change and improvement (cummings & worley, 2005; slocum & hellriegel, 2007). empirical research conducted in the past indicates that successful employee involvement efforts using an organisational diagnostic process can have a substantial impact on the fi nancial productivity of an organisation (cummings & worley, 2005; huselid, 1995; ostroff, 1995). a well-executed organisational diagnostic process fosters and promotes a continuous learning environment that not only impacts on the organisation’s ability to rapidly adapt to change, but which also positively affects its bottom-line organisational performance and overall effectiveness (kontoghiorghes, awbrey & feurig, 2005). objectives of the study the current exploratory study aimed to investigate the utility of the burke–litwin model as a diagnostic framework for assessing the factors affecting organisational effectiveness in a cross-cultural research setting. in the context of the particular research setting, it was important to identify a well-researched diagnostic model that focused on environmental impact and organisational performance, as well as on change and effectiveness, and which could be applied in a cross-cultural context. according to jones and brazzel (2006), there is no best diagnostic model. the model used depends on the situation and the practitioner’s style and lenses. burke (cited in jones & brazzel, 2006) mentions three criteria for selecting a diagnostic model: firstly, the model should be one that the od practitioner thoroughly understands and is at ease with; secondly, it should fi t the client organisation as closely as possible; and, thirdly, the model should be suffi ciently comprehensive to enable data to be gathered about the organisation within the model’s parameters, and without missing out on any key details concerned. as shown in table 1, several of the most frequently used models (jones & brazzel, 2006) were considered, taking the foregoing criteria and the strengths and limitations of each model into consideration. models such as the weisbord model, the mckinsey seven-s model and the galbraith star model were found to be too simplistic for the purpose of the current study (jones & brazzel, 2006). moreover, the freedman swamp model of socio-technical systems and the nadler tushman congruence model were found to be too complex to address the aims of the study. in terms of original research martins & coetzee sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 7 (page number not for citation purposes) 145 vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 13 tushman’s model, jones and brazzel (196) also point out that in the short term, congruence can lead to improved effectiveness and performance, whereas, in the longer term, congruence can fuel resistance to change. the well-known burke–litwin model (burke & litwin, 1992) was regarded as fitting all three of the stated criteria. furthermore, the burke–litwin model of organisational performance and change is founded on a functional cause–and–effect framework. the model explains linkages that hypothesise how organisational performance and overall effectiveness are affected, as well as how deliberate and effective change can be influenced. the model is reported to clearly show causeand-effect relationships between the organisation’s internal and external environments, aimed at explaining their link to organisational effectiveness (burke & litwin, 1992; chawane, van vuuren & roodt, 2003). although the model is also regarded as quite complex, its ability to add value to the outcomes of the organisational diagnostic process in cross-cultural research settings (furnham & gunter, 1993; howard, 1994; jones & brazzel, 2006) was regarded as a strenth the burke–litwin model of organisational performance and change researchers conducting organisational diagnosis generally agree that organisational effectiveness should be viewed from a systems perspective using a multidimensional approach in assessing the factors affecting an organisation’s performance and overall effectiveness (baker & maddux, 2005; baruch & ramalho, 2006; burke & litwin, 1992; cummings & worley, 2005; lee & brower, 2006). in this regard, the burke–litwin model (burke & litwin, 1992) is seen to serve as a conceptual framework, which describes the relationships between different features of the organisation, as well as its context and effectiveness (cummings & worley, 2005). taking into consideration the complex nature of organisational phenomena, change models, such as the burke–litwin model, provide a taxonomy of key organisational dimensions that serves to guide data collection and diagnosis (chawane et al., 2003). according to burke and litwin (1992), change models are not meant to be prescriptive, rather they are meant to provide a means to diagnose, plan and manage change. beer (cited in chawane et al., 2003, p. 73) regards organisational change models as arbitrary, convenient shorthand methods of explaining organisational challenges, which can facilitate the process of planning how such challenges can be dealt with efficiently. change models are also used to explain an organisational diagnostic method by which organisational phenomena may be understood and, therefore, managed to improve overall organisational performance and effectiveness (chawane et al., 2003). the burke–litwin model (burke & litwin, 1992) is a model that predicts behaviour and performance consequences. it deals with cause (organisational conditions) and effect (resultant performance), serving as a guide not only for organisational diagnosis, but also for planned managed organisational change (french & bell, 1999). according to furnham and gunter (1993), the burke–litwin model is the best-known and most influential model for looking at the role of organisational climate in business performance. french and bell consider the model as playing a significant role in thinking about planned change. kraut (1996) not only describes the model as comprehensive, but also regards it as based on sound theory and research. according to him, the model enhances the efficacy of an organisational diagnosis, as well as serving as a guide to actions resulting from the diagnosis. the burke–litwin model (burke & litwin, 1992) highlights two distinct sets of organisational dynamics. one set is primarily associated with the transactional level of human behaviour, or table 1 comparing diagnostic models models when to apply strengths limitations evaluation weisbord model e• nvironment is not a significant factor s• implicity and speed of diagnosis are important w• ell-known e• asy to explain h• elps identify and focus priorities d• oes not show interdependencies clearly t• oo simplistic d• oes not examine environmental influences d• oes not include change and distinguish between transformational and transactional diagnosis in organisational behaviour and change nadler tushman congruence model a• comprehensive analysis is required a • system perspective is required s• uggests cause–effect relationships h• ighlights both mismatches and congruence c• onsiders the influence of the external environment in the short term, • congruence can lead to improved effectiveness and performance, but in the longer term congruence can fuel resistance to change p• aints a picture that might be too complex and difficult to understand t• oo difficult to understand; congruence in the long term can be problematic freedman swamp model of sociotechnical systems a • comprehensive analysis is required a • specific, explicit comprehensive assessment is required c• omprehensive c• onsiders many of the categories, linkages and boundaries that occur in organisations a• ppears complicated n• eed to create unique meta-models that fit the organisation t• oo complicated mckinsey seven-s model a• multivariable framework is required to determine why organisations are not linking capability and competence explains why renewal is a • complex set of processes c• an be linked to the 7-c framework of planning t• oo simplistic l• ooks gimmicky t• oo simplistic for analysis required galbraith star model a• review of organisation design is indicated t• he hierarchy seems overloaded e• xtensive change is occurring s• ystemic s• ees an organisation as an information-processing entity d• oes not include the external environment as an influencer t• oo simplistic n• either includes change nor distinguishes between transformational and transactional diagnosis in organisational behaviour and change burke–litwin model of organisational performance and change a• practical utility is required n• eed to see how organisational performance and effectiveness are affected n• eed to see how change can be influenced a • cross-cultural application is required e• xplains linkages s• hows cause-and-effect relationships between organisation’s internal and external environments d• istinguishes between the role of transformational and transactional dynamics in organisational behaviour and change c• omplexity (as in relation to the intricacy of organisational phenomena) f• its most criteria pertaining to the current study o• f practical usefulness in cross-cultural research setting w• ell-researched e• mpirical evidence of addition of value to outcomes of an organisational diagnostic process source: based on cummings & worley (2005); french & bell (1999); jones & brazzel (2006); van tonder & roodt (2008); van tonder & dietrichsen (2008) s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #177 (page number not for citation purposes) applying the burke–litwin model as a diagnostic framework 146vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 13 the everyday interactions and exchanges that create the climate of the organisation. the second set of dynamics is concerned with processes of human transformation, amounting to sudden ‘leaps’ in behaviour. such transformational processes are required for genuine change to take place in the culture of an organisation (french & bell, 1999; jones & brazzel, 2006). the transformational variables refer to those areas in which alteration is usually caused by interaction with environmental forces (both within and without the o rganisation), and which therefore require entirely new behaviour sets on the part of organisational members. according to burke and litwin, the external environment affects transformational factors, which are identified as the organisational mission and strategy, leadership and culture. the transformational factors, in turn, affect the transactional factors, which are identified as the organisational structure, systems, management practices and climate. both types of factors reciprocate, and eventually impact on, individual and organisational performance and overall effectiveness (chawane et al., 2003). as shown in figure 1, the following variables form the basic building-blocks of the burke–litwin model (howard, 1994). transformational factors affecting organisational performance and effectiveness external environment: any outside condition or situati• on that influences the performance of the organisation. such conditions include marketplaces, world financial conditions, political/governmental circumstances, competition and customers. vision, mission and strategy: what employees believe to • be the central purpose of the organisation and how the organisation intends to achieve its purpose over an extended period of time. leadership: behaviour that encourages others to take • necessary actions, including perceptions of leadership style, practices and values. organisational culture: 'the way we do things around here.' • culture is the collection of overt and covert rules, values and principles that guide organisational behaviour and that have been strongly influenced by the organisation’s history, custom and practice. individual and organisational performance: the measurable • outcomes or results, with their relevant indicators of effort and achievement. such indicators might include productivity, customer or staff satisfaction, profit and service quality, salary and benefits, and recognition. transactional factors affecting organisational performance and effectiveness structur• e: the arrangement of functions and employees in specific areas and levels of responsibility, decision-making authority and relationships. structure assures the effective implementation of the organisation’s mission and strategy. management practices: what managers do in the normal • course of events in using the human and material resources at their disposal to carry out the organisation’s strategy, including aspects such as managerial behaviour, work etiquette, professionalism, planning, communication and control. systems (policies and procedures): standardised policies • and mechanisms that facilitate work. systems primarily manifest themselves in the organisation’s reward and control systems, such as in goal and budget development and standard operating procedures (sops). departmental/work unit climate: the collective current • impressions, expectations and feelings of the employees in their respective departments, which, in turn, affect their relations with their superiors, with one another, and with other departments. a positive work climate might serve to enhance retention rates, whereas a negative work climate might lead to a high employee turnover rate. task requirements and individual skills/abilities: the • behaviour, including specific skills and knowledge required for task effectiveness, enabling employees to accomplish the work assigned, for which they feel directly responsible. the job-person match entails elements of recruitment, selection, appointment and promotion. individual needs and values: the specific psychological • factors that validate individual actions or thoughts relating to stress, well-being, recreational activities and living conditions. motivation: aroused behavioural tendencies to move toward • goals, take needed action and persist until satisfaction is attained form the net resultant motivation, meaning the resultant net energy generated by the sum of achievement, power, affection, discovery and other important human motives. in the context of the current research, two additional dimensions (which relate to the transactional aspects of the burke–litwin model) were added after identifying the patterns and themes that emerged from the organisational diagnosis: equipment: the tools to do the job and the quality of • available technology. working environment: facilities such as the buildings, • offices, staff cafeteria and recreational facilities for the staff. burke and litwin (1992) propose that interventions directed at leadership, mission and strategy, and organisational culture produce transformational or fundamental change in the organisation’s culture. interventions directed at management practices, structure and systems produce transactional change, or change in the organisational climate. the burke–litwin model helps od practitioners to size up the change situation, to determine the kind of change (whether transformational or transactional) required and then to target interventions toward factors of the organisation that will produce the desired change (french & bell, 1999). the research undertaken by furnham and gunter (1993), howard (1994) and jones and brazzel (2006) suggests that the model performs as intended. research design research approach an organisational diagnostic approach was decided upon, as such an approach specifically suits research taking place in a natural and unique setting, such as was the case with the hotel company concerned in the current study. organisational diagnosis is central to the science and practice of od, which primarily uses action research methodology (van tonder & dietrichsen, 2008). the od practitioner acts as a diagnostician external environment motivation departmental climate individual and organisational performance vision, mission and strategy organisational culture individual needs and values systems, policies and procedures task requirements and individual skills/abilities structure leadership management practices equipment working environment t figure 1 adapted burke–litwin model (burke & litwin, 1992) original research martins & coetzee sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 7 (page number not for citation purposes) 147 vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 13 in utilising action research methodology, including the use of diagnostic models and various quantitative and/or qualitative diagnostic methods, instruments and techniques, as well as focused diagnostic interventions, in a context with unique features (van tonder & dietrichsen, 2008). organisational diagnosis is essentially a data-gathering method which involves extracting appropriate and relevant data that describes the shortfall between the actual, current system functioning and the desired state of functioning, in which the client (or client system) typically articulates perceived difficulties and the desired future state. diagnostic data are employed to develop or source methods and actions that will breach and reduce the ‘gap’ concerned (cummings & worley, 2005; van tonder & dietrichsen, 2008). the general purpose of organisational diagnosis is to establish a valid, accurate and unobstructed view (‘picture’) of the organisation, which can be easily understood by all relevant stakeholder constituencies (cummings & worley, 2005; van tonder & dietrichsen, 2008). research strategy as the main objective of the study was to gather organisational data for diagnostic purposes, which entailed identifying those organisational factors causing organisational effectiveness or ineffectiveness in a cross-cultural setting, an action research strategy was employed. action research is a well-established strategy in organisational diagnostic approaches aimed at systematic data-based problem-solving (jackson, 2008). such research focuses on planned change as a cyclical process, in which the initial research conducted into the organisation provides information that is obtained by means of the use of organisational diagnostic models, methods and techniques intended to guide subsequent improvement actions (cummings & worley, 2005). the purpose of the action research effort generally dictates the scope, intensity and likely duration of the organisational diagnosis, which is agreed upon by the client system’s representative prior to starting the action research process (jackson, 2008). in the context of the current study the scope of the diagnosis (and therefore the action research process) was narrow, of relatively short duration, and limited to identifying the factors causing the company to be effective or ineffective at the time of the diagnostic effort. the data were then fed back into the organisation, with a view to inform decision-making regarding improvement actions. the focal efforts, time and resources of the researcher were, therefore, directed at addressing the client’s needs, while attempting to cover the broader contextual domain (that is, the cross-cultural context and external environmental features) that might have been found to influence the interpretation and meaning of the behavioural dynamics and problems surfacing during the diagnosis. furthermore, as the focal point or target unit of diagnosis was the entire organisation, the burke–litwin model (burke & litwin, 1992) relevant to organisational performance and change provided a sound framework within which to achieve the aims of the action research effort. the burke–litwin model, which is grounded in validated research, allows the researcher to interpret the presented data and to identify the factors and areas which, according to the model, underlie and inform the presented data in a scientifically accountable and reliable way (furnham & gunter, 1993; howard, 1994; jones & brazzel, 2006). research method research setting the research setting consisted of an international hotel group in the middle east, with a population comprising more than 17 different nationalities (including egyptian, filipino, dutch, swedish, canadian, south african, american and bahraini). although the staff complement was found to be very diverse, all the participants in the study were found to speak english relatively fluently, as english is the language in which the hotel conducts business. entrée and the establishment of researcher roles the choice of organisational diagnostic (data-gathering) instruments was determined by the scope and aims of the diagnostic effort agreed on by the client. the researcher relied primarily on a combination of semi-structured interviews and focus groups to generate the data. interviews and focus groups are useful in generating rich data on a range of subjects, thus creating a basis for ownership and post-diagnostic commitment to action (van tonder & dietrichsen, 2008). the advantages of employing a diagnostic research methodology are numerous. firstly, the role of the researcher (as the diagnostician) in the diagnostic process, which is to actively engage in the making of meaning from text or with the subject under study, allows the researcher to detect the nuances, uncertainties, emotional reactions and ambiguities characteristic of human interaction, which is missed in some quantitative analyses (henning, van rensburg & smit, 2004; smith, 2003). moreover, since the researcher serves as the primary instrument of data collection and data analysis, comprehension can be broadened through conducting both non-verbal and verbal communication with the respondents. the diagnostic method also allows the researcher (in the role of diagnostician) to process the data immediately, to clarify and summarise material, to check with the respondents the accuracy of interpretation, and to explore unusual or unanticipated responses (smith, 2003). sample and sampling method purposive sampling was used to ensure that employees from all departments and job levels were selected to participate in the focus groups. in addition, all 11 executive managers were individually interviewed in semi-structured probing interviews. as a non-probability sampling procedure, purposive sampling implies that the probability of any particular member of the population being chosen is unknown (struwig & stead, 2001). purposive sampling occurs when the researcher looks for those who fit the criteria of ‘desirable participants’, as was the case in the current study. in the context of the study, the human resources (hr) director contacted all the participants whom he wished to be respondents in the study and invited them to participate. such a sampling methodology is in line with waclawski and church’s (2002) proposal to conduct different focus groups for top management, for middle management and for non-managerial employees. the purpose of using such a methodology is to obtain a diverse and representative sample of employees, without jeopardising their degree of confidence and openness. as shown in table 2, a total of 147 employees from all levels of the organisation participated in the focus groups, with 11 executive managers being individually interviewed. such participation yielded a sample of 29.5% of a population of 535 employees, which is regarded as more than adequate for a qualitative survey (schurink, 2003). the educational qualifications of the focus groups’ participants ranged from job grades 1 to 8. the respondents were selected from all 16 departments in the hotel. an equal number per department was invited to the focus groups. a middle manager from each department was also invited to participate in the study. the process ensured that all the departments were sufficiently covered in terms of employee selection and that the process of selection was perceived to be fair by all the employees at the hotel. data collection methods interviews semi-structured probing interviews were used to collect data from the 11 executive managers for the purpose of the current s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #177 (page number not for citation purposes) applying the burke–litwin model as a diagnostic framework 148vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 13 research. a semi-structured interview consists of an investigator asking a set of scheduled questions, with the interview being guided, rather than dictated, by the schedule (banister, burman, parker, taylor & tindall, 1994). probing or sensing interviews are regarded as an invaluable and powerful diagnostic tool for diagnostic applications in organisations (roodt, 2008). such an interview is conducted non-threateningly, resulting from the establishment of a trustful relationship with the participants concerned, which enables the purpose of the interview and the utilisation of the data to be gathered to be explained to them. the probing interview, when applied within a purposive sampling context, enables the interviewer (or diagnostician) to probe more deeply into the identified themes and to purposively sample other interviewees, in order to follow up on identified cues or issues (roodt, 2008). using semi-structured probing interviews to collect data has numerous advantages. firstly, such interviews provide the researcher with the opportunity to establish relationships with the participants, in order to encourage the development of a sense of trust and cooperation, which is often needed to probe sensitive areas. secondly, the probing interview helps participants to interpret the questions appropriately. thirdly, the semi-structured probing interview allows flexibility in determining the wording and sequence of the questions asked, as such an interview setting allows for personal interaction and the opportunity to follow up on incomplete or vague responses (rosnow & rosenthal, 1996; welman & kruger, 2001). the disadvantages of using probing interviews include the high level of demands made on time, costs, interviewer skills, data analysis and interpretation (van tonder & dietrichsen, 2008; welman & kruger, 2001). in the context of the current study, each of the 11 executive managers was interviewed individually at their offices or in one of the meeting rooms made available. the interviews with the participants were scheduled to last an hour. the duration of the interviews varied for the different participants. the average time of each interview, however, was 50 minutes. the purpose of the interview was explained, and 15 semistructured questions were asked of the managers concerned. in 10 instances, scales were added to the questions to enable the researchers to quantify the responses, so that the interviewees’ responses could be probed more deeply. as shown in table 3, the interview guide consisted of 15 questions, which focused more strategically on aspects such as the culture of the hotel company, anticipated future competition, business objectives, the quality of service and the products made available, the professionalism of the staff, work/life balance, the equality of conditions, the service standards, workforce diversity and the social activities of staff. opportunities were also given for additional comments. focus groups focus groups are regarded as a variant of the unstructured interview, as the essence of such groups is a group interview (roodt, 2008; rothwell & sullivan, 2005). roodt regards the use of focus groups as a powerful organisational diagnostic tool for establishing a shared sense of a problem, as well as its impact and the solutions required. the downside of a focus group is that it can contribute to ‘groupthink’, encouraging the dominant voice in such a group to influence others to express themselves in the same way, regardless of whether such expression really reflects how they think (rothwell & sullivan, 2005). moreover, superficial data, which might not fully reveal the depth of the problem, might be generated. the status of some group members might also influence the decision outcomes (roodt, 2008). for the purpose of the diagnostic effort, the following four questions were posed to the participants during the focus groups to ensure validity (that is, to elicit the desired level and range of responses) and reliability of responses (that is, to ensure that the questions would consistently be understood in the same way by all participants): what are the characteristics of an employee of choice? • (question 1) what excites you about your work (makes you happy) at the • hotel? (question 2) what would you change at the hotel if you had the • opportunity? (question 3) table 2 number of participants, according to group and department (n = 158) group department no. of participants executive managers (semi-structured probing interviews) 11 1. housekeeping and laundry 10 2. maintenance 9 3. rooms division – group 1 (hk, front desk) 10 4. sales and accounts 9 5. short-service group (expatriates) 10 6. long-service group 9 7. rooms division – group 2 9 8. gicec and banqueting 9 9. ladies 10 10. kitchen 9 11. bars and health club 10 12. human resources administration and general 10 13. food and beverage – group 1 8 14. middle management – 0 grade 9 6 15. middle management – grades 10 & 11 10 16. food and beverage – group 2 9 total (focus group participants) 147 total 158 table 3 list of interview questions how would you describe the hotel to a friend (the culture; the way you do 1. things; what you do well; your customer focus)? in general, what outside conditions, such as competition, market changes, 2. etc. have the biggest influence on the hotel? do you think that the hotel is correctly positioned to meet these challenges?3. are the hotel’s business objectives driven primarily by your customer focus?4. from your point of view, what do you experience as the best products and 5. services of the hotel? how does the hotel’s service and product quality compare to that of your 6. competitors? how do you view the competence and professionalism of the staff?7. are decisions made ‘close to the customer’?8. how do you experience the balance between work and personal life?9. do you think that all the employees are treated equally and fairly?10. do the employees understand the service standards?11. do the managers in general understand the diverse workforce?12. does the hotel cater sufficiently for the recreational and social activities of 13. its staff? if you had the opportunity, what would you change at the hotel to improve 14. the overall performance? do you have any other comments?15. original research martins & coetzee sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 7 (page number not for citation purposes) 149 vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 13 what does the hotel do particularly well? (question 4)• a brief introduction was provided for the participants. thereafter, the purpose of the session, the ground rules for the session, and the roles of the facilitators were explained. the researchers controlled the possibility of groupthink as follows: each of the four questions was separately listed on flip-• chart paper. the participants were requested to write down their answers • individually on post-it notepaper, without discussing the answers with their colleagues. such discussion was discouraged in order to maintain the confidentiality of the exercise. the post-it notes, after being collected by the researchers, • were quickly reviewed and provisionally grouped per managerial dimension/theme identified in terms of the burke–litwin model (burke & litwin, 1992). the notes were then stuck onto the flip chart. all misunderstandings or unclear answers were then • discussed. notes were made on the post-it notepaper, or on separate sheets of paper. during this phase, the contributions made by the dominant participants were facilitated and the participation of those participants who appeared to be shy was encouraged. the above process was repeated for each of the four • questions. the methodology followed ensured that no one person came to dominate the group and allowed for all participants to obtain clarification on any of the questions. by carefully managing the possibility of groupthink, the researchers were able to explore any answers that they felt required it in more depth and to obtain inputs from the group as needed. the sequence of questions also started with more general questions to encourage the participants to share their thoughts and opinions (waclawski & church, 2002). data recording and analysis the thematic content analysis method was used to analyse the results of the focus groups and the interviews. thematic content analysis is defined by braun and clarke (2006) as a qualitative diagnostic method for identifying, analysing and reporting on patterns or themes detected in data. aronson (1994) describes thematic content analysis as a search for significant themes in the description of the phenomenon. in the context of organisational diagnostic approaches, the factual bases of data are established by separating the factual from the non-factual data (which comprise perceptions, skewed facts or interpretations/inferences). confirmed facts that bear some similarity to one another are then clustered into separate categories, or groups of facts. the categories are then labelled so as accurately to depict the core character of the group of facts and clearly to differentiate one category from another (van tonder & dietrichsen, 2008). the relationship between different categories is established by identifying a sufficiently detailed and valid diagnostic framework or model of organisational dynamics that addresses and incorporates the majority of the categories identified during the clustering process. the chosen diagnostic model or framework is then conceptually overlaid on the categorical data and the cause–effect relationships in the diagnostic model are transferred to the data. the transplanted model effectively suggests which categories are antecedents or outcomes of specific phenomena and suggests a number of more central constructs and content areas to be targeted for further measurement and analysis (van tonder & dietrichsen, 2008). in line with the research objective, the burke–litwin model of organisational performance and change (burke & litwin, 1992) was utilised to categorise and analyse those themes regarded as confirmed facts, which emerged from the interviews with the 11 executive managers and the employees who participated in the focus groups. in the light of the data collected, two additional themes had to be added to the burke–litwin model to ensure that all the feedback was adequately captured. the two themes related to transactional aspects, namely equipment and the working environment. more specifically, during the analysis phase the following steps were used to analyse the interview data, namely: all the data obtained from each semi-structured interview • question was typed up and listed per question all relevant themes regarded as confirmed facts reported • per semi-structured question were tabulated all themes (confirmed facts) related to the scale questions • (numbering 10 in total) were tabulated (in terms of a frequency count) no sub-group analysis was carried out, in order to maintain • the confidentiality of the respondents the summary of the results, thus, contained both qualitative • and quantitative data the burke–litwin model was populated with those core • findings that were regarded as causing the effectiveness, or ineffectiveness, of the organisation in terms of the focus groups, the following steps were followed in analysing the themes: the facilitator (researcher) and scribe concerned worked • together to debrief their impressions and to review the postit paper responses and notes all those responses that were regarded as confirmed facts • were then coded, according to the burke–litwin model for questions 2, 3 and 4 all the responses (confirmed facts) per dimension were then • tabulated, and the frequencies were counted the tabulated frequencies were summarised per centralised • heading under each dimension of the model the burke–litwin model was populated with those core • findings that were regarded as causing the effectiveness, or ineffectiveness, of the organisation strategies employed to ensure quality data as depicted in figure 2, the diagnostic process of data collection and analysis was carried out by employing a systematic action research strategy. the data collection effort was wellstructured and pursued from a platform provided in terms of a carefully considered plan and schedule, which drew on the existing knowledge of organisations in general, and the client organisation in particular. the exertion of such effort ensured that core problems and the root factors causing organisational effectiveness and ineffectiveness could be identified in a valid, reliable, accurate and unobstructed manner. one of the shortcomings of employing a qualitative diagnostic approach is that the interpretation of data and the findings are informed or influenced by the researcher’s own subjectivity (merriam, 2002). for such a reason, the researcher might have biases that can impact significantly on the outcomes of the action research process or diagnostic effort (merriam, 2002; van tonder & dietrichsen, 2008). although it is difficult to eliminate such biases and subjectivities of the researcher, it is important that the researcher identifies and monitors them and considers how they may shape how he or she collects and interprets the data (van tonder & dietrichsen, 2008). to overcome any biases that can impact the results, two interviewers were used and also alternated their use of posing and probing questions. moreover, interview schedules containing carefully worded questions were posed to the participants during both the probing interviews and the focus groups to ensure validity (that is, to elicit the desired level and range of responses) and the reliability of responses (that is, to ensure that the questions would consistently be understood in the same way by all the participants concerned) (roodt, 2008). s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #177 (page number not for citation purposes) applying the burke–litwin model as a diagnostic framework 150vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 13 in terms of ethical considerations, it is important to note that the participants were provided with sufficient information in order that they might give their informed consent to participate in the study (waclawski & church, 2002). once such informed consent was obtained, the researchers conducted the focus groups and recorded in-depth probing interviews with the participants. the interviews were conducted individually on different days: one researcher conducted the interview, while a second researcher recorded the responses, in order to ensure impartiality and the accuracy of the data collected. for the sake of convenience and in order to guarantee a high level of privacy, the interviews were conducted in the organisation’s meeting rooms. the recorded interviews and focus group results were then transcribed, analysed and categorised by employing established organisational diagnostic methods and techniques, as suggested by van tonder and dietrichsen (2008). reporting the personal interviews with the executive managers focused on eliciting managerial and strategic issues that might have an impact on the organisation’s overall effectiveness and performance. the focus groups aimed to elicit both the transformational and transactional factors (as described by the burke–litwin model and as perceived by the employee participants) that were seen as affecting the organisation’s overall effectiveness and performance. in analysing the data collected from both the interviews and the focus groups, general trends, similarities and differences were identified and then clustered according to the burke–litwin model’s dimensions or categories. the adoption of such an approach enabled the researchers to view the organisational data from a multidimensional systems perspective, in terms of which the interrelationship between the themes and subthemes could be identified, analysed and understood in a systematic manner (burke & litwin, 1992; chawane et al., 2003; cummings & worley, 2005). in order to provide the client organisation with an unobstructed view of the factors affecting the organisation’s effectiveness, the core findings were categorised and presented to the client organisation in terms of the burke–litwin model (as shown in figure 3). in the first phase of data reporting, the themes that emerged from the four questions asked during the focus groups were reported in a tabulated format. the adoption of such a reporting approach ensured that the outcome of the data collection effort could be understood by the client organisation in terms of those factors that predict behaviour and performance consequences. they could also be linked to the root cause (organisational conditions) and effect (resultant performance) of organisational effectiveness and ineffectiveness. the results that stemmed from the four questions are reported in tables 4 to 8. as shown in table 9, the client organisation was also provided with an overview of those risk-related factors that might affect the company’s overall effectiveness, as well as of those aspects that could be changed to further improve the overall effectiveness of the company. the second phase of data reporting entailed categorising and populating the burke– litwin model with the core themes that emerged from both the interviews and the focus groups. results as mentioned previously, the first phase of data reporting entailed communicating the themes that emerged from the focus groups by means of tabulated format to enhance the participants’ understanding of the factors that impact on both the effectiveness and the ineffectiveness of the company concerned. as shown in tables 4 to 9, several themes, as well as a number of subthemes, emerged from the data analysis. the first question posed in the focus groups was aimed at bringing about an understanding of the aspects of importance to the respondents, that is, the desired state for optimal organisational effectiveness and performance. table 4 shows that a total of 445 comments was received from 128 respondents. such a finding represents 78.2% of the comments received on the characteristics of an employer of choice. the purpose of the second question was to secure an understanding of the aspects that the participants currently enjoy at work, which could be utilised to enhance the company’s current performance and effectiveness. table 5 shows that a total of 236 comments was received. the total was found to be 53% less than the comments made about the desired state. the observation was made during the focus groups that the participants did not respond immediately to the question asked. initially, there was silence, followed by some comments of ‘nothing’, or a similar expression. some respondents than laughed uncomfortably. after additional explanation, the respondents started to write down their comments. table 5 gives an overview of only the 12 highest ranked responses, which made up 69.5% of the comments received in connection what the employees claimed to enjoy, or what excited them about their work. question 3 aimed to establish what the respondents would change if they had the opportunity. the comments were then ��������� �� �������� ������� ������� ������������������ ������ ������ ������� ����������������������� ���� ����� ��������� �� ���� ����������� ���������� ������ � ����������� ��������������������� �� !" �������������� �� �������������� �������� ���������� ���##��� ����������������� �������� �������� �� $���������#���� ��� ����� ������ ����$$����%� ����� �� � �$$����%� ��� ���� ���������� � ��������� &��� �������������������� ����� ���'�#������ ���(�$���������#����)*���#������" ���+� ����� � ������ ���%���� �������������� � ��������� �� �������� ����������� ��������������������� �� � !"����������������� ������$��������� $������������� ���� ���#���� ��� �� #���� �� ��$� �� �� �� ������ ��� ������� ���� ������ ����$$����%� ��� ��,�� ��$������ �� ��������� ����� ��$� ���� ������ �����#��%��� ��� ���%� ��� �� �������� ��-������� �$������� ���� �� ��� ������ ������� ��� ��������$������������ �� ���� ������ ���� �$$����%� ���" figure 2 overview of organisational diagnostic process original research martins & coetzee sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 7 (page number not for citation purposes) 151 vol. 7 no. 1 page 8 of 13 grouped per category and discussed in detail. table 6 gives an overview of the aspects that the respondents felt strongest about changing. the fourth question focused on what the hotel is doing particularly well (that is, the actual state as experienced by the respondents). table 7 gives an overview of those comments that were noted more than five times (86 [74.8%] of the 115 comments received). the themes that relate to the perceived gap between the actual and desired state are summarised in table 8. as shown in table 9, all the responses from the executive managers obtained by means of the personal interviews were classified and categorised as potential risks for the hotel. the second phase of data reporting entailed categorising and populating the burke–litwin model with the core themes that had emerged from both the interviews and the focus groups. the burke–litwin model was then used as a diagnostic framework to communicate the overall results to the participants. the findings (as summarised in figure 3) show that both transformational and transactional factors appear to be affecting the organisation’s overall effectiveness, in either a positive or negative manner. the observation is supported by the themes that emerged from the risk analysis outlined in table 9, as well as by the gaps identified by means of an analysis of the respondents’ experiences of the desired and actual states (as outlined in table 8). in observing figure 3, the following findings were derived from the diagnostic effort. table 4 question 1 – summary of themes related to characteristics of employer of choice (desired state for optimal organisational effectiveness and performance) themes no. of individuals who wrote down comments on aspects % of possible respondents motivation good salary/wages compatible with production of employees and nature of work.1. 78 60.9% task requirements and individual skills & abilities company where staff development depends totally on performance/encourages and allows career growth.2. 77 60.2% management practices professional/qualified/good management, which considers the welfare and satisfaction of staff and not only 3. themselves. 64 50.0% external environment reputation/fame/good image of company.4. 47 36.7% management practices fair management/fair treatment of staff/equal treatment/no discrimination based on nationality.5. 25 19.5% motivation good staff benefits, such as insurance, bonuses, leave/housing allowance.6. 22 17.2% task requirements and individual skills & abilities opportunities for promotion/offers a rewarding future.7. 18 14.1% climate teamwork/family atmosphere.8. 17 13.3% total 348 78.2% note: 445 comments were received from 128 participants table 5 question 2 – summary of themes related to what excites participants about their work (aspects that participants enjoy at work and which can be utilised to enhance organisational effectiveness) themes no. of individuals who wrote down comments on aspects % of possible responses climate 1. good teamwork. 30 23.4% climate 2. friendly staff/like those with whom i work/colleagues. 27 21.1% individual & organisational performance 3. satisfied customers and guests/meeting with wonderful clients/different people. 19 14.8% management practices 4. good management/manager is friendly/helpful/understands our problems/good relationship between management and staff. 15 11.7% task requirements and individual skills & abilities 5. i enjoy my job/am good at my job. 14 10.9% task requirements and individual skills & abilities 6. learning new things/skills. 11 8.6% work environment 7. good work environment. 10 7.8% external environment 8. good name of the company/reputation of hotel/stable organisation. 9 7.0% climate 9. family feeling/secure feeling/family atmosphere. 8 6.3% motivation 10. good salary/better wages than before. 7 5.5% individual & organisational performance 11. continuous improvement and development of company. 7 5.5% motivation 12. receive pay/salary on time. 7 5.5% total 164 69.5% note: a total of 236 comments was received. 12 themes eliciting the highest average of comments reported. s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #177 (page number not for citation purposes) applying the burke–litwin model as a diagnostic framework 152vol. 7 no. 1 page 9 of 13 table 6 question 3 – summary of themes related to what staff would like to change comment no. of individuals who wrote down comments on aspects frequency individual and organisational performance 1. salary; benefits; overtime; grading; recognition; working hours; performance appraisal. 178 121%* task requirements and individual skills & abilities 2. promotions; training and development; skills and abilities; recruitment. 100 68% systems, policies and procedures 3. hr systems; sops; grievance; discipline. 51 34.7% culture 4. fair treatment 50 34.0% work environment 5. buildings; offices; cafeteria; furniture. 37 25.2% management practices 6. communication; change in the way of management, etc. 35 23.8% total 451 note: some respondents referred to more than one aspect in a particular category (i.e. the number of comments exceeds the number of participants) table 7 question 4 – summary of themes related to what the hotel excels at (actual state) no. of individuals who wrote down comments on aspects % of possible responses work environment 1. upgrading hotel facilities/car park/renovating rooms/keeping on changing and upgrading/upgrading outlets/creating new looks and keeping changing image of the hotel by creating new looks. 19 22.3% external environment 2. good image of hotel/good hotel facilities/good location/impression/uniforms, etc. 17 20.0% external environment 3. very good profit/good business/good market share in terms of occupancy. 15 17.6% work environment 4. good restaurants/high quality of food presentation/variety of restaurants. 10 11.7% motivation 5. yearly bonus. 8 9.4% external environment 6. addressing the needs of customers/guests/treating customers well/good service. 6 7.1% motivation 7. paying salaries on time. 6 7.1% management practices 8. good management/long-standing bahraini management appreciates long-service employees. 5 5.9% total 86 74.8% table 8 gap between actual and desired states, as perceived by participants desired actual what would staff change? what is the hotel doing well? individual and organisational • performance -12.1% salaries paid on• time/ yearly bonus +16.5% task requirements and• individual skills and abilities -68% employee training +4.7%• systems, policies and • procedures -34.7% no comments +0%• culture -34%• addressing needs of • customers +7.1% management practices -23.8%• good management +5.9%• working environment -25.2 %• good image; upgrading • of hotel +42.3% good business/profit +17.6%• good restaurants +11.7%• focus on customer +71.4%• service notes: (1) * perceptions of customers (2) what staff would change refers to their experience (3) percentages refer to the number of possible comments (4) + refers to positive factors (factors regarded as sources of organisational effectiveness) (5) refers to negative/developmental factors (factors regarded as sources of organisational ineffectiveness) table 9 risks identified – themes related to executive managers’ responses low risks high risks external environment • inconsistent service to customers climate • lack of cooperation between departments individual needs & values • poor welfare system • inadequate recreational facilities for staff work environment outdated equipment/facilities• old property• culture • inappropriate culture system (policy & procedures) • outdated sops equipment • outdated it systems • new it systems not fully operational system (policy & procedures) • outdated hr systems, policies and procedures external environment • new hotels/competition structure • increased staff turnover task requirements and individual skills & abilities • lack of training and development leadership • lack of leadership/management skills culture • * changing legislation (scrapping of sponsorship system for expatriates) low priority high priority original research martins & coetzee sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 7 (page number not for citation purposes) transformational factors affecting organisational performance and effectiveness the first findings that could be drawn from applying the organisational diagnostic approach resulted from identifying those factors that were seen to affect the organisation’s effectiveness at the transformational level of the burke–litwin model. such factors were found to include the following: • a number of positive conditions were apparent in the external environment dimension, namely the positive reputation of the hotel, the food and beverage supplied, the refurbishments of the hotel and the good business/profits obtained. such factors were regarded as highly visible and tangible conditions. �������� ����������� ��������� ���� ������� �������� ������ � ������������ � ��� � ��� �������� ��������������������� � ������������ ���������� ������������� ��� ���� ����������� ���� ���� �� !���� ������� ������ ���������� ��"#� �� ���"#����� �� ��$ �� �������%������� ����%��� ��$ �� �����% ����� ������� � ��$��%������ &��� �%��!� �� ����� �� #� �� �� � ���������� ��������� ������������ � �������������� ��� ����� ���'������ ����� ��(�������������!��������� ��$��%��������������� � ����%���� ������������ ������� �������� ��!��%����� ����� ��� ����� ���'������ ��$��%�������� ����������� ���������������� ��� �! ��� ����� ��� ���������� ��"�)�'�)�� ��* ���'������ ��+���������'�������� �������� ��+������ �� ������������������������� � ��+����'���� ���������������' ���������� � �������������� ����������� ��+������ �������� ���������� ���� � ������ ����!��%����������� � ��,� ������������� ������������ � ������ &��� ������'����%�� �������� � ����� -�-��������� ������!��� ��� ������������!��%���� ����������� ���� ��$��%����������� ��������� ������� ��� �������� ��.�) ���� ���'�/( ���� ����� ���� ���'�/( ��+���� �'������������ ������ �������� ����������� ��� ������ ��.� �������������� ������������� �����%��� ��(������������������ �'���� ������� ������� ��.����� ������� � ����� �� ��0���� � ���12���� ����' ��3�������� ��� ������ #������� � ��������! ��� � ������ ����' � ��������� ��+������������ �� ���������������� � ��/���������� ���������� �� ��� ���������%������������' ���� �� ��������� ��� ���������� ������ � �!������� ��+��� ���������������������� ��������� ��� ������ � �� � ��������� ��� ����������� � ��$��%�������������� ��,��������4�� � ���� ������%��� �������" �������� � ���������� ��,����������� �!��%������ ����� ��/���'�� ��������� � ��+.��������� �5������������ ��.��6/���������� ������ ����� ����� ��� ��+�������������� �����+.�� ���������� ����� � ������ ��7������� � ����� ��7���� �����' �� ����������� �������������� ������������� �� ���� �! ���� ���'�� � ������ &��� �� �� ����������������� ���������� ����-����� ����� � ���� ��� � ������������� ������������������� ���� ���������� �������������������� �� ���� � ��� ��� � ������� ����� �� � ���� ����������������������� ���� ���������� ���������������������� �� ���� � ��� /(�8�/�� ��(�����' #��� ����������� ��.������� ��'5� #� ���� ��������������� ��.����� ���������� ��.����� ���������� �������� �����% ��5����' ������5������� �����%���5� ��-� � ������� �� ��������� ����������� ���������� ��.����� �� &���� ����� ��� ��������� ���,��'�� ��������� �������� ��(������������,��'�� �������� ��+���!�� ��'�� ����� ����!���� �������� � figure 3 summary of organisational diagnosis outcome (interviews and focus groups) vol. 7 no. 1 page 10 of 13 153 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #177 (page number not for citation purposes) applying the burke–litwin model as a diagnostic framework • with regards to the dimension of vision, mission and strategy, both the objectives and targets appeared to be welldefined. the strategic planning, however, was reported as not taking into consideration all future scenarios, operational planning appeared to be lacking and the strategy was not communicated to the staff. • the analysis indicated an excellent excom team. leadership skills, however, were found to be lacking, false promises were reported as having been made and the leaders and/ or managers seemed to lack adequate knowledge and experience. • the results indicated a culture characterised by outdated management ideas. such a culture was perceived as having given rise to the unfair treatment of employees, particularly that of expatriates and employees at the lower levels of the organisation. • the results of the individual and organisational performance dimension show that the customers are perceived as being satisfied, resulting in a sense of pride in working for the hotel. areas identified for improvement related to dissatisfaction with certain aspects that impact directly on individual performance, such as the adherence to an outdated performance process, the receipt of an inadequate salary package and a lack of staff recognition. the respondents mentioned the following perceptions related to the unique features of the company culture, namely that the hotel: is the only international hotel with a local flavour• has a family culture, with friendly staff• offers the best food and beverages in the city• has changed over the years, in order to allow its employees • to have more authority is old-fashioned in the services that it provides (such as those • of a tailor, butlers, and a 24-hour cleaning service) is staffed by employees who do not accept change easily• • still uses outdated internal processes • is part of a stable company, and • allows few opportunities for creativity and innovation. the reasons for the positive responses appeared to relate to the renovations and new extensions to the hotel, with the new restaurants and company being the least affected by market changes brought about by the iraqi war. transactional factors affecting organisational performance and effectiveness the findings of the current research study show that problematic issues related to the transactional factors included such issues as organisational structure, task requirements and individual skills and abilities, working environment, organisational systems (as set out in the hotel’s policies and procedures), and work-related equipment. such factors could, therefore, have a potentially negative impact on the organisation’s overall effectiveness and bottom-line performance. they were also indicated as riskrelated factors by the participants. tables 4 to 7 show that the respondents reported both positive and negative experiences related to transactional factors, such as management practices, departmental climate, motivation and individual needs and values. as shown in table 8, the gap analysis between the actual and desired states, as perceived by the respondents, indicates specific aspects related to task requirements, individual skills and abilities, management practices and the work environment, which were all seen to affect the organisation’s overall effectiveness. the findings also suggest that the respondents aspired to work for a company that gave priority to factors related to employee motivation (such as salary, benefits and working hours) and employee training and development. discussion as stated, the main purpose of the current study was to apply the burke–litwin model as a diagnostic framework for assessing factors that affect the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of an organisation. generally, the findings seemed to show that the burke–litwin model (burke & litwin, 1992) provides a convenient and valid shorthand method of identifying and explaining multiple key organisational phenomena that affect the organisation’s performance and overall effectiveness. as has been observed by other researchers in the past, including howard (1994), the burke–litwin model appears to be an extremely useful framework for diagnosing and planning change from a multidimensional systems perspective. in this regard, howard (1994), for instance, discusses three examples in which the burke–litwin model was used and applied with success, namely in studies of british airways (ba), a large governmentsponsored organisation in europe, and the national aeronautics and space administration (nasa). the unique features of the company (including its cross-cultural research setting) and its relationship with its particular external and macro environment were taken into account in the interpretation of the findings. figure 3 shows some significantly positive outcomes for the transformational dimensions of external environment, and mission and strategy, as well as for the transactional dimensions of climate, motivation, and employees’ individual needs and values. the transformational dimensions of leadership skills, culture, and individual and organisational performance appeared to be experienced as problematic and, thus, in need of organisational improvement interventions. in this regard, burke and litwin (1992) suggest that interventions aimed at improving the transformational dimension should first be attempted before considering undertaking changes at the transactional level in order to bring about genuine change in the overall effectiveness of an organisation’s performance. interventions aimed at addressing factors that relate to the transformational dimension of organisational effectiveness create the foundation for those changes that need to be implemented with regard to the transactional dimensions (french & bell, 1999; jones & brazzel, 2006). research undertaken by kraut (1996) shows that interventions focused on the transformational dimension of mission and strategy, and the transactional dimensions of task requirements, management practices, and individual needs and values, tend to have a positive influence on individual and organisational performance. in the context of the current study, it appears that the od interventions aimed at bringing about the desired change in the strategic and operational planning processes, the staff communication strategies, the leader/management style and competence, and the staff compensation, reward and recognition practices might help to improve the overall employee satisfaction experienced as a precursor to organisational performance (riordan, vandenberg & richardson, 2005). the research undertaken by eskildsen and dahlgaard (2000) also showed that an organisation can improve employees’ satisfaction by focusing on factors that impact on organisational performance, such as le ader competence and behaviour, management practices and processes that enhance employees’ feelings and perceptions of empowerment, involvement, recognition and growth opportunities. findings of employee satisfaction studies indicate a link between profitability, productivity, employee retention and customer satisfaction. satisfied, motivated employees generally seem to create higher levels of customer satisfaction and, in turn, positively influence organisational performance (wan, 2007). the transactional dimension of organisational effectiveness relates to factors that affect the everyday interactions and exchanges that create the general climate of an organisation. according to burke and litwin (1992), the transactional factors (consisting of employees’ impressions, expectations and feelings) impact on organisational relationships. the factors that appear to have the most negative impact on the levels of employees’ satisfaction (and, thus, potentially on an organisation’s performance) relate to inadequacies in systems (such as outdated policies and procedures), equipment, vol. 7 no. 1 page 11 of 13 154 original research martins & coetzee sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 7 (page number not for citation purposes) structure, task requirements, and individual skills and abilities (relating to staff capacity and competence). research by wan (2007) shows that when employees receive career growth opportunities, including opportunities for improving their skills and for working with up-to-date technologies, they tend to exhibit high levels of satisfaction. lack of job-related skills and outdated technologies tend, in contrast, to jeopardise levels of efficiency and to lead to the wastage of resources. such factors generally affect organisational bottom-line performance. the results of the current study also indicate that factors related to organisational climate, namely a lack of cooperation and communication between departments, require attention. agho, mueller and price (1993) found, in this regard, that working with friendly people (in the form of cohesive work groups) has an impact on employee satisfaction. similarly, research by spector (1997) shows the importance of interpersonal relationships for employee satisfaction. research by stavrou-costea (2005) shows that an organisational climate and a business culture conducive to continuous training and development generally increases levels of efficiency and flexibility. in addition, such a culture and climate also appear to facilitate the development of the requisite employee relations, which, in turn, tend to result in greater productivity, better service quality and increased profitability in organisations. implications for management the findings of the current study indicate that using an opensystems-based diagnostic framework, such as the burke–litwin model, can provide an organisation with a valid, accurate and clear picture of the factors that affect its effectiveness, as experienced by all relevant stakeholder groups. in diagnostic action research, the od practitioner enters a problem situation, diagnoses the problem, and makes recommendations for the remedial treatment of the organisation (french & bell, 1999). moreover, organisations are generally regarded as complex social systems, which interact with the environment in a unique context. interventions aimed at change usually focus on improving those aspects that are regarded as the major sources of organisational ineffectiveness and which appear to affect large parts of the organisation (french & bell, 1999). therefore, based on the findings, it is recommended that the company’s broad intervention plans address both transformational and transactional aspects, as indicated below. transformational factors it is recommended that management: • clarify the culture of the organisation and embark on a process to embed the new culture • develop a leadership model based on the organisational culture and develop the relevant managers accordingly • conduct strategic planning and focus on all possible future scenarios. transactional factors it is recommended that management: • revise the organisational structure of the organisation to support the culture • implement succession planning, with all its supporting facets • revise all systems, policies and procedures • audit and update the work environment and equipment • implement teambuilding between departments to improve the levels of cooperation and communication • investigate the current lack of recognition, including the perceived inadequate recognition of performance • improve the organisation’s employee wellness system. it is recommended that the organisation firstly focus on the transformational factors, as such factors are likely to have the greatest influence on organisational performance. kraut (1996) found that the most significant improvements in performance ratings were likely to be achieved by concentrating on factors of mission and strategy, organisational culture, management practices and work climate, whereas improvements in people’s motivation had more to do with factors of job/skills match, individual needs and values and organisational processes and systems. in terms of the current study, the excom team of the hotel decided to follow the approach recommended by the od consultants. further to an in-depth discussion of the diagnoses and recommendations, the excom team of the hotel decided to follow the approach recommended by the consultants, namely to first focus on the transformational factors and secondly on the transactional factors. the first step taken was to conduct a strategic planning and change workshop, to plan, and prioritise actions and secondly to workshop the proposals and the impact on business plan and budgets. conclusion the value of the current study clearly lies in the richness of the data obtained in the cross-cultural research setting, by means of the diagnostic methods, techniques and process employed for such a purpose. the systematic action research procedure followed in gathering data for the purpose of organisational diagnosis, as well as the utilisation of the burke–litwin model as a diagnostic framework for categorising and analysing the collected data, contributed to an increase in the validity and reliability of the organisational diagnosis process and outcomes concerned. apart from increasing the involvement of employees and management, and, therefore, the ownership of data, the organisational diagnostic process, model and techniques employed also helped to create a very strong platform for future organisational improvement actions. one of the most valuable outcomes of the use of the diagnostic approach was the expanded conceptual map or picture that the client organisation developed of itself as a result of using the burke–litwin model in reporting and presenting the recorded data. as with all research, the current study has limitations. first and foremost, it must be noted that, due to the qualitative nature of the diagnostic approach followed, the present study’s results cannot be generalised to all kinds of organisation. the main limitation of the study was, arguably, the use of a single model within a single social context. in this regard, shirom and harrison (1995) emphasise that no single model can fit all diagnostic situations for all client organisations. chawane et al. (2003) also question the weighting of transformational factors as more fundamental when planning change interventions, particularly when considering the reciprocity of the burke–litwin model components. caution should, therefore, be taken not to interpret the findings as meaning that the transformational factors are more important than the transactional factors in planning change. in conclusion, it is recommended that more diagnostic research be conducted in a variety of social contexts so as better to illuminate those factors affecting organisational effectiveness. quantitative research should also be undertaken to measure the magnitude of the identified factors as regards the overall effectiveness and bottom-line performance of the organisation in question. references agho, a.o., mueller, c.w., & price, j.l. (1993). determinants of employee job satisfaction: an empirical test of a causal model. human relations, 46(8), 1007–1125. aronson, a. (1994). a pragmatic view of thematic analysis. qualitative report, 2(1), 1. baker, g., & maddux, h. (2005). enhancing organisational performance: facilitating the critical transition to a process view of management. sam advanced management journal, 70(4), 43–60. banister p., burman, e., parker, i., taylor, m., & tindall, c. (1994). qualitative methods in psychology: a research guide. birmingham: open university press. vol. 7 no. 1 page 12 of 13 155 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #177 (page number not for citation purposes) applying the burke–litwin model as a diagnostic framework baruch, y., & ramalho, n. (2006). communalities and distinctions in the measurement of organisational performance and effectiveness across for-profit and nonprofit sectors. nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly, 35(1), 39–65. braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). doing thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 1(3), 77–101. burke, w.w., & litwin, g.h. (1992). a causal model of organisational performance and change. journal of management, 8(3), 523–546. chawane, t., van vuuren, l.j., & roodt, g. (2003). personal change as a key determinant of the outcomes of organisational transformation interventions. sa journal of human resource management, 1(3), 62–76. cummings, t.g., & worley, c.g. (2005). organisation development and change. (8th edn.). mason: thomson south western. eskildsen, j.k., & dahlgaard, j.j. (2000). a causal model for employee satisfaction. total quality management, 11(8), 1081– 1094. french, w.l., & bell, c.h. (1999). organizational development: behavioural science interventions for organisational improvement. (6th edn.). englewood cliffs: prentice-hall. furnham, a., & gunter, b. (1993). corporate assessment: auditing a company’s personality. london: routledge. henning, e., van rensburg, w., & smit, b. (2004). finding your way into qualitative research. pretoria: van schaik. howard, a. (1994). diagnoses for organization change: methods and models. new york: guilford press. huselid, m.a. (1995). the impact of human resource management practice on turnover, productivity and corporate financial performance. academy of management journal, 38(3), 635– 672. jackson, l. (2008). client systems: entry, contracting, action planning and termination. in c.l. van tonder & g. roodt (eds.), organisation development: theory and practice, (pp.123– 132). pretoria: van schaik. jones, b.b., & brazzel, m. (2006). the ntl handbook of organizational development and change: principles, practices and perspectives. san francisco: pfeiffer. kontoghiorghes, c., awbrey, s.m., & feurig, p.l. (2005). examining the relationship between learning organisation characteristics and change adaptation, innovation and organisational performance. human resource development quarterly, 16(2), 185–211. kraut, a.i. (1996). organizational surveys: tools for assessment and change. san francisco: jossey bass. lee, d., & brower, r.s. (2006). pushing the envelope on organisational effectiveness. public performance & management review, 30(2), 155–178. merriam, s.b. (2002). qualitative research in practice: examples for discussion and analysis. san francisco: john wiley. ostroff, c. (1995). shrm/cch survey. human resource management: ideas and trends in personnel, 365, 1–12. riordan, c.m., vandenberg, r.j., & richardson, h.a. (2005). human resource management, 44(4), 471–488. roodt, g. (2008). survey research and data feedback. in c.l. van tonder & g. roodt (eds.), organisation development: theory and practice, (pp. 251–268). pretoria: van schaik. rosnow, r.l., & rosenthal, r. (1996). beginning behavioural research: a conceptual primer. (2nd edn.). englewood cliffs: prentice hall. rothwell, w.j., & sullivan, r.l. (2005). practicing organization development: a guide for consultants. san francisco: pfeiffer. schurink, w.j. (2003). qualitative research in management and organizational studies with reference to recent south african research. sa journal of human resource management, 1(3), 2–14. shirom, a., & harrison, m.i. (1995). diagnostic models for organisations: toward an integrative perspective. in c.l. cooper & d.m. rousseau (eds.), trends in organisational behaviour, vol. 2 (pp. 85–107). new york: wiley. slocum, j.w., & hellriegel, d. (2007). fundamentals of organisational behaviour. mason: thomson south western. smith, j.a. (2003). qualitative psychology. a practical guide to methods. london: sage. spector, p.e. (1997). job satisfaction: application, assessment, causes and consequences. thousand oaks: sage. stavrou-costea, e. (2005). the challenge of human resource management towards organizational effectiveness: a comparative study in southern eu. journal of european industrial training, 29(2), 112–134. struwig, f.w., & stead, g.b (2001). the psychology and management of workplace diversity. malden: blackwell. van tonder, c., & dietrichsen, p. (2008). the art of diagnosis. in c.l. van tonder & g. roodt (eds.), organisation development: theory and practice (pp.133–166). pretoria: van schaik. waclawski, j., & church, a.h. (2002). organizational development: a data-driven approach to organizational change. boston: josseybass. wan, h.l. (2007). human capital development policies: enhancing employees’ satisfaction. journal of european industrial training, 31(4), 297–322. welman, j.c., & kruger, s.j. (2001). research methodology (2nd edn.). cape town: oxford university press. whitfield, g., & landeros, r. (2006). supplier diversity effectiveness: does organizational culture really matter? the journal of supply chain management: a global review of purchasing and supply, 42(4), 16–27. vol. 7 no. 1 page 13 of 13 156 abstract introduction literature and theoretical concepts research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) anton grobler graduate school of business leadership, university of south africa, midrand, south africa sonja grobler department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa rose mathafena graduate school of business leadership, university of south africa, midrand, south africa citation grobler, a., grobler, s., & mathafena, r. (2019). measurement of the perceptions of human resource practices in a seemingly collectivistic culture. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1069. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1069 original research measurement of the perceptions of human resource practices in a seemingly collectivistic culture anton grobler, sonja grobler, rose mathafena received: 18 apr. 2018; accepted: 20 sept. 2018; published: 08 apr. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: human resources (hr) practices and specifically the perceptions thereof are not only important for organisational strategy and performance but have a direct impact on employee attitudes and behaviour. the accurate measurement of these perceptions is therefore important. research purpose: the goal of this study was to validate the human resource practices perceptions questionnaire for the south african context (which is unique in terms of its apparent collectivistic nature), from an etic perspective. motivation for the study: the accurate measurement of employees’ perception of hr practices are essential to give the organisation a competitive advantage. this study was done to validate a hr practices perceptions questionnaire in a seemingly collectivistic context. research approach/design and method: this study is based on a cross-sectional survey design, collecting primary data on the perceptions of hr practices from 1676 south african employees in public and private sector organisations. an exploratory (efa) and confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) were conducted. main findings: the efa and cfa yielded a slightly different permutation compared to the initial factor structure. a nine-factor structure was extracted and confirmed. a slight adjustment of the original questionnaire was required to incorporate performance evaluation with a teamwork focus and to differentiate training from development. it was further found that invariance exists when comparing the private and the public sectors. practical/managerial implications: it was found that the instrument had to be adjusted for the south african context to ensure an accurate measurement of employees’ perceptions of hr practices. contribution/value-add: the instrument has been validated and can thus be used with confidence to assess the perceptions of hr practices regardless of the sector. it thus provides an accurate measurement that can be used to predict or explain other employee behavioural outcomes in relation to their perceptions of the hr practices. keywords: collectivism; collectivist culture; human resource practices; human resource practices perceptions; ubuntu. introduction no organization can have exceptional performance without exceptional employees; and that requires exceptional human resource (hr) practices. (enz & sigaw, 2000:48) the human resource (hr) function has a direct impact not only on organisational performance but also on employee behaviour and attitudes (choudhury & mishra, 2010). this relationship is complex and one should guard against oversimplifying the nature thereof (bowen & ostroff, 2004; nishii & wright, 2008). human resource practices build and sustain organisational effectiveness (enz & sigaw, 2000) and are especially important in attracting, retaining and developing the skills and knowledge of employees (choudhury & mishra, 2010). human resource practices must be deliberately chosen and used strategically to maintain strong organisational boundaries, to promote high levels of organisational and professional identity; more specifically, it encourages the retention of staff in a highly competitive industry (choudhury & mishra, 2010). this study is not focused on the actual effectiveness and success of hr practices or hr practices as presented in policy documents (wright & nishii, 2007) but rather the perceptions of employees of hr practices. boon, hartog, boselie, and paauwe (2011), the developers of the instrument investigated in this study, based their work on the premise that the perceptions of hr practices are essential for employees’ experiences in an organisation. these perceptions are mainly formed through their personal interpretations and social constructions of the hr practices. it is based on the extent to which employees feel that the hr practices are indeed offered to them. the importance of perceptions of hr practices has been confirmed empirically in relation to various employee attitudes and behaviours, such as job satisfaction, affective commitment (gong, law, chang, & xin, 2009; takeuchi, lepak, wang, & takeuchi, 2007), service-oriented citizenship behaviours, turnover (sun, aryee, & law, 2007) and social exchange (takeuchi et al., 2007). because of the importance of perceptions of hr practices, an accurate, reliable and valid measurement is essential, not only for academic purposes but also for hr management and hr practitioners. various instruments were considered for the south african multicultural context, resulting in the selection of the human resource practices perceptions questionnaire (hrppq), developed by boon et al. (2011). this instrument was developed based on research by scholars such as cable and edwards (2004), guest and conway (2002), ryan and schmit (1996) and ten brink (2004). it is used to measure perceived hr practices in the netherlands. the researchers reported strong relationships between employee perceptions of hr practices and person–organisation and person–job fit, as well as other employee outcomes. employees within the dutch context were the focus of all these studies. the purpose of this study was subsequently to build on the extensive work of boon et al. (2011), cable and edwards (2004), guest and conway (2002), ryan and schmit (1996) and ten brink (2004) but within the south african context. this study aimed to validate the hrppq for the south african (african) context while considering contextual realities such as collectivism (embedded in, for instance, ubuntu) and afrocentrism. previous research added evidence assuming that most black south africans are representative of the collectivistic culture (eaton & louw, 2000; thomas & bendixen, 2000) and that white south africans are mostly individualistic. this research was approached from the position that the majority of the working population in south africa is from the black south african race group, followed by 6% white people and approximately 5% mixed race and 2% indian. therefore, the culture is regarded to be leaning towards collectivism, although it is acknowledged that interand intra-race group comparisons are much more complex. the hrppq was predominately tested from a western individualistic standpoint by boon et al. (2011). this poses contextual questions about the transferability of the instrument to a collectivistic culture, subscribing to an ubuntu relational philosophy, that has an impact on organisational leadership and organisational behaviour in general (grobler & singh, in press), as well as on how hr practices are perceived by employees. according to mbigi (2000) and mulemfo (2000), the ubuntu philosophy asserts a sense of community whereas western individualism promotes differentiation, independence and self-identification (bochner, 1994). hofstede (2011) highlighted collectivism to be the promotion of individual integration into society and a sense of belonging, which can also be brought into the context of organisational practices and functioning. newenham-kahindi (2009) referred to ubuntu and collectivism interchangeably, as collectivism is regarded to be the underlying foundation of ubuntu. the objectives of this study were as follows: firstly, to determine the construct (factorial) validity of hrppq (boon et al., 2011) within the south african context; secondly, to develop a reconfigured factor structure should the original configuration yield unsatisfactory results. thirdly, the final measurement instrument was assessed for convergent and discriminant validity, and lastly a cross-validation analysis was performed to establish whether the instrument is suitable for use in both the private and public sectors. recommendations for future research are also made. literature and theoretical concepts collectivist culture hofstede (2011) defined culture as the programming of the mind, distinguishing one group from another in varying contexts of nations, ethnicities and/or organisations. the national cultural elements are often also found in business and organisational cultures. hofstede’s model and paradigm for national cultural comparisons is regarded as relevant in the classification of the south africa national cultural context, with specific reference to individualism versus collectivism. hofstede’s (2011) complete model entails other dimensions such as power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity versus femininity, long-term versus short-term orientation and indulgence versus restraint. hofstede’s individualism versus collectivism dimension offers the most appropriate framing and understanding of the south african cultural and organisational context (hofstede, 1998). according to various scholars this cultural variable has an impact on organisational leadership, processes and practices as well as the attitude of employees (bochner, 1994; grobler & singh, in press; li, zhang, yang, & li, 2015; wiley, 2000; yilmaz & hunt, 2001). individualism, according to hofstede (2011), is characterised by loose ties between individuals; bochner (1994) iterates the prominence of individualism, autonomy and separateness to be predominately western. in contrast, the collectivism approach entails an integration of people (individuals) into a group or society. it is characterised by values of ‘we-consciousness’, belonging, loyalty, relationships, collaboration and group decision-making. the collectivism paradigm is closely aligned to the afrocentric philosophy articulated in the act of ubuntu (gathogo, 2008) prevalent in south african cultural settings. ubuntu (humanness) means that a person is viewed in the context of the collective within a society and not as an individual (newenham-kahindi, 2009). this view is contrary to the western contexts in which people are seen as autonomous, independent beings. mabovula (2011) contended that life, including work activities, is carried out in socio-ethical settings. largely, problem identification, solution generation and idea sharing are conducted collectively within the community settings. ubuntu encompasses the values of solidarity, a strong sense of community, harmonious relationships, respect, hospitality and care for others in society. human resources practice perceptions and collectivism human resource practitioners need to take the employee value proposition and exchange, socio-ethical codes of the practices and the cultural context into account. human resource practices and how they are perceived influence the activities of attracting, recruiting, engaging, retaining, developing and rewarding employees. human resource practices by nature have ethical, legal and financial implications that largely influence the perceptions that employees have of these practices in an organisation. a study conducted by browning (2006) added evidence that hr practices have a direct influence on performance, output quality and the behaviour of employees. valentine, hollingworth, and francis (2013) view hr practitioners as the custodians and promoters of ethics in organisations. it is recommended that ethical approaches be maintained in all hr practices and programmes, influencing the organisation, community, relevant stakeholders and employees. wiley (2000) advocates the five hr ethical codes of integrity, legality, proficiency, professionalism and confidentiality. ubuntu prescribes social ethics and rule of conduct on how to relate to and interact with others (gathogo, 2008). human resource practices within an organisation need to have a strong socio-ethical fibre, aligned to the ubuntu/collectivist values of generosity, protection of human dignity, respect, benevolence, community rootedness and adherence to communal norms (mabovula, 2011). human resources promotes ethics through fairness, transparency, and organisational justice practices that promote employee well-being (valentine et al., 2013). human resource practices, policies and strategies must largely refer to the national and organisational cultural contexts as culture influences application and the outcomes of hr interventions. the knowledge and understanding of the applicable cultural context leads to the appropriate application of hr practices. based on li et al. (2015), collectivistic hr management enables practices such as team-based performance, incentive schemes, rewards, training and development through policies and procedures that promote joint responsibility, cohesion and collaboration. the hr practices in an organisation need to be comprehensive, integrated and aligned to policies, procedures and the organisational culture. the contents of the south africa–specific hrppq are briefly outlined: job design: job characteristics, namely skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback, are closely associated with intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction, engagement and performance (abbott, boyd, & miles, 2006). in designing job content aspects such as meaningfulness, a sense of responsibility and knowledge of the performance outcomes need to be considered in order to engage, motivate and enhance the quality of performance. participation and autonomy: in a study conducted by han, chiang, and chang (2010) employee participation in decision-making was found to be significantly related to psychological ownership, positive work attitudes and behaviours. swamy (2013) supported employee autonomy as the meeting of employees’ motivational needs, to contribute, coordinate and control work inputs. in a study conducted by bochner (1994) on cross-cultural difference in the self-concept, bochner acknowledged the self (individual) to be complex, irrespective of the cultural background. bochner (1994) further proposed that people contain qualitatively varying cognitions, in that they operate and live as private individuals, in a collective and public society. therefore, people will place varying emphasis on cultural application for each situation. for example, each one has his or her own personal beliefs, identity, talents, skills, interests, qualities, attitudes, traits and psychological states that do not relate to other people. being in a collectivist culture does not imply total absence of individuality and self-determination (bochner, 1994). the aforementioned literature advocates for the incorporation of the elements related to autonomy and decision-making in job design in order to achieve job enrichment and meaningful work where employees feel that they can contribute. recruitment and selection: ofori (2011) highlighted the importance of recruitment and selection practices as an entry point for skills, knowledge and competence into the business to ultimately determine success, performance and business sustainability. recruitment and selection practices in a collectivistic organisation are likely to seek to attract potential candidates sharing similar values, with strong teamwork skills and strong cooperative work behaviours (yilmaz, & hunt, 2001). recruitment decisions should foster collectivist norms and values that are supportive of the organisational culture (yilmaz & hunt, 2001). the collectivist approach to the recruitment of like-minded individuals may potentially limit individuality and diverse thinking in some instances. training and development: training entails systematic activities aimed at improving individual, team and organisational performance, through the transfer of skills, knowledge and competence (aguinis & kraiger, 2009). these activities include training needs assessments, training design and the delivery of training. team-based and collectivist cultures will promote team-based training interventions, as well as those aimed at improving team membership skills. however, aguinis and kraiger (2009) differentiate development from training as the acquisition of skills and knowledge for purposes of personal and professional development. development for career and succession planning equips individuals with adequate skills, experience and competence for future, senior and complex roles (hills, 2009). building internal talent capability allows the organisation to improve promotability and career mobility of employees from within, thus improving employee engagement. collectivistic cultures will promote and progress the careers of those who work well with others (li et al., 2015). according to presbitero, roxas, and chadee (2016) organisations offering career progression and development opportunities mitigate against the risk of employee turnover. employment security: perceived employment security is strongly associated with overall employee well-being (virtanen, vahtera, kivimäki, pentti, & ferrie, 2002). employment security is a major concern for employees; permanence thereof improves the quality of work and life because of the provision of income stability and the meeting of socio-economic needs of employees and their families (swamy, 2013). the south african trade unions play a role in negotiating employment security for employees. teamwork: teamwork is critical in collectivist cultures as the individual is absorbed and attached to a group (bochner, 1994). teamwork and performance are influenced by variables at both team and individual levels (rosen et al. 2008). the multilevel approach in instilling team performance considers individual team members’ skills, competence and the ability to perform the task within the organisational culture. organisational culture must be facilitative of team cohesion, collectivist orientation, team membership skills (like dynamic interaction and communication with individuals with heterogeneous skill sets, knowledge and competence). teamwork requires clear team performance measures and outcomes – for example, productivity, quality, sales, indicators (scott & einstein, 2001). such measures hold the team accountable for monitoring performance results, identification of deficiencies and taking corrective action. li et al. (2015) asserted that collectivistic cultures stress subordination of personal interests to the greater welfare and goals of the team and organisation. rewards: literature confirms that fair remuneration inclusive of pay and benefit packages strengthens intentions to remain in organisations for longer (presbitero et al., 2016). interestingly, collectivistic hr practices are geared towards a team-based reward system rather than the individual (li et al., 2015). team-based rewards are tied to team-based performance targets. work–life balance: work arrangements are found to influence the time and psychological energy shared with family, friends and participation in extramural activities (albertsen, rafnsdóttir, grimsmo, tómasson, & kauppinen, 2008). extended overtime, increased work hours and shift work are associated with lower work–life balance. haar, russo, sune, and ollier-malaterre (2014) found work–life balance to be instrumental to promoting overall employee well-being, job satisfaction and satisfaction with life in employees across various cultures. as mentioned before, the rationale of the instrument under investigation in this study was not to measure the effectiveness and success of the hr practices as discussed above but rather to measure whether the hr practices are indeed offered to them. research design research approach this study employed a typical empirical paradigm using a cross-sectional design and quantitative analysis. surveys were used as data generation techniques, which enabled the researchers to collect the required data at the same time. research participants the participants consisted of employees of 30 organisations in south africa, with 15 organisations being from the private sector, including the medical, engineering, retail, construction, financial, telecommunication, pharmaceutical and information technology industries. the public sector was equally represented, with 15 organisations, consisting of national and provincial departments, local government as well as state-owned enterprises. in each organisation, 60 employees were randomly selected to participate in the study. the pooled data could therefore be considered a convenience sample (because of the convenience of accessibility and availability of the respondents within the participating organisations). the fieldwork was conducted by 30 co-researchers working on a larger project; ethical clearance was granted by the institution. the total sample consists of 1676 participants. in terms of the racial distribution, the majority of the participants were black (73%), followed by white (15.4%), mixed race (6.6%) and indian (4.8%). the representation of the gender groups was higher for males at 51.5% compared to 48.5% for females. the racial and gender distribution of the sample seems to be relatively representative of the south african workforce in general, taking into consideration that the distribution of the workforce as indicated in statistics south africa (2017) was 87% black people, 6% white people (slightly overrepresented in the sample), 2% indians and 5% mixed race people. according to the same source, the proportion of men in employment is 56% while the proportion for females stands at 44%. the mean age of the respondents was 36.60 years (sd = 8.90), and the mean tenure in the specific organisation was 7.58 years (sd = 7.33). from these mean scores it is assumed that the respondents were on average mature and that they had the necessary exposure to the organisation and leadership to be able to respond to the items related to leadership behaviour in their respective organisations. measuring instrument the hrppq developed by boon et al. (2011) was used to measure the perceptions of the hr practices and was the instrument under investigation in this study. in other words, the focus of the measurement was the extent to which employees perceived that specific hr practices were indeed offered to them. the instrument consists of 38 items. a typical example of an item included in the instrument reads as follows: ‘the organisation offers (me) … the opportunity to develop new skills and knowledge for my current job or for possible jobs in the future’. participants were requested to rate the degree to which they agreed with the statements made on a five-point likert scale. the scale ranged from 1 indicating that they strongly disagreed with the statement to 5 indicating that they strongly agreed with the statement. the maximum score that could be recorded for the instrument was 190 and the minimum was 38. the 38 items in the instrument are practices that form part of seven high performance factors: (1) training and development, (2) participation, autonomy and job design, (3) performance appraisal and rewards, (4) teamwork and autonomy, (5) work–life balance, (6) recruitment and selection and (7) employment security of the cronbach’s alphas reported by boon et al. (2011) for theses, seven factors were all above 0.75. the instrument was developed and standardised using a sample from two large organisations in the netherlands, one in retail and one in healthcare, and was administered in dutch. it was therefore deemed necessary to investigate its transferability into the south african context. statistical analysis the statistical analysis was performed by using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss version 24), supported by spss amos (analysis of moment structures). the dataset was cleaned via case screening followed by variable screening in order to explain why there was variation in the data. it was deemed necessary to follow this process to ensure that there were no missing values in the data set and get a feel for the data set. the dataset was further inspected for unengaged responses by running a standard deviation and inspecting cases with sd < 0.50. the variables were further screened by means of kurtosis and the central limit theorem, to gather information about the distribution of the data. from the data cleaning process, it was deduced that the missing values were very sparse, and it was therefore not considered to be a possible contributor to any bias. the first step of the exploratory factor analysis (efa) was to evaluate the appropriateness of the sample size. the item-to-respondent ratio of ±1:20 is regarded to be acceptable according to meyers, gamst, and guarino (2013) and tabachnick and fidell (2007). secondly, the inter-correlations between items were inspected using bartlett’s test of sphericity (hair, black, babin, & anderson, 2010). with this test, the statistic generated should be significant (p < 0.05) for an efa to be considered an appropriate technique (hair et al., 2010). thirdly, the kaiser–meyer–olkin measure was used to quantify whether the items correlated sufficiently to determine whether a factor analysis could be performed. the minimum level set for this statistic is 0.60 (tabachnick & fidell, 2007). to aid in the interpretation of the initial results, orthogonal rotation, specifically the promax rotation, was used. the decision regarding the number of variables (factors) to be retained was based on the guttman–kaiser eigenvalue greater-than-one rule (k1 rule), together with the scree plot (specifically the shape of the curve) and, lastly, the monte carlo pca (principal component analysis) for parallel analysis. the purpose of the monte carlo parallel analysis is to determine the number of factors that account for more variance than the components derived from random data. the eigenvalues obtained from the actual data are compared to the eigenvalues obtained from the random data. if the actual eigenvalues from the principal component analysis of the actual data are greater than the eigenvalues from the random data, the component (factor) is retained. meyers et al. (2013) indicate that a guide for variance accounted for by the factors needs to meet the lower limit of 50%. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient was determined for factors of the instrument, taking into consideration that the general rule according to nunnally and bernstein (1994) is α > 0.70. to operationalise this construct definition, a higher (or secondary) order, multidimensional model of the hrppq was conducted by means of a confirmatory factor analysis (cfa). confirmatory factor analysis is generally intended to examine whether a second-order factor exists and whether it explains the relationships among the lower-order factors (as identified by the efa) with the analysis of moment structures (amos) maximum likelihood procedure (byrne, 2010). to assess the model fit, several fit indexes were used including the comparative fit index (cfi), the root-mean-square error of approximation (rmsea), chi-square (χ2) and the ratio of the differences in chi-square to the differences in degrees of freedom (χ2/df). given that there is no one acceptable cut-off value for what constitutes adequate fit, it was elected to evaluate each model and to recommend the model closest to the cfi value of 0.90, an rmsea value of 0.05 and χ2/df, a ratio of less than 5.00 or lower (byrne, 2010). the first model was a one-factor solution (unidimensional) in which all the items identified through the efa were indicative of one larger human resource practice perception (hrpp) factor. the second was a first-order factor model in which items were allowed to load onto their respective factors. the third was a second-order factor model in which items were loaded onto their respective factors and the factors loaded on a second-order latent hrpp factor. an elementary cross-validation assessment to determine invariance between the private and public sectors was also performed, as measurement invariance is regarded to be a prerequisite for meaningful interpretations and valid cross-group comparisons. it is important that items and constructs are understood and interpreted in the same way across different samples; the variance in the observed score differences between groups (in this case the private and public sector) should not be a result of group membership but the construct being measured. the indexes of the cfa were used to assess the measurement invariance. finally, convergent validity was assessed by the composite reliability (cr) and the average variance extracted (ave), with critical values of >0.70 and <0.50, respectively. the discriminant validity was determined by comparing the ave with the maximum shared variance (msv). proof of discriminant validity would be when msv < ave and where the average shared variance (asv) is less than the ave (hair et al., 2010). results the efa conducted was based on an adequate variable-to-case ratio (44:1). the kaiser–meyer–olkin measure of sampling adequacy was performed and the value was 0.94, exceeding the critical value of 0.60 (tabachnick & fidell, 2007), thus supporting the strategy to perform an efa. the bartlett’s test of sphericity was also conducted and an approximate chi-square value of 25 930.71 was reported (degrees of freedom = 708). the chi-square value was further significant at a level smaller than 0.001, indicating sufficient correlation between the items to proceed with the efa. the guttman–kaiser eigenvalue greater-than-one rule (k1 rule) was used in conjunction with the scree plot to determine the number of factors. the results of kaiser’s criterion are reported in table 1. table 1: eigenvalues larger than one and explanation of variance. ten factors reported eigenvalues larger than one, with the first factor accounting for 34% of the variance in the hrpp. the total variance accounted for by all 10 factors was close to 71%, thus exceeding the 50% guide by meyers et al. (2013). cattell’s scree test, which is aimed at retaining the components (factors) before the break (elbow rule), was performed on all three studies independently. the interpretation of the scree plot depicted is problematic, as it is not clear where the elbow flattens off. the interpretation of the scree plot as well as the k1 rule are regarded by pallant (2013) as being too conservative as measures to determine the exact number of factors. as a result, a further, more stringent technique, namely the monte carlo parallel analysis simulation technique, was performed. ten components were included in the monte carlo parallel analysis to test the assumption of a 10-component (factor) solution, as suggested by the interpretation of the k1 rule (see table 1). the results are reported in table 2. table 2: results of the monte carlo parallel analysis. the results reported in table 2 indicate that the first nine components have actual eigenvalues larger than the criterion value from the parallel analysis. the results of the monte carlo parallel analysis suggest, thus, a nine-factor model. the nine factors accounted for 68% of the total variance (see table 1). the descriptive statistics on item level as well as the factor loadings, communalities (h) and structure coefficients from the promax rotation are reported in table 3. each item starts with ‘the organisation offers (me) …’. table 3: factor loadings (promax rotation) and descriptive statistics of items on the human resource practices perceptions questionnaire. the results of the efa conducted on the hrppq are summarised in table 3. a factor loading cut-off point of 0.40 for inclusion in the interpretation of a factor was used. further, 37 of the original 38 items loaded on nine factors. the communalities are relatively high, ranging between 0.52 and 0.78. after inspection of table 3 it is evident that the basis laid by boon et al. (2011) has been confirmed to some extent but that the composition and the number of the factors is slightly different. their first factor, originally called participation, autonomy and job design (consisting of nine items) was divided into two factors, namely job design (three items) and participation/autonomy (consisting of six items). a further adaptation is that the factor concerning training and development was also split into two separate factors, namely training (consisting of two items) and development with seven items. the employment security as well as work–life balance factors remained the same as postulated by boon et al. (2011) with two and four items, respectively. the original teamwork factor had one item more, namely item 27, which reads, ‘the organisation offers (me) periodic evaluation of my performance’. this item was initially part of the performance appraisal and rewards factor together with item 28, which reads, ‘the organisation offers (me) fair appraisal of my performance’. item 28 was the only item that was excluded from the new structural configuration of the hrppq. the initial factor of boon et al. (2011) called performance appraisal and rewards was therefore renamed rewards, and it consists of six items. the results of the correlational analysis (pearson correlation) between the nine retained components, from here on referred to as factors, are reported in table 4. table 4: correlations between the extracted factors (adapted structural configuration of the human resource practices perceptions questionnaire). the correlations between the pairs of factors ranged between 0.17 and 0.63. because of these high correlations, multicollinearity was tested using the variance inflation factor (vif) and tolerance. the analysis yielded results with the highest vif value of 2.41 and the lowest tolerance value of 0.42. these values fall within the parameters of less than 5 for the vif value and larger than 0.10 for the tolerance value. no evidence of multicollinearity was thus found. the descriptive statistics as well as the internal consistency of each of the adapted factors as assessed by cronbach’s alpha coefficient are reported in table 5. table 5: descriptive statistics, cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the factors of the human resource practices perceptions questionnaire (adapted structural configuration). the descriptive statistics in table 5 show that five factors, namely job design, participation and autonomy, training, employment security, teamwork as well as the hrppq total score, reported relatively high mean scores (on a five-point likert scale). two factors reported below-average mean scores, namely recruitment and selection (m = 2.58, sd = 1.15) and work–life balance (m = 2.72, sd = 0.95). the skewness and kurtosis values for all factors did not exceed the critical values of 2.00 and 7.00, respectively, which is an indication that the data was normally distributed (west, finch, & curran, 1995). all factors, except recruitment and selection (which is not an hr practice that is generally utilised by employees) and work–life balance, reported negative values of skewness, with the skewness values ranging between -0.67 and 0.10. this is an indication that the distribution in general has relatively few small values and tails off to the left. the kurtosis value ranged from -0.89 (recruitment and selection) and 0.89 for teamwork. the cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the factors are acceptable if the guideline of a > 0.70 (nunnally & bernstein, 1994) is applied. it would thus appear that the factors possess acceptable levels of internal consistency with cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranging from 0.76 to 0.88. it was further deemed necessary to inspect the factor structure of the hrppq for construct and specifically factorial validity by conducting a cfa. the results of the three models tested are reported in table 6 in accordance with their respective fit indexes, more specifically the cfi, the rmsea, chi-square (χ2) and the ratio of the differences in chi-square to the differences in degrees of freedom (χ2/df). table 6: comparison of an a priori nine-factor structure (the adapted factor structure of the human resource practices perceptions questionnaire). an assessment of the best-fitting of the three models was conducted through the application of cfa. the second-order factor model (all 37 items from the original 38 items) was identified as the worst-fitting model (χ2/df [598] = 3.82, cfi = 0.931, rmsea = 0.048). by analysing the chi-square test values, it further appears that the first-order factor model is slightly better than the one-factor model. the difference in chi-square between the first-order factor and the one-factor models is 36 (i.e. 1865–1829), which is distributed as chi-square with 571–514 = 57 degrees of freedom. the best-fitting model is thus the first-order model (modelb) (χ2/df [571] = 3.20, cfi = 0.949, rmsea = 0.042), with the 37 items loading directly on their respective factors, which are in this case the factors (i.e. job design, participation and autonomy, recruitment and selection, training, development, employment security, teamwork, rewards and work–life balance). it was further deemed necessary to conduct an elementary cross-validation analysis to assess the possibility of invariance between two sample groups, namely the private and public sectors. the sample was split into the two sectors, using 500 cases randomly selected from each sector. the results reported for the two sample groups were χ2/df (571) = 2.24, cfi = 0.92, tli = 0.90, rmsea = 0.05, expected cross-validation index (ecvi) = 3.33 and χ2/df (571) = 2.35, cfi = 0.93, tli = 0.92, rmsea = 0.05, ecvi = 2.59 for the private and public sectors, respectively. the degree of invariance in terms of the likelihood ratio test was 0.11 (2.35–2.24), and the difference between the tucker-lewis index (tli) values was 0.02 (0.92–0.90), which is lower than the norm of 0.05. the ecvi values for the private and public sector are 3.33 and 2.59, respectively (difference = 0.74), which is marginal. the comparison of the two sample groups by means of cross-validation lends support to the notion of invariance. convergent validity of the nine hrppq was assessed by the cr and the ave, while the discriminant validity was determined by comparing the ave with the msv as well as the asv. the results are reported in table 7. table 7: convergent and discriminant validity of the hrppq (adapted structural configuration) the hrppq with its nine factors met the conditions of convergent validity, with all cr values higher than the criterion of > 0.70 and the ave value > 0.50. evidence of discriminant validity was also found as all the ave values were larger than the msv value of 0.40. the asv was also less than the ave, which supports the notion of discriminant validity. discussion the original instrument, the hrppq, was developed and standardised by boon et al. (2011) but in the netherlands, for a dutch-speaking population. it was deemed necessary to validate the instrument within the south african context, which has a more collectivistic culture (compared to the west), which is closely related to the african relational philosophy of ubuntu. this was done from an etic perspective, with the rationale of making sure that accurate measurements could be made to enable hr managers and practitioners to design and implement interventions to improve and positively change the perceptions of the hr practices. this would have a positive impact on employee attitudes and behaviour in general. the value of this study lies in the fact that the original conceptualisation of the hrppq – which originally consisted of seven factors (hr practices) – was adjusted to meet the contextual realities. the adjusted factor structure consists of nine factors or hr practices with 37 of the original 38 items. the factor originally called participation, autonomy and job design was divided into two factors: job design and participation and autonomy. a further adaptation is that the factor concerning training and development was split into two separate factors: training and development, with the latter being more concerned with the typical career development practices such as coaching for development, career planning, job rotation, job enlargement and job enrichment, and vertical promotion. the employment security as well as work–life balance factors remained the same as postulated by boon et al. (2011). the impact of the collectivistic work culture that is found in south africa significantly influenced the terms of the original teamwork factor as well as the performance appraisal and reward factors. one significant item was added to the teamwork factor, which read, ‘the organisation offers (me) periodic evaluation of my performance’. this item was initially part of the performance appraisal and rewards factor together with an item that read, ‘the organisation offers (me) fair appraisal of my performance’. the latter was the only item that was excluded in the new structural configuration of the hrppq – performance in a more collectivistic culture is often seen in terms of a group effort and not as individual performance, as is the case in an individualistic culture. the initial factor of boon et al. (2011) called performance appraisal and rewards was therefore renamed to rewards as it did not include any performance management items. another factor where the collectivistic and relational nature of ubuntu has impacted on the original factor structure, is the split of the factor related to participation, autonomy and job design into job design, which is considered to be more characteristic of the mechanistic factor, and the more relational side of the original factor, namely participation and autonomy. this factor is related to trust and respect (to allow employees to work on their own) but also to participate in decision-making and other organisational processes – which bears some resemblance to the ubuntu philosophy. based on the results obtained, it seems that the hrppq is a suitable (valid and reliable) instrument for measuring the perceptions of employees of the hr practices in their organisation. this study serves as a reference for the accurate measurement of perceptions of hr practices, as it was found to be invariant for both the private and public sectors during cross-validation analysis. limitations and recommendations the limitations identified for this research are mainly in terms of the methodology. the hrppq is based on self-reporting, a method that may lead to method bias, and this may still be a reality, even with the assurance provided to participants during the briefing regarding anonymity as well as confidentiality. social desirability and subsequent response bias will always remain a concern and a limitation in studies such as this one, while self-reporting may be seen as a one-sided report from the respondents’ side. an additional possible limitation is that the wording of the initial scale was used ‘as is’, without adapting it to the south african (multilingual) context. there is also a limitation associated with the use of a cross-sectional design, which might have increased the relationship between the nine components artificially. it is recommended that a qualitative approach from an emic perspective be followed to further explore the contextual realities. a qualitative study can explore how the hrppq constructs can inductively be integrated with collectivism and ubuntu, thereby validating and complementing the current study through triangulation. the integration of both etic (outside) and emic (inside) approaches will result in richer findings (morris, leung, ames, & lickel, 1999), as the two methods are complementary and contradictory and will raise more questions while stimulating further inquiry. the inquiry will further explore whether south africa is predominately a collectivistic culture or perhaps a hybrid of both individualistic and collectivistic cultures. conclusion this study suggested that the collectivistic culture in the south african work context has an impact on the perceptions of hr practices, specifically in terms of performance management. a further interesting finding is the separation of the training and career development practices, which might resonate with the notion of talent management (attraction, retention, engagement and the development of employees). the study further contributed in terms of a validated factor structure, which can be used for future academic research to determine the relationship between perceived hr practices and employee and behavioural variables. it provides an accurate measurement for hr managers and practitioners to measure perceptions and to develop strategies and interventions to enhance them to the benefit, not only of the organisation in terms of performance, but of employee satisfaction, well-being and ultimately productivity. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.g. was the project leader. s.g. assisted with the data collection and analysis. r.b.m. played a primary role in writing the literature review. references abbott, j. b., boyd, n. g., & miles, g. (2006). does type of team matter? an investigation of the relationships between job characteristics and outcomes within a team-based environment. the journal of social psychology, 146(4), 485–507. https://doi.org/10.3200/socp.146.4.485-507 albertsen, k., rafnsdóttir, g. l., grimsmo, a., tómasson, k., & kauppinen, k. (2008). workhours and work life balance. scandinavian journal work environment and health, 5, 14–21. aguinis, h., & kraiger, k. (2009). benefits of training and development for individuals and teams, organizations, and society. the annual review of psychology, 60, 451–74. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163505 bochner, s. (1994). cross-cultural differences in the self-concept: a test of hofstede’s individualism/collectivism distinction. journal of cross cultural psychology, 25(2), 273–283. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022194252007 boon, c., den hartog, d. n., boselie, p., & paauwe, j. (2011). the relationship between perceptions of hr practices and employee outcomes: examining the role of person–organisation and person–job fit. the international journal of human resource management, 22(1), 138–162. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.538978 bowen, d. e., & ostroff, c. (2004). understanding hrm–firm performance linkages: the role of the “strength” of the hrm system. academy of management review, 29(2), 203–221. browning, v. (2006). the relationship between hrm practices and service behaviour in south african service organizations. the international journal of human resource management, 17(7), 1321–1338. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190600756863 byrne, b. (2010). structural equation modelling with amos: basic concepts, applications, and programming. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. cable, d. m., & edwards, j. r. (2004). complementary and supplementary fit: a theoretical and empirical integration. journal of applied psychology, 89(5), 822–834. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.5.822 choudhury, j., & mishra, b. b. (2010). theoretical and empirical investigation of impact of developmental hr configuration on human capital management. international business research, 3(4), 181–186. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v3n4p181 eaton, l., & louw, j. (2000). culture and self in south africa: individualism collectivism predictions. the journal of social psychology, 140(2), 210–217. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224540009600461 enz, c. a., & sigaw, j. a. (2000). best practices in human resources [electronic version]. cornell hotel and restaurant administration quarterly, 41(1), 48–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/001088040004100123 gathogo, j. (2008). african philosophy as expressed in the concepts of hospitality and ubuntu. journal of theology for southern africa, 130, 39–53. gong, y. law, k. s., chang, s., & xin, k. r. (2009). human resources management and firm performance: the differential role of managerial affective and continuance commitment. journal of applied psychology, 94(1), 263–273. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013116 grobler, a., & singh, v. (2018). leadership in africa – an afrocentric hierarchical taxonomy. insight on africa, 10(2), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0975087818772236 guest, d. e., & conway, n. (2002). communicating the psychological contract: an employer perspective. human resource management journal, 12, 22–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2002.tb00062.x haar, j. m., russo, m., sune, a., & ollier-malaterre, a. (2014). outcomes of work life balance on job satisfaction, life satisfaction and mental health: a study across seven cultures. journal of vocational behavior, 85, 361–373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2014.08.010 hair, j. f., black, w. c., babin, b. j., & anderson, r. e. (2010). multivariate data analysis. a global perspective (7th ed.). boston, ma: pearson. han, t. s., chiang, h. h., & chang, a. (2010). employee participation in decision making, psychological ownership and knowledge sharing: mediating role of organizational commitment in taiwanese high-tech organizations. the international journal of human resource management, 21(12), 2218–2233. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2010.509625 hills, a. (2009). succession planning – or smart talent management? industrial and commercial training, 41(1), 3–8. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197850910927697 hofstede, g. (1998). identifying organizational subcultures: an empirical approach. journal of management studies, 35, 1–12. oxford: uk blackwell publishers ltd. https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1014 hofstede, g. (2011). dimensionalizing cultures: the hofstede model in context. online readings in psychology and culture, 2(1), 8. international association for cross-cultural psychology. li, y., zhang, g., yang, x., & li, j. (2015). the influence of collectivist human resource management practices on team-level identification. the international journal of human resource management, 26(14), 1791–1806. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2014.938677 mabovula, n. n. (2011). the erosion of african communal values: a reappraisal of african ubuntu philosophy. inkanyiso, journal of humanities and social science, 3(1), 38–47. mbigi, l. (2000). in search of the african business renaissance: an african cultural perspective. johannesburg: knowledge resources. meyers, l. s., gamst, g., & guarino, a. j. (2013). applied multivariate research. design and interpretation (2nd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. morris, m. w., leung, k., ames, d. and lickel, b. (1999). views from inside and outside: integrating emic and etic insights about culture and justice judgment. the academy of management review, 24(4), 781–796. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1999.2553253 mulemfo, m. m. (2000). thabo mbeki and the african renaissance. pretoria: acta press. newenham-kahindi, a. (2009). the transfer of ubuntu and indaba business models abroad: a case of south african multinational banks and telecommunication services in tanzania. international journal of cross cultural management, 9(1), 87–108. nishii, l. h., & wright, p. (2008). variability within organizations: implications for strategic human resource management. in d. b. smith (ed.), the people make the place: dynamic linkages between individuals and organizations (pp. 225–248). mahwah, ny: lawrence erlbaum associates. nunnally, j. c., & bernstein, i. h. (1994). psychometric theory (3rd edition). ny: mcgraw-hill. ofori, d. (2011). recruitment and selection practices in small and medium enterprises: perspectives from ghana. international journal of business administration, 2(3), 45–60. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijba.v2n3p45 pallant, j. (2013). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using (4th edn.). open university press, mcgraw-hill. presbitero, a. roxas, b., & chadee, d. (2016). looking beyond hrm practices in enhancing employee retention in bpos: focus on employee–organisation value fit. the international journal of human resource management, 27(6), 635–652. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1035306 rosen, m. a., salas, m. a. e., wilson, k. a., king, h. b., salisbury, m. s. m., augenstein, j. s., … birnbach, d. j. (2008). measuring team performance in simulation-based training: adopting best practices for healthcare. society for simulation in healthcare, 3(1), 33–41. https://doi.org/10.1097/sih.0b013e3181626276 ryan, a. m., & schmit, m. j. (1996). an assessment of organizational climate and p-e fit: a tool for organizational change. international journal of organizational analysis, 4, 75–95. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb028842 scott, s. g., & einstein, w. o. (2001). strategic performance appraisal in team-based organizations: one size does not fit all. academy of management executive, 15(2), 107–116. statistics south africa. (2017). annual report 2016/2017. pretoria: statistics south africa. statistical release. isbn: 978-0-621-45440-6. sun, l., aryee, s., law, k. s. (2007). high-performance human resource practices, citizenship behavior, and organizational performance: a relational perspective. academy of management journal, 5, 558–577. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2007.25525821 swamy, n. (2013). quality of work life of employees in private technical institutions. international journal for quality research, 7(3), 3–14. tabachnick, b. g., & fidell, l. s. (2007). using multivariate statistics. (5th ed.). boston, ma: pearson. takeuchi, r., lepak, d. p., wang, h., takeuchi, k. (2007). an empirical examination of the mechanisms mediating between high performance work systems and the performance of japanese organizations. journal of applied psychology, 92, 1069–1083. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.4.1069 ten brink, b. e. h. (2004). psychological contract: a useful concept? vrije universiteit amsterdam, faculteit der psychologie en pedagogiek, kurt lewin instituut, university amsterdam, netherlands. isbn 9076269378; 9789076269375. thomas, a., & bendixen, m. (2000). the management implication of ethnicity in south africa. journal of international business studies, 31(3), 507–519. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490919 valentine, s., hollingworth, d. francis, c. (2013). quality-related hr practices, organizational ethics, and positive work attitudes: implications for hrd. human resource development quarterly, 24(4), 493–523. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21169 virtanen, p., vahtera, j., kivimäki, m., pentti, j., & ferrie. j. (2002). public health, policy and practice: employment security and health. journal of epidemiol community health, 56, 569–574. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.56.8.569 west, s. g., finch, j. f., & curran, p. j. (1995). structural equation models with non-normal variables: problems and remedies. in r. h. hoyle (ed.), structural equation modelling: concepts, issues, and applications (pp. 159–176). thousand oaks, ca: sage. wiley, c. (2000). ethical standards for human resource management professionals: a comparative analysis of five major codes. journal of business ethics, 25(2), 93–114. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1006230214847 wright, p. m., & nishii, l. h. (2007). strategic hrm and organizational behavior: integrating multiple levels of analysis. new york: technical report 07-03, cahrs at cornell university. yilmaz, c., & hunt, s. d. (2001). salesperson cooperation: the influence of relational, task, organizational, and personal factors. journal of the academy of marketing science, 29(4), 335–357. https://doi.org/10.1177/03079450094207 abstract introduction literature review research design results discussion practical implications limitations and prospects for future research acknowledgements references about the author(s) martha harunavamwe department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa daphne pillay department of human resource management, faculty of economic and management science, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa petrus nel department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation harunavamwe, m., pillay, d., & nel, p. (2020). the influence of psychological capital and self-leadership strategies on job embeddedness in the banking industry. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1294. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1294 original research the influence of psychological capital and self-leadership strategies on job embeddedness in the banking industry martha harunavamwe, daphne pillay, petrus nel received: 30 dec. 2019; accepted: 27 may 2020; published: 14 july 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the success of organisations depends on their ability to appoint, develop, sustain and retain skilled employees. retaining a strongly committed workforce has become a top priority for most organisations in the financial service sector. nurturing positive organisational behaviours and emotions helps retain employees, and this is key to lowering the risk of losing precious talent. research purpose: the purpose of the study was to determine if self-leadership and psychological capital positively influence job embeddedness. motivation for the study: the study was motivated by the sentiments from a study conducted by nafei (2015) that indicated that traditional methods of reducing turnover have become ineffective. the focus on positive retention was however described as promising. research approach/design and method: a cross-sectional quantitative survey was employed using self-administered questionnaires. the sample comprised 303 banking sector employees. data were analysed using smartpls. main findings: self-leadership strategies (constructive thought patterns, behavioural strategies and natural rewards) through psychological resources (hope, optimism and self-efficacy) positively influenced job embeddedness. practical/managerial implications: the banking industry that seeks to retain employees may invest in increasing levels of job embeddedness, which can be achieved through enhancing psychological resources and utilising self-leadership strategies. contribution/value add: the findings provide preliminary insights that contribute to the body of knowledge concerned with positive organisational behaviour and retention in the fields of industrial and organisational psychology in the south african context. keywords: psychological capital; job embeddedness; self-leadership; banking sector; organisational links; organisational fit; orgnaisational sacrifice; psychological resources; cognitive strategies; behaviroural strategies introduction organisations worldwide have invested billions of dollars and time to address turnover challenges. however, irrespective of all the efforts, businesses still struggle to retain talent (biggane, allen, amis, fugate, & steinbauer, 2017). the difficulties in attracting, sustaining and retaining qualified employees have become a painful reality. because of a wide range of opportunities in the labour market, skilled employees find it difficult to attach themselves to one particular organisation (akgunduz & cin, 2015). a total of 86% of employers noted that attracting new skilled employees has become a nightmare, and 58% stated the difficulty associated with sustaining and convincing skilled employees to remain in the organisation for long, at the same time highlighting the high costs involved in hiring new employees (biggane, allen, & albert, 2016). accordingly, studies have been conducted on employee turnover (why people leave) (zhao & liu, 2010), and evidence indicates that the turnover crisis in banks may be reduced by effectively exploring the concept of job embeddedness (je) (why people stay) (yavas, babakus, & karatepe, 2008). job embeddedness, a construct developed from a broader perspective in response to traditional turnover models (moses & knutsen, 2012), investigates on-the-job and off-the-job factors to determine why employees stay in their organisations. management scholars presume that je is beneficial for organisations because embedded employees are more loyal than less embedded individuals; they perform more effectively and engage in greater organisational citizenship behaviour (biggane et al., 2016). it is therefore critical to explore the different methods that can be used to foster high levels of je. highly embedded individuals are less likely to be absent or engage in counterproductive work behaviours (mallol, holtom, & lee, 2007). thus, instead of focussing directly on turnover intentions, organisations need to redirect their focus to je that lowers the risk of losing precious talent and maintaining organisational effectiveness (yao, lee, mitchell, burton, & sablynski, 2004). considering the critical role of je in employee retention and effective job performance, it is worth expanding the knowledge on the relevance of je in the banking sector given that service delivery and service quality are crucial to the survival of banks (yavas et al., 2008). pokorny (2013) noted that about 71% of banking sector employees do not intend to stay with their companies until retirement. the banking and finance industry has one of the highest turnover rates among all industries (mann & harter, 2016). banks are currently on the lookout for individuals with new skill sets to match the rapidly changing nature of work in the industry; however, a recent study by cole (2017) indicated that 48% of banking sector employees were actively searching for new opportunities, while 30% of these employees have been working in the banks for less than a year (cole, 2017). this implies that banks are losing newly hired critical talents. massive retrenchments because of cost cutting and technological advancement have eliminated hundreds of jobs. this has diminished the public’s trust in the banking sector and made it a less desirable workplace; banks have fallen out of favour as employers of choice for highly skilled individuals. no matter how advanced banking technology has become, the industry still needs motivated and talented employees to ensure sustainability and the success of the industry (cole, 2017). the banking industry needs to realign retention practices with growing new technology and new banking systems to avoid the risk of losing precious talent (salman, ahmad & matin, 2014). exploring theories on je opens a variety of avenues to develop strategies that may motivate employees to stay with an organisation, thus, widening the scope and depth of the existing literature (sekiguchi, burton, & sablynski, 2008; zhao & liu, 2010). following the traditional model of turnover, if employees are not satisfied with their jobs, they search for alternative employment and make comparisons with their current job. if they find that the alternative is better than their current job, they resign (mann & harter, 2016). however, for contemporary organisations, being proactive and nurturing positive organisational behaviours (pobs) may assist in retaining employees. this is key to lowering the risk of losing precious talent (bonner, 2016). the current study seeks to investigate whether the expansion of personal resources may influence je and foster retention. although various studies have endeavoured to identify the factors related to employee retention (biggane et al., 2016; zhao & liu, 2010), assessing the influence of psychological capital (psycap) and self-leadership (sl) on je may provide a wide range of strategies that might be instrumental in the retention of employees. self-leadership strategies may develop psychological capacities, such as hope, self-efficacy and optimism (neck & manz, 2010). in turn, individuals high in psycap are more adaptive in their jobs, have more harmonious relationships with their colleagues and have more friends and deeper organisational links; hence, they are more likely to stay longer at the organisation (nafei, 2015). it is indisputable that the organisational cost of leaving a job is extremely high, and the costs associated with recruitment and selection are massive. therefore, banks are on the lookout for diverse techniques and strategies for retention (salman et al., 2014). the prime challenge for the banking sector in south africa is the retention of skilled employees who are adaptable to the changing nature of the work in the banks. those who are technologically skilled, energetic and intelligent are always ready to switch whenever they are presented with new opportunities. in spite of the amount of effort invested in trying to understand ‘why people leave’, the challenge of high turnover rates of the skilled employees in the banks is still evident (mann & harter, 2016). it is therefore necessary to investigate the extent to which a wide range of psychological resources may influence je, bearing in mind that an individual’s propensity to stay in the organisation depends upon many personal, organisational and environmental factors (salman et al., 2014). previous studies (biggane et al., 2016; bonner, 2016) have indicated that competitive companies have successfully managed to retain their employees and successfully kept precious talent longer by using a proactive approach and positive polices. this relates well to the recent theoretical extension of je (hom, mitchell, lee, & griffeth, 2012), which recognises that increasing psychological and personal resources of employees may effectively influence an employee’s decision to stay or leave the organisation. psychological capital and sl present a large number of psychological and personal resources (kotze, 2018) that when combined, may assist individuals in the decision to either stay or leave the organisation. it is therefore valuable to investigate the combined influence of psycap and sl strategies on je in the banking industry. research purpose and objectives based on the factors that may influence je as identified by salman et al. (2014), expanding both personal and psychological resources through sl strategies and psycap could be the mechanism through which je can be fostered (nafei, 2015). the purpose of the study was to determine if the positive aspects of sl and psycap influence je of employees in the banking sector. the following objectives were addressed: to determine the effect of psycap (hope, self-efficacy, resilience and optimism) on je to establish the influence of sl strategies on je to determine the mediating effect of psycap in the relationship between sl strategies and je. literature review mitchell, holtom, lee, sabalynski and erez (2001) proposed the je concept in an effort to improve the traditional employee turnover models that only modestly predicted turnover. job embeddedness explains how a combination of different factors plays a role in influencing individuals’ decisions to stay in a particular job (mitchell et al., 2001). rather than focussing on why employees leave the organisation, scholars shifted their attention to the new outlook, namely, to understand what motivates employees to stay (lee, mitchell, sablynski, burton, & holtom, 2004). job embeddedness is defined as on-the-job and off-the-job factors associated with individual links, fit and sacrifice (mitchell et al., 2001). it refers to the collection of forces that influence employee retention, and emphasises all factors that keep an employee in the job, rather than the psychological process one goes through when quitting (mitchell et al., 2001). this definition assumes that the more the organisational links, the better the organisational fit and the more the organisational sacrifices that need to be made, the more likely an employee will stay in a job. according to the je theory for an employee to stay, his or her personal values, career goals and future plans must fit well with the larger corporate culture and the demands of his or her immediate job such as job knowledge, skills and abilities (swider, boswell, & zimmerman, 2011). organisational links refer to a number of threads that link an employee and his or her family to the social, psychological and financial web. this web may include the relationships an individual has with co-workers (mitchell et al., 2001). consistent with this, the social exchange theory indicates that relationships evolve over time into trusting, loyal and mutual commitments if the parties abide by certain ‘rules’ of exchange (swider et al., 2011). when such relationships are strong, then they become very difficult to break; hence, individuals stay longer. conversely, a person who has a job that is relatively isolated with few friends or connections to a project or people will experience less disruption in his or her web should he or she decide to leave (hom et al., 2012). sacrifice refers to what one may lose if one leaves the organisation. this may include perceived costs of material or psychological benefits, losing contact with colleagues, non-portable benefits, valuable projects and perks. the more one has to give up when leaving, the more difficult it is to discontinue employment with the organisation (mitchell et al., 2001). therefore, the theory postulates that je refers to (1) individuals’ links to other people, teams and groups in the organisation; (2) individual perceptions of fit with the job, organisation and community; and (3) the belief about what they would have to sacrifice if they were to leave their job. based on the above definition, je can be viewed as a state of abundant resources (halbesleben & wheeler, 2008). this aligns with hobfoll’s (2002) notion of a resource caravan. based on that school of thought, the links component of je represents person-to-person relationship resources (mitchell et al., 2001). the fit component describes the sense of belonging that an employee feels with the job and the company. then the sacrifice component relates directly to the primacy-of-loss tenet of the conservation of resources (cor) theory. employees faced with the threat or actual loss of resources without replenishment are more likely to be motivated to protect and discretionally invest the remaining resources (hobfoll, 2002). however, je resources are restricted to the organisation and the position that one occupies; therefore, when an individual moves to another organisation, they cannot move the links with other people with them (khandelwal & khanum, 2017). in addition, the perceived fit necessarily changes because of the new work environment (hobfoll, 2002). job embeddedness is a strong predictor of a number of positive job outcomes, including employee attendance (lev & koslowsky, 2012) and retention (mallol et al., 2007) as compared to the well-known and accepted psychological explanations, such as job satisfaction and organisational commitment (jiang, liu, mckay, lee, & mitchell, 2012). several studies show a positive relationship between je and performance (karatepe, 2016; karatepe & karadaş, 2012; nafei, 2015). given the importance of je in the organisations, improving personal resources can expand both links and fit. resources, such as knowledge, friendship networks, time, physical stamina and a good relationship with a supervisor (hobfoll, 2002) can positively influence both organisational fit and links, thereby increasing je. psychological capital dimensions and sl strategies present a pool of resources that employees may use to foster je. self-leadership strategies facilitate the development of psychological capacities (kotze, 2018) while psycap, in turn, influences je links and fit (nafei, 2015). psychological capital and job embeddedness theoretically, psycap, and je have their roots in pob. thus, both positive psychology and positive retention embody a positive state and are crucial in modern businesses (kotze, 2018). contemporary organisations need to be proactive and provide skilled employees with a wide range of personal and psychological resources that may buffer the effects of leaving. scholars and practitioners globally have embraced psycap and positivity beyond expectations. psychological capital is a second-order, multi-dimensional construct and a latent variable, reflected by four psychological resource capacities (luthans, youssef, & avolio, 2015). it integrates the four positive psychological resources (hope, efficacy, resilience, optimism) that best fit the pob inclusion criteria (luthans et al., 2015). these psychological resources function together and interact synergistically to produce differentiated manifestations over time and across contexts. they also share ‘the common theme of positive appraisal of circumstances and probability for success based on motivated effort and perseverance’ (luthans, avolio, avey, & norman, 2007, p. 550). psychological capital emphasises the positive nature and strengths of individual employees and the role this has in fuelling their growth and work-related performance (luthans, avolio, walumbwa, & li, 2005). psychological capital is developed through a pattern of investment of psychic resources that result in obtaining experiential rewards from the present moment, while also increasing the likelihood of future benefits. it is about the state of components of one’s inner life (kalla, 2016). from the perspective of psychological resources, individuals with high levels of psycap (hope, optimism, resilience and self-efficacy) are more likely to become embedded in their respective organisations because they enjoy more harmonious relationships with their colleagues, which enable them to experience high fit and deeper links with the organisation (sun, zhao, yang, & fan, 2012). leaving the organisation means loss of resources for such individuals, and according to the cor theory (hobfoll, 2011), employees do not want to experience loss of resources. nafei (2015) noted that the je components, for example, organisational links and fit, can be expanded through psycap. a direct and exponentially influential relationship was found between psychological resources and je components, with evidence even suggesting psycap as the original internal motivator for employees to stay in their jobs (sun et al., 2012). available evidence indicated that employees with higher psycap experience a higher level of organisational commitment and exhibit less turnover intentions (avey, luthans, & jensen, 2009). in a study by sun et al. (2012), results show a statistically significant relationship between self-reported psycap, je and performance, implying that improving the individual accumulated psychological state of employees would influence their retention intention. hypothesis 1: psychological capital (hope, self-efficacy, resilience and optimism) has a positive influence on job embeddedness self-leadership and job embeddedness self-leadership empowers individuals to make decisions concerning their own tasks at work and implement them (fletcher & kaüfer, 2003). this helps employees to experience autonomy, and they may stay longer in the organisation. self-leadership is labelled as the discovery and maximising of self-potential (manz & neck, 2004), a self-influence process through which people achieve the self-direction and self-motivation needed to perform (van zyl, 2013). neck and houghton (2006) defined sl as a process through which individuals regulate and control their behaviour, influencing and leading themselves by using specific sets of behavioural and cognitive strategies. individuals who use sl strategies enhance their personal effectiveness through behaviour-focussed, natural reward and constructive thought strategies (breevaart, bakker, demerouti, & derks, 2016). behaviour-focussed strategies refer to self-imposed strategies used to manage oneself in performing difficult, unattractive, but necessary tasks (neck & manz, 2013). these strategies include self-observation, self-goal setting, self-reward, self-correcting feedback and practice (van zyl, 2013). constructive thought patterns refer to the construction and maintenance of functional thinking patterns (neck & houghton, 2006). these strategies involve creating and maintaining functional patterns of habitual positive ways of thinking and destroying destructive negative self-talk, replacing it with optimistic self-talk (manz & neck, 2004). the natural reward strategies assist individuals to build pleasant and enjoyable features into their job activities, so that the tasks become naturally rewarding and enjoyable (manz & neck, 2004). these strategies increase intrinsic motivation, self-determination and feelings of competence (neck & manz, 2013). the intentional behaviour that characterises the concept of sl includes self-awareness, self-goal setting, self-motivation and the ability to receive and act on feedback; all these contribute to understanding tasks and executing them well (bryant & kazan, 2012). therefore, initiating and maintaining sl are self-development activities that may influence organisational fit. companies that encourage this reap the benefits of improved performance (kotze, 2018). in addition to that, through natural rewards strategies, sl may directly influence organisational fit. this happens when individuals build more pleasurable aspects into their given tasks as well as shape their perceptions, so that the activities involved in the job itself become inherently rewarding (lee & yom, 2015). this process increases intrinsic motivation, self-determination and feelings of competence (neck & manz, 2013). in turn, individuals with intrinsic motivation, self-determination and feelings of competence experience the congruency between what they want to do or can do and what they are actually doing in their jobs; hence, they experience job and organisational fit (mitchell et al., 2001). therefore, when employees use the natural reward strategies to incorporate enjoyable features into their tasks, they eventually experience fit in the organisation. well-fitting individuals stay longer with the organisation (lee & yom, 2015). hypothesis 2: self-leadership has a direct influence on job embeddedness. self-leadership, psychological capital and job embeddedness as a way of moving towards the new positive organisation, individuals should self-lead. this involves examining individual thought patterns, which then facilitate the elimination of destructive thoughts and negative self-talk, and replacing them with more positive internal dialogues (ram, 2015). self-responsibility is at the centre of positivity and is the cardinal virtue necessary for all other virtues to develop (khandelwal & khanum, 2017). the study therefore suggests sl as an entry point (at the individual level) that can be used to create a positive environment through psycap, which in turn encourages employees to stay longer with an organisation. kotze (2018) noted that employees who implement sl strategies effectively enhance psycap; therefore, sl strategies facilitate the development of psychological capacities, which in turn expand the psychological resources of the workplace. the more resourceful the workplace is, the higher the chances that employees will stay (khandelwal & khanum, 2017). a self-managing individual has the ability to control and successfully manipulate the resources to suit his or her own needs; therefore, self-leading individuals can positively influence the resourcefulness of the work environment and facilitate the mobilisation of internal resources (harunavamwe & pillay, 2018). in relation to this, individuals who embody high levels of psycap can access more of their resources manifested through their cognitions, motivation, behaviour and social relationships and, in turn, increase the links and fit in je (sun et al., 2012). malinowski and lim (2015) noted that, through sl, individuals discard automatic behavioural scripts and pursue novel and creative thoughts and actions, which result in an increase of social, psychological and physical resources. organisations that use sl boost employee empowerment, encourage positivity and maximise performance (khandelwal & khanum, 2017). considerable evidence has been recorded in different domains on the relationship of positive psychology and positive thinking with satisfaction, productivity, performance, well-being and commitment (martin, 2008). however, evidence on whether the employees with positive psychological characteristics are more attached to the organisation or more willing to be retained is unknown (sun et al., 2012). although a causal link between psycap and je was established, sl seems to be instrumental in creating the conditions for positive thinking. it could be the mechanisms through which employees acquire psychological resources, which, in turn, influence je. in a recent diarised study, bakker and demerouti (2017) noted that sl strategies, such as constructive thought patterns and behaviour strategies, are used to expand the psychological resources and assist with increasing personal resources, such as optimism, self-efficacy and self-esteem. these psychological resources, in turn, influence je (nafei, 2015). it is also through sl strategies that the development of psychological capacities, such as hope, self-efficacy and optimism, are facilitated by recognising and replacing negative dysfunctional beliefs and assumptions with positive beliefs (neck & manz, 2010). kotze (2018) indicated that sl is a strong determinant of psycap, having a statistically significant positive influence on psycap dimensions. self-leadership, along with self-efficacy and goal setting, facilitate the mobilisation of internal resources and form part of an iterative process of self-regulation in the positive behavioural change process (manz, 2015). given the benefits associated with psychological resources and sl strategies, the current research endeavours to determine their relevance within the je framework. self-leadership strategies are part of the positive emotions and relevant personal resources within the workplace that lay the foundation of positivity (kotze, 2018). the constructive thought patterns, for example, can increase and strengthen an individual’s belief that they have what it takes to succeed (fit) and help them to remain hopeful and optimistic in their capabilities. thus, sl strategies can be used as building blocks for expanding psychological resources. the psychological resources then influence je. for the purpose of the study, the mediating role of psycap in the relationship between sl and je was explored. hypothesis 3: psychological capital mediates the relationship between self-leadership strategies and job embeddedness research design research method and approach the empirical aspect of the study used a cross-sectional survey design to collect quantitative primary data from the respondents by using self-report questionnaires to achieve the objectives of the study. a quantitative research framework was adopted because of its systematic and scientific nature of investigating data and their relationships (hair, celsi, ortinau, & bush, 2008). a cross-sectional design with a survey data-collection technique was used to address the research questions. the survey research method was used because it is more appropriate for descriptive purposes and chiefly used in studies that have individual people as the units of analysis (babbie & mouton, 2015). research participants the study sought to obtain basic data and trends on the three constructs. because of the strict regulations in the banking sector, it was difficult to get access to the sampling frame; therefore, convenience sampling was used to select 422 respondents working in different banks within the free state province. because of incomplete surveys and non-responsiveness, only 303 questionnaires were used for the purpose of data analysis. the majority of the sample identified themselves as being african (57 %). more females (59%) participated as compared to males. in terms of age, the majority of the respondents were aged between 26 and 30 years (31%). in terms of education, the majority of employees have a diploma qualification (41%). further to this, the largest proportion of the respondents was operational-level employees (43%). measuring instruments the survey consisted of demographic questions, and three were scales used to measure the variables under investigation. these scales are discussed in the following sections. je: mitchell and his colleagues (2001) developed the job embeddedness scale (jes), which was used in the present study to operationalise the dependent variable. this measure consists of three sub-dimensions (organisational links, organisational fit and organisational sacrifice). sl: the revised self-leadership questionnaire (rslq) provided information on respondents’ levels of sl. the rslq consists of items that are scored using a 5-point likert scale (houghton, dawley, & diliello, 2012). psycap: the psycap questionnaire (pcq-24) containing the four subscales of psycap (self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience) was used to measure psycap. the pcq-24 is a 24-item scale that is scored using a 6-point likert scale (luthans et al., 2007). research procedure and ethical considerations ethical clearance was applied for and granted by the research ethics committee of the faculty of economic and management sciences. potential participants were informed of their right to voluntary participation as well as ensuring anonymity of their responses. in addition, research participants could withdraw at any time during the data-collection process without any consequences. in instances where management would request feedback, both individuals and the organisation were informed that only aggregated data and results would be shared. statistical analysis cronbach’s coefficient alpha was used to estimate the reliabilities associated with each of the measuring instruments and their associated sub-dimensions (where applicable). when conducting exploratory research, reliability estimates as low as 0.6 are deemed as acceptable (hair et al., 2008). pearson’s product moment correlation provided evidence of the relationship between the independent variables (sl, psycap) and je. the different hypotheses were evaluated using the variance-based approach to structural equation modelling. the two families of structural equation modelling included the covariance-based techniques and the variance-based techniques in which partial least squares (pls) path modelling is the most prominent representative (henseler, ringle, & sinkovics, 2009). covariance-based structural equation modelling assumes that one’s data are normally distributed, and that the sample is quite big. in addition, it is predominantly used to test theory (henseler et al., 2009). in contrast, variance-based structural equation modelling does not have the same strict assumptions associated with the data being used to evaluate a model (e.g. minimum sample size and normal distribution). variance-based structural equation modelling is often used to evaluate complex models and the development of new theory (henseler et al., 2009). thus, for exploratory work in behavioural research fields, lowry and gaskin (2014) advised that the pls may be selected, as it could provide distinctive theoretical insights. therefore, in the current study, the proposed model was tested using the variance-based structural equation-modelling program, smartpls (ringle, wende, & becker, 2015). the pls path modelling was deemed appropriate because it is suitable for prediction-oriented research and is recommended when testing and validating exploratory models. this approach suggests a two-step process to be followed when interpreting the results from both the outer (i.e., measurement) and inner (i.e., structural) models (henseler et al., 2009). the outer model provides information as to the quality of the measures (and indicators) used to operationalise each of the constructs in the model. in terms of quality criteria, the outer model will be deemed as acceptable (in terms of both reliability and validity) when composite reliabilities are 0.7 and higher, with values of 0.5 and higher for the average variance extracted (ave). in addition, the outer model requires each of the indicators used to operationalise the constructs to have statistically significant loadings associated with each of the latent variables. in contrast, the inner model provides information as to both the strength (beta) and statistical significance (p-values) of the proposed paths in the theoretical model. finally, the r-square value provides an indication as to the predictive power of the theoretical model (henseler et al., 2009). smartpls version 3 was used to evaluate all three hypotheses. it should be noted that the present study employed item parcels (composite scores of the sub-dimensions of job-embeddedness and psycap, and a composite score for sl) to reduce the complexity of the outer model to be estimated. it would not have been advisable to use all the items, thus increasing the complexity of the model and the number of parameters to be estimated (hair et al., 2008). results the reliability estimates for each variable are reported in table 1. table 1: reliability estimates for the psychological capital, self-leadership and job embeddedness scale (n = 303). table 1 shows that all variables have acceptable levels of reliability, ranging between 0.74 (natural reward strategies) and 0.93 (je). table 2 shows the descriptive statistics and the correlations between je and the sub-dimensions of psycap. the table also shows the correlations between je and sub-dimensions of sl. table 2: descriptive statistics, correlations between the variables (n = 303). from table 2, it is clear that all the dimensions of psycap and the sl strategies have statistically significant correlations with je. optimism (r = 0.44) and behavioural strategies (r = 0.42) have the strongest relationship with je. natural reward strategies (r = 0.39) have the weakest relationship with je. table 3 shows the descriptive statistics and the correlations between the composite scores for je and psycap. the table also shows the correlations between the composite scores for je and sl. table 3: descriptive statistics, correlations between job embeddedness and psychological capital and self-leadership (n = 303). from table 3, it is clear that all the independent variables (sl and psycap) have statistically significant correlations with je. psychological capital (r = 0.47) has the strongest relationship with je. self-leadership has a statistically significant correlation with je (r = 0.45) but not as strong as psycap. table 4 shows composite reliabilities for the three variables and the convergent validity assessed using the ave. table 4: quality criteria (outer model). it is evident from table 4 that all the indicators had acceptable composite reliabilities and sufficient convergent validity; both composite reliability and ave values are higher than 0.5. table 5 shows the outer loadings for the indicators of variables. table 5: outer loadings. table 5 indicates that all the indicators have statistically significant loadings on their respective latent variables, hence meeting the required quality criteria. table 6 shows the size and significance of the proposed paths. table 6: path coefficients (inner model). table 6 presents the results associated with the size and significance of the proposed paths (i.e. quality criteria associated with the inner model). it is clear that all proposed paths are statistically significant, with p < 0.05. this proposed model explained 30% of the variance in employees’ levels of je, which can be explained as moderate. it should be noted that both psycap (β = 0.355) and sl (β = 0.222) have significant relationships (i.e. paths) with je. these results provide support for both hypotheses 1 and 2. to determine whether psycap mediates the relationship between sl and je, the specific indirect effects (table 7) should be consulted. table 7 depicts the indirect effect of sl on je. table 7: specific indirect effects. from table 7, it is evident that the mechanism through which sl influences je (via psycap) is positive (indirect effect [ie] = 0.289) and statistically significant (p = 0.001). although the mediating effect is significant, the result points to partial mediation because of the fact that the direct path between sl and je is still statistically significant. hence, the study found partial support for hypothesis 3. discussion studies on talent management have indicated that an organisation that is able to retain its human capital has a significant advantage over its competitors. this suggests that investing in mechanisms that can promote je is crucial for organisational success because je is known to predict turnover intention (holtom & darabi, 2018; coetzer, inma, & poisat, 2017). as emphasised earlier, je is characterised by three elements, that is, personal links with the organisation and people within the organisation; a sense of congruence between personal attributes and the demands of the job; and finally, a reluctance to lose the relationships and resources that have been established within or because of the organisation (mitchell et al., 2001). these elements, that is, links, fit and sacrifice, are viewed as resources that promote embeddedness in one’s job. consistent with the cor theory, employees are encouraged by the need to acquire and protect resources, or those aspects they attach personal value to, that is, links, fit and sacrifice (sun et al., 2012). using this argument as a point of departure, the current study has framed both psycap and sl as mechanisms that facilitate the key constructs of je, that is, links, fit and sacrifice. therefore, the primary aim of the study was to investigate the role of both psycap and sl in influencing the levels of je and the role of psycap in mediating the relationship between sl and je. as indicated by the results, there was a significant relationship between psycap and je, which provides support for hypothesis 1. these results are consistent with those of sun et al. (2012) who found a statistically meaningful association between self-reported psycap and je. results of the current study also support the findings of rego, sousa, marques and ecunha (2012), who found that the dimensions of psycap (hope, optimism, resilience and self-efficacy) show a positive relationship with je (fit, links and sacrifice), and employees with higher psycap are likely to experience higher levels of embeddedness, because they have a large support network in their current organisations (links). nafei (2015) confirmed the findings of rego et al. (2012), indicating that in his study, the availability of higher levels of psycap was positively related to the quality of the relationship that links employees and supervisors at work, which, in turn, led to an improvement in the level of je, and a reduction of negative reactions in the work environment. sun et al. (2012) stated that employees manifesting psychological resources, such as hope, optimism, resilience and self-efficacy, are more adaptive to their jobs, have more harmonious relationships with their colleagues and have deeper links in the organisation. hence, these employees are more likely to have access to a wide range of job resources that will then facilitate je. fredrickson (2001) theorised that positive emotions or traits have the ability to broaden the employee’s thought action response pattern, which encourages the pursuit of a wider range of thoughts and actions than usual. because psycap consists of four positive traits, that is, hope, optimism, self-efficacy and resilience; these traits have the ability to broaden thoughts and actions, which encourages positive adaptation to the organisational environment. this allows the individual to successfully adapt to his or her work environment, which enhances the level of job fit. by experiencing a sense of congruence between personal attributes and the demands of the job, the individual is less likely to leave the organisation. hypothesis 2 proposed in the current study is supported based on the findings, which indicated a significant relationship between sl and je. this is consistent with the work of khandelwal and khanum (2017) who reported that there are several pathways through which dimensions of sl can work to influence the extent to which one is embedded in the job. they further indicate that when the employee is driven and rewarded by inherently pleasurable features of the task or activities they perform (natural rewards), that process creates feelings of competence (fit). the employees begin to believe that their personal attributes, that is, skills and abilities, are congruent with what is required for good job performance (fit), and this belief subsequently strengthens je. this suggests that one pathway through which sl may work to influence je is through natural rewards, which works to positively strengthen beliefs of organisational fit (khandelwal & khanum, 2017). in addition, bryant and kazan (2012) argued that sl is an effective mechanism that can be used to promote active, empowered employees who proactively shape and influence their organisational settings. this is done through employees creating novel standards and effective procedures by applying constructive thought patterns. neck and houghton (2006) maintained that adopting constructive thought patterns allows for the construction and maintenance of functional thinking patterns. these functional thinking patterns emphasise the importance of establishing organisational links that support the employee and contribute to effective work behaviour. the employee begins to understand the role of relationships within the workplace and the role relationships may play in facilitating career success. as a result, through applying characteristics of sl, an employee becomes more embedded within his or her job. while results of the current study support the mediating effect of psycap on the relationship between sl and je, it was found that the direct relationship between sl and je was still statistically significant in the presence of psycap, indicating a partial mediation. results also suggest that although sl has the ability to independently influence je, the influence of sl on je may be heightened in the presence of psycap. this is because the relationship between sl, psycap and je appears to be stronger than the direct relationship between sl and je. neck and manz (2010) stated that by implementing sl strategies, such as constructive thought patterns and behavioural strategies, psychological strengths, such as hope, self-efficacy and optimism are facilitated, as employees begin to identify and replace negative dysfunctional beliefs and assumptions with positive beliefs. these positive thought patterns allow for career-enhancing behaviours, such as establishing organisational links and fit between personal strengths and organisational requirements. according to neck and houghton (2006), by adopting constructive thought patterns, the employee’s belief in his or her ability (self-efficacy) to forge organisational links and adapt personal attributes to meet the job requirements is enhanced. this implies that having an elevated level of self-efficacy influences the establishment of organisational links and fit, explaining how constructive thought patterns, through self-efficacy, can influence je. this suggests that, whilst adopting constructive thought patterns may encourage the establishment of organisational relationships and fit, the presence of the psychological resources such as self-efficacy may strengthen the motivation to establish these relationships. a similar argument can be used to explain the role of self-efficacy in mediating the effect of behavioural strategies on organisational links and fit. behavioural strategies involve self-goal setting, self-observation and self-punishment, together with self-reward (van zyl et al., 2016). these strategies emphasise explicit behaviours that are required to be altered, reinforced or even eliminated for the sake of success, which is an essential first step towards behavioural modification (manz & neck, 2004). behavioural strategies can be achieved through the nurturing of self-efficacy, as the ability to regulate these strategies strengthens one’s belief in his or her ability to accomplish a goal. this belief in turn motivates the employee to establish positive organisational links and adjust behaviour to fit the organisation. this suggests that whilst behavioural strategies emphasise the importance of establishing organisational links and fit, self-efficacy enhances employee’s sense of control over tasks they perform and their commitment to goals. thus, through behavioural strategies, it becomes easier for individuals to effectively set behaviour-altering goals to achieve self-efficacy and improve themselves (neck & manz, 2013). in turn, self-efficacy, as a motivational variable, regulates individual objectives, reflections, efforts, coping strategies and levels of tenacity. thus, self-efficacious individuals (the belief that ‘i can do it’) possess high levels of confidence and that confidence gives them the energy to persist in the establishment of organisational links and fit (yakin & erdil, 2012). whilst the role of natural rewards in promoting organisational fit has been established, literature indicates that optimism can serve to mediate the effect of natural rewards on organisational fit through the notion of positive expectancies. according to lee and yom (2015), when an employee begins to incorporate more enjoyable aspects into their given tasks and shape their perceptions, so that the activities involved in the job itself become inherently rewarding, a sense of intrinsic motivation, self-determination and feeling of competence begins to develop (neck & manz, 2013). employees with intrinsic motivation, self-determination and feelings of competence experience the congruency between what they want to do or can do and what they are actually doing in their jobs; hence, they experience job and organisational fit (mitchell et al., 2001). luthans et al. (2005) argued that optimism is a resource that helps employees to preserve their interest even in the face of low internal resources such as intrinsic motivation and self-determination. this suggests that, even in situations in which the individual does not develop intrinsic motivation through natural rewards, the presence of optimism can mitigate the lack of motivation and self-determination to ensure that a level of organisational fit is still obtained. thus, sl, through optimism, helps employees to preserve their feelings of competence, which influence levels of fit. as a result, it can be concluded that, whilst sl influences je, the presence of psychological strengths found in psycap can mitigate the outcome of the relationship between the two variables. practical implications findings of the current study indicate that employees who are hopeful, self-efficacious, optimistic and resilient, and who experience high levels of sl, offer organisations a competitive advantage, as they tend to be embedded within their jobs. the results suggest that sl and psycap positively influence je. this implies that organisations that need to retain employees must invest in combining sl strategies and psychological resources, as these are expected to have a positive impact on je. organisations can strengthen the behavioural strategies aspect of sl through facilitating activities that encourage goal setting, self-reward, self-observation and self-cueing. an effective way of doing this is through the use of coaching and mentoring in which staff members are assisted in setting achievable goals, which, in turn, facilitate hope and optimism. organisations can facilitate the constructive thought pattern dimension of sl through the provision of cognitive behavioural therapy by a registered psychologist. because constructive thought patterns consist of construction and maintenance of functional thinking patterns, the psychologist can work with employees to facilitate positive self-talk (i.e. what people covertly tell themselves) and equip employees with strategies on how to identify and replace negative and destructive self-talk with more positive internal dialogues. in addition, organisations can facilitate the natural rewards aspect of sl through creating pleasant and enjoyable features into employee’s job activities, so that the tasks become naturally rewarding and enjoyable. this can be done through job enrichment in which the organisation adds greater responsibility and additional tasks that serve to stimulate the employee. organisations can consider creating opportunities for learning new skills and aligning tasks to the employee’s personal values. these aspects are expected to increase the natural rewards the job provides. results of the current study also support the role of psycap in influencing je. it is therefore crucial that organisations in the banking sector recognise the importance of psycap and invest in training programmes that assist employees to develop and maintain high levels of psycap. organisations can consider the application of micro-interventions designed to facilitate psycap (luthans et al., 2005). these interventions emphasise a three-pronged approach revolving around a goal-oriented framework, which includes goal design, pathway generation and overcoming obstacles. in addition, paek, schuckert, kim and lee (2015) advocated for psycap development programmes that target employees at group or organisational levels, because social capital, such as co-worker support, adds value and increases pobs. these interventions could take the form of team-building interventions that incorporate activities that focus on building self-efficacy, resilience, hope and optimism. while attempting to strengthen psycap among hired employees is crucial, organisations can also consider emphasising the importance of psycap in the recruitment process (paek et al., 2015). this can be done through using a valid and reliable psychometric instrument to measure the levels of psycap of new employees. organisations will then be able to identify employees that require specific attention in terms of developing their levels of psycap. the above initiatives may contribute in ensuring that skilled employees stay longer in their respective organisations. limitations and prospects for future research the current study explored the role of je, sl and psycap amongst employees in the banking sector. a significant limitation was the lack of empirical evidence addressing je and sl, specifically in the banking sector. it was therefore difficult to compare the empirical results obtained on the relationship between je and sl with previous literature. however, as indicated in the discussion, results obtained in the current study were consistent with the limited studies on je and sl, which indicated that the findings were reliable. in addition, the focus on employees in the banking sector implies that the findings of the current study must be applied with caution when considering other samples. future researchers are encouraged to explore the combination of je, sl and psycap in different samples to determine if similar results are found. although the measures used in the current study were considered adequate to measure each construct, the use of self-report measures could cause common method bias because of the possibility of subjective interpretations from participants. however, the common method bias could not be the source of observed relationships in the current study, as most of the reported correlations were in line with previous published findings. finally, the current study employed a cross-sectional method that posed challenges when trying to assess the causal nature of the relationships, as no conclusions could be made regarding the long-term effectiveness of sl and psycap in predicting je. future studies are encouraged to employ a longitudinal design to assess the long-term effect of psycap and sl on je. conclusion findings of the current study provide insights into the importance of je in financial institutions and the role that psycap and sl may play in influencing employee’s levels of je. from the findings, it can be concluded that psycap resources, which include hope, resilience, optimism and self-efficacy, partially mediate the effects of sl strategies such as constructive thought patterns, natural rewards and behavioural strategies on je. as a way forward, financial institutions are urged to investigate sl and psycap resources in relation to each other. however, in cases where levels of sl may be low, organisations should consider enhancing existing psycap resources, as the empirical findings suggested that these resources could partially mediate the effect of sl on je. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data for this article are available upon request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references akgunduz, y., & cin, f.m. (2015). job embeddedness as a moderator of the effect of manager trust and distributive justice on turnover intentions. anatolia, 26(4), 549–562. https://doi.org/10.1080/13032917.2015.1020504 avey, j.b., luthans, f., & jensen, s.m. (2009). psychological capital: a positive resource for combating employee stress and turnover. human resource management, 48(5), 677–693. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20294 babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2015). the practice of social research. oxford: oxford university press. bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2017). job demands – resources theory: taking stock and looking forward. journal of occupational health psychology, 22(3), 273. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000056 biggane, j.e., allen, d.g., & albert, l.s. (2016). the role of positive illusions in employment relationships. human resource management review, 26(3), 270–281. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2016.03.003 biggane, j.e., allen, d.g., amis, j., fugate, m., & steinbauer, r. (2017). cognitive appraisal as a mechanism linking negative organizational shocks and intentions to leave. journal of change management, 17(3), 203–227. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697017.2016.1219379 bonner, j.m. (2016). my boss is morally disengaged: the role of ethical leadership in explaining the interactive effect of supervisor and employee moral disengagement on employee behaviors. journal of business ethics, 137(4), 731–742. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2366-6 breevaart, k., bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & derks, d. (2016). who takes the lead? a multi-source diary study on leadership, work engagement, and job performance. journal of organizational behavior, 37(3), 309–325. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2041 bryant, a., & kazan, a.l. (2012). self-leadership: how to become a more successful, efficient, and effective leader from the inside out. new york, ny: mcgraw hill professional. coetzer, a., inma, c., & poisat, p. (2017). the job embeddedness turnover relationship. personnel review, 46(6), 1070–1088. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-12-2015-0312 cole, p. (2017). talent competition: missed opportunities as battle intensifies. crowe compensation survey. retrieved from https://www.bankingexchange.com/news-feed/item/6696-talent-competition-missed-opportunities-as-battle-intensifies fletcher, j.k., & kaufer, k. (2003). shared leadership. in c.l. pearce & j.a. conger (eds.), shared leadership: reframing the how’s and why’s of leadership (pp. 21–47). thousand oakes, ca: sage. fredrickson, b.l. (2001). the role of positive emotions in positive psychology: the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. american psychologist, 56(3), 218–226. https://doi.org/10.1037//0003-066x.56.3.218 hair, j.f., celsi, m.w., ortinau, d.j., & bush, r.p. (2008). essentials of marketing research. new york: mcgraw-hill higher education. halbesleben, j.r., & wheeler, a.r. (2008). the relative roles of engagement and embeddedness in predicting job performance and intention to leave. journal of work & stress, 22(3), 242–256. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802383962 harunavamwe, m., & pillay, d. (2018). the effect of psychological resources on job embeddedness among employees working in the banking sector of the free state. in 30th annual conference of the southern african institute of management scientists (saims), 8–11 september 2019 (p. 676). stellenbosch: stellenbosch university school of management. henseler, j., ringle, c.m., & sinkovics, r.r. (2009). the use of partial least squares path modeling in international marketing. in r.r. sinkovics & p.n. ghauri (eds.), new challenges to international marketing (pp. 277–319). bingley: emerald group. hobfoll, s.e. (2002). social and psychological resources and adaptation. review of general psychology, 6(4), 307–324. https://doi.org/10.1037//1089-2680.6.4.307 hobfoll, s.e. (2011). conservation of resource caravans and engaged settings. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 84(1), 116–122. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.2010.02016.x holtom, b.c., & darabi, t. (2018). job embeddedness theory as a tool for improving employee retention. in psychology of retention (pp. 95–117). cham: springer. hom, p.w., mitchell, t.r., lee, t.w., & griffeth, r.w. (2012). reviewing employee turnover: focusing on proximal withdrawal states and an expanded criterion. psychological bulletin, 138(5), 831–858. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027983 houghton, j.d., dawley, d., & diliello, t.c. (2012). the abbreviated self-leadership questionnaire (aslq): a more concise measure of self-leadership. international journal of leadership studies, 7(2), 216–232. jiang, k., liu, d., mckay, p.f., lee, t.w., & mitchell, t.r. (2012). when and how is job embeddedness predictive of turnover? a meta-analytic investigation. journal of applied psychology, 97(5), 1077–1096. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028610 kalla, n.e.e.l.a.m. (2016). psychological capital: key to organizational effectiveness. international journal of business, management and allied sciences, 3(1), 3013–3018. karatepe, o.m. (2016). the effects of organization mission fulfilment and perceived organizational support on job performance: the mediating role of work engagement. international journal of bank marketing, 34(3), 368–387. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbm-12-2014-0171 karatepe, o.m., & karadas, g. (2012). the effect of management commitment to service quality on job embeddedness and performance outcomes. journal of business economics and management, 13(4), 614–636. https://doi.org/10.3846/16111699.2011.620159 khandelwal, p., & khanum, f. (2017). psychological capital: a review of current trends. indian journal of industrial relations, 53(1), 86–101. kotze, m. (2018). the influence of psychological capital, self-leadership, and mindfulness on work engagement. south african journal of psychology, 48(2), 279–292. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246317705812 lee, t.w., mitchell, t.r., sablynski, c.j., burton, j.p., & holtom, b.c. (2004). the effects of job embeddedness on organizational citizenship, job performance, volitional absences, and voluntary turnover. academy of management journal, 47(5), 711–722. https://doi.org/10.2307/20159613 lee, h.s., & yom, y.h. (2015). role of self-leadership and social support in the relationship between job embeddedness and job performance among general hospital nurses. journal of korean academy of nursing administration, 21(4), 375–385. https://doi.org/10.11111/jkana.2015.21.4.375 lev, s., & koslowsky, m. (2012). on-the-job embeddedness as a mediator between conscientiousness and school teachers’ contextual performance. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 21(1), 57–83. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2010.535656 lowry, p.b., & gaskin, j. (2014). partial least squares (pls) structural equation modeling (sem) for building and testing behavioral causal theory: when to choose it and how to use it. ieee transactions on professional communication, 57(2), 123–146. https://doi.org/10.1109/tpc.2014.2312452 luthans, f., avolio, b.j., avey, j.b., & norman, s.m. (2007). positive psychological capital: measurement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. personnel psychology, 60(3), 541–572. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2007.00083.x luthans, f., avolio, b.j., walumbwa, f.o., & li, w. (2005). the psychological capital of chinese workers: exploring the relationship with performance. management and organization review, 1(2), 249–271. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8784.2005.00011.x luthans, f., youssef, c.m., & avolio, b.j. (2015). psychological capital and beyond. oxford: oxford university press. malinowski, p., & lim, h.j. (2015). mindfulness at work: positive affect, hope, and optimism mediate the relationship between dispositional mindfulness, work engagement, and well-being. mindfulness, 6(6), 1250–1262. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-015-0388-5 mallol, c.m., holtom, b.c., & lee, t.w. (2007). job embeddedness in a culturally diverse environment. journal of business and psychology, 22(1), 35–44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-007-9045-x mann, a., & harter, j. (2016). the worldwide employee engagement crisis [homepage on the internet]. gallup. retrieved from https://www.corporateejournal.com/resources/worldwide%20employee%20engagement%20crisis%20-%20gallup%202016.pdf manz, c.c. (2015). taking the self-leadership high road: smooth surface or potholes ahead. academy of management perspectives, 29(1), 132–151. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2013.0060 manz, c.c., & neck, c.p. (2004). mastering self-leadership: empowering yourself for personal excellence (3rd edn.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. martin, r. (2008). beyond personal leader – member exchange (lmx) quality: the effects of perceived lmx variability on employee reactions. the leadership quarterly, 19(1), 20–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2007.12.002 mitchell, t.r., holtom, b.c., lee, t.w., sablynski, c.j., & erez, m. (2001). why people stay: using job embeddedness to predict voluntary turnover. academy of management journal, 44(6), 1102–1121. https://doi.org/10.5465/3069391 moses, j., & knutsen, t. (2012). ways of knowing: competing methodologies in social and political research. london: macmillan international higher education. nafei, w. (2015). the role of psychological capital on job embeddedness and organizational cynicism: a study on menoufia university hospitals. journal of management and sustainability, 5(1), 50–74. https://doi.org/10.5539/jms.v5n1p50 neck, c.p., & houghton, j.d. (2006). two decades of self-leadership theory and research: past developments, present trends, and future possibilities. journal of managerial psychology, 21(4), 270–295. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610663097 neck, c.p., & manz, c.c. (2010). mastering self-leadership: empowering yourself for personal excellence. london: pearson. neck, c.p., & manz, c.c. (2013). self-leadership: a cognitive resource for entrepreneurs. journal of small business & entrepreneurship, 26(5), 463–480. https://doi.org/10.1080/08276331.2013.876762 paek, s., schuckert, m., kim, t.t., & lee, g. (2015). why is hospitality employees’ psychological capital important? the effects of psychological capital on work engagement and employee morale. international journal of hospitality management, 50(1), 9–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2015.07.001 pokorny, h. (2013). portfolios and meaning-making in the assessment of prior learning. international journal of lifelong education, 32(4), 518–534. https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370.2013.778076 ram, p. (2015). dimensions of self-leadership in a cross-cultural context. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 5(11), 59–77. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v5-i11/1893 rego, a., sousa, f., marques, c., & ecunha, m.p. (2012). authentic leadership promoting employees’ psychological capital and creativity. journal of business research, 65(3), 429–437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.10.003 ringle, c.m., wende, s., & becker, j.m. (2015). smartpls 3. boenningstedt: smartpls gmbh. retrieved from http://www.smartpls.com. salman, a., ahmad, n., & matin, f. (2014). factors affecting on employees’ retention in banking sector: an investigation from karachi. european journal of business and management, 6(37), 2222–2839. sekiguchi, t., burton, j.p., & sablynski, c.j. (2008). the role of job embeddedness on employee performance: the interactive effects with leader – member exchange and organization-based self-esteem. personnel psychology, 61(4), 761–792. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2008.00130.x sun, t., zhao, x.w., yang, l.b., & fan, l.h. (2012). the impact of psychological capital on job embeddedness and job performance among nurses: a structural equation approach. journal of advanced nursing, 68(1), 69–79. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2011.05715.x swider, b.w., boswell, w.r., & zimmerman, r.d. (2011). examining the job search–turnover relationship: the role of embeddedness, job satisfaction, and available alternatives. journal of applied psychology, 96(2), 432–441. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021676 van zyl, e., dalglish, c., du plessis, m., lues, l., pietersen, e., ngunjiri, f., & kablan, p. (2016). leadership in the african context. cape town: juta. van zyl, e.v. (2013). self-leadership and happiness within the african working context. journal of psychology, 4(2), 59–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/09764224.2013.11885494 yakın, m., & erdil, o. (2012). relationships between self-efficacy and work engagement and the effects on job satisfaction: a survey on certified public accountants. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 58(1), 370–378. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.1013 yao, x., lee, t.w., mitchell, t.r., burton, j.p., & sablynski, c.s. (2004). job embeddedness: current research and future directions. in r. griffeth & p. hom (eds.), innovative theory and empirical research on employee turnover (pp. 153–187). charlotte, nc: information age publishing. yavas, u., babakus, e., & karatepe, o.m. (2008). the effects of job demands, job resources and intrinsic motivation on emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions: a study in the turkish hotel industry. international journal of hospitality & tourism administration, 9(4), 384–404. https://doi.org/10.1080/15256480802427339 zhao, e., & liu, l. (2010). comments on development of job embeddedness about study on turnover and exploration into application in enterprises. asian social science, 7(6), 63–70. https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v6n6p63 abstract introduction literature review human resource management practices recruitment and selection capacity development rewards management performance appraisal research design findings discussion practical implications limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) samuel sixpence department of industrial psychology and people management, faculty of management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa roslyn de braine department of industrial psychology and people management, faculty of management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa mark bussin department of industrial psychology and people management, faculty of management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa morris mthombeni gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, johannesburg, south africa citation sixpence, s., de braine, r., bussin, m., & mthombeni, m. (2021). anchoring human resource management to sustain employee performance at johannesburg metropolitan municipality. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1611. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1611 original research anchoring human resource management to sustain employee performance at johannesburg metropolitan municipality samuel sixpence, roslyn de braine, mark bussin, morris mthombeni received: 15 mar. 2021; accepted: 14 june 2021; published: 10 sept. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: practices employed to manage the human resources at johannesburg (jhb) metropolitan municipality were explored to unearth their impact on employee performance. research purpose: the study sought to reveal the human resource management (hrm) practices that could support employee performance at local government. the motivation for the study: the achievement of organisational goals depends on hrm practices that enhance employee competencies. employee performance in municipalities is often considered to be substandard. this study aimed to strengthen hrm practices to enhance performance at jhb metropolitan municipality. research approach/design and method: the qualitative inquiry adopted an interpretive stance to reveal participants’ experiences that relate to employee performance. ten participants were identified purposively and the obtained data were analysed with the assistance of the atlas.ti software. main findings: whilst the organisation’s employee-attraction practices were strong, its retention practices were weak. employees generally felt undervalued, which negatively affected their morale and the organisation’s goal attainment. practical/managerial implications: the organisation should introduce effective employee-retention strategies, focussing on thorough needs analyses, skills development and rewards linked to performance. building employee commitment should be prioritised. study contribution: human resource management effectiveness in the johannesburg municipality would be enhanced by appropriate soft hrm investment in senior management either through recruitment or development or both. furthermore, the municipal culture should change from hrm practices that are influenced by tradition to an adaptive approach that responds to public-sector dynamics and varying employee expectations. keywords: human resource management; employee performance; organisational goals; public-sector dynamics; soft hrm. introduction human resource management (hrm) is strategically positioned to drive employee performance (gopinath, 2020). it is even more crucial within municipalities which, although facing serious financial constraints, still need to deliver services to citizens (jacobson & sowa, 2016). the municipal context requires hrm solutions that are peculiar to the public-sector environment (blom, kruyen, van der heijden, & van thiel, 2020; govender, 2017; knies, boselie, gould-williams, & vandenabeele, 2015). in-depth knowledge of contextual challenges is faced by employees in the municipal sector (blom et al., 2020). therefore, the municipal contextual differences form the basis of an effective hrm policy shift (els, brouwers, & lodewyk, 2021; marshall & stephenson, 2020; nanjundeswaraswamy, swamy, & nagesh, 2019). the knowledge of contextual challenges thus enlightens practitioners on existing gaps and motivates them to take remedial action by developing relevant policies. human resource management is about managing the employee life cycle in a manner that addresses both organisational and employee goals (collins, 2020). it has been established that the effectiveness of the hrm function influences the quality of employees’ contribution to the achievement of strategic goals (potgieter & mokomane, 2020). furthermore, services provided by an organisation depend on the quality of its inherent talent pool and skills repertoire (els et al., 2021). therefore, poor talent management practices by employers may negatively affect employee performance. when setting out to enhance talent management, ryazanova, mcnamara and aguinis (2017) argued that the link between hrm and employee performance is crucial. ndevu and muller (2018) partially attributed poor employee performance in south african municipalities to weak hrm systems. this study provides in-depth insights into how hrm practices within the municipal context contribute to effective (or ineffective) service delivery. informed by the work of scholars who have focussed on hrm in the public sector (blom et al., 2020), this study reveals the strong link between hrm and employee performance at jhb metropolitan municipality. by achieving an in-depth comprehension of the existing dynamics in employee performance, the study offers lessons on the potentially critical issues that may inform future hrm reforms in other municipalities, especially in south africa. the two questions that will guide the achievement of the research purpose are: (1) what are the hrm practices that affect performance outcomes at jhb metropolitan municipality? (2) what are the consequences of poor hrm at jhb metropolitan municipality? literature review human resource management has been described as a set of activities that strategically position human assets to work towards the achievement of organisational goals (armstrong, 2014; ryazanova et al., 2017). employee performance, in turn, is concerned with activities associated with operational improvements (adler et al., 2016; gopinath, 2020; howard, gagné, morin, & van den broeck, 2016). therefore, employee performance is a part of hrm that relies on a healthy human resource (hr) culture and supporting processes. guest (2017) asserted that hrm has both soft and hard dimensions. similarly, and at an earlier time, storey (1989) acknowledged that the views on hrm could be hard or soft. the soft view is aligned to the harvard model (beer, spector, lawrence, & mills, 1984) and the hard view is aligned to the michigan model (cregan, kulik, johnston, & bartram, 2021; fombrun, tichy, & devanna, 1984). although these constitute two extremes and sound opposed to each other, they form the basic theoretical foundation on which hr practice has been built. in this literature review, attention is given to those scholars who used both the soft and hard approaches, as opposed to one or the other, to argue the hrm case and its impact on employee performance. in the various definitions of hrm, the major distinction between the soft and the hard approaches is where the emphasis is placed: on the ‘human’ element or the ‘resource’ element (katou, 2017). the soft approach focusses on the human element by encouraging employee commitment and performance. this is closely related to mcgregor’s theory y of employee motivation. in terms of this theory, mcgregor (1960) argued that employees’ desire to perform is stimulated from within rather than forced on them from the external environment. the soft approach is associated with flexibility and adaptability and anchored on high trust and effective communication (boxall, guthrie, & paauwe, 2016). the soft approach is also embedded in the harvard analytical framework of hrm (beer et al., 1984). the harvard framework views hrm policies and practices as outcomes related to stakeholder interests and situational factors. human resource management policies in turn determine the quality of hr outcomes, such as employee collaboration, commitment, competence, congruence and effectiveness (boxall et al., 2016; cregen et al., 2021). the human element is thus a key consideration in the development of hrm policies as it ultimately impacts performance outcomes. according to beer et al. (1984), top managers need to develop hr policies that inspire employees to perform. employee performance goals should be informed by the organisational vision (suzuki & hur, 2020). the observations, therefore, could imply that people are a strategic resource in the performance value chain. cregen et al. (2021) argued that line managers must align hrm activities with the overall business strategy and ensure coherence between the hr and the other organisational functions. to this end, the soft approach emphasises elements such as mutual respect, cooperation, commitment, responsibility and teamwork (guest, 2017). looking through a different lens, the hard approach focusses on advancing business interests, with little regard for human issues. the hard approach, also known as the matching model, recognises the major functions of hrm (boxall et al., 2016) and stresses the importance of careful employee selection and rewards that are based on employee contribution (sharma & taneja, 2018). the hard approach or the matching model is closely associated with mcgregor’s theory x (guest, 2017). the latter assumes that human beings hate work, avoid responsibility and should be controlled to perform (armstrong, 2014). human beings, therefore, need to be treated like tools, similar to other resources in the organisation (ryazanova et al., 2017). given the descriptions for hard hrm proffered in the literature, this study probed the effects of hard hrm on employee performance at jhb metropolitan municipality. human resource management practices the hrm challenge is to identify the actual practices that stimulate employee performance and improve human capacities within an organisation. in this regard, jouda, ahmad and dahleez (2016) conducted a study in palestine to identify the key practices that determine superior employee performance and identified four practices that top the list, as shown (figure 1). figure 1: human resource management practices that are positively related to employee performance. recruitment and selection whilst recruitment is a process of generating a pool of potential employees, selection is the process of identifying employees with the necessary qualities to competently discharge their duties in a given position (bazana & reddy, 2021). the quality of skills attracted and retained determines the quality of outputs because an organisation can only be as good as its people (metin & asli, 2018; paltu & brouwers, 2020). the focus of talent acquisition should therefore be on acquiring and retaining the best talent. the hard approach to hrm ensures the acquisition of the right numbers necessary to achieve the business goals (potgieter & mokomane, 2020). in contrast, the soft approach ensures the availability of hr with the right attitude, motivation and commitment to work (armstrong, 2014). soft hrm, therefore, shapes the organisation’s culture by identifying employees who have the right value system to sustain the desired organisational performance levels. skills turnover is affected by push and pull factors in the organisation (hooi & zahari, 2020). human nature is sensitive to both push and pulls factors (guest, 2017). this infers that organisations should maintain a high level of pull factors to retain talent and minimise push factors that repel top achievers. this study set out to establish the recruitment and selection practices that support effective employee performance at jhb metropolitan municipality. simlarly, rezaei, zare, akbarzadeh and zare (2014) found that organisations that are techno-savvy attract young and innovative employees. this view is reinforced by govender (2017) who argued that municipalities that leverage the virtues of the digital era are more efficient in service delivery. therefore, the employee-acquisition strategy should identify technologically astute employees. capacity development human capacity development is largely concerned with training and development. although training and development are different concepts, they both aim to improve people’s skill sets so that they can meet performance-related goals (sharma & taneja, 2018). training enhances employee performance capacities (al barwani, 2019). furthermore, it is learner-based (or participant-based) (sharma & taneja, 2018). a typical training cycle involves the identification of training needs, structuring of the training, execution of the training and appraisal of the completed training (al barwani, 2019). in contrast, development is futuristic in outlook as it progressively equips employees with competencies to meet future challenges. development is an unfolding process and not specifically focussed on the present job (katou, 2017). development incorporates a plan with a series of components, namely analysis of the current situation, goal setting, preparation of an action plan and execution of the plan (senge, 2017). successful training and development depend on effective employee selection, as poorly selected employees are difficult to train and develop (aguinis & kraiger, 2009). the hard approach ensures that training and development programmes are cost-effective and achieve a strategic fit with the organisational goals (armstrong & landers, 2018). the soft approach, in turn, promotes effective communication to motivate employees to adopt attitudes that contribute towards the achievement of organisational goals. furthermore, training and development should inspire employees to willingly adopt the culture and value system of the organisation (sharma & taneja, 2018). in a study conducted by mauerhoefer, strese and brettel (2017), it was discovered that the use of information technology helps to facilitate the transfer and acquisition of skills. from another perspective, cafferkey, hefferman, harney, dundon and townsend (2019) argued that hr bundling can be useful in achieving effective employee performance. similarly, jouda et al. (2016) posited that training and development are tools for motivating top achievers. at the same time, it enriches the organisation’s skills repertoire, thereby bundling hr practices to attain high performance levels. the link between employee capacity development and performance is thus supported from many angles in the literature. rewards management rewards management is a process of determining what employees receive in recognition of their contribution towards the achievement of organisational goals (ajmal, bashir, abrar, mahroof khan, & saqib, 2015; salah, 2016). the hard approach to hrm ensures that employees are rewarded in line with their adherence to prescribed cost structures within the organisation (salah, 2016). however, the soft approach ensures that rewards motivate employees to willingly deliver a high level of service (armstrong, 2014). an organisation’s reward structure is a reflection of the behaviours that are valued. hence, rewards can be used to reinforce a performance culture by recognising top achievers (kumari & singh, 2018). rewards can effectively sustain employee performance if adopted as part of a total rewards system (armstrong, 2014). the total rewards approach combines both transactional and relational rewards to sustain employee performance (pregnolato, bussin, & schlechter, 2017). the independent existence of transactional and relational rewards has its pros and cons. transactional rewards are provided as a contractual obligation and are viewed as the key factor that attracts talent (kumari & singh, 2018). however, they have been criticised for having only a temporary effect on motivation (pregnolato et al., 2017). furthermore, employers sometimes use them to bribe employees to work endlessly, with minimum regard for their safety and health (adler et al., 2016). in contrast, relational rewards are not tangible and are difficult to use as a tool for attracting talent. however, employees accept them as an ethical way of enhancing employee commitment (salah, 2016). adler et al. (2016) reinforced the assertion and argued that they are a useful tool for talent retention. given the pros and cons of transactional and relational rewards, hr professionals could adopt the total rewards approach to ensure a sound balance between the two for optimal performance. from another perspective, maslow (1954) argued that rewards are effective if they address individual employee needs. therefore, hr professionals must develop a reward structure that is informed by identified employee needs. performance appraisal adler et al. (2016) reasoned that appraisals of performance involve measuring the actual contribution made by individual employees towards the organisational goals. the idea of measuring performance fosters a performance culture which is important for organisational success (boxall et al., 2016; cafferkey et al., 2019). the performance appraisal is thus broadly accepted as an essential component in employee performance. the hard approach to hrm is important for ensuring strict concordance between performance goals, the recruitment and selection criteria, the training objectives and the rewards management system. similarly, the soft approach to hrm ensures that employees are motivated and maintain the correct attitude towards their work. if employees lack the motivation to work, their efficiency diminishes (gopinath, 2020). a performance appraisal should thus be designed to stimulate positive attitudes. many studies featuring in the literature have looked at the effects of performance appraisals on employee performance. one such study, by sanders and yang (2016), concluded that performance appraisals provide critical support to other activities in the hrm value chain, such as selection, training, rewards management and employee development. unfortunately, some organisations have failed to take advantage of the gains from the performance appraisal process by disregarding the feedback obtained in their hr planning (adler et al., 2016). this study, therefore, seeks ways to leverage an effective appraisal that enhances employee performance at jhb metropolitan municipality. research design this section describes the research approach, strategy and method from the beginning of the research period to the reporting of findings. research approach the ontological stance adopted in the study assumed that the truth exists in multiple realities and can be socially constructed (rehman & alharthi, 2016). the epistemological stance, in turn, assumed that reality can be discovered by engaging those who have experience acquired from the natural context (yazan & de vasconcelos, 2016). consequently, the employees at jhb metropolitan municipality were engaged. all responses were accepted as valuable. the interpretive approach was accepted as being most relevant for the study. such an approach accepts subjectivity in creating reality and acknowledges the importance of the respective world views and social livelihoods of the research participants (aspers & corte, 2019). therefore, interactions between individuals are critical for arriving at the meaning of a social phenomenon (rehman & alharthi, 2016). in this study, the researchers were not a disconnected actor but actively interacted with participants to solicit and expose meaning. some well-articulated arguments came to the fore in the process. however, the researchers did not give preference to any particular interpretation but rather gave equal weight to all views, thereby acknowledging that diversity would enrich the study. the goal was not to reveal one universally acceptable reality but to understand the diverse angles from which different people perceived reality. notwithstanding its benefits, the interpretive approach has at times been perceived by other researchers as being too ‘soft’, lacking the capacity to yield theories that can be applied in other contexts. another criticism is that the over-involvement of the researchers reduces objectivity (stake, 2005). however, the researchers in this study deflected these perceived weaknesses by being rigorous, systematic and precise and paying close attention to detail (aspers & corte, 2019). research setting and strategy the study was performed at jhb metropolitan municipality and sought to build on other studies that have focussed on similar settings. the objectives of the current inquiry resonated well with the case study strategy, centring on unearthing the factors that could anchor hrm to sustain employee performance. the study was conducted in the natural habitat (blom et al., 2020). as hrm was failing to sustain employee performance, the study sought to identify those practices that should be transformed to enhance employee performance. the affected employees and their managers were interviewed to understand the specific challenges faced, which would then inform the proposed solutions. research method the qualitative research method was used to develop an in-depth understanding of the hrm dynamics affecting employee performance in the given context. this research method allowed hitherto unknown explanations to be uncovered, thereby giving rise to new views. unlike the more rigid quantitative research method, which confines a study’s scope to predetermined options, the qualitative method allows flexibility to delve into the unknown (antwi & hamza, 2015). this study therefore embraced the inductive approach, which allows the theory to be derived from the data instead of controlling the path of the research (rehman & alharthi, 2016). entrée and establishing roles of researchers the study was conducted at jhb metropolitan municipality in south africa. the employees who were interviewed were identified as participants in the study. an agreement was drafted with relevant terms to ensure that the study would be conducted ethically and without any prejudice to the participants or the organisation (sussman & dejong, 2018). after conducting the study, the findings were submitted, along with recommendations, to the municipality. research participants and sampling methods whilst the jhb metropolitan municipality has approximately 10 000 employees (profile: city of jhb metro, 2020), a total population of 10 participants was canvassed for the study. the participants were five females and five males, of which five were managers and five were non-managers. they were identified through purposive sampling. a senior official from the performance management unit assisted with identifying potential participants with knowledge of employee performance issues. this method was considered ideal, as the study targeted a small sample comprising participants with rich knowledge of hrm and employee performance. a small sample was considered adequate after reaching a point of saturation (crozier, denzin, & lincoln, 1994). furthermore, the focus was to obtain and analyse individual participants’ experiences in detail, which would not be achievable from a large sample. although the sample structure was deliberately designed to obtain equally representative views from both female and male employees, the selection criteria did not consider any link between gender and performance. therefore, no inferences were drawn from the gender differences between the participants. data collection methods data were collected through semi-structured interviews. all participants were asked similar questions and responses were probed further where necessary, to clarify ‘grey areas’. this permitted participants to share diverse views in line with qualitative research standards. data recording interviews were conducted online using skype. the interviews were recorded electronically and saved onto google drive for easy retrieval. notes were also taken during the interviews and all the data records were password-protected to avoid unauthorised access. safeguarding the quality and integrity of data the issue of maintaining integrity and quality of qualitative data has been a subject of debate for decades. unfortunately, there are no universally accepted criteria (begbie, bussin, & schurink, 2011). however, every situation is unique and requires an approach that is relevant to it (guba & lincoln, 1994). in the present study, the researcher took a long time to become completely familiar with the participants and observed their behaviour with minimum interference. furthermore, interviews were held with participants from various departments and results were shared with them to confirm or disconfirm both the accuracy of obtained data and interpretations made. a clear trail of procedures followed was maintained in documentary form to allow easy validation by other, future researchers. data analysis the collected data were then analysed using atlas.ti software package. all the transcribed data were reviewed and grouped according to the research questions. data that were aligned with the research objectives were coded and later classified into sub-categories of common characters, showing the link to the different objectives. the sub-categories were later merged into themes where data reflected common positions. the themes were analysed in the light of similar studies conducted in the past, which appeared in the relevant parts of the literature. the revealed trends helped to explain the current behaviour and also challenge certain practices that were affecting employee performance. this made it possible to arrive at conclusions about how to improve the hrm status quo in the organisation concerned. findings human resource management practices affecting municipal employee performance this section presents the findings relating to the first research objective, which was to identify practices that affect employee performance. the practices were revealed under the ‘poor hr policies’ theme and supporting codes (or elements), as shown (figure 2). figure 2: poor human resource policies theme and supporting codes or elements. good talent attraction but poor retention the participants observed that the organisation offered an excellent employee value proposition which encouraged graduates to join. however, the working atmosphere deteriorated as time went by: ‘i was attracted to this organisation because they offer very good benefits at the entry point. however, my supervisor is very cruel and we have a bad relationship; yet he expects me to perform well at work.’ (female, non-managerial, 2) ‘i joined the organisation because it is comparatively one of the best-paying employers at entry-level. however, i was frustrated to later discover that the organisation does not pay the senior executives well if you compare it with the private sector. i think it is because low-level employees have strong labour unions that lobby for better conditions for them but senior managers negotiate their conditions on an individual basis, which gives them poor bargaining power.’ (male, senior manager, 8) ‘when i was a junior employee, things were a lot better but as i rose on the organisational ladder of promotion, things became worse. i am not as happy as i was when i was a non-managerial employee. this organisation does not give us a platform to negotiate our benefits as a team. if you try to be too vocal about it, the politicians will accuse you of being greedy over public funds.’ (male, senior manager, 10) the employees interviewed were happy with the employee-attraction policies but expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of good retention policies. some non-managerial employees indicated that they needed to leave the organisation to escape from their supervisors, whilst senior managers felt that their expertise was not adequately recognised as they were treated like junior employees. the senior managers passed on their frustration to junior employees by ill-treating them, resulting in acrimonious industrial relations. frustrated employees would end up leaving the organisation, resulting in a loss of talent and institutional memory that in turn affected employee performance. reward inconsistencies certain employees expressed satisfaction with their rewards. however, some felt that the industrial relations between non-managerial employees and their managers were not healthy: ‘i am so happy with my salary and benefits. however, our managers are the spoilers. they overload us with work and frustrate us because they feel that we are unfairly rewarded … our unions represent us well so we have greater bargaining power, hence our benefits are very good … senior managers negotiate their benefits as individuals so their bargaining power is weak.’ (female, non-managerial, 1) ‘we are under pressure from the policymakers and citizens to ensure that we perform and if you are poorly rated, you get a low-performance bonus and you risk losing your job, so we have no option but to push our juniors to work.’ (male, senior manager, 9) ‘the junior employees in this organisation are very lazy because their remuneration is not performance-based. their salaries are paid on the grading structure without any recognition of their contribution. there is no motivation for any employee to perform beyond what they are paid for and the desire to be innovative is very low. however, for us, our remuneration is based on performance, so we have to ensure that these people work; otherwise, if you leave them, their performance will reflect badly on me.’ (male, senior manager, 6) ‘there is no motivation to work because there is no difference in rewards between top performers and poor performers. we are all paid similar rewards as long as we are in the same grade. i think this kind of approach stifles organisational innovation as employees always work enough to avoid retribution, even if you excel nobody recognises your effort. i work as a trench digger and during my first days, i used to dig longer lengths than everyone but i later realised that i am suffering for nothing because i am not rewarded for working hard.’ (female, non-managerial, 1) some non-managerial employees were happy with the transactional rewards but dissatisfied with the poor relationships they had with their superiors. the rewards for non-managerial employees did not recognise employee creativity and value addition which meant that innovation was neither being promoted nor committed. however, senior managers’ performance was reviewed regularly and linked to their pay. the dichotomy in the rewards systems applied to non-managerial and managerial staff contributed to tense interpersonal relationships. performance appraisal deficiencies some managerial employees complained that the expectations from stakeholders and the community at large regarding their performance were too high and that their work-related targets were unrealistic: ‘the expectations from our stakeholders are just too high and some targets that they set for us are not achievable because we do not have the necessary resources and we also need time to develop our capabilities to match other developed nations. unfortunately, our masters are not patient; they expect us to perform miracles and change things immediately.’ (male, senior manager, 8) ‘the performance measurement system is very weak because supervisors wait until the financial period is about to end, then they give you ratings with no clear basis … it looks like those who are friends and relatives of supervisors get better ratings because there is no objectivity.’ (female, non-managerial, 7). ‘there are so many errors made in completing the balanced scorecard forms, most supervisors are not competent enough to use the tool. as a result, employee performance is not evaluated objectively. this results in many of them criticising the system. in some cases, we have recorded some complaints on disputes emanating from appraisal interviews. this has caused industrial disharmony in the workplace.’ (male, senior manager, 6) the performance expectations of senior managers are in some cases too high, which frustrates them. moreover, the failure to link rewards to performance demotivates employees who see that ratings are frequently awarded arbitrarily. supervisors’ competence levels in using the performance tool are weak, which negatively affects employee performance. training and development inadequacies all participants concurred that the organisation was failing to introduce appropriate training and development initiatives: ‘the training budget is always low and some of our managers perceive investment in training as a waste of resources. they prefer channelling resources towards activities that have a direct impact on organisational performance, such as the purchase of services delivery equipment … i think it is because the impact of poor training is not immediately felt in the organisation … the organisation does not prioritise training; as a result, employees are not eager to learn new things because the training policy does not promote learning.’ (male, non-managerial, 5) ‘i do not know how to use computers in my trade as a civil engineer … i think if the organisation can promote the use of computers, i will be able to perform my duties with improved efficiency.’ (male, senior manager, 9) ‘as a young and recent graduate, i think the organisation is lacking not utilising technology as it has the potential to transform municipal work from paper-based to chip, which improves efficiency and enhances the impetus for knowledge creation and sharing amongst colleagues.’ (female, non-managerial, 3) ‘some of the training programmes offered have lost relevance, we now require training and development that is biased towards digitalisation of our operations … further, the organisation is no longer conducting effective training needs analysis; this is why they continue to waste money on courses that have lost steam… employees are not incentivised to share knowledge. as a result, some experienced employees go away with their knowledge when they leave the organisation and this affects the level of employee competencies within the organisation.’ (male, managerial, 4) the training budget was low because the training was viewed as a cost and not an investment. some employees expressed concern that training programmes were not in line with current organisational needs. in particular, there was a need to prioritise the training of employees in digital technologies to promote knowledge sharing, productivity and innovation. effects of poor human resource management on municipal employee performance the findings on the effects of poor hrm on municipal employee performance were revealed under the theme, ‘resultant employee behaviour’ with supporting codes (or elements), as shown (figure 3). figure 3: resultant employee behaviour theme and supporting codes or elements. high turnover the turnover of employees across the organisation was high, although participants’ reasons for this varied, depending on their position in the organisation. the high turnover creates skills and knowledge gaps that negatively affect employee performance: ‘i am currently job hunting because my relationship with my supervisor is so bad … i should go to a new place where i can breathe fresh air.’ (male, non-managerial, 4) ‘the organisation does not seem to care about our welfare because we are forced to come to work without sufficient protective clothing, which exposes us to contract deadly diseases such as coronavirus and this affects my morale to work.’ (female, non-managerial, 1) ‘i am job hunting because the organisation does not sufficiently recognise my knowledge and skill… i do not care even if they lose institutional memory because their reward structure does not recognise my superior knowledge … in this organisation, we are treated the same as low-level employees because managers have weak bargaining power.’ (female, senior manager, 7) the turnover of knowledge workers was high because of generally poor working conditions. this high turnover rate also negatively affected the morale of those who remained at the organisation and hurt employee performance overall. poor commitment participants revealed that they lacked commitment and only reported for duty to avoid losing their jobs: ‘i do not care even when the clients complain against our organisation because this organisation does not care for me … yes, take bribes to survive. at the same time, i fear dismissal so i do not do it openly.’ (male, non-managerial employee, 5) ‘if a client offers me part-time work during my off days i can take it on condition that my supervisors do not know because if they know they will take disciplinary action against me. so i always keep the work tools at my house in case i find a client who requires my services as a plumber. i find more satisfaction in doing my thing than working for this organisation … because i am not happy.’ (female, non-managerial, 2) employees’ level of commitment towards the organisation was low. employees were even prepared to moonlight or steal from the organisation. their presence at work was because of fear of dismissal and not a commitment to carry out their duties. poor learning culture there was a poor learning culture at the organisation because the latter did not provide an environment that encouraged employees to learn: ‘the organisation hardly sends employees for training to enhance skills … in these hard times, it is difficult to commit part of my income to go to school when i have children whose fees i should pay… so i end up not learning.’ (female, non-managerial, 1) ‘performance reviews are conducted but the performance development plans are never implemented, so we continue to have similar performance deficiencies every year.’ (female, non-managerial, 2) the learning culture was poor and employees were not keen to learn because the environment was not a supportive one. as a result, skill deficiencies were perpetuated and employee performance did not improve. discussion the main findings from the study were generally concerning. firstly, the organisation attracted the right skills at the outset but then failed to retain them. secondly, the employees were dissatisfied with the rewards they received. thirdly, the performance appraisal system did not act as an incentive for good performance. finally, the employee training and development system did not support or add value to the organisational goals. taken together, the under-emphasis of soft hrm at the jhb municipality negatively impacts their talent management capability. talent attraction and retention can be explained by push and pull factors (bazana & reddy, 2021). push factors compel existing employees to consider leaving their place of employment because their commitment wanes (els et al., 2021), whilst pull factors attract potential employees to an organisation (hooi & zahari, 2020). the study confirmed that the organisation offered attractive extrinsic rewards and acquired strong talent. the hard approach to hrm was critical for ensuring a good fit between the required competencies and the person specifications. the soft approach to hrm complemented the hard approach by creating an environment that attracted high-calibre employees (potgieter & mokomane, 2020). human resource management interventions should therefore be bundled to appeal to different types of candidates with varying inclinations and drivers (rioux, bernthal, & wellins, 2006). regarding the first research question, although the municipality was able to attract the right talent, a key weakness was its inability to retain the employees in question. this is consistent with reported challenges in hrm in the public sector context, especially the limited power enjoyed by public sector managers (blom et al., 2020). the findings provided evidence that the organisation did not recognise top performers, rewards were not performance-related, training programmes were not responsive to organisational needs and the industrial relations atmosphere between some employees and their supervisors was acrimonious. when employees’ expectations were not met, they became frustrated and their commitment towards the organisation declined (nanjundeswaraswamy et al., 2019). the study also revealed that some frustrated employees were engaging in unethical practices such as moonlighting and accepting bribes. if hrm is not in good shape, employees become detached from the organisational value system (marshall & stephenson, 2020). employee performance can, however, be enhanced through the development of strong employee value propositions. employees should be motivated to work and training programmes should address prevailing performance deficiencies in the workplace (sharma & taneja, 2018). in line with the view of klinck and swanepoel (2019) and munzhedzi (2017) regarding inadequate training in the workplace, the study revealed that some of the training programmes conducted were no longer relevant as they were not tied to specific training needs. human resource management in the organisation should be more proactive and include the development of interventions in collaboration with other departments, such as internal marketing, to boost employee commitment (yu, yen, barnes, & huang, 2019). regarding the second research question, the study found that poor hrm practices resulted in high employee turnover, reduced commitment and weak learning culture (klinck & swanepoel, 2019). the high employee turnover caused a loss of institutional memory, which resulted in an inevitable erosion of human-centred competitive advantage (els et al., 2021). marshall and stephenson (2020) found that high turnover creates a sense of insecurity within employees, which negatively affects performance. this was borne out in some of the interviews. the study revealed that most employees felt insecure, their level of commitment had dropped and hence their work was of poor quality. there is a direct correlation between employee morale and commitment (klinck & swanepoel, 2019; paltu & brouwers, 2020). when employees are not committed, unethical behaviours start manifesting in the organisation (gopinath, 2020). commitment is not forced; it is a natural feeling that develops when employees have a sense of belonging (metin & asli, 2018). salah (2016) insisted that relational rewards are more effective than transactional rewards in fostering commitment. training and development help to build an organisation’s capacity to meet the demands of the ever-changing business environment (munzhedzi, 2017; sharma & taneja, 2018). furthermore, they widen the organisation’s skills repertoire and stimulate innovation (garg & dhar, 2017). however, employee skills development should be aligned with organisational goals and address contemporary challenges (nxumalo, goudge, gilson, & eyles, 2018). this study revealed that the organisation was conducting outdated training programmes and there was limited use of technology because of insufficient skills. as a result, there was limited capacity for innovation. in the literature, talent management is often viewed generically, inclusive of all management levels. consequently, studies on talent management focus on symptoms such as poor commitment and high turnover (makapela & mtshelwane, 2021). this aggregation of talent management contributes little to our understanding of hrm in municipalities. the findings from this study deviate from prior studies by suggesting that talent managment should be distinguished by level of seniority, such that entry-level jobs and senior-level jobs are attractive for different reasons in the municipality in question. the comparatively good conditions at lower levels are attributed to the role of collective bargaining structures, which is consistent with the literature elsewhere in the world (beszter, ackers, & hislop, 2015). therefore, it can be concluded that talent attraction at lower levels of the municipality is driven by the hard features of collective bargaining. the findings, in turn, indicate that top-team talent management in a municipal context is a higher-order causal mechanism. a view often expressed in the literature is that, given that senior administrative positions in south africa are tied to political appointments (ndevu, 2019), the decoupling of such appointments from the political leadership of the day would be an important first step towards creating a safe space for talent. however, this is not sufficient to ensure that suitable talent is attracted and sustained in municipal contexts. the findings make a contribution by establishing a sufficiency condition, positing that investment in soft hrm alongside hard hrm, is even more crucial amongst top management teams. investing in soft hrm amongst top managment is required to compensate for the hard and conflict-based municipal context, which is characterised by politicisation and collective bargaining. therefore, the two-fold contribution underscores the nuanced character of hrm in the public sector (blom et al., 2020; knies et al., 2015). practical implications the organisation should emphasise soft hrm mechanisms aimed at addressing low management commitment and a poor learning culture – both factors being further exacerbated by managers relying on poor hr practices. to this end, the organisation’s managers should explore various employee-retention strategies for top performers and create an environment that stimulates employee innovation. the skills and capacity of top performers should be developed in line with identified training needs, not an outdated training calendar (sharma & taneja, 2018). the failure to provide relevant training weakens an employee’s capacity to perform and tackle contemporary challenges in the workplace. garg and dhar (2017) argued that training improves innovation by sharpening employee skills and stimulating the desire to learn new things. the reward strategy, in turn, should motivate employees to work beyond their pay cheque (salah, 2016). the study showed that employees were reluctant to be innovative because they were poorly rewarded. as human needs are insatiable, the organisation should recast the hr value proposition in line with changing employee needs (nxumalo et al., 2018). furthermore, human goals are moving targets so an employer needs to meet employee expectations if it is to withstand competition for talent (rioux et al., 2006). human resource management is constantly evolving and should be continuously reviewed throughout an employee’s life cycle to avoid losing that talent too early and wasting resources (potgieter & mokomane, 2020). managers should focus on fostering employee commitment instead of enforcing compliance (metin & asli, 2018). committed employees are better performers. herzberg (1968) argued that employees who have intrinsic motivation perform their duties well. in contrast, employees who simply work to comply with the law are poor performers. this view is in line with this study’s finding that employee performance was poor because most of the participants were frustrated. managers should develop a performance appraisal system that recognises employees’ contribution to organisational goals (sattigeri, 2016). this is because goal ambiguity is the enemy of effective performance in public sector performance management (blom et al., 2020). this study revealed that some knowledge workers were not performing as expected because the reward management criteria did not recognise their expertise. other employees were not motivated to improve their performance in support of their good salary because they viewed this as the employer’s obligation in terms of the employment contract. rather, additional, merit-based incentives would have inspired them to put in more effort because this would have been a gesture of goodwill from the employer. in sum, and generalising our findings to a limited extent (payne & williams, 2005), our contribution is that hrm effectiveness in municipal contexts may be enhanced by focussing on soft hrm alongside hard hrm through investment in senior management, either through recruitment or development, or both. limitations and recommendations the study used purposive sampling, which targeted individuals who were thought to be more knowledgeable than others. consequently, the population was not fairly represented. it is recommended that future studies consider a sampling method that is more representative of the greater population. the number of interviewed participants were small, so the findings were restricted to this study. future studies could consider a methodology that captures the views of a larger sample to facilitate generalisation. in addition, there was a direct engagement between the interviewed participants, which increased the risk of researcher bias. to minimise researcher bias, it is recommended that future studies use anonymous questionnaires. conclusion employee performance is not automatic; it is largely guided by the principles underpinning the hard approach to hrm. however, people are not machines; they are motivated to perform when the soft approach to hrm is applied. employee performance, therefore, is the result of the combined contribution of the hard and soft approaches to hrm. the municipal context is different from the private sector context, which has informed much of the hrm practice literature to date. however, in terms of the hard and soft hrm approaches, the differences between the municipal and private sector contexts are insignificant. enhancing employee performance in municipalities is a critical priority in south africa and deserves more in-depth research and strategic analysis. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained from the university of johannesburg (ethical clearance code: ippm-2018-169[d]). funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references adler, s., campion, m., colquitt, a., grubb, a., murphy, k., ollander-krane, r., & pulakos, e.d. (2016). getting rid of performance ratings: genius or folly? a debate. industrial and organizational psychology, 9(2), 219–252. https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2015.106 aguinis, h., & kraiger, k. (2009). benefits of training and development for individuals and teams, organizations, and society. annual review of psychology, 60, 451–474. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163505 ajmal, a., bashir, m., abrar, m., mahroof khan, m., & saqib, s. (2015). the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards on employee attitudes; mediating role of perceived organizational support. journal of service science and management, 8, 461–470. https://doi.org/10.4236/jssm.2015.84047 al barwani, f. (2019). integrated talent management. society of petroleum engineers – abu dhabi international petroleum exhibition and conference 2019, adip 2019. 11–14 november 2019. abu dhabi: society of petroleum engineers. antwi, s.k., & hamza, k. (2015). qualitative and quantitative research paradigms in business research: a philosophical reflection. european journal of business and management, 7(3), 217–224. armstrong, m. (2014). handbook of human resource management in government. philadelphia, pa: kogan page ltd. armstrong, m.b., & landers, r.n. (2018). gamification of employee training and development. international journal of training and development, 22(2), 162–169. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijtd.12124 aspers, p., & corte, u. (2019). what is qualitative in qualitative research? qualitative sociology, 42, 139–160. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-019-9413-7 bazana, s., & reddy, t. (2021). a critical appraisal of the recruitment and selection process of the public protector in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1207. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1207 beer, m., spector, b., lawrence, p.r., & mills, d.q. (1984). managing human assets: the groundbreaking harvard business school program. new york, ny: free press. begbie, c., bussin, m., & schurink, w. (2011). a foodmanufacturing manager’s experiences and perceptions of the implementation of an incentive scheme. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #323, 13 pages. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.323 beszter, p., ackers, p., & hislop, d. (2015). understanding continuity in public sector hrm through neo-institutional theory: why national collective bargaining has survived in english local government. human resource management journal, 25(3), 364–381. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12051 blom, r., kruyen, p.m., van der heijden, b.i., & van thiel, s. (2020). one hrm fits all? a meta-analysis of the effects of hrm practices in the public, semipublic, and private sector. review of public personnel administration, 40(1), 3–35. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x18773492 boxall, p., guthrie, j., & paauwe, j. (2016). editorial introduction: progressing our understanding of the mediating variable linking hrm, well-being and organisational performance. human resource management journal, 26(2), 103–111. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12104 cafferkey, k., heffernan, m., harney, b., dundon, t., & townsend, k. (2019). perceptions of hrm system strength and affective commitment: the role of human relations and internal process climate. international journal of human resource management, 30(21), 1–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2018.1448295 collins, c.j. (2020). expanding the resource based view model of strategic human resource management. the international journal of human resource management, 32(21), 331–358. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2019.1711442 cregan, c., kulik, c.t., johnston, s., & bartram, t. (2021). the influence of calculative (‘hard’) and collaborative (‘soft’) hrm on the layoff-performance relationship in high performance workplaces. human resource management journal, 31(1), 202–224. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12291 crozier, g., denzin, n., & lincoln, y. (1994). handbook of qualitative research. british journal of educational studies, 42(4), 409. https://doi.org/10.2307/3121684 els, v., brouwers, m., & lodewyk, r.b. (2021). quality of work life: effects on turnover intention and organisational commitment amongst selected south african manufacturing organisations. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1407. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1407 fombrun, c.j., tichy, m.n., & devanna, m.a. (1984). strategic human resource management. new york, ny: john wiley & sons. garg, s., & dhar, r. (2017). employee service innovative behaviour: the roles of leader-member exchange (lmx), work engagement, and job autonomy. international journal of manpower, 38(2), 242–258. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijm-04-2015-0060 gopinath, r. (2020). role of employees’ attitude in the workplace. gedrag & organisatie review, 33(2), 1461–1475. https://doi.org/10.37896/gor33.02/156 govender, k. (2017). empowering leadership and municipal service delivery: a case study of a metropolitan municipality in south africa. international journal of public administration, 40(5), 427–433. https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2015.1127964 guba, e.g., & lincoln, y.s. (1994). competing paradigms in qualitative research. in n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds.), handbook of qualitative research (pp. 105–117). washington dc: sage. guest, d.e. (2017). human resource management and employee well-being: towards a new analytic framework. human resource management journal, 27(1), 22–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12139 herzberg, f. (1968). one more time: how do you motivate employees? (pp. 109–120). boston, ma: harvard business review. hooi, y.p., & zahari, i. (2020). turnover intention in manufacturing industry: sem-pl analysis. journal of global business and social entrepreneurship, 6(18), 27–40. howard, j., gagné, m., morin, a.j.s., & van den broeck, a. (2016). motivation profiles at work: a self-determination theory approach. journal of vocational behavior, 95–96, 74–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2016.07.004 jacobson, w.s., & sowa, j.e. (2016). municipal human resource management: challenges and innovative practices in turbulent times. state and local government review, 48(2), 121–131. https://doi.org/10.1177/0160323x16658696 jouda, a.a., ahmad, u.n.u, & dahleez, k.a. (2016). the impact of human resource management practices on employees performance: the case of islamic university of gaza. international review of management and marketing, 6(4), 1084. katou, a.a. (2017). how does human resource management influence organisational performance? an integrative approach-based analysis. international journal of productivity and performance management, 66(6),797–821. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-01-2016-0004 klinck, k., & swanepoel, s. (2019). a performance management model addressing human factors in the north west provincial administration. sa journal of human resource management, 17, 17. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1021 knies, e., boselie, p., gould-williams, j., & vandenabeele, w. (2015). special issue of international journal of human resource management: strategic human resource management and public sector performance. international journal of human resource management, 26(3), 421–424. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2014.980127 kumari, n., & singh, d. (2018). impact of organizational culture on employee performance. indian journal of management, 11(6), 53–63. https://doi.org/10.17010/pijom/2018/v11i6/128442 makapela, l., & mtshelwane, n.d. (2021). exploring the use and influence of human resource policies within south african municipalities. sa journal of human resource management, 19, 14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1534 marshall, g.h., & stephenson, s.m. (2020). burnout and turnover intention among electronics manufacturing employees in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 46(0), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v46i0.1758 maslow, a. (1954). motivation and personality. new york, ny: harper & row. mauerhoefer, t., strese, s., & brettel, m. (2017). the impact of information technology on new product development performance. journal of product innovation management, 34(6), 719–738. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpim.12408 mcgregor, d. (1960). the human side of enterprise. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. metin, k., & asli, k. (2018). the relationship between organisational commitment and work performance: a case of industrial enterprises. journal of economic & social development, 5(1), 48–59. munzhedzi, p.h. (2017). a reflection on the relationship between performance management and training in the south african public service. sa journal of human resource management, 15, 7. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.864 nanjundeswaraswamy, t.s., swamy, d.r., & nagesh, p. (2019). leadership styles in mediating the relationship between quality of work–life and employee commitment. international journal of quality research, 14(2), 387–412. https://doi.org/10.24874/ijqr14.02-04 ndevu, z.j. (2019). trust and organisational performance: a grounded theory approach for a south african district municipality. sa journal of human resource management, 17(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1158 ndevu, z.j., & muller, k. (2018). operationalising performance management in local government: the use of the balanced scorecard. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a977. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.977 nxumalo, n., goudge, j., gilson, l., & eyles, j. (2018). performance management in times of change: experiences of implementing a performance assessment system in a district in south africa. international journal for equity in health, 17(141), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-018-0857-2 paltu, a., & brouwers, m. (2020). toxic leadership: effects on job satisfaction, commitment, turnover intention and organisational culture within the south african manufacturing industry. south african journal of human resource management, 18(0), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1338 payne, g., & williams, m. (2005). generalization in qualitative research. sociology, 39(2), 295–314. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038505050540 potgieter, i.l., & mokomane, s.e. (2020). implementation of hrm functions in selected small manufacturing companies in ga-rankuwa industrial area, gauteng, south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 18, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1282 pregnolato, m., bussin, m.h.r., & schlechter, a.f. (2017). total rewards that retain: a study of demographic preferences. sa journal of human resource management, 15, a804. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.804 profile: city of jhb metro (2020). profile and analysis. retrieved from https://www.cogta.gov.za/ddm/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/take2_districtprofile_jhb1606-2-2.pdf rehman, a.a., & alharthi, k. (2016). an introduction to research paradigms in distance education. international journal of educational investigations, 3(8), 51–59. rezaei, m., zare, m., akbarzadeh, h., & zare, f. (2014). the effects of information technology (it) on employee productivity in shahr bank (case study of shiraz, iran). applied mathematics in engineering, management and technology (pp. 1208–1214). retrieved from www.amiemt-journal.com rioux, s.m., bernthal, p.r., & wellins, r.s. (2006), the globalization of human resource practices. retrieved from http://www.ddiworld.com/ddi/media/trend-research/theglobalizationofhrpractices_fullreport_ddi.pdf?ext=.pdf. ryazanova, o., mcnamara, p., & aguinis, h. (2017). research performance as a quality signal in international labour markets: visibility of business schools worldwide through a global research performance system. journal of world business, 52(6), 215–256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2017.09.003 salah, m. (2016). the influence of rewards on employees performance. british journal of economics, management & trade, 13(4), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.9734/bjemt/2016/25822 sanders, k., & yang, h. (2016). the hrm process approach: the influence of employees’ attribution to explain the hrm-performance relationship. human resource management, 55(2), 201–217. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21661 sattigeri, r.c. (2016). employee retention and commitment. international journal of engineering technology, management and applied sciences, 4(4), 77–81. senge, p.m. (2017). the leader’s new work: building learning organizations. in leadership perspectives (pp. 51–67). london: sage. sharma, s., & taneja, m. (2018). the effect of training on employee performance. international journal of recent technology and engineering, 2(2), 52–59. https://doi.org/10.31104/jsab.v2i2.49 stake, r.e. (2005). qualitative case studies. in n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds.), the sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd edn., pp. 443–466). london: sage. storey, j. (1989). from personnel management to human resource management. in j. storey (ed.), new perspectives on human resource management (p. 18). london: routledge. sussman, n., & dejong, s.m. (2018). ethical considerations for mental health clinicians working with adolescents in the digital age. current psychiatry reports, 20, 113. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-018-0974-z suzuki, k., & hur, h. (2020). bureaucratic structures and organizational commitment: findings from a comparative study of 20 european countries. public management review, 22(6), 877–907. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2019.1619813 yazan, b., & de vasconcelos, i.c.o. (2016). three approaches to case study methods in education: yin, merriam, and stake. meta: avaliacao, 20(2), 134–152. https://doi.org/10.22347/2175-2753v8i22.1038 yu, q., yen, d.a., barnes, b.r., & huang, y.a. (2019). enhancing firm performance through internal market orientation and employee organizational commitment. the international journal of human resource management, 30(6), 964–987. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1380059 abstract introduction theoretical overview research methodology sampling instruments data analysis results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) boris urban graduate school of business administration, faculty of commerce, law and management, university of the witwatersrand, johannesburg, south africa citation urban, b. (2019). entrepreneurial alertness and self-efficacy: a focus on social values and innovation performance. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1132. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1132 original research entrepreneurial alertness and self-efficacy: a focus on social values and innovation performance boris urban received: 17 oct. 2018; accepted: 05 july 2019; published: 29 oct. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: it is widely accepted that the entrepreneurial process has attitudinal and behavioural components, with recent studies indicating that social values (sv) interact with entrepreneurial beliefs and competencies to significantly influence the innovation performance (innp) of enterprises. research purpose: by relying on the prescripts of social cognitive theory (sct), this study empirically investigated to what extent sv moderate the relationship between entrepreneurial alertness (ea) and self-efficacy to influence higher levels of innp. motivation for the study: studies indicate there has been a marked decrease in entrepreneurs who believe they offer innovative products, which is of great concern given that the levels of innovation are important for african enterprises. research approach, design and method: this cross-sectional study was based on primary survey data (n = 175 enterprises). instruments were scrutinised for validity and reliability and hypotheses tested using regression analysis. main findings: results showed that ea and entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ese) explained a significant amount of variance in innp. in addition, sv positively moderated the relationship between these behavioural variables and innp. practical and managerial implications: it is important to have evidence-based policies that explain entrepreneurial behaviour and innp of enterprises in african countries eager to move up the value chain to the next phase of economic development. contribution or value-add: this article contributes to the understanding of how sv, in an under-researched emerging market context, interact with entrepreneurial behaviour regarding alertness and self-efficacy to increase the levels of innp. keywords: entrepreneurial alertness; entrepreneurial self-efficacy; social values; innovation; south africa. introduction researchers recognise that entrepreneurship and innovation are relevant not only for large organisations but also for enterprises under different stages of economic development and in varied cultural contexts (urban & wood, 2017). if managers devote considerable resources to the innovation process but are unable to turn them into marketable offerings, resources are wasted and organisational performance suffers. consequently, entrepreneurship and innovation are positively related to each other, often interacting to address market needs and helping an organisation to perform effectively (jarrar & smith, 2014; zoogah, peng, & woldu, 2015). the importance of the social context to entrepreneurship is evident when considering the rapidly increasing literature supporting the notion of an enabling environment, which includes social values (sv) that are conducive towards entrepreneurship (davidsson & wiklund, 1997; gem, 2017). social values play a vital role in determining whether or not individuals are behaving entrepreneurially (kwon & arenius, 2010), where researchers note that an individual’s decision does not depend on his or her preferences alone but is influenced by what others in society or community choose (bygrave & minniti, 2000). moreover, it is widely accepted that the entrepreneurial process has attitudinal and behavioural components, where recent studies confirm that sv together with entrepreneurial beliefs and competencies may significantly predict the innovation performance (innp) of enterprises (kanonuhwa, rungani, & chimucheka, 2018; urban &wood, 2017; welter & smallbone, 2011). notwithstanding the importance of sv to entrepreneurial activity, entrepreneurs often function in ambiguous and uncertain social contexts (peng, 2014), which may increase and constrain their innovativeness (de jager, muller, & roodt, 2013; smallbone & welter, 2006). in south africa, despite policymakers having targeted entrepreneurial activity as an important component of the country’s economic growth objectives, the total early-stage entrepreneurial activity (tea) rate remains among the lowest in the peer group of developing nations (herrington, kew, & mwanga, 2017). even more concerning is the fact that in the south african context, innovation levels for enterprises have been declining since 2015 – research indicates that there has been a marked decrease in entrepreneurs who believe they offer innovative products, which is of great concern given that business sophistication and levels of innovation are important factors for efficiency-driven countries eager to move up the value chain to the next phase of economic development (gem, 2017; herrington et al., 2017). furthermore, despite increasing work on entrepreneurship, theories of entrepreneurship that have focussed on one-sided determinism, where either environmental or personality variables have been employed to predict entrepreneurship, have failed to capture the complexity of human action that encompasses the interaction of environmental, cognitive and behavioural variables (bandura, 1986). acknowledging these theoretical and practical problems, this article builds on the theoretical foundations of social cognitive theory (sct) (bandura, 1986) that favours the concept of interaction, where behaviour, personal factors and environmental influences all operate interactively as determinants of one other (bandura, 1997, 2001). this article contributes to the management literature by extending current views on alertness and self-efficacy, as these behaviours are often context-specific, and one can expect patterns of these behaviours to vary depending on societal values (bellò, mattana, & loi, 2018). consequently, the research question of the article is ‘to what extent do social values moderate the relationship between entrepreneurial alertness and self-efficacy to influence higher levels of innovation performance?’ recent research findings emphasise that although the motivation is implied, or assumed in articles on entrepreneurship, it remains largely under-researched despite its critical importance in predicting and explaining entrepreneurial behaviours (carsrud & brännback, 2011; de noble, jung, & ehrlich, 1999; mcgee, peterson, mueller, & sequeira, 2009). an important motivational construct is self-efficacy (bandura, 1986, 1997, 2001), where entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ese) has been used to study entrepreneurial behaviour, referring to the ‘strengths of a person’s belief that he/she is capable of successfully performing the various roles and tasks of an entrepreneur’ (chen, greene, & crick, 1998, p. 296). research reports that alert individuals with high levels of ese possess complex and adaptive mental frameworks about change and their environment, assisting them to see situations from new perspectives (gaglio & katz, 2001; urban & wood, 2017). such alertness entails not only being sensitive to information or changes in the environment, but entrepreneurially alert individuals are also able to adjust their initial evaluations as a result of the social context (urban & gaffurini, 2017). it is anticipated that this article will deepen an understanding of how sv, in the south african market context, interact with entrepreneurial behaviour in terms of alertness and ese, to increase the overall levels of enterprise innp. focussing on theoretical and practical problems in africa is specifically important when considering that firms in developing countries ‘tend to be poorly managed’ (bruton, ahlstrom, & obloj 2008). researchers observe that despite its potential, entrepreneurial behaviour remains understudied in african countries (zoogah et al., 2015), often resulting in inappropriate policy actions and insufficient support (lundström & stevenson, 2005). the next section on ‘theoretical overview’ will review relevant theory and prior research on entrepreneurial alertness (ea) and self-efficacy as they relate to innovation, at which point hypotheses are formulated for statistical testing. the methodology section is discussed next, where issues of sampling and instrument design will be detailed. results follow, while the last section provides discussions and considers implications for theory and policy. theoretical overview entrepreneurial alertness although most individuals scan their environment, successful entrepreneurs may be better at discovering opportunities embedded in that environment (tang, kacmar, & busenitz, 2012). scholars have conceptualised alertness as an ‘attitude of receptiveness to available, but previously overlooked opportunities’ (kirzner, 1979, p. 14), as well as a ‘propensity to notice and be sensitive to information about objects, incidents, and patterns of behaviour in the environment’ (tang et al., 2012, p. 78). in addition, individuals are thought to identify and evaluate opportunities because they possess uniquely different forms of knowledge or human capital (ardichvili et al., 2003); the ability to assess opportunities is a cognitive task based on the knowledge structures that people use to make assessments, judgements or decisions (baron, 2004; baron & ensley, 2006; corbett, 2007). according to the sct, because explanations of behaviour, especially cognitive behaviour, are domain (context)-specific, one can expect patterns of entrepreneurial cognition and opportunity recognition to vary, depending on the person’s purpose (krueger, 2000). this line of research emphasises that the ability to assess opportunities is a cognitive task that is based on the knowledge structures and scripts that individuals use to make decisions (krueger, 2007). moreover, research findings suggest that the interplay between external (sv) and internal factors (alertness) determine as to why some people, and not others, exploit opportunities (baron & ensley, 2006; corbett, 2007; haynie, shepherd, mosakowski, & earley, 2010). studies report a positive relationship between the ea and various factors such as prior knowledge, information-processing skills, social networks, pattern recognition and entrepreneurial munificence (mccaffrey, 2014; tang et al., 2012; urban & wood, 2017). entrepreneurial alertness has also been approached from a process perspective (baron, 2006; gaglio & katz, 2001; tang et al., 2012), where an alertness process is initiated by scanning and searching, then moving onto association and connection in terms of gathering information of different qualities and using that knowledge to build new alternatives, finally ending with evaluation and judgement that involve individuals making assessments and judgements about change and innovation. recent research confirms the positive impact of ea on opportunity recognition and innovation where an entrepreneur’s prior knowledge acts as a guide and results in increased alertness to new opportunities in the environment (gaglio & katz, 2001). similarly, mccaffrey (2014) finds that ea is triggered by the existence of an incentive in which the entrepreneur can find entrepreneurial opportunities that should harness and translate into better innp. in the same vein, tang et al. (2012) reported that ea is linked to innovation, which suggests that ea is an antecedent of innovation. building on in this research direction for the first hypothesis, it is anticipated that: h1: there is a positive relationship between ea and innp. entrepreneurial self-efficacy self-efficacy is based on the principles of sct that favour the concept of interaction where ‘behaviour, personal factors and environmental influences all operate interactively as determinants of each other’ (bandura, 1986, p. 14). two decades of empirical research have generated a great number of studies that demonstrated the positive relationship between self-efficacy and different motivational and behavioural outcomes in clinical, educational and organisational settings (stajkovic & luthans, 1998; urban & wood, 2017). self-efficacy refers to individuals’ convictions about their abilities to perform at designated levels and is an important motivational construct that has been reported to influence individual choices, goals, emotional reactions, effort, coping and persistence (bandura, 1986, 1997, 2001; boyd & vozikis, 1994). the self-efficacy construct has been applied to entrepreneurship where research into the ese construct shows those with higher ese as perceiving their environment as more opportunistic, and they tend to believe in their ability to influence the achievement of goals (chen et al., 1998; de noble et al., 1999). entrepreneurial self-efficacy is relatively more general than task self-efficacy, where chen et al. (1998) noted that ese is ‘therefore stable yet not immutable, which allows entrepreneurs to modify and enhance their self-efficacy while interacting with their environment’ (p. 301). entrepreneurial self-efficacy has also been studied in terms of the entrepreneurial process or broad stages as entrepreneurial tasks within a venture creation model. these stages have been labelled as searching, planning, marshalling and implementing (mcgee et al., 2009). entrepreneurial self-efficacy is typically measured across varying entrepreneurial roles and tasks that include the dimensions of marketing, innovation, management, risk-taking and financial control (chen et al., 1998). the roles and tasks to which ese correspond extend beyond new-enterprise formation and as such are required of entrepreneurs well beyond the point of founding (de noble et al., 1999). research findings have been fairly consistent for ese in terms of its influence on a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation, where innovativeness plays a key role (urban & wood, 2017). not only does the literature suggest that higher levels of ese influence start-ups and innovations, but there have been calls for future research to apply ese effectively so as to understand causal directions (mcgee et al., 2009). following prior research in this regard, the second hypothesis predicts that: h2: there is a positive relationship between ese and innp. furthermore, by relying on the sct framework, a hypothesis is formulated where interactions between alertness and ese are anticipated. the rationale here is based on the work of kirzner (1985) who interpreted alertness as a motivational problem, where entrepreneurship is both alertness to new opportunities and the actions following the discovery of an opportunity (mcmullen & shepherd, 2006). kirzner (1979, 1985) maintains that although an individual cannot consciously trigger alertness, it will not be activated unless the individual is motivated (ese) to do so. accordingly, individuals with higher levels of ese are more likely to be alert to new opportunities, where such alert entrepreneurs are more likely to pursue patterns of opportunities repeatedly (baron, 2006), which, in turn, increases their levels of ese. consequently, it is predicted that: h3: there is a positive relationship between ese and ea. social values and behaviour in sct, social structural factors operate through psychological mechanisms of the self-system to produce behavioural effects. the self-system is not merely a conduit for social structure influences, but rather the self is socially constituted, where a human agent operates generatively and proactively, not just reactively to shape the character of his or her social systems (bandura, 1986, 1997). social values can be understood in different ways because cultures and societies are enormously heterogeneous (hofstede, 1980; venter & urban, 2015). within each culture, there are large variations in personality requiring that any description of culture or values should focus on the ‘prototypic individuals’ in that culture (hofstede, 1980). viewing entrepreneurship from a cultural perspective, research shows that local entrepreneurs are socialised in the ways of the indigenous populace and may thus display the broad-based cultural values of the society in which they live (steensma, marino, & weaver, 2000). the contemporary study of entrepreneurship and the importance of social embeddedness can be traced to the works of max weber and joseph schumpeter, who argued that the source of entrepreneurial behaviour lies in the social structure of societies and the value structures they produce (schumpeter, 1934; weber, 1948). from an entrepreneurial perspective, sv are often referred to as attitudes towards entrepreneurship, which include not only how society values entrepreneurship but also how media attention to entrepreneurship promotes the development of a national entrepreneurial culture (davidsson & wiklund, 1997; gem, 2017; venter & urban, 2015). moreover, the importance of how entrepreneurship can be stimulated by sv and norms (earley, 1994) is evident in terms of research findings, which show that successful high-performing entrepreneurial ventures ‘fit’ best with their environments (luthans, stajkovic, & ibrayeva, 2000). such findings reinforce the notion of embeddedness of entrepreneurship in social and structural relationships (bygrave & minniti, 2000). researchers found that a resident of a country with higher generalised trust and positive sv was more likely to perceive entrepreneurial opportunities than was a resident of a country with lesser generalised trust and sv (kwon & arenius, 2010). furthermore, scholars have applied the societal legitimisation perspective, which is based on the premise that prevailing values and beliefs among others may make a person more or less inclined towards entrepreneurship, to demonstrate the influence of sv on innp (davidsson & wiklund, 1997). recognising that sv play a key role in determining whether or not individuals behave entrepreneurially (kwon & arenius, 2010), it is argued that such behaviour may be better understood by relying on constructs with consistent and detailed specification, which are embedded in socio-psychology theories of behaviour (bandura, 1986). consequently, it is anticipated that: h4: favourable perceptions of sv will positively moderate the relationship between ea and ese so that innp will be higher. figure 1 presents the study model and shows the hypotheses with the predicted relationships between the constructs. the selection of variables is by no means exhaustive, where it is acknowledged that the actual process of how innp takes place in enterprises is far more complex and that no single factor can determine the outcome of this process. figure 1: study model. research methodology the study was an empirical analysis employing a cross-sectional design and was based on primary survey data. the focus of this article was on manufacturing enterprises in south africa. south africa has a well-developed manufacturing industry comparable to those of many developed countries, and in an emerging economy this sector is vital for economic prosperity and job creation (herrington et al., 2017). by focussing on a single industry sector, a greater homogeneity of context is achieved that addresses the concerns of broad applicability versus perfect suitability for narrower groups in terms of sampling (davidsson, 2004). moreover, innovation and competitiveness of a country are principally derived not from the entire economy but mainly from the specific status of a narrow group of industries (urban & wood, 2017). sampling the population study was based on sampling frames sourced from the south african national small business chamber (nsbc, 2016) and the department of trade and industry (dti, 2016). the study took place in the gauteng region in south africa that dominates the south african economy, adding 40.8% of the value in the manufacturing sector (statistics south africa [ssa], 2014). enterprises were selected by the common method of defining small and medium enterprises (smes) in south africa by the pre-determined set of thresholds that includes the number of employees, turnover and assets as per each sector or subsector (rsa, 2003). specifically, regarding the manufacturing sector, the total full-time equivalent (fte) of paid employees is classified as medium = 200 employees and small = 50 employees (rsa, 2003). based on the sample selection criteria, the sme sample parameters also served as control variables that included the size and the age of the enterprise. the age of the enterprise (years of operation since the enterprise was created) and the size of the enterprise were included as control variables to control for potential liabilities of newness, which might impact innp and the growth of enterprises (wiklund, patzelt, & shepherd, 2009). the unit of analysis was the owner–manager of the sme, as they typically engage in strategic decisions and monitor the performance of their enterprise (davidsson, 2004). after eliminating smes with incomplete firm information, a final database of 1300 sme owner–managers were contacted who met all the selection criteria. these smes were requested to complete the online survey. ethical considerations were controlled by ensuring that the survey presented no risk to the respondents, specifically insofar as full and open information (informed consent) was communicated to the respondents. to ensure that no form of deception or misrepresentation took place in terms of extracting information from the respondents, their privacy and confidentiality was respected throughout the data collection process. in particular, the purpose and potential benefits of the survey were explained in the opening statement of the instrument. in addition, the participant’s rights and protections were made explicit and explained before the data collection process commenced. after several requests and reminders, after 2 weeks, a total of 175 respondents served as the final sample (13.5% response rate). this response rate was considered acceptable for online e-mail-solicited surveys of this nature (sheehan & mcmillan, 1999). the characteristics of the sample revealed that most of the respondents were aged between 35 and 44 years (67%), equally spread between male (52%) and female (47%) participants. most of the enterprises were less than 15 years old (77%), and relatively evenly distributed regarding small(51%) and medium-sized enterprises (48%). t-tests found no significant differences (p > 0.10) between early and late respondents regarding age, gender, or the age or size class of enterprise. instruments the survey instrument was developed from past theory and empirical findings, which coincide with the main constructs under investigation. perceptual measures were selected, as they are widely used in research assessing entrepreneurial behaviours (krueger, 2007). independent variables (ivs): ea was operationalised on the basis of the three conceptual domains as conceived by tang et al. (2012). these domains are, in turn, reflective constructs based on the respondent perceptions of opportunities regarding (1) scanning and search (four items), (2) association and connection (five items) and (3) evaluation and judgement (five items). sample items included ‘i have frequent interactions with others to acquire new information’; ‘i see links between seemingly unrelated pieces of information’ and ‘i can distinguish between profitable opportunities and not-so-profitable opportunities’. all items were measured with five-point likert scales ranging from strongly agree (5) to strongly disagree (1). entrepreneurial self-efficacy was operationalised in terms of entrepreneurial roles and tasks that include the dimensions of marketing, innovation, management, risk-taking and financial control. the items for the self-efficacy assessment are adopted from chen et al.’s (1998) ese sub-scales (slightly modified) and comprise roles or tasks with respondents indicating the degree of certainty (high = 5, low = 1) in performing these roles or tasks on a five-point likert-type scale. moderating variable (mv): social values were based on the theory of cultural values, where cultural values affect the perception of an individual through cognitive schema, interpretation and sense-making (davidsson & wiklund, 1997; hofstede, 1980). social values were operationalised (four items) as social attitudes towards entrepreneurship, including how society values entrepreneurship as a good career choice; if entrepreneurs have a high social status; and how media attention to entrepreneurship is contributing (or not) to the development of a national entrepreneurial culture (gem, 2017). questions such as ‘those successful at starting a business have a high level of status and respect’ and ‘you will often see stories in the public media about successful new businesses’ constituted this measure. these items were measured with a five-point likert scale ranging from strongly agree (5) to strongly disagree (1). dependent variable (dv): innp was operationalised in terms of the extent to which entrepreneurs are introducing products that are new to some or all customers, and that are offered by no or few competitors (gem, 2017). subsequently, innp indicators comprised three items, where respondents were asked to consider their venture performance in relation to customers and competitors on a five-point likert scale in terms of (1) new products and services introduced in the past 3 years, (2) new processes introduced in the past 3 years and (3) proportion of sales from new products and services accrued in the past 3 years. all items were measured with five-point likert scales ranging from strongly agree (5) to strongly disagree (1). data analysis considering the nature of the data collected – all from the same source – the study was susceptible to common-method bias (podsakoff, mackenzie, & podsakoff, 2012). initially, procedural steps were taken to counteract these risks where questions were required to be answered anonymously, and the questionnaires were returned directly to the researcher, thereby reducing any possibility of social desirability bias on the part of the respondents (crowne & marlowe, 1960). furthermore, the instrument scales were adapted from prior studies and piloted (n = 20) to ensure that the scale items were clear and unambiguous to respondents. statistically, to minimise common-method bias, all items relating to the constructs were explored in a single principal component analysis (pca), using harman’s one-factor test (podsakoff et al., 2012). results from the pca revealed that four components, with eigenvalues greater than 1.0, accounted for 67% of the variance and the largest component accounted for only 14% of the variance. consequently, no evidence of common method bias was identified in terms of the instruments used. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. results reliability and validity tests firstly, the kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) measure was used to verify the sampling adequacy for factor analysis. results across the constructs provided kmo values between 0.74 and 0.85, and significant bartlett’s test of sphericity values (p < 0.001), which proved that correlations between items were sufficiently large for factor analysis. exploratory factor analysis (efa) was then used where factors with eigenvalues > 1 were retained, and factor loadings ranged between 0.65 and 0.90. based on the scree plot and proportions of variation explained, a four-factor model was obtained from the efa results regarding the ea, ese, sv and innp factors, respectively. exploratory factor analysis was followed by confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) with the objective of eliminating items that did not meet pre-defined cut-off criteria (indicator loadings ≥ 0.4; factor reliability [fr] ≥ 0.6; and average variance extracted [ave] ≥ 0.5) (cooper & schindler, 2011). initially, the fit of each factor (subscale) and its observed items were assessed individually to determine whether there were any weak items with squared factor loadings below 0.20. for the ea construct, three sub-factors emerged as hypothesised, while for ese only three sub-factors were retained, as the fourth-dimension items (financial control) were scattered and loadings were low with no clear factor discernible. for sv, one clear factor emerged. similarly, for innp, one clear factor emerged, representing items related to introducing products that are new to some or all customers and that are offered by no or few competitors. secondly, each factor or subscale was modelled together with other factors measuring the same theoretical construct to determine if convergent validity has been achieved (first-order cfa model). results showed model fit estimates for each factor as a good model fit, with ave ≥0.5, indicating convergent validity among the dimensions. thirdly, a second-order cfa model was tested in which the first-order factors became the indicators, and finally, cfa was run for the hypothesised model combining all theoretical constructs and their indicators to determine whether discriminant validity had been achieved. the model estimates are presented in table 1, which shows a chi-square value of 274.74 (p = 0.000) and model fit indices such as the normed χ2 (χ2/df = 2.13), gfi = 0.92, agfi = 0.89, tli= 0.90 and rmsea = 0. 06, all indicating an acceptable model fit. where necessary, improvements in the measurement model were made, based on modification indices that indicated changes and standardised residual values. table 1: statistics for the hypothesised measurement model (confirmatory factor analysis results). scale reliabilities were tested by calculating cronbach’s alpha and item-to-total correlations, with satisfactory results obtained (nunnally, 1978). the summary statistics for each factor regarding the eigenvalue, percentage total variance explained and cronbach’s alpha is shown in table 2. following satisfactory validity and reliability results, the measurement items for each construct as per the hypotheses were pooled to form composite measures and were treated as higher-order constructs going forward. table 2: descriptive and correlation matrix. descriptive and correlations table 2 shows means, standard deviations and inter-correlations of the study variables. on the varying scale ranges, the results indicate that ese, ea and sv are all above mid-point average, while the mean scores for innp show lower mid-point averages. pearson correlation coefficients indicate that several constructs are significantly correlated, but not greater than 0.7, an observation which is relevant in that it highlights that they are not too strongly correlated to cause multicollinearity (cooper & schindler, 2011). both the variance inflation scores (vif) and the condition indices (ci) were analysed, which confirmed the absence of multicollinearity, where the highest vif was 2.50 and the highest ci was 10.30. moreover, a durban watson statistic of 2.42 and accompanying p-values of 0.68 and 0.33 indicate low to zero autocorrelation (cooper & schindler, 2011). hypotheses testing hypotheses were tested with hierarchical regression analyses. results are displayed in table 3. model 1 included only the control variable (enterprise size and age), where an insignificant (p ≥ 0.05) f-value of 3.285(0.082) was obtained. in model 2, both the control variables and the ivs were included. here, a significant f-value of 2.865(0.019) indicates that the overall model is useful in determining the impact of the ivs on the dv. the analysis determined that ea was positively associated with innp (b = 0.381, t =2.107, p < 0.05), as was ese (b = 0.297, t =2.896, p < 0.05). the main effects are all statistically significant and together explain 6.5% of the variance concerning the dv. hence, h1, h2 and h3 are supported regarding a positive relationship between ea, ese and innp. table 3: results of hierarchical regression as moderated by social values. regarding model 3, sv, as the moderating factor, was included and the results show a significant f-value of 2.688(0.014). this result provides support for h4 where the relationship between ea, ese and innp was predicted to be moderated by sv so that the association is positive. it must be noted that by way of inclusion, sv showed only a modest overall model improvement with a non-significant change in f-value of 1.889 (0.103). in addition, interaction terms were included as per model 4, to determine if possible interactions between ea and ese would improve the overall model robustness. here a significant f-value of 27.087 (0.001) shows that the overall model is improved with a corresponding significant change in f-value of 3.061(0.005). the results for model 4 have revealed that ea together with sv (β = 0.557; t = 2.869; p < 0.05) plays a stronger role in innp than does ese (β = 0.455; t = 1.981; p < 0.05). the interaction effects explain 10.9% of the variance with respect to the dv. discussion the findings of this study successfully demonstrate the usefulness of employing sv as a construct to determine the interactions between entrepreneurial behaviour, in terms of alertness and ese, to increase the overall levels of enterprise innp. statistical analyses reveal the relative contributions of each of the predictor variables as well as the moderator variable in explaining higher levels of innp at enterprises in south africa. intergrating the study findings with prior theory and research shows that the results obtained add to the growing collection of findings on the role of alertness and ese as it relates to innp. for instance, studies show how ese is influenced by the way in which entrepreneurs make strategic decisions (baron, 2006), and that the success of any enterprise is more probable when an individual has higher levels of ese required to structure, bundle and leverage its resources (mcgee et al., 2009). furthermore, by operationalising ese in terms of entrepreneurial roles and tasks that include the dimensions of marketing, innovation, management and risk-taking, the study findings are aligned with prior studies that show that entrepreneurs need to continuously improve multiple sub-skills to manage the ever-changing circumstances, as typified in entrepreneurial environments (welter & smallbone, 2011). when compared to prior studies, the significant findings on the relationship between ea and ese and innp resonate with similar studies of this nature, which show that highly alert entrepreneurs are better at discovering opportunities embedded in their social context, as their alertness allows them to spot high-potential opportunities that lead to innovations (tang et al., 2012). these positive findings add to the growing body of literature where researchers such as gaglio and katz (2001) report that alert individuals possess complex and adaptive mental frameworks about change and interpret cues from sv in their environment, allowing them to perceive situations from new perspectives or in innovative ways. an interesting finding was the positive interaction between alertness and ese where prior research notes that an important set of entrepreneurial capabilities is the higher levels of ese, which enable individuals to recognise new business opportunities (drnovšek, wincent, & cardon, 2010). indeed, as a cognitive characteristic, alertness allows the individual to acquire more information related to his or her prior knowledge and utilise, organise, process and interpret it more efficiently than others to discover more opportunities (gaglio & katz, 2001; mcgee et al., 2009). therefore, these positive findings extend the current theory because it has now been demonstrated that higher levels of innp involve a dynamic interplay between alertness and ese. such reciprocity between sv, alertness, ese and innovation highlights the usefulness of employing sct in terms of explaining the interaction between behaviour, personal factors and environmental influences (bandura, 1997). a unique contribution of this article is the focus on the moderating effects of sv on the relationship between alertness and ese and higher innp. these results suggest that entrepreneurship may be a self-reinforcing process where the degree of entrepreneurial activities is an outcome of a dynamic process in which sv are as important as legal and economic factors in determining levels of entrepreneurial activity (bygrave & minniti, 2000). from this perspective, the importance of recognising the influence of prevailing sv as embedded in regional and local communities is vital for understanding innovation in the african context (pietersen, 2018). if entrepreneurship is not valued in terms of the sv of a particular country, then not only will it be associated with criminality and corruption, but other forms of economic pursuits will also prove unproductive and ineffective (venter & urban, 2015). the findings also hold implications for practitioners, researchers and policymakers. because policy is often formulated to act as an enabler for enterprise start-ups, there is a need for a strong body of evidence that demonstrates the effectiveness of policy in supporting sme innovation growth (wright, roper, hart, & carter, 2015). evidence-based policies that are fit for purpose is important given the scarce resources of many smes in emerging economies, such as south africa. consequently, the study results may be very valuable for policy work in evidence-based interventions that are required to improve and enhance entrepreneurial behaviours as they relate to innp. in addition, such evidence-based policy may also assist educational institutions to design and offer research-based educational programmes to foster and develop ea and ese to improve innp. there is an opportunity for human resource practitioners and curriculum designers to develop skill-building exercises and activities that target ea and ese, while at the same time considering the sv that entrepreneurs are presently facing. limitations of the article relate to the responses, which may have been influenced by respondent perceptual biases and their cognitive limitations. to counter any cognitive and motivational bias, as a precaution, the common method response bias was methodologically controlled by gathering data representing the independent and dependent variables at different time periods and by counterbalancing the question order. safeguarding respondent anonymity also ensured that social desirability and item ambiguity were avoided to some extent. regarding its cross-sectional design, the study does not allow for causality inferences to be formulated. longitudinal studies are required to test whether ea and ese lead to higher levels of innp. further research may look to further explore the hypothesised relationships by looking at the mediating and moderating effects of other individualand national-level variables not accounted for in the study, such as the effect of creativity and national culture on innp. another limitation is the inability to generalise the study findings across smes in south africa, as the focus of the current study was on the south african manufacturing sector. future research will need to embrace a comparative, cross-country research design to identify whether results are generalisable to smes across industry contexts and countries. conclusion this article provides fresh insights into the relationship between ea, self-efficacy and innp while explaining the moderating effects of sv on this relationship. the article has contributed towards increasing the theoretical strength and methodological rigour of research into ea and self-efficacy, by demonstrating how these behaviours vary depending on the sv. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. author(s) contributions b.u. wrote the article, was responsible for the conceptual design of the article and interpreted the data emanating from the fieldwork. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references ardichvili, a., cardozo, r., & ray, s. (2003). a theory of entrepreneurial opportunity identification and development. journal of business venturing, 18(1), 105–123. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0883-9026(01)00068-4 bandura, a. (1986). social foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive theory. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. bandura, a. (1997). self-efficacy: the exercise of control. new york: w. h. freeman &company. bandura, a. (2001). social cognitive theory: an agentic perspective. annual review of psychology, 12(1), 1–36. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.1 baron, r.a. (2004). the cognitive perspective: a valuable tool for answering entrepreneurship basic ‘why’ questions. journal of business venturing, 19(2), 221–239. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0883-9026(03)00008-9 baron, r.a. (2006). opportunity recognition as pattern recognition: how entrepreneurs ‘connect the dots’ to identify new business opportunities. academy of management perspectives, 20(1), 104–119. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2006.19873412 baron, r.a., & ensley, m.d. (2006). opportunity recognition as the detection of meaningful patterns: evidence from comparisons of novice and experienced entrepreneurs. management science, 52(9), 1331–1344. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1060.0538 bellò, b., mattana, v., & loi, m. (2018). the power of peers: a new look at the impact of creativity, social context and self-efficacy on entrepreneurial intentions. international journal of entrepreneurial behaviour & research, 24(1), 214–233. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijebr-07-2016-0205 boyd, n.g., & vozikis, g.s. (1994). the influence of self-efficacy on the development of entrepreneurial intentions and actions. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 18(4), 63–78. https://doi.org/10.1177/104225879401800404 bruton, g.d., ahlstrom, d., & obloj, k. (2008). entrepreneurship in emerging economies: where are we today and where the research should go in the future? entrepreneurship theory and practice, 32(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2007.00213.x bygrave, w.d., & minniti, m. (2000). the social dynamics of entrepreneurship. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 24(3), 25–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/104225870002400302 carsrud, a., & brännback, m. (2011). entrepreneurial motivations: what do we still need to know? journal of small business management, 49(1), 9–26. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-627x.2010.00312.x chen, c.c., greene, p.g., & crick, a. (1998). does entrepreneurial self-efficacy distinguish entrepreneurs from managers? journal of business venturing, 13(2), 295–316. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0883-9026(97)00029-3 cooper, d.r., & schindler, p.s. (2011). business research methods (11th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill/irwin. corbett, a.c. (2007). learning symmetries and the discovery of entrepreneurial opportunities. journal of business venturing, 22(1), 97–118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2005.10.001 crowne, d., & marlowe, d. (1960). a new scale of social desirability independent of psychopathology. journal of consulting psychology, 24(4), 340–354. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0047358 davidsson, p. (2004). researching entrepreneurship. new york: springer. davidsson, p., & wiklund, j. (1997). values, beliefs and regional variations in new firm formation rates. journal of economic psychology, 18(1), 179–199. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0167-4870(97)00004-4 de jager, c., muller, a., & roodt, g. (2013). developing creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills in a financial services organization. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.502 de noble, a.f., jung, d., & ehrlich, s.b. (1999). entrepreneurial self-efficacy: the development of a measure and its relationship to entrepreneurial action. in p. reynolds, w. bygrave, s. manigart, c. mason, g. meyer, h. sapienza, & k. shaver (eds.), frontiers of entrepreneurship research (pp. 164–214). babson park, ma: babson college press. department of trade and industry (dti). (2016). smme classifications. pretoria: south african government printers. drnovšek, m., wincent, j., & cardon, m.s. (2010). entrepreneurial self-efficacy and business start-up: developing a multi-dimensional definition. international journal of entrepreneurial behavior & research, 16(4), 329–348. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552551011054516 earley, p.c. (1994). self or group? cultural effects of training on self-efficacy and performance. administrative science quarterly, 39(1), 89–109. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393495 gaglio, c.m., & katz, j. (2001). the psychological basis of opportunity identification: entrepreneurial alertness. journal of small business economics, 16(1), 95–111. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1011132102464 gem. (2017). global entrepreneurship monitor 2016/17 global report. london: global entrepreneurship research association. haynie, j.m., shepherd, d., mosakowski, e., & earley, p.c. (2010). a situated metacognitive model of the entrepreneurial mindset. journal of business venturing, 25(2), 217–229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2008.10.001 herrington, m., kew, p., & mwanga, a. (2017). global entrepreneurship monitor south africa report 2016/2017. can small businesses survive in south africa? cape town: uct. hofstede, g. (1980). cultures consequences. beverly hills, ca: sage. jarrar, n.s., & smith, m. 2014. innovation in entrepreneurial organisations: a platform for contemporary management change and a value creator. the british accounting review, 46(1), 60–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bar.2013.07.001 kanonuhwa, m., rungani, e.c., & chimucheka, t. (2018). the association between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurship as a career choice: a study on university students in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a907. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.907 kirzner, i.m. (1979). perception, opportunity, and profit. chicago, il: beard books. kirzner, i.m. (1985). discovery and the capitalist process. chicago, il: university of chicago press. krueger, n.f. (2000). the cognitive infrastructure of opportunity emergence. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 24(1), 5–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/104225870002400301 krueger, n.f. (2007). what lies beneath? the experiential essence of entrepreneurial thinking. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 31(1), 123–138. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2007.00166.x kwon, s.w., & arenius, p. (2010). nations of entrepreneurs: a social capital perspective. journal of business venturing, 25(3), 315–330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2008.10.008 lundström, a., & stevenson, l. (2005). entrepreneurship policy: theory and practice. international studies in entrepreneurship series. new york: springer. luthans, f., stajkovic, a.d., & ibrayeva, e. (2000). environmental and psychological challenges facing entrepreneurial development in transitional economies. journal of world business, 35(1), 95–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1090-9516(99)00035-8 mcgee, j.e., peterson, m., mueller, s.l., & sequeira, j.m. (2009). entrepreneurial self-efficacy: refining the measure. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 33(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2009.00304.x mccaffrey, m. (2014). on the theory of entrepreneurial incentives and alertness. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 38(8), 891–911. https://doi.org/10.1111/etap.12013 mcmullen, j.s., & shepherd, d.a. (2006). entrepreneurial action and the role of uncertainty in the theory of the entrepreneur. academy of management review, 31(1), 132–152. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2006.19379628 nsbc. (2016). national small business chamber: fuelling small business growth: national small business chamber. pretoria: government printers. nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory (2nd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. peng, m.w. (2014). global business (3rd edn.). cincinnati, oh: cengage learning. pietersen, c. (2018). research trends in the south african journal of human resource management. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a825. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.825 podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., & podsakoff, n.p. (2012). sources of method bias in social science research and recommendations on how to control it. annual review of psychology, 63(5), 539–569. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100452 rsa. (2003). republic of south africa: national small business act 102 of 1996. pretoria: government printers. schumpeter, j.a. (1934). the theory of economic development. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. sheehan, k.b., & mcmillan, s.j. (1999). response variation in e-mail surveys: an exploration. journal of advertising research, 39(4), 45–54. smallbone, d., & welter, f. (2006). conceptualising entrepreneurship in a transition context. international journal of entrepreneurship and small business, 3(2), 190–206. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijesb.2006.008928 statistics south africa (ssa). (2014). gross domestic product, annual estimates 2004–2013, regional estimates 2004 – 2013, 3rd quarter 2014. statistical release p0441. pretoria: government publishers. stajkovic, a.d., & luthans, f. (1998). self-efficacy and work-related performance: a meta-analysis. psychological bulletin, 124(2), 240–261. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.124.2.240 steensma, k.h., marino, l., & weaver, m.k. (2000). attitudes toward cooperative strategies: a cross-cultural analysis of entrepreneurs. journal of international business studies, 31(4), 591–609. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490924 tang, j., kacmar, k.m.m., & busenitz, l. (2012). entrepreneurial alertness in the pursuit of new opportunities. journal of business venturing, 27(1), 77–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2010.07.001 urban, b., & gaffurini, e. (2017). organisational learning capabilities as determinants of social innovation: an empirical study in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 15(1), a857. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.857. urban, b., & wood, e. (2017). the innovating firm as corporate entrepreneurship. european journal of innovation management, 20(4), 534–556. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejim-10-2016-0100 venter, r., & urban, b. (eds.). (2015). entrepreneurship theory in practice (3rd edn.). cape town: oxford university press. weber, m. (1948). essays in sociology. translated and edited by gerth, h.h. and c. wright mills. london: routledge. welter, f., & smallbone, d. (2011). institutional perspectives on entrepreneurial behaviour in challenging environments. journal of small business management, 49(1), 107–125. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-627x.2010.00317.x wiklund, j., patzelt, h., & shepherd, d.a. (2009). building an integrative model of small business growth. small business economics, 32(4), 351–375. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-007-9084-8 wright, m., roper, s., hart, m., & carter, s. (2015). joining the dots: building the evidence base for sme growth policy. international small business journal, 33(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266242614558316 zoogah, d.b., peng, m.w., & woldu, h. (2015). institutions, resources and organizational effectiveness in africa. the academy of management perspectives, 29(1), 7–31. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2012.0033 abstract introduction research methodology outline of the results acknowledgements references about the author(s) loveness nyikahadzoi business school, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa ronnie lotriet business school, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa anet smit business school, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa citation nyikahadzoi, l., lotriet, r., & smit, a. (2022). assessing scope and nature of human capital management practised by zimbabwe’s gold mining sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1699. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1699 original research assessing scope and nature of human capital management practised by zimbabwe’s gold mining sector loveness nyikahadzoi, ronnie lotriet, anet smit received: 15 june 2021; accepted: 16 nov. 2021; published: 09 mar. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the article focuses on corporate social responsibility in the area of human resources management practised in zimbabwe’s gold mining sector. research purpose: this study aimed to assess socially responsible human resources management practised by zimbabwe’s gold mining sector. the study also determines which among the five governance systems; local private, government-owned, listed on zimbabwe stock exchange, multinational not listed and listed on foreign stock exchanges leads in this regard. motivation for the study: mining industries are usually labour-intensive. corporate social responsibility and human resources management are indispensable components of mining companies. research approach/ design and method: the study uses a multiple case study design with a population of 35 large-scale gold mining companies that are members of both chamber of mines of zimbabwe and mine industry pension fund. twenty-three companies participated in the study. the study uses mixed methods approach using a questionnaire and structured interviews to collect quantitative and qualitative data, respectively. kruskal–wallis rank test was used to test the differences in the governance structures’ performances. main findings: the results indicate that gold mining companies exercise socially responsible human resources management and the listed on foreign stock exchanges have the highest index signifying best performance, followed by government-owned. practical/managerial implications: the corporates can improve their social responsibility in human resources management by using the balanced scorecard to assess their own performances. the regulation prescribes most human resources management issues in the mining sector. managers can benefit from the perceptions of the workers concerning how other governance structures implement socially responsible human resources management. contribution value-add: this study contributes to the previous literature on socially responsible human resources management by illuminating the possible role played by governance structure in corporate social responsibility adoption. theoretical perspectives of the firm, which are shareholder, stakeholder and societal, cannot act alone to explain the complex phenomenon of structure-conduct-performance in assessing the nature of socially responsible human resources management. therefore, future research must combine the principles of these perspectives with concepts of the legal environment, board structure and managerial attitudes as determinants of the nature and scope of socially responsible human resources management. keywords: gold mining sector; corporate social responsibility; modified balanced scorecard; governance structure; socially responsible human resources management. introduction mining drives economic development worldwide (pedro et al., 2017; sankey, 2018). for zimbabwe, the mining sector is the centrepiece of the country’s economic recovery and growth. it is responsible for generating growth spurts across sectors, contributing 13% to fiscal revenue and is responsible for more than 50% of foreign direct investment in zimbabwe (chamber of mines of zimbabwe, 2017). the sector’s contribution to economic development compares favourably with experiences within the southerm africa development community (sadc) region (chamber of mines of zimbabwe, 2017). mining has different impacts on the biophysical environment, social environment and economic environment pedro et al. (2017) and is a dangerous operation, mancini and sala (2018) therefore mineworkers’ health and safety are essential in every mining setup (international organization for standardization, 2018, naveed & ali, 2021). in return, mining industries should benefit society (lindman, ranängen, & kauppila, 2020). some of the benefits to society that mining brings include employment creation and improvements in their employees’ standard of living during the mine’s operation phase (mancini & sala, 2018; reinecke & ansari, 2016). while making profit, the mining sector should focus on human wellness and development (lindman et al., 2020; yakovleva, kotilainen, & toivakka, 2017). according to vintro and commanjuncosa (2010), whose criteria for human resources management this article uses, the best practices on human resources management include training capacity, creating high-security levels by providing a safe environment, collective bargaining, providing retirement and medical assurance plans, and win-win resolutions of conflictive situations. according to cantele (2017), a comprehensive corporate social responsibility programme should go beyond paying attention to profitability and environmental protection and encompass societal needs and expectations, including good employee corporation relations (ecr) and social protection. mining industries are usually labour-intensive (guliwe, 2019) and require corporate social responsibility and human resources management as indispensable components of organisational leadership (herrera & heras-rosas, 2020). the social involvement of workers in the company’s management focuses on building the right relationships with employees, respecting their rights and involving them in business management (herera et al., 2020). of late, the relationship between corporate social responsibility and measurable performance has attracted attention (asiaei & bontis, 2019; pisani, kourula, kolk, & meijer, 2017). for this article corporate social responsibility towards employees is referred to as socially responsible human resources management (zhao & zhou, 2021). the framework for analysing the socially responsible human resources management zhao and zhou (2021) performance of the corporates in this article is the structure-conduct-performance (scp) paradigm initially developed by edward mason in the 1930s. the scp paradigm assumes a causal relationship between market structure, conduct and performance (lelissa & kuhil, 2018). in this article, structure refers to how the corporate is governed. the corporates’ conduct (i.e. behaviour) includes the socially responsible human resources management practices in the areas of ecr and social protection. the performance refers to how the company is implementing its human resources management systems, whether it is shareholder in perspective, valuing shareholders mostly, or stakeholder in approach considering other stakeholders or being societal, conscious of international expectations. governance systems establish the rules that shape organisational actions and a corporate is defined by its governance structure (klein, mahoney, mcgahan, & pitelis, 2019). the selected governance structures are as follows: private limited, listed on zimbabwe stock exchange, listed on foreign stock exchanges, government-owned and multinational companies with parent companies abroad but not listed. literature review traditionally organisations account for only those items that can be reduced to monetary value. it has been challenging to convert social practices and performance into financial values and more difficult when the assessment is extended to the sphere of human resources management (mansour, 2017). building upon the three named perspectives, this article uses the balanced scorecard to assess how different governance structures influence the scope and nature of socially responsible human resource management within zimbabwe’s gold mining sector and business governance theories to predict their perfomance. the nature of socially responsible human resources management zhao and zhou (2021) according to the scp paradigm depends on the guiding philosophy of the corporates’ governance structure. this article uses three dominant perspectives, namely shareholder, stakeholder and societal perspectives, which are theories that determine and shape the nature of a business’ corporate social responsibility. the shareholder perspective the shareholder perspective is important as a view which describes the way in which corporates are guided by this perspective practise what zhao and zhou (2021) call socially responsible human resources management. the shareholder perspective as popularised by friedman (1970) suggests that the only commercial activity of businesses is to maximise wealth for the shareholder legally and leave socially responsible activities to the governments. shareholders’ wealth maximisation has been described as a process that increases the shareholder capital gains, so as to bring the highest possible return to shareholders (denis, 2016; wang & wu, 2020). the corporates which are governed by the shareholder perspective emphasise profit maximisation and accordingly the governance proposes that the business concern should only consider the decisions that maximise the shareholders’ wealth (khan & hussanie, 2018). as a result, such corporates guided by the shareholder approach have room to maximise profit at the employees’ expense because corporates will hire and retain employees whose expected value to the corporate is equal to or greater than the cost of employing them, as long as there are no other employees who will do an equivalent job for less compensation (denis, 2016). shareholder wealth maximisation view holds it that higher compensation can reduce the portion of the value created by the corporate and reduce the economic benefits created from human capital resources (barney, 2018; morris, alvarez, barney, & molloy, 2017). again, there is a belief that training investment dilutes shareholders wealth when proper needs assessment which is one of the phases of any training is not properly carried out (dwomoh, boachie, & kwarteng, 2017). these assertions from literature lead to the prediction that those governance structures in the gold mining sector with a shareholder perspective as the guiding philosophy engage less in socially responsible human resources management. the stakeholder perspective, on the other hand, agrees with the shareholder on creating wealth responsibly and legally but differs on points of emphasis. while shareholder perspective primarily focuses on economic return, stakeholder perspective has interests that go beyond narrow economic gain (mcgahan, 2020). stakeholder perspective stakeholder perspective propounded by freeman (2020) suggests that corporates’ decision on how to engage with the employees is a negotiated outcome involving the management, employees and shareholders. barney (2018) acknowledges that the generation of firm profits requires that stakeholders, besides shareholders be considered of which employees are top of the list of these stakeholders. thus, within the stakeholder perspective, the employees are a vital stakeholder. the stakeholder approach, by default, has a platform for engaging in dialogue through collective bargaining (mamabolo & myres, 2020). therefore the prediction is that governance structures that have stakeholder perspective as a dominant philosophy practise socially responsible human resources management. barrena-martinez, lópez-fernández and romero-fernández (2019) say that the integration of the social demands of workers into corporate social responsibility practices can improve their well-being and motivation and add overall stakeholder value. while stakeholder perspective considers both internal and external stakehoders, the societal perspective has additional stakeholders which are the international stakeholders. the societal perspective the societal perspective suggests that besides adhering to national rules and regulations guiding human resources management, corporates must contend with the global framework of rules and regulations (monteiro, aibar-guzmán, garrido-ruso, & aibar-guzmán, 2021; parsa, roper, muller-camen, & szigetvari, 2018). the societal aspect is important for this study because multinational companies which are both listed on foreign exchanges and those not listed are important actors in the global business arena (luo & tung, 2018). according to edman (2016) there is negative stereotyping of multinational companies by global stakeholders that are inherent in their nature of being foreign and this compels the multinational companies to act responsibly in their corporate social responsibility performance. parsa et al. (2018) say that because of international expectations, training capacity, employer-employee relationship, remuneration and other benefits are measured using global standards and tend to be of high quality, especially in the multinational corporates operating in developing countries. given these views, preditions about how the different governance systems are expected to perfom can be made. table 1 summarises the various governance systems and the predicted performance given their governance structure as proposed by literature. table 1: corporate governance systems and predicted performance. table 1 summarises the predicted performance of the named five governance systems given their assumed structures and expected performance and conduct as described in literature. the modified balanced scorecard is then used for the assessment of the actual performance. according to tabatabaei, omran, hashemi and sedaghat (2017), socially responsible human resources management is intangible. it is therefore not feasible to determine quantitative values expressed quantitatively as well as in monetary units. in this regard, the modified balanced scorecard seems to be the tool to measure socially responsible human resources management practices. figure 1 shows the critical aspects of socially responsible human resources management. figure 1: critical aspects assessed in the socially responsible human resources management. figure 1 shows the conceptual framework for socially responsible human resources management with four pillars supporting sound corporate social responsibility. security-level, shows workers need employment stability which failla, melillo and reichstein (2017) say is an important pillar of human capital needs. medical assurance and retirement plans aspects make up ecr assessment. on the pillar of medical assurance and retirement plans, osborne and hammoud (2017) cite health and safety at work which are essential factors for responsible human resources management practices. cantele (2017) says that overlooking health and hygiene factors threatens employees’ physical and mental health. training capacity and collective bargaining and conflict resolution assess social protection. osborne and hammoud (2017), suggest that employees need training and resources to work well. cantele (2017) says that the organisation’s social responsibility practices towards employees increase employee engagement and satisfaction, thereby leading to positive performance. research methodology the research design used is the case study design, using the large scale gold mining sector in zimbabwe. the study makes use of multiple cases. research objectives and problem statement given the sector’s significance to the country’s economic development, this study seeks to establish the corporate social responsibility performance in the area of human resources management by large-scale gold mining companies given their different governance structure and predicted conduct and perfomance. general objectives the purpose of the study is to assess the scope and nature of human resources management practised by zimbabwe’s gold mining sector. in addition, the study aims to determine which among the five governance systems operating in zimbabwe’s gold mining sector leads the industry in human resources management in a socially responsible way. these five governance systems are the local private, listed on the zimbabwe stock, listed in foreign stock exchanges, government-owned companies and multinational companies with parent companies abroad but not listed. the study also aims to determine which among the companies identified by governance systems perform best. specific objectives the study adopted an assessment based on vintro and comanjuncosa’s (2010) concept to measure corporate social responsibility (csr) factors. in particular, for this study, the scale contains six items of socially responsible human resource management. these six items include security level, training capacity, collective bargaining, retirement plans, medical assurance and occurrence or non-occurrence of a violent or conflictive situation. the items are observed under two factors: ecr and social protection. the study borrows from the csr performance measures developed by vintro and comnjuncosa (2010) and then uses the balanced scorecard framework to assess the extent of csr performance. research approach the study employed a mixed-methods approach using both quantitative and qualitative research philosophical underpinnings (almeida, 2018). qualitative data was collected using structured interviews with several respondents including mineworkers union representatives, community leaders, managers and other workers. additional interviews were carried out seeking clarification on emerging issues needing further explanations. the quantitave survey used a self designed aquestionnaire administered electronically with the help of a research assistant. the questionnaire solicited for knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of employees on given corporate social responsibility indicators, thus giving subjective information which when analysed result in subjective measurements. these subjective measurements consist of knowledge, attitudes and perceptions and depend on managers’ and other employees’ perceptions of how well their corporate entity performs and then they are statistically analysed. objective measurements section of the questionnaire collected accounting information which is the information on the ground as recorded in the formal records of the mining companies. combining the perceptions and official records mitigated the objective and subjective measurements’ weaknesses (singh, darwish, & potočnik, 2016). the main weaknesses of subjective measurements are the biases inherent in perceptions (singh et al., 2016). the main weakness of the objective measurements is that the nature of accounting information is sensitive and highly confidential and hence susceptible to inconsistencies. pisani et al. (2017) in their systematic review of corporate social responsibility research found that, there are difficulties in gathering quantitative data on corporate social responsibility research in developing countries. subjective measurements of companies’ social responsibility the subjective measures of companies’ socially responsible human resources management composed of two broad categories: social protection and ecr. social protection sought employees’ perceptions of companies’ practices. the cronbach’s alpha test was used to test the instrument’s reliability. according to taber (2018), cronbach’s alpha test reflects the validity or the extent to which an instrument measures what it claims to measure. the cronbach’s alpha test shows the reliability, which is the extent to which a measuring instrument, can be expected to give the same measured outcome should the process be repeated elsewhere (taber, 2018). a five-point likert scale that ranged from ‘strongly disagrees’ to ‘strongly agree’ was used for the questions. the weighting of the responses where they indicated extent to which they agree with the statements on csr processes and practices where: 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4 = agree and 5 = strongly agree. a mean score with a cut-off point of 0.5 was subsequently computed using the following formula xi responds to a given likert statement by respondent, and n is the number of statements for each of the corporate environment responsibility indicators. this resulted in three distinct categories, namely, a high level of social protection and ecr (2–0.5), medium level of social protection and ecr (0.51– −0.5) and a low level of social protection and ecr (−0.51– −2). the three categories were treated as follows: low level was 1, medium level was 2 and high level was 3. these subjective values of α, β, and γ were then combined with objective measures to come up with the csr indices, as shown in the formulas and algorithms provided in the following section. research strategy this research evaluates the gold mining sector’s socially responsible human resources management performance in zimbabwe using the modified balanced scorecard. the study used gold mining companies categorised by size and the governance systems among private companies. companies listed in the zimbabwe stock exchange, companies listed in foreign stock exchanges, government-owned and multinational companies not listed in any stock exchange but with parent companies abroad were also evaluated. the process included place-based ethnographic observation of mining corporates, a survey, and socio-economic and political analysis across the selected multiple cases of gold mines. most socially responsible human resources management research has mostly been carried out more from the managerial perspective only at the exclusion of other workers (tabatabaei et al., 2017; xiao, cooke, xu, & bian, 2020). this research included both management and other workers. the sample of corporates who participated in the study was selected from large-scale gold mining companies who are members of both the chamber of mines of zimbabwe and the mines industry pension fund which at the time of the research were 35. data collection method this research proposes the use of a modified balanced scorecard as initially propounded by kaplan and norton (1992) to assess the performance of different mine types in undertaking corporate social responsibility in conjunction with vintro and comanjuncosa’s (2010) concept to measure csr factors. in particular, the scale contains six items or modified balanced scorecard perspectives namely, security level (sl), training capacity (tc), collective bargaining (cb) observed under the factor ecr. the factor social protection (sp) contains retirement plans (rp), medical assurance and occurrence or non-occurrence of a violent conflictive situation (vc) as the observed scale items. quantitative data was collected electronically using census survey entry (csentry) software using electronic tablets and the questionnaire was administered with the help of a research assistant. structured interviews were used to collect qualitative data and additional interviews were carried out to seek clarification on issues arising. participants at the time of the study, the target population consisted of 35 large-scale gold mining companies that were members of both the chamber of mines in zimbabwe and mines industry pension fund. out of the 35 mining companies, 23 participated (representing 66% of the target population). there was no limit to the number of respondents completing the questionnaires from the participating mines. all mining companies employees were eligible respondents; however only those provided by the mining companies willing to participate. local private companies had six participating mining companies and a total of 34 respondents from this category. mining companies listed in the zimbabwe stock exchange also had six participating companies and a total of 34 respondents. there were five companies listed in foreign stock exchanges participating with a total of 46 respondents. government-owned had two participating mining companies with 30 respondents. multinational companies not listed had four companies participating and 32 respondents. empoyees from the 23 mining companies were the respondents to the questionnaire and there were 206 respondents who completed the questionnaires. all the 206 questionnaires were collected as they were administered personally, however from these 206 completed questionnaires only 176 were appropriately completed and subsequently used. data analysis and discussion objective measures of employee corporation relations the algorithms and formulas used to calculate the mining sector’s performance on employee corporation indices were adapted from vintro and comanjuncosa (2010). these indices assess the mining companies’ practices on the ground. employee/corporation relations formulas security level (sl): training and capacity (tc): collective bargaining (cb): an index for ecr would be determined using the following formula: ecr = α1sl + β1tc + γ1cb, where the α1, β1 and γ1are values based on subjective assessments and sl, tc and cb are objective measures for security level, training capacity and collective bargaining, respectively, that were obtained using the formulas as shown above. the index reflects the companies’ csr efforts towards providing training capacity, security level, and an environment suitable for collective bargaining. the next aspect is social protection, the formulas and algorithms used to calculate social protection indices using objective measures. social protection formulas retirement plans (rp) supported by the corporation: medical aid (ma) supported by the corporation: prevention of conflictive situations (vc): the social protection index is determined using the following formula: social protection (sp) = α2rp + β2 ma + γ2vc, where α2, β2, and γ2 are calculated values based on subjective measures. retirement plans (rp), ma, and vc’s objective measures are retirement plans, medical assurance occurrence of confrontational situation, respectively. the human resources index would be the sum of employee corporation indices. this index reflects the overall csr effort towards these internal stakeholders. according to vintro and comanjuncosa (2010), the higher the index, the better the csr effort or practice. ethical considerations the research was approved by ministry of mines and mineral development zimbabwe through a clearance which authorises the researcher to contact all government departments and quasi government departments. the institutional review board at a large north-western public university approved the research. the individual interviews were conducted by the first author and then transcribed by both researcher and research assistant who were sworn to confidentiality. all participants for both quantitative and qualitative signed an informed consent form and these were kept by the researcher. the participants were informed that they had the right to withdraw from the research process at any moment and that they could request that the information that they provided be discarded and excluded from the analysis. the participants were able to withdraw without providing any reason. they were also informed that they could skip any questions that they did not feel comfortable answering. the north-west university economics and management sciences research ethics committee (ems-rec) approved the study as a minimal risk study nwu-o1367-19-a4. research procedure the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for five items per indicator cronbach’s alpha coefficient determined the reliability and internal consistency. the internal consistency in measurement refers to whether all measuring criteria measure the same construct or concept (sharma, 2016). the reliability coefficients of the five items pertaining to each of the three socially responsible human resources management performance measures were determined. sharma’s (2016) thumb rules for interpreting the cronbach’s reliability coefficient are as follows: α > 0.9 = excellent; α > 0.8 = good; α > 0.7 = acceptable; α > 0.6 = questionable; α > 0.5 = poor and α < 0.5 = unacceptable. the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for five items per indicator are as follows: security level = 0.908, excellent internal consistency; training capacity = 0.888, good internal consistency; collective bargaining = 0.951, excellent internal consistency; retirement plan = 0.904, excellent internal consistency; medical aid = 0.873, good internal consistency and collective situation = 0.728, acceptable internal consistency. these results show that the items measuring security level, collective bargaining and retirement plan have excellent internal consistency. training capacity, social protection and medical aid have good reliability and internal consistency. items measuring the collective situation have acceptable reliability and internal consistency. empirical investigation employee corporation relations employee corporation relations consists of security level, training capacity and collective bargaining practices as indicators. table 2 shows the perceptions of employees concerning all aspects of ecr. table 2: employee perceptions on security level, training capacity and collective bargaining. as shown in table 2, the pearson x2 has a p-value of 0.0000, 0.0005 and 0.0000 suggesting enough evidence to imply an association between company ownership and the perceived security level, training capacity and collective bargaining. security level security level focuses on perceptions of employees on whether their mining company has procedures to stop any form of discrimination in the workplace, promoting diversity in the workforce and at the same time encouraging whistle blowing. table 2 shows that 97.83% of the employees who responded from the companies listed in foreign stock exchanges reported high-level security. of all the employee respondents interviewed from mining companies listed in the zimbabwe stock exchange, 76.47% reported a high-security level provided by their employer. therefore, the listed mines have a high record in offering high-level security to their employees. on the other hand, 60% of the respondents interviewed from government-owned companies reported high-level security provided to their employees. about 68% of the respondents from not listed multinational companies and local private companies reported a high-security level. the researching team noted information displayed on information boards of one of the listed companies that indicated a decrease in work-related injuries, thus confirming the high-security level. an executive with one of the companies during a follow up interview revealed technological improvements and new equipment for ventilation and diffusion of harmful gases underground. he commented that this contributes to reducing danger to the mine workers, thereby increasing the security level. training capacity socially responsible practices primarily focus on the workers in investment areas in human resources, empowerment through training within the company. the training capacity section assessed whether the companies funded capacity building by providing a budget for training, organising training and financing other capacity-building activities. table 2 shows that 95.65% and 82.35% of the respondents from mines listed in the foreign stock exchange and mines listed in the zimbabwe stock exchange, respectively, reported high-level training capacity offered to workers. of all the respondents interviewed from not listed multinational companies, 68.75% said high-level training was provided for the workers. the subjective measurements show that the lowest performers are government-owned companies (63.33% of the respondents reported a high level of training) followed by the local private companies at 67.65%. a key informant from one of the listed companies pointed out that to maintain iso 14 000 certification and high standard, a lot of training has to be done. therefore, the employees can see the action in training them. collective bargaining in this respect, the mining companies listed in the foreign stock exchange are the highest performers, with 93.48% of the respondents reporting high collective bargaining levels. the least performers are local mining companies listed in the stock exchange, not listed multinational mining companies and local private companies. an executive from one of the companies listed in the stock exchange commented that their collective bargaining system might not be that visible because the company already has an alternative system in place, which takes care of the pertinent issues proactively. one executive also pointed out that collective bargaining is deeply enshrined in the labour act with a mineworkers’ union formed under the provisions of the labour act. objective measures of resource use objective measures reflect what is on the ground, based on estimates obtained from the companies’ accounting data. in this section, the results come from applying the social protection formulas given above. table 3 shows the security level values, training capacity and collective bargaining computed using stata, a statistics and data software package. the rule of thumb is, according to vintro and comanjuncosa (2010), the higher the index, the better the csr performance. table 3 collates ecr assessment. table 3: employee corporation relations. results in table 3: the pearson x2 has a p-value of 0.0001 for security level and 0.0003 for collective bargaining, suggesting that there is enough evidence to suggest an association between company ownership and the performance in establishing ecr. the best performers are the mining companies listed in the foreign stock exchange, followed by mining companies listed in the zimbabwe stock exchange. table 3 shows that the least performers are multinational companies unlisted and government-owned companies. combining objective and subjective measures a combination of objective and subjective measures were used to determine the indices and make inferences about the mining sector’s performance on ecr. the results on ecr appear in table 3. the subjective and objective measures to calculate the indices are shown in the formulas on table 3. employee corporation relations index was obtained using the formula ecr = α1sl + β1tc + γ1cb. table 3 summarises the assessment of ecr. employee corporation relations index as shown in table 3, a p-value of 0.0001 shows enough evidence to suggest an association between company ownership and ecr. companies listed in the foreign stock exchange seem to be doing better than the rest in all three aspects of ecr which are security level (with a score of 20.82), training capacity (with a score of 21.15) and collective bargaining (with a score of 20.73). not listed multinational companies are the least performers in all three aspects of ecr. social protection this section evaluates corporate social responsibility in the area of social protection. the section assesses the retirement plans, medical assurances and whether violent or conflictive situations between the company management and the employees have occurred. subjective measures are the first to be presented. table 4 shows the subjective measures social protection. table 4: retirement plan, medical assurance, conflictive situation. employees’ assessments of social protection the mining companies are expected to put measures to protect their employees by availing retirement plans, medical aid plans and prevention of occurrence of violent conflictive situation. table 4 presents employees assessments on these three indicators. as shown in table 4, the pearson x2 has a p-value of 0.0000 for all three indicators. there is enough evidence to suggest an association between company ownership and the perceived provision of retirement plans, medical aid plans and prevention of the occurrence of violent conflictive situation. the results show that 79.41% of respondents from the locally listed mining companies rated the existing retirement plans highly. likewise, 69.57% of respondents from the mining companies listed in the foreign exchange rated the existing retirement plans highly. the least performers are the multinationals not listed and the local private companies using subjective measures. one key informant from a not listed multinational company commented that there are many changes in the management because of a seemingly new shareholding structure. some top chinese managers joined the company and suspended subscriptions to the mine industry pension fund. employee’s perception of companies’ medical assurance practices mine employees are susceptible to safety threats. thus, mine companies are expected to initiate measures to ensure employees’ health and safety. one of these measures would be to put medical insurance policies that make medical attention available to workers and their families. as shown in table 4, the pearson x2 has a p-value of 0.0000, suggesting enough evidence to imply an association between company ownership and medical insurance provision. the subjectively calculated measurements indicate that the highest performers are companies listed in a foreign stock exchange, followed by mining companies listed in the zimbabwe stock exchange, with 95.65% and 91.18% of the employers rating the provision of medical insurance as high. the lowest performers are the government-owned mining companies and not listed multinationals mining companies, with 56.67% and 59.38% of the respondents, respectively, saying the medical insurance plan is high. one key informant from the government-owned companies lamented that while the company is prepared to provide for medical insurance, the challenge is that the monthly employee contribution is too high to engage in packages that offer more benefits. therefore, the employees end up with the basic benefit package, a low benefit package fully funded by the company. employees’ perception on prevention of occurrence of conflictive situations companies’ ability to provide for dialogue reduces eruptive situations like strikes or sit-ins. the absence of conflictive situations indicates that the companies are sensitive to their employees’ economic and social needs. as shown in table 4, the pearson x2 has a p-value of 0.0000, suggesting that there is enough evidence to suggest an association between company ownership and the perceived sensitivity to conflict situations. table 4 shows that companies listed in the zimbabwe stock exchange are perceived to have high sensitivity to conflictive situations by 79.41 employees. however a workers’ union representative from companies listed in the foreign stock exchange said that the labour act in zimbabwe is against any violent or conflictive workplace situation. the union representative explained that before engaging in a collective job action like a strike, workers are expected to give a 14-day notice to their employment council, the ministry of labour and the employer. the employer is allowed to apply what is referred to as a ‘show cause order’ with the ministry of labour or the labour court to stop the industrial action. this ‘show cause order’ can be given by a labour court, president of the country or the minister of labour after application by the aggrieved party to show why a disposal order should not be made in relation to the industrial action. given such a situation, the union representative lamented that it is not easy to embark on a legal strike. this long process contributes to a lack of sensitivity by employers towards any violent or conflictive situations. it is rare to have a legal strike and pointless to have an illegal one for it achieves nothing.the above elaboration partly explains why there are no violent conflictive situations in the gold mining sector. objective measures of social protection the objective measures of social protection refer to how the mine companies provide for social protection economically and socially. table 5 shows the objective values of social protection. table 5 also shows the results of combining objective measures and subjective measures as well as the composite index for social protection. table 5: social protection. as shown in table 5, the pearson x2 has p-values of 0.0003 for both retirement plans and medical insurance and 0.0007 for a conflictive situation. this suggests that there is enough evidence to imply an association between company ownership and the perceived company support for medical assurance and retirement plans and sensitivity towards violent conflictive situations. a key informant explained that there are certain benefits and rewards which are enjoyed by permanent workers only. for instance, the same number of workers who qualify for medical assurance is also the same ones provided with retirement plans. combining subjective and objective measures for social protection the social protection index was generated by combining the subjective estimates and objective measures of retirement plans and medical insurance supported by the mining companies and whether a strike or other conflictive situation occurred. the formula below sums up the social protection index, sp = α2rp + β2 ma + γ2vc. as shown in table 5, the p-values show a statistical difference in companies’ performance based on support for retirement plans and medical assurance and occurrence of a conflictive situation. the companies listed in foreign exchange provide the most support regarding retirement plans and medical insurance, with indices of 20.69 and 22.13, respectively. government-owned companies, on the other hand, lead the way in reducing conflictive situations. on aggregate, companies in the foreign exchange provide the best social protection at 57.75. the companies listed in foreign exchange earn their licence to operate by addressing social concerns. index using a combination of objective and subjective measures the human resources index reflects the overall assessment of socially responsible human resources management for the mining companies. this index summarises the mining companies’ environmental performance by category. the index is obtained by combining ecr and social protection indices. (where: ecr = α1sl + β1tc + γ1cb and social protection, sp = α2rp + β2 ma + γ2vc). socially responsible human resources management would be the sum of ecr and social protection, socially responsible human resources management (shrm) = ecr + sp. table 6 shows the overall corporate social responsibility in human resources by the mining companies. table 6: composite indices for socially responsible human resources management. outline of the results discussions the results in table 6 indicate that there is a significant difference in the performance of the companies in terms of socially responsible human resources management. the highest performer in socially accountable human resources management is companies listed in a foreign stock exchange with an index of 120.47. table 6 shows that the next best performers in socially responsible human resources management are government-owned companies with an index of 105.34. local private limited companies come third with an index of 102.79, almost neck and neck with companies listed in the zimbabwe stock exchange with an index of 102.51. multinational companies not listed are the least performers with an index of 95.76. the research attempted to assess the scope and nature of socially responsible human resources management in the gold mining sector in zimbabwe using the modified balanced scorecard approach. the results revealed that the gold mining sector in zimbabwe practises sound socially responsible human resources management; however the results showed that there are different degrees in the extent to which they practise their management. the companies listed in foreign exchanges have the highest index indicating their best degree of performance. this is in line with extant literature, which supports that companies with a global link have a societal approach to csr because they have to consider the international standards. clarke and crane (2018) and parsa et al. (2018) assert that multinational companies are increasingly under pressure to provide an account of how fairly and ethically they treat their workforce. the government-owned companies predicted to be classical and shareholder-oriented have performed beyond expectation. there are no strikes or job actions reported, and a possible explanation is the regulatory environment. according to buhmann, jonsson and fisker (2018), the basic minimum level of socially responsible human resources management practices depends on the political framework of rules and regulations defined by governmental authorities. the current high unemployment rate in the country is above 16% (zimbabwe national statistics agency, 2019). this is in line with literature where burda, genadek and hamermesh (2020) suggest that unemployment incentivises workers to work harder to decrease lay-offs. as a result, employees avoid any conflicts that can jeopardise their chances of remaining employed. multinational companies not listed with parent company abroad perfectly conform to heminway’s (2017) classical statements where shareholder value maximisation is most important. managerial information all indicators used are very important to sound human resources management. however with the aspect of training needs assessments must be carefully done so that the training benefits both the employees trained and the mining company. value and contribution this study contributes to the previous literature on socially responsible human resources management by illuminating the possible role played by governance structure in csr adoption. practical implications the modified balanced scorecard framework used points to the idea that companies can adopt the same method to evaluate their performance. the corporates can increase the extent to which they can improve their corporate social responsibility in human resources management by using the balanced scorecard to assess their own individual performances. limitations and recommendations this research has some limitations, which also serve as potential opportunities for future research. theoretical perspectives of the firm, which are classical, stakeholder and societal, cannot act alone to explain the complex phenomenon of scp in assessing the nature of socially responsible human resources management. the classical, stakeholder and societal perspectives provide a basis to integrate the extant csr performance literature. yet, more factors like the institutional and legal environment impact on the performance. this suggests further research, which can build on the mining companies’ capabilities to respond to socially responsible human resources management needs. therefore, further research combines critical principles of the company’s classical, stakeholder and societal views with concepts of legal institutions and more about the structure. the future research should include board structure and managerial attitudes as determinants of the nature and scope of socially responsible human resources management. conclusion the research attempted to evaluate the scope and nature of socially responsible human resources management performance of gold mining companies in zimbabwe using the modified balanced scorecard approach. the assessment revealed that all companies practise socially responsible human resource management. the companies listed in the foreign stock exchange have the highest index. the study also aimed to determine which among the companies identified by governance systems perform best and the results they have differences in the extent to which they do so with companies listed in foreign exchanges outperforming all other categories. acknowledgements antonette bisshoff for language and technical precision editing. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions l.n. is a phd student at the north-west university business school potchefstroom campus. r.l. is the study supervisor and a.s. the co-supervisor. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data for this article is held by the first author on behalf of north-west university as data was collected for phd research. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references almeida, f. (2018). strategies to perform a mixed methods study. european journal of education studies, 5(1), 138. asiaei, k., & bontis, n. (2019). using a balanced scorecard to manage corporate social responsibility. knowledge and process management, 26(4), 371–379. https://doi.org/10.1002/kpm.1616 barney, j.b. (2018). why resource-based theory’s model of profit appropriation must incorporate a stakeholder perspective. strategic management journal, 39(13), 3305–3325. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2949 barrena-martinez, j., lópez-fernández, m., & romero-fernández, p.m. (2019). towards a configuration of socially responsible human resource management policies and practices: findings from an academic consensus. the international journal of human resource management, 30(17), 2544–2580. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1332669 buhmann, k., jonsson, j., & fisker, m. (2018). do no harm and do more good too: connecting business and human rights with political csr to identify business opportunities for contributing to the sdgs. forthcoming, corporate governance: the international journal of business in society, 10. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3376681 burda, m.c., genadek, k.r., & hamermesh, d.s. (2020). unemployment and effort at work. economica, 87(347), 662–681. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12324 cantele, s. (2017). human resources management in responsible small businesses: why, how and for what? international journal of human resources development and management, 18(1–2), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijhrdm.2018.10013652 chamber of mines. (2017). state of the mine industry report. retrieved from http://www.financialgazette.co.zw/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/mining-survey-report-2017.pdf clarke, a., & crane, a. (2018). cross-sector partnerships for systemic change: systematized literature review and agenda for further research. journal of business ethics, 150(2), 303–313. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3922-2 denis, d. (2016). corporate governance and the goal of the firm: in defense of shareholder wealth maximization. financial review, 51(4), 467–480. https://doi.org/10.1111/fire.12115 dwomoh, g., boachie, w.k., & kwarteng, k. (2017). the relationship between organizations’ acquired knowledge, skills, abilities (skas) and shareholders wealth maximization: the mediating role of training investment. international journal of information, business and management, 9(1), 149. edman, j. (2016). reconciling the advantages and liabilities of foreignness: towards an identity-based framework. journal of international business studies, 47(6), 674–694. https://doi.org/10.1057/jibs.2016.29 failla, v., melillo, f., & reichstein, t. (2017). entrepreneurship and employment stability – job matching, labour market value, and personal commitment. journal of business venturing, 32(2), 162–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2017.01.002 freeman, r.e. (2020). the stakeholder approach revisited. in wirtschafts-und unternehmensethik (pp. 657–671). wiesbaden: springer vs. friedman, m. (1970). the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. the new york times magazine. september 13, pp. 32–33, 122, 126. guliwe, t. (2019). the fourth industrial revolution and the future of the labour intensive sectors in the developing countries: ‘the hailstorm in a cup of tea’. africagrowth agenda, 16(1), 14–18. heminway, j.m. (2017). shareholder wealth maximization as a function of statutes, decisional law, and organic documents. washington and lee law review, 74(2), 939. retrieved from https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr/vol74/iss2/14 herera, j., & heras-rosas, c.d.l. (2020). corporate social responsibility and human resource management: towards sustainable business organizations. sustainability, 12(3), 841. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12030841 international organization for standardization. (2018). occupational health and safety management systems – requirements with guidance for use (iso standard no. 45001:2018). retirved from https://www.iso.org/standard/63787.html kaplan, r.s., & norton, d.p. (1992). the balanced scorecard-measures that drive performance. harvard business review, 85(7), 172–180. khan, z.a., & hussanie, i. (2018). shareholders wealth maximization: objective of financial management revisited. international journal of enhanced research in management & computer applications, 7(3), 739–741. klein, p.g., mahoney, j.t., mcgahan, a.m., & pitelis, c.n. (2019). organizational governance adaptation: who is in, who is out, and who gets what. academy of management review, 44(1), 6–27. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2014.0459 lelissa, t.b., & kuhil, a.m. (2018). the structure conduct performance model and competing hypothesis-a review of literature. structure, 9(1), 76–89. lindman, å., ranängen, h., & kauppila, o. (2020). guiding corporate social responsibility practice for social license to operate: a nordic mining perspective. the extractive industries and society, 7(3), 892–907. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2020.07.013 luo, y., & tung, r.l. (2018). a general theory of springboard mnes. journal of international business studies, 49(2), 129–152. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-017-0114-8 mamabolo, a., & myres, k. (2020). performance measurement in emerging market social enterprises using a balanced scorecard. journal of social entrepreneurship, 11(1), 65–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/19420676.2018.1561499 mancini, l., & sala, s. (2018). social impact assessment in the mining sector: review and comparison of indicators frameworks. resources policy, 57, 98–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2018.02.002 mansour, a.h.a. (2017). how managers use the balanced scorecard to support strategy implementation and formulation processes. tékhne, 15(1), 2–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tekhne.2017.04.001 mcgahan, a.m. (2020). where does an organization’s responsibility end?: identifying the boundaries on stakeholder claims. academy of management discoveries, 6(1), 8–11. https://doi.org/10.5465/amd.2018.0218 monteiro, a.p., aibar-guzmán, b., garrido-ruso, m., & aibar-guzmán, c. (2021). employee-related disclosure: a bibliometric review. sustainability, 13(10), 5342. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105342 morris, s.s., alvarez, s.a., barney, j.b., & molloy, j.c. (2017). firm-specific human capital investments as a signal of general value: revisiting assumptions about human capital and how it is managed. strategic management journal, 38(4), 912–919. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2521 naveed, m.a., & ali, a. (2021). health and safety information behaviour of coal miners in pakistan. libri, 71(1), 29–40. https://doi.org/10.1515/libri-2019-0132 osborne, s., & hammond, m.s. (2017). effective employee engagement in the workplace. international journal of applied management and technology, 16(1), 50–67. https://doi.org/10.5590/ijamt.2017.16.1.04 parsa, s., roper, i., muller-camen, m., & szigetvari, e. (2018). in accounting forum (vol. 42, pp. 47–64). retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accfor.2018.01.001 pedro, a., ayuk, e.t., bodouroglou, c., milligan, b., ekins, p., & oberle, b. (2017). towards a sustainable development licence to operate for the extractive sector. mineral economics, 30(2), 153–165. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13563-017-0108-9 pisani, n., kourula, a., kolk, a., & meijer, r. (2017). how global is international csr research? insights and recommendations from a systematic review. journal of world business, 52(5), 591–614. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2017.05.003 reinecke, j., & ansari, s. (2016). taming wicked problems: the role of framing in the construction of corporate social responsibility. journal of management studies, 53(3), 299–329. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12137 sankey, k. (2018). extractive capital, imperialism, and the colombian state. latin american perspectives, 45(5), 52–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582x18782982 sharma, b. (2016). a focus on reliability in developmental research through cronbach’s alpha among medical, dental and paramedical professionals. asian pacific journal of health sciences, 3(4), 271–278. https://doi.org/10.21276/apjhs.2016.3.4.43 singh, s., darwish, t.k., & potočnik, k. (2016). measuring organizational performance: a case for subjective measures. british journal of management, 27(1), 214–224. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12126 tabatabaei, s.a.n., omran, e.s., hashemi, s., & sedaghat, m. (2017). presenting sustainable hrm model based on balanced scorecard in knowledge-based ict companies (the case of iran). economics & sociology, 10(2), 107. https://doi.org/10.14254/2071-789x.2017/10-2/8 taber, k.s. (2018). the use of cronbach’s alpha when developing and reporting research instruments in science education. research in science education, 48(6), 1273–1296. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-016-9602-2 vintro, c., & comajuncosa, j. (2010). corporate social responsibility in the mining industry: criteria and indicators. dyna, 77(161), 31–41. wang, t., & wu, y. (2020). corporate giving decision: agency problem hypothesis vs. shareholder wealth maximization hypothesis. 財務金融學刊, 28(3), 1–74. xiao, m., cooke, f.l., xu, j., & bian, h. (2020). to what extent is corporate social responsibility part of human resource management in the chinese context? a review of literature and future research directions. human resource management review, 30(4), 100726. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2019.100726 yakovleva, n., kotilainen, j., & toivakka, m. (2017). reflections on the opportunities for mining companies to contribute to the united nations sustainable development goals in sub–saharan africa. the extractive industries and society, 4(3), 426–433. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2017.06.010 zhao, h., & zhou, q. (2021). socially responsible human resource management and hotel employee organizational citizenship behavior for the environment: a social cognitive perspective. international journal of hospitality management, 95, 102749. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2020.102749 zimbabwe national statistics agency. (2019). labour force and child labour survey report. retrieved from https://www.zimstat.co.zw/wp-content/uploads/publications/economic/employment/labour-force-report-2019.pdf 2benecke.indd in the mergers and acquisitions literature, synergy usually refers to financial synergy that is gained through the merging of conglomerates (chang, 1990), while in the industrial economics literature, synergy features in the context of economies of scale that lead to cost savings (chang, 1990). harwood (2000, pp. 523-529) quotes castell, gregory, hindle, james and ragsdall who write that “synergy comes from the greek word synergos which means working together. this demands a platform for participation through the development of dialogues, between disciplines and people, the very stuff of systems thinking.” naudé, heyns, bester, puig and tucker (2002, p. 2) define synergy as the ability of two or more business units or companies to generate greater value working together than they would working apart, while juga (1996, p. 51) identifies synergism as the co-operative action of discrete agencies in such a way that the total effect is greater than the sum of the effects taken independently. itamic and roehl (juga, 1996) are of the opinion that synergy results from the process of making better use of resources, including physical assets such as manufacturing facilities, and invisible property such as brand name, customer knowledge, technological expertise and corporate culture. when the organisation exploits its unique resources it achieves synergy. itamic and roehl (in juga, 1996, p. 52) go on to argue that synergy is a “free ride”, because the invisible assets developed in one part of the company can be used elsewhere without being depleted. steinfield, de wit, adelaar, bruins, fielt, hoefsloot, smit and bouwman (2001, pp. 203-213) delineate a synergy strategy as one where an organisation explicitly links its virtual and physical presence, exploiting each channel’s strengths. synergy is defined by gupta and roos (2001, p. 298) as the interaction of two or more intellectual capital resources from previously sovereign organisations, which enhances the combined effect of value creation and competitive performance, which effect is greater than the sum of the individual effects. argenti (in krumm, dewulf & de jonge, 1998, p. 374) defines synergy as “the concept that the combination of two or more different businesses, activities, or processes will create an overall value that is greater than the sum of the individual parts”. the synergy concept suggests that advantages are created when economies of scale and speed are combined with administrative co-ordination (krumm et al., 1998). cockerill (1995) points out that aristotle in ancient greece was probably one of the first to propose a systems idea when he noticed that some wholes exhibit properties that were not noted in the individual parts of the entity. more recently, in the 1930s, gestalt psychologists observed that “the whole is more than the sum of its parts”. today’s systemic equivalent is called “synergy” (cockerill, 1995, pp. 4-8). harris (2004) contends that synergy represents a dynamic process, involves adaptation and learning, creates an integrated solution, entails joint action by many in which the total effect is greater than the sum of the effects when acting independently, does not signif y compromise, and facilitates the release of team energies. describing synergy as increased efficiency in the sharing of skills and other assets, ansoff (in ensign, 1998) identifies four types of synergy, namely sales, operating, investment and management synergy. wells (in chang, 1990), in turn, identifies five categories of synergy in diversified organisations, namely financial synergy, which comes from risk reduction; entrepreneurial synergy, which flows from the pursuit of attractive new investment opportunities; expansion synergy, which originates from the application of existing resources to new business; market power synergy, which arises from cross-subsidisation; and operational synergy, which comes from sharing activities and knowledge. if the preceding definitions and their operationalisation are scrutinised, it is clear that there does not exist a coherent theory of how to lead a change process towards achieving synergy in a global and diversified organisation. from the preceding discussion the most striking features of synergy appear to be the following: l it is systemic and hence should be viewed in the context of processes. l it is based on the gestalt theory proposed by max wertheimer (1880–1943), wolfgang köhler (1887–1967) and kurt kofka (1886–1941) who believed that “the whole is more than the sum of its parts” (hergenhahn, 1976, p. 237). l it implies in the business context that business units working together will generate greater value than they would by working apart. l it is the result of a process whereby better use of physical and invisible resources is made by viewing the total diversified organisation as one system. l it is exploitive and provides a cheaper alternative, because invisible assets like brand name, customer knowledge, technological expertise and corporate culture can be used elsewhere in the organisation without the risk of being depleted. drawn from the above summary we propose the following integrative definition of synergy: synergy is a concept that describes the systemic processes whereby business units of diverse, complex organisations will generate greater value through working as one system than working as separate entities. in the 1960s and the 1970s companies were looking for innovative ways to achieve growth (ensign, 1998). synergy was used as one of gerhard benecke willem schurink gert roodt groodt@uj.ac.za department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract the literature on synergy suggests that synergy is systemic and hence should be viewed in the context of processes, but that an integrative definition of this phenomenon does not exist. against this background the article explains synergy as a concept describing the systemic processes whereby business units of diversified organisations may generate greater value through working as one system rather than working as separate entities. through the application of grounded theory in a modernistic qualitative context and the use of a case study a substantive theory is presented for leading change towards synergy in a diversified organisation that has business units in three continents. key words: synergy, competitive performance, diversification, co-ordination towards a substantive theory of synergy 9 sa journal of human resource management, 2007, 5 (2), 9-19 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2007, 5 (2), 9-19 the key components of various strategy formulation frameworks and was especially used for motivating corporate growth through diversification (juga, 1996). diversification was seen as a way of ensuring profitability (ensign, 1998). this explains why most synergy research has been focusing on diversification (ensign, 1998). chang (1990) studied the empirical relationship between synergy and diversification and confirms that synergy is achieved by sharing resources among the business units of a diversified firm. according to him, the existence of synergy can be explained in terms of the relatedness between an organisation’s business units, the particular strengths of the diversified organisation, and the organisation’s structure. naudé et al. (2002) point out that most major diversified companies have decentralised into business units with profit responsibility embracing autonomy and practising decentralisation with near religious devotion. they (naudé et al., 2002) are of the opinion that uncontrolled decentralisation undermines the pursuit of interrelationships between business units and regard the organisational difficulties of achieving clearly beneficial interrelationships as the main reason why many managers reject synergy. having studied the relationship between diversification and the degree of synergy between business units on the economic performance of an organisation, rumelt (in ensign, 1998) identifies three types of synergy, namely operating, managerial and financial synergy. a large number of studies on the diversified organisation are based on rumelt’s ideas (in ensign, 1998). however, these studies generally do not test whether synergy is actually achieved, since they assume synergy when there is relatedness between the business units (ensign, 1998). synergy studies basically focus on the type of diversification and the impact it has on the competitive advantage of the organisation (ensign, 1998). the need to maintain a competitive advantage is an important driving force in diversified organisations (ensign, 1998). krumm et al. (1998) argue that corporations have to understand and appreciate their own capabilities and resources in order to establish a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. porter (in ensign, 1998) suggests that a way to achieve such an advantage is to develop interrelationships between business units that will lead to effective resource sharing and synergy in executing value-chain activities. rowley (2002) argues that the value chain features in areas where a company has the potential to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. to gain such an advantage, a business needs to perform some function in the value chain better than its competitors. this can be achieved through alliances with partnering companies and the resultant synergy (rowley, 2002). co-ordination tends to become increasingly more important as the business environment becomes more competitive (ensign, 1998). chang (1990) points out that the stronger the competitive advantage of constituent business units the more difficult it becomes to realise a diversified company’s synergy.) shaver (2006) warns that the merging of businesses may adversely affect their competitive advantage in that the facilitation of synergy may amplif y threats and inhibit the ability to react positively to favourable conditions in the business environment. rowley (2002) identifies supply, production, marketing, delivery and support as the primary steps in the value chain. ensign (1998) points out that much research has focused on the extent to which business units of a diversified company are related or unrelated to each other. he argues that the development of successful interrelationships in diversified companies depends on the relatedness between specific activities rather than between entire business units. ensign (1998) recommends that studies of interrelationships must focus on the relatedness of valuechain activities in different business units. in ensign’s (1998) view, relatedness of activities where potential interrelationships can be developed must be further explored, since it may help determining a diversified organisation’s synergy potential. franzsen, van der merwe, buys, bischoff, courtney, varachia, cox and miller (2001) describe a value chain as a graphic presentation of the activities of a business, which activities may be divided into primary and secondary activities. primary activities are the activities involved in the physical creation, sale and transfer of a product or service, while secondary activities entail procurement, technology development, human resource management, financial activities and quality management (franzsen et al., 2001). naudé et al. (2002) argue that the ability to share activities in the value chain is a strong basis for corporate synergy, because sharing often enhances a competitive advantage by lowering costs or encouraging differentiation. however, they (naudé et al., 2002) warn that not all sharing will lead to a competitive advantage and that a diversified organisation may encounter deep organisational resistance, even to beneficial sharing possibilities. according to them (naudé et al., 2002), these realities have led to the rejection of synergy by many companies and a retreat to the false simplicity of portfolio management. since the middle 1980s, interest in the analysis of competitive advantage shifted towards internal organisational aspects (krumm et al., 1998). competitive advantage was perceived by diversified organisations as depending less on corporate decisions regarding marketing and more on sharing internal resources (krumm et al., 1998). naudé et al. (2002) point out that resource sharing can lower costs if it achieves economies of scale, boosts utilisation efficiency or encourages information sharing. argenti (1994) argues that synergy is primarily achieved through resource sharing by combining two or more activities, processes or businesses to create greater value than they would be able to create independently. the popularity of the resource-based approach has to a large degree been created by prahalad and hamel’s core-competence thinking (krumm et al., 1998). from the literature it is clear that only a few synergy studies have thus far investigated resource sharing and profitability (ensign, 1998). chang’s (1990) study found that synergy is a function of competitive advantage derived from shared resources. gupta and govindarajan (in ensign, 1998) examined resource sharing but unfortunately derived only one hypothesis on resource sharing, namely that resource sharing indeed contributes to cost effectiveness between business units (ensign, 1998). mahajan and wind’s findings (in ensign, 1998) on the relationship between synergy and profitability are criticised for isolating the performance of one business unit from the performance of other units participating in resource sharing, since some business units will benefit more than others in the process (ensign, 1998). waco and wery (2004) argue that a key enabler of lasting synergies lies in approaching the diversified company in terms of the division of labour, management responsibilities and the development of common processes across business units and regions. ensign (1998) argues that understanding interrelationships in diverse organisations is important for understanding synergy, which argument is supported by chang’s (1990) doctoral study. ensign (1998) classifies diversified companies into vertical, portfolio and horizontal companies. l the vertical company is designed to transfer resources from one unit to another in a one-way or vertical fashion. hence the vertical company may not be equipped to identif y and co-ordinate the mutual sharing of resources (ensign, 1998). juga (1996) points out that large diversified companies can balance their dual demands for corporatelevel co-ordination and local responsiveness by establishing benecke, schurink, roodt10 interdependent business units instead of having rigid vertical and hierarchical structures. this implies that vertical companies may have to change their interrelationships to achieve synergies (ensign, 1998). l naudé et al. (2002) point out that the most often-found portfolio company is based primarily on diversification through acquisitions. the acquired business units of such a diversified company are autonomous and employees of its business units are compensated according to each one’s results (naudé et al., 2002). a company with no interrelationships between its business units is thus decentralised (ensign, 1998). the portfolio organisation shows limited resource sharing and synergy between its business units. l the horizontal organisation has the structure and the mechanisms to encourage the successful development of interrelationships. the characteristics of the horizontal organisation can help it to achieve a competitive advantage (ensign, 1998). companies have to compete effectively not only in their local context, but in wider regional and global marketplaces (pun, 2004). they have to identify competitive priorities and implement strategies that will ensure a competitive advantage (pun, 2004). naudé et al. (2002) argue that a horizontal strategy that cuts across divisional boundaries should be one of the most important items on the strategic agenda of a diversified organisation. these authors (naudé et al., 2002) believe that a horizontal strategy is the mechanism by which a diversified organisation can enhance the competitive advantage of its business units. steinfield et al. (2001) define a synergy strategy as one where a company horizontally links the strengths of different distribution channels. a horizontal strategy co-ordinates the goals and strategies of related business units, brings about interrelationships and facilitates strategy (naudé et al., 2002). paich (1996) warns that when systems and human resources are polarised the corporate strategy may look cohesive but in reality suffers from a lack of synergy. ensign (1998) says that interrelationships refer to the sharing of resources and skills in activities that are related to achieving synergy, while a horizontal strategy refers to developing those interrelationships that create value towards achieving a competitive advantage. aligning organisational strategy to the context of the organisation is an important management task. it includes co-operation between the various business units of an organisation, more particularly co-operation that strengthens the competitive position of all business units through the sharing of capabilities such as intellectual capital. in this context synergy efforts can be seen as co-managed strategies that provide a systemic solution to the bigger organisation of which the business units are part (ensign, 1998). when an organisation plans to acquire another company, it compares company objectives, market trends and customer input with company resources so as to identif y ways to build business value. the buyer company must develop a strategic plan to identif y synergies with the seller company. these synergies can later be used to identif y specific key integration activities (parenteau & weston, 2003). ensign (1998) points out that if the diversified company seeks to develop horizontal strategies that can create value for the total organisation, it must organise and manage business units in such a way that each can benefit from its link with the rest of the diversified company and that each business unit will be better off operating as part of the company than operating independently. upon scrutiny, the literature on synergy in organisations shows some limitations: l no integrative theoretical framework of how to lead change towards synergy in a global and diversified organisation could be found. l no examples of the application of grounded theory in synergy studies of global and diversified organisations could be identified. l only a few synergy studies investigated the issue of resource sharing and profitability (ensign, 1998). l no study could be found that attempted to create a systemic framework for pursuing synergies in a global and diversified organisation. l no study of synergy could be identified that simultaneously explores all the abstract constructs of synergy, namely organisational culture, intellectual capital, strategy, organisational structure, leadership, organisational change, motivation, the balanced scorecard, value-based management, reward and communication. in light of the preceding exposition, we decided to create a substantive integrative theoretical framework for leading change towards synergy in a global and diversified organisation by applying grounded theory in a modernist qualitative context by means of a case study. research design research approach there is an increasing awareness particularly among qualitative researchers that one has to be clear on one’s scientific values or beliefs in order to properly plan and execute a research project (see locke, 2001; mason, 1996; schurink, 2004). a researcher’s ontology, or her or his perceptions of the nature of social reality (or the social world) and what there is to know about it (schurink, 2004), is a basic value of research. denzin and lincoln (2000) refer to ontology as the researcher’s beliefs about the nature of social reality, i.e. the nature of human beings. gill and johnson (2002, p. 228), in turn, define ontology as the study of the essence of phenomena and the nature of their existence. by applying a particular qualitative approach in his recent doctoral work benecke discovered and described the meanings that the employees of a particular global and diversified company1 attached to synergy. in order to construct their social reality, including their experiences of and views on synergy, he utilised their concrete or first-order constructs as well as existing theoretical concepts, i.e. abstract symbolic tools or second-order constructs developed by scholars to illuminate human behaviour (see mouton, 1985; mouton & marais, 1990). more particularly, benecke employed a general theoretical perspective, namely symbolic interactionism2, which has played an important role in the development of what is termed “modernist qualitative research” (denzin & lincoln, 2000)3. benecke also took note of broad assumptions arising from his personal experience of the company and the experiences of other people closely associated with it. the other key research value is a researcher’s epistemology. this refers to where one stands in relation to the social world one studies (see schurink, 2004). denzin and lincoln (2000) refer to this as the researcher’s beliefs about the relationship between the inquirer and the known. gill and johnson (2002, p. 226) define epistemology as the branch of philosophy concerned with the study of the criteria by which we determine what does and does not constitute warranted or valid knowledge. mason (in schurink, 2004) views epistemology as the researcher’s theory of knowledge. clearly epistemology has to do with the principles and rules we use when we study a particular social phenomenon. our theory of knowledge holds that knowledge can be attained by applying formalised qualitative methods and analysing data rigorously. this is in line with the so-called modernist tradition of qualitative research. a substantive theory of synergy 11 1 adhering to the ethical practice of ensuring anonymity and confidentiality, we refer to this company as “the company”. benecke was primarily responsible for executing the research for his doctoral thesis, hence the reference to him personally. in other instances reference is made to the authors as ‘we’. 2 symbolic interactionism focuses on how individuals develop a specific view of the world through their interactions with other people in the same social setting. such a group will therefore develop a common yet unique view of a concept such as synergy. 3 as will become clear, we paid particular attention to a popular outcome of this perspective, namely grounded theory (see glaser & strauss, 1967). in addition to one’s ontology and epistemology it is necessary to consider one’s position regarding key personal beliefs and research ethics. in contrast to their quantitative counterparts, qualitative researchers believe that they cannot be aloof from their research. they are convinced that they have to become immersed in people, social situations and any social reality they study (schurink, 2005, e-mail communication). assuming varying interactive social roles when observing social settings, they interview and interact with research participants so as to collect, capture and interpret data, and finally construct social worlds. research method research participiants in accordance with purposive sampling (see strydom & delport, 2002) benecke carefully selected particular individuals and groups involved in pursuing global synergies in the company. then he proceeded with theoretical sampling4. as corporate synergy falls in the domain of organisational development, which in turn can be seen as part of the responsibilities of human resource directors, benecke identified the various human resource directors of the company’s business units as critical gatekeepers. their gatekeeping role provided insight that benecke did not have at the outset. he approached these functionaries of the company’s south african business units and explained the purpose of the study as well as purposive and theoretical sampling and how he intended to utilise these. the human resource directors approached those candidates they judged able to make a meaningful contribution and informed them that benecke would contact them. those participants benecke knew personally he approached directly. the basic particulars of the in-depth interviews are presented schematically below. table 1: in-depth interviews re search parti cipant business unit department position date duration 1. bwm human resources general manager 19.08.2004 95 minutes 2. pp performance improvement group manager 30.08.2004 65 minutes 3. pp marketing brand investment officer 31.08.2004 42 minutes 4. pp procurement group procurement manager 01.09.2004 80 minutes 5. pp marketing director 01.09.2004 75 minutes 6. pp finance director 03.09.2004 60 minutes 7. rb-t executive management managing director 07.09.2004 60 minutes 8. rb-p executive management general manager 07.09.2004 105 minutes 9. rb-s executive management director 08.09.2004 60 minutes 10. rb-s information technology it manager 09.09.2004 60 minutes 11. rb-g executive management managing director 09.09.2004 105 minutes 12. rb-t project management project manager 14.09.2004 45 minutes 13. corporate office employment law executive 16.09.2004 85 minutes 14. rb-p executive management managing director 16.09.2004 70 minutes 15. rb-s finance general manager 16.09.2004 95 minutes 16. pp information technology chief information officer 17.09.2004 70 minutes 17. log executive management executive 17.09.2004 95 minutes 18. rb-s project management project manager 20.09.2004 100 minutes 919. proc executive management executive 20.09.2004 75 minutes 20. bec branch management general manager 21.09.2004 71 minutes 21. rb-s organisational performance executive 22.09.2005 75 minutes 22. corporate office human resources executive director 01.10.2004 60 minutes 23. coat human resources human resource director 04.10.2004 75 minutes 24. corporate office information technology chief information officer 06.10.2004 60 minutes 25. bwm marketing director marketing 07.10.2004 75 minutes 26. bec executive management chief executive officer 21.10.2004 75 minutes 27. coat project management projects manager 27.10.2004 120 minutes five of the operational business units, namely bwm, pp, rb, bec and coat, were represented in the in-depth interviews. the two business units that were not included were the overseas ones; attempts were made to conduct in-depth interviews with their visiting executives, but business pressures made it impossible. the distribution of in-depth interviews per department was as follows: human resources (3), performance improvement (1), marketing (3), finance (2), information technology (3), project management (3), employment law (1), branch management (1), organisational performance (1), executive management (8) and procurement (1). the distribution of in-depth interviews per business unit and department is incidental, i.e. the distribution is the result of responses to my request for participation in the in-depth interviews. the strong presence of rb and pp can simply be ascribed to their respective directors’ commitment to the study and the way in which they encouraged their personnel to participate. the participants in the two focus group interviews were selected on the basis of their involvement in synergy activities in the company. those taking part in the first focus group interview were members of a regional synergy committee that met on 21 september 2004 in durban5. the other focus group consisted of executives of the company involved in an executive development programme at a local university, sponsored by the company6. schurink who attended this focus group interview explained key aspects of the study’s assumptions, such as its modernist base. this raised the study’s credibility in the eyes of the participants and gave them an opportunity to learn more about it and its possible applications in a business environment. benecke, schurink, roodt12 4 theoretical sampling is typically used to refine ideas: the original sample is used to study specific issues so as to obtain more precise information (see strydom & delport, 2002). 5 the nine participants held their normal regional synergy committee meeting in a conference room. the focus group interview was conducted immediately after this meeting. the participants represented three of the seven business units of the company. 6 of the original five members only three could attend the focus group interview on 1 march 2005. 7 six participants represented bec (three from madrid and three from johannesburg) and one represented bid (charlotte). 8 the actual duration of the interviews was more a function of the research participants’ contribution than mine. 9 these interviews were conducted on 21 and 27 october 2004 respectively. 10 the two participants who did the member validation were not requested to complete follow-up essays. during the focus group interviews and a video conference on the establishment of a forum for recruitment and selection in the company benecke acted as participant observer. the conference took place on 10 september 2004 from 15:00 to 16:00, and the seven participants were from johannesburg (south africa), charlotte (north carolina, united states) and madrid (spain)7. data-gathering methods creswell (1998) distinguishes four basic sources of data: observations, interviews, documents and audiovisual materials. as pointed out, in-depth as well as focus group interviews were utilised. these were supplemented with documents (minutes and reports on synergy meetings, benecke diary and solicited essays) and participant observation. the audiovisual materials consisted of films of the focus group interviews. l interviewing basically benecke followed creswell’s (1998) approach to inter viewing: he designed protocols and used them to guide the initial and follow-up interviews. by using the interview protocol he managed to be a listener rather than a speaker during the interviews and to stay within the time limits8. the protocol also ensured consistency regarding the questions and instructions put to the participants during both the indepth and the focus group interviews. benecke recorded the in-depth interviews with an audio cassette recorder and the focus group interviews with two audio cassette recorders (an extra measure to ensure that all the participants would be audible on the recordings) and a video camera. the choice of location for the interviews was left to the participants so as to ensure that they would feel secure and at ease. all participants were provided with an informed consent form for signing at the conclusion of the individual in-depth as well as the focus group interviews. for member validation benecke selected participants 26 and 27 to comment on my construction of the participants’ social worlds9. for this purpose he used an interview protocol derived from his construction of the social reality of synergy in the company. l documents the documents that were used included the minutes of synergy or shared services committees and forums of the company. nine requested essays as follow-ups to the initial in-depth interviews were also used. the essays were requested per e-mail from 25 participants10. benecke's diary consisted mainly of electronic communication between his study leaders and himself; the e-mail messages were used to compile the auto ethnography. l participant observation following creswell’s (1998) steps for observation (not to be confused with his steps for interviewing), benecke developed what may be referred to as a “field notes protocol”. this protocol was completed for both the focus group interviews and the video conference. in the protocol provision was made for: (1) descriptive (observational) notes, (2) reflective notes, (3) reflections on analysis and evolving constructs, (4) reflections on method, (5) reflections on ethical dilemmas and concerns, and (6) reflections on my frame of mind. l audiovisual materials with the exception of the cassette and video recordings of the interviews, no other audiovisual materials were utilised. this was in line with the original decision that the use of this source of data would be too demanding on the available resources. data-gathering procedure the in-depth interviews were captured by taking notes on the protocol forms, making an audio cassette recording of each interview and requesting a typist to transcribe each interview. the focus group interviews were video-taped as well as audiotaped. during the interviews benecke captured information on the field notes protocol he had designed for participant observation. both focus group interviews were transcribed. information on the video conference was captured on the same field notes protocol, but no audio tape or video recordings were made of this event. benecke also accessed documents on the company’s synergy intranet site. the nine requested essays were sent to him via e-mail. the data were stored in six locations, namely benecke’s personal computer’s hard drive; two locations on his business unit’s server; a rewritable compact disc that he kept in his study; a mass storage device that he kept with his computer (most of the time); and, generally, his study at home where he kept printed hard copies, hand-written hard copies of all interviews, field notes protocols, documents such as minutes and reports and his diary as well as the audio and video cassettes. the risk of losing information stored on the company’s server was slight, which implies that all typed information was quite safe. material kept in benecke’s study was mainly at risk of fire and water damage, while documents kept on his personal portable computer were greatly exposed to the risk of theft and lightning. in the study a single case was explored, seeking specific conclusions as explained by gummesson (2000) and collis and hussey (2003). this was applied within the broad objectivist grounded theory paradigm as explicated by charmaz (2000)11. due to the nature of the study as well as his positivistic inclinations and the size of the company, benecke found it difficult to terminate the fieldwork. this is not uncommon since a local researcher, claassen (2004), indicates that qualitative researchers usually find it difficult to terminate the data collection phase. creswell (1998) believes that categories representing units of information usually become saturated after 20 to 30 interviews. although it cannot be claimed with certainty that all the categories in the study were saturated, themes started to recur. taking creswell’s (1998) advice seriously, benecke decided to terminate the fieldwork on the completion of the natural history/ research story. ensuring quality data data quality was ensured in several ways: l the application of triangulation12 was the primary means to ensure quality data, and boiled down to the use of various data collection techniques, namely in-depth interviews, focus group interviews, follow-up essays, documents, the natural history/research story and participant observation. l all the participants also participated voluntarily in the indepth and focus group interviews and all of them signed the informed consent form. this paved the way for using their information in the study. l furthermore, all the participants were assured that the information they provided would be treated confidentially and that their identities would not be disclosed. l in addition, all the participants were asked whether they would like copies of the transcripts of their interviews. those who were interested received copies. only two participants indicated that they would like changes applied to the transcripts. benecke made the changes in accordance with their wishes and destroyed the original transcripts. l purposive sampling was applied by selecting only employees with an “informed opinion” for the in-depth interviews (with the assistance of the human resource directors) and adding data obtained from members of a study group on synergy in the company. two participants were selected to comment on a substantive theory of synergy 13 11 gummesson (2000, p. 84) indicates that two types of case study are of particular interest. according to him, “[t]he first one attempts to derive general conclusions from a limited number of cases … the second type seeks to arrive at specific conclusions regarding a single case because this ‘case history’ is of particular interest.” 12 the term “triangulation” originates from the application of trigonometry to navigation. in qualitative research it is often used imprecisely, to such an extent that its meaning is unclear (bogdan & biklen, 1998). 13 not all qualitative researchers agree with the use of the term “coding” to describe the categorisation of data. dey (1993, p. 58) has the following to say on the matter: “although ‘coding’ has become an accepted term for categorizing data, it has misleading connotations and is singularly inappropriate for qualitative analysis.” benecke’s account of the participants’ reality. l excerpts were drawn from the interviews to support the identified categories. l finally the natural history or internal audit trail of the study were compilled. data analysis the well-known formal qualitative inferential strateg y, grounded theory, was used to analyse the data. strauss and corbin (1998), bogdan and biklen (1998) and creswell (2003) propose a coding system for analysing data within this strategy13. creswell (2003) points out that grounded theory has the following systematic steps: (1) generating categories of information (open coding); (2) selecting one of the categories and positioning it within a theoretical model (axial coding); and (3) creating a story from the interconnection of these categories (selective coding). strauss and corbin (1998, p. 101) describe open coding as the “analytic process through which concepts are identified and their properties and dimensions are discovered in data”. benecke used the hand-written protocols (field notes) and transcripts of the in-depth and focus group interviews as main sources for open coding. the hand-written protocols and transcripts were read several times. benecke compared field notes on each interview protocol with the transcript of that interview and used a matrix to capture themes emerging from the data per participant. this enabled him to quantif y the number of times a particular theme recurred, enabling “measurement” of the strength of the theme. according to claassen (2004, p. 41), during open coding “the participants’ voices [emerge] through excerpts of their views and stories, thus giving them a ‘voice’. these verbatim quotations also serve to authenticate the identified trends and to explain my thinking and analysis patterns.” following his example, benecke extracted excerpts from the interviews to authenticate the themes he identified. the information gleaned from the documentary sources, the natural history and the participant observation session was also used in this phase. benecke then integrated the themes emerging from all the data sources. this resulted in 44 open codes. strauss and corbin (1998, p. 123) define axial coding as the “process of relating categories to their subcategories, termed ‘axial’ because coding occurs around the axis of a category, linking categories at the level of properties and dimensions”. during axial coding, benecke examined the relationships between the 44 open codes and integrated them into 10 axial codes. he ensured that all the initial open codes were accommodated in the process. strauss and corbin (1998, p. 143) define selective coding as the “process of integrating and refining the theory”. they pose that theory development is an evolving process that occurs over a long period of time. according to them, it begins with the first bit of analysis and only ends when the research has been written up (strauss & corbin, 1998). the idea is basically to develop a single storyline around which everything else is woven (claassen, 2004). findings during open coding benecke generated 44 open codes and their properties, which were systematically developed into 10 main categories (themes) with subcategories during axial coding. table 2 contains the 10 main themes or axial codes. during selective coding the 10 main categories were integrated into a larger theoretical scheme or central category. a central category is the main theme and sums up a pattern of behaviour (goulding, 2002). to integrate and refine the main categories a central category needed to be formulated. this was difficult because all the “products of analysis” (strauss & corbin, 1998, p. 146) had to be distilled into a few words that would explain the essence of the research. apart from turning to the existing literature for guidance, the following criteria of glaser (in goulding, 2002) and strauss and corbin (1998) were applied to create a storyline: l all other major categories must be linked to the central category. l the central category must consistently recur in the data. l the relation between the central category and the other categories must be logical. l the phrase that describes the central category must be sufficiently abstract to allow for research in other related substantive areas. l the central category must grow in explanatory power while it is being integrated with the other major categories. the following storyline emerged: the top leadership of the company has a crucial role to play in changing the organisation’s culture from one of compartmentalisation to one of synergy where the whole is more than the sum of its components. committed leadership towards synergy is the most critical condition for changing the culture. the main tools at leadership’s disposal to change the culture of the company are reward and communication, which could be seen as prerequisites for changing the culture. in recent years the chief executive officer played an important role in providing a vision for synergy initiatives in the company. the company was created out of various mergers and acquisitions that took place over many years. these mergers and acquisitions led to business units that functioned independently from each other and created a legacy of compartmentalisation. compartmentalisation was the main obstacle to achieving synergies between the business units. other key obstacles were apathy towards synergy, self-interest of employees and the complexity of synergy as a concept, where obstacles could be seen as predictors of non-achievement of synergy. historically, compartmentalisation was strengthened by an unofficial policy that condoned the individualistic nature of the business units. in recent years there were various efforts to undo the compartmentalisation and remove the barriers between the business units, for example management and executive development programmes, smart partnerships and shared procurement. potential new synergy initiatives recommended by the participants were the following: the creation of an internal marketplace where resources and information could be traded between business units; the exploitation of synergies between the sales, marketing, production and materials management departments; the exploitation of synergies between the human resource, finance and information technology departments; support for the employee exchange programme; the prioritisation of synergy initiatives; the better utilisation of the global brand image; and the exploitation of intellectual capital. both current and potential synergy initiatives could be seen as prerequisites for achieving synergy. the above storyline led to the central category: leading a change process towards achieving synergy in the company. we believe that benecke’s conceptualisation of the social reality of synergy in the company as experienced by the participants matches the data. it explains what was happening in the company. we believe that the main categories delineated during axial coding are feasibly linked to the central category. benecke, schurink, roodt14 a substantive theory of synergy 15 table 2: axial codes, open codes and examples of behaviour axial codes open codes exemplary verbatim quotations theme 1: need for business units to co-operate with each other • value of synergy for the business units. • opportunities for synergy. • importance of synergy. • global competitiveness. • divisions must work together and share customer bases. • there is an opportunity for competitive advantage for those organisations that can leverage synergy over those that cannot. people [across the company] do not regard synergy as very important. the chief executive officer believes in it. theme 2: communicating for synergy • sharing of best practices • communication forums • communication guidelines • poor communication • on the information technology side the environment is ever changing. to be an expert in all areas is basically impossible. because environments are becoming more complicated, there is more of a need to share knowledge to ensure that the right decisions are taken. • regional synergy forums pursue synergies between business units. • barriers between business units are breaking down theme 3: potential negative impact of synergy • risk of synergy to the company • destruction of unit brand value • forced co-operation • limited time for synergy drives • the danger [of including synergy as a balanced scorecard item] is that employees will lose their focus on their primary objective, being the improvement of their own business unit. • forcing the use of the products and services of other business units will result in more problems and the benefactor getting even sloppier with service and price. theme 4: rewards for synergy • selling the benefits of synergy • balanced scorecard • low return on investment in synergy • recognition for synergy achievements • need for mutual benefit from synergy • global reward • value-based management • employee value creation • people want to know what the benefits for them are if they do something extra. sell benefits before you impose discipline. the bigger [the company] gets, the bigger the opportunities for synergy. when the work is rewarding, then i shall do synergies. people are motivated by becoming part of a network. sell them the benefits of creating successful synergies. they ask, “what will i benefit on a personal level?” • the customer asked why don’t we give him a [global organisation] card so he can use companies [of the global company] and get benefits for doing it. the card can be used for discount when you buy paint, or earn points, like voyager miles. i think it’s a huge opportunity to establish brand identity and synergies in the minds of our customers, let alone our staff. the card will work for staff too. we don’t set out intending to give our staff the benefits of synergies. an annual grand prize for the best synergy initiative must be allocated. theme 5: history of compartmentalisation • policy of compartmentalisation • efforts to undo compartmentalisation • previously there was a deliberate policy to force silos. senior and middle management grew up in an environment where the policy was to encourage silos and not to worry about other departments. it is difficult to make the mind-shift from successful silos that generated promotional opportunities, to synergies theme 6: potential new synergy initiatives • internal marketplace • sales, marketing, production and materials management • human resources, finance and information technology • employee exchange programme • prioritisation of synergy initiatives • global brand image • exploiting intellectual capital • most of our senior executives are traders by definition. we have put synergy into a process that discourages the trading mentality. currently we enforce a committee type of environment! why do you not create an internal marketplace and let the guys tender, exchange services and products? • create forums that consist out of various business divisions that focus on the growth of market segments to devise a shared synergetic market strategy. • particularly on the people side we must use the skills pool. we must explore the whole concept of intellectual capital and knowledge sharing. we must look at how we can transfer employees across the globe and how we can create and share a repository of best practices. we must have something like a rotary exchange programme. many of our overseas colleagues would like to come and visit. theme 7: current synergy initiatives • management and executive development programmes • smart partnerships • synergy successes and failures • procurement • so if you hear from guys who did the ldp [leadership development programme] and the edp [executive development programme], you hear about synergy. • smart partnerships are a way to pursue synergies • branding of synergy is good. people are very aware of the branding. it carries a lot of weight and we try to contribute to it. the marketing drive is a formal synergy initiative. they want all the companies in the group to do a formal marketing plan and they give us guidelines on how to do it. they force guys to think about their marketing. theme 8: leadership towards synergy • top management must drive synergy • synergy as a long-term strategy • lack of commitment from senior management • synergy strategies must be driven from the top and must be facilitated from the top. if you try to be dogmatic, it will not work. it has to be softer. • i’m not sure if our executives buy into synergy and drive it. the executives must have that synergy team, it must be a full-time function, across the companies. within companies they are creating cross-functional teams and we are doing a lot now. synergy must not be a parttime or ad hoc thing. theme 9: key obstacles to achieving synergy • current organisational structure • apathy towards synergy • self-interest • complexity of synergy as concept • the hierarchical structure of the organisation is a key problem for synergy. business units see themselves as independent from one another and the larger organisation. • i don’t know if people are lazy or just so busy that they feel they can’t afford the time or are apathetic. it’s immensely frustrating for those people who do want to make it work. we as marketing team all wish we had more time to leverage it. theme 10: need for a change in culture • establishing trust • insecurity • develop a synergy culture • lip service • i found that very few synergies come from business cases. a lot more is done through [an attitude of] “i trust you and i hope that this thing is going to work. after we’ve struggled, something might happen.” in a business you don’t have many occasions where things just happen. • people feel threatened. their range of knowledge and contacts give them a sense of power. synergy can take it away. • i said previously that synergy became a lip service type of phrase. no one is prepared to play open cards. discussion silver (in anfara & mertz, 2006) defines theory as a unique way of looking at reality, an expression of someone’s understanding of an aspect of nature and new and different perceptions of an aspect of the world. bogdan and biklen (1998) and other qualitative researchers see theory as a collection of logically related assumptions, concepts or propositions that orient thinking and research. according to strauss and corbin (1998, p. 22), theory “denotes a set of well developed categories (e.g., themes, concepts) that are systematically inter-related through statements of relationship to form a theoretical framework that explains some relevant social, psychological, educational, nursing, or other phenomena”. given the above views of bogdan and biklen, silver, and strauss and corbin on theory building, we believe a substantive theory for leading a change process towards achieving synergy in the company was developed, because: l we managed to reach an understanding of the social reality of synergy in the company; l new insight into synergy in the company was provided l a collection of logically related assumptions, concepts or propositions to guide future thinking and research on synergy in an organisational context was provided; and l a set of well-developed categories (themes, concepts etc.) are offered that are systematically interrelated through stated relationships, which in turn form a theoretical framework that explains how change towards synergy may be led in the company. goulding (2002) describes recontext ualisation as the development of a theory so as to apply it to settings and populations other than those to which it was originally applied. seal (1999) points out that a case study could produce theoretical principles and argues that the basis for theoretical generalisation lies in logic rather than in probability. he argues that the features present in a case study will be related to a wider population not because the case is representative but because the qualitative analysis is unassailable. based on goulding’s and seal’s reasoning above, we believe it is reasonable to argue that the constructed theory by means of this case study may be applied to synergy-related phenomena such as mergers, acquisitions, strategic alliances, partnerships, collaboration and joint ventures. next we offer the theory generated by aligning the conditional/ consequential matrix (strauss & corbin, 1998) with the stimulus-organism-response (s-o-r) theory (partington, 2000). burden (2006) demonstrates how to develop a substantive model for organisational redesign by aligning the conditional/ consequential matrix of grounded theory with the s-o-r theory. in doing so, he succeeded in creating a structured framework that could be applied by qualitative researchers who use grounded theory in organisational studies. since the development of a systemic process-driven theoretical framework for leading change towards synergy in the company showed some similarities with burden’s (2006) work, his framework was applied. but what does a conditional/consequential matrix and the so-r theory imply? strauss and corbin (1998, p. 181) define a conditional/consequential matrix in grounded theory as follows: “an analytic device to stimulate analysts’ thinking about the relationships between macro and micro conditions/ consequences both to each other and to process.” locke (2001) explains that a conditional matrix directs one to enquire into and specif y the broad social, historical and economic conditions that may influence what one studies. goulding (2002) describes the conditional/consequential matrix simply as a device for following the various levels of influence upon the phenomenon under study. partington (2000) points out that the behavioural sciences have moved towards cognitive perspectives in which the focus is on managers’ conscious deliberations. these deliberations are accommodated by the s-o-r model, which sees individuals as processors of information. in management research this model focuses on the manager as mediator between environmental stimulus and behavioural response (partington, 2000). s-o-r became popular because of the pressure to develop theories addressing the needs of managers and providing them with tools to manage change (partington, 2000). ligen and klein (in burden, 2006) also discuss how s-o-r emphasises the mediating role of the individual between environmental stimulus (cause) and behavioural response (effect). the s-o-r theory focuses on how people’s understanding of their environment leads to action. grounded theory’s interactionist origins are basically the same as that of the so-r theory (partington, 2000). the main concern of symbolic interactionism (on which grounded theory is based) is to understand social processes. for the symbolic interactionist, a stimulus is something that must be interpreted before a decision will be made. similarly s-o-r theorists regard stimuli as things that must be interpreted or transformed before action will occur (partington, 2000). burden (2006) explains how so-r relates to grounded theory. grounded theory analysts use a cause-and-effect schema to explain relationships between categories and sub-categories in much the same way their s-o-r counterparts would identif y relationships between causes/ inputs and effects/outputs. having outlined both grounded theory and s-o-r, we now present the systemic process-driven substantive theory we constructed to facilitate change towards synerg y in the company. partington (2000) argues that it is possible to develop an improved grounded theory framework that satisfies the requirements of the s-o-r theory by simplif ying the conditional/consequential matrix and by making it more accessible to managers. he (partington, 2000) suggests that the s-o-r theory and the conditional/consequential matrix should be aligned in order to form a new framework consisting of four broad conditions that, in turn, will influence the studied phenomenon. these conditions are: the external organisational context, the internal organisational context, managerial cognition and action. l the external organisational context refers to external stimulus/input factors that influence synerg y in the company. global competitiveness and profit considerations feature as external stimulus factors that influence synergy in the company. l the internal organisational context refers to internal stimulus/input factors that influence synerg y in the company. the internal stimulus factors are divided into stumbling blocks and enablers of synergy respectively. both the stumbling blocks and the enablers are derived from combining first-order constructs elicited from the research participants with the abstract constructs extracted from the literature. l managerial cognition refers to the control management exert over synergy in the company. management can exert control over synergy through the balanced scorecard, ensuring that synergy benefits all role players, eliminates low return on synergy efforts, and promotes value-based management and employee value creation. l action refers to outputs produced by management to execute their decisions on synergy in the company. the action of management as per the first-order and abstract constructs already discussed can be divided into communication and current and potential synergy initiatives. action in the context of communication refers to the sharing of best practices between role players, the establishment of communication forums and the provision of communication guidelines for implementing synergy. current synergy initiatives refer to management and executive development programmes, benecke, schurink, roodt16 a substantive theory of synergy 17 smart partnerships, procurement initiatives, and initiatives that capitalise on previous successes and avoid past pitfalls that led to failures. potential synergy initiatives are actions required to execute decisions on the implementation of synergy in the company. potential synergy initiatives relate to the establishment of an internal marketplace, employee exchange programmes, the establishment of a global brand image and the exploitation of the intellectual capital of the company. the figure 1 below presents the theory graphically. contributions of the study we believe that the study makes a contribution, albeit modestly, to the area of leadership in performance and change at a theoretical as well as a methodological level: l the insights into the various aspects of synergy contribute towards building a qualitative substantive theory for creating synergy. l the application of a modernist qualitative approach and particularly grounded theory introduced qualitative methodology to synergy studies. l the theory of leading a change process towards achieving synergy which may be used to good effect by the company’s top executives. l paving the way for scholars of synergy locally and elsewhere to test the application of the theory in mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, partnerships, joint ventures and collaboration. l paving the way for formulating proposals on policy regarding co-operation between the business units of the company. the literature on organisation synergy referred to earlier in this article points to certain limitations: l no integrative conceptual framework of how to lead a change process towards achieving synergies in a global and diversified organisation existed. in this study an integrative conceptual framework has been created through the development of the substantive theory of synergy. l there is no attempt in synergy studies to build conceptual frameworks of synergy in the global and diversified organisation. in this study a conceptual framework for such synergy has been built by aligning the conditional/ consequential matrix with the s-o-r theory. figure 1: substantive theory for leading a change process towards synergy benecke, schurink, roodt18 l research addressing resource sharing and profitability is limited (ensign, 1998). the substantive theory developed in this study suggests specific ways of sharing resources and improving profitability. l no synergy study that explores all synergy-relevant abstract constructs such as organisational culture, structure and change, intellectual capital, strategy, leadership, motivation, balanced scorecard, value-based management, reward and communication exists. in this study all of these abstract constructs have been addressed. noticable limitations of the study while strauss and corbin’s (1998) guidelines for grounded theory research were useful, these are, as partington (2000) points out, rather complicated. it must be acknowledged that a somewhat mechanistic approach was used, by applying the strauss and corbin (1998) manuscript basically as a manual during the open, axial and selective coding. bogdan and biklen (1998) recommend that qualitative researchers should not study constructs in which they are closely involved and advise them to do their research in settings to which they are strangers. they (bogdan & biklen, 1998) hold that if researchers are intimately involved in a setting, it is difficult for them to distance themselves from their personal concerns. research participants may also not relate well to someone they know. these warnings were taken to heart, and we are convinced that a sound study of the company was undertaken because benecke’s insider position provided access to the research participants and their views of synergy that would otherwise not have been accessible. recommendations we believe that in future research on synergy the following need to be considered: l expanding the substantive theory into formal theory. l explaining the relationships between the respective variables established in this study. for this purpose we strongly recommend exploring concepts related to synergy, i.e. mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, joint ventures, partnerships and collaboration, and the extent to which the theory developed in this study applies to them. l applying a quantitative approach to deductively explore the relationship between the discovered constructs further. qualitative methods in general and grounded theory in particular are well suited to the initial discovery of constructs, whereas quantitative methods are better equipped to specif y the relationships between them. this belief explains why the number of scholars who hold that both qualitative and quantitative methodologies should be used is growing (creswell, 2003). l aligning the conditional/consequential matrix with the stimulus-organism-response (s-o-r) theory as suggested by partington (2000) by burden (2006) and in the present study. opportunities for applying grounded theory in the field of industrial and organisational psychology are virtually limitless. for many years this discipline has preferred quantitative methodology. as it favours a deductive approach, it can be criticised for trying to find cause-and-effect relationships between variables the researcher chooses to explore. therefore we echo many qualitative scholars by stating that the researcher embarking upon quantitative research thus runs the risk of excluding those constructs that the research participants may regard important but which the researcher is unaware of or thinks are unimportant. we recommend developing a research methodology whereby initial exploration of phenomena is done by means of grounded theory. subsequent research can then deliberately be done through quantitative methods whereby relationships between variables or constructs can be further explored. by structuring (local) research in industrial and organisational psychology in this manner, we believe new light will be shed on many “old research areas/subjects”, since new or previously ignored constructs and their relationships with one another will be discovered. combining qualitative and quantitative research in this fashion provides an eclectic approach that exploits the strengths and minimises the weaknesses of the respective methodologies (creswell, 2003). in the preceding paragraphs we dealt exclusively with modernistic views and how these can be applied in industrial and organisational behaviour research. we believe that other qualitative applications or so-called “moments” of qualitative research also hold promise. particularly important is autoethnography, if applied properly. this genre reflects some post-modernist developments that have brought valuable and unique insights to our study field (ellis & bochner, 2000). only selected elements of this genre were applied in the study when compiling the natural history or research story. the present study was specifically aimed at leading change towards synergy in and between the business units of the company. however, the company is a dynamic entity and will certainly find itself involved in synergy-related phenomena, i.e. mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, joint business ventures, collaboration and partnerships. we believe that the substantive theory constructed in the study could be applied fruitfully to any of these phenomena. the company would therefore be well advised to consider adjusting and applying the theory should any of the related phenomena occur. we believe that this theory may also be applied to similar companies elsewhere. in conclusion we wish to state that we are convinced that this study has made a modest contribution to science by extracting constructs from the social reality of the research participants and the existing literature, which constructs are important for leading change towards synergy in the company, one of many diversified companies in our country. as a novice lone ranger researcher in the grounded theory paradigm benecke believes that he succeeded in creating a qualitative substantive theory that could be used to good effect by the company to achieve synergy between its independent businesses. by subjecting this substantive construct to further well-developed and carefully executed research, we feel convinced that we can eventually develop a full-fledged or grand theory describing the relationships between its various concepts, a theory that will become an important framework for local enterprises. references anfara, v.a. & mertz, n.t. (2006). theoretical frameworks in qualitative research. thousand oaks: sage. argenti, p.a. (1994). the portable mba desk reference, an essential business companion. new york: john wiley. benecke, g. (2006). synergy in a globally diversified organisation. unpublished d com thesis. promoter: prof w schurink and co-promoter prof g roodt. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. bogdan, r.c. & biklen, s.k. (1998). qualitative research for education: an introduction to theory and methods. boston: allyn and bacon. burden, f.j. (2006). the development of an organizational redesign model: a south african case study. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of johannesburg. chang, y.m. (1990). synergy, relatedness, and organization form in the strategic management of diversification. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of illinois at urbanachampaign. charmaz, k. (2000). grounded theory: objectivist and constructivist methods. in: n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds), handbook of qualitative research, pp. 509-535. london: sage. a substantive theory of synergy 19 claassen, g. (2004). male menopause and decision-making: a qualitative study. unpublished doctoral dissertation, rand afrikaans university, johannesburg. cockerill, s.k. (1995). unfolding systemic ideas. executive development, 8(4), pp. 4-8. collis, j. & hussey, r. (2003). business research: a practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students (2nd ed.). new york: palgrave macmillan. creswell, j.w. (1998). qualitative enquiry and research design: choosing among five traditions. thousand oaks: sage. creswell, j.w. (2003). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (2nd ed.). thousand oaks: sage. denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. (eds.) (2000). handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed.). thousand oaks: sage. dey, i. (1993). qualitative data analysis. new york: routledge ellis, c. & bochner, a.p. (2000). autoethnography, personal narrative, reflexitivity. in: n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds), handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 733-768). thousand oaks: sage. ensign, p.c. (1998). interrelationships and horizontal strategy to achieve synergy and competitive advantage in the diversified firm. management decision, 36(10), pp. 657-668. franzsen, d., van der merwe, r., buys, s., bischoff, a. courtney, f., varachia, a., cox, e. & miller, c. (2001). synergies in the distribution business of barloworld. unpublished manuscript, barloworld leadership development programme, gordon institute of business science, johannesburg. gill, j. & johnson, p. (2002). research methods for managers (3rd ed.). london: sage. glaser, b.g. & strauss, a.l. (1967). the discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. chicago: aldine. goulding, c. (2002). grounded theory: a practical guide for management, business, and market researchers. london: sage. gummesson, e. (2000). qualitative methods in management research (2nd ed.). london: sage. gupta, o. & roos, g. (2001). mergers and acquisitions through an intellectual capital perspective. journal of intellectual capital, 2(3), pp. 297-309. harris, p.h. (2004). european leadership in cultural synergy. european business review, 16(4), pp. 358-380. harwood, c.j. (2000). review of “synergy matters: working with systems in the twenty-first century” by a.m. castell, a.j. gregory, g.a. hindle, m.e. james and g. ragsdall (eds), kybernetes, 29(4), pp. 523-529. hergenhahn, b.r. (1976). an introduction to theories of learning. new jersey: prentice-hall. juga, j. (1996). organising for network synergy in logistics. international journal of physical distribution and logistics management, 26(2), pp. 51-67. krumm, j.m.m., dewulf, g. & de jonge, h. (1998). managing key resources and capabilities: pinpointing the added value of corporate real estate management. facilities, 16(12/13), pp. 372-379. locke, k. (2001). grounded theory in management research. london: sage. mason, j. (1996). qualitative researching. london: sage. mouton, j. (1985). contemporary philosophies of science and the qualitative paradigm in the social sciences. south african journal of sociology, 16(3), pp. 81-89. mouton, j. & marais, h.c. (1990). basic concepts in the methodology of the social sciences (rev. ed.). pretoria: hsrc printers. naudé, a., heyns, d., bester, c., puig, j. & tucker, g. (2002). synergies within barloworld. unpublished manuscript, barloworld executive development programme, gordon institute of business science, johannesburg. paich, m.r. (1996). budget fusion: a profitable synergy of systems and people investment. industrial and commercial training, 28(1), pp. 26-28. parentau, r.s. & weston, j.f. (2003). it’s never too early to think integration. mergers and acquisitions, 38(11), pp. 17-23. partington, d. (2000). building grounded theories of management action. british journal of management, 11, pp. 91-102. pun, k.f. (2004). a conceptual synergy model for strategy formulation for manufacturing. international journal of operations and production management, 24(9), pp. 903928. rowley, j. (2002). synergy and strategy in e-business. marketing intelligence and planning, 20(4), pp. 215-222. schurink, w.j. (2004, 27-28 february). qualitative research: introducing key features of an interpretive approach to social science research. paper presented at the second study school for rand afrikaans university post-graduate students in the leadership in performance and change programme, johannesburg. seale, s. (1999). the quality of qualitative research. london: sage. shaver, j.m. (2006). a paradox of synergy: contagion and capacity effects in mergers and acquisitions. academy of management review, 31(4), 962-976. steinfield, c., de wit, d., adelaar, j., bruins, a., fielt, e., hoefsloot, m., smit, a. & bouwman, h. (2001). pillars of virtual enterprise: leveraging physical assets in the new economy. the journal of policy, regulation and strategy for telecommunications, information and media, 3(3), pp. 203-213. strauss, a. & corbin, j. (1998). basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). thousand oaks: sage. strydom, h. & delport, c.s.l. (2002). sampling and pilot study in qualitative research. in: a.s. de vos, h. strydom, c.b. fouché and c.s.l. delport (eds), research at grass roots, pp. 333-338. pretoria: van schaik. waco, m. & wery, r. (2004, january). how to integrate international acquisitions to realize lasting synergies. world trade, 48-51. abstract introduction research purpose and objective literature review results discussion structure people technology tasks limitations acknowledgements references about the author(s) samuel s. ncoyini department of information systems, faculty of management and commerce, university of fort hare, east london, south africa liezel cilliers department of information systems, faculty of management and commerce, university of fort hare, east london, south africa citation ncoyini, s.s., & cilliers, l. (2020). factors that influence knowledge management systems to improve knowledge transfer in local government: a case study of buffalo city metropolitan municipality, eastern cape, south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1147. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1147 original research factors that influence knowledge management systems to improve knowledge transfer in local government: a case study of buffalo city metropolitan municipality, eastern cape, south africa samuel s. ncoyini, liezel cilliers received: 06 dec. 2018; accepted: 09 oct. 2019; published: 22 july 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the demand for improved service delivery requires new approaches and attitudes from local governments. the lack of knowledge management (km) and, therefore, a low level of information and knowledge transfer in the public services were identified as two of the main contributors to poor service delivery. research purpose: the purpose of this research study was to gain an in-depth understanding of the factors that impact on km systems to improve the knowledge transfer at buffalo city metropolitan municipality (bcmm). motivation for the study: a lack of institutional capacity in local government is one of the primary reasons why service delivery is still an issue in almost all of south africa’s provinces. a knowledge management system (kms) would enable bcmm to build up organisational knowledge through the systematic capture and organisation of the wealth of knowledge and experience of staff, stakeholders, clients, partners and beneficiaries. a kms leverage knowledge that already exists within and outside bcmm and can make this knowledge readily accessible to the municipality employees. research approach/design and method: qualitative data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews and a convenience sampling technique from five participants. the qualitative interviews were analysed by means of thematic analysis to analyse the data. main findings: the study found that the km culture within the municipality is not supportive as the hierarchical and bureaucratic management supresses any attempts at openness and support. at the human resources level, information is not seamlessly transferred between managers and their subordinates. there seems to be a culture of knowledge hoarding in an attempt to augment personal importance or worth. practical/managerial implications: to solve the knowledge transfer problems, km must be aligned with the organisational strategy. official km strategies must be developed and aligned to organisational strategies to ensure that the top management makes and shares a plan for a vision of continuous knowledge transfer. contribution/value-add: the study therefore recommends that bcmm must ensure that knowledge transfer practices and initiatives are fully supported and promoted by the top management. this will ensure that sufficient resources are allocated to support knowledge transfer. keywords: knowledge transfer; knowledge management systems; local government; public services; buffalo city metropolitan municipality. introduction we live in a world where knowledge has become a vital commodity (ansari, youshanlouei, & mood, 2012). organisations that depend on their knowledge assets rather than their physical assets are expected to be more sustainable in the future, as they have accepted knowledge as a strategic resource that is crucial for their competency and stability within a competitive environment. knowledge can be a valuable asset, but organisations have to manage it appropriately by prioritising systems for creating, storing, transferring and employing knowledge within the organisation (ansari et al., 2012). ondari-okemwa and smith (2009) stated that lack of knowledge management (km) and therefore a low level of information and knowledge transfer (kt) in the public services have been identified as two of the main contributors to poor service delivery. munzhelele (2012) also argued that the implementation of km is one of the factors that will impact on the improvement of service delivery. the demand for improved service delivery requires new approaches and attitudes from the local government. one of the ways in which this can be achieved is to focus on continuous improvement by driving innovation and lessons learnt from the municipalities’ past successes and failures (kitchin, ovens, & turpin, 2013). etherington (2013) believed that for local government authorities to rethink service delivery, they need to find better ways to share information assets, business processes and staff expertise with their citizens and business partners. munzhelele (2012) indicated that the implementation of km is one of the factors that will impact on the improvement of service delivery, as it will improve institutional capacity. dikotla, mahlatji, makgahlela and africa (2014) stated that government employees do not share their knowledge and experience as their counterparts do in the private sector. a knowledge audit process conducted at buffalo city metropolitan municipality (bcmm) in 2010 revealed a lack of integrated information technology (it) infrastructure that limits the flow of information (kitchin et al., 2013). knowledge transfer has been found to be limited in the municipality, and staff members found it difficult to share their knowledge with their colleagues. knowledge transfer using knowledge management systems (kmss) enables local government employees to acquire and understand the proper knowledge that will influence the quality of service delivery. the transfer of knowledge is fundamental to the process of learning. research purpose and objective the main purpose of this research study is to gain an in-depth understanding of the factors that impact on kmss to improve the kt at bcmm. the research study focusses on kt within the municipality as the general area of research. knowledge transfer is critical in local government because of its contribution to knowledge application, innovation and competitive advantage (wang, noe, & wang, 2014). therefore, the objective of this study is to produce critical success factors (csfs) that will improve kms and kt among employees at bcmm, which will ultimately improve service delivery. in particular, this research attempts to answer the following question: what factors will impact on kmss to improve kt in bcmm? the rest of the article is structured as follows: the next sections discuss the importance of kt in a municipality followed by the role of kmss to improve the transfer of knowledge. then, the methodology that was used in the study will be discussed, followed by the analysis of the results and a discussion thereof. literature review knowledge transfer in local government knowledge has been recognised as the primary driver of an organisation’s growth and competitive advantage (wang, lee, & lim, 2009). assegaff and hussin (2012, p. 130) asserted that ‘knowledge is believed as a potential asset that could bring sustainable competitive advantages for organisations. to gain value from the knowledge, an organisation should be able to manage it effectively.’ an approach implemented by organisations to manage their knowledge is recognised as km. therefore, organisations are becoming more interested in implementing km programmes to manage their knowledge resources. knowledge management systems are used to support and improve the processes of knowledge generation, sharing, storage and application (wang et al., 2009). the formation of knowledge involves the transformation of data into information and information into knowledge, which finally develops into wisdom (gaffoor & cloete, 2010). scientific data are objective facts that describe an event without any judgement, perspective or context, and it becomes information when meaning is added to it (mohamed, 2014). information is the result of processed and structured data, and it can be transferred into knowledge by means of connections, comparisons, conversations and consequences. knowledge derives from information, which is anchored in the beliefs, views and obligations of its holders (ramdhania, 2012). knowledge transfer involves knowledge being transferred or disseminated throughout the organisation. as a process, kt involves the contribution of knowledge by the organisation and the collection, application and assimilation of knowledge by employees (van der meer, 2014). the value of knowledge grows and increases as it is shared within an organisation. when employees use knowledge, they add more insights to it and refine it further, thereby adding more value. when knowledge is used, it grows; but when not used, it diminishes (teimouri, emami, & hamidipour, 2011) – this means that knowledge will keep growing whenever employees share what they know; when employees transfer their knowledge, they do not lose it. knowledge transfer requires the preparedness of an individual or a group to work with others and share knowledge to their mutual benefit. when knowledge is not shared within an organisation, it is nearly impossible for it to be transferred to other employees. this indicates that kt will not happen in an organisation except if the employees and teams exhibit a high level of co-operative behaviour (teimouri et al., 2011). the goal of kt in local government organisations is to improve decision-making among employees so as to improve service delivery and achieve business goals through the sharing of knowledge between the municipality and citizens (mohamed, 2014). knowledge transfer improves organisational learning, which, in turn, improves service delivery, by reducing customer response times (van der meer, 2014). if municipalities share knowledge with external organisations, they can develop their own knowledge bases and thus improve innovation. municipalities can access different fields of expertise, competencies and capabilities that may be costly or unobtainable through other avenues (van der meer, 2014). the south african public sector is making use of the sectoral network that was created by the department of public service and administration. the sectoral network aims to enhance the model of a client-centred public service sector by applying the ‘batho pele’ principles (mothamaha & govender, 2014). this ideal of a client-centred public service sector was endorsed by the south african government, which had created several initiatives based on its client-centred philosophy. during the mid-1990s, the international public sector reform policies that stemmed from the ‘new public management’ (npm) theory placed an emphasis on the south african public sector’s performance with regard to financial efficiency and budget parameters (mothamaha & govender, 2014). considering the above influences, it is apparent that the south african public sector functions in a business-like style where the central idea of service provision is to respond to the needs of the citizens and provide inclusive and integrated service delivery (dikotla et al., 2014; gaffoor & cloete, 2010). this means that they have to adopt the idea of kt as a mechanism of achieving a competitive advantage by making use of human and intellectual resources within their organisations. dikotla et al. (2014) differed from gaffoor (2008), arguing that although kt has been seen as a mechanism of improving municipal governance, the majority of south african municipalities do not have formal functional km programmes in place. knowledge-sharing (ks) culture does exist within individual municipalities but not across all the municipalities. those municipalities that perform well do not share their best practices with the underperforming ones (dikotla et al., 2014). in south africa, km has become a priority within the local government context (gaffoor & cloete, 2010). knowledge management has been recognised by south africa’s provincial and local government departments as a strategic management skill for local government senior management personnel. gaffoor and cloete (2010, p. 5) contend that ‘at local government level, cognisance must be taken of the fact that south african municipalities function in an environment characterised by greater uncertainty and competition than in the past.’ in south africa, there are legal frameworks in place that regulate the legal aspects of km. the intergovernmental relations framework act of 2005 has influenced local government to ensure that a coherent system for ks is in place (mile, 2010). according to this act, local government organisations should take all reasonable steps to ensure that they have the institutional capacity and effective processes to consult, collaborate and share information with the other organs of the state. more legal frameworks that arise from the bill of rights include the promotion of access to information act of 2013 (pai) and the electronics communications act of 2005. the primary objective of the pai act is to influence the constitutional right of access to any information held by the government, and by any other person who is necessary for the application or protection of any rights (gaffoor, 2008). the pai act ensures that good governance, transparency and accountability are exercised to promote better decision-making and participation. the electronics communications act of 2005 provides a regulatory framework for south african electronic communications (gaffoor, 2008). the act provides for research and development within the information and communication technology (ict) sector. the act further provides for information security and reliability of networks. a report by the south african local government association (salga) reported that the bcmm was the first south african municipality to appoint political km champions (salga, 2015). the municipality also conducted km training for councillors, senior and middle management, as well as departmental km champions, in terms of the km strategy and framework. knowledge management reference group (kmrg) identified bcmm’s councillor training as a best practice that must be used as the basis for training councillors in other municipalities and members of both parliament and provincial legislatures (salga, 2015). the success of ks cannot be measured without taking into account the culture of the environment in which the sharing takes place. cultural concerns, such as leadership, trust, reward and communication, may impact negatively or positively on ks between and within municipalities (deverell & burnett, 2012). a ks culture may then be thought to be one in which the influence and importance of such issues for enabling or preventing ks are acknowledged and addressed. as prominence has been given to the need for effective ks practices and to the value of intellectual capital within organisations, it would be advantageous to promote a ks culture within municipalities (schutte & barkhuizen, 2014). because of the increasing interdependencies between job expectations and the information explosion, many local government officials, if given a chance, have knowledge (know-how) that could add some value to the institution. municipalities that embrace a culture that restrains ks will never be able to create a competitive edge, as ks is believed to be significant in creating and leveraging knowledge assets. a ks culture is thus imperative for the south african municipalities, in order to distinguish them as institutions of service (schutte & barkhuizen, 2014). the role of knowledge management systems infrastructure in knowledge transfer knowledge management involves the transfer of knowledge, while technology is used to search, store, retrieve and access information. according to tan and noor (2013), the infrastructure of kms facilitates the transfer of knowledge by employees. knowledge management systems are technology-supported information systems that help to document, transfer and distribute the tacit and explicit knowledge between employees to improve organisational efficiency (wang et al., 2014). the role of kms infrastructure includes supporting collaboration, communication and the search for information and knowledge. becerra-fernandez and sabherwal (2010) indicated that it facilitates, shares and accelerates knowledge growth. a kms makes use of a variety of km technologies and mechanisms to support the km processes. the objective of a kms is not to manage all the available knowledge within the organisation but to facilitate selected knowledge being managed and made available to assist employees to create, store and transfer or share it within the organisation (greco, grimaldi, & hanandi, 2013). the types of kmss include customer relationship management systems, decision support systems, document management systems, knowledge portal systems, elearning platforms, supply chain management systems, virtual human resource management systems and artificial intelligence (becerra-fernandez & sabherwal, 2010; greco et al., 2013). to store knowledge, south african municipalities make use of it-based tools and systems that enable km to fulfil their goals (kitchin et al., 2013). these tools consist of groupware systems, intranet, content and document management systems, and data warehousing and mining. directories of experts are also used by south african municipalities to help employees find who have expertise or knowledge for a particular project or task. these directories also help employees to seek guidance from other employees in other organisations (kitchin et al., 2013). factors that affect employees’ attitudes towards knowledge management systems as knowledge is personal, created and developed by employees, the sharing of it is important for its development, distribution and management at all higher levels. knowledge cannot be shared without the participation of the employee, which requires learning (duan, nie, & coakes, 2010). the recent developments in ict have resulted in many public organisations adopting ict-based kmss to support their employees’ kt, and they are engaging in virtual communities of practice (cop) (zhang, vogel, & zhou, 2012). contrary to the expectations, organisations are facing serious problems as these ict-supported kt projects have high failure rates. zhang et al. (2012) stated that kmss are more prominent in improving kt in large units with routine tasks and that junior employees have a good attitude towards making use of communication tools to share their knowledge. individual factors, such as attitude, self-efficacy, motivation, trust and reciprocity, influence the local government employees’ intentions to share knowledge (amayah, 2013; seba, rowley, & lambert, 2012; tamjidyamcholo, bin baba, tamjid, & gholipour, 2013). a study by tamjidyamcholo et al. (2013) showed that attitude is found to have the biggest influence on an employee’s intention to participate in kt. attitude also plays a critical role in employees’ intentions to share their knowledge as those that are positive towards kt will be more motivated to participate in kt activities. knowledge cannot be transferred effectively if employees are not motivated to share it (amayah, 2013). a high level of self-efficacy in an employee encourages self-confidence about the skills and abilities, and it also strengthens motivation (tamjidyamcholo et al., 2013). the high level of trust among the employees encourages their attitudes towards ks (seba et al., 2012). kathiravelu, mansor and kenny (2013) investigated factors that influence ks behaviour among malaysian public service employees. their study revealed that organisational influences have a direct bearing on employees’ ks behaviour. lee and hong (2014) examined the factors that affect hospital employees’ ks intentions, ks behaviour and innovation behaviour. they found that organisational factors and individual factors significantly influence ks intentions. an effective organisational culture for km entails practices and norms that inspire the transfer of information across department lines and between employees (theriou et al., 2011). within local government, organisational culture can perform four functions. organisational culture provides employees with organisational identity, encourages social system stability, facilitates collective commitment and forms the behaviour by helping employees to make sense of their surroundings (mannie, van niekerk, & adendorff, 2013). a collaborative culture is a key aspect for ks among teams and employees because the process of transferring knowledge requires employees to come together to discuss, interact and share knowledge (sedighi & zand, 2012). wang and noe (2010) found that for kt to occur, top management support has been shown to be positively linked with employees’ perceptions of a ks culture and preparedness to share knowledge. support from top management affects both the quality and level of kt through influencing employee commitment to km. perceived supervisor and co-workers’ support and their inspiration for kt also increase employees’ knowledge exchange and their perceptions of usefulness of the sharing of knowledge. the hierarchical structures in local government organisations have an impact on employees with whom each employee normally relates and from or to whom the employee is expected to transfer knowledge (becerra-fernandez & sabherwal, 2010). reporting structures encourage the flow of data and information and the nature of teams who make decisions together. as a result, the creation and sharing of knowledge may be positively or negatively affected. in more decentralised organisations with larger groups of employees, ks is more likely to occur (becerra-fernandez & sabherwal, 2010). the flexibility of the organisational structure inspires collaboration and sharing of knowledge within the organisation (sedighi & zand, 2012). theoretical framework the socio-technical systems (sts) theory (see figure 1) was used in this study as a theoretical framework to explain social and technical dimensions that affect employees’ intentions to share knowledge within the bcmm. the motivation behind examining information system problems, using both the social and technical dimensions, was to describe organisational aspects that are a combination of social and technological subsystems in the operational activities (assegaff & hussin, 2012). figure 1: socio-technical systems theory. the technological approach focusses on technical and technological aspects of km. the technological approach is centred on the collection, storage, categorisation and use of knowledge using technical systems. technical systems consist of email, groupware, intranet, databases and others (sajeva, 2010). the technological approach is a system strategy focussing on the codification of knowledge within the km processes. this strategy concentrates on the codification and storage of knowledge through it and attempts to share knowledge formally. the social approach to km acknowledges that knowledge is subjective. knowledge predominantly exists in the minds of employees and is shown through social interactions. in contrast to the technological approach to km, social-based km stresses that knowledge can be attained and shared through socially interactive processes, such as experts, reciprocal relationships and trust among employees, to support km activities (sajeva, 2010). research design the interpretive paradigm was considered appropriate for the study, as qualitative data were collected and used to inductively interpret the attitude and behaviour of bcmm employees towards kt. in this study, a case study design was utilised to produce csfs that would improve kms and kt among employees at bcmm, which would ultimately improve service delivery. yin (2014) defined a case study as a first-hand investigation focussing on an existing phenomenon within its real-life environment, and boundaries between phenomenon and its environment are not clearly evident. case studies are thus suitable for studying complex social phenomena, as this case study seeks to investigate the complex kmss in the bcmm and how the employees make use of these systems to share knowledge. research setting the bcmm is a category a municipality located on the east coast of the eastern cape province, south africa. the municipality’s administration is headed by the city manager, who is supported by the heads of directorates who, in turn, work with officials to execute the resolutions of the council as well as programmes and activities of the organisation. during 2015 and 2016, the municipality underwent organisational restructuring. the aim was to align the organisational structure to strategic planning, the operational and budgetary planning processes. the departments under the directorate: office of the city manager include governance and internal auditing; chief operating office; information technology; legal services and municipal court; enterprise project management; information, knowledge management, research and policy; and expanded public works programme. the information, knowledge management, research and policy (ikm, research and policy) department reports directly to the city manager. the department or unit is responsible for coordinating and facilitating the municipality’s four core functions that are information management, km, research and policy. the management job roles in the department are: head: ikm, research and policy manager: research and policy manager: km and innovation (during the interviews, this position was vacant, and research and policy manager was acting as the manager of the km section). research participants and sampling methods for this study, the population identified included the employees of bcmm in east london. with regard to the sampling of participants, a convenience sampling technique was used to determine the participants who were available and had the appropriate understanding or experience to contribute meaningfully to the study (de vos, strydom, fouche, & delport, 2011). five participants were interviewed from the ict and km units. the five participants interviewed were aged between 30 and 50 years, and there were three male and two female participants. two participants had recently joined the municipality as they had worked less than a year in their departments. one participant had worked between 3 and 5 years, while another had worked between 5 and 10 years. there was one participant who had worked for the municipality for more than 10 years. data collection methods primary and secondary data were collected. the primary data were collected using interviews. the use of semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions allowed the participants to expand on responses and enabled further probing by the researcher when necessary. the interview questions were structured to include different sections following themes from the literature reviewed: organisational culture and kt top management support and kt the role played by effective km motivation and kt use of it infrastructure for kt barriers to effective km implementation. secondary data were collected using a literature review from academic journals, books in both print and electronic formats, conference proceedings, relevant websites and theories relating to this study. electronic databases, such as acm digital library, sage online journals, science direct, springer link and african journals, were used to find relevant literature. research study keywords such as ‘km’, ‘ks’, ‘kmss’ and ‘local government’ were used as search terms. municipal documents, such as annual reports, performance agreements, integrated development plans and policies, were also obtained from the appropriate departments and analysed to contribute to the results of the study. strategies employed to ensure data quality and integrity informal member checks were performed to establish credibility. after the interviews, the summarised notes were shared with participants via email to establish whether they were true reflections of what had been said during the interviews. a confirmability audit was conducted to minimise the influence of the researcher’s judgement. the results were checked by a second researcher for bias and differences found in the analysis were discussed with the first researcher. thus, participants’ views were presented in a non-biased way, while every effort was made to ensure that their views were captured correctly (mertens, 2005). data analysis the qualitative data analysis process started after interviews were transcribed. the data collected through interviews with municipality managers and practitioners were analysed in a three-stage procedure suggested by creswell (2014): preparing the data for analysis by transcribing, reducing the data into themes through a process of coding and representing the data. the interview data were analysed using nvivo qualitative data analysis computer software package. the first step was to create a new project using nvivo 11. interview transcripts that were stored as ms word documents were imported individually into the project. the datasets were systematically condensed into smaller units for analysis through the creation of categories and concepts derived from the data. the coding process was guided by different sections of the interview questionnaire that was structured using the themes from the literature reviewed (see table 1). table 1: example of quotes linked to main themes. ethical consideration ethical approval was sought from the university research ethics committee, and it was approved with the certificate reference number cil021snco01. ethics with regard to participants’ confidentiality, privacy and willingness to take part in the study were considered. participants were not forced to participate in the study and were treated fairly and honestly during their participation. the data provided by the participants were accessible only to the researcher. therefore, the data were kept safe and secure in a password-protected file on the researcher’s computer. the collected data were used for this research study only and will not be used for any other purpose. results a total of five participants aged between 30 and 50 years were interviewed. two participants had recently joined the municipality, as they had worked less than a year in the department. one participant had worked between 3 and 5 years, while another had worked between 5 and 10 years. one participant had worked for the municipality for more than 10 years. the qualitative data collected during the interviews were analysed using thematic analysis, an electronic qualitative data management system. eight themes emerged as factors influencing kmss. these eight themes were guided by the objective of this study: what factors will impact on kmss to improve kt in bcmm? the eight identified themes include: (1) organisational efficiency, (2) motivation, (3) trust, (4) reciprocity, (5) organisational culture, (6) organisational structure, (7) top management support and (8) it. it was found that ks processes and systems can be challenged by individual, organisational, social, technical and political inter-organisational factors. therefore, the determination of critical factors that impact employees’ attitudes and intentions to share organisational knowledge could help improve organisational adoption of kmss (al-busaidi, 2013). discussion the primary purpose of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of the factors that impact on kmss to improve the kt at bcmm. the study adopted sts theory that highlights the interrelationship between technological and social factors in understanding an organisation. the motivation behind examining problems concerning the information system using both the social and technical dimensions was to describe organisational aspects that are a combination of social and technological subsystems in the operational activities. the results, linked to the eight themes identified and indicated in the previous section, will be discussed under the corresponding quadrants of the sts theory. structure organisational culture affects the employees’ attitudes towards knowledge sharing. a staff member from the km unit shared: ‘the culture of knowledge sharing has improved a great deal over the years and especially now that the knowledge management unit falls under the office of the city manager. km is getting the recognition it deserves and employees are beginning to comply.’ (participant a) this meant that the structural position of the km department in an organisation was crucial for kt. on the contrary, some participants suggested that the culture was not supportive of the hierarchy, and the bureaucratic management suppressed any attempts at openness and support in the organisational culture. this statement was similar to the findings of gaffoor and cloete (2010) in stellenbosch where the municipality had a top-down, hierarchical structure that was not very conducive for km efforts. the structure was bureaucratic in nature and was not responsive to changes being implemented. a staff member from the ict department said: ‘the culture is not supportive as the hierarchical structures and bureaucratic management stifles any attempts at openness and support within the organisation.’ (participant d) another staff member from the ict department said: ‘the municipality does not recognise knowledge as part of their asset base because there is no transfer of knowledge during succession or proper handover. it is likely that a new employee starts on a clean slate which is detrimental to the employee’s job learning curve.’ (participant e) top management support significantly affects ks attitude. shanshan (2013) believed that if employees have senior management support, their attitudes towards kt will be more positive, and they will feel more confident to share knowledge. top managers’ support of km makes resource allocation to kt more feasible, which will encourage employees’ optimistic attitudes towards the transfer of knowledge. results demonstrated that bcmm has policies and procedures in place that support the transfer of knowledge, and these documents are accessible via the corporate intranet. a staff member from the ict department shared: ‘the municipality has policies and procedures that encourage the transfer of knowledge and they can be accessible on the intranet.’ (participant b) the bcmm km policy encouraged the sharing of knowledge, as its strategic objectives are to have every knowledge worker in the municipality collaborating and sharing knowledge on an electronic km platform and in other forms, enabling knowledge optimisation and delivery in the organisation. the policy also specifies that its objective is to create a ks culture by changing personal and organisational behaviour to successfully implement and entrench km in the municipality (buffalo city metropolitan municipality, 2008). flexible organisational structures encourage the sharing of knowledge and collaboration. an organisational structure attempts to divide tasks among employees and arrange the coordination of their different task activities, and it is during this process that knowledge is created, transferred and shared (cho & korte, 2014). therefore, an organisational structure should be strategically designed to support knowledge activities because unintended structural barriers that might hinder knowledge creation and sharing may exist within the organisation. results advised that there had been restructuring within the municipality. the relocation of the km department had added value to the practice of kt. a staff member from the km unit shared: ‘departmental location has added some value to km. the department is now under the office of the city manager.’ (participant a) the bcmm head of the ikm, research and policy department once indicated that the fact that the department was not at the required level was concerning as such a department was strategic and much needed to interact with various directors and senior leadership regarding knowledge and knowledge policies of the municipality (norushe, 2013). people knowledge cannot be efficiently transferred if employees are not motivated to share it. knowledge has become a vital source of competitive advantage. it is critical therefore for municipalities to find ways to manage and motivate employees to share their knowledge. the municipality is encouraging its employees to pursue their studies through the provision of study bursaries. a staff member from the ict department shared: ‘staff are encouraged to pursue their studies which are fully paid by the municipality.’ (participant c) results indicated that the sharing of knowledge in the municipality did not contribute to positive performance appraisals. employees claimed that ks should be included in their key performance areas and be rewarded. a staff member from the km unit shared: ‘at the moment, sharing of knowledge does not contribute to positive performance appraisals. knowledge is not included in the key performance areas, but it should be there. we have been calling for that to be part of the appraisals.’ (participant a) employees are more likely to share their knowledge if there is trust, which has long been considered as one of the leading factors that contribute towards kt (chai, das, & rao, 2011) and is frequently recognised as a precursor to kt (seba et al., 2012). thus, trust is regarded as the focal point of every relationship within an organisation (okyere-kwakye & nor, 2011). results revealed that there was a lack of trust within the municipality. participants blamed top managers for hoarding important information. a staff member from the km unit shared: ‘knowledge is largely hoarded at the higher levels of the organisational hierarchy.’ (participant b) a staff member from the ict department claimed: ‘… there seems to be a culture of knowledge hoarding in an attempt to augment personal importance or worth.’ (participant d) a staff member from the ict department said: ‘in a political environment, knowledge transfer can be seen as a danger to power. therefore top management will be reluctant to share knowledge.’ (participant e) the norm of reciprocity increases ks behaviour. employees improve their efforts at work to share knowledge when they expect that their work performance will be rewarded, and their success recognised (liou, chih, yuan, & lin, 2016). although bcmm had formed a km department and invested its financial resources in kmss, results indicated that employees are hoarding their knowledge. a staff member from the ict department said: ‘although the municipality formed the knowledge management section and has invested in systems for knowledge transfer, on a human resources level information is not seamlessly transferred between managers and their subordinates.’ (participant c) this is an indication that sharing of knowledge is not rewarded, and that the norm of reciprocity is absent. two participants indicated that their efforts in kt were being recognised by the municipality, but they questioned the support being provided to carry this function. a staff member from the km unit shared: ‘although interviewees agree that there is some recognition, they ask if they are capacitated enough to carry this function of knowledge transfer.’ (participant b) a staff member from the ict department said: ‘the lack of communication can be blamed by some project drivers or project managers who fail to communicate their initiatives and face challenges when the technology needs to be used by employees.’ (participant c) technology information technology plays a positive role in kt. information systems are beneficial tools in kt, and technologies, such as knowledge repositories, decision support systems, intranets and social networking sites, afford opportunities for communication and transfer of knowledge (seba et al., 2012). results indicated that the municipality was at a stage of implementing sharepoint as its km portal. a staff member from the ict department said: ‘the implementation of sharepoint is still in progress. at the moment the internet is available where documents, such as finance policies, are shared with the public.’ (participant c) an electronic document management system (edms) had previously been used by the municipality, and it was now being replaced by sharepoint. issues mentioned by participants which led to the cancellation of the edms were the user uptake, because of lack of it skills, and cost. a staff member from the ict department said: ‘systems for knowledge sharing are not really complicated, but the platform that was created was a matter of costing licensing. the municipality had an edms tool for documenting that was deployed but only for 200 users. it was too expensive as it was costing plus minus 2 million and we are now deploying sharepoint which is open for everyone and we are not going to have licensing issues.’ (participant c) tasks knowledge transfer improves organisational efficiency. good km in an organisation increases efficiency in business operations by increasing the effectiveness of ethical decision-making, appropriate planning, increasing performance and optimising the operation time (kuras & kuras, 2015). to ascertain whether bcmm employees understood the benefits of kt, they were asked if they agreed that the benefits include improved service delivery, decision-making and quality; reduced costs; enhanced customer focus; better developed employees; improved competitive advantage, new opportunities for the municipality; and improved work process in the municipality. results indicated that bcmm employees understood the vital role played by kt in an organisation. a staff member from the ict department said: ‘knowledge transfer can improve service delivery. the municipality is in the process of implementing applications that will increase communication with its community.’ (participant c) a staff member from the km unit shared: ‘km can improve competitive advantage through enhanced skills and the ability to solve problems quickly and as they arise.’ (participant b) a staff member from the km unit shared: ‘knowledge transfer creates new opportunities for the municipality. new opportunities can arise from km by employees sharing innovative ideas to solve the problems of communities.’ (participant a) they understood that through kt, innovative ideas can be shared to solve problems experienced by the served communities and that kt can improve service delivery. limitations the study was confined to collecting data from senior and middle managers in the bcmm. these five staff members who were interviewed for the study were found to be knowledgeable about the research topic and could contribute in a meaningful way to the research problem. however, because only five staff members were interviewed, the results of this study cannot be generalised to all municipalities; therefore, it is recommended that in future studies, the data collection is extended to include more municipalities and participants. this would ensure a more comprehensive assessment of the views and perceptions towards kt practices at bcmm. conclusion the study found that the municipality’s bureaucratic organisational structure hampers any attempts at ks. it was also found that information is not seamlessly transferred between managers and their subordinates. the municipality has a culture of knowledge hoarding in attempts to augment personal importance or worth. the study also found that the culture of ks had improved a great deal over the years and especially because the km unit was placed under the office of the city manager. knowledge management is getting the recognition it deserves, and employees were beginning to comply. this means that the structural position of the km department in an organisation is crucial for kt. the researcher therefore recommends that bcmm must ensure that kt practices and initiatives are fully supported and promoted by top management. this would confidently ensure that sufficient resources to support kt would be allocated. to solve the kt problems, km needs to be aligned with organisational strategy. official km strategies need to be developed and aligned with the organisational strategy to ensure that top management makes and shares a vision on kt and continually plans for realising the agreed-upon kt objectives. buffalo city metropolitan municipality top managers must recognise the shortcomings of bureaucratic structures and acknowledge that they slow the processes and limit the information flow. the reporting procedures in current structures consume excessive amounts of time in order for knowledge to filter through every level of the municipality. knowledge transfer succeeds with structures that support ease of information flow, with fewer boundaries between divisions. buffalo city metropolitan municipality’s most valuable intellectual resources are entrenched in the minds of the employees; kt can be achieved only through a passion that stimulates the deepest parts of the employees’ minds (egbu, wood, & egbu, 2010). therefore, if the municipal employees are not motivated to share their knowledge, no amount of investment, infrastructure and technological intervention can make kt effective. training is critical for effective kt among the municipality employees. through training, employees will have a better understanding of the concept of kt. buffalo city metropolitan municipality employees need to be educated in using a kms and any other technological tool that can be useful in sharing of knowledge. buffalo city metropolitan municipality should invest in a comprehensive technological infrastructure, such as communication systems and it, for the purpose of kt. technologies, such as chat rooms, telephone and video conference, can be used to transfer tacit knowledge (sedighi & zand, 2012). factors, such as ease of use, simplicity of the technology, connection with knowledge content and standardisation of a knowledge structure, and adaptability to the needs of users, have to be considered when municipalities develop kmss (margilaj & bello, 2015). the key for bcmm is to understand how technology is developed and how is it aligned to organisational strategy and knowledge processes. this can play a critical role in managing and supporting the municipality’s kt activities. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the employees of the buffalo city metropolitan municipality for participating in this study. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions s.n. conceptualised and wrote the study under the supervision of l.c. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data are available upon request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the university of fort hare. references al-busaidi, k.a. (2013). a framework of critical factors to knowledge workers’ adoption of inter-organisational knowledge sharing systems. journal of organisational knowledge management, 2013(2013), 11. https://doi.org/10.5171/2013.496419 amayah, a.t. (2013). determinants of knowledge sharing in a public sector organisation. journal of knowledge management, 17(3), 454–471. https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-11-2012-0369 ansari, m., youshanlouei, h.r., & mood, m.m. (2012). a conceptual model for success in implementing knowledge management: a case study in tehran municipality. journal of service science and management, 5(2), 212–222. https://doi.org/10.4236/jssm.2012.52026 assegaff, s., & hussin, a.r.c. (2012). review of knowledge management systems as socio-technical system. international journal of computer science issues, 9(5), 129–134. becerra-fernandez, i., & sabherwal, r. (2010). knowledge management: systems and processes. new york: sharpe. buffalo city metropolitan municipality. (2008). knowledge management policy. east london. retrieved from https://www.buffalocitymetro.gov.za/documents cartelli, a. (2007). socio-technical theory and knowledge construction: towards new pedagogical paradigms? issues in informing science and information technology, 4, 2–14. chai, s., das, s., & rao, h.r. (2011). factors affecting bloggers’ knowledge sharing: an investigation across gender. journal of management information systems, 28(3), 309–342. https://doi.org/10.2753/mis0742-1222280309 cho, t., & korte, r. (2014). managing knowledge performance: testing the components of a knowledge management system on organisational performance. asia pacific education review, 15(2), 313–327. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-014-9333-x creswell, j.w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th edn.). newbury park, ca: sage. de vos, a.s., strydom, h., fouche, c.b., & delport, c.s.l. (2011). research at grassroots: for the social sciences and human service professions (4th edn.). pretoria: van schaik publishers. deverell, a.c., & burnett, s. (2012). need-to-know cultures: an investigation into intra-organisational and extra-organisational knowledge sharing cultures in local government in the uk. knowledge and process management, 19(3), 131–141. https://doi.org/10.1002/kpm dikotla, m.a., mahlatji, m.r., makgahlela, l.a., & africa, s. (2014). knowledge management for the improvement of service delivery in south africa’s municipalities. journal of public administration, 49(3), 847–859. duan, y., nie, w., & coakes, e. (2010). identifying key factors affecting transnational knowledge transfer. information & management, 47(7–8), 356–363. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2010.08.003 egbu, j.u., wood, g., & egbu, c.o. (2010). critical success factors associated with effective knowledge sharing in the provision of floating support services in sheltered housing for the elderly. in c. egbu (ed.), proceedings of the 26th annual arcom conference (pp. 849–857). 6–8 september 2010. leeds: association of researchers in construction management. etherington, s. (2013). knowledge sharing cultures needed to transform our services. retrieved from https://www.theinformationdaily.com/2013/04/29/knowledge-sharing-cultures-needed-to-transform-our-services gaffoor, s. (2008). assessing readiness for the implementation of knowledge management in local governments: the case of stellenbosch municipality. stellenbosch: stellenbosch university. gaffoor, s., & cloete, f. (2010). knowledge management in local government: the case of stellenbosch municipality. sa journal of information management, 12(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajim.v12i1.422 greco, m., grimaldi, m., & hanandi, m. (2013). how to select knowledge management systems: a framework to support managers regular paper. international journal of engineering business management, 5(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.5772/56003 kathiravelu, s.r., mansor, n.n.a., & kenny, k. (2013). factors influencing knowledge sharing behavior (ksb) among employees of public services in malaysia. international journal of academic research in economics and management sciences, 2(3), 107–120. kitchin, f., ovens, w., & turpin, m. (2013). capacity building through knowledge management: a toolkit for south african municipalities. johannesburg: south african cities network & salga. kuras, m., & kuras, p. (2015). the process of knowledge sharing in local government units. in the 2015 wei international academic conference proceedings (pp. 155–162). vienna: the west east institute. lee, h.s., & hong, a.s. (2014). factors affecting hospital employees’ knowledge sharing intention and behavior, and innovation behavior. osong public health and research perspectives, 5(3), 148–155. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phrp.2014.04.006 liou, d.-k., chih, w.-h., yuan, c.-y., & lin, c.-y. (2016). the study of the antecedents of knowledge sharing behavior. internet research, 26(4), 845–868. https://doi.org/10.1108/intr-10-2014-0256 mannie, a., van niekerk, h. j., & adendorff, c. m. (2013). significant factors for enabling knowledge sharing between government agencies within south africa. sa journal of information management, 15(2), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajim.v15i2.569 margilaj, e., & bello, k. (2015). critical success factors of knowledge management in albania business organizations. european journal of research & reflection in management sciences, 3(2), 15–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/09555340610651820 mertens, d.m. (2005). research and evaluationin education and psychology: integrating diversity with quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. london: sage. mile. (2010). ethekwini knowledge strategy and implementation plan 2010-2014. durban: mile. mohamed, o. (2014). knowledge sharing initiatives in local authorities in malaysia. manchester: university of salford. mothamaha, w.b., & govender, k.k. (2014). exploring the role of knowledge management in improving service operations: the case of the select departments in the city of johannesburg, south africa. international journal of managerial studies and research, 2(5), 1–8. munzhelele, t. (2012). knowledge management and service delivery: a knowledge management model for the housing sector. stellenbosch: stellenbosch university. norushe, t. (2013). basic knowledge training for councillors and officials [powerpoint slides]. kmrg quarterly meeting. 14–15 march 2013. durban. retrieved from https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=2ahukewjav76vmp7nahwgsbqkhb-hc1cqfjaaegqiarab&url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.salga.org.za%2fdocuments%2fmunicipalities%2fguidelines%2520for%2520municipalities%2fguideline-document--on-the-roles-and-responsibilities-of-councillors-and-officials-(2)-(1st-draft)_.pdf&usg=aovvaw1p1juxlxrunnl9nbubthrv okyere-kwakye, e., & nor, m.k. (2011). individual factors and knowledge sharing. american journal of economics and business administration, 3(1), 66–72. ondari-okemwa, e., & smith, j.g. (2009). the role of knowledge management in enhancing government service-delivery in kenya. sa journal of libraries & information science, 75(1), 28–39. https://doi.org/10.7553/75-1-1271 ramdhania, y.p. (2012). what makes employee willing to share knowledge via intranet? enschede: university of twente. sajeva, s. (2010). the analysis of key elements of socio-technical knowledge management system. economics and management, 15, 765–774. retrieved from https://www.ktu.lt/lt/mokslas/zurnalai/ekovad/15/1822-6515-2010-765.pdf salga. (2015). knowledge management in south african cities. in know.vation: sharing municipal knowledge, innovation & excellence (pp. 15–22). pretoria: salga. schutte, n., & barkhuizen, n. (2014). knowledge management and sharing in local government: a social identity theory perspective. the electronic journal of knowledge management, 13(2), 130–141. seba, i., rowley, j., & lambert, s. (2012). factors affecting attitudes and intentions towards knowledge sharing in the dubai police force. international journal of information management, 32(4), 372–380. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2011.12.003 sedighi, m., & zand, f. (2012). knowledge management: review of the critical success factors and development of a conceptual classification model. in 10th international conference on ict and knowledge engineering 2012 (pp. 1–9). siam university. bangkok: ieee. shanshan, s. (2013). an integrated model on factors influencing knowledge sharing. international journal of digital content technology and its applications, 7(9), 66–74. https://doi.org/10.4156/jdcta.vol7.issue9.9 tamjidyamcholo, a., bin baba, m.s., tamjid, h., & gholipour, r. (2013). information security – professional perceptions of knowledge-sharing intention under self-efficacy, trust, reciprocity, and shared-language. computers & education, 68, 223–232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.05.010 tan, c.n., & noor, s.m. (2013). knowledge management enablers, knowledge sharing and research collaboration: a study of knowledge management at research universities in malaysia. asian journal of technology innovation, 21(2), 251–276. https://doi.org/10.1080/19761597.2013.866314 teimouri, h., emami, s., & hamidipour, s. (2011). studying the effective organisational factors on knowledge sharing between employees of governmental organisations in isfahan province, iran. interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, 3(5), 921–931. theriou, n., maditinos, d., & theriou, g. (2011). knowledge management enabler factors and firm performance: an empirical research of the greek medium and large firms. european research studies journal, 14(2), 97–134. van der meer, r. (2014). knowledge sharing in inter-organisational collaborations. geelong: deakin university. wang, m., lee, d., & lim, k. (2009). knowledge management systems diffusion in chinese enterprises: a multi-stage approach with the technology-organisation-environment framework. journal of global information management, 17(1), 70–84. https://doi.org/10.4018/jgim.2009010104 wang, s., & noe, r. a. (2010). knowledge sharing: a review and directions for future research. human resource management review, 20(2), 115–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2009.10.001 wang, s., noe, r.a., & wang, z. (2014). motivating knowledge sharing in knowledge management systems: a quasi–field experiment. journal of management, 40(4), 978–1009. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206311412192 yin, r. k. (2014). case study research: design and methods (5th edn.). los angeles, ca: sage. zhang, x., vogel, d.r., & zhou, z. (2012). effects of information technologies, department characteristics and individual roles on improving knowledge sharing visibility: a qualitative case study. behaviour & information technology, 31(11), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929x.2012.687770 about the author(s) rudolf m. oosthuizen department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa claude-hélène mayer department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa ntombifuthi j. zwane department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation oosthuizen, r.m., mayer, c-h., & zwane, n.j. (2021). erratum: burnout, employee engagement and self-perceived employability in the south african public sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1787. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1787 note: doi of original article published: https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1340 correction erratum: burnout, employee engagement and self-perceived employability in the south african public sector rudolf m. oosthuizen, claude-hélène mayer, ntombifuthi j. zwane published: 19 nov. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. in the published article, oosthuizen, r.m., mayer, c-h., & zwane, n.j. (2021). burnout, employee engagement and self-perceived employability in the south african public sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1340. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1340, there was an error in the affiliation for the second author. instead of ‘department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa’, it should be ‘department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa’. the publisher apologise for this error. the correction does not change the study’s findings of significance or overall interpretation of the study’s results or the scientific conclusions of the article in any way. 175---12 nov 2009 [final version].indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #175 (page number not for citation purposes) the relationship between transformational leadership, integrity and an ethical climate in organisations authors: anja s. van aswegen1 amos s. engelbrecht1 affi liations: 1department of industrial psychology, stellenbosch university, south africa correspondence to: amos engelbrecht e-mail: ase@sun.ac.za postal address: po box 3543, stellenbosch, 7602, south africa keywords: transformational leadership; integrity; ethical culture; values; south africa dates: received: 10 nov. 2008 accepted: 08 sept. 2009 published: 30 oct. 2009 how to cite this article: van aswegen, a.s., & engelbrecht, a.s. (2009). the relationship between transformational leadership, integrity and an ethical climate in organisations. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur 7(1), art. #175, 9 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.175 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. abstract by effectively utilising the transformational leadership process, an organisation’s culture can be transformed into one that encourages ethical behaviour. the aim of this study was to validate a theoretical model to explain the relationships between leadership, integrity and an ethical climate. a non-probability sample of employees (n = 203) from medium to large companies was used. data were analysed by item, factor and multiple regression analyses. the results revealed that transformational leadership has a positive effect on the dimensions of an ethical climate. no convincing support was found for the proposition that integrity moderates the relationship between transformational leadership and the dimensions of an ethical climate. 221vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 9 introduction business ethics has emerged as an important issue in society in the past decade and is considered critical to business success in the long term. the benefi ts of an ethically orientated culture are many, including increased effectiveness due to a strengthened organisational culture, and increased effort and lower levels of turnover resulting from greater organisational commitment (jones, 2007; mcdonald, 2009; yukl, 2006). south africa is experiencing an increasing awareness of unethical practices and public distrust of business in general is widespread (spangenberg & theron, 2005). typical unethical leadership behaviour and practices that occur in many organisations include corruption, bribery, intimidation, fraud, lying, favouritism and endangerment of the physical environment (banerji & krishnan, 2000; malan & smit, 2001). due to disappointing public organisation scandals that have been exposed, a return to ethics in the organisation has become vital and organisational leaders have to realise how important ethical leadership is. not only are ethical practices essential to overcome the increasing occurrence of scandals and its negative consequences, but such practices also affect the organisation’s profi tability positively on account of its reputation as an honest and trustworthy employer and business partner (fulmer, 2004). the ethical climate of an organisation, which is the shared perceptions of what ethically correct behaviour is and how ethical issues/dilemmas should be handled, both refl ects and defi nes the ethics of an organisation (jones, 2007; mcdonald, 2009; victor & cullen, 1987). an ethical culture is believed to infl uence employees to be more loyal to their organisations, thereby contributing to the unleashing of their productive and creative potential within the work environment and boosting business performance (rossouw, 1997). the solution to ethical problems ultimately lies in the establishment of moral and competent leadership (bass & steidlmeier, 1999; kanungo & mendonca, 1996; malan & smit, 2001; mcdonald, 2009). a contemporary defi nition of ethical leadership is leadership that engages in ethical conduct that is based on right or wrong behaviour towards members of society (odom & green, 2003). as kanungo and mendonca (1996) have observed, the beliefs and values, the vision and, most importantly, the actions of the leader can be seen as setting the ethical tone and standards for the unit or organisation. according to bass and steidlmeier (1999), the ethics of leadership rests on three pillars: fi rstly, the moral character of the leader, secondly, the ethical values embedded in the leader’s vision and articulation thereof and, lastly, the morality of the choices and actions that leaders and followers engage in and pursue to realise the ethical vision. burns’s (1978) theory of transforming leadership, which prescibes the nature of morally good leadership, rests on a set of moral assumptions about the relationship between leaders and followers. transforming leaders are concerned with end-values such as liberty, justice and equality, and with raising followers to higher levels of morality. transformational leadership alone is not a guarantee of ethical leadership behaviour, although many of the transformational behaviours are synonymous with ethical behaviours (odom & green, 2003; parry & proctor-thomson, 2002). ciulla (2004) believes that the body of research on transformational leadership is promising because it includes empirical research into a theory that was constructed to address the basic moral problems of leadership. according to bass and steidlmeier (1999), leaders are truly (authentic as opposed to pseudo) transformational when they increase awareness of what is right, good and important, and when they raise followers to become leaders who go beyond their selfinterest for the good of their organisation. corrupt behaviour is not impulsive, it is a premeditated act, and this highlights the importance and power of sound ethical personal values for preventing unethical behaviour (malan & smit, 2001). research strongly supports the conclusion that the ethical philosophies and values of management have a major impact on the ethical choices and behaviour of employees (mcdonald, 2009). ethical leadership should be guided by values such as individual moral responsibility, caring for others, mutual respect, human fulfi lment, honour and integrity (gardner, cited in engelbrecht, 2001). leaders who have a high regard for integrity are more respectful to co-workers and more loyal to original research van aswegen & engelbrecht sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 5 (page number not for citation purposes) 222 vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 9 the organisation, and are therefore less likely to take part in counterproductive behaviour (mikulay & goffin, 2007; ones, viswesvaran & schmidt, 2003). to ensure the desired ethical leadership behaviour, it is necessary to identify the value systems of socialised transformational leaders (engelbrecht, 2001). according to engelbrecht (2001), ethical leader behaviour is directed by the underlying values of transformational leaders, such as self-transcendence, developmental orientation, team rewards orientation, empowerment and interactional justice. research results have indicated that transformational leaders contribute to the development of a climate of procedural and interactional justice in organisations (engelbrecht & chamberlain, 2005; krafft, engelbrecht & theron, 2004). purpose of the study the aim of this study was to further develop and test a theoretical model that reveals the factors that determine an ethical climate in organisations through the exploration of the ethical values of transformational leaders. integrity, in particular, is recognised in the literature as a core ethical value of transformational leaders (ciulla, 2004; engelbrecht, 2001; kanungo & mendonca, 1996; palanski & yammarino, 2009; yukl, 2006). the positive effect of integrity on transformational leadership revealed that leaders will only be perceived as transformational if they display consistency in words and actions. leaders play a key role in determining the ethical climate of an organisation. therefore, the positive relationship between transformational leadership and an ethical climate emphasises the importance of transformational leadership behaviour in developing leaders and ethical organisations. the present study aimed to analyse the relationship that exists between leadership and an ethical climate through investigating the specific relationships that are assumed to exist between the dimensions of transformational leadership and an ethical climate. the specific leadership-climate linkages moderated by leader integrity are also explicated in the model (see figure 1). the following sections explain the relationships between the variables depicted in the theoretical model. transformational leadership and an ethical climate according to bass and avolio (1994), leaders are truly transformational when they increase awareness of what is right, good and important, and when they raise followers up into leaders who go beyond their self-interest for the good of the organisation. bass and avolio (1994) identified four dimensions of transformational leadership. these are idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration. idealised influence or charisma refers to the behaviour of leaders that results in their being rolemodels for their followers. these leaders are admired, respected and trusted because of their consideration of the needs of others over their personal needs. inspirational motivation refers to the behaviour of leaders that motivate and inspire those around them by providing meaning and challenge to their followers’ work. they ensure their followers’ involvement by envisioning attractive future states and by displaying optimism and enthusiasm. intellectual stimulation refers to the way in which leaders stimulate their followers’ efforts to be innovative and creative by questioning assumptions, reframing challenges and approaching old situations in different ways. individualised consideration is reflected when a leader pays special attention to each individual’s needs for self-actualisation, growth and performance by acting as a coach or mentor. an ethical climate is a subset of the organisational climate, and involves normative values and beliefs concerning moral issues that are shared by the employees of the organisation (jones, 2007; weber, 1995). the ethical work climate constitutes the prevailing perceptions of typical organisational practices and procedures that have ethical content (victor & cullen, 1988). victor and cullen (1988) identified four dimensions of a corporate ethical climate, namely rules, independence, caring, and law and code climate. when the organisation’s ethical climate is not clear and positive, employees will often look to leaders for guidance to handle ethical dilemmas (kidwell & martin, 2005). actions speak louder than words, and what the leader values and does will set the ethical tone for decision making at all levels and create the moral environment of an organisation. it is the leader’s personal conduct that determines the effectiveness of codes, policies, procedures and support structures. an organisation’s ethical climate should be a natural overflow of leaders’ commitment to ethical principles and values expressed in their daily struggle to �������� ��������� ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ��������� ���� ���� ������������� ���������� ��� ��� ���� ������������ ��������� ��� ���� ������ ������� ������� ������������� ��������� ������ � ��� figure 1 a conceptual model of the relationships between transformational leadership, integrity and the dimensions of an ethical climate s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #175 (page number not for citation purposes) the relationship between transformational leadership, integrity and an ethical climate in organisations 223vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 9 live by them (banerji & krishnan, 2000; kanungo & mendonca, 1996). studies have investigated the separate impact of the various dimensions of transformational leadership on performance and attitudes (banerji & krishnan, 2000). it is therefore logical to assume that the different aspects of transformational leadership will be related to the different dimensions of an ethical climate in different ways. the transformational leadership dimensions can be linked to specific dimensions of an ethical climate as follows: intellectual stimulation may lead to the dimension of an independence climate, as this creates a climate that supports followers in questioning their own values, beliefs and expectations. it also enables followers to make their own decisions about what is right and wrong (victor & cullen, 1988). the leader is instrumental in getting followers to re-examine assumptions that may inhibit creativity and innovation (banerji & krishnan, 2000; bass & avolio, 1994; odom & green, 2003). therefore, the following can be postulated: hypothesis 1: a positive relationship exists between intellectual stimulation and an independence climate. idealised influence may lead to the following climate dimensions: law and code:• in this climate, the law and professional standards are put above all other considerations (victor & cullen, 1988). the leader will always consider the applicable law whenever a decision has to be made, and can be counted on to do the right thing. the leader demonstrates high ethical and moral standards and thereby becomes a role-model who is respected and trusted by his or her followers. rules climate:• in this climate, it is required to strictly follow the company’s procedures (victor & cullen, 1988). this climate would be evident if the leaders live out the ethical standards that have been set, in other words match their actions to their words. this leads to integrity, resulting in the followers trusting their leaders. caring climate:• leaders in this climate always consider the good of their followers, and put others before themselves (victor & cullen, 1988). this sets an example for followers to do the same, and the leader is admired and trusted because of such behaviour. followers will want to emulate the leader. therefore, the following can be postulated: hypothesis 2: a positive relationship exists between idealised influence and a law and code climate. hypothesis 3: a positive relationship exists between idealised influence and a rules climate. hypothesis 4: a positive relationship exists between idealised influence and a caring climate. inspirational motivation may lead to the following dimensions: independence climate:• this climate involves that people are expected to follow their own personal moral and ethical beliefs (victor & cullen, 1988). leaders with inspirational motivation behave in ways that motivate and inspire those around them by providing meaning and a challenge to followers’ tasks, while allowing them autonomy to decide for themselves what is right or wrong. inspirational leaders raise awareness of what is important in a problem and encourage the use of ‘gut feelings’ and intuition in solving problems (bass & avolio, 1994). the leader gives his or her followers the freedom to decide their own ethical principles. caring climate:• the leader remains optimistic about likely outcomes despite setbacks that may occur, constantly providing encouragement and feedback to followers, as well as boosting their confidence in achieving success. the leader reminds them of the mission, and is concerned about the larger picture. inspirational leaders are likely to enhance the enabling and empowerment of their followers and their commitment to search for solutions to problems (banerji & krishnan, 2000; bass & avolio, 1994; odom & green, 2003). therefore, the following can be postulated: hypothesis 5: a positive relationship exists between inspirational motivation and an independence climate. hypothesis 6: a positive relationship exists between inspirational motivation and a caring climate. individualised consideration can be linked to the following dimensions of an ethical climate: independence climate:• the leader treats each follower individually, as individual differences in terms of needs and desires are recognised. this allows followers to make their own decisions with regard to ethical issues, without the leader coercing them to follow a certain course of action. caring climate:• this refers to the degree that people in the company consider the best interests of others, through acts of benevolence. the individually considerate leader takes the needs and interests of the followers into account. the following can be postulated from the above assumptions and findings: hypothesis 7: a positive relationship exists between individualised consideration and an independence climate. hypothesis 8: a positive relationship exists between individualised consideration and a caring climate. integrity and transformational leadership in a comprehensive review of management literature, palanski and yammarino (2007) classified the various meanings of integrity into five general categories, namely integrity as wholeness; integrity as consistency between words and actions; integrity as consistency in adversity; integrity as being true to oneself; and integrity as moral or ethical behaviour. integrity means that an individual’s behaviour is consistent with espoused moral values, and that the person is honest and trustworthy (yukl, 2006). most scholars consider integrity to be a requirement for ethical and effective leadership (palanski & yammarino, 2009; storr, 2004; yukl, 2006). it is a firm belief in good leadership that leaders should walk their ethical talk by living and not merely promoting the organisation’s value system and design (davis & rothstein, 2006; malan & smit, 2001). leaders should personally demonstrate commitment and loyalty to the organisation by behaving and leading with integrity and by showing what it means to behave consistently and congruently with what they confess (malan & smit, 2001). the leader gains influence by demonstrating important personal characteristics, which are by-products of his or her strong value system (carlson & perrewe, 1995). trustworthiness and integrity have been identified as essential aspects of effective transformational leaders (palanski & yammarino, 2009). leaders communicate their values and standards most directly through their actions and, subsequently, through how they direct their attention, respond to problems and formulate strategies (trevino, cited in cohen, 1993). leaders with integrity always encourage open and honest communication, particularly in discussions that concern decision making. leaders value the individual’s viewpoint and the feedback that results from shared decision making (parry & proctor-thomson, 2002). this leadership value set is consistent with transformational leadership. bass and avolio (1994) state that transformational leadership signifies that ‘new ideas and creative problem solutions are solicited from followers, who original research van aswegen & engelbrecht sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 5 (page number not for citation purposes) 224 vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 9 are included in the process of addressing problems and finding solutions’. parry and proctor-thomson (2002) found a positive relationship between perceived leader integrity and transformational leadership. peterson (2004) asserts that a leader’s integrity has a positive influence on the moral intentions of his or her followers. the value of integrity may have a moderating effect on the relationship between transformational leadership and an ethical climate. according to palanski and yammarino (2009), an organisational climate with regard to integrity is positively related to the integrity of leaders. in this study it is postulated that integrity must be based on ethical principles if the leader’s actions are to carry any weight in influencing followers to behave ethically. it is argued that integrity moderates the effect of the following dimensions of transformational leadership on an ethical climate: idealised influence• : idealised influence involves the creation of an ethical vision, and the setting of high ethical standards for imitation to achieve this vision. the leader proposes the highest ethical standards to his or her followers, which are implemented in his or her own life, both publicly and privately (bass & steidlmeier, 1999). idealised influence will only result in followers emulating the leader and buying into his or her vision if these ethical standards are implemented in his or her own life. this display of integrity in the leader’s behaviour can lead to building the trust and respect of the followers. transformational leaders go beyond self-interest and consider the moral and ethical consequences of their actions (parry & proctor-thomson, 2002). consequently, the following can be postulated: hypothesis 9: the interaction between integrity and idealised influence produces additional variance in a law and code climate not attributable to the main effect of idealised influence. hypothesis 10: the interaction between integrity and idealised influence produces additional variance in a rules climate not attributable to the main effect of idealised influence. hypothesis 11: the interaction between integrity and idealised influence produces additional variance in a caring climate not attributable to the main effect of idealised influence. • inspirational motivation: the leader challenges followers to participate in shared goals in an ethical manner, and to achieve the vision through personal sacrifice and trust. the leader manifests consistency of word and deed (bass & steidlmeier, 1999; palanski & yammarino, 2009). the leader’s efforts at inspirational motivation are likely to fail unless he or she demonstrates integrity. inspirational motivation will therefore only result in an ethical climate if the leader demonstrates integrity. from the above assumptions and findings, the following can be postulated: hypothesis 12: the interaction between integrity and inspirational motivation produces additional variance in an independence climate not attributable to the main effect of inspirational motivation. hypothesis 13: the interaction between integrity and inspirational motivation produces additional variance in a caring climate not attributable to the main effect of inspirational motivation. research design research approach a quantitative or positivistic research approach, and more specifically a cross-sectional, ex post facto design, was used in this study. the positivistic or quantitative approach attempts to explain social phenomena by establishing a relation between variables (nunnally & marlowe, 1997). questionnaires were used to gather data in a field survey. research method research participants in the current study, non-probability sampling, more specifically convenience sampling, was used to select a sample from medium to large companies operating in the western cape. the organisations investigated ranged from electricity plants to insurance companies, retailers, accounting firms and banks. a total of 203 completed questionnaires were received, which represents a response rate of 56%. the average age of the respondents was 32.2 years. the sample consisted of both white (64.2%) and black (35.8%) respondents, was predominantly male (61.5%), and the average working experience of employees was 12.4 years. of the respondents, 58.8% were working in nonmanagerial positions, 19.1% in lower-level management, 15.6% in middle-level management and only 6.5% in upper-level management positions. measuring instruments transformational leadership was measured with the multifactor leadership questionnaire (mlq) developed by bass and avolio (1995). item analyses produced good reliabilities for the four transformational leadership sub-scales (0.75 ≤ α ≤ 0.87) (engelbrecht & chamberlain, 2005). a meta-analysis of the mlq literature was conducted, and it was found that the mlq scales were reliable and possessed good predictive validity (lowe, kroeck & sivasubramaniam, 1996). the ethical climate was measured using victor and cullen’s (1987) ethical climate questionnaire (ecq). the measures of each sub-climate have satisfactory reliabilities (0.65 ≤ α ≤ 0.82) (victor & cullen, 1987). from their analyses, it was concluded that the ecq scales were adequate for subsequent investigative research (weber, 1995). the value of integrity was measured using butler’s conditions of trust inventory (engelbrecht & cloete, 2000). items measuring honesty, consistency and promise fulfilment were used to form a 12-item integrity scale. scheps (2003) reported satisfactory internal consistency for the integrity scale (α = 0.93). research procedure a total of 360 questionnaires were sent out to contact persons in the companies that participated in the survey (see sample). a covering letter explaining the purpose and content of the study accompanied the questionnaires. anonymity and confidentiality were assured to participants. the completed questionnaires were returned to the researcher. statistical analysis the statistical analyses were carried out with the spss program (spss, 2003). cronbach alpha coefficients (α) were used to assess the internal consistency of the measuring instruments. pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficients were calculated to establish the strength of the relationships between specific dimensions of transformational leadership and an ethical climate, as proposed in figure 1. the convention proposed by guilford (tredoux & durheim, 2002) was used to interpret the correlation coefficients of the sample (see table 1). effect sizes were computed to assess the practical significance of relationships in this study. a cut-off point of 0.30, which represents a medium effect (steyn, 2002), was set for the practical significance of correlation coefficients. unidimensionality was determined by performing unrestricted principal component analyses with varimax rotation. standard multiple regression analyses were used to establish whether s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #175 (page number not for citation purposes) the relationship between transformational leadership, integrity and an ethical climate in organisations 225vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 9 the leadership-integrity interaction effect significantly explains variance in an ethical climate. results the theoretical model derived from the literature study postulates specific structural relationships between the variables (see figure 1). the results of the statistical analyses aimed at testing the stated hypotheses are reported below. the treatment of missing values is discussed first, followed by results of the dimensionality analyses and item analyses that were performed to establish the psychometric soundness of the indicator variables used to represent the various latent variables. the results of the correlation and regression analyses are also presented. missing values it was decided to use imputation as a method to solve the missing values problem and the prelis program was used to impute missing values (jöreskog & sörbom, 1996). after imputation, 200 cases with observations on all measured items remained in the validation sample. dimensionality analysis the aim of the dimensionality analysis was to confirm the unidimensionality of each sub-scale. all four sub-scales of the mlq passed the unidimensionality test and had satisfactory factor loadings (0.50 < λ < 0.86). only one of the four sub-scales of the ethical climate questionnaire failed the unidimensionality test. the caring climate sub-scale presented a clear two-factor orthogonal factor structure. all items allocated to the subdivided sub-scales loaded satisfactorily (0.54 < λ < 0.87) on a single factor. in the case of the integrity scale, the unidimensionality assumption was also not supported. the integrity scale presented a clear, relatively easily interpretable two-factor orthogonal factor structure (0.48 < λ < 0.91). although the factor fission was found to result in a conceptually meaningful division of a caring climate, as well as the integrity dimension, it was decided that these dimensions would not be extended for the purpose of this article, as doing so would complicate an already complex structural model. the item analyses produced satisfactory results as all scales and sub-scales exceed the recommended reliability of 0.70 (nunnally & marlowe, 1997). the imputation of missing values, in addition, seems to have had a weak attenuating effect on the coefficient of internal consistency calculated for each sub-scale. the item analyses revealed a limited number of questionable items that had to be considered for possible elimination in a number of the scales and sub-scales. in all such cases it was decided to retain the items in question, primarily due to the marginal increases in the coefficient of internal consistency that would have resulted from the removal of the items. the relationship between transformational leadership and an ethical climate this section focuses on the results as they relate to the main effect hypotheses regarding how transformational leadership affects the dimensions of an ethical climate. the relationship between intellectual stimulation and an independence climate hypothesis 1 postulated that intellectual stimulation has a positive, linear relationship with an independence climate. the results indicated a slight statistically significant (r = 0.15; p < 0.05), but not practically significant (r ≤ 0.30) correlation between intellectual stimulation and an independence climate (see table 2) (see also table 1 for interpretation of correlations). hypothesis 1 therefore survived the possibility of being refuted. however, only approximately 2% of the variance in an independence climate can be explained in terms of variance in intellectual stimulation. the relationship between idealised influence and a law and code climate hypothesis 2 suggested that idealised influence positively relates to a law and code dimension of an ethical climate. the results indicated a low, but practically (r ≥ 0.30) significant correlation (r = 0.32; p < 0.001) between idealised influence and a law and code climate. hypothesis 2 was therefore corroborated. approximately 10% of the variance in a law and code climate could be explained in terms of variance in idealised influence. the relationship between idealised influence and a rules climate hypothesis 3 proposed that idealised influence linearly and positively relates to a rules climate. the results indicated a low statistically significant (r = 0.26; p < 0.001), but not practically significant (r ≤ 0.30) correlation between idealised influence and a rules climate. hypothesis 3 was therefore confirmed. only approximately 7% of the variance in this particular ethical climate dimension could be explained in terms of concomitant variance in idealised influence. the relationship between idealised influence and a caring climate hypothesis 4 proposed that idealised influence has a linear, positive effect on the caring dimension of an ethical climate. the results indicated a substantial and practically (r ≥ 0.30) significant relationship (r = 0.49; p < 0.001) between idealised table 1 guilford’s interpretation of the magnitude of significant correlations absolute value of r interpretation < 0.19 slight; almost no relationship 0.20–0.39 low correlation; definite but small relationship 0.40–0.69 moderate correlation; substantial relationship 0.70–0.89 high correlation; strong relationship 0.90–1.00 very high correlation; very dependable relationship ≥ 0.30 practically significant relationship table 2 pearson product-moment correlation between integrity, transformational leadership and an ethical climate (n = 200) intellectual stimulation idealised influence inspirational motivation individualised consideration law and code 0.30** 0.32** 0.33** 0.22** rules climate 0.24** 0.26** 0.22** 0.14* independence 0.15* 0.20** 0.33** 0.22** caring climate 0.41** 0.49** 0.46** 0.39** integrity 0.57** 0.59** 0.49** 0.64** * p < 0.05 – statistically significant ** p < 0.01 – statistically significant original research van aswegen & engelbrecht sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 5 (page number not for citation purposes) 226 vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 9 influence and a caring climate. hypothesis 4 was therefore corroborated. approximately 24% of the variance in this particular ethical climate dimension could be explained in terms of concomitant variance in idealised influence. the relationship between inspirational motivation and an independence climate hypothesis 5 proposed that inspirational motivation has a linear, positive relationship with an independence climate. the results indicated a low, but practically (r ≥ 0.30) significant correlation (r = 0.33; p < 0.001) between inspirational motivation and an independence climate. hypothesis 5 was therefore supported. however, only approximately 10% of the variance in this particular ethical climate dimension could be explained in terms of concomitant variance in inspirational motivation. the relationship between inspirational motivation and a caring climate hypothesis 6 proposed that inspirational motivation has a linear, positive relationship with the caring about others dimension of an ethical climate. the results indicated a moderate and practically (r ≥ 0.30) significant correlation (r = 0.46; p < 0.001) between inspirational motivation and a caring climate. hypothesis 6 was therefore corroborated. approximately 21% of the variance in the caring ethical climate dimension could be explained in terms of concomitant variance in inspirational motivation. the relationship between individualised consideration and an independence climate hypothesis 7 proposed that individualised consideration has a linear, positive relationship with an independence climate. the results indicated a low statistically significant (r = 0.22; p < 0.001), but not practically significant (r ≤ 0.30) correlation between individualised consideration and an independence climate. hypothesis 7 was therefore confirmed. however, only approximately 5% of the variance in the independent climate dimension could be explained in terms of concomitant variance in individualised consideration. the relationship between individualised consideration and a caring climate hypothesis 8 proposed that individualised consideration has a linear, positive relationship with the caring for others dimension of an ethical climate. the results indicated a low, but practically (r ≥ 0.30) significant correlation (r = 0.39; p < 0.001) between individualised consideration and the caring climate. hypothesis 8 was therefore corroborated. approximately 15% of the variance in the ethical climate dimension could be explained in terms of concomitant variance in individualised consideration. the moderating effect of integrity on the relationship between transformational leadership and dimensions of an ethical climate in the argument presented earlier, which culminated in the structural model depicted in figure 1, it was contended that the extent to which specific dimensions of transformational leadership will affect specific dimensions of an ethical climate will depend on the extent to which the leader demonstrates integrity. leadership integrity was therefore postulated to moderate the effect of leadership on an ethical climate. the moderating effect of integrity on the relationship between idealised influence and a law and code climate hypothesis 9 claimed that the interaction between integrity and idealised influence produces variance in a law and code climate that is not attributable to the main effect of idealised influence. the results depicted in table 3 indicate that the interaction between idealised influence and integrity did not significantly (p > 0.05) explain variance in a law and code climate when included in a model already containing the idealised influence main effect. hypothesis 9 was therefore not supported. idealised influence did, however, significantly (p < 0.05) explain variance in a law and code climate when included in a model on its own (i.e. when it is allocated all the dependent variable variance it can account for). the ability to account for the variance in a law and code climate in terms of idealised influence was therefore not improved by allowing for different slopes in the regression of a law and code climate on idealised influence. the moderating effect of integrity on the relationship between idealised influence and a rules climate hypothesis 10 claimed that the interaction between integrity and idealised influence produces variance in a rules climate not attributable to the main effect of idealised influence. table 3 indicates that the interaction between idealised influence and integrity did not significantly (p > 0.05) explain variance in a rules climate when included in a model already containing the idealised influence main effect. hypothesis 10 was therefore not confirmed. idealised influence did, however, significantly (p < 0.05) explain variance in a rules climate when included in a model on its own. the moderating effect of integrity on the relationship between idealised influence and a caring climate hypothesis 11 claimed that the interaction between integrity and idealised influence produces variance in a caring climate that is not attributable to the main effect of idealised influence. the results (see table 3) indicated that the interaction between idealised influence and integrity did significantly (p < 0.05) explain variance in a caring climate when included in a model already containing the idealised influence main effect. hypothesis 11 was therefore supported. idealised influence did significantly (p < 0.05) explain variance in a caring climate when included in a model on its own. when controlling for the leadership main effect in both the predictor and the criterion, the interaction effect explained approximately 3% (0.183²) of the variance in a caring climate. the unique variance in the interaction between idealised influence and integrity explained 2.6% (0.160²) of the total variance in a caring climate (i.e. when controlling for the idealised influence main effect in the predictor only). although the interaction effect explained only a very small percentage of the variance in the caring climate dimension, some support for the postulated moderating role of integrity was nonetheless found. table 3 regression of an ethical climate on transformational leadership and the interaction between the dimensions of transformational leadership and integrity dependent variable predictor f p law and code climate r² = 0.112 idealised influence (ii) ii x integrity 22.565 2.192 0.000 0.140 rules climate r² = 0.068 idealised influence (ii) ii x integrity 13.948 0.414 0.000 0.520 caring climate r² = 0.265 idealised influence (ii) ii x integrity 64.050 6.843 0.000 0.010 independence climate r² = 0.066 inspirational motivation (im) im x integrity 11.721 2.274 0.001 0.133 caring climate r² = 0.273 inspirational motivation (im) im x integrity 4.897 9.214 0.028 0.003 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #175 (page number not for citation purposes) the relationship between transformational leadership, integrity and an ethical climate in organisations 227vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 9 the moderating effect of integrity on the relationship between inspirational motivation and an independence climate hypothesis 12 proposed that the interaction between integrity and inspirational motivation produces variance in an independence climate that is not attributable to the main effect of inspirational motivation. table 3 indicates that the interaction between inspirational motivation and integrity did not significantly (p > 0.05) explain variance in an independence climate when included in a model already containing the inspirational motivation main effect. inspirational motivation did, however, significantly (p < 0.05) explain variance in an independence climate when included in a model on its own. the ability to account for the variance in an independence climate in terms of inspirational motivation was therefore not improved by allowing for different slopes in the regression of an independence climate on inspirational motivation. no support was therefore found for the hypothesis that the extent to which inspirational motivation affects an independence climate would depend on the extent to which the leader demonstrates integrity. the moderating effect of integrity on the relationship between inspirational motivation and a caring climate hypothesis 13 proposed that the interaction between integrity and inspirational motivation produces variance in a caring climate that is not attributable to the main effect of inspirational motivation. table 3 indicates that the interaction between inspirational motivation and integrity significantly (p < 0.05) explains variance in a caring climate when included in a model already containing the inspirational motivation main effect. the ability to account for the variance in a caring climate in terms of inspirational motivation is therefore improved by allowing for different slopes in the regression of a caring climate on inspirational motivation. support was therefore found for the hypothesis that the extent to which inspirational motivation will affect a caring climate would depend on the extent to which the leader demonstrates integrity. when controlling for inspirational motivation in the predictor and the criterion, the unique variance in the interaction effect explains approximately 5% (0.211²) of the variance in a caring climate not explained by the leadership main effect. when controlling for inspirational motivation in the predictor only, the interaction effect explained approximately 3% (0.184²) of the total variance in a caring climate. the interaction effect accounted for only a small percentage of the variance in a caring climate. discussion the aim of the study was to investigate the different relationships between the constructs depicted in the theoretical model (see figure 1) in the south african context. the results showed positive relationships between the dimensions of transformational leadership and the dimensions of an ethical climate. a positive relationship between intellectual stimulation and an independence climate was found. this implies that leaders who are perceived to practice intellectual stimulation tend to be associated with work units characterised by an independence climate. followers may perceive a leader who allows them freedom to decide between right and wrong as providing intellectual stimulation. the results indicated a positive correlation between idealised influence and a law and code climate. this implies that leaders who are perceived to be creating an ethical vision, to have confidence in the vision, and to be setting high ethical standards that are implemented in his or her own life for imitation tend to be associated with work units characterised by a climate that encourages followers to adhere to the laws and codes of the organisation at all times. it was found that idealised influence positively relates to a rules climate. this implies that the leader who displays idealised influence lives out the ethical standards that he or she has set. followers will take notice of this role-model of ethical behaviour and emulate it (bass & avolio, 1994), thereby creating a climate of valuing doing things according to the book. the results indicated a positive relationship between idealised influence and a caring climate. this implies that leaders who are perceived as leading by example will tend to be associated with units characterised by a climate where caring about efficiency and others is held in high regard. the results showed a positive correlation between inspirational motivation and an independence climate. this implies that inspirational leaders who raise awareness of what is important about a problem and encourage the use of gut feelings or intuition in solving problems (bass & avolio, 1994) will tend to be associated with the independent dimension of an ethical climate. a positive relationship was found between inspirational motivation and a caring climate. this is consistent with the literature study (banerji & krishnan, 2000; bass & avolio, 1994; odom & green, 2003), which implies that inspirational leaders are likely to improve the enabling and empowerment of their followers and their commitment to searching for solutions to problems, which, in turn, will lead to the development of the caring dimension of an ethical climate. the results indicated a positive relationship between individualised consideration and an independence climate. this is consistent with the proposition, which implies that leaders exhibiting individualised consideration care about the followers’ need to make their own decisions about what is ethical or not and thereby contribute to the development of an independent ethical climate. the results demonstrate that individualised consideration has a positive relationship with the caring dimension of an ethical climate. this is consistent with the literature study, which implies that leaders who are individually considerate consider the best interests of others, in taking the needs and interests of the followers into account (bass & avolio, 1994). this contributes to the development of a caring ethical climate, as employees are not interested in their own needs only, but also in the needs of others and that of the work unit. these findings are consistent with other studies that suggest that transformational leaders exercising idealised influence, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation and individualised consideration will contribute to the development of an ethical culture in organisations (banerji & krishnan, 2000; bass & avolio, 1994; bass & steidlmeier, 1999; ciulla, 2004; kanungo & mendonca, 1996; odom & green, 2003). the study therefore affirmed that transformational leaders within an organisation can help create and perpetuate an ethical climate. in the theoretical argument, which culminated in the structural model depicted in figure 1, it was contended that the extent to which specific dimensions of transformational leadership will affect specific dimensions of an ethical climate would depend on the extent to which the leader demonstrates integrity. leadership integrity was therefore postulated to moderate the influence of leadership on an ethical climate. support for this hypothesis was found regarding two relationships only, namely between idealised influence and a caring climate, and between inspiration motivation and a caring climate. however, the interaction effect accounted for only a small percentage of the variance in a caring climate. integrity was, however, found to correlate strongly and significantly with all the dimensions of transformational leadership (0.49 ≤ r ≤ 0.64) (see table 2). this finding is original research van aswegen & engelbrecht sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 17 5 (page number not for citation purposes) 228 vol. 7 no. 1 page 8 of 9 consistent with other studies that identified integrity as a core value of transformational leadership (bass & steidlmeier, 1999; palanski & yammarino, 2009; parry & proctor-thomson, 2002; petersen, 2004; storr, 2004; yukl, 2006). limitations and recommendations a possible limitation of this study is that of mono-method bias or common-method variance. the problem derives from the fact that the source of the data for the predictors was not separated from the source of their outcomes. any relationship that existed could therefore be attributed to the response bias on the part of the respondent. figure 1 proposes causal linkages between specific dimensions of transformational leadership and specific dimensions of an ethical climate. the foregoing discussion revealed some degree of support for the proposed linkages within the limitations set by the ex post facto and the cross-sectional nature of the research design. the model, however, did not take into account all the possible relationships between the facets of transformational leadership and the dimensions of an ethical climate. the results indicated that some of the relationships not anticipated by the model were stronger than those anticipated by the model (see table 2). these results may have added value to the present study by providing valuable insights into the moderating effect of integrity on the relationship between transformational leadership and the development of an ethical climate. there are basically three ways in which integrity could enhance our understanding of the leadership process: integrity could be an independent factor that explains additional variance in an ethical climate; integrity could be causally prior to transformational leadership; or integrity could moderate the transformational leadership-ethical climate relationship. although no convincing support was found for the proposition that integrity has a moderating effect on the relationship between the dimensions of transformational leadership and the dimensions of an ethical climate, the results would rather suggest a direct relationship between integrity and transformational leadership. this means that integrity can influence an ethical climate indirectly through transformational leadership. it is therefore recommended that an alternative structural model could be developed that postulates that transformational leadership dimensions may mediate the relationship between integrity and the dimensions of an ethical climate. this alternative model should be tested through structural equation modelling to better understand the interaction effects among the variables. conclusion the positive relationship between transformational leadership and an ethical climate emphasises the importance of transformational leadership behaviourwhenethical organisa– tions are developed. the leader is responsible for setting ethics or norms that govern the conduct of employees in the organisation, and it is vital that the work climate of the organisation encourages ethical behaviours (kouzes & posner, 2007; palanski & yammarino, 2009; spangenberg & theron, 2005). every organisation needs some form of ethical programme to effectively manage its ethical culture and to create and maintain a culture that promotes ethical behaviour. in order to strengthen the corporate ethical culture, some structural and procedural changes could be implemented by management as a means of institutionalising ethics (mcdonald, 2009; van velsor & ascalon, 2008; vitell & hidalgo, 2006). these changes include corporate ethical code promulgation and value statement formulations; management ethical training and corporate ethical education; corporate ethical performance evaluation; disciplinary procedures in place for breach of codes; procedures for seeking advice or reporting violations (e.g. the support of whistleblowers, ethical hotlines); equitable reward systems; conducting of ethical audits; and the introduction of an ethics ombudsperson, ethics committees and ethics newsletters. effective and well-designed leadership development programmes may support ethical action by providing participants with opportunities for rich and comprehensive feedback, enhancement of self-awareness, time to reflect on personal and professional relationships, and improved understanding of the ethical intent of strategic processes (van velsor & ascalon, 2008). it is therefore crucial that management create an organisational culture of openness and transparency in which unethical conduct will become visible and in which employees and managers can call each other to account. ethical leadership demonstrates the will and ability to strategically position, design and sustain an organisation successfully, to develop employee competence and to direct human and organisational energy in pursuit of performance and achievement that stand the ethical test of effectiveness and efficiency (malan & smit, 2001). the building of an ethical climate requires more than just leaders who behave ethically; it requires the proactive management of ethics. such leaders have to be passionately motivated and committed to achieve the vision of an ethical organisational climate (spangenberg & theron, 2005). the ethical responsibility of leadership is to take the lead in defining a sound value system. the best way to achieve this is by uncompromisingly and openly living such a value system (banerji & krishnan, 2000; malan & smit, 2001). when leaders act consistently and sincerely on the basis of their values, their authenticity will be demonstrated to others over time, and their followers will be loyal to them. ethical leadership is leadership that is capable of identifying ethical issues when they inevitably arise, utilising an ethical decision-making process for resolving ethical disputes and having the courage to make the ethical decision (odom & green, 2003). a fundamental commitment to high ethical standards must permeate everything employees do and must be a foundation of action of leaders throughout the organisation. when leaders are truly transformational, and serve as role models of ethical behaviour, a positive culture will permeate the whole organisation. adherence to the highest standards of ethical behaviour and integrity inspires confidence and trust, both inside and outside the organisation. references banerji, p., & krishnan, v.r. (2000). ethical preferences of transformational leaders: an empirical investigation. leadership and organization development journal, 21(8), 405– 413. bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1994). improving organizational effectiveness through transformational leadership. thousand oaks: sage. bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1995). the multifactor leadership questionnaire (form 5–45). palo alto: consulting psychologist press. bass, b.m., & steidlmeier p. (1999). ethics, character, and authentic transformational leadership behavior, leadership quarterly, 10(2), 181–217. burns, j.m. (1978). leadership. new york: harper & row. carlson, d.s., & perrewe, p.l. (1995). institutionalisation of organisational ethics through transformational leadership. journal of business ethics, 14(10), 828–838. ciulla, j.b. (2004). ethics, the heart of leadership. westport: praeger publishers. cohen, d.v. (1993). creating and maintaining ethical work climates: anomie in the workplace and implications for managing change. business ethics quarterly, 3(4), 343–358. davis, a.l., & rothstein, h.r (2006). the effects of the perceived behavioural integrity of managers on employee attitudes: a meta-analysis. journal of business ethics, 67, 407–409. engelbrecht, a.s. (2001). core values underlying transformational and transactional leadership. management dynamics, 10(3), 56–80. s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #175 (page number not for citation purposes) the relationship between transformational leadership, integrity and an ethical climate in organisations 229vol. 7 no. 1 page 9 of 9 engelbrecht, a.s., & chamberlain, l. (2005). the influence of transformational leadership on organisational citizenship behaviour through justice and trust. management dynamics, 14(1), 2–13. engelbrecht, a.s., & cloete, b.e. (2000). an analysis of a supervisor-subordinate trust relationship. journal of industrial psychology, 26(1), 24–28. fulmer, r.m. (2004). the challenge of ethical leadership. organizational dynamics, 33(3), 307–317. jones, g.r. (2007). organizational theory, design, and change. upper saddle river: prentice hall. jöreskog, k., & sörbom, d. (1996). lisrel 8: user’s reference guide. chicago: scientific software international. kanungo, r.n., & mendonca, m. (1996). ethical dimensions of leadership. thousand oaks: sage. kidwell, r.e., & martin, c.l. (2005). managing organizational deviance. new york: sage. kouzes, j.m., & posner, b.z. (2007). the leadership challenge. san francisco: jossey-bass. krafft, p., engelbrecht, a.s., & theron, c.c. (2004). the influence of transformational and transactional leadership on dyadic trust relationships through perceptions of fairness. south african journal of industrial psychology, 30(1), 18–26. lowe, k.b., kroeck, k.g., & sivasubramaniam, n (1996). effectiveness correlates of transformational and transactional leadership: a meta-analytic review of the mlq literature. leadership quarterly, 7, 385-426. malan, f., & smit, b. (2001). ethics and leadership in business and politics. cape town: juta. mcdonald, g.m. (2009). an anthology of codes of ethics. european business review, 21(4), 344–372. mikulay, s., & goffin, r.d. (2007). measuring and predicting counterproductivity in the laboratory using integrity and personality testing. educational and psychological measurement, 58(5), 768–791. nunnally, r.c., & marlowe, h.a. (1997). psychometric theory. new york: mcgraw-hill. odom, l., & green, m.t. (2003). law and the ethics of transformational leadership. leadership and organization development journal, 24(2), 62–69. ones, d.s., viswesvaran, c., & schmidt, f.l. (2003). personality and absenteeism: a meta-analysis of integrity tests. european journal of personality. 17, 19–38. palanski, m.e., & yammarino, f.j. (2007). integrity and leadership: cleaning the conceptual confusion. european management journal, 25(3), 171–184. palanski, m.e., & yammarino, f.j. (2009). integrity and leadership: a multi-level conceptual framework. the leadership quarterly, 20, 405–420. parry, k.w., & proctor-thomson, s.b. (2002). perceived integrity of transformational leaders in organisational settings. journal of business ethics, 35, 75–96. peterson, d. (2004). perceived leader integrity and ethical intentions of subordinates. leadership and organization development journal, 25, 7–23. rossouw, g.j. (1997). business ethics in south africa. journal of business ethics, 16, 1539–1547. scheps, a. (2003). the influence of ethical values on transformational leadership and ethical climate in organisations: an exploratory study. unpublished masters thesis, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa. spangenberg, h., & theron, c.c. (2005). promoting ethical follower behaviour through leadership of ethics: the development of the ethical leadership inventory (eli). south african journal of business management, 36(2), 1–18. spss (2003). spss 12.0 for windows. chicago. steyn, h.s. (2002). practical significant relationships between two variables. south african journal of industrial psychology, 28(3), 10–15. storr, l. (2004). leading with integrity: a qualitative research study. journal of health organization and management, 18(6), 415–434. tredoux, c.t., & durheim, k. (2002). numbers, hypotheses and conclusions: a course in statistics for the social sciences. cape town: uct press. van velsor, e., & ascalon, e. (2008). the role and impact of leadership development in supporting ethical action in organizations. journal of management development, 27(2), 187–195. victor, b., & cullen, j.b. (1987). a theory and measure of ethical climate in organisations. in w.c. frederick & l.e. preston (eds.), research in corporate social performance and policy (n.p.). greenwich: jai press. victor, b., & cullen, j.b. (1988). the organisational bases of ethical work climates. administrative science quarterly, 3(1), 101–125. vitell, s.j., & hidalgo, e.r. (2006). the impact of corporate ethical values and enforcement of ethical codes on the perceived importance of ethics in business: a comparison of us and spanish managers. journal of business ethics, 64, 31–43. weber, j. (1995). influences upon organisational ethical subclimates: a multi-departmental analysis of a single firm. organization science, 6 (5), 509–523. yukl, g. (2006). leadership in organisations. upper saddle river: prentice hall. 110---12 nov 2009 [final vesion].indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #110 (page number not for citation purposes) core competencies necessary for a managerial psycho-educational training programme for business team coaches authors: jeanette e. maritz1 marie poggenpoel1 chris p.h. myburgh2 affi liations: 1department of nursing science, university of johannesburg, south africa 2department of education, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: marie poggenpoel e-mail: mariep@uj.ac.za postal address: department of nursing, university of johannesburg, po box 524, auckland park 2006, south africa keywords: core competencies; managerial training; business coaching; psychoeducational training; developing management dates: received: 14 feb. 2008 accepted: 28 apr. 2009 published: 19 june 2009 how to cite this article: maritz, j.e., poggenpoel, m., & myburgh, c.p.h. (2009). core competencies necessary for a managerial psycho-educational training programme for business team coaches. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), art. #110, 8 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.110 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. abstract the objective of this research was to explore and describe core competencies necessary for a managerial psycho-educational training programme for business team coaches. the total number of participants in this qualitative research was 30. a purposive and snowball sampling strategy was used. triangulation was achieved through focus groups, in-depth individual interviews and naïve sketches. data were analysed through an open inductive approach and descriptive analysis. the results describe core competencies of a business team coach as situated within an outcomes based education framework and relate to the knowledge to be discovered, skills to be mastered and the attitudes to be formed during a managerial psycho-educational training programme. introduction preventing managerial degeneration has become a corporate priority. van jaarsveld (2004) warns that, without support and intervention, executives and managers can degenerate personally or their careers can be derailed at enormous cost to themselves, their companies and the economy. business managers are subjected to more pressure than ever to produce results, yet they are often promoted through jobspecifi c expertise without the emotional intelligence and work-life balance skills necessary to sustain them (minor, 1999; sherman & freas, 2004; van jaarsveld, 2004). developing management is at the heart of southern african progress (tuck, 2004/5). there are unique pressures in southern africa. the coming together of different cultures in the workplace and the number of unskilled/untrained people who need to be developed quickly represent the most urgent issues. there is also the huge challenge of acquired immuno defi ciency syndrome (aids), and there is also the pressure to perform in the context of globalisation (rostron, 2003). fortunately, companies are beginning to realise that executives and managers with years of training are a scarce resource, and that newly promoted managers need to be developed and nurtured. their ongoing well-being and development are critical strategic concerns. managerial self-neglect and derailment represent not only a personal tragedy, but also a waste of talent and organisational investment in time, money and human capital. it is at this point that coaching enters the arena. coaching has become a popular, mainstream way to develop individuals, executives, managers, leaders, teams and organisations. research has revealed an across-the-board consensus that coaching is one of the most powerful strategic and tactical weapons open to business today because of its ability to enhance areas of profi ciency that are already high, and to establish skills that were previously absent or weak (bowerman & collins, 1999; king & eaton, 1999; o’shaughnessy, 2001; piasecka, 2001; redshaw, 2000; thach, 2002; tucker, 2007). comensa (coaches and mentors of south africa, 2009) defi nes coaching as a professional, collaborative and outcomesdriven method of learning that seeks to develop individuals and teams, and raises self-awareness, so that specifi c goals may be achieved. coaching derives many of its principles from psychology, especially sport psychology and education (zues & skiffi ngton, 2000). although the principles of coaching are not new, coaching is relatively new to the world of business. business coaching has emerged as a crucial activity in supporting individual and team development and performance. it provides new direction in customer satisfaction, productivity and overall organisational effectiveness (tőnsing, 2003). in spite of its short history, business coaching is predicted to be one of the growth businesses of the fi rst decade of this millennium (king and eaton, 1999). hamlyn (2004, p. 28) describes business coaching as a ‘service offering that is most appropriately directed at people in business that have a desire to successfully drive and initiate an environment of sustainable business for tomorrow.’ business coaching provides the gateway to the intellectual and emotional support and development of managers, thus avoiding managerial derailment and preparing individuals to meet the increasingly complex requirements of today’s business environment (o’flaherty & everson cited in vaida, 2005; van jaarsveld, 2004). while a substantial part of business coaching involves one-on-one coaching, the need for business team coaching is increasing as world-class business organisations shift from i to we. according to tompkins (1995), world-class organisations will not think in terms of individuals but will focus on teams. teams have thus become one of the key building blocks of the modern organisation (mcbain, 2000). rationale there are numerous unique challenges facing business team coaching for managers in southern africa. one challenge is that southern africa is a crucible of multi-cultures, made up of a high number of people who are untrained and unskilled within the business environment and who need to be 74vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 8 original research maritz, poggenpoel & myburgh sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 11 0 (page number not for citation purposes) 75 developed (rostron, 2003). in the past, those who arrived in management positions had spent years being groomed and trained, assimilating the unwritten rules, absorbing the politics, establishing networks of contacts and adjusting to changing power balances (hillary, 2003). a new category of manager is now emerging: a manager fasttracked and unschooled in the unspoken, unwritten codes of conduct, with expectations unmatched with the harsh reality of the business environment (rothgiesser, 2004). such managers are often naïve, ambitious and hopeful, but also fearful of making mistakes and being found wanting. this leads to needless distress, hurt and frustration, leading to slow personal growth and development. another challenge in terms of the coaching profession is that business and team coaching is distinct from other types of coaching and calls for additional competencies and expertise as specialisation areas (hudson, 1999; king and eaton, 1999; skiffington & zues, 2003; zues & skiffington, 2000). core competencies refer to the coaching attributes necessary to perform coaching activities to the standard expected in professional practice. auerbach (2005a, p. 1) claims ‘it is the concept of identifying and developing particular competencies that leads our clients to make outstanding progress.’ this is the root of an effective managerial psycho-educational training programme for business team coaches. in the report of the international coach federation (icf) on the future of coaching (2005) the current standards of coaching competence and skills have come under scrutiny. this has been placed at the top of the icf’s strategic planning priorities on an international level. the organisation emphasises that coaching competence and skill sets need to be tied to serious academic research (auerbach, 2005b). according to comensa (2009) a competence tested method forms one of the critical ingredients needed to build a profession. problem statement coaching is a young profession and in its infancy in southern africa. the coaching profession in southern africa does however share international concerns regarding coaching training programmes. sherman and freas (2004, p. 84) remark, in the harvard business review, that ‘barriers to entry are nonexistent. at best, the coaching certification offered by various self-appointed bodies is difficult to assess, while methods of measuring return on investment are questionable’. bluckert (2004) adds that there are no real barriers to entry, and also comments on the breadth of backgrounds from which coaches are coming. these include retiring executives, academics, trainers, engineers, senior police officers, teachers, nurses, psychologists, counsellors, psychotherapists and sport coaches. naughton (2002) believes that most international coaching programmes and imitations do not equip students with sufficient grounding in developmental psychology, interviewing techniques and other elements basic to sound therapy. in an alarming number of situations coaches who lack rigorous psychological training ‘do more harm than good’ (berglas, 2002, p. 87). lupberger (cited in naughton, 2002) agrees that intellectual vacuity is prevalent in the field. locally, professional executive business coaches such as italia boninelli (cited in hamlyn, 2004) state that a number of individuals who profess to be coaches have little practical expertise in business and even less insight into any of the theoretical people skills. van der sandt (2004) remarks that the low barrier to entry and the limited number of institutions that provide coaching in south africa will impact negatively on the quality of coaching training provided. during an interview, david rock, generally regarded as the leader in global coaching, commented that ‘building a team of quality, screened coaches’ is both a global and local imperative (hosking, 2005, p. 9). coaching may be a young profession and in its infancy in southern africa but the coaching profession can no longer afford to send people into the field as business and team coaches without the agreed upon core competencies and accredited programmes that offer depth in terms of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values. this research addresses the empirical void that exists in terms of described competencies necessary for a managerial psychoeducational training programme for business team coaches in southern africa. the objective of this research was to explore and describe core competencies necessary for a managerial psycho-educational training programme for business team coaches. research design research approach in order to achieve the best, informed results from this research, a qualitative (creswell, 2003), explorative, descriptive and contextual research approach was employed to explore the core competencies necessary for a managerial psycho-educational training programme for business team coaches. nelson (cited in denzin & lincoln, 2000) explains that qualitative research is an interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary and sometimes counterdisciplinary field. this multiparadigmatic focus is ideally suited to the multiparadigmatic nature of coaching. research strategy the unit of analysis for this research was individual business team coaches. the researcher identified coaches who had experience in team coaching within the business context or with managers, ceos who made use of the services of business team coaches, and managers who participated in business team coaching as multiple sources of information for the focus groups, in-depth individual interviews and naïve sketches. research method research setting this research took place within the southern african context and included participants from south africa and swaziland. various industries were represented, namely the hospitality industry; retail; marketing and sales; travel; and human capital. entrée and establishing researcher roles rubin and rubin (1995) state that qualitative interviews frequently choose interviewees along social networks. in this case, the researcher included interviewees along social and professional networks. the researcher, in qualitative research, is the primary instrument of data collection (creswell, 2003). in order to prepare himself/herself, he/she has to engage in thorough self-examination as well as master interpersonal and communication skills (de vos, strydom, fouché & delport, 2005). to this effect the researcher carried out a personal naïve sketch (giorgi, 1985) in order to bracket her experience and to create awareness, as she herself is a business and team coach. research participants the target population in this research was identified as follows: firstly, coaches who had experience in team coaching within the business context or with managers; secondly, chief executive officers (ceos) who made use of the services of business team coaches; and thirdly, managers who participated in business team coaching. the input of the ceos in the identification of core competencies was of great importance since they would ultimately employ or make use of the services of the business team coach. managers were included because they are ultimately the recipients of the managerial psycho-educational training programme. they have experienced business team coaching and their experiences, be they positive or less positive, could give valuable insights into the competencies they expected from a business team coach. the total number of participants in this research was 30. their ages varied from 27 to 60 years. of the 30 participants, 12 were vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 8 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #110 (page number not for citation purposes) psycho-educational training programme for business team coaches 76 coaches: eight coaches were qualified advanced business coaches, three of which had international recognition. they differed in race, 10 white and two black, as well as gender, four men and eight women. five participants were ceos. their ages varied from 34 to 50 years, and all were white men. six participants were general managers. their ages varied from 35 to 53 years, and all were white men. seven participants were managers. their ages varied from 31 to 48 years, and all were black, four men and three woman. sampling purposive sampling (de vos et al., 2005) was used in order to ensure that specific elements were included in the sample. this approach employs a considerable degree of selectivity. the researcher also used snowball sampling (de vos et al., 2005), where one member of a group referred the researcher to another member/coach. ethical considerations in this study the following ethical considerations (de vos et al., 2005) were taken into account: consent to conduct research was requested and granted through the ceos of all the business institutions approached. the ceos acted as gatekeepers for the organisations. informed consent was obtained from all participants by means of a letter communicating the necessary information pertaining to the research. confidentiality was maintained and participants were informed of the rationale, recording and safekeeping of audiotaped interviews and transcriptions. participation was voluntary, and ethical clearance was granted by the university of johannesburg. data collection methods data were collected by means of three focus group interviews (lasting between 45 and 90 minutes; participants ranged between four and seven members), three in-depth individual interviews (de vos et al., 2005) (lasting between 35 and 60 minutes) and 19 naïve sketches (varying between one to five pages). the researcher’s auto-ethnographic naïve sketch was included. to assist in the data collection, the researcher used a field log for field and observational notes (creswell, 2003) to chronicle her thinking, feelings, experiences and perceptions throughout the research process. observational notes were made of participants’ non-verbal cues, and the dynamics and process between participants in the focus groups and in individual interviews. some participants were involved in interviews and also submitted naïve sketches. the question in this research was open-ended and allowed the respondent the opportunity to structure an answer in any of several dimensions (krueger, 1994). the central question posed to the participants was: ‘what are your expectations of a competent business team coach?’ after the central question had been asked, the researcher encouraged the participants to continue talking by using facilitative communication techniques such as probing, paraphrasing, minimal verbal response and summarising (burns & grove, 2005). data were collected until the sample had been saturated, as evidenced by repeating themes (poggenpoel, 2000). data analysis recorded focus group interviews and individual in-depth interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using the descriptive analysis technique of tesch (creswell, 2003). the transcribed interviews and naïve sketches were read to gain a sense of the whole. ideas that come to mind were jotted down in the margin. the most interesting interview was selected and examined to determine what is was about, and to establish the underlying meaning. again, any thoughts that came to mind were jotted down in the margin. the ideas were converted into topics that reflected their meaning. similar topics were clustered together and placed in columns that were arranged into major topics, unique topics and leftovers. this list was compared to the data, and topics were abbreviated by codes and written next to the appropriate segments of the text. the most descriptive wording for the topics was chosen. the topics were defined and grouped into categories. a set of clean data was provided to an independent coder who has experience in qualitative data analysis. a consensus discussion was held between the researcher and the independent coder to verify the findings. a literature control provided a framework as well as a benchmark for comparing and contrasting the results (or themes or categories) of this research with other findings (creswell, 2003). strategies employed to ensure data quality in qualitative designs, validity and reliability are described through strategies for trustworthiness. this research operationalised the strategies of credibility, applicability, dependability and confirmability as described by lincoln and guba (1985). credibility was ensured through prolonged engagement, triangulation, peer debriefing and member checking. a dense description of the background information and purposeful sampling ensured the transferability of this research. dependability was maintained through code– recode procedures. confirmability was established through triangulation and reflectivity. reporting a qualitative, narrative writing style will be followed in reporting the research findings. findings participants identified one central theme, which was divided into three categories. this theme as well as the categories and sub-categories are reflected in table 1. the central theme that was identified is as follows. core competencies necessary for a managerial psycho-educational training programme for business team coaches should fall within an outcomes based education (obe) approach, where clear statements are made about the knowledge to be discovered table 1 overview of the themes, categories and sub-categories of the participants’ views theme category outcomes based education (obe) knowledge to be discovered1. coaching process1.1. leadership practice 1.2. management development1.3. business acumen1.4. training and development1.5. individual and group behaviour1.6. diversity management1.7. skills to be mastered 2. building relationships2.1. emotional intelligence2.2. communication talent2.3. facilitation expertise2.4. political intelligence2.5. contextual intelligence2.6. change management2.7. capacity for flexibility2.8. attitudes to be formed3. authenticity3.1. self-awareness3.2. openness3.3. honesty3.4. ethical ways of being3.5. empathy3.6. trust3.7. enthusiasm and passion3.8. inspiration3.9. 3.10. integrity vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 8 original research maritz, poggenpoel & myburgh sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 11 0 (page number not for citation purposes) 77 as well as the skills to be mastered and attitudes to be formed as a result of the business team coach’s learning. the three categories of the above-mentioned theme will now be discussed, supported by direct quotes from the participants. category 1: knowledge to be discovered participants referred to the following essential knowledge: ‘coaching process, leadership practice, management development, business acumen, training and development, individual and group behaviour and diversity management.’ all seven aspects, each of which is regarded as an essential item of coaching knowledge, are discussed in further detail. participants referred to knowledge of the coaching process. a ceo and a coach explained their views and expectations of the coaching process as follows: my expectation is focused on the team and the process. firstly the coach must be experienced in terms of the coaching journey he is taking the team on. the journey must be defined and explained to everybody, so that they understand: we want to coach you towards a specific outcome. the beginning of the session, this is where we stand in terms of the process, this was the type of movements that has taken place in this session, where would we like to be … also weighted by the team coach is: how effective is the team now, what are the shifts? and that will be based on the return on investment exercise … the coach needs to be trained into literally upfront create with the team a return on investment to say ok, here’s the cost value to it and here’s the investment value to it, what are we going to get out of it? several of the participants mentioned that knowledge of leadership/leadership theories was needed, even though they were somewhat vague as to exactly what knowledge regarding leadership was needed: ‘we need something on leadership …’ and … there is so much said about leadership, a person’s definition of leadership is a personal definition. there are assumptions that you make about what constitutes a leader, but a student should be aware of the content of leadership. not only should a business team coach be knowledgeable in terms of leadership theories, but he/she should have leadership qualities such as ‘seeing the big picture, putting things together, aligning the individual’s goals with the company’s needs and leading by example.’ one management team expressed it as: ‘charisma, someone who speaks and gets people going, no matter how difficult they are.’ with regard to the understanding of management principles and development, participants stated that the backgrounds of the business team coaches might be different, but when working with coachees you are: busy with the profession of the management of a company, you know, if i can’t make the shift … i need to teach them to do what they do differently or better … they are busy with the management of companies. another coach believed that ‘they need to be competent in management and project management, the latest stuff, not the boring stuff of the past.’ there was no clear consensus amongst the interest groups as to whether expert knowledge of business and industry was needed. some felt that it was imperative: he or she must understand the business that i am in, they must have practical business experience over a wide spectrum. he or she must have been where i am, he must have taken the pain that i am taking now. one coach company stated that ‘…our coaches are mature, they have been in business, they have been in government, and they know a lot about that stuff.’ others argued that: a business team coach does not have to be as good as or better than what i am in my business. if we use sporting terms, the golfing coach hasn’t been tiger woods himself – he happens to coach tiger woods. but he understands the business very well … he has to have an understanding of business principles, not necessarily industry-specific items. the value of knowledge of training and development is echoed in the following statements made by participants: if the course is about team coaching, you are either going to have to assume that the person has a coaching qualification, if not you are going to have to have a prerequisite of training to align them to coach and then to say we are going to teach the specialisation of business team coaching. specific knowledge in relation to training and development were noted as: … elements of learning styles … even if it is only for their competitive edge and also to facilitate it with different teams and team members. how do you know that this isn’t just becoming just a knowledge session. how do you track and measure … that it is actually impacting and changing … and ‘the principles of adult education are essential in a programme for team coaches, they must appreciate that adult learning has a different approach and different assumptions.’ participants suggested that the business team coach be knowledgeable regarding both individual and group behaviour. with reference to individual behaviour the following aspects were mentioned: a team coach needs to be equipped in terms of being able to read people and it goes beyond body language. one of the models that would be very good to look at would be the neuro-linguistic model of body dynamics … you look at all sorts of things like skin texture, movement … this whole thing of body language … is really not sufficient. you read people in their metaphor, you read people in their language, their semantics and their body tonality … so he/ she needs to pay attention to that. further, it is somebody who can understand different characters, who knows people’s behaviour …, who can understand the way a person behaves. it says in all that person must have done psychology to be able to understand all those things. participants discussed the need for business team coaches to be qualified in some area of psychology. one participant reflected after a heated debate: maybe it is that rare combination of a person with a psychology background together with a business qualification of sorts, to equip this person to understand how this game of business is being played. in relation to group behaviour, participants were of the opinion that coaches should also be able to: ‘read groups’ and ‘manage groups’. as one coach put it: should there be destructive dynamics within the group, it would be part of my work to pick it up and to find out what the intention is, to then frame the intention that i can return to the outcome, to have a successful company. participants highlighted specific aspects of group dynamics in terms of knowledge required: ‘you should understand team dynamics and process, and also know the phases groups go through, like storming, norming, all those theories, so that you can understand team dynamics.’ referring to the issue of diversity management a participant called for the team coach ‘to understand where people come from … their culture, their circumstances …’ another participant added: something else that can be addressed is the issue of diversity … it is through the pulsating heart of diversity that people know what vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 8 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #110 (page number not for citation purposes) psycho-educational training programme for business team coaches 78 happened during a funeral ceremony, how a person is disrespected and they’ve got person diverse information from each other, rather than hide behind this curtain of culture … category 2: skills to be mastered following the knowledge dimension, participants commented on the skills that a business team coach should demonstrate. participants reached consensus, agreeing that the practical application of knowledge should receive more attention in the managerial psycho-educational training programme for business team coaches than the knowledge component: ‘the practical is more important than the theory’ and ‘it is no good if you have the theory but you can’t practise it.’ the following seven skills were seen as essential: building relationships emotional intelligence; communication talent; facilitation expertise; political and contextual intelligence; and a capacity for flexibility. these skills will now be discussed. building effective relationships was seen as a crucial skill. coaching is about having a relationship with other human beings. in order to have a relationship the business team coach needs ‘to have an appreciation for people’. the ability to appreciate people, to manage and maintain relationships requires: a good business team coach to have emotional intelligence. he/ she needs to be authentic, both within him/her self and with others. going through the motions of relationships simply won’t do. without emotional intelligence there can be no sustainable growth. one participant stated: ‘it isn’t just the iq – the qualification that you have. it links to self management, if you cannot manage yourself, you cannot manage others, guide others…’ in order to demonstrate an effective level of emotional intelligence (eq) the ‘business team coach needs to be self-aware, and know “who am i? what are my values and beliefs, my personal philosophy? why am i here?”’. participants added: ‘we need someone who is integrated within himself as a person; you are not going to become a coach if you are, uhm …, unravelled.’ another added: ‘if you bring your crap in there it just all clutters it up. before you walk in there, you have got to give them a “clean whiteboard”.’ additional aspects of eq were mentioned that could strengthen the relationship between the business team coach and the coachee: you must have integrity, you must be ethical. i think it is very important, the ethical stuff, confidentiality, to build trust with the team, to know how to play the game within the organisation. another interviewee stated: ‘a team coach must have good interpersonal skills – if coaching is about relationships, trust forms the basis.’ having high-quality relationships includes being confrontational when needed: ‘i don’t want a yes person as a coach; a coach must be able to say “i disagree”, be sensibly confrontational and be prepared to say: “no, i don’t agree, let’s discuss why.”’ one ceo mentioned: ‘the coach must be able to identify a lack of competency.’ another said: unfortunately there will be people who don’t fit that, who don’t perform, and the coach has to identify those, and has to deal with that in an appropriate manner for the organisation. confrontation was juxtaposed by some managers to: ‘someone who inspires me to identify my passions and to fulfil my destiny.’ their request was that the coach should: ‘focus on our strengths and not our weaknesses; concentrate on the strength so that they override the weaknesses.’ they also wanted the business team coach to: ‘... have a passion for success: a passion to help people think or to be successful.’ a need for empathy was voiced when a participant noted: the coach must be able to share his own pain as well, which helps me feel comfortable that the coach is not perfect either … they must be open and honest. if they have experienced a similar pain, feel open to relate that to me, because it helps me to feel he is also human and not this perfect person. effective communication skills are a function of people’s interpersonal effectiveness. participants agreed that ‘we need to look at communication skills, every aspect from the “what” to the “how”…’ and ‘communication skills are crucial, it is the life blood of coaching.’ participants reflected on the how of communication stating: ‘they provide a platform where you can say something that is very important.’ coaching communication should be ‘frank and forthright.’ there was a need for ‘questions that build’ and ‘forward going questions’: what are we going to do to fix it? how long is it going to take? what resources do we have? what resources do we need? who’s going to champion this? who is going to follow through? what is the time line? don’t ask why, why is old news, it is defensive and sets up conflict. sound listening skills were rated as crucial: ‘they need to be able to listen … we will be free to talk because we know that this person listens to me.’ listening skills were further defined as: ‘... listening with interpretive capacity…’. effective communication skills enhanced other interpersonal interactions such as facilitation. coaching is best described as facilitating. participants responded that ‘coaching is about facilitating. it is about supporting the recourses of people and the organisation while moving forward to reach the outcome. they make things easier in a sense.’ one participant noted that ‘it is not so much the content but the process that is involved; they are able to create movement.’ coaching is best practised by individuals with acute perception and diplomacy, in other words, political intelligence. participants referred to political intelligence as: ‘… political savvy because sometimes you as a coach act as a buffer between the company and the team and you must have the skill to deal with that, you must have integrity, you must be ethical.’ another noted that: ‘... you must be aware of the politics, the games that are played and manage these skilfully.’ all coaching takes places within a certain context and forms part of interpersonal connection. the need for contextual intelligence was mentioned by participants: i think a team coach would really need to know each person’s profile within the team and ask questions in terms of how the different context determines how each person in their particular profile is going to respond within the given context. one participant viewed contextual intelligence as: a prime prerequisite as a thinking pattern with team coaches, if we don’t think contextually and we can’t think in terms of making the fruit salads, then we are busy falling back onto our own expertise, and then we are not busy with the group. context is a big, big thing. i think we underestimate this method of thinking. changes occur continuously in the business world because of the dynamic nature of business and corporations. thus, business team coaches should be: … partners in the change process … there is only one constant in the universe and that is change, it is not whether or not you are going to change, it is how gracefully you engage with the change process. the idea is to get teams to flow, to engage in graceful change. one manager adds: ‘... and then manage the change.’ the final skill is the ability to be flexible. ‘here in south africa you need flexibility. business team coaches need to be flexible in terms of their roles, the speed of the session, the content.’ vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 8 original research maritz, poggenpoel & myburgh sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 11 0 (page number not for citation purposes) 79 during a reflective conversation at the time of member checking (a technique that consists of continually testing with participants the researcher’s data, analytic categories, interpretations, and conclusions), a discussion emerged in terms of the coach’s ability ‘to tolerate ambiguity’. this links closely to flexibility, as there are often situations where a coaching session, although well planned, can be tainted with aspects of uncertainty and hesitation. it is the successful business team coach who deals with the ambiguity and moves forward without giving up. category 3: attitudes to be formed learning is never only cognitive – attitudes and values go hand-in-hand with intellect. the following attitudes and values emerged from the data and were discussed under eq: authenticity, self-awareness, openness, honesty, ethical ways of being, empathy, trust, enthusiasm and passion, inspiration and integrity. discussion the objective of this research was to explore and describe core competencies necessary for a managerial psycho-educational training programme for business team coaches. this research will add value to the coaching training profession in describing the core competencies of business team coaches. this in turn will guide the development of a managerial psycho-educational training programme for business team coaches that is based within the southern african context (maritz, 2006). the results of this research describe the core competencies necessary for a managerial psycho-educational training programme for business team coaches. core competencies are situated within an obe framework. in this approach, clear statements are made about the knowledge, skills and attitudes that business team coach learners should acquire as a result of the team coach’s learning. the following essential coaching knowledge was identified: coaching process, leadership practice, management development, business acumen, training and development, individual and group behaviour and diversity management. knowledge of the coaching process forms an integral part of the coaching skill set. according to hall and duvall (2004), the coach may not be the expert and have all the experience, but he/she knows structure and process and is an expert at coaching. wild (2001, p. 164) states: ‘clearly an understanding and competence in coaching is needed to be developed during the programme.’ the basic business team coaching process includes the analysis of the present situation; defining performance goals; eliciting personal, extra-personal and group resources; and the implementation of a plan to achieve the outcome (king & eaton, 1999). the ultimate goal of all coaches is to generate positive transformations in the coachee (baanders, 2005). therefore the business team coach is also a leader to a certain extent, because the business team coach leads the coachee or team in a given direction. a solid understanding of leadership theory and research can help a coach achieve success (goethals, sorenson & macgregor burns, 2004). it is therefore crucial for a business team coach to be up-to-date with the latest leadership models and best practices. hamlyn (2004) recommends that a coaching methodology must be adhered to, and proven practical leadership and managerial skills are essential. wild (2001) mentions a management qualification as one of the core aspects of the coaching programme at bp, the oil and energy corporation. this, along with the coaching process, training and development, form the basis of their programme. wherever a business team coach is working in industry, it is also necessary for him/her to understand the following: the culture and politics of the organisation he/she is working in as well as the organisational structure within which he/she is trying to offer coaching. it is also important for the coaches to build rapport, influence others, manage their time and also to manage the main systems in place. during a programme designed to effectively coach the manufacturing teams at elida fabergé in the united kingdom, the designers asked the question ‘what does a business coach really need to know and understand to be effective?’ when looking at coaching programmes these seemed to focus on coaching in isolation from the needs of business. the decision was then made to include a management and training/ development component in the programme to improve the coaches’ understanding of the culture and politics of the organisation in which they were working, the organisational structure in which they were coaching, and to build rapport and influence others. the measurable and tangible results of adding a management and training/developing component to the coaching programme subsequently included elida fabergé being voted as the uk best factory 2000, as well as it receiving five other awards (wild, 2001). coaching is about change, and change involves learning. ‘the essence of coaching comes down to teaching and motivating’ murphy (2005, p. 191). holliday (2001) and meyer and fourie (2004) state that one of the guiding principles for an effective coach is to learn to teach. these authors elaborate by saying that a coach needs to observe how people think and how they process information. in other words they must know the methods for presenting adult education and understand the basic ways people think. minor (1999, p. 54) and murphy (2005, p. 179) reiterate that a coach ‘shows an awareness of different learning styles’. not only should coaches be aware of the cognitive domain, they should work with the individual as a whole person. ‘coaches work with the whole person and must be human generalists’ (hudson 1999, p. 17). the bond between a coachee and the coach is of primary importance, and business team coaches need to understand and recognise the difference between people. improving their psychological skills will aid coaches in their personal development and dealings with coachees. stewart, de kock, smit, sproat and storrie (1996) believe that in southern africa knowledge of group dynamics is extremely vital because of the culturally diversified society. knowing the phases of group development helps the coach’s understanding of how groups function, which in turn aids productivity, increases support amongst group members, reduces conflict, improves decision-making and increases lateral thinking and creativity. the same holds for knowledge of diversity management. the business team coach needs an excellent knowledge of the demographics of the organisation’s market, and must also identify their own prejudices, stereotypes and biases, and be mature enough to ensure that these do not interfere with the coach/coachee relationship. following the knowledge dimension, participants commented on the skills a business team coach should demonstrate. the skills component is, therefore, about the application of knowledge, in other words, what a person can do. king and eaton (1999) state that while team coaching calls for some special skills, the principles remain the same. participants reached consensus, agreeing that the practical application of knowledge should receive more attention than the knowledge component. the following skills were seen as essential: building effective relationships, eq, communication talent, facilitation expertise, political and contextual intelligence, change management and the capacity for flexibility. skiffington and zeus (2003) add brainstorming and pursuing helpful alliances to the skills set. when the business team coach’s eq skills are well developed, he/she has the foundation that helps him/her build strong relationships and communicate effectively. eq is created and sustained in relationships, and when emotions are acknowledged vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 8 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #110 (page number not for citation purposes) psycho-educational training programme for business team coaches 80 and guided constructively they enhance intellectual performance. hosking (2005) believes coaches need iq, eq and credibility. in today’s fast-changing, more open and fluid style of work, a premium is placed on the combination of intellect and eq, especially when it comes to trusting and teaming with others to solve problems and seize opportunities. cooper and sawaf (2000) place eq on four cornerstones: firstly, emotional literacy, which includes building self-awareness and emotional honesty; secondly, emotional fitness, which includes authenticity and trusting relationships; thirdly, emotional depth, which builds core character and calls forth integrity; and lastly, emotional alchemy, which builds fluid intelligence. communication is fundamental to both the coaching process and team effectiveness; as murphy (2005, p. 192) states: ‘if teaching and motivating are essential to coaching, then what could be more important to its success than effective communication.’ experience and success need to be partnered with an excellence in coaching communication. it is vital for a coach to be frank, honest and candid. great business team coaches tend to be curious and ask penetrating questions. burdett (1998) believes that all learning starts with a question and that one insightful question is worth many hours telling someone what to do. the literature attests to the importance of listening skills (cilliers, 2004; downey, 1999; holliday, 2001; king & eaton 1999; richard, 1995; van der sandt, 2004; zues & skiffington, 2002). bowerman and collins (1999) explain that listening takes place on three levels: the head, the heart and the hands. at the head level people listen for thoughts. at the heart level people listen for emotions or feelings expressed through tone of voice, facial expression or body language. at the hands level one listens for the will (energy and commitment). other communication skills specific to coaching are reported in the literature, and refer to the ability to present ideas convincingly by using a vocabulary rich in metaphors and stories (hudson, 1999). coaching is best described as facilitating and, as such, facilitation is a core competency of a coach (redshaw, 2000). facilitation is the skill of interacting with one’s audience to draw out their ideas and lead them to new understandings. business team coaches need facilitation skills to capitalise on the synergy of groups, to gain full support and commitment, manage differences and diversity, and successfully work through conflicts. success requires the ability to understand the organisational culture and a willingness to honour the rules of the culture. there are political dynamics that are common to most organisations and those that are unique. an effective business team coach should be skilled at both kinds. this requires an attitude of acceptance of a degree of political game playing (with integrity) (peltier, 2001). zues and skiffington (2002) refer to political astuteness and state that a successful coach is politically nonaligned, although aware of the political manoeuvring that is inevitable in any organisation. people and organisations are contextually bound. hargrove (2003) explains that masterful coaching is about intervening in people’s context so as to produce a profound alteration in who they are. the author defines context as the background against which people are standing that determines their perception of reality, and what they see as possible and achievable. it is from this background that they draw their identity and formulate their thinking and attitude. according to priestland and hanig (2005), context and connection form an integral part of their programme. evidence of the importance of contextual familiarity is found in business psychology and organisational behaviour. mckenna (2000) points out that apart from team development, with the emphasis on the internal processes of the team, it is important to pay attention to and consider contextual factors, which include the organisation’s culture, the clarity of its mission, technology and task design, rewards and performance feedback. conclusion the world of business is dynamic in nature. business team coaches should have the necessary change management skills to understand and adapt to change, and also to help the coachee to be able to manage changes in life. along with the ability to manage change is the value of flexibility. the value of flexibility enables the coach to be able to approach an issue from different perspectives and even to change his/her mind when necessary. peltier (2001) cautions that a coach who is not flexible will not succeed. business team coaches are hired and paid to bring a wide ranging, creative, individually designed and compelling repertoire to their efforts. learning is never only cognitive – attitudes and values go hand-in-hand with intellect (van der horst & mcdonald, 1997). having the right attitude and living up to the values are of cardinal importance to the coaching process. several attitudes and values emerged from the data and were discussed under the heading of emotional intelligence. these were authenticity, self-awareness, openness, honesty, respect, ethical ways of being, empathy, trust, enthusiasm and passion, inspiration and integrity. merlevede and bridoux (2004) include curiosity and willingness to the values they believe need to be instilled. richard (1995) believes that the coach’s personal values will certainly shine through his/her actions. this author (jem) feels that someone who is simply following a checklist and going through the motions of being a coach will quickly transmit any scepticism and lack of enthusiasm to the coachee. a business team coach needs to be sensitive to his/her own values and those of others. business and team coaching will continue to thrive and gain increased status as a profession. yet, it is important not to become complacent. in order to adhere to international standards of coaching and deliver ethical services the business team coach should acquire training and experience in the identified business team coaching competencies. it is essential that coach educators interact with various disciplines, both locally and internationally, in order to remain abreast of the latest models, research and practices. possible limitations of this study were the restricted number of coaches who have experience in business team coaching, or with managers in southern africa. the findings are contextual in nature. refinement of the core competencies and training programmes through continuous research is necessary. as business and team coaching is still in its infancy in southern africa there is enormous potential for contextual research. scientific research into the long-term benefits and effect of business team coaching needs to be investigated. research is needed to identify approaches and styles of coaching that most comfortably accommodate diversity when taking into account the country’s diversity in terms of age, race, gender and skills. the durability of behavioural changes associated with business team coaching also needs to be investigated. references auerbach, j.e. (2005a). the college of executive coaching newsletter. issue 38, may 14. auerbach, j.e. (2005b). the college of executive coaching newsletter. issue 41, june 10. baanders, r. (2005). challenges in corporate coaching: much more than mentoring. convergence, 6(2), 45–56. berglas, s. (2002). dangers of executive coaching. harvard business review, june, 87–92. bluckert, p. (2004). state of play in corporate coaching: current and future trends. industrial and commercial training, 36(2), 53–56. vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 8 original research maritz, poggenpoel & myburgh sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 11 0 (page number not for citation purposes) 81 bowerman, j., & collins, g. (1999). coaching network: a programme for individual and organizational development. the journal of workplace learning: employee counselling today, 11(8), 291–297. burdett, j.o. (1998). forty things every manager should know about coaching. journal of management development, 17(2), 142–152. burns, n., & grove, s.k. (2005). the practice of nursing research. (5th edn.). missouri: elsevier saunders. cilliers, f. (2004). coaching – a systems psychodynamic approach. hr future, september, 41–42. coaches and mentors of south africa. (2009). retrieved april 14, 2009, from www.comensa.org.za cooper, r., & sawaf, a. (2000). executive eq, emotional intelligence in business. london: texere. creswell, j.w. (2003). research design. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks: sage. denzin, n.k., & lincoln, y.s. (eds.). (2000). handbook of qualitative research. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks: sage. denzin, n.k., & lincoln, y.s. (eds.). (2005). qualitative research. (3rd edn.). thousand oaks: sage. de vos, a.s., strydom, h., fouché, c.b., & delport, c.s.l (2005). research at grass roots. (3rd edn.). pretoria: van schaik. downey, m. (1999). effective coaching. london: orion business books. giorgi, a. (ed.). (1985). phenomenology and psychological research. pittsburgh: duquesne university press. goethals, g., sorenson, g.j., & macgregor burns, j. (eds.). (2004). encyclopaedia of leadership. thousand oaks: sage. hall, l.m., & duval, m. (2004). neurosemantic coaching for the next generation executives. hr future, january, 4–6. hamlyn, j. (2004). executive personal coaching. hr future, may, 28–29. hargrove r. (2003). masterful coaching (rev. edn.). san francisco: jossey-bass. hillary, d. (2003). executive coaching. hr future, october, 10– 11. holliday, m. (2001). coaching, mentoring & managing. (2nd edn.). franklin lakes: career press. hosking, a. (2005). global trends in coaching. hr future, march, 8–9. hudson, f.m. (1999). handbook of coaching. new york: josseybass. international coach federation (2005). retrieved november 19, 2005, from www.coachfederation.org king, p., & eaton, j. (1999). coaching for results. industrial and commercial training, 31(4), 145–151. krueger, r.a. (1994). focus groups. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks: sage. lincoln, y.s., & guba, e.g. (1985). naturalistic inquiry. london: sage. lupberger, t. (2002). in j. naughton (ed.), the coaching boom. psychotherapy networker, july/august, 24–33. maritz, j.e. (2006). a psycho-educational programme or team coaches to facilitate the mental health of managers. unpublished dcur. dissertation, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa. mcbain, r. (2000). human resource management. manager update, 11(4), september, 19–27. mckenna, e. (2000). business psychology and organisational behaviour: a student’s handbook. (3rd edn.). philadelphia: taylor & francis group. merlevede, p.e., & bridoux, d.c. (2004). mastering mentoring and coaching with emotional intelligence. carmarthen: crown house. meyer, m., & fourie, l. (2004). mentoring and coaching. randburg: knowres. minor, m. (1999). coaching for development. california: crisp. murphy, s. (2005). sport psychology handbook. champaign: human kinetics. naughton, j. (2002). the coaching boom. psychotherapy networker, july/august, 24–33. o’flaherty, c., & everson, j. (2005, 19 june). in g. vaida. business times, careers, p. 1. o’shaughnessy, s. (2001). executive coaching: the route to business stardom. industrial and commercial training, 33(6), 194–197. peltier, b. (2001). psychology of executive coaching. new york: brunner-routledge. piasecka, a. (2001). creating champions. industrial and commercial training, 33(2), 69–72. poggenpoel, m. (2000). the research interview. in d. rossouw (ed.), intellectual tools. lynnwood ridge: amabhuku. priestland, a., & hanig, r. (2005). developing first-level leaders. harvard business review, june, n.p. redshaw, b. (2000). do we understand coaching? how can we make it work better? industrial and commercial training, 32(3), 106–109. richard, p. (1995). coaching for higher performance. executive development, 7, 5–7. rostron, s.s. (2003). accelerating performance with coaching. hr future, june, 4–7. rothgiesser, s. (2004). coaching for better performance. executive business brief, august/september, 52-53. rubin, h.j., & rubin, i.s. (1995). qualitative interviewing. london: sage. sherman, s. & freas, a. (2004). wild west of executive coaching. harvard business review, november, 82-90. skiffington. s. & zues, p. (2003). behavioral coaching. sydney: mcgraw-hill. stewart, g., de kock, c., smit, m., sproat, b., & storrie, g. (1996). communicating for the professions. kenwyn: juta. thach, e.c. (2002). impact of executive coaching and 360 feedback on leadership effectiveness. leadership & organization development journal, 23(4), 205–214. tompkins, j. (1995). the genesis enterprise creating peak-to-peak performance. st. louis: mosby. tőnsing, t. (2003). coaching skills training builds sustained superior performance. hr future, april, 26–29. tuck, m. (ed.). (2004/5). all about human capital management. (2nd edn.). sandton: writestuff. tucker, k. (2007). establishing a mentoring and coaching programme. randburg: knowres. vaida, g. (2005, 19 june). business times, careers, p.1. van der horst, h., & mcdonald, r. (1997). outcomes-based education: a teacher’s manual. pretoria: kagiso. van der sandt, l. (2004). executive coaching is hot, part two. hr future, march, 26–28. van jaarsveld, a. (2004). managerial derailment. hr future, december, 26–27. wild, a. (2001). coaching the coaches, to develop the teams, to accelerate the pace of change. industrial and commercial training, 33(5), 161–167. zues, p., & skiffington, s. (2000). complete guide to coaching at work. sydney: mcgraw-hill. zues, p., & skiffington, s. (2002). coaching at work toolkit: a complete guide to techniques and practices. sydney: mcgrawhill. vol. 7 no. 1 page 8 of 8 abstract introduction methodology structural model analysis discussion of the results acknowledgements references about the author(s) sarone d. motlhanke department of business management, faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, bloemfontein, south africa matsidiso n. naong department of business management, faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, bloemfontein, south africa citation motlhanke, s.d., & naong, m.n. (2021). the impact of emotional intelligence on behavioural factors during transition: a case of the free state technical and vocational education and training colleges. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1641. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1641 original research the impact of emotional intelligence on behavioural factors during transition: a case of the free state technical and vocational education and training colleges sarone d. motlhanke, matsidiso n. naong received: 20 apr. 2021; accepted: 18 sept. 2021; published: 13 dec. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: numerous changes at the technical and vocational education and training (tvet) requires some degree of emotional intelligence (ei) to achieve any level of efficiency, competitiveness and success. research purpose: the primary purpose of this research is to empirically contribute to a comprehension of how a leader’s ei can be utilised to positively influence organisational behaviours during the transitional period. design/methodology/approach: the study adopted a positivist research approach, that is descriptive in nature. a survey was conducted by providing a structured questionnaire to a sample of 310 academics and support staff of the tvet college sector in the free state province of south africa. data analysis was based on a total of 188 questionnaires collected, giving a return rate of 61%. the structural equation modelling (sem) analysis and interpretation was conducted using a component-based approach to establish the correlation between the items. main findings: the sem findings revealed that ei of free state tvet college managers significantly affects all the dependent variables namely, organisational work commitment, employee job satisfaction, task-oriented behaviour, teamwork except staff morale. emotional intelligence reflects a reasonable power of predictability toward all other variables except staff morale of the respondents. practical/managerial implications: to ensure sustained exceptional performance, recruitment strategy for managers must deliberately incorporate ei measurements at tvet colleges. contribution/value add: the study demonstrates empirical proof of the positive impact of a leader’s ei on organisational behaviours, thereby confirming that ei is an enabler of organisational work commitment, job satisfaction, task-oriented behaviour, teamwork, but not staff morale. keywords: emotional intelligence; job satisfaction; task-oriented behaviour; teamwork; staff morale; technical and vocational education and training. introduction organisations strive to maximise profit. however, they comprehend that efficiency and productivity are a pipe dream if the heads, hearts and hands of every staff member are not on deck. to realise this goal, leaders and managers are critical for motivation and inspiration of the subordinates. russell (2020) asserted that with the current crisis of covid-19 pandemic, leaders are being closely observed and are required to take correct decisions and exhibit appropriate behaviours, which include showing humility (i.e. putting others first) and empathy. it is generally agreed that because emotional intelligence (ei) prescribes the nature of interaction within teams, leaders with a high ei exhibit social expertise and empathy, and can readily gauge the emotional environment in which they are working. that said, high staff morale or work motivation is a function of a leader’s ei. because workers need adequately equipped leaders not only to lead change but also meaningfully influence followers towards accomplishment of organisational goals. numerous studies (gabcanova, 2011; naong, 2014) have attested to the value of this important asset, that is, workers. a manager or leader’s influence, empathy and inspiration collectively act as a catalyst for getting the best out of each employee. leaders’ emotional status impacts that of their employees. thus, a positive attitude encourages enthusiasm and enables information sharing thereby leading to outstanding performance. conversely, negative emotions on the part of the leader cause anxiety, anger and detachment, all of which impede the team’s success (wisse, rus, keller, & sleebos, 2019). previous researches have indicated that emotionally intelligent leaders instil confidence in their team employees by counteracting contradictory situations, thus, ensuring they are encircled in positive emotions (affum-osei, acquaah, & acheampong, 2015; vasudevan & mahadi, 2017). hence, a leader with high ei understands how emotions impact their employees’ attitudes and needs, and consequently, facilitates a constructive psychological climate (owolabi, 2012). gupta and bajaj (2017) likewise proposed that a leader’s ei affects employees’ opinion of the working environment. in this article, the effects of a leader’s ei on selected work behaviours of academics and support staff across the technical and vocational education & training (tvet) sector in the free state province of south africa are explored. impact of transformational trajectory of the technical and vocational education and training sector the tvet sector has been earmarked as a critical role-player within the south african economy, having changed from the manpower pre-democratic dispensation to further education and training (fet), and ultimately, tvet post-democratic era. its recent elevation from basic education to the higher education (he) sector inspired hope, but equally instilled trepidation of its core mandate being diluted and muddled with those of the he sector. leadership change and ill-prepared students, with lack of commitment and work ethic drain staff’s energies as their efforts amounted to zero. a mandate of providing trade skills and technical education to drive the south african economy has never been so critically necessitous and ominous, with unemployment rate escalating at an alarming rate. industrious bemoan a perennial mismatch between their expectations and the readiness level of he graduates to join the world of work. practical hands-on experience and skills underpin the mandate of the tvet sector of engendering a culture of job creators instead of job seekers. contrary to other countries such as germany, singapore, zimbabwe, and thailand, the south african tvet sector is yet to command and pass an ‘appeal test’ amongst young people and make a much-needed impact on the socio-economic imperatives of the south african society. this pervasive state of affairs adversely affects the tvet workforce. this can only be ameliorated by a determined leadership to avoid uncertainty, despondency and chaos. it shows that every leader’s task is becoming ever more critical in directing and influencing the behaviour of their subordinates towards this crucial goal. foltin and keller (2012) overtly asserted that inevitably change impelled by leaders tends to occur within organisational environment characterised by chaos, ambiguities and emotional reactions to change. issah (2018) posited that 21st century leaders bear the major responsibility for leading their organisations towards successful change. however, change evokes disparate sentiments because people value the security of retaining the status quo and established norms. thus, leaders will have to overcome these challenges. moore (2009) believed that only leaders who possess appropriate ei leadership behaviour will be able to promote effective organisational change. additionally, much documentary evidence continues to point out that leadership requires some degree of ei to achieve any level of success (gupta & bajaj, 2017; ngirande & timothy, 2014). similarly, abdollah et al. (2016) opined that psychological qualities such as a leader’s ei is considered to be an integral part of the competitiveness and success of any organisation. nordin (2011) added that the change process is boosted when employees experience emotional security within their organisation. in examining the appropriateness of one’s leadership style and its impact, it is imperative to ask yourself whether your employees are motivated and engaged, or are they de-motivated and disengaged. it is generally accepted that the higher the level of leadership, the greater the number of employees impacted. thus, the extent of these leaders’ ei becomes progressively imperative. the top executive governs the organisation’s ambiance which embraces its emotional status and perceived organisational climate. hence, leaders exhibiting poor ei decrease employee morale and leads to high staff turnover (qureshi, ali, raza, & whitty, 2013). frequently, one of the main reasons employees give for leaving an organisation is their relationship with the management. it is essential for leaders to ensure effective communication and collaboration within their organisations because employees’ welfare is the essence of success. emotional intelligence is generally accepted and regarded as a significant leadership aptitude for ensuring effective interaction between management and employees in a variety of situations (vasudevan & mahadi, 2017). contented employees are motivated and thus become loyal employees who ensure that their company remains competitive (gabcanova, 2011). purpose and problem statement the tvet sector underwent many changes in the recent past, which resulted in daunting demands and challenges on the resources and the staff. new management and the covid-19 crisis are further compounding the situation, with instant expectations for the staff to master virtual or digital teaching and learning approaches overnight. this causes a demanding re-engineering and paradigm shift on both the management and the staff to stay energised and motivated to optimally and efficiently achieve organisational mission and goals. generally, the pervasive culture of ‘them and us’ arguably still mirrors the current status quo at various tvet colleges under study and characterise the type of relations between college leaders and subordinates, hence this study. literature review emotional intelligence and its dimensions: according to qureshi et al. (2013), salovey and mayer (1990) initially introduced the term ei and described it as ‘a form of acumen comprising the capability to comprehend and observe one’s personal and others’ sentiments and employing this know-how to inform personal decision making and behaviours. other writers deemed that ei also encompasses characteristics including amongst others forcefulness, impetuosity and buoyancy (goleman, 1995; mayer & salovey, 1997; petrides & furnham, 2001; schutte et al., 1998). a myriad of research studies reported that ei is ingrained in the aptitude measuring movement. for example, sariolghalam, noruzi and rahimi (2010) acknowledged the multiplicity of intelligences importantly social intelligence amongst many of them. however, measuring social intelligence has always been considered difficult. job satisfaction: situational theories assume that job satisfaction depends upon the interaction of variables such as:task-, organisationaland individual characteristics (asad-ur-rehman, ullah, & abrar-ul-haq, 2015; hanafi, 2016; rahman & haleem, 2018). documentary evidence continues to show job satisfaction as a significant variable with regard to employee’s performance together with the predictors of work behaviour (bakotić, 2016; latif et al., 2015; mafini & pooe, 2013). job satisfaction improves workers’ morale and time-keeping, whilst simultaneously, decreasing their complaints, grievances, absenteeism and the cost of training new employees, thus, resulting in higher turnover for organisations (hira & waqas, 2012). equally, this employee motivation further hinges on leadership style, the reward system, the organisational climate and the structure of the work, amongst others. most importantly, any leadership change within an organisation is likely to alter the company’s psychological climate and consequently improves employees performance. flowing from this discussion, this hypothesis is then necessitated, where it is opined that a positive correlation exists between leader’s ei and job satisfaction (khanzada, naeem, & butt, 2018; rahman & haleem, 2018; yusoff, muda, & ishak, 2016). change, leadership and emotional intelligence: any situational change predicated on the smouldering desire for organisational success, hinges on the ability and intelligence of the leader to communicate, secure and manage the buy-in of all members within the organisation for the need to change. lazenby (2018) identified ‘dissatisfaction with the status quo’, amongst many other change causes, and therefore the leader’s adeptness at disseminating the need for transforming the status quo will govern the organisational acceptance of this proposal. in cases in which employees are content with the current situation and resist change, effective leadership communication is needed to generate dissatisfaction with the status quo (gaubatz & ensminger, 2017). the change process initially induces fear and anxiety amongst employees thus necessitating persuasive communication by leaders (foltin & keller, 2012). leaders with high ei create an environment of interaction so that employees subject to change can help to analyse the organisation’s current scenario and formulate its future desired state (foltin & keller, 2012; issah & zimmerman, 2016). that said, the role of effective and intelligent leadership remains key for any organisational change to succeed. consequently, this makes ei a vital ingredient to boost staff morale, promote cooperation, foster teamwork, increase motivation, and enhance a positive and healthy work environment (rahman & haleem, 2018; strickland, 2000 in foltin & keller, 2012, p. 22). emotional intelligence and commitment: commitment is defined as a force that commits people to following the relevant procedure necessary for achieving specific targets (alrowwad, almajali, masa’deh, obeidat, & aqqad, 2019; singh & gupta, 2015). similarly, psuwc (2014) defined the organisational commitment as ‘the relative strength of an individual’s identification with and involvement in an organisation’. if there is enough inspiration, motivation and sense of belonging, the management can be assured of loyalty, performance and retention. that said, for any organisation aspiring to successfully compete on a global stage, committed and inspired workforce is critical (naong, 2014) that must be smartly and intelligently managed, because organisational commitment is a desirable organisational outcome (rahman & haleem, 2018). employee commitment is undoubtedly an outcome of employee job satisfaction and prevailing organisational climate. this prompts us to hypothesise that there is a significant correlation between leaders’ ei and employees’ institutional commitment. teamwork: a cliché ‘two heads are better than one’ impresses upon every manager to comprehend and appreciate the significance of teamwork within organisations. teams are the mainstay of businesses and can generate more effective solutions to problems than individuals (tabassi, ramli, & abu bakar, 2011). teamwork forms a significant part of any organisation (berber, slavi, & aleksi, 2020). it is regarded as functions performed collectively by individual members towards common team goal, for example, team effectiveness and satisfaction (driskell, sala, & driskell, 2018). good leaders realise that encouraging effective teamwork create synergy within work teams. such teams minimise process loss and maximise process gain by engendering high levels of cooperation amongst colleagues and motivating both themselves and their teammates to volunteer for tasks outside of their job descriptions (yang, 2016) effective leaders play a vital role in inspiring such practices. given this reality, it is safe to hypothesise that there is a positive correlation between a leader’s ei and the teamwork. emotional intelligence and staff morale: myeni (2010) defined morale as all psychological factors and forces that influences the performance of an individual or group especially within the workplace. tiwari (2014) maintained that this psychological state encourages contentment, confidence and determination amongst staff, leading to motivation, commitment, discipline and degree of fulfilment through innate characteristics like variability, challenges, opportunity for input and growth in the workplace, together with such extrinsic circumstances as adequate earnings, job security, health and safety. staff morale is an elusive construct connected to the level of contentment and congruent group demeanour towards its company, a state that depends upon concepts such as trust, self-worth, faith in the organisation’s management and success, and hinges upon the optimism of each individual group member (ngambi, 2011). according to lee, scheunemann, hall and payne (2012), intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction, teamwork and organisational loyalty help to determine staff morale. these definitions expose the dual nature of staff morale, namely, the psychological aspects (employee attitudes and values) and performance facets (employee productivity) which results in causal relationship between these dimensions with the assumption that employees’ ei directly impacts their work performance (myeni, 2010). marked inspiration and drive is indicative of employee contentment, consequently, presenting industriousness, enterprising, and commitment towards achieving organisational success rather than personal goals (tiwari, 2014), and further points out that high morale means satisfied employees whilst low morale equates with discontented employees. staff morale comprises a mixture of related factors and is affected by many situations like distrust of management, ineffective interpersonal communication between management and staff, static working conditions, unclear expectations, limited prospects for personal growth because of undemanding environments, but the major cause is poor leadership (lee et al., 2012). ngambi (2011) posited further reasons such as: lack of leadership role models, accountability and opportunities for career progression. this situation results in the hypothesis that there is indeed a significant correlation between leaders’ ei and staff morale. relationship between emotional intelligence and employee performance: emotional intelligence continues to be associated with a myriad of significant organisational outcomes and remains a topical issue as it relates and impact on performance (khanzada et al., 2018; owoseni, 2014; treputtharat & tayiam, 2014; usop, askandar, kadtong, & usop, 2013; yukl, 2010). emotional intelligence in the workplace positively affects employees’ morale in terms of their performance, occupational stress, and subsequently, retention. the organisational benefits of ei are increased sales and profit (khalili, 2012). the results of preand post-tests measuring the effect of ei training at universities, indicated a marked increase in students’ ei (ashkanasy, 2001; clark, callister, & wallace, 2002). a study by cook (2006) found that leaders with a higher ei tends to outshine those counterparts with lower ei in terms of their organisational performance. other reputable studies have associated ei with success in job-related cognitive ability tasks (kwateng et al., 2014; wijekoon et al., 2017). the greatest evidence to date regarding the examination of leaders’ ei as a means of predicting on-the-job success is reported by cavallo and brienza (2002) in their study of the leadership behaviour, found that leaders with high ei were favourably rated by their supervisors, colleagues and subordinates. furthermore, owoseni (2014) posited that the emotional competency profiler (ecp) entities that most accurately predicated success were self-confidence, initiative, leadership influence and facilitating change. it is for this reason we hypothesise an affirmative relationship between leaders’ ei and task-oriented behaviours. this analysis is therefore intended to evaluate the structural relationships of these variables as indicated in the conceptual model in figure 1. figure 1: conceptual model. the hypotheses as depicted in the research model were stated as follows: h1: there is a positive relationship between leader’s ei and organisational commitment. h2: there is a positive relationship between leader’s ei and employee’s job satisfaction. h3: there is a positive relationship between leader’s ei and task-oriented behaviour. h4: there is a positive relationship between leader’s ei and teamwork. h5: there is a positive relationship between leader’s ei and staff morale. the behaviour and style of leadership is likely to determine the level of motivation, commitment, morale and the performance of their subordinates. emotional intelligence is a key to unlock this secret and, thus is of value to organisations because it provides the basis for creating and monitoring employees’ emotionally-based soft skills. this research strives to both eradicate possible hindrances to sound interpersonal relations, as well as to promote the consciousness of leaders’ ei and an ideal leadership style that can enhance traits such as collegiality, engagement and performance. it is also expected that this study will significantly inform human resource management policies and practices for improving employer/employee relations across the tvet sector in south africa, and globally. theoretical background although a plethora of leadership theories are documented, in this article the two complementary leadership theories that we chose to anchor this study are : the leader and member exchange (lmx) theory by dansereau, graen and haga (1975) as well as the ei theory premised on the seminal work by salovey and mayer (1990) on ei. the lmx theory is generally understood to be a leadership approach focused on a two-way (dyadic) relationship between supervisors and subordinates. a primary emphasis of the lmx theory is an understanding of the connection between supervisor and employee, together with the exchanges that occur between them (monahan, 2013). poor relationships which are mainly related to employment contracts signify a mistrust, absence of respect and accountability between leaders and subordinates, whilst high quality relationships extend beyond formal work-related matters pertaining to the attainment of organisational goals (ahmed, 2019). previous research, such as meta-analysis, indicates that partners in high quality relationships exhibit high performance, professional organisational behaviour and job satisfaction (constance, iris, & colleen, 2011; vidyarthi, liden, anand, erdogan, & ghosh, 2010). the ei theory encapsulates leaders’ capacity to effectively recognise, process and regulate both their own and other’s ei and to allow such knowledge to guide their decisions and actions for the benefit of others. methodology research design and sampling size this article adopted a quantitative research approach, employing a survey which is descriptive in nature. with a cross-sectional as the most appropriate research design, creswell (2014) viewed the random sampling technique as one of the best ways to enhance reliability. this is a suitable sampling technique because it affords every participant equal opportunity to be part of the study (leedy & ormond, 2010). hence, a choice of probability sampling technique was deemed appropriate in this article. population and sampling technique a population included all four tvet college staff members equalling just over 968 in total, divided between teaching (439) and non-teaching (529) staff from these colleges spanning four regions of one province of south africa. stratified random sampling was employed to draw participants from all management levels of these colleges. data from the hr divisions of these colleges on organisational structure made stratified sampling possible. a sample of 310 was secured, which is slightly more than what is acceptable from the population between 1,000 and 1,300, which is supposed to be 297 (sekaran, 2003) at a confidence level of 95%. with a total of 188 fully completed questionnaires collected, a response (return) rate of 61% was achieved. instrumentation and data collection the instrument used for data collection comprised a likert rating scale consisting of ‘strongly agree = 5 to strongly disagree = 1’. made up of demographic section (including gender, age, race, education level, work experience, and title/position) and attitudinal factors regarding ei inventory developed by goleman, boyatzis and mckee (2002). job satisfaction based on job descriptive index (jdi) by smith, kendall and hulin (1969) included items such as ‘my superior let me know how well they think i am doing’. for team-work behaviour based on salas, sims and burke (2005) items included were such as ‘in our team, our leader ensures that we work as one solid family unit, inspires and support each other’. performance/task-oriented adapted from northhouse (2009), included items such as ‘our leader maintains consistency of behaviour in ethical and job-related matters’. as for staff morale by milligan, kendrick and avan (2004), items included were such as ‘my leader/supervisor always inspires/motivates us to perform better’. ethical considerations a self-developed measuring instrument was used and four research assistants were dispatched at the four regional colleges of the tvet sector in the province of the free state for the purpose of ensuring clarity for respondents during the data collection process. after permission was granted by each college management, consultation with the participants ensued. consent, anonymity and confidentiality of the participants’ information and that of their colleges were guaranteed in the cover letter. data analysis the structural equation modelling (sem) analysis was conducted using a component-based approach. this approach was adequate given the small sample size. smart pls.3 was the package used to conduct the analysis. structural equation modelling represents a flexible and comprehensive methodology for representing, estimating, and testing a theoretical model with the objective of explaining as much of their variance as possible (ramlall, 2017). the sem methodology includes the confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) as well as the structural model analysis. a cfa assesses the validity of the measurements, whilst the structural model analysis tests the research hypotheses specified in the conceptual model (see figure 1). brown (2015) stated that cfa is the phase of the sem that incorporates measurement and includes the interaction between observed measures/indicators and latent variables/constructs. the cfa incorporates analyses of constructs such as reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, each of which are examined and reported in the latter sections of the study. statistical data this part outlines and presents the statistical results of this article. it provides details of the demographics results of the respondents and other descriptive statistics. demographic information this section contains a concise demographic information of the participants as well as the development of the sem. the respondents’ profile consisted of 62% males and 38% females, with most (35%) of the participants being between 41 and 50 years of age, followed by 31–40 years (33%). africans were in the majority, that is, 96%. most (45%) of the participants had a degree, 34% had a diploma, 15% had a certificate or matric, whilst those without matric represented a 7%. the majority of respondents occupied positions within a lower management level (44%). academics represented 27% whilst support staff were at 15%. about 49% had a work experience between 1 and 5, followed by those between 6 and 15 years at 31%. determining reliability and convergent validity reliability refers to the degree to which the results/quality of a measurement of a phenomenon is being trustworthy or of performing well consistently (taherdoost, 2016). cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability (cr) are generally used to assess the scale’s reliability in sem analyses (field, 2013). although the required cut-off value of both the cronbach’s alpha and cr is 0.7, a value of 0.6 is sometimes permissible (malhothra et al., 2017) too. results in table 2 show that the cr ranges from 0.641 to 0.896, thus indicating an overall acceptable level of internal consistency of all six constructs considered in the model. based on this result, all constructs are considered reliable. table 1: components of emotional intelligence. convergent validity convergent validity refers to ‘the extent to which a set of items only measure one latent variable in the same direction’ (hosany et al., 2015). according to the results presented in table 2, statistical evidence supports the convergent validity of all the measurements except the construct ei which has an average variance extracted (ave = 0.311) lower than the recommended threshold of 0.5. note that the items epoc2, epoc3, ei1, ei3 and ei6 were deleted because of low factor loading. table 2: statistical evidence of reliability and convergent validity. the results as indicated in table 2, statistically support the reliability and the convergent validity of the items retained in the final model except the items of the construct ei. in overall, most of the items retained in the final measurement model are good measures of their respective constructs. the statistical evidence of discriminant validity is presented and discussed next using fornell and larcker (1981) approach (see table 3). table 3: fornell and larcker (1981) matrix to assess the discriminant validity. statistical evidence of discriminant validity discriminant validity refers to the degree to which a latent variable or item discriminates from another latent variables (taherdoost, 2016). the square root of the ave is expected to be above the inter-construct correlation coefficients. in this study, discriminant validity was gauged through a comparison of the association amongst a set/group of variables with the square root of ave of individual items (malhothra et al., 2017). correlations greater than the square root of ave indicate low discriminant validity between the constructs. the results from table 3 suggest non-discriminant validity amongst the variables because all ave square roots are above their respective inter-construct correlation values. structural model analysis this part submits and covers the structural model analysis of statistical results. in terms of the results, the empirical model explains: 7.6% (r2) of the variance of organisational commitment, 5.1% of job satisfaction, 3.8% of task-oriented behaviour, 4.8% of enhancement teamwork, and 2.7% (r2) of the variance of staff morale (see figure 2). figure 2: structural model. table 4 establishes the predictive influence of the independent item on dependent items. the beta values indicate the direction and the power of the correlation, whilst the p-values (sig) estimate the significance of the predictive effect (pallant, 2010). the significance of the relationship is established when the p-value is below 0.05. table 4: standardised regression weights and hypothesis conclusion. discussion of the results it stands to reason that a leader with a good heart (i.e. empathy) and rational head (i.e. staff engagement) is likely to inspire enviable performance (i.e. hands) especially during times of change which customarily precipitates uncertainty, anxiety, low morale and turnover intentions amongst staff poorly management. that said, a leader’s ei becomes key to unlocking and inspiring positive behavioural response if equipped to strike a good balance between head, heart and hands. from the result of this study, it is evident that the higher a manager/leader’s ei, the better the chances of enhancing individual’s work behaviours, resulting in improved satisfaction, commitment, performance and high morale. the results from the regression analysis in this study illuminated this inference where all constructs revealed significant positive relationship with manager/leader’s ei, except for staff morale. qureshi et al. (2013) asserted that a leader with low ei has an adverse impact on employee morale that negatively affects staff retention levels. it is imperative for the tvet management to apprehend that during difficult times and where change is unavoidable, inimitable capabilities, especially ei, of this critical human asset cannot only be relied upon, but also cultivated and enhanced for all recruited managers to sustain meaningful engagement and continued performance. this inference is premised on a plethora of documentary evidence indicating a positive relationship between a culture of human capital development and job satisfaction, organisational commitment (naong, 2010; shafiq & rana, 2016), task teamwork (berber et al., 2020; manzoor, ullah, hussain, & ahmad, 2011; tabassi et al., 2011), task oriented (not only an investment in sustained organisational success, but also prepare and equip the workforce to be part of the solution to any future work related demands and challenges. practical implications the findings presented from this study are applicable across the entire management levels of the tvet sector in south africa. the management needs to be circumspect in their recruitment and selection of managers/leaders. sustainable employee performance is inspired by high ei leaders because they exhibit strong interpersonal relationships, innovation and creativity as well as motivation for themselves and their subordinates. the free state tvet top management needs to initiate actions that will develop an organisational culture conducive to employee loyalty, teamwork and improved performance. volitional employee performance and efficiency is a factor of a leader/manager’s high ei and are critical factors for driving sustainable organisational success and competitive advantage. study limitations and recommendations this entire research study was conducted at four tvet colleges found in one province of south africa. therefore, it is not possible to generalise the findings to the entire tvet sector in the country. additionally, the small sample size is another shortcoming. conversely, the results paint a positive picture of the impact of managers/leaders’ ei on numerous work-related behaviour variables, excluding staff morale. drawing from these findings and the in-depth literature review, the following tactical and strategic priorities are recommended for the free state tvet sector to ameliorate and effect an impactful ‘human sensitive’ trajectory: ensure that the recruitment strategy ensures human capital development, especially pertaining to new managers’ values regarding the ‘human element’ as a catalyst to entrenching teamwork, collegiality and employee engagement. the study advocates for ei amongst the criteria for recruitment and appointment of tvet college managers, and that it should be utilised to enhance organisational behaviours such as responsibility and team building in order to ensure job satisfaction for prospective new recruits in south african tvet college sector. establish and implement a wellness programme for the staff to serve as a resource or platform to deal with any personal, group and or organisational issues with the potential to impact on staff performance. craft a customised tvet workload model clearly aligning leader’s performance to those of subordinates pursuant to the organisation vision and goals. create a culture of collaboration and teamwork at the tvet college to ensure synergy and harmonious interpersonal relations. for further research, the effects of tvet manager/leader’s ei on employee’s demographic variables such as the age, gender, work experience, and education level could be explored. conclusion behaviour results from emotions and perceptions, so ei is reflected in a manager/leader’s behaviour (momeni, 2009). documented research continues to state that ei is a fundamental variable that affects leaders and their team members’ performance. however, there is little evidence from this study about the effects of leaders’ ei on staff morale, particularly with reference to the five variables identified above. this article’s primary intention was to explore and supply empirical evidence on the influence of manager/leader’s ei on the staff morale of tvet college employees to support future research in leadership and management. we also wanted to examine the extent of association amongst the level of leaders’ ei and groups by analysing the intercorrelations matrix. evidently, the study findings revealed a significantly positive correlation between a leader’s ei and individual and organisational factors such as job satisfaction, inclination towards teamwork, perceived organisational commitment, fostering task-oriented behaviours amongst subordinates, elements essential to boost staff morale, performance and retention. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions s.m. conducted the literature review, performed data gathering, and prepared the first draft of the article. m.n. assisted with the overall aim of the study and refining of the article, results, and conclusions. ethical considerations this research was approved by the central university of technology, free state, south africa. ethical clearance has been provided by the faculty research and innovation committee [03/05/17] in view of the cut research ethics and integrity framework, 2016 with reference number [management sciences 0717]. funding information funding for this study was provided by the central university of technology (cut), free state. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors, and the publisher. references abdollahi, a., talib, m.a., yaacob, s.n., & ismail, z. (2016). emotional intelligence, hardiness and smoking: protective factors among adolescents. journal of child & adolescent substance abuse, 25(1), 11–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/1067828x.2013.872070 affum-osei, e., acquaah, e., & acheampong, p. (2015). relationship between organisational commitment and demographic variables: evidence from a commercial bank in ghana. american journal of industrial and business management, 5(12), 769–778. https://doi.org/10.4236/ajibm.2015.512074 ahmed, n.o.a. (2019). career commitment: the role of self-efficacy, career satisfaction and organizational commitment. world journal of entrepreneurship, management and sustainability development, just-accepted(just-accepted), 00–00. https://doi.org/10.1108/wjemsd-06-2017-0038 alrowwad, a., almajali, d., masa’deh, r., obeidat, b., & aqqad, n. (2019, april 10–11). the role of organizational commitment in enhancing organizational effectiveness. in conference: proceedings of the 33rd international business information management association conference (pp. 9133–9154). granada: ibima. asad-ur-rehman, ullah, m.i., & abrar-ul-haq, m. (2015). the influence of individual characteristics on organization performance and job satisfaction. international journal of scientific and research publications, 5(2), 1–6. ashkanasy, n.m. (2001). the case for emotional intelligence in work-groups. symposium presentation at the annual conference of the society for industrial and organizational psychology, april, san diego, ca. bakotić d. (2016). relationship between job satisfaction and organisational performance. economic research-ekonomska istraživanja, 29(1), 118–130. https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677x.2016.1163946 berber, n., slavi, a., & aleksi, m. (2020). relationship between perceived teamwork effectiveness and team performance in banking sector of serbia. sustainability, 12(8753), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12208753 brown, a.t. (2015). confirmatory factor analysis for applied research (2nd ed.). new york: the guilford press. cavallo, k., & brienza, d. (2002). emotional competence and leadership excellence at johnson and johnson: the emotional intelligence leadership study. retrieved from http://www.eiconsortium.org. clark, r., callister, r.r., & wallace, r. (2002). undergraduate management skills courses and student’s emotional intelligence. manuscript submitted for publication. constance, l.c., iris, a.p., & colleen, a.r. (2011). job satisfaction and career commitment among alzheimer’s care providers: addressing turnover and improving staff empowerment. american journal of alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, 26(7): 521–527. cook, c.r. (2006). effects of emotional intelligence on principals’ leadership performance. unpublished doctoral dissertation, doctor of education in education. bozeman, mt: montana state university. creswell, j.w. (2014). research design (4th ed). thousand oaks, ca: sage. dansereau, f. graen, g., & haga, w. (1975). a vertical dyad linkage approach to leadership within formal organisation: a longitudinal investigation of the role making process. organizational behaviour and human performance, 13(1), 46–78. driskell, j.e., salas, e., & driskell, t. (2018). foundations of teamwork and collaboration. american psychologist, 73, 334–348. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000241 field, a. (2013). discovering statistics using spss (4th ed.). london: sage publications ltd. foltin, a., & keller, r. (2012). leading change with emotional intelligence. nursing management, 43(11), 20–25. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.numa.0000421675.33594.63 fornell, c., & larcker, d.f. (1981). evaluating structural equation models with unobserved variables and measurement error. journal of marketing research, 18(1), 39–50. gabcanova, i. (2011). the employees – the most important asset in the organisations. human resources management & ergonomics, 5(1), 1–12. gaubatz, j.a., & ensminger, d.c. (2017). department chairs as change agents: leading change in resistant environments. educational management administration and leadership, 45(1), 141–163. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143215587307 goleman, d. (1995). emotional intelligence: why it can matter more than iq. london: bloomsbury. goleman, d. (2001). emotional intelligence: issues in paradigm building. in c. cherniss & d. goleman (eds.), the emotionally intelligent workplace. how to select for, measure and improve emotional intelligence in individuals, groups and organizations (pp. 13–26). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. goleman, d., boyatzis, r., & mckee, a. (2002). primal leadership: realizing the power of emotional intelligence. boston: harvard business school press. gupta, r., & bajaj, b. (2017). the relationship between leader’s emotional intelligence and employee creativity: a conceptual framework of mechanism. procedia computer science, 122, 471–477. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.11.395 hanafi, a. (2016). influence of individual characteristic and organization climate on job satisfaction and its impact on employee performance. sains humanika, 8(4), 37–44. https://doi.org/10.11113/sh.v8n4.843 hira, a., & waqas, i. (2012). a study of job satisfaction and it’s impact on the performance in the banking industry of pakistan. international journal of business and social science, 3(19), 174–180. hosany, s., prayag, g., deesilatham, s., cauševic, s., & odeh, k. (2015). measuring tourists’ emotional experiences: further validation of the destination emotion scale. journal of travel research, 54(4), 482–495. issah, m. (2018). change leadership: the role of emotional intelligence. sage open – research paper, 8(3), article first published online: september 14, 2018; issue published: july 1, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244018800910 issah, m., & zimmerman, j.a. (2016). a change model for 21st century leaders: the essentials. international journal of pedagogical innovations, 4(1), 23–29. https://doi.org/10.12785/ijpi/040103 khalili, a. (2012). the role of emotional intelligence in the workplace: a literature review. international journal of management, 29(3), 355–370. khanzada, b., naeem, s., & butt, h. (2018). emotional intelligence influence on employee’s/organizational performance with mediating role of job satisfaction in pakistani health sector. journal of health education and research development, 6(2), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.4172/2380-5439.1000253 kwateng, k.o., osei, h.v., & abban, e. (2014). organizational communication in public health institutions. international journal of business management, 9(11), 179–188. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v9n11p179 latif, m.s., ahmad, m., qasim, m., mushtaq, m., ferdoos, a., & naeem, h. (2015). impact of employee’s job satisfaction on organizational performance. european journal of business and management, 7, 166–171. lazenby, j.j. (2018). the strategic management process: a south african perspective (2nd ed.). pretoria: van schaik publishers. lee, c., scheunemann, j., hall, r., & payne, r. (2012). low staff morale and burnout: causes and solutions. champaigne: office of recreation and park resources, university of illionois, urbana-champaigne. leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2010). practical research: planning design (9th ed.). new jersey: pearson prentice hall. mafini, c., & pooe, d.r.i. (2013). the relationship between employee satisfaction and organisational performance: evidence from a south african government department. the sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(1). retrieved from http://www.sajip.co.za/index.php/sajip/article/view/1090/1332 malhotra, k.n., nunan, d., & birks, f.d. (2017). marketing research: an applied approach. london: pearson education. manzoor, s.r., ullah, h., hussain, m., & ahmad, z.m. (2011). effect of teamwork on employee performance. international journal of learning and development, 1(1), 110–126. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijld.v1i1.1110 mayer, j.d., & salovey, p. (1997). what is emotional intelligence? in p. salovey & d. sluyter (eds.), emotional development and emotional intelligence: implications for educators (pp. 3–31). new york, ny: basic. milligan, i., kendrick, a., & avan, g. (2004). a survey of job satisfaction, staff morale and qualifications in residential child care in scotland. scottish institute of residential child care, university of strathclyde. retrieved from https://pureportal.strath.ac.uk/filesasset/5584248/set_scotland_staff_morale_report.pdf momeni, n. (2009). the relation between managers’ emotional intelligence and the organizational climate they create. public personnel management, 38(2), 35–48. monahan, k. (2013). what do values have to do with it? an exploration into the moderating impact of work values on the relationship between leader-member-exchange and work satisfaction. academy of strategic management, 12(1), 95–111. moore, b. (2009). emotional intelligence for school administrators: a priority for school reform? american secondary education, 37(3), 20–28. myeni, a. (2010). leadership behaviour and employee morale within the department of agriculture (submitted in accordance with the requirements for doctor of public administration degree). university of south africa. naong, m.n. (2010). justification for skills transfer and validating a specific developed measuring instrument. african journal of business management, 4(6), 1085–1094. naong, m.n. (2014). the impact of skills-development training on lower-level employee’s motivation and job satisfaction – a case-study of five south african companies. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(20), 369–380. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p369 ngambi, h.c. (2011). the relationship between leadership and employee morale in higher education. african journal of business management, 5(3), 762–776. ngirande, h., & timothy, h.t. (2014). the relationship between leaders emotional intelligence and employee job satisfaction. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(9), 69. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n6p35 nordin, n. (2011). the influence of emotional intelligence, leadership behaviour and organisational commitment for change in higher learning institutions. procedia-social and behavioral science, 29, 129–135. retrieved from www.sciencedirect.com northhouse, p.g. (2009). leadership: theory and practice. thousand oaks, ca: sage. owolabi, a.b. (2012). effect of psychological work climate and emotional intelligence on teamwork. journal of asian scientific research, 2(3), 150–158. owoseni, o. (2014). emotional intelligence and perceived leadership behaviour effectiveness in organizations. humanities and social science, 4(2), 262–269. pallant, j. (2010). spss survival manual: a step-by-step guide to data analysis using spss. maidenhead: open university press/mcgraw-hill. pallant, j. (2010). spss survival manual (4th ed.). sydney: mcgraw hill. pennsylvania state university world campus (psuwc). (2014). lesson 12: work and organizational commitment: am i attached to the organization? psych 484: work attitudes and motivation. retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa14/psych484/001/content/lesson12/lesson12_01.html petrides, k.v., & furnham, a. (2001). trait emotional intelligence: psychological investigation with reference to establish trait taxonomies. european journal of personality, 15(6), 425–448. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.416 qureshi, i.a., ali, r., raza, h., & whitty, m. (2013). the impact of leader’s emotional intelligence on employee commitment. an empirical study in the sports industry of sialkot, pakistan. business and management (iosr-jbm), 17(5), 125–134. rahman, m.k.u., & haleem, f. (2018). on the relationship between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction. middle east journal of business, 13(3), 13–17. https://doi.org/10.5742/mejb.2018.93372 ramlall, i. (2017). applied structural equation modelling for researchers and practitioners: using r and stata for behavioural research. bingley: emerald group publishing. russell, j.e.a. (2020). leading in a time of crisis. forbes. retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/joyceearussell/2020/07/26/leading-in-times-of-crisis/?sh=18a63d256ed2 salas, e., sims, d.e., & burke, c.s. (2005). is there a “big five” in teamwork? small group research, 36, 555–599. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496405277134 salovey, p., & mayer, j.d. (1990). emotional intelligence. imagination, cognition and personality, 9(3), 185–211. https://doi.org/10.2190/dugg-p24e-52wk-6cdg sariolghalam, n., noruzi, m.r., & rahimi, g.r. (2010). the enigma of howard gardner’s multiple intelligences theory in the area of organizational effectiveness. business and management, 5(5), 161–168. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v5n5p161 schutte, n.s., malouff, j.m., hall, l.e., haggerty, d.d., cooper, j.t., golden, c.j., & dornheim, l. (1998). development and validation of a measure of emotional intelligence. personality and individual differences, 25(2), 167–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0191-8869(98)00001-4 sekaran, u. (2003). research methods for business: a skill-building approach (4th ed.). new york, ny: john wiley & sons. shafiq, m., & rana, a.r. (2016). relationship of emotional intelligence to organizational commitment of college teachers in pakistan. eurasian journal of educational research, 62, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.14689/ejer.2016.62.1 singh, a., & gupta, b. (2015). job involvement, organizational commitment, professional commitment, and team commitment. benchmarking: an international journal, 22(6), 1192–1211. https://doi.org/10.1108/bij-01-2014-0007 smith, p.c., kendall, l.m., & hulin, c.l. (1969). the measurement of satisfaction in work and retirement. chicago: rand mcnally. strickland, d. (2000). emotional intelligence: the most potent factor in the success equation. nursing administration, 30(3), 112–117. https://doi.org/10.1097/00005110-200003000-00002 švecová, s. (2009). personálny manažment. bratislava: dr. josef raabe slovensko. tabassi, a.a., ramli, m., & abu bakar, a.h. (2011). training, motivation and teamwork improvement: the case of construction firms. african journal of business management, 5(14), 5627–5636. https://doi.org/10.5897/ajbm10.1343 taherdoost, h. (2016). validity and reliability of the research instrument; how to test the validation of a questionnaire/survey in a research. international journal of academic research in management, 5(3), 28–36. tiwari, u. (2014). a study on employee morale and its impact on employee efficiency at jaypee cement plant rewa (m.p.). abhinav international monthly refereed journal of research in management and technology, 3(11), 8–14. treputtharat, s., & tayiam, s. (2014). school climate affecting job satisfaction of teachers in primary education, khon kaen, thailand. procedia – social and behavioural science, 116, 996–1000. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.334 usop, a.m., askandar, k., kadtong, m.l., & usop, d.a.s.o. (2013). work performance and job satisfaction among teachers. international journal of human social sciences, 3(5), 245–252. vasudevan, h., & mahadi, n. (2017). emotional intelligence, commitment and climate in organizations: bridging contribution and practical implication. review of integrative business and economics research, 6(1), 202–216. vidyarthi, p.r., liden, r.c., anand, s., erdogan, b., & ghosh, s. (2010). where do i stand? examining the effects of leader–member exchange social comparison on employee work behaviors. journal of applied psychology, 95(5), 849. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020033 wijekoon, c.n., amaratunge, h., de silva, y., senanayake, s., jayawardane, p., & senarath, u. (2017). emotional intelligence and academic performance of medical undergraduates: a cross-sectional study in a selected university in sri lanka. bmc medical education, 17, 176. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-017-1018-9 wisse, b., rus, d., keller, a.c., & sleebos, e. (2019). ‘fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it’: the combined effects of leader fear of losing power and competitive climate on leader self-serving behaviour. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 28(6), 742–755. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2019.1635584 wolmarans, i.s. & greef, a. (2001). 360-degree emotional competency profiler. johannesburg: learning link international. yang, j. (2016). thriving organisational sustainability through innovation: incivility climate and teamwork. sustainability, 8(9), 860. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8090860 yukl, g. (2010). leadership in organisations (7th ed.). cape town: pearson. yusoff, r., muda, t.e.a.t., & ishak, n.m. (2016). relationship between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction among school counselling head teachers. journal of human social sciences, 21, 61–68. abstract introduction literature review research design findings discussion contribution of the study recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) yvonne t. joubert department of human resource management, school of management sciences, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa christine swart department of human resource management, school of management sciences, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation joubert, y.t., & swart, c. (2019). developing a team performance framework utilising neethling’s thinking style preference instrument. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1203. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1203 note: this article is based on the dissertation by christine swart, neethling’s thinking style preferences instrument to enhance team performance in an organisation in south africa, available at http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/23527/dissertation_swart_c.pdf?isall=&sequence=1. original research developing a team performance framework utilising neethling’s thinking style preference instrument yvonne t. joubert, christine swart received: 03 apr. 2019; accepted: 24 june 2019; published: 26 nov. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: this article focuses on the employees and managers’ experience of the effects of neethling’s thinking style preference instrument on team performance. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to compile a framework to apply neethling’s thinking style preferences to team performance. motivation for the study: organisations today are aware that they need to increase quality, decrease costs, advance customer service, increase their adaptability to an increasingly competitive environment and decrease the time spent on creating new products. to realise these goals, organisations must convert their work teams into more cohesive and dedicated teams. no or limited research has been conducted on how the application of neethling’s thinking style preferences may influence team performance. research approach/design and method: a qualitative exploratory study was conducted with 19 participants working in the financial and insurance department of a sales-driven organisation in gauteng, south africa. the data were collected by means of focus group and individual interviews. main findings: the positive effects of the neethling’s thinking style preferences on the team were that the participants understood people better, their conflict management skills increased, their self-awareness improved, the communication in the team increased and they experienced an increase in team cohesion. the negative experiences were task avoidance, labelling and wrong assessments of people, but the positive experiences exceeded the negative experiences. due to the positive experiences, the organisation also benefitted in terms of improved customer service and increased productivity, which could lead to organisational success and a competitive advantage. practical/managerial implications: when used in teamwork, the neethling’s thinking style preference instrument shows positive outcomes regarding team performance. contribution/value-add: the findings of this study contribute new knowledge regarding the application of neethling’s thinking style preferences in team performance. keywords: communication; conflict management; customer service; neethling’s thinking style preferences; productivity; self-awareness; team cohesion; team performance. introduction organisations today are aware that they need to increase quality, decrease costs, advance customer service, increase their adaptability to an increasingly competitive environment and decrease the time spent on creating new products (levi, 2014). to realise these goals, organisations must convert their work teams into more cohesive and dedicated teams (johnson & johnson, 2006). research, as early as the 1950s, has been focusing on effective, competitive organisations and how to build a strong and effective workforce (grobler, bothma, brewster, carey, holland, & wärnich, 2012). factors such as employee motivation (fullen, 2008), the empowerment of employees to do their own decision-making and the decentralisation of decision-making (grobler et al., 2012) have also received attention. numerous benefits are derived when highly effective teams are established (nedelko, 2008). the benefits include the fostering of creativity and innovation, increased problem-solving, improved quality of decision-making processes, better decisions, enhanced commitment to tasks, and improved morale and motivation among employees. rudansky-kloppers and strydom (2015) added other benefits to this list, such as improved sharing of information and improved cooperation. teams are therefore better than the individuals they comprise. however, to build a dynamic and highly motivated team is a complex and challenging task (rudansky-kloppers & strydom, 2015). many new techniques to improve teams have appeared over the past decades, but several challenges still remain, such as costs and commitment (katzenberg & smith, 2015). the aim of this study was to compile a framework to apply neethling’s thinking style preferences to teams, with the idea that the instrument would enhance performance. because there is no or limited literature available on neethling’s thinking style preferences in respect of team performance, this research will enlarge the knowledge base and should add significant academic value to the field of human resource management and, more specifically, team performance. literature review in this section, the importance of teams and neethling’s thinking style preferences will be discussed. the importance of teams it is essential to understand the meaning of team effectiveness to utilise teams to improve the success of an organisation and for the organisation to benefit from the use of teamwork and teams (pina, martinez, & martinez, 2008; ross, jones, & adams, 2008). it is therefore important to be aware of the three criteria for effective teams: member satisfaction, team viability and task performance (fiske, gilbert, & lindzey, 2010). member satisfaction means that effective teams are content with their team accomplishments, interpersonal relationships and team tasks. team viability implies that teams are cohesive and work well together as a team. task performance means that time efficiency, quality and quantity are achieved by effective teams (schermerhorn, osborn, uhl-bien, & hunt, 2012). however, it is not an easy task to put effective and successful teams together. some of the challenges that teams face are that the teams not always perform well and team members are not always satisfied (fiske et al., 2010); personality conflicts and different work styles antagonise some members and disrupt accomplishments and relationships (schermerhorn et al., 2012); lack of coordination and cooperation, support systems and listening and communication, and poor interpersonal relationships hamper teams (rudansky-kloppers & strydom, 2015); members of the team sometimes do not understand themselves and a lack of understanding of team work processes may exist (cameron & green, 2012); and internal competition, inadequate discussion of differences and a lack of focus on mutual goals (forsyth, 2010) might hinder the performance of a team. other underlying aspects in the design of teams, such as the nature of the team task, membership composition, team processes, team size, team performance and team setting and resources, also play a significant role in team effectiveness (weiner, 2012). shore, coyle-shapiro, and tetrick (2012) express their concern that teams will fail if organisations commit to the virtues of teamwork, but do nothing to ensure teamwork as part of the employee work paradigm. overcoming barriers to team effectiveness: developing successful teams to overcome the barriers to effective teams, a number of vital interventions are required, which include understanding team members, conflict management, enhancing communication and team cohesion. members do not understand one another if a work team do not understand one another, the team will probably be unsuccessful. team members need to understand and realise that other team members are different and unique. this understanding can be used to foster a work environment that increases the vision for personal growth and productivity (cameron & green, 2012; joubert, 2012; stickley & basset, 2008). puth (2008) agrees with this view by arguing that leaders and members of a team have to gain an understanding of the different roles among them to appreciate each other’s competencies and talents, which will improve the team’s performance (sharp, hides, bamber, & castka, 2000). conflict it is imperative for an effective team to be able to manage conflict efficiently. although limited conflict may stimulate team activity, too much energy, that could have been used to attain the goals of the team, is wasted when members focus on interpersonal conflict. excessive conflict leads to poor team member cooperation and disruptive behaviours (jehn & mannix, 2001; rudansky-kloppers & strydom, 2015; stone & redmer, 2006). open communication a team can only function effectively when there is effective two-way communication among the members (patrashkova-volzdoska, mccomb, green, & compton, 2003; pinto & pinto, 1991). members must recognise that their goals should be aligned with the other units in the organisation and that they exist in an organisational context. the success of a team depends on effective communication between team members and sharing knowledge (bergiel, bergiel, & balsmeier, 2008; joubert, 2012). cooperation and team cohesion a basic prerequisite for team success is a cohesive team. team cohesiveness and cooperation are vibrant processes that reflect the propensity of a group of individuals to stay together and unite in aspiring one another to obtain specific objectives and goals (dubrin & dalglish, 2003; tekleab, quigley, & tesluk, 2009). alvarez, butterfield, and ridgeway (2013) agree with this statement by saying that a lack of team cohesion will affect the team’s performance because of unnecessary stress and tension among the members. team efficacy occurs when members of the team are confident and if they believe that they can thrive (jung & sosik, 2003; robbins & judge, 2009). gibson, ivancevich, donnelly, and konopaske (2009) elaborate on this by indicating that team members need to work together as it will improve the productivity in the organisation and the members’ morale. customer service and product delivery if a team is not able to provide satisfactory service to customers and the organisation is not able to be productive, it will result in ineffective teams (joubert, 2012). hackman (2002) contends with this statement by saying that a team is most likely to be effective when customer expectations in product and service delivery are exceeded, capabilities in a team are developed over a period of time and that the team members’ needs are satisfied (swart, 2017). neethling’s thinking style preferences neethling (2005) divided the four brain quadrants into two dimensions per quadrant, which resulted in an eight-dimensional brain profile. the four quadrants are the l1 quadrant (the analyst and realist); the l2 quadrant (the organiser and stalwart); the r1 quadrant (the imaginer and strategist) and the r2 quadrant (the empathiser and socialiser). figure 1 depicts the four different brain quadrants. figure 1: the four brain quadrants. an individual’s actions are determined by his or her dominant brain quadrant. that is why thinking, decision-making, communication and learning differ from person to person. the term ‘whole brain thinking’ means being able to fully control your own preferences, being able to move to other quadrants when necessary and being able to take advantage of and adapt to the preferences of the people around you to improve optimal performance (herrmann & herrmann-nehdi, 2015). the advantages of this concept of whole brain thinking are that individuals can come to understand their thinking preferences, which assist them in adapting their thinking and optimising their abilities, and improve communication and decision-making styles, regardless of the situation. it also clarifies to these individuals why it is easier for them to communicate with certain people, what they should focus on, what they learn best and what motivates them (neethling, 2005; swart, 2017). these advantages could influence the way members in a team operate in a work environment. as indicated in our previous section, teams play a crucial role and any attempt to increase effective teamwork through new methods, such as the neethling’s thinking style preferences, could add value to team performance and ultimately organisational success. no or limited research has been conducted on how the application of neethling’s thinking style preferences may influence team performance. the input–process–output model the researchers decided to include the input–process–output model in this article because the inputs of a team are factors that may limit or add to team processes (mathieu, maynard, rapp, & gilson, 2008). figure 2 is a graphical illustration of the input–process–output model. figure 2: the input–process–output framework. inputs include factors on the organisational level (such as rewards), group level (such as group size and group task) or individual level (such as expertise and personality characteristics). they influence team processes (for instance, improve conflict or communication skills) and represent the members of the team’s interactions in reaching goals (marks, mathieu, & zaccaro, 2001). the team processes, in turn, influence the team outcomes (such as task performance and member attitudes). although a selection of team inputs and outcomes are examined in the literature on traditional team effectiveness, new research on team processes is still required (marks et al., 2001; mathieu et al., 2008). there is therefore a need for this study, and it should make a significant contribution to the field of human resource management and, more specifically, team performance. research design according to welman, kruger, and mitchel (2005), a research design is a plan that the researcher uses to collect data from the participants. the research question gives focus to the study and provides direction on how to conduct the research (maxwell, 2013). research approach in this study, a qualitative approach was most appropriate because the essence of the study was to explore the perceptions of participants. in-depth focus group interviews with employees, as well as individual interviews with managers, were conducted. a total of 19 participants participated in this study. the interviews were semi-structured and open-ended and participants were asked to explain their perceptions of team performance as it relates to neethling’s thinking style preferences. the primary researcher focused on the perceptions and views of managers and employees and aimed to interpret them to gain a better understanding of the subject at hand. this exploration was necessary, as no other research has previously been conducted on neethling’s thinking style preferences in respect of team performance, which would have enabled the researcher to follow a quantitative research approach. the data obtained from the interviews were deemed to be reliable as the primary researcher’s own perceptions, ideas and views were excluded from the study (babbie, 2008). the four criteria of trustworthiness (credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability) were applied (guba & lincoln, 1994). to achieve the aim of this research study, two theories were used. firstly, a grounded, interpretivist approach was used because of its organised stance towards listening and gaining an understanding of the employees and managers’ views and perceptions. the goal of grounded theory is to collect data and to analyse it, whereupon assumptions can be made, which are ‘grounded’ on the data (brink, van der walt, & van rensburg, 2006). data were collected from the employees and managers who were working in a finance and insurance department in a sales-driven organisation and who had undergone three or more training sessions in neethling’s thinking style preference. secondly, an interpretivist approach was used because the primary researcher wanted to explain the multiple perceptions of the participants (andrade, 2009). an inductive strategy was used to identify patterns of responses and to interpret them, as no or limited literature exists that would enable the authors to provide a framework for understanding the topic of this study (merriam, 1998). research strategy a finance and insurance department in a sales-driven organisation in gauteng, south africa, was selected. two focus group interviews with employees and six individual interviews with managers were conducted. nineteen participants took part voluntarily and were encouraged to talk about their experience. non-probability, purposive and snowballing sampling was used for this study, as the research problem was to be addressed with a specific plan and the primary researcher had a specific purpose in mind (kothari, 2004). the sample in this study was selected on the basis of specific criteria and was small (ritchie & lewis, 2003). the criteria to select participants for this study were that they all had to have undergone three or more training sessions in neethling’s thinking style preferences, were employed in the particular sales-driven company in gauteng, south africa, were working in the financial and insurance department and were willing to be interviewed in either a focus group or individual interview. research method the following aspects of the research method followed in this study are discussed below: population and sampling, data collection methods, recording of data, data analyses and strategies employed to ensure quality data and reporting. research setting the research setting consisted of all employees employed at the financial and insurance department of a sales-driven organisation in south africa. entrée and establishing researcher roles in qualitative research studies, the researcher is the primary instrument for gathering and analysing data. subjectivity is part of an interpretive research process that makes it possible to understand social and personal realities with empathy. subjectivity is beneficial to the process, as the personal experience of a researcher is added to the participants’ experience (peshkin, 1988). the training manager, where this research was conducted, acted as the gatekeeper to participants and set up an interview schedule for the participants who partook in the in-depth interviews. the research was explained and written permission was obtained to conduct interviews with voluntary participants. all participants signed a consent form, and the context and the purpose of the study were explained to them. participation was voluntary, and confidentiality of participation and information was ensured. a convenient place and time was scheduled with the participants. population and sampling the population for this study consisted of all employees employed at the financial and insurance department of a sales-driven organisation in south africa who had undergone three or more sessions in neethling’s thinking style preferences training. the biographical characteristics of all of the participants who were part of this study are presented in table 1. table 1: biographical characteristics of total participants. data collection methods and recording of data a prearranged place and time for the interviews were organised with the participants. the focus group interviews were conducted at the training centre where the participants had their training sessions and the six individual interviews were conducted in the boardroom of the organisation. the interviews took approximately 1 h each. guided interviews were used in this study. the semi-structured interviews allowed the primary researcher to achieve the research aim and participants were afforded the opportunity to express themselves freely (hein, 1980). a reliable audio recorder was used for the interviews (kvale, 1996). the researcher compiled observation notes and field notes that contained facts about the interviews, the setting and the researcher’s personal impressions and feelings. two questions were asked which enabled the researcher to collect the data for the study. the two questions asked during the focus group and individual interviews were the following: in your experience/to your knowledge, what is the effect of neethling’s thinking style preferences on your team’s performance? in your opinion, would you say that the neethling’s thinking style preference instrument is a viable tool for enhancing team performance? this qualitative research project relied on the primary researcher for data gathering and analysis. recurring ideas and themes and important concepts were gleaned from the transcripts. the data-recording process proposed by tesch (1990) was used. consideration was given to themes and ideas that could be categorised into a number of broader groups. the completed transcripts were reviewed to identify any concepts that were not initially noted. variations and similarities in data from different interviews were noted. the data were stored and password protected on the primary researcher’s computer. the participants remained anonymous. the possibility of bias was curtailed through peer review. the researcher’s study supervisor reviewed the interviews, transcriptions, analysis and coding. the findings cannot be generalised because this study was conducted in one company. when considering the transferability of the findings, the context in which the study was conducted should be taken into account. data analyses during the data analysis phase, the relevant data were assessed and grouped into broader categories (lobiondo-wood & haber, 2017). the primary researcher and her supervisor analysed the data themselves, and it was unnecessary to utilise a more formal method such as the atlas ti or gabek data analysis programmes. tesch’s (1990) data analysis method was used for the study. apart from the transcriptions of the recorded interviews, notes made on witnessed expressions during the interviews were used in the data analysis. the most interesting individual interview was selected as a starting point to identify the main codes. thereafter all the other interviews were coded and a list of key words was compiled. key words with similar meanings were grouped together into topics. the topics were abbreviated as codes and written next to the appropriate parts of the text. the most descriptive wording was found for each code and from that themes were created by clustering meaning-related codes together. a final decision was then made on the labelling for each theme. the grouping of the material within the themes was then done based on reflection on how the themes related to one another and to the research phenomenon. the last step was to report the findings. theory building the aim of this research was to compile a framework to apply neethling’s thinking style preferences to teams, with the idea that the instrument would enhance performance. the researchers used the theory building model of carlile and christensen (2004) to develop a team performance model. during the descriptive phase, (inductive) data were collected through individual and focus group interviews (carlile & christensen, 2004). thereafter the data were described and constructs were developed that helped the researchers to understand what effect the neethling’s thinking style preference instrument had on team performance (carlile & christensen, 2004). the next step was to group the constructs into categories (carlile & christensen, 2004). during categorisation, differences and similarities between the categories were explored, as well as the relationships between them (carlile & christensen, 2004). the last step in the descriptive phase was to explore the relationships between the categories. during the next stage, the normative or deductive stage, the theory was tested on new data to confirm or highlight anomalies that resulted in a review of the theory, its categories, the relationships between them and their relationship to the outcome (carlile & christensen, 2004). in particular, it was important to explore what caused these different circumstances (anomalies) and why they occurred. the causes of the anomalies were further explored and were then used to modify the model and theory to clearly explain what would and would not lead to the desired outcome (carlile & christensen, 2004). strategies employed to ensure the quality of the data the researchers re-assessed the data continuously until there was a common understanding, to ensure the quality of the data. themes and patterns emerged during the data analyses. the researchers’ authority enhanced the quality of the research. the researchers established their authority by means of the primary researcher’s involvement in neethling’s thinking style preference instrument training, and their extensive knowledge of the subject (krefting, 1991). ethical considerations written permission was obtained from the training manager to conduct this research at their company. following the initial contact with the participants, the primary researcher set up a discussion with them, during which the aim and nature of the study and the relevant ethical parameters such as confidentiality, freedom to withdraw and anonymity were once again explained. the participants signed informed consent forms before the individual and focus group interviews were conducted. before each interview, the primary researcher explained the aim of the research. the study also received ethical clearance from the research institution at the university of south africa and was conducted under the ambit of the ethics policy of unisa (unisa, 2013). findings each participant’s experience was relevant to his or her own views, and experience relating to the effect the neethling’s thinking style preference instrument has on team performance. two themes arose from the answers obtained from the first interview question (in your experience/to your knowledge, what is the effect of neethling’s thinking style preferences on your team’s performance?): theme 1: neethling’s thinking style preferences improve performance of the team theme 2: neethling’s thinking style preferences improve organisational outcome goals theme 1: neethling’s thinking style preferences improve the performance of the team ten participants (participants 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16 and 19) were of the view that the application of the neethling’s thinking style preferences increased their team’s understanding of people. participant 6 (white, male, 5 neethling training sessions) indicated that ‘(w)e understand people now. we understand what makes the other people tick and how to work with them’. participant 12 (black, female, 3 neethling training sessions) said, ‘it makes you understand other people a lot better as well because then you know there’s left-brain people, right-brain people and you know that we’re not all the same’ and participant 15 (white, male, 3 neethling training sessions) was of the view that ‘(y)ou recognise characteristics, it’s easier to get along with someone because you know where they’re coming from. knowledge is power’. cameron and green (2012) maintain that team members not understanding one another are unable to manage diversity, have little knowledge of team behaviour and do not understand the processes in the team that have a negative impact on team performance. puth (2008) argues that it is important for the leader and members of a team to gain an understanding of the members’ different roles within the team to appreciate each one’s talents and competences, which will improve the team’s performance. participants 1, 4 and 9 also concurred that their conflict management abilities increased with their knowledge of the neethling’s thinking style preferences. participant 1 (white, male, 5 neethling training sessions) said, ‘by understanding what someone’s like, you can resolve conflict a lot easier, so it’s all about communication and emotional intelligence’. participant 9 (white, female, 4 neethling training sessions) indicated ‘(l)ess conflict – we’re dealing with it better because we understand each other’. rudansky-kloppers and strydom (2015) posit that if conflict is managed well, it will result in positive outcomes such as improved conflict resolution, improved relationships in a team and improved problem-solving. jehn and mannix (2001) state that effective conflict management impacts positively on team performance and cohesiveness. eight participants (participants 3, 5, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15 and 19) were of the view that their self-awareness improved after they received training on neethling’s thinking style preference instrument. participant 10 (black, female, 4 neethling training sessions) remarked that because: ‘[w]e have been to this course and other people haven’t been, you have to take a step back and look at the situation before you deal with them. otherwise, if you’re the one who’s not going to lead by example, then all your hard work is going to waste. you have to be aware of what you’re feeling and what other people feel and have self-awareness before you can respond and act.’ participant 13 (black, female, 4 neethling training sessions) concurred by saying ‘i think, knowing myself– first of all on which things i prefer with regard to my way of thinking’ and participant 15 (white, male, 3 neethling training sessions) said, ‘it makes you confident with yourself as well. you know your own strengths and you can focus on improving your strengths as it is your natural default’. the participants (participants 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8) said that their communication increased after they started applying their knowledge of neethling’s thinking style preferences. participant 4 (white, male, 4 neethling training sessions) stated, ‘the way they communicate – yes, team members communicate better’ and participant 6 (white, male, 5 neethling training sessions) said, ‘our communication is greatly enhanced’. bergiel et al. (2008) found that one of the requirements for effective team performance is effective two-way communication. they were of the view that success in a team depends on effective communication between team members and on members sharing their knowledge with other team members. the participants (participants 3, 4, 7, 9, 15, 16 and 19) concurred that their team cohesion increased after applying their knowledge of neethling’s thinking styles in the group. participant 4 (white, male, 4 neethling training sessions) said, ‘understanding how the team thinks, understanding how they do things differently, and working towards the same goal increased the relationship among team members’. participant 9 (white, female, 4 neethling training sessions) was of the view that there was better cooperation between the members of the team and participant 16 (white, female, 4 neethling training sessions) indicated that ‘(b)eing able to understand each other’s thinking style preferences has improved the team spirit within the team’. dubrin and dalglish (2003) posit that a major strategy in developing an effective team is to promote cooperation between the team members and to make them understand that working together effectively is an expected standard of conduct. alvarez et al. (2013) maintain that a lack of team cohesion will affect team performance because of the unnecessary tension and stress between team members. cohesiveness is therefore a determining and crucial factor for team effectiveness. theme 2: neethling’s thinking style preferences improve organisational outcome goals seven participants (participants 1, 5, 8, 15, 16, 17 and 19) said that the customer service in the organisation improved after applying their knowledge of neethling’s thinking style preferences. participant 8 (white, male, 4 neethling training sessions) said, ‘because we are able to read and understand customer’s thinking style preferences better, we’ve improved in the closure of deals’ and participant 15 (white, male 3 neethling training sessions) said: ‘if you know the customers are left-brain or right-brain then the rest comes into play, how to interact, and you adjust your behaviour to suit them as a customer. if you look at it from that point of view, you understand them and their needs better.’ hackman (2002) contends that exceeding customer expectations in service and product delivery is a function of team effectiveness, which comes about from developing team capabilities over a period and satisfying the needs of team members, which then leads to team performance. the participants (participants 2, 6, 8 and 16) were all of the view that the productivity increased after they applied their knowledge of the neethling’s thinking style preferences in the organisation. participant 2 (coloured, male, 3 neethling training sessions) noticed that ‘… our belief in the neethling training has actually helped us to grow the f&i department in terms of the income we generate for the group and for the organisation’ and participant 6 (white, male 5 neethling training sessions) agreed that there were ‘better results as far as the working environment goes’. participant 8 (white, male, 4 neethling training sessions) said, ‘because we are able to read and understand customer’s thinking style preferences better, we’ve improved in the closure of deals and we are more profitable in our deals’. robbins and judge (2009), as well as jung and sosik (2003), are of the view that team efficacy occurs when team members are confident and if they believe that they can thrive. a successful team’s views about future accomplishments are more positive and productivity increases, which inspire the team members to work harder. this will lead to improved team performance. only three participants perceived possible disadvantages when applying knowledge of neethling’s thinking style preferences in an organisation. participant 2 (coloured, male, 3 neethling training sessions) was of the view that tasks could be avoided: ‘there’s some of our managers that abuse the fact they’re right brain. they will have, for argument’s sake, got to do something but they won’t do it properly because they are a right brain person.’ participant 3 (white, male, 4 neethling training sessions) said that labelling could be another disadvantage and said that: ‘[t]he only disadvantage in my view potentially is that you get labelled. your friends and colleagues now know that you fit into a specific category and it is now your label, so you are that person and so anything that happens is because you are that person. you are now put into a specific box …’ participant 16 (white, female, 4 neethling training sessions) said that you might sometimes assess someone wrongly: ‘wrongly assessing the client, for instance, you might think that the client is an l2 and you start pointing out every little detail because you know that l2s love detail when in actual fact the client might be an r1 who doesn’t like detail at all, so you potentially lose a client.’ the same two themes (theme 1: neethling’s thinking style preferences improve performance of the team and theme 2: neethling’s thinking style preferences improve organisational outcome goals) arose from answers obtained from the second interview question (in your opinion, would you say that the neethling’s thinking style preference instrument is a viable tool for enhancing team performance?). theme 1: neethling’s thinking style preferences improve performance of the team seven participants (participants 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 13) were of the opinion that the neethling’s thinking style preferences improved their understanding of other people. participant 1 (white, male, 5 neethling training sessions) said: ‘the upswing of understanding how someone works has really been a revelation for us and, as i say, we really believe in this, we’ve put every single f&i through the whole process a couple of times and it’s been working well. we subscribed to every single one of us, i mean, it’s a philosophy, it’s part of our dna if you want to call it, we can speak the same language, people talk about different brain profiles to each other, so we speak the language of the lessons we’ve learned.’ participant 6 (white, male, 5 neethling training sessions) concurred by saying: ‘it enables you to work a lot closer with your colleagues because you’re able to identify well, which dominance, which quadrant is their dominance and you can talk to them in their language, instead of clashing with them all the time.’ in a study by sharp et al. (2000) where the myers-briggs type indicator (mbti) was used to determine personal differences, it was found that an understanding of personal differences leads to the overall improvement of team performance. three participants (participants 1, 5 and 6) were of the view that the neethling’s thinking style preferences increased communication. participant 5 (white, female, 4 neethling training sessions) indicated that ‘(t)he communication within my team and with the different management teams that we meet with on a quarterly basis have improved a lot’ and participant 6 (white, male 5 neethling training sessions) said, ‘our communication is greatly enhanced.’ patrashkova-volzdoska et al. (2003) and pinto and pinto (1991) found that increased levels of communication between team members are a key to effective team performance. both participant 3 (white, male, 4 neethling training sessions) and participant 6 (white, male, 5 neethling training sessions) were of the view that the neethling’s thinking style preferences improved team cohesion. participant 3 (white, male, 4 neethling training sessions) said, ‘people are now getting along with people that they never used to get along with’. participant 6 (white, male, 5 neethling training sessions) concurred by saying ‘our personal relationships are greatly enhanced and if you have a better relationship with the people you work with, it will increase team performance.’ the degree to which team members are comfortable with one another and experience a feeling of belonging contributes to team effectiveness and team performance (tekleab et al., 2009). theme 2: neethling’s thinking style preferences improve organisational outcome goals participants 3, 4 and 5 said that the neethling’s thinking style preferences improved customer service. participant 3 (white, male, 4 neethling training sessions) indicated that: ‘[w]hen you meet new people or customers, you are able to fairly and accurately get an idea of who that person is and what they want and what they don’t want and thereby you can adjust your approach to them which leads to better customer service.’ participant 5 (white, female, 4 neethling training sessions) opined that ‘(t)he training enabled us to also deal with customers that phone in complaints better, so the communication to me is key’. in a study by joubert (2012), it was found that dissatisfied customers and loss of productivity are the end results of a team not being able to work together. four participants (participants 2, 7, 10 and 13) felt that neethling’s thinking style preferences improved organisational productivity. participant 2 (coloured, male, 3 neethling training sessions) said: ‘our belief in this has actually helped us to grow the department in terms of the income we generate for the organisation. i think it’s a viable tool because as some people are strong left-brain and some people are right-brain, we complement each other and because of us being so diverse and understanding, we actually make use of each other’s strengths.’ participant 13 (black, female, 4 neethling training sessions) indicated that ‘(b)ecause people are able to work together, it improves on achieving goals’. gibson et al. (2009) contend that members in a team need to work together because successful participation in a team improves the morale of the members, as well as processes and productivity in the organisation. discussion figure 3 is an integrated framework obtained from the findings in the previous section. it summarises the effect that the neethling’s thinking style preference instrument has on team performance. figure 3: conceptual framework of the effect of neethling’s thinking style preference instrument (ntsp) on team performance. the framework is based on the input–process–output system model of mcgrath (1964). according to this system, an effective initiative influences employees and the organisation’s outcomes. the input in this model consists of employees’ competence in applying neethling’s thinking style preference instrument, which includes their knowledge and skills gained from training and their personal attributes. the results in this study indicate that when team members applied the competencies gained from the their training in neethling’s thinking style preferences, it resulted in improved team performance as an output. self-awareness, understanding other team members better and better management of conflict were manifested. it also led to improved communication between team members and other stakeholders, as well as cohesion in the team. team members’ productivity and customer service were also enhanced. when a team’s performance improves, it has a positive effect on the organisational goals. these goals included improved customer satisfaction, profitability, organisational image and productivity. contribution of the study this study involves original research and contributes new knowledge to the field of human resource management and, more specifically, team performance. it also yielded new knowledge with regard to the application of neethling’s thinking style preferences. no previous research was conducted on neethling’s thinking style preferences with regard to team performance. limitations certain limitations such as the participant effect and researcher bias, and limitations in terms of data collection and analysis were identified. the primary researcher’s long-standing association with neethling’s whole brain practices might have increased bias, but to prevent this, the researcher implemented bracketing, reflexivity and intuiting in all the phases of the study. the primary researcher’s supervisor reviewed the transcribed interviews and was also involved in the analysis of the data. too few mixed race and indian men and indian women formed part of this research. because this study was conducted in one organisation, the findings cannot be generalised. when considering the transferability of the findings, the context in which the study was conducted should be taken into account. however, based on the conclusions drawn from the findings in this study, recommendations could be made for the implementation of neethling’s thinking style preference instrument in organisations to enhance team performance. recommendations it is recommended that this research be repeated to include more differentiation of organisations and a larger sample group. it is also recommended that a comparative study be conducted, where international organisations are included. it is further recommended that employees be trained in neethling’s thinking style preferences to enhance team performance in the organisation, which will ultimately contribute to organisational success. conclusion the objective of the study was to compile a framework of neethling’s thinking style preference instrument as it applies to team performance. the positive effects of neethling’s thinking style preferences on the team were that the participants understood people better, their conflict management skills increased, their self-awareness improved, the communication in the team increased and they experienced an increase in team cohesion. there were, however, also negative experiences such as task avoidance, labelling and wrong assessments of people, but the positive experiences exceeded the negative experiences. as a result of the positive experiences of the team, the organisation is likely to benefit from improved customer service and increased productivity, which will lead to organisational success and a competitive advantage. it is therefore recommended that neethling’s thinking style preference instrument be used as a viable tool to improve team performance, which, in turn, leads to the achievement of overall organisational success. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author(s) contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer we declare that the submitted article is our own work and that all the sources that we have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. references alvarez, a., butterfield, l., & ridgeway, d. (2013). building group cohesion in the workplace. clinical psychology associates of north central florida. retrieved from http://cpancf.com/articles_files/buildinggroupcohesionintheworkplace.html. andrade, a.d. (2009). inerpretive research aiming at theory building: adopting and adapting the case study design. the qualitative report, 14(1), 42–60. babbie, e. (2008). the basics of social research (4th edn.). london: thomson learning. bergiel, b.j., bergiel, e.b., & balsmeier, p.w. (2008). nature of virtual teams: a summary of their advantages and disadvantages. management research news, 31(2), 99–110. https://doi.org/10.1108/01409170810846821 brink, h., van der walt, c., & van rensburg, g. (2006). fundamentals of research methodology for health care professionals (2nd edn.). cape town: juta. cameron, e., & green, m. (2012). making sense of change management: a complete guide to the models, tools, and techniques of organisational change (3rd edn.). london & philadelphia, pa: kogan page. carlile, p.r., & christensen, c.m. (2004). the cycles of theory building in management research. (harvard business school working paper no. 05–057). boston, ma: harvard business school. dubrin, a.j., & dalglish, c. (2003). leadership: an australasian focus. brisbane: wiley. fiske, t., gilbert, d.t., & lindzey, g. (eds.). (2010). handbook of social psychology (5th edn.). hoboken, nj: wiley. forsyth, d.r. (2010). group dynamics (5th edn.). boston, ma: wadsworth cengage learning. fullen, m. (2008). the six secrets of change: what the best leaders do to help their organisations survive and thrive. new york: wiley. gibson, j.l., ivancevich, j.m., donnelly, j.h., & konopaske, r. (2009). organisations: behavior, structure, process (13th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. grobler, p., bothma, r., brewster, c., carey, l., holland, p., & wärnich, s. (2012). contemporary issues in human resource management: gaining a competitive advantage (4th edn.). cape town: oxford university press. guba, e.g., & lincoln, y.s. (1994). competing paradigms in qualitative research. london: sage. hackman, j.r. (2002). leading teams: setting the stage for great performances. boston, ma: harvard business school press. hein, e. (1980). communication in nursing practice. boston, ma: little brown. herrmann, n., & herrmann-nehdi, a. (2015). the whole brain business book: unlocking the power of whole brain thinking in organisations, teams, and individuals. new york: mcgraw-hill. jehn, k.a., & mannix, e.a. (2001). the dynamic nature of conflict: a longitudinal study of intragroup conflict and group performance. academy of management journal, 44(2), 238–251. https://doi.org/10.2307/3069453 johnson, d.w., & johnson, f.p. (2006). joining together: group theory and group skills (9th edn.). new york: pearson international. joubert, y.t. (2012). towards an organisational team sport intervention model for managing a diverse workforce. unpublished doctoral thesis. pretoria: university of south africa. jung, d.i., & sosik, j.j. (2003). group potency and collective efficacy: examining their predictive validity, level of analysis and effects of performance feedback on future group performance. group and organisation management, 28(3), 366–391. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601102250821 katzenberg, j.r., & smith, d.k. (2015). the wisdom of teams: creating the high performance organization. cambridge: harvard business school press. kothari, c.r. (2004). research methodology: methods and techniques. new delhi: washwa prakashan. krefting, i. (1991). rigor in qualitative research: the assessment of trustworthiness. american journal of occupational therapy, 45(3), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.45.3.214 kvale, s. (1996). interviews: an introduction to qualitative research interviewing. thousand oaks, ca: sage. levi, d. (2014). group dynamics for teams (4th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. lobiondo-wood, g., & haber, j. (2017). nursing research: methods and critical appraisal for evidence-based practice (9th edn.). new york: mosby. marks, m.a., mathieu, j.e., & zaccaro, s.j. (2001). a temporally based framework and taxonomy of team processes. academy of management review, 26, 356–376. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2001.4845785 mathieu, j.e., maynard, m.t., rapp, t., & gilson, l. (2008). team effectiveness 1997–2007: a review of recent advancements and a glimpse into the future. journal of management, 34(3), 410–476. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206308316061 maxwell, j.a. (2013). qualitative research design: an interpretive approach (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. mcgrath, j.e. (1964). social psychology: a brief introduction. new york: holt. merriam, s.b. (1998). qualitative research and case study applications in education. revised and expanded from case study research in education. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. nedelko, z. (2008). the role and importance of groupware for teamwork. the business review, 10(1), 211–217. neethling. k. (2005). creativity uncovered. wierdapark, gauteng: solutionsfinding. retrieved from http://www.kobusneethling.co.za/. patrashkova-volzdoska, r.r., mccomb, s.a., green, s.g., & compton, w.d. (2003). examining a curvilinear relationship between communication frequency and team performance in cross-functional project teams. ieee transactions on engineering management, 50(3), 262–269. https://doi.org/10.1109/tem.2003.817298 peshkin, a. (1988). in search of subjectivity – one’s own. educational researcher, 19(7), 17–22. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x017007017 pina, m., martinez, a., & martinez, l. (2008). teams in organisations: a review on team effectiveness. team performance management, 14(1/2), 7–21. https://doi.org/10.1108/13527590810860177 pinto, m.b., & pinto, j.k. (1991). determinants of cross-functional cooperation in the project implementation process. newtown square, pa: project management institute. puth, g. (2008). the communicating leader: the key to strategic alignment. paarl: van schaik. ritchie, j., & lewis, j. (2003). qualitative research practice: a guide for social science students and researchers. london: sage. robbins, s.p., & judge, t.a. (2009). organisational behaviour: global and south african perspectives (2nd edn.). cape town: pearson. ross, t.m., jones, e.c., & adams, s.g. (2008). can team effectiveness be predicted? team performance management, 14(5/6), 248–268. https://doi.org/10.1108/13527590810898518 rudansky-kloppers, s., & strydom, j.j. (2015). principles of sport management. cape town: oxford university press. schermerhorn, j.r., osborn, r.n., uhl-bien, m., & hunt, j.g. (2012). organisational behaviour (12th edn.). hoboken, nj: wiley. sharp, j.m., hides, m.t., bamber, c.j., & castka, p. (2000). continuous organisational learning through the development of high-performance teams. icstm electronic journal of business ethics and organisation studies, 20(2), (2015). shore, l.m., coyle-shapiro, j.a., & tetrick, l.e. (2012). the employee-organisation relationship: applications for the 21st century. new york: routledge. stone, a.g., & redmer, t.a.o. (2006). the case study approach to scenario planning. journal of practical consulting, 1(1), 7–18. swart, c. (2017). neethling’s thinking style preference instrument to enhance team performance in an organisation in south africa. unpublished mcom dissertation. pretoria: university of south africa. tekleab, a.g., quigley, n.r., & tesluk, p.e. (2009). a longitudinal study of team conflict, conflict management, cohesion, and team effectiveness. group and organisation management, 34(2), 170–205. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601108331218 tesch, k. (1990). qualitative research: analysis, types and software tools. new york: falmer press. stickley, t. & basset, t. (2008). learning about mental health practice. john wiley & sons, ltd, england. unisa. (2013). policy on research ethics. retrieved from http://www.unisa.ac.za/research/news/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/policy-on-research-ethics-rev-appr-council-20.09.2013.pdf. welman, c., kruger, f., & mitchel, b. (2005). research methodology (3rd edn.). cape town: oxford university press. weiner, i.b. (2012). handbook of psychology: industrial and organisational psychology (2nd edn.). hoboken, nj: wiley. abstract introduction background to the study employee empowerment structural empowerment psychological empowerment antecedents of employee empowerment employee empowerment and organisational outcomes turnover intention turnover intention and previous research research design research procedure research participants measuring instruments results discussion limitations of the study recommendations and managerial implications recommendations for future research acknowledgements references about the author(s) khayalethu ngqeza department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa nelesh dhanpat department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation ngqeza, k., & dhanpat, n. (2021). investigating the effects of employee empowerment on turnover intention in a mining organisation. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1564. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1564 original research investigating the effects of employee empowerment on turnover intention in a mining organisation khayalethu ngqeza, nelesh dhanpat received: 07 feb. 2021; accepted: 08 june 2021; published: 31 aug. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: mining plays a significant role in the south african economy and is crucial for job creation opportunities. mining organisations are plagued by various challenges, which include turnover intention. research purpose: the current study sought to establish whether employee empowerment (psychological and structural empowerment) predicts turnover intention in a mining organisation. research approach/design and method: the study followed a quantitative research approach and used a cross-sectional design. a non-probability sampling technique was used, and a purposive sampling method was selected. the sample comprised 371 mining employees (men = 276; women = 95). data were collected through pre-established measures, all of which reported acceptable cronbach’s alphas. various statistical techniques were employed to address the main research objective. main findings: employee empowerment negatively impacts turnover intention. the employees who perceived having informal power were more likely to consider leaving the organisation. employees who perceived less formal power were more likely to consider leaving than the employees who perceived having formal power. practical/managerial implications: recommendations are made to hr practitioners regarding employee empowerment of mining employees, which, when implemented, have the potential to reduce employee turnover intention. contribution/value-add: the results of this study provide a better understanding to human resource managers about the relationship between employee empowerment and turnover intention of mining personnel. this study contributed to theory, as some key findings are different from previous studies within the south african context. keywords: empowerment; structural empowerment; psychological empowerment; turnover; mining; mines. introduction the mining industry is a key to the economy and the development of south africa, as it employs a significant percentage of the south african population (marais et al., 2018; neingo & tholona, 2016). it is known that mining activities largely influence the socio-economic conditions of the people in mining communities (kane-berman, 2018) and do so by contributing towards the community’s employment, education and increased infrastructure (mancini & sala, 2018). according to chaskalson (2016), south africa is the largest platinum producer globally and accounts for 87% of the world’s platinum-group metals. since the 1880s, south africa has extracted large quantities of gold. however, the interplay of gold prices and increased production costs has resulted in some mining operations’ downsizing and others completely shutting down. this has slowed business outputs and consequently negatively affected the economy and the country’s development (marais et al., 2018). mining remained one of the main drivers of the south african economy and accounted for approximately 8% of the country’s gross domestic product (gdp) in 2015 (republic of south africa, 2020). background to the study some mining operations experience difficulties in retaining employees because of various factors, such as treatment by supervisors and lack of career growth prospects (brown, susomrith, sitlington, & scott, 2014). more so, business environments are characterised by fluctuating markets and organisational restructurings (dhanpat & parumasur, 2014), and these events are likely to result in uncertainty within businesses (buta & burciu, 2014). organisational restructuring and downsizing have negative implications for mine employees who survive retrenchments in that it is expected of these remaining workers to increase their outputs to sustain business profits (chen, chen, zhu, qi, & long, 2015). the mining work environment is exacerbated by dynamic global trends, technological advancement and changing environmental regulations that seem to expose mine employees to occupational stress (mościcka-teske, sadłowska-wrzesińska, najder, & butlewski, 2019). in addition to this, mining is risky to the health and safety of employees (amponsah-tawiah, leka, jain, hollis, & cox, 2013; kasap, 2011; paul & maiti, 2007). historically, in south africa, men came to work in the mines to provide for their families; many were injured or died in the line of duty and never returned to their families (masia & pienaar, 2011). some employees travel long distances to the workplace and are expected to meet steep production targets to qualify for production bonuses (chimamise et al., 2013; mclean, 2012). it is suggested that these circumstances take a toll on employees, and support from the managers is necessary. therefore, based on the work environment at mines and employees’ perceiving that they are not treated well by their managers, turnover intention may arise (amponsah-tawiah, ntow, & mensah, 2016). the study’s objective was to establish if employee empowerment (psychological and structural empowerment) predicts turnover intention in a mining company. the sub-objectives of the study are to establish if employee empowerment predicts turnover intention, to establish a relationship between employee empowerment and turnover intention and to elicit whether there are significant differences in the views regarding employee empowerment and turnover intention of employees along the lines of biographical characteristics (age, gender, tenure and work experience). there is a paucity of research regarding the relationship between employee empowerment and turnover intention within the mining industry. this study sought to close the gap regarding this phenomenon. employee empowerment the notion of employee empowerment can be derived from concepts of participative management, industrial democracy and job enrichment (spreitzer, de janasz, & quinn, 1999). to empower implies giving power to someone else (conger & kanungo, 1988). it can be suggested that if person b is empowered, dependency on person a may cease (kanter, 1993). employee empowerment enables employees to make decisions and take risks to try something new (spreitzer & doneson, 2005). the current study will mainly look into two types of employee empowerment: structural and psychological empowerment. structural empowerment kanter (1977, 1993) defined structural empowerment in relation to the actions an organisation takes to equip the employee. structural empowerment refers to the availability of opportunities, information, resources and support for the employees in the workplace (kanter, 1993). these avenues are accessed through formal job characteristics (formal power) and informal job characteristics, such as alliances with superiors, peers and subordinates (informal power; kanter, 1993). opportunity refers to future prospects for promotion or acquiring new skills crucial for successful performance of the job and an increase in rewards (kanter, 1993). information refers to the sharing of important information by the organisation with employees. this information may pertain to productivity, costs, financial performance (seibert, silver, & randolph, 2004), expertise, data and technical knowledge (kanter, 1977, 1993). access to resources refers to the timeous provision of equipment, material and human resources in an endeavour to achieve business goals (kanter, 1977, 1993; laschinger, 2012). support means having the necessary help or advice to solve work-related problems (kanter, 1977, 1993; laschinger, 2012). psychological empowerment psychological empowerment refers to increased intrinsic task motivation emanating from four perceptions: meaningfulness, competence, choice and sense of impact (thomas & veldhouse, 1990). borrowing from thomas and veldhouse’s definition, spreitzer (1995) defined psychological empowerment as ‘a motivational construct manifested from four cognitions: meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact’ (p. 1444). meaning refers to the employee’s view that his or her work is important (quinn & spreitzer, 1997). competence refers to the employees’ perceptions regarding their capability to perform such tasks (menon & vos, 2007; quinn & spreitzer, 1997). self-determination (choice) is the liberty and the autonomy that employees may have to perform their daily tasks (quinn & spreitzer, 1997; seibert et al., 2004). impact is the degree to which the behaviour of employees determines whether they become successful in their areas of responsibility (thomas & veldhouse, 1990). antecedents of employee empowerment a conducive environment for employee empowerment is characterised by clear articulation of organisational vision, openness, teamwork and a sense of support by managers (quinn & spreitzer, 1997). supervisory style (e.g. authoritarian and lack of reason for actions), reward systems (e.g. low incentive value of rewards and lack of competence-based rewards), job design (e.g. lack of role clarity, training and technical support) and organisational factors (e.g. competitive pressures and poor communications) serve as determinants of employee empowerment (conger & kanungo, 1988). organisational support and clear understanding of roles by employees seem to predict psychological empowerment, which may eventually lead to productive, creative behaviour (kang et al., 2020). employees with a high power distance culture may perceive higher psychological and structural empowerment in their work. in contrast, employees with individualistic cultures may perceive lower structural and psychological empowerment, although they are exposed to the same empowering practices (jiang, wang, chu, & zheng, 2019). employee empowerment and organisational outcomes empowerment initiatives such as career development may improve the relationship between managers and subordinates (ertürk & vurgun, 2015). highly empowered employees are likely to perform better because of better insight into their work environment (mahmood & sahar, 2017). employee empowerment leads to job engagement (jiang et al., 2019) and job satisfaction (choi, goh, adam, & tan, 2016). paynton (2008) found that nurses make use of informal power to achieve their objectives. amongst other things, they utilise their expertise to influence the physicians to make decisions that they deem fit for patients’ specific medical conditions. informal power helped immigrant nurses to learn a new language (eriksson & engstrom, 2018). at the same time, perceptions of formal and informal power may influence perceived access to organisational empowerment structures. in combination, formal power, informal power and access to empowerment structures predict the extent of involvement in work-related decisions (laschinger, sabiston, & kutszcher, 1997). access to organisational empowerment structures is associated with higher formal and informal power (laschinger et al., 1997). empowerment also brings about job enrichment and consequently improves retention (mahmood & sahar, 2017). empowered employees tend to remain with their current employer during difficult and challenging times (bester, stander, & van zyl, 2015). it is suggested that empowering managerial practices may lead to an energetic and resilient workforce (van schalkwyk, du toit, bothma, & rothmann, 2010). empowered employees become innovative, which eventually assists in bringing about customised solutions for an organisation’s clients (kostopoulos, 2019). empowered employees have the responsibility to make decisions about their work and how it is performed (motebele & mbohwa, 2013). they tend to be transformational in their leadership approach and tend to make significant changes in their work environment (quinn & spreitzer, 1997; spreitzer et al., 1999). both psychological and structural empowerments are the vital antecedents of employees’ commitment (aggarwal, dhaliwal, & nobi, 2018). when employees perceive that they are psychologically empowered, they may engage in citizenship behaviours, which may eventually decrease their turnover intention (bester et al., 2015; fasanmi & ago-iwoye, 2018; rogers, 2016). turnover intention turnover intention is a sign that the employee intends to leave the organisation or indicate the intention to secure another job (brien, thomas, & hussein, 2015; ferede et al., 2018; jung, 2014; meyer & tett, 1993; vandenberg & scarpello, 1990). the concept of turnover intention refers to an employee’s deliberate decision to leave the current employer (meyer & tett, 1993) and look for better opportunities (brewer & kovner, 2014). turnover intention and previous research investigation on turnover intention is imperative as it serves as a dipstick of the organisation’s well-being (jung, 2014). intention to quit the organisation can be attributed to work-related factors such as managerial practices (e.g. remuneration strategy, supervision style) and different organisational characteristics (kim & fernandez, 2017). turnover intention may cause employees to be less committed to their work and negatively impact their outputs (de simone, planta, & cicotto, 2018). employee retention is key for survival in a competitive labour market (rogers, 2016). lu, sun and du (2016) found that highly employable workers seem to have less turnover intention, even when there are fewer career development opportunities within their organisation. a possible cause of this behaviour is the recent uncertainty in the labour market. the organisation in which the study was conducted had a good reputation; this may have contributed to why the highly employable employees did not intend to leave the organisation. employees who intend to leave the organisation to become a liability to the organisation (jung, 2014; xiong & wen, 2020) because their organisational commitment tends to decrease (xiong & wen, 2020). in light of this, organisations may prefer employees to leave rather than stay whilst they are less committed. organisational initiatives that seek to address turnover intention may lower the costs associated with the demand and supply of personnel (jung, 2014). managers with long job tenure but lacking upward mobility opportunities are more likely to resign than those who have experienced great career success. at the same time, managers with long job tenure and high responsibility are more likely to leave than those with lower responsibility (taylor, audia, & gupta, 1996). within a mining setting, it is to our knowledge that such research has not yet been established. research design this cross-sectional study followed a quantitative research approach. quantitative research establishes relationships between variables appropriate for large samples and makes inferences to test existing theory (saunders, lewis, & thornhill, 2016). research procedure the current study was conducted in a single mining organisation based in gauteng province in south africa. data were collected through the use of a survey after ethical clearance was obtained from the university of johannesburg. data collection took approximately 3 months. the questionnaires were paper-based, and envelopes were provided in which the questionnaires were sealed. the questionnaires comprised four sections, namely, biographical information and the three scales listed below (see measuring instruments). permission was requested from the employer to contact the selected sample. questionnaires were distributed to the respondents for completion and then returned into a secured box at the training centre reception area. after the responses were received, they were captured on a microsoft excel spreadsheet and then imported directly into ibm spss (version 25.0) for statistical analysis. research participants participants were selected from employees who could read and understand english across all occupations in the mine. purposive sampling (a non-probability technique) requires researchers to use their judgement to select cases that will assist in answering the research questions, which is why it is often referred to as judgemental sampling. the current study used purposive sampling to enable the researcher to target respondents who could read and understand english. the problem with purposive sampling is its inability to provide a statistically representative sample (saunders et al., 2016). the research was conducted on a final sample of 371 employees. a biographical questionnaire was used to collect information about the respondents, such as gender, age, education, race, home language, work experience and tenure. the sample comprised of 74.40% men (n = 276) and 25.60% women (n = 95). in terms of age, 49.86% of employees (n = 182) fell into the category 30–39 years old, followed by 23.83% (n = 87) who were 40–49 years old; 20–29 year-olds represented 15.89% (n = 58), 9.59% were in the category 50–59 years old (n = 0.55) and the least represented were the 60–65 years old (n = 2). most respondents belonged to the black race group (n = 353; 95.1%). most respondents were employed as operators, general workers and trainees (n = 186; 51.81%). most respondents were employed between 3 and 6 years (n = 149; 40.93%), whilst only 9.06% of employees (n = 33) had been employed at the company for more than 16 years at the mine. measuring instruments the following measures were used: the psychological empowerment scale (pes; spreitzer, 1995), structural empowerment scale (ses; laschinger, finegan, shamian, & wilk, 2001) and the turnover intention scale (tis; sjoberg & sverke, 2000). structural empowerment scale the ses is a 19-item measure of six dimensions: opportunity, support, resources, information, informal power and formal power (laschinger et al., 2001). in the current study, the scale was adapted for the mining industry. the items are scored on a 5-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (none) to 5 (a lot) and include statements such as ‘the chance to gain new skills and knowledge on the job’. smith, capitulo, quinn griffin and fitzpatrick (2012) reported acceptable cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the six dimensions: information (0.80), opportunity (0.76), support (0.92), formal power (0.93), resources (0.81) and informal power (0.87). psychological empowerment scale the pes (spreitzer, 1995) is a 12-item measure of four dimensions: meaning, competence, self-determination and impact. the items are scored on a 7-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) and include statements such as ‘i can decide on my own how to go about doing my work’. stander and rothman (2010) reported acceptable cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the four dimensions: meaning (0.83), competence (0.74), self-determination (0.76) and impact (0.77). turnover intention scale the tis is a three-item measure (sjoberg & sverke, 1996), scored on a 5-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) and includes statements such as ‘if i was completely free to choose, i would leave this job’. bester et al. (2015) reported an acceptable cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.83. statistical analysis the data were analysed through statistical package for the social sciences. in the first step of statistical analysis, data were checked for a range of responses, typing mistakes, incomplete questionnaires and statistic outliers. statistical analysis techniques included descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, regression analysis, reliability and validity. descriptive statistics enabled the researcher to present the data in a meaningful way. measures of central tendency, measures of spread (saunders et al., 2016), skewness and kurtosis values were used to check the normality of data (pallant, 2016). previous studies have validated the measures used in the current study. stander and rothman (2009) conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (cfa), which revealed a strong factor-analytic fit of the pes to other samples in south africa. spearman’s rank correlation was utilised to explore the strength and the direction of the relationship between employee empowerment and turnover intention. the logistic regression was used, because the data were skewed and the dependent variable was categorical: intention to leave (coded 0) and intention to stay (coded 1). logistic regression was used to forecast whether employees belonged to the category ‘intention to leave’ or ‘intention to stay’ (pallant, 2016). an independent-samples ttest was conducted to compare the scores for structural empowerment, psychological empowerment and turnover intention for males and females (pallant, 2016). ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained from the department of industrial psychology and people management research ethics committee. the ethics committee of the university of johannesburg [ethical clearance code, ippm-2019-401(m)] and the mining organisation in question approved the study procedures before the study commenced. the researcher signed confidentiality declarations to ensure the anonymity of the participating mine. the respondents were protected from emotional and psychological harm and embarrassment. hard copies of the questionnaire will be securely stored for a period of 5 years. results descriptive statistics the descriptive analysis for structural empowerment, psychological empowerment and turnover intention is presented (table 1). the mean scores for the items within the structural empowerment sub-dimensions ranged from 3.4 to 3.74. this may indicate that the employees in this study perceived that they did receive some structural empowerment in the workplace. acceptable cronbach’s alpha coefficient values were achieved and ranged from 0.64 to 0.83, suggesting internal consistency. acceptable cronbach’s alpha coefficient values of 0.64 were derived. opportunity obtained a value is under 0.70, it was essential to assess the mean inter-item correlations to confirm internal consistency. according to pallant (2010), measures that have a small number of items (under 10) are likely to yield lower reliability scores. upon inspection of the mean inter-item correlation, the value achieved was 0.37, below the cut-off point of 0.40. the mean scores for the items within the psychological empowerment sub-dimensions ranged from 5.04 to 6.27. this may indicate that the employees in this study perceived that they are psychologically empowered in the workplace. acceptable cronbach’s alpha coefficient values were achieved and ranged from 0.79 to 0.88, suggesting internal consistency. the mean scores for the items within the tis ranged from 3.50 to 3.78, with an average mean value of 3.62. this suggests that employees disagreed slightly that they intended to leave the company. an acceptable cronbach’s alpha coefficient value of 0.86 was reported, suggesting internal consistency. table 1: descriptive analysis for structural empowerment, psychological empowerment and turnover intention. logistic regression a direct logistic regression analysis was employed to assess the impact of employees’ psychological empowerment and structural empowerment on turnover intention. the model contained four independent variables for psychological empowerment (viz. meaning, competence, self-determination and impact) and six independent variables for structural empowerment (viz. opportunity, information, support, resources, informal power and formal power). the final model contained three independent variables relating to psychological and structural empowerment (formal power, informal power and meaning), which were statistically significant, x² (3, n = 359) = 95.7%, p < 0.001. this indicates the model distinguished between participants who intended to leave the organisation and those who intended to stay. the hosmer–lemeshow test was employed to confirm the goodness of fit. a significance value greater than 0.05 indicates the model distinguished between participants who intended to leave the organisation and those who intended to stay. the chi-square value for the hosmer–lemeshow test was 8.873, with a significance level of 0.353. according to pallant (2016), a value greater than 0.05 suggests support for the model. the cox and snell and nagelkerke r-square values were calculated. the model explained between 8.88% (cox and snell r-square) and 11.80% (nagelkerke r-square) of the variance in employee empowerment and turnover intention. the results are represented (table 2). table 2: classification table for turnover intention. the model correctly classified 63% of the cases, which was an improvement over the 51.5% in the model without the predictors (see table 2). in this instance, it is evident that the model correctly classified 59.2% of people thinking of leaving (also to be found in table 2). from the original 10 independent variables, only three contributed significantly to the model (table 3). these variables included informal power (b = 0.414), meaning (b = −0.296) and formal power (b = −0.639). the strongest predictor of turnover intention was assessed using the odds ratio. pallant (2016) suggested that those values should be inverted for odds ratios that scored less than 1 (1 divided by the value) to assist with interpretation. in this case, formal power and meaning achieved values less than 1, and the odd ratios are hence inverted. in doing so, formal power obtained an odds ratio of 1.893, suggesting that employees who perceive less formal power are almost 1.9 times more likely to consider leaving than the employees who perceived having formal power, controlling other factors in the model. this was followed by informal power, as this recorded an odds ratio of 1.512. informal power achieved a positive beta value. in this case, employees who perceived having an increase in informal power were 1.5 times more likely to consider leaving than those who did not perceive that they had informal power, controlling all other factors in the model. according to pallant (2016), a negative beta value suggests that an increase in the independent variable score will decrease the dependent variable’s probability (turnover intention). meaning obtained an odds ratio of 1.34, which suggests that employees who perceived less meaning in their work were 1.34 times likely to think about leaving the organisation when compared to the employees who perceived meaning in their job, controlling other factors in the model. table 3: logistic regression predicting turnover intention by employee empowerment. correlation analysis – structural empowerment, psychological empowerment and turnover intention a weak, negative correlation between structural empowerment and turnover intention (rho = −0.23, n = 366, p < 0.01) with lower levels of structural empowerment associated with increased turnover intention is revealed (table 4). hence, a negative correlation exists. there was a weak, negative correlation between psychological empowerment and turnover intention (rho = −0.15, n = 368, p < 0.01), with lower levels of psychological empowerment associated with increased turnover intention. hence, a negative correlation exists. a positive correlation was established between structural empowerment and psychological empowerment (rho = 0.48, n = 369, p < 0.01), with higher levels of structural empowerment leading to psychological empowerment. table 4: spearman’s rank correlation coefficient of structural empowerment, psychological empowerment and turnover intention. spearman’s rank correlation coefficient work experience, structural empowerment, psychological empowerment and turnover intention only the correlation between work experience and psychological experience was significant (table 5). there was a weak, positive correlation between work experience and psychological empowerment (rho = 0.14, n = 365, p < 0.01). employees with longer work experience were associated with higher levels of psychological empowerment. table 5: spearman’s rank correlation coefficient of tenure on structural empowerment, psychological empowerment and turnover intention. independent samples t-test: gender on structural empowerment, psychological empowerment and turnover intention an independent samples t-test was conducted to compare the scores for structural empowerment, psychological empowerment and turnover intention for males and females. this also addresses the sub-research question that sought to elicit significant differences in the views regarding employee empowerment and turnover intention of employees varying in biographical details. it is evident that there was no significant difference in the scores for males (m = 3.58; standard deviation [sd] = 0.72) and females (m = 3.43; sd = 0.68) regarding structural empowerment, t(365) = 1.78, p = 0.075 (table 6 and table 7). there was a significant difference in the scores for males (m = 5.73; sd = 0.85) and females (m = 5.44; sd = 0.96) regarding psychological empowerment, t(368) = 2.65, p = 0.075. a medium effect size of 0.30 was computed. there was no significant difference in the scores for males (m = 3.60; sd = 1.88) and females (m = 3.70; sd = 1.97) regarding turnover intention, t(364) = −0.42, p = 0.675. table 6: spearman’s rank correlation coefficient of work experience on structural empowerment, psychological empowerment and turnover intention. table 7: independent-samples t-test: gender on structural empowerment, psychological empowerment and turnover intention. discussion the current study sought to establish if employee empowerment (psychological and structural empowerment) predicts turnover intention in a mining organisation. the study further sets out to establish a relationship between employee empowerment and turnover intention and elicits whether there are significant differences in employee empowerment and turnover intention along the lines of biographical characteristics (age, gender, tenure and work experience). structural empowerment and turnover intention the mean values for all the structural empowerment dimensions ranged between 3.40 and 3.74, suggesting that the respondents perceived some access to all the structural empowerment avenues. however, none of the structural empowerment dimensions (i.e. opportunity, information, support and resources) were statistically significant, which means that none predicted turnover intention. this is intriguing, as no previous studies have come to the same conclusion. for example, nie, lamsa and pucetaite (2018) found that equal career opportunities across all genders may prevent turnover intention of female employees. the organisation that embraces information stands a better chance of being responsive to dynamic business needs (choo, 1996). when resources are accessible to the employees, this may lead to employee well-being, improved performance (nielsen, nielsen, ogbonnaya, & känsälä, 2017) and lower stress levels (yaldiz, truxillo, bodner, & hammer, 2020). caring and supportive supervisors and team members become the true ambassadors of the organisation, and because of them, employees tend to see the organisation in a good light (valcour et al., 2011). this suggests that although the employees in this organisation had some access to the empowerment avenues, they may not have been accessible enough to cause the intention to stay. the results of the study revealed that formal power (odds ratio = 1.89) was the strongest predictor of turnover intention. this suggests that employees who perceived an increase in formal power were 1.89 times likely not to leave the organisation. formal power enables the employees to make decisions and be innovative and flexible about their jobs (laschinger, 2012), which can help them be in charge of their outcomes. access to formal power is thought to be instrumental in improving organisational performance in that it enables the employees to be responsive to changing business needs (young-hyman, 2017). mine employees who perceived formal power were likely to feel good about the opportunity to contribute to the business, hence the intention to stay. similarly, informal power recorded an odds ratio of 1.512. this shows that employees who perceived informal power were approximately one and a half times more likely to think of leaving the organisation. one would have expected that employees who perceived informal power would not intend leaving the organisation. in contrast to formal power, informal (personal) power does not depend on one’s formal position but can be attributed to the individual’s unique characteristics such as expertise, respect and so forth (van zyl, 2016). according to kanter (1993), access to resources, information, support and knowledge can be accessed through both formal (formal power) and informal mechanisms (informal power). considering this, it is expected that the employees who perceived having informal power would have greater access to empowerment avenues. the possible explanation is that in this particular organisation, one does not necessarily require informal power to have access to these avenues, as they are available to all. employees with informal power are often asked by colleagues and managers for assistance (laschinger, 2012). this may have happened in this organisation, but these employees may have perceived the extra tasks as a burden rather than informal power, mainly because the mining environment is characterised by hard labour (chimamise et al., 2013; mclean, 2012). in an industry in which hard labour is inherent, these extra tasks may have exacerbated these employees’ already demanding work conditions. in an endeavour to save themselves from trouble that can be associated with the act of denying such requests, they may have complied, even if they were not happy about it. thus, employees who possess informal power are more likely to think of leaving the organisation. psychological empowerment and turnover intention out of the four psychological empowerment dimensions (viz. meaning, competence, self-determination and impact), only meaning was statistically significant. previous studies have not reported on whether competence, self-determination or impact can predict turnover intention. for example, mikuljevi (2013) found that competent employees become a valuable asset and competitive advantage of an organisation. they provide an impulse to the business and play a vital role in the achievement of organisational goals. at the same time, supervisors with supervisory competency skills become effective in managing the workforce (vijayabanu & therasa, 2016). employees who are self-determined tend to be engaged in their jobs (parker, jimmieson, & amiot, 2010). looking at the average mean values of these three dimensions (competence, self-determination and impact), it is evident that, to some extent, the employees in this organisation perceive themselves to be competent, having self-determination and making a significant contribution towards the achievement of business objectives (impact). however, these dimensions did not predict turnover intention. meaning obtained an odds ratio of 1.34, which suggests that employees who perceive less meaning in their work are 1.34 times likely to think of leaving the organisation compared to the employees who do not find meaning in their job. according to schnell, höge and pollet (2013), the interaction between the supervisor and team members is a key in influencing work meaningfulness. these employees may have perceived less meaning in their jobs because of a lack of healthy interaction with their supervisors, hence the intention to quit. in light of this, they may not have seen the importance of pursuing their current jobs (quinn & spreitzer, 1997). meaningfulness is likely to be perceived in an organisational environment where the employees’ well-being is embraced and their views are valued (schnell et al., 2013). employees who find meaning in their work have a sense of purpose, experience their job as important to them and are far less likely to leave their employer. mining employees can find meaning in their job if they perceive that they are well taken care of. correlation analysis – employee empowerment on turnover intention spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was employed to answer this sub-research question. there was a weak, negative correlation between structural empowerment and turnover intention (rho = −0.22, n = 366, p < 0.01). this suggests that lower levels of structural empowerment are associated with increased turnover intention. hence, a negative significant correlation exists. at the same time, there was a weak, negative correlation between psychological empowerment and turnover intention (rho = −0.15, n = 368, p < 0.01), with lower levels of psychological empowerment associated with increased turnover intention. hence, a negative significant correlation exists. this suggests that when the employees experience disempowerment, they may consider leaving the organisation (smith et al., 2012). employee empowerment leads to job engagement (jiang et al., 2019) and job satisfaction (choi et al., 2016). the employees in this organisation may have felt disempowered, subsequently disengaged in their jobs and decreased job satisfaction, hence the intention to leave. the problem with turnover intention is that it may cause employees to be less committed (xiong & wen, 2020) to their work and, consequently, negatively impact their outputs (de simone et al., 2018). in this way, these employees become a liability to the organisation (jung, 2014; xiong & wen, 2020). it can be suggested that if mine employees become less committed because they intend to leave the organisation, they are likely to display unsafe and counterproductive behaviours. a positive correlation was established between structural empowerment and psychological empowerment (rho = 0.48, n = 369, p < 0.01), with higher levels of structural empowerment leading to psychological empowerment. this finding is confirmed by the study of laschinger et al. (2001). similarly, wagner (2010) found that there is a relationship between structural empowerment and psychological empowerment. this suggests that if employees perceive that they have structural empowerment, they consequently perceive that they are psychologically empowered. if structural empowerment avenues (support, resources, information and opportunities) are provided to the employees, this may lead to their perceiving psychological empowerment. correlational analysis of work experience, structural empowerment, psychological empowerment and turnover intention there was a weak, positive correlation between work experience and psychological empowerment (rho = 0.14, n = 365, p < 0.01). employees with longer work experience presented with higher levels of psychological empowerment. previous studies did not report on the correlation between work experience and psychological empowerment. a possible explanation for why the experienced employees perceived more psychological empowerment in this organisation is that, once again, they may have developed a healthy relationship with their supervisors and colleagues over the years. experienced employees may have pursued their jobs long enough for them to have become part of their lives. there was no significant correlation amongst work experience, structural empowerment and turnover intention. independent-samples t-test: gender on structural empowerment, psychological empowerment and turnover intention an independent samples t-test was conducted to compare the scores for structural empowerment, psychological empowerment and turnover intention for males and females, and addresses the sub-research question to investigate biographical differences. there was no significant difference in the scores for males and females regarding structural empowerment. to a large extent, the gender of the employees in this mine did not influence how these employees perceived access to formal and informal power. this sheds some light on the progress of women empowerment at this particular mine and may suggest that both men and women in this mine have equal chances to acquire formal and informal power. there was, however, a significant difference in the scores for males and females regarding psychological empowerment. a medium effect size of 0.30 was computed. this difference sheds some light on how males and females perceive psychological empowerment in this organisation. females perceived less psychological empowerment than males. on the contrary, boudrias, gaudreau and laschinger (2004) found that psychological empowerment could be assumed to be the same across the male and female employees, although the study was conducted in a different sector. this finding can be attributed to the difficult (chimamise et al., 2013; mclean, 2012) and dangerous conditions in which the mining employees work (amponsah-tawiah et al., 2013; kasap, 2011; paul & maiti, 2007). these conditions may have resulted in female employees’ perceiving relatively lower psychological empowerment in their jobs than did the men. this can be attributed to the fact that mining organisations are traditionally a male-dominated working environment (botha & cronje, 2015). there was no significant difference in the scores for males and females regarding turnover intention. the chances that the female employees intended to resign were almost equal to those of the male employees. on the contrary, nie et al. (2018) found that the availability of equal career opportunities across all genders may prevent turnover intention of female employees. however, career opportunities acted as a moderating variable. one would have expected the female employees in this organisation to experience higher turnover intention levels because they experienced less psychological empowerment in their jobs. however, this mine is not the case, which can be attributed to today’s business environment characterised by fluctuating markets and organisational restructurings (dhanpat & parumasur, 2014). the employees (both male and female) in this organisation may have been bothered by the prevalent retrenchments in the mining industry (marais et al., 2018), hence no correlation existed between gender and turnover intention. limitations of the study the shortcoming that can be associated with a cross-sectional approach is its inability to measure change in a phenomenon over a period of time (saunders et al., 2016). because of the sensitivity of some variables, some respondents may have provided socially desirable responses. quantitative data were collected because the researcher was looking for causal relationships; this type of study is unable to provide a narrative as to why the respondents behaved in a certain way. the study was conducted in one mining organisation, hence, it cannot be generalised to other industries, and the results should, therefore, be interpreted with caution. recommendations and managerial implications in light of the excessive costs associated with turnover, turnover intention should be avoided by all means. when employees are empowered, their turnover intention tends to decrease. human resource (hr) managers need to be innovative in ensuring that employees are empowered in terms of structural and psychological empowerment. although structural empowerment does not predict turnover intention, employees must be structurally empowered. such avenues should be provided by the organisation through hrs and employees direct line managers. although the employees in this organisation acknowledged that they had some access to empowerment avenues such as resources, support, information and opportunity, these did not predict turnover intention. this has serious implications to the hr managers of this mining organisation to focus on formal power and informal power and not lose sight on the aforementioned empowerment dimensions. human resource managers would need to investigate how they could help employees to find meaning in their jobs. cultivating meaning through various hr interventions will assist in reducing turnover intention. employees at the mine do possess informal power, and hr can enhance this by providing opportunities for collaboration between subordinates, peers and line managers. employees perceived that they were not afforded opportunities to make decisions on their own. this is understandable, especially for the lower-level employees, as they may not have absolute autonomy. however, because of the risky nature of the underground workplace, it would be recommended that section 23 of the mine health and safety act (that empowers the employees to withdraw from unsafe places; republic of south africa, 1996) be emphasised on these employees so that they know that they can at least make their own decisions regarding their safety. human resource managers in the organisation where the study was conducted would need to cautiously monitor employees who have informal power, as this study has revealed that they may be more inclined to leave the organisation. employees may feel empowered (psychological or structural) in their work. based on their empowerment levels, it may lead to employees leaving as such organisations need to find solutions and hr to provide opportunities and resources for employees to feel empowered. recommendations for future research the insights provided by the current study can assist future researchers in considering alternate measures for structural empowerment and psychological empowerment. this recommendation is motivated by the fact that only three contributed significantly to the model out of the original 10 empowerment variables investigated. these variables were formal power, informal power and meaning. this may have something to do with the nature and the culture of the mining industry, and hence, it may be beneficial to test alternate measures. alternatively, the same measure can be used in a larger sample and different work settings. a mixed-method approach may also be considered to obtain qualitative insights that could be used for narrative purposes. it may be beneficial to conduct the study in more than one mining organisation to enable the generalisation of the results. a longitudinal study would assist in measuring change in the phenomenon over a period of time and provide insights into the fluctuations of employee empowerment. conclusion the employees who perceived having informal power were more likely to think of leaving the organisation. in terms of psychological empowerment, the logistic regression results revealed that employees who perceived less meaning in their work were more likely to leave the organisation than those who did not find meaning. employees at the mine who perceived having structural empowerment had a decreased intention to leave. employees who possessed higher levels of psychological empowerment exhibited a decreased intention to leave. older employees showed higher levels of psychological empowerment. there was a weak, positive correlation between work experience and psychological empowerment. higher levels of psychological empowerment were associated with employees with longer work experience. there was no significant difference in the scores for males and females regarding structural empowerment and turnover intention. there was, however, a significant difference in the scores for males and females regarding psychological empowerment. acknowledgements special thanks to ms juliana van staden from uj statistical consultation services division (statcon) for assistance with the statistical analysis. a special thanks to mr kevin walker for his language editing services. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal interests that may have improperly influenced them in writing this article. author’s contributions n.d. was the supervisor of the study and was responsible for consolidating and preparing the article for publication. k.n was responsible for assisting in preparing the article for submission from his master’s dissertation. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of my employer. references aggarwal, a., dhaliwal, r.s., & nobi, k. (2018). impact of structural empowerment on organizational commitment: the mediating role of women’s psychological empowerment. vision, 22(3), 284–294. https://doi.org/10.1177/0972262918786049 amponsah-tawiah, k., leka, s., jain, a., hollis, d., & cox, t. (2013). the impact of physical and psychosocial risks on employee well-being and quality of life: the case of the mining industry in ghana. safety science, 65(2014), 28–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2013.12.002 amponsah-tawiah, k., ntow, m.a.o., & mensah, j. (2016). occupational health and safety management and turnover intention in the ghanaian mining sector. safety and health at work, 7(2016), 12–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2015.08.002 bester, j., stander, m.w., & van zyl, l.e. (2015). leadership empowering behaviour, psychological empowerment, organisational citizenship behaviours and turnover intention in a manufacturing division. south african journal of industrial psychology, 41(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v41i1.1215 botha, d., & cronje, f. (2015) women in mining: a conceptual framework for gender issues in the south african mining sector. south african journal of labour relations, 39(1), 10–37. https://doi.org/10.25159/2520-3223/5880 boudrias, j.s., gaudreau, p., & laschinger, h.k.s. (2004). testing the structure of psychological empowerment: does gender make a difference? educational and psychological measurement, 64(5), 861–877. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164404264840 brewer, c.s., & kovner, c.t. (2014). intersection of migration and turnover theories: what can we learn? nursing outlook, 62(1), 29–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2013.09.002 brien, a., thomas, n., & hussein, a.s. (2015). turnover intention and commitment as part of organisational social capital in the hotel industry. journal of human resources in hospitality and tourism, 14, 357–381. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332845.2015.1008385 brown, a., susomrith, p., sitlington, h., & scott, g. (2014). determinants of employee-turnover intentions in atypical employment: the fifo mining industry in western australia. australian bulletin of labour, 40(2), 116–137. buta, s., & burciu, a. (2014). the impact of the business environment on the shaping of an organization chart. the usv annals of economics and public administration, 14(1[19]), 128–137. chaskalson, r. (2016). the road to marikana in south africa’s platinum industry, 1994–2012. journal of southern african studies, 42(5), 857–873. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2016.1211807 chen, h., chen, f., zhu, d., qi, h., & long, r. (2015). burnout in chinese coal mine safety supervision. energy policy, 85, 22–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2015.05.007 chimamise, c., gombe, n.t., tshimanga, m., chadambuka, a., shambira, g., & chimusoro, a. (2013). factors associated with severe occupational injuries at mining company in zimbabwe, 2010: a cross-sectional study. pan african medical journal, 14(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.11604/pamj.2013.14.5.1148 choi, s.l., goh, c.f., adam, m.b.h., & tan, o.k. (2016). transformational leadership, empowerment, and job satisfaction: the mediating role of employee empowerment. human resources for health, 14(73), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-016-0171-2 choo, c. (1996). the knowing organization: how organizations use information to construct meaning, create knowledge and make decisions. international journal of information management, 16(5), 329–340. https://doi.org/10.1016/0268-4012(96)00020-5 conger, j.a., & kanungo, r.n. (1988). the empowerment process: integrating theory and practice. academy of management review, 13(3), 471–482. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1988.4306983 de simone, s., planta, a., & cicotto, g. (2018). the role of job satisfaction, work engagement, self-efficacy and agentic capacities on nurses’ turnover intention and patient satisfaction. applied nursing research, 39, 130–140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnr.2017.11.004 dhanpat, n., & parumasur, s.b. (2014). re-establishing the psychological contract as a precursor to employee retention. problems and perspectives in management, 12(4), 78–90. eriksson, e., & engstrom, m. (2018). internationally educated nurses’ descriptions of their access to structural empowerment while working in another country’s health care context. journal of nursing management, 26(7), 866–873. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12617 ertürk, a., & vurgun, l. (2015). retention of it professionals: examining the influence of empowerment, social exchange, and trust. journal of business research, 68, 34–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2014.05.010 fasanmi, s.s., & ago-iwoye. (2018). effects of commitment, justice and empowerment on organisational citizenship behaviour and turnover intent among nigerian bankers. an international journal, 26(1), 16–44. ferede, a., kibret, g.d., million, y., simeneh, m.m., belay, y.a., & hailemariam, d. (2018). magnitude of turnover intention and associated factors among health professionals working in public health institutions of north shoa zone, amhara region, ethiopia. biomed research international, 2018, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/3165379 jiang, w., wang, l., chu, z., & zheng, c. (2019). does leader turnover intention hinder team innovation performance? the roles of leader self-sacrificial behavior and empathic concern. journal of business research, 104, 261–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.07.013 jung, c.s. (2014). why are goals important in the public sector? exploring the benefits of goal clarity for reducing turnover intention. journal of public administration research and theory, 24(1), 209–234. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mus058 kane-berman, j. (2018, february 10). the impact of mining on the south african economy and living standards. the federation for a sustainable development. retrieved from http://fse.org.za/index.php/item/593-the-impact-of-mining-on-the-south-african-economy-and-living-standards kang, h.j.a., kim, w.g., choi, h.m., & li, y. (2020). how to fuel employees’ prosocial behavior in the hotel service encounter. international journal of hospitality management, 75, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2019.102333 kanter, r.m. (1993). men and women of the corporation (2nd ed.). new york: basic books. kanter, r.m. (1977). men and women of the corporation (1st ed.). united states of america: basic books. kasap, y. (2011). the effect of work accidents on the efficiency of production in the coal sector, south african journal of science, 107(5), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajs.v107i5/6.513 kim, s.y., & fernandez, s. (2017). employee empowerment and turnover intention in the u.s. federal bureaucracy. american review of public administration, 47(1), 4–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074015583712 kostopoulos, i. (2019). do empowered front-line employees perform better? a non-linear approach and the role of service complexity. european management review, 16(2), 229–242. https://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12153 laschinger, h.k.s. (2012). conditions for work effectiveness questionnaire i and ii. retrieved from https://www.uwo.ca/fhs/hkl/cweq.html laschinger, h.k.s., finegan, j., shamian, j., & wilk, p. (2001). impact of structural and psychological empowerment on job strain in nursing work settings: expanding kanter’s model. journal of nursing administration, 31(5), 260–272. https://doi.org/10.1097/00005110-200105000-00006 laschinger, h.k.s., sabiston, j.a., & kutszcher, l. (1997). empowerment and staff nurse decision involvement in nursing work environments: testing kanter’s theory of structural power in organizations. research in nursing and health, 20, 341–352. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1098-240x(199708)20:4%3c341::aid-nur7%3e3.0.co;2-g lu, c.q., sun, j.w., & du, d.y. (2016). the relationships between employability, emotional exhaustion, and turnover intention: the moderation of perceived career opportunity. journal of career development, 43(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845315576372 mancini, l., & sala, s. (2018). social impact assessment in the mining sector: review and comparison of indicators frameworks. resources policy, 57, 98–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2018.02.002 mahmood, a., & sahar, a. (2017). impact of psychological empowerment and perceived career support on employee work engagement with the mediating role of affective commitment. pakistan journal of commerce and social sciences, 11(3), 1084–1099. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.5b04612 marais, l., van rooyen, d., burger, p., lenka, m., cloete, j., denoon-stevens, s. … riet, j. (2018). the background to the postmasburg study. in p. burger, l. marais, & d. van rooyen (eds.), mining and community in south africa: from small town to iron town. london and new york: routledge. masia, u., & pienaar, j. (2011). unravelling safety compliance in the mining industry: examining the role of work stress, job insecurity, satisfaction and commitment as antecedents. south african journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i1.937 mclean, k.n. (2012). mental health and well-being in resident mine workers: out of the fifo box. australian journal of rural health, 20(3), 126–130. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-1584.2012.01267.x menon, s.t., & vos, b. (2007). psychological empowerment in the south african military: the generalisability of menon’s scale. south african journal of industrial psychology, 33(2), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v33i2.371 meyer, j.p., & tett, r.p. (1993). job satisfaction, organisational commitment, turnover intention, and turnover: path analyses based on meta-analytical findings. personnel psychology, 46, 259–293. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1993.tb00874.x mikuljevi, m. (2013). new trends in employee education and training: the learning organisation. journal of labour and social affairs in eastern europe, 16(4) 467–479. https://doi.org/10.5771/1435-2869-2013-4-467 mine health and safety act, 1996 (act no. 29 of 1996) and regulations. (2018). retrieved july 4, 2020, from https://www.mhsc.org.za/sites/default/files/public/legislation_document/minehealthandsafetyact29of1996andregulationsfinalbooklet.pdf minerals council south africa’s position in advance of south africa’s budget statement. (2020). retrieved april 1, 2020, from https://www.mineralscouncil.org.za/industry-news/publications/position-papers/send/37-position-papers/888-minerals-council-south-africa-s-position-in-advance-of-sa-s-budget-statement &cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=za mościcka-teske, a., sadłowska-wrzesińska, j., najder, a., & butlewski, m. (2019). the relationship between psychosocial risks and occupational functioning among miners. international journal of occupational medicine and environmental health, 32(1), 87–98. https://doi.org/10.13075/ijomeh.1896.01162 motebele, m.m., & mbohwa, c. (2013). employee empowerment to improve organizational effectiveness at south african universities. world academy of science, engineering and technology, 83(2013), 893–899. neingo, p.n., & tholana, t. (2016). trends in productivity in the south african gold mining industry. journal of the southern african institute of mining and metallurgy, 116(3), 283–290. https://doi.org/10.17159/2411-9717/2016/v116n3a10 nie, d., lamsa, a.-m., & pucetaite, r. (2018). effects of responsible human resource management practices on female employees’ turnover intentions. a european review, 27(1), 29–41. https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12165 nielsen, k., nielsen, m.b., ogbonnaya, c., & känsälä, m. (2017). workplace resources to improve both employee well-being and performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis. work & stress, 31(2), 101–120. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2017.1304463 pallant, j., (2010). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using the spss program (6th ed.). new york: mcgraw hill. pallant, j. (2016). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using ibm spss (6th ed.). new york, ny: open university press. parker, s.l., jimmieson, n.l., & amiot, c.e. (2010). self-determination as a moderator of demands and control: implications for employee strain and engagement. journal of vocational behavior, 76(1), 52–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.06.010 paul, p.s., & maiti, j. (2007). the role of behavioral factors on safety management in underground mines. safety science, 45(4), 449–471. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2006.07.006 paynton, t. (2008). the informal power of nurses for promoting patient care. ojin: the online journal of issues in nursing, 14, 1–9. quinn, r.e., & spreitzer, g.m. (1997). road to empowerment: seven questions every leader should consider. ieee engineering management review, 27(2), 21–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0090-2616(97)90004-8 republic of south africa. (1996). mine health and safety act (no. 29 of 1996). republic of south africa. (2020). minerals council south africa’s position in advance of south africa’s budget statement. rogers, k.s. (2016). the role of organisational learning culture and psychological empowerment in reducing turnover intention and enhancing citizenship behavior. the learning organisation, 23(2), 156–169. https://doi.org/10.1108/tlo-05-2013-0024 saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2016). research methods for business students (7th ed.). harlow: pearson education limited. schnell, t., höge, t., & pollet, e. (2013). predicting meaning in work: theory, data, implications. the journal of positive psychology, 8(6), 543–554. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2013.830763 seibert, s.e., silver, s.r., & randolph, w.a. (2004). taking empowerment to the next level: a multiple-level model of empowerment, performance, and satisfaction. academy of management journal, 47(3), 332–349. https://doi.org/10.2307/20159585 sjoberg, a., & sverke, m. (2000). the interactive effect of job involvement and organisational commitment on job turnover revisited: a note on the mediating role of turnover intention. scandinavian journal of psychology, 41(3), 247–252. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9450.00194 smith, t., capitulo, k.l., quinn griffin, m.t., & fitzpatrick, j.j. (2012). structural empowerment and anticipated turnover among behavioural health nurses. journal of nursing management, 20(5), 679–684. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2834.2012.01384.x stander, m.w., & rothmann, s. (2010). psychological empowerment, job insecurity and employee engagement. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.849 spreitzer, g.m. (1995). psychological empowerment in the workplace: dimensions, measurement, and validation. academy of management journal, 38(5), 1442–1435. https://doi.org/10.5465/256865 spreitzer, g.m., de janasz, s.c., & quinn, r.e. (1999). empowered to lead: the role of psychological empowerment in leadership. journal of organisational behaviour, 20, 511–526. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199907)20:4%3c511::aid-job900%3e3.0.co;2-l spreitzer, g.m., & doneson, d. (2005). musings on the past and future of employee empowerment. handbook of organizational development, 4, 5–10. stander, m.w., & rothmann, s. (2009). psychological empowerment of employees in selected organisations in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 35(1), 196–203. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v35i1.466 taylor, m.s., audia, g., & gupta, a.k. (1996). the effect of lengthening job tenure on managers’ organizational commitment and turnover. organization science, 7(6), 632–648. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.7.6.632 thomas, w.t., & veldhouse, b.a. (1990). cognitive elements of empowerment: an ‘interpretive’ model of intrinsic task motivation. academy of management review, 15(4), 666–681. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1990.4310926 valcour, m., ollier-malaterre, a., matz-costa, c., pitt-catsouphes, m., & brown, m. (2011). influences on employee perceptions of organizational work – life support: signals and resources. journal of vocational behavior, 79(2), 588–595. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.02.002 vandenberg, r.j., & scarpello, v. (1990). the matching model: an examination of the processes underlying realistic job previews. journal of applied psychology, 75(1), 60–67. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.75.1.60 van schalkwyk, s., du toit, d.h., bothma, a.s., & rothmann, s. (2010). job insecurity, leadership empowerment behaviour, employee engagement and intention to leave in a petrochemical laboratory. south african journal of human resource management, 8(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.234 van zyl, l.e. (2015). power and politics. in s.p. robbins, a. odendaal, & g. roodt (eds.), organizational behaviour: global and southern african perspectives (3rd ed.). south africa: pearson education southern africa. van zyl, l.e. (2016). power and politics. in r. silvia (ed.), global and southern african perspectives (3rd ed.). cape town: pearson south africa. vijayabanu, c., & therasa, c. (2016). the leveraging effect of supervisory competencies towards the performance in indian manufacturing group: a structural equation modelling approach. journal of organisational transformation and social change, 13(3), 220–234. https://doi.org/10.1080/14779633.2016.1237147 wagner, j. (2010). the relationship between structural empowerment and psychological empowerment for nurses: a systematic review. journal of nursing management, 18(4), 448–462. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2834.2010.01088.x xiong, r., & wen, y. (2020). employees’ turnover intention and behavioral outcomes: the role of work engagement. social behavior and personality, 48(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.8609 yaldiz, l.m., truxillo, d.m., bodner, t., & hammer, l.b. (2020). do resources matter for employee stress? it depends on how old you are. journal of vocational behavior, 107, 182–194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2018.04.005 young-hyman, t. (2017). cooperating without co-labouring: how formal organizational power moderates cross-functional interaction in project teams: administrative science quarterly, 62(1), 179–214. https://doi.org/10.1177/000183921665509 abstract introduction literature review research design results and findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) brian tawana nwu business school, north-west university, mahikeng, south africa nicolene e. barkhuizen global innovative forefront talent research niche area, north-west university, mahikeng, south africa yvonne du plessis nwu business school, north-west university, mahikeng, south africa citation tawana, b., barkhuizen, n.e., & du plessis, y. (2019). a comparative analysis of the antecedents and consequences of employee satisfaction for urban and rural healthcare workers in kwazulu-natal province, south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1080. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1080 original research a comparative analysis of the antecedents and consequences of employee satisfaction for urban and rural healthcare workers in kwazulu-natal province, south africa brian tawana, nicolene e. barkhuizen, yvonne du plessis received: 23 may 2018; accepted: 29 may 2019; published: 29 nov. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the south african healthcare industry is facing significant challenges to retain quality healthcare professionals to deliver services in rural areas. research purpose: the main purpose of this study was to compare the antecedents and consequences of employee satisfaction for healthcare professionals in urban and rural areas to establish if there are distinguishing factors that can better inform human resource (hr) management to improve job satisfaction and service delivery. kwazulu-natal province was chosen because of its number and proximity of rural and urban healthcare facilities. motivation for the study: a holistic perspective, focusing on both urban and rural south african settings, on how the healthcare sector can retain healthcare workers through employee satisfaction and service delivery is lacking. research approach/design and method: the research design for the study is a mixed-method sequential design. a quantitative survey using a structured questionnaire inclusive of the constructs such as work environment, work satisfaction, job satisfaction, employee retention and service quality was administered to a sample of urban and rural healthcare professionals in kwazulu-natal (n = 405). in addition, the researchers conducted three focus group discussions (n = 28). main findings: the quantitative results showed that urban and rural sample groups differed significantly in terms of their satisfaction with work duties, compensation, career development, service delivery and turnover intentions. communalism was found to play a major role in retention and quality of service delivery of healthcare professionals in rural settings. practical/managerial implications: the findings of this study require from management to understand the differential factors between urban and rural settings in service quality and staff retention. human resource practitioners are encouraged to understand the differentiators of job satisfaction and service delivery in an urban and rural context and develop conducive work environments that allow healthcare workers to execute their tasks effectively. contribution/value-add: this study provides a unique perspective of the antecedents and outcomes of employee satisfaction for both urban and rural healthcare sector workers and indicates that context is important. keywords: career development; employee satisfaction; healthcare; retention; service delivery. introduction the local and global mobility of healthcare professionals presents major challenges to the south african healthcare system. recent statistics by the international labour organization (ilo) show that south africa has less than one doctor and nurse per citizen (ilo, 2018). the migration of healthcare workers is currently fuelled by factors such as poor living and working conditions in rural areas (haskins, phakathi, grant, & horwood, 2017), community recognition (ngilangwa & mgomella, 2018), increased job demands and workloads (jenkins, gunst, blitz, & coetzee, 2017) and financial well-being (coustas, 2019). moreover, the migration of healthcare workers results in a shortage of skills (clemens, 2007), which in turn constrains the delivery of services in public health institutions (george, atujuna, & gow, 2013). recently, pillay (2017) highlighted the need to investigate, plan and implement effective measures to recruit and retain more healthcare workers such as nurses to the healthcare profession in south africa. employee satisfaction emerged as an important attitudinal variable that has the potential to reduce employee turnover, absenteeism, tardiness and health setbacks as a result of stressful work conditions in the healthcare sector (tinu & adeniji, 2015). singh (2017) is of the opinion that employees’ stress level and satisfaction with their jobs are the primary factors that affect the quality of work and productivity. job satisfaction has been reported as an important mediator and moderator variable in the relationship between work-related factors (i.e. organisational support and quality of work-life) and outcome variables in the healthcare sector (i.e. service quality and retention) (goetz et al., 2015; kim & han, 2012). the main objective of this research is to compare the antecedents and outcomes of employee satisfaction for healthcare professionals in urban and rural areas in kwazulu-natal (kzn). a number of studies have investigated satisfaction amongst healthcare professionals; however, the broader concepts of employee satisfaction and service quality within the context of urban and rural healthcare settings have not been described in the literature. the assumption, based on findings from previous research, is that the rural healthcare sector provides different challenges to employee satisfaction and service quality than the urban sector. given the noticeable lack of studies investigating and distinguishing employee satisfaction and service quality of clinical and non-clinical healthcare practitioners in both urban and rural public health settings (hospitals and clinics) in south africa, the present study will attempt to address this gap in the body of knowledge. kwazulu-natal with its unique urban‒rural divide pertaining to public healthcare facilities provides an environment in which such research could be conducted. the findings should assist in clarifying the urban‒rural situation regarding employment of professional healthcare staff and support the talent management process in attracting and retaining professionals in the public health sector in kzn and other areas in south africa. the populations of both rural and urban areas are growing in south africa (stats sa, 2015), which are associated with increased demands for healthcare. kwazulu-natal has the highest prevalence of hiv in south africa (george et al., 2013). this alone suggests an increased demand for healthcare services, irrespective of other diseases that burden the healthcare system. the uniqueness of kzn, compared to other provinces in south africa, is its extreme urban and rural context in which healthcare has to be provided, which could also affect the employee satisfaction and mobility of professional healthcare workers between rural and urban facilities. literature review the literature review will focus on the antecedents and consequences of employee satisfaction for healthcare workers in both urban and rural settings. we identify certain work-related factors such as general work duties, leadership and supervision, professional development and safety as potential contributors to employee satisfaction. we identify retention and service quality as outcomes of healthcare worker satisfaction in this study. antecedents of employee satisfaction: work-related factors employee satisfaction is one of the most studied areas in organisational psychology. aziri (2001) defines employee satisfaction as the attitudes and feelings of people about their job and its numerous aspects, and the degree to which the job is liked or disliked by the worker. heathfield (2016) uses the term ‘employee satisfaction’ to describe whether employees are contented, happy and fulfilling their work needs. for the purpose of this research, we define employee satisfaction as a multi-dimensional construct that consists of job satisfaction and general work satisfaction. a great deal of research has been devoted towards understanding the predictors of job satisfaction in the healthcare industry. a study by gormley (2003) showed that factors such as professional independence, leadership styles and behaviour, organisational climate, perceived role conflict and ambiguity and organisational characteristics had a significant impact on the job satisfaction of nurses. parvin and kabir (2011) found that remuneration, job efficiency, supervisions and collegial relationships are the most critical factors that enhance the job satisfaction of workers in pharmaceutical industry. a comparative study by campbell and ebuehi (2011) showed that healthcare workers in rural and urban areas had different sources of job satisfaction. the study pointed out that urban workers derived their satisfaction from the availability of career development opportunities and the availability of materials and equipment. job satisfaction for rural workers was dependent on community recognition for their work and improved staff relations. both sample groups were dissatisfied with a lack of management support, client relationships and a lack of in-service training. coward, hogan, duncan and felsen (2017) found no significant differences in job satisfaction between hospital nurses in urban and rural areas. the study however pointed out that factors such as race and personal income of nurses, perception of nurses about supervisor interest in their career aspirations, the length of time that nurses intended to stay at the time of their hiring and their current intentions to leave were significant predictors of the job satisfaction of nurses. grujicic, jovovic-bata, radjen and sipetic-grujicic (2016) found that urban health professionals were significantly more satisfied with their jobs than their rural counterparts. grujicic et al. (2016) further maintained that job satisfaction of health workers can be improved by providing better income, more supervisor support, awards for good performance, promotion and advancement opportunities, employment security and interpersonal relationships. thus, this study proposes the following hypothesis: h1: significant differences exist between urban and rural healthcare workers based on the antecedents of employee satisfaction the consequences of employee satisfaction retention as an outcome of employee satisfaction factors relating to the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intentions of healthcare staff in urban and rural areas are many and varied. bhattacharya and ramachandran (2015) found that healthcare professionals in urban areas were more likely to quit their jobs because of dissatisfaction with the availability of technology and training in the use of available technology. for rural healthcare workers, work dissatisfaction, career development, workload and management played a significant role in their intention to quit their jobs (bonenberger, aikins, akweongo, & wyss, 2014). a study by adegoke, atiyaye, abubakar, auta and aboda (2015) found that rural midwife dissatisfaction with a lack of established career ladder, available promotion opportunities, safety and accommodation, and the degree to which they were fairly paid for their work efforts were main contributors to their turnover intentions. ogbuabor, okoronkwo, uzochukwu and onwujekwe (2016) concluded that the implementation of effective financial and non-financial incentives is an important driver of job satisfaction and retention for public sector workers. a study by nkomozana (2017) emphasised the redress of inadequate supervisory practices, change in healthcare manager’s supervision paradigm and recognition of supervisor’s inadequate supervisory skills as important factors to combat high staff turnover in the healthcare sector. thus, we propose the following hypothesis: h2: a significant negative relationship exists between the employee satisfaction (consisting of general work and job satisfaction) and turnover intentions of urban and rural healthcare workers. service quality as an outcome of employee satisfaction according to deriba, sinke, ereso and badacho (2017), job satisfaction of healthcare workers is important for employee performance, quality patience care and patient satisfaction. quality service delivery is defined as the ability of the service provider to meet or exceed customers’ needs and expectations (bakar, akgun, & assaf, 2007). ronen and pilskin (2006) posit that quality service is achieved through a quality process, which is achieved when the employees and managers are part of the process design and control. a study by goetz et al. (2015) found that an integrated quality management system provides a good opportunity to strengthen the recruitment and retention of healthcare staff required for quality care. whelan, davies, walsh and bourke (2010) mentioned that it is important that patients have confidence in a healthcare service provider. peltier and dahl (2009) found a direct and positive relationship between the satisfaction of employees and the quality of the patient experience in a major urban hospital. research by aron (2015) showed a positive correlation between nurses’ job satisfaction and the quality of care they deliver in a small urban hospital. the study of aron (2015) further showed that workload, staff scheduling and stress were the factors that affect the delivery of quality care mostly. a study by mohase and khumalo (2014) found that healthcare workers in rural areas were in agreement that job satisfaction improves their productivity and performance in the sense that job satisfaction affects the way they meet their targets. thus, the following hypothesis is proposed: h3: there would be significant positive relationship between the employee satisfaction (consisting of general work and job satisfaction) of healthcare workers in urban and rural areas and their orientation towards quality service care. research design research approach this research followed a sequential approach whereby the quantitative data were first collected by using a survey, followed by the collection of qualitative data using focus groups. johnson, onwuegbuzie and turner (2007) define a quantitative-dominant mixed-methods approach as: [a] type of mixed research in which one relies on a quantitative view of the research process, while concurrently recognizing that the addition of qualitative data and approaches are likely to benefit most research projects. (p. 124) two important research paradigms for this mixed-methods approach were functionalism (quantitative phase) and interpretivism (qualitative phase). the functionalist paradigm is appropriate for replication in theory-testing and refinement. data are gathered in such a way that a different researcher could replicate the same process under similar conditions and obtain the same results (shah & coley, 2006). shah and coley (2006) further stated that in the interpretive paradigm, the goal is to ensure representativeness of the data and interpretation thereof. a cross-sectional research design was followed whereby data were collected from the respondents at one point in time. cross-sectional research is ideally suited to test for cause and effect relationships between variables (field, 2018). research method research participants the sample for the quantitative study was grouped into two categories based on location (i.e. rural or urban). two hospitals and two clinics were purposively selected from each of the target districts. a total of 450 questionnaires were distributed of which 405 questionnaires were completed by the healthcare professionals, giving a response rate of 90%. the respondents in this sample were predominantly men in both the urban (80.2%) and rural (73.5%) areas. most of the participants in both areas were married (urban: 50%; rural: 49.4%). the respondents indicated their primary home language as indigenous (izizulu) (urban: 90.5%; rural: 86.4%) in both areas. in the urban areas, 28.4% of the respondents fell within the age group of 20‒29 years, while in the rural areas the age category, 30‒39 years, had the highest percentage (30.9%) of respondents. the classification of respondents according to the number of years in their current job revealed that the majority of respondents in both urban (57.2%) and rural (60.5%) areas fell within the category of 0‒5 years. both groups (urban: 42.4%; rural: 43.8%) had 0‒5 years of work experience. most respondents in the urban areas indicated that they were employed as midwives (46.2%). in the rural areas, the majority of the respondents (63.0%) reported that they were in ‘other’ occupations (pharmacist, dentist, radiographer, etc.). both the antenatal care and maternity/labour and delivery specialties were represented by 55 (22.6%) respondents in the urban areas. in the rural areas, casualty/medical/surgical was represented by 84 (51.9%) respondents. both urban (64.6%) and rural (74.1%) participants were employed in hospitals. the participants (n = 28) of the focus group session were an equal number of clinical and non-clinical staff members and representative of both rural and urban areas. most of the participants were aged between 30 and 39 years (43%) and employed as nurses (29%) and occupational therapists (14%). the participants were primarily employed between 0 and10 years in their occupation (40%). measuring instruments a structured questionnaire was developed to measure the following – work environment, work satisfaction, employee satisfaction, employee retention and service quality – of health professionals in kzn. the questionnaire development was informed by the literature. a description of each of the measures is presented below. work environment: the work environment measure consisted of 19 items and measured five facet factors: work duties, supervision, compensation, professional development and safety. responses were collected on a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. general work satisfaction: this consisted of three items and measured responses on items such as ‘if i could choose the career again, i would make the same decision’ and ‘in general, i am satisfied with my work’. reponses were collected on a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. employee satisfaction: this measure consisted of six items and measured the participants’ responses on items such as ‘overall, you are satisfied with your job’ and ‘you would recommend working in a job like yours at your facility to a friend’. reponses were collected on a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. employee retention: this measure consisted of eight items and measured items such as ‘in the past year, you have considered stopping your work as a [health practitioner],or doing something else other than work as a[health practitioner]’ and ‘in the coming year, you plan to stop working at this health facility’. reponses were collected on a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. service quality: this measure consisted of six items and measured items such as ‘how would you rate the quality of care at this health facility?’ the participants had the option to rate facilities such as family planning services, delivery care and postpartum care. reponses were collected on a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 = poor to 5 = very good. the questionnaire was piloted for refinement (see demaio, rothgeb, & hess, 1998) and checking of important issues, such as time taken to complete the questionnaire, as well as adequacy and appropriateness of the questions. time considerations were very important, as the survey required the involvement of health professionals during working hours. fifteen questionnaires were completed in the piloting phase. the qualitative data were gathered through three focus group discussion sessions to clarify data from quantitative analysis and obtain deeper insights into the rural–urban retention, satisfaction and service delivery factors in healthcare. focus group discussions are frequently used to obtain a detailed understanding of social issues (nyumba, wilson, derrick, & mukherjee, 2018). research procedure permission to conduct the study was obtained from the relevant healthcare management. the hard copies of questionnaires were distributed to the respondents in this study. ethical clearance was obtained prior to commencement of the study. participant anonymity was achieved by not using any personal details of the respondents in the reporting, and no statement was linked to a particular respondent. respondents voluntarily participated in the study, and none were forced or coerced to participate. respondents were also free to discontinue at any stage. informed consent was sought from each participant before the data collection commenced. participants were informed about the exact nature and purpose of the research, and they had to read and sign an informed consent form. data analyses the quantitative data were analysed with spss (2018). descriptive statistics such as frequencies, means, skewness and kurtosis were applied. exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the factor structure of the measurements. the guideline of α ≥ 0.60 (see cortina, 1993) was used in this study to determine the reliability of the measurements. t-tests were performed to determine whether any significant differences existed between the two sample groups, based on the measurements. for purposes of this research, cohen’s (1988, p. 283) guidelines for the interpretation of effect sizes were used: 0.0099 constituted a small effect, 0.0588 a medium effect and 0.1379 a large effect. pearson’s correlations were used to test for the significance of relationships between variables. the qualitative data were analysed using thematic content analyses. ethical consideration ethical clearance was obtained prior to commencement of the study from north-west university (clearance number nwu-00224-14-a9). results and findings factor and reliability analyses work environment questionnaire: an exploratory factor analysis was run on the 19-item work environment questionnaire, using the principal component extraction method. the results showed that four factors could be specified. the four factors were labelled as work activities (factor 1), supervision (factor 2), development opportunities (factor 3) and compensation (factor 4). five items were deleted because of problematic loadings. the factors explained 60.848% of the variance. general work satisfaction scale: an exploratory factor analysis was run on the three items of the general work satisfaction scale, using the principal component extraction method. the results showed that one factor could be specified. the factor was labelled as general work satisfaction and explained 74.233% of the variance. employee satisfaction scale: an exploratory factor analysis was run on the six items of the employee satisfaction scale, using the principal component extraction method. the results showed that one factor could be specified. two items were deleted because of problematic loadings. the factor was labelled as employee satisfaction and explained 48.864% of the variance employee retention scale: an exploratory factor analysis was run on the eight items of the employee retention scale using the principal component extraction method. the results showed that one factor could be specified. one item was deleted because of problematic loadings. the factor was labelled as employee satisfaction and explained 54.027% of the variance. service delivery scale: an exploratory factor analysis was run on the six items of the service delivery scale using the principal component extraction method. the results showed that one factor could be specified. two items were deleted because of problematic loadings. the factor was labelled as service delivery and explained 69.661% of the variance. the descriptive statistics and reliabilities of the measurements are presented in table 1. table 1: descriptive statistics of the measurements. from table 1, it is evident that about 75% of the respondents were satisfied with their work and believed that they delivered a good-quality service. the respondents reported moderate levels of job satisfaction, turnover intentions, satisfaction with supervision and career development. the results further showed low levels of satisfaction with compensation. the measurements showed usable reliabilities of α ≥ 0.60 (see cortina, 1993). hypotheses testing the next section reports on the testing of the hypotheses for this study. the results of the gap analyses between the mean scores of the urban and rural sample groups are reported in table 2. table 2: gap analyses between the urban and rural sample group based on the mean scores of the measurements. the results in table 2 show significant differences between all the measurements, except for supervision. the effects for work activities, compensation, development, work satisfaction, employee retention and service quality were medium. the participants employed in urban areas reported significantly higher levels on all the measurements, except development. the results in table 2 partially confirm hypothesis 1 that significant differences exist between urban and rural healthcare workers in terms of the antecedents of employee satisfaction. next the results of the hypothesised relationship between the antecedents and employee satisfaction are reported. pearson correlation analyses were applied. the results are reported in table 3. table 3: pearson correlation analyses of antecedents of employee satisfaction. the results in table 3 show that all the dimensions of work environment were significantly positively related to general work satisfaction, except for the supervision dimension for the urban sample group. the effect of work duties for the urban sample group was large, while the effects of compensation and development were medium. all the effects for the rural group were medium. the results in table 3 show that work duties, supervision and compensation were significantly positively related to employee satisfaction for the urban sample group. work duties (medium effect) and compensation were significantly positively related to employee satisfaction for the rural sample group. based on the above results, hypotheses 2, namely, that the antecedents of employee satisfaction are significantly positively related to employee satisfaction, is partially accepted for both the urban sample group and the rural group. next, the results of the hypothesised relationship between employee satisfaction and outcome variables (i.e. employee retention and service quality) for urban and rural groups are presented in table 4. pearson correlations analyses were applied. table 4: hypotheses testing: outcomes of employee satisfaction. the results in table 4 show a significant negative relationship between work satisfaction and employee retention for both sample groups (medium effects), and a significant positive relationship with service quality for both sample groups (medium effect for the rural sample group). the results show a significant negative relationship between employee satisfaction and employee retention for the urban sample group and a significant positive relationship with service quality for both sample groups. the results confirm hypothesis 2 for the urban group that employee satisfaction is significantly negatively related to employee retention. the results further confirm hypothesis 3 for both the urban and rural groups that employee satisfaction is significantly positively related to service quality. findings: focus group session focus group analyses and findings with proof of evidence quotes from participants are reported in the following tables of thematic coding. table 5 presents the participants’ responses to lack of medicine, facilities and work environment. table 5: thematic codes from focus group responses regarding availability of medication and equipment. the thematic codes for the responses regarding lack of recognition and appreciation for their work are presented in table 6. table 6: thematic codes for focus group response to lack of recognition and appreciation for their work. the thematic codes showing participants’ frustration with their remuneration, salaries and personal development are shown in table 7. table 7: thematic codes for focus group responses showing workers’ frustrations. one participant revealed that she had thoughts of going overseas, australia or saudi arabia, but that the thought of being separated from her family was preventing her from doing so. in all focus group sessions, participants knew former friends in the health sector who had left their employment in south africa for better opportunities in developed countries. they believed that the opportunities in such countries were better because there was evidence of the improvement in the lives of health workers who worked abroad. it was reported that, within a short period after securing employment overseas, their friends had managed to build houses in south africa, buy cars and live a lavish lifestyle. however, most of the qualitative findings above indicate dissatisfaction and frustration in the healthcare environment; an interesting counter-finding from the rural female participants was that they valued their rural workplace and environment as they could stay near to their children and serve their community and their people, as is clear from the following quote: ‘our people are happy with the services we provide; asithembeni uguthi bazoshintsha ngoba be’abantu bagithi [let’s hope they do not change]’. this referred to being part of a communal system as is upheld in rural communities within kwazulu-natal. discussion the main objective of this research was to determine the antecedents and outcomes of employee satisfaction for urban and rural healthcare professionals on kwazulu-natal. combined, about 75% of the respondents were satisfied with their organisation and believed that they delivered a good quality service. the respondents however experienced average levels of job satisfaction relating to their supervisors and career development and low satisfaction with their compensation. in this study, respondents were particularly frustrated with the lack of supervisor recognition for good performance and career advancement. in addition, the participants expressed their dissatisfaction with the fact that they will only get recognition from patients and not their workplace. the results of this study further highlight the continuous problems with supervisor competence in the public healthcare sector (nkomozana, 2017) as well as poor compensation and recognition of healthcare workers (see ali & wajidi, 2013; parvin & kabar, 2011). the results of this research showed that significant differences exist between urban and rural groups in terms of the predictors of employee satisfaction (i.e. work activities, compensation and development). the results confirm the findings of previous research by campbell and ebuehi (2011) who found that healthcare workers of urban and rural areas differ in terms of the work-related factors that contribute to their job satisfaction. work duties emerged as the largest significant predictor of employee satisfaction for healthcare workers in the urban areas. in line with the findings of bhattacharya and ramachandran (2015), a conducive work environment with the latest state of the art technologies is important for urban healthcare workers to perform their work duties adequately. for healthcare workers, the largest predictors of work satisfaction appeared to be compensation and opportunities for career development. the results confirm previous studies that indicate the need for increased rewards and benefits as the availability of career development paths and promotion opportunities for healthcare staff in rural areas (coward et al., 2017). in this study, satisfaction with management support appeared to be a significant predictor for only the rural area group. in line with the finding of klaas (2007), the importance of supervisor support for rural healthcare workers is emphasised. the results of this study showed that about 37% of the respondents considered quitting their jobs. healthcare workers in urban areas had a significant higher inclination to quit their jobs compared to their counterparts in rural areas. one possible explanation for this finding, and also derived from the qualitative findings, is that healthcare workers in urban areas are more qualified than those in urban areas as a result of their exposure to more opportunities and a better infrastructure. consequently, it will be easier for them to obtain employment elsewhere. some participants from rural areas considered quitting their organisation as a result of access to equipment. respondents from the focus group sessions experienced that inadequate or damaged equipment hampered their ability to execute their tasks and deliver quality service. therefore, they would consider seeking employment elsewhere in an environment that allows them to perform their jobs effectively. however, female rural healthcare workers expressed that they would like to stay in their communal area because this way they can stay close to their children and community. as with previous studies, work and job satisfaction were significantly related to the service quality of both urban and rural groups (deriba et al., 2017). therefore, the need exists to create adequate infrastructures for healthcare workers where they can deliver quality service (goetz et al., 2015). unfortunately, the results of this study continue to emphasise the high turnover intentions of healthcare workers, which in turn threaten the sustainability of the south african healthcare industry. practical implications the implications of the results for management are that the stakeholders in the healthcare industry need to capacitate the administration of public health institutions to be able to motivate their employees by providing incentives that improve employee satisfaction. a clear policy framework for all the healthcare personnel may help them to realise their full potential. the plan may also need to focus on providing incentives for employees in rural settings. these incentives should cater for both the clinical and non-clinical staff. if a conducive work environment that fosters career development and up-skilling the personnel at the health centres in the rural areas is provided, then aspects such as service delivery would be improved. furthermore, at the policy level, there may be a need to consider the remuneration of healthcare workers to bring it in line with the nature of their work. at the policy level, there is also a need to improve the supply of medication and service at the healthcare institutions. the results indicate that the availability of medicines leads to health practitioners being satisfied with their jobs. the policy, therefore, needs to ensure that the health institutions have adequate stocks for treatment of patients. the study identifies the three primary healthcare system inputs: human resources, physical capital and consumables. as people ultimately deliver all medical services, effective human resources management will play a vital role in the success of health sector reform. this study identified some factors that are critical to the promotion of service delivery within health institutions and employee satisfaction of healthcare employees. the focus of policy-makers and healthcare practitioners should be on enhancing these factors. these factors receiving due attention from policy and management initiatives would lead to employee satisfaction and quality service by employees in the public health sector. limitations and recommendations this study had some limitations. a cross-sectional research design was followed which limited the research in terms of cause and inferences to be made about the antecedents and outcomes of employee satisfaction in the healthcare sector over the long term. for future research, we recommend longitudinal studies to detect trends in the employee satisfaction of healthcare workers. the sample of this study only included healthcare professionals of kwazulu-natal. the results cannot therefore be generalised to healthcare professionals from other south african provinces. future studies can benefit from expanding this research across the entire healthcare industry in south africa to allow for more occupation-specific comparisons. the results of the study also lend itself for more in-depth qualitative research to explain the quantitative results in more detail. conclusion employee satisfaction has an effect on the quality of services provided in public healthcare institutions. line management and human resource managers should strive to improve the employee satisfaction determinants in the workplace, such as working conditions, remuneration, availability of medication and equipment, safety and recognition, as these will result in improved quality of services offered to patients. in addition, provision of work-related training, although it is not one of the significant determinants of employee satisfaction, will have a positive impact on the quality of their service. the results also indicate that the quality of healthcare services in public institutions in rural areas and in clinics is better than those in the urban areas and hospitals in both areas. this is an important finding and shows the need to decongest public hospitals, perhaps through investment in more hospitals. training more clinical and support staff should be considered as an option for reducing the work overload of health professionals in hospitals and urban public health facilities. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article authors’ contributions n.e.b. was the co-supervisor for this study, constructed the article and did the statistical analyses. y.d.p. was the main supervisor, assisted with the construction of the article and provided editorial inputs. b.t. is a phd student, collected the data and provided some editorial inputs. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data will be available for ten years as per requirements of north-west university. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references adegoke, a.a., atiyaye, f.b., abubakar, a.s., auta, a., & aboda, a. (2015). job satisfaction of midwives in rural nigeria. midwifery, 31, 946–956. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.midw.2015.06.010 ali, r.m., & wajidi, f.a. (2013). factors influencing job satisfaction in public healthcare sector of pakistan. global journal of management and business research administration and management, 13(8), 1–7. aron, s. (2015). relationship between nurses’ job satisfaction and quality of healthcare they deliver. unpublished doctoral thesis, minnesota state university, mankato: united states of america. aziri, b. (2011). job satisfaction: a literature review. management research and practice, 3(4), 77–86. bakar, c., akgun, h.s., & assaf, a.f. (2007). the role of expectations in patients’ hospital assessment: a turkish hospital example. international journal of healthcare quality assurance, 21(5), 503–516. https://doi.org/10.1108/09526860810890477 bhattacharya, i., & ramachandran, a. (2015). a path analysis study of retention of healthcare professionals in urban india using health information technology. human resources for health, 13, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-015-0055-x bonenberger, m., aikins, m., akweongo, p., & wyss, k. (2014). the effects of healthcare workers motivation and job satisfaction on turnover intention in ghana: a cross-sectional study. human resources for health, 12, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1186/1478-4491-12-43 campbell, p.c., & ebuehi, o.m. (2011). job satisfaction: rural versus urban primary health care workers’ perception in ogun state of nigeria. west african journal of management, 30(6), 408–412. clemens, m.a. (2007). do visas kill? health effects of african health professional emigration. unpublished research paper, centre for global development, working paper (114). cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd edn.). hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. cortina, j.m. (1993). what is coefficient alpha? an examination of theory and applications. journal of applied psychology, 78(1), 98–104. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.1.98 coustas, e.l. (2019). factors impacting the retention of registered nurses recruited from india to work in south african hospitals: a case study. international journal of africa nursing sciences, 10, 6–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijans.2018.11.003 coward, r.t., hogan, t.l., duncan, r.p., & felsen, l.m. (2017). job satisfaction and nurses employed in rural and long-term care facilities. research in nursing and health, 18(3), 271–284. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.4770180310 demaio, t.j., rothgeb, j., & hess, j. (1998). improving survey quality through pretesting. proceedings of the section on survey research methods, american statistical association, 3, 50–58. deriba, b.k., sinke, s.o., ereso, b.m., & badacho, a.s. (2017). health professionals’ job satisfaction and associated at public health centres in west ethiopia. human resources for health, 15(36), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-017-0206-3 field, a. (2018). discovering statistics using ibm spss statistics (5th edn.). london: sage publications ltd. george, g., atujuna, m., & gow, j. (2013). migration of south african health workers: the extent to which financial considerations influence internal flows and external movements. bmc health services research, 13(1), 297–304. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-13-297 goetz, k., marx, m., marx, i., brodowski, m., nafula, m., prytherch, h., … szecsenyi, j. (2015). working atmosphere and job satisfaction of health care staff in kenya: an exploratory study. biomed research international, 1, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/256205 gormley, d.k. (2003). factors affecting job satisfaction in nurse faculty: a meta-analysis. journal of nursing education, 42(4), 174–178. grujicic, m., jovovic-bata, j., radjen, s., & sipetic-grujicic, s. (2016). work motivation and job satisfaction of health workers urban and rural areas. vojnosanitetskipregled. military-medical and pharmaceutical review, 73, 62–62. https://doi.org/10.2298/vsp140715062g haskins, j.l., phakathi, s.a., grant, m., & horwood, c.m. (2017). factor influencing the recruitment and retention of professional nurses, doctors and allied health professionals in rural hospitals in kwazulu natal. health sa gesondheid, 22, 174–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hsag.2016.11.002 heathfield, s.m. (2016). employee satisfaction: make employees satisfaction surveys successful. human resources. retrieved from https://www.thebalance.com/employee-satisfaction-1918014. international labour organisation (2018). world employment social outlook: trends 2018. international labour office – geneva: ilo. jenkins, j.s., gunst, c., blitz, j., & coetzee, j.f. (2017). what keeps health professionals working in rural district hospitals in south africa? african journal of primary health care and medicine, 7(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.4102/phcfm.v7i1.805 johnson, r.b., onwuegbuzie, a.j., & turner, l.a. (2007). toward a definition of mixed methods research. journal of mixed methods research, 1(2), 112–133. https://doi.org/10.1177/1558689806298224 kim, j., & han, w. (2012). improving service quality in long-term care hospitals: national evaluation on long-term care hospitals and employees perception of quality dimensions. osong public health and research perspectives, 3(2), 94–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phrp.2012.04.005 klaas, n.p. (2007). factors influencing the retention of nurses in the rural health facilities of the eastern cape. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. mohase, n., & khumal, j. (2014). job satisfaction in the healthcare services in south africa: the case of mph. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(3), 94–102. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n3p94 ngilangwa, d.p., & mgomella, g.s. (2018). factors associated with retention of community health workers in maternal, newborn and child health programme in simuyu region, tanzani. african journal of primary healthcare and family medicine, 10(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/phcfm.v10i1.1506 nkomozana, o. (2017). determining the causes for the shortage of human resources for primary health care in botswana and developing a pilot intervention to address the problem. unpublished doctoral dissertation, faculty of medicine and health sciences, stellenbosch university, cape town, south africa. nyumba, t.o., wilson, k., derrick, c.j., & mukherjee, n. (2018). the use of group discussion methodology: insights of two decades of application in conservation. special feature: qualitative methods for eliciting judgements for decision making, 9(9), 20–32. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210x.12860 ogbuabor, d.c., okonronkwo, i., uzochukwu, b., & onwujekwe, o. (2016). determinants of job satisfaction and retention of public health care workers in southeast nigeria. journal of medical health development, 21(2), 1–12. parvin, m.m., & kabir, m.n. (2011). factors affecting employee job satisfaction of pharmaceutical sector. australian journal of business and management research, 1(9), 113–123. peltier, j., dahl, a., & mulhern, f. (2009). the relationship between employee satisfaction and hospital patient experiences. university of wisconsin-whitewater, northwestern university. pillay, z. (2017). measures to improve retention of nurses in a kwazulu-natal hospital: nurse managers’ views. unpublished masters dissertation, university of south africa, pretoria. ronen, b., & pilskin, j. s. (2006). focused operations management for health service organisations. san francisco, ca: wiley. shah, s.k., & corley, k.g. (2006). building better theory by bridging the quantitative–qualitative divide. journal of management studies, 43(8), 1821–1835. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2006.00662.x singh, m.m. (2017). job satisfaction among healthcare professional in public and private healthcare setup in india. indian journal of applied research, 6(1), 6–8. spss inc. (2018). spss 25 for windows. chicago, il: spss inc. statistics south africa (stats sa). (2015). statistics south africa. retrieved from http://www.statssa.gov.za. tinu, o.c., & adeniji, a.a. (2015). gender influence on job satisfaction and job commitment among colleges of education lecturers. journal of education and practice, 6(13), 159–161. whelan, s., davies, g., walsh, m., & bourke, r. (2010). public sector corporate branding and customer orientation. journal of business research, 63(11), 1164–1171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2009.10.013 abstract introduction method discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) maahierah satardien department of industrial psychology, university of the western cape, bellville, western cape, south africa rukhsana jano department of industrial psychology, university of the western cape, bellville, western cape, south africa bright mahembe department of industrial psychology, university of the western cape, bellville, western cape, south africa citation satardien, m., jano, r., & mahembe, b. (2019). the relationship between perceived organisational support, organisational commitment and turnover intention among employees in a selected organisation in the aviation industry. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1123. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1123 original research the relationship between perceived organisational support, organisational commitment and turnover intention among employees in a selected organisation in the aviation industry maahierah satardien, rukhsana jano and bright mahembe received: 11 sept. 2018; accepted: 06 mar. 2019; published: 05 sept. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: turnover intention, a precursor of employee turnover, comprises some of the challenges experienced by the 21st-century organisation – the aviation industry has not been spared. research purpose: the primary goal of this study was to conduct an analysis of the relationships between perceived organisational support (pos), organisational commitment and turnover intention at a selected organisation within the aviation industry. motivation for the study: relatively, little attention has been directed at examining employees’ pos and organisational commitment on turnover intention in the aviation sector. research approach/design and method: a quantitative research design was used. the sample composed of employees (n = 240) employed at an international aviation organisation, which operates in cape town, brno and istanbul. the participants were drawn using convenience sampling. data were analysed using the pearson correlation and multiple regression techniques. main findings: high levels of reliability were found for the scales used in this study. significant correlations were found among pos, organisational commitment and turnover intention. a linear regression analysis indicated that both organisational commitment and pos are significant predictors of turnover intention. practical/managerial implications: the findings of this study suggest that pos and commitment play a significant role in reducing turnover intention. employee support programmes should be offered as a panacea for turnover intention given the need for employee retention and commitment in this industry. contribution/value-add: the aviation industry strives to retain employees, by investing in employees’ training and development. the contribution of the study can ensure passenger safety and avoid aircraft disasters. perceived organisational support is likely to enhance commitment and reduce staff turnover. keywords: perceived organisational support; organisational commitment; turnover intentions; employee turnover; staff retention; intention to leave. introduction turnover intention is one of the widely studied areas in the field of industrial psychology (alkahtani, 2015; fortuin, 2017; hendricks, 2017; mthembu, 2017). this is attributed to its impact on the operational costs of employing and re-employing employees. these costs include, but are not limited to, recruitment costs, leave capitalisation, relocation costs as well as formal training and induction costs (alkahtani, 2015). in addition, organisations are losing their most valued intellectual capital to their competitors, which greatly affect their comparative advantage as some of the organisations’ ways of doing business might be shared with their rivals. turnover intention also impacts internal employees as well as employee–customer relationships (aliyu & nyadzayo, 2018). in view of the possible impact of staff turnover, organisations need to foster behaviours and systems that promote staff retention. aside from the common financial interventions, perceived organisational support (pos) plays a significant role in influencing turnover intention. perceived organisational support is widely defined as the employees’ ‘beliefs concerning the extent to which the organisation values their contribution and cares about their well-being’ (eisenberger, huntington, hutchison & sowa, 1986, p. 501). to date, pos has been documented to enhance job satisfaction (zumrah & boyle, 2015), organisational citizenship behaviour (isfahani & rezaei, 2017), job performance (miao & kim, 2010), corporate entrepreneurship (rutherford & holt, 2007) and entry-level employee innovativeness (mummedy, 2008). some of the benefits of positive pos include the inculcation of elevated levels of employee trust and organisational identification (rhoades & eisenberger, 2002), which, in turn, reduce turnover intention (paille, bourdeau, & galois, 2010). hence, the more an organisation expends some reasonable efforts towards the professional development of its human and intellectual capital, the more the employees feel the obligation to stay and help the organisation achieve its investment goals (paille et al., 2010). on the contrary, low levels of pos are likely to be met with reduced morale, employee withdrawal symptoms and ultimately strong intentions to leave the organisation (wayne, shore, & linden, 1997). rhoades and eisenberger’s (2002) meta-analysis also showed a strong negative relationship between pos and turnover intention. besides reduce turnover intention, pos creates feelings of commitment in employees. most studies point out that pos is a powerful predictor of organisational commitment (kim, eisenberger, & baik, 2016; makanjee, hartzer, & uyz, 2006; naotunna & arachchige, 2016). according to rhoades and eisenberger (2002), the turnover–pos relationship is anchored on the fact that employees’ high pos levels develop feelings of attachment to the organisation characterised by an enhanced sense of control, purpose and meaning as they perform their roles. when employees feel that the organisation appreciates them by caring about their well-being, they are likely to develop some strong feelings of commitment which reduce turnover intention (foong-ming, 2008; mabasa, ngirande, & shambare, 2016; tsui, pearce, porter, & tripoli, 1997; tumwesigye, 2010). although several studies on the influence of pos on commitment and turnover intention exist (fortuin, 2017; islam, khan, ahmed, ali, ahmed, & bowra, 2013; kalidass & bahron, 2016), most of the studies were conducted using employees from the corporate, hotel and tertiary institutions. for example, islam et al. (2013) investigated the nature of the relationships among these variables in the banking sector in malaysia; kalidass and bahron (2016) used a sample from the hotel industry and fortuin (2017) used employees working in academia. relatively, little attention has been directed at examining employees’ pos and organisational commitment on turnover intention in the aviation sector. research purpose and objectives thus, based on the discussion presented, the primary goal of this study was to conduct an analysis of the relationships between pos, organisational commitment and turnover intention at a selected organisation within the aviation industry. the secondary goal was to determine if organisational commitment and/or pos predict turnover intention. literature conceptualising turnover intention the terms ‘intention to leave’ and ‘staff retention’ have been used interchangeably in existing research studies to indicate employee turnover behaviour. turnover intention has been defined as voluntary, conscious and relatively strong recurring plans on the part of the employee to deliberately leave an organisation (mobley, horner, & hollingsworth, 1979). these recurring thoughts and plans to leave the organisation trigger a cognitive process that is reinforced by factors occurring within and outside an organisation that result in the final decision to leave the organisation. this withdrawal cognition process incorporates the following aspects: (1) thoughts of leaving the organisation, followed by (2) the active search for another job elsewhere and (3) the final intention to leave or quit (mobley et al., 1979). turnover intention is arguably the best predictor of staff turnover (griffeth, hom, & gaertner, 2000). this intention is often difficult for organisations to uncover unless the employee himself or herself shares with members of the organisation. conceptualising perceived organisational support the term pos was coined in 1986 by eisenberger et al. (1986). eisenberger et al. (1986) define pos as relating to employees’ perception that the organisation cares about their well-being and development and values their contributions. employees have a tendency to perceive their managers’ actions as personification of the actions of the organisation (eisenberger, armeli, rexwinkel, lynch, & rhoades, 2001). hence, the behaviour of the managers has some implications on the job performance of the employees as employees tend to perform better to pay back for pos, indicating an exchange relationship (allen, shore, & griffeth, 2003; aselage & eisenberger, 2003; dawley, houghton, & bucklew, 2010; rhoades & eisenberger, 2002). perceived organisational support has its roots in the norm of reciprocity (rhoades & eisenberger, 2002), the social exchange theory and the organisational support theory. the norm of reciprocity is anchored on two demands, namely, people should help those who have helped them, and people should not injure those who have helped them (gouldner, 1960). this norm emphasises the exchange nature of the relationship. the social exchange theory implies that individuals who receive greater support from their organisations will be more inclined to return the act of goodwill (eisenberger, lynch, aselage, & rohdieck, 2004). the organisational support theory maintains that employees strive to pay back the organisation for the support rendered to them by increasing their efforts to ensure that the organisation meets its goals (scott, restubog, & zagenczyk, 2013). organisational commitment numerous studies have been published on the organisational commitment construct (adzeh, 2013; mahembe, 2010; mahembe & engelbrecht, 2013), with the three-component model of organisational commitment developed by allen and meyer (1990) being the widely used definition of organisational commitment. these authors defined organisational commitment as a latent variable made up of affective, continuance and normative commitment as its manifest variables. affective commitment has been identified in several studies as the best predictor of organisational commitment, which emphasises that employees continue working for the organisation because they want to (meyer & allen, 1991). it personifies the emotional attachment to the organisation developed over the years. in contrast, continuance commitment is based on an individual assessment of the perceived cost of leaving the organisation (meyer & herscovitch, 2001). in other words, this cost–benefit analysis leads to employees remaining because they feel they need to or have to (meyer & allen, 1997). on the contrary, normative commitment alludes to employees’ feeling of obligation to continue providing their services to the organisation because they feel it is the ‘moral’ thing to do (allen & meyer, 1990; martin & roodt, 2008; meyer & allen, 1991, 1997). the relationships between perceived organisational support, organisational commitment and turnover intention turnover intention and perceived organisational support an important consequence of pos that has been assessed in the literature, and which is relevant to this study, is its relationship to turnover intention (rhoades & eisenberger, 2002; wayne et al., 1997). rhoades and eisenberger (2002) found the relationship between pos and intention to leave to be the strongest among the withdrawal behaviour variables included in pos studies. existing studies on the relationship between pos and intention to leave an organisation indicate an inverse association, signifying that employees who feel supported by their organisations rarely think of quitting their organisations (allen et al., 2003; paille et al., 2010). the employee feels that the organisation pays attention to their self-development through various organisational initiatives (such as on the job coaching) meant to benefit the employee (paille et al., 2010). turnover intention and organisational commitment according to muchinsky (2005), organisational commitment is one of the widely studied constructs in psychology, with numerous research studies spanning over 30 years appearing in different journals and books. most of the studies indicate a significant negative relationship between the two constructs (clayton & hutchinson, 2002; lee, 2000; mathieu & zajac, 1990). the findings indicate that the higher the organisational commitment, the lower the turnover intention. several other studies have also associated a high organisational commitment with a high probability that an employee will stay with the organisation, perform their job at an optimal level and avoid being absent at work (elangovan, 2001; gaan, 2007; lee, 2000; luna-arocas & camps, 2008). turnover intention, organisational commitment and perceived organisational support perryer, jordan, firns and travaglione (2010) observed that commitment and pos were important predictors of turnover intention. employees with high levels of organisational support, but low levels of commitment, will be less inclined to leave the organisation. hom and griffeth (1995) suggest that organisational commitment increases the relationship between perceived organisational commitment and turnover. turnover intention has been found to be an outcome of organisational commitment (blau, 2000). in addition, researchers have substantiated the relationship between affective commitment and pos in the turnover process (wayne et al., 1997). from the foregoing discussion, the following hypotheses were postulated to guide the study: there is a negative relationship between employees’ perceptions of organisational support and turnover intention. there is a negative relationship between employees’ organisational commitment and turnover intention. there is a positive relationship between employees’ organisational commitment and pos. organisational commitment and pos predict turnover intention. method participants the population comprises permanent and contract employees (n = 240) employed at the aviation organisation as load control agents (47.9%) and support staff (52.1%). this international aviation organisation consists of three centres, which operate in cape town, brno and istanbul. employees at all the three centres were invited to participate in the study. one hundred and forty-four online responses were received. however, of these 144 online responses, 131 were valid, yielding a 55% response rate. the sample consisted of 78 (54.2%) women and 66 (45.8%) men. the majority of the participants were in the age category of 20–30 years (45.15%). most of the respondents have been with the organisation for 4+ years (42.3%). the location of respondents was cape town (56.3%), brno (29.2%) and istanbul (14.6%). procedure because the study sites were spread across three countries (brno, cape town and istanbul), an internet-based survey was considered to be the most appropriate method to gather the data. the organisation’s internal communication process was followed to invite staff to participate in the research survey. an email was sent to each of the employees in all the three centres as they all had access to the work email and internet. the email contained a hyperlink inviting participants to complete the online survey. instruments a self-developed questionnaire was used to acquire demographic information from the sample. participants were requested to provide information with regard to their gender, age, marital status, years of service in the organisation, job level and whether they were employed in cape town, brno or istanbul. perceived organisational support a shortened version of eisenberger et al.’s (1986) 36-item survey of perceived organisational support was used to measure employees’ pos. the abbreviated pos measure contains 17 items scored using a seven-point likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). example items include ‘the organisation values my contribution to its well-being’ and ‘the organisation strongly considers my goals and values’. previous studies that have used the 17-item version of the survey of perceived organisational support reported cronbach’s alpha values of between a = 0.74 and a = 0.95 (fields, 2002). organisational commitment the 24-item organisational commitment survey, developed by meyer and allen (1997), was used to measure organisational commitment. the scale measures the three components of organisational commitment, namely, affective, continuance and normative commitment, using a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). each of the subscales contains eight items. example items on the scale are ‘i think that i could easily become attached to another organisation as i am to this one’ (affective commitment); ‘i do not feel a strong sense of belonging to my organisation’ (continuance commitment) and ‘it would be too costly for me to leave my organisation right now’ (normative commitment). the reliability estimates of this scale are found by meyer and allen (1997) to have internal consistencies with the dimensions varying between 0.73 for normative, 0.79 for continuance and 0.85 for affective. the overall reliability estimates exceed 0.79 (meyer & allen, 1997). turnover intention the turnover intention questionnaire, developed by roodt (2004), was used to measure turnover intention. this scale consists of 14 items. the items are measured on a seven-point intensity response scale anchored at extreme poles (e.g. 1 = ‘never/to no extent/low/always’ – low intensity to 7 = ‘most of the times/to a large extent/high/always’ – high intensity). example items on this scale include ‘how often have you considered leaving your current job?’ du plooy and roodt (2013) reported a cronbach’s alpha score of 0.80 for their study in the information and communication technology sector. two earlier studies (jacobs, 2005; martin, 2007) proved roodt’s (2004) questionnaire to be both reliable (a = 0.913 and a = 0.895, respectively). data analysis the reliability of the questionnaires was ascertained through the reliability analysis procedure of statistical package for social sciences version 25. thereafter the total scores for use in the correlation and regression analyses were calculated. both the pearson correlation and linear regression analyses were subsequently performed to confirm or reject the hypotheses formulated in the present study. correlation and regression pearson correlations were performed on the data to determine the nature of the bivariate relationships among the variables used in the study. in addition, the correlations provided preliminary inputs for regression analyses as correlations among variables are assumed before performing a regression analysis. table 1 presents the pearson correlation results between pos, organisational commitment and turnover intention. table 1: inter-construct correlations. cohen’s (1988) guidelines were used to interpret the pearson correlational output. according to cohen (1988), r coefficients between 0.10 and 0.29 indicate a small correlation; between 0.30 and 0.49 denote a medium correlation and between 0.50 and 1 indicate a large correlation. significant large correlations were found among pos, organisational commitment and turnover intention (see table 1). a strong negative relationship was found between turnover intention and pos (r = −0.745; p < 0.01). a strong negative relationship was found between organisational commitment and turnover intention (r = −0.590; p < 0.01), while a positive and strong relationship was observed between pos and organisational commitment (r = 0.599; p < 0.01). the next step after the pearson correlational analysis was to determine the extent to which organisational commitment and pos predict turnover intention. this was achieved through the use of linear multiple regression analysis. table 2 depicts the model summary results. the r value of 0.766 indicates a high degree of correlation, while the r2 or adjusted r2 value indicates how much of the total variance in turnover intention is explained by the model. it shows that the model explains 58.7% of the variance in turnover intention. table 2: model summary. the analysis of variance (anova), as reported in table 3, tests the null hypothesis that multiple r in the population equals 0, and reports how well the regression equation fits the data (i.e. predicts the dependent variable) (pallant, 2010). the regression model is statistically significant at p = 0.000 (p < 0.001), indicating that the model significantly predicts turnover intention (see table 3). table 3: analysis of variance. the next step was to determine whether organisational commitment or pos determines turnover intention. tolerance and variance inflation factor (vif) values indicate whether the variables are correlating too high (above r = 0.90) hinting at multicollinearity. tolerance values less than 0.10 indicate that the correlation among the variables under study is high, suggesting the possibility of multicollinearity. the vif values above 10 would indicate multicollinearity. table 4 indicates that both the tolerance and vif values are within the acceptable range. table 4: regression analysis: perceived organisational support, organisational commitment and turnover intention. the significance column in table 4 indicates that both organisational commitment and pos are making a statistically significant and unique contribution to turnover intention. perceived organisational support accounts for 61.1% of the variance (b = −0.611; t = −8.616; p < 0.001), while organisational commitment explains 31.46% (b = −0.223; t = 3.146; p < 0.001). ethical considerations before conducting the present study, ethical clearance was sought from the university of the western cape ethics committee, registration no: 14/3/27. this was also subject to receiving permission from the aviation organisation used in the study. participants were informed of the purpose of the study as well as their rights to anonymity, voluntary participation, confidentiality and informed consent through a cover letter provided as part of the questionnaire. discussion perceived organisational support is grounded in the assumption that to meet and access socio-emotional and tangible benefits, employees must perceive that the organisation values their contributions, their work effort and their general well-being (eisenberger et al., 1986, 2001). for employees, socio-emotional resources and tangible benefits come in the form of respect, caring, fair wages and benefits (eisenberger et al., 1986, 2001). organisational commitment is grounded in the assumption that individuals, who identify with the organisation and strongly believe in their organisation’s goals and objectives, will exert considerable effort on behalf of the organisation and desire to remain a member of the organisation (hussain & asif, 2012). the results of this study support meyer and allen’s organisational commitment model and partially support eisenberger’s (1986) perceived organisational support theory. hypothesis 1 this hypothesis was confirmed as findings reveal that when pos increases, it seems to have an inverse relationship with employees’ intention to leave the organisation. this implies that as employees experience socio-emotional resources and tangible benefits such as respect, caring, fair wages and benefits, their intention to leave the organisation is reduced. this finding is consistent with eisenberger et al.’s (1986) perceived organisational support theory, as well as various other theorists who found a strong inverse relationship between pos and turnover intention (al-sakarnah & alhaway, 2009; batt & colvin, 2011; cho, johnson, & guchait, 2009; islam et al., 2013; nasyira, othman, & ghazali, 2014). it is essential for employees to feel valued and cared for by the organisation. cho et al. (2009) identified that those who are not cared for and valued by the organisation are often less committed and are more likely to leave the organisation. employees who do perceive a climate of support will also tend to experience higher levels of commitment, as well as fewer intention to leave the organisation (batt & colvin, 2011). furthermore, regardless of whether pos has a direct or indirect effect on turnover intention, researchers suggest that pos could possibly lead to feel obligations towards the organisation (meyer & allen, 1991; tekleab, takeuchi, & taylor, 2005) and motivate employees to remain with the organisation leading to lower turnover intention (meyer & allen, 1991). hypothesis 2 this hypothesis was confirmed, as a strong inverse statistically significant relationship between organisational commitment and turnover intention was established. the results of this study suggest that employees are less likely to leave the organisation because of the costs associated with leaving the organisation, the emotional bond with the organisation and their moral obligation felt towards the organisation (allen et al., 2003; meyer, stanley, herscovitch, & toplyntsky, 2002). hypothesis 3 this hypothesis was also confirmed. a strong positive statistically significant relationship was established. the results of this study suggest that when employees feel that their organisation values their contribution and cares about their well-being, they will express higher levels of affective, normative and continuance organisational commitment. a study conducted among 302 academic staff members from a south african higher learning institution also revealed a positive relationship between pos and employee organisational commitment. the researchers are of the opinion that as employees perceive enough support from their employer, they become more committed to the organisation (batt & colvin, 2011; chuebang & boatham, 2011; mabasa et al., 2016; ucar & otten, 2010). hypothesis 4 the fourth hypothesis examined whether pos or organisational commitment predicted turnover intention. results of this study found that pos and organisational commitment predict turnover intention. dawley et al. (2010) also found pos to be a predictor of turnover intention. their findings identified that when organisational leaders demonstrated that they care for their employees, turnover was minimal. similar to the findings of the current study, perryer et al. (2010) found that both organisational commitment and pos were significant predictors of turnover intention. they found that employees with low levels of commitment, but high levels of support from the organisation, are less likely to leave the organisation. limitations and recommendations for future research firstly, although all employees at the selected company in the aviation industry were invited to participate in this research (n = 240), only 144 surveys were received but 131 questionnaires were valid, thereby representing a 55% response rate. secondly, the sample in this study included international employees with english not necessarily being their first language, which could have been a contributing factor to the low response rate. a larger sample size would have increased the strength of the research results. thirdly, the current study made use of self-reported questionnaires that are susceptible to social desirability, thereby introducing biases and misrepresentations such as under-reporting behavioural tendencies. fourthly, collecting data at a single point in time does not address maturational effects; longitudinal studies may resolve this problem (terre blanche & durrheim, 1999). furthermore, the use of confirmatory factor analysis might have helped control for measurement error. the sample size, however, was not big enough for structural equation modelling as most softwares require samples bigger than 200. managerial implications several studies have predicted the extent to which turnover intentions are associated with the actual staff turnover (dewettinck & van ameijde, 2007; lambert, 2001; steel & lounsbury, 2009). it is therefore important to identify the work and psychological determinants of turnover intention to be proactive in its prevention and containment (van schalkwyk, du toit, bothma, & rothmann, 2010). the findings of this study suggest that employees from the selected organisation in the aviation industry are likely to have strong turnover intention when they feel that they are not getting some support from their organisation, which results in negative implications on their organisational commitment. organisational comprehension organisational comprehension refers to how well employees understand the organisation, including its strategic direction, social dynamics and physical layout (bauer, 2007; cooper-thomas & anderson, 2005). this awareness, according to bagraim (2010), is a necessary prerequisite to develop affective commitment in employees because it is difficult to identify with, or feel loyal to, something that you do not know very well. furthermore, lack of information produces uncertainty, and the resulting stress can distance employees from that source of uncertainty (e.g. the organisation). managerial/supervisory support the quality of the relationship between employees and their line managers has significant and important undertones on the attraction and allocation of pos (rhoades & eisenberger, 2002). employees value opportunities that allow them to exercise their discretion in decision-making, and partake in privileged communication and positive recognition of their work through praise or positive comments (wayne et al., 1997). by offering positive feedback and providing advice, line managers help instil confidence in their employees. therefore, supervisors should develop a meaningful relationship between themselves and the employee. in summary, leaders and managers have an important role as they can positively influence employees by giving support and vision, and make employees feel that they are important to the organisation. to help cultivate a positive organisational commitment attitude among employees, several organisations have introduced employee support programmes (grant, dutton, & roso, 2008). these are formalised interventions geared towards providing employees with the necessary psychological, emotional, financial and instrumental assistance over and above the traditional pay, benefit, recognition, and training and development programmes offered by most human resources departments. the employee support programmes usually include some assistance with work–family programmes (e.g. child and elderly care), among other various forms of help and aid (cascio, 2003). in addition to employee support programmes, other interventions, such as corporate volunteer programmes and corporate social responsibility initiatives, would also propagate some affective commitment (grant et al., 2008). conclusion this research aimed to add to the existing body of knowledge on the constructs of organisational support, organisational commitment and turnover intention in the aviation industry. in this regard, several suggestions have been made so that the aviation organisations may begin to implement programmes aimed at increasing levels of organisational support and organisational commitment for their employees as this will also promote passenger safety. as employees have been leaving the organisation increasingly over the period of 2012–2014, the organisation would benefit from evaluating possible reasons other than perceived support and organisational commitment, which could account for this turnover and take into consideration the recommendations put forth for the organisation. given the high rate of turnover in the organisation under investigation, cultivating organisational commitment through organisational support is likely to increase stability in the aviation industry, especially in view of the increase in terrorism and passenger safety concerns. acknowledgements this article is based on the dissertation by one of the authors available at https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/58915288.pdf. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.s. was responsible for the conceptual write-up of the article and data collection. r.j. was the project leader responsible for the write-up of the article. b.m. was responsible for the statistical analysis and write-up of the article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors references adzeh, k. j. (2013). assessing the influence of organisational commitment on employee perceptions of superior customer value creation. unpublished doctoral thesis. minneapolis, mn: capella university. aliyu, o. a., & nyadzayo, m. w. (2018). reducing employee turnover intention: a customer relationship management perspective. journal of strategic marketing, 26(3), 241–257. https://doi.org/10.1080/0965254x.2016.1195864 allen, d. g., shore, l. m., & griffeth, r. w. (2003). the role of perceived organisational support and supportive human resource practices in the turnover process. journal of management, 29(1), 99–118. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0149-2063(02)00222-2 allen, n. j., & meyer, j. p. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organisation. journal of occupational psychology, 63(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.x alkahtani, a. h. (2015). investigating factors that influence employees’ turnover intention: a review of existing empirical works. international journal of business and management, 10(12), 152–166. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v10n12p152 al-sakarnah, b., & alhaway, f. a. (2009). unravelling the relationship between employees perception to organization and turnover intention: exploring the mediating effects of trust to organisation. international journal of business and management, 4(10), 177–183. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v4n10p177 aselage, j., & eisenberger, r. (2003). perceived organisational support and psychological contracts: a theoretical integration. journal of organisational behaviour, 24(5), 491–509. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.211 bagraim, j. (2010). multiple affective commitments and salient outcomes: the improbable case of information technology knowledge workers. the electronic journal information systems evaluation, 13(2), 97–106. batt, r., & colvin, a. j. s. (2011). an employment systems approach to turnover: human resources practices, quits, dismissals, and performance. academy of management journal, 54(4), 695–717. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2011.64869448 bauer, t. n. (2007). newcomer adjustment during organizational socialization: a meta-analytic review of antecedents, outcomes, and methods. journal of applied psychology, 92(3), 707–721. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.3.707 blau, g. (2000). job, organisational, and professional context antecedents as predictors of intent for interrole work transitions. journal of vocational behaviour, 56(3), 330–345. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1999.1718 cascio, w. f. (2003). downsizing: what do we know? what have we learned? the executive, 7(1), 95–104. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.1993.9409142062 cho, s., johanson, m. m., & guchait, p. (2009). employees’ intent to leave: a comparison of determinants of intent to leave versus intent to stay. international journal of hospitality management, 28(3), 374–381. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2008.10.007 chuebang, p., & boatham, s. (2011). voluntary turnover intention: effects on perceived organizational support and organisational commitment of thai employees of rajabhat universities. review of business research, 11(3), 51–63. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.472 clayton, b., & hutchinson, m. r. (2002). organisational commitment of accountants in australia and south africa. south african journal of accounting research, 16(1), 1–17. cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). hillsdale, nj: erlbaum. cooper-thomas, h., & anderson, n. (2005). organisational socialisation: a field study into socialization success and rate. international journal of selection and assessment, 13(2), 116–128. https://doi.org/10.1080/10291954.2002.11435099 dawley, d. d., houghton, j. d., & bucklew, n. s. (2010). perceived organisational support and turnover intention: the mediating effects of personal sacrifice and job fit. journal of social psychology, 150(3), 238–257. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224540903365463 dewettinck, k., & van ameijde, m. (2007). linking leadership empowerment behaviour to employee attitudes and behavioural intention: testing the mediating role of psychological empowerment. vlerick leuven gent management school working paper series 21. vlerick leuven gent management school. du plooy, j., & roodt, g. (2013). biographical and demographical variables as moderators in the prediction of turnover intention. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 39(1), 1070–1082. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i1.1070 eisenberger, r., armeli, s., rexwinkel, b., lynch, p., & rhoades, l. (2001). reciprocation of perceived organisational support. journal of applied psychology, 86(1), 42–51. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.1.42 eisenberger, r., huntington, r., hutchison, s., & sowa, d. (1986). perceived organisational support. journal of applied psychology, 71(3), 500–507. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.71.3.500 eisenberger, r. j., lynch, p., aselage, j., & rohdieck, s. (2004). who takes the most revenge? individual differences in negative reciprocity norm endorsement. personality and social psychology bulletin, 30(4), 789–799. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167204264047 elangovan, a. r. (2001). causal ordering of stress, satisfaction and commitment, and intention to quit: a structural equations analysis. leadership & organisation development journal, 22(4), 159–165. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730110395051 fields, d. l. (2002). taking the measure of work: a guide to validated scales for organisational research and diagnosis. california: sage. foong-ming, t. (2008). linking career development practices to turnover intention: the mediator of perceived organisational support. business and public affairs, 2(1), 1–20. fortuin, t. (2017). the influence of perceived organisational support and organisational commitment on turnover intention within selected higher education and training institutions in the western cape. unpublished master’s thesis. university of the western cape. gaan, n. (2007). a revisit on impact of job attitudes on employee turnover: an empirical study in indian it industry. journal of vocational behaviour, 12, 119–128. gouldner, a. w. (1960). the norm of reciprocity: a preliminary statement. american sociological review, 25(2), 161–178. https://doi.org/10.2307/2092623 grant, a. m., dutton, j. e., & rosso, b. d. (2008). giving commitment: employee support programs and the prosocial sensemaking process. academy of management journal, 51(5), 898–918. griffeth, r. w., hom, p. w., & gaertner, s. (2000). a meta-analysis of antecedents and correlates of employee turnover: update, moderator tests, and research implications for the next millennium. journal of management, 26(3), 463–488. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630002600305 hendricks, c. r. (2017). the influence of transformational leadership on perceptions of organisational justice, intention to quit and organisational citizenship behaviour among selected call centre employees in the financial services industry. unpublished master’s thesis. university of the western cape. hom, p. w., & griffeth, r. w. (1995). employee turnover. cincinnati, oh: south western. hussain, t., & asif, s. (2012). is employees’ turnover intention driven by organisational commitment and perceived organisational support? journal of quality and technology management, 8(11), 1–10. isfahani, a. n., & rezaei, a. (2017). the impact of perceived organisational support on organisational citizenship behaviour: the mediating role of organisational trust. international journal of business excellence, 13(4), 441–458. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijbex.2017.10008195 islam, t., khan, s. u. r., ahmed, k. b. u., ali, g., ahmed, i., & bowra, z. a. (2013). turnover intention: the influence of perceived organisational support and organisational commitment. social and behavioural sciences, 103, 1238–1242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.452 jacobs, e. (2005). the development of a predictive model of turnover intention of professional nurses. unpublished master’s thesis. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. kalidass, a., & bahron, a. (2016). the relationship between perceived supervisor support, perceived organizational support, organizational commitment and employee turnover intention. international journal of business administration, 6(5), 82–89. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijba.v6n5p82 kim, k. y., eisenberger, r., & baik, k. (2016). perceived organizational support and affective organizational commitment: moderating influence of perceived organizational competence. journal of organisational behaviour, 37(4), 558–583. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2081 lambert, e. g. (2001). to stay or quit: a review of the literature on correctional staff turnover. american journal of criminal justice, 26(1), 61–76. lee, h. r. (2000). an empirical study of organisational justice as a mediator of the relationships among leader-member exchange and job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention in the lodging industry. unpublished dissertation. blacksburg: virginia polytechnic institute and state university. luna-arocas, r., & camps, j. (2008). a model of high performance work practices and turnover intention. personnel review, 37(1), 26–45. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480810839950 mabasa, f. d., ngirande, h., & shambare, r. (2016). the relationship between perceived organisational support and organisational commitment among academics: the mediating effect of job satisfaction. investment management and financial innovations, 13(3–1). https://doi.org/10.21511/imfi.13(3-1).2016.13 mahembe, b. (2010). the relationship between servant leadership, team commitment, team citizenship behaviour and team effectiveness: an exploratory study. doctoral dissertation. stellenbosch: university of stellenbosch. mahembe, b., & engelbrecht, a. s. (2013). the relationship between servant leadership, affective team commitment and team effectiveness. sa journal of human resourcemanagement/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #495, 10 pages. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.495 makanjee, c. r., hartzer, y. f., & uys, i. l. (2006). the effect of perceived organisational support on organisational commitment of diagnostic imaging radiographers. radiography, 12(2), 118–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radi.2005.04.005 martin, a. (2007). employee perceptions of organisational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intention in a post-merger institution. unpublished master’s thesis. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. martin, a., & roodt, g. (2008). perceptions of organisational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intention in a post-merger south african tertiary institution. south african journal of industrial psychology, 43(1), 23–31. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v34i1.415 mathieu, j. e., & zajac, d. m. (1990). a review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of organisational commitment and satisfaction. psychological bulletin, 108(2), 171–194. meyer, j. p., & allen, n. j. (1991). a three component conceptualisation of organisational commitment. human resource management review, 1(1), 61–89. http://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.108.2.171 meyer, j. p., & allen, n. j. (1997). commitment in the workplace: theory, research and application. thousand oaks, ca: sage. meyer, j. p., & herscovitch, l. (2001). commitment in the workplace toward a general model. human resource management review, 11(3), 299–326. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(00)00053-x meyer, j. p., stanley, d. j., herscovitch, l., & topolnytsky, l. (2002). affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organisation: a meta-analysis of antecedents, correlates and consequences. journal of vocational behaviour, 61(1), 20–52. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2001.1842 miao, r., & kim, h. (2010). perceived organizational support, job satisfaction and employee performance: an chinese empirical study. journal of service science and management, 3(2), 257–264. https://doi.org/10.4236/jssm.2010.32032 mobley, w. h., horner, s. o., & hollingsworth, a. t. (1979). an evaluation of precursors of hospital employee turnover. journal of applied psychology, 63(4), 408–414. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.63.4.408 mthembu, o. s. (2017). an integrated model of the impact of individual cultural values and the mediating effect of job satisfaction, organisational commitment and perceived support on turnover intention. unpublished doctoral thesis. university of the western cape. muchinsky, p. m. (2005). psychology applied to work (7th ed.). belmont: wadsworth/thomson learning. mummedy, p. k. (2008). the impact of perceived organizational support on innovativeness of entry-level employees working in the information technology sector of hyderabad, india. malaysia: universiti sains. naotunna, s., & arachchige, b. (2016). perceived organizational support and non-managerial employees’ commitment to change in sri lankan apparel firms. south asian journal of human resources management, 3(1), 40–57. https://doi.org/10.1177/2322093716637167 nasyira, m. n., othman, m., & ghazali, h. (2014). predictors of intention to stay for employees of casual dining and restaurants in klong valley area. international food research journal, 21(3), 863–871. paille, p., bourdeau, l., & galois, i. (2010). support, trust, satisfaction, intent to leave and citizenship at organizational level: a social exchange approach. journal of organizational analysis, 18(1), 41–19. https://doi.org/10.1108/19348831011033203 pallant, j. (2010). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using spss (4th edn.). london: mcgraw-hill. perryer, c., jordan, c., firns, i., & travaglione, a. (2010). predicting turnover intention: the interactive effects of organisational commitment and perceived organisational support. management research review, 33(9), 911–923. https://doi.org/10.1108/01409171011070323 rhoades, l., & eisenberger, r. (2002). perceived organisational support: a review of literature. journal of applied psychology, 87(4), 698–714. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.698 roodt, g. (2004). concept redundancy and contamination in employee commitment research: current problems and future directions. sa journal of industrial psychology, 30(1), 82–90. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v30i1.135 rutherford, m. w., & holt, d. t. (2007). corporate entrepreneurship: an empirical look at the innovativeness dimension and its antecedents. journal of organizational change management, 20(3), 429–446, https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810710740227 scott, k. l., restubog, s. d., & zagenczyk, t. j. (2013). a social exchange-based model of the antecedents of workplace exclusion. journal of applied psychology, 98(1), 37–48. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030135 steel, r. p., & lounsbury, j. w. (2009). turnover process models: review and synthesis of a conceptual literature. human resource management review, 19(4), 271–282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2009.04.002 tekleab, a. g., takeuchi, r., & taylor, m. (2005). extending the chain of relationships among organisational justice, social exchange, and employee reactions: the role of contract violations. academy of management journal, 48(1), 146–157. terre blanche, m., & durrheim, k. (eds.). (1999). research in practice. cape town: uct press. tsui, a. s., pearce, j. l., porter, l. w., & tripoli, a. m. (1997). alternative approaches to the employee-organization relationship: does investment in employees pay off? academy of management journal, 40(5), 1089–1121. https://doi.org/10.2307/256928 tumwesigye, g. (2010). the relationship between perceived organisational support and turnover intention in a developing country: the mediating role of organisational commitment. african journal of business management, 4(6), 942–952. ucar, d., & otten, a. b. (2010). perceived organisational support and organisational commitment: the mediating role of organisational based self-esteem. dukuz, eylul universitesi iktisadi ve idari bilimler fakultesi dergisi, 25(2), 85–105. van schalkwyk, s., du toit, d. h., bothma, a. s., & rothmann, s. (2010). job insecurity, leadership empowerment behaviour, employee engagement and intention to leave in a petrochemical laboratory. south african journal of human resource management, 8(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.234 wayne, s., shore, l., & linden, r. (1997). perceived organisational support and leader-member exchange: a social exchange perspective. academy of management journal, 40(1), 82–111. https://doi.org/10.2307/257021 zumrah, a. r., & boyle, s. (2015). the effects of perceived organisational support and job satisfaction on transfer of training. personnel review, 44(2), 236–254. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-02-2013-0029 abstract introduction literature review research design research method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) jessica dos santos tome school of industrial psychology and human resource management, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa leoni van der vaart school of industrial psychology and human resource management, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa citation dos santos tome, j., & van der vaart, l. (2020). work pressure, emotional demands and work performance among information technology professionals in south africa: the role of exhaustion and depersonalisation. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1362. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1362 original research work pressure, emotional demands and work performance among information technology professionals in south africa: the role of exhaustion and depersonalisation jessica dos santos tome, leoni van der vaart received: 21 mar. 2020; accepted: 06 aug. 2020; published: 08 oct. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: technological advancements are occurring at a rapid rate, and individuals working in information technology (it) often work under challenging and emotionally demanding circumstances. also, there is a shortage of it professionals, and organisations have difficulty retaining them. these circumstances may result in exhaustion and depersonalisation that have negative consequences for the work performance of the remaining it professionals. research purpose: this research aimed to investigate the relationships between work pressure, emotional demands, exhaustion, depersonalisation, task performance and counterproductive work behaviour among it professionals within south africa. motivation for the study: research on the individual work performance of it professionals, specifically in south africa, is limited in number and scope. research approach/design and method: in this study, a quantitative approach was used to collect cross-sectional data from a convenience sample of 296 it professionals in south africa. main findings: results from structural equation modelling (sem) indicated that emotional demands and depersonalisation impacted task performance positively and negatively, respectively. depersonalisation positively impacted counterproductive work behaviour, and work pressure positively impacted exhaustion. practical/managerial implications: organisations should aim to create awareness of it professionals experiencing emotional demands, work pressure and depersonalisation as there are consequences for these behaviours. beyond awareness creation, management should design and implement interventions to optimise emotional demands and to minimise work pressure and depersonalisation. contribution/value-add: the study contributes to the limited literature on it professionals’ work performance within a south african context by providing insights on the role exhaustion and depersonalisation play (or the lack thereof) in explaining the effect of work demands on individual work performance. keywords: job demands; task performance; counterproductive work behaviour; indirect effects; it professionals; south africa. introduction the fourth industrial revolution (4th ir) – a digital revolution occurring at an exponential rate – has a significant impact on organisations (marr, 2018; schwab, 2016). although this digital revolution presents opportunities (e.g. connecting people and optimising organisational efficiency) (schwab, 2016), most organisations struggle to keep up with the technological advancements (holly, 2018). organisational success, in this digital era, is highly dependent on information technology (it) professionals who can bridge the gap between technological potential and the practical reality thereof (murphy, 2018). consequently, there is significant pressure on it professionals to perform (anderson & rainie, 2018). however, these professionals have added burdens created by a global shortage of it skills (brooks, greer, & morris, 2018; naidoo, 2018) and high turnover rates among these professionals (diedericks & rothmann, 2014; van zyl, van oort, rispens, & olckers, 2019). doing more with less (i.e. high workload) has implications for performance (van zyl et al., 2019), but it is only one side of the coin. in delivering services, it professionals often encounter clients that are demanding and/or unhappy (nexus group, 2018). increased workloads coupled with emotionally laden encounters potentially hamper performance (plaatjies & mitrovic, 2014) to such an extent that it may also lead to negative (or counterproductive) work behaviours (ceschi, sartori, dickert, & costantini, 2016; chen, li, xia, & he, 2017). these consequences are often not only as a direct result of work-related demands but also because employees suffer psychologically; they are emotionally exhausted and detached from their work (schaufeli, 2017). although evidence exists that supports the belief that employees’ job demands have an impact on their well-being, which in turn influence their performance (schaufeli, 2017; tomo & de simone, 2018), these studies rarely focus explicitly on it professionals (zakaria, abdulatiff, & ali, 2014; zakariah, zainal, & shariff, 2018). within the south african context, studies focussing on it professionals (or more broadly, employees in the it industry) mainly investigated flexible work arrangements (conradie & de klerk, 2019), retention (naidoo, 2018; van dyk & coetzee, 2012) or well-being (diedericks & rothmann, 2014). naidoo (2018) included job performance but neglected to focus on negative performance behaviours. this is unfortunate because (1) performance of it professionals is relevant in the current world of work, and (2) it cannot be assumed that all demands are equal in terms of their impact on, for example, performance (li, taris, & peeters, 2019; van den broeck, de cuyper, de witte, & vansteenkiste, 2010). therefore, results cannot be haphazardly extrapolated from one context to the next. to address the limitations identified in literature, the current study investigated the relationship between the job demands (i.e. work pressure and emotional demands) and performance of it professionals in the south african context. more specifically, this study investigated the direct and indirect role of job demands in influencing performance through ill-being (i.e. exhaustion and depersonalisation). in doing so, this study contributes to individual work performance literature from an it professional’s perspective. the practical value-add of the study lies in organisations (and individuals) benefiting from an understanding of the impact of the work environment on it professionals’ well-being and individual work performance. stakeholders can use this understanding to design and implement evidence-based interventions to optimise well-being and performance and, ultimately, organisational success. literature review work pressure and emotional demands work pressure relates to the amount of work, the amount of time taken to complete and how often an employee is stretched to meet deadlines (ahuja & rathore, 2018; bakker, 2014). because of the nature of their work, it professionals are faced with high levels of work pressure. not only does the current technologically orientated environment demand a lot, but they must also often work overtime upgrading and maintaining software, ensuring office computer networks are functioning, and maintaining databases (deal, 2013; koong, liu, & lui, 2015). these are tasks that one can often not postpone. information technology professionals also provide client services such as designing, managing, supporting or implementing systems or products (naidoo, 2018). information technology professionals may not have an emotional attachment to their job content as they simply regard performing tasks as part of their job. however, they may experience emotionally demanding situations when dealing with client complaints and dissatisfaction (rutkowski & saunders, 2018). in these situations, it professionals may be required to continually invest emotional effort (rutkowski & saunders, 2018) to regulate their own or others’ feelings (vammen, 2016). such situations can include emotionally loaded encounters with demanding clients, or even disrespect and rudeness (bakker, 2014), leading to increased emotional demands. exhaustion and depersonalisation burnout is often used in organisational psychology literature as an indicator of employee ill-being (de beer & bianchi, 2019; maslach & leiter, 2016). it is a psychological syndrome that develops as a result of prolonged exposure to demands at work (maslach & leiter, 2016). emotional exhaustion – one dimension of burnout (maslach & jackson, 1986) – is described as a chronic state of emotional depletion, loss of energy, debilitation and fatigue (maslach & leiter, 2016). emotional exhaustion occurs when it employees feel emotionally drained and overwhelmed by the demands of their work (cafasso, 2018). depersonalisation – another dimension of burnout (maslach & jackson, 1986) – can be referred to as a cynical or detached attitude towards others at work and serves as a protection mechanism against the psychological stress stemming from interactions with others (maslach & leiter, 2016). furthermore, depersonalisation can be described as presenting a sustained and composite negative response towards different working conditions (e.g. working hours), which can cause a skewed perspective of one’s work (barker, 2016). although burnout is also characterised by reduced personal accomplishment (maslach & jackson, 1986), this symptom was excluded from the current study. more and more studies show that exhaustion and cynicism constitute the core of burnout, and that reduced personal accomplishment should instead be modelled as an outcome of the syndrome (de beer & bianchi, 2019). individual work performance individual work performance is defined as ‘employee behaviours or actions that are relevant to the goals of the organization’ (campbell, 1990, p. 67). task performance can be defined as ‘proficiency with which central job tasks are performed’ (koopmans et al., 2011, p. 862). these proficient behaviours include behaviours that contribute directly to the technical core and maintenance activities in an organisation (aguinis, 2013). typical behaviours include completing job tasks, updating knowledge and planning and organising (koopmans et al., 2011); these behaviours are all relevant in the it context. counterproductive behaviour at work is a serious concern because of its negative consequences for the organisation’s reputation, stakeholders and/or ethical culture (vorster, 2018). counterproductive work behaviour (cwb) is any intentional, unacceptable or harmful behaviours that have the potential to have negative consequences for an organisation’s operational and financial well-being and the staff members within that organisation. typical behaviours include complaining and spreading unwanted messages about the organisation (koopmans et al., 2011). the relations between work pressure and emotional demands, exhaustion and depersonalisation, and performance from job demands–resources perspective the current study is positioned within the job demands–resources (jd-r) theory (demerouti, bakker, nachreiner, & schaufeli, 2001) and more specifically within the energetic process of the theory. the jd-r theory posits that every workplace has characteristics that can be categorised into job demands and job resources (bakker & demerouti, 2014). job demands have been described as those ‘physical, social, and organizational aspects of the job that require sustained physical or mental effort and are therefore associated with certain physiological and psychological costs’ (demerouti et al., 2001, p. 501). in the current study, work pressure and emotional demands are positioned as job demands. the energetic process of the theory postulates that job demands, in general, are associated with costs and influence both well-being and performance negatively (bakker & demerouti, 2014, 2017). a large body of evidence supports this (see lesener, gusy, & wolter, 2019; and schaufeli & taris, 2014 for overviews). information technology professionals who are dealing with job demands, such as work pressure and emotional demands, report an inability to perform optimally (plaatjies & mitrovic, 2014). emotional demands were also found to have an impact on it professionals’ performance, as these professionals spend energy on managing their emotions in client interactions and support (cafasso, 2018). in contrast, job demands have a positive relationship with cwb. this may be a consequence of feeling overwhelmed and/or reacting negatively to these demands (ceschi et al., 2016; chen et al., 2017). consistent with theory and previous research, it is expected that there is a negative relationship between work pressure and task performance (hypothesis 1a) but a positive relationship between work pressure and cwb (hypothesis 1b). it is also expected that there is a negative relationship between emotional demands and task performance (hypothesis 2a) but a positive relationship between emotional demands and cwb (hypothesis 2b). after prolonged exposure to work pressure and emotional demands, employees may become chronically exhausted and distance themselves psychologically from their work (bakker, schaufeli, sixma, bosveld, & van dierendonck, 2000). in other words, they may start experiencing burnout because of high job demands (de beer & bianchi, 2019; gauche, de beer, & brink, 2017; hsu, 2019). consistent with theory and previous research, it is expected that there is a positive relationship between work pressure and exhaustion (hypothesis 3a) and depersonalisation (hypothesis 3b), respectively. it is also expected that there is a positive relationship between emotional demands and exhaustion (hypothesis 4a) and depersonalisation (hypothesis 4b), respectively. employers may also start noticing changes in employees’ job performance because employees are overworked and emotionally exhausted (bang & reio, 2017; campbell, 2016). this could be because they feel less confident to solve work problems (bakker, demerouti, taris, schaufeli, & schreurs, 2003), they lack emotional and physical resources (wallgren, 2013) or because they are attempting to conserve their energy (tourigny, vishwanath, han, & wang, 2012). employees may become so emotionally exhausted and detached from their tasks that they display cwbs (studebaker, 2017). burnout, or some of its symptoms, has been found to be positively associated with cwb (bang, & reio, 2017; bolton, harvey, & grawitch, 2012; ugwu, enwereuzor, fimber, & ugwu, 2017). consistent with theory and previous research, it is expected that there is a negative relationship between exhaustion and task performance (hypothesis 5a) but a positive relationship between exhaustion and cwb (hypothesis 5b). it is also expected that there is a negative relationship between depersonalisation and task performance (hypothesis 6a) but a positive relationship between depersonalisation and cwb (hypothesis 6b). the indirect effect of work pressure and emotional demands on job performance as illustrated above, direct relationships may exist between job demands and performance, between job demands and ill-being and between ill-being and performance. however, indirect relationships between job demands and performance may also exist. it is necessary to investigate such indirect relationships because lang, thomas, bliese and adler (2007) explain that the demands–performance link is generally weak. the jd-r theory provides a useful framework for investigating the impact of job demands (i.e. determinants) on individual work performance (i.e. outcome) through exhaustion and depersonalisation (i.e. mediators) (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). the theory explains that the increase in demands may result in burnout (exhaustion and depersonalisation), which in turn may lead to adverse performance outcomes for the individual (schaufeli, 2017). daily job demands, such as having to work long hours and providing a service and support function in the it environment, may not only exhaust it professionals but may also lead to them detaching from work, which can lead to poor task performance and cwb. empirical evidence supports this. for example, studies found that exhaustion partially mediated the relationship between demands and performance (ceschi et al., 2016; onwezen, van veldhoven, & biron, 2014). depersonalisation also mediated the relationship between job demands and individuals’ work performance (kar & suar, 2014; lee, ok, lee, & lee, 2018). consistent with theory and previous research, it is expected that work pressure and emotional demands indirectly affect task performance through exhaustion (hypothesis 7a) and depersonalisation (hypothesis 7b). it is also expected that work pressure and emotional demands indirectly affect cwb through exhaustion (hypothesis 8a) and depersonalisation (hypothesis 8b). research design research approach a cross-sectional survey design was used to achieve the research objectives. this design translates into the collection of data at a single point in time. cross-sectional designs are often used, as an essential first step, to determine whether variables are related before investing resources in longitudinal studies (spector, 2019). research method participants the participants were sampled from various south african organisations. a convenience sample of it professionals across various organisations was included (n = 296). the sample consisted of both females (25.7%) and males (74.3%). the average age of the respondents was 37 years (standard deviation [sd] = 9.81). the average tenure in the same position was 6 years (sd = 5.85). measuring instruments a biographical questionnaire was used to determine age, gender and years of experience within the current position. work pressure and emotional demands were measured by using the demands-resource questionnaire (jdrq) (bakker, 2014). participants were expected to rate these two demands by using a five-point frequency scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (very often). work pressure had four items (e.g. ‘do you work under time pressure?’), and emotional demands comprised six items (e.g. ‘is your work emotionally demanding?’). exhaustion and depersonalisation were measured by using the maslach burnout inventory – general survey (mbi) (schaufeli, leiter, maslach, jackson, & schwab, 1996). participants were required to rate themselves on a scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (very often). exhaustion (e.g. ‘i feel emotionally drained from my work’) and depersonalisation (e.g. ‘i have become less enthusiastic about my work’) were measured by using five items each. task performance and cwb were measured by using the individual work performance questionnaire (iwpq 1.0) (koopmans, 2015). task performance consisted of five items (e.g. ‘i kept in mind the results that i had to achieve in my work’) measured on a five-point frequency scale ranging from 1 (seldom) to 5 (always). counterproductive work behaviour also consisted of five items (e.g. ‘i made problems greater than they were at work’) measured on a five-point frequency scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (often). procedure the relevant research ethics committee granted ethics approval prior to data collection. convenience sampling was used to collect data via three avenues: door-to-door, social media and a research company. door-to-door recruitment entailed meetings with gatekeepers to provide information regarding the research and to obtain permission to distribute the questionnaire among their employees. in all three instances, a mail was sent to prospective participants containing information about the study and a link to the consent form and the questionnaire. statistical analysis for the purpose of this study, both ibm spss 25 (ibm corporation, 2016) and mplus version 8.2 (muthén & muthén, 1998–2018) were used. to determine the validity of the instruments, and to identify the best fitting measurement model, confirmatory factor analyses (cfa) were performed. by means of structural equation modelling (sem), a structural model was estimated by inserting the hypothesised regression paths based on the best fitting measurement model. the models were estimated by using the maximum likelihood robust (mlr) estimator, which is robust to skewness and kurtosis (kline, 2016). the indices that were used to interpret the measurement and structural models’ fit to the data included the chi-square (χ2), degrees of freedom (df), root mean square error of approximation (rmsea), standardised root means square residual (srmr) and incremental fit indices (i.e. tucker-lewis index [tli] and the comparative fit index [cfi]). the cfi and tli should yield values above 0.95 to be acceptable (hu & bentler, 1999), but should be treated as guidelines in applied research (west, taylor, & wu, 2012). wang and wang (2020) consider 0.90 as appropriate cut-off values for these two fit indices. further, srmr values closer to 0.08 indicate acceptable fit between the model and the data (wang & wang, 2020). the rmsea values should be less than 0.08 to indicate an acceptable fit (kline, 2016). in addition to the incremental fit indices, comparative fit indices (akaike information criterion [aic] and the bayes information criterion [bic]) were used to compare the different measurement and structural models. the model with the lowest value is preferred (kline, 2016). based on the best-fitting structural model, the potential indirect effects of work pressure and emotional demands on task performance and cwb through exhaustion and depersonalisation were tested. bootstrapping and the construction of bias-corrected 95% confidence intervals (cis) were used to test the indirect effects (hayes, 2017) of work pressure and emotional demands. effect sizes were utilised as indicators of practical significance for correlations with ≥ 0.30 representing a medium effect and ≥ 0.50 representing a large effect (cohen, 1992). to evaluate the reliability of the measuring instruments, composite reliability coefficients (ρ) were calculated with a cut-off point of 0.70 (wang & wang, 2020). composite reliability was used as it is more accurate than cronbach’s alpha coefficients when using latent variable modelling to determine the internal consistency of the constructs (raykov, 2009). however, cronbach’s coefficient alpha is also reported for transparency and potential future research purposes. ethical consideration ethics approval was granted by the research ethics committee of the nwu (no. nwu-hs-2017-0046). results testing measurement models four competing measurement models were tested by using cfa because of the cross-sectional nature of the data. in model 1, work pressure, emotional demands, exhaustion, depersonalisation, task performance and cwb were specified as six separate factors with items loading onto their respective a-priori factors. in model 2, work pressure and emotional demands were specified as one factor (i.e. work demands), depersonalisation and exhaustion were specified as one factor (i.e. ill-being) and task performance and cwb were specified as two separate factors. in model 3, work pressure and emotional demands were specified as one factor (i.e. work demands) with exhaustion, depersonalisation, task performance and cwb as four separate factors. in model 4, work pressure and emotional demands were specified as two separate factors, depersonalisation and exhaustion were specified as one factor (i.e. burnout) and task performance and cwb were specified as two separate factors. model fit statistics are reported in table 1. table 1: competing measurement models. based on the results and the recommended cut-off values, model 1 fitted the data better than the competing models. critique is leveraged against more complex models having a better fit (kline, 2016) and model 1 is the most complex of the four models. to address this critique, the aic and bic values are compared. akaike information criterion and bic penalise model complexity so that simpler theoretical models are favoured over more complex ones (adams, 2018). hence, in addition to the cfi, tli and rmsea values being closer to the cut-off values, the aic and bic values were also the lowest for model 1. however, model 1 only partially met the criteria and, consequently, the model needed to be improved. model improvement to improve the model’s fit, certain items were removed, and the error of variances of some items was correlated. modification indices were used to guide model development, and the fit statistics for the revised models are reported in table 2. in model 1a problematic items were deleted: (a) work pressure items 1 (‘do you have to work at speed?’), 2 (‘do you have too much work to do?’) and 3 (‘how often do you have to work extra hard in order to reach a deadline?’) and (b) depersonalisation item 3 (‘i just want to do my job and not be bothered’). these items were problematic, as they cross-loaded repeatedly on other constructs as opposed to their own theoretical constructs. despite these modifications, the fit statistics of model 1a did not meet the required cut-off values. in model 1b, model improvement continued with allowing error variances to correlate between cwb 4 (‘i talked to colleagues about the negative aspects of my work’) and cwb 5 (‘i talked to people outside the organisation about the negative aspects of my work’), also between dp 4 (‘i have become more cynical about whether my work contributes anything’) and dp 5 (‘i doubt the significance of my work’) in addition to the items deleted in model 1a. correlated errors may occur because of an overlap in item content such as cwb 4 and cwb 5 referring to the negative aspects of work and dp 4 and dp 5 which refer to whether a significant contribution is made to a person’s work. model 1b met the minimum required cut-off values. table 2: model fit statistics for model improvement. table 3 shows descriptive statistics, the reliability coefficients and correlations between work pressure, emotional demands, depersonalisation, task performance and cwb based on model 1b. the reliability coefficients range from 0.78 to 0.91, indicating acceptable reliability. the relationships between most of the variables were statistically and practically significant with either a small, medium or large effect. table 3: correlation matrix including reliabilities means and standard deviations. according to the results in table 3, all the significant correlations were in the expected directions. work pressure correlated significantly positive with emotional demands (r = 0.39; medium effect), exhaustion (r = 0.47; medium effect) and depersonalisation (r = 0.16; small effect). emotional demands only correlated significantly with exhaustion (r = 0.19; small effect). exhaustion correlated significantly positive with depersonalisation (r = 0.57; large effect), whereas both exhaustion and depersonalisation correlated with cwb (r = 0.27; small effect and r = 0.34; medium effect, respectively), but negatively with task performance (r = −0.24; small and r = −0.35 medium effect, respectively). neither work pressure nor emotional demands correlated significantly with task performance (r = −0.03 and r = 0.12) or cwb (r = 0.03 and r = 0.06). this means that there could potentially be mediators involved (i.e. exhaustion and depersonalisation). emotional demands also did not correlate significantly with depersonalisation (r = 0.14). testing structural models the measurement model formed the basis for the structural models. three competing structural models were tested. model 1 (also known as the direct and indirect pathways model) was the hypothesised model with direct and indirect paths between all variables. model 2 (also known as the direct pathway model) contained only direct pathways from the independent variables (work pressure, emotional demands and exhaustion) to the dependent variables (task performance and cwb). model 3 (also known as the indirect pathway model) did not contain paths from the work demands variables to the independent variables. model 1 showed acceptable fit to the data with: χ2 = 488.40, df = 282, cfi = 0.94, tli = 0.93 and rmsea = 0.05 (0.04, 0.06). model 1’s fit was slightly better than models 2 and 3 with higher cfi and tli values, a non-significant rmsea value as well as lower aic and bic values. figure 1 shows the standardised path coefficients for the best fitting structural model, which were subsequently used to test indirect effects. figure 1: structural model of demands, ill-being and performance (dashed lines indicate non-significant regression paths). only four of the regression paths were significant. hypothesis 1 aimed to determine whether (h1a) a negative relationship between work pressure and task performance exists and whether (h1b) a positive relationship between work pressure and cwb exists. hypotheses 1a (β = −0.01, p = 0.96) and 1b (β = −0.10, p = 0.28) were both rejected. hypothesis 2 aimed to determine whether there is a (h2a) negative relationship between emotional demands and task performance and (h2b) a positive relationship between emotional demands and cwb. emotional demands were found to have a positive (not negative) significant relationship with task performance (β = 0.18, p < 0.05); the hypothesis was therefore rejected. in relation to hypothesis 2b, emotional demands and cwb did not have a significant positive relationship; therefore, the hypothesis was rejected (β = 0.03, p < 0.001). hypothesis 3 aimed to determine whether there is a positive relationship between work pressure and (h3a) exhaustion and (h3b) depersonalisation. hypothesis 3a confirmed that there was a significant positive relationship between pressure and exhaustion (β = 0.47, p < 0.001); thus, the hypothesis was accepted. with reference to hypothesis 3b, the positive relationship between pressure and depersonalisation was not significant (β = 0.13, p = 0.10), and the hypothesis was rejected. hypothesis 4 aimed to determine whether there is a positive relationship between emotional demands and (h4a) exhaustion and (h4b) depersonalisation. hypothesis 4a, the relationship between emotional demands and exhaustion, was not significant (β = 0.00, p = 0.96), and the hypothesis was rejected. h4b was also rejected because of a non-significant (β = 0.09, p = 0.27) relationship between emotional demands and depersonalisation. hypothesis 5 aimed to determine whether there was (h5a) a negative relationship between exhaustion and task performance and (h5b) a positive relationship between exhaustion and counterproductive work performance. hypothesis 5a showed a negative relationship between exhaustion and task performance; however, it was not significant (β = −0.09, p = 0.34), thus, rejecting the hypothesis. hypothesis 5b was not accepted, as the relationship was not significant (β = 0.16, p = 0.16). hypothesis 6 was to determine if there is (h6a) a negative relationship between depersonalisation and task performance and (h6b) a positive relationship between depersonalisation and cwb. hypothesis 6a was found to have a significant negative relationship between depersonalisation and task performance (β = −0.33, p < 0.001); therefore, it was accepted. additionally, hypothesis 6b specified a positive significant (β = −0.27, p < 0.001) relationship between depersonalisation and cwb. indirect effects of work pressure on exhaustion and depersonalisation bootstrapping, with bias-corrected cis, was used to generate estimations of possible indirect effects. the bias-corrected cis were set at 95% for all indirect effects. the lower and upper percentiles served as a limit in that if zero was not contained within these limits, the indirect effects are confirmed (hayes, 2017). tables 5 and 6 indicate the lower and upper cis, as well as the estimates and standard errors of the indirect effects. table 4: competing structural models. table 5: indirect effect of work pressure on task performance and counterproductive work behaviour. table 6: indirect effect of emotional demands on task performance and counterproductive work behaviour. as indicated in tables 5 and 6, none of the indirect effects was significant. the results are supported by the cis containing zero for both. therefore, hypothesis 7, which states that work pressure and emotional demands indirectly affected task performance through (h7a) exhaustion and (h7b) depersonalisation, was rejected. hypothesis 8, stating that work pressure (h8a) and emotional demands (h8b) indirectly affect cwb through exhaustion, was also rejected. discussion the general aim of this research was to investigate the relationships between work pressure, emotional demands, exhaustion, depersonalisation, task performance and cwb among a sample of it professionals within south africa. more specifically, the current study investigated the indirect relationship between work pressure, emotional demands and individual work performance through exhaustion and depersonalisation. this was done to provide an understanding of the role exhaustion and depersonalisation play in explaining the impact of work pressure and emotional demands on individual work performance. it is essential, in today’s digital era and it expansion, for it professionals to perform optimally as businesses are reliant on it professionals to ensure optimal organisational functioning. the aim of the first and second sets of hypotheses entailed investigating the relationship between work pressure, emotional demands, task performance and cwb. results indicated that work pressure had no direct significant relationship with either task performance or cwb. emotional demands also had no direct significant relationship with cwb, but surprisingly it was positively associated with task performance. so, when it professionals experienced emotional demands, they performed their core tasks better. although these findings (except for the relationship between emotional demands and cwb) contradict mainstream findings (cafasso, 2018; plaatjies & mitrovic, 2014), it is not surprising if one considers the finer nuances of the jd-r theory. the jd-r theory postulates (1) that job and/or personal resources may buffer the negative impact of job demands (bakker & demerouti, 2017) and (2) that job demands can be divided into challenges or hindrances (lepine, podsakoff, & lepine, 2005). hence all job demands are not equal (li et al., 2019; van den broeck et al., 2010). although not measured in the current study, personal resources such as self-efficacy or optimism help employees to performance despite the demands being placed on them (bakker & demerouti, 2017). for many years, the it field has been a high-pressure environment as technology has been advancing at a rapid rate. therefore, it has become a norm to work under pressure within the it field (grier, 2018). the more one works under pressure, the better one becomes at it (grier, 2018). the personal resources that it professionals develop may be a buffer protecting them from the adverse performance effects of the demand. similarly, because of the nature of their job, it could be that it professionals have developed coping mechanisms (that becomes personal resources) to deal with emotional demands. such mechanisms may include increased effort to avoid customer complaints which could also explain the positive relationship between this emotional demands and task performance. challenge demands are those job demands that not only require an effort but also present growth and development opportunities (podsakoff, lepine, & lepine, 2007). examples include, among others, workload and pressure (lepine et al., 2005). meta-analytic studies confirmed the positive outcomes of challenge demands (lesener et al., 2019; podsakoff et al., 2007). on the other hand, hindrance demands are those job demands that involve excessive or unwanted constraints that prevent the employee from achieving their goals (cavanaugh, boswell, roehling, & boudreau, 2000). meta-analytic results confirm the adverse outcomes associated with hindrance demands (crawford, lepine, & rich, 2010). more recent studies also advocate for a distinction between low challenge and high challenge demands because they have a differential impact on well-being (see li et al., 2019). using this line of reasoning, it may be that the sample from this study does not perceive work pressure as a high hindering demand, and as such, it does not hamper task performance. neither does it trigger cwb. in addition, it professionals under pressure may not exercise cwb, because when they are under pressure, they may not have the time, effort or energy to purposefully oppose the goals and aims of their employer (yang & diefendorff, 2009). it is also plausible then that the current sample perceives emotional demands as a challenging demand. researchers (bakker & sanz-vergel, 2013) have previously categorised emotional demands as a challenge demand. this will also support the non-significant association with cwb, which is in line with previous research (see chen et al., 2017). this means that it professionals do not allow emotional demands to influence them to the extent that they want to harm the organisation’s goals and that they will still uphold a certain work ethic regardless of the emotional turmoil. however, more research is needed to provide conclusive evidence, and this research should also measure the moderation effect of appraisals on the demand–performance relationship (see li et al., 2019). the third and fourth sets of hypotheses aimed to determine if a relationship exists between work pressure, emotional demands, exhaustion and depersonalisation. results indicated that work pressure had a positive relationship with exhaustion, but not with depersonalisation. this indicates that work pressure is harmful to the extent that it exhausts it professionals, but it does not translate into negative (i.e. cynical) attitudes. previous research also found that work pressure had a more substantial effect on exhaustion than on depersonalisation (brouwers, tomic, & boluijt, 2011). as the results depict, it seems that it professionals who have increased work pressure (because of high demands) become more exhausted as more energy is needed to deal with their workload. again, using the high versus low hindering demand line of reasoning, it may be that work pressure is only a low hindering demand, which may result in exhaustion but not depersonalisation (or cwb as indicated earlier). results indicated that emotional demands had no significant direct relationship with either exhaustion or depersonalisation. again, using the challenge versus hindrance argument, emotional demands may not be perceived as a hindrance. alternatively, it professionals detach themselves from interpersonal issues, as a coping mechanism, with no negative well-being consequences. previous studies have indicated that psychological detachment decreases well-being complaints (sonnentag, binnewies, & mojza, 2010; sonnentag & fritz, 2007). the aim of the fifth and six sets of objectives was to determine if a relationship exists between exhaustion, depersonalisation, task performance and cwb. results indicated that there was no significant relationship between exhaustion, task performance and cwb. although work pressure increases exhaustion, exhaustion holds no negative consequences for performance. once again, a job or personal resource may buffer the outcomes of exhaustion (bakker & demerouti, 2017). the non-significant relationship between exhaustion and cwb shows that it professionals, who experience exhaustion, do not have the energy to work against the organisation’s ‘current’ goals. counterproductive work performance is an individual’s conscious decision to work counterproductively; however, when an it professional is exhausted, he/she may make mistakes rather than be guilty of sabotage. the results showed that there was a significant negative relationship between depersonalisation, task performance and cwb. because of the nature of the work of it professionals, sometimes performing repetitive tasks and having a monotonous type of job when it comes to some of their primary functions, the result of this is that it professionals start depersonalising and detaching themselves from their actual work (doyle, 2019). this leads to not only more mediocre performance of core tasks but also engagement in cwb that harms the organisation. previous studies also showed that depersonalisation had a significantly negative relationship with task performance (lee et al., 2018; studebaker, 2017) and a significantly positive relationship with cwb (bolton et al., 2012; gorji, 2011). the aim of the seventh and eight sets of hypotheses was to determine whether work pressure and emotional demands indirectly affect task performance and cwb through exhaustion and depersonalisation. the results indicated that work pressure and emotional demands had no significant indirect effect on task performance. even though work pressure leads to exhaustion, it is not detrimental enough, or alternatively something (i.e. job or personal resource) buffers the consequential negative impact of exhaustion on performance. on the other hand, depersonalisation is detrimental to task performance. the detachment behaviour and negative attitudes towards their work and more specifically towards their task show that it professionals detach themselves from their tasks, which in turn influences their task performance. however, depersonalisation is not caused by work pressure but may be ascribed to other demands (e.g. cognitive load or role ambiguity) not measured in the current study. the results indicated that work pressure and emotional demands had no significant indirect effect on cwb through either exhaustion or depersonalisation. as explained earlier, neither work pressure nor emotional demands associated with depersonalisation; yet depersonalisation showed negative consequences for performance. implications for management managers need to understand what influences it professionals’ work performance and well-being (taris & schaufeli, 2015). even though work pressure is not detrimental to an it professional’s performance, it is detrimental to their well-being. work pressure can be motivating, but only the perfect type of pressure (i.e. low hindering) can help a team remain focussed and productive, without being exhausted (grier, 2018). to find the ‘perfect’ type of pressure, managers could distribute workloads evenly in their teams and work with the it professionals to determine realistic deadlines and timeframes to complete the tasks. managers could also provide it professionals with an opportunity to perform their tasks outside regular operating hours (introducing flexitime) within the negotiated timeframes. additionally, managers can introduce effort recovery strategies (els, mostert, & de beer, 2015). effort-recovery strategies during work hours include actions such as encouraging lunch breaks away from their desks and providing it professionals with the freedom to schedule their day-to-day tasks in line with the outcomes for that day. managers can also encourage it professionals to apply effort recovery strategies after work, such as playing games, participating in voluntary work and physical activities, and improving their sleep quality. similarly, the right type (i.e. high challenging) of emotional demands can be motivating. managers can, for example, encourage positive competition between peers by rewarding it professionals for successfully managing a difficult client, based on the time taken to resolve the task and calm the client. this also enhances a learning culture as the it professional who does this the quickest and most efficiently can teach other colleagues how to go about it. however, managers need to assist it professionals in optimising their coping mechanisms in dealing with emotional demands. this can be done by (1) providing it professionals with a standard operating procedure (sop) and (2) training them. an sop, together with training, may help them to deal with demanding clients and may prevent them from engaging in rude behaviours when dealing with clients. additionally, managers can arrange a mindfulness workshop that aids it professionals in understanding how they perceive a work environment, gaining knowledge about themselves and how to be mindful of their reaction to situations, especially when dealing with clients. additionally, management and it professionals should fully understand the signs and symptoms of a person experiencing depersonalisation. this could be achieved through a workshop that provides them with tools on how to identify and deal with depersonalisation. examples of these tools could be to teach them not to overact and thus enhance feelings of detachment; to promote an exciting work environment so that tedious, monotonous tasks are completed easily; and to attempt to involve and engage them in work conversations. lastly, management and it professionals should attend external workshops that deal with the signs of depersonalisation and exhaustion. such workshops enable all to notice when colleagues are experiencing feelings of detachment, cynicism or exhaustion. limitations and recommendations for future research the study had several methodological limitations that should be taken into consideration when interpreting the current results. firstly, the study was cross-sectional. causal interpretations could not be made about the relationships between constructs (spector, 2019) or reciprocal relationships between the variables (lesener et al., 2019). in future, a longitudinal design should be employed to determine (1) whether work pressure and emotional demands cause individual work performance and/or vice versa and (2) to confirm that the non-significant results were not because of measurement artefacts. secondly, the questionnaires were self-report measures, and this often causes common method variance. although none of the correlations in the current study were high, self-report surveys may inflate correlations between predictors and outcomes (spector, rosen, richardson, williams, & johson, 2019). in future, researchers could use multi-source data from managers and employees. thirdly, convenience sampling was used, which may influence the generalisability of the findings. more robust sampling methods are recommended for future research. last, organisational life and well-being should be modelled at the organisational, team and individual levels and not only at the individual level. when utilising a multilevel approach, it can shed light on how these processes play out on different levels (bakker & demerouti, 2018). researchers could also include appraisal measures that can account for the type (i.e. low/high challenge vs hindrance) of job demands. the first theoretical limitation of the study was that only two job demands were included. several other demands (e.g. cognitive demands, role conflict and hassles at work) can also be investigated in future research. the second theoretical limitation is that the jd-r theory does include not only job demands but also the role that job resources play in buffering the consequences of job demands. more specifically, among it professionals, it is vital to study job resources as it professionals may value growth and opportunities that buffer the demands. the last theoretical limitation is that personal resources (as an element of the jd-r theory) were not included in this study. future researchers should include personal resources in their study as they directly impact well-being; personal resources moderate the relation between job characteristics and well-being or influence the perception of job characteristics (van den broeck et al., 2010). conclusion despite limitations, results indicated that emotional demands and depersonalisation impacted the task performance of it professionals positively and negatively, respectively. work pressure positively impacted their exhaustion, whereas emotional demands positively impacted their task performance. depersonalisation had implications for it professionals’ task performance and cwb, albeit in different directions. this study contributes to the literature by highlighting the importance of distinguishing for whom job demands are detrimental. as the results show, not all job demands are equal in terms of their impact on well-being and performance. acknowledgements we thank prof. leon de beer for the critical reading of the manuscript. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions j.t. conceptualised and wrote the manuscript, l.v.d.v. conducted the data analysis and supervised j.t. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing will be done in line with ethics requirements. the data and syntaxes are the intellectual property of the north-west and will be provided upon reasonable requests. contact author for more information. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references adams, r. p. (2018). model selection and cross validation. retrieved from https://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/fall18/cos324/files/model-selection.pdf aguinis, h. (2013). performance management. upper saddle river, nj: pearson prentice hall. ahuja, v., & rathore, s. (2018). multidisciplinary perspectives on human capital and information technology. pennsylvania, pa: igi global publishers. anderson, j., & rainie, l. (2018). concerns about the future of people’s well-being. retrieved from https://www.pewinternet.org/2018/04/17/concerns-about-the-future-of-peoples-well-being/ bakker, (2014). the job demands–resources questionnaire [technical manual]. rotterdam: rotterdam university. bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2014). job demands-resources theory. in c. cooper & p. chen (eds.), wellbeing: a complete reference guide (pp. 37–64). chichester: wiley-blackwell. bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2017). job demands-resources theory: taking stock and looking forward. journal of occupational health psychology, 22(3), 273–285. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000056 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2018). multiple levels in job demands-resources theory: implications for employee well-being and performance. retrieved from https://nobascholar.com/chapters/36/download.pdf bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., taris, t.w., schaufeli, w.b., & schreurs, p.j.g. (2003). a multi group analysis of the job demands-resources model in four home care organizations. international journal of stress management, 10, 16–38. https://doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.10.1.16 bakker, a.b., & sanz-vergel, a.i. (2013). weekly work engagement and flourishing: the role of hindrance and challenge job demands. journal of vocational behavior, 83(3), 397–409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.06.008 bakker, a.b., schaufeli, w.b., sixma, h., bosveld, w., & van dierendonck, d. (2000). patient demands, lack of reciprocity, and burnout: a five-year longitudinal study among general practitioners. journal of organisational behaviour, 21, 1099–1379. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(200006)21:43.0.co;2-# bang, h., & reio, t.g. (2017). examining the role of cynicism in the relationships between burnout and employee behaviour. journal of work and organisation psychology, 33, 217–227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rpto.2017.07.0021576-5962/ barker, s. (2016). psychology for nursing and healthcare professionals: developing compassionate care. new york, ny: springer publishers. bolton, l.r., harvey, r.d., grawitch, m.j., & barber, l.k. (2012). counterproductive work behaviours in response to emotional exhaustion: a moderated mediational approach. stress health, 3, 222–233. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.1425 brooks, n.g., greer, t.h., & morris, s.a. (2018). information systems security job advertisement analysis: skills review and implications for information systems curriculum. journal of education for business, 93(5), 213–221. https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2018.1446893 brouwers, a., tomic, w., & boluijt, h. (2011). job demands, job control, social support and self-efficacy beliefs as determinants of burnout among physical education teachers. europe’s journal of psychology, 7(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v7i1.103 cafasso, j. (2018). emotional exhaustion: what it is and how to fix it. retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/emotional-exhaustion campbell, j.p. (1990). modeling the performance prediction problem in industrial and organizational psychology. in m.d. dunnette & l.m. hough (eds.), handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 687–732). palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. campbell, a. (2016). overworked employees? 15 signs you may be pushing workers too hard. retrieved from https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/overworked-employees-15-signs-may-pushing-workers-hard/ cavanaugh, m.a., boswell, w.r., roehling, m.v., & boudreau, j.w. (2000). an empirical investigation of self-reported work stress among us managers. journal of applied psychology, 85(1), 65–74. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.85.1.65 ceschi, a., sartori, r., dickert, s., & costantini, a. (2016). grit or honesty-humility? new insights into the moderating role of personality between the health impairment process and counterproductive work behavior. frontiers in psychology, 7, 1799. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01799 chen, y., li, s., xia, q., & he, c. (2017). the relationship between job demands and employees’ counterproductive work behaviors: the mediating effect of psychological detachment and job anxiety. frontiers in psychology, 8, 1890. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01890 cohen, j. (1992). statistical power analysis. current directions in psychological science, 1, 98–101. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.ep10768783 conradie, w.j., & de klerk, j.j. (2019). to flex or not to flex? flexible work arrangements amongst software developers in an emerging economy. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1175. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1175 crawford, e., lepine, j.a., & rich, b.l. (2010). linking job demands and resources to employee engagement and burnout: a theoretical extension and meta-analytic test. journal of applied psychology, 95(5), 834–848. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019364 deal, j.j. (2013). work life balance: welcome to the 72-hour work week. retrieved from https://hbr.org/2013/09/welcome-to-the-72-hour-work-we de beer, l.t., & bianchi, r. (2019). confirmatory factor analysis of the maslach burnout inventory: a bayesian structural equation modelling approach. european journal of psychological assessment, 35(2), 217–224. https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000392 demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., nachreiner, f., & schaufeli, w.b. (2001). the job demands-resources model of burnout. journal of applied psychology, 86(3), 449–512. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.499 diedericks, e., & rothmann, s. (2014). flourishing of information technology professionals: effects on individual and organisational outcomes. south african journal of business management, 45(1), 27–40. doyle, a. (2019). information technology (it) skills list and examples. retrieved from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/list-of-information-technology-it-skills-2062410 els, c., mostert, k., & de beer, l.t. (2015). job characteristics, burnout and the relationship with recovery experiences. sa journal of industrial psychology, 41(1), art. #1196, 13 pages. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v41i1.1196 gauche, c., de beer, l.t., & brink, l. (2017). managing employee well-being: a qualitative study exploring job and personal resources of at-risk employees. south african journal of human resource management, 15(0), art. #957, 13 pages. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.957 gorji, m. (2011). the effect of job burnout dimension on employees’ performance. international journal of social science and humanity, 1(4), 243–246. https://doi.org/10.7763/ijssh.2011.v1.43 grier, s. (2018). how to work under pressure. retrieved from http://www.itmanagersinbox.com/1549/how-to-work-under-pressure/ hayes, a.f. (2017). introduction to meditation, moderation, and conditional process analysis (2nd edn.). new york, ny: guilford press. holly, k.z. (2018). the most important tech trend of 2018 won’t be a technology. retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/krisztinaholly/2018/01/26/tech-trends-2018-amazon/#1c291c784054 hsu, h. c. (2019). age differences in work stress, exhaustion, well-being, and related factors from an ecological perspective. international journal of environmental research and public health, 16(1), 1–50. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16010050 hu, l., & bentler, p.m. (1999). cut-off criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. structural equation modeling: a multidisciplinary journal, 6(1), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 ibm corporation. (2016). ibm spss statistics for windows, version 25.0. armonk, ny: ibm corporation. kar, s., & suar, d. (2014). role of burnout in the relationship between job demands and job outcomes among indian nurses. vikalpa, 39(4), 23–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/0256090920140403 kline, r.b. (2016). principles and practice of structural equation modeling (4th edn.). new york, ny: the guilford press. koong, k.s., liu, l.c., & lui, x. (2015). a study of the demand for information technology professionals in selected internet job portals. journal of information systems education, 13(1), 21–28. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268354704_a_study_of_the_demand_for_information_technology_professionals_in_selected_internet_job_portals koopmans, l. (2015). individual work performance questionnaire [instruction manual]. rotterdam: tno innovation for life – vu university medical center. koopmans, l., bernaards, c., hildebrandt, v., schaufeli, w.b., de vet, h.c.w., & van der beek, a.j. (2011). conceptual frameworks of individual work performance: a systematic review. american college of occupational and environmental medicine, 53(8), 556–866. https://doi.org/10.1097/jom.0b013e318226a763 lang, j., thomas, j.l., bliese, p.d., & adler, a.b. (2007). job demands and job performance: the mediating effect of psychological and physical strain and the moderating effect of role clarity. journal of occupational health psychology, 12(2), 24–116. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.12.2.116 lee, j., ok, c.m., lee, s., & lee, c. (2018). relationship between emotional labor and customer orientation among airline service employees: mediating role of depersonalization. journal of travel research, 57(3), 324–341. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287517696 lepine, j.a., podsakoff, n.p., & lepine, m.a. (2005). a meta-analytic test of the challenge stressor–hindrance stressor framework: an explanation for inconsistent relationships among stressors and performance. academy of management journal, 48(5), 764–775. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2005.18803921 lesener, t., gusy, b., & wolter, c. (2019). the job demands-resources model: a meta-analytic review of longitudinal studies. work & stress, 33(1), 76–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2018.1529065 li, p., taris, t.w., & peeters, m.c.w. (2019). challenge and hindrance appraisals of job demands: one man’s meat, another man’s poison? anxiety, stress & coping, 33(1), 31–46. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2019.1673133 marr, b. (2018). the 4th industrial revolution is here – are you ready? retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/08/13/the-4th-industrial-revolution-is-here-are-you-ready/#10211c6f628b maslach, c., & jackson, s.e. (1986). maslach burnout inventory (2nd edn.). palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. maslach, c., & leiter, m.p. (2016). understanding the burnout experience: recent research and its implications for psychiatry. pubmed, 15(2), 11–103. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20311 murphy, j. (2018). four essential skills for workplace success: in the 21st century digital economy. retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2018/04/27/four-essential-skills-for-workplace-success-in-the-21st-century-digital-economy/#5577afc23fa4 muthén, b.o., & muthén, l.m. (1998–2018). mplus (version 8.2). computer software. los angeles, ca: muthén & muthén. naidoo, r. (2018). role stress and turnover intentions among information technology personnel in south africa: the role of supervisor support. south african journal of human resource management, 16(0), art. #936, 10 pages. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.936 nexus group. (2018, april). the problems that it departments are struggling with in 2018. retrieved from https://www.nexusgroup.com/the-problems-that-it-departments-are-struggling-with-in-2018/ onwezen, m.c., van veldhoven, m.j.p.m., & biron, m. (2014). the role of psychological flexibility in the demands-exhaustion-performance relationship. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 23(2), 163–176. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2012.742242 plaatjies, f., & mitrovic, z. (2014). ict and skills shortage: south african case study of retaining ict-skilled professionals. retrieved from http://proceedings.e-skillsconference.org/2014/e-skills351-369plaatjies686.pdf podsakoff, n.p., lepine, j.a., & lepine, m.a. (2007). differential challenge stressor-hindrance stressor relationships with job attitudes, turnover intentions, turnover, and withdrawal behavior: a meta-analysis. journal of applied psychology, 92(2), 438–454. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.2.438 raykov, t. (2009). evaluation of scale reliability for unidimensional measures using latent variable modelling. measurement and evaluation in counselling & development, 42(3), 223–232. https://doi.org/10.1177/0748175609344096 rutkowski, a., & saunders, c. (2018). emotional and cognitive overload: the dark side of information technology. london: routledge. schaufeli, w.b. (2017). applying the job demands-resources model: a ‘how to’ guide to measuring and tackling work engagement and burnout. organizational dynamics, 46(1), 120–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2017.04.008 schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a. (2004). job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organizational behavior, 25, 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.248 schaufeli, w.b., leiter, m.p., maslach, c., jackson, s.e., & schwab, r.l. (1996). mbi general survey – mbi-gs [instruments and scoring keys]. mind garden. schaufeli, w.b., & taris, t.w. (2014). a critical review of the job demands-resources model: implications for improving work and health. retrieved from https://www.wilmarschaufeli.nl/publications/schaufeli/411.pdf schwab, k. (2016). fourth industrial revolution – what it means and how to respond. retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/ sonnentag, s., binnewies, c., & mojza, e.j. (2010). staying well and engaged when demands are high: the role of psychological detachment. journal of applied psychology, 95(5), 965–976. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020032 sonnentag, s., & fritz, c. (2007). the recovery experience questionnaire: development and validation of a measure for assessing recuperation and unwinding from work. journal of occupational health psychology, 12(3), 204–221. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.12.3.204 spector, p.e. (2019). do not cross me: optimizing the use of cross-sectional designs. journal of business and psychology, 34, 125–137. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-018-09613-8 spector, p.e., rosen, c.c., richardson, h.a., williams, l.j., & johnson, r.e. (2019). a new perspective on method variance: a measure-centric approach. journal of management, 45(3), 855–880. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206316687295 studebaker, k. (2017). the 5 most common problems your company faces. retrieved from https://www.coordinated.com/blog/5-common-it-problems taris, t.w., & schaufeli, w.b. (2015). individual well-being and performance at work. retrieved from https://www.wilmarschaufeli.nl/publications/schaufeli/434.pdf tomo, a., & de simone, s. (2018). using the job demands-resources approach to assess employee well-being in healthcare. retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0951484818787687 tourigny, l., baba, v.v., han, j., & wang, x. (2012). emotional exhaustion and job performance: the mediating role of organizational commitment. the international journal of human resource management, 1, 514–532. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.694109 ugwu, l.i., enwereuzor, i.k., fimber, u.s., & ugwu, d.i. (2017). nurses’ burnout and counterproductive work behaviour in a nigerian sample: the moderating role of emotional intelligence. international journal of africa nursing sciences, 7(1), 106–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijans.2017.11.004 vammen, m.a. (2016). emotional demands at work, physiological mechanisms, and mental health. retrieved from https://www.bispebjerghospital.dk/afdelinger-og-klinikker/arbejds-og-miljoemedicinsk-afdeling/forskning/phd-afhandlinger-og-disputatser/documents/2016_phd_marianne_a_vammen.pdf van dyk, j., & coetzee, m. (2012). retention factors in relation to organisational commitment in medical and information technology services. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(2), art. #433, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.433 van den broeck, a., de cuyper, n., de witte, h., & vansteenkiste, m. (2010). not all job demands are equal: differentiating job hindrances and job challenges in the job demands-resources model. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 19(6), 735–759. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320903223839 van zyl, l.e., van oort, a., rispens, s., & olckers, c. (2019). work engagement and task performance within a global dutch ict-consulting firm: the mediating role of innovative work behaviors. current psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00339-1&domain=pdf vorster, p. (2018). understanding and combating counterproductive work behaviours. retrieved from https://www.tei.org.za/index.php/resources/articles/business-ethics/7496-understanding-and-combating-counterproductive-work-behaviours wallgren, r.g. (2013). theory y embedded in theory x: the limited role of autonomy in decreasing perceived stress among it consultants. international journal of human capital and information technology professionals, 4(4), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijhcitp.2013100101 wang, j., & wang, x. (2020). structural equation modelling (2nd edn.). chichester: wiley. west, s.g., taylor, a.b., & wu, w. (2012). model fit and model selection in structural equation modeling. in r.h. hoyle (ed.), handbook of structural equation modeling (pp. 209–231). new york, ny: the guilford press. yang, j., & diefendorff, j.m. (2009). the relations of daily counterproductive workplace behavior with emotions, situational antecedents, and personality moderators: a diary study in hong kong. journal of personnel psychology, 62(2), 259–295. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2009.01138.x zakaria, m., abdulatiff, n.k., & ali, n. (2014). the role of wellbeing on performance in services sector. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 164, 358–365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.11.088 zakariah, s.h., zainal, a., & shariff, f.m. (2018). enhancing the role of innovation towards employee job performance at malaysian hotels. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 8(15), 146–159. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v8-i15/5098 abstract introduction purpose literature review results discussion practical implications limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) daphne pillay department of human resource management, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation pillay, d. (2020). positive affect and mindfulness as predictors of resilience amongst women leaders in higher education institutions. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1260. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1260 research project registration: project number: ufs-hsd2017/0035 original research positive affect and mindfulness as predictors of resilience amongst women leaders in higher education institutions daphne pillay received: 01 aug. 2019; accepted: 27 feb. 2020; published: 12 may 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: psychological resources are the factors that appear to have a significant impact on how leaders adapt to adversity and remain resilient. positive affect and mindfulness are the psychological resources that positively relate to the levels of resilience of women leaders in higher education institutions. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of positive affect and mindfulness on the levels of resilience of women leaders in higher education institutions in south africa. motivation for the study: identifying the internal resources women leaders use to facilitate resilience will allow higher education institutions to prioritise these resources in leadership support programmes to assist these women leaders. research approach/design and method: a cross-sectional survey design was used to collect data in a purposive sample of n = 255 women leaders in four south african higher education institutions. pearson’s correlation analyses, multiple regression analyses and mediation analysis were used to analyse the data. main findings: findings indicated that positive affect and mindfulness were found to be significant predictors of resilience. additionally, mindfulness was found to be a partial mediator in the relationship between positive affect and resilience. practical/managerial implications: higher education institutions can assist women leaders by investing in psychological resources such as mindfulness and positive affect to enhance the levels of resilience. contribution/value-add: this study contributes to the limited research on the role of internal resources to enhance resilience in a workplace setting and more specifically amongst women leaders. keywords: resilience; positive affect; mindfulness; women leaders; higher education. introduction historical events in south african society have given rise to a cycle of underrepresentation of women in leadership roles in tertiary institutions in south africa. however, higher education institutions are making steady advances towards transformation, which is indicated by the increase of women leaders in positions of leadership. according to sanaghan (2016), the volatile environment that characterises the south african higher education system presents a barrier to leadership growth. howe-walsh and turnbull (2016) state that these barriers are persistent and require women leaders to continuously use resilience as a key resource to resume optimal functioning following the experience of a setback. to this end, the concept of resilience serves as a crucial resource for women leaders and, as a result, higher education institutions need to prioritise resilience development for these women to adapt to the uncertainty (sanaghan, 2016). weatherspoon-robinson (2013) asserts that for women leaders to remain persistent and overcome these barriers, they need to possess the resources to resist disruptions that threaten their career journey especially in an environment that is less than optimal. this includes the capacity to rebound from setbacks and disruptions as well as to deal successfully with less than adequate employment environments while being aware that these inadequacies exist. authors in the field of leadership development (foerster & duchek, 2018) state that traits such as sense of control and optimism needed to promote persistency during challenging situations are indicative of resilience. according to ledesma (2014), resilience is a crucial resource for leaders as it contributes to their survival, adaptation and success, especially in a complex working environment. in a review of top women executives in higher education, weatherspoon-robinson (2013) argues that a key trait of successful leaders is not how they thrive during optimal working conditions, but rather how they exhibit psychological strength, perseverance and optimism during demanding circumstances. as a result, resilience can serve as a resource for coping with complex situations, which is especially crucial for women leaders in higher education. in investigating the processes that explain resilience, there are a growing number of authors (lee, cheung, & kwong, 2012; manomenidis, panagopoulou, & montgomery, 2019) who have been promoting the role of internal resources as being influential in the resilience process. internal resources can be defined as positive attributes of the individual that assist the process of development, adaptation and resilience (mould, 2014). there have been several scholars who insist that despite decades of profound advances in research on the multidimensional concepts of resilience, the urgency and need for programmes to promote personal and internal resiliency factors amongst individuals have never been more pronounced (lee et al., 2012; mould, 2014; kinman & grant, 2017). according to masten (2011), there is an urgent need for researchers to understand the strengths and positive adaptations that are required to decrease the consequences of persistent barriers and obstacles. as a result, the role of protective processes that are embedded within the individual, which include traits, character strengths and internal resources, must be emphasised. lee et al. (2012) reported that in a meta-analysis that investigated the factors explaining resilience amongst individuals, factors such as self-efficacy, optimism, social support, self-esteem and life satisfaction had a stronger association with resilience compared with risk factors. this suggests that attempts made to increase individual levels of resilience would be more effective if internal resilience-related factors are highlighted as opposed to focusing on risk factors (lee et al., 2012). by using this as a point of departure, this article adopts an individual-level perspective in investigating the internal resources used by women leaders in higher education. ong, kim, young, and steptoe (2017) define positive affect as a state of pleasurable engagement with the environment that elicits feelings, such as happiness, enjoyment, passion and contentment that includes both enduring moods (e.g. affective traits) and short-term emotions (e.g. dynamic states). in addition to the positive affect, researchers have also explored the concept of negative affect, which reflects a general state of anguish and unpleasurable engagement comprising a variety of negative mood states including rage, hatred, disgust, guilt, dread and anxiety. for the purpose of this study, only positive affect will be considered as the focus is on resources that can enhance resilience, although research (aydemir, 2018; tugade & fredrickson, 2004) has indicated that negative affect significantly decreases the levels of resilience. research conducted (tugade & fredrickson, 2004) in resilience has consistently reported that resilient individuals display a positive, hopeful and spirited attitude to life and life’s challenges, which is also referred to as positive affect. according to werner and smith (1992), this is primarily because resilient leaders are aware that remaining positive increases the possibility of overcoming challenging circumstances. as a result, they strive to enhance their positive emotionality through hopeful and optimistic thinking. tugade and fredrickson (2004) agree, arguing that positive mood states promote sustained resilience in the face of adversity, because an optimistic view of life makes one better able to handle stressors and challenges. similar to positive affect, there is a growing body of research (halliday, 2018; keye & pidgeon, 2013) which suggests that mindful individuals tend to display an increased propensity to be resilient in the face of challenges. brown and ryan (2003) define mindfulness as a psychological state that encompasses being attentive to and aware of what is taking place in the present. according to bartz (2017), a key attribute of resilience is being able to adapt to adversity based on the characteristics of the situation. by paying attention to and being aware of incoming stimuli, the mindful individual is able to respond in an adaptive manner, which increases their ability to become resilient. despite the growing body of evidence (bartz, 2017; tugade & fredrickson, 2004), which advocates for the role of positive affect and mindfulness in influencing resilience, there is still a growing need for studies that attempt to investigate how these variables work to influence resilience in the work context and more specifically amongst women leaders. several studies focus on the role of positive affect and mindfulness in influencing resilience in clinical samples, with emphasis on increasing resilience for dealing with clinical issues such as health-related problems (arewasikporn, turner, alschuler, ehde, & jensen, 2018; collins, stritzke, page, brown, & wylde, 2018; kong et al., 2018). there are a limited number of studies that attempt to determine how positive affect and mindfulness influence resilience to work-related challenges and more specifically amongst women leaders (rupprecht et al., 2019; sommer, howell, & hadley, 2016). this study makes a significant contribution to the field of positive psychology at work as it sheds new light on the usefulness of combining both positive affect and mindfulness to influence resilient outcomes and adds new knowledge to this developing field. purpose the purpose of this study is exploratory in nature and is aimed at investigating the effect of positive affect and mindfulness on resilience amongst women leaders in higher education institutions. the role of mindfulness in influencing the relationship between positive affect and resilience was investigated in this regard. the study aims to test the assumption made by early cognitive–emotive theories, which maintain that affect has a substantial influence on cognitive processes, particularly attention and awareness and, as a result, serves to regulate the selectivity of attention as well as motivating action and behaviour (tyng, hafeez, mohamad, saad, & malik, 2017). by viewing mindfulness as a cognitive process that may be influenced by emotional processes, that is, positive affect, the current study aims to determine if the combination of these two variables can enhance the overall effect on resilience. literature review resilience, positive affect and mindfulness according to hamby, banyard, and grych (2016), resilience consists of a process of effectively coping with and adapting to adverse circumstances, threat, loss and stressful situations. other authors (grover, teo, pick, roche, & newton, 2018; petrosyants, 2017) define resilience as a psychological strength used to deal with challenging circumstances. richardson, neiger, jensen, and kumpfer (1990) state that when used as a resource, resilience allows an individual to resume the prior state of functioning after being exposed to demanding life conditions, threat and difficulty. the authors go on to add that in certain instances resilience may even allow the individual to function at an elevated level compared with functioning before the adverse circumstance. despite the various definitions offered by different authors, there are key commonalities that are consistent in the understanding of resilience in positive psychology. firstly, several authors (fergus & zimmerman, 2005; oshri, 2019; tugade & fredrickson, 2004) agree that resilience is developmental in nature and is manifested through effective adjustment, rebounding back from setbacks and cultivating psychological resources to overcome adversity. secondly, resilience should be understood as the outcome that occurs through a developmental process, which is manifested through competence to deal with challenging situations (chmitorz et al., 2018; ungar, 2004). finally, a resilient response is heightened during demanding situations such as exposure to pressures, strain, obstacles and trials (dannels, & masters, 2020; howard & johnson, 2002). this study will adopt a micro-level approach in investigating resilience by understating the individual resources that can assist women leaders in increasing their levels of resilience. positive affect has been identified as an internal strength that women leaders may draw upon when facing workplace challenges and obstacles. according to fredrickson (2004), positive affect increases the propensity to experience positive emotions such as joy, interest, contentment and love. this heightened presence of positive mood states leads to the alleviation of negative emotions such as worry, unhappiness and rage. tugade and fredrickson (2004) maintain that positive emotions as a by-product of positive affect serve as a buffer against stressors and therefore increase optimal functioning. according to van cappellen, toth-gauthier, saraglou, and fredrickson (2016), positive emotions work by widening one’s transient thought–action repertoire. the broadened thought–action repertoire allows for the use of constructive coping strategies, such as positive reappraisal, problem-focused coping and allocating positive significance to everyday events (folkman & moskowitz, 2000). this suggests that positive affect is a valuable tool for enhancing resilience as it gives rise to positive emotions, which promote adaptive responses to stress and adversity (tugade & fredrickson, 2004). by minimising negative emotions, positive emotions promote resilience because the absence of threats means that the individual is free to engage in exploratory behaviours (tugade & fredrickson, 2004). this is expected to develop personal capacities or resources, including coping resources. as a result, positive affect enhances crucial personal strengths such as resilience to negative circumstances. in addition to exploring the role of positive affect in increasing the levels of resilience for women leaders, this study will also explore the impact of mindfulness on resilience. mindfulness refers to the ability to actively regulate one’s attention towards the present, in a transparent and accepting manner (brown & ryan, 2003). halliday (2018) asserts that by emphasising attention on present experiences, mindfulness has the ability to facilitate adaptive coping to demanding situations. according to bishop et al. (2004), mindfulness allows the individual to abandon any effort to control cognitions and instead emphasises that those cognitions and feelings are indeed present. the current study regards mindfulness as a psychological trait that enables one to attend to and be cognisant of experiences in the present moment (brown & ryan, 2003). this allows one to curb involuntary cognitions and maladaptive behavioural responses, and engage in the promotion of informed, self-approved behavioural regulation, which is linked to an enhanced state of well-being (ryan & deci, 2000). keng, smoski, and robins (2011) maintain that mindfulness draws attention to the momentary nature of destructive cognitions, feelings and physical sensations, allowing the adoption of a flexible and impartial response rather than one that is exaggerated. this cognitive pattern is known to foster adaptive functioning and allow for reintegration after adversity. being mindful of present experiences allows one to recognise destructive emotions and to be fully aware of the impact such emotions can have on one’s response to challenges. in addition to exploring the direct effect of mindfulness on resilience, the current study investigates the extent to which mindfulness influences resilience through interacting with positive affect. the relationship between positive affect, mindfulness and resilience tugade and fredrickson (2004) argue that a positive appraisal style positively influences one’s well-being, by increasing the likelihood of the individual being resilient. results of a study conducted by martínez-marti and ruch (2017) support the claim made by tugade and fredrickson (2004) by reporting a strong positive correlation between positive affect and resilience. tugade and fredrickson (2004) state that individuals who have a positive disposition towards life are generally in a better position to deal with stressors and challenges, which makes them more resilient. fredrickson (2001) uses the principles of the broaden-and-build theory to explain the relationship between positive affect and resilience. according to the broaden-and-build theory, positive emotions that are produced through positive affect have exclusive and harmonising adaptive functions, which manifest in physiological effects. positive emotions are linked to responses that broaden one’s thoughts and actions, which in turn build significant personal resources that increase the likelihood of remaining resilient during adversity (fredrickson, 2001). as a result, positive affect through the creation of positive emotions may significantly influence the levels of resilience in the current sample: hypothesis 1: positive affect is a significant predictor of resilience keye and pidgeon (2013) reported a strong positive relationship between mindfulness and resilience. according to the authors, mindfulness as a resource forms part of the repertoire of psychological strengths that allow individuals to successfully navigate change. adams et al. (2016) state that mindfulness has the ability to promote self-awareness, which assists in enhancing resilience. being self-aware allows the individual to identify the signs of stress allowing them to respond more effectively. adams et al. (2016) state that mindfulness increases the capacity to recognise the power of thoughts and increases the chances of finding ways to skilfully work with them. this is a critical aspect needed to remain resilient, as individuals need to be able to discriminate between thoughts that nurture or deplete internal resources. this suggests that mindfulness may play a significant role in influencing resilience: hypothesis 2: mindfulness is a significant predictor of resilience although researchers (martínez-marti & ruch, 2017; keye & pidgeon, 2013; tugade & fredrickson, 2004) have documented the role of positive affect and mindfulness in individually predicting resilience, there is a dearth of studies that attempt to investigate the indirect relationships between these variables. there is an emerging body of research, which alludes to the notion that emotion may play a significant role in cognitive processing (kret & bocanegra, 2016; tyng et al., 2017). according to dane (2011), cognitive processing is an integral aspect of mindfulness because being able to pay attention to the present moment requires the individual to process both internal and external stimuli. brosch, scherer, grandjean, and sander (2013) add to this argument by stating that emotional responses (displaying positive affect) may modulate and guide cognition to enable adaptive responses to the environment. because mindfulness is a cognitive process, this suggests that positive affect may indirectly influence resilience through influencing the cognitive process, i.e. mindfulness. this is supported by the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (fredrickson, 2001), which states that proportional to neutral states and routine action, positive emotions as a by-product of positive affect widen people’s transient thought–action repertoires. thus, through the creation of positive emotion, positive affect may broaden an individual’s thought processes to encourage awareness and attention. this in turn may positively influence how the individual responds to challenges during time of threat, which increases resilient outcomes: hypothesis 3: there is an indirect relationship between positive affect and resilience through mindfulness research design research approach a quantitative research design was adopted to test the hypotheses proposed in the current study regarding the effect of positive affect and mindfulness on resilience. by using a cross-sectional approach to research, self-report measures were used to collect data on the biographical variables, positive affect, mindfulness and resilience. research method participants: a non-probability sampling design using purposive sampling was selected for this study. according to huysamen (2001) in purposive sampling, the researcher uses existing knowledge about the sample to intentionally secure participants in such a manner that the participants secured are regarded as representative of the relevant population. the current study was specifically interested in women leaders in the higher education sector, and therefore a purposive sampling method was considered appropriate. participants who were selected for the study were drawn from both traditional universities and universities of technology in south africa. because the focus of the study was on identifying internal resources used by women leaders, an all-women sample consisting of women who occupied leadership positions in both the academic and support services was targeted. through liaising with the relevant human resources (hr) department of each institution, a list of n = 1193 potential participants from four institutions was identified. unfortunately, information regarding the total number of leadership positions in each institution was not made available and, therefore, a comparison between the number of male and female leaders in each institution could not be made. out of the n = 1193 questionnaires distributed via an online survey system, only 255 questionnaires were returned, achieving a response rate of 21.3%. in a study conducted by nulty (2008), examining the differences in response rates for online and paper-based surveys, the author concluded that a typical response rate for online surveys ranges between 20% and 47%. this suggests that the low response rate received in the current study is in line with other studies using online surveys. according to hoddinott and bass (1986), when analysing the response rates of surveys, it is not the response rate that is crucial but rather the quality of the survey or the data. the biographical details of the sample are presented in table 1. table 1: biographical details of the sample. measurement instruments a questionnaire consisting of three self-report measures was used to obtain quantitative data for the current study. each instrument has reported a well-established reliability and validity for use with different samples. the cronbach’s alpha coefficients were used as an estimate of reliability for all instruments. resilience: the 14-item resilience scale (rs-14) as derived from the resilience scale by wagnild and young (1993) was used to measure resilience in the current study. the original resilience scale consisted of 25 items and was later adapted by wagnild (2009) to form a 14-item scale (rs-14). the rs-14 is scored on a seven-point likert-type scale with scores ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). examples of items include ‘i generally take things in my stride’ and ‘when in a difficult situation, i can generally find my way out of it’. the rs-14 reported an alpha coefficient of 0.88 in the current study. positive affect: the positive and negative affectivity schedule (panas) (watson, clark, & tellegen, 1988) was used to measure positive affect. the panas is a 20-item questionnaire that is scored on a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 (very slightly or not at all) to 5 (extremely). the panas consists of 10 items that measure positive affect and 10 items measuring negative affect. participants are asked to indicate the extent to which they have felt the different emotions such as excited, active, sad and upset. high scores on the positive affect scale indicate high levels of positive affect. for the purpose of this study, only the positive affect scale was used. a reliability estimate of 0.85 was reported for the positive affect dimension in the current study. mindfulness: the mindfulness attention awareness scale (maas) by brown and ryan (2003) was used to examine mindfulness. the maas is a 15-item questionnaire scored on a six-point likert scale. the scale ranges from 1 (almost always) to 6 (almost never). the maas is unidimensional in nature and attempts to measure levels of dispositional mindfulness. examples of items from the maas include ‘i find it challenging to remain focused on what’s happening in the present’ and ‘i hurry through activities without being really attentive to them’. within the current sample, the maas reported an alpha coefficient of 0.89. data collection procedure following the gatekeeper permission received from the four south african universities, arrangements were made with the human resources department of each institution to identify women leaders who met the criteria set out in the current study, i.e. occupying a leadership position in the academic and support services occupational categories. an e-mail list of all possible participants was provided to the researcher and e-mail links were sent out by using the electronic evasys survey system. an e-mail together with the link to the questionnaire and the letters of informed consent and participant information letter was sent to all participants. the completed questionnaires were sent to a data bank created solely for the purpose of this study via the evasys system. statistical analysis by using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 25, descriptive and inferential statistics were conducted to investigate reliability and to analyse the data. process macro (hayes, 2013) was used to determine the mediating effect of mindfulness on the relationship between positive affect and resilience. ethical consideration full ethical clearance was obtained from the research ethics committees and registrars of the four institutions that were selected for this study. participants were informed about their rights within the context of the study as well as how the data generated from the questionnaires would be used and stored. participants were also reminded that participation in the study was voluntary and that they were free to withdraw should they feel inclined. results descriptive statistics and correlations as indicated in the correlation analysis shown in table 2, both positive affect (0.507) and mindfulness (0.311) reported statistically significant relationships with resilience. positive affect reported a large effect with resilience although mindfulness reported a medium effect. all correlations were statistically significant (p < 0.01). table 2: descriptive statistics and correlations amongst the variables. the mean score reported for resilience (m = 5.97; sd = 0.65) suggests that women leaders in the current sample display moderately high levels of resilience. this was expected, given that participants were already in leadership positions. to reach and maintain their respective leadership levels, a degree of resilience was required. women leaders in the current sample reported high levels of positive affect (m = 4.05; sd = 5.22) and levels of mindfulness were moderately high (m = 4.27; sd = 0.80). all instruments reported more than acceptable reliability estimates. multiple regression analysis multiple regression analysis was conducted to test hypotheses 1 and 2 proposed in this study. in the analysis, resilience was used as the dependant variable, with positive affect and mindfulness being used as the independent variables. as indicated in table 3, the model was statistically significant (f = 50, 59; p < 0.001) with positive affect and mindfulness explaining 28% of the variance in resilience. although both positive affect (β = 0, 46; t = 8, 19; p < 0.000) and mindfulness (β = 0, 18; t = 3, 22; p < 0.001) are significant predictors of resilience, from the beta coefficient it becomes clear that positive affect explains a greater proportion of variance in resilience. table 3: multiple regression with resilience being the dependent variable, and positive affect and mindfulness being the independent variables. mediation analysis each component of the proposed mediation model was assessed using mediation analysis (hayes, 2013). the independent variable in the analysis was positive affect (x); the dependant variable was resilience (y) and the mediator was mindfulness (m). the results of the mediation analysis suggested that positive affect significantly influences resilience (β = 0.79, t = 8.19, p < 0.001). it was also found that positive affect significantly predicts mindfulness (β = 0.67, t = 4.80, p < 0.001). finally, it was found that mindfulness significantly predicts resilience (β = 0.14, t = 3.22, p < 0.05). because all the criteria needed to predict mediation were met, a mediation analysis was carried out by using bootstrapping with bias-corrected confidence estimates (hayes, 2013). a 95% confidence interval (ci) of the indirect effects was obtained by using 5000 bootstrap resamples. an evaluation of the direct and indirect effects confirmed that mindfulness mediated the relationship between positive affect and resilience (β = 0.09; ci = 0.030–0.17). the results indicated that the positive affect-resilience relationship (β = 0.79, t = 8.18, p < 0.001) remained significant when mindfulness was controlled, suggesting that a partial mediation effect is present. the results are shown in figure 1. figure 1: the mediating effect of mindfulness on the relationship between positive affect and resilience. discussion results of the multiple regression analysis confirmed hypothesis 1, i.e. positive affect is a significant predictor of resilience. these findings are consistent with cohn, fredrickson, brown, mikels, and conway (2009) who reported a positive relationship between positive affect and resilience (r = 0.454; p ≤ 0.001). additionally, gloria, faulk, and steinhardt (2013) reported that in their study, positive affect was largely correlated with resilience (r = 0.65, p ≤ 0.001). the authors also reported that positive affect explained 37% of the variance in resilience, after controlling for the effects of the demographic variables and work stress in their sample. in an attempt to investigate the relationship between positive affect and resilience, fredrickson, tugade, waugh, and larkin (2003) reported convincing evidence that indicates positive affect gives rise to emotions such as interest, happiness, hope and confidence, which was reported to share moderate to strong relationships with resilience ranging from r = 0.40 to r = 0.52. kay (2016) asserts that following from the broaden-and-build theory, individuals who experience frequent positive emotions as a result of positive affect become more satisfied not simply because they are enjoying themselves, but because they have built resources that help deal with a wide range of life’s challenges. kay (2016) concludes that in the face of a plethora of evidence supporting the direct effect of positive affect on resilience, it is safe to conclude that maintaining a positive affect in the wake of an adverse event is necessary for promoting resilience. fredrickson et al. (2003) state that greater emphasis must be placed on positive affect experienced by resilient individuals and how it works to broaden attention and thinking as this cognitive broadening in turn enables a more effective coping that buffers against adversity and fuels thriving. based on the results of the multiple regression analysis, hypothesis 2, i.e. mindfulness is a significant predictor of resilience, is supported. findings of the current study are consistent with those of keye and pidgeon (2013) who reported that mindfulness shared a strong positive relationship with resilience (r = 0.67, p = 0.000) and that mindfulness explained 44% of the variance in the levels of resilience. thompson, arnkoff, and glass (2011) state that the relationship between mindfulness and resilience can be explained by focussing on the manner in which mindfulness operates to broaden reaction responses. thompson et al. (2011) suggest that a mindful and accepting orientation towards experiences helps prevent ruminative and depressive thinking, thereby promoting psychological resilience following a setback. bajaj and pande (2016) support this argument by stating that mindful people demonstrate the potential to foster resilience as they are better able to respond to difficult situations without reacting in automatic and non-adaptive ways. the thoughtful reaction to situations allows them to be open to new perceptual categories, develop creative ways of responding and become better at coping with difficult thoughts and emotions without becoming overwhelmed or shutting down. this increases the likelihood of a resilient outcome. results of the mediation analysis indicate that mindfulness partially mediated the relationship between positive affect and resilience. these results support hypothesis 3, i.e. there is an indirect relationship between positive affect and resilience through mindfulness. although these results are significant, the indirect effect of positive affect on resilience through mindfulness is minimal. this suggests that although mindfulness does influence the relationship between positive affect and resilience, the direct effect of positive affect on resilience still appears to be stronger than the effect of positive affect on resilience through mindfulness. these findings indicate the women leaders in the current sample rely more on positive affect to increase resilience than on mindfulness. this finding is expected because previous studies (cohn et al., 2009; gloria et al., 2013) have found that positive affect predicts resilience by a large margin, explaining between 30% and 40% of the variance in resilience. a plausible explanation as to why the direct effect of positive affect on resilience is stronger than that of positive affect on resilience through mindfulness could lie in the concept of psychological capital. psychological capital is defined as a personal resource that consists of hope, optimism, self-efficacy and resilience (seligman & csikszentmihalyi, 2000). according to fredrickson et al. (2003), hope and optimism are positive emotions, which are a result of maintaining a positive affect. because hope and optimism like resilience are personal resources falling under psychological capital, it is understandable that they strongly predict resilience as several studies have reported strong correlations between sub-dimensions of psychological capital (herbert, 2011; liran & miller, 2019; simons & buitendach, 2013). according to herbert (2011), optimistic people tend to draw heavily on favourable dispositional attitudes and behaviours like internal locus of control and empathy to face life stresses, which allows them to remain resilient. additionally, herbert (2011) states that hope can only be experienced when the temptation to despair exists. as a result, individuals high in hope will be able to quickly bounce back (resilience) after temporary setbacks. thus, through increasing optimism and hope, positive affect will strongly explain the variance in resilience. therefore, mindfulness could not have possibly added more variance to resilience than that created by positive affect as positive affect emphasises hope and optimism. practical implications the results of the study suggest that given the strong evidence explaining the predictive role of positive affect on resilience, higher education institutions should consider creating opportunities to increase positive affect and mindfulness for women leaders. higher education institutions should ensure that an organisational climate that facilitates the development of positive affect and mindfulness is created. additionally, higher education institutions can ensure that current leadership support programmes that target women leaders provide opportunities for cultivating positive affect and mindfulness. according to wall, russell, and moore (2017), there has been considerable research that suggests organisations can stimulate the growth of positive affect by adapting appreciative inquiry interventions or methods as part of a work-based learning project. appreciative enquiry emphasises a strength-based approach and highlights elements that are positive in the organisation. by highlighting strengths, women leaders will become appreciative for what they have, which nurtures a positive affect. schein (2010) suggests that organisations should strive to embed drivers of positive affect within the work culture. as a result, attempts made to enhance the positive affect of women leaders should begin with a comprehensive analysis of the prevailing institutional culture. results of the current study also suggest that mindfulness can serve as an important internal resource to increase resilient responses. as a result, higher education institutions should consider enhancing levels of mindfulness through mindfulness training. this can be performed through connecting mindfulness to corporate values, supplementing resilience development programmes with mindfulness-based practice and allowing for mindful moments. mindful moments can be created through incorporating meditation and exercises to increase focus, which can form part of the institution’s wellness programme. with regard to connecting mindfulness to corporate values, institutions should think of linking the benefits of mindfulness to the organisations’ stated values. organisations should attempt to highlight how mindfulness practice can be used to assist in furthering the institutional strategy. limitations and recommendations this study contributed towards research that aims to build resilience amongst women leaders, with the results suggesting that if positive affect and mindfulness are enhanced amongst aspiring women leaders it is likely that their levels of resilience will also be enhanced. the use of a cross-sectional survey design implies that no conclusion can be made regarding whether positive affect and mindfulness predict resilience over a longer period of time. as a result, it is difficult to predict whether women leaders in the present study make use of positive affect and mindfulness over a period of time or just for the period during which the questionnaires were responded to. future studies are recommended to adopt a longitudinal design to determine the causal order of constructs and ascertain whether positive affect and mindfulness are consistently used by women leaders. conclusion although studies have focused on the role of resilience in general leadership development, the current study contributes to the limited literature that explores internal resources women leaders use to increase resilience. given the unique barriers women face in the higher education sector, there is a definite need for studies to explore factors that serve to enhance women leaders’ resilience. the results of the current study provided useful insights into the role of psychological strengths such as positive affect and mindfulness in increasing resilience. institutions can assist in increasing positive affect through the creation of positive experiences for women leaders such as opportunities for coaching and mentoring. additionally, institutions can encourage the practice of mindfulness through creating opportunities for meditation and exercises to increase attention and awareness to present experiences. acknowledgements the data were extracted from a larger project, that is, daphne pillay’s phd thesis. the research supervisors prof. e. van zyl and prof. p. nel (both from the university of the free state) must be acknowledged for their role in the bigger project. however, for this article all the literature review, statistical analysis and writing were performed solely by d. pillay. competing interests the author declares that no competing interest exists. author’s contributions the author declares that she is the sole author of this research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for profit sector. data availability statement data sharing in not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references adams, j., brewer, s., chapman-clarke, m., chaskalson, m., furr, m., …watt, t. (2016). building the case for mindfulness in the workplace. london: the mindfulness initiative. arewasikporn, a., turner, a., alschuler, k., ehde, d., & jensen, m. (2018). positive affect, resilience, and function in adults with multiple sclerosis and chronic pain. the journal of pain, 19(3), s32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2017.12.080 aydemir, s. (2018). analysis of psychological resilience in employees in terms of positive and negative affect. afyon kocatepe üniversitesi sosyal bilimler dergisi, 20(3), 69–94. https://doi.org/10.32709/akusosbil.447382 bajaj, b., & pande, n. (2016). mediating role of resilience in the impact of mindfulness on life satisfaction and affect as indices of subjective well-being. personality and individual differences, 93(1), 63–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.09.005 bartz, a.l. (2017). using mindfulness to self-regulate in the upper elementary classroom. unpublished master’s thesis. st paul, mn: st catherine university. bishop, s.r., lau, m., shapiro, s., carlson, l., anderson, n.d., carmody, j., & devins, g. (2004). mindfulness: a proposed operational definition. clinical psychology: science and practice, 11(3), 230–241. https://doi.org/10.1093/clipsy.bph077 brosch, t., scherer, k.r., grandjean, d.m., & sander, d. (2013). the impact of emotion on perception, attention, memory, and decision-making. swiss medical weekly, 143(1), w13786. https://doi.org/10.4414/smw.2013.13786 brown, k.w., & ryan, r.m. (2003). the benefits of being present: mindfulness and its role in psychological well–being. journal of personality and social psychology, 84(4), 822. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.84.4.822 chmitorz, a., kunzler, a., helmreich, i., tüscher, o., kalisch, r., kubiak, t., … lieb, k. (2018). intervention studies to foster resilience – a systematic review and proposal for a resilience framework in future intervention studies. clinical psychology review, 59(1), 78–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2017.11.002 cohn, m.a., fredrickson, b.l., brown, s.l., mikels, j.a., & conway, a.m. (2009). happiness unpacked: positive emotions increase life satisfaction by building resilience. emotion, 9(3), 361. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015952 collins, k.r., stritzke, w.g., page, a.c., brown, j.d., & wylde, t.j. (2018). mind full of life: does mindfulness confer resilience to suicide by increasing zest for life? journal of affective disorders, 226, 100–107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2017.09.043 dane, e. (2011). paying attention to mindfulness and its effects on task performance in the workplace. journal of management, 37(4), 997–1018. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310367948 dannels, l.p., & masters, j.d. (2020). getting executives to sit: building leaders’ resilience and stress tolerance for enhanced organizational effectiveness. development and learning in organizations: an international journal, 17(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1108/dlo-05-2019-0122 fergus, s., & zimmerman, m.a. (2005). adolescent resilience: a framework for understanding healthy development in the face of risk. annual review public health, 26, 399–419. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.26.021304.144357 foerster, c., & duchek, s. (2018). leaders’ resilience – a systematic literature review and future research agenda. in proceedings of the 78th annual meeting of the academy of management, aom 2018. chicago, il: academy of management. folkman, s., & moskowitz, j.t. (2000). positive affect and the other side of coping. american psychologist, 55(6), 647. https://doi.org/10.1037//0003-066x.55.6.647 fredrickson, b.l. (2001). the role of positive emotions in positive psychology: the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. american psychologist, 56(3), 218. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.56.3.218 fredrickson, b.l. (2004). the broaden–and–build theory of positive emotions. philosophical transactions of the royal society: biological sciences, 359(1449), 1367. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2004.1512 fredrickson, b.l., tugade, m.m., waugh, c.e., & larkin, g.r. (2003). what good are positive emotions in crisis? a prospective study of resilience and emotions following the terrorist attacks on the united states on september 11th, 2001. journal of personality and social psychology, 84(2), 365. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.84.2.365 gloria, c.t., faulk, k.e., & steinhardt, m.a. (2013). positive affectivity predicts successful and unsuccessful adaptation to stress. motivation and emotion, 37(1), 185–193. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-012-9291-8 grover, s.l., teo, s.t., pick, d., roche, m., & newton, c.j. (2018). psychological capital as a personal resource in the jd-r model. personnel review, 47(4), 968–984. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-08-2016-0213 halliday, a.j. (2018). mindful resilience: investigating mindfulness and resilience in relation to a broad range of adversity. unpublished doctoral thesis. university of western ontario, canada. hamby, s., banyard, v., & grych, j. (2016). strengths, narrative, and resilience: restorying resilience research. psychology of violence, 6(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1037/vio0000027 hayes, a.f. (2013). introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: a regression–based approach. london: guilford press. herbert, m. (2011). an exploration of the relationships between psychological capital (hope, optimism, self-efficacy, resilience), occupational stress, burnout and employee engagement. unpublished doctoral dissertation. stellenbosch: stellenbosch university. hoddinott, s.n., & bass, m.j. (1986). the dillman total design survey method. canadian family physician, 32, 2366. howard, s., & johnson, b. (2002). participation and involvement: resilience promoting factors for young adolescents. in m. gollop & j. mccormack (eds.), children and young people’s environments (pp. 113–127). dunedin: children’s issues centre. howe-walsh, l., & turnbull, s. (2016). barriers to women leaders in academia: tales from science and technology. studies in higher education, 41(3), 415–428. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2014.929102 huysamen, g.k. (2001). marking standards and the differential predictability of the first-year university performance of different demographic groups. south african journal of higher education, 15(1), 129–137. https://doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v15i1.25388 kay, s.a. (2016). emotion regulation and resilience: overlooked connections. industrial and organizational psychology, 9(2), 411–415. https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2016.31 keng, s.l., smoski, m.j., & robins, c.j. (2011). effects of mindfulness on psychological health: a review of empirical studies. clinical psychology review, 31(6), 1041–1056. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2011.04.006 keye, m.d., & pidgeon, a.m. (2013). investigation of the relationship between resilience, mindfulness, and academic self–efficacy. open journal of social sciences, 1(06), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2013.16001. kinman, g., & grant, l. (2017). building resilience in early-career social workers: evaluating a multi-modal intervention. british journal of social work, 47(7), 1979–1998. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcw164 kong, l., fang, m., ma, t., li, g., yang, f., meng, q., … & li, p. (2018). positive affect mediates the relationships between resilience, social support and posttraumatic growth of women with infertility. psychology, health & medicine, 23(6), 707–716. https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2018.1447679 kret, m.e., & bocanegra, b.r. (2016). adaptive hot cognition: how emotion drives information processing and cognition steers affective processing. frontiers in psychology, 7, 1920. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01920 ledesma, j. (2014). conceptual frameworks and research models on resilience in leadership. sage open, 4(3), 4. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014545464 lee, t.y., cheung, c.k., & kwong, w.m. (2012). resilience as a positive youth development construct: a conceptual review. the scientific world journal, 2012, 1–9. article id 390450. https://doi.org/10.1100/2012/390450 liran, b.h., & miller, p. (2019). the role of psychological capital in academic adjustment among university students. journal of happiness studies, 20(1), 51–65. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-017-9933-3 manomenidis, g., panagopoulou, e., & montgomery, a. (2019). resilience in nursing: the role of internal and external factors. journal of nursing management, 27(1), 172–178. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12662 martínez-martí, m.l., & ruch, w. (2017). character strengths predict resilience over and above positive affect, self-efficacy, optimism, social support, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. the journal of positive psychology, 12(2), 110–119. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2016.1163403 masten, a.s. (2011). resilience in children threatened by extreme adversity: frameworks for research, practice, and translational synergy. development and psychopathology, 23(2), 493–506. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954579411000198 mould, j. (2014). a programme to promote internal resiliency amongst female adolescents a cognitive behavioural approach. unpublished doctoral thesis. university of the free state, south africa. nulty, d.d. (2008). the adequacy of response rates to online and paper surveys: what can be done? assessment & evaluation in higher education, 33(3), 301–314. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930701293231 ong, a.d., kim, s., young, s., & steptoe, a. (2017). positive affect and sleep: a systematic review. sleep medicine reviews, 35, 21–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2016.07.006 oshri, a. (2019). resilience in developmental science: a case for hormesis. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/dwsjg petrosyants, v.r. (2017). features of resilience in psychology students depending on the year of study. psychological science and education, 22(6), 109–117. https://doi.org/10.17759/pse.2017220610 richardson, g.e., neiger, b.l., jensen, s., & kumpfer, k. (1990). the resiliency model. health education, 2(6), 33–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/00970050.1990.10614589 rupprecht, s., falke, p., kohls, n., tamdjidi, c., wittmann, m., & kersemaekers, w. (2019). mindful leader development: how leaders experience the effects of mindfulness training on leader capabilities. frontiers in psychology, 10, 1081. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01081 ryan, r.m., & deci, e.l. (2000). intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: classic definitions and new directions. contemporary educational psychology, 25(1), 54–67. https://doi.org/10.1006/ceps.1999.1020 sanaghan, p. (2016). building leadership resilience in higher education. academic impressions. retrieved from https://www.academicimpressions.com/sites/default/files/0116-leadership-resilience-md.pdf schein, e.h. (2010). organizational culture and leadership (vol. 2). hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons. seligman, m.e., & csikszentmihalyi, m. (2000). positive psychology: an introduction. american psychological association, 55(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.5 simons, j.c., & buitendach, j.h. (2013). psychological capital, work engagement and organisational commitment amongst call centre employees in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1071 sommer, s.a., howell, j.m., & hadley, c.n. (2016). keeping positive and building strength: the role of affect and team leadership in developing resilience during an organizational crisis. group & organization management, 41(2), 172–202. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601115578027 thompson, r.w., arnkoff, d.b., & glass, c.r. (2011). conceptualizing mindfulness and acceptance as components of psychological resilience to trauma. trauma, violence, & abuse, 12(4), 220–235. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838011416375 tugade, m.m., & fredrickson, b.l. (2004). resilient individuals use positive emotions to bounce back from negative emotional experiences. journal of personality and social psychology, 86(2), 320. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.86.2.320 tyng, c.m., amin, h.u., saad, m.n., & malik, a.s. (2017). the influences of emotion on learning and memory. frontiers in psychology, 8, 1454. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01454 ungar, m. (2004). a constructionist discourse on resilience: multiple contexts, multiple realities among at-risk children and youth. youth & society, 35(3), 341–365. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118x03257030 van cappellen, p., toth-gauthier, m., saroglou, v., & fredrickson, b.l. (2016). religion and well–being: the mediating role of positive emotions. journal of happiness studies, 17(2), 485–505. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-014-9605-5 wagnild, g., & young, h. (1993). development and psychometric evaluation of the resilience scale. journal of nursing measurement, 1(2), 165–178. wagnild, g., & young, h. (2009). development and psychometric. journal of nursing measurement, 17(2), 165–178. wall, t., russell, j., & moore, n. (2017). positive emotion in workplace impact: the case of a work-based learning project utilising appreciative inquiry. journal of work-applied management, 9(2), 129–146. https://doi.org/10.1108/jwam-07-2017-0017 watson, d., clark, l.a., & tellegen, a. (1988). development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the panas scales. journal of personality and social psychology, 54(6), 1063. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.54.6.1063 weatherspoon-robinson, s. (2013). african american female leaders: resilience and success. unpublished doctoral dissertation. malibu, ca: pepperdine university. werner, e.e., & smith, r.s. (1992). overcoming the odds: high risk children from birth to adulthood. ithaca, ny: cornell university press. abstract introduction literature review research design research method results discussion limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) dale fobian department of industrial and organisational psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa frans maloa department of industrial and organisational psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation fobian, d., & maloa, f. (2020). exploration of the reward preferences of generational groups in a fast-moving consumer goods organisation. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1244. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1244 original research exploration of the reward preferences of generational groups in a fast-moving consumer goods organisation dale fobian, frans maloa received: 14 june 2019; accepted: 14 july 2020; published: 31 aug. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the generational diversity of employees evident in today’s workforce and the important role of reward in meeting a wide variety of needs to attract, motivate and retain employees for the organisation are a key strategic contribution. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to explore how, whether and to what degree employees from different generational groups differ about preferences on total reward components in the fast-moving consumer goods industry, for purposes of attraction, retention and motivation. motivation for the study: the rationale for this study was to explore and improve the understanding of reward preferences of different generation groups. research design and method: the research was a quantitative, empirical and descriptive study of reward preferences in an industry-specific context. a self-administered survey instrument was used and analysed using tests for internal consistency and scale reliability, various measures for factor analysis and a general linear model, involving a multivariate analysis of variance (manova), to test for significant differences between independent and dependent variables. main findings: baby boomers, xers and millennials did not differ significantly about preferences regarding financial and non-financial rewards. millennials do not prefer non-financial rewards to financial rewards. the variance, however, was not large. practical or managerial implications: the research results provide management with informed knowledge of the types of rewards that can be administered to employees of different generational groups to attract, retain and motivate them. contribution and value add: the research has added insight into the reward preferences of generational groups and made recommendations for improving reward strategy for the attraction, retention and motivation of employees in the fast-moving consumer goods industry. keywords: generational theory; generational differences; total rewards; total reward strategy; compensation. introduction orientation ‘everyone is different and everyone brings value to the organisation’ stated rubin, as cited by rose (2013, p. 31). this quotation succinctly captures the essence of this study, namely the diversity of employees present in today’s workforce and the important role of reward in meeting a wide variety of needs to attract, motivate and retain talent for the organisation and its sustained competitiveness (brown & reilly, 2013). research purpose and objectives this study seeks to understand the reward preferences of diverse generational groups in today’s workforce. it is expected that the results of this study will inform remuneration strategies to improve attraction, retention and motivation of employees in a fast-moving consumer goods organisation. with the research purpose, several research objectives were identified for the literature review and empirical study. first, the literature review aimed at conceptualising different generation cohorts and their reward preferences, as well as describing different components of total reward. second, the empirical study aimed at establishing how, whether and to what degree employees from different generational groups differ about preferences on total reward components. third, it aimed at making recommendations to the organisation informing employee reward strategies of reward preferences of different generation cohorts within the context of a fast-moving consumer goods company. lastly, it aimed at making recommendations for future research for the field of industrial and organisational psychology regarding reward strategy and reward preferences from different generational groups. literature review generations in the workplace the workplace is becoming increasingly diverse with five generations of employees estimated to be at work by 2020 (meister & willyerd, 2010). the concept of generations has been defined extensively in the literature. according to snelgar, renard and venter (2013), the concept of generation can be broadly defined in terms of cohorts, life experiences or historical experiences. mannheim, as cited by cogin (2012), defined generations as ‘a group that shares both a particular span of birth years and a set of world views grounded in the defining social or historical events that have occurred during the generations’ formative development years’. similarly, the different generations find expression in the concept of cohorts, which refers to generations as groups of people born in a specified period (lyons & kuron, 2014). the key concepts of cohorts and generations as groups of people are discussed in the literature and categorised accordingly. for example, smit, stanz and bussin (2015) describe baby boomers as the generation that places a high value on hard work, obeying rules, dedication and military principles. the xers are a generation that develops their skills, take on challenges and are perceived to be very adaptive in the changing business world, while the millennials are a generation that favours teamwork, choose to follow orders and prefer to work flexible hours to successfully complete their tasks in their own ways. however, the generation and cohort concept received wide criticism in the literature, primarily owing to the assertion that preferences change during life stages. it is also difficult to distinguish the influence of three factors: age, period and cohort on generational development. in addition, there is also a challenge with methodological alternatives to researching generations which are believed to narrow research outcomes to generational influence (campbell, campbell, siedor, & twenge, 2015; zacher, 2015) and the acknowledgement that different generations can overlap, with the latter referred to as cusp generations (becton, walker, & jones-farmer, 2014; van der walt, 2010). moreover, there are significant differences and inconsistencies with cohort periods in the literature. however, sound counter-arguments to the criticism are also offered in the literature. for example, there is an argument that values (key to generational distinctiveness) do not necessarily change as people age (cogin, 2012). in the context of rewards, schullery (2013) found xers and millennials to be significantly more interested in extrinsic and leisure rewards than baby boomers. furthermore, chen and lian (2015) also found in their study, conducted in china, that millennials preferred extrinsic rewards, more so than other generations. the findings by schullery (2013) and chen and lian (2015) stimulate further debate and create interest in understanding the generational differences and their preferences in total rewards. however, the study of the rewards leads to the question: ‘how can reward strategies address different preferences for types of reward structures by different generations’ groups in an organisation?’ pregnolato, bussin and schlechter (2017, p. 1) contend that total reward and reward mix overall were the desired reward strategy in the organisation. their study concluded that in order of preference, remuneration and benefits were being rated most preferred; performance and recognition were rated second; work–life balance practices, learning and career advancement were rated similarly in overall preference; and the work–life balance climate was rated lowest overall in terms of its importance in retention. nevertheless, xavier (2014) asserted that a world at work survey found that only 26% of the respondents reported having an integrated approach to total rewards. as an alternative, brown (2014) proposed ‘smart rewards’. part of the smart rewards approach involves employers mining their engagement data to identify the various generational groupings and their preferences in the workforce. however, it was established that the segmentation of employees, according to their cohort grouping, enables employees to easily select a rewards package from the wide choice available that best meets their personal needs and stage in their lives (brown, 2014). nonetheless, an exploration of the rewards preference is necessary to understand if there are differences between the different generational cohorts. generational preferences and rewards research on generational preferences and rewards has been conducted in different industries. for instance, in the information, computing and technology (ict) industry, research by moore and bussin (2012) showed that generation theory did not have a bearing on reward preferences. in this research, all the generations, except for the baby boomers, rated their compensation package as the most important aspect of rewards and variable pay as the lowest aspect of reward. however, bussin and van rooy (2014)’s research in the finance sector found that generations valued different types of financial compensation. boomers valued reward aspects such as fixed and long-term compensation. xers valued a balance between fixed and variable compensation. millennials not only valued a balance between fixed and variable compensation but also demonstrated some indication that they valued higher variable pay. however, sillery, as cited by risher (2014), states that compensation best practices show that key drivers of millennials commitment were related to perceptions of their careers (current and future opportunity for pay, growth and job enrichment). furthermore, a study by smit et al. (2015) in south african organisations showed significant differences in preferences for rewards by generations in that millennials (who favour teamwork, choose to follow orders and prefer to work flexible hours to successfully complete their tasks in their own ways) scored the top three most important total reward components as performance management, development, and benefits and safety. for xers (who develop their skills, take on challenges and are perceived to be very adaptive in the changing business world), performance management, development opportunities and compensation were important to retain them, while for baby boomers and veterans (who place high value on hard work, obeying rules, dedication and military principles) the top three total reward components were compensation, performance management, and benefits and safety. however, pregnolato et al. (2017, p. 1) found limited differences between generations. according to the study, millennials assigned a slightly lower level of importance to remuneration versus xers and baby boomers. millennials specified work–life balance as being slightly more important in their retention compared to xers and baby boomers. however, bussin and van rooy (2014)’s research contested that monetary aspects of reward strongly influenced all decisions made, irrespective of generation. in contrast, research reported by brown and reilly (2013) indicated that career opportunities and organisational reputation were the most important drivers for all generations, with this being attributed to the difficult economic climate. from the different perspectives on rewards, the preferences for generations seem to be conflicting regarding how, whether and to what degree generations have reward preferences or not. to address the issue, a few research hypotheses were formulated for empirical testing as follows: h01: generational groups do not prefer financial rewards to non-financial rewards. h1: generational groups prefer financial rewards to non-financial rewards. h02: millennials do not prefer non-financial rewards to financial rewards. h2: millennials prefer non-financial rewards above financial rewards. h03: generational groups’ preferences in terms of reward, if any, will not be large. h3: generational groups’ preferences in terms of reward, if any, will be large. this study therefore aims at benefiting industrial organisational psychologists and reward practitioners in understanding reward preferences of different generation groups in the fast-moving consumer goods sector. research design a quantitative survey research design was chosen in this study to reach a large portion of participants in a fast-moving consumer goods organisation within a set period. the design was cross-sectional to include a view of all generational cohorts at one point in time (bussin & van rooy, 2014; bussin & thabethe, 2018; moore & bussin, 2012). the independent variable in the research design is the generational groups as defined in the different cohorts, namely baby boomers, xers and millennials. the dependent variables include employees’ perceptions and preferences for components of the total rewards. this study therefore aimed at improving the understanding of the reward preferences amongst different generational groups. it is expected that the results of this study will inform remuneration strategies and highlight how different generational groups prefer financial to non-financial rewards as well as different preferences within an organisation. research method research participants the participants in this study were from a large fast-moving consumer goods organisation in south africa. participants were identified through convenience non-probability sampling. the organisation employed approximately 2800 non-bargaining unit employees across south africa. the payroll department of the organisation made available all permanent, non-bargaining unit employees in south africa, with more than 12 months of service and with organisation email addresses, which came to 2139 employees in the survey population. moore and bussin (2012) south african generational cohorts were used to categorise participants. baby boomers were employees born between 1941 and 1960. xers were employees born between 1961 and 1980. the millennials were employees born between 1981 and 2007. of the 2139 employees, 107 (5%) were baby boomers, 1241 (58%) xers and 791 (37%) millennials. a random sample of 60 participants by generation cohort was invited to participate in a pilot survey. nineteen (32%) of the participants responded to the electronic survey questionnaire, and one participant retracted, resulting in 18 (30%) consenting respondents for the pilot survey. a total of 2079 employees were invited to participate in the main survey population. however, 6 months expired from the time of receiving the original list of employee email addresses from the organisation’s payroll department, to when the survey was implemented. as a result, 85 employees who were originally invited left the organisation during the period. of the remaining 1994 employees, 608 (30.5%) employees responded to the electronic survey questionnaire, while three retracted, leaving 605 (30.3%) consenting respondents for the main survey. the sample size was adequate to continue with the study, as sekaran and bougie (2010) state that the sample size between 30 and 500 is suitable for most research. with a 95% confidence level and a total population of 1 million, the sample size of 384 is desired. thus, the sample size of 605 for this study was more than adequate. the demographic characteristics of the main survey participants were determined from the survey questionnaire. given a strong culture of confidentiality in the organisation regarding remuneration information, a minimalist approach was adopted to ensure maximum confidentiality of participants and maximum participation rate. pseudonyms were used to hide the identity of the participants. tables 1–4 outline the demographic characteristics of the participants. table 3 highlights the participant’s generation cohort demographic of the sample versus the actual profile of the organisation. baby boomers made up 4.8% versus 5%, xers 63.5% versus 58% and millennials 31.7% versus 37%. table 1: participants’ gender. table 2: participants’ race. table 3: participants’ generation cohort. table 4: participants’ seniority. table 1 indicates the gender composition of the sample with males constituting the majority at 56.2% compared with females at 43.8%. table 2 indicates the race composition of the sample with the mixed race in the majority constituting 38.5% followed by the african race at 20.5%. the least represented race was indian at 6.4%. table 3 indicates that the generation cohort composition of the sample, the generation x (xers), was in the majority constituting 63.5% followed by the millennials at 31.7%. the least represented are the baby boomers at 4.8%. table 4 indicates the composition of the sample with the non-management group in the majority (64.8%) compared with the management group (35.2%). the management and non-management scales were determined through the paterson job grading system which is a popular grading instrument that categorises jobs according to their level of complexity within the organisational structure. thus, the emphasis and use of the grading measure are on face validity as the instrument measures what it purports to measure and has been used extensively in practice. the reliability of paterson is its consistency and its stability over time as the preferred grading system in practice. measuring instrument to establish how, whether and to what degree employees from different generational groups differed about preferences on total reward components, an electronic survey questionnaire was used, namely the rewards preference questionnaire (bussin & thabethe, 2018; nienaber & bussin, 2009). the electronic survey questionnaire comprised the following sections (bussin & thabethe, 2018): section 1: demographic factors; gender, race group, age group and seniority section 2: reward preferences; questions derived from items extracted from the world at work (2010) total reward model section 3: the testing of reward preferences of generational groups. a five-point likert scale in section 2 of the questionnaire was used to measure reward preferences on each reward item ranging from 1 (least important/totally disagree) to 5 (extremely important/ fully agree). the measuring instrument was piloted on a small group of 18 consenting respondents to determine the time taken for completing the survey and to identify any ambiguities or difficulties with the survey (bussin & van rooy, 2014). consequently, the initial response time of 20–30 min was changed to 15–20 min, and the term ‘medical aide’ was changed to ‘medical aid’ owing to feedback from participants. a cronbach’s alpha score of reliability measured 0.859 on the measuring instrument, above the acceptable level of 0.70 (bussin & van rooy, 2014; devellis, 2016; pallant, 2013). this was indicative of internal consistency and scale reliability of the rewards preference questionnaire. research procedure the rewards preference questionnaire was disseminated to survey participants via a link in an email to participants’ organisational email addresses provided by the payroll department of the organisation. for the main survey, this included 2079 survey participants. survey participants were given 2 weeks to complete the self-administered web-based questionnaire hosted by google forms. a reminder email was sent to survey participants 1 week after the survey was initiated and 2 days before the survey was closed, to encourage participation. participation was voluntary and no pressure was placed on participants to complete the survey. participant responses were recorded anonymously to ensure confidentiality. pseudonyms were used to hide the identity of the participants. after 2 weeks, the survey was closed, and the survey data were exported from google forms host to a microsoft excel spreadsheet. statistical analysis analysis: the data collected in the microsoft excel spreadsheet were analysed using ibm statistical package for the social science (ibm spss v24). the services of a university statistician were procured to assist with the data analysis. the data were analysed using a three-stage data analysis process (bussin & thabethe, 2018). stage 1 involved cronbach’s alpha reliability measure to confirm the internal consistency and scale reliability of the overall rewards preference questionnaire applied in the main survey. stage 2 involved a kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy, a bartlett’s test of sphericity for factor analysis suitability, a principal axis factoring (paf) and oblimin with kaiser normalisation rotation method for factor analysis. after going through the results on the emerging factors, cronbach’s alpha reliability measures were calculated on composite scores to confirm the internal consistency and scale reliability of the new factors. stage 3 involved a general linear model – manova, partial eta squared for effect size to test for significant differences between independent variables (generations: baby boomers, xers and millennials) and dependent variables (reward factors) to test the formulated research hypothesis. measures taken to protect confidentiality included the survey questionnaire distributed by email to employee organisation email addresses with an embedded link to an electronic form developed using electronic google forms. both employee email access and the electronic form were password protected; data were non-identifiable information direct from respondents with consent collected by means of electronic google forms, electronically and automatically recorded in an electronic spreadsheet developed using google sheets; records will be stored on a centralised electronic password secured database on google drive for 5 years. only the researcher and statistician had access to the recorded data. in addition, the statistician signed a confidentiality form. ethical consideration permission to conduct the research was granted by the organisation and the research and ethics committee of the university of south africa, approval certificate 2018_cems/iop_018. results stage 1 – rewards preference questionnaire reliability a cronbach’s alpha score of reliability measured 0.894 on the 45 questionnaire items instrument. this is above the acceptable level of 0.70 (bussin & van rooy, 2014; devellis, 2016; pallant, 2013), indicating internal consistency and scale reliability of the rewards preference questionnaire applied in the main survey. stage 2 – reward factor reliability a kmo measure of sampling adequacy and a bartlett’s test of sphericity were calculated to determine the data sets suitability for factor analysis. kaiser–meyer–olkin returned values between 0 and 1, and kmo values between 0.8 and 1. this indicates that the sampling is adequate (cerny & kaiser, 1977). for the bartlett’s test of sphericity, small values (fewer than 0.05) of the significance level indicate that a factor analysis may be useful with the data (ibm knowledge centre, internet). the kmo measured 0.873, and the bartlett’s test of sphericity measured 0.000, indicating that the survey data were suitable for factor analysis. the paf method was used to extract the factors based on the assumptions that the constructs were correlated. the oblimin with kaiser normalisation rotation method was used to simplify the structure. kootstra (2004) suggests that the pattern matrix is used to interpret the factors (and structure matrix for corroboration). the author suggested, with some caution, only interpreting factor loadings with an absolute value > 0.4 (which explain around 16% of variance). the sample size of > 350 with a factor loading ≥ 0.30 was considered significant. any loadings < 0.30 were not considered and consequently suppressed at the output. thus, the bigger the sample and the smaller the loadings, the significant the factor. consequently, six factors were selected for cronbach’s alpha reliability measures on composite scores to confirm the internal consistency and scale reliability of the factors (see table 5). table 5: six factors identified by principal axis factor, oblimin with kaiser normalisation. table 5 presents the questionnaire items extracted from the world at work categories. a three-factor structure developed from the loaded items. an item loaded on a given factor if it was 0.30 or greater for that factor and < 0.30 for the other. five items loaded on factor 1 (career learning and development), two items loaded on factor 4 (compensation) and four items loaded on factor 8 (performance and recognition). table 6 confirms which individual item of a factor measured the same factor or construct consistently. the higher the cronbach’s alpha value, the ‘better’ the items or questions formed part of the construct or factor. the cronbach’s alpha reliability measures of the three factors confirmed the internal consistency and scale reliability above the acceptable level of 0.70 (bussin & van rooy, 2014; devellis, 2016; pallant, 2013). the reliability estimates were 0.802, 0.773 and 0.795 for factor 1 (career, learning and development), factor 4 (compensation) and factor 8 (performance and recognition), respectively. this indicated good reliability. table 6: reliability reward measures for research hypothesis. consequently, differences between independent variables (baby boomers, xers and millennials) and dependent variables (factor 1: career, learning and development; factor 4: compensation; factor 8: performance and recognition) were identified to test the formulated research hypotheses. stage 3 – research hypothesis testing the descriptive statistics for the general linear model – manova are illustrated in table 7. this table provides the mean and standard deviation for the three different dependent variables (factor 1: career, learning and development; factor 4: compensation; and factor 8: performance and recognition) and the independent variable groups (baby boomers, xers and millennials). in addition, the table also provides ‘total’ rows for independent variable groups, which can be used to test the first formulated hypothesis. table 7: descriptive statistics for the general linear model. table 7 describes the mean, standard deviation and the total number of the sample used to analyse the factor structure investigated in the study. for factor 1 (career, learning and development), mean 4.259 with a standard deviation of 0.701 was for the millennials who composed the second highest majority after the (xers) of the sample. the lowest mean 3.096 with a standard deviation of 1.094 was for the baby boomers who composed the minority of the sample. for factor 4 (compensation), mean 4.724 with a standard deviation of 0.510 was high for the baby boomers. the lowest mean 4.53 with a standard deviation of 0.688 was for the millennials. for factor 8 (performance and recognition), mean 4.448 with a standard deviation of 0.536 was high for the baby boomers. the lowest mean 4.391 with a standard deviation of 0.665 was for the generation x (xers) who composed the majority representation of the sample. the first research hypothesis was formulated as follows: h01: generational groups do not prefer financial rewards to non-financial rewards. h1: generational groups prefer financial rewards to non-financial rewards. the following rules were applied to test the hypothesis: if financial rewards (factor 4) total mean greater than non-financial rewards (factors 1 and 8), then h01 is rejected and h1 is accepted. an analysis of the total means in table 7 showed that factor 4 (compensation) = 4.5942 was greater than factor 1 (career, learning and development) = 3.9848 and factor 8 (performance and recognition) = 4.3983. consequently, h01 is rejected and h1 is accepted, meaning generational groups prefer financial rewards to non-financial rewards. the second research hypothesis was formulated as: h02: millennials do not prefer non-financial rewards to financial rewards. h2: millennials prefer non-financial rewards to financial rewards. the following rules were applied to test the hypothesis: if millennials’ non-financial rewards (factors 1 and 8) means greater than millennial financial rewards (factor 4) mean, then h02 is rejected and h2 is accepted. an analysis of the factor means for millennials in table 7 showed that factor 1 (career, learning and development) = 4.2594 and factor 8 (performance and recognition) = 4.4036 were both less than factor 4 (compensation) = 4.5391. consequently, h02 is accepted and h2 is rejected, meaning that millennials do not prefer non-financial rewards to financial rewards. to test the third formulated research hypothesis, the tests of between-subjects multivariate analysis was used (see table 8 for a detailed summary). table 8: multivariate analysis test. table 8 shows the f-values for the independent variables in the model. statistical package for the social science (spss) gives a partial eta squared to calculate the f-value for manova. the partial eta squared is used to interpret the f-value. the partial eta squared is similar to the r squared in the simple anova analysis. in this case, the partial eta squared for factor 1 is 0.88 with an f-value of 28.958. the partial eta squared can be interpreted as 8.8% of the variability in the dependent variables being accounted for by variability in factor 1. the significant level at 0.01 means the p-value should be equal to or below 0.00. from the above analysis, it is evident that baby boomers, xers and millennials do not differ significantly about preferences regarding compensation, performance and recognition. however, preferences regarding career, learning and development seem to be progressively preferred by the younger generations. the final research hypothesis was formulated as follows: h03: generational groups’ preferences in terms of reward, if any, will not be large. h3: generational groups’ preferences in terms of reward, if any, will be large. for measuring manova, which involves non-independent or repeated measures, the partial eta squared in table 8 was used to indicate the size effect of the variance for factor 1 (brown, 2007). for interpretation of the partial eta squared values, brown (2007) suggests moving the decimal point two places to the right in each case and interpret the results as percentages of variance. the university of cambridge suggests any partial eta squared size effect > 25% as large (converted). consequently, the following rule was applied: partial eta squared > 25%, then h04 is rejected and h4 is accepted. an analysis of the partial eta squared for the factor 1 = 8.8%, which is < 25%, therefore h04 is accepted and h4 is rejected, meaning generational groups’ preferences for factor 1 (career, learning and development) reward, is not large. discussion outline of the results in testing the research hypotheses, h1 was accepted meaning that generational groups preferred financial rewards to non-financial rewards. this finding proves similar to earlier findings in the literature by pregnolato et al. (2017), who suggested that overall remuneration and benefits were rated most preferred in the total reward mix. moore and bussin (2012) also showed that all the generations, except for the baby boomers, rated their compensation package as the most important aspect of rewards. furthermore, this study found that h02 was accepted, meaning that millennials did not prefer non-financial rewards to financial rewards. this is similar to earlier findings in the literature where moore and bussin (2012) showed that all the generations rated their compensation package as the most important aspect of rewards (except for the baby boomers). also, bussin and van rooy’s (2014) research study confirmed that monetary aspects of reward strongly influenced all decisions made, irrespective of generation. the findings differ from schullery (2013) who found that xers and millennials were significantly more interested in extrinsic and leisure rewards than baby boomers. while chen and lian (2015)’s study found millennials preferred extrinsic rewards, more so than other generations. in this study, the older generations progressively preferred financial rewards more than the younger generations, as demonstrated by the mean scores: baby boomers = 4.72, xers = 4.61 and millennials = 4.53. in testing hypothesis 3, the partial eta squared indicated a reasonably small size effect of the variance of 8.8% for factor 1. despite the small size effect, it is notable that millennials scored career, learning and development (4.25) almost equal to performance and recognition (4.40) and remuneration (4.53). this is perhaps similar to an earlier finding in the literature where sillery, as cited by risher (2014), stated that compensation best practices show that key drivers of millennials commitment are related to perceptions of their careers (current and future opportunity for pay, growth and job enrichment). practical implications overall, the findings in this study support the concept of total reward, and in particular, the findings by pregnolato et al. (2017), who suggested an ideal reward mix for employees in general, where remuneration and benefits were rated most preferred, performance and recognition were rated second, and work–life balance practices, learning and career advancement were rated similarly in overall preference. the only practical benefit for the organisation in using generational group segmentation in their total reward strategy will be in the insight that career, learning and development seem to be progressively preferred by the younger generations, where millennials scored 4.25, xers scored 3.91 and baby boomers scored 3.09 out of a total of 5. in addition, a notable insight is that millennials scored career, learning and development (4.25) almost equal to performance and recognition (4.40), and remuneration (4.53). this has practical significance for reward strategy recommendations for motivating millennials. limitations and recommendations limitations the respondents surveyed in this study were located in one large organisation in the fast-moving consumer goods industry. inferences made about generational preference for reward in the fast-moving consumer goods industry are based solely on the representation of this one organisation. the gender demographics of the respondents, 56.2% male and 43.8% female, appeared similar to that of the national economic active population demographics on gender: 55% male and 45% female (department of labour, 2018). however, the remainder of the demographics appeared to reflect the specific demographics of the organisation. the generational cohorts, 31.7% millennials, 63.5% xers and 4.8% baby boomers, differed markedly from a previous study conducted by moore and bussin (2012) amongst information and communication technology organisations where there were 23.2% millennials, 31.7% xers, 32.2% baby boomers and 12.8% veterans. it is uncertain to what degree these differences in cohorts will impact any comparison in findings. the absence of veterans in this study could possibly be explained by the average retirement age across industries being 65 years and the approximate 6-year gap in studies. the rewards preference questionnaire comprised questions derived from items extracted from the world at work (2010) total rewards model with the following categories: remuneration (cash and similar), benefits remuneration (cash supplements), work–life balance (organisational practices, policies and programmes supportive of employees), performance and recognition (individual efforts towards the achievement of business goals), and development and career opportunities (learning experiences and career opportunities). only the remuneration, performance and recognition, and development and career opportunities factors proved to be similar and had acceptable internal consistency and scale reliability in this study. consequently, generational preferences for benefits remuneration and work–life balance could not be adequately tested against the research hypotheses. furthermore, the remuneration factor did not clearly differentiate between fixed and variable compensation to make any reliable reward strategy recommendations to this level of detail. recommendations given the above discussion of the results of the study, and considering the above limitations, the following recommendations are made regarding the organisations reward strategy: compensation (salary/guaranteed remuneration and annual bonus/performance incentive) is the highest preferred form of reward amongst all generations. compensation influences performance via two different mechanisms: sorting effects, which is the attraction and turnover of employees, and incentive effects (gerhart & fang, 2014). key principles influencing the sorting effects in reward strategy design should be the organisation’s adopted institutional and human capital frameworks that include practices of peer organisations, norms developed in professions, individual characteristics and corporate governance systems and practices (maloa & rajah, 2012). key principles impacting the incentive effects in reward strategy should be process concepts of motivation: expectancy theory, equity theory and tournament theory focusing on how behaviour is energised, directed and sustained (de vito, brown, bannister, cianci, & mujtaba, 2018). most employers implement multiple incentive plans to motivate employees and drive diverse employer requirements (gerhart & fang, 2014). performance and recognition (constructive and honest feedback on performance, monthly communication sessions about business progress, a balanced scorecard or performance agreement with agreed objectives) is the second highest preferred form of reward amongst all generations. process concepts of motivation in the form of expectancy theory when contracting and giving feedback on performance are a key concept in formulating reward strategy for this component. millennials rank growth and development (growth opportunities, learning and development opportunity to rotate and experience different types of jobs) as almost on a par with compensation, and performance and recognition. high investment leverage in motivating millennials can be achieved with this component. a key set of principles influencing reward strategy design for this component should be jacobs, renard and snelgar’s (2014) study demonstrating the positive correlation between intrinsic rewards (meaningfulness, choice, competence and progress) and engagement (vigour, absorption and dedication). learning and development opportunities, career advancement opportunities, job autonomy, challenging work, individual performance appraisals and work–life balance are important reward practices to consider and encourage intrinsic rewards of employees and thus potentially work engagement for the employer. benefits may appear important in the retention of all employees, including, but not limited to, retirement, medical aid, study leave and subsidised tuition benefits. focusing on one clear differentiating benefit for the organisation amongst competitors may be able to present retention value (kwon & hein, 2013). the following recommendations are made regarding future research in the field of industrial organisational psychology regarding reward strategy and different generational groups: literature has operationalised the concept cusp generations. the cusp generation between baby boomers and xers, born between 1964 and 1969, has been labelled generation jones by giancola, as cited by taylor (2018), and more recently, the cusp generation between xers and millennials, born between 1978 and 1984, has been labelled the xennial generation by lamanga, as cited by taylor (2018). future research can be expanded to include these generations in exploring how, whether and to what degree these generational segments will have on reward preferences. for future research in the field of industrial organisational psychology regarding reward strategy and different generational groups, the survey instrument can be explored to yield improved statistical reliability and validity of a broader representation or the total reward components. an alternative method to cross-sectional research (examining age cohorts any point in time) found in literature is cross-temporal research (examining the same age at different time periods). campbell et al. (2015) suggested that using the latter, cross-temporal survey method, would be more favourable to control for any age effects when researching generations. this may contribute to understanding hypothesis 3, where generational group preferences regarding career, learning and development seem to be preferred progressively more by the younger generations, with further clarity. to expand on practical recommendations on reward strategies for organisations and to deepen the field of industrial organisational psychology, a qualitative element may be added to the quantitative design, a sequential exploratory design in future research. conclusion in this study, sufficient data were collected from an adequate representation of survey participants, and the overall measuring instrument was found to be reliable for the purpose of the research. the data collection and processing were discussed in three progressive stages. various statistical methods were implemented at each stage and ultimately the research hypothesis was tested. from the analysis, it was evident that generational groups preferred financial rewards to non-financial rewards. millennials do not prefer non-financial rewards to financial rewards. baby boomers, xers and millennials do not differ significantly about preferences regarding compensation and performance and recognition. preferences regarding career, learning and development are progressively preferred by the younger generations. the variance, however, is not large. to this end, various recommendations are made regarding reward strategy and future research in the field of industrial organisational psychology regarding reward strategy and different generational groups. acknowledgements appreciation to mr phil roux, mr tertius carstens and ms nandi ngumbela for access to the fast-moving consumer goods environment to conduct this research; to professor bussin for granting permission to use the rewards preference questionnaire in this study; and to mr andries masenge, professor sumei van antwerpen and mr jan nel for assisting in statistical analysis, technical editing and language editing, respectively. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information the research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references brown, j.d. (2007). statistics corner. questions and answers about language testing statistics: sample size and power. shiken: jalt testing & evaluation sig newsletter, 11(1), 31–35. retrieved from https://jalt.org/test/bro_25.htm brown, d. (2014). the future of reward management: from total reward strategies to smart rewards. compensation & benefits review, 46(3), 147–151. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886368714549303 brown, d., & reilly, p. (2013). reward and engagement: the new realities. compensation & benefits review, 45(3), 145–157. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886368713497546 becton, j.b., walker, h.j., & jones-farmer, a. (2014). generational differences in workplace behavior. journal of applied social psychology, 44(3), 175–189. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12208 bussin, m., & van rooy, d.j. (2014). total rewards strategy for a multigenerational workforce in a financial institution. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.606 bussin, m.h., & thabethe, n.n. (2018). reward preferences in south africa’s media industry. sa journal of human resource management, 16(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.1010 campbell, w.k., campbell, s.m., siedor, l.e., & twenge, j.m. (2015). generational differences are real and useful. industrial and organizational psychology, 8(3), 324–331. https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2015.43 cerny, c.a., & kaiser, h.f. (1977). a study of a measure of sampling adequacy for factor-analytic correlation matrices. multivariate behavioural research, 12(1), 43–47. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr1201_3 chen, j., & lian, r. (2015). generational differences in work values in china. social behavior and personality: an international journal, 43(4), 567–578. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2015.43.4.567 cogin, j. (2012). are generational differences in work values fact or fiction? multi-country evidence and implications. the international journal of human resource management, 23(11), 2268–2294. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.610967 department of labour. (2018). commission for employment equity annual report for 2017–2018. retrieved from https://www.abp.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/commission-for-employment-equity-18th-annual-report.pdf de vito, l., brown, a., bannister, b., cianci, m., & mujtaba, b.g. (2018). employee motivation based on the hierarchy of needs, expectancy and the two-factor theories applied with higher education employees. international journal of advances in management, economics and entrepreneurship, 3(1), 20–32. https://www.ijamee.info/index.php/ijamee/article/view/37 devellis, r.f. (2016). scale development: theory and applications (fourth edition). university of north carolina at chapel hill. sage publications, inc. thousand oaks, california, usa. gerhart, b., & fang, m. (2014). pay for (individual) performance: issues, claims, evidence and the role of sorting effects. human resource management review, 24(1), 41–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2013.08.010 jacobs, s., renard, m., & snelgar, r.j. (2014). intrinsic rewards and work engagement in the south african retail industry. sa journal of industrial psychology, 40(2), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i2.1195 kootstra, g. j. (2004). exploratory factor analysis: theory and application. retrieved n.d. from http://www.let.rug.nl/%7enerbonne/teach/rema-stats-meth-seminar/factor-analysis-kootstra-04.pdf kwon, j., & hein, p. (2013). employee benefits in a total rewards framework. benefits quarterly, 29(1), 32–38. retrieved from https://0-search.ebscohost.com.oasis.unisa.ac.za/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cmedm&an=23488085&site=ehost-live&scope=site lyons, s., & kuron, l. (2014). generational differences in the workplace: a review of the evidence and directions for future research. journal of organizational behavior, 35(s1), s139–s157. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1913 maloa, f., & rajah, m. (2012). determinants of employee compensation: an exploratory study. south african journal of labour relations, 36(2), 91–112. retrieved from https://0-hdl-handle-net.oasis.unisa.ac.za/10520/ejc125580 meister, j.c., & willyerd, k. (2010). the 2020 workplace. new york, ny: harper collins publishers. moore, a., & bussin, m. (2012). reward preferences for generations in selected information and communication technology companies. sa journal of human resource management, 10(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i1.325 nienaber, n., & bussin, m. (2009). the relationship between personality types and reward preferences. doctoral thesis. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. pallant, j. (2013). spss survival manual. united kingdom: mcgraw-hill education. pregnolato, m., bussin, m.h., & schlechter, a.f. (2017). total rewards that retain: a study of demographic preferences. sa journal of human resource management, 15(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15.804 risher, h. (2014). expert views on the future of salary management. compensation & benefits review, 46(2), 66–73. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886368714546809 rose, m. (2013). right results wrong rewards. collector (0010082x), 79(4), 30–32. retrieved from https://www.coursehero.com/file/p6p4q7i/i-believe-it-is-managements-duty-to-create-rewardsthat-can-affect-all-or-most/ schullery, n.m. (2013). workplace engagement and generational differences in values. business communication quarterly, 76(2), 252–265. https://doi.org/10.1177/1080569913476543 sekaran, u., & bougie, r. (2010). research methods for business: a skill building approaches (5th ed.). chichester: john willey & sons ltd. smit, w., stanz, k., & bussin, m. (2015). retention preferences and the relationship between total rewards, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor support. sa journal of human resource management, 13(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.665 snelgar, r.j., renard, m., & venter, d. (2013). an empirical study of the reward preferences of south african employees. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.351 taylor, m.k. (2018). xennials: a microgeneration in the workplace. industrial and commercial training, 50(3), 136–147. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict-08-2017-0065 van der walt, s. (2010). leveraging multi-generational workforce values in interactive information societies. south african journal of information management, 12(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajim.v12i1.441 world at work. (2010). the total rewards association. retrieved from https://www.worldatwork.org/adimlink?id=78737 xavier, b. (2014). shaping the future research agenda for compensation and benefits management: some thoughts based on a stakeholder inquiry. human resource management review, 24(1), 31–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2013.08.011 zacher, h. (2015). using lifespan developmental theory and methods as a viable alternative to the study of generational differences at work. industrial and organizational psychology, 8(3), 342–346. https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2015.47 abstract introduction problem statement objectives of the study literature review conceptual literature review empirical literature review literature gap research design research method international personality item pool results acknowledgements references about the author(s) tatenda s. mhlanga department of industrial psychology, university of fort hare, alice, south africa themba q. mjoli department of industrial psychology, university of fort hare, alice, south africa shingirayi f. chamisa department of industrial psychology, university of fort hare, alice, south africa citation mhlanga, t.s., mjoli, t.q., & chamisa, s.f. (2019). personality and job engagement among municipal workers in the eastern cape province, south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1188. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1188 original research personality and job engagement among municipal workers in the eastern cape province, south africa tatenda s. mhlanga, themba q. mjoli, shingirayi f. chamisa received: 16 mar. 2019; accepted: 18 june 2019; published: 13 nov. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: although researchers have discovered many of the beneficial and positive consequences of job engagement, little is known about the multitude of antecedent factors that lead to employee engagement such as personality. research purpose: the aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between the big five personality traits and job engagement among municipal workers. motivation for the study: the motivation of this study is to examine the relationship between personality and psychological conditions. it was premised on previous research that personality is associated with many employees’ behaviours. research approach/design and method: the present study employed a quantitative, cross-sectional research design by using a questionnaire on a sample of 403 district municipal workers in the eastern cape province, south africa. main findings: the study findings show that openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness had a positive relationship with job engagement, whereas neuroticism has a negative relationship with job engagement. municipalities and educational qualifications had an impact of job engagement. practical/managerial implications: the study recommends managers to switch from an intervention-based focus to a selection-based focus as municipalities can maximise their resources by being able to better predict job success early in the selection process as opposed to trying to maximise the performance on a continual basis through interventions. contribution/value-add: this study adds to an understanding of the influences of personality on work outcomes such as job engagement, giving areas for exploration in coaching or feedback interviews based on personality assessment. keywords: personality; job engagement; employee engagement; municipal workers; eastern cape. introduction the efficiency of the public service delivery depends on the performance of the public employees. because of high protest in the eastern cape because of poor service delivery, it is crucial to understand if the employees are engaged in doing their work. municipal workers need to be engaged in their work as this will enhance good service delivery, which will increase the socio-economic status of the citizens. employee engagement has important ramifications for operating results, budget management and the public’s satisfaction with government. crabtree (2013) found that only 13% of the employees were engaged globally, whereas 4% – 15% were engaged in south africa. although researchers have discovered many of the beneficial and positive consequences of job engagement, little is known about the multitude of antecedent factors that lead to employee engagement such as personality. as a research field, employee engagement has seen remarkable growth in the recent era (jin & mcdonald, 2016); however, in assessing the body of research related to employee engagement, wood, kim and khan (2016) determined that the field of study is still relatively young. despite growth in the exploration of the subject, the body of research related to employee engagement still lacks depth, breadth and adequate explanatory theory (bailey, madden, alfes, & fletcher, 2017). wollard and shuck (2011) noted a general lack of validation studies within the employee engagement body of research and specifically suggested a need for quantitative testing of antecedents to employee engagement across a variety of organisational sectors and settings. by adding both breadth and depth to the field, this research study is positioned to contribute to the body of work in employee engagement research. moshoeu (2017) focused on personality and work balance as determinants of employee engagement among management staff. he recommended that a further study on the study variables and to include lower level employees, which this study achieved. he also recommended having a larger sample from a single organisation as well as in terms of gender, generational cohort, functional job level, economic sector, educational qualifications, tenure, parental status and marital status, to achieve representative and generalised research findings. the study focused on the impact of demographics on the study variables among the municipalities in the eastern cape. there is potentially much to be gained from studying the correlation between personality type and job engagement. the question remains as to why employees, when working under comparable conditions, display signs of job engagement, whereas others display a few or no signs of job engagement (wilson, 2009). individual factors such as personality traits have been minimally investigated in relation with job engagement, whereas organisational factors have been researched thoroughly (saks & gruman, 2014). noesgaard (2016) suggests that individual differences should occupy more space in the work engagement literature and should not be underestimated. according to rothmann and joubert (2007), it is crucial to recognise that both organisational and individual aspects are continually inducing engagement; hence, additional enquiry is required to identify individual components of engagement (rich, 2006). as such, attention on individual characteristics such as personality will add value to the present study on job engagement especially to municipalities. although job engagement is an old and widely researched concept, its conception as defined by kahn (1990) is relatively new in behavioural research and has not been widely researched. according to kahn (1990), job engagement involves the binding of employees to their task by expressing themselves physically, cognitively and emotionally when performing their roles. further studies on the kahn’s (1990) engagement concept are necessary as they differ from the previous engagement scales which have roots in the burnout literature which schaufeli, salanova, gonzález-romá and bakker (2002) later confirmed that job engagement is not relatively the exact opposite of burnout. henceforth, it is a necessity that this concept and its connection to personality be examined in the projected research. the majority of research has focused on employee engagement as a predictor of work and organisational outcomes or on organisational and work factors that influence job engagement leaving out some factors that affect job engagement indirectly (men, 2015). the role of individual differences has been fragmented and limited, hence the focus of personality in this study. problem statement the demand for staff who show initiative are motivated to outspread their energies outside the boundaries of the job description, and are dynamically engaged as the characteristics of what is sought after in the 21st-century workplace (leiter & bakker, 2010). employee engagement has been identified as a significant contributor to positive organisational outcomes (devi, 2017) and considered to be the most influential factor to measure an organisation’s vigour and orientation towards superior performance. therefore, job engagement is crucial to the survival of organisations as noted by juan (2010) who indicates that when employee engagement is not effectively managed, firms lose between 5% and 15% of sales revenue. as a result, most researchers have attempted to explain why some employees are less engaged than others. the preponderance has primarily focused on identifying characteristics of the work environment that influence or contribute to job engagement. less research (inceoglu & warr, 2012) has focused on identifying the individual characteristics inherent in employees who promote job engagement. therefore, the study goal is to address the problem of why some employees are more engaged than others by focusing on the personality of the employees. in addition, another problem is that much of the contemporary literature focuses on the private sector (ziapour & kianipour, 2015) where causality and construct relationships are informed by financial data and more readily available performance metrics. antecedents of work engagement such as autonomy, transparency and feedback may be less evident in public organisations (pollitt & bouckaert, 2011). employees in the public sector can be less engaged and less devoted to their organisation than employees in the private sector (agyemang & ofei, 2013). this might be because of unique encounters public sector employees face such as resource shortages, political influence and less management discretion for financial incentives (jin & mcdonald, 2016). hence, there is a need to focus more studies on the public sector. also, a considerable number of engagement studies were conducted abroad and a few in africa, especially south africa. therefore, there is a necessity to identify and understand the main aspects that prompt employee engagement within the public sector and by extension might contribute to enhanced organisational effectiveness. although strategies for increasing engagement are available in the popular press and management publications, they might not conform to rigorous, evidence-based academic standards. trustworthy data and information are critical because the work of government employees affects citizens’ lives through a variety of essential functions such as social services, health care, utilities and law enforcement. objectives of the study the main objective of the study is to augment knowledge and the relationship between personality and job engagement. it also seeks to find out if a combination of any two or more personality traits will explain a higher proportion of variance in job engagement and investigate the impact of study demographics on job engagement. literature review theoretical perspective kahn’s theory of engagement kahn’s (1990) employee engagement theory is grounded in role theory with the view that the process of engagement involves individuals expressing themselves in their job tasks in a way that is consistent with their true selves or in the case of disengagement, withdrawing and defending their selves from their work role. individuals usually bring or eradicate themselves from task behaviours or performances. according to kahn’s (1990) theory, the engagement or disengagement is fuelled by employee’s evaluations of three primary psychological conditions: meaningfulness, safety and availability that are influenced by numerous critical aspects within the work setting. therefore, when the job task is important, the organisational environment is secure and sufficient resources are accessible, employees have a tendency to illustrate dynamic, full exhibitions to their work tasks (kahn, 1990) through physical, cognitive and emotional engagement (ee). the cognitive facet of job engagement is concerned about how employees perceive the organisation, management and the working environments. the emotional feature focuses on how workers feel about each of the three aspects and their standpoint on the organisation and its management. physical engagement (pe) can be noted through the exertion of energy towards achieving a task. appropriately, kahn’s main aim was to distinguish those mental components that were powerfully sufficient to outlive the extent of individual variances (kahn, 1992). afterwards, kahn recommended that personality differences might still matter as they might influence an individual’s dispositions to either engage or disengage (kahn, 1992). therefore, kahn suggested that the investigation of personal aspects associated with engagement may be a critical subject for future inquiring. in this manner, individual differences can be followed back to individuals having different personality characteristics, which make their conduct contrast even when they are in the same work environment. people whose characteristics and necessities partner the demands of the situation will be able to engage themselves at work (kahn, 1990). five-factor model five-factor model (ffm) developed by lewis goldberg (1990) is an appealing model of use within the personality literature and research as it integrates an extensive collection of personality variables to a common language and framework for personality researchers. it also provides a comprehensive overview of the factors that are made up of individual differences. the five orthogonal personality factors which the ffm focused on are stability, extraversion and openness to experience, conscientiousness and agreeableness. it can be argued that people behave in different ways because of their diverse personality behaviours, which later affect their behaviours. thus, it will be used for the study to understand how people with different personality types behave differently in the same situations which will lead to job engagement or disengagement. conceptual literature review job engagement job engagement (fitzpatrick, 2017) can be defined as a: [p]ositive, energized state of mind that stems from both a cognitive and an emotional investment of personal energy that is focused on transforming a work task, a team goal, and/or an organisation outcome into a meaningful business objective. (p. 7) job engagement is a condition of being emotionally and rationally involved in jobs that inspire workers to perform satisfactorily (habraken, 2013, p. 12). employees are considered a vital resource in any organisation and with the increase in talent war, there is a need for an organisation to safeguard that apart from enticing the finest talent, they can preserve these gifted employees. however, being able to retain employees is still not sufficient as one may have the finest capacity but might not be zealous about their jobs (kamau & sma, 2016). it can be noted from gallup group and also by martins and nienaber (south african board for people practises, 2014) a south african sample demonstrated that 46% of the employees were not engaged and 45% were actively disengaged (45%). according to kahn (1990), engagement is defined as a state in which individuals express their complete self physically, cognitively and emotionally in their tasks. physical engagement rich (2006) gave a summary of pe according to the kahn’s concept of job engagement as the force attempted on another person’s job or a way of channelling one’s physical efforts towards the accomplishment of a specific undertaking. emotional engagement emotional engagement refers to the emotional connection that an employee feels towards the organisation and tends to influence conduct and the level of exertion in business-related exercises. the more engagement an employee is with the organisation, the more exertion they set forth (business dictionary, 2015). cognitive engagement kahn’s (1990) initial conceptualisation of cognitive engagement (ce) was acquired from an employee’s resolve as to whether they believed that their work was meaningful and safe, and in addition whether the essential resources are accessible to finish their work. personality the american psychological association describes personality as individual differences in terms of how people think, feel and behave (american psychology association, 2017). it incorporates an individual’s relatively constant feelings, opinions and behavioural patterns. every person has an inimitable disposition that separates him or her from other individuals, and understanding someone’s personality provides evidence on the manner in which an individual is expected to behave in different circumstances (alanoud & amir, 2016). after south africa gained its democracy, certain legislations were passed such as the labour relations act of (1995) and the employment equity act of (1998). the former act is duty-bound for organisations to have precise unbiased standards by which interviewees for a job are assessed, whereas the latter act forbids personality tests until proved to be valid, consistent, impartially and unprejudiced towards some employees. personality test utilisation when choosing a job candidate has extremely increased in south africa as shown by many studies conducted in this regard (davis, 2013). everyone has a unique personality that separates one from another, and understanding an individual’s personality can give inklings on how that individual is likely to act and feel in a variety of circumstances (alanoud & amir, 2016). the study looked at the big five personality traits that are as follows. emotional stability – neuroticism neuroticism refers to an individual’s emotional stability and the overall predisposition to experience adverse effects of the environment (taylor & de bruin, 2006), whereas emotionally stable individuals are more assured, calm and skilled in handling demanding situations. extraversion – introversion extraversion trait refers to people who are usually confident to pursue social relationships as well as to revel in optimistic sentiments (taylor & de bruin, 2006), whereas introverts are people of few words, quiet, keep to themselves and thoughtful. openness to experience – closeness to experience a person with high levels of openness to experience love learning and fine arts, participate in an artistic profession and enjoy meeting new people, whereas people with closeness to experience are usually realistic, emotionally shallow and down to earth (lebowitz, 2016). agreeableness – rudeness agreeable individuals are kind, sympathetic and tender and are associated with unselfishness and pro-social conduct (gerlach, herpertz & loeber, 2015). individuals scoring low in agreeableness are viewed by others as untrustworthy because they are usually uncaring, impolite, ill-tempered, aggressive and cynical. conscientiousness – undependability conscientiousness refers to the level of effectiveness and competence within an individual with which he or she schedules, monitors and performs tasks (taylor & de bruin, 2006). undependable individuals are disorganised, untrustworthy and less reliable. empirical literature review in terms of emotional stability or neuroticism, research demonstrates that employees scoring high in emotional stability have a more prominent possibility of experiencing job engagement than employees low in emotional stability (reinke & chamorro-premuzic, 2014; woods & sofat, 2013). they find it less demanding and more characteristic to put terrible past encounters and pay attention to their present performance positively. in terms of conscientiousness, another study has reported similar findings that individuals who are inclined to be hard-working, reliable, self-disciplined and optimistic are able to translate their work engagement into increased individual job performance (bakker, demerouti, & brummelhius, 2012). therefore, it was determined that employees who are high in conscientiousness have solid organisational skills and have a solid awareness of others’ expectations and are more than answerable to put liveliness into their work, feel a robust sense of expert efficacy and are most likely to complete the job (steger, litman-ovadia, miller, menger, & rothmann, 2013). li, gao, shen and liu (2014) found that high levels of extraversion and emotional stability were frequently found to be connected with job engagement indicators which might be because of extroverts being energetic, passionate and achievement-oriented. similarly, handa and gulati (2014) explored the relationship between extraversion and conscientiousness personality and employee engagement among 333 frontline personnel in the organised retail industry and found a positive relationship between extraversion and conscientiousness personality traits and employee engagement. moshoeu (2017) focused on personality and work balance as determinants of employee engagement among management staff in a web-based survey in the various industries in south africa. she found significant relationships between the variables such as agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and employee engagement. literature gap it can be noted that the above literature is mainly from international studies, and not conducted in south africa. most of the studies conducted in south africa mainly focused on one variable, not on both personality and job engagement. most of the studies conducted in south africa mainly used the utrecht work engagement scale, which is usually associated with burnout. in addition, a few used goldberg et al.’s (2006) personality measurement. the research study intends to extend the current literature on employee engagement in municipalities in south africa, by empirically investigating the impact of personality traits on employee engagement. this might be the first study to the researcher’s knowledge that attempts to investigate the relationship between personality traits measured by the 50-item international personality item pool (ipip) developed by goldberg et al. (2006) and employee engagement measured by the job engagement scale (jes) developed by rich, lepine and crawford (2010) among municipal workers in the eastern cape province (ecp) of south africa. most research performed on job engagement and personality have recommended that research needs to be performed with other samples for further studies to compare the results (de villiers, 2015; hale, 2016). in addition, most researches have been conducted in private sectors, hence the need to have more research on public government sector to make it more generalisable. jin and mcdonald (2016) suggested that employee engagement in the government public sectors is a topic that remains under-researched. this study adds to the scholarly research by providing results related to employee engagement and personality within an under-researched sector. furthermore, shaban (2018) in his study on personality and job engagement recommended future research to address the impact of personality on employee engagement of the employees in the public sector. the following section will proceed in explaining the methodology of the study as well as the results obtained from the data. research design research approach the quantitative method is well suited for the examination of relationships between variables and was therefore determined to be suitable for this study. a cross-sectional quantitative research design was followed to achieve the study objectives. research method research participants the target population of the study consisted of all the municipal workers from six district municipalities in the ecp, which are alfred nzo district municipality (andm), cacadu district municipality, chris hani district municipality, amathole district municipality (adm), joe gqabi district municipality and o.r. tambo district municipality. a total simple random sample of 403 municipal employees was chosen for the study. measuring instruments the data were collected by using a questionnaire, which consisted of three sections that are the personality questionnaire, job engagement questionnaire and demographical questionnaire developed by the researcher. as such information was collected on race, gender, marital status, age, tenure, occupational level and educational level. international personality item pool the personality traits, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience and extraversion were measured by using the 50-item ipip (goldberg et al., 2006). every single trait was measured by 10 items on a five-point likert type (1 – very inaccurate and 5 – very accurate) scale. the traits were found to have the following alpha coefficients: conscientiousness (0.79), extraversion (0.87), agreeableness (0.82), openness to experience (0.84) and neuroticism (0.86) (goldberg et al., 2006). job engagement scale rich et al. (2010) developed the 18-item jes based on kahn’s conceptualisation. employees were requested to show the level to which they are engaged with their jobs on a five-point likert-type scale ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ (1) to ‘strongly agree’ (5). the internal consistency coefficient for the pe dimension was α = 0.91; for ee, it was α = 0.94; and for the ce dimension, it was α = 0.95 (ongore, 2013). research procedure questionnaires together with blank envelopes were hand-delivered to the respondents. questionnaires included a cover page with instructions to the participants and information on the assessments and the research. the consent form was also included in the questionnaire, which participants were requested to sign. participants were given one week to complete and return the completed questionnaires by dropping them off in a marked box at the human resources department office. statistical analysis statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 24 was used for analyses. tests were carried out at either 1% or 5% level of significance. a descriptive analysis was used to describe the study’s demographic features. a correlational analysis coupled with a simple linear regression analysis was utilised to determine whether personality traits exert a significant effect on job engagement. ethical consideration permission to conduct the research on the district municipalities was obtained from the municipal manager and the university ethics committee. the researcher ensured that all participants were informed wholly of what the study and it was voluntary. privacy, confidentiality, anonymity and dignity were upheld at all times. results demographical information the study consisted of 52% male employees, and 80% were black african. most of the respondents were in the age group of 31–40 years, and 45% of the respondents were single in terms of their marital status. the main qualification of the respondents was a diploma, followed by a degree. the majority of the respondents worked on level 6–10 salary level in the municipality, and most of them have been working in the municipality for 1–5 years. seventy per cent of the employees were permanently employed. reliability analysis cronbach’s alpha was applied to measure the instrument’s internal consistency. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the jes and ipip are between α = 0.93 and α = 0.70. this means that the measuring scales are reliable as presented in table 1. table 1: descriptive statistics and reliability statistics of the scales. descriptive statistics table 1 shows the descriptive statistics of the study variables. it shows that the mean levels of the main variables that are job engagement (mean = 4.07; sd = 0.69), conscientiousness (mean = 5.44; sd = 0.96), agreeableness (mean = 4.66; sd = 1.35), openness (mean = 5.66; sd = 1.19) and extraversion (mean = 5.65; sd = 1.22) were all high for the study sample. only neuroticism (mean = 3.32; sd = 0.31) was moderately high, which shows that the respondents somewhat agreed with the measuring items of the variables. demographic differences on job engagement it was also imperative to test for demographical differences on job engagement within our sample as they have been major inconsistencies in the past literature. maslach and leiter (1997) suggested that demographics such as age, work experience, sex and occupation type makes interpreting demographic variables in relation to engagement a challenging task because of a lack of research evidence. tables 2 and 3 show the results of a one-way analysis of variance (anova) with post hoc tukey honestly significant difference (hsd) test for comparing mean differences of ordinal categorical demographic variables on job engagement dimensions. only two demographics in this study had an impact on job engagement. race, age, gender, job status, marital status, race and tenure did not show any significant difference on the mean levels of job engagement. table 2: statistically mean differences of job engagement and demographics. table 3: mean differences of job engagement and demographics. job engagement had statistically significant differences on level of education (f = 4.18; p = 0.001) and municipalities (f = 12.77; p ≤ 0.0001). the tukey post hoc test shows that employees who had a certificate qualification (mean = 4.16, n = 67) have significantly higher levels of job engagement than who had other qualifications (mean = 3.61, n = 25). it also shows that employees who worked at adm experienced higher levels of job engagement (mean = 4.24; n = 64) than employees who worked at andm (mean = 3.58; n = 73). when looking at the dimensions of job engagement separately, pe had statistically significant differences on the level of education (f = 4.97; p ≤ 0.0001) and municipalities (f = 13.14; p ≤ 0.0001). employees who had a diploma qualification have significantly higher levels of pe than those who had other qualifications. it also shows that employees who worked at adm had higher levels pe than employees who worked at andm. in terms of ee, results show statistically significant differences on the level of education (f = 2.31; p = 0.043) and municipalities (f = 8.93; p ≤ 0.0001). employees who had a postgraduate qualification have significantly higher levels of ee than those who had other qualifications. it also shows that employees who worked at or district municipality had higher levels of ee than employees who worked at andm. lastly, ce showed significant differences with educational qualifications (f = 3.35; p = 0.006) and municipalities (f = 9.15; p ≤ 0.0001). employees who had a certificate qualification have significantly higher levels of ce than those who had other qualifications. it also shows that employees who worked at or district municipality had higher levels of ce than employees who worked at andm. correlation analysis firstly, it was necessary to check whether there was a linear relationship in the data that allowed for a linear regression analysis. to achieve this, the pearson’s bivariate correlation coefficient (one-tailed test) was used as shown in table 4. table 4: pearson correlation between personality traits and job engagement. the results suggest that job engagement had moderate positive significant relationships with agreeableness (r = 0.39; p ≤ 0.0001), conscientiousness (r = 0.40; p ≤ 0.0001) and openness (r = 0.35; p ≤ 0.0001). extraversion had a weak, positive, significant linear relationship with job engagement (r = 0.12; p = 0.009), whereas neuroticism had a weak negative significant linear relationship with job engagement (r = -0.12; p = 0.007). conscientiousness, openness, extraversion and agreeableness were significantly positively related to all three job engagement dimensions. neuroticism was negatively correlated with pe and ee; however, the study finds no significant correlation between neuroticism and ce (r = -0.09; p = 0.059). simple linear regression it is also imperative to use simple linear regression models to test these hypothesised frameworks. for evaluating these models, the enter method was utilised. durbin–watson test for auto-correlation was used, and to test the assumption of homoscedasticity and normality of residuals, special plots (q-q plots) were used. results of the simple linear regression models are presented in table 5. table 5: simple linear regression model fit and summary for the big five personalities on job engagement. in terms of agreeableness, it resulted in a significant model (f = 71.53; p ≤ 0.0001) and explained a significant amount of the variance in job engagement (r2 = 0.15; adjusted r2 = 0.15). the durbin–watson d = 1.62 is between the two critical values of 1.5 < d < 2.5, and therefore we can assume that there is no first-order linear auto-correlation in our linear regression data, which applies to all the big five personality traits. the unstandardised parameter estimates of the resultant model, both the constant term (β0 = 2.28; p ≤ 0.0001) and the main effect of agreeableness trait (β1 = 0.50; p ≤ 0.0001), are all statistically significant. therefore, agreeableness does exert a positive effect on job engagement. in terms of conscientiousness, the adjusted r2 of our model is 0.162, which means that the linear regression explains only 16.2% of the variance in the dependent variable. the resultant model revealed a significant fit (f = 77.25; p ≤ 0.0001). conscientiousness trait has a statistically significant positive effect on job engagement (β1 = 0.48; p ≤ 0.0001). openness to experience resultant model was significant (f = 56.30; p ≤ 0.0001), and it also explained 12.3% of the variation in job engagement (r2 = 0.12; adjusted r2 = 0.12). the regression coefficients are β0 = 2.41 (p ≤ 0.0001) and β1 = 0.48 (p ≤ 0.0001), respectively. hence, openness to experience exerts a positive effect on job engagement. extraversion explained a small amount of the variance in job engagement (r2 = 0.01, adjusted r2 = 0.01). the parameter estimates of the resultant model, both the constant term (β0 = 3.60; t = 17.96; p ≤ 0.0001) and the main effect of extraversion trait (β1 = 0.15; t = 2.39; p = 0.017), are all statistically significant. therefore, extraversion does exert a positive effect on job engagement. neuroticism trait explains only 1.5% of the variation in job engagement (r2 = 0.02; adjusted r2 = 0.01). parameter estimates show that both the constant term and neuroticism have a statistically significant effect on job engagement. the regression coefficients are β0 = 4.41 (p ≤ 0.0001) and β1 = -0.12 (p = 0.014), respectively. hence, neuroticism exerts a negative effect on job engagement. discussion of the results openness had a positive correlation with the overall job engagement. this may be because openness to experience has become a prior personality trait because of the rapidly changing nature of current working life; hence, employees who adapt themselves to the changes can be more engaged in their job. this finding is consonant with that of woods and sofat (2013) who reported a positive and a statistically significant correlation between openness to experience and engagement (r = 0.28, p < 0.01) with a relatively small practical size. individuals with openness to experience have the tendency to be imaginative and curious as opposed to being concrete-minded and narrow thinking (laher, 2010), thereby able to stimulate the level of employee engagement. conscientiousness was found to be positively correlated to job engagement and the three job engagement components. this can be explained because of the organisational skills, steadiness during hard times and a strong sense of responsibility engaged employees display whilst performing their roles. the results are supporting the findings of other researches (van daal, donche, & de maeyer, 2014). conscientious individuals have a tendency to be habitually careful, reliable, hardworking, well energised and purposeful, which makes them more engaged in their work. extraversion was found to be positively correlated to job engagement and its three job engagement components. the study results corroborate previous research performed by other researchers who found a positive correlation between job engagement and extraversion (gulamali, 2017). this finding suggests that people who are highly assertive and sociable are most likely to work with great enthusiasm and inner drive to pursue others. an increased amount of extraversion experienced will result in an increase in job engagement as extroverts are characterised by displaying high levels of self-confidence, energy and activity (milfont & sibley, 2012). agreeableness was found to be positively correlated to job engagement. similar results are also observed in the study conducted by woods and sofat (2013) among a sample of working adults in the uk and reported that agreeableness was positively correlated with engagement. the positive correlation between engagement and agreeableness suggests that participants have the proclivity to care, help and cooperate with others. the results are consistent with those by akhtar, boustani, tsivrikos and chamorro-premuzic (2015) who found agreeableness as a significant predictor of job engagement. agreeable employees can be more positive and motivated to resolve the problems and conflicts, which makes them more engaged in their job because they can save their energy and flow it to their work roles. neuroticism was found to be negatively correlated to job engagement. the study results are consistent with studies conducted by reinke and chamorro-premuzic (2014) and woods and sofat (2013) who also found a negative correlation between neuroticism and job engagement. this may be because people high in neuroticism are likely to be distracted and put more energy into worrying about personal issues that are irrelevant to the task at hand. this naturally makes them less emotionally or cognitively available to perform the job. conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness accounted for 20.6% variance in job engagement. the study results are consistent with a study conducted by shuckla, aggarwal, adhikari and singh (2014) who found that almost 24% of employee engagement was explained by the personality of the employees on its own. they also found that conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness had a moderately positive relationship with employee engagement, whereas extraversion and neuroticism had a weak relationship with employee engagement, which is similar to this study results. in another study by mroz and kaleta (2016), all the five traits of personality accounted for 8%–15% of the variance in work engagement, whereas gulamali (2017) found that 27.9% of the variance of job engagement was explained by the individual traits. on the other hand, ziapour and kianipour (2015) found that neuroticism and agreeableness predicted 4.9% of the variance of nurses’ job engagement. the study does not support the results found by yadav and katiyar (2017) who found that extraversion and conscientiousness had a major impact on overall engagement and accounted for 57% change in employee engagement. in this study extraversion had a weak correlation with job engagement. these results are a bit contrary as extravert employees are most effective in jobs that require interpersonal relationships such as municipal workers. however, moshoeu (2017) also found that extraversion did not act as significant predictors of employee engagement. job engagement had statistically significant differences on the level of education and municipalities. the study results in terms of education and job engagement are consistent with those conducted by bell and barkhuizen (2011) who found significant differences among job engagement, home language, ethnicity and educational qualification. this study showed that employees with a certificate were more engaged than employees who had diploma, degree, postgraduate and other educational qualification. this is consistent with previous research by jackson and rothmann (2004) who found that teachers with lower qualifications were more engaged than the others. however, the results contradict the discoveries of barkhuizen and rothmann (2006) who found academics with a doctoral degree to be more engaged than those with an honours degree. the study results also show that there were significant differences between engagement and geographical location of employees. employees who worked in certain municipalities such as adm experienced more high levels of job engagement than employees working at andm. amathole district is found in a big town and alfred nzo is situated in mount aliyff in what is considered a rural area which might affect how employees view their work. the results are in line with lavoie (2014) who pointed out that location of a workplace has an impact on employee engagement when he found that most employees in big cities were more engaged. in addition, gupta, ganguli and ponnam (2015) are of the view that location of appointment is a very crucial factor for engaging employees. theoretical implications an important theoretical implication of this study is inherent in the subject matter of the research. jin and mcdonald (2016) suggested that employee engagement in the public enterprises is a topic that remains under-researched. this study adds to the scholarly research by providing results related to employee engagement under-researched sector. additionally, to the best of the researcher’s knowledge, the deployment of the jes and ipip for this study marks the first application on the municipal workers in the ecp. the relationship between engagement and demographics is sometimes conflicting. a theoretical implication of this study was that, other than educational qualifications, none of the demographic variables were statistically significant predictors of employee engagement. practical implications currently, personality predictors are being used to select employees for several organisational outcomes. findings from this study offer a deeper understanding of how an organisation can achieve the desired organisational goals. it can be noted that extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness and emotional stability have a positive effect on job engagement. therefore, hiring employees based on personality predictors directly related to job performance will induce positive organisational outcomes, and so will hiring employees based on personality factors that relate to engagement. an organisation should be cautious when designing jobs to minimise the cognitive, emotional and physical strain experienced by employees. management should not overload employees with cognitive processing demands, or require them to perform extensive emotional labour in their positions without breaks, and should minimise the ergonomic job-related hazards present in their jobs. it is important that management practitioners regularly measure and track employee engagement within the workforce. in doing so, the effectiveness of strategic efforts to increase employee engagement can be monitored and evaluated. limitations and recommendations the quantitative approach to this study has implications for the research. the self-report questionnaires for personality and job engagement can lead to linear, subjectivity and faking because of factors such as a social desirability bias. it is recommended that further studies make use of different methodologies, such as qualitative and quantitative, which could provide more -in-depth insights into the relationship between personality traits and employee engagement. as is the nature of research, a larger sample size could contribute to a greater generalisability of the current findings. researchers have also noted the need for more longitudinal and experimental research study designs for research on personality and employee engagement (rich et al., 2010). personality traits can change over time as a result of external factors such as the environment of the place of employment, the experience gained within a role and the establishment of additional skills or expertise. conclusion increasing work engagement in a sustainable way remains a challenge despite years of research on the topic (rothmann, 2017). the question remains as to why employees, when working under comparable conditions, display signs of job engagement, whereas others display a few or no signs of job engagement. it can be contributed to personality, and it cannot be ignored in the workplace especially because organisation represents a social system with many personalities interacting. our theoretical validation is that certain behavioural and emotional styles related to personality traits will make it more likely that an individual will experience a state of engagement at the workplace. organisations cannot change employees; however, they can capitalise on employees having certain traits that tend to facilitate a state of engagement. therefore, the study provided guidance for selecting a new employee with the positive psychological capacity to successfully manage their engagement in a rapidly changing environment. municipal workers need to be engaged in their work as this will enhance good service delivery, which will increase the socio-economic status of the citizens. acknowledgements the authors thank dr c.s. marange from the university of fort hare statistics department for his assistance in data analysis. competing interests the author(s) declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions t.s.m. is the main author of the article. the article was written from the author’s phd study. prof. t.q. mjoli is the phd supervisor. dr s.f. chamisa assisted with conceptual contributions. funding information university of fort hare govan mbeki research and development centre assisted through a 3-year supervisory linked bursary. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views expressed in this article are the authors’ own work and not an official position of the institution or funder. references agyemang, c.b., & ofei, s.b. (2013). employee work engagement and organisational commitment: a comparative study in private and public-sector organisation in ghana. european journal of business and innovation research, 1(4), 20–33. akhtar, r., boustani, l., tsivrikos, d., & chamorro-premuzic, t. (2015). the engageable personality: personality and trait ei as predictors of work engagement. personality and individual differences, 73(2015), 44–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.08.040 alanoud, a., & amir, a.e. (2016). exploring the relationship between personality and job performance: new approach. international journal of business and management invention, 5(12), 43–53. american psychology association. (2017). personality. american psychological association. retrieved from http://www.apa.org/topics/personality. bailey, c., madden, a., alfes, k., & fletcher, l. (2017). the meaning, antecedents, and outcomes of employee engagement: a narrative synthesis. international journal of management reviews, 19(1), 31–53. bakker, a., demerouti, e., & brummelhius, l.t. (2012). work engagement, performance and active learning: the role of conscientiousness. journal of vocational behaviour, 80(2), 555–564. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.08.008 barkhuizen, e.n., & rothmann, s. (2006). work engagement of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. management dynamics, 15(1), 38–48. bell, e., & barkhuizen, n. (2011). the relationship between barriers to change and the work engagement of employees in a south african property management company. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 37(1), art. #935, 11 pages. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i1.935 business dictionary. (2015). employee engagement. retrieved from: http://www.businessdictionary.com. crabtree, s. (2013). worldwide, 13% of employees are engaged at work. retrieved from www.gallup.com/poll/165269/worldwide/. crawford, e.r., lepine, j.a., & rich, b. (2010). linking job demands and resources to employee engagement and burnout: a theoretical extension and meta-analytic test. journal of applied psychology, 95(5), 834–848. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019364 davis, r.j. (2013). the validation of a psychological battery for the selection of customer service agents in a south african commercial airline company. pretoria: unisa press. de villiers, c. (2015). the relationships between emotional labour, the hexaco personality traits, work engagement and burnout in the hospitality industry. unpublished master’s thesis, (industrial psychology) at stellenbosch university. retrieved from http://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/2622. devi, s. (2017). impact of talent management on organisational performance: role of employee engagement. international journal of management studies 4(1), 17–27. issn(print) 2249-0302 issn (online) 2231–2528. fitzpatrick, s. (2017). from employee engagement to employee experience: helping employees ‘own’ engagement. nhrma 2017 conference, the ever-change waters of hr. gerlach, g., herpertz, s., & loeber, s. (2015). personality traits and obesity: a systematic review. obesty reviews, 16(1), 32–63. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12235 goldberg, l.r. (1990). an alternative ‘description of personality’: the big-five factor structure. journal of personality and social psychology, 59(6), 1216–1229. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.59.6.1216 goldberg, l.r., johnson, j.a., eber, h.w., hogan, r., ashton, m.c., cloninger, c.r., & gough, h.g. (2006). the international personality item pool and the future of public-domain personality measures. journal of research in personality, 40(1), 84–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2005.08.007 government gazette. (1995). labour relations act 66 of 1995. cape town: south african government. government gazette. (1998). employment equity act 55 of 1998. cape town: south african government. gulamali, d.i. (2017). relationship between personality and work engagement: the role of individual traits and international experience. unpublished master’s thesis, management with specialization in strategic marketing at universidade católica portuguesa. gupta, m., ganguli, s., & ponnam, a. (2015). factors affecting employee engagement in india: a study on offshoring of financial services. the qualitative report, 20(4), 498–515. habraken, m.m.p. (2013). establishing employee engagement within a dutch hotel. msc thesis, enschede: university of twente. hale, r. (2016). towards a better understanding of employee engagement: factors that explain employee engagement. doctoral thesis, capella university. handa, m., & gulati, a. (2014). employee engagement does individual personality matter. journal of management research, 14(1), 57–67. inceoglu, i., & warr, p. (2012). personality and job engagement. journal of psychology, 10(4), 1–9. jackson, l.t.b., & rothmann, s. (2004). an adapted model of burnout for teachers in south africa. south african journal of education, 25(2), 100–108. jin, m.h., & mcdonald, b. (2016). understanding employee engagement in the public sector: the role of immediate supervisor, perceived organisational support and learning opportunities. the american review of public administration, 47(8), 881–897. https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074016643817 juan, a.b. (2010). job demands and job resources. burnout and engagement a multi-sample study. journal of organisational behaviour, 7(25), 293–315. kahn, w.a. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 33(4), 692–724. https://doi.org/10.5465/256287 kahn, w.a. (1992). to be fully there: psychological presence at work. human relations, 45(4), 321–349. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872679204500402 kamau, o., & sma, m. (2016). a critical review of literature on employee engagement concept. international journal of research in social sciences, 6(3), 1–8. laher, s. (2010). using exploratory factor analysis in personality research: best-practice recommendations. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), art. #873, 7 pages. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.873 lavoie, a. (2014). does the company’s location affect employee engagement? retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237553. lebowitz, s. (2016). the ‘big 5’ personality traits could predict who will and won’t become a leader. business insider. retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/big-five-personality-traits-predict-leadership-2016-12. leiter, m.p., & bakker, a.b. (2010). work engagement: an introduction. in a.b. bakker and m.p. leiter (eds.), work engagement: a handbook of essential theory and practice (pp. 1–9). london: psychology press. li, m., wang, z., gao, j., & you, x. (2017). proactive personality and job satisfaction: the mediating effects of self-efficacy and work engagement in teachers. current psychology, 36(1), 48–55. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-015-9383-1 maslach, c., & leiter, m.p. (1997). the truth about burnout: how organisations cause personal stress and what to do about it. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. men, l.r. (2015). employee engagement in relation to employee-organisation relationship and internal reputation: effects of leadership and communication. public relations journal, 9(2), 11–22. milfont, t.l., & sibley, c.g. (2012). the big five personality traits and environmental engagement: associations at the individual and societal level. journal of environmental psychology, 32(2), 187–195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2011.12.006 moshoeu, a. n. (2017). a model of personality traits and work-life balance as determinants of employee engagement. phd in literature and philosophy. unpublished. pretoria: university of south africa. mroz, j., & kaleta, k. (2016). relationships between personality, emotional labor, work engagement and job satisfaction in service professions. international journal of occupational medicine and environmental health, 29(5), 767–782. https://doi.org/10.13075/ijomeh.1896.00578 noesgaard, m.s. (2016). work engagement among caregivers: exploring the interplay between the individual and their context. phd dissertation, department of management, aarhus: aarhus university. ongore, o. (2013). job engagement scale turkish form’s validity and reliability study. kastamonu university. journal of economics and administrative sciences faculty, 2(1), 50–60. pollitt, c., & bouckaert, g. (2011). public management reform: a comparative analysis: npm, governance and the neo-weberian state (3rd edn.). oxford: oxford university press. reinke, k., & chamorro-premuzic, t. (2014). when email use gets out of control: understanding the relationship between personality and email overload and their impact on burnout and work engagement. computers in human behaviour, 36(3), 502–509. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.03.075 rich, b.l. (2006). job engagement: construct validation and relationships with job satisfaction, job involvement, and intrinsic motivation. unpublished doctoral dissertation, gainesville: university of florida. rich, b.l., lepine, j.a., & crawford, e.r. (2010). job engagement: antecedents and effects on job performance. academy of management journal, 53(3), 617–635. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.51468988 rothmann, s. (2017). employee engagement. in l.g. oades, m. steger, a. delle-fave & j. passmore (eds.), the wiley-blackwell handbook of the psychology of positivity and strengths-based approaches at work (pp. 317–341). chichester: wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118977620.ch18 rothmann, s., & joubert, j.h.m. (2007). job demands, job resources, burnout and work engagement of management staff at a platinum mine in the north-west province. south african journal of business management, 38(3), 49–61. saks, a.m., & gruman, j.a. (2014). what do we really know about employee engagement? human resource development quarterly, 25(2), 155–182. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21187 schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzalez-roma, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3(1), 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 shaban, s. (2018). predicting big-five personality traits relation with employees’ engagement in public sector in egypt. international journal of business and management review, 6(1), 33–43. shuckla, s., aggarwal, p., adhikari, b., & singh, v. (2014). relationship between employee engagement and big five personality factors: a study of online b2c e-commerce company. international journal of indian management & strategy, 19(3), 26–34. https://doi.org/10.5958/0973-9343.2014.01233.2 south african board for people practices. (2014). fact sheet 2014/1: employing first-time job market entrants. johannesburg: sabpp. steger, m., litman-ovadia, h., miller, m., menger, l., & rothmann, s. (2013). engaging in work even when it is meaningless: positive affective disposition and meaningful work interact in relation to work engagement. journal of career assessment, 21(2), 348–361. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072712471517 taylor, n., & de bruin, g.p. (2006). basic traits inventory: technical manual. johannesburg: jopie van rooyen & partners. van daal, t., donche, v., & de maeyer, s. (2014). the impact of personality, goal orientation and self-efficacy on participation of high school teachers in learning activities in the workplace. vocations and learning, 7(1), 21–40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-013-9105-5 wilson, k. (2009). a survey of employee engagement. unpublished phd thesis. faculty of graduate school, university of missouri-columbia. wollard, k.k., & shuck, b. (2011). antecedents to employee engagement: a structured review of the literature. advances in developing human resources, 13(4), 429–446. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422311431220 wood, j., kim, w., & khan, g.f. (2016). work engagement in organisations: a social network analysis of the domain. scientometrics, 109(1), 317–336. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-016-1974-6 woods, s.a., & sofat, j.a. (2013). personality and engagement at work: the mediating role of psychological meaningfulness. journal of applied social psychology, 43(11), 2203–2221. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12171 yadav, a., & katiyar, d. (2017). workforce diversity and individual differences: implications for employee engagement. indian journal of commerce & management studies, 8(3), 7–15. ziapour, a., kianipour, n. (2015). a study of the relationship between characteristic traits and employee engagement (a case study of nurses across kermanshah, iran in 2015). journal of medicine and life, 8(3), 134–140. 2puente.qxd “. . . to be authentic is literally to be your own author, to discover your native energies and find your own way of acting upon them. not existing simply to live up to an image posited by the culture or some other authority.” (bennis, 1993, p. 4). authenticity in action on 11 september 2001, the world watched as rudolph giuliani, the mayor of new york city, led the city and the american nation in the aftermath of the tragic world trade centre attacks. 9/11 had a significant impact on the world both economically, socially, emotionally, and psychologically. giuliani was hailed by some in the press as an exceptional leader in the face of this tragic event. the question is: what made this man so exceptional, and how did he show up in the world, during such a chaotic, dark and negative experience? leadership theories advocate an array of possibilities. according to the trait theories (covey, 2005; avery, 2004; nelson & quick, 2004; sharma, 1998), giuliani had various physical attributes and personalit y characteristics in his favour, such as age, adaptability, optimism and emotional control. on the other hand, during his career as a federal prosecutor, one could argue that giuliani devoted much of his time in developing his leadership abilities such as speech fluency, social skills and insight, as proposed by the behavioural theories of leadership (covey, 2005; nelson & quick, 2004; avery, 2004). as a leader he was strong and direct, yet still remained responsive, interactive and collaborative in his actions with his administration (nelson & quick, 2004; shipka, 1997). the contingent leadership theories advocate that situational favourableness contributed to giuliani’s effective leadership during 9/11, namely that there was a structured task for him and his administration, he had a strong position of power as mayor, and he maintained excellent relationships with members of his team as well as the people at large (nelson & quick, 2004). however, the complexity of giuliani’s leadership effectiveness cannot be limited to these leadership theories. giuliani understood how to convert his vision and desires for the people of new york city into a reality, and he inspired his administration and close work colleagues to perform ‘above and beyond the call of duty.’ “the stunning number of deaths after 9/11 meant i could not attend every funeral; and this was unacceptable. i decided to establish a triage to make sure that a city representative attended every funeral, and i told everyone at the meeting that i expected them not just to attend, but to make their presence felt, speaking to and comforting the victim’s sur vivors” (giuliani, 2002, p. 262). this kind of action resonates with leadership often referred to as transformational. giuliani had an innate ability and talent to influence his environment and he inspired those around him to pursue the greater vision, and thus the people of new york warmed to his charismatic nature at the most crucial point in his career – during the fear and uncertainty of 9/11 (nelson & quick, 2004; sharma, 1998; mccauley, moxley & van velsor, 1998). giuliani’s great leadership capabilities tend to be a melange of the above mentioned leadership views. however, a common thread underlying all of these theories is that no matter what the situation, giuliani acted consistently with his beliefs and core values – i.e. he was authentic. in his autobiography, leadership, giuliani describes how the events of september 11 affected him more deeply than anything he had ever experienced, but he did not feel that he became a different person on that day. the “pre-september 11 rudy” and “post-september 11 rudy” was the same person (giuliani, 2002, p. x). during this time, giuliani made a decision that he would implement the same leadership he had used throughout two terms as mayor of new york and five years as a u.s. attorney. in other words, giuliani made a conscious decision that he would remain authentic to his core, fundamental values, and allow this authenticity to guide his actions and decisions in the weeks ahead of him. giuliani depicts the t ype of positive leadership needed presently, where the environment is dramatically changing, the rules are changing, and where leaders want to live out a natural link between their espoused values, actions and behaviours (luthans & avolio, 2003). authenticity is not a static state located in a moment of time (quinn, 2004; lewin & regine, 1999; quinn, 1998), but flows from being truthful and open in a relationship. authenticity can be illustrated through descriptive words such as “genuine, reliable, trustworthy, real and veritable” (luthans & avolio, 2003, p. 242). according to quinn (2004), authentic leaders are other focused, externally open, internally directed and purpose centred. giuliani displayed these characteristics and may therefore be defined as an authentic leader: as a leader, giuliani pursued purpose in the face of ambiguity and the unknown s puente f crous a venter anitav@uj.ac.za department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract authenticity can best be understood in context, and context implies action (payne, 1996). for the purpose of this study, leadership in general, and authentic leadership in particular, were explored in terms of the actions of former mayor of new york city, rudolph giuliani, who displayed authentic leadership in action during the tragic aftermath of the world trade centre attacks. authentic leadership development tends to be triggered by a negative event (as in the case of 9/11 for giuliani, for example). since there is limited knowledge of how a positive event may trigger authentic leadership development, the aim of this study was to explore the potential of appreciative inquiry (ai) an affirmative mode of action research as a positive trigger event for authentic leadership development. the results indicated that this positive approach to change could indeed be implemented for this purpose. key words authentic leadership, authentic leadership development, positive trigger events, action research, appreciative inquiry the role of a positive trigger event in actioning authentic leadership development 11 sa journal of human resource management, 2007, 5 (1), 11-18 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2007, 5 (1), 11-18 (purpose centred), and his values and behaviours were congruent and aligned (internally directed). giuliani had the ability to nurture a climate of trust and naturally put the common good and welfare of others first, thus increasing his authenticity and transparency. giuliani also had the facility to tune into people’s feelings – his own and others – and guide them in the right direction (other focused). lastly, giuliani was confident in journeying forward in an uncertain and changing world (externally open). giuliani took the risk of being authentic during a very chaotic and sombre time, knowing that being authentic would connect him to those around him, and help him and others to truly be present in a trying moment. being authentically connected to his administration, rather than being disconnected, was his unique way of approaching the daunting task of calming not only new york city, but the global village at large. giuliani, in addition to fulfilling great leadership resilience and action, acted upon his personal authenticity. there are four relational practices, according to lewin and regine (1999), which were enacted by the then mayor of new york – he expressed his authentic self as a leader, he acknowledged others, he was accountable, and lastly, he was attentive to the needs of the city and the people within it. this is what made giuliani so authentic. his conversations and interactions with people generated positive connections and rewarding relationships. his emphasis on connecting with people nurtured trust, affiliations and constructive conversations. just hours after the attack on the world trade centre, giuliani had a meeting with his administration, where he discussed the 9/11 events openly and frankly with his team, sharing with his group the impact of the attack instead of soft-pedalling. he made personal phone calls to all the ceos in the world trade centre who had lost employees, and enriched connectivity and unity by holding a major interdenominational prayer service. furthermore, he personally talked with families who had lost loved ones, and addressed thousands of families in the armoury and family assistance centres. thus giuliani acted authentically, by transcending the ego and putting the common good and welfare of others first (quinn, 2004). “like you, i have people in there i know, care about and love; so please, work with us, and we’ll work with you” (giuliani, 2002, p. 16). giuliani embodied what authentic leadership is, as proposed by avolio and luthans (2006) in that he displayed confident, hopeful, optimistic, moral/ethical and resilient behaviour. triggering authentic leadership development the notion of being a connected and authentic leader resonates with the emerging connection–based society where a premium is placed on leadership that embraces spirituality, emotion, context, creativity, empathy and meaning making (pink, 2005). traditional leadership development appears to pay much attention to fixing ‘bad leadership’ (avolio, 2004). the focus of leadership development is therefore to identif y and diagnose the problem areas and possible causes, and ultimately treat the weak areas to create a more effective leader. on the other hand, in developing authentic leadership, the emphasis is not on the analysis and adoption of prescriptive techniques and practices; it is not about imitating the thinking, principles and behaviour of people who have already been perceived and branded as effective leaders. authentic leadership is about uniqueness. the reason why the development of authentic leadership is so unique is because one is encouraged to first look, learn and unleash the unique self as an expression of value and authenticity so that his/her behaviours and thinking emanate from within (quinn, 2004; wheatley, 1999). this is done only when an individual courageously and consciously chooses to take the responsibility of becoming more purpose-centred, internally directed, other focused, and externally open (quinn, 2004). authentic leadership development (ald) also embraces a novel approach in which a new, richer understanding of growth and leadership development is inseparably intertwined, and that being authentic expands into many relational contexts. moreover, it is for the authentic leader to discover his/her positive psychological capital in the form of confidence, hope, optimism, ethics and resiliency (avolio & luthans, 2006). luthans and avolio (2003) would consider 9/11 a trigger, which they suggest is a prerequisite for growth and ald. luthans and avolio (2003) propose a model for ald, and central to this model is the trigger event (see figure 1). they describe a trigger similarly to what goleman (2002) describes as a “wake up call”. these triggers can be sudden, shocking discoveries about one’s self that may shake people into action or can be longer in duration. the triggers may be planned or unplanned events that provoke that “a-ha!” moment, where a person confronts a stark truth or realisation and thus gains new insight and perspective about his/her life. at such moments a leader may discover “this is the real me” (george, 2003, p. xvi). some leaders may ignore the awakening; others may deny it. however, an authentic leader hears the wake-up call and takes the proactive first step in self-directed learning. luthans and avolio (2003) primarily focus on the impact a negative trigger has on ald, however, these authors recognise and explore the concept of planned positive triggers through rigorous design (avolio & luthans, 2006). puente, crous, venter12 figure 1: an authentic leadership development model (luthans & avolio, 2003, p. 251) the question therefore is whether a positive trigger event, as opposed to a negative trigger event, can play a fundamental role in developing the authentic leader. trigger events serve as powerful learning curves. it is questionable whether ald which is aimed at solving one’s leadership deficiencies would necessarily create sustainable authentic leaders. an alternative to deficit-based leadership development is a strength-based approach (cooperrider, whitney and stavros, 2003; quinn, 2004). a need for an approach that is embedded in the relational and contextual, which is congruent with the zeitgeist of the connection-based economy (pink, 2005) is required. appreciative inquiry (ai) is a positive alternative approach. ai is a relational and connective process, which should encourage conversation, meaning making, and mutual reciprocal relationships (wheatley, 2002). the power of ai is that it focuses on the possibilities of developing authentic potential and talent, rather than focusing on one’s weaknesses and shortcomings, or perhaps something that is not natural to his/her leadership style (cooperrider et al., 2003) . appreciative inquiry ai is a bold shift in the way leadership development is viewed and approached (schiller, holland & riley, 2002). ai does not aim to change a person’s leadership style. the aim of this leadership development approach is to uncover and bring forth existing strengths, hopes and awareness to identif y the positive core and inner voice within every leader. in so doing, it transforms the individual, and therefore the organisation, the family, the community. in fact, the ripple effect even impacts on the world as a whole (wheatley, 1999). the following four principles have been adapted from ai (whitney & trosten-bloom, 2003) to form the touchstones of authentic leadership development: � authentic leadership development focuses primarily on the whole person; � authentic leadership development leverages the power of culture and the potential positive impact it has on an organisation; � authentic leadership development takes place within a context that is unique and inimitable; and � authentic leadership development is captured through powerful and engaging imagery, visions and positive emotions. for the purpose of this study, ai was selected as an approach to leadership development because it is both a philosophy (a way of thinking) and a practice (a way of doing) (van vuuren & crous, 2005). as a way of thinking, it is relational and reflective. as a way of doing, it is a collaborative and participatory exercise grounded in affirmation and appreciation of natural leadership strengths (whitney & trosten-bloom, 2003). ai is the only validated positive approach to action research. as a method for affirmative leadership development, ai is collaborative, yet methodical and practical in the way it identifies and leverages strengths. there is no one best way of facilitating an ai, and multiple models have been developed (magruder & mohr, 2001). however, the most dominant model is the ai 4-d cycle, a systematic and workable process (van vuuren & crous, 2005). it begins with the selection of an affirmative topic, followed by discovery (appreciating what is), dream (imagining what might be), design (what should be), and destiny (learning, making the dream real and sustainable). affirmative topic choice an appreciative topic is always affirmative, desirable and directional, in that it leads the group where they want to go (cooperrider, whitney & stavros, 2003). selecting a topic choice is premised by the principle that human systems grow in the direction of their deepest and most frequent inquiries. the ai process truly begins when a conscious choice is made to focus on affirmative positive leadership development (cooperrider, whitney & stavros, 2003). instead of focusing on the severity of leadership deficiencies, ai focuses on peak experiences, best practices and noble accomplishments (ludema, cooperrider & barrett, 2001). figure 2: the 4-d cycle (cooperrider, whitney & stavros, 2003, p. 5). discovery the discovery phase is founded on the essential component of the power of conversation. the ai interview is a tool for exploring the life-giving forces at the core of each person’s leadership strength (avital & cooperrider, 2004). the interviews are embedded in what is at the heart of ai the “art of the positive question”. the questions asked, and the focal points of conversation determine what the leader will find and develop. these dialogues form the basis of the data that will be used to envision the future. according to wheatley (2002), real change begins with the simple act of people talking about what they care about, and this gives birth to powerful actions that are able to restore hope to the future. dream as leadership is given a new voice, a unique conversation and understanding begins to emerge. because these perspectives have been unearthed from unconditional positive questions, the vocabulary is rooted from a strengthbased story-telling process. therefore participants are able to envision their reality of authentic leadership in a creative, alternative and positive manner (ludema, cooperrider & barrett, 2001). by generating words, phrases and stories that mirror the leader at his/her best, coupled with visual drawings of what one could and should become in terms of authentic leadership, the dream phase liberates one from a traditional deficit-based/problem solving paradigm to one of positive imagery and hope. design the core feature of the design phase is a set of provocative propositions which are built on the notion that words create worlds. they build the bridges between the best of ‘what is’ and the best of ‘what might be’. they are statements that stretch the realm of the stat us quo, challenge common leadership routines, and suggest tangible actions (whitney & trosten-bloom, 2003). the provocative proposition is a statement of intention that is grounded in the realties of what was authentic in the past. this phase involves the collective construction of positive images of future authentic leadership in action, based on a chosen social architecture (cooperrider et al., 2003). the social architecture consists of certain ‘design elements’, which guide a person to enact his/her future image of an authentic leader. for this study the design elements were, purpose, principles, people and practices (see table 7). actioning authentic leadership 13 destiny the destiny phase asks from each participant a commitment to “sustain the design from the dream that was discovered” (cooperrider et al., 2003, p. 182). it is a series of inspired actions that support ongoing learning and innovation (whitney & trosten-bloom, 2003). during this phase leadership commitments are discussed and mobilised, and it’s an invitation for deep change. when applying the ai process, the future is consciously constructed upon its positive core strengths – that which gives life and vitality to the leader (cooperrider et al., 2003). aim of the study as a result, the ai process is meaningful, engaging, life giving, and it unleashes the positive core and a deep calling within the leader in his/her context. it is a relational, interactive, multidimensional and energising process. the manner in which ai was applied in creating a planned positive trigger event for ald is subsequently illustrated by means of a descriptive case study (yin, 2003). the aim of the descriptive case study is to illustrate the process and application of the appreciative inquiry method as a positive trigger event in the development of authentic leaders. research design research approach action research was seen as the most apt methodology for this study because it is a form of inquiry that is collective, collaborative, self-reflective, and undertaken by the participants of the inquiry (reason & bradbury, 2001). for the purpose of this study, the role of the primary researcher was to record and observe to what extent ai could be applied in creating a positive planned trigger event for ald. action research is a participatory, democratic process concerned with developing practical knowing in the pursuit of worthwhile meaning-making, grounded in a participative and connecting worldview which is emerging at this historical time (reason & bradbury, 2001). considering that authenticity is a positive construct, ai was identified as an appropriate and rigorous procedure for analysis, synthesis and reporting within a qualitative paradigm. participants as part of an organisational development initiative, managers from an on-line marketing and advertising company based in cape town were invited to participate in a one-day ai workshop on authentic leadership development. participants were informed that the intervention formed part of a research project. the sample consisted of 22 self-nominated managers (fifteen females and seven males). the average age of the participants was 33. the assumption was that self-nominated managers were more inclined to make a conscious decision to participate, learn, and contribute to the process of the one-day appreciative workshop. procedure the workshop took place at an independent conference venue off site from the organisation. an experienced, accredited ai practitioner facilitated the ai workshop. the group of 22 were divided into three functional sub-groups of six to eight people each. the participants remained in these groups for the duration of the workshop. data collection, analysis and synthesis for the purpose of data collection, each participant received a workbook. the workbooks contained an appreciative interview guide, as well as space to record the outcomes of each phase within the ai process. no personal particulars were disclosed on the workbooks. this ensured anonymity. for every step of the 4d model, each sub-group would generate and co-construct meaning, and thereafter, share this new meaning with the larger group. all ideas and thoughts were recorded on flip chart paper by the team’s appointed scribe, and then transferred to their workbooks. at the end of the workshop, the workbooks and the flip chart papers were collected and coded, and this material formed the basis for data reporting. the ethics of ai is grounded in its constructiveness and positive approach in that it encourages a search for common ground. in an ai process narrative analyses take place (watkins & mohr, 2001) but also results in a synthesis of meaning making through collaborative dialogue amongst participants. the role of the primary researcher, and the facilitator of the process, was to ensure that the participants followed and gave expression to the ai 4-d process and to ensure that the participants gave content to the construction of positive authentic leadership development. case study reporting introducing the workshop, the facilitator sensitised the group to what the essence of appreciative inquiry and authentic leadership development is. for the purpose of this intervention, an interview guide was developed as part of the workbook. this interview guide consisted of ten unconditional positive questions adapted from the encyclopaedia of positive questions (whitney, cooperrider, kaplan & trosten-bloom, 2002). this served as the data collection instrument for the discovery phase of this study. (see table 1). the workbooks were distributed, and participants were asked to engage in interviews with each other for 45 minutes, according to the interview guide. these interviews sparked energising conversations which were embedded within an affirmative framework of positive questions and sense making. table 1 the appreciative interview guide interviews in pairs tell me about a time you worked with someone you considered to be an authentic leader. describe the situation. what made it authentic for you? what did the leader do that made him/her authentic? tell me your story. what did you learn about authentic leadership from this situation? warren bennis writes, “letting the self emerge is the essential task of leaders”. tell me about a time when you were the source of authentic leadership. what made you authentic? how did you feel at the time? how did others respond? tell me your story. tell me about a time you experienced authentic leadership outside the organisation. what did it look like? how did it inspire you? describe the situation. what do you most value and appreciate about leadership at x? when people are being authentic leaders, what two or three things can they do that will help you to be the best you can be? what do you think customers admire and value about x? what makes x unique and cutting edge compared with its competitors? as you continuously seek to develop into the best leader you can be, can you share with me how you generate your own inspiration to lead authentically? [mention what personal, spiritual, and developmental practices you have found most useful.] what is the core factor that ‘gives life’ to x? what are the three most important hopes you have to heighten the health and vitality of x for the future? puente, crous, venter14 from these conversations, 31 appreciative, life-giving leadershiprelated themes were identified (see table 2). each sub-group shared their themes with the greater group (plenary feedback). these themes were written on the flip charts and then hung up on the walls of the training venue. all the participants had an opportunity to vote, and proceeded to assign stickers to the themes they felt were most compelling and relevant to authentic leadership. table 2 scattergram chart life-giving themes number of stickers becoming balanced 21 integrity 18 sum of us is greater than the one of us (servant leadership) 14 you will never find a good leader at the head of the table 13 (servant leadership) learning culture 11 people, not employees 11 empowering 10 fun 9 communication as the foundation of growth 8 knowledge sharing 8 being goal focused 7 ‘feel good’ – proud 7 genuine collaboration 6 earning respect 5 the impact of positive actions 5 leaders allow you to succeed or fail 5 teamwork/collaboration 5 building towards vision 4 recognising different approaches to achieving common goals 4 adversity contains learning and opportunity 4 honesty and open communication 3 leaders lead without leading 3 leaders create “mini me’s” 2 adapting leadership to accommodate different needs 1 doing 100 things 1% better 1 leaders encourage ownership of vision 1 leaders are infectious 1 being assertive not aggressive 0 learning from others 0 unsuspecting leader 0 personalised service 0 at the end of the discovery phase the participants prioritised six themes as crucial constructs to take into their future as authentic leaders (dream). these were: balance; integrity; the sum of us is greater than the parts; servant leadership; learning culture; people not employees. (see table 3 derived from table 2.). the outcomes of the discovery phase are deemed valid due to the emphasis on dialogue, participation and the democratic nature of the ai process. for the dream phase, participants imagined how they would like authentic leadership to emerge within the organisation by 2010. each group captured their dreams with words that expressed their vision of the characteristics of an authentic leader (see table 4). images have a strong emotional appeal to intuitive knowledge and logical thoughts (de liefde, 2005), and therefore concluding the dream phase the participants were challenged to become artists by generating a metaphor in visual form which resonated with their vision of an authentic leader. the metaphors and their meanings are presented in table 5. table 3 future related themes theme title supporting statement theme one: leading “if you are depleted personally you can’t give with balance professionally” (fc /gp3/02)“authentic leaders are self aware, so that they know when their energy is becoming toxic due to their own personal imbalance” (plenary feedback, group 2). theme two: integrity “for me, an authentic leader is driven with heart and purpose, and not ego, status or other insecurities” (plenary feedback, group).“i enjoy working with person g because she is not intimated by my expertise. in fact, she encourages me to share my knowledge with her. although she is my manager, she is not dependent on her position…she doesn’t let her title define her as a person” (wb/04 ). theme three: the “the sum of us is greater than the part of us” (fc/gp sum is greater than 2/01).“we are all in this together. there is no use in the parts making unilateral decisions, because we all sweat our time and energy in this place. this organisation has so much potential, and i want to be a part of it” (wb/18). “i like to think of my team as the strings of a violin. we all have our own unique role to play, but if we don’t work as a team, it’s going to sound and look terrible. however, taking that into consideration, if we do sound terrible, we need to get honest feedback from those around us, so that we can improve our melody. this openness should build character to our culture” (researcher notes, p. 4). theme four: servant “you will never find a good leader at the head of the leadership table” (fc/gp 1/02 ) theme five: learning “person h makes me feel safe. i can make a blunder, culture but i learn from this mistake, and i’m encouraged to continue being creative and taking a risk” (wb/09).“i used to have a manger who valued his own self development, as well as the development of others. he encouraged our team to share knowledge, and to test, try, fail and learn again”(plenary feedback, group 1). theme six: employees “i love my work, and i am unique. i have talent, fears, as individual beings hopes and dreams, and i just want to be recognised for that. i think everyone does” (researcher notes, p. 4).“for me, communication is not left for meetings and e-mails. communication has to be interpersonal, face to face and spontaneous” (wb/19). table 4 authentic leadership qualities theme title supporting statement customer and “authentic leaders are genuinely concerned and community proactive for the welfare of their customers and the centred (ethics) community at large” (plenary discussion, group 2). trusting “in 2010, organisation x will see us as trustees and not employees” (fc/gp2/04). positive and “authentic leaders delegate responsibility on the optimistic view premise of trust, genuine belief in others, a of others willingness to develop and empower others and the desire to encourage creative freedom and innovation” (plenary discussion, group 1). he/she creates a space that is safe, challenging and open. “this space is created with the heart and with a genuine desire to share knowledge and develop others and the self” (plenary discussion, group 1). transparency and “we feel an authentic leader encourages inclusiveness communication that results in mutual understanding, skills transfer, growth and a common collective awareness of the team’s authentic core” (plenary discussion, group 1). engaging and “it’s about actively engaging and connecting with respectful people” (fc/gp3/04 & 05). “respect is getting to know others the way they really are, and to learn to understand what drives them, and in this way, motivate and inspire them (plenary discussion, group 2). nurturing vitality “the authentic leader is a balanced, centred person.” and energy (fc/gp3/04) “by harnessing a balanced life, we see ourselves nurturing healthy relationships, high energy levels, fuelled passion and physical vitality” (fc/gp2/04 & 05). actioning authentic leadership 15 table 5 visual metaphors in the dream phase metaphor meaning kaleidoscope, rubik’s abundant energy; ability to focus deeply; cube, play dough, an optimism; fulfilling intimate relationships; escher sketch creativity and innovation; vitality and enthusiasm; meaningful performance; resilience; uniqueness; play and fun; managing the entire dynamic; holistic; fluidity (fc/gp2/07 & 08) . playground fun; sense of community; safe to fall; familiar; creative play (fc/gp3/06). diamond refined and polished; energising; multifaceted; desirable; cutting edge; timeless; resilient; grounded (fc/gp1/07). from appreciating ‘the best of what is’ (discovery), to ‘imagining bold possibilities’ (dream), to exploring ‘what should be’, the design phase encouraged the participants in crafting their own provocative proposition as a collective and authentic expression of what they as leaders, and as an organisation, should become. each of the following propositions was collectively crafted within the three groups, and inspired and guided by the discovery and dream phase. table 6 provocative propositions group statement group one “we embrace freedom to discover potential and we contribute positively in every interaction. we are cohesive” (fc/gp1/04). group two “we keep our fingers on the pulse and our feet on the ground to grow towards being best of breed in entertainment.” (fc/gp2/04).i am energy giving. i talk with you. i accept your feedback and facilitate growth. i make a positive contribution to every interaction and i give you freedom to discover your potential” (fc/gp2/04). group three “we walk the talk. we let our passions create performance. we are free to play and energise those around us. we see self belief as the highest business achievement” (fc/gp3/04). during the design phase, as ref lected in table 7, the participants considered their organisation’s social architecture by focusing on four elements that facilitate the creation of sustainable alliance: purpose; principles; people and practices (hock, 1999). this social architecture gave the participants space to enact their dream in an optimal, tangible manner as authentic leaders. in the final phase of the 4-d cycle, i.e. destiny, participants were invited to generate ideas for action, and make the future real. plans and actions were divided into organisational and personal commitments. as a collective endeavour towards authentic leadership, the group decided on the steps of action reflected in table 8. at the end of the workshop, and in the positive spirit of ai, participants were asked to complete a valuation of the workshop (as opposed to an evaluation of the day). the participants were asked to what extent they valued the ai process. the feedback was capt ured in the form of an individual reflective exercise. the participants recorded their valuations in the workbooks, and then ret urned the workbooks to the researchers. eighteen of the participants were prepared to share their positive experiences of the day. these are presented in table 9. table 7 a social architecture for authentic leadership elements group 1 group 2 group 3 purpose � provide direction � to set team goals � to harness and guidance to and align them individual harness collective with company potential and strengths goals empower � to achieve the � to instil pride in � to shape a desired and the company and climate for high necessary goals the work we do performance enthusiastically � to create magic moments and a safe space � to develop and inspire � to embrace diversity principles � to be genuine, � trust, respect, � respect, integrity, honest and to integrity, individualising our have integrity empathy, honesty, clients, focus on � to trust and collaboration, our positives, support lead by example, value continuous bravery, improvement openness, fairness people � listen, fairness, � we are � having genuine respect, open collaborative, interest in minded, empathy, sensitive to developing people consistent, individuality, � listening to transparent, and approachable, motivating and approachable encouraging, inspiring ideas validating, direct, � adopting an and open-minded organic (as opposed to a mechanistic) way of thinking practices � to communicate � take decisions � aligning � to be collaboratively communication at collaborative and � share leadership all levels innovative in all � stimulate free � becoming more things we do thinking accessible as a � to celebrate � implement full team success and reflect circle feedback � living the energy on learning � manage and trust we want � to coach and outcomes, not to see mentor processes � people are trained, � to give and receive � reward empowered, feedback innovative supported and � to ensure all behaviour confident teams have tools � share learning and skills to achieve success � to lead by example table 8 authentic leadership destiny organisational plans and actions enact a culture that emulates knowledge sharing, dispels fear and encourages boldness and innovation. to celebrate success and create a safe space for mistakes. to internalise positive speak by becoming more aware of language, and sharing a contagious positive language to fellow colleagues. “in team meetings, we would like to have a standing item called ‘appreciation circle’ where people can express their thanks to others" (wb/07/15). create structures that support flexi hours, and create new teams where people’s core strengths are unleashed (wb/03/15). inspire a vision that is sourced from the collective dreams and aspirations (wb/05/15). facilitate growth by incorporating authentic leadership and appreciative inquiry as alternative sources of training and development programmes with current and potential leaders (wb/09/15). pursue and apply people’s strengths and talents in their work (wb/11/15) personal plans and actions master interpersonal skills by engaging in open and honest communication, listening genuinely and making time for other colleagues. it also embraces being more empathic and “having more faith in people”, as well as being approachable and able to delegate responsibility (wb/12/15). puente, crous, venter16 table 9 valuations “i resonated with being appreciative for a change” (wb/04). “i felt the birth of a paradigm shift today” (wb/18). “i learnt that positive thinking leads to positive actions” (wb/05). “i valued the opportunity to share with others and to be heard” (wb/05). “i think we creatively rediscovered a possible new version of what we can become within the ai approach” (wb/12). “i thought ai was quite dynamic, as it was tailored to meet the company’s special needs and unique contexts” (wb/11). “through the dialogue and interviews, one is able to determine what is real and valuable. through these conversations, relationships are built, rationality is created, goals become important and one feels valuable” (wb/17). “i enjoyed the day, but the challenge is now implementing our actions and plans” (wb/22). “i would like to meet again in about three month’s time, and re-assess where we are” (wb/01). “being an authentic leader is about listening to your positive core” (wb/09). “a very different approach, but really enjoyed it and learnt from it” (wb/15). ”i value the views and input shared amongst my colleagues and that i had the opportunity to share mine and be heard” (wb/20). “i am not alone in my struggle” (wb/20). “think positive and talk positive” (wb/16). “who i am reflects on what i do and how i do it” (wb/06). “enjoyable and energising” (wb/07). “was a very positive look at how we can use our individualism to drive an authentic style of leadership” (wb/13). “different outlook. fresh. thought provoking” (wb/10). “a lovely look at balance – spirituality, mental, emotional, physical, career” (wb/12). discussion in the connection-based economy (pink, 2005), it is no longer viable or appropriate to label people within a specific style or category of leadership. authentic leadership cannot be a shorthand identifier. rather, authentic leadership is the underlying need for self expression, which, when it is excavated to its positive nucleus, is capable of being other focused, internally directed, purpose driven and externally open (quinn, 2004). the participants engaged in this exercise of unleashing the positive core by means of appreciative interviews. these themes echo what quinn (2004) identified as the dimensions of authentic leadership. the participants became other focused (discovery phase – transcending the ego; putting the common good and welfare of others first); externally open (dream phase participants imagine an authentic leader who seeks real feedback and who has vision), internally directed (narrowing the gap between values and behaviours in addition to being confident, hopeful, optimistic and resilient – refer to figure 1: ald model) and purpose centred (design phase – an ongoing commitment to create value, energise and convert values into consistent actions). the group perceived authentic leadership as a co-evolution of changing together towards the same dream and goals, yet maintaining their own uniqueness (similar to the image of the kaleidoscope, where they are able to retain the shape, but are also able to change). according to the workshop group discussions, from the discovery phase all the way to its destiny phase, a recurring theme of authentic leadership and life at work in the words of wheatley (2002) becomes stronger and more capable through systems of collaboration and partnering, not through competition and power struggles. apart from the positive psychological capacities like confidence, hope, optimism and resiliency, the data especially support associate building as is evident in tables 4 and 7. the conversations and stories shared during the workshop indicate that being authentic is about being the leader one is created to be, which involves an individual responsibility to be true to one’s own unique originality. in articulating and discovering this uniqueness, a leader is able to define herself and realize her natural potential that is properly her own. the authentic self exists within every leader, even if it is unacknowledged and incomplete. the workshop enabled the participants to explore the best of what is (discovery phase). hence, the workshop was used as a form of development, helping the participant build a more complete sense of his/her authentic self through personal and collective exploration. furthermore, the workshop also disclosed that being an authentic leader is a personal virtue (discovering the substantial self with attributes distinctly one’s own) as well as a social virtue, (authenticity thrives in context, where individual talents and strengths are respected, valued and acknowledged). this study has shown that leaders can be sensitised to leadership development by appreciating the best in themselves and in others. furthermore, it explored how a strength-based trigger was useful in discovering their authentic selves, thereby eliminating the need to emulate others. the group felt that although this was an effective trigger event, sustainability would depend on a combination of coaching, planned and unplanned triggers, a supportive and developed culture, and a personal commitment to unleash the authentic self. these, they felt, were some elements for an effective revelation. conclusion based on the stories and valuations of this workshop, the managers of the workshop group recognised that authentic leadership is initiated by human relatedness. furthermore, relationships and performance levels thrive when there is an appreciative eye, when people see the best in one another, and when they share their dreams and ultimate concerns in affirming ways (cooperrider & whitney, 2003). this resonates with the idea of ubuntu which is based on the idea of “i am because we are”, in contrast to descartes’ view of “i think, therefore i am” (de liefde, 2005, p. 52). although the focus of ai is to value and appreciate the best of what is, there were nevertheless challenges and limitations inherent to the study. one of the factors that disrupted the fluidity of the research was the element of distance. while the participants were based in cape town, the researchers were based in johannesburg which complicated the data verification process. in order to overcome any existing doubt or inconsistency, one of the researchers would follow up on discrepancies by telephonic discussions with the relevant participant(s). the nature of the working environment at the case organisation was a second challenge. although every effort was made to conduct the workshop off-site at a tranquil location, the workshop was continuously disrupted with phone-calls and participants leaving the room to take business related queries. this disrupted the flow of the ai workshop. in order for ald to reach its full potential, a trigger event should be perceived and understood as a fundamental way of living, and therefore, veritable sustainabilit y is a question of integrating a myriad of follow up interventions, such as one-onone interviews, coaching and/or similar ai workshops. this is in line with avolio and luthans’s (2006) view of an authentic leadership development journey. this study pitched an unplanned negative trigger event (as in the case of giuliani) against a positive planned trigger event (as actioning authentic leadership 17 seen in the workshop). both triggers unleash a leader’s positive core to authenticity; however, the benefits of capitalizing on planned positive “moments that matter” can be used as a positive leverage in developing authentic leaders. furthermore, the appreciative inquiry intervention created an opportunity for self-definition through dialogue (taylor, 1991). despite the variance and nature of the triggers, a recurring theme of being “other focused” emerged in both cases. this demonstrated that when the ideal of authenticity is understood, being authentic is not just a matter of concentrating on one’s self, but involves deliberation about how one’s commitments make a contribution to the good of the public world in which one is a participant (guignon, 2004). it is recommended that future research longitudinally investigates to effect of appreciative inquiry on authentic leadership development. references avery, g. (2004). understanding leadership. london: sage publications. avital, m., & cooperrider, d.l. (2004). introduction: advances in appreciative inquiry – constructive discourse and human organisation. in: m. avital & d.l. cooperrider. advances in appreciative inquiry. (vol i) constructive discourse in human organisation. oxford: elsevier. avolio, b.j. (1999). full leadership development: building the vital forces in organisations. london: sage publications. avolio, b. (2004). 1st poll shows many 'authentic' leaders despite popular myth. retrieved october 14, 2005, from the world wide web: http://gli.unl.edu. avolio, b.j. & luthans, f. (2006). the high impact leader: moments matter in accelerating authentic leadership development. new york: mcgraw-hill. bennis, w. g. (1993). an invented life: reflections on leadership and change. new york: basic books. cooperrider, d. l. & whitney, d. (2003). social construction: appreciative inquiry. london: sage publications. cooperrider, d. l., whitney, d. & stavros, j.m. (2003). appreciative inquiry handbook. bedford heights: lakeshore. covey, s.r. (2005). the 8th habit: from effectiveness to greatness. london: simon and schuster. de liefde, w.h.l. (2005). lekgotla: the art of leadership through dialogue. south africa: jacana media. george, b. (2003). authentic leadership: rediscovering the secrets to creating lasting value. san fransisco: jossey bass. giuliani, r. (2002). leadership. london: time warner. goleman, d. (2002). the new leaders: transforming the art of leadership into the science of results. london: time warner. guignon, c. (2004). on being authentic. new york: routledge. hock, d. (1999). the chaordic organization. san francisco: berrett-koehler. kerik, b., mindel, s. & von essen, t. (2001). rudolph giuliani: person of the year. time magazine, 158 (28), 26-36. lewin, r. & regine, b. (1999). the soul at work. london: orion publishing. ludema, j.d., cooperrider, d.l. & barrett, f.j. (2001). appreciative inquiry: the power of the unconditional positive question. in p. reason & h. bradbury (eds.), handbook of action research: participative inquiry and practice. london: sage publications. luthans, f., & avolio, b. (2003). authentic leadership development. in cameron, k.s., dutton, j.e. and quinn, r.e. (eds), positive organisational scholarship: foundations of a new discipline. san fransisco: berret-koehler. magruder, w.j. & mohr, b.j. (2001). appreciative inquiry: change at the speed of imagination. san fransisco: jossey-bass. mccauley, c.d., moxley, r.s. & van velsor, e. (1998). the center for creative leadership: handbook of leadership development. san fransisco: jossey bass. nelson, l. & quick, j.c. (2004). organisational behavior. canada: thomson. payne, r.l. (1996). contextualism in context. in cooper, c.l. & robertson, i.t. (eds). international review of industrial and organizational psychology. new york: john wiley. pink, d. (2005). a whole new mind. new york: riverhead books. quinn, r.e. (1998). deep change: discovering the leader within. california: jossey-bass. quinn, r.e. (2004). building the bridge as you walk on it: a guide for leading change. san francisco: jossey bass. reason, p. & bradbury, h. (2001). handbook of action research: participative inquiry and practice. london: sage publishers. schiller, m., holland, b.m. & riley, d., (2002). appreciative leaders: in the eye of the beholder. a taos institute publication. sharma, r.s. (1998). leadership wisdom from the monk who sold his ferrari: the eight rituals for visionary leaders. canada: harper collins. shipka, b. (1997). leadership in a challenging world: a sacred journey. oxford: butterworth-heinemann. taylor, c. (1991). the ethics of authenticity. cambridge: harvard university press. van vuuren, l.j. & crous, f. (2005). utilising appreciative inquiry (ai) in creating shared meaning of ethics in organizations. journal of business ethics, 57, 300-412. watkins, j.m. & mohr, b.j. (2001). appreciative inquiry: change at the speed of imagination. san francisco: jossey bass/pheiffer. wheatley, m.j. (1999). leadership and the new science: discovering order in a chaotic world. san fransisco: berret-koehler. wheatley, m.j. (2002). turning to one another: simple conversations to restore hope to the future. san fransisco: berret-koehler. whitney, d. & trosten-bloom, a. (2003). the power of appreciative inquiry. san fransisco: berrett-koehler. whitney, d., cooperrider, d., trosten-bloom, a. & kaplan, b. (2002). encyclopaedia of positive questions: vol. (1). euclid: lakeshore. yin, r.k. (2003). applications of case study research (2nd ed.). thousand oaks: sage publishers. puente, crous, venter18 abstract introduction literature review research methodology research findings acknowledgements references about the author(s) willard nyamubarwa department of human resource management, school of social sciences, great zimbabwe university, masvingo, zimbabwe crispen chipunza department of business management, faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, bloemfontein, south africa citation nyamubarwa, w., & chipunza, c. (2021). formalising human resource practices in family-owned accommodation small and medium-sized enterprises (smes): integrating owner-manager’s personal characteristics with aspects of the utaut model. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1595. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1595 original research formalising human resource practices in family-owned accommodation small and medium-sized enterprises (smes): integrating owner-manager’s personal characteristics with aspects of the utaut model willard nyamubarwa, crispen chipunza received: 03 mar. 2021; accepted: 05 may 2021; published: 26 july 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the decision to formalise human resource (hr) practices by family-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (sme) is regarded as one of the key managerial practices that the owner-manager may institute to unlock firm value. given this owner manager’s overarching role in the decision-making processes, the extent to which his or her personal attributes manifest themselves in deciding to formalise human resource management practices within a specific decision-making model is still a grey area in studies of family businesses. research purpose: this study aims to use aspects of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (utaut) model to explain how owner-manager’s personal characteristics that influences the decision to formalise hr practices in family-owned smes. motivations for the study: previous studies have failed to use recent decision-making models to explain hr formalisation in family businesses and therefore there is dearth of empirical evidence on how owner-managers’ personal characteristic influence their decision to formalise hr practices. research approach/design and method: data was collected using convenience sampling method and the data was analysed using structural equation modelling (sem) to test the veracity of the proposed structural model. main findings: the owner-manager’s personal attributes have a strong bearing on the decision-making processes in family-owned smes. practical/managerial implications: the study identifies some personal considerations that are important in the decision to formalise hr practices in family-owned smes. contribution/value-add: the study contributes to literature on formalising hr practices in family businesses by integrating aspects of an existing decision-making model and demographic characteristics. keywords: formalisation; family-owned smes; owner-manager; decision-making. introduction according to the organisation for economic cooperation and development (oecd) (2017), family-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (smes) are increasingly becoming part of the global economy owing to their contributions, to some extent, to employment creation, economic empowerment, wealth redistribution and the overall contribution to gross domestic product (gdp) in many countries across the globe. for example, sme formalisation efforts in europe have yielded significant returns as the firms now account for 99.8% of the total number of firms, 66.6% of total european union (eu) employment and generating €4030 billion in 2016, which represents 56.8% of total exports (pwc, 2018). however, as maduku (2015) observed, compared with developed economies, the contribution of family-owned smes to gdp figures in emerging economies such as south africa is grossly understated as a result of, amongst other factors, the informality that characterises their business operations. as a result, some global policymakers such as the international labour conference (ilo, 2016) have prescribed formalisation of human resource (hr) practices, such as training and development, as the all-powerful antidote needed to ensure family-owned smes effectively contribute to gdp growth in emerging economies. in fact, the call to formalise hr practices in the sme sector is getting louder daily as more policymakers and governments alike discover the potency of family-owned smes in economic development. for example, yoshino and taghizadeh-hesary (2018) reported that in asia where family-owned smes contribute 62% of all jobs, authorities have recommended hr formalisation as a way of unlocking the sector’s contribution to other economic activities, such as job creation. similarly, in south africa, oecd (2017) reported that even though family-owned smes contribute only 45% of the total labour force and 33% of gdp, formalising hr practices might boost their contribution twofold. meanwhile, despite the aforementioned virtues of formalising sme operations, previous efforts to formalise hr practices in family-owned business operations have focused mainly on government incentives (singh & vohra, 2009), availability of funding (harney & dundon, 2006) and how large the family is (steijvers, lybaert, & dekker, 2017) as some of the critical factors. in addition, most of these prominent studies were carried out in western and asian economies and only make reference to factors within the operating environment at the expense of personal-driven factors (psychogios, szamosi, prouska, & brewster, 2016). as such, the role played by the owner-manager in the day-to-day operations of the family firm and how his or her own characteristics might influence formalistion of business practices within the family business has not been given much attention by family business researchers. as de massis, frattini, majocchi and piscitello (2018) reported, given the small size and the desire to protect family interests in small family-owned firms, the owner-manager emerges as the sole business-reference person whose personality driven intuition and competency set the business direction for the firm. steijvers et al. (2017) supported this current postulation by arguing that, in family-owned smes, owner-managers bring to the boardroom personality-driven human capital derived from their skills, experience, age, gender and level of education, which in turn influence the day-to-day management of the firm; in this context, this could mean even the formalisation of hr practices. however, to our knowledge, no study has empirically investigated the extent to which demographic characteristics of owner-managers in family-owned smes influence the formalisation of hr practices. previous studies on drivers of the decision to formalise hr practices in family-owned smes can further be criticised for failing to utilise models that focus on the intra-reasoning of the owner-manager when deciding to formalise family business practices. for example, one study by mohd nor (2010) used the bayesian causal map that relies on the power of networking in explaining how even owner-managers who are inexperienced can become experts in making decisions that affect the running of the family business. recently, renowned family business researchers (jaskiewicz & dyer, 2017) advocated that decision-making in family-owned businesses is best explained by theoretical models that have a wide range of use in a variety of settings, such as the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (utaut) (venkatesh, morris, davis, & davis, 2003). originally used in technology adoption, the model argues that the decision to adopt technology is based on the mental reasoning of potential users as one considers issues such as effort expectancy – the belief that adopting a service, technology or strategy will be free of effort or easy and performance expectancy – the belief that adopting a service, technology or strategy will make things better in the firm. therefore, within the context of this study, it can be argued that whilst the theoretical model has been applied in a variety of settings, its application in understanding the decision to formalise hr practices by owner-mangers of family-owned smes is still void, especially in the context of a gap in literature not showing whether certain personal characteristics have an influence on decision-making related to formalising hr practices. the present study closes these gaps by proposing the integration of some aspects of the utaut model, that is, effort expectancy and performance expectancy, with some demographic characteristics of the owner-managers, in order to further contribute to the debate on drivers of formalisation of hr practices in family-owned smes. research purpose and objectives the objective of this study was to determine how selected demographic characteristics of owner-managers of family-owned smes interact with aspects of the utaut model, effort expectancy and performance expectancy to explain the decision to formalise hr practices in south africa. literature review human resource formalisation in family-owned small and medium-sized enterprises in south africa meanwhile the south african national small business act of 2004 demarcates small firms into the following distinct categories: micro, very small, small and medium enterprises, with each demarcated category described in terms of the financial performance of the firms and the number of people employed in the firm. likewise, in defining smes, this article embraces all categories of smes as stipulated in the national small business act of 2004 to encompass microenterprises with a gross annual turnover of less than r150 000 per annum and employing not more than five people to medium-sized enterprises, which employ up to 200 employees and grossing up to r30 million per annum. the sector contributes 57% to the south african gdp and employs 61% of the total labour force and is viewed by policymakers as an agent of transformation playing an increasingly significant role in stimulating economic growth and employment creation for the marginalised black populace (dzansi & tasssin-njike, 2014; world bank, 2018). despite the contribution of smes to economic activity in the country, extant literature reveals that hr practices in smes are reactive and informal unlike those from larger companies as hr formalisation is perceived as an unnecessary expense that does not add value to the firm (li & rees, 2020; steijvers et al., 2017). this is despite the call by policymakers and governments alike for sme formalisation as a panacea to the improvement of the contribution made by smes to economic development particularly in emerging economies such as south africa. for example, the ilo’s (2016) recommendation 204, known as the ‘recommendation concerning the transition from the informal to the formal economy’, calls for the speedy formalisation of the sme sector in all countries through the implementation of formal management systems as a way of promoting efficiency in the informal sector. when it comes to the practice of hr in south africa, nzonzo and matashu (2014) reported that the informal nature of many sme operations is the major impediment in the proper management of employees in the firm, which in the long run affects the general management of the firms. the same view is echoed by hung, cant and wiid (2016) who reported that hr formalisation is one of the key tools of leveraging the potential of hr in south african smes. the owner-manager’s age and effort expectancy according to utaut, there is a direct relationship between a potential technology user’s age and his expectation that the new technology will be easy to use (effort expectancy). alharbi, yahya and ahmed (2018) confirmed this relationship in smes when they drew connections between the sme owner-manager’s age and his managerial competence and concluded that older sme owner-managers are more likely to adopt formal management practices than their younger counterparts owing to their inherent desire to pursue more long-term goals. the same view is also expressed by filser, de massis, gast, kraus and niemand (2017) who reported that the sme owner-manager’s age is an important factor in shaping his or her approach towards hr activities in the firm, with older owner-managers being associated with novel hr activities such as hr formalisation. in south africa, a study by woldie, leighton and adesua (2008) re-affirmed the key role of the owner-manager’s age in the proper management of smes. in the study, the authors emphasised that the sme owner-manager’s age is a key determinant of the busness success of the firm as age-related experience proves to be handy in handiling the flexible and idiosyncratic work environment that charachterise sme operations. in other words, as elias, leonard and mwakujonga (2018) re-affirmed, work competence is accumulated over time and as a result older owner-managers will have had more time to develop and perfect their management skills to effortlessly face any new challenges like hr formalisation. in fact, in line with the relationship between age and effort expectancy in utaut, steijvers et al. (2017) concluded in their study that, in family-owned firms, older owner-managers often perceive a greater need to implement formal hr practices because of their long tenure in managing business–family complexity, which would have opened their eyes to the virtues of formalising hr. therefore, driven by the literature reviewed in this section (filser et al., 2017; steijvers et al., 2017), this study proposes the following hypothesis: h1: there is a positive and significant relationship between the owner-managers’ age and effort expectancy. the owner-manager’s level of education and performance expectancy according to svendsen, johnsen, almås-sørensen and vittersø (2013), a higher level of education enhances the sme owner-manager’s capacity for creativity and innovative behaviour within the firm and is likely to appreciate formal methods of business conduct. karadag (2017) reiterated this assertion and reported that more educated sme owner-managers are able to manage their firms formally as compared with those who are less educated. in south africa, chiliya and roberts-lombard (2012) also drew inferences between the owner-manager’s level of education and his or her expectation of operating informally and conclude that sme owner-managers with a higher level of education tend to prefer operating formally as compared with those who are less educated. the same view is echoed by brijlal, naicker and peters (2013) who in a study based on south african smes also trace a strong rlationship between the level of education and the formal management of the enterprises. likewise, in family-owned smes, lobonțiu and lobonțiu (2014) reported that owner-managers with a higher level of education are more aware of the possible negative repercussions of operating informally and likely to formalise operations. jiménez, palmero-cámara and gonzález-santos (2015) also shared the same sentiments and noted that the higher the level of education the family-owned sme owner-manager possesses, the greater the possibility that the firm will adopt formal business plans, which often leads to entrepreneurial success and firm growth. similarly, steijvers et al. (2017) adopted the same viewpoint and identified tertiary education as the most critical tool an owner-manager of smes needs as it provides him or her with the basic expertise needed to run the firm formally. when it comes to hr in particular, wilkerson, seers and johnson (2020) argued that the more educated the owner-manager is, the more likely the firm is to adopt formal business plans and people management practices. filser et al. (2017) also traced a relationship between higher educational achievements and formal business practices and reported that the owner-manager’s ability to run the hr function professionally is directly tied to his level of education. although utaut does not draw inferences between level of education and performance expectancy, some recent studies (al mansoori, sarabdeen, & tchantchane, 2018; garavand, samadbeik, nadri, rahimi, & asadi, 2019) have explored this relationsip with success. therefore, based on these stuies and literature reviewed in this section, this study proposes that the family-owned sme owner-manager’s ability to implement formal hr practices is tied to their level of education, with more educated owner-managers associated with higher level of hr formalisation and, therefore, the second hypothesis in this study is proposed as follows: h2: there is a positive and significant relationship between the owner-managers’ level of education and performance expectancy. in addition, jiménez et al. (2015) observed that prior education possessed by an owner-manager lays the proper groundwork for him or her to conduct business formally and with ease. in south africa, this point is further reinforced by ogubazghi and muturi (2014) in their claim that the ease of using new technology depends on the quality of human capital in the form of a set of educational skills possessed by the potential user. in this study, this would imply that, the sme owner-manager’s level of education is positively related to the expectation that formal hr practices will be easy to use in the management of employees and hence the following hypothesis was proposed: h3: there is a positive and significant relationship between the owner-managers’ level of education and effort expectancy. performance expectancy of formalising human resource practices according to the theory of reasoned action (tra), a new user’s behaviour is based on rationale decision-making with the intention to act in a certain way being a function of the belief that the specific behaviour leads to a given desired outcome (ajzen & fishbein, 1980). this means that a user who perceives that the outcome of performing a certain behaviour is positive will assume a positive attitude towards performing that behaviour and may end up performing that behaviour, with the opposite also true if the behaviour is thought to be negative (maichum, parichatnon, & peng, 2016). therefore, it is premised in this study that the decision to formalise hr practices by family-owned sme owner-managers is dependent upon the owner-manger’s expectation that using formal hr practices will bring measurable returns, such as decreased costs, increased profits and a wider market share. the relationship between costs and adoption behaviour can be understood further from the perspective of the transaction cost theory. according to williamson (2017), a transaction cost is the cost incurred by a firm during the process of participating in any sort of economic exchange. any competent manager is expected to rationalise the costs of any business transactions they would have engaged in without costly adventures if the tangible benefits are minimal (erdem & atsan, 2015). as a result, the introduction of formal hr practices, as in this study, maybe perceived as a transactional cost that must bring measurable returns if they are to be adopted by the owner-manager. in addition, the family-owned sme owner-manager is expected to weigh the costs of formalising against the potential benefits that will accrue to the firm before making the rationale decision to adopt or reject them. this is the same approach in utaut where venkatesh et al. (2003) posited a significant relationship between a new system user’s performance expectancy and the final decision to adopt or reject a novel system in organisations. this implies, in terms of this study, that the decision to adopt formal hr practices is strongly influenced by the owner-manager’s expectation that the formal hr practices will bring measurable and positive returns to their smes. in fact, as ajzen and fishbein (1980) reported, the potential user’s attitude towards adopting a novel practice is based on an assessment of views on both the consequences arising from adopting the new practice and expected contribution of the new practices to the needs of the sme (performance expectancy): h4: there is a positive and significant relationship between the owner-managers’ performance expectancy and the decision to formalise hr practices in the sme. effort expectancy of formalising human resources practices the relationship between technology complexity and its potential adoption can also be traced to the innovation diffusion theory (idt), where rogers (2003) concluded that the simpler it is to use an innovation, the greater the rate of its adoption by potential users. the same view can also be traced to technology acceptance model (tam) (perceived ease of use) and utaut (effort expectancy), where both theories trace a strong relationship between the ease of using an innovation and the decision to adopt the innovation. likewise, the utaut model which is the basis of this study intimates that the effort expectancy of a potential technology user is directly related to his or her final adoption decision. therefore, as garavand et al. (2019) explained, there is a direct relationship between effort expectancy and the use of a new technology. psychogios et al. (2016) concurred and argued that given the small size of the employee stock in smes it follows that the owner-manager has to assume the hr management roles in the firm. however, given the multiplicity of managerial functions, the owner-manager is expected to fulfill, in most instances, the management of hr in family-owned smes is done informally as this is amenable with the competence of the owner-manager who in most instances is not an hr expert (dundon & wilkinson, 2018). basly (2015) admitted to this analysis and reported that in family-owned smes, the family may try to keep the hr function under the control of the owner-manager who in most instances will lack expertise in hr management. this state of affairs according to herrero (2017) may lead to the perception that such formalisation leads to complex managerial practices that may compel the owner-manager to reconsider any formalisation overtures. instead, as filser et al. (2017) reported, many sme owner-managers prefer a scenario where hr management remains informal and easy to apply as this allows them to juggle the many managerial functions they are expected to fulfil. in the light of these literature views, the last hypothesis proposed in this study is a follows: h5: there is a positive and significant relationship between the owner-manager’s effort expectancy and the decision to formalise hr practices in the sme. the literature reviewed in the preceding sections revealed a number of personal factors that influence the decision by the sme owner-manager to adopt the use of formal hr practices. therefore, in line with this study’s objectives, this literature was used to formulate a structural model (figure 1) that describes how selected personal factors interact with effort expectancy and performance expectancy to explain the decision to formalise hr practices by owner-managers of family-owned accommodation smes in south africa. figure 1: the proposed structural model. research methodology research approach the study adopted a quantitative approach to interrogate the hypotheses proposed from a literature review that represent the nature of the relationships between the personal factors that affect hr formalisation in family-owned smes in south africa. research participants the choice of the small accommodation sector in this study was motivated by the key role played by this sector in the south african tourism landscape. according to rogerson (2005), this sector wields significant potential in the post-apartheid south african economy. the same view is expressed much later by statistics south africa (2018), which reported that, in south africa, the contribution by accommodation smes to the gdp increased from 6% in 2012 to 8% in 2015, signifying the critical role of these entities in economic development. at the same time, the small accommodation sector generally represents the standard small family-owned firm, which is the focus of this study as most of them are owned and run as family firms usually by a husband and wife team in line with the age-old tradition of offering accommodation to the travelling public (poza & daugherty, 2013). the sector is even more significant in the free state where the location of the province as a hub between gauteng, western cape, eastern cape and kwazulu-natal has seen the emergence of many small accommodation firms to tap into the accommodation needs of the travelling public (strydom, mangope, & henama, 2019). meanwhile, the demarcation of family-owned smes in this study was based on the definition of family firms from extant literature and the definition of an sme as postulated by the national small business act of 2004. therefore, in this study, a family-owned sme is taken to refer to a firm employing not more than 100 employees and whose practices and policies are controlled by members of the same family. based on this definition, the target population for this study comprised all family-owned accommodation smes in the free state province, south africa. research procedure based on a database provided by the free state tourism council, at the time the research, there were 431 registered and tax-paying family-owned accommodation smes in the province, which constituted the target population of this study. granted that this study is based on structural equation modelling (sem), which requires large samples, convenience sampling was used to target a sample of 270 respondents. this figure was deemed adequate by hair, black, babin and anderson (2014) who reasoned that sem-based studies based on models with seven constructs or less and modest communalities (0.5) such as this study can produce reliable and valid findings from a sample that is 150 < 300. the researcher therefore engaged and trained research assistants who distributed the research instruments to owner-managers in family-owned smes in the accommodation sector in the free state province by convenience sampling in order to garner as many respondents as possible. measurement model data in this study were gathered using a structured questionnaire. meanwhile, according to chumney (2016), in sem-based studies, the measurement model must be designed in a manner that ensures that the latent variables under review are related to their indicators. as such, in line with this recommendation, this study made effort to carefully design a self-administered structured questionnaire as the study’s measurement model. consistent with best practices in research of this nature, it is imperative in the design of the measurement model to operationalise the constructs on the measurement model. as such, in this study, the constructs on the measurement model were operationalised by: coming up with a definition of the constructs that are being measured based on extant literature selecting items or questions that measured the construct selecting the response-format (a five-point likert scale was used in this study). data analysis the collected data were integrated in the analysis of a moment structures (amos). 24 software package and sem analysis was used to explore the personal factors affecting the decision to formalise hr practices in family-owned smes in south africa. structural equation modelling is a multivariate statistical framework that is used to analyse structural relationships between directly and indirectly observed (latent) variables (sideridis, simos, papanicolaou, & fletcher, 2014). in other words, sem analyses data by estimating the relationships amongst a set of constructs represented by a number of variables making up an integrated testable model (figure 1). research findings measurement model fit as sem generally comprises two types of models, which must fit the data, the measurement model and the structural model, in data analysis, it is imperative to ensure that the measurement model provides an accurate empirical representation of the underlying hypothetical constructs in the research context (kelloway, 2015). it is therefore critical to ascertain how well the observed indicators from collected data accurately serve as measurement indicators for the latent variables in the study’s context (model fit). therefore, in this study, the successful operationalisation of the measurement model was a precondition that had to be met before considering fitting the structural model to the collected data as recommended by hayes (2017). to facilitate this operationalisation, confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) was used to assess the extent to which the measurement model fitted into the collected data. the cfa results initially displayed unsatisfactory fit indices. however, further diagnosis of the modification indices and the standardised residual covariance matrix retrieved from amos.24 necessitated deleting some items from the measurement instrument to improve the instrument’s model fit. the modification indices option on amos.24 was also used to detect and delete the inter-item correlations affecting the measurement model’s fit. as such, the construct decision to formalise retained two out of the original six items. likewise, the performance expectancy construct retained 2 out of the original 12 items and with the effort expectancy construct, 5 out of a possible 11 items were retained. these retained items converged significantly on their respective constructs as they all recorded factor loadings above > 0.5 at significant level 0.01 as recommended by hair et al. (2014). therefore, the final model indicated satisfactory fit indices after refinement of the measurement model (χ2 = 283.395, p = 000, df = 124), indicating that the final measurement model fitted satisfactorily with the collected data. validity and reliability assessment the measurement model was also tested for convergent validity using factor loadings on amos.24. the results indicated that the factor loadings of all constructs on the measurement model were all above the recommended threshold of 0.5 as recommended by field (2013), who showed that all the items on the measurement model were valid to gather data in this study. the study also assessed the discriminant validity by comparing the square root of the average variance extracted (ave) with the respective correlation coefficients of the measurement instrument’s constructs. there was no discriminant validity concern in the measurement instrument as all correlation coefficients were lower than the square root of aves of their respective constructs. this confirmation of the measurement instrument’s validity indicates that the relationships illustrated in the measurement model fit the data satisfactorily and, on that basis, the measurement instrument was deemed valid in the context of this study. reliability test the study also sought to establish the reliability of the measurement model using the cronbach’s alpha coefficient. the results from the cronbach’s alpha test indicate that all the constructs on the measurement model achieved a satisfactory level of reliability as their values were above 0.5 as recommended by hair et al. (2014). based on the results of the cfa and the validity and reliability tests carried out on the measurement model, it is evident that all the relationships illustrated in the measurement model fit the collected data satisfactorily. the final measurement model is shown in figure 2. figure 2: final measurement model. structural model fit the proposed structural model (figure 1) was tested for data fit using the maximum likelihood estimation (mle) method against the common fit indices prescribed by hair et al. (2014). the final structural model (χ2 = 1036.350; p = 000; df = 543) displayed a satisfactory fit, which is a clear indication that the study’s structural model (figure 3) fits the collected data satisfactorily and could be used with confidence to test the hypotheses proposed in this study. figure 3: final structural model. this close fit between the structural model and the data collected from the field indicates that the null hypotheses (h0) in this study was not rejected and that all the path coefficients of the hypothesised relationships were statistically significant. as such at this stage, the next procedure in sem analysis involved testing the hypotheses proposed in this study. the owner-manager’s age and effort expectancy of human resource formalisation the relationship between owner-manager’s age and the effort expectancy of using formal hr practices was captured in the following hypothesis: h1: there is a positive and significant relationship between the owner-managers’ age and effort expectancy. this hypothesis was derived on the basis of the utaut model and extant literature (alharbi et al., 2018; filser et al., 2017), which indicates that there is a strong relationship between the sme owner-manager’s age and the expectation that formal hr practices will be easy to use (effort expectancy). however, empirical findings in this study (estimate: –0.034; p-value: 0.44) indicate that there is no relationship between the family-owned sme owner-manager’s age and effort expectancy of using formal hr practices. the no relationship observation renders the hypothesised relationship rejected and hence on that basis, this study concludes that the owner-manager’s age does not influence expectations that formal hr practices will be easy to use in the family-owned smes. viewed from another angle, this finding validates one of utaut’s assumptions which claims that effort expectancy is personality driven and as such varies from one person to another and from one context to another; as such in the context of the socio-economic environment in south africa at the point of collecting data, the difficulty associated with hr formalisation may have been insignificant in influencing the adoption decision. owner-manager’s level of education and performance expectancy in testing the relationship between the family-owned sme owner-manager’s level of education and the performance expectancy of using formal hr practices, the following hypothesis was proposed: h2: there is a positive and significant relationship between the owner-managers’ level of education and performance expectancy. as table 1 indicates, the owner-manager’s level of education had a positive and significant effect on their performance expectancy of using formal hr practices as its p-value (0.01) is lower than 0.05. this means that there was a strong and significant relationship between the sme owner-manager’s level of education and his or her expectation that formal hr practices will lead to enhanced firm performance (performance expectancy). table 1: level of education and performance expectancy. this finding dovetails with the claim made by venkatesh et al. (2003) who originally proposed the positive relationship between education level and performance expectancy as captured in the utaut model. thus, the current finding validates the relationship proposed in the main theory, utaut, anchoring this study. this finding is also in congruence with a study by al-khowaiter, dwivedi and williams (2014) who found a relationship between the family-owned sme owner-manager’s level of education and their attitude towards adopting human resource information systems (hris) in saudi arabia. this study’s findings reaffirm conclusions drawn by radipere and dhliwayo (2014) in an almost similar study based in south africa, which concluded that owner-managers’ educational achievement has a major impact on sme growth as more educated sme owner-managers have the necessary confidence (performance expectancy) needed to foster firms’ success. the same conclusion is also made by other scholars researching in south africa as in this study who also concluded that in south african smes, the owner-manager’s educational level plays a key role as it arms the owner-manager with greater capacity to learn novel operating practices, such as the use of formal hr practices and the ability to adjust firm’s practices to the ever-changing operating environment that characterise developing emerging economies such as south africa (brijlal et al., 2013; steenkamp & bhorat, 2016). therefore, on the basis of these research findings, this study concludes that the owner-manager’s level of education influences his or her expectations that formal hr practices will be useful if adopted in family-owned smes. owner-manager’s level of education and effort expectancy regarding the relationship between the owner-manager’s level of education and his or her effort expectancy of using formal hr practices, this study formulated the following hypotheses: h3: there is a positive and significant relationship between the owner-managers’ level of education and effort expectancy. this hypothesis was based on extant literature (ogubazghi & muturi, 2014; riddell & song, 2017) that indicates that there is a relationship between owner-managers’ level of education and their ability to use new products with ease (effort expectancy). however, findings from the current study (estimate: –0.022; p-value: 0.531) refute this and, therefore, the hypothesis was rejected and therefore on that basis this study draws the conclusion that the owner-manager’s educational level is not a predictor of the ease of using formal hr practices in family-owned smes. although the finding of this research runs counter to extant literature, it raises a significant milestone in utaut research as it indicates a new trajectory worth pursing away from the well-beaten path reflected in the literature. performance expectancy and decision to formalise human resource practices performance expectancy, which refers (in this study) to the owner-manager’s expectation that formal hr practices will be useful in the firm, is assumed to be related to the owner-manager’s decision to formalise hr practices in family-owned smes. in the light of this, the following hypothesis was proposed: h4: there is a positive and significant relationship between the owner-managers’ performance expectancy and the decision to formalise hr practices in the sme. as shown in table 2, the results reveal that performance expectancy has a positive and significant effect on the owner-manager’s decision to formalise hr practices because its p-value (0.008) is lower than 0.05. this signifies that when performance expectancy goes up by one standard deviation, the decision to formalise also goes up by 0.234 of its own standard deviation. table 2: performance expectancy and decision to formalise human resource practices. the findings presented in table 2 are significant as they tally with the assumptions in the main theory guiding this study, utaut. in fact, as venkatesh et al. (2003) observed in utaut, a new system user’s performance expectancy is a strong predictor of the user’s final decision to adopt or reject a novel system in organisations. therefore, as confirmed by this study, the adoption of formal hr practices is strongly influenced by the owner-manager’s perceptions that the formal hr practices will lead to measurable positive returns for the smes. this finding is also in sync with the principles of the tra which is based on the premise that a new user’s behaviour is based on rational decision-making and that the intention to act in a certain way is a function of the belief that the specific behaviour will lead to a given desired outcome (ajzen & fishbein, 1980). this means that a user who perceives the outcome of performing a certain behaviour as positive would have a positive attitude towards performing that behaviour and may end up performing that behaviour whilst the opposite can also be said if the behaviour is thought to be negative (maichum et al., 2016). therefore, in line with the findings of this study, the decision to formalise hr practices by family-owned sme owner-managers is dependent on the performance expectancy of using formal hr practices in the firms and as such we draw the conclusion that the owner-manager’s expectation that formal hr practices will be useful to adopt in the firm influences the decision to formalise hr practices. effort expectancy and the decision to formalise human resource practices in pursuit of the relationship between the sme owner-manager’s effort expectancy and the decision to formalise hr practices in family-owned smes, the following hypothesis was proposed: h5: there is a positive and significant relationship between the owner-manager’s effort expectancy and the decision to formalise hr practices in the sme. the results from the regression analysis of this hypothesis are presented in table 3. table 3: effort expectancy and decision to formalise human resource practices. table 3 shows that there is a negative relationship between effort expectancy of using formal hr practices and the decision to formalise hr practices in family-owned smes in south africa. the p-value (0.01) is lower than 0.05. this means that, as effort expectancy goes up by one standard deviation, the owner-manager’s decision to formalise goes down by 0.399 of its own standard deviation. the above-mentioned findings are at variance with one of the adoption theories, the tam and utaut supporting this study, which trace a positive relationship between effort expectancy of using novel technologies and the user’s decision to adopt those (venkatesh et al., 2012). the variance with the findings of this study shows that tam suggests that people who feel at ease with the complexity of a new invention end up using the invention to a larger extent than those who feel intimidated by the complexity of the invention (svendsen et al., 2013). therefore, the tam posits a link between attitude and the decision to adopt this causal chain implies that a more positive attitude towards the system creates a stronger behavioural intention towards using the system, which ultimately influences the decision to adopt innovations (kashi & zheng, 2013; svendsen et al., 2013). this is a complete opposite to what the current result entails. although this study seems to question the validity of the long-held relationships between tam and utaut, it concludes that the owner-manager’s expectation that formal hr practices will be easy to use does not influence the decision to formalise hr practices. despite this conclusion, hr practitioners must not dismiss the significance of effort expectancy in hr formalisation as it may be a ‘hygiene factor’, that is, a factor that does not in itself motivate, but leads to demotivation if it is absent. practical implications the findings of this study may be used to address potential management practices and serve as a guide to the formalisation of hr in smes by sme owner-managers, policymakers and hr practitioners in south africa and beyond. the study revealed that the decision to formalise hr practices is driven by a number of owner-manager-driven personal factors and reaffirms the pivotal role of the owner-manager’s personality in the decision-making processes in family-owned accommodation smes. limitations and recommendations a major limitation of this study relates to the time and financial constraints faced by one of the researchers. as a full-time employee residing outside south africa, the researcher faced severe time and financial constraints regarding balancing between conducting the study and cross-border work commitments. another limitation of this study is the confinement of the respondents to the free state province in south africa. this may affect the generalisation of the findings to the rest of south africa or worse still to all emerging economies in general. however, the researcher is convinced that the depth of this study produced credible results that can be applied and retested in other emerging countries and will produce similar results. it is recommended that that policymakers and hr practitioners must design a set of hr practices that are easy to understand and use in smes as complex hr practices designed for use in large firms can tamper the formalisation of hr practices in family-owned accommodation smes. lastly, the drivers of hr formalisation examined in this study are not exhaustive. therefore, future researchers are challenged to consider other factors that may have a bearing on hr formalisation in smes. furthermore, this study was quantitative in nature and, as such, future researchers may want to pursue a qualitative trajectory and use the subjective experiences of owner-managers to further this study’s findings. contribution of the study this study answered the call for research that explores how the unique personality of the owner-manager influences management practices in family-owned smes by proposing and testing an integrated structural model that describes how selected personal factors interact with aspects of the utaut model, such as effort expectancy, performance expectancy and facilitating conditions, to explain the decision formalises hr practices by owner-managers of family-owned accommodation smes in the free state province of south africa. the uniqueness of the study, therefore, lies in combining aspects of an existing model and existing empirical evidence to explain the decision to formalise hr practices in family-owned accommodation smes in an emerging economy such as south africa. this study further contributes to the body of knowledge by empirically testing the proposed integrated structural model and coming up with a customised model on how selected personal factors interact with effort expectancy, performance expectancy and facilitating conditions to influence the decision to formalise hr practices by family-owned accommodation smes within the south african context. by developing an integrated model and testing its explanatory power amongst family-owned accommodation smes in south africa, the study represents an empirical step towards addressing the gap in explaining personal factors that can account for the decision to formalise hr practices amongst family-owned accommodation smes. the study does so by delineating the critical determinants of the decision to formalise hr practices amongst family-owned smes within a specific context in south africa (figure 3), which can be used on similar economies. figure 4 depicts the personal determinants of hr formalisation amongst family-owned accommodation smes in the free state province of south africa. the figure shows that the decision to formalise hr practices is influenced by the owner-manager’s performance expectancy and effort expectancy. in turn, performance expectancy is influenced by the owner-manager’s level of education. figure 4: personal factors affecting human resource formalisation in family-owned accommodation small and medium-sized enterprises. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions in this study, w.n. formulated the problem, collected the data and reviewed literature. c.c. did data analysis and discussion and also did proofreading of the manuscript. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct the study was sought from and granted by the sponsoring university, central university of technology, free state, with clearance number fms2014/07. funding information this study was funded by the central university of technology, free state. data availability data can be obtained from the corresponding author (w.n.) upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and not in any way an official position of the funding institution. references ajzen, i., & fishbein, m. (1980). understanding attitudes and predicting social behaviour. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. alharbi, r.k., yahya, s.b., & ahmed, e. (2018). characteristics of manager’s and smes performance: the role of access to finance as a moderator. international journal of engineering & technology, 7(4), 5115–5119. https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i4.25620 al-khowaiter, w., dwivedi, y., & williams, m. (2014). examining the adoption of human resource information system in saudi arabia. in london, uk academy for information systems conference proceedings (p. 9). al mansoori, k., sarabdeen, j., & tchantchane, a. (2018). investigating emirati citizen’s adoption of e-government services in abu dhabi using modified utaut model. information technology and people, 31(2), 455–481. https://doi.org/10.1108/itp-12-2016-0290 basly, s. (2015). family involvement in the firm and exports in the family sme: is the manager’s international orientation influential. journal of intercultural management, 7(3), 66–69. https://doi.org/10.1515/joim-2015-0022 brijlal, p.v., naicker, v., & peters, r. (2013). education and smme business growth: a gender perspective from south africa. international business & economics research journal, 12(8), 855–873. https://doi.org/10.19030/iber.v12i8.7983 chiliya, n., & roberts-lombard, m. (2012). impact of level of education and experience on profitability of small grocery shops in south africa. international journal of business management and economic research, 3(1), 462–470. https://doi.org/10.20460/jgsm.2008218487 chumney, f. (2016). structural equation models with small samples: a comparative study of 4 approaches. phd thesis. the graduate college at the university of nebraska. lincoln, nebraska: university of nebraska. de massis, a., frattini, f., majocchi, a., & piscitello, l. (2018). family firms in the global economy: toward a deeper understanding of internationalization determinants, processes, and outcomes. global strategy journal, 8(1), 3–21. https://doi.org/10.1002/gsj.1199 dundon, t., & wilkinson, a. (2018). hrm in small and medium-sized enterprises (smes). in d.g. collings, g.t. wood, & l.t. szamosi (eds.), human resource management: a critical introduction (pp. 130–149). abingdon-on-thames: routledge. dzansi, d.y., & tasssin-njike, r. (2014). understanding the transition from informal to formal business: a conceptual framework. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(20), 664–670. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p664 elias, r., leonard, w., & mwakujonga, j. (2018). determinants of owner-manager competencies for small business operations: evidence from a small restaurant business in tanzania. asian business research journal, 3, 41–47. https://doi.org/10.20448/journal.518.2018.31.41.47 erdem, f., & atsan, n. (2015). trust based relationships between family members and long-term employees of family-owned smes. international business research, 8(4), 223–232. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v8n4p233 field, a. (2013). discovering statistics using ibm spss statistics: and sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll (4th edn.). los angeles, ca: sage. filser, m., de massis, a., gast, j., kraus, s., & niemand, t. (2017). tracing the roots of innovativeness in family smes: the effect of family functionality and socioemotional wealth. journal of production, innovation and management, 35(4), 609–628. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpim.12433 garavand, a., samadbeik, m., nadri, h., rahii, b., & said, h. (2019). effective factors in the adoption of mobile health applications between medical sciences students using utaut model. methods of information in medicine, 58(4), 131–139. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0040-1701607 hair, j., black, w., babin, b., & anderson, r. (2014). multivariate data analysis (7th edn.). london: pearson education. harney, b., & dundon, t. (2006). capturing complexity: developing an integrated approach to analysing hrm in smes. human resource management journal, 16(1), 48–73. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2006.00004.x hayes, a. (2017). introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: a regression-based approach. new york, ny: guilford publications. herrero, i. (2017). family involvement and sustainable family business: analysing their effects on diversification strategies. sustainability, 9(11), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9112099 hung, y., cant, m., & wiid, j. (2016). the importance of human resources management for small businesses in south africa. problems and perspectives in management, 14(1–3), 232–238. https://doi.org/10.21511/ppm.14(3-1).2016.09 ilo. (2016). policies, strategies and practices for the formalisation of micro and small enterprises. geneva: international labour organisation. jaskiewicz, p., & dyer, w. (2017). addressing the elephant in the room: disentangling family heterogeneity to advance family business research. family business review, 30(2), 111–118. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894486517700469 jiménez, a., palmero-cámara, c., & gonzález-santos, m.j. (2015). the impact of educational levels on formal and informal entrepreneurship. business research quarterly, 18(3), 204–212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brq.2015.02.002 karadag, h. (2017). the impact of industry, firm age and education level on financial management performance in small and medium-sized enterprises (smes): evidence from turkey. journal of entrepreneurship in emerging economies, 9(3), 300–314. https://doi.org/10.1108/jeee-09-2016-0037 kashi, k., & zheng, c. (2013). extending technology acceptance model to the e-recruitment context in iran. journal of selection and assessment, 21(1), 121–129. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsa.12022 kelloway, e.k. (2015). using mplus for structural equation modelling: a researcher’s guide (2nd ed.). new jersey: sage. li, s., & rees, c. (2020). determinants of the formalization of human management practices: an empirical study in smes in eastern and western china. journal of small business management, 19(2), 1–21. li, s., & rees, c. (2020). determinants of the formalisation of human management practices: an empirical study in smes in eastern and western china. journal of small business management, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/00472778.2019.1705663 lobonțiu, g., & lobonțiu, m. (2014). the owner-manager and the functional management of a small firm. procedia – social and behavioural sciences, 124, 552–561. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.02.519 maduku, d.k. (2015). determinants of mobile marketing adoption among smes in south africa. phd thesis. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. maichum, k., parichatnon, s., & peng, k. (2016). application of the extended theory of planned behaviour model to investigate purchase intention of green products among thai consumers. sustainability, 8(10), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8101077 mohd nor, l. (2010). decision making process: a comparison between family business and non-family business in the construction industry, the bayesian causal map. retrieved from www.researchgate.net/publication/268256052/ national small business amendment act (no. 29 of 2004). (2004). pretoria: government printers. nzonzo, j., & matashu, m. (2014). an insight into the human resource management practices adopted by entrepreneurs in south africa. journal of small business and entrepreneurship development, 2(3), 73–87. https://doi.org/10.15640/jsbed.v2n3-4a5 oecd. (2017). enhancing the contributions of smes in a global and digitalised economy. paris: organisation for economic co-operation and development. ogubazghi, s., & muturi, w. (2014). the effect of age and educational level of owner/managers on smmes’ access to bank loan in eritrea: evidence from asmara city. american journal of industrial and business management, 4(11), 632–643. https://doi.org/10.4236/ajibm.2014.411069 poza, e.j., & daugherty, m.s. (2013). family-owned business enterprises. washington: south-western cengage learning. psychogios, a., szamosi, l., prouska, r., & brewster, c. (2016). a three-fold framework for understanding hrm practices in south-eastern european smes. employee relations, 38(3), 310–331. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-07-2014-0078 pwc. (2018). europe monitor – innovation and digital transformation: how do european smes perform?. london: pricewaterhousecoopers b.v. radipere, s., & dhliwayo, s. (2014). the role of gender and education on small business performance in the south african small enterprise sector. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(9), 104–110. riddell, w.c., & song, x. (2017). the role of education in technology use and adoption: evidence from the canadian workplace and employee survey. industrial & labour relations review, 70(5), 1219–1253. https://doi.org/10.1177/0019793916687719 rogers, e.m. (2003). diffusion of innovations. new york, ny: free press. rogerson, c. (2005). unpacking tourism smmes in south africa: structure, support needs and policy response. development southern africa, 22(5), 623–642. https://doi.org/10.1080/03768350500364224 sideridis, g., simos, p., papanicolaou, a., & fletcher, j. (2014). using structural equation modelling to assess functional connectivity in the brain: power and sample size. educational psychological measurement, 74(5), 733–758. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164414525397 singh, m., & vohra, n. (2009). level of formalisation of human resource management in small and medium sized enterprises in india. journal of entrepreneurship, 18(1), 95–116. https://doi.org/10.1177/097135570801800105 steenkamp, f., & bhorat, h. (2016). the role of skills and education in predicting micro-enterprise performance. johannesburg: labour market intelligence partnership (lmip). steijvers, t., lybaert, n., & dekker, j. (2017). formal human resource practices in family firms. journal of family business management, 7(2), 151–165. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfbm-07-2016-0016 statistics south africa. (2018). discussion document on south africa’s accommodation industry. johannesburg: statistics south africa. strydom, a., mangope, d., & henama, u. (2019). making community-based tourism sustainable: evidence from the free state province, south africa. geojournal of tourism and geosites, 24(1), 7–18. svendsen, g., johnsen, j., almås-sørensen, l., & vittersø, j. (2013). personality and technology acceptance: the influence of personality factors on the core constructs of the technology acceptance model. behaviour & information technology, 34(2), 323–334. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929x.2011.553740 venkatesh, v., morris, m.g., davis, g.b., & davis, f.d. (2003). user acceptance of information technology: toward a unified view. mis quarterly, 27(3), 425–478. https://doi.org/10.2307/30036540 wilkerson, j.m., seers, a., & johnson, s.g. (2020). on antecedents of functional elaboration of hrm in small firms. journal of organizational psychology, 20(1), 23–36. williamson, o. (2017). the transaction cost economics project: the theory and practice of the governance of contractual relations. new york, ny: e.e. publications. world bank. (2018). south africa economic update: jobs and inequality. washington, dc: world bank. woldie, a., leighton, p., & adesua, a. (2008). factors affecting small and medium enterprises (smes): an exploratory study of owner-manager and firm characteristics. bank and bank systems, 3(3), 5–13. yoshino, n., & taghizadeh-hesary, f. (2018). the role of smes in asia and their difficulties in accessing finance. tokyo: asian development bank institute. abstract introduction literature review and hypothesis research methods results discussion conclusion and implications acknowledgements references about the author(s) noor arifin department of management, faculty of economics and business, universitas islam nahdlatul ulama’ jepara, indonesia eko n. fuad department of management, faculty of economics and business, universitas islam nahdlatul ulama’ jepara, indonesia ali muhson department of economics education, faculty of economics, universitas negeri yogyakarta, yogyakarta, indonesia citation arifin, n., fuad, e.n., & muhson, a. (2022). innovative behaviour in religious-based theory of planned behaviour perspective. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1809. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1809 original research innovative behaviour in religious-based theory of planned behaviour perspective noor arifin, eko n. fuad, ali muhson received: 26 oct. 2021; accepted: 22 apr. 2022; published: 23 june 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract purpose: this study aims to analyse the effect of spiritual leadership (sl) and work-life balance (wlb) on innovative behaviour with employee engagement (ee) as a mediating variable in the theory of planned behaviour (tpb) perspective. design/methodology/approach: cluster sampling was used to gather a sample of 200 private employees. a questionnaire was used to collect data, which was then analysed using the structural equation model (sem). findings: spiritual leadership has a positive effect on innovative behaviour, wlb has a positive effect on innovative behaviour, sl has a positive effect on ee, wlb has a positive effect on ee, ee has a positive effect on innovative behaviour and ee mediates the effect of sl and wlb on innovative behaviour. research limitation/implication: it is necessary to apply innovative behaviour from a religious-based tpb perspective so that the intention to work is based on religious values in work interaction relationships. practical implications: the need of a sincere attitude in the workplace must be socialised to employees so that it becomes a daily attitude and a work guide; leaders become role models (uswah) in straightening intents at work. originality/value: this study contributes to this research area by developing and examining an integrative conceptual framework of innovative behaviour in religious organisation. keywords: spiritual leadership; work-life balance; innovative behaviour; employee engagement; theory of planned behaviour. introduction tough business competition and the dynamics of today’s world require companies to innovate and change, because innovation has a big role in the development of increasingly advanced technology (smith & tushman, 2005). there are two choices for companies today, namely, not competing or having to innovate. innovating could lead to business success for the organisation (scott & bruce, 2017). innovation affects the company’s performance and the sustainability of competitive advantage. human resources is an important part that supports and runs the innovation process of the organisation. yuan and woodman (2017) concluded that employee innovation behaviour is an important factor for the company’s success in a fairly dynamic business environment. consequently, it is very important for companies to have employees who are able to generate, improve and implement new ideas in the workplace to improve personal or organisational performance (scott & bruce, 2017). employee-generated innovation is one of the best ways to drive innovation and organisational success (mytelka & smith, 2002). innovative behaviour (ib) emphasises the existence of a creative attitude so that there is a process of changing attitudes that have not progressed to attitudes that are already advanced. price (1997) added that ib is an individual’s ability to change the way of working in the form of adopting new procedures, practices and work techniques in completing tasks and work. therefore, companies are required to produce new assessments, new ideas and offer innovative products and improve service performance that satisfies customers. people who have creative personal characteristics also have cognitive abilities (west & farr, 1989). innovative behaviour includes innovation in products, services and work processes in organisations (allameh, pool, jaberi, salehzadeh, & asadi, 2015). in improving the ib of employees, each organisation has a different way (martins & terblanche, 2003). according to the theory of planned behaviour (tpb), behavioural intention is produced from a combination of attitude toward the behaviour, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control (ajzen, 2002). any action a person takes is influenced by behavioural beliefs (beliefs about the probable consequences of the practiced behaviour), normative beliefs (beliefs about the normative expectations of other people) and control beliefs (beliefs about the presence of factors that may enable or obstruct the performance of the behaviour) (arafat & mohamed ibrahim, 2018). behavioural control depends on the individual’s perception of how difficult it is going to be to engage in the behaviour (mimiaga, reisner, reilly, soroudi, & safren, 2009). the tpb argues that an individual who has high perceived behavioural control with respect to a particular behaviour is more likely to form the intention to perform that behaviour and more likely to act on that intention in the face of obstacles and setbacks than someone who is low in perceived behavioural control (manstead, 2001). the leader is the originator of the idea of goals, planning, organising, mobilising and controlling all organisational resources so that goals could be achieved effectively and efficiently (luthans, 2006). in improving the ib of employees, each organisation has a different way (martins & terblanche, 2003). to come up with new ideas and multitasking processes, employees need support from organisational leaders in providing opportunities to produce quality products (amabile, schatzel, moneta, & kramer, 2004). according to barney and griffin (1992), in the human resource management function, the most important thing in an organisation is managing innovative individual work behaviours in order to carry out their obligations to help achieve organisational goals. individuals as employees are not robots whose behaviour could be controlled mechanically. the leaders of the organisation must know and understand every situation that can affect the formation of individual behaviour in the organisation. innovation in the organisation cannot be separated from the role of leaders in the organisation. leadership style is very influential in developing ib of employees. existing leadership models still view that the nature of leadership is considered a mandate from humans (for subordinates) yet see leadership as a mandate from god and also humans. followers in the organisation are driven by material and altruistic appeal by ignoring the values of being exemplary, inspiring, empowering and humanising. consequently, the performance achieved is solely for organisational purposes and not human responsibility to god as khalifatullah fil ardhy (representative of god on earth, in the islamic concept), so it is very important to encourage spiritual leadership (sl) (syarif, christiananta, sulasmi, & eliyana, 2014; tobroni, 2015). work-life balance (wlb) can be a second antecedent factor. wlb could be described as a process in which employees try to combine their work with family responsibilities with full attention in order to create ‘balance’ (crompton & lyonette, 2016). employees with a high level of engagement could further improve ib (dreu, 2010; park, lee, & kim, 2018). the critical issue in this study is the importance of discussing ib comprehensively, because there is still little research on the influence of leadership and wlb on employee engagement (ee), as recommended by gap research (iddagoda & opatha, 2017). this research is also carried out in sharia-based business institutions so as to include the sl variable as a determinant of innovative leadership and is more focused on prophetic leadership (saripudin, 2018; tobroni, 2015) and including ib variables (slåtten & mehmetoglu, 2011; wu & wu, 2019) as a consequence variable of ee (rich, lepine, & crawford, 2017; saks & gruman, 2014). iddagoda and opatha (2017), from empirical evidence, said: [t]here is no empirical evidence about religiosity, high performance work practices (hpwps), personal character, leadership and work life balance that significantly affect employee engagement in a nomological network in the sri lankan context as well as in the international context. (international business research, 2017, vol. 10, no. 2) there is a gap that empirical evidence found about how religiosity, hpwp (high performance work practice), personal character, leadership and wlb significantly affect ee in nomological networks in the sri lankan context as well as in the international context, and work engagement mediates the relationship between antecedents and consequences (saks, 2019). literature review and hypothesis the effect of spiritual leadership on innovative behaviour spiritual leadership is leadership that forms the values, attitudes and behaviours needed to motivate oneself and others (intrinsic motivation) so that they could achieve a sense of spiritual survival (syarif et al., 2014). employees will be able to carry out their big ideas because they are inspired by their leaders, and big minds would be more free if the sense of attachment to the company is better (syarif et al., 2014). afsar, badir and kiani (2016) revealed that sl was positively related to employee task performance, knowledge-sharing behaviour and employee innovation behaviour. afsar and badir (2017) showed that employees’ workplace spirituality was positively related to self and ib. spirituality could be an important element in managing the work attitude of generation y workers creatively (mahipalan & sheena, 2019). as a result, the following hypothesis could be formulated: h1: spiritual leadership has a positive significant effect on innovative behaviour. the effect of work-life balance on innovative behaviour marks and macdermid (1996) explained wlb as an individual’s tendency to be truly committed to performing in each role taken. this is in line with greenhaus, collins and shaw (2003) that wlb is the extent to which individuals feel bound to and satisfied with their work life and family life and are able to balance work and family obligations. work-life balance occurs when individuals can create the right roles at work and in the family with a low level of role conflict, so that they will be free to create and innovate in order to come up with big ideas in the workplace (purohit, 2013). kishino and hirano (2016) alluded that wlb greatly affects the creativity of an entrepreneur to leverage the power of business innovation. for that reason, the following hypothesis could be formulated: h2: work-life balance has a positive significant effect on innovative behaviour. the effect of spiritual leadership on employee engagement concerning efforts to improve employee work resources, it is important for leaders to provide support, autonomy and feedback to meet the basic psychological needs of employees so as to increase their work engagement (rahmadani, schaufeli, ivanova, & osin, 2019). empirical research from wang, guo, ni, shang and tang (2019) has explored the effectiveness of sl on employee task performance, knowledge sharing behaviour and innovation behaviour at the individual level, which could bind employees to the organisation. leadership by encouraging subordinates to feel satisfied at work has a direct effect on ee, loyalty and intention to stay afloat (book, gatling, & kim, 2019). rahim (2014) concluded that sl and ee have a simultaneous effect on employee performance. saripudin and rosari (2019) researched that sl with values, attitudes and behaviours of leaders had a significant positive effect on the meaning or vocation of life and employee social membership in increasing work engagement (fry, 2003); however, in terms of membership, that does not affect work engagement (saripudin, 2018). leadership with a unique style (spiritual virtue values) is strongly associated with engagement (employees are more attached to their organisation) (wang et al., 2019). from the explanations of various empirical studies, the following hypothesis shall be formulated: h3: spiritual leadership has a positive significant effect on work engagement. the effect of work-life balance on employee engagement work-life balance could be described as a process in which employees try to combine their work with family responsibilities with great care in order to create ‘balance’ (crompton & lyonette, 2016). empirical research related to wlb from munn (2013) inferred wlb leverages ee on strength (e.g. energy and stimulation), absorption (e.g. engagement and interest) and dedication (e.g. meaning and significance). mohd, shah, anwar and mahzumi (2016) stated that the factors influencing ee are rewards, work environment and wlb. according to benito-osorio, muñoz-aguado and villar (2014), wlb has a role in increasing ee. bakker and oerlemans (2016) stated that engagement has been shown to generate enthusiasm, which permeates the sphere of employee life, revealing that supportive work-life policies and perceived flexibility are positively related to ee. oludayo, falola, obianuju and demilade (2018) revealed that when employees get the opportunity to manage their personal lives well, they will positively increase their productivity and strengthen their engagement levels. as stated by sheppard (2016), every organisation looking to exploit potential and achieve ee needs to see what the organisation has to do; if employees are safe from problems with other employees and family problems, they will be able to concentrate on improving employee abilities so that it has an impact on organisational performance (ali, sabir, & mehreen, 2019). based on these studies, the following hypothesis shall be formulated: h4: work-life balance has a positive significant effect on employee engagement. the effect of employee engagement on innovative behaviour prieto and pérez-santana (2014) suggested that employees who feel attached to the company carry out not only their standard roles, but also extra roles; they are willing to experiment, leading to the creation of new ideas and new solutions, particularly ib (agarwal, agarwal, & mallick, 2014). innovative employees could have ideas about how to motivate themselves by engaging them in realistic work situations. however, to realise their ideas, employees need support. therefore, ee in this process is very important (messmann, mulder, & gruber, 2010). empirical support from schmitt, hartog and belschak (2016) confirmed that employees who are engaged could give high value and care for their work, showing more innovation (multiple works). employees who feel engaged tend to have more ib because they are emotionally, cognitively and physically alert in their workplace (kahn, 2017). the argument for the relationship between job involvement and ib is also supported by previous studies showing that highly engaged employees tend to be highly active, open-minded and out-of-the-box thinkers, and they tend to put in extra effort, find new patterns of reaction and break down formal modes of thinking (eldor, 2017). research by slåtten and mehmetoglu (2011) linked the effect of work engagement with ib. this study refers to ib as the application of useful ideas in work roles. engaged employees have high energy levels and are very enthusiastic about their work. research findings by messmann et al. (2010) and slåtten and mehmetoglu (2011) revealed that work engagement is closely related to raised ib. park et al. (2018) showed that employees’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (csr) about customers and employees significantly and positively affect work engagement, which in turn positively affects their ib. singh, david and mikkilineni (2017) identified different patterns of work engagement amongst participants with the innovation team over time in a related manner. however, team innovation increased in high engagement classes and decreased slightly in medium and low work engagement classes. based on this discussion, the following hypothesis could be formulated: h5: employee engagement has a positive significant effect on innovative behaviour. spiritual leadership affects innovative behaviour through employee engagement wang et al. (2019) revealed that sl is positively related to employee task performance, knowledge-sharing behaviour and innovation behaviour, from moral leadership, kind leadership and increased supervision, and when employees are involved, sl could improve organisational performance. research by afsar et al. (2016) showed that employees’ workplace spirituality was positively related to self-esteem, and supervisor ratings of ib and perceived sense of attachment acted as partial mediators between workplace spirituality and innovative work behaviour. these results imply that an employee’s experience of spirituality in the workplace has an impact on his perception, which in turn helps engage him to display ib more often. mahipalan and sheena (2019) showed that there was a significant relationship between spirituality and work and organisational engagement. based on the findings, it is reasonable to assume that spirituality could be an important element in managing the work attitudes of creative generation y workers. employees will be able to carry out their big ideas because they are inspired by organisational leaders who hold spiritual values. therefore, big minds will be more free if the sense of attachment to the company is better, based on passion, dedication and fun at work (work engagement component). based on this discussion, the following hypothesis could be formulated: h6: spiritual leadership affects innovative behaviour through employee engagement. work-life balance affects innovative behaviour through employee engagement purohit (2013) stated that wlb is a concept of balancing roles between career and lifestyle, including health, happiness, family and spiritual development. in the study, it is said that wlb occurs when individuals could create appropriate roles at work and in the family with low levels of role conflict, so that they will freely create and innovate to bring up big ideas at work. the outcome of the research from ong and jeyaraj (2014) showed that participants in the wlb condition experienced higher levels of cognitive dissonance compared to participants in the harmonious-life balance condition. secondly, the findings also suggest that wlb interventions will have a more positive impact on individual creativity in the workplace. wilkinson, tomlinson and gardiner (2018) researched with the results that wlb and flexible work arrangements, in relation to other aspects of the work engagement relationship, have opportunities for career development and advancement. employees will be able to carry out their big ideas and experience an established and harmonious wlb between work and family, so their big ideas will be more free if the sense of attachment to the company is stronger, based on self-attachment (with passion, dedication and fun) in work. based on this discussion, the following hypothesis could be formulated: h7: work-life balance affects innovative behaviour through employee engagement. research methods respondents and research location this research was conducted in [information redacted to maintain the integrity of the review process] who are members of askowanu (nu citizens’ cooperative association), located in 16 districts of central java. the target respondents in this study were [information redacted to maintain the integrity of the review process] employees, totalling 207 employees. the unit of analysis in this study is the individual (person). sampling method this study uses multistage sampling. the first is the cluster stage: because the geographical area is large and wide, the researcher divides the entire population into subdistricts or clusters. there are 10 districts (clusters), so the next step is to select the subdistrict with the highest population and filter the population based on simple random sampling. data collection techniques this type of research is quantitative research with primary data sources derived from respondents’ responses. data collection was carried out using an electronic questionnaire with google form survey administration software. the questionnaire model developed by the researcher uses a likert scale with five answer intervals. the sl variable adapted by adz-dzakiyaey and bakran (2005) in tobroni (2015) is measured by four indicator items. the wlb variable, according to hill et al. (2001), is measured by nine indicator items. the ee variable, according to schaufeli, salanova, gonzález-romá and bakker (2002), is measured by nine items. the ib variable, according to de jong and den hartog (2010), is measured by six indicator items. the average score of the sl variable is 4.58; the wlb variable is 4.54; the ee variable indicator is 4.48; and variable ib is 4.57, all variables in the category ‘strongly agree’. research variables the independent variables (exogenous) in this study are sl and wlb. meanwhile, ee is a mediator variable (mediation), and the dependent variable (endogenous) is ib. data analysis data analysis used structural equation modelling (sem) analysis to prove validity, estimate reliability and test hypotheses. the fit model test uses several criteria, namely, chi square, rmsea, gfi and agfi. the criteria used are p chi-square > 0.05, rmsea < 0.08, gfi > 0.9 and agfi > 0.9 (vieira, 2011). proof-of-construct validity is also used in this study, especially for the instrument in the form of a situational test. the analytical technique used is confirmatory factor analysis (cfa). validity testing is done by looking at convergent validity (cv) and discriminant validity. convergent validity is declared good if the loading factor value is significant at 5% (ferdinand, 2014; stevens, 2012) and loading factor is more than 0.7 (hair, hult, ringle, & sarstedt, 2017). discriminant validity is met if the correlation coefficient between constructs is smaller than the root of the average variance extracted (ave) (hair et al., 2017). the reliability estimate used is construct reliability (cr). the reliability estimate is declared good if the cr value is above 0.70 (ferdinand, 2014; hair et al., 2017; teo, 2010). ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. results model fit from a total of 207 respondents, only 200 respondents could be processed and analysed, because only these respondents had met the criteria and answered the electronic questionnaire completely. the results of the sem analysis can be briefly seen in figure 1. figure 1: research model. the results of the model fit test found that the value of p = 0.997, rmsea < 0.001 gfi = 0.913, agfi = 0.897. these findings indicate that all the criteria have been met, so the model developed in this study is already fit with the data. validity and reliability proof of validity is done in two ways, namely, convergent and discriminant validity. the results of the validation of the validity as measured by factor loading found that all values exceed 0.7, ave values exceed 0.5 and all ave root values also exceed correlation amongst constructs (see table 1). thus it could be said that all items and constructs developed to measure all variables proved valid. for the estimation of reliability as shown in table 1, it was found that all cr values exceeded 0.7, so it could be concluded that the developed instrument was proven to be reliable. table 1: validity and reliability. table 2: hypothesis testing results. hypothesis testing testing the hypothesis in the form of a direct effect is done by looking at the p values. the alternative hypothesis (ha) is accepted if the p value is lower than 0.05. meanwhile, testing the indirect effect or mediation is carried out using the sobel test with the criteria that if the t value exceeds 1.96 then mediation occurs (baron & kenny, 1986). discussion the effect of spiritual leadership on innovative behaviour the results of testing the first hypothesis (h1) found that the coefficient value was 0.244 with p = 0.002. this shows that sl has a positive effect on ib. this study supports the results of previous research conducted by afsar et al. (2016), khan, ismail, hussain and alghazali (2020), mahipalan and sheena (2019), özsungur (2020), syarif et al. (2014), wang et al. (2019), weng, huang, chen and chang (2015), zhang and yang (2020) and zhou and yang (2020), who found that there was a significant influence of sl to ib. alimuddin (2019) states that sl is a leader who does not view his or her position as the highest position so that it requires excellent service from his or her subordinates, but views it as a mandate (as a caliph) to serve, cultivate and manage his or her subordinates so that they could achieve success together. spiritual leadership has the character of true honesty, fairness, focus on virtuous deeds, hatred of formality and organised religion, working more efficiently with less talk and being more relaxed, being open to accepting change, being a leader who is loved and certainly loving those who are led and having humility (tobroni, 2015). these findings indicate that sl is proven to be effective as a predictor of employee ib. there have not been many studies using sl variables as modifications in predicting ib variables and sl variables using prophetic leadership indicators through siddiq [honest], amanah [trustworthy], tabligh [delivering] and fathonah [intelligent], adapting research from tobroni (2015) with modifications according to the context of this study in islamic financial institutions. the results of this study indicate that employees have a perception that sl is capable of significantly driving ib. the tpb perspective explains that behaviour is formed because of intention, where intention is influenced by attitudes toward the behaviour, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control (ajzen, 1991). the leader of an institution has the task of bringing the institution to realise its vision, mission and goals by motivating employees so that employees who work in the company must be treated with the intention of worship (doing work for allah or god). belief in work is part of religious obligations and orders or religious values (behaviour control); therefore, with real intentions, work must be more productive and have high performance. the values of islamic leaders in the organisation will become the culture within the organisation, being more innovative and productive so that employees always present an attitude of enthusiasm (vigour), dedication and appreciation (absorption) in work. the effect of work-life balance on innovative behaviour the results of testing the second hypothesis (h2) showed that wlb has a positive effect on ib with a coefficient of 0.354 and p < 0.001, which means the second hypothesis (h2) is accepted. this finding is supported by research done by adisa, abdulraheem and isiaka (2019), choi (2021), ong and jeyaraj (2014), purohit (2013) and wan and liu (2020), who found that there was a significant effect between wlb on ib. the strength of the respondents’ wlb indicator as a behavioural belief encourages the birth of work behaviour based on the tpb that the intention to work is to earn a living for the family, according to the hadith of abu hurairah’s friend, rasulullah saw, which said: ‘[… t]hat jihad [struggle] in the way of allah is not only being killed [in war], whoever works to support his parents is in the way of allah, whoever works to support his family is in the way of allah, but whoever work for luxury [increase wealth] then he is on the path of taghut [besides god].’ (hr thabrani) supporting the family from work, including alms, the responsibility of working to provide for one’s family will bear rewards and blessings and get a good reward from god (allah). agustian (2001) stated that people who have wlb intelligence would be able to choose correctly, prioritise everything correctly and carry out all their activities based on the intention to work for god (allah), who is certainly worth worship. the effect of spiritual leadership on employee engagement the third hypothesis (h3) stated that sl has a positive effect on ee. the test results found a coefficient value of 0.329 (p < 0.001), which means h3 is accepted. this finding supports the results of previous research conducted by batista-taran, shuck, gutierrez and baralt (2009), chahardeh and chegini (2015), de hoogh and den hartog (2008), fry and kriger (2009), fry and nisiewicz (2020), markow and klenke (2005), robinson, perryman and hayday (2004), saripudin (2018), saripudin and rosari (2019), sheikh et al. (2019) and wang et al. (2019). spiritual leadership (altruistic hope and love) and intentions and respect for employees could affect their attachment to the organisation. in the perspective of tpb, the relationship between sl and ee could be interpreted that employees who are religious (hold strong religious values) have a level of obedience (must obey) to ulil amri [commanding leaders], as in qs an nisa’ ayat 59: ‘… and obey ulil amri amongst you’. the intention to obey the leader will result in a high level of attachment to the organisation (tobroni, 2015). leadership in the style of the prophet(s) that is siddiq [honest], amanah [trustworthy], tabligh [delivering] and fathonah [intelligent] will further strengthen employee moral values and increase behaviour bound to the organisation (tasmara, 2006). the effect of work-life balance on employee engagement this study also proves that wlb has a positive effect on ee with a coefficient of 0.335 (p < 0.001). this study supports the results of previous research conducted by bakker and oerlemans (2016), benito-osorio et al. (2014), larasati, hasanati and istiqomah (2019), mohd et al. (2016), munn (2013), oludayo et al. (2018), sheppard (2016) and sonnentag (2003). work-life balance has a role in increasing ee. from the perspective of tpb, the subjective norm of support from other parties illustrates that individual beliefs could encourage good work intentions because the askowanu institution has facilitated through flexible, humanist rules, so that the perception of individual employee behaviour control will be easy to implement the institution’s formal rules. this makes the employee’s life balance at work and in family life run well. in the context of wlb, positive outcomes are not in the form of financial or material benefits, but more psychological benefits such as inner peace or religious benefits like the belief of employees in the askowanu environment that they could get god’s reward and love. this is in line with islamic teachings regarding work rules. according to agustian (2001), people with wlb intelligence will be able to choose correctly, prioritise everything correctly and carry out all their activities based on intentions because of allah (religious value). the effect of employee engagement on innovative behaviour employee engagement is proven to have a positive effect on ib with a coefficient of 0.546 (p < 0.001), which means the fifth hypothesis (h5) is accepted. this finding is supported by the results of previous research from agarwal et al. (2014), caniëls and veld (2016), messmann et al. (2010), miller and miller (2020), özsungur (2020), park et al. (2018), prieto and pérez-santana (2014), seppälä, hakanen, tolvanen and demerouti (2018), slåtten and mehmetoglu (2011) and spiegelaere, gyes and hootegem (2016), which stated that there is an effect of ee on ib or linking work engagement with ib. the tpb perspective views that the relationship between ee and ib can be interpreted as that the employee’s intention to work is because of religious commandments. from an islamic perspective, the qur’an says, ‘work, and god will surely see your work, and his messenger, and the believers, and you will be returned to him who knows the unseen and the visible…’ (qs: at-taubah; 105). working creatively will bring rewards from god. the effect of spiritual leadership on innovative behaviour through employee engagement the results of testing the sixth hypothesis (h6) shows that ee is proven to mediate the influence of sl on ib with a coefficient of 0.133 (p = 0.012). this means that this finding is supported by afsar and rehman (2015), schaufeli et al. (2002), syarif et al. (2014) and wang et al. (2019); in the theory of reasoned action model, employees produce positive outcomes, namely, generating creative ideas (ib), which is a reaction to attitudes and behaviour of positive intentions from the attitude (behaviour of intention) which is shown through their innovations, giving rise to great ideas working in islamic financial institutions. the subjective norm of support from other parties illustrates that individual employee beliefs could encourage good work because islamic financial institutions have provided rewards (outputs), and then the institution applies a fair, trustworthy and intelligent leadership pattern (sl) so that it is stronger in intention (behaviour intention). employees work to realise the best ideas in the institution (as actual behaviour). they want to realise their creative ideas all the more strongly if they are accompanied by feelings of enthusiasm (vigour) and a sense of dedication and deep work appreciation (absorption), which is very easy for employees to do (schaufeli et al., 2002). the effect of work-life balance on innovative behaviour through employee engagement another finding also proves that ee mediates the effect of wlb on ib with a coefficient 0.125 (p < 0.001). this finding is supported by previous researchers such as adisa et al. (2019), marks and macdermid (1996), ong and jeyaraj (2014), purohit (2013) and schaufeli et al. (2002), who found that work-life balance greatly affects an employee’s creativity to leverage his or her work innovation power. employees will be able to carry out their big ideas if they experience a well-established and harmonious wlb between work and family, and then big minds will become more free if their sense of attachment to the company is better. this shall be based on passion, dedication and fun at work. according to tpb’s perspective, the relationship between wlb and ib through ee means that employees’ intention to work is to get a good life, but it must be emphasised that they require a high attachment. in the view of islam as qs, an-nahl in verse 97 says: “whoever does righteousness, whether male or female, whilst he is a believer – we will surely cause him to live a good life, and we will surely give them their reward [in the hereafter] according to the best of what they used to do.” then one time a young man asked muawiyah: ‘how do you think that someone can have muru’ah [maintaining honor]?’ muawiyah replied: ‘expertise and creativity.’ asked again: ‘what is muru’ah?’ ‘he is iffah [careful] in religion, and improves the profession.’ (sunan al-baihaqi) conclusion and implications conclusion from the results of the study it could be concluded that all hypotheses proposed in this study are all supported. spiritual leadership has a positive effect on ib, wlb has a positive effect on ib, sl has a positive effect on ee, wlb has a positive effect on ee, ee has a positive effect on ib and ee mediates the effect of sl and wlb on ib. implications theoretical implications this study has succeeded in proving the ability to modify exogenous variables, sl and wlb, to predict ib through ee at askowanu financial institutions. from two modified exogenous variables, it was found that sl and wlb could be an influence on ib. this means that the stronger the leadership of a leader to employees at the islamic financial institution askowanu, the more creativity and innovation would grow in the workplace. creative attitudes could realise and develop new ideas for the best work in the workplace. then the attitude of wlb greatly affects the creativity of an employee to leverage the innovation power of his work. employees will be able to carry out their big ideas if they experience a well-established and harmonious wlb between work and family, and then big minds will become more free if they have a sense of attachment to the company. the attitude of work engagement, which is characterised by vigour (spirit), in islam could be shown by the character of ikhlas, mujahadah an-nafs and istimrariyah (imi). iklhas is the intention to do charity (work) only because of allah swt; work means to uphold worship to allah swt in order to avoid things that are forbidden and in order to protect oneself from traits such as begging or being a burden or depending on others (ta’affufan an al-mas’alah). mujahadah means sincerity in controlling something and an-nafs means oneself, so mujahadah an-nafs means seriousness in self-control (self-controlled attitude). istimrariyah [continuity] means to be consistent, resilient and ready to face trials. employees of askowanu islamic financial institutions are required to work continuously, although sometimes boredom and despair appear, but with a sense of sincerity in working with the intention of worship, they could finally get the expected results in the form of a good career. and whoever works continuously (istimrar) will be loved by allah swt. a hadith from aisyah r.a. says: ‘verily, allah loves someone who, when working, does it professionally (very skilled)’ (hr. thabrani, no: 891, baihaqi, no: 334). carrying out a professional attitude, as demanded by islamic financial institutions, needs to be cultivated and made customary to maximise potential in the workplace. maximising the itqon [professional] attitude is an optimal effort, which is the principle and target of every charity that is carried out consistently by employees. managerial implications to improve the effectiveness and optimisation of innovation behaviour in the perspective of islamic value-based tpb in islamic financial institutions, this study provides the following recommendations: socialising the importance of creative and innovative attitudes with islamic understanding (the nature of itqon [professional]), completing work with smart and sincere effort, with the intention of worshipping employees so that it becomes a daily attitude and a work guideline. leaders become role models (uswah) in aligning intentions through self-control and heart when working with religious values. when you work by controlling your heart in the name of god, there is peace. the implication is that one must work with full awareness without the need for instructions from others, including the leadership. strengthening the role and support of structural leaders on the principle of tpb, which states that behaviour is formed as a result of intention and attitude toward the behaviour by incorporating elements of religiosity in askowanu financial institutions; strengthening the role of managers (especially human resources) in work behaviour is based on the value of worship (carrying the role of god) whilst working in islamic financial institutions. acknowledgements report interpreted: the manuscript contains (17%) similarities with a published (journal of asian finance, economics and business vol 8 no 7 [2021] 0313–0322) entitled ‘(the antecedent of employee engagement and its effect on innovative behaviour: a religiosity-based social exchange theory [set] perspective)’ refer: (https://www.koreascience.or.kr/article/jako202118057822277.pdf). competing interests authors declare no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references adisa, t.a., abdulraheem, i., & isiaka, s.b. (2019). patriarchal hegemony: investigating the impact of patriarchy on women’s work-life balance. gender in management: an international journal, 34(1), 19–33. https://doi.org/10.1108/gm-07-2018-0095 adz-dzakiyaey, bakran, & hamdani, (2005), prophetic intelligence, kecerdasan kenabian. menumbuhkan potensi hakiki insane melalui pengembangan kesehatan ruhani, yogyakarta: islamika. afsar, b., & badir, y. (2017). workplace spirituality, perceived organizational support and innovative work behavior: the mediating effects of person-organization fit. journal of workplace learning, 29(2), 95–109. https://doi.org/10.1108/jwl-11-2015-0086 afsar, b., badir, y., & kiani, u.s. (2016). linking spiritual leadership and employee pro-environmental behavior: the influence of workplace spirituality, intrinsic motivation, and environmental passion. journal of environmental psychology, 45, 79–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2015.11.011 afsar, b., & rehman, m. (2015). the relationship between workplace spirituality and innovative work behavior: the mediating role of perceived person–organization fit. journal of management, spirituality & religion, 12(4), 329–353. https://doi.org/10.1080/14766086.2015.1060515 agarwal, a., agarwal, a., & mallick, p. (2014). a study of relationship between internet addiction and self-eoneept of adolescents. indian journal of health & wellbeing, 5(2), 219–221. agustian, a.g. (2001). rahasia sukses membangun kecerdasan emosi dan spiritual, esq (emotional spiritual quotient). semarang: penerbit arga. ajzen, i. (1991). the theory of planned behavior. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 50(2), 179–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-t ajzen, i. (2002). perceived behavioral control, self-efficacy, locus of control, and the theory of planned behavior. journal of applied social psychology, 32(4), 665–683. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2002.tb00236.x alimuddin, a. (2019). kepemimpinan spritual. kelola: journal of islamic education management, 4(2), 159–170. https://doi.org/10.24256/kelola.v4i2.905 ali, z., sabir, s., & mehreen, a. (2019). predicting engagement and performance through firm’s internal factors: evidence from textile sector. journal of advances in management research, 16(5), 763–780. https://doi.org/10.1108/jamr-11-2018-0098 allameh, s.m., pool, j.k., jaberi, a., salehzadeh, r., & asadi, h. (2015). factors influencing sport tourists’ revisit intentions: the role and effect of destination image, perceived quality, perceived value and satisfaction. asia pacific journal of marketing and logistics, 27(2), 191–207. https://doi.org/10.1108/apjml-12-2013-0159 amabile, t.m., schatzel, e.a., moneta, g.b., & kramer, s.j. (2004). leader behaviors and the work environment for creativity: perceived leader support. the leadership quarterly, 15(1), 5–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2003.12.003 arafat, y., & mohamed ibrahim, m.i. (2018). the use of measurements and health behavioral models to improve medication adherence. in m.i.m. ibrahim, a.i. wertheimer & z-u-d. babar (eds.), social and administrative aspects of pharmacy in low-and middle-income countries: present challenges and future solutions (pp. 53–69), cambridge: academic press. bakker, a.b., & oerlemans, w.g.m. (2016). momentary work happiness as a function of enduring burnout and work engagement. the journal of psychology, 150(6), 755–778. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2016.1182888 barney, j.b., & griffin, r.w. (1992). the management of organizations: strategy, structure, behavior. retrieved from https://books.google.com/books/about/the_management_of_organizations.html?hl=id&id=qo-haaaacaaj baron, r.m., & kenny, d.a. (1986). the moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. journal of personality and social psychology, 51(6), 1173–1182. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173 batista-taran, l.c., shuck, m.b., gutierrez, c.c., & baralt, s. (2009). the role of leadership style in mployee engagement. in m.s. plakhotnik, s.m. nielsen, & d.m. pane (eds.), proceedings of the eighth annual college of education & gsn research conference (pp. 15–20). florida international university. retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/24898872/the_role_of_leadership_style_in_employee_engagement benito-osorio, d., muñoz-aguado, l., & villar, c. (2014). the impact of family and work-life balance policies on the performance of spanish listed companies | cairn.info. m@n@gement, 17, 214–236. https://doi.org/10.3917/mana.174.0214 book, l., gatling, a., & kim, j.(sunny). (2019). the effects of leadership satisfaction on employee engagement, loyalty, and retention in the hospitality industry. journal of human resources in hospitality & tourism, 18(3), 368–393. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332845.2019.1599787 caniëls, m.c.j., & veld, m. (2016). employee ambidexterity, high performance work systems and innovative work behaviour: how much balance do we need? the international journal of human resource management, 30(4), 565–585. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1216881 chahardeh, f.a., & chegini, m.g. (2015). the impact of spiritual leadership dimensions on turnover intention through employee empowerment. indian journal of fundamental and applied life sciences, 5(s1), 4975–4984. retreived from www.cibtech.org/sp.ed/jls/2015/01/jls.htm choi, g.-d.d.-g. (2021). the effect of worklife balance on innovative behavior : mediating effect of hedonic well-being and eudaimonic well-being. the journal of the korea contents association, 21(1), 649–661. https://doi.org/10.5392/jkca.2021.21.01.649 crompton, r., & lyonette, c. (2016). work-life ‘balance’ in europe. acta sociologica, 49(4), 379–393. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001699306071680 de hoogh, a.h.b., & den hartog, d.n. (2008). ethical and despotic leadership, relationships with leader’s social responsibility, top management team effectiveness and subordinates’ optimism: a multi-method study. the leadership quarterly, 19(3), 297–311. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2008.03.002 de jong, j., & den hartog, d. (2010). measuring innovative work behaviour. creativity and innovation management, 19(1), 23–36. dreu, c.k.w.de. (2010). team innovation and team effectiveness: the importance of minority dissent and reflexivity. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 11(3), 285–298. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320244000175 eldor, l. (2017). the relationship between perceptions of learning climate and employee innovative behavior and proficiency. personnel review, 46(8), 1454–1474. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-08-2016-0202 ferdinand, a. (2014). structural equation modeling dalam penelitian manajemen: aplikasi model-model rumit dalam penelitian untuk tesis s-2 & disertasi s-3/oleh augusty ferdinand | opac perpustakaan nasional ri. in b.p.u. diponegoro (ed.) (pp. 197–199). semarang: badan penerbit universitas diponegoro. fry, l., & kriger, m. (2009). towards a theory of being-centered leadership: multiple levels of being as context for effective leadership. human relations, 62(11), 1667–1696. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726709346380 fry, l.w. (2003). toward a theory of spiritual leadership. leadership quarterly, 14(6), 693–727. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2003.09.001 fry, l.w., & nisiewicz, m.s. (2020). maximizing the triple bottom line through spiritual leadership. redwood city, ca: stanford university press. greenhaus, j.h., collins, k.m., & shaw, j.d. (2003). the relation between work–family balance and quality of life. journal of vocational behavior, 63(3), 510–531. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0001-8791(02)00042-8 hair, j.f., hult, g.t.m., ringle, c.m., & sarstedt, m. (2017). a primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem). thousand oaks, ca: sage. iddagoda, a., & opatha, h.h.d.n.p. (2017). identified research gaps in employee engagement. international business research, 10(2), 63–73. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v10n2p63 kahn, w.a. (2017). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 33(4), 692–724. https://doi.org/10.5465/256287 khan, m.a., ismail, f.b., hussain, a., & alghazali, b. (2020). the interplay of leadership styles, innovative work behavior, organizational culture, and organizational citizenship behavior. sage open, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019898264 kishino, s., & hirano, m. (2016). the effect of supervisors’ transformational leadership on subordinates’ psychological empowerment and work-life balance. discussion papers. retreived from http://www.lib.kobe-u.ac.jp/repository/81009393.pdf larasati, d.p., hasanati, n., & istiqomah. (2019). the effects of work-life balance towards employee engagement in millennial generation. advances in social science, education and humanities research (assehr), 304(acpch 2018), 390–394. https://doi.org/10.2991/acpch-18.2019.93 luthans, f. (2006). perilaku organisasi. yogyakarta: andi. mahipalan, m., & sheena, s. (2019). workplace spirituality, psychological well-being and mediating role of subjective stress: a case of secondary school teachers in india. international journal of ethics and systems, 35(4), 725–739. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoes-10-2018-0144 manstead, a.s.r. (2001). attitudes and behavior. in n.j. smelser & p.b. baltes (eds.), international encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences (pp. 909–913), united states of america: elsevier. markow, f., & klenke, k. (2005). the effects of personal meaning and calling on organizational commitment: an empirical investigation of spiritual leadership. international journal of organizational analysis, 13(1), 8–27. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb028995 marks, s.r., & macdermid, s.m. (1996). multiple roles and the self: a theory of role balance. journal of marriage and the family, 58(2), 417. https://doi.org/10.2307/353506 martins, e.c., & terblanche, f. (2003). building organisational culture that stimulates creativity and innovation. european journal of innovation management, 6(1), 64–74. https://doi.org/10.1108/14601060310456337 messmann, g., mulder, r.h., & gruber, h. (2010). relations between vocational teachers’ characteristics of professionalism and their innovative work behaviour. empirical research in vocational education and training, 2(1), 21–40. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03546487 miller, l., & miller, a.f. (2020). innovative work behavior through high-quality leadership. international journal of innovation science, 12(2), 219–236. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijis-04-2019-0042 mimiaga, m.j., reisner, s.l., reilly, l., soroudi, n., & safren, s.a. (2009). individual interventions. in k.h. mayer & h.f. pizer (ed.), hiv prevention (pp. 203–239), usa: elsevier. mohd, i.h., shah, m.m., anwar, n.a., & mahzumi, n. (2016). work-life balance: the effect on absenteeism among employees in a malaysian utility company. international journal of economics and financial issues, 6(6s), 154–157. munn, s.l. (2013). unveiling the work–life system: the influence of work–life balance on meaningful work. advances in developing human resources, 15(4), 401–417. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422313498567 mytelka, l.k., & smith, k. (2002). policy learning and innovation theory: an interactive and co-evolving process. research policy, 31(8–9), 1467–1479. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0048-7333(02)00076-8 oludayo, o., falola, h., obianuju, a., & demilade, f. (2018). work-life balance initiative as a predictor of employees’ behavioural outcomes. academy of strategic management journal, 17(1), 1939–6104. ong, h.l.c., & jeyaraj, s. (2014). work–life interventions: differences between work–life balance and work–life harmony and its impact on creativity at work. sage open, 4(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014544289 özsungur, f. (2020). the effects of ethical leadership on work engagement, intrapreneurship, and service innovation behavior: sample of chambers of commerce and industry. international journal of public leadership, 16(2), 199–216. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpl-11-2019-0073 park, s.y., lee, c.k., & kim, h. (2018). the influence of corporate social responsibility on travel company employees. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 30(1), 178–196. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm-07-2016-0372 price, p.w. (1997). insect ecology (3rd ed.). retreived from https://www.wiley.com/en-us/insect+ecology%2c+3rd+edition-p-9780471161844 prieto, i.m., & pérez-santana, m.p. (2014). managing innovative work behavior: the role of human resource practices. personnel review, 43(2), 184–208. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-11-2012-0199 purohit, m. (2013). a comparative study of work life balance in various industrial sectors in pune region. international journal of marketing, financial services & management research, 2(3), 198–206. rahim, a.r. (2014). the effect of islamic leadership on distributive justice and management budget (apb) and employee welfare in islamic universities in south sulawesi. iosr journal of business and management, 16(4), 55–63. https://doi.org/10.9790/487x-16455563 rahmadani, v.g., schaufeli, w.b., ivanova, t.y., & osin, e.n. (2019). basic psychological need satisfaction mediates the relationship between engaging leadership and work engagement: a cross-national study. human resource development quarterly, 30(4), 453–471. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21366 rich, b.l., lepine, j.a., & crawford, e.r. (2017). job engagement: antecedents and effects on job performance. academy of management journal, 53(3), 617–635. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.51468988 robinson, d., perryman, s., & hayday, s. (2004). the drivers of employee engagement. institute for employment studies (ies). retreived from https://www.employment-studies.co.uk/resource/drivers-employee-engagement saks, a.m. (2019). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement revisited. journal of organizational effectiveness: people and performance, 6(1), 19–38. https://doi.org/10.1108/joepp-06-2018-0034 saks, a.m., & gruman, j.a. (2014). what do we really know about employee engagement? human resource development quarterly, 25(2), 155–182. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21187 saripudin, w. (2018). spiritual leadership model in enhancing work engagement. in the 6th gadjah mada international conference on economics and business (gamaiceb), yogyakarta, indonesia: faculty of economics and business, universitas gadjah mada, september 12–13, 2018. saripudin, w., & rosari, r. (2019). does spiritual leadership model enhance work engagement? empirical evidence from an islamic hospital in yogyakarta. journal of leadership in organizations, 1(2), 112–133. https://doi.org/10.22146/jlo.45520 schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzález-romá, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3(1), 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 schmitt, a., hartog, d.n.d., & belschak, f.d. (2016). transformational leadership and proactive work behaviour: a moderated mediation model including work engagement and job strain. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 89(3), 588–610. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12143 scott, s.g., & bruce, r.a. (2017). determinants of innovative behavior: a path model of individual innovation in the workplace. academy of management journal, 37(3), 580–607. https://doi.org/10.5465/256701 seppälä, p., hakanen, j.j., tolvanen, a., & demerouti, e. (2018). a job resources-based intervention to boost work engagement and team innovativeness during organizational restructuring: for whom does it work? journal of organizational change management, 31(7), 1419–1437. https://doi.org/10.1108/jocm-11-2017-0448 sheikh, a.a., inam, a., rubab, a., najam, u., rana, n.a., & awan, h.m. (2019). the spiritual role of a leader in sustaining work engagement: a teacher-perceived paradigm. sage open, 9(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019863567 sheppard, g. (2016). work-life balance programs to improve employee performance. walden dissertations and doctoral studies. retreived from https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/2058 singh, s., david, r., & mikkilineni, s. (2017). organizational virtuousness and work engagement: mediating role of happiness in india. advances in developing human resources, 20(1), 88–102. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422317741885 slåtten, t., & mehmetoglu, m. (2011). antecedents and effects of engaged frontline employees: a study from the hospitality industry. managing service quality: an international journal, 21(1), 88–107. https://doi.org/10.1108/09604521111100261 smith, w.k., & tushman, m.l. (2005). managing strategic contradictions: a top management model for managing innovation streams. organization science, 16(5), 522–536. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1050.0134 sonnentag, s. (2003). recovery, work engagement, and proactive behavior: a new look at the interface between nonwork and work. journal of applied psychology, 88(3), 518–528. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.3.518 spiegelaere, s.de., gyes, g.van, & hootegem, g.van. (2016). not all autonomy is the same. different dimensions of job autonomy and their relation to work engagement & innovative work behavior. human factors and ergonomics in manufacturing & service industries, 26(4), 515–527. https://doi.org/10.1002/hfm.20666 stevens, j.p. (2012). applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences. new york, ny: routledge. syarif, t., christiananta, b., sulasmi, s., & eliyana, a. (2014). pengaruh spiritual leadership, stres kerja, dan kompensasi terhadap kepuasan dan prestasi kerja social worker organisasi sosial di surabaya. jurnal bimbingan dan konseling islam, 3(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.29080/jbki.v3i1.3 tasmara, t. (2006). spiritual centered leadership (kepimpinan berbaris spiritual) – toto tasmara – google buku. jakarta: gema insani press. teo, t. (2010). examining the influence of subjective norm and facilitating conditions on the intention to use technology among pre-service teachers: a structural equation modeling of an extended technology acceptance model. asia pacific education review, 11(2), 253–262. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-009-9066-4 tobroni, t. (2015). spiritual leadership: a solution of the leadership crisis in islamic education in indonesia. umm institutional repository. retreived from https://eprints.umm.ac.id/57887/ vieira, a.l. (2011). interactive lisrel in practice. berlin: springer. wang, m., guo, t., ni, y., shang, s., & tang, z. (2019). the effect of spiritual leadership on employee effectiveness: an intrinsic motivation perspective. frontiers in psychology, 9, 2627. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02627 wan, l., & liu, j. (2020). the impact of work-life balance on post-90s young employees on innovative behavior: empirical research based on three cities in shandong province. in proceedings of the 3rd international conference on economy, management and entrepreneurship (icoeme 2020) (pp. 162–171), paris: atlantis press. weng, r.-h., huang, c.-y., chen, l.-m., & chang, l.-y. (2015). exploring the impact of transformational leadership on nurse innovation behaviour: a cross-sectional study. journal of nursing management, 23(4), 427–439. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12149 west, m.a., & farr, j.l. (1989). innovation at work: psychological perspectives. social behaviour, 4(1), 15–30. retreived from https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1989-31447-001 wilkinson, k., tomlinson, j., & gardiner, j. (2018). the perceived fairness of work–life balance policies: a uk case study of solo-living managers and professionals without children. human resource management journal, 28(2), 325–339. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12181 wu, t.j., & wu, y.j. (2019). innovative work behaviors, employee engagement, and surface acting: a delineation of supervisor-employee emotional contagion effects. management decision, 57(11), 3200–3216. https://doi.org/10.1108/md-02-2018-0196 yuan, f., & woodman, r.w. (2017). innovative behavior in the workplace: the role of performance and image outcome expectations. academy of management journal, 53(2), 323–342. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.ghu49388995 zhang, y., & yang, f.k. (2020). how and when spiritual leadership enhances employee innovative behavior. personnel review, 50(2), 596–609. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-07-2019-0346 zhou, s., & yang, s.-c. (2020). relationship between spiritual leadership and innovative behavior in chinese drone companies: the mediating effect of employee engagement. in proceedings of rsu international research conference (pp. 1775–1782). retreived from https://rsucon.rsu.ac.th/proceedings abstract introduction research design and approach dialogues and discussion contribution acknowledgements references footnote about the author(s) lisa c. kinnear school of management, information technology and governance, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa shaun ruggunan school of management, information technology and governance, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa citation kinnear, l.c., & ruggunan, s. (2019). applying duoethnography to position researcher identity in management research. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1056. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1056 original research applying duoethnography to position researcher identity in management research lisa c. kinnear, shaun ruggunan received: 19 mar. 2018; accepted: 07 feb. 2019; published: 10 july 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: south african management studies do not have a strong tradition of qualitative, critical and reflexive research. we explore how this may occur through a reflection on researcher identity. research purpose: to critically reflect on the focussed dialogue and reflection between the authors and to demonstrate how duoethnography can challenge management scholars to become more reflective of their scholarship. motivation for the study: to show how duoethnography can be applied in management studies scholarship as a methodological approach. research approach/design and method: a duoethnographic approach is used. this is a collaborative form of autoethnography between two researchers. the researchers themselves become the participants of the study. the dialogue between the researchers is reflective of shared, sometimes conflictual experiences on a focussed topic or research question. we reflect on the ways our dialogues influence lisa’s reflection of her own identity when conducting qualitative doctoral research with a feminist lens. her identity is also influenced through some of the narrative texts of the women she interviewed during her fieldwork. main findings: the account concludes that duoethnography challenges the positivist position that researcher identity is objective from the participants we research. we show that gender, race and epistemic assumptions are not simply quantitative variables. practical/managerial implications: the practical implication of the study is to encourage management scholars to engage in duoethnographic collaborations as a means to facilitate critical reflection on current and past work. contribution/value-add: the study provides an original duoethnographic account that is an uncommon reflective practice in a management research context. keywords: autoethnography; critical management studies; critical reflexivity; duoethnography; feminist epistemology; feminist management scholarship; intersectionality; qualitative research; researcher positioning; whiteness. introduction in this article, the authors seek to show how duoethnography, as a form of reflective conversation and collaboration between researchers about the social phenomena they research, can generate new insights for management scholars. these new meanings can be about researcher identity as well as the empirical work in which they engage. norris and sawyer (2012) show how co-reflectivity through dialogical methods such as duoethnography can influence research identity and change their perceptions of the research they engage in. this form of inquiry means that researchers (in this case, lisa and shaun) become the participants in the study. we use our personal narratives about our researcher identity as a lens to reflect on larger themes in management scholarship (lisa’s [postdoctoral candidate, white female] work on women as leaders and shaun [associate professor, indian male] work on critical management studies [cms]). this form of critical conversation causes us to reflect on the limits of our own academic training in management studies. shaun stated: ‘despite branding myself as a progressive management studies scholar, i have nevertheless been blind to the way my identity as a man has shaped my empirical work. yes, i have written about gender, but after discussing and being challenged by lisa, i have not done this in an emancipatory, or even a feminist way.’ lisa said: ‘shaun also asked how race intersected with gender. i had to think deeply on what it means to be a white female researcher using a feminist lens. critical management studies (cms) for example pays considerable attention to racial identity and intersectionality. but based on our dialectical exchange, have i unwittingly erased race from my feminist lens?’ breault (2016) demonstrates how traditional academic training in methodology can devalue the critical conversation and co-reflection of researchers by dismissing it as unscientific. it is by recognising the limitations in our own training that we are able to cross boundaries of what is methodologically possible beyond the traditional scientific method that is the mainstay of management studies (alvesson & ashcraft, 2009; beltramini, 2018). management scholarship globally has developed niche areas of expertise in narrative forms of inquiry. dedicated journals on ethnography and qualitative methods in management studies show that there is a small but vibrant community of scholars that engage in this approach (doloriert & sambrook, 2012). the postmodern influence of critical theory on management studies also shows a preference of critical management scholars to use narrative forms of inquiry (alvesson, bridgman, & willmott, 2011). however, duoethnography as a specific approach is less popular than organisational ethnography and autoethnography (alvesson et al., 2011). the approach seems to be especially favoured by management scholars engaging in interdisciplinary work or collaborating with scholars in disciplines outside of management studies (doloriert & sambrook, 2012; norris & sawyer, 2016). nationally, the method is one favoured by those in the education and psychology fields (van schalkwyk & mcmillan, 2016). although work by meier and geldenhuys (2017) shows that industrial psychologists also value this approach. qualitative approaches such as o’neil and koekemoer (2016) are underutilised in south african management studies. the low use of qualitative studies in management scholarship in south africa favours traditional qualitative approaches as opposed to narrative forms as is suggested by their work. this work expands the range of options available to qualitative researchers in the field. this article is presented in layers. these layers are akin to a rainbow cake. each layer makes a contribution to forming a unified whole. we begin with an overview of the research design and research approach. thereafter, we navigate through the dialogues and discussion that emerged through our critical reflection. finally, we conclude with how we think our work can contribute to doing duoethnography in management studies. the article is guided by the following research question: ‘how does duoethnography enable or facilitate critical reflection and insight into the identity of management scholars?’ research design and approach overview of duoethnography duoethnography provides a creative postmodern approach to qualitative research. it is a form of collaborative autoethnography (ellis, adams, & bochner, 2011). duoethnography is rooted in the philosophical and theoretical foundations of autoethnography (fitzpatrick & farquhar, 2018; norris, 2008). autoethnography is a deeply personalised account of the researcher’s experience to ‘extend understanding about societal phenomena’ (anderson, 2006; wall, 2006, p. 1). it is a way of accessing personal experience to extend the sociological imagination about social issues in the researcher’s discipline (smith, 2005). autoethnography relies on the narrative of the self and is a well-regarded form of qualitative inquiry in social science disciplines such as education and psychology. duoethnography, while borrowing from the same interpretivist and postmodern philosophical underpinnings as autoethnography, is less well established. the method was first proposed by sawyer and norris (2005). they sought to shift from the meta self-narrative of autoethnography to a method where our stories could be explored in dialogue or what they term ‘dialogic tension’ (sawyer & norris, 2015). in 2015, sawyer and norris confirmed that despite its youthfulness and novelty, duoethnography has enjoyed a decade of empirical and theoretical growth as a methodological approach. the duoethnographic approach is a form of self-narrative that is critically reflective and dialogic between the participants. it is therefore an approach situated within the larger qualitative category of inquiry-based research that ‘poses questions and challenges dominant discourses’ during its exploration of the lived experiences of its participants (fitzpatrick & farquhar, 2018, p. 238). despite it being an emerging form of narrative inquiry, duoethnography is becoming entrenched within the literature as a valued way of engaging in critical reflexivity between two or more participants. duoethnography finds its roots at the nexus between various forms of narrative approaches (narrative inquiry, narrative identity, currere) and critical theory (hooks, 1994). trustworthy duoethnography norris and sawyer (2012) and more recently breault (2016) have been made to delineate more clearly the criteria for what makes a ‘good’ and trustworthy duoethnography. breault (2016) provides a list of 23 criteria to consider when evaluating duoethnography. the quality and trustworthiness of the duoethnography is revealed through the transparency of the writing, not any claims to objectivity and truth. we have tried within the limits of an article to show as transparently as possible our shared vulnerabilities. we do not offer conclusive objective findings, but rather suggestions for further scholarly exploration. there is an acknowledgement that there is no single way of doing duoethnography provided core criteria are met (norris & sawyer, 2012). these include: polyvocal and dialogic: there must be a focussed dialogic exploration between participants. the focus is important because it is easy for participants to engage in unfocussed ‘chats’ like two friends at a coffee shop. we focussed our dialogue on a central reflective question: how does racial, gendered and epistemic identity shape the research experience? comparing the life experiences of two or more participants (in our case the authors of this article) to reveal points of complexity in their identity, also known as currere (life curriculum). the comparison must reveal points of difference and similarity in how participants’ social and cultural milieus influence their identities. we focussed our juxtaposition on our gendered, cultural, experiential, epistemological, racial, organisational and work identities. this involved what van schalkwyk and mcmillian (2016, p. 212) refer to as an ‘interrogation of each other’s position while foregrounding one’s own’. disruption of meta-narratives: the dialogic component of duoethnography is to assist in disrupting the mainstream or meta-narratives that can emerge in writing alone. duoethnography must show its intersections with critical theory. it must as breault (2016, p. 10) argues, ‘disturb the waters’. as scholars, we found ourselves in the thick of profound and complex change at the university of kwazulu-natal (ukzn) and higher education in south africa generally. yet, management scholars and scholarship in south africa did not seem to be engaging substantively in what it may mean to disrupt the mainstream narrative of management studies (goldman, 2016; nkomo, 2018). what would such an engagement mean for scholarly identity? our dialogic experience then is a reflection on how mainstream management studies could intersect with critical theory. participants and the study site given that duoethnography makes the researchers the study participants and ‘study site’, some insight into the researcher identities is needed. shaun has been working as an academician in management studies since 2011. currently, he is an associate professor of human resources management (hrm) at ukzn. prior to 2011, he worked as an academician in the programme for industrial, organisational and labour studies (iols). industrial, organisational and labour study is a sociology and labour studies discipline. he struggled with the disciplinary shift from a sociologically and qualitatively rooted discipline (iols) to hrm. human resources management is rooted in psychology and has a quantitative bias in its methodological approach (bratton & gold, 2015). the struggle consisted of grappling with the epistemic differences both methodologically and disciplinarily. for example, iols at ukzn produced almost exclusively qualitative work that focussed on worker empowerment and was critical of managerial control. human resources management, on the other hand, at ukzn was quantitatively based and focussed on how to make managerial control more effective. the tensions informed the struggle. the tension forced a critical reflection on what the intellectual purpose and project is of management studies in a developing state context. shaun also identifies primarily as a qualitative researcher. his identity as a male scholar and person of colour (indian south african) is important in the context of this duoethnography. lisa was a postdoctoral candidate supervised by shaun from 2015 to 2017. she is an experienced leadership coach and runs her own leadership consultancy. she has an academic background in the humanities, a master’s degree in hrm from wits business school and completed her phd in hrm at ukzn. lisa identifies as a feminist and qualitative researcher in hrm. subsequent to her postdoctoral candidature, she continues with her consultancy work. lisa is classified as an english-speaking south african white female. racial and gendered identities were important points of engagement for both researchers. data collection two forms of duoethnography are common in the literature. first is a ‘storytelling’ approach where the narratives of the authors are given and discussed in tension with each other. there is no separate results and discussion section in writing up the narrative. rigour occurs through the various iterations of the dual narratives. the second type is the review of memorabilia such as scrapbooks and photo albums that act as memory prompts for the researchers (norris, 2008, p. 236). it is the former approach that we have adopted here. our duoethnography developed organically as we worked on other projects from 2015 to 2017. our main purpose during this period was to develop hrm papers for publication. however, our professional conversations became increasingly centred around researcher and discipline identity in the context of the rapidly changing south african higher education context. we bracketed these conversations and notes because they were not central to our purpose of producing empirical papers for publication. at the end of 2017, we realised that we had curated a number of dialogical experiences, which had become focussed on the identity of the management studies scholar and purpose of the discipline. guided by the work of norris and sawyer (2012), we decided to formalise our duoethnographic study. this meant verifying our recollections, disagreements and notes that were taken at meetings. we share our experience of this process by reflecting on a key reflective question: how does racial, gendered and epistemic identity shape the research experience? as long as the data related to the reflective questions, we engaged with it and curated it. the data or our ‘narratives’ consisted of notes, email threads and self-reflective narratives that we had produced over a 2-year period. the collection was fluid as is often the case in qualitative research (norris & sawyer, 2012). further, the way in which data are collected and recorded is not prescriptive (norris & sawyer, 2012, p. 139). data analysis data analysis is not necessarily a separate process from data collection in qualitative research (chang, 2007). however, it is found that having some sequential structure assisted in organising the themes of the study. firstly, we curated all our texts (emails and notes) that we felt fell within the focus of the reflective question. we then independently generated our own self-reflections in written form based on this curated material as well as our experience as researchers over the 2-year time period (2015–2017). thirdly, we then exchanged our narratives, and met four times in 2018 to discuss the narratives. a key purpose of these meetings was to organise the narratives thematically. the themes were then labelled as dialogue 1, dialogue 2 and dialogue 3. limitations of duoethnography methodologically, the value of our duoethnographic approach avoids the potential self-indulgence of autoethnography (the fetishisation of self). this means that the researcher can be so subjective in their account that there is no room for an account or validity beyond the self. in its extreme form, only the self has access to certain ‘truths’ about the social world (schultz, 2016). similarly, duoethnography avoids the potential exploitation of ethnographic approaches (schultz, 2016). ethnographic approaches sometimes situate the researcher as an expert who accesses the worlds of non-experts. in such cases, the position and identity of the expert may lead to condescending views or interpretations of behaviours by non-expert participants. the colonial roots of ethnography in anthropology, for example, still manifest themselves along the only valid truth being that of the expert entering the field (schultz, 2016). this is not to say that duoethnography itself cannot fall prey to the pitfalls of self-centeredness or power differentials of participants, but that the focussed dialogue provides a form of a ‘check and balance’ (guyotte & sochacka, 2016). framing our duoethnographic dialogue both participants in this study wanted to engage in reflections of their roles as knowledge producers. critical theory that encourages reflection and destabilises what we think we know was an appropriate approach to root our reflections. critical theory has its roots in the sociology and philosophy of the 1930s. attributed to the frankfurt school, it is associated with the work of horkeheimer (1947), marx (1850–1867), freud (1905–1940) and gramsci (1916) among other social scientists who wanted to provide a critique that was taken for granted by social and cultural assumptions of the world. critical theory has informed a range of social science disciplines from psychology to sociology and management studies (alvesson et al., 2011). at its core are two assumptions (alvesson et al., 2011): the researcher has to be critically reflective of her or his own role in knowledge production. the purpose of scholarship is to denaturalise assumptions taken for granted and reified by positivist assumptions of the social world. when applied to management studies, a third premise of a critical approach is: questioning the performativity assumption at the core of management studies. in other words, questioning the idea that increasing performativity (production, outputs and profits) should be the main purpose of management studies (fleming & banerjee, 2015). collectively, these three criteria are the core assumptions of a cms approach. we were particularly attuned to focusing on the first two assumptions that encouraged critical reflexivity for the purposes of this article. shaun had some experience with cms professional associations and had published exploratory work on cms. lisa, with her doctoral work on feminism and leadership, did not immediately see her work on feminism as part of the cms oeuvre. these two positions of the participants produced a productive tension for the dialogue required for duoethnography. ethical considerations all principles of informed consent were followed. apart from the identities of the authors, all principles of anonymity and confidentiality were abided by to protect participant identities. dialogues and discussion the themes organised will be presented according to the dialogues we had. dialogue 1: vulnerability through critical reflection for shaun, the connections between feminist management scholarship and cms were more visible. however, he did feel out of his depth with current scholarship on feminism and had to read and discuss more about feminist approaches to management with lisa. shaun recollects: ‘it was interesting that lisa was reading my work on cms and i was reading her work on feminist management scholarship (fms). i was so excited because my own thinking and writing on cms did not acknowledge in any serious way the role of feminism as emancipatory to management scholarship. perhaps my own positionality as male and implicitly viewing male as universal created this blind spot? i considered myself a feminist, but upon reflection, i found my own empirical work did not engage with gender in a serious or reflective way. instead, i tended to privilege race as identity rather than gender in my work. this made me feel vulnerable as i reflected on what this means for me as a management scholar that actually thinks he is progressive.’ for lisa: ‘while i resonated with the cms literature and acquired more insight into shaun’s views by reading his writing on it in a south african context, it made me feel quite vulnerable about the firstly tentative and then seemingly naïve positioning of my work as a feminist. i felt that there was so much more i needed to consider in challenging the management studies agenda. i also felt i still had to clarify my position on feminist management scholarship and this was not an easy thing to do. i remember shaun asking me whether we have not possibly moved beyond a feminist agenda into a post-feminist space and i wasn’t sure how to respond. shaun’s challenge to me made me reflect on my inability to clearly articulate what a feminist perspective in research is. feminist scholarship itself is so divided that despite having immersed myself in the literature for my phd studies, i still felt quite confused at times. the discussions and debates with shaun forced me to reflect on my own position and assumptions about feminist research.’ shaun and lisa had a robust discussion and some disagreement on the privileging of qualitative work in fms. does this mean that quantitative research cannot be critical or feminist? is all qualitative research critical? we agreed that these questions need to be included in mainstream management scholarship in south africa. one path of achieving this inclusivity is to engage in critical reflexivity. unfortunately, this type of reflection is not present or possible in the majority of quantitative scholarship in management studies (bratton & gold, 2015). positivism situates the researcher as an ‘objective’ from the study and its participants or ‘subjects’. critical reflexivity is one of the three tenets of cmss (alvesson et al., 2011) that we argue provide one possible pathway to reimagine the intellectual project of management studies. asking these questions of each other and ourselves often made both of us feel very vulnerable in our expert roles as academicians and practitioners, but was necessary as a means of making us reflect on our own and each other’s professional identities. dialogue 2: qualitative researcher identity lisa and shaun reflected broadly on the marginalisation of qualitative research in management studies. empirical work supported our suspicion of marginalisation. for example, o’neil and koekemoer’s (2016) work found a lack of development of qualitative research methods in south african organisational or industrial psychology and hrm. indeed, they argue that qualitative research is often ‘undervalued and misunderstood’ in these disciplines. in a study conducted at ukzn into the bibliometric features and trends in the south african human resource journals between 2005 and 2015, ruggunan and sooryamoorthy (2015) found that the knowledge produced remains overwhelmingly positivist and quantitative. the studies were largely replications of previous studies (theory testing) rather than theory building. conceptual, theoretical and new methodological (especially qualitative) interventions were limited. work by pietersen (2018) had similar findings. our dual reflection guides us to believe that positivism in and of itself is not the challenge. positivist work can be deeply critical. at the same time, just because work is qualitative does not automatically make it critical work or reflective work. rather at issue is the normative position it has assumed in management research in south african institutions, which not only influences how research is being conducted, but also the nature of the questions being asked (dunbar & rottner, 2014). for example, philosophical and epistemological justifications are rarely asked of quantitative studies but are demanded of qualitative projects. lisa’s experience of this as part of the process of getting her doctoral proposal presentation accepted by the doctoral committee demonstrates the claim that qualitative methods are often undervalued, misunderstood or regarded as less rigorous and scientific than quantitative methods (o’neil & koekemoer, 2016). shaun also recollects his own challenges as a supervisor of qualitative projects, when research committees apply quantitative criteria to assess qualitative proposals. while qualitative research is limited in mainstream management studies in south africa (goldman, 2016), cms favours this methodological approach because of its promotion of reflexive inquiry. hibbert and cunliffe (2015) draw a distinction between critical reflexivity and self-reflexivity where being self-reflexive questions one’s own way of being, relating and acting and where being critically reflexive involves questioning assumptions of underlying social and organisational practices. they argue that these two processes go hand in hand, but that both compel the researcher to reveal her or his position and philosophies as integral to the research findings. shaun and lisa had much engagement on why this reflection or positionality is always expected of qualitative researchers and not quantitative researchers. shaun and lisa then articulated their own positionality and the potential blind spots, in which they may reveal more about themselves and their work. shaun recollects: ‘my assumption that being a cms scholar made me automatically a feminist scholar may not actually be true. without this engagement from lisa, i most likely would not have become aware of this invisibility in my work.’ lisa reflects: ‘shaun really pushed me about what a feminist lens is. i think explaining it to a non feminist researcher and a male forced me to reflect more carefully on this. the feminist lens which i applied to my phd research was a position i had to make explicit. this was challenging at times, as it meant attaching a fixed label to the research and my researcher identity which did not seem to accommodate the notion that identity work involves the dynamic between internal processes and external prescriptions within changing contexts. in reflecting on this challenge, i have been able to deepen my understanding of feminist epistemologies and the approach i adopted for my research.’ dialogue 3: identity, reflexivity and reinterpreting fieldwork shaun and lisa decided that one way to show critical reflection in action would be to engage in a reframing of lisa’s doctoral work through critical reflexivity. shaun and lisa both read the work and identified points of intersection and tension that exist between cms, fms and researcher identity. what follows is lisa’s iterative account of her reflection as a qualitative and feminist researcher. the narrative is an outcome of their collaborative encounter. based on shaun and lisa’s dialogues, lisa’s narrative reflects on the ways in which her feminist approach is simultaneously reflective of both feminist and cms principles. shaun encouraged me to revisit my work to examine how it resonates with a cms approach. at year 2 into our dialogue, we felt comfortable enough to disagree or ‘push’ each other on points that we felt would further the significance of our work. we agreed that i would reflect deeper on my racial identity. we accept that race is a social construct but acknowledge that it has very material consequences especially in the south african context. shaun felt that this reflection on the material influence of race did not emerge strongly enough in my original work. shaun was quite transparent in expressing his own vulnerabilities about the material ways in which his ‘maleness’ made him less aware of feminist issues. i was initially very uncomfortable with the suggestion that my ‘whiteness’ needs to be reflected on more deeply as part of my researcher identity. part of our dialogue when we met after receiving reviewer comments was around sharing these vulnerabilities. how do we share our vulnerabilities with a wider audience? how do we do this difficult task of reflecting the transformation of both our researcher identities? we then realised that the original framing of this work as an autoethnography was perhaps not accurate; that the exploration of identity and reflection was the outcome of a collaboration, namely a duoethnography. with so much of the culture of academic scholarship being insular and often done with students, as professional researchers, we are not accustomed to dialogical learning and conversation with each other. hence, when professional researchers do converse, it usually centres on the empirical findings rather than a questioning of what their identities bring or do not bring to the research. certainly, in south african management studies, reflecting on research identity seems to be an anathema. as a woman working as an organisational development practitioner in the south african corporate world and a researcher in management studies at ukzn, my phd research was motivated by my own tussles with power and privilege in dealing with the corporate hierarchies of patriarchal institutions. the aim of my phd study was to deconstruct women leaders’ models of power which have been constructed within a patriarchal social context and to identify emerging models that may be less accessible or easily articulated. as a white woman, my experiences of power and white privilege growing up under apartheid influenced the way in which i related both to those i was interviewing and the way in which i was reading their texts. using critical reflection through the research process was key to understanding that as a researcher, i am not an independent entity in the research (ponterotto, 2013). any form of qualitative research requires researchers to be aware of how their race, class, gender and status inform their research agenda and theoretical frameworks. initially, i hesitated to position my phd study as feminist perse, but in engaging with the literature and the methodology during my phd journey, it became clearer to me that this was, in fact, a feminist study because the focus was on women and power which is at the heart of feminist debates (kinnear & ortlepp, 2016). in addition, the aim of my research was to contribute to the transformation of gender relations in south african business organisations by raising consciousness of the impact of patriarchal relationships on how women lead. i believe i was conflicted over my own feminist identity, given that the study was being conducted within a management context where the notion of feminism is often misunderstood and alienating for my female and male colleagues. in addition, the notion of feminism in the south african context is further complicated by my privilege as a white south african. my experience of what appeared to be labelled as ‘feminist’ behaviour within a corporate context i found unnatural and often complicit with patriarchal practices of dominance. to have a feminist lens in a management research study considered valid by ukzn was achieved through collaboration with academicians from social science and psychology backgrounds who understood both the purpose of the study and the methodologies supporting it. this was necessary because expertise in cms and feminist epistemology were not available in the school of management at ukzn at the time. the rewarding consequence of this process was the collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of the research which provided opportunity for greater reflexivity of the researcher and consequently the discipline itself. it also provided the opportunity to explore women’s emerging models of power and reinvent theory outside the constraints of conventional management theories. the focus of my research on the identity constructions of south african women business leaders around power and their leadership role highlighted some of the tensions that exist, both conscious and less conscious, in attempting to operate with authenticity in a patriarchal world. according to letherby (2003), a focus on the relationship between the self and the other through autobiographical narration encourages reflection on power relationships. the link between language, power, identity and feminism was a significant consideration in choosing the method of discourse analysis of narratives in my phd research (kinnear & ortlepp, 2016). the autobiographic narratives of women were considered a valid vehicle for understanding how women construct their reality and their power within it. feminist researchers such as hooks (2010) argue that autobiography is a particularly apt way of telling and claiming ownership of one’s life and identity as it enables the author to tell their version of events through uninterrupted means. i noted the issues of intersectionality of race, gender and class as a limitation in my research, recognising that a researcher with a different background to my own would access a different sample group and provide new insights to the types of questions i was asking. while i highlighted the complexity of these intersectionalities in my phd thesis, it has been through my subsequent reflections and in the sharing of my research that i have been prompted to review the issue of intersectionality more deeply and critically. in her reflections on being a feminist academician in south africa, gouws (2012) highlights the fact that the intersectionalities of identities, such as race, class and gender, are more pronounced in south africa than in most other societies. in recounting her experience of feminist teaching at an afrikaans language medium south african university, gouws (2012) raises the issue that theories developed need to include both race and gender components to validate their experiences, something that often pits white students against black because their lived experiences are so different. despite our varied backgrounds, the fact that all of the interviewees were in senior positions of leadership in large corporations meant that we shared an aspect of privilege as leaders in our respective fields. nevertheless, an uncomfortable dynamic developed between myself and one of the white interviewees. i felt that she wanted to collude with me when discussing issues of racial power dynamics and protection of privilege. this was evident in her confessional anguish in managing perceptions of racism to prevent limitations to her career advancement, rather than reflection on and development of self-awareness around privilege and race. this is her response to the open-ended question of how she views power in her leadership role: ‘i was wondering if this would come up. when i was there, a senior manager accused me and another manager of a whole lot of things … one of them being a racist. lisa, i had about a year to go to partner and i just saw my career go up in flames before me … it was very traumatic and i honestly thought that my days at the company were numbered … and in my mind i still think i know what triggered it and what it’s taught me is that perceptions are incredibly powerful … it might be wrong, but if people perceive you as something, they can destroy you.’ (sarah*1, financial director, female) the concept of white privilege is a strong theme in the political discourse of post-apartheid south africa today which requires greater scrutiny beyond the contested colloquial rhetoric. several authors agree that the valuation of white skin colour continues to grant invisible, unfair privileges to white people which is not consciously acknowledged and which continues to perpetuate social inequalities of our apartheid legacy (le roux, 2014; milazzo, 2015; swartz, arogundade, & davis, 2014). as gatekeepers of privilege, the white minority in south africa still controls the advancement of women and black women in corporate institutions (carrim & nkomo, 2016). the fact that black women are more significantly represented in the public sector is evidence of the white monopoly in business, despite broad-based black economic empowerment (bbbee) legislation (mall, 2015). this has led to the questioning of whether white women should remain beneficiaries of affirmative action policies because of their relative advantage, even though they still suffer from gender discrimination in the workplace (kinnear & ortlepp, 2016). by taking me into her confidence as a white woman needing to manage perceptions of racism to ensure her career advancement, i felt vulnerable. was i similarly inauthentic in my response to race? shaun’s challenge to me to reflect more deeply on my ‘whiteness’ made me realise that despite the fact that i feel reflective around white privilege, i too suffer from not wanting to be perceived in a certain way. this makes me feel self-conscious in my discussions on race and was probably the reason why i failed to engage more deeply with the intersecting effects of race and gender in my phd thesis. despite this, i was acutely aware that all of the black women i interviewed raised the challenge of dealing with racial and gender stereotypes in their narratives, as in the following example: ‘i have always known that in business i have two stripes against me…one female, and two, i am black. while i cannot ignore that, many people would like to wish it away, but it is a reality you know … but i always say the biggest reality is to sink into your head, to look at yourself, not as a woman, not as a black, then other people won’t see you as that … they will see you as an equal counterpart.’ (siwe*, corporate service director, female) in this extract, siwe narrates her power as the deconstruction of internal victimisation and the construction of an external legitimate claim to power (harvey, 2010). this deconstruction is both conscious and tactical and while it appears to challenge the categorisation of intersectionality, it is based on recognising these social stereotypes and actively performing to counter these in a professional setting. later, in her interview, she narrates her reflections on feeling disempowered within the private space of marriage which challenges the ability to sustain this performance of equality and rejection of gender categorisation. ‘in african culture you have to be, women have to be seen and not heard … so often in the first few months my mother in law used to tell me to ‘keep quiet’ you know … let my husband feel he is in control, he has made the decision. i must be honest it disoriented my whole thinking, i just felt so disempowered.’ (siwe*, corporate service director, female) the disempowerment and disorientation that siwe describes constructs the struggle for congruence between her personal and professional identity. it also raises the contextual nature of power and authority (fleming & spicer, 2014). it supports the view that identity construction is continuously changing across contexts and structures (carrim & nkomo, 2016). for this reason, i wanted the interview process of my research to allow the women to construct their own multiple and emerging identities through their autobiographical narration. what emerged as a common construction of power among all of the women i interviewed was continuous striving for ‘congruence’ in their multiple identities (kinnear & ortlepp, 2016). this congruence is something i myself am striving for in my research identity and positioning, recognising that qualitative research is far more complex than it appears given the shifts in our ‘selves’ within multiple contexts. this prompted my critical reflexivity on two experiences i had while presenting the findings of my phd research at two ukzn conferences. the first was a women in leadership event hosted by ukzn for university administrative support staff for women’s day. my presentation was preceded by a woman guest speaker who addressed the group on accurately determining their bra size while promoting her business selling women’s underwear. i felt outraged that within a university setting which should be more mindful of issues around gender construction, women were being traditionally reduced to sexual objects. but equally, i felt disempowered and silenced as i continued to uphold my professional identity and delivered my presentation without raising any concerns. i wondered whether a similar event would have been arranged for women academicians and how it would have been received. this also made me reflect on the notion of how feminist issues themselves become privileged in terms of rank and status in society. the second occasion was a college research day in which i was included in a group of all male researchers whose initial response to my research on women and power in the corporate world was to question me on women’s constraints as the bearers of children and the domestic arrangements between women and men. this experience had the alienating effect of demeaning the significance of my research and women in leadership roles in the corporate world in general. i felt attacked and belittled by members of the male audience who chose to focus on my gender identity in relation to domestic stereotypes. bell and king’s (2010) paper on management studies conferences as a site of body pedagogics acknowledges the role of conferences as a means of socialisation into academic cultures and a rite of passage for formulating an academic identity. ford and harding (2010) argue that conferences typically perpetuate gender imbalances between male and female professionals because the cultural norms often marginalise women out of the public space into the domestic sphere and subject them to a process of infantilisation. these two experiences left me feeling totally disillusioned with the university context as a space for exploring feminist issues. in my debriefing meeting with shaun after this event, he encouraged me to incorporate these experiences in my postdoctoral reflections. my experiences in these forums have highlighted the poorly understood concept and complexity of feminist research and the issues being raised in a management context. it supports the need for research into gender dynamics that seeks to understand rather than predict, ensuring that researchers are not speaking for ‘others’ through a positivist predictive set of metrics based on constructions of what is ‘true’ (davis, 2008). despite feeling the effects of this, my vulnerability at the second conference was also because of the fact that i was speaking to a predominantly african male audience. embracing the label ‘feminist’ within the south african context has the potential of alienating african men because of their solidarity with women in the struggle against apartheid and because of perceptions of feminism as a western import (gouws, 2012; miller, 2016). some scholars have argued that postmodern theories, such as feminism, have done little to shift material realities in africa (nkomo, 2011) and believe that white women academicians can undermine african grassroots women’s organisations (prinsloo, 2016). miller (2016) in her chapter on the political positionalities of what she terms the ‘new african woman’ and the older feminist acknowledges that south african feminists struggle with their identity as ‘women’, alternately resisting and accepting socially prescribed roles that inhibit self-expression. however, she highlights the common experiences of women in a society which resists the integration of women in public spaces, in large and small ways, no matter what their position of power is within that space. the response of the conference audience to my positionality as a researcher resulted in my questioning how positioning and intersectionality can be raised in a public space in a way that promotes transparent and constructive dialogue around issues of race and gender, rather than prejudiced interactions. while intersectionality was first termed to understand multiple marginalisation (crenshaw, 1991), the question of focusing on identity categories has come under criticism within the cms literature as a potential way of perpetuating further division and segregation (lykke et al., 2014; ruel, mills, & thomas, 2015). yet, within the highly racialised context of south africa’s past and present, contextual studies need to take race into account (carrim & nkomo, 2016; ruggunan, 2016; zanoni, janssens, benschop, & nkomo, 2010). the question remains as to how issues of race and culture are brought to the fore in a way that eliminates boundaries of categorisation, while acknowledging south africa’s racialised context. rethinking intersectionality also calls for reassessing the academic spaces where research can be shared in ways that are more conducive to the exchange of ideas and where the fluidity of identity can be experienced as a given, rather than being inflexibly rooted in perceived notions of expertise, fixed ideologies, or patriarchal constructions of gender. contribution we see our contribution adding value in four particular ways: the blurring of the researcher or participant boundary means that we consider our participants as co-constructers of knowledge. they have cultural capital that is of equal value as the knowledge of the researchers. their cultural capital often provides us as researchers with new insights into empirical cases. lisa’s critical reflection highlighted her awareness of the complex effects of intersectionality for leaders constructing their identity within traditional management settings. it made her aware of the vulnerability and tensions women leaders experience in establishing their authentic identities in settings which are often hostile and inhibiting. reflecting on the effects of the duoethnographic methodology on her own researcher identity raised the need for safer spaces to be created in organisations for women and men leaders to share their vulnerabilities and experiences in constructing their leader identities. it reframes the idea of collaboration between researchers themselves. collaboration in management studies is generally understood as co-authoring peer-reviewed articles. author order becomes the shorthand for the nature of the collaboration (schultz, 2016). the work tends to be collaborative for instrumental reasons such as achieving publication outputs, sharing of resources and achievement of career goals such as promotion. as schultz (2016, p. 515) argues, mainstream forms of collaboration assume predetermined research questions, methods and methodology, even before you meet or approach collaborators. there is no room for what may be seen as ‘messiness’. by ‘messiness’, we mean the moments of reflection, disagreement, vulnerability and failure we encounter among ourselves when we collaborate as researchers. duoethnographic approaches offer a way to organise and publish this ‘messiness’ through focussed conversation between researchers. the ‘lived relationship’ between the researchers becomes the collaboration (schultz, 2016, p. 515; snipes & lepeau, 2017). it is valuable to curate this lived relationship because it provides insights into how researcher identity influences knowledge production in a particular discipline. researchers who have engaged in critical reflection on race and gender, for example, will be more attuned to these identities in their participants (treating these identities as more than variables to be correlated). they will also be more conscious of how their own identities may influence the way they frame research questions and processes. as snipes and lepaeu (2017, p. 580) show, such reflexivity can encourage social justice advocacy (as also encouraged by a cms approach) because it promotes the ‘critical inclusion of multivoiced perspectives’. without this multivoiced perspective, management studies run the risk of establishing male, capitalist, heterosexual, white, anglo-saxon, positivist and western perspectives as universal. duoethnography provides a way to engage with transformative learning for both experienced and less experienced scholars. as a focussed form of dialogical inquiry, it can democratise learning partnerships beyond the mentor–mentee relationship. this takes place by acknowledging equally the cultural and social capital that both the experienced scholar and less experienced scholar bring to the partnership. ultimately, these contributions can serve as a means of enriching and expanding the scope of the discipline. implications for practice: as with any research design, duoethnography has its limitations. by its nature, duoethnography is a deeply subjective approach. as a form of intersecting autoethnographies, it becomes difficult to apply traditional forms of rigour to assess the ‘validity’ of the account. it has been described as a process of ‘wandering in the woods without a compass’ (breault, 2016, p. 2). yet, the rapidly emerging scholarship using the approach is resulting in criteria development for good versus bad approaches to duoethnography (2016). we thus suggest that as more scholars use the approach in a south african context, limitations and strategies to mitigate these can be developed over time. as more south african scholars engage with the approach, a set of ‘validity’ criteria in local settings may emerge. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions l.k. conducted the phd study on which the autoethnographic reflection is based. the article is her autoethnographic account and reflection on the positioning of researcher identity and purpose in management research. s.r. shaped the introduction and theoretical frameworks that guided the research and located it within the broader context. s.r. advised on the methodology and findings and reviewed and edited these sections of the article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not reflect the views of their institutions, employers or funders. references alvesson, m., & ashcraft, k. l. (2009). critical methodology in management and organization research. in a. bryman & d. buchanan (ed.), the sage handbook of organizational research methods (pp. 61–77). london: sage. alvesson, m., bridgman, t., & willmott, h. (2011). handbook of critical management studies. oxford: oxford university press. anderson, l. (2006). analytic autoethnography. journal of contemporary ethnography, 35(4), 373–395. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241605280449 bell, e., & king, d. (2010). the elephant in the room: critical management studies conferences as a site of body pedagogics. management learning, 41(4), 429–442. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507609348851 beltramini, e. (2018). philosophy of management between scientism and technology. philosophy & technology, 1, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-018-0314-6 bratton, j., & gold, j. (2015). towards critical human resource management education (chrme): a sociological imagination approach. work, employment and society, 29(3), 496–507. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017014545266 breault, r. (2016). emerging issues in duoethnography. international journal of qualitative studies in education, 29(6), 777–794. carrim, n. m. h., & nkomo, s. m. (2016). wedding intersectionality theory and identity work in organisations: south african indian women negotiating managerial identity. gender, work and organization, 23(3), 261–277. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12121 chang, h. (2007). autoethnography: raising cultural consciousness of self and others. in g. walford (ed.), methodological developments in ethnography: studies in educational ethnography, vol. 12, pp. 207–221. boston, ma: elsevier. crenshaw, k. (1991). mapping the margins: intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of colour. stanford law review, 43(6), 1241–1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039 davis, k. (2008). intersectionality as buzzword: a sociology of science perspective on what makes a feminist theory successful. feminist theory, 9(1), 67–85. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464700108086364 doloriert, c., & sambrook, s. (2012). organisational autoethnography. journal of organizational ethnography, 1(1), 83–95. https://doi.org/10.1108/20466741211220688 dunbar, r. l., & rottner, r. (2014). the power of babel: thinking through academic management’s institutionalised conversation. academy of management proceedings, 2014(1), 1583–1588. https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2014.150 ellis, c., adams, t. e., & bochner, a. p. (2011). autoethnography: an overview. forum qualitative sozialforschung/forum: qualitative social research, 12(1), art 10. https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-12.1.1589 fitzpatrick, e., & farquhar, s. (2018). service and leadership in the university: duoethnography as transformation. journal of organizational ethnography, 7(3), 345–360. https://doi.org/10.1108/joe-08-2017-0037 fleming, p., & spicer, a. (2014). power in management and organisation. the academy of management annals, 8(1), 237–298. ford, j., & harding, n. (2010). get back into that kitchen, woman: management conferences and the making of the female professional worker. gender, work & organization, 17(5), 503–520. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2009.00476.x goldman, g. a. (2016). on the possibility of fostering critical management studies in south africa. in g. a. goldman (ed.), critical management studies in the south african context (pp. 3–29). durbanville, cape town: aosis (pty) ltd. gouws, a. (2012). reflections on being a feminist academic/academic feminism in south africa. equality, diversity and inclusion: an international journal, 31(5–6), 526–541. guyotte, k. w., & sochacka, n. w. (2016). is this research? productive tensions in living the (collaborative) autoethnographic process. international journal of qualitative methods, 15(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406916631758 harvey, j. (2010). victims, resistance, and civilised oppression. journal of social philosophy, 41(1), 13–27. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9833.2009.01475.x hibbert, p., & cunliffe, a. (2015). responsible management: engaging moral reflexive practice through threshold concepts. journal of business ethics, 127, 177–188. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1993-7 hooks, b. (1994). outlaw cultures: resisting representations. new york and london: routledge. hooks, b. (2010). teaching critical thinking: practical wisdom. new york: routledge. huzzard, t., & johansson, y. (2014). critical action research. in e. jeanes & t. huzzard (eds.), critical management research: reflections from the field (pp. 81–101). london: sage. kinnear, l., & ortlepp, k. (2016). emerging models of power among south african women business leaders. sa journal of industrial psychology, 42, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v42i1.1359 le roux, a. (2014). ‘we were not part of apartheid’: rationalisations used by four white pre–service teachers to make sense of race and their own racial identities. south african journal of education, 34(2), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.15700/201412071137 letherby, g. (2003). feminist research in theory and practice. buckingham: open university press. lykke, n., brewster, a., davis, k., koobak, r., lie, s., & petö, a. (2014). editorial introduction. in n. lykke (ed.), writing academic texts differently: intersectional feminist methodologies and the playful art of writing (pp. 1–13). new york, ny: routledge. mall, f. (2015). preface: the importance of gender inclusivity. in business women’s association of south africa (ed.), business women’s association of south africa, bwasa south african women in leadership census 2015 (pp. 6–9). parktown, johannesburg: business women’s association of south africa. meier, c., & geldenhuys, d. j. (2017). co-constructing appreciative inquiry across disciplines: a duo-ethnography. sa journal of industrial psychology, 43(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v43i0.1400 milazzo, m. (2015). the rhetorics of racial power: enforcing colour blindness in post–apartheid scholarship on race. journal of international and intercultural communication, 8(1), 7–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/17513057.2015.991075 miller, d. (2016). excavating the vernacular: ‘ugly feminists’, generational blues and matriarchal leadership. in s. booysen, (ed.), fees must fall: student revolt, decolonisation and governance in south africa (pp. 270–291). johannesburg: wits university press. morrell, r., jewkes, r., & lindegger, g. (2012). hegemonic masculinity/masculinities in south africa: culture, power, and gender politics. men and masculinities, 15(1), 11–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184x12438001 nkomo, s. (2018). reflections on africapitalism and management education in africa. in k. amaeshi, a. okupe, & u. idemudia (eds.), africapitalism: rethinking the role of business in africa (pp. 261–281). cambridge: cambridge university press. nkomo, s. m. (2011). a postcolonial and anti–colonial reading of ‘african’ leadership and management in organisation studies: tensions, contradictions and possibilities. organization, 18(3), 365–386. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508411398731 norris, j. (2008). duoethnography. the sage encyclopedia of qualitative research methods (vol. 1, pp. 233–236). los angeles, ca: sage. norris, j., & sawyer, r. d. (2012). toward a dialogic methodology. in j. norris, r. d. sawyer, & d. e. lund (eds.), duoethnography: dialogic methods for social, health, and educational research (pp. 9–39). walnut creek, ca: left coast press. norris, j., & sawyer, r. (2016). interdisciplinary reflective practice through duoethnography: examples for educators. new york: springer. o’neil, s., & koekemoer, e. (2016). two decades of qualitative research in psychology, industrial psychology and human resource management within south africa: a critical review. sa journal of industrial psychology, 42(1), 279–287. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v42i1.1350 pietersen, c. (2018). research trends in the south african journal of human resource management. sa journal of human resource management, 16(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.825 ponterotto, j. g. (2013). case study in psychobiographical ethics: bobby fischer, world chess champion. journal of empirical research on human research ethics, 8(4), 19–27. https://doi.org/10.1525/jer.2013.8.4.19 prinsloo, e. h. (2016). the role of the humanities in decolonising the academy. arts and humanities in higher education, 15(1), 164–168. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474022215613608 ruel, s., mills, a. j., & thomas, j. l. (2015). a ‘fiery, fighter, bitchy’ ‘harlem princess’: an archaeo-genealogical enquiry into intersectionality. academy of management annual meeting proceedings, 2015(1), 12898. https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2015.12898abstract ruggunan, s. (2016). decolonising management studies: a love story. in g. a. goldman (ed.), critical management studies in the south african context (pp. 103–137). durbanville, cape town: aosis (pty) ltd. ruggunan, s., & sooryamoorthy, r. (2016). human resource management research in south africa: a bibliometric study of features and trends. journal of contemporary management, 13, 1–34. sawyer, r., & norris, j. (2005). towards the dialogic and critical engagement of duoethnography for transformative curriculum: an interactive discussion of methodology. paper presented at the curriculum and pedagogy conference, 7–12th november, oxford university press, akron, oh. sawyer, r., & norris, j. (2015). duoethnography. international review of qualitative research, 8(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1525/irqr.2015.8.1.1 schultz, c. s. (2017). ‘working the ruins’ of collaborative feminist research. international journal of qualitative studies in education, 30(6), 505–518. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2016.1250175 smith, c. (2005). epistemological intimacy: a move to autoethnography. international journal of qualitative methods, 4(2), 68–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690500400206 snipes, j. t., & lepeau, l. a. (2017). becoming a scholar: a duoethnography of transformative learning spaces. international journal of qualitative studies in education, 30(6), 576–595. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2016.1269972 swartz, s., arogundade, e., & davis, d. (2014). unpacking (white) privilege in a south african university classroom: a neglected element in multicultural educational contexts. journal of moral education, 43(3), 345–361. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057240.2014.922942 van schalkwyk, s., & mcmillan, w. j. (2016). ‘i have a chameleon-like existence’: a duoethnographic account of border crossing by two academic development practitioners. south african journal of higher education, 30(6), 207–223. https://doi.org/10.20853/30-6-735 wall, s. (2006). an autoethnography on learning about autoethnography. international journal of qualitative methods, 5(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690600500205 zanoni, p., janssens, m., benschop, y., & nkomo, s. (2010). guest editorial: unpacking diversity, grasping inequality: rethinking difference through critical perspectives. organization, 17(1), 9–29. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508409350344 footnote 1. asterisk (*) represent pseudonym used for participant. s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 1 pp. 1 9 original research antecedents to entrepreneurial intentions: testing for measurement invariance for cultural values, attitudes and self-efficacy beliefs across ethnic groups abstract building on previous research on antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions, various measures were tested across different ethnic groups in south africa. factorial homogeneity is an important attribute for any scale intended for use in multicultural research, and since tests of equivalency are not routinely applied, this article hypothesised measurement invariance across ethnic groups. theoretical discussions on hofstede’s (2001) value survey module (vsm 94), attitudes towards and beliefs about entrepreneurial intentions, general self-efficacy (gse), and entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ese) preceded the use of statistical analysis. confirmatory factor analysis based on 210 respondents indicated that equivalence for the underlying factors across the different ethnic groups could not be established, and that the three groups demonstrated different underlying structures. in conclusion, stereotypic declarations of an integrated south african culture were not supported by this research in terms of entrepreneurial intentions and their antecedents. keywords: entrepreneurial intentions; self-efficacy; culture; attitudes; measurement variance the central theme of this article is integrated into the broader framework of existing theory and research on culture/ethnicity/ race, self-efficacy and entrepreneurship. the relationship between self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intentions has been extensively documented (e.g. krueger, reilly & carsrud, 2000; krueger & brazeal, 1994), and more recently different cultural dimensions – as defined by hofstede’s (2001) value survey module (vsm 94) have conceptually been linked to personality and belief variables in other studies (triandis & su, 2002). however, the validity of these measures has been called into question (kruger & roodt, 2003). concerns have been expressed as to whether imported instruments would stand up to cross-validation across multi-ethnic groups (nkosi & roodt, 2004; van de vijver & rothmann, 2004). “an instrument administered in different cultural groups shows structural equivalence if it measures the same construct in all these groups” (van de vijver & rothmann, 2004, p. 4). the attainment of equivalent measures is a central issue in crosscultural comparative research, and equivalency has to be first established if comparisons are to be made between individuals belonging to different subgroups (foxcroft & roodt, 2001). as van de vijver and leung (2001) note, tests of equivalency are not routinely applied in cross-cultural research. consequently, the present research examines the factor structures of measures of entrepreneurial intentions, which include: attitudes, beliefs and motives and hofstede’s (2001) vsm 94 instrument to determine whether the same factor structure holds across multiple south african ethnic groups. specifically, the manner in which the general self-efficacy (gse) (chen, gully & eden, 2001) and entrepreneurial selfefficacy (ese) (chen, greene & crick, 1998) constructs express themselves in observable measures in different groups is tested, i.e. the study tests for measurement invariance (mi) across different ethnic/cultural/race groups in south africa. mi can be thought of as operations yielding measures of the same attribute under different conditions (meade & kroustalis, 2006, p. 369), in this case across major south african ethnic groups. although multiple methods of establishing mi exist, confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) has been most commonly used and an adequate model fit is a prerequisite for conducting cfa tests of mi (meade & kroustalis, 2006). mi tests inherently examine the null hypothesis that mi exists between groups, and is expressed as the overall hypothesis for this study in that: measurement invariance exists for the measures of attitudes and utilities, normative beliefs and motives, perceived behavioural control (gse and ese), and cultural dimensions across different south african ethnic groups. with cfa, one derives a factor model a priori (i.e. reasoning deductively to hypothesise the structure beforehand) and then evaluates its goodness of fit to data (bryant & yarnold, 1995). in restricted cfa, the researcher has an explicit hypothesis regarding the number of latent variables and how they relate to the observed variables (de bruin, 2004). for the present study, both exploratory factor analysis efa and cfa were used to determine whether the same factor structures (and theorised sub-scales) hold across multiple samples. the theoretical underpinnings of this model and related measurement specifications are discussed. theoretical underpinnings social cognitive theory (sct) was used as the underlying framework where intention plays a prominent role in the self-regulation of behaviour. intentions, whether expressed in determination to engage in a specific course or to perform, increase the likelihood that sought futures will be realised (bandura, 1986, p. 467). boris urban university of johannesburg department of entrepreneurship south africa jurie j van vuuren rina h owen university of pretoria department of business management south africa correspondence to: boris urban e-mail: borisu@uj.ac.za 1 original research urban, van vuuren & owen vol. 6 no. 1 pp. 1 9sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za measures for determining the antecedents of intentions were based on two behavioural models ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behaviour (tpb) and shapero’s (1982) model of the entrepreneurial event (ee). tpb identifies three attitudinal antecedents of intentions; the first two reflect the perceived desirability of intentions and the third perceived behavioural control reflects perceived feasibility of intentions and is thus related to perceptions of self-efficacy. self-efficacy occupies a pivotal place in the causal structure of social cognitive theory because self-efficacy beliefs affect adaptation and change not only directly, but also indirectly through its impact on other determinants. such beliefs influence whether individuals intend to exploit promising opportunities (bandura, 1997). moreover, culture is depicted as a moderator in the relationship between entrepreneurial intentions and self-efficacy. this suggests that culture acts as a catalyst rather than a causal agent of entrepreneurial intentions (marino, strandholm, steensma & weaver, 2002). together with a growing cohort of researchers (douglas & shepherd, 2002; rauch & frese, 2000; shane, locke & collins, 2003; vecchio, 2003), the focus of this study is on entrepreneurs’ intentions, attitudes, norms and beliefs. starting a business or initiating a new venture is often described as a purposive, intentional career choice with the role of entrepreneurial selfefficacy being emphasised as a key antecedent (chen et al., 1998). entrepreneurial intentions are generally measured as the probability of starting a business in the foreseeable future; the question then becomes: “what determines entrepreneurial intentions?” kolvereid and moen (1997) advise researchers to include measures of attitudes, norms and perceived behavioural control, since these factors have been found to be related to entrepreneurial intentions. the term entrepreneurial intentions has affinity with other frequently used terms with a similar meaning; e.g. entrepreneurial awareness, entrepreneurial potential, aspiring entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial proclivity, entrepreneurial propensity, and entrepreneurial orientation. krueger (1993) defines entrepreneurial intentions as a commitment to starting a new business. this is accepted as a more encompassing concept than merely owning a business; since intentions have been found to be immediate antecedents of actual behaviour; intention models predict behaviour better than either individual (e.g. personality) or situational (e.g. employment status) variables, and predictive power is critical to improving post hoc explanations of entrepreneurial behaviour (krueger et al., 2000). the success of entrepreneurs is dependent on personal motivation and the will to succeed. previous results on the study of motivation in the context of entrepreneurship in terms of personality constructs such as achievement need, risk taking, tolerance of ambiguity and locus of control have yielded mixed results. results have been more consistent for constructs such as goal setting and self-efficacy (stajkovic & luthans, 1998), with empirical results identifying a positive relationship between self-efficacy and entrepreneurship (markman, balkin & baron, 2002). the self-efficacy construct is well established in literature (bandura, 1982, 1986, 1997, 2001; gist & mitchell, 1992; krueger & brazeal, 1994; vancouver, thompson, tischner & putka, 2002). to be motivated to act, potential entrepreneurs must perceive themselves as capable and psychologically equipped to function. several intention-based models offer a well-developed theory base, for instance ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behaviour and shapero’s (1982) model of entrepreneurial event. by highlighting the overlap between these models, it has been suggested that perceived credibility, perceived desirability, and propensity to act explain well over half the variance in intentions towards entrepreneurship, with feasibility perceptions explaining the most (krueger & brazeal, 1994). examining entrepreneurial motivation across cultural groups is pivotal to understanding entrepreneurial intentions, since little evidence exists that intentions and self-efficacy are salient to entrepreneurs from non-western cultures (vecchio, 2003). the controversy as to which historical and societal processes are responsible for creating distinct communities, that may render individual meanings trivial, or what makes humans similar, is important for this study, since trying to study entrepreneurial intentions and self-efficacy without insight into culture/ ethnicity may not adequately address important similarities or differences between groups (cooper & denner, 1998). moreover, by acknowledging the legacy of apartheid it becomes apparent that damage was very likely to have occurred to the self-esteem, motivation, and creativity of specific ethnic groups in south africa (ahwirengobeng & piaray, 1999). disadvantaged communities often suffer from deficits in selfefficacy, and rabow, barkman and kessler (1983) found that victims of poverty visibly reflect the symptoms of learned helplessness. many individuals in transitional economies may have the desire to pursue entrepreneurial ventures but are not engaging, not because they do not have the knowledge and skills, but because they are lacking in self-belief, or, as conceptualised for this paper, self-efficacy. an extension of the self-efficacy construct, the ese, as conceptualised by chen et al. (1998, p. 295) refers to the strength of a person’s belief that he/she is capable of successfully performing the various roles and tasks of the entrepreneur. those with high ese seem to assess the environment as opportunistic rather than fraught with risks; they believe in their ability to influence the achievement of their goals, and they perceive a low probability of failure. research by chen, gully and eden (2001) focused on the more trait-like generality of self-efficacy, which is termed general self-efficacy (gse). gse is defined as one’s belief in one’s overall competence to affect requisite performance across a wide variety of achievement situations. moreover, when people are likely to encounter situations that are not fully known, predictability is better for common situations than for uncommon ones (bandura, 1997). conceivably the gse construct has applicability to entrepreneurship and has been employed to link inventors with new venture formation (markman et al., 2002). for this study gse is not proposed as a substitute or replacement for ese, rather it is a supplement that is predicted to be useful when the performance under scrutiny is generalised, such as in entrepreneurship. culture and entrepreneurship a variety of studies lend support to the argument that cultural values influence entrepreneurial behaviour (gartner & shane, 1995; mcgrath, macmillan & scheinberg, 1992). much of the study of ethnic entrepreneurs is based on issues of culture, with a growing body of literature supporting the argument that national culture influences a variety of economic/ management behaviour (bygrave & minniti, 2000; chrisman, chua & steier, 2002; hofstede, 1980, 2001). in the series of global entrepreneurship monitor (gem) reports, cultural and social norms are emphasised as the major strength of entrepreneurial orientation and seem to be the differentiating factor for high levels of entrepreneurial activity in different countries (minniti & bygrave, 2003). in south africa, foxcroft, wood, kew, herrington & segal (2002, p. 26) report significant differences in entrepreneurial activity between race groups. such findings are not surprising given south africa’s sociopolitical history, particularly the effects of apartheid education, 2 antecedents to entrepreneurial intentions original research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 1 pp. 1 9 spatial segregation and job discrimination on different race groups. studies in africa find that psychological variables (frese, 2000), and race and ethnicity (ramachandran & shah, 1999) are important predictors of entrepreneurial activity. more specifically, bandura (1986) reasoned that the influence of self-efficacy is partially socially constructed and that such construction may differ as a function of national culture (allik & realo, 2004). based on extensive research findings (e.g. hayton, george & zahra, 2002; kinunda-rutashobya, 1999; lee & peterson, 2000), it has been suggested that entrepreneurial activity is more prevalent in countries with cultural configurations of higher individualism (ind), lower power distance (pdi), lower uncertainty avoidance (uai), higher masculinity (mas), and long-term orientation (lto) as defined in terms of hofstede’s (2001) dimensions. nonetheless, hofstede’s (1980,2001) work has been the subject of considerable debate (kruger & roodt, 2003), with researchers adopting a more emic perspective arguing that culture in all its complexity cannot be captured quantitatively and reduced to four or five variables. according to hofstede the vsm 94 is relevant to respondents without employers, such as entrepreneurs, students, and housewives, and can be used to assess the level of ethnicity. research design research participants attempts to characterise cultures or individuals in broad cultural dichotomies, such as ethnic or race groups, may be considered overly simplistic, and although an attempt was made to capture as many south african ethnic groups as possible, a crude version of asian, black, and caucasian south africans was used due to practicalities of sampling (coloured south africans as a category was dropped after only very few responses were obtained). respondents were required to provide background information, namely gender, age, years of education, job level category (7point depending on level of skill), and nationality/ethnicity (openended). participants described themselves as black/ african, indian/asian, or white/caucasian south africans. the final pooled sample consisted of 210 mba students of whom 64% are men, 53% are in the 30to 40-year age group, 68% have 16 years or more of formal education, 39% work as academically trained professionals, and belong to one of the three major ethnic groups; black (n = 70), indian (n = 70), or caucasian (n = 70) south africans. the rationale for targeting mba students with work experience, and not the general population, is that they were more likely than full time students with no work experience to embark on an entrepreneurial career. scherer, adams, carley and wiebe (1989) suggest that student populations add control and homogeneity to such a study because individuals studying business already have an interest in pursuing businessrelated careers and students have the education required to run a business, i.e. they have a basis for evaluating selfefficacy in some skills and abilities used in entrepreneurial careers. research into entrepreneurial potential allows for improvement of predictive abilities and, in providing a fertile ground from which seeds of entrepreneurship can sprout, hemmasi & hoelscher 2005, found that student samples are very similar to actual entrepreneurs provided that they have high entrepreneurial potential. moreover, to establish if biographical variables, which are often related to response styles (van de vijver & leung, 2001, p.1020) were similar or different for each group, frequency percentage analysis revealed only relatively small differences between the groups, and subsequently the control variables (apart from ethnicity) were not used in further analysis. measurements attitudes, beliefs and motives the measures identified as antecedents to entrepreneurial intentions were based on the two behavioural models previously discussed ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behaviour (tpb) and shapero’s (1982) model of the entrepreneurial event (ee). tpb identifies three attitudinal antecedents of intentions; two reflect the perceived desirability of intentions and the third perceived behavioural control reflects perceived feasibility of intentions and is thus related to perceptions of self-efficacy. these formative indicators of an attitude latent variable include: (1) the attitude towards the act: “is starting your own business an attractive idea to you?” this attitude depends on expectations and beliefs about personal outcomes resulting from the behaviour, measured as expected utilities: “rate the perceived value of the following five outcomes of starting your business and the likelihood of them occurring — autonomy, stress, financial performance, personal satisfaction, personal quality of life.” this measure is the sum of the values weighted by the expected likelihoods; (2) normative beliefs and motives: “rate the perceived reactions of four different normative influences (friends, parents/family, mentor/role model, significant other) to the subject of starting your own business and the perceived importance of their opinions.” this measure sums the strengths of the perceived reactions weighted by the perceived importance; (3) the degree of perceived behavioural control corresponding to global and specific perceived feasibility in shapero’s (1982) model. both concepts are related to self-efficacy, which has been linked theoretically and empirically with many managerial and entrepreneurial phenomena (krueger, reilly & carsrud, 2000), and were modified for the purposes of this study to capture beliefs which are predictive of entrepreneurial behaviour. general and entrepreneurial self-efficacy self-efficacy as an antecedent to entrepreneurial intentions was emphasised since intention cannot be inferred from action otherwise it would provide a circular explanation in which the same event is taken as evidence of both cause and effect. rather, intention must be defined independently of the behaviour it regulates. perceived self-efficacy is a major determinant of intention but the two-constructs are conceptual and empirically separable (bandura, 1997). efficacy beliefs affect performance both directly and by influencing intentions. the view that efficacy beliefs are intentions is conceptually incoherent and empirically disputed (bandura, 1997). self-efficacy beliefs vary across three dimensions: magnitude (particular level of task difficulty), strength (certainty of successfully performing a particular level of task difficulty), and generality (the extent to which magnitude and strength beliefs generalise across tasks and situations). when measuring ese and gse respondents were asked whether they could perform at specific levels on a specific task (yes or no) and then asked for a degree of confidence in that endorsement (rated on a near continuous scale from total uncertainty to total certainty) at each specific performance level (bandura, 1986; lee & bobko, 1994). self-efficacy magnitude (not measured previously by the existing ese and gse measures) and strength as separate noncombined measures appear to have generally weaker predictive validates and correlations than self-efficacy composites (lee & bobko, 1994). in other words a composite measure of selfefficacy, which includes magnitude and strength, was used 3 original research urban, van vuuren & owen vol. 6 no. 1 pp. 1 9sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za for this study; this is the first time gse and ese have been measured using both strength and magnitude dimensions. the items for the self-efficacy assessment were based on chen et al.’s (1998) ese scale as well as the revised gse scale (chen et al., 2001). since self-efficacy is the foundational concept of gse and ese, it was expected that these constructs may be correlated. the gse measure has previously been tested in respect of item face validity, inter-item correlations, and factor loadings, with eight items reported as capturing the gse measure. chen et al. (2001) repeatedly found additional items added little or nothing to their measure in terms of reliability (coefficient alpha = 0.86) and content or predictive validity, the only contribution of adding items beyond the eight included in the gse scale was to artificially inflate coefficient alpha by adding items that were redundant with items already included and, therefore, highly inter-correlated with them. the ese measure was considered highly appropriate for the study of the entrepreneur; as a task specific construct rather than a global disposition, it helps address the problem of lack of specificity in previous entrepreneurial personality research (chandler & jansen, 1992; noble, jung & ehrlich, 1999). a cronbach alpha of 0.89 has been reported for ese, and it was established that the various sub-scale ese scores are related to various criterion variables differently (chen et al., 1998). the ese sub-scales (four sub-scales; total of 10 items) incorporated several roles/tasks, with respondents indicating degree of certainty (strength) in performing roles/tasks in marketing (mkt), innovation (inn), management (mngt) and financial control (fin) – all of which were surveyed on a 5point likert-type scale, as well as on a dichotomous yes/ no component to each question, measuring the magnitude of self-efficacy. self-efficacy magnitude was defined as the total number of yes answers divided by the total number of items. the self-efficacy composite measure of strength and magnitude were computed by taking raw scores of self-efficacy strength and then summed across self-efficacy magnitude scores which reflected yes answers. the sub-scales were abbreviated as: subscale 1 = gse (8-items); sub-scale 2 = ese mkt (3 items); subscale 3 = ese inn (2 items); sub-scale 4 = ese mngt (3 items); sub-scale 5 = ese fin (2 items). culture culture was measured with the vsm 94, which consists of 20 content questions. computational formulae were used which allowed comparison of culturally determined value dimensions between people from two or more countries/regions/ethnic groups. hofstede’s (2001) latest value survey module (vsm 94) instrument is considered the best-validated and most efficient instrument for arriving at an empirical replication of his five dimensions of culture. hofstede’s vsm 94 instrument was designed for comparing mean scores of two or more countries/ regions/ethnic groups. it is not a personality test for comparing individuals within countries. it is with this in mind that different ethnic groups are compared, what can be measured are only the differences in the statistical distributions of scores for groups – which have to be sufficiently large (20-50 per group), and sufficiently matched, i.e. similar in all respects except nationality. absolute scores are meaningless (hofstede, 2001, p. 66). analysis techniques confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) was used as the main analytical technique. this builds on classical measurement theory, where each measure in one’s data set is considered to be an observed indicator of one or more underlying constructs or factors (bryant & yarnold, 1995, p. 110). fig. 1 represents the schematic diagrams of the cfa model as used in lisrel (software programme). in diagramming cfa results (bryant & yarnold, 1995) each observed indicator is enclosed in a square and designated by the letter x. in the first section of fig. 1 there are seven observed indicators, labelled x1-x7. the effect of measurement error on each observed indicator is marked by a small straight line to the indicator, and are designated a1-a7. the attitudes and utilities latent construct (or factor) is enclosed in a circle, and the effect of a latent factor on an observed indicator is marked by a straight line from the factor to the indicator. the other remaining latent factors are diagrammed in the same manner, leading to b1-b4 as observed indicators to the normative beliefs and motives factor; g1g8 as observed indicators to perceived behavioural control, gse factor; and for the ese factor, observed indicators are em 1em 3 as subese mkt factor; items ei 1-ei 2 as sub-ese inn factor; items em g1em g3 as sub-ese mngt factor; and items ef 1-ef2 as sub-ese fin factor. for the cultural dimensions (model was not incorporated due to space constraints) observed indicators c1– c4 depicted the ind factor; c5-c8 the pdi factor; c9-c13 the mas factor; c14-c17 the uai factor; c18-c20 the lto factor. measurement invariance has been defined with varying degrees of stringency, depending on which parameters are constrained to be equal. it is also possible to test for equality of error variances and covariances across groups, although the testing of equality constraints bearing on error variances 4 x8 x9 x10 ef1 emg3 ef2 x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 x7 perceived behavioural control: ese emg1 emg2 ei2 ei1 em2 em1 em3 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 x7 x8 perceived behavioural control: gse g2 g3 g4 g5 g6 g7 g8 x1 x2 x3 x4 normative beliefs and motives b3a+3b b1a+1b b2a+2b b4a+4b g1 x1 x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 x7 attitudes and utilities a6a+6b a7a+7b a5a+5b a4a+4b a2 a1 a3 figure1 data model of observed indicators and latent factors for antecedents to entrepreneurial intentions antecedents to entrepreneurial intentions original research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 1 pp. 1 9 and covariances has been cited as being excessively stringent (byrne, 2001; vorster, olckers, buys & schaap, 2005). moreover, it has been suggested that the equivalence of the measures may be examined at different levels of analysis (farruggia, chen, greenberger, dmitrieva & macek, 2004), i.e. (a) configurable invariance, with factor structures compared across groups, (b) weak factorial invariance, with factor loadings constrained to be the same across groups, (c) strong factorial invariance, with factor loadings and means constrained to be the same across groups. research procedure with cfa one is able to systematically test hypotheses about the invariance of factor loadings and factor variances-covariances for a given data model across independent samples (bryant & yarnold, 1995, p. 121). this entailed using lisrel 8.72 for windows with robust diagonally weighted least squares, as the scales were considered ordinal and the sample small with respect to the number of parameters. to facilitate the evaluation of mi across groups, preliminary single group cfa was conducted to test the fit of the data on the proposed measurement models in respect of each ethnic group separately; as indicated in the model, factors were assumed to be correlated. a chi-square difference test was applied to determine data fit. satisfactory fit was obtained within the indian group, producing a non-significant chi-square and associated p value. contrary to other inferential statistics for which significant p values represent greater accuracy of prediction, with cfa, a statistically significant chi-square denotes a model that fails to reproduce the observed data correctly. because the chi-square statistic is extremely sensitive to sample size, the samples per ethnic group (n=70) were considered adequate, since when evaluating overall goodness of fit when large samples are used, even reasonable models are likely to produce statistically significant chi-square values (bryant & yarnold, 1995, p. 111113). besides evaluating how well a given factor model fits the data of a single sample, cfa also determines whether the same factor structure holds across multiple groups. data was fitted 5 in a multi-group analysis with the factor structure constrained to be equal across groups and was also fitted in a multigroup analysis with factor structure freely estimated across groups. the x² (chi-square) differences were then computed to determine whether data fit significantly improved if model parameters were freely estimated (discussed in the next section separately for each measure). subsequently, combining all the variables in a single group efa was conducted to provide interpretable factor structures for each group. the bmdp4m procedure with maximum likelihood and direct quartimax rotation was used. cronbach alpha(s), eigenvalue(s) for the factor(s), and variance explained (vp) by the respective factor(s) are displayed at the bottom of the respective tables 1-2. variables with maximum factor loadings less than 0.30 were not highlighted. results descriptive statistics generated means, standard deviations, skewness, kurtosis, item-total correlations and coefficient alphas for the measures. the results indicated (not shown) that the data collected were normally distributed. attitudes, beliefs and motives: multigroup cfa resulted in the following fit indices: least squares chi-square of 3228.2 with 510 d.f (p<0.0001) and a root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) of 0.151, suggesting that the model did not fit the total group. the rmsea by convention indicates a good fit if it is less than or equal to 0.10 (steiger, 1995). the 90% confidence interval for rmsea was (0.107: 0.142). additional goodness-of-fit indices all considered to be a good fit at 0.90 (bentler, 1990) were the normed fit index (nfi) = 0.904, comparative fit index (cfi) = 0.939, and the incremental fit index (ifi) = 0.939. these results indicate that a lack of fit in a multigroup analysis is evident, and mi exists between groups. nonetheless some of the latter indices suggest a partial degree of data fit on partmeasures between the groups. variables indians blacks caucasians factor 1 factor 1 factor 2 factor 1 factor 2 a1 probability of starting own business 0.683 0.781 0.074 0.810 -0.028 a2 attitudes towards the act 0.842 0.847 0.074 0.827 -0.025 a3a expected utilities of occurring: autonomy 0.746 0.856 -0.013 0.718 0.087 a3b expected likelihood of occurring: autonomy 0.787 0.744 -0.075 0.835 -0.040 a4a expected utilities of occurring: stress 0.620 0.652 -0.152 0.141 0.922 a4b expected likelihood of occurring: stress 0.678 0.484 -0.085 0.454 0.657 a5a expected utilities of occurring: financial performance 0.725 0.666 0.198 0.443 0.163 a5b expected likelihood of occurring: financial performance 0.814 0.662 0.182 0.524 0.135 a6a expected utilities of occurring: personal satisfaction 0.836 0.825 0.044 0.786 0.270 a6b expected likelihood of occurring: personal satisfaction 0.836 0.766 0.128 0.864 0.056 a7a expected utilities of occurring: personal quality of life 0.762 0.738 0.101 0.712 -0.178 a7b expected likelihood of occurring: personal quality of life 0.708 0.709 0.032 0.737 -0.271 b1a normative beliefs and motives: friends 0.574 0.076 0.711 0.300 0.033 b1b normative beliefs the perceived importance: friends 0.481 -0.133 0.649 0.248 -0.299 b2a normative beliefs and motives: parents/family 0.710 0.122 0.629 0.661 -0.211 b2b normative beliefs the perceived importance: parents 0.812 -0.007 0.650 0.331 -0.279 b3a normative beliefs and motives: mentor/role model 0.755 0.181 0.609 0.547 0.030 b3b normative beliefs the perceived importance: model 0.680 0.112 0.731 0.560 0.062 b4a normative beliefs and motives: significant other 0.648 0.057 0.753 0.343 0.185 b4b normative beliefs the perceived importance: significant 0.621 -0.086 0.698 0.037 0.198 table 1 final factor categorisations and loadings for attitudes, beliefs and motives eigenvalue(s) 10.896 8.755 3.035 7.684 2.295 cronbach alpha (s) 0.954 0.926 0.929 0.902 0.914 variance explained 52.110 41.550 12.900 34.960 9.770 original research urban, van vuuren & owen vol. 6 no. 1 pp. 1 9sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za6 variables indians blacks factor 1 factor 2 factor 3 factor 4 factor 1 factor 2 factor 3 factor 4 general self-efficacy (gse)* g1 i will be able to achieve most of the goals i have set for myself 0.743 0.051 -0.020 -0.061 0.779 -0.036 -0.082 0.061 g2 when facing difficult tasks, i am certain i will accomplish them 0.643 -0.003 0.003 0.250 0.690 0.001 -0.154 0.040 g3 in general, i think i can obtain outcomes that are important 0.696 0.061 0.044 0.144 0.812 -0.071 -0.052 0.065 g4 i will be able to successfully overcome many challenges 0.803 -0.042 0.254 -0.023 0.750 -0.067 0.011 0.091 g5 compared to other people, i can do most tasks very well 0.656 -0.078 0.167 0.212 0.739 0.068 0.032 -0.047 g6 even when things are tough, i can perform quite well 0.243 0.083 0.083 0.608 0.641 0.103 -0.102 -0.007 g7 i am confident that i can perform effectively on different tasks -0.030 0.149 0.007 0.896 0.701 -0.048 0.208 0.021 g8 i believe i can succeed at almost any endeavour to which i set myself 0.073 -0.153 0.090 0.798 0.551 0.153 0.208 -0.094 entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ese) marketing * em1 set and meet market share goals 0.082 0.013 0.796 0.075 0.220 0.644 -0.014 0.055 em2 establish positioning in market 0.002 0.026 0.859 0.072 -0.042 0.888 -0.018 -0.057 em3 expand business 0.110 0.208 0.656 -0.075 -0.017 0.621 0.011 0.145 entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ese) innovation * ei1 engage in new venturing and new ideas 0.195 0.316 0.393 0.161 0.059 0.020 0.083 0.946 ei2 engage in new markets/products/technologies 0.162 0.360 0.277 0.233 0.020 0.039 -0.005 0.780 entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ese) management * emg1 reduce risk and uncertainty 0.373 0.561 -0.198 0.085 0.333 0.369 0.005 0.171 emg2 develop strategic plans with information systems -0.098 0.572 0.111 0.202 -0.012 0.307 0.211 0.245 emg3 define organisational roles, responsibilities and policies 0.332 0.528 0.052 0.118 0.399 0.234 0.197 -0.098 entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ese) financial control * ef1 perform financial analysis 0.094 0.741 0.203 -0.203 0.055 -0.157 1.012 0.099 ef2 develop financial systems and internal controls -0.088 0.716 0.14 -0.025 -0.105 0.166 0.772 0.034 note. * self-efficacy strength (ss1-ss 4) and self-efficacy magnitude (sm1-sm 4) are represented as self-efficacy composites (sc1-sc 4) in each factor. table 2a final factor categorisations and loadings for gse and ese sub-scales variables caucasians factors 1 factors 2 factors 3 factors 4 general self-efficacy (gse)* g1 i will be able to achieve most of the goals i have set for myself 0.718 -0.001 0.099 0.029 g2 when facing difficult tasks, i am certain i will accomplish them 0.550 0.063 0.113 0.259 g3 in general, i think i can obtain outcomes that are important 0.912 -0.037 0.007 -0.008 g4 i will be able to successfully overcome many challenges 0.732 -0.017 -0.084 0.086 g5 compared to other people, i can do most tasks very well 0.727 0.084 -0.103 0.067 g6 even when things are tough, i can perform quite well 0.368 0.069 -0.149 0.678 g7 i am confident that i can perform effectively on different tasks 0.229 -0.267 0.019 0.873 g8 i believe i can succeed at most any endeavour to which i set myself 0.242 0.110 0.006 0.565 entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ese) marketing * em1 set and meet market share goals -0.001 0.772 -0.174 0.105 em2 establish positioning in market 0.092 0.847 0.023 -0.076 em3 expand business 0.183 0.631 0.125 -0.161 entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ese) innovation * ei1 engage in new venturing and new ideas 0.482 0.176 0.079 0.041 ei2 engage in new markets/products/technologies 0.407 0.228 0.110 0.048 entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ese) management * emg1 reduce risk and uncertainty -0.122 0.250 0.149 0.335 emg2 develop strategic plans with information systems -0.097 0.105 0.178 0.236 emg3 define organisational roles, responsibilities and policies 0.099 0.266 0.131 0.152 entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ese) financial control * ef1 perform financial analysis 0.017 -0.081 0.953 -0.001 ef2 develop financial systems and internal controls 0.068 -0.029 0.937 -0.037 note. * self-efficacy strength (ss1-ss 4) and self-efficacy magnitude (sm1-sm 4) are represented as self-efficacy composites (sc1-sc 4) in each factor. table 2b final factor categorisations and loadings for gse and ese sub-scales eigenvalue(s) 9.185 2.121 1.195 1.021 6.85 2.474 1.326 1.266 cronbach alpha(s) 0.876 0.775 0.891 0.883 0.897 0.771 0.891 0.887 variance explained 49.090 9.850 4.900 4.130 14.040 14.140 23.960 6.980 eigenvalue(s) 6.480 2.328 1.680 1.278 6.480 cronbach alpha(s) 0.887 0.861 0.745 0.923 0.887 variance explained 31.970 11.280 8.240 5.150 31.970 antecedents to entrepreneurial intentions original research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 1 pp. 1 9 based on single group analysis, efa was subsequently conducted for the three groups separately, and results yielded a 2-factor solution for the black and caucasian groups and 1-factor solution for the indian group (see table 1 for the different factors with rotated factors loadings). the results indicate that the indicator variables designed to reflect two independent, albeit related, latent variables load on a single factor, and thus reflect a single underlying latent variable for the indian group, but that mixed variables for the black and caucasian groups are evident in table 2. as discussed theoretically, since normative beliefs and motives of respondents from different ethnic backgrounds were measured, these differences may be the reason the factor structures split up for the black and caucasian groups. self-efficacy gse and ese: multigroup cfa on the pooled sample resulted in a chi-square of 1436.2 with 186 d.f (p<0.0001) and a rmsea of 0.124 with 90% confidence interval of (0.707; 0.142) indicating that the data did not fit the measurement model. subsequent, single group efa conducted for the three groups yielded a 4-factor solution for the indian, black and caucasian groups with different factor structures for each group (see table 2a/2b for the different factors with rotated factors loadings). although it was anticipated that the ese subscales may be sufficient in addressing independent levels of self-efficacy scores, the different ese sub-domains, measured at the strength and magnitude levels, which allowed for a more finegrained analytical approach, indicated little similarity in factor structures across groups (apart from ese mkt and ese fin, both of which loaded on one factor across groups). although there is a considerable degree of overlap between the factors and groups, differences in loadings are not found on conceptually related items, which suggests that the gse and the ese underlying measures show little comparability across groups, as conceptualised for this study. vsm 94: the cultural scores were based on the vsm 94 index computational formulas, as recommended by hofstede (2001) for calculating the scores for each dimension. the cultural indices: individualism-collectivism (idv), uncertainty avoidance (uai), power distance (pdi), masculinity-femininity (mas), and long-term vs. short-term orientation (lto) were based on the individual participant’s unweighted ratings for each item and mean scores were then calculated for each group (see table 3). the scores are calculated on the original index values ranging from zero to 100. because of the way these scores were calculated they represent relative not absolute positions of the different cultural dimensions (i.e. they measure differences only and are meaningful only when compared to each other). although efa was used on individual scores, after repeated iterations only scattered items among diverse factors, with no discernable dimensions being identifiable, were obtained. given the lack of measurement invariance no further substantial interpretations of scores obtained on the vsm 94 instrument across cultures were made. discussion the purpose of this article was to test for measurement invariance (mi) of the measures for antecedents to entrepreneurial intentions across three different ethnic groups in south africa. the hypothesised invariance for the vsm 94 instrument, attitude and utilities, beliefs and motives, and the separate gse and ese items did not yield similar factor structures across different ethnic groups. the lack of mi across ethnic groups and moreover the inability to replicate hofstede’s dimensions is not trivial for multicultural research in a new domain such as entrepreneurship. on theoretical grounds, hofstede (2001, p. 463) claims the vsm 94 was developed especially for replications; novice researchers forgetting that cultures are being compared apply reliability calculations and find very low values. perhaps the indiscernible factor structures for the vsm 94, as obtained for this present study, can be interpreted in light of hofstede’s (2001) warning that reliability can only be tested across at least 10 countries. similarly, other replications using vsm 94 have also failed to support the five subscales as derived by hofstede. spector, cooper and sparks (2001) using 23 nations at the country level of analysis also found suspect internal consistencies in the vsm 94. in the south african context, kruger and roodt (2003) found that the vsm 94 lacks metric equivalence and that the reliability of this instrument cannot be justified. such findings, together with the present results obtained, prevent the unambiguous interpretation of the validity and internal consistency of the vsm 94 instrument. nonetheless, to avoid hofstede’s seminal work on culture altogether when attempting to undertake cross-cultural quantitative research such as this study may be unjustifiable. moreover, busenitz, gomez and spencer (2000) indicate that cross-national differences in entrepreneurship are best explained by a broader set of institutions, i.e. educational and governmental support agencies. additionally, bandura (2001) argues that global cultural classifications mask intra-cultural diversity, as well as much communality among people of different cultural backgrounds; efficacy beliefs function as regulative influences for collectivists in individualistic societies and individualists in collectivists’ societies, regardless of whether orientations are analysed at the cultural or individual level. furthermore, the research is limited by the early stage of development in the theory of the ese construct and subsequent measures. another caveat is the restricted sampling frame. the students sampled cannot be considered representative of the different ethnic populations in south africa as a whole; especially since these were urban respondents and much variation exists between urban and rural populations in south africa. additionally, since self-reported survey data was used the study is prone to the respondent’s cognitive and motivational biases (e.g. self-serving bias and social desirability). however, these response biases would probably be consistent across ethnic groups and their effect minimal on factorial equivalence. despite not finding factorial homogeneity in measures across ethnic groups, the study makes an important contribution in testing mi of entrepreneurial intentions and its antecedents across different ethnic groups in south africa, since very few culturally relevant tests have been developed given the diverse range of cultural and language groups in south africa (foxcroft, 2004). references ahwireng-obeng, f. & piaray, d. (1999). institutional obstacles to south african entrepreneurship. south african journal of business management, 30(3), 75-85. ajzen, i. (1991). theory of planned behaviour. organizational behaviour and human decision processes, 50(2), 179-211. allik, j. & realo, a. (2004). individualism-collectivism and social capital. journal of cross-cultural psychology, 35(1), 29-49. 7 dimension indians blacks caucasian pdi 0.571 4.000 -17.642 uai 63.928 49.285 36.857 idv 79.000 86.785 96.857 mas 26.149 20.285 53.428 lto 40.285 45.428 54.285 table 3 cultural values: separate group vsm scores original research urban, van vuuren & owen vol. 6 no. 1 pp. 1 9sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za hemmasi, m. & hoelscher, m. (2005). entrepreneurship research, using students as proxies for actual entrepreneurs. proceedings of the 50th annual conference of the international council for small business, washington d.c.: usa, june, pp. 1-17. hofstede, g. (2001). cultures consequences (2nd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. hofstede, g. (1980). cultures consequences. california: sage kinunda rutashobya, l. (1999). african entrepreneurship and small business development: a conceptual framework. in l. kinunda-rutashobya, & d.r. olomi (eds.), african entrepreneurship and small business development. dar es salaam: university of dar es salaam, pp. 112165. kolvereid, l. & moen, o. (1997). entrepreneurship among business graduates: does a major in entrepreneurship make a difference? journal of european industrial training, 21(4), 154162. krueger, n.f. (1993). the impact of prior entrepreneurial exposure on perceptions of new venture feasibility and desirability. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 18(1), 5-23. krueger, n.f. & brazael, d.v. (1994). entrepreneurial potential and potential entrepreneurs. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 18(3), 91-105. krueger, n.f., reilly, m.d. & carsrud, a.l. (2000). competing models of entrepreneurial intentions. journal of business venturing, 15(5), 411-432. kruger, t. & roodt, g. (2003). hofstede’s vsm-94 revisited: is it reliable and valid? sa journal of industrial psychology, 29(1), 75-82. lee, c. & bobko, p. (1994). self-efficacy beliefs: comparison of five measures. journal of applied psychology, 79(3), 364-369. lee, s.m. & peterson, s.j. (2000). culture, entrepreneurial orientation, and global competitiveness. journal of world business, 35(4), 4-16. marino, l., strandholm, k.h., steensma, h.k. & weaver, m.k. (2002). the moderating effect of national culture on the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and strategic alliance portfolio extensiveness. entrepreneurship theory and practice, summer, 145-160. markman, g.d., balkin, d.b. & baron, r.a. (2002). inventors and new venture formation: the effects of general self-efficacy and regretful thinking. entrepreneurship theory and practice, winter, 149-165. mcgrath, r.g., macmillan, i.c. & scheinberg, s. (1992). elitists, risk takers, and rugged individualists? an exploratory analysis of cultural differences between entrepreneurs and non entrepreneurs. journal of business venturing, 7(2), 115-135. meade, a.w. & kroustalis, c.m. (2006). problems with item parceling for confirmatory factor analytic tests of measurement invariance. organizational research methods, 9(3), 369-403. minniti, m. & bygrave, w.d. (2003). national entrepreneurship assessment united states of america. gem global entrepreneurship monitor, babson college. nkosi, t.j. & roodt, g. (2004). an assessment of bias and fairness of the culture assessment instrument. south african journal of human resource management, 2(2), 24-36. noble, a.f., jung, d. & ehrlich, s.b. (1999). entrepreneurial selfefficacy: the development of a measure and its relationship to entrepreneurial action. frontiers of entrepreneurship research, usa: babson college. rabow, j., berkman, s.l. & kessler, r. (1983). the culture of poverty & learned helplessness: a social psychological perspective. sociological inquiry, 53(4), 3-12. ramachandran, v. & shah, m. j. (1999). minority entrepreneurs and private sector growth in sub-saharan africa. the world bank. discussion paper #086. rauch, a. & frese, m. (2000). psychological approaches to entrepreneurial success: a general model and an overview of findings. international review of industrial and organizational psychology, 15, 101-135. bandura, a. (1982). self-efficacy mechanism in human agency. american psychologist, 37(2), 747-755. bandura, a. (1986). social foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive theory. englewood cliffs, n.j: prentice-hall. bandura, a. (1997). self-efficacy: the exercise of control. new york: w.h. freeman & company. bandura, a. (2001). social cognitive theory: an agentic perspective. annual review of psychology, 52, 1-26. bentler, p.m. (1990). comparative fit indexes in structural models. psychological bulletin, 107, 238-246. bryant, f.b. & yarnold, p.r. (1995). principal components analysis and exploratory and confirmatory analysis. in l.g. grimm & p.r. yarnold, (eds.). reading and understanding multivariate statistics. washington dc: american psychological association, pp. 99-135. busenitz, l.w., gomez, c. & spencer, j.w. (2000). country institutional profiles: unlocking entrepreneurial phenomena. academy of management journal, 43(5), 994-1003. bygrave, w. d. & minniti, m. (2000). the social dynamics of entrepreneurship. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 24, 3-32. byrne, b.m. (2001). structural equation modelling with amos: basic concepts, applications and programming. mahwah. new jersey: erlbaum. chandler, g.n. & jansen, e. (1992). the founders self-assessed competence and venture performance. journal of business venturing, 7(3), 223-236. chen, c.c., greene, p.g. & crick, a. (1998). does entrepreneurial self-efficacy distinguish entrepreneurs from managers? journal of business venturing, 13(4), 295-316. chen, g., gully, m.s. & eden, d. (2001). validation of a new general self-efficacy scale. organizational research methods, 4(1), 62-83. chrisman, j.j., chua, j.h. & steier, p.l. (2002). the influence of national culture and family involvement on entrepreneurial perceptions and performance at the state level. entrepreneurship theory and practice, summer, 113-130. cooper, r.c. & denner, j. (1998). theories linking culture and psychology: universal and community specific processes. annual review of psychology, 49(1), 559-84. de bruin, g.p. (2004). problems with factor analysis of items: solutions based on item response theory and item parcelling. south african journal of industrial psychology, 30, 16-26. douglas, e.j. & shepherd, d.a. (2002). self-employment as a career choice: attitudes, entrepreneurial intentions and utility maximization. entrepreneurship theory and practice, spring, 81-90. farruggia, s.p., chen, c., greenberger, e., dmitrieva, j. & macek, p. (2004). adolescent self-esteem in cross-cultural perspective. journal of cross-cultural psychology, 35(6), 719-733. foxcroft, c.d. (2004). planning a psychological test in the multicultural south african context. south african journal of industrial psychology, 30(4), 8-15. foxcroft, c.d. & roodt, g. (2001). an introduction to psychological assessment in south african context. johannesburg: oxford university press. foxcroft, m., wood, e., kew, j., herrington, m. & segal, n. (2002). south african global entrepreneurship monitor executive report: university of cape town. frese, m. (ed.). (2000). success and failure of micro business owners in africa: a psychological approach. westport, ct: quorum books. gartner, w.b. & shane, s.a. (1995). measuring entrepreneurship over time. journal of business venturing, 10(4), 283-301. gist, m.e. & mitchell, t.r. (1992). self-efficacy: a theoretical analysis of its determinants & malleability. academy of management review, 17(2), 183-212. hayton, c., george, g. & zahra, s.a. (2002). national culture and entrepreneurship: a review of behavioural research. entrepreneurship theory and practice, summer, 33-52. 8 antecedents to entrepreneurial intentions original research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 1 pp. 1 9 scherer, f.r., adams, j.s., carley, s.s. & wiebe, f.a. (1989). role model performance effects on development of entrepreneurial career preference. entrepreneurship theory and practice, spring, 53-71. shane, s., locke, e.a. & collins, c.j. (2003). entrepreneurial motivation. human resource management review, 13(2), 257279. shapero, a. (1982). social dimensions of entrepreneurship. in c. kent, d. sexton, & k. vesper, (eds.). the encyclopaedia of entrepreneurship. englewood cliffs: prentice hall, pp. 72-90. spector, p.e., cooper, c. l. & sparks, k. (2001). an international study of the psychometric properties of the hofstede values survey module 1994: a comparison of individual and country/province level results. applied psychology: an international review, 50(2), 269-281. stajkovic, a.d. & luthans, f. (1998). self-efficacy and work related performance: a meta–analysis. psychological bulletin, 124(2), 240-261. steiger, j.h. (1995). manual to statistical analysis sepath. tulsa, usa: statsoft. triandis, h.c. & su, m.e. (2002). cultural influences on personality. annual review of psychology, 53, 133-160. vancouver, j.b., thompson, c.m., tischner, e.c. & putka, d.j. (2002). two studies examining the negative effect of selfefficacy on performance. journal of applied psychology, 87(3), 506-516. van de vijver, f.j.r. & leung, k. (2001). personality in cultural context: methodological issues. journal of personality, 69(6), 1007-1031. van de vijver, f.j.r. & rothmann, s. (2004). assessment in multicultural groups: the south african case. sa journal of industrial psychology, 30(4), 1-7. vecchio, r.p. (2003). entrepreneurship and leadership: common trends and common threads. human resource management review, 13(2), 303-327. venkataraman, s. (1997). the distinctive domain of entrepreneurial research. advances in entrepreneurship, firm emergence and growth, 3, 119-138. vorster, m., olckers, c., buys, m.a. & schaap, p. (2005). the construct equivalence of the job diagnostic survey for diverse south african cultural groups. south african journal of industrial psychology, 31(1), 31-37. 9 vol. 6 no. 2 pp. 32 41sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za empirical research the retention of academics in the early career phase abstract the purpose of the study was to determine to what extent academics in the early career phase at a south african higher education institution are committed to the institution in question and the impact which this commitment has on labour turnover. more than 21% of the original respondents left the institution while this research was still underway. insufficient financial remuneration was the most important reason why the respondents considered leaving the institution. keywords: retention, academics, early career phase, intention to quit, employee commitment the academic profession is central to the functioning of any university. without well qualified and committed academic staff, no academic institution can really ensure sustainability and quality over the long haul (altbach, 1991; pienaar, 2005). higher education institutions are therefore more dependent on the intellectual and creative abilities and commitment of their academic staff than most other organisations (gillespie, walsh, winefiled, dua & stough, 2001; küskü, 2003; pienaar, 2005). the retention of human resources is critically important in organisations and institutions where financial sustainability and survival depend on scarce human and specialist skills. this situation is further exacerbated if these individuals are unattainable or when it becomes difficult to obtain and retain these specialists (mckeown, 2002; phillips & connell, 2003). the retention of human resources refers to attempts to ensure that employees stay in the organisation and that voluntary turnover will be minimised (jackson & schuler, 2000). it would, however, appear that in future, higher education institutions will be increasingly obliged to make the retention of academics a strategic priority, since 68% of the academic personnel in a study in australian higher education institutions indicated that they wished to leave higher education (anderson, richard & saha, 2002). this problematic situation is also experienced in south african higher education institutions, since data indicates that a substantial number (between 5% and 18%) of academics leave higher education institutions (koen, 2003). the retention of academics should be a strategic priority, since – according to simmons (2002) – it is difficult to replace the knowledge, skills and experience of academic staff. these skills are only acquired over a long period of time and are accompanied by extensive experience. according to greenhaus and callanan (1994) the early career stage encompasses two periods, namely establishment and achievement. during the establishment period of the early career employees have to become established in their careers and organisations. the new employee must not only master the technical aspects of his/her job but must also learn the norms, values, and expectations of the organisation. the major task of the individual is to learn about the job and the organisation and to become accepted as a competent contributor to the organisation. in the achievement period of the early career the individual is not as concerned with fitting into the organisation as he is with moving upward and mastering it. according to greenhaus and callanan (1994) the early career can extend all the way up to age 40. the dominant theme of the early career, becoming established and making it, can maintain itself in one form or another for a full 15 years. according toliterature, academics in the early career stage are experiencing a broad range of problems that negatively affect their job satisfaction. pienaar and bester (2006) found that one of the problems that academics in the early career stage identified revolves around the performance appraisal system. their perception is that it is not fair and transparent, that it is discriminative and that it is not applied consistently. they also complained about the lack of opportunities for promotion. this finding is echoed by the research of oshagbemi (1966) and gillepsie et al, 2001). other problems that academics in the early career stage pointed out are role conflict and role overload due to parallel medium teaching, increasing pressure on research outputs, increasing administrative obligations and a shortage of support staff (pienaar & bester, 2006). insufficient financial compensation was also identified as a problem (pienaar & bester, 2006; ball, 2004 & potgieter, 2002). barkhuizen et al (2004), oliver et al (2004) and pienaar and bester (2006) discovered that academics in the early career stage are dissatisfied with the lack of feedback regarding career progress and developmental areas that they receive. respondents also indicated that they would appreciate more support and guidance regarding research and research outputs (pienaar & bester, 2006). they want more opportunities to work under the guidance of experienced mentors on research projects. according to, among others, phillips and connell (2003), numerous negative organisational outcomes are associated with increased labour turnover. these organisational outcomes include: high direct and indirect financial costs; a decrease in financial sustainability; a decrease in productivity; the rendering of services and standards; interruptions in workflow; a loss of experience and specialist knowledge; an increase in administrative processes; a decline in the organisation’s image; an interruption in the internal and informal social liaison and communication channels and an increased feeling of job dissatisfaction among the remaining staff. additionally, the retention of academics is made increasingly difficult because an academic career is probably no longer as desirable and attractive as was previously believed. research done by anderson et al. (2002) among academics in australian universities confirms this contention, since 79% and 71% of the respondents respectively believe that the image and status of an academic career are declining. the fact that an academic career seems to have become less attractive may have far-reaching consequences for higher education institutions and society as a whole, as well as the economy of a country if it is regarded as insignificant and cobus pienaar coen l bester department of industrial psychology university of the free state south africa correspondence to: coen bester e-mail: bestercl@shisas.com 32 the retention of academics empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 2 pp. 32 41 unimportant. according to phillips and connell (2003), it is furthermore especially the management responsible for organisations – higher education institutions in this case – who do not pay sufficient attention to this trend. one reason why top management are not addressing this issue sufficiently is that the role-players, as well as the human resource managers of organisations, underestimate the value and gravity thereof, and the reasons for labour turnover are not correctly identified. another reason is that the solutions which organisations generate do not always suit the reason for the increased labour turnover. apart from that, no measuring instrument to develop the value of retention is implemented. one of the primary variables which influences retention is employee satisfaction. according to landy (1989), mccormick and ilgen (1985) and spector (1997), there are various studies which couple low levels of employee satisfaction with increased labour turnover. according to spector (1997), research by blau and newton and thorton indicates a strong relationship between job dissatisfaction and the intention of leaving an organisation or an employer. this relationship is reflected in figure 1. according to bluedorn, mobley, price, steers and mowday (rosser 2004), the single best indicator to determine whether a person is indeed going to leave an organisation or an institution is when the person makes mention thereof or indicates it at one stage or another. rosser (2004, 319-322) indicates that labour turnover takes place when a person is both dissatisfied with his or her work and when he or she gives indications that he or she is going to leave the institution or organisation. phillips and connell (2003) listed a broad range of indicators that could result in lower organisational commitment and higher staff turnover. it is important that employees’ need for challenging and meaningful work is satisfied, as well as the needs for autonomy, flexibility and independence. the performance appraisal system and its application should also be fair and valid to ensure that rewards in the form of bonuses, promotions, salary increases and recognition are based on achievement in terms of the criteria that result from the job description. constructive feedback should be provided to help employees to identify their developmental areas. employees should get the opportunity to participate in decision-making that concerns them. organisations should also provide training opportunities to empower employees and to better equip them for their respective jobs. competitive financial packages are also very important to employees, as well as sufficient time to balance work and life roles. the above-mentioned internal aspects within organisations which influence retention show numerous similarities with aspects which influence job satisfaction in general, as well as within higher education institutions. spector (1997, 63) indicates that it is very likely that high levels of dissatisfaction could influence employees to consider alternative job options. in this way employees might, for example, consider alternative employment opportunities, as well as actively start to explore other employment opportunities. whether an employee or academic will, in such a case, really leave an institution, or should an intention be apparent is, in most cases, determined by alternative opportunities in the labour market (spector 1997, 63). according to phillips and connell (2003,143), job-person fit is another important factor which will determine whether a person will indeed leave the organisation or institution or not (phillips & connell 2003, 143). labour turnover can be an advantage or a disadvantage for higher education institutions. as already indicated, the disadvantages revolve especially around the costs related to decreased organisational loyalty; the loss of knowledge and experience regarding the institution; and the increase in time and cost in training novice academics. institutions may, on the other hand, save on the financial remuneration packages of experienced employees by appointing novices at a lower scale (rosser 2004, 319). it would seem, however, that the disadvantages of increased labour turnover outweigh the advantages. for this reason it is important that organisations should attempt to retain as many employees who consider leaving their current organisations as possible. higher education institutions– more than any other organisations – are, however, dependent on the intellectual abilities and commitment of academic staff. the intellectual and creative abilities of academic staff determine the survival and sustainability of higher education institutions (martin 1999, 24; pienaar 2005, 292). consequently, in order to function effectively, higher education institutions are, to a large extent, dependent on the commitment of academics. the objective of this study was to assess the extent to which academics in the early career phase within a south african higher education institution are committed to the specific institution and the impact this has on labour turnover. research design research approach a longitudinal research approach was used for the purpose of this study to determine whether employees in the early stage of their careers who had considered leaving the institution indeed did so over a period of time. longitudinal research is the repeated observation and measurement of the same individuals over a period of time. this study consisted of academic personnel who found themselves in the early career phase within a south african higher education institution during october 2004. round one of the survey took place during october 2004 and the second round almost a year and a half later, during march 2006. 33 figure 1 a model of labour turnover as a function of job satisfaction (spector 1997, p. 64) empirical research pienaar & bester vol. 6 no. 2 pp. 32 41sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za respondents the population from which the respondents were chosen consisted of academics who were at that time in the early career phase within a south african higher education institution. approval and support were obtained from the director: operations of the specific higher education institution which was used in this research to approach the academic staff who were representative of the respective gender and cultural groups engaged in the early career phase. a list containing the names, surnames, and dates of birth of all the academic staff employed at that institution during october 2004 was subsequently made available to the researcher by the specific higher education institution. by virtue of race and gender academics were thereafter divided into the panels as illustrated in table 1: from table 1 it seems that the respective panels of respondents consisted of 10 white males, 10 white females, 10 black males and eight black females in the early career phase. the importance, value and method of this investigation were then emphasised and explained by means of two covering letters which accompanied the questionnaire that was sent to the respective respondents. method of data gathering during october 2004 respondents were requested to respond to one of the following five statements by marking the statement which best described their intention: 1. there is not the slightest possibility that i am going to leave the university. 2. there is a slight possibility that i am going to leave the university. 3. i am not sure if i am going to leave the university. 4. there is a strong possibility that i am going to leave the university. 5. i am definitely going to leave the university. procedure during the first round of this questionnaire panellists were given the opportunity to respond to the preceding statements. the questionnaire and the questionnaire instructions were made available in both afrikaans and english. the target date for returning the first round of the questionnaires was determined to be two weeks after the questionnaires had been given to the panellists. the same applied to academic staff at other centres to which the questionnaires had been sent. all questionnaires were accompanied by a self-addressed envelope in order to facilitate the forwarding of completed questionnaires. a year and a half later, during april 2006, the same questionnaire was sent to the same respondents in order to determine the following: 1. whether or not a change had taken place in terms of their initial intention to leave the institution. they also had to provide the reasons for this change, should that be the case. 2. why academics who had indicated that they were going to leave the institution, in other words who had marked statement 4 or 5 during round one, had not yet left the institution and to provide the reasons for this. the same forwarding procedure as for round one was followed with round two questionnaires. results results of round one a response rate of 97.3% was obtained during round one, since one white male respondent did not wish to participate in the study. this response rate assumes that the process which was followed to obtain the data may be regarded as being successful. the results which were obtained during round one are subsequently displayed in table 2. the majority of the respondents in each panel indicated that they did not consider leaving the organisation at all or that the possibility that it might happen was very insignificant. a considerable number of respondents were uncertain whether they would leave the organisation. the uncertainty experienced might indicate that they did indeed consider the possibility of leaving the institution. white males had a stronger inclination to leave than the other panels. results of round two a response rate of between 86% and 100% was obtained within the respective panels during round two, since one black female panelist was on long study leave in britain. eight panellists, representing 21.6% of the academics in the early career phase had already left the institution since round one. three of these were white and female; four black and male; and one was a black female participant. it seems that the pattern concerning white males’ intention to stay at the institution or to leave it remained more or less the same during the period of one and a half years. this deduction can be made by comparing the data of tables 2 and 3. there is, however, a slight movement in the direction of leaving the institution. in the case of white females there is a stronger tendency in the direction of the intention to leave 34 career phase and age panel number of respondents in the panel sex race selection method early career phase (20-39) panel 1 10 male white representative sampling panel 2 10 female white representative sampling panel 3 10 male black representative sampling panel 4 8 female black total population table 1 description of the various panels in this study panel number of respondents who participated frequency for each statement there is no chance that i would leave the insittution. there is a slight chance that i would leave the insitution. i am uncertain whether or not i would leave the institution. there is a strong possibility that i would leave the institution. i am difinitely going to leavee the institution. response 1 response 2 response 3 response 4 response 5 panel 1 – white male 9 (100%) 1 (11.1%) 3 (33.4%) 2 (22.2%) 2 (22.2%) 1 (11.1%) panel 2 – white female 10 (100%) 4 (40%) 0 (0%) 4 (40%) 2 (20%) 0 (0%) panel 3 – black male 10 (100%) 1 (10%) 3 (30%) 4 (40%) 1 (10%) 1 (10%) panel 4 – black female 8 (100%) 2 (25%) 1 (12.5%) 4 (50%) 0 (0%) 1 (12.5%) table 2 intentions to quit after round one of the study the retention of academics empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 2 pp. 32 41 the organisation. in the case of black men four respondents had already left the organisation, while the pattern for black females remained more or less stable, with the exception of the fact that the group who were unsure had decreased. it is obvious from table 4 that insufficient financial remuneration is the most important reason why the respondents in all the respective panels considered leaving the institution. another allegation which is made – especially black males and females – is that transformation does not take place as desired. some of the respondents indicated in round one that they strongly considered leaving the institution, while they never did so. it is evident from table 5 that a possible explanation for this might be that the alternative options were of such a nature that they did not really offer any deliverance. discussion during round one, 37.8% of the panellists who represented academics during the early career phase were unsure about their future in the institution, while a further 18.9% strongly indicated that they would leave the institution. as opposed to this, 43.3% indicated that there was either a slight or no possibility at all that they would leave the institution. the results of round two are based on the data as obtained from the 28 remaining panellists of the study, since eight panellists had left the institution between rounds one and two and one of the respondents was on long study leave. according to this data, 29% (as opposed to 37.8% during round one) were unsure about their future at the institution, while 35.5% (as opposed to 18.9% during round one) strongly indicated that they were going to leave the institution. only 35.5% indicated that there was either a slight or no possibility at all that they would leave the institution, as opposed to 43% during round one. results according to gender the data indicates that 42% of the male respondentsduring round one denoted that there was a slight to no possibility that they would indeed leave the institution, but only 26.7% held the same opinion during round two. that is a decrease of 15.3%. there is virtually no difference in the level of uncertainty where male respondents are concerned during rounds one and two, since 31.6% and 33% of the panellists respectively indicated that they were uncertain whether they would indeed leave the institution. in round one only 26.4% of the male panellists strongly indicated that they would leave the institution; this number increased by 13.6% to 40% in round two. during round two female respondents provided stronger indications that they would stay at the institution, since 46% as opposed to 38.9% during round one indicated that there was little to no possibility that they would leave the institution. during round one, more females were uncertain as to whether they would stay at the institution, since the percentages were 44.4% and 23% respectively during rounds one and two. there is, however, a larger percentage of females who indicated strongly during round two that they were going to leave the institution. a figure of 31% was obtained from females in round two as opposed to 16.7% during round one. results according to race in round one 42% of the white academics indicated that there was a slight to no possibility that they were going to leave 35 panel number of respondents who participated frequency for each statement there is no chance that i would leave the insittution. there is a slight chance that i would leave the insitution. i am uncertain whether or not i would leave the institution. there is a strong possibility that i would leave the institution. ii am difinitely going to leavee the institution. response 1 response 2 response 3 response 4 response 5 panel 1 – white male 9 (100%) 1 (11.2%) 2 (22.2%) 2 (22.2%) 2 (22.2%) 2 (22.2%) panel 2 – white female 7 (100%) 2 (28.7%) 1 (14.2%) 2 (28.7%) 1 (14.2%) 1 (14.2%) panel 3 – black male 6 (100%) 1 (16.6.%) 0 (0%) 3 (50%) 1 (16.6.%) 1 (16.6.%) panel 4 – black female 6 (86%) 1 (16.6%) 2 (33.2%) 1 (16.6%) 1 (16.6%) 1 (16.6%) between round 1 and round 2 white female panel : 3 x panelists left the institution after round one black male panel: 4 x panelists left the institution after round one black female panel: 1 x panelist left the institution after round one and 1 x panelist was on long and study leave table 3 intentions to quit after round two of the study comments of panelists in favour of this change 1 x panelist changes from 1-2 “if better opportunities come my way, i shall consider them.” – white female 1 x panelist changes from 1-3 “my financial obligations force me to consider other alternatives.” white female 1 x panelist changes from 1-4 “the poor financial remuneration, i feel isolated within my department and no real transformation takes place.” – black female 2 x panelists change from 2-3 “i do not have any other options at this stage; as soon as my options increase, i might consider leaving the institution.” – black male “the financial remuneration is poor and i do not receive enough recognition.” black male 1 x panelist changes from 2-4 “transformation within the institution does not receive priority and the financial remuneration is poor.” black male 2 x panelists change from 2-5 “the financial remuneration is poor and there are limited opportunities for promotion.” – white male “the financial remuneration is poor.” – black female 1 x panelist changes from 3-5 “the financial remuneration is poor.” – white female 1 x panelist changes from 4-5 “i am only going to complete my studies, then i am going to leave the institution, i have already received an offer.” – black male 1 x panelist changes from 3-1 “i received a permanent appointment, which makes it easier for me to manage my career within the institution.” – black male 2 x panelists change from 3-2 “i have started receiving more exposure in my department.” – black female “i have no other choice.” – black female table 4 comments of panelists where changes occured between rounds one and two comments of panellists 3 x panelists 4-4 “i am waiting for the right opportunity.” – 2 x white male and 1 x white female 1 x panelist 5-5 “i am in charge of my own business and will make a move when it suits me.” – white male table 5 comments of panelists who planned to leave the institution during round one, but did not empirical research pienaar & bester vol. 6 no. 2 pp. 32 41sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za the institution, but only 37.5% held the same opinion during round two. black academics revealed the same decrease in organisational commitment, since the figure of 38.8% in round one decreased to 33.3% in round two. during round one 31.6% of the white academics were uncertain with regard to their continued commitment to the institution as opposed to 25% in round two. in round one 44.5% of the black panellists indicated that they were uncertain as opposed to only 33% in round two. during round one 16.7% and 26.4% of the black and the white respondents respectively indicated that a strong possibility existed that they would leave the institution. during round two these figures changed to 33.3% and 37.5% respectively for the remaining black and white respondents. the decrease in organisational commitment is confirmed by the preceding data, since eight of the original 37 panellists who had participated in this research left the institution within a year and a half. four of the above-mentioned panellists had already indicated that they were uncertain whether they would remain at the institution. two indicated that a strong possibility existed that they would leave the institution and the remaining two panellists indicated that they were definitely leaving the institution. four of the eight panellists who left the research group were members of the black male group. another three were members of the white female group and one was a member of the black female panel. this confirms the theory of rosser (2004) which indicates that the best single predictor to determine whether an individual will indeed leave an organisation or an institution is when such a person mentions it at some period/stage or another. according to this research it would, however, seem that if an individual is already uncertain whether he or she is going to remain at the institution, it increases the probability that he or she will leave the institution. none of the eight panellists who have left the institution indicated in round one that there was a slight or no probability that they would remain at the institution. of the remaining 28 respondents, 13 made other choices in round two than they had originally done in round one (see table 4). panellists were requested to provide reasons for this change in the second questionnaire, should there indeed have been such a change. the data in table 4 indicates that most changes were the result of a remuneration structure which did not meet the needs of the panellists or which was not acceptable to that specific group. koen (2003) alleges that insufficient financial remuneration is also one of the most important reasons why young, competent academics cannot be recruited or retained for higher education in south africa. this situation is aggravated by the fact that 15% of the academics in south africa leave the profession annually. in addition, the majority of the professors and associate professors will retire from these institutions within the next decade. consequently, higher education institutions may in the near future be seriously lacking in well-qualified and experienced academics. reasons which are provided for this phenomenon are poor financial remuneration, as well as the decrease in the image and status which are associated with an academic career. the above-mentioned factors are also confirmed by anderson et al. (2002); barkhuizen, rothman and tytherleigh (2004); gillespie et al. (2001); küskü (2003); oshagbemi (1997); pienaar (2005), ssesanga and garrett (2005), trotman, bennett, scheffler and tulloch (2002), since these researchers also identified financial remuneration as one of the most important factors contributing to academics worldwide, as well as in south africa, harbouring feelings of job dissatisfaction. poor financial remuneration does not only contribute to the fact that academics experience job dissatisfaction, but it is also allegedly one of the main reasons – especially according to black academic staff – why they leave higher education institutions (potgieter, 2002). according to oshagbemi and hickson (2003), it is especially the increasing difference between academic staff and their peers in the private sector which is responsible for this group’s job dissatisfaction. joseph (2000) alleges that, in some cases, academics’ remuneration is the same or even less than that of graduates who have less experience and fewer qualifications. according to spector (1997), job dissatisfaction is not only influenced by the level of remuneration, but the perceptual impression that the renumeration is not fair also contributes to this. one single panellist replied that she would probably leave the institution, but that there were not really other options available. a black panellist indicated that he only had to complete his studies, whereafter he would leave the institution. the lack of real transformation was indicated by a black panellist as the reason for the change in her responses. the preceding responses are confirmed by pienaar (2005) who undertook a study of academics in the early career phase at the same institution with a view to identifying the career dilemmas of young academics. the findings of spector (1997) are also confirmed in this study. according to this model, academics who indicated that they would leave the institution would first consider whether or not alternative options were available before doing so. during round two there were four panellists who had indicated during round one that a strong possibility existed that they were either considering leaving the institution or would definitely do so. they still felt the same, but had not yet left. their comments confirm spector’s theory that they were simply waiting for the right opportunity, whereafter they would probably leave the institution (see table 5). conclusions the results of this study therefore indicate that 66.6% of the white male panellists (as compared to 55.5% during round one); 57% of the white female panellists (as compared to 60% during round one); 83% of the black male panellists (as compared to 60% during round one); and 50% of the black female panellists during round two (the same as during round one) were uncertain whether they would remain at the institution any longer and that, in some cases, a definite or strong possibility existed that they would indeed leave the institution. that, in addition to the eight panellists who had already left the institution, creates a bleak picture for the specific institution. whereas a mere 18.9% of the panellists indicated during round one that they were going to leave the institution, 35.5% indicated during round two that they did indeed wish to leave the institution. that is an increase of 16.6% in the space of a year and a half. according to rosser (2004), labour turnover mainly takes place when an individual is dissatisfied with his or her work. although it would appear that there have been numerous positive changes in higher education, according to this study and martin (1999), the current academic is probably experiencing frustration and disillusionment. the conclusion which was reached is that currently, an academic career is probably developing into one of the most stressful ones and that it no longer enjoys its previous status and prestige. this conclusion is supported by barkhuizen et al. (2004). should labour market conditions improve, it will become increasingly difficult to recruit young academics (novices), as well as to retain the current academic corps (cf. the result of this study), since the career dilemmas of academics do not receive the necessary attention. 36 the retention of academics empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 2 pp. 32 41 gillespie, n.a., walsh, m., winefield, a.h. ,dua, s.j. & stough, c. (2001). occupational stress in universities: staff perceptions of the causes, consequences and moderators of stress. work & stress, 15(1), 53-72. greenhaus, j.h. & callanan, g.a. (1994). career management. orlando: dryden jackson, s.e. & schuler, r.s. (2004). managing human resources: a partnership perspective. cincinnati: south-western college. joseph, r. (2000). stress free teaching: a practical guide to tackling stress in teaching, lecturing and tutoring. london: kogan page limited. küskü, f. (2003). employee satisfaction in higher education: the case of academic and administrative staff in turkey. career development international, 8(7), 347-356. landy, f.j. (1989). psychology of work behavior (4th ed.). california: brooks-cole publishing company. martin, e. (1999). changing academic work: developing the learning university. buckingham: srhe & open university press. mccormick, e.j. & ilgen, d. (1985). industrial and organizational psychology (8th ed.). new jersey: englewood cliffs & prentice-hall. mckeown, j.l. (2002). retaining top employees. new york: mcgraw-hill. olivier, m.a.j., venter, d.j.h. & de lange, n. (2004). emotional intelligence of academics. unpublished presentation at the second south african wellness conference, 26 may, northwest university, potchefstroom, south africa. oshagbemi, t. (1996). job satisfaction of uk academics. educational management and administration, 24(2), 389-400. oshagbemi, t. (1997). job satisfaction and dissatisfaction in higher education. education and training, 39(9), 354-359. oshagbemi, t. & hickson, c. (2003). some aspects of overall job satisfaction: a binomial logit model. journal of managerial psychology, 18(4), 357-367. phillips, j.j. & connell, a.o. (2003). managing employee retention: a strategic accountability approach. burlington: franklin covey. pienaar, j.w. (2005). career dilemmas of academics within a changing south african higher education institution. unpublished doctoral thesis. bloemfontein: university of the free state. pienaar, c & bester c. (2006). die loopbaandilemmas van akademiese personeel verbonde aan ‘n veranderende suidafrikaanse hoëronderwysinstelling. acta academica, 38(3), 74-95. potgieter, c. (2002). black academics on the move. pretoria: centre for higher education transformation (chet). rosser, v.j. (2004). a national study on midlevel leaders in higher education: the unsung professionals in the academy. higher education, 48, 317-337. ssesanga, k. & garrett, r.m. (2005) job satisfaction of university academics: perspectives from uganda. higher education, 50, 33-56. simmons, j. (2002). an “expert witness” perspective on performance appraisal in universities and colleges. employee relations, 24(1), 86-100. spector, p.e. (1997). job satisfaction:aapplication, assessment, causes, and consequences. london: sage publications. trotman, c.a., bennett, e. scheffler, e. & tulloch, j.c. (2002). faculty recruitment, retention, and success in dental academia. american journal of orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics, 122(1), 1-8. should the career obstacles of young academics not be addressed, it may entail a variety of negative outcomes for higher education in general, as well as for this specific higher education institution. one of these is that experienced and wellqualified academics will increasingly leave institutions. recommendations seen in the light of the aforementioned results and theory as well as the central nature and the role which academics play within the functioning and sustainability of any higher education institution, it is imperative that the leaders who are responsible for the management of these institutions should find ways of addressing the career dilemmas of academic staff. the problems of academics in careers with high levels of job dissatisfaction and work stress should be addressed more proactively and effectively, especially where young academics are concerned. the reason for this is that they are associated with, among others, decreased organisational commitment, decreased mental and physical health, problematic collegial relationships, and a decrease in the quality of work life. pienaar (2005) feels strongly that, should such problems not be addressed, high quality academics will in all probability increasingly be lost for higher education and its institutions. if this institution does not take heed of the above and so continues to lose academics,its national and international image and its competitive advantage, as well as the ability to generate new knowledge in a specific field may be adversely affected. this matter influences the sustainability of this institution as well as of south african higher education as a whole. the results obtained after round two of this study indicate the gravity of the matter. while taking all these aspects into account, some of the national priorities which have to receive attention from higher education and higher education institutions are the acquisition and the retention of high calibre academics with specific reference to an improved financial remuneration system. it is, however, recommended that this study should also be undertaken in other higher education institutions in south africa and, additionally, that more academics should take part in studies of this kind. references altbach, p. (1991). the academic profession. in p. altbach (ed.). international higher education: an encyclopaedia. new york: garland publishing, 23-45. anderson, d., richard, j. & saha, l. (2002). changes in academic work: implications for universities of the changing age distribution and work roles of academic staff. canberra: department of education, science and training. retrieved 14 february 2007, from the world wide web: http://www.dest.gov.au/nr/ rdonlyres/57e92071-c591-4e15-879c-468a9cde80a1/910/ academic_work.pdf. ball, d. (2004). attracting the right staff is a mission. sunday business times, 18. barkhuizen, e.n., rothman, s. & tytherleigh, m.y. (2004). burnout of academic staff in a higher education institution. paper presented at the 2nd south african wellness conference, 26 may, potchefstroom, south africa. . 37 empirical research pienaar & bester vol. 6 no. 2 pp. 32 41sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za38 the retention of academics empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 2 pp. 32 41 39 empirical research pienaar & bester vol. 6 no. 2 pp. 32 41sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za40 the retention of academics empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 2 pp. 32 41 41 abstract introduction research design results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references appendix 1 about the author(s) wilhelmus j. conradie university of stellenbosch business school, stellenbosch university, cape town, south africa jeremias j. de klerk university of stellenbosch business school, stellenbosch university, cape town, south africa citation conradie, w.j., & de klerk, j.j. (2019). to flex or not to flex? flexible work arrangements amongst software developers in an emerging economy. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1175. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1175 original research to flex or not to flex? flexible work arrangements amongst software developers in an emerging economy wilhelmus j. conradie, jeremias j. de klerk received: 19 feb. 2019; accepted: 19 aug. 2019; published: 12 nov. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: professional workers increasingly have the ability to do their work outside normal working hours, while being away from the workplace or from the comfort of their homes. advancements in technology have made flexible work arrangements (fwas) much easier and viable for corporates to consider. research purpose: although research mostly confirms the benefits of fwas, research on the outcomes of fwas is somewhat inconclusive and sometimes contradicting, both within and across developed and emerging economies. motivation for the study: it is important to advance our understanding of the use of fwas and their outcomes so that organisations in emerging economies have a valid basis for considering the implementation of fwas. research approach/design and method: this study applied survey-based research to investigate the use and outcome of two of the most common fwas – flexible working-time hours and telecommuting – amongst software developers in an emerging economy. main findings: the results indicate that employers in south african software development sector have largely adopted fwas, and that developers use flexible working arrangements and perceive them to be beneficial for themselves and their organisations. the study results confirm that fwas do not correlate with fewer working hours but do correlate with increased levels of both engagement and performance. practical/managerial implications: the findings are important in the light of critical shortage of and the resulting high pressure on software developers. employers in emerging economies such as south africa could seriously consider implementing fwas, can probably do so with confidence and are likely to receive support from their staff. contribution/value-add: the findings of this study are significant because they confirm that the workplace flexibility provided by fwa is effective, also in a developing economy such as south africa. keywords: engagement; flexible work arrangements; flexitime; performance; telecommute. introduction workers are increasingly looking for working time flexibility, and one of the challenges that organisations face is with regard to combining their business requirements with employees’ needs for flexibility. flexible working arrangements (fwas) refer to employment practices that provide employees with less rigid structures to execute their daily work and to operate in (masuda et al., 2012). research results mostly indicate that not only are fwas popular but that implementation mostly yields many important positive work outcomes, such as high performance (de menezes & kelliher, 2017) and increased engagement (anitha, 2014; bailey, madden, alfes, & fletcher, 2017). however, fwas are not a panacea or without challenges and a major issue underlying research on fwas is whether the outcomes are universally applicable, or contingent on particular contexts (peretz, fried, & levi, 2018). indeed, research is somewhat inconclusive, and most research on fwas has been conducted in western countries and developed economies (bloom, liang, roberts, & ying, 2015; peretz et al., 2018). however, research in emerging economies (especially in asian countries) often present contradicting results (croucher & rizov, 2014; onken-menge, nüesch, & kröll, 2018; vahle-hinz, kirschner, & thomson, 2013). from both a theoretical and an application perspective, it is important to advance our understanding of the use of fwas and their outcomes within and across nations and cultural contexts so that organisations have a valid basis for considering the implementation of fwas (peretz et al., 2018). with fwas pervasive in the software development industry globally (boell, cecez-kecmanovic, & campbell, 2016; johns & gratton, 2013), it is particularly important to understand its adoption and outcomes. a study on fwas with a sample from an emerging economy such as south africa can provide unique insights into outcomes of workplace flexibility in this context. in this study, we assessed the availability and the usage of fwas in the software development sector of south africa, its perceived advantage from an employee’s perspective and its relationship with performance and engagement. flexible work arrangements are restricted to two of its most popular aspects, namely, flexitime (allowing employees flexibility in working hour options) (de menezes & kelliher, 2017) and telecommuting (commonly known as working remotely or ‘work from home’) (onken-menge et al., 2018; peretz et al., 2018; spreitzer, cameron, & garrett, 2017). from the literature study, conceptualisations were developed about fwas in the south african context, and in particular the software development industry, from which four specific research hypotheses were developed. a sample of 260 individual respondents provided information on the usage of fwas, their perceptions on whether fwas are beneficial and its relationships with tenure, working hours, engagement and performance. the hypotheses were assessed through exploratory factor analysis (efa), confirmatory factor analysis (cfa), t-tests and stepwise multiple regression. results and recommendations are discussed. literature review the rise and prevalence of flexible work arrangements with the advancements in information and communication technology and the widespread adoption of the internet, new working arrangements have become a popular possibility (allen, golden, & shockley, 2015). today’s workforce actively seeks out the opportunity to work more flexibly and the provision and the usage of fwas are increasing rapidly (regus, 2017). flexible work arrangements can be defined as formal or informal arrangements, which allow employees some flexibility and choice to control and readjust their working hours and/or spatial location of work (campbell, 2015; ciarniene & vienazindiene, 2018). today’s workforce is increasingly composed of workers who actively want more freedom of choice and seek out the opportunity to work more flexibly in terms of time and location (pitt-catsouphes, matz-costa, & besen, 2012; regus, 2017). providing the experience choice and flexibility at work engages employees psychologically by providing elevated experiences of psychological and physiological job resources (pitt-catsouphes et al., 2012). psychological and physiological job resources include ‘physical, psychological, social or organisational aspects that either/or (1) reduce job demands and the associated physiological and psychological costs; (2) are functional in achieving work goals’ (schaufeli & bakker, 2004, p. 296). flexible work arrangements apply directly to both parts of the definition. it enables individuals to cope better with the competing stresses between home and work demands by improving employees’ experience of the interaction between their work and personal life (home) roles (campbell, 2015; weale, wells, & oakman, 2017). flexible work arrangements to address the psychological and physical job resources include many different working arrangements, such as flexitime (allowing employees flexibility in working hour options) (de menezes & kelliher, 2017), telecommuting or teleworking (working remotely or ‘work from home’), job sharing and a variety of temporary work contract arrangements (berkery, morley, tiernan, purtill, & parry, 2017). two of the most popular types of fwas for full-time employees appear to be flexitime and telecommuting (onken-menge et al., 2018; peretz et al., 2018; spreitzer et al., 2017). some of the biggest drivers behind the growth in fwas include employees’ need for better work–life balance (spreitzer et al., 2017), a drive to resolve family–work conflict (putnam, myers, & gailliard, 2014) and a desire to reduce the time ‘wasted’ time in commuting (regus, 2017). in response to these trends and needs, many employers attempt to provide employees with more freedom and flexibility, without compromising on the organisation’s interests (regus, 2017). especially knowledge workers are increasingly becoming able and enabled to complete work without being physically present at the office and to perform tasks from anywhere and at any time (johns & gratton, 2013; lee & de kok, 2016). the potential of the flexible workplace is now a reality, giving employers more options to consider to improve workplace practices by implementing fwas (allen, johnson, kiburz, & shockley, 2013). employers worldwide have increasingly adopted fwas in an attempt to attract and retain talented employees and enhance their competitiveness (peretz et al., 2018; stavrou & kilaniotis, 2010). outcomes of flexible work arrangements research indicates that fwas are popular, that is, its implementation is inexpensive and mostly yields positive benefits (berkery et al., 2017; regus, 2017). a range of empirical studies on fwas attest to the positive work outcomes related to its implementation and usage. some of these studies are summarised in table 1. table 1: benefits of flexible work arrangements. table 1 shows that fwas are consistently related to a broad spectrum of positive work outcomes. flexible work arrangements tend to be attractive from both an organisational point of view and an employee point of view. ayman, ashoush and younis (2015) argue that organisations value outcomes such as reduced turnover rates, lower absenteeism, increased loyalty and productivity, and more positive work attitudes. similarly, employees value more balance between work and family demands, lowered workload stress and improved quality of work life. despite these positive outcomes, access to and use of fwas vary widely within and across organisational and national contexts as explicated later (bessa & tomlinson, 2017). interestingly, not only do specific fwas yield the results indicated in table 1 independently or in isolation but also tend to render an even stronger result if more than one type is applied, for example, the typical combination of flexitime with telecommuting (thompson et al., 2015), which tends to act as a single bundle (peretz et al., 2018; stavrou, 2005). as such, many empirical studies tend to combine different types of fwas as a single construct (chen & fulmer, 2018). however, the implementation of fwas is not a panacea for workplace problems. notwithstanding research largely indicating positive outcomes of fwas, empirical results on the relationship between fwas and well-being are somewhat inconclusive and sometimes contradicting to the benefits listed in table 1 (vahle-hinz et al., 2013). for instance, it was found that teleworking can promote isolation and lack of support experienced from the organisation (croucher & rizov, 2014), increased stress as work and home life become inseparable (baard & thomas, 2010) and reduced well-being through increased workload (onken-menge et al., 2018; regus, 2017; ter hoeven & van zoonen, 2015). flexible work arrangements present coordination, control, collaboration difficulties and negative attitudes (ayman et al., 2015). an unsupportive culture may cause stigmatisation of those who take advantage of fwas (den dulk, groeneveld, ollier-malaterre, & valcour, 2013; putnam et al., 2014), resulting in increased stress (vahle-hinz et al., 2013). the need to investigate the use and outcomes of fwas further is thus evident. flexible work arrangements and sociocultural context apart from a few exceptions, most research on fwas has been conducted in western countries (bloom et al., 2015; peretz et al., 2018). with the world representing a global economy, it is important to understand whether human resource practices such as fwas render similar outcomes in different countries and contexts (rabl et al., 2014). indeed, several studies have shown that the use and outcomes of fwas can differ significantly across nations (kassinis & stavrou, 2013; ollier-malaterre & foucreault, 2017; peretz et al., 2018; stavrou, parry, & anderson, 2015). the few studies relating to fwas in emerging countries (mostly asian settings) often contradict the findings from western and developed economies (bloom et al., 2015; croucher & rizov, 2014; ollier-malaterre & foucreault, 2017; peretz et al., 2018; stock, strecker, & bieling, 2016). moreover, there appears not to be a predictable pattern in the outcomes of fwas across nations and cultures, as research also found differences in the outcomes of fwas across nations within the west (masuda et al., 2012; peters & den dulk, 2003; stavrou & kilaniotis, 2010), and between the west, the east and latin america (masuda et al., 2012; stock et al., 2016), and also within asia (dizaho et al., 2017). the need to investigate the use and outcomes of fwas in various specific countries and economies is evident. flexible work arrangements and the emerging economy of south africa research on fwas is scarce within the emerging economies of africa. notwithstanding, the available research found a correlation between fwas and job performance in kenya and nigeria (abba, 2018; opuko & munjuri, 2017). in south africa, fwas have been correlated with loyalty and morale (appiah-mfodwa, horwitz, kieswetter, king, & solai, 2000), decreased stress and commuting time (baard & thomas, 2010) and job satisfaction and work–life balance (grobler & de bruyn, 2011). the availability and the use of fwas in south africa have been found to be particularly popular and effective in emerging multinational companies (horwitz, 2017). based on these (limited) results, it appears that fwas would render positive research outcomes for south african employees, notwithstanding the potential differences in outcomes of fwas across nations and economies that were noted previously in research. it seems as if other contextual factors, such as the macroeconomic environment, can influence the use and outcomes of fwas, particularly in emerging economies (idris, 2014). in most developed economies, unemployment is low, standards of living are comparatively high and organisational work–family support is relatively common (stock et al., 2016). this is not necessarily the case in emerging economies where unemployment rates are often high, combined with a mismatch between skills required and the generally available skill set of the working population (ahmad, shaw, bown, gardiner, & omar, 2015; reddy, bhorat, powell, visser, & arends, 2016). indeed, this is the case in south africa, where there is a ‘structural mismatch between labour demand and supply … in that the economy and labour market shows demand for high-skilled workers, but there is a surplus of low-skilled workers’ (reddy et al., 2016, p. 9). the unemployment rate is between 25% (structured) and 35% (expanded), with 42% of the labour force having less than a grade 12 certificate and only 25% being classified as skilled workers (reddy et al., 2016). this puts immense demands on skilled workers’ working hours and pressure on organisations to curb their turnover intentions (ahmad et al., 2015). it is thus reasonable to argue that the skilled south african workers will value the opportunity to make use of fwas. indeed, naidoo and kasiram (2003) found that south african professionals working in the united kingdom appreciate the higher prevalence of fwas abroad, and find them beneficial. these factors seem to imply that the skilled south african employees are likely to appreciate fwas as being beneficial, notwithstanding research that found negative outcomes of fwas in some emerging economies (chandra, 2012; idris, 2014). flexible work arrangements and software developers in south africa within the sociocultural context of a country, the industry sector is another contextual feature likely to affect the use and outcomes of fwas. peretz et al. (2018) and stavrou (2005) argue that service-oriented and private, high-tech organisations have more flexibility than manufacturing organisations and are thus better able to accommodate fwas. in this sector, south africa has a particular competitive advantage in the fast-growing software development market (maseko, 2017; quartz africa, 2016). however, the growth of this subsector is inhibited by a substantive lack of skills and a chronic shortage of software developers (news24wire, 2015). many software development firms tend to be smalland medium-size private enterprises (smes) (statistics south africa, 2017), typically lacking the resources to compete with larger firms on elaborate monetary benefits. offering benefits such as fwas can therefore present a differentiating advantage to employers to attract and retain employees with restricted and sought-after skills (den dulk et al., 2013; ross & ali, 2017). access to a fast and reliable internet connection is a prerequisite for effective telecommuting (regus, 2017). in many developed economies, the almost omnipresent internet is a given, permeating most aspects of work and daily life (regus, 2017). however, a slow or unreliable internet connection is experienced as a major obstacle for telecommuting in many emerging economies. for instance, 92% of brazilian workers and 33% of south african workers noted this as a major obstacle (regus, 2017). however, even in emerging economies, the information and technology environment is suited for telecommuting, because of these workers’ relative better access to a fast and reliable internet than workers in other industries (ross & ali, 2017). in some of the emerging economies where fwas did not yield positive outcomes, it is related to the issues of trust and accountability in cultures where rigid operating hours are appreciated (chandra, 2012; idris, 2014). this is not the case in the software development industry where developers’ commitment and the work context promote both telecommuting and flexitime (ross & ali, 2017). indeed, nortje, van brakel and rensleigh (2009) note that fwas are popular in the south african software development sector. because of the nature of the work context of south african software developers, it seems reasonable to expect that fwas will be generally available to these employees and that they will make substantive use thereof. flexible work arrangements and engagement the relationship between fwas and employee engagement (as noted in table 1) is of particular interest in south africa, where employee engagement levels tend to be one of the lowest globally (abbot, 2014). engagement is a vital workplace variable as it is consistently confirmed to be a strong predictor of a range of positive work outcomes, such as high performance and low turnover intentions, high morale, enhanced commitment and involvement (bailey et al., 2017), increased job satisfaction and commitment (lockwood, 2007), and productivity (böckerman & ilmakunnas, 2012). engagement is defined as ‘a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption’ (schaufeli, salanova, gonzález-romá, & bakker, 2002, p. 74). vigour is described as high levels of energy, resilience, willingness to invest effort in one’s work and persistence despite difficulties (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). dedication refers to a ‘sense of significance, enthusiasm, inspiration, pride and challenge’ (schaufeli & bakker, 2004, p. 295). absorption refers to being fully concentrated and happily engrossed in one’s work (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). job resources have been shown to be a significant antecedent of employee engagement (bailey et al., 2017). amongst other aspects, job resources refer to those ‘physical, psychological, social or organisational aspects that reduce job demands and the associated physiological and psychological costs’ (schaufeli & bakker, 2004, p. 296). one can argue that fwas offer both psychological and physiological job resources. psychologically, fwas create an empowering sense of personal freedom and autonomy with regard to structuring one’s work and day, supported by an encouraging signal of being cared for by the organisation (chen & fulmer, 2018; onken-menge et al., 2018; peretz et al., 2018). physiologically, fwas allow workers to work from anywhere, and at times which suit their schedule and physical circumstances best. with fwas pervasive in the software development industry globally (johns & gratton, 2013), and correlations between fwas with engagement performance confirmed (bailey et al., 2017), it can be argued that south african software developers who make use of fwas are likely to measure higher on engagement and performance outcomes than those who do not. from the preceding discussions, four specific research hypotheses are derived: hypothesis 1: fwas are generally available to south african software developers and there will be a substantive usage of fwas. hypothesis 2: south african software developers perceive fwas to be beneficial (helpful and advantageous). hypothesis 3: south african software developers who make use of fwas are more engaged than those who do not make use of it. hypothesis 4: south african software developers who make use of fwas experience higher performance outcomes than those who do not make use of it. research design research approach a quantitative research method was used in this cross-sectional study. primary data were gathered via an anonymous web-based survey through a voluntary convenience sampling approach. invitations to participate in the survey were sent via email to identified software developers in the researcher’s professional network. the invitation was also posted on the researchers’ linkedin profiles by means of the news feed facility. a participation request was also posted on the online mybroadband forum in the discussion board for software developers. all three invitations made it clear that the researchers were only interested in the views of software developers. responses from respondents who did not provide performance review ratings were excluded from the analyses. the study primarily focussed on analysis at the individual level, and no company-level evaluations were made (except for investigating the adoption of fwas by employers and perceived benefit of fwas for employers). the survey questionnaire was designed to take less than 5 min to complete in order to increase the potential response rate. research method research participants a total of 277 responses were received, of which 260 responses could be used in the analyses. however, 22 respondents did not provide performance review ratings and were excluded from the performance-related analyses. respondents represented 86 organisations, which were mostly smes (68%, n = 59), from seven of the nine south african provinces, with most respondents living in two provinces (82%, n = 210). most of the respondents were 30–39 years old (46%, n = 119), followed by those younger than 30 years (33%, n = 84). most respondents were male (89%, n = 230), with relatively few female respondents (11%, n = 28), and roughly 41% (n = 105) of the respondents being parents. measuring instruments firstly, the questionnaire gathered demographic data, (e.g. age, gender, the location of participants, parental status, freelancers or fulltime employees, working hours and tenure). secondly, three key aspects were measured, namely, engagement (utrecht work engagement scale, uwes-9), self-reported performance review and perceived benefits of fwas (appendix 1). employee opinions regarding self-benefit and company benefits of fwa were determined via a five-point likert scale questionnaire (appendix 1). perceptions of the benefits of the two types of fwa investigated in this study, that is, flexitime and telecommuting, were measured separately. employee perception of self-performance was also measured via a six-point likert scale (appendix 1). perception of the participant’s last performance review was used as a heuristic for perceived performance. time at work was measured by enquiring about the typical number of hours spent in a week on work-related activities. tenure was measured by asking respondents how many years they have been employed with their current employer. both these questions were presented in an open-ended state to accommodate a wide range of responses. employee engagement was measured using the shortened version of the uwes-9 (schaufeli, et al., 2002). the cronbach’s alphas for the 9-item uwes-9 were consistent with the original 17-item version of the uwes, which showed high internal consistency with cronbach’s alphas of 0.84, 0.89 and 0.79 for the three factors, respectively: vigour, dedication and absorption. schaufeli et al. (2006) confirmed that uwes-9 scores have acceptable psychometric properties and that it is an acceptable instrument to measure employee engagement. the uwes-9 measures three dimensions of engagement, namely, vigour, dedication and absorption by using the same six-point likert scale applied by schaufeli et al. (2006). in order to mitigate for common method variance (fuller, simmering, atinc, atinc, & babin, 2016), recommendations of podsakoff, mackenzie, lee and podsakoff (2003) were applied, for example, ensuring anonymity to respondents, clearly defining constructs such as flexitime and remote working, urging honest answers and the revalidation of the uwes-9 through cfa. research procedure and ethical considerations the web-based survey ensured the anonymity of all participants by only providing a link to the survey, from where anonymised data were obtained on an excel format. the survey commenced with an informed consent form, stating the rights of the participants, emphasising their voluntary participation and the right to refuse participation and to skip questions they did not feel comfortable answering. only when participants accepted these conditions could the survey be completed. potential participants were approached in their personal capacity and not through their respective organisations, but through the platforms and methods noted. the only organisational information collected was to ask participants to indicate their organisation’s internet domain (e.g. mycompany.co.za). responses to this question enabled the researchers to establish organisational size by conducting a google search. obtaining gatekeeper permission for participants to participate in the study was therefore not deemed to be necessary. data analyses in order not to compromise on data validity, only cases where respondents actually made use of fwas, both flexitime and telecommuting, were included in the analyses regarding the use of fwas. research instruments developed elsewhere in the world do not necessarily have the same structure when applied in an emerging economy (de klerk, boshoff, & van wyk, 2009; van der walt & de klerk, 2014). the uwes-9 was thus first validated for the south african sample in this study, through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. statistical tests used to investigate relationships included independent sample t-tests and pearson’s correlation. two-sample hypothesis testing analyses were used to assess whether employees who made use of flexitime experienced higher performance outcomes than those who did not, and whether they believed fwas would be beneficial for them or themselves, their companies and so forth. stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to assess the effect of fwas on engagement and performance. ethical consideration ethical approval for this research was obtained from the stellenbosch university research ethics committee (approval number: su-hsd-004510). results validating utrecht work engagement scale-9 the first step in the analysis was to validate the structural validity of the uwes-9, through efa, with maximum likelihood oblique rotation and then through cfa. exploratory factor analysis results showed internal consistency of each factor, with cronbach’s alpha (α) > 0.75, and therefore all factors were retained. absorption’s inter-item correlation was 0.57 (α = 0.80), vigour’s inter-item correlation was 0.72 (α = 0.88) and dedication’s inter-item correlation was 0.70 (α = 0.85). all factor correlations were satisfactory (r > 0.58). however, the high inter-item correlations of the factors indicated that some of the items might be redundant. all items loaded satisfactorily on the respective factors, except for item 7 loading on the absorption factor, rather than on dedication. only item 5 loaded lower than 0.6 (r = 0.42). the second step was to investigate the structural validity of the uwes-9 through cfa. the chi-square/degrees of freedom yielded 8.9 indicating a poor fit (i.e. > 3.0) (marsh, barnes, & hocevar, 1985). the root-mean-square error of approximation (rmsea) was 0.18, which is not considered an accurate fit by being larger than 0.08. the normed fit index (nfi) with a value of 0.89 and the non-nfi (nnfi) with a value of 0.85 slightly missed the preferred criteria to be larger than 0.9. both the comparative fit index (cfi) and the incremental fit index (ifi) with a value of 0.9 indicated an acceptable fit (hu & bentler, 1999). in the cfa, all the relationships were significant, but estimated errors for three items > 3.7 suggested a restructuring of the model. based on the efa and the cfa, three changes to the uwes-9 model were incorporated, namely, removing items 5 and 6, and moving item 7 from dedication to factor 1 (absorption), as recommended by de klerk et al. (2009) and van der walt and de klerk (2014). table 2 shows the main fit indices for the adjusted model. table 2: goodness-of-fit statistics for improved utrecht work engagement scale-9 model. results from table 2 indicate a very satisfactory fit for the improved model on all criteria. the adjusted model can thus be regarded as a valid instrument to measure engagement in this sample. descriptive statistics respondents’ tenure at their current employers tended to be fairly short at 5.7 years (n = 252, sd = 5.6), although this is much longer than the 1.9 and 1.5 years reported for medium and small software development companies, respectively, in the united states (hackerlife, 2017). software developers in this sample tended to work longer than the 40 h/week norm in south africa, with the mean number of working hours being 45.3 h/week (n = 253, sd = 11.7). although the mean value is higher than the norm, it is not unexpected, as it is common for highly skilled workers in south africa to work extra hours (van der walt & de klerk, 2014). most respondents indicated that they have access to both flexitime and telecommuting (78.6%, n = 204), and most of these respondents (81.6%, n = 166) actually made use of both these options. these results support hypothesis 1 – fwas are generally available to south african software developers and there will be a substantive usage of fwas. respondents were asked to rate their perception of whether fwas are beneficial on a six-point scale. respondents indicated that they regarded fwas as beneficial to themselves (or would be if they had access to it), with a high mean reported score of 4.75 (compared to a maximum of 6) (n = 259), which is the same mean as those who actually make use of it (n = 166). similarly, most respondents indicated that they regarded fwas as beneficial to companies (or would be if it was provided) with a relatively high mean reported score of 4.43 (compared to a maximum of 6) (n = 259), whereas those who actually made use of fwas reported a slightly higher mean score of 4.62 (n = 166). the general perceived advantage of fwas provides support for hypothesis 2 – south african software developers perceive fwas to be beneficial (helpful and advantageous). the mean engagement score of the respondents was 4.35 on a five-point scale (sd = 0.92, n = 260), without discriminating on the usage of fwas, and 4.5 for those making use of fwas. most respondents indicated high perceptions of their performance reviews (those who used and did not use fwas combined), with a mean reported performance score of 4.66 (n = 228, sd = 1.12). the analysis of variance in engagement and performance scores between those participants who actually make use of fwas compared to those who do not are presented in the next section. outcomes and relationships of flexible work arrangements two-sample independent t-tests, assuming unequal variances (p < 0.05), were employed to assess the relationships between fwas and years of service with employers, perceptions of fwas being beneficial, levels of engagement and performance. in order not to compromise on data validity, analyses concerning the usage of fwas included only cases where respondents actually made use of both flexitime and telecommuting. the results indicate that respondents’ tenure with the current employer does not differ statistically significantly for those who make use of fwas, compared to those who do not make use of fwas (6 and 5.4 years average, respectively; p = 0.58). even though respondents who made use of fwas indicated that on average they worked slightly longer hours than those who did not make use of it (45.9 and 44.4 average hours per week, respectively), this difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.49). table 3 shows the t-test results of engagement and performance levels of respondents that make use of fwas relative to respondents who do not. table 3: effect of flexible work arrangements on engagement and performance. table 3 shows a statistically significant relative gain of 20.9% in engagement scores of respondents who make use of fwas compared to those who do not make use of fwas (p < 0.001). table 3 also confirms that respondents who make use of fwas report significantly higher perceived performance than those who do not (p < 0.001). the 13.7% gain is substantial in light of the significant benefits of engagement found by other research (bailey et al., 2017). this result provides support for hypothesis 3 – south african software developers who make use of fwas are more engaged than those who do not make use of it, and hypothesis 4 – south african software developers who make use of fwas experience higher performance outcomes than those who do not make use of it. the relationship between fwas with engagement and performance for respondents who make use of fwas was assessed through pearson’s correlation coefficients and multiple stepwise regression. the pearson’s correlation coefficients (r) between fwas, performance and levels of engagement are indicated in table 4. table 4: pearson’s correlation coefficients. the strongest relationship was between the use of fwas and engagement (r = 0.38). the second strongest relationship was between engagement and performance (r = 0.32). the results in table 4 thus confirm the statistically significant relationship of engagement with the use of fwas (confirming hypothesis 3) as well as the significant relationship between engagement and performance. although correlations with r < 0.3 were generally regarded as weak and of less practical value, even if statistically significant, one can argue that the correlation between performance and the use of fwas (r = 0.27) may indeed have some practical value. the reason being that profit margins of software development companies are sensitive to slight changes in the performance of software developers, and thereby have a direct impact on output. based on this reason, hypothesis 4 is supported, but with caution. table 4 also indicates that the correlations of fwas with engagement and performance are stronger when telecommuting and flexible hours are used in combination (r = 0.38 and 0.27, respectively), rather than in isolation (flexible hours: r = 0.29 and 0.16, respectively, and telecommuting: r = 0.22 and 0.28, respectively). for this reason, further analyses only investigated the relationship between the combined use of telecommuting and flexible hours, with engagement and performance. stepwise multiple regression analysis was used to assess the ability of fwas to predict engagement and performance, with engagement as a mediating variable. these results are shown in table 5. table 5: regression of flexible work arrangements use, engagement and performance. table 5 shows that utilisation of fwas explains 14.8% of the variance in engagement [r2 = 0.148, f (1, 182) = 31.372, p < 0.001]. these results confirm the results from the t-tests, namely, that fwas have a significant effect on engagement and provide further support for hypothesis 2. the next step was to conduct stepwise multiple regression analysis to assess the ability of engagement to predict performance, after controlling for the influence of utilising fwas. utilisation of fwas was entered at step 1, explaining 7.3% of the variance in performance [r2 = 0.073, f (1, 159) = 12.369, p < 0.001]. after entry of engagement at step 2, the total variance explained by the model was 19.4% [r2 = 0.194, f (1, 228) = 18.821, p < 0.001]. in other words, fwas and engagement together explain 19.4% of the variance in performance, with engagement as a mediating variable explaining 10% of the variance in performance after controlling for use of fwas [r2 = 0.10, f (2, 159) = 25.078, p < 0.001]. the main results from the regression analysis are graphically illustrated in figure 1. figure 1: research model. despite relatively low r² numbers, the research model (figure 1) demonstrates that fwas contribute to improved engagement and performance, and also that engagement is associated positively with performance. the results noted in table 5 and figure 1 provide further support for both hypotheses 3 and 4. discussion the study makes important contributions to insights on workplace flexibility. this study confirms a substantive provision of fwas by south african software development companies and the utilisation thereof by their software developers. the results confirm that fwas contribute, similarly to what was found in developed economies, to improved engagement and performance (de menezes & kelliher, 2017), and also that engagement is associated positively with performance (böckerman & ilmakunnas, 2012; thompson et al., 2015). this study confirms the importance of fwas for software development firms in south africa, a fast-growing sector, suffering from chronic skills shortages, and where the output of developers directly affects the products or services. the results also confirm previous research (thompson et al., 2015) that specific fwas are less effective when used in isolation, however, rendering a stronger result if more than one type of fwas is applied, for example, combining flexitime with telecommuting. the south african software developers in the sample perceived fwas to be beneficial to themselves and to their companies. this implies that employers who are considering implementing fwas are likely to receive support from their staff. contrary to research findings in the united states (spreitzer et al., 2017), the results indicate that fwas do not necessarily influence employee tenure with an organisation in south africa, with the tenure apparently longer in this sample than what was found in the united states (spreitzer et al., 2017). this can arguably be a result of less favourable employment opportunities in the macroeconomic context of the emerging economy, notwithstanding potential skills shortages in this context. although one must be careful not to make confirmed conclusions or equate employee tenure with turnover intentions, this result does put a question mark behind whether fwas influence turnover in an emerging economy, as found in other studies (mcnall et al., 2010). this study did not find a statistically significant difference in the working hours of developers who make use of fwas in comparison to those who do not make use of it, although the former indicated more working hours per week on average. this result signals that employers do not need to be concerned that less control over employees who work from home or choosing their own hours, will put in fewer hours of work. although working hours do not equate to work–life balance, this result nevertheless puts a question mark behind whether fwas actually influence work–life balance in this emerging economy, as found elsewhere (spreitzer et al., 2017). the study also confirms the statistically significant correlation between fwas and engagement. engagement, which positively correlates with fwas, also acts as a mediating variable to explain some of the variance in performance in the research model. although the explanation percentages in the research model are somewhat low, combined with the pearson’s correlation and t-tests, the results provide significant support for the important correlations between fwas with engagement and performance for the south african sample of software developers. with employee engagement generally a strong predictor of performance and many other positive work outcomes, as was found by other research (bailey et al., 2017), even slight increases in developers’ engagement are important to competitive software developing entities. limitations and future studies as with any research project, this study is also subject to limitations. the study did not make a full provision for self-selection bias and common method variance. the voluntary nature of online surveys arguably might have resulted in software developers who are more interested, positive or involved in fwas volunteering for the study. as convenience sampling was used, the sample is not necessarily representative of the south african population of software developers and could even include people who are not software developers or working in the software development industry. the sample is relatively small and concentrated in the smallto medium-sized software development companies within south africa. one should therefore be careful not to make any unqualified generalisations about the benefits of fwas to other organisations, other industries, other types of employees, even within this industry and to other emerging economies. however, not only were several mitigation measures applied to prevent common method variance as noted but also the high response to invitation ratio potentially indicate mitigation (podsakoff et al., 2003). as such, we argue that fuller et al.’s (2016) finding that common method variance does not represent a grave threat to the validity of research findings apply in this case. the study can be improved by introducing a control group. usage of only two types of fwas was measured, namely, flexitime and telecommuting. the results, therefore, do not necessarily apply to other types of fwas or workplace flexibilities. the respective use of flexitime and telecommuting was not split in the measurement, but measured together. this reduces the ability to distinguish between the use and the effect of these two types of fwas. performance was approximated through measuring satisfaction with performance review and not actual performance. more research and more comprehensive studies are recommended on the outcomes of fwas (and separately for different types of fwas such as flexitime and telecommuting), focussing on other industries, other kinds of employees, other aspects of workplace flexibility and other emerging economies. contributions of study and recommendations to organisations workplace flexibility and fwas are not only receiving increasing exposure and interest but are potentially effective ways to address many workplace concerns and improve individual and organisational functioning. the results confirm that in this emerging economy, outcomes of fwas do not necessarily differ from more developed economies. this finding is important in the light of critical shortage and resulting high pressure on software developers in this context (news24wire, 2015). this study confirms that the prevalence and usage of fwas have a relevant and positive relationship with employee engagement and self-reported performance in software development companies in south africa. results from this study are important as they provide significant evidence that the fwas can yield positive work outcomes, and should be encouraged where practical and appropriate. it is therefore recommended that employers that do not currently make use of fwas should at least consider implementing flexitime and telecommuting. this recommendation does not only apply to south african organisations in the software development industry, but perhaps also to other industries and other emerging economies as well. conclusion the benefits identified from implementing or using fwa are significant, whereas the risk of implementing fwa appears to be low. apart from being associated with higher engagement and perceived performance levels, the adaptability to circumstances that flexitime and telecommuting offer individuals and potential employees potentially enable companies to recruit from a much larger talent pool. flexible work arrangements can potentially also reduce high costs associated with workplace space constraints and relocation. south african software development employers, and perhaps also other emerging economies, that are still considering fwa can probably implement it with confidence and are likely to receive support from their staff. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank prof. charlene gerber for assistance with statistical analyses. competing interests the authors confirm that this work is original and has not been published elsewhere, nor is it currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. authors’ contributions w.j.c. conducted the research and analyses, and contributed to manuscript writing. j.j.d.k. provided guidance and support for the research and analyses, and contributed to the final manuscript. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data can be made available on request. disclaimer the views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and not an official position of the institution or the funder. references abba, h.d. (2018). flexitime and performance of academic staff in polytechnics in north west geo-political zones of nigeria. kiu journal of social sciences, 4(2), 123–130. https://doi.org/10.15406/ahoaj.2018.02.00056 abbot, p. (2014). employee engagement: fact sheet. retrieved from http://sabpp.co.za/sabpp-fact-sheets/. ahmad, a., shaw, n.e., bown, n.j., gardiner, j., & omar, k. (2015). the impact of negative work home interface on intention to leave and the role of flexible working arrangements in malaysia. the journal of developing areas, 50(5), 507–515. https://doi.org/10.1353/jda.2016.0066 allen, t.d., golden, t.d., & shockley, k.m. (2015). commentary on: how effective is telecommuting? assessing the status of our scientific findings. psychological science in the public interest, 16(2), 38–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100615593273 allen, t.d., johnson, r.c., kiburz, k.m., & shockley, k.m. (2013). work-family conflict and flexible work arrangements: deconstructing flexibility. personnel psychology, 66(2), 345–376. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12012 anitha, j. (2014). determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance. international journal of productivity and performance management, 63(3), 308–323. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-01-2013-0008 appiah-mfodwa, a., horwitz, f., kieswetter, g., king, d., & solai, l. (2000). flexible work practices, productivity improvement and employment. society in transition, 31(2), 95–110. https://doi.org/10.1080/21528586.2000.10419016 ayman, m., ashoush, a.-l., & younis, r.a. (2015). flexible work arrangements: related topics and directions. journal of business studies quarterly, 7(1), 36–45. baard, n., & thomas, a. (2010). teleworking in south africa: employee benefits and challenges. sa journal of human resource management, 8(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.298 bailey, c., madden, a., alfes, k., & fletcher, l. (2017). the meaning, antecedents and outcomes of employee engagement: a narrative synthesis. international journal of management reviews, 19(1), 31–53. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12077 bal, p.m., & de lange, a.h. (2015). from flexibility human resource management to employee engagement and perceived job performance across the lifespan: a multisample study. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 88(1), 126–154. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12082 berkery, e., morley, m.j., tiernan, s., purtill, h., & parry, e. (2017). on the uptake of flexible working arrangement and the association with human resource and organizational performance outcomes. european management journal, 14, 165–183. https://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12103 bessa, i., & tomlinson, j. (2017). established, accelerated and emergent themes in flexible work research. journal of industrial relations, 59(2), 153–169. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022185616671541 bloom, n., liang, j., roberts, j., & ying, z.j. (2015). does working from home work? evidence from a chinese experiment. quarterly journal of economics, 130(1), 165–218. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qju032 böckerman, p., & ilmakunnas, p. (2012). the job satisfaction-productivity nexus: a study using matched survey and register data. industrial and labor relations review, 65(2), 244–262. https://doi.org/10.1177/001979391206500203 boell, s.k., cecez-kecmanovic, d., & campbell, j. (2016). telework paradoxes and practices: the importance of the nature of work. new technology, work and employment, 31(2), 114–131. https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12063 campbell, k.m. (2015). flexible work schedules, virtual work programs, and employee productivity. doctoral dissertation. minneapolis, mn: walden university. chandra, v. (2012). work–life balance: eastern and western perspectives. the international journal of human resource management, 23(5), 1040–1056. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.651339 chen, y., & fulmer, i. (2016). fine-tuning what we know about flexible work arrangements: deconstructing employees’ experience. academy of management proceedings, 2016(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2016.270 chen, y., & fulmer, i.s. (2018). fine-tuning what we know about employees’ experience with flexible work arrangements and their job attitudes. hr science forum, 57, 381–395. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21849 ciarniene, r., & vienazindiene, m. (2018). flexible work arrangements from generation and gender perspectives: evidence from lithuania. inzinerine ekonomika-engineering economics, 29(1), 84–92. https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.29.1.19247 coenen, m., & kok, r.a.w. (2014). workplace flexibility and new product development performance: the role of telework and flexible work schedules. european management journal, 32(4), 564–576. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2013.12.003 croucher, r., & rizov, m. (2014). mnes and flexible working practices in mauritius. the international journal of human resource management, 26(21), 2701–2717. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2014.934898 de klerk, j.j., boshoff, a.b., & van wyk, r. (2009). measuring meaning in life in south africa: validation of an instrument developed in the usa. south african journal of psychology, 39(3), 314–325. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124630903900306 de menezes, l.m., & kelliher, c. (2011). flexible working and performance: a systematic review of the evidence for a business case. international journal of management reviews, 13(4), 452–474. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00301.x de menezes, l.m., & kelliher, c. (2017). flexible working, individual performance, and employee attitudes: comparing formal and informal arrangements. human resource management, 56(6), 1051–1070. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21822 den dulk, l., groeneveld, s., ollier-malaterre, a., & valcour, m. (2013). national context in work-life research: a multi-level cross-national analysis of the adoption of workplace work-life arrangements in europe. european management journal, 31(5), 478–495. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2013.04.010 dizaho, e.k., salleh, r., & abdullah, a. (2017). achieving work life balance through flexible work schedules and arrangements. global business and management: an international journal, 9(1), 455–466. fuller, c.m., simmering, m.j., atinc, g., atinc, y., & babin, b.j. (2016). common methods variance detection in business research. journal of business ethics, 69, 3192–3198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.12.008 grobler, p.a., & de bruyn, a.j. (2011). flexible work practices (fwp) – an effective instrument in the retention of talent: a survey of selected jse-listed companies. south african journal of business management, 42(4), 63–78. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajbm.v42i4.506 haar, j.m., russo, m., suñe, a., & ollier-malaterre, a. (2014). outcomes of work-life balance on job satisfaction, life satisfaction and mental health: a study across seven cultures. journal of vocational behavior, 85(3), 361–373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2014.08.010 hackerlife. (2017). software engineers tenure in san francisco. retrieved from https://hackerlife.co/blog/san-francisco-large-corporation-employee-tenure. halpern, d.f. (2005). how time-flexible work policies can reduce stress, improve health, and save money. stress and health, 21(3), 157–168. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.1049 horwitz, f. (2017). international hrm in south african multinational companies. journal of international management, 23(2), 208–222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2017.01.005 hu, l., & bentler, p.m. (1999). cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. multidisciplinary journal, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 idris, a. (2014). flexible working as an employee retention strategy in developing countries: malaysian bank managers speak. journal of management research, 14(2), 71–86. johns, t., & gratton, l. (2013). the third wave of virtual work. harvard business review, 91(1–2), 1–9. kassinis, g.i., & stavrou, e.t. (2013). non-standard work arrangements and national context. european management journal, 31, 464–477. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2013.04.005 lee, j., & de kok, a. (2016). the new way of working: bricks, bytes and behavior. in l. jungwoo (ed.), the impact of ict on work (pp. 9–40). seoul: springer singapore. lockwood, n.r. (2007). leveraging employee engagement for competitive advantage. research quarterly, 52(3), 1–12. marsh, h.w., barnes, j., & hocevar, d. (1985). self-other agreement on multidimensional self-concept ratings: factor analysis and multitrait-multimethod analysis. journal of personality and social psychology, 49(5), 1360–1377. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.49.5.1360 maseko, f. (2017). south african software developers are in high demand. retrieved from http://www.itnewsafrica.com/2017/09/south-african-software-developers-are-in-high-demand/. masuda, a.d., poelmans, s.a.y., allen, t.d., spector, p.e., lapierre, l.m., cooper, c.l., … moreno-velazquez, i. (2012). flexible work arrangements availability and their relationship with work-to-family conflict, job satisfaction and turnover intentions. applied psychology: an international review, 61(1), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2011.00453.x mcnall, l.a., masuda, a.d., & nicklin, j.m. (2010). flexible work arrangements, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions: the mediating role of work-to-family enrichment. the journal of psychology, 144(1), 61–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980903356073 naidoo, s., & kasiram, m. (2003). experiences of south african social workers in the united kingdom. social work/maatskaplike werk, 42(2), 117–126. https://doi.org/10.15270/42-2-306 news24wire. (2015). shortage of skilled workers in south africa. retrieved from http://businesstech.co.za/news/it-services/87740/shortage-of-skilled-workers-in-south-africa/. nortje, h., van brakel, p.a., & rensleigh, c. (2009). information environment of teleworkers in south africa. sa journal of information management, 6(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajim.v6i1.294 ollier-malaterre, a., & foucreault, a. (2017). cross-national work-life research: cultural and structural impacts for individuals and organizations. journal of management, 43(1), 111–136. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206316655873 onken-menge, g., nüesch, s., & kröll, c. (2018). are you attracted? do you remain? meta-analytic evidence on flexible work practices. business research, 11, 239–277. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40685-017-0059-6 opuko, h., & munjuri, m.g. (2017). flexible work practices and job performance in the transport and logistics industry: the kenyan perspective. dba africa management review, 7(2), 78–92. peretz, h., fried, y., & levi, a. (2018). flexible work arrangements, national culture, organisational characteristics, and organisational outcomes: a study across 21 countries. human resource management journal, 28, 182–200. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12172 perlow, l.a., & kelly, e.l. (2014). toward a model of work redesign for better work and better life. work and occupations, 41(1), 111–134. https://doi.org/10.1177/0730888413516473 peters, p., & den dulk, l. (2003). cross cultural differences in managers’ support for home-based telework: a theoretical elaboration. international journal of cross cultural management, 3(3), 329–346. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470595803003003005. pitt-catsouphes, m., matz-costa, c., & besen, e. (2012). workplace flexibility – issue brief. retrieved from https://www.bc.edu/research/agingandwork/archive_pubs/ib19.html. podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., lee, j.y., & podsakoff, n.p. (2003). common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. journal of applied psychology, 88(5), 879–903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879 putnam, l.l., myers, k.k., & gailliard, b.m. (2014). examining the tensions in workplace flexibility and exploring options for new directions. human relations, 67(4), 413–440. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726713495704 quartz africa. (2016). south africa doesn’t have enough developers to build a digital economy. retrieved from https://qz.com/714662/south-africa-doesnt-have-enough-developers-to-build-a-digital-economy/ rabl, t., jayasinghe, m., gerhart, b., & kühlmann, t.m. (2014). a meta-analysis of country differences in the high-performance work system-business performance relationship: the roles of national culture and managerial discretion. journal of applied psychology, 99(6), 1011–1041. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037712 reddy, v., bhorat, h., powell, m., visser, m., & arends, f. (2016). skills supply and demand in south africa. pretoria: department of higher education and training. regus. (2017). the workplace revolution: a picture of flexible working 2017. retrieved from https://www.regus.co.za/work-southafrica/wp-content/uploads/sites/131/2017/06/gbs-report.pdf. ross, p., & ali, y. (2017). normative commitment in the ict sector: why professional commitment and flexible work practices matter. international journal of employment studies, 25(1), 44–63. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organizational behavior, 25(3), 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.248 schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzález-romá, v.a., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3, 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 spreitzer, g.m., cameron, l., & garrett, l. (2017). alternative work arrangements: two images of the new world of work. annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behavior, 4(1), 473–499. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032516-113332 statistics south africa. (2017). three facts about the ict sector. retrieved from http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=9852. stavrou, e.t. (2005). flexible work bundles and organizational competitiveness: a cross-national study of the european work context. journal of organizational behavior, 26(8), 923–947. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.356 stavrou, e.t., & kilaniotis, c. (2010). flexible work and turnover: an empirical investigation across cultures. british journal of management, 21, 541–554. stavrou, e.t., parry, e., & anderson, d. (2015). nonstandard work arrangements and configurations of firm and societal systems. the international journal of human resource management, 26(19), 2412–2433. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2009.00659.x stock, r.m., strecker, m.m., & bieling, g.i. (2016). organizational work-family support as universal remedy? a cross-cultural comparison of china, india and the usa. the international journal of human resource management, 27(11), 1192–1216. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1062039 subramaniam, g., tan, p.-l., maniam, b., & ali, e. (2013). workplace flexibility, empowerment and quality of life. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 105, 885–893. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.11.090 ter hoeven, c.l., & van zoonen, w. (2015). flexible work designs and employee well-being: examining the effects of resources and demands. new technology, work and employment, 30(3), 237–255. https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12052 thompson, r.j., payne, s.c., & taylor, a.b. (2015). applicant attraction to flexible work arrangements: separating the influence of flextime and flexplace. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 88(4), 726–749. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12095 timms, c., brough, p., o’driscoll, m., kalliath, t., siu, o.l., sit, c., & lo, d. (2015). flexible work arrangements, work engagement, turnover intentions and psychological health. asia pacific journal of human resources, 53(1), 83–103. https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7941.12030 vahle-hinz, t., kirschner, k., & thomson, m. (2013). employment-related demands and resources – new ways of researching stress in flexible work arrangements. management revue, 24(3), 199–221. https://doi.org/10.5771/0935-9915-2013-3-199 van der walt, f., & de klerk, j.j. (2014). measuring spirituality in south africa: validation of instruments developed in the usa. international review of psychiatry, 26(3), 368–378. https://doi.org/10.3109/09540261.2014.907129 weale, v.p., wells, y.d., & oakman, j. (2017). flexible working arrangements in residential aged care: applying a person–environment fit model. asia pacific journal of human resources, 55(3), 356–374. https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7941.12142 appendix 1 items from the survey questionnaire (excluding utrecht work engagement scale-9 and demographic items) i can work flexible hours? (yes, and i am using it; yes, but not using it; no) i have permission to work from home or remotely? (yes, and i am using it; yes, but not using it; no) the following items relating to fwas were measured on a five-point likert scale (1 = never; 5 = always) i think flexitime is (or would be) beneficial for my company i think flexitime is (or would be) beneficial for myself i think working from home or remotely is (or would be) beneficial for my company i think working from home or remotely is (or would be) beneficial for myself if not a freelancer, how would you rate your last performance review? (seven-point scale, 0 = terrible; 6 = great) abstract introduction research purpose literature review research design results discussion limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) pieter schaap department of human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa chantal olckers department of human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation schaap, p., & olckers, c. (2020). relationships between employee retention factors and attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover: an extended structural equation modelling approach. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1358. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1358 original research relationships between employee retention factors and attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover: an extended structural equation modelling approach pieter schaap, chantal olckers received: 09 mar. 2020; accepted: 06 oct. 2020; published: 22 dec. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: gaining a full understanding of employee retention (er) management requires studying multiple retention factors in tandem. many empirical studies that use conventional structural equation modelling (sem) include only a single retention factor or a subset of factors, making it impossible to assess the relative embeddedness of these factors in er practices. research purpose: the purpose was to gain a better understanding of the relationships between multiple er factors and attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover. motivation for the study: this research aimed to address the need for more comprehensive latent multivariate approaches to studying er by using extended sem techniques. research approach/design and method: the researchers used a cross-sectional survey design and obtained a convenience sample of 272 skilled employees from public and private organisations. the first stage of the study entailed using the exploratory structural equation model (esem) within the confirmatory factor analysis to test a model measuring er factors. the second stage involved using plausible values for latent variables in an sem analysis of the relationship between attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover (i.e. affective commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intention) and er factors. main findings: the findings indicated that affective commitment and job satisfaction differentially mediated the relationship between er factors and turnover intention, partially supporting existing research and providing new insights into er. practical/managerial implications: this study suggested that in order for management to effectively manage er, they must understand the relative embeddedness of a range of er factors and prioritise motivational and empowerment-enhancing bundles of practice (e.g. compensation, job characteristics, work–life balance and career opportunities) to impact on attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover. contribution/value-add: this study indicated that the use of extended sem modelling techniques could provide valuable insights into the multivariate relationships between er factors and attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover. keywords: affective commitment; employee retention; exploratory structural equation modelling; job satisfaction; turnover intention. introduction maintaining a productive workforce and retaining existing employees are central issues in the competitive, dynamic and volatile world of business (gani, potgieter, & coetzee, 2020). employee retention (er) factors (e.g. compensation, training and development, promotion opportunities, work–life balance, managerial support and job design) play a key role in retaining employees and preventing them from searching for greener pastures (al-emadi, schwabenland, & wei, 2015; das & baruah, 2013; lee, hom, eberly, & li, 2018). according to ghosh, satyawadi, prasad joshi and shadman (2013), the retention strategies of organisations should incorporate multiple er factors. de vos and meganck (2009), guchait and cho (2010) and subramony (2009) point out that studying multiple er factors in tandem is necessary to gain a full understanding of retention management. most empirical studies address only one retention factor or a subset of factors, making it impossible to assess the embeddedness of these factors in er practices (al-emadi et al., 2015; de vos & meganck, 2009). following a multifaceted approach (i.e. considering multiple er factors) to er management as opposed to one that focuses on single er factors produces significantly superior outcomes (dechawatanapaisal, 2018). this highlights the need for more comprehensive multivariate approaches to studying er (hom, lee, shaw, & hausknecht, 2017; lee et al., 2018). existing research has identified many er factors (rubenstein, eberly, lee, & mitchell, 2015, 2017), but our study focused on the most common and critical er factors associated with human resource management (hrm) practices, namely, compensation, job characteristics, training and development opportunities, supervisor support, career opportunities (co) and work–life balance (döckel, 2003; döckel, basson, & coetzee, 2006; gani et al., 2020; potgieter & snyman, 2018). although numerous studies connect er practices and job satisfaction, affective commitment and turnover intention (lee et al., 2018; rubenstein et al., 2015, 2017), multivariate studies on the simultaneous relationships between multiple er practices and these attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover intention are scarce (al-emadi et al., 2015; dechawatanapaisal, 2018; guchait & cho, 2010; juhdi, pa’wan, & hansaram, 2013; subramony, 2009). existing literature suggests that employee turnover intention, job satisfaction and affective commitment are important proximal antecedents to voluntary turnover and also significant descendants of more distal er factors (duarte, gomes, & neves, 2015; lee et al., 2018; rubenstein et al., 2015, 2017). therefore, an extended sem analysis that includes all these constructs should contribute significantly to an understanding of the multivariate nature of er practices in organisations. this study specifically addressed the need for analysing multiple er variables and attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover (turnover intention, job satisfaction, affective commitment) in tandem. to do this, we used an expanded measurement model and latent multivariate analysis techniques. using extended techniques within the structural equation modelling (sem) framework, we analysed complex relationships between multiple constructs of sufficient breadth and depth to ensure valid and accurate findings. structural equation modelling is considered the preferred method for conducting multivariate analyses with latent variables that control for measurement error (devlieger & rosseel, 2017). sem estimates all parameters in a measurement model and a structural model simultaneously, thereby eliminating bias in path coefficients (devlieger & rosseel, 2017). however, conventional confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) identifies all cross-factor item loadings as model misspecifications and can be considered too restrictive when testing lengthy measurement models and imperfect indicators typically found in the social sciences (marsh, morin, parker, & kaur, 2014). this may explain why previous studies incorporated limited er factors in sem models. shortening measures, using item parcels and aggregating factor scores are popular strategies commonly employed to overcome model misspecification challenges and obtain good fitting sem models. however, these strategies erode the depth and breadth of the measured constructs, discount measurement error and camouflage misspecification in cfas and sems (hsu, skidmore, li, & thompson, 2014; marsh et al., 2009). to overcome these challenges, exploratory structural equation modelling (esem) and plausible values (pvs) can be used. compared to cfa, esem is more flexible as it accommodates multiple and minor cross-factor item loadings and provides a more realistic representation of lengthy measurement models that typically contain imperfect indicators (marsh et al., 2014). moreover, pvs (i.e. latent scores) that accurately represent the latent variables of a measurement model can effectively be used in an sem structural model without having to include the full measurement model (e.g. the esem or cfa model). plausible values account for measurement error, have less computational demands and counter model misspecification issues and sample-size demands (asparouhov & muthén, 2010). in the present study, esem and pvs are regarded as extended cfa techniques. more details on these techniques are presented in the ‘analytical approach and statistical analyses’ section. mai, zhang and wen (2018) confirm that using esem models instead of the conventional cfa models in sem analyses results in less biased path coefficients where minor, but non-ignorable, cross-factor item loadings exist. research purpose the purpose of this study was to gain a comprehensive understanding of the simultaneous effect of multiple er factors on attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover (affective commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intention) through the testing of a multivariate sem model and the use of extended sem techniques. similar to recent studies published in high-impact management and psychology journals (howard, gagné, morin, & forest, 2018; sánchez-oliva et al., 2017), our study followed a ‘methodological–substantive synergy’ approach (marsh & hau, 2007, p. 152), which entails applying methodological developments and innovative statistical tools with enhanced precision to complex substantive issues, resulting in advancing theory. in the ‘literature review’ section, we discuss the theory that informed this study’s hypotheses relating to the relationship between er factors and the attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover. for purposes of conciseness, we relied strongly on a synthesis of findings drawn from the existing seminal works, review studies and meta-analyses to support our study’s hypotheses. literature review employee retention retaining employees is a significant factor in organisations’ talent management strategies to reduce turnover costs (narayanan, rajithakumar, & menon, 2019). for hrm policies and practices to be effective, they should take account of the er factors. this study supports gani et al.’s (2020, p. 144) definition of retention factors: ‘retention practices are those organisational context factors that influence an employee’s choice to continue to work for an organisation or to leave the organisation’. although a variety of theories relating to social identity, work motivation, employee equity and expectancy contribute to explaining er (hom et al., 2017), the social exchange theory has been widely used more than others to gain an understanding of social behaviour and interactions (al-emadi et al., 2015). an important finding has been that employers’ actions in respect of valued retention factors reinforce employees’ intention to stay or leave (al-emadi et al., 2015). next, we present a brief discussion of each of the attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover (turnover intention, job satisfaction, affective commitment) and the er factors included in this study, and we refer to our hypotheses statements. turnover intention turnover intention is defined as ‘a conscious and deliberate wilfulness to leave the organization’ (matz, woo, & kim, 2014, p. 234). compared to other turnover antecedents (e.g. job satisfaction, affective commitment), turnover intention is the most significant predictor of actual turnover (typically sharing 25% of the turnover variance; rubenstein et al., 2017). researchers suggest that job satisfaction and organisational commitment are linked and are both essential attitudinal determinants of turnover intention (al-emadi et al., 2015; joseph, ng, koh, & ang, 2007; kim & kao, 2014; larkin, brantley-dias, & lokey-vega, 2016; luna-arocas & camps, 2007; nouri & parker, 2020; price & mueller, 1981; tett & meyer, 1993). job satisfaction job satisfaction manifests in employees’ feelings about their jobs, which are the result of subjective evaluations of job characteristics (agho, price, & mueller, 1992). job satisfaction may indicate positive feelings about specific aspects of a job or about a job in general. this study defines job satisfaction as a positive feeling about a job in general—a feeling that (weiss, dawis, england, & lofquist, as cited in larkin et al., 2016): [d]epends on how closely a person’s abilities match the requirements of the job and the extent to which a person’s needs are fulfilled by reinforcing aspects of the work environment. (p. 28) the negative relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention has been well-documented (guzeller & celiker, 2019). organisational commitment according to allen and meyer (1990), organisational commitment refers to an employee’s wish to stay with an organisation because of its characteristics, goals and values. these authors identify three facets of organisational commitment: affective commitment or emotional attachment, continued commitment that takes the cost of leaving the job into consideration and normative commitment that considers contractual obligations to the organisation. the focus of the present study is on affective commitment. research evidence suggests that the relationship between turnover intention and affective commitment overshadows the relationship between turnover intention and the other forms of commitment (allen & meyer, 1990). as such, the former relationship determines employees’ attitudes to turnover intention and retention (meyer & herscovitch, 2001; nouri & parker, 2020; solinger, van olffen, & roe, 2008). the literature provides evidence relating to the directional relationships between er factors and attitudinal determinants of voluntary turnover, and we deal with this aspect next. direct relationships between employee retention factors and attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover in our discussion of the research on the direct relationship between er factors and the attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover (i.e. turnover intention, job satisfaction and affective commitment), we refer to the measurement model of döckel (2003) which includes the constructs of compensation, job characteristics, training and development opportunities, supervisor support, co and work–life balance. döckel’s (2003) measurement model is based on well-known and often-cited er factor measures developed, validated and cross-validated by other researchers in the field. in our discussion of meta-analyses studies, we also included the mean effect sizes () (cohen, 1987) reported, because of their high generalisability. compensation compensation (c) includes monetary and non-monetary rewards offered to employees in return for services rendered (ibidunni, osibanjo, adeniji, salau, & falola, 2016). in döckel’s (2003) measurement model, compensation incorporates content from heneman and schwab’s (1985) measure that focuses on the importance of employees’ satisfaction with compensation, benefits, raises, and the structure and administration of remuneration systems. moncarz, zhao and kay (2009) and singh (2019) argue that compensation can be a critical factor in reducing turnover and increasing commitment and also in motivating employees to leave organisations. meta-analysis studies in a variety of work environments show compensation has a large effect ( = 0.45) on affective commitment, a small to medium effect ( = –0.23; = –0.37) on job satisfaction and a medium to large direct effect ( = –0.42; = –0.60) on turnover intention (joseph et al., 2007; kim & kao, 2014; meyer, stanley, herscovitch, & topolnytsky, 2002; saber, 2014). however, the effect sizes reported varied considerably from study to study, suggesting the context of a study may be a determining factor. job characteristics mcknight, phillips and hardgrave (2009) define the construct of job characteristics (j) as employees’ perceptions regarding the nature and content of a task. the measurement model of döckel (2003) includes the job characteristics of skill variety and autonomy, which were derived from hackman and oldham’s (1976) job diagnostic survey. if work is autonomous and challenging, offers variety and requires superior skills, employees also develop feelings of job satisfaction, commitment and intention to stay (bontis, richards, & serenko, 2011; döckel, 2003). meta-analysis studies show that job characteristics have a medium to large effect ( = 0.38; = 0.50) on job satisfaction (saber, 2014) and a small to large effect ( = −0.22; = −0.50) on turnover intention (matz et al., 2014). thus, evidence suggests that job characteristics should have a medium to large effect on the antecedents of voluntary turnover. training and development opportunities through the formal training and development activities (t) an organisation provides, employees obtain the information they need to fulfil their job duties (bernhard & o’driscoll, 2011). döckel (2003) bases the general professional development opportunities and the resourcing and availability of relevant joband product-specific training opportunities in his measurement model on the training items developed by rogg, schmidt, shull and schmitt (2001). employees whose organisations give them opportunities for learning and growing will continue to work for their organisations and will be less inclined to leave (ghosh et al., 2013). ready availability of training and career development opportunities also result in increased job satisfaction (deery, 2008; ibidunni et al., 2016). according to aladwan, bhanugopan and d’netto (2015) and gani et al. (2020), training and development have a positive effect on organisational commitment. however, chew and chan (2008) have found that although training and development opportunities correlate positively with the intention to stay, they do not show a significant correlation with affective commitment. findings about the relationship between training and development and organisational commitment appear to be inconsistent (smeenk, eisinga, teelken, & doorewaard, 2006). supervisor support supervisor support (s) consists of the recognition and feedback employees receive from supervisors (döckel et al., 2006). döckel’s (2003) model includes several items that ramus and steger (2000) developed to measure supervisor recognition as well as items that good and fairhurst (1999) developed to measure supervisor feedback. supervisors’ feedback and recognition increase employees’ self-worth and affective commitment and may even prevent them from leaving the organisation or being absent from work (van dyk & coetzee, 2012). relationships with supervisors and other colleagues can influence employees’ satisfaction and their decision to leave or not leave the organisation (ibidunni et al., 2016). meta-analysis studies have found supervisor support to have a medium effect ( = −0.32) on turnover intention (kim & kao, 2014; matz et al., 2014). overall, the literature suggests significant relationships between supervisor support and the antecedents of voluntary turnover (rathi & lee, 2017). career opportunities based on items that landau and hammer (1986) developed, döckel (2003) describes co as including internal promotions or lateral moves to different positions in an organisation. in their study, kochanski and ledford (2001) found that the reward of being offered career development opportunities was the most prevalent retention factor. research by gani et al. (2020), joāo and coetzee (2012) and kraimer, seibert, wayne and liden (2011) shows that perceived career development opportunities and career growth have a significant positive impact on employees’ affective commitment and job performance and reduce their intention to leave the organisation. promotions, career development opportunities and appreciation in the workplace have a great impact on employees’ job satisfaction (ibidunni et al., 2016; sheraz, batool, & adnan, 2019). work–life balance kraimer et al. (2011) define work–life balance (w) as employees’ ability to meet work and family commitments as well as other non-work responsibilities and activities. döckel’s (2003) model includes work–life balance items from paré, tremblay and lalonde’s (2001) measure and focuses on the extent to which the demands of a job and a work–life conflict with the demands of a family and a personal life. richman, civian, shannon, jeffrey hill and brennan (2008) associate perceived flexible working arrangements and the ability to balance the demands of a personal and a work life with increased levels of employee engagement, higher levels of productivity and job satisfaction, and a decrease in turnover intention. in a longitudinal study, nohe and sonntag (2014) found that work–family conflict had a medium effect (r = 0.36) on turnover intention. similar findings were made by chan and ao (2019) in their cross-sectional study. meta-analysis studies indicate that work–family conflict has a medium effect ( = −0.25; = −0.26) on job satisfaction (butts, casper, & yang, 2013; shockley & singla, 2011) and a small effect ( = −0.17) on affective commitment (butts et al., 2013). having reviewed existing research on the direct relationship between er factors and the antecedents of voluntary turnover, we formulated hypothesis 1: hypothesis 1: er factors show a statistically significant (p < 0.05) direct positive effect on affective commitment and job satisfaction and a statistically significant (p < 0.05) direct negative effect on turnover intention. relevant to our study was the relationships amongst attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover, and we reviewed applicable research in this regard. the relationships amongst attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover researchers identify job satisfaction as an antecedent to organisational commitment, and organisational commitment as a mediator of the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention (farrell & rusbult, 1981). however, research findings differ as to the direction and nature of the relationship between job satisfaction and organisational commitment (farkas & tetrick, 1989). these findings include models indicating organisational commitment to causally affect job satisfaction, and models indicating a reciprocal relationship between job satisfaction and organisational commitment (farkas & tetrick, 1989). more recent studies on er tend to adopt models with paths running from job satisfaction to organisational commitment (al-emadi et al., 2015; ćulibrk, delić, mitrović, & ćulibrk, 2018; valaei & rezaei, 2016). both organisational commitment and job satisfaction have been shown to contribute uniquely to turnover intention (tett & meyer, 1993), suggesting that organisational commitment may not fully mediate the path between job satisfaction and turnover intention. the aforegoing theoretical discussion supports our study’s second hypothesis: hypothesis 2: job satisfaction has a significant indirect and significant direct negative effect (p < 0.05) (i.e. partial mediation) on turnover intention via the mediator of affective commitment. as the direct and indirect relationships between er factors and attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover were relevant to our study, we reviewed the applicable literature in this regard. direct and indirect relationships between employee retention factors and attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover research suggests that er factors may be distal determinants of turnover intention and that their effects are mediated by job satisfaction and affective commitment as proximal attitudinal determinants of turnover intention (duarte et al., 2015; hom, mitchell, lee, & griffith, 2012; joseph et al., 2007; tett & meyer, 1993). exchange theory – an expansion of the interdependency theory (homans, 1961; kelley & thibaut, 1978) – supports the direction of the paths of a model according to which job satisfaction depends on the specific and immediate rewards and costs related to the job (e.g. job characteristics). furthermore, affective commitment to the organisation – a broader concept with a longer-term perspective – depends on job satisfaction and other rewards and costs related to the organisation in general (e.g. compensation and benefits; farrell & rusbult, 1981). we hypothesised an unfolding model where er factors indirectly affected the turnover intention via job satisfaction and affective commitment, and we assumed that affective commitment partially mediated the path between job satisfaction and turnover intention. the above theoretical discussion supports the study’s third hypothesis: hypothesis 3: er factors show a statistically significant (p < 0.05) indirect negative effect and a statistically insignificant direct effect (i.e. full mediation) on turnover intention via the mediators of job satisfaction and affective commitment. our study’s purpose was to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the effect of multiple er factors on the attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover (affective commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intention) through the testing of a multivariate sem model and the use of extended sem techniques. research design research approach we used a quantitative approach and a cross-sectional survey design to study the relationships between er factors and the attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover. research participants a convenience sample of 272 skilled, highly skilled or professional employees from various public and private organisations in south africa was obtained. the response rate was 47%. the majority of the sample consisted of white people (65%), english speaking (78%) and women (64%). these participants had obtained a tertiary qualification (76%) and had been employed in their respective companies for a period of less than 5 years (64%). measuring instruments we used a number of instruments, each based on a likert-type scale. to measure the distal determinants of attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover, we used the retention factor scale (rfs; döckel, 003) consisting of the subscales of compensation satisfaction (c), job characteristics (j), training and development (t), supervisor support (s), career opportunities (co) and work–life balance (w). as measures of attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover, we used the job satisfaction scale (jss; hellgren, sjöberg, & sverke, 1997), the affective commitment scale (acs; meyer & allen, 1991) and the turnover intention scale (tis; sjöberg & sverke, 1996). a biographical questionnaire was administered to the respondents. the measures we used (for a detailed summary, see table 1) are well known and have been extensively used and frequently cited (döckel et al., 2006). table 1: summary of measurement instruments used. analytical approach and statistical analysis this study used two extended cfa techniques to overcome the limitations of the overly restrictive conventional cfa model, which penalises for trivial non-target cross loadings. firstly, esem, nested in cfa (ewc), was used to test the rfs being a complex and multidimensional model. secondly, pvs were used as factor scores to accurately represent the latent variables of the rfs model, which obviated the need to include the full measurement model in the sem analysis. we used the mplus statistical software version 7.3 and the maximum likelihood (ml) estimation method with robust standard errors (mlr) to conduct the sem analyses (muthén & muthén, 2012). we relied on the full-information mlr estimator to adequately account for missing data (muthén & muthén, 2012). overall, 2.1% of the data out of the total dataset was missing at random. we conducted esem and target rotation as precursors to the ewc analyses. exploratory structural equation modelling, which integrates conventional cfa and exploratory factor analysis (efa), does not penalise for trivial non-target cross loadings. our decision to set to zero all item loadings not expected to relate to a latent variable was based on theoretical and empirical grounds. we used the efa solution of döckel (2003, p. 160) to set the target loadings. the results of döckel’s efas of the rfs show small-item cross loadings with orthogonal rotation and significant inter-correlations between variables. asparouhov and muthén (2009) suggest that, in the case of a study (such as ours) that uses a relatively small sample, conducting an ewc nested in an esem and fixing all statistically insignificant cross loadings to zero, reduces the number of parameters that need to be estimated and results in more precise estimates. we used the ewc model as the measurement model in the sem analysis to determine the relationships between rfs and the criterion variables (crt) of acs, jss and tis. for the ewc, we applied the procedure of morin, marsh and nagengast (2013) in using all parameter estimates in the esem solution as starting values and, except for placing m2 restrictions (m = number of factors), freely estimating them in the ewc model. after confirming that all parameter estimates and fit indices’ values of the ewc model replicated those of the esem model, we restricted all insignificant cross-loading estimates for factor indicators to ‘0’ as proposed by asparouhov and muthén (2009) and tested the restricted ewc model depicted in figure 1. figure 1: the restricted exploratory within confirmatory (ewc) structural equation measurement model tested for the retention factor scale. in determining the quality of the rfs measurement model, given sample size (n = 272; muthén & muthén, 2002), we performed a monte carlo (mc) simulation analysis using mplus. we used 10 000 random sample estimates to determine the 95% coverage and statistical power of the model estimates (> 0.80), parameter estimate and standard error bias (< 5%). using cfa, we tested the discriminate and structural validity of the measures of attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover (acs, jss and tis), also referred to as the crt measurement model. to test hypotheses 1, 2 and 3, we used pvs for w, co, s, t, j and c instead of including the full rfs measurement model in the sem structural model (figure 2) because such use in a secondary sem analysis imposes fewer computational and sample-size demands. figure 2 depicts the sem path model for the pvs of the rfs (ewc model) on the attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover (crt model), hereafter referred to as ewc-on-crt1&2. only the black regression paths in figure 2 (and not the red regression paths running between the latent variables jss, acs and tis) reflect crt1 model, whereas the black and red regression paths reflect the crt2 model. we used the mlr estimator to test the ewc-on-crt1&2 models, which includes both the crt1 and the crt2 models. using the delta method, we estimated the standard errors and calculated the statistical significance of indirect paths or effects. according to muthén and muthén (2012), the mlr estimation procedure calculates the standard error estimates that are robust to non-normal data and is considered similar to the bootstrap technique for estimating standard errors. figure 2: the structural equation path model (ewc-on-crt1&2) of the relationship between the variables of the retention factor scale and the attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover scales. in estimating the pv data sets, we used multiple imputation procedures (which are commonly used for handling missing data) and the bayes estimator (asparouhov & muthén, 2010). to avoid biased parameter estimates, we included in the multiple imputation model all the items and latent variables used in the ewc and crt models. (see asparouhov and muthén [2010, p. 2] for details on the imputation method they call ‘h0 imputation’.) more specifically, the imputation model included the rfs parameters fixed to the values obtained in the ewc model, and, using starter values from the cfa model, we specified the crt model parameters to be freely estimated. following the recommendations of lüdtke, robitzsch and trautwein (2018), we imputed 30 pv data sets using mplus markov chain mc bayesian estimation utilities with gibbs sampler (px1) and 100 000 iterations (muthén & muthén, 2012). we monitored convergence (which should be below 1.05) with the potential scale reduction indicator and trace plots. for all estimates, we adopted the mplus default settings for diffuse priors, and we combined the data sets using rubin’s (1987) method. in the sem models (ewc-on-crt1&2) that we used to test hypotheses 1, 2 and 3, we cannot strictly claim direct or indirect causal effects (i.e. the directionality of model paths) as we used cross-sectional data in the analysis conducted. however, kline (2015) contends that directionality assumptions for model paths may be assumed if the rationale and supporting knowledge are strong. in this study, we relied strongly on exchange theory principles, seminal works, review studies, empirical and meta-analytic research evidence to support directionality assumptions and inferences in the sem model. we relied on covariance statistics to support or rule out the probability of direct or indirect causal effects whilst controlling for multiple covariates. ethical consideration with the assistance of the human resource management departments of their respective companies, the respondents completed the surveys in either a paper-based or an electronic format. participation in the study was voluntary, anonymous and confidential. the relevant ethics committee of the university of pretoria where the study was conducted approved the use of the data for research purposes (reference no. nr ems090/18). results the study’s descriptive statistics showed that the average item or indicator skewness was −0.39 and varied between −1.01 and 0.57. the average kurtosis was −0.61 and varied between −1.24 and 0.89. the data signified a good approximation of the normal distribution (skewness and kurtosis b etween −1 and +1), which can produce robust ml parameter estimates with less dependency on the effect of sample size (anderson & gerbing, 1988). all sem models in the study converged adequately and did not produce improper estimates (e.g. negative residual variances). next, we present the results of the study’s statistical analyses relating to the rfs measurement model, the attitudinal antecedents of the voluntary turnover measurement model and hypotheses 1, 2 and 3. model fit was estimated based on several fit indices. tucker–lewis index (tli) and comparative fit index (cfi) values greater than 0.90 and 0.95 typically reflect acceptable and excellent fit to the data (marsh, hau, & wen, 2004). root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) and standardised root mean square residual (srmr) values of less than 0.05 and 0.08, respectively, reflect a close fit and a reasonable fit to the data (marsh et al., 2004). the chi-square statistics is sample-size sensitive and presents a risk of a type ii error; therefore, we did not use it to evaluate the overall model fit. as expected, all parameter estimates and fit indices of the unrestricted ewc model closely replicated the esem model and showed an overall acceptable fit (table 2). the ewc analyses of the restricted model (all statistically insignificant cross-loadings fixed at zero) showed an acceptable to good model fit (rmsea = 0.047, cfi = 0.934, tli = 0.924, srmr = 0.051; table 2). the residuals of items q11 and q8 were allowed to correlate because they were very similar in wording and highly correlated (r = 0.83), signifying a method artefact. table 2: the model fit indices for the structural equation models tested in the study. the structural loadings of the rfs for the ewc model are presented in table 3. table 3: the item loadings on the retention factor scale factors for the restricted exploratory structural equation modelling within the confirmatory factor analysis model and the item loadings on factors for the attitudinal antecedents of the voluntary turnover model (criterion). see table 4 for the inter-correlation coefficients between constructs. table 4: inter-correlation matrix of all variables included in the structural equation path model (ewc-on-crt). the ewc model represented a simple factor structure and was well defined with salient loadings (λ > 0.30) on target factors and overall minor cross loadings (λ < 0.30; table 3) (thurstone, 1947) except for one item from t that loaded on both t (λ = 0.44) and co (λ = 0.44). the item (i.e. ‘there are enough development opportunities for me in the company’) may conceptually equally relate to both t and co. the overall model fit and the factor structure support the rfs measurement model. the mc analyses for normally distributed data showed that all the parameter estimates of the rfs measurement model had a sufficient 95% coverage rate (i.e. interval = 0.92% – 0.96%), adequate statistical power (i.e. range = 0.36–1.0; mean = 0.96), non-biased parameter estimates (i.e. range = 0% – 5.2%; mean = 0.56%) and non-biased standard error estimates (i.e. range = 0% – 2.61%; mean = 0.94%). only trivial cross loadings smaller than 0.16 showed inadequate power (i.e. 0.36). according to gorsuch (1983), cross loadings up to ± 0.10 are generally considered random variations from 0. overall, we concluded that the measurement model of the rfs showed adequate fit for the sample, was stable and accurate and should form a good basis for latent variable sem analyses. table 3 depicts that the structural parameter loadings of the three-crt variables (jss, acs and tis) of the crt measurement model showed an acceptable fit (rmsea = 0.082, cfi = 0.955, tli = 0.940, srmr = 0.036; refer to table 2). we tested two alternative models: a one-factor model that included all-crt variable items and a two-factor model where all the acs and jss items formed a single factor and the tis items formed the second factor. each alternative model demonstrated a relatively much weaker model fit (one-factor model: χ2(44) = 331.187*, rmsea = 0.162, cfi = 0.805, tli = 0.756, srmr = 0.09; two-factor model: χ2(43) = 192.738*, rmsea = 0.118, cfi = 0.898, tli = 0.870, srmr = 0.07). these results showed that the data adequately supported the more parsimonious three-factor model and illustrated the distinctiveness of the three constructs in the context of the study. table 4 depicts the pairwise correlation matrix for all rfs pvs and crt latent variables included in the ewc-on-crt1&2 structural models (figure 2). the correlations between rfs factors varied between r = 0.23 and r = 0.59, signifying well-differentiated constructs. the omega factor reliability coefficients varied between 0.63 and 0.95, meeting the minimum level of acceptability (>0.60) (mcdonald, 1999). the inter-correlations between the crt latent variables were high, ranging between r = 0.70 and r = 0.77. however, these values did not support the likelihood of adverse multicollinearity because the highest latent variable inter-correlation (acs and jss r = 0.77) was below 0.80 and the omega reliability coefficients were above 0.80 (grewal, cote, & baumgartner, 2004). in the analysis relating to hypothesis 1 (the rfs latent variables [pvs] show statistically significant [p < 0.05] positive direct effects on jss and acs and statistically significant negative effects on tis), the acs, jss and tis latent variables (excluding the regression paths connecting them [figure 2 and rows 1, 2 and 3 of table 5] of ewc-on-crt1 were allowed to covary. table 5: the regression coefficients in the structural equation path model (ewc-on-crt1&2) inter-correlation matrix of all variables included in the structural equation path model (ewc-on-crt). the ewc-on-crt1&2 analysis results are shown in tables 2 and 5. the ewc-on-crt1&2 structural models showed an acceptable model fit: rmsea = 0.057, cfi = 0.964, tli = 0.951, srmr = 0.035 (table 2). the first three rows of table 5 indicate parameter estimates that apply to hypothesis 1 and the ewc-on-crt1 model, but not the regression paths connecting tis1, jss1 and acs1 (see red lines in figure 2; and only standardised parameter estimates are reported in table 5). the results showed that the rfs variables had a statistically significant total direct effect when we regressed all the variables on each of the crt variables. the rfs explained 59%, 61% and 44% of the variance on acs1, jss1 and tis1, respectively, providing strong support for hypothesis 1. when regressed on acs1, variables c (β1 = 0.47), j (β2 = 0.29, p < 0.05) and w (β6 = 0.11, p < 0.05) were statistically significantly shown as unique contributors. variables c (β1 = 0.34, p < 0.05), j (β2 = 0.44, p < 0.05) and w (β6 = 0.23, p < 0.05) were statistically significantly shown as unique contributors when regressed on jss. the contributions of variables t, s and co to the regression equation were statistically non-significant in respect of both acs1 and jss1 and did not support hypothesis 1. variables c (β1 = −0.31, p < 0.05), j (β2 = −0.18, p < 0.05), co (β5 = −0.26, p < 0.05) and w (β6 = −0.24, p < 0.05) were shown statistically significantly as unique contributors when regressed on tis1. variables t and s were statistically non-significant when regressed on tis1 and did not support hypothesis 1. although the study supported hypothesis 1 in terms of variables c, j and w, not all the rfs variables (co, t and s) related directly at a statistically significant level to each of the crt variables in the structural model or sem. for the analysis relating to hypothesis 2 (job satisfaction has a statistically significant indirect and direct negative effect [p<.05] [i.e. partial mediation] on turnover intention via mediator affective commitment), we included in the model all the relevant paths between rfs and crt (figure 2) as well as the regression paths connecting tis, jss and acs. the estimated regression paths showed that the latent variable jss (β7 = −0.27, p < 0.05) had a statistically significant negative direct effect on tis2 as a unique contributor to the regression model (table 5, row 5). also, the indirect effect of jss on tis2acs via acs was statistically significant (β7 = −0.27, p < 0.05; table 5, row 6). therefore, the results supported hypothesis 2. more specifically, the results suggested a partial mediating effect of acs on the relationship between jss and tis2. furthermore, the estimated regression paths showed that the mediator variable acs (β8 = −0.56, p < 0.05) had statistically significant negative direct effects on tis2. after having controlled for all the rfs covariates in the model, we concluded that both acs and jss made a unique contribution to tis2. as regards hypothesis 3 (the rfs latent variables [pvs] show statistically significant [p < 0.05] indirect negative effects and statistically insignificant direct effects (i.e. full mediation) on tis via mediators jss and acs), the analysis produced the results discussed below. when we regressed all rfs variables, acs and jss on tis2 (table 5, row 5), the estimated regression paths showed that latent variables co (β5 = −0.17, p < 0.05) and w (β6 = −0.12, p < 0.05) had statistically significant direct negative effects on tis2 as a unique contributor to the regression model. the remaining variables, namely, c (β1 = 0.04, p > 0.05), j (β2 = 0.10, p > 0.05), t (β3 = 0.11, p > 0.05) and s (β4 = −0.08, p > 0.05), had statistically insignificant direct effects on tis2. the low regression coefficients obtained on tis2 were statistically insignificant compared to the statistically significant and higher regression coefficients obtained on tis1 (compare rows 3 and 5 in table 5). the results suggested a possible full mediating role of jss and acs in the relationship between c, j, co, w and the crt variable tis2. the combined direct and indirect effects explained 65% of the variance on tis2 (r2 = 0.65). the indirect effects of c on tis2 via acs (β1 = −0.17, p < 0.05) and of c on tis2 via jss (β1 = −0.09, p < 0.05) were both statistically significant (table 5, rows 6 and 7). given that both indirect effects were statistically significant, we concluded that both jss and acs contributed significantly in fully mediating the path between c and tis2 (β1 = −0.04, p > 0.05; table 5, row 5). the indirect effect of j on tis2 via jss (β2 = −0.12, p < 0.05) was statistically significant, but not the indirect effect of j on tis2 via acs (β2 = −0.05, p > 0.05; table 5, rows 6 and 7). given that only the former indirect effect was statistically significant, jss most likely fully mediated the path between j and tis2 (β2 = 0.10, p > 0.05; table 5, row 5). the indirect effect of w on tis2 via jss (β6 = 0.06, p < 0.05) was statistically significant, but not the indirect effect of w on tis2 via acs (β6 = 0.01, p > 0.05; table 5, rows 6 and 7). given that only the former indirect effect was statistically significant, only jss contributed significantly as a partial mediator to the indirect effect of w on tis2 (β6 = 0.06, p < 0.05). in summary, the results on indirect effects suggested that both the mediators jss and acs contributed to fully mediating the direct effect of c on tis, and that only jss fully mediated the direct effect of j on tis, thus, partially supporting hypothesis 3. variables co, t and s appeared not to support hypothesis 3 because there were no statistically significant indirect or direct effects on tis via the mediators jss and acs. the direct effect of w on tis was partially mediated by jss. career opportunities showed only a direct effect on tis, with no evidence of jss or acs mediating the effect. discussion outline of the results this study addressed the need to analyse multiple latent er variables and attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover in tandem. we used extended sem techniques to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the simultaneous effect of multiple er factors on attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover. as lee et al. (2018) emphasise, advanced statistical analyses are important in contributing to a full and deep understanding of the multifaceted nature of er factors and in enhancing er management in organisations. this study indicated the rfs measurement model as being a plausible representation of theory and having the required breadth and depth to ensure sufficient construct validity and enhanced measurement precision. contrary to conventional models of cfa, the restricted ewc model allowed for trivial but statistically significant cross loadings. according to hsu et al. (2014), ignoring cross loadings above 0.13 in conventional cfa models can lead to substantial overestimation of pattern coefficients, bloated covariances between factors and biases in path coefficient estimates in sem models. our study confirmed previous research findings (ansari, 2011; das & baruah, 2013; kashyap & rangnekar, 2014; mehmood, ahmad, irum, & ashfaq, 2016) that compensation, job characteristics, work–life balance and co are, as er factors, unique predictors of attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover. these er factors explained a large proportion of variance on each of the attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover (from 44% to 61%). remarkably similar to the findings of the meta-analysis studies reported earlier, the path coefficients between compensation, job characteristics, work–life balance and the attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover were of a medium to large effect size, confirming the generalisability of our findings. the study supported the notion that er factors might be distal determinants of turnover intention (r2 = 0.44) because their effects appeared to be mediated by job satisfaction (r2 = 0.61) and affective commitment (r2 = 0.68) as proximal attitudinal determinants of turnover intention (duarte et al., 2015; tett & meyer, 1993). the combined effect of er factors, affective commitment and job satisfaction on turnover intention was large (r2 = 0.65), affirming the importance of these variables for er management. similar to other relevant studies (e.g. luna-arocas & camps, 2007; sager, griffeth, & hom, 1998; samad & yusuf, 2012), our study found that affective commitment partially mediated the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention. affective commitment had the most significant direct relationship (β = −0.56) with employee turnover intention, followed by job satisfaction (β = −0.27). the size of the reported relationships can likely be attributed to affective commitment relating to the organisation as a whole (a broad concept with a long-term perspective), which in turn partially depends on satisfaction with the job itself (a narrow concept with a short-term perspective) (farrell & rusbult, 1981; kooij, jansen, dikkers, & de lange, 2010). we found that compensation directly related to affective commitment (meyer & allen, 1997) and that job satisfaction only partially mediated the relationship between compensation and turnover intention. thus, the finding emphasises the cardinal importance of compensation in er management – it was the only er factor that directly impacted on all the attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover (moncarz et al., 2009; singh, 2019; tracey, 2014). interestingly, job satisfaction fully mediated the direct path from job characteristics and work–life balance to turnover intention, respectively, suggesting that job satisfaction made a unique contribution to turnover intention and served as a precursor to affective commitment in this context. moreover, the broader concept of affective commitment may only be influenced indirectly by job characteristics and work–life balance, depending on the job and the associated level of job satisfaction (farrell & rusbult, 1981). hirschfeld (2000) and lee (2019) have found a direct link between job-related intrinsic motivators (e.g. job characteristics; variety, autonomy, task significance, skill utilisation and self-growth) and the level of job satisfaction, which in turn leads directly to both affective commitment and turnover intention. similarly, work–life balance directly impacts on intrinsic motivation by allowing for a degree of choice over when, where and how much they work, resulting in increased employee autonomy and job satisfaction, which in turn leads directly to both affective commitment and turnover intention (mas-machuca, berbegal-mirabent, & alegre, 2016). this finding is supported by butts et al. (2013) who show that work–life balance has a more significant direct relationship with job satisfaction than with affective commitment. this finding emphasises the importance of a job-satisfaction-conducive work environment in managing turnover intention directly over the short term and in impacting on affective commitment to the organisation indirectly over the long term. lee et al. (2018, p. 89) call job satisfaction the ‘cardinal job attitude and prime antecedent to employee turnover’. this study indicated that training and development, supervisor support and co did not, as hypothesised, relate substantively to affective commitment and job satisfaction. therefore, no mediating effects involving these variables were evident. this result is not consistent with previous findings (gani et al., 2020; ibidunni et al., 2016; joāo & coetzee, 2012; kraimer et al., 2011; lee, 2019; van dyk & coetzee, 2012), but it can probably be ascribed to previous studies addressing only one retention factor or a subset of factors (al-emadi et al., 2015; de vos & meganck, 2009) and not controlling for the effect of multiple er factors. a statistically significant relationship between two sets of variables may be the product of confounding variables (e.g. compensation and job characteristics), leading to incorrect conclusions about the nature of the relationship. our study showed that er factors might be differently related to attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover. gardner, wright and moynihan (2011) made a similar conclusion in their study of voluntary turnover and multiple hr practices, and their multilevel analyses across corporate business units provided valuable insights. they showed that three bundles of hrm practices (skilling, motivation and empowerment) affected voluntary turnover differently and that affective commitment did not mediate the effect of skill-enhancing practices (e.g. training and development) on voluntary turnover. in contrast, affective commitment partially mediated motivational and empowerment-enhancing practices (e.g. compensation, job characteristics and work–life balance). they found that motivational and empowerment-enhancing hrm bundles of practice elicited conventional psychological processes that explained an entire range of outcomes and that skills-related hrm bundles of practice (e.g. training and development) elicited many market processes that might lead to different and even inconsistent outcomes. for example, training and development could improve a person’s employability and marketability within and outside an organisation (dechawatanapaisal, 2018). contrary to the previous findings (gani et al., 2020; joāo & coetzee, 2012; kraimer et al., 2011; van dyk & coetzee, 2012), our study showed that co had a unique and direct effect on turnover intention but that affective commitment and job satisfaction did not affect it. we argue that co may represent a large variety of psychological processes and meanings for different individuals (e.g. relating to career stages, family needs, identity, employment opportunities, market-skill demands, spousal careers) and that employee attitudes (e.g. affective commitment) may be affected differentially (lee, 2019; lee et al., 2018). interestingly, after controlling for the effect of all the variables in the model, supervisor support did not show unique or incremental effects on any of the attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover. this finding contradicts previous findings (gani et al., 2020; ibidunni et al., 2016; lu, zhao, & while, 2019; tett & meyer, 1993; van dyk & coetzee, 2012), showing that psychological processes and the meaning of supervisor support may differ for individuals, depending on the employment context and the impact of supervisor support on the motivational and empowerment er bundles. for instance, chaudhuri, arora and roy (2020, p. 11) state that ‘supervisor support was considered to be a relevant factor that helped with work–life balance’. however, further research is needed to clarify the findings on supervisor support and er. to conclude, we found that by studying multiple er factors in tandem and controlling for all covariances between the er factors in an expanded sem model gave new insights into the uniqueness of each er factor in predicting the attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover. our findings suggest that er factors have a differential effect on the attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover, which can partly be ascribed to differences in the underlying characteristics of hrm bundles of practice as described by gardner et al. (2011). employee retention management could be enhanced by a deep understanding of the differential effects of each er factor on attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover, and gaining such an understanding requires advanced sem skills to thoroughly test increasingly complicated path models using latent variables (hom et al., 2017; lee et al., 2018). scientific contribution and practical implications our research makes a substantial contribution to existing theory by bringing about a better understanding of the multifaceted interrelations between critical er factors, job satisfaction, affective commitment and turnover intention through the use of extended sem techniques. a unique finding we made was that affective commitment and job satisfaction were important mediators that differentially affected the relationship between er factors and employee turnover intention. the responsibility for the differential effects of er factors on the attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover can probably be attributed to motivational and empowerment-enhancing hrm bundles of practice (i.e. compensation, job characteristics, work–life balance, co and supervisor support) and skill-related hrm bundles of practice (i.e. training and development). this study has shown that the er factors of compensation, job characteristics, work–life balance and co (in the given order of importance) are unique determinants of the attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover. career opportunities, an empowerment-enhancing er factor, directly affect only the turnover intention, suggesting that individual differences and market forces may affect motivational attitudes (e.g. affective commitment) differently. the fact that training and development and supervisor support were found not to be unique determinants of attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover could be the result of employment contexts, individual differences and market processes. to effectively manage er, management must understand the relative embeddedness of a range of er factors and prioritise motivational and empowerment-enhancing bundles of practice (e.g. compensation, job characteristics, work–life balance and co) to impact on attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover. the expanded sem models tested in this study allowed for increased rigour and accuracy of method in simultaneously controlling for all the effects in the model and in determining the uniqueness and relative contribution (i.e. embeddedness) of each variable. the said models provided a new perspective on the relationship between er factors and attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover. the use of the ewc measurement model was a novel approach to applying esem to smaller samples whilst retaining the breadth and depth of the measured constructs. applying pvs in sem studies with smaller samples is a new approach that counters a variety of potential estimation problems in sem models and simplifies a complex model without loss of accuracy. future studies should also follow a ‘methodological–substantive synergy’ approach and focus on the complex relationship between er factors and attitudinal proxy variables of voluntary turnover in more contexts and relate it to actual voluntary turnover. limitations and recommendations a limitation of the study is the use of convenience sampling techniques, the cross-sectional nature of the data and the probability that some of the findings may be specific to the sample and the population. testing causal relations is a common limitation when using cross-sectional data, and making deductions (with caution) must be based on an influential theory and extensive prior empirical evidence, as was performed in this study. future er studies could utilise longitudinal or experimental and control group study designs, which may produce more solid findings on causal or mediating effects on employee turnover. however, each of the study designs referred to has its own strengths, limitations and practical implications, which should be considered carefully before conducting a study (see kline, 2015, for a detailed discussion). conclusion to conclude, we heeded the call of de vos and meganck (2009), dechawatanapaisal (2018), lee et al. (2018) and others to demonstrate the value of studying multiple er factors in tandem to better understand the relative embeddedness of a range of er practices in retaining employees. in addition, we indicated that the use of extended sem techniques readily met the need for studying er factors using more comprehensive latent multivariate approaches and for providing new insights into the relationships between er factors and attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover. the findings of this study have important practical implications for effectively managing er through prioritising and implementing more effective hr bundles of practice. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge ricole verreyne who collected the data as a student researcher as part of her master’s mini-dissertation. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. author’s contributions p.s. conceptualised the study, conducted the statistical analyses and drafted the methods section, analyses section and results section of the article. c.o. aided in the conceptualisation of the article and assisted in drafting the literature review. she further aided in refining the article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references agho, a.o., price, j.l., & mueller, c.w. (1992). discriminant validity of measures of job satisfaction, positive affectivity and negative affectivity. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 65(3), 185–195. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1992.tb00496.x aladwan, k., bhanugopan, r., & d’netto, b. (2015). the effects of human resource management practices on employees’ organisational commitment. international journal of organizational analysis, 23(3), 472–492. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoa-11-2014-0822 al-emadi, a.a.q., schwabenland, c., & wei, q. (2015). the vital role of employee retention in human resource management: a literature review. iup journal of organizational behavior, 14(3), 7–33. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid-11-2019-0272 allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization. journal of occupational psychology, 63(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.x anderson, j.c.j., & gerbing, d.d.w. (1988). structural equation modeling in practice: a review and recommended two-step approach. psychological bulletin, 103(3), 411–423. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.103.3.411 ansari, n.g. (2011). employee perception of hrm practices: impact on commitment to the organization. south asian journal of management, 18(3), 122–149. asparouhov, t., & muthén, b. (2009). exploratory structural equation modeling. structural equation modeling, 16(3), 397–438. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705510903008204 asparouhov, t., & muthén, b. (2010). plausible values for latent variables using mplus. mplus technical report. retrieved from http://www.statmodel.com/download/plausible.pdf bernhard, f., & o’driscoll, m.p. (2011). psychological ownership in small family-owned businesses: leadership style and nonfamily-employees’ work attitudes and behaviors. group & organization management, 36(3), 345–384. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601111402684 bontis, n., richards, d., & serenko, a. (2011). improving service delivery: investigating the role of information sharing, job characteristics, and employee satisfaction. learning organization, 18(3), 239–250. https://doi.org/10.1108/09696471111123289 butts, m.m., casper, w.j., & yang, t.s. (2013). how important are work-family support policies? a meta-analytic investigation of their effects on employee outcomes. journal of applied psychology, 98(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030389 chan, s.h.j., & ao, c.t.d. (2019). the mediating effects of job satisfaction and organizational commitment on turnover intention, in the relationships between pay satisfaction and work-family conflict of casino employees. journal of quality assurance in hospitality and tourism, 20(2), 206–229. https://doi.org/10.1080/1528008x.2018.1512937 chaudhuri, s., arora, r., & roy, p. (2020). work-life balance policies and organisational outcomes: a review of literature from the indian context. industrial and commercial training, 52(3), 155–170. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict-01-2019-0003 chew, j., & chan, c.c.a. (2008). human resource practices, organizational commitment and intention to stay. international journal of manpower, 29(6), 503–522. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720810904194 cohen, j. (1987). statistical power of analysis for the behavioral sciences. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. ćulibrk, j., delić, m., mitrović, s., & ćulibrk, d. (2018). job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job involvement: the mediating role of job involvement. frontiers in psychology, 9(132), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00132 das, b.l., & baruah, m. (2013). employee retention: a review of literature. iosr journal of business and management, 14(2), 8–16. https://doi.org/10.9790/487x-1420816 dechawatanapaisal, d. (2018). examining the relationships between hr practices, organizational job embeddedness, job satisfaction, and quit intention: evidence from thai accountants. asia-pacific journal of business administration, 10(3), 130–148. https://doi.org/10.1108/apjba-11-2017-0114 deery, m. (2008). talent management, work-life balance and retention strategies. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 20(7), 792–806. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596110810897619 devlieger, i., & rosseel, y. (2017). factor score path analysis: an alternative for sem? methodology, 13(suppl 1), 31–38. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-2241/a000130 de vos, a., & meganck, a. (2009). what hr managers do versus what employees value. personnel review, 38(1), 45–60. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480910920705 döckel, a. (2003). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. master’s dissertation. university of pretoria. retrieved from https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/27597/dissertation.pdf?sequence=1 döckel, a., basson, j.s., & coetzee, m. (2006). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. sa journal of human resource management, 2(4), 20–28. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v4i2.91 duarte, a.p., gomes, d.r., & neves, j.g. (2015). satisfaction with human resource management practices and turnover intention in a five-star hotel: the mediating role of perceived organizational support. dos algarves: a multidisciplinary e-journal, 25(1), 103–123. retrieved from http://www.dosalgarves.com/revistas/n25/6rev25.pdf farkas, a.j., & tetrick, l.e. (1989). a three-wave longitudinal analysis of the causal ordering of satisfaction and commitment on turnover decisions. journal of applied psychology, 74(6), 855–868. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.74.6.855 farrell, d., & rusbult, c.e. (1981). exchange variables as predictors of job satisfaction, job commitment, and turnover: the impact of rewards, costs, alternatives, and investments. organizational behavior and human performance, 28(1), 78–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(81)90016-7 gani, k., potgieter, i., & coetzee, m. (2020). dispositions of agency as explanatory mechanisms of employees’ satisfaction with retention practices. journal of psychology in africa, 30(2), 143–150. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2020.1744278 gardner, t.m., wright, p.m., & moynihan, l.m. (2011). the impact of motivation, empowerment, and skill-enhancing practices on aggregate voluntary turnover: the mediating effect of collective affective commitment. personnel psychology, 64(2), 315–350. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2011.01212.x ghosh, p., satyawadi, r., prasad joshi, j., & shadman, m. (2013). who stays with you? factors predicting employees’ intention to stay. international journal of organizational analysis, 21(3), 288–312. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoa-sep-2011-0511 good, l.k., & fairhurst, a.e. (1999). met expectations during role transitions of retail executive trainees. international journal of retail & distribution management, 27(9), 350–361. https://doi.org/10.1108/09590559910292799 gorsuch, r.l. (1983). factor analysis (2nd edn.). hillsdale, nj: l. erlbaum. grewal, r., cote, j.a., & baumgartner, h. (2004). multicollinearity and measurement error in structural equation models: implications for theory testing. marketing science, 23(4), 519–529. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.1040.0070 guchait, p., & cho, s. (2010). the impact of human resource management practices on intention to leave of employees in the service industry in india: the mediating role of organizational commitment. international journal of human resource management, 21(8), 1228–1247. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2010.483845 guzeller, c.o., & celiker, n. (2019). examining the relationship between organizational commitment and turnover intention via a meta-analysis. international journal of culture, tourism, and hospitality research, 14(1), 102–120. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijcthr-05-2019-0094 hackman, j.r., & oldham, g.r. (1976). motivation through the design of work: test of a theory. organizational behavior and human performance, 16(2), 250–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(76)90016-7 hellgren, j., sjöberg, a., & sverke, m. (1997). intention to quit: effects of job satisfaction and job perceptions. in f. avallone, j. arnold, & k. de witte (eds.), feelings work in europe (pp. 415–423). milano: guerini. heneman, h.g., & schwab, d.p. (1985). pay satisfaction: its multidimensional nature and measurement. international journal of psychology, 20(1), 129–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207598508247727 hirschfeld, r.r. (2000). does revising the instrinsic and extrinsic subscales of the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire short form make a difference? educational and psychological measurement, 60(2), 255–270. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164403258442 hom, p., lee, t.w., shaw, j.d., & hausknecht, j.p. (2017). one hundred years of employee turnover theory and research. journal of applied psychology, 102(3), 530–545. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000103 hom, p.w., mitchell, t.r., lee, t.w., & griffeth, r.w. (2012). reviewing employee turnover: focusing on proximal withdrawal states and an expanded criterion. psychological bulletin, 138(5), 831–858. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027983 homans, g. (1961). social behavior: its elementary forms. london: routledge & kegan paul. howard, j.l., gagné, m., morin, a.j.s., & forest, j. (2018). using bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling to test for a continuum structure of motivation. journal of management, 44(7), 2638–2664. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206316645653 hsu, h.y., skidmore, s.t., li, y., & thompson, b. (2014). forced zero cross-loading misspecifications in measurement component of structural equation models: beware of even ‘small’ misspecifications. methodology, 10(4), 138–152. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-2241/a000084 ibidunni, s., osibanjo, o., adeniji, a., salau, o.p., & falola, h. (2016). talent retention and organizational performance: a competitive positioning in nigerian banking sector. periodica polytechnica, social and management sciences, 24(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.3311/ppso.7958 joāo, t.f., & coetzee, m. (2012). job retention factors, perceived career mobility and organisational commitment in the south african financial sector. journal of psychology in africa, 22(1), 69–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2012.10874523 joseph, d., ng, k-y., koh, c., & ang, s. (2007). turnover of information technology professionals: a narrative review, meta-analytic structural equation modeling, and model development. mis quarterly, 31(3), 547–577. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0029-1225353 juhdi, n., pa’wan, f., & hansaram, r.m.k. (2013). hr practices and turnover intention: the mediating roles of organizational commitment and organizational engagement in a selected region in malaysia. international journal of human resource management, 24(15), 3002–3019. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.763841 kashyap, v., & rangnekar, s. (2014). a structural equation model for measuring the impact of employee retention practices on employee’s turnover intentions: an indian perspective. south asian journal of human resources management, 1(2), 221–247. https://doi.org/10.1177/2322093714549109 kelley, h.h., & thibaut, j.w. (1978). interpersonal relations: a theory of interdependence. new york, ny: wiley. kim, h., & kao, d. (2014). a meta-analysis of turnover intention predictors among u.s. child welfare workers. children and youth services review, 47(p3), 214–223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2014.09.015 kline, r.b. (2015). the mediation myth. basic and applied social psychology, 37(4), 202–213. https://doi.org/10.1080/01973533.2015.1049349 kochanski, j., & ledford, g. (2001). how to keep me: retaining technical professionals. research technology management, 44(3), 31–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/08956308.2001.11671427 kooij, d.t.a.m., jansen, p.g.w., dikkers, j.s.e., & de lange, a.h. (2010). the influence of age on the associations between hr practices and both affective commitment and job satisfaction: a meta-analysis. journal of organizational behavior, 31(8), 1111–1136. https://doi.org/10.1002/job kraimer, m.l., seibert, s.e., wayne, s.j., & liden, r.c. (2011). antecedents and outcomes of organizational support for development: the critical role of career opportunities. journal of applied psychology, 96(3), 485–500. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021452 landau, j., & hammer, t.h. (1986). clerical employees’ perceptions of interorganizational career opportunities. academy of management journal, 29(2), 385–404. https://doi.org/10.2307/256194 larkin, i.m., brantley-dias, l., & lokey-vega, a. (2016). job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intention of online teachers in the k-12 setting. online learning, 20(3), 26–52. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v20i3.986 lee, h-w. (2019). a career stage analysis of the u.s. federal employees’ job satisfaction and turnover intention: a comprehensive overview. review of public personnel administration, 40(4), 717–742. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f0734371x19856082 lee, t.w., hom, p., eberly, m., & li, j. (2018). managing employee retention and turnover with 21st century ideas. organizational dynamics, 47(2), 88–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2017.08.004 lu, h., zhao, y., & while, a. (2019). job satisfaction among hospital nurses: a literature review. international journal of nursing studies, 94, 21–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2019.01.011 lüdtke, o., robitzsch, a., & trautwein, u. (2018). integrating covariates into social relations models: a plausible values approach for handling measurement error in perceiver and target effects. multivariate behavioral research, 53(1), 102–124. https://doi.org/10.1080/00273171.2017.1406793 luna-arocas, r., & camps, j. (2007). a model of high performance work practices and turnover intentions. personnel review, 37(1), 26–46. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480810839950 mai, y., zhang, z., & wen, z. (2018). comparing exploratory structural equation modeling and existing approaches for multiple regression with latent variables. structural equation modeling: a multidisciplinary journal, 25(4), 737–749. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2018.1444993 marsh, h.w., & hau, k-t. (2007). applications of latent-variable models in educational psychology: the need for methodological-substantive synergies. contemporary educational psychology, 32(1), 151–170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2006.10.008 marsh, h.w., hau, k-t., & wen, z. (2004). in search of golden rules: comment on hypothesis-testing approaches to setting cutoff values for fit indexes and dangers in overgeneralizing hu and bentler’s (1999) findings. structural equation modeling: a multidisciplinary journal, 11(3), 320–341. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328007sem1103_2 marsh, h.w., morin, a.j.s., parker, p.d., & kaur, g. (2014). exploratory structural equation modeling: an integration of the best features of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. annual review of clinical psychology, 10, 85–110. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032813-153700 marsh, h.w., muthén, b., asparouhov, t., lüdtke, o., robitzsch, a., morin, a.j.s., & trautwein, u. (2009). exploratory structural equation modeling, integrating cfa and efa: application to students’ evaluations of university teaching. structural equation modeling: a multidisciplinary journal, 16(3), 439–476. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705510903008220 mas-machuca, m., berbegal-mirabent, j., & alegre, i. (2016). work-life balance and its relationship with organizational pride and job satisfaction. journal of managerial psychology, 31(2), 586–602. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmp-09-2014-0272 matz, a.k., woo, y., & kim, b. (2014). a meta-analysis of the correlates of turnover intent in criminal justice organizations: does agency type matter? journal of criminal justice, 42(3), 233–243. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2014.02.004 mcdonald, r.p. (1999). test theory: a unified treatment. new york, ny: routledge. mcknight, d.h., phillips, b., & hardgrave, b.c. (2009). which reduces it turnover intention the most: workplace characteristics or job characteristics? information and management, 46(3), 167–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2009.01.002 mehmood, n., ahmad, u.n.b.u., irum, s., & ashfaq, m. (2016). job satisfaction, affective commitment, and turnover intentions among front desk staff: evidence from pakistan. international review of management and marketing, 6(4s), 305–309. retrieved from https://www.econjournals.com/index.php/irmm/article/view/2503/pdf meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1991). a three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment. human resource management review, 1(1), 61–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/1053-4822(91)90011-z meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1997). commitment in the workplace: theory, research, and application. london: sage. meyer, j.p., & herscovitch, l. (2001). commitment in the workplace: toward a general model. human resource management review, 11(3), 299–326. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(00)00053-x meyer, j.p., stanley, d.j., herscovitch, l., & topolnytsky, l. (2002). affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization: a meta-analysis of antecedents, correlates, and consequences. journal of vocational behavior, 52, 20–52. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2001.1842 moncarz, e., zhao, j., & kay, c. (2009). an exploratory study of us lodging properties’ organizational practices on employee turnover and retention. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 21(4), 437–458. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596110910955695 morin, a.j.s., marsh, h.w., & nagengast, b. (2013). exploratory structure equation modeling. in g.r. hancock, & r.o. mueller (eds.), quantitative methods ineducation and the behavioral sciences: issues, research, and teaching. structural equation modeling: a second course (2nd edn., pp. 395–436). charlotte, nc: iap information age publishing. muthén, l.k., & muthén, b. (2002). how to use a monte carlo study to decide on sample size and determine power. structural equation modeling, 9(4), 599–620. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328007sem0904_8 muthén, l.k., & muthén, b. (2012). mplus user’s guide (7th edn.). retrieved from https://www.statmodel.com/download/usersguide/mplus%20user%20guide%20ver_7_r3_web.pdf narayanan, a., rajithakumar, s., & menon, m. (2019). talent management and employee retention: an integrative research framework. human resource development review, 18(2), 228–247. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484318812159 nohe, c., & sonntag, k. (2014). work-family conflict, social support, and turnover intentions: a longitudinal study. journal of vocational behavior, 85(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2014.03.007 nouri, h., & parker, r.j. (2020). turnover in public accounting firms: a literature review. managerial auditing journal, 35(2), 294–321. https://doi.org/10.1108/maj-03-2018-1823 potgieter, i.l., & snyman, a.m. (2018). personal factors in talent retention in the south african banking industry. journal of psychology in africa, 28(6), 455–461. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2018.1544393 price, j.l., & mueller, c.w. (1981). a causal model for turnover for nurses. academy of management journal, 24(3), 543–565. https://doi.org/10.2307/255574 ramus, c.a., & steger, u. (2000). the roles of supervisory support behaviors and environmental policy in employee ‘ecoinitiatives’ at leading-edge european companies. academy of management journal, 43(4), 605–626. https://doi.org/10.2307/1556357 rathi, n., & lee, k. (2017). understanding the role of supervisor support in retaining employees and enhancing their satisfaction with life. personnel review, 46(8), 1605–1619. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-11-2015-0287 richman, a.l., civian, j.t., shannon, l.l., jeffrey hill, e., & brennan, r.t. (2008). the relationship of perceived flexibility, supportive work-life policies, and use of formal flexible arrangements and occasional flexibility to employee engagement and expected retention. community, work & family, 11(2), 183–197. https://doi.org/10.1080/13668800802050350 rogg, k.l., schmidt, d.b., shull, c., & schmitt, n. (2001). human resource practices, organizational climate, and customer satisfaction. journal of management, 27(4), 431–449. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630102700403 rubenstein, a.l., eberly, m.b., lee, t., & mitchell, t.r. (2015). looking beyond the trees: a meta-analysis and integration of voluntary turnover research. academy of management proceedings, 2015(1), 12779–12779. https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2015.20 rubenstein, a.l., eberly, m.b., lee, t.w., & mitchell, t.r. (2017). surveying the forest: a meta-analysis, moderator investigation, and future-oriented discussion of the antecedents of voluntary employee turnover. personnel psychology, 71(1), 23–65. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12226 rubin, d.b. (1987). multiple imputation for nonresponse in surveys. new york, ny: wiley. saber, d.a. (2014). frontline registered nurse job satisfaction and predictors over three decades: a meta-analysis from 1980 to 2009. nursing outlook, 62(6), 402–414. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2014.05.004 sager, j.k., griffeth, r.w., & hom, p.w. (1998). a comparison of structural models representing turnover cognitions. journal of vocational behavior, 53(2), 254–273. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1997.1617 samad, s., & yusuf, s.y.m. (2012). the role of organizational commitment in mediating the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention. european journal of social sciences, 30(1), 125–135. https://doi.org/10.33071/ssricb.42.1.201804.99 sánchez-oliva, d., morin, a.j.s., teixeira, p.j., carraça, e.v., palmeira, a.l., & silva, m.n. (2017). a bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling representation of the structure of the basic psychological needs at work scale. journal of vocational behavior, 98, 173–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2016.12.001 sheraz, f., batool, s., & adnan, s. (2019). employee’s retention and job satisfaction: mediating role of career development programs. dialogue, 14(2), 67–78. retrieved from http://www.qurtuba.edu.pk/thedialogue/the%20dialogue/14_2/07-saima.pdf shockley, k.m., & singla, n. (2011). reconsidering work-family interactions and satisfaction: a meta-analysis. journal of management, 37(3), 861–886. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310394864 singh, d. (2019). a literature review on employee retention with focus on recent trends. international journal of scientific research in science, engineering and technology, 6(1), 425–431. https://doi.org/10.32628/ijsrst195463 sjöberg, a., & sverke, m. (1996). predicting turnover intention among nurses: the role of work values. in v.v. baba (ed.), work values and behaviour: research and applications (pp. 213–223). montreal, canada: international society for the study of work and organizational values. smeenk, s.g.a., eisinga, r.n., teelken, j.c., & doorewaard, j.a.c.m. (2006). the effects of hrm practices and antecedents on organizational commitment among university employees. international journal of human resource management, 17(12), 2035–2054. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190600965449 solinger, o., van olffen, w., & roe, r. (2008). beyond the three-component model of organizational commitment. journal of applied psychology, 93(1), 70–83. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.93.1.70 subramony, m. (2009). a meta-analytic investigation of the relationship between hrm bundles and firm performance. human resource management, 48(5), 745–768. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20315 paré, g., tremblay, m., & lalonde, p. (2001). the role of organizational commitmentand citizenship behaviors in understanding relations between human resources practices and turnover intentions of it personnel. retrieved from www.cirano.qc.ca/files/publications/2001s-24.pdf. tett, r.p., & meyer, j.p. (1993). job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intention, and turnover: path analyses based on meta-analytic findings. personnel psychology, 46(2), 259–293. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1993.tb00874.x thurstone, l.l. (1947). multiple factor analysis. chicago, il: university of chicago. tracey, b.j. (2014). a review of human resources management research. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 26(5), 679–705. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm-02-2014-0056 valaei, n., & rezaei, s. (2016). job satisfaction and organizational commitment: an empirical investigation among ict-smes. asia pacific journal of marketing and logistics, 39, 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1108/mrr-09-2015-0216 van dyk, j., & coetzee, m. (2012). retention factors in relation to organisational commitment in medical and information technology services. sa journal of human resource management, 10(2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.433 abstract introduction research method ethical considerations findings discussion practical implications limitations and future research recommendations to management acknowledgements references about the author(s) sydwell shikweni department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa willem schurink department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa rene van wyk department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation shikweni, s., schurink w., & van wyk, r (2019). talent management in the south african construction industry. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1094. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1094 original research talent management in the south african construction industry sydwell shikweni, willem schurink, rene van wyk received: 04 july 2018; accepted: 11 feb. 2019; published: 27 may 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the south african construction industry is constrained by the shortage of a skilled workforce due to global competition and insufficient graduate output. there is a need to evolve attract and retain the most valuable talent. research purpose: the aim of this study was to investigate talent management in a prominent south african internationally operating construction company. the objective is to develop a framework for enhancement of talent management practices. motivation for the study: the south african construction industry’s inability to retain talent, hampers global competitiveness and productivity. talent shortages need to be addressed at a strategic level to remain competitive. research approach/design and method: a qualitative research approach examined a single south african construction organisation in the gauteng province. grounded theory was used to analyse data generated from interviews, participant observations and company documents. main findings: firstly, talent management in the construction industry supposes mutual actions from the organisation and its talented employees. secondly, internal enablers drive business outcomes by in alignment with a well-crafted strategy. thirdly, a regulatory framework should acknowledge labour market dynamics and diversity. fourthly, internal and external enablers should be taken into consideration. finally, effective implementation of talent management practices yields talent sustainability and competitiveness. practical/managerial implications: the two conceptual frameworks developed indicate: (1) key factors that play a role in talent management, and (2) the interface between talented employees and the organisation. contributions/value-add: the findings provide two proposed frameworks that could guide leadership to devise an enabling global competitive talent management environment in the construction industry. keywords: talent management; talent attraction; talent development; talent retention; south african construction industry; talent management framework; qualitative research; thematic analysis. introduction the construction industry is one of the primary pillars of economies around the world (fapohunda & chileshe, 2014; oyewobi, windapo, & james, 2015; sawhney, agnihotri, & paul, 2014; xue, zhang, yang, & dai, 2014). within the construction industry, talent management practices are characterised by ongoing mobilisation and demobilisation of people at different stages of construction projects (mitchell, 2011). mobilisation relates to the activation of resources for a specific project, and demobilisation entails deactivation of resources at the construction site (business dictionary). the number of employees in a similar environment increases or decreases to meet the demands of major project work. there are a number of challenges confronting the industry in relation to talent management, such as the slowing down in infrastructure projects because of economic pressures (coulson-thomas, 2012); the often remote location of key positions (böhmer & schinnenburg, 2016) and the ongoing war on talent as a result of talent shortage (böhmer & schinnenburg, 2016, swailes & blackburn, 2016; worrall, harris, stewart, thomas, & mcdermott, 2010). consequently, the industry finds it difficult to attract and retain talent. the ability and flexibility to meet these challenges are key to ensuring successful talent management in construction (boshard & louw, 2012). construction industry: the south african perspective the construction industry contributes significantly to stimulating employment and growing the south african economy (oyewobi et al., 2015). the contribution of the construction industry to the growth domestic product (gdp) figures has consistently exceeded 8% since 2007. the total projected investment in the infrastructure for the period between 2012 and 2017 was approximately us$500 billion. the industry employs over 1.4 million people in the country, approximately 8% of the total formal employment sector and about 17% of the informal employment sector (human capital and labour report, 2017). the construction industry in south africa is relatively large and includes both building and civil engineering, varying between small to mega infrastructure projects (burger, verster, & zulch, 2015). construction, by its very nature, is a project-based and service-enhanced industry comprising multiple stakeholders with varying expectations (xue et al., 2014). in addition, the industry has to deal with complex projects, fragmented structures, and supply chain relationship complexities between contractors, suppliers, clients and communities (emuze & smallwood, 2014; xue et al., 2014). the stringent transformation imperatives imposed by broad-based black economic empowerment (bbbee) necessitate organisations to align to this acceptable business practice. in addition, it is important that the industry aligns to legislative requirements such as the basic conditions of employment act and the employment equity act administered by the department of labour, among others. the most common enforceable areas include pay equity (bussin, 2015) and a workforce profile representative of the demographic make-up of the country across different occupational categories. non-compliance to equity targets could result in substantive fines and discriminatory practices through the council for conciliation, mediation and arbitration (ccma) and labour court (kapoor, 2011). although the organisations in the industry are driven by the need to deliver on their infrastructure projects, they also have to make a profit to ensure sustainability. for the construction industry to benefit from projected growth, it is essential to develop an effective talent management framework. it is important that a talent management approach is used that takes contextual factors into consideration to yield better results (dhanabhakyam & kokilambal, 2014). talent management trends the existing knowledge on talent management is discussed from ramaiah and raut’s (2014) perspectives, namely: (1) skills shortage, (2) ageing workforce, (3) generational mix, (4) talent loyalty, (5) talent pipeline, (6) technological advancement, (7) global talent marketplace, (8) global talent pool, (9) talent mobility, (10) talent destinations and (11) employer branding. skills shortage the scarcity of talent is evident across various industries, and is a global phenomenon (manpower group, 2013), serving as a threat to viability (böhmer & schinnenburg, 2016). many organisations continually struggle to source and place appropriately qualified and experienced talent (tarique & schuler, 2012). talent shortage forces organisations to purposefully embed talent management practices, and even revert to poaching and headhunting (gundling, caldwell, & cvitkovich, 2016). clearly, the supply of talent is not adequately meeting the current demand, and this may continue to be a long-term challenge (kapoor, 2011). a balance of initiatives needs to be designed to meet the shortto medium-term needs. a talent management framework, aligned with an organisation’s strategy, could address these shortand medium-term needs (manpower group, 2015). ageing workforce organisations experience an increased talent shortage with an ageing workforce (minneci, 2015; ping, 2011). on the one hand, developed countries have population figures that are shrinking, with ageing populations (tarique & schuler, 2012). on the other hand, developing economies have a growing population which is becoming younger. it seems essential to plan around replacing the employees who are nearing retirement age with a younger generation of talent (thunnissen & van arensbergen, 2015). the older and the younger generation exhibit varied traits and expectations, making it challenging to facilitate the transfer of skills from one generation to another (tarique & schuler, 2012). although it may not pose an immediate threat, there is a need to address the ageing workforce before it becomes an urgent priority. this challenge provides an opportunity to closely look at their respective work values, attitudes and career expectations to ensure appropriate alignment and talent management interventions (ng & parry, 2016). generational mix today’s workplace has a new reality of multiple generations comprising the millennials, generation x, baby boomers and the silent generation (holt & seki, 2012; ng & parry, 2016). despite the high rate of unemployment more affecting the youth, there is a noticeable increase in new entrants into employment. price waterhouse coopers’s (2011) prediction is that the global workforce will comprise 50% millennials by 2020 and about 75% is projected by 2025 (herbert, 2016). taking a closer look at the millennials who are fast entering the world of work, it can be inferred that they differ vastly compared to other generations. millennials value a work environment characterised by transparency, flexibility and work–life balance and make career decisions based on these and related needs (alkire, 2014; downs, 2015). does this mark the end of loyalty as we traditionally know it? employers seem to be aware of this truth as they get to know millennials who freely express their needs when they enter an organisation. given the extent of awareness of this new reality, it would be a missed opportunity if organisations are not reviewing the policies and processes necessary to successfully navigate through the challenges cropping up in regard to recruitment and retention of skilled personnel (o’donnell, karallis, & sandelands, 2008). it should also be noted that the global-mindedness of millennials seems to make them more inclined to accept international assignments (alkire, 2014). talent loyalty because of high levels of loyalty in the past, employers did not pay much attention to talent management. however, the era of high levels of commitment seems to be fast fading away. it is now an acceptable norm to have multiple employers with less tenure (caplan, 2014). people frequently change jobs, they are more sensitive to an organisation’s culture and lifetime employment seems to be consigned to the past (ratten & ferreira, 2016). employees’ loyalty as measured by, among others, long tenure has been replaced by loyalty when it lasts. the employees may be loyal for as long as they are with the organisation, but such loyalty can change instantly. new ways of working and performance standards empower employees to see value in the organisation, which may lead to loyalty and voluntarily returns (aggarwal & bhargava, 2009). workers today frequently change jobs or move across employers and occupations. it would seem the power has shifted from the employer to employees taking an active role in managing their own careers (tarique & schuler, 2012). talent pipeline perhaps more than ever before organisations need a talent pipeline flow as a lifeblood for the organisation (hirsh, 2014). it is certainly fundamental for the sustainability of an organisation. identifying and developing young talent is one of the ways to create the talent pipeline needed in organisations. this requires a robust approach to integrating talent development as part of the organisation’s strategy with leadership taking an active role as talent managers through mentorship, coaching facilitating job rotation and peer support (mcgettingan & o’neill, 2009). in addition, the integration of labour market dynamics, the economic outlook and higher education institutions are necessary to foster collaborative efforts in developing and growing the talent pipeline (leon & uddin, 2016; sawhney et al., 2014). technological advancement technological solutions in workplaces are important as these bring about a number of benefits. in managing talent, systems are required to enable seamless solutions by employees and management. the employment landscape has changed and will continue to evolve owing to technological solutions available in the market (manpower group, 2015). trends suggest that the future of work will be characterised by virtual teams; employees’ interaction in cyberspace and social networks; flexible working hours; remote workstations and contingent workers (hoek, 2016). for example, employees will work for multiple organisations (tarique & schuler, 2012). the implementation of talent management cannot be divorced from integrating appropriate tools for enabling intelligent analytics, instant reports generation, efficiencies and reduced cost. the global marketplace paying attention to talent management imperatives is no longer an option but should lead to a competitive advantage (liu & pearson, 2014). both developed and developing economies compete for the limited pool of talent available. global talent movements place talent management high on the agenda. these movements contribute to the knowledge and practice of talent management and, in turn, to the economic growth and the overall competitiveness of many nations (silvanto & ryan, 2014). the fierce competition for talent on a global scale is centred on the economic viability of both developed and developing countries (alkire, 2014; eilo, yu, tam, & loek, 2016), thus exacerbating at a higher scale prevalent talent shortages (ewerlin & süß, 2016). the need for talent at leadership level has recently become urgent (hassanzadeh, 2015). talent mobility the rise of talent mobility is traceable to the developments relating to internationalisation, globalisation, and multinational entities and associated technology (alkire, 2014; nilsson & ellström, 2012; sambartolo, 2015). global talent management practices require organisations to devise more innovative strategies to attract talent as well as policies which are suitable for cross-cultural environments (ratten & ferreira, 2016). it is likely that talent mobility may be a result of the declining trust between employer and employees (böhmer & schinnenburg, 2016). several organisations are considering geographic expansion as a way in which to grow the market and ensure sustainability (gundling et al., 2016). talent mobility has increasingly heightened the importance of diversity and inclusiveness (silvanto & ryan, 2014), in the context of global talent management (ruël & lake, 2014). even though global business leaders seem to recognise the need for a global talent intelligence, it seems that some of the challenges exist in developing and implementing the required talent strategy, given the complexity involved (gundling et al., 2016). based on their experiences, global leaders take a lead role in the process of coordinating talent exchange (ratten & ferreira, 2016). manpower group (2015) report that 71% of the ceos actively search for talent in various geographic locations, noticing that talent mobility is a major concern. geographic destinations as it is evident that competition for talent is not confined to a particular industry or local market, then which are the destinies worth noting? multinational organisations, in particular, compete worldwide for the best talent within their local geographies and in international geographic areas (alkire, 2014). the united kingdom, greece, italy, spain and portugal are among the attractive talent destinations (minneci, 2015). ‘multiethnic cities such as london, sydney, toronto, paris, new york and dubai’ (silvanto & ryan, 2014, p. 112) are also some of the preferred destinations. the talent flow in and out of the united kingdom has revealed that engineers are attracted, in the main, by best offers which meet their talent specifications; the scientists and academics draw their interest in research and professional development opportunities, while entrepreneurs are more attracted by market conditions and more favourable and less restrictive regulatory environments. in south africa, the number of people who emigrate annually, particularly at skilled levels, is a great concern. according to the human capital and labour report (2017), about 47 000 professionals emigrated in 2015 alone, with the majority of them relocating to the united kingdom. branding strategy talent management draws its strength partly from a strong brand presence (ramaiah & raut, 2014). the link exists between a strong brand and the ease of attracting and retaining talent. most organisations with a strong brand image report that they have a large number of prospective candidates in their online recruitment portal in the queue for potentially securing employment with the company. paying attention to intangible qualities and to the strength of the organisation and the country is imperative for brand image. the intangible qualities include, among others, lifestyle, freedom, intellectual stimulation, acceptance, tolerance and immigration policies. countries with these intangible qualities and seamless immigration policies are more successful in attracting the best of talent (silvanto & ryan, 2014). in addition, the emerging markets are generally perceived to be less attractive than the developed markets. more branding is required to heighten the appeal of emerging markets, especially among millennials who are particular about brands in making career decisions (alkire, 2014). in view of the wide variety of career choices which young people are facing, it is important to brand engineering and construction careers as attractive (o’donnell et al., 2008). the organisation’s brand image is based on how it improves its appearance in the public domain (manpower group, 2015), with an inclusive imperative of diversity to attract the right talent (holt & seki, 2012). talent management assessment in south africa the global talent competitiveness index 2016 ranks south africa at 67th overall out of 118 countries (insead, 2016). the manpower group (2015) reported vital ranking statistics for south africa relative to other countries focusing on talent attracting, talent retention, skills and competence. in attracting talent, a score of 53 out of 138 countries has been achieved. although the country performed well on the attraction scale, it is worrying that the score of 34.55 out of 100, ranking 101 out of 118 countries, indicates a dismissal performance in retaining talent. the worst of all the indicators is the compensation and hiring practices, in which the country was placed 135 out of 138 countries. with reference to the difficulties in filling positions, more than 50% of the organisations surveyed reported negative environmental or market conditions, over 47% reported a lack of technical competencies, 46% reported lack of applications for particular positions, 30% reported a lack of specific industry qualifications and skills and 26% reported a lack of suitable work experience (manpower group, 2015). in addition, remote and undesirable locations, expectations and demand for higher remuneration, an absence of people skills, lack of drive and motivation were also raised as reasons why organisations find it difficult to fill certain key positions (manpower group, 2013). south africa’s unemployment rose to 27.1% in the third quarter of 2016 relative to 26.6% in the second quarter of the same year (statistics sa, 2017). youth unemployment, in particular, is of growing concern in the country. the above statistics require organisations in the country to invest significantly in talent management. the cost of expatriates in respect of remuneration, relocation and attrition makes it extremely challenging to demonstrate return on investment (herbert, 2016; mcnulty & de cieri, 2016). it is important that organisations in the construction industry make adequate provision for talent and manage talent within the budget parameters (burger et al., 2015). the economic pressures for resource efficiency are driving the need to manage cost and streamline resources, thus creating the challenge of ensuring sufficient budget for talent management (sahay, 2015). talent management in the construction industry: key skills required construction projects often involve a significant diversity of multiple participants, each with a set of skills required to deliver on the goals of the project (xue et al., 2014). construction site managers should possess leadership skills, understanding of the legal requirements, a range of technical and blended business skills (fapohunda, 2014) and project management institute (pmi) construction extension to the project management body of knowledge, commonly known as pmbok (fapohunda & chileshe, 2014). it is critical to have effective team leadership to ensure the success of a construction project, with leadership development, and problem-solving skills playing a vital role (senaratne & samaraweera, 2015). the core skill of electrician or electrical technicians enables career development towards management in the construction disciplines, which is in short supply (mcgettingan & o’neill, 2009). the construction sector skills plan (ssp) maps out the comprehensive plan for the demand and supply of skills in the industry. specific focus is placed on nqf-aligned skills programmes, and completion of candidacy registration programmes post academic qualifications is one of the priority areas for the construction seta. the completion of the candidacy programme enables the professionals, particularly architects, engineers and quantity surveyors and estimators, to register with relevant professional bodies as one of the key requirements to practice (ceta ssp, 2017). purpose the purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate perceptions of talent management practices and actual practices in a specific organisation within the construction industry. the following questions were formulated: how do senior and junior managers perceive the current talent management in the construction industry? what are seen as enablers of talent management practices in the construction industry? what are regarded as barriers to talent management practices in the construction industry? what support mechanisms are in place to support the effective implementation of talent management in the industry? what talent management insights may be gained from organisations outside of south africa? research method a qualitative research approach was adopted for the study to (1) explore a particular aspect of reality as identified by the researcher (creswell, 2003), and to (2) gain better insight into people’s views (marvasti, 2011). personal interviews provide opportunities to explore participants’ insights, to offer a holistic picture of perceptions (branthwaite & patterson, 2011), by illuminating the circumstances (bogdan & biklen, 1992), as a result of rich information (guercini, 2014). in line with bloomberg and volpe (2008, p. 80), the authors felt a case study best served to gaining ‘an in-depth understanding’ of talent management in the construction organisation. case studies are used in a wide variety of disciplines to acquire an understanding of a focused situation to contribute to theory (yin, 2003). to explore perceptions related to talent management practices in the organisation, we opted for a single case, namely, a construction and engineering project-based organisation located in the gauteng province. the setting reflects mitchell’s (2011) features of being project-driven, specialisation in services and work characterised by high-risk, high-reward and low job security. to facilitate in-depth engagement, a relatively small number of participants were selected (branthwaite & patterson, 2011; mariampolski, 2011). we used purposive convenience sampling to select research participants who had first-hand experiences of organisation talent management (bloomberg & volpe, 2008; rosenthal & rosnow, 2008). four were identified: two males at senior management and two females (one at middle management and one at junior management level). these four individuals functioned at a level where implementation of talent management practices is executed. it is extremely important that appropriate data collection methods are used to produce data which will inform the issues under investigation (wu & patel, 2015, p. 98). regarding the case study, farquhar (2013, p. 2 of 22) writes: ‘case study research is characterised by multiple data sources, often consisting of different data collection techniques’. therefore, we applied the following data collection methods: (1) combination of semi-structured and unstructured interviews, (2) participant observation and conversations, and (3) reviewing of company documents. grounded theory was used to code information through open coding, axial coding and selective coding (bryman & bell, 2007). ethical considerations the study was aligned to the ethical code and guidelines of the college of economics and management of the university of johannesburg. participants signed informed consent to take part in the project voluntary and that information would be handled confidentially. participants were introduced to the background of the study, the aims and objectives and the estimated time of the interviews. participants were ensured that they could withdraw at any time without any negative consequences. with informed consent participants were assured that the research would be based on sound methodological principles of care, integrity, professionalism and confidentiality. informed consent implied: providing assurance to the participants that: (1) they should feel free to make an independent decision and to either participate or withdraw without fear of negative consequences, (2) there would be a cultural sensitivity towards their background, (3) interviews would be conducted in a convenient and comfortable location, (4) they would be given the opportunity to express their thoughts. interviews were transcribed and kept secured by being password protected. the data will be kept for a period of 5 years after graduation, after which it will be destroyed. findings analyses of the interviews provided two conceptual frameworks that are depicted in figures 1 and 2. figure 1 provides a holistic explanation of talent management processes in the organisation studied. the framework comprises three broad focal areas, namely, talent management strategy, talent management practices and talent management organisational outcomes. figure 1: talent management framework: attraction and retention. figure 2: the interface between talented employees and the organisation. figure 1 comprises three broad focal areas, namely, talent management strategy, talent management practices, and talent management organisational outcomes. it indicates that the effectiveness of the organisation’s talent management may broadly be assessed in terms of talent attraction and retention, in line with desired organisational outcomes. the talent management framework of figure 1 links the organisation’s talent management strategy to its human resources and business strategy. it is imperative that the framework is anchored in the ability to deliver on its business strategy. the purpose of the framework is to attract and retain talent that is aligned with the strategic objectives and envisaged business performance. the interactions that take place in the talent management framework (figure 1) led to the development of figure 2 that explains the interface between talented employees and the organisation. figure 2 illustrates that organisational talent management comprises various internal and external factors. although embedded within one organisation, it is not possible to divorce the effective management of talent in this organisation from external business environment, including broader labour market dynamics. the alignment of talent management to both global business and existing regulatory frameworks is key to sustaining the organisation’s competitive advantage. in addition, the organisation has internal processes and policies in place that guide the implementation of its talent management practices (sourcing, management, growth and compensation). discussion the functional operation of the talent management framework (figure 1) and the interface between talented employees and the organisation (figure 2) will be discussed sequentially. the talent management framework in figure 1 depicts concepts of importance for the development of a talent management strategy. the framework is underpinned by an appreciation of the impact of external environmental factors on internal organisational talent management practices. a useful way in which to appreciate external enablers is to understand and align them with relevant legislation and to understand labour market dynamics of the supply and demand for talent. both the country’s economic outlook and the organisation’s budget allocation for infrastructure projects play a role in predicting the viability of construction projects. these enablers allow the organisation to appropriately position itself to award these projects and ensure sufficient talent availability. boshard and louw (2012) emphasise that flexibility in meeting these challenges is a key factor in successfully managing key talent in the construction industry. the framework emphasises the need for the organisation to be deliberate in its brand image to become an employer of choice. this is especially important, taking into account the complexity of projects and supply chain relationships involved (emuze & smallwood, 2014; xue et al., 2014). as the organisation operates on an international platform, paying attention to diversity and inclusion may assist in enhancing the brand image while also stimulating attraction and retention of talent. an organisation’s talent management is enhanced by its position in terms of enabling policies and procedures. this is especially important in the light of the complexities that the supply chain relationships consist of (emuze & smallwood, 2014; xue et al., 2014). the test of the effectiveness of its policies and procedures focuses on implementation policies in creating a talent culture. sound organisational policies and procedures enable businesses to source, manage, grow and reward talent. as outlined in figure 1, the framework emphasises four practices that steer talent management in line with organisational strategy, namely, sourcing, managing, growing and compensation. talent sourcing it is widely accepted that attracting the most suitable candidates enhances an organisation’s ability to deliver excellent results. sourcing talent, in the context of the construction industry, should focus on building an employer value proposition (evp) and an organisational brand image (meyer, 2016). this would imply the removal of barriers to internal talent pools and external talent accessibility. the removal of barriers for talent is also entrenched in the employment equity act, no. 55 of 1998, which promotes organisations to develop and promote talent from underprivileged backgrounds in terms of gender, age and race. organisations should, thus, purposefully manage talent to fulfil short-, mediumand long-term demands (kapoor, 2011). in addition, recruiting quality candidates supports retention as the right match is likely to enhance employees remaining with the organisation (sahay, 2015). performance management there are four activities involved in the performance management cycle, namely, defining performance goals, managing performance, reviewing feedback and performance-based decisions (swanepoel, erasmus, van wyk, & schenk, 2003). performance outcomes affect employee compensation, growth prospects and development, while effectively managing performance enhances role clarity, communication, feedback and merit-based compensation. performance ratings serve as an input into the talent review process. sound performance standards may even lead to loyalty to the organisation (aggarwal & bhargava, 2009). as shikweni (2010) points out, the way performance is managed influences an organisation’s success or failure with regard to attracting and retaining talent. growing talent ongoing talent development impacts positively on commitment. it is imperative that the organisation understands the set of knowledge and skills it requires and develops interventions to close any gaps as a way of looking after talent (stewart, 2016). developmental opportunities should be used to develop the required skills, assist talent to better fulfil their roles and, by means of a blended approach, focus on the future needs of the organisation. as meyer (2016) points out growing talent needs to be personalised through developing a personal development plan, and by offering suitable learning programmes to allow talent to demonstrate proficiency and mastery of the competencies obtained through various forms of learning. compensation talented employees tend to be more concerned with better compensation than their less talented counterparts. as kock and burke (2008) emphasise, compensation relates to practices such as competitive remuneration and the alignment of reward and benefits. with regard to performance, it plays a key role in ensuring a continued supply of talent and retention (dubey & gunasekaran, 2015). chew and chan (2008) indicate that remuneration and recognition have a positive impact on commitment, and also stimulate intention to remain with the organisation. employees are inclined to stay with an organisation when they experience acknowledgement of their efforts, contributions and performance. the fair administration of compensation differentiates poor performers from top performers and enhances the employment relationship (kock & burke, 2008). organisational outcomes there are several outcomes associated with talent management practices. chew and chan (2008) describe three perspectives leading to specific outcomes: (1) the universal, (2) contingency, and (3) the configuration approaches. the universal approach suggests identifiable best practices which, when well executed, may lead to organisational performance, while the contingency approach suggests that various practices may be contextualised to different settings and strategies, which, in turn, may lead to desirable organisational outcomes. the configuration approach advocates a good fit between the practices and strategies that improve organisational performance (chew & chan, 2008). the execution of the framework is mainly dependent on the calibre of talent and how the talent interfaces with the organisation. in developing the framework, the context of the organisation and the talented individuals were considered. the framework was developed on the premise which considers its external and internal enablers in stimulating potential talent management. the organisation needs to drive the initiatives to stimulate talent potential. when the initiatives are not well received, the organisation fails in its endeavour to stimulate talent. both the organisation and the talent stand to gain when initiatives and individuals’ expectations are aligned. figure 2 demonstrates that talented individuals with potential area are better placed to lead the organisation. stimulating talent through practices and actions or the absence thereof influences an organisation’s success or failure in managing its talent. when talented individuals enter the organisation, their potential may both be developed to their benefit and to the benefit of the organisation or talent potential may remain underutilised. underutilised talent results in stagnation or deterioration with the concomitant detrimental effect on the organisation as well as on the individual. as a collective endeavour, talent management is premised on dependence, interdependence and the mutual required practices and actions of the organisation and its talented employees. leaders have the responsibility to determine strategy and prevent apathy and to create an enabling environment to allow the organisation’s talent to thrive (mcgettingan & o’neill, 2009). the organisation’s talent management can be influenced by internal processes that we refer to as internal enablers and the external environment referred to as external enablers. internal enablers in this study, driving business results, policies and procedures, leadership, exclusive and inclusive approach and technology have been identified as the most important internal enablers. driving business results to achieve results, big-picture thinking is required in relation to the organisation’s talent management strategy, its processes, its policies and its organisational culture. it was clear from the study’s findings that, in relation to its current and future projects, the organisation where the study was conducted was not always prepared to meet the demand for talent and its leadership pipeline model was not facilitating talent. consequently, the flow of its talent was not at the pace that was required. in fact, internally its talent supply was relatively low compared to what it was capable of producing. kapoor (2011) warns that a lack of strategic leadership in talent management may lead to long-term predicaments. policies and procedures there were challenges in respect of the organisation’s policies and procedures regarding its talent management. these issues were not, however, related to poorly constructed documents, but to the way in which the guidelines were communicated and administered. organisational policies and procedures need to be in place when challenges arise (o’donnell et al., 2008). policies should also support a cross-cultural environment (ratten & ferreira, 2016). leadership an organisation’s leadership should play a key role in ensuring that its internal processes, including those for talent management, are aligned. accountable senior leaders are actively involved in the agenda in respect of talent management in an organisation. leadership skills should be from an umbrella of expertise that consists of a blend of financial, legal, technical (fapohunda, 2014) and problem-solving skills (senaratne & samaraweera, 2015). the organisation in the study did not have a human resources director and operated for many years without a dedicated recruitment manager. consequently, efforts by the leadership, line managers and practitioners, key to administering its talent management practices, were often not aligned. inclusive versus exclusive approach the alignment between the individuals’ talent aspirations and those of the organisation should accord with job satisfaction. in addition, attracting talented individuals to organisations should minimise talent turnover, ensure continuity and reduce hiring costs. this usually means that demonstrating a return on investment becomes less of an effort. furthermore, the benefits accruing from increased performance, enhanced organisational output and customer satisfaction improve the organisation’s image. the findings indicate that the organisation had adopted an exclusive talent management approach, focused only on the potential of its leadership and not on that of all its talented employees (an inclusive approach). consequently, many talented employees at other levels and in functional areas core to the organisation remained underutilised. technology technology has recently become a key factor in talent management, in particular because it provides several platforms and tools which appeal to this younger generation (sahay, 2015). the organisation demonstrated inadequate technology in supporting its talent management practices. for example, performance management was not fully automated, while, at the time of the study, the organisation had yet to invest in e-learning to assist the development and growth of talent. having discussed the internal enablers, it is equally important for the organisation to align with the external enablers identified in this study. external enablers four external enablers relevant to the organisation are labour market, brand image, location and working conditions, and demographics. labour market finding and employing individuals with appropriate talent, managing, growing and compensating them should be aligned with broad labour market dynamics. the labour market suggests that the prevailing skills shortage is an issue of major concern and that it extends beyond the context and boundaries of both the organisation in question and the construction industry in general. in fact, it is a global phenomenon. there is a shortage of talent in the construction industry, particularly in the technical, engineering and related disciplines. leon and uddin (2016) and sawhney et al. (2014) suggest that collaboration be fostered with higher education institutions in growing a talent pipeline. brand image organisation’s perceived value in terms of its brand value is key in attracting the diverse talent and then retaining such talent (ramaiah & raut, 2014). although historically strong, the recently imposed penalties by the competition commission for collusion had damaged the organisation’s brand image. the brand image helps to attract the best talent as individuals wish to associate themselves with organisations with superior brands and disassociate themselves from those which have not established themselves or whose brand images are tarnished. it is important to remember that an organisation’s alignment with its external environmental impacts positively on the organisation itself and, ultimately, on its brand image (ramaiah & raut, 2014). location and working conditions the study found that the remote locations of construction projects and the negative working conditions seemed to be a major barrier to attracting the best talent. working conditions are often considered to be hazardous. in addition, employment contracts often oblige talent to be mobile when required to work in remote locations and offshore and this was unsettling. demographics in its pursuit of talent management, the organisation was under pressure to balance its workforce demographic make-up profile to ensure that it was representative of that of the country. in fact, this was often included in the organisation’s contractual obligations with its clients. in particular, the employment equity act no. 55 of 1998 required the company to provide employment opportunities to previously disadvantaged south africans, including those with disabilities. the bbbee requirements, particularly management control and skills development elements of the construction sector codes, necessitate focused attention on creation of black talent pipeline. it is expected that a thorough understanding of both the internal and the external enablers will lead to effective talent management practices. talent management practices the organisation’s talent management practices have been reviewed and broadly categorised as sourcing, management, growth and compensation. sourcing the continued mismatch between the supply and demand of talent was forcing the organisation either to appoint less capable talent or to look outside of the country. the study found that the organisation tended to use traditional methods of sourcing talent, including cv screening, shortlisting, interviews and reference checks. however, sourcing strategies in the labour market have evolved. it would appear that the best method is to tailor the sourcing strategies for each different generational grouping based on the group’s respective unique characteristics. however, the organisation in the study was yet to use a tailored sourcing approach and to exploit social media platforms. a sensitivity is needed towards a workforce consisting of multiple generations (holt & seki, 2012; ng & parry, 2016). it is especially the specific needs of millennials that need to be taken into consideration (alkire, 2014; downs, 2015), as they should be forming 75% of the workforce by 2025 (herbert, 2016). management performance management starts with goal setting which is aligned with the broader organisational goals and culminates in the performance review. it was clear that there was a need for consistency in the performance reviews conducted by the organisation. the performance management reviews were scarcely ever completed by the set timelines. in addition, there was no management of the consequences of non-compliance with the performance reviews. it seemed that completion of the performance reviews speeded up close to the financial year-end because of the threat of no performance rating on the system leading to no bonus pay. this could potentially lead to skewed performance ratings in which disengaged employees were often not identified. unfair performance appraisal would inevitably lead to disgruntled employees (aggarwal & bhargava, 2009). performance management outcomes led to key decisions in relation to talent, for example, promotion, development and compensation, which were not necessarily fair. growth it has been established that talented individuals value opportunities for learning and for personal and professional growth. talented individuals prefer working environments where there is a trust relationship with their line managers, empowerment, growth prospects and work–life balance. career security should be fostered through learning and career development. growing talent is one of the key practices that has been recognised for its impact on engaging talent. leon and uddin (2016) and sawhney et al. (2014) suggest that joint partnerships are formed with educational institutions in securing future talent requirements. it is a concern that in this study, it was found that talent development was not prioritised and, consequently, very limited budget provisions were made for it. compensation organisations review their compensation practices with a view to remain competitive in the global talent market (maloa & bussin, 2016). attractive compensation structures attract talented individuals’ drive to performance and productivity (fapohunda & chileshe, 2014). compensation plays an important role in performance management as motivational theory links performance outcomes to incentives. the study established that the business’s profitability paved the way for the organisation to reward its employees by means of incentives. however, the organisation’s remuneration and incentive payouts process for employees are not transparent and the alleged disparities remain a source of tension between the employer and the employees. the organisation had been forced by the department of labour to undertake an exercise to address these disparities as part of the equal pay for work of equal value legislative requirement. it is no surprise that the global talent competitiveness index 2017 ranks south africa’s compensation and hiring practices as 135 out of 138 countries (insead, 2016). organisational outcomes the challenge an organisation faces regarding talent is how to attract talent and then how to keep such talent sufficiently engaged to remain with the organisation. limited career growth opportunities were cited as a major reason why people decided to leave the organisation. at the time of the study, the organisation had not found alternative strategies such as meaningful work, job enrichment and work–life balance, to retain its talent. this meant that its organisational structure was becoming flatter, and the emergence of a matrix reporting structure was rising. however, the organisation did respond adequately to the need to counter turnover costs, the loss of organisation knowledge, interrupting client service and so on, resulting from a high staff turnover which was over 15%. organisations should especially be sensitive that fierce international competition could jeopardise talent management practices (alkire, 2014; eilo et al., 2016; ewerlin & süß, 2016). practical implications the findings of the study have implications for talent management and practices in the construction industry. theory firstly, the substantive theory the study offers for managing talent in the construction sector has expanded existing knowledge by integrating first-order concrete experiences with abstract, scholarly concepts derived from the literature, thus illuminating several interrelated concepts or building blocks in respect of talent management theory. secondly, because retaining key talent appears to remain a challenge for organisations, the substantive theory provides a framework for alternative solutions to address this and associated issues. thirdly, the study offers insights into the external environment and market conditions affecting the flow of talent in organisations and which need to be addressed. finally, as local research has focused on either talent management in the public sector (koketso, 2011) or in the private sector (mathafena, 2015), the study has expanded the existing body of knowledge on local talent management to the construction industry. practice the practical contribution is fourfold. firstly, the study offers a framework and useful recommendations for practicing managers, leadership and policymakers that can also be applied in organisations other than in the construction industry. secondly, it provides guidelines to simplify complex issues, thus optimising talent management. thirdly, with regard to the external environment, the framework aids competitive advantage by providing insight on best practice talent management and the ways in which organisations may reduce their risk of non-compliance with employment legislation. finally, the research provides strategic alignment on talent management in the challenging context of globalisation; regulatory frameworks and labour market dynamics as well as issues such as organisational image, diversity and inclusion. limitations and future research this qualitative approach investigated a single case within the south african construction industry. a single case study does not provide answers to broader issues on talent management in the south african construction industry. more studies are needed to generalise the findings to the broader construction industry in south africa and other countries. although the perceptions of people from senior management, middle management and junior management were obtained, the important experiences and views of other level employees were omitted. future research covering opinions of lower-level employees needs to be explored. building on this study, we proposed future research into the following: a focus on the areas that evaluate the effectiveness of the talent management practices and return on investment to the construction industry. exploring how talent diversity and intercultural competence can contribute to talent management practices in the global business environment. verifying the impact of transformation imperatives on talent management in the south african context. recommendations to management consistent with mathafena’s (2015) study of talent management in the private sector, the findings of this research study showed that the talent management maturity level in the construction industry was relatively low and below expectations. talent management practitioners in the construction industry should be vigilant and actively engage management in identifying, visibly supporting and providing talent with opportunities for growth. leadership support is vital in endorsing an enabling environment that cultivates talent and retains a healthy talent resource. without leadership’s utilisation of opportunities to provide an enabling environment, talent is not secured and will not thrive. without a healthy talent pool, an organisation’s success is jeopardised. conclusion talent management is at the centre of an organisation’s success. when effectively implemented, talent management practices yield positive attitudinal, behavioural and performance outcomes which, in turn, translate into attracting and retaining talent. the proposed talent management framework for the local construction sector offers a pragmatic approach and, if modified and adapted, may be applied to any local construction organisation. the research findings confirmed the significance of meticulous talent management in the construction industry. the effective implementation of the talent management practices may yield both talent attraction and retention. detailed talent management planning could lead to competitive advantage, supported by an effective financial performance, which secures a sustainable business. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contributions s.s., w.s. and r.v.w. equally contributed to this article. this article derived from the phd thesis of s.s. w.s. was the supervisor, and r.v.w. was the co-supervisor of the study. references aggarwal, u., & bhargava, s. (2009). reviewing the relationship between human resource practices and psychological contract and their impact on employee attitude and behaviours: a conceptual model. journal of european industrial training, 33(1), 4–37. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090590910924351 alkire, t. d. (2014). the attractiveness of emerging market mncs as employers of european and american talent workers: a multicultural study. international journal of emerging markets, 9(2), 333–370. http://doi.org/10.1108/ijoem-08-2012-0091 bloomberg, l. d., & volpe, m. (2008). completing your qualitative dissertation: a roadmap from beginning to end. los angeles, ca: sage. bogdan, r., & biklen, s. k. (1992). qualitative research for education: an introduction to theory and methods (3rd edn.). boston, ma: allyn & bacon. böhmer, n., & schinnenburg, h. (2016). how gender and career concepts impact global talent management. employee relations, 38(1), 73–93. http://doi.org/10.1108/er-07-2015-0154 boshard, d., & louw, a. (2011). talent: trends impacting its availability and what your business should do about it. in i. boninelli & t. meyer (eds.), human capital trends: building a sustainable organisation (pp. 44–58). randburg: knowres. branthwaite, a., & patterson, s. (2011). the power of qualitative research in the era of social media. qualitative market research: an international journal, 14(4), 430–440. http://doi.org/10.1108/13522751111163245 bryman, a., & bell, e. (2007). business research methods (2nd edn.). oxford: oxford university press. burger, m., verster, b., & zulch, b. (2015). the construction project manager in south africa: analysis of industry-specific knowledge. acta structilia, 22(1), 48–72. bussin, m. (2015). factors driving changes to remuneration policies in south africa. south african journal of labour relations, 39(2), 43–63. caplan, j. (2014). thinking differently about talent development. human resource management international digest, 22(2), 42–45. http://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid-03-2014-0034 construction education training authority. (2017). construction sector education and training authority, a 5 year sector skills plan 2017–2022, ceta ssp, midrand. chew, j., & chan, c. (2008). human resource practices: organizational commitment and intention to stay. international journal of manpower, 29, 503–522. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720810904194 coulson-thomas, c. (2012). talent management and building high performance organisations. industrial and commercial training, 44(7), 429–436. http://doi.org/10.1108/00197851211268027 creswell, j. w. (2003). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. london: sage. dhanabhakyam, m., & kokilambal, k. (2014). a study on existing talent management practice and its benefits across industries. impact: international journal of research in business management, 2(7), 23–36. retrieved from https://ia802301.us.archive.org/14/items/4.manageastudyonexistingtalentmanagementpracticek.kokillambal/4.%20manage-a%20study%20on%20existing%20talent%20management%20practice-k.%20kokillambal.pdf downs, l. (2015). star talent: investing in high-potential employees for organizational success. industrial and commercial training, 47(7), 349–355. http://doi.org/10.1108/ict-06-2015-0041 dubey, r., & gunasekaran, a. (2015). shortage of sustainable supply chain talent: an industrial training framework. industrial and commercial training, 47(2), 86–94. http://doi.org/10.1108/ict-08-2014-0052 eilo, w., yu, y., tam, n., & loek, l. (2016). the puzzle of macao’s talent development. asian education and development studies, 5(4), 423–437. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeds-11-2015-0060 emuze, f., & smallwood, j. j. (2014). collaborative working in south african construction: contractors’ perspectives. journal of engineering, design and technology, 12(3), 294–306. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-08-2010-0057 ewerlin, d., & süß, s. (2016). dissemination of talent management in germany: myth, facade or economic necessity? personnel review, 45(1), 142–160. http://doi.org/10.1108/09574090910954864 fapohunda, j. a. (2014). evaluation of site managers’ hindrances towards optimal utilisation of construction resources. journal of engineering, design and technology, 12(3), 348–363. http://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-03-2012-0013 fapohunda, j. a., & chileshe, n. (2014). evaluation of site managers’ hindrances towards optimal utilisation of construction resources. journal of engineering, design and technology, 12(4), 461–474. http://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-03-2012-0013 farquhar, d. (2013). ncea business studies: a workbook @ level 2. auckland: nelson cengage learning. guercini, s. (2014). new qualitative research methodologies in management. management decision, 52(4), 1. http://doi.org/10.1108/md-11-2013-0592 gundling, e., caldwell, c., & cvitkovich, k. (2016). global talent: beyond outsourcing. in advances in global leadership (pp. 353–374). retrieved from http://doi.org/10.1108/s1535-120320160000009025 hassanzadeh, m. (2015). global leadership competencies and training. journal of leadership, accountability and ethics, 5(2), 137–146. http://doi.org/10.5901/jesr.2015.v5n2p137 herbert, b. (2016). moving employee talent key to competitive edge. strategic hr review, 15(2), 65–69. http://doi.org/10.1108/shr-01-2016-0005 hirsh, w. (2014). four steps to effective talent management. strategic hr review, 13(3). http://doi.org/10.1108/shr-01-2014-0009 hoek, l. v. a. n. (2016). millennial engineers: talent management expectations and needs in an african mining corporation. journal of contemporary management, 13, 482–505. holt, k., & seki, k. (2012). global leadership: begins with learning professionals. t + d, 66(5), 32–38, 6. human capital and labour report. (2017). johannesburg: knowledge resources insead. (2016). the global talent competitiveness index 2017, fontainebleau, france. retrieved from http://www.gtci2017.com/documents/gtci_2017_web_r5.pdf kapoor, b. (2011). impact of globalization on human resource management, journal of international management studies, 6(1), 1–8. kock, r., & burke, m. (2008). managing talent in the south african public service. public personnel management, 37(4), 457–470. http://doi.org/10.1177/009102600803700406 koketso, l. p. (2011). perceived challenges to talent management in the south african public service: an exploratory study of the city of cape town municipality (m.tech – human resources management). unpublished master’s dissertation. cape peninsula university, cape town, south africa. leon, s., & uddin, n. (2016). finding supply chain talent: an outreach strategy. supply chain management: an international journal, 21(1), 20–44. http://doi.org/10.1108/scm-02-2015-0084 liu, y., & pearson, c. a. l. (2014). the importance of talent management: a study of chinese organisations. journal of chinese economic and foreign trade studies, 7(3), 153–172. http://doi.org/10.1108/jcefts-12-2014-0026 maloa, f., & bussin, m. (2016). determinants of executive compensation in south african state-owned enterprises. south african journal of labour relations, 40(1), 8–24. manpower group. (2013). 2013 talent shortage survey research results. retrieved from https://www.manpowergroup.com/wps/wcm/connect/587d2b45-c47a-4647-a7c1-e7a74f68fb85/2013_talent_shortage_survey_results_us_high+res.pdf?mod=ajperes manpower group. (2015). 2015 global talent shortage survey. retrieved from http://www.manpowergroup.com/wps/wcm/connect/db23c560-08b6-485f-9bf6-f5f38a43c76a/2015_talent_shortage_survey_us-lo_res.pdf?mod=ajperes. mariampolski, h. (2011). benefits of qualitative research. in h. mariampolski (ed.), qualitative market research: a comprehensive guide (pp. 55–56). london: sage. marvasti, a. b. (2011). what is qualitative research? in h. mariampolski (ed.), qualitative market research: a comprehensive guide (pp. 2–14). london: sage. retrieved from https://doi.org.helicon.vuw.ac.nz/10.4135/9781849209700.n1 mathafena, r. b. (2015). a talent management framework for the private sector. unpublished doctoral dissertation. university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa. mcgettingan, e., & o’neill, d. (2009). from apprentice to construction manager and beyond: developing a talent pipeline. education + training, 51(3), 220–231. http://doi.org/10.1108/00400910910960768 mcnulty, y., & de cieri, h. (2016). linking global mobility and global talent management: the role of roi. employee relations, 38(1), 8–30. http://doi.org/10.1108/er-08-2015-0157 meyer, t. (2016). talent framework and issues in talent management. in t. meyer (ed.), shaping africa’s talent: enabling africa’s potential. randburg, south africa: kr publishing. minneci, f. (2015). if there were a “highly skilled red octopus”? the case of italian highly skilled mobility at times of crisis. economics & sociology, 8(3), 170–182. http://doi.org/10.14254/2071-789x.2015/8-3/13 mitchell, m. l. (2011). private-sector research settings. in m. l. mitchell (ed.), qualitative research methods: employing qualitative methods in the private sector. thousand oaks, ca: sage. ng, e. s., & parry, e. (2016). multigenerational research in human resource management. in m. r. buckley, j. r. b. halbesleben, & a. r. wheeler (eds.) research in personnel and human resources management (vol. 34, pp. 1–41). bingley, uk: emerald group. http://doi.org/issn:0742-7301/doi:10.1108/s0742-730120160000034008 nilsson, s., & ellström, p.-e. (2012). employability and talent management: challenges for hrd practices. european journal of training and development, 36(1), 26–45. http://doi.org/10.1108/03090591211192610 o’donnell, h., karallis, t., & sandelands, e. (2008). reflecting on the skills agenda: a construction industry perspective. education + training, 50(1), 59–63. http://doi.org/10.1108/00400910810855522 oyewobi, l. o., windapo, a. o., & james, r. o. b. (2015). an empirical analysis of construction organisations’ competitive strategies and performance. built environment project and asset management, 5(4), 417–431. http://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-10-2013-0045 ping, t. s. (2011). impact of talent management practices towards organizational commitment. penang: universiti sains malaysia. price waterhouse coopers’ annual global ceo survey. (2011). growth reimagined: prospects in emerging markets drive ceo confidence. price waterhouse coopers. retrieved from http://pwc.com ramaiah, t. s., & raut, r. a. (2014). talent management practices in corporate world. international journal of organisational behaviour & management perspectives, 3(1), 2279–2950. ratten, v., & ferreira, j. (2016). global talent management and corporate entrepreneurship strategy. in v. ratten, & j. ferreira, (eds.), global talent management and staffing in mnes (pp. 151–165). retrieved from http://doi.org/10.1108/s1876-066x20160000032006 rosenthal, r., & rosnow, r. l. (2008). essentials of behavioral research: methods and data analysis (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. ruël, j. m. h., & lake, c. (2014). global talent management in mncs in the digital age: conceptualizing the gtm–ict relationship. in t. bondarouk, m. r. olivas-luján (eds.) human resource management, social innovation and technology (pp. 155–178). bingley: emerald. sahay, p. (2015). the complexity of recruiting. strategic hr review, 14(5), 182–187. http://doi.org/10.1108/shr-04-2015-0034 sambartolo, m. (2015). keys to optimising workforce resources across the enterprise. strategic hr review, 14(5), 168–173. http://doi.org/10.1108/shr-08-2015-0062 sawhney, a., agnihotri, r., & paul, v. k. (2014). grand challenges for the indian construction industry. built environment project and asset management, 4(4), 317–334. http://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-10-2013-0055 senaratne, s., & samaraweera, a. (2015). construction project leadership across the team development process. built environment project and asset management, 5(1), 69–88. https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-10-2012-0049 shikweni, s. (2010). performance management: mining company a. in a. c. wilkinson, m. fourie, a. h. strydom, l. van der westhuizen, & j. van tonder (eds.), performance management of academic staff in south african higher education. bloemfontein: centre for higher education studies and development. silvanto, s., & ryan, j. (2014). relocation branding: a strategic framework for attracting talent from abroad. journal of global mobility, 2(1), 102–120. http://doi.org/10.1108/jgm-07-2013-0046 south africa. (1998). employment equity act, no. 55. retrieved from http://www.labour.gov.za/dol/downloads/legislation/acts/employment-equity/eegazette2015.pdf. statistics sa. (2017). quarterly labour force survey, stats sa, pretoria. stewart, c. (2016). how diverse is your pipeline? developing the talent pipeline for women and black and ethnic minority employees. industrial and commercial training, 48(2), 61–66. http://doi.org/10.1108/ict-09-2015-0059 swailes, s., & blackburn, m. (2016). employee reactions to talent pool membership. employee relations, 38(1), 112–128. http://doi.org/10.1108/er-02-2015-0030 swanepoel, b. j., erasmus, b. j., & schenk, h. w. (2003). south african human resource management. theory & practice (4th edn.). juta: cape town. tarique, i., & schuler, r. s. (2012). global talent management: literature review, for the society of human resource management foundation. retrieved from https://smlr.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/documents/faculty_staff_docs/randall%20schuler_gtm%20shrm_%20report_final_oct%2028%2c2012_0.pdf thunnissen, m., & van arensbergen, p. (2015). a multi-dimensional approach to talent. personnel review, 44(2), 182–199. http://doi.org/10.1108/pr-10-2013-0190 worrall, l., harris, k., stewart, r., thomas, a., & mcdermott, p. (2010). barriers to women in the uk construction industry. engineering, construction and architectural management, 17(3), 268–281. http://doi.org/10.1108/09699981011038060 wu, h., & patel, c. (2015). adoption of anglo-american models of corporate governance and financial reporting in china. in h. wu, & c. patel (eds.), studies in managerial and financial accounting (vol. 29, pp. iii). bingley: emerald. xue, x., zhang, r., yang, r., & dai, j. (2014). innovation in construction: a critical review and future research. international journal of innovation science, 6(2), 111–126. https://doi.org/10.1260/1757-2223.6.2.111 yin, r. k. (2003). case study research design and methods (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. sajhrm 19(1)_2021_contents.indd http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access table of contentspage i of iv original research relational dynamics amongst personal resources: consequences for employee engagement nicola vermooten, johan malan, martin kidd, billy boonazier sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1310 | 16 february 2021 original research monetary value of human capital disclosure for predicting future business earnings mpho d. magau, gerhard roodt, gerhardus van zyl sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1398 | 25 february 2021 original research the relationship between talent management, job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions of employees in a selected government institution nicolene e. barkhuizen, bongekile gumede sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1396 | 25 february 2021 original research the influence of servant leadership on psychological empowerment and organisational citizenship on a sample of teachers adrian g. van der hoven, bright mahembe, desiree hamman-fisher sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1395 | 26 march 2021 original research perception of the influence of cultural diversity on business performance in the automotive component manufacturing in south africa philani m. khumalo, robert w.d. zondo sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1451 | 30 march 2021 original research maximising training evaluation for employee performance improvement kaledi d. mehale, cookie m. govender, calvin m. mabaso sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1473 | 31 march 2021 original research openness to change and conservation in value-laden decisions christoff prinsloo, charlene lew sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1468 | 09 april 2021 original research time-use preference and adaptation in relational exchanges angela glover, charlene lew sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1452 | 13 april 2021 original research job performance: working conditions of urban teachers in zimbabwean schools victor c. ngwenya sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1454 | 14 april 2021 97 109 123 135 147 154 165 176 188 table of contents opinion paper covid-19: considering impacts to employees and the workplace mark h.r. bussin, christina swart-opperman sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1384 | 20 august 2021 original research reframing performance management praxis at the harare city council samuel chikwariro, mark bussin, roslyn de braine sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1438 | 13 january 2021 original research quality of work life: effects on turnover intention and organisational commitment amongst selected south african manufacturing organisations vernise els, marissa brouwers, roslyn b. lodewyk sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1407 | 19 january 2021 original research occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment in higher education: job satisfaction as a moderator hlanganipai ngirande sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1376 | 20 january 2021 original research risk and reward: experiences of healthcare professionals caring for drug-resistant tuberculosis patients avhapfani musie, jacqueline e. wolvaardt sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1191 | 22 january 2021 original research a critical appraisal of the recruitment and selection process of the public protector in south africa sandiso bazana, tayra reddy sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1207 | 22 january 2021 original research industry 4.0 skills: a perspective of the south african manufacturing industry whisper maisiri, liezl van dyk sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1416 | 26 january 2021 original research revisiting the emotional intelligence and transformational leadership debate: (how) does emotional intelligence matter to effective leadership? gina görgens-ekermans, chene roux sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1279 | 27 january 2021 original research academic talent: perceived challenges to talent management in the south african higher education sector rhodrick n. musakuro, frances de klerk sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1394 | 29 january 2021 1 6 17 27 38 50 62 71 84 vol 19 (2021) issn: 1683-7584 (print) | issn: 2071-078x (online)sa journal of human resource management http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access table of contentspage ii of iv original research leadership development process maturity: an afrocentric versus eurocentric perspective hendrik c. (hekkie) van der westhuizen, lia m.m. hewitt sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1495 | 19 april 2021 original research exploring the role of a total rewards strategy in retaining south african police officers in limpopo province ndivhudzannyi r. mukwevho, mark h.r. bussin sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1391 | 21 april 2021 original research perceived career management challenges of academics at a south african university nina barnes, marieta du plessis, josé frantz sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1515 | 22 april 2021 original research selection of industrial and organisational psychology master’s students: exploring the predictive validity of a person–job fit approach karina olivier, antoni barnard, annelize van niekerk sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1477 | 28 april 2021 original research the influence of leadership behaviours on talent retention: an empirical study michelle r. mey, paul poisat, carmen stindt sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1504 | 28 april 2021 original research an explorative-descriptive qualitative-constructivist study of three african leaders’ experiences and perceptions regarding the translation of shared african human values into leadership and business practice vusumuzi m. vilakati, willem j. schurink sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1433 | 29 april 2021 original research exploring the use and influence of human resource policies within south african municipalities lonwabo makapela, nontsikelelo d.p. mtshelwane sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1534 | 30 april 2021 original research personal leadership as an antecedent of servant leadership amongst bank managers in south africa clement bell, lia m. hewitt sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1459 | 03 may 2021 original research burnout, employee engagement and self-perceived employability in the south african public sector rudolf m. oosthuizen, claude-hélène mayer, ntombifuthi j. zwane sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1340 | 12 may 2021 original research information technology competencies for entry-level human resource strategic partners renjini m. joseph, adele thomas, penny abbott sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1327 | 12 may 2021 201 211 219 232 244 253 265 279 290 302 original research investigating the impact of human resource management practices on employee engagement, and the moderating role of strategy implementation in egypt mohamed m. saad, hazem r. gaber, ashraf a. labib sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1412 | 13 may 2021 original research relationship between manager credibility, strategic alignment and employee motivation daisy lees, nelesh dhanpat sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1517 | 13 may 2021 original research understanding intention to quit amongst artisans and engineers: the facilitating role of commitment samuel siwela, francois van der bank sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1409 | 31 may 2021 original research african business leadership: perspectives from aspiring young leaders matete lerutla, renier steyn sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1467 | 31 may 2021 original research the development of an organisational effectiveness model shirleen titus, crystal hoole sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1509 | 17 june 2021 original research owner-managers’ transformational leadership behaviours and human resource strategies: a case of small fast-food restaurants in south africa lebohang ntlhanngoe, crispen chipunza sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1482 | 28 june 2021 original research predictors of affective commitment at municipalities in the nkangala district, mpumalanga thulani b. skosana, molefe j. maleka, thulie l. ngonyama-ndou sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1567 | 30 june 2021 original research mindset shifts for the fourth industrial revolution: insights from the life insurance sector lynne molloy, linda c. ronnie sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1543 | 22 july 2021 original research wokers’ awareness of alcohol breathalyser test in the workplace and their alcohol consumption patterns vusi mthimkhulu, hugo d. van der walt sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1627 | 22 july 2021 original research the effect of talent management practices on employee retention at the namibia university of science and technology: middle-level administration staff jacobina amushila, mark h.r. bussin sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1485 | 23 july 2021 314 323 334 350 359 376 385 396 409 417 http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access table of contentspage iii of iv original research exploring the relevancy of random and scheduled alcohol breathalyser testing in high-risk jobs within safety-sensitive work settings vusi mthimkhulu, hugo d. van der walt sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1632 | 23 july 2021 original research formalising human resource practices in family-owned accommodation small and medium-sized enterprises (smes): integrating owner-manager’s personal characteristics with aspects of the utaut model willard nyamubarwa, crispen chipunza sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1595 | 26 july 2021 original research relationship between organisational commitment and effectiveness of human resource management practices in a south african information technology company lebogang n. setsena, christian t. botha, leigh-anne paul-dachapalli sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1586 | 28 july 2021 original research investigating the impact of technostress on productivity and overall life satisfaction of managers working at a south african ferrochrome smelting company daniël j. le roux, petrus a. botha sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1649 | 19 august 2021 original research the impact of talent management on job satisfaction of registered nurses in malawian public hospitals george l. dzimbiri, alex molefi sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1513 | 23 august 2021 original research investigating the effects of employee empowerment on turnover intention in a mining organisation khayalethu ngqeza, nelesh dhanpat sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1564 | 31 august 2021 original research anchoring human resource management to sustain employee performance at johannesburg metropolitan municipality samuel sixpence, roslyn de braine, mark bussin, morris mthombeni sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1611 | 10 september 2021 original research the development and validation of the rewards desirability inventory janine a. victor, crystal hoole sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1599 | 14 september 2021 original research professional women and maternity transition: guidelines for maternity coaching in organisations heidi m. le sueur, elaine boulton sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1559 | 28 september 2021 original research juggling between work, studies and motherhood: the role of social support systems for the attainment of work–life balance augustine osei boakye, rebecca dei mensah, magdalene bartrop-sackey, patricia muah sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1546 | 19 october 2021 428 437 448 459 471 480 492 503 515 528 original research how do job characteristics influence the motivation of millennial hospitality employees? mothepane seqhobane, desere kokt sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1698 | 20 october 2021 original research is benevolence the pinnacle of an employment relations trust hierarchy? lukas i. ehlers sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1655 | 26 october 2021 original research the relationship between self-leadership, the future of human resource management, and work engagement cecilia m. schultz sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1701 | 28 october 2021 original research the relationship between talent management, transformational leadership and work engagement: an automotive artisan perspective pieter k. smit, cecile m. schultz, catharina e. van hoek sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1578 | 28 october 2021 original research capacity building as a strategic tool for employment equity implementation in the financial sector reward utete sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1532 | 29 october 2021 original research self-perceived employability among undergraduate students at a south african university doret botha sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1685 | 08 november 2021 original research performance management as a mediator for work engagement and employment relationships in the public sector in south africa godfrey maake, cornelia p. harmse, cecilia m. schultz sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1507 | 09 november 2021 original research the moderating role of career adaptability on the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee mental and physical health herring shava, willie t. chinyamurindi sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1437 | 16 november 2021 original research factors influencing intention to leave of younger employees in an academic institution thapelo d. chaacha, elrie botha sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1519 | 22 november 2021 original research recognising stressors and managing stress in bulawayo metropolitan province primary schools victor c. ngwenya sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1549 | 30 november 2021 538 547 557 569 579 589 600 612 623 635 http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access table of contents original research a study of job satisfaction and work engagement at the national treasury of south africa refiloe l. thokoa, vinessa naidoo, tessie h.h. herbst sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1557 | 03 december 2021 original research a measurement scale for assessing intellectual capital disclosure mpho d. magau, gerhard (gert) roodt, gerhardus van zyl sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1645 | 09 december 2021 original research the impact of emotional intelligence on behavioural factors during transition: a case of the free state technical and vocational education and training colleges sarone d. motlhanke, matsidiso n. naong sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1641 | 13 december 2021 original research constructive interpersonal leadership relations in knowledge-based organisations: a theoretical framework marianne louw, rachel barker sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1636 | 17 december 2021 647 657 671 681 original research the future and the role of human resource management in south africa during the fourth industrial revolution cecilia m. schultz sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1624 | 17 december 2021 correction corrigendum: the influence of flexible work arrangements on employee engagement: an exploratory study marcel weideman, karl b. hofmeyr sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1522 | 26 july 2021 correction erratum: burnout, employee engagement and self-perceived employability in the south african public sector rudolf m. oosthuizen, claude-hélène mayer, ntombifuthi j. zwane sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1787 | 19 november 2021 reviewer acknowledgement sa journal of human resource management | vol 19 | a1851 | 21 december 2021 691 702 703 704 page iv of iv abstract introduction research purpose and objectives literature review the relationship between quality of work life, turnover intention and organisational commitment research design research participants measuring instruments research procedure and ethical considerations statistical analyses results discussion practical implications limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) vernise els department of human resource sciences, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa marissa brouwers department of human resource sciences, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa roslyn b. lodewyk department of human resource sciences, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa citation els, v., brouwers, m., & lodewyk, r.b. (2021). quality of work life: effects on turnover intention and organisational commitment amongst selected south african manufacturing organisations. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1407. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1407 original research quality of work life: effects on turnover intention and organisational commitment amongst selected south african manufacturing organisations vernise els, marissa brouwers, roslyn b. lodewyk received: 30 may 2020; accepted: 28 oct. 2020; published: 19 jan. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: quality of work life has a significant impact on an organisation. therefore, it is imperative to gain knowledge about quality of work life and the relationship it has with organisational commitment and turnover intention. research purpose: the general objective of this study was to examine the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention and to see whether organisational commitment mediates the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention. motivation for the study: the lack of research on the relationships between quality of work life, turnover intention and organisational commitment make it challenging to gain knowledge on the concepts and what influences it can have to embrace these relationships in the workplace. research design: a cross-sectional study with a sample of n = 400 south african manufacturing organisation employees was utilised. descriptive statistics, pearson’s product-moment correlations and structural equation modelling were used. main findings: the results indicated both direct and indirect effects for all the relationships. results further indicated that organisational commitment partially mediates the relationship between the quality of work life and turnover intention. practical implications: the results provided insight into the effect that high levels of quality of work life has on an individual and the advantages for the organisation. contribution: the improved understanding of quality of work life and the relationship with certain job outcomes contribute to the body of knowledge on both the theory of quality of work life and on employees’ experience of turnover intention and commitment in the work environment. keywords: quality of work life; turnover intention; organisational commitment; manufacturing industry; south africa. introduction employees can be considered as the most valued asset within a company (gopinath, 2020). gopinath (2020) states that employees make substantial contributions to an organisation’s existing bottom line. thus, such human capital should be managed with respect and dignity, whilst trusting and investing in them to reach the organisation’s goals on time. the manufacturing industry contributes 14% to the gross domestic product (gdp) and is the fourth largest sector in south africa (idc, 2019). according to south african (2019) statistics, the manufacturing sector is currently 19.1% underutilised, which means that the industry is only utilising 80.9% of its full potential. therefore, an employee can be regarded as a valuable asset within the manufacturing industry, contributing to the growth and effectiveness of the sector (hooi & zahari, 2020). gopinath (2020) mentions that when employees do not feel acknowledged in an organisation, such a company will find it difficult to face challenges regarding individual employees and the effectiveness of the organisation, therefore satisfied and motivated employees are important for businesses such as the manufacturing industry. the manufacturing industry faces global market demands and challenges with employees within the organisation (campbell, de beer, & pei, 2011). these demands include the global market centres on electricity supply, volatile currency, productivity level, limited budget and technology, acquisitions, downsizing, mergers, retrenchments and competitors (campbell et al., 2011; marshall & stephenson, 2020; potgieter & mokomane, 2020). challenges for the manufacturing industry involving its employees are absenteeism, job insecurity, burnout, turnover intention, lack of commitment, low productivity, discomfort in the work environment and insufficient communication (campbell et al., 2011; marshall & stephenson, 2020; paltu & brouwers, 2020; potgieter & mokomane, 2020). it is the responsibility of the human resource department (hrd) to develop strategies that deal with the mentioned challenges that will enable them to better manage other demands experienced in the industry (potgieter & mokomane, 2020). to be a valuable resource to the organisation, employees need a positive outlook both on their work and life and strike a positive balance between their work and personal needs and goals. thus, employees who demonstrate high levels of quality in their work life and organisational commitment are considered to experience a healthy balance between their work and personal needs (gayathiri & ramakrishan, 2013). in this regard, an organisation’s hrd is encouraged to develop strategies such as interventions, workshops and training for employees. this will benefit their employees, which will increase the quality of their work life and enhance their commitment to the organisation (gayathiri & ramakrishan, 2013). as employees experience a higher quality of work life, the organisation’s output and effectiveness will escalate accordingly (gayathiri & ramakrishan, 2013). therefore, if the hrd develops strategies to increase quality of work life and organisational commitment, the employees will feel a sense of belonging and experience that their value in the organisation is appreciated (sahni, 2019). as mentioned before, the organisation must at times deal with challenges from employees, such as absenteeism or increasing turnover intention in the workplace (islam, 2012). the reason is that employees often perceive their work demands as high and that the organisation does not regard them as valuable (hussain & asif, 2012). turnover intention can be defined as individuals who are considering leaving the organisation and thus are seeking alternative work opportunities (bothma & roodt, 2013). previous research made it clear that quality of work life has an effect on the level of turnover intention in an organisation (e.g. almalki, fritzgerald, & clark, 2012; kruger et al., 2002; mosadeghrad, 2013a; mosadeghrad, ferlie, & rosenberg, 2011). quality of work life can be described as the degree to which employees satisfy their personal and working needs, whilst performing tasks in that organisation (swamy, nanjundeswara, & rashmi, 2015). earlier studies indicated that quality of work life has a negative relationship with turnover intention; in other words, when quality in an employee’s work life increases, turnover intention in the organisation will likely be less (lee, dai, park, & mccreary, 2013). employees then have a positive work environment, motivation to work, their personal and working needs are fulfilled and they experience a sense of pleasure whilst going to work (lee et al., 2013). therefore, it is necessary that organisations develop strategies to improve employees’ quality of work life, allowing the company to be more effective and productive (normala, 2010). studies were carried out earlier to assess the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention (i.e. almalki et al., 2012; kruger et al., 2002; mosadeghrad, 2013; mosadeghrad et al., 2011; lee et al., 2013). however, most of the studies were carried out internationally and not in the south african context. therefore, there is a need to investigate the relationship further involving quality of work life and turnover intention within a south african setting. organisational commitment can be seen as the way employees form an attachment to the company where they work (shanawaz & jafri, 2009). organisational commitment has a positive effect on performance in the workplace (sahni, 2019). employees who experience healthy levels of attachment to the organisation, will feel a stronger commitment to the organisation, which will increase their performance (albdour & altarawneh, 2014; sahni, 2019). the levels of organisational commitment individuals experience within the workplace can have an impact on employees’ thinking and behaviour (mahmoudi, 2015). in other words, if employees enjoy high levels of quality in their work life and attachment to the organisation, they will develop a positive behaviour towards the organisation, which will have a positive effect on performance and company effectiveness (mahmoudi, 2015; sahni, 2019). ismail and alipour (2014) found that quality of work life and organisational commitment has a close relationship. thus, when employees experience decreased levels in the quality of their work life, they will also experience lower levels in their commitment to the organisation. prior studies indicated that quality of work life has a positive relationship with affective and normative commitment, but a negative relationship with continuance commitment (i.e. afsar, 2014; chinomona, dhurup, & chinomona, 2014; ismail & alipour, 2014; louis, 2006; mahmoudi, 2015; risla & ithrees, 2018). yusoff, rimi and meng (2015) examined the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention with a mediator of organisational commitment. a mediator can be described as a means to examine the relationship between an independent variable and dependent variable and the relationship of both with the mediator, respectively (bennett, 2000). yusoff et al. (2015) found that quality of work life and turnover intention is mediated partially by affective and normative commitment; however, that continuance commitment has no mediation effect on quality of work life and turnover intention. currently, there is limited research on the mediating effect of organisational commitment and on the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention within the south african context, therefore, it is necessary to examine the mediating effect. research purpose and objectives the general objective of this study was to examine the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention. furthermore, this study also investigated whether organisational commitment mediates the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention. more specifically the objective of this study was: to establish the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention amongst employees within selected south african manufacturing organisations to determine whether organisational commitment (e.g. affective, normative and continuance commitment) mediate the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention amongst employees within selected south african manufacturing organisations. literature review quality of work life swamy et al. (2015) conceptualised quality of work life as the degree to which employees are satisfied with their personal and working needs, by the experience to which they are exposed in the organisation. swamy et al. (2015) investigated quality of work life constructed on nine components, which are: (1) work environment: it entails the professional and social environment that workers experience whilst interacting with one another (sinha, 2012), (2) organisational culture and climate: organisational culture can be seen as a set of aspects that contribute to the norm and vision of a workplace (wallace, hunt, & richards, 1999). organisational climate relates to the way employees behave, which forms part of the organisation’s values and norms (wallace et al., 1999), (3) relations and co-operations: relations and co-operations are the degree to which employers and workers interact in communication, decision-making, problem-solving and conflict handling (bray, budd, & macneil, 2019), (4) training and development: training and development are a set of ways in which workers can be involved in enhancing their knowledge and skills within the workplace (noe, 2010), (5) compensation and rewards: compensation and rewards are a technique utilised to motivate employees in the workplace (swamy et al., 2015), (6) facilities: it can be perceived as resources and infrastructure such as the food service, transportation, security, which contribute to the satisfaction of the physical and emotional needs of employees (jensen, 2011), (7) job satisfaction and job security: job satisfaction is seen as the outlook employees have in their occupation, work environment and workplace, whether it be positive or negative (aziri, 2011). employees who experience job insecurity indicate an apprehension about the continued existence of their job and whether the organisation will keep them as worker (moshoeu & geldenhuys, 2015), (8) autonomy of work: it is a way by which organisations afford their employees more freedom by giving them the space to make decisions, control work-related activities and co-ordinate job structures (swamy et al., 2015) and (9) adequacy of resources: it is based on time, equipment, information and supervisory help to complete job tasks in the company (mahesh & nanjundeswaraswamy, 2020; nanjundeswaraswamy, swamy, & nagesh, 2019; nenadal, 2016). the relationship between quality of work life, turnover intention and organisational commitment turnover intention bothma and roodt (2013) articulated turnover intention as employees experiencing negative emotions towards the organisation and, therefore, are weighing their options, whether or not to leave the organisation. the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention is seen as a significantly negative relationship (huang, lawler, & lei, 2007). this might indicate that when workers experience increased levels of quality in their work life, the organisation will face decreased levels of turnover intention, contributing to its effectiveness (korunka, hoonakker, & carayon, 2008). huang et al. (2007) examined the relationship of quality of work life on organisational commitment and turnover intention in taiwan and indicated a significant negative relationship. previous studies confirmed that quality of work life has a significantly negative relationship with turnover intention in the manufacturing and accounting industries of malaysia (ramayah, lo, & tarmizi, 2014; yusoff et al., 2015). furthermore, quality of work life and turnover intention showed a significantly negative relationship within the service, technology and hospital sector in iran, india and indonesia (korunka et al., 2008; kumar & thomas, 2016; mosadeghrad, 2013; rostiana, 2017). a further study examining the hospital service, particularly primary healthcare nurses, established a negative relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention in the saudi arabian region (almalki et al., 2012). the relationship between these variables was tested in zimbabwe, in the southern african continent; previous studies also indicated similar outcomes within small and medium enterprises (chinomona et al., 2014). a study performed amongst staff nurses showed that there is a negative relationship between quality of work life and intention to leave (elshahat, shazly, & abd-elazeem, 2019). furthermore, indhumathi, balaji and hemalatha (2019) found a negative relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention. although previous research on this topic covered several industries, there is no evidence that the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention was investigated in the south african context to date, thus the current study investigated this relationship. organisational commitment organisational commitment can be described as the psychological attachment employees establish with their workplace (metin & asli, 2018). similarly, shanawaz and jafri (2009) conceptualised organisational commitment as the level of attachment employees experience towards their organisation. allen and meyer (1990) considered a three-construct model, where organisational commitment influences the connection that employees have with their workplace. these constructs consist of: (1) affective commitment which occurs when workers identify with the organisation on an emotional level, thus they experience a sense of loyalty and desire to remain at the organisation (allen & meyer, 1996), (2) normative commitment which refers to when employees feel the obligation to stay on at the organisation, even though they experience dissatisfaction (allen & meyer, 1996) and (3) continuance commitment which is observed when employees stay on at the organisation because they invested skills, knowledge, abilities and time in the company and risking these efforts are deemed too high (allen & meyer, 1996). yusoff et al. (2015) and rostiana (2017) applied organisational commitment as mediator in the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention within the manufacturing industry and service sector in malaysia and indonesia. they found that organisational commitment partially mediates the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention. the research on relationships between organisational commitment and turnover intention can be valuable to help establish the link between the intention to leave work whilst forming a psychological bond with the organisation (chang, chi, & miao, 2006). a study carried out by sahni (2019) in the telecom industry found that quality of work life is positively related to organisational commitment. furthermore, nanjundeswaraswamy et al. (2019) did a study in small and medium sized enterprises and also found a positive relationship between quality of work life and employee commitment. regarding the south african context, a literature review and studies focused on the relationship between quality of work life and other variables such as perceived service delivery, productivity and organisational trust (kotze, 2004, 2005; van der berg & martins, 2013; viljoen, kruger, & saayman, 2014). however, there is no evidence that the relationship between quality of work life and organisational commitment was investigated, which the present study, thus examines. research design research approach a quantitative research approach was utilised. such an approach is described as statistical procedures and numbers that can be used to determine the sample fitting, which the study describes as true (creswell, 2014). the present research was descriptive and a cross-sectional research design was used. such a research design suited the study the best because it provides the opportunity to measure a group of people at a single point in time, thus making the study more cost-efficient (creswell, 2014). research participants the target population involved selected south african manufacturing organisations, with a population size of n = 400. a combined method of convenience and purposive non-probability sampling was utilised. the respondents differed in terms of age and highest qualification, which made them suitable for participating in this study. the questionnaire was compiled in english, therefore candidates able to read, write and understand this language were selected to partake in this study. the respondents’ ages ranged from 18 to 65 years. the respondents were mostly from the age group of 30–39 years (35%). in addition, 29.3% of respondents obtained a high school qualification or diploma, followed by 19.8% who gained a degree and 16.5% gained a postgraduate degree. in addition, 5.4% of the respondents identified other highest qualifications such as abet (0.8%), boilermaker (0.3%), certificates (2.5%), grade 11 (1.5%) and an south african national qualification framework (nqf) level 3 (0.3%). measuring instruments the measuring instruments used in the study are expounded here. biographical questionnaire: this questionnaire, included in the study, provided information on the participants’ demographical characteristics. this provided the opportunity to investigate the participants’ age, job level and highest qualification. the questionnaire was used only to describe the data. the quality of work life scale: it was developed by swamy et al. (2015). the quality of work life scale utilises 50 items of which 47 items were used and are divided into nine dimensions. the nine dimensions are as follows: work environment (e.g. ‘my company work environment is good and highly motivating’); organisation culture and climate (e.g. ‘there is cooperation amongst all the departments for achieving the goals’); relation and co-operation (e.g. ‘there is a harmonious relationship with my colleagues’); training and development (e.g. ‘the training programs aim at improving interpersonal relationships amongst employees’); compensation and rewards (e.g. ‘i feel that i am given an adequate and fair compensation for the work i do’); facilities (e.g. ‘fringe benefits provided are good’); job satisfaction and job security (e.g. ‘i feel comfortable and satisfied with my job’); autonomy of work (e.g. ‘my job lets me use my skills and abilities’) and adequacy of resources (e.g. ‘there are much defined channels for information exchange and transfer’). a five-point likert scale was used (1, strongly disagree; 2, disagree; 3, uncertain; 4, agree and 5, strongly agree). swamy et al. (2015) found the reliability coefficient of the questionnaire to be 0.80, which means that it can be considered as strongly reliable. the reliability coefficients in this study for quality of work life ranged between 0.76 and 0.92. turnover intention scale was developed by bothma and roodt (2013). this scale utilises six items, with an example: ‘to what extent is your current job satisfying your personal needs?’. the questionnaire consists of a five-point likert scale (1, never to 5, always). bothma and roodt (2013) found the reliability at 0.80. the reliability coefficients in this study for the turnover intention scale was 0.90. the organisational commitment scale was developed by allen and meyer (1990). the instrument utilises 24 items, which are divided into three dimensions. the dimensions are: affective commitment (e.g. ‘i enjoy discussing my organisation with people outside it’), continuance commitment (e.g. ‘it would not be too costly for me to leave my organisation now’) and normative commitment (e.g. ‘i think that people these days move from company to company too often’). the questionnaire makes use of a seven-point likert scale (1, strongly disagree to 7, strongly agree). allen and meyer (1990) found the reliability coefficient for the three components are: affective commitment: 0.87; continuance commitment: 0.75 and normative commitment: 0.79. the reliability coefficients for the organisation commitment scale in this study were 0.92 for affective commitment; 0.75 for continuous commitment and 0.78 for normative commitment. research procedure and ethical considerations the researchers took the responsibility to ensure respondents and the company that no employee would be obliged and that involvement in the study is voluntary (simons & usher, 2000). the researchers made sure that no participants suffered emotional or physical harm (bell, bryman, & harley, 2019). this was accomplished by not withholding any information regarding the study from the respondents (bell et al., 2019). in addition, the researcher ensured that all questionnaires were anonymous by only including a number to the booklet, instead of participants’ names. furthermore, the questionnaires are kept in a safe place with limited access (simons & usher, 2000). thus, only the researchers have access to the data. once permission was granted by the manufacturing organisations, the procedure of the study was explained to all employees of the respective companies via electronic mail; prior to this, the human resource manager of the respective organisations sent a notice to all employees, informing them of the research being conducted. their only role was to inform the company of the study and grant permission for the research. thereafter, the questionnaires were distributed by the researchers to all participants together with an informed consent form. the questionnaire consisted of a pen and paper booklet. once the consent form was signed, the researcher explained that the respondents had 3 weeks to complete the questionnaire. after 3 weeks, the researcher collected the questionnaires. a total of 400 questionnaires were distributed, and all 400 were returned for data analyses. during data analyses, the data were cleaned (i.e. missing responses were removed) and statistical analyses were conducted. statistical analyses the statistical analyses were carried out using the statistical package for social science (spss) version 25 (ibm corp, 2017) and amos programme (arbuckle, 2007). the data were examined through descriptive statistics that explored the data in terms of mean, standard deviations, skewness and kurtosis. cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated to measure the reliability of the scale’s dimensions. should the coefficient be > 0.70, the variables measured were considered reliable (tabachnick & fidell, 2001). product-moment correlation was used to examine the relationship between variables of the study. the cut-off points for practical significance of the correlations was set at r < 0.30 (small effect), 0.30 < r < 0.50 (medium effect) and r > 0.50 (large effect). the cut-off points for statistical significance was set at p < 0.1 level (*) or p < 0.5 level (**) (hauke & kossowski, 2011). structure equation modelling (sem) using amos (arbuckle, 2007) was employed to measure the proposed mediation model of organisational commitment between quality of work life and turnover intention. several goodness-of-fit indices were used, namely chi-square (χ2), the comparative fit index (cfi) tucker–lewis index (tli) and the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea). acceptable cut-off points for goodness-of-fit indices are as follows: non-significant χ2 values; cfi and tli values larger than or equal to 0.90 and rmsea values smaller than or equal to 0.08 (byrne, 2010). results descriptive statistics it is evident from the results in table 1 that all the scales were distributed normally, according to the guidelines of skewness (< 2) and kurtosis (< 4) (nethmini & ismail, 2019). furthermore, training and development as a quality of work life scale’ mean was experienced more compared with the rest. respondents also experienced higher continuous commitment and average turnover intention. table 1: descriptive statistics of the constructs. correlations the correlation coefficients between the constructs are presented in table 2. table 2: correlation matrix between variables. the first objective of the present study was to determine the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention. the quality of work life components investigated are: work environment: it indicates a statistically negative relationship with turnover intention with a large effect (r = –0.72); organisation culture and climate: it indicates statistically negative relationship with turnover intention with a large effect (r = –0.73); relations and co-operation: it indicates statistically negative relationship with turnover intention with a large effect (r = –0.74); training and development: it shows statistically negative relationship with turnover intention with a large effect (r = –0.60); compensation and reward: it shows statistically negative relationship with turnover intention with a large effect (r = –0.75); facilities: it shows statistically negative relationship with turnover intention with a large effect (r = –0.61); job satisfaction and job security: it shows statistically negative relationship with turnover intention with a large effect (r = –0.79); autonomy of work: it shows statistically negative relationship with turnover intention with a large effect (r = –0.69) and adequacy of resources: it indicates statistically negative relationship with turnover intention with a large effect (r = –0.72). from the findings, all nine components from quality of work life indicated a statistically significant negative relationship (with a large effect) with turnover intention (ranging between r = –0.60 and r = –0.79). in other words, when quality of work life improves the turnover intention will decrease. mediation analysis the second objective of the present study was to investigate whether organisational commitment mediates the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention. structural equation modelling was employed to test the proposed mediating effect. the given hypothesised mediation model (as indicated in figure 1) tested whether organisational commitment as a latent variable mediates the relationship between quality of work life as a latent variable and turnover intention. figure 1: organisational commitment mediation over all models. se, standard error. structural equation modelling was employed to test the proposed mediating effect of organisational commitment between quality of work life and turnover intention (as depicted in figure 1). the proposed mediating effect of organisational commitment between quality of work life and turnover intention was tested, and it is evident from table 3 that the structural mediation model has a good fit. the cfi (0.95) and the tli (0.94) were both found above the rule of thumb of 0.90, which indicates good model fit (byrne, 2010). the rmsea value (0.08) was also aligned with the guideline of 0.08, which confirmed a good model fit (byrne, 2010). as is clear from figure 1, the results indicate a significant positive relationship between quality of work life and organisational commitment (r2 = 0.91; standard error [se] = 0.06; p = 0.00). furthermore, the findings showed a significant negative relationship between organisational commitment and turnover intention (r2 = –0.53; se = 0.11, p = 0.00). the results, therefore, indicated a significant negative relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention (r2 = 0.40; se = 0.06, p = 0.00). the mediation was found to be partial for the model that was tested and explained 63.1% of the variance in turnover intention. table 3: goodness-of-fit statistics for structural model. discussion the general objective of this research study was to examine the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention, as well as to determine whether organisational commitment mediates the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention amongst employees within selected south african manufacturing organisations. in south africa, there is limited research to date on the relationship between quality of work life, turnover intention and organisational commitment (chinomona et al., 2014; van der berg & martins, 2013; viljoen et al., 2014). therefore, the investigation on the relationships between quality of work life, turnover intention and organisational commitment demonstrated by employees from selected south african manufacturing organisations, will add to current literature in the field of human resource management. the objectives and accompanying results are outlined here. the first objective was to determine the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention amongst employees within selected south african manufacturing organisations. the results showed that all nine components (i.e. work environment, organisation culture and climate, relation and co-operation, training and development, compensation and rewards, facilities, job satisfaction and job security, autonomy of work and adequacy of resources) of quality of work life have a statistically significant negative relationship (with a large effect) with turnover intention. it is suggested that employees who experience higher levels of quality of work life will less likely leave the organisation (kumar & thomas, 2016). such a result can imply that employees wanting to stay at the organisation because of experiencing high quality in their work and life. furthermore, the findings indicated that employees with high levels of quality of work life will be able to satisfy their personal and working need whilst working in the organisation. such a situation implies that those employees are satisfied and have no intention to leave the organisation (yusoff et al., 2015). previous studies found similar results indicating that quality of work life has a negative relationship with turnover intention (almalki et al., 2012; chinomona et al., 2014; haung et al., 2007; korunka et al., 2008; kumar & thomas, 2016; mosadeghrad, 2013a; mosadeghrad et al., 2011; ramayah et al., 2014; yusoff et al., 2015). the second objective for the present study was to establish whether organisational commitment (affective, continuance and normative commitment) mediates the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention amongst employees within selected south african manufacturing organisations. the results indicated that the mediation model of organisational commitment is a good fit and provides a mediating effect between quality of work life and turnover intention. furthermore, the results showed that organisational commitment has a significant positive relationship with quality of work life, but a significant negative relationship with the component turnover intention. in addition, this indicates that organisational commitment partially mediates (with a medium effect) the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention. this may suggest that when employees experience both high levels of quality of work life and organisational commitment, the turnover intention in an organisation will decrease. therefore, it is important that organisations implement strategies to improve the quality in their employees’ work life, thus strengthening their commitment to the organisation, thereby improving the effectiveness and sustainability of the company (nanjundeswaraswamy et al., 2019; sahni, 2019; yusoff et al., 2015). organisational commitment is, therefore, needed in the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention to enhance the experience of employees at the organisation and influence the need to remain at the organisation (nanjundeswaraswamy et al., 2019; sahni, 2019; yusoff et al., 2015). yusoff et al. (2015) conducted a study on organisational commitment as mediator between the relationship of quality of work life and turnover intention and found similar results that organisational commitment partially mediates the relationship between the two variables. rostiana (2017) studied organisational commitment as mediator between the two variables and found that organisational commitment fully mediates the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention. a study carried out by sahni (2019) in the telecom industry found that quality of work life is positively related to organisational commitment. furthermore, nanjundeswaraswamy et al. (2019) did a study in smalland medium-sized enterprises and also found a positive relationship between quality of work life and employee commitment. therefore, it is confirmed that enhancement in employees’ organisational commitment will increase the level in quality of their work life and significantly reduce their intention to leave the organisation (nanjundeswaraswamy et al., 2019; sahni, 2019; yusoff et al., 2015). practical implications the results of this study contributed to the body of knowledge on quality of work life and the relationship between certain variables. this was performed by examining the relationship between quality of work life, turnover intention and organisational commitment. the findings on the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention will help manufacturing organisations understand the importance of increasing each employee’s quality of work life and the outcomes it may have for the company. employees will also be aware that because the organisation invested in their skills, knowledge, abilities and time they will more likely have the feeling of not wanting to leave the organisation. furthermore, the findings make a contribution towards employees and management to understand the impact that organisational commitment can exert on their quality of work life. thus, organisations may include this resource in their strategy to improve the quality of work life of their employees and their commitment and turnover intention. management will be able to develop and implement strategies or interventions for employees to enhance their quality of work life and strengthen their organisational commitment. as a result, employees will feel more motivated, satisfied and content in the organisation, lowering their chances to exit the organisation. the benefits of being aware of the relationship between these variables will have a positive impact on individual employees and organisations within the south african manufacturing industry. limitations and recommendations firstly, the study used a cross-sectional research design, which means that the data were collected at a single point in time (creswell, 2014; kaplan, 2004). the research also used the method of convenience and purposive sampling, thus participants were selected who were easily reachable and had the qualities to participate (creswell, 2014; kaplan, 2004). as a result, the research could not determine the relationship between variables over an extended period and the participants were not evenly spread to represent the content of the south african manufacturing organisations. future research can consider diverse research designs, such as a longitudinal approach, to investigate the relationship between variables over an extended period. moreover, a study can examine the relationships between variables, investigating certain time gaps between each data collection, to improve the quality of information and obtain better findings (creswell, 2014; kaplan, 2004). it is further recommended that researchers collect data evenly across south african manufacturing organisations for more accurate findings and robust data. secondly, the research used a questionnaire that respondents had to answer in their own time. this type of questionnaire improves the quality of information the researcher requires for the study, although, it can cause confusion on the meaning of the questions amongst participants. therefore, the results may not be overly accurate for the relationships between certain variables (bacon-shone, 2015). future researchers can employ different data-collection techniques for their studies, for example interviews or focus groups. such techniques might help participants understand the meaning of questions more accurately, thereby improving the quality of the results. finally, it is suggested that future research involve employees from all the different company levels in the manufacturing industry. such broader participation may improve the understanding of the relationships between variables and its mutual impact within the workplace. conclusion the present study provided findings that showed that quality of work life had an impact on turnover intention. the study furthermore confirmed the mediating effect of organisational commitment in the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention. the research study, thus contributes and add to the existing literature. acknowledgements this article is based on the first author’s dissertation of the degree of magister commercii in human resource management at the north-west university, south africa. the authors would like to acknowledge prof. suria ellis for the statistical analysis and ds claude vosloo about the language editing of the dissertation. furthermore, they also express their gratitude to dr marissa brouwers as supervisor of the dissertation and ms roslyn lodewyk as co-supervisor. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions v.e. fulfilled the role of the primary researcher, and this study formed part of her masters’ research dissertation. she was responsible for the conceptualisation of the article, collection of data, interpretation of the research results and the writing of the article. m.b. acted as supervisor and played an advisory role in this study and assisted in the conceptualisation of the study, design, describing statistical procedures and reporting and assisted in the writing of the research article. r.b.l. acted as co-supervisor and assisted in the writing of the research article. funding information this study was supported by the north-west university (publishing of the article). ethical consideration after the scientific clearance and ethical approval was obtained from the respective university committees, possible manufacturing organisations were approached through their human resource departments to participate in the study. the research was proposed via email, with a thorough outline of the aim of the research. after the consideration of the human resources departments, a presentation was held in front of the managers of the manufacturing organisations to explain the aim and procedure of the study and to safeguard all ethical guidelines. ethical clearance number: nwu-00604-17-s4. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were analysed or created in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references afsar, s.t. (2014). impact of quality of work life on organisational commitment: a comparative study on academicians working for state and foundation universities in turkey. international journal of social science, 3(4), 124–152. albdour, a.a., & altarawneh, i.i. (2014). employee engagement and organizational commitment: evidence from jordan. international journal of business, 19(2), 192–212. allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affirmative, continues and normative commitment to the organisation. journal of occupational phycology, 63(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.x allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1996). affective continuance and normative to the organisation: an examination of the construct validity. journal of vocational behaviour, 49(3), 252–276. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1996.0043 almalki, m.j., fitzgerald, g., & clark, m. (2012). the relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention of primary health care nurses in saudi arabia. bmc health services research, 12–314. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-12-314 arbuckle, j.l. (2007). amos 18 user’s guide. crawfordsville, in: amos development corporation. aziri, b. (2011). job satisfaction: a literature study. management, research & practice, 3(4), 77–86. bacon-shone, j. (2015). introduction to quantitative research method. hong kong: graduate school, the university of hong kong. bell, e., bryman, a., & harley, b. (2019). business research methods (5th edn.). oxford: oxford university press. bennett, j.a. (2000). mediator and moderator variables in nursing research: conceptual and statistical differences. research in nursing & health, 23(5), 415–420. https://doi.org/10.1002/1098-240x(200010)23:5%3c415::aid-nur8%3e3.0.co;2-h bothma, c.f.c., & roodt, g. (2013). the validation of the turnover intention scale. south african journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.507 bray, m., budd, j.w., & macneil, j. (2019). the many meanings of co-operations in the employment relationships and their implications. british journal of industrial relations, 10(11), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12473 byrne, b.m. (2010). structural equation modelling with mplus: basic concepts, applications and programming. new york, ny: routledge. campbell, r.i., de beer, d.j., & pei, e. (2011). additive manufacturing in south africa: building on the foundation. rapid prototyping journal, 17(2), 156–162. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552541111113907 chang, h.t., chi, n.w., & miao, m.c. (2006). testing the relationship between three-component organisational/occupational commitment and organisational/occupational turnover intention using a non-recursive model. journal of vocational behaviour, 70(2), 352–368. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2006.10.001 chinomona, r., dhurup, m., & chinomona, e. (2014). the influence of the quality of working life on employee job satisfaction, organisational commitment and tenure intention in the sme sector in zimbabwe. south africa journal of economics & management science, 17(4), 363–378. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v17i4.296 creswell, j.w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approach (4th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. elshahat, e.m., shazly, m.m., & abd-elazeem, h. (2019). relationship between quality of work life and turnover intention among staff nurses. egyptian journal of healthcare, 10(1), 178–193. https://doi.org/10.21608/ejhc.2019.28793 gayathiri, r., ramakrishnan, l. (2013). quality of work life: linkage with job satisfaction and performance. international journal of business and management invention, 2(1), 1–8. gopinath, r. (2020). role of employees’ attitude in workplace. gedrag & organisatie review, 33(2), 1461–1475. https://doi.org/10.37896/gor33.02/156 hauke, j., & kossowski, t. (2011). comparison of value of pearson’s and spearman’s correlation coefficient on the same sets of data. questions geographical, 30(2), 87–93. https://doi.org/10.2478/v10117-011-0021-1 hooi, y.p., & zahari, i. (2020). turnover intention in manufacturing industry: sem-pl analysis. journal of global business and social entrepreneurship, 6(18), 27–40. huang, t.c., lawler, j., & lei, c.y. (2007). the effects of quality of work life on commitment and turnover intention. social behaviour & personality: an international journal, 35(6), 735–750. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2007.35.6.735 hussain, t., & asif, s. (2012). is employee’s turnover intention driven by organisational commitment and perceived organisational support? journal of quality & technology management, 8(2), 1–10. indhumathi, r., balaji, r., & hemalatha, s. (2019). a study on the quality of work life and turnover intention of employees in a textile mill. international journal of agricultural science and research, 9(4). 7–14. https://doi.org/10.24247/ijasraug20192 industrial development corporation of south africa (idc). (2019). 2019 integrated report. retrieved from http://www.idc.co.za/ir2019/pdfs/intergrated.pdf islam, m.b. (2012). factors affecting quality of work life: an analysis on employees private limited companies in bangladesh. global journal of management & business research, 12(18), 27–56. ismail, i.a., & alipour, f. (2014). relationship between quality of work life and organisational commitment among lectures in malaysian public research university. social science journal, 52(1), 231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soscij.2014.09.003 jensen, p.a. (2011). organisation of facilities management in relation to core business. journal of facilities management, 9(2), 78–95. https://doi.org/10.1108/14725961111128443 kaplan, d. (2004). the sage handbook of quantitative methodology for the social sciences. thousand oaks, ca: sage. korunka, c., hoonakker, p.l.t., & carayon, p. (2008). quality of working life and turnover intention in information technology work. human factors & ergonomics in management, 18(4), 409–423. https://doi.org/10.1002/hfm.20099 kotze, t. (2004). quality of work life: what managers need to know. management today, 20(6), 38–41. kotze, t. (2005). the nature and development of the construct ‘quality of work life’. acta academic, 37(2), 96–122. kruger, p., brazil, k., lohfeld, l., edward, h.g., lewis, d., & tjam, e. (2002). organisation specific predictors of job satisfaction: findings from a canadian multi-site quality of work life cross-sectional survey. bmc health service research, 2(6), 6. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-2-6 kumar, b., & thomas, b. (2016). an empirical study on perceived quality of work life and turnover intention among the employees of private hospitals. international journal of latest trend in engineering & technology, 4, 511–519. lee, y.w., dai, y.t., park, c.g., & mccreary, l.l. (2013). predicting quality of work life on nurse’s intention to leave. journal of nursing scholarship, 45(2), 160–168. https://doi.org/10.1111/jnu.12017 louis, k.s. (2006). effects of teacher quality of work life in secondary schools on commitment and sense of efficacy. international journal of research, policy & practice, 9(1), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/0924345980090101 mahesh, b.p., & nanjundeswaraswamy, t.s. (2020). quality of work life of employees in corporate sector in india. international transaction journal of engineering, management, & applied science and technologies, 11(12), 1–10. mahmoudi, o. (2015). to investigate the relationship between quality of work life and employee’s organisational commitment in the governmental agencies iran. academic journal of psychological studies, 4(4), 206–217. marshall, [aq34]g.h., & stephenson, s.m. (2020). burnout and turnover intention among electronics manufacturing employees in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 46(0), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v46i0.1758 metin, k., & asli, k. (2018). the relationship between organisational commitment and work performance: a case of industrial enterprises. journal of economic & social development, 5(1), 48–59. mosadeghrad, a.m. (2013a). quality of work life and turnover intention: implications for nursing management. international journal of research in nursing, 4(2), 47–54. https://doi.org/10.3844/ijrnsp.2013.47.54 mosadeghrad, a.m. (2013b). quality of work life: an antecedent to employee turnover intention. international journal of health policy & management, 1(1), 43–50. https://doi.org/10.15171/ijhpm.2013.07 mosadeghrad, a.m., ferlie, e., & rosenberg, d. (2011). a study of relationship between job stress, quality of working life and turnover intention among hospital employees. health service management research, 24(4), 170–181. https://doi.org/10.1258/hsmr.2011.011009 moshoeu, a.n., & geldenhuys, d.j. (2015). job insecurity, organisational commitment and work engagement among staff in an open distance learning institution. south african business review, 19(1), 22–43. https://doi.org/10.25159/1998-8125/5832 nanjundeswaraswamy, t.s., swamy, d.r., & nagesh, p. (2019). leadership styles in mediating the relationship between quality of work life and employee commitment. international journal of quality research, 14(2), 387–412. https://doi.org/10.24874/ijqr14.02-04 nenadal, j. (2016). adequacy, suitability, effectiveness and efficiency of quality management systems: how to perceive and assess them. quality innovation prosperity (qip), 20(2), 39–52. https://doi.org/10.12776/qip.v20i2.736 nethmini, l.d.p., & ismail, m.b.m. (2019). descriptive statistics of employee performance in brandix company. international journal on global business management & research, 8(1), 51–57. noe, r.a. (2010). employee training and development (4th edn.). new york, ny: mccraw-hill/irwin. normala, d. (2010). investigating the relationship between quality of work life and organisational commitment amongst employees in malaysian firms. international journal of business & management, 5(10), 75. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v5n10p75 paltu, a., & brouwers, m. (2020). toxic leadership: effects on job satisfaction, commitment, turnover intention and organisational culture within the south african manufacturing industry. south african journal of human resource management, 18(0), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1338 potgieter, i.l., & mokomane, s.e. (2020). implementation of hrm functions in selected small manufacturing companies in ga-rankuwa industrial area, gauteng, south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 18, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1282 ramayah, t., lo, e.c., & tarmizi, a.n. (2014). quality of work life and turnover intention: a partial least square (pls) approach. social indicators research, 119(1), 405–420. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0486-5 risla, m.k.f., & ithrees, a.g.i. (2018). the impact of quality of work life on organisational commitment with special reference to department of community-based correction. global journal of management & business research, 18(1), 20–29. rostiana, r. (2017). the quality of work life influence to turnover intention with person-organisation fit and organisational commitment as mediators. international journal of economics & management, 11(1), 45–57 sahni, j. (2019). role of quality of work life in determining employee engagement and organisational commitment in telecom industry. international journal of quality research, 13(2), 285–300. https://doi.org/10.24874/ijqr13.02-03 simons, h., & usher, r. (2000). situated ethics in educational research. new york, ny: routledge. sinha, c. (2012). factors effecting quality of work life: empirical evidence from indian organisations. australian journal of business and management research, 1(11), 31–40. shahnawaz, g.s., & jafri, h.s. (2009). psychological capital as predictors of organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior. journal of the indian academy of applied psychology, 35, 78–84. swamy, d.r., nanjundeswaraswamy, t.s., & rashmi, s. (2015). quality of work life: scale development and validation. international journal of caring science, 8(2), 281. tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2001). using multivariate statistics (4th edn.). boston, ma: allyn & bacon. van der berg, y., & martins, n. (2013). the relationship between organisational trust and quality of work life. south african journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.392 viljoen, a., kruger, s., & saayman, m. (2014). understanding the role that quality of work life of food and beverage employees plays in perceived service delivery and productivity. southern african business review, 8(1), 27–52. https://doi.org/10.25159/1998-8125/5644 wallace, j., hunt, j., & richards, c. (1999). the relationship between organisational culture, organisational climate and managerial values. international journal of public sector management, 12(7), 548–564. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513559910305339 yusoff, y.m., rimi, n.n., & meng, c.h. (2015). a study of quality of work life, organisational commitment and turnover intention. problems & perspectives in management, 13(2), 2515–2519. abstract introduction conceptual-theoretical framework research paradigm research design population of the study sampling method measuring instrument statistical analysis results and discussion managerial implications and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) petrus a. botha business school, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa lenky m. leah business school, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa citation botha, p.a., & leah, l.m. (2020). exploring public sector managers’ attitudes towards people with disabilities. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1421. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1421 original research exploring public sector managers’ attitudes towards people with disabilities petrus a. botha, lenky m. leah received: 15 june 2020; accepted: 16 sept. 2020; published: 23 nov. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: managers’ and employers’ negative attitudes towards people with disabilities are a significant obstacle for employing people with disabilities (pwds). research purpose: the primary purpose of this study was to measure the attitudes of public sector managers towards pwds. motivation for the study: the motivation for this study was to explore factors affecting managers’ attitudes towards pwds. research approach/design and method: the study was conducted within the quantitative research paradigm by using a cross-sectional survey design. a convenience sampling method was used. the questionnaire measured public sector managers’ attitudes towards pwds. descriptive statistics, cohen’s d, chi-square test and spearman’s rank-order correlation statistical techniques were used to provide answers to the research questions. main findings: the results revealed that managers had positive attitudes towards pwds. the main attitudinal problems identified were that different training methods and tools should be used to meet the needs of different disability types. the results showed that pwds had no unique characteristics, such as dependability, lower absenteeism rates, better cooperation and more loyalty, compared with those without disabilities. managers also had the perception that pwds lack communication, technical and social skills. practical/managerial implications: the negative perceptions towards the skills and characteristics of pwds necessitate remedial interventions and different training methods. contribution/value-add: this study has made a significant contribution to the body of knowledge by providing a theoretical-conceptual framework and a reliable measuring instrument to measure public sector managers’ attitudes towards pwds. keywords: attitudes; disability; employment equity; employment legislation; employment; public sector managers. introduction this study explores the attitudes of public managers towards people with disabilities (pwds). there have been several studies investigating the attitudes of managers towards pwds across different industries (araten-bergman, 2016; ayelet & roni, 2020; chao, huang, fried, hsu, & ososkie, 2018; kleynhans & kotzé, 2010; paez & arendt, 2014; sharma, zsarnoczky, & dunay, 2018). the problem is that negative attitudes of managers towards pwds constitute a significant factor affecting the employment of pwds in organisations. based on the problem, this study addressed four research questions. (1) what are the attitudes of public sector managers towards pwds? (2) are there differences in the mean scores of the attitudes of public sector managers towards pwds between gender, age groups and managerial levels? (3) are public sector managers familiar with and adhering to disability policies, guidelines and legislation governing the employment of pwds? the target population was public sector managers at the national and provincial government departments. conceptual-theoretical framework the social justice theory forms the theoretical foundation of this study. the social justice theory is viewed by van den bos (2003, p. 188) as the reasonable and impartial delivery of power, resources and obligations in society to all citizens, irrespective of their health condition, race or ethnicity, age, gender, ability status, sexual orientation and religious or spiritual background. the fundamental philosophies underpinning this theory include the objects of inclusivity, collaboration, cooperation, equal access and equal opportunity. sue (2001, p. 10) opined that these values highlight a society devoid of corruption and archetypal democratic society. furthermore, it could be observed, according to hage (2005, p. 242), that a link exists between social justice and the well-being of the citizens. o’connell, boat and warner (2009) validate this statement as it was revealed that the absence of social justice in every society is one of the primary causes of physical and emotional pains that finally lead to illness. social justice issues and access to resources are also inexorably tied to collective well-being (e.g. relationships and political welfare) of families, communities and society (hage, 2005; hage & kenny, 2009). prilleltensky and nelson (2002) maintained that social justice theory is a concept used to express a fair and just relationship existing between citizens and society. this concept is measured by the explicit and implicit terms for the distribution of wealth, opportunities for personal activity and social privileges. societies, such as south africa, need to resolve the problem of social injustice by giving equal treatment and opportunities to both people living with disabilities and those without disabilities. rawl’s theory of social justice emphasises the need to ensure equal justice to everybody and morality in a free society. this theory further deliberates on the need to observe the fundamental principle of individuals to have basic liberty of others (hage et al., 2007). this depicts that society must ensure that individuals have equal rights and freedom applicable to other individuals. this theory explains the need to place an equal opportunity for every citizen and avoid discriminations in all circumstances. the social justice theory was chosen in this study to highlight the need for treating all classes of citizens equally in the sharing of wealth and in giving equal opportunity to citizens to participate in the employment sector. this theory emphasises the need for society (employers and public sector managers – own insertion) to accommodate or engage pwds in the workplace. this will invariably eliminate the problem of unemployment, also a source of relief to pwds. leonardi, bickenbach, ustun, kostanjsek and chatterji (2006, p. 1220) defined disability as difficulty in functioning at the body, person or societal levels, in one or more life domains, as experienced by an individual with a health condition in interaction with contextual factors. managers are involved in the recruitment and selection of employees and have significant decision-making power regarding the appointment of pwds (gottlieb, myhill, & blanck, 2010). maja, mann, sing, steyn and naidoo (2011) stated that managers’ attitudes towards pwds are critical and are one of the challenges that pwds encounter. managers’ concerns and prejudices towards pwds are based on stereotypes and discrimination (martz, 2007). managers’ attitudes towards pwds are influenced by several factors, namely teamwork and costs, training of pwds, characteristics of pwds, perception about skills of pwds, productivity perceptions of pwds, managers’ helpfulness towards pwds and managers’ interaction with pwds (discomfort) (chao et al., 2018; chi & qu, 2003; iacono, tracy, keating, & brown, 2009; paez & arendt, 2014; telwatte, anglim, wynton, & moulding, 2017). some misconceptions of managers and employers regarding the employment of pwds are that they often require extra time to learn new work tasks; often require some sort of job accommodations (e.g. specialised equipment and facility; modifications, adjustments to work schedules or job duties) to do their job; have trouble getting their work performed on time and often needs others to help them finish the job; co-workers are not very comfortable working with them; tend to call in sick more often than other workers because of health or personal problems; and have trouble getting along with others on the job (amir, strauser, & chan, 2009). some researchers have found significant differences in attitude mean scores between demographic variables. females had higher mean scores compared with males, revealing that females had more positive attitudes towards pwds than males (goreczny, bender, caruso, & feinstein, 2011, p. 1598). however, the study of paez and arendt (2014, p. 185) found no statistical differences in the mean scores of factors such as teamwork and costs, training, characteristics and skills based on gender or position (management level). chi and qu (2003, pp. 74–75) found that managers had a more favourable opinion than owners towards pwds regarding their work ethic, but for gender, they found no significant statistical differences in the attitude dimensions. iriarte, mcconkey and gilligan (eds. 2015) confirmed that the lack of understanding and lack of awareness have mainly contributed to the stigma that pwds contribute to being a liability to their employers, rather than contributing to teamwork. the study of kaye, jans and jones (2011) indicated that employees are typically impressed with working with pwds, despite the additional cost of providing facilities in the work environment. in some cases, maja et al. (2011) affirmed that managers are much concerned about the extra cost of maintaining pwds and issues surrounding their medical condition, as it will tend to disrupt work. however, slawson (2016) postulated that it does not cost much to train pwds; it only costs time and patience to train them. according to banks and polack (2014), graham, moodley, ismail, munsaka, ross and marguerite (2014) and groce, kembhavi, wirz, lang, trani and kett (2011), pwds lack job skills and technical skills to handle their job duties. this view is supported by kulkarni and lengnick-hall (2014), who postulated that one of the reasons managers present for their inability to employ pwds includes not having the desired knowledge, skills, ability and other job-related knowledge (ksaos). most employers think that pwds lack needed skills and cannot perform their job tasks, whilst some managers are of the view that pwds are as prompt, hard-working and knowledgeable in their job specifications compared with non-disabled people. a study by maja et al. (2011) confirmed that a lack of skills and qualifications amongst pwds was a barrier to engage them in the work process. wordsworth’s (2003) study indicated that employers think that pwds do not have the capacity, as well as the experience or skills, to handle specific job tasks. the employment of knowledgeable, expert and qualified candidates with disabilities by the managers would bring expertise, diversify the total workforce and upgrade the standing for the pwds (konrad, moore, doherty, ng, & breward, 2012). kulkarni and lengnick-hall (2014) stated that pwds demonstrate accountability for time on task. this signifies that pwds exhibit conscious competencies, such as being where they are supposed to be when they are needed. their study indicated that pwds are more committed and satisfied with their job specification than non-disabled people. gida and ortlepp (2007) maintained that people living with disabilities are quite reliable and can perform better if opportunities for advancement are given to them. ofuani (2011) and li and goldschmidt (2009) stated that pwds are helpful, interactive, actionoriented and productive. kaye et al. (2012), schur et al. (2014) and telwatte et al. (2017) collectively stated that the employers might lack low vision aids and other specialised equipment to assist pwds that the pwds can achieve more than expected in their job specifications if they are provided with the needed working aids. telwatte et al. (2017) postulated that the employees sometimes do not adequately provide and assist the employees who are pwds that invariably retard their performance. according to kaye et al. (2012), employees who are pwds are always ready to prove their competence, but lack employees’ helpfulness in most cases to achieve their desired work plans in organisations. the human rights commission (2017) indicated that pwds are more dependable and have equal or lower levels of absenteeism than people without disabilities, thereby staying with their job specification more than those without disabilities. according to brynard (2010), managers do neglect to offer employment to pwds because of the assumption that pwds are not productive. co-workers fear a negative effect on interpersonal outcomes such as a feeling of awkwardness, discomfort, ambivalence and guilt about how they can interact with pwds. however, scior, connolly and williams (2013) stated that managers do not adequately relate with the employees with disabilities in the work environment, as it is believed that employees with disability have little or nothing to offer. quarmby (2011) postulated that managers should interact with pwds, direct them on what to do and incorporate them into the production process to attain optimal performance. wilson and scior (2015) postulated that co-workers’ relationships with pwds had been mixed, especially when it involves mental or emotional disability. kulkarni and valk (2010) asserted that 72% of the companies surveyed in their study reported the performance and interaction levels of their employees with disabilities as excellent or good. kulkarni and lengnick-hall (2014) said that employers sometimes have the fear that co-workers will react negatively to cooperating effectively with workers with a disability, thereby reducing the productivity and profitability of the firm. co-workers have a fear of increased workloads and a negative effect on work outcomes, and also the loss of work rewards if their job performance is dependent upon an individual with a disability’s job performance. quarmby (2011) stressed that managers’ negligence of the pwds’ career has resulted in immense underperformance and blames to the disabled. according to banks and polack (2014), pwds are productive despite their predisposition. according to statistics south africa (2014), the total population of south africa is 47.9 million, and the 2011 census indicates that almost 5% of the total population are disabled, which amounts to 2 395 000 pwds. according to the department of labour, annual report of commission for employment equity (2017–2018), only 1.3% of pwds are employed in top management positions in both the public service and private sector, followed by 1.3% in senior management positions, professionally qualified 1.3%, skilled level 1.2%, semi-skilled 0.9% and unskilled 1%. according to the commission for employment equity, 43 716 pwds were employed in south africa in 2011 compared with 12 049 employees employed in 2003. only 1.8% of pwds are employed in all government departments in south africa. despite the employment equity act, the code of good practice, technical assistance guidelines and skills development act in south africa that govern employment for pwds, they still experience exclusion from the labour market, prejudice and negative attitudes from society and employers. unfortunately, these different types of legislation have made little or no impact on the discrimination against pwds in south africa (dunn, 2018). kok (2017) explained that adherence to anti-discrimination legislation in south africa is low and argues that the lack of commitment to adherence has defeated the principal aim and objective of promulgating this legislation. research paradigm this study adopted a post-positivist paradigm. according to rubin and rubin (2011), post-positivist philosophers believe that reality is more than fixed, and also measurable and knowable. creswell and creswell (2017) proclaimed that the post-positivist philosophers mostly believe in the existence of one truth and external reality. research design this study followed a quantitative paradigm by using close-ended self-administered questionnaires to gather data from public sector managers about their attitudes towards pwds. therefore, this study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design. according to salkind (ed. 2010, p. 3), a cross-sectional survey design involves the process of collecting data from respondents at a single point in time. population of the study in this study, the total population includes public sector managers at national and provincial government departments. a total of 1071 public sector managers at national and provincial government departments comprised the population of this study. sampling method the convenience sampling method was used. convenience sampling refers to a type of sampling based on the accessibility of the respondents (maree, 2010, p. 177). a representative sample of the population for the research was calculated by using krejcie and morgan’s (1970, pp. 607–610) work on the determination of the size of a sample. the total population was 1071, and the sample size was calculated as 283. one hundred and fifty-five questionnaires were returned. therefore, the response rate was 55%. ten questionnaires were incomplete and were excluded from the data analysis. therefore, only 145 questionnaires were usable and analysed. measuring instrument the questionnaire consists of two sections: section a includes the biographic characteristics of the respondents such as gender, age group, managerial levels, number of years of service, level of government and qualification level. section b contains a questionnaire measuring public sector managers’ attitudes towards pwds. the managers’ attitude towards pwds scale (adc) developed by paez and arendt (2014) was used. the questionnaire consists of four factors or sub-dimensions and 22 items. these sub-dimensions include the following: teamwork and costs – 11 items (‘i feel it is not too costly to give additional training to people with disabilities’). training – 4 items (‘i do not use/would not use different training methods for people with disabilities’). characteristics of pwds – 4 items (‘i feel people with disabilities are more dependable than people without disabilities’). skills of pwds – 3 items (‘providing training in communication skills for people with disabilities is important’). a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) was used. statistical analysis four research questions have been explored and addressed in this study (see introduction). the first question was answered by using descriptive statistics to calculate the mean scores, standard deviation and response categories of the factors and items of the attitude towards pwds scale. to answer research question 2, cohen’s d was computed to measure the practical significance of the differences in mean attitude scores between gender groups, age groups and managerial levels. the following guideline values for the interpretation of cohen’s d (1988) were used, namely 0.2 small, no practically significant difference; 0.5 medium, practically visible difference; and 0.8 large, practically significant difference. descriptive data analysis was carried out to provide an answer to research question three. chi-square tests were performed to investigate whether there is an association between gender and managerial levels and familiarity and compliance with disability policies, guidelines and legislation that govern disability. the guidelines of cohen (1988) for effect sizes, 0.1 small, 0.3 medium and 0.5 large, were used to interpret the results. spearman’s rank-order correlation was computed to provide an answer to the fourth research question. cohen’s (1988, pp. 79–81) guidelines for the interpretation of the spearman rank-order correlation coefficient, namely small (r = 0.10–0.29), medium (r = 0.30–0.49) and large (r = 0.50–1.0), were used to interpret the results. ethical consideration approval of ethics application: nwu-hs-2018-0057. the following application has been reviewed by the human resource research ethics committee (hrrec) on 18 april 2020. results and discussion a reliability analysis was carried out on the four factors of the attitude scale. the study by paez and arendt (2014) revealed cronbach’s alphas of teamwork and cost (0.92), training (0.73), characteristics (0.74) and skills (0.72). cronbach’s alphas for the four factors of the attitudes towards pwds and total scale are illustrated in table 1. table 1: cronbach’s alphas. cronbach’s alpha coefficient with values of above 0.7 is usually acceptable, and values above 0.6 are acceptable in the instance of exploratory research (field, 2009, 2013, p. 912; yong & pearce, 2013, p. 90). field (2014, p.912) further indicates that in the early stages of research, values of 0.5 will suffice, but interpretation should be made with caution. thus, the interpretation of this study was based on values above 0.6. descriptive statistics were performed on the demographic characteristics of participants to describe the typical respondent. the data analysis computed in this section includes the descriptive statistics of the demographic characteristics of the participants, such as gender composition, age groups, post-levels, years of service and qualification levels (see table 2). the gender distribution was 44.1% males and 55.9% females. the majority of participants were in the age group 40–49 (42.8%), followed by age groups 50–59 (36.6%), 30–39 (15.9%), 20–29 (2.8%) and 60 and older (2.1%). the senior management group was the largest (46.2%), followed by middle management (39.3%) and junior management (14.5%). the majority of respondents had between 10 and 11 (37.9%) years of experience in the public service, followed by 21–30 years (32.4%), 0–10 years (18.6%), 31–40 years (9.7%) and 41 years and more (1.4%). regarding highest qualification, most respondents had a degree or diploma (33.1%), followed by an honours degree or postgraduate diploma (31%), master’s degree (28.3%), national certificate (6.2%) and phd (1.4%). table 2: demographic characteristics of public sector managers. the first research question was to explore public sector managers’ attitudes towards pwds. descriptive statistics were performed to calculate the mean scores of the items and factors of attitudes towards pwds scale (see table 3). the interpretation of the mean scores was made according to the guidelines of paez and arendt (2014), who stated that the mean scores were interpreted closer to the scale values. according to kleynhans and kotzè (2010, p. 414), a neutral score can be interpreted as the absence of a positive attitude, apathy towards pwds or denial of the potential of pwds. in general, managers had slightly positive perceptions towards pwds with an overall mean rating of 3.30 (1= strongly agree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 4 = agree and 5 = strongly agree). table 3: public sector managers’ mean scores for the items and factors of the attitudes towards people with disabilities scale. the teamwork and cost factor had a mean value of 3.47, indicating a favourable attitude towards pwds. managers agree with 10 of the 11 statements. they disagree with item 3, which was negatively phrased, indicating that they disagree with the statement that they find it hard to make pwds to adapt to new ways of doing the job. the mean score of the training factor was 2.92, leaning towards the neither agree nor disagree (neutral) category of the scale. items 1, 3 and 4 were rated the lowest, which showed that managers were in disagreement (44.8% disagree, 20% neither agree nor disagree and 35.2% agree) that they would not use different training methods for pwds. they are also in disagreement that they will train all people by using the same methods whether they are disabled (47% disagree, 20% neither agree nor disagree and 32.4% agree). nor are managers in agreement that they would not use the same training tools for pwds as those without disabilities (50.4% disagree, 20% neither agree nor disagree and 29.6% agree). this indicated that managers are in favour of using different training methods and tools for pwds. these results support the findings of a study by paez and arendt (2014, p.181) that revealed training methods would be used to train pwds. all statements of the characteristic factor were rated low (slightly negative perceptions), which indicated that managers were in disagreement that pwds are more dependable than people without disabilities are (46.2% disagree, 36.6% neither agree nor disagree and 17.2% agree), and that pwds are absent less often than people without disabilities are (35.2% disagree, 51% neither agree nor disagree and 13.8% agree). managers do not perceive that pwds are not more dependable than people without disabilities. the majority of managers neither agree nor disagree with the statement that pwds are absent less often than people without disabilities. therefore, they had a neutral perception of the absenteeism of pwds. the results do not correlate with the human rights commission’s (2017) view that pwds are more dependable and have equal or lower levels of absenteeism than people without disabilities and do not support the opinion of banks and polack (2014) that pwds are very dependable and productive, despite their predisposition. managers were in disagreement that pwds cooperate better compared with those without disabilities (31.1% disagree, 46.9% neither agree nor disagree and 22.1% agree), and that pwds are more loyal to the organisation compared with people without disabilities (26.8% disagree, 56.6% neither agree nor disagree and 16.6% agree). therefore, managers had neutral perceptions of the cooperation and loyalty characteristics of pwds. the majority of managers agree that providing training in communication skills (71.1%), technical skills (81.4%) and social skills (74.4%) is important. if the training of these skills is regarded as important, it could be argued that pwds lack these critical skills. in the study of paez and arendt (2014, p.181), providing training on communication, technical and social skills to employees with disabilities was reported as important. numerous studies revealed that pwds lack essential skills and competencies compared with those without disabilities (banks & polack, 2014; chao et al., 2018; graham et al., 2014; groce et al., 2011). the lack of job and technical skills is a significant barrier to the employment of pwds. the second research question explored the differences in mean attitude scores between gender groups, age groups and management groups. the reported effect sizes between males and females on all four factors showed no practically significant difference in the mean scores of the two gender groups (see table 4). therefore, gender did not have any bearing or impact on the attitudes of managers towards pwds. similarly, paez and arendt (2014, p. 185) and chi and qu (2003, p. 75) found no statistically significant difference in the mean scores between gender groups. however, the study of goreczny et al. (2011, p. 1598) revealed that females had more positive attitudes towards pwds compared with males. table 4: comparison of mean scores between males and females. the small reported effect sizes for all four factors showed no practically significant difference between the mean scores of the three age groups (see table 5). these results do not correlate with those of paez and arendt (2014, p. 185), who found a statistically significant difference in the mean skill factor scores between age groups. table 5: comparison of mean scores between age groups. the comparison of mean scores between management groups is depicted in table 6. the reported medium effect sizes (d = 0.52 and d = 60) indicated a practically visible difference in the teamwork and cost mean scores between the junior management group (m = 3.19; sd = 0.564), middle management group (m= 3.52; sd = 0.634) and senior management group (m= 3.53; sd = 0.547). the middle and senior management groups had a more favourable attitude compared with the junior management group towards the teamwork and cost factor. the medium effect size (0.65) showed a practically visible difference in the skills factor mean scores between the junior management group (m = 4.35; sd = 0.562) and middle management group (m = 3.78; sd = 0.874). besides, the large effect size (0.81) showed a practically significant difference in the skills factor mean scores between the junior management group and senior management group (m = 3.71; sd = 0.789). the junior management group perceives the training in communication, technical and social skills for pwds as more important compared with the middle and senior management groups. these findings do not support those of a study conducted by paez and arendt (2014), which showed no statistically significant differences in the mean scores of the factors of teamwork and costs, training, characteristics and skills between management levels or positions. therefore, management levels did influence attitudes towards teamwork and cost, as well as the skills factor. table 6: comparison of mean scores between management groups. the third research question explored public sector managers’ familiarity and compliance with disability policies, guidelines and legislation that govern disability employment. respondents were asked whether they are familiar with and comply with the employment equity act, the code of good practice and technical assistance guidelines on employing pwds (tag) and skills development act that govern disability employment. their responses are summarised in table 7. table 7: response to knowledge and compliance with acts and policies regulating disability employment. the majority of the respondents indicated that they are acquainted with all the applicable legislation and acts shown in table 4, such as the employment equity act (91%), code of good practice (83.4%), technical assistance guidelines (73.1%) and skills development act (73.1%). however, there are still a noticeable percentage (between 9% and 26.9%) of respondents who indicate that they are not familiar with these. it is therefore crucial that the government should communicate effectively to all the managers in all the public entities to embrace the contents of this legislation guiding the employment and development of people living with disabilities. chi-square tests were carried out to investigate whether there is an association between gender and managerial levels and participants’ familiarity and compliance with disability policies, guidelines and legislation that govern disability employment (see table 8). the reported phi-values (0.007–0.11) for gender and all four familiarity and compliance questions indicated small or practically non-significant associations. furthermore, the reported phi-values (0.009–0.194) for managerial levels and all four familiarity and compliance questions indicated small or practically non-significant associations. this indicated that gender and the managerial level do not play a role in terms of familiarity and compliance. the results revealed that the majority of participants indicated that they were familiar and comply with the employment equity act (91%), code of good practice (83.4%), technical assistance guidelines (73.1%) and skills development act (73.1%). based on the results, participants seem to be informed and knowledgeable about the acts and policies regulating disability employment. the chi-square tests revealed no statistically significant association between both gender and managerial levels, and familiarity and compliance with the employment equity act, code of good practice, technical assistance guidelines and skills development act. however, the statistics regarding the employment of pwds in the public service did not support the practice of compliance and implementation. despite these numerous acts and policies, kok (2017) observed that compliance levels are low. table 8: results of chi-square tests and descriptive statistics for familiarity and compliance with disability policies, guidelines and legislation that govern disability employment. the fourth research question explores the correlations between the four factors of the attitude scale. p-values are reported for completeness sake, but will not be interpreted because a non-random sample was used (see table 9). there was a medium positive linear correlation between the teamwork and cost factor, and the training factor (r = 0.304). however, the small positive linear correlation with characteristics (r = 0.031) and negative linear correlation with skills (r = -0.048) show no practically significant relationships. regarding training, the results revealed a small positive linear relationship with characteristics (r = 0.064) and a small negative linear relationship with skills (r = -0.133), indicating no practically significant relationships. the characteristic factor had a weak positive linear correlation with skills (r = 0.072), which also indicates no practically significant relationship. table 9: correlation between the four factors of the attitudes towards people with disabilities scale. managerial implications and recommendations this study has implications for both the public service and pwds regarding employment and improving the lives of pwds. although the results have shown that participants reported favourable attitudes towards pwds, some concerns were identified. based on the results, the following main concerns identified by the participants necessitate remedial interventions. public managers should use different training methods and tools depending on the different types of disabilities based on proper need assessments and performance gaps identified during the performance management cycle. respondents indicated that the pwds do not have unique characteristics such as more dependability, less absenteeism rates, better cooperation and are more loyalty compared with those without disabilities. during recruitment and selection, public managers should ensure, through appropriate psychometric tests and other selection tools, that candidates with different types of disabilities meet the job requirements such as qualifications, skills, attributes, knowledge, personality characteristics and other requirements specified in the job descriptions. managers should also ensure that pwds perform jobs if they meet the physical and mental requirements. the results indicated that pwds lack communication, technical and social skills. these deficiencies should be addressed by providing training and development programmes for pwds. managers should comply with the employment equity act, code of good practice, technical assistance guidelines and skills development act. the equity targets for the employment of pwds should be included in the critical performance areas of managers. managers should undergo sensitivity and awareness training regarding the accommodation and employment of pwds. conclusion this study investigated public sector managers’ attitudes towards pwds. this study was motivated by the challenges faced by employees with disabilities in receiving assistance and gaining employment in the south african public service. the various factors that determine attitudes were discussed. the study was conducted within the quantitative paradigm by using a cross-sectional survey design. a convenience sampling method was used to collect data. the main limitation of this study was that a convenience sampling method was used, and because of the small number of 145 completed questionnaires, the results cannot be generalised to all the national and provincial government departments. however, this study has contributed to the body of knowledge by providing a theoretical-conceptual framework and a reliable measuring instrument to measure public sector managers’ attitudes towards pwds. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions all listed authors have contributed significantly to the work and preparation of the work, and they have seen and approved the content, authorship and affiliations, and order of author representation. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement the authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policy of any affiliated agency of the authors. references amir, z., strauser, d.r., & chan, f. (2009). employers’ and survivors’ perspectives. in work and cancer survivors (pp. 73–89). new york, ny: springer. araten-bergman, t. (2016). managers’ hiring intentions and the actual hiring of qualified workers with disabilities. the international journal of human resource management, 27(14), 1510–1530. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1128466 ayelet, g., & roni, k. (2020). attitudes toward persons with disabilities among community centers’ management staff members: a brief report. rehabilitation counseling bulletin, 63(3), 87–191. https://doi.org/10.1177/0034355219878494 banks, l.m., & polack, s. (2014). the economic costs of exclusion and gains of inclusion of people with disabilities. london: international centre for evidence in disability. brynard, p.a. (2010). challenges of implementing a disability policy. international association of schools and institutes of administration conference. bali: university of pretoria. chao, p.j., huang, y.t., fried, j.h., hsu, t.h., & ososkie, j.n. (2018). attitudes and reflections of vietnamese managers toward their employees with disabilities. journal of rehabilitation, 84(3), 14–27. chi, c.g.-q., & qu, h. (2004). integrating persons with disabilities into the work force. international journal of hospitality & tourism administration, 4(4), 59–83. https://doi.org/10.1300/j149v04n04_04 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd edn.). hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates, publishers. creswell, j.w., & creswell, j.d. (2017). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. sage. dunn, a. (2018). disabled need special law to safeguard rights. retrieved from https://www.iol.co.za/mercury/disabled-need-special-law-to-safeguard-rights-14739712 field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss: introducing statistical method (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. field, a. (2013). discovering statistics using spss: introducing statistical method (4th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. gida, p., & ortlepp, k. (2007). employment of people with disabilities: implications for hr management practices. professional accountant, 7(1), 135–150. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v7i1.21 goreczny, a.j., bender, e.e., caruso, g., & feinstein, c.s. (2011). attitudes toward individuals with disabilities: results of a recent survey and implications of those results. research in developmental disabilities, 32(5), 1596–1609. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2011.02.005 gottlieb, a., myhill, w.n., & blanck, p. (2010). employment of people with disabilities. buffalo: international encyclopedia of rehabilitation. graham, l., moodley, j., ismail, z., munsaka, e., ross, e., & marguerite, s. (2014). poverty and disability in south africa. johannesburg: centre for social development in africa and university of johannesburg. groce, n., kembhavi, g., wirz, s., lang, r., trani, j.f., & kett, m. (2011). poverty and disability–a critical review of the literature in low and middle-income countries. leonard cheshire research centre working paper series, 16. hage, s.m. (2005). future considerations for fostering multicultural competence in mental health and educational settings: social justice implications. in m.g. constantine & d.w. sue (eds.), strategies for building multicultural competence in mental health and educational settings (pp. 285–302). hoboken, nj: john wiley. hage, s.m., & kenny, m.e. (2009). promoting a social justice approach to prevention: future directions for training, practice, and research. the journal of primary prevention, 30(1), 75–87. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-008-0165-5 hage, s.m., romano, j.l., conyne, r.k., kenny, m., matthews, c., schwartz, j.p., & waldo, m. (2007). best practice guidelines on prevention practice, research, training, and social advocacy for psychologists. the counseling psychologist, 35(4), 493–566. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000006291411 iacono, t., tracy, j., keating, j., & brown, t. (2009). the interaction with disabled persons scale: revisiting its internal consistency and factor structure, and examining item-level properties. research in developmental disabilities, 30(6), 1490–1501. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2009.07.010 iriarte, e.g., mcconkey, r., & gilligan, r. (eds.). (2015). disability and human rights: global perspectives. london: macmillan international higher education. kaye, h.s., jans, l.h., & jones, e.c. (2011). why don’t employers hire and retain workers with disabilities? journal of occupational rehabilitation, 21(4), 526–536. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-011-9302-8 kleynhans, r., & kotzé, m. (2010). managers’ and employees’ attitudes towards people with physical disabilities in the workplace. tydskrifvir geesteswetenskappe, 50(3), 404–418. kok, a. (2017). the promotion of equality and prevention of unfair discrimination act 4 of 2000: how to balance religious freedom and other human rights in the higher education sphere. south african journal of higher education, 31(6), 25–44. https://doi.org/10.20853/31-6-1640 konrad, a.m., moore, m.e., doherty, a.j., ng, e.s., & breward, k. (2012). vocational status and perceived well-being of workers with disabilities. equality, diversity and inclusion: an international journal, 31(2), 100–123. https://doi.org/10.1108/02610151211202772 krejcie, r.v., & morgan, d.w. (1970). determining sample size for research activities. educational and psychological measurement, 30(3), 607–610. https://doi.org/10.1177/001316447003000308 kulkarni, m., & lengnick-hall, m.l. (2014). obstacles to success in the workplace for people with disabilities: a review and research agenda. human resource development review, 13(2), 158–180. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484313485229 kulkarni, m., & valk, r. (2010). don’t ask, don’t tell: two views on human resource practices for people with disabilities. iimb management review, 22(4), 137–146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iimb.2010.08.001 leonardi, m., bickenbach, j., ustun, t.b., kostanjsek, n., & chatterji, s. (2006). the definition of disability: what is in a name? the lancet, 368(9543), 1219–1221. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(06)69498-1 li, y., & goldschmidt, j. (eds.). (2009). taking employment discrimination seriously: chinese and european perspectives. brill. maja, p.a., mann, w.m., sing, d., steyn, a.j., & naidoo, p. (2011). employing people with disabilities in south africa. south african journal of occupational therapy, 41(1), 24–32. maree, k. (2010). first steps in research. fifth impression. pretoria: van schaik publishers. martz, e. (2007). facilitating inclusive employment: an examination of the accommodations for and the barriers to employment for russians with disabilities. international journal of rehabilitation research, 30(4), 321–326. https://doi.org/10.1097/mrr.0b013e3282f24097 o’connell, m.e., boat, t., & warner, k.e. (2009). preventing mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders among young people: progress and possibilities (vol. 7). washington, dc: national academies press. ofuani, a.i. (2011). the right to economic empowerment of persons with disabilities in nigeria: how enabled? african human rights law journal, 11(2), 639–658. paez, p., & arendt, s.w. (2014). managers’ attitudes towards people with disabilities in the hospitality industry. international journal of hospitality & tourism administration, 15(2), 172–190. https://doi.org/10.1080/15256480.2014.901065 prilleltensky, i., & nelson, g. (2002). doing psychology critically: making a difference in diverse settings. london: macmillan international higher education. quarmby, k. (2011). scapegoat: why we are failing disabled people. london: granta books. rubin, h.j., & rubin, i.s. (2011). qualitative interviewing: the art of hearing data. ca: sage. salkind, n.j. (ed.). (2010). encyclopedia of research design (vol. 1). ca: sage. schur, l., nishii, l., adya, m., kruse, d., bruyère, s.m., & blanck, p. (2014). accommodating employees with and without disabilities. human resource management, 53(4), 593–621. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21607 scior, k., connolly, t., & williams, j. (2013). the effects of symptom recognition and diagnostic labels on public beliefs, emotional reactions, and stigmas associated with intellectual disability. american journal on intellectual and developmental disabilities, 118(3), 211–223. https://doi.org/10.1352/1944-7558-118.3.211 sharma, a., zsarnoczky, m., & dunay, a. (2018). an empirical study on the influences of management’s attitudes toward employees with disabilities in the hospitality sector. polish journal of management studies, 18(2), 311–323. https://doi.org/10.17512/pjms.2018.18.2.25 slawson, n. (2016). sme owners on supporting disabled staffit’s called being a good boss. the telegraph, 30 september. retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/connect/small-business/talent-culture-leadership/taking-on-disabled-staff/ south african human rights commission (sahrc). (2017). disability framework and guideline. retrieved from https://www.sahrc.org.za/home/21/files/20170524%20sahrc%20disability%20monitoring%20framework%20and%20guidelines%20draft%205.pdf statistics south africa. (2014). census 2011: profile of persons with disabilities in south africa. pretoria: government printers. sue, d.w. (2001). multidimensional facets of cultural competence. the counseling psychologist, 29(6), 790–821. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000001296002 telwatte, a., anglim, j., wynton, s.k., & moulding, r. (2017). workplace accommodations for employees with disabilities: a multilevel model of employer decision-making. rehabilitation psychology, 62(1), 7. https://doi.org/10.1037/rep0000120 the department of labour. (2017–2018). commission for employment equity annual report. pretoria: government printers. van den bos, k. (2003). on the subjective quality of social justice: the role of affect as information in the psychology of justice judgments. journal of personality and social psychology, 85(3), 482. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.3.482 wilson, m.c., & scior, k. (2015). implicit attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities: their relationship with explicit attitudes, social distance, emotions and contact. plos one, 10(9), e0137902. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0137902 wordsworth, r. (2003). hiring people for their abilities and not their disabilities. a qualitative study aimed at identifying the barriers faced by organisations in gauteng when employing people with disabilities in the business and financial sectors of the economy. doctoral dissertation. university of pretoria. world health organization. (2011). world report on disability. geneva: world health organization. yong, a.g., & pearce, s. (2013). a beginner’s guide to factor analysis: focusing on exploratory factor analysis. tutorials in quantitative methods for psychology, 9(2), 79–94. abstract introduction literature review research method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) rhodrick n. musakuro department of human resource management, faculty of business and management sciences, cape peninsula university of technology, cape town, south africa citation musakuro, r.n. (2022). a framework development for talent management in the higher education sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1671. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1671 original research a framework development for talent management in the higher education sector rhodrick n. musakuro received: 19 may 2021; accepted: 14 dec. 2021; published: 13 apr. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: academic staff are in high demand at south african institutions and talent retention issues are a huge challenge for university management. research purpose: the primary objective of this study was to develop a framework for talent management in higher education that would allow south african public universities to attract and retain academic staff. motivation for the study: there is a paucity of studies on the holistic talent management system within south african public universities although previous researchers attempted to investigate some of the components that constitute the topic. research approach/design and method: the study was subject to mixed methods to analyse data collected from a random sample survey (n = 153) of academic employees and semi-structured interviews (n = 7) of non-academic employees from one university. quantitative descriptive data was analysed using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss version 24), whilst the qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis. main findings: seven themes emerged, highlighting shortcomings in talent management processes and practices at the investigated south african university. specifically, workforce planning, compensation and rewards, recruitment and selection, performance management, succession planning, training and development and talent retention showed the need to revitalise a strategic approach to attract academics whilst retaining the best to ensure that south african universities achieve their visions and missions. practical/managerial implications: human resource professionals and talent managers in south african public universities can use the study’s findings to improve talent management practices in their institutions, which significantly lead to sustainable competitive advantage. contribution/value-add: this research offers human resource professionals and talent managers a talent management framework for attracting and retaining employees in the higher education sector. the proposed framework guides talent management processes and practices at south african public institutions by highlighting activities to further efficiently and effectively attract and retain academic staff. keywords: talent management; talent management framework; talent; universities; south africa. introduction organisations utilise talent management as a strategic method to attract and retain professionals, resulting in a sustainable competitive advantage (bluen, 2014). however, south african public universities are not immune to the talent management issues facing the country and like many organisations in the country they are experiencing serious challenges in attracting and retaining high-quality academic employees (higher education south africa [hesa], 2011). the growing demand for academic staff and retention problems are major concerns for the university management. most academic staff are now entering the retirement phase of their careers and there is now a need to acquire new talent into south african universities (hesa, 2011). faced with such talent management challenges, south african universities need to revitalise approaches to attract and acquire new academic staff whilst retaining the best to ensure the long-term survival of their institutions (sharma, 2011). therefore, south african universities cannot ignore the significance of talent management, which focuses on ensuring that organisations have the competent staff to achieve business goals (cheese, thomas, & craig, 2008). in south african public universities, there is limited research on the integrated talent management system, although previous studies attempted to investigate some of the components that make up the talent management system. previous researchers who sought to investigate talent management aspects in south african universities mainly looked at academic turnover and retention variables (theron, barkhuizen, & du plesis, 2014), whilst others only looked at the intention to quit elements amongst generation y academics in universities (robyn & du preez, 2013). more recently, van zyl, mathafena and ras (2017) developed a framework for talent management, which lacked the peculiarities of south african universities. with scant scientific research, it remains unknown how south african universities should advance towards a talent management system given the increasing demand for academic staff and employee retention problems. as a result, this study argues that talent management system is not getting due consideration and research gaps appear to emerge in south african public universities. research purpose the primary objective of this study was to develop a talent management framework in higher education that would allow south african public universities to attract and retain academic staff. thus, this study sought to explore the talent management processes and practises of a selected south african public university in order to address talent management issues. literature review talent management literature provides several definitions of talent management (armstrong, 2006; noe, hollenbeck, gerthart, & wright, 2012; silzer & dowel, 2010). notwithstanding these definitions, there is no universally agreed definition of talent management (ashton & morton, 2005). however, there are some similarities in what is commonly associated with talent management practices. schweyer (2004) defined talent management as the ability to manage the supply, demand and flow of talent through the human capital engine. bussin (2014) went further and defined talent management as the systematic acquisition, identification, development, involvement, retention and placement of individuals who are of unique value to an organisation. in this case, organisations utilise talent management as a strategic method to attract and retain professionals, resulting in a sustainable competitive advantage. theoretical framework many frameworks for talent management are available in the literature. however, none of these frameworks has been able to explicitly address the talent management issues confronting south african institutions. for example, contemporary talent management frameworks developed by meyer (2016) and van zyl et al., (2017) only cater towards the private sector, whose primary objective is organisations’ profit-making. however, some aspects of their frameworks will be explored in this research. for this study, it was considered essential to select one talent management framework depicted in figure 1 and use it as a guideline to better explain the talent management system. figure 1: talent management system. according to meyer (2016), organisations must create a talent management policy to better guide the underlying concepts of the talent management processes and strategy. the same author goes further and explains that whilst talent management strategies may vary over time as dynamics shift, talent management policies must be followed consistently and fairly. besides that, organisations should articulate their talent management ideology, accountability aspects, governance issues and talent management process measurement (bussin, 2014). from figure 1, notably, there are five key functions that make up talent management. this study will now explain the functions to gain further insights from the many diverse yet interconnected functions of the talent management system. key functions linked to talent management planning the first essential step that an organisation takes in effective talent management is talent planning. planning for talent can be split into two: talent planning and workforce planning. several scholars concur on the practical approaches to talent planning, which includes talent management strategy, business strategy, environmental analysis and talent success profile (bussin, 2014; van zyl et al., 2017). according to bussin (2014), to guarantee that proper organisational goals are converted into talent management priorities, workforce and talent planning must be aligned to the overall company strategy. grobler, warnich, carell, elbert and hatfield (2006) defined workforce planning as a process that involves the development and practical implementation of action plans to have competent people in the organisation. furthermore, the process includes a systematic procedure where organisational managers establish, review and forecast the required human capital needs (erasmus, schenk, & tshilongamulenzhe, 2014). bussin (2014) argued that workforce planning usually begins with strategic workforce planning whereby the organisation starts by clarifying the roles and skills required soon and the expected number of employees to leave the organisation. acquiring acquiring is a crucial element of talent management that focuses on attracting, recruiting, selecting and employing talent (bussin, 2014). to attract talent, organisations often utilise the employee value proposition (evp). employee value proposition refers to a collection of traits and rewards that entice individuals to consider employment in the organisation whilst also persuading current employees to remain in the organisation (bussin, 2014). these traits and benefits are what a prospective employee presumes to receive in exchange for work performed. brewster et al. (2008) mentioned that a typical evp can include intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction, values, ethics and culture, which employees encounter within the organisation. furthermore, these traits and benefits tend to characterise and separate the organisation against other competing organisations (minchington, 2006). kochanski (2004) stated that a distinguished evp has the potential to add and strengthen employer brand because it describes the desired organisational state in relation to strategic goals and desired culture. therefore, this suggests and calls for talent management practitioners to design a unique evp that can support employer’s efforts in finding applicants from a rich candidate pool, also the adoption of measures to retain dedicated employees with exceptional work performance and at the same time attracting people to join the organisation without enticing them with remuneration perks (bussin, 2014). another aspect of acquiring talent is recruitment, which refers to the process through which an organisation brings to light a new vacancy. hunter (2012) explained that the recruitment process starts by communicating with the potential job applicants that a vacancy exists and ends when the selection process starts. in some cases, the recruitment process may be determined by the needs arising out of the workforce planning process (erasmus et al., 2014). this substantiates the link between the two components of the talent management system. after recruitment, selection then comes in and this process entails screening and hiring employees with the right qualifications, skills and experience valuable to contribute more to the business organisation (wild, wild, han, & rammal, 2009). thus, selection seeks to identify the best candidate for a job who can help an organisation in achieving its objectives. du plessis (2015) emphasised the need for proper procedure and fairness during the selection process because if it is not performed as it should be, it can lead to the wrong person filling the position. developing developing talent is essential for south african universities. to develop employees’ skills, organisations often use several methods amongst these being training, development, career management, coaching, mentoring, succession planning. training is a deliberate intervention for employees to acquire skills, competencies and attitudes that will enhance organisational performance in their present jobs and most of these are short term in nature (erasmus et al., 2014; warnich, carrrell, elbert, & hatfield, 2015). furthermore, training is a deliberate intervention to address present or future shortfalls. development is almost the same as training because both concepts are concerned about improving work performance. however, development is a comprehensive long-term learning intervention. it is a learning endeavour aimed at the growth of individuals by obtaining diverse sorts of information, skills and behaviours. it provides employees with fresh insights about themselves in the long term, allowing them to reach their full potential (warnich et al., 2015). career management is another important component of developing talent in an organisation. it includes employer’s efforts aimed at influencing the career development of either individuals or groups of employees (arnold, 1997). despite the fact that career management itself is an individual’s responsibility, it must be shared with the employer, who must then play a supportive role (schreuder & coetzee, 2011). coaching is another method that may be utilised to help employees develop their talent and skills. it is a one-on-one interaction involving a professional coach and an employee. the purpose of coaching is to help employees perform better at work (schutte & steyn, 2015). research by bennett and bush (2009) showed the effectiveness of coaching and its potential to improve performance and efficiency by eliminating any obstructive patterns of behaviour. mentoring is another method for developing employees, particularly new staff members. it can be described as ongoing support provided by a senior employee (mentor) to a less experienced employee (mentee). mentoring involves managing and helping new employees to support them through tough transitions by easing the path, encouraging, leading and training them in the organisation (fletcher, 2000). research shows that employees who benefited from mentoring managed to improve their job satisfaction, increased their commitment to their work, reduced intention to leave their jobs and even improved their work performance (groves, 2007). succession planning involves various efforts to predict leadership requirements, recognising candidate pool, developing and improving leadership competencies and capabilities through planned organisational programmes (hor, huang, shih, lee, & lee, 2010). furthermore, creating a method for choosing possible replacements for senior employees of the organisation is also part of designing a succession planning strategy (screuder & coetzee, 2011). the importance of succession planning is that it assists in the transition of a senior employee such as an academic professor leaving the university and adds to the development of highly promising academic staff (warnich et al., 2015). managing talent organisations use performance management and compensation and reward management practices to manage talent. firstly, performance management refers to a structured goal-oriented process whereby individual goals are linked with the organisational objectives (mondy, 2008). a broad definition indicates that it involves the alignment of organisational strategy and individual goals, continuous individual management of performance and inclusion of values and competencies in the process (bussin, 2014). performance management is regarded as an integral and essential component of talent management (erasmus et al., 2012). the primary activities of this practice help to ensure that organisational objectives are constantly being met effectively and efficiently. the second part of managing talent is compensation and reward management. compensation is the entire amount of monetary and non-monetary incentives that a company provides to an employee in exchange for his or her work (meyer & kirsten, 2005). these include intrinsic rewards that are self-administered and mainly linked to the job itself for instance employee recognition, accomplishing career personal goals amongst others. conversely, extrinsic rewards consist of direct compensation, non-direct compensation and non-financial rewards. reward management is the method of developing and implementing various methods and policies to compensate employees based on the real value they contribute to the company (armstrong, 2000). rewards address the specific needs of the employees. in other words, rewards refer to compensation entitled to an employee in exchange for services he or she provides (jiang, xiao, qi, & xiao, 2009). according to armstrong (2009), rewards are the primary source of interface between the employer and the employee, therefore they must be fair, equal and consistent. reward management is arguably the critical component of the talent management system (schlechter, hung, & bussin, 2014). talent retention talent retention encompasses several initiatives that an employer utilises to retain employees (bussin, 2014). an expansion of this term includes organisational initiatives to mitigate voluntary turnover (jackson & schuler, 2004). bussin (2014) suggested that to retain key employees, employers need to develop a retention strategy that focuses on the following core items: attractive compensation packages, conducive and congenial work environment, adequate training and developing programmes that can enable employees to grow and develop their careers. furthermore, employers need to create a relationship between management and employees who enables employees to feel like part of the organisation, and lastly management needs to support employees on how they do their work. research method research design the investigation utilised a case study research design to explore the talent management phenomena in a real-life environment (bryman & bell, 2011). as a result of time and resource constraints, the investigation utilised a single case of single university in order to effectively manage it as contrary to a broader scale investigation of all 26 public universities in south africa (rule & john, 2011). research approach this investigation embraced mixed methods to contribute to the existing talent management literature in a more in-depth way. the use of the mixed method facilitates the removal and elimination of potential gaps, which might be present during the collection of data if one method is used to collect the data (de vos, strydom, fouche, & delport, 2013). furthermore, mixed-methods increases the validity of the research instruments by minimising bias inherent that may arise if one method of data collection is used (flick, 2011). research paradigm this study assumed the interpretive and positivist research paradigms as the researcher sought to benefit from ‘both worlds’. the idea was to explore and grasp complex meanings of the talent management phenomenon at the selected university as supported by various scholars (quinlan, babin, carr, griffin, & zikmund, 2015; yin, 2008). population and sample research population of this investigation included academic and non-academic employees from a south african public university. on the one hand the inclusion criteria for the selection of academic employees in this study were based on the premise that the participants should be employed either on a permanent, fixed term contract or on temporary basis at the selected university. on the other hand, the inclusion criteria for non-academic employees (seven human resource experts) into the study were only based on the premise that the participants should be responsible for the overall talent management practices at the selected university. as the study adopted mixed-methods, probability and non-probability sampling techniques from two sample groups were utilised. the first sample group was for the quantitative research approach. this sampling group was made up of a total of 153 participants who completed the designed talent management likert-type scale questionnaire. to identify the respondents from this sample, simple random sampling was employed, with each element having an opportunity to partake in the study (brynard & henekom, 2006). the sample composed of the head of departments (hods), senior lecturers, lecturers, junior lecturers and academic administrative staff. this sample included permanent, temporary and fixed contract staff members. the second study sample consisted of seven human resource experts. the sample was selected through purposeful sampling. purposive sampling was utilised to collect knowledgeable data from individuals who were only familiar with the researched talent management aspects. this second sample group was interviewed by the researcher. research instruments questionnaire this study utilised a likert-type scale questionnaire to obtain quantitative data from 153 respondents. prior to data collection, the study determined the questionnaire’s reliability and validity to establish the consistency, trustworthiness and credibility of the data collection instrument. this was performed by means of a pilot study involving 15 non-participants. furthermore, respondents self-completed the questionnaire in their own spare time. the questionnaire was considered as a data collection tool because it typically enables larger amounts of data to be collected in a reasonable amount of time and at a relatively low cost (bless, higson-smith, & kagee, 2006). also, questionnaires facilitate the use and consideration of research ethical standards such as confidentiality and anonymity, which in turn aid in a large response rate (bless et al., 2006). the study questionnaire was split into two sections. the first section collected biographical data of the respondents. the second section consisted of six sub-sections that collected data about respondents’ understanding of workforce planning, compensation and rewards, succession planning, recruitment and selection, performance management, training and development and talent retention. these sub-section themes were drawn from the literature review with 45 items rated on a 5-point likert-type scale: (1) strongly agree, (2) agree, (3) neutral, (4) disagree and (5) strongly disagree. the usefulness and efficacy of the likert-type scale questionnaire have been used by many scholars (buthelezi, 2010; chikumbi, 2011) where they measured specific research problems. the study used the likert-type scale questionnaire similarly developed and designed by various scholars (buthelezi, 2010; chikumbi, 2011) in their studies where they researched the very same topic of talent management, thus improving the validity of the research instruments for this investigation. however, the actual questionnaire utilised for this investigation was refined and further tailored to the study purpose. moreover, a reliability test was conducted to measure internal consistency using cronbach’s alpha coefficient. table 1 shows the coefficients of internal consistency from the statements in the questionnaire. table 1: internal consistency using cronbach’s alpha. george and mallery (2003), cited in gliem and gliem (2003) explained that a rule of thumb for a reliability coefficient is as follows: > 0.9 = excellent, > 0.8 = good, > 0.7 = acceptable, > 0.6 = questionable, > 0.5 = poor and < 0.5 = unacceptable. therefore, from table 1, the reliability of the items was satisfactory from the 45 items of the questionnaire (seven sub-sections) that were closely studied for their reliability. semi-structured interviews to obtain qualitative data, the investigation utilised semi-structured interviews. this entailed personal interaction with seven human resource experts, who were asked a series of questions concerning talent management. the interviews included face-to-face engagement with every participant utilising an interview guide with 23 questions. each interview session took around 40 min. based on the foregoing information from the literature, research interview questions were formulated. prior to data collection, a pilot research was conducted involving two individuals via face-to-face semi-structured interviews utilising an interview guide. thereafter, the researcher managed to obtain suggestions and constructive criticism. relevant shortcomings in the data collecting instrument were identified and communicated to the researcher. subsequently, revisions were performed for the true participants to assure that the interview questions were meaningful and also that participants accurately comprehended them. data analysis quantitatively, the investigation utilised statistical package for the social sciences (spss) to analyse the data through the assistance of a qualified and experienced statistician. furthermore, the researcher utilised quantitative descriptive statistics that included the mean and standard deviation to produce item statistics. averages of the items in each group were calculated to create new variables that represent the main categories. qualitatively, the data obtained was analysed by means of thematic analysis. this involved identifying and interpreting qualitative data collected using themes (neuendorf, 2019). relevant themes were assigned to the recorded and transcribed text in line with the objective of the study (bazeley, 2013). all the interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed and the interview answers were extracted by means of hand-coding using ms excel. this was enhanced by the use of notes to support interview recordings, therefore avoiding omission mistakes. the researcher further validated the data by consolidating mixed methods used to generate a holistic assessment of the data analysed. as a result, the mixed methodologies utilised in this investigation were equally valuable, facilitating the synthesis of research data to analyse the phenomena of talent management in the selected south african institution. ethical considerations all ethical considerations and procedures were adhered to throughout the study. these include permission to conduct the study, informed consent, voluntary participation, right to privacy, confidentiality and honesty in presenting data (2015fbrec288). results demographic information of quantitative data as depicted in table 2, the population consisted of 59.5% of academic staff who were permanently employed of which 47.7% were lecturers. the population consisted of 59.5% of academic staff who were permanently employed of which 47.7% were lecturers. furthermore, 39.9% were of black descent and 19% were white, 30.1% mixed race and 11.1% were of indian descent. the majority (51%) were from the faculty of business and management sciences. the majority of the participants (39.9%) were in the age group of 30–39 years followed by those between 40 and 49 years (34.0%), and between 20 and 29 years (10.5%). a total of 9.8% were participants between the ages 50 and 59 years and this was also the same for participants between the ages 60 years and older. the participants of the study were predominantly male (57%). a significant majority (60.8%) of participants indicated the master’s degree as their highest level of qualification. a total of 35.9% of participants indicated that they had been employed between 0 and 3 years with the current employer, followed by 23.5% who indicated they had been employed between 7 and 10 years, followed by 21.6% who indicated that they had been employed for more than 10 years and 19.0% of the participants indicated that they had been employed between 4 and 6 years with the current employer. the findings here reveal that the majority of the study’s participants were in their early phases of employment with their employer. table 2: demographic information of quantitative data. qualitatively, the sample composed of seven human resource experts of which three were females and four were males. with regard to ethnicity, the sample was distributed as follows: 6 = black and 1 = mixed race. in terms of tenure, one participant had the shortest tenure (5 months) whilst other participants ranged from 1 to 11 years of employment with the investigated university. in terms of academic qualifications, two participants had mcom in industrial psychology and mphil labour law as their highest level of qualifications whereas other participants had various academic qualifications such as national diploma, b.tech degree, honours degree and postgraduate degree. correlations in this study, the researcher analysed variables to understand and uncover the relationship between pairs of variables in a statistical context. although there are several techniques that researchers can use such as the pearson’s correlation, the researcher used spearman’s rho, which is denoted by the greek letter ρ to analyse the correlations because the pairs of variables were ordinal. the computed values of spearman’s rho vary between 0 and 1 and can either be negative or positive (bryman & bell, 2011). in addition, spearman’s rho uses co-variables, not independent variables and dependent variables. it is also worth noting that correlations do not indicate causality, rather, they show the strength of a linear relationship. table 3 shows the correlations for variables in this study. table 3: correlation analysis of the variables a spearman correlation was computed using spss to determine if there were any significant relationships between two constructs. from table 3, it can be interpreted that a significant positive and strong relationship (rs = 0.619) exists between compensation and rewards (crs) and talent retention (tr). this correlation is statistically significant at the 0.001 level. therefore, when compensation and rewards are increased, an individual will likely stay in the organisation, which result in increased talent retention. a significant strong negative spearman correlation exist between rs and sp (rs = -0.463). this correlation is statistically significant at the 0.001 level. therefore, when rs is increased, sp decreases. there is also no significant relationship between cr and wp (rs = 0.073). it means that compensation and rewards and workforce planning are not related. table 4 shows a summary of statistics where it presents the means and standard deviations of the main categories of the research questionnaire, namely workforce planning (wp), compensation and rewards (cr), succession planning (sp), recruitment and selection (rs), performance management (pm), training and development (td) and talent retention (tr). table 4: means and standard deviations for workforce planning, compensation and rewards, succession planning, recruitment and selection, performance management, training and development and talent retention. discussion theme 1: workforce planning with regard to workforce planning, seven items relating to workforce planning for talent management were included in this theme. a general pattern can be observed where frequencies moved from ‘strongly agreed’ to ‘strongly disagreed’. table 4 provides a group mean and standard deviation workforce planning. an aggregate average mean score of 2.90 as indicated reveals that workforce planning has been managed fairly by the institution despite having some gaps in the whole management of workforce planning. this is because it scored a low average mean slightly below the neutral point of 3.0 and a standard deviation of 0.703. on average, the participants perceived positive and relatively fair management of workforce planning practices. however, it can be pointed out that the institution lacks a retention plan for skilled staff. also, there are no discussions in boardroom meetings about identification and retention of talent and finally, the institution needs to get rid of the current workforce planning traditional practises because they have proven to be ineffective. these findings are consistent and are further integrated with findings made in qualitative data. as per qualitative data, the majority of participants (five out of seven) claimed that the university does not possess a retention plan, which supports the quantitative findings. apart from that, another quantitative finding is supported by a qualitative finding. specifically, some participants mentioned that they were not generally aware of a structured procedure and that the institutions lack a model for workforce planning. as explained by the participants: ‘i am not aware of a formalised process. currently, it is carried out on an ad hoc basis …’ (participant 5, male, black, hr expert, mcom industrial psychology, 11 years of work experience at the investigated university) ‘[… t]here is no uniformity, it varies from department to department. some departments are proactive to plan ahead. for some it’s just filling in roles when a vacant position comes. so, we do not have a model we are failing with that regard …’ (participant 7, male, black, hr expert, national diploma in human resource management, 3 years of work experience at the investigated university) based on comments from participants 5 and 7, it emerges that there is no consistency and universal applicability of policies across all departments when it comes to workforce planning, and it is only carried out for particular purposes at times. furthermore, participants 1, 2 and 6 mentioned that the institutional planning office conduct workforce planning. they then advise human resource experts on how to implement those plans. however, this result contradicts the argument in the literature review, which stated that the duty for workforce planning falls with human resource practitioners, who take the lead throughout the process whilst collaborating with frontline supervisors (warnich et al., 2015). according to van zyl et al. (2017), multiple stakeholders, including frontline supervisors, employees, senior management and human resource experts, should be included in the design, planning and implementation of talent management initiatives. theme 2: compensation and rewards findings from the compensation and rewards management theme revealed a consensus amongst the participants as they perceived their employer’s compensation and rewards as unsatisfactory. whilst this study complements and correlates with other previous reports and studies (industrial action report, 2016; theron et al., 2014), the study’s findings contrast with the findings of nkomentaba (2014) on compensation and rewards. according to table 4, compensation and rewards scored a group score of 3.62 on average mean and 0.955 on standard deviation. this means that there is a negative perception of compensation and rewards as indicated by the average mean that is above 3.0. as a result, as explained earlier in the literature, rewards are the primary source of interface between the employer and the employee, a poor negative perception indicates that employees are dissatisfied with their rewards, which can be cited as the primary cause for employees leaving the institution as supported by other scholars (nkomentaba, 2014). however, in this study, it was found that the majority of academics (58.1%) are not looking forward to leaving their institution despite indicating dissatisfaction with their compensation and rewards packages. the talent retention theme that follows expands on and gives more information about talent retention, with a focus on compensation and rewards. in addition, a significant majority (57.5%) of the participants disagreed that their compensation packages are competitive when related to the labour market. however, as per qualitative data, the participants positively indicated that the institution’s compensation packages are competitive when linked to the labour market. the participants (human resource experts) validated their responses with more substantial information thereby eliminating gaps left in the likert-type scale questionnaire. to be specific, the participants had this to say: ‘we do compare each year’s salaries using the remchannel. our institution participates in surveys of salaries via remchannel … our institution’s salary packages are competitive because right now i have a report that i received recently that indicates in terms of where we are in terms of competitiveness.’ (participant 1, male, black, hr expert, mphil: labour law, 1 year of work experience at the investigated university) ‘well competitively we are. when you compare this university’s, competitiveness using the remchannel, you see that we are to a certain extent competitive against some local universities …’ (participant 5, male, black, hr expert, mcom in industrial psychology, 11 years of work experience at the investigated university) theme 3: succession planning the research findings show that succession planning items were consistently negative throughout the whole eight statements. descriptive statistics were generally high and ranged between 3.46 on the average mean and 4.05 whilst standard deviation scored between 0.985 and 1.428 (see table 4). this indicates that the organisation is not doing well with succession planning practices. the institution is facing challenges in facilitating the transition of junior-level employees to senior positions when senior members are leaving the organisation. this contrasts with what the organisation is ought to be doing as discussed in the literature where the organisation is supposed to be developing high potential employees within the organisation with the idea to ensure continuity, avoidance of transitional challenges when experienced leaders leave the organisation and in doing so help to reduce cases associated with the early promotion (hills, 2009; warnich et al., 2015). participants 1, 5 and 7 reported that the university uses external programmes. these programmes are part of the department of higher education and training’s (dhet) attempts to recruit skilled scholars to replace ageing employees (dhet, 2018). however, participants 2, 3 and 6, on the other hand, responded no succession planning is taking place because the organisation lacks institutional succession planning initiatives. as a result, participants pointed out that the institution suffers replacement issues when top staff retire. this is because of the institution’s inability to fill posts left vacant by senior members. responding to these issues, participant 1 said this: ‘we don’t have succession planning policy or structured plan for the institution, hence we heavily rely on those two programmes, khula and new generation of academics programmes as i have mentioned earlier.’ (participant 1, male, black, hr expert, mphil: labour law, 1 year of work experience at the investigated university) therefore, the study argues that succession planning is poorly managed by the institution and there are talent management problems. this is because of a lack of an internal succession planning system and a policy. theme 4: recruitment and selection the overall remark that can be drawn from the likert-type scale questionnaire findings for recruiting and selection is that the participants agreed with five out of seven items. descriptive statistics show a low but positive aggregate average mean score of 2.65 and a standard deviation of 0.620 as presented in table 4. five out of seven items recorded a positive response whilst two items were negatively perceived by the participants. in general, this indicates that the participants had a high positive perception of the application of recruitment and selection practices by their employer. as observed earlier in the literature, for recruitment and selection activities to be effective, these activities should be guided by written policies and procedures (kleynhans, 2006) whilst the organisation puts a lot of factors into consideration when choosing the best candidates to fill vacancies (louw, 2013). therefore, based on the findings, this is what the institution is doing. furthermore, the findings of this study support the work of various scholars (kanyemba, 2014; louw, 2013) on what they found in their studies about recruitment and selection practises despite participants indicating some negative responses in two areas. despite some concerns, the participants pointed out that the existing process of finding potential talent in the institution is impactful and effective. according to the participants, the strategies of recruiting and selecting employees enable crucial activities to be performed. furthermore, as mentioned by participant 6, the recruiting and selection procedure complies with the labour relations act 66 of 1995: ‘it is effective because it follows and conforms to labour relations legislation. it is also effective because we advertise positions in the right channels and people go through the selection process and we also make appointments … ’ (participant 6, female, black, hr expert, b. tech: human resource development, 6 years of work experience at the investigated university) however, other participants claimed that efficacy is determined by the specialty of the post to be replaced. this suggests that when a position demands a scarce expertise, it will be difficult to recruit new staff than it does for a regular lecturing position. participant 5 recounted: ‘it varies with the discipline, for example, in engineering countrywide it is a scarce skill. the few scarce skills that are there at the market are targeted by everyone. so, sometimes through these traditional ways of advertising sometimes you don’t get the people, and, in that way, we don’t have a targeted way of sourcing candidates where you go and source candidates and convince them to apply … ’ (participant 5, male, black, hr expert, mcom industrial psychology, 11 years of work experience at the investigated university) the study also discovered that the institution’s recruiting and selection procedure is overly protracted. the senex committee, which convenes monthly to review and approve final nominations, adds to the length of time it takes to fill academic jobs. as a consequence, four participants agreed that owing to delays, some candidates do not accept offers from the institution because of a lack of patience caused by the institution’s bureaucracy in finalising the recruitment and selection processes. another issue discovered was the institution’s failure to attract south african nationalities, which compels the university to recruit scholars from other nations. furthermore, it was discovered that the university is not completely adopting technology, preferring to rely on old ways such as paperwork. theme 5: performance management in terms of performance management, the vast majority of respondents in this theme supported literature (hunter, 2012; louw-potgieter, 2012) and are also similar to past research study findings (aguinis, 2013; paile, 2012). however, findings were also in contrast with the work of maimela and samuel (2016), pienaar and bester (2008). seven items were included in this theme. despite recording one negative average mean score of 3.16, all the items were consistently positive. group average mean of 2.47 as presented in table 4 indicated a positive result in the performance management practises by the institution. based on qualitative data, the participants did not provide any positive information on the institution’s performance management strategies. they expressed several issues. three participants concurred that the university lacks a performance management policy. participants 4 and 7 recounted: ‘we are very weak in that area because at this stage even the performance management policy has not yet been adopted, it’s still work in progress. the managers also do not know how to conduct performance management in their respective departments although there have been workshops arranged by the learning and development department to encourage the line managers to attend these workshops, still, these line managers do not attend.’ (participant 7, male, black, hr expert, national diploma in human resource management, 3 years of work experience at the investigated university) upon reconciling quantitative research findings of performance management using qualitative findings, it is clear there is a partial performance management at the university, lack of performance management policy guidelines, lack of managerial skills to conduct performance management and non-uniformity of application of performance management practices. theme 6: training and development overall, the majority of participants responded positively to the training and development findings. they ‘strongly agreed’ with the statements on the likert-type scale questionnaire. the pattern was generally consistent throughout five items with a positive group score of 2.21 on the aggregate average mean score (table 4). as discussed in the literature that the business environment is ever-changing, a continuous investment in training and development then becomes important. this is because of the fact that it leads to the enhancement of essential capabilities of academic staff, allowing them to maintain relevant skills in accordance with the present and future demands of higher education (buthelezi, 2010). qualitatively, the overall remark is that the majority of participants reported doing little in terms of training and development. as recounted by participants 1 and 2: ‘training and development is not performed by human capital.’ (participant 1, male, black, hr expert, mphil: labour law, 1 year of work experience at the investigated university) ‘as business partners we are just partially involved. the full responsibility lies with the learning and development department.’ (participant 2, female, black, hr expert, bcom: industrial psychology, 9 years of work experience at the investigated university) theme 7: talent retention in terms of talent retention, the participants in this study appeared to be slightly dissatisfied with the management of some of the talent retention factors (work environment, professional work development and advancement opportunities and compensation packages). the general agreement from the participants is that these factors are poorly managed whereby they all recorded negative average scores. it must be observed that all these three statements that participants highlighted negatively are factors that could encourage employees to leave if not addressed properly (robyn & du preez, 2013; theron et al., 2014). on the other hand, participants positively indicated that their jobs offer them reasonable and fair work-life balance options and opportunities, which are consistent with the previous studies (makhuzeni & barkhuizen, 2015). interestingly, this study found that a significant majority (63.4%) disagreed that they are currently not looking for other jobs with similar compensation packages. these results indicate that majority of academics are not looking forward to leaving their university despite indicating dissatisfaction with their compensation and rewards packages. this study could not further establish the reasons why employees are choosing to stay in their workplace yet not satisfied with their compensation packages as also acknowledged by other previous scholars (kontoghiorges & frangou, 2009). in this regard, the participants’ consensus is that the institution is poorly managing certain factors that could encourage employees to leave as indicated by a negative aggregate group mean score of 3.25 as shown in table 4. however, using qualitative research findings, it appears like the institution is fairly doing well in managing employee retention given a lower turnover rate of 1.2% despite not having a separate retention strategy. to be specific, participant 1 in qualitative research was asked to explain some of the strategies in place to retain experienced workers and this is what the participant had to say: ‘[…]the only strategy we have now to ensure that we retain our key employees is through employee value proposition in terms of the institution’s benefits, salary packages, promotion and others although we do not have a separate retention strategy that will probably incorporate all these bits and pieces that we are doing in terms of the value proposition. i think our value proposition is working as indicated by our turnover rate, which is at 1.2% for this period.’ (participant 1, male, black, hr expert, mphil: labour law, 1 year of work experience at the investigated university) the proposed framework for talent management in the higher education sector the research themes that emerged: workforce planning, compensation and rewards, recruitment and selection, performance management, succession planning, training and development and talent retention demonstrated the need for a strategic approach to attract academics whilst retaining the best to ensure that the selected south african university achieves its vision and mission as shown in figure 2. figure 2: a framework for talent management in the higher education sector. practical implications in south african universities, there have been few studies on the comprehensive talent management system, although previous studies tried to explore some of the elements that form talent management. the study embraced mixed-methods that contributed to the existing talent management literature in a more in-depth way. the research results have implications for talent management practices in south african universities. human resource professionals and talent managers in south african universities can use the study’s findings to improve talent management practices in their institutions, which significantly lead to sustainable competitive advantage. this study provides human resource practitioners with a talent management framework to attract and retain talent in the higher education sector. the proposed framework practically guides talent management practices within south african universities by highlighting activities to better attract and retain academic staff efficiently and effectively. conclusion this study set out to develop a talent management framework for the south african higher education sector that would enable south african universities to attract and retain academic staff. it provides new insights into the talent management practices of south african universities. a framework for talent management in the higher education sector was developed, which practically guides human resources practitioners on talent management practices within south african universities. it highlighted activities to better attract and retain academic staff efficiently and effectively. this is crucial because it incorporates efficient strategies for attracting and retaining talent, which may considerably enhance universities’ capacity to manage the difficulties of an ageing population. limitations and suggestions for future research because just one south african public university was investigated, the research findings cannot be regarded as reflective of the entire population (all 26 south african public universities). as a result, the study suggests that when the proposed talent management framework is to be utilised at other institutions, it must be modified to match the institution’s talent management requirements. future studies should be carried out on a larger scale by including other several south african universities. if further studies are to be carried out, a new model, methods or processes in talent management practices may be adopted for south african universities or other universities in the global fraternity. acknowledgements the author would like to acknowledge dr corry uys for helping him with statistical analysis. competing interests the author has declared that no competing interest exists. author’s contributions r.n.m. acted as the primary researcher of this study who formed part of his master’s research. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references aguinis, h. (2013). performance management. 2nd ed. upper saddle river, nj: pearson prentice hall. armstrong, m. (2000). performance management: key strategies and practical guidances. london: kogan page limited. armstrong, m. (2006). a handbook of human resources management in practice. 10th ed. london: kogan page limited. armstrong, m. (2009). armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. london: kogan page. arnold, j. (1997). managing careers into the 21st century. london: paul chapman. ashton, c., & morton, l. (2005). managing talent for competitive advantage: taking a systemic approach to talent management. strategic hr review, 4(5), 28–31. https://doi.org/10.1108/14754390580000819 bazeley, p. (2013). qualitative data analysis: practical strategies. london: sage. bennett, j., & bush, m.w. (2009). coaching in organizations: current trends and future opportunities. od practitioner, 41(1), 1–7. bless, c., higson-smith, c., & kagee, a. (2006). fundamentals of social research methods: an african perspective. 4th ed. lusaka: juta. bluen, s. (2014). talent management challenges in emerging markets. in d. van eden (ed.), the role of the chief human resources officer: perspectives, challenges, realities and experiences (pp. 107–150). johannesburg: knowres publishing. brewster, c., carey, l., grobler, p., holland, p., & warnich, s. (2008). contemporary issues in human resource management: gaining competitive advantage. cape town: oxford university press. bryman, a., & bell, e. (eds.). (2011). research methodology: business and management contexts. cape town: oxford university press. brynard, p.a., & hanekom, s.x. (2006). introduction to research in management – related fields. pretoria: van schaik publishers. bussin, m. (2014). remuneration and talent management: strategic compensation approaches for attracting, retaining and engaging talent. randburg: knowres publishing. buthelezi, n.c. (2010). developing a talent management framework for a south african sectoral education and training authority. unpublished dissertation, university of stellenbosch. cheese, p., thomas, r.j., & craig, e. (2008). the talent powered organization. strategies for globalization, talent management and high performance. london: kogan page. chikumbi, c.n.l. (2011). an investigation of talent management and staff retention at the bank of zambia. unpublished thesis, nelson mandela metropolitan university. department of higher education and training. (2018). the new generation of academics programme (ngap). retrieved from http://www.ssauf.dhet.gov.za/ngap.html de vos, a.s., strydom, h., fouche, c.b., & delport, c.s.l. (2013). research at grass roots for the social sciences and human service professionals. 4th ed. pretoria: van schaik publishers. du plessis, a.j. (ed.). (2015). human resource management and employment relations in sa: contemporary theory and practice. cape town: juta. erasmus, b.j., schenk, h.w., & tshilongamulenzhe, m.c. (2014). workforce planning. in b.j. swanepoel (ed.). south african human resource management: theory & practice (pp. 270–296). cape town: juta. fletcher, s. (2000). mentoring in schools: a handbook of good practice. london: kogan page ltd. flick, u. (2011). introducing research methodology: a beginner’s guide to doing a research project. london: sage. george, d., & mallery, p. (2003). spss for windows step by step: a simple guide and reference (4th edn). boston: allyn & bacon. gliem, j.a., & gliem, r.r. (2003). calculating, interpreting, and reporting cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient for likert-type scales. in midwest research-to-practice conference in adult, continuing, and community education, ohio state university, columbus, oh, october 8–10. grobler, p.a., warnich, s., carell, m.r., elbert, n.f., & hatfield, r.d. (2006). human resource management in south africa. 3rd ed. london: thomson learning. groves, k.s. (2007). integrating leadership development and succession planning best practices. journal of management development, 26(3), 239–252. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710710732146 higher education south africa (hesa). (2011). a generation of growth: proposal for a national programme to develop the next generation of academics for south african higher education. pretoria: university of south africa. hills, a. (2009). succession planning – or smart talent management? industrial and commercial training, 41(1), 3–8. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197850910927697 hor, f.c., huang, l.c., shih, h.s., lee, y.h., & lee, e.s. (2010). establishing talent management for company’s succession planning through analytic network process: application to an mnc semiconductor company in taiwan. computers & mathematics with applications, 60(3), 528–540. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.camwa.2010.05.001 hunter, c. (2012). managing people in south africa: human resource management as competitive advantage. 2nd ed. durban: sherwood books. industrial action report. (2016). department of labour. retrieved from https://local.labourguide.co.za/workshop/1366-industrialaction2016-4/file jackson, s.e., & schuler, r.s. (2004). managing human resources: a partnership perspective. cincinnati: south-western college. jiang, z., xiao, q., qi, h., & xiao, l. (2009). total reward strategy: a human resources management strategy going with the trend of the times. international journal of business and management, 4(11), 177–183. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v4n11p177 kanyemba, m.h. (2014). employee perceptions of the relationship between recruitment and selection processes and organisational productivity at a university in the western cape province of south africa. unpublished thesis, cape peninsula university of technology. kleynhans, r., markham, l., meyer, w., van aswegen, s., & pilbeam, e. (2006). human resource management: fresh perspectives. cape town: pearson education. kochanski, j.t. (2004). how business operating models drive talent development. world at work journal, third quarter, 13(3), 26–33. kontoghiorges, c., & frangou, k. (2009). the association between talent retention, antecedent factors and consequent organizational performance. sam advanced management journal, 74(1), 29–58. louw, g.j. (2013). exploring recruitment and selection trends in the eastern cape. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), 10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.319 louw-potgieter, j. (2012). evaluating human resource interventions. sa journal of human resource management, 10(3), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i3.420 maimela, e.m., & samuel, m.o. (2016). perception of performance management system by academic staff in an open distance learning higher education environment. sa journal of human resource management, 14(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.784 makhuzeni, b., & barkhuizen, e.n. (2015). the effect of a total rewards strategy on school teachers’ retention. sa journal of human resource management, 13(1), 10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.699 meyer, m., & kirsten, m. (2005). introduction to human resource management. cape town: new africa education. meyer, t. (2016). shaping africa’s talent: enabling africa’s potential. randburg: knowledge resources. minchington, b. (2006). your employer brand – attract, engage, retain. queensland: collective learning. mondy, r.w. (2008). human resource management. upper saddle river, nj: pearson prentice-hall. neuendorf, k.a. (2019). content analysis and thematic analysis. in p. brough (ed.), research methods for applied psychologists: design, analysis and reporting (pp. 211–223). new york, ny: routledge. nkomentaba, m.a. (2014). talent retention in a further education and training (fet) college in cape town: a case study. unpublished thesis, cape peninsula university of technology. noe, r.a., hollenbeck, j.r., gerhart, b., & wright, p.m. (2012). human resource management: gaining a competitive. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. paile, n.j. (2012). staff perceptions of the implementation of a performance management and development systems: father smangaliso mkhatswa case study. unpublished thesis, university of south africa. pienaar, c., & bester, c.l. (2008). the retention of academics in the early career phase: empirical research. sa journal of human resource management, 6(2), 32–41. quinlan, c., babin, b., carr, j., griffin, m., & zikmund, w.g. (2015). business research methods. 1st ed. london: cengage learning. robyn, a., & du preez, r. (2013). intention to quit amongst generation y academics in higher education. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i1.1106 rule, p., & john, v. (2011). your guide to case study research. pretoria: van schaik. schlechter, a., hung, a., & bussin, m. (2014). understanding talent attraction: the influence of financial rewards elements on perceived job attractiveness. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.647 schreuder, d., & coetzee, m. (2011). careers an organisational perspective. cape town: juta. schutte, f., & steyn, r. (2015). the scientific building blocks for business coaching: a literature review. sa journal of human resource management, 13(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.657 schreuder, d., & coetzee, m. (2011). careers: an organisational perspective. cape town: juta. schweyer, a. (2004). talent management systems: best practices in technology solutions for recruitment, retention and workforce planning. chile: wiley. sharma, d. (2011). talent management. new delhi: aph publishing corporation. silzer, r., & dowell, b.e. (2010). strategy-driven talent management: a leadership imperative. san francisco, ca: jossey bass. theron, m., barkhuizen, n., & du plessis, y. (2014). managing the academic talent void: investigating factors in academic turnover and retention in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1117 van zyl, e.s., mathafena, r.b., & ras, j. (2017). the development of a talent management framework for the private sector. sa journal of human resource management, 15(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.820 warnich, s., carrrell, m., elbert, n.f., & hatfield, r.d. (2015). human resource management in south africa. 5th ed. london: cengage learning. wild, j.j., wild, k.l., han, j.c.y., & rammal, h.g. (2009). international business: the challenges of globalisation. 5th ed. victoria: pearson education. yin, r.k. (2008). case study research: design and methods. london: sage. abstract introduction and background research methodology research results: hypothesis testing discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) dasy muleya department of human resource management and labour relations, faculty of management, commerce and law, university of venda, thohoyandou, south africa hlanganipai ngirande department of human resource management and labour relations, faculty of management, commerce and law, university of venda, thohoyandou, south africa sharon r. terera department of human resource management and labour relations, faculty of management, commerce and law, university of venda, thohoyandou, south africa citation muleya, d., ngirande, h., & terera, s.r. (2022). the influence of training and career development opportunities on affective commitment: a south african higher education perspective. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1620. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1620 original research the influence of training and career development opportunities on affective commitment: a south african higher education perspective dasy muleya, hlanganipai ngirande, sharon r. terera received: 29 mar. 2021; accepted: 16 nov. 2021; published: 31 mar. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: employees with affective commitment are significant assets to their organisations because they remain loyal even when faced with attractive external opportunities. therefore, there is a need to understand how different organisational factors enhance the affective commitment of employees. research purpose: the study aimed to investigate the impact of training and career development opportunities on affective commitment amongst employees at a selected higher education institution. motivation of the study: literature on the influence of training and career development opportunities on affective commitment is still limited in south africa’s higher education sector, yet the sector requires a committed and highly skilled workforce. research approach/design and method: using a cross-sectional survey design, a quantitative approach was used to collect data from 274 employees at a selected south african higher education institution using a stratified sampling method. item analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (cfa), pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, and multiple regression analyses were performed in analysing the data using statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 27 software. main findings: significant positive correlations were found between training, career development opportunities, and affective commitment. however, the availability of career development opportunities was the most significant predictor of affective commitment. practical/managerial implications: higher learning institutions are encouraged to invest in various types of training for their employees. however, more funding should be directed to career development opportunities, as these influence affective commitment. contribution/value-add: the cfa carried out in this study validates the use of the training, career development opportunities, and affective commitment scales in a south african setting. keywords: career development opportunities; employees; factor analysis; higher education institution; affective commitment; south africa; training. introduction and background research on organisational commitment remains fragmented because of a lack of agreement amongst researchers on the nature of organisational commitment and how it develops, thus creating a problem for organisational behaviourists on the specific interventions to undertake. however, amongst all facets of organisational commitment, affective commitment has been identified to be the principal factor in the performance of organisations. according to lambert et al. (2020), the benefits of having employees who are emotionally attached to the organisation far outweigh those with other forms of commitment. it was found that employees who are affectively committed to the organisation outperformed those who held other forms of commitment such as continuance commitment and normative commitment. furthermore, employees with affective commitment were found to remain longer in the organisation compared to those who did not have that type of commitment. in this context, securing the affection of employees is now a significant concern for human resources development practitioners. many scholars seem to agree that employees who are afforded affection and security in the organisation return the affection. as a result, organisations employ several human resources management practices to generate employee affective commitment. several forms of human resources management practices, training, and career development opportunities were identified as possible antecedents to affective commitment in this study because of the current economic and technological environment. the world is undergoing drastic changes. most organisations are preparing the employees for the jobs of the future by offering training and career development opportunities to avoid future redundancy. given this background, it was found necessary to investigate whether training and career development opportunities are significant drivers of affective commitment in the current climate. in addition, many studies investigated the influence of either training or career development opportunities on affective commitment in the western context. however, studies exploring the relationships between training, career development opportunities, and affective commitment remain limited in south africa. therefore, an inquiry of this nature in this context adds to the body of knowledge about the link between training, and career development opportunities on affective commitment, in south africa. in higher education, universities depend on diverse and highly skilled academic and support employees to obtain a competitive advantage. this signals a need for universities to invest continuously in training opportunities for their staff. however, financial woes and maladministration continue to hamper these efforts, thereby threatening employees’ affective commitment. therefore, the study’s findings communicated in this article will motivate universities to adopt a more prioritised strategic approach to training. research objectives the study’s objectives were to investigate the relationship between training and employee affective commitment and determine the relationship between career development opportunities and employee affective commitment. furthermore, the study examined the two independent variables (training and career development opportunities) to determine the most significant predictor of employee affective commitment. theoretical framework this study is theoretically anchored by social exchange theory and super’s developmental self-concept theory. social exchange theory postulates that interactions between two parties are based on a cost-benefit analysis (blau, 1964). thus, people respond to costs with costs and benefits with benefits (terera, 2019). in the work environment, the provision of training and the availability of career development opportunities are perceived as benefits to employees. employees are likely to respond through the manifestation of positive attitudes such as affective commitment. similarly, the unavailability of or reduction in training and career development opportunities can invoke a reduction of employee affective commitment. super’s developmental self-concept theory suggests that career development involves implementing a self-concept and that people choose occupations that allows them to express their self-concepts (super, 1980). thus, work satisfaction and affective commitment are strongly related to how employees can exercise their self-concepts in career development. therefore, super’s ideas influence most career development programmes in that they align self-concepts to work concepts, which enhances employee affective commitment. super’s developmental self-concept theory is also anchored on career counselling to identify the career development stage of employees and to clarify and align their self-concepts to work concepts, exposure to different career paths, and direct work experiences (super, 1980). the factors identified in this theory can facilitate the development of affective commitment. affective commitment the maintenance of employees’ affective commitment remains at the centre of any organisation’s strategic plan. businesses know that understanding the psychology, expectations, and emotions of employees, and catering to their needs result in a win-win situation for both parties. in short, affective commitment includes the positive feelings that assist employees to remain loyal to the organisation (lumley, coetzee, tladinyane, & ferreira, 2011). the strength of an individual’s identification with and involvement in the organisation makes one recognise her or his value and choose to remain in that organisation because of an emotional attachment (jehanzeb & mohanty, 2018). employees with a high affective commitment operate as brand ambassadors for the organisation, thereby pooling talent, customers, and business. these employees enjoy their work such that they are rarely absent, and they frequently outperform their co-workers (jehanzeb & mohanty, 2018). this study is grounded in social exchange theory which states that individuals evaluate their work experience on a cost-benefit analysis and that the employment relationship is an economic exchange (terera, 2019). according to russell, erica, shanna and alison (2016), employees’ affective commitment is directly proportional to positive work experience. this implies that employees’ affective commitment to the organisation is likely to increase if the organisation invests in training and career development opportunities (paille & meija-morelos, 2019). however, if the organisation fails to deliver adequate rewards in return for the employees’ efforts, there will likely be a decrease in affective commitment (russell, erica, shanna, & alison, 2016). training training is a critical component for personal and professional development because it aims to improve the job performance of individuals and groups within an organisation (hassam, umar, & mochammad, 2015). employees are more likely to stay in an organisation that promotes career opportunities through learning and applying what they learned on the job for a longer period (bibi, ahmad, & abdul, 2018). employees who have access to training opportunities are more likely to have a strong sense of self-worth and feel essential to the organisation. the provision of appropriate training by organisations allows employees to believe that their employers have their best interests at heart. furthermore, employees who understand the cost of training may develop a sense of loyalty to the organisation. therefore, employee training is an important investment strategy for employee growth and development (dockel, 2003). training, thus, improves the fit between the employee while also increasing employee attachment to the organisation. furthermore, the availability of training opportunities promotes employee growth and development, which is an important factor in employee retention. employees may see it as the organisation’s way of investing in them and showing them how valuable they are to it (bibi et al., 2018). employee training can be costly to the organisation. however, it may also allow the organisation to compete more effectively against its competitors. successful training must be needs-based. thus, an organisation should first assess its organisational needs to determine which workers need training and what type of training is required. furthermore, retention strategies that provide employees with career challenges and competitive wages benefit employees of all ages (bibi et al., 2018). employees with low levels of learning orientation, on the other hand, do not respond to development support with greater commitment. employees who feel that they are growing and not prepared to learn may be reluctant to leave (naidoo, 2018). employees may, however, leave if they do not believe that they are offered an adequate opportunity for development and growth opportunities. to reduce employee turnover, managers may need to guarantee that employees have equal access to training opportunities. (osibanjo, adenii, & falalo, 2014). career development opportunities organisations keep on evolving such that there is now little to no predictability. advances in technology may, from time to time, cause a change in the skills needed. this means that, as technology evolves, specialised skills may be viewed as ordinary skills (fazio, gong, sims, & yurova, 2017). therefore, establishing structures for career development offers employees some form of security and stability. career development opportunities refer to formal organised plans to match individual employees’ career needs and an organisation’s personnel requirements (ayodele, ekemode, oladokun, & kahilu, 2020). it is a complex process that shapes the career of any given individual over their life span. according to adekola (2011), career development involves the interaction between individual career planning and institutional career management processes. career planning through career development is progressive in that it relies on the formal partnership between the employer and the employee. the employees’ responsibility is to grow and align their careers to any organisational change. therefore, career development practices are ongoing and they are embedded in the structure and human resources (hr) policies of an organisation. employers are expected to provide the necessary tools and resources for individual career development. to participate in the career development process, employees identify their skills, needs, and interests and then consult with their supervisors and the hr office on the suitable career plan that fits the identified career goals. through consultation, management can suggest the career pathways employees can follow to fulfil their career goals. effective career development programmes improve individual work performance by encouraging continuous learning and adaptation, while the organisation fosters positive developmental relationships with its employees. the relationship between training and employee affective commitment previous studies have revealed that training significantly impacts employee affective commitment (bulut & culha, 2010; lamba & choudhary, 2013; hanaysha, 2016). terera and ngirande (2014) also confirmed that training is a great human resources practice for enhancing employees’ affective commitment. some organisational studies conducted in the banking sector in pakistan revealed that higher levels of training lead to an increase in affective commitment (khan, 2015; shahid, zain, & alam, 2017). in addition, some studies carried out in higher education also reported that the provision of training programmes to the academic staff ensures that they have enough skills and knowledge, thereby increasing employee affective commitment in the institution (gardner, wright, & moynihan, 2011; hanaysha, 2016). hence, maheshwari and vohra (2015) reported that training is a critical human resources strategy in improving employees’ emotional attachment, involvement, and identification with the organisation. literature reveals that employees who are given the opportunity for training are more likely to become committed to their jobs and, as a result, choose to stay with the organisation. positive support by the organisation to employees in the form of training invokes positive feelings from the employees that manifest through affective commitment. employees feel valued by their organisation. however, while there is extensive research on training and organisational commitment, studies focusing on the influence of training on employee affective commitment in south african higher education sector remain limited, thereby revealing the scarcity of literature in this area in the south african context. as a result, whether training influences employee affective commitment in south african higher education remains open. south african higher education sector, therefore, benefit from an inquiry of this nature. given this and as shown in figure 1, the study hypothesised that: h1: there is a relationship between training and employee affective commitment. figure 1: conceptual model of the study (self-conceptualised). relationship between career development opportunities and employee affective commitment the availability of career development opportunities in an organisation also positively impacts employee attitudes and behaviours. while the literature on the relationship between career development and overall organisational commitment is not new (benson, brown, glennie, o’donnell, & o’keefe, 2018; dockel, basson, & coetzee, 2006; schreuder, tladinyane, & coetzee, 2007), studies that specifically investigate how career development influences the affective commitment, in particular, are still limited. according to sehunoe, viviers and mayer (2015), the availability of career development opportunities can positively influence employees’ affective commitment to the organisation. career development opportunities provide clear career paths and advancement opportunities that employees can take in the organisation. this will show that the organisation has plans to retain its employees, thereby encouraging affective commitment in employees. thus, adherence to career-oriented practices in an organisation is positively related to employee organisational commitment (ayodele et al., 2020). research has also shown that when employees understand their career path and experience career growth within an organisation, employee affective commitment to the organisation is increased and intentions to leave reduced (fazio et al. 2017). career development opportunities motivate employees to achieve their personal career goals; hence emotional attachment and identification with the organisation are stimulated (joāo & coetzee, 2012). furthermore, coetzee and bester (2020) revealed that the feelings of career satisfaction and career goal achievement brought about through career development opportunities significantly raise employee affective commitment. however, studies on whether career development opportunities affect affective commitment in south africa’s higher education sector are still missing. based on this knowledge gap and as conceptualised in figure 1, this study hypothesised that: h2: there is a significant relationship between career development opportunities and employee affective commitment. research methodology participants and sampling procedure a quantitative research design was used. the study population was made up of academic and non-academic staff from a south african institution of higher learning. stratified random sampling was utilised to draw a sample of 274 participants from a population of 852 employees. most of the participants were females, 140 (51.1%), and in the age category of between 31 and 39 years 88 (32.1%). in addition, the majority of the participants were black people, 261 (95.3%), and mostly tshivenda speaking 130 (47.4%). the majority, 176 (64.2%), were academic staff who hold master’s degree as their highest qualification 143 (52.2%). most of the participants, 100 (36.5%), had 2–5 years of working experience. measuring instrument data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. a self-developed demographic questionnaire was used to measure the sample profile. to measure training and career development opportunities, 4-items and 3-items, respectively, were adopted from dockel’s (2003) 24-items retention factor scale. some of the items included are ‘i cannot leave because l need to apply the training l received in this organisation’, ‘i am going to stay in this organisation because an employee’s career development is important to this organisation’. van dyk, coetzee and takawira (2013) reported a high cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.88 for training and 0.73 for career development opportunities. a six-item affective commitment subscale from the organisational commitment questionnaire was used to measure employees’ affective commitment (meyer & allen, 1991). amongst the items included are ‘i feel very loyal to this organisation’. ngirande (2020) reported a high alpha coefficient of 0.87 for the affective commitment subscale (pallant, 2016). the questionnaire was measured on a 5-point likert scale ranging from ‘strongly agree’ (1) to ‘strongly disagree’ (5). ethical considerations and research procedure a research ethics certificate was obtained from the university research directorate. a cover letter accompanied the questionnaire, and it assured the participants of their anonymity and confidentiality. the study also took note of informed consent and made sure that the participants were fully informed about the study’s goal and its consequences. in addition, the research made sure that the participants voluntarily participated in the study without any coercion. data processing and analysis the data were analysed using the statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 27. descriptive statistics were used to describe data collected in summary form. several inferential statistics were performed. at first, item analysis was conducted to inspect the internal consistency of variables under investigation. confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) was carried out to determine the goodness of fit for the overall measurement model. correlation analysis was further used to determine the relationship between training and employee affective commitment and between career development opportunities and employee affective commitment. multiple regression analysis was performed to check the most contributing variable to employee affective commitment. descriptive statistics and reliability analysis a summary of the key descriptive statistics of training, career development opportunities, and affective commitment scales was provided, as shown in table 1. the normality of the data set was assessed using skewness and kurtosis values, and cronbach’s alpha coefficients were given. the mean scores of the training, career development opportunities, and affective commitment were 1.768 (standard deviation [sd] = 1.930), 3.173(sd = 2.884), and 3.269(sd = 4.027), respectively. data were also normally distributed and allowed for further analysis as it ranged from -2 to 2 for both skewness and kurtosis (tabachnick & fidell, 2013). table 1: descriptive statistics, reliability statistics. cronbach’s alpha coefficients was used to demonstrate item consistency (see table 1). items with a correlation of less than 0.30 with the total score were deemed poor and were removed from further analysis (pallant, 2016). all three scales obtained good alphas, ranging from 0.761 to 0.850 (pallant, 2016). the highest reliability amongst the scales was affective commitment (α = 0.850), followed by career development opportunities (α = 0.818), and training (α = 0.761) being the least. evaluating the measurement model confirmatory factor analysis was carried out on all three scales to assess the goodness of fit of the measurement models using the analysis of moments structure (amos) version 27 software. the measurement model was assessed through cfa regarding the latent constructs’ unidimensionality, validity, and reliability. in this measurement model, unidimensionality was achieved after removing two items from the affective commitment scale and one from the training scale that had poor factor loadings below 0.6. all the remaining items had good factor loading values. after achieving unidimensionality, the measurement model was assessed in terms of convergent validity, construct validity, and discriminant validity. convergent validity was checked by computing the average variance extracted (ave) of every construct. as depicted in table 2, all the constructs surpassed the minimum recommended ave value of 0.5. hence, convergent validity was achieved (rose, awang, & yazid, 2017). table 2: measurement model fit and composite reliability. construct validity is verified by assessing the fitness indexes of the measurement model. as shown in table 2, most of the fitness indexes revealed a good fitting model. the p-value was 0.000, and root mean square error of approximation index (rmsea) was 0.096. hence, the two values were acceptable (hair, black, babin, & anderson, 2010). the goodness of fit index (gfi) (0.921), the comparative fit index (cfi) (0.934), the incremental fit index (ifi) (0.935), and the normed fit index (nfi) (0.915) fulfil the reasonable fit requirement of 0.90 and above (hair et al., 2010). the parsimony goodness fit index (pgfi) also showed a good fitting model with an acceptable value of 0.501. the acceptable fit was shown by the standardized root mean square residual (srmr) (0.798) and root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) (0.096), respectively. discriminant validity was verified by checking for redundant items under a discrepancy measure titled modification indices (mi). discriminant validity was achieved after identifying the redundant items through high mi and constraining them as free parameter estimates. see items eoc 13, eoc 17, eoc 18 in figure 2. figure 2: the measurement model. the measurement model was also assessed in terms of composite reliability. composite reliability refers to the reliability and internal consistency of a latent construct, and to achieve composite reliability, values of 0.6 and above are required (hair et al., 2010). as depicted in table 2, composite reliability was achieved for all constructs as all the composite reliability (cr) values were above 0.6. thus, the data fit the model as shown in table 3 and supported by the measurement model in figure 2. research results: hypothesis testing hypotheses one and two were tested using pearson product moment correlation. hypothesis one assumes that there is a positive relationship between training and development and affective commitment. a relationship between training and development and employee affective commitment was found (r = 0.370; p = 0.000). thus, as employees’ training and development improve, they become more attached to the organisation. hypothesis two also sought to determine whether a relationship exists between career development opportunities and affective commitment. the results in table 3 show a positive and significant relationship between career development opportunities and affective commitment (r = 0.453; p = 0.000). this indicates that as career development opportunities increase, employees become more affectively committed to the organisation. from the results, both hypotheses were supported. thus, we concluded that there is a positive and significant relationship between training and development, career development opportunities, and affective commitment. table 3: relationship between training, career development opportunities, and affective commitment. training and career development opportunities as predictors of affective commitment multiple regression analyses were performed to see if training and career development opportunities could predict affective commitment. in model 1, affective commitment was used as the dependent variable, with training and career development opportunities as independent variables. as shown in table 4, entry of training and career development opportunities at the first step of the regression analysis resulted in a statistically significant model r2 = 0.229 (f(2.271) = 40.229; p < 0.01) and account for 22.9% of the variance. from the results, training (β = 0.181; t = 2.886; p < 0.01) was shown to be a significant predictor of affective commitment. career development opportunities was also a significant predictor of affective commitment (β = 0.357; t = 5.689; p < 0.01). from the results, career development has the highest standardised beta coefficient between the two predictor variables. in comparison to training, career development opportunities was found to be the best predictor of affective commitment. table 4: training, and career development opportunities as predictors of affective commitment. discussion the study’s goal was to investigate the impact of training and career development opportunities on the affective commitment amongst employees at a south african higher education institution. the study included nearly an equal number of males and females, with most participants falling between the ages of 31 and 49. regarding race and language background, the results show that most respondents were black african and tshivenda speaking. the majority were academics and, as expected, with master’s degree as the highest qualification. most of the respondents had 2–10 years of working experience in the institution. reliability and validity of instruments acceptable reliability coefficients of α ≥ 0.70 were found in all three scales (pallant, 2016). career development opportunities scale (α = 0.818) was found to be the highest amongst the scales, followed by affective commitment (α = 0.850) and training (α = 0.761). the measurement model was also reliable and valid as the composite reliability and ave requirements were met (hair et al., 2010) and (rose et al., 2017), respectively. the relationship between training, career development opportunities, and affective commitment the study employed pearson product-moment correlation coefficients to determine the relationship between training, career development opportunities, and affective commitment. the result confirmed the study’s first hypothesis, that there is a significant relationship between training and affective commitment. this finding is supported by bashir and long’s (2015) study, which revealed a connection between training and affective commitment. contrary to this finding, other studies confirm that untrained employees are more likely to be less affectively committed to their organisations. from the results, one can argue that training is a significant predictor of affective commitment. thus, as employees are provided with opportunities to improve their skills through training they tend to be more emotionally attached (i.e., affective commitment) to their organisation. this could be explained by the rapid changes in the higher education sector in general and in south africa, which necessitate employees being well-skilled to be effective in their day-to-day activities. once employees are comfortable doing their jobs, they are likely to become emotionally attached to their organisation. the study also found a significant positive relationship between career development opportunities and affective commitment. the finding confirmed hypothesis two, which stated a relationship between career development opportunities and affective commitment. previous studies also established a positive relationship between career development opportunities and organisational commitment (bashir & long, 2015; bibi et al., 2018). the regression analysis also confirmed these findings, and career development opportunities was found to be the best predictor of affective commitment. in support of the current study’s findings, bibi et al. (2018) revealed that training and career development opportunities have a significant predictive value on affective commitment. majid (2017) also confirmed these thoughts, arguing that when employees are provided with career growth opportunities, they are more likely to become loyal to the organisation. the findings of this study add to the existing body of knowledge because there was a paucity of information about the impact of training and career development opportunities on affective commitment in general and in the south african higher education sector in particular. thus, higher education institutions might use the findings to build strategies and interventions to increase employee affective commitment. limitations and recommendations of the study the study is limited in the sense that it only focused on higher education institutions in south africa. therefore, the findings may differ from other universities outside the country or other sectors outside the higher education context. in addition, self-administered questionnaires are not easy to distribute and collect. for future research, the researchers recommend that employers in general and higher education institutions, in particular, pay more attention to the retention factors that influence the employees’ affective commitment to the organisation. future research should be conducted at multiple universities to allow for cross-university comparison. contribution of the study the study adds to the body of knowledge on how human resources factors such as training and career development opportunities influence employees’ affective commitment in south african higher education institutions. the study will also influence policy on employee development by allocating more funds to career development opportunities as they were identified as a better predictor of employee affective commitment than training. furthermore, the use of cfa in analysing the data validates the use of the training, career development, and affective commitment scales in south africa. conclusion the study results revealed that both training and career development opportunities have an impact on employee affective commitment. furthermore, the results showed that career development opportunities are the most significant retention factor that predicts employee affective commitment. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions d.m. was responsible for the conceptualisation, manuscript write-up and sourcing of data. h.n. shared the expertise by guiding the write up and analysis. s.r.t. assisted with advanced analysis expertise, updating the literature and manuscript alignment. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of venda, research ethics committee (no: sms/16/hrm/04/0806). funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, [h.n.]. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references adekola, b. (2011). career planning and career management as correlates for career development and job satisfaction: a case study of nigerian bank employees. australian journal of business and management research, 1(2), 100–112. https://doi.org/10.52283/nswrca.ajbmr.20110102a07 ayodele, t.o., ekemode, b.g., oladokun, s., & kahilu, k.s. (2020). the nexus between demographic correlates, career and organisational commitment: the case of real estate employees in nigeria. journal of facilities management, 18(5), 521–545. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-07-2020-0047 bashir, n., & long, c.s. (2015). the relationship between training and organisational commitment among academicians in malaysia. journal of management in malaysia, 16(8), 17–25. benson, j., brown, m., glennie, m., o’donnell, m., & o’keefe, p. (2018). the generational exchange rate: how generations convert development satisfaction into organisational commitment or neglect of work. human resource journal, 28(4), 524–539. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12198 bibi, p., ahmad, a., & abdul, h.a. (2018). the impact of training and development and supervisor support on employee’s retention in academic institutions: the moderating role of the work environment. gadjah mada international journal of business, 20(1), 113–131. https://doi.org/10.22146/gamaijb.24020 blau, p.m. (1964). exchange and power in social life. new york, ny: wiley. bulut, c., & culha, o. (2010). the effects of organizational training on organizational commitment. international journal of training and development, 14(4), 309–322. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2419.2010.00360.x coetzee, m., & bester, m. (2020). exploring the reciprocal correspondence among workplace relationships, career goal instrumentality, career satisfaction and organisational commitment. south african journal of psychology, 51(1), 81–94. https://doi.org/10.1177/008.124632948366 dockel, a. (2003). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. master’s thesis, university of pretoria, pretoria. dockel, a., basson, j.s., & coetzee, m. (2006). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. south african journal of human resource management, 4(2), 20–28. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v4i2.91 fazio, j., gong, b., sims, r., & yurova, y. (2017). the role of affective commitment in the relationship between social support and turnover intention. management decision, 55(3), 512–525. https://doi.org/10.1108/md-05-2016-0338 gardner, t.m., wright, p.m., & moynihan, l.m. (2011). the impact of motivation, empowerment, and skill-enhancing practices on aggregate voluntary turnover: the mediating effect of collective affective commitment. personnel psychology, 64(2), 315–350. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2011.01212.x hair, jr. j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., anderson, r.e., & tatham, r.l. (2010). sem: an introduction. multivariate data analysis: a global perspective. upper saddle river, nj: pearson. hanaysha, j. (2016). examining the effects of employee empowerment, teamwork, and employee training on organizational commitment. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 229, 298–306. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.07.140 hassam, e.e.a., umar, n., & mochammad, a.m. (2015). the relationship between training and development and employee performance of executive level employees in apparel organisations. iosr journal of business and management, 17(7), 42–49. jehanzeb, k., & mohanty, j. (2018). impact of employee development on job satisfaction and organizational commitment: person-organization fit as moderator. international journal of training and development, 22(3), 171–191. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijtd.12127 joao, t.f., & coetzee, m. (2012). job retention factors, perceived career mobility and organisational commitment in the south african financial sector. journal of psychology in africa, 22(1), 69–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2012.108745523 khan, f. (2015). organizational factors and affective commitment: moderating role of employees’ age. pakistan journal of psychological research, 30(2), 405–419. lamba, s., & choudhary, n. (2013). impact of hrm practices on organizational commitment of employees. international journal of advancements in research & technology, 2(4), 407–423. lambert, e.g., leone, m., hogan, n.l., buckner, z., worley, r., & worley, v.b. (2020). to be committed or not: a systematic review of the empirical literature on organizational commitment among correctional staff. criminal justice studies, 34(1), 88–114. https://doi.org/10.1080/1478601x.2020.1762082 lumley, e., coetzee, m., tladinyane, r., & ferreira, n. (2011). exploring job satisfaction and organisational commitment of employees in the information technology environment. south african business review, 15(1), 100–118. maheshwari, s., & vohra, v. (2015). identifying critical hr practices impacting employee perception and commitment during organizational change. journal of organizational change management, 28(5), 872–894. https://doi.org/10.1108/jocm-03-2014-0066 majid, h. (2017). the impact of training and development and transformational leadership over organisational commitment among academic staff in public tertiary institutions: the buffering role of coworker support. international journal of economic perspectives, 11(1), 417–432. meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1991). a three-component conceptualisation of organisation commitment. human resource management review, 1(1), 61–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/1053-4822(91)90011-z naidoo, r. (2018). role stress and turnover intentions among information technology personnel in south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 16(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.936 ngirande, h. (2020). job satisfaction, organisational commitment, occupational stress, and uncertainty in a merged and unmerged institution in south africa. unpublished doctoral thesis, fort hare university. osibanjo, a.o., adenii, a.a., & falalo, h.o. (2014). compensation packages: a strategic tool for employees’ performance and retention. journal of sciences, 25, 65–84. paille, p., & meija-morelos, j.h. (2019). organisational support is not always enough to encourage employee environmental performance: the moderating role of exchange ideology. journal of cleaner production, 220(7), 1061–1070. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.02.192 pallant, j. (2016). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using spss (6th ed.). london: mcgraw-hill. rose, i., awang, z., & yazid, s. (2017). inflight service quality of malaysia airlines: validation using sem and amos. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 7(10), 478–497. https://hrmars.com/index.php/pages/detail/ijarbss russell, c., erica, a., shanna, d., & alison, h. (2016). social exchange theory: a critical review with theoretical remedies. academy of management annals, 11(1), 1–38. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2015.0099 schreuder, d., coetzee, m., & tladinyane, r. (2007). organisational commitment and its relation to career anchors. southern african business review, 11(1), 65–86. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc92848 sehunoe, n., viviers, r., & mayer, c.h. (2015). job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and work engagement in an insurance company. south african journal of labour relations, 39(2), 123–144. https://doi.org/10.25159/2520-3223/5875 shahid, s., zain, z., & alam, s.s. (2017). the mediating effect of organisational trust on human resource management and affective commitment. international journal of huma n resource studies, 8(1), 38. super, d.e. (1980). a life-span, life-space approach to career development. journal of vocational behavior, 16(3), 282–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(80)90056-1 tabachnick, b., & fidell, l. (2013) using multivariate statistics (6th ed.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson education. terera, s.r. (2019). organisational climate, psychological contract breach and employee outcomes among university employees in limpopo province: moderating effects of ethical leadership and trust. doctoral dissertation. terera, s.r., & ngirande, h. (2014). the impact of training on employee job satisfaction and retention among administrative staff members: a case of a selected tertiary institution. journal of social sciences, 39(1), 43–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/09718923.2014.11893267 van dyk, j., coetzee, m., & takawira, n. (2013). satisfaction with retention factors as predictors of the job embeddedness of medical and information technology services. southern african business review, 17(1), 12–15. abstract introduction literature review method research procedure statistical analysis results discussion limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references footnote about the author(s) theresa vermeulen gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, johannesburg, south africa caren b. scheepers gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, johannesburg, south africa citation vermeulen, t., & scheepers, c.b. (2020). mediating effect of perceived organisational support on authentic leadership and work engagement. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1212. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1212 original research mediating effect of perceived organisational support on authentic leadership and work engagement theresa vermeulen, caren b. scheepers received: 11 dec. 2019; accepted: 24 aug. 2020; published: 09 nov. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: high levels of employee engagement are critical in the current globally competitive landscape. scholarly research suggests that authentic leadership (al) increases trust and ultimately work engagement. several recent studies called for more research into the moderating and mediating variables influencing this relationship. research purpose: employee perceptions about the support offered by their organisations have been associated with engagement. this study explores the mediating effect of this variable on the relationship between al and work engagement. motivation for the study: this study focuses on the interaction between perceptions of support from the organisation, al and engagement of employees. research approach/design and method: the data was collected from 202 employees from an international information technology organisation. regression analysis was employed to test for mediation impact. the model fit was analysed to know whether the suggested model was a good fit. main findings: the study established that the mediated model was partially significant, which indicates that the relationship between al and engagement is, in part, contextually dependent on whether employees perceive organisational support. practical/managerial implications: the presence of perceived organisational support (pos) provides space for an interaction between organisational processes and employee engagement, or, in the absence of an existing pos, an authentic leader transforms organisational resources into positive pos. contribution/value-add: this study contributes to the literature through specifically examinating the interaction between the variables of employee engagement, pos and al. engagement does not rely on the ‘right’ leadership theory or model to address problems with performance or motivation, but rather on developing an organisational climate that could enable individuals and organisations to thrive. keywords: authenticity; perceptions; commitment; employees; leadership; organisational climate; organisational support; leadership development; employee engagement. introduction a deep-seated anxiety about the ethical behaviour of today’s leaders based on alarming instances of corporate and government malpractices has called for leadership that is genuine and value based (eva, robin, sendjaya, van dierendonck, & liden, 2019; gardner, cogliser, davis, & dickens, 2011). avolio, gardner, walumbwa, luthans and may (2004) define authentic leadership (al) as acting in accordance with deep personal values and convictions to build credibility and win the respect and trust of followers. concurrently, a great number of researchers have also motivated that embracing al as a leadership style is required in attaining sustainable organisational performance (avolio & gardner, 2005), as well as for getting the benefits of a superior team performance (lyubovnikova, legood, turner, & mamakouka, 2017). that is why organisations are concerned with a search for leadership that exhibits resiliency in responding appropriately to appalling situations whilst also instilling a culture of assurance, courage and hopefulness (wulffers, bussin, & hewitt, 2016). in a 2018 global study, ernst & young (ey) reported that the top challenge for chief executive officers is the development of next-generation leaders (ray, 2018). moreover, estimates have put leadership development spending as high as 50 billion dollars annually (prokopeak, 2018). these practical realities point to the requirement of an in-depth understanding of leadership dynamics in organisations. this understanding must then contribute to a higher return on investment of leadership development programmes. apart from specific leadership requirements, a key component of an organisation’s effectiveness and competitiveness is employee engagement (strom, sears, & kelly, 2014). schaufeli, bakker and salanova (2006, p. 702) defined work engagement as a ‘positive, fulfilling work-related state of mind that is characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption’. as the 20th century progressed, it became increasingly clear that engagement was what really counted (mckergow, 2015). studies have provided evidence that al positively affects their followers’ performance by means of engagement (wei, li, zhang, & lui, 2016) and that high levels of engagement are valuable for organisations (bailey, madden, alfes, & fletcher, 2017; merry, 2014). however, lord and hall (1992), as early as 1992, warned against simple bivariate correlations. in this regard, wei et al. (2016) have advised recently that mediating and moderating variables that might influence the relationship between al and engagement are worthy of further consideration. therefore, this study focuses on organisational processes and practices aimed at supporting employees. the organisational support theory explains that employees have expectations around the way in which the organisation responds to their emotional and social needs. employees then develop universal attitudes about how much their efforts are valued and how much the organisation cares about their well-being (dinç, 2015). mills, fleck and kozikowski (2013) posited that perceived organisational support (pos) refers to employees’ level of recognition of how the organisation values their welfare and appreciates their contribution. the current study investigated the mediating effect of this variable on the relationship between al and work engagement. the next section focuses on this construct, as well as its interface with other constructs, namely, al and work engagement.1 literature review authentic leadership and engagement the nature of contemporary business environments implies that focusing specifically on employee engagement can be challenging, particularly in constantly shifting and uncertain global scenarios (chaurasia & shukla, 2013). azanza, moriano and melero (2013) argue that in the present context of financial crises, uncertainty and related employment concerns threaten individual engagement with and at work. specifically, contexts of uncertainty can impact the trust employees have in organisations; global changes can create individual insecurity by impacting employee roles, routines and relationships, as revealed in giddens’ classic work back in 1991 (giddens, 1991). on the one hand, bodies of literature, such as those on organisational development, have debated whether organisations have capacity in contemporary environments to focus on human-centred priorities, such as engagement (bryant & cox, 2014). on the other hand, as organisations are faced with ongoing issues of corporate and ethical governance (beddoes-jones & swailes, 2015), they argue that human-centred approaches not only remain relevant but are essential for engaging staff members. human-centred approaches also significantly impact the overall company performance and productivity (matthews, mills, trout, & english, 2014). alfes, shantz, truss and soane (2013) argue that it is important for organisations to work towards creating a positive work environment if they seek to engage employees in the context of ongoing uncertainty. one way of achieving this is to focus on al, because al is increasingly emerging as an integrative concept in the literature on positive organisational behaviour, ethical leadership and transformational leadership (baron, 2016). fusco, riordan and palmer (2015) indeed declared that every epoch has its own leadership theory and, considering the amount of current research into al, this may indicate the leadership of our time. the critical discussion of alvesson and einola (2019) also emphasises the zeitgeist or spirit of our time, which facilitates the emergence of positive forms of leadership, such as al. the authors of this article argue that al is particularly relevant for south africa, given the context of its diverse society and the results of recent studies. for example, cottrill, lopez and hoffman (2014) established that leaders who are authentic contribute to employee perceptions of inclusion. they confirmed that authentic leaders inspire citizenship behaviour by creating an environment of inclusivity. according to cottrill et al. (2014), leaders who are self-aware communicate more willingly and incorporate the viewpoints of others in the workplace. they are also prone to encourage colleagues to contribute to the efficiency of the group and organisation. not only may al be specifically relevant for south africa, but according to gardner et al. (2011), a new, genuine and value-based leadership is also called for. it follows deep-rooted apprehension about the ethical demeanour of today’s leaders (such as worldcom, enron and martha stewart), combined with a rise in other challenges within our society (such as terrorism, fluctuating stock values and a downturn in the unites states economy) (cooper, scandura, & schriesheim, 2005). although existing literature indicates it is the responsibility of leaders to create engagement (hansen, byrne, & kiersch, 2014), further research focusing on the relationship between al and engagement is warranted. that is, al has been found to have a positive impact on employee behaviours (hsieh & wang, 2015). this study therefore proposes that al has a positive linear relationship with work engagement, hypothesis 1: authentic leadership has a positive linear relationship with work engagement. figure 1 illustrates the hypotheses on the relationships under investigation in this study. figure 1: conceptual framework with hypotheses. as osborn and marion (2009) argued that leadership is embedded in organisational context, the current study endeavours to take organisational variables into account. thus, it does not only look at this linear relationship as described in hypothesis 1. despite the classic scholarly work of tosi (1991), advising leadership research to focus on the organisational context, porter and mclaughlin (2006) unfortunately proclaimed that leadership research neglects the organisation as the context for leadership. moreover, because companies are spending huge amounts of money on leadership development (ray, 2018), the organisational dynamics around these leaders are important elements to consider. traditional leadership theories and models have become insufficient as the context of leadership has expanded and become more complex (kutz & bamford-wade, 2013). for example, dawley et al. (2007) found that whilst mentors and supervisors can be effective in endearing the employee to the organisation, the perception of the organisational support might be more important. for these reasons, leadership has to be studied in the context of other organisational variables, such as pos, through which leadership might be influencing employee engagement. the current study thus investigates the mediating effect of pos. to illustrate the conceptual framework of this study, the literature on the relationships between the constructs is discussed in the conventional order, namely, the independent variable’s (al) association with the mediating variable (pos); the association between the mediating variable (pos) and the dependent variable (work engagement); and, finally, the mediating effect between the independent and dependent variables. authentic leadership and perceived organisational support eisenberger, huntington, hutchison and sowa (1986, p. 500) defined pos as ‘employees in an organisation form global beliefs concerning the extent to which the organisation values their contributions and cares about their well-being’. there are indeed different ways for an organisation to express to its employees that it cares for their well-being and has high regard for their inputs (kurtessis et al., 2017). one of the factors found to be related to pos is leadership, and employees’ perceptions of the organisation’s favourable or unfavourable temperament are influenced by the lingering elements of the employees’ connection with the organisation (kurtessis et al., 2017). cropanzano, byrne, bobocel and rupp (2001) discovered that fairness has a strong distinctive influence on pos and that employees perceive the organisation to have more control over procedural justice than other forms of fairness. most importantly, and related to the objective of the current study, is cropanzano et al.’s (2001) finding that pos is influenced by several types of inspirational and supportive leadership. transactional leadership was found to be associated with pos to a lesser degree. findings by eisenberger et al. (2010, 2014) suggested that supervisors may vary in the degree to which they are identified with the organisation and that favourable leadership by supervisors is strongly linked to pos. the current study therefore proposes that al has an association with pos, hypothesis 2: authentic leadership has a relationship with pos. perceived organisational support and engagement the social exchange theory (set) of blau (1964) is relevant to the current study and is perceived as ‘among the most influential conceptual paradigms for understanding workplace behaviour’ (cropanzano & mitchell, 2005, p. 874). social exchanges are interdependent and contingent on the actions of another person. perceived organisational support theory is conceptualised in set terms, where an employee who sees an employer as supportive is likely to return the gesture. thus, pos theory follows from the norm of reciprocity and suggests in practice that employees who are supported will respect and value their organisation and, in return, contribute to the organisational goals. this theory additionally argues that socio-emotional needs will be fulfilled by the positive feelings felt by the employee, through pos, and endear the employee to the organisation (kurtessis et al., 2017). the theory of organisational support and reciprocity postulates that the degree of perceived organisational commitment greatly impacts an employee’s commitment to the organisation (mills et al., 2013). the level of engagement of employees is moulded and formed by their personal perception of their working environment (anitha, 2014). various studies have tested the facets of pos and its relationship with other variables, such as human resources practices, organisational commitment and job satisfaction (mills et al., 2013). convincing research evidence shows that greater engagement levels lead to positive effects for both individuals and the organisation. however, the literature is only at the early stages of uncovering how an employee’s relationship with the organisation is impacted by how these relationships vary (parker & griffin, 2011). the study by alfes et al. (2013) took a nuanced view of the effect of engagement on employee behaviour. most other research has focused on the direct effects of pos, for example, employee attitudes and behaviours leading to higher levels of engagement (rich, lepine, & crawford, 2010). alfes et al. (2013) suggested that pos may act as a moderator in the relationship between employee behaviour and employee engagement. however, scholars have postulated that the extent to which engagement is translated into positive employee behaviours towards the organisation varies as a function of pos. shantz, alfes and latham (2016) found that pos can compensate for lower engagement levels amongst employees. that is, employees who perceive that their organisation is supportive of them are less likely to engage in activities such as deviance, absenteeism or turnover. perceived organisational support has been linked to notions of justice and fairness, support from the organisation by way of rewards and resources, as well as support from leadership. employees with higher levels of pos tend to have greater trust in the organisation and may experience a larger sense of obligation to achieve the goals and objectives of the organisation (kurtessis et al., 2017). employees with high levels of pos have a more favourable view of their work and a greater vested interest in their organisation (chen et al., 2009). the psychological bond the employee forms with the organisation is nourished when pos is present. it may contribute to the inclination to exceed the expected behaviour and performance (gupta, agarwal, & khatri, 2016). the consequences of pos can be summarised as commitment towards the organisation, felt obligation, organisational citizenship behaviour, organisational trust and lower stress levels (sihag & sarikwal, 2015). the current study therefore proposes that pos has a relationship with work engagement. hypothesis 3: perceived organisational support has a relationship with work engagement. authentic leadership, perceived organisational support and engagement in their theory of al, avolio, walumbwa and weber (2009) suggested that authentic leaders enhance follower engagement by strengthening the identification of the group members with each other and with the organisation. authentic leadership also promotes hope, trust, optimism and positive emotions. eagly (2005) argued that people follow leaders who will restore and enhance their confidence to collectively achieve more. the outcomes of al, whether conceptualised as mediating or dependent variable, have received much empirical attention (gardner et al., 2011). however, other studies, such as kurtessis et al. (2017), have found that employees tend to feel more content in their roles when they regularly experience supportive understanding from leaders, together with constructive circumstances, which in turn most likely affects their pos level. this study therefore proposes that al together with pos will positively influence work engagement. because the authors could not find a current published study that has investigated the link between these constructs, a gap in the literature was identified. the aim of this study was to contribute to the theory on creating optimal engagement in organisations, as well as to inform management on practical arrangements to ultimately increase the engagement levels in organisations. the study thus sets the following research hypothesis: hypothesis 4: perceived organisational support has a mediating effect on the impact of authentic leadership on work engagement. method research approach this study followed a positivist paradigm quantitative approach. quantitative research was thus fit for this study’s purpose. measuring instruments apart from demographic questions, the survey contained questions from three standardised questionnaires. the different likert scales for these established questionnaires were kept unchanged. work engagement the nine-item utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) was used in this study. this self-report questionnaire assesses work engagement, which includes items such as ‘i am bursting with energy in my work’ (vigour); ‘my job inspires me’ (dedication); and ‘i feel happy when i’m engrossed in my work’ (absorption). the measure has been shown to have a good internal consistency (α = 0.85–0.92; schaufeli et al., 2006). the uwes has a seven-point likert scale, ranging from 0 (never) to 6 (always, every day). perceived organisational support the eight-item version of the pos survey (eisenberger et al., 2002) was used in this study. a few of the sample items are as follows: ‘my organisation really cares about my well-being’ and ‘my organisation strongly considers my goals and values’. dinç (2015) found a cronbach’s alpha value of 0.85 for this short scale, where all eight items loaded on one factor and explained 56.91% of the variance. a seven-point likert scale was used, ranging from 0 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). authentic leadership this study used the authentic leadership questionnaire (alq), which is the most frequently used measure of al (gardner et al., 2011). it is a 16-item scale that measures the four constructs of al: self-awareness (four items), relational transparency (five items), internalised moral perspective (four items) and balanced processing (three items). for example, alvesson and einola (2019) shared the following items, namely, for self-awareness: ‘the leader seeks feedback to improve interactions with others; the leader accurately describes how others view his or her capabilities’. examples of items under the construct ‘relational transparency’ include ‘the leader says exactly what he or she means; the leader is willing to admit mistakes when they are made’. examples of items under ‘internalised moral perspective’ construct include ‘the leader demonstrates beliefs that are consistent with actions; the leader makes decisions based on his/her core beliefs’. examples of ‘balanced processing’ items include ‘the leader elicits views that challenge his or her deeply held positions; the leader listens carefully to different points of view before coming to conclusions’. a five-point likert scale was used, ranging from 0 (not at all) to 4 (frequently, if not always). control variables in the analysis, the following control variables were added: gender, job tenure and level in organisation, as well as the size of group reporting to the leader. according to schaufeli and salanova (2007), gender can be associated with feelings of engagement and managers tend to feel more confident in expressing themselves (kraus, chen, & keltner, 2011) than non-managers. we therefore controlled for gender (0 = female; 1 = male) and managerial position (0 = do not have a managerial role; 1 = have a managerial role at all levels). research procedure the questionnaires were distributed via e-mail by the researcher using a list of all employees available on the internal database, containing a hyperlink to the electronic survey. all business units or divisions were included to ensure variance of responses, as the employees from a specific business unit may have similar or different levels of engagement depending on the level of authenticity of the business unit’s leaders. statistical analysis data obtained from the questionnaire were analysed using statistical package for the social sciences (spss) and analysis of moment structure (amos) statistical analysis software packages. the statistical analysis included four steps: (1) testing construct reliability and validity, (2) conducting multiple regression analysis to test the significance of coefficients, (3) calculating the indirect effect and (4) establishing the significance of the indirect effect. step 1: testing construct reliability and validity the cronbach’s alpha measure was used to test the internal consistency or reliability of the different sets of items as this statistic is frequently used to measure the consistency of responses (saunders, lewis, & thornhill, 2012). this measure is based on the correlations between different items on the same scale; an alpha coefficient of 0.7 or above is regarded as acceptable reliability and that of 0.8 or higher as good reliability (saunders et al., 2012); that is, the questions combined in the scale are measuring the same construct. the self-rating instruments used in this study have an established validity and reliability. further item analysis was conducted to see the effect if one of the items was removed from the construct. where the cronbach’s alpha improves significantly when an item is removed, this would indicate that the item can be removed from the construct. step 2: test for mediation using regression analysis the mediation model shows a causal sequence in which independent variable (x) affects the dependent variable (y) indirectly, through the mediator variable (m). x is therefore postulated to affect m and this effect then propagates causally through y (hayes & preacher, 2014). this indirect effect represents the mechanism by which x transmits its effect on y. according to this model, x can also affect y directly – the direct effect of x – independent of x’s influence on m (hayes & preacher, 2014). mediation analysis is thus used to quantify and examine the direct and indirect pathways through which a variable x transmits its effect on a consequent variable y, through one or more intermediary or mediator variable (hayes & scharkow, 2013). multiple regression analysis was used to test the research questions. we tested for mediation following the steps outlined by baron and kenny (1986). they suggested a four-step approach utilising hierarchical regression analysis to test the mediating effect of pos in the study. to confirm the mediating effect, there are four prerequisites, as explained by dinç (2015). firstly, the independent variable is required to have an effect on the dependent variable. secondly, the independent variable is required to have an effect on the mediator variable. thirdly, the mediator variable should have an effect on the dependent variable. finally, the mediator variable is required to have a significant effect on the dependent variable when the independent and mediator variables are added to the model. the independent variable’s effect on the dependent variable should therefore lessen or vanish entirely (dinç, 2015). partial versus full or complete mediation was then considered. according to mackinnon, coxe and baraldi (2012), complete mediation is aberrant within certain fields of psychology and testing beyond complete mediation may be more informative. step 3: calculating the indirect effect morera and castro (2013) encouraged researchers to also report measures of effect sizes as opposed to full or partial mediation. hayes (2009) suggested that both the judd and kenny approach and the sobel approach or tests can be used. both the judd and kenny approach and the sobel product approach as path analysis were used to calculate the indirect effect through which al affects engagement and pos. step 4: significance of the indirect effect an optimal method includes the confidence level of the indirect effect (mackinnon et al., 2012). to determine whether this indirect effect was significant, bootstrap samples were used. the bootstrap method was therefore used as a resampling test to determine the distribution and standard error of the mediation estimate (mackinnon et al., 2012). ethical consideration ethical clearance was obtained from the university of pretoria’s gordon institute of business science on 12 march 2019 (protocol number: temp2016-01311). the purpose of the study as well as ethical considerations, such as informed consent, anonymity and confidentiality, was explained in a cover letter e-mail. it was indicated in the cover letter that participation was voluntary and that participants may withdraw from the study at any time. the employees were also assured of anonymity as they could not be traced through their e-mail or internet protocol (ip) addresses. results in their review of the literature on pos, rhoades and eisenberger (2002) found little relationship between demographic characteristics (i.e. age, education, gender and tenure) and pos. gender the sample comprised 120 male employees (59%) and 82 female employees (41%). the al, engagement and pos mean scores were all higher for the male respondents. business units one business unit scored a higher score for al than that of the global business services (gbs) division, but overall the gbs division had the highest score across all three variables. the mean score levels for al were slightly higher for gbs and the real estate strategy and operations division. for work engagement, the mean scores were higher for the gbs and sales and distribution divisions, and, finally, for pos, the mean scores were higher for the gbs division and the software group. tenure the average tenure of the respondents was 6.13 years. one-third of the respondents (29.21%) have been with the company for more than 10 years. interestingly, the mean scores for al, engagement and pos were higher for the group that had worked for the company for less than 1 year. a slightly lower score was found for the group that had been with the company between 3 and 5 years, but shows higher averages across all three variables. literature has found that engagement is inversely related to tenure (xu & thomas, 2011) and yet in their study xu and thomas (2011) found that tenure did not correlate positively with engagement. level in organisation an interesting finding was that the executive level as well as the learning development centre programme level scored higher on all three variables than any other levels in the organisation. the respondents represented a range of levels in the organisation, including executives (5.94%), business unit leaders (3.47%), middle managers (9.9%), people managers (6.44%), specialist roles (47.52%) and special programme incumbents (26.74%). reliability analysis results the cronbach’s alpha results for the alq, work engagement (uwes) and pos scales were measured to be 0.9608 (alq), 0.9309 (uwes) and 0.8805 (pos), respectively. these high alpha values relate to very high internal consistency between the items for each construct. table 1 lists the cronbach’s alpha values for each item in the survey questionnaire. table 1: questionnaire items with mean, standard deviation, reliability and validity. item analysis was conducted to investigate how the cronbach’s alpha would be affected if one of the items for the specific construct and sub-construct was removed. all the items were found to be correctly identified in the construct and there was no need to remove any of them. all the individual items were found to be highly correlated with the total. validity analysis results we investigated whether the respondents were able to distinguish amongst the sub-constructs. a varimax rotation of the principal components solution for engagement and al is available on request. the principal components analysis provided the researchers with further insights into the factors that provide and account for meaningful amounts of variance. the varimax rotation was applied to the nine items of the uwes engagement scale. the two factors explained 70.57% of the variance. under the first factor, items indicate engagement characteristics. this factor incorporates all three of the vigour items, two of the dedication items and one of the absorption items (total six items out of the nine items), and explains a total of 58.89% of the variance. the second factor of this scale contains two of the absorption items and one of the dedication items that together explain 11.68% of the variance. for the engagement construct, it can be concluded that the sub-constructs of vigour and dedication provided meaningful variance as a single construct, where absorption provided a separate construct loading. the al scale was also analysed with the varimax rotation. interestingly, the scale only loaded on two factors and explained 112.93% of the variance. the first factor explained 63.49% of the variance and included three items of the processing information sub-construct, all three items of the internalised moral perspective construct, two items of the self-awareness construct and one item of the relational transparency construct. the second factor that explained 49.44% of the variance consisted of the remainder of the four relational transparency sub-constructs, two self-awareness items and one of the processing information sub-constructs. given that the construct validity has been proven by prior studies, the al analysis in the present study followed gardner et al.’s (2011) four sub-construct structure. table 1 also contains the factor loadings of the items under the sub-constructs as explained above. given the reliability and validity of the instruments used in the study, the next section will discuss the regression analysis. tables 2 and 3 summarise the descriptive statistics, correlation and scale reliabilities for main variables and sub-constructs, respectively. table 2: descriptive statistics, correlation and scale reliabilities for main variables. table 3: descriptive statistics, correlations and scale reliabilities for sub-constructs. regression analysis results this section systematically reports on the various hypotheses in the model. based on the cronbach’s alpha, the three main constructs were confirmed and used in the regression. hypothesis 1 results indicate that al is significantly related to engagement, thereby meeting the first condition for mediation and offering support for hypothesis 1. to determine whether the relationship between al and work engagement found in other studies can also be found in this particular data set (hypothesis 1): the results showed a statistically significant positive correlation coefficient of 0.6723, with a p-value of 0.0001 between al and work engagement. hypothesis 2 the total effect of al on pos (hypothesis 2) was measured by the parameter estimate as 0.89207, also at a significance level of 0.001. hypothesis 3 the total effect of pos on engagement (hypothesis 3) was also found to be significant at the 0.0001 level, with a coefficient of 0.52825. the results revealed that pos is significantly related to work engagement. hypothesis 4 based on the significant relationships of all three of these models, the fourth model (hypothesis 4) was also tested controlling for al. authentic leadership was found to still be significant, when controlling for pos. given the results discussed above, the next two requirements of mediation have been met. the results showed that pos has a mediating effect on the impact of al on work engagement, and when both the independent (al) and mediator (pos) variables are put into the model together, both remain significant. indirect effect 1 = c – c’ = 0.67239 – 0.31007 = 0.362323. it can therefore be concluded that the findings support the partial mediation of pos. the four prerequisites, as explained by dinç (2015), were thus investigated. the results indicated that al (independent variable) is significantly related to engagement (dependent variable), thereby meeting the first condition for mediation and offering support for hypothesis 1. the results additionally revealed that pos (mediator variable) is significantly related to engagement (dependent variable), and that al (independent variable) is significantly related to pos; therefore, the next two requirements of mediation have been met. finally, when both the independent (al) and mediator (pos) variables are put into the model together, both remain significant, indicating partial mediation. figure 2 depicts the results of the mediation analysis. figure 2: results of statistical analysis of mediating effect. morera and castro (2013) encouraged researchers to report measures of effect sizes as opposed to full or partial mediation. supplementary to the judd and kenny approach, the sobel approach or test was used to confirm the judd and kenny results (hayes, 2009). to assess mediation through the sobel approach, the direct ab cross product should be tested (morera & castro, 2013). according to fritz and mackinnon (2015), the sobel first-order test is a widespread product-of-coefficients test that assesses mediation. the ab cross product was used. the same result of 0.362323 for the indirect effect was found: indirect effect 2 = b(a) = 0.40616 (0.892) = 0.362323. the same results were therefore obtained in one analysis as before in the four separate regressions, which confirms the credibility of the results, as follows: koopman, howe, hollenbeck and sin (2015) contested the use of bootstrapping in smaller samples of 20–80 cases. the current study, however, used a bigger sample (more than double the size of 80) and bootstrapping was therefore appropriate to use. the results of the hierarchical regression analysis are presented in table 4. table 4: results of the hierarchical regression analysis (n = 162). to determine whether the indirect effect (of 0.362323) was significant, we used the bootstrap samples (as they do not assume normal distribution of the sample) to determine the standard error of the indirect effect. path analysis is an established technique used to assist social scientists to analyse the relationship between multiple variables and a multiple-regression variation (stage, carter, & nora, 2004). path analysis was thus used as the bootstrap intervals are obtained from this approach and also provide a number of fit indices to evaluate the overall proposed model. table 5 summarises the regression estimates of the proposed model of research. table 5: regression estimates for the proposed model of research. the strength of the relationship between al and pos is estimated at 0.892, indicating a strong significant relationship, at the 0.001 level. for every increase in al at a standard deviation of 1, pos would increase at a value of 0.892. the relationship between pos and work engagement is also significant at an estimated value of 0.406, at the 0.001 level of significance. authentic leadership has a significant relationship with work engagement. the level of significance in table 6 is based on the critical ratio (cr) of the regression estimate. in the case where cr values are greater than or equal to 2.58, a 99% level of significance is indicated. the model was tested to understand how well the data fit with the proposed model. there are established rules of thumb used to understand whether a model fits the data. the criteria for a good, acceptable fit were those of schermelleh-engel, moosbrugger and müller (2003). table 6: fit indices for the proposed model of research. the goodness of fit index (gfi) is the proportion of the variance of the sample variance–covariance matrix accounted for by the model, which showed a value of 0.977 and was therefore a good fit because those values greater than 0.95 and thus close to 1 represent a good model fit. the adjusted goodness of fit index (agfi) is the same measure as gfi, but is adjusted for the number of parameters in the model, and again close to 1 is considered a good fit. in this study, the estimate represented a value of 0.931 and was thus considered a good fit with the proposed model. the comparative fit index (cfi) and normed fit index (nfi) with values greater than 0.95 represent a good model fit according to established rules and criteria. the proposed model indicated a cfi value of 0.976 and an nfi value of 0.963, both representing values greater than the threshold of 0.95 and therefore indicating a good model fit. for the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea), a value less than 0.05 is considered a good fit and a value less than 0.08 indicates an adequate fit. considering the rmsea of 0.105, there is slight room for improvement, but the other indices indicate a good fit. for example, for the tucker–lewis index (tli), a value greater than 0.80 is sometimes acceptable and one that is greater than 0.90 is good, and the value of the tli in this study is 0.964, indicating a good model fit. discussion outline of the results this section discuses the results of the specific objectives and the underlying hypotheses of the study, which are presented next. the results support the literature findings of a positive correlation between al and engagement (azanza et al., 2013; scheepers & elstob, 2016; shu, 2015; wang & hsieh, 2013). given the positive correlation between al and engagement, companies would benefit from fostering and developing authentic leaders within the organisation. wong and associates (2010) found that the employee first identifies with the leader, which in turn enhances identification with the work group. this positive relationship in turn fosters trust in the leader. when organisations develop authentic leaders with whom employees can identify and build trust, employees are more likely to be engaged in the workplace. an engaged workforce, in turn, leads to positive outcomes for the organisation, where the benefits of engagement can be maximised (alfes et al., 2013). these findings confirm that authentic leaders are capable of establishing higher levels of engagement when employees perceive the organisation to have positive levels of collaboration and support. individuals are encouraged intrinsically to exert increased levels of effort (biswas & bhatnagar, 2013) when they perceive the organisation as being supportive. thus, when the context of al exists, and employees experience a supportive environment within the organisation, higher levels of engagement are more likely to occur. this study tested beyond the direct association of al and engagement. the results offer us an in-depth understanding of the role of pos. this pos role exists in the context of organisations within the world of work today, where al assists with identification with others in the work group, or increased work engagement (farndale & murrer, 2015). this study concluded that pos partially mediates the relationship between al and engagement. making a distinction between full and partial mediation, a theory can be influentially tested and social-psychological knowledge can be further developed (rucker, preacher, & tormala, 2011). as the result was partial mediation, this study indicates that there are other factors that influence this relationship; and as expected, pos is not the only factor that impacts it; nonetheless, the influence of a mediating variable has been confirmed. other researchers (rhoades & eisenberger, 2002; scheepers & elstob, 2016; sihag & sarikwal, 2015) have investigated different factors in relation to pos and our study builds on their findings. practical implications this study has several implications for management and research. firstly, the findings indicate that pos can act as an interface between al and employee engagement; it is highly likely that pos is beneficial for improving employee engagement through the al that employees experience. we argue that further attention needs to be given to this interface. for example, pos from an employee perspective may be more likely if they feel they can connect with specific leaders. perceived organisational support is also more likely when employees develop a sense of trust that enables them to feel supported, regardless of what tangible forms of support are available from the organisation. we also argue that further research investigating the specific relationship between authentic leaders and their roles in how employees view organisational support is warranted. furthermore, the findings raise the question of whether organisational rewards and resources would be seen as pos (and, therefore, positively impact engagement) if an authentic leader was not present. these points lead us to suggest that the presence of pos provides space for interaction between organisational processes and employee engagement, or that an authentic leader perhaps plays the important role of changing organisational resources available to employees into positive pos. these points are worthy of further investigation, using an array of methodological approaches, for they are important in developing further knowledge about the variables studied in this article. also, although these findings may initially appear to be obvious, they indicate that further research is still needed to investigate whether or why pos is related to engagement (and if so, in what ways). from a practice perspective, further research is important to ensure that managers develop appropriate strategies to engage staff members, rather than target their resources towards strategies. these strategies might include increasing resources available to staff members that may not actually provide effective solutions. for practising managers, we also argue that further attention should be given to recruiting and developing authentic leaders. erkutlu (2013) posited that it is essential to consider the key organisational factors that facilitate al development, for example, strong support from senior management (through role modelling and providing resources or through incorporating al in performance evaluations and metrics). we argue that the subjective nature of authenticity means that developing it into a measurable performance management metric could be challenging and possibly inappropriate. however, managers can promote and display human-centred behaviours within their organisations, which are likely to lead to more positive work environments, whilst also increasing levels of engagement. organisations must take note of these findings and pay special attention to the development of managers’ al skills. leadership development should include exercises and coaching to enhance the self-awareness of leaders and training on sharing authentically and transparently. these interventions could improve the return on investment of leadership development programmes. organisations must also gather from this study’s findings that they have to invest in offering tangible support to their employees, especially in times of uncertainty. organisations must not only rely on the immediate supervisory levels or managers to offer relational support to their employees. according to this study’s findings, the organisational context is an important variable to consider. leadership development and human resources practitioners must take note of their employees’ pos. human resources practitioners should regularly undertake surveys to ascertain the perceptions of their employees, for example, regarding whether the organisation is offering adequate support to employees. these interventions could enhance ultimately employee engagement. limitations and recommendations this study makes a contribution to theory building as it examines the relationship between variables that to the best of our knowledge have not been well studied in this specific relationship before. the study is thus expected to inspire further research. the sample size was relatively small and restricted to one specific industry. the findings are therefore more relevant to other companies within the same industry and cannot necessarily be generalised to all other industries. because of the time constraints of cross-sectional research, this study could not provide the same amount of depth as a longitudinal study would have been able to contribute. a specific leadership style, al, was chosen for this study and the findings cannot therefore be applied to other leadership styles. saks and gruman (2014) suggested that an engagement measure more distinct from other constructs should be developed and future studies might investigate this. with organisational inclusion being of specific relevance in a diverse country like south africa, and this being a new topic in organisational research (cottrill et al., 2014), it would be relevant to understand how specific leadership competencies, like authenticity, influence inclusion. conclusion as fusco et al. (2015) declared, al may very well be the leadership theory relevant to our time. it is particularly relevant to the complex environment that challenges employee engagement (day, fleenor, sturm, & mckee, 2014). this study has shown that the relationship between al and engagement is multifaceted. as suggested by the partial mediation, more than one factor influences the conditions under which engagement can be strengthened. the partial mediation result, however, confirms that authentic leaders are more likely to influence the employee engagement, when employees perceive their organisation as being supportive. the conclusions of our study validate the findings of kurtessis et al. (2017) that employees feel more content and engaged in their roles when they experience and perceive leaders and the organisation as being supportive. perceived organisational support therefore provides favourable conditions under which al can positively influence the engagement levels of followers. this study thus suggests additional variables that serve and underpin the relationship between leadership and engagement. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions t.v. conducted this study as part of her master of business administration (mba) research and prof. c.b. scheepers was her research supervisor. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data is available upon request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references alfes, k., shantz, a.d., truss, c., & soane, e.c. (2013). the link between perceived human resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation model, the international journal of human resource management, 24(2), 330–351. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.679950 alvesson, m., & einola, k. (2019). warning for excessive positivity: authentic leadership and other traps in leadership studies. the leadership quarterly, 30(4), 383–395. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2019.04.001 anitha, j. (2014). determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance. international journal of productivity and performance management, 63(3), 308–323. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-01-2013-0008 avolio, b., & gardner, w.l. (2005). authentic leadership development : getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. the leadership quarterly, 16(3), 315–338. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.001 avolio, b.j., gardner, w.l., walumbwa, f., luthans, f., & may, d.r. (2004). unlocking the mask: a look at the process by which authentic leaders impact follower attitudes and behaviors. the leadership quarterly, 15(6), 801–823. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2004.09.003 avolio, b., walumbwa, f., & weber, t. (2009). leadership: current theories, research, and future directions. annual review of psychology, 60(1), 421–449. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163621 azanza, g., moriano, j.a., & melero, f. (2013). authentic leadership and organizational culture as drivers of employees’ job satisfaction. journal of work and organizational psychology, 29(2), 45–50. https://doi.org/10.5093/tr2013a7 bailey, c., madden, a., alfes, k., & fletcher, l. (2017). the meaning, antecedents and outcomes of employee engagement: a narrative synthesis. international journal of management reviews, 19(1), 31–53. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12077 baron, l. (2016). authentic leadership and mindfulness development through action learning. journal of managerial psychology, 31(1), 296–311. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmp-04-2014-0135 baron, r., & kenny, d. (1986). the moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research. journal of personality and social psychology, 51(6), 1173–1182. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173 beddoes-jones, f., & swailes, s. (2015). authentic leadership: development of a new three pillar model. strategic hr review, 14(3), 94–99. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr-04-2015-0032 biswas, s., & bhatnagar, j. (2013). engagement: role of perceived organizational support, p-o fit, organizational commitment and job satisfaction. journal of decision makers, 38(1), 27–40. https://doi.org/10.1177/0256090920130103 blau, p.m. (1964). exchange and power in social life. new york, ny: john wiley. bryant, m., & cox, j.w. (2014). beyond authenticity? humanism, posthumanism and new organisation development. british journal of management, 25(4), 706–723. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12005 chaurasia, s., & shukla, a. (2013). the influence of leader-member exchange relations on employee engagement and work role performance. international journal of organization theory and behavior, 16(4), 465–493. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijotb-16-04-2013-b002 chen, z., eisenberger, r., johnson, k.m., sucharski, i.l., chen, z., eisenberger, r., & sucharski, i.l. (2009). perceived organizational support and extra-role performance: which leads to which? the journal of social psychology, 149(1), 119–124. https://doi.org/10.3200/socp.149.1.119-124 cooper, c.d., scandura, t.a., & schriesheim, c.a. (2005). looking forward but learning from our past: potential challenges to developing authentic leadership theory and authentic leaders. the leadership quarterly, 16(3), 475–493. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.008 cottrill, k., lopez, p.d., & hoffman, c.c. (2014). how authentic leadership and inclusion benefit organizations. equality, diversity and inclusion: an international journal, 33(3), 275–292. https://doi.org/10.1108/edi-05-2012-0041 cropanzano, r., byrne, z.s., bobocel, d.r., & rupp, d.e. (2001). moral virtues, fairness heuristics, social entities, and other denizens of organizational justice. journal of vocational behavior, 58(2), 164–209. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2001.1791 cropanzano, r., & mitchell, m.s. (2005). social exchange theory: an interdisciplinary review. journal of management, 31(6), 874–900. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206305279602 dawley, d.d., virginia, w., andrews, m.c., carolina, n., bucklew, n.s., & virginia, w. (2008). mentoring, supervisor support, and perceived organizational support: what matters most? leadership & organisation development journal, 29(3), 235–247. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730810861290 day, d.v., fleenor, j.w., sturm, r.e., & mckee, r.a. (2014). advances in leader and leadership development: a review of 25 years of research and theory. the leadership quarterly, 25(1), 63–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.11.004 dinç e. (2015). perceived organizational support as a mediator of the relationship between effort-reward fairness, affective commitment, and intention to leave. international business research, 8(4), 259–270. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v8n4p259 eagly, a.h. (2005). achieving relational authenticity in leadership: does gender matter? the leadership quarterly, 16(3), 459–474. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.007 eisenberger, r., huntington, r., hutchison, s., & sowa, d. (1986). perceived organisational support. journal of applied psychology, 71(3), 500–507. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.71.3.500 erkutlu, h. (2013). effects of trust and psychological contract violation on authentic leadership and organizational deviance. management research review, 36(9), 828–848. https://doi.org/10.1108/mrr-06-2012-0136 eva, n., robin, m., sendjaya, s., van dierendonck, d., & liden, r.c. (2019). servant leadership: a systematic review and call for future research. the leadership quarterly, 30(1), 111–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2018.07.004 farndale, e., & murrer, i. (2015). job resources and employee engagement: a cross-national study. journal of managerial psychology, 30(5), 610–626. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmp-09-2013-0318 fritz, m.s., & mackinnon, d.p. (2015). required sample size to detect the mediated effect. association for psychological science, 18(3), 233–239. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01882.x fusco, t., o riordan, s., & palmer, s. (2015). authentic leaders are… conscious, competent, confident, and congruent: a grounded theory of group coaching and authentic leadership development. international coaching psychology review, 10(2), 131–148. gardner, w.l., cogliser, c.c., davis, k.m., & dickens, m.p. (2011). authentic leadership: a review of the literature and research agenda. the leadership quarterly, 22(6), 1120–1145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.09.007 giddens, a. (1991). modernity and self-identity. oxford: polity press, in association with blackwell publishers. gupta, v., agarwal, u.a., & khatri, n. (2016). the relationships between perceived organizational support, affective commitment, psychological contract breach, organizational citizenship behaviour and work engagement. journal of advanced nursing, 72(11), 2806–2817. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.13043 hansen, a., byrne, z., & kiersch, c. (2014). how interpersonal leadership relates to employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 29(8), 953–972. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmp-11-2012-0343 hayes, a.f. (2009). beyond baron and kenny : statistical mediation analysis in the new millennium. communication monographs, 76(4), 408–420. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637750903310360 hayes, a.f., & preacher, k.j. (2014). statistical mediation analysis with a multicategorical independent variable. british journal of mathematical and statistical psychology, 67(3), 451–470. https://doi.org/10.1111/bmsp.12028 hayes, a.f., & scharkow, m. (2013). the relative trustworthiness of inferential tests of the indirect effect in statistical mediation analysis: does method really matter? psychological science, 24(10), 1918–1927. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613480187 hsieh, c.-c., & wang, d.-s. (2015). does supervisor-perceived authentic leadership influence employee work engagement through employee-perceived authentic leadership and employee trust? the international journal of human resource management, 26(18), 2329–2348. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1025234 koopman, j., howe, m., hollenbeck, j.r., & sin, h.-p. (2015). small sample mediation testing: misplaced confidence in bootstrapped confidence intervals. the journal of applied psychology, 100(1), 194–202. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036635 kraus, m.w., chen, s., & keltner, d. (2011). the power to be me: power elevates self-concept consistency and authenticity. journal of experimental social psychology, 47(5), 974–980. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2011.03.017 kurtessis, j.n., eisenberger, r., ford, m.t., buffardi, l.c., stewart, k.a., & adis, c.s. (2017). perceived organizational support : a meta-analytic evaluation of organizational support theory. journal of management, 43(6), 1854–1884. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206315575554 kutz, m.r., & bamford-wade, a. (2013). understanding contextual intelligence : a critical competency for today’s leaders. emergence: complexity in organisations, 15(3), 55–80. lord, r.g., & hall, r.j. (1992). contemporary views of leadership and individual differences. the leadership quarterly, 3(2), 137–157. lyubovnikova, j., legood, a., turner, n., & mamakouka, a. (2017). how authentic leadership influences team performance: the mediating role of team reflexivity. journal of business ethics, 141(1), 59–70. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2692-3 mackinnon, d.p., coxe, s., & baraldi, a.n. (2012). guidelines for the investigation of mediating variables in business research. journal of business and psychology, 27(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-011-9248-z matthews, r.a., mills, m.j., trout, r.c., & english, l. (2014). family-supportive supervisor behaviors, work engagement, and subjective well-being: a contextually dependent mediated process. journal of occupational health psychology, 19(2), 168–81. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036012 mckergow, m. (2015). develop authentic leadership – be a good host approaching leadership in a new way using the familiar techniques of hosting. strategic human resources review, 14(3), 85–88. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr-03-2015-0020 merry, j. (2014). aon hewitt’s 2013 trends in global engagement: where do organizations need to focus attention? strategic hr review, 13(1), 24–31. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr-07-2013-0073 mills, m.j., fleck, c.r., & kozikowski, a. (2013). positive psychology at work: a conceptual review, state-of-practice assessment, and a look ahead ahead. the journal of positive psychology, 8(2), 153–164. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2013.776622 morera, o.f., & castro, f.g. (2013). important considerations in conducting statistical mediation analyses. american journal of public health, 103(3), 394–396. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2012.301047 osborn, r.n., & marion, r. (2009). contextual leadership, transformational leadership and the performance of international innovation seeking alliances. the leadership quarterly, 20(2), 191–206. parker, s.k., & griffin, m.a. (2011). understanding active psychological states: embedding engagement in a wider nomological net and closer attention to performance. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 20(1), 60–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2010.532869 porter, l.w., & mclaughlin, g.b. (2006). leadership and the organizational context: like the weather? the leadership quarterly, 17(6), 559–576. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2006.10.002 prokopeak, m. (2018, march 21). follow the leader(ship) spending. chief learning officer. retrieved from https://www.clomedia.com/2018/03/21/follow-the-leadership-spending/ ray, r. (2018). global leadership forecast 2018: 25 research insights to fuel your people strategy. ernst & young, ey: development dimensions international, inc. retrieved from https://www.ey.com/publication/vwluassets/ey-the-global-leadership-forecast/$file/ey-the-global-leadership-forecast.pdf rhoades, l., & eisenberger, r. (2002). perceived organizational support: a review of the literature. journal of applied psychology, 87(4), 698–714. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.87.4.698 rich, b.l., lepine, j.a., & crawford, e.r. (2010). job engagement: antecents and effects on job performance. academy of management journal, 53(3), 617–635. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.51468988 rucker, d., preacher, k., & tormala, z. (2011). mediation analysis in social psychology: current practices and new recommendations. social and personality, 6, 359–371. retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2011.00355.x/full saks, a., & gruman, j. (2014). what do we really know about employee engagament. human resource development quaterly, 2(25), 155–182. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2012). research methods for business students (6th edn.). london: pearson education limited. schaufeli, w.b., bakker, a.b., & salanova, m. (2006). the measurement of work engagement with a short questionnare. education and psychological measurement, 66(4), 701–716. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164405282471 schaufeli, w.b., & salanova, m. (2007). efficacy or inefficacy, that’s the question: burnout and work engagement, and their relationships with efficacy beliefs. anxiety stress and coping, 20(2), 177–196. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615800701217878 scheepers, c.b., & elstob, s.l. (2016). beneficiary contact moderates relationship between authentic leadership and engagement. south african journal of human resource management, 14(1), a758. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.758 schermelleh-engel, k., moosbrugger, h., & müller, h. (2003). evaluating the fit of structural equation models: tests of significance and descriptive goodness-of-fit measures. methods of psychological research online, 8(2), 23–74. https://doi.org/10.1002/0470010940 shantz, a., alfes, k., & latham, g.p. (2016). the buffering effect of perceived organizational support on the relationship between work engagement and behavioral outcomes. human resource management, 55(1), 25–38. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm shu, c. (2015). the impact of intrinsic motivation on the effectiveness of leadership style towards on work engagement, contemporary management research, 11(4), 327–350. https://doi.org/10.7903/cmr.14043 sihag, p., & sarikwal, l. (2015). effect of perceived organizational support on psychological capital – a study of it industries in indian framework. electronic journal of business ethics and organisation studies, 20(2), 19–26. stage, f.k., carter, h.c., & nora, a. (2004). path analysis: an introduction and analysis of a decade of research. the journal of educational research, 98(1), 5–13. https://doi.org/10.3200/joer.98.1.5-13 strom, d.l., sears, k.l., & kelly, k.m. (2014). work engagement: the roles of organisational justice and leadership style in predicting engagement among employees. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 21(1), 71–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051813485437 tosi, h.l. (1991). the organization as a context for leadership theory: a multilevel approach. the leadership quarterly, 2(3), 205–228. https://doi.org/10.1016/1048-9843(91)90011-p wang, d.-s., & hsieh, c.-c. (2013). the effect of authentic leadership on employee trust and employee engagement. social behavior and personality, 41(4), 613–624. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2013.41.4.613 wei, f., li, y., zhang, y., & liu, s. (2016). the interactive effect of authentic leadership and leader competency on followers’ job performance: the mediating role of work engagement. journal of business ethics, 153(3), 763–773. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3379-0 wong, c.a., laschinger, h., & cummings, g.g. (2010). authentic leadership and nurses’ voice behaviour and perceptions of care quality. journal of nursing management, 18(8), 889–900. wulffers, t., bussin, m., & hewitt, m. (2016). fast-tracking authentic leadership development by means of a programme. sa journal of human resource management, 14(1), 13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.764 xu, j., & thomas, h.c. (2011). how can leaders achieve high employee engagement? leadership & organization development journal, 32(4), 399–416. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437731111134661 footnote 1. the current article is based on the research conducted by the author towards a master’s degree at the university of pretoria. the second author was the supervisor of the study. abstract introduction literature review research methodology results and discussion conclusion recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) patience mbola department of environmental and occupational studies, faculty of applied science, cape peninsula university of technology, cape town, south africa izanne s. human department of environmental and occupational studies, faculty of applied science, cape peninsula university of technology, cape town, south africa paula e. melariri department of environmental health, faculty of health sciences, nelson mandela university, port elizabeth, south africa citation mbola, p., human, i.s., & melariri, p.e. (2019). environmental health community service: confronting the human resource challenges. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), a1135. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1135 original research environmental health community service: confronting the human resource challenges patience mbola, izanne s. human, paula e. melariri received: 29 oct. 2018; accepted: 02 aug. 2019; published: 18 nov. 2019 copyright: © 2019. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the environmental health graduates are required to complete community service before they could be registered as independent practitioners by the health professions council of south africa. community service programme serves as the mechanism to recruit healthcare professionals who will improve the provision of equitable and quality healthcare. research purpose: the study aimed to explore, identify and describe the factors that had an influence on the effective selection, placement and utilisation of environmental health graduates as well as an evaluation of the effectiveness of community service. research approach/design and method: a quantitative, cross-sectional study was conducted using self-administered questionnaires. the study included 24 environmental health practitioners who completed their community service and 10 environmental health practitioners responsible for coordinating community service in the municipal, provincial and national spheres of government in the eastern cape province of south africa during 2013–2016. purposive sample was drawn from each population. t-test and chi-square test were used to determine the statistical significant differences. the open-ended question responses from the structured questionnaire were qualitatively analysed by an independent coder. main findings: the findings revealed major problems regarding the effective implementation of community service that included decreasing number of community service posts, inadequate material resources, lack of induction, inconsistent supervision, and a lack of evaluation of the community service. contribution: the study findings suggest important inequalities that should deserve urgent attention. study concludes by presenting recommendations for the improvement of the community service in the environmental health. keywords: community service; environmental health; environmental health practitioner; selection; placement; utilisation. introduction when a population is exposed to environmental hazards, a relationship is established between the levels of exposure and the health outcomes of that particular population. the linkage created between the status of the environment and human health is therefore termed environmental health (eh). environmental health is a practice that seeks to protect human health by combating physical, chemical, biological and social threats in the environment. it is the most fundamental public health approach, affecting whole populations and providing a foundation for modern living (south africa. doh, 2013, p. 10). compulsory community service (cs) for eh practitioners (ehps) in south africa was first introduced in 2003 by the department of health (doh). the cs programme is a programme where new eh graduates are expected to serve in public health facilities for the duration of 1 year before being allowed to be registered as independent ehps with the health professions council of south africa (hpcsa). the doh stated that its objective for initiating cs was to ensure the provision of improved health services for all south african citizens. in this process, cs was also expected to provide young professionals with opportunities to develop skills and to acquire knowledge, behaviour patterns and critical thinking that should assist them in their professional development (reid, 2002, p. 136). community service should not be perceived as a year of further training; instead, it is a method for recruiting and strengthening the health workforce, specifically in areas where insufficient access to primary healthcare services and systems exists. despite the above-mentioned attempts to introduce cs programmes to health professions, the south african doh is currently still confronted with the major challenge of providing basic healthcare to all citizens and restoring the historical inequalities in health services delivery (wranz, 2011, p. 8). the ever-increasing burden of chronic illnesses (e.g. hiv and aids and tuberculosis) and the difficulty of recruiting and retaining healthcare professionals in rural and under-served areas complicate the provision of equitable and quality healthcare services (khan, knight, & esterhuizen, 2009). community service may not provide a lasting answer to human resource problems in south africa, or the shortage at the workplace in remote, rural areas, but if human resources are well planned and funded, it may result in the retention of health professionals in under-serviced areas. in 2012, the hpcsa reported that the placement of eh graduates for cs has been a serious challenge for the doh since 2007, and therefore this challenge has had a negative impact on eh services (ehs) delivery (cele, chaka, mukhola, & nemakonde, 2012, p. 5). moreover, during 2014, the eh students directed a letter to the honourable minister of health regarding the concern with the huge backlog in the cs placement of eh graduates in the country. in this letter, the minister was requested to intervene and act regarding the cs placement backlog that had only affected the eh fraternity within the domain of health since 2007, and ongoing until today. the minister subsequently requested the national doh (ndoh) dignitaries to meet with the student coordinators and promised them that the department would be attending to the problem (south africa. doh, 2016). despite the said promises to the student coordinators by the minister, the challenge has been ongoing; this was validated by ehps who marched to the ndoh offices in 2016 to deliver a memorandum with the list of demands regarding their dissatisfaction about the improper implementation of cs for eh graduates. the demands that were outlined in the memorandum included addressing the backlog and the placement of graduates, 100% placements for cs and the provision of bursaries to eh students. regardless of the above attempts by ehps and students, the cs challenges continue with no resolution to date. the aim of this study was to explore, identify and describe the problems associated with the selection, placement and utilisation of the environmental health community service (ehcs) practitioners, the evaluation of the programme on completion thereof and to use the findings to make recommendations to the ndoh on how the programme could be improved. literature review introduction within the context of this study, cs will be defined as remunerated healthcare service performed for a mandatory period of 1 year at a public healthcare facility by a newly qualified eh graduate, who is a citizen of south africa, and intends to register at the hpcsa and practise as an independent ehp in a prescribed category (harvey & pillay, 2006, p. 260; ndaba, 2013, p. 7). community service is perceived by reid and conco (1999, p. 234) to be different from an internship and vocational training, in the sense that it attempts to redress the inequalities of the past. the idea of cs in south africa was prompted by the extreme shortage of healthcare practitioners in the country’s state facilities because of the ‘brain drain’ (departure of skilled health professionals from south africa to other countries) and poor salaries (harvey & pillay, 2006, p. 260). according to the south african doh, the main objective of cs is to improve access to quality healthcare for all south africans, especially those in previously under-served areas (south africa. department of health, 2015a). a year of compulsory cs was first introduced in 1998 for all healthcare graduates of medicine, dentistry and pharmacy. environmental health graduates joined this group in january 2003 (reid, 2002, p. 135). various studies have explored the cs carried out by different categories of health professionals who are registered with the hpcsa. more recently, hatcher, onah, kornik, peacocke and reid (2014) conducted a national cross-sectional study to determine the satisfaction levels of doctors and dentists who performed cs. the study found that cs officers who expressed high satisfaction with cs also benefited from professional development, suggesting the need for continued support of cs health professionals in underserved areas. harvey and pillay’s (2006) survey of the experiences of 52 clinical psychologists serving cs for the first time found that more than 50% experienced role confusion and difficulties in communicating with patients because of language differences, even though they felt that they made a difference to the communities they served and had gained confidence in their professional ability. khan et al.’s (2009) survey of all speech, hearing and language therapists found that less than 50% were willing to serve in rural institutions after completing cs, referring to the differences in the level of support and supervision, a lack of infrastructural support and resources, as well as language barriers as reasons. all of these studies concluded that, while the cs policy is an important government initiative, there is need for improvement. this article focuses its attention on the implementation of cs in the eh profession. organisational structure of environmental health service delivery in south africa environmental health service delivery in south africa is facilitated through a healthcare dispensation that is divided into national, provincial and local spheres of government. it is within these spheres whereby cs is conducted by eh graduates. national sphere of government the functions of the ndoh are to promote the health of all south africans through a comprehensive national healthcare system, focusing on primary healthcare, to provide leadership in formulating health policy, and to assist and encourage provinces to deliver an efficient and successful healthcare service within their respective areas of jurisdiction (de haan, 1996, p. 3). the office of the national director of eh is a section within the ndoh. according to section 9(1) of the national environmental health policy, the said directorate is responsible for facilitating the implementation of eh programmes and the provision of ehs by provinces according to national priorities (south africa. department of health., 2013). the directorate:eh within the ndoh therefore provides the technical support to provinces in areas of management and capacity development for the cs programme of ehcs practitioners (south africa. doh, 2013, p. 31). the ndoh therefore is the administrator of cs and works together with provincial, municipal and the hpcsa that deals with the registration of health professionals during and after their cs (south africa. doh, 2015a). provincial sphere of government the provincial departments of health are involved in the organisation of cs for eh graduates (hatcher et al., 2014, p. 2; south africa. doh, 2015b, p. 10). the national environmental health policy (2013) also noted the role played by municipalities in delivering military health service (mhs) as a result of devolution (south africa. department of health., 2013). therefore, the ehcs practitioners work for both the provincial health departments and the municipalities to be exposed to the entire eh scope of practice as defined by the legislation (south africa. doh, 2009). municipal sphere of government according to section 32 of the national health act 61 of 2003, one of the functions of municipalities is to provide mhs. municipal health services are being rendered to local communities through a healthcare dispensation which is generally known as the district health system (south africa. doh, 2004). the district health system, which is based on the provision of primary healthcare services, is defined by tarimo (1991) as: [a] more or less self-contained segment of the national health system that is comprised of a well-defined population living within a clearly delineated administrative and geographical area, whether urban or rural. (p. 4) section 32 (1) of the national health act, 2003 (act 61 of 2003) prescribes that every metropolitan and district municipality should ensure that appropriate municipal services are effectively and equitably provided in their respective areas (south africa. doh, 2004). community service placement the overall responsibility for the placement of ehcs practitioners lies with the workforce management: statutory service placements directorate in the ndoh (cele et al., 2012, p. 2; maseko, 2012, p. 37). the ndoh facilitates the organisation of ehcs, and the provincial health departments arrange the selection and placement of eh graduates for cs. the local sphere of government also provides the platform for the placement of ehcs practitioner because most of the ehs services are offered in that sphere. the south african military health service (samhs) also forms part of the institutions that offer cs to the eh graduates (south africa. doh, 2015). research methodology research design this quantitative, cross-sectional study was conducted using self-administered questionnaires. the design of the questionnaire was based on a review of existing studies concerning cs and public administration literature to review the requirements for the effective selection, placement, utilisation and evaluation of ehcs personnel (beyers, 2013; nel et al., 2014; reid, 2002; wranz, 2011). the questionnaires for both the ehcs practitioners and the ehcs administrators focused on six sections: section 1 – biographical data, section 2 – employment data, section 3 – graduate selection, section 4 – graduate placement, section 5 – graduate utilisation and evaluation and section 6 – recommendations. ethical approval to conduct this study was obtained from the relevant universities’ postgraduate studies committee (reference number removed for blind peer review). permission to conduct this study was obtained from the ec provincial doh and from relevant municipalities. a pre-test for the questionnaire was conducted, and the population in the questionnaire testing was categorised into two groups: it included one ehp who completed cs and one ehp who was involved in the administration of cs and these two individuals were not included in the study. the purpose of pre-testing the questionnaire was to determine whether (1) conclusions could be drawn from the information gathered, (2) respondents understood the questions correctly and (3) to adjust the study to alleviate any difficulties that could possibly impact on the validity and reliability of the data collection. the questionnaire testing triggered changes with regard to the precise sequence of questions to enhance the participants’ understanding. the face validity of this study has also been ensured through the scrutiny of the questionnaires by the researcher and a statistician. consensus was obtained between the researcher and the coder regarding the one open question in the questionnaire that was qualitatively analysed. participants the population of this study is categorised into two groups: (1) ehps (referred to as ehcs practitioners) who completed their cs during 2013–2016 within the ec province of south africa and (2) ehps (referred to as ehcs administrators) who had the responsibility of administering and coordinating cs programmes in the national, municipal and provincial spheres of government in the ecp during 2013–2016. data collection the researcher contacted all potential participants (ehcs practitioners and administrators during 2013–2016) verbally and through an information letter that was sent via email to arrange a suitable time and venue for administering the questionnaires. consent forms were then emailed to all the participants who agreed to participate in the study. the aim, procedure, risks and possible benefits of the study were described in the informed consent form which was emailed to respondents. respondents were ensured of confidentiality and that participation in the study was voluntary. questionnaires were emailed to respondents who consented to participate in the study. twenty-five ehcs practitioners and 10 ehcs administrators completed the self-administered questionnaires. data analysis a statistician from the nelson mandela university centre of statistical consultation assisted with the analysis of the quantitative data, using stata 13.1. the data obtained were coded, captured and submitted to the statistician for analysis. the t-test and chi-square test were used to determine the statistical significant differences in the quantitative data. only the comments made in response to the open-ended question in section 6 of the structured questionnaire were captured and sent to an independent coder for qualitative data analysis. ethical consideration the ethics clearance reference number is h16-hea-envir-001. results and discussion socio-demographics in the first phase, a total number of 10 ehps who were involved in coordinating cs in the ec province, from 2013 to 2016, completed and returned questionnaires by email. these coordinators consisted of six men and four women, eight african, one white and one mixed race, of which seven were married. job designations ranged from three junior ehps, one senior ehp, three ehp assistant directors, one chief ehp and two eh managers. five ehps were working for the municipal sphere, and five were employed by provincial health districts, of which two were employed by mhs. five of these administrators obtained a btech degree, three had a national diploma, one had a master’s degree and one did not reveal his or her highest qualification. the years of experience in the eh occupation ranged from 4 to 9 years (40%), 19 to 26 years (50%) and 33 years (10%). in the second phase, a total number of 25 ehcs practitioners who were placed in the ec province during 2013–2016 completed and returned questionnaires via email. these participants consisted of eight men (32%) and 17 women (68%) who were all single and included 21 african (84%) and four mixed race (16%) individuals. most respondents were between the ages of 23 and 29, except one, who was 34 years old. three of the 25 participants indicated that they had been funded by ec provincial bursaries during their studies. eight participants (32%) indicated that they were currently unemployed; four (16%) were employed in the private sector; nine (36%) were employed by the mhs; two (8%) were employed in the provincial health sphere; and the remaining two (8%) were employed by the national sphere of health services. twelve (36%) of those who indicated that they were employed also specified that they are working in the ec province. selection and placement process experiences of environmental health community service administrators four (40%) ehcs administrators indicated that they were not informed or indicated not applicable (n/a) to the receiving of instructions concerning the identification of ehcs vacancies for the selection of ehcs practitioners (table 1). three (30%) of the ehcs administrators indicated that they received comprehensive documentation, explaining the methodology that should be followed in the process of the identification of ehcs posts. although six of the participants agreed that they were instructed to identify posts for the ehcs programme, some (n = 2) were not provided with the guidelines or documentation of how to go about with the process of identifying the posts for the ehcs programme. table 1: environmental health community service administrators’ and practitioners’ experiences relating to the selection and placement process. one of the ehcs administrators indicated that the selection process of ehcs practitioners was facilitated by the provincial doh, whereas five administrators indicated that they were not aware of the methods that should be followed to select eh graduates for the ehcs programme, and 20% (n = 2) of the ehcs administrators indicated that a curriculum vitae is considered as the best method for selection. regarding the notification for ehcs, one administrator indicated that the eh graduates were notified in june 2014 to apply for ehcs in 2015, while another administrator indicated that eh graduates were notified in january 2015 to apply for ehcs in 2015. eight administrators were not aware when the eh graduates were notified to apply; two of the ehcs administrators were requested to identify ehcs posts more than once. the majority of ehcs administrators (n = 7) indicated that their sites of placement for ehcs practitioners were in the urban areas. more than 50% of administrators (n = 6) stated that they were able to place less than 50% of the students for ehcs in their facilities. most of the ehcs administrators (n = 9; 90%) agreed that the facilities where the ehcs practitioners were placed were notified in advance regarding the date and time of their commencement. all of the ehcs administrators (n = 10; 100%) felt that the placement facilities were sufficiently prepared to receive the ehcs practitioners. the experiences of ehcs administrators indicated a lack of consistency in the selection process of eh graduates, and a general lack of shared knowledge among themselves regarding the organisational process of ehcs. this was revealed by the fact that some of these participants, although involved in the ehcs organisation, were not all aware of the processes that ought to be followed towards the selection of eh graduates for ehcs. experiences of environmental health community service practitioners fifty-two per cent of the ehcs practitioners (n = 13) indicated that they were notified in writing by the ndoh and their universities about the application and selection process for ehcs and that they had applied several times for ehcs before they were eventually considered for placement (table 1). normally, eh graduates are allowed to choose five of their preferred placement facilities (in order of preference), and a further five choices should be submitted if they are not allocated any of the first five. an overwhelming number (n = 16; 64%) of these participants indicated that there was no method followed for their selection for the ehcs programme, whereas some (n = 6; 24%) indicated that interviews were employed as the method of selection. thirteen ehcs practitioners (52%) reported that they had been placed at rural facilities. most of the ehcs practitioners (n = 18; 72%) agreed that their placement facilities had been prepared to receive them, and therefore they were satisfied with their sites of placement. this was contrary to their response to an open-ended question, which portrayed the state of the preparedness of the placement facilities as follows: ‘there must be proper planning before ehcs practitioners arrive to avoid the challenge of having them sitting in the office whole day.’ (participant 2, ehcs practitioner, female) ‘proper plans and strategies need to be put in place prior to starting ehcs.’ (participant 4, ehcs practitioner, female) ‘community service students should be provided with accommodation at their placement facilities.’ (participant 13, ehcs practitioner,’ female) utilisation and evaluation process the experiences of ehcs administrators and ehcs practitioners regarding utilisation and evaluation focused on six categories, namely supervision, induction, materials and resources, utilisation, professional development and evaluation (table 2 and table 3). table 2: experiences of environmental health community service administrators regarding utilisation and evaluation of environmental health community service practitioners. table 3: experiences of environmental health community service practitioners regarding utilisation and evaluation. experiences of environmental health community service administrators regarding supervision, all ehcs administrators (n = 10) were in agreement that all ehcs practitioners had supervisors who were qualified ehps (table 2). these participants further indicated that supervisors had good knowledge regarding their work, and that the ehcs practitioners were at ease about asking questions and seeking help, when needed. although most of the ehcs administrators (n = 8; 80%) were convinced that the ehcs practitioners received constant and necessary supervision from their supervisors, two (n = 2; 20%) of these participants did not agree. three ehcs administrators chose to remain neutral regarding the fact that the induction process included an explanation of what was expected from ehcs practitioners during their cs. the majority of the administrators (n = 7) were of the opinion that the ehcs practitioners received a good induction (table 2). challenges that were remarked by the ehcs administrators were related to the availability of sufficient office space to perform their duties (n = 5; 50%), and the provision of transport for ehcs practitioners to carry out their duties (n = 4; 40%). in addition, one ehcs administrators suggested that: ‘proper allocation in the budget is required to fully fund all basic needs, such as stationery, computers and transport.’ (participant 4, ehcs administrator, male) half of the administrators (n = 5) opposed the fact that ehcs practitioners were rotated between different eh sections to gain sufficient exposure. all ehcs administrators (n = 10) agreed with the fact that ehcs practitioners were mostly involved in eh issues during their ehcs, and that they were productively utilised to render a more effective and efficient eh service to the communities. in addition, all ehcs administrators indicated (table 2) that the ehcs practitioners’ knowledge and confidence had improved because of sufficient exposure to eh aspects contained in their cs programme, and that the ehcs practitioners contributed positively to their placement facilities. the majority of ehcs administrators further agreed that the ehcs practitioners were given regular feedback about their work performance. although the minority of these administrators indicated that an exit evaluation was conducted for the ehcs practitioners (n = 4; 40%), most of the ehcs administrators (n = 8; 80%) indicated that the contribution to eh service delivery by the ehcs practitioners was evaluated. experiences of environmental health community service practitioners all the ehcs practitioners were in agreement that they had supervisors and only one indicated that his or her supervisor was not a qualified ehp. although most of the participants indicated that their supervisors were sincere in assisting and motivating them, it was shocking to discover that 40% (n = 10) of the ehcs practitioners did not receive constant supervision from their supervisors (table 3). eleven participants (44%) indicated that, during their induction, they were informed about what was expected from them during their ehcs period. twelve ehcs practitioners (48%) complained that they did not receive sufficient induction training. twenty-one (84%) of the ehcs practitioners reported that they had access to functional computers for work purposes. eighteen (72%) of the 25 respondents reported that they had access to a telephone and stationery. seventeen of the participants (68%) indicated that they had driver’s licences when they were placed for ehcs. nineteen of the 25 participants (n = 19; 76%) reported that they were provided with transport to perform their duties. with respect to utilisation, four (16%) participants indicated that they were rarely involved in eh issues during their ehcs, whereas 84% (n = 21) reported that they were mostly involved in eh issues. nine participants (36%) reported that they were not rotated to other sections of their facilities to gain more experience; they were working in the same sections for the entire duration of the cs period. most of the ehcs practitioners (n = 24; 96%) agreed that they were granted opportunities to work independently and 16 (64%) of the participants reported that the work was challenging and exciting. with regard to professional development, 24 (96%) of the 25 participants reported that their knowledge improved because of exposure to ehs delivery, whereas 23 (92%) participants reported improvement in their confidence, and 20 participants (80%) reported that they have made a positive contribution in the communities where they conducted ehcs. only 11 participants (44%) stated that they received regular feedback about their work performance. most of the participants (n = 22; 88%) informed that they were required to write reports, and 17 ehcs practitioners (68%) stated that their work performance was evaluated. thirteen (52%) of ehcs practitioners reported that their contribution to eh service delivery was evaluated; however, this excluded the evaluation of the knowledge that was gained by them. most of the participants (n = 19; 76%) reported that they had not performed exit evaluations at the end of their ehcs programme. only seven (28%) participants were in support of ehcs remaining a requirement towards registration with the hpcsa as an independent ehp (table 3). statistical comparisons statistical analysis was used to compare the experiences of ehcs administrators and ehcs practitioners regarding the selection, placement, utilisation and evaluation processes of the ehcs programme. a comparison was made between ehcs administrators and ehcs practitioners regarding the number of instances ehcs practitioners applied for placement and the number of occasions that ehcs administrators were requested to identify or create cs posts for eh graduates. no statistically significant difference was found (p = 0.0941). therefore, it is accepted that the number of ehcs posts was not sufficient for the employment of all eh graduates who applied for the identified cs posts. a statistically significant difference was found (p = 0.0253) between responses of ehcs practitioners (mean = 1.67; standard deviation = 0.56) and ehcs administrators (mean = 1.20; standard deviation = 0.42) regarding the utilisation of ehcs practitioners to render an effective and efficient ehs; therefore, it is accepted that ehcs practitioners were given ample opportunity to render an effective and efficient ehs. a statistically significant difference was found (0.036) between responses of ehcs practitioners (n = 4; 16%) and ehcs administrators (n = 4; 40%) regarding the exit evaluation. it is therefore accepted that there is no association of exit evaluations between ehcs practitioners and ehcs administrators. conclusion the hpcsa reported that the placement of eh graduates for cs has been a serious challenge for the doh since 2007, and therefore this challenge has had a negative impact on the ehs delivery, especially in a country faced with a quadruple burden of disease (cele et al., 2012). the devolution of ehs from the provincial health district to the municipal health sphere has caused permanent damage regarding the number of advertised posts for ehcs in the ec province, declining from 53 to 3 posts. the major problems that were identified included maladministration of ehcs, which related to the lack of consistency of communication during the organisation of the ehcs programme; a decline in the number of ehcs posts in the ec province which led to shortage of human resources; inadequate provision of material resources for conducting ehcs; lack of induction and inconsistent supervision of ehcs practitioners; and lack of evaluation of the successes or challenges of the ehcs programme. the most alarming resource problem was related to the lack of access to state-owned vehicles for some ehcs practitioners during their ehcs period. recommendations it is clear from the findings of the study that ehcs practitioners who were placed in the ec province, and the ehcs administrators who were organising ehcs during 2013–2016, faced numerous challenges. based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are suggested: the ndoh should work with the south african local government association (salga) to develop a framework for ehcs. the framework will outline the requirements and procedures of post-identification in all the provinces and their municipalities, and it will be a guide to local, provincial, and national government on ehcs implementation. all provinces and their municipalities should open ehcs posts for eh until they all meet the national norm, which is at least one ehp for every 10 000 people (as advocated by the world health organization and in the eh national policy, section 8.1). this could be achieved by obligating all the municipalities to submit their ehcs posts as per the requirement stipulated in the eh policy for all provinces and municipalities and ndoh to provide a budget for the effective implementation of ehcs. provincial health departments and their municipalities should strengthen their partnership with universities to ensure the effective administration of bursaries to eh students, and then the recruitment and retention strategy for ehcs practitioners using bursary obligation will be achieved. every effort should be made to place all the eh graduates in underserved rural areas, to achieve the real purpose of ehcs, which is addressing the needs of communities in underserved rural areas. each ehcs practitioner should be allocated a senior mentor for the year to whom he or she should be accountable. a thorough and informative orientation opportunity should be pre-arranged by the doh for all new ehcs practitioners when they arrive at their placement facilities. they should be informed about the particulars of the location, the organogram of the organisation, including their duties and obligations. it should also allow them an opportunity to meet their managers and fellow staff members. this should ensure that all ehcs practitioners are informed about their duties and what is expected of them during the cs year. the provision of guidelines that address and ensure extensive and continuous supervision and support to the ehcs practitioners would positively contribute to the improvement in the provision of quality healthcare services. this should also include the proper and regular (quarterly) rotation of ehcs practitioners to other divisions. it is advised that the provincial department of health and relevant municipalities compile an information leaflet, clearly stating the objectives and expectations of ehcs, as well as indicating which services should be rendered, and which need to be improved during their ehcs year, to ensure that all ehcs practitioners are informed about what is expected from them before they commence their ehcs programmes. it is recommended that a quarterly review of the ehcs placement be conducted by a professional team consisting of relevant ehcs coordinators and representatives. an audit tool can be designed, and regular audit evaluations could be showcased. adequate and efficient equipment, facilities and accessibility to resources (which include transport, stationery, offices, computers and internet access) should be provided at each ehcs placement facility. the minister of health and the workforce management: statutory service placements directorate in the national doh for eh and ec provincial doh are advised to address the contents of this article, and use the suggestions relating to ehcs allocations to rectify these complex and critical problems. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions p.m. was the student conducting the study under the supervision and leadership of prof. i.s. human and prof. p.e. melariri. both i.s.h. and p.e.m. contributed equally to the success of this study and p.m. graduated with a master’s degree in environmental health in april 2018. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references beyers, b. (2013). experiences of cs practitioners who are deployed at a rural health facility in the western cape. retrieved from http://etd.uwc.ac.za/xmlui/handle/11394/3321 cele, a., chaka, j., nemakonde, d., & mukhola, s. (2012). environmental health 2012: newsletter for the professional board for environmental health practitioners. pretoria: health professions council of south africa. de haan, m. (1996). the health of southern africa (7th edn.). cape town: juta. harvey, b.m., & pillay, a.l. (2006). the experiences of the first south african cs clinical psychologists. south african journal of psychology, 36(2), 259–280. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124630603600204 hatcher, a.m., onah, m., kornik, s., peacocke, j., & reid, s. (2014). placement, support, and retention of health professionals: national, cross-sectional findings from medical and dental cs officers in south africa. human resources for health. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1186/1478-4491-12-14 khan, n.b., knight, s., & esterhuizen, t. (2009). perceptions of and attitudes to the compulsory community service of therapists in kwazulu-natal. south african journal of communication disorders, 56(1), 17–22. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajcd.v56i1.189 maseko, l.j. (2012). factors that influence choice of placement for cs among occupational therapists. south african journal of occupational therapy, 44. retrieved from http://www.scielo.org.za ndaba, b.j. (2013). lived experiences of newly qualified professional nurses doing community service in midwifery section in one gauteng hospital. health studies dissertation, university of south africa, pretoria. nel, p., werner, a., poisat, p., sono, t., ngalo, n., & du plessis, a. (2014). human resources management (9th edn.). oxford: oxford university press. reid, s. (2002). community service for health professionals in south african: health review 2002. durban: health systems trust. reid, s.j., & conco, d. (1999). monitoring the implementation of cs. in south african health review 1999. durban: health systems trust. retrieved from http://www.hst.org.za/uploads/files/chapter17_99.pdf south africa. doh. (2004). the national health act 61 of 2003. government gazette 469(26595). retrieved from http://www.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/government-gazette2-december.pdf#page=15 south africa. doh. (2009). regulations defining the scope of the profession of environmental health regulation r.698, under section 33(1) and section 61(2) of the health professions council of south africa as amended. pretoria: government printer. south africa. doh. (2013). national environmental health policy. (37112)3-43. pretoria: government printer. south africa. doh. (2015a). community service letter for 2016 allieds.pdf. pretoria: government printer. south africa. doh. (2015b). national environmental health norms and standards for premises and acceptable monitoring standards for environmental health practitioners regulation r.39561, in terms of section 21(2) (b)(ii) of the national health act, 2003 (act no. 61 of 2003) as amended. pretoria: government printer. south africa. doh. (2016). response from doh community service issues 4th aug 16.pdf filename= utf-8’’response from doh community service issues (4th aug _16).pd f. pretoria: government printer. tarimo, e. (1991). towards a healthy district: organizing and managing district health systems based on primary health care. geneva: world health organization. wranz, e.s. (2011). compulsory community service for speech-language and hearing therapy professionals: readiness, reality and readjustment. unpublished master’s minor dissertation, march, pp. 1–49. read online: scan this qr code with your smart phone or mobile device to read online. page 1 of 1 reviewer acknowledgement http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access acknowledgement to reviewers in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for the sa journal of human resource management, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on https:// sajhrm.co.za for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a user. in order to be considered, please email submissions@sajhrm. co.za indicating your intention to register as a reviewer for the journal. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at https://sajhrm. co.za 2. in your ‘user home’ [https://sajhrm.co.za/ index.php/sajhrm/user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest(s). 3. it is good practice as a reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to the sa journal of human resource management. please do not hesitate to contact us if you require assistance in performing this task. publisher: publishing@aosis.co.za tel: +27 21 975 2602 sa journal of human resource management recognises the value and importance of peer reviewers in the overall publication process – not only in shaping individual manuscripts, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank and recognise the following reviewers for their precious time and dedication, regardless of whether the papers they reviewed were finally published. we apologise for any names that have been inadvertently left out. these individuals provided their services to the journal as a reviewer from 01 october 2021 to 30 september 2022. adi barnard aisyah p. asrunputri amanda werner andre p. calitz andrew jeremiah anita j. de bruyn annelize van niekerk annette j. venter ashika maharaj ashish v. gadekar aşkın keser bablu k. dhar binay tudu blessing chabaya bouwer jonker bridget m. de villiers cecilia m. schultz chantel harris christine janse van rensburg cinderella dube coen j. geldenhuys daphne pillay desere kokt diane bell dumisani g. mabasa eben h. swanepoel elizabeth c. rudolph elrie botha fathima essop mahomed frances de klerk frans maloa gerda van dijk gerhard h. rabie ghada a. el-kot gilton g. klerck godfrey maake grant freedman guinevere m. lourens hardus van zyl heidi m. le sueur hester nienaber hilton oosthuizen idris o. ganiyu ilze swarts isaac a. oyekola jabulani nyoni jabulile msimango-galawe jaco van der westhuizen jacqueline bosman jan c. visagie jeanette e. maritz jenika gobind jennifer c. nzonzo jerome kiley jolly b. kabagabe karen luyt karl b. hofmeyr kim e. dowdeswell leigh-anne p. dachapalli leona m. ungerer lientjie van rensburg liezl diedericks liiza gie lizelle rossouw lukas p.v. de swardt lusanda sekaja lynette louw malefetsane mofolo marita m. heyns mark h.r. bussin martha harunavamwe matita tshabalala melinde coetzee melissa jacobs molefe maleka monica kirsten mpho d. magau muna fathmath musawenkosi d. saurombe nadeem malik natasha winkler-titus nelesh dhanpat nicky terblanche nirmal k. betchoo nontsikelelo d. mtshelwane ntsako i. makamu obianuju e. okeke-uzodike olorunjuwon m. samuel paul smit pfungwa dhliwayo pierre a. joubert piet c. bester pieter schaap pieter k. smit renier steyn renjini m. joseph rhodrick n. musakuro rob venter shanil haricharan shaun ruggunan shikha vyas-doorgapersad simon ngalomba sridevi nair sumari o’neil suneel kumar suvera boodhoo suzanne gericke tarek h. abdeen tawanda nyikadzino thea van der westhuizen thulile l. ngonyama-ndou tshegofatso mabitsela verona e. mathews wesley r. pieters wiza munyeka xander van lill zamokuhle w. shabane http://www.sajhrm.co.za https://sajhrm.co.za https://sajhrm.co.za mailto:submissions@sajhrm.co.za mailto:submissions@sajhrm.co.za https://sajhrm.co.za https://sajhrm.co.za https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/user https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/user mailto:publishing@aosis.co.za 145-sabelo-version 4-29 april 2009.indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 7 no. 3 pp. 7 13 empirical research the relationship between leadership, job satisfaction and organisational commitment abstract the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between leader empowerment behaviour, job satisfaction and organisational commitment for employees in selected organisations in south africa. a cross-sectional survey design with a random sample (n = 209) was used. the leader empowering behaviour questionnaire (lebq), revised minnesota satisfaction questionnaire (msq) and organisational commitment questionnaire (ocq) were administered. the scales showed acceptable internal consistencies. statistically significant relationships were found between leader empowering behaviour, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. structural equation modelling indicated that leader empowerment behaviour predicted job satisfaction, which, in turn, predicted organisational commitment. marius w stander school of behavioural sciences north-west university south africa sebastiaan rothmann1,2 1school of behavioural sciences north-west university south africa 2department of human sciences university of namibia namibia correspondence to: sebastiaan rothmann e-mail: ian@ianrothmann.com 7 keywords: leadership, empowerment, extrinsic job satisfaction, intrinsic job satisfaction, affective organisational commitment organisations, by necessity, have to adapt to changing circumstances (van tonder, 2005). adaptive responses take the form of strategic repositioning, reorganisation, mergers, acquisitions and buy-outs. the re-design of organisational processes has also stimulated a need for employees to adapt their roles to these demands by embracing risk, stimulating innovation and coping with high levels of uncertainty (spreitzer, 1995). the empowerment of employees is regarded as vital for organisational effectiveness (bartram & casimir, 2006). increasing access to empowerment structures and organisational support must therefore become a priority for organisations to ensure that quality work environments are created (patrick & spence laschinger, 2006). organisations attempt to increase employee motivation through empowerment (matthews, diaz & cole, 2002). laschinger, finegan, shamain and wilk (2004) state that empowerment may be one way of preventing job dissatisfaction. most definitions of empowerment refer to some aspects of power and control – control over decision-making, control over work processes, control over performance goals and measurement, and/or control over people (appelbaum, hebert & leroux, 1999). according to robinson (1997), the common thread through most definitions of empowerment is the concept of providing more information, more skills and more ability to make decisions on how to perform one’s work. menon (2001) conceptualised empowerment as an act, a process or a state. she classified empowerment into three broad categories, namely structural empowerment, motivational empowerment (psychological empowerment) and leadership empowerment. leadership empowerment focuses on the leader who energises his or her followers to act with the leader providing future vision. it is thus imperative for researchers to explore what it is that makes employees experience a sense of empowerment (menon, 2001). according to mok and au-yeung (2002), management support and encouragement, information, autonomy, rewards and opportunities for development are important elements of an organisational climate to enhance a sense of empowerment. they found that teamwork and leadership have the highest correlation with empowerment. scott-ladd, travaglione and marshall (2005) showed that participation in decision-making promotes job satisfaction and organisational commitment. konczak, stelly and trusty (2000) found significant correlations with all the constructs of leader empowerment behaviour, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. in this study, focus is on the leader’s role to empower followers and on the impact of this on job satisfaction and organisational commitment. carson and king (2005) are of the opinion that empowered work environments provide the starting point from which self-leadership can result in positive organisational outcomes. they regard empowerment and self-leadership as avenues to influence and improve direction and motivation within organisations. it seems logical that there would be a link between leadership behaviour and employee attitudes (job satisfaction and organisational commitment) leading to organisational outcomes (less intention to leave and a lower turnover). however, a lack of research exists regarding the relationship between leader empowering behaviour, job satisfaction and organisational commitment in south african industries. the information obtained in this study can be of value when facilitating organisational development interventions, individual development, talent-management strategies and training programmes. empirical research stander & rothmann vol. 7 no. 3 pp. 7 13sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za empowerment. empowerment perceptions are associated with increased job satisfaction and work productivity and with a decreased propensity to leave an organisation (koberg, boss, wayne, jason & goodman, 1999). savery and luks (2001) suggest that the level of employee involvement is directly linked to job satisfaction. scott-ladd et al. (2005) found that participation in decision-making promotes job satisfaction. empowerment may create the conditions necessary to build organisational commitment (dee, henkin & duemer, 2003). allen and meyer (1996) define organisational commitment as the psychological link between the employee and the organisation that makes it less likely for an employee to want to leave voluntarily. a committed employee identifies with the organisation, makes personal sacrifices, performs beyond normal expectations, works selflessly and contributes to the organisation’s overall effectiveness. meyer, allen and smith (1993) distinguish between three dimensions of organisational commitment. firstly, continuance commitment refers to an employee’s behavioural orientation. it refers to the employee’s general awareness of the costs associated with leaving the organisation, especially when the employee perceives a lack of a suitable alternative and/or when the personal costs of leaving are too high. the employee feels committed to stay but more out of desperation than anything else. secondly, affective commitment refers to an employee’s emotional attachment to, identification with and involvement in his or her workplace. lastly, normative commitment, together with affective commitment, refers to an employee’s attitudinal disposition (meyer et al., 1993). single and pearson (2000) found only partial support for the relationship between perceptions of empowerment and organisational commitment. menon (2001) found that the greater the empowerment, the greater the organisational commitment. research by mcdermott, lashinger and shamain (1996) indicates that empowerment for health professionals is associated with higher levels of commitment. bordin et al. (2007) and dee et al. (2003) found that empowerment has a significant positive effect on organisational commitment; they reported that meaning, self-determination, impact and total empowerment scores have positive effects on teachers’ levels of commitment. mester visser, roodt and kellerman (2003) reported that transactional and transformational leadership correlate significantly with affective commitment. nyhan (2000) suggests that empowerment leads to increased trust, which results in higher organisational commitment. transformational leadership has a positive association with organisational commitment (lee, 2005). a transformation leader’s consideration for followers’ individuality and willingness to coach them do, in fact, create meaningful exchanges (lee, 2005). teams that are led by a supervisor who exhibits the characteristics of a super leader also have higher levels of organisational commitment (elloy, 2005). joiner and bakalis (2006) report that strong co-worker and supervisor support contributes to affective commitment. results by greguras and ford (2006) indicate a relationship between a subordinate’s respect for a supervisor and commitment. scottladd et al. (2005) found that participation in decision-making promotes commitment. konczak et al. (2000) found correlations between leader empowering behaviour and organisational commitment. based on the above-mentioned discussion, the following hypotheses are formulated: h1: there is a significant positive relationship between leader empowering behaviour, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. h2: leader empowering behaviour predicts job satisfaction, which, in turn, predicts organisational commitment. 8 the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between leader empowerment behaviour, job satisfaction and organisational commitment in selected organisations in south africa. leadership empowerment behaviour a leader plays a vital role in providing subordinates with empowering experiences (liden, sparrowe & wayne, 2000). arnold, arad, rhoades and drasgow (2000) state that leadership in traditional environments may be, at most, only partially applicable in empowered environments. the leadership approach to empowerment focuses on the leader who energises his or her followers to act with the leader providing future vision (menon, 2001). the delegation of authority, accountability for outcomes, leading by example, encouragement, the showing of concern, participative decision-making, information sharing, coaching and the development of people have been identified as leadership behaviours that empower people (arnold et al., 2000; conger & kanungo, 1988). bartram and casimir (2006) found that transformational leadership has significant positive correlations with empowerment. a transformational leader is someone who inspires followers to transcend their own self-interests for the good of the organisation and who is capable of having an extraordinary effect on his or her followers. transformational leaders involve followers in decision-making, develop their potential, encourage them, show consideration, allow their followers to think critically and appreciate their different needs (avolio, zhu, koh & bhatia, 2004). according to wallach and mueller (2006), transformational leaders can empower followers by providing positive emotional support and opportunities to experience task mastery. the work climate created by managers contributes directly to subordinates’ feelings of self-worth and sense of self-determination (deci, connell & ryan, 1989). according to blanchard, carlos and randolph (1999), people need direction much more than support in order to be empowered. a leader should identify outcomes, provide an action plan, share information, provide credible role models and provide information that allows employees to reach their own conclusions. the level of feedback from supervisors correlates strongly with employee’s perception of organisational support (patrick & spence laschinger, 2006). the most important aspects that differentiate leadersubordinate relationships are the degree of emotional support, decision-making responsibility and task challenge granted to subordinates (liden et al., 2000). when employees perceive that their supervisors support them, they are less likely to be concerned about making mistakes and having additional responsibilities (bordin, bartram & casimir, 2007). relationship between leadership, job satisfaction and organisational commitment job satisfaction is the attitude that an employee has towards his or her job (robbins, 2003). job satisfaction is an affective reaction to a job that results from a person’s comparison of outcomes with those that are desired, anticipated or deserved (oshagbemi, 1999). according to robbins (2003), factors that influence job satisfaction are the work itself, promotional opportunities, the abilities of the supervisors to provide emotional and technical support, the extent to which fellow workers are supportive, working conditions and the equitability of remuneration. appelbaum and honeggar (1998) and rad and yarmohammadian (2006) showed that empowerment leads to increased job satisfaction. the survey by menon (2001) also determined that the greater the empowerment, the higher the job satisfaction. these statements are supported by the research of bordin et al. (2007) and pearson and moomaw (2005) when they state that higher job satisfaction is associated with a high degree of leadership, job satisfaction and organisational commitment empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 7 no. 3 pp. 7 13 9 research design research approach this study followed the quantitative research tradition. a crosssectional survey design was therefore used. questionnaires were also used to gather primary data in a non-random field survey. a correlational approach was furthermore followed in the data analysis. research method participants the study population can be defined as random samples of employees in selected organisations in south africa (n = 209). this sample consists of employees from the chemical and mining industry. the population includes workers from all levels, in other words ranging from unskilled to semi-skilled to professional levels. the lowest level of employees had a level of literacy that was adequate for the valid completion of the questionnaires. descriptive information of the sample is given in table 1. as indicated in table 1, the majority of employees (70%) was older than 30. more males (92%) than females (8%) participated in the research. the majority of employees (53%) had tertiary qualifications. fourteen per cent were at management level, while 44% had more than 10 years of service, and 37% had less than five years of service. measuring instruments three measuring instruments were used in the empirical study: the leader empowering behaviour questionnaire (lebq) (konczak et al., 2000) provides leaders with feedback on behaviour relevant to employee empowerment. the lebq consists of 17 items and is scaled from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). this scale contains six dimensions: delegation of authority, e.g. “my manager gives me the authority i need to make decisions that improve work processes and procedures”; accountability, e.g. “my manager holds me accountable for performance and results”; self-directed decision-making, e.g. “my manager encourages me to develop my own solutions to problems i encounter in my work”; information sharing, e.g. “my manager shares information i need to ensure high-quality results”; skills development, e.g. “my manager provides me with frequent opportunities to develop new skills”; and coaching, e.g. “i am encouraged to try out new ideas even if there is a chance they may not succeed”) (konczak et al., 2000, p. 307). three items measure each construct, except for the construct of information sharing, which is measured by two items. two items from arnold et al. (2000, p. 269) were added to this dimension for the purposes of this study (“my manager explains his or her decisions and actions to my work group”; “my manager explains company goals to my work group”). stander and rugg (2001) indicated that the construct validity of the questionnaire was acceptable. konczak et al. (2000) found cronbach alpha coefficients of 0.92 for delegation, 0.82 for accountability, 0.85 for self-directed decision-making, 0.93 for information sharing, 0.86 for skills development and 0.89 for coaching. exploratory factor analysis was also conducted for leader empowering behaviour to verify the construct validity of the questionnaire. a simple principal components analysis was conducted on the 19 items of the lebq on the total sample. an analysis of eigenvalues (larger than 1) indicated that two factors (as opposed to the original six factors) could be extracted, explaining 69% of the total variance. the scree plot indicated that one factor could be extracted. the factor was labelled leader empowering behaviour. the revised ‘minnesota satisfaction questionnaire’ (msq) (weiss, dawis, england & lofquist, 1967) was used to indicate how satisfied or dissatisfied respondents are with their jobs by asking the respondents to rate themselves on 20 questions using table 1 characteristics of the participants item category frequency percentage age 30 years and younger 62 30 31–39 years 61 29 40 years and older 86 41 gender male 190 92 female 17 8 missing 2 16 qualification up to grade 12 101 48 diploma and degree 95 46 postgraduate qualification 13 7 organisational level management 30 14 non-management 176 84 missing 3 2 years of service less than 5 years 77 37 6–10 years 40 19 more than 10 years 92 44 industry chemical 134 64 mining 75 36 a 5-point scale varying from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied). the msq short form measures intrinsic job satisfaction using items such as “the chance to do different things from time to time” and extrinsic job satisfaction using items such as “the way my boss handles her or his workers”. hirschfeld (2000) found that a two-factor model is superior to a one-factor model (total job satisfaction). alpha coefficients were found to range from 0.87 to 0.95, which supports the internal consistency of the scale (hirschfeld, 2000). research done by konczak et al. (2000) indicates a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.85. stander and rugg (2001) find an alpha coefficient of 0.91. both a one-factor model and a two-factor model of job satisfaction were tested for the purposes of this study. the two-factor model hypothesised that the msq consists of two factors, namely extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction. comparison on the fit indices indicates that model 1 displays the best fit (although not a good fit). the statistically significant χ2 = 761.06 (df = 100; p = 0.00) and fit indices of model 1 revealed the best fit for the originally hypothesised two-factor model. from a practical perspective, values for the goodness-of-fit index (gfi), normed-fit index (nfi), tuckerlewis index (tli) and comparative-fit index (cfi) above the 0.90 level indicate a satisfactory fit. the root-means-square error of approximation (rmsea) value (< 0.08 = reasonable fit) furthermore confirms the hypothesised model. this result supports other studies that found a two-structure (extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction) model (hirschfeld, 2000). the organisational commitment questionnaire (ocq) (meyer et al., 1993) was used to measure the organisational commitment of employees. continuance and affective and normative commitments are dimensions measured by this questionnaire. the questionnaire consists of 18 items. inter-correlations among populations were found to be consistently above 0.90 (allen & meyer, 1996). stander and rugg (2001) found an alpha coefficient of 0.86. an exploratory factor analysis was carried out on the ocq. an analysis of eigenvalues (larger than 1) and scree plot indicated that three factors could be extracted, explaining 53% of the total variance. after the factors that had double loadings were eliminated, two factors were identified, namely attitudinal commitment (consisting of both affective and normative commitment) and continuance commitment. meyer et al. (1993) refer to continuance commitment as an employee’s behavioural orientation, while normative commitment, together with affective commitment, refers to an employee’s attitudinal disposition. empirical research stander & rothmann vol. 7 no. 3 pp. 7 13sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za table 2 descriptive statistics and cronbach alpha coefficients of the measuring instruments construct mean sd skewness kurtosis a leader empowering behaviour 5.21 1.25 0.97 0.58 0.97 attitudinal commitment 3.71 0.87 0.55 0.36 0.88 continuance commitment 3.33 0.82 0.04 0.51 0.54 intrinsic job satisfaction 3.98 0.59 -0.42 -0.01 0.86 extrinsic job satisfaction 3.99 1.01 -0.83 0.10 0.77 research procedure fieldworkers ‘distributed’ hard copies of the questionnaires to the participants in the different organisations. the copies of the questionnaires were collected directly after they had been completed anonymously by the participants. the fieldworkers explained to the participants that the questionnaires would be treated confidentially. statistical analyses statistical analysis was carried out with the spss program (spss, 2006). descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. cronbach alpha coefficients were used to determine the reliability of the measuring instruments (clark & watson, 1995). pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were used to specify the relationship between the variables. in terms of statistical significance, it was decided to set the value at a 99% confidence interval level (p ≤ 0,01). effect sizes (steyn, 1999) were used, in addition to statistical significance, to determine the practical significance of correlation coefficients. a cut-off point of 0.30 (medium effect, cohen, 1988) was set for the practical significance of correlation coefficients. structural equation modelling, as implemented in amos (arbuckle, 2006), was used to test the factorial model of the msq and to test the structural model of leader empowering behaviour, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. the following indices produced by amos were used in this study: the chisquare statistic, which is the test of the absolute fit of the model, the gfi, the adjusted goodness-of-fit index (agfi), the nfi, the cfi, the tli and the rmsea. the descriptive statistics and cronbach alpha coefficients of the measuring instruments are reported in table 2. from table 2, it is evident that the scores on the scales are normally distributed. the internal consistencies of the constructs, with the exception of continuance commitment, are acceptable according to the guideline of 0.70 as set by nunnally and bernstein (1994). these results indicate a high reliability of the instruments, which is consistent with the findings of other research. due to the low cronbach alpha of continuance commitment, it was not used in further analysis. the correlations between the lebq, msq and ocq are reported in table 3. table 3 shows that practically significant correlation coefficients of large effect were found between leader empowering behaviour and intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction. practically significant correlation coefficients of medium effect were found between leader empowering behaviour and attitudinal commitment (both affective and normative). a practically significant correlation of medium effect was obtained between the extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction subscales and attitudinal commitment. this indicates that higher levels of job satisfaction are associated with higher levels of attitudinal commitment. table 3 correlation coefficients between the lebq, msq and ocq 1 2 3 1. leader empowerment 2. attitudinal commitment 0.40*† 3. intrinsic job satisfaction 0.64*†† 0.39*† 4. extrinsic job satisfaction 0.81*†† 0.41*† 0.61*†† * statistically significant p ≤ 0.01 † correlation is practically significant r > 0.30 (medium effect) †† correlation is practically significant r > 0.50 (large effect) hypothesis 1, stating that there is a significant positive relationship between leader empowering behaviour, job satisfaction and organisational commitment, is supported by the results. subsequently, structural equation modelling, as implemented in amos (arbuckle, 2006), was used to test a structural model of leader empowering behaviour, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. in fig. 1, a path model was used to test the hypothesised relationships, where the latent variables included leader empowering behaviour and job satisfaction, with organisational commitment as the latent dependent variable. the hypothesis states that leader empowering behaviour predicts job satisfaction, which, in turn, predicts organisational commitment. one of the three dimensions (namely, job satisfaction) was covered by at least two scales. for these dimensions, a latent variable was specified on which the corresponding scales loaded, separating random measurement error from true score variance. for leader empowerment behaviour and organisational commitment, there was only one indicator, meaning that, in these cases, there was one-to-one correspondence between the manifested variables (scales) and the underlying latent dimensions. usually, no distinction is made in these cases between random error variance and true score variance, so that the correlations among these oneindicator latent variables and other latent variables may be biased (little, cunningham, shahar & widaman, 2002). this problem was overcome by means of a procedure proposed by bagozzi and heatherton (1994). firstly, a one-factor model was fitted for all items belonging to each of the scales. secondly, separate indicators for each scale were formed by selecting items on the basis of their loadings, alternating items with high and low loadings. thus, three parcels of items were created for leader empowerment behaviour, while two parcels of items were created for organisational commitment. the results indicated an adequate model fit: χ2 = 38.20 (p = 0.00); χ2/df = 3.18; gfi = 0.95; agfi = 0.87; nfi = 0.97; cfi = 0.98; ifi = 0.98; rfi = 0.95; tli = 0.97; and rmsea = 0.10. the statistically significant χ2 revealed a good fit for the hypothesised model. from a practical perspective, values for the gfi, nfi, tli and cfi above the 0.90 level indicated a satisfactory fit. the rmsea value of 0.10 was indicative of a borderline fit to confirm the hypothesised model. it is, however, the model with the best fit. the results in fig. 1 demonstrate that 87% of the variance of job satisfaction is explained by leader empowering behaviour. the path in fig. 1 indicates that leader empowerment impacts on attitudinal commitment through job satisfaction. it can be stated that a leader’s empowering behaviour impacts positively on employee attitude towards their jobs. this positive attitude leads to employee desire to maintain their relationship with the company. based on the above results, the second hypothesis stating that leader empowering behaviour predicts job satisfaction, which, in turn, predicts organisational commitment, can be supported. 10 leadership, job satisfaction and organisational commitment empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 7 no. 3 pp. 7 13 11 discussion the objective of this study was to investigate the relationship of leader empowering behaviour, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. the results showed that statistically significant relationships exist between leader empowering behaviour, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. structural equation modelling confirmed that leader empowering behaviour predicts job satisfaction, which, in turn, predicts organisational commitment. practically significant correlation coefficients of large effect were found between leader empowering behaviour and job satisfaction. according to appelbaum and honeggar (1998), a review of literature suggests that empowerment leads to increased job satisfaction. the survey by menon (2001) determined that the greater the empowerment, the higher the job satisfaction. these statements are supported by the research of bordin et al. (2007) and pearson and moomaw (2005) when they state that greater job satisfaction is associated with a high degree of empowerment. savery and luks (2001) suggest that level of employee involvement is directly linked to job satisfaction. scott-ladd et al. (2005) found that participation in decision-making promotes job satisfaction. the results of this study support findings by laschinger, wong, mcmahon and kaufmann (1999), which state that access to information, support, resources and opportunity create the psychological state that employees must experience for managerial interventions to be successful. leader empowering behaviour a leader empowering behaviour b leader empowerment behaviour 0.94 0.96 0.96 job satisfaction r2= 0,87 intrinsic job satisfaction extrinsic job satisfaction organisational commitment r2= 0,23 attitude 1 0.71 0.87 0.85 0.95 0.48 0.93 attitude 2 leader empowering behaviour c figure 1 the structural model of leader empowering behaviour, job satisfaction and organisational commitment practically significant correlation coefficients of medium effect were found between leader empowering behaviour and attitudinal commitment (both affective and normative). konczak et al. (2000) found significant correlations between leader empowering behaviour, psychological empowerment and organisational commitment. empowerment perceptions are also associated with increased job satisfaction and work effectiveness and with a decreased propensity to leave an organisation (koberg et al., 1999). according to joiner and bakalis (2006), strong supervisor support contributes to affective commitment. results by greguras and ford (2006) indicate a relationship between a subordinate’s respect for a supervisor and commitment: they conclude that supervisory support uniquely influences affective organisational commitment. scott-ladd et al. (2005) found that participation in decisionmaking promotes commitment. bordin et al. (2007) state that creating feelings of psychological empowerment may intensify organisational commitment. a higher level of commitment may lead to a willingness to stay with a company and, in the process, supports the retention of staff by an organisation. the results indicated that leader empowering behaviour predicts job satisfaction, which, in turn, predicts organisational commitment. a leader’s empowering behaviour impacts positively on employee attitude towards their jobs. this positive attitude leads to employee desire to maintain their relationships with the company. these results support robbins’ (2003) opinion that a person with a high level of job satisfaction holds positive attitudes towards the job, while a person who is dissatisfied with his or her job holds negative attitudes towards . . empirical research stander & rothmann vol. 7 no. 3 pp. 7 13sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za arnold, j.a., arad, s., rhoades, j.a. & drasgow, f. (2000). the empowering leadership questionnaire: the construction and validation of a new scale for measuring leaders’ behaviours. journal of organizational behavior, 21, 249 269. avolio, b.j., zhu, w., koh, w. & bhatia, p. (2004). transformational leadership and organizational commitment: mediating role of psychological empowerment and moderating role of structural distance. journal of organizational behavior, 25, 951 968. bagozzi, r.p. & heatherton, t.f. (1994). a general approach to representing multifaceted personality constructs: application to state self-esteem. structural equation modeling, 1, 35 67. bartram, t. & casimir, g. (2006). the relationship between leadership and follower in-role performance and satisfaction with the leader. leadership & organization development journal, 28(1), 4 19. blanchard, k., carlos, j.p. & randolph, a. (1999). the three keys to empowerment. san francisco: berrett-koehler. bordin, c., bartram, t. & casimir, g. (2007). the antecedents and consequences of psychological empowerment among singaporean it employees. management research news, 30(1), 34 46. carson, c.m. & king jr., j.e. (2005). leaving leadership: solving leadership problems through empowerment. management decision, 43, 1049 1053. clark, l.a. & watson, d. (1995). constructing validity: basic issues in objective scale development. psychological assessment, 7, 309 319. cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). hillsdale: lawrence erlbaum. conger, j.a. & kanungo, r.n. (1988). the empowerment process: integrating theory and practice. academy of management review, 13, 471–482. deci, e.l., connell, j.p. & ryan, r.m. (1989). self-determination in a work organization. journal of applied psychology, 74, 580–590. dee, j., henkin, a. & duemer, l. (2003). structural antecedents and psychological correlates of teacher empowerment. journal of educational administration, 41, 257 27777. elloy, d.f. (2005). the influence of superleader behaviours on organization commitment, job satisfaction and organizational self-esteem in a self-managed work team. leadership & organizational development journal, 26(2), 120 127. greguras, g.j. & ford, j.m. (2006). an examination of the multidimensionality of supervisor and subordinate perceptions of leader-member exchange. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 79, 433 465. hirschfeld, r.r. (2000). does revising the intrinsic and extrinsic subscales of the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire short form make a difference? educational and psychological measurement, 60, 255 270. joiner, t.a. & bakalis, s. (2006). the antecedents of organizational commitment: the case of australian casual academics. international journal of educational management, 20, 439 452. koberg, c.s., boss, r., wayne, s., jason, c. & goodman, e.a. (1999). antecedents and outcomes of empowerment. journal of social psychology, 139, 389 414. konczak, l.j., stelly, d.j. & trusty, m.l. (2000). defining and measuring empowering leader behaviours: development of an upward feedback instrument. educational and psychological measurement, 60, 301 313. laschinger, h.k.s., finegan, j.e., shamain, j. & wilk, p. (2004). a longitudinal analysis of the impact of workplace empowerment on work satisfaction. journal of organizational behaviour, 25, 527 545. laschinger, h.k.s., wong, c., mcmahon, l. & kaufmann, c. (1999). leader behaviour impact on staff nurse empowerment, job tension and work effectiveness. journal of nursing administration, 29(5), 28 39. lee, j. (2005). effects of leadership and leader-member exchange on commitment. leadership & organization development journal, 26, 655 672. 12 the job. the results of this study underline the important role of leaders in creating positive attitudes towards jobs and their organisations. this study had various limitations. firstly, the sample size limits the generalisability of the results. larger samples, a diversity of industries and an equal representation of races, organisational levels and genders should improve the value of the research. secondly, reliance on self-reports, a lack of social desirability and the cross-sectional design may limit the conclusions. cross-sectional design makes it difficult to prove causal relationships between constructs. longitudinal research is needed to assess the issues of the strength and duration of the relationship between leader empowering behaviour and employee attitudes. recommendations organisations should create environments where people can optimise their potential and add value to the organisations. leaders play a very important role in creating and maintaining these environments. carson and king (2005) are of the opinion that empowered work environments provide the starting point from which self-leadership can result in positive organisational outcomes. empowerment and self-leadership are avenues through which to influence and improve direction and motivation within organisations (carson & king, 2005). a key competence that managers should develop is that of people developer. to be able to be a good people developer, managers should be coached and developed themselves to delegate authority, hold employees accountable for outcomes, lead by example, encourage subordinates, show concern for others’ feelings, allow participative decision-making, share information, and coach and mentor people. bordin et al. (2007) mention that supervisors should be more communicative, more sensitive to the needs of subordinates, willing and empathetic listeners, and understanding and approachable. managers should budget time for the development of their people. one way of ensuring that managers do this is to set people development as one of the performance criteria for every manager. if managers are rewarded for people development, they create an empowering culture. the concept of leader empowering behaviour in the unique south african business environment should be explored further. additional research should also be done on the validity of the lebq in south africa. author’s note the financial assistance of the national research foundation towards this research is hereby acknowledged. references allen, n.j. & meyer, j.p. (1996). affective, continuance and normative to the organisation: an examination of the construct validity. journal of vocational behaviour, 49, 252 276. appelbaum, s.h. & honeggar, k. (1998). empowerment: a contrasting overview of organizations in general and nursing in particular: an examination of organizational factors, managerial behaviours, job designs and structural power. empowerment in organizations, 6(2), 29 50 appelbaum, s.t., hebert, d. & leroux, s. (1999). empowerment: power culture and leadership: a strategy or fad for the millennium? journal of workplace learning: employee counselling today, 11(7), 1 22. arbuckle, j.l. (2006). amos user’s guide version 7.0. chicago: small waters corporation. leadership, job satisfaction and organisational commitment empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 7 no. 3 pp. 7 13 liden, r.c., sparrowe, r.t. & wayne, s.j. (2000). an examination of the mediating role of psychological empowerment on the reactions between the job, interpersonal relationships and work outcomes. journal of applied psychology, 85, 407 416. little, t.d., cunningham, w.a., shahar, g. & widaman, k.f. (2002). to parcel or not to parcel: exploring the question, weighing the merits. structural equation modeling, 9, 151 173. matthews, r.a., diaz, w.m. & cole, s.g. (2002). the organizational empowerment scale. personnel review, 32, 297 318. mcdermott, k., laschinger, h.k. & shamain, j. (1996). work empowerment and organisational commitment. nursing management, 27(5), 44 47. menon, s.t. (2001). employee empowerment: an integrative psychological approach. applied psychology: an international review, 50, 153 180. mester, c., visser, d., roodt, g. & kellerman, r. (2003). leadership style and its relation to employee attitudes and behaviour. sa journal of industrial psychology, 29(2), 72 82. meyer, j.p., allen, n.j. & smith, c. (1993). commitment to organisations and occupations: extension and test of a three-component conceptualisation. journal of applied psychology, 87, 538 551. mok, e. & au-yeung, b. (2002). relationship between organizational climate and empowerment of nurses in hong kong. journal of nursing management, 10(3), 129 138. nunnally, j.c. & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory (3rd ed.). new york: mcgraw-hill. nyhan, r.c. (2000). changing the paradigm: trust and its role in the public sector. the american review of public administration, 30(1), 87 109. oshagbemi, t. (1999). overall job satisfaction: how good are single versus multiple-item measures? journal of managerial psychology, 14, 388 403. patrick, a. & spence laschinger, h.k. (2006). the effect of structural empowerment and perceived organizational support on middle level nurse managers’ role satisfaction. journal of nursing management, 14, 13 22. pearson, l.c. & moomaw, w. (2005). the relationship between teacher autonomy and stress, work satisfaction, empowerment, and professionalism. educational research quarterly, 29(1), 37 53. rad, a.m.m. & yarmohammadian, m.h. (2006). a study of relationship between managers’ leadership style and employees’ job satisfaction. leadership in health services, 19(2), xi xxviii. robbins, s.p. (2003). organisational behaviour: global and south african perspective. englewood cliffs: prentice hall. robinson, r. (1997). loosening the reins without losing control. empowerment in organisations, 5(2), 76 81. savery, l.k. & luks, j.a. (2001). the relationship between empowerment, job satisfaction and reported stress levels: some australian evidence. leadership & organization development journal, 22(3), 97 104. scott-ladd, b., travaglione, a. & marshall, v. (2005). causal inferences between participation in decision-making, task attributes, work effort, rewards, job satisfaction and commitment. leadership and organisational development journal, 27(5), 399 414. single, t.h. & pearson, c.m. (2000). creating an empowering culture: examining the relationship between organisational culture and perceptions of empowerment. journal of quality management, 5(1), 27. spreitzer, g.m. (1995). psychological empowerment in the workplace: dimensions, measurement and validation. academy of management journal, 38, 1442 1465. spss inc. (2006). spss 15.0 for windows. chicago: stander, m.w. & rugg, j. (2001). empowerment within a university campus. paper presented at the 13th annual national conference of the saims, stellenbosch.. steyn, h.s. (1999). praktiese betekenisvolheid: die gebruik van effekgrootes. wetenskaplike bydraes reeks b: natuur wetenskappe nr. 117. potchefstroom: pu vir cho. van tonder, c. (2005). the unacknowledged contribution of organisational change practice to organisational and employee wellness. paper presented at the changing world of work conference, vanderbijlpark. wallach, a.v. & mueller, c.w. (2006). job characteristics and organisational predictors of psychological empowerment among paraprofessional within human service organisations: an exploratory study. administration of social work, 30(10), 95 110. weiss, d.j., dawis, r.v., england, g.w. & lofquist, l.h. (1967). manual for the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire. minneapolis: university of minnesota, industrial relations center. 13 abstract introduction research purpose and objectives literature review research method findings and discussion implication for application limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) rhodrick n. musakuro department of human resources, faculty of business and management sciences, cape peninsula university of technology, cape town, south africa frances de klerk department of human resources, faculty of business and management sciences, cape peninsula university of technology, cape town, south africa citation musakuro, r.n., & de klerk, f. (2021). academic talent: perceived challenges to talent management in the south african higher education sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1394. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1394 original research academic talent: perceived challenges to talent management in the south african higher education sector rhodrick n. musakuro, frances de klerk received: 07 may 2020; accepted: 27 oct. 2020; published: 29 jan. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: talent management is one of the most important and key strategic issues facing managers in the south african (sa) higher education sector. research purpose: the study aimed to establish talent management challenges at one selected sa public higher education institution (hei) which offers contact tuition in the western cape. motivation for the study: emerging trends show talent management has since presented unique sets of challenges in the sa higher education sector. sa needs to attract and retain academic talent to reach target levels of education and skills development and also ensure tertiary institutions accomplish their visions and missions. research approach/design and method: we conducted the study using the interpretivist research paradigm. semi-structured interviews were applied to a purposive sample of 7 human resource (hr) professionals from one selected hei in the western cape. content analysis was used for data analysis. main findings: we established that workforce planning, compensation and rewards, training and development, succession planning, recruitment, selection, and performance management were negatively affecting the talent management practices of the selected hei. practical/managerial implications: hr professionals can use the study findings as a basis for understanding talent management challenges in a selected hei and what causes these challenges. contribution/value-add: the study establishes an insight into the talent management challenges of a selected hei and provides reasons for what causes them. it also made several recommendations to the institution in order to solve the talent management challenges. keywords: higher education institutions; talent; talent attraction; talent retention; talent management; south africa. introduction talent management is one of the most important and key strategic issues that managers face in the modern-day business environment (silzer & dowel, 2010). in the case of the higher education sector, there is a growing demand for academic staff in higher education institutions (heis) and the economic outlook predicts a further increase in the global demand (theron, barkhuizen, & du plesis, 2014). on the other hand, retention problems are also a growing concern for management (hesa, 2011). increased demand and retention concerns have since presented a unique set of challenges into the whole talent management system for management of heis. it appears that the so-called ‘war for talent’ is hugely affecting the higher education sector as predicted by previous scholars (chambers, foulon, handfield-jones, hanklin, & michaels, 1998). under such circumstances, academic talent will need to be managed more effectively and efficiently in heis. effective and efficient talent management enables academic staff to improve productivity and could also help to increase job satisfaction. research purpose and objectives this study seeks to establish the talent management challenges at one selected south african (sa) public hei, which offers contact tuition in the western cape. it is expected that human resource (hr) professionals can use the findings as a basis for understanding talent management challenges in a selected hei and what causes these challenges. with the research purpose, several research objectives were identified for the literature review and empirical study. firstly, the literature review aimed at conceptualising the theoretical aspects of talent management and understanding recent talent management trends in the higher education landscape. secondly, the empirical study aimed at exploring challenges associated with talent management at one selected hei. thirdly, the study also aimed at understanding the causes of talent management at one selected hei. finally, it aimed at making recommendations to the selected hei management to improve its talent management practices. literature review managing academic talent in sa’s higher education sector, it is important to attract and retain academic staff because these are the employees who help to ensure that the visions and missions of the universities are achieved (ng’ethe, iravo, & namusonge, 2012). moreover, the role of the academic staff is of paramount importance because they lead to economic growth, reduction of poverty and supply of scarce skills (che, 2008; hesa, 2011). it is also important to retain knowledgeable academic staff because of financial costs associated with losing them (currie, 2006). if it can be agreed that talented employees bring about desirable success and sustainable development to universities, then losing them will cost the heis (netswera, rankhumise, & mavundla, 2005). several scholars concur that costs such as costs of hiring new employees, training and development, induction and orientation programmes, turnover costs, disruptions of productivity, and declining morale, amongst others, can affect organisations severely (de cieri et al., 2008; pienaar & bester, 2008). challenges in the south african higher education institutions the demand for academic staff in the heis has significantly increased and future projections suggest it is expected to increase (theron et al., 2014). reports suggest that more than half of the academics will be retiring in less than a decade from now and since then, there has been a concern on the supply of labour as the current academic pipeline is insufficient (hesa, 2011). the situation is further worsened by the fact that most heis have recorded a large increase in student enrolment in the last two decades (hesa, 2014a, 2014b). a number of factors are contributing to the shortage of academic staff in sa heis. amongst these factors are resignations, dismissals, emigration of experienced academics for greener pastures and restrictions related to self-development and a lack of recognition for good performance (adedeji & olaniyan, 2011; schullion, 2011). in addition, a previous report found that poor remuneration and reward practices are some of the main factors contributing to reasons why the academic staff are leaving the heis (dbsa, 2010). a study by theron et al. (2014) revealed that 34% of academic staffs were considering leaving their current institution because of unhappiness with their compensation and rewards. another study at a sa hei by nkomentaba (2014) found that 63% of the respondents agreed that they would leave their hei to earn more pay elsewhere. consequently, sa academics are incompetently remunerated relative to other occupations in the public and private sector where the same qualifications, expertise and skills are required. therefore, as a consequence, a significant reduction in the number of potential and capable academics from the private and public sector to tertiary institutions like universities and colleges was observed (dbsa, 2010). according to the south african council of educators (sace) (2010), academics are leaving hei for better compensation in developed countries or for other career opportunities. this turnover affects service delivery and has huge negative effects on the performance of the students (williams, champion, & hall, 2012). another talent management challenge in sa heis is related to funding. it has been reported that universities in sub-saharan africa are under-resourced (hesa, 2011). in the last two decades, state and research funding in universities has worsened (de villiers & steyn, 2009). this means that universities are not able to invest adequately in the development of academics as funds are no longer sufficient (hesa, 2011). a major implication of under-development of staff is the impact on the individuals’ career motivation, career success and even employability of academics (bitzer, 2008). talent silzer and dowell (2010) explain that ‘talent’ refers to an individual’s skills and abilities and this is what a person can contribute towards the success of the organisation. this suggests that employees with the ‘talent’ contribute and make an impact on the strategic aspects of the organisation. according to the chartered institute of personnel development (2006), ‘talent’ refers to a complex mixture of employees’ skills, knowledge, cognitive ability, potential, values and work preferences. cappelli (2008) describes ‘talent’ as those attributes of an employee that an individual carries such as knowledge, a powerful resource which they possess in fulfilling the mission of the organisation. based on this information so far, it can be seen that the term ‘talent’ varies in the literature as some authors consider some aspects that make up ‘talent’ as more important, whilst others fail to include them at all. the connotation implies that no single definition fits all contexts as there are different views about the nature and definition of the term ‘talent’. therefore, for the purposes of this research study, ‘talent’ will be defined as a genetically coded assortment of skills, abilities, knowledge, experiences, values, intelligence, attitude, character, competence, commitment and contribution that are brought about to add towards the organisation’s objectives. talent management the history of talent management shows that the topic was made known globally since the mckinsey consultants’ ground-breaking research study in 1997, which was followed by the 2001 publicised book ‘the war for talent’ (axelrod, handfield-jones, & michaels, 2002). since then, the topic of talent management has gained significant attention globally in both practice and theory. this represents a paradigm shift from traditional hr-related sources of competitive advantage (miller, burke, & glick, 1998) and strategic hr management (huselid, jackson, & schuler, 1997) to management of talent relevant to today’s changing competitive business environment (van zyl, mathafena, & ras, 2017). talent management literature reveals a degree of debate as to the conceptual boundaries of the topic (collings & mellahi, 2009). defining talent management appears to be a challenging phenomenon for scholars (lewis & heckman, 2006). this is because of different connotations, terms and conditions made by previous academics who wrote about the very same subject matter. ashton and morton (2005) state that there is no single consistent or concise definition of talent management. at the same time, it has been found that talent management has focused more on current organisational practices, but it often lacks a theoretical perspective (al ariss, cascio, & paauwe, 2014). as there are no consistencies in the literature about the definition of talent management, this study will now consider various definitions of talent management. from the above preliminary definitions of talent management in table 1, it can be reiterated that there are no consistencies in defining talent management (ashton & morton, 2005). whilst defining talent management, it is also of paramount importance to define strategic talent management. according to collings and mellahi (2009), strategic talent management refers to a [s]et of activities and processes that involve the systematic identification of key positions which differentially contribute to the organisation’s sustainable competitive advantage, the development of a talent pool of high potential and high performing incumbents to fill these roles, and the development of a differentiated human resource architecture to facilitate filling these positions with competent incumbents and to ensure their continued commitment to the organisation. table 1: definitions of talent management. in this context, talent is seen as a valuable and scarce resource and organisations gain a competitive advantage when they develop their talent. silzer and dowell (2010) are of the view that strategic talent management entails systems and processes that are driven and fully integrated with business and talent strategies. these should be managed as core business processes as they are strongly related and dependent on one another. to make strategic management a success, different people assume various roles as areas of responsibility and accountability in driving strategic talent management (silzer & dowell, 2010, p. 57). these people include a board of directors, chief operating officer (ceo), senior executives, hr and talent professionals, line managers and individual employees who has the talent. however, hr practitioners are expected to take the lead in driving strategic talent management as full business partners to the ceo and other senior executives. after considering the definitions of talent, talent management and strategic management, it can be said that talent management is associated with a mix and use of an integrated set of activities, functions and different processes implemented in a strategic way to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. therefore, talent management focuses on ensuring that the right person is in the right job at the right time. key functions of talent management include talent planning, talent mobility, talent acquisition, talent development, managing talent and talent retention. talent planning is the first critical step that an organisation takes towards successful talent management practices. it involves determining talent management processes and activities. furthermore, it also consists of internal and external environmental analysis, business strategy, talent management strategy, talent success profile and workforce planning. talent acquisition is a second key component of talent management, which focuses on finding and employing talent to ensure sufficient supply of talent in both the short term (operational) and long term (strategic) to meet business strategic goals. it consists of onboarding, induction, recruiting, selecting and employing talent. talent development is the third component of talent management, which focuses on growing and developing talent to ensure the broad-based acquisition of knowledge, skills, experience and behaviours. to develop talent, organisations use several methods such as training, development, coaching, mentoring and career management. managing talent is the fourth component of talent management. it follows that individual and group performance must be managed so that corrective action will be taken when and where necessary. sub-components of managing talent include performance management, performance measurement, compensation and reward management. finally, talent retention involves sets of activities that an employer combines, and when assembled, they result in the academic talent taking decisions to remain in the hei for longer periods. talent retention consists of a retention strategy and an employee value proposition (evp) in order to effectively retain talent. research method research design this study used a qualitative research method that involves the collection of data in the form of words (brynard & hanekom, 2006). this method was chosen as it enables the collection of data, which is directly related to subjective personal experiences and hence, by nature, it is exploratory in its application (flick, 2011). precisely, this method was considered suitable as it provides useful insights into gaining an in-depth understanding of talent management practices at the selected sa hei (myers, 2013). research philosophy this study adopted an interpretivist research paradigm (walliman & baiche, 2001). the position of this study was ontological in nature as it studied talent management practices by exploring the challenges that a selected hei is experiencing and what is causing these challenges at the selected hei. population and sample the sample is composed of seven hr professionals. the sample also has six hr business partners from five faculties and one talent management specialist from the department of human capital. the sample was selected using purposive sampling because of which the researchers are considered to be typical relevant units from the population. the rationale for choosing the population of the hei located in the western cape was to minimise the travelling expenses whilst benefiting on the ease of access to various faculties and departments of the selected hei. research instrument primary qualitative data were collected using semi-structured individual interviews. this involved direct personal contact with seven hr professionals where a set of questions were asked about talent management practices. each interview involved face to face interaction using an interview guide with 23 questions for each participant. on average, each interview lasted about 40 min. interview questions were drafted based on theoretical information from the literature. a rich picture emerged and helped in overcoming misinterpretations and misunderstandings of words and questions. prior to data collection, a pilot study was conducted through face to face semi-structured interviews with two non-participants using an interview guide. valuable comments and feedback were given to the researchers. potential gaps that existed in the data collection instrument were exposed and made known to the researchers. immediately, adjustments were made for the actual participants to ensure that questions asked for the study were relevant and participants interpreted them correctly. data recording interviews were tape-recorded and thereafter, the researchers transcribed the interview responses. this was aided with the support of field notes to support interview recordings, thus eliminating errors of omission. data analysis the researchers followed the content analysis and thematic analysis approach to analyse the data collected (long, 2014). this involved searching for phrases and words that appeared to be the same based on the literature on talent management. the main themes were identified, which led to the conclusion and recommendations. content analysis allowed for data to be presented in words and themes and also allowed for easy interpretation of the results (bengtsson, 2016). the thematic analysis enabled the meaning and interpretation of the data whereby the researchers allocated codes and assigned themes to the collected data (neuendorf, 2019). the recorded and transcribed text was allocated appropriate labels, themes, codes and categories in alignment with the research objectives of the study (bazeley, 2013). as can be seen in table 2, a majority of respondents were men (4) and females were three. the sample consisted of six participants of black people or african descendant and one participant of mixed-race descendant. only one out of seven participants was a talent management specialist (participant 1) and all other participants were hr business partners. participant 3 was the participant with the shortest length of service, whilst participant 5 had the longest length of service. in terms of qualifications, two respondents had the highest level of qualifications (mphil labour law and mcom industrial psychology), whilst others had postgraduate degrees, honours degrees, btech or national diplomas in various courses as their highest qualifications. table 2: demographic profile of human resource professionals as participants. bearing in mind that the institution herein under investigation had six faculties, the researchers did not manage to interview one hr business partner in one of the faculties because of the unavailability of the potential participant who was on leave for a lengthy period during data collection. then, acting hr business partner (potential participant) declined to be interviewed and cited lack of familiarisation and full understanding of the duties and responsibilities of the business partner. ethical consideration this study followed appropriate ethical considerations that are morally acceptable as prescribed and recommended by bless et al. 2006, p. 140; brynard & hanekom 2006, p. 84). these included steps to ensure no one was affected during this study and no use of incentives both financial and non-financial benefits for participants. this research paid a large amount of attention to confidentiality issues and there was no discrimination of participants throughout this study. also, consent letters were obtained and signed to survey participants. furthermore, participants were informed of their rights during this study. it is equally important that the researchers conducted this study with integrity and transparency. before commencing this study, permission to conduct research was sought from the hei whose talent management practices in the form of an introductory letter were investigated. the letter provided details pertaining to the background information of this study and research objectives. in turn, the researchers were provided with a consent letter stating permission approval to conduct research and this was issued by the person who controls research access at the higher education institution that was investigated. 2015fbrec288 findings and discussion theme 1: talent planning sub-theme 1: workforce planning drawing from the participants’ responses, three participants (participants 1, 2 and 6) pointed out that workforce planning is performed by the institutional planning office using full-time equivalent (fte). they, in turn, advise business partners for each faculty and the entire human capital department on the execution of those plans. notably, this finding differs from the discussion in the literature review where it was noted that the responsibility of workforce planning rests with hr practitioners who play a lead role in the whole process although they work with line managers (warnich, carrrell, elbert, & hatfield, 2015). van zyl, mathafena and ras (2017) recommend many role players to be involved in the development, planning and implementation and improvement of talent management plans and that these should include line managers, talented employees, organisational leaders and hr practitioners. in contrast, two participants (participants 5 and 7) indicated that they were not aware of a formalised process and at the same time, they mentioned that the institution does not have a model. to be specific, participant 5 had this to say: ‘i am not aware of a formalised process. currently, it is done on an ad hoc basis ….’ ‘… however, this process is a challenge because if you look at the totality, we have funding problems, succession planning among others.’ participant 7 mentioned another talent management challenge: ‘… now there is no uniformity, it varies from department to department. some departments are proactive to plan ahead. some it’s just filling in roles when a vacant position comes. so, we do not have a model we are failing with that regards ….’ recapping from participants 5 to 7, it appears that there is no uniformity and consistent application of practices in all the departments with regard to workforce planning and it is only performed for specific reasons from time to time. another finding made in this study shows that majority of participants (five out of seven) indicated a major concern over the long-term planning and future direction of the hr needs of the institution. the consensus amongst the majority of participants (five out of seven) is that the institution is focusing on the current work only. long-term planning appears to be difficult because of a lack of a permanent executive director to lead the department of human capital. from a strategic management point of view, a lack of permanent executive director in the department of human capital raises a major concern in terms of clarity and strategic direction of the institution. therefore, in this context, the executive director of human capital forms part of the top management of the institution, which ought to be driving the process of strategic management. the majority of participants (five out of seven) in this study indicated that the institution does not have a retention strategy to retain experienced workers. according to bussin (2014), a retention strategy is important because it helps the organisation to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage in the context of talent attraction and talent retention. it also supports the organisation to align with its environment. however, these benefits appear to be challenging to attain because this study found that the organisation does not have a retention strategy. however, one participant (participant 1) mentioned that the organisation makes use of the evp to retain employees, which include benefits, salary packages, promotion and others. therefore, this finding is in line with the talent management literature in that designing a unique employer value proposition can support employer effort to retain employees (bussin, 2014). besides, two participants (participants 6 and 7) mentioned that the organisation provides training and development initiatives to retain experienced employees. theme 2: talent acquisition sub-theme 1: recruitment and selection the majority of participants (six out of seven) indicated that the organisation follows the traditional approach to recruitment and selection. also, three participants added that apart from using the traditional method, the organisation also makes use of headhunting. participant 3 explained that: ‘we are still using the traditional methods where we advertise, and we try to attract the best talent we can. it’s just the normal recruitment and selection process where you go through the motion of firstly defining the job and finding out the minimum requirements and advertise it. it’s not a contemporary approach, it’s just a basic traditional approach ….’ although some participants had concerns, the majority (six out of seven) indicated that the current method of identifying talent in the organisation is effective. the effectiveness as explained by the participants is that the methods of recruitment and selection enable key activities to be completed. more so, it was explained that the recruitment and selection process conform to the labour relations act 66 of 1995 as explained by participant 6: ‘it is effective because it follows and conforms with labour relations legislation. it is also effective because we advertise positions in the right channels and people go through the selection process and we also make appointments ….’ however, some participants explained that effectiveness depends on the discipline of the position to be filled like critical skills or general positions. this means that when a position is a critical skill, they explained that it usually takes more time to fill the vacant position when compared with a general academic staff position. participant 5 explained that: ‘it varies on the discipline for example in engineering countrywide it is a scarce skill. the few scarce skills that are there at the market are targeted by everyone. so, sometimes through these traditional ways of advertising sometimes you don’t get the people, and, in that way, we don’t have a targeted way of sourcing candidates where you go and source candidates and convince them to apply ….’ in terms of difficulties experienced when attracting new employees, participants 2 and 4 indicated that the institution encounters competitive industry remuneration packages that are higher than the institution’s remuneration packages. this finding is in line with the literature. south african academics are incompetently remunerated relative to other occupations in the public and private sector where it requires the same qualifications, expertise and skills; as a result, it has led to a significant reduction in the number of potential and capable academics from the private and public sector to tertiary institutions such as universities and colleges (dbsa, 2010). one participant (participant 2) indicated that one of the difficulties in talent management is the challenge related to the attainment of employment equity targets. participant 2 elaborated further that: ‘its salaries. we are unable to match the industry remuneration packages, but the biggest issue is the employment equity targets. this is because we may attract, they may be available, they meet the minimum requirements but not necessarily addressing our employment equity targets.’ the above-explained finding is consistent with the results of badat (2008) who made a similar finding. it was found that one of the challenges in heis is related to transformation and addressing imbalances of the past. a previous research study shows a positive relationship between employer brand, talent attraction and talent retention (botha, bussin, & de swardt, 2011). however, in this study, three participants indicated concerns about the employer brand. participant 5 indicated that the institution’s brand is not fully known. at the same time, currently, it is being tarnished by the student protest actions. precisely, participant 5 clarified that: ‘ … the brand itself of the institution i think it’s not fully known out there. i think our brand is even getting tarnished by these students’ protest actions.’ on the other hand, participants 3 and 7 mentioned that the current state of the institution and the ongoing student protest actions are negatively impacting the employer brand, particularly talent attraction. the negative effect as explained by the participants is that student’s protest actions discourage prospective employees to join the institution. other difficulty and weakness that were found are that institution’s recruitment and selection process is too lengthy. the time taken in filling academic positions is long because of the senex committee, which meets once a month to discuss and make final decisions when making appointments. in support, four participants (participants 1, 2, 6 and 7) were all in accord that because of delays, some applicants end up not taking offers by the institution because of lack of patience as a result of the bureaucracy in the finalisation of recruitment and selection processes of the institution. therefore, in terms of efficiency and being time-oriented in alignment within the context of talent management, it can be said that the institution is not efficient. findings of this study contrast with the definition and business case for talent management where it was explained in the literature that talent management is all about ensuring that the right person is in the right job at the right time (bussin, 2014). as a suggestion, participant 7 suggested a cut in the red tape to the recruitment and selection process to make the process more efficient. recapitulating the findings, one of the respondents said: ‘the other challenge is the time frame for filling in positions at this institution. it is too lengthy, the reason for that is because of different committees that seat and make final decisions when making appointments especially for academic positions. there is a committee called senex which meets once a month and if you miss the date you will have to wait for another date in the next month.’ (participant 1) another difficulty that was found includes the inability of the institution to attract local talent (sa citizens). this forces the institution to consider academics from foreign countries only if the position is a scarce skill. it was also found that the institution is not fully embracing technology in its business operations and mostly working with the traditional approaches of paperwork. furthermore, it was mentioned that, as a consequence, this has made it difficult to appeal to a younger generation when it comes to talent attraction. this finding of limited use of technology by the institution contrasts with the literature. according to bussin (2014), generation y is made up of a cohort that is still young and falls somewhere between the 1980s and 2000. also, this generation is technologically savvy, impatient, image-driven, adaptable, sceptical, efficient-multi-taskers and tolerant and can grasp new concepts. therefore, it seems the institution is failing to fulfil these specific generation y requirements. in terms of strengths, the majority of participants (five out of seven) indicated that the institution’s competitive salary packages including benefits are the main source of strengths in terms of its talent attraction. one participant (participant 2) explained further and indicated that the salary is competitive when compared with other provincial universities in the western cape. as discussed in the literature, compensation is the central point of connection between the employer and employees (meyer & kirsten, 2005). in addition to the above, other positive factors that were indicated include the reputation of the institution, research output and innovation of the institution. some participants (participants 1, 5 and 7) indicated positively that these factors are helping to enhance talent attraction efforts of the institution. these findings are in line with the study results of saurombe, barkhuizen and schutte (2017) who found that reputation and image of the higher learning institution are vital towards improving an institutional brand that can appeal to more academics. reputation and image of higher learning institutions are regarded as key elements in the effective and efficient running of higher learning institutions. theme 3: managing talent sub-theme 1: compensation and rewards in terms of compensation and rewards, the majority of participants (five out of seven) mentioned that salary is the main factor potential that employees would consider when deciding to be part of the institution. three participants (participants 4, 6 and 7) believe that potential employees would consider work benefits whilst two participants (participants 2 and 7) showed that some potential employees would consider conditions of service. other factors that were mentioned include geographical location, stability and growth opportunities within the institution. findings of this study are in line with the research literature in that offering competitive salaries, growth opportunities, work benefits, conditions of service and geographic location all contribute towards talent attraction (meyer & kirsten, 2005; warnich et al., 2015). interestingly, one participant (participant 1) believed factors that might be considered by potential employees vary from one generation to the other because of different career life stages and phases. participant 1 had to say: ‘it depends on the generation. for instance, an old professor would consider something completely different to a young lecturer who is new to the academic based on the generational gap. so, one cannot say these are the overall factors for all the employees. therefore, it is important when the institution is looking at its value proposition in terms of compensation and rewards. they need to have a wide scale of things to consider so that each generation is catered for ….’ from participant 1 as mentioned above, this is exactly as noted in the literature that different generations have different generational needs and preferences concerning their career life stages (van zyl et al., 2017). despite all the participants’ feedback, participant 1 could not indicate any single factor and cited difficulties in coming up with factors because job advertisements do not include salaries and at the same time, no research has been carried out by the institution to find out why potential employees would want to join the institution. therefore, because the institution has not put an effort into talent attraction factors, this indicates that the institution is ‘relaxed’ to put any effort into talent management practices. the majority of participants (four out of seven) indicated that the institution’s compensation packages both financial and non-financial rewards are effective and are contributing towards the retention of key employees. this positive finding contrasts with findings of previous studies that found that compensation was highly regarded as poor and unsatisfactory with the majority of participants (academics) considering quitting their profession because of their unhappiness (theron et al., 2014). two participants (participants 2 and 5) mentioned that the institution is facing high and intense industry competition in terms of compensation and reward packages. specifically, participant 2 had this to say: ‘industry competition. we require highly qualified individuals though we pay less when we are competing with the industry. for instance, if you look at the academics, in the industry they get more salary with a low level of qualification particularly to targeted groups and by this, i mean those that were previously disadvantaged.’ participant 5 interestingly added that: ‘we have no money. there are some challenges in the field like engineering and sciences. if you look at their salaries and see what the market offers you might find out that somebody with a bsc or national diploma is getting more as compared to what we might be paying here and that causes problems to attract ….’ the above-mentioned findings are consistent with the findings by developing bank of southern african that sa academics are incompetently remunerated relative to other occupations in the public and private sector where it requires the same qualifications, expertise and skills (dbsa, 2010). as a result, this has led to a significant reduction in the number of potential and capable academics from the private and public sectors to tertiary institutions. two participants (participants 6 and 7) indicated that the institution is experiencing financial constraints in compensation budgets in as far as attracting and retaining employees is concerned. this means that the institution is limited in talent attraction efforts to potential employees and this further constrains its talent retention efforts. the situation is further worsened by the fact that the organisation has too much red tape around the authorisation of salaries. in other words, it was found that the institution has an excessively long administrative procedure in decision-making that needs to be reviewed. this study also found that the institution is not offering competitive salaries when compared with other nations in developed countries. although the hei is not competitive against foreign countries, this finding validates the finding of sace (2010). they report that academics are leaving heis for better compensation in developed countries or for other career opportunities. the majority of participants (six out of seven) indicated that compensation and reward packages are reviewed yearly. three participants expanded their responses and said that wage negotiations include stakeholders such as the department of human capital, organised labour and executive management. this finding is consistent with the hesa (2014), which reported that in some sa heis, annual wage increases usually involve trade unions who play a role in the determination of academic salaries and type of benefits. sub-theme 2: performance management in terms of performance management, the participants did not disclose any positive feedback with regard to the performance management practices of the institution. they indicated several negative concerns. to begin with, participants 4 and 7 indicated that the institution does not have a formal performance management policy that guides the implementation of the process: ‘we do not have a performance management policy, as previously indicated. the current one is not applied to all the employees. it is currently applied at the executive level and senior management.’ (participant 4) ‘we are very weak in that area because at this stage even the performance management policy has not yet been adopted, it’s still work in progress. the managers also do not know how to conduct performance management in their respective departments though there have been workshops arranged by the learning and development department to encourage the line managers to attend these workshops, still, these line managers do not attend.’ (participant 7) however, the above-stated findings are inconsistent with the recommendation of the previous studies, which emphasised that application of the performance management system must be guided by a relevant institutional policy for managers and employees to know how to deal with performance and capability issues (maimela & samuel, 2016). apart from the above findings, it was also found that there is limited implementation of performance management in the institution. some participants indicated that it is implemented from grades 1 to 4 and some said that it is implemented from grades 1 to 6; yet, the institution has 18 grades and therefore, it was found that there is a partial implementation of the performance management system, which excludes a certain group of employees from the performance management processes. some participants explained that performance management is only applied to the management level of the organisation. specifically, participants 1, 2 and 3 had this to say: ‘it is only implemented from grade 1 to 4 and it’s not full implementation. yet we have 18 grades. so, it’s difficult to say something positive because it’s not fully implemented ….’ (participant 1) ‘the unions are saying no to performance management … senior management which is grade 1 to grade level 6 are forced to do it … there are quite a lot of challenges and confusion. however, in my faculty, some people are doing it in some departments, but it is informal … this current performance management process is not effective in the way it is handled at all.’ (participant 2) ‘it’s not something that is done on a regular basis, the only time i have seen it happening is during the probationary period ….’ (participant 3) another significant concern is that line managers do not have the knowledge and skills to conduct performance management. although the participants indicated that line managers received training through workshops, it was found that that line managers are a weak link in the performance management of the institution. perhaps, the training intervention was not sufficient and adequate as previously found by other scholars. in a study, flaniken (2009) found that in most organisations, managers do not receive sufficient and adequate performance management training to equip and give them knowledge on how to rate employee performance. a previous study noted that the knowledge and ability of managers were satisfactory to enable the proper implementation of the performance management system. this was, however, contrary to the finding of this study. furthermore, it was found that there was non-uniformity in the application of performance management as some departments reported that they do not conduct performance management at all, whilst some departments do conduct. this finding is in line with the findings of maimela and samuel (2016). they report in their study that there was no consistent application of performance management by the organisation. also, they argue that consistency in the application of performance management creates the integrity of the performance management system. in terms of weaknesses, the involvement of organised labour emerged as the most frequently mentioned phenomenon amongst the participants. they mentioned that organised labour is completely against performance management practices. this has forced its members to resist and not support performance management practices. in a study, it was found that academics were not consulted during the design and implementation of the performance management process and this posed as a threat to the success of the performance management at the hei (aguinis, 2013). recapitulating the findings, participant 4 and 6 had this to say: ‘unions have not agreed to subject staff to performance management. so thus far it is not enforced on staff, but it is encouraged for developmental purpose.’ (participant 4) ‘it is not standardised and not everyone is doing it in accordance with the line managers and hr expectations. some employees resist doing it especially those employees that belong to the trade union whose trade union does not support performance management processes.’ (participant 6) theme 4: talent development sub-theme 1: training and development the overall remark that can be made on training and development theme is that majority of participants (six out of seven) indicated that they do not do anything regarding training and development. the participants mentioned that the institution has a separate department (learning and development department), which specialises on that and the full responsibility lies with them and not the human capital department where the sample group of this study was drawn from: ‘training and development is not done by human capital.’ (participant 1) ‘as business partners we are just partially involved. the full responsibility lies with the learning and development department.’ (participant 2) ‘i do not do anything related to training and development.’ (participant 3) ‘… can we skip any questions relating to training and development because my information is very limited … ?’ (participant 6) ‘we do not have any input as business partners when it comes to training and development.’ (participant 7) despite the above responses from the participants, some participants attempted to answer some questions during the interviews. participants were asked about their opinion on whether their institution is providing enough resources and guidance to support the training and development of its staff. in this question, three participants (participants 1, 4 and 6) indicated that they were not sure because they do not do anything regarding training and development. two participants (participants 2 and 7) positively indicated several ways in which the institution does support staff development. firstly, they mentioned that it is through mandatory teaching and development programme (tdp) for new staff. secondly, staff development is supported by internal communications via newsflash where all the training opportunities available are made known to the staff so that they can enrol. finally, it was also indicated that the institution does support the training and development of staff through the fundani department and other units for academic support that organise conferences and workshops from time to time for academic staff to attend. however, two participants (participants 3 and 5) highlighted several negative issues regarding the provision of resources and guidance to support the training and development of its staff: ‘no, we are not because where i am from, induction is done immediately when you start, and here i haven’t been inducted and i have been here for five months already, so you can imagine. also, the fact that the learning and development department only has 3 employees for such a big organisation, as a learning organisation ….’ (participant 3) ‘ … they are not enough because of financial constraints. it’s not that we don’t have money as a university but it’s a situation being experienced in the higher education sector now.’ (participant 5) based on the above responses, participant 3 mentioned two issues about the support of the training and development of institutional staff. the first issue mentioned involved issues that induction is conducted later than the generally expected time by new employees. therefore, it appears that the institution is not efficient enough with regard to accommodating and assimilating through putting together employees into the organisational culture, processes, systems and methods. poor induction programmes may be because of a lack of enough time to conduct an induction programme and a lack of responsibilities (banfield & kay, 2012). because the institution delays conducting induction programmes, it appears that they are missing out on the benefits of induction, which can enable employees to quickly settle and adapt in the institution and allowing them to reach full working capacity (derven, 2008). the second issue that was mentioned was that the learning and development department is understaffed to operate effectively as a learning institution because it is a big organisation. in addition to participant 3’s response, participant 5 stated that the institution is not providing enough resources to support training and development mainly because of financial constraints. participant 5 had this to say: ‘ … they are not enough because of financial constraints. it’s not that we don’t have money as a university but it’s a situation being experienced in the higher education sector now.’ participant 5 went further and stated that issues of being under-resourced are being experienced in the higher education sector currently. this is exactly as previously noted in the literature that heis are facing challenges related to funding. precisely, universities in sub-saharan africa are under-resourced (hesa, 2011). state and research funding in universities has worsened in the last two decades, (mouton, 2010). this means that universities are not able to invest adequately in the development of academics as funds are no longer sufficient. sub-theme 2: succession planning in terms of succession planning, three participants (participants 1, 5 and 7) indicated that the institution makes use of external programmes, that is, khula and new generation of academics programmes. these programmes are initiatives of the department of higher education and training (dhet), which seeks to bring in new highly capable scholars as academics by replacing retiring academic staff (dhet, 2018). although these are current programmes to address succession planning, three participants (participants 2, 3 and 6) mentioned that succession planning is not happening at all because the institution does not have their internal succession planning programmes. in other words, the participants indicated that the organisation does not have a succession planning system in place. the idea of succession planning is all about having a systematic process that helps to ensure that the organisation can assess and develop its employees to improve performance (kim, 2003). a succession planning strategy entails designing a framework tool for purposes of determining potential replacement of senior members of the organisation (schreuder & coetzee, 2011). in doing so, succession planning helps to facilitate transition when a senior member leaves the organisation and helps in the development of high potential employees. therefore, based on the findings of this study, it appears that the institution is doing little to help with succession planning by using external programmes to address succession planning challenges. the situation is further worsened by the fact that the institution does not have a succession planning policy to guide the practices of succession planning. this has become the root cause of the challenges of any form of succession planning practices at the institution. the participants indicated that the institution is facing replacement challenges when senior employees leave the institution. this is because the institution is not ready in most cases to fill the positions left by senior members of the institution. to be specific, participant 1 had this to say: ‘we don’t have succession planning policy or structured plan for the institution hence we heavily rely on those two programmes, khula, and new generation of academics programmes as i have mentioned earlier.’ another participant (participant 3) had this to say: ‘the main challenge is that we don’t have it at all. that’s why we end up having problems when people retire because we end up not having people to fill their positions ….’ in addition to that, participant number 4 had this to say: ‘we do not have a succession plan.’ participant 5 went further detailed that: ‘like i said earlier, there is limited funding, no succession planning guidelines and there is limited number of applicants that can match the number of academic staff leaving mostly through retirements.’ similar to participant 3, participant 6 further explained that: ‘the fact that succession planning not happening means that we find ourselves with vacant positions at the time the person retires, and so we end up putting in contract workers to fill in positions, and in most cases, these vacant positions take longer time to fill them up.’ similar to participants 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6, participant 7 went further and had this to say: ‘firstly, we do not have a policy document on succession planning that is a challenge as we do not have a guide. secondly, from the departments’ side, they do not look at the long-term view in as far as replacing people is concerned ….’ the findings of this study illustrate that the institution is not fully embracing succession planning adequately. this poses as a risk in their talent management practices because the institution seems to be finding it challenging in having the right employees in the right jobs at the right time with far much bigger challenges in winning the ‘war for talent’ in today’s competitive times. the majority of participants (five out of seven) positively indicated that the institution has the right set of employees to fill possible future vacancies. however, appointments in heis are mainly based on academic skills such as teaching and research skills and not leadership and people management skills (hesa, 2009). some participants indicated that although there are potential employees to replace and fill possible future vacancies, the participants indicated that a lot of training intervention still needs to be prepared to fully prepare potential talent for future roles. however, despite agreeing, it seems that there are challenges related to the fairness in the application of succession planning programmes like the khula and new generation of academics programmes. this finding was found to be consistent with the findings of bitzer (2008) who reported an inconsistent application of promotion policies in heis with the potential risk of deteriorating the profession of academics. therefore, the view that organised labour finds succession planning practices as favouritism can be accepted. specifically, participant number 7 had this to say: ‘ … we also have a challenge with organised labour. they consider it as favoritism if one is identified in a department. however, it doesn’t help the organisation. they need to have a good understanding of the concept and how it adds value on the bigger picture.’ the majority of participants (five out of seven) indicated that there has not been any success with regard to succession planning practices at the institution. three participants mentioned that success is limited as the funds for the khula and new generation of academics programmes are not sufficient for all the departments. because of the lack of funds, the participants had concerns over the rate at which succession planning programmes (khula and new generation of academics programmes) are taking place. the programme’s intake is very small because of financial constraints as they are externally funded. in a report, hesa (2011) mentions that government budget allocations and funding are not sufficient to fully subsidise higher education and training. this has made an impact on staff and student development. the major implications of the under-development of staff are that they have an impact on the individuals’ career motivation, career success and even employability of academics (budderberg-fischer, stamm, & budderberg, 2009). implication for application in terms of workforce planning, the institution needs to fill the vacant position with an experienced, competent and knowledgeable permanent executive director for human capital. furthermore, this study recommends that the responsibility for workforce planning needs to be led by hr professionals. these hr professionals need to interact with line management from various departments to ensure consistency. the institution needs to explore new ways to compensate and reward employees by customising compensation and rewards. in doing so, they need to take cognisant of different generational needs and preferences concerning their career life stages. in addition, there is a need to decentralise power to ease negotiations between hr professionals and prospective applicants. moreover, the hei needs to establish a remuneration committee that can look further into various efficient and effective ways to improve remuneration aspects of academics at the institution. the hei needs to introduce an internal succession planning system to facilitate the transition when senior members are leaving the institution. also, the hei should develop a succession planning policy that will provide guidelines in the practices and implementation of the succession planning system. to ensure the success of succession planning, management should engage with organised labour and the academic staff for consultations and obtaining their buy-in on the idea of succession planning. to improve recruitment and selection, the institution needs to form strategic sourcing through building alliances and partnerships with various external sources that can supply talent in line with the future requirements of the institution. furthermore, more meetings should be scheduled more than once per month for the senex committee to make recruitment and selection processes more efficient. in the same vein, the institution needs to create a conducive and stable environment to facilitate the learning and growth of individuals. in terms of training and development, the hei should increase the number of staff in the learning and development department. this will help to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery support such as employee induction. this study recommends the institution to implement a formal and structured performance management system for academic staff from grades 1 to 9 in all the departments of various faculties in order to manage talent effectively. to do so, there is a need for the hei to develop a performance management policy with peculiarities of the hei and not the private sector. furthermore, line managers need to be training on how to conduct performance management to their staff. for effective results, management should engage with organised labour and the academic staff for consultations and obtaining their buy-in on the idea of performance management before implementation. the preceding recommendations have an impact on the attraction and retention of talent. the institution should, however, fit all these recommendations through developing a compelling evp. a compelling evp should outweigh the significant value of, for example, performance management alone. this recommendation affirms the view that a compelling evp assists in identifying policies, processes and programmes that an institution can benefit from. the appointment of an executive director for human capital should spearhead the development and implementation of a retention strategy. a retention strategy should ensure that an institution can attract and retain talent. an effective retention strategy should be underpinned by fundamental policies, practices and structures that support the idea of retaining valuable employees within the institution. conclusion this study sought to establish talent management challenges at one selected sa public hei offering contact tuition in the western cape. challenges associated with talent management practices and their causes at the selected hei were identified. the challenges identified were negatively affecting the talent management practices of the selected hei. in conclusion, it was established that talent management challenges linked to workforce planning are lack of uniformity and consistent application of workforce planning practises in all the departments. these challenges are caused by a lack of a permanent executive director to lead the department of human capital, lack of long-term planning goals and the absence of a retention strategy to retain experienced employees. in terms of compensation and rewards, it was established that the institution is facing high and intense industry competition in terms of compensation and reward packages. also, the institution has financial constraints in compensation budgets, which limits talent attraction and retention efforts of the employer. these challenges are caused by the red tape around the authorisation of salaries. furthermore, the institution is not offering competitive salaries when compared to developed countries or the private sector. this study also established that succession planning is a talent management issue at the heis as the institution is facing replacement challenges left by senior employees when they leave the institution. furthermore, major challenges that are faced in khula and new generation of academics programmes were fairness in their implementation, strong resistance from organised labour and lack of sufficient funding for the programmes. the main cause of talent management challenges linked to succession planning is that the institution does not have a succession planning system as an alternative; the institution is making use of external programmes of khula and new generation of academics programmes. moreover, the institution does not have a succession planning policy to guide the practices of succession planning. this study established that recruitment and selection is a talent management challenge at the selected hei. the current student protest actions are tarnishing the institution’s brand. the institution also finds it difficult and challenging to attain employment equity targets and to attract south african citizens. moreover, the institution’s recruitment and selection processes are too lengthy. the institution is finding it difficult to attract a younger generation. the current organisational culture is not conducive to a certain category of potential employees and it is discouraging them to join the institution. these talent management challenges linked to recruitment and selection are caused by the fact that the time taken in filling academic positions is too lengthy because of senex committee, which meets once a month to discuss and make final decisions when making appointments. also, the fact that the institution is not fully embracing technology has made it difficult to attract a younger generation. although the participants did not provide more details into training and development because of the fact that they do not perform any functions related to training and development, it was noted that training and development at the institution lack efficiency and effectiveness. this is caused by the fact that the learning and development department is understaffed. in terms of performance management, this study concludes that line managers at the hei do not have full knowledge and skills to conduct performance management. there is no uniformity in the implementation of performance management processes as some departments do not conduct performance management at all, whilst some departments do conduct. organised labour and their members are not supporting performance management practises. therefore, this study concludes that the causes of poor performance management practices are because of limited implementation of performance management at the institution. also, performance management is only implemented at the top management level (grades 1 to 6) of the institution. furthermore, the institution does not have a formal performance management policy that should guide the practices of performance management. finally, line managers’ training intervention was not sufficient and adequate to equip and give them the knowledge on how to conduct performance practices. the recommendations proposed that, if they are to be implemented to a different hei, they need to be customised to suit the requirements and aims of the hei. the results contribute and are valuable as they represent an assessment of the current talent management practices at the hei and could be used as a baseline for future improvements. the primary data collected from the university could be meaningful to the institution itself, whilst the generalisation of the results to other institutions could benefit institutions of higher learning in general. limitations and recommendations owing to low qualitative research participants and the fact that one hei was investigated, research findings of this study are limited to certain faculties and departments. therefore, the researchers suggest that the recommendations proposed that, if they are to be implemented to a different hei, they need to be customised to suit the requirements and aims of the hei. data collection of this study was conducted at a time when most heis in sa, including the institution investigated, were undergoing several student protest actions. preferably, it would have been more conducive if the study was carried out in a more academically friendly and stable environment. we recommend that future research of this nature should include other heis outside of the western cape and could utilise a quantitative approach to reach a larger sample of the population. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank their friends and colleagues for the encouragement and support throughout this study. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interest. authors’ contributions r.n.m. undertook this research study under the supervision of f.d.k. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references adedeji, s.o., & olaniyan, o. (2011). improving the conditions of teachers and teaching in rural schools across african countries. addis ababa: united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. aguinis, h. (2013). performance management (2nd edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson prentice hall. al ariss, a., cascio, w.f., & paauwe, j. (2014). talent management: current theories and future research directions. journal of world business, 49(2), 173–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2013.11.001 armstrong, m. (2006). a handbook of human resources management in practice (10th edn.). london: kogan page limited. ashton, c., & morton, l. (2005). managing talent for competitive advantage: taking a systemic approach to talent management. strategic hr review, 4(5), 28–31. https://doi.org/10.1108/14754390580000819 axelrod, b., handfield-jones, h., & michaels, e. (2002). a new game plan for c players. harvard business review, 80(1), 80–90. badat, s. (2008). producing, transforming the social composition of and retaining a new generation of academics: the rhodes university programme of accelerated development. paper presented at the university leaders forum: developing and retaining the next generation of academics, 24 november 2008, accra, ghana. banfield, p., & kay, r. (2012). introduction to human resource management (2nd edn.). new york, ny: oxford university press. bazeley, p. (2013). qualitative data analysis: practical strategies. london: sage. bengtsson, m. (2016). how to plan and perform a qualitative study using content analysis. nursing plus open, 2, 8–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.npls.2016.01.001 bitzer, e.m. (2008). the professoriate in south africa: potentially risking status inflation. south african journal of higher education, 22, 265–281. https://doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v22i2.25785 bless, c., higson-smith, c., & kagee, a. (2006). fundamentals of social research methods: an african perspective (4th edn.). lusaka: juta. botha, a., bussin, m., & de swardt, l. (2011). an employer brand predictive model for talent attraction and retention. sa journal of human resource management, 9(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.388 brynard, p.a., & hanekom, s.x. (2006). introduction to research in management – related fields. pretoria: van schaik publishers. buddeberg-fischer, b., stamm m. & buddeberg, c. (2009). academic career in medicine – requirements and conditions for successful advancement in switzerland. bmc health serv res, 9(70), 1–14. bussin, m. (2014). remuneration and talent management: strategic compensation approaches for attracting, retaining and engaging talent. randburg: knowres publishing. cappelli, p. (2008). talent on demand: managing talent in an age of uncertainty. boston, ma: harvard business school press. chambers, e.g., foulon, m., handfield-jones, h., hanklin, s.m., & michaels, e.g. (1998). the war for talent. the mckinsey quarterly, 1(3), 44–58. chartered institute of personnel and development. (2006). talent management: understanding the dimensions. retrieved from http://www.cipd.co.uk/onlineinfodcouments collings, d.g., & mellahi, k. (2009). strategic talent management: a review and research agenda. human resources management review, 19(4), 304–313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2009.04.001 council on higher education. (2008). the state of higher education in south africa. pretoria: council on higher education. currie, d. (2006). introduction to human resource management: a guide to personnel in practice. london: chartered institute of personnel development. de cieri, h., kramar, r., noe, r.a., hollenbeck, j.r., gerhart, b., & wright, p.m. (2008). human resource management in australia (3rd edn.). sydney: mcgraw hill. department of higher education and training. (2018). the new generation of academics programme. retrieved from http://www.ssauf.dhet.gov.za/ngap.html derven, m. (2008). management onboarding. journal of training and development, 49–52. dessler, g., barkhuizen, n., bezuidenhout, n., de braine, r., du plessis, y., nel, p., … van der walt, h. (2011). human resources management: global and southern african perspectives. cape town: pearson. developing bank of southern africa. (2010). the challenges of transformation in higher education and training institutions in south africa. retrieved from http://www.dbsa.org/en/about-us/publications/documents/the%20challenges%20of%20transformation%20in%20higher%20education%20and%20training%20institutions%20in%20south%20africa%20by%20saleem%20badat.pdf de villiers, a.p. & steyn, a.g.w. (2009). effect of changes in state funding of higher education on higher education output in south africa: 1986-2007. south african journal of higher education, 23(1), 43–68. flaniken, f.w. (2009). performance appraisal systems in higher education: an exploration of christian institutions. unpublished doctoral thesis. orlando, fl: university of central florida. flick, u. (2011). introducing research methodology: a beginner’s guide to doing a research project. london: sage. higher education south africa. (2009). first among equals: stories from higher education leaders in south africa. pretoria: university of south africa. higher education south africa. (2011). a generation of growth: proposal for a national programme to develop the next generation of academics for south african higher education. pretoria: university of south africa. higher education south africa. (2014a). remuneration of academic staff at south african universities: a summary report of the hesa statistical study of academic remuneration. pretoria: council on higher education. higher education south africa. (2014b). south african higher education in the 20th year of democracy: context, achievements and key challenges. pretoria: higher education south africa. huselid, m.a., jackson, s.e., & schuler, r.s. (1997). technical and strategic human resource management effectiveness determinates of firm performance. academy of management journal, 40, 171–188. https://doi.org/10.2307/257025 kim, s. (2003). linking employee assessments to succession planning. public personnel management, 32(4), 533–547. https://doi.org/10.1177/009102600303200405 lewis, r.e., & heckman, r.j. (2006). talent management: a critical review. human resource management review, 16(2), 139–154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2006.03.001 long, h. (2014). an empirical review of research methodologies and methods in creativity studies (2003–2012). creativity research journal, 26(4), 427–438. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2014.961781 maimela, e.m., & samuel, m.o. (2016). perception of performance management system by academic staff in an open distance learning higher education environment. sa journal of human resource management, 14(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.784 meyer, m., & kirstern, m. (2005). introduction to human resource management. cape town: new africa education. miller, c.c., burke, l.m., & glick, w.h. (1998). cognitive diversity among upper-echelon executives: implications for strategic decision processes. strategic management journal, 19(1), 39–58. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-0266(199801)19:1%3c39::aid-smj932%3e3.0.co;2-a mouton, j. (2010). african experience with collaborative graduate programmes. research report. stellenbosch: university of stellenbosch. myers, m.d. (2013). qualitative research in business & management (2nd edn.). london: sage. netswera, f.g., rankhumise, e.m., & mavundla, t.r. (2005). employee retention factors for south african higher education institutions: a case study. sa journal of human resource management, 3(2), 36–40. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v3i2.64 neuendorf, k.a. (2019). content analysis and thematic analysis. in p. brough (ed.), research methods for applied psychologists: design, analysis and reporting (pp. 211–223). new york, ny: routledge. ng’ethe, j.m., iravo, m.e., & namusonge, g.s. (2012). determinants of staff retention in public universities in kenya: empirical review. international journal of humanities and social science, 2(13), 105–212. nkomentaba, m.a. (2014). talent retention in a further education and training (fet) college in cape town: a case study. unpublished thesis. cape town: cape peninsula university of technology. noe, r.a., hollenbeck, j.r., gerhart, b., & wright, p.m. (2012). human resource management: gaining a competitive. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. pienaar, c., & bester, c.l. (2008). the retention of academics in the early career phase: empirical research. sa journal of human resource management, 6(2), 32–41. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v6i2.171 saurombe, m., barkhuizen, e.n., & schutte, n.e. (2017). management perceptions of a higher educational brand for the attraction of talented academic staff. sa journal of human resource management, 15(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.831 schreuder, d., & coetzee, m. (2011). careers: an organisational perspective. cape town: juta. schullion, h. (2011). global talent management. new york, ny: taylor & francis. silzer, r., & dowell, b.e. (2010). strategy-driven talent management: a leadership imperative. san francisco, ca: jossey bass. south african council for educators. (2010). a review of teacher demand and supply: identifying research gaps and the role of sace. pretoria: south african council for educators. theron, m., barkhuizen, n., & du plessis, y. (2014). managing the academic talent void: investigating factors in academic turnover and retention in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1117 van zyl, e.s., mathafena, r.b., & ras, j. (2017). the development of a talent management framework for the private sector. sa journal of human resource management, 15(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.820 walliman, n., & baiche, b. (2001). your research project: a step-by-step guide for the first-time researcher. london: sage. warnich, s., carrrell, m., elbert, n.f., & hatfield, r.d. (2015). human resource management in south africa (5th edn.). london: cengage learning. williams, c., champion, t., & hall, i. (2012). mgmt. toronto: nelson education ltd. abstract introduction research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) jacobina amushila department of business administration, school of business and economics, southern business school, johannesburg, south africa mark h.r. bussin department of management, faculty of management, southern business school, johannesburg, south africa citation amushila, j., & bussin, m.h.r. (2021). the effect of talent management practices on employee retention at the namibia university of science and technology: middle-level administration staff. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1485. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1485 original research the effect of talent management practices on employee retention at the namibia university of science and technology: middle-level administration staff jacobina amushila, mark h.r. bussin received: 16 sept. 2020; accepted: 30 mar. 2021; published: 23 july 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: talent management (tm) practices in the competitive corporate environment and the success and profitability in an institution can affect employee retention, the institution’s objective achievements and the contribution to namibia’s economic growth. research purpose: the primary aim of the study was to determine if tm can influence the retention and turnover of employees at the namibia university of science and technology (nust), to explore the benefits that the institution can achieve by implementing tm and to study retention strategies that the institution can adopt to reduce turnover. motivation for the study: limited research existed regarding the execution of best practice tm in this institution. new ways need to be engaged for employees to stay employed longer at the institution. research approach/design and method: the qualitative research design was implemented, with a target population of 39 administrative middle-level staff at nust. semi-structured interviews were conducted and research articles were reviewed. the data were analysed via qualitative content analysis that identified major themes. main findings: this study found a relationship between tm and employee retention and concluded that synchronisation of tm practices and employee retention initiatives led to reduced employee turnover. a model was recommended. practical/managerial implications: to implement and achieve tm properly, line managers and hrm managers should identify what hinders and facilitates tm. contribution/value-add: this study will contribute to research of tm in namibia and to the field of hrm in the public sector, particularly in the tertiary education area. keywords: talent management; employee retention; namibia; employee turnover; human resources management; retention strategies; talent; talent strategies. introduction orientation talent management (tm) is one of the modern functions of human resource management (hrm) and the most inspiring topics in management (hatum & preve, 2015). talent plays an important role as a part of the hrm function in managing all employees within the organisation that leads to high performance (tetik, 2016, p. 44). the role of hrm has rapidly changed from only concentrating on hiring, employee benefits and payroll to strategic human resources whereby the focus is on sustaining and driving business strategies. this raises questions about the necessity of re-skilling of hrm functions (sparrow & makram, 2015, p. 249). this represents a major shift in how business executives view the value of hrm, as they understand the strategic value of tm and the impact that strong talent can have on financial outcomes (silzer & dowell, 2010, p. 3). silzer and dowell (2010, p. 3) further state that ‘talent is becoming recognised as a core competitive asset in any business organisation and serves as a currency of business’. namibia has been facing major challenges in retaining talent in most key sectors of the economy (deloitte, 2015, p. 4). according to letchmiah and thomas (2017), it is still a major concern for many organisations to retain top-performing employees and thus, leadership strength is negatively affected. talent management (tm) is the process that ensures an organisation has access to the human capital and helps in attracting, developing, engaging, retaining and utilising talent to the mutual benefit of the business and employees (bussin, 2014, p. 17). however, employee retention can be defined as ‘an organisation’s ability to hold and keep in the possession and to engage the services of high potentials and value contributors in mission-critical and scarce skills positions’ (bussin, 2014, p. 26): organisations used to view talent as an audience, like fish waiting to be caught and not as a community, an ecosystem or fish swimming all over the global talent pool that are harder to catch. (frost & turner, 2016) research purpose and objectives talent management, as such, is well researched in most parts of the world; however, it is limited in namibian industries, as it is a fairly new approach in many organisations in namibia. therefore, although the shortage of talented workforce has attracted vast attention, the literature gives little recommendations on how to deal with it. the researcher is of the opinion that the problem is that organisations are still attached to the old perception of human resources and thus, there is a lack of understanding on the effects of tm on employee retention. thus, the namibia university of science and technology (nust) may continue to face challenges in retaining key employees or absenteeism if tm is not implemented. the institution may extend its recruiting to foreign labour markets. neither the nust nor the ministry of education has commissioned to research and explore recruitment and retention trials facing nust and the higher education sector in general to analyse the root causes (van hoof, 2020). the institutions of higher learning are vital to the success and growth of the namibian economy. retention of highly talented employees appears to be a concern at nust given a high staff turnover (deloitte, 2020). research focused on retaining highly skilled employees might influence the institution’s success and growth, especially employees who are the key drivers in steering the institution in the right direction. if the challenges of retention are not addressed, this will probably negatively affect the university’s overall performance in terms of growth and professional support service to the education sector (nambira & enkali, 2019, p. 4). there might be a repeat of the threat in 2012 of employees striking, because of a lack of salary and increment benefits (nust annual report: 2013). when employees strike, major drawback to the institution are caused because the absence of administration staff hinders service delivery to the students. the researcher was motivated to undertake this study regarding employee recruitment, turnover and retention of high talent because it is deemed necessary by the fact that high performing and talented employees continue leaving the institution sighting similar reasons for leaving. it is envisaged to propose recommendations that will assist nust in addressing challenges faced by the institution. the researcher attempted to obtain an understanding and insight into the institution’s recruitment and retention strategies. to address the scarcity of literature that exists on the relationship between tm and employee retention within nust and to understand whether implementation of tm can reduce employee retention, the following objectives will be explored: to determine the impact of tm on employee retention at nust. to find the benefits that the institution can achieve by implementing tm. to formulate the retention strategies adopted by the institution to reduce turnover. to determine the effect that tm has on employee turnover. to explore the relationship between tm and employee retention at nust. literature review the conceptual clarification of talent according to silzer and dowell (2010): [t]he term talent dates back to ancient greeks and biblical times, starting as a measure of weight, then becoming a unit of money and later meaning a person’s value or innate abilities. (p. 13) we might now refer to a person with innate abilities as a ‘gifted’ individual. there is no universal accepted definition of what talent constitutes, as different organisations and different sectors define talent in a wide range of ways. a few will regard employees who are the current top performers as talent, whilst others also classify those with ‘high potential’ (hipo) as talent (bussin, 2014, p. 46). bussin (2014) further adopted a definition as stated in the chartered institute of personnel and development (cipd) (2012) that: [t]alent consists of those individuals who can make a difference to organisational performance either through their immediate contribution or in the longer term, by demonstrating the highest levels of potential. letchmiah and thomas (2017, p. 3) define a ‘talented employee as the one who drives consistent excellent business performance through competency, commitment and involvement and has shown the potential to move up’. silzer and dowell (2010, p. 13) further stated that in an organisation, talent could refer to: an individual’s skills and abilities (talents) and what the person can do or contribute to the organisation a specific person usually implying she has specific skills and abilities in some area, or a group of employees in the organisation impacting superior performance and potential. egerova (2014), as cited by van zyl, mathafena and ras (2017, p. 2), believes that: [t]he increasing attention to talent is affected by factors such as globalisation, knowledge-based reimbursement, changing the world of labour and also new forms of organisational and demographic changes. in some organisations, talent does not make a great difference about organisational performance. (p. 2) ‘many bureaucratic organisations have been designed and structured so individuals do not need to perform at a superior level, they simply need to perform at an adequate level’ (lawler, 2017, p. 10). talent management defined and the need for attention according to blass (2009, p. 17), cynics argued that ‘tm is just another human resources fad, but few fads seem to have turned themselves into a new trench in the labour market’. the roots of tm can be traced back to the downsizing and outsourcing trends in the 1990s, including the slimming down of graduate recruitment schemes. tm became more popular after mckinsey & company coined the term ‘war for talent’ in 1997 for their research on tm and practices (van zyl et al., 2017, p. 1). bussin (2014) stated that: [m]any organisations responded to this ‘wake-up call’ by building methodologies, processes, and talent review mechanisms aiming to attract and retain critical talent and skills required to compete and ‘win the war’. (p. 85) according to van zyl et al. (2017, p. 2), tm has progressed quickly up the corporate agenda in the recent years, which is apparent from the number of research papers published over the last few years. typically, according to poisat, mey and sharp (2018, p. 2), tm has three mainstream definitions: firstly, it is the description of a new hrm term; secondly, an insinuation of succession planning; and finally, the general management of talented individuals in the organisation. bussin (2014) further stated that: [e]ven after many years, organisations are still struggling with ensuring they have the right people, with the right skills, doing the right things, at the right time to achieve business results. armstrong (2012, p. 719) defines tm as ‘ensuring that the organisation has talented people it needs to attain its aims and objectives’. the term tm may simply refer to management succession planning or management development activities. mahlahla (2018) mentioned that tm has three main goals, namely: to identify, handpick and develop employees who provide superior performance and stimulate others to perform with the same confidence, to find, develop and position highly qualified backup personnel for key positions in the organisation, to allocate resources, namely, rewards, training, coaching, job assignments and other inducements to employees based on their genuine or potential contribution to excellence. chee’s (2017) study on tm mentioned effective tm planning, leadership, continuous support, organisational unity, work-life balance and other environmental factors where important strengths to retain talented employees in the organisation. according to riccio (2010, p. 17), there is a shortage of tm in educational institutions as they spend too little time identifying their future leaders whilst claiming to be institutions for higher learning and training. several researchers share the same view that there is a need for tm in every organisation and it must be incorporated to create and maintain a strong association of human resources development. letchmiah and thomas (2017) mentioned that tm relates to the implementation of integrated strategies that are designed to increase efficiency by developing improved processes for attracting, developing, retaining and utilising individuals with required talents and aptitude to meet existing and future organisational needs. overall, according to van zyl et al. (2017, p. 2), there seems to be a lack of linkage between tm practices and the broader human resources system. employee retention talent retention is all the activities and practices used by organisations to avoid the departure of talent. ‘because of the high costs associated with losing talent, it is difficult for organisations to gain and maintain a competitive advantage without retaining their talent’ (ott, tolentino, & michailova, 2018, p. 16). kibui, gachunga and namusonge (2014, p. 421) mentioned that employee engagement and employer–employee relationship should be durable, constant and link the employee to the organisation’s common values and by how the organisation responds to the needs of the employee. however, the south african board for people practices found in its annual hrm survey as cited by erasmus, grobler and van niekerk (2015, p. 34) that a significant 32% of south african organisations do not concern themselves with retention phenomenon, but at least 46% indicated the problem as a concern. according to lawler (2017), a major issue in talent development is talent retention. talent retention as identified by sparrow and makram (2015, p. 250) is talent protection and is the process whereby organisations develop isolating implements to protect its talent resources from being lost to other organisations. turnover is expensive from an administrative and development viewpoint, but its greatest expense often is the opportunity of the talent lost. arguably, the economic downturn at the start of this decade has caused many employees to stay in jobs that they might have left earlier. as the economy recovers, up to half of the managers could be looking for new jobs as long hours, lower salaries and benefits coupled with their perception of ungrateful and greedy senior leadership, which propels disgruntled employees to leave as more opportunities become available (blass, 2009, p. 13). the study of onyango, nzulwa and kwena (2017, p. 637) revealed that employee retention involves taking measures to encourage employees to remain in the organisation for the maximum period of time. onyango et al. (2017, p. 638) further define employee retention as a systematic effort by employers to create and foster an environment that encourages employees to remain with the organisation. a significant number of employees leave their jobs before they have spent a year with the organisation (lawler, 2017). retention strategies should be adopted to strengthen the ability of organisations to attract and retain their workforce. employee retention is important for building a productive, committed and healthy workforce (onyango et al., 2017, p. 637). kibui et al. (2014, p. 422) emphasised that retention is mainly to prevent the loss of competent employees in the organisation, which could cause harm to productivity and service delivery. remarkably, in understanding challenges faced by organisations to retain staff, it is vital to understand employee turnover (dhanpat, modau, lugisani, mabojane, & phiri, 2018). the talent management strategies to enhance retention in an organisation a tm strategy according to armstrong (2012) consists of a view on how the tm processes blend with the organisation’s overall objective to acquire and nurture talent wherever it is. according to poisat et al. (2018), tm strategies must be adjusted to accommodate the diverse values, features and attitudes towards work and corporate world view of the different generational associates working together. according to bussin (2014, p. 81), succession management is one tactic to overcome leadership succession risks. koranteng (2014, p. 23) further suggested that a succession system would be more successful if it is highly formalised, has a system of checks and balances, has adequate resources, has broad information, uses capability rather than governmental criteria for individual selection and has reliable staff. according to robertson (2015), coaching new employees is important to incorporate coaching into a tm strategy to enable an increase in employee engagement and achieve talent development goals such as problem-solving capabilities and strategic thinking. tm suggests that organisations must be purposeful with their retention techniques to help engaging with newly recruited employees considered top performers. ‘the techniques may include selection techniques, developmental opportunities, and mobility within the organisations and promotion prospects’ (letchmiah & thomas, 2017). according to davis (2016, p. 25), creative assignments is stating that “one cherished resource many organisations overlook is the value of existing employees. attention on recruiting top talent is a priority for an organisation but so is the talent. creative assignments is one of the many ways that organisations employ to increase the efforts and abilities of employees whilst performing tasks. according to bussin (2014, p. 74), talent development is learning and development of talent and is one of the most important components of a tm strategy and the development needs to be customised and experiential. developing the right talent and doing so in the correct way is critical to the effectiveness of each organisation (lawler, 2017). the aim is to use the business strategy to explore the talent attraction and development that may occur. leadership development according to armstrong (2012) is rather an unfavourable statement for those who are leaders by birth although there is a saying that leaders are born not made. however, further defines leadership development as a sense to acquire, develop and utilise leadership capabilities or the potential for it. armstrong (2012) suggested possible conditions for effective leadership development as clear learning objectives, the opportunity for active practice, relevant timely feedback, suitable follow-up activities and a suitable mix of training methods. employee engagement is one fascinating concept that comes along every few years in the hrm field that is fuelled by an intense business need and introduced into practice so quickly that it creates consternation and confusion in research and academic communities (silzer & dowell, 2010, p. 439). constructive retention strategies all organisations are challenged with attracting and retaining a quality workforce to attain operational excellence and competitive advantage (sparrow & cooper, 2017, p. 78). dhanpat et al. (2018) mentioned that it is vital to note that when organisations recruit hipo individuals, they must develop and implement retention strategies immediately to prevent employees from leaving. according to turner and kalman (2014), retention is not only about money but also a universal process that will span most aspects of an individual’s management. mentorship programmes: mentoring plays a key role in helping employees gain awareness into how senior leaders operate (davies & kourdi, 2010, p. 66). organisations having employees mentored is one of the valued and effective professional development prospects they can offer employees. new employees can learn the ropes from an expert through a wealth of guidance, encouragement and support that will provide personal and professional benefits that lead to better performance. recognition and rewards system: according to letchmiah and thomas (2017), employees who perceive contributions equal to the benefits they receive are less likely to leave their jobs. the appreciation can be as simple as leaving a small note on the employee table, sincere email, a gift card, an extra day off or, as a surprise to a deserving individual, an internal promotion. to succeed in the war for talent, organisations need to clearly understand how numerous reward factors influence whether talented performers stay or leave their jobs (pregnolato, bussin, & schechter, 2017). employee compensation: mahlahla (2018) stated that other researches are on the opinion that the significance of financial compensation strategy on retaining employees varies as per individual and is not necessarily a motivator for everyone. compensation plays a key role in attracting employees, improves an individual’s organisational commitment and ensures employee retention (dhanpat et al., 2018). an ideal package may include a salary, 13th checks, medical aid, pension, and retirement plans, generous paid leave and paid studies. communication and feedback: dhanpat et al. (2018) emphasise that proper and frequent feedback is vital in retaining employees because employees perceive organisational support and increase commitment in the long-term. it is crucial to regularly connect with each employee and not allow issues to build up. perform exit interviews: according to amsbary and powell (2018): [s]ome people switch jobs, moving because of a better salary and benefits and working environments while others burn out by working too long and too hard at a single position. it is very difficult for an organisation to figure out why an employee is leaving unless the employee is asked. that is why amsbary and powell (2018) revealed that: [i]t is vital for an organisation to schedule an exit interview with all employees who decide to resign. since an exit interview is the last meeting between an employer and an employee, it will give a last chance for the employee to contribute to the organisation’s success. organisations will be able to form trends and implement an effective change program to reduce or even avoid high turnover and improve retention. benefits of talent management according to sparrow and cooper (2017, p. 51), tm has become a burning topic in management over the past few decades. the understanding of the tm topic has progressed in recent times, and the quality of experiential evidence has advanced and has countless benefits that organisations can utilise. retaining top talents: according to letchmiah and thomas (2017): [t]op-performing employees are at times unnoticed and seen as organisational assets. as a result, employees become unhappy with and detached from their current employers and begin to look for new job opportunities where they feel more valued and appreciated. (p. 2) erasmus et al. (2015, p. 34) highlight that retaining high-quality talent is important to organisations as it eliminates the hiring, selection and onboarding costs otherwise suffered in replacing best professional talent. getting the right person for right position: organisations that attract and retain the right talent and treat it well, reward it, develop it and deploy it correctly perform better than those that simply fill jobs (lawler, 2017). the right person in the right job will give a better alignment between employee’s interests and job profile that leads to increased job satisfaction and their needs. enhanced professional development decisions: poisat et al. (2018) state that the work environment is important for employee satisfaction and a positive relationship between management and employees. they further indicate that such a relationship needs to be of mutual respect, trust and confidence in employee’s capabilities. improved hiring: the success of an organisation’s hiring strategy is determined by an effective tm system that leads to a quality workforce (van zyl et al., 2017). as the saying goes, there is no successful talent at the top without bottom talent. competitive advantage: engaged, motivated and skilled employees work in the strategic direction of the organisation’s goals and objectives, which creates a competitive advantage (ott et al., 2018, p. 17). employee motivation and commitment: poisat et al. (2018) state that that an organisation’s effective tm strategy helps them to keep their employees motivated and committed. a motivated workforce discourages employees to leave the organisation and do their job effectively. not all employees are driven by money, so they will need to feel engaged and feel safe to be fulfilled. employee turnover employee turnover is a concern in many worldwide organisations, which decreases the operating costs of organisations, leaving significant effects on talent loss and disruptions in business activities (dhanpat et al., 2018). theron, barkhuizen and du plessis (2014) distinguish between avoidable turnover (identified as those employees who express turnover intentions but do not resign) and unavoidable turnover (described as voluntary resignations because of various reasons that organisations have no control over). narayanan (2016, p. 35) states that over the past few decades, management practitioners have shown more interest in the labour turnover model as it is always a significant concern to many organisations. mamun and hasan (2017, p. 63) blame it on the organisation’s top management as they pay less attention and do not concentrate on this major issue, as they are possibly not capable of recognising the situation on how labour turnover harms the organisation’s overall performance. ahmed, sabir and khoza (2016, p. 89) narrate that employee turnover results in the access and opportunity to enter into new employment. armstrong (2012) believes that it is necessary to measure labour turnover and calculate its cost to estimate future losses for planning and also to recognise the motives on why people leave their employment. numerous researchers, including the studies of ahmed et al. (2016, p. 90), highlight similar factors on why people leave their jobs, such as lack of proper induction and orientation, a mismatch between experience, qualification and salary offered, poor training and development, low-grade working environment, career promotion and bad influence of co-workers. besides these causes, silzer and dowell (2010, p. 240) added that employees also leave because they do not feel appreciated and because management fails to set clear job expectations for prospective employees. challenges associated with talent management according to sparrow, scullion and tarique (2014) ‘there are many debates and criticisms about the way tm is applied in practice and the topic is still lacking a definition and needs theological growth’. tm offers a fresh approach to addressing the hot topic through human resources affluence as many challenges need to be considered, especially the organisational level and employee level challenges (silzer & dowell, 2010, p. 753). the study of mogwere (2014, p. 23) stipulates that it ‘is important to remember that challenges differ from organisation to organisation even from one continent to another regarding experiencing and a shortage of talent’. mogwere (2014, p. 23) uses africa as an example, where organisations lack the ability to hire and retain a qualified workforce and face challenges such as poor salaries, working conditions, proper employee engagement and reduced rewards. another challenge according to mogwere (2014, p. 23) emphasises talent shortage resulting from the deteriorating quality of the education system, because of low funding caused by inadequate education and lack of facilities, equipment and tools; the most critical challenge is the lack of qualified academic staff. the studies of koranteng (2014, p. 30) added that factors such as the current economic crises, hiring and selection, cultural diversities and proper human resources planning are affecting the management of talents. research design this study was performed based on a qualitative research design to understand the effect of tm on employee retention at nust. according to bertram and christiansen (2014, p. 40), ‘research design is a plan of how the researcher intends to methodically collect and analyse the data that is needed to answer the research questions’. the research information was solicited from both primary and secondary data. the researcher made use of a one-on-one interview with semi-structured questions with the study participants. research approach the researcher adopted a qualitative research method by making use of a case study approach because of the complexity and nature of the study. according to beaudry and miller (2016): [a] qualitative research remains constant among other approaches with distinctive features such as, the research focuses on people in their natural settings, samples are small and they are sensitive to setting and purpose, data analysis is inductive, and the researcher was the key instrument for data collection and is engaged with visible players. (p. 39) research strategy the primary source of data for this study was obtained through the semi-structured interviews administered to the participants for both the middle-level administrative employees and the director of hrm. research method research setting interviews were conducted at nust, which is a namibian public tertiary educational institution that has recently transformed to a full-fledged university. the institution has grown since its academy years and employed close to 1000 employees, which comprise academic and administrative staff, and enrolled about 13 000 students in 2019. the research was conducted according to ethical rules, procedures and guidelines of nust obtained from the department of the deputy vice-chancellor of innovation and research. entrée and establishing researcher roles the primary researcher performed the role of interviewer. research participants and sampling methods the 39 potential participants of the study were identified by finding all the names of the individuals that fitted the criteria for the target population. detailed informed consent forms were e-mailed to participants seeking permission and approval to conduct interviews for gathering responses determining the influence of tm on employee retention of the sample population to address the research questions. an introductory e-mail on the setting up of convenient interview meeting times and venues that ensured confidentiality was sent out to individuals who had by that time consented to participate in the study. interviews were conducted by first explaining the interview protocol and setting out the aims and objectives of the study. at the end of data collection through the structured interviews, 22 participants were interviewed, which represented a response rate of almost 58%. it was considered sufficient because data saturated well before then. according to bertram and christiansen (2014, p. 59), ‘sampling encompasses making decisions about which people, settings, behaviours, and events will be included in the study by deciding how many individual groups or objects will be observed’. the unit of analysis of this research paper was the administrative middle-level management staff of nust, because this group of administrative staff is where key activities of nust revolve. the researcher approached 39 participants who met the criteria from all 13 administration departments of nust, meaning it was 3 participants from each department. of the possible 39 participants approached, 22 were available and able to make the interviews. data saturated long before all 22 interviews were completed. the sample selected was of the participants in employment for not less than 1 year because they have the knowledge based on the research problem. the participants selected were interviewed and the semi-structured were from the office of the vice-chancellor; office of the deputy vice-chancellor, administration and finance; office of the bursar; office of the registrar; human resources; library; centre for open and lifelong learning; department of auxiliary services; centre for teaching and learning; centre for corporative education unit; dean of students; centre for enterprise development and the department of information and communication technology. data collection methods the data collection method was through semi-structured interviews with the participants selected as the middle-level administration staff members. the respondents answered the interview questions freely according to their ethics and principles without being exposed. the researcher adopted the use of open-ended and closed-ended questions to make it easier for data analysis. semi-structured interviews lasted from 30 to 45 minutes and the researcher made audio recordings of all the interviews that were later transcribed and analysed. data recording the researcher maintained a file to keep all the handwritten notes of what was said by the respondents because it was easy to lose crucial information if the papers were loose and no respondent would want to be interviewed twice and time was of essence. with the fast-paced technology world, the researcher made use of audio recording that was transcribed before analysis began. strategies employed to ensure data quality and integrity the most cited concept of trustworthiness of quality criteria of this research method is that of guba and lincoln of 1985 and thus, this research’s trustworthiness was established by using credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability strategies. to that extent, the researcher ensured that data and data analysis will be credible and trustworthy. the participants were encouraged to support their statements with examples where necessary and the researcher studied the raw data to develop a theory to provide intended insight. characteristics of data were examined by developing codes and core categories, recording and labelling them. the researcher ensured sending all interview transcripts back to respondents for feedback and correct any misinterpretations through member checking. the researcher made use of good descriptions of the respondent’s answers and the full research process. this enabled the reader to see if findings were in harmony with their experiences and to make transferability judgement decision. to increase dependability, the researcher ensured that the research process is logical, traceable and clearly documented. the proposed research was conducted according to ethical rules, procedures and guidelines of nust obtained from the department of the deputy vice-chancellor of innovation and research. permission to conduct the research was obtained from the registrar, the consent form was developed to safeguard the participants and consent was sought from all participants before starting the interviews. according to wiley (2013, p. 42), in the research setting, discretion means that identifiable information about individuals, collected during the process of research, will not be disclosed and that the identity of research participants will be protected through a process designed to ensure anonymity, unless they specified to be identified. data analysis according to beaudry and miller (2016, p. 45), ‘in qualitative research, data analysis depends on the procedures for organising and reducing data and summarising results’. after collecting the information, the researcher carefully read the handwritten notes and listened to the audios to identify patterns amongst the data collected. responses differed from the respondent’s different ways of answering the question on how they felt and thought. thereafter, responses were transcribed into an excel worksheet for data analysis. it is a crucial step for analysing and organising qualitative data to be able to understand, see and allocate codes to sensitive and indirect data collected throughout the study. responses for each question were assessed and analysed for key words and phrases for which codes were allocated. the codes that were identified were then organised into one dataset applicable to each question. the dataset was then analysed for resemblances, differences and replicate themes and organised order theme bands, categorised patterns and emerging themes for which each theme was named. this report underscored the themes for tm and employee retention, which emerged from the responses utilising thematic analysis technique. thematic analysis is a search for patterns and themes within a dataset that discovers commonalities of capabilities, thoughts, beliefs, opinions and views, thus addressing the research questions being examined. reporting style the study was reported as per the guidelines of the american psychological association (apa). ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained from the southern business school, sbs-20201-0014-mm. results the results are presented against the objectives of the study. research objective 1: to determine the impact of tm on employee retention at the nust the encounters of the study showed that nust is not yet at the phase where it is supposed to be in terms of tm development and employee retention. at this stage, tm has not yet made significant progress and development to where it can influence employee retention. the findings exposed shortcomings in the implementation, such as the lack of overall leadership commitment that was found to be deficient and may impede delivery. the findings showed that the institution has invested in allocating fair salaries although it has not reached a point where non-monetary incentives have satisfied the policy of talent attraction and fulfil employee job satisfaction. poor employee retention in nust was also attributed to slow planning of developing a tm programme that could have been implemented ages ago, while others may be from the financial challenges that the institution was facing as a result of slow funding from the government. research objective 2: to find the benefits that the institution can achieve by implementing tm the concept of tm has different meanings for different people, which means that the benefits of implementing a tm programme will differ from organisation to organisation. this is similar to the previous studies as most kinds of literature cited that tm implementation is crucial to recruit and develop talent not just for meeting today’s needs but also keeping in mind the organisation’s future. thus, developing tm and managing it properly by keeping employees engaged and motivated is beneficial to nust’s sustainability. to achieve that, the findings expressed that developing a tm strategy in line with the institution’s vision needs to be implemented. there was a perception that tm improves employee commitment and support to employees throughout their employment and therefore retains top talents. the nust has made it a priority to complete the implementation of tm to achieve competitive advantage in terms of retaining high performers in administrative operations. research objective 3: to formulate the retention strategies adopted by the institution to reduce turnover this objective was to frame retention strategies that nust is utilising to minimise employee turnover. this was made by establishing whether there was an understanding of the concept of employee retention and what it seeks to achieve in terms of what level the concept contributes effectively to the tm system. the findings revealed an insignificant percentage of lack of understanding of retention; many understood that retention strategies are necessary and critical for the institution to improve its capacity to retain its high performing employees. the respondents were not keen to identify institutional retention strategies, with individuals emphasising job dissatisfaction because of the institution holding on to traditional hrm practices. however, few respondents commended the strategy of allowing individuals to study with fees waiver options although it was limited compared to the opportunity given to the academics. the majority were rather suggesting strategies that would aid in reducing employee turnover and recommend for exit interviews to be performed to know the reasons behind employees leaving. research objective 4: to determine how effective tm is on employee turnover in the nust this research objective was to determine the effectiveness of tm process in nust. the findings concur with the conclusions of various authors and kinds of literature mutually acknowledging that tm as a process ensures that the right skills are acquired, nurtured and retained by the organisations. the findings identified one primary reason that employees leave nust is the lack of matching non-monetary incentives with that of their competitors. however, career development, job satisfaction and performance management in tm are important factors influencing an individual’s decision to stay. the results show that tm would anticipate hrm activities such as recruitment and selection, coaching, training and development and performance management to minimise employee turnover. research objective 5: to explore the relationship between tm and employee retention at the nust many scholars, just like the findings of this study, revealed a positive relationship between the institution’s tm systems and its employees. the findings further showed that employee retention is a major factor in reducing talented employees’ turnover. therefore, management should give much attention to talented staff to retain their services in the long-term. it was perceived that talented employees always have high expectations regarding compensation packages but must be include attractive non-monetary benefits in the packages. career development, job satisfaction and performance management appear to have a close association with low turnover rates maximising the institution’s overall performance. the study concluded that tm cannot be separated from employee retention because they go hand in hand. discussion outline of the results the main objective of the research study was to discover the influence of tm on employee retention at nust. from the qualitative analysis of the results of the interview protocol, the study discovered that tm practices have a significant effect on employee retention at nust. nust has gradually benefitted from introducing tm and developing a performance management tool from the analysis yielding several positive outcomes, with the aim to largely benefit after the complete implementation. the findings also observed the importance of top management playing their key role in the tm programme to ensure the practice of talent retention whilst minimising employee turnover. the results on talent retention strategies showed absent retention strategies except for the old traditional processes in place that helped little in retaining employees. the literature review revealed several retention strategies to challenge the attraction and retention of a talented workforce. the study findings expect employees to gain more attractive tm benefits that can motivate them to be more loyal to the institution. the study findings state that employees must adjust to change for tm to help them achieve their personal goals and objectives to develop their personal growth. to validate the above findings and finding the way forward, the next step is to address the analysis from the results of the four themes that emerged. the findings from the first theme of talent attraction were to identify and understand the processes of attracting new hires. it was discovered that employees were more attracted to non-monetary incentives compared to monetary incentives. the findings showed the lack of career development is one of the major reasons that employees leave their jobs. in the findings, respondents stated the lack of growth opportunities within administration although the details were not given professionally of exit interviews. findings noted was increased turnover in the past few years because of burnout and non-monetary incentives offered by other institutions that nust could not match and now calls for solutions to remain competitive and retain key talent. the major theme of employee turnover attracted job satisfaction as the sub-theme and findings revealed that employees suffered from job dissatisfaction. the findings suggest that managers do not pay sufficient attention to the performance of employees and ignore the importance of job satisfaction. the study discovered that performance will be emphasised by developing a performance management tool at nust. the findings concluded that the institution should manage its performance management to strengthen its capabilities and competitiveness in the operating environment. the results of performance management provide a basis for self-development and in tm to ensure the support and guidance that people need to develop and improve. practical implications the findings of this study have important implications for the employers, especially those in the education industry, and the advancement of knowledge in managing and retaining hipo employees at the institution. the findings of this study help the line and hrm managers in developing and implementing successful tm practices that would help align the core objectives of the institution. the institution should develop retention strategies based on the needs of its top talents and control the strengths that the institutional culture encourages and provides. this allows the institution to have a competitive advantage against other competitors by developing a tm strategy that would be consistent and efficient simultaneously. this study will also provide a vision to the institution as to how tm influences employee retention, so the institution can improve in developing, promoting and retaining talent to meet the existing and future needs. as compensation of non-monetary incentives, career development, job satisfaction and performance management had the most significance, the institution should pay much attention to these four factors to keep the employee with the institution for a longer time. line management must assume responsibility and accountability for the outcomes of managing talent in their respective units and departments. constant communication and feedback are to be carried out continuously by direct management with the employees in a professional, open and honest manner. finally, the study would also enable us to promote transparency amongst the management and employees in increasing their performance and indirectly help the institution to increase their productivity and ultimately lead to institution profit. the recommended practices for this study will offer the direction to higher educational institutions in determining which of the tm strategies are more effective to retain employees and what urges them to stay and work with the institution on a long-term basis. limitations and recommendations many interviews were performed via phone, zoom or teams. this limitation was because of the international outbreak of covid-19 that led to the country’s partial lockdown. the interventions were very strict because of the nature of spreading of the virus and thus led to social distancing and restricted travelling. many respondents were not willing to risk attracting the virus. the challenge was also that respondents were not willing to provide the completely frank information as regard to the sensitivity of the study subject as they feared victimisation from top management. another limitation was the lack of reliable responses as some of the data were recorded with cell phones, especially the ones gathered via the phone app, and thus limited the research and analysis on some questions pertaining to this study. regarding empirical knowledge expansion, the study recommends to organisations and/or institutions wishing to restrict the drain of talent, increase job satisfaction to have well-motivated and effective employees and create better business results need to take practical steps to address these challenges. the strategies should increase the value of the organisation and preserve its sustainable competitive advantage. regarding organisational recommendations, the following should be practiced by nust: policymakers should revise and improve the hrm policies, including their tm and retention policy, as hrm policies directly influence employees’ working conditions. implementation and correct application of talent retention strategies by applying the hierarchy of needs theory to understand employees’ needs in the institution by predicting the actions and behaviours of employees under different situations. creating proper rewarding structure to enhance job satisfaction and therefore retention that may include fair benefits from the employee rebate systems for all employees and at all levels. introducing a 360-degree performance appraisal method built in the new developed performance management tool and trying to tap from internal talent pool before a vacancy is advertised to the public. creating an insignificant incentive approach. conclusion the namibia university of science and technology has embraced the development of tm combined with the performance management tool as part of its hrm management operations and practices. from the findings and discussion, majority tm practices that were found to have been adopted by the institution have a relationship with employee retention. talent management practices to a greater extent determine employee retention; nust needs to develop other practices such as knowledge management, health and safety and also employee engagement. this research study also established that successful tm is driven by a talent mind-set in which managers in the institution regard tm as their responsibility and not the sole responsibility of the hrm department. failing to retain high-performing employees in nust is costly just as for any other organisation because of costs associated with high turnover. talent management practices can facilitate the development of employees, enhance service delivery and also give nust an enhanced group image. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions all the authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references ahmed, z., sabir, s., & khoza, m. (2016). impact of employee turnover on organisational effectiveness in telecommunication sector of pakistan. iosr journal of business and management, 18(11), 88–96. amsbary, j.h., & powell, l. (2018). interviewing in a changing world: situations and contexts. new york, ny: taylor and francis. retrieved from https://library.books24x7.com/assetviewer.aspx?bookid=137745&chunkid=329184769&rowid=4 armstrong, m. (2012). armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. kogan page. retrieved from https://library.books24x7.com/assetviewer.aspx?bookid=47011&chunkid=544534210&rowid=3128 beaudry, j.s., & miller, l. (2016). research literacy: a primer for understanding research. retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlymtfxzexodawntbfx0fo0?sid=bf642a07-e3b6-463b-82d8-5467a0ffb19f@sessionmgr102&vid=1&format=eb&rid=4 bertram, c., & christiansen, i. (2014). understanding research: an introduction to reading research. retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlymtfxzeyndmwndlfx0fo0?sid=bf642a07-e3b6-463b-82d8-5467a0ffb19f@sessionmgr102&vid=1&format=eb&rid=7 blass, e. (2009). talent management. new york, ny: palgrave macmillan, st martin’s press llc. bussin, m. (2014). remuneration and talent management. randburg: knowres publishing. chee, y.p. (2017). the role of talent management in employee retention. master’s thesis, durban university of technology. retrieved from http://eprints.utar.edu.my/2488/1/thesis_final_copy_(1).pdf cipd. (august 2012). talent management: an overview resource summary. fact sheet. retrieved from http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/talent-management-overview.aspx davies, j., & kourdi, j. (2010). the truth about talent. wiley, uk: john wiley and sons ltd, jossey bass, a wiley imprint. davis, k. (2016). stretch assignments: give employees room to grow. retrieved from https://www.gfoa.org/sites/default/files/gfr061624.pdf deloitte. (2015). namibia human capital trends. windhoek: deloitte development llc. deloitte. (2020). covid-19: managing risks and ensuring business continuity. downloaded 10 april 2020. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/cz/en/pages/risk/solutions/covid-zajisteni-kontinuity-cinnosti.htm dhanpat, n., modau, f.d., lugisani, p., mabojane, r., & phiri, m. (2018). exploring employee retention to leave within a call centre. south africa publishing, 16, a905. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.905 erasmus, b.j., grobler, a., & van niekerk, m. (2015). employee retention in higher education institution: an organisational development perspective. progressio, 37(2), 33–63. https://doi.org/10.25159/0256-8853/600 frost, s., & turner, d. (2016). inclusive talent management: how business can thrive in an age of diversity. kogan page. retrieved from https://library.books24x7.com/assetviewer.aspx?bookid=115180&chunkid=1&rowid=2 garg, d., & rani, k. (2014). talent management: empirical research results. international journal of management and commerce innovations, 2(1), 289–295. hatum, a., & preve, l.a. (2015). managing talent risk. havard deusto journal, 4(1), 34–45. https://doi.org/10.3926/hdbr.70 kibui, a.w., gachunga, h., & namusonge, g.s. (2014). role of talent management on employee retention in kenya. international journal of science and research, 3(2), 414–422. koranteng, f.a. (2014). assessing talent management as a tool for employee retention. master’s thesis, kwame nkrumah university. retrieved from http://ir.knust.edu.gh/bitstream/123456789/7636/1/frederick%20addy%20koranteng%20%28pg7604212%292-1.pdfs lawler, e.e. (2017). performance management. oakland: berrett-koehler. retrieved sep 16, 2019 from https://library.books24x7.com/assetviewer.aspx?bookid=120337&chunkid=508609524&rowid=175 letchmiah, l., & thomas, a. (2017). retention of high potential employees in a development finance company. sajhrm, 15, a924. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.924 mahlahla, l.t. (2018). the impact of talent management on employee retention strategies. master’s thesis, durban university of technology. retrieved from https://ir.dut.ac.za/bitstream/10321/3118/1/mahlahlalt_2018.pdf mamun, c.a., & hasan, n.h. (2017). factors affecting employee turnover and sound retention strategies in business organisation: a conceptual view. emerald insight, 15(1), 63–71. https://doi.org/10.21511/ppm.15(1).2017.06 mogwere, p.g. (2014). the relationship between talent management, employee engagement and service quality of support staff in a south african higher education institution. master’s thesis, north west university. retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4f4c/3df48c7d8adaea8ba0c416522fa367d1d16a.pdf nambira, g., & enkali, e. (2019). work engagement at a transforming tertiary institution: a reflection of nust academic staff, namibia. ijarbas.com, 1(2), 4–5. retrieved from https://www.ijarbas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/1.2-14-work-engagement-at-a-transforming-tertiary-institution-a-reflection-of-nust-academic-staff-namibia.pdf narayanan, a. (2016). talent management and employee retention: implications of job embeddedness – a research agenda. papers ssrn. retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2829273 onyango, p.o., nzulwa, j., & kwena, r. (2017). influence of talent management on employee retention in public hospitals in kenya: a case study of siaya. the strategic journal of business & change management, 4(2), 631–642. ott, d.l., tolentino, l., & michailova, s. (2018). effective talent retention approaches. retrieved from https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/hrmid-07-2018-0152/full/html poisat, p., mey, m., & sharp, g. (2018). do talent management strategies influence the psychological contract within a diverse environment? south africa publishing, 16, a1044. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.1044 pregnolato, m., bussin, m.h., & schechter, a.f. (2017). total rewards that retain: a study of demograpwalhic preferences. south africa publishing, 15, a804. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.804 riccio, s. (2010). talent management in higher education: development of emerging leaders within the administration at private colleges and universities. doctoral dissertation, university of nebraska. retrieved from https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1034&context=cehsedaddiss robertson, r. (2015). 5 steps to integrating coaching into your talent management strategy. retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/coaching-talent-management-strategy.aspx silzer, r., & dowell, b.e. (2010). strategy – driven talent management. wiley, usa: john wiley and sons, jossey bass, a wiley imprint. sparrow, p., & cooper, c. (2017). a research agenda for human resources management. retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=06ea31cb-52c4-4d41-be7c16723c969e75%40sessionmgr4006&bdata=jnnpdgu9zwhvc3qtbgl2zq%3d%3d#an=1617392&db=nlebk sparrow, p., scullion, h., & tarique, i. (2014). strategic talent management: contemporary issues in an international context. cambridge university press. retrieved from https://library.books24x7.com/assetviewer.aspx?bookid=69075&chunkid=607330436&rowid=29 sparrow, p.r., & makram, h. (2015). what is the value of talent management? building value-driven process within a talent management architecture. human resources management review, 25(2015), 249–263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.04.002 tetik, s. (2016). talent management: a review of theoretical perspectives and a guideline for practitioners. nile journal of business and economics, 2(4), 40–56. theron, m., barkhuizen, n., & du plessis, y. (2014). managing the academic talent: investigating factors in academic turnover and retention in south africa. south africa publishing, 40(1), a1117. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1117 turner, p., & kalman, d. (2014). make your people before you make your products: using talent management to achieve competitive advantage in a global organisation. wiley. retrieved from https://library.books24x7.com/assetviewer.aspx?bookid=72832&chunkid=900006977&rowid=207 van hoof, e. (2020, 09 april). lockdown is the world’s biggest psychological experiment – and we will pay the price. world economic forum. retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/this-is-the-psychological-side-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-that-were-ignoring/ van zyl, e.s., mathafena, r.b., & ras, j. (2017). the development of a talent management framework for the private sector. south africa publishing, 15, a820. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.820 wiley, r. (2013). what are qualitative research ethics? bloomsbury academy. retrieved from https://books.google.com.na/books?id=hv9maqaaqbaj&pg=pt51&dq=ethical+considerations+in+qualitative+research&hl=en&sa=x&ved=0ahukewjp6et1trroahxfsxuihccoa64q6aeittaf#v=onepage&q=ethical%20considerations%20in%20qualitative%20research&f=false abstract introduction literature review hypothetical framework methodology findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) sami alajlani department of finance, faculty of business, centre for business and economic research, higher colleges of technology, sharjah, united arab emirates lawal o. yesufu department of business analytics, faculty of business, centre for business and economic research, higher colleges of technology, sharjah, united arab emirates citation alajlani, s., & yesufu, l.o. (2022). the impact of human resource practices on employee retention: a study of three private higher educational institutions in the united arab emirates. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1823. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1823 original research the impact of human resource practices on employee retention: a study of three private higher educational institutions in the united arab emirates sami alajlani, lawal o. yesufu received: 12 nov. 2021; accepted: 23 mar. 2022; published: 11 july 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: human resource (hr) practices have a significant impact on building the perceptions that define the relationships between employees and employers. hence, it is imperative to develop further knowledge on how these hr practices impact employee retention within the higher education context. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between various hr practices and employee retention in an organisation. the article also investigates the effect of hr practices across employees of various demographic backgrounds, such as citizens and expatriates. motivation for the study: the limited research was conducted on employee retention in higher education despite the fundamental role that higher education institutions play in driving innovation, developing knowledge capital and research and development. research design: descriptive statistical analysis and multiple regression analysis with a sample size of 270 employees working across three higher education institutions in the united arab emirates (uaes). main findings: the findings showed that hr practices can improve employees’ retention, with moderate positive perceptions amongst uae citizens, but an unsatisfactory level of perception and effect of human resource practices amongst expatriates. practical implications: the results indicate a difference in the effects of hr practices across various demographics within the same the section. hence, hr management should be looking at a unification of hr practices to obtain unified results in loyalty, commitment and employee retention. contribution: however, the results also indicated that this gap in employees’ retention can be minimised by improving on empowerment and compensation and benefits, with even more enforcements of training. keywords: higher education; human resource management; hrm practices; employee retention; uae. introduction the efforts to improve an organisation’s efficiency and its economic management through the relationship between employer and employee birthed what frederick taylor termed as ‘scientific management’ (taylor, 1911). scientific management later inspired what is known today as ‘human resource management’ (hrm), which deals with the organisationally relevant capabilities of a group or individuals (boselie, van harten, & veld, 2021; scott-jackson et al., 2014) based on planned deployments and activities to help the group, individuals, or an organisation to attain its objectives (boselie et al., 2021; reina & scarozza, 2021). the activities involved in strategic implementation of hrm are called human resource (hr) practices (reina & scarozza, 2021). these practices include the systems and policies that influence the behaviour, performance and attitudes of employees who are considered the most valuable assets of any business organisation (beijer, peccei, van veldhoven, & paauwe, 2021; saifalislam, osman, & alqudah, 2014). employee recruitment and selection, training and development, compensation and benefits and health and safety of employees can influence their perceptions and retention (harney, dundon, & wilkinson, 2018). the importance of hrm lies in its strategic plan (boselie et al., 2021). the effective implementation of its practices is a vital competitive advantage tool for organisations (hamadamin & atan, 2019). the rationale behind the surge in studies on hrm in the united arab emirates (uae) (waxin & bateman, 2016) includes the country’s economy, which is amongst the most developed in the middle east region. the uae is also categorised as a high-income developing economy and has a popular vision for social and economic development focusing on skilled human capital and other strategic enablers (mishrif, 2018). nevertheless, research on hr practices, is still considered a relatively new concept in developing countries (beijer et al., 2021; saifalislam et al., 2014). the significance of this study lies in its focus on hr practices in private higher education institutions in the uae, its literature and theoretical backgrounds, which were drawn from empirical studies in different backgrounds and the practices that underpinned employers’ selection and recruitment processes, training and development, empowerment, compensation and benefits and performance appraisals. this study also checked the impact of hr practices on employee retention in the private education institutions so as to keep up with the rapid organisational and environmental changes in the uae’s higher education sector. the article opens with an introduction to the research topic, context and objectives that have motivated the research. a critical review of literature relating to the core concepts, variables and context relating to hr practices and higher education is presented. the article includes a hypothetical framework that guides the research, this includes the hypotheses to be measured. the research method is detailed with collected data and analysed. the findings that result from the data analysis and the discussion, comparison of the findings with prior research and the hypotheses are documented. the article culminates with a conclusion on the research and recommendations for further research. literature review human resource practices frederick taylor’s belief with scientific management is that there is a difference between hard work and optimising the way work is performed (turan, 2015), because whilst the former might seem traditional, the latter is considered efficient as it simplifies jobs and enhances productivity (trist, 2016). whilst scientific management was adopted by various companies based on its systematic or scientific approach with most of its focus on machines, the human relation theory was introduced by elton mayo (bruce & nyland, 2011). human relations theory prioritises employees for productivity and addresses what was seen as ‘shortcomings’ of taylor’s scientific management theory, which focuses on machine and not human (employee) (trist, 2016). the major tasks of hrm are mostly concerned with administrative activities, which include recruitment, reward systems and promotion and are all needed in maintaining employees for the success of an organisation (hamadamin & atan, 2019). human resource management is not the end product but an approach that can be implemented in a strategic way for the employment, development and welfare of the employees (yesufu, 2016, 2019). it also involves strategic coordination of policies, values and practices to retain, grow and maintain employees’ well-being in an organisation (reina & scarozza, 2021; boselie et al., 2021). the aim of any organisational management of hr practices is also to see the employees as valuable ‘assets’ and to find ways on how employees can add value to the organisation through activities such as recruitment, selection and training (reina & scarozza, 2021; yesufu, 2016, 2019). there is no consensus on the domains that comprise hr practices (yesufu, 2016), although yesufu (2020) and boselie et al. (2021) have all defined the following domains: career development, training, direct employee participation, development appraisals and mentoring. these domains contribute to employees’ positive perceptions of their employers’ commitment and thus strengthen their employment relationship (boselie et al., 2021). these hr domains are also classified into five key areas – these are recruitment and selection, training and development, performance appraisal, compensation and benefits and employee relations and empowerment (geringer, frayne, & milliman, 2002; yesufu, 2016, 2019). the five classifications of hr practices are further explained here: recruitment and selection: recruitment is aimed at the quality required from employees to satisfy the strategic organisation needs (fahim, 2018), whilst selection is the evaluation of applicants and judging them based on certain criteria, ranging from years of experience to leadership potential and personal capability (hamza et al., 2021). employee empowerment: it includes the various ways in which organisations empower its employees with a certain level of autonomy and control in their job (yin, wang, & lu, 2019). empowerment also aims at providing employees with the mechanisms for making important decisions (yesufu, 2016). training and development: it comprises the formal activities an organisation provides to help its employees acquire the necessary knowledge, develop new skills and gain more experience on what is needed to perform their current or future jobs (beijer et al., 2021; fahim, 2018). performance appraisal: it is the process of evaluating the employees’ performance and judging their tasks based on a set of established standards (fahim, 2018). compensation and benefits: the cumulative rewards given to employees in return for their dedication and effort in their jobs and their contribution to an organisation’s success are called compensation and benefits (beijer et al., 2021). empirical studies have shown that hr practices do improve management service, employees, managers and customers’ perceptions (hamadamin & atan, 2019; hamza et al., 2021; mishrif, 2018; yesufu, 2020). in particular, studies in the uae have found that hr practices have positive effects on organisational culture, job satisfaction and commitment from the local and expatriate employees (waxin & bateman, 2016). human resource practices enhanced the innovation culture and services of uae’s government agencies (alosani, al-dhaafri, & abdulla, 2021) and proved their effectiveness in the uae’s education sector. although adekoya, ajonbadi, okorie and jimoh (2021) found that there is still need for the reinforcement of hrm regarding the facilitation of work-life balance policies for talent attraction and retention purposes in uae education sector. this is similar to the findings of swanepoel and saurombe (2022) that in the south african context, there deficiencies employee value proposition (evp), basically an exchange of perceptions of loyalty between employer and employees. the perceptions of loyalty are a two-way process, employees are loyal to retaining their roles as long as they have the perceptions that their employers are equally loyal to the relationship (yesufu, 2020). however, south african university academics show a positive perception of retention towards their university employers, higher that the average loyalty in other sectors of the economy (abarantyne, naidoo, & rugimbana, 2019). this study adopted the given categorisation of hr practices because of its importance in organisation improvement in the uae and as shown from other studies, the practices impact employee retention, which is vital in ensuring the progression of higher education institutions. the categorisation is also in line with the michigan model of hr practices and organisational strategy based on the full hr lifecycle (geringer et al., 2002; waxin & bateman, 2016; yesufu, 2016, 2020). employee retention employee retention is defined by kaur (2017) as ‘a process in which the employees are encouraged to remain with the organisation for the maximum period or until the completion of the project’. this definition is in line with studies that have proved that retention strategies have a positive impact on an organisation’s ability to connect efficiently with employees so as to increase engagement and boost their support for key organisational initiatives (hamadamin & atan, 2019). organisations are forced to realign their priorities to match the increasing demands for a sustainable organisational environment that meets the fundamental human needs of employees in a manner where employment is associated with personal satisfaction and organisational fulfilment (silva, carvalho, & dias, 2019). this prioritisation in realignment implies that employee retention is one of the major challenges faced by different businesses in a competitive environment and is important for retaining organisational talents so as to succeed and remain in business (kossivi & kalgora, 2016; silva et al., 2019). according to yesufu (2020) and beijer et al. (2021), different organisations apply hr practices before and after recruiting an employee. the pre-recruitment practices include communication, recruitment and selection, compensation and benefits, whilst the practices after recruitment include training, development, empowerment, compensation and benefits (modau, dhanpat, lugisani, mabojane, & phiri, 2018; ngqeza & dhanpat, 2021; yesufu, 2020). kumudha and harsha (2016) in their study on the relationship between hr practices and employee retention in a private hospital in the uae found that the lack of organisational commitment impacts employees’ perceptions and sense of belonging to an organisation as most of these employees are unable to relate their career growth to the organisation’s path and are dissatisfied with the practices of hr policies. this, in turn, also impacts retention of employees. another study by almarashda and sarpin (2020) on sustainable hr development in uae’s education sector showed that the perception of organisational career support has significant impact on employees’ overall job satisfaction. al hammadi and noor (2020) in their study of the role of leadership in employee retention in abu dhabi’s education sector concluded that there is a strong positive relationship between leadership style, talent management of hr and employee retention and talent management enhances employee retention. based on the given literature and the small number of other studies on the effect and impact of hr practices on employee retention in the uae’s private higher educational institutions, this study will contribute to the understanding of the perceptions of local and expatriate employees towards hr practices and employee retention in private institutions. it will also highlight the efforts needed to improve the retention of uae employees whilst identifying the principal factors that can aid in fulfilling the hr practices. hypothetical framework this study focused on the effect of hr practices on employee retention in the uae based on the perceptions of local and expatriate employees (figure 1). this is important because of the empirical links between effective hr practices, organisation success and employee retention (hamadamin & atan, 2019; kaur, 2017; yin et al., 2019). this study investigates hr practices: recruitment and selection, compensation and benefits, employee empowerment, training and performance management and their effect on employee retention in higher education. the follow-up of prior research has indicated that employees’ perceptions of various hr practices have impacted employee satisfaction levels and their willingness to remain in the employment (beijer et al., 2021; okbagaber, 2019). figure 1: research framework. the general purpose of hr practices in the educational setting is to attract, develop, retain and motivate staff of an educational institution in order to meet the organisation’s mission (adekoya et al., 2021; javed, javed, ahmed, & anjum, 2019). thus, this study conceptualised that the hr practices such as recruitment, selection, empowerment, compensation and benefits, training and development, performance appraisals can all impact the employees’ retention in private higher institutions in uae directly and indirectly. these activities have been dubbed as the best practices by geringer et al. (2002), and yesufu (2020). in addition, the given framework acknowledges the different practices that hr consists of and the various strategies or practices used by organisation managers to recruit and select, develop, utilise, reward and maximise the potential of hrs in an organisation. the hr practices conceptualised in the given framework have all been confirmed in empirical studies to relate to each other and have significant effects on firm performance and employee satisfaction (kumudha & harsha, 2016; tangthong, trimetsoontorn, & rojniruntikul, 2014). this implies that the management of any organisation needs to improve the employees’ compensation, training and development in order to develop their skills and advance their knowledge, abilities, attitudes and behaviour (adekoya et al., 2021; bibi, ahmad, & majid, 2018; kakar, raziq, & khan, 2015), which in return will motivate the employees to feel attached to the organisation and offer their loyalty to its improvement and success (javed et al., 2019). the employee retention in this research is the dependent variable, whilst the independent variable is the hr practices. these practices (recruitment and selection, empowerment, training and development, performance appraisal, compensation and benefits) are considered essential for private educational institutions’ financial income, employees’ growth and well-being. the following hypotheses were proposed based on the studies that relate employees’ retention to the effectiveness of hr outcomes: h1: recruitment and selection practices have a significant impact on perceptions of employee retention. h2: empowerment has a significant impact on perceptions of employee retention. h3: compensation and benefits have a significant impact on perceptions of employee retention. h4: training and development have a significant impact on perceptions of employee retention. h5: performance appraisals have a significant impact on perceptions of employee retention. h6: the hr practices improved the perception of retention among uae and expatriate employees. methodology the population of this study is the employees in three private higher educational institutions in abu dhabi and dubai. these institutions (see table 1) are given pseudo names to protect their anonymity and identity. these institutions are university of applied technology and university of information science, both of which are in dubai and the university of management sciences in abu dhabi. the population of the employees in each institution is approximately 400 local and expatriate employees. hence, the population of employees across the three institutions is approximately 1200. a random sampling method was used to identify a sample for the study. the survey questionnaire was distributed through an online survey builder to 350 respondents and a total of 270 complete responses were received from employees (locals and expatriates). this amounts to 77% response rate after removing incomplete submissions. the total responses were from three different private higher educational institutions in uae. the results in table 1 show that the responses from the universities were as follows: 100 responses from university of applied technology, 86 from university of information science and 84 from university of management sciences. table 1a: background of respondents. table 1b: background of respondents. table 1c: background of respondents. table 1d: background of respondents. table 1e: background of respondents. table 1f: background of respondents. table 1g: background of respondents. table 1h: background of respondents. the data for this study were collected through a questionnaire survey based on 5-point likert scale of (1) not at all, (2) slightly, (3) somewhat, (4) moderately and (5) to a great extent. the instrument of hr practices was adopted from geringer et al. (2002), whilst the employee retention instrument was adapted from literature and previous studies on employee satisfaction. the overall instrument has two sections: background of respondents (section a); hr practices (section b) with five factors and 30 items, such as recruitment and selection (five items), training and development (five items), performance appraisal (five items), compensation and benefits (five items) and empowerment (five items). section b also included the employee recruitment (dependent variable), which has only five items. whilst the reliability and validity of the instrument of hr practices were not reported by geringer et al. (2002), the instrument’s usability and reliability were confirmed by yesufu (2016) in his study with an overall reliability coefficient of 0.88. this study also confirmed the reliability of the instrument as presented in table 2 by computing the cronbach’s alpha of each factor in the statistical package for social science software (spss version 25). the results indicated that the alpha coefficients of the hr practices range from 0.782 to 0.846 and the employee retention value is 0.952. thus, the reliability was achieved as these coefficients are between the recommended values by ursachi, horodnic and zait (2015). table 2: results of cronbach’s alpha. the analysis method used in this study is inferential statistics because of the established literature and findings of previous studies on the relationship between hr practices and employee retention and the impact of the practices on employee retention. the inferential statistics also aid in checking the proposed hypotheses, performing regression analyses and generating the basic descriptive results, such as the mean scores and standard deviations of items of hr practices and employee retention. findings demographic data the complete received survey questionnaire was 270 employees, 77% of distributed surveys. the demographic data indicate responses comprised female employees (n = 148, 54.8%) and male employees (n = 122, 45.2%). the higher number of female employees is a representation of the fact that there are more female employees than male employees in the uae higher education sector. it might also be because of the efforts of the uae government and other private organisations in empowering women and intensifying their employment in the country. in addition, 152 of the employees (n = 152, 56.3%) hold a bachelor’s degree (or equivalent), followed by high school certificate (n = 54, 20%), master’s degree or equivalent (n = 38, 14.1%), postgraduate qualification and non-master’s degree (n = 20, 7.4%) and doctorate degree or equivalent (n = 6, 2.2%). majority of the respondents in the study were citizens of the uae (n = 144, 53.3%), followed by expatriates (n = 126, 46.7%). also, most of the respondents had been in their current job for up to nine years (n = 224, 83%), followed by those who were in their current job for more than nine years (n = 46, 17%). in terms of their employment status, most of the respondents were full-time employees (n = 234, 86.7%), followed by the part-time employees (n = 36, 13.3%). perceptions of human resource practices and employee retention the means and standard deviations are presented in table 3. the mean scores of hr practices and employee retention were between the range of 3.00 and 4.31, whilst the standard deviations of their items scored between the range of 0.932 and 1.577. also, employee retention (dependent variable) has a mean score of 3.53 (on a 5-point scale), whilst recruitment and selection of hr practices have the mean score of 4.02; followed by empowerment (3.64); compensation and benefits (3.59); training and development (3.62) and performance appraisal (3.83). these mean scores indicate that, in general, there were moderately positive perceptions of hr practices in the three private higher institutions in the uae that formed part of the study, although recruitment and selection practices have the highest mean score and the best positive level of performance perception amongst other factors. table 3: results of descriptive statistics of items and cronbach’s alpha results (dv: employee retention). furthermore, the mean scores of all items in table 1 indicate that some aspects of hr practices performed better than others, as employees agreed more on the selection of employees based on their ability to perform the requirements of the job (item 1, mean score: 4.31), conducting a personal interview during the recruitment and selection process (item 2, mean score: 4.21), recruitment based on person’s ability to get along well with other employees (item 4, mean score: 4.02), employees taking appropriate action without waiting for approval (item 7), employers’ arrangement of a mentor for employees to facilitate career planning (item 19), and periodic performance ratings (item 24), which all have the mean scores of 4.19, respectively. in addition, whilst the descriptive results showed that the recruitment and selection process is relatively above moderate, the results also indicate the need for improvements in the areas of training and development of employees, performance appraisal, compensation and benefits and empowerment. similarly, the perception level of the employee retention is not as high as the recruitment and selection process. based on the 5-point likert scale, the mean scores for items under the employee retention were between somewhat (3), moderate (4) and to a great extent (5); the employees’ rating of their organisations in terms of work (item 29) had the lowest mean score of 3.74, followed by employees’ plan to make the organisation their personal career (item 27, mean score: 3.74), employees’ loyalty to their organisation (item 28, mean score: 3.95) and their perception of recommending their organisation to friends looking for a job (item 30), which scored 3.95. impact of human resource practices on employee retention (all employees) multiple regression analyses were conducted to first check the general impact of hr practices on employee retention based on the perspectives of all the employees in the studied private higher institutions in uae. the results of the regression analysis (table 4) showed that 63.5% of the variance in employee retention was explained by the five practices of hr in the private higher institutions in uae (r2 = 0.635, f[270] = 91.850, p < 0.001). table 4a: regression analysis (all employees). table 4b: regression analysis (all employees). the given results between employee retention and hr practices also showed that not all the practices had significant impact on employee retention in the higher education institutions; only performance appraisals had the highest strong and positive significant impact (β = 0.820, p < 0.001), followed by weak impacts from empowerment (β = 0.142, p < 0.039) and compensation and benefits (β = 0.155, p < 0.036). also, recruitment and selection was not statistically significant (β = 0.062, p < 0.370), whilst training and development was negatively significant (β = –0.197, p < 0.017). thus, it could be said that whilst performance appraisals, empowerment and compensation and benefits are significant hr practices that contributed to employee retention, only performance appraisals had the most important impact, which makes it the most critical predictor of retention amongst all the employees (local and expatriates) in the studied institutions in uae. impact of human resource practices on retention of local employees (uae citizens) the impact of hr practices on employee retention based on the nationality of the employees (locals and expatriates) was also checked. the results in table 5 show that for the local employees (uae citizens), 87.1% of the variance in employee retention was explained by hr practices (r2 = 0.871, f(138) = 86.517, p < 0.001). the top hr practices that impacted employee retention of the local employees were performance appraisals (β = 0.909, p < 0.001), followed by compensation and benefits (β = 0.418, p < 0.001) and empowerment (β = 0.242, p < 0.009), whilst recruitment and selection (β = –0.161, p < 0.078) and training and development were negatively significant (β = -0.365, p < 0.002). table 5a: multiple regression results for united arab emirates citizens and expatriates. table 5b: multiple regression results for united arab emirates citizens and expatriates. table 5c: multiple regression results for united arab emirates citizens and expatriates. table 5d: multiple regression results for united arab emirates citizens and expatriates. also, the results in table 4 indicate that whilst recruitment and selection and training and development had negative coefficients with employee retention in the perspectives of uae employees, empowerment, compensation and benefits and performance appraisals were significant hr practices that contributed to employee retention amongst uae citizens. performance appraisals were also the most important practices and critical predictors of retention amongst all the uae employees (citizens) in the studied higher educational institutions. impact of human resource practices on retention of expatriate employees for the expatriate employees in the studied private higher education institutions in the uae, the regression results in table 5 show that 49.6% of the variance in employee retention was explained by hr practices (r2 = 0.496, f(120) = 23.623, p < 0.001). these results indicate that hr practices generally had an impact on the retention of expatriate employees in the institutions. they also showed that, for hr practices amongst expatriate employees, performance appraisals were the only practices that had a significant impact on employee retention (β = 0.712, p < 0.001), whilst recruitment and selection (β = 0.141, p < 0.206), empowerment (β = 0.078, p < 0.434), compensation and benefits (β = 0.024, p < 0.811), training and development (β = -0.077, p < 0.511) were all less significant. thus, performance appraisals were the most important hr practice and the most critical factor of retention amongst all the expatriate employees in the studied institutions. finally, table 6 presents the conclusions from the hypotheses, which indicate that all the proposed hypotheses were supported in this study, except for hypotheses 1 and 4 – the recruitment and selection practices of hr had no significant impact on the retention of all the employees (uae citizens and expatriates), whilst training and development had a negative significant impact on perceptions of all employee retention. table 6: hypotheses presentation. discussion the focus of this study was to explore the perceptions of employees in three private higher institutions in uae on hr practices and retention and to check the impact of hr practices (recruitment and selection, empowerment, compensation and benefits, training and development and performance appraisals) on employee retention. this study examined the critical activities and practices of hr that contributed most to employee retention, whilst it also examined the impact of employee retention on hr practices based on the employee nationality (uae citizens and expatriates). firstly, the descriptive results show that in general there were weak-to-moderate positive perceptions of hr practices and employee retention in the studied higher institutions in uae, whilst some of these practices also performed better than others. recruitment and selection had the highest and best positive level of perception, which might be because of the positive feeling from the employees that they were recruited based on their skills, capability and other considerable factors. the mean scores of the items of recruitment and selection practice supported this assertion and are in line with other studies of hr practices in different settings, such as the studies of harcourt (2016) and bogatova (2017), which all found that the channels (online recruiting, social media, newspapers and others) and process used in finding candidates and selecting them can influence the employees’ perceptions of their job, organisation and its management. furthermore, this study showed that there is some level of retention amongst all the employees of the studied private higher institutions, as they have moderate to weak perceptions of these organisations’ ratings in terms of work, plan to make the organisations their personal career, loyalty to the organisations and recommending them to friends looking for a job. this is consistent with the findings of kumudha and harsha (2016) in their study of the relationship between hr practices and employee retention in a private hospital in dubai, as it showed that the head of an organisation needs to be more conscious of his leadership and managerial styles, fairness in dealing with employees, giving them a clear understanding of the management expectations and considering their emotions and feelings about their work. secondly, this study showed that hr practices in general influenced and improved retention amongst all the employees, as the overall practices have strong impact on employee retention (r2 = 0.635), thus supporting the literature and previous studies that had been reviewed. the regression results also revealed that amongst all the five practices, only performance appraisals have a highly significant effect on retention amongst all the employees, whilst empowerment and compensation and benefits have weak significant effects. these findings are in contrast with the study of abutayeh and al-qatawneh (2012) about hr practices in private companies in jordan, which found selection of staff to be the practice with the highest impact. however, the non-significance of the impact of recruitment and selection and the negative significance of the impact of training and development on employee retention could mean that these practices are not performed to enhance retention of employees or that the focus of the management is on the motivation-enhancing practices (e.g. performance appraisal, empowerment and compensation and benefits). empirical studies of hr practices and employee retention in public sectors (fahim, 2018; otoo, assuming, & agyei, 2018), commercial banks (eva, 2018), higher education sector (javed et al., 2019) and government agencies (alosani et al., 2021) have all shown skill-enhancing practices (recruitment and selection, training and development) to be more important in the public sector, whilst motivation-enhancing practices are more focused on in the private sector. thirdly, the results of the impact of hr practices on employee retention based on the employees’ nationality indicate that these overall practices influenced the retention of local employees (uae citizens) more than the expatriates: the overall practice influenced the retention of expatriate employees with a moderate effect (r2 = 0.496), whilst empowerment, compensation and benefits and performance appraisals were the practices that had significant influences and impacts on retention of the uae employees. these findings are consistent with that of alosani et al. (2021) in their study of hr practices in uae government agencies. conversely, for expatriate employees in the studied private higher institutions, the only practice that had a significant influence and impact on employee retention was performance appraisals. the reason behind these disparities between the perceptions of uae citizens and expatriates might be because of the difference between how the organisations treat expatriate employees compared with how they deal with citizens and what hr practices the expatriates considered important compared with what the organisations are focused on. these are in line with abutayeh and al-qatawneh (2012), austin, chapman, farah, wilson and ridge (2014), and shayah and sun (2018), as they all indicate that many organisations tend to adopt a favourable approach towards local employees and observe activities that expatriate employees might consider biased even though these activities are in line with the organisations’ goals, such as the goal of achieving the emiratisation process and governmental requirements in the uae. the implication of this research for practice is that hr practitioners should be able to fairly manage both local and expatriate employees despite the disparity of policies for locals and expatriate workers. the need to protect and build the local citizen workforce is known and acceptable; however, employers should seek to build a perception of mutual loyalty between them and their expatriate workforce. hence, there is a need for further research on employee satisfaction in the uae higher education with a larger sample and data size from public and private institutions. further research could apply the psychological contract principles in a bid to develop on the knowledge of building of perceptions of loyalty and its implication on retention. conclusion this study concludes that hr practices influenced employee retention in the studied private higher educational institutions in uae. although this study’s findings are in contrast with previous studies in the sense that performance appraisals, empowerment, compensation and benefits are the top practices that contributed to the retention of all the employees (uae citizens and expatriates). performance appraisals are also the most important practice and critical predictor of retention amongst all the employees (uae citizens and expatriates). the lack of influence and impact from hr practices such as empowerment, compensation and benefits, and training and development, on expatriates’ retention mean that higher educational institutions need to carry out targeted and focused improvements in their various hrm because these factors motivate employees to stay with the organisations and continue their jobs. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions both the authors worked jointly in the conceptualisation of the research topic, in the direction, the design and distribution of survey, the write-up, analysis of data, report and interpretation of data and the final report. the proof reading was carried out by both authors to update, correct and agree on best wordings and final submission. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards of research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data used were obtained via survey, the data are represented in the manuscript in tables 1–5. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abarantyne, i., naidoo, v., & rugimbana, r. (2019). the impact of psychological contracts on employee engagement at a university of technology. sa journal of human resource management, 17(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1039 abutayeh, b., & al-qatawneh, m. (2012). the effect of human resource management practices on job involvement in selected private companies in jordan. canadian social science, 8(2), 50–57. adekoya, o., ajonbadi, h.a., okorie, g.i., & jimoh, i.o. (2021). beyond the call of duty: realities of work-life balance in the united arab emirates education sector. international journal of business and society, 22(1), 131–145. https://doi.org/10.33736/ijbs.3166.2021 al hammadi, h.a., & noor, m.a.b.m. (2020). the role of leadership in the talent management and employee retention of education in abu dhabi. european journal of multidisciplinary studies, 5(1), 68–71. https://doi.org/10.26417/301nxi33o almarashda, a.h., & sarpin, n. (2020). sustainable human resource development in education for an expatriate dependent education sector in uae. psychology and education journal, 57(9), 5551–5558. alosani, m.s., al-dhaafri, h.s., & awadh abdulla, a. (2021). investigating the role of hrm practices on service innovation: empirical evidence from uae government agencies. management research review, 44(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/mrr-03-2020-0141 austin, a.e., chapman, d.w., farah, s., wilson, e., & ridge, n. (2014). expatriate academic staff in the united arab emirates: the nature of their work experiences in higher education institutions. higher education, 68(4), 541–557. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-014-9727-z beijer, s., peccei, r., van veldhoven, m., & paauwe, j. (2021). the turn to employees in the measurement of human resource practices: a critical review and proposed way forward. human resource management journal, 31(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-014-9727-z bibi, p., ahmad, a., & majid, a.h.a. (2018). the impact of training and development and supervisor support on employees retention in academic institutions: the moderating role of work environment. gadjah mada international journal of business, 20(1), 113. https://doi.org/10.22146/gamaijb.24020 bogatova, m. (2017). improving recruitment, selection and retention of employees case: dpointgroup ltd. business management, bachelor’s thesis. south-eastern finland university of applied sciences. boselie, p., van harten, j., & veld, m. (2021). a human resource management review on public management and public administration research: stop right there… before we go any further…. public management review, 23(4), 483–500. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2019.1695880 bruce, k., & nyland, c. (2011). elton mayo and the deification of human relations. organization studies, 32(3), 383–405. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840610397478 eva, t.p. (2018). recruitment and selection strategies and practices in the private sector commercial banks of bangladesh: evidence from human resource practitioners. european business management, 4(1), 28–38. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ebm.20180401.15 fahim, m.g.a. (2018). strategic human resource management and public employee retention. review of economics and political science, 3(2), 20–39. https://doi.org/10.1108/reps-07-2018-002 geringer, j.m., colette, f.a., & milliman, j.f. (2002). in search of “best practices” in international human resource management: research design and methodology. human resource management, 41, 5–30. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.10017 hamadamin, h.h., & atan, t. (2019). the impact of strategic human resource management practices on competitive advantage sustainability: the mediation of human capital development and employee commitment. sustainability, 11(20), 5782. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11205782 hamza, p.a., othman, b.j., gardi, b., sorguli, s., aziz, h.m., ahmed, s.a., & anwar, g. (2021). recruitment and selection: the relationship between recruitment and selection with organizational performance. international journal of engineering, business and management, 5(3), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.22161/ijebm.5.3.1 harcourt, k. (2016). the top recruiting channels for 2016. www-publication. the mcquaig institute. retrieved from http://blog.mcquaig.com/the-top-recruiting-channels-for-2016 harney, b., dundon, t., & wilkinson, a. (2018). employment relations and human resource management. in a. wilkinson, t. dundon, j. donaghey & a.j.s. colvin (eds.), the routledge companion to employment relations (pp. 122–138), new york, ny: routledge. javed, s., javed, r., ahmed, n., & anjum, d. (2019). human resource management practices and its impact on job satisfaction among employees in higher education sector. international journal of marketing and human resource management, 10(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.34218/ijmhrm.10.2.2019.001 kakar, p., raziq, a., & khan, f. (2015). impact of human resource management practices on employee retention: a case of banking sector in quetta baluchistan. journal of management info, 5(1), 97–119. kaur, r. (2017). employee retention models and factors affecting employees retention in it companies. international journal of business administration and management, 7(1), 161–174. kossivi, b., xu, m., & kalgora, b. (2016). study on determining factors of employee retention. open journal of social sciences, 4, 261–268. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2016.45029 kumudha, a., & harsha, k.j. (2016). the relationship between human resource practices and employee retention in private organisations with special reference to jebel ali international hospital in dubai. international journal of applied research, 2, 961–966. mishrif, a. (2018). introduction to economic diversification in the gcc region. in a. mishrif & y. al balushi (eds.), economic diversification in the gulf region (volume i, pp. 1–26). singapore: palgrave macmillan. modau, f.d., dhanpat, n., lugisani, p., mabojane, r., & phiri, m. (2018). exploring employee retention and intention to leave within a call centre. sa journal of human resource management, 16(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.905 ngqeza, k., & dhanpat, n. (2021). investigating the effects of employee empowerment on turnover intention in a mining organisation. sa journal of human resource management, 19, 12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1564 okbagaber, t.b. (2019). the effect of human resources management on employees retention in ibm corporation. journal of asian business strategy, 9(2), 158. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1564 otoo, i.c., assuming, j., & agyei, p.m. (2018). effectiveness of recruitment and selection practices in public sector higher education institutions: evidence from ghana. european scientific journal, 14(13), 199–214. https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2018.v14n13p199 reina, r., & scarozza, d. (2021). human resource management in the public administration. in m. decastri, s. battini, f. buonocore & f. gagliarducci (eds.), organizational development in public administration (pp. 61–101). cham: palgrave macmillan. saifalislam, k.m., osman, a., & alqudah, m.k. (2014). human resource management practices: influence of recruitment and selection, and training and development on the organizational performance of the jordanian public university. iosr journal of business and management, 16(5), 43–46. https://doi.org/10.9790/487x-16554346 scott-jackson, w., owen, s., whitaker, d., owen, s., kariem, r., & druck, s. (2014). hrm in the gcc a new world hr for the new world economy. oxford: oxford strategic consulting, research series. shayah, m.h., & sun, z.h. (2018). human resource management practices in china & uae-a comparison. in 4th annual international conference on management, economics and social development (icmesd 2018). 18–20 may 2018, shaanxi: atlantis press. silva, m.r., carvalho, j.c., & dias, a.l. (2019). determinants of employee retention: a study of reality in brazil. in j. carvalho & e. sabino (eds.), strategy and superior performance of micro and small businesses in volatile economies (pp. 44–56). hershey, pa, usa: igi global. swanepoel, k., & saurombe, m.d. (2022). the significance of an employee value proposition in the retention of teachers at selected south african private schools. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 25(1), 11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v25i1.4358 tangthong, s., trimetsoontorn, j., & rojniruntikul, n. (2014). hrm practices and employee retention in thailand. international journal of trade, economics and finance, 5(2), 162–166. https://doi.org/10.7763/ijtef.2014.v5.362 taylor, f.w. (1911). scientific management. happer & bros. new york: publishers. trist, e. (2016). a socio-technical critique of scientific management. in e. trist & h. murray (eds.), the social engagement of social science, a tavistock anthology (volume 2, pp. 580–598). philadelphia: the university of pennsylvania press. turan, h. (2015). taylor’s scientific management principles: contemporary issues in e. trist and h. murray (eds.), personnel selection period. journal of economics, business & management, 3(11), 580–598. philadelphia: the university of pennsylvania press, https://doi.org/10.7763/joebm.2015.v3.342 ursachi, g., horodnic, i.a., & zait, a. (2015). how reliable are measurement scales? external factors with indirect influence on reliability estimators. procedia economics and finance, 20, 679–686. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00123-9 waxin, m-f., & bateman, r. (2016). human resource management in the united arab emirates. in p. budhwar & k. mellahi (eds.), handbook of human resource management in the middle east (chapter 7, pp. 123–140). cheltenham: edward elgar publishing limited. yesufu, l. (2016). the effect of human resource practices on the psychological contract of academics. doctoral dissertation, university of bath. retrieved from https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/studenttheses/the-effect-of-human-resource-practices-on-the-psychological-contr yesufu, l.o. (2019). the effect of demographics on the psychological contract of employees. international journal of work organisation and emotion, 10(3), 180–197. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijwoe.2019.105785 yesufu, l.o. (2020). the impact of employee type, professional experience, and academic discipline on the psychological contract of academics. international journal of management in education, 14(3), 311–329. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijmie.2020.107057 yin, y., wang, y., & lu, y. (2019). why firms adopt empowerment practices and how such practices affect firm performance? a transaction cost-exchange perspective. human resource management review, 29(1), 111–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2018.01.002 abstract introduction literature review research questions method population, sampling procedure and sample size measuring instrument results discussion recommendations for future research conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) daisy lees department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa nelesh dhanpat department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation lees, d., & dhanpat, n. (2021). relationship between manager credibility, strategic alignment and employee motivation. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1517. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1517 original research relationship between manager credibility, strategic alignment and employee motivation daisy lees, nelesh dhanpat received: 18 nov. 2020; accepted: 26 feb. 2021; published: 13 may 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: in today’s volatile and dynamic business environment, organisations need to continuously seek opportunities to increase their competitiveness through the human capital they employ. a sound understanding of factors that influence manager credibility, strategic alignment and employee motivation could enable organisations to proactively implement interventions that improve their competitive stance. research purpose: this study sought to examine the relationship between manager credibility, strategic alignment and motivation. the role of strategic alignment as a mediator between manager credibility and motivation was also explored. motivation for the study: organisations need to have employees that are motivated and have a strategic fit. managers play a significant role in fostering such. more so, it is essential to highlight the vital role that managers play in strategic alignment and employee motivation. research approach/design and method: a quantitative and cross-sectional research design was used. non-probability sampling was employed, and data were collected by using established questionnaires from a sample of n = 3112. participants of the study are employed within various industries based in south africa, southern africa and the united states of america. the data were analysed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. main findings: a positive relationship between all the variables were established. the three variables (manager credibility, strategic alignment and motivation) were found to be significantly positively correlated. manager credibility influences motivation and strategic alignment. manager credibility and strategic alignment were both found to have a statistically significant influence on employee motivation. the mediation analysis shows that strategic alignment plays a positive mediating role between manager credibility and motivation. practical/managerial implications: recommendations are schematically presented in the form of a model, which, when implemented, have the potential to enhance employee motivation. contribution/value-add: the study provided insight into the influence of manager credibility and strategic alignment on employee motivation. keywords: motivation; credibility; strategic fit; managers; mediation analysis. introduction managers play a significant role in influencing organisational performance (anzengruber, goetz, nold, & woelfle, 2017). the degree to which managers are proficient in creating relationships that inspire and psychologically align employees with organisational goals signifies their credibility (ouakouak & ouedraogo, 2013; veldsman & coetzee, 2014). manager credibility is related to employee strategic alignment and performance (anitha, 2014; esfahani, ghasemi, & tabrizi, 2014; ouakouak & ouedraogo, 2013; veldsman & coetzee, 2014). the alignment between a company’s operating context and strategy has significant implications for its sustainability and performance (acur, kandemir, & boer, 2012). the concept of strategic alignment also refers to the degree to which employees understand and psychologically commit to executing the organisational strategy (boswell, 2006; ouakouak & ouedraogo, 2013). although a manager’s credibility plays an important role in employee strategic alignment, employee motivation is viewed as equally important (belle, 2013; hitchcock & stavros, 2017; pokorny, 2013). literature illustrates that motivated employees are efficient, creative, persist in challenging tasks and offer high levels of productivity (victor & hoole, 2017). employee motivation is cited as a contributing factor towards organisational credibility (osmani, rozan, zaidi, & nilashi, 2014). building credibility in organisations has been identified as one of the growing challenges in human capital management (ahteela & vanhala, 2018; clark & brown, 2015). reputational damage, as well as devastating job and shareholder losses suffered at multinational companies such as steinhoff, mckinsey and kpmg, demonstrates the need for organisations to promote credibility within their management teams and among all employees (fraser, 2018; govenden, 2018; lou & yuan, 2019). this research highlights the effects of manager credibility and strategic alignment on employee motivation. in today’s volatile organisational climate, characterised by uncertainty and ambiguity, there is much need to understand manager credibility and its links towards keeping employees motivated. the study expands on the relationships between manager credibility, strategic alignment and motivation and is empirical in nature. it is for this reason, the study seeks to make a contribution towards the literature. in addition, the collective effect of these variables has not been previously conducted. literature review manager credibility manager credibility refers to the degree to which managers are able to create employee experiences and relationships that inspire and psychologically align employees with organisational goals (ouakouak & ouedraogo, 2013; shaikh, 2019; veldsman & coetzee, 2014). manager credibility is also described as the ability to build relationships and team consensus that inspires employees to exert discretionary effort (esfahani et al., 2014; kubicek & cockram, 2019; veldsman & coetzee, 2014; yiing & ahmad, 2009). manager credibility is built over time, through trustworthiness, and is characterised by how reliable, competent and consistent the behaviour of an individual is (jiang & probst, 2015). consistency, however, is unlikely to influence manager credibility if the manager constantly behaves in an uncaring, self-centred manner (cunningham, 2000). grasse (2014) equates manager credibility to a bank account that increases or decreases, respectively, through deposits of positive reinforcing words and actions or negative reinforcing words and actions. managers who are cognisant of the context in which they operate are able to identify with their organisations; have a deep self-awareness; are confident, optimistic and resilient; and have high moral characteristics that are viewed as credible and transformational (de braine & dhanpat, 2019; epitropaki, kark, mainemelis, & lord, 2017; paulo & nunes, 2019). competence, sociability, consistency, empathy and vision are key aspects of leader–follower relationships (seidel, saurin, tortorella, & marodin, 2019). it is important for managers to have an understanding of the inevitable role that their credibility plays towards influencing the achievement of common goals. the observed key constructs of manager credibility are trustworthiness, competence, empathy, self-awareness and consistency (falcione, 1974; falcione, mccroskey, & daly, 1977; fogg & tseng, 1999; mccroskey & richmond, 1975; mccroskey & teven, 1999; mccroskey & young, 1981). credibility credibility is regarded as the trustworthiness of a communicator or the source of information; it is based on how the receiver perceives the authenticity and competence of the communicator (metzger & flanagin, 2013; williams, raffo, & clark, 2018). credibility is characterised by how reliable, trustworthy and consistent the behaviour of an individual is perceived to be (jiang & probst, 2015; von der ohe, martins, & roode, 2004). strategic alignment strategic alignment refers to a linkage or fit; however, in both cases, it refers to the process of integrating and coordinating business strategy with internal strengths, external opportunities and threats (schniederjans & cao, 2009). strategic alignment highlights the organisation’s focus in terms of understanding and managing forces within its operating context (gatignon & xuereb, 1997). previous management research credited organisations’ competitive advantage on industry structure and internal structures (chatzoglou, diamantidis, vraimaki, & vranakis, 2011; mcadam, miller, & mcsorley, 2019; mubarak & wan yusoff, 2019). the industry-based perspective uses porter’s (1985) five forces framework, which includes barriers to entry, rivalry, buyers, suppliers and substitutes. the five forces are used to analyse the intensity of competition within an industry and its attractiveness or lack thereof in terms of profitability (porter, 1985). barney (1991) introduced a resource-based view that emphasises internal resources as the determinants of competitive advantage. recent research argues that organisations can improve their competitive advantage, ability to respond to market dynamics and performance when strategic alignment is achieved (acur et al., 2012; chatzoglou et al., 2011; shao, 2019; street, gallupe, & baker, 2018). the principles of aligning strategy, financial outcomes, customers, internal processes and people aid comprehensive stakeholder involvement, which enables organisations to better link strategic decisions with operations. these principles allow managers to see the effect of selected strategies at operational level and improve the coordination of competencies, processes and performance (sousa, de melo, de oliveira, & lourenço, 2020; sudnickas, 2019). motivation employee motivation is the degree to which employees are intrinsically inspired by their work and the level to which they derive joy from simply doing the job (baciu, 2018; veldsman & coetzee, 2014). the manner in which employees take action, plan, coordinate and allocate resources represents how they identify with the organisation and is indicative of their level of motivation (ndekugri & greene, 2020). employee motivation is deemed to be an important aspect of organisational effectiveness and productivity (kermally, 2005; minhas & nirupama, 2017; ndekugri & greene, 2020). it is argued that motivation is a management process that is aimed at encouraging employees to be more productive and effective for the advancement and sustainability of the organisation (baciu, 2018; nduka, 2016). strategic awareness is a self-initiated activity; hence, managers need to understand the factors that determine and affect employee motivation (strobel, tumasjan, spörrle, & welpe, 2017). strategic awareness enables employees to become more proactive in scanning for risks and opportunities that enhance and protect the organisation’s competitive advantage (acur et al., 2012). having a sound understanding of how to contribute, rather than simply knowing what the strategy of an organisation is, results in higher levels of motivation (boswell, 2006; madan, 2017; ndekugri & greene, 2020). strategic alignment in relationship with employee motivation to ensure growth and sustainability, management should develop and revise their strategies. however, to transform strategy into outcomes, they require their employees’ follow-through and commitment (gagné, 2018; ouakouak & ouedraogo, 2013; street et al., 2018). it has been argued that employees are most likely to take action and adapt their behaviours towards the achievement of strategic objectives when they understand how their efforts contribute towards organisational outcomes (boswell, 2006; copeland, 2013; mcadam et al., 2019). understanding organisational outcomes and how to contribute does not, however, guarantee that employees will be strategically aligned (ouakouak & ouedraogo, 2013). hence, it is important to be aware of the factors that motivate employees towards the attainment of desired outcomes (gagné, 2018; mcadam et al., 2019). research has found that companies with highly motivated employees achieve high performance (mcadam et al., 2019; nduka, 2016; ouakouak & ouedraogo, 2013; street et al., 2018). as organisations are reliant on their employees’ motivation to engage and contribute towards outcomes, it is important to identify factors that affect and enhance motivation (hitchcock & stavros, 2017). manager credibility in relationship with employee motivation manager credibility has a significant influence on employee motivation (esfahani et al., 2014). when manager credibility is low, the work environment is obstructed by pessimism and distrust; stakeholders therefore expect high levels of credibility and morals from organisation members (abunyewah, gajendran, maund, & okyere, 2019; esfahani et al., 2014; kubicek & cockram, 2019). manager credibility in relationship with strategic alignment and employee motivation the credibility of management can have positive or negative implications on organisational outcomes (abunyewah et al., 2019; jamal & abu bakar, 2017; kubicek & cockram, 2019; men, 2012). the more credible the source of communication within organisations is deemed to be, the more able he or she is to influence stakeholders (abunyewah et al., 2019; metzger & flanagin, 2013). employees who have positive perceptions of their manager’s credibility are more likely to be strategically aware and proactive (andrews, boyne, meier, o’toole, & walker, 2012; strobel et al., 2017). strategic awareness stems from discretionary work performance (ahmetoglu, harding, akhtar, & chamorro-premuzic, 2015; strobel et al., 2017). discretionary effort is driven by motivation. motivated employees engage in proactive behaviours that strive to improve the current and future position of the organisation (copeland, 2013; de vito, brown, bannister, cianci, & mujtaba, 2016). research questions organisational efforts to anticipate factors that provide competitive leverage are ever present. in view of the theoretical background provided above, this study sought to answer the following research questions: what is the relationship between manager credibility, strategic alignment and employee motivation? does strategic alignment play a mediating role in the relationship between manager credibility and employee motivation as an outcome variable? the study assumes that strategic alignment plays a mediating role between manager credibility and employee motivation. management research highlights the important role that managers play in strategic alignment and employee motivation (acur et al., 2012; barney, 1991). the model seeks to explore the relationships between the variables of manager credibility, strategic alignment and employee motivation. all the variables included in the model have been subject to previous empirical research. method the study followed a quantitative, exploratory and cross-sectional approach. a quantitative approach allows objective testing of hypotheses as the researchers are able to distance themselves from their respondents (quick & hall, 2015). a cross-sectional design was followed (saunders, lewis, & thornhill, 2007). the research sought to determine the extent to which manager credibility influences strategic alignment and employee motivation. the role of strategic alignment as a mediator, manager credibility as an independent variable and employee motivation as an outcome variable was also assessed. population, sampling procedure and sample size the study used secondary data that were obtained from a consultancy firm operating in the field of organisational development. the data were collected by using an online, secure platform in 2016 and 2017 from 20 companies – 18 based in south africa, 1 in southern africa and 1 in the united states of america. the companies operate within the education, financial, information technology, manufacturing, medical, non-profit, property, provincial government, regulatory, oil and gas sectors. a non-probability, purposive sampling technique was used. non-probability sampling allows a researcher to select participants, based on convenience and representativeness of the characteristics being studied (creswell, 2012, p. 145). most of the respondents (38.3%) were in the age group of 26–35 years, followed by 36–50 years of age (29.3%) and 21–25 years old (22.2%). individuals in the 50 years and older age group were at 7.7%, whereas those younger than 21 years made up 2.5% of the sample population. men made up (52.6%) of the population in comparison with 40.2% women. the majority of the respondents held a grade 12 matriculation certificate (39.8%), followed by a national diploma (22.6%), and postgraduate degree (14%). measuring instrument the instruments that were selected for this study were manager credibility, strategic alignment and motivation (veldsman & coetzee, 2014). manager credibility manager credibility was measured by means of five items. an example of an item measuring credibility is ‘does your manager treat everyone with respect?’ the items were measured on a four-point likert scale from 1 (never) to 4 (all the time). manager credibility reported a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.83 (time 1) and 0.78 (time 2) (veldsman, 2017; veldsman & coetzee, 2014). the current study reported a cronbach’s alpha of 0.92, which shows a high level of credibility as indicated by creswell (2012). strategic alignment items were measured on a four-point likert scale, from 1 (never) to 4 (all the time). ‘how well do you know what is expected of you at work?’ is an example of an item on this scale. strategic alignment reported cronbach’s alpha coefficients of 0.73 (time 1) and 0.67 (time 2) (veldsman, 2017; veldsman & coetzee, 2014). the cronbach’s alpha for this study is reported as 0.69, which is an acceptable level of reliability, according to hair, black, babin and anderson (2013). motivation items were similarly measured on a four-point likert scale, from 1 (never) to 4 (all the time). an item example is ‘how often do you feel compelled to initiate activities to make things better in your work environment?’ motivation reported cronbach’s alpha coefficients of 0.81 (time 1) and 0.76 (time 2) (veldsman, 2017; veldsman & coetzee, 2014). the cronbach’s alpha for this study is reported as 0.59, which is an acceptable level of reliability, as indicated by creswell (2012) and hair et al. (2013). the consultancy firm that collected the data used predesigned questionnaires. the questionnaires were uploaded onto a secure, online platform, with a covering letter that stated the purpose of the research. the questionnaire, which consisted of biographical information, as well as items measuring credibility, strategic alignment and motivation, was designed by veldsman and colleagues from mindset management and was validated by veldsman and coetzee (2014). each questionnaire included a note that invited respondents to participate voluntarily, with the assurance that their participation would be anonymous and treated confidentially. participants were assured that they could opt out at any time without any negative consequences. statistical analysis data from the questionnaires were statistically interpreted by using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) computer software program, version 25. the descriptives of the measuring instruments are reported. descriptive statistics were conducted. internal consistency and reliability were determined through exploratory factor analysis. inferential statistics were used to test the relationships between constructs in answering the research questions. research question 1 is answered through spearman’s correlation, which is utilised to determine the relationship between variables (pallant, 2010). simple multiple regression analysis has been used with a mediation model to test research question 2 (strategic alignment as a mediator and the prediction of motivation by means of manager credibility and strategic alignment). descriptive statistics manager credibility responses for the manager credibility scale indicated results ranging from m = 2.67 to m = 3.19. item mc2 (‘does your manager treat everyone with respect?’) scored a high mean value (3.19), suggesting the agreeability that managers do treat everyone with respect most of the time. on the contrary, item mc5 (‘does your manager inspire you by his or her example?’) was perceived by employees that only some of the time they feel inspired by their manager. to test normality, the data set was also tested for skewness and kurtosis. a negative skewness of −0.473 was reported, indicating that most of the responses were agreeable. kurtosis of the data was recorded at −0.723, indicating that the data were not normally distributed, resulting in a graph with lighter tails and a flat peak (hair et al., 2013). the results may have been influenced by social desirability, where respondents tend to answer positively to questions they deem sensitive or when they do not fully trust that the survey is anonymous (fisher, 1993). strategic alignment the means for strategic alignment (sa) ranged from m = 2.85 to m = 3.42. item sa1 (‘how well do you know what is expected of you at work?’) scored a high mean value (3.42), suggesting that employees perceived that most of the time they knew what was expected of them at work. however, on the item sa5 (‘does your manager set realistic and achievable goals for your business unit or team?’), most of the respondents did not believe that the manager was setting realistic goals most of the time, indicated by a mean of 2.85. in the test for normality on strategic alignment, the data showed a skewness of −0.663, indicating that most responses were agreeable (hair et al., 2013). the kurtosis of the data was 0.468, indicating that the data were not normally distributed. motivation the results for motivation indicated that mean responses ranged from m = 2.90 to m = 3.43. item w2 (‘how often does your team put in extra effort to get the job done?’) scored a high mean value (3.43), suggesting that employees perceived their team to put in extra effort occasionally. item w5 (‘does your job motivate you to do more than what is required of you?’) scored a low mean value of 2.90, suggesting that employees perceive that their job hardly ever motivates them to do more than what is required. the data obtained for motivation were also tested for skewness and kurtosis. skewness was recorded at −0.515, indicating that most responses were agreeable (hair et al., 2013). the kurtosis of the data was 0.454, which indicates that the data were not normally distributed (hair et al., 2013). construct validity to review the construct validity of the instruments, exploratory factor analysis was conducted according to the guidelines proposed by pallant (2010). the pearson’s correlation coefficient analysis was used to determine if the variables were related, and how strongly they are related (pallant, 2010, p. 128). the size of the coefficient value indicates the strength of the relationship, with r > 0.30 being acceptable (pallant, 2010, p. 128). kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy and bartlett’s test of sphericity were performed on all three instruments. the kmo test is a measure of how suited a data set is for factor analysis; the test indicates the proportion of variance in the variables that may be caused by other underlying factors (tabachnick & fidell, 2007, p. 620). values close to 1.0 indicate that factor analysis is suited for the data set, values of 0.6 and above are considered sufficient and less than 0.5 is questionable (tabachnick & fidell, 2007, p. 620). bartlett’s test measures the overall significance of all the correlations in a correlation matrix. values of < 0.5 of the significance level show that factor analysis is suitable (hair et al., 2013). in addition to the kmo and bartlett’s tests, communalities and item loadings were analysed. communalities indicate the extent to which an item is correlated with all other items. factor loadings above 0.3 are deemed acceptable (pallant, 2010). to determine the number of factors to retain, factor extraction was conducted through kaiser’s criterion and cattell’s scree test. the number of factors that are retained indicates the interrelationships within a set of variables. ethical considerations ethical permission for this study was obtained from ippm research ethics committee, ethical clearance number: ippm-2019-351 (m). results frequency analysis manager credibility the results showed that most of the respondents perceived that their manager was credible. this was indicated by 39% of the respondents, believing that their manager acted in a way that was consistent with organisational values most of the time. however, when the respondents were asked if they were inspired by their manager, only 32% of them indicated that they were inspired most of the time. all items for manager credibility had a correlation greater than 0.30. the kmo of sampling adequacy for manager credibility was 0.885, which is above the recommended 0.60 and the bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant at p = 0.000. the communalities for manager credibility were above 0.30 and explain the variance in manager credibility adequately (pallant, 2010). the kaiser’s criterion and total explained variance for manager credibility showed one initial eigenvalue above 1, signifying a single factor with a total explained variance of 75.15%, which is acceptable. strategic alignment the results showed that most of the respondents indicated that most of the time they were strategically aligned. when the respondents were asked how well they knew what was expected of them at work, 53% responded that they did so all of the time. when the respondents were asked if they understood the vision of their organisation, 42% indicated that they did to a great extent. the correlation coefficients were all more than 0.30, the kmo measure of sampling adequacy was 0.755 and the bartlett’s test of sphericity was statistically significant as it was smaller than 0.05. the extracted communalities of each item selected were at an acceptable level of above 0.30 for each item. kaiser’s criterion and total explained variance showed one initial eigenvalue above 1, signifying that a single factor with a total explained variance of 44.97% for strategic alignment was satisfactory. motivation the results for motivation indicated that most of the respondents were motivated. this was shown by 52% of the respondents, indicating that every now and then they felt compelled to initiate activities that made things better within their work environment. however, when the respondents were asked if their job motivated them, only 36% indicated that it did every now and then. the correlation coefficients ranged from 0.18 to 0.27. all the variables had a positive result, indicating that an increase in one variable will lead to an increase in the other variable. sampling adequacy was 0.664, and the bartlett’s test of sphericity was statistically significant, indicated by a p = 0.000 value. the communalities for motivation showed that the extracted communalities of each item were at an acceptable level of above 0.30. kaiser’s criterion and total variance explained showed two initial eigenvalues above 1, namely 1.912 and 1.077, and these two factors explain a cumulative variance of 59.78%. analysis of relationships between manager credibility, strategic alignment and motivation spearman’s correlation coefficient (two-tailed; pallant, 2010, p. 103) was used to address the research question 1 (‘what is the relationship between manager credibility, employee motivation and strategic alignment?’). the results shown in table 1 indicate that there was a significant positive correlation between the three variables (manager credibility, strategic alignment and motivation) at the 90% level of significance. medium-to-large correlation effects were noted. table 1: spearman’s correlation coefficient on motivation, strategic alignment and manager credibility (n = 3112). linear regression to answer research question 2, a simple multiple regression analysis was employed to test the prediction of motivation by means of manager credibility and strategic alignment. the simple multiple regression reported in table 2 indicates that manager credibility and strategic alignment explain 31.7% of the variance in motivation (f = 724.127; 2:3109, p = 0.000). both predictor variables (manager credibility and strategic alignment) entered the prediction at the 99% level of confidence. manager credibility predicted motivation at 17.9% (t = 0.9.997; p = 0.000). for every unit that manager credibility increased, motivation increased by 0.179 points. strategic alignment predicted motivation at 44.3% (t = 0.24.682; p = 0.000). for every unit that strategic alignment increased, motivation increased by 0.443 points. table 2: standard multiple regression: manager credibility and strategic alignment as the independent variables and motivation as the dependent variable. regression model exploring the mediating role of strategic alignment in answering the second research question ‘does strategic alignment play a mediating role in the relationship between manager credibility and employee motivation as an outcome variable?’, standard multiple regression analysis was performed through spss by using process macro-bootstrapping with manager credibility as an independent variable, strategic alignment as the mediator and motivation as the dependent variable. three regression paths were tested; the indirect effect of strategic alignment as a mediator is illustrated in figure 1 (hayes, 2009; valeri & vanderweele, 2013). figure 1: mediation model – predictor variable (manager credibility), outcome variable (motivation) and mediator variable (strategic alignment). figure 1 illustrates path c as the predictor to the outcome variable (manager credibility – motivation). path a represents the predictor variable to the mediator variable (manager credibility – strategic alignment) and path b represents the mediator variable to the outcome variable (strategic alignment – motivation). figure 1 indicates a significant positive direct effect of manager credibility on motivation (r2 = 0.3179; f = 7 241 267 (2;3109); p < 0.000). with the bootstrapping confidence levels above zero, between lower level confidence interval (llci) of 0.2257 and 0.2618, the model is significant at the 0.05 level of significance. the size of the mediation is calculated by dividing the indirect effect (0.1420) by the total effect (0.2437). the partial mediation of strategic alignment accounts for 58.3% of the variance in motivation as an outcome variable. the direct effect of manager credibility on motivation is 41.7%. path c results show that manager credibility is a statistically significant predictor of motivation at 35.35% (b = 0.3535; p = 0.000). a unit of increase in manager credibility will increase motivation by 0.3535 points. path a indicates a statistically significant, positive direct relationship between manager credibility and strategic alignment at 10.17% (b = 0.1017; p = 0.000). a unit of increase in manager credibility will increase strategic alignment by 0.1017 points. path b results also indicate that strategic alignment has a statistically significant positive prediction of motivation at 40.18% (b = 0.4018; p = 0.000). a unit of increase in strategic alignment will increase motivation by 0.4018 points. the results support the mediational research question that asked whether motivation is partially mediated by strategic alignment. the effect of manager credibility on motivation increased from 35.35% to 40.18% when strategic alignment was included. discussion descriptive statistics – manager credibility, strategic alignment and motivation an average mean value of 2.91 (maximum = 4) for manager credibility was obtained. this indicated that most of the respondents perceived their managers to be credible most of the time. employees who perceive their managers as credible remain committed to the organisation, which enhances their loyalty (esfahani et al., 2014). with regard to strategic alignment, an average mean value of 3.20 (maximum = 4) was obtained. this suggests that the majority of the respondents perceived that most of the time they were cognisant of the organisation’s strategic pursuits. employees who remain aligned with the priorities of the organisation are likely to maintain high levels of engagement (biggs, brough, & babour, 2014). in terms of motivation, the average mean value achieved was 2.89 (maximum = 4), suggesting that employees perceived themselves to be occasionally motivated. these results support the arguments by copeland (2013) and ndekugri and greene (2020), who cite that discretionary effort is driven by employee motivation. motivated employees are more likely to engage in proactive strategic scanning behaviours that enhance organisational sustainability and performance. to determine the reliability of the results, the cronbach’s alpha test was used as a measurement. the cronbach’s alphas reported for the variables were 0.90 for manager credibility, 0.60 for motivation and 0.70 for strategic alignment. according to hair et al. (2013), these alphas are regarded as acceptable. motivation achieved a value below 0.70. measures that have a small number of items (under 10, such as motivation in this case) will yield lower reliability scores. therefore, it is essential to assess the mean inter-item correlations to confirm internal consistency. upon inspection of the mean inter-item correlation, the value achieved was 0.24, which is within the cut-off point of 0.40 (pallant, 2010). exploratory factor analysis was carried out on the three variables. exploratory factor analysis is used to simplify data by reducing the number of variables in regression models (creswell, 2012, p. 15). explanatory factor analysis is also used to verify the construction research scales (creswell, 2012, p. 15). manager credibility showed a factor of one total explained variable of 75.15%. this shows that the one factor could be used to explain all other variables. strategic alignment showed a factor of one total explained variance of 44.97%. a proportion of explained variance less than 50% is acceptable in social sciences (hair et al., 2013). motivation showed a factor of two total explained variables with a cumulative variance of 59.78%. this indicated that two factors for motivation can be used to explain the variance in all other variables. spearman’s correlation coefficient because of the non-normal distribution of data, spearman’s correlation coefficient (two-tailed) was used to address research question 1 (‘what is the relationship between manager credibility, strategic alignment and employee motivation?’). the analysis showed that there was a positive relationship between all the variables. manager credibility, strategic alignment and motivation were shown to be significantly positively correlated. manager credibility had a medium effect on motivation. this suggests that as manager’s credibility increases, employees are more likely to remain motivated. in terms of strategic alignment, a large effect was not found. it is likely that as employees feel congruent towards the organisation’s goals and pursuits, they will remain motivated. this result supports those of lyubovnikova et al. (2017) and coetzee and veldsman (2013), who argue that a leader who is regarded as credible will have a positive influence on an employee’s strategic alignment to organisational goals. esfahani et al. (2014) outline that a manager’s credibility has an influence on the motivation of employees. the findings indicate that a lack of manager credibility will adversely affect employee motivation. employees will not willingly exert discretionary effort, such as volunteering to perform tasks, without being asked, or be compelled to initiate activities that improve or optimise organisational efficiencies and effectiveness. to further explore the relationship between all the variables, standard multiple regression was conducted. the results indicated that manager credibility influences motivation. this was shown by a significant regression f = (1, 3110) = 701 805, p < 0.001, r² = 0.184. the coefficient results indicated that motivation increases by 0.009 points when manager credibility increases by a unit. manager credibility was also shown to influence strategic alignment f = (1, 3110) = 1454.46, p < 0.001, r² = 0.319. the coefficient regression results show that strategic alignment increases by 0.009 points when manager credibility increases by a unit. regression analysis with manager credibility and strategic alignment as predictors of employee motivation was also carried out. the results indicate that manager credibility and strategic alignment have a significant influence on employee motivation at f = (2, 3109) = 724 127, p < 0.001, r² = 0.318. motivation increases by 0.010 points when manager credibility increases by a unit. strategic alignment contributed 16% towards motivation as an outcome variable (t = 24.68; p = 0.000), with a significance value of < 0.5. by every unit that strategic alignment increases, motivation increases by 0.016 points. the beta results indicate that strategic alignment has the largest unique contribution to motivation (β = 0.443). this finding supports research conducted by andrews et al. (2012) and strobel et al. (2017), who argue that manager credibility influences the motivation of employees and strategic alignment. regression model exploring the mediating role of strategic alignment a regression analysis was performed to address research question 2 (‘does strategic alignment play a mediating role in the relationship between manager credibility and employee motivation as an outcome variable?’). standard multiple regression analysis was performed through spss by using bootstrapping with manager credibility as an independent variable, strategic alignment as the mediator and motivation as the dependent variable (hayes, 2009; valeri & vanderweele, 2013). three regression paths were tested, and the results showed that strategic alignment partially mediated the role between manager credibility and motivation. the effect of manager credibility on motivation decreased from 24.37% to 10.17% when strategic alignment was included (valeri & vanderweele, 2013). the results also showed that strategic alignment was positively related to manager credibility and motivation. this indicates that the model used can reliably explain the relationship between manager credibility, strategic alignment and motivation. limitations of the study the study used a self-measurement tool, which is prone to positive rating bias (van de mortel, 2008). this may have contributed towards the non-normal distribution of data. many respondents (66%) did not indicate their ethnicity, and 19% were from the same ethnic group. the study was also conducted in the financial industry, and thus the findings of the study need to be interpreted with caution. recommendations and managerial implications the study provided insights into the relationships between manager credibility, strategic alignment and motivation in the work environment. good corporate reputation is built and maintained by the behaviour of organisational stakeholders. consistency, trustworthiness, respect, empathy and competence are essential for persons who are in management or leadership roles. the findings in this study support the notion that there is a significant relationship between manager credibility, strategic alignment and motivation. the findings also showed that an increase in any one of these variables would result in an increase in the other. strategic alignment was shown to play a relatively significant mediatory role on manager credibility in influencing employee motivation. based on the results of manager credibility and strategic alignment, recommendations are schematically presented in the form of a model (see figure 2), which, when implemented, has the potential to enhance employee motivation. it is pertinent that management and human resource (hr) practitioners are cognisant of the challenges presented and recommendations put forward. collectively, the results indicate that employees remaining motivated hinge upon the credibility of managers and employees’ strategic fit to the organisation. these factors are likely to ensure proactive behaviours and that employees take greater initiative, lending themselves to enhanced motivation. figure 2: recommendations based on manager credibility and strategic alignment on motivation. human resource practitioners can influence manager credibility, strategic alignment and motivation through the development and implementation of manager competency training and development programmes that are effectively designed to model credible actions and behaviours. the researcher hopes to encourage organisations to move beyond best practice and mechanistic approaches to management towards more organic structures that enable proactive behaviours, creativity and empowered decision-making. extant theory indicates that organic structures are instrumental in enhancing organisational sustainability and strategic alignment. human resource practitioners must equally be prepared to implement hr change management initiatives that can be aligned to increasingly dynamic and complex environments. the study has contributed to management research by showing the effects of the relationships between manager credibility, strategic alignment and motivation. in quantitative research, the self-measurement tool can be prone to positive self-rating bias and respondents are limited to questions posed by the researcher (van de mortel, 2008). future research could consider a qualitative approach into the different factors that relate to the variables discussed in this study. recommendations for future research to minimise aspects of social desirability, a qualitative case-based approach into the variables discussed in this study could be considered. it is also recommended that additional research be conducted to confirm the initial findings on the mediatory effect of strategic management on employee motivation. to validate the measuring instruments within a south african context, further research can be conducted, as the instruments did not present the same structures as the initial research carried out by veldsman (2017). conclusion the study revealed valuable insights on the relationship of manager credibility and intra-team effectiveness as predictors of motivation in the workplace. treating employees in a trusting, consistent and respectable manner can establish a manager’s credibility, an essential attribute in leading inspired and effective teams that contribute positively towards accomplishing organisational objectives. the interplay with intra-team effectiveness revealed that team motivation levels can be enhanced owing to both manager credibility and team effectiveness. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions this manuscript is based on the master’s dissertation of the first author under the supervision of the second author. d.l. was responsible for conceptualising and writing the manuscript and n.d. assisted with data analysis. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abunyewah, m., gajendran, t., maund, k., & okyere, s.a. (2019). linking information provision to behavioural intentions: moderating and mediating effects of message clarity and source credibility. international journal of disaster resilience in the built environment, 11(1), 100–118. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijdrbe-08-2019-0059 acur, n., kandemir, d., & boer, h. (2012). strategic alignment and new product development: drivers and performance effects. journal of product innovation management, 29(2), 304–318. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5885.2011.00897.x ahmetoglu, g., harding, x., akhtar, r., & chamorro-premuzic, t. (2015). predictors of creative achievement: assessing the impact of entrepreneurial potential, perfectionism, and employee engagement. creativity research journal, 27(2), 198–205. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2015.1030293 ahteela, r., & vanhala, m. (2018). hrm bundles and organizational trust. knowledge & process management, 25(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1002/kpm.1561 andrews, r., boyne, g.a., meier, k.j., o’toole, l.j., & walker, r.m. (2012). vertical strategic alignment and public service performance. public administration, 90(1), 77–98. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2011.01938.x anitha, j. (2014). determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance. international journal of productivity and performance management, 63(3), 308–323. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-01-2013-0008 anzengruber, j., goetz, m.a., nold, h., & woelfle, m. (2017). effectiveness of managerial capabilities at different hierarchical levels. journal of managerial psychology, 32(2), 134–148. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmp-12-2015-0451 baciu, l.e. (2018). expectancy theory explaining civil servants’ work motivation. evidence from a romanian city hall. the usv annals of economics and public administration, 17(2[26]), 146–160. retrieved from http://www.annals.seap.usv.ro/index.php/annals/article/viewfile/1015/887 barney, j. (1991). firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. journal of management, 17(1), 99–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700108 belle, n. (2013). experimental evidence on the relationship between public service motivation and job performance. public administration review, 73(1), 143–153. https://doi.org/10.111/j.1540-6210.2012.02621.x.experimental biggs, a., brough, p., & babour, j. (2014). strategic alignment with organizational priorities and work engagement: a multi-wave analysis. journal of organizational behavior, 35(3), 301–317. https://doi.org/10.1002/job boswell, w. (2006). aligning employees with the organization’s strategic objectives: out of ‘line of sight’, out of mind. international journal of human resource management, 17(9), 1489–1511. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190600878071 chatzoglou, p.d., diamantidis, a.d., vraimaki, e., & vranakis, s.k. (2011). aligning it, strategic orientation and organizational structure. business process management journal, 17(4), 663–687. https://doi.org/10.1108/14637151111149474 clark, c., & brown, j.a. (2015). multinational corporations and governance effectiveness: toward a more integrative board. journal of business ethics, 132(3), 565–577. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2358-6 coetzee, m., & veldsman, d. (2013). organizational values in relation to lived values experiences in the south african financial sector. african journal of business management, 7(7), 480–489. https://doi.org/10.5897/ajbm2013.1606 copeland, d. (2013). examining the impact of employees’ perceived understanding of strategy on engagement. doctoral thesis. pepperdine university. retrieved from https://0-search-proquest-com.ujlink.uj.ac.za/business/docview/1426623048/f18912e9ff54577pq/1?accountid=13425 creswell, j.w. (2012). educational research: planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. boston, ma: pearson education inc. cunningham, j.b. (2000). trust and the design of work: complementary constructs in satisfaction and performance. human relations, 53(12), 1575–1591. https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267005312003 de braine, r., & dhanpat, n. (2019). investigating the role of job resources in predicting employees’ strategic connection to the organisation. in international business conference proceedings 2019 (pp. 932–939). 22–25 september 2019, north-west university, hermanus, sa. de vito, l., brown, a., bannister, b., cianci, m., & mujtaba, b.g. (2016). employee motivation based on the hierarchy of needs, expectancy and the two-factor theories applied with higher education employees. international journal of advances in management, economics and entrepreneurship, 3(1), 20–32. retrieved from www.ijamee.info epitropaki, o., kark, r., mainemelis, c., & lord, r.g. (2017). leadership and followership identity processes: a multilevel review. the leadership quarterly, 28(1), 104–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2016.10.003 esfahani, a.n., ghasemi, r.a., & tabrizi, a.t. (2014). the relationship between management credibility and affective commitment in consultant engineering firms: evidence from iranian organizations. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 143(1), 947–952. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.07.532 falcione, r.l. (1974). the factor structure of source credibility scales for immediate superiors in the organizational context. communication studies, 25(1), 63–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510977409367770 falcione, r.l., mccroskey, j.c., & daly, j.a. (1977). job satisfaction as a function of employees’ communication apprehension, self-esteem, and perceptions of their immediate supervisors. annals of the international communication association, 1(1), 363–375. https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.1977.11923692 fisher, r.j. (1993). social desirability bias and the validity of indirect questioning social desirability bias and the validity of indirect questioning. journal of consumer research, 20(2), 303–315. https://doi.org/10.2307/2489277 fogg, b.j., & tseng, t. (1999). the elements of computer credibility. in proceedings of the sigchi conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 80–87). california, 15–20 may 1999. retrieved from http://research.cs.vt.edu/ns/cs5724papers/7.hciincontext.socpsyc.fogg.elements.pdf fraser, j. (2018). kpmg sa sheds 400 staff in battle for survival. retrieved from http://www.themessenger.global/post/details/30371-kpmg-sa-sheds-400-staff-in-battle-for-s gagné, m. (2018). from strategy to action: transforming organizational goals into organizational behavior. international journal of management reviews, 20(s1), s83–s104. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12159 gatignon, h., & xuereb, j.m. (1997). strategic orientation of the firm and new product performance. journal of marketing research, 34(1), 77–90. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224379703400107 govenden, r. (2018). nothing fails like success. hr future, 2018(4), 24–27. https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/ejc-dca4e6576 grasse, n.j. (2014). city managers’ leadership credibility: explaining the variations of self-other assessments. public administration quarterly, 38(4), 544–572. hair, j.f., black, c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2013). multivariate data analysis. upper-saddle river, nj: prentice hall. hayes, a.f. (2009). beyond baron and kenny: statistical mediation analysis in the new millennium. communication monographs, 76(4), 408–420. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637750903310360 hitchcock, b.j.a., & stavros, j.m. (2017). organizational collective motivation. od practitioner, 49(4), 28–36. jamal, j., & abu bakar, h. (2017). revisiting organizational credibility and organizational reputation – a situational crisis communication approach. shs web of conferences, 33, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20173300083 jiang, l., & probst, t.m. (2015). do your employees (collectively) trust you? the importance of trust climate beyond individual trust. scandanavian journal of management, 31(4), 426–535. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2015.09.003 kermally, s. (2005). gurus on people management. chicago, il: thorogood publishing. kubicek, j., & cockram, s. (2019). how to become someone worth following. hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons. lou, c., & yuan, s. (2019). influencer marketing: how message value and credibility affect consumer trust of branded content on social media. journal of interactive advertising, 19(1), 58–73. https://doi.org/10.1080/15252019.2018.1533501 lyubovnikova, j., legood, a., turner, n., & mamakouka, a. (2017). how authentic leadership influences team performance: the mediating role of team reflexivity. journal of business ethics, 141(1), 59–70. madan, s. (2017). moving from employee satisfaction to employee engagement. international journal of research in commerce & management, 8(6), 46–51. retrieved from http://ijrcm.org.in/ mcadam, r., miller, k., & mcsorley, c. (2019). towards a contingency theory perspective of quality management in enabling strategic alignment. international journal of production economics, 207, 195–209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2016.07.003 mccroskey, j.c., & richmond, p.v. (1975). the effects of communication apprehension on the perception of peers. western speech communication, 40(1), 14–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/10570317609373881 mccroskey, j.c., & teven, j.j. (1999). goodwill: a re-examination of the construct and its measurement. communications monographs, 66(1), 90–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637759909376464 mccroskey, j.c., & young, t.j. (1981). ethos and credibility: the construct and its measurement after three decades. communication studies, 32(1), 24–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510978109368075 men, l.r. (2012). ceo credibility, perceived organizational reputation, and employee engagement. public relations review, 38(1), 171–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.12.011 metzger, m.j., & flanagin, a.j. (2013). credibility and trust of information in online environments: the use of cognitive heuristics. journal of pragmatics, 59, 210–220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2013.07.012 minhas, l.s. (2017). relation of managerial creativity and emotional intelligence to employee motivation commitment and performance. journal of psychosocial research, 12(2), 255–2644. mubarak, m., & wan yusoff, w. (2019). impact of strategic leadership on organizational. british journal of management and marketing studies, 2(1), 32–43. retrieved from https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=12166590636926819396&hl=en&as_sdt=2005&sciodt=0,5 ndekugri, a., & greene, e. (2020). individual approach to employee motivation: is it worthwhile in the 21st century? international journal of global business, 13(6), 16–24. nduka, o. (2016). employee motivation and performance. doctoral thesis. centria university of applied sciences. retrieved from https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/120824/employeemotivationandperformance.pdf?sequence=1 osmani, m., rozan, a., zaidi, m., & nilashi, m. (2014). motivational factors, trust and knowledge sharing in organizations. international journal of innovation and scientific research, 12(2), 463–474. ouakouak, m.l., & ouedraogo, n. (2013). the mediating role of employee strategic alignment in the relationship between rational strategic planning and firm performance: a european study. canadian journal of administrative sciences, 30(3), 143–158. https://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1259 pallant, j. (2010). spss survival manual. berkshire: mcgraw-hill education. paulo, m., & nunes, p. (2019). implicit leadership theories in the context of frontex joint operations. organizational psychology and organizational behavior, 7(8), 49–74. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-012119-045434 pokorny, m. (2013). getting to know your employees and what motivates them. employment relations today, 39(4), 45–52. https://doi.org/10.1002/ert porter, m.e. (1985). competitive advantage. new york, ny: the free press. quick, j., & hall, s. (2015). the quantitative approach. newsletter for afpp members, 25(10), 4. https://doi.org/10.7748/ns2012.12.27.15.52.c9485 saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2007). research methods for business students (4th edn.). london: pearson education. schniederjans, m., & cao, q. (2009). alignment of operations strategy, information strategic orientation, and performance: an empirical study. international journal of production research, 47(10), 2535–2563. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207540701673465 seidel, a., saurin, t.a., tortorella, g.l., & marodin, g.a. (2019). how can general leadership theories help to expand the knowledge of lean leadership? production planning and control, 30(16), 1322–1336. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2019.1612112 shaikh, n.a. (2019). leadership, manager motivation: equal opportunity. gale academic onefile, 38(12), 1–5. shao, z. (2019). interaction effect of strategic leadership behaviors and organizational culture on is-business strategic alignment and enterprise systems assimilation. international journal of information management, 44(13), 96–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.09.010 sousa, t.b., de melo, i.c., de oliveira, p.h., & lourenço, c.m. (2020). balanced scorecard for evaluating the performance of supply chains: a bibliometric study. journal of engineering research, 8(1), 294–313. https://doi.org/10.36909/jer.v8i1.4406 street, c., gallupe, b., & baker, j. (2018). the influence of entrepreneurial action on strategic alignment in new ventures: searching for the genesis of alignment. journal of strategic information systems, 27(1), 59–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2017.06.002 strobel, m., tumasjan, a., spörrle, m., & welpe, i.m. (2017). fostering employees’ proactive strategic engagement: individual and contextual antecedents. human resource management journal, 27(1), 113–132. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12134 sudnickas, t. (2019). indicators’ adequacy issues in performance measurement systems. public policy and administration, 18(4), 524–533. https://doi.org/10.13165/vpa-19-18-4-11 tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2007). using multivariate statistics. contemporary psychology: a journal of reviews, 5, 28(8), 642. https://doi.org/10.1037/022267 valeri, l., & vanderweele, t.j. (2013). mediation analysis allowing for exposure – mediator interactions and causal interpretation: theoretical assumptions and implementation with sas and spss macros. psychological methods, 18(2), 137–150. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031034 van de mortel, t.f. (2008). faking it: social desirability response bias in self-report research. australian journal of advanced nursing, 25(4), 40–48. retrieved from http://www.ajan.com.au/ajan_25.4.html veldsman, d. (2017). validating the psychological work immersion scale as a measure for predicting business performance. doctoral dissertation. university of south africa. retrieved from http://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/22768 veldsman, d., & coetzee, p.m. (2014). people performance enablers in relation to employees’ psychological attachment to the organisation. journal of psychology, 24(6), 480–486. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2014.997028 victor, j., & hoole, c. (2017). the influence of organisational rewards on workplace trust and work engagement. sa journal of human resource management, 15(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.853 von der ohe, h., martins, n., & roode, m. (2004). the influence of credibility on employer-employee trust relations. south african jounral of labour relations, 28(2), 4–32. williams, r., raffo, d.m., & clark, l.a. (2018). charisma as an attribute of transformational leaders: what about credibility. ournal of management development, 37(6), 512–524. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd-03-2018-0088 yiing, l.h., & ahmad, k.z. (2009). the moderating effects of organizational culture on the relationships between leadership behaviour and organizational commitment and between organizational commitment and job satisfaction and performance. leadership and organization development journal, 30(1), 53–86. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730910927106 abstract introduction literature review research design and methodology results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) godfrey maake department of business and information management services, faculty of management sciences, tshwane university of technology, tshwane, south africa cornelia p. harmse department of business and information management services, faculty of management sciences, tshwane university of technology, tshwane, south africa cecilia m. schultz department of people management and development, faculty of management sciences, tshwane university of technology, tshwane, south africa citation maake, g., harmse, c.p., & schultz, c.m. (2021). performance management as a mediator for work engagement and employment relationships in the public sector in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1507. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1507 original research performance management as a mediator for work engagement and employment relationships in the public sector in south africa godfrey maake, cornelia p. harmse, cecilia m. schultz received: 02 nov. 2020; accepted: 24 aug. 2020; published: 09 nov. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: to improve service delivery to its citizens, the south african public sector should aim to improve employees’ performance by implementing effective performance management that would impact positively on work engagement and employment relationships. research purpose: the primary objective of this study was to determine whether performance management could be a mediator for work engagement and employment relationships in the public sector in south africa. motivation for the study: the success of the public sector relies primarily on performance management that strengthens work engagement and employment relationships, which in turn positively influence employee performance. managers need to understand the influence of performance management on work engagement and employment relationships. research approach/design and method: a quantitative approach was employed. non-probability purposive sampling was used to select 400 permanent employees with more than 5 years of experience at job levels 1–12 in eight national departments based in gauteng. a structured questionnaire was utilised as a data collection method in this study. the questionnaire for the study was divided into four sections and consisted of 74 likert-scale questions. main findings: this study showed a moderate correlation between performance management and work engagement and a strong correlation between performance management and employment relationships. this study indicated that performance management was indeed a mediator between work engagement and employment relationships. practical/managerial implications: management should ensure that employees understand the function of performance management as a whole, display a positive attitude towards the implementation of performance management, ensure that employees’ key performance indicator (kpis) adequately reflect their areas of responsibility, motivate the use of performance management through the reward structure and finally, training and orientation on performance management should also be provided to newly appointed and existing staff members to ensure strong work engagement and good employment relationships. contribution/value-add: contribution of the study to knowledge and practice surrounding performance management, work engagement and employment relationships. the contribution of this study is to impress on managers and leaders the influence of performance management on work engagement and employment relationships. keywords: performance; service delivery; management system; transparent; unbiased. introduction the south african public sector is frequently criticised for not rendering quality services to the citizens of the country. mafini and pooe (2014) highlight the many challenges associated with underperformance in the south african public sector, and in 2016, the national treasury admitted that the service delivery provided by south african government departments was below par (national treasury, 2016). at the same time, the demand for improved service delivery remains high. west and blackman (2015) argued that improvements are required from all government departments. these improvements may be achieved in part by ensuring that the performance of employees at all levels of the organisation is aligned with organisational objectives, which requires the effective implementation of performance management. according to tweedie, wild, rhodes and martinov-bennie (2019), performance management is generally used by an organisation to assess and monitor employees’ work. there is increasing awareness that performance management can help to change employee behaviour by fostering an intolerance for failure through cultivating transparency in the transfer of information and by ensuring efficient vertical and horizontal cooperation (woyessa, 2015). performance management has been the subject of much research, primarily because employees are regarded as the most critical element in any system, as it is their behaviour that ultimately determines the level of achievement of organisational objectives (west & blackman, 2015). maimela and samuel (2016) reported that performance management can have a huge influence on altering employee principles, attitudes and behaviour, and that this can, in turn, influence the culture of the organisation. mbonambi (2016) suggested that making performance management part of the daily conversation can lead to better outcomes and performance throughout the organisation. public sector employees have experienced ineffectual performance management (makamu, 2016). this has been found to have a negative influence on their levels of work engagement and on employment relationships. this can have an adverse influence on their performance, and for this reason, it is vital to foster effective performance through the implementation of effective performance management. in the south african public sector, performance management was introduced in july 1999 after the signing of resolution 13 of 1998 and first became operational in april 2001. from that time, the government has constantly sought ways to maintain effective performance management that will address the challenges associated with the post-apartheid era (isaacs, 2016). work engagement is a serious challenge. gallup (2017) found that 85% of the employees globally are energetically disengaged in their work. work engagement is a pillar of any successful business. schaufeli, salanova, gonzalez-roma and bakker (2002) defined work engagement as an optimistic work-associated state of mind, usually categorised by vigour, dedication and absorption. essentially, work engagement is an umbrella covering various outcomes in work as well as other variables that will support the organisation to achieve its goals (rachman & suhartini, 2019). the findings indicate that three elements of work engagement, namely vigour, dedication and absorption, contribute towards the mental experience of employees that connects environmental and personal resources and performance (kim, han, & park, 2019). this could mean that a high level of work engagement in the organisation could assist employees to do their work more efficiently and effectively. in contrast, rana, pant and chopra (2019) found that aspects of work engagement were predictors of employee performance and that work engagement had a significant impact on employee performance. given the clear connection between work engagement and employees’ work performance, osborne and hammoud (2017) believe that employees’ engagement levels arise from their ability to control personal behaviours and goals. based on a review of the literature, sustaining and enhancing high levels of work engagement not only lead to employee improved performance but also enhance business performance and improve the organisation’s competitive advantage (rana et al., 2019). al-khozondar (2015) maintained that a solid employment relationship between employees and employers leads to higher levels of efficiency, motivation and performance. furthermore, sound employment relationships between employers and employees are key to an organisation’s success (subramanian, 2017). positive employment relationships generate a favourable working environment, which satisfies the needs of individual employees and managers in an organisation (brhane & zewdie, 2018). therefore, it is important for managers to create and maintain healthy relationships with their employees (samwel, 2018). although several studies have been conducted on performance management, employment relationships and work engagement, limited literature exists on whether there is a relationship between these three aspects, especially within the public sector in south africa. this study sought to determine the relationship between performance management, engagement and employment relationships and further to determine whether performance management is a mediator for work engagement and employment relationships in the public sector in south africa. the study was deemed important in understanding that work engagement and employment relationships influence the performance of public sector employees. research purpose and objectives limited literature exists on the relationship between performance management, employment relationships and work engagement, specifically within the public sector in the south african environment. to gain deeper insight into whether performance management can influence employment relationships and work engagement, the following objectives were formulated: to determine whether there are any significant relationships amongst the three variables (performance management, work engagement and employment relationships) in the public sector in south africa. to determine whether performance management is a mediator for work engagement and employment relationships. literature review performance management performance management can be described as a process that helps an organisation to set goals (okwir, nudurupati, ginieis, & angelis, 2018). performance management is a general strategy that an organisation uses to assess and manage employees’ work (tweedie et al., 2019). the use of performance management can bring about controlled uncertainty, which enables the organisation to adapt to change to ensure survival (okwir et al., 2018). performance management is considered to be an influential instrument in disseminating an organisation’s vision, mission and objectives from management to all employees (mulwa & weru, 2017). according to munzhedzi (2017), performance management can be seen as a guiding principle on how everything is to be completed, starting from goal setting and deciding how to measure accomplishments to providing consistent assessments. performance management provides a systematic assessment tool that managers can use to make meaningful business decisions regarding rewards distribution, retention of high performers and consequences for poor performers (gulch, 2016). sachane, bezuidenhout and botha (2018) argued that performance management is a continual process that comprises formal practices, processes and systems, as well as informal activities and procedures. according to woyessa (2015, p. 25), one of the purposes of performance management is ‘to define, measure and stimulate employee performance with the goal to improve the performance of an organisation’. employees with common goals are more devoted to the organisation and rate their jobs and the organisation at a higher level (matjila, 2015). essentially, if managers and employees are not mindful of strategic objectives, it is improbable that performance management will help them to realise the strategic goals of the organisation (mbonambi, 2016). mbonambi (2016) further indicated that employees will improve their performance if they are aware of the organisational expectations if they know how to do the work and if they know the standard of work that is required. kotola (2016) asserted that performance management is a human resource management mechanism that builds the kind of workplace in which employees are empowered to execute their tasks as well as they possibly can. gulch (2016) supported this idea, adding that performance management is a component under the human resource umbrella that plays a major role in contributing towards organisational performance. as noted by nxumalo, goudge, gilson and eyles (2018), the main aim of performance management is to provide employees with the status of their work performance and pinpoint their weaknesses and strengths. nxumalo et al. (2018) go on to say that this process will assist the management of the organisation to determine employees who qualify for salary increments and promotions, recognise training and development needs, place employees based on their ability and provide possible reasons for any disciplinary measures. work engagement work engagement is an important element of organisational behaviour. one reason that work engagement is such an ongoing issue is that it is essentially a reliable forecaster of employee, team and organisational outcomes (bakker & albrecht, 2018). kahn (1990) used the term ‘engagement’ to explicitly define a worker’s level of immersion in given tasks. he posited that an individual’s emotional and psychological state, though internal, is largely externally driven. this implies that the psychological state precipitating work engagement is significantly influenced by forces within the individual person’s work environment (rotich, cheruiyot, & korir, 2016). according to schaufeli et al. (2002), work engagement is characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption with regard to assigned tasks. bakker (2017) agreed with the above-mentioned definitions by referring to work engagement as a positive, rewarding work-related mental state that is characterised by vigour (a high level of physical and cognitive energy), dedication and absorption (a clear focus and concentration on the work at hand). pandita and singhal (2017) argued that most people understand engagement as an attitude or behaviour that implies being busy with, involved in, attracted by, committed to, retained in and maintained in one’s work or organisation. if employees are engaged in their work, this can increase levels of well-being and work performance (knight, patterson, & dawson, 2017). moreover, work engagement leads to higher job satisfaction; better performance, including an enhanced demonstration of personal ideas; lower absenteeism and turnover rates; improved health and safety; hands-on behaviour and motivation to learn. at its core, work engagement is viewed as: [a] psychological, dynamic and dialectical relationship, the simultaneous employment and expression of a person’s preferred self in task behaviours that promote connections to work, personal presence (physical, cognitive and emotional) and active full performances. (kahn, 1990, p. 700) work engagement consists of three major elements, which are discussed in the following sections. vigour vigour is characterised by high levels of energy, resilience, willingness to invest effort, persistence in the face of problems and willingness to invest effort in one’s work (de spiegelaere, van gyes, & van hootegem, 2016; schaufeli et al., 2002). it is essential to note that employees who have high scores for vigour usually have a great deal of energy, enthusiasm and strength when working, whereas those who have low scores for vigour have less energy, enthusiasm and resilience as far as their work is concerned (boikanyo & heyns, 2019). dedication dedication is characterised by employees’ enthusiasm and pride about their work, a feeling of inspiration and a sense of meaning related to work (de oliveira & rocha, 2017; de spiegelaere et al., 2016). dedication further refers to being highly involved in one’s work and feeling a sense of importance, pride, worth, challenge, inspiration and enthusiasm from engaging with it (patrick & mukherjee, 2018; schaufeli et al., 2002; van wingerden, bakker, & derks, 2016). the literature shows that employees with high scores for dedication intensely identify with their work because they experience it as meaningful, inspiring and challenging (boikanyo & heyns, 2019). absorption absorption is characterised by being totally focused and happily captivated with one’s work to the extent that time passes rapidly and one finds it hard to disengage oneself from one’s work (boikanyo & heyns, 2019; schaufeli et al., 2002; van wingerden et al., 2016). it is described as a mind-set in which one is extremely focused on and enchanted by one’s work (de spiegelaere et al., 2016). the next aspect of the literature review aims to provide a better understanding of employment relationships. employment relationships when managers and subordinates experience high-quality relationships, it leads to more constructive practices at work and the intention to stay with the organisation (matthews, carsten, ayers, & menachemi, 2017). for any organisation to grow and prosper, an assessment of employment relationships is essential because of the influence that employee performance has on the organisation’s efficiency (hassan & hatmaker, 2016). the quantity and quality of work produced in an organisation are both positively and negatively affected by the relationships between employers and employees (mundia et al., 2017). a strong relationship between manager and employee is vital in ensuring that organisational goals are achieved (georgalis, samaratunge, & kimberley, 2015). some, but by no means all, management components of employment relationships are described in more detail in the following subsections. level of trust rahman and taniya (2017) emphasised that trust is considered to be one of the most prominent variables influencing organisational performance. trust can grow, diminish or even become apparent because of a relationship. research has shown that many south african supervisors do not value, respect or foster trust and do not display compliance, fairness and good faith in their dealings with subordinates (ehlers, 2017). compliance xesha, iwu, slabbert and nduna (2014) posited that to build strong relationships in an organisation, managers must ensure that they comply with labour laws or face penalties and the end of the relationship they have with the employees. it should also be noted that employment contracts can be used simply to empower employers to outline an employee’s duties and to regulate how the employee discharges them if realistic support is given to an employee (ehlers, 2017). fairness according to sturman and park (2016), employees with higher levels of satisfaction with their supervisor, and those with higher levels of job performance retain relatively positive perceptions of fairness. good faith in one way or another, confidentiality is necessary to protect sensitive or personal information from disclosure to others (munyoro, 2017). although these three variables have been discussed separately, the following section will explore the relationships amongst these variables, namely performance management, employment relationships and work engagement. the relationship between performance management and work engagement human resource management systems can influence employees’ opinions about job demands and resources, as well as their work engagement level (bakker, 2017). performance management is one of the systems that fall under the human resource management umbrella. performance management can be used proactively to enhance work engagement to achieve the desired outcome. unless and until employees in the public sector are satisfied with the performance management process, and they are truly engaged in their work, service in the public sector will not improve sufficiently. noronha, aquinas and manezes (2018) provided empirical proof that for performance management to influence employees’ job performance significantly, performance management first has to positively influence employees’ attitudes towards work engagement. evaluating, advancing and fostering work engagement are vital to an organisation’s success (knight et al., 2017). in any institution, human resources depend on proper performance management processes and policies. however, when performance management is perceived as unfair and ineffectual, employees tend to be unproductive and negative towards the system (makhubela, botha, & swanepoel, 2016). without proper fair processes, rewards and motivation, performance management can actually provide opposite outcomes, such as absenteeism, poor performance and low levels of employee motivation and can create frustration in the organisation (maina, 2015). it is a generally accepted fact that performance management is in a suitable position to enhance work engagement, which in turn leads to higher performance (noronha et al., 2018). performance management is often adopted to motivate employees. this can be realised by acknowledging expectations of a fair process and giving feedback on employees’ progress towards meeting those expectations (ahenkan, tenakwah, & bawole, 2018). higher levels of work engagement can lead to a more productive work environment with more committed and creative employees (patrick & mukherjee, 2018). the relationship between performance management and employment relationships the relationship between managers and employees sets the general tone of the workplace. according to ramulumisi (2014), performance management is viewed as a communication system between the supervisor and employees. in the case of south africa, the system is set to provide feedback on employees’ performance, reward outstanding performance and provide training to underperformers. performance management activities include coaching, feedback, recognition, goal setting, identification of training needs, construction of development plans and career planning (ricci, 2016). performance management was introduced in the public sector to assist managers in evaluating and measuring employees’ performance and productivity by, amongst others, defining roles, responsibilities and expectations (public service commission, 2014). a review conducted by arakal and mampilly (2016) indicated that if employees perceive performance management as fair and accurate, they will accept it and employee involvement will increase. if there is uncertainty about the measuring tool, managers will be unable to evaluate employees’ performance reliably (legong, 2014). this can lead to poor employment relationships. if there are strong and healthy relationships in the organisation, one might expect employees to be happy and more productive (rahman & taniya, 2017). employees will improve their performance if they are aware of the organisational expectations, if they know how to do the work and if they know the standard of work that is required (mbonambi, 2016). supportive and pleasant employment working relationships will assist employees and managers to work together, thereby enhancing employees’ performance (ahmed, ahmad, & jaaffar, 2017). the relationship between employee and immediate manager and work engagement a healthy employment relationship is essential to enriching work engagement. the concept of work engagement is deeply rooted in the job demands–resources theory that views engagement as a function of interaction between job demands and resources (bakker, 2017). job resources include feedback from clients, social care from co-workers, coaching, rewards and recognition from supervisors, as well as job control, participation and job security (scanla & still, 2019). for this reason, support from one’s supervisor and support and trusting relationships with co-workers are essential (saratun, 2016). it is therefore clear that employees should be supportive of one another in their daily tasks by sharing knowledge and expertise as well as offering encouragement and showing concern (gaire & fatta, 2016). those co-workers and supervisors who support one another and show mutual respect will engender confidence and foster a psychological attitude of a secure and strong engagement with work (ariani, 2015). research design and methodology the research methodology presented here focuses on the research design, the methods and procedures for data collection and the measuring and analysis of data used in the study to address the research objectives. research approach and research design the study employed a quantitative approach to collect primary data so that accurate and relevant information could be obtained, as the study was considered to be formal. the objective of a formal research design is to test the hypotheses or answer the research questions posed (cooper & schindler, 2008). the study sought to address the following research questions: are there any significant relationships amongst the three variables, namely performance management, work engagement and employment relationships? is performance management a mediator for work engagement and employment relationships? target population and sampling design there are 44 national departments within the south african public sector, and all 44 were approached to conduct the study there. however, eight departments, namely arts and culture; planning, monitoring and evaluation; science and technology; trade and industry; water and sanitation; rural development and land reform; national school of government and basic education gave permission to conduct the study with them. these departments had 16 119 employees at the time of the study after the exclusion criteria had been considered. for the purpose of the study, only employees who had been employed for 5 years or more, who were permanently appointed and who were at job levels 1–12 within these eight national departments were targeted. with the inclusion criteria applied, the population for this study was 10 660 employees. the reason for the inclusion of these employees was that they met the day-to-day challenges presented by the implementation of every policy in their respective departments and, most importantly, performance management. further, employees who had been employed for 5 years or more were targeted because these employees had been exposed to performance management for this period and would thus be in a better position to respond to the questions posed in the survey. the study utilised non-probability purposive sampling. with the total population of n = 10 660, the researcher used the sample size of n = 400 calculated according to the raosoft® calculator (raosoft® inc. usa, 2004) with a 5% margin of error and 95% confidence interval (p ≥ 0.5). of the 400 distributed questionnaires, 372 were returned. however, 17 questionnaires had missing data and could not be used. the total number of usable responses was therefore 355, which represented an 88.75% response rate. measuring instrument the primary data for this study were collected using a structured questionnaire. the questionnaire for the current study was divided into four sections and comprised 74 closed and likert-type scale response items. a combination of three existing questionnaires formed the basis of the measuring instrument. this study made use of three different sets of scales, namely four-, fiveand seven-point likert scales. a four-point likert scale questionnaire designed by de waal (2004) was used to measure performance management. a four-point likert-scale questionnaire designed by schaufeli, bakker and salanova (2006) was used to measure the levels of work engagement. a seven-point likert-scale questionnaire designed by ehlers (2016) was used to measure employment relationships. prior to data collection, a pilot study was carried out with 10 employees to determine whether the questionnaire questions were clear and understandable to the participants. these 10 participants were selected through convenience sampling. data collection after the pilot testing, arrangements to deliver structured questionnaires were made with unit managers at the national departments in the public sector in south africa. four hundred questionnaires were personally distributed and collected by the researcher and two fieldworkers. data analysis the captured data were coded and subsequently checked for possible errors of completion resulting in the elimination of 17 questionnaires. the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) was used to calculate descriptive and inferential statistics. the pearson correlation coefficient was employed to determine whether relationships existed amongst the variables, namely performance management, employment relationships , work engagement and multiple regression analysis was used to measure the extent to which performance management mediated the relationship between work engagement and employment relationships. validity and reliability of the measuring instrument to ensure the validity of the questionnaire, the research instrument was presented to study supervisors and public sector management. professionals in the field of statistics scrutinised the questionnaire to ensure that it would answer the research questions. this was done to determine whether this measurement tool would be suitable to achieve the research objectives. to assess the reliability of the questionnaire, cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated for the various subscales of the questionnaire, namely performance management, employment relationships and work engagement. the cronbach’s alpha values for the 12 sub-scales are reported in table 1. a high cronbach’s alpha value indicates a strong correlation between items on a scale (chrispin, scotton, rogers, lloyd, & ridley, 1997). bryman and bell (2007) stated that cronbach’s alpha values of 0.70 and above are used as a rule of thumb to denote a high level of internal reliability. all 12 sub-scales were found to demonstrate acceptable levels of reliability, ranging from 0.73 to 0.94. table 1: summary of cronbach’s alpha values for the 12 sub-scales. ethical considerations ethical clearance (reference no: fcre2018/fr/05/008-ms) for this study was obtained from the faculty committee for research ethics at the tshwane university of technology. in this study, ethics and the protection of the dignity of all stakeholders were ensured. results correlations amongst work engagement, employment relationships and performance management totals one-tailed (see table 2) and two-tailed (see table 3) tests were performed to determine whether differences were evident between performance management, work engagement and employment relationships. table 2 presents the pearson’s r statistic and a sig. (one-tailed) value for the correlation amongst performance management, work engagement and employment relationship totals. table 2: pearson’s r statistic and significant (one-tailed) value. table 3: pearson’s r statistic and significant (two-tailed) value. it can be seen in table 2 that the correlation between the performance management and employment relationships totals (sig. [one tailed] = 0.0001) was 0.503. based on cohen’s (1988) guideline, this may be classified as a strong correlation. this shows that, when effective performance management processes are in place, employment relationships are likely to improve significantly. a moderate correlation of 0.423 was found between the performance management and work engagement totals, and the correlation between the employment relationships and work engagement totals was 0.387, both with the significance level set at 0.01. it can be concluded from the correlation analysis results that a moderate correlation existed between performance management and work engagement and a strong correlation existed between performance management and employment relationships. a two-tailed test was done, with table 3 presenting the pearson’s r statistic and sig. (two-tailed) value for the levels of correlation amongst the performance management, work engagement and employment relationship totals. as depicted in table 3, the correlation between the performance management and work engagement totals was 0.423, and the correlation between the employment relationships and work engagement totals was 0.387, both with the significance level set at 0.01. according to cohen (1988), these may be classified as moderate correlations. a significant positive correlation was found between the employment relationships and performance management totals (sig. [two tailed] = 0.0001), with a correlation of 0.503, indicating a large correlation. this shows that when performance management processes are perceived to be effective, employment relationships are likely to improve significantly. it can thus be inferred from the correlation analysis results that moderate levels of correlation existed between performance management and work engagement and a strong correlation existed between performance management and employment relationships. mediation of relationships amongst work engagement, employment relationships and performance management according to baron and kenny (1986), mediation is a hypothesised causal chain in which one variable affects a second variable that, in turn, affects a third variable. in other words, a mediator is a variable that mediates the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. in this study, a multiple regression analysis was used to determine whether performance management was a mediator between work engagement and employment relationships. the results of this multiple regression analysis were tested. tables 4–6, as well as figures 1 and 2, show the level to which the variables were related to each other and the level to which the mediator variable mediated the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable. according to baron and kenny (1986), there are four steps in testing for mediation. figure 1: illustration of a direct effect: x directly affects y. figure 2: illustration of a mediation design: x affects y indirectly through m. table 4: mediation process. table 5: mediation total and direct and indirect effects of work engagement (x) on performance management (y). table 6: bootstrap results for regression model parameters. an explanation of the four steps in mediation is presented in the following subsections. step 1 this step established the relationship between work engagement (x) and performance management (y), which are the variables that illustrate path c of the mediation model. in table 4, the regression of work engagement (i.e. independent/predictor variable) on performance management (i.e. dependent/outcome variable) is shown through a coefficient of β = 0.1869, p = 0.000, which is evidence of a significant regression. accordingly, it can be concluded that effective performance management fosters greater levels of engagement. however, this work engagement can be strengthened only by taking advantage of designing and implementing performance management that will boost employees’ work engagement levels. therefore, it is suggested that management in the public sector in south africa takes necessary steps to design effective performance management in order to foster work engagement in the organisations. step 2 table 6, represented by path a of the mediation model as indicated in figure 2, shows that the independent variable, namely work engagement (x), was correlated to the mediator, namely performance management (m). this step essentially involves treating the mediator as if it were an outcome variable and represents the path above. in the regression of work engagement on the mediator, work engagement was also significant, with β = 0.2294, p = 0.000. this result proves that positive employment relationships will foster greater levels of engagement. step 3 table 6, represented by path b in figure 2, indicates the relationship between employment relationships (m) and performance management (y). in this case, the regression of the employment relationships (mediator) on performance management (independent variable) was β = 0.2978, p = 0.000, controlling for work engagement. this significant regression showed that performance management made a positive contribution to employment relationships. practically, this influence can be enhanced only if the performance management process is perceived to be fair, unbiased and transparent. step 4 as seen in figure 2, path c shows that employment relationships (m) mediated the relationship between work engagement (x) and performance management (y). if the effect of x on y, controlling for m, were zero, this would show complete mediation. this analysis revealed that, controlling for the mediator (employment relationships), work engagement was a significant predictor of performance management (β = 0.1186, p = 0.000), which implied partial mediation. preacher and hayes (2004) posited that, where the effect of variable x on variable y is reduced or decreased after the inclusion of the mediator variable, the effect is said to have been partially mediated. it should be noted that the significant regression of the independent variable (work engagement) on the dependent variable (performance management) was β = 0.1869, but this was reduced to β = 0.1186 when the mediator (work engagement) was included. it is also stated that satisfying all four conditions can provide evidence for complete mediation, whereas satisfying only the first three conditions indicates partial mediation. the mediation total and the direct and the indirect effects of work engagement (x) on performance management (y) are illustrated in table 5. the bootstrap results for the regression model parameters are illustrated in table 6. figure 1 elaborates on the relationship between work engagement (x) and performance management (y). figure 2 illustrates the effect that employment relationships (m) had on the relationship between work engagement (x) and performance management (y). these findings provide sufficient proof to suggest that performance management did play a mediatory role for employment relationships and work engagement in the public sector, as illustrated in tables 4–6. therefore, it is essential for management in the public sector to implement appropriate steps to develop effective performance management to foster strong employment relationships and high levels of work engagement. discussion correlation coefficients in this study were used to describe whether there were significant relationships between performance management, employment relationships and work engagement in the public sector. tables 2 and 3 showed that performance management had a positive influence on employment relationships and work engagement levels. conversely, the relationship between work engagement and employment relationships was fairly weak (0.387) compared to the relationship between performance management and work engagement (0.423) and between performance management and employment relationships (0.503). the study showed that performance management had a substantial influence on the employment relationship level while it had a moderate influence on the work engagement level. this implies that stronger or weaker scores in work engagement do not necessarily have a huge impact on performance management. empirical evidence shows that performance management and work engagement are classified under human resource practices. in view of this, bakker (2017) recommended the introduction of key performance management activities that have a positive influence on work engagement, such as setting performance and development goals, providing ongoing feedback and recognition, monitoring employees’ development, conducting appraisals and creating a climate of trust and empowerment. noronha et al. (2018) stated that for a performance management to have an impact on how employees perform their tasks, performance management has to address work engagement. noronha et al. (2018) further indicated that performance management has its own way of ensuring work engagement, which in turn leads to higher performance. moreover, this implies that employment relationships are associated positively with performance management. in practical terms, when performance management is used efficiently by supervisors, employment relationships are likely to improve significantly. in this regard, brhane and zewdie (2018) recommended that organisations be required to build strong relationships, put in place mechanisms to motivate employees and provide opportunities to resolve conflicts that arise in the workplace. it is suggested that employees need to perceive performance management as fair if good employment relationships are to be maintained. this can significantly minimise levels of bias. when performance management is perceived as accurate, fair and unbiased by employees, appraisal satisfaction and improved employment relationships will follow (taneja, srivastava, & ravichandran, 2015). in fact, the effective performance management in an organisation will help employees to recognise their own strengths and weaknesses, thereby advancing their knowledge, skills and attitudes in relation to their expectations and abilities (singh & twalo, 2015). finally, ahmed et al. (2017) concluded that a favourable working environment will ensure healthy working relationships between employees and managers. similarly, the results showed that there was a positive correlation between work engagement and employment relationships. this implies that where employees have better employment relationships, their work engagement will be higher. it is evident from the literature that work engagement is a positive, fulfilling work-related state of mind that is characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption (bakker, 2017). moreover, it follows that employees who are unhappy about their employment relationships will have a negative state of mind. a detailed literature review of previous studies has shown that engagement is a proximal concept that influences employees’ performance and reveals how they respond to the resources they receive (gupta, acharya, & gupta, 2015). the results of this study indicated that performance management was a mediator between work engagement and employment relationships. to date, no other study has reported on the mediating role of performance management between employment relationships and work engagement. it is suggested that management in the public sector should take the necessary steps to address performance management-related issues to foster sound employment relationships and work engagement, which will ensure better employee performance. practical implications from a theoretical point of view, the study is expected to make a valuable contribution to an understanding of performance management, employment relationships and work engagement as well as adding to the literature that focuses on performance management, employment relationships and work engagement in the south african public sector context. in any institution, performance management, employment relationships and work engagement rely primarily on competent practitioners and fair human resource practices. one of the most important factors when applying performance management in the public sector is to understand the role and objectives of performance management and work engagement. unless and until employees in the public sector are satisfied with the performance management process, and a strong employment relationship and work engagement are in place, the public sector will be unable to progress sufficiently or achieve optimal success in service delivery. this study endeavoured to address this issue. from a practical perspective, the study makes some valuable contributions. based on the results of the study, public sector management should be encouraged to make decisions that can enhance the efficient and fair process of managing employee performance. the study may urge management to pay specific attention to those aspects that are not conducive to performance management, as indicated by participants. limitations and recommendations given the exploratory nature of the study, the following limitations were encountered: as this study had a limited number of participants and only included those permanent employees who had been employed for 5 years or more in the public sector, more research is needed in a similar setting to give credence to the current findings. although all 44 national departments in sa were approached, data were collected from the eight national departments who gave permission for the study to be conducted at their departments. it may be possible to generalise the results to other public sector departments, but the results might not be applicable to other institutions in the private sector and private government entities. the following recommendations are put forward based on the study results: managers should provide adequate and regular feedback to employees. reliable information and feedback should focus on both employees’ weaknesses and strengths. this is essential if managers are to address the underperformance of employees specifically and not to ignore problems. feedback on underperformance should be provided with tact and insight to minimise rejection and negativity on the part of employees. management should ensure that the mechanisms and procedures of performance management are perceived as fair, consistent, relevant, transparent and unbiased and that performance management processes be clearly communicated to employees. otherwise, if the process is perceived as ineffectual, employees may refuse to cooperate with managers, and national departments may lose their employees’ loyalty, good faith and trust. in future, similar studies should be conducted at other government departments internationally, as well as in other industries, to compare obtained results. a qualitative study should be conducted to provide more information on performance management, employment relationships and work engagement in the public sector in south africa. conclusion the main aim of the study on which this article is based was to pose and answer questions on whether performance management could be a mediator for work engagement and employment relationships in the public sector in south africa. a comprehensive literature review revealed numerous research studies on performance management, employment relationships and work engagement and interesting insights were gained. this study showed moderate levels of correlation between performance management and work engagement and strong levels of correlation between performance management and employment relationships. the results of this study also indicated that performance management was indeed a mediator between work engagement and employment relationships. the findings of this study should motivate management of the public sector to pay attention to the implementation of performance management as the driving instrument for changing the behaviour and working methods of employees to achieve certain outcomes. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions g.m. conducted the research and c.p.j.h. and c.m.s. supervised the research and co-wrote the article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data availability/sharing is not applicable in this research. disclaimer the views expressed in the submitted article are the author’s own and not an official position of the institution or funder. references ahenkan, a., tenakwah, e.s., & bawole, j.n. (2018). performance management implementation challenges in ghana’s local government system: evidence from the sefwi wiawso municipal assembly. international journal of productivity and performance management, 67(3), 519–535. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-06-2016-0124 ahmed, s., ahmad, f.b., & jaaffar, a.r. (2017). employee engagement on employee relation supervisor and employee performance relationship in developing economy: critical analysis with pls-sem. saudi journal of business and management studies, 2(4), 389–398. https://doi.org/10.21276/sjbms al-khozondar, n.o. (2015). employee relationship management and its effect on employees’ performance at telecommunication and banking sectors. unpublished master’s dissertation. gaza: the islamic university. arakal, t., & mampilly, s.r. (2016). an empirical attestation of the impact of performance management system on employee involvement moderated by employee acceptance of performance management system. journal of business and management, 18(1), 25–32. ariani, d.w. (2015). relationship with supervisor and co-workers, psychological condition and employee engagement in the workplace. journal of business and management, 4(3), 34–45. https://doi.org/10.12735/jbm.v4i3p34 bakker, a.b. (2017). strategic and proactive approaches to work engagement. organisational dynamics, 46(2), 67–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2017.04.002 bakker, a.b., & albrecht, s. (2018). work engagement: current trends. career development international, 23(1), 4–11. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi-11-2017-0207 baron, r.m., & kenny, d.a. (1986). the moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. journal of personality and social psychology, 51(6), 1173–1182. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173 boikanyo, d.h., & heyns, m.m. (2019). the effect of work engagement on total quality management practices in a petrochemical organisation. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 22(1), 2334. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v22i1.2334 brhane, h., & zewdie, s. (2018). a literature review on the effects of employee relation on improving employee performance. international journal in management and social science, 6(4), 66–76. bryman, a., & bell, e. (2007). business research methods. 2nd ed. new york, ny: oxford university press. chrispin, p.s., scotton, h., rogers, j., lloyd, d., & ridley, s.a. (1997). short form 36 in the intensive care unit: assessment of accountability, reliability and validity of the questionnaire. anaesthesia, 52(1), 15–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2044.1997.015-az014.x cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioural sciences. orlando, fl: academic. cooper, d.r., & schindler, p.s. (2008). business research methods. 10th ed. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. de oliveira, l.b., & rocha, j.d. (2017). work engagement: individual and situational antecedents and its relationship with turnover intention. business management, 19(65), 415–437. https://doi.org/10.7819/rbgn.v19i64.3373 de spiegelaere, s., van gyes, g., & van hootegem, g. (2016). not all autonomy is the same: different dimensions of job autonomy and their relation to work engagement and innovative work behaviour. human factors and ergonomics in manufacturing and service industries, 26(4), 515–527. https://doi.org/10.1002/hfm.20666 de waal, a.a. (2004). stimulating performance-driven behaviour to obtain better results. international journal of productivity and performance management, 53(4), 301–316. https://doi.org/10.1108/17410400410533890 ehlers, l.i. (2016). measuring primary employment relationship satisfaction in south african supervisory relationships. journal of contemporary management, 13, 745–766. ehlers, l.i. (2017). conceptualising primary labour relationship quality. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 20(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v20i1.1573 gaire, a.k.s., & fatta, b.k.c. (2016). co-workers’ impact on attitudinal behaviour of the faculty members of educational institutions of nepal. journal of advanced academic research, 3(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3126/jaar.v3i1.16613 gallup. (2017). state of the global workplace. new york, ny: gallup press. georgalis, j., samaratunge, r., & kimberley, n. (2015). change process characteristics and resistance to organisational change: the role of employee perceptions of justice. australian journal of management, 40(1), 89–113. https://doi.org/10.1177/0312896214526212 gulch, d.a. (2016). the impact of performance appraisal on productivity: case of hamaressa edible oil s.c. unpublished master’s dissertation. new delhi: ignou people university. gupta, m., acharya, a., & gupta, r. (2015). impact of employment on performance in indian higher education system. review of european studies, 7(3), 192–201. https://doi.org/10.5539/res.v7n3p192 hassan, s., & hatmaker, d.m. (2016). leadership and performance of public employees: effects of the quality and characteristics of manager-employee relationships. journal of public administration research, 25(4), 1127–1155. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muu002 isaacs, j.d. (2016). the impact of transformational leadership on performance management: a south african local government case study. unpublished master’s thesis. cape town: stellenbosch university. kahn, w.a. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 33(4), 692–724. https://doi.org/10.5465/256287 kim, w., han, s.j., & park, j. (2019). is the role of work engagement essential to employee performance or ‘nice to have’? sustainability, 11(4), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11041050 knight, c., patterson, m., & dawson, j. (2017). building work engagement: a systematic review and meta-analysis investigating the effectiveness of work engagement interventions. journal of organisational behaviour, 38(6), 792–812. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2167 kotola, h. (2016). managing underperformance. unpublished master’s thesis. helsinki: arcada university of applied sciences. legong, f.e. (2014). performance management as a tool to improve performance outcomes at a water trading entity. unpublished master’s dissertation. pretoria: tshwane university of technology. mafini, c., & pooe, d.r.i. (2014). a framework for linking process factors to organisational performance in a government department. international business and economics research journal, 13(5), 981–996. https://doi.org/10.19030/iber.v13i5.8766 maimela, e.m., & samuel, m.o. (2016). perception of performance management system by academic staff in an open distance learning higher education environment. sa journal of human resource management, 14(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.784 maina, j.m. (2015). effect of performance management system on employee performance: a study of food and agriculture organisation. unpublished master’s dissertation. united states international university africa. makamu, n.i. (2016). assessment of performance management and development system in selected south african national government departments. phd thesis. potchefstroom: north-west university. makhubela, m., botha, p.a., & swanepoel, s. (2016). employees’ perceptions of the effectiveness and fairness of performance management in a south african public sector institution. sa journal of human resource management, 14(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.728 matjila, t.s. (2015). employee perceptions of the performance management system at the south african post office in pretoria. unpublished master’s dissertation. pretoria: tshwane university of technology. matthews, m., carsten, m.k., ayers, d.j., & menachemi, n. (2017). determinants of turnover among low wage earners in long term care: the role of manager-employee relationships. geriatric nursing, 39(4), 407–413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gerinurse.2017.12.004 mbonambi, s.s. (2016). an evaluation of a performance management system in a freight rail organisation. unpublished master’s dissertation. pretoria: university of south africa. mulwa, m.n., & weru, j.m. (2017). the influence of performance management system on employee performance in commercial banks in kitui town, kitui county, kenya. international journal of humanities and social science, 7(6), 44–55. mundia, l., mahalle, s., matzin, r., zakari, g.a.a., abdullah, n.z.a., & latif, s.n.a. (2017). prediction of employer-employee relationships from socio demographic variables and social values in brunei public and private sector workers. psychology research and behaviour management, 10, 257–269. https://doi.org/10.2147/prbm.s136479 munyoro, i. (2017). issues of confidentiality and public interest: a case study from a library perspective. south african journal of information studies, 35(3), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.25159/0027-2639/2413 munzhedzi, p.h. (2017). a reflection on the relationship between performance management and training in the south african public service. sa journal of human resource management, 15, a864. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.864 national treasury. (2016). national budget review 2016. pretoria: government printer. noronha, s.f., aquinas, p.g., & manezes, a.d. (2018). is job performance better attributable to performance management system through work engagement. indian journal of commerce and management studies, 9(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.18843/ijcms/v9i1/01 nxumalo, n., goudge, j., gilson, l., & eyles, j. (2018). performance management in times of change: experiences of implementing a performance assessment system in a district in south africa. international journal for equity in health, 17, 141. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-018-0857-2 okwir, s., nudurupati, s.s., ginieis, m., & angelis, j. (2018). performance measurement and management systems: a perspective from complexity theory. international journal of management reviews, 20(3), 731–754. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12184 osborne, s., & hammoud, m.s. (2017). effective employee engagement in the workplace. international journal of applied management and technology, 16(1), 50–67. https://doi.org/10.5590/ijamt.2017.16.1.04 pandita, s., & singhal, r. (2017). the influence of employee engagement on the work-life balance of employees in the it sector. the iup journal of organisational behaviour, 16(1), 38–57. patrick, h.a., & mukherjee, u. (2018). work engagement: a cross sectional study of employees in the healthcare sector. the journal – contemporary management research, 12(1), 60–79. preacher, k.j., & hayes, a. (2004). spss and sas procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models. behaviour research methods, instruments and computers, 36(4), 717–731. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03206553 rachman, s.a., & suhartini, s. (2019). the role of work engagement in moderating the impact of job characteristics, perceived organizational support, and self-efficacy on job satisfaction. integrated journal of business and economics, 3(1), 15–31. https://doi.org/10.33019/ijbe.v3i1.112 rahman, s., & taniya, r.k. (2017). effect of employee relationship management (erm) on employee performance: a study on private commercial banks in bangladesh. human resource management research, 7(2), 90–96. ramulumisi, t.v. (2014). the relationship between the performance management system and employee relations at the department of rural development and land reform. unpublished master’s dissertation. pretoria: tshwane university of technology. rana, s., pant, d., & chopra, p. (2019). work engagement and individual work performance: research findings and an agenda for employee relationships. journal of emerging technologies and innovative research, 6(5), 17–32. raosoft®inc.usa. (2004). raosoft® sample size calculator. retrieved from http://www.raosoft.com/samplesize.html ricci, l.m. (2016). the impact of performance management system characteristics on perceived effectiveness of the system and engagement. unpublished master’s dissertation. san josé, ca: san josé state university. rotich, r.k., cheruiyot, t.k., & korir, m.k. (2016). effects of demographics on the relationship between optimism and work engagement among employees of state agencies in kenya. journal of resources development and management, 18, 32–42. sachane, m., bezuidenhout, a., & botha, c. (2018). factors that influence employee perceptions about performance management at statistics south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 16(0), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.986 samwel, j.o. (2018). effect of employee relations on employee performance and organizational performance: study of small organizations in tanzania. international research journal, 18(8), 30–39. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijhrs.v8i3.13415 saratun, m. (2016). performance management to enhance employee engagement for corporate sustainability. asia-pacific journal of business administration, 8(1), 84–102. https://doi.org/10.1108/apjba-07-2015-0064 scanla, j.n., & still, m. (2019). relationships between burnout, turnover intention, job satisfaction, job demands and job resources for mental health personnel in an australian mental health service. bmc health services research, 19, 62. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-3841-z schaufeli, w.b., bakker, a.b., & salanova, m. (2006). the measurement of work engagement with a short questionnaire: a cross-national study. educational and psychological measurement, 66(4), 701–716. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164405282471 schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzalez-roma, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two simple confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3, 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 singh, p., & twalo, t. (2015). effects of poorly implemented performance management systems on the job behaviour and performance of employees. international business and economics research journal, 14(1), 79–94. https://doi.org/10.19030/iber.v14i1.9034 south africa, public service commission. (2014). report on constitutional and legislative mandate of the public service commission. pretoria: government printer. sturman, m., & park, s. (2016). the changing relationship between supervisors and subordinates: how managing this relationship evolves over time. cornell hospitality report, 16(13), 1–10. subramanian, k.r. (2017). employer employee relationship and impact on organisation structure and strategy. international journal of innovative trends in engineering, 43(27), 39–45. taneja, s., srivastava, r., & ravichandran, n. (2015). consequences of performance appraisal justice perception: a study of indian banks. journal of organisational behaviour, 14(3), 33–57. tweedie, d., wild, d., rhodes, c., & martinov-bennie, n. (2019). how does performance management affect workers? beyond human resource management and its critique. international journal of management reviews, 21, 76–96. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12177 van wingerden, j., bakker, a.b., & derks, d. (2016). a test of a job demands-resources intervention. journal of managerial psychology, 31(3), 686–701. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmp-03-2014-0086 west, d., & blackman, d. (2015). performance management in the public sector. australian journal of public administration, 74(1), 73–81. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8500.12130 woyessa, y.e. (2015). the effectiveness of performance management systems at the central university of technology, free state. unpublished master’s dissertation. bloemfontein: university of the free state. xesha, d., iwu, c.g., slabbert, a., & nduna, j. (2014). the impact of employer-employee relationships on business growth. journal of economics, 5(3):313–324. https://doi.org/10.1080/09765239.2014.11885007 abstract introduction objectives of the study literature review and theoretical analysis methodology results and findings recommendations and conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) olaniyi j. olabiyi department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa citation olabiyi, o.j. (2022). a study of conflict resolution mechanisms and employment relations in multinational corporations in africa: empirical evidence from nigeria and south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1900. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1900 original research a study of conflict resolution mechanisms and employment relations in multinational corporations in africa: empirical evidence from nigeria and south africa olaniyi j. olabiyi received: 04 feb. 2022; accepted: 13 sept. 2022; published: 13 dec. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: when it comes to employment relations, a strong and effective conflict resolution mechanism (crm) is critical for achieving industrial tranquillity and collaboration among social partners. research purpose: this study evaluated the usefulness of crms in employment relations at a large multinational company (mnc) in nigeria and south africa. motivation for the study: negotiating and dialoguing about employment relations must be an integral part of crms in order to alleviate disharmony in employment relations. research method: this study used a survey methodology for non-experimental descriptive research. a mixed method of data gathering was used for this study, that is, quantitative and qualitative data collection. approximately 400 questionnaires were sent to participants in the organisations, 200 each from nigeria and south africa. the survey also involved 20 respondents who were interviewed online. a total of 383 participants were included in this study. main findings: study results showed that the crm worked better in south africa than those in nigeria. south africa, based on a comparative review of the study, may have one of the most advanced systems for resolving industrial conflicts on the african continent. practical implication: an effective approach to conflict resolution can help prevent negative outcomes of organisational dispute. contribution: the study’s findings contribute to harmonious, non-violent, non-disruptive conflict resolution practices in the workplace. keywords: conflict resolution mechanisms; employment relations; multinational enterprises; labour legislative framework; labour law. introduction it is a fundamental principle of all work relation systems that labour disputes exist (ilo, 2001). in most cases, they result from collective bargaining reaching a breaking point resulting in industrial action, such as strikes or lockouts, if they are not resolved. a decent labour relations policy involves the establishment of a legal system for preventing and resolving labour disputes (ilo, 2001). as is often the case, the conflict between parties to a relationship arises from divergent interests and differing objectives (venter, 2003, p. 383). the economic development of any country requires a stable system of settling employment, labour and labour relations disputes. it will be crucial for countries such as nigeria to implement a constructive system of dispute resolution so that disputes may be resolved effectively and expeditiously, this is of even greater importance for workplace industrial democracy. the labour and industrial relations issues in a country like nigeria are not promptly resolved when they arise or there is no cordial relationship between employer and employee. such a country would be impossible for a foreign investor or multinational company (mnc) to invest in, such as nigeria. (odion, 2010, p. 6). the state cannot remain a helpless spectator in labour relations and welfare despite its ever-increasing interest. to resolve these conflicting interests in labour-management relations, it is the state’s responsibility to come up with legislation (ahmed, 2014, p. 29). the term multinational enterprise (mne) or mnc also refers to a transnational corporation (tnc). this article uses both nomenclatures interchangeably. globalisation also serves as a template within which mncs operate. as such, foreign trade and foreign direct investment (fdi) are the mechanisms through which mncs manifest themselves. multinational enterprises and mncs deploy their technological, financial and infrastructure resources around the world through globalisation. multinational corporations do not move into a country and then operate in an abyss. the employment relations climate in a host country has a particularly significant bearing on them. the mechanism for conflict resolution in labour legislation is an example of this influence (burton et al., 1994; richard, 2007; tyler, 1993). labour relations in host countries are also affected by mnes’ operations (zhao, 1998). it is possible for mnes to influence not only the employment relationship environment but also labour law and policy in the host country (frenkel & peetz, 1998; stopford, 1998). in the case of a mne that fails to adhere to the employment laws of its host country, how does the government go about sanctioning them? how are such transgressions dealt with according to the legislative framework of the host nation? these issues are sometimes difficult to regulate because governments lack the pre-existing mechanisms (allen-ile & olabiyi, 2019). as a result, labour standards need to be established. in that context, labour’s ‘standard’ refers to how the government has outlined the quality of employment relationships that each party must maintain and how they should be managed. in employment standards and labour standards, a worker’s treatment is usually the focal point. the standard applies equally to multinational and domestic enterprises (allen-ile & olabiyi, 2019). some multinational enterprises dislike high employment standards for reasons best known to them, and would like them to be lower. are mncs capable of subverting national employment standards? a variety of tactics can be employed by mncs to evade this rule (allen-ile & olabiyi, 2019). multinational companies are not the only ones affected, as domestic workers are also affected. the compensation for occupational injuries and diseases act, no 130 of 1993 (coida) provides for compensation for disablement caused by occupational injuries or diseases sustained or contracted by employees in the course of their employment, or for death resulting from such injuries or diseases. in relation to south africa. the labour legislation regime in south africa, for instance, is rigid and aggressively protects workers’ rights. employers, including multinational corporations, have criticised the labour standards being followed in south africa. labour relations act (lra) number 66 of 1995, as amended, contains rules and procedures for resolving disputes, which may seem onerous, time-consuming and expensive for employers. multinational enterprises are reportedly hesitant to invest in south africa for this reason (allen-ile & olabiyi, 2019). a workplace dispute resolution mechanism may be used by unscrupulous employers to circumvent the labour relations system, according to the prevailing labour standard. to resolve disputes between the parties, the process, for instance, outlines specific steps that need to be followed. moreover, the lra clearly stipulates that unions or workers must follow procedural requirements before engaging in industrial action (allen-ile & olabiyi, 2019). strikes must be protected strikes and require notification from the union or workers requesting the right to strike. employer does not need to agree to the strike and most employers will never accept this risk. strikes are costly for both employers and employees, causing loss of production and loss of income. strikes are only permitted if the issues in dispute cannot be resolved through conciliation and arbitration. this means that they may only strike on issues of mutual interest between the parties and the dispute must be referred to the commission for conciliation mediation and arbitration (ccma) or bargaining council (bc). the ccma and bc issues the certificate on the right to strike. the union must then advise the employer on the date when the strike will commence. however, nigeria does not have a similar framework as south africa. a framework currently does not cover or apply to public sector employees. the mne can exploit the fact that workers in nigeria are unprotected by nigerian labour law if it extends its operations into nigeria directly or indirectly. studying how mnes affect labour relations policy and local law in the two given scenarios provides the background for this study (allen-ile & olabiyi, 2019). during this study, a multinational corporation with operations in nigeria and south africa was evaluated and its conflict resolution mechanisms (crms) were examined for effectiveness. various strategies for addressing discords between employers and unionised groups of workers are discussed in this article, including methods of applying and interpreting collective bargaining mechanisms. objectives of the study a paradigm shift is necessary to address the issue of whether industrial conflict must be understood at its source or cause before it can be handled properly even in the presence of a comprehensive framework to alleviate it. in order to carry out this study, it was important to understand why crms work in one environment or country, but not another. the majority of countries and organisations have not yet adopted nor implemented best international practices of labour laws that ensure the safety and well-being of workers at work. in many african employment relations environments, the nature of dispute resolution mechanisms proves ineffective for resolving industrial conflicts. government influence has undermined the integrity of crms and questioned the integrity of settlement institutions, as a result of its overbearing and domineering influence. it can be said that a country such as nigeria still has outdated mechanisms for promoting industrial harmony among the various actors in the industrial relations arena. usually, this approach produces unsuccessful results, as indicated by the persistence of industrial action across different sectors of society, which suggests an unhealthy state of labour relations. general objective this study aimed to compare the effectiveness of crms used to resolve industrial conflicts within south africa’s and nigeria’s employment relations environments. objectives specific to the study to evaluate how multinational corporations, adapt to the diversity of labour relations climates in host countries to determine how effective the mechanisms for conflict resolution built into both mncs’ and host countries’ conflict resolution processes are. literature review and theoretical analysis the concept of multinational companies frequently, mncs do not exercise their operations without showing some influence in public policy or labour relations law that governs their operations in the host environment. there is a consensus that mncs are generally comfortable and accustomed to the mechanisms put in place for solving labour disputes within the environment they come from. it is not unusual for multinational corporations, however, to seek to circumvent the employment relationship regulation mechanisms. circumventing rigid and highly regulated labour laws is one way to accomplish this. circumventions of this kind adversely affect their profit motives. a globalised society strongly supports the growth of mncs thanks to economic liberalism and free markets. markets are created as individuals behave rationally to maximize their own benefits, according to economists. whenever there is no government interference, the interests of individuals are best served. in turn, this maximises international wealth by facilitating the free exchange of goods and services (mingst, 2014, p. 310). the multinationals are usually referred to as the vanguard of the liberal order by economic liberals (mingst, 2014, p. 311). an interdependent world economy is their embodiment par excellence of the liberal ideal. through a process of internationalisation, they have gone beyond the integration of national economies. gilpin (1975, p. 39) wrote that for the first time in history, production, marketing and investment are arranged on a global scale. as a result, international firms were not to be assimilated into national cultures, but instead create a global customer base. managing and reshaping national attachments is vital to the creation of a global corporate village. national attachments were not denied, but their definition became more international (james, 1983, p. 63). according to doob (2013), mncs are generally multinational corporations that operate in more than one country but provide goods and services all over the world. multinational companies are large, and their worldwide activities are centralised at the headquarters. corporations that have significant investments in foreign countries deal with or trade in goods and services there. manufacturing facilities or assembly operations in foreign countries are established through the establishment of foreign buying and selling licenses, contract manufacturing agreements, and manufacturing facilities or assembly operations. international presence provides benefits to mncs in many ways. by pooling buying power over suppliers, spreading r&d and advertising costs over global sales and utilising management know-how globally, companies can use economies of scale. in order to access under-priced labour services in developing countries, as well as foreign r&d capabilities (eun & resnick, 2017), companies can use their global presence to gain access to these underpriced services. as multinational corporations are essentially stateless actors, moral and legal constraints must be applied to their behaviour. as part of a series of global socioeconomic problems developed in the late 20th century (gary, 2004), this became a crucial issue. according to business week, a concept of ‘stateless corporations’ was coined as early as 1990 to explain society’s governance limitations over modern mnes. a conceptual clarification of the concept occurred in 1992 when one advocated using statistical tools at the intersection of demographic analysis and transportation research to define stateless corporations. a logistics management approach describes how quickly global mobility of resources has developed and is known as logistics management, as holstein (1990) and voorhees et al. (1992) defined it. since the beginning of the study of multinational corporations, we have entered an era of stateless corporations, or multinational corporations that produce and customise products on a worldwide basis for individual countries (holstein, 1990, p. 98). the east india company, one of the first multinational business organisations, was established in 1600 (medard & bruner, 2003). for nearly 200 years after the east india company was founded on 20 march 1602, the dutch east india company was the largest company in the world. through direct investments from overseas or the acquisition of local firms and establishment of subsidiaries, large multinational corporations have traditionally dominated national economies. the headquarters usually has the highest level of authority in terms of decision-making. subsidiaries and branches may have their own decision-making bodies depending on their specific characteristics and operations, but all decisions must be subordinated to the highest decision-making centre. the goal of a multinational enterprise is to maximise profit by seeking markets worldwide, producing professional fixed-point products on a fixed-point basis and selling those products at fixed-point prices. internationally, multinational corporations enjoy a competitive advantage because of strong economies, technical strength and fast information transmission. a number of large multinational corporations have monopolies based on their economic and technological strength or their production advantage in some areas. a multinational corporation is referred to as a mne by international economists and as a mnc by international business analysts. companies with multinational operations manage production facilities worldwide (caves, 2007, p. 1). by investing directly in the host country’s plants, mnes avoid some transaction costs across borders by acquiring ownership and managing control of the plant (caves, 2007, p. 69). as opposed to traditional mncs, tncs have no national identity. the purpose of tncs is to maintain a high level of local responsiveness by managing operations in many countries (drucker, 1997, p. 167). for instance, nestlé, which does not have a centralised headquarter, but instead places senior executives from different countries and makes decisions worldwide (schermerhorn, 2009), is an example of a globally oriented company. shell’s registered office and main executive body are in london, united kingdom, but the company’s headquarters are in the hague, netherlands. corporations may be bound by the laws and regulations of both their countries of origin and domicile, as well as the additional jurisdictions in which they conduct business. regulative statutes target ‘enterprises’ with statutory language for ‘control’, but after some time, the jurisdiction can become a burdensome law, depending on the circumstances (blumberg, 1990). in most host countries, there are few laws governing employment that fully address the issues and challenges encountered by mnes, allowing them to avoid complying with local laws regarding employment. multinational enterprises have the potential to contribute to the economic growth of the host nation; however, one of the disadvantages associated with their presence as a force in the host country is the myriad of challenges they come with (allen-ile & olabiyi, 2019). nigerian dispute and conflict resolution mechanisms/institutions there are currently two mechanisms in place for resolving industrial disputes by the nigerian government: (1) voluntary procedures: internal mechanisms and (2) statutory procedures: external mechanisms. the stages of statutory dispute resolution procedures have been determined by the labour ministry following the failure of voluntary dispute resolution procedures. the following stages are involved: mediation/conciliation. arbitration. inquiry. the national industrial court (nic). section 4(1) of the trade dispute act authorises the adoption of internal mechanisms to resolve trade (or labour) disputes. therefore, parties to disputes must use existing dispute resolution mechanisms to resolve their disputes. by using this internal mechanism for dispute resolution, disputing parties determine how grievances will be resolved bilaterally. some employers unilaterally create a dispute resolution process in their organisation that is binding, even though the internal dispute resolution procedure is set out in collective bargaining agreements (sijuwade & arogundade, 2016, p. 1): mediation: the mediation process involves using a neutral and impartial third party to facilitate or intervene between disputants. this is so that they can resolve their differences using options they agree with. adeniji et al. (2014) concluded that mediation could be distinguished from negotiation as the mediator takes an active role in preserving the process, while the disputants determine the outcome or settlement. conciliation: an impartial third party intervenes to bring disputants together with the intent of resolving their differences. it is the goal of conciliators to facilitate communication between parties within seven days of the dispute/conflict being reported to them. a set of rules may not govern the procedure, as with negotiation. rather than addressing a settlement directly, a conciliation may focus on exchanging information, identifying issues and deciding on options for resolution (elliott, 2015). industrial arbitration panel: arbitrators usually settle disputes in arbitration. for resolving disputes, courts appoint independent arbitrators. an arbitration agreement differs from a lawsuit in court, in which the judge makes an order against a person or company or against the government itself (obi-ochiabutor, 2010, p. 76). upon referral by the minister, the industrial arbitration panel (iap) adjudicates industrial disputes between employers and employees as well as intra-union disputes. to arbitrate trade disputes, the ministry of labour established the obi-ochiabutor commission (obi-ochiabutor, 2010, p. 76). board of inquiry: an inquiry may be conducted by a board of inquiry into the causes and circumstances of a dispute. this is when a trade dispute exists or is anticipated by the minister in accordance with section 33 of the act. an investigation must be conducted by the board of inquiry and its findings must be reported to the minister. it is unclear whether the minister is empowered to make a binding award based on the board’s findings (sijuwade & arogundade, 2016). national industrial court: as nigeria’s apex labour court for resolving trade disputes, the trade dispute decree no. 7 of 1976 created the nic. a quorum of the president and two members was initially composed of four members and the president. trade union disputes and the interpretation of collective bargaining agreements were the primary jurisdictions of the court under decree no. 7. during the period 1976–2006, the court’s operations were limited and its judgements were rarely upheld. on most matters, it shares jurisdiction with both the state and federal high courts, such as those arising from arbitration or conciliatory labour disputes (fagbemi, 2014). south africa’s dispute and conflict resolution methods or institutions several acts provide the framework for grievances and dispute settlements in employment relations in south africa, including the labour relations act of 1995, basic conditions of employment of 1997, employment equity act of 1998 and skills development act of 1998 (saundry et al., 2008). these pieces of legislation, together with their corresponding amendments form the basis for the application of labour laws in south africa. disputes of right are resolved by adjudication by labour courts or arbitration by private dispute resolution institutions or bcs under the labour relations act of 1995. prior to arbitration or adjudication, disputes must be conciliated: commission for conciliation, mediation and arbitration (ccma): a statutory dispute resolution body, the ccma was established by the labour relations act, 66 of 1995. the ccma is an independent, non-partisan, non-trade union organisation, funded by the government, but not controlled by it (ccma, 2018). employers and employees dispute resolution is one of the primary functions of the ccma. as part of its framework, the ccma provides a flexible, cost-effective and constructive mechanism for the resolution of labour disputes in south africa, emphasising mutual problem-solving rather than adversarial litigation (venter, 2003, p. 383). a labour conflict is resolved through the ccma, which has been established under the labour relations act, employment equity act of 1998 (eea), skills development act of 1998 and unemployment insurance act of 2001 (uif). national economic development and labour council (nedlac): in an effort to increase legitimacy and transparency in socioeconomic decision-making, the nedlac was established on 18 february 1995. government, business and labour, as traditional stakeholders in the tripartite relationship, form a social partnership. the community and its various representative bodies have already been included as a fourth partner. in matters of social and economic policy, consensus is reached through the council (venter, 2003, p. 44). conciliation: as a result of the 2002 amendment to the lra, more vulnerable workers were protected under labour law. under the ccma, all disputes relating to unfair dismissals must be referred to conciliation within 30 days, but unfair labour practices must be addressed within 90 days. a party whose referral period has expired must make an application for condonation to the ccma to excuse the reason for his or her failure to refer the case promptly (ccma, 2018). arbitration: arbitration proceedings are more formal than conciliation. in the event that conciliation fails, either party can request arbitration from the ccma. as soon as an arbitration request is received, a commissioner will be appointed by the ccma. in most cases, the outcome is final after 14 days of the hearing or when a decision made by the commissioner. the outcome is binding on the parties and may be made into a labour court order (ccma, 2018). a major purpose of the lra of 1995 was to eliminate any appeal rights against arbitration awards rendered by commissions of the ccma (young, 2004). it was agreed that parties to arbitration proceedings could appeal the award within the labour courts if they were dissatisfied with the results (ccma, 2018). con-arb: conciliatory arbitration was institutionalised as another method of dispute resolution in the lra by the 2002 amendments. an ‘arbitration-conciliation’ process is usually performed in one sitting, with the arbitrator proceeding to conciliation in the event of failure (ccma, 2007). as with general conciliation and arbitration, con-arb is governed by the same rules. in the con-arb process, legal representation may be allowed during arbitration, but not during conciliation. con-arb provides a rapid conciliation and arbitration process if individuals have been subjected to unfair labour practices or unfair dismissals, as described in section 191(5a). it will allow conciliation and arbitration to be carried out simultaneously under this process. this process applies to dismissals resulting from probation or unfair labour practices related to probation (ccma, 2018). bargaining councils (bcs): the lra establishes the functions and powers of bcs as joint employers and union bargaining institutions. to regulate relations between management and labour, the lra promotes collective bargaining as one of its primary objectives. a dispute between them can be settled this way. in addition to settling disputes between parties, a bc is also responsible for resolving problems related to the collective agreements it negotiates and other statutory instruments it enacts (ccma, 2007). private dispute resolution agencies: a private dispute resolution agency specialising in labour disputes of significance was established in south africa with the independent mediation service of south africa (imssa). as a result of its establishment in 1984, it has provided mediation and arbitration services since then as they are more expeditious, informal and less adversarial than traditional courts (bosch et al., 2004). as imssa closed its doors in 2000, the tokyo dispute settlement stepped in to fill the void left by it. labour courts: as a superior court of law and equity, the labour court was established by the labour relations act of 1995. venter (2003) compared it with a south african provincial division of the supreme court, as it has similar powers and status. disputes relating to contracts, basic conditions of employment act (bceas) or employment equity act (eeas) can be heard by the labour court without conciliation first. strikes and lockouts can be prevented without prior conciliation (cheadle, 2006). labour appeal court: with the same powers and duties as the appellate division of the supreme court, the court is a final appeal court in labour disputes. there will not be many cases referred to this labour court. in response to complex labour issues, the lra established labour courts. there are not enough high-calibre labour law judges in the south african labour courts. therefore, some acting judges do not have any experience in labour law (benjamin, 2006; cheadle, 2006; roskam, 2006). examining the fundamentals of dunlop’s industrial relations system the multidimensional nature of mnes prompted this study to use the time-tested industrial relations system (irs) theory developed by dunlop (1958). as dunlop (1958, p. 7) and subsequently otobo (2002) illustrated, labour relations are defined as a system of actors, contexts and ideologies that serve as a platform for the irs and governing rules for managers. the concept of an irs is based on structural/functionalist approaches to social systems (societies). this also refers to sociologically organised, hierarchical or sociologically structured social systems (haferkamp & smelser, 1992). research in this area has determined that this theory is most relevant for studying the interplay between dispute resolution mechanisms and the role of multinationals in influencing employment relations because of the matrix of correlations among the variables involved (multi-country analysis, fluid nature of multinationals, multiple levels of dispute resolution mechanisms). according to dunlop: certain actors: managers, workers and their spokesmen make up the hierarchy of labour relations systems, whereas workers (non-managerial) make up the hierarchy. for dealing with workers, enterprises, and their relations, the first two actors established specialised agencies. certain contexts: in labour relations, such contexts encompass the larger environment in which workers, employers, and governments interact, making their conduct and rules more complex. certain ideology: the concept refers to a set of beliefs and ideas shared by the actors that bind the system together. in an irs, each actor has an ideology, according to otobo (2000, p. 28). dunlop insists on the need for these ideologies to be compatible or consistent enough to permit a common set of ideas that acknowledges an acceptable role for everyone. in dunlop’s view, actors in the irs must hold the same ideology. certain set of rules and regulations: workplace rules are established by actors in particular contexts. interactions between actors are governed by their rules. the parties are governed by a ‘web of rules’, according to dunlop. as well as their substantive rules and application procedures, the rules are governed by a web of procedures for setting them. an irs begins with the implementation of procedures and rules – procedures are themselves rules. the primary function of industrial relations is to establish and implement these rules in society’s industrial organisation. changing contexts and the status of actors may result in changes in rules over time. a dynamic society is one where the rules and their administration are constantly re-evaluated. dunlop’s theory has been examined in numerous ways, which are beyond the scope of this study, except to acknowledge that the theory was deemed helpful in contextualising the role of industrial relations in appraising dispute or crm in employment relations. a question that may have to be addressed eventually, but not necessarily in this study, is: what are some of the factors inhibiting compliance with the dunlop framework? the focus of this study is solely on the role that mnes play in adhering to these ‘body of rules’ as reflected in their involvement in conflict resolution. methodology a non-experimental descriptive research design and survey methodology were employed to conduct this study. this study was carefully designed to gather substantive information about the topic under investigation, namely how crms are employed within two mncs in nigeria and south africa. mixed methods of quantitative and qualitative data collection were used to achieve this. about 400 copies of an online questionnaire were sent to employees and hr professionals at a mnc in nigeria and south africa about crms. in addition, a qualitative data collection method has also been applied by conducting an online interview for the top management of the mncs that includes 10 senior top hr/organisational executives in each country, which represents 20 top executives for the qualitative data collection. prior to the distribution of questionnaires to the two mncs in south africa and nigeria, correspondence was sought concerning the process of data collection in their countries. it was requested that correspondence be exchanged concerning the process of gathering data in their countries. email and telephone conversations with the respondent helped to decide how the question should be answered on-line. the questionnaires were therefore distributed electronically to 200 rank-and-file employees of the multinational firm in south africa. a total of 186 of the 200 questionnaires sent out for administration were validly completed and returned. a mnc in nigeria also received the same questionnaires via email. in addition, there have been 200 questionnaires distributed electronically via google forms (alphabet, inc., mountain view, california, united states) to respondents via their email, and 177 genuine responses were obtained from those questionnaires. respondents from south africa and nigeria completed 363 questionnaires and returned them. moreover, data were collected using qualitative means by identifying 20 executives, 10 top managers each from nigeria and south africa, who were then interviewed in detail about the topic. combining both qualitative and quantitative approaches has produced a comprehensive result in the research. the data were analysed using inferential statistics in statistical package for the social sciences (spss). ethical considerations project ethics statement: this research foresees no discernible ethical dilemma. however, consistent with and in compliance with research ethics expectations, this research will observe the following: ethical clearance: the researcher will apply for and obtain the necessary ethical clearance from the relevant university committees before commencement of the research.confidentiality: participants’ will be assured of the confidentiality of any information obtained from them. all information sourced will strictly be used for the purpose of the research. no operational or financial corporate information of the organisation will be revealed. informed consent: at all times, before the opinions of participants are solicited, their express consent will be sought, and their voluntary participation will be secured. all aspects of the research will be clearly explained to them. anonymity: participants will be assured, in writing, that their anonymity will be maintained. this is to give them the peace of mind to freely express their views. participants’ personal information will not be released to any other party. non-malfeasance: while the likelihood of this does not arise because of the subject matter of the research, the researcher, all the same, will ensure that no wrongdoing or wrongful conduct will occur while executing this research. protection from harm: like the precaution against malfeasance, the researcher will ensure that the execution of this research does not bring any physical or psychological harm to the participants. freedom to withdraw from participation: the freedom to withdraw from participation, without prejudice, at any stage during the research will be communicated to the participants at the beginning. in addition, the organisation and the participants will be apprised of their right to have access to any publications that may emanate from this research, if they so wish. (nhrec registration number: hssrec-130416-049.) results and findings levene’s equality of variance test analysis this study measured the effectiveness of crms by using variance equality tests on employee–management conflict. a ratio of two sample variances is used to calculate the f-value in the table 1. a difference in the population variance is assumed if the f-value is not equal to 1. when the p-value is less than 0.05, there is a significant difference in variance between the two samples, which means that equal variance cannot be assumed. table 1: t-test. the given analysis concluded that both mnes in the two countries adjusted quite well to their host nations’ crms, but the mne in nigeria appeared to exhibit more laxity or freedom, with conflict resolution processes or mechanisms than the one in south africa. the two multinationals adjusted to the particular labour relations environment in their respective host countries. an analysis of nigerian and south african means of crm was conducted to determine whether there was a significant difference between the two groups (or organisations). according to the t-test table group statistics computed from the crm general items, the nigerian organisation has a mean of 2.3825 for the efficacy of mechanisms for resolving conflicts in employment relations, while the south african organisation has a mean of 3.9081 (see table 2). among the various crms implemented by the south african and nigerian organisations, the south african organisation implemented 1.52562 more than the nigerian group. the south african company followed prescribed procedures for resolving conflicts better than its nigerian counterpart. table 2: t-test group statistics. recommendations and conclusion it is highly recommended that future studies expand the scope of such studies to provide a deeper understanding, particularly if several more mnes are investigated. the second recommendation is to specifically examine in both environments whether organised labour’s perceptions of the topic of interest are relevant for academics or researchers. for nigeria, additional recommendations include: in order to stay abreast of international labour standards, it is essential to make voluntary and statutory dispute resolution mechanisms more robust and to ensure consistency in application and periodic, frequent reviews. in order to ensure compliance, all parties, including employers (or mnes), must adhere to labour standards. develop trustworthy, independent and specialised dispute resolution groups such as nedlac and the ccma of south africa. for south africa, it is recommended that: the reviews of the various labour legislation, while still striving to meet and uphold international labour standards, should include flexibility measures that would improve the confidence of employers, especially mnes seeking fdi. potential fdis probably do not invest in south africa because of the current perception that the employment relations regime is more stringent. in conclusion, the analysis of the survey data indicates that the mnc in nigeria apparently had a greater influence over conflict resolution than it did in south africa. this might be explained by factors that are outside the scope of the present study, such as granting mnes undue latitude or environmental volatility in nigeria. it may also be because of internal factors such as the unfettered authority granted to the minister for the purposes of directing and possibly influencing the conflict resolution process. on the other hand, however, as was previously observed and highlighted, the requirements of south african labour legislation might act as a force on mnes to comply with them in that environment. therefore, the employment relations mechanism integrated into the conflict resolution processes in south africa can be seen as engendering an effective employment relations environment, especially with regard to the protection of employees, a lesson that could be beneficial to the authorities in nigeria. this research confirms that mncs play an important role in the employment relations process in the resolution of conflict. by upholding the highest labour standards, host nations can ensure that the roles played by mnes do not negatively affect their employment relations environment. acknowledgements the author would like to acknowledge the supervisor for guidance and direction on the structure of the article. competing interests the author declares that no competing interest exists. author’s contributions o.j.o. was the sole author of this article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any agency in the public, commercial or non-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author, and the publisher. references adeniji, a.a., osibanjo, a.o., abiodun, a.j., & oni-ojo, e.e. (2014). corporate image: a strategy for enhancing customer loyalty and profitability. journal of south african business research, 2015, 259483. https://doi.org/10.5171/2015.259483 ahmed, a. (2014). emerging trends in labour law and industrial relations in nigeria. international journal of humanities and social science, 4(11(1)). allen-ile, c.o.k., & olabiyi, j.o. (2019). a preliminary comparative perspective on the role of multinational enterprises in influencing labour relations of their host nation. advances in social sciences research journal, 6(12), 298–318. https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.612.6980 benjamin, p. (2006). the impact of the decisions of the labour courts on the operation of the ccma. draft paper. development policy research unit. blumberg, p. (1990). the corporate entity in an era of multinational corporations. delaware journal of corporate law, 15, 283. bosch, d., molahlehi, e. and everett, w. (2004). the conciliation and arbitration handbook: a comprehensive guide to labour dispute resolution procedures. durban: lexisnexis butterworths. burton, d.f., jr., bloch, e., & mark, s. (1994). multinational challenges. case study: the relationship between the structure/strategy of multinational corporations and patterns of knowledge sharing within them. oxford university press. caves, r.e. (2007). multinational enterprise and economic analysis. cambridge university press. ccma. (2007). ccma commentary and input on ‘understanding the efficiency and effectiveness of the dispute resolution system in south africa’. comments on an earlier draft of this paper. author. ccma (2018). ccma commentary and input on ‘understanding the efficiency and effectiveness of the dispute resolution system in south africa’. cheadle, h. (2006). regulated flexibility and small business: revisiting the lra and the bea. working paper 06/109. development policy research unit, university of cape town. doob, c.m. (2013). social inequality and social stratification in us society. pearson education. drucker, p.f. (1997). the global economy and the nation state (p. 167). council on foreign relations. dunlop, j.t. (1958). industrial relations systems. holt (a title now owned by cengage learning). elliott, r. (2015). authenticity perceptions in the chinese marketplace. journal of business research, 68(1), 27–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2014.05.011 eun, c.s., & resnick, b.g. (2017). international financial management (8th ed.). mcgraw-hill higher education. fagbemi, s. (2014). jurisdiction of the national industrial court of nigeria: critical analysis. journal of law, policy and globalisation, 28. frenkel, s., & paetz, d. (1998). globalisation and industrial relations in east asia: a three-country comparison. industrial relations, 37(3), 282–310. https://doi.org/10.1111/0019-8676.00089 gary, i. (2004). the global record (pp. 35–42). foreign policy in focus (interhemispheric resource centre/institute for policy studies/seen). gilpin, r. (1975). us power and the multinational corporation: the political economy of foreign direct investment. basic books. haferkamp, h., & smelser, n. (1992). social change and modernity. university of california press. retrieved from http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft6000078s/ holstein, w.j. (1990, may 14). the stateless corporation. business week news magazine, p. 98. ilo. (2001). the labour legislation guidelines. in substantive provisions of labour legislation. author. retrieved from http://www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/ifpdial/llg/index.htm james, p. (1983). australia in the corporate image: a new nationalism. arena, 63, 65–106. medard, g., & bruner, h. (2003). an atlas of the multinational corporation. the new press. isbn 1-56584-727-x. archived from the original on 2003-12-22. mingst, k.a. (2014). essentials of international relations (p. 310). w.w. norton & company. isbn 978-0-393-92195-3. obi-ochiabutor, c. (2010). using alternative dispute resolution (adr) in the criminal justice system: comparative perspectives. bassey andah journal, 6, 215. odion, c. (2010). 1999 constitution and the national industrial court. retrieved from https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/41068/1999-constitution-and-the-national-industrial-court.html onimode, b. (1978). imperialism and multi-national corporations: a case study of nigeria. journal of black studies, 9(2), 207–232. https://doi.org/10.1177/002193477800900208 otobo, d. (2000). industrial relations: theories and controversies. malthouse press, salama press. otobo, d. (2002). industrial relations: theories and controversies. malthouse press limited. richard, h. (2007). multinationals, enforcement covenants and fair share. interfax, 35, 537. https://doi.org/10.54648/taxi2007060 roskam, a. (2006). an exploratory look into labour market regulation. working paper. development policy research unit, university of cape town. saundry, r.a., antcliff, v.a., & jones, c. (2008). accompaniment and representation in workplace discipline and grievance. acas. schermerhorn, j.r. (2009). exploring management (4th ed.). wiley global education. sijuwade, a., & arogundade, o. (2016). corporate & commercial group. advocaat law practice. stopford, j. (1998). multinational corporations. foreign policy, winter. tyler, g. (1993). the nation-state vs. the global economy. challenge, march–april. venter, r. (2003). labour relations in south africa (2nd ed., revised). university press southern africa. voorhees, r.d., seim, e.l., & coppett, j.i. (1992). global logistics and stateless corporations. transportation practitioners journal, 59(2), 144–151. young, l.k. (2004). ccma arbitration awards: an update. contemporary labour law, 14, 2. zhao, l. (1998). labour-management bargaining and transfer pricing in multinational corporations. canadian journal of economics, 31(4), 817–829. https://doi.org/10.2307/136493 abstract introduction purpose of the study theoretical framework and hypotheses methods discussion practical implications recommendations limitations acknowledgements references about the author(s) thulani b. skosana department people management and development, faculty management, tshwane university of technology, emalahleni, south africa molefe j. maleka department people management and development, faculty management, tshwane university of technology, emalahleni, south africa thulie l. ngonyama-ndou department people management and development, faculty management, tshwane university of technology, emalahleni, south africa citation skosana, t.b., maleka, m.j., & ngonyama-ndou, t.l. (2021). predictors of affective commitment at municipalities in the nkangala district, mpumalanga. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1567. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1567 original research predictors of affective commitment at municipalities in the nkangala district, mpumalanga thulani b. skosana, molefe j. maleka, thulie l. ngonyama-ndou received: 12 feb. 2021; accepted: 25 may 2021; published: 30 june 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: less committed employees have a huge impact on organisational performance. the affective commitment of municipal employees is critical for a municipality to achieve its strategic objectives. research purpose: to determine the predictors of affective commitment at the four municipalities in the nkangala district, mpumalanga. motivation for the study: there is a shortage of studies conducted at south african municipalities that have simultaneously measured negative emotions, positive emotions and job satisfaction as the predictors of affective commitment. research approach/design and method: the approach was quantitative and cross-sectional in nature. a closed-ended questionnaire was developed and administered to 808 respondents who were conveniently selected from four municipalities in the nkangala district. the data were analysed using descriptive statistics. inferential statistics were used to determine whether the predictors and affective commitment were unidimensional and to determine the relationships and the highest predictor. main findings: the results showed that job satisfaction was the greatest predictor of affective commitment and negative emotions were the lowest predictor. job satisfaction, positive and negative emotions explained 68% of the variance in affective commitment. practical/managerial implications: this research will empower municipality managers in cultivating a conducive work environment. improving the interpersonal skills of supervisors and implementing fair human resource practices that promote a conducive work environment have been highlighted as some contributors towards increased affective commitment. contribution/value-add: this study has developed a two-path framework that could be used by human resource management practitioners to determine the affective commitment of employees in mpumalanga municipalities. keywords: affective commitment; job satisfaction; negative emotions; nkangala district; positive emotions. introduction research on affective commitment at municipalities is gaining traction in the human resource literature (bright, 2007). kim (2008) found that committed managers at asian municipalities had the ability to encourage newly appointed employees to perform exceptionally well. research conducted at european municipalities reported that managers who created conducive working conditions and gave employees constructive feedback enhanced employees’ commitment levels (steijn, 2008). in the same vein, it has been shown that satisfaction is a predictor of affective commitment at african municipalities (chimwaso, 2000). however, employees from south african municipalities have shown less commitment (bizana, naude, & ambe, 2015). one of the indicators that showed the lack of commitment at one municipality was complaints from customers about the quality of service they received. kanyane (2006) discovered that the majority of employees employed by one of the south african municipalities were less committed because of lack of growth and promotional opportunities. it was further established that only politically connected employees without appropriate qualifications were appointed in senior positions, even when they were not performing well. this had the unintended consequence of skilled workers leaving the municipality (mailovich, 2019). generally, irregular appointments adversely affect the affective commitment of employees at south african municipalities (bizana et al., 2015). this is an indication that the affective commitment of municipal employees remains an area of concern as it may hamper the performance of municipalities. the performance of municipalities is in the spotlight as the services rendered by municipalities remain a centre of public interest. however, some indicators point to the fact that employees at certain south african municipalities lack commitment. this has adversely impacted their work performance levels (koma, 2010) and has led to poor service delivery by the municipalities (mailovich, 2019; roux, 2005). particularly, at one municipality in the nkangala district, the lack of technical and customer relations skills emerged as a serious drawback (maleka, motsima, matang, & lekgothoane, 2016a). another study at the same municipality in the nkangala district determined that affective variables (i.e. job satisfaction, positive emotions, supervisory support, participation and workload) were unidimensional. the same research established that positive emotions mediated the relationship between supervisor support and job satisfaction. however, that research did not measure how negative emotions mediated the relationship between workload and job satisfaction. the same research did not determine which of these affective variables predicted affective commitment the most: negative emotions, positive emotions or job satisfaction (maleka, skosana, & lekgthoane, 2016b). the nkangala district in mpumalanga province is regarded as the smallest district of the three that makes up the province and accounts for 22% of the province’s geographical area. it is comprised of six local municipalities: victor khanye, emalahleni, steve tshwete, emakhazeni, thembisile hani and dr. j.s. moroka. these municipalities provide services such as water, electricity, sewage and sanitation to the whole community of the district. the district’s headquarters are situated in middelburg (masombuka, 2021). purpose of the study prior to this study, no similar study had been conducted at municipalities in the nkangala district. it was against this background and to address this gap that the study was conducted. the main purpose of the study was to determine the predictors of affective commitment at four municipalities in the nkangala district. the research objectives of the study were as follows: to determine whether the predictors (refer to figure 1) and affective commitment were unidimensional to determine whether there was a significant relationship between the predictors to determine whether positive and negative emotions mediated the relationship between the predictors and job satisfaction to determine, between job satisfaction, negative emotions and positive emotions, which predicted affective commitment the most. figure 1: conceptual model. theoretical framework and hypotheses meyer and allen (1991) defined affective commitment as an employee’s emotional attachment to identification with, and involvement in an organisation. similarly, benjamin (2012) saw it as a customer’s emotional attachment to a particular brand or strategic objectives. affectively committed employees are less resistant to organisational change (morin et al., 2016), have low rates of absenteeism, support human resource management strategic objectives, are team-oriented and are less likely to resign (ditlev-simonsen, 2015). in this study, affective events theory (aet) was used as it was deemed appropriate for the study background. according to wegge, van dick, fisher, west and dawson’s (2006) study, which used aet as a theoretical model, it was established that affective commitment was predicted by different affective variables (e.g. autonomy, supervisory support, participation, employee welfare and work overload). in the same vein, affective variables and affective commitment are distinguishable (wegge et al., 2006). such hypotheses have been confirmed by two other studies conducted at one municipality in mpumalanga (maleka et al., 2016b). several studies have tested the relationship between the study variables, and the hypotheses developed from these studies for the research reported on in this article are shown (table 1). table 1: previous research on study variables. autonomy, participation, workload, well-being and employee performance were the independent variables. positive emotions, negative emotions and job satisfaction were the mediating variables. affective commitment was the dependent variable. the sections that follow briefly elucidate the relationships amongst the variables. autonomy autonomy refers to the freedom employees require to execute their tasks and to make decisions without or in limited consultation with their supervisors and/or line managers (robbins & judge, 2019). previous research at a municipality in mpumalanga showed that employees who were given autonomy to execute their job functions were happy and were not disgruntled (skosana et al., 2016). other scholars have emphasised that municipal management should empower employees to make independent decisions (brunetto, farr-wharton, & shacklock. 2011). participation participation involves consulting and engaging employees in the decision-making surrounding no matter what directly or indirectly affects them (lee & kim, 2011). previous research at a municipality in mpumalanga found that employees who were able to control the scheduling of their daily tasks were the most likely to be satisfied and happy (maleka et al., 2016b). supervisor support according to kim, hur, moon and jun (2017), supervisory support refers to employees’ perception about support from their superiors, their provision of good advice and the ability to support employees in work-related challenges. supportive supervisors who provide guidance and treat subordinates fairly and ethically are most likely to enhance the job satisfaction and affective commitment of their employees (mohsin et al., 2015). employee performance in this study, the focus of employee performance is feedback. this is defined in the literature as performance appraisal (campbell, mchenry, & wise, 1990). even though this variable was not included in wegge et al.’s (2006), in this study, it was included because earlier it was discussed that employees in the municipalities are disgruntled about the way they are given feedback. previously, it was established that employees who were given positive and objective feedback were more likely to display positive emotions and were satisfied (stazyk, pandey, & wright, 2011). job satisfaction job satisfaction is one of the affective feelings that employees have about their job, the working environment and work procedures (locke, 1976). some of the work procedures that enhance employees’ job satisfaction include, but are not limited to, the chances of promotion (maleka, 2016; riley, 2006), opportunities to do different tasks, job rotation, as well as commitment, effectiveness and efficiency at work (akpinar et al., 2013). positive emotions positive emotions can be described as an emotional response towards certain events or objects. this response reveals one’s positive feelings towards certain events or objects. for instance, evidence suggests that organisations that promote autonomy are likely to increase employees’ positive emotions (hospel & galand, 2016). furthermore, research has revealed that employees who are empowered to take responsibility for scheduling their own work are happy and satisfied (abi & jijo, 2012; zhao, yan, & keh, 2018). negative emotions adil and kamal (2016) are of the view that negative emotions can be expressed through anger, fear, guilt and nervousness. adil et al. (2013), fida et al. (2015) and wegge et al. (2006) found that negative emotions mediated the relationships amongst workload, well-being and job satisfaction. this means that, when negative emotions are included as a third variable, they enhance the impact of or the relationships amongst workload, well-being and job satisfaction. work overload excessive workload is likely to contribute towards employees’ negative emotions. in this sense, employees with excessive workloads experience considerable difficulty in completing their tasks. consequently, they experience higher stress levels and other health-related challenges because of unbearable work demands (williams, 2010). well-being the concept of well-being can be viewed through the concepts of physiological, social, psychological and emotional well-being (lee & peccei, 2007). one of the indicators of well-being is when employees come to work and are physically fit to do their task (brunetto, shacklock, teo, & farr-wharton, 2014). other indicators that enhance employees’ well-being are social interaction and support from co-workers, managers and family (dávila & garcía, 2012). the methods followed to determine the predictors of affective commitment at municipalities in the nkangala district, mpumalanga are discussed next. methods research participants altogether 1000 questionnaires were printed and 808 were completed. therefore, the response rate was 80.80%. the respondents were conveniently selected from four municipalities in the ngankala district. the questionnaires were distributed and collected from december 2018 to february 2019. a total of 53.30% of the participants were male and 42.70% were female. a total of 70.30% were employed on a permanent basis and 29.70% were employed on a part-time basis. the majority (52.48%) of the participants had grade 12 and the other 47.52% had post-matric qualifications. the majority (60%) of the participants had ages ranging from 45 to 65 years and the other 40% had ages ranging from 18 to 44 years. in terms of positions, 87.38% were in non-management positions and 12.62% were in middle and top management positions. procedure one of the researchers distributed and collected the questionnaires at the four municipalities. prior to the distribution of the questionnaires, the researchers were given ethical clearance (fcre:2018/fr/07/009-ms02). an informed consent form was attached to each questionnaire, and the participants completed the form before they participated in the study. the study followed ethical principles such as voluntarism, confidentiality and anonymity. in terms of the latter, the participants were not coerced to complete information that could be linked to them. they were also requested not to include their names on the questionnaires. figure 2: study statistical model. research instrument the questionnaire used in this study had two sections. the first measured biographical information discussed in the participants sections. the second part of the questionnaire measured affective commitment, as developed by meyer and allen (1991) and its antecedents. the latter comprised the following: autonomy, supervisory support and participation scales developed by patterson et al. (2005) job satisfaction scale developed by spector (1985) employee performance scale developed by babin and boles (1996) workload scale developed by riggs, warka, babasa, betancourt and hooker (1994) well-being scale developed by ryff (1989) positive and negative emotions scales developed by burke, brief, george, roberson and webster (1989). each scale consisted of five items that were measured on a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). statistical analysis the descriptive statistics involved frequencies reported in the participation section and the associated mean. the analysis entailed calculating the measurement model. the average variance extracted (ave) was calculated, and a cut-off of 0.5 was used to determine the construct validity (hair, hult, ringle, & sarstedt, 2017; ravand & baghei, 2016) of affective commitment and its antecedents. to achieve discriminant validity, the fornell-larker criterion was used. this criterion states that the diagonal correlation scores must be higher than the horizontal correlation scores (hair et al., 2017). to test the direct and indirect effects, structural equation modelling (sem) was utilised. the level of significance to accept the hypotheses was set at 0.05 or 5% in the smart-pls. results as it can be observed, the kurtosis and skewness scores were within the range of –2 to 2 (table 2). tabachnick and fidel (2014) claimed that such a distribution shows that the data were normally distributed. only negative emotions had a skewness value of 2.47 and had a highest mean score (m = 4.34, sd = 0.74). this suggested that participants agreed that they were frustrated with the workload, felt angry when they were criticised, feared losing their jobs and were nervous when they submitted their reports. the variable that was rated the second highest was workload (m = 3.72, sd = 1.06). the rating can be interpreted to indicate that participants did not have enough time to execute their duties, perceived their jobs to be difficult and agreed that their workload increased because the municipal managers were not replacing employees who had resigned. the third variable that had a mean score above 3 was well-being (m = 3.53, sd = 1.05). this result showed that the participants agreed that they did not feel optimistic about their future in the municipalities had very high stress levels and did not feel confident about their jobs. the other seven variables had mean scores under 3, meaning that the participants did not agree with the items listed (table 2). table 2: descriptive statistics, cronbach’s alphas and average variances extracted. measurement model the measurement model is presented (table 3). all the loadings were above 0.7. as the ave scores were above 0.5, it can be claimed that convergent validity was achieved (hair et al., 2017) and that the study variables were unidimensional. the cronbach’s alphas (α) were above the 0.6 lower limit for acceptance as suggested by maree (ed. 2016). table 3: measurement model. the data presented show that discriminant validity was achieved (table 4). fornell-lacker was used to determine discriminant validity. this statistical test is about comparing ‘the square root of each construct’s average extracted with its correlations with all other constructs in the model’ (hair et al., 2017, p. 317). the average square roots are bold diagonal scores and since they are higher than the horizontally and vertically correlations it can be argued that there were no discrimination validity issues. table 4: fornell-larker. hypothesis testing as suggested by hair et al. (2017), r-squared and blindfolding were conducted. these are statistical techniques to determine predictive accuracy and power. the r-squared values were as follows: 0.53 for positive emotions, 0.60 for job satisfaction, 0.25 for negative emotions and 0.68 for affective commitment. the q² (= 1-sse/sso) or blindfolding scores were above zero, as suggested by hair et al. (2017): 0.37 for positive emotions, 0.39 for job satisfaction, 0.15 for negative emotions and 0.45 for affective commitment. to determine multi-collinearity as suggested by field (2018), variance inflation factor (vif) values were calculated. all the multi-collinearity (i.e. vif) values for the variables were less than 5, and according to hair et al. (2017), this meant that there were no issues with multi-collinearity. the smrr was 0.11, which was less than the 0.12 criterion to determine model good fit (hair et al., 2017). the sem model of the study is displayed (figure 1). twenty-six hypotheses were tested, and the results are displayed (table 5 and table 6). the results for direct effects are shown (table 5). table 5: direct effects. table 6: indirect effects. the results for indirect effects are displayed (table 6). discussion the study intended to determine the predictors of affective commitment at municipalities in the nkangala district. the study made multiple contributions to the body of knowledge. firstly, a methodological contribution was made in terms of the sample size. because the sample for skosana’s (2016) was drawn from one municipality, the sample for this study was drawn from four municipalities in the nkangala district. secondly, a theoretical contribution was made as employee performance, which had not been included in the study conducted by wegge et al. (2006), was added as independent variable. this variable is salient in the municipality context because previous research has revealed that, when employees are given proper feedback, coached and given training opportunities, they are most likely to offer customers excellent service (maleka et al., 2016b). the data also showed that this variable was the greatest predictor of positive emotions. the beta (β) score between employee performance and positive emotions was 0.56 and was significant at the 5% level. in addition, the data showed that employee performance was the greatest predictor of job satisfaction (β = 0.39, p < 0.05). these results are consistent with findings by stazyk et al. (2011). the results can be interpreted as indicating that, when employees are given constructive feedback, their satisfaction level increases. similar to findings by wegge et al. (2006), the study results showed a positive and significant relationship between autonomy, supervisor support and positive emotion and job satisfaction. unlike in skosana’s (2016) study, which was conducted in one of the municipalities in mpumalanga, it was expectedly found that participation negatively predicted positive emotions. however, the results were not significant (β = 0.39, p > 0.05). when positive emotions were used as a mediator variable, the results were also not significant. this was in contrast to what wegge et al. (2006) found. the third contribution of this study was testing the relationship between workload and well-being and negative emotions, as this relationship had never been tested in mpumalanga municipalities prior to this study. the results of this study were consistent with what wegge et al. (2006) found. a positive and significant relationship was found between workload and negative emotions (β = 0.34, p < 0.05). in addition, the relationship between well-being and negative emotions was positive and significant (β = 0.18, p < 0.05). based on the study results, it can be deduced that workload was the greatest predictor of negative emotions. it can be interpreted as indicating that employees were uncertain about their futures and were not given enough time to execute their duties, which caused negative emotions. when negative emotions were measured as a mediator between well-being and workload, the results were also consistent with findings by wegge et al. (2006). similar to wegge et al. (2006), the researchers found that job satisfaction mediated the relationship between negative emotions and affective commitment. as expected, the relationship between negative emotions and job satisfaction was negative and significant (β = –0.14, p < 0.05). it is noteworthy that negative emotions were the lowest predictor of affective commitment. the data showed that the relationship between negative emotions and affective commitment was negative and significant (β = –0.07, p < 0.05). on the other hand, even though job satisfaction was the greatest predictor of affective commitment, the difference between it and positive emotions was not large: β (0.468) – β (0.446) = 0.022. this can be interpreted as indicating that employees are most likely to be committed when (1) they are happy and joyous, (2) they work in a conducive environment, (3) they experience fair promotion practices, (4) they are rotated and (5) they are given meaningful tasks. consistent with wegge et al. (2006), this study found that job satisfaction mediated the relationship between positive and negative emotions and affective commitment. as the results between negative and positive emotions were significant, this shows that partial mediation took place. furthermore, the beta (β = –0.06, p < 0.05) was higher than the direct relationship between negative emotions and affective commitment (β = –0.07, p < 0.05). this can be interpreted as indicating that, when job satisfaction was included as a mediator, the relationship between negative emotions and affective commitment was stronger. the same interpretation is applicable when including job satisfaction as a mediator between positive emotions and affective commitment. the data showed that the combination of positive and negative emotions plus job satisfaction explained 68% of the variance in affective commitment. this suggests that the other variables contributed 32% of the variance in affective commitment. one south african research found that workplace spirituality (kokt & palmer, 2019), work-life balance and friendship (coetzee, ferreira, & potgieter, 2019) and remuneration (bussin & brigman, 2019) were predictors of affective commitment. another south african study established that perceived organisational support was a predictor of affective commitment (satardien, jano, & mahembe, 2019). in tshwane municipality, it was established that employee engagement was a variable that predicted employees’ affective commitment (maleka, mpofu, hlatywayo, meyer, carr, & parker, 2019). practical implications approaches such as cultivating a conducive work environment, improving supervisors’ interpersonal skills and implementing fair human resource practices that promote organisational justice have been highlighted as some contributors towards increased affective commitment (liou, 2008). managers should be aware that employees who are satisfied and happy have enhanced affective commitment. this can be achieved by ensuring that promotion practices and working conditions are improved. municipal managers can create conducive working conditions by listening to employees, consulting employees before making decisions and giving employees carte blanche to make decisions and schedule their work. this would mean that municipal managers are not micro-managing employees. furthermore, municipal managers should give employees reasons and justifications for their workload. in addition, municipal managers should be aware that employees who are positively and constructively given feedback are most likely to be committed (maleka et al., 2016b). when municipal managers engage employees, they are most likely to support strategic objectives and not abuse leave (ditlev-simonsen, 2015). moreover, in this study, job satisfaction emerged as the greatest predictor of affective commitment. therefore, senior managers should improve the job satisfaction level of employees in order to achieve a high level of affective commitment. in addition, even when municipal managers experience that their subordinates are not performing optimally, they should impugn such subordinates in private rather than in public. it has been found that managers who criticise non-performing employees privately and give them an opportunity to develop, enhance these employees’ affective commitment. such managers also do not dent employees’ self-confidence and sometimes refer employees to the employee assistance programme if employees have emotional challenges like depression and stress. such employees are not able to complete their tasks timeously or do work that is not up to the expected standard. furthermore, municipal managers who engage employees and share information about the municipality’s financial status are able to deal with incorrect information that can create fears about the future of the municipality amongst employees (maleka et al., 2016b). recommendations similar research should be conducted in the future. other studies can be conducted in other municipalities in mpumalanga and in south africa, and if possible, can use probability sampling techniques and mixed methods designs so that qualitative data can also be solicited. the research can include remuneration as a variable because it has been found to be a point of dispute in the south african municipal context (maleka, 2016). the following is recommended for managers to enhance affective commitment amongst employees: establish management forums to allow employees an opportunity to participate in all decision-making in the municipality. alternately, managers can solicit employees’ views during meetings and incorporate them when decisions are made that affect employees’ duties and responsibilities. this will increase employees’ level of attachment to the organisation whilst striving for positive outcomes and a successful organisation. implement a culture of two-way communication where managers listen to employees’ concerns and provide them with guidance by supporting them equally and fairly in work-related and personal issues. managers should encourage two-way communication and provide constructive feedback to enable employees to improve where necessary and to identify interventions to assist employees to exert more effort in their jobs. most importantly, employees’ concerns should be listened too. implement new strategies that will allow all employees to feel optimistic and keep their stress levels at an acceptable level for emotional well-being. this can include employees attending coaching sessions and being referred to the employee assistance programme. where necessary, guidance and support should be provided to address professional and personal issues that may hinder employees’ performance. encourage the use of a transparent management system and policies in terms of employee development and promotion within the organisation. this should be coupled with creating a conducive work environment and reasonable working conditions where employees will feel affectively committed. train employees on emotional intelligence and explain to employees how workload is determined. furthermore, emotional intelligence interventions can be implemented. this will empower employees to not easily give up under difficult conditions in the organisation and not to display anger or act in an angry manner when they are under pressure or criticised. limitations firstly, this study was conducted at four of the six municipalities based in the nkangala district. this makes it difficult for one to generalise the results of the study across all the municipalities within the district. secondly, the study used a cross-sectional research design, which gives a once-off snapshot. in addition, because the researchers did not have a sampling frame, the results can be generalised to the population. finally, the study could not measure the relationship (path) amongst the antecedents of positive affect (autonomy, participation, supervisory support, employee performance, etc.) and those of negative affect (well-being and work overload) to affective commitment. conclusion the results from this study can assist municipal managers who intend to improve employees’ affective commitment. consistent with previous research, this study revealed that the predictors and affective commitment were unidimensional. using aet as a theoretical framework, this study revealed that job satisfaction and negative and positive emotions explained 68% of the variance in affective commitment. this shows that these variables play a significant role in enhancing affective commitment and should be taken into consideration. the study showed that some mediations were not significant. for example, it was established that job satisfaction did not mediate the relationship between positive emotions and affective commitment; however, positive emotions were the second greatest predictor of affective commitment. the difference between the effect of job satisfaction and positive emotions as greatest predictors of affective commitment was small. municipal managers should ensure that when they implement human resource management process such as promotions, they are transparent and fair. in addition, managers should ensure that when they give employees feedback on their performance, they should not evoke negative emotions such as anger. in conclusion, when employees are satisfied and happy, they will be affectively committed and offer excellent service to customers. this should lead to municipalities being perceived positively and generate revenue that will make them sustainable. acknowledgements this article is part of thulani bhuti skosana’s doctorate. mjm is the supervisor and tln is the co-supervisor. both supervisors and tbs contributed equally in writing the article. competing interests the author(s) declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions t.b.s., m.j.m. and t.n. contributed to the design and implementation of the research, to the analysis of the results and to the writing of the manuscript. ethical considerations ethical clearance, reference number fcre:2018/fr/07/009-ms02 has been granted by the management science ethics committee. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author (m.m.) upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any organisation that the authors are affiliated with. references abi, e., & jijo, g. (2012). emotional intelligence and job satisfaction: a correlational study. research journal of commerce and behavioural sciences, 1(4), 37–42. adil, a., & kamal, a. (2016). workplace affect as mediator between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction among customer service representatives. journal of behavioural sciences, 26(2), 79–94. adil, a., kamal, a., & atta, m. (2013). mediating role of emotions at work in relation to display rule demands, emotional labor, and job satisfaction. journal of behavioural sciences, 23(3), 35–52. akpinar, a.t., yunus, t., & okur, m.e. (2013). the effect of job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion on affective commitment of emergency services employees. emergency, 7(2), 169–172. babin, b.j., & boles, j.s. (1996). the effects of perceived co-worker involvement and supervisory support on service provider role stress, performance and job satisfaction. journal of retailing, 72(1), 57–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-4359(96)90005-6 basinska, b.a., wiciak, i., & daderman, a.m. (2014). fatigue and burnout in police officers: the mediating role of emotions. policing: an international journal of police strategies & management, 37(3), 665–680. https://doi.org/10.1108/pijpsm-10-2013-0105 benjamin, a. (2012). the influence of affective commitment on citizenship behavior and intention to quit among commercial banks’ employees in nigeria. journal of management and sustainability, 2(2), 54–68. https://doi.org/10.5539/jms.v2n2p54 bizana, n., naude, m.j., & ambe, i.m. (2015). supply chain management as a contributing factor to local government service delivery in south africa. journal of contemporary management, 12, 664–683. brackett, m.a., palomera, b., mojsa-kaja, j., reyes, m.r., & salovey, p. (2010). emotion-regulation ability, burnout, and job satisfaction among british secondary-school teachers. psychology in the schools, 47(4), 406–417. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.20478 bright, l. (2007). does person–organisation fit mediate the relationship between public service motivation and the job performance of public employees? review of public personnel administration, 27(4), 361–379. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f0734371x07307149 brown, s.p., cron, w.a., & leigh, t.w. (1993). do feelings of success mediate sales performance–work attitude relationships? journal of the academy of marketing science, 21, 91–100. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02894420 brunetto, y., farr-wharton, r., & shacklock, k. (2011). the impact of supervisor subordinate relationships on nurses’ ability to solve workplace problems: implications for their commitment to the organisation. in j.a. wolf, h. hanson, m.j. moir, l. friedman, & g.t. savage, g.t. (eds.), organization development in healthcare: conversation on research strategies, 10, (pp. 215–237). emerald. brunetto, y., shacklock, k., teo, s., & farr-wharton, r. (2014). the impact of management on the engagement and well-being of high emotional labour employees. the international journal of human resource management, 25(17), 2345–2363. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.877056 burke, m.j., brief, j.p., george, j.m., roberson, l., & webster, j. (1989). measuring affect at work: confirmatory analyses of competing mood structures with conceptual linkage to cortical regulatory systems. journal of personality and social psychology, 57(6), 1091–1102. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.57.6.1091 bussin, m.h.r., & brigman, n. (2019). evaluation of remuneration preferences of knowledge workers. sa journal of human resource management, 17(0), a1075. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1075 campbell, c.h., mchenry, j.j., & wise, l.l. (1990). modelling job performance in a population of jobs. personnel psychology, 43(2), 313–343. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1990.tb01561.x chen, p., gonyea, r., & kuh, g. (2008). learning at a distance: engaged or not? innovate: journal of online education, 4(3), a3. retrieved from https://nsuworks.nova.edu/innovate/vol4/iss3/3 chimwaso, d.k. (2000, november). an evaluation of cost performance of public projects: case of botswana. paper presented at the 2nd international conference on construction in developing countries of international council for research and innovation in building and construction, november 15–17, gaborone, botswana. coetzee, m., ferreira, n., & potgieter, i. (2019). perceptions of sacrifice, workplace friendship and career concerns as explanatory mechanisms of employees’ organisational commitment. sa journal of human resource management, 17(0), a1033. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1033 dávila, m.c., & garcía, g.j. (2012). organisational identification and commitment: correlates of sense of belonging and affective commitment. the spanish journal of psychology, 15(1), 244–255. https://doi.org/10.5209/rev_sjop.2012.v15.n1.37316 ditlev-simonsen, c.d. (2015). the relationship between norwegian and swedish employees’ perception of corporate social responsibility and affective commitment. business & society, 54(2), 229–253. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f0007650312439534 fazio, j., gong, b., sims, r., & yurova, y. (2017). the role of affective commitment in the relationship between social support and turnover intention. management decision, 55(3), 512–525. https://doi.org/10.1108/md-05-2016-0338 fida, r., paciello, m., tramontano, c., fontaine, r.g., barbaranelli, c., & farnese, m.l. (2015). an integrative approach to understanding counterproductive work behavior: the roles of stressors, negative emotions, and moral disengagement. journal of business ethics, 130, 131–144. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2209-5 field, a. (2018). discovering statistics using ibm spss statistics (5th edn.). london: sage. hair, j.f., hult, g.t., ringle, c.m., & sarstedt, m. (2017). a primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem) (2nd edn.). los angeles: sage. hemdi, m.a., & rahim, a.r.a. (2011). the effect of psychological contract and affective commitment on turnover intentions of hotel managers. international journal of business and social science, 2(23), 76–88. hospel, v., & galand, b. (2016). are both classroom autonomy support and structure equally important for students’ engagement? a multilevel analysis. learning and instruction, 41, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2015.09.001 kanyane, m.h. (2006). municipal skills challenges for accelerated service delivery in south africa. journal of public administration, 41(3), 112–118. kim, h.j. (2008). hotel service providers’ emotional labor: the antecedents and effects on burnout. international journal of hospitality management, 27(2), 151–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2007.07.019 kim, h.j., hur, w., moon, t., & jun, j. (2017). is all support equal? the moderating effects of supervisor, coworker, and organisational support on the link between emotional labor and job performance. business research quarterly, 20(2), 124–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brq.2016.11.002 kokt, d., & palmer, e.p. (2019). strategic priorities for cultivating commitment amongst academic staff: the militating effect of workplace spirituality. sa journal of human resource management, 17(0), a1054. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1054 koma, s.b. (2010). the state of local government in south africa: issues, trends and options. journal of public administration, 5(1.1), 111–120. lee, j., & kim, s. (2011). exploring the role of social networks in affective organisational commitment: network centrality, strength of ties, and structural holes. the american review of public administration, 42(1), 205–223. https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074010373803 lee, j., & peccei, r. (2007). perceived organisational support and affective commitment: the mediating role of organisation-based self-esteem in the context of job insecurity. journal of organisational behavior, 28(6), 661–685. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.431 liou, s. (2008). an analysis of the concept of organisational commitment. nursing forum, 43(3), 116–125. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6198.2008.00103.x locke, e.a. (1976). the nature and causes of job satisfaction. in m.d. dunnette (ed.), handbook of industrial and organisational psychology (pp. 1297–1349). chicago: rand mcnally. mahmood, a., & sahar, a. (2017). impact of psychological empowerment and perceived career support on employee work engagement with the mediating role of affective commitment. pakistan journal of commerce and social sciences (pjcss), 11(3), 1084–1099. mailovich, c. (2019). no quick fix for municipality. business day. 28th june. retrieved n.d., from https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/columnists/2019-06-28-claudi-mailovich-ailing-local-governments-are-a-burden-on-the-state. maleka, m.j. (2016). narratives of employees visiting tshwane mall who earn above and below an estimated living wage. paper presented at gbata conference, 16–20 october. dubai. maleka, m.j., motsima, t., matang, r., & lekgothoane, p. (2016a). comparing residents’ perceptions in townships and suburbs regarding service delivery by municipality under administration. problems and perspectives, 14(4), 6–13. https://doi.org/10.21511/ppm.14(4-1).2016.01 maleka, m.j., mpofu, m., hlatywayo, n., meyer, i., carr, s., & parker, j. (2019). employee engagement, organizational commitment and job satisfaction in namibia, south africa, and zimbabwe: an exploratory study. journal of psychology in africa, 29(4), 393–400. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2019.1647964 maleka, m.j., skosana, t.b., & lekgothoane, j.p. (2016b). work satisfaction of municipality employees while performing duties under the conditions of limited financial resources. public and municipal finance, 5(3), 39–46. https://doi.org/10.21511/pmf.5(3).2016.05 maree, k. (ed.). (2016). first steps in research (2nd edn.). pretoria: van schaik. masombuka, d. (2021). provincial and local government directory: mpumalanga municipalities. retrieved from http://www.nkangaladm.gov.za meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1991). a three-component conceptualization of organisational commitment. human resource management review, 1(1), 61–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/1053-4822(91)90011-z mohsin, a., maira, a., & amit, y. (2015). antecedents of job satisfaction a case study of hospital’s employees of pakistan. international journal of economics, commerce and management, 3, 350–360. morin, a.j.s., meyer, j.p., bélanger, é., boudrias, j.s., gagné, m., & parker, p.d. (2016). longitudinal associations between employees’ beliefs about the quality of the change management process, affective commitment to change and psychological empowerment. human relations, 69(3), 839–867. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f0018726715602046 nicholls, a.r., polman, r.c.j., & levy, a.r. (2012). a path analysis of stress appraisals, emotions, coping, and performance satisfaction among athletes. psychology of sports and exercise, 13(3), 263–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2011.12.003 patterson, m.g., west, m.a., shackleton, v.j., dawson, j.f., lawthom, r., maitlis, s., & robinson, d.l. (2005). validating the organizational climate measure: links to managerial practices, productivity and innovation. journal of organizational behavior, 26(4), 379–408. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.312 ravand, h., & baghei, p. (2016). partial least squares structural equation modeling with r. practical assessment, research & evaluation, 21, 1–16. riggs, m., warka, j., babasa, b., betancourt, r., & hooker, s. (1994). development and validation of self-efficacy and outcome expectancy scales for job-related applications. educational and psychological measurement, 54(3), 793–802. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f0013164494054003026 riley, d. (2006). turnover intentions: the mediation effects of job satisfaction, affective commitment and continuance commitment. unpublished master’s thesis. hamilton: university of waikato. robbins, s.p., & judge, t.a. (2019). organizational behavior. boston: pearson education. roux, n.l. (2005). unrest at the local sphere of government in south africa: unrealistic expectations or the inability to implement policies? strategic review for southern africa, 27(2), 55–84. ryff, c. (1989). happiness is everything, or is it? explorations on the meaning of psychological wellbeing. journal of personality and social psychology, 57(6), 1069–1081. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.57.6.1069 satardien, m., jano, r., & mahembe, b. (2019). the relationship between perceived organisational support, organisational commitment and turnover intention among employees in a selected organisation in the aviation industry. sa journal of human resource management, 17(0), a1123. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1123 skosana, t. (2016). determinants of emotional reaction to job satisfaction in a south african municipality. unpublished master’s dissertation, pretoria, tshwane university of technology. skosana, t., maleka, m., & lekgothoane, p. (2016, september). determinants related to job satisfaction and positive emotion: evidence from a south african municipality. paper presented at the 28th annual conference of the southern african institute of management scientists, 10–12 september. pretoria. skosana, t.b. (2021). two-path framework to determine affective commitment in municipalities in mpumalanga. unpublished doctorate study, pretoria, tshwane university of technology. spector, p.e. (1985). measurement of human service staff satisfaction: development of job satisfaction survey. american journal of community psychology, 13(6). https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00929796 stazyk, e.c., pandey, s.k., & wright, b.e. (2011). understanding affective organisational commitment: the importance of institutional context. the american review of public administration, 41(6), 603–624. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f0275074011398119 steijn, b. (2008). person-environment fit and public service motivation. international public management journal, 11(1), 13–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/10967490801887863 tabachnick, b.g., & fidel, l. (2014). using multivariate statistics (6th edn.). harlow: pearson. tolentino, r.c. (2013). organizational commitment and job performance of the academic and administrative personnel. international journal of information technology and business management, 15(1), 51–59. wegge, j., van dick, r., fisher, g.k., west, m.a., & dawson, j.f. (2006). a test of basic assumptions of affective events theory (aet) in call centre work. british journal of management, 17(3), 237–254. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2006.00489.x williams, r. (2010). does affective commitment decrease the level of stress reported in teachers? a comparison of primary and secondary school teachers. the plymouth student scientist, 3, 142–163. worldatwork. (2017). total rewards management. washington, dc: worldatwork. xanthopoulou, d., bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2012). a diary study on the happy worker: how job resources relate to positive emotions and personal resources. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 21(4), 489–517. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2011.584386 zhao, y., yan, l., & keh, h.t. (2018). the effects of employee behaviours on customer participation in the service encounter: the mediating role of customer emotions. european journal of marketing, 52(5/6), 1203–1222. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejm-10-2016-0559 abstract introduction literature review and hypothesis development research method result and discussion discussion conclusion and recommendation limitations acknowledgements references about the author(s) erlina e. sasmita department of administration business, faculty of administrative sciences, university of brawijaya, malang city, indonesia hamidah nayati utami department of administration business, faculty of administrative sciences, university of brawijaya, malang city, indonesia ika ruhana department of administration business, faculty of administrative sciences, university of brawijaya, malang city, indonesia citation sasmita, e.e., utami, h.n., & ruhana, i. (2023). the mediating effect of job satisfaction and knowledge sharing behaviour on job performance. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2128. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2128 original research the mediating effect of job satisfaction and knowledge sharing behaviour on job performance erlina e. sasmita, hamidah nayati utami, ika ruhana received: 29 sept. 2022; accepted: 14 mar. 2023; published: 12 june 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: almost all companies in the world experienced shocks when the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic occurred. one of the major aviation companies in indonesia, pt angkasa pura, is no exception. research purpose: this study aims to analyse the mediating effect of job satisfaction and knowledge sharing behaviour on the relationship between servant leadership and job performance. motivation for the study: the company experienced many changes during the covid-19 pandemic which could have an impact on job performance, so it is necessary to conduct studies related to the influences that affect job performance. research approach/design and method: the research location is at pt angkasa pura i with a population of all senior manager of pt angkasa pura i. the sampling technique used in this study was saturated sampling and the data is analyzed using a structural equation model (sem) with a total of 114 senior manager were obtained as samples. main findings: the mediating effect of job satisfaction and knowledge sharing behaviour on the relationship between servant leadership and job performance also shows a positive and significant effect. practical/managerial implications: organisations need to maintain various factors that lead to increased employee job performance. the challenges experienced during the pandemic must be used as a lesson for evaluating and getting good job performance for all employees. contribution/value-add: the contribution of this research is a test of knowledge sharing behaviour, servant leadership and job satisfaction on job performance at pt angkasa pura i. keywords: job performance; job satisfaction; knowledge sharing; servant leadership; transportation. introduction the current era of globalisation causes competition in the industrial and business world to be very tight. every organisation wants every employee to have a good performance so that the goals of the organisation can be achieved. the accumulated employee performance is the organisation’s performance. the optimal level of employee performance will result in an optimal level of performance also for the organisation. performance is a result of work achieved by employees in carrying out assigned tasks and based on experience, skills, sincerity and time (hasibuan, 2006). several researchers have revealed the importance of organisational performance in achieving the vision, mission and goals of the organisation. talbot (2010) said that organisational performance is a discussion that never stops to be reviewed. job performance is a benchmark to determine the achievement of goals in the organisation. campbell et al. (1990) stated that job performance is influenced by several factors including declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge and skills and also motivation. motivation has a close relationship with leadership style. the success of leaders in moving members depends on how to create motivation within members, so that organisational goals can be achieved. one method that organisations can do to improve employee job performance is through leadership. an effective leader is determined by his ability to read the situation at hand and adjust his leadership style to suit and be able to meet the demands of the situation at hand so that the organisational goals to be achieved can be realised (prawitasari, 2012). this leadership is needed in various industries, one of which is the aviation industry. the aviation industry in indonesia is the focus that will be discussed in this study. the company that is the main focus is pt angkasa pura i. this company continues to seek opportunities that can strengthen sources of income and the company’s progress amid the challenges of the pandemic. pt angkasa pura i is optimistic to support indonesia’s economic recovery through improving performance and expanding its business portfolio business challenges. during 2021, the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic and its impact will still be a challenge for the aviation industry in the world, including indonesia. this is a challenge in meeting the expectations of the aviation industry to recover and rebound. pt angkasa pura i re-adjusted short-term and long-term business strategies to face the various challenges that exist. human resources is a very important asset and can affect the sustainability of the company’s business. pt angkasa pura i strives to recruit quality human resources by prioritising the principles of openness, equality and fairness. the strategy in conducting recruitment is adjusted to the needs of the company and maximises human resources from local and national communities. pt angkasa pura i has a strategy in building international quality airports starting through the selection of qualified employee candidates to screen individuals who can contribute to advancing the company. the quality and stability of pt angkasa pura i employees in their work are influenced by the opportunity to develop their potential, both technically and non-technically. pt angkasa pura i realises that the development of employee potential must be carried out in a planned and sustainable manner in order to achieve company goals and increase employee potential. the process of developing human resources is achieved by conducting various training programmes that are part of the human capital management system (hcms), which is a system used by management to build employee careers and increase employee participation in advancing the company. based on several theories and empirical facts that have been described, it can be developed as a form of research aimed at looking at the effect of knowledge sharing, servant leadership and job satisfaction on job performance. the research gap in this study is related to the location and object of research, namely the employees of pt angkasa pura, which is the largest aviation company in indonesia. literature review and hypothesis development the grand theory used in this research is theory organisational behaviour, which is a study of what a person does in an organisation and how his behaviour affects organisational performance. and because organizational behaviour (ob) deals specifically with work-related situations, it emphasises behaviour related to issues such as work, absenteeism, job turnover, productivity, performance and management. ob involves the core of motivation, leadership behaviour and power, interpersonal communication, group structure and processes, learning, attitude development and perception, change processes, conflict, job design and job stress. specifically, ob focuses on how to increase productivity, reduce absenteeism, reduce deviant workplace behaviour, improve organisational behaviour status and job satisfaction (robbins & judge, 2013). the variables used in this study are knowledge sharing, servant leadership, job satisfaction and job performance. knowledge sharing enables the exchange of knowledge among employees, thereby contributing to their job performance and organisational profits (lin, 2010). according to lee (2001), knowledge sharing has two indicators, namely explicit knowledge sharing and tacit knowledge sharing. explicit knowledge sharing is knowledge that is in symbolic or written form, while tacit knowledge sharing is knowledge that cannot be expressed in verbal, symbolic and written forms. servant leadership refers to a leadership understanding and practice that places the good of those being led above the self-interest of the leader, emphasizes leadership behaviour that focuses on follower development and does not emphasize leader glorification (hale & fields, 2007). servant leadership is a leadership style that puts the interests of employees first and helps organisations build a positive work environment in which employees develop feelings of commitment to the company (kaya & karatepe, 2020). servant leadership delegates authority to their followers, prioritises their growth and development and makes them aware of the organisation’s expectations (jaramillo et al., 2015). according to liden et al. (2008), servant leadership indicators are emotional healing, empowering, helping followers grow and succeed, behaving ethically, putting followers first, creating value for the community and conceptual network. olson and zanna (1993) stated that job satisfaction is a combination of two separate attitudinal characteristics, the first characteristic focuses on employees’ affective reactions to work, and the second describes the evaluation of employees’ desires from work. locke (1969) suggested that job satisfaction is the result of an employee’s evaluation of job values and the values that the employee actually wants to achieve. luthans (2015) states that there are several indicators of measuring job satisfaction, namely the work itself, wages, promotion opportunities, superiors and co-workers. job performance is a behaviour or activity carried out by employees when working with organisational goals and objectives (borman & motowidlo, 1997). babin and boles (1998) put forward the definition of job performance, which is the level of employee productivity towards his work related to his colleagues and some jobs that are also related to the behaviour and results that are expected to be achieved by the employee. bernardin and beatty (1984) say that indicators of performance include quality, quantity, timeliness, effectiveness and independence. the hypothesis in this study was formed based on previous research by: (1) sheikh et al. (2019); tripathi et al. (2021); and reslan and zanete garanti (2021), which states that servant leadership has a significant influence on job satisfaction; (2) kim and kyeong (2017), which states that servant leadership has a significant influence on job satisfaction; (3) kadarusman and bunyamin (2021), which states that servant leadership has a positive and significant influence on job performance; (4) kucharska and bedford (2019), which states that job satisfaction has a significant influence on knowledge sharing; (5) phuong and vinh (2020), which states that job satisfaction has a positive and significant effect on job performance; and (6) venkatesh et al. (2022), which states that knowledge sharing has a positive and significant effect on job performance. all hypotheses in this study are closely related to the theory of organisational behaviour because they relate to human behaviour in an organisation so that good performance is formed at work. research method this study uses a quantitative approach. quantitative research uses deductive thinking processes in formulating research hypotheses. this research is designed to answer the problems that have been formulated, as well as to achieve the research objectives by involving hypothesis testing to determine the effect of the research variables. the quantitative approach in this study uses a survey method, namely taking samples from the population. the variables in this study are latent variables, measured using a research instrument in the form of a questionnaire. the survey was carried out by giving questionnaires to the respondents. variable measurement is carried out based on operational definitions from experts and previous research. the measurement of servant leadership variables is based on research conducted by liden et al. (2008) with indicators, namely emotional healing, empowering, helping followers grow and succeed, behaving ethically, putting followers first, creating value for the community and conceptual skills. the measurement of the knowledge sharing variable is based on research conducted by lee (2001) with indicators consisting of explicit knowledge sharing and tacit knowledge sharing. the measurement of job satisfaction variables is based on the theory put forward by luthans (2015) regarding organisational behaviour with indicators consisting of the work itself, wages, promotion opportunities, top and colleagues. the measurement of job performance variables is based on research conducted by bernardin and beatty (1984) with indicators consisting of quality, quantity, punctuality, effectiveness and independence. this research was conducted by considering the confidentiality of the respondent’s data. the research was carried out by not forcing the will on the respondents so that an approach was made to the respondents so that they would fill out the questionnaire voluntarily. the researcher guarantees the confidentiality of data by not disseminating any information related to the respondent. all respondents’ answers are only used for the purposes of this research. data analysis was carried out using statistical methods, namely structural equation modeling (sem) using warppls software. this research was conducted at pt angkasa pura by taking primary data, in the form of perceptions or assessments from respondents. in obtaining this data, a survey was conducted by providing questionnaires using google form (online) because this research was conducted during the covid-19 pandemic to pt angkasa pura employees. the sampling technique used in this study was simple random sampling by taking a list of all employees and selecting a sample of employees using a random table. after calculating and generating random numbers, a total of 114 senior managers were obtained as samples. the variables in this study were classified based on exogenous and endogenous variables. exogenous variables are known as source variables or independent variables that are not predicted by other variables in the model. meanwhile, endogenous variables are factors that are predicted by one or several variables (ferdinand, 2002). in this study, there are four variables, namely servant leadership (x1), job satisfaction (y1), knowledge sharing (y2) and job performance (y3) with the model presented in figure 1. figure 2 is the result of the analysis which is then further presented in table 1. figure 1: conceptual model by researchers. figure 2: direct effect. table 1: model measurement. conceptual model of research the research hypotheses were formulated as follows: h1: servant leadership significantly affects knowledge sharing. h2: servant leadership significantly affects job satisfaction. h3: servant leadership significantly affects job performance. h4: job satisfaction significantly affects knowledge sharing. h5: job satisfaction significantly affects job performance. h6: knowledge sharing significantly affects job performance. result and discussion measurement model table 1 shows that all indicators for each variable are significant as indicated by a p-value of less than 0.05 for each indicator on each variable. in this measurement, if the p-value is less than 0.05, it indicates that the corresponding indicator is significant, while the loading factor in this measurement indicates how much the contribution of the indicator forms or influences the variable. the higher the value of the loading factor, the higher the contribution of these indicators in forming variables. vice versa, the smaller loading factor value indicates less contribution of the indicator to the variable formation. in the servant leadership variable, behaving ethically (x1.4) has the greatest influence in influencing servant leadership with a loading factor of 0.566 and an average indicator of 3.72 while the smallest is emotional healing (x1.1) with a loading factor of 0.350 and the average indicator is 3.65. on the job satisfaction variable, co-workers (y1.5) have the greatest influence in influencing job satisfaction with a loading factor of 0.435 and an average indicator of 3.45, while the lowest is the work itself (y1.1) with a loading factor of 0.308 and the average indicator is 3.84. in the knowledge sharing variable, tacit knowledge (y2.2) has the greatest influence with a loading factor of 0.361 and an average indicator of 3.87 with the smallest loading factor, namely tacit knowledge sharing (y2.2) of 0.352 with an average indicator of 3.77. in the job performance variable, quality (y3.1) is the indicator that has the biggest influence on job performance with a loading factor of 0.420 and an average indicator of 3.78, while the lowest is quantity (y3.2) with a loading factor of 0.305 and an average indicator of 3.89. after measuring the research mode for each variable, it is necessary to calculate the goodness of fit for the model in this study. goodness of fit model feasibility test or goodness of fit tests the suitability of a model proposed with the research data. goodness of fit is an index or measure of the goodness of relationships between variables. table 2 summarises the results of the analysis and the recommended values for measuring the feasibility of the model. based on the results of the overall model feasibility testing, all criteria have reached the expected value limit or have met the critical limits of the recommended goodness of fit index. thus, the model proposed in this study can be accepted or it is worth analysing. table 2: goodness of fit. structural equation model analysis structural model test essentially tests the research hypothesis. inner model is a model of relationships between variables. significant influence between one variable on another variable is shown by p-value < 0.05. the result of direct effects in this study is presented in table 3. table 3: structural equation model analysis result. discussion h1: servant leadership significantly affects knowledge sharing the influence of servant leadership on knowledge sharing shows a coefficient of 0.267 with a p-value of 0.005. because the p-value is less than 0.05, and the coefficient shows a positive sign; thus servant leadership has a positive and significant influence on knowledge sharing. in other words, a person’s higher servant leadership will increase their knowledge sharing. so, hypothesis 1 is accepted. the results obtained are supported by research conducted by sheikh et al. (2019); tripathi et al. (2021) and reslan and zanete garanti (2021), which states that servant leadership has a significant influence on job satisfaction. h2: servant leadership significantly affects job satisfaction the influence of servant leadership on job satisfaction shows a coefficient of 0.228 with a p-value of 0.018. because the p-value is less than 0.05, and the coefficient shows a positive sign; therefore servant leadership has a positive and significant influence on job satisfaction. in other words, a person’s higher servant leadership will increase his or her job satisfaction. so, hypothesis 2 is accepted. the results obtained are supported by research conducted by kim and kyeong (2017), which states that servant leadership has a significant influence on job satisfaction. h3: servant leadership significantly affects job performance the influence of servant leadership on job performance shows a coefficient of 0.395 with a p-value of < 0.001. because the p-value shows a number less than 0.05 and the coefficient shows a positive sign, then servant leadership has a positive and significant influence on job performance. in other words, the higher a person’s servant leadership, the higher their job performance. so, hypothesis 3 is accepted. the results obtained are supported by research conducted by kadarusman and bunyamin (2021), which states that servant leadership has a positive and significant influence on job performance. h4: job satisfaction significantly affects knowledge sharing the influence of job satisfaction on knowledge sharing shows a coefficient of 0.301 with a p-value of 0.001. because the p-value is less than 0.05, and the coefficient shows a positive sign, thus job satisfaction has a positive and significant influence on knowledge sharing. in other words, the higher a person’s servant leadership will increase their knowledge sharing. so, hypothesis 4 is accepted. the results obtained are supported by research conducted by kucharska and bedford (2019), which states that job satisfaction has a significant influence on knowledge sharing. h5: job satisfaction significantly affects job performance the effect of job satisfaction on job performance shows a coefficient of 0.317 with a p-value of < 0.001. because the p-value shows a number less than 0.05 and the coefficient shows a positive sign, thus job satisfaction has a positive and significant effect on job performance. in other words, the higher a person’s job satisfaction, the higher their job performance. so, hypothesis 5 is accepted. the results obtained are supported by research conducted by phuong and vinh (2020), which states that job satisfaction has a positive and significant effect on job performance. h6: knowledge sharing significantly affects job performance based on table 3, the effect of knowledge sharing on job performance shows a coefficient of 0.155 with a p-value of 0.001. because the p-value is less than 0.05 and the coefficient shows a positive sign, therefore knowledge sharing has a positive and significant effect on job performance. in other words, the higher a person’s knowledge sharing, the higher their job performance. so, hypothesis 6 is accepted. the results obtained are supported and in accordance with the research conducted by venkatesh et al. (2022), which states that knowledge sharing has a positive and significant effect on job performance. the indirect effect of job satisfaction on servant leadership and job performance can be seen in table 4. based on the given table, it can be defined that servant leadership has a positive and significant effect on job performance with job satisfaction as a mediator. as the p-value < 0.05, it can be proven that h0 is rejected. in other words, job satisfaction is able to mediate servant leadership on job performance as much as 0.269. such results are consistent with the mediation results on the knowledge sharing variable. servant leadership has a positive and significant effect on job performance with knowledge sharing as a mediator. as the p-value is < 0.05, it can be proven that h0 is rejected. in other words, knowledge sharing is able to mediate servant leadership on job performance. table 4: results of estimation and indirect effect test. conclusion and recommendation based on the results of this study, it was concluded that servant leadership has a positive and significant effect on knowledge sharing, job satisfaction and job performance; job performance has a positive and significant effect on knowledge sharing, job satisfaction has a positive and significant effect on job performance, and knowledge sharing has a positive and significant effect on job performance. the mediating effect of job satisfaction and knowledge sharing on the relationship between servant leadership and job performance also shows a positive and significant effect. in other words, all hypotheses in this study are accepted. so the theoretical contribution in this study is to prove each hypothesis in this study in accordance with the theory and previous research. the practical contribution that can be made based on this research is that companies can improve each variable in this study because each hypothesis or influence in this study is significant. this indicates that pt angkasa pura must maintain every quality of knowledge sharing, servant leadership, job satisfaction and job performance of employees in the company so that further research can analyse other sides apart from the variables in this study. besides that, organisations need to maintain various factors that lead to increased employee job performance. the challenges experienced during the pandemic must be used as a lesson for evaluating and getting good job performance for all employees. pt angkasa pura i needs to pay attention to all the influences between variables to maintain the quality of services provided to the community. with good results as in this study, it does not mean the company has stopped innovating. precisely with good results, the company has a duty to improve the quality of service in the field of air transportation by increasing all variables attached to employees. limitations the limitation in this study is that it does not calculate the mediating effect of the job satisfaction variable. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions e.e.s. was responsible for the conceptualiation, formal analysis, methodology, and the writing of the original draft. h.n.u. was responsible for the data curation, project administration, supervision, writing, review and editing. i.r. was responsible for the methodology, supervision, writing, review and editing. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the author, e.s. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references babin, b.j., & boles, j.s. (1998). employee behavior in a service environment: a model and test of potential differences between men and women. journal of marketing, 62(2), 77–91. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299806200206 bernardin, h.j., & beatty, r.w. (1984). performance appraisal: assessing human behavior at work, kent publishing company. borman, w.c., & motowidlo, s.j. (1997). task performance and contextual performance: the meaning for personnel selection research. human performance, 10(2), 99–109. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup1002_3 campbell, j.p., mchenry, j.j., & wise, l.l. (1990). modeling job performance in a population of jobs. personnel psychology, 43(2), 313–575. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1990.tb01561.x ferdinand, a. (2002). structural equation modeling dalam penelitian manajemen. (in indonesian) badan penerbit universitas diponegoro: semarang. hale, j.r., & fields, d.l. (2007). exploring servant leadership across cultures: a study of followers in ghana and the united states. leadership, 3(4), 397–417. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715007082964 hasibuan, m.s.p. (2006). human resource management (rev. ed.). bumi aksara. jaramillo, f., bande, b., & varela, j. (2015). servant leadership and ethics: a dyadic examination of supervisor behaviors and salesperson perceptions. journal of personal selling & sales management, 35(2), 108–124. https://doi.org/10.1080/08853134.2015.1010539 kadarusman, k., & bunyamin, b. (2021). the role of knowledge sharing, trust as mediation on servant leadership and job performance. management science letters, 11(5), 1509–1520. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2020.12.022 kaya, b., & karatepe, o.m. (2020). does servant leadership better explain work engagement, career satisfaction and adaptive performance than authentic leadership? international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 32(6), 2075–2095. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm-05-2019-0438 kim, j.h., & min-kyeong, k.i.m. (2017). the influence of captains’ servant leadership on leader trust, job satisfaction, and job performance in a marine industry. international journal of economic perspectives, 11(2), 490–499. kucharska, w., & bedford, d.a. (2019). knowledge sharing and organizational culture dimensions: does job satisfaction matter?. electronic journal of knowledge management, 17(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3406496 lee, j.n. (2001). the impact of knowledge sharing, organizational capability and partnership quality on is outsourcing success. information & management, 38(5), 323–335. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0378-7206(00)00074-4 liden, r.c., wayne, s.j., zhao, h., & henderson, d. (2008). servant leadership: development of a multidimensional measure and multi-level assessment. leadership quarterly, 19(2), 161–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2008.01.006 lin, c.p. (2010). learning task effectiveness and social interdependence through the mediating mechanisms of sharing and helping: a survey of online knowledge workers. group and organization management, 35(3), 299–328. locke, e.a. (1969). what is job satisfaction? organizational behavior and human performance, 4(4), 309–336. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(69)90013-0 luthans, f. (2015). organizational behavior (10th ed.). alih bahasa: vivin andhika, dkk. andi. olson, j.m., & zanna, m.p. (1993). attitudes and attitude change. annual review of psychology, 44, 117–154. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ps.44.020193.001001 phuong, t.t.k., & vinh, t.t. (2020). job satisfaction, employee loyalty and job performance in the hospitality industry: a moderated model. asian economic and financial review, 10(6), 698–713. https://doi.org/10.18488/journal.aefr.2020.106.698.713 prawitasari, w. (2012). the influence of organizational culture, organizational commitment, and leadership style on local government performance (study on central kalimantan city and provincial governments). doctoral dissertation. universitas brawijaya. reslan, f.y.b. & zanete garanti, o.l.e. (2021). the effect of servant leadership on innovative work behavior and employee knowledge sharing in the latvian ict sector. baltic journal of management, 16(5), 729–744. https://doi.org/10.1108/bjm-09-2020-0321 robbins, s.p., & judge, t.a. (2013). organizational behavior, pearson. sheikh, a.a., ishaq, q.-a., & inam, a. (2019). fostering creativity through servant leadership: mediating role of knowledge sharing, thriving at work and burnout. abasyn journal of social sciences, 12(2), 918–212. https://doi.org/10.34091/ajss.12.2.01 talbot, c. (2010). theories of performance. oxford university press. tripathi, d., priyadarshi, p., kumar, p., & kumar, s. (2021). does servant leadership affect work role performance via knowledge sharing and psychological empowerment? vine journal of information and knowledge management systems, 51(5), 792–812. https://doi.org/10.1108/vjikms-10-2019-0159 venkatesh, v., davis, f.d., & zhu, y. (2022). a cultural contingency model of knowledge sharing and job performance. journal of business research, 140, 202–219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.07.042 144-----5 nov. 2009 [final version].indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #144 (page number not for citation purposes) employee health and wellness in south africa: the role of legislation and management standards authors: charlotte sieberhagen1 sebastiaan rothmann1 jacobus pienaar1 affi liations: 1workwell, research unit for people, policy and performance, north-west university, south africa correspondence to: sebastiaan rothmann e-mail: ian@ianrothmann.com postal address: p o box 8060, swakopmund, namibia, 9000 keywords: standards; workers; wellbeing; legislation; stress dates: received: 12 jul. 2008 accepted: 18 mar. 2009 published: 29 may 2009 how to cite this article: sieberhagen, c., rothmann, s., & pienaar, j. (2009). employee health and wellness in south africa: the role of legislation and management standards. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), art. #144, 9 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.144 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. abstract the aim of this study was to investigate the role that legislation and management standards might play in ensuring occupational health and wellness in south africa. the occupational health and safety act of 1993 determines that an employer must establish and maintain a work environment that is safe and without risk to the health of employees. it seems that there is a lack of guidance in the laws and statutes with regard to dealing with employee health and wellness. a management standards approach, which involves all the role players in the regulation of employee health and wellness, should be implemented. introduction according to world-wide estimates, job-related accidents and illnesses claim more than two million lives annually, while 270 million accidents and 160 million illnesses occur over the same period worldwide. these accidents and illnesses account for 4% of the cost of the global economy of the gross domestic product (gdp) annually. world estimates show that smalland medium-size enterprises account for 90% of those enterprises where poor working conditions are prevalent (south african department of labour, 2004). estimations, which are generally regarded as underestimations, show that 1.1 million deaths occur worldwide because of illnesses or injuries at work. this adds up to 3 000 deaths caused by work-related factors every day (takala, 1998). politicians, policymakers, labour unions and employers need to be convinced of the importance of occupational health and safety (rantanen, lehtinen & savolainen, 2004). this is particularly important in developing countries that also face occupational health and safety hazards but lack the resources to deal with these hazards. according to rantanen et al. (2004), approximately 2.4 billion of the 3.2 billion workers in the world (i.e. 80%) live in developing countries, compared to the 600 million in industrialised countries. however, developing countries produce only 20% of the gdp in the world (compared to 80% of the industrialised countries). occupational accidents and diseases amount to a cost for south africa in the region of 3.5% of the gdp, which translates to about r30 billion per annum (south african department of labour, 2004). a total of 122 889 employees fall victim to accidents or sickness as a direct result of their work, and almost 1% (0.72%, or 884 employees) of these are fatal. the number of man-days lost annually due to sickness is put at over 12 million, with further losses due to labour unrest (workmen’s compensation fund, 1999). the south african government gives occupational health and safety high priority, and advocacy and awareness campaigns as well as inspection blitzes are being carried out regularly (mdladlana, 2007). the south african department of labour listed mining, construction, steel and agriculture as high-risk sectors of employment. employees in these sectors are at a higher risk of getting hurt or being involved in accidents at work. between 1997 and 2006, an average of 173 mine workers died annually in south african gold mines (de beer, 2007). the occupational health and safety act (south africa, 1993b) deals quite well with issues regarding health and safety in the workplace. in terms of the act, safety is defi ned as ‘to keep employees free from hazard’ and health is defi ned as ‘free from illness or injury attributable to occupational causes’. the problem with this defi nition is that it is not clear whether it also refers to psychological illness (e.g. because of occupational stress). legislation might be necessary to ensure that the safety, health and wellness of employees are taken seriously. however, it seems that priorities in industrialised and developing countries differ substantially. according to rantanen et al. (2004), priorities regarding employee health and safety in industrialised countries include stress, the aging workforce, the right to know, informed consent and transparency, work with or exposure to chemicals, ergonomics, allergies, the quality of indoor air, new technologies, management and safety culture, and occupational health services. priorities regarding employee health and safety in developing countries include agriculture, dangerous occupations, the transfer of hazardous technologies, major accidents and fi res, safety, housekeeping and productivity, occupational and work-related diseases, toxic metals and solvents, organic dusts, vulnerable groups, child labour, heat stress and heavy physical work. although some overlap exists (e.g. in terms of exposure to toxic metals and exposure to chemicals), it is clear that employee safety, health and wellness are given higher priority in industrialised countries as compared to developing countries. health and safety aspects are covered by occupational health and safety legislation, but legislation regarding employee wellness still lacks to a large extent. psychosocial stressors seem to be a priority in industrialised countries, while issues such as dangerous occupations and heavy physical work are important focus areas in developing countries. wynne and rafferty (1999) point out that psychosocial stressors at work were traditionally regarded as unimportant and even a taboo subject in europe and the united states of america. this resulted in a lack of consideration of the effect of psychological stressors on employees. furthermore, the trend in organisations was to treat psychosocial stressors as an individual problem to be managed by enhancing the coping skills of the individual employee. in other words, a worker-orientated approach prevails, for instance by improving the skills of employees to manage, resist or reduce stress, as opposed to 18vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 9 original research sieberhagen, rothmann & pienaar sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 14 4 (page number not for citation purposes) 19 a jobor organisational-oriented approach, for instance by job redesign or in some way transforming the incapacitating corporate culture or management style (taris, kompier, geurts, schreurs & schaufeli, 2003). there have been a number of developments in recent years that have begun to lead a change in approach to dealing with wellness in the workplace (wynne & rafferty, 1999). in the first place, occupational stress has begun to lose its taboo status and its previous association with mental illness in the public mind. popular media, conferences, newspaper articles and television programmes deal with wellbeing or employee wellness in an open manner. secondly, medical practitioners have begun to use the terms ‘stress’ and/or ‘burnout’ as a reason for absence from work. thirdly, the growing exposure of society to the issue has led to the issue being talked about in the workplace. definition of terms the world health organization (who) defines health as ‘a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being and not just the absence of disease’ (world health organization, 2002, p. 2). since 1950, the international labour organization (ilo) and the who have shared a common definition of occupational health. the definition reads: occupational health should aim at: the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations; the prevention amongst workers of departures from health caused by their working conditions; the protection of workers, in their employment situation, from risks resulting from factors adverse to health; the placing and maintenance of the worker in an occupational environment adapted to his physiological and psychological needs and capabilities; and, to summarize, the adaptation of work to man and of each man to his job. (stellman, 1998, p. 28) although this definition of health includes physical and psychological dimensions, legislation is interpreted to focus on physical health (e.g. the prevention and management of occupational diseases) rather than psychological health (e.g. the prevention and management of stress and depression). nonetheless, the ilo and the who are committed to primary prevention means and are of the opinion that intensive actions for better work environments are required in virtually every country (goldstein, helmer & fingerhut, 2001). criteria and actions need to be considered for the planning and design of healthy and safe work environments that are conducive to physical, psychological and social wellbeing (goldstein et al., 2001). wellness can be defined as the experience of optimal health, good relationships with others, being emotionally and cognitively well stimulated and experiencing significance and purpose in life (els, 2005). a person who is in a state of wellness can therefore maximise his or her potential. rothmann and rothmann (2006) define employee health and wellness as a state in which employees are energetic, motivated, healthy, productive and committed to the organisation and its goals. in studying employee health and wellness, various paradigms can be used. strümpfer (1995) refers to three paradigms that could be relevant for studying employee health and wellness. they are the pathogenic paradigm (which focuses on the origins of illness), the salutogenic paradigm (which focuses on the origins of health) and the fortigenic paradigm (which focuses on the origins of strength). the salutogenic and fortigenic paradigms are part of the positive psychology movement (seligman, 2002). seligman and csikszentmihalyi (2000, p. 5) suggest that the purpose of positive psychology is ‘to begin to catalyse a change in the focus of psychology from preoccupation only with repairing the worst things in life to also building positive qualities’. applied to the work context, luthans (2002) recommends that positive organisational behaviour be researched and practiced. in positive organisational behaviour positive-oriented human resource strengths and psychological capacities are the focus of study and intervention. nelson and simmons (2003) suggest that work stress should be viewed from a more holistic perspective, incorporating ‘eustress’. eustress is associated with the positive effects of the stress response. in line with the assumptions of the pathogenic paradigm, the traditional focus of research and practice regarding employee health and wellness was illness, distress, dissatisfaction and unhappiness (nelson & simmons, 2003). however, research and practice in employee health and wellness should also focus on the origins of health and strength (strümpfer, 1995). therefore, the focus of employee health and wellness should not only be on the factors in the workplace that affect employees negatively (e.g. stress and strain), but also on how to promote the positive aspects of employee health and wellness (e.g. good supervisory relationships, collegial support, growth opportunities and adequate job resources). importance of health and wellness in organisations studies in the united kingdom (uk) showed that stress and stress-related illness were second only to musculoskeletal disorders as the major cause of occupational ill-health (jones & hodgson, 1998). stress resulted in 6.5 million working days lost to industry and commerce in the uk, accompanied by a financial burden to the economy of £3.7 billion per annum. in a 1997 survey in the netherlands, 58% of dutch employees indicated their pace of work to be ‘high’ more than 50% of the time, compared to a european average of 42%. work disability rates in the netherlands are twice as high as in other european countries. one-third of the disability benefit recipients are assessed to be disabled for work on mental health grounds (lourijsen, houtman, kompier & gründemann, 1999). in 1998, mental health disorders in the netherlands were the largest diagnostic group for work incapacitation (32%), followed by musculoskeletal disorders. inspection revealed that 80% of the mental health cases did not suffer from major psychopathology (e.g. psychosis, neurosis or personality disorder), but from adjustment disorders (including job stress and burnout). specific problem areas include physical workload, mental workload, general working conditions, unfavourable social climate and low payment. 12% of the workers’ days of absence were because of mental or psychological disorders, with a sickness absence rate of 5.6% amounting to $25 billion in 1995, which is about 8% of the dutch gdp. however, productivity was also higher in the netherlands than in other european countries. poor health is an outcome of stress, which can be used to ascertain whether workplace pressures have positive and motivating (salutogenic) or negative and damaging (pathogenic) effects. however, poor health may not necessarily be indicative of workplace stress. individuals may, for example, be unwell because they choose not to live a healthy lifestyle or may be unaware of how to do so (cartwright & cooper, 2002). the experience of high levels of stress may lead to feelings of anger, anxiety, depression, nervousness, irritability, tension and boredom. the negative effects of stress on the individual may lead to poorer job performance and motivation, lower creativity, a reduced quality of social relations and overall diminished individual effectiveness (schabracq, winnubst & cooper, 2003). effects directly related to job stress that may influence the organisation include low production and increased production errors, increased accidents, high labour turnover, increased absenteeism and increased medical costs. low production, high production errors and accidents, high labour turnover, increased absenteeism and high medical costs can all be considered symptomatic of the experience of workplace stress. statistics confirm that at any given time onefourth of south africa’s workforce is affected by problems that vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 9 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #144 (page number not for citation purposes) the role of legislation and management standards 20 contribute to a deterioration in performance at work, and that south africa’s workforce productivity is ranked 31st out of 45 counties (noemdoe, 2002). in 1996, the cost of injuries at work in south africa amounted to r4.7 billion a year (noemdoe, 2002). also, south african employees are generally unhealthy, due to unhealthy living conditions in squatter camps and unhealthy lifestyles and diets due to their economic circumstances (mead, 1998). furthermore, almost one-quarter of the economically active population is hiv positive, which contributes to high labour turnover rates and lower worker productivity and constitutes an increased burden on employee benefit programmes (the south african institute of international affairs, 2004). in south africa, it is estimated that 6.3 days per employee per annum are lost to unapproved absences from work (vaida, 2005). about 4.5% of the south african workforce are absent on any given day, although the absenteeism rate is sometimes as high as 18% in some south african organisations (vaida, 2005). south africa’s population is estimated at 47.9 million people. africans make up 80% of the population at nearly 38.1 million. kwazulu-natal has the largest share of the population (approximately 21%), followed by gauteng (20%). 51% (approximately 24.3 million) of the population are female (statistics south africa, 2007). the economically active population for all race groups is estimated at 16 million. most people employed by the formal sector work within community, social and personal services, wholesale or manufacturing (perold & jooste, 2006). stress is regarded as a serious occupational risk in south africa (barkhuizen & rothmann, 2004; pienaar & rothmann, 2005; rothmann, 2005; temkin, 2004). the ten most general claims accepted by medical schemes are for the treatment of stressrelated illnesses (i.e. high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, depression, menopause, type 1 diabetes, epilepsy, type 2 diabetes, ischaemic heart diseases and gastro-oesophageal reflux). furthermore, 75% of the visits to primary health care facilities are stress-related (van der merwe, 2005). however, a strong pathogenic approach still exists in that it is managed as a cause of illness and the positive effects of job stress are not explored. rothmann (2005) analysed occupational stressors in 14 different occupations in south africa and concluded that stress levels are high in workers in some occupations, especially in the health sector (such as hospital pharmacists, nurses and emergency workers), correctional officers, university educators, call centre operators and police officers. inadequate salaries, colleagues not doing their work, poorly motivated co-workers and insufficient staff were severe stressors identified across many occupations. statistics show that an average of 10 000 police officers in south africa are absent from work daily because of high levels of occupational stress (pienaar & rothmann, 2005). educators (specifically in secondary schools) in south africa also seem to experience high levels of stress. 20% of the educators in gauteng are absent for more than 10 days per year (naidu, 2005). executives in south africa also experience high stress levels. their stress levels are fuelled by the exchange rate volatility, commodity prices, fluctuating interest rates, changing legislation and empowerment charters (temkin, 2004). occupational stress could be a serious threat to employees, organisations and to south africa as a country. research has indicated the negative effect of stress on the health and wellness of employees, and therefore this can also influence organisations negatively. organisations can feel the impact of stress in increased absenteeism, higher staff turnover and lower productivity of employees, which will ultimately influence the organisation’s bottom-line. these effects can also have an adverse impact on the economic growth of south africa through lower productivity and increased numbers of employees who are incapable or unwilling to work. regulating employee health and wellness there are different role players that can participate in efforts to ensure the health and wellness of employees. the four major role players can include the employee, by means of the things he or she does to keep himor herself well (cartwright & cooper, 2002); labour/trade unions (cousins et al., 2004) through negotiating health and wellness issues of their employees on their behalf with their employers; management of organisations by means of the implementation of employee health and wellness or assistance programmes; and the national government, by means of the laws and national strategy it imposes. legislation could play an important role in governing employee health and wellness, but that would only involve national government as a role player and might be bureaucratic. an alternative might be to involve all the role players in the development of management standards to ensure the health and wellness of employees. however, the government can have a large influence by imposing legislation that promotes and protects employee health and wellness and by providing the infrastructure to support a management standards approach. according to kompier and schaufeli (2001), an active government policy towards job stress may prevent it from remaining a mere taboo subject, and may put it on political and company agendas. modern working conditions legislation should not only address traditional health and safety issues, but also psychosocial work characteristics (e.g. job content and social relations at work). from the point of view of the modern worker such legislation is crucial. legislation and corresponding national working conditions administrative infrastructure (occupational health and safety services) are important to stimulate organisations to take action. special attention should be given to smalland medium-sized companies that often lack special expertise for risk assessment and prevention (kompier & schaufeli, 2001). the aim of this study was to investigate the role that legislation and management standards might play to ensure occupational health and wellness, and to make recommendations regarding a national strategy in order to promote employee health and wellness in south african organisations. research design research approach a review of the business, organisational psychology and health sciences literature about health and wellness legislation (applicable to work) was performed. research method the electronic databases for psychology (psycinfo), ebscohost, sciencedirect, emerald, isi web of knowledge and saepublications were systematically searched prior to more detailed searches. keywords used in the literature searches included occupational health, wellness, occupational stress, legislation and standards. reference lists of articles and books were reviewed for additional publications that may not have been indexed properly and not found via electronic searches. internet searches of health and safety organisations (e.g. www. hse.gov.uk, www.tno.nl) and government websites (www. labour.gov.za) were also performed. the sample consisted of documents, acts, book chapters and peer-reviewed articles published from 1994 to 2008. the selection criteria for this review include those sources and studies that a) were written in english or afrikaans, and b) examined legislation and health and wellness regulation in europe and in developing countries (including south africa). nearly 200 sources were reviewed, of which 34 are referenced in this article. vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 9 original research sieberhagen, rothmann & pienaar sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 14 4 (page number not for citation purposes) 21 results next, trends in legislation in the literature were analysed, followed by a review of relevant south african legislation and a description of the management standards approach. international trends regarding health and wellness legislation in europe, three developments in the early 1990s gave rise to an increased need for practical ways for managers to prevent stress and manage work wellness, namely an increasing incidence of occupational stress, requirements of european and national legislation and an increase of employee litigation (geurts & gründemann, 1999). in 1989, the european commission published its ‘framework directive on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work’ (geurts & gründemann, 1999). these requirements had to be made into laws in each of the member states of the european union. the directive required employers to avoid risks, to evaluate the risks that cannot be avoided, to combat risks at their source, to keep themselves informed of the latest advances in technology and scientific findings concerning workplace design, and to consult workers and their representatives and allow them to take part in the discussions on all questions relating to safety and health at work. employers were required to be in possession of an assessment of the risks to safety and health at work and decide on the protective measures to be taken (kompier & cooper, 1999). although various european countries implemented legislation to regulate employee health and wellness, the practices in the uk, the netherlands, denmark, finland and germany will be considered below. united kingdom. in the uk, provisions were catered for in the health and safety at work act (1974) and management of health and safety at work regulations (1992). these laws made risk assessment and management essential. an important court ruling was in the case of john walker, a social services manager (walker versus northumberland county council). walker lodged a case against his former employers for failure to prevent him from trying to cope with a health-endangering workload. although there were reports on out-of-court settlements regarding stress claims in the uk, the walker case was the first of its kind to come before a uk court (whatmore, cartwright & cooper, 1999). the court ruled in favour of the plaintiff and stated that there is no reason why psychological damage should be excluded from the scope of an employer’s duty of care. the court held that employers had a duty not to cause their employees psychiatric damage by giving too much work and/or insufficient backup support. the general principle is that an employer is usually entitled to assume that the employee can withstand the pressures of the job. however, if it is reasonably foreseeable that there is a risk of injury (which must be a clinically recognisable condition) due to stress at work, then the employer owes the employee a positive duty to make the working environment less stressful (hawson, 2003). the netherlands. in the netherlands, work stress has become an important policy issue and provisions were catered for in the working condition act (wca) of 1990 (lourijsen et al., 1999). the wca goes beyond merely protecting employee health and safety by promoting their wellbeing within the organisation. the wca states that the workplace, working methods, tools, machines and the work content should be in accordance with the personal characteristics of employees, and that monotonous and repetitive work should be avoided. it is believed that an active policy of employers to foster safety, health, and wellbeing must be based on a thorough written and regularly conducted inventory and assessment of all work-related risks, including psychosocial risks. risk inventory and assessment should include a plan of action to reduce risks and be sent to the occupational health and safety services (ohsss) for approval. employers should engage experts from the oshhs to assist in carrying out risk assessments and develop a plan of action, and they need to give social-medical guidance to sick employees and carry out periodical medical examinations. the wca is administered by the labour inspectorate, which can fine employers or prosecute them criminally. compliance is encouraged by providing information and disseminating knowledge, by granting the development of instruments for assessing psychosocial risks and by stimulating preventative programs. ohsss are independent commercial enterprises that operate in the private market by selling their services to companies. in 1998, 95% of dutch companies had a contract with an ohss (lourijsen et al., 1999). denmark. in denmark the working environment act of 1975 lays down the functions and responsibilities of the institutions, authorities and persons responsible for the working environment in all sectors except domestic work and the armed forces. the act makes it compulsory for work to be conducted in such a way that employees’ health and safety are protected. its objective is to ensure that working conditions are such that workers will not be subjected to accident or disease and/or to physical and psychological problems (netterstrǿm, 1999). in denmark, psychosocial risk factors are divided into two categories, depending on their cause. the first category comprises psychosocial problems arising from management’s general decisions concerning the enterprise, the interaction between management, the employees and their representatives, the interaction between employees themselves, or factors arising from external circumstances (e.g. pay, promotion, training, job uncertainty, harassment and bullying). the second category comprises psychosocial problems that are directly or indirectly related to work methods, products used or the physical framework for performance (e.g. organisation of the workplace, noise, repetitive work, risk of violence, solitary work and human service work) (netterstrǿm, 1999). finland. the finnish occupational health care act of 1978 specifies that all employers are obliged to organise occupational health services for their employees, that such services must be available for the self-employed, that prevention be emphasised and that sufficient staff should be available for the service system (kalimo & toppinen, 1999). according to the act and the lower level statutes, working conditions, including work organisation and psychosocial factors, have to be monitored systematically. the statutes stipulate that occupational health professionals must participate in regular training. the targets of occupational health care cover the prevention of risks, a healthy and safe working environment, a well-functioning work organisation, the prevention of work-related diseases and the maintenance and improvement of the individual’s ability to work. furthermore, the occupational safety act of 1987 states that employers have to ensure that work is not harmful to the (physical and mental) health of employees. it stipulates that employers should take into account the mental wellbeing of the employee when planning the work and work conditions. furthermore, the employee’s psychological resources have to be taken into account in adjusting the work and work methods to suit the worker. training and guidance in risk prevention must be given. germany. the german industrial relations system is characterised by cooperative conflict solution mechanisms based on societal and industrial consensus. safety and health are affected by the national labour law and by social security law (beermann, kuhn & kompier, 1999). those who can contribute to reducing the risks of accidents and hazards to health are obliged to cooperate, viz. employers, work councils as representatives of employees, work safety experts, company doctors and health and safety committees. the employer is responsible for implementing health and safety measures to protect employees through early prevention and the informing and instructing of employees. work councils have a duty to monitor inadequacies in preventive measures, organise work, co-determine the health and safety measures to be carried out, provide assistance regarding safety and health and ensure the right to information vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 9 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #144 (page number not for citation purposes) the role of legislation and management standards 22 and participation. work and safety experts and company doctors advise the employer and other persons responsible for health and safety, check safety aspects before they are introduced and see that health and safety measures are carried out. however, beermann et al. (1999) point out that most german employers still think of occupational stress as a personal issue rather than a work-related issue. in european countries, stress prevention directives have clearly been added to the laws on working conditions (kompier, de gier, smulders & draaisma, 1994). it seems that in european countries that have such a statutory framework, corporate initiatives are implemented to prevent stress. in south african labour law, statutory modifications of the common law were effected by imposing minimum conditions of employment for employees, promoting equal opportunities for races and genders, promoting collective bargaining and developing specialist tribunals to create equitable principles for the workplace (grogan, 2005). south african labour legislation the main employment-related statutes in south africa that influence employee’s health and wellness by protecting them include the constitution of the republic of south africa, the occupational health and safety act, the labour relations act, the basic conditions of employment act, the compensation for occupational diseases and injuries act, the unemployment insurance act, the employment equity act and the skills development act. the constitution of the republic of south africa (south africa, 1996) (section 23) can have implications for the health and wellness of south african employees. the constitution states that: everyone has the right to fair labour practices; every worker has the right to form and join a trade union, to participate in the activities and programs of a trade union, and to strike; every employer has the right to form an employer’s organization and to participate in the activities thereof and every trade union, employer’s organization and employer has the right to engage in collective bargaining. (grogan, 2005, p. 129) therefore, every south african employee has the right to be protected from unfair labour practices. the occupational health and safety act (no. 85 of 1993) (south africa, 1993b) applies to all employers, with the exception of miners, owners of certain shipping vessels, those exempted by the minister and temporary employment services. it establishes a council to advise the minister on occupational health and safety. this act imposes a general duty on employers to provide a reasonably safe and healthy working environment, to provide information, training and supervision as is necessary to ensure health and safety and to report to an inspector any incident in which an employee dies or is injured or when dangerous situations arise. employees are obliged to obey health and safety rules and to report unsafe or unhealthy situations or incidents to employers or health and safety representatives. employers with more than 20 employees must, after consultation with employees or their representatives, appoint one or more full-time employee as health and safety representative, and employers are obliged to provide training and facilities to these representatives. employers with more than one safety representative must establish health and safety committees, with which they are obliged to consult on health and safety issues. inspectors are empowered to enter the premises of employers and examine compliance with the act (grogan, 2005). under this act special mention is made regarding facilities regulation. facilities regulations make provision for the following in the workplace: sanitation facilities, facilities for safekeeping, changing rooms, signs for prohibition of smoking, eating and drinking in certain workplaces, dining rooms, drinking water, conditions of rooms and facilities and offences and penalties (grogan, 2005). this ensures minimum standards regarding issues that might affect the health of employees at work, and thereby employee health and wellness. the labour relations act (no. 66 of 1995) (south africa, 1995) aims to encourage collective bargaining and the settlement of disputes by enhancing powers of forums designed to facilitate these objectives. it contains specific rules and rights on contravention or infringement, which fall under the auspices of either the commission for conciliation, mediation and arbitration (ccma), accredited bargaining councils or a specialised labour court. a commissioner, bargaining council or labour court refers disputes not settled by conciliation to arbitration. furthermore, employers have to consult with workplace forums on a regular basis (grogan, 2005). therefore, the act ensures that employees’ voices can be heard and that employee health and wellness issues can be addressed though workplace forums that employers have to consult. the basic conditions of employment act (no. 75 of 1997) (south africa, 1997a) ensures that working hours do not exceed certain maxima, that employees are granted adequate breaks during the working day, that they are given prescribed annual and sick leave and that they are paid a premium for overtime and work on sundays and public holidays. it requires employers to maintain records and to provide the means by which rates of pay and working hours are to be calculated. the act also regulates the minimum notice that must be given on termination of the contract. furthermore, it creates an employment conditions commission that advises the minister and labour inspectorate to mediate disputes arising under the act (grogan, 2005). this act protects the health and wellness of employees through strict rules that ensure rest periods for employees, adequate leave and overtime pay. code of good practice: working time: the objective of this code is to provide information and guidelines to employers and employees concerning the arrangement of working time and the impact of working time on the health, safety and family responsibilities of employees. this code governs the regulation of working time through section 7 of the basic conditions of employment act and requires employers to regulate the working time of each employee – with due regard to the health and safety of employees. this code is of particular significance for employees who perform shift work or regular night work. the regulation of working time is closely connected to the protection and promotion of the health and safety of employees. employers must conduct a risk assessment regarding the effects of night and shift work on employees, implement appropriate measures to eliminate or control hazards identified in the risk assessment and train and supply information to employees about the risks to their health and safety and the measures taken to control such risks. employers who engage employees to perform regular night work must ensure that the employees are informed of the health and safety hazards associated with the work that they will be expected to perform (department of labour, 2008). the compensation for occupational diseases and injuries act (no. 130 of 1993) (south africa, 1993a) ensures that employees or their dependants who have suffered injury, illness or death arising from the execution of their work are compensated. this act excludes soldiers, police officers, domestic workers and contract workers. it specifies that compensation is payable only if the accident that caused the injury, illness or death occurred within the scope of the employee’s employment and was not predictable. no payments in respect of temporary disabilities of three days or less, those resulting from wilful misconduct by employees or non-physical damages like pain and suffering (grogan, 2005) are catered for. this act influences health and wellness of employees in that it ensures compensation for employees whose health was negatively affected while performing their work. vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 9 original research sieberhagen, rothmann & pienaar sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 14 4 (page number not for citation purposes) 23 the unemployment insurance act (no. 30 of 1966) (south africa, 1966) provides for payment of benefits to employees who have lost their employment through pregnancy or other circumstances beyond their control. the act only applies if the claimant has been in employment previously and is seeking and willing to accept work, or is unable to find work because of a scheduled illness (grogan, 2005). this act can influence the health and wellness of women in that it ensures income while they are on maternity leave. the basic conditions of employment act only stipulates that women should receive four months’ maternity leave, but the maternity leave does need not be paid leave. in view of the current economic situation the unemployment insurance act reduces stress for women, who otherwise would have had to cope without an income for the stipulated four-month period. the skills development act (act 56 of 1997) (south africa, 1997b) establishes a national skills authority, sector education and training authorities (setas) and skills development planning units (grogan, 2005). this act influences the health and wellness of employees in that it promotes the development of skills levels of employees. increased skills levels can reduce stress because employees who previously lacked skills will feel more confident and experience less job stress than when they had to perform jobs for which they did not have the necessary competencies. employees’ duties: workers must take reasonable precautions to ensure their own health, wellness and safety at work. they must follow any precautions and rules concerning safety and health (department of labour, 2008). they must report any unsafe circumstances or an accident to the safety representative as soon as possible. anyone who acts in a reckless way or damages any safety equipment can be charged. also, if the worker does this damage on purpose, then the employer can claim damages from him or her (grogan, 2005). this indicates that although organisations should take responsibility for the health and wellness of their employees, the individuals must take some responsibility themselves to ensure their own and their colleagues’ health and wellness. currently employee health and wellness is not explicitly covered by legislation in south africa. many organisations still lack policies regarding employee health and wellness. the role of management standards in managing employee health and wellness cousins et al. (2004) argue that it is critical that stress related to work must be risk assessed and managed like any other hazard. legislation is not the only way through which health and wellness issues of employees in south africa can be addressed – another possibility can be the introduction of management standards for employee health and wellness. where government enforces legislation, the use of management standards is more self-regulatory. the term ‘management standard’ refers to a set of principles agreed on by organisations in consensus in order to enhance health and wellness by identifying work-related stress hazards and reducing associated risks. although a management standard does not necessarily impose obligations of adherence, it is important that a management standard regarding work-related stress and the influence on employee health and wellness in south africa be developed. by using the management standards approach, all the role players can be involved in the governance of employee health and wellness. the role players can agree on the standards to be used by organisations to measure themselves against the management standard and ‘states to be achieved’ (cousins et al., 2004, p. 121). the different role players in employee health and wellness should all be involved in the development of policy to govern or regulate employee health and wellness on organisational level. a fine example of the development and use of management standards to manage work-related stress can be found in the uk in the form of the uk health and safety executive (hse) management standards (mackay, cousins, kelly, lee & mccaig, 2004). these standards are designed to help simplify risk assessment for stress, to encourage employers, employees and their representatives to work in partnership to address work-related stress throughout the organisation and to provide a yardstick by which organisations can gauge their performance in tackling the key causes of stress. the uk health and safety executive (hse) (2001) have identified six stressors that may negatively influence employee wellness, viz. job demands, control over work, support, relationships at work, role in the organisation and change in the organisation (cousins et al., 2004). management standards include targets for organisations to aim towards or ‘states to be achieved’ (cousins et al., 2004, p. 121). one standard is identified for each risk factor. job demands, for example, covers workload, work patterns and the work environment. the standard includes guidance on what should be happening in the organisation if the standard is being achieved. the target for demands is then achieved if 85% of employees can cope with the demands of their jobs (cousins et al., 2004). as for the other stressors, control over work refers to how much say employees have in the way they do their work; support refers to encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues; relationships at work refers to promoting positive working attitudes to avoid conflict and dealing with unacceptable behaviour; role in the organisation refers to whether employees understand their role in the organisation and whether the organisation ensures that employees do not have conflicting roles; and change refers to how organisational change is managed an communicated in the organisation. management standards have the following implications for employers (cousins et al., 2004). employers will have to: • assess the risk for and potential causes of stress within the organisation, e.g. by looking at sickness absence patterns and conducting surveys; • use the information to assess the organisation’s performance in relation to the six factors; and • decide on improvement targets and action steps in conjunction with staff or their representatives. discussion the aim of this study was to investigate the role that legislation and management standards might play to ensure occupational health and wellness in south african organisations. it seems that the south african labour law is not clear on the definition of occupational health and still favours physical health. employee wellness is also not defined within south african labour law. the law is clear in defining health and safety and in paying attention to health and safety. while inadequate safety measures usually have an immediate effect, inadequate attention to psychological health may take considerable time before it manifests as an occupational disease. the south african labour relations framework provides a mechanism for employee health interventions. however, there is a lack of guidance in the case law and statutes with regard to dealing with psychological stress. employers have to identify work activities that will expose employees to physical and psychological risks, but currently little is done in terms of risk analysis and occupational stress interventions. south africa needs a national strategy to deal with physical and psychological risks at work that influence the health and wellness of employees. the occupational health and safety act requires an employer to provide and maintain a healthy working environment by providing safe systems of work, plants and machinery; taking reasonable steps to eliminate or mitigate potential hazards; making arrangements for ensuring safety when working with or vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 9 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #144 (page number not for citation purposes) the role of legislation and management standards 24 transporting articles or substances; and establishing the health and safety hazards attached to work performed. the act further requires employers to implement and provide precautionary measures in order to protect employees; provide the necessary information, training and supervision; and to not permit employees to do any work unless the precautionary measures have been taken. although the act provides for precautions to prevent the negative effects on employee’s health, the act does not explicitly prescribe any prohibiting of factors that might influence the wellness of employees. to comply with the occupational health and safety act, employers will need to identify the health and safety hazards (including chemical, physical, radiation, biological, ergonomical and psychosocial hazards) in their specific workplace, measure these and control exposure to them. work activities might expose employees to physical (e.g. working on a scaffold or working in confined spaces) and psychological (being subjected to numerous deadlines and office politics) risks. employers must ensure that workers are informed and understand the health and safety hazards of work or risks associated with these hazards. implicit within the south african labour relations practice is the understanding that every manager is expected to demonstrate skills in performance management through coaching and support. however, it seems that there is a lack of guidance in the case law and statutes with regard to dealing with psychological stress – analysis of cases show that while there are cases of illhealth and injury because of work, only physical symptoms of ill-health are normally attended to. it is important that south african labour legislation be modernised in order to address not only traditional health and safety issues but also psychosocial work characteristics (roles, demands and relationships at work). it is important that risk assessment regarding psychosocial issues at work be conducted and that special attention be given to smalland medium-sized companies that often lack special expertise for risk assessment and risk prevention. it is important for national government to set up the necessary legislation and administrative infrastructure in order to stimulate organisations to take action regarding psychosocial issues that are affecting their employees’ health and wellness. there is proof of the symptomatic experience of workplace stress by south african employees, and this is affecting their health and wellness. organisations experience the symptoms through unapproved absences from work (vaida, 2005), low productivity (noemdoe, 2002) and high labour turnover rates (the south african institute of international affairs, 2004). there is ample guidance in the literature on how to manage the outcomes of stress and proof of its effect on the health and wellness of employees. the best practices and examples regarding stress legislation can be taken from a number of european countries such as the uk, ireland, belgium, the netherlands and sweden. the uk’s hse provides clear guidelines on how to address stress and psychosocial issues at work. to manage health and wellness risks, it is essential for employers to conduct a risk assessment. this requires that they identify hazards and assess the risks that they pose to the health and safety of employees. the results of this risk assessment must be recorded. employers must implement appropriate measures to eliminate or control hazards identified in the risk assessment. furthermore, they must provide training and supply information to employees about the risks to their health and safety and the measures taken to control such risks. elected worker health and safety representatives and committees are entitled to participate in the risk assessment and control of hazards. the employee health and wellness practitioner plays an important coordinating role in the occupational health, safety and wellness system, and also monitors the level of legal compliance in organisations. it is important that guidelines should be provided to employee health and wellness practitioners regarding employee health and wellness management and compliance in order to optimise employee health and wellness in their organisations. employees are obliged to obey health and safety rules and to report unsafe or unhealthy situations or incidents to employers or health and safety representatives. they must take care of their own health, wellness and safety and those of others who might be affected by their behaviour. furthermore, they should cooperate with the employer where the act imposes such a duty, give information to an inspector from the department of labour if required, wear the prescribed clothing and use the prescribed safety equipment and report unsafe or unhealthy conditions to the employer or the health and safety representative. currently the labour relations act (no. 66 of 1995) (south africa, 1995) aims to encourage collective bargaining and the settlement of disputes by enhancing powers of forums designed to facilitate these objectives. therefore, the act ensures that employees’ voices can be addressed through workplace forums that employers have to consult. this act can play a major role in the management standards approach to employee health and wellness in that it will encourage role players to negotiate issues regarding employee health and wellness. recommendations south africa can learn from the european approach to health and safety that encourages primary prevention by giving priority to collective protective measures over individual protective measures (mackay et al., 2004). the situation in south africa is unique, but note can be taken of best practices in other countries. however, the challenge lies in finding our own solution to problems that affect the health and wellness of south african employees. a national strategy needs to be developed that addresses the factors that influence employee health, wellness and safety in south african organisations. although organisations can play a major role in addressing work-related issues, government should play a role in other factors such as primary health care and living conditions of citizens. labour legislation in south africa provides a framework for addressing employee health and wellness. it is recommended that legislation should only play a role in the interim to govern employee health and wellness. legislation is bureaucratic in nature in that it is governed one-sidedly by only one role player in employee health and wellness: the national government. alternatively, control measures (management standards) can be used for practical workplace action. the management standards approach is more self-governed, and involves all the role players (employees, labour unions, organisations and government) in the regulation of employee health and wellness. role players in the south african labour context should work together to compile a national strategy to address the issues that influence employee health and wellness in the south african context today. in order to promote employee health and wellness strategies, certain conditions are prerequisites: legal and policy instruments. • legislation and regulations should be regarded as adequate, and laws and regulations that exist should be adequately enforced. south african organisations lack adequate policies to govern employee health and wellness. it is important for organisations to develop employee health and wellness policies in order to regulate employee health and wellness in their organisations. management standards should promote the use of primary interventions such as job redesign in favour of tertiary interventions that focus on individuals (mackay et al, 2004). south africa should also establish an executive body to deal with policy and operational matters relating to occupational health, wellness and safety matters. within vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 9 original research sieberhagen, rothmann & pienaar sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 14 4 (page number not for citation purposes) 25 such a body, infrastructure can be established through a special commission to take the lead in the overall reduction of work-related stress in south africa. currently such a body, the hse, already exists within the uk, and south africa can learn from their already established practices. the proposed south african health, wellness and safety body should give guidance to south african organisations on how to deal with health, wellness and safety issues of their employees. special attention should be given to how organisations should conduct risk assessment of health, wellness and safety issues and how they should manage the improvement of health, wellness and safety in their organisations. infrastructure.• a working labour inspection system and an occupational health service system are key elements in supporting adequate occupational health and safety legislation, regulations and standards, e.g. through the setting of minimum standards and through adherence to regulations. the education of health care professionals is a crucial aspect in this regard. information. • knowledge and facts are needed if occupational health, wellness and safety are to be improved in south africa. researchers should undertake longitudinal research regarding employee health, wellness and safety. research regarding employee health and wellness should consider multiphase and multiple case study designs. this will enable researchers to better understand issues regarding employee health, wellness and safety. organisations and employee health, wellness and safety practitioners will benefit from such research in that they will have proof of the effects of stress or interventions on employees over time. multiple case studies on the impact of stress on employee health and wellness may lead to evidence-based prevention in south africa. kompier, cooper and geurts (2000) found in their multiple case study that it was to the benefit of both the individual and the organisation when preventative measures were based on adequate diagnoses of risk factors and risk groups and when the measures were implemented in a proper way. in order to develop the management standards and to conduct risk assessment in south africa, a relevant measurement tool should be developed. the indicator tool is a way in which performance can be measured against a standard. in setting a threshold for work-related stress, the management standard could indicate whether organisations are conforming to good practices, which may prevent the occurrence of occupational stress (mackay et al., 2004). government can support the process in funding the development of such a tool and providing it to organisations free of charge. south african ‘cut-off points regarding work-related stress should be developed in order for south african organisations to determine whether or not they are negatively influencing their employees’ health and wellness. education and training.• educational institutions in south africa should be involved in occupational health and safety training. this should be supplemented by conferences, symposia, and workshops. employees should be trained on how to address and promote their own health and wellness, labour unions should be trained on issues of employee health and wellness of their members and also how to negotiate the issues with employers, and relevant people in organisations should be trained on how to effectively manage and implement employee health and wellness in their organisations. recording, storing and disseminating information.• registers for the collection of employee health and wellness information are crucial in obtaining a systematic evaluation of the occupational health and wellness situation in a specific organisation, community and country. examples of registers include cancer registers, registers for occupational diseases and work accidents, registers on numbers and causes of deaths and registers on communicable diseases. journals, newsletters and websites could deal with the dissemination of information to other professions and health care professionals. references barkhuizen, n., & rothmann, s. (2004). burnout of academic staff in a higher education institution. in 2nd south african work wellness conference, 25-26 march 2004 (n.p.). potchefstroom, north west province, south africa: potchefstroom university. beermann, b., kuhn, k., & kompier, m. (1999). germany: reduction of stress by health circles. in m. kompier & c.l. cooper (eds.), preventing stress, improving productivity: european case studies in the workplace (pp. 222–240). london: routledge. cartwright, s., & cooper, c.l. (2002). asset: an organizational stress screening: the management guide. manchester: rcl ltd. cousins, r., mackay, c.j., clarke, s.d., kelly, c., kelly, p.j., & mccaig, r.h. (2004). ‘management standards’ and workrelated stress in the uk: practical development. work & stress, 19, 113-136. de beer, l. (2007, september). risiko’s verhoog soos myne verdiep [risks increase as mines deepen]. beeld. retrieved may 16, 2008, from http://www.news24.com/beeld/ vermaak/boeke/0,3-2109-2112_2296026,00.html department of labour. (2004). safety and health at work commemoration. news release. retrieved may 5, 2008, from http://www.labour.gov.za/media/statement.jsp department of labour. (2008). basic conditions of employment act: code of good practice on the arrangement of working time. retrieved may 15, 2008, from http://www.labour.gov. za/download/6050/code els, d. (2005). wellness: a pig’s life. first behaviour-based wellness book. pretoria: mc printers. geurts, s., & gründemann, r. (1999). workplace stress and stress prevention in europe. in m. kompier & c.l. cooper (eds.), preventing stress, improving productivity: european case studies in the workplace (pp. 1–8). london: routledge. goldstein, g., helmer, r., & fingerhut, m. (2001). mobilizing to protect worker’s health: the who global strategy on occupational health and safety. african newsletter, 11(3), 58. grogan, j. (2005). workplace law. (8th edn.). cape town: juta. hawson, k. (2003). stress images walker vs northumberland county council. legal commentary. retrieved may 20, 2008, from http://www.legalday.co.uk/lexnex/keeble03/ keeble090503b.htm health and safety executive (hse). (2001). tackling work-related stress: a managers’ guide to improving and maintaining employee health and well-being. hs(g)218. sudbury: hse books. jones, j.r., & hodgson, j.t. (1998). self-reported work-related illness in 1995: results from a household survey. london: hse books. kalimo, r., & toppinen, s. (1999). finland: organisational wellbeing. ten years of research and development in a forest industry corporation. in m. kompier & c.l. cooper (eds.), preventing stress, improving productivity: european case studies in the workplace (pp. 52–83). london: routledge. kompier, m., & cooper, c.l. (1999). introduction: improving work, health and productivity through stress prevention. in m. kompier & c.l. cooper (eds.), preventing stress, improving productivity: european case studies in the workplace (pp. 1–9). london: routledge. kompier, m., cooper, c.l., & geurts, s.a.e. (2000). a multiple case study approach to work stress prevention in europe. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 3, 371400. kompier, m., de gier, e., smulders, p., & draaisma, d. (1994). regulations, policies and practices concerning work stress in five european countries. work & stress, 8, 296–318. kompier, m., & schaufeli, w.b. (2001). managing job stress in the netherlands. international journal of stress management, 8(1), 15–34. vol. 7 no. 1 page 8 of 9 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #144 (page number not for citation purposes) the role of legislation and management standards lourijsen, e., houtman, i., kompier, m., & grüdemann, r. (1999). the netherlands: a hospital, ‘healthy working for health’. in m. kompier & c.l. cooper (eds.), preventing stress, improving productivity: european case studies in the workplace (pp. 86-118). london: routledge. luthans, f. (2002). the need for and meaning of positive organizational behaviour. journal of organizational behavior, 23, 695-706. mackay, c.j., cousins, r., kelly, p.j., lee, s., & mccaig, r.h. (2004). management standards and work-related stress in the uk: policy background and science. work & stress, 18, 91-112. mdladlana, m. (2007). the labour minister’s speech at the international occupational health and safety day in rustenburg on 4 may 2007. retrieved may 11, 2008, from http://www. labour.gov.za/media/speeches.jsp?speechdisplay_id=12150 mead, p. (1998). workplace wellness makes cents. people dynamics, november/december, 24-26. naidu, b. (2005, 10 july). r6m to help teachers fight stress. sunday times metro, p. 1. nelson, d.l., & simmons, b.l. (2003). health psychology and work stress: a more positive approach. in j.c quick & l.e. tetrick (eds.), handbook of occupational health psychology (pp. 193–203). washington, dc: american psychological association. netterstrøm, b. (1999). self-rule on route 166. an intervention study among bus drivers. in m. kompier & c.l. cooper (eds.), preventing stress, improving productivity: european case studies in the workplace (pp. 175–193). london: routledge. noemdoe, g. (2002). helping the healthy stay healthy. people dynamics, 20(5), 31. perold, h., & jooste, p. (2006). employment and unemployment in south africa: a brief description. johannesburg: business trust. pienaar, j., & rothmann, s. (2005). suicide ideation in the south african police service. south african journal of psychology, 35(1), 58–72. rantanen, j., lehtinen, s., & savolainen, k. (2004). the opportunities and obstacles to collaboration between the developing and developed countries in the field of occupational health. toxicology, 198(1/3), 63-74. republic of south africa. (1966). unemployment insurance act, no. 30 of 1966. pretoria: government printers. republic of south africa. (1993a). compensation for occupational diseases and injuries act, no. 130 of 1993. pretoria: government printers. republic of south africa. (1993b). occupational health and safety act, no. 85 of 1993. pretoria: government printers. republic of south africa. (1995). labour relations act, no. 66 of 1995. pretoria: government printers. republic of south africa. (1996). constitution of the republic of south africa, no. 108 of 1996. pretoria: government printers. republic of south africa. (1997a). basic conditions of employment act, no. 75 of 1997. pretoria: government printers. republic of south africa. (1997b). skills development act, no. 56 of 1997. pretoria: government printers. rothmann, s. (2005, august). job stress prevention in south africa. paper presented at the second icoh international conference on psychosocial factors at work, okayama, japan. rothmann, s., & rothmann j.c. (2006). the south african employee health and wellness survey: user manual. potchefstroom: afriforte. schabracq, m.j., winnubst, j.a.m., & cooper, c.l. (2003). the handbook of work and health psychology. washington, dc: john wiley & sons. seligman, m.e.p. (2002). positive psychology, positive prevention and positive therapy. in c.r. snyder & s.j. lopez. (eds.), handbook of positive psychology (pp. 410–421). new york: oxford university press. seligman, m.e.p., & csikszentmihalyi, m. (2000). positive psychology: an introduction. american psychologist, 55, 5-14. statistics south africa. (2007). mid-year population estimates – 2007. pretoria: statistics south africa. stellman, j.m. (ed.). (1998). encyclopaedia of occupational health and safety. (4th edn.). geneva: international labour office. strümpfer, d.j.w. (1995). the origins of health and strength: from ‘salutogenesis’ to ‘fortigenesis’. south african journal of psychology, 25, 81-89. takala, j. (1998, october). global estimates of fatal occupational accidents. paper presented at the 16th international conference of labour statisticians, geneva, switzerland. taris, w.t., kompier, m.a.j., geurts, s.a.e., schreurs, p.j.g., & schaufeli, w.b. (2003). stress management interventions in the dutch domiciliary care sector: findings from 81 organizations. international journal of stress management, 10, 297-325. temkin, s. (2004, 05 august). corporate whistle-blowers pay high price of courage. business day, n.p. the south african institute of international affairs (2004). aids ravages labour force. retrieved may 21, 2008 from http:// www.saiia.org.za/modules.php?op=modload&name=new s&file=article&sid=39 vaida, g. (2005, n.d.). sick leave costs sa millions. sunday times, p. 1. van der merwe, a. (2005, n.d.). practical stress management. hr future, p. 17-18. whatmore, l., cartwright, s., & cooper, c. (1999). united kingdom: evaluation of a stress management programme in the public sector. in m. kompier & c.l. cooper (eds.), preventing stress, improving productivity: european case studies in the workplace (pp. 149–171). london: routledge. workmen’s compensation fund. (1999). annual report. johannesburg: wcf. world health organization (2002). constitution of the world health organisation. retrieved 26 june 26, 2004, from http:// whqlibdoc.who.int/hist/official_records/constitution.pdf) wynne, r., & rafferty, r. (1999). ireland: stress prevention in an airport management company. in m. kompier & c.l. cooper (eds.), preventing stress, improving productivity: european case studies in the workplace (pp. 242–261). london: routledge. 26vol. 7 no. 1 page 9 of 9 article information authors: willie t. chinyamurindi¹ gert j. louw¹ affiliations: ¹department of industrial and organisational psychology, nelson mandela metropolitan university, south africa correspondence to: willie chinyamurindi email: chinyaz@gmail.com postal address: department of industrial and organisational psychology, nelson mandela metropolitan university, university way, summerstrand, port elizabeth 6031, south africa keywords electronic learning; gender; human resources development; science engineering and technology sector; technology acceptance model dates: received: 16 mar. 2009 accepted: 09 sept. 2010 published: 30 nov. 2010 how to cite this article: chinyamurindi, w.t., & louw, g.j. (2010). gender differences in technology acceptance in selected south african companies: implications for electronic learning. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #204, 7 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.204 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) gender differences in technology acceptance in selected south african companies: implications for electronic learning in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • training using technology    • barriers towards technology-acceptance    • theoretical development    • computer self-efficacy    • perceived usefulness    • perceived ease of use    • behavioural intention to use • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research respondents       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analyses • results    • model estimation and hypotheses testing    • multiple regression analyses • discussion    • conclusions and future research    • recommendations    • limitations • references abstract (back to top) orientation: technology enhanced training is becoming popular as a means for the training of soft skills, especially in work-related environments. men and women who use this type of training encounter some challenges with regard to their usage. research: the objective of this study was to investigate trainees’ acceptance of electronic coursework as an instruction and learning technique in various industries in the south african context. motivation for the study: a persistent gender imbalance in the south african work-place has been noted to exist chiefly in the science, engineering and technology (set) sectors, areas that have an important bearing on south africa’s global competitiveness. this study explores how gender imbalance manifests in terms of trainee acceptance of electronic coursework. research design, approach and method: a cross-sectional survey design was used. a survey was conducted amongst 191 employees in the set sector. the measuring instrument used was the technology acceptance instrument (tai) and included measures of computer self-efficacy (cse), perceived ease of use (peu), perceived usefulness (pu) and behavioural intention to use (bi). main findings: women ratings of the tai to use the electronic coursework were slightly higher than men’s ratings. multiple regression analyses were also carried out to measure the variation in the level of influence with gender as a predictor variable. the results showed that compared to women, men had a lower salient effect of elements of the tai, notably, cse–pu; pu–bi and bi–peu. however, compared to men, women had a higher salient effect in terms of the relationship between cse–pu and pu–peu. practical implications: the implication of the results is that interventions that focus on the human resources development of employees using electronic coursework (namely, cse, peu, pu and bi) are worth considering as they influence the acceptance of the interventions. contribution/value-add: the study contributes to existing knowledge about the conditions that precede employee acceptance of an electronic coursework intervention within the south african context. the study shows the important role dimensions of the technology acceptance instrument (tai). introduction (back to top) the focus of this study is on trainees’ acceptance of electronic coursework as an instruction and learning technique in various industries in the south african context. the industries used in this study include the insurance, information technology and automotive industry. liu and wilson (2001) identify that, in an empirical study conducted in china, the prevalence of computer anxiety is higher amongst women than men due to women’s exclusion from the work-place in the past. computer anxiety was defined as an individuals’ apprehension (or fear), when they are faced with the possibility of using computers (simonson et al., 1987, cited in venkatesh, 2000). if this is so this may affect not only the usage but acceptance of technology by either men or women. a persistent gender imbalance in the south african work-place has been noted to exist chiefly in the science, engineering and technology (set) sectors – areas that have an important bearing on south africa’s global competitiveness and, more specifically, in the country’s quest for continued growth in sustaining the knowledge economy (moletsane & reddy, 2008). women employed in the set sectors face a myriad of challenges in their work-life in stark contrast to their male counterparts. liu and wilson (2001) identify four main obstacles that restrict women in these sectors, including: 1. gender stereotyping and societal attitudes 2. family responsibilities 3. working time constraints 4. a lack of confidence in completing tasks. moletsane and reddy (2008) identify that women in these male-dominated sectors are perceived by their male equivalents as intruders and will not expect the same opportunities as their male counterparts; this is largely due to existing perceptions specifying that careers within the set sectors are ‘archetypically men’s careers’ (evetts, 1998). as a result of the dearth of literature and studies on the subject (moletsane & reddy, 2008), an opportunity has been prompted for this study to ascertain the impact of gender on careers in the set sector in south africa. within the domain of work, the human resources (hr) function is responsible for the training and development of employees; a task not made easy in south africa as the country faces a shortage of skills and a high rate of unemployment (gerber, nel & van dyk, 1999). added to this are calls for building more cost-effective work-place learning environments in an attempt to meet individual and organisational objectives thereby making the education and training of employees mandatory (govindasamy, 2002). in the organisational setting, the hr activity of training and development is responsible for building these cost-effective work-place learning environments and ensuring that all employees get equal opportunity for their development. by development we refer to the uptake of skills by the individual through organisation led interventions. training using technology electronic learning (e-learning) has emerged as a popular means to train employees within the organisational setting largely due to its perceived advantages over the traditional mode of training. for the purpose of this article, e-learning will be defined as instructional content or a learning experience delivered or enabled by electronic technologies, including the internet, intranets and extranets (govindasamy, 2002; macgregor & whittingham, 2001). numerous authors have highlighted the benefits of using e-learning with the most salient of these benefits being that it reduces barriers imposed by location, time, language and disability experienced by the trainee seeing that they can learn at their own convenience whilst ignoring these barriers (cross, 1998); the benefits of e-learning create a unique learning experience because the technology supports the delivery and makes use of multimedia elements, such as sound, video and interactive hypermedia (mcneil, robin & miller, 2000). the usage of these multimedia elements will assist in delivering richer content to the learner (marold, 2002). coupled with this, payne, stephenson, morns, tempest, mileham and griffin (2009), using a pre and post test, investigated whether e-learning can be successfully used to train employees. their results found that e-learning improved the skills of inexperienced trainees significantly. the other major implication here is that e-learning can be applied outside of the traditional learning environment to train unskilled employees to undertake complex practical tasks. it is worthwhile exploring the use of e-learning as a tool to train in the south african context. barriers towards technology-acceptance in south africa e-learning is fast becoming a preferred tool to train soft skills (deller, 2001); however, surmountable challenges exist and have been widely documented in literature as sources that affect technology acceptance amongst employees in organisations and in society. one stream of literature attributes the problem to be the underutilisation of technology systems within organisations (johansen & swigart, 1996; moore & benbasat, 1991; norman, 1993; weiner, 1993). even though advances in hardware and software capabilities exist, system utilisation still remains a priority. another stream of literature identifies that the initial decision to adopt a particular technology is made at the organisational level, whilst the decision to use a particular technology is left to the individual (morgan & scott-links, 2001) and this may create problems for employees accepting technology. the main users of the technology are the employees though the decision to incorporate the technology is made by the employer. sufficient buy in is necessary from these stakeholders; especially, the employees.in other cases, parthasarathy and sohi (1997) identify that although a percentage of the organisation will welcome the new technology, another percentage will resist it. it has been noted that a lack of acceptance will lead to underutilisation of the new technology’s capabilities (robinson, marshall & stamps, 2005). an additional stream of literature has attributed the problem of technology acceptance to external factors outside the control of the individual and societal norms (robinson et al., 2005).these external factors include support services with specific reference to tutorials, training sessions and help given to trainees. this is true in the south african context which has left the country reeling from the apartheid legacy which enforced an idea of separateness. computer anxiety was defined as individuals’ apprehension (or fear) when they are faced with the possibility of using computers (simonson et al., 1987, cited in venkatesh, 2000). apartheid policies have been attributed to the present imbalances regarding the acquisition of skills and opportunities in present day society (wilson, 2001), principally for black people and specifically for black women (the south african government gazette, 1997). the aim of this study is to investigate technology acceptance (in this case, the use of e-learning as a training tool) amongst a group of employees in the south african work-place, noted for its changing demographics post-apartheid. this study has been motivated by the government’s call for research to be conducted on the social responses and challenges in terms of technological innovation within south african society (government communications, 1996). a need exists to investigate the impact of gender on set sectors, despite the perceived dearth of literature on these sectors (moletsane & reddy, 2008). this study uniquely tries to explore gender differences towards technology acceptance thus seeking to address the gender gap in technology acceptance in various cultural contexts outside taiwan where a similar study was conducted (ong & lai, 2006). the rest of this paper will explore the theoretical framework upon which this research hinges (i.e. the technology acceptance model, or tam), set working hypotheses, give methodological justifications and, finally, this study will report on the findings. theoretical development the core concept of the tam is that a person’s attitude towards using technology is jointly determined by perceived usefulness (pu) and perceived ease of use (peu). technology usage is determined by behavioural intention (bi) to use technology but is different from the theory of reasoned action in that usage of technology is viewed as being mediated by the person’s attitudes towards using the technology (robinson et al., 2005).the attitude-behavioural intentions relationship as espoused in the tam assumes that all uses being equal intentions to use technology again can be formed based upon positive usage of the technology. the pu–bi relationship assumes this and has been shown to have a positive or negative influence on individual behaviour in organisations (robinson et al., 2005). the research therefore seeks to measure perceptions and relationships amongst these dominants of the tam with gender as a moderating variable. computer self-efficacy in bandura’s (1977) social cognitive theory, mention is made of the term self-efficacy expectation and is defined as the conviction that one can successfully execute the behaviour required to produce the outcome. in an information systems context, computer self-efficacy is defined as ‘an individual’s perceptions of his or her ability to use computers in the accomplishment of a task rather than reflecting simple component skills’ (compeau & higgins, 1995). research has indicated that women typically demonstrate higher levels of computer anxiety (durndell & hagg, 2002; okebukola, 1993; whitley, 1997) and lower levels of self-efficacy and/or computer self-efficacy (cse) in terms of using computer technology and the internet (comber, colley, hargreaves & dorn, 1997; durndell, hagg & laithwaite, 2000; durndell & hagg, 2002; ong & lai, 2006). in terms of the relationship between computer self-efficacy and perceived usefulness, it is noted that perceived usefulness reflects a person’s beliefs or expectations about an outcome (ong & lai, 2006) which seems to suggest that computer self-efficacy may be an important factor affecting perceived usefulness (chau, 2001). the relationship arguments postulated by prior researchers (davis, 1989; mathieson, 1991) have been empirically examined and show that there is a causal link between computer self-efficacy and perceived ease of use (agarwal, sambamurthy & stair, 2000; chau, 2001; hong, thong, wong & tam, 2001; ong & lai, 2006; venkatesh & davis, 1996). these indications also show that computer self-efficacy has a significant positive effect on perceived ease of use for the e-learning system. furthermore, researchers have also suggested the existence of gender based differences in decision making behaviour (claes, 1999; feingold, 1994). there is evidence to support the view that women show a relatively high tendency towards exhibiting emotion when compared to men (fisk & stevens, 1993). similarly, venkatesh and morris (2000) propose that women are more motivated by process (peu) and social (subjective norm) factors than men. the researcher therefore expects that a low evaluation of computer self-efficacy will cause an increase in the salience of perceptions of usefulness and ease of use in an e-learning context. perceived usefulness perceived usefulness is defined as the degree to which a person believes that using a particular technology would enhance their job performance (davis, 1989). prior research has shown that male college students rated computers as more useful than female students (koohang, 1989; shashaani & khalili, 2001). ong and lai (2006), amongst others, imply that an e-learning system with a higher level of perceived usefulness is one in which a user believes that there is a positive user-performance relationship and has been shown to influence people’s behavioural intention to use the e-learning system (davis, 1989; ong & lai, 2006; venkatesh, 1999; venkatesh, 2000; venkatesh & davis, 1996; venkatesh & davis, 2000; venkatesh & morris, 2000). additionally, venkatesh and morris (2000) indicate that men consider perceived usefulness to a greater extent than women in making their decisions considering usefulness or productivity-related factors of a new technology and that men are more driven by instrumental factors than women. perceived ease of use perceived ease of use is defined as the degree to which a person believes that using the system would be free of effort (davis, 1989). previous research has shown that men’s ratings of self-efficacy and/or computer self-efficacy is higher than that of women (comber et al., 1997; durndell et al., 2000; durndell & hagg, 2002; ong & lai, 2006; whitley, 1997). moon and kim (2001) point out that information technology systems that are easier to use will be less threatening to the individual. ong and lai (2006) have tested moon and kim’s assertion and found that men’s rating of peu was higher in terms of e-learning. furthermore, peu is expected to influence pu and bi, either directly or indirectly, through its effect on pu (agarwal & prasad, 1999; davis, bagozzi & warshaw, 1989; hu, chau, sheng & tam, 1999; venkatesh, 1999, 2000; venkatesh & davis, 1996). behavioural intention to use ong and lai (2006) identify some difficulties in interpreting the multidimensional aspects of use as mandatory versus voluntary, informed versus uninformed, effective versus ineffective, amongst others. delone and mclean (2003) suggest that bi may be a worthwhile alternative. bi is an attitude, whereas use indicates behavior (ong & lai, 2006). a significant body of research has found that men are more experienced in terms of working with computers and exhibit more positive attitudes than females (durndell & thomson, 1997; ong & lai, 2006; whitley, 1997). furthermore, reda and dennis (1992) investigated gender-based attitudes towards using computer-assisted learning (cal) amongst university students; results revealed that male students preferred using cal in contrast to female students. based on the preceding literature review, the following hypotheses are formulated: hypothesis 1: men rate cse higher than women do. hypothesis 2: cse influences pu of e-learning more strongly for women than for men. hypothesis 3: cse influences peu of e-learning more strongly for women than for men. hypothesis 4: men rate pu of e-learning higher than women do. hypothesis 5: pu influences bi to use e-learning more strongly for men than for women. hypothesis 6: men rate peu of e-learning higher than women do. hypothesis 7: peu influences perceived usefulness of e-learning more strongly for women than for men. hypothesis 8: peu influences bi to use e-learning more strongly for women than for men. hypothesis 9: men rate behavioural intention to use e-learning higher than women do. these hypothesised relationships are described graphically in figure 1. research design (back to top) tables research approach a cross-sectional survey design was used in this study because it provided a ‘snap shot’ of the frequency and characteristics under study (technology acceptance between males and females) and allowed us to study people at a particular point in time. a questionnaire incorporating elements of the tam (ong & lai, 2006) was used to gather data in a non-random field survey. a questionnaire was deemed an appropriate method because, firstly, this technique allowed for exploring the relationships within the sample. secondly, questionnaires were a cheap and cost effective method allowing for a wider reach (jack & clarke, 1998). thirdly, responses were gathered in a standardised manner with already existing measures of the tam available. finally, to the best of our knowledge, no other study existed within the african context and thus we sought to test the applicability of the measure in this context using the existing measures. research method research respondents the respondents were employees from four large companies in south africa, namely a motor vehicle manufacturer and retailing company, two leading information technology companies and a life assurance company. each company has implemented e-learning as a training tool for more than 5 years, research respondents must have been using e-learning for over a year. the respondents answered a 14-item self-administered questionnaire. the questionnaire was made available online and for each question respondents were asked to select the response which best described their level of agreement with the statement. of the 205 surveys received, a total of 191 were deemed usable for the purpose of the research thereby achieving a 93% rate in terms of usability of the measures. table 1 shows that the sample consisted of 103 male and 88 female respondents. participation was voluntary and confidentiality was maintained. respondents could withdraw at any point during the research process. employees from all departments, job groups and educational levels were included. measuring instruments in an attempt to ensure content validity of the scales, it was intended that the items represent the concept of which generalisations are to be made. the researcher selected items which were either mainly adapted from previous studies or from the previous application of the tam (compeau & higgins, 1995; davis, 1989; ong & lai, 2006; venkatesh & davis, 1996). validated items adapted from prior studies were used to measure cse, peu, pu and bi. in terms of the reliability of the measure, the authors found that the measure had been used before by ong and lai (2006). the reliability of the measure in their study showed sufficient reliability as they were above the required threshold of 0.80 recommended by nunnally (1978). the coefficients of the measure in their study were as follows: • computer self-efficacy (0.91) • perceived usefulness (0.92) • perceived ease of use (0.89) • behavioural intention to use (0.87). our test for reliability using our sample data also showed sufficient reliability of the measure and ranged from 0.80 to 0.92, with ratings of cse and peu yielding 0.80 whereas pu yielded 0.93 and finally, bi yielded 0.92. the participants indicated their agreement or disagreement with the survey instrument using a 5-point likert-type scale. pre-testing and pilot testing of measures were conducted using a sample of industrial psychology students using e-learning in their courses at the nelson mandela metropolitan university (nmmu). academics from the human resources and computer science field from nmmu were also consulted to give their input on the measure; the items were modified to make them relevant to the e-learning usage context based upon the feedback. research procedure the human resources manager of each of the four participating organisations was solicited for their cooperation to participate in the study. the authors wrote a formal letter and followed up with a phone call explaining the motive for the study and what was expected from participants. the questionnaire was delivered electronically via a website set up by the researcher; alternatively, employees who could not access the internet due to network or bandwidth problems were able to contact the human resources manager to obtain a manual copy of the questionnaire. the human resource managers would send an email to all the employees who had been using e-learning for a year or more within their organisation using a template of instructions provided by the researcher. the instructions to the respondents explained the purpose of the research and assured each respondent’s anonymity. participation in the research was voluntary and this was communicated to the trainees through the office of the human resources manager; respondents could withdraw at any time. statistical analyses the statistical analyses were carried out with the spss statistics programme (spss, 2003). cronbach alpha coefficients (α) were used to assess the internal consistency of the measuring instruments (clark & watson, 1995). pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were used to assess the relationships between variables. descriptive statistics (e.g. means and standard deviations) were used to analyse the data. multiple regression analyses were used to investigate whether gender predicts ratings of the tam model. in terms of significance, it was decided to set the values at a 95% confidence interval level (p < 0.05). effect sizes (steyn, 1999) were used to decide on the practical significance of the findings. a cut-off point of 0.30 (medium effect, cohen, 1988) was set for the practical significance of correlation coefficients. the correlation matrix approach and factor analysis were both applied to examine the convergent and discriminant validity (doll & torkzadeh, 1988; hu et al., 1999). as summarised in table 2, the result of correlation analysis shows that the smallest within-factor correlations are: • computer self-efficacy = 0.52 • perceived usefulness = 0.82 • perceived ease of use = 0.50 • behavioural intention to use = 0.90. meanwhile, each smallest within-factor correlation was considerably higher amongst items intended for the same construct than among those designed to measure different constructs. this suggests adequate convergent and discriminant validity of the measurement. results (back to top) model estimation and hypotheses testing the effects of gender upon cse, pu, peu and bi were examined using mean scores and standard deviations (see table 3). significant gender differences were found for cse, pu, peu and bi. these differences indicate that women rated computer self-efficacy, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and behavioural intention to use e-learning slightly higher than men. as a result, hypothesis 1, hypothesis 4, hypothesis 6 and hypothesis 9 are not supported. multiple regression analyses multiple regression analyses were carried out to measure the variation in the level of influence the predictor variable gender has on the dominants of e-learning acceptance namely computer self-efficacy (cse), perceived usefulness (pu), perceived ease of use (peu) and behavioural intention to use (bi).table 4 reports on the extent of differences between men and women with regard to elements of the tam. the results show that compared to women, men had a lower salient effect on cse in determining pu, hence hypothesis 2 was rejected. additionally, hypothesis 5 is not supported as women were found to have a higher salient effect with regards to pu-bi. this was also true in terms of hypothesis 8 which showed that women had a lower salient effect on bi in determining pu, hence hypothesis 8 was rejected. however, women had a higher salient effect regarding the relationships between cse-peu and pu-peu; hypotheses 3 and 7 were therefore supported. table 5 summarises the findings of the study based upon the testing of the hypotheses. discussion (back to top) the purpose of this research was to explore technology acceptance along gender lines in selected south african companies. gender was selected as a moderating variable largely due to the noted fact that the south african work-place is becoming progressively diverse (trollip, 1993). the findings showed that women rated cse, peu, pu and bi higher than men did. in other words, regarding to the sample used in the study, women were more likely to favour and accept the use of technology based training (especially e-learning) than their male counterparts. this greatly surprised the researchers because a plethora of literature (as highlighted in this article) exists contradicting these findings. although women rated the tam elements higher than men did, the only significant effect with regard to the relationships between the elements were shown in terms of computer self-efficacy and perceived ease of use (hypothesis 3 was supported) and perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness (hypothesis 7 was supported). the implication here is that these issues were considered important by women participating in this study. conclusions and future research the role of e-learning in south african corporations emerges as a rewarding avenue for research enquiry into the field of human resource management; however, the role of e-learning has not been fully explored. the study contributes to the extant literature on technology acceptance mainly in organisations moving away from the traditional path of higher education and from the school setting. the study also contributes by giving insights into an area that has been perceived as an area lacking in research on gender and how it manifests in the set sectors. e-learning can be perceived differently by women and men, future research can aim to understand these differences in perceptions and relationships of the tam. having established that relationships exist between elements of the tam, future research could incorporate a qualitative angle exploring further the constructs of the tam. another interesting aspect to explore further and which was a weakness of this study is to explore how the age factor coupled with gender relates to e-learning acceptance. recommendations apart from advancing theory, the hr function can benefit from the findings from this study. managers are advised to consider the factors that influence the design of training interventions using e-learning and factors that influence the acceptance of it. this article has shown the importance of technology acceptance factors. by acknowledging these factors the hr function can mentor and help those that are struggling with using technology based training in organisations. finally, the hr function can benefit from the findings of this study as the results place impetus on the role of understanding the needs of the individual trainee. the results of this study emphasise the importance of having an understanding of these needs and how they may have implications for employee development initiatives. it is imperative to keep in mind the basic training principles (cline & sieebert, 1993; constanzo, 1996) regardless of the training mode used. taking into consideration technology acceptance factors may help with regards making technology acceptance better in organisations; to this end it may meet the training needs of the organisation (caffarella, 1994; erasmus & van dyk, 2003). such efforts may in turn affect how trainees use and relate to the e-learning system as studies have shown that perceived usefulness of using a particular technology would enhance job performance (davis, 1989). it has been shown that perceived usefulness is affected by perceived ease of use in terms of the e–learning system. it is envisioned that the process of a training needs analysis is mandatory to avoid underutilising systems in organisations (johansen & swigart, 1996; moore & benbasat, 1991; norman, 1993; weiner, 1993). this process will also help in identifying key issues of systems usage. furthermore, organisations need to be cognisant of the training programme’s tasks by conducting a task analysis. this ensures that trainees know exactly what is to be learnt and its relevancy to the specific job outcomes. davis (1989) showed that using a particular technology is influenced by the potential gain of usage and the relevance to a job outcome. limitations in terms of the study’s limitations, the results of the study cannot be generalised to include other sectors, but could be used as a guideline for the hr function applicable to e-learning usage in organisations. a further limitation of this study is the omission of soliciting the age responses of the respondents. it would have been interesting to compare the age responses when using the predictor variable of gender in relation to the tam. references (back to top) agarwal, r., & prasad, j. (1999). are individual differences germane to the acceptance of new information technologies? decision sciences, 30(2), 361−391. agarwal, r., sambamurthy., v., & stair, r.m. (2000). research report: the evolving relationship between general and specific computer self-efficacy – an empirical assessment. information systems research, 11(4), 418–430. bandura, a. (1977). social learning theory. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. caffarella, r.s. (1994). planning programs for adult learners. san francisco: jossey-bass. chau, p.y.k. (2001). influence of computer attitude and self-efficacy on it usage behavior. journal of end user computing, 13(1), 26–33. claes, m.t. (1999). women, men, and management styles. international labor review, 138(4), 431– 446. clark, l.a., & watson, d. (1995). constructing validity: basic issues in scale development, psychological assessment, 7, 309–319. cline, e.b., & sieebert, p.s. (1993). help for first-time needs assessors. training and development journal, 47(5), 99–101. cohen, j. (1988). statistical power for the behavioural sciences. (2nd ed.). hillsdale, nj: erlbaum. comber, c., colley, a., hargreaves, d.j., & dorn, l. (1997). the effects of age, gender and computer experience upon computer attitudes. educational research, 39(2), 123–133. compeau, d.r., & higgins, c.a. (1995). computer self-efficacy: development of a measure and initial test. mis quarterly, 19(2), 189–211. constanzo, j. (1996). smarter, faster cbt development. training and development journal, 50(10), 52–56. cottrell, r. (2005). south africa: a state of apartheid. philadelphia: chelsea house publishers. cross, r.t. (1998). developing web-based distance courses for the aac community: a first step. retrieved july 18, 2006, from http://www.dinf.ne.jp/doc/english/us_eu/conf/csun_99/session0147.html davis, f. (1989). perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. mis quarterly, 13(3), 318–339. davis, f., bagozzi, r.p., & warshaw, p.r. (1989). user acceptance of computer technology: a comparison of two theoretical models. management science, 35(8), 982−1003. deller, k. (2001). the human element is critical to e-learning success. people dynamics, 1, 25. delone, w.h., & mclean, e.r. (2003). the delone and mclean model of information systems success: a ten year update. journal of management information systems, 19(4), 9–30. doll, w.j., & torkzadeh, g. (1988). the measurement of end-user computing satisfaction. mis quarterly, 12(2), 259–274. durndell, a., & hagg, z. (2002). computer self efficacy, computer anxiety, attitudes towards the internet and reported experience with the internet, by gender, in an east european sample. computers in human behavior, 18(5), 521–535. durndell, a., hagg, z., & laithwaite, h. (2000). computer self efficacy and gender: a cross cultural study of scotland and romania, personality and individual differences, 28(6), 1037–1044. durndell, a., & thomson, k. (1997). gender and computing: a decade of change? computers and education; an international journal, 28(1), 1−9. erasmus, b.j., & van dyk, p.s. (2003). training management in south africa. (3rd ed.). southern africa: oxford university press. evetts, j. (1998). managing the technology but not the organisation: women and career in engineering. women in management review, 13(8), 283–290. feingold, a. (1994). gender differences in personality: a meta-analysis, psychological bulletin, 116(3), 429–456. fisk, s.t., & stevens, l.e. (1993). what’s so special about sex? gender stereotyping and discrimination. in: s. oskamp & m. costanzo (eds.), gender issue in contemporary society, (pp. 173–196). newbury park, ca: sage. gerber, p.d., nel, p.s., & van dyk, p.s. (1999). human resources management. (4th ed.). oxford university press: cape town. government communications. (1996). white paper on science and technology. south africa. retrieved may 20, 2006, from http://www.dst.gov.za/publications-policies/legislation/white_papers/science_technology_white_paper.pdf govindasamy, t. (2002). successful implementation of e-learning pedagogical considerations. internet and higher education, 4(3–4), 287–299. hong, w., thong, j.y.l., wong, w.m., & tam, k.y. (2001). determinants of user acceptance of digital libraries: an empirical examination of individual differences and system characteristics, journal of management information systems, 18(3), 97–124. hu, p.j., chau, p.y.k., liu sheng, o.r., & tam, k.y. (1999). examining the technology acceptance model using physician acceptance of telemedicine technology. journal of management information systems, 16(2), 91–112. jack, b., & clarke, a. (1998). the purpose and the use of questionnaires in research. professional nurse, 14(3), 176–179. johansen, r., & swigart, r. (1996). upsizing the individual in the downsizing organization: managing in the wake of reengineering, globalization, and overwhelming technological change. reading, ma: addison-wesley. koohang, a.a. (1989). a study of attitudes towards computers: anxiety, confidence, liking, and perception of usefulness. journal of research on computing in education, 22(2), 137–150. liu, j., & wilson, d. (2001). developing women in a digital world. women in management review, 16(8), 405–416. macgregor, c., & whittingham, t. (2001). e-learning for industry: the competitive advantage, proceedings of vocational education and training research conference, geelong: deakin university. mcneil, s.g., robin, b.r., & miller, r.m. (2000). facilitating interaction, communication and collaboration in online courses. computers and geosciences, 26, 699−708. marold, k. (2002). the 21st century learning model: electronic tutelage realized. journal of information technology education, 1(2), 113−123. mathieson, k. (1991). predicting user intentions: comparing the technology acceptance model with the theory of planned behaviour. information systems research, 2(3), 173–191. moletsane, r., & reddy, v. (2008). an assessment of the participation of women in set industry for department of science and technology. retrieved january 10, 2008, from http://www.hsrc.ac.za/research/output/outputdocuments/5505_moletsane_assessmentoftheparticipationofwomen.pdf about the author(s) herring shava department of management, faculty of management sciences, walter sisulu university, butterworth, south africa willie t. chinyamurindi department of business management, faculty management and commerce, fort hare university, alice, east london, south africa citation shava, h., & chinyamurindi, w.t. (2022). erratum: the moderating role of career adaptability on the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee mental and physical health. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1835. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1835 note: doi of original article published: https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1437 correction erratum: the moderating role of career adaptability on the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee mental and physical health herring shava, willie t. chinyamurindi published: 25 july 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. in the published article, shava, h., & chinyamurindi, w.t. (2021). the moderating role of career adaptability on the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee mental and physical health. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19, a1437. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1437, there was an error regarding the affiliation for herring shava. instead of ‘department of business management, faculty management and commerce, fort hare university, alice, east london, south africa’, it should be ‘department of management, faculty of management sciences, walter sisulu university, butterworth, south africa’. the publisher apologises for this error. the correction does not change the significance of study’s findings or overall interpretation of its results or the scientific conclusions in any way. abstract introduction research objective literature review method discussion implications for practice limitations of and directions for future research acknowledgements references about the author(s) lucy-skye hammond department of industrial and organisational psychology, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa melinde coetzee department of industrial and organisational psychology, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation hammond, l-s., & coetzee, m. (2022). an exploration of factors influencing the retention of senior female employees in a financial services organisation. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1997. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1997 original research an exploration of factors influencing the retention of senior female employees in a financial services organisation lucy-skye hammond, melinde coetzee received: 21 may 2022; accepted: 06 aug. 2022; published: 30 sept. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: high turnover rates have negative repercussions for organisations, such as increases in costs related to the orientation, hiring and training of new employees. insight into the factors that contribute to employees’ retention therefore remains a critical concern for organisations. research purpose: the objective of this study was to gain in-depth insights into senior female employees’ views of the factors that either enable or impede their retention. motivation for the study: presently, there seems to be a dearth of retention studies among women in the financial services sector. research approach/design and method: a qualitative approach was utilised to obtain semi-structured interview data from a purposive sample of senior female employees in a south african financial services organisation. the atlas.titm version 8 data analysis programme assisted in inductively eliciting the higher-order themes that emerged from the interviews. main findings: the qualitative thematic data analysis revealed rich insight into (1) senior female employees’ employment experiences in the organisation; (2) the objective and subjective factors that enable their retention and (3) the objective and subjective factors that impede their retention. practical/managerial implications: the findings highlighted formalised consistency in the application of human resource policies and procedures, fair, competitive compensation and benefits, training and development, managerial support, opportunities for career development, as well as work–life balance in workload and deadlines as core factors to address in a retention strategy. contribution/value-add: the insights gained regarding female staff members’ parameters for their retention may inform retention practices and prevent staff turnover among valuable talents. keywords: career values; retention enablers; retention impeders; career development needs of women; psychological work immersion; kaleidoscope career model (kcm); work–life balance. introduction in the modern-day economic climate, retention remains one of the most significant concerns organisations are faced with (aqil & memon, 2019; bussin, 2018; mabaso et al., 2021). the concept of employee retention alludes to an organisation’s capacity to warrant that their sought-after employees remain with the organisation for sustainable profitability, competitiveness and productivity (sepahvand & khodashahri, 2021). organisational retention efforts generally foster a conducive work environment that contributes to organisational growth, stability and revenue generation (sepahvand & khodashahri, 2021; zala & rajani, 2021). the south african financial services organisation relevant to the current study has highlighted exceptionally high levels of turnover (i.e. 108.84%) and low levels of retention among especially senior female employees employed by the organisation (m. lourens, personal communication, july 23, 2021). the negative turnover trend has resulted in an increase in costs related to the orientation, hiring and training of new employees and a decrease in the overall levels of retention in the organisation. the company management expressed a dire need for deeper insight into the factors that contribute to employee retention (m. lourens, personal communication, july 23, 2021). regardless of scholarly endeavours to better understand the motivations of employees who leave organisations, researchers continue to be confounded by the principles and conditions that lead to this occurrence. this is evident in the increasing levels of research pertaining to the concepts of talent retention interventions and turnover intentions in the 21st century (barkhuizen & gumede, 2021). scholars agree that talent retention strategies must be adapted frequently and continuously to ensure that they remain applicable and relevant within the context of the rapidly changing technologically driven working world (barkhuizen & gumede, 2021). this will also ensure that organisations are able to manage future challenges relevant to employee retention (barkhuizen & gumede, 2021; coetzee et al., 2018; petriglieri, 2018). studies pertaining to retention generally tend to be relevant to developed countries (annabi & lebovitz, 2017). these studies mostly relate to medical professionals (naidu et al., 2020) and highly technical fields of work (nel & meyer, 2016); therefore, they are not always relevant within the broader south african financial services industry setting. there have been a variety of studies pertaining to female employee retention worldwide. these include studies that encompass the female population in the united states of america within the technology workforce (annabi & lebovitz, 2017), the field of academic medicine (carr et al., 2017), as well as female physicians (lin et al., 2019). in a south african context, studies pertaining to the retention of female employees comprise surgeons (naidu et al., 2020) and technical employees (nel & meyer, 2016). joão and coetzee’s (2012) research on retention in the south african financial sector referred to employees in general. presently, there seems to be a dearth of retention studies among women in the financial services sector. the present study is thus timely in its endeavour to address this gap in research. research objective the objective of this study was to gain in-depth insight into senior female employees’ views of the factors that either enable or impede their retention. the following research questions were formulated in terms of the empirical study: research question 1: what are senior female employees’ employment experiences in the organisation? research question 2: what are the objective and subjective factors that enable the retention of senior female employees? research question 3: what are the objective and subjective factors that impede the retention of senior female employees? literature review retention enablers table 1 summarises general research trends on enabling and impeding factors that may contribute to improved levels of retention within organisations. in the south african work context, factors such as remuneration, job characteristics, opportunities for training and development, managerial support, career progression and trajectory prospects, as well as work–life balance have been identified over the years (döckel, 2003; joão & coetzee, 2012; van dyk et al., 2013). table 1: core research trends on enabling and impeding factors of retention. remuneration implies the concepts of financial rewards, basic salary as well as benefits packages (bussin, 2018; coetzee, 2021; döckel, 2003). job characteristics like autonomy and variety are well-established contributing factors of organisational commitment (joão & coetzee, 2012). prospects for training and development are vital to business success as it is essential to ensure updated skills and to remain aligned with emerging technologies (coetzee & veldsman, 2022). travaglione et al. (2017) highlight that managerial support is not only related to skills provision, job opportunities, fair pay and training, but also refers to the establishment of an environment that encourages employees, motivates commitment and ensures involvement in an organisation, thus enabling a culture of trust as well as a safe psychological environment. a safe psychological environment encourages individuals and safeguards their involvement and commitment to the organisation (boxall & macky, 2009). in accordance with potgieter et al. (2018) and tladinyane et al. (2013), additional factors that may encourage individuals in the workplace include career progression and career trajectory prospects. these factors represent retention practices that encourage employees to work towards mastering their present roles and responsibilities by enhancing their skills and improving their knowledge (potgieter et al., 2018; tladinyane et al., 2013). work–life balance as a component of retention may be characterised as an individual’s evaluation of how well-balanced their various life roles are (haar et al., 2014). most work–life balance literature studies view the aspects of life and family as interchangeable, specifically when considering individuals with caregiving obligations for their dependents (jayasingam et al., 2021; özbilgin et al., 2011). the aspects of job characteristics, remuneration, opportunities for training and development, managerial support, career progression and trajectory prospects, as well as work–life balance, relate positively to the concepts of job embeddedness, career and job satisfaction, work commitment, work engagement and employee turnover holistically (ferreira et al., 2022; van dyk et al., 2013). retention enablers in an organisation are characteristic of the career structure that has been pursued, as well as the employee’s individual ideas pertaining to satisfaction and success (döckel et al., 2006; van dyk & coetzee, 2012). organisations will retain educated, professional women if they are willing to modify the ways in which work is completed (annabi & lebovitz, 2017). prominence should also be given to promoting non-traditional career paths, enhancing work–life balance and applying efficient mentor–mentee structures (coetzee, 2021; schutte, 2017; takawira & coetzee, 2019). research has revealed that the motives engendering employees’ exit from organisations reflect a range of both pull and push factors. the pull factors comprise, for example, career changes, career mobility, maternity leave, children and spousal job changes. push factors include pay grades, a lack of career development prospects, a lack of person–organisation fit that leads to unmet needs of employees, a lack of support as well as stress and work conditions (cregård & corin, 2019). in addition, employees’ psychological work immersion may also contribute to their retention (veldsman, 2018). the notion of psychological work immersion alludes to the fit between the employees and their organisation’s identity that flows from three conditions – (1) the synergy between an employee’s expectations and the organisational procedures and environment; (2) the link between an employee’s role and how it fulfils organisational objectives and (3) the values, practices and conventions in the organisation, and whether employees experience them as consistent or not (coetzee & veldsman, 2013; veldsman, 2018). psychological work immersion may foster higher levels of retention among employees because of access to people-efficacy enablers. these may include appreciative feedback, manager credibility, individual congruence, intrateam effectiveness, an enabling environment as well as strategic connection (veldsman & coetzee, 2014). retention and the unique career development needs of women the kaleidoscope career model (kcm) (mainiero & sullivan, 2005) posits that women and men have different considerations for their careers at various career stages (mainiero & gibson, 2018). female careers tend to be more horizontally driven and sporadic, and shift between organisations, as opposed to the constant career progression within one organisation generally preferred by men (mainiero & gibson, 2018; shapiro et al., 2008; sullivan & baruch, 2009). the authenticity, balance and challenge (abc) parameters of the kcm (mainiero & sullivan, 2005) allude to women’s specific career development needs that function as boundary conditions or criteria for remaining within or leaving an organisation throughout the career lifespan. authenticity denotes the psychological boundary condition of experiencing alignment between one’s internal values and personal external behaviours and the values of the employing organisation. individuals experience authenticity, job satisfaction and affective commitment towards the organisation when there is a good fit between their personal values and the organisational values (ferreira et al., 2022; sullivan et al., 2009). balance alludes to the need for achieving an equilibrium between work and personal life roles and responsibilities. research has shown positive associations between work–life balance and career satisfaction among women (takawira & coetzee, 2019). challenge denotes the need for stimulating work and experiences of job autonomy, including career advancement, growth and development (coetzee, 2021; mainiero & gibson, 2018; sullivan et al., 2009). women generally tend to evaluate career choices and options available through the lens of the kaleidoscope by assessing work environments in terms of the fit among work demands, constraints and opportunities, as well as relationships and personal values and interests (sullivan et al., 2009; takawira & coetzee, 2019). in this regard, it stands to reason that employers interested in retaining valuable female staff members need to have deeper insight into their abc employment experiences and the factors that affect their retention. method research setting the south african financial services organisation involved in this study is a business located in pretoria, gauteng province, that functions across the fields of insurance, finance and education. data collection took place on microsoft teamstm (i.e. ms teams) because of the continued presence of the covid-19 pandemic and to ensure that no participants were placed at risk. entrée and establishing the researcher’s role access to the research setting was gained through the company’s operations team. the primary researcher made contact with the organisation based on mutual connections that had been established within the financial services organisation. as a result of covid-19, communication and information dissemination predominantly took place through digital and virtual platform methods. these included telephone calls, emails as well as ms teams interactions. the chief operations officer served as a coordinator and gate-keeper throughout the process. the researchers had no affiliation with the organisation and therefore there were no evident power relationships throughout the process nor was there any conflict of interest. the role of the researcher in qualitative research is to endeavour to gain valuable insight into the thoughts and emotions of the respondents (sutton & austin, 2015), and in doing so, ensure the safeguarding of the participants, as well as the information obtained from the participants. the roles of both the researcher and the participant were contracted through the process of informed consent. written informed consent was also obtained from every participant, and the details specific to the contract between the researcher and the respondents were detailed therein. the primary researcher conducted the entire research process from end to end herself. this includes, and is not limited to, the data collection process, the transcription process, the analysis process as well as the establishment of the final report. sampling procedure a purposive voluntary sample was utilised for the purposes of this study. at the time of the study, the organisation employed 356 staff members in total. female employees comprised 215 of which nine women were employed at senior levels. only senior female employees who met the inclusion criteria were invited to voluntarily participate in the study. the population included female individuals employed by the south african financial services organisation who were between the ages of 23 and 65 years and who were employed in a permanent capacity at managerial level or higher. this constituted women who had a minimum of one direct report. women below the age of 23 and above the age of 65 years were excluded from the study. in addition, any women who did not have direct reports and were not employed in a permanent capacity were also excluded. the women were initially selected according to the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria and were then invited to take part in the study on a voluntary basis. the final sample of nine senior female employees comprised one indian employee, one coloured employee, two black employees and five white female employees with 1–13 years of tenure. their ages ranged between 30 and 55 years. data collection and recording procedure data were collected by using ms teams because of the continued presence of the covid-19 pandemic and to ensure that no participants were placed at risk. a qualitative semi-structured interview approach was followed to explore the participants’ subjective opinions and perspectives, as well as individual experiences (flick, 2009). an interview schedule aligned to the study’s three research questions was drafted to ensure the reliability of the data collection process across the participants. each participant met the researcher for introductory purposes and attended a planned 45-min interview. the virtual (ms teams) interviews were recorded with prior written informed consent from the participants. furthermore, field notes were taken pertaining to the body language and facial expressions of the participants. any other aspects that were noteworthy throughout the study were also noted. the participant interviews were anonymised and all risks were addressed by adhering to principles of ethics. ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained from the research ethics committee of the department of industrial and organisational psychology at the university of south africa (erc reference: #2021_cems/iop_016). permission to conduct the study was sought from the legal department of the organisation with clear conditions after permission was obtained from the chief operations officer. the participants provided written informed consent for voluntary participation in the research. no dependent or unequal relationships were present during the interviews that could have compromised the principle of voluntary participation. confidentiality, privacy and anonymity were maintained throughout the study by ensuring that all participants were anonymised, and their names along with all identifying factors were removed from all the data collected. rigour was applied to ensure that the research findings were presented accurately and without bias. data were recorded, maintained and stored in a password-protected online drive for the duration of the study to ensure that no breaches of anonymity or confidentiality took place. in accordance with gray (2014), interviews require extensive levels of trust, and consequently researchers have a responsibility to be honest and always prevent harm. all participants were treated with dignity and respect (health professions act no. 56 of 1974, 2008). the participants were debriefed by the primary researcher during the data collection process. in these sessions, the participants were given the opportunity to explore their experiences and mitigate any harm that may have occurred. the researcher was equipped with the necessary skills and experience to conduct the research in an ethical and responsible manner. data analysis procedure data are presented sequentially according to the structure of the research objectives underpinning the study. inductive thematic analysis was conducted once the interviews had taken place and had been transcribed. inductive thematic analysis is suitable for analysing understandings, perceptions and experiences; it is also suitable for analysing large sets of qualitative data in a flexible manner (creswell, 2013). inductive thematic analysis was deemed to be well suited to and justified for this study in order to understand and explore employees’ experiences of the organisation (creswell, 2013), as well as to understand the factors that influence the retention and turnover of senior female employees in a south african financial services organisation. atlas.titm version 8 was utilised for the purposes of analysing the data. this software was designed by thomas muhr with the objective of overseeing a large amount of research data (soratto et al., 2017). phase 1 involved becoming familiar with the data, followed by phase 2, generating initial codes, and phase 3, building a coding frame (soratto et al., 2017). phase 4 then involved searching for themes, followed by phase 5, which involved reviewing those themes, and phase 6, which involved defining and naming those themes, and finally, phase 7, producing the report using atlas.titm version 8 (soratto et al., 2017). strategies employed to ensure quality data credibility, integrity and dependability of the data findings (mandal, 2018) were ensured through persistent observation as well as triangulation of the data collected, including the application of scientific rigour regarding the documentation of methods and the data itself. following the guidelines of mandal (2018), triangulation was utilised to ensure the conformability of the study (mandal, 2018) by the primary researcher adopting an impartial approach throughout the data collection and data analysis process. the sample size was adequate for data saturation which provides authenticity to the study. the study is sincere in that it is characterised by self-reflexivity pertaining to the biases, inclinations and subjective values of the researchers. findings the higher-order themes that emerged from the data analysis comprised the following information: (1) senior female employees’ employment experiences within the organisation, (2) the objective and subjective factors that enable the retention of senior female employees and (3) the objective and subjective factors that impede the retention of senior female employees. each theme along with its associated category is elucidated in explicit detail below. senior female employees’ employment experiences within the organisation as shown in table 2, the senior female participants had varied but mostly positive employment experiences within the organisation. some of the participants indicated that their employment experiences had been challenging and filled with aspects related to learning, growth and development, and in certain instances also of unfair treatment. some participants stated that although they had experienced certain aspects of learning, growth and development, they would like more formal and more standardised learning and growth to occur. this included further studies, certification and training that they would like the organisation to provide. responses indicating experiences of unfair treatment alluded to issues of salary in comparison with male peers, differential treatment in the application of human resources policies and procedures and a lack of work–life balance because of workload and tight deadlines. table 2: employment experiences. objective and subjective factors that enable retention as shown in table 3, two subthemes emerged: (1) factors preventing the employees from leaving the organisation and (2) factors that could improve the individual retention of senior female employees. table 3: factors perceived as preventing senior female employees’ leaving and improving retention. factors preventing the senior female employees from leaving the organisation table 3 shows that the participants viewed several factors that they feel prevent them from leaving the organisation. these include factors such as convenient location (i.e. close to home), job satisfaction and job characteristics, the security of a monthly salary and medical aid benefits, meeting personal goals, opportunities for growth, learning and development, and a conducive work environment. factors that could improve the retention of senior female employees as depicted in table 3, most of the participants sought career progression and career trajectory prospects or opportunities for growth. they also wanted study support and/or training and development. in addition, those who did not have a benefits structure really wanted one, in fact so much so that in most instances they would have moved simply for an opportunity that would offer them such benefits. the employees who advocated for formalised organisational structures and designs were those who lacked work–life balance because the workload was not being evenly distributed. in addition, those who advocated for fair and consistent human resource policies and procedures were those who were directly affected by the lack thereof. objective and subjective factors that impede retention as shown in table 4, only one subtheme emerged as an extension of the third higher-order theme, namely, factors motivating the employees to leave the organisation. the predominant themes that emerged included factors such as the need for a fair, equitable and market competitive salary and benefits package, company location close to home, consistency in application of organisational policies and procedures, opportunities for growth and development, and job autonomy. table 4: factors motivating employees to leave the organisation. discussion the objective of the study was to gain deeper insight into senior female employees’ views of the factors that either enable or impede their retention. the findings showed that the employment experiences and perceived factors that either enable or impede retention of the cohort of the senior female participants had common themes relating to (1) the work environment, (2) extrinsic rewards (i.e. remuneration, benefits and job security), (3) the need for self-expression (i.e. challenging work, job autonomy, training and development opportunities for upskilling, and career development opportunities for personal growth and satisfaction) and (4) organisational values, practices and support (i.e. consistency in policy application, fair treatment and work–life balance). south african research in the services industry indicates these themes as core career values embedded in perceptions of employer psychological contract obligations towards employees (coetzee, 2021). the findings are further in agreement with previous research on enabling retention, organisational commitment and job or career satisfaction factors in the south african work context (coetzee, 2021; döckel, 2003; ferreira et al., 2022; joão & coetzee, 2012; potgieter et al., 2018; takawira & coetzee, 2019; tladinyane et al., 2013; van dyk et al., 2013). the four core themes of career values that emerged in the present study further seem to corroborate the unique kcm (mainiero & sullivan, 2006; sullivan et al., 2009) career development needs for abc as conditions for the retention of the female participants. the condition or parameter of authenticity was reflected in the participants’ evaluation of synergy between their personal values and the organisational values and practices (i.e. consistent application of human resources policies, competitive market-related compensation and benefits and fair remuneration practices). research on psychological immersion (veldsman & coetzee, 2014) highlights the importance of an enabling and supportive work environment to enhance employees’ psychological attachment to the organisation. the findings of the present study further corroborate research that shows employees’ perceptions of unfairness versus impartial treatment may be a fundamental retention enabler or impeder (ceplenski, 2013). perceptions of unfair treatment may increase counter-productive work behaviour, create an environment of hostility and distrust and, furthermore, increase absenteeism as well as voluntary turnover (ceplenski, 2013). balance as a parameter of retention was reflected in the participants’ need for work–life balance and the importance of the location of the company to be close to home to lessen travel time. some participants seemed to struggle balancing their various obligations as a result of their workload and tight deadlines. research by takawira and coetzee (2019) also indicates company support for work–life balance as a predictor of women’s career satisfaction. previous research suggests that organisations will retain educated professional women if they are willing to revise the ways work needs to be completed (annabi & lebovitz, 2017). the parameter of challenge was evident in the participants’ views of challenging work, job autonomy, opportunities for career growth, training and development for upskilling and personal development as important enabling or impeding factors of their retention. research has shown that training and development opportunities not only motivate employees but also increase their loyalty to the organisation (hassan et al., 2013). opportunities for training and development are highlighted by various research studies as vital to the retention of employees in a south african organisational context (döckel et al., 2006; van dyk & coetzee, 2012; van dyk et al., 2013). although the senior female participants indicated positive experiences of growth and development, they also expressed a need for more formalised and standardised learning and growth to occur. this included further studies, certification and training that employees would like the organisation to provide as a retention motivating factor. implications for practice the findings of the study suggest that the company should ensure that female employees’ parameters for abc are met as considerations of retention. the findings highlighted formalised consistency in the application of human resource policies and procedures, fair, competitive compensation and benefits, training and development, managerial support, opportunities for career development, as well as work–life balance in workload and deadlines as core factors to address in a retention strategy. addressing the unique kcm abc (mainiero & sullivan, 2005; sullivan et al., 2009) parameters for retention expressed by the participants may help to create greater synergy or fit between personal career values and those of the organisation. the female cohort may become more deeply immersed psychologically when considering their identification with the company which may promote their retention. limitations of and directions for future research a core limitation of the qualitative study is the subjective and self-report nature of the research design. caution should be exercised in generalising the findings, as these are only relevant to the present organisation and the sample of female participants. future studies could consider involving a larger sample of women across various occupational groups in various industries using quantitative studies to compare the findings of the current study with those obtained from other samples. the intention is to utilise the insights gained from this research to help stimulate replication research across industries and organisations to deepen the understanding of the unique career and retention needs of senior female staff members. conclusion notwithstanding the limitations of the qualitative design of the present study, new insights were gained regarding female staff members’ parameters or conditions for their retention. in essence, the findings highlighted formalised consistency in the application of human resource policies and procedures, fair, competitive compensation and benefits, training and development, managerial support, opportunities for career development, as well as work–life balance in workload and deadlines as core factors to address in a retention strategy for senior female employees. the findings may be used to introduce practices that support the retention of valuable female talent. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the company and participants for their support in conducting this research. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data used in this study can be made available only upon approval of the corresponding author’s research institution’s research ethics committee, with formal reasonable request to the author. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references annabi, h., & lebovitz, s. (2017). improving the retention of women in the it workforce: an investigation of gender diversity interventions in the usa. information systems journal, 28(6), 1049–1081. https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12182 aqil, r., & memon, s. (2019). the exit interview in pakistan’s it and banking industries: mere formality or catalyst for change? global business and organizational excellence, 39(2), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1002/joe.21986 bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2003). dual processes at work in a call centre: an application of the job demands–resources model. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 12(4), 393–417. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320344000165 barkhuizen, n., & gumede, b. (2021). the relationship between talent management, job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions of employees in a selected government institution. sa journal of human resource management, 19, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1396 boxall, p., & macky, k. (2009). research and theory on high-performance work systems: progressing the high-involvement stream. human resource management journal, 19(1), 3–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2008.00082.x budler, r. (2019). south african companies to brace in a global war for talent. retrieved from https://www.fanews.co.za/article/views-letters-interviews-comments/18/all/1102/south-african-companies-to-brace-in-a-global-war-for-talent/26503 bussin, m. (2018). retention strategies : the key to attracting and retaining excellent employees. kr publishing. carr, p.l., gunn, c., raj, a., kaplan, s., & freund, k.m. (2017). recruitment, promotion, and retention of women in academic medicine: how institutions are addressing gender disparities. career policies, 27(3), 374–381. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.whi.2016.11.003 ceplenski, c. (2013). employee rewards: the importance of perceived fairness, benefits and compensation. retrieved from https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2013/06/29/employee-rewards-the-importance-of-perceived-fairness/ coetzee, m. (2021). when protean career values intertwine with employee-employer obligations: exploring the implications of digital era work mindsets for modern psychological contract practices. in m. coetzee, & a. deas (eds.), redefining the psychological contract in the digital era: issues for research and practice (pp. 95–109). springer nature. coetzee, m., potgieter, i.l., & ferreira, n. (2018). psychology of retention: theory, research and practice. springer nature. retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&an=1884155&site=eds-live&scope=site coetzee, m., & veldsman, d. (2013). exploring espoused organisational values in relation to lived values experiences in the south african financial sector. african journal business management, 7(7), 480–489. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10500/12046 coetzee, m., & veldsman, d. (2022). the digital-era industrial/organisational psychologist: employers’ view of key service roles, skills and attributes. sa journal of industrial psychology, 48, a1991. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v48i0.1991 cregård, a., & corin, l. (2019). public sector managers: the decision to leave or remain in a job. human resource development international, 22(2). 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2018.1563749 creswell, j.w. (2013). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches (3rd ed.). sage. csikszentmihalyi, m. (1975). beyond boredom and anxiety. josseybass publishers. döckel, a. (2003). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. master’s thesis. university of pretoria. retrieved from https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/27597/dissertation.pdf?se döckel, a., basson, j.s., & coetzee, m. (2006). the effect of retention factors on organizational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. sa journal of human resource management, 4(2), 20–28. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v4i2.91 ferreira, n., coetzee, m., & potgieter, i.l. (2022). validity of the career embeddedness scale as predictor of affective commitment. south african journal of industrial psychology, 48(1), a1956. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v48i0.1956 flick, u.w.e. (2009). an introduction to qualitative research. sage. ganji, s.f.g., johnson, l.w., sorkhan, v.b., & banejad, b. (2021). the effect of employee empowerment, organizational support, and ethical climate on turnover intention: the mediating role of job satisfaction. iranian journal of management studies, 14(2), 311–329. https://doi.org/10.22059/ijms.2020.302333.674066 gray, d. (2014). doing research in the real world. sage. haar, j.m., russo, m., suñe, a., & ollier-malaterre, a. (2014). outcomes of work–life balance on job satisfaction, life satisfaction and mental health: a study across seven cultures. journal of vocational behavior, 85(3), 361–373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2014.08.010 hassan, w., raji, a., qama, r., rida, j., & suhail, s. (2013). the effect of training on employee retention. global journal of management and business research administration and management, 13(6), 1–5. retrieved from https://journalofbusiness.org/index.php/gjmbr/article/view/969 health professions act. (2008). act no. 56 of 1974. retrieved from https://www.hpcsa.co.za/uploads/legal/legislation/health_professions_ct_56_1974.pdf jayasingam, s., lee, s.t., & mohd zain, k.n. (2021). demystifying the life domain in work-life balance: a malaysian perspective. current psychology: a journal for diverse perspectives on diverse psychological issues, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01403-5 joāo, t.f., & coetzee, m. (2012). job retention factors, perceived career mobility and organisational commitment in the south african financial sector. journal of psychology in africa, 22(1), 69–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2012.10874523 kahn, w.a. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. the academy of management journal, 33(4), 692–724. https://doi.org/10.2307/256287 kumar, a.a., & mathimaran, k.b. (2017). employee retention strategies: an empirical research. global journal of management and business research, 17(1), 1–15. retrieved from https://journalofbusiness.org/index.php/gjmbr/article/view/2243 lin, m.p., lall, m.d., samuels-kalow, m., linden, j.a., perman, s., chang, a.m., & agrawal, p. (2019). impact of a women-focused professional organization on academic retention and advancement: perceptions from a qualitative study. academic emergency medicine, 26(3), 303–316. https://doi.org/10.1111/acem.13699 mabaso, c., maja, m., kavir, m., lekwape, l., makhasane, s., & khumalo, m. (2021). talent retention strategies: an exploratory study within the consulting industry in gauteng province, south africa. acta commercii, 21(1), a885. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v21i1.885 mainiero, l.a., & gibson, d.e. (2018). the kaleidoscope career model revisited: how midcareer men and women diverge on authenticity, balance, and challenge. journal of career development, 45(4), 361–377. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845317698223 mainiero, l.a., & sullivan, s.e. (2005). kaleidoscope careers: an alternate explanation for the opt-out revolution. academy of management executive, 19(1), 106–123. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2005.15841962 mandal, p.c. (2018). qualitative research: criteria of evaluation. international journal of academic research and development, 3(2), 591–596. meintjes, a.j. (2019). job stress and turnover intention of employees in the south african steel manufacturing industry: a management challenge. journal of contemporary management, 16(2), 493–512. https://doi.org/10.35683/jcm18075.45 muzaffar, s., & javed, u. (2021). training and development opportunities and turnover intentions post saudization. palarch’s journal of archaeology of egypt/egyptology, 18(14), 521–531. naidu, p., fagan, j.j., lategan, c., devenish, l.p., & chu, k.m. (2020). the role of the university of cape town, south africa in the training and retention of surgeons in sub-saharan africa. the american journal of surgery, 220(5), 1208–1212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjsurg.2020.06.070 nel, h., & meyer, j. (2016). attraction, education and retention of technical women in south africa. paper presented at the ieee international conference on industrial engineering and engineering management (ieem), 04–07 december 2016. https://doi.org/10.1109/ieem.2016.7797859 özbilgin, m.f., beauregard, t.a., tatli, a., & bell, m.p. (2011). work–life, diversity and intersectionality: a critical review and research agenda. international journal of management reviews, 13(2), 177–198. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2010.00291.x petriglieri, j. (2018, may–june). talent management and the dual-career couple. harvard business review, pp. 106–113. retrieved from https://hbr.org/2018/05/talent-management-and-the-dual-career-couple potgieter, i.l., coetzee, m., & ferreira, n. (2018). the role of career concerns and workplace friendship in the job embeddedness – retention practices satisfaction link. south african journal of industrial psychology, 11(1), a1519. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v44i0.1519 schawbel, d. (2020). the top 10 workplace trends for 2020. retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-10-workplace-trends-2020-dan-schawbel/ schutte, e.r. (2017). retaining professional female millennials through mentoring. mba independent study project. st norbert college. sepahvand, r., & khodashahri, r.b. (2021). strategic human resource management practices and employee retention: a study of the moderating role of job engagement. iranian journal of management studies, 14(2), 437–468. https://doi.org/10.22059/ijms.2020.291391.673843 shapiro, s., oman, d., thoresen, c., plante, t., & flinders, t. (2008). cultivating mindfulness: effects on well-being. journal of clinical psychology, 64(7), 840–862. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20491 soratto, j., pires, d.e.p., trindade, l.l., oliveira, j.s.a., forte, e.c.n., & melo, t.p. (2017). job dissatisfaction among health professionals working in the family health strategy. texto contexto enferm, 26(3), e2500016. https://doi.org/10.1590/0104-07072017002500016 sullivan, s., & baruch, y. (2009). advances in career theory and research: a critical review and agenda for future exploration. journal of management, 35(6), 1542–1571. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206309350082 sullivan, s.e., forret, m.l., carraher, s.m., & mainiero, l.a. (2009). using the kaleidoscope career model to examine generational differences in work attitudes. career development international, 14(3), 284–302. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430910966442 sutton, j., & austin, z. (2015). qualitative research: data collection, analysis, and management. the canadian journal of hospital pharmacy, 68(3), 226–231. https://doi.org/10.4212/cjhp.v68i3.1456 takawira, n., & coetzee, m. (2019). psychosocial resources, support, and career satisfaction among professional women: a south african study. journal of psychology in africa, 29(3), 208–216. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2019.1625598 tladinyane, r.t., coetzee, m., & masenge, a. (2013). psychological career meta-capacities in relation to employees’ retention-related dispositions. southern african business review, 17(2), 140–163. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10500/12050 travaglione, a., scott-ladd, b., hancock, j., & chang, j. (2017). managerial support: renewing the role of managers amidst declining union support for employees. journal of general management, 43(1), 24–32. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306307017723313 van dyk, j., & coetzee, m. (2012). retention factors in relation to organisational commitment in medical and information technology services. sa journal of human resource management, 10(2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.433 van dyk, j., coetzee, m., & takawira, n. (2013). satisfaction with retention factors as predictors of the job embeddedness of medical and information technology services staff. southern african business review, 17(1), 57–75. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10500/12039 veldsman, d. (2018). the flow@work model as a talent retention framework for the knowledge economy: theory, research and practice. in m. coetzee, i.l. potgieter, & n. ferreira (eds.), psychology of retention: theory, research and practice (pp. 36–46). springer. veldsman, d., & coetzee, m. (2014). people performance enablers in relation to employees’ psychological attachment to the organization. journal of psychology in africa, 24(6), 480–486. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2014.997028 zala, y., & rajani, c. (2021). a study on retention practices in banking industry. ilkogretim online, 20(5), 2990–2999. https://doi.org/10.17051/ilkonline.2021.05.324 abstract introduction literature review research design and methods findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) lynne molloy graduate school of business, faculty of commerce, university of cape town, cape town, south africa linda c. ronnie school of management studies, faculty of commerce, university of cape town, cape town, south africa citation molloy, l., & ronnie, l.c. (2021). mindset shifts for the fourth industrial revolution: insights from the life insurance sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1543. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1543 original research mindset shifts for the fourth industrial revolution: insights from the life insurance sector lynne molloy, linda c. ronnie received: 28 dec. 2020; accepted: 08 june 2021; published: 22 july 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the fourth industrial revolution (4ir) challenges organisations to embrace and adapt to a rising wave of technological innovation to remain relevant. research purpose: based on the interaction between technology change, the industry as a whole and the perceptions of individuals within organisations, this study explored how south african life insurance companies view the 4ir and how they are responding to the changes prompted by it. motivation for study: this study sought to establish a baseline for practitioners in the life insurance industry to navigate the 4ir more effectively and for researchers to undertake further inquiry into specific enablers and inhibitors of technology transformation. research approach/design and method: the study took an exploratory, qualitative approach. interviews were conducted with 12 organisational leaders, purposively selected from a range of large, medium and start-up life insurers in south africa. a thematic analysis method was used to analyse the data. main findings: four key themes related to organisational change and resistance to change within the industry were found: lack of urgency; lack of agility; partnerships and ecosystems; and abilities of people and leaders. practical/managerial implications: managers should recognise the urgency for proactive change, encourage collaborative practices by leveraging ecosystems and forming partnerships and ensure lifelong learning of employees. contribution/value-add: there is a paucity of empirical work on managerial perceptions of the 4ir and the readiness for change within the life insurance industry. this study contributes to this debate and provided insights on organisational views at a management level. keywords: the fourth industrial revolution; technological innovation; life insurance; organisational change; change readiness; resistance to change. introduction society and business are increasingly contending with the rising wave of technological innovation known as the fourth industrial revolution (4ir) (davis, 2016; roblek, meško, & krapež, 2016; whysall, owtram, & brittain, 2019). this transformative phenomenon has begun to drastically alter the way that businesses operate, introducing a significant threat to those that resist it and a sizeable opportunity to those that embrace it. to date, the life insurance industry has managed to evade this change because of the highly complex and specialised nature of the industry (catlin & lorenz, 2017). however, an evasion strategy is quickly becoming unrealistic as life insurers face increasing pressure from consumers and other stakeholders who are expecting a level of service and digitisation that aligns with their experience of other industries (bose & bastid, 2018; malherbe & dixon, 2017). although there is a common perception that the insurance industry is technology avoidant, insurance companies have been attempting to increase and expand their internal digital capabilities. this metamorphosis occurs through leveraging a range of technologies, from wearable devices to machine learning (bose & bastid, 2018; bughin, laberge, & mellbye, 2017). however, although companies within the industry have developed multiple innovations like these in isolation, the industry as a whole has yet to take a more integrated approach to technology adoption to shift the fundamental business model. this is happening as a new cohort of tech start-ups is entering the market under the banner of insurtech. as more insurtech start-ups emerge, incumbent firms that fail to recognise and engage with the 4ir run the risk of losing market share, workforce obsolescence or business model disruption. in a country that has become increasingly dependent on the growth of the financial services sector for gross domestic product (gdp) growth and faces extreme unemployment, this loss of ground for incumbents can have devastating results for the country as a whole. research purpose and objectives south africa is not alone in its struggle to navigate the exponential change of the 4ir. increasing investment and movements towards insurtech in north america and asia over the last 2 years (holliday, 2019) mean that learnings from the global insurance industry’s approach to the 4ir may be instrumental in guiding the way forward for south africa. understanding the current attitudes and reactions of south africa’s life insurance companies towards the 4ir is an important step in incorporating global learnings to prepare the local industry and workforce for the future. this study therefore explores the views of leaders from a diverse group of local life insurance companies to understand how these organisations define the 4ir, their perceptions of its effects on the industry and their own responses to the 4ir to date. canning and found (2015) find that when organisations understand the causes of resistance to change, they can create change programmes that are better suited to their organisations. this study aims to create greater understanding by examining the interaction between technology change, the life insurance industry as a whole and the perceptions and actions of individuals within south african insurance companies through the following research objectives: what organisations understand by the 4ir, the perceived effects of the 4ir on the south african life insurance industry and what responses organisations have had to the 4ir and the reasons for these. this inquiry serves to establish a baseline for practitioners in the life insurance industry to navigate the impact of the 4ir more effectively and for researchers to undertake further inquiry into specific enablers and inhibitors of technology transformation in the industry. literature review south african life insurance although south africa is an emerging market, the formal life insurance industry dates back to 1845 and is considered to be a mature market (malherbe & dixon, 2017). south africa has the third highest life insurance penetration rate in the world, and in 2016 the industry was ranked 16th in the world in terms of annual earnings from insurance premiums (axco, 2018). furthermore, the local industry has contributed many innovations to the global industry, including the development of critical illness products, products for individuals living with human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) and mobile insurance propositions. the regulatory environment within the industry has closely tracked advances in leading insurance markets as evidenced by the transition to a risk-based solvency model, which is similar to the european solvency ii, and the globally trend of consumer protection initiatives such as treating customers fairly and the retail distribution review. this perspective suggests a market that is comparable to developed insurance markets across the globe. however, this position is challenged by another side to the market, which is characterised by typical emerging market features. with an unemployment rate of 27.6% (statistics south africa, 2019) and a gini coefficient of 0.63 (world bank, 2018), south africa has one of the most unequal societies in the world. this inequality creates a dichotomy of demand in the insurance market with affluent consumers demanding solutions akin to those found in developed markets and impoverished consumers requiring simple assistance or micro-insurance solutions. moreover, socio-economic disparities fuel mortality and morbidity risks as well as higher transactional costs of insurance provision, which contribute to more costly local insurance offerings and may serve to impede innovation efforts because of affordability concerns (swiss re, 2017). the outcome is a hybrid insurance market that is comparable to leading developed markets on the one hand, but distinctively influenced by a broader developing market context on the other hand. as the rise of fintech in the financial services sector in sub-saharan africa has demonstrated, technology-led transformation can present a major opportunity for increasing access and penetration within less developed markets that were under-served by traditional business models (arner, barberis, & buckley, 2015). the lack of infrastructure in these markets is often cited as an enabler of exponential technological change that favours emerging markets as sites of change over developed countries, the so-called ‘leapfrog’ phenomenon. although small start-ups have largely led the way for transformation in fintech, as in any of the emergent ‘-tech’ sectors, the need for partnership of some kind between these new players and the incumbent providers is seen as essential (arner et al., 2015; okada, 2018). consequently, life insurance firms need to engage with the various opportunities and threats presented by the 4ir. the impact of the fourth industrial revolution when the 4ir largely connotes a wave of automation and robotisation, the broad implications of this transformation hold across industries and geographies. the far-reaching nature of this wave has led to a common association of workplace automation with extensive job losses and the obsolescence of human capital (peters, 2017; schwab, 2016a; world bank, 2019). however, in their interview with bernstein and raman (2015), brynjolfsson and mcafee pointed out that only a particular segment of the workforce is at a high risk of displacement, namely middle-class workers with medium-level skills (i.e. those who do not possess highly technical skills to do intensely creative work, but also do not perform low-level manual labour). this has resulted in what they have coined ‘the great decoupling’, which describes the ongoing pattern where economic productivity continues to climb (albeit at a slower rate), although family earnings and employment rates have stagnated. this disparity demonstrates a decoupling of what these researchers refer to as the ‘two halves of the cycle of prosperity’ (bernstein & raman, 2015, p. 69). in south africa, skills mismatch, which emanates from the difference between what tertiary education institutions are teaching young people and what employers demand, is often highlighted as a major bottleneck for industry and economic development (dessus, goddard, & hanush, 2017). the tendency for this mismatch to play out across socio-economic and racial divides in south africa negatively impacts the country’s social cohesion. this pattern could be exacerbated by technology advances or alternatively improved by it (chetty, 2018). this is critical as schwab (2016b) warns that the divide between lowand high-skilled workers ‘is a recipe for democratic malaise and dereliction’ unless organisations plan ahead to forecast future skills requirements (whysall et al., 2019). the threat to democracy and stability is acute in south africa where policies have failed to sufficiently address the determinants of gaps in skills, economic opportunities and income that are rooted in apartheid-era policies. these determinants include poor education, crime and access to technology, among others. for instance, in 2011, only 29% of adult south africans had completed formal secondary education (chetty, 2018). this can present a major barrier to an industrial transformation that is dependent on technological infrastructure and a high-skilled workforce. a more optimistic view of technological transformation acknowledges that humans will continue to be superior in vital skills such as creativity, interpersonal relations and dexterity (world bank, 2019). although jobs and workplaces may change, human involvement will remain core to economic activity given the human adeptness for tasks that require perception, social intelligence or creative intelligence (frey & osbourne, 2017). recent surveys suggest that the rising workforce shares this optimism. a 2019 survey of millennial workers from 42 different countries, including south africa, showed that 49% of respondents felt that the 4ir technologies would augment their jobs, whereas 15% felt that it would have no effect (deloitte, 2019a). yet, within the south african cohort, 58% still felt that the 4ir would make it more difficult to get or change jobs, whereas 12% said that they did not have any of the requisite knowledge or skills to keep pace with the 4ir work environment (deloitte, 2019b). this view is shared by global industry executives; in a 2019 survey, 55% reported skills mismatch as the top challenge related to talent management in the context of the 4ir (deloitte, 2019c). currently, many of these organisations rely on the external education system to provide jobs training. however, industry experts suggest that businesses must adopt a continuous learning mindset if they are to keep up with external changes (bender & willmott, 2017; spelman & weinelt, 2018). in south africa, the incentives for and abilities of companies to adopt a continuous learning mindset may be limited by other external factors. the insurance industry in south africa, like other entrenched sectors such as telecommunications and banking, is fairly oligopolistic. the high concentration of the markets in these sectors makes it difficult for new entrants to challenge the status quo with innovation of any kind (chetty, 2018). an example that is particularly relevant for both incumbents and challengers is telkom’s monopoly within the south african telecommunications sector, which severely inhibits the availability of affordable, high-quality data services in the market. telkom’s hold on the market contributes to the under-developed state of infrastructure in the country, which shapes the models financial service providers and insurers use to deploy innovation effectively (arner et al., 2015). as of 2016, only 9.5% of south african households had internet access (independent communications authority of south africa, 2018), which limits online penetration in these markets, or at least pressures insurance providers to think more creatively out of the box to market and distribute their services. these contextual factors create an environment within which significant organisational change must take place. resistance to change to understand how an industry perceives and reacts to the impacts of the 4ir, it is useful to draw on the literature related to past technological changes and how industries and organisations perceived them. technology changes like those presented by the 4ir could be thought of as ‘jolts’ that destabilise the organisational field (lewis, 2019). organisations would be expected to respond with organisational change action either because they feel forced to respond to a threat, or they choose to seize an opportunity (singh, saeed, & bertsch, 2012). however, lewis (2019) explains that jolt events do not carry objective meaning. they are rather subject to the interpretations of people in organisations, who may view them as threats, opportunities or irrelevant, or may not see them at all. if people in an organisation recognise the 4ir as either an opportunity or threat that demands change action, the scale and magnitude of the organisational change implied can be daunting and therefore spur resistance to change. this resistance can manifest at the organisational, group or individual level (singh et al., 2012). this study is primarily concerned with change at the organisational level, which includes the decision of a business to adapt its models, processes and culture in response to technology change. however, an organisation’s ability to change, either because of factors beyond the firm’s control or as part of a planned implementation process, can be shaped by resistance at the individual and industry level. change management effective technological transformation requires organisations to have a culture and practices that promote continuous learning. cultivating this kind of internal organisational learning is necessary to keep up with digitalisation, which focusses on best practices and knowledge development within the company (kuusisto, 2017), and will require internal changes in core capabilities and culture. this introduces the need for change management, as coetzee and stanz (2015) agree: ‘if change is unavoidable, it needs to be manged to serve the best interests of the organisation’ (p. 76). however, traditional notions of change management as a linear, planned process, as per the lewin three-stage model of change, may be insufficient in the light of a rapidly changing and increasingly uncertain operating environment that can lead to emergent behaviours within the organisation (lord, dinh, hoffman, & burke, 2015). as a primary example, resistance to change among individuals, which can be experienced very differently from person to person and for a variety of reasons, can create barriers-to-change within the organisation that impedes change management strategies (coetzee & stanz, 2015). resistance to change is not only an individual reaction to internal changes, such as culture shifts, new processes or new capability requirements. people can also be resistant to external changes in their institutional contexts, such as those brought on by technology change, which reflects the external organisational learning abilities of the firm (kuusisto, 2017). in his analysis of the failed mini-computers developer digital equipment corporation (dec), lewis (2019) described how this market leader with vastly superior technological capabilities nevertheless ‘lost’ the personal computer race to international business machines (ibm) corporation because it failed to adapt to institutional changes in the industry. as hinings, greenwood, reay and suddaby (2004) explained, businesses in mature industries tend towards organisational isomorphism (dimaggio & powell, 1983) where they adopt the same archetypal template of structures, activities and practices. if a new archetype emerges within the industry and is adopted by others whilst the old archetype loses legitimacy, the institutional context fundamentally changes. the case of dec represents a scenario where the organisation does not recognise the ‘jolt’ within their field and suffers the consequences. it is therefore important for organisations to understand how and why people within an organisation resist change to successfully manage such transformational change in the external environment and create suitable internal change management programmes (canning & found, 2015). summary given that the concept of organisational resistance to change makes provision for the role of individual and industry factors in responding to a change event and managing change, it provides a useful lens for exploring the perceptions of the south african insurance industry to a jolt event like the 4ir. figure 1 shows a representation of external transformative change to inform the methodology, where the overall industry response is broken into the factors that influence resistance to change at the different levels of the industry (individual or group, organisational and institutional). figure 1: representation of change introduced by the fourth industrial revolution on the insurance industry. although the literature review establishes that at the institutional level, the industry is objectively not adopting new archetypes at scale as a response to the impacts of the 4ir, this study is interested in exploring the subjective perceptions that people within insurance companies may have of the same phenomenon. this lays the foundation for a research methodology that explores resistance to change in an industry through the perceptions of individuals. the framework also establishes the important internal and external factors that should be included in the research questions. research design and methods overview this study examines a specific phenomenon that is the product of the current state of global and local technology adoption and the internal dynamics of an industry. it is, consequently, under-researched, with few studies available that address the wider 4ir phenomenon, the south african context and the local life insurance industry. exploratory approaches are useful for studying situations such as these, where little is known about the phenomenon (gray, 2017). given the study objectives to describe, explain and explore a complex situation, a qualitative, exploratory research strategy was used (leedy, ormrod, & johnson, 2019) that would allow people who are closest to the situation to provide descriptive data. the research design therefore included structured interviews with senior employees at an array of different south african life insurance organisations by using an interview schedule that explored the different components of the change from the literature review. an inductive approach to data analysis was used to formulate meaning from their responses and relate the emergent themes to the research objectives. research participants and sampling method the target population for this study was senior employees within the south african life insurance companies who would have access to information related to company vision and leadership that junior employees might not. guidelines from leedy et al. (2019) were applied to derive the selection criteria, namely the inclusion of both typical and non-typical examples and the inclusion of a diverse group of organisational environments. the participants were therefore all executive-level decision-makers from multiple organisations that were diverse in terms of size, maturity and the degree of technological integration (i.e. a traditional insurance company compared with an insurtech firm). publicly available information on the company websites was used to identify organisations that would meet the criteria, and participants were approached directly by the researchers. guest, bunce and johnson (2006) propose the use of data saturation for non-probabilistic sampling to determine the optimal number of interviews required to obtain valid results. saturation is reached when no additional themes emerge from the interviews. in this study, data saturation was reached after 12 interviews. this group of interview participants was from eight organisations: five large and established organisations and three small, medium-sized or start-up organisations. the participants held various senior leadership roles in their organisations; the sample included three chief executive officers (ceos), two technology executives, four directors of established business operations and three directors focussed on emerging business operations (table 1). table 1: participant descriptions. data collection procedure structured interviews with organisational representatives were used to address the three research objectives, which broadly aimed to explore the response of the south african insurance industry towards the impacts of the 4ir. building on the concepts of resistance to change and change management, the interview questionnaire consisted of three sections that reflect the three levels in which resistance to change can take hold: industry assessment (institutional level) – general definition of the 4ir and effects on the south african insurance industry. company description (organisational level) – vision, capabilities, culture and people. leadership (individual level) – views, actions and abilities of leaders. the full questionnaire is provided in appendix 1. the initial question, which asked participants to define the 4ir, served to establish their familiarity with the concept and ensure that their understanding was in line with the one in this study, that is, seeing the 4ir as a technological transformation or a jolt event. within the company and leadership sections, the questions were selected to probe general aspects of the organisation and leaders, before exploring how these aspects respond (or do not respond) to technological transformation. this was performed explicitly to, for instance, determine how the organisation’s current vision did or did not respond to the 4ir. a pilot interview was conducted with a mock participant of a similar profile to the sample population prior to performing the official interviews to test the research instrument. the pilot was used to refine the wording to make the questions clearer and remove any potentially leading wording from the final questionnaire. data collection took place from september to november 2018. the interviews were held at the participants’ places of work in a quiet space to avoid distraction, create a situation in which participants felt comfortable (quinlan, babin, carr, griffin, & zikmund, 2015) and develop an informal rapport with participants whilst asking interview questions (bryman & bell, 2015). participants had been contacted and invited to participate in the study via email in the month prior to the interview. after participants agreed to participate, interview dates were scheduled, and written informed consent was obtained from participants on the day of the interview, prior to the data collection. all interviews were audio-recorded by using a smartphone device and stored securely on a file for later transcription. interview transcriptions were used to code and analyse the data. strategies to ensure data quality and integrity there are two perspectives from which to explore validity in qualitative research, namely internal validity and external validity. to strengthen internal validity, researcher reflexivity is recommended (leedy et al., 2019). given that one of the researchers actively participated in the life insurance market for several years prior to this study, biases were likely to exist. these biases include perceived resistance to change within the researcher’s organisation and concern about the need for insurance companies to be more proactive about technological change. an attempt was made to identify these biases prior to interviews and to actively suspend them during interviews as well as during the analytical process. although the researcher cannot claim to have excluded all possible bias, every effort was made to minimise this through presenting interview questions neutrally and consistently to all interviewees and seeking agreement from each interviewee to validate the findings. interviewees were therefore involved in the validation process and asked to check the accuracy of the data (bryman & bell, 2015). to strengthen external validity, leedy et al. (2019) recommend that researchers explore exceptions and contradictory evidence to guard against the tendency to identify patterns that are consistent with existing, ingrained beliefs. this was achieved, in part, through the sample selection. the sample included participants who held a variety of traditional and non-traditional decision-making roles within the organisation. it also included a combination of people in more technology and innovation-oriented teams and people focused more on operation optimisation to ensure diversity of perspectives. in addition, the researchers explored unusual responses with interviewees as they arose by asking follow-up questions. in terms of transferability, methodologists caution against extending current conditions to some period in the future (gray, 2017). this view is particularly relevant for this area of research where the business and technological environments are rapidly changing. findings are likely to be limited in their transferability to within a shortto medium-term time frame. data analysis an inductive approach to thematic analysis was taken to uncover emergent themes from the interview and observational data. creswell’s (2013) data analysis spiral was used to analyse the data with the following steps. data organisation: the transcribed data from the interviews and researcher notes were organised in a digital database, where large segments of the text were dissected into smaller units of anecdotes, phrases and words. this approach was used to screen the data units for emerging themes. data review: the process of manually reviewing the data allowed the researchers to form initial impressions of the data. an initial coding template was constructed from notes taken during this review. data classification: following the data review, king and brooks’ (2017) approach was used to develop a coding template by identifying, colour-coding and separating general categories, themes, subcategories and subthemes. through this process, the researchers were able to develop a sense of patterns and underlying meanings in the data set. the initial coding template provided a starting point for the final coding template that was developed by manually incorporating the remaining six interviews and cycling iteratively through all interviews. data synthesis: primary themes linking the different codes and categories were developed from this coding template. the researchers took care to carefully define the themes and align them with interviewee responses. this process created an opportunity to scrutinise each theme for distinctiveness and relevance. the synthesis process transformed specific outcomes into more general and holistic findings to provide a basis for developing conclusions and recommendations. limitations of the study compared with quantitative research, qualitative research is often criticised for having small sample sizes, using non-probabilistic techniques and offering results, which may be coloured by the experience and perspective of the researcher, all of which undermine the generalisability of the findings. although broad generalisation is unlikely to be achievable, particularly given the distinctiveness of the south african life insurance industry, gray (2017) suggests that a limited set of generalisations may be applicable in moderation to a specific or related context. however, given the rapidly changing business and technological environment created by the 4ir, it is expected that both the generalisability and transferability of the findings of this study will be limited to the specific sector and shortto medium-term time frame. findings the thematic analysis produced distinctive primary and supporting themes within the data set, which are summarised in table 2. table 2: summary of themes. lack of urgency the 4ir is something that participants largely recognise as an attractor of new competitors, as well as an enabler of their ability to be more client-centric. however, the impact of this revolution in the south african life insurance to date was unanimously agreed to be minimal. although all 12 participants admitted to a sluggish response to the 4ir in their own organisations, half of the participants qualified this response by acknowledging that this slow, measured response was intentional. one-third of participants further suggested that this measured response was necessary because of unpreparedness in the market. kelvin (large insurer, emerging business focus) said that insurers ‘need to go at a pace that the customer is used to. so radicalising technology before a market is ready for it is a wasted use of your energy’. although this could be viewed as a generally reasonable approach for any industry in any geography, other respondents pointed out the particular need for slow change in the south african context. john (large insurer, established business focus) noted that many potential customers in south africa, particularly those within lower socio-economic groups, were not ready to embrace new technologies. john said, ‘there’s a little bit of an overplay on digital sometimes – it doesn’t have to always be digital’. this sentiment was reiterated by kirk (large insurer, emerging business focus): ‘you can’t just innovate for innovation’s sake’. all four participants who pointed to market readiness as a bottleneck further alluded to readiness within the intermediary market. for instance, clark (medium-sized insurer, established business focus) said, ‘we can do exciting stuff on a computer and an ipad, but it seems that a lot of brokers still want paper’. lack of agility although six of the interviewees considered the life insurance industry’s slow response to the 4ir to be intentional, the other six conceded that this was a regrettable outcome and largely because of a lack of agility. in this study, a lack of agility means that the business is not able to respond quickly to emergent threats or opportunities. lack of agility was noted by 11 interviewees as the primary inhibitor towards a meaningful progress across the industry, regardless of intention. dan (large insurer, emerging business focus) said, ‘there’s lots of opportunity, but nobody is really grabbing the bull by the horns’. therefore, whether interviewees subscribe to the belief that the measured response to the 4ir is intentional or unintentional, they all recognise that the industry is not moving quickly with respect to technological transformation. three sub-themes emerged as drivers of the lack of agility across the industry: structural inertia (eight participants), cultural inertia (six participants) and risk aversion (five participants). structural inertia refers to the processes, systems and structures in a firm that serves to support and reinforce a certain way of doing things. speaking to the issue of structural inertia within the (large insurer, established business focus) industry as a whole, frank said: ‘quite often we are trying so hard just to keep the wheels turning in the current world, that it’s hard to imagine what the future world is going to look like.’ structural inertia is further fuelled by legacy systems (six participants) and industry protection mechanisms (four participants). legacy systems refer to technology, processes or programmes that are typically both out-dated and deeply embedded in the organisational operations. in describing how inhibiting these legacy systems are, ian (small insurer, ceo) said, ‘a lot of existing insurers have archaic, manual business models. how do they stay relevant to clients in the modern world?’ andrew (small insurer, ceo) described the challenge when trying to change or modernise a legacy system as ‘a bit like trying to move a graveyard’. industry protection mechanisms refer to the broader industry structures that serve to reinforce structural inertia by raising barriers to entry and thereby limiting competition and/or the need to change. those mentioned by interviewees include dense and complex regulation, expertise in relation to risk assessment techniques and models, high capital or solvency requirements, new business strain because of the heavily intermediated nature of the market and high upfront commissions and significant data requirements. greg (large insurer, technology executive) noted the perverse nature of one of these industry protection mechanisms, saying, ‘regulation, despite everything that we complain about, is actually a big favour to insurers’. hugo (large insurer, emerging business focus) explained why his company struggles to innovate, saying: ‘because of the dual forces of the antiquated systems and the cultures in which they operate’. he is describing the connection between structural and cultural inertia. dan (large insurer, emerging business focus) referred to both cultural inertia and the vested interest of employees who are succeeding in the current operating environment by saying, ‘you end up with a lot of stone throwers – people who will try and take this thing down because it’s a threat to what they’re doing’. one notable component of cultural inertia that emerged from six of the participants as an impediment to agility was execution ability or follow through. ‘innovation is only 20% of the problem; execution is the other 80%’, explained clark (medium-sized insurer, established business focus). finally, risk aversion was raised as a contributor to lack of agility by participants. hugo (large insurer, emerging business focus) suggested that an aversion to risk is reinforced by the prevailing mindset across the life insurance industry which he describes as distinctly ‘rational and highly cynical’. four participants linked this lack of risk-taking to the dominance of the actuarial profession, which values data and evidence-based decision-making, across the life insurance industry. greg (large insurer, technology executive) said: ‘i find it very perverse – the industry is about managing risk, yet it’s quite risk-averse’. his words highlighted the paradox that an industry whose business is the management of risk can practise excessive risk aversion to the point that it inhibits its ability to innovate for better risk management. partnerships and ecosystems the third major theme was the tendency of companies to engage in partnerships and leverage ecosystems to pursue technological change. eight participants said that a partnership mindset was a fundamental requirement to operate in the 4ir. as part of the discussion of partnerships, the word ‘ecosystem’ was often used as a key interrelated theme. clark (medium-sized insurer, established business focus) said an ecosystem was ‘a collaborative network of people in different domains’ that includes ‘fintechs, accelerators, incubators, academic institutions, industry think tanks and global partners in financial services who are non-competing’. brad (large insurer, technology executive) described the connection between partnerships and ecosystems for the 4ir as follows: ‘i think in future we will see more crowd-sourced innovations potentially leveraging an ecosystem of innovation partners to provide a richer offering’. in this context, an ecosystem consists of a network of organisations and parties from across the industry. a partnership mindset reflects the ability of an organisation to participate in and leverage this network by adopting a collaborative approach with other parties. this attitude runs counter to the current prevailing mindset in the life insurance industry, which hugo (large insurer, emerging business focus) described as a ‘zero-sum mindset’ whereby insurance companies ‘focus more on making sure that they don’t get done in, and that they get that little bit more than you do’ when working with allied organisations. clark (medium-sized insurer, established business focus) further noted this limiting mindset when assessing insurance companies’ relationships with fintech, stating that insurance companies should ‘not see them as such a threat, but see them as an enabler and as a potential partner’. abilities of people and leaders all 12 participants alluded to the role individuals can play in shaping the organisation’s response to technological transformation. eight participants said that people were a key enabler of innovation and exploration activities. more specifically, they refer to people’s strength, competencies and ability to inspire action across the business. andrew said firms select the ‘best people’ for innovation projects and initiatives. similarly, frank (large insurer, established business focus) said that innovation teams should include people who are ‘looking for opportunities and can live with the ambiguity and the uncertainty that comes with it’. interviewees recognised the power that leaders, and particularly ceos, have to influence the organisation’s response to technological transformation, for better or worse. for example, some participants linked the choice to adopt a partnership mindset to leadership. they said that leaders drive change through their own example by collaborating with others, internally and externally, rather than operating in isolation. although a partnership mindset is consistently noted as important, firms and leadership teams vary in their ability to adopt this mindset. ewan (large insurer, established business focus) expressed confidence that his leaders would embrace a partnership mindset: ‘from a leadership perspective, i’ve got huge confidence. i think they’re onto the right issues, they are investing the right amount of resources into it and they are leveraging the right clout internationally in terms of partnerships including the giants of technology who we’ve chosen as global partners.’ conversely, kelvin (large insurer, emerging business focus) said that leaders at his company view insurtech firms as a threat and have little interest in partnerships. all participants felt that their leaders were focussed on keeping up with technological change, and that they were at least being reactive to new technology. eight interviewees felt that their leaders were focussed on initiating radical technological change and being proactive about technological transformation. however, in terms of implementation, nine interviewees suggested that their leadership teams struggled to drive exploration and innovation because they did not fully internalise the need to prioritise these kinds of activities alongside business as usual. brad (large insurer, technology executive) expanded on this same pattern within his firm: ‘we’ve got a very capable team, but not necessarily fully bought into a transformed way of working’. greg (large insurer, technology executive) noted that the reasons for lack of buy-in across leadership teams were aversion to change and the destabilising speed of change: ‘humans don’t like change, so our tendency is to be more incremental. many leaders have come from a world where change was something that you went through and then it finished and there was stability. we now live in a world where change is constant. certainly, one of the biggest mindset shifts involves how we as leaders can adapt.’ discussion summary of findings this study demonstrates that the resistance to change that is clearly present at the institutional level of the broader insurance industry is also present at the organisational and individual levels (singh et al., 2012). this aligns with moodley’s (2019) findings about resistance to change at the organisational level among the incumbent organisations in his study of insurtech in south africa. this study, however, provides greater granularity, qualifying this resistance in terms of the mindsets, norms, structures and culture embedded within life insurance organisations. the findings also demonstrate how these individuals interpret the dynamics in their external environments to reinforce resistance to change at the organisational and institutional levels. how organisations perceive the fourth industrial revolution and its impacts on their industry the responses of participants showed a shared mindset among organisations in the life insurance industry where the 4ir is viewed as a set of technology-based tools that provide a means to an end, rather than a transformational movement that is re-shaping the industry and economy more broadly. yet, when participants discuss their industry in terms of ecosystems and partnerships, there is clear recognition that an institutional transformation will stem from the 4ir. the breadth and depth of industry protection mechanisms appear to be offering these organisations respite, but as the efficacy of these mechanism fades, the urgency for change will become more pressing. this view of the 4ir as a tool to be wielded by incumbents runs counter to schwab’s (2016a) characterisation of the 4ir as an amalgamation of technologies across physical, digital and biological spheres that enables leaders to transcend their individual application to drive a more extensive and fundamental change in business operations. the narrower perspective expressed by the participants, who are also leaders within their companies, may prove problematic for their future innovation. recalling lewis (2019), they may fail to fully recognise and respond to the jolt of insurtech within the institution of insurance. how organisations are responding to the fourth industrial revolution participants in this study recognised the role of the external environment in shaping both the impacts of the 4ir in south africa and a resistance to change within their organisations. yet, one reason insurance companies may be failing to see the 4ir as an institutional jolt is that they are looking at their industry in isolation. customer expectations of all services, including insurance, are changing because of the technological advancements made in other industries, such as mobile banking in the financial services sector (bose & bastid, 2018; camarate, smit, van rooyen, & chimbuya, 2017). yet, this view was noted by only three participants and was countered by the argument that south africa as a whole is delayed in its appetite for digitisation. for instance, the preference of brokers to use pen and paper over computers is very likely a reflection of contextual factors in south africa related to poor computer literacy on the part of customers or insufficient access to technology. even if this is the case, the state of development in the market does not invalidate the decision to innovate. if anything, as the trajectory of fintech would suggest, it should drive innovation (arner et al., 2015). for instance, moodley (2019) points to the potential of value-based insurtech to meet the unique needs of these ‘unready’ markets in south africa. the reactive approach to the 4ir supported by half of interviewees seems ill-advised in the light of the rapid speed of change and need for urgent responses described in the literature (bose & bastid, 2018). further, tushman, o’reilly and harreld (2015) note the importance of leading proactive, punctuated change rather than ignoring the tide, which forces organisations to respond reactively and less effectively. using this argument, a lack of market readiness may be a pretext that insurers use to justify their protracted reactions and ultimately a lack of agility. the responses from participants in this study affirm the role of institutional factors in creating resistance to change within organisations. the structural and cultural inertia they highlight is nuanced and fortified across the south african life insurance industry. participants are effectively describing the organisational isomorphism that creates dominant archetypes and at least gives the appearance of a stagnant and uniform industry (hinings et al., 2004). although the mechanisms of inertia and isomorphism outlined by participants align to those described in the literature, the impact of these mechanisms was expanded by participants’ novel interpretation of them. participants described how some of the most powerful industry protection mechanisms, which serve to sustain the industry – such as dense regulation, high capital requirements and impenetrable distribution networks – are not necessarily appreciated as such and instead limit and frustrate organisations. similarly, cultural inertia sustained by a normative aversion to risk, which stems from the prevalence of actuarial professionals and serves the goal of risk management, was said to inhibit the imperative to innovate and therefore embrace the 4ir. a willingness to take risks is noted as an enabler throughout innovation literature (adler et al., 2009; dorado, 2002) as well as being fundamental to exploratory activities (raisch birkinshaw, probst, & tushman, 2009). although a lack of agility at the institutional level is already a concerning phenomenon in a wider environment characterised by exponential change, it is especially disquieting when combined with the belief expressed by half of participants that time is still in the industry’s favour. the attitude echoes the downfall of kodak less than a decade ago (reeves, hannaes, & sinha, 2015) or dec in the 1980s (lewis, 2019). looking at the adjacent, and oftentimes overlapping, financial sector, regulators have increasingly had their hands forced by the rapid changes introduced by fintech (arner, barberis, & buckley, 2017). although it may be tempting for leaders to opt for a ‘wait and see’ or more measured approach, the lack of agility voiced by participants, when coupled with fading industry protection mechanisms, strongly indicates the need for organisations to change their mindsets. the prominent theme of partnerships and ecosystems among participants indicates that at least at an individual level, leaders have an idea of what that new mindset would look like for their industry to contend with the impacts of the 4ir. the theme of adopting a partnership mindset is in line with the recommendations in the literature for incumbents to continue developing within the changing industry environment – something that is already being leveraged within the financial services industry (curran, garrett, & puthiyamadam, 2017; kane, palmer, phillips, kiron, & buckley, 2015). further, the desire for collaboration expressed by participants demonstrates broad acceptance that the industry does not possess the expertise needed to innovate internally and that cross-industry networks are therefore valued for the expertise they offer. however, juxtaposed against the desire to partner, participants presented a strong protectionist attitude that inhibits collaboration. this attitude appeared to be powerfully influenced by organisational leadership, which sets the tone for how partnership is interpreted across the organisation. although participants said that leadership was supportive of adopting a partnership mindset, they said that, in practice, leadership was inconsistent. in other words, although leaders recognise that partnerships are needed to access the relevant technological expertise, they are hesitant to prioritise collaborative projects because they are afraid to lose ground on core business. participants acknowledged that people were a key enabler of successful organisational change in terms of the 4ir, particularly in relation to exploration and innovation efforts. this is consistent with literature findings that emphasise the important role people play in unlocking the 4ir innovation within organisations (davis, 2016; schwab, 2016a). indeed, any form of organisational change of the magnitude projected by the 4ir requires great focus on individual-level factors (bovey & hede, 2001b; singh et al., 2012). embracing the potential of individuals could equip the life insurance industry to adapt to the changing industry context. the skills shortage in the country, however, may be inhibiting organisations from adopting this strategy. this introduces the risk that organisations might exploit the partnership and ecosystems approach to the extent that they look to the external system exclusively for accessing technical expertise. following this approach, organisations would forgo internal capacity-building and people development in favour of acquiring human capital, contracting experts or outsourcing with the hope that external skillsets will be sufficient to drive innovation. however, this approach does not support the culture of continuous learning recommended by various authors (gratton, 2011; shook & knickrehm, 2017). to develop the capability to embrace the changing work environment, leaders will have to adopt ambidextrous behaviours that encourage creativity and innovation (poon & mohamad, 2020). practical implications by seeing the 4ir as an institutional transformation that organisations are empowered to lead, south african life insurers should recognise that the role of people in innovation extends beyond technical skills. by proactively maintaining and cultivating an array of relevant skills within their workforce, such as creative intelligence and social intelligence skills, organisations can develop employees who are more adaptable (world bank, 2019). this will allow both employees and the organisation to secure their continued relevance in the industry. this more expansive view of the value of individuals could allow organisations to reframe many of the industry dynamics that they currently view as inhibitors, as opportunities. for instance, where the actuarial focus of the industry is currently cited as an inhibitor of change because of its risk aversion, the data-driven aspect of actuarial science presents an enormous opportunity for introducing insurtech related to data analytics. organisations can use such institutional traits that have given them advantages in the traditional industry to innovate new advantages within the 4ir era of the industry. in fact, recognising the potential for technology integration within the actuarial stronghold of the industry might be key for organisations and leaders to see the 4ir for what it is: an institutional jolt that will fundamentally change the field. as the 4ir technologies propagate throughout the greater economy, value chains will become more nuanced and complex, leading to the need for increased specialisation and partnerships between unlikely actors. if life insurance organisations want to leverage the expertise of others in the insurance ecosystem, they will need to undergo a mindset shift from zero sum to openness. the need to mitigate risk aversion does not imply that firms should extravagantly pursue unnecessary risk; it demands that firms align the risk appetite of people in the organisation with the degree of change required by the external environment. similarly, developing true partnerships does not mean blindly disregarding fairness and obligations, but rather appreciating the unique value-creation that can only be achieved through collaboration with a diverse group of stakeholders and organisations. recommendations as this study relied on leaders within insurance firms to identify the perceptions of their organisations, additional studies might build on these findings to understand if or how these perceptions are shared and how those perceptions are enacted in ways of working. a more in-depth case study of this kind would be useful to identify specific opportunities for introducing change within organisations. an examination of individual resistance to change, in line with singh et al. (2012) and bovey and hede (2001a, 2001b), related to specific elements of the 4ir would be useful for pinpointing the exact concerns within this workforce. it may help illuminate or dispel certain elements of cultural inertia cited in this study, such as risk aversion or zero-sum mindsets, to identify possible solutions for making the workforce more receptive to change. conclusion this study affirms the view that the south african life insurance lacks agility in responding to the 4ir changes and sheds greater light on the mechanisms of resistance to change at the organisational and individual levels of the industry. the findings indicate that life insurance companies in south africa are limiting themselves by focussing on external factors as inhibitors rather than catalysts of innovation and viewing the 4ir as a set of tools rather than a technological transformation. technology speed, processing power and cost improvements continue to reinforce the inevitability that algorithms will perform increasingly complex tasks better than humans. ignoring threats of change or opportunities for introducing incremental change are clear routes to irrelevance. the means to sustain both human and business relevance is the adoption of a continuous learning mindset, which the 4ir innovations may be instrumental in facilitating. the sooner organisations and their leaders recognise this, the more proactive they can be in embracing the 4ir. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. author’s contributions l.m. conceptualised and conducted the research. l.r. supervised the study and prepared the manuscript for submission. ethical considerations ethical clearance for the study was granted by the university of cape town, graduate school of business ethics committee (2018-902). written informed consent was obtained from the participants to conduct structured interviews and include their anonymous data in this study. to ensure confidentiality, pseudonyms were used in the reporting of these findings. funding information the authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author (l.r.). the data are not publicly available because they contain information that could compromise the privacy of research participants. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references adler, p.s., benner, m., james, d., paul, j., osono, e., staats, b.r., takeuchi, h., tushman, m. l., & winter, s.g. (2009). perspectives on the productivity dilemma. journal of operations management, 27(2), 99–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2009.01.004 arner, d.w., barberis, j., & buckley, r.p. (2015). the evolution of fintech: a new post-crisis paradigm. georgetown journal of international law, 47, 1271. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2676553 arner, d.w., barberis, j., & buckley, r.p. (2017). fintech, regtech, and the reconceptualization of financial regulation. northwestern journal of international law & business, 37(3), 371–413. axco. (2018). insurance market report: south africa – life and benefits. london: axco insurance information services. bender, m., & willmott, p. (2017). digital reinvention. retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/digital-reinvention bernstein, a., & raman, a. (2015). the great decoupling. harvard business review, 93(6), 66–75. bose, a., & bastid, v. (2018). world insurance report 2018. retrieved from https://worldinsurancereport.com/resources/world-insurance-report-2018/ bovey, w.h., & hede, a. (2001a). resistance to organizational change: the role of defence mechanisms. journal of managerial psychology, 16(7), 534–548. https://doi.org/10.1108/eum0000000006166 bovey, w.h., & hede, a. (2001b). resistance to organizational change: the role of cognitive and affective processes. leadership & organization development journal, 22(8), 372–382. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730110410099 bryman, a., & bell, e. (2015). business research methods (3rd edn.). new york, ny: oxford university press. bughin, j., laberge, l., & mellbye, a. (2017). the case for digital reinvention. retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/the-case-for-digital-reinvention camarate, j., smit, v., van rooyen, r., & chimbuya, a. (2017). life insurance in the digital age: the omnichannel revolution. retrieved from https://www.pwc.co.za/en/publications/strategy-and.html canning, j., & found, p.a. (2015). the effect of resistance in organizational change programmes: a study of a lean transformation. international journal of quality and service sciences, 7(2/3), 274–295. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijqss-02-2015-0018 catlin, t., & lorenz, j.-t. (2017). digital disruption in insurance: cutting through the noise. retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/digital-insurance chetty, k. (2018). future of work in south africa: the road to 2030. retrieved from https://economic-policy-forum.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/futureofwork-sa-country-report-20181008.pdf chetty, k. (2018). the future of work in south africa. south africa: mimeo, human sciences research council emerging markets sustainability dialogues. coetzee, c.j.h., & stanz, k.j. (2015). ‘barriers-to-change’ in a governmental service delivery type organisation. sa journal of industrial psychology, 33(2), 76–82. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v33i2.380 creswell, j.w. (2013). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. curran, c., garrett, d., & puthiyamadam, t. (2017). a decade of digital: keeping pace with transformation. retrieved from https://www.pwc.com/ee/et/publications/pub/pwc-digital-iq-report.pdf davis, e. (2016). people – not just machines – will power digital innovation: keep challenging. retrieved from https://www.cognizant.com/futureofwork/whitepaper/people-not-just-machines-will-power-digital-innovation deloitte. (2019a). the deloitte global millennial survey 2019: societal discord and technological transformation create a ‘generation disrupted’. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/za/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/millennialsurvey.html deloitte. (2019b). 2019 deloitte global millennial survey: a ‘generation disrupted’ – south africa results. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/za/documents/about-deloitte/za_deloitte_may_2019_millennials_south_africa_report_f.pdf deloitte. (2019c). success personified in the fourth industrial revolution: four leadership personas for an era of change and uncertainty. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/us/articles/glob1948_success-personified-4th-ind-rev/di_success-personified-fourth-industrial-revolution.pdf dessus, s.c., goddard, j.g., & hanush, m. (2017). south africa economic update: innovation for productivity and inclusiveness. retrieved from http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/779551505322376708/pdf/119695-wp-public-sa-eu-2017-digital-version-sep-19.pdf dimaggio, p.j., & powell, w.w. (1983). the iron cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. american sociological review, 48(2), 147–160. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095101 dorado, s. (2002). institutional entrepreneurship, partaking, and convening. organization studies, 26(3), 385–414. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840605050873 frey, c.b., & osborne, m.a. (2017). the future of employment: how susceptible are jobs to computerisation? technological forecasting and social change, 114, 254–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2016.08.019 gratton, l. (2011). the shift: the future of work is already here. london: harper collins. guest, g., bunce, a., & johnson, l. (2006). how many interviews are enough? an experiment with data saturation and variability. family health international, 18(1), 59–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822x05279903 hinings, c.r., greenwood, r., reay, t., & suddaby, r. (2004). dynamics of change in organizational fields. in m.s. poole & a.h. van de ven (eds.), handbook of organizational change and innovation (pp. 304–323). new york, ny: oxford university press. holliday, s. (2019). how insurtech can close the protection gap in emerging markets. retrieved from https://www.the-digital-insurer.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/1581-emcompass-note-70-insurtech.pdf independent communications authority of south africa. (2018). 3rd report on the state of the ict sector in south africa. retrieved from https://www.icasa.org.za/uploads/files/state-of-ict-sector-report-march-2018.pdf kane, g.c., palmer, d., phillips, a.n., kiron, d., & buckley, n. (2015). strategy, not technology, drives digital transformation: becoming a digitally mature enterprise. retrieved from https://sloanreview.mit.edu/projects/strategy-drives-digital-transformation/ king, n., & brooks, j.m. (2017). template analysis for business and management students. london: sage. kuusisto, m. (2017). organizational effects of digitalization: a literature review. international journal of organization theory and behavior, 20(3), 341–362. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijotb-20-03-2017-b003 leedy, p.d., ormrod, j.e., & johnson, l.r. (2019). practical research: planning and design (12th edn.). essex: pearson education limited. lewis, m.s. (2019). technology change or resistance to changing institutional logics: the rise and fall of digital equipment corporation. journal of applied behavioral science, 5(2), 141–160. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886318822305 lord, r.g., dinh, j.e., hoffman, e.l., & burke, e. (2015). a quantum approach to time and organizational change. academy of management review, 40(2), 263–290. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2013.0273 malherbe, a., & dixon, g. (2017). the south african insurance industry survey 2017: evolve. retrieved from https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/za/pdf/2017/08/2017-insurance-survey.pdf moodley, a.j. (2019). digital transformation in south africa’s short-term insurance sectors: traditional insurers’ responses to the internet of things (iot) and insurtech. the african journal of information and communication, 24, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.23962/10539/28657 okada, f. (2018). business model changes through collaborative dynamic capabilities through insurance company use of it (insurtech) in the medical and health sectors. in m. kodama (ed.), collaborative dynamic capabilities for service innovation (pp. 153–162). london: palgrave macmillan. peters, m.a. (2017). technological unemployment: educating for the fourth industrial revolution. journal of self-governance and management economics, 5(1), 25–33. https://doi.org/10.22381/jsme5120172 poon, w.c., & mohamad, o. (2020). organisational context and behavioural complexity affecting ambidextrous behaviours among smes. international journal of organization theory & behavior, 23(3), 225–244. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijotb-03-2019-0037 quinlan, c., babin, b., carr, j., griffin, m., & zikmund, w.g. (2015). business research methods. hampshire: cengage learning. raisch, s., birkinshaw, j., probst, g., & tushman, m.l. (2009). organizational ambidexterity: balancing exploitation and exploration for sustained performance. organizational science, 20(4), 685–695. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1090.0428 reeves, m., hannaes, k., & sinha, j. (2015). your strategy needs a strategy: how to choose and execute the right approach. boston, ma: harvard business review press. roblek, v., meško, m., & krapež, a. (2016). a complex view of industry 4.0. sage open, 6(2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244016653987 schwab, k. (2016a). the fourth industrial revolution. geneva: world economic forum. geneva. schwab, k. (2016b). the fourth industrial revolution: what it means, how to respond. retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond shook, e., & knickrehm, m. (2017). harnessing revolution: creating the future workforce. retrieved from https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/pdf-40/accenture-strategy-harnessing-revolution-pov.pdf singh, k., saeed, m., & bertsch, a. (2012). key factors influencing employee response toward change: a test in the telecom industry in india. journal of management policy and practice, 13(3), 66–68. spelman, m., & weinelt, b. (2018). digital transformation initiative. retrieved from http://reports.weforum.org/digital-transformation swiss re. (2017). insurance: adding value to development in emerging markets. retrieved from https://www.swissre.com/dam/jcr:0c654530-302f-4442-b01e-585d11ea3beb/sigma4_2017_en.pdf statistics south africa. (2019). quarterly labour force survey: quarter 1 2019. retrieved from http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/p0211/p02111stquarter2019.pdf. tushman, m.l., o’reilly, c.a., & harreld, b. (2015). leading proactive punctuated change: an organizational perspective. in r. henderson, r. gulati, & m.l. tushman (eds.), leading sustainable change (pp. 249–270). london: oxford university press. whysall, z., owtram, m., & brittain, s. (2019). the new talent management challenges of industry 4.0. journal of management development, 38(2), 118–129. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd-06-2018-0181 world bank. (2018). south african economic update. retrieved from http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/798731523331698204/south-africa-economic-update-april-2018.pdf world bank. (2019). 2019 world development report: the changing nature of work. retrieved from http://dc.sourceafrica.net/documents/119029-2019-world-development-report-the-changing.html table a1: interview questionnaire. abstract introduction context literature review and hypothesis development research methodology research findings discussion of findings conclusion and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) lister chada department of human resource management, julius nyerere school of social sciences, great zimbabwe university, masvingo, zimbabwe nhamo mashavira department of human resource management, julius nyerere school of social sciences, great zimbabwe university, masvingo, zimbabwe motshedisi s. mathibe gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, johannesburg, south africa citation chada, l., mashavira, n., & mathibe, m.s. (2022). the role of decent work in the zimbabwean retail sector: testing a job engagement and turnover intention model. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a2029. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.2029 original research the role of decent work in the zimbabwean retail sector: testing a job engagement and turnover intention model lister chada, nhamo mashavira, motshedisi s. mathibe received: 04 july 2022; accepted: 06 sept. 2022; published: 15 dec. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: there is a continued call to understand those factors that not only affect work engagement but also reduce turnover. a broad umbrella of work emerges arguing for ascertaining how decent work conditions affect these outcomes of work. research purpose: to offer insight into the relationship between decent work, job engagement and turnover intention in the retail sector in zimbabwe. motivations for the study: rapid changes in the business environment have undoubtedly led to a deterioration of work standards across all sectors although the retail sector seems to have been more vulnerable and suffered the most. this calls for the need to investigate on decent work, a key mechanism in maximising labour force potential such as job engagement and turnover intentions are not ignored. research approach/design and method: the study adopted a descriptive survey design using a quantitative approach. the statistical package for social science (spss) was used for the purpose of analysis with the structural equation model (sem) utilised. main findings: the study found a positive significant relationship between decent work and job engagement. a positive significant relationship was also established between job engagement and turnover intention whereas, a very weak and statistically insignificant relationship existed between decent work and turnover intention. practical/managerial implications: retail sector managers ought to prioritise decent work and pay closer attention to its impact on job engagement and turnover intention. a focus on these constructs will breed a highly engaged and committed workforce that will give the sector competitive advantage. contribution: very few studies have shed light on the construct of decent work in developing economies, and specifically in zimbabwe. decent work is critical in the realisation of the sustainable development goal (sdg) 8. its correlation with job engagement and turnover intention brings to light quite invaluable insights to the management of human capital in the retail sector. keywords: decent work; job engagement; turnover intention; retail sector; zimbabwe. introduction zimbabwe has experienced economic depression, which has led big companies to either scale down or close operations (manhiwa, mapetere, & mhonde, 2017). this has undoubtedly presented serious challenges and at the same time, limited opportunities for advancing human rights such as the right to decent work. majoni, matunhu and chaderopa (2018) posit that the economy of zimbabwe has now become deformalised so that four out of five jobs in zimbabwe are informal, resulting in decent work deficits, namely poor quality, unproductive jobs, unsafe work and insecure income (un, 2017). the term ‘decent’ denotes that work must be of acceptable quality in terms of income, working conditions, job security and rights (un, 2017). decent work is therefore a fundamental right or need that is common in all families and communities at all levels of development (navajas-romero et al., 2019). the persistent need to curb these deficits and to contribute to sustainable development has, therefore, become an important goal under the decent work agenda (di fabio, 2018). it is worth mentioning that international organisations such as the united nations (un) have shown an interest in decent work and sustainability (un, 2017). the un put forth a framework with 17 goals, two of which directly tackled working conditions and commitment to decent work (goal 8) as well as promotion of health and well-being (goal 3) (un, 2017). looking at africa, where economic growth has been buoyant, a realisation to also reap from the decent work agenda has not been ignored. africa is characterised by a weakness both in the public and private sector and a huge size of the informal economy, making the decency of work questionable. no wonder, there is a greater need in africa to ensure that workers’ hard work is fully utilised and rewarded and that respect for fundamental rights and provision of social protection is ensured. efforts to incorporate decent work tenets into national laws have been adopted by most african countries, including zimbabwe (ahmad, 2021). over the years, job engagement has gained attraction (hoole & bonnema, 2016). scholars argue that job engagement is a product of workers’ experiences of decent work. the idea is that when working conditions are proper and the work meets the survival needs, social connections and social determination, there is a higher chance of workers being fully engaged in their tasks and responsibilities (duffy et al., 2017). the most common definition of job engagement comprises three elements: vigour, dedication and absorption. the interpretation here is that job engagement has to do with a worker’s willingness to work, a reflection of high commitment and persistence, with a show of higher levels of energy and cognitive presence. in the current context, job engagement still matters; organisations are compelled to stay abreast of it to ensure that workers continue being a source of competitive edge. according to glasson et al., (2013), organisations should ensure good working conditions, that is, safety, secure income, social protection and social dialogue to have an engaged staff. thus, a link between decent work and job engagement cannot be ignored. academic research about decent work and job engagement has been more prevalent in the european context. the idea of decent work is a little different in developing countries as compared with developed countries (ijalla, 2019). in the african context, research was carried out by ijalla (2019), in ghana, and the study also sought to investigate the relationship between decent work and job engagement. despite the difference between the european and african contexts, the findings were consistent, as they also highlighted that a decent work environment is a major influencer of job engagement. a thorough look into turnover and turnover intention makes it possible for companies to cut costs. turnover intention is defined as the likelihood that a worker will leave their job. basically, it reflects the attitude that an employee has towards their job. turnover intention is a key indicator of workers’ perceptions and judgements about their work (memon et al., 2014). it is important to observe that how workers’ intentions to leave are characterised by working conditions. turnover intentions come as a result of dissatisfaction with pay systems. this justifies the link between decent work and turnover intentions. decent work deficits will obviously push a worker to scan for greener pastures. also, the link between job engagement and turnover intention is undeniable. according to screw (2019), job engagement is said to predict turnover intention. the link between the two indicates that disengagement among workers results in a higher risk of considering other employment options (belete, 2018). moreover, a positive association is found between job engagement and intention to stay or leave. in addition, if the workers are more engaged in their work, they are less prone to actively seeking alternative employment opportunities. this study seeks to assess the effects of decent work on worker engagement and turnover intention in the zimbabwean retail industry (namubiru, 2019). the existence of this gap in literature necessitated the need to carry out this study. the purpose of this study is to examine the concept of decent work and its relationships to job engagement and turnover intentions among employees in the zimbabwean retail sector. context like most countries, zimbabwe has not been spared from the environmental constraints, which have crippled most businesses and left the economy staggering (zimstat, 2017). according to bakker (2017), zimbabwe’s business environment is a turbulent one and is highly unpredictable. there is no stability in terms of job security and income, as most organisations are surviving with little or no reserves at all (mucheche, 2015). to make matters worse, the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic has further crippled the economy, leading to various organisations failing to cope with the new problem and eventually closing down. there is no doubt that all these challenges have presented a twist in the world of work. according to booth (2019), work has taken a completely different form, whereby jobs are no longer secured and workers are not protected. the retail sector, which is mostly dominated by supermarkets such as tm and ok zimbabwe, is seriously constrained by several challenges (bakker, 2017). as a way to curb these challenges, most employers in this sector across the globe are shunning permanent contracts and moving towards a gig economy, which is a labour market made up of short-term contracts and freelancers. a spokesperson for the then retail giant tm reported to the daily news (2015) that although they were expanding, they were limiting the number of employees to the bare minimum. this undoubtedly makes workers vulnerable to exploitation: a common model of this sector. the retail sector is associated with abusive practices by the employer, long working hours, low pay, ill-treatment of subordinates, as well as inhumane conditions. booth (2019) concurs, as he states that in some cases workers in this sector have reportedly been coerced to work overtime, with no extra pay. considering the excessive supply of labour in the market, the bargaining power of employees in this sector has been reduced, placing them under the guillotine of the employer. the decency of work in this sector is, therefore, highly questionable. workers have been reduced to an extent where they are forced to settle for anything, knowing that they can at least afford some of the basic physiological needs. despite being a signatory to international labour organization (ilo) decent work check, zimbabwe’s labour standards have deteriorated over the years. perhaps this is because of resistance to being malleable in response to environmental forces or even bad corporate governance. literature review and hypothesis development decent work while it is not a new concept, decent work continues to take centre stage in the business world (gensmer et al., 2020). having gained international currency in recent years, decent work has been accepted as covering a wide range of issues, which are organised under the following four pillars: the first pillar is employment promotion. it encompasses policies that foster productivity and competitiveness within the world economy to promote employment growth targeted at the poor (chyung et al., 2018; ilo, 2017). the second pillar is social protection. this relates to actions that help reduce people’s vulnerability to chronic indigence through policies that promote fairness and social justice at work (massoudi et al., 2018). without these policies that foster social protection, neither work nor lives can be decent and all this undoubtedly contributes to economic prosperity (pereira, 2019). the third pillar is social dialogue. there is nothing decent about work if it infringes the right to participate in decision-making or the freedom of association. this pillar is all about the extent to which employees are given the forum to express their work-related issues and partake in making decisions about their well-being (flores, navarro, & rasheed ali, 2017). the overall objective is to promote the exchange of information, negotiation and consultation among workers, employers and the government. the fourth pillar is rights at work. this dimension relates to the promotion of human rights. the ilo (2018) defines these rights as the universal fundamental principles and rights at work and these must be followed by all states, whether they have ratified ilo conventions or not. these include rights such as elimination of child labour, abolition of forced labour and promotion of non-discrimination in employment (tayebwa, 2019). following the main tenets of decent work briefly discussed here, it is clear that decent work is a fundamental right. it determines a global evaluation of the quality of a given job to promote the physical and cognitive health of workers around the world, and it also addresses such needs as survival, self-determination and social connection. the business environment, which has globally continued to be unpleasant to organisations, has prompted many scholars to investigate the construct of decent work and its variables (ferreira et al., 2019). cruz et al., (2017) agrees that the concept has gained support and has been approved by the international community. decent work has its origin in developed world formal working environments and most of the efforts to further understand it have been from the developed countries (winchenbach, 2019). however, the ilo (2018) makes it clear that although a universal concept, decent work is not uniform, that is the policies of decent work should be based on national or sectorial contexts. decent work versus job engagement evidence shows that a working environment with favourable conditions is positively associated with work engagement. another study by navajas-romero et al. (2019) analysed the state of working conditions, if decent or not, as well as their effects on work engagement and the results broadly confirmed decent work as a strong determinant of job engagement. the same study mentioned job security as a configured dimension of decent work that directly contributes to making workers elicit higher levels of vigour, dedication and absorption. tayebwa (2019) examined the influence of decent work on job engagement among traditional employees at kiruhura district local government in uganda. this study revealed a positive association between the two. according to glasson (2013), organisations should ensure the decency of work to cultivate engagement among workers. a cross-sectional study by namubiru (2019) carried out at kampala capital city authority also affirmed that employees must work in a decent work environment to remain engaged. however, the results indicated a weak positive relationship as it was found that decent work does not necessarily result in increased job engagement because engagement is more of an intrinsic factor and cannot be affected by the physical environment. decent work could be an added advantage, but engagement is innate. based on the given literature, it can be hypothesised that: h1: decent work is positively associated with job engagement. decent work versus turnover intention people work to meet certain needs and if those needs are not met, they are likely to search for other job opportunities, especially when their work negatively impacts their psychological well-being, leading to turnover intentions (blustein et al., 2019; taskiran, 2017). most organisations, especially in zimbabwe, have acute decent work deficits but they might not be experiencing actual turnover because of the high rate of unemployment. it does not necessarily mean that these workers do not harbour any intentions to leave. research carried out in turkey established that all elements of decent work predict turnover intention. the findings reflected that those workers are more likely to experience turnover intentions in an unsafe workplace, offering insufficient compensation and not offering career growth opportunities. a related study by griffeth, hom and gaertner (2010) examined the relationship between pay, a decent work indicator and turnover intentions and concluded that jobs that provide adequate income were more likely to retain workers that exhibit positive behaviours. the other conclusion from this study was that insecure pay had a negative correlation with turnover intentions. hence, the link between decent work and turnover intentions cannot be denied. based on the given literature, it can, therefore, be hypothesised that: h2: decent work is negatively associated with turnover intentions. job engagement versus turnover intention a relationship between job engagement and turnover intention is a significant one that all organisations should investigate. job engagement is associated with positive perceptions towards a job, optimism and confidence, and all these are crucial in predicting workers’ willingness to stay or leave. an organisation’s capacity to raise the engagement levels of its employees would motivate employees to stay, thereby curbing turnover intention. saks and rotman (2006) found job engagement to be a strong predictor of turnover intentions. this link indicated that more disengagement among workers resulted in a higher risk of considering other employment options. santoni and harahap (2018) observe that when employees are disengaged, they make decisions to leave. a related study by agoi (2015) in the public sector in kenya indicated that job engagement has surfaced in the world of work as a construct that has a significant influence on employee turnover intentions. it is, however, important to note that there is a serious gap in literature on studies relating to the correlation between job engagement and turnover intention in africa and specifically in zimbabwe. however, based on the aforementioned literature, it can be hypothesised that: h3: job engagement is negatively associated with turnover intentions. the psychology of work theory work plays a pivotal role in people’s lives (aburumman, 2020). following an attempt by traditional career theorists to expound on the role of work and how individuals make career choices, blustein et al. (2006) realised how these theorists did not capture the concept of work fully. instead, they excluded marginalised groups. the career development and work experiences of individuals with insufficient financial access and social capital were not captured in these theories (duffy et al., 2017). also, important to note is how these theories failed to appreciate the role played by contextual factors in shaping the work lives of people amid a dynamic labour market affected by globalisation. considering all these weaknesses of the traditional career theories, the psychology of work theory (pwt) is developed: a fully realised conceptual structure widening the scope of traditional career choice and development theories. efforts are still underway to generate interrelated and applicable assumptions to this theory. the pwt argues that the importance of work in meeting people’s needs and well-being captures work as a crucial aspect of life and an indispensable element of mental health (ilo, 2018). a key aspect of this theory is that everyone involved in work, regardless of sex, race or gender, should be afforded social justice by securing decent work, which makes a significant component of well-being and access to opportunity (duffy et al., 2017; isik, kozan, & isik, 2018; thompson, 2017). another eminent tenet of this theory is that sociocultural factors should be treated as primary in understanding career decision work experiences of all people. di fabio (2018) builds on this view, stating that access to work is constrained by powerful social, economic and political forces. generally, all these are captured in what the pwt expresses as predictors and outcomes of securing decent work (duffy et al., 2019). outcomes of decent work psychology of work theory argues that when people obtain decent work, their fulfilment and well-being are enhanced through the satisfaction of the following three basic needs: survival and power: people require basic needs to survive and pwt proposes that performing decent work will help individuals to meet these survival needs (kline, 2016). social connection: humans have an inherent need for attachment and belonging. meaningful work will help individuals to meet their need to link with others as it provides opportunities to build those connections (ribeiro, 2017; rodriguez, reise, & haviland, 2017). this, undoubtedly, gives workers the idea that they are contributing to the larger context. self-determination needs: these provide meaning, a sense of identity and accomplishment (gansler et al., 2020). as a result, it works again fulfils the need to partake in meaningful and value-congruent activities through experiencing autonomy (pouyaud, 2018). research methodology research design this study adopted a descriptive survey design (saunders et al., 2009). the descriptive survey design is a quantitative research technique in which a researcher uses some sort of survey or questionnaire on a sample to describe and interpret attitudes, experiences, current status of individuals and events. this design seeks to establish the possibility of a causal relationship among the variables in question. in calculating the proposed model, a multiple regression with partial least squares (pls) was utilised. this was conducted using a structural equation model (sem) approach. such an approach allows for the building of the research models by establishing latent variables. latent variables as those that are not observed directly but inferred from other observed variables. such an approach and technique is useful when working with small samples, estimating complex models and making predictions and explanations (hair et al., 2019). there is an observation of the suitability of such approaches and techniques when seeking to ascertain success factor research or when exploring the source of a competitive advantage. research participants a total of 103 participants from the major retailers in bulawayo urban were conveniently sampled. the participants comprising both till operators, supervisory and managerial staff from three mainstream retailers took part in the study. a combination of these participants provided for data triangulation. the researchers employed the convenience sampling approach. convenience sampling is a non-probability sampling method in which participants are chosen because of their convenience, which could be proximity or accessibility to the researcher (yin, 2018). the researchers chose this sampling approach because according to saunders et al. (2009), this approach is simple, efficient and makes it easy to collect data in a short space of time from a large sample. furthermore, the lack of employee database because of the reluctance by most hr managers to avail them to the researchers, made convenience sampling even more appropriate. research instruments the researchers used a structured questionnaire. a questionnaire allows the collection of large amounts of data from a huge number of participants in a short period. the structured questionnaire required the respondents to select answers from a set of choices offered explicitly by the researchers and it simplifies data analysis. as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, the researchers distributed the questionnaires online through e-mails and social media platforms, to reduce contact with respondents. the questionnaire had four sections, namely sections a, b, c and d. part a measured decent work and consisted of bio-data involving five items, namely age, sex, marital status, level of education and duration of employment. part b comprised 21 items that measured decent work. the items were adapted from the 31-item decent work questionnaire, with a reliability of 0.70. a 5-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) was used. part c measured job engagement. a 19-item utrecht work engagement scale, with a reliability level of 0.70 was adapted. the study, however, adapted 14 items from this scale. the scale is a 5-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). a sample item is as follows: ‘when i get up in the morning, i feel like going to work’. part d measured turnover intention using the 14-item turnover intention scale. from this scale the study only adapted 11 question items. the instrument has a high level of reliability of 0.80. the scale is a 5-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). statistical analysis the quantitative data were inputted into the ibm statistical packages for social sciences (spss). structural equation modelling techniques were used for data analysis (hair et al., 2019). the sem data analysis involved dealing with missing data using the multiple imputation method. item analysis was used to remove poor items in the different scales used for data collection. integrated analyses checked were item-total correlations, the squared multiple correlations, checking the subscale or scale reliability and variance when an item or items is deleted, inter-item correlation and the item means and standard deviation. to assess the unidimensionality of scales and sub-scales of the different instruments used in the study, dimensionality analysis was also performed. exploratory factor analysis and the principal component analyses (pca) were used. the pca analyses all variances in the correlation matrix using a cut-off value of 60% as recommended by hair (2014). research findings reliability analysis the composite reliability (cr), cronbach’s alpha test (ca) that test internal consistency and average extracted variance (ave) for the variables decent work (dw), job engagement (je) and turnover intention (ti) are presented in table 1. table 1: descriptive statistics for variables. it can be observed from table 1 that all the cr values and the ca values are above the recommended threshold value of 0.7. furthermore, the ave values are all above 0.5. according to hair (2014), these results imply the existence of internal consistency in the variables. cross-loadings and factor loadings of the variables that are used to test convergent validity are presented in table 2. table 2: cross-loadings and factor loadings of variables. the results presented in table 2 show that all the cross-loadings and factor loadings of the variables are above 0.6. this means that convergent validity exists. the factor loadings that were below 0.6 were eliminated from the model, hence convergent validity was met. the inter-constructs correlations used to test discriminate validity are shown in table 3. table 3: inter-construct correlations. table 3 supports the existence of discriminant validity because all the square root of the ave values, which are the diagonal elements for the factors are all above the corresponding correlation coefficient values of the factors. a proposed sem is presented in figure 1. figure 1: proposed structural equation model. the following hypotheses were derived from the sem presented in figure 1: h1: decent work is positively associated with job engagement h2: decent work is negatively associated with turnover intentions h3: job engagement is negatively associated with turnover intentions to statistically examine the stated hypotheses, the partial least squares (pls) technique was used and smartpls software was used to calculate the path coefficients. the path coefficients are shown in table 4. table 4: path coefficients. the first hypothesis sought to examine the relationship between dw and je. according to the results displayed in table 4, dw had a positive effect on je because of the coefficient value of 0.294. the relationship between dw and je is statistically significant at a 1% level of significance because of the probability value, which is less than 0.001. these results suggest the acceptance of the h1 which says that decent work is positively associated with job engagement. the second hypothesis sought to examine the relationship between dw and ti. it can be observed from table 4 that dw had a positive effect on ti because of the coefficient value of 0.026. however, the relationship is not statistically significant because the probability value of 0.286 is greater than 0.05. the results suggest the rejection of h2, which says dw is negatively associated with ti. regarding the third hypothesis, which sought to examine the relationship between je and ti, it was found that je had a positive effect on ti as indicated by a positive coefficient value of 0.961. the relationship between je and ti is statistically significant at a 1% level of significance because of a probability value less than 0.001. despite the negative effect of je on ti, hypothesis h3 that say job engagement is negatively associated with turnover intentions is accepted. this means that improvements in je will be reflected by a decrease in ti. goodness of fit model the results in table 4 suggest that h1 and h3 are supported while h2 is not supported. figure 2 provides a summary of the fitted model containing coefficients and factor loadings. figure 2: relationships in the goodness of fit model. r² is useful in determining the goodness of fit of a model and indicates that the value must be above zero. the r2 (r2 = 0.939) exceeds the threshold value of zero. according to figure 2, 93.9% (r2 = 0.939) total variability in ti was being explained in the model by the independent variables (dw and je). the r² for the fitted model suggests good levels of predictive accuracy of the model. table 5 shows some of the goodness of fit results. table 5: goodness of fit results. according to table 5 results, the standardized root mean square residual (srmr) value for the fitted model is 0.073, which is less than the threshold value of 0.08, suggesting that the model can be accepted. furthermore, the nfi value for the model is 0.915 that is slightly above the recommended threshold value of 0.9. these results suggest that the fitted model is a good model. discussion of findings decent work versus job engagement the study established a statistically significant relationship between decent work and job engagement because of a probability value less than 0.001. this led to the acceptance of the alternate hypothesis h1, which says decent work is positively associated with job engagement. the implication here is that improvements in decent work, through an organisation’s ability to provide social protection, income security, safety and health as well as enhancing social dialogue, prompt an increase in the level of job engagement. as is the norm, people work to earn a living and to provide for those who depend on them. if they feel these needs are well-catered for, they are likely to be highly engaged in their various organisations (namubiru, 2019). this helps to confirm that decent work has a positive relationship with employees’ levels of job engagement. furthermore, the findings of this study are in tandem with the results of a study carried out by kittler et al. (2020). the study found that working environment with favourable conditions is positively associated with high level of work engagement, especially when the dimension of decent work is present. in a country like zimbabwe where the business environment is turbulent, job engagement is a critical ingredient for the survival of firms. to attain job engagement, organisations should be able to provide work that offers safety and health, sufficient compensation, time and relief from work (navajas-romero et al., 2019). however, the findings of this study were incongruent with those established by namubiru (2019). the study found a weak positive relationship between decent work and job engagement. the indication was that the provision of a decent work environment does not necessarily mean that workers will be engaged. the explanation was that work engagement is an innate state and therefore it is less likely to be influenced by the external factors in the workplace. nonetheless, it should be observed that the relationship between decent work and job engagement is contextual and different findings will emanate from different organisations, nationals or even continents. decent work versus turnover intentions this study established an insignificant relationship between decent work and employee engagement because a probability of 0.286 is greater than 0.05. the results suggest the rejection of h2, which says dw is negatively associated with ti. strange as it seems, the findings reflect those employees who considered their job to be decent were actively searching for other jobs. a decent work environment does not necessarily curb turnover intentions, nor does it stop employees from harbouring turnover intentions (namubiru, 2019; taskiran, 2017). the work might be decent but that cannot tie employees to it. the weak relationship between decent work and turnover intentions (shown by a coefficient of 0.026) can be explained by age demographics. very few respondents (5.3%) were aged 50 years and above. the age demographics revealed that the retail industry is mainly dominated by younger workers probably because of their higher levels of labour intensity (taskiran, 2017). as a result of the long hours and unfavourable conditions (griffeth et al., 2010), young workers can better bear such conditions when compared with their older counterparts. this explains why the retail sector should come up with measures that are meant to include older workers (spencer et al., 2021). job engagement versus turnover intention the third objective of the study was to examine the relationship between job engagement and turnover intention. the proposed hypothesis was h3: job engagement is negatively associated with turnover intentions. a positive coefficient value of 0.961 revealed a strong association between job engagement and turnover intention. the probability value less than 0.001 suggests the acceptance of the alternative hypothesis. the implication is that job engagement has a greater bearing on turnover intentions. engaged workers are more attached to their job and have a lower chance of leaving. workers who answered to being deeply immersed and dedicated to their work did not voice turnover intentions. the results of the study also indicated that the psychological attachment that workers had towards their jobs discouraged any development of turnover intentions. workers with a positive mindset are not likely to withdraw from their work. hence, it is of great importance to improve engagement among employees because it reduces turnover intentions. workers who found their work meaningful and full of purpose – the most influential factor of job engagement – exhibited no signs of seeking alternative employment. when workers are disengaged, they make decisions to leave (santoni & harahap, 2018). limitations and direction for future studies the study was cross-sectional and conducted among the retail sector in bulawayo province. more robust studies including national samples could give more generalisable findings. research on decent work in africa and zimbabwe in particular, is still in its infancy, hence the need to explore more on this subject (perreira et al., 2019). conclusion and recommendations the study established that decent work significantly affects job engagement. an environment characterised by secure pay, social protection and social dialogue goes a long way in creating an engaged workforce. it was found that a decent work environment does not necessarily curb turnover intentions. an organisation might be offering the best as far as decent work is concerned, but that will not stop employees from harbouring turnover intentions. the study also established a strong association between job engagement and turnover intention. job engagement has a greater bearing on turnover intentions. engaged workers are more attached to their job and have a lower chance of leaving. considering the conclusions, it is recommended that given the importance of decent work in the retail sector, employers should strive to prioritise all dimensions of decent work. decent work should therefore be seen as a fundamental right for all employees. managers should craft policies that create a favourable environment for job engagement to curb employees’ intentions to quit. these policies could address issues such as social protection, social dialogue and income security, among others. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions l.c. did problem formulation, data collection and review of the literature. n.m. assisted in data analysis and helped in results and discussions sections. m.s.m. did the overall reviewing, editing and alignment of issues. ethical considerations ethical clearance has been provided by the school research committee in view of the gzu research ethics and integrity framework (reference number 25/03/2020). funding information the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. data availability data sharing applies to this article as new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views expressed in this article are not in any way an official position of the institutions to which the authors are affiliated but are entirely views of the three concerned authors. references aburumman, o.j. (2020). the internal factors of organisations and employee turnover intentions: a conceptual model. university malaysia. retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/kuala_lumpur agoi, f.l. (2015). effect of work engagement on employee turnover intention in public sector, kenya. international journal of economics, commerce and management, 3(12), 426–440. ahmad, i. (2021). zimbabwe decent work check 2021. wage indicator foundation. bakker, a.b. (2017). an evidence-based model of work engagement. current directions in psychological science, 20(4), 265–269. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721411414534 blustein, d.l., kenny, m.e., di fabio, a., & guichard, j. (2019). expanding the impact of the psychology of working: engaging psychology in the struggle for decent work and human rights. journal of career assessment, 27(1), 3–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072718774002 blustein, d.l., masdonati, j., & rossier, j. (2006). psychology and the international labour organization: the role of psychology in the decent work agenda. retrieved from https://www.ilo.org/global/research/publications/wcms_561013/lang_en/index.htm booth, i. (2019). rocking the gig economy. investor. retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/en-in/growth-strategies/why-gig-is-rocking-the-world/342139 chyung, s.y., barkin, j.r., & shamsy, j.a. (2018). evidence-based survey design: the use of negatively worded items in surveys. performance improvement, 57(3), 16–25. https://doi.org/10.1002/pfi.21749 cruz, k., hardy, k., & sanders, t. (2017). false self-employment, autonomy and regulating for decent work: improving working conditions in the uk stripping industry. british journal of industrial relations, 55(2), 274. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12201 daily news. (2015). is zim retail sector booming. retrieved from https://www.dailynews.co.zw/articles/2015/07/08/is-zim-retailsector-booming di fabio, a. (2018). human capital sustainability leadership to promote sustainable development and healthy organisations. a new scale, 10(7), 2413. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10072413 duffy, d.r., allan, b.a., tebbe, e.a., & bouchard, l.m. (2019). access to decent and meaningful work in a sexual minority population. journal of career assessment, 27(3), 408–421. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072718758064 duffy, r.d., allan, b.a., england, j.w., blustein, d.l., autin, k.l., douglass, r.p., & santos, e.j.r. (2017). the development and initial validation of the decent work scale. journal of counseling psychology, 64(2), 206–221. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000191 ferreira, j.a. haase, r.f., santos, e.r., rabaça, j.a., figueiredo, l., hemami, h.g., & almeida, l.m. (2019). decent work in portugal: context, conceptualisation and assessment. journal of vocational behaviour, 112, 77–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2019.01.009 flores, l., navarro, r.l., & rasheed ali, s. (2017). the state of scct research in relation to social class: future directions. journal of career assessment, 25(1), 6–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072716658649 gensmer, n.p., autin, k.l., buyukgoze-kavas, a., & douglass, r.p. (2020). proactive personality and decent work among racially and ethnically diverseworking adults. journal of career assessment, 28(3), 512–528. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072719894571 glasson, j., therivel, r., & chadwick, a., (2013). introduction to environmental impact assessment (2nd ed). ucl press. taylor & francis e-library. griffeth, r.w., hom, p.w., & gaertner, s. (2010). a meta-analysis of antecedents and correlates of employee turnover: update, moderator tests, and research implications for the next millennium. journal of management, 26(3), 463–488. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630002600305 hair, j.f., risher, j.j., sarstedt, m., & ringle, c.m. (2019). the use of partial least squares structural equation modeling in strategic management research: a review of past practices and recommendations for future applications. long range planning, 45(5–6), 320–340. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2012.09.008 hair, j.m., jr. (2014). multivariate data analysis (7th ed., pp. 1–758). pearson education ltd. hoole, c., & bonnema, j. (2016). work engagement and meaningful work across generational cohorts. journal of human resource management, 13(1), a681. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.681 ijalla, s. (2019). decent work environment, employee engagement and job satisfaction among employees at direct access ltd. international labour organization (ilo). (2017). the future of work we want. retrieved from http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/dgreports/dcomm/documents/genericdocument/wcms_549358.pdf international labour organization (ilo). (2018). world employment and social outlook. trends, 2018(1), 11–27. https://doi.org/10.1002/wow3.125 isik, e., kozan, s., & isik, a.n. (2018). cross-cultural validation of the turkish version of the decent work scale. journal of career assessment, 27(3), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072718763636 kittler, m.g., rattrie, l.t.b., & paul, k.i. (2020). culture, burnout, and engagement: a meta-analysis on national cultural values as moderators in jd-r theory. applied psychology: an international review, 69(1), 176–220. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12209 kline, r.b. (2016). principles and practice of structural equation modelling (4th ed.). the guilford press. majoni, t., matunhu, j., & chaderopa, b. (2018). smes policies and challenges: a comparative analysis of zimbabwe and south korea. international journal of scientific and research publications, 6(6). manhiwa, t.e.r., mapetere, d., & mhonde, c. (2017). survival strategies: case study of retail hardware smes in shurugwi – zimbabwe. european journal of business and management, 8(5), 2016. massoudi, k., abessolo, m., atitsogbe, k.a., banet, e., bollmann, g., dauwalder, j.p., & rossier, j. (2018). a value-centred approach to decent work. in v. cohen-scali et al. (eds.), interventions in career design and education (pp. 93–110). springer. memon, m.a., salleh, r., harun, h., rashid, r.a., & bakar, z.a. (2014). training, engagement, social exchange ideology and employee turnover: a proposed moderated mediation conceptual framework. australian journal of basic & applied sciences, 8(5), 151–156. mucheche, c. (2015). amendments to the labour act 28.01 and their implications on employment relationship. public lecture by advocate caleb mucheche of matsikidze and mucheche commercial and labour law chambers on 15 september 2015. school of social sciences, great zimbabwe university. namubiru, s. (2019). decent work environment, employee engagement and turnover intentions among the employees at kampala capital city authority. dissertation repository, makerere university. navajas-romero, v., diaz-carrion, r., & ariza-montes, a. (2019). decent work as a determinant of work engagement. universidad de cordoba. perreira, s., santos, n.d., & pais, l. (2019). empirical research on decent work: a literature review. scandinavian journal of work and organisational psychology, 4(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.16993/sjwop.53 pouyaud, j. (2018). for a psychosocial approach to decent work. frontiers in psychology, 7, 00422. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00422 rodriguez, a., reise, s.p., & haviland, m.g. (2017). evaluating bifactor models: calculating and interpreting statistical indices. psychological methods, 21(2), 137–150. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000045 saks, a.m., & rotman, j.m. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169 santoni, a., & harahap, n.n. (2018). the model of turnover intentions of employees. international review of management and marketing, 8(6), 93–100. retrieved from http://www.ecojournals.com saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2009). research methods for business students (5th ed.). pearson education limited. schramm-klein, h., zentes, j., steinmann, s., swoboda, b., & morschett, d. (2013). retailer csr is relevant to consumer behaviour. sage journal business& society, 55(4), 550–575. https://doi.org/10.1177/0007650313501844 screw, k. (2019). analysis of the relationship between leadership styles and turnover intention within smes in malaysia. journal of arts & social sciences, 1(1), 1–11. spencer, d., cole, m., joyce, s., whittaker, x., & stuart, m. (2021). digital automation and the future of work. panel for the future of science and technology. european parliamentary research service. taskiran, e. (2017). the moderating role of organisational identification on the relationship between perceived organisational career management and intention to leave. international journal of business and management, 12(11), 73. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v12n11p73 tayebwa, d. (2019). decent work environment, employee engagement and organisational commitment among traditional employees of kiruhura district in 2019 (unpublished master’s dissertation). makerere university. united nations. (2017). international migrant stock: the 2017 revision. retrieved from http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/index.shtml winchenbach, a. (2019). rethinking decent work: the value of dignity in tourism employment. journal of sustainable tourism, 27(7), 1026–1043. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2019.1566346 yin, r.k. (2018). case study research and applications: design and methods (6th ed.). sage. zimstat. (2017). labour force survey. national statistics agency. retrieved from https://zimbabwe.opendataforafrica.org/data/?source=zimstat article information authors: edward rankhumise1 fulufhelo g. netswera2 affiliations: 1department of management and entrepreneurship, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa 2research directorate, university of south africa (unisa), pretoria, south africa correspondence to: edward rankhumise email: rankhumiseem@tut.ac.za postal address: department of management and entrepreneurship, tshwane university of technology, private bag x680, pretoria 0001, south africa keywords aa; discrimination; equal opportunities; mentoring; training interventions dates: received: 19 may 2009 accepted: 24 aug. 2010 published: 16 nov. 2010 how to cite this article: rankhumise, e., & netswera, f.g. (2010). identifying the barriers to affirmative action training: perceptions of affirmative action appointees in mpumalanga public hospitals. sa journal of human resource management / sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #222, 6 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.222 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) identifying the barriers to affirmative action training: perceptions of affirmative action appointees in mpumalanga public hospitals in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction • research design    • research approach    • research strategy    • qualitative methods sought    • quantitative survey    • research participants • discussion    • race-based affirmative action perceptions       • education-based aa perceptions       • perceptions based on organisational sections       • perceptions based on employment levels • conclusion • references abstract (back to top) orientation: since the advent of democracy in 1994 numerous policies and programmes were put in place to address the imbalances of race and gender in the south african labour force. research purpose: the aim of this study is to gauge the perceptions about existing barriers in the implementation of affirmative action (aa) training interventions at public hospitals in the mpumalanga province. motivations for the study: the research conducted in this study provides valuable information which would enable the mpumalanga health department and public hospital management to develop improved interventions associated with aa training interventions. research design, approach and method: the population of the study consists of two groups of participants which are aa appointees and aa mentors. the study mixed qualitative and quantitative research methodological processes. main findings: results of this study show that there are differences in perceptions between black respondents who believe that mentors should be held liable for the failure of the mentees and white respondents who disagreed. the findings suggest that employees are of the opinion that internal policy guidelines on the implementation of aa are not communicated to all employees. practical implications: public hospital management should articulate the purpose of aa interventions and its targets to both mentors and mentees and continuously review the implementation thereof. contribution: the study contributes towards explaining the importance of training interventions that are useful for the success of aa appointees in their respective duties and also give account of barriers that are experienced by these appointees. introduction (back to top) since 1994, efforts taken to address the imbalances associated with race and gender in south africa’s workforce are specifically those that relate to legislative reforms as well as training and mentoring for affirmative action (aa) appointees. this article explores the existing barriers found in aa mentoring programmes, as perceived by aa appointees in mpumalanga public hospitals. a combined qualitative and quantitative research approach was followed in researching this topical issue. the research findings reveal that there are remaining barriers in terms of aa candidates not functioning efficiently, which aa training has not managed to address. one such barrier is perceived to be the resistance of appointed mentors to provide training; this perception has been expressed mainly by black aa appointees, whereas white female aa appointees have argued that no such barrier exists. conclusions drawn from the findings include the following, (1) implementing aa requires guiding policies at institutional level, (2) various support mechanisms, beyond aa training, are required by the beneficiaries of aa and (3) the appointed mentors’ resistance to providing training must be explored. south africans embarked on a major transformation in the workplace environment after democratisation took place in 1994. the introduction of different legislative reforms aimed at eliminating discrimination and promoting equal opportunities in the workplace featured prominently in the employment equity act 55 of 1998 and in the skills development act 97 of 1998. these policy initiatives are amongst the various corrective measures undertaken by government to advance historically marginalised groupings, such as black and female workers, in an attempt to reverse the imbalances experienced under apartheid rule. kahlenberg (1996, p. 6) and du plessis (1995, p. 85) perceive the apartheid legacy as being responsible for the concentration of black people in lower-level positions in the workplace. in implementing corrective measures for this problem, the south african government opted to review all discriminatory legislation and afford all employees equal opportunities. in terms of the employment equity act of 1998, the previously disadvantaged groups in the south african context are black people (african, indian and coloured people), women of all races and people with disabilities. the implementation of the employment equity act puts pressure on all government departments to ensure that their staff complement is demographically reflective and representative of all sections of the south african population (republic of south africa, 1998c, section 15b). the successful implementation of aa requires well-guided mentoring and training interventions. according to herholdt and marx (1999, p. 6), training interventions are about mentoring, on-the-job training and routine work schedule clarification. these training interventions are a determinant of either success or failure (human, 1993, p. 13). greeff and nel (2003, p. 24) and wingrove (1993, p. 153) view the lack of success in terms of aa as the result of limited time and attention dedicated to the acceleration of on-the-job training. while the national department of public service and administration provides policy guidelines on how aa and employment equity (ee) should be implemented, the implementing departments are able to refine these guidelines to suit their situation (republic of south africa, 1998a). to complement this requirement, the department of health provided hospitals with its policy on the implementation of aa and ee thereby simplifying implementation processes within the department. for training interventions in the mpumalanga department of health, the mentoring programme has been selected as an appropriate intervention. according to wingrove (1993, p. 163), such a methodology could have negative effects if there are perceived threats that the persons being mentored could in future take the mentors’ positions. the white mentors, in particular, see the mentoring programme as a way to replace them after they have provided a successful mentoring process by giving them early retirement. popular opinions are already being documented, specifying that the increasing skills development of black people could cause the retrenchment of white people, which results in reverse discrimination (basit & mcnamara, 2004, p. 101; wingrove, 1993). the programmes of aa must therefore be implemented carefully if reverse discrimination is to be prevented (barker, 2007, p. 248). if there are any perceptions of reverse discrimination, which could hamper the development of black employees, it could affect the success of cross-cultural integration and the implementation of training interventions. in terms of section 2 of the skills development act of 1998 (republic of south africa, 1998b), government departments should ensure that aa is reinforced through training intervention measures in order to provide aa candidates with the opportunity to acquire new skills. any obstacles standing in the way of training interventions have to be addressed in accordance with the internal policy of the organisation concerned and such a policy should address resistance to change, ee and skills development plans (esterhuyse, 2003, p. 5; wingrove, 1993, p. 65). the success of the aa programme depends on, amongst other things, on-the-job training and the willingness of the trainers and trainees to participate. considering the need for labour force and workplace transformation and the challenges in implementing transformative instruments like aa and mentoring training interventions, this study aims to articulate perceptions about existing barriers in terms of the implementation of aa training in mpumalanga public hospitals. owing to the racial polarisation of south african society, it can therefore be hypothesised that the perception of the success of aa mentoring differs along racial lines. in order to achieve these set goals, a set of research processes were followed to execute the actual research. research design (back to top) research approach a two-phase design, referred to as the triangulation of research methods, was used for this study, which combined qualitative and quantitative methods (denzin & lincoln, 2000). creswell (1994, p. 177) regards the use of the two methods as advantageous because it enables the researcher(s) to present the paradigm assumptions that are not tenable with only one method. the use of triangulation enabled the researchers to collect adequate data. qualitative data is used to illustrate or clarify quantitatively derived findings with more clarity rather than a purely statistical presentation. the two methods are therefore complementary (strauss & corbin, 1990, p. 19). tables research strategy both qualitative and quantitative strategies were employed. in this case, surveys were used in conjunction with semi structured interviews. qualitative methods sought prior to conducting the research, permission was requested and obtained from the chief director of the hospital services of the mpumalanga public hospitals. a total of ten aa training mentors were purposefully sampled, with their names being provided by various hospital administration departments. a consent form was attached to the invitation extended to the mentors for participation in interviews. in these letters, participants were promised anonymity and confidentiality in terms of sensitive information linking them directly with the research outcomes (polit & beck, 2004, p. 291). an interview guide was developed from literature, including the ee and aa policy and strategy documents. taped interviews were transcribed and analysed using tesch’s data reduction method, as outlined by creswell (1994, p. 155). the findings from qualitative discussions with participants are presented verbatim; in other words, only the major themes and statements that repeat themselves throughout the discussions are discussed as ‘emerging themes’. quantitative survey this survey followed from the qualitative study. data from the qualitative study as well as the literature were combined for the development of this survey questionnaire. a sample of 205 respondents from 15 mpumalanga public hospitals was selected to participate in the research, using systematic sampling methodology from the various lists that were provided by the hospitals’ administration departments. the focus was on the former transvaal provincial administration (tpa) hospitals, which were administered by white people and provided fertile ground for probing transformation processes. the survey questionnaire yielded two types of data sets, namely those of a biographical nature and mainly closed responses to likert-scale aa statements (bless & higson-smith, 1995, p. 121). this quantitative data was analysed at an inferential statistical level with computation of chi-square tests (hypothesis testing) to check for variations in perceptions of the success or failure of the aa programmes. research participants the population of the study consisted of aa appointees and mentors in the mpumalanga public hospitals. in terms of the lists provided by the hospitals’ administrations, the fifteen hospitals surveyed had a total of 205 aa appointees with the questionnaires distributed to all of them. from the distributed 205 questionnaires in the 15 hospitals, a total of 108 questionnaires were returned fully completed, constituting a 53% response rate. this response rate is deemed acceptable for generalisation purposes (sarantakos, 1997, p. 158). the returned questionnaires were from the following hospitals: philadelphia (7), groblersdal (17), middelburg (1), witbank (0), sabie (6), lydenburg (10), bernice samuel (3), themba (2), rob ferreira (10), barberton (13), carolina (6), bethal (9), ermelo (4), standerton (12) and evander (6). it was only at witbank hospital that not a single questionnaire was returned. in terms of the racial composition of the ten mentors interviewed, seven were african people and three were white people. most of the mentors were not willing to take part in the study and referred the researchers to the chief executive officers of the respective hospitals. before presenting the various hypotheses, it is important to indicate that the overall respondent base in this survey comprised 26.9% males and 73.1% females, with a racial make-up of 72.2% african respondents, 24.1% white respondents and only 3.8% coloured respondents. from the 108 questionnaires analysed, 61 (56.5%) respondents were in the administrative staff category, 34 (31.5%) were in nursing, 3 (2.8%) were doctors and 10 (9.3%) were allied health workers. it is notable from the analysis that most of the staff at the hospitals surveyed was in the administrative category (56.5%). the reason for this could be that it is easier to implement aa amongst administrative appointees than it is in other staff categories. the second-most represented category was nursing, accounting for 31.5% and was as a result of various divisional responsibilities attached to the wards and nursing administration. from the research, it is evident that only 10 mentors took part in the study. most of the mentors were not willing to take part and it was also not possible to interview mentors in other hospitals. discussion (back to top) the findings of the quantitative study are structured to test the various assumptions (i.e. hypothesis tests) that are made in terms of variables that may influence perceptions about the effectiveness of aa mentoring programmes. such variables include race, language, educational level and position within the organisation. however, findings from qualitative interviews are quoted verbatim. these are themes that emerged throughout most of the interviews and are therefore deemed ‘general trends’. the implementation of a verbatim record of the interviews allows the researchers to augment the qualitative presentations and vise versa without altering the original statements from the respondents. language is one of the variables that is instrumental in the formation of associations and prejudices (rankhumise, 2007, p. 141). it is therefore appropriate to presume that such a variable has the potential to create perceptions about aa relationships. more importantly, these may not only be perceptions, but rather evident daily realities between beneficiaries of aa appointments and their appointed mentors. the findings of this research reveal a pearson chi-square test result of 0.004, which suggests that there are indeed significant differences in how respondents of different language groups perceive the willingness of mentors to provide aa mentoring to their appointed mentees. the swatiand zulu-speaking respondents recognised that those occupying senior positions were resistant to providing mentorship to aa appointees. englishand afrikaans-speaking respondents, on the other hand, did not identify any resistance to the provision of aa mentorship by the mentors. race-based affirmative action perceptions testing for differences in perceptions on at least four statements across racial lines revealed significant differences. in all these statements, the differences which were tested using pearson chi-square test values, all yielded a (p = 0.00), suggesting very strong differences between the perceptions of black and white respondents’ perceptions. while black respondents thought that mentors should be held responsible for the failure of their mentees, white respondents disagreed:‘... as a mentor i do not think i should entirely be held responsible for the failure of the mentee, this is a twofold issue … there should be agreement between the two parties and where shortcomings are experienced that should be sorted out ...’ interestingly, these respondents differed even on matters such as whether or not internal hospital policies existed on how the implementation of aa should be handled. mentors attested as follows: ‘there are internal policies within the hospitals; the challenge is whether staff members are conversant on how such policies are applied ... quite often policies are circulated to all departments in the hospitals and if a person has no interest in a policy, it will just be kept in a file and when asked about the availability of such policies, the answer is we do not have a policy ...’ black respondents were of the opinion that the hospitals had no such internal policies while their white colleagues stated that such policies existed. this sentiment was supported by qualitative analysis: ‘there are plans for general training not specifically for aa … … aa is taking place but there is no statistics or evidence to say these are employees appointed on the basis of aa …’ black respondents thought that there was resistance to train aa appointees by those holding higher positions, whereas their white colleagues disagreed. a close inspection of these findings suggests that black respondents are aggrieved and therefore have negative perceptions about their white colleagues and about the aa process in general. such perceptions are partly fuelled by further perceptions that white colleagues in higher positions preside over and determine the success of mentoring processes (rankhumise, netswera & meyer, 2001). these findings strengthen the assumption that choosing one’s own mentor or mentee, rather than getting one appointed for you involuntarily, could be the best way to overcome these negative perceptions. thomas and robertshaw (1999) also regard the establishment of a good mentoring relationship and smooth running of mentoring processes to be dependent on good relationships between the two parties involved. their findings confirm that the parties involved in the mentoring process are committed to ensuring its success only if they are familiar with each other. this will enable both parties to deem the process mutually beneficial. these findings confirm the findings by rankhumise (2007, p. 116), namely that because of historical and educational inferiorities and disadvantages, black employees are more likely to receive aa mentoring. aa mentoring, therefore, is a racially charged process whereby black employees are automatically mentees and white employees are mentors, resulting in perpetual and often non-verbalised antagonism and polarised perceptions about the efficiency and effectiveness of the mentoring process. aa training and mentoring is a restorative justice process that is aimed at correcting workforce imbalances created during apartheid rule; therefore, in this process, black employees feel maltreated (rankhumise, netswera & meyer 2001, p. 43). education-based aa perceptions in terms of section 20(3) of the employment equity act of 1998, a person may be suitably qualified as a result of different criteria, namely (1) formal qualifications, prior learning, relevant experience and capacity to acquire a qualification within a stipulated time frame and (2) the ability to do the job. in line with these stipulations, one other important question to ask in this type of analysis is: what effect does an educational or academic qualification have on perceptions about the effectiveness of aa programmes across race lines? the pearson chi-square test results obtained from the three statements suggest significant differences on the basis of educational levels of the various respondents. respondents with a grade 12 qualification or less (20%) felt that mentors should be held responsible for the failure of the persons being mentored (p = 0.04). interviewed mentors did not concur with the aa appointees, namely that they were resisting training them: ‘yes, as mentors it seems as if we are resisting training aa particular those without post-matric qualifications. the problems we encounter is that this category requires more intensive mentoring [than] the other categories ...’ however, the majority of those respondents with diplomas and degrees had a different perception. the results further indicate that respondents with grade 12 or less (31.4%) believed that aa will fail if it is not supported by training interventions. it was only those respondents who held a postgraduate diploma or degree that seemed confident that aa mentoring can succeed without major interventions. white employees are performing better than african employees because the latter were not afforded education and training opportunities during the apartheid era. it is for this historical reason that black employees in the work situation are generally employed in non-decision making positions such as administration clerks, gardeners and cleaners. the findings correlate positively with the reference in the industrial conciliation act of 1924, which stated that through segregation, racial privileges were afforded to white people, providing the foundation for the policy of job reservation on the basis of race resulting in racial discrimination. furthermore, the findings are in line with references in the black building workers act of 1951 and with finnemore (1999) and bendix (2001) that black employees were prohibited from performing high-skilled jobs and that certain skilled jobs were reserved for white employees. the majority of these imbalances are a result of the industrial conciliation act, which was passed as aa that guaranteed positions for white employees only. perceptions based on organisational sections the hospital setup has four major demarcations, namely administration, nursing, medical and the allied health section. the formation of perceptions in these various sections of the hospitals regarding aa mentoring seems to vary significantly at a pearson chi-square test value of 0.001. employees in these various sections differed significantly on whether or not aa developmental programmes are available in the hospital. the administrative, nursing, medical and allied health workers believed there were developmental programmes available in the hospitals that were intended for them. however, a small number of medical staff and a higher number of administrators thought differently. the stipulation in the employment equity act of 1998 and in the white paper on aa (republic of south africa, 1998a, section 3.22) specifies that employers (i.e. hospitals) must prepare ee plans which will achieve reasonable progress towards ee in the workforce. according to these policies, this process must include (1) the analysis of the numerical goals required to achieve equitable representation of suitably qualified people from designated groups, (2) the timetable within which this is to be accomplished and (3) the strategies to be used. perceptions based on employment levels the self-selection and pairing of mentors and mentees on the basis of familiarity and mutual interest in each other’s development have historically been found to be central to the success of mentoring processes (thomas & robertshaw, 1999; rankhumise, netswera & meyer, 2001). these perceptions were tested amongst employees at various employment levels and, according to the findings, significant differences in perceptions were found amongst employees at different employment or management levels. while employees at top, first and operational level agreed that if a person who is being mentored appoints their own mentor, the mentoring is likely to succeed; middle management level employees differed significantly at a pearson chi-square test value of 0.004. employees also differed significantly in terms of their perceptions of whether a policy existed which would enable them to mentor and evaluate the success of training interventions. those who differed significantly (p = 0.03) were employees at top and operational level. these findings suggest that the introduction of the policy was not communicated to all levels of management throughout these hospitals. it is imperative that any policy that affects the entire workforce be communicated and top management should preferably ensure that all staff members are sensitised to the policy. policy intervention intends to achieve basic understanding and support for aa appointees and can only be implemented if the intended parties are familiar with its content. conclusion (back to top) this study examines the sentiments of the aa appointees in terms of the hurdles that they encounter while carrying out their respective duties. from the policy perspective of aa, the implementation of such policies should be supported through training interventions to ensure that beneficiaries of aa training become successful. the support is imperative in the sense that those who were previously disadvantaged should be fast-tracked through the necessary training support interventions. the article argues that because there are still hurdles associated with the implementation of aa training interventions, certain measures need to be put in place in order to address these difficulties and ensure that aa appointees perform at expected levels. the findings on which this article is based, suggest that barriers in terms of the implementation of training interventions remain in existence and include the following: • there is a perceived resistance by those holding senior positions to training aa appointees and providing the necessary mentoring support. • there are perceptions that internal policies on the implementation of aa and development plans are available, but it seems these policies are not communicated to all employees. • aa employees feel that if funding is not provided, the efforts in aa interventions are likely to fail. • the historical educational disadvantages of black employees have caused black employees to be less capable in the area of high-skilled jobs when compared to their white counterparts. • mentors attested that where aa practices are in place, good cooperation exists between hospital management, employees and trade unions. as a result, employees become motivated in the execution of their duties. in order to address the identified barriers, the following recommendations are suggested: • the implementation of aa should be followed by effective training interventions. • for the mentoring process to succeed the management of the hospitals should make mentors responsible for the failure of the persons they mentor; mentoring should therefore have measurable success factors. • consultations with employees in terms of the communication of policies are currently perceived as being inadequate; this should be corrected to effect a common understanding of policies and their objectives. • employees with lower educational levels require increased mentoring and training support than other aa employees; interventions should therefore be tailor-made to address these differences amongst aa beneficiaries. • aa beneficiaries of black descent, in comparison with those from other racial groups, are more concerned about their mentorship and training experiences. in an effort to make aa training interventions equally accessible to all, the hospital management should identify any obstacles in terms of equal access and equal benefits. • hospitals should embark on aa practices supported by training interventions because the implementation thereof could improve the performance of the employees in the respective hospitals. it is imperative to sensitise hospital managers and aa beneficiaries to the importance of implementing aa policies and strategies within the various hospitals so that an understanding of the basic principles associated with these interventions is embraced by all. management of hospitals should ensure that an environment is cultivated for the establishment of a positive relationship between mentor and mentee. this can be achieved by objectively selecting mentors and mentees, rather than imposing selections on the parties. when allowing mentees to choose their own mentors, careful consideration should be given to the selection processes to avoid subjectiveness that may compromise the achievement of positive mentoring outcomes and experiences. there are several limitations in this study that have a bearing on the results. firstly, the study was conducted in mpumalanga public hospitals and, as a result, the researchers are unable to claim any generalisation of the findings. secondly, because participation explicitly emphasised voluntary participation, it can be that there may have been some differences in responses with those who did not choose to participate. due to financial constraints, it was not possible to cover all the hospitals in the mpumalanga province. finally, another study could be important on a broader scale, preferably in other provinces, with the intention of exploring further findings and to discuss experiences of aa appointees in diverse settings. this study provides valuable information which would enable hospital management to develop internal policies regarding the implementation of aa. this could assist in resolving some of the identified hurdles encountered by aa appointees. if aa appointees fail in the execution of their duties, the aa process could be regarded as futile. therefore the necessary support mechanisms should be provided to ensure that all aa beneficiaries succeed in fulfilling their duties. references (back to top) barker, f. (2007). the south african labour market: theory and practice. (5th edn.). pretoria: van schaik. basit, t.n., & mcnamara, o. (2004) equal opportunities or affirmative action? the induction of minority ethnic teachers. journal of education for teaching, 30(2) 101–102. bendix, s. (2001). industrial relations in south africa. (4th edn.). lansdowne: juta. bless, c., & higson-smith, c. (1995). fundamentals of social research methods. an african perspective. (2nd edn.). kenwyn: juta. creswell, j.w. (1994). research design. qualitative and quantitative approaches. california: sage. denzin, n.k., & lincoln, y.s. (eds.) (2000). handbook of qualitative research. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks: sage. du plessis, k.r. (1995). perceptions concerning the effects of affirmative action on productivity in local government. ma dissertation. johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. esterhuyse, w.p. (2003). the challenges of transformation: breaking the barriers. south african journal of business management, 34(3), 1–8. finnemore, m. (1999). introduction to labour relations in south africa. (7th edn.). durban: butterworths. greef, a., & nel, p. (2003). employment transformation enhancement in south africa: establishing a job-sharing model to promote employment equity. south african journal of labour relations, 27(2), 23–62. herholdt, w., & marx, m. (1999). employment equity in south africa: a guide to affirmative action success. south africa: prentice hall. human, l.n. (1993). affirmative action and the development of people: a practical guide. kenwyn: juta. kahlenberg, r.d. (1996). the remedy: class, race, and affirmative action. new york: basicbooks. martins, n., & von der ohe, h. (2003). organisational climate measurement – new and emerging dimensions during a period of transformation. south african journal of labour relations, 27(3), 41–58. munetsi, w. (1999). affirmative action – a simplistic view. people dynamics, 17(1), 36. polit, d.s., & beck, c.t. (2004). nursing research: principles and methods. (7th edn.). philadelphia: lippincott. rankhumise, e.m. (2007). the effectiveness of training interventions implemented by mpumalanga public hospitals. doctoral thesis. pretoria: tshwane university of technology. rankhumise, e.m., netswera, g., & meyer, m. (2001). employees’ perceptions of the implementation of affirmative action in the health sector in the standerton district in south africa. curationis, 24(4), 54–57. republic of south africa. (1924). industrial conciliation act 11 of 1924. pretoria: government printer. republic of south africa. (1951). black building workers act 27 of 1951. pretoria: government printer. republic of south africa. (1998a). white paper on affirmative action. pretoria: government printer. republic of south africa. (1998b). skills development act 97 of 1998. pretoria: government printer. republic of south africa. (1998c). employment equity act 55 of 1998. pretoria: government printer. sarantakos, s. (1997). social research. basingstoke: palgrave. strauss, a., & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research. grounded theory procedures and techniques. california: sage. thomas, a., & robertshaw, d. (1999). achieving employment equity: a guide to effective strategies: developing the fabric of organisations. randburg: knowledge resources. wingrove, t. (1993). affirmative action. a ‘how to’ guide for managers. randburg: knowledge resources. abstract introduction and background research purpose and objective literature review autonomy and decision-making affirmative action and employee morale morale versus motivation theoretical framework research methodology measuring instrument population and sample statistical analysis results discussion limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) faraaz omar department of human resource management, faculty of business and management sciences, cape peninsula university of technology, cape town, south africa jerome d. kiley department of human resource management, faculty of business and management sciences, cape peninsula university of technology, cape town, south africa citation omar, f., & kiley, j.d. (2022). employment equity and employee morale at a selected public service organisation in cape town, south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1917. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1917 original research employment equity and employee morale at a selected public service organisation in cape town, south africa faraaz omar, jerome d. kiley received: 22 feb. 2022; accepted: 24 may 2022; published: 10 oct. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: employment equity measures have been blamed for creating tensions in the workplace, impacting employee morale. research purpose: this study investigated the relationship between perceptions of employment equity and employee morale and whether these differed based on self-identified race and gender. motivation for the study: given the negative impact of employment equity initiatives on employee morale, it was necessary to investigate the correlation between these variables. research approach/design and method: a quantitative research design was applied using self-administered questionnaires administered to 200 employees of a public service organisation. all questionnaires were returned; however, only 167 were usable. main findings: significant correlations were observed between dimensions measuring employment equity and those measuring employee morale. women held positive perceptions regarding the morale dimensions of management commitment and workload. white respondents viewed management commitment, professional development opportunities, respect for cultural practices and managers possessing the skills to manage a diverse workforce positively than non-whites. practical/managerial implications: the findings indicate employment equity initiatives correlate with employee morale. human resource management within organisations should manage the process through which employment equity initiatives are implemented, taking cognisance of the impact on employee morale. contribution/value-add: this study contributes academically and practically. academically, this study adds to the existing literature within the field of human resource management. there is a plethora of literature on employment equity; however, this study focuses on the impact it has on employee morale specifically for the public service organisation. this study thus fills the gap in literature about employment equity and employee morale. keywords: affirmative action; designated groups; employee morale; employment equity; previously disadvantaged. introduction and background the apartheid regime (1948–1994) separated south africans along racial lines regarding where they lived, went to school, worked and where they were buried (van der walt, 1994). during this era, south africa (sa) was characterised by unfair discrimination (hitchcock & vinding, 2004), with different groups, including african, mixed race and indians, not given access to the same educational or employment opportunities (miller, 2000). the ruling political party at the time, the national party of south africa, implemented employment policies favouring persons classified as white people (coetzee & vermeulen, 2003). the government’s migrant labour policies reinforced the view that non-whites were only acceptable working in a temporary capacity within a ‘white environment’ (engdahl & hauki, 2001), with black workers limited to mainly unskilled and menial work (van der walt, 1994). south africa finally saw the advent of democracy in 1994 (van der heyden, 2013), accompanied by the repeal of apartheid laws (smith & roodt, 2003). numerous laws were promulgated to rectify past injustices, the most significant being the employment equity act (no. 55 of 1998) (eea). the eea aims to encourage equal opportunities, remove unfair labour practices and implement affirmative action (aa) processes to redress the past disadvantages experienced by designated groups (hlongwane, 2013; leonard & grobler, 2006). despite this, competing in the job market continued to be difficult for black people, women and people with disabilities (mputa, 2016). this was predominantly because of differing apartheid-era education standards and quality (nyoka & lekalake, 2015). however, many employment equity (ee) measures, such as preferential treatment and numerical goals, have become associated with negative connotations, such as ‘a drop in standards’, ‘racism’, ‘unfair treatment’, ‘tokenism’, ‘reverse discrimination’ and ‘incompetence’ (motileng, 2004). these ee measures have created racial tensions and resentment in the workplace, thus detrimentally impacting employee morale (em) (jooste, 2014). thus, this study investigates the correlation between perceptions of ee and em, and whether these perceptions differ significantly on the grounds of race, gender and between white and non-white employees at a selected public service organisation in cape town. research purpose and objective the primary objective of this study was to examine the relationship between ee and em while also investigating whether perceptions of ee and em differed on the grounds of self-identified gender and race. the main objective of this study was: to investigate the relationship between perceptions of employment equity and employee morale among employees at a selected public service organisation in cape town. in addition, the following sub-objectives were addressed, namely: whether perceptions of employment equity and employee morale differ significantly based on self-identified gender? whether perceptions of employment equity and employee morale differed significantly between white and non-white employees? literature review employment equity and affirmative action while ee and aa are believed to be different concepts (mayer, oosthuizen, & tonelli, 2019), they are both legislatively driven and represent proactive policies that undertake to rectify workplace inequalities on the grounds of race, gender and disability (white paper for post-school education and training, 2013). thus, both ee and aa are necessary steps in rectifying past injustices, resulting in a more diverse workforce in both the public and private sectors in south africa. for these reasons, the argument can be made that ee and aa are related concepts and are therefore used synonymously in this study. history of affirmative action the plethora of aa views and understandings resulted in two main points of views: some view aa as a way of granting preference to women, disabled people and particular racial groups, while others perceive it as a means to promote equal opportunities for all, regardless of race. the term denotes a process that is inevitably controversial and open to various interpretations that depend in part on one’s personal beliefs, views and ideals. while some identify it as a means of ending the past inequalities (matambo & ani, 2015), others view it as a process that redresses poor education (akala, 2019), prejudice (dingindawo, nwafor, mutshaeni, mudzielwana, & mulovhedzi, 2016), racism and the unequal distribution of wealth (leibbrandt, woolard, mcewen, & koep, 2010). hence, it is not always clear what people mean when they use the term. according to the eea no. 55 of 1998 (south africa, 1998a), aa has usually been closely associated with issues of employment: aa measures are measures designed to ensure that suitably qualified people from designated groups have equal employment opportunities and are equitably represented in all occupational categories and levels in the workforce of a designated employer. (p. 8) affirmative action first appeared in the 1940s in the universal declaration of human rights (motileng, 2004). the central aim was to eliminate discrimination based on race, colour, sex, property, birth or other related statuses (wingrove, 1995). the term aa became well-known in the 1960s after being introduced into popular discourse by united states president john f. kennedy (mcelroy, 2001). laws were established to grant preferential access to education and employment for black americans as a means to rectify the injustices of the past (kivel, 2001). south africa faced a similar scenario because of the political, social and economic injustices of apartheid (motileng, 2004). however, the implementation of aa has been controversial, with differing attitudes exhibited by those who benefitted instead of those who experience this as a threat. attitudes towards affirmative action debates around aa tend to revolve around two opposing ideas, freedom and equality (gomez & premdas, 2012). supporters of aa believe in equality of opportunities for previously disadvantaged groups, while opponents argue that organisations should have the freedom to select the candidates best suited for them (hlongwane, 2013). crawford and novak (2013) argued that aa recognises that past injustices have led to inequality in a society, while opponents such as ballam (1997) argued that there should be no policies to attain true equality. the way organisations manage aa practices and its impact on their success with employees’ attitudes towards aa is critical (fobanjong, 2001). employees claim that aa reflects negatively on results leading to a decrease in standards and is perceived as reverse discrimination (zondi, 2013). similarly, oosthuizen and naidoo’s (2010) study found that employers often lowered job standards to achieve targets with aa candidates placed in positions for which they were not competent, thus impacting their morale. consequently, the following hypothesis is put forward: h1: perceptions of employment equity and employee morale among employees at the selected public service organisation in cape town correlate significantly. leopeng (1999) and van der merwe (2006) found that members of previously advantaged groups generally held negative perspectives on aa. similarly, in buthelezi’s study (2011) white and indian respondents felt that incompetent candidates were promoted because of aa. in turn, rabe (2001) found that this belief demotivated both those who benefitted and those who did not benefit from aa. human, bluen and davies (1999) argued that aa serves as a self-fulfilling prophecy because it sets up black people to fail, confirming the negative stereotypes. the negative perception of aa and the belief that it harms merit-based systems are not limited to the sa context. various studies, such as those conducted by leck, saunders and charbonneau (1996), bakan and kobayashi (2000) and kottke and agars (2005) in canada found that the majority of respondents believed that people should be hired or promoted solely according to their qualifications and abilities, while not considering their candidate’s gender or race. boonin (2011) similarly viewed that any decision to hire a less qualified, disadvantaged candidate over a more qualified white man violates his right to be judged on merit. similarly, a study conducted by katchanovski, nevitte and rothman (2015) in america found that 75% of non-white respondents felt that academic and career progress should be based on a combination of ability and talent rather than gender and ethnicity. likewise, kottke and agars (2015) found that employees generally harbour negative attitudes towards gendered aa. men are less likely to believe that gender-based discrimination exists, while members of privileged groups are more likely to attribute their higher status to their merit and performance (prasad, mills, elmes, & prasad, 1997). privileged individuals are often unaware of their unearned advantages (sidanius et al., 1991). the targeted advancement of women intimidates male employees resulting in resistance because of perceptions that women’s progress is a threat to their career progression (konrad & hartmann, 2001). conversely, konrad and spitz (2003) found that men experience reverse discrimination, and that organisations perform poorly because of aa. hettinger (1987) argued that reverse discrimination against white men is as evil as past discrimination against women and black people. it is against this background that the following hypothesis is postulated: h2: perceptions of employment equity and employee morale among employees at the selected public service organisation in cape town differ significantly on the grounds of self-identified gender. skedsvold and mann (1996) argued that aa programmes increase the self-esteem of their beneficiaries in many instances by providing them with employment opportunities and a platform for growth. they found that only 10% of historically disadvantaged respondents felt that their abilities and skills had been questioned because of aa measures. buthelezi (2011) found that members of previously disadvantaged groups’ attitudes towards aa were the opposite of those who did not benefit from aa policies. black employees generally did not express negative opinions about aa, while white respondents were more likely to believe that it led to the promotion of incompetent employees (buthelezi, 2011). similarly, motileng (2004) found that most black employees viewed aa as a means of correcting past imbalances, believing that aa measures have brought forward opportunities for black people, thus enhancing their careers (buthelezi, 2011; colamery, 1998). black employees also reported receiving training and additional support because of aa (buthelezi, 2011). thus, aa is a tool to correct past imbalances, providing structural upward mobility for those previously excluded (archibong & adejumo, 2013). discrimination is viewed as a part of aa, which is required to undo decades of unfair discrimination (bhargava, 2008; colamery, 1998). positive attitudes towards aa rest upon two related propositions: aa serves to level the playing fields made uneven by previous injustices, and that fair discrimination is applied to achieve this (harkoo, 2014). the above section canvassed varying attitudes of aa among racial groups, emphasising the need for mitigating opposing views about the fairness of implementing the aa policy. in sa, this need has given rise to the creation of the ee index criteria put forward by jain and hackett (1989), which has resulted in organisations needing to develop ‘best practices’ for the effective implementation of an ee plan. best practices for effective implementation of affirmative action the concept of ‘best practice’ implies the notion of ‘better than’ compliance with ee. simply put, ee compliance should be proactive and should meet more than the basic requirements of the legislation (van der heyden, 2013). these best practices served as the basis of the measuring instrument in the present study and are discussed next. training and development an ee plan should be linked to training and development for an ee strategy to be effective, as this supports employers in aligning skills development to ee (van der heyden, 2013). to assist organisations to align skills development with ee, several measures such as the skills development act no 97 of 1998 (south africa, 1998b) have been introduced (esterhuizen, 2008). diversity management appreciation for and management of diversity in the workplace are advanced as important aspects of an effective ee strategy (thomas, cumming, lattimer, & plani, 1996). diversity management relates to a strategy to find and develop a diverse workforce and inclusive workplace, while focusing on the skills, policies and competencies required to enhance employees’ impact on the organisation. inclusive organisational culture ensuring an inclusive organisational culture is the goal of effective aa implementation (meyer, 2018). supervisors must attempt to create an inclusive organisational culture that appreciates diversity and promotes equity and staff retention (human, 1993). the development of shared meaning demands that employees should invest in the organisation’s vision and values, and engage in standard, expected behaviour towards colleagues. management commitment the success of aa within sa is largely dependent on commitment from managers; hence, it is clear that this commitment, especially from top management, is vital for the effectiveness of any aa programme in bringing about organisational change and transformation (twala, 2004). for aa to be implemented effectively, management should fully embrace its programmes and regard it as a business strategy and not simply as compliance (van der heyden, 2013). transparent communication the eea no. 55 of 1998 (south africa, 1998a) requires that organisations should consult with stakeholders and make information pertaining to ee easily available to employees (van der heyden, 2013). communication is perceived as a critical component of corporate transformation (leonard & grobler, 2006). without effective communication, organisations will be unable to comply with the information responsibilities they bear in respect of their stakeholders and will not be able to implement their ee strategies successfully. justification and diversity management justice and fairness are simple requirements for the effective functioning of organisations, and hence employees’ perceptions of the fairness of organisational practices impact their commitment and productivity levels (coetzee, 2006). the aa programmes are organisational practices that employees judge in terms of fairness, and for this reason, employers need to be mindful of employees’ perceptions of them (cropanzano & ambrose, 2015). companies that provide effective justifications for a diverse workforce can limit hostile attitudes towards aa programmes (kidder et al., 2004). fair employment practices all employment practices such as the recruitment, selection, promotion and retention of employees from previously disadvantaged groups must remain free of unfair biased practices; if not, these practices and their ee rationale will be at risk of foundering (thomas, et al., 1996). job requirements should be revised to ensure that the requirements predict job performance and are not used to exclude particular groups on the grounds of biased criteria (twala, 2004). the belief that aa harms a merit-based system and negative attitudes towards aa is discussed next. hettinger (1987) postulated that aa practices result in a violation of the rights of more qualified candidates being overlooked during selection processes. the relationship between aa and morale then comes into question, as researchers such as marx (1998) are of the notion that aa has an overall negative impact on employee morale. challengers of aa, such as kellough (2006), suggested that hostility is caused between opposing groups as a result of aa (carter, lippard, & baird, 2019) and maintained that this policy is detrimental to a society as, by entrenching ethnic divisions it may create bitterness and unhappiness. it may thus serve to worsen racial and ethnic tensions rather than improve them. it may also have a damaging impact on the recipients of aa, as it is arguably built on a system of race-based paternalism, and the outcome of this could be toxic, leading to hostility between the recipients of aa and those who are not advantaged by the policy (lee, 2016). considering the amount of time that employees spend in each other’s presence, the forging of effective or hostile relationships in the workplace can directly impact em. white respondents questioned whether the policy actually ensured equal opportunities for all, as they believed that it penalised innocent whites for the wrongdoings of their ancestors; better known as a form of ‘reverse discrimination’ (arrow et al., 2000). their argument is that aa is immoral, simply causes further inequality between different races and is in fact inherently racist (block & mulcahy, 1997; goldring, 2018). this finding is in line with an international standpoint, as data from a study by jones et al. (2016) conducted in the united states show that a majority of the white american working class believes that reverse discrimination is the dominant racial bias in america (newkirk, 2017). for this reason, the following hypothesis is put forward: h2: perceptions of employment equity and employee morale among employees at the selected public service organisation in cape town differ significantly between white and non-white employees. employee morale on an individual level, morale is a state of psychological well-being based on a sense of confidence, usefulness and overall purpose. on a group level, morale refers to the spirit of a group (bowles & cooper, 2009). a favourable attitude would be a sign of high morale, leading to a lower labour turnover, as employees are likely to resign, while an unfavourable attitude would be an indication of low morale, resulting in inefficiency and unrest among employees (matsaung, 2014). employee morale is a complex phenomenon and can be affected by a number of factors, which were used as the scales to measure em and are expanded upon next. recognition and regard financial compensation undeniably influences em, but equally important is the praise and appreciation that employees receive (james et al., 2015). when employees are praised and appreciated by their peers and managers for their job performance, they experience a sense of belonging, achievement and significance, which consequently boosts their morale. working relationships many employees spend more time with co-workers than they do with their own family, so it is important for them to develop quality relationships with co-workers. considering the amount of time that employees spend in each other’s presence, the forging of effective relationships in the workplace can directly improve em (). as co-workers become more friendly with each other, they look forward to spending time with each other arguing and ‘back biting’, which erodes em significantly (rockman, 2003). professional development professional development encourages staff to build on their skills, attitudes and knowledge, and is essential to boost em. when organisations provide their staff with professional development opportunities, they are indicating that they have the best interests of their employees at heart and this feeling of support elevates em (meyerson, 2013). a lack of adequate support and feelings of being underutilised in jobs could, however, leads to low em. autonomy and decision-making autonomy relates to the degree of freedom that employees enjoy while working, as opposed to their being micromanaged. greater autonomy is often associated with more opportunities, which essentially improves em and moreover, enables employees to handle stressful situations such as heavy workloads (gashi, 2014). workload heavy workloads carry many implications for organisations throughout the world and often lead to low morale, which is a great concern (turner, 2013). employees can experience a hefty workload for numerous reasons, including retrenchments resulting in staff shortages, and therefore, more work for a decreased number of employees. this could undermine the relationship between management and employees and have a detrimental impact on em, manifesting in workplace issues such as low productivity, absenteeism and employee turnover (van der hulst, 2003). affirmative action and employee morale the apartheid government mandated discriminatory policies, and as the government in the past was actively committed to legislative discrimination, it is critical that the present south african government should become equally involved in eradicating these injustices. it is clear that there are mixed feelings about aa because supporters view it as a positive measure that has created developmental opportunities, while challengers perceive it to work against those who are not beneficiaries of the policy. one of the main difficulties of aa in the workplace is that it creates a stigma that previously disadvantaged employees are solely hired based on their gender or skin colour. this stigma thus questions the job competence of previously disadvantaged employees. ultimately, this may create resentment in the workplace, affecting employee morale. morale versus motivation morale and motivation are inherently connected. to be motivated, one must have a high level of morale while motivating employees to increase their morale (ngwane, 2010; taillard & giscoppa, 2013). morale is a state of mind that depends on employees’ attitudes towards their job, colleagues, employers and supervisors. morale essentially leads to job satisfaction, and when job satisfaction is high, employees are less likely to resign, complain or become problematic (mcconnell, 2010). factors affecting morale pertain to the conditions that trade unions fight for, including salary, benefits, job security, work environment and general quality of life at work. morale factors are represented in the lower three levels of maslow’s hierarchy of needs: survival needs (such as shelter, food and water), safety needs (such as insurance, pension and job security) and social needs (acceptance by work colleagues) (maslow, 1943). however, motivation is a cognitive drive generated when maslow’s two higher order needs are satisfied (maslow, 1954). these are the psychological needs for self-esteem and self-actualisation (reaching one’s full potential) (mcconnell, 2010). certain motivational theories suggest that employees seek fairness regarding what they have contributed to their job. adams’ (1963) equity theory is premised on the notion that if employees perceive their inputs (e.g. challenging work, loyalty, etc.) are greater than their outcomes (job security, career development, etc.), they may experience decreased morale. given the nature of ee, it is contended that non-recipients of ee (i.e. white men) will compare their input–output ratio with that of recipients of ee (i.e. black people, females and people with disabilities) and will, for the most part, construe that ratio as favourable to recipients of ee according to equity theory, non-recipients will consequently attempt to restore a balance by either adjusting their input (e.g. decreasing productivity at work, etc.), output (battle for a promotion, etc.) or change their comparison group by resigning and moving to a different organisation. theoretical framework adams’ (1963) equity theory suggests that people are happiest in relationships when their giving and taking is equal, emphasising the need to treat employees fairly. it has received substantial empirical support providing a sound basis for reviewing the motivational implications of perceived fairness and injustices within the working environment (lloyd & mertens, 2018). thus, equity theory was selected as this study’s theoretical framework, given that fairness is central to ee’s implementation in sa to ensure that designated groups are represented equitably in the workplace. equity theory, therefore, enables the study to explore how input transaction impacts morale among employees, given that aa is a concept that has the principle of equity at its core (leonard, 2005). research methodology research design this study is grounded in the positivist paradigm using a quantitative approach that applied a structured questionnaire in a survey design, which is positivistic in nature. it allowed for collecting data from a large sample of respondents simultaneously while being an inexpensive, quick and accurate way of assessing information about the population (welman, kruger, & mitchell, 2005). the questionnaire comprised likert-type questions that measured perceptions towards ee and morale. the questionnaire was distributed to employees in a selected public service organisation. the respondents’ were provided with token incentives of chocolates to encourage participation. a total of 200 questionnaires were distributed; however, only 167 were usable. this study therefore had a response rate of 83.5%. gillham (2000) asserted that if a response rate is below 30% in a questionnaire-based study, the validity of the study will be considered doubtful. the response rate in this study can therefore be regarded as highly satisfactory. research participants the sample comprised (n = 167) respondents employed at the selected public service organisation. availability sampling was utilised, with the majority of the respondents being men and identifying as black african, with the characteristics of the respondents reported in table 1. table 1: characteristics of respondents (n = 167). measuring instrument a self-administered questionnaire comprising questions with a likert-scale response option that measured perceptions of ee and em was used to collect the data for this study. section a of the questionnaire was designed to collect respondents’ biographical information. section b of the instrument consisted of statements concerning ee dimensions, and section c of the instrument consisted statements measuring factors that affect em. the questionnaire was used in a previous study by jooste (2014) in a south african context to investigate and assess the impact of aa on the motivation of employees at a selected private organisation, and written permission was obtained from the author. the questionnaire was modified to suit the needs of this study. a four-point likert scale was used to allow respondents a choice of four responses to reveal their agreement or disagreement with each item. a score was allocated to each choice, specifically 1 = strongly agree, 2 = agree, 3 = disagree and 4 = strongly disagree. furthermore, the questionnaire contained both positively and negatively worded questions, thus maintaining the interest and attention of respondents. the questionnaire consisted of a total of 59 items, of which 30 items measured nine dimensions of ee, which are linked to ee best practices as established: ‘inclusive organisational culture, management commitment, transparent communication, fair employment practices, training and development, gender equity and justification and diversity management’. the section measuring perceptions of employee morale consisted of 29 items measuring five dimensions of morale: workload, professional development, working relationships ‘and autonomy and decision-making’. an example of items measuring ee is shown in table 2. table 2: example of employment equity items measured. an example of items measuring em is listed in table 3. table 3: example of em items being measured. the measuring instrument was both valid and reliable. a reliability test was conducted to measure internal consistency using cronbach’s alpha coefficient. the questionnaire measuring perceptions of ee obtained an overall cronbach’s reliability score of 0.92, whereas the questionnaire measuring em achieved a cronbach’s alpha score of 0.93, both considered by burns and burns (2008) to be strongly reliable. majority of the reliability coefficients for the various sub-scales were acceptable with varying cronbach’s alpha scores between 0.48 and 0.93. all but one scale (justification and diversity management) had acceptable cronbach’s alpha scores. in this case, each item of the scale that never had an acceptable cronbach’s alpha score was considered for principal axis factoring to test the applicable hypotheses for the study. both sections of the instrument therefore comfortably exceeded the general acceptance level of 0.75. in terms of validity, content and construct validity was tested and assured by evaluating the validity of the ee and em scales. content validity in this study was assured as the questionnaire represents the content discussed in the literature review. furthermore, all statements were worded as clearly as possible, rendering them unambiguous and not misleading. construct validity was assured by conducting a factor analysis using a kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo), which discovered patterns among the variables measured and clustered them together. the kmo for adequacy ranged from 0.56 to 0.84, meaning all scales excluding ‘justification and diversity management’ were suitable for factor analysis. the factor analysis method employed in this study was the most commonly used one, namely principal component analysis, justifying their grouping. population and sample this study identified the target population, a large public service organisation, within the western cape, which had undergone a number of ee initiatives and has sufficient numbers of personnel belonging to both designated and non-designated groups. the researcher selected a sample using availability sampling. statistical analysis the statistical package for social sciences (ibm spss) (v.25) was used to analyse the data. the analysis had recourse to mean, standard deviation (sd), skewness and kurtosis as measures of dispersion of the data obtained. however, the inferential statistical methods applied included the pearson correlation coefficient, independent samples t-test and one-way analysis of variance (anova). these statistical strategies were used to assess the accuracy and significance of the answers to the study’s research questions. research procedure a less commonly used yet effective method of administering questionnaires known as the ‘drop-off and pick-up’ method was employed in this study. this entails the hand delivery of questionnaires to sampled units by the researcher, who also retrieves the completed questionnaires at a later stage. a meeting was set up with the area co-ordinator to discuss the nature of the study in detail, with emphasis placed on the distribution of the questionnaires. after the meeting, the area co-ordinator alerted employees in advance about the study to take place. the researcher personally distributed questionnaires to respondents and retrieved them on the same day. respondents were given approximately an hour to complete the questionnaires, which were then collected at an agreed time. brown (1987) argued that the awareness that someone would be coming back with the sole intention of receiving the completed questionnaire puts psychological pressure on the respondent to complete the questionnaire. ethical considerations a number of ethical steps were taken in this research study in order to guarantee the moral acceptability of this research study, including obtaining formal ethical clearance and permission from both the public service organisation and the university ethics committee. during the data collection process, respondents were informed of the purpose and nature of the study and were given the right to refuse to participate and withdraw at any time. respondents were assured about privacy and confidentiality, and the measures taken to ensure this, such as avoiding asking respondents for any information that could identify them and storing all hard copies of data in a locked cabinet. results descriptive statistics and reliability analysis tables 4 and 5 present a summary of the key descriptive statistics of ee (table 4) and em (table 5) scales by presenting means and sd. table 4: descriptive statistics of employment equity dimensions (n = 167). table 5: descriptive statistics of employee morale dimensions (n = 167). the ee dimensions had similar means, all below the midpoint of 2.5, ranging from m = 2.10 (sd = 0.81) for inclusive organisational culture to m = 2.35 (sd = 0.61) for transparent communication. the data were reasonably normally distributed, with a skewness ranging from −0.03 to 0.56 and a kurtosis ranging from −0.65 to 0.05. the em dimensions had similar means, with the majority below the midpoint of 2.50, ranging from working relationships (m = 2.16, sd = 0.82) to autonomy and decision making (m = 2.47, sd = 0.88). the data were reasonably normally distributed, with a skewness ranging from 0.13 to 0.48 and a kurtosis ranging from −0.66 to 0.50. correlations between employment equity and employee morale the correlation between the different dimensions of ee and em is presented in table 6. there were positive and significant (p < 0.01) correlations between the majority of the ee and morale dimensions that ranged from r = 0.266 (autonomy and decision-making and skills needed to manage a diverse team) to r = 0.620 (recognition and regard and fair employment practices). table 6: correlations between employment equity and employee morale dimensions. in this study, a strong relationship between ee and em was found (r = 0.790). thus, the hypothesis that perceptions of ee would correlate with em at the selected public service organisation in cape town (h1a) was supported. correlations based on the self-identified gender the second objective of this study was to investigate the correlations between perceptions of ee and morale based on self-identified gender, the results of which are presented in table 7. only two factors, namely management commitment, t(3) = 2.31, p = 0.022 and workload t(03) = 2.03, p = 0.044, correlated significantly (p < 0.05). as only two of the tested dimensions were statistically significant, this supposition (h2) is not accepted. table 7: comparison of employment equity and employee morale perceptions between self-identified men and women. the third objective was to explore whether perceptions of ee and morale differed significantly on the grounds of race (table 8). table 8: comparison of employment equity and employee morale perceptions between white and non-white employees. correlations based on self-identified race only four of the tested dimensions were statistically significant: management commitment t(31) = −2.31, p = 0.027 professional development t(45) = −2.82, p = 0.007, respect for cultural practices t(44) = −3.50, p = 0.001, and skills needed to manage a diverse workforce t(37) = −2.27, p = 0.029. thus, there was no evidence to support the hypothesis that respondents’ perceptions on ee and em between white and non-white employees are statistically significant, with no significant correlations achieved. as a result, the hypothesis (h3) of this research study cannot be accepted. discussion the results confirmed the first hypothesis (h1) that perceptions of ee and morale correlate positively. affirmative action seeks to correct the demographic imbalance in sa’s workforce by compelling employers to remove barriers to the advancement of africans, mixed race, indians, women and disabled persons (grogan, 2008). however, this objective evidently has an impact on employee’s morale, as one of the main difficulties of aa in the workplace is that it creates a stigma that previously disadvantaged employees are solely hired based on their gender or skin colour. this stigma can create questioning the job competence of previously disadvantaged employees. ultimately, this may create resentment in the workplace, thus affecting employee morale. the second hypothesis (h2), namely that gender correlated with ee and em, was partially confirmed. women experienced both management commitment and workload more positively, meaning that they felt their supervisors were overall good leaders and set a good example for employees, while men felt that they could not trust their supervisors. regarding the workload, men believed their workload to be unrealistic and were shared unfairly, whereas women believed staffing levels were adequate for workloads and these workloads were evenly distributed. the third hypothesis (h3) that perceptions of ee and morale differ based on race was also partially confirmed. white people were more positively inclined towards management commitment when compared with mixed race/indians/asians/, while black africans had more positive perceptions of transparent communication than that of mixed race/indians/asians. this indicates that white employees believed their supervisors set a good example for employees to follow as opposed to mixed race/indians/asians, who believed that their supervisors were not consistent in the way they treated employees. moreover, black african employees felt the company was serious about equal opportunities for all races, while mixed race/indians/asians believed company has not supplied employees with reliable and sufficient information about diversity. this finding challenged literature, for instance, van der merwe’s (2006) finding that management is generally committed to recruiting and placing non-white employees in senior positions, thereby making white employees feel insecure and discriminated against. black africans viewed fair employment practices more positively than their mixed race/indians/asians counterparts, while white respondents viewed these more positively than their mixed race/indians/asians counterparts. this suggests that black african employees believed the company’s selection criteria are justified in relation to job requirements, and in addition, recruitment and selection strategies applied in their departments are fair to all. this finding challenges esterhuizen’s (2008) study, which found that black africans were more pessimistic about the fairness of employment practices than mixed/indians/asians. white (2015) suggested that black african employees receive extra scrutiny from their managers, resulting in unfair discrimination, lower wages and in severe cases, job losses. the key finding in this study, therefore, challenges this expectation. white respondents also viewed access to training and development opportunities favourably than their mixed race/indians/asians compatriots. black african respondents had positive perceptions concerning working relationship than their mixed race/indians/asians counterparts. this implies that mixed race/indians/asians felt their supervisors do not assist them to develop their full potential and high achievers were not recognised for their achievements, whereas white respondents felt contrary to this and believed their supervisor regularly discussed their work performance with them. in addition, black african respondents felt that there was a good spirit of staff camaraderie among co-workers and they felt part of a team, while mixed race/indians/asians felt that they were not supported by their colleagues and they could not speak to their supervisors if something concerns them. this key finding aligns with previous research studies by buthelezi (2011) and oosthuizen and naidoo (2010). their research showed that white employees felt they were equipped with relevant training and development. in contrast, non-white employees were negatively inclined, believing not all employees were provided with relevant training and development opportunities. the main concern from non-white employees, according to oosthuizen and naidoo (2010), was the lack of access to training and development opportunities. with regard to the respect for cultural practices, white respondents felt more positive than black africans and mixed race/indians/asians, and white respondents had positive perceptions regarding the skills managers need to manage a diverse workforce, as opposed to mixed race/indians/asians. this difference in perception was anticipated by janse van rensburg and roodt (2005) who reported that employees from previously disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to encounter disrespect and discrimination concerning their culture in the workplace. the culture concerned may well attach to a specific religion (muslim, hindu etc.). however, white employees generally experience less discrimination and are more positive in their perceptions of respect for cultural practices (vallabh & donald, 2001). this key finding is also in line with a research study conducted by coetzee (2015), who found that employees from designated groups believe that they are shown little respect in the workplace. limitations and recommendations this research study was limited to one public service organisation, and as a result, its research findings are limited to this organisation. this limits the degree to which the findings can be generalised to other organisations. it is suggested that future research should make use of a larger sample that includes both public sector and private organisations so that the findings can be more broadly generalised. the sample size of this study contained 167 respondents. it is recommended that future research endeavour to embark upon a larger sample scale to increase the degree to which the results of the research could be generalised. a key limitation in this study was that some employees declined to participate (despite considerations of privacy and confidentiality being made clear), as this research study was of a sensitive nature, which had the consequence of a lower questionnaire response rate. conclusion this primary aim of this research study was to investigate the relationship between perceptions of ee and em, and whether these perceptions differ significantly on the grounds of race or gender at a selected public service organisation. this study confirmed a robust positive correlation between ee and morale, thus contributing to the literature and practice of human resource management. there were significant differences between the perceptions of men and women pertaining to the commitment displayed by management and the equal distribution of workloads. there were statistically significant differences between racial groups relating to management commitment, transparent communication, fair employment practices, training and development, professional development, working relationships, respect for cultural practices and skills needed to manage a diverse workforce. white and non-white respondents had significantly different perceptions concerning management commitment, professional development, respect for cultural practices and skills needed to manage a diverse workforce. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the authors of this article contributed by conducting this original study, including (but not limited to) identifying the research problem, obtaining ethical clearance to conduct the study, execution and collection of data, conducting descriptive and inferential statistics, recommendations and conclusions. moreover, they all contributed to supervision, editing and reviewing of the final article. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the cape peninsula university of technology (no. 2017fbrec495) along with department of correctional services (‘gate-keeping organisation’) both provided ethical clearance to conduct the research, as it met research and ethical requirements of both institutions. funding information this research work received a university research fund (urf) grant (grant number: pd-2017-000451). data availability this data obtained is available and in storage. to protect respondents’ identity, unique identifiers were not asked during data collection. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references adams, j.s. (1963). toward an understanding of inequity. journal of abnormal and social psychology, 67(5), 422–436. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0040968 akala, b.m.m. (2019). affirmative action for gender justice in south african and kenyan education systems. africa education review, 16(5), 1–15. archibong, u., & adejumo, o. (2013). affirmative action in south africa: are we creating new casualties? journal of psychological issues in organizational culture, 3(s1), 14–27. https://doi.org/10.1002/jpoc.21073/ arrow, k., bowles, s., & durlauf, s. (eds). (2000). meritocracy and economic inequality. princeton, nj: princeton university press. bakan, a.b.b., & kobayashi, a. (2000). employment equity policy in canada: an interprovincial comparison. ottawa, on: status of women canada. ballam, d.a. (1997). affirmative action: purveyor of preferential treatment or guarantor of equal opportunity? a call for a ‘revisioning’ of affirmative action. berkeley journal of employment & labor law, 1(1), 1–29. bhargava, r. (2008). political theory: an introduction. new delhi: pearson education. block, w., & mulcahy, t. (1997, october 1). affirmative action: institutionalised inequality. retrieved from https://fee.org/articles/affirmative-action-institutionalized-inequality/ boonin, d. (2011). should race matter? unusual answers to the usual questions. new york, ny: cambridge university press. bowles, d., & cooper, c.l. (2009). employee morale: driving performance in changing times. new york, ny: palgrave macmillan. brown, s. (1987). drop and collect surveys: a neglected research technique? marketing intelligence & planning, 5(1), 19–23. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb045742 burns, r.b., & burns, r.a. (2008). business research methods and statistics using spss. los angeles, ca: sage. buthelezi, z. (2011). employee attitude towards employment equity. unpublished mba dissertation. durban: university of kwazulu-natal. carter, j.s., lippard, c., & baird, a.f. (2019). veiled threats: color-blind frames and group threat in affirmative action discourse. social problems, 66(4), 503–518. https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spy020 colamery, s.n. (1998). affirmative action: catalyst or albatross? commack, ny: nova. coetzee, m. (2006). the fairness of affirmative action: an organisational justice perspective. master’s dissertation. university of pretoria. coetzee, m. (2015). the perceived treatment of employees from designated groups in the workplace. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 18(1), 56–69. https://doi.org/10.17159/2222-3436/2015/v18n1a5 coetzee, m., & vermeulen, l. (2003). when will employees perceive affirmative action as fair? southern african business review, 7(1), 17–24. crawford, l.a., & novak, k.b. (2013). individual and society: sociological social psychology. abingdon: routledge. cropanzano, r., & ambrose, m.l. (eds.). (2015). the oxford handbook of justice in the workplace. oxford: oxford university press. dhet, d. (2013). white paper for post-school education and training: building an expanded, effective and integrated post-school system. pretoria: department of higher education and training. dingindawo, n., nwafor, a., mutshaeni, n., mudzielwana, n., & mulovhedzi, s. (2016). redressing past injustices through affirmative action: creating opportunities for women to assume leadership positions in the society. journal of educational studies, 15(2), 180–196. engdahl, c., & hauki, h. (2001). black economic empowerment: an introduction for non-south african businesses. unpublished master of law thesis. university of gothenburg. esterhuizen, w. (2008). organisational justice and employee responses to employment equity. unpublished master of administration in industrial psychology thesis. pretoria: university of south africa. fobanjong, j. (2001). understanding the backlash against affirmative action. huntington, ny: nova. gashi, m. (2014). the influence of work overload and autonomy on job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intent: the case of kosovo. unpublished master of human resource studies thesis. tilburg university. gillham, b. (2000). developing a questionnaire. new york, ny: continuum. goldring, k. (2018). is affirmative action a racist policy? retrieved from https://www.theperspective.com/debates/living/is-affirmative-action-a-racist-policy/ gomez, e.t., & premdas, r.r. (eds.). (2012). affirmative action, ethnicity, and conflict. abingdon: routledge. grogan, j. (2008). workplace law (9th ed.). cape town: juta & co. harkoo, r. (2014). has affirmative action become an illusionary right for certain designated groups? unpublished master’s of laws thesis. durban: university of kwazulu-natal. hettinger, e.c. (1987). what is wrong with reverse discrimination? business & professional ethics journal, 6(3), 39–55. https://doi.org/10.5840/bpej19876323 hitchcock, r.k., & vinding, d. (eds.). (2004). indigenous peoples’ rights in southern africa. copenhagen: international work group for indigenous affairs. hlongwane, p. (2013). the implementation of affirmative action policy within the pretoria district of the south african police service. unpublished master’s of administration thesis. pretoria: university of south africa. human, l. (1993). a practical guide: affirmative action and the development of people. kenwyn: juta. human, l., bluen, s., & davies, r. (1999). baking a new cake: how to succeed at employment equity. randburg: knowledge resources. jain, h.c., & hackett, r.d. (1989). measuring effectiveness of employment equity programs in canada: public policy and a survey. canadian public policy, 15(2), 189–204. james, o.e., ella, r., nkamare, s.e., lukpata, f.e., uwa, s.l., & mbum, p.a. (2015). effect of reward system among health care workers performance: a case study of university of calabar teaching hospital calabar, nigeria. journal of hospital administration, 4(3), 45–53. https://doi.org/10.5430/jha.v4n3p45 janse van rensburg, k., & roodt, g. (2005). the perceptions of employment equity and black economic empowerment as predictors of union commitment. south african journal of industrial psychology, 31(1), article 187, 55–64. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v31i1.187 jones, r.p., cox, d., dionne, jr. e.j., galston, w.a., cooper, b., & lienesch, r. (2016). how immigration and concerns about cultural changes are shaping the 2016 elections: findings from the 2016 prri brookings immigration survey. washington, dc: public religion research institute; brookings institution. jooste, g. (2014). the impact of employment equity on the job satisfaction of employees at de beers sightholder sales sa. unpublished mba dissertation. bloemfontein: university of the free state. katchanovski, i., nevitte, n., & rothman, s. (2015). race, gender, and affirmative action attitudes in american and canadian universities. canadian journal of higher education, 45(4), 18–41. https://doi.org/10.47678/cjhe.v45i4.184556 kellough, j.e. (2006). understanding affirmative action: politics, discrimination, and the search for justice. washington, dc: georgetown university press. kivel, p. (2001). affirmative action works: in defence of affirmative action. retrieved from http://www.inmotionmagazine.com kidder, d.l., lankau, m.j., chrobot-mason, d., mollica, k.a., & friedman, r.a. (2004). backlash toward diversity initiatives: examining the impact of diversity program justification, personal and group outcomes. international journal of conflict management, 15(1), 77–102. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb022908 konrad, a.m., & hartmann, l. (2001). gender differences in attitudes toward affirmative action programs in australia: effects of beliefs, interests, and attitudes toward women. sex roles: a journal of research, 45(5–6), 415–432. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1014317800293 konrad, a.m., & spitz, j. (2003). explaining demographic group differences in affirmative action attitudes. journal of applied social psychology, 33(8), 1618–1642. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2003.tb01966.x kottke, j.l., & agars, m.d.d. (2005). understanding the processes that facilitate and hinder efforts to advance women in organisations. career development international, 10(3), 190–202. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430510598319 kottke, j.l., & agars, m.d.d. (2015). creating and sustaining positive careers for women: a closer look at organisational context. in a.m. broadridge & s.l. fielden (eds.), handbook of gendered careers in management: getting in, getting on, getting out (pp. 275–289). cheltenham: edward elgar. leck, j.d., saunders, d.m., & charbonneau, m. (1996). affirmative action programs: an organisational justice perspective. journal of organizational behavior, 17(1), 79–89. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199601)17:1<79::aid-job745>3.0.co;2-5 lee, h.a. (2016). affirmative action regime formation in malaysia and south africa. journal of asian and african studies, 51(5), 511–527. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909614550895 leibbrandt, m., woolard, i., mcewen, h., & koep, c. (2010). employment and inequality outcomes in south africa (pp. 45–6). cape town: university of cape town, southern africa labour and development research unit. leonard, a. (2005). communicating affirmative action during transformational change: a south african case study perspective. unpublished mphil communication management thesis. university of pretoria. leonard, a., & grobler, a.f.f. (2006). exploring challenges to transformational leadership communication about employment equity: managing organisational change in south africa. journal of communication management, 10(4), 390–406. https://doi.org/10.1108/13632540610714827 leopeng, s.p. (1999). intra organisational perceptions of affirmative action. unpublished mba dissertation. johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. lloyd, r., & mertens, d. (2018). expecting more out of expectancy theory: history urges inclusion of the social context. international management review, 14(1), 28–43. manson, b.j. (2014). downsizing issues: the impact on employee morale and productivity. abingdon: routledge. marx, m. (1998). affirmative action success as measured by job satisfaction. unpublished master of industrial psychology. pretoria: university of south africa. maslow, a.h. (1943). a theory of human motivation. psychological review, 50(4), 370–396. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054346 maslow, a.h. (1954). motivation and personality. new york, ny: harper & row. matambo, e., & ani, n.c. (2015). endorsing intellectual development in south africa’s affirmative action. journal of third world studies, 32(1), 273–291. matsaung, r. (2014). factors influencing the morale of the employees at the greater tzaneen municipality. unpublished master of social science dissertation. university of pretoria. mayer, c.h., oosthuizen, r.m., & tonelli, l. (2019). subjective experiences of employment equity in south african organisations. sa journal of human resource management, 17(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1074 mcconnell, c. (2010). umiker’s management skills for the new health care supervisor (4th ed.). boston, ma: jones & bartlett. mcelroy, w. (2001). sexual correctness: the gender-feminist attack on women. jefferson, mi: mcfarland. meyer, m. (2018). sabpp standard on employee equity and diversity management sets a clear transformation agenda for creating inclusive workplaces. retrieved from http://sabpp.co.za/sabpp-standard-employment-equity-diversity-management-setsclear-transformation-agenda-creating-inclusive-workplaces-marius-meyer/ meyerson, h. (2013, april 12). 13 professional development skills that improve employee morale. retrieved from http://confidencecenter.com/blog/professional-development-skillsthat-improve-employee-morale/ miller, k. (2000). book review: de beer, h. development paradigms: from paternalism to managing diversity. randburg: knowledge resources, 1998. sa journal of industrial psychology, 26(2), article 699, 66. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v26i2.699 motileng, b.b. (2004). affirmative action: the experience of people in middle management positions. unpublished ma dissertation. university of pretoria. mputa, c.k. (2016). evaluating the implementation of employment equity in apharmaceutical company: a case study. unpublished mphil thesis. stellenbosch university. newkirk, v. (2017). the myth of reverse racism. the atlantic (updated 5 august 2017). retrieved november 26, 2017 from https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/08/myth-of-reverseracism/535689/ ngwane, k. (2010). the effects of affirmative action on the motivation of employees at durban university of technology. unpublished mba dissertation. durban: university of kwazulu-natal. nyoka, a., & lekalake, r. (2015). improving prospects for south africa’s youth: education, vocational training still key priorities. afrobarometer dispatches, no. 36. retrieved from https://afrobarometer.org/publications/ad36-improving-prospects-south-africas-youtheducation-vocational-training-still-key oosthuizen, r.m., & naidoo, v. (2010). attitudes towards and experience of employee equity. south african journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), article 836, 9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.836. prasad, p., mills, a.j., elmes, m.b., & prasad, a. (eds.). (1997). managing the organisational melting pot: dilemmas of workplace diversity. thousand oaks, ca: sage. rabe, j. (2001). equality, affirmative action and justice. hamburg: books on demand. [published as university of hamburg thesis, 2000]. rockman, i.f. (2003). fun in the workplace. reference services review, 31(2), 109–110. https://doi.org/10.1108/00907320310476576 smith, h., & roodt, g. (2003). are industries’ responding differently to the employment equity challenge? south african journal of human resource management, 1(1), 32–41. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v1i1.2 sidanius, j., pratto, f., martin, m., & stallworth, l.m. (1991). consensual racism and career track: some implications of social dominance theory. political psychology, 12(4), 691–721. https://doi.org/10.2307/3791552 skedsvold, p.r., & mann, t.l. (1996). affirmative action: linking research, policy, and implementation. journal of social issues, 52(4), 3–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1996.tb01844.x south africa. (1998a). employment equity act, no. 55 of 1998. pretoria: government printer. south africa. (1998b). skills development act, no 97 of 1998. pretoria: government printer. taillard, m., & giscoppa, h. (2013). psychology and modern warfare. new york, ny: palgrave macmillan. thomas, a., cumming, n., lattimer, r., & plani, f. (1996). beyond affirmative action: managing diversity for competitive advantage in south africa. randburg: knowledge resources. turner, m.a. (2013). a mixed method study on factors that influence employee morale of full-time live-in professional staff at two single-gender institutions of higher education: implications for educational leaders. unpublished ded dissertation. clark atlanta university. twala, c. (2004). affirmative action 1994–2004: a viable solution to redress labour imbalances or just a flat spare tyre? journal for contemporary history, 29(3), 128–147. vallabh, m.a., & donald, f. (2001). a comparison of black and white managers on intent to leave and job mobility. south african journal of industrial psychology, 27(2), article 784, 37–41. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v27i2.784 van der heyden, c.c. (2013). employee perceptions of employment equity fairness within a mining organisation in south africa. unpublished master of industrial psychology thesis. cape town: university of the western cape. van der hulst, m. (2003). long work hours and health. scandinavian journal of work, environment & health, 29(3), 171–188. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.720 van der merwe, l. (2006). the experience of affirmative action in a public organisation. unpublished ma industrial psychology dissertation. potchefstroom: north-west university. van der walt, d.j. (1994). regstellende optrede: ‘n organisasiemaatreël vir die nuwe suid-afrikaanse staatsdiens. unpublished dadmin thesis. university of pretoria. welman, c., kruger, s., & mitchell, b. (2005). research methodology (3rd ed.). cape town: oxford university press southern africa. white, g.b. (2015, october 7). black workers really do need to be twice as good. the atlantic. retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/10/why-black-workersreally-do-need-to-be-twice-as-good/409276/ wingrove, t. (1995). affirmative action: a ‘how to’ guide for managers. randburg: knowledge resources. zondi, d. (2013). the effectiveness of the employment equity act (act 55 of 1998) in the public service, with reference to the department of agriculture 2000–2006: a south african perspective. unpublished master of administration thesis. university of pretoria. 6hodgson.qxd over the years hodgson has read many articles and studied theories pertaining to organisational change, and has been impressed by the extent of theoretical information available. of particular interest has been information regarding the implementation of change, which often follows strategic and organisational analysis. in practice, research has shown that the majority of change initiatives fail. (kotter, 1996; barrezeele, 2001; ashkenas & francis, 2000; duck, 1993; strebel, 1996). change theorists, such as kanter (1989); johnson & scholes (1997); hannagan (1995); & thompson (1997); to name but a few, concur that in order for change to be successfully implemented, it is essential to gain people’s buy-in to, and ownership of, the change. in her search of the literature, hodgson found little in terms of practical insights about how this is best done, and how to integrate business change requirements and human change issues across the organisation(s). for example, broader more theoretical approaches are offered by theorists such as pettigrew and whipp (as cited in johnson & scholes, 1997), peters (1990) and senge (1999). other approaches focussed specific areas within change (e.g. the fostering of team commitment), such as those offered by practitioners hudson (2001), ashkenas and francis (2000). texts mostly discussed what should be done – such as lewin’s change model (johnson & scholes, 1997) of “unfreeze, transition, refreeze”, price waterhouse’s change principles (1996), or indeed central computers and telecommunications agency’s prince2 project management methodology (2000). they did not specifically advise how to go about doing it. the study therefore seeks to develop and test (within a series of case studies) a practical model for integrating these aspects and setting out a generic approach for achieving the theoretical ideals of change management, in practice. for the purposes of this work, the terms systematic and interactive change dimensions will be used. the systematic dimension refers to the business aspect of change, which is about a logical, structured approach to revising the “mechanics” of the business. the people dimension of change is about changing attitudes, easing fears, and building co-operation, it is about creating interaction, communication and building trust. since this is a “social aspect” of change, which has at its core interaction, relationships and leadership, it will be termed the interactive dimension of change. the objectives of the research were: � to capture the challenges faced by organisations in integrating the systematic aspects of change management (such as system design) and the softer interactive issues (empowerment, buyin). this would be achieved through a literature review of relevant change issues, and supported by case studies, which reflect the issues and how they were overcome. � to develop the facilitative project management model for integrated change, which may be offered as an approach for integrating the systematic and interactive aspects of organisational change. the model will be based on the outputs of a further search of theories, concepts and literature and will be developed and tested within the case studies key to the study are exploratory, semi-structured interviews and informal discussions which will mirror the structured project progress meetings, to develop an understanding of how people think and feel about topics of concern to the research (oppenheim, 1992). change issues the business world has become dynamic, unpredictable and turbulent, requiring a company to continuously change to meet the demands of the competitive environment. thus, change has become the norm in business, and the management of change needs to be designed into the daily life of an organisation and embraced by those within it (deal & kennedy, 2000; thompson, 1997; johnson & scholes, 1997; hannagan 1995; ansoff & mcdowell, 1990; peters, 1990; woodward & buchholz, 1987; kanter, 1983). veronica hodgson j za aiman programme in leadership in performance and change dept of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract change management theory is extensive, and organisations constantly adapt to and embrace change. in post-apartheid south africa we are building a racially integrated business environment and society, and leverage its competitive re-entry into the world business arena. research to date has found that the majority of change initiatives fail due to resistance caused by poor conceptualisation and planning, and the lack of proper integration of the people and business dimensions of change. the model to implement a successful change program will be designed using a combination of readily available skills and techniques. its development and testing will take place within the context of three case studies. opsomming die teorie van veranderingsbestuur is omvattend. organisasies moet op konstante wyse daarby aanpas en dit integreer. in post-apartheid suid-afrika bou ons tans ’n ras geïntegreerde besigheidsomgewing en gemeenskap, en benut dit maksimaal in ons toetrede tot die mededingende wêreld besigheidsarena. huidige navorsing het bevind dat die meeste veranderingsinitiatiewe faal weens weerstand teen verandering wat deur swak konseptualisering en beplanning, en ’n gebrek aan behoorlike integrering van mense en die besigheidsdimensies van verandering veroorsaak is. die model om ’n suksesvolle veranderingsprogram te implementeer, sal ontwerp word met geredelik beskikbare vaardighede en tegnieke. die ontwikkeling en toetsing sal binne die konteks van drie gevallestudies plaasvind. facilitative project management: constructing a model for integrated change implementation by utilizing case studies requests for copies should be addressed to: v hodgson, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 45 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (3), 45-53 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (3), 45-53 despite this, it is of concern that so many such initiatives fail, due mainly to a lack of understanding of how the change is to be approached (conceptualisation and planning) and change resistance (barrezeele, 2001; ashkenas & francis, 2000; sull, 1999; kotter, 1996; strebel 1996; duck 1993). steiner (2001) and duck (1993) state that the traditional (mechanistic) model of managing change is unrealistic and doesn’t work. under this model the initiative is broken into small pieces, each of which is managed along operational lines as a series of individual projects (as noted by kotter, 1996 & peters, 1990), which are of ten uncoordinated with one another. the key is to manage or oversee the change dynamic, not its individual pieces (or projects), and taking a holistic approach, which treats the systematic (business) and interactive (people) aspects of change as a sum of its parts (prosci, 2000; mintzberg et al, 1998; duck, 1993). overlooking the human aspect of change leads to resistance to the work that is being undertaken, and increases the change of failure. this theme appears in the works of numerous change theorists and practitioners, such as johnson and scholes (1997); thompson (1997); tracey (ed.) (1994); woodward and buchholz (1987); kanter, (1983). change resistance the central focus of change must be on its impact on people as the real issues of change are emotional, not strategic or technical ones. people need to have some sense of security when facing change. by including them in the planning and conceptualisation of change, and affording them the freedom to express their ideas and contribute, the threat to personal security, relationships and status are lessened as a sense of stabilit y and control over their destiny is developed. resistance and organisational inertia is thereby overcome, and change momentum is built (macri, tagliaventia, & bertolotti’ 2000; deal & kennedy, 2000; schalk, campbell & freese 1998; david, 1997; johnson & scholes’ 1997; robbins, 1997; strebel, 1996; hannagan, 1995; woodward & buchholz, 1987). a paradox is formed – for success, change (which is an unstable event) needs to occur in an environment of stability (price waterhouse, 1996). addressing this paradox forms part of the work of the change management model that this study develops, and will be addressed later in the study. the main barriers to the successful implementation of change include: � lack of order, through an ill-conceived conceptualisation of the need to change, or an unplanned, uncoordinated approach to holistic change management, which impacts business continuity. this could be due to a lack of knowledge about how to go about implementing change in practice. � change resistance (consisting of resentment, lack of common understanding, and insecurity among other things) is usually caused by poor information dissemination and ineffective or incomplete communication methods, as well as a lack of involvement of, or attention to, the needs of affected stakeholders. this may in some cases be linked to the point above. the question is how to overcome these issues in practice. according to mintzberg, ahlstrand and lampel (1998) there is an overwhelming amount of literature about the practice of implementing change, but there is no consensus as to what works best. there appears to be a divergence between the cerebral or theoretical approach to change and the practical approaches generated by those who have led change. the theoretical approaches appear to offer a “what” rather then a “how” approach and those offering practical guidance appear to offer only specific advice within the context of their organisation, personal experience or field of specialisation. their work usually focuses on the human experience of change, and how challenges were overcome. examples of such works are those by munck (2001) levy (2001) hudson (2001) bernick (2001) charan (2001). these approaches should be two sides of the same coin, but can lack interactive linkage. theory ought to be fully translatable into practical, tactical steps for change, and vice versa. existing change methods and approaches there are many approaches to, and methods of change, which vary from the theoretical to the specific (where a change model will target an individual area of change such as business process re-engineering or systems change). examples of broader or more theoretical change implementation advice offered by wellknown theorists and institutions include a) tom peters’ five areas of management which create proactive performance (1990). b) price waterhouse’s (1996) – fifteen rules for managing the complexities of change. c) kotter’s eight steps to organisational transformation (1996). d) pettigrew and whipp’s five characteristics of organisations which manage change successfully (as cited in johnson & scholes, 1997). e) senge’s five practices for building change capability (as cited in senge, roberts, ross, smith, roth & kleiner, 1999). these all appear to explain the “what” of change management, but offer little in terms of a process for the “how” – the practical implementation thereof. mintzberg captured the different types of change methods available in his work on change methodologies, a copy of which is shown in figure 1 below (as cited in mintzberg, ahlstrand, lampel, 1998). what this highlights is that in major organisational change, several different methods or projects will form elements of the overall change work, and will probably occur at the same time. they must be planned, co-ordinated and controlled to maintain order and achieve a seamless transition, with minimal disruption to daily operations and profitability, and must occur as quickly as possible if the outcome is to be relevant to the business aims and environment (price waterhouse, 1996). a lack of co-ordination across work streams, disciplines and departments could lead to disruption, errors, crisis management and a poorly implemented change effort (duck, 1993). with all this to balance, mintzberg, et al (1998) statement regarding change approaches is appropriate: “this is a confusing body of work.” based upon the literature, hodgson wished to view the change management issues in practice, in an african context to see whether mainly first world texts apply in a change situation in the third world. if so, it was intended that lessons learned from the first case study will lead to the development of a model that addressed these matters, and would be tested in following case studies. case study 1 – innscor distribution zimbabwe this case study could arguably be termed a typical example of change management in practice. no change management methodolog y or theory was used to implement the change, and no intervention on the part of hodgson was attempted. the main purpose of this work was to document the change events as they occurred, and to assess whether these events are representative of the change issues or pitfalls discussed in this section. the change centred on the merger of zimbabwe photo marketing (zpm) and zimbabwe wholesale distributors (zwd). zpm and zwd import, stock, market, sell and distribute hodgson, za aiman46 premium products under exclusive territorial distributorship agreements with foreign suppliers. the group head office wished to embark upon regional expansion, as worsening economic conditions in zimbabwe indicated that the future survival of the group could only be assured if it were successful in more stable countries in the region. it was noted that there were synergies and operational duplications between zpm and zwd, which if they were merged could better support the regional expansion. many of the issues, which arose in the merger were a result of a lack of proper planning, or conceptualisation of what the inherent difficulties of the merger were from a process point of view. the approach to implementing the merger was uncoordinated (resulting in problems such as the delays in order processing and delivery because of poorly timed system integration). the change was driven by the managers, without proper attention to communications among themselves or between them and the staff. this led to misunderstandings, rumours and continuous crisis management, which impacted on customer service and organisational profitability. it resulted in a far longer and more costly implementation than intended. overall, the human experience of the change was poor, characterised by fear, frustration, conflict and isolation. the study showed that both the managers and the staff felt they would have benefited from a more structured approach. this included having a sense of knowing what was involved in the merger, understanding the implications of changing the systems and making allowances for those implications, as well as having a more detailed and considered plan to follow. discussions also revealed that closer involvement of the staff in the change itself via more open (and less hostile or paternalistic) communications would not only have alleviated the pressure on management to drive the change, but would have given the staff a sense of ownership and control over events. this would have assisted in stabilising the culture and led to greater knowledge and effort contributions to the work of the merger. in summary, then, it appeared that the issues experienced were representative of the type of change pitfalls discussed in the change management literature review. the change had not been carefully conceptualised, the systematic and interactive aspects were not integrated, and the human experience of the change was poor, and problematic. the first version of the facilitative project management model for integrated change implementation was built to address the issues highlighted in the literature review and demonstrated in case study 1, by providing a combination of participative, consensus planning to define what needed to be done to achieve an agreed objective. building the facilitative project management model for integrated change implementation organisations consist of people. people drive all areas of the business, internally and externally, to ensure its competitiveness and survival. the complexity of an organisation lies in the interactions of its systems, processes, information flows and people. it is a finely tuned organism, and any changes to any part of it should take into account the need to maintain a balance between its parts. this implies a deliberate, and well considered approach needs to be taken, not only to ensure effective implementation of a change, but also to ensure that it delivers intended business benefits, while at the same time minimising disruption to clients and staff. facilitative project management 47 figure 1: map of change methods © henry mintzberg, august 1997 any process, or model for implementation that intends to offer an integrated, holistic approach to change, should ideally be based in generic (readily available) methods. it should be applicable to any type of change, across all types of organisations. the point is to provide a comprehensive, practical process, which maximises the efficiency of the work of implementing the change, minimises the business/operational impact (continuity) and provides the security and commitment-building of a “no surprises” environment in the midst of uncertainty. the need to foster collaborative interaction, and for a structured “no surprises” approach to the uncertainties of change, are central to the disciplines of facilitation and project management. project management – definitions and knowledge areas project management is a method, which combines planning, directing and controlling of resources, through a well-managed set of activities to achieve a unique and pre-defined outcome within an agreed time frame, budget and performance standard. (int’veld, 2000; central computers & telecommunications agency, 2000; project management institute, 1996). project management was initially applied to the construction industry and later to the it industry, but is increasingly being recognised as having a place in wider business initiatives (kloppenborg & opfer, 2002). it is designed to provide an organisation and controlled method for developing a new product or desired outcome, whilst balancing competing demands, which include: � the scope, time, cost and quality of a venture. � managing stakeholders with differing needs and expectations. its structured approach aids early warning of risks or problems, and is designed to deliver a co-ordinated, “no surprises” route to completion. projects will have a defined start and end date, and provided that control is maintained over the content, scope, quality and timing of the work, it will come to a clear end and not drift on longer than required. the management of competing demands and delivering unique products or outcomes forms some of the key aspects of implementing a change initiative. it is for this reason that the writer wishes to examine the application of the project management structures and disciplines as part of the practical model for change implementation. the point of project management is to keep the work of the project aligned with the business strategy in order to delivery the expected business benefits, and has embedded in it systems and tools for doing just that. it is supported by a business case, against which the project is tested during its implementation to ensure that its deliverables are aligned with the intended business outcomes, within predetermined tolerance and quality levels. the diagram in figure 2 below illustrates this. figure 2: delivering business benefits, balancing cost and effort courtesy of the x-pert group whilst project management takes into account team building, and teamwork, it relies upon the project manager to lead the interactions, build the team, lead the change, manage stakeholders and overcome resistance. there are also the structures and controls which need to be managed – project risk management, contingency planning, leading and directing team efforts, progress monitoring, reporting, controls mechanisms, auditing and so on. this places an enormous responsibility upon the shoulders of one person, who may or may not be supported by an administrator. as discussed by verma (1997), the project manager is seen as the change champion, creating support for, and buy-in to the change not only within the project team, but also across the organisation itself. since up to 50% of a project manager’s time is taken up by the documentary aspect of the methodology, which leaves little time to fully integrate people issues from those outside of the project team. this is a potential weakness within project management as a change methodology. facilitation we then considered the benefits of facilitation, which could be the “glue” to building the communication and trust that is essential to overcoming resistance. it would aid in embedding project management principles, and foster knowledge sharing and buy-in, which would ease the burden of responsibilit y for championing change from the shoulders of the project manager. an intrinsic part of projects and organisational change initiatives is that they are about building something new, unique or innovative, which requires the active participation and commitment of people. here, facilitation is key as its techniques and philosophy is about building group co-operation, participation and creativity. the facilitator creates an environment that encourages open communications, fosters empowerment and the in-depth consideration of cumulative insights, builds group co-operation, and aids them in achieving consensus and mutual commitment to common goals (stanfield, 2001; bacal, 1998; epps, 1998; rough, 1997; kanter, 1989; ettlie & o’keefe, 1982). facilitation could therefore aid the transition to a new type of working, support the processes of project management, and assist the successful implementation of change by integrating the systematic and interactive aspects of change. if such an approach or model were fully embedded in the organisation it could remain as a fundamental process for embracing ongoing change requirements, as alluded to by change theorists. this is demonstrated in figure 3 below. figure 3: embedding integrated change hodgson, za aiman48 the combined approaches of project management and facilitation could pull together the various pieces of change work underway in an organisation (e.g. business process reengineering, organisational design, supply chain management, it systems design etc) and knowledge, disciplines and efforts of each of the departments involved. the resulting model lends itself to integrating not only the two dimensions of each change project, but also to the integration of each of the change project into a holistic portfolio of organisational transformation. this multi-dimensional integration crosses departments, disciplines and functions and achieves alignment with the overall strategic objective and business benefits in an efficient manner. the model, named the facilitative project management for change implementation, is shown below in figure 4. within this model, hobson has planned certain tactical procedures, which are noted below in figure 4, and demonstrates in more detail how the systematic and interactive aspects of change are intended to be integrated in her approach to the following case study. based on the outcomes of the first case study, it seemed to hodgson that a facilitative approach, underpinned by structured planning could be key to holistic, co-ordinated organisational change. this led to the exploration of the concepts within project management and facilitation (as discussed above), which were adapted and combined to form the first version of the facilitative project management model for integrated change implementation. the testing and revision of the model took place within two major change initiatives that occurred in two large south african organisations. the lessons learned from the application of the model in each study are noted below. case study 2 – pick ’n pay south africa the purpose of this case study was to test the first iteration of the facilitative project management model, and to use the learnings generated at the end of the study to refine the model. the case study centred on pick ’n pay, a leading supermarket chain in south africa. as part of the ongoing drive by the organisation to turn shopping into a pleasant and convenient experience for its client, it was decided to expand into the field of e-commerce and set up an internet shopping web-site and home delivery service, with call centres for telephone and fax orders. the venture was branded pick ’n pay home shopping. the driving force was that people have less leisure time, and would prefer to be free to spend that leisure time doing things other than shopping in store. the project’s objective was to set up 13 stores with the capability to fulfil home shopping orders. the capability included special in-store systems enabling it to receive orders, dedicated grocery “pickers” to select and scan the ordered items, and full delivery services (using a contracted transport company). from the outset, the facilitative project management model for change was applied, using the facilitative and project management techniques set out within it. discussions at the close of project revealed that the structured and prioritised approach aided the transition. the outcomes of the study showed that having a plan which had been developed by those who were going to do the work, was key to making the unknown, known. when things were not going according to plan, it was easy to make revised completion date estimates, or to implement action plans to make up time, knowing how it would affect the overall project completion date, or affect the work of the other projects. the attention to planning, progress monitoring, interdependencies and implications of changing circumstances, tasks, times, and resources enabled a structured approach to delivering the work in an ordered way. the facilitative techniques helped to smooth conflict and build a cohesive team, who were able to debate and resolve issues with little conflict and full participation. emotional issues were drawn out and managed, sources of resistance were identified and overcome through objective discussion, and communication lines were actively built and maintained. the model in its first version aided the delivery of the change, but needed to be refined. this included adjustment to the facilitative techniques used within each stage of the project facilitative project management 49 figure 4: integrating facilitation skills with project management phases to combine systematic and interactive aspects of change – facilitative project management model version 1 life cycle and the introduction of more formal project management control mechanisms (such as active risk management, and change control). figure 5: the facilitative project mangement model for integrated change implementation version 1 – tactical procedures the concept of phasing out the involvement of the neutral project facilitator was introduced, as the techniques of project management and facilitation became embedded in the project teams and stakeholders. this was to help ensure that the concepts were taken on as part of the organisation culture, and not remain linked to the neutral project facilitator. the revised facilitative project management model for integrated change implementation the refinements were made and version two of the facilitative project management model (shown below as figures 6 & 7) and was tested in the third and final case study. as can be seen from the facilitative project management model version 2 above the focus of neutral facilitation alters during the different stages during the implementation of the change, so that it is appropriate to the people requirements of each stage. this is to enable the facilitative “stamp” to be placed on the work of the change at all times, so it permeates through the team and out to the affected stakeholders, creating a dynamic feedback and participatory cycle necessary to foster knowledge sharing and overcoming change resistance. case study 3 – merger of two investment banks this case study centred on the merger of two high-profile organisations in the finance sector, which had two very different cultures, systems and business processes. the revised facilitative project management model (version 2) was applied to encourage buy-in and assist the members of the two organisations in the planning and implementing of their merger in a structured yet participative way, and will serve as a final test for the model. the first organisation (which will be referred to as company a), is an independent, international investment banking group that provides a specialised range of asset management products and services to selected clients. company a has branches in sandton, cape town, durban, london, guernsey, and dublin. it is one of the 20 largest companies listed on the johannesburg stock exchange with a market capitalisation on a fully converted basis at 31 march 2001, of r18.9bn (us$ 2.3bn). in 2000, company a bought a competing investment bank (which will be referred to as company b) as part of its drive to gain further market share. company b’s physical and financial assets, valued at approximately r 6 billion, were to be integrated into company a. it was clear from the outset that the merger would be an extremely complex initiative, affecting all levels of both organisations and ongoing shareholder value. this initiative was made more difficult due to the fact that the merger had to be complete before the capital gains tax compliance legislation act came into being. added to this was the reliance upon a shrinking pool of staff whose tacit knowledge and expertise in their organisations were critical to the success of the merger, and who could only attend to the merger part-time, over and above their day-to-day operational jobs and involvement in other projects. success relied upon the development of cross-functional and inter-organisation teams, understanding the interdependencies of the work streams in the programs, breaking the merger down into manageable packages of work, co-ordinating their effort to ensure most efficient and effective use of the minimal time available. other challenges included gaining commitment at all levels within both organisations, overcoming fears of job loss and cultural fit, so that cross-functional skills and expertise would be fully utilised in delivering this time-bound, high profile initiative. the implementation of version 2 of the facilitative project management model for integrated change implementation aided the delivery of a complex merger within the imposed deadline (the advent of the new capital gains tax legislation). the facilitative approach actively promoted the development of high-performing teams, who were committed to the venture, and worked together in an atmosphere of co-operation and trust. the facilitative techniques guided the teams to finding their own solutions by promoting active listening, objectivity, open communication and participation. acting as a neutral sounding board supported this, as did the asking of open, thought hodgson, za aiman50 provoking questions. this non-judgemental approach, combined with the disciplines of project management, allowed teams to take on and understand how to manage the merger process within a short time. as planned, the reliance on the facilitator decreased markedly over the project as the teams matured as demonstrated in the case study. it became clear that planning, structure, commitment, belief and honest communication could work together to achieve full cultural integration, aid human transition, and ensure efficient merging of processes and systems. the outcomes of the study showed that the facilitative project management model for integrated change implementation was an appropriate approach. its integrated yet generic content enabled the development of close co-operation and coordination across operational disciplines, departments, branches and organisations, which were critical to the successful delivery of a complex, high profile merger. that the merger became a positive event was reflected by the collaborative working styles, which developed, the continued retention of staff, and the flourishing of a new merged culture, which had developed initially within the program team. conclusions the objectives of the research were met, in that � the challenges faced by organisations in integrating the “systematic” business aspects (such as system design) and the “interactive” or people aspects (such as empowerment, buyin) of change management, were captured. the “typical” experience of change was documented in case study 1, where no change management methodology was employed. � the facilitative project management model was developed and tested within subsequent case studies, and was found to have aided the planning and implementation of change. the essence of good change implementation is the ability to facilitate full participation in conceptualising and planning the work of the change as a series of inter-dependent projects. risks need to be identified and action plans agreed, and a discipline of regular meeting updates within a structured meeting framework implemented. the key is obtaining consensus and commitment on all of these matters. obtaining this requires the creation of psychologically safe environment in which to do so, where debate and opinion can be freely expressed and is not hindered by company structure and seniority. the use of facilitative techniques which encourage group discussion and contributions from less senior or the quieter members of the team, supports this. the techniques used in the model are generic and may be explored in associations such as the international association of facilitators. the techniques range from those, which invite anonymous contributions to those, which encourage open forum debate, and can be chosen according to the t y pe of cult ure that prevails in the organisat ion. an organisat ion has the opt ion retaining a professional facilitator for the first such change effort, or using a person from within who demonstrates facilitative leadership skills and is seen to have the confidence of staff at all levels. it is important though, that this person be a guardian of the process of the work, and not partake in content decisions or be responsible for doing content work. this would hamper their abilit y to be neutral, and their availabilit y to play the part of the neutral sounding board or pay attention to keeping the process on track. project management techniques are designed to be adaptable to unanticipated changes, which impact on the work of the project, and to respond in a calculated yet efficient manner. these methods are readily available (prince2, davis and dean, x-pert managing by project) and can be taught to whoever is to be leading the project teams. based on the outcomes of case studies 2 and 3, we believe that the critical interactive or human aspect of change can be fully integrated with the systematic or business aspect of change, in a practical way, which is easily assimilated by those within the organisat ion. the model cuts across disciplines and departments, enabling the co-ordination and communication so essential for overcoming resistance and achieving a seamless transition from the old to the new. its concepts and methods embed easily within the organisation and prepares the company to meet the ongoing change challenges posed by the dynamic business conditions that rule in south africa today. facilitative project management 51 figure 6: facilitative project management model version 2: integrating facilitation skills with project management phases to combine systematic and interactive aspects of change figure 7: the facilitative project management model for integrated change implementation version 2 – tactical procedures reference adams, g. & schvaneveldt, j. (1991) understanding research methods (2nd ed.) new york: longman. altrichter, h., kemmis, s., mctaggart, r., zuber-skerritt, o. the concept of action research, the learning organisation, volume 9, number 3, 2002, pp. 125-131, mcb university press, issn 0969-6474. ansoff, h.i. & mcdowell, e.j. (1990), implanting strategic management. (2nd ed.) u.s.a: prentice hall. appelbaum, s.; gandell, j.; shapiro, b.; belisle, p.; hoeven, e. anatomy of a merger: behaviours or organisational factors and processes throughout the preduringand poststages (part 2), – management decision, 38/10, (2000), 674-684, mcb university press (issn0025-1747), 2000. ashkenas, r.n. & francis, s.c. integration managers: special leaders for special times. harvard business review, november-december 2000. bacal, r. role of the facilitator. facilitation news, international association of facilitators, 1998. barrezeele, k. seventy percent of projects fail to be delivered successfully. de finacieel-economische tijd (belgium), translated version, 31 march 2000. bernick, c.l. (2001) when your culture needs a makeover. harvard business review june 2001. central computers & telecommunications agency (ccta) (2000), managing successful projects with prince 2 the stationery office. uk. charan, r. conquering a culture of indecision. harvard business review, april 2001. chawla, s. & renesch, j. (1995), learning organisations, developing cultures for tomorrow’s workplace u.s.a., productivity press. david, f.r. (1997), concepts of strategic management. (6th ed.) u.s.a., prentice hall. deal, t. & kennedy, a. (2000), the new corporate cultures. london: texere publishing ltd. duck, j.d. (1993), managing change: the art of rebalancing. harvard business review, november-december 1993. epps, j. facilitation from the inside out. facilitation news, international association of facilitators, 1998. ettlie, j.e. & o’keefe. innovative attitudes, values and intentions in organisations. journal of management studies, 19, 1982, 2, 163-182. gibbons, m., limoges, c., nowotny, h., schwartzman, s. scott, p. & trow, m. (1994), the new production of knowledge: the dynamics of science and research in contemporary societies. london: sage. goss, t.; pascale, r. & athos, a. (1993), the reinvention roller coast: risking the present for a powerful future. harvard business review, november-december 1993. grey, denham (2001), collaboration and community. smith weaver, smith inc. hamel, g. & prahalad, c. (1996), competing for the future u.s.a. harvard business school press. hannagan,t. (1995), management concepts and practices. london, pitman publishing. hst group, facilitating participation: a skills development program. facilitation concepts. www.facilitationfactory.com. hudson, k.m. (2001), transforming a conser vative company – one laugh at a time. harvard business review, july-august 2001. international association for facilitators (undated), group facilitation: a research and applications journal – call for papers. international association for facilitators. www.iafworld.org. in’t veld, c. (2000), turning point. qs partners in publishing, south africa. johnson, g. & scholes, k. (1997) exploring corporate strategy. 4th ed. london, prentice hall. kaner, s. lind, l., toldi, c., fisk, s. & berger, d. (1996) facilitator’s guide to participatory decision-making. canada: new society publishers. kanter, r.m. (1983), the change masters, u.k. unwin paperbacks kotter, j.p. (1996) leading change usa. harvard business school press. kotter, j.p. & cohen, d.s. (2002), the heart of change u.s.a. harvard business school press. levy, p.f. (2001), when good teams go wrong – the nut island effect. harvard business review, april 2001. macri, d.m.; tagliaventi, m.r. & bertolotti, f. (2000), a grounded theory for resistance to change in a small organisation. journal of organisational change management, volume 15 number 3, 2002 pp. 292-310. mcb university press issn 0953-4814. [http://zerlina.emeraldinsight.com]. mintzberg, h., ahlstrand, b., lampel, j. (1998) strategy safari. the complete guide through the wilds of strategic management u.k. prentice hall. mouton, j. (2001), how to succeed in your masters or doctoral studies. van schaik, sa. munck, b.(2001), changing a culture of face time. harvard business review, november 2001. hodgson, za aiman52 newman, k.l. (1998), leading radical change in transition economies. leadership and organisation development journal, 19/6 [1998], 308-324. mcb university press. issn 0143-7739. [http://zerlina.emeraldinsight.com]. oppenheim, a.n. (1992), questionnaire design, interviewing and attitude measurement london, continuum. oxford english dictionary 5th ed. (1999) u.s.a., oxford university press. peters, t (1990), thriving on chaos u.k. billing and sons. porter, m.e. (1990), the competitive advantage of nations. u.s.a., the free press. pmi standards committee (1996), a guide to the project management body of knowledge u.s.a. project management institute. price waterhouse change integration team (1996), the paradox principles u.s.a. urwin. prosci research staff, the adkar model for change management – change management tutorial series. bpr on-line learning centre, june 2000 http://www.prosci.com/adkar-overview.htm. robbins (1997), managing today u.s.a., prentice-hall, inc. rough, j., dynamic facilitation and the magic of self-organizing change. journal paper, association for qualit y and participation journal, june 1997. saunders, m., lewis, p. & thornhill, a. (1997), research methods for business students. london: pitman publishing. schalk, r., campbell, j.w., & freeze, c. (1998), change and employee behaviour. leadership and organisation development journal, 19/3 [1998], 157-163. mcb university press. [issn 0143-7739]. senge, p., roberts, d., ross, r., smith, b. roth, g. & kleiner, a. (1999), the dance of change. u.k., nicholas brealey publishing ltd. stake, r.e. (1995), the art of case study research usa. sage publications. stanfield, b., magic of the facilitator. facilitation news, international association of facilitators, 2001. strebel, p. (1996), why do employees resist change? har vard business review, may-june, 1996. steiner, c. (2001), a role for individuality and mystery in “managing” change. journal of organizational change management, volume 14, number 2, 2001 pp. 150-167 [http://zerlina.emeraldinsight.com]. sull, d.n. (1999), why good companies go bad. har vard business review, july-august 1999. tracey, w.r. (1994), human resources management and development handbook. 2nd ed. u.s.a.: amacom. tellis, w. (1997), introduction to case study. the qualitative report, volume 3, number 2, july 1997, [http://www.nova.edu/sss/qr/qr3-2/tellis1.html). thompson, j.l. (1997), strategic management: awareness and change, 3rd ed. u.k., prentice hall. torrington, d. & hall, l. (1995), personnel management, hrm in action, 3rd ed. u.k. prentice hall. verma, v.k. (1997), the human aspects of project management volume 3: managing the project team u.s.a. project management institute. watson, t.j. (1996), motivation: that’s maslow, isn’t it? management learning, volume 27, number 4, pages 447464. london: sage publications. whitmore, j. (1994), coaching for performance. nicholas brealey publishing limited, london. woodward, h. & buchholz, s (1987), aftershock: helping people through corporate change, usa, john wiley & sons. facilitative project management 53 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 2 pp. 1 8 empirical research perceived fairness of disciplinary procedures in the public service sector: an exploratory study abstract the objective of this study was twofold: firstly, to explore and describe the perceived fairness of a disciplinary procedure in the workplace and, secondly, to develop guidelines that could be used by managers to provide a fairer experience of the disciplinary procedure. a qualitative research design was employed. in-depth interviews were conducted with participants who were purposely divided into two groups (an employee participant group and an expert participant group). results indicated that employees experienced the disciplinary procedure as traumatic, unfair and not reliable. guidelines were formulated to manage employee discipline more effectively. keywords: disciplinary procedure, procedural justice, fairness, employee discipline, public service sector when justice is advocated as a core value of an organisation’s management philosophy and enacted through a set of internally consistent management practices, it can build a culture of justice, a system-wide commitment that is valuable and unique in the eyes of the employees and customers and may ultimately lead to a competitive advantage (cropanzano, bowen and gilliland, 2007). procedurally fair treatment could result in positive organisational outcomes, such as organisational commitment, interpersonal trust, job satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviour and job performance (cropanzano et al., 2007; engelbrecht & chamberlain, 2005; mohyeldin & suliman, 2007; stecher & rosse, 2005; thompson & heron, 2005). a disciplinary procedure aims to promote fairness and procedural justice in dealing with employee discipline. the advantages for organisations of a consistent disciplinary procedure are threefold: first, it contributes to the stability of the workforce; second, labour turnover is minimised; and third, it promotes productivity (nel, van dyk, haasbroek, schultz, sono & werner, 2007). just as organisations systematically use rewards to encourage desirable behaviour, they also use discipline to discourage counter-productive behaviour (e.g. absenteeism, lateness, theft and substance abuse) (greenberg & baron, 2007). with today’s diverse workforce, managers may spend up to 20% of their time settling disputes among employees through conflict resolution (goldman, 2003). to resolve the conflict, the manager will eventually need to impose a settlement on the disputants. such arbitration may deter perceived distributive justice, because the settlement is imposed and not approved by both parties. however, if any component of procedural justice is present during arbitration, the overall appraisal of the situation will be improved (goldman, 2003). thus managers can make hard choices when imposing the final decision, but they should make them justly, preserving procedural justice. while a disciplinary code is a necessary basis for establishing guidelines of fairness, an agreed procedure is required to ensure that discipline is administered in a consistent and procedurally fair way (finnemore, 2006). the integration of literature on employee discipline and organisational justice indicates the theory of procedural justice as the most applicable theory for understanding disciplinary processes in organisations (cole, 1996). organisational justice the most commonly cited definition of organisational justice is the just and ethical treatment of individuals within an organisation (cropanzano et al., 2007; latham, 2007). as defined here, organisational justice is a personal evaluation of the ethical and moral standing of managerial conduct. organisational justice can be divided into three dimensions, namely distributive justice, procedural justice and interactional justice. procedural justice (i.e. how an allocation decision is made) is contrasted with distributive justice, which refers to the fairness of the decision (saunders & thornhill, 2004). procedural justice then relates to the fairness of the formal procedures required by the organisation and its policy on the method of decision-making. a decision is fair if the outcomes are seen as balanced and correct, where balance refers to the fact that similar actions are taken in similar situations and correctness refers to the fact that the quality (i.e. accuracy, consistency, impartiality, clarity, procedural thoroughness, compatibility with ethical values) of the decision-making seems right (pinder 1998; stecher & rosse, 2005; thompson & heron, 2005). procedural justice is important for employee behaviour in that they are more likely to accept responsibilities if the related procedures are fair (thompson & heron, 2005). these fair procedures also shape employee satisfaction with outcomes, in that they will more likely accept the outcomes if the procedures are fair than if they are not (thompson & heron, 2005). according to lind & tyler (1988), objective procedural justice refers to actual or factual justice, and subjective procedural justice refers to perceptions of objective procedures or to the capacity of an objective procedure to enhance fairness in louis van der bank amos s engelbrecht department of industrial psychology university of stellenbosch south africa johanita strümpher department of nursing science nelson mandela metropolitan university south africa correspondence to: amos engelbrecht e-mail: ase@sun.ac.za 1 empirical research van der bank , engelbrecht & strümpher vol. 6 no. 2 pp. 1 8sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za2 judgements. leventhal, karnza and fry (1980) define subjective perceptions of procedural justice by considering the cognitive, affective and behavioural components of the justice experience. the cognitive component refers to the calculations made by an individual regarding the objective fairness of a decision. tyler (1994) advocates that positive or negative emotional reactions to actual objective events form part of the affective procedural justice component. the behavioural component refers to the consequences of perceptions of fairness, such as employee behaviour and attitudes. interactional justice can be defined as the perceived fairness of the interpersonal treatment used to determine outcomes (stecher & rosse, 2005). interactional justice refers to the thoroughness of the information provided (i.e. informational justice) as well as the amount of dignity and respect (i.e. interpersonal justice) demonstrated when presenting an undesirable outcome (cropanzano et al., 2007; greenberg & baron, 2007). if negative outcomes are presented in this manner, employees are more likely to accept the decision. however, when actions are consequently seen as interactionally unfair, employees are more likely to develop negative attitudes towards their supervisors (cohen-charash & spector, 2001). if employees feel as though they have been unfairly treated, they experience emotions such as anger and resentment (pinder 1998). procedurally unfair treatment has been found to result in retaliatory organisational behaviours (e.g. theft) (pinder 1998; skarlicki & folger, 1997; thompson & heron, 2005). the results of unfair treatment of employees may also include lower production quantity and quality, greater absenteeism, greater turnover, less initiative, lower morale, lack of cooperation, spread of dissatisfaction to co-workers, fewer suggestions and less self-confidence (schminke & arnaud, 2005; stecher & rosse, 2005). employee discipline discipline can be defined as action or behaviour on the part of the authority in an organisation (usually management) aimed at restraining all employees from behaviour that threatens to disrupt the functioning of the organisation (nel et al., 2007). the primary objective of disciplinary action is to motivate an employee to comply with the company’s performance standards. the failure to perform as expected could be directly related to the tasks performed by the employee or to the rules and regulations that define proper conduct at work. a second objective of discipline is to create or maintain mutual trust and respect between the supervisor and subordinate. improperly administered discipline can create such problems as low morale and resentment between the supervisor and the subordinate. the proper administration of discipline will not only improve employee behaviour but will also minimise future disciplinary problems through a positive supervisorsubordinate relationship (grobler, warnich, carrell, elbert & hatfield, 2006). disciplinary action is usually initiated by management in response to unsatisfactory work performance or unacceptable behaviour on the part of the workers. however, a proper procedure must be followed when exercising discipline. the labour relations act’s codification of unfair dismissal and code of good practice relating to dismissal is regarded as the basis for policy statements on disciplinary procedures (finnemore, 2006). it is evident in the context of current employment law that discipline is regarded as a corrective rather than punitive measure. a disciplinary code endorses the concept of corrective or progressive discipline, which regards the purpose of discipline as a means for employees to know and understand what standards are required of them. it empowers employers to seek to correct employees’ behaviour by a system of graduated disciplinary measures such as counselling and warnings (nel et al., 2007). the reinforcement theories of skinner (werner, 2007) provide a technical description and application of discipline. according to these theories, learning needs to take place before desired behaviour can occur. the terminology of instrumental learning refers to this type of learning. instrumental learning can be described as a situation where behaviour is affected by the consequences thereof. positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and punishment are examples of this learning process (werner, 2007). according to kreitner and kinicki (2007), positive reinforcement would constitute the consistent presentation of something desirable (e.g. recognition). negative reinforcement can be described as the reinforcement of behaviour that reduces negative situations (e.g. shouting at someone where the shouting only stops after compliance). punishment involves an undesirable action towards a person, for example stopping the salary of an absent worker. grossett (1999) advises south african managers to make use of different forms of discipline. warnings (i.e. verbal, written and final written), suspensions (with or without remuneration), transfers, demotion and dismissal are some of the options mentioned. the principle of progressive discipline is applied when these options are chosen according to the seriousness of the offence. gomez-mejia, balkin and cardy (1995) describe positive discipline, where counselling sessions between the employee and supervisor replace punishment actions. counselling skills would, however, be required for the successful implementation of this option. aim of study negative media coverage has questioned the discipline that exists in the south african public sector, and has highlighted the high number of departmental and criminal cases against public officials. the reasons for this high number of disciplinary cases against public officials needed to be investigated, especially considering that the disciplinary procedure of the public service values progressive and positive discipline, which has correction of behaviour in mind, and not punitive action (grobler et al., 2006). furthermore, the high stress levels of police work (pienaar & rothmann, 2003) necessitated research into this phenomenon. many supervisors are indifferent towards their subordinates and do not adhere to the positive disciplinary values as intended by the discipline regulations of the public service. in addition to this, many employees who are departmentally charged do not receive remedial assistance in order to address the causes of the problems that lead to their misconduct. on the basis of the problem statement and literature review, the aim of this study is twofold: firstly, to explore and describe employees’ experience of the disciplinary procedure in the public service sector; and secondly, to develop and provide guidelines to ensure a less traumatic experience of disciplinary procedures. methodology research design and method a qualitative (babbie & mouton, 2001; cresswell, 2003) research design was utilised during this research. this research design is suitable for generating data that would facilitate understanding of the experiences that employees have of disciplinary procedures. this understanding formed the basis of the guidelines that were formulated to make the experience of disciplinary procedures less traumatic. the research was conducted in two phases. phase one constituted the exploration and description of the employee’s experience of disciplinary procedures, while phase two utilised the results obtained in phase one as a framework to develop disciplinary procedures empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 2 pp. 1 8 guidelines for a less traumatic experience of the disciplinary procedure. phase one: data gathering population and sampling: the participants in the study were purposely selected from two groups. the first group consisted of six employees who have experienced the disciplinary procedure practised in the public service (the employee participant group). the ages of the employee group varied from 28 to 42 years, and they also differed regarding gender (five men and one woman) and race (three black and three white). the second group consisted of four participants who are deemed to be experts in the disciplinary procedures of the public service (the expert participant group). the expert group consisted of a representative of the labour union, an officer in the disciplinary section, a superintendent and a defending officer acting in departmental tribunals. as these groups constitute two populations, the analyses of their data were done separately. the results of the two groups were used to supplement each other. ethical considerations: in conducting the study, the following ethical considerations (de vos, 1998) were followed: firstly, informed consent was obtained from the participants by means of a letter communicating the essential information pertaining to the research. secondly, time was allocated for debriefing at the end of each research interview. this was done to minimise any harmful effects of their participation in the study. thirdly, confidentiality was maintained at all times and participants were informed of the rationale and recording and the safekeeping of the audio taped interviews and transcriptions. it should be noted that participation was voluntary. in-depth interviews: the phenomenological interview as explained by kvale (1996) was used as interview method. the interviewer asked one central question to each participating group. the participants in the employee participant group were asked the following question: “i was informed that you were departmentally charged in the past and that you attended a departmental tribunal. tell me how you experienced the disciplinary procedures of the organisation.” the expert participant group was asked the following question: “due to your work function, you have acquired knowledge of the organisation’s disciplinary procedure and the application thereof with regard to employees. what is your opinion of the disciplinary procedure and the application thereof?” the interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim once saturation level of the data was obtained. field notes: field notes were taken during the research interviews in order to capture non-verbal cues that could not be recorded. data analysis the data analysis of the study was conducted using a method described by tesch (cresswell 2003). the transcribed interviews had to be read to get a sense of the whole. consequently, ideas were jotted down in the margin as they came to mind. the most interesting interview was selected and scrutinised to determine what it was about, as well as to determine underlying meaning. ideas were then written down in the margin. the ideas were converted into topics that reflected their meaning. the same process was followed for all the interviews. a list was then compiled of all the topics, and similar topics were clustered together. these topics were grouped into three major columns as major topics, unique topics and leftovers. this list was compared to the data and topics were abbreviated by codes. this was done to ensure that all topics were represented on the list and that they were in the correct cluster. the topics were defined and grouped into categories. triangulation or the use of multiple methods is a plan of action that will raise qualitative researchers above the personal biases that stem from single methodologies (babbie & mouton, 2001). triangulation of the data took place by consulting an independent coder who analysed the interviews independently from the researcher. the independent coder was provided with a protocol describing the method of data analysis as described by tesch (cresswell, 2003). after the interviews had been analysed, the researcher and the independent coder met for a consensus discussion. ensuring reliable data the researcher employed certain strategies to ensure trustworthiness of data. in this regard, guba’s (babbie & mouton, 2001) method was applied in order to achieve credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. trustworthiness was achieved by prolonged engagement, triangulation, peer debriefing, purposive sampling, reflection, phenomenological interviews, structural congruence, authority of the researcher, compact description, and by the codingrecoding procedure (babbie & mouton 2001; cresswell, 2003). results and discussion employer participant group one major theme that was divided into four categories was identified in the employee participant group. this theme, categories and sub-categories are reflected in table 1. the major theme identified is as follows: employees who were departmentally charged experienced the process as traumatic and unfair, and felt exposed to a process in which they had no trust. the four categories of the above-mentioned theme will now be discussed, supported by direct quotes from the participants. category 1: perceived discrimination during the in-depth interviews some of the participants mentioned that they experienced racial discrimination in the application of discipline. “how many people have been dismissed? statistics, white, brown, black. the majority black. the majority black, why?” the existing discipline regulations are impartial as far as the suggested procedures for the application of discipline are concerned. the expert participant group confirmed this, but they also mentioned that racial prejudice might exist in the application of the disciplinary procedure. several of the participants mentioned that friendships and other interpersonal relations hinder impartiality. “and another thing which i discovered here, there are people that are more privileged than others.” the expert participant group confirmed this, as mention was made of “the blue-eyed boys of the commander”. the discipline regulations make provision for commanders to use discretion in their actions concerning discipline. this could lead to perceived discrimination between members with regard to disciplinary action. some of the participants mentioned that not all members involved in misconduct are charged for it. “but i feel this is a big negative aspect, that certain people receive advantage above others. i mean all of us should be dealt with in the same way.” several of the participants mentioned experiencing unfair treatment. “...but deep inside me, where i am sitting now, i know, that no matter what other people say, i know that i was found guilty in an unfair manner.” the expert group confirmed this theme, as they also mentioned that “there are those who are hated by the commanders, they are the victims of the commander.” lower levels of distributive justice are experienced when people compare the outcomes of actions and when their outcomes 3 empirical research van der bank , engelbrecht & strümpher vol. 6 no. 2 pp. 1 8sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za4 are less favourable than others in similar circumstances. (cropanzano et al., 2007; mohyeldin & suliman, 2007). from the above quotes, comments and literature control it can be derived that enough evidence exists of discrimination in the application of discipline. category 2: employees experience the process as emotionally traumatic the participants in the study indicated that they experienced the disciplinary procedure of the organisation as traumatic “and i was very nervous, cried the whole time, and when i had to go in, i felt i was going to faint...it is an experience that i would not want to be repeated.” the expert group verify this as they also found that employees often experience an emotional response when being disciplined. these findings are supported by previous research conducted by stecher & rosse (2005) that found that subordinates responded emotionally when they were disciplined. the participant group of the study indicated that they experienced the disciplinary procedure as stressful and frustrating. “it’s damaging to your nerves. it is unnecessary. you know that you are innocent, but still, you get a reputation, as a troublemaker.” the expert group confirmed this theme by saying: “there are some that even get to like having stress.” category 3: the disciplinary process is experienced as unnecessarily complicated and does not discriminate between major and petty complaints participants said that the charges against them could have been dealt with differently. “whereas you phoned someone, when you ask for the tape, for the time which you work, they refuse, and you are being charged.” the expert participant group confirmed this theme as they also said that branch managers are inclined to forward charges to the discipline section without proper investigation. the discipline regulations stipulate that managers or any other employee from a relevant unit should engage in an interview with the offender, in order to determine the cause of the misconduct. the employee participant group said that interviews that could have determined the nature or seriousness of the complaints were sometimes not conducted. “no, not at station level. i do not know how it works at the other stations, but on (censored) station it is like this. if someone complains, the commander says, give a statement. charge the person. he does not call you in to listen to your version of the events.” the expert participant group also verified this theme. some members of the employee participant group mentioned that certain decisions lead to compulsory charges and investigations. “another case is for example damage to state vehicles. it is a big hassle. i mean something that was not your fault, but it is delayed, delayed and delayed.” it seems that the most serious problem of damage to state vehicles is that all damage is officially investigated, while it is felt that minor damage could be dealt with differently. the delays in the investigation appeared to create a lot of frustration. category 4: the different role players in the disciplinary procedure do not act consistently the employee participant group said that supervisors were not consistent in their actions towards their subordinates. several were supportive, while others just ignored them. there are even those who behave in an autocratic manner towards subordinates. theme categories and sub-categories employees that were departmentally charged experienced the process as traumatic and unfair, and felt exposed to a process in which they had no trust 1. perceived discrimination 1.1 there is a distinction between members, as more non-white members are charged than white members. 1.2 employees experience nepotism, as friends of supervisors are not charged. 1.3 employees experience that only some members who are guilty of misconduct, are charged. 1.4 employees experience that some members are dealt with unfairly. 2. the emotional experience of the process is traumatic 2.1 employees who are charged experience emotions such as anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts and negativity. they mention that personal problems are sometimes related to the misconduct for which they are charged. 2.2 employees who are charged experience it as stressful and frustrating. 2.3 employees who are charged learn from their mistakes and regret their misconduct. they take responsibility for what they did. 3. the disciplinary process is experienced as unnecessarily complicated and does not distinguish between major and petty complaints 3.1 the disciplinary procedure is experienced as unnecessarily difficult and that consistency is not maintained in its application. many charges are perceived as unnecessary because it could have been solved at unit level. 3.2 the experience is that employees’ job exposes them to many possible charges. 3.3 employees experience certain charges as unnecessary, for example formal investigations into all damage and collisions of state vehicles. 3.4 it is experienced that warnings are given inconsistently. some members receive written warnings while others receive only verbal warnings for even more serious misconduct. 3.5 employees experience that personal interviews are not conducted with them, or that they are not personally informed of the nature and seriousness of the disciplinary charges or actions against them. 3.6 it is experienced that not much counselling or support is provided for members that are being charged. 3.7 the process is experienced as time consuming, as most cases are delayed. this leads to a waste of time. 3.8 employees experience departmental charges that result from criminal charges (even if found not guilty) as harsh. 4. the different role players in the disciplinary procedure do not act consistently 4.1 employees who are charged experience an attitude change on the part of their colleagues, and that they are treated differently. 4.2 it is experienced that supervisors and managers treat members differently. some are supportive, while others ignore them. some even behave autocratically. 4.3 employees experience that the disciplinary officials engage in actions aimed at finding them guilty and that it is advisable to maintain good relations with them. 4.4 the anti-corruption unit’s methods of investigation and questioning are experienced as traumatic. 4.5 employees experience the prosecutors’ actions differently. some prosecutors will not proceed with low merit cases or will try to compromise, while other prosecutors engage in actions aimed at ensuring guilty findings. 4.6 employees experience that the presiding officer at departmental tribunals is not consistently neutral. the sanctions given by them are not consistently neutral, are often not effective and are sometimes very harsh. 4.7 it is experienced that the organisation is more inclined towards punishment than concern or support for their members. this leads to impressions of unfair treatment. 4.8 employees who are charged experience that complaints from the public often lead to steps against them. the media also use negative reports that focus on public officials and which are to their disadvantage. 4.9 employees experience that the helping professions of the organisation such as social workers and psychologists are often involved when help is offered to them. they are also referred to other specialists. table 1 an overview of themes, categories and sub-categories of the experience of the employee participant group of the disciplinary procedure disciplinary procedures empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 2 pp. 1 8 the participants experienced that the disciplinary officials engaged in actions to implicate them and that it was advisable to maintain good relationships with them. “and if i am not personally known to the disciplinary official then he will say no, the case is still outstanding, there is not yet a date set for the tribunal.” some of the field notes taken by the researcher revealed negative reactions from participants when they discussed the manner in which disciplinary officials dealt with employees. some participants of the employee group mentioned that they experienced the anti-corruption unit’s investigation and questioning methods as traumatic. the researcher got the impression that the participants were upset that “their own people” had to investigate them and that their intention to punish was unacceptable. participants of the employee group referred to differing attitudes and actions of prosecutors. some would not proceed with low merit cases, while others tried to obtain guilty findings, wherever possible. “he did me in, because he said that i must take my discharge and according to the other people at negative discipline, they could not believe that he said that to me.” the participants also mentioned cases of prosecutors not wanting to prosecute, because they thought that there was not enough evidence for the complaints. in these cases there was a neutral or even positive feeling towards the prosecutors. the employees stated that the presiding officers at departmental tribunals are not consistently experienced as neutral. mention was also made of the sanctions given by the presiding officer which are not consistently effective, and sometimes too harsh: “…but provide a person with another chance. because there are some guys that on their first hearing, on their first hearing, they are dismissed. give them a second chance to see if they can improve on their mistakes.” the employee participant group said that the organisation is more inclined towards punishment than supporting or helping their employees: the non-verbal behaviour of the participants indicated that they were upset about the way in which the organisation dealt with them. expert participant group the expert participant group identified one major theme i.e. the experts’ experience of the disciplinary procedure of the organisation and the effect thereof on employees. this theme was divided into two categories, which will now be discussed briefly. the first category clusters data that describes the disciplinary procedure as a structured process which is guided by many departmental regulations, but with certain shortcomings in its application: mention is made of inconsistent disciplinary actions, “...there are the blue-eyed boys of the commander…”, and of victimisation and/or racial prejudice, “...and there are those commanders who abuse the system, the disciplinary procedure...”. the expansive size of the organisation hampers the application of uniform disciplinary measures, “...every station’s problems are different…” and the new system for tribunals could lead to problems, “captains come unprepared...presiding officers are illequipped.” cases take too long and are unnecessarily delayed, “many of the cases are the station commissioner’s ‘dragging of feet’...” mention is made that employees respond emotionally after a tribunal, “most members feel the pain of being dismissed. they feel like, think like, taking their lives”. the second category clusters data that describes the influence of role players (including different individuals) on the application of the disciplinary procedures: station commissioners are not always interested in the proper investigation of cases, “most commanders are lazy, ... then they just pass the buck.” it seems that the social environment of offenders leads to problems with discipline, “and there are those members that use alcohol a lot, they absent themselves from work.” members themselves are often uninformed about the seriousness of their offences, “... it is very, very few members that you find realise the seriousness of the misconduct”. referrals to the helping professions of the organisation or other service providers are not always made, “they are even charging members that have a problem, which is not his mistake only that he can not, realised that he is wrong.” offenders often do not co-operate in the keeping of appointments, honesty or attendance of counselling sessions, “the members themselves sometimes refuse assistance.” this theme, with its categories and sub-categories, is reflected in table 2. phase two: the formulation of guidelines to increase the perceived fairness of the disciplinary procedure having considered the different themes discussed in this study, the following guidelines were developed in order to provide a less traumatic experience of the disciplinary procedure: discrimination must be eliminated when discipline is applied impersonally, the supervisor focuses on the act of unsatisfactory behaviour, not the employee as a bad person. the most effective way to achieve this goal is to employ corrective counselling. with tact and maturity, the supervisor applies discipline in a supportive environment, emphasising the improvement of performance rather than the infliction of punishment (grobler et al., 2006; stecher & rosse, 2005). 5 theme categories & sub-categories the experience of experts of the disciplinary procedure and the effect thereof on employees 1. experts identified some shortcomings in the application of the disciplinary procedure and described it as a structured process guided by many different departmental regulations. 1.1 regulations and steps that must be taken exist for the disciplinary procedure. 1.2 there is no consistency in the actions in the application of the process. certain individuals are targeted in order to get rid of them. there is also mention of racial prejudice. 1.3 what most members are charged with are cases such as: being under the influence of alcohol while on duty, misuse of sick leave and absenteeism. 1.4 the size of the organisation creates problems for a uniform schedule of punishment. cases remain unique and are evaluated on merit. 1.5 an opinion exists that cases take too long before they are settled and should be speeded up. 1.6 it was noticed that employees often respond emotionally to the application of the disciplinary procedure. 2. experts observed that the roles of several individuals impact on the application of the disciplinary procedure. 2.1 the opinion exists that unit managers are not interested in proper investigation of cases. they would rather forward it to the area managers’ office for a decision. this delays cases even more. 2.2 it seems that the social environment of charged employees is a factor in the disciplinary steps against them. 2.3 the opinion exists that members are often not knowledgeable about the seriousness of their misconduct and that they consider suicide when they are dismissed. 2.4 it is observed that there are few references to the helping professions of the organisation or other service providers and that reports are used negatively against members where it is being done. 2.5 the opinion exists that guilty individuals will not always give their cooperation concerning the keeping of appointments, honesty or the attendance of counselling sessions. table 2 an overview of themes, categories and sub-categories of the experience of the expert participant group of the disciplinary procedure empirical research van der bank , engelbrecht & strümpher vol. 6 no. 2 pp. 1 8sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za6 suspicion to get clarity on lesser issues and avoid pressing unnecessary charges against their employees. this could also result in less exposure to the formal disciplinary process of the organisation. managers are often confronted with misconduct by employees for which they have no choice but to act according to regulations and send cases to the discipline section. they must, however, be aware that they could still grant a personal interview to determine the cause of the misconduct and to assist the employees, if possible. managers should be aware that several factors are involved in conducting an effective interview. for example, the atmosphere in which the interview is conducted, as well as trust in the manager are of importance. it would be to the managers’ advantage to receive training in the conducting of personal interviews. knowledge of the different role players and the avoidance of inconsistency to minimise feelings of unfairness, management must administer discipline consistently, without bias or favouritism (finnemore, 2006; greenberg & baron, 2007; pinder, 1998; thompson & heron, 2005). the employee participant group mentioned that different role players affected their experience of the disciplinary procedure. they said that the attitude of their colleagues and their managers towards them was different. in general, they experienced that colleagues did not support them during their ordeal and that some even enjoyed their predicament. managers reacted differently; some being supportive, while others behaved in a more autocratic and unsympathetic manner. the officials investigating discipline (including the anticorruption unit) were generally experienced as punitive and as aspiring towards guilty findings. prosecutors were experienced differently. some would not proceed with low merit cases, while others would proceed and try to obtain guilty findings. sometimes presiding officers were not experienced as being neutral and as passing judgements that were too harsh. the organisation was also experienced as being more concerned with administering discipline than being supportive or trying to help their employees. the public also plays an important role as they often instigate investigations against public officials. the media were mostly negative in their coverage of public officials, which causes unnecessary stress. mention was made that the helping professions (social workers, psychologists and chaplains) were often involved when support was needed. the expert participant group, however, said that these services were not always used appropriately or that reports from these services were used to the members’ disadvantage. managers and supervisors should be aware of the influence of these role players on employees who are charged with misconduct. this insight could lead to better understanding, support and encouragement of employees exposed to the disciplinary procedure. managers may then be more motivated to influence some of these role players to facilitate the speedy settlement of cases. insight into the effect of the different role players on their employees may also encourage managers or supervisors to invest more time and effort in personal interviews and in resolving minor issues at unit level. awareness of shortcomings in the application of the disciplinary procedure management should define behaviour that is expected from employees. disciplining an employee for unsatisfactory supervisors should be aware of the fact that factors such as rank, age, gender, culture or the race of employees should not influence them when they discipline employees (finnemore, 2006). the discipline regulations of the organisation appear to be impartial with regard to the said factors. supervisors should have a clear idea of the standards of discipline for their work units. the different supervisors from a specific unit should reach consensus regarding the application of discipline towards members under their command. supervisors should also take time to listen to what subordinates have to say, and not be influenced by verbal inputs from other employees. they should also accept that their subordinates are diverse with different ways of thinking and doing. the strict application of measures consequently will not always have the desired effect of changing unacceptable behaviour. it is the supervisor’s task and responsibility to manage his/her subordinates and to see to it that counter-productive behaviour is addressed in the hope that it will change. this task is demanding in terms of energy and time, but will be worthwhile if it leads to improved behaviour at work. knowledge and understanding of emotional reactions discipline is more likely to be accepted without resentment if the employee has prior knowledge that defiant behaviour will result in disciplinary action (grobler et al., 2006). similar to pienaar and rothmann (2003), this study also found that security employees experience emotional reactions such as anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and negativity. they also experienced the disciplinary process as stressful and frustrating. these feelings increased when the process was delayed. managers and supervisors should be aware of the fact that the emotional responses of their members are exhibited in different ways, for example through absenteeism, negativity, lack of motivation and rebelliousness (pinder, 1998; thompson & heron, 2005). these emotional responses could elicit further charges or problems, which is counter-productive to the changing of behaviour to an acceptable standard (schminke & arnaud, 2005). wherever possible, managers and supervisors should, therefore, engage in supportive actions towards members who are being disciplined. regular conversations with them could motivate them to change undesirable behaviour, and interest in the progress of their cases could have a positive effect on members’ state of mind. distinguish between serious and less serious charges many organisations give the supervisor authority to administer less severe forms of discipline and more severe cases are handled by an upper-level line manager or hr executive (grobler et al., 2006). with this type of approach, consistency in the application of discipline can be achieved while the supervisor retains authority and control over employee behaviour. participants from the employee group indicated that many cases could have been solved at unit level. managers may use discretion in the application of discipline concerning less serious charges. there is no prescribed schedule to guide disciplinary actions (e.g. a verbal warning if an employee arrives an hour late for duty and a written warning if the employee arrives three hours late). instead, managers can determine how serious the offence is and then act accordingly. managers are compelled to act when misconduct comes to their attention. they often do this by tasking another employee to take a statement from the member under suspicion and send it to the discipline section to decide if further steps should be taken. instead, they could arrange a personal interview with the member under disciplinary procedures empirical research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 2 pp. 1 8 performance is imprudent unless management has clearly defined good performance (grobler et al., 2006). the use of discretion and the absence of a schedule of discipline may be a shortcoming in the application of the disciplinary procedure. some employees may get off easily, while others are punished for similar mistakes. the size of the organisation and the distribution of employees throughout the country could also hamper the application of a uniform schedule of discipline. the unique circumstances and needs of the different work environments of units call for the use of discretion in the administering of discipline. senior management should take notice of the discretionary decisions of managers and supervisors and caution them towards thoroughly considered actions. the lack of consistency of actions can also be considered as a shortcoming. this causes victimisation as some employees are targeted in order to get rid of them. managers and supervisors should be cautious that factors like race, age and social standing do not cause them to be inconsistent in their actions towards employees (thompson & heron, 2005). the lagging of disciplinary cases was another shortcoming that was identified by both participant groups. managers should be aware of old and outstanding cases at their units and attempt to speed up procedures. the speedy completion of cases disciplinary action must commence within a reasonable time after the offence has been committed (finnemore, 2006; greenberg & baron, 2007). the greater the time-lag between the offence and the application of discipline, the less likely it is that the employee will see a direct cause and effect relationship between unsatisfactory performance and the discipline (grobler et al., 2006). the discipline regulations also stipulate the immediate investigation of misconduct. they do not specify a time limit for the duration of the investigation, but encourage the speedy handling of cases. both participant groups mentioned that cases take too long to be settled. this has a negative effect on stress and frustration levels, as well as on promotion opportunities as promotion can only be granted after departmental charges against employees have been settled. some practices at unit level include the accumulation of cases against a member before the case is sent to the discipline section. the purpose of this might be to build a stronger case against a member, but in reality it prolongs the time before misconduct behaviour is addressed. this makes it much more difficult to rectify inappropriate behaviour, or to offer timely remedial support. personal interviews with the offender could be used to investigate the causes of inappropriate behaviour before bad habits start to crystallise. managers should manage the speedy investigation and settlement of cases against their subordinates. a few phone calls or written requests could speed up the process. personal interviews with members the manager or supervisor should clearly communicate discipline policy, procedures and rules to employees. there must be no doubt that unsatisfactory performance has taken place, and the collection of information clearly indicating an employees’ wrongdoing makes discipline more effective and easier to administer. concrete, indisputable records of unsatisfactory performance are important because the burden of proof lies with the employer (grobler et al., 2006). the employee participant group mentioned that managers seldom conducted personal interviews with them. the manager mostly appointed someone else to deal with the disciplinary investigations and interviews and made a decision based on that official’s opinion and case presentation about whether to press charges or not. this practice seems fair, bearing in mind that the manager or supervisor is often absent or engaged in other work roles and functions. this does, however, create a situation where personal contact between the manager and his/her subordinates is lost, and his/her influence during this personal interview cannot be experienced. conducting an effective personal interview involves many factors, for example the setting of the interview, privacy, the atmosphere, as well as trust in the manager (nel et al., 2007). employees often confide in their commanders and this could be an opportunity to address personal problems that may lead to inappropriate behaviour. early intervention and referrals to professionals would then be possible. it would be to the manager’s advantage to receive training in the conducting of personal interviews if he/she seems to be incompetent in the execution of this important function (finnemore, 2006). referral for counselling if needed positive discipline comprises the administering of corrective counselling techniques. for corrective counselling to be effective, a supervisor must be genuinely interested in helping an employee overcome problems and must offer support, encouragement and assistance. with greater problem-solving participation by the employee, the chances for a long-lasting improvement in behaviour are greatly increased (grobler et al., 2006). one distinction between progressive discipline and positive discipline entails the provision of counselling where positive discipline is practised. managers who are not trained in counselling skills, or who do not have the time to provide counselling themselves, should still refer members to other professionals for counselling. managers could make use of the helping professions (i.e. social workers, chaplains and psychologists) in the organisation for referral and counselling, if needed. preventive discipline of all the approaches to discipline, preventive discipline is the most desirable. preventive discipline means that people are managed in a way that prevents behaviour that needs to be disciplined (grobler et al., 2006). managers and supervisors who practise preventive discipline create an organisational climate conducive to high levels of job satisfaction and employee productivity. to create a working environment that supports a preventive discipline approach, the organisation must use effective selection procedures, properly orient the employee to the job, provide any necessary training, clarify proper employee behaviour, provide frequent and constructive feedback to employees on their performance, and apply an open-door policy and management-employee group meetings to enable employees to address their problems to management (grobler et al., 2006). conclusion three components are necessary for the effective maintenance of a disciplinary procedure in an organisation: consultation or negotiation, communication with everybody concerned regarding the exact way in which the system operates, and training of the individuals involved in a disciplinary process (nel et al., 2007). the application of discipline should be immediate, with warning, consistent and impersonal (grobler et al., 2006). the results of this exploratory study could be used as a basis to develop a theoretical model and measure of the fairness of 7 empirical research van der bank , engelbrecht & strümpher vol. 6 no. 2 pp. 1 8sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za8 finnemore, m. (2006). introduction to labour relations in south africa. cape town: butterworths. goldman, b.m. (2003). the application of reference cognitions theory to legal-claiming by terminated workers. the role of organizational justice and anger. journal of management, 29(5), 705-728. gómez-mejia, l.r., balkin, d.b. & cardy, r.l. (1995). managing human resources. englewood cliffs, n.j: prentice hall. greenberg, j. & baron, r.a. (2007). behavior in organizations. upper saddle river, nj: pearson education, inc. grobler, p., warnich, s., carrell, m.r., elbert, n.f. & hatfield, r.d. (2006). human resource management in south africa. london: thomson. grossett, m. (1999). discipline and dismissal. a practical guide for south african managers (2nd ed.). johannesburg: thomson. kreitner, r. & kinicki, a. (2007). organizational behavior (7th ed.). new york: mcgraw-hill. kvale, s. (1996). an introduction in qualitative research interviewing. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. latham, g.p. (2007). work motivation: history, research, theory and practice. california: sage publications. leventhal, g.s., karuza, j. & fry, w.r. (1980). beyond fairness: a theory of allocation preferences. in mikula, g. (ed.). justice and social interaction. new york: springer-verlag. lind, e.a. & taylor, t.r. (1988). the social psychology of procedural justice. new york: plenum press. mohyeldin, a. & suliman, t. (2007). links between justice, satisfaction and work performance in the workplace. journal of management development, 29(4), 294-311. nel, p.s., van dyk, p.s., haasbroek, g.d., schultz, h.b., sono t. & werner a. (2007). human resources management. cape town: oxford university press. pienaar, j. & rothmann, s. (2003). coping strategies in the south african police service. sa journal of industrial psychology, 29(4), 81-90. pinder, c.c. (1998). work motivation in organizational behavior. upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. saunders, m.n.k. & thornhill, a. (2004). trust and mistrust in organizations: an exploration using an organizational justice framework. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 13(4), 493-515. schminke, m. & arnaud, a. (2005). organizational justice. in g.r. goethals, g.j. sorenson & j.m. burns (eds.). encyclopaedia of leadership. new york: sage publications, vol. 3, pp. 1124-1129. skarlicki, d.p. & folger, r. (1997). retaliation in the workplace: the roles of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice. journal of applied psychology, 82(3), 434443. stecher, m.d. & rosse, j.g. (2005). the distributive side of interactional justice: the effects of interpersonal treatment on emotional arousal. journal of managerial issues, 17, 229246. thompson, m. & heron, p. (2005). the difference a manager can make: organizational justice and knowledge worker commitment. international journal of human resource management, 16(3), 383-404. tyler, t.r. (1994). psychological models of the justice motive. antecedents of distributive and procedural justice. journal of personality and social psychology, 67(5), 850863. werner, a. (2007). organisational behaviour: a contemporary south african perspective. pretoria: van schaik publishers. disciplinary procedures. sophisticated statistical techniques (e.g. structural equation modelling) could then be used to test the construct validity of the model in different organisations in both the private and public sectors in the south african economy. the measure of fairness of disciplinary procedures could be used as an important tool to manage discipline in organisations. this study has shown that employees experience the disciplinary procedure of the organisation as traumatic and emotionally exhausting. it can also be concluded that employees experience the disciplinary procedure as unfair. it is the manner in which discipline is applied and the different role players that are involved in the disciplinary procedure, in particular, that make it a lengthy and time-consuming process. the disciplinary procedure causes unnecessary strain and pressure on employees, mostly due to delays in finalising cases. employees also indicated that personal problems lead to misconduct or inappropriate behaviour. managers and supervisors should therefore be responsible for the investigation of counter-productive behaviour, preferably by conducting personal interviews with offenders in order to determine the causes of their misconduct and to address personal problems, if necessary. managers should support individuals under emotional pressure, identify possible warning signs, and attempt to ease the pressure wherever possible. human resource management could utilise the recommended guidelines for more effective application of discipline in organisations. these guidelines encompass the process of positive discipline. positive discipline corrects defiant employee behaviour through support, respect and people-oriented leadership (greenberg & baron, 2007; grobler et al., 2006). positive discipline is a management philosophy that assumes that improved employee behaviour is most likely to be longlived when discipline is administered without revenge, abuse or nastiness. references babbie, e. & mouton, j. (2001). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford. cole, n.d. (1996). the effects of training in procedural justice on perceptions of disciplinary fairness by employees and discipline experts. unpublished ph.d. dissertation, university of toronto, canada. cohen-charash, y. & spector, p.e. (2001). the role of justice in organizations: a meta-analysis. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 86(2), 278-321. cresswell, j.w. (2003). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. thousand oaks, ca: sage. cropanzano, r., bowen, d.e. & gilliland, s.w. (2007). the management of organisational justice. academy of management perspectives. november, 34-48. de vos, a. (1998). research at grassroots. a primer for the caring professions. pretoria: van schaik. engelbrecht, a.s. & chamberlain l. (2005). the influence of transformational leadership on organisational citizenship behaviour through justice and trust. management dynamics, 14(1), 2-13. 39 abstract introduction method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) thabisile ntseke department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa jeremy mitonga-monga department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa crystal hoole department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation ntseke, t., mitonga-monga, j., & hoole, c. (2022). transformational leadership influences on work engagement and turnover intention in an engineering organisation. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a2013. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.2013 original research transformational leadership influences on work engagement and turnover intention in an engineering organisation thabisile ntseke, jeremy mitonga-monga, crystal hoole received: 07 june 2022; accepted: 23 aug. 2022; published: 02 dec. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: this study examined how transformational leadership (tfl) moderates the relationship between work engagement (we) and perceptions of turnover intention (ti) in an engineering organisation. research purpose: the study seeks to address the paucity of research on the moderating effect of tfl on the relationship we and ti in the south african working environment and more specifically in the engineering organisation. motivation for the study: the engineering sector is an important contributor to the dgp, but faces a skills shortage. transformational leadership can play a key role in the retention of skills. research approach/design and method: the study comprised 129 engineers in a south african engineering organisation. the study used a nonexperimental, quantitative research approach, while the population included a convenience nonprobability sample (n = 124) of permanently employed engineers in a south african engineering organisation (women = 18%). perceptions of tfl, we and tis were measured, and data were analysed by applying hierarchical moderator regression analysis to predict employee ti from we in interaction with tfl. main findings: the results indicate that tfl dimensions, namely idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration, moderated the relationship between we dimensions, namely vigour and dedication and ti. perceptions of a leader who articulated the organisation’s vision, acted as a role model, was inspiring, stimulated creativity and developed followers would enhance employees’ levels of energy, dedication and efforts and hence reduce ti. practical/managerial implications: transformational leadership is vital for positive employee engagement and employee retention. leaders should therefore have tfl competencies and be adept in engaging with their followers. contribution/value-add: this study adds value to the current engineering organisation as well as tfl, we and ti literature by examining the effects of we and ti, positing that tfl is a sound moderator in the relationship between the we and ti. keywords: transformational leadership; idealised influence; inspirational motivation; intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration; work engagement; turnover intention. introduction workforces are critical factors for organisational success in this turbulent and competitive business world, because the workforce influences the efficiency of how work is done. if managed well, effectiveness can be achieved. a high-performing workforce can be realised if the organisation’s management can provide conducive conditions and support, one of which refers to policies related to turnover (manoppo, 2020). turnover intention often happens in an organisation and can occur as a result of resignation, retrenchment, layoff, dismissal or the death of an employee. turnover intention refers to a subjective probability that an individual will change their job within a certain period (price, 2001). turnover intention can occur because of low employee morale and engagement, an expression of negative attitude towards work that describes a person’s negative experiences and emotions that may decrease job satisfaction (lum, 2018), poor performance (iqbal et al., 2017), low attachment to the organisation (haque et al., 2019) and an increasing tendency to exit the organisation (liu & liu, 2021). transformational leadership (tfl) is perceived to reduce ti. it has been found to have a strong association with decreased turnover rates, employee commitment, job satisfaction and high organisational performance (manoppo, 2020). a toxic relationship between leaders and employees has several effects: low level of performance, low work engagement (we), increased absenteeism and turnover. previous studies by takawira et al. (2014) reveal that tfl and we diminished staff turnover and absenteeism. park and piece (2020) declare that tfl negatively affects workers’ ti. according to zhang and li (2020), ti could be reduced by improving we. previous research found that tfl relates to we (amor et al., 2020; nurtjahjani et al., 2021), while we is associated negatively with ti. nevertheless, there seems to be a lack of research which examines how transformation leadership moderates the relationship between we and ti in a south african (sa) engineering organisation. south african engineering industry work context the sa engineering industry contributed 6% to the gross domestic product (gdp) in the first quarter of 2021 (statistics sa, 2019). despite this contribution to the gdp, the sector faces a shortage challenge of skilled engineers. according to the south african institution of civil engineering (saice) report (2021), the sa engineering sector lost 1.73% of its members, aged 30–60, as they have been seeking greener pastures and other opportunities in countries such as new zealand and australia for the past 3 years. naresh pather, president of consulting engineer south africa (cesa), corroborated this by saying that it was concerning that a considerable number of engineers are leaving the industry to seek employment opportunities in more fulfilling economic parts of the globe in related industries (cokayne, 2019). a survey which rust et al. (2021) conducted revealed that among 1367 saice members, 932 (68%) indicated that they are willing to continue to be a part of the country’s labour force. however, aspects such as over-politicisation of infrastructure, a lack of training and development and career paths, under-remuneration, corruption and poor leadership prevent them from remaining in the labour force. all these aspects have led to sa engineers leaving the sector and searching for jobs in more rewarding sectors instead (saice report, 2021). this has cost and affected the country in terms of money and resources to produce world-class engineers, impacting economic growth. nevertheless, a leader’s ability to shape a vision creates a positive organisational culture to influence and engage engineers’ performances. this study aimed to examine how tfl leaders moderate the relationship between we and ti in this unique occupational employment setting. the study contributes to engineering industry literature in sa in two ways. firstly, although past research has examined the effects of tfl on we and ti, the influence of tfl on we and ti has been relatively overlooked in sa’s working environment. secondly, and more importantly, the moderating role of tfl on the relationship between we and ti in an sa engineering construction organisation has yet to be explored. this study adds value to the current engineering organisation as well as tfl, we and ti literature by examining the moderating effects of tfl in the association between we and ti. therefore, this study sought to examine how engineers’ perceptions of their tfl moderate their level of we and ti in an sa engineering organisation. the article is structured as follows: firstly, the we, ti and tfl concepts are reviewed; secondly, the hypotheses and framework are developed; thirdly, the research method, procedure and data analysis used to investigate the effects of tfl and the relationship between we and ti are described; fourthly, the study’s findings are presented; fifthly, the study’s findings and its practical implications are discussed, while limitations and guidelines for future research are outlined; and finally, the study is concluded. theoretical perspectives and hypotheses social exchange theory (set) (blau, 1964) and resource-based theory (coase, 1937) (rbt) were used to understand the effect of tfl on the association between we and ti. social exchange theory expounds on the social behaviour and interaction between motivated individuals to receive rewards for what they give up. according to blau (1964), individuals’ actions are enthused and stirred by what they anticipate and presume to achieve or attain from a relationship in which they have been placed. the se theories base the exchange relationships on trust. for example, employees of tf leaders feel obliged to reciprocate to their leaders because of the trust and respect they possess for their leader. a trust relationship is a positive driver of individual behaviour and attitudes (stafford & kuiper, 2015). in practice, employees may perceive that their tf leaders communicate the vision, act as role models, display ethical morals, are problem solvers and create a good working environment. they tend to be engaged in their work tasks and have less intent to quit (sow et al., 2016). thus, the rbt can be traced back to early research by coase (1937) and williamson (1975). the rbt argues that an organisation should refrain from achieving strategic fit with the external environment but aim to maximise their internal resources to create future opportunity (kozlenkova et al., 2014). this theory assumes that the core competencies in the organisation are unique; employees are viewed as an investment and not a cost, and learning, knowledge sharing, innovation and involvement in decision-making are encouraged (wright et al., 2011). in reality, rbt focuses on rewarding workers by defined rules, principles and culture, which may assist the organisation in having quality, talented, and able employees who can connect successfully with their tfl, be engaged and not leave. work engagement work engagement has emerged as an essential concept in the literature for the past two decades (albrecht, 2010; mitonga-monga, 2018; saks & gruman, 2011). it is perceived as a critical factor that enhances employee performance and organisational growth (saks & gruman, 2011). work-engaged employees are likely to show fewer harmful organisational behaviours such as absenteeism and intention to leave (runhaar et al., 2013). in contrast, they are likely to be physically and emotionally connected to their work, motivated and eager to develop their work-related skills and knowledge (al zaabi et al., 2016). work engagement is conceptualised as an individual’s psychological and physical presence at work (kahn, 1990), an antithesis of burnout (maslach & leiter, 1997; schaufeli et al., 2002) and owing to organisational support (saks, 2006). kahn (1990) describes engagement as harnessing organisation members’ selves to their work roles. engaged people employ effort and express themselves physically, cognitively and emotionally in their tasks. schaufeli et al. (2002) defined we as a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption. vigour is characterised by a high level of energy, mental resilience while working, the willingness to invest effort in one’s work and persistence in the face of adverse situations. a sense of significance characterises dedication, enthusiasm, inspiration, pride and challenges; and absorption is characterised by being fully and happily engrossed, immersed in one’s work, whereby time passes quickly to the extent that one finds it difficult to detach from work (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). conversely, maslach and leiter (1997) perceive we to be the opposite of burnout. these authors argue that burnout comprises three components: mental exhaustion, cynicism and reduced professional efficacy. burned-out workers are likely to be energy depleted, exhausted, uninvolved and ineffective, while work-engaged employees are involved, enthusiastic and energised at work. thus, engaged individuals are characterised by high levels of energy, involvement instead of cynicism and self-efficacy instead of inefficacy (al zaabi et al., 2016). briefly, we is seen as a positive side of workers’ involvement at work, while burnout is considered to be negative. maslach and leiter’s (1997) contribution was that they used the same instrument to measure engagement and burnout, which complicated the empirical research in respect of the association between both constructs (schaufeli et al., 2002). work engagement is an essential aspect for organisations, because it has many positive outcomes, including a significant influence on both employees and organisations (mitonga-monga & cilliers, 2015). work-engaged employees are psychologically, physically and emotionally connected to the organisation, working towards achieving organisational goals, leading to positive work-related outcomes such as reduced absenteeism and intention to leave. saks (2006) found that we negatively related with absenteeism. additionally, lacap (2020) found that we influences employees’ propensity to leave, and he believes that by encouraging behaviours that increase productivity, they may lessen employees’ intents to quit the organisation (lacap, 2020). turnover intention turnover intention refers to an individual’s premeditated desire to leave an organisation (tett & meyer, 1993). it results from a psychological state of alienation from one’s job or organisation (hoole, 1997). it is also perceived as an individual considering quitting and seeking new employment opportunities elsewhere (cicek et al., 2021). because ti is described as a wish to exit the organisation for greener pastures or better opportunities, intention to leave is the phase immediately before vacating, mostly considered to be the intention to leave the employer organisation in the next 6 months (rubenstein et al., 2019). hussain et al. (2020) assert that employees who intend to leave generally tend to demonstrate actual exiting behaviours. there might be several reasons for employees leaving the organisation, which include retirement, layoff, family and health problems, as well as opportunities for better wages or salaries, increased respect and improved working conditions (cicek et al., 2021; dysvik & kuvaas, 2010; hoole, 1997). based on the existing literature and meta-analysis, which covers studies within 25 years, fried et al. (2008) assert that stress is associated with work performance and indirectly influences employees’ likelihood to quit. furthermore, employees’ disengagement, job dissatisfaction and negative perceptions of supervisors at work were the most probable consequences of employee ti or, in other words, we, leadership and job satisfaction have an inverse relationship with ti (hussain et al., 2020; memon et al., 2014). employee ti is detrimental and costly for organisations, as it jeopardises their strategic choices and competitiveness, resulting in additional expenses to hire, recruit and train new staff members (shibiti, 2019). organisations can lessen intention to leave by employing leaders with transformational competencies, who can share and create an ethical climate (memon et al., 2014) and an organisational learning culture (hussain et al., 2020) and provide fair human resource practices that may lower ti among staff members. transformational leadership transformational leadership refers to an individual’s leadership that improves morale and increases employee motivation and commitment towards the organisation’s goals, values and objectives. transformational leadership is a style that establishes direction, aligns followers and motivates and inspires them to use innovative ideas to carry out their duties (gyensare et al., 2016). transformational leaders are individuals who produce high levels of dramatic change and who work well in complex organisations that need significant shifts (park & pierce, 2020). transformational leaders are role models and exemplary individuals who encourage, motivate, empower and care about their staff members’ well-being (nurtjahjani et al., 2021). a fundamental principle among transformational leaders is to encourage their followers to use discretionary power to surpass standard performance levels (gyensare et al., 2016). transformational leadership is defined by inspirational motivation, idealised influence, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration (avolio, 1999; bass & avolio, 1994). inspirational motivation refers to how tf leaders motivate others (followers) by communicating expectations and inspiring them to prioritise the organisation’s interests above their individual interests. idealised influence refers to tf leaders’ behaviours such as being role models, displaying high ethical and moral conduct and articulating the organisation’s vision. intellectual stimulation refers to how tf leaders encourage creative and innovative ideas, while problem-solving skills and individualised consideration refer to the extent to which tf leaders engage in developing followers and create a supportive work environment. thus, work-engaged employees who perceive their tf leaders to hold high expectations behave as role models, empower them to contribute novel ideas and display genuine care by recognising their individual needs; they are also satisfied with the ethicality of their tf leaders (hakim & ibrahim, 2017) and hence lower their ti (lum, 2018). however, with abusive or hostile leadership, employees may distrust, be less engaged in achieving the organisational goals and portray a high propensity to leave the organisation. transformational leadership, work engagement and turnover intention relationships researchers have been exploring the link between tfl, we and ti (amor et al., 2019; breevaart & bakker, 2018). several studies show that leadership style is a prominent variable that drives employees to engage, perform and deter their propensity to leave the employer organisation (mitonga-monga, 2020). for example, sow et al.’s (2016) study found that tfl relates positively to employees’ we. transformational leadership predicts we and creates empowering working conditions that motivate employees to achieve organisational goals (amor et al., 2019; nurtjahjani et al., 2021). positive perceptions of tfl relate to a high level of we, while negative perceptions relate to ti. employees who perceive their tf leader to be a role model, ethical, empowering and caring for their well-being will likely demonstrate a high level of we, lessening their intention to leave the organisation. however, if employees are not happy with their leader’s behaviours and mistrust him or her, they will likely increase their ti (hakim & ibrahim, 2017). a study by amankwaa and anku-tsede (2015) and lum (2018) revealed that we relates negatively to ti. work-engaged employees who are enthusiastic, proud, energetic and engrossed in their work are likely to lessen their desire to leave the organisation (xiong & wen, 2020). ghazawy (2021) examined the effect of we on ti and found that we reduced ti. a regression analysis showed that we has a significant effect on employees’ intention to leave the employer organisation. thus, the researchers hypothesised that we relates negatively with ti: h1: we relates significantly and negatively with ti. moderating role of transformational leadership previous studies have confirmed that tfl predicts we (amor et al., 2019; martinez et al., 2020; nurtjahjani et al., 2021) and negatively affects ti (sun & wang, 2017). in contrast, limited readings have examined the moderating effect of tfl in the association between we and ti. martinez et al. (2020) believe that positive leaders’ behaviours such as motivation, creativity and clear vision may increase employees’ level of engagement and decrease their likelihood to exit the organisation. gyensare et al. (2016) and dutu and butucescu (2019) found that tfl predicted we positively and that it predicts ti negatively. the authors argue that when leaders use their motivational skills and support and encourage innovation and creativity, they create or promote employees’ positive attitudes and behaviours. there is also evidence that tfl impacts we positively, resulting in reduced ti (larkin, 2017). therefore, one may hypothesise that tfl moderates the relationship between we and ti: h2: tfl will moderate the relationship between we and ti. goal of the study the ti has been shown to influence costs to the organisation directly and indirectly, including recruitment and selection costs and costs to train new staff (lum, 2018). the empirical study on the antecedents of ti in developing countries such as south africa is well documented. however, the way in which tfl affects the relationship between we and ti in a sa engineering industry is still unknown. therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the moderating effect of tfl in the relationship between we and ti. based on the study’s conceptual model (see figure 1), the specific research question is as follows: how does tfl moderate the relationship between we and ti? figure 1: proposed theoretical model. to address this question, the following hypotheses were formulated: h1: we relates to ti significantly and negatively. h2: tfl relates to we significantly and positively. h3: tfl moderates the relationship between we and ti. method respondents and setting a convenience sampling technique was used on a sample of 129 (n = 129) engineers in a south african organisation who fully participated in this study. among the respondents, 81.4% were men, and 17.8% were women. most respondents were between the age groups 35 and 44 (37.2%), and the least were between 18 and 24 (1.6%). most respondents held a diploma (51.9%), and few held a master’s degree (1.6%). the largest number of respondents had 1–5 years’ tenure, while the lowest number of respondents (1.6%) had 21-25 years’ tenure. lastly, most respondents had 0–5 years of experience (59.7%), and the minority had 11–20 years of experience (1.6%). the demographic variables of the respondents are depicted in table 1. table 1: demographic variables. measuring instruments the participants completed a biographical and demographical survey, as well as the following instruments: the multifactor leadership questionnaire (mlq: bass & avolio, 1994), the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes: schaufeli et al., 2002) and the turnover intention scale (tis: mitchell et al., 2001). the psychometrics of these measurements are described below. the uwes is a nine-item measure in the self-reported instrument, measuring vigour, dedication and absorption. the uwes uses a seven-point likert scale (0 = never; 6 = every day). example items from the measure include the following: ‘at my work, i feel bursting with energy’; ‘i am enthusiastic about my job’; and ‘i get carried away when i’m working’. the uwes has evidenced internal consistency reliability alpha coefficients, ranging from 0.79 to 0.89 (schaufeli et al., 2002). this study obtained a cronbach’s alpha coefficient ranging from 0.75 to 0.83 for the uwes. the tis is a three-item measure of participants’ perceptions of whether to stay or leave the organisation, scored on a six-point likert scale (0 = never, very satisfying or highly unlikely; 5 = always, dissatisfying or highly likely). example items from the measure include: ‘i intend to leave the company in the next 12 months’. for the tis scale, halbesleben and wheeler (2008) report an internal consistency (cronbach’s alpha) ranging from 0.88 to 0.91. this study obtained a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.67 for the tis. the mlq is a self-reported measure of participants’ perceptions of their tf leaders’ behaviours in four dimensions, namely leaders’ idealised influence, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation and individualised consideration. the mlq items are scored on a six-point likert scale that ranges from 0 = not at all to 5 = frequently. example items from the questionnaire include the following: ‘others have complete faith in me’; ‘i give personal attention to others who seem rejected’; ‘express with a few simple words what we could and should do’; and ‘i enable others to think about old problems in new ways’. in terms of the mlq, bass and avolio (1994) report a cronbach’s alpha coefficient that ranges from 0.70 to 0.83. this study obtained a cronbach’s alpha coefficient ranging from 0.79 to 0.89 for the mlq. procedure permission to conduct the study was obtained from the higher degree ethics committee at the university of johannesburg (reference number ippm-2020-414[m]) and the engineering organisation which participated in the study. the respondents consented to participate in the survey electronically after receiving written information about the purpose of the study and its voluntary nature. the researcher assured the participants of the confidentiality and anonymity of their responses. the participants received a google forms link (alphabet, inc., mountain view, california, united states), and they were asked to complete the survey during working hours. data analysis the study analysed the data using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) software, version 27 (ibm corporation, armonk, new york, united states) (ibm spss, 2022). in the first stage, a confirmatory factor analysis determined the factorial structure in the first stage. a kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) measure of sampling accuracy value > 0.50, factor loading from 0.6 and higher and an eigenvalue of 1 were employed while computing the cfa using varimax. the researchers decided to consider only factors loading from 0.60 (hair et al., 2019). the data distribution was evaluated by the researchers using skewness and kurtosis, and items that did not reach the cut-off values were excluded from further study. skewness and kurtosis have threshold values of < 2 and < 4, respectively (finch & west, 1997). item analysis was used to determine the reliability (cronbach’s alpha coefficients). cronbach alpha coefficients were calculated to measure the reliability of the scale. according to the hair et al. (2019), a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.70 may be regarded as an acceptable measure to support internal consistency reliability. however, scholars such as hulin et al. (2001) indicated that an alpha coefficient threshold between 0.60 and 0.70 could be acceptable for research purposes (cohen, 1992). the skewness and kurtosis scores were examined to evaluate the distribution of the data, and items that did not meet the cut-off points were discarded from further analysis. the cut-off scores for skewness and kurtosis are both < 2 and < 4, respectively (finch & west, 1997). in the second stage, the descriptive statistics were calculated to determine the mean and standard deviations. in the third stage, correlation analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between the variables. in the fourth stage, hierarchical moderator regression analysis was computed to determine if tfl moderates the relationship between we and ti. prior to conducting the moderator regressions, a collinearity diagnosis was performed to ensure that zero-order correlations were below the rule of thumb (r ≥ 0.80), that the variance inflation factors did not exceed 10 and that the tolerance values were close to 1 (hair et al., 2019). a simple slope test was conducted for the value of the moderator at the – 1 standard deviation (sd) mean + 1 sd, as well as standard deviations above and below the mean to explore the interactions (hair et al., 2019). the significant value was set at the 95% confidence interval level (p ≤ 0.05) to counter the probability of type i errors. for this study, the practical significance of r2 values was determined by calculating effect sizes (f2). ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained from the ethical clearance committee of the university of johannesburg (ref. no. ippm-2020-414[m]). results confirmatory factor analysis principal component analysis and varimax rotation were used to determine the factorial structure and reliability of the study’s constructs. as shown in table 1, kmo index values were 0.785 for inspirational motivation, 0.813 for intellectual stimulation, 0.871 for idealised influence, 0.872 for individual consideration, 0.709 for vigour, 0.708 for dedication, 0.676 for absorption and 0.617 for ti. as indicated in table 2, eigenvalues were above > 1 for all the study’s constructs, and all the factor loadings were above 0.60 (hair et al., 2019). table 1 shows that the cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranged from 0.67 to 0.83. table 2: confirmatory factor analysis: transformational leadership, work engagement and turnover intention (n = 124). descriptive statistics and correlation analysis table 3 presents the descriptive statistics of the study’s variables. as shown in table 3, the mean scores ranged from (m = 2.28 to m = 4.15). as shown in table 3, the participants obtained high mean scores for individualised consideration (m = 3.83; sd = 0.68), followed by inspirational motivation (m = 3.70; sd = 0.70) and total tfl (m = 3.70; sd = 0.38), respectively, and then idealised influence (m = 3.68; sd = 0.80), while the lowest mean score was recorded for intellectual stimulation (m = 3.58; sd = 0.79). in terms of we, participants obtained a relatively high mean score for vigour (m = 4.15; sd = 0.78), followed by overall we (m = 3.93; sd = 0.68), then absorption (m = 3.83; sd = 0.77) and the lowest mean score for dedication (m =3.80; sd = 0.88). in respect of ti, participants obtained lowest mean score (m = 2.28; sd = 0.91) variables. table 3: descriptive statistics, correlations. relating transformational leadership, work engagement and turnover intention table 3 illustrates that inspiration motivation related positively with vigour (r = 0.71; large effect size, p ≤ 0.05), dedication (r = 0.75; large effect size, p ≤ 0.05) and absorption (r = 0.66; large effect size, p ≤ 0.05). inspirational motivation related negatively with ti (r = –0.49; medium effect size, p ≤ 0.05). table 3 shows that intellectual stimulation related positively with vigour (r = 0.62; large effect size, p ≤ 0.05), dedication (r = 0.66; large effect size, p ≤ 0.05) and absorption (r = 0.57; large effect size, p ≤ 0.05). intellectual stimulation related negatively with ti (r = –0.42; medium effect size, p ≤ 0.05). table 2 indicates that idealised influence related positively with vigour (r = 0.69; large effect size, p ≤ 0.05), dedication (r = 0.59; large effect size, p ≤ 0.05) and absorption (r = 0.54; large effect size, p ≤ 0.05). idealised influence related negatively with ti (r = –0.48; medium effect size, p ≤ 0.05). table 3 shows that individual consideration related positively with vigour (r = 0.56; large effect size, p < 0.05), dedication (r = 0.75; large effect size, p ≤ 0.05) and absorption (r = 0.65; large effect size, p ≤ 0.05). inspirational motivation related negatively with ti (r = –0.45; medium effect size, p ≤ 0.05). effects on turnover intention as indicated in table 4, in terms of the main effects, individualised consideration did not act as a predictor of ti, since (f [3; 123] = 14.22; p ≥ 0.05), (b = 0.19; seb = 0.25; 95% ci = [–0.29; 0.68]; p = 0.43). this denotes that individualised consideration was not associated with a decrease in percentage of ti. furthermore, vigour did not act as a predictor of ti, since (f [3; 123] = 14.22; p ≥ 0.05), (b = 0.49; seb = 0.31; 95% ci = [–0.13; 1.10]; p = 0.12). this indicates that vigour was not associated with a decrease in percentage of ti. the above was found after exploring an interaction, using values of the moderator at the mean, as well as the standard deviations above and below the mean (hair el al., 2019). table 4: moderating effect of transformational leadership on the relationship between work engagement (vigour and dedication) and turnover intention (n = 124). as shown in table 3, individualised consideration acts as a moderator in the relationship between vigour and ti, since (f [3; 123] = 14.22; p ≤ 0.05), (b = –0.04; seb = 0.02; 95% ci = [–0.08; –0.00]; p ≤ 0.05). data are presented graphically in figure 2. figure 2: interacting effect between individualised consideration, vigour and turnover intention. as indicated in table 4, in terms of main effects, idealised influence did not act as a predictor of ti, since (f [3; 123] = 15.83; p ≤ 0.05) and (b = 0.32; seb = 0.20; 95% ci = [–0.08; 0.71]; p = 0.11). this denotes that idealised influence was not associated with a decrease in percentage of ti. furthermore, dedication did not act as a predictor of ti, since (f [3; 123] = 15.83; p ≤ 0.05) and (b = 0.50; seb = 0.31; 95% ci = [–0.11; 1.12]; p = 0.10). this indicates that dedication was not associated with a decrease in the percentage of ti. as shown in table 3, idealised influence acts as a moderator in the relationship between dedication and ti, since (f (3; 123) = 15.83; p ≤ 0.05) and (b = –0.04; seb = 0.02; 95% ci = [-0.08; 0.01]; p = 0.01). data are presented graphically in figure 3. figure 3: interacting effect between idealised influence, dedication and turnover intention. as indicated in table 4, in terms of the main effects, inspirational motivation did not act as a predictor of ti, since (f [3; 123] = 15.09; p ≤ 0.05) and (b = 0.31; seb = 0.19; 95% ci = [0.05; 0.68]; p = 0.10). this denotes that inspirational motivation was not associated with a decrease in percentage of ti. furthermore, dedication did not act as a predictor of ti, since (f (3; 123) = 15.09; p ≤ 0.05) and (b = 0.30; seb = 0.27; 95% ci = [–0.24; 0.84]; p = 0.28). this indicates that dedication was not associated with a decrease in percentage of ti. this was found after exploring an interaction, using values of the moderator at the mean, as well as the standard deviations above and below the mean (hair et al., 2019). as shown in table 4, inspirational motivation acts as a moderator in the relationship between dedication and ti, since (f (3; 12) = 15.09; p ≤ 0.05) and (b = –0.04; seb = 0.02; 95% ci = [–0.07; –0.01]; p = 0.01). data are presented graphically in figure 4. figure 4: interacting effect between inspirational motivation, dedication and turnover intention. as indicated in table 4, in terms of the main effects, intellectual stimulation did not act as a predictor of ti, since (f [3; 123] = 16.14; p ≤ 0.05) and (b = 0.20; seb = 0.24; 95% ci = [–0.26; –0.67]; p = 0.39). this proves that intellectual stimulation was not associated with a decrease in percentage of ti. furthermore, dedication did not act as a predictor of ti, since (f [3; 123] = 16.14; p ≤ 0.05) and (b = 0.44; seb = 0.34; 95% ci = [–0.24; 1.11]; p = 0.20). this indicates that dedication was not associated with a decrease in percentage of ti. this was found after exploring an interaction, using values of the moderator at the mean, as well as the standard deviations above and below the mean (hair et al., 2019). as shown in table 4, intellectual stimulation acts as a moderator in the relationship between dedication and ti, since (f (3; 123) = 16.14; p ≤ 0.05), (b = –0.4; seb = 0.02; 95% ci = [–0.8; –0.0]; p = 0.04). data are presented graphically in figure 5. figure 5: interacting effect between intellectual stimulation, dedication and turnover intention. discussion this study examined whether tfl moderates the relationship between we and ti. the results showed a significant positive relationship between tfl and we variables; moreover, employees’ perceptions of tfl and we are negatively associated with ti. furthermore, idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration moderated the relationship between vigour, dedication and ti. when an employee’s score for the transformational variable was high, their self-reported vigour or dedication and ti were low. these findings are consistent with previous studies that reported that transformational leaders are crucial for exhibiting energising emotions to arouse similar emotional states among their employees (amor et al., 2019; avolio, 1999; nurtjahjani et al., 2021), which eventually decreases ti (lum, 2018; nurtjahjani et al., 2021). the findings are likely to be explained by the fact that when employees perceive their leaders to articulate the organisation’s vision, motivate them, encourage their creativity and support them, then this results in employees displaying energy, enthusiasm and pride in their work while immersing themselves in their daily tasks (higher level we) (amor et al., 2019; breevaart & bakker, 2018; nurtjahjani et al., 2021), and resulting in low ti (lum, 2018; park & pierce, 2020). employees who perceive their leaders to behave as role models, care about their well-being, hold high expectations, communicate a clear vision, encourage and empower them to innovate will likely be engaged in their work and contribute towards organisational performance. this, in turn, could decrease ti and absenteeism (caillier, 2016; goler et al., 2018; perko et al., 2016). the results show that leaders’ behaviours such as idealism, inspiration and intellect influence we and ti. this implies that positive perceptions of their leaders’ characteristics, which include leading by example, displaying charisma and inspiring them to achieve more than expected, may result in employees being proud, enthusiastic and determined to engage, thereby lessening their voluntary quitting intentions. these findings are consistent with the previous studies of amor et al. (2019) and martinez et al. (2020), which found that employees, through positive leadership, engaged in work routines. transformational leadership perceptions would moderate ti behaviours from perceptions activation, and alertness attentiveness by leaders (park & pierce, 2020), motivating them to be involved in their work (mitonga-monga, 2020). employees with low tis may perceive their leaders to care about their well-being and act in their best interests, which will motivate them to perform and remain with the employer organisation (amankwaa & anku-tsede, 2015). employees are more likely to be engaged and perform better in their jobs when they believe their leaders are role models, have high standards, convey a clear vision, give them influence and care about their well-being. this could, in turn, reduce absenteeism and turnover intent (caillier, 2016; goler et al., 2018; perko et al., 2016). the results show that transformational leaders (i.e. idealised, inspirational and intellectual) influence dedication. this implies that when employees perceive their leader to lead by example and display charismatic behaviours, inspiring them to achieve more than expected, it will likely result in them being proud, enthusiastic and determined to be engaged, thereby lessening their voluntary quitting intentions. these findings correspond with those of previous studies by caillier (2016) and park and pierce (2020), which found that employees engaged in work routines through positive leadership. employees with low tis may perceive their leaders to care about their well-being and act in their best interests, which will motivate them to perform and remain with the employer organisation (park & pierce, 2020). implications for human resource practices scholars and practitioners strive to understand how supervisors’ tfl relates to their employees’ we and ti in skills shortage and retention (park & pierce, 2020). these findings suggest that organisations should have leaders with exceptional tfl competencies to retain employees who are work engaged and skilled. furthermore, the results, proving that tfl (individualised consideration, idealised influence, inspirational and intellectual stimulation) moderates the relationship between vigour and dedication we and ti, suggest that training leaders to be more transformational may provide meaningful returns in investment (walumbwa & hartnell, 2011) and improve employee retention. consistent with gyensare et al. (2016), the study’s authors suggest that engineering industries should put more effort into retaining their leaders, while encouraging them to be dedicated and improve their mutual relationship with followers, as seen in the core concept of set. this will help engineering industries to retain employee talents and skills (gyensare et al., 2016). therefore, decreasing employees’ ti through tfl perceptions with we has copious positive effects on organisations. limitations and future direction this study contains strengths and weaknesses. firstly, the study was conducted in one sector, namely the engineering industry in south africa. hence, the findings were unrepresentative of those in other sectors. secondly, the study investigates only the influence of tfl perceptions on the relationship between we and ti. at the same time, other related variables were excluded, such as job security, compensation, human resource practices, organisational culture and organisational climate. future research should explore the effects of other leadership theories, human resource practices, corporate culture and corporate climate on the relationship between we and certain other work-related outcomes. furthermore, combined methods could be used to gather data to explore and understand the lived tfl experiences by employees with we in various industries. conclusion this study examined the moderating effect of tfl on the relationship between employees’ we and ti in the south african engineering industry. the findings indicate that employees’ perceptions of their transformational leaders’ behaviours influence their perceptions of we and their ti. these findings suggest a need for organisations to strive to develop transformative leaders’ competencies. the resulting outcomes for the employer organisation would be likely with leaders that encourage employees to be work engaged and to perform, which would encourage them to lessen their intent to quit. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions t.n. was the main author; j.m.-m. was the supervisor and co-author; c.h. was the collaborator, co-author and corresponding author. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect those of the university of johannesburg. references al zaabi, m.s.a., ahmad, k.z., & hossan, c. (2016). authentic leadership, work engagement and organizational citizenship behaviors in petroleum company. international journal of productivity and performance management, 65(6), 811–830. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-01-2016-0023 albrecht, s.l. (ed.). (2010). handbook of employee engagement: perspectives, issues, research and practice. edward elgar publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781849806374 amankwaa, a., & anku-tsede, o. (2015). linking transformational leadership to employee turnover: the moderating role of alternative job opportunity. international journal of business administration, 6(4), 19. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijba.v6n4p19 amor, a.m., vázquez, j.p.a., & faíña, j.a. (2020). transformational leadership and work engagement: exploring the mediating role of structural empowerment. european management journal, 38(1), 169–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2019.06.007 avolio, b.j. (1999). full leadership development: building the vital forces in organizations. sage publications. bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1994). transformational leadership and organizational culture. international journal of public administration, 17(3–4), 541–554. https://doi.org/10.1080/01900699408524907 blau, p. (1964). exchange and power in social life. wiley. breevaart, k., & bakker, a.b. (2018). daily job demands and employee work engagement: the role of daily transformational leadership behavior. journal of occupational health psychology, 23(3), 338–349. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000082 caillier, j.g. (2016). do transformational leaders affect turnover intentions and extra-role behaviors through mission valence? the american review of public administration, 46(2), 226–242. https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074014551751. cicek, b., turkmenoglu, m.a., & ozbilgin, m. (2021). examining the mediating role of organisational support on the relationship between organisational cynicism and turnover intention in technology firms in istanbul. frontiers psychology, 12, 606215. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.606215 cohen, j. (1992). a power primer. psychological bulletin, 112(1), 155–159. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155 cokayne, r. (2019). sa experiencing a large exodus of engineers. retrieved from https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/economy/sa-experiencing-large-exodus-of-engineers-19068168 coase, r.e. (1937). the nature of the firm. economica, 4, 386–405. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0335.1937.tb00002.x dutu, r., & butucescu, a. (2019). on the link between transformational leadership and employees’ work engagement: the role of psychological empowerment. psihologia resurselor umane, 17(2), 76–87. https://doi.org/10.24837/pru.v17i2.291 dysvik, a., & kuvaas, b. (2010). exploring the relative and combined influence of mastery-approach goals and work intrinsic motivation on employee turnover intention. personality review, 39(5), 622–638. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481011064172 finch, j.f., & west, s.g. (1997). the investigation of personality structure: statistical models. journal of research and personality, 31(4), 439–485. https://doi.org/10.1006/jrpe.1997.2194 fried, y., shirom, a., gilboa, s., & cooper, c.l. (2008). the mediating effects of job satisfaction and propensity to leave on role stress-job performance relationships: combining meta-analysis and structural equation modelling. international journal of stress management, 15(4), 305–328. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013932 ghazawy, e.r., mahfouz, e.m., mohammed, e.s., & refaei, s.a. (2021). nurses’ work engagement and its impact on the job outcomes. international journal of healthcare management, 14(2), 320–327. https://doi.org/10.1080/20479700.2019.1644725 goler, l., gale, j., harrington, b., & grant, a. (2018, 11 january). why people really quit their jobs: employee retention. harvard business review. retrieved from https://hbr.org/2018/01/why-people-really-quit-their-jobs gyensare, m., anku-tsede, o., sanda, m., & okpoti, c. (2016). transformational leadership and employee turnover intention – the mediating role of affective commitment. world journal of entrepreneurship, management and sustainable development, 12(3), 243–266. https://doi.org/10.1108/wjemsd-02-2016-0008 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2019). multivariate data analysis. cengage. hakim, a.h.l., & ibrahim, h.m. (2017). transformational leadership and turnover intention: mediating role of overall job satisfaction. journal of tourism, hospitality & culinary arts, 9(2), 237–248. halbesleben, j.r.b., & wheeler, a.r. (2008). the relative roles of engagement and embeddedness in predicting job performance and intention to leave. an international journal of work, health, & organisations, 22(3), 242–245. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802383962 haque, a., fernando, m., & caputi, p. (2019). the relationship between responsible leadership and organisational commitment and the mediating effect of employee turnover intentions: an empirical study with australian employees. journal of business ethics, 156(3), 759–774. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3575-6 hoole, c. (1997). work commitment: its dimensions and relationships with role stress and intention to quit. doctoral thesis. university of pretoria. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2263/42557 hulin, c., netemeyer, r., & cudeck, r. (2001). can a reliability be too high? journal of consumer psychology, 10(2), 55–58. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327663jcp1001$2_05 hussain, k., abbas, z., gulzar, s., jibril, a.b., & hussain, a. (2020). examining the impact of abusive supervision on employees’ psychological wellbeing and turnover intention mediating role of intrinsic motivation. cogent business & management, 7(1), 1818998. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2020.1818998 iqbal, j., shabbir, m.s., zameer, h., khan, i.a., & sandhu, m.a. (2017). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement: evidence from corporate sector of pakistan. research journal of commerce, economics, and social sciences, 11(1), 78–86. https://doi.org/10.24312/paradigms110113 kahn, w.a. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement of work. academy of management journal, 33(4), 692–724. https://doi.org/10.5465/256287 kozlenkova, i.v., samaha, s.a., & palmatier, r.w. (2014). resource based theory in marketing. journal of academic marking & science, 42(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-013-0336-7 lacap, j.p.g. (2020). reducing employees’ intention to quit: the effects of transformational leadership, employee engagement, and grit. kasetsart journal of social sciences, 41(3), 665–670. https://doi.org/10.34044/j.kjss.2020.41.3.33 larkin, m. (2017). inspired leadership: transforming yourself and others with passion and purpose. the journal on active aging, 24–31. retrieved from https://gregglevoy.com/downloads/inspired%20leadership-low%20res.pdf liu, h., & liu, y. (2021). visualization research and analysis of turnover intention. in international conference on environmental and engineering management (eem 2021), e3s web of conferences 23–25 april 2021, changsha, china (vol. 253, 02018). https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202125302018 lum, k. (2018). an examination of the mediating effect of job satisfaction in the predictive relationship between transformational leadership and turnover intention in the united states service industry (order no. 10935287). dissertation. capella university. retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/2117570175?accountid=17242 manoppo, v.p. (2020). transformational leadership as a factor that decreases turnover intention: a mediation of work stress and organizational citizenship behavior. the tqm journal, 32(6), 1395–1412. https://doi.org/10.1108/tqm-05-2020-0097 martinez, i.m., salanova, m., & cruz-ortiz, v. (2020). our boss is a good boss! cross-level effects of transformational leadership on work engagement in service jobs. journal of work and organisational psychology, 36(2), 87–94. https://doi.org/10.5093/jwop2020a10 maslach, c., & leiter, m.p. (1997). the truth about burnout: how organizations cause personal stress and what to do about it. jossey-bass. memon, m.a., salleh, r., harun, h., rashid, r.a., & abu bakar, z. (2014). training, engagement, social exchange ideology and employee turnover: a proposed moderated mediation conceptual framework. australian journal basic & applied sciences, 8(5), 151–156. mitchell, t.r., holtom, b.c., lee, t.w., sablynski, c.j., & erez, m. (2001). why people stay: using job embeddedness to predict voluntary turnover. academy of management journal, 44(6), 1102–1121. https://doi.org/10.2307/3069391 mitonga-monga, j. (2018). employees’ work engagement in a railway organisation: a perspective of ethical work climate and leadership behavior. acta commercia, 18(1), a598. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v18i1.598 mitonga-monga, j. (2020). social exchange influences on ethical leadership and employee commitment in a developing country setting. journal of psychology in africa, 30(6), 485–491. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2020.1842587 mitonga-monga, j., & cilliers, f. (2015). ethics culture and ethics climate in relation to employee engagement in a developing country setting. journal of psychology in africa, 25(3), 242–249. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2015.1065059 nurtjahjani, f., batilmurik, r.w., & pribadi, j.d. (2021). the influence of transformational leadership style on work engagement remuneration dimediation and educator motivation. jurnal aplikasi manajemen, 19(1), 11–22. https://doi.org/10.21776/ub.jam.2021.019.01.02 park, t., & pierce, b. (2020). impacts of transformational leadership on turnover intention of child welfare workers. children and youth services review, 108, 104624. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104624 perko, k., kinnunen, u., tolvanen, a., & feldt, t. (2016). back to basics: the relative importance of transformational and fair leadership for employee work engagement and exhaustion. scandinavian journal of work and organisational psychology, 1(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.16993/sjwop.8 price, j.l. (2001). reflections on the determinants of voluntary turnover. international journal of manpower, 22(7), 600–624. https://doi.org/10.1108/eum0000000006233 rubenstein, a.l., kammeyer-mueller, j.d., wang, m., & thundiyil, t.g. (2019). embedded at hire? predicting the voluntary and involuntary turnover of new employees. journal of organizational behavior, 40(3), 342–359. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2335 runhaar, p., judith, k., & sanders, k. (2013). teachers’ organizational citizenship behavior: considering the roles of their work engagement, autonomy, and leader-member exchange. teaching and teacher education, 30(1), 99–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2012.10.008 rust, f.c., wall, k., smit, m.a., & amod, s. (2021). south african infrastructure condition – an opinion survey for the saice infrastructure report card. journal of south african institution of civil engineering, 63(2), 35–46. https://doi.org/10.17159/2309-8775/2021/v63n2a5 saice report. (2021). saice infrastructure report card for south africa 2021. saice. saks, a.m. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169 saks, a.m., & gruman, j.a. (2011). manage employee engagement to manage performance. industrial and organizational psychology: perspectives on science and practice, 4(2), 204–207. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2011.01328.x schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a. (2004). uwes utrecht work engagement scale. preliminary manual, version 1.1. retrieved from https://www.wilmarschaufeli.nl/publications/schaufeli/test%20manuals/test_manual_uwes schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzalez-roma, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measure of engagement and burnout: a two-sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3(1), 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 shibiti, r. (2019). satisfaction with retention factors in relation to job embeddedness of public-school teachers. sa journal of human resource management, 17(3), a1161. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1161 sow, m., ntamon, a., & osuoha, r. (2016). relationship between transformational leadership and employee retention among healthcare professionals in the united states. business and economic research journal, 6(2), 235. https://doi.org/10.5296/ber.v6i2.9831 sun, r., & wang, w. (2017). transformational leadership, employee turnover intention, and actual voluntary turnover in public organizations. public management review, 19(8), 1124–1141. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2016.1257063 stafford, l., & kuiper, k. (2015). social exchange theories: calculating the rewards and costs of personal relationships. in d.o. braithwaite & p. schrodt (eds.), engaging theories in interpersonal relations (3rd ed., pp. 379–390). routledge. statistics sa. (2019). quarterly labour force survey quarter 1: 2019. statistical release p0211. statistical release p0211, department of statistics south africa, pretoria. takawira, n., coetzee, m., & schreuder, d. (2014). job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention of staff in a higher education institution: an exploratory study. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), art. #524. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.524 tett, r.p., & meyer, j.p. (1993). job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intention, and turnover: path analyses based on meta-analytic findings. personnel psychology, 46(2), 259–293. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1993.tb00874.x walumbwa, f.o., & hartnell, c.a. (2011). understanding transformational leadership –employee performance links: the role of relational identification and self-efficacy. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 84(1), 153–172. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317910x485818 williamson, o.e. (1975). markets and hierarchies, analysis and antitrust implications: a study in the economics of internal organization. free press. xiong, r., & wen, y. (2020). employees’ turnover intention and behavioral outcomes: the role of work engagement. social behavior and personality, 48(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.8609 zhang, t., & li, b. (2020). job crafting and turnover intention: the mediating role of work engagement and job satisfaction. social behavior and personality: an international journal, 48(2), e8759. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.8759 abstract introduction conceptualisation and review of literature methodology research findings conclusion and policy direction acknowledgements references about the author(s) alouis chilunjika department of public management, governance and public policy, faculty of commerce, business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africadepartment of political and administrative studies, faculty of social sciences, national university of lesotho, maseru, lesotho kudakwashe intauno department of governance and public management, faculty of social sciences, midlands state university, gweru, zimbabwe sharon r. chilunjika department of public management, governance and public policy, faculty of commerce, business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africadepartment of governance and public management, faculty of social sciences, midlands state university, gweru, zimbabwe citation chilunjika, a., intauno, k., & chilunjika, s.r. (2022). artificial intelligence and public sector human resource management in south africa: opportunities, challenges and prospects. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1972. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1972 original research artificial intelligence and public sector human resource management in south africa: opportunities, challenges and prospects alouis chilunjika, kudakwashe intauno, sharon r. chilunjika received: 19 apr. 2022; accepted: 12 july 2022; published: 21 oct. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the fourth industrial revolution has transformed modern society by ushering in the fusion of advances in robotics, the internet of things (iot), genetic engineering, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence (ai) among others. ai brings a range of different technologies and applications to interact with environments that comprise both the relevant objects and the interaction rules and have the capacity to process information in a way that resembles intelligent behaviour. similarly, artificial intelligence is also being used in the human resources management (hrm) processes and functions in the public sector to map sequences to actions. research purpose: the study explores the opportunities, challenges, and future prospects of integrating artificial intelligence (ai) and public sector human resource management (hrm) in south africa’s public sector. motivation for the study: the study was motivated by the need to examine the dynamics surrounding the adoption, implementation and operationalisation of the 4ir in the management of human resources in the sa public sector in this unfolding dispensation. research approach: data was collected using the extensive review of written records such as books, journal articles, book chapters among others which were purposively selected for use in this study. data was analysed using content and thematic analysis techniques. research findings: the study established that artificial intelligence is beneficial in the sense that it can improve public service delivery in south africa as the hrm personnel is enabled to focus more on the strategic areas of management by taking over routine tasks, and that it helps minimize bias in public service recruitment and selection. in contrast, research on potential challenges has revealed that combining artificial intelligence and public sector human resource management may pose a threat to white-collar jobs. practical/ managerial implications: this study may lead to practical applications of ai to support the hr functions of public sector entities in sa. the public managers are better informed about the impediments, gaps and opportunities that may arise from using ai in managing human resources in sa’s public sector. contributions: this study contributes to the body of knowledge as it unpacks and informs the dynamics associated with the implementation of ai in managing human resources in public sector entities. keywords: fourth industrial revolution; artificial intelligence; public sector; human resource management; south africa. introduction the fourth industrial revolution (4ir) has ushered in advanced technology, which has manifested through artificial intelligence (ai). the automation system has continued to change societies and economies with great intensity in this global age. artificial intelligence is a multidisciplinary discourse providing a convergence zone for information, communications and technology, mathematics, psychology and philosophy (unesco, 2018). in light of this, ai is the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks associated with intelligent beings. to this effect, ai as a concept is frequently used to support developing systems that are endowed with the intellectual processes characteristic of humans, such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalise or learn from past experience. park (2018) clarified ai as a programmed algorithm with learning capabilities that aspires to be human-like but outperforms humans in capability. accordingly, it can thus be observed that ai has brought some advancements in deep learning and machine learning, which have thus created a paradigm shift in virtually every sector. accordingly, mohammed (2019) argued that ai is thus a basis for mimicking human intelligence processes by creating and applying algorithms built into a dynamic computing environment. in the light of this, the development of ai has provided novel perspectives on labour and its management (ertel, 2018). governance and public policy, with the shift from traditional to new public management (npm), has also felt the reverberations of technology. thus, public sector organisations have to strive relentlessly on a global stage as new-fangled technology is making the world smaller (erixon, 2018). in this vein, the rise of ai use in government coupled with the increased sophistication of ai applications is triggering many public governance and personnel management questions for public entities across the globe. thus, it can also be observed that the expanding use of ai in government is triggering numerous opportunities for governments worldwide. according to zuiderwijk, chen and salem (2021), traditional forms of service provision, policymaking and enforcement can change rapidly with the introduction of ai technologies in government practices and public sector ecosystems. in this scenario, the role of computers conspicuously comes into play in all governance and hr processes, because ai is trying to make computers think and act like humans (mohammed, 2019). it can also be observed that the amount of data that is generated by both humans and machines far outpace humans’ ability to absorb, interpret and make complex decisions based on data. as such, ai forms the basis for all computer learning and is the future of all complex decision-making in the human resource management (hrm) spheres. accordingly, the critical characteristics of an ai system lie in the technological components that provide it with the capacity to process data and information in a way that entails intelligent behaviour, consisting of aspects of learning, planning, prediction and control (unesco, 2018). technological components have also been introduced into the public sector’s governance framework and machinery. for instance, public sector human resource management (hrm), as a subdiscipline of public management, has also witnessed the introduction of information technology for the implementation of strategic hrm. in this vein, alam (2014) goes so far as to advocate for the implementation of public sector information systems (psis), which are fundamental to e-governance, which is a component of npm. accordingly, psis is a system that supports the use of ai in hrm practices, systems and processes in the public sector. accordingly, jarrahi (2018) observed that managerial and operative functions of hrm – corporate strategy formulation, talent procurement, training and development and performance management – have benefited from evidence-based decision-making, which is enshrined in ai. according to jia, gao, li, li and chen (2018), the research agenda of hrm has neglected the overall application of ai to hrm in the public sector domain. the situation is even dire in public sector hrm in south africa. according to reilly (2018) ai provides novel cognitive capabilities whose speed and accuracy can be utilised for the betterment of the hr function execution. however, there has been less enthusiasm for the introduction of ai-based public sector hrm in south africa. this lack of enthusiasm might have been a result of what zuiderwijk et al. (2021) highlighted as a lack of consensus on how to handle the challenges of ai associated with the public sector in the future. adopting ai in public sector hrm functions and processes might actually be a panacea to a myriad of service delivery inertia in government institutions. in the end, it is therefore imperative that public sector hrm in south africa embraces the effects of its interaction with ai as part of its ecology. this will then enable her to understand and better prepare to address any emerging ai-related challenges in the public sector domain of south africa. this study addresses the following questions: what opportunities can be derived from the integration of ai and public sector hrm in south africa? what are the challenges and complexities presented by the adoption of ai in the south african public sector hrm? conceptualisation and review of literature artificial intelligence as a concept is contentious among both scholars and practitioners, with its delineations and delimitations emotionally debated. this has created complexities in generalising the understanding of ai (agrawal, gans, & goldfarb, 2019; legg & hutter, 2007). according to grewal (2014), intelligence is defined as a general mental ability to reason, solve problems and learn. it integrates cognitive functions such as perception, attention, memory, language and planning. in the same vein, grewal (2014) goes on to comprehensively define ai as a mechanical simulation system that collects knowledge and information and processes the universe’s intelligence (collating and interpreting) and disseminates it to the eligible in the form of actionable intelligence. in support of the given definitions, the united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization (unesco) (2018) also postulated that there are diverse definitions of ai systems based on (1) the disciplines to which they apply and (2) the phases of an ai system’s lifecycle including research, design, development, deployment and utilisation. similarly, diverse definitions of ai can be gleaned from the evolution of the discourse. the term ai was introduced in 1956 (stuart & norvig, 2016). in addition, rich (1983) defined ai as ‘the study of how to make computers do things, which at the moment people are better at’. this definition has summed up ai as the replication of human capabilities in machines. similarly, adams et al. (2012) defined ai as a system designed for the learning and replication of human cognition and intellectual abilities to the extent of potentially exceeding human-level performance. additionally, thierer, o’sullivan, castillo and russell (2017, p. 8) defined ai as the ‘exhibition of intelligence by a machine … near or beyond human capabilities’. according to dwivedi et al. (2019), the consistent theme among multiple definitions of ai is the increasing capability of machines to perform specific roles and tasks presently performed by humans in the workplace and society at large. thus, in the absence of a universally agreeable definition of ai, the study shall adopt the following working definition with a bias towards hrm. artificial intelligence in hrm refers to the input, development and imitation of human intelligence capabilities in computer systems to aid in hr functions either autonomously or in collaboration with humans. human resource management contextualised several definitions of hrm have been proposed by a variety of scholars; however, a number of those definitions complement each other. according to schermerhorn (2001), hrm is the process of increasing and growing a smart workforce to help the company achieve its goals, including its mission, vision and various objectives. another definition is that hrm is a method of employee management that aims to retain a skilled and dedicated workforce through various structural, cultural and personnel techniques to give the organisation a competitive advantage (storey, 2004). human resource management will be defined for the purposes of this study as the process of acquiring and retaining new skills, experiences and competencies in an organisation through its personnel who uses various management methods. human resource management practices include recruiting new employees, hiring employees, managing employees and developing them (wall & wood, 2005). most of these practices have a specific focus on retaining new employees and keeping up their satisfactory levels. this is because human resources are such a dynamic part of the company and are ever-changing; therefore, hrm needs the right management by an organisation (bibi, pangil, & johari, 2016). the management and retention of hr can be argued to have special importance within manufacturing companies, which focuses on innovation within manufacturing to get a comparative advantage and better performances (youndt, snell, dean, & lepak, 1996). human resource management’s role within an organisation has evolved significantly over the years, and it is no longer simply used to manage an organisation’s internal labour costs (becker & gerhart, 1996). more recent studies are looking into hrm as a strategic asset to organisations where employees are the most important assets and how to acquire and manage these play the most important role (bas, 2012). classification of artificial intelligence there are three categories or classes of ai, and these are artificial narrow intelligence, artificial general intelligence and artificial super intelligence (wirtz, weyerer, & geyer, 2018). artificial narrow intelligence is case-specific intelligence that is functionally dependent on human-assisted programming. it has built-in and case-sensitive capabilities that are not subject to change (nilsson, 2003; thierer et al., 2017). similarly, russell and novig (2016) observed that narrow or weak ai refers to systems that can perform tasks that require a single human capability, such as visual perception, context understanding, probabilistic reasoning and dealing with complexity. in government set-up, narrow ai is frequently used to augment the capabilities of data analytics and data mining algorithms in order to deliver more thorough and better perspectives than human analysts can (tan, 2021). in addition, general or strong ai alludes to (fictional) systems with human or superhuman intelligence that simulate the complex human ability to think and perform intelligent tasks such as ethical judgements, symbolic reasoning, social situation management and ideation (brynjolfsson & mcafee, 2014). without the assistance of humans, artificial general intelligence can learn, mutate and transmit experience and skills to subsequent assignments (thierer et al., 2017). artificial superintelligence (asi) is a form of ai that is capable of surpassing human intelligence by manifesting cognitive skills of its own. in the light of this, asi as software-based intellectually powered systems is meant to surpass human ability across almost all conceivable fields and categories of endeavours. while commenting on artificial super intelligence adams et al. (2012) argued that superintelligence is a yet-to-be-realised intelligence capability that is expected to outperform the human brain. by and large, thierer et al. (2017) divided ai into weak and strong ai, as well as inference ai and active ai. this research aims to provide a zone of convergence for narrow intelligence and general intelligence. this is accomplished by assessing their potential and opportunities for public sector hrm, as well as the challenges associated with their adoption and roadblocks impeding their full potential in south africa. artificial intelligence in the public sector the introduction of e-government has been widely praised for providing new stimuli to deliver services quickly and efficiently (mbatha & ocholla, 2011). as a result, the inclusion of ai in the e-government multiverse is critical in transforming public sector activities. arinder (2016) argued that ai is essential in changing the institutional culture of the public sector and becoming more predictable and transparent through data and time-conscious evaluative frameworks. these frameworks also emphasise evidence-based decision-making and longitudinal cost-benefit analytics at critical policymaking junctures in providing the possible transformational implications of ai in the public sector. similarly, eggers, schatsky and viechmicki (2017) forecasted the potential changes that ai in the public sector could bring about. accordingly, ai can change the role of humans in policymaking processes in four ways. firstly, ai can relieve public workers by taking over repetitive tasks, thus allowing public servants to focus on more valuable tasks. secondly, ai can help to break up a job into smaller tasks and can take over as many of them as possible, thereby improving the efficiency of policymaking processes. thirdly, ai can replace a human agent by automating policymaking processes. fourthly, ai can augment the performance of public servants by complementing their skills and improving the effectiveness of policymaking processes. furthermore, hadden (1986), cited in tan (2021), contended that the initial promise of ai was primarily aimed at providing decision support for public managers. the discussion about assuming ai in the public has been more focused on public administration in general. tan (2021) observed that although the use of ai technologies in government processes is not a new development, there have been significant advances in core ai technologies such as machine learning, natural language processing, deep learning (or neural networks), virtual agents and computer vision over the last decade. however, there is a disconnection between the potential of ai in public sector hrm and the challenges inherent in their interaction or factors impeding their integration. as a result, the purpose of this research is to broaden knowledge by investigating the potential of ai-human resource management as part of e-governance. furthermore, with the exception of the unesco forum on ai in africa (2018), most studies on ai in e-governance have been limited to high-income economies. this has the unintended consequence of increasing the already-widening technological gap between africa and high-income economies. artificial intelligence in the context of human resource management in trying to move the discipline of hrm outside its base functionality, there was the introduction of computers in the operations and functions of hr personnel. with the advent of these technologies in recent years, a new rising tide of hr technologies known as electronic human resources management (e-hrm) has emerged (ma & ye, 2015). computerisation is an emergent subject with many tasks becoming totally digitised, thus lessening the need for human contribution (pandey & khaskel, 2019). for instance, as a result of the presence of ai, the human interface in recruitment is becoming decreased (bondarouk & brewster, 2016). chelliah (2017) argued that the development and subsequent rise to prominence of ai in workplaces reduced the importance of blue-collar jobs. human resource management’s interest in ai stems from the emergence of human resource information system (hris). dessler (2013) defined hris as correlated components functioning collectively towards the collection, processing, storage and dissemination of information to aid the organisation’s hrm functions. the rationale behind the adoption of information systems in hr functions is well documented (armstrong, 2015; dessler, 2013; jia et al., 2018; noe, hollenbeck, gehart, & wright, 2006). hendrickson (2003) viewed hris to be the backbone of modern-day hrm. a number of studies on the trends of hrm outline that ai will take a larger percentage of the hr practice and the world of hrm will transform wholly (pandey & khaskel, 2019). similarly, pandey and khaskel (2019) proceeded to mention that ai is impacting the entire hrm process ranging from resource planning to talent acquisition to learning and development, performance management, reward and recognition, retention and job design. however, with the emergence of the 4ir, attention has shifted towards ai in hrm. most recent ai management literature approaches ai from the broader perspective of public administration rather than public sector hrm. the works of wirtz et al. (2018), reis, santo, and malao (2019) and agrawal, gans and goldfield (2019) exemplify such attempts. to this effect, publications on ai in hrm are limited. jia et al. (2018), park (2018) and reilly (2018) provided recent exploratory literature on ai applications in hrm. according to park (2018), citing the world economic forum (2016), it has been predicted that the incorporation of ai into the hrm function will result in the loss of 500 million jobs by 2020. in the same vein, in 2013, frey and osborne (2013) estimated that computers will replace 47% of jobs in the united states of america within the next 10–20 years. in contrast, the scientific predictions conducted were more predisposed to private sector hrm-ai discourse without precise information on potential public sector changes. therefore, there remains a research gap on the integration of ai in the discourse of pshrm. thus, the study strives to further the body of knowledge on ai in hrm. methodology the study relied on secondary data, which was purposefully and systematically chosen for its usefulness to this study. according to johnston (2014), secondary data are gathered for the second time and are already obtainable in other sources. the secondary analysis makes complex research questions feasible for novice researchers who might otherwise not have access to high-quality data (chilunjika 2018; healy 2018; zimano & chilunjika, 2019). the usage of readily available data offers a possible option for researchers who are short of adequate time and resources to conduct the intended research (johnston, 2014). in other words, secondary data analysis is an affordable alternative which offers the researcher(s) the prospects of accessing quality data for a tiny fraction of the resources involved in carrying out extensive primary research through the collection of isolated data. with regard to this study, through secondary research, the study was exposed to a wide array of data available in databases whose availability would have been costly and inconceivable if the study had opted for primary research. the data were purposively and systematically chosen in accordance with bowen’s (2009) advice that researchers using document analysis should check whether the selected documents to be analysed are accurate, credible, authentic, representative and relevant to the research problem. this was performed to help determine whether the contents and the documents were pertinent to the purpose of the study. the researchers prioritised recent publications on the hrm-ai discourse. in addition, content check and the sources of the documents were also employed to determine the accuracy, credibility, authenticity and relevance of the chosen written documents. in this vein, the researchers consulted journal articles, books, seminal papers and online sources related to the integration of ai and hrm in south africa. data were also analysed using thematic classification and content analysis. research findings opportunities that can be derived from the integration of artificial intelligence and public sector human resource management in south africa this section explores the opportunities that could be derived by the south african public sector by adopting ai, and these include effective recruitment procedures, cutting down routine administrative tasks, reduction of excessive paperwork and sound public service delivery. effective recruitment procedures most reviewed documents indicated that integrating ai with hrm is beneficial because it enhances the process of recruitment. it has been found that ai will aid in the reinvigoration and the upgrading of the traditional recruitment procedures in south africa. in substantiation, galanaki et al. (2019) contended that habitually, studies are carried out on how the process of recruitment can be easy and improved with technology. contemporarily, the focus is now more inclined towards making sure that recruiters yield maximum technological benefits, especially through the automation of the recruitment process. artificial intelligence investments in hrm issues such as recruitment and selection are becoming more common, significantly reducing the time and cost of performing these functions (kshetri, 2021). bondarouk and brewster (2016) asserted that as automation increases, the human touch in recruitment is progressively becoming much lessened. for instance, traditionally applicants’ values and personalities were discussed during the job interviews (faliagka, ramantas, tsakalidis, & tzimas, 2012). however, with the intervention of new technology, ai can flick through data that are displayed on social media platforms and hence making it possible to have access to the applicant’s personality traits, values and attitude. similarly, in the private sector, some of the key hrm areas that have already been transformed by ai include time-consuming and labour-intensive recruiting tasks such as reviewing many cvs, classifying them out, selecting the most suitable candidates in a fraction of the time and establishing which employees require what sort of training (rykun, 2019). figure 1 shows the traditional recruitment process that clearly delineates the five stages of the traditional recruitment procedures. in the first stage, recruitment objectives are outlined, and these take in the number of positions to be filled, the type of applicants sought taking into consideration factors such as education, skills, experience and interests; it then goes on to outline the timeframe for filling positions. in the second stage, the model outlines factors to consider under strategic development and these include, inter alia, when to recruit, where to recruit and the timing of recruitment activities. recruitment methods and recruiters used are under recruitment activities, which is the third stage of the recruitment model process, and then recruitment results form the fourth and final stage. the model provides a vivid picture of how ai can chip in to perform some hr activities on behalf of human subjects in the south african public sector. artificial intelligence will go a long way in cutting down routine administrative tasks, reducing excessive paperwork and promoting sound public service delivery. figure 1: model of recruitment process. cutting down on routine administrative tasks the study reveals that ai benefits recruiters when it comes to cutting down on routine and administrative tasks such as answering regular questions. this is possible by employing ai-powered chatbots that are communication-focused, employ predictive behaviour and respond to queries and requests via text and speech. according to maclean and mcqueen (2020), public sector organisations all over the world use ai to respond to questions and routine requests, auto-fill documents, facilitate payments and address complaints. in that regard, employees can work in more meaningful roles because ai frees up their time to concentrate on what really needs to be done. automation does not replace a team or service but rather supplements it to make it completely user-centric (maclean & mcqueen, 2020), hence hrm recruiters have more time to focus on the best matches. according to upadhyay and khandelwal (2018), the implementation of ai in hrm can be dubbed ‘the age of hr’ as ai transforms the recruitment industry by substituting routine tasks that have been conducted by human recruiters. in the same vein, johansson and herranen (2019) stated that one of the main benefits of ai is that it improves the speed and quality of the traditional recruitment process by the removal of routine tasks. the sa public sector is poised to benefit immensely from the removal of routine administrative hr-related tasks. reduction of excessive paperwork public sector organisations in south africa are also affected by the delivery of efficient services because of too much reliance on paper documents (hardcopies). it has been identified that using manual means in performing simple routine tasks consumes a lot of time which should be invested in other strategic responsibilities, especially within the department of public service and administration in south africa. in the light of this, dickson and nusair (2010) discovered that the use of ai reduces paperwork and allows access to a wider pool of potential job candidates, particularly in the recruitment process. additionally, ai can help keep data electronically, and the system can store and interpret it. this is consistent with maclean and mcqueen’s (2020) findings that large amounts of information from various sources are held by public sector organisations in formats such as hardcopy files, text, images and voice. however, because there is so much data and it is often unstructured, determining its value can be difficult. artificial intelligence can skim through it and interpret this data to obtain insights that can help humans make better decisions. sound public service delivery providing sound public service delivery is one of the identified prospects of integrating ai and public sector hrm in south africa. the south african public service commission toolkit delineated the following shortcomings, which require exigent attention: the filling in of posts taking exceptionally long (in many instances 9 months and longer) screening and shortlisting not only being flawed and open to criticism but also not producing the desired results selection committee members not being sufficiently prepared for the task at hand. in elaboration, it has been observed that africa in general and south africa (kwazulu-natal in particular) have poor service delivery in their public sectors because modern technology is not utilised, or sometimes it is not even available (ntetha, 2010 cited in mbatha & ocholla, 2011). however, in the light of solving public service–related problems, singh and raja (2010) observed that information, communication and technology (ict) has brought about an abrupt reduction in the cost and time involved in retaining, processing and conveying information, leading to an ultimate reshaping of the public sector and society as a whole. the ict would enable public sector organisations to considerably lessen some communication constraints of space and time (mbatha & ocholla, 2011). in brief, the utilisation and application of ai by civil servants in the south african government would wholly restructure the public sector in a progressive manner (mbatha & ocholla, 2011). as enshrined in the south african department of public service and administration document, a majority of government recruitment and selection processes are still conducted manually. conversely, it is undeniable that the adoption and operationalisation of ai in south africa’s public sector hrm will bring about a myriad of advantages. according to the findings by businesstech (2018), implementing ai in the public sector hrm in south africa will augment effective recruitment processes. these discoveries are in tandem with the literature review of this study and the observations of upadhyay and khandelwal (2018) who remarked that ai will take away all hr-related prejudices, and this will see resumes being vetted fairly in a manner that affords equal chances to all candidates. this is congruent with professor stan sangweni, the former chairperson of the south african public service commission, who remarked that: it is only when we select the most competent persons available within the parameters of legislation on affirmative action and employment equity that we will be able to provide the leadership and skills required to advance our democracy. in elaboration, a public service commission review of 2010 on the state of the south african public sector hrm observed that one of the main objectives of public sector hrm is to ensure that candidates are hired through a fair and equitable mode. the issue of ensuring fair and equitable recruitment and selection of candidates is also provided for in the south african employment equity act of 1998. this corroborates with the aforementioned advantage of ai use in public hrm, which is the fair vetting of resumes because there will be no or minimal human interface involved, which is normally susceptible to biased judgement and preferential selection. this is consistent with experiences in the private sector, where ai is used to reduce bias in recruitment. cognitive solutions in ai can help tap more than one data source, allowing for accurate candidate screening. furthermore, ai is assisting in reducing human bias in the shortlisting of applicants in the private sector. large corporations are involved in developing ai-augmented job descriptions that are more inclusive and goal-oriented, allowing for the impartial screening of applicants (wisetsri, vijai, chueinwittaya, & jirayus, 2022). the integration of ai with public sector hrm in south africa will curtail the devastating effects of patron–client relationships that habitually manifest through prejudiced recruitment and selection processes in the public service. favouritism, as defined by chilunjika (2021), citing prendergast and topel (1966), entailed the recruitment, review and job evaluation on the foundation of connections rather than meritocracy. in this regard, the south african public sector recruitment procedure has been marred with political consociates dominating the selection criterion and process. for instance, in explaining the regressive effects of political deployment in the south african public service, kekae (2017) observed that: regardless of the capacity that the public service has, it still finds itself with the problem of non-service delivery in all spheres of government. reasons for non-service delivery are primarily as a result of inefficiency, unskilled personnel, poor management and political deployment of unqualified cadres. (p. 1) in support of kekae’s (2017) observation, transparency international (2015) warned that: political affiliation can play an important role in the appointment of civil servants, leading to the politicization of the public sector, as political parties have incentives to gain control over bureaucrats. some countries implicitly or explicitly tie party membership as a prerequisite for joining the civil service, often accepted as a hidden. (p. 35) more so, ai aids hrm departments to focus more on strategic areas of the organisation. erstwhile literature managed to pinpoint numerous benefits of employing ai in recruiting employees. upadhyay and khandelwal (2018) mentioned that previously, repetitive tasks were steered by human recruiters, but ai will make some of the recruitment stages old-fashioned and obsolete. with the adoption of ai, recruiters can delegate these repetitive tasks to the ai system and recruiters will then have more resources channelled towards strategic matters (upadhyay & khandelwal, 2018). in support of upadhyay and khandelwal’s (2018) observation, eggers et al. (2017) argued that the ai-centred technologies can be put to good use in human services to help organisations lessen the substantial administrative load and create ample time for more acute responsibilities by refining decision-making and making low-cost and quicker delivery of services in the south african public sector. the need to provide sound public service delivery has always and will remain the prime focus of governments across the world; however, finding a lasting solution to improve public service delivery has been somewhat confounding. but with the coming of technology, the task seems to be more feasible in these contemporary times. in this regard, incorporating ai into public sector hrm will bring about efficiency, effectiveness and economical administration of public sector resources in south africa. its importance has been indirectly accentuated by visser and twinomurinzi (2008, p. 39) in their study of e-government and public service delivery in south africa where they observed that: ‘the use of e-government as a service delivery enabler will definitely support government’s service improvement philosophy of batho pele, thus putting people first’. the given exposition is in harmony with evans and yen’s (2006) observation that the employment of e-government has been commonly acclaimed because it offers a new impulse to deliver services rapidly and resourcefully. this corroborates with kaisara and pather’s (2009) observation that ict is lessening the traditional obstructions of space and time while information can be conveyed more quickly, in bulk and more effortlessly. furthermore, through document analysis, the study collated that integrating ai with hrm reduces the burden of paperwork that is customary in the public sector organisations. in south africa, although some important strides to upgrade the public sector through e-government have been made, public sector hrm departments still lag behind. the use of manual means in performing some routine human resources administration tasks is still rampant. thus, the adoption of ai into public sector hrm in south africa will bring about reduced use of paperwork among the hr personnel. challenges impeding against and the complexities presented by the adoption of artificial intelligence this section examines the challenges militating against the implementation and the operationalisation of ai in the public sector hrm functions in south africa. lagging technological uptake a study conducted by ntetha (2010) on social informatics in selected government departments in south africa established that in some government departments, such as social development and education, the use of icts by some civil servants is generally low in terms of both frequency and variety. on the same note, assan and thomas (2012) asserted that the utilisation of icts by civil servants is generally restricted to basic applications such as word processing. in ntetha’s (2010) study, civil servants identified a range of issues they regarded as inhibitors to their effective use of icts, particularly a lack of access or the availability of hardware and software and a lack of ict education, skills and knowledge. figure 2 is a pictographic illustration of technological uptake in the global south. the map shows that there is a slower technological endorsement in africa with south africa included. the use of technology in africa is low or underdeveloped (undp, 2000). this sums up the view that africa in general and south africa, in particular, is still underprepared to fully adopt and operationalise ai in the public sector. figure 2: technological uptake in the global south. the given bar graphs (figure 3) indicate technological preparedness in africa as a whole, which is very critical in assessing the level of ai systems adoption preparedness in south africa. figure 3: africa’s ict development indicators. artificial intelligence can lead to retrenchments the integration of ai and public sector hrm poses to be a threat to a sizeable number of jobs in the south african civil service. artificial intelligence and mobile robotics are threatening to take over office work, white-collar jobs to be precise (seseni & mbohwa, 2018). accordingly, seseni and mbohwa (2018), argued that currently, white-collar jobs will be replaced by ai; for instance, hr administrators can be replaced by software that performs payroll services. to this effect, employees who perform tasks that have a possibility of being replaced by ai adoption will probably lose their jobs. in the same vein, research conducted by accenture and gibs business school (2017) on south africa’s ai preparedness level observed that the implementation of ai can increase unemployment figures already existential in south africa. the experience is not unique to the public sector; similar occurrences can be found in the private sector as well. in this regard, wisetsri et al. (2022) contends that in the presence of ai in organisations, hr professionals are constantly afraid of being replaced by machines, robots and/or clever business machines. in addition, research conducted by chelliah (2017) on the impact of ai in america established that over 47% of the people who occupy white-collar jobs in the united states of america would be replaced by computerisation in the next 20 years. the gathered data showed that there is slow ict adoption in the south african public sector, which hampers the full adoption and operationalisation of ai in public sector hrm. the findings correlate with gul’s (2019) discovery in figure 2 where he indicated that technological uptake in africa is slower. unlike in the private sector, there is not enough investment in the ict infrastructure in the public sector. in support of gul’s discovery, mbatha (2009) observed that in south africa, office transactions are usually lagging, with little or no wave of the social and technological benefits of automation in workplaces and organisations. this explains the level of unpreparedness to adopt ai systems in the south african public sector and public sector hrm in particular. according to the research conducted by ntetha (2010), it was observed that in africa, the utilisation of icts is either low or underdeveloped. in other words, there is low technological uptake in africa in general and south africa in particular. adaptability towards new technologies and ai was considered a noteworthy challenge that ai entails, because they argue that it is almost impossible for organisations to operate successfully without the full adaptation of new technologies. the ability to adapt new technology in organisations determines largely how they are able to achieve their market competitiveness (chilunjika, uwizeyimana & auriacombe, 2019; martincevic & kozina, 2018). however, as argued by upadhyay and khandelwal (2018), ai systems can be programmed to avoid unconscious biases in recruitment processes. the authors argue that skills shortages are one of the largest challenges in the hiring industry. even though ai-based systems are extremely beneficial at recognising talent, there are still some activities that should be conducted by humans, namely negotiations, appraisal of culture fit and rapport building (upadhyay & khandelwal, 2018). this argument resonates with johansson and herranen’s (2019) discoveries that language biases and cultural understandings of machines are also challenges for ai. integrating ai with public sector hrm in south africa can pose a threat to a sizeable number of white-collar jobs. for instance, some of the hrm personnel who were previously involved in recruitment and selection might lose their jobs if ai is adopted to perform their tasks. in substantiation, discussions on ai in south africa held by accenture and gibs business school (2017) sounded innumerable alarms, including workforce readiness, data quality and potential job losses. however, according to access partnership’s (2014) explication of the impact of ai on people’s job security: while most do find that some jobs will disappear many more will be transferred into jobs that require different skill sets, while other entirely new jobs will be created. many jobs will continue to require uniquely human skills. this angle, conversely, explains that although it is said from the research findings that ai poses a threat to many white-collar jobs in south africa, it is equally true that its implementation demands new skills also, hence creating new jobs for those people who possess the demanded skills, as they will be managing the machines. conclusion and policy direction in this study, the research contended that there is an existent research gap in regard to integrating ai and public sector hrm in south africa. as part of traditional public sector administration reorganisation, the adoption of ai in the public sector has become imperative. principally, public sector hrm restructurings have become a necessity with the adoption of advanced technology being part of the agenda. considering the incessant need to adopt new technologies in the public sector as part of the reformation agenda, public policy architects should also pay attention to public sector hrm restructurings. it can also be argued that the magnitude of public resources is being misplaced because of public sector recruitments related to corruption activities. too much human interface during public service recruitment is, undeniably, providing a fertile ground for kickbacks to human resource personnel involved in recruitment and selection. this is resultantly compromising the quality of the public service workforces. hence, integrating ai with public sector hrm will sidestep the bureaucratic hurdles compromising quality public service recruitment and selection processes in south africa. this will also ensure that hefty public sector wage bills in some of the unproductive government sectors can be halved through the implementation of ai. this can be accomplished by downsizing the workforce that would have been solely in charge of administrative routine tasks prior to the implementation of an ai system to take over the roles. more so, based on the collated present research findings, future researchers should consider integrating primary and secondary data in probing the potential prime paybacks of ai in public sector hrm. this will help come up with research discoveries that are contemporary and indicative of the prevailing developments regarding the assimilation of ai in the public sector hrm departments in south africa. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.c., k.i. and s.r.c. equally carried out the same tasks in relation to the methodology, formal analysis, writing (review and editing) and project administration, although a.c. and k.i. also did much in terms of conceptualisation, the writing of the original draft and methodology. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards of research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial. or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views that are captured in the article do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references accenture and gibs business school. (2017). artificial intelligence: is south africa ready. gordon institute of business science. retrieved from https://www.accenture.com/-acnmedia/pdf-107/accenture-ai-south-africa-ready.pdf access partnership. (2014). artificial intelligence for africa: an opportunity for growth, development, and democratisation. pretoria: university of pretoria. adams, s., arel, i., bach, j., coop, r., furlan, r., goertzel, b., … sowa, j. (2012). mapping the landscape of human-level artificial general intelligence. ai magazine, 33(1), 25–42. https://doi.org/10.1609/aimag.v33i1.2322 agrawal, a., gans, j.s., & goldfarb, a. (2019). artificial intelligence: the ambiguous labor market impact of automating prediction. journal of economic perspectives, 33(2), 31–50. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.33.2.31 alam, m.s. (2014). identifying a public sector information systems (psis) for e-service: a case of land records e-service in bangladesh. in m. janssen, h.j. scholl, m.a. wimmer & f. bannister (eds.), lecture notes in computer science, electronic government, egov 2014 (vol. 8653, pp. 106–119). heidelberg: springer. arinder, m.k. (2016). bridging the divide between evidence and policy in public sector decision making: a practitioner’s perspective. public administration review, 76(3), 394–398. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12572 armstrong, m. (2015). armstrong’s handbook of performance management. london: kogan page. assan, t., & thomas, r. (2012). information and communication technology integration into teaching and learning: opportunities and challenges for commerce educators in south africa. international journal of education and development using information and communication technology, 8(2), 4–16. bas, a. (2012). strategic hr management: strategy facilitation process by hr. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 58, 313–321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.1006 becker, b., & gerhart, b. (1996). the impact of human resource management on organizational performance: progress and prospects. academy of management journal, 39(4), 779–801. https://doi.org/10.5465/256712 bibi, p., pangil, f., & johanim, j. (2016). hrm practices and employees’ retention: the perspective of job embeddedness theory. asian journal of multidisciplinary studies, 4(5), 68–89. bondarouk, t., & brewster, c. (2016). conceptualising the future of hrm and technology research. the international journal of human resource management, 27(21), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1232296 bowen, g.a. (2009). document analysis as a qualitative research method. qualitative research journal, 9(2), 27–40. https://doi.org/10.3316/qrj0902027 breaugh, a.j. (2008). employee recruitment: current knowledge and important areas for future research. human resource management review, 18(3), 103–118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2008.07.003 brynjolfsson, e., & mcafee, a. (2014). the second machine age: work, progress, and prosperity in a time of brilliant technologies. washington, dc: w.w. norton and company publishers. businesstech. (2018). 4 big tech predictions for 2018. retrieved from https://business.co.za/news/it-services/218809/4-big-tech-predictions-for-2018/amp/ chelliah, j. (2017). will artificial intelligence usurp white collar jobs? human resource management international digest, 25(3), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid-11-2016-0152 chilunjika, a. (2018). the performance of automated toll revenue mobilization systems in zimbabwe. unpublished phd thesis. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. chilunjika, a. (2021). revamping the zimbabwe anti-corruption commission. african journal of business and economic research, 16(2), 311–327. https://doi.org/10.31920/1750-4562/2021/v16n2a15 chilunjika, a., uwizeyimana, d.e., & auriacombe, c.j. (2019). the politics of road tolling in zimbabwe. administracio publica, 27(1), 202–225. https://doi.org/10.1108/17554211011012612 dessler, g. (2013). human resources management: global edition (13th ed.). florida international university, florida. dickson, d., & nusair, k. (2010). an hr perspective: the global hunt for talent in the digital age. worldwide hospitality and tourism themes, 2(1), 86–93. dwivedi, y.k., hughes, l., ismagilova, e., aarts, g., coombs, c., crick, t., … williams, m.d. (2019). artificial intelligence (ai): multidisciplinary perspectives on emerging challenges, opportunities, and agenda for research, practice and policy. international journal of information management, 57, 101994. eggers, w.d., schatsky, d., & viechmicki, p. (2017). ai-augmented government. using cognitive technologies to redesign public sector work. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/us/articles/3832-ai-augmented-government/dup-ai-augmented-government.pdf erixon, f. (2018). ecipe. retrieved from https://ecipe.org/publications/the-economic-benefits-of-globalization-for-business-and-consumers/ ertel, w. (2018). introduction to artificial intelligence. new york, ny: springer international publishing. evans, d., & yen, d.c. (2006). e-government: evolving relationship of citizens and government, domestic, international development. government information quarterly, 23(20), 207–235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2005.11.004 faliagka, e., ramantas, k., tsakalidis, a., & tzimas, g. (2012). application of machine learning algorithms to an online recruitment system. international conference on internet and web applications and services, 11–17 june 2012. heidelberg, germany. frey, c.b., & osborne, m.a. (2013). the future of employment: how susceptible are jobs to computerization? oxford: oxford martin school. galanaki, e., lazazzara, a., & parry, e. (2019). a cross-national analysis of e-hrm configurations: integrating the information technology and hrm perspectives. in a. lazazzara, r.c.d. nacamulli, c. rossignoli, & s. za (eds.), organizing for digital innovation (pp. 261–276). grewal, d.s. (2014). a critical conceptual analysis of definitions of artificial intelligence as applicable to computer engineering. iosr journal of computer engineering, 16(2), 9–13. https://doi.org/10.9790/0661-16210913 gul, e. (2019). is artificial intelligence the frontier solution to global south’s wicked development challenges? retrieved from https://towardsdatascience.com/is-artificial-intelligence-the-frontier-solution-to-global-souths-wicked-development-challenges-4206221a3c78 hadden, s.g. (1986). intelligent advisory systems for managing and disseminating information. public administration review, 46, 572. healy, a.e. (2018). comparative research using secondary data analysis: exploring’s changing food consumption practices. published phd thesis. university of limerick. hendrickson, a.r. (2003). human resource information systems: backbone technology of contemporary human resources. journal of labor research, 24, 382–394. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12122-003-1002-5 jarrahi, m. (2018). artificial intelligence and the future of work: human-ai symbiosis in organisational decision making. business horizons, 61(4), 577–586. jia, q., guo, y., li, r., li, y., & chen, y. (2018). a conceptual artificial intelligence application framework in human resource management. iceb 2018 proceedings (p. 91). retrieved from https://aisel.aisnet.org/iceb2018/91 johansson, j., & herranen, s. (2019). the application of artificial intelligence (ai) in human resource management: current state of ai and its impact on the traditional recruitment process. retrieved from http://www.diva2:1322478/fulltext01.pdf johnston, m.p. (2014). secondary data analysis: a method of which the time has come. qualitative and quantitative methods in libraries (qqml), 3, 619–626. kaisara, g., & pather, s. (2009, september 02–04). e-government in south africa: e-service quality access and adoption factors. in proceedings of the 11th annual conference on www applications, port elizabeth, south africa. kekae, t.k. (2017). an evaluation of the public service anti-corruption strategy in the department of arts and culture. unpublished thesis. pretoria: university of pretoria. kshetri, n.b. (2021). evolving uses of artificial intelligence in human resource management in emerging economies in the global south: some preliminary evidence. management research review, 44(7), 970–990. https://doi.org/10.1108/mrr-03-2020-0168 legg, s., & hutter, m. (2007). a collection of definitions of intelligence. advances in artificial general intelligence: concepts, architecture and algorithms, 158(5), 12–24. ma, l., & ye, m.l. (2015). the role of electronic human resource management in contemporary human resource management. open journal of social sciences, 3(4), 71–78. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2015.34009. maclean, n., & mcqueen, j. (2020). intelligent automation offers public sector organizations a way to do more with less, freeing up employees to focus on serving the citizen. retrieved from https://www.ey.com/en_za/government-public-sector/how-intelligent-automation-paves-the-way-to-better-public-services martincevic, i., & kozima, g. (2018). the impact of new technology adaptation in business. varazdin: varazdin development and entrepreneurship agency (vadea). mbatha, b.t. (2009). web-based technologies as key catalysts in improving work productivity and creativity: the case of zululand district municipality. communication sciences in southern africa, 28(2), 82–95. mbatha, b.t., & ocholla, d.n. (2011). contexualising the use of icts in the public sector: the case of selected government departments in kwazulu-natal. mousaion, 29(2), 193–208. mohammed, z. (2019). artificial intelligence definition, ethics, and standards. electronics and communications: law, standards and practice. british university. retrieved from https://www.wathi.org/artificial-intelligence-definition-ethics-and-standards-the-british-university-in-egypt-2019/ ndung’u, n., & signe, l. (2020). capturing the fourth industrial revolution: a regional and national agenda, foresight africa. retrieved from https://www.lifescienceglobal.com/pms/index.php/jiddt/article/view/7190 nilsson, n.j. (2003). artificial intelligence: a new synthesis (5th ed.). san francisco, ca: morgan kaufmann publishers. noe, r., hollenbeck, j., gerhart, b., & wright, p. (2006). human resources management: gaining a competitive advantage. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill education. ntetha, m.a. (2010). the access, interaction, use and impact of information and communication technologies among civil servants in the umhlatuze area: a social informatics study. unpublished dissertation. kwadlangezwa: university of zululand. pandey, s., & khaskel, p. (2019). application of ai in human resource management and gen y’s reaction. international journal of recent technology and engineering (ijrte), 8(4), 2277–3878. https://doi.org/10.35940/ijrte.d4585.118419 park, w. (2018). artificial intelligence and human resource management: new perspectives and challenges. retrieved from https://www.jil.go.jp/profile/documents/w.park.pdf prendergast, c., & topel, r. (1996). favoritism in organisations. journal of political economy, 104(5), 958–978. https://doi.org/10.1086/262048 reilly, p. (2018). the impact of artificial intelligence on the hr function: ies perspectives on hr 2018. member paper 142. brighton: institute for employment studies press. reis, j., santo, p., & melao, n. (2019). artificial intelligence in government services: a systematic review. 14th world conference on information systems and technologies, 9–11 october 2019. lisbon, portugal. rich, e.a. (1983). artificial intelligence. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. russell, s., & norvig, p. (2016). artificial intelligence: a modern approach (3rd ed.). new york, ny: prentice hall. rykun, e. (2019). artificial intelligence in hr management – what can we expect? retrieved from https://thebossmagazine.com/ai-hr-management/ schermerhorn, j.r. (2001). management update 2001 (6th ed.). new york, ny: john wiley and sons. seseni, l., & mbohwa, c. (2017). occupational health and safety of furniture manufacturing smmes in soweto, south africa. bristol: ieom society. singh, r., & raja, s. (2010). convergence in information and communication technology: strategic and regulatory considerations. washington, dc: world bank. storey, j. (2004). leadership in organizations: current issues and key trends. london: routledge. stuart, r., & norvig, p. (2016). artificial intelligence: a modern approach (3rd ed.). new york, ny: prentice hall. tan, e. (2021). a conceptual model of the use of ai and blockchain for open government data governance in the public sector. retrieved from https://soc.kuleuven.be/io/digi4fed/doc/d-3-2-1-a-conceptual-model-of-the-use-of-ai-and.pdf thierer, a., o’sullivan castillo, a., & russell, r. (2017). artificial intelligence and public policy. mercatus center at george mason university. retrieved from https://www.mercatus.org/system/files/thierer-artificial-intelligence-policymrmercatusv1.pdf transparency international. (2015). national integrity system assessment: ukraine 2015. transparency international ukraine. retrieved from https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/9789264270664-3-en/index.html?itemid=/component/9789264270664-3-en undp. (2000). world report on human development 2001. brussels: united nations development programme, de boeck university for undp. unesco. (2018). global education monitoring report 2019: migration, displacement and education: building bridges, not walls. paris: unesco. retrieved from https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:48223/pf0000265866 upadhyay, a.k., & khandelwal, k. (2018). applying artificial intelligence: implications for recruitment. strategic hr review, 17(5), 255–258. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr-07-2018-0051 visser, w., & twinomurinzi, h. (2008). e-government and public service delivery: enabling ict to put ‘people first’ – a case study from south africa. journal of systemics, cybernetics and informatics, 6(6), 36–41. wall, t.d., & wood, s.j. (2005). the romance of human resource management and business performance and the case for big science. harmonsworth: penguin. wirtz, b., weyerer, j., & geyer, c. (2018). artificial intelligence and the public sector – applications and challenges. international journal of public administration, 42(7), 596–615. https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2018.1498103 wisetsri, w., vijai, c., chueinwittaya, k., & jirayus, p. (2022). artificial intelligence in human resources management – an overview. journal of positive school psychology, 6(2), 2688–2693. world economic forum. (2016). the future of jobs – employment skills and workforce strategy for 16 the fourth industrial revolution. geneva: world economic forum. youndt, m.a., snell, s.a., dean, j.w., jr., & lepak, d.p. (1996). human resource management, manufacturing strategy, and firm performance. academy of management journal, 39(4), 836–866. https://doi.org/10.2307/256714 zimano, f.r., & chilunjika, a. (2019). mixed methods in multi-level sampling: a research paradigms teaching and learning case to spur downstream innovation. international journal of innovation in education, 5(4), 323–339. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijiie.2019.102625 zuiderwijk, a., chen, y.-c., & salem, f. (2021). implications of the use of ai in public governance: a systematic literature review and research agenda. government information quarterly, 38(3), 34–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2021.101577 abstract introduction literature review hypotheses method results discussion and conclusion limitations of the study acknowledgements references footnote about the author(s) matete lerutla school of business leadership, graduate school of business leadership, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa renier steyn school of business leadership, graduate school of business leadership, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation lerutla, m., & steyn, r. (2022). distinct leadership styles and differential effectiveness across culture: an analysis of south african business leaders. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1957. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1957 original research distinct leadership styles and differential effectiveness across culture: an analysis of south african business leaders matete lerutla, renier steyn received: 29 mar. 2022; accepted: 28 june 2022; published: 31 aug. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: while some deem business leadership practices as universal, others judge them to be specific to a cultural context, arguing that certain leadership styles are specific to, for example, those from an african or a western cultural background. research purpose: the goal of the research was to assess whether the leadership styles of south african leaders differ based on cultural background and whether the effectiveness of these leadership styles is judged differently by subordinates. motivation for the study: south africa is sometimes presented as country divided across cultural lines. this research was motivated by the need to assess the extent of this divide and the impact thereof on perceived effectiveness. research approach and method: a cross-sectional survey was collected from 1140 respondents across 19 organisations. leadership styles and leader effectiveness was measured, and race was used as a proxy to cultural background. mean scores on leadership styles and leadership effectiveness were calculated per race and mean score differences were tested. main findings: the result of this study suggest that leaders in south africa are perceived to behave similarly in terms of their leadership styles and the effectiveness thereof. thus, those african and western cultural backgrounds act similarly, and the outcomes (effectiveness) was comparable. managerial implications and value add: the cultural divide within the context of leadership styles and effectiveness is small in south africa, and the results supports the notion that organisations and leaders should set aside culturally based stereotypes when engaging in leadership issues. keywords: leadership styles, leader effectiveness, culture, full range leadership theory, south africa. introduction this research forms part of a larger project to define african business leadership, with two questions to be answered: (1) ‘do african and western leaders use different leadership styles?’ and (2) ‘is the perceived effectiveness of a specific leadership style dependent on whether the leader is african or western?’ leadership styles and effectiveness, based on cultural background, have long been a subject of investigation and have attracted much research interest. the global leadership and organizational behavior effectiveness (globe) study is a perfect example of this work, leading to articles such as ‘strategic leadership across cultures: the globe study of ceo leadership behaviour and effectiveness in 24 countries’ (house, dorfman, javidan, hanges, & de luque, 2014). this research builds on the globe research and endeavours to investigate how leadership styles and their effectiveness differ across cultures. however, unlike the globe studies, which focus on measuring cultural dimensions, this research focuses on leadership behaviours and assumes that culture is embedded in race. this assumption of culture being embedded in race is not only politically correct but is also not inconceivable, as previous editions of the globe study differentiated between black people and white people in their reporting (globe, 2020 cited in javidan, bullough cotton, dastmalchian, dorfman & egri, 2020). as a result of this assumption, both the empirical research and organisational fields persist in trying to explain what makes an effective leader, both in general and within the business environment (lerutla & steyn, 2017). the continued research aimed at understanding the extent to which leadership behaviours can be influenced by cultural values is notable (areiqata, hamdanb, zamil, & el-horani, 2021). researchers argue that ‘leadership drives culture, culture drives leadership’ (tkeshelashvili, 2009, p. 116), and leaders are socialised to internalise the cultural values and practices of the culture they grow up in – they learn, over time, desirable and undesirable modes of behaviour (tkeshelashvili, 2009, p. 116). literature review african leadership and the full-range leadership theory (frlt) form the basis of this research. however, given the interconnection of leadership and culture, the literature review is preceded by a high-level overview of the dominant cultural typologies, these being hofstede’s and the globe research. all literature presented is used to substantiate the set hypotheses. hofstede cultural framework and the globe cultural dimensions while in the employ of one of the leading conglomerates (international business machines [ibm]), geert hofstede conducted a survey among employees in more than 72 countries between 1968 and 1973 to understand the cultural orientation of people in different countries (hofstede, hofstede, & minkov, 2010). his extensive and evolving research findings led to the development of a framework with five cultural dimensions. the original five dimensions of hofstede’s framework (1980) are power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity–femininity, individualism–collectivism and long-term orientation (lto), which was added as the last dimension (minkov & hofstede, 2012). power distance describes the extent to which inequalities are accepted among the people of a society, with people in countries high in power distance more likely to accept and expect differences in power among them, whereas in countries with low power distance, people expect that the differences in power should be minimised. uncertainty avoidance reflects the extent to which people in a society try to avoid situations that do not provide certainty; the masculinity–femininity dimension reflects how societies distribute roles based on gender; the individualism–collectivism dimension describes the extent to which individuals in a society are either integrated into groups or encouraged to be independent; long-term orientation refers to the extent to which a community or society embrace long-term and futuristic commitments, as opposed to commitments that are short-term focused, thereby differentiating societies that are able to embrace change more rapidly than the others. although hofstede’s framework has been challenged for various reasons, including the validity and representativeness of his data (baskerville, 2003; javidan, house, dorfman, hanges, & de luque, 2006; minkov, 2018), his work continues to be referenced to this day (areiqata et al., 2021; gallego-álvarez & pucheta-martínez, 2021; kaasa, 2021; olatunji, makhosazana, & vezi-magigaba, 2021; olowookere, agoha, omonijo, odukoya, & elegbeleye, 2021). the various disciplines that reference his work include cross-cultural management (beugelsdijk, kostova, kunst, spadafora, & van essen, 2018; klasing, 2013), country-level culture (beugelsdijk, kostova, & roth, 2017) and international business (kirkman, lowe, & gibson, 2006). the globe research focuses on the interplay between culture and leadership effectiveness, based on extensive work conducted in 951 organisations in 62 countries (hoppe & eckert, 2012; house et al., 2014). this research provides a view of (1) how cultures are different from or similar to one another in their perceptions and expectations of leadership effectiveness and (2) the definition or perception of what constitutes an outstanding leader. six of the nine globe cultural dimensions were built on the work of hofstede house, hanges, javidan, dorfman and gupta (2004), while some of the scales the globe used to measure cross-cultural differences (uncertainty avoidance, power distance, individualism) are designed to reflect the same constructs as hofstede’s dimensions. the globe initially presented nine dimensions, which were later refined and reduced to six, all of them describing how leadership is expected or experienced across different cultures (house et al., 2014). the six dimensions are charismatic or value-based, team-oriented, self-protective, participative, humane-oriented and autonomous (house et al., 2014). according to the globe study, cultural similarity is greatest among societies that constitute a cluster, while cultural difference increases the further the clusters are apart (center for creative leadership, 2012). for example, the countries from the sub-saharan region in africa (nigeria, zambia, namibia, zimbabwe and south-africa1) constituted a cluster and as a result, more cultural similarities would be seen in these societies. this african cluster, for example, would practice leadership differently from countries in parts of the global north, such as eastern europe (e.g. russia, poland, georgia, greece, hungary, albania, slovenia). it was also recognised that different cultures conceptualise outstanding leaders differently, and this difference is because of cultural upbringing and expectations about what entails good leadership (center for creative leadership, 2012). to that end, there is acknowledgement that the location and culture within which leadership occurs provides important context for consideration on leadership discourse (eyong, 2017). hofstede and the globe cultural research both proved to be similar in the conceptualisation of the cultural dimensions. african culture and leadership typologies since the launch of globe, western leadership paradigms that have long been embedded in leadership practice globally are being questioned (bolden & kirk, 2009; eyong, 2017). it has been observed that the global leadership practices of the 18th and 20th centuries were influenced by eurocentric theories and narratives that do not reflect the indigenous dimensions and contexts that are critically important to understanding leadership (eyong, 2017; wanasika, howell, littrell, & dorfman, 2011) outside eurocentric perspectives. as a result, there has been a growing movement suggesting that leadership should be understood within the context in which it is practised (avolio, walumbwa, & weber, 2009; humphreys, zhao, ingram, gladstone, & basham, 2010; jones, lefoe, harvey, & ryland, 2012; muchiri, 2011; posner, 2012). this emerging research, along with the current interest in understanding the role of culture and context in leader effectiveness, presents diverse findings, thus further widening the gap on the definition of leadership – especially leadership in the african context (lerutla & steyn, 2017). africa, as a region, has drawn interest in leadership research, given the dynamic nature and uniqueness of the continent (lerutla & steyn, 2017). researchers (e.g. bolden & kirk, 2009; chasi & levy, 2016; chatbury, beaty, & kriek, 2011; littrell & nkomo, 2005) argued that africa has its own values and practices and that these should be integral to the definition of leadership and its implementation on the continent. for example, bolden and kirk (2009) argued that africans aspire to leadership based on humanity, a leadership that is inclusive and that values individual differences, along with a desire to serve others. they argue that there is a pattern unique to africa, which can be associated with the belief system and philosophical principles of ubuntu – a term that represents african humanism and that is often translated as ‘i am because we are’. ubuntu is a fundamental philosophy that governs existence and social relations in sub-saharan africa (mangaliso, 2001; mbigi, 2000; wanasika et al., 2011). it is premised on respect for the dignity of people, reciprocity in social relations and a desire for tolerance and forgiveness. in other research, gumede (2017) took the position that african leadership is grounded on afrocentric histories, philosophies, epistemologies and other pan-africanist ideologies within the evolving african cultures. metz (2018:p. 42) also talked about an afro-communal ethic type of leadership, unique to africa, based on the belief that ‘one should relate communally and enable others to commune’. afro-communal leadership is associated with servant leadership, although not in a way understood in the western context; servant leadership is distinguished as leaders’ interest in meeting the needs of others, with emphasis placed on communal relationships (metz, 2018). in his address to a group of leaders, khoza (2012) linked leadership in africa to humanness and further argued that the human style of leadership generated by african humanism puts people first. in his research, mbigi (2000) has pinpointed five core values associated with african leaders: respect for the dignity of others, group solidarity, teamwork, service to others and the spirit of harmony and interdependence. these values have been validated in other research findings. for example, in a study conducted by flotman and grobler (2020), it was established that servant leadership has an impact on organisational behaviour within the south african and african context. muller, smith and lillah’s (2019) study found that the ubuntu values of solidarity and servant leadership had a significant and positive influence on employee engagement and organisational performance. molose, goldman and thomas’s (2018) research outcomes indicated that the ubuntu collective values of compassion, group solidarity, respect and dignity for all are beneficial to workplace commitment and performance. in their study, they recommend that ubuntu should be incorporated in management approaches to facilitate workforce commitment and team performance. the globe findings also reported that sub-saharan respondents mostly supported aspects such as human-oriented, charismatic and/or value-based and team-oriented leadership (hoppe & eckert, 2012). full-range theory of leadership the frlt originated from the work of james burns in 1978, which posited that leaders are either transformational or transactional, thereby positioning the two styles as being at opposite ends of a continuum (burns, 1978). following extensive research by bass (1990), this original work was expanded to argue that the best leaders are both transformational and transactional. with further research, avolio and bass (2005) posited that to achieve organisation success, a paradigm shift was required to understand the overall role that leaders play in influencing followers to go beyond self-interest for the greater good of the entities with which they are associated (khan, nawaz, & khan, 2016). the crux of their argument was that leadership is neither transactional nor transformational but rather that it happens on a continuum. the leadership constructs that form the core of the frlt are the transactional, transformational and laissez-fair styles (avolio, bass, & jung, 1999; bass & avolio, 1994), which are briefly outlined in the following paragraphs. transactional leadership the theory of transactional leadership (tsl) is premised on the idea that leader–follower relationships are based on transactional exchanges between leaders and subordinates (bass & stogdill, 1990). this style of leadership is focused on input, output and reward for achieving what is expected of employees (burns, 1978). there are three components associated with tsl: contingent reward – where the task-oriented leader uses rewards for the fulfilment of tasks and where this is seen as the leader providing positive feedback management-by-exception (active) – in which the leader looks for deviations from rules and standards management-by-exception (passive) – where a leader intervenes only when errors are detected or where standards are being violated (avolio & bass, 2005; bass & avolio, 1994; rowald & scholtz, 2009). management-by-exception (passive) is often separately presented as laissez-fair leadership and will be presented similarly in this research. this leadership style is focused on managerial and supervisory roles in relation to performance and leverages rewards and recognition to promote compliance from the followers (avolio & bass (2005) khan et al., 2016). with this leadership style, there is a tendency to focus on the differences between the leader and followers; the maintenance of the status quo, rather than changing the future; finding faults and deviations in followers’ work; and placing emphasis on getting specific tasks completed (bass, 1990; odumeru & ifeanyi, 2013). research revealed a contradictory relationship between tsl and job performance. while some studies have reported that transactional leaders leverage rewards to entice employee performance (humphreys, 2001; mahdinezhad, suandi, silong, & omar, 2013; shah & hamid, 2015; voon, lo, ngui, & ayob, 2011; wegner, 2004) and that tsl style has a significant and positive effect on improving employee performance (sundi, 2013), other studies have reported a negative correlation between tsl and employee performance (mackenzie, podsakoff, & rich, 2001; parry & proctor-thomson, 2002) and a non-positive correlation with organisational commitment (lee, 2005). in other studies, tsl has been found to have a positive and significant relationship with employee motivation (chaudhry & javed, 2012). further research has reported that tsl drives stability and maintenance of the status quo, because such leaders will set goals for their followers and reward them for what is expected (xenikou, 2017). the application of tsl seems most appropriate in organisations where performance reward is valued, such as in the financial services industries. for example, banking organisations have been linked positively to the use of tsl style (alabduljader, 2012; shah & hamid, 2015). it is also found to be beneficial in environments where compliance with rules and regulations is critical (clarke, 2013). transformational leadership transformational leadership (tfl) is grounded on the principle of a leader’s ability to inspire and stimulate others to achieve extraordinary outcomes (avolio & bass, 2005; bass & avolio, 1994; bass, avolio, jung, & berson, 2003; odumeru & ifeanyi, 2013). this type of leadership is associated with a focus on delivering for the greater good, its ability to raise the followers’ motivation and morality for the good of the organisation, and its ability to yield superior social dividends (khan, et al., 2016; van linden & fertman, 1998). those demonstrating tfl can identify the need for change and to gain the agreement and commitment of others in pursuing and driving that change (louw, muriithi, & radloff, 2017). transformational leaders give a very high priority to their relationships with their followers and demonstrate individualised consideration in meeting their needs for empowerment, achievement, enhanced self-efficacy and personal growth (ndlovu, ngirandi, setati, & zhuwao, 2018; odumeru & ifeanyi, 2013). according to bass and avolio (1994), transformational leaders are charismatic, inspirational, visionary, intellectually stimulating and considerate of individual needs. there are four underlying dimensions associated with tfl style: idealised influence refers to the charismatic attributes, such as perceived confidence, trustworthiness and power; leaders who are centred on values have a strong moral compass and display ethical behaviour in driving higher-order purpose. idealised influence enables a leader to instil pride, trust and respect in followers, causing the followers to identify and emulate their behaviour. inspirational motivation refers to the leaders’ ability to energise their followers by demonstrating an optimistic view of the future and inspiring them towards the achievement of the vision. they challenge followers with high standards and provide encouragement and meaning for what needs to be done. intellectual stimulation refers to the leaders’ ability to challenge followers to think differently about problems and to find innovative and creative ways of resolving challenges. this attribute encourages proactive thinking and inspires the creation of new ideas. individualised consideration refers to the degree to which the leader attends to the needs of everyone and where they provide the necessary mentorship or coaching needed towards the fulfilment of an individual’s personal career goals (abasilim, 2013; avolio & bass, 2005; bass & avolio, 1990, 1994). overall, transformational leaders are charismatic in behaviour, demonstrate morality in their actions, are congruent and ethical and demonstrate the ability to delegate, to coach and to provide feedback to their teams (barbuto, 2005; bass & avolio, 1994; odumeru & ifeanyi, 2013; xenikou, 2017). furthermore, they are experienced as being futuristic and inspirational, and they demonstrate the ability to stimulate creativity and innovation (ndlovu et al., 2018; yukl, 2002), they create excitement at work through their ability to motivate and inspire others to achieve greater goals and lastly, they demonstrate empathy and nurture one-on-one relationships with subordinates. transformational leadership has become the most frequently researched theory over the past two decades, and it has thus developed into a cornerstone of modern research on leadership, with more than 30% of empirical articles published referencing this leadership style (abasilim, 2013; northouse, 2016). transformational leadership is deemed to be the most appropriate style of leadership in contemporary organisations and the most ideal form of organisational leadership (judge & piccolo, 2004; robbins & judge, 2013; wang, oh, courtright, & colbert, 2011), echoing the argument made by bass and avolio (1990). research indicates that tfl increases followers’ satisfaction with their work and followers’ job performance (judge & piccolo, 2004; wang et al., 2011). other research has suggested that using a tfl style creates a work climate where subordinates feel enthusiastic about their work and where they improve results not only for the organisation but also for themselves (haque & aston, 2016). transformational leadership has also been linked with building employee trust in organisational change capacity, relative to other leadership styles (yasir, imran, irshad, mohamad, & khan, 2016). a study conducted by guhr, lebek and breitner (2019) emphasised in its findings the importance of tfl, as this type of leadership style directly influences employees to go the extra mile in achieving organisational outputs. it is mostly found that employees are more effective with the tfl style relative to the other leadership styles (khumalo, 2019). in addition, tfl is associated with inspirational motivation and increased employee commitment to an organisation (block, 2003; eliyana & muzakki, 2019; haque & aston, 2016; ledimo, 2014). the application of tfl seems most appropriate in organisations where a collaborative culture is encouraged and where leadership takes precedence over management, such as in nonprofit organisations (bass & riggio, 2006; freeborough & patterson, 2015). it is also found beneficial in situations that encourage innovation and organisational improvement, such as in small and medium enterprises (khan, rao, usman, & afzal, 2017) where employees are encouraged to be creative in developing solutions that are responsive to the needs of different contexts and clients (vera & crossan, 2004). it has also been reported as most used by sales managers in the automotive industry (gautam & enslin, 2019). laissez-faire leadership in general, the laissez-faire leadership (lfl) style remains an under-studied form of leadership (robert & vandenberghe, 2020; tosunoglu & ekmekci, 2016), possibly because of what it is perceived to be or experienced as. this leadership style is considered the most troublesome, passive and ineffective form of leadership (tosunoglu & ekmekci, 2016). it is defined as avoidance and abdication of responsibilities (bass & bass, 2008) and is considered the least effective form of leadership or management (bass & bass, 2008). laissez-faire is deemed to be a nonleadership approach, in contrast to the more active forms of transformational and tsl (greiman, 2009; robert & vandenberghe, 2020). behaviours associated with this type of leadership include avoiding making decisions, abdication of responsibility and avoidance of the use of authority (avolio & bass, 2005; northouse, 2016). research indicates that laissez-faire style is associated with negative leadership (skogstad, hetland, glasø, & einarsen, 2014), a reduced level of trust in the organisation (tosunoglu & ekmekci, 2016), as well as erosion of trust with leaders (breevaart & zacher, 2019; skogstad, einarsen, torsheim, aasland, & hetland, 2007), and may discourage employees from investing resources and contributing to the mutual goals of the organisations (xu, huang, lam, & miao, 2012). a study conducted by breevaart and zacher (2019) on trust in leadership, showed that in comparison with another leadership style (tfl), trust in a leader was reduced when that leader showed a lfl style. this supports findings that lfl negatively impacts employees’ trust in leaders. others found that it tends to undermine followers’ job satisfaction, their relationship with leaders, as well as employees’ perceptions of leader effectiveness (judge & piccolo, 2004). this leadership style is reported to have negative consequences on followers, such as higher levels of distress and in-team conflicts (skogstad et al., 2007, 2014). in other research, anderson and mccoll-kennedy (2005) highlighted that laissez-faire leaders are the least attentive in terms of completion of tasks and that such behaviour tends to negatively impact productivity. chaudhry and javed (2012) found in their studies that in comparison with tsl, the laissez-faire style is not considered relevant in boosting the motivation level of employees. relative to the other two leadership styles presented in the preceding paragraphs, lfl is seen as a unidimensional construct and is largely considered to be destructive leadership (robert & vandenberghe, 2020; skogstad, et al., 2007; tosunoglu & ekmekci, 2016). it is sometimes linked to a component of tsl, which is management-by-exception (passive) – where a leader intervenes only when errors are detected or where standards are being violated (avolio & bass, 2005; bass & avolio, 1994; rowald & scholtz, 2009). some authors have argued that positive leadership behaviours, such as an empowering leadership style, can easily be perceived as the lfl style, and that this close relationship needs to be considered in describing lfl (wong & giessner, 2018). similarly, norris, ghahremani and lemoine (2021) argued that a conceivably positive behaviour, such as delegation, can be perceived as laissez-faire. in their argument, they conclude that this style of leadership should not be simplified as ‘absence or abdication of leadership’ and that acknowledgement should be given to the complexity of perceptions around leadership style based on the expectations of followers. a nigerian study conducted by adeniji et al. (2020) found that when comparing leadership styles on employee engagement, delegation – inferred from the laissez-faire style – had the greatest statistical significance on employee engagement, while avoidance and free reign were insignificant on employee engagement. the lfl style would be appropriate in organisations where employees are highly skilled, knowledgeable in their areas of expertise and therefore do not require guidance. typical environments where it will succeed, according to our assessment, will be in entrepreneurial businesses and highly professional consulting firms that sell intellectual capital. hypotheses given the literature presented, it is reasonable to assume that there is evidence or at least a suggestion that cultural background, which seems to be linked to geographical origins (being from the west or africa), influences the leadership behaviour displayed by individuals. assuming this, it was hypothesised that white respondents and managers (representative of western heritage and culture) would differ from black respondents and managers (representative of african heritage and culture) regarding their leadership behaviour. using full-range leadership theory, the following hypotheses were formed regarding mean differences between cultural groups: h1: all leaders, irrespective of cultural heritage, will display equal levels of transformational leadership. h1a: black leaders, more embedded in collectivism, will be more inclined to transformational leadership than their white counterparts, who are inclined to individualism, a key aspect of transactional leadership. h2: all leaders, irrespective of cultural heritage, will display equal levels of transactional leadership. h2a: white people associate with individualism and will be more inclined to transactional leadership, while african leaders will be more concerned with collectivism. h3: all leaders, irrespective of cultural heritage, will display equal levels of laissez-faire leadership. h3a: african leaders demonstrate more laissez-faire leadership than those from elsewhere in the world, as african leaders allow people to consult and often wait for consensus before they proceed – more so than other leaders. a further six hypotheses were formed regarding the effectiveness of leadership styles and their effectiveness: h4: transformational leadership will be seen as equally effective across all leaders, irrespective of the cultural group. h4a: african leaders displaying transformational leadership will be deemed more effective, as transformational leadership is about inspiring the group, a practice more associated with african leaders. h4b: transactional leadership will be seen as equally effective across all leaders, irrespective of the cultural group. h4c: white leaders displaying transformational leadership will be deemed more effective, as transactional leadership is about individualisation, a practice often associated with white cultures. h5: all leaders who use laissez-faire leadership, regardless of their cultural background, will be deemed as ineffective. h5a: black leaders who demonstrate laissez-faire leadership will be regarded as effective leaders, as laissez-faire leadership is about minimal involvement from leaders to allow for consultation – a practice more associated with african leaders. although these hypotheses were formulated using some literature and intuition, they will, if nothing else, stimulate debate on the matter of leadership within the african context. what will make this debate particularly interesting is that the null hypotheses will be judged using empirical processes. these processes are discussed in the method section, presented next. method population and sampling the population comprised all leaders at all organisations operating in south africa. a convenience sample was drawn from the subordinates of these leaders. the respondents were recruited by students pursuing a master of business leadership (mbl) degree at the graduate school of business leadership at the university of south africa (gsbl). the students, through their respective employer organisations, gained access to the respondents. the students then acted as fellow researchers, collecting data from 1140 respondents across 19 different organisations. the respondents were selected on a random basis from the personnel records in the participating companies. measurement demographic information was collected, consisting of the gender, race and age of the respondents, as well as of the leaders. those identified as black were deemed to be of african heritage and those who identified as white were deemed to be of western descent. responses from those of asian descent and those identified as mixed race were deleted for the comparative analyses. the frlt elements were assessed with the pearce and sims (2002) instrument, with 20 tfl items, 11 tsl items and five lfl items. responses to the items were recorded on a five-point scale, with ‘definitely not true’, ‘not true’, ‘neither true nor untrue’, ‘true’ and ‘definitely true’ as options. a sample item from the tfl section is ‘my leader provides a clear vision of who and what our company is’; from the tsl section, ‘my leader will recommend that i am compensated well if i perform well’; and from the lfl section, ‘my leader allows performance to fall below minimum standards before trying to make improvements’. leadership effectiveness was measured, using an instrument developed by cicero, pierro and van knippenberg (2010) and comprised four items. items responded to a seven-point scale, ranging between ‘strongly disagree’ and ‘strongly agree’. a sample item from this instrument reads as follows: ‘my leader influences my level of commitment effectively’. the instrument had acceptable levels of reliability, with a cronbach’s alpha equalling 0.83 (cicero et al., 2010). low scores on leadership demonstrate a low level of that particular behaviour style, for both leader effectiveness and leadership style. statistical analyses ibm’s statistical package for the social sciences (spss) was used to perform the data analysis. demographic data were calculated, mainly focusing on identifying the cultural heritage of the respondents, as well as that of the managers they were evaluating. white respondents and managers were deemed as representative of western heritage and black respondents and managers as representative of african heritage. reliability data were collected in the form of cronbach’s alpha. a value larger than 0.7 was deemed as sufficient proof of reliability (nunnally, 1978). cronbach’s alphas were calculated for each of the subscales of the frlt, as well as for the leadership effectiveness instrument. validity data were generated through exploratory factor analyses, and the results revealed a simple structure in the data (tabachnick & fidell, 2019), with few cross-loadings and items loading in accordance with the structure of the instrument were deemed as evidence of validity. this analysis was performed only on the frlt items, as the leadership effectiveness instrument consisted of only four items and was deemed unidimensional. means were calculated and presented and mean differences were then calculated using anova. the cut-off score for statistical differences between means was set at 0.05. if mean differences were found, cohen d-values were calculated. cohen (1988) indicated that d-values up to 0.2 represent a negligible effect, between 0.2 and 0.5 a small effect, between 0.5 and 0.8 a medium effect and beyond 0.8 a large effect. correlations between the different leadership styles and leadership effectiveness were calculated per race. the interest in this study was not the size of the correlation but rather the differences of these correlations across race. z-observed scores were calculated to determine if these correlations differed significantly from each other (field, 2013). z-observed scores higher than (+/–) 1.96 were interpreted as indicative of a significant difference between the correlations, at p < 0.01 (pallant, 2020). when z-observed scores were smaller than (+/–) 1.64, it was assumed that the differences in the correlations were not significant. ethical considerations permission to conduct the research was granted by the research ethics review committee of the graduate school of business leadership under approval number 2016_sbl_003_ca. students who assisted with the data collection were informed of the conditions under which the data would be used. they were required to obtain formal written approval from relevant executives in the organisations where they collected the data. all potential respondents received a comprehensive information sheet explaining the nature of the research and the way the data would be used. participation was both voluntary and anonymous, and it was explained to the participants that completing and submitting the questionnaire would be deemed as consent to participation. results demographics responses from 1140 employees were captured. of these, 573 (50.3%) were men and 567 (49.7%) were women. black people were the dominant group, with 762 respondents (66.8%), followed by white people with 206 respondents (18.1%) and smaller numbers of mixed race (116 or 10.2%) and people of asian descent (56 or 4.9%). the age of the respondents varied between 20 and 64 years, with a mean of 38.62 and a standard deviation of 9.364. the respondents were asked questions about their leaders. in total, 702 (61.6%) of the leaders were identified as men and 437 (38.3%) as women. the race composition of the leaders reported on were as follows: 655 (57.5%) black, 350 (30.7%) white, 90 (7.9%) mixed race and 45 (3.9%) of asian descent. the age of the leaders reported on by the respondents varied between 23 and 70 years, with a mean of 44.23 and a standard deviation of 8.380. reliability analyses the tfl scale showed high levels of reliability, with a cronbach’s alpha of 0.942 (20 items). the cronbach’s alpha for tsl was 0.750 (11 items), 0.834 (5 items) for lfl and 0.951 (4 items) for the measure of leadership effectiveness. validity the factorial validity of the leadership style instrument was tested. an acceptable kaiser–meyer–olkin measure of sampling adequacy score of 0.939 and a bartlett’s test of sphericity approximation with a significant (p < 0.001) chi-square (df = 630) of 27070.982 indicated that the data on the 26 items were suitable for factor analysis. a five-factor solution provided the best fit and declared 60.5% of the variance in the data set. the items from tfl loaded on factors 1 and 3, while the items from tsl loaded on factors 2 and 4. no cross-loadings larger than 0.4 occurred across these two groups of factors. all the items from lfl loaded on factor 5, with one item having a significant cross-loading on factor 4 (which forms part of tsl). the observed fit of the data suggested that, at a factorial level, the measurement of leadership was valid. mean differences the mean scores for leadership style for black and white leaders, as assessed by their subordinates, are presented here. low scores on leadership show low levels of that behaviour style and, similarly, low scores on effectiveness reflect low levels of leader effectiveness. from table 1, it can be observed that, apart from lfl (f(1,1001) = 5.352; p = 0.021), the mean leadership scores did not differ from each other statistically. in table 2, it can be read that the mean score on lfl for black people was 2.517, while for white people it was 2.378. the cohen’s d-value ((2.517–2.378)/0.906) was 0.058, which suggests that, at a practical level, the difference was negligible. table 1: anova: differences between leadership style means across race. table 2: descriptive statistics: leadership styles across race. from table 3, it can be observed that the means did not differ significantly. this is also evident from table 4, where the mean score for black people was 5.084, and that of white leaders was 5.037. table 3: anova: differences between leadership effectiveness means across race. table 4: descriptive statistics: leadership effectiveness across race. correlations and differences between correlations table 5 reports the correlation between the different leadership styles and leadership effectiveness and the data regarding the differences between these correlations, which is reflected by z-observed values. table 5: correlation of leadership style, leader effectiveness across race. in table 5 numerically, black leaders who display tfl are perceived to be more effective than white leaders and white leaders who display tsl are judged as more effective than black leaders. there is a negative correlation between lfl and leadership effectiveness, and this correlation, in numerical values, is stronger for black than for white leaders. however, when testing for the significance of the differences between the correlations, the z-observed values indicate that these differences are not statistically significant. discussion and conclusion the review of the literature on african leadership and the frlt allowed for a variety of hypotheses to be set, linking certain cultural groups with specific leadership styles. it should be acknowledged that the conceptualisation of the hypotheses was more often based on stereotypes and intuition than on specific literature suggesting such correlations. hence, the aim of the study was to investigate the validity of these assumptions, making use of empirical data. regarding the methodology, it could be stated that the sample was diverse and equitably representative of the different gender profiles, although significantly more black people than other groups were included. the strength of the sample representativeness is that the leaders are working for different organisations, and therefore, it minimises the risk of organisational cultural bias, something that hofstede was criticised for (baskerville, 2003; javidan et al., 2006; minkov, 2018). the overall sample size is sufficient to test the hypotheses and to inform perceptions of leadership. furthermore, the validity and reliability analysis conducted provide comfort that the measurements are dependable (that if replicated, similar results would be reported) and valid. the results revealed that mean scores for all three leadership styles did not differ on a practical level across cultural groups, and where there was a slight difference, in the case of laissez-faire, it was negligible. this supports the notion that leaders, regardless of cultural background, demonstrate or display similar behaviour attributes. this is contrary to the most basic assumptions of cross-cultural studies (center for creative leadership, 2012; globe, 2020). it is, however, a very positive notion, suggesting that south africans, irrespective of cultural background, display similar leadership behaviour. transformational leadership was judged as the most effective leadership style, followed by tsl. regardless of their cultural background, leaders in south africa who apply both transformational and tsl styles were judged as effective. the results of this study are aligned with the literature, which suggests that leadership is neither exclusively transactional nor transformational but that it happens on a continuum and that the best leaders are those who apply both transformational and transactional styles based on the situation at hand (bass, 1990; khan et al., 2016). laissez-faire leadership was negatively related to leadership effectiveness. across the groups, the relationships were of a similar magnitude. thus, all hypotheses that predicted leadership style and effectiveness based on racial and cultural background were rejected. the results of this study suggest that leaders from different cultural backgrounds and working in the geographical area of south africa are judged by their subordinates as acting very similarly. therefore, black or white leaders who ‘apply’ tfl are judged to be equally effective. similarly, those who ‘apply’ lfl are judged as ineffective, irrespective of race and colour. these results contradict the argument found in the literature that people of different cultures differ in terms of their perceptions and expectations of leadership effectiveness (center for creative leadership, 2012; eyong, 2017) and of what constitutes an outstanding leader (hoppe & eckert, 2012; house et al., 2014). this is, again, a very positive insight, suggesting that south african leaders, irrespective of cultural background, are experienced as similarly effective when they apply specific leadership behaviour. while the study revealed that those from different cultural backgrounds who practice leadership within south africa are similar in many respects, it has not shed light on whether the leadership behaviours displayed are distinct to africa, and this matter requires further research. based on the results of this study, it is concluded that cultural background does not have a major influence on leadership expectations and leadership effectiveness. people generally have the same expectations of leadership behaviour that inform whether the leader is perceived as effective or not. given these results (that south african leaders generally behave similarly and, when engaging in a particular style, are judged similarly), it could be asked if culture and context have a significant influence on leadership style and leader behaviour. in addition, it could be asked whether there is such a phenomenon as african leadership, and if so, what the definition thereof might be. these questions remain unanswered. researchers interested in cultural dynamics and leadership effectiveness are encouraged to conduct more scientific research, specifically quantitative research such as this, which will add to the body of knowledge and understanding of leadership within the african context. limitations of the study a central assumption in this research was that white people living in south africa are westerners and embrace western cultural practices and that black people living in south africa are africans and embrace african cultural practices. thus, white people will manage in the same manner as westerners, irrespective of their exposure to africa and black people will manage like africans, irrespective of their exposure to the west. following this approach implies ‘painting with a very broad brush’ and is considered a serious limitation of this study. another limitation of the study is that the sampling of organisations was convenient. while this is a limitation that other researchers should try to avoid, sampling within the organisations was random and this should be replicated in future studies. while there is a risk of suggesting that the sample is culturally biased, as most of the respondents were black, this notion may be put to rest as the sample is strongly representative of the south african population. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions m.l. was responsible for the literature review, data collection, data analyses and writing the first draft. r.s. was involved in the conceptualisation of the work, the methodology and the data-analyses. in terms of the literature review, r.s. played an editorial and critiquing role. ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained from the graduate school of business leadership research ethics review committee, which specifies how the project adheres to the values and principles expressed in the university of south africa’s policies on research ethics (ref. no. 2019_sbl_ac_005_fa). funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not represent the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abasilim, u.d. (2013). leadership style and organisational performance: a case study of akwa ibom water company limited. unpublished m.sc. dissertation, department of political science and public administration, university of uyo. adeniji, a., osibanjo, a., salau, o., atolagbe, t., ojebola, o., osoko, a., … edewor, o. (2020). leadership dimensions, employee engagement and job performance of selected consumer-packaged goods firms. cogent arts & humanities, 7(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2020.1801115 alabduljader, s.a. (2012). the transactional and transformational leadership in the kuwaiti commercial banks sector: which one is more applied? international journal of business and social science, 3(19), 211–219. anderson, r.d., & mccoll-kennedy, j.r. (2005). subordinate–manager gender combination and perceived leadership style influence on emotions, self-esteem and organizational commitment. journal of business research, 58(2), 115–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0148-2963(03)00112-7 areiqata, a., hamdanb, y., zamil, a.m.a., & el-horani, o. (2021). culture and leadership are simply two sides of the same coin. international journal of innovation, creativity and change, 13(4), 123–147. avolio, b.j., bass, b.m., & jung, d.i. (1999). re-examining the components of transformational and transactional leadership using the multi-factor leadership questionnaire. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 72(4), 441–462. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317999166789 avolio, b.j., & bass, s.m. (2005). multifactor leadership questionnaire (3rd ed.). menlo park, ca: mind garden. avolio, b.j., walumbwa, f., & weber, t.j. (2009). leadership: current theories, research and future directions. annual review of psychology, 60(1), 421–449. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163621 barbuto, j.e. (2005). motivation and transactional, charismatic, and transformational leadership: a test of antecedents. journal of leadership and organizational studies, 11(4), 27–40. https://doi.org/10.1177/107179190501100403 baskerville, r.f. (2003). hofstede never studied culture. accounting, organizations and society, 28(1), 1–14. retrieved from https://ssrn.com/abstract=1208863 bass, b.m. (1990). bass and stogdill’s handbook of leade rship. new york, ny: free press. bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1990). manual for the multifactor leadership questionnaire. palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1994). improving organizational effectiveness through transf ormational leadership. thousand oaks, ca: sage. bass, b.m., avolio, b.j., jung, d.i., & berson, y. (2003). predicting unit performance by assessing transformational and transactional leadership. journal of applied psychology, 88(2), 207–218. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.2.207 bass, b.m., & bass, r. (2008). the bass handbook of leadership: theory, research, and managerial applications (4th ed.). new york, ny: free press. bass, b.m., & riggio, r. (2006). transformational leadership. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. bass, b.m., & stogdill, r.m. (1990). bass & stogdill’s handbook of leadership: theory, research, and managerial applications. new york, ny: simon and schuster. beugelsdijk, s., kostova, t., kunst, v.e., spadafora, e., & van essen, m. (2018). cultural distance and firm internationalization: a meta-analytical review and theoretical implications. journal of management, 44(1), 89–130. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206317729027 beugelsdijk, s., kostova, t., & roth, k. (2017). an overview of hofstede-inspired country-level culture research in international business since 2006. journal of international business studies, 48(1), 30–47. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-016-0038-8 block, l. (2003). the leadership-culture connection: an exploratory investigation. leadership & organization development journal, 24(6), 318–334. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730310494293 bolden, r., & kirk, p. (2009). african leadership: surfacing new understandings through leadership development. international journal of cross-cultural management, 9(1), 69–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470595808101156 breevaart, k., & zacher, h. (2019). main and interactive effects of weekly transformational and laissez-faire leadership on followers’ trust in the leader and leader effectiveness. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 92(2), 384–409. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12253 burns, j.m. (1978). leadership. new york, ny: harper row. center for creative leadership. (2012). leader effectiveness and culture: the globe study. retrieved from http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/assessments/globestudy.pdf chasi, c., & levy, n. (2016). mandela and excellent african leadership: theory and lessons for practice from an appreciative thematic analysis. international journal of african renaissance studies, 11(2), 8–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/18186874.2016.1245906 chatbury, a., beaty, d., & kriek, a.s. (2011). servant leadership trust and implications for the ‘base-of-the-pyramid’ segment in south africa. south african journal of business management, 42(4), 57–61. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajbm.v42i4.505 chaudhry, a.q., & javed, h. (2012). impact of transactional and laissez-faire leadership style on motivation. international journal of business and social science, 3(7), 258–264. cicero, l., pierro, a., & van knippenberg, d. (2010). leadership and uncertainty: how role ambiguity affects the relationship between leader group prototypicality and leadership effectiveness. british journal of management, 21(2), 411–421. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2009.00648 clarke, s. (2013). safety leadership: a meta-analytic review 664 of transformational and transactional leadership styles as antecedents of safety behaviours. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 86(1), 22–49. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.2012.02064.x cohen, j. (1988). the effect size. in statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. abingdon: routledge. eliyana, a., & muzakki, s.m. (2019). job satisfaction and organizational commitment effect in the transformational leadership towards employee performance. european research on management and business economics, 25(3), 144–150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iedeen.2019.05.001 eyong, j.e. (2017). indigenous african leadership: key differences from anglo-centric thinking and writings. leadership, 13(2), 133–153. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715016663050 field, a. (2013). discovering statistics using ibm spss statistics (4th ed.). los angeles, ca: sage. flotman, a., & grobler, a. (2020). the validation of the servant leadership scale. journal of industrial psychology, 46(1). retrieved from https://journals.co.za/journal/psyc freeborough, r., & patterson, r. (2015). exploring the effect of transformational leadership on nonprofit leader engagement. servant leadership theory & practice, 7(1), 4. retrieved from https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/sltp/vol7/iss1/4/#:~:text=https%3a//csuepress.columbusstate.edu/sltp/vol7/iss1/4 gallego-álvarez, i., & pucheta-martínez, m.c. (2021). hofstede’s cultural dimensions and r&d intensity as an innovation strategy: a view from different institutional contexts. eurasian business review, 11(2), 191–220. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40821-020-00168-4 gautam, a., & enslin, e. (2019). transformational leadership and work engagement in the automotive retail industry: a study of south africa. international business research, 12(5), 133–141. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v12n5p133 greiman, b.c. (2009). transformational leadership research in agricultural education: a synthesis of the literature. journal of agricultural education, 50(4), 50–62. https://doi.org/10.5032/jae.2009.04050 guhr, n., lebek, b., & breitner, m.h. (2019). the impact of leadership on employees’ intended information security behaviour: an examination of the full-range leadership theory. information systems journal, 29(2), 340–362. https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12202 gumede, v. (2017). leadership for africa’s development: revisiting indigenous african leadership and setting the agenda for political leadership. journal of black studies, 48(1), 74–90. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934716678392 haque, a.u., & aston, j. (2016). a relationship between occupational stress and organizational commitment of it sector’s employees in contrasting economies. polish journal of management studies, 14(1), 95–105. https://doi.org/10.17512/pjms.2016.14.1.09 hofstede, g., hofstede, g.j., & minkov, m. (2010). cultures and organizations: software of the mind (3rd ed.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. hoppe, m.h., & eckert, r. (2012). leader effectiveness and culture: the globe study. center for creative leadership. retrieved from http://www.nnli.org/uploads/2/9/4/1/29412281/globesummary-by703michael-h-hoppe.pdf house, r.j., dorfman, p.w., javidan, m., hanges, p.j., & de luque, m.f.s. (2014). strategic leadership across cultures: the globe study of ceo leadership behavior and effectiveness in 24 countries. thousand oaks, ca: sage. house, r.j., hanges, p.j., javidan, m., dorfman, p.w., & gupta, v. (eds.). (2004). culture, leadership, and organizations: the globe stu dy of 62 societies. thousand oaks, ca: sage. humphreys, j.h. (2001). transformational and transactional leader behavior: the relationship with support for e-commerce and emerging technology. journal of management research, 1(3), 150–159. humphreys, j.h., zhao, d., ingram, k., gladstone, j., & basham, l. (2010). situational narcissism and charismatic leadership: a conceptual framework. journal of behavioural and applied management, 11(2), 118–126. ibm corp. (2020). ibm spss statistics for windows, version 27.0. armonk, ny: ibm corp. javidan, m., bullough, a., cotton, r., dastmalchian, a., dorfman, p.w., & egri, c. (2020). globe, 2020: the latest findings on cultural practices, culture change, and leadership ideals. academy of management. https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2020.17374symposium javidan, m., house, r.j., dorfman, p.w., hanges, p.j., & de luque, m. (2006). three lenses on the multinational enterprise: politics, corruption and corporate social responsibility. journal of international business studies, 37(6), 897–914. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400234 jones, s., lefoe, g., harvey, m., & ryland, k. (2012). synthesising theory and practice: distributed leadership in higher education. educational management administration & leadership, 42(5), 603–619. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143213510506 judge, t.a., & piccolo, r.f. (2004). transformational and transactional leadership: a meta-analytic test of their relative validity. journal of applied psychology, 89(5), 755–768. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.5.755 kaasa, a. (2021). merging hofstede, schwartz, and inglehart into a single system. journal of cross-cultural psychology, 52(4), 339–353. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220221211011244 khan, r.s., rao, b., usman, k., & afzal, s. (2017). the mediating role of job satisfaction between transformational leadership and organizational commitment within the smes of karachi. international journal of applied business and management studies, 2(1), 46–55. khan, z.a., nawaz, a., & khan, d.i. (2016). leadership theories and styles: a literature review. journal of resources development and management, 16, 1–7. khoza, r.j. (2012). the ubuntu philosophy as a conceptual framework for interpersonal rel ationships and leadership. chairman of nedbank group limited, to the ‘nedbank group technology leaders’. retrieved from reuelkhoza.co.za/ubuntu-philosophy-conceptual-framework-interpersonal-relationships739leadership khumalo, s.s. (2019). the role of transformational school leadership in promoting teacher commitment: an antecedent for sustainable development in south africa. discourse and c ommunication for sustainable education, 10(2), 22–32. https://doi.org/10.2478/dcse-2019-0015 kirkman, b.l., lowe, k.b., & gibson, c.b. (2006). a quarter century of culture’s consequences: a review of empirical research incorporating hofstede’s cultural values framework. journal of international business studies, 37(3), 285–320. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400202 klasing, m.j. (2013). cultural dimensions, collective values and their importance for institutions. journal of comparative economics, 41(2), 447–467. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jce.2012.09.003 ledimo, o. (2014). the role of transformational leadership and organisational leadership in service delivery within a public service organisation. journal of governance and regulation, 3(3), 44–51. https://doi.org/10.22495/jgr_v3_i3_p5 lee, j. (2005). effects of leadership and leader-member exchange on commitment. leadership organization development journal, 26(8), 655–672. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730510633728 lerutla, d.m., & steyn, r. (2017). definition of leadership in africa within the twenty-first century context: empirical research on leadership in africa. alteration: special edition, 20, 9–36. https://doi.org/10.29086/2519-5476/2017/sp20a2 littrell, r.m., & nkomo, s.m. (2005). gender and race differences in leader behaviour preferences in south africa. women in management review, 20(8), 562–580. https://doi.org/10.1108/09649420510635204 louw, l., muriithi, s.m., & radloff, s. (2017). the relationship between transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness in kenyan indigenous banks. south african journal of human resource management, 15(7), a935. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.935 mackenzie, s.b., podsakoff, p.m., & rich, g.a. (2001). transformational and transactional leadership and salesperson performance. journal of the academy of marketing science, 29(2), 115–134. https://doi.org/10.1177/03079459994506 mahdinezhad, m., suandi, t.b., silong, a.d., & omar, z.b. (2013). transformational, transactional leadership styles and job performance of academic leaders. international education studies, 6(11), 29. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v6n11p29 mangaliso, m. (2001). building a competitive advantage from ubuntu: management lessons from south africa. academy of management executive, 15(3), 23–33. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1762783 mbigi, l. (2000). in search of the african business renaissance: an african cultural perspective. randburg: knowledge resources. metz, t. (2018). an african theory of good leadership. african journal of business ethics, 12(2), 36–53. https://doi.org/10.15249/12-2-204 minkov, m. (2018). a revision of hofstede’s model of national culture: old evidence and new data from 56 countries. cross cultural & strategic management, 25(2), 231–256. https://doi.org/10.1108/ccsm-77803-2017-0033 minkov, m., & hofstede, g. (2012). hofstede’s fifth dimension: new evidence from the world values survey. journal of cross-cultural psychology, 43(1), 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022110388567 molose, m., goldman, g., & thomas, p. (2018). towards a collective-values framework of ubuntu: implications for workplace commitment. entrepreneurial business and economics review, 6(3), 193–206. https://doi.org/10.15678/eber.2018.060312 muchiri, m.k. (2011). leadership in context: a review and research agenda for sub-saharan africa. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 84(3), 440–452. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.2011.02018.x muller, r.j., smith, e.e., & lillah, r. (2019). perceptions regarding the impact of ubuntu and servant leadership on employee engagement in the workplace. journal of contemporary management, 16(1), 20–51. https://doi.org/10.35683/jcm17104.0004 ndlovu, w., ngirandi, h., setati, s.t., & zhuwao, s. (2018). transformational leadership and employee organizational commitment in a rural-based higher education institution in south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 16(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.984 norris, k.r., ghahremani, h., & lemoine, g.j. (2021). is it laissez-faire leadership or delegation? a deeper examination of an over-simplified leadership phenomenon. journal of leadership and organisational studies, 28(3), 322–339. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051821997407 northouse, p.g. (2016). leadership: theory and practice (8th ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory (2nd ed.). new york, ny: mcgraw hill. odumero, j.a., & ifeanyi, g.o. (2013). transformational vs transactional leadership theories: evidence in literature. international review of management and business research, 2(2), 355–801. olatunji, a., makhosazana, a., & vezi-magigaba, f. (2021). the impact of organisational culture on performance of smes: a case study of smes within umhlathuze municipality. multicultural education, 7(8), 68–79. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5167658 olowookere, e.i., agoha, b.c., omonijo, d.o., odukoya, j.a., & elegbeleye, a.o. (2021). cultural nuances in work attitudes and behaviors: towards a model of african work culture. academic journal of interdisciplinary studies, 10(2), 259. https://doi.org/10.36941/ajis-2021-0056 minkov, m. (2018). a revision of hofstede’s model of national culture: old evidence and new data from 56 countries. cross cultural & strategic management, 25(2), 231–256. https://doi.org/10.1108/ccsm-03-2017-0033 pallant, j. (2020). spss survival manual. a step by step guide to data analysis using ibm spss (7th ed.). london: routledge. parry, k., & proctor-thomson, s. (2002). leadership, culture and performance: the case of the new zealand public sector. journal of change management, 3(4), 376–399. https://doi.org/10.1080/714023843 pearce, c.l., & sims, h.p., jr. (2002). vertical versus shared leadership as predictors of the effectiveness of change management teams: an examination of aversive, directive, transactional, transformational, and empowering leader behaviors. group dynamics: theory, research, and practice, 6(2), 172–197. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2699.6.2.172 posner, b.z. (2012). it’s how leaders behave that matters, not where they are from. leadership & organisational development journal, 34(6), 573–587. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-11-2011-0115 robbins, s.p., & judge, t.a. (2013). organizational behavior (15th ed.). boston, ma: pearson. robert, v., & vandenberghe, c. (2020). laissez-faire leadership and affective commitment: the roles of leader-member exchange and subordinate relational self-concept. journal of business and psychology, 36(4), 533–551. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-020-09700-9 rowald, j., & scholtz, w. (2009). transformational and transactional leadership and followers’ chronic stress. leadership review, 9, 35–48. shah, m.m., & hamid, k.b. (2015). transactional leadership and job performance: an empirical investigation. iba journal of management and business, 2(2), 69–81. https://doi.org/10.30537/sijmb.v2i2.94 skogstad, a., einarsen, s., torsheim, t., aasland, m.s., & hetland, h. (2007). the destructiveness of laissez-faire leadership behavior. journal of occupational health psychology, 12(1), 80–92. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.12.1.80 skogstad, a., hetland, j., glasø, l., & einarsen, s. (2014). is avoidant leadership a root cause of subordinate stress? longitudinal relationships between laissez-faire leadership and role ambiguity. work & stress, 28(4), 323–341. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2014.957362 sundi, k. (2013). effect of transformational leadership and transactional leadership on employee performance of konawe education. international journal of business and management invention, 2(12), 50–58. tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2019). using multivariate statistics (7th ed.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson. tkeshelashvili, n. (2009). the effects of culture on the leadership style in georgia. ibsu scientific journal, 3(2), 115–129. tosunoglu, h., & ekmekci, o.t. (2016). laissez-faire leaders and organizations: how does laissez-faire leaders erode the trust in organizations? journal of economics, finance and accounting, 3(1), 89–98. https://doi.org/10.17261/pressacademia.2016116538 van linden, j., & fertman, c.i. (1998). youth leadership: a guide to understanding leadership development in adolescents. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. vera, d., & crossan, m. (2004). strategic leadership and organizational learning. academy of management review, 29(2), 222–240. https://doi.org/10.2307/20159030 voon, m.l., lo, m.c., ngui, k.s., & ayob, n.b. (2011). the influence of leadership styles on employees’ job satisfaction in public sector organizations in malaysia. international journal of business, management and social sciences, 2(1), 24–32. wanasika, i., howell, j.p., littrell, r., & dorfman, p. (2011). managerial leadership and culture in sub-saharan africa. journal of world business, 46(2), 234–241. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2010.11.004 wang, g., oh, i., courtright, s.h., & colbert, a.e. (2011). transformational leadership and performance across criteria and levels: a meta-analytic review of 25 years of research. group & organization management, 36(2), 223–270. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601111401017 wegner, l. (2004). organizational leaders and empowered employees: the relationship between leadership styles, perception of styles, and the impact on organizational outcomes. doctoral dissertation, capella university, minneapolis, mn. wong, s.i., & giessner, s.r. (2018). the thin line between empowering and laissez-faire leadership: an expectancy-match perspective. journal of management, 44(2), 757–783. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206315574597 xenikou, a. (2017). transformational leadership, transactional contingent reward, and organizational identification: the mediating effect of perceived innovation and goal culture orientations. frontiers in psychology, 8, 1754. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01754 xu, e., huang, x., lam, c.k., & miao, q. (2012). abusive supervision and work behaviors: the mediating role of lmx. journal of organisational behaviour, 33(4), 531–543. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.768 yasir, m., imran, r., irshad, m.k., mohamad, n.a., & khan, m.m. (2016). leadership styles in relation to employees’ trust and organizational change capacity. sage open, 6(4), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244016675396 yukl, g. (2002). leadership in organizations (5th ed.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson/prentice hall. footnote 1. south africa was classified as ‘south africa – black’. s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent erratum a rticle #202 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur http://www.sajhrm.co.za erratum for buys, c., & rothmann, s. (2009). job demands and job resources in the ministry. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur 7(1), art. #202, 10 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.202 sajhrm vol. 7 no. 1 p. 127-136 received: 05 mar. 2009 accepted: 30 july 2009 published: 09 sept. 2009 the author presents his apology for the error in the presentation of the affiliation of chenell buys. the article author details should read as follows: authors: chenell buys1 sebastiaan rothmann2,3 affiliations: 1school of human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, south africa 2school of behavioural sciences, north-west university, south africa 3department of human science, university of namibia, namibia note: this research was carried out as part of chenell buys’s ph.d degree, completed at north-west university, potchefstroom campus abstract introduction research design research method results discussion practical implications limitations of the study recommendations conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) gloria s. tshwane department of people management and development, faculty of management sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa molefe j. maleka office of deputy vice chancellor, teaching and learning, faculty of management sciences, tshwane university of technology, emalahleni, south africa portia m. tladi dean’s office, faculty of management sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa citation tshwane, g.s., maleka, m.j., & tladi, p.m. (2023). investigating turnover intention in a financial organisation in gauteng. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2177. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2177 original research investigating turnover intention in a financial organisation in gauteng gloria s. tshwane, molefe j. maleka, portia m. tladi received: 11 nov. 2022; accepted: 29 mar. 2023; published: 23 may 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: losing employees prompts organisational competitiveness, which leads to increased financial organisation costs related to talent acquisition. research purpose: this study aimed to determine the relationship between authentic leadership and turnover intention and establish whether job satisfaction mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and turnover intention. additionally, this study endeavoured to establish if the relation between authentic leadership, job satisfaction, and turnover intention is higher among post-grade 12 employees than those with grade 12 and lower qualifications. motivation for the study: there is limited research in the gauteng financial sector concerning how job satisfaction is mediated and how education has diminished the relationship between authentic leadership and alleviating turnover intention. research approach/design and method: this study was influenced by the positivism paradigm and was quantitative, using an online survey to collect the data. the final sample consisted of 85 respondents. main findings: it was also established that authentic leadership did not significantly relate to turnover intention, while job satisfaction was a mediator between authentic leadership and turnover intention. practical/managerial implications: the significance of the study is that when employees are satisfied with leadership support, they provide honest and truthful feedback. this is especially true when employees work in an inclusive and harmonious work environment; thus, their turnover intention diminishes. this is very positive for finance organisations, which will incur talent acquisition costs as intention does not result in resignation. contribution/added value: this study developed a framework on how authentic leadership and job satisfaction indicators can diminish turnover intention. keywords: authentic leadership; educational level; financial organisation; job satisfaction; turnover intention. introduction human resource management (hrm) and business management literature reflect a situation whereby organisations worldwide deal with a significant problem referred to as turnover intention (maloba & pillay-naidoo, 2022). monyaki et al. (2022) defined turnover intention as an employee’s willingness to leave their current job voluntarily. employee turnover has been escalating within the financial sector since 2012; one of its significant drivers is employee dissatisfaction due to increased workload (al jamil et al., 2022). another predictor of turnover intention is related to poor and toxic leadership (ntseke et al., 2022). toxic leaders significantly and negatively impact employees and work outcomes (hattab et al., 2022; yavas, 2016), which include low satisfaction and higher employee turnover intentions (paltu & brouwers, 2020). it has been established that a toxic leader can be a positive driver of employees’ turnover intention (redelinghuys et al., 2020). a study conducted in indonesia determined that toxic leadership enhanced turnover intention by 33% (iqbal et al., 2022). furthermore, a similar trend was observed among south african non-financial service organisations (engelbrecht & samuel, 2019). however, it also emerged in other research that the finance industry concluded that employees did not intend to resign because they reported to authentic leaders who were transparent and fostered constructive engagement while being receptive to diverse views (olckers et al., 2020). moreover, toxic leaders are inclined to have a negative impact on employees and organisations (zaabi et al., 2018); thus, the presence of a toxic leader tends to create a stressful work atmosphere. according to coban (2021), employees working under toxic leaders often become extremely dissatisfied with their jobs and dread going to work; thus, these toxic leaders facilitate an environment whereby employees’ intention to leave increases. similarly, labrague et al. (2020) discovered that employees who work for supportive leaders tend to have lower turnover intentions when compared to those who work under toxic leaders. a south african study conducted in the non-financial sector presented that job satisfaction indicators, such as supervisor support, reward and compensation, and recognition, reduced turnover intention by 11% (lesenyeho et al., 2018). from an hrm perspective, a range of different indicators result in employees being either satisfied with their job. barkhuizen and gumede (2021) included indicators such as supervision, rewards, policies, recognition, fringe benefits, job security, talent development and compensation that influence employees’ intention to leave or remain with an organisation. another study revealed that employees who were satisfied with their jobs tended to perform better, leading to increased job security in the organisation for a sustainable period of years. however, at the same time, dissatisfied workers experienced intentions to leave the organisation. in essence, satisfied workers demonstrate positive attitudes, feel more comfortable and become loyal to the company (gebregziabher et al., 2020). hennicks et al. (2022) mentioned that the nature of the work also appears to be a significant indicator of job satisfaction. moreover, workers who actually receive feedback perceive their work as being exciting and challenging, while those who receive adequate remuneration are often presented with promotional opportunities. therefore, these employees develop positive relationships with co-workers (coetzee & bester, 2021) and tend to have a high job satisfaction level, which prompts them to remain with the organisation. educational level has also been positively linked with turnover intention because employees who are more educated are often more likely to leave (sabei et al., 2020). elian et al. (2020) noted that employees with a higher level of education who work in financial organisations are more likely to resign than employees with lower educational levels. more specifically, employees who are more highly educated often have higher expectations of their current employer, which means that fulfilling their needs becomes much more difficult. leadership and job satisfaction are, therefore, critical to reducing employee turnover intention within a financial services organisation. accordingly, employees who were well-educated were the ones who intended to leave or left the organisation. this observation is similar to the findings of a study conducted by de gieter and hofmans (2015) at a belgian financial institution. the researchers’ observations and de gieter and hofmans’ findings provided the other motivations that drove the researchers to conduct this study so as to provide a practical or managerial and theoretical contribution that relates to the situation in the south african context. people with a higher education level generally exhibit higher expectations regarding financial rights, benefits and auditing than employees with a lower educational level. the research mentioned here reflects contradictory findings; however, these findings still encourage further research into how leadership and job satisfaction influence turnover intention. moreover, it can be argued that most of these studies were not conducted in relation to finance organisations operating in gauteng. hence, this study was conducted to close the gap and contribute to the body of knowledge involving the intent to quit. to create new insights and knowledge related to turnover intention, the authors conducted this study involving a finance organisation in gauteng, which was having a problem relevant to intentions leading to the actual resignation. this organisation’s annual report, which was not cited in this study due to a confidentiality clause signed by the authors, did indicate that educated employees were leaving. however, prior to this study, it was unclear to what extent managers, job satisfaction indicators (i.e. working conditions, benefits and job security) and education levels contributed to turnover intention. objectives of the study the study objectives are as follows: to investigate the relationship between authentic leadership and turnover intention. to establish if job satisfaction has a mediating impact on the relationship between authentic leadership and turnover intention. to establish if the relationship between authentic leadership, job satisfaction and turnover intention is higher in the group of employees with a post-grade 12 education as compared to those with grade 12 and lower qualifications. literature review human resource management is defined as a field that involves talent acquisition, onboarding, rewards and benefits, employment relations, organisational development, talent development and retention (maleka, 2012). human resource management is also related to social justice, which means that leadership must treat employees fairly and equitably when interacting with subordinates. an hrm turnover intention framework proposed for this study is depicted in figure 1. figure 1: proposed study model. various authentic leadership examples have been included in this study, which also represent a variable for this study (refer to figure 1). in addition, ‘authentic leader’ was chosen for this study, because authentic leaders are ethical and possess technical and interpersonal competencies; they are also trustworthy (chen & sriphon, 2022). in addition, previous leadership literature and practitioners emphasised the significance of authentic leaders being true to themselves, primarily because they possess positive attributes, such as honesty and sincerity, and deliberative of their values (ramalu & janadari, 2020). it has also been found that authentic leaders are very resilient when overcoming hardships and instil these characteristics in their followers (smith, 2019). due to these attributes, authentic leaders keep employees invigorated, dedicated, committed and satisfied (arsawan et al., 2022). relationship between authentic leadership and turnover intention authentic leadership has been described as a leader’s competencies and capacity to work with employees to foster positive development (iqbal et al., 2020). this involves focusing on their leadership style. meanwhile, they can enhance employees’ commitment and behaviours, which might have a positive effect on their performance (iqbal et al., 2018). additionally, authentic leadership is relevant to the leader’s competencies and abilities to work with employees and foster positive development (iqbal et al., 2018). moreover, authentic leaders create a supportive work environment, which, in turn, reduces employees’ turnover intentions and instil positive attitudes and behaviour in subordinates (alkadash, 2020). previously, it has been established that employees reporting to authentic leaders experience less turnover intention (hwang et al., 2022) and are transparent in making decisions (fox et al., 2020). additionally, authentic leaders have been found to diminish employees’ turnover intentions because they treat employees well (puni & hilton, 2020). such managers tend to connect with employees emotionally (ribeiro et al., 2020), have excellent listening skills and base their decisions on data, not hearsay (kaya & karatepe, 2020; wong et al., 2020). lastly, iqbal et al. (2018) ascertained that employees who worked under authentic leadership reported no intention to resign because they were supported even when they were under pressure. in this study, the following was hypothesised: h1: authentic leadership negatively predicts turnover intention. job satisfaction as a mediator between authentic leadership and turnover intention hair et al. (2022) opined that a mediator is a third variable that affects the direct relationship between two variables. the same authors added that mediation occurs when the relationship between the independent, mediator and dependent variables is significant. suifan et al.’s (2017) theoretical framework forms a comparative and positive relationship between authentic leadership and job satisfaction and employee development. it emphasises the central role of authentic leaders in facilitating employees’ development opportunities and enabling satisfaction with work. moreover, it has been found that authentic leaders have a positive impact on employees’ turnover intention, thus abating turnover within the financial sector (novianti & fuadiputra, 2021). additionally, authentic leadership has been considered an essential component for creating a motivational and productive work environment. in short, authentic leadership has a highly significant impact on job satisfaction (yamak & eyupoglu, 2021). recent research revealed that empowering and supportive leaders have been related to improved work effectiveness and job satisfaction outcomes. similarly, sultana et al. (2018) demonstrated that authentic leadership positively and significantly influenced job satisfaction, suggesting that authentic leaders increase job satisfaction and significantly lower turnover intention. job satisfaction is one of the primary determinants that influences turnover intention (gebregziabher et al., 2020). accordingly, studies revealed that employees who are satisfied with their development and advancement opportunities are less likely to consider leaving the organisation (zhang & fang, 2016). in a study examining the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention, the researchers found a significant relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention (andresen et al., 2017). similarly, suifan et al. (2017) reported a significant negative relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention. there are several job satisfaction indicators that tend to decrease employees’ turnover intention. for example, ekhsan (2019) established that strategies such as job rotation and appropriate workload are essential to reducing employee turnover intentions. in some instances, it has been discovered that managers who create a conducive work environment and reward employees for performing well reduce turnover intention (ekhsan, 2019). moreover, recognising employees and offering them training opportunities are indicative of effective strategies for reducing employee turnover intentions (pratama et al., 2022). similarly, managers who create a conducive work environment and encourage effective teamwork activities have also significantly minimised turnover intention (hidayat et al., 2021). research showed a mediated inverse relationship between employee satisfaction and turnover. high job satisfaction seems to help maintain a low turnover, while, on the other hand, high job dissatisfaction is likely to result in high turnover (asriani & riyanto, 2020). in addition, munyaka et al. (2017) discovered that job satisfaction mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and turnover intention. hence the following hypothesis was made: h2: job satisfaction is a mediator between authentic leadership and turnover intention. education as a moderator between authentic leadership and turnover intention leite (2022) defined education as a deliberate action to impart knowledge, skills and attitudes or structured learning through intentional or unintentional efforts. in this study, education relates to the general and further education and training sub-framework (grade 9 to grade 12) and the higher education qualification sub-framework (higher certificate to doctorate) (maleka, 2020). this study categorised education as grades 9 to 12 and certificate to doctorate. previous studies have indicated that the degree of education is one of the demographic factors that consistently correlates with turnover intentions. according to a survey by naidoo (2018), education moderates leadership and employee intent; thus, employees who were educated either intended to leave or left the organisation. this result is similar to a study conducted at a belgian financial institution by de gieter and hofmans (2015). the third hypothesis of the study is, therefore, as follows: h3: the relationship between authentic leadership, job satisfaction and turnover intention is higher among employees in the post-grade 12 group as compared to those with grade 12 and lower qualifications. figure 1 shows the proposed study model of the research. research design research approach a quantitative and cross-sectional research design was selected for this study. the quantitative approach was utilised to test correlations between variables in this research (du plooy-cilliers et al., 2019), while this study used the census sample approach because the sample size was less than 500 (bothma & roodt, 2013). research method research participants one hundred (n = 100) employees at the selected financial services organisation responded to the online survey. fifteen (n = 15) respondents were deleted as they failed to complete the questionnaire in its entirety. hence, the final sample consisted of 85 employees, which comprised 34% of the target population within the 10% to 50% response rate, as suggested by neumann (2000). the respondents were collectively categorised as totalling 76.5% female and 22.4% male. the majority of respondents (74.1%) were between the ages of 18 and 30, while 2.4% were between the ages of 51 and 65. most respondents (56.5%) had a grade 12 educational level, and 5.9% had bachelor’s degrees. as regards the tenure, 62.4% of respondents had 1 to 5 years of experience, while 5.9% had over 6 years of experience. research instruments this study used a web-based online questionnaire to collect data. the research questionnaire was divided into two sections. section a contained demographic data such as gender, age, length of service and education. section b was used to measure authentic leadership, job satisfaction and turnover intention. authentic leadership was measured through a scale adopted by walumbwa et al. (2008) consisting of 19 items (α = 0.89). ‘i often consider quitting my job’ is one authentic leadership item measured in this. the assessment related to job satisfaction was provided through the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire, consisting of 20 items. one of job satisfaction items measured is, ‘i am satisfied about the working conditions’. the turnover intention was measured through the scale adopted by sjöberg and sverke (2000) and composed of five items (beukes, 2019). herewith is one of the turnover intentions measured in this study, ‘i often consider quitting my job’. all the items were rated on a five-point likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). prior south african research on turnover intention and job satisfaction showed cronbach’s alphas of 0.93 and 0.96 (mccallaghan et al., 2020). research procedure the faculty of management sciences issued ethical research clearance at tshwane university of technology (tut). the selected organisation permitted the authors to conduct the research study. in compliance with ethical principles, the researcher ensured that the respondents’ briefing communication regarding the study’s objective and methods was fair, honest and open. respondents indicated their voluntary participation by clicking through the online questionnaire (bester & engelbrecht, 2009). they were also informed about the research objectives before participating (connaway & powell, 2010). finally, the respondents’ anonymity was guaranteed, because the type of online questionnaire used made it impossible to identify individual respondents. statistical analysis this study utilised descriptive statistics to determine the respondents’ demographic variables by using frequencies. diverse inferential statistics were conducted. firstly, reliability and validity statistics were conducted. in order to achieve the former, cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability were calculated, and a cut-off of 0.7 was used (hair et al., 2017). in addition, the average variance extracted (ave) and the cut-off was used to ascertain convergent validity. in addition, an ave score of 0.5 demonstrates that convergent validity has been achieved (henseler et al., 2015). the heterotrait-monotrait (htmt) was calculated to determine discriminant validity. heterotrait-monotrait is defined as the ‘mean of all correlations of indicators across constructs measuring different constructs’ (hair et al., 2022, p. 312). secondly, confirmatory tetrad analysis (cta) was conducted to determine whether the structural equation model (sem) was reflective or not. hair et al. (2022) explained that cta is a statistical procedure used to ascertain whether indicators are formatively and reflectively set up. in a reflective sem model, the arrows point from the construct to the indicators (hair et al., 2017). in the former, the arrows point from the indicators to the construct, while in the reflective model, the arrows point from the latent construct to the indicators or items. in this study, the bonferroni-adjusted bootstrap confidence levels included zero for determining that the model was reflective. conversely, model indicators are formative if they are 90% bias-correlated, while the bonferroni-adjusted bootstrap confidence levels should include zero (hair et al., 2018). in order to calculate the tetrads, 5000 samples were bootstrapped. field (2018, p. 1009) opined that bootstrapping is a sampling distribution statistic ‘estimated by taking the repeated sample from the dataset’. once it was determined through cta that the model was reflective, this assessment procedure adhered to the following. firstly, the variance inflation factor (vif), which is a statistical technique to determine multicollinearity, was calculated. indicators with values above five were deleted. secondly, p-value, t-statistics and confidence intervals were used to assess model significance. if the relationship was 0.05 or 5% or less (hoyle, 1995; kline, 2010), the relationship was deemed significant. a threshold of −2 and + 2 indicated that the data were not significant in terms of confidence intervals. the relationship was deemed insignificant if it included zero, meaning that the upper and lower intervals had opposite directions. conversely, if the results did not include zero, it indicated that the data were significant (tabachnick & fidell, 2013). thirdly, to assess the explanatory power, the r-squared was calculated. fourthly, to determine the model’s predictive power, blindfolding, which is a resampling technique that computes q2, was used to calculate the reflective model’s predictive power (hair et al., 2022). structural equation model was calculated by determining the direct and indirect effects. the former relates to bivariate relationships, where an arrow with a single pointer points from an independent to dependent variable. an independent variable is a variable that influences the other variable (saunders et al., 2019). this study’s independent variable was authentic leadership, and the dependent variable represents turnover intention. hair et al. (2022) opined that full mediation occurs when the direct effect is insignificant, and the indirect is significant. the same authors are of the view that partial mediation occurs when the direct and indirect effects are significant. when the indirect effects are not significant, mediation does not take place. therefore, job satisfaction is the mediator in this study. the other inferential statistical conducted was multigroup analysis (mga). cheah et al. (2020) postulated that mga is a form of moderation where the moderator that is being used is dichotomous. the mga approach was employed to assess moderation across multiple relationships. multigroup analysis tests predefined data groups to ascertain significant differences across specific group parameter estimates (hair et al., 2017). the groups that were compared were grade 9 to grade 12 and certificates to doctorate. the data were analysed in statistical packages for the social sciences (spss) version 26 and smartpls version 3. the former was used to conduct the sample distribution discussed in the section ‘research participants’, while the latter was used to address the study’s objectives. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the tshwane university of technology faculty of management sciences research ethics committee (fcre-eco) (no. frce2020/fr/04/004 – ms[2]). results the researchers conducted exploratory factor analysis (efa) in spss, and because the sample was less than 150, as pallant (2016) suggested, the data did not converge. the rationale for conducting efa was to extract factors that could be used to conduct bivariate or correlational analysis. that being the case, the data were analysed in smartpls, which has the following capabilities: calculating the measurement model (i.e.. indicator loading, cronbach’s alpha composite reliability and ave); the sem (i.e. to test the direct and mediation relationship) and mga (i.e. moderation analysis). thus, calculating the direct (bi-variate correlation analysis) relationship, mediation relationship and moderation analysis can be classified as inferential statistics. inferential statistics measurement model in order to determine validity and reliability, a measurement model was used (refer to table 1; it also lists the indicator loadings). the authentic leadership indicators with the highest loading (0.82) were b18 and b9, while job satisfaction indicators with the highest loading (0.84) were b25 and b37. the turnover intention indicator with the highest loading (0.95) was b43. the constructs, cronbach’s alpha, and composite reliability scores were above the 0.7 threshold as suggested by hair et al. (2022). based on the data in table 1, it can be argued that convergence validity was achieved. table 1: convergence validity. heterotrait-monotrait is a statistical technique employed to measure discriminant validity. according to the data in table 2, none of the correlation values exceeded the threshold of 0.90, and none of the upper-bound confidence intervals was above the threshold of 0.85. this infers non-discriminant validity issues. because the data showed that convergence and discriminant validity were achieved, the researchers discuss the structural equation modelling next. table 2: heterotrait-monotrait results. structural equation model structural equation model was conducted to address study objectives 1 and 2. the average vifs shown in table 3 are the five thresholds, which suggest no collinearity issues. the same authors opined that, in determining the model fit, the standardised root mean square residual (srmr) value should be less than 0.12. the srmr in table 3 is 0.08, suggesting model fit. table 3: predictive power, collinearity and model fit indices. model specification it was visibly clear from the data listed in table 4 that no job satisfaction tetrads included zero. therefore, the job satisfaction indicator did not include zero. table 4: confirmatory tetrad analysis. the direct effects are displayed in table 5. only the relationship between authentic leadership and turnover intention was not significant. it was insignificant because the t-statistic (1.80) was within the –2 to 2 range, and the confidence intervals included zero [−0.57, 0.21]. based on this result, h1 is not supported. table 5: direct effects. mediation is calculated by multiplying the coefficient of a times coefficient b. in table 5, the coefficient of a is 0.41 (authentic leadership -> job satisfaction), and the coefficient of b is −0.54 (job satisfaction -> turnover intention). the product of multiplying them (0.41 * −0.54) is −0.22. the mediation score is significant because the t-statistics (3.23) falls outside the –2 to 2 range and the confidence interval did not include zero [−0.38, −0.11]. it can be argued that full mediation occurred because the direct effects were insignificant. based on these findings, h2 is supported. the calculation of the total effects entails adding the direct and indirect effects. this study calculated the total effects of authentic leadership -> turnover intention as follows: −0.12 + (−0.22) = −0.39. not all the total effects resulting from the t-statistics (4.31) fell within the –2 to +2 range and the confidence intervals did not include zero [−0.58, −0.23]; thus, the results were deemed significant. the statistical model of the study is depicted in figure 2. figure 2: job satisfaction as a mediator between authentic leadership and turnover intention. multigroup analysis to address the third goal of the study objective, mga was conducted. as can be observed in table 6, the results are not significant. the path correlation scores not shown in table 6 were as follows: authentic leadership to job satisfaction – r = 0.402, m = [−0.411, 0.372]; authentic leadership to turnover intention – r = −0.063, [−0.422, 0.423] and job satisfaction to turnover intention – r = −0.568, [−0.335, 0.324]. table 6: multigroup analysis means and variances. before testing h3, it was confirmed that each group had a minimum of 10 respondents. because there were 52 respondents from grades 9 to 12 and 33 respondents in the certificate to doctorate group, mga was conducted. a bootstrap with 5000 samples was calculated. as can be observed in table 7, all p-values exceeded 5%, which means that h3 cannot be supported. table 7: multigroup analysis results. discussion this study aimed to determine the relationship between authentic leadership and turnover intention and establish if job satisfaction mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and turnover intention. it also ascertained the moderating effect of education on the relationship between authentic leadership and turnover intention. this study also created insights using under-researched employees at an organisation within the financial sector. moreover, the study revealed that authentic leadership diminished turnover intention, even though the relationship was insignificant. a plausible reason is that the relationship was very weak (−0.12). this finding is consistent with the literature (sultana et al., 2018). it was also verified that authentic leaders diminished turnover intention because they treated employees with fairness and equity (puni & hilton, 2020), connected with employees emotionally (ribeiro et al., 2020), had excellent listening skills and based their decisions on data, not hearsay (kaya & karatepe, 2020; wong et al., 2020). in addition, other scholars established that employees reporting under authentic leadership did not have an intention to resign, because such leaders also supported them when they were under pressure (iqbal et al., 2018). another contribution of this study is that it showed that job satisfaction mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and turnover intention. the literature revealed that employees reporting to an authentic leader were satisfied because this type of leader is motivational, empowering and supportive (sultana et al., 2018). in addition, authentic leaders satisfy followers because they provide a clear strategic direction and possess technical competencies to solve operational challenges (chen & sriphon, 2022). moreover, the literature revealed that job satisfaction indicators, job rotation and proper workload are essential to reduce employee turnover (ekhsan, 2019). consistent with the literature, this study demonstrated that job satisfaction diminishes turnover intention (gebregziabher et al., 2020). the relationship was negative and significant (−0.54). another indicator that diminishes turnover intention is when managers create a conducive work environment and reward employees for performing well. such managers diminish employees’ turnover intention because they encourage employees’ development and advancement opportunities (dodanwala & santoso, 2021; pratama et al., 2022; zhang & fang, 2016). in addition, such managers create a conducive working environment in which culture is combined to achieve departmental objectives (modaresnezhad et al., 2021). it was previously determined that, within the financial sector, employees with the highest qualification had a high propensity to resign (elian et al., 2020). other than poor working conditions or working under toxic leaders, educated employees had a turnover intention due to the high demands imposed upon them within the financial labour market (de gieter & hofmans, 2015). the downside of losing educated and skilled workers is that the financial organisation loses its competitive edge and incurs the cost of attracting talented and educated employees (cooke et al., 2022). not only do they incur talent acquisition costs, but also talent development costs (bussin, 2018). practical implications one of the study’s practical implications is the determination that employees are less likely to resign when they are satisfied with the organisation’s policies. factors such as retention and work-life balance policies, paying above the median or 50th percentile, authentic leaders who recognise and support employees, and offering benefits such as training and development reduce turnover intention (bussin, 2018). oh (2020) ascertained that employees were satisfied and did not have turnover intentions, because management implemented talent acquisition and diversity policies that were consistent and transparent. this information shows that policies alone are sufficient to reduce turnover intention; however, managers and supervisors still play a role in implementing such policies. another practical implication of this study is that it has been determined that giving employees regular feedback and supporting them when under pressure play a salient role in diminishing turnover intention. an additional positive spin-off is that such employees support managers’ strategic goals or objectives (rawashdeh et al., 2022). furthermore, subordinates of managers who are recognised and praised for performing well do not focus their efforts on looking for employment opportunities elsewhere (chênevert et al., 2022). an additional implication is that when employees feel satisfied and have high job security, they will not seek another position; thus, their intention to exit the company will be lower. hu et al. (2022) discovered that fringe benefits, including paid annual leave, paid sick leave, maternity leave, insurance plans and retirement accounts, played a vital role in reducing turnover intention. the study’s final practical implication is that employees are less likely to leave their jobs for reasons other than retirement when they are satisfied with leadership support (brewer et al., 2022). limitations of the study despite this study’s theoretical and methodological contribution, it has several limitations. firstly, it cannot be generalised to the whole organisation because it was conducted only in the gauteng branch. secondly, the study was limited to a single financial services company; therefore, the results cannot be generalised to other organisations in the financial services sector. thirdly, this study also used a small sample size; hence, a non-parametric sem was used. this can be attributed to collecting the data during coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19). further data could not be collected because the first author was retrenched when the organisation reduced labour costs. finally, the data collection was cross-sectional and provided only a once-off picture of the relationship among the variables. it must also be noted that the authors are not claiming that smartpls version 3 is not credible. in fact, it has advanced functions like cta, which are not available in other data analysis software programs such as spss and stata. recommendations similar studies can be performed in other sectors in the future. it is further recommended to generalise the results. this can be achieved if other researchers use a larger sample when testing the relationships between variables in this study so that external validity can be achieved and the results can be generalised. a mixed-method research design can further assist researchers in the future in triangulating results. the following recommendations are suggested for management at the selected financial services organisation: managers should be exposed to leadership intervention with authentic leadership indicators. managers should attend leadership interventions focusing on scenario planning and decision-making based on data. the rewards or fringe benefits should be reviewed at specific intervals to determine their relevance. the organisation should encourage managers to informally recognise employees if there is no budget to implement a formal recognition programme. managers should delegate and rotate employees so that they can develop various competencies (cross-training) needed by the organisation. managers should be encouraged to continuously furnish employees with feedback about organisational changes and performance. conclusion the results of this study can empower hrm practitioners working in talent acquisition and line managers to reduce turnover intention. the findings further reflect that managers and leaders who listen, are objective and make decisions based on data, and are ethical and give continuous feedback actually enhance employee satisfaction and diminish turnover intention. another conclusion that can be drawn from the data is that a leader with both technical and soft skills plays a salient role in maintaining employee satisfaction and diminishing their turnover intention. furthermore, this study established that job satisfaction explained the variance of turnover intention by 41%. finally, it is concluded that indicators such as supervisors who treat employees well, as well as praising, recognising, giving regular feedback and offering employees an opportunity to work with other employees, diminish employees’ turnover intentions. acknowledgements this article is part of gloria setjwane tshwane master’s dissertation. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions g.s.t., m.j.m. and p.m.t. contributed to the design and implementation of the research, analysis of the results and writing of the manuscript. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the author, m.m. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references al jamil, m.a.w.a., setiawan, m., & juwita, h.a.w. (2022). investigating factors predicting employees’ turnover intention: an empirical study on islamic banking industry. international journal of research in business and social science, 11(5), 261–272. https://doi.org/10.20525/ijrbs.v11i5.1873 alkadash, t.m. (2020). mediating role between authentic leadership, organizational commitment on talents turnover intention: in palestine higher education. test engineering & management, 83, 5320–5341. andresen, i.h., hansen, t., & grov, e.k. (2017). norwegian nurse quality of life, job satisfaction, as well as intention to change jobs. nordic journal of nursing research, 37(2), 90–99. https://doi.org/10.1177/2057158516676429 arsawan, w.e., made, k.n., shchokina, y., prayustika, a., rustiarini, n.w., & koval, v. (2022). invigorating employee’s innovative work behavior: exploring the sequential mediating role of organisational commitment and knowledge sharing. business: theory and practice, 23(1), 117–130. https://doi.org/10.3846/btp.2022.15684 asriani, i., & riyanto, s. (2020). the impact of working environment, compensation, and job satisfaction on turnover intention in public service agency. journal of business and management, 22(5), 13–19. barkhuizen, n.e., & gumede, b. (2021). the relationship between talent management, job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions of employees in a selected government institution. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1396. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1396 bester, c.l., & engelbrecht, m.c. (2009). job satisfaction and dissatisfaction of professional nurse in primary health care facilities in the free state province of south africa. african journal of nursing and midwifery, 11(1), 104–117. beukes, b. (2019). investigating stress, burnout and intentions to quit by lectures in an institution of higher learning (ihl). mba dissertation. north west university. bothma, c.f., & roodt, g. (2013). the validation of the turnover intention scale. south african journal of human resources, 11(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.507 brewer, g.a., kellough, e., & rainey, h.g. (2022). the importance of merit principles for civil service systems: evidence from the u.s. federal sector. review of public personnel administration, 42(4) 686–708. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x211026008 bussin, m. (2018). retention strategies: the key to attract and retain excellent employees. knowres resources. cheah, j.h., roldan, j.l., ciavolino, e., ting, h., & ramayah, t. (2020). sampling weight adjustments in partial least squares structural equation modelling: guidelines and illustrations. total quality management and business excellence, 32(13–14), 1594–1613. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2020.1754125 chen, j.k., & sriphon, t. (2022). the relationships among authentic leadership, social exchange relationships, and trust in organizations during covid-19 pandemic. advances in decision sciences, 26(1), 31–68. https://doi.org/10.47654/v26y2022i1p31-68 chênevert, d., hill, k., & kilroy, s. (2022). employees perceptions of non-monetary recognition practice and turnover: does recognition source alignment and contrast matter? human resource management journal, 32(1), 40–57. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12354 coban, c. (2021). the dark side of leadership: a conceptual assessment of toxic leadership. business, economics and management research journal, 5(1), 50–61. coetzee, m., & bester, m.s. (2021). exploring the reciprocal correspondence among workplace relationships, career goal instrumentality, career satisfaction, and organisational commitment. south african journal of psychology, 51(1), 81–94. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246320948366 connaway, l.s., & powell, r.r. (2010). basic research methods for librarians (5th ed.). abc-clio. cooke, g.b., chowhan, j., donald, k.m., & mann, s. (2022). talent management: four ‘buying versus making’ talent development approaches. personnel review, 51(9), 2181–2200. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-08-2020-0621 de gieter, s., & hofmans, j. (2015). how reward satisfaction affects employees’ turnover intentions and performance: an individual differences approach. human resource management journal, 25(2), 200–216. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12072 dodanwala, t.c., & santoso, d.n. (2021). the mediating role of job stress on the relationship between job satisfaction facets and turnover intention of the construction professionals. engineering, construction and architectural management, 29(4), 1777–1796. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-2020-1048 du plooy-cilliers, f., davis, c., & bezuidenhout, r.m. (2019). research matters. juta. ekhsan, m. (2019). the influence of job satisfaction and organisational commitment on employee turnover intention. journal of business, management, and accounting, 1(1), 48–55. elian, s., paramitha, c.d., gunawan, h., & maharani, a. (2020). the impact of career development, work-family conflict, and job satisfaction on millennials’ turnover intention in banking industry. journal of business and management review, 1(4), 223–247. https://doi.org/10.47153/jbmr14.422020 engelbrecht, a., & samuel, o.m. (2019). the effect of transformational leadership on intention to quit through perceived organisational support, organisational justice and trust. south african journal of economic and management science, 22(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v22i1.2338 field, a. (2018). discovering statistics using ibm spss. sage. fox, c., davis, p., & baucus, m. (2020). corporate social responsibility during unprecedented crises: the role of authentic leadership and business model flexibility. management decision, 58(10), 2213–2233. https://doi.org/10.1108/md-08-2020-1073 gebregziabher, d., berhanie, e., berihu, h., belstie, a., & teklay, g. (2020). the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention among nurses in axum comprehensive and specialised hospital tigray, ethiopia. bmc nursing, 19(1), 79. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-020-00468-0 hair, j.f., hult, g.t.m., ringle, c.m., & sarstedt, m. (2017). a primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem) (2nd ed.). sage. hair, j.f., hult, g.t.m., ringle, c.m., & sarstedt, m. (2022). a primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem) (3rd ed.). sage. hair, j.f., sarstedt, m., ringle, c.m., & gudergan, s.p. (2018). advanced issues in partial least squares structural equation modelling. sage. hattab, s., wirawan, m., salam, r., daswati, d., & niswaty, r. (2022). the effect of toxic leadership on turnover intention and counterproductive work behaviour in indonesia public organisations. international journal of public sector management, 35(3), 317–333. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpsm-06-2021-0142 hennicks, e., heyns, m.m., & rothmann, s.e. (2022). social well-being, job satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviour and intentions to leave in a utility organisation. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 48(1), a1928. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v48i0.1928 henseler, j., ringle, c.m., & sarstedt, m. (2015). a new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. journal of the academy of marketing science, 43(1), 115–135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8 hidayat, t., fahmy, r., sari, d.m., mergeresa, f., & fernando, y. (2021). covid-19 outbreak effects on leadership, job satisfaction and turnover intention: a mediating model of indonesian banking sector. international journal of industrial management, 10(1), 113–128. https://doi.org/10.15282/ijim.10.1.2021.6011 hoyle, r.h. (1995). structural equation modelling: concepts, issues and publications. sage. hu, w., huang, i., & yang, w. (2022). love or bread? public service motivation and fringe benefits in the retention of police forces in beijing city. review of public personnel administration, 42(4), 595–613. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x211008976 hwang, j., song, e.k., & ko, s. (2022). relationships among basic psychological needs, organisational commitment, perceived authentic leadership and turnover intention in korean nurses: a cross-sectional study. journal of nursing management, 30(7), 2176–2184. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13546 iqbal, j., asghar, a.s., & asghar, m.z. (2022). effect of despotic leadership on employee turnover intention: mediating toxic workplace environment and cognitive distraction in academic institutions. behavioural sciences, 12(5), 125. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs12050125 iqbal, s., farid, t., khan, m.k., zhang, q., khattak, a., & ma, j. (2020). bridging the gap between authentic leadership and employees communal relationships through trust. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(1), 250. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17010250 iqbal, s., farid, t., ma, j., & mehmood, q. (2018). cultivating employees’ communal relationship and organisational citizenship behavior through authentic leadership: studying the influence of procedural justice. psychology research and behavior management, 11, 545–555. https://doi.org/10.2147/prbm.s179019 kaya, b., & karatepe, o.m. (2020). does servant leadership better explain work engagement, career satisfaction and adaptive performance than authentic leadership? international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 32(6), 2075–2095. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm-05-2019-0438 kline, r.b. (2010). principles and practice of structural equation modelling (3rd ed.). guilford press. labrague, l.j., nwafor, c.e., & tsaras, k. (2020). influence of toxis and transformational leadership practice on nurses job satisfaction, job stress, absenteeism and turn intention: a cross-sectional study. journal of nursing management, 28(5), 1104–1113. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13053 leite, s. (2022). using the sdgs for global citizenship education: definitions, challenges, and opportunities. globalisation, societies and education, 20(3), 401–413. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2021.1882957 lesenyeho, d.l., barkhuizen, n.e., & scuttle, n.e. (2018). exploring the causal relationship between the antecedents and consequences of talent management for early career academics in south african higher education institutions. sa journal of human resource, 16(9), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.912 maleka, m. (2012). an in-depth investigation of the factors contributing to employee dissatisfaction at the business application solution centre (basc), eskom. d litt et phil thesis. university of south africa. maleka, m.j. (2020). exploring the approaches to implementing an experiential learning module for third-year human resource management students at the tshwane university of technology. med thesis. haaga-helia university of applied sciences. maloba, m.n., & pillaynaidoo, d. (2022). person–organisation fit, job satisfaction and intention to leave in the south african social development sector. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 25(1), a4572. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v25i1.4572 mccallaghan, s., jackson, l.t.b., & heyns, m.m. (2020). servant leadership, diversity climate, and organisational citizenship behaviour at a selection of south african companies. journal of psychology in africa, 30(5), 379–383. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2020.1821310 modaresnezhad, m., andrews, m.c., & deshpande, s. (2021). anxiety, job satisfaction, supervisor support and turnover intentions of mid-career nurses: a structural equation model analysis. journal of nursing management, 29(5), 931–942. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13229 monyaki, l., chipunza, c., & mashariva, n. (2022). a south african study on antecedents of intention to quit amongst employees in bed and breakfast establishments in the free state province. southern african journal of entrepreneurship and small business management, 14(1), a462. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajesbm.v14i1.462 munyaka, s.a., boshoff, a.b., pietersen, j., & snelgar, r. (2017). the relationships between authentic leadership, psychological capital, psychological climate, team commitment and intention to quit. sa journal of industrial psychology, 43(1), a1430. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v43i0.1430 naidoo, r. (2018). role stress and turnover intentions among information technology personnel in south africa: the role of supervisor support. sa journal of human resource management, 16(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.936 neuman, w.l. (2000). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. 5th edition. new york: pearson education inc. novianti, k.r., & fuadiputra, s.q. (2021). the effect of job autonomy on turnover intention: mediation role of work-life balance, and job satisfaction in the banking sector. international journal of social science and business, 5(4), 490–497. https://doi.org/10.23887/ijssb.v5i4.38855 ntseke, t., mitonga-monga, j., & hoole, c. (2022). transformational leadership influences on work engagement and turnover intention in an engineering organisation. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(3), a2013. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.2013 oh, j. (2020). employee perceptions of hrm practices and their turnover intentions: evidence from south korea. evidence-based hrm, 8(2), 145–160. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebhrm-04-2019-0037 olckers, c., du plessis, m., & casaleggio, r. (2020). authentic leadership, organisational citizenship behaviours, and intention to quit: the indirect effect of psychological ownership. south african journal of psychology, 50(3), 371–384. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246319891658 pallant, j. (2016). spss survival manual. a step-by-step guide to data analysis using ibm spss, nest, allen & unwin. paltu, a., & brouwers, m. (2020). toxic leadership: effects on job satisfaction, commitment, turnover intention and organisational culture within the south african manufacturing industry. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(4), a1338. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1338 pratama, e., suwarni, e.m., & handayani, m.a. (2022). the effect of job satisfaction and organisational commitment on turnover intention with person organisation fit as moderator variable. atm, 6(1), 74–82. https://doi.org/10.33050/atm.v6i1.1722 puni, a., & hiltion, s.k. (2020). dimensions of authentic leadership and patient care quality. leadership in health services, 33(4), 365–383. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhs-11-2019-0071 ramalu, s.r., & janadari, j. (2020). authentic leadership and organisational citizenship behaviour: the role of psychological capital. international journal of productivity and performance management, 71(2), 365–385. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-03-2020-0110 rawashdeh, a.m., elayan, m.b., shamout, m.d., & hamouche, s. (2022). human resource development and turnover intention: organisational commitment’s role as a mediating variable. european journal of management and business economics, 31(4), 469–484. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejmbe-12-2021-0343 redelinghuys, k., rothmann, s., & botha, e. (2020). outcomes of leader empowering behaviour in a retail organisation. south african journal of business management, 51(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajbm.v51i1.1837 ribeiro, n., duarte, a.p., filipe, r., & de oliveira, r.t. (2020). how authentic leadership promotes individual creativity: the mediating role of affective commitment. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 27(2), 189–202. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051819842796 sabei, s.d.a., labrague, l.j., ross, a.m., karkada, s., albashayreh, a., & masroor, f.a. (2020). nursing work environment, turnover intention, job burnout, and quality of care: the moderating role of job satisfaction. journal of nursing scholarship, 52(1), 95–104. https://doi.org/10.1111/jnu.12528 saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2019). research methods for business students. pearson education limited. sjöberg, a., & sverke, m. (2000). the interactive effect of job involvement and organisational commitment on job turnover revisited: a note on the mediating role of turnover intention. scandinavian journal of psychology, 41(3), 247–252. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9450.00194 smith, m. (2019). joseph: authentic leadership forged in the crucible. journal of biblical perspectives in leadership, 9(1), 286–303. suifan, t.s., diab, h., & abdallah, a.b. (2017). does organisational justice affect turnover intention in a developing country? the mediating role of job satisfaction and organisational commitment. journal of management development, 36(9), 1137–1148. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd-02-2017-0048 sultana, u.s., darum, m.r., & yao, l. (2018). authentic leadership and psychological capital: a mingle effort to increase job satisfaction and lessen job stress. indian journal of science and technology, 11(5), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.17485/ijst/2018/v11i5/120618 tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2013). using multivariate statistics (6th ed.). pearson. tshwane, g.s. (2021). job satisfaction as a mediator and education as a moderator between authentic leadership and turnover intention at financial services company, m-tech human resources management tshwane university technology, pretoria. walumbwa, f., avolio, b., gardner, w., wernsing, t., & peterson, s. (2008). authentic leadership: development and validation of a theory-based measure. journal of management, 34(1), 89–126. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206307308913 wong, c., walsh, e.j., basacco, k.n., domingues, m.c.m., & pye, d.r.h. (2020). authentic leadership and job satisfaction among long-term care nurses. leadership in health services, 33(3), 247–263. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhs-09-2019-0056 yamak, o.u., & eyupoglu, s.z. (2021). authentic leadership and service innovative behavior: mediating role of proactive personality. sage open, 11(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244021989629 yavas, a. (2016). sectoral differences in the perception of toxic leadership. procedia-social and behavioural sciences, 229, 267–276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.07.137 zaabi, h.h., elanain, h.m., & ajmal, m.m. (2018). impact of toxic leadership on work outcomes: an empirical study of public banks in the uae. international journal of public sector management, 4(3), 373–392. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpspm.2018.093470 zhang, x., & fang, p. (2016). job satisfaction of village doctors during the new healthcare reforms in china. australian health review, 40(2), 225–223. https://doi.org/10.1071/ah15205 10dejager.qxd in shaping the future network organisation we are presently confronted in the new economy by the so-called drivers of the new economy (magretta, 1999; moon & bonny, 2001), change and transformation in leadership mindsets and behaviour (anderson & anderson, 2001; maynhard & mehrtens, 1996) and organisational culture (anderson & anderson, 2001; cannon, 1996). the new economy drivers are placing increased change and transformat ion pressure on organisat ions to remain competitive and sustainable. these drivers are globalisation and increased international competitiveness (magretta, 1999; moon & bonny, 2001), the war for talent and an international skills shortage (burton-jones, 2001; johnson, 2002; sullivan, 2000), the democratisation of the workplace (ackoff, 1981; 1994; gibson, 1998), and information technolog y net works (magretta, 1999; moon & bonny, 2001). the drivers lead towards increased chaos (conner, 1998) and complexit y (stacey, 1996) in the taking up of leadership roles, and results in a high failure rate of leaders and execut ives in organisations acting as social systems (hesselbein, goldsmith & beckhard, 1996; 1997; kets de vries, 1991; 2001). leadership in the new economy net work organisation is in the midst of an emerging mindset (anderson & anderson, 2001; mc farland, senn & childress, 1993), characterised by continuous change and transformation that cannot be controlled, nor predicted (beer & nohira, 2000; gouillart & kelly, 1995). the emerging mindset requires leaders to take up conscious change leader roles (anderson & anderson, 2001; beer & nohria, 2000) to successfully lead change and transformation (fullman, 2001) towards the democratisation of the workplace, participation, demise of positional power (ackoff, 1981; 1994), the taking up of personal authorit y (hirschorn, 1998), disappearing boundaries bet ween business units (eisler & montouri, 2001, haas, 1993) and an imploding world of work (hirschorn & barnett, 1999) moving towards a systemic whole (oshry, 1995). continuous change and transformation lead to increased leadership anxiet y (hirschorn & barnett, 1994; obholzer & roberts, 1994). this is caused by the organisational holding environment (stacey, 1996) “in common with the maternal holding environment” no longer containing the anxiet y of leaders in the organisation, leading to the emergence of power games, project ion, splitt ing and scapegoating (colman, 1995; hirschorn & barnett, 1999; kernberg, 1998). tradit ional leadership training and development approaches focus on positional leadership, which has become obsolete in the new economy (bensiman & neuman, 1993; desjardings & osman brown, 1991). leadership development from the systems psychodynamic consultancy perspective offers a leadership developmental approach to train and develop psychoanalytically informed leaders (obholzer & roberts, 1994) to deal with the w de jager department human resource management rand afrikaans university f cilliers department of industrial and organisational psychology university of south africa t veldsman department human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract this research aims to measure the impact of a leadership development programme presented from the systems psychodynamic stance. the aim was to develop psychoanalytically informed change leaders to lead change and transformation in the continuously changing and transforming new economy net work organisation. in order to do this, a group relations training programme was presented for 30 leaders. qualitative assessment using grounded theory during post-intervention focus groups interviewing indicated the group’s awareness of psychodynamic leadership behaviour such as the regression towards frequent pathological leadership personalit y characteristics, regression towards unconscious groupand organisational processes such as the basic assumption group, the covert coalition and socially struct ured defense systems against change and transformation. insight was also gained in the new leadership role and the taking up of personal authorit y in the net work organisation that needs to function as a systemic whole. limitations in the st udy are noted and recommendations are made to enhance change leader skills for leadership in the new economy net work organisation. opsomming hierdie navorsing poog om die impak van ‘n leierskapsont wikkelingsprogram wat aangebied is vanuit die sistemiese psigodinamiese perspektief, te evalueer. die doel was om psigoanalitiese ingeligte leiers te ont wikkel om verandering en transformasie in die gedurige veranderende en transformerende nuwe ekonomie net werk organisasie, te lei. ten einde dit te bolwerk is. ‘n groep -verhoudinge-opleidingsprogram is aangebied vir 30 leiers. kwalitatiewe evaluasie deur van begrondingsteorie gebruik te maak gedurende, die post-intervensie fokus groepe het ‘n groepbewustheid aangedui van psigodinamiese leierskapgedrag soos die regressie na dikwelse patologiese leierskapspersoonlikheidskenmerke, regressie in onbewustelike groepen organisatoriese prosesse soos die basiese aanname-groep, die koverte-koalisieen sosiaal-gestruktureerde-verdedigingsisteme teen verandering en transformasie. insig is ook in die nuwe leierskap rol en die opneem van persoonlike outoriteit in die net werk organisasie wat moet funksioneer as ‘n sistemiese geheel, bekom. aanbevelings word gemaak om die leierskapsrol in verandering in terme van vaardighede in die nuwe ekonomienet werkorganisasie, te bevorder. leadership development from a systems psychodynamic consultancy stance requests for copies should be addressed to: w de jager, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 85 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (3), 85-92 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (3), 85-92 complexit ies surrounding human psychodynamics and anxiet y in the workplace, when confronted with change and transformat ion. according to colman and bexton (1975), hirschorn and barnett (1999), kernberg (1998), miller (1989; 1993), obholzer and roberts (1994) and rice (1969; 1999), the motivation for studying leadership from a systems psychodynamic consultancy position can be stated as follows: all organisations are made up of people who create or go along with certain beliefs and ways of doing things. people influence the organisations they are in and the organisations in turn influence them and the way they think, feel and behave. some of the purposes of people working together in organisations are clear and explicit. other purposes have to do with the needs and anxieties of which people are mostly not aware. these are discovered when they find themselves unexpectedly resistant to change. people assume that there is a right way of behaving or a set of rules, when in fact these are conventions that people have developed collectively. the rules are used to disguise unexamined relations of power and authorit y. people need to be aware of the nat ure of authorit y, leadership, roles, boundaries, and organisation processes and leadership in inst it ut ions, to understand the part people play in developing and sustaining the kinds of organisations they are working in. research question, aim and design from the above, the research question can be stated as follows: is leadership development from a systems psychodynamic consultancy stance effective in developing psychoanalytically informed leaders to successfully take up change leader roles in leading change and transformation in the new economy network organisation? the aim is to assess the impact of a leadership development programme from the systems psychodynamic consultancy stance by using the qualitative research method of grounded theory. systems psychodynamic assumptions and concepts the systems psychodynamic paradigm does not address individual behaviour, but rather the systemic group and organisational behaviour inf luencing various systems, such as the individual (miller, 1989; neuman, kellner & dawson-sheperd, 1997; obholzer & roberts, 1994; stapley, 1996). the central principle of the systems psychodynamic perspective is contained in the conjunction of its terms: (i) systems. the systems designation refers to the open systems concepts that provide the dominant framing perspective for understanding the structural aspects of an organisational system. these include its design, division of labour, levels of authorit y and responding relat ionships, the nat ure of work tasks, processes and activities, its mission and primary tasks and in particular the nat ure and patterning of the organisation’s task, sentient boundaries and the transactions across them. human beings create social institutions to satisf y their needs (somet imes irrat ional, primit ive and childlike) to experience pleasure and avoid pain, and to accomplish required tasks. institutions become external realities, comparatively independent of individuals that affect individuals in a significant emot ional and psychological way, which offers enormous learning opportunities. (ii) psychodynamic. the psychodynamic concept refers to psychoanalytic perspectives on individual experiences and mental processes (such as transferences, resistance, object relations and fantasy), as well as to the experience of unconscious groupand social processes, which are simultaneously both a source, and a consequence, of unresolved or unrecognised organisational difficulties. the observable and structural features of an organisation, even quite rational and functional one, continually impact on its members at all levels, in a manner that stimulates particular patterns of individual and group dynamic processes. in turn, such processes may determine how particular features of the organisation come to exist, such as its distinctive culture, and how work is conceived, structured, organised and managed. (iii) psychodynamic level. on the psychodynamic level, a central feature of this view stresses the existence of primitive anxieties, of a prosecutor and depressive nature, and the mobilisation of social defence systems against them. the nature of such defences are conceptualised as either impending or facilitating task performance and readiness for change. interventions based on this perspective typically involve understanding, interpreting and working through such collective defences. this will hopefully result in enlarging the organisation’s capacity to develop task appropriate adaptations such as a rational distribution of authority, clear role boundary definitions, as well as their management. the primary task of leadership is to manage relations between an institution and its environment, in other words to manage the boundary between what is inside and what is outside, so as to permit optimal performance of the primary task of the institution. at the unconscious level the leader expresses, on behalf of the group, the emotions associated with the prevailing basic assumption. thus, if the leader at the manifest level fails to deal adequately with the emotions associated with the repressed assumptions, other leaders may be pressed upon expressing emotions that are opposed to the overt task of the group, and hence to oppose the leader at the manifest level (colman & bexton, 1975; kernberg, 1980a; 1980b; 1998; miller, 1983; 1986; 1989; 1993, obholzer & roberts, 1994; rice, 1969; 1999). group relations training the basis of the group relations training conference design the concepts and assumptions that form the basis of the conference design fall into the following categories: (i) the individual. from psychoanalytic object relations theory, and according to klein (1952, as cited by gomez, 1998; colman & bexton, 1975; hirschorn & barnett, 1999; kernberg, 1998; miller, 1989; obholzer & roberts, 1994; rice, 1999) the mature ego is one that can define the boundary between what is inside and what is outside, and can control the transactions between the one and the other. followers depend on their leader to identif y their goal, to devise ways of reaching it, and to lead towards it. a leader who fails or falters deprives followers of satisfaction and hence earns their dislike. any attempt to learn about leadership must take into account this inherent hostility, and an understanding of its source and its nature (miller, 1989; rice, 1999). (ii) the small group. small group refers to the face-to-face group and consists of an average of twelve members. from the psychoanalytic theory of regressive group processes, bion (1961, as cited by kernberg, 1998; colman & bexton, 1975; miller, 1989; obholzer & roberts, 1994; rice, 1999) suggested that a group always behaves simultaneously on two levels, namely the performance of de jager, cilliers, veldsman86 a specific task, while at the same time it behaves as if it has made one of three discrete assumptions, for example to obtain security from one individual upon whom its members can depend (dependence), or to preserve itself by attacking someone or something (fight), or by running away (f light), or to reproduce itself (pairing). the characteristics of group life are distinguished as the work group, the group met to perform its specific task, and the basic group, the group acting on one of the discrete assumptions (bion, 1994). (iii) the large group. the large group is defined as one in which face-to-face relationships are no longer possible. rice (1969) and turquet (1974; 1975) described the complete loss of identity felt by the individual member of a large unstructured group, the disappearance of social feedback to individual verbal communication, the failure of projective mechanisms, individual fear of aggression from other members, loss of control and violent behaviour. those who try to retain individuality are frequently attacked. without a clearly defined purpose and boundaries that determine who is inside and who is outside, and without structure, the large group is at the mercy of the most strongly expressed primitive impulses (kernberg, 1998; miller, 1989; rice, 1999). (iv) the primary task and the organisational model. each part of a complex organisation has its own distinct primary task, which differentiates it from other parts and from the whole, and each contributes to the primary task of the whole. the primary task of the conferences is to provide learning opportunities for members to gain knowledge of leadership. the methods of performance are the following; firstly to provide members with opport unities to experience for themselves the interpersonal and inter-group relationships involved in leadership, in situations in which the experience can be turned into learning, secondly to teach theories that offer verbal explanations of the learning, and thirdly to provide opportunities for members to consider the application of conference learning to their normal work sit uation (colman & bexton, 1975; miller, 1989; rice, 1999). (v) learning from experience. in the conference, the basic method of providing opport unit ies to learn is to construct situations in which the task given to members is to study their own behaviour as it happens. in each situation staff consultants are assigned to facilitate the task to the exclusion of all others. only the staff role and staff relationships are defined, and no rules are laid down for members, as they are free to make their own. it is in the attempt to set up an “organisation” and in the taking up of roles in them that members have the opportunit y to experience for themselves the forces that are brought to bear on them when they take roles requiring leadership, and the forces they bring to bear on others who demand their following (colman & bexton, 1975; miller, 1989; rice, 1999). (vi) the basic staff role. staff consultants in a group relations training conference use their own experiences and feelings to sense what is happening. if an explanation can be found in terms of the specific task set for the event, an interpretation can be made about the group behaviour, including themselves. so far as the consultant is able, he/she is only concerned about what is happening in the here-and-now, which is interpreted without memory or desire. members inevitably project upon them their fantasies, fears, and doubts about authority and its power. the analysis of this projection requires the analysis of the relationships among the staff themselves to distinguish what is intrinsic to the staff group, and what is projected onto them by members (colman & bexton, 1975; miller, 1989; rice, 1999). the group relations training conference culture because of the nature of the conference, the culture is one in which aggressive behaviour, and the expression of hostility between individuals and groups need to be studied, as well as their effect on decision-making being examined and learned about, without becoming destructive, either of the individual or of the conference. since the task of the conference is to provide opportunities for learning about leadership, the pattern of authority and responsibility in the conference has to be sufficiently explicit to be capable of examination, as well as sufficiently stable enable tolerate critical and even hostile scrutiny. how far members take the opportunities to learn is their responsibility (colman & bexton, 1975; miller, 1989; rice, 1999). the nature of learning in the group relations training conference according to miller (1989) three different kinds or levels of learning are likely to occur within a group relat ions training conference. at the simplest level, members learn to identif y and label some of the unfamiliar phenomena that they encounter, but do so as observers. a second kind goes beyond observation to insight, though partly concept ual, the experience adds to the ways in which the individual classifies the world and relates to it, particularly involved in unconscious processes. a third level of learning entails discovering a capacit y to doubt the validit y of perceptions which seem unquestionably true, and implies some degree of personalit y re-structuring, a systemic change of a kind, which would be fully in line with the aims of group relations training. method the setting and the selection of participants the research was done in a financial services industry. the population consists of leaders form fifteen different business units across the organisation that delivers total financial services from private banking to insurance. from this, purposive or judgmental sampling (huysamen, 1994; mouton, 2001; mouton & marais, 1992; neuman, 2003) was used to select thirty leaders (two from each business unit) on middle leadership levels, and according to jaques’ (1989) categorization, level threeand level four work. the research participants consisted of twenty-two white leaders, and eight black leaders (representing the actual race distribution in the organisation), the gender distribution was equal, while the age ranged from thirty to fiftyfive years of age. the length of service was more than five years for white leaders and less than three years for black leaders. twenty of the thirty subjects have a bachelor of commerce while ten holds a honours bachelor of commerce. the leadership development programme from the literat ure discussed in the preceding paragraphs the following programme as given in table 1 was compiled and presented at a venue away from the work situation. four group relations trained consultants were employed. leadership development 87 table 1 the training conference: “change leadership in the new economy” time day 1 day 2 day 3 08:00 – 09:30 opening plenary large study group large study group 09:30 – 10:00 tea/coffee tea/coffee tea/coffee 10:00 – 11:30 facilitated small small study group small study group dialogue group: “the new economy workplace” 11:30 – 12:00 break break break 12:00 – 13:30 facilitated small large study group review group dialogue group: “the war for talent” 13:30 – 14:30 lunch lunch lunch 14:30 – 16:00 facilitated small large study group application group dialogue group: “leadership ethics in the new economy” 16:00 – 16:30 tea/coffee tea/coffee 16:30 – 18:00 facilitated small review group closing plenary dialogue group: “the role of the change leader in the new economy” qualitative assessment two focus group interviews were conducted before and t wo after the leadership development programme. the duration of the focus group interviews were sixt y minutes each. the following themes were facilitated in the focus group interviews before the leadership development programme; “how do you experience leadership in the organisation?” and “how do you experience change and transformation in the organisation?” the following theme was facilitated in the t wo focus group interviews after the leadership development programme; “what was the impact of the leadership development programme on you?” the difference in systems psychodynamic themes from the pre-intervent ion focus groups to the post-intervent ion focus groups would determine if the leadership develop-ment programme had any effect. data collection after permission was obtained from the group it was randomly divided into t wo groups of fifteen each, so that t wo separate focus groups could be conducted simultaneously beforeand after the leadership development programme. the four, one hour, audio recorded focus group interviews were then transcribed “verbatim” for data processing. data processing while there currently exist various, and even difference of opinion bet ween its t wo creators, strauss and glaser, expositions of it was used in this study to which essentially refers to the theory that is generated in the course of the close inspection and analysis of the qualitative data. the researcher approaches the data without any theory and attempts to develop theory directly from the data that remain “grounded in” the data. after the original soliciting of data, the existing literat ure is reviewed continuously throughout subsequent data collection and analysis (durig, 1999; henwood & pidgeon, 1992; huesser, 1999; kinach, 2001; neuman, 2003; strauss & corbin, 1990; white, chalip & marshal, 1998). open coding was used as a first step in the process to order and analyse the data by focusing on identif ying, naming, categorising and describing phenomena found in the text. axial coding or integrating categories and their properties followed which was the process of relating codes (categories and properties) to each other, via a combination of inductive and deductive reasoning. the researcher ascertained patterns in the data, and behaviour that leads to general concerns about it. these concepts were then built into broader theoretical propositions, which could then be evaluated and tested with other comparison groups. the objective was to uncover causal relationships bet ween categories, for example to fit things into a basic paradigm of generic relationships. selective coding was the third step, and the process of choosing the core category and relating all categories to that category. the essential idea was to develop a single theory line around which everything else was draped. if the generated theory insufficiently explained the phenomena, new hypotheses would be generated to build on the current theory. results the results as discussed below, are based on the openand axial coding results of the pre and post-intervention focus groups. these results will be described by presenting by cleare excerpts from the two focus group interviews. pre-intervention focus group results the organisation that was studied in this research was moving towards the new economy net work organisation. the traditional hierarchy that controlled divisions of the organisation were re-structured into segmented business units and all products and services are now distributed through one delivery platform to optimise customer satisfaction. anxiety, fear and a lack of trust in the organisational holding environment and the resistance to change resulted in less visible socially struct ured defence mechanisms, group behaviour characteristic of the basic assumption group, sentience groups, and a regression in leadership styles and role ambiguity in the taking up of new leadership roles, as amply expressed by one research participant: “they teach the managers to tell the guys at the bottom, sorry but your job has been affected. i sit in the same problem as the person below me, i am just as scared, and i have to tell fifty others not to be scared, i am there for you.” the phenomena are characteristic of covert anti-task leadership behaviour when the individual leader, the group and the organisation resist change and transformation and when anxiet y and fear is no longer contained in the organisational holding environment as a result of change and transformation. the following socially structured defence mechanisms emerged as a defence against anxiety and fear of the unknown. depersonalisation and denial of the significance of the individual was expressed as a loss of personhood by the individual, and leaders just had to go with the flow of change: “there is a lot of top down stuff going on at the moment and we at the bottom are not challenging anything, we are just okay if you say, ‘so let’s do it’.” elimination of decisions by ritual task performance with credit approval procedures prolonged the process of decision-making and little room was left for creativity and participative management: “there is no space for creativity and entrepreneurship, on that level it is still according to policies and procedures as in the old world of work.” de jager, cilliers, veldsman88 idealisation and the underestimation of personal development opportunities were expressed, very few leaders in the organisation were perceived as worth spending money on for training and development: “you must assess their abilities and potential very carefully before you send them for training, when we make an investment it must be the right one.” resistance to change as an organisational ritual centred around employment equity and the integration of people of colour in a predominantly white leadership culture which resulted in a split in the world of the white leader: “i think we are placed with the dilemma of living two different worlds with all the new cultures, the working world and the world you must live on your own. if people could get a way to maybe live them both or maybe choose one of the two it would work better. but i think it is a dilemma, because you must wear your poker face when you are at work and have a different mindset, but when you go home you must take off your poker face and go.” the responsibilit y to change and transform resulted in a collusive redistribution of responsibilit y and irresponsibilit y as a defence against on-task behaviour bet ween lower levels of leadership, middle leadership and top leadership, each blaming the other for autocratic practices and not changing and transforming towards a more democratic culture: “they don’t want to take the responsibility to manage themselves, now the autocracy comes out and you do as i say, because i want you to do and if you leave it in his hands nothing happens.” purposeful obscurity in the formal distribution of responsibility emerged as a socially structured defence against anxiety between the different business units and the delivery channel who worked against one another in a struggle for positional power in the organisational pecking order: “we saw certain managers who told their consultants that if a clients from a business unit enters that they must not be ser ved as they would not count for performance assessments. this is where the big problem started.” basic assumption group behaviour was not only revealed by research participants/subjects but was observed by the two focus group moderators. all the theoretically predicted basic assumptions as defences against anxiet y, namely dependence, fight/flight, pairing (bion, 1994), oneness (turquet, 1974, as cited by lawrence et al., 1996), and wholeness (lawrence et al., 1996) emerged as sub-themes. the existence of sentience groups were expressed as the “grapevine” which resulted in antitask behaviour, and a climate of fear where leadership withdrew into their inner-worlds, just sitting around as victims and not taking up their personal authority as change leaders. a regression in leadership styles back to authoritarian personality and authoritarian organisational structures emerged as a theme in an attempt to regress back to the old and known. other pathological regressions emerged as schizoid personalit y features, where nobody knew how much authority was vested in a particular person: “an executive must sign for a cellular phone, can an keep himself busy with a cellular phone in his department?” this was part of the confusion about new leadership roles that had to be taken up. obsessive personality features emerged as a means to try and control change and transformation. role outputs and requirements pertaining to change and transformation were obsessively performed, resulting in increasing doubt, hesitation and indecisiveness: “you get invited to the same meeting over and over, you only find it out after you have been invited to the same thing for the third time. it only gets designed every time under another meeting title.” paranoid personality features caused by fight/flight behaviour bet ween different business units resulting in anti-task behaviour in inter-group relationships in the organisation that have to function as a network of relationships: “with the implementation of the new operating model into different business units and a delivery platform we saw that certain leaders told their staff not to ser ve certain clients as it would not count for their performance management.” narcissistic personalit y feat ures were evident as leaders regressed to excessive self-reference and importance in a power struggle for position in different pecking orders for individual survival in business units where thousands of roles have become obsolete: “i wanted to relocate a branch, i wanted to pull my hair from my head, i was blocked as far as i went and as i went higher i was blocked, until i eventually said i will catch it from the side so i went right to the top and i got my approval. what does this mean for me? all my initiatives were for nothing.” leaders experienced role ambiguity and confusion in the taking up of new leadership roles as well as an inability to take up their personal authority in change leader roles. post-intervention focus group results the main theme that emerged after the completion of the leadership development programme was the realisation of one’s’ own personal authorit y. research participants became conscious that they should rely on their own inner resources as a stabilit y struct ure since the external organisational structure lacked stability. the group relations training conference unstructured approach (with no predefined or pre-determined learning outcomes) was seen as reflective of the change and transformation the new economy network organisation is confronted with. the “structuring by the self”, for example, where subjects were responsible for taking up their personal authority in the different here-andnow events was experienced as empowering. the leadership development programme empowered respondents to become aware of their own issues with personal authorit y, responsibilit y, boundaries (i.e. role boundaries, role clarification, new leadership roles and primary tasks that had to be performed by different business units as a system and as promulgated by a shared strategic vision), projection, splitting, stereotyping, generalisations and organisational structure. this interactional system (i.e. the group) provided a valuable base for research participants to become aware of these issues, where continuous interaction and hypotheses formulated from different staff consultants during the group relations training, based on observed behaviour in the different here-and-now events made “hidden areas” known. this resulted in a heightened awareness of psychodynamics in groups, as well as bet ween groups or inter-group relationships, and the role the individual or the group plays or gets mobilised to play in the group or between groups. by working through the expectations put onto the leader, such as change leader skills, respondents felt more confident to fulfil their roles. the demands and the challenges of the organisations new direction in the new economy were seen as a challenge and not as a threat anymore. discussion af ter the leadership development programme research participants were more aware of the sophisticated work group leadership development 89 performing an overt task, as opposed to the basic assumption group performing covert assumptions (lawrence et al., 1996). the unstructured training approach without pre-defined or pre-determined learning outcomes, was seen as reflective of the change and transformat ion that leadership was confronted with in the new economy net work organisation. this took place as a result of internalised learning, “structuring by the self” and the “taking up of personal authorit y” that was demonstrated during the leadership development programme, and was perceived as empowering. insight was gained into group regressive processes such as socially structured defence systems (kernberg, 1998; menzies, 1989; 1993). the strategic vision of the organisation’s change and transformat ion process was internalised and the organisation was perceived as a systemic whole (oshry, 1996) where different business units had to co-operate in a collaborative boundary-less approach in order to achieve the organisation’s strategic vision as opposed to inter-group conflict and power based relationships that existed bet ween different business units. a clear understanding and a new insight was gained into the new leadership role (anderson & anderson, 2001) that had to be taken up as a change leader in the new economy net work organisation. learning took place on three levels (miller, 1989). on level one, research participants were able to identif y and label unfamiliar phenomena in overt and covert processes as observers. on level t wo, subjects were able to classif y involvement in unconscious processes, and on level three some degree of personalit y restructuring and a systemic change took place. leadership development from the systems psychodynamic consultancy stance could be seen as a sufficient theoretical framework in describing and explaining conscious and unconscious group processes. sufficient evidence was obtained with regards to the following theories: � bion’s sophisticated work group and the basic assumption group (bion, 1991a; 1991b; 1993; 1994). � klein’s psychodynamic processes of projection, projective identification, splitting, transference and counter transference (klein, 1946). � kernberg’s regression in personality characteristics towards frequent pathological characteristics (kernberg, 1998). � jaques’ social defence systems (jaques, 1955) and menzies’ socially structured defence mechanisms or organisational rituals (menzies, 1988; 1989; 1993). � rice’s theoretical developments pertaining to role primary task, role boundary and authority (rice, 1969; 1999). � miller’s three levels of learning as a result of group relations training (miller, 1989). group relations training empowered leaders in their role as psychoanaly tically informed change leaders to deal with the change and transformation complexities of the new economy net work organisat ion. group relat ions training can therefore play an extremely important empowering role in enabling leaders to take up change leader roles in addition to other multiple functional roles leaders are required to take up in the net work organisation. the pre-dominant focus of group relations training theory has been around leadership, authorit y and organisation, with no reference to empowering leadership competencies and skills in the taking up of a change leader role in the continuously changing and transforming new economy net work organisat ion. a solid insight, awareness and understanding of phenomena in psychodynamic leadership behaviour, and the regression in group and organisational processes such as the basic assumption group, the covert coalition and socially struct ured defence systems leads towards psychoanaly tically informed change leaders to successfully lead change and transformation in the new economy net work organisation. the nat ure of the new socially structured defence systems (that will evolve in the new organisational realities of the net work organisation in the new economy) and reparat ion remain st ill to be discovered and resolved. conclusion, limitations and recommendations it seems that leadership development from a systems psychodynamic consultancy stance transformed leadership behaviour from being captive of groupand organisational processes, towards self-awareness, and an awareness of group and organisational unconscious phenomena in actively leading overt on-task change and transformation in the new economy net work organisation in the development programme context. this insight and awareness not only includes the complexities of the new economy and globalisation, but also the south african socio-political transformation dynamics, as well as the dynamics surrounding the organisational holding environment in relation to the team, leadership and followership, and the primary task of the change leader role. it is important to note that the choice of the particular research design utilised in the study obviously lead to specific results. in addition, the fact that one method, focus group interviewing was used ruled out the possibility of triangulation, i.e. using additional methods to neutralize focus group interviewing’s inherent shortcomings such as idiosyncrasies of the two focus groups, and the fact that the moderators hadn’t had the same measure of control a interviewer conducting individual interviews has resulting in the group influencing the course of the interview. finally, and particularly important, various observation effects or nuisance variables threaten the validity of research findings reached by employing focus group interviews. “typical observation effects include a dominant, demanding participant who may unduly sway or inhibit other participants; a communit y occurrence or emergency, which may divert attention from the topic of discussion; or an incendiary comment from a group member which might provoke disruption” (schurink & schurink, 2001, p. 3). in order to minimize these effects it is suggested that in further research on this subject, focus group interviews with particular research participants should be conducted not once but in a series. ongoing re-organisation, change and transformation in the organisation’s strategic architect ure and information technology almost always does not take into account anxiety, and the human response to change, such as individual leadership regression towards frequent pathological characteristics, regression in groupand inter-group and organisational processes. examples are social defence systems such as the basic assumption group, the covert coalition and socially struct ured defence systems against change and transformation. a greater understanding into psychodynamic leadership behaviour and the regression in leadership personality characteristics, as well as the regression in group processes in the continuously changing and transforming new economy net work organisation will enhance the effectiveness of the taking up of change leadership roles towards overt on-task leadership behaviour by means of group relations training. references ackoff, r. (1981). creating the corporate future. new york: johan wiley & sons. ackoff, r. (1994). the democratic corporation. a radical prescription for recreating corporate america and rediscovering success. new york: oxford university. de jager, cilliers, veldsman90 anderson, l.a. & anderson, d. (2001). awake at the wheel: managing beyond change management to conscious leadership. od practitioner. journal for the organisation development network, 33, 4-10. anderson, r. (1992). clinical lectures on klein and bion. london: routledge. beer, m. & nohria, n. (2000). breaking the code of change. boston: harvard business school. bensiman, e. & neuman, a. (1993). redesigning collegiate leadership. baltimore: johns hopkins . bion, w.r. (1991a). learning from experience. london: tavistock. bion, w.r. (1991b). transformations. london: tavistock. bion, w.r. (1993). attention and interpretation. london: tavistock. bion, w.r. (1994). experiences in groups. london: routledge. burton-jones, a. (2001). knowledge capitalism. business, work, and learning in the new economy. new york: oxford university. cannon, t. (1996). welcome to the revolution. managing paradox in the 21st century. london: pitman. colman, a.d. (1995). up from scapegoating. awakening consciousness in groups. toronto: chiron. colman, d. & bexton, h. (1975). group relations reader 1. an a.k. rice institute series. jupiter: ak rice institute. connor, d.r. (1998). leading at the edge of chaos. toronto: john wiley & sons, inc. desjardings, c. & osman brown, c. (1991). a new look at leadership styles. phi kappa phi journal, 20 (2), 18-30. drake, t. (1998). wearing the coat of change. handbook for personal survival and prosperity in the unpredictable world of work. london: orion. durig, a. (1999). qualitative models. (online). available: http://www.indiana.edu/~socpsy/papers/qualencyclo.html. eisler, r. & montouri, a. (2001). the partnership organisation. a systems approach. od practitioner. journal of the organisation development network, (33), 11-17. fullman, m. (2001). leading in a culture of change. san francisco: john wiley & sons. gibson, r. (1998). rethinking the future. rethinking business principles, competition, control and complexity, leadership, markets and the world. london: nicholas brealey. gomez, l. (1998). an introduction to object relations. london: free association. haas, r.d. (1993). the corporation without boundaries. in ray, m. & rinzler, a. (1993). the new paradigm in business. emerging strategies for leadership and organisational change. new york: putnam’s sons. henwood, k.l. & pidgeon, n.f. (1992). qualitative research and psychological theorizing. british journal of psychology, 83, 97111. hesselbein, f., goldsmith, m. & beckhard, r. (1996). the leader of the future. new visions, strategies and practices for the next era. new york: the peter f. drucker foundation. hesselbein, f., goldsmith, m. & beckhard, r. (1997). the organisation of the future. new york: the peter f. drucker foundation. hirschorn, l. (1998). reworking authority: leading and following in the post-modern organisation. cambridge: mit. hirschorn, l. & barnett, c.k. (1999). the psychodynamics of organisations. philidelphia: temple university. huesser, n.g. (1999). grounded theory research: not for the novice. (online). available: http//www.users.qwest.net/~ nhueser/grounded.html huysamen, g.k. (1994). methodology for social and behavioural sciences. pretoria: southern. jaques, e. (1955). social systems as a defence against persecutory and depressive anxiety. in m. klein, p. heimamann and r. money-kyrle (eds.). new directions in psychoanalysis. london: tavistock publications. jaques, e. (1989). the requisite organisation. (2nd ed.). new york: cason hall & company. johnson, m. (2002). how to become a talent magnet. london: prentice hall. kernberg, o.f. (1980a). internal world and external reality: object relations theory applied. new york: jason aronson. kernberg, o.f. (1980b). regression in groups: some clinical and theoretical implications. journal of personality and society, 2, 51-75. kernberg, o.f. (1998). ideology, conflict and leadership in groups and organisations. london: yale university. kets de vries, m.f.r. (1991). organisations on the couch: handbook of psychoanalysis and management. new york: jossey bass. kets de vries, m.f.r. (2001). the leadership mystique. a user’s manual for the human enterprise. london: prentice hall. kinach, b.m. (2001). grounded theory as scientific method. haig-inspired reflections on educational research methodolog y. (online). available: http://www.ed.uiuc. edu/eps/pes-yearbook/95_docs/kinach.html klein, m. (1946). notes on some schizoid mechanisms. international journal of psycho-analysis, 27, 99-110. magretta, j. (1999). managing in the new economy. boston: harvard business school. maynhard, h.b. & mehrtens, s.e. (1996). the fourth wave. business in the 21st century. san francisco: berrett-koehler. mcfairland, l.j. senn, l.e. & childress, r. (1993). 21st century leadership. dialogues with 100 top leaders. los angeles: the leadership press. menzies, i.e.p. (1988). containing anxiety in institutions: selected essays, vol. 1. london: free association. menzies, i.e.p. (1989). the dynamics of the social: selected essays, vol. 2. london: free association. menzies, i.e.p. (1993). the functioning of the social systems as a defence against anxiety. london: the tavistock institute of human relations. miller, e.j. (1983). work and creativity. occasional paper no.6. london: tavistock institute of human relations. miller, e.j. (1986). conflict and reconciliation: the newham experiment. occasional paper no. 9. london: tavistock institute of human relations. miller, e.j. (1989). the “leicester” model: experiential study of group and organisational processes. occasional paper no.10. london: tavistock institute of human relations. miller, e.j. (1993). from dependency to autonomy: studies in organisation and change. london: free association. moon, c. & bonny, c. (2001). business ethics. london: profile books. mouton, j. & marais, h.c. (1992). basic concepts in methodology of the social sciences. pretoria: hsrc. neuman, l. (2003). social research methods. qualitative and quantitative approaches. boston: pearson education. newman, j.e. kellner, k. & dawson-sheperd, a. (1997). developing organisational consultancy. london: routledge. obholzer, a., & roberts, v.z. (1994). the unconscious at work. london: routledge. oshry, b. (1996). seeing systems. unlocking the mysteries of organisational life. san francisco: berret-koehler. rice, a.k. (1969). individual, group and inter-group process. human relations, 22 (6), 565-584. rice, a.k. (1999). learning for leadership: interpersonal and intergroup relations. london: tavistock publications. stacey, r.d. (1996). complexity and creativity in organisations. san francisco: berrett-koehler. strauss, a. & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research: grounded theory. procedures and techniques. newbury park: sage. stapley, l.f. (1996). the personality of the organisation: a psychodynamic explanation of culture and change. london: free association. leadership development 91 sullivan, h.p. (2000). value-driven intellectual capital. how to convert intangible corporate assets into market value. new york: john wiley & sons. turquet, p.m. (1974). leadership: the individual and the group. in g.s. gibbard, j.j. hartman and r.d. mann, analysis of groups, 337-371. san francisco: jossey-bass. turquet, p.m. (1975). threats to identity in the large group. in l. kreeger, the large group: dynamics and therapy, 87-144. london: constable. white, g. chalip, l. & marshall, s. (1998). grounded theory and qualitative analysis. (online). available: http://www2. aucland.ac.nz/mch//hrmas/qual2d.html. de jager, cilliers, veldsman92 article information author: boris urban1 affiliation: 1wits business school, university of witwatersrand, south africa correspondence to: boris urban email: boris.urban@wits.ac.za postal address: wits business school, university of witwatersrand, po box 98, wits 2050, south africa keywords entrepreneurship; intentions; self-efficacy; women dates: received: 19 apr. 2010 accepted: 30 jul. 2010 published: 28 oct. 2010 how to cite this article: urban, b. (2010). a gender perspective on career preferences and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. sa journal of human resource management/ sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #293, 8 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.293 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) a gender perspective on career preferences and entrepreneurial self-efficacy in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • research purpose    • gender differences    • women entrepreneurship    • role of self-efficacy in entrepreneurial intentions    • hypotheses • research design    • research approach    • research method       • participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • career preference percentage analysis    • validity and reliability of entrepreneurial self-efficacy measure    • descriptive statistics • discussion    • limitations and future research • conclusion • references abstract (back to top) orientation: gender perspectives on entrepreneurship illustrate that women are less likely than men to prefer those occupations which have been traditionally male-dominated, because of the tendency for women to have lower self-efficacy perceptions in relation to entrepreneurial career intentions. research purpose: the objective of this study was to establish to what extent women perceive self-employment as a viable career choice and how strong their beliefs are that they are capable of successfully performing various entrepreneurial roles and tasks. motivation for the study: the study is relevant because national studies indicate that the ratio of female to male participation in entrepreneurial activity varies considerably across countries. research design, approach and method: a survey design was used, with responses being based on quantitative measures. measures were tested for validity and reliability. descriptive statistics were calculated and differential tests were conducted to test the relevant hypotheses. main findings: the results of the study showed that women believe that they have the skills needed to be an entrepreneur and have placed their preference for entrepreneurship as a career choice high on the list of options. practical/managerial implications: human resources managers and educators must recognise that ‘a one-size-fits-all’ approach to training and development might not be appropriate and that gender-sensitive programming, especially in relation to different levels of entrepreneurial self-efficacy might be required. contribution of study: the study contributes to the growing knowledge base on women entrepreneurship and increases our understanding of entrepreneurship as a viable career choice in terms of entrepreneurial self-efficacy. introduction (back to top) differences persist in the levels of new firm creation across genders, with international studies indicating that the number of women involved in starting a business is significantly and systematically lower than that of men (bosma & levie, 2009; langowitz & minniti, 2007). research supports the supposition that men and women follow different business start-up processes. women are more likely than men to balance work and family roles, to handle conflict and to consider time and space constraints as they create new firms (brush, 1992; carter et al., 2003; havenga, 2009). in general, men are more likely to start a business than are women. in no country are women more active in starting and owning a business than are men (langowitz & minniti, 2007; minniti, bygrave & autio, 2005). in south africa, women comprise up to 52% of the adult population, of which 41% are considered to be part of the active working population. south africa’s early-stage total entrepreneurial activity index, the primary measure, which is used to compare the rate of new business start-ups amongst countries, was found to be relatively low (5.90%) for 2009 (bosma & levie, 2009). the profile of those who are categorised as entrepreneurs in terms of the specified index indicates that approximately 7.5% are men and 5.0% are women (bosma & levie, 2009). even though the ratio between male and female entrepreneurs in south africa is not highly disproportionate, the majority of south african women entrepreneurs operate within the crafts, hawking, personal services and retail sectors, in which sectors little technology is utilised in the undifferentiated businesses concerned (maas & herrington, 2006). such a finding clearly suggests that some form of gender division of labour still persists in south africa, with women still being locked into traditional female functions, tending to concentrate on those activities which are compatible with their domestic and reproductive roles (mahadea, 2001). moreover, women entrepreneurs tend to have a grade 12 or lower educational qualification, which might explain the lack of exploitation of higher order entrepreneurial opportunities. in terms of education, women are also less likely to pursue such technical disciplines as engineering and computer science, which would provide them with much needed skills for launching successful businesses in manufacturing and high-technology sectors (botha, nieman & van vuuren, 2007; carter & brush, 2004). experts believe that entrepreneurial activity is affected by the attitudes of those groups which are discriminated against and by cultural practices which hinder the development of entrepreneurship in south africa (orford et al., 2003). not only is a negative individual mindset often mentioned as a hindrance to entrepreneurship, but it is also evident that entrepreneurship is not viewed as a legitimate career choice, with insufficient education and training heading the list of obstacles to entrepreneurial development (driver et al., 2001). more than 50% of south african women entrepreneurs were found to think that they were not entrepreneurial in nature, whereas a relatively low (9%) percentage of them expressed the belief that they were entrepreneurial in nature (maas & herrington, 2006). research purpose particularly important to the present study is that, apart from demographic and economic variables, a number of perceptual variables have been found to have a crucial influence on the entrepreneurial propensity of women and might account for much of the difference which is found between the sexes in regard to their entrepreneurial activity. specifically, women tend to perceive both themselves and the entrepreneurial environment in a less favourable light than do men across countries, regardless of their entrepreneurial motivation. such findings suggest that perceptual variables might be significant universal factors that influence entrepreneurial behaviour (detienne & chandler, 2007; wilson, kickul & marlino, 2007). attitudes influence behaviour by impacting on intentions. intentions and attitudes depend on the situation and person concerned (scherer et al., 1989). by coming to an understanding of entrepreneurial perceptions, our understanding of intended behaviour increases.moreover, there is an underexplored and unarticulated female set of processes and behaviours that influences new venture creation (de bruin, brush & welter, 2007). although a separate theory of women entrepreneurship might not be required, existing theoretical concepts, which are normally used in trying to explain women entrepreneurship, could be expanded to include explanations of the distinctiveness of women entrepreneurship (de bruin et al., 2007; eddleston & powell, 2007). in south africa, given the high priority of employment in government economic policies and the pertinence of entrepreneurial activity to job creation (autio, 2005), empirical research into women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial intentions and self-belief is urgently required. currently, in south africa, most research and policy initiatives focus on necessity entrepreneurs (those individuals who are self-employed as a result of having no other choice), who have emerged from the unemployed masses. although such micro enterprises or survivalists have entrepreneurial characteristics, their ability to grow and create employment is restricted by their scarcity of skills, their business knowledge and their resources (pretorius & van vuuren, 2002). the present study differs from the prevailing trend by specifically focusing on women entrepreneurs who are more likely to be self-employed because of them pursuing a business opportunity, rather than because they have to. although opportunity-driven entrepreneurs are responsible for only a small proportion of all entrepreneurial activity in south africa, they are responsible for up to 80% of all job creation by entrepreneurs (autio, 2005). research objective a broad objective of the current study is to learn about entrepreneurship in general by studying women entrepreneurs rather than men. bird and brush (2002) draw our attention to gender perspectives on entrepreneurial processes, illustrating that gaining a different viewpoint will add to our knowledge on how individuals perceive and operationalise entrepreneurship. venture creation is gendered in and of itself, with the historical focus being on male processes and behaviours. there is some doubt as to whether current research approaches and methodologies adequately incorporate the ‘reality’ of women entrepreneurship. it has been suggested that research into women entrepreneurship contributes both in terms of its scholarly outlook and in terms of the contribution that it makes to society (wilson et al., 2007). the research objectives of this paper draw on the emerging body of knowledge about women entrepreneurship. given the lack of empirical evidence of the differences in entrepreneurial activity between the sexes, the research objectives of this paper are to determine to what extent women, in comparison with men, perceive self-employment as a viable career choice and to establish the levels of their beliefs regarding their self-efficacy in relation to their successful performance of various entrepreneurial roles and tasks. gender differences the theoretical framework of social feminism helps to explain gender differences in human capital, positing, as it does, that there are differences in male and female experiences from the earliest moments of life, which result in men and women having fundamentally different ways of viewing the world (detienne & chandler, 2007; fischer, reuber & dykes, 1993). basically, social feminism views the genders as different but equal and proposes that differences between women and men are due to unique socialisation processes (detienne & chandler, 2007). these distinctive experiences allow men and women to develop unique human capital, which, in turn, impacts on the identification of entrepreneurial opportunities (eddleston & powell, 2007; venkataraman, 1997). the social feminist view is often contrasted with the liberal feminist view, which contends that men and women are equal, autonomous individuals. based on such a perspective, women have been denied critical resources (e.g. financing, networks) for establishing new ventures, with the elimination of discriminatory practice resulting in the establishing of equal opportunities for women (detienne & chandler, 2007). bird and brush (2002), by drawing on feminist approaches, propose a model, in terms of which gender is regarded as impacting on entrepreneurial processes in terms of differences which are emphasised between men and women in connection to reality, time, action and interaction and power and ethics. notwithstanding the above-mentioned feminist views, little analysis has yet taken place regarding how gendered processes affect entrepreneurial behaviour, or shape the size of firms. the tendency of men entrepreneurs, in relation to women entrepreneurs, to focus on growing their business has, also, to be examined. most research into women entrepreneurship has not been based on feminist theories, tending to result in gender differences being explained in terms of how women entrepreneurs deviate from a so-called male normal. what emerges from the different viewpoints mentioned above is that, although it has been argued that there are no psychologically justified reasons for believing that women entrepreneurs might have fewer intentions of starting a venture, liberal and social feminist theories do provide sociocultural explanations for expecting gender differences in this regard (cliff, 1998). women entrepreneurship based on a literature review of 400 academic articles on women entrepreneurs by carter, anderson and shaw (2001), the indications are that several studies investigate specific gender differences in terms of business management, finance, business networks and performance. generally, most descriptive studies, especially those with small and convenience samples that describe research which has been undertaken into the personal characteristics of women entrepreneurs have found more similarities than differences between them and their male counterparts (gatewood et al., 2002; mahadea, 2001). research which has been undertaken into the impact of differences in gender on career choices has also shown the existence of important discrepancies between the two genders. for instance, women have been found to experience more complexity in their career choices than do men, because of the former’s need to balance their work and family roles (carter et al., 2003). in terms of business characteristics, women entrepreneurs have been found to tend to set up their ventures with lower start-up capital than have men and the ventures concerned have generally been found to be smaller in size in comparison with those ventures which are owned by men (brush, 1992). multiple studies have examined the access to capital and venture capital funding of women entrepreneurial firms. with regard to financing, previous research shows that women-owned businesses tend to start with both lower levels of overall capitalisation and lower ratios of debt finance than do men-owned businesses (bosma & levie, 2009; carter & allen, 1997; coleman, 2000). results from a national survey of women entrepreneurs in malawi indicate that the relationship between gender and business performance is a complex one; female-owned enterprises were found to tend to grow more rapidly in terms of employment opportunities than did male-owned ones (chirwa, 2008). gender differences in network structures and networking behaviour have also been reported, with social capital being found to influence both the decision to start and grow a business, as well as business survival and success (manolova et al., 2007). not only does research show that women’s intentions in launching a new business might differ from those of men (carter & brush, 2004), but that self-efficacy, attribution, work values, decision-making and motivational theories all may help to explain why gender differences lead to differential self-employment choices. several researchers have indicated that women are less likely than are men to prefer occupations which have been traditionally male-dominated, because of the tendency for women to have lower self-efficacy perceptions in relation to the occupations concerned (baughn et al., 2006; hackett et al., 1992; wheeler, 1983). gender plays a significant role in business performance, insofar as it influences the self-perceptions of entrepreneurs and their abilities to realise business start-up and growth (anna et al., 2000). raising entrepreneurial efficacies should raise perceptions of venture feasibility for women entrepreneurs, thus increasing their perceptions of opportunity recognition (wilson et al., 2007), as well as self-efficacy perceptions that are pivotal to entrepreneurial intentions (scherer et al., 1989). role of self-efficacy in entrepreneurial intentions several academic efforts are directed towards exploring the reasons that entrepreneurs offer for starting a new business, indicating that new ventures start-ups are not accidental, but are, rather, entrepreneurial actions, which are clearly intentional (carter et al., 2003; wilson et al., 2007). starting a business, or initiating a new venture, is often described as a purposive and intentional career choice, with the role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ese) emphasised as a key antecedent (chen, greene & crick, 1998). since self-efficacy reliably predicts the scope of career options considered, occupational interests, perseverance in difficult fields and personal effectiveness, it has been related to the pursuit of entrepreneurial activity (markman, balkin & baron, 2002). perceived self-efficacy is the strongest single predictor of career choice (bandura, 1986) and self-reported competencies predict entrepreneurial performance (chandler & jansen, 1992). correlations between self-efficacy and career intent range from 0.3 to 0.6, which is better than most predictors used in entrepreneurial research, such as locus of control (bandura, 1986, 1997). the value of understanding entrepreneurial self-efficacy is particularly useful, since it incorporates both personality and environmental factors and is thought to be a strong predictor of entrepreneurial intentions and, ultimately, action (mcgee et al., 2009). moreover, individuals’ cognitive preferences for analysis or intuition influence their perception and assessment of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (kickul et al., 2009). investigating the effect which attitudes have on intention to start a business, douglas and shepherd (2002) found that the intention to be an entrepreneur is stronger for those with more positive attitudes to risk and independence. perceived feasibility is consistently correlated with self-efficacy in most intention-based models (krueger, reilly & carsrud, 2000). such findings suggest that entrepreneurs must have perceptions of high self-efficacy to be able to cope with the challenges of modern society. based on the research findings on self-efficacy, which has been theoretically and empirically linked to intentions, hypotheses are formulated, in terms of which entrepreneurship as a career choice is examined in terms of entrepreneurial self-efficacy for men versus women, with the role of gender proposed as a differentiating factor. hypotheses seeing that perceptual variables have been found to have a crucial influence on entrepreneurial intention and may account for much of the difference in entrepreneurial activity between the sexes, it is proposed that:h1: entrepreneurship as a career choice will be significantly less likely for women than for men. h2: entrepreneurial self-efficacy will differ significantly more for women than for men. tables research design (back to top) research approach the study is cross-sectional and survey-based in design. such a design will suitably resolve the main research question and address the limitations of previous studies by empirically testing hypotheses in those areas where much speculation exists. a quantitative methodology was used to identify career preferences and entrepreneurial self-efficacy, with the methodological stance being supported in previous investigations with similar focus areas (boyd & vozikis, 1994; chandler & jansen, 1992; chen et al., 1998; earley, 1994; krueger & brazeal, 1994). seeing that responses are solicited in a manner which allows for quantitative analysis, nothing in the nature of the data will prevent the emergence of deeper speculations and insights. another design issue concerns the types of measures which are used in research into women’s entrepreneurship. this is a construct validity question. for instance, if measures of entrepreneurship are created in terms of male-owned businesses and male entrepreneurs and if we accept that there are gendered aspects to entrepreneurship, we may be missing certain aspects of women’s entrepreneurship that are both positive and value creating and from which we may learn more about entrepreneurship generally (wilson et al., 2007). this contention is addressed in the present study by means of the application of analytical techniques used to test for construct reliability and validity. research method participants given the psychological nature of the constructs examined in the current study, precedent exists for utilising student samples for such research even within management and entrepreneurship literatures. it has been suggested that research into intention using students allows for the improvement of predictive abilities, providing a fertile ground from which seeds of entrepreneurship can sprout. research finds that student samples are very similar to those of actual entrepreneurs, provided that the former have high entrepreneurial potential (fayolle et al., 2005; hemmasi & hoelscher, 2005; reynolds et al., 2003). graduates tend to start more ventures, grow bigger ventures and accumulate more assets (charney & libecap, 2004; peterman & kennedy, 2003). since individuals embarking on entrepreneurial careers and who are very close to the creation of new enterprise, typically have high self-efficacy levels, by evaluating the entrepreneurial beliefs of such subjects prior to the creation of new enterprise, the study is more likely to have validity in terms of intention (gartner, 1989). also, by using students for the envisaged study it will be possible to eliminate the possibility that prior success in venture formation will have influenced the respondent’s self-efficacy beliefs (scherer et al., 1989). the population of the study is the new public higher education landscape in south africa, consisting of 23 universities, with approximately 725 000 students (hesa, 2009). in the higher education system concerned, the proportion of head count student enrolments in each of four major study fields for the year 2007 was: • science, engineering and technology = 28% • business and management = 30% • education = 14% • other humanities = 28% the proportion of head count student enrolments in each gender group for the year 2007 was: • female = 56% • male = 44% the above figures show the growing predominance of women student enrolments in the higher education system during the past few years (hesa, 2009). to allow for meaningful comparisons, only students in business and management study fields were surveyed, limiting the sampling frame to faculties preoccupied with such studies. the faculties concerned have various nomenclatures at the different higher education institutions, such as faculty of management, economic management sciences, or economic financial sciences faculty. over 500 students at four different higher education institutions, ranging in type from university to comprehensive university to university of technology, were surveyed, in the johannesburg and pretoria geographical areas, due mainly to practical and cost constraints. to ensure statistically valid sample numbers from each gender group, quota sampling was used, rendering a final sample of 213 usable responses. the use of this sampling approach allowed for matching of different gender groups. the sample characteristics were based on an equal distribution of men (50%) and women (50%), with a mean age of 21.13 years, with 100% of respondents having completed matric and being full-time undergraduate students. additionally, the majority of respondents (61.2%) indicated that they had parents, friends or relatives who are, or had been, entrepreneurs. measuring instruments the measures were based on previous conceptualisations of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, particularly as measuring self-efficacy of a broader domain, such as entrepreneurship, requires researchers to develop a conceptual framework of task requirements on the basis of which self-efficacy of a domain is aggregated from self-efficacy of various constituent sub-domains. adapting measures developed by chen et al. (1998), de noble, jung and ehrlich (1999) and, more recently, wilson et al. (2007), entrepreneurial self-efficacy was measured across varying entrepreneurial roles and tasks, coinciding with chen et al.’s (1998) dimensions of marketing, innovation, management, risk-taking and financial control. the entrepreneurial self-efficacy construct has previously demonstrated and predicted the likelihood of an individual choosing entrepreneurship as a career preference. moreover, entrepreneurial self-efficacy refers to the strength of a person’s belief that he or she is capable of successfully performing various roles and tasks of an entrepreneur. a key point in the efficacy approach to occupational preference is that these perceptions of personal abilities may be more critical than are actual abilities (bandura, 1997). the first part of the survey focused on career preferences. several different occupations were measured on a five-point numerical scale ranging from ‘would not prefer to be in this occupation’ (scale value of 5) to ‘would prefer very much to be in this occupation’ (scale value of 1). numerical scales have equal intervals, with anchors serving as labels for the extreme points (cooper & schindler, 2001). respondents selected a number from the scale next to each career preference. numerous career preferences were provided, including: finance, marketing, international business, management, entrepreneurship, business strategy, accounting, e-commerce and management information system. based on the variety of items surveyed, the scale provides both an absolute measure of importance and a relative measure (ranking) of the various items rated. the second part of the survey focused on entrepreneurial self-efficacy. respondents were asked for their degree of current competence on each entrepreneurial self-efficacy dimension. questions were measured on a 1 to 5 likert scale, with 1 indicating respondents strongly agree to 5, indicating the respondents’ strong disagreement. although the scales concerned are susceptible to the error of central tendency, there is no conclusive support for choosing a scale with less or more points (cooper & schindler, 2001). consistent with previous research on individual differences in entrepreneurship, control variables measuring gender, age, level of education and presence or absence of role models were included. the latter variable is important in the context of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, because those prospective entrepreneurs who know other entrepreneurs are able to notice opportunities and those who think that they know how to start up a business are ten times more likely to be active in doing so than those who do not. additionally, parental examples of career choices and daily living situations affect the likelihood of a child selecting self-employment (carter & brush, 2004). research procedure once permission was obtained to administer the questionnaires and ethical clearance was established with the participating higher education institution, the questionnaires were administered face-to-face in a classroom setting, at the beginning of the term in one academic year. this procedure allowed for control and the achievement of a high response rate, based on the voluntary completion of questionnaires. statistical analysis the reliability and validity of instruments used to measure beliefs and intentions is tested and, by means of various statistical procedures, survey results are analysed and discussed within the broader framework of women and entrepreneurship. lastly, the findings are scrutinised to extract any practical and policy implications regarding this emerging and important topic. although the selected instruments have previously been subjected to factor analysis and satisfactory results were obtained in terms of factor structure (chen et al., 1998; de noble et al., 1999; urban, van vuuren & owen, 2008), reliability and validity were tested for this specific sample. descriptive statistics were calculated and the resultant output was split by gender group. moreover, by applying tests of normality and calculating the kolmogorov-smirnov and shapiro-wilk statistics, test scores indicated that normality was not violated. subsequently, hypothesised differences were tested using a simple independent t-test between mean scores. results (back to top) career preference percentage analysis based on the occupational preference scale, 53.8% of the total percentage of respondents chose entrepreneurship as a career preference, followed, in order of ranking, by that in marketing (53.4%), management (43.7%), international business (35.9%), business strategy (26.9%), accounting (11.2%), e-commerce (10.7%), finance (9.3%) and management information systems (7.9%). an option for ‘other’ career preferences constituted 18.9% of the responses received. table 1 provides an overview of the range of responses, with only the extreme scores displayed in terms of ‘would not prefer to be in this occupation’ (scale value 5) to ‘would prefer very much to be in this occupation’ (scale value of 1). because the scale provides both an absolute measure of importance and a relative measure (ranking) of the career preferences rated, it is interesting to note that entrepreneurship not only has the highest percentage when compared to other career preferences, but that it also has a relatively low percentage (8.1%) for not being preferred as a career. to test hypothesis 1, in terms of which hypothesis differences on entrepreneurship as a career choice were expected to be significantly lower for women than for men, frequencies were split by gender, indicating that entrepreneurship as a career preference was still higher for men (63%) than for women (37%). however, for women marketing was ranked as the first preference (56%), followed next by entrepreneurship (47%). to establish whether any significant differences on career preferences exist between male and female respondents, an independent samples t-test was conducted. a statistically significant difference at the 0.05 level was obtained, supporting the first hypothesis. validity and reliability of entrepreneurial self-efficacy measure factor analysis was used to identify the de facto underlying orthogonal dimensions of entrepreneurial self-efficacy evident in the data. the data were initially subjected to conventional item and test analysis, in terms of which item to total correlation of each item established that items were not correlated. according to tabachnick and fidell (2007), orthogonal rotation results in solutions that are easier to interpret and report, provided that the underlying constructs are not correlated. subsequently, varimax rotation was used together with bartlett’s test of sphericity, rendering a kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy (0.88), indicating an approximate chi-square of 2158.64 with 210 degrees of freedom. a kmo value of 0.90 to 1.00 indicates a high degree of common variance, indicating that the items are measuring a common factor.table 2 displays the rotated factor matrix results, in terms of which all the entrepreneurial self-efficacy items were factored, resulting in five factors. the respective eigenvalues and percentage of variance and cumulative percentages of each of the factors are reported in table 3. the rotation method was varimax with kaiser normalisation, with the rotation converging in 22 iterations. factors with loadings greater than, or equal to, 0.30 were considered significant and eigenvalues greater than 1 (based on scree tests and kaiser’s stopping rule) were used to decide on the optimal number of factors to retain. based on the rotated factor results, the grouping of items reflects the previously established dimensions of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, (1) factor one represents the management subdimension, (2) factor two represents the innovation subdimension, (3) factor three represents the marketing subdimension, (4) factor four represents the financial subdimension and (5) factor five represents the risk-taking subdimension. internal consistency was tested and the cronbach’s alpha was calculated for each individual factor by using only those items selected in the sorted rotated factor-loading matrix. cronbach’s alpha has the most utility for multi-scales at the interval level of measurement (cooper & schindler, 2001). the cronbach’s alpha was 0.83, 0.83, 0.80, 0.87 and 0.73 for factors 1 to 5 respectively. generally, a value above 0.7 is considered adequate for internal consistency (nunnally, 1978). descriptive statistics diagnostics were carried out to test for normality of data. results indicate that data were normally distributed, since the means, modes and medians for each question were almost equal. the qâˆ'q plots also supported the normality of the data and the stem-and-leaf plots showed a bell shape, with all the significant values for the items being less than 0.05. the measures of central tendencies and dispersion (refer to table 4) revealed that, apart from factor 4 (financial control), the distributions tailed towards the right (positively skewed). apart from factor 4 (financial control: m = 3.03), the mean scores for the other factors are relatively mediocre, that is, below the midpoint on the 1 to 5 likert scale. group statistics were then calculated for each factor in terms of gender (refer to table 5). mean scores were consistently higher for women on all five factors. to establish whether any significant differences exist on these factors between men and women, an independent samples t-test for equality of means was carried out, with no significant differences being detected for factor one (management), factor 4 (financial control), or factor 5 (risk-taking). however, factor 2 (innovation) and factor 3 (marketing) t-scores, at 207 degrees of freedom, of 3.38 and 2.24 respectively, were found to be significant at the 0.05 level (refer to table 6). this significant result provides partial support for hypothesis 2, in terms of which it was expected that entrepreneurial self-efficacy would differ between the sexes. to establish whether any of the control variables would play a significant role in differentiating male from female respondents, the same procedure was carried out for differences over level of education and age, with no significant results being obtained. although the results presented above tell us that the difference that we obtained in the two set of scores was unlikely to occur by chance, they do not tell us much about the magnitude of the difference concerned. one way in which to determine the magnitude concerned is to calculate the effect size statistic using cohenâ d. cohen (1988) defines effect sizes as small, d = 0.01, medium, d = 0.06 and large, d = 0.14’. for our current sample, the magnitude of differences across means was found to be medium (eta squared = 0.06). discussion (back to top) the principal aim of this paper was to determine to what extent women perceive self-employment as a viable career choice and to determine whether significant differences exist in levels of self-efficacy beliefs in terms of successfully performing the various roles and tasks of an entrepreneur. the empirical results obtained provide partial support for the hypotheses, as in the case of hypothesis 1, it was postulated that entrepreneurship as a career choice would be significantly lower for women than for men. in terms of hypothesis 2, significant gender differences were detected for only two of the five factors measuring entrepreneurial self-efficacy, providing partial support for that hypothesis. specifically, the findings indicate that women score significantly higher than do men on the innovation subdimension of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, as well as on the marketing subdimension of such self-efficacy. a plausible explanation for the significant differences observed in terms of the two entrepreneurial self-efficacy factors is that both innovation and marketing involve some degree of creativity, in terms of which female respondents might have an advantage. self-efficacy has been identified as a key motivational component in individual creative action (bandura, 1997). previous empirical studies indicate that men tend to place a greater emphasis on economic values and on quantitative non-ambiguous measures, such as status and wealth, whereas women tend to assign more importance to social values and qualitative, ambiguous measures, such as personal fulfilment and strong interpersonal relations (cliff, 1998; detienne & chandler, 2007). interlinking the empirical results of this paper with established literature allows for additional insights to emerge. the findings resonate with the premise that women tend to have lower entrepreneurial career aspirations in comparison with those of men. prior literature has suggested that women generally suffer from a gender effect, that is, in terms of inferior entrepreneurial aspirations and lower expectations (manolova et al., 2007). to some degree, the present study confirms such tendencies, though it also dispels the myth that women tend not to select entrepreneurship as a career choice and that they lack the requisite beliefs to be able to perform in entrepreneurial careers. while entrepreneurial career aspirations were significantly lower for women in comparison with those for men, entrepreneurial career preferences were ranked second highest in terms of career choice. additionally, in terms of the requisite beliefs to perform in entrepreneurial careers, as measured in terms of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, the mean scores were consistently higher for women on all of the entrepreneurial self-efficacy subdimensions. while gender stereotypes were not directly measured in this study, the finding that female respondents selected a career path which was historically dominated by men and that their self-efficacy score was found to be higher across all the entrepreneurial self-efficacy factors, indicates that the sample of potential female entrepreneurs concerned perceive themselves as capable and willing to be entrepreneurial. the present study adds to the growing knowledge base on different types of entrepreneurship and increases our understanding of the important relationship between entrepreneurship and gender. as noted by eddleston and powell (2007), the effects of gender are not limited to the biological effects of sex, but rather, gender identity is a better predictor of entrepreneurial career intentions than the former are. individuals develop a sense of themselves by means of the social categorisation process and, because sex is a highly visible basis for self-categorisation, individuals identify with personal traits and beliefs that are attributed to men rather than with those attributed to women. the results of the study could have implications for educational initiatives, in terms of recognising that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to curricula may not be appropriate and gender-sensitive programming, especially in relation to different levels of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, coupled with building women’s entrepreneurial aspirations, might be required (wilson et al., 2007). with the growth in educational programmes designed to provide skills and abilities for entrepreneurship, comes the opportunity to better understand what works and what does not and to establish best programme practices. research suggests that, whereas venture creation resources are relatively scarce in transition economies, entrepreneurship education programmes in both the east and west need to place more emphasis on developing skills related to venture resource gathering (mueller & goic, 2003). the current study makes a contribution to the field of women entrepreneurship, in which few empirical studies exist in an emerging country context. the study is particularly relevant, as national studies indicate that the ratio of female to male participation in entrepreneurial activity varies considerably across countries, reflecting the impact of different cultures and customs on female participation in economic activity (bosma & levie, 2009). limitations and future research although no claims of representativeness of the south african population are made, the study sample characteristics do reflect the general population demographic at higher education institutions in south africa, allowing for findings to be extrapolated, albeit with caution, to other students at such in stitutions. the study has typical survey design limitations. since it was cross-sectional, the results should be interpreted with caution and gender differences in unmeasured variables might have influenced the results. another limitation concerns the statistical testing, as, with this type of analysis, there is always the possibility of reaching the wrong conclusion. consequently, the study is subject to type 1 and type 2 errors, which are endemic to this type of analysis and which are well documented in the literature (cooper & schindler, 2001). as a directive for future research and action, a proposition is made: rather than suggest that women must be more widely represented in terms of entrepreneurship and in the natural sciences (so that they appear to be more like men), it seems more realistic to assume that there may be a unique role for both men and women to play in the field of such endeavour. accordingly, the results of the current study could be interpreted as supportive of the social feminist view, in terms of which one gender does not have to become more like another in order to succeed, but rather, each individual should focus on the importance of developing his or her own individual resources (i.e. ese) (detienne & chandler, 2007). growing the role of women in entrepreneurship to the detriment of male entrepreneurs will not provide the appropriate impetus for the accelerated socio-economic growth of south africa. therefore, it will be necessary to enlarge the economic cake before both men and women entrepreneurs can have their full share of it (maas & herrington, 2006). conclusion (back to top) based on the empirical results obtained in the research described in this article, the current study helps to explain female career preferences. by combining the preliminary evidence with the findings of previous research on career aspirations and entrepreneurial self-efficacy, it can be deduced that entrepreneurship is no longer perceived as a male-orientated field of pursuit, and that young women have entrepreneurial career aspirations, because they have been found to believe they have the necessary competencies to be entrepreneurial in nature. references (back to top) anna, a.l., chandler, g.n., jansen, e., & mero, n.p. (2000). women business owners in traditional and non-traditional industries. journal of business venturing, 15(3), 279-303. autio, e. (2005). report on high-expectancy entrepreneurship: global entrepreneurship monitor. babson: hec lausanne. bandura, a. (1986). social foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive theory. new jersey: prentice-hall. bandura, a. (1997). self-efficacy: the exercise of control. new york: w.h. freeman & company. baughn, c., cao, j., le, l., lim, v., & neupert, k. (2006). normative, social and cognitive predictors of entrepreneurial interest in china, vietnam and the philippines. journal of developmental entrepreneurship, 11(1), 57-77. bird, b., & brush, c. (2002). a gendered perspective on organisational creation. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 26(3), 41-65. bosma, n., & levie, j. (2009). global entrepreneurship monitor: 2009 global report. babson park: babson college. botha, m., nieman, g., & van vuuren, j. (2007). measuring the effectiveness of the women entrepreneurship programme on potential, start-up and established women entrepreneurs in south africa. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 10(2), 163-183. boyd, n.g., & vozikis, g.s. (1994). the influence of self-efficacy on the development of entrepreneurial intentions and actions. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 18(4), 63-78. brush, c. (1992). research on women business owners: past trends, a new perspective and future directions. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 16, 05-26. carter, n., & allen, k. (1997) size-determinants of women-owned businesses: choices or barriers to resources. entrepreneurship and regional development, 9(3), 211-220. carter, n.m., & brush, c.g. (2004). gender: demographic characteristics of the entrepreneur. in w.b. gartner, k.b. shaver, n.m. carter & p.d. reynolds (eds.), handbook of entrepreneurial dynamics, (pp. 12-25). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. carter, n.m., anderson, s., & shaw, e. (2001). women’s business ownership: a review of the academic and popular and internet literature. report to the small business service. glasgow: university of strathclyde. carter, n.m., gartner, w.b., shaver, k.g., & gatewood, e.j. (2003). the career reasons of nascent entrepreneurs. journal of business venturing, 18, 13-39. chandler, g.n., & jansen, e. (1992). the founders self-assessed competence and venture performance. journal of business venturing, 07, 223-236. charney, a.h., & libecap, g.d. (2004). impact of entrepreneurship education. academy of management learning and education, september, 340-342. chen, c.c., greene, p.g., & crick, a. (1998). does entrepreneurial self-efficacy distinguish entrepreneurs from managers? journal of business venturing, 13, 295-316. chirwa, e.w. (2008). ‘effects of gender on the performance of micro and small enterprises in malawi’, development southern africa, 25(3), 347-362. cliff, j.e. (1998). does one size fit all? exploring the relationship between attitudes towards growth, gender, and business size. journal of business venturing, 13, 523-542. cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for behavioural sciences. (2nd edn.). new jersey: erlbaum, hillside. coleman, s. (2000). access to capital and terms of credit: a comparison of men and women-owned small businesses. journal of small business management, 38(3), 37-52. cooper, d.r., & schindler, p.s. (2001). business research methods, (7th edn.). singapore: mcgraw-hill. de bruin, a., brush, c.g., & welter, f. (2007). advancing a framework for coherent research on women’s entrepreneurship. entrepreneurship theory and practice, may, 323-339. de noble, a.f., jung, d., & ehrlich, s.b. (1999). entrepreneurial self-efficacy: the development of a measure and its relationship to entrepreneurial action. frontiers of entrepreneurship research. babson park, ma: babson college. detienne, d.r., & chandler, g.n. (2007). the role of gender in opportunity identification. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 25(4), 81-99. douglas, e.j., & shepherd, d.a. (2002). self-employment as a career choice: attitudes, entrepreneurial intentions and utility maximization. entrepreneurship theory and practice, spring, 81-90. driver, a., wood, e., segal, n., & herrington, m. (2001). global entrepreneurship monitor: south african executive report. cape town: university of cape town. earley, p.c. (1994). self or group? cultural effects of training on self-efficacy and performance. administrative science quarterly, 39, 89-109. eddleston, k.a., & powell, g.n. (2007). the role of gender identity in explaining sex differences in business owners’ career satisfier preferences. journal of business venturing, 4, 1-13. fayolle, a., gailly, b., kickul, j., lassas-clerc, d., & whitcanack, n. (2005). capturing variations in attitudes and intentions: a longitudinal study to assess the pedagogical effectiveness of entrepreneurship teaching programs. in the 50th annual conference of the international council for small business, june 2001 (pp. 15-20), washington d.c., united states of america. fischer, e.m., reuber, a.r., & dykes, l.s. (1993). a theoretical overview and extension of research on sex, gender, and entrepreneurship. journal of business venturing, 8, 151-168. gartner, w.b. (1989). some suggestions for research on entrepreneurial traits and characteristics. entrepreneurship theory and practice, fall, 27-37. gatewood, e.j., shaver, k.g., powers, j.b., & gartner, w.b. (2002). entrepreneurial expectancy, task effort, and performance. entrepreneurship theory and practice, winter, 187-206. hackett, g., betz, n., casas, j., & rocha-sinjh, i. (1992). gender, ethnicity and social cognitive factors predicting achievement. journal of counselling psychology, 39, 527-538. havenga, w. (2009). gender and age differences in conflict management with small businesses. south african journal of human resource management, 6(1), 22-28. hemmasi, m., & hoelscher, m. (2005). entrepreneurship research, using students as proxies for actual entrepreneurs. in the 50th annual conference of the international council for small business, june 2001 (pp. 15-20), washington d.c., united states of america. hesa, 2009, pathways to a diverse and effective south african higher education system, retrieved february 03, 2010, from http://www.hesa.org.za.html kickul, j., gundry, l.k., barbosa, s.d., & whitcanack, l. (2009). intuition versus analysis? testing differential models of cognitive style on entrepreneurial self-efficacy and the new venture creation process. entrepreneurship theory and practice, march, 439-453. krueger, n.f., & brazael, d.v. (1994). entrepreneurial potential and potential entrepreneurs. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 18, 91-105. krueger, n.f., reilly, m.d., & carsrud, a.l. (2000). competing models of entrepreneurial intentions. journal of business venturing, 15, 411-432. langowitz, n. & minniti, m. (2007). ‘the entrepreneurial propensity of women’. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 31(3), 341-365. maas, g., & herrington, m. (2006). global entrepreneurship monitor: south african report. graduate school of business. cape town: university of cape town. mahadea, d. (2001). similarities and differences between male and female entrepreneurial attributes in manufacturing firms in the informal sector in the transkei. development southern africa, 18(2), 189-199. manolova, t.s., carter, n.m., manev, s., & gyoshev, b.s. (2007). the differential effect of men and women entrepreneurs’ human capital and networking on growth expectancies in bulgaria. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 31(3), 407-427. markman, g.d., balkin, d.b., & baron, r.a. (2002). inventors and new venture formation: the effects of general self-efficacy and regretful thinking. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 27, 149-165. mcgee, j.e., peterson, m., mueller, s.l., & sequeira, j.m. (2009). entrepreneurial self-efficacy: refining the measure. entrepreneurship theory and practice, may, 01-24. minniti, m., bygrave, w.d., & autio, e. (2005). global entrepreneurship monitor: executive report, babson park, ma: babson college. mueller, s.l., & goic, s. (2003). east-west differences in entrepreneurial self-efficacy: implications for entrepreneurship education in transition economies. international journal of entrepreneurship education, 1(4), 613-632. nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory (2nd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. orford, j., wood, e., fischer, c., herrington, m., & segal, n. (2003). south african executive report update: global entrepreneurship monitor. graduate school of business. cape town: university of cape town. peterman, n.e., & kennedy, j. (2003). enterprise education: influencing students’ perception of entrepreneurship. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 28, 129-144. pretorius, m., & van vuuren, j. (2002). the contribution of support and incentive programs to entrepreneurial orientation and start up culture in south africa. in south african entrepreneurship and small business association conference, 04-06 june 2002. sun city, south africa. reynolds, p.d., bygrave, w.d., autio, e. et al. (2003). global entrepreneurship monitor: executive report. babson park, ma: babson college scherer, f.r., adams, j.s., carley, s.s., & wiebe, f.a. (1989). role model performance effects on development of entrepreneurial career preference. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 13, 53-71. tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2007). using multivariate statistic (5th edn.). boston: pearson education. urban, b., van vuuren, j., & owen, r. (2008). antecedents to entrepreneurial intentions: testing for measurement invariance. south african journal of human resource management/ sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 6(1), 01-09. venkataraman, s. (1997). the distinctive domain of entrepreneurial research. advances in entrepreneurship, firm emergence and growth, 03, 119-138. wheeler, k.g. (1983). comparisons of self-efficacy and expectancy models of occupational preferences for college male and females. journal of occupational psychology, 56, 73-78. wilson, f., kickul, j., & marlino, d. (2007). gender, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial career intentions: implications for entrepreneurship education. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 13, 387-406. abstract introduction african leadership research objectives research methodology findings discussion limitation of the study conclusion and recommendation for future research acknowledgements references footnote about the author(s) matete lerutla graduate school of business leadership, university of south africa, midrand, south africa renier steyn graduate school of business leadership, university of south africa, midrand, south africa citation lerutla, m., & steyn, r. (2021). african business leadership: perspectives from aspiring young leaders. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1467. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1467 original research african business leadership: perspectives from aspiring young leaders matete lerutla, renier steyn received: 02 sept. 2020; accepted: 20 apr. 2021; published: 28 may 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: although a lot is written about leadership in africa, little empirical research has been conducted and published in prominent academic journals, which comprehensively and specifically define the concept of african business leadership. research purpose: the goal of the research study was to define the african business leadership comprehensively, tapping into the views of young leaders and making a contribution to the discourse and literature on leadership in africa. motivation for the study: whilst business leadership practices are deemed to be universal by some, others argue that the matter is geographically specific. the latter view is supported by those interested in decolonisation and africanisation. although politically inspired and philosophically embedded definitions of african leadership are readily available, definitions stemming from empirical processes seem to be absent. research approach, design and method: this research focuses on the sub-saharan region, which accounts for the greater part of the african continent. a total of 121 adult students, representing 14 sub-saharan countries, participated in this study. the participants were part of the young african leaders initiative, a leadership development programme facilitated by the university of south africa. a cross sectional survey design was used, as part of which open-ended questions were posed to the young leaders. summative content analysis (cohort 1) was uses to identify elements central to african leadership, and directed content analysis was then framed based on inter-relational plots, which include all these identified themes. method: a cross-sectional survey design was used, as part of which open-ended questions were posed to the young leaders. summative content analysis (cohort 1) was used to identify elements central to african business leadership, and directed content analysis (cohort 2) was applied to verify the themes. a definition of african business leadership was then framed based on inter-relational plots, which include all these identified themes. main findings: eight elements typical of african business leadership were identified and, following an analysis of inter-relational plots, a definition incorporating the participants’ inputs was crafted. african business leadership is seen as unique to leaders on the continent (afrocentric), as an act of service to the community (ubuntu), operating in challenging and resource-deprived environments (because of the legacy of colonialism) and providing hope for creating a better future. african business leadership is further seen as being dominated by those in positions of (political) authority, who engage in entrepreneurial activities, and yet as still requiring development because many leaders are corrupt (brokenness), which seems to be legitimised by post-colonial sentiments (afro-centric). contribution: the research study presents a multidimensional perspective on defining african business leadership, reiterating the admirable community orientation, but also the skill gaps, and therefore, the need for improvement. practical implications: the definition crafted from the research study provides a compelling conceptualisation of a phenomenon that is often described from only a philosophical or political perspective. this empirical research study contributes to the leadership debate by providing a multidimensional and comprehensive definition of african business leadership, incorporating both the positive and negative elements. keywords: leadership; african; business; definition; conceptualisation; inter-relational plots. introduction as a construct, leadership is associated with or believed to be key to organisational effectiveness or societal success (garg & ramjee, 2013). it is also associated with improved business operations and performance (mokgolo, mokgolo, & modiba, 2012; thom, 2014), and is regarded as critical in shaping or directing people how to respond to change (nkomo & kriek, 2011). the construct of leadership has received much attention from researchers or scholars around the world and across different disciplines (marturano & gosling, 2008). it is noted that whilst over the last two decades, leadership theories have been advanced exponentially (dinh et al., 2014), there is still no universal understanding or agreement on the definition thereof (bolden & kirk, 2009). given the many and varying definitions of leadership that have been posited, the common ground remains elusive, and the likelihood of agreement on what it entails remains farfetched (abebe, lado, & tekleab, 2020; grint, 2005; kalunga, 2009; metz, 2018). notable in the leadership literature is the evolution in the definition of leadership, as reflected in various leadership theories (yukl & gardner, 2020). these developments illustrate that as a construct, leadership is dynamic, and that the definition is specific to a point in time. during the 1980s, a series of studies emerged, suggesting that culture provides a frame of reference or logic by which leadership behaviour can be understood (bolden & kirk, 2009; dorfman et al., 2006; kuada, 2010). this perspective on culture was made popular by the global leadership and organizational behaviour effectiveness (globe) research project, which expanded on the implicit leadership theory with a focus on understanding leadership, culture and organisations globally. according to the globe study in 2004 (house, hanges, javidan, dorfman, & gupta, 2004), individuals from the same cultures, given their shared beliefs, share implicit belief systems about ideal leaders. it is on this basis that the primary intent of their research was to investigate the fundamental question of the relationship between culture and leader effectiveness (hoppe & eckert, 2012). the globe research study measured the role of culture in different countries, industries and organisations, with over 17 300 middle managers from 951 organisations spanning 62 countries (house et al., 2004). the globe finding on culture and leadership provides a view of how individuals within cultures are different from or similar to one another in their perceptions and expectations of leadership effectiveness. the globe research project originally defined leadership as ‘the ability to motivate, influence, and enable individuals to contribute to the objectives of organizations of which they are members’ (house et al., 2004, p. xxii). in 2014, the globe study defined leadership as ‘the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members’ (house, dorfman, javidan, hanges, & de luque, 2014, p. 17). (the latter definition introduced the element of enabling organisational effectiveness beyond just delivering objectives, which may relate to broader corporate responsibility.) it is not the elements of leadership that seem to evolve, but rather what leadership aims at in a given context that seems to do so. the research behind globe has influenced and shaped thinking on understanding leadership effectiveness, given the different contexts within which the leadership is practised. nonetheless, there continues to be a persistence in both empirical research and organisational fields to try to explain universally what makes an effective leader, in general, and across contexts (abebe et al., 2020; fourie, van der merwe, & van der merwe, 2017; zoogah & nkomo, 2013). the globe project showed that ‘the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others’ differs across nations and regions. the globe research project’s consideration of the characteristics of outstanding leaders in different contexts, with a focus on nation states and regions, has contributed to leadership debate. madanchian, hussein, noordin and taherdoost (2017) wrote that the conceptualisation of leader effectiveness is very challenging. they attribute this to the diversity of the theories posited and to empirical research findings on what makes an effective leader and how that is to be measured. metz (2018) adds that in the light of the conflicting value systems around the world, it is not easy to reach a universal consensus around what makes a good leader. in line with the globe research, leadership practices embedded in western leadership paradigms are increasingly being questioned (bolden & kirk, 2009; eyong, 2017). there is also growing movement, suggesting that leadership should be understood within the context in which it is practised (adewale, 2020; avolio, walumbwa, & weber, 2009; fourie et al., 2017; grobler & singh, 2018; humphreys, zhao, ingram, gladstone, & basham, 2010; iwowo, 2015; jones, lefoe, harvey & ryland, 2012; lee, 2011; littrell & nkomo, 2005; mbigi, 2000, 2007; mboup, 2008; muchiri, 2011; posner, 2012; van der colff, 2003; walumbwa, avolio, & aryee, 2011). this growing research into understanding the role of context as part of understanding leadership further confirms the need for conceptual clarity on the definition of leadership. one of the contexts that has drawn attention regarding the uniqueness of its leadership is africa. it has been observed that the global leadership practices of the 18-20th centuries were influenced by eurocentric theories and narratives (booysen, 2001; eyong, 2017), which do not reflect the indigenous dimensions and contexts that are critically important to understanding leadership in africa (wanasika, howell, littrell, & dorfman, 2011). researchers, such as bolden and kirk (2005), chasi and levy (2016), chatbury, beaty and kriek (2011), littrell and nkomo (2005), spangenberg and theron (2016) and walumbwa et al. (2011), make compelling arguments that africa has its own values and practices, and that these should be an integral part of leadership practices for the continent. the authors, such as obiakor (2004), grobler and singh (2018), grobler and flotman (2020) and msila (2008), have criticised western theories on practices of leadership in the african context outright and have called for an african-centred leadership approach that is relevant to the values of africans. whilst these researchers (grobler & flotman, 2020; grobler & singh, 2018; msila, 2008; obiakor, 2004) argue against the eurocentric approach to leadership and leadership development programmes, they provide no evidence of a clear definition of what leadership is for africa. in a quest to contribute to the academic body of knowledge about leadership within the african context – building on work conducted by bolden and kirk (2019), chatbury et al. (2011), kuada (2010), grobler and singh (2018), littrell and nkomo (2005), le grange (2011), metz (2018), ncube (2010), spangenberg and theron (2016), as well as wanasika et al. (2011) – this research article shares an alternative perspective on how the construct of business leadership is understood in africa. this research study makes a valuable contribution by providing a conceptually broad-based definition of african leadership, not built upon political or philosophical foundations but constructed from empirical research findings. african leadership despite growing interest in understanding what leadership means in africa, empirical research on the subject is sparse (abebe et al., 2020; kuada, 2010; lerutla & steyn, 2017; wanasika et al., 2011). esteemed authors, such as mbeki (2005), mbigi (2007), mutwa (2019) and mutwa and larsen (1996), have also dedicated their focus and work on ideological and political matters on the subject of leadership. notably, several researchers reported that very little academic research has been conducted towards understanding leadership in africa (amah, 2019; cerff, 2017; gumede, 2017; kuada, 2010; walumbwa et al., 2011). a recent review of prominent academic publications on scholarly and peer-reviewed leadership articles, from 1980 to 2020 found that empirical research on leadership in africa is still in its infancy (abebe et al., 2020). there is sparse evidence of empirical, peer-reviewed journal publications on the definition of leadership in africa. lerutla and steyn (2017) undertook a systematic review of literature1 on african leadership and listed only 13 scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles on african leadership. at the time the literature review was conducted, only five of these articles focussed on business leadership. in their research, they found that only bolden and kirk (2009) included cultural factors in their conclusion on leadership in africa. bolden and kirk (2009) argued that africans aspire to a leadership based on humanity, a leadership that is inclusive, and one that values individual differences with a desire to serve others. they argue that there is a pattern unique to africa, which can be associated with the belief system and philosophical principles of ubuntu, a term that represents african humanism and that is often translated as ‘i am because we are’. ubuntu is seen as a fundamental philosophy that governs existence and social relations in sub-saharan africa (mangaliso, 2001; mbigi, 2000; wanasika et al., 2011). it is premised on respect for the dignity of people, reciprocity in social relations and a desire for tolerance and forgiveness. the leadership philosophy of ubuntu as a practice has received attention in research as a key consideration to determining what leadership in africa entails (grobler & singh, 2018; le grange, 2011; muchiri, 2011; nzimakwe, 2014), although very little empirical research has been conducted on the concept to determine its effectiveness in leadership practice (brubaker, 2013). gumede (2017), mbigi (2000) and van rensburg (2013) stated similar sentiments along the lines that african leadership is grounded on afrocentric histories, philosophies, epistemologies and other pan-africanist ideologies within the evolving african cultures. metz (2018, p. 42) also talks about an afro-communal ethic type of leadership, which is unique to africa, based on the belief that ‘one should relate communally’. afro-communal leadership is associated with a specific form of servant leadership, not in a way understood in the western context, but servant leadership distinguished as leaders’ interest in meeting the needs of others, with emphasis placed on communal relationship (metz, 2018). in his address to a group of leaders, khoza (2012) linked leadership in africa to humanness and further argued that the human style of leadership generated by african humanism puts people first. mbigi (2000) identified five core values associated with african leaders: respect for the dignity of others, group solidarity, teamwork, service to others and the spirit of harmony and interdependence. the globe research findings also reported that sub-saharan respondents mostly supported aspects, such as human-oriented, charismatic or value-based and team-oriented leadership (hoppe & eckert, 2012). an analysis of different media articles, describing leadership and culture in the sub-saharan context, paints a gloomy picture, highlighting five themes used in reference to leadership across the media: corruption, poverty, tribalism, desire for change and economic development (wanasika et al., 2011). although it could be argued that newspaper reports do not necessarily provide scientific data on leadership, they tend to reflect and inform perceptions on matters of social interest. along similar lines, kuada (2010, p. 10) wrote that whilst there is limited research conducted on african leadership, the general view in the available literature is that ‘african leaders are terribly ineffective’, and that some aspects of african culture may constrain effective leadership. some researchers have demonstrated elements unique to african leadership (brubaker, 2013; grobler & singh, 2018; mangaliso, 2001; mbigi, 2007; metz, 2018; setlhodi, 2018), with ubuntu (as mentioned above) being a good example of this. other researchers, using western conceptualisations of leadership, such as avolio and bass (2005), bolden and kirk (2009), kuada (2010), mbigi (2000) and mokgolo et al. (2012), have quantified the prevalence of transactional leadership in africa. this was performed using western conceptualisations, in this case transactional leadership, to inform leadership practices in africa. this research study draws on the culturally endorsed leadership (clt) theory as the reference discourse to explore and understand leadership in the african context (house, javidam, hanges, & dorfman, 2002). this theory builds on the implicit leadership theory which argues that every individual holds implicit belief systems, perceptions and expectations about what ‘good leadership’ entails and, similarly, that people of different cultures would have different views of what ‘good leadership’ requires (muralidharan & pathak, 2018). in their research, muralidharan and pathak (2018) also revealed that leaders who display attributes aligned with followers’ implicit expectations are more likely to be accepted, and that the location and culture within which leadership occurs have a contextual relevance as part of the leadership discourse. research objectives aiming to contribute to the body of knowledge, this research study endeavours to construct an operational definition of african leadership, not based on a singular philosophical or political viewpoint but rather on the culmination of the ideas of multiple informants, using a systematic research process. research methodology design the research study followed a qualitative approach, where data were collected using open-ended questions presented to the participants in a survey format. this was a cross-sectional study. data collection data collection was limited to three open-ended qualitative questions that probed participants’ views on the construct of leadership. the questions were presented one-at-atime (in sequence), and the participants were encouraged to take their time in answering each question before proceeding to the next question. the key question was the second question in the series, concerning the african business leadership, and only findings relating to this question are presented here. the first was a priming question, which read as follows: ‘[w]hat is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about business leadership?’ the second question, the one on which is reported in this research, was ‘[w]hat is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about african business leadership?’ the last question, not analysed in this article, read as follows: ‘[w]hat is the main difference between african business leadership and what is commonly known as western leadership?’ participants the participants were delegates to the young african leadership initiative (yali) leadership development programme, run and facilitated by the university of south africa (unisa) graduate school of business leadership. the participants were selected for the development programme based on their leadership qualities and potential, as assessed by yali selection committees. data were collected in 2019. all delegates (150 for cohort 1 and 151 for cohort 2) were invited to participate in the research study and, therefore, no sampling was conducted. given that participation in the study was voluntary, the delegates were free to opt out or to withdraw at any point during the process. some did so by not attending the assessment session, whilst others did so by providing inadequate information on the answer sheets. incomplete questionnaires were discarded. as can be seen from table 1, 121 participants from 14 sub-saharan african countries (see table 1) completed the questionnaire. the response rate thus varied between 34.6% (cohort 1) and 45.7% (cohort 2). table 1: study participants. from the above, the diversity of respondents in terms of geographic representation, gender and age groups is evident. it is notable that the respondents in both cohorts are relatively young and marginally over-representative of women. the yali-programme managers were not keen on allowing the researchers to collect data pertaining to race and, in line with this, no such data were collected in this study. taken at face value, the cohorts were very similar. data analysis the data gathered from the two cohorts were captured on separate spreadsheets. thematic content analysis was conducted as this type of analysis was suitable for identifying and organising themes found within a dataset (nowell, norris, white, & moules, 2017; vaismoradi, jones, turunen, & snelgrove, 2016). the data from cohort 1 were independently analysed by the three researchers using summative content analyses (hsieh & shannon, 2005). themes identified covered related or similar responses, which had a frequency higher than three in the dataset. researchers first compiled the lists of themes individually. after compiling their own lists, the researchers consulted with each other and compiled a list of the dominant themes on which they could agree. armed with this list, the three researchers visited the data captured from cohort 2 and used directed content analyses (hsieh & shannon, 2005) to verify the themes, as well as to identify additional themes. the task was first performed by the researchers individually, and then later as a group. the replicability of data obtained from the second cohort could potentially confirm the dependability and trustworthiness (korstjens & moser, 2018) of the identified themes. in the next phase of the research, a definition of african business leadership was formulated. working independently, each researcher used the combined list of themes, as identified from cohort 1 and modified using the results from cohort 2, to draw inter-relational plots. drawing inter-relational plots involves drawing a chart in which variables are logically linked, with the aim of creating an ‘argument’, which includes all the variables, ideally in the form of a closed loop (dinno, 2015; puccia & levins, 1985). the researchers first constructed individual plots. the individual exercise was followed by a discussion on the various plots amongst the researchers and, after consultation, agreement on an integrated inter-relational plot, which best represented all themes was reached. the narrative to describe these plots was then presented as a definition of african business leadership. ethical considerations access to participants was gained via the director of the yali programme, and those who participated did so voluntarily. ethical clearance to conduct the study was obtained (information redacted to maintain the integrity of the review process). in order to ensure honesty from the participants and to strengthen the credibility of the data, it was articulated that the researcher was independent of the (information redacted to maintain the integrity of the review process), and it was made clear to the participants that they had the right to participate or withdraw at any point without having to provide an explanation. the relatively low response rate, along with the (small) number of questionnaires that were left only partially completed, suggests that those who participated in the study did so freely, thus further strengthening the trustworthiness of the data. raw data, as well as captured data, have been retained and may be requested from the primary researcher should any reanalysis of the findings be necessary. findings in line with the research design, the findings are presented under two headings: the first relates to the theme identification (using cohort 1) and the theme verification (using cohort 2), and the second to the inter-relational plot, where the themes were graphically linked to each other in a coherent manner to create the definition. leadership theme identification and verification using the summative content analysis, each researcher identified themes from the data collected from the answers to the question on african business leadership. the individually identified themes are presented in table 2. table 2: themes as identified by researchers in cohort 1 (n = 52). the similarity between the themes identified from cohort 1 by the three researchers was 0.91. this figure (0.91) represents the inter-rater reliability and was deemed to be acceptable. following a lengthy discussion by the researchers, consensus on the following themes was reached: brokenness (including aspects such as corruption). responses, such as ‘corruption’, ‘non-transparent trade’ and ‘irresponsibility’, informed the identification of this theme. afrocentric (referring to specific to a geographical area). responses, such as diamond trenching’, ‘african perspective’ and ‘continent’, informed the identification of this theme. community (suggesting to the advantage of all). responses, such as ‘social upliftment’ and ‘developing communities’, informed the identification of this theme. entrepreneurship. responses, such as ‘african entrepreneurship’, ‘empowering africa’ and ‘economic development in africa’, informed the identification of this theme. position of authority (business leaders having positional power). responses, such as ‘[n]ames of african leaders’ and ‘[l]eadership direction’, informed the identification of this theme. need to be developed (business leaders being under-qualified). responses, such as ‘[s]till a long way to go’, ‘poor management’, ‘development and ‘have to be improved’, informed the identification of this theme. lack of resources (having insufficient money to do business). responses, such as ‘poor’, ‘poverty’, ‘nothing’, ‘limited’ and ‘struggling’, informed the identification of this theme. in cohort 2 (the control group), these themes were then verified by the researchers independently determining the extent of the overlap between the themes identified in cohort 1 with those apparent in cohort 2. here, directed content analyses were performed, matching the existing themes with the themes that could be extracted from the new (cohort 2) data. from table 3 (column 1), it can be read that 47 of the 69 responses in cohort 2 could be classified using the themes identified from the content analyses of the text analysed with cohort 1 by researcher 1. all the themes identified from cohort 1 were replicated in cohort 2, and this was interpreted very positively. this percentage overlap between the cohorts is interpreted as a reliability coefficient of the themes identified. this varied from 0.71 to as low as 0.55 (see table 3). the relatively low overlaps may be because of the strategy followed to determine themes and matches (summative versus directed content analyses), and the possibility that the words and meanings thereof might have been interpreted subjectively by the respondents. despite the fact that all themes from cohort 1 were replicated in cohort 2, an additional theme emerged from the data, which could not be matched with the cohort 1 themes. optimism towards growth (researcher 2) and hope (researcher 3) were identified as additional themes in the analyses of cohort 2. researcher 1 did not identify any related theme independently. after consultation, the researchers agreed to add hopefulness, which refers to a belief that the future will be better than the present, to the list of identified themes. in total, eight themes were thus identified to be used in the inter-relational plot. figure 1: inter-relational plot on african business leadership. the eight themes are connected using an arrow to show their interrelation and how the one flows into the other, with ‘afrocentric’ being the theme marking the point of departure. table 3: theme overlap (n = 69). definition development using interrelational plot armed with a list of themes, the researchers set out to individually develop a definition of african business leadership. again, the researchers joined to consider the individual plots and, after long discussions, arrived at the plot as presented below. african business leadership is seen as unique (afrocentric), with drive for service to the community (ubuntu), operating in challenging and resource-deprived environments (because of the legacy of colonialism), and as hopeful of creating a better future. african business leadership is further seen as being dominated by those in positions of (political) authority, who engage in entrepreneurial activities, and yet as still requiring development because many leaders are corrupt (brokenness), which seems to be legitimised by post-colonial sentiments (afro-centric). in essence, african business leadership is a humane, community and entrepreneurial-oriented leadership style focused on creating a better future for all. discussion a qualitative research methodology was used to collect data from a group of 121 young leaders who attended a leadership development programme, in which 14 sub-saharan countries were represented. the respondents were thus well qualified to answer questions regarding leadership practice in (sub-saharan) africa. the themes were identified using three researchers, which speaks of the rigour of the research. quite often, only one researcher performs such analyses. moreover, data were collected from two cohorts, and the sequential analyses of the data, as well as the fact that the themes occurred across the cohorts, point to the quality of the data used. independent – and then, later integrated – inter-relational plots of the constructs, which represent african business leadership, led to a comprehensive definition of the concept. the difficulty in incorporating eight constructs into a single definition represents some of the complexity of defining african business leadership. the definition drawn from the inter-relational plot is partially supported by the narrative drawn from the literature, being that african business leadership is grounded in afrocentric epistemology and the philosophical principles of humanity. this definition partially echoes previous research conducted by authors, such as bolden and kirk (2009), gumede (2017), mbigi (2000), metz (2018), mulemfo (2000) and van rensburg (2013), focusing on an afro-centric leadership approach. the research study also verifies the importance of ubuntu in leadership, as khoza (2012) stated that the humane style of leadership generated by african humanism puts people first, and that leadership represents a meeting of spirits between persons and communities. the findings of the current research are consistent with those reported in the 2004 and 2014 globe studies concerning sub-saharan participants’ support for and expectations of a human-oriented, charismatic or value-based and team-oriented leadership (hoppe & eckert, 2012). the definition of african business leadership, as presented in this study, also highlights a sinister view of leaders in africa. often, the respondents in this research study referred to the names of individuals when defining leadership (e.g. isabel dos santos or steve masiyiwa/jony elemulu), as leaders often not referenced in the leadership literature, implying that business leadership is reserved for the few who are privileged by being politically connected. we have taken a note of the observations around corruption and brokenness in african business leadership, problems which undermine the vision to create a better and more hopeful future for all. the current research findings are in line with the consistently reported theme of corruption, and that african business leadership demonstrates a distinct ethical behaviour gap (aswagen & engelbrecht, 2009). these negative traits associated with african business leadership are also echoed in the newspaper analysis, as presented in the work of wanasika et al. (2011). the research study presents a multidimensional perspective on african business leadership, reiterating the admirable community orientation, the shortage of human capital as well as the need for improvement. given that the respondents were young, it could also be expected that they were optimistic, a matter that was also factored into the definition. limitation of the study although the research methodology allowed for the verification of the data by collecting data from multiple cohorts, replicability by disciplined adherence to the research protocols, and the use of multiple coders and analysts strengthening the credibility and trustworthiness of the findings, the research still had its limitations. the primary concern was the small bits of data collected. the interpretation of captured data (from the response to ‘what is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about african business leadership?’) was bound to be undertaken with a degree of subjectivity. most likely, conducting focus groups could have better allowed the researchers to probe more deeply into the respondents’ thinking about their perceptions of what african business leadership entails and how culture influences leadership in africa. another shortcoming is that no member checking was done. each participant provided a small part of the definition, and the researchers merged these words and phrases into a narrative (through the inter-relational plot). it would have been extremely interesting to receive feedback from the participants as to what the combination of their responses would have meant to them. conclusion and recommendation for future research the aim of this research study was to gain some insights into understanding how leadership in africa is perceived and to use these insights in formulating an operational definition of leadership that is unique to africa. most of the literature reviewed on african business leadership, although sparse, confirmed the connection between african leadership and its geographical context. this research study affirms this notion. it also presents a specific definition of african business leadership, which includes the admirable, and also the disturbing. all parties, researchers and politicians alike are advised to consider the multi-facetedness of african business leadership in their deliberations. to call all african business leadership ubuntu is naïve, in much the same way as it is also naïve to call all african business leadership broken (corrupt). researchers are called to prioritise broad-based, multi-dimensional and empirical research on african leadership and to collectively craft a solid understanding of african business leadership. research funding institutions are encouraged to prioritise studies that focus on african business leadership, as this research has the potential to enhance the effectiveness of those in leadership positions. such research studies will assist the academics responsible for leadership development interventions to shape purposeful and relevant initiatives for the upskilling of current and future leaders across the continent. we recommend that future research on african business leadership should explore the extent to which the eight elements used to define african business leadership relate to the performance of organisations. perhaps more fundamentally, researchers are encouraged to find enhancers (positive elements) or regulators (negative elements) for the elements, which makes up the african business leadership as presented here. in addition, researchers are thus encouraged to get rid of their biases when dealing with african business leadership, and to consider both the good and the bad embedded in the current definition. acknowledgements the authors extend their appreciation to the management and delegates from the yali programme for their contribution to the study and express gratitude to dr c. hind for her assistance with the analysis of the data. competing interests the authors declare that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions the primary author contributed to data gathering and worked with the co-author in the analysis, literature review and the write-up of the document. funding information this research work received no specific grant from any funding agency. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any organisation that the authors are affiliated with. references abebe, m.a., lado, a.a., & tekleab, a. g. (2020). multilevel perspectives on leadership in the african context. africa journal of management, 6(3), 145–160. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322373.2020.1779575 adewale, a. (2020). a model of virtuous leadership in africa: case study of a nigerian firm. journal of business ethics, 161(4), 749–762. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04340-3 amah, o.e. (2019). globalisation and leadership in africa. development and challenges of the future. cham: palgrave pivot. aswagen, a.s., & engelbrecht, a.s. (2009). the relationship between transformational leadership, integrity and an ethical climate in organisations. south african journal of human resource management, 7(1), 221–229. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.175 avolio, b.j., & bass, s.m. (2005). multifactor leadership questionnaire, 3rd ed. manual and sampler set. menlo park, ca: mind garden. avolio, b.j., walumbwa, f., & weber, t.j. (2009). leadership: current theories, research and future directions. annual review of psychology, 60, 421–449. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163621 bolden, r., & kirk, p. (2005). leadership in africa: meanings, impact and identities. paper presented at the fourth international conference on leadership research. retrieved from https://www.centres.ex.ac.uk/cls/documents/leadership-in-africa.pdf bolden, r., & kirk, p. (2009). african leadership: surfacing new understandings through leadership development. international journal of cross-cultural management, 9(1), 69–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470595808101156 booysen, l. (2001). the duality in south african leadership: afrocentric or eurocentric. south african journal of labour relations, 25(3), 36–64. brubaker, t.a. (2013). servant leadership, ubuntu, and leader effectiveness in rwanda. emerging leadership journeys, 6(1), 114–147. cerff, k. (2017). african leadership insights: the role of hope, self-efficacy and motivation to lead. in k. patterson (ed.), leading an african renaissance (pp. 133–154). cham: palgrave macmillan. chasi, c., & levy, n. (2016). mandela and excellent african leadership: theory and lessons for practice from an appreciative thematic analysis. international journal of african renaissance studies, 11(2), 8–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/18186874.2016.1245906 chatbury, a., beaty, d., & kriek, a.s. (2011). servant leadership trust and implications for the “base-of-the-pyramid” segment in south africa. south african journal of business management, 42(4), 57–61. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajbm.v42i4.505 dinh, j.e., lord, r.g., gardner, w.l., meuser, j.d., linden, r.c., & hu, l. (2014). leadership theory and research in the new millennium: current theoretical trends and changing perspectives. the leadership quarterly, 25(1), 36–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.11.005 dinno, a. (2015). an introduction to the loop analysis of qualitatively specified complex causal systems. invited presentation, systems science graduate program seminar, portland. retrieved from http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/commhealth_fac dorfman, p., howell, j., hibino, s., lee, j., tate, u., & bautista, a. (2006). leadership in western and asian countries: commonalities and differences in effective leadership practices. the leadership quarterly, 8(3), 233–274. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(97)90003-5 eyong, j.e. (2017). indigenous african leadership: key differences from anglo-centric thinking and writings. leadership, 13(2), 133–153. fourie, w., van der merwe, s. c., & van der merwe, b. (2017). sixty years of research on leadership in africa: a review of the literature. leadership, 13(2), 222–251. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715015580665 garg, a.k., & ramjee, d. (2013). the relationship between leadership styles and employee commitment at a parastatal company in south africa. international business and economics research journal, 12(11), 1411–1435. https://doi.org/10.19030/iber.v12i11.8180 grint, k. (2005). leadership: limits and possibilities. new york, ny: palgrave macmillan. grobler, a., & flotman, a.p. (2020). the validation of the servant leadership scale. south african journal of industrial psychology, 46(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v46i0.1754 grobler, a., & singh, m. (2018). leadership in southern africa: a regional afrocentric hierarchical taxonomy. insight on africa, 10(2), 169–193. https://doi.org/10.1177/0975087818772236 gumede, v. (2017). leadership for africa’s development: revisiting indigenous african leadership and setting the agenda for political leadership. journal of black studies, 48(1), 74–90. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934716678392 hoppe, m.h., & eckert, r. (2012). leader effectiveness and culture: the globe study. center for creative leadership. retrieved from http://www.nnli.org/uploads/2/9/4/1/29412281/globesummary-by-michael-h-hoppe.pdf house, r., javidan, m., hanges, p., & dorfman, p. (2002). understanding cultures and implicit leadership theories across the globe: an introduction to project globe. journal of world business, 37(1), 3–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1090-9516(01)00069-4 house, r.j., dorfman, p.w., javidan, m., hanges, p.j., & de luque, m.f.s. (2014). strategic leadership across cultures: the globe study of ceo leadership behavior and effectiveness in 24 countries. thousand oaks, ca: sage. house, r.j., hanges, p.j., javidan, m., dorfman, p.w., & gupta, v. (eds.). (2004). culture, leadership, and organizations: the globe study of 62 societies. thousand oaks, ca: sage. hsieh, h.-f., & shannon, s.e. (2005). three approaches to qualitative content analysis. qualitative health research, 15(9), 1277–1288. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732305276687 humphreys, j., zhao, d., ingram, k., gladstone, j., & basham, l. (2010). situational narcissism and charismatic leadership: a conceptual framework. journal of behavioural and applied management, 11(2), 118–126. iwowo, v. (2015). leadership in africa: rethinking development. personnel review, 44(3), 408–429. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-07-2013-0128 jones, s., lefoe, g., harvey, m., & ryland, k. (2012). synthesising theory and practice: distributed leadership in higher education. educational management administration & leadership, 42(5), 603–619. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143213510506 kalunga, b. (2009). leadership calls for courage. management today, 22(6), 18–26. khoza, r.j. (2012). the ubuntu philosophy as a conceptual framework for interpersonal relationships and leadership. address by dr reuel j. khoza, chairman of nedbank group limited, to the “nedbank group technology leaders”. retrieved from reuelkhoza.co.za/ubuntu-philosophy-conceptual-framework-interpersonal-relationships-leadership korstjens, i., & moser, a. (2018). series: practical guidance to qualitative research. part 4: trustworthiness and publishing. european journal of general practice, 24(1), 120–124. https://doi.org/10.1080/13814788.2017.1375092 kuada, j. (2010). culture and leadership in africa: a conceptual model and research agenda. africa journal of economic and management studies, 1(1), 9–24. lee, g.j. (2011). mirror, mirror: preferred leadership characteristics of south african managers. international journal of manpower, 32(2), 211–232. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437721111130215 le grange, l. (2011). ubuntu, ukama and the healing of nature, self and society. educational philosophy and theory, 44(suppl 2). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2011.00795.x lerutla, d.m., & steyn, r. (2017). definition of leadership in africa within the twenty-first century context: empirical research on leadership in africa. alteration: special edition, 20, 9–36. https://doi.org/10.29086/2519-5476/2017/sp20a2 littrell, r.m., & nkomo, s.m. (2005). gender and race differences in leader behaviour preferences in south africa. women in management review, 20(8), 562–580. https://doi.org/10.1108/09649420510635204 madanchian, m., hussein, n., noordin, f., & taherdoost, h. (2017). leadership effectiveness measurement and its effect on organization outcomes. procedia engineering, 181(2017), 1043–1048. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.02.505 mangaliso, m. (2001). building a competitive advantage from ubuntu: management lessons from south africa. academy of management executive, 15(3), 23–33. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1762783 marturano, a., & gosling, j. (2008). leadership: the key concepts. new york, ny: routledge. mbeki, t. (2005). i am an african. the journal of corporate citizenship, 18, 17–18. https://doi.org/10.9774/gleaf.4700.2005.su.00003 mbigi, l. (2000). in search of the african business renaissance: an african cultural perspective. randburg: knowledge resources. mbigi, l. (2007). spirit of african leadership: a comparative african perspective. in k. a. april & m. l. shockley (eds.), diversity (pp. 294–303). london: palgrave macmillan. mboup, a.b. (2008). conflicting leadership paradigms in africa: a need for an african renaissance perspective. international journal of african renaissance studies, 3(1), 94–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/18186870802321608 metz, t. (2018). an african theory of good leadership. african journal of business ethics, 12(2), 36–53. https://doi.org/10.15249/12-2-204 mokgolo, m.m., mokgolo, p., & modiba, m. (2012). transformational leadership in the south african public service after the april 2009 national election. sa journal of human resources, 10(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i1.334 msila, v. (2008). ubuntu and school leadership. journal of education, 44(1), 67–84. mulemfo, m.m. (2000). thabo mbeki and the african renaissance: the emergence of a new african leadership. pretoria: actua press. muralidharan, e., & pathak, s. (2018). sustainability, transformational leadership, and social entrepreneurship. sustainability, 10, 1–22. retrieved from https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/2/567 mutwa, c.v.m., & larsen, s. (1996). zulu shaman: dreams, prophecies, and mysteries. merrimac, ma: destiny books. mutwa, v.c. (2019). indaba, my children: african tribal history, legends, customs and religious beliefs: african tribal history, legends, customs and religious beliefs. edinburgh: canongate books. ncube, l.b. (2010). ubuntu: a transformative leadership philosophy. journal of leadership studies, 4(3), 77–82. https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.20182 nkomo, s., & kriek, d. (2011). leading change in the ‘new’ south africa. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 84(3), 453–470. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.2011.02020.x nowell, l.s., norris, j.m., white, d.e., & moules, n.j. (2017). thematic analysis: striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria. international journal of qualitative methods, 16(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406917733847 nzimakwe, t.i. (2014). practising ubuntu and leadership for good governance. the south african and continental dialogue. african journal of public affairs, 7(40), 30–41. obiakor, f.e. (2004). building patriotic african leadership through african-centred education. journal of black studies, 34(3), 402–420. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f0021934703258757 posner, b.z. (2012). it’s how leaders behave that matters, not where they are from. leadership & organisational development journal, 34(6), 573–587. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-11-2011-0115 puccia, c.j., & levins, r. (1985). qualitative modeling of complex systems: an introduction to loop analysis and time averaging. contemporary psychology, 32(7), 619–621. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674435070 setlhodi, i.i. (2018). ubuntu leadership: an african panacea for improving school performance. africa education review, 16, 126–142. https://doi.org/10.1080/18146627.2018.1464885 spangenberg, h.h., & theron, c.c. (2002). development of a uniquely south african leadership questionnaire. south african journal of psychology, 32(2), 9–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124630203200202 thom, d. (2014). business leadership continuing professional development of education management teams in a south african school group. international studies in education administration, 42(1), 28–39. vaismoradi, m., jones, j., turunen, h., & snelgrove, s. (2016). theme development in qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis. journal of nursing education and practice, 6(5), 100–110. https://doi.org/10.5430/jnep.v6n5p100 van der colff, l. (2003). leadership lessons from the african tree. management decisions, 41(3), 257–261. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740310468063 van rensburg, g. (2013). the leadership challenge in africa. pretoria: van schaik. walumbwa, f.o., avolio, b.j., & aryee, s. (2011). leadership and management in africa: a synthesis and suggestion for future research. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 84, 425–439. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.2011.02034.x wanasika, i., howell, j.p., littrell, r., & dorfman, p. (2011). managerial leadership and culture in sub-saharan africa. journal of world business, 46(2), 234–241. yukl, g.a., & gardner, w.l. (2020). leadership in organizations. upper saddle river, nj: pearson. zoogah, d.b., & nkomo, s. (2013). management research in africa: past, present and future. in t.r. lituchy, b.j. punnett & b.b. puplampu (eds.), management in africa: macro and micro perspectives (pp. 9–31). london: routledge. footnote 1. see the inclusion and exclusion criteria used by lerutla and steyn (2017), which explains the small number of articles found. abstract introduction research purpose and objectives literature review research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) shanil j. haricharan nelson mandela school of public governance, faculty of commerce, university of cape town, cape town, south africa citation haricharan, s.j. (2023). leadership, management and organisational implications for public service employee well-being and performance. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2080. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2080 original research leadership, management and organisational implications for public service employee well-being and performance shanil j. haricharan received: 19 aug. 2022; accepted: 06 dec. 2022; published: 13 mar. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: with the significant changes in the organisational context and the nature of work, greater focus on employee well-being is central to the quality of work life (qwl) and effective organisations. research purpose: this article examines the complex and dynamic interplay between the multidimensional affective, behavioural, relational and socio-cultural dimensions in mediating employee well-being and organisational performance in a transforming south african provincial government. motivation for the study: theoretical models and public reforms have focused on the formal, transactional and technical aspects in understanding organisational performance and employee well-being, with less attention given to the behavioural, socio-cultural and interpersonal dimensions. research approach/design and method: this qualitative study in two provincial government departments with 43 public servants (rank levels 6–15) applied the integral theory-based, four-quadrant model. the dynamic inquiry (di) interview method and inductive thematic analytical processes were used. the management performance assessment tool (mpat) assessment reports of the two departments were analysed. main findings: the four dominant themes that emerged from this study – social exclusion, leadership behaviours, public service orientation and governance – display complex patterns and relationships related to well-being and performance. among these are the negative effects of power and bureaucratic cultures; hierarchical, command and control governance systems and dissonant leadership behaviours. practical/managerial implications: the results have public policy and practice implications for public governance, management and leadership development, organisational design and culture, and performance management. contribution/value-add: by applying an integrated research approach, multiple determinants of well-being and their intermediation were elucidated. the findings offer epistemological and methodological implications for human resource management (hrm) scholarship. keywords: public service; well-being; performance; governance; public leadership; organisational culture. introduction the prosperity of a nation is integrally linked to the health and well-being of its people. public service organisations as providers of essential services therefore have a critical role in supporting the welfare of citizens through effectively implementing public policies. this role was dramatically brought to the fore during the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic, drawing attention to serious shortcomings in public governance and service delivery. although, prior to the pandemic, public policymakers and administrators were experiencing major challenges in realising their mandate (garikipati & kambhampati, 2021; huang, 2020; kellis & ran, 2013), and this is notwithstanding numerous public service reform initiatives. consequently, citizen resistance against government has escalated, while bureaucratic trust has waned. this state of public affairs invites important epistemological questions to be asked regarding public service transformation in a multidimensional, interdependent and interdisciplinary 21st-century environment (pirson, 2021; van wart, 2011). the theoretical frameworks associated with 20th-century modernist discourse: grounded in empiricism, rationalism, positivism and reductionism are making way for post-modernist approaches, which are non-hierarchical, integrative, eclectic and holistic (robledo, 2009; van wart, 2011). mirroring this shift, public organisations are also under pressure to move from task oriented, mainly productivity focused (cvenkel, 2020) and command and control management approaches to citizen-and employee-centric, service-dominant, networked, relational and affective governance, such as the new public governance paradigm (betancourt & vivier, 2021; osborne et al., 2013) and transformational leadership paradigms (denhardt & denhardt, 2007; dirani et al., 2020). however, in reality, rationalistic, transactional and market-oriented perspectives continue to dictate public service reform thinking and practice (pedersen & hartley, 2008; pirson, 2021; vigoda-gadot & meisler, 2010), notwithstanding the paradoxes and the negative effects of decades of new public management’s (npm) dominance (hood & peters, 2004; osborne et al., 2013), for example, the latter’s stressful effects on public employees’ well-being (cvenkel, 2020). against this evolving public governance landscape, modest attention is given to affective, behavioural, socio-cultural and relational dimensions within public organisations (betancourt & vivier, 2021; robledo, 2009; vigoda-gadot & meisler, 2010). despite mounting evidence confirming the importance of these dimensions in the workplace and their positive impact on employee well-being and organisational performance (goleman et al., 2002; guest, 2017; huang, 2020; kowalski & loretto, 2017), it is evident that public administration and hrm practice have been largely dominated by prevailing transactional and top-down governance approaches and leadership styles (chipkin & meny-gibert, 2012; robledo, 2009; vigoda-gadot & meisler, 2010), while generally human resource management (hrm) theory and research focuses mainly on improving performance, with employee concerns a subordinate consideration (guest, 2017). additionally, the prevalence of a western epistemological approach, the conspicuous dearth of literature on post-colonial public organisations and leadership (ngoma, 2007) or viewing public governance and leadership through the lens of african constructs like ubuntu (‘a person is a person through other persons’) (asamoah & yeboah-assiamah, 2019; ogude, 2019) and the existence of cultural relativism and biases warrants research into other appropriate and culturally specific public service paradigms and practices (house & aditya, 1997; miao et al., 2018). consequently, substantial research endeavours are warranted for understanding and reframing public service organisational realities and exploring alternative models of management, leadership, governance, well-being, culture and performance (betancourt & vivier, 2021; guest, 2017; kellis & ran, 2013; morse & buss, 2008; van wart, 2011). research purpose and objectives the purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the complex and dynamic interplay between the multidimensional affective, behavioural, relational and socio-cultural dimensions in mediating employee well-being and organisational performance in a south african provincial government. this article also comes as a response to civil society’s growing demand globally for capable, caring, relational and accountable public leadership and governance (betancourt & vivier, 2021; fourie & poggenpoel, 2017; mosimege & masiya, 2021). literature review rethinking the nature of public institutions and employee well-being the state of public management and governance calls for a profound reconceptualising, recasting and regeneration of public affairs at all levels (betancourt & vivier, 2021; cvenkel, 2020; denhardt & denhardt, 2007; van wart, 2011), as significant change is necessary to effectively govern in a 21st century, inter-dependent, dynamically complex and uncertain environment. in realising meaningful changes in public governance, several scholars emphasise the critical necessity to transform public service institutional arrangements – decision-making, systems, structures, processes, policies and strategies (betancourt & vivier, 2021; guest, 2017; kowalski & loretto, 2017; osborne et al., 2013; pedersen & hartley, 2008). yet, predominantly, public institutions are perduring residues of the industrial ‘machine’ age (morgan, 1986; robledo, 2009) and transactional npm practices, with the attendant intrinsic and archaic deficiencies. to meet the new challenges, citizens are demanding sound public governance – caring, responsive, effective, accountable, inclusive and transparent governments (organisation for economic co-operation and development [oecd], 2020). in this context, public organisations and their leaders are expected to make fundamental individual and organisational shifts: for public institutions, the historical strong hierarchical traditions and command and control governance structures and systems (benington & hartley, 2011) and for public leaders, appropriate values and competencies (denhardt & denhardt, 2007). these shifts warrant alternative and innovative public governance models (cvenkel, 2020; van wart, 2011). in the pursuit of a modern, citizen-centric and networked public service, scholars raise concern with the state of public scholarship in understanding the distinct, complex and transforming public service environment (betancourt & vivier, 2021; frederickson & matkin, 2007; morse & buss, 2008). central to the transforming agenda is the prevailing machine image of organisations (morgan, 1986; robledo, 2009) that has dominated public leaders’ thinking through concepts of control, predictability and standardisation ‘despite [these concepts’] disharmony with the larger world’ (senge et al., 2004, p. 5). these earlier models have endured in the public service landscape, aptly described by benington and hartley (2011, p. 17) metaphorically as ‘the machinery of government, levers of power, chain of command, and cogs in the machine …’. while the machine model with standardised products and taylorist division of labour may have suited the industrial age in a relatively stable context (benington & hartley, 2011; osborne et al., 2013; pirson, 2021), the current ‘permanent white water’ environment and, in particular, global crises like the covid-19 pandemic have vividly illustrated their inherent inadequacies. in the shadow of this machine metaphor, many organisations emerge as ‘hierarchical, control-oriented, bureaucratic, and inflexible’, driven by efficiency and certainty (robledo, 2009, p. 62). the fundamental problem with this paradigm is that the human side of an organisation is neglected (guest, 2017; pirson, 2021; robledo, 2009). employees are regarded as extensions of tools and extrinsic rewards, such as money, are largely used for motivation. the result is the erosion of personal agency and social capital (denhardt & denhardt, 2007; pirson, 2021; vigoda-gadot & meisler, 2010), where empathy is ‘sacrificed in the name of efficiency and cost effectiveness’ (goleman, 2006, p. 252). in ushering a new culture of public governance, betancourt and vivier (2021) challenge public administration and political science disciplines in how public governance knowledge is constructed and produced, proposing an integrative and contemplative approach ‘to embrace experiential, first-person practices’ in ‘attending to and surfacing embodied affective and relational dimensions of experience’ (betancourt & vivier, 2021, p. 608). such an approach is expected to improve the quality of public governance and foster employee well-being. employee well-being and hrm in current times, with significant changes in the organisational context and the nature of work, greater focus on employee well-being is central to the quality of work life (qwl) and effective organisations (cvenkel, 2020), yet hrm literature has shown limited interest in employee well-being, focusing primarily on performance (guest, 2017). pirson (2021, p. 1194) concurs that management research views ‘human beings as instruments to the imperatives of organizational performance’, highlighting the deficiencies of economistic and utilitarian paradigms’ focus on efficiency and effectiveness, with less attention to ‘ethical, social, and developmental aspects of human nature’ (pirson, 2021, p. 1190), thereby instrumentalising human beings. the evidence base of well-being research within the public sector remains limited (cvenkel, 2020) despite evidence showing causality between well-being and positive job performance outcomes at individual and organisational levels (guest, 2017; kowalski & loretto, 2017; oecd, 2013; wright & cropanzano, 2000). the literature on well-being distinguishes two central concepts of well-being: eudaimonia (e.g. growth, meaning, authenticity, excellence) and hedonia (e.g. pleasure, enjoyment, comfort, absence of distress) (der kinderen & kharpova, 2021; huta & waterman, 2014). four categories of eudaimonia were identified by huta and waterman (2014, pp. 1432–1433): (1) orientations (orientations, values, motives and goals), (2) behaviours (behavioural content and activity characteristics), (3) experiences (subjective experiences, emotions and cognitive appraisals) and (4) functioning (positive psychological functioning, mental health and flourishing). a key contributor to well-being scholarship, carol ryff (1989) proposed six psychological well-being dimensions: (1) self-acceptance, (2) positive relations with others, (3) personal growth, (4) purpose in life, (5) environmental mastery and (6) autonomy (see also ryff, 2013). while positive psychological well-being relates to both affective and cognitive experiences of well-being, and optimal functioning, it remains a neglected research area in management studies (cvenkel, 2020; der kinderen & kharpova, 2021). related to these conceptualisations of well-being, and supported by workplace evidence, guest (2017) proposes five distinctive sets of human resource (hr) practices, namely investing in employees, providing engaging work, positive social and physical environment, voice and organisational support. these practices are linked to well-being and a more positive employment relationship and, consequently, positive performance outcomes at the individual and organisational levels. certainly, given these positive effects, identifying practices to promote employee well-being is surely a core function of hrm and human resource professionals (cvenkel, 2020; guest, 2017; kowalski & loretto, 2017), particularly in the covid-19 pandemic context. in these uncertain and stressful times, the psychological well-being of employees is severely affected and has a negative impact on qwl and performance outcomes. given that ‘high well-being will be reflected in psychological and physical health and positive social relationships at work’ (guest, 2017, p. 32), arguably, this dire situation demands greater focus on supporting workplace well-being (cvenkel, 2020; der kinderen & kharpova, 2021). for instance, psychological well-being is about ‘feeling good and functioning effectively’; however, this state is ‘compromised when negative emotions are extreme or very long lasting and interfere with a person’s ability to function in his or her daily life’ (huppert, 2009, p. 137). the transforming south african public service management context given the impersonal and alienating machine metaphor, the ethos of the democratic sa constitution obliges the recasting of public service institutional design, values and behaviours of public servants and public leaders. these values include caring, belonging, accountability, equality, accessibility and responsibility regarding public governance. citizens perceive or experience public institutions through the affective expressions and social interactions of public officials (denhardt & denhardt, 2007). to realise the constitutional expectations, the national development plan (ndp) (rsa, 2012) vision asserts that building a capable developmental state requires new kinds of knowledge, abilities, behaviours, attitudes and leadership – together with an increase in overall professionalism in the delivery of public services. considering the significant transformation of the sa state (chipkin & lipietz, 2012; von holdt, 2010, 2022) and the current governance challenges, two fundamental conventional modes of rhetoric that infuse public institutional reform, namely orthodox administrative theory and realpolitik (march & olson, 1983) are appropriate. the first rhetoric focuses on the reorganisation of administrative structures and procedures in pursuit of efficiency, effectiveness, economy and control of bureaucratic hierarchies. the second rhetoric represents the ‘political struggle among contending interests … within the bureaucracy and outside, [which] seek access, representation, control, and policy benefits’ (march & olson, 1983, pp. 282–283). the judicial commission on state capture, corruption and fraud in the public sector’s report (rsa, 2022) highlights how powerful political forces and senior public officials have greatly influenced both modes of rhetoric, manifesting in the capture of key organs of state, bourgeoning corruption and rent seeking, thus reflecting the use of power to promote self-interest of politicians and their business acolytes in entrenching mechanisms for future dominance. these behaviours and execution of state power have seriously impeded the building of a caring, capable and ethical state and have negatively influenced the organisational culture of public institutions (rsa, 2022; von holdt, 2022). similarly, the auditor general’s consolidated general report on national and provincial audit outcomes (auditor general of south africa, 2021) paints a bleak picture of chronic incidences of maladministration reported over the past decade. a key objective of the sa democratic state’s transformation policies (rsa, 1995, p. 3) was to empower, challenge and motivate senior public managers to be ‘… leaders, visionaries, initiators and effective communicators and decision-makers, capable of responding pro-actively to the challenges of the change process’. however, the lacklustre performance of senior public managers to realise this vision has distressed the transitioning democratic state and citizens. over the years, the auditor general (auditor general of south africa, 2021) has stressed the leadership challenges across all three spheres of government, for example: decisive action by leadership is required for meaningful improvement in audit outcomes. leadership must also demand greater collective effort in strengthening control environments in order to achieve improved audit outcomes and, ultimately, service delivery to citizens. (p. 10) furthermore, studies have indicated that sa provincial departmental leaders ‘do not have the appropriate transformational skills to manage their departments effectively and efficiently’ and that employees have negative perceptions of their managers’ leadership behaviours and competence (mokgolo et al., 2012, p. 7). likewise, kotzé and venter (2011) observed significant differences in overall emotional intelligence (ei) scores between effective and ineffective sa public middle-level provincial managers and a deficit of certain ei competencies at the managerial level. another sa provincial government study (haricharan, 2022) showed significant and positive correlations between executive managers’ leadership performance and their ei competence in all four ei clusters: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management. several meta-analyses and studies (e.g. o’boyle et al., 2011) confirm the importance of affect and ei in management and leadership performance (görgens-ekermans & roux, 2021). research design research paradigm and analytical framework this qualitative study adopted an interpretivist paradigm, in which reality is intersubjectively and socially constructed (angen, 2000). this paradigm is well supported by wilber’s (2000) integral theory-based four-quadrant model, which is applied in this study to understand how behavioural, social and cultural factors mediate well-being and performance. each corner of wilber’s (2000) quadrant represents a distinct domain (intentional, behavioural, cultural and social) of organisational reality – that is, either the interior or exterior consciousness of the individual or the collective (figure 1). each of the four domains embodies differing levels of growth, development or evolution of the individual and the organisation (divine, 2009; wilber, 2000). figure 1: analytical framework: the four-quadrant model representing the domains of workplace reality. following wilber’s (2000) model, this study of a provincial government’s executive and senior managers and their subordinates seeks to interrogate their personal characteristics (intentional domain), which manifest as individual and collective behaviours (behavioural and cultural domains), mediated through social and governance systems (social domain). it attempts to do this through a study of perceived needs at individual, team, leader and organisational levels in achieving high work performance. research setting using convenience sampling, the research was undertaken (before the covid-19 pandemic) in two departments of a poorly performing provincial government in south africa with high levels of poverty and inequality (auditor general of south africa, 2021; rsa, 2016, 2017, 2018). an analysis of the national government’s management performance assessment tool (mpat) assessment reports (rsa, 2016, 2017, 2018) for these two provincial departments, indicates recurring low performance scores (1/4) in several of the four key performance areas (kpas), namely strategic management, governance and accountability, human resource management and financial management. similar performance results were also observed across the other nine provincial departments in this province (rsa, 2016, 2017, 2018). some of the specific areas receiving frequent low scores were performance monitoring, service delivery implementation, accountability, ethics, risk management, expenditure management, hr practice and administration, and performance management (rsa, 2016, 2017, 2018). sampling the sample of 43 (n = 43) interviewees was selected using convenience sampling. the purpose of the study was explained to interviewees, who were invited to participate on a confidential and anonymous basis. table 1 indicates interviewees’ rank levels. table 1: interview sample for the two departments across rank levels. the duration of employment for the employees at the provincial government (including the previous homeland administration) ranged from 1 to 27 years, with an average duration of 9.3 years. of the 43 interviewees, 80% were employed after 1994 and the years they served in their current role ranged from 1 to 15 years (with an average of 7 years). data collection a qualitative research approach was most appropriate to frame the complex and multiple personal, social and cultural realities represented in the institutional context. for this purpose, the dynamic inquiry (di) (london & mcmillen, 1992) interview method (involving qualitative conversational techniques) was applied to uncover subjective emotional realities and underlying cultural issues within the departments. the interview protocol was composed of four broad questions aimed at four levels of the organisational system (london & mcmillen, 1992; mckee et al., 2008): individual: what do you personally need to be more effective in your job? team: what do you think your team needs to be successful? leadership team: what do you think the executive and senior managers in your department need to do to be successful? organisational culture: in your view, what sort of culture does your department need to be successful? on average, the interviews lasted 1 h and were tape-recorded, after which they were transcribed. data analysis all 43 interview transcripts were selected for analysis using three inductive thematic analytical processes, namely divergent, convergent and deep analysis (mckee et al., 2008). firstly, the divergent process examined the organisational context in which interviews occurred to explore a wide range of emotional responses, metaphors and dynamic tensions, which were then clustered and coded. secondly, the coded data were subjected to thematic analysis, a distillation process through which highly contextualised themes emerged. this process was performed for each department across the four levels of rank. finally, the aggregated themes were interpreted through layers of analysis and placed into organisational narratives related to dynamics at two levels: intergroup (among the four ranks) and inter-departmental (between the departments), generating a set of four dominant themes and related sub-themes. research procedure and ethical considerations permission for the study was granted by the provincial government’s office of the premier. the voluntary participation of all participants was sought through informed consent. the identity of all participants and the data collected is strictly anonymous and confidential. the researcher complied with the ethical procedure guidelines set out by stellenbosch university. results four dominant themes – social exclusion, leadership behaviours, public service orientation and governance – emerged from the thematic analysis. figure 2 present a summary of the themes and sub-themes. figure 2: dominant themes and sub-themes from the inductive analysis framed in the four-quadrant model. the remainder of this section provides a brief discussion of the themes and sub-themes that emerged during the di interviews. this is followed by a discussion of findings and conclusion. social exclusion the original concept of social exclusion (also referred to as ostracism) relates primarily to social dynamics within broader society. however, this concept may be applied to other social systems too, such as organisations (reece, 2021; scott et al., 2014). social exclusion is considered a multidimensional concept relating to both economic-structural exclusion and social-cultural exclusion (jehoel-gijsbers & vrooman, 2007). in this study, both types of exclusion were experienced, taking the form of three sets of related sub-themes: equality and equity, voice and listening, and recognition and reward. equality and equity while most interviewees espoused values such as impartiality, transparency, consistency, fairness, honesty and parity, their work experiences were of inequality and inequity. a middle manager, in the department for 10 years (d1, m9, f, l12), shared her experiences and noted the consequences of unfair behaviours on organisational culture: ‘there is unfairness and inconsistency where those that are not working are rewarded and those that are working are not rewarded. there is no honesty and candidness. supervisors are not able to face and tell people the truth. team spirit, cohesiveness and work culture are affected if people are not treated fairly.’ her peer agreed that it was ‘important to treat people fairly so that everyone feels equally valued’, and yet this individual also experienced ‘unfairness and inequality’ in the workplace, as well as favouritism: ‘what happens here is that when something is requested by someone else, it gets attention. depends on who you are and if you are liked by management.’ (d1, m1, m, l9) further, he challenges his leaders to ‘do away with this culture of favouritism’ and to ensure consistency and uniformity in applying policies and procedures in decision-making, for example in granting salary increases. despite an overwhelming desire for social inclusion and cohesion among public service employees, the social-cultural dimension of exclusion was found to be common in this study. this manifested as a reported tendency for employees to create innerand outer circles, sub-cultures and countercultures, which resulted in factions and social alienation. inner circles with political ties and ‘outer circles with fewer opportunities’, (d1, s7, m, l13) along with a ‘them-and-us mentality’, (d1, s8, m, l13) and iniquitous social practices were frequently noted and ascribed to an entrenched rank-consciousness attitude at the level of senior management, as noted by a senior manager: ‘in the inner circle you don’t have to have the skills to do the job, you have better opportunities because of your political ties … those in the outer circle have less opportunities. counter-cultures are formed by the outer circle for protection. most join unions.’ (d1, s7, m, l13) this section illustrates how the sub-theme of equality and equity influences social exclusion. participants referred to both types of exclusion (jehoel-gijsbers & vrooman, 2007): economic-structural exclusion, in the form of unequal distribution of resources, recognition and rewards (e.g. through favouritism) and social-cultural exclusion, through inadequate social and cultural integration (‘inner circle and outer circle’, ‘sub-cultures’ and ‘counter-cultures’), resulting in social alienation or factionalism. voice across all levels, interviewees expressed a desire for communication that was personal, respectful, open, sensitive, clear, consistent and regular. to achieve this, they indicated an expectation to be able to express their thoughts, ideas and feelings without fear and with a reasonable prospect of being listened to. this yearning contrasts starkly with their executive and senior managers’ (referred to as their leaders) top-down communication practices. to employees, it was clear that their leaders were ‘not spending enough time listening to the staff and talking to them’, (d1, m1, m, l9) as shared by a middle manager. the perceived lack of consideration for their ideas was a common source of angst among middle managers: ‘our ideas are not even recorded anywhere so that they are included in future plans. this is very frustrating. we see no reason to come up with ideas anymore because they are not taken into consideration. we would like our ideas to be appreciated because this makes us feel we are making a contribution and our voices are heard.’ (d1, m1, m, l9) administrative officials had the most acute experience of the workplace power distance, as their leaders were invariably experienced as being ‘not accessible’, with the effect of ‘alienating the spade workers [administrative staff] in decision-making …’ (d2, a2, f, l8). for example, a long service administration officer strongly expressed that her leaders ‘ayifikeleleki’, (d2, a1, f, l7) an isixhosa word meaning ‘not accessible’. she added that this results in a huge gap between the leaders and their followers. her peer affirmed the power distance between the senior and junior rank levels: ‘in the department there is a tendency of alienating the spade workers [referring to the administrative staff] in decision-making, thereby creating an impression that they are not that much important in the department.’ (d2, a2, f, l8) recognition and rewards the multiple axes of inequality and inequity are intrinsically related to the theme of recognition and rewards. this theme was revealed as being bound up with an appreciation for ideas, knowledge, work done, consideration, gratitude, encouragement, affirmation, positive feedback, respect, recognition of potential and personal growth. these were considered crucial factors for an individual and a team’s morale and motivation, which in turn was seen as supporting better results, improved performance and a more positive attitude. however, the interviewees’ experiences of this type of positive feedback were almost universally limited. for example, two hr administrators confirmed that their senior managers displayed minimal interest in ‘individual potential and performance’ (d1, a1, f, l6) and that their contribution remained unrecognised, despite improving their educational qualifications. they warned that non-recognition of high performers would lead to demotivation and that these individuals would ‘start performing at a mediocre level’, (d1, a2, f, l7) as they see no benefits in performing well. the performance management development system (pmds), which comprises performance measurement processes linked to an individual’s development plan, received strong criticism across all departments and levels, with several interviewees questioning the legitimacy and fairness in applying the system. a middle manager with functional responsibility for the pmds, stressed that leaders needed to take greater accountability in implementing the system, as this would ‘ensure proper recognition of success and avoid rewarding failure’ (d2, m1, m, l11). he also stressed that it ought not to be applied punitively. leadership behaviours two divergent sets of leadership style were revealed throughout the course of this research (boyatzis & mckee, 2005; goleman et al., 2002). each style is understood to affect an organisation’s climate and culture and consequently individual and organisational performance (boyatzis & mckee, 2005). the first style may be termed ‘resonant’ (i.e. visionary, coaching, affiliative and democratic), exhibiting parallels with transformational and emerging leadership theories (e.g. ethical, spiritual, servant and authentic). the second style is termed ‘dissonant’ leadership and is associated with transactional and task-focused practices, encompassing pace-setting and commanding behaviours. this style of leadership tends to produce groups that feel emotionally discordant and operate in a climate of ‘anger, fear, apathy or even sullen silence’ (boyatzis & mckee, 2005, p. 21). exemplary leaders are capable of using a repertoire of styles in each situation, drawing more on resonant styles. many officials interviewed in this study lamented both the incompetence of their managers and the absence of inspiring and visionary leaders who were incapable of resonant leadership. instead, there was a common experience of overly dissonant styles that seemed directionless, indecisive, incoherent and inconsistent, as well as lacking ‘understanding of real issues or the big picture’, (d1, a2, f, l7) as shared by an administrative official. the result, expressed by a middle manager, was mixed messages and confusion, which inevitably led to teams becoming ‘demoralised and frustrated’. (d1, m1, m, l9) several managers suggested that their leaders needed mentors and coaches and identified ei as one of the ‘biggest competencies that … leadership lacks’. (d2, m9, m, l12) confirming this, a senior manager conceded: ‘at times, i am quite authoritative because of the work that must be done … my team and i need coaching skills …’ (d2, s2, f, l13) leaders were also perceived to be intolerant of mistakes, accustomed to giving harsh and public criticisms, inclined to view their subordinates as lazy and incompetent and predisposed to expect failure. middle management interviewees gave examples of such behaviours: ‘leadership tends to be more punitive when applying corrective measures, rather than being of assistance when one transgresses unknowingly.’ (d1, m5, m, l10) ‘you are told that you are useless every day and that demotivates you.’ (d2, m7, f, l12) predominantly, interviewees desired caring, trusting, respectful, sensitive, empathetic and people-centred leaders (in essence, they desired what is known in the literature as an ‘affiliative style’ of leadership that prioritises relationship building, see boyatzis & mckee, 2005; goleman et al., 2002). in contrast, their leaders’ behaviours produced a dispiriting effect leading to dysfunctional relationships, as a middle manager shared: ‘it is important to always ensure that the manner in which leadership relates to staff and the manner in which they speak to staff encourages good behaviour instead of breaking spirits.’ (d2, m9, m, l12) a frequent example of ‘breaking spirits’ was the disrespect that leaders were said to show towards their subordinates, with one middle manager stating that ‘extreme rudeness is the order of the day here’. (d2, m1, m, l11) additionally, the issue of ‘rank-consciousness’ was a recurring sub-theme, with administrative staff and middle managers frequently observing that their leaders expected to be addressed by their positional titles. most interviewees explicitly voiced their resistance to rank consciousness and noted the sense of alienation they experienced as a result (expressed as voicelessness, a lack of recognition and a sense of unfairness and demotivation). finally, sub-ordinates commonly alluded to a dissonant pacesetting leadership style that included frenetic, hurried, chaotic and crisis-driven management behaviours. the negative effect of such behaviours has been described in the literature as the ‘sacrifice cycle’ (boyatzis & mckee, 2005), which leads to increased incidences of illness, stress, burnout, depression and absenteeism – and indeed, this was reported by departmental hr practitioners. a middle manager suggested that leaders needed to slow down and become ‘fully aware of what is happening around’ them so that they ‘appreciate even those little things that seem small but [are] important’. (d1, m9, m, l12) social systems and governance: power culture and bureaucratic culture the provincial government’s institutional design and governance systems were predominantly viewed as alienating, rigid, centralised, resource poor and excessively rule-bound bureaucracies. this stood in stark contrast to what employees desired in their workplace culture, which was expressed variously as the need for decentralised and delegated power, agile and efficient organisational systems and processes, fair performance management systems, coordinated planning and organisational resources. interviewees considered these things imperative for achieving well-being, exemplary performances and effective service delivery. the dominant discourse of the actual workplace environment centred on two concepts of culture: ‘bureaucratic culture’ and ‘power culture’. bureaucratic culture was characterised by time consuming, lengthy and steep hierarchical management and administrative processes (‘red-tape’) that negatively affected motivation, productivity and performance. as one middle manager complained: ‘… it goes from person to person down the hierarchy … we’re not aware that work is coming. everything we do, we have to get approved, but the senior managers is [sic] not in the office. a request for a meeting with the other provincial departments had [sic] to pass through six offices for signatures.’ (d1, m4, f, l10) a senior manager agreed that the workplace culture was rigid and called for organisational flexibility, agility and a renewed focus on citizens instead of controls to address ‘implementation paralyses’. (d1, m9, m, l12) the second concept, ‘power culture’, was experienced as the centralisation of power, indecisiveness, mistrust and rank consciousness. this culture was perceived to be related to the hierarchical (‘rank and file’) nature of the interviewees’ public service institution and responsible for producing significant negative effects on organisational commitment and performance. one middle manager expressed this in the following way: ‘i have found that it is only senior and executive management that can help me when i get stuck because here officials are very status conscious – they only respond if an official of the same or more senior rank requests them to do something.’ (d1, m6, f, l11) an administrative officer put it like this: ‘… they don’t want to lose anything. they won’t give anyone else the mandate … there’s an element of a lack of trust. no one will say ‘please lead this group while i’m away.’ (d1, a5, f, l8) public service orientation despite the experiences of social exclusion, dissonant leadership and bureaucratic and power cultures, interviewees passionately expressed their dedication and commitment to public service. many considered the sa government’s batho pele beliefs (to care, to serve and to belong) as the foundation for their desired organisational culture. they defined public service within a people-centred, socially responsible, accountable, professional, service-oriented, empathetic and ethical paradigm – as expressed by an executive manager: ‘you need a caring culture where officials are willing to provide support to communities. batho pele principles must guide government officials when performing their tasks. there must be passion to help people in need of government services.’ (d1, e2, m, l14) similarly, others spoke zealously of their calling to public service, such as a senior manager: ‘[w]e are here to serve … [o]ur people are still very poor and depend on us for quality service for the betterment of their lives. we should not disappoint them.’ (d1, s8, m, l13) however, several barriers hinder the realisation of their espoused public service values. for instance, the interviewees did not feel a sense of care and belonging in their own organisations, which clearly affected their motivation to serve. a middle manager expressed their concern in the following way: ‘when people come to work, they don’t feel like they belong. if you don’t belong, you don’t care … our leaders must walk, talk, breathe the batho pele principles.’ (d1, m2, f, l10) discussion the four dominant themes that emerged from this study (social exclusion, leadership behaviours, public service orientation and governance), display patterns of contextual polarities and paradoxes between the sa democratic state’s aspirational transformation ethos, public servants’ expectations and workplace reality. these divergences span the fields of pathos and hope, neglect and caring, selfand people-centeredness, belonging and alienation, disenchantment and enthusiasm and resonance and dissonance. despite the immensely difficult organisational realities, interviewees at all levels of rank expressed a strong conviction and commitment to public service. however, these were compromised by experiences of social exclusion and polarisation between the marginalised (powerless, alienated and dispirited subordinates) and the mainstream (powerful, indifferent and disconnected executive and senior managers). this polarisation was exacerbated by the rigid, centralised, authoritarian and hierarchical governance systems that were found to predominate for the participants in this study. the outcome is a climate of demotivation, social antagonism, silence and submission that compromises well-being and performance at all organisational levels. viewed through multiple lenses of workplace experiences, this study offers three key insights. adopting a holistic approach to understanding the dynamic and interconnected nature of public organisations this article’s findings exemplify the complex interconnections and mutual influences that occur in and between the different domains of reality (wilber, 2000) in an organisation – which can be appropriately illustrated as broken intersecting circles (see figure 3), representing wholeness, integration and flow. shown like this, it is possible to illustrate the dynamic nature of organisations as complex adaptive systems or even organisms (morgan, 1986), rather than the more traditional mechanistic view of workplace reality, in which people are ‘depersonalized and anonymous’ or ‘nothing more than a box in an organizational chart’ (robledo, 2009, p. 62). figure 3: presentation of the study’s dominant and sub-themes showing the dynamic and interconnected nature of public organisations representing wholeness, integration and flow. a holistic approach of inquiry that considers different realms of realities – across rank levels – provides depth and a nuanced understanding of the multidimensional determinants at play in a public service organisation setting. such framing pays attention to the four categories of eudaimonia (orientations, behaviours, experiences and functioning), as identified by huta and waterman (2014), in understanding individual and collective values, motives, goals, subjective experiences, emotions, behaviours, cognitive appraisals and psychological functioning in the workplace (cvenkel, 2020; der kinderen & kharpova, 2021). furthermore, this approach can reveal the complex intermediation of employee eudaimonic well-being and performance; rather than the narrow, perfunctory and positivist npm metrics of performance, limited to measuring efficiency, effectiveness and economy (march & olson, 1983; osborne et al., 2013). in the context of volatility, complexity and uncertainty (heightened by the covid-19 pandemic), ‘local and national politics cannot be simply calibrated in terms of rational efficiency’ (pedersen & hartley, 2008, p. 333). the pandemic notwithstanding, it is reasonable to expect public organisations to respond to their multiple complex realities with greater awareness, empathy and sophistication than the findings of this study reveal, as well as with greater flexibility, agility and adaptability (dirani et al., 2020; garikipati & kambhampati, 2021; huang, 2020). the dynamically complex relationship between social exclusion, well-being and performance ‘the father of psychology’, william james (1890), once observed the enervating effects of social exclusion or ostracism: no more fiendish punishment could be devised … if no one turned round when we entered, answered when we spoke, or minded what we did, but if every person we met ‘cut us dead,’ and acted as if we were non-existing things, a kind of rage and impotent despair would ere long well up in us, from which the cruellest bodily tortures would be a relief … (pp. 293–294) modern social neuroscience research on physical and emotional pain confirms james’ visionary insights in 1890 regarding the effects of social exclusion, which has been found to result in a decrease in mental and psychological well-being and motivation in the workplace (reece et al., 2021). chen et al. (2008, p. 789) even found that ‘threats to social inclusion led to physiological changes consistent with preparation for a physical threat’. given the importance of psychological well-being on performance, it is clearly essential to address social exclusion if one wishes to achieve optimal functioning in the workplace (cvenkel, 2020; guest, 2017). distressingly, more than 70% of professionals report experiences of social exclusion or ostracism in the workplace (reece, 2021). as mentioned above, these experiences have an adverse impact on employees’ lives in a variety of ways (wu et al., 2012), affecting their eudaimonic well-being including their relationships with others, self-acceptance, personal growth, environmental mastery (ryff, 2013), self-esteem, productivity and performance (ferris et al., 2014; leung et al., 2011). for all that, few studies have been done about exclusion and its antecedents in the workplace or how individuals cope with it (reece, 2021; scott et al., 2014). the current study’s findings indicate a complex relationship between the distributional and relational dimensions of exclusion (jehoel-gijsbers & vrooman, 2007). employees reported experiencing both dimensions in the form of the unequal distribution of resources, unfair performance management systems, power distance, social alienation, lack of voice and inadequate cultural integration. the findings indicate that all four categories of employees eudaimonic well-being – orientations, behaviours, experiences and functioning – were negatively affected, which, in turn, had a detrimental impact on their positive psychological well-being, as well as their personal development, organisational climate and culture and institutional performance. these findings confirm the results of previous studies that have shown how negative emotions increase and positive emotions (reece et al., 2021) and self-esteem decrease (ferris et al., 2014) because of social exclusion. notably, positive emotions result in ‘positive cognitions, positive behaviours and increased cognitive capability’, and that these, in turn, drive positive emotions and therefore positive relationships and functioning effectively (huppert, 2009, p. 137). all these factors are at the core of eudaimonic well-being (cvenkel, 2020; der kinderen & kharpova, 2021; huta & waterman, 2014; ryff, 2013). in addition, evidence from social neuroscience suggests that fairness, equity and co-operation lead to ‘higher happiness ratings and increased activity in several reward regions of the brain’ (tabibnia & lieberman, 2007, pp. 97–98). this evidence reveals social reinforcers – fairness and co-operation – to be intrinsically rewarding and likely to increase intrinsic motivation, as well as predicting better performance outcomes and individual satisfaction. likewise, equity theory argues that perceptions of fairness are motivational, and under-reward arouses an unpleasant emotional state and dissonance (mowday, 1991). moreover, when an employee experiences injustice in the workplace, the individual may decide to ‘get back’ at the organisation by exhibiting deviant behaviour (rajah et al., 2011; reece et al., 2021). this study observed the negative impact of a punitive and unfair performance management system on employees’ motivation and self-worth. conversely, participative and developmental performance management encourage deeper levels of feeling of belonging, trust, fairness and security with concomitant high qwl and strong employment relationship (guest, 2017). the antecedents of well-being related to the hr practice of organisational support, such as ‘participative, supportive management and an organisational climate that facilitates employee involvement’ ensures a positive employment relationship and high qwl (guest, 2017, p. 34). the role of voice, a recurring theme in this study, is another hrm practice area, which is integral to well-being and positive performance outcomes and requires hrm practices that adopt ‘extensive two-way communication, opportunities for individual expression of voice … and relevant forms of collective representation’ (guest, 2017, p. 34). this study also provided support for levin’s (2009, p. 966) analysis of workplace surveys in the sa public service, which revealed a ‘great deal of discontent among ordinary public servants on the grounds of their [management’s] perceived incompetence, poor communication and bias’. levin (2009, p. 966) also noted that public service employees experienced substantial ‘resentment of head office and management, who are seen as frequently absent and disengaged or micro-managing and autocratic’. the current study confirms these findings, which continue to challenge managers and policymakers as underscored in the auditor general of south africa and government performance audits (auditor general of south africa, 2021; rsa, 2016, 2017, 2018). the south african employee health and wellness strategic framework for the public service (rsa, 2019) recognises international frameworks on decent work and worker health and legislative obligations; however, the framework contains no references to scholarship on well-being in the workplace or a sa public service contextual analysis on well-being or awareness of the issues raised in the literature and in the findings of this study. rather, it takes the traditional bureaucratic and project planning approach and presents tables of vague inputs, activities, outputs and outcomes, without a theory of change in tackling the complex and multidimensional area of eudaimonic well-being. to achieve the framework’s objective on organisational wellness in promoting ‘an organisational culture that is conducive to individual and organisational wellness and work-life balance to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the public service’ (rsa, 2019, p. 48) requires further studies on employee well-being that adopts a holistic approach as presented in this study. the interplay between power culture, leadership behaviours, governance and performance in the current study, dissonant leadership behaviours emerged as a dominant theme that significantly affected employee well-being. dissonant leaders were regarded as conservative, commanding, powerand rank-conscious, intimidating, uncaring and frenetic. these behaviours had a direct and negative impact on the self-esteem, morale, aspirations and motivation of subordinates and on the organisation’s climate and culture. this, in turn, resulted in high levels of stress, illness, despondency, demotivation and social antagonism. the final consequence of this dynamic is ultimately visible in the compromising of individual, team, leadership and organisational performances – as has been reported by the provincial government’s below average performance ratings in national performance audits (auditor general of south africa, 2021; rsa, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018). consistent with these findings, a sa national government study on public leadership transition (haricharan & wyley, 2013) found that: authoritarian and task-driven political and public administrative leadership considerably worsens the anxiety and difficulty experienced by senior managers entering the public service. (pp. 137–138) the implication of this national study was that the public service organisational culture into which leaders must transition was discordant and hostile, with newly appointed senior managers having to cope through self-sacrifice as they attempted to ‘stay afloat, occasionally swim, [and avoid] sinking altogether’ (haricharan & wyley, 2013, p. 146). it is worth recognising that the authoritarian leadership behaviours reported in this study are allowed to thrive in rigid and hierarchical institutional architectures, such as were observed in the offices of the provincial government. moreover, the dominant narratives of bureaucratic culture and power culture that were identified, buttress the practices of dissonant leadership. these results are consistent with other research findings in the sa public service (haricharan, 2022; haricharan & wyley, 2013; levin, 2009; von holdt, 2010). conversely, it must be noted that positive psychological well-being and the practice of meaningful work are good motivators that encourage employees to be better colleagues, with greater job involvement and superior performance outputs (boyatzis & mckee, 2005; der kinderen & kharpova, 2021; guest, 2017; huta & waterman, 2014; ryff, 2013). specifically, resonant leadership styles (i.e. styles that emphasise ei competence in self-awareness, social awareness, self-management and relationship management) promote an inclusive, relational, caring and supportive workplace culture (goleman et al., 2002; vigoda-gadot & meisler, 2010). in addition, these clusters of ei competencies are positively correlated to leadership performance as observed in a similar public service setting study (haricharan, 2022). it is clear from the current study that employees overwhelmingly preferred the positive use of socialised power (through resonant leadership) for societal good over more personalised power-driven dissonant self-centred leadership styles, as conceptualised by mcclelland (1998). similarly, asamoah and yeboah-assiamah (2019, p. 317) assert that the prevalence of corruption and poor leadership in africa is ‘anticultural, anti-human, anti-ethical and anti-africa’ and argue that public leadership and governance is to ‘develop the skills of all and caring for the society’, in the understanding of human identity and consciousness (ogude, 2019). conclusion public service leaders must navigate the volatile, uncertain and multi-dimensional complexities of rapidly shifting 21st-century worlds. while traversing these turbulent waters, it is crucial to know which forms of institutional architecture, organisational culture, values and behaviours best serve public leaders as they embrace and confront the evolving public governance transformation challenges. once properly understood, these forms must serve employee well-being and the performance of public institutions that are entrusted with safeguarding democratic principles and public values while improving the quality of life of all citizens. generally, public reform initiatives focus on the formal, rational, structural and technical aspects of public institutions – with less attention given to the human side. in contrast, this paper sought to understand the complex and dynamic inter-relationships between the multidimensional behavioural, social and cultural domains that characterise workplace realities and their influence on public servants’ well-being and institutional performance. to achieve this understanding, this qualitative study took a holistic and integrated approach to examine the different realms of consciousness that traverse a provincial government in south africa. the findings reveal complex intersectionality and a dialectical relationship between different domains of workplace reality in mediating well-being and performance. the findings have epistemological and methodological implications for scholarship, notably in hrm, and policy and practice implications for public policymakers and administrators. further research is warranted into new approaches and models to public governance and leadership thinking and practice, particularly in eudaimonic well-being given the drastic negative consequences of psychological functioning and its antecedents in the public service. as well-being is considered a key pillar of humanistic management (pirson, 2021), scholars strongly call for hrm research, policy and practice that give greater priority to promoting the achievement of the six dimensions of eudaimonic well-being (ryff, 2013) in pursuant of employees’ personal growth and organisational excellence. after all, the prosperity of a nation is inherently linked to the well-being of public servants and public institutions. acknowledgements this article is partially based on the author’s thesis of the degree of doctor of philosophy in economic and management sciences at the faculty of economic and management sciences, stellenbosch university, south africa, with promoter prof. e. schwella, received december 2015, available here: https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/97801. special gratitude to dr annie mckee (university of pennsylvania), one of the primary developers of the di approach, for her role and guidance on the research design and data collection, and in ensuring that the di was applied in a culturally respectful manner. many thanks to the national treasury, the department of planning, monitoring and evaluation and the office of the public service commission, in pretoria, south africa, for access to data used in this study. competing interests the author(s) declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. author’s contributions i declare that i am the sole author of this research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references angen, m.j. (2000). evaluating interpretive inquiry: reviewing the validity debate and opening the dialogue. qualitative health research, 10(3), 378–395. https://doi.org/10.1177/104973230001000308 asamoah, k., & yeboah-assiamah, e. (2019). ubuntu philosophy for public leadership and governance praxis: revisiting the ethos of africa’s collectivism. journal of global responsibility, 10(4), 307–321. https://doi.org/10.1108/jgr-01-2019-0008 auditor general of south africa. (2020–2021). consolidated general report on national and provincial audit outcomes. benington, j., & hartley, j. (2011). recent trends in leadership: thinking and action in the public and voluntary service sectors. commission on leadership and management in the nhs. betancourt, d.s., & vivier, e. (2021). the relevance of contemplative studies and practices for improving participatory urban governance. politikon, 48(4), 607–624. https://doi.org/10.1080/02589346.2021.1995271 boyatzis, r. (2009). competencies as a behavioral approach to emotional intelligence. journal of management development, 28(9), 749–770. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710910987647 boyatzis, r., & mckee, a. (2005). resonant leadership. harvard business press. chen, z., williams, k.d., fitness, j., & newton, n.c. (2008). when hurt will not heal: exploring the capacity to relive social and physical pain. psychological science, 19(8), 789–795. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02158.x chipkin, i., & meny-gibert, s. (2012). why the past matters: studying public administration in south africa. journal of public administration, 47(1), 102–112. cvenkel, n. (2020). well-being in the workplace: governance and sustainability insights to promote workplace health, approaches to global sustainability, markets, and governance. springer nature. denhardt, r.b., & denhardt, j.v. (2007). the new public service: serving, not steering. m.e. sharpe. der kinderen, s., & khapova, s.n. (2021). positive psychological well-being at work: the role of eudaimonia. in s. dhiman (ed.), the palgrave handbook of workplace well-being (pp. 141–168). springer nature switzerland. dirani, k.m., abadi, m., alizadeh, a., barhate, b., garza, r.c., gunasekara, n., ibrahim g., & majzun, z. (2020). leadership competencies and the essential role of human resource development in times of crisis: a response to covid-19 pandemic. human resource development international, 23(4), 380–384. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2020.1780078 divine, l. (2009). looking at and looking as the client: the quadrants as a type of structure lens. journal of integral theory and practice, 4(1), 21–40. drisko, j. (2005). writing up qualitative research. families in society. the journal of contemporary social services, 86(4), 589–593. https://doi.org/10.1606/1044-3894.3465 ferris, d.l., lian, h., brown, d.j., & morrison, r. (2014). ostracism, self-esteem, and job performance: when do we self-verify and when do we self-enhance? academy of management journal, 58(1), 279–297. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2011.0347 fourie, d., & poggenpoel, w. (2017). public sector inefficiencies: are we addressing the root causes? south african journal of accounting research, 31(3), 169–180. https://doi.org/10.1080/10291954.2016.1160197 frederickson, h.g., &. matkin, d.s.t. (2007). public leadership as gardening. in r.s. morse, t.f. buss, & c.m. kinghorn (eds.), transforming public leadership for the 21st century (pp. 39–40). m.e. sharpe. garikipati, s., & kambhampati, u. (2021). leading the fight against the pandemic: does gender ‘really’ matter? feminist journal, 27(1–2), 401–418. https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2021.1874614 goleman, d., boyatzis, r., & mckee, a. (2002). primal leadership: realizing the power of emotional intelligence. harvard business school press. görgens-ekermans, g., & roux, c. (2021). revisiting the emotional intelligence and transformational leadership debate: (how) does emotional intelligence matter to effective leadership? sa journal of human resource management, 19, a1279. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1279 grant, a.m., christianson, k.m., & price, r.h. (2007). happiness, health, or relationships? managerial practices and employee well-being trade-offs. academy of management perspectives, 21(3), 51–63. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2007.26421238 guest, d.e. (2017). human resource management and employee well-being: towards a new analytic framework. human resource management journal, 27(1), 22–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12139 haricharan, s., & wyley, c. (2013, november 01). facilitating effective leadership transitions in the south african public service. paper presented at the 9th international conference on public administration, cape town. haricharan, s.j. (2022). is the leadership performance of public service executive managers related to their emotional intelligence? south african journal of human resource management, 20, 1773. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1773 hartley, j., butler, m., & benington, j. (2002). local government modernisation: uk and comparative analysis from an organizational perspective. public management review, 4(3), 387–404. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616670210151612 hood, c., & peters, g. (2004). the middle aging of new public management: into the age of paradox? journal of public administration research and theory, 14(3), 267–282. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muh019 house, r.j., & aditya, r.n. (1997). the social scientific study of leadership: quo vadis? journal of management, 23(3), 409–473. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639702300306 huang, p.h. (2020). put more women in charge and other leadership lessons from covid-19. ssrn electronic journal, 15(3), 353–421. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3604783 huta, v., & waterman, a.s. (2014) eudaimonia and its distinction from hedonia: developing a classification and terminology for understanding conceptual and operational definitions. journal of happiness studies, 15(6), 1425–1456. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-013-9485-0 james, w. (1890). principles of psychology. holt, rinehart, and wilson. jehoel-gijsbers, g., & vrooman, c. (2007). explaining social exclusion: a theoretical model tested in the netherlands. the netherlands institute for social research. kellis, d.s., & ran, b. (2013). modern leadership principles for public administration: time to move forward. journal of public affairs, 139(1), 130–141. https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1453 kotzé, m., & venter, i. (2011). differences in emotional intelligence between effective and ineffective leaders in the public sector: an empirical study. international review of administrative sciences, 77(2), 397–427. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852311399857 kowalski, t.h.p., & loretto, w. (2017). well-being and hrm in the changing workplace. the international journal of human resource management, 28(16), 2229–2255. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1345205 leung, a.s.m., wu, l.z., chen, y.y., & young, m.n. (2011). the impact of workplace ostracism in service organizations. international journal of hospitality management, 30(4), 836–844. levin, r.m. (2009). transforming the public service to support the developmental state. journal of public administration, 44(si-1), 943–968. london, a., & mcmillen, m.c. (1992). discovering social issues: organization development in a multi-cultural community. journal of applied behavioral science, 28(2), 445–460. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886392283011 march, j.g., & olson, j.p. (1983). organizing political life: what administrative reorganization tells us about government. the american political science review, 77(2), 281–296. https://doi.org/10.2307/1958916 mcclelland, d.c. (1998). identifying competencies with behavioural-event interview. american psychological association, 9(5), 331–339. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00065 mckee, a., boyatzis, r.e., & johnston, f. (2008). becoming a resonant leader: develop your emotional intelligence, renew your relationships, sustain your effectiveness. harvard business press. miao, c., humphrey, r.h., & qian, s. (2018). emotional intelligence and authentic leadership: a meta-analysis. leadership and organization development journal, 39(5), 679–690. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-02-2018-0066 mokgolo, m.m., mokgolo, p., & modiba, m. (2012). transformational leadership in the south african public service after the april 2009 national elections. south african journal of human resource management, 10(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i1.334 morgan, g. (2006). images of organization. sage. morse, r.s., & buss, t.f. (2008). innovations in public leadership development. m.e. sharpe. mosimege, s.b., & masiya, t. (2021). assessing audit outcomes of predetermined objectives in a public institution (south africa). international journal of productivity and performance management, 71(6), 2296–2315. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-02-2021-0091 mowday, r.t. (1991). equity theory perceptions of behavior in organizations. motivation and work behavior, 5, 111–131. ngoma, w.y. (2007). complexities of organisational change: the case of the eastern cape department of education. unpublished phd dissertation, university of the witwatersrand. o’boyle, e., humphrey, r.h., pollack, j.m., hawver, t.h., & story, p. (2011). the relation between emotional intelligence and job performance: a meta-analysis. journal of organizational behavior, 32(5), 788–818. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.714 ogude, j. (2019). ubuntu and the reconstitution of community. indiana university press. organisation for economic co-operation and development (oecd). (2013). guidelines on measuring subjective well-being. author. organisation for economic co-operation and development (oecd). (2020). policy framework on sound public governance: baseline features of governments that work well. author. osborne, s.p., radnor, z., & nasi, g. (2013). a new theory for public service management? toward a (public) service-dominant approach. the american review of public administration, 43(2), 135–158. https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074012466935 pedersen, d., & hartley, j. (2008). the changing context of public leadership and management. implications for roles and dynamics. international journal of public sector management, 21(4), 327–339. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513550810880214 pirson, m. (2021). a humanistic perspective for management research: protecting dignity and promoting well-being. in s. dhiman (ed.), the palgrave handbook of workplace well-being (pp. 1188–1208). springer nature switzerland. rajah, r., song, z., & arvey, r.d. (2011). emotionality and leadership: taking stock of the past decade of research. leadership quarterly, 22(6), 1107–1119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.09.006 reece, a., carr, e.w., baumeister, r.f., & kellerman, g.r. (2021). outcasts and saboteurs: intervention strategies to reduce the negative effects of social exclusion on team outcomes. plos one, 16(5), e0249851. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249851 ryff, c.d. (1989). happiness is everything, or is it? explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. journal of personality and social psychology, 57(6), 1069–1081. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.57.6.1069 ryff, c.d. (2013). psychological well-being revisited: advances in the science and practice of eudaimonia. psychotherapy and psychosomatics, 83(1), 10–28. https://doi.org/10.1159/000353263 republic of south africa (rsa). (1995). white paper on the transformation of the public service. notice 1227 of 1995. government printers. republic of south africa (rsa). (2012). national development plan 2030: our future – make it work. the presidency. republic of south africa (rsa). (2013). state of management practices in the public service: results of management performance assessments for the 2012/13 financial year. department of performance monitoring and evaluation, the presidency. republic of south africa (rsa). (2016, 2017, 2018). management performance assessment tool (mpat). department of planning, monitoring and evaluation, the presidency. republic of south africa (rsa). (2022). judicial commission of inquiry into allegations of state capture, corruption and fraud in the public sector including organs of state. part 1. pretoria the presidency. robledo, m.a. (2009). integrating management theory: using the aqal model for multiparadigm management research. journal of integral theory and practice, 4(1), 57–70. schein, e.h. (1990). organisational culture. american psychologist, 45(2), 109–119. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.45.2.109 scott, k.l., zagenczyk, t.j., schippers, m., purvis, r.l., & cruz, k.s. (2014). co-worker exclusion and employee outcomes: an investigation of the moderating roles of perceived organizational and social support. journal of management studies, 51(8), 1235–1256. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12099 senge, s., scharmer, c.o., jaworski, j., & flowers, b.s. (2004). presence: human purpose and the field of the future. doubleday. tabibnia, g., & lieberman, m.d. (2007). fairness and cooperation are rewarding: evidence from social cognitive neuroscience. annals of the new york academy of sciences, 1118(1), 90–101. https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1412.001 van wart, m. (2011). dynamics of leadership in public service: theory and practice. m.e. sharpe. vigoda-gadot, e., & meisler, g. (2010). emotions in management and the management of emotions: the impact of emotional intelligence and organisational politics on public sector employees. public administration review, 70(1), 72–86. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2009.02112.x walter, f., cole, m.s., & humphrey, r.h. (2011). emotional intelligence: sine qua non of leadership or folderol? academy of management perspectives, 25(1), 45–59. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2011.59198449 von holdt, k. (2010). nationalism, bureaucracy and the developmental state: the south african case. south african review of sociology, 41(1), 4–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/21528581003676010 von holdt, k. (2022, may). the making and unmaking of social order: disorder, violence, trajectories. inaugural lecture, university of the witwatersrand. wilber, k. (2000). a theory of everything: an integral vision for business, politics, science, and spirituality. shambhala. wright, t.a., & cropanzano, r. (2000). psychological well-being and job satisfaction as predictors of job performance. journal of occupational health psychology, 5(1), 84–94. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.5.1.84 wu, l.z., yim, f.h., kwan, h.k., & zhang, x. (2012). coping with workplace ostracism: the roles of ingratiation and political skill in employee psychological distress. journal of management studies, 49(1), 178–199. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2011.01017.x abstract introduction research purpose and objectives literature review research design results and discussion limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) magdalene bartrop-sackey department of secretaryship and management studies, school of business and management studies, cape coast technical university, cape coast, ghana department of human resource management, school of business, university of cape coast, cape coast, ghana augustine o. boakye department of human resource management, school of business, university of cape coast, cape coast, ghana department of management and human resource, faculty of it business, ghana communication technology university, accra, ghana patricia muah department of human resource management, school of business, university of cape coast, cape coast, ghana department of business administration, faculty of business, heritage christian college, accra, ghana nana y. oppong department of human resource management, school of business, university of cape coast, cape coast, ghana citation bartrop-sackey, m., boakye, a.o., muah, p. & oppong, n.y. (2022). exploring the talent retention strategies of cape coast technical university in ghana. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1865. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1865 original research exploring the talent retention strategies of cape coast technical university in ghana magdalene bartrop-sackey, augustine o. boakye, patricia muah, nana y. oppong received: 24 dec. 2021; accepted: 24 may 2022; published: 15 july 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: educational institutions are ranked highly as the performance of their talented staff gives them a competitive advantage. higher educational institutions (heis) and for that matter technical universities in ghana, however, have the challenge of retaining their talented staff. research purpose: to explore in the ghanaian context the talent retention strategies employed by heis (technical universities) as a critical aspect of the talent management (tm) process. motivation for the study: there is limited literature on tm in heis in ghana and especially on talent retention in the technical university context. research approach/design and method: a qualitative research approach and a case study design were adopted in this study, and 20 academic and management staff were purposively sampled and interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. main findings: the study found that the university’s retention strategies employed included fair handling of staff promotions, settling of lawsuits and legal tussles, training and development measures, awards and recognition of talented staff, and better conditions of service for its talented staff. practical/managerial implications: this research provides insights into how talents are retained and specifically examines the talent retention strategies for which technical universities, institutions and human resource practitioners could employ. contribution/value-add: this study contributes to tm literature by providing empirical evidence from the hei context. it also extends the tm literature with evidence from technical universities in ghana, as previous studies have been predominantly conducted in western contexts. keywords: talent; talent management practices; talent retention strategies; higher education institutions, cape coast technical university. introduction undoubtedly the issue of attracting, developing and retaining talents is a critical issue for all organisations worldwide (collings & mellahi, 2009; coy & ewing, 2007; keller & meaney, 2017). globalisation and technological advancement of the business world are giving rise to the importance of the internal resources of organisations (gallardo-gallardo, nijs, dries, & gallo, 2015; lina, 2018; mohammed, hafeez-baig, & gururajan, 2020; sharma, 2019). as stipulated by the resource-based view, organisations can gain a competitive advantage when they focus on internal resources (e.g. talents) by managing and retaining them effectively and efficiently (al aina & atan, 2020; al-dalahmeh, 2020; barney 1991). talents are unique strategic resources that can be used in achieving sustained competitive advantage (dries, 2013) as, drawing on the resources-based view (barney, 1991), they are seen as strategic intangible resources of organisations. thorne and pellant (2007) define talent as individuals with ability above others and who do not need to put in too much effort to achieve targets set. this is because of their competencies and other performance attributes that are over and above the ordinary human resource. this view is supported by tansley (2011) who reveals that talents are high-performing employees who are seen to contribute significantly to the performance of an organisation and its future leadership and development. from these definitions, it is deduced that talent is an organisational member that offers a significant contribution to their employing organisations to help achieve its goals. based on who talents are, talent management (tm) can be described as the process of attracting, identifying, developing, engaging and retaining those employees who are high performers and whose output is of great value to the organisation and by whose contribution a sustainable success is achieved (collings & mellahi, 2009; gallardo-gallardo et al., 2015). bradley (2016) in considering tm from a higher educational environment found that it is a primary component of strategic human resource management, which can improve a university’s performance over the long term by understanding the strategy devised through its talented individuals. in addition to the improvement in university performance through talented staff members, there are several benefits for those institutions that invest in talents and tm. the specific strategic focus of tm systems leads to higher scores in measures of financial outcome, such as company profit, company and talent productivity and market value, and increases nonfinancial outcomes at the company level, such as job satisfaction, employee motivation, commitment and work quality (al-abbasi & masri, 2020; mohammed, hafeez-baig, & gururajan, 2019; venkateswaran, 2012). talents assist in increasing the rankings and profits of higher educational institutions (heis) (akpey-mensah, 2018; bradley, 2016; kusi, opoku-danso, & afum, 2020). there is extant literature on how tm practices influence retention (erasmus, grobler, & van niekerk, 2015; koshy & babu, 2013; ngozwana & rugimbana, 2011; panday & kaur, 2019; towns, 2019). likewise, tm practices effectively implemented are seen to lead to organisational performance (al aina & atan, 2020; jooss, burbach, & ruël, 2019; miiro, othman, sahari, & burhan, 2016), which extends to superior performance in heis, (al-abbasi & masri, 2020; collings & mellahi, 2009; eghbal et al., 2017; kusi et al., 2020; riccio, 2010; sharma, 2017; tyagi, singh, & aggarwal, 2017) and other industries (dang, nguyen, habaradas, ha, & nguyen, 2020; garg, 2014; yeswa & ombui, 2019). these indicate that tm is a strategic human resource management process, which is highly beneficial to all sectors and its effect cannot be overemphasised. however, findings from the literature indicate that in public universities in ghana tm is not popular, and there are no specific policies when it comes to managing talents (acheampong, asare bediako, & acheampong, 2019; akpey-mensah, 2018; appau, marfo-yiadom, & kusi, 2021). the absence of such policies reveals the lack of commitment and interest in managing talents in heis (akpey-mensah, 2018; appau et al., 2021). this lack of commitment in managing talents had led to the inability of heis to retain their talented staff. in this competitive global labour market, it is critical for heis to build human capital. consequently, academic institutions have started to rethink their procedures and policies to achieve better attraction, development and retention of their academic talents. in ghana, the role of heis in national development is greatly hampered by a number of challenges such as lack of adequate funding, inefficient management, poor remuneration, heavy teaching loads and inadequate infrastructure (utulu, 2000), which, among others, have been revealed by the technical committee report (afeti et al., 2014). according to the report, the greatest challenge faced by technical universities is their inability to recruit and retain qualified staff members with relevant practical and professional experience. this is because the type of skilled professionals that the technical universities require are also those highly sought after by industry (acquah, frimpong, & borkloe, 2017; bourne, 2017; strebler, neathey, & tackey, 2005). in this regard, technical universities are unable to compete for staff with industry, which is able to offer better remuneration packages (acquah et al., 2017; afeti et al., 2014). consequently, effective talent retention strategies ought to be developed to retain talented academic staff in heis. research purpose and objectives this study is motivated by the call for the implementation of tm in various contexts to forge an in-depth understanding of the importance of tm (gallardo-gallardo, thunnissen, & scullion, 2019). our study, however, is narrowed to explore strategies for academic talent retention that has become a critical aspect of tm in technical universities as revealed by the 2014 technical committee report (afeti et al., 2014) in ghana. the questions that we pose and try to answer, to achieve this, are, ‘how do technical universities retain their talented staff?’ and ‘what retention strategies do the universities implement to achieve an effective talent management process?’ literature review talent management practices and strategies in higher educational institutions the implementation of tm is critical for every organisation. studies have been conducted in various industries and sectors about tm practices and how they are implemented in their context (bethke-langenegger, mahler, & staffelbach, 2011; gallardo-gallardo et al., 2019; thunnissen, boselie, & fruytier, 2013). these studies reveal the effectiveness of tm as it gives organisations a competitive edge (barney, 1991; dries, 2013). talent management practices and strategies have been widely studied as being a predictor of the success and competitiveness of organisations (atwah, aitah feras, al-shalabi, & aljamal, 2013; knott, 2016; morton & ashton, 2005). to ensure effectiveness in the implementation of tm practices, extant literature (anlesinya & amponsah-tawiah, 2020; anlesinya, amponsah-tawiah, & dartey-baah, 2019; bolander, werr, & asplund, 2017; cappelli & keller, 2014; meyers, van woerkom, paauwe, & dries, 2020; thunnissen, 2015) has discussed various tm philosophies and typologies. while some advocate for exclusive approaches (bethke-langenegger et al., 2011; meyers et al., 2020) where only identified talented employees become the focus of the tm process, others maintain that all workers have some specific talents that can contribute to the success of organisations (iles, chuai, & preece, 2010; stahl et al., 2012) – therefore calling for an all-inclusive approach. still, others advance the argument for more responsible tm and advocate for a hybrid approach (anlesinya & amponsah-tawiah, 2020). in supporting the all-inclusive approach, anlesinya and amponsah-tawiah (2020) developed a model that purports to guide tm practice in a socially responsible way. they further argued that inclusivity, corporate responsibility, equity and equal employment opportunity are the key underlying principles of a responsible tm system. in addition to the approaches to the implementation of tm practices, studies have been conducted on factors supporting tm implementation. for instance, a paper by bradley (2016) discussed three main issues relating to managing talent in higher education. the study revealed, firstly, that aligning important positions with the university’s strategy was critical to implement a successful tm. also, alignment with metrics helped to strategically identify, reward and promote talented individuals. such individuals are those with skills, experience and motivation, which are required for effective performance in those critical positions. thirdly, bradley identified tm’s alignment with management as a means to help universities firmly incorporate tm with the day-to-day management of the university. the effectiveness of this alignment depends on retaining the talented faculty who can sustain this alignment. these findings imply that tm implementation can be effective when it is based on certain factors that range from a strong culture and alignment with the strategic vision of the university including retention of talented staff members. a study by kusi et al. (2020) sought to examine the effect of tm practices on the organisational performance of public universities in ghana. testing the mediating role of leadership support in that context, the study found that tm practices, namely talent attraction, talent development, talent engagement and talent retention practices, were a major predictor of organisational performance. leadership support proved to be positively associated with tm and organisational performance except for talent engagement. in another study, akpey-mensah (2018) sought to explore the value of integrating tm into the overall human resource activities in public universities in ghana. using a qualitative research approach and exploring three public universities out of 10 public universities, the study found that the term ‘talent management’ was not popular with the universities. there were no specific policies in place to guide the management of talent. the interviews revealed, however, that staff members perceived tm to have the potential to reduce high academic staff turnover and recommended the integration of tm into human resource management activities. studies on tm practices reveal that tm practices mostly implemented are defining and identifying talent needs, discovering talent sources, attracting talents, developing the potential abilities of talents, strategically deploying talents, retaining talents and evaluating and aligning tm activities (eghbal et al., 2017; erasmus, naidoo, & joubert, 2017; heinen & o’neill, 2004; hejase, hejase, mikdashi, & baseih, 2016). these studies further reveal that majority of organisations have specific tm strategies in place, with varying degrees as to the success of the implementation of these strategies (hejase et al., 2016). these findings imply that tm practices are well known in heis, but their effectiveness lies with the strategies and organisational and leadership factors supporting the tm practice. the next section reviews the literature on strategies employed by heis to retain their talented staff members. talent retention strategies of higher educational institutions retention of talented employees is one of the most critical issues that educational institutions face today as a result of the fact that talents have become the driving force of organisational success. strategies in the retention of academic staff have been investigated (bradley, 2016; erasmus et al., 2017; theron, barkhuizen, & du plessis, 2014). a study by theron et al. (2014) investigated the factors influencing turnover and retention of academic staff in south african universities and found that compensation and recognition, as well as management support, were the possible factors that could encourage staff members to stay. similar studies (koshy & babu, 2016; towns, 2019) examined the various factors influencing faculty in retaining their staff members and found that there is a significant relationship between compensation, empowerment, training and development, health insurance as well as performance appraisal and the retention of faculty. the authors advocate for more encouragement and reward for research activities as well as sabbatical leave for faculty. this indicates that compensation alone does not suffice in influencing academic staff to stay longer at their universities. in addition to reward and compensation strategy in retaining academic staff, matongolo, kasekende and mafabi (2018) examined the effect of reward strategy, people orientedness and leadership and development on talent retention in heis in uganda and found that there was a positive and significant association between people orientedness and talent retention. in the study, it was revealed that employees are mostly motivated by rewards, recognition, respect and trust, passion for work, success, good working conditions, growth and promotion, as well as training and development. similarly, in exploring effective strategies for talent retention in heis, towns (2019) identified open communication among employees and leadership, the influence of innovation, flexibility and appreciation, that is, the feeling of being valued. from their study on the impact of the different policies and practices on the retention of talented human resources, rodríguez-sánchez, gonzález-torres, montero-navarro and gallego-losada (2020) developed a model of work–life balance strategies. the strategies that formed the model included flexibility, non-monetary benefits, external activities and employer branding. in addition, the importance of personalised training and education programmes to retain the best talents was also revealed in the study. consequently, university leaders need to employ adequate and appropriate retention strategies if they intend to keep their talented staff members. this can be done when policies guiding the implementation of tm practices are formulated, and leadership support and the right retention strategies are implemented. this study, therefore, explores how technical universities in ghana are strategising to retain their talented staff members. research design research approach to address the research purpose and research questions, this study adopted a qualitative research approach (creswell, hanson, clark plano, & morales, 2007). the exploratory research design was used in order to discover insights into an under-explored research area (rahi, 2017). a case study research method was used. case studies are used to explore or investigate phenomenon within its context or explore a problem within a number of real-life contexts (saunders et al., 2012; yin, 2009). the case study method was employed in this study to gain a rich understanding of the higher educational context of talent retention. the qualitative approach was employed because of its ability to enable the researchers to collate and analyse the views and experiences of both the management staff and the academic staff of the university as narrated in their own words. this corroborated the exploratory research methodology as the authors explored (in detail) the life experiences of the participants relative to the retention of talents. research participants and sampling method a purposive sampling method was used to recruit a total of 20 staff members comprising five members from the management team of the university (the appointments and promotions board) and 15 academic staff members from the departments in the university. each of the participating management team members had been in their current position for more than 2 years. the purposive sampling technique was used to select these participants as they have managerial experiences and the responsibility of managing plans related to tm and human capital development of the university. the academic staff selected to participate were staff members who had been in the university for more than 5 years and who had knowledge of the university’s talent retention drive. research setting the study was set in the general administration of the technical university of the first author. all respondents were interviewed in their own official offices, at a time suitable for the interviewees. this setting was convenient as it afforded them a relaxed atmosphere they were used to. research instrument a semi-structured interview guide was used to collect data from the research participants. a semi-structured interview guide is a type of interview guide that does not follow a strict or formal list of questions (kvale, 1996). this interview guide provided a well-planned and consistent approach that helped in interviewing the research participants (flick, 2018). individual interviews were used to collect rich qualitative data for the first time as no similar study had been conducted in the institution (keeley et al., 2016). the interview guide comprised six questions, which were constructed based on the research purpose, research questions and insights from the literature review. the six questions were complemented by questions to probe the subjective views of respondents on talent identification processes, talent development practices and retention strategies. during the interviews, participants were encouraged to provide their own experiences and insights as well as opinions while providing examples (rahi, 2017). examples of some of the questions asked are, ‘please share with me your views about academic talents and how does the university retain its academic talents?’ next, based on the responses, the interview was guided using follow-up, direct or indirect questions such as ‘you mention talent retention, could you elaborate on the measures the university is using to retain its talented staff?’ data collection to gather data from the participants, in-depth interviews were conducted. all respondents were officially invited. the interviews were face-to-face and conducted individually. informed consent forms were duly signed by the respondents. consent was sought after explaining the objectives of the study to the participants and assuring them of confidentiality and anonymity. the informed consent included a summary of the study objectives as well as permission to record the discussion. in addition, the confidentiality of respondents’ names was ensured. the interviews were recorded, and notes were taken of important points. each interview lasted for 30–45 min. after the interview, the recorded content was carefully evaluated, and a synopsis of events was formulated before undertaking the procedures for transcription. each audio-recorded interview was then transcribed word for word. next, the respondents were given the transcriptions for their evaluation with regard to the accuracy and interviewer’s interpretations and impressions of the statements and, where needed, the data were revised accordingly. data were collected during the period from february 2020 to march 2022. data analysis the data analytical method employed was the thematic approach. according to braun and clarke (2006), thematic analysis is used for identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) within the data. this form of analysis was used because a ‘rigorous thematic approach’ can produce an insightful analysis that answers the talent retention practices (braun & clarke, 2006, p. 97). after transcripts were evaluated by the respondents, the researchers read each transcript several times to familiarise themselves with the data. the transcripts were generated by the use of ms word. using ms word, manual coding was done using pre-codes from the literature. codes in qualitative inquiry are most often words or short phrases that are developed through the process of labelling and organising qualitative data to identify different themes and the relationships between them. its purpose was to transform the data into a form suitable for analysis and also to make it easier to interpret participants’ feedback. again, assigning codes to words and phrases in each response is about recognising, which helps better in analysing and summarising the results of the entire exploratory study. these generated codes were consolidated into themes through which explanations on how the university retains its talented academic staff were established. to uphold the confidentiality of study participants, we labelled each participant as respondents 1, 2, etc. strategies employed to ensure data quality and rigour to ensure a high level of quality and integrity of the data, the study adopted lincoln and guba’s (1985, 1986) criteria for quality in qualitative research. the five criteria, namely credibility, dependability, confirmability, transferability and authenticity (cope, 2014; osei boakye, dei mensah, bartrop-sackey, & muah, 2021), demonstrate the trustworthiness of qualitative research findings. the study ensured credibility by presenting and reporting exactly the respondents’ statements while illustrating with quotes. transferability was ensured by synthesising the thick descriptions of the various respondents into phrases such that findings could be generalised to other readers with similar experiences (cope, 2014; korstjens & moser, 2018; osei boakye et al., 2021). dependability was established with the audit trail, which involved maintaining and preserving all transcripts, notes, audiotapes, etc. authenticity was ensured by reporting each participant’s experiences in such a way that it maintains respect for the context of the data and presents all perspectives equally so that the reader can arrive at an impartial decision. confirmability was determined by linking the data to their sources. this was carried out by ensuring that interpretations given to the texts were actually in line with the original interview and not the authors’ opinion (korstjens & moser, 2018; osei boakye et al., 2021). as in bracketing, the authors set aside their potential prejudices and biases (creswell, 2009). results and discussion the main objective of this study was to explore how the university retains its talented academic staff and the retention strategies employed. the study found that there are strategies rolled out by the university to retain its valued and talented staff members. respondents believed that a well-engaged staff member is most likely to be committed to the institution. among the retention strategies enumerated are fair handling of staff promotions, settling lawsuits and legal tussles, training and development, performance appraisals, awards and recognition of talented staff, giving of responsibilities and allowances, office environment and office space for staff and better conditions of service for its talented staff. to retain academic talents, the following strategies were revealed by the study. talent development and deployment the study found that developing talents and deploying them effectively were major factors in the attainment of the university’s competitiveness. it was revealed by the respondents that talent development was key to retaining staff. it came to light that the minimum qualification for a lecturer is a phd degree; therefore, many of the staff members have been given full or partial scholarships to further their education in various universities in ghana and abroad. one dean stated that: ‘i think we should grow the talents around phd works because it is a focused specialized area of study. once someone has gone for a phd and is back, he has some specialized knowledge and the university should have some mechanism of putting that specialized knowledge to use in order to remain competitive.’ (r3, male, 43, management team) corroborating this fact, an official of the human resource department remarked that: ‘[s]o, we do mentor our talented staff so that the person will be developed further and also, with the staff development policy for instance, you make people know that, they have the opportunity that we can give them specific scholarship for them to upgrade themselves.’ (r1, male, 40, management team) consequently, some of the academic staff confirmed that some staff members who were recently recruited have been sent for further studies to acquire phds because the university anticipates that the skills and talents will help the faculties when they will come back from studies. by that, these staff members stay longer with the university. as one staff member suggested: ‘… [s]o, we think, by recognizing the talents through use, making use of their talents gives some recognition. and then giving opportunities for further studies, once we have them, i mean the opportunity, we will also help to encourage, kind of motivate the staffs who have this particular skills and abilities.’ (r3, male, 43, management team) this indicates that talents are harnessed through staff development practices, such as full and partial scholarships to staff members to develop themselves accordingly with the intention of getting them to stay longer with the university. this is in line with findings on talent development practices by eghbal et al. (2017) that development programmes are designed and implemented based on the gap between particular skills and developmental requirements of faculty members. similarly, the findings corroborate earlier results obtained by rudhumbu and maphosa (2015) who saw heis’ strong desire to improve the ability of their talented staff through knowledge development. performance appraisal performance appraisal as a practice was recognised by all respondents as being a tool that helps identify the strengths and deficiencies in staff output. this study found that performance appraisal was, however, tied to the promotion process, and therefore, it is carried out once in 4–6 years, and in some cases, they are not carried out at all. this was a strategy used to ensure that talents are identified and given the necessary opportunities in order for them to stay. this view was expressed by almost all participants: ‘… [d]ocuments that you submit for promotion, these are all ways and means of trying to elicit that kind of skill and the ability that you have … so for us, to be able to identify high performing staff, we do appraisals’ ‘… so appraisals help us to identify very high performing staff.’ (r5, male, 54, management team) however, most of the academic staff members criticised the practice of linking appraisals to promotion of staff. they expressed the view that it was important to assess the needs of staff members and to plan development programmes for staff ahead of time instead of waiting to assess staff members’ performance only when they apply for promotion. some of the participants therefore suggested the practice of annual performance appraisals. one respondent remarked: ‘linking performance appraisals to promotions is good but how does one assess staff needs? why wait till promotions are applied for? let’s do annual appraisals.’ (r18, male, 36, academic staff) some respondents from the human resource directorate explained that effort is being made to organise appraisals annually. this view was corroborated by some of the participating deans who said their faculties have begun annual staff appraisals to enable their staff members to benefit from some training opportunities and to identify talents and skills of their staff in a bid to get them to stay longer. for instance, respondent 3 opined that: ‘… [w]e see how far we have come when it comes to research or community service and the abilities and so based on annual performance appraisals, then we will be able to now identify people who are doing well.’ (r3, male, 43, management team) these findings on performance appraisal are in line with earlier studies by koshy and babu (2016) who stated that a well-instituted performance appraisal system could give feedback that leads to training and development programmes and retention. further findings by koshy and babu (2013) indicate that organisational commitment is gained when employees participate in the appraisal process. equity in staff promotions on promotion criteria, it was revealed that faculty members have over the years complained about biases in promotion procedures that had resulted in lawsuits and legal tussles, rendering the university’s work environment unconducive: ‘until we see some fairness in the promotion process, staff will be apathetic to say the least ….’ (r6, male, 42, academic staff) ‘… there are a lot of biases in the promotion process.’ (r11, female, 44, academic staff) other participants retorted that in terms of the fairness of staff promotions, it was important to build trust in the system. one respondent said that it was important for: ‘… [e]nsuring that people are properly placed. you see, if somebody is due for promotion, ensure that the person has what it takes to be promoted and the person goes through the due processes to be promoted.’ (r5, male, 54, management team) therefore, management had put in measures to ensure that promotion criteria as specified in the conditions of service and the university statutes will be followed diligently and without any biases in order to instil trust in the system anew. most of the academic staff members acknowledged this effort by management to rectify the situation, as shown in the following quote: ‘[n]ow we have government policy, scheme of service that also gives directions because with the scheme of service, you are be able to promote somebody to do something or to transfer somebody to do an activity, and this is helping to put some fairness into the system.’ (r2, male, 51, management team) ‘trust is built over time, we are hoping that these new schemes of service will be followed to the letter.’ (r16, male, 43, academic staff) this finding confirms earlier findings by salau, falola and akinbode (2014), which sought to imply that when management disregards the major role played by a promotional system, the achievement of corporate goals suffers. again, the study revealed that when talents are given a fair opportunity for promotion and are promoted when they are due, they become motivated and they continue to make positive results and it leads to retention. improved conditions of service management is aware of the dissatisfaction of university staff concerning conditions of service, which is a major cause of talented staff leaving the university. respondent 5 remarked that: ‘[w]e are now negotiating with the government to have better conditions of service possibly the same as that of the traditional universities and currently the government is working hard at it to ensure that we come at par with the traditional universities.’ (r5, male, 54, management team) some other respondents shared a similar view about having lost great talents in the past because of disparity in the conditions of service of technical universities and the traditional universities: ‘one of my colleagues just left … if he had everything, or even if not the same package as the traditional universities, he would have preferred to stay here. so, he has left.’ (r4, male, 56, management team) ‘improved conditions of service are now helping those with phds to stay.’ (r9, male, 35, academic staff) ‘i had calls from many of my staff, while trying to engage them, you know on their intention to leave, especially those who have gone to do phds and have come with phd that is comparable to phds in the traditional universities. for the reason of lack of improved conditions of service. with these improved conditions, we are better placed.’ (r3, male, 43, management team) ‘the conditions of service under which we worked cost us the loss of great talents.’ (r14, female, 43, academic staff) much as literature holds that compensation alone does not give retention (koshy & babu, 2013), the situation in the university seems to reveal that compensation, empowerment and better conditions of service are key to retaining staff (matongolo et al., 2018; theron et al., 2014). conducive work environment the study revealed that the general work environment and proper employee engagement were a strategy to get staff retained. legal tussles that engulfed the university because of unfair treatment are being handled to ensure a better work environment: ‘[w]e have put in place measures to cut down legal issues as best as possible; as a way of stabilizing the system and once we stabilize the system, people will become happy and would want to continue to stay.’ (r5, male, 54, management team) this finding as revealed by this study in ensuring minimal legal tussles is in line with earlier findings made by chandrachud and athavale (2015), which holds that universities can promote faculty mobility by overcoming legal and administrative obstacles. in line with the university’s intention to make staff happy, it is putting up a block of offices to ensure that office space for staff is made available. most of the respondents acknowledged the effort of management in building more offices for staff, as evident in the following quotes: ‘office accommodation has been provided and one new block is almost completed so staff in my department are comfortable now.’ (r17, female, 36, academic staff) ‘[w]e are doing our best to ensure that most lecturers and administrative staff are provided with conducive office space that is why that engineering block is under construction.’ (r5, male, 54, management team) respondent 4 shared some experience in the past about the lack of a conducive work environment, which was impeding their work and not making it comfortable for staff members: ‘if you take, for instance, the office space and environment, the faculty on its own could not provide. even with office space, we needed furniture, we could not provide, if the department needs the basic things to work with, the logistics, everything is centralized. it’s not decentralized so we push for the things that the staff needs so that the general administration will provide them.’ (r4, male, 56, management team) this finding indicates that the work environment holds the key to talent retention as earlier findings from matongolo et al. (2018) hold that trust, respect, good working conditions and good working relationships encourage talents to stay. in addition, findings from towns (2019) uphold a flexible work environment as a stress reducer for university staff and keeps staff members better engaged. awards and recognition this study revealed that measures have been put in place to recognise talented staff for their outstanding performance. both the management team and the academic staff members acknowledged the need for awarding and recognising the output of talented staff, as stated by one respondent: ‘therefore, awards for best teacher, best researcher among others have been outlined to boost talented staff morale. other awards for innovation and support for the university’s mission will be rolled out as well.’ (r5, male, 54, management team) some respondents also shared their experiences concerning with measures put in place to recognise talented staff: ‘then we honour those, who excel, particularly, the staff who coached students and other researchers.’ (r8, male, 44, academic staff) ‘we are planning to have an open day to award best teacher, best innovator, etc., identify 5 or 6 awards, we are working on a policy for that. we should be prepared to spend to encourage staff to put in their best.’ (r4, male, 56, management team) ‘… [t]hen you can also create an avenue where you showcase the product of that person so that it becomes like awareness creation to the whole community for them to know that this guy has this talent and has been able to come up with this product, so we are trying to promote it.’ (r2, male, 51, management team) other respondents, however, remarked that their departments are yet to see how these measures unfold. although management has set up committees to oversee these measures of recognising staff output: ‘our department is yet to roll out any of such recognition of staff and awards.’ (r13, male, 38, academic staff) this is in line with a policy to recognise staff members for their contribution to scholarly work as well as the teaching and learning pursuits of the university. ‘to encourage and motivate staff, there is a move to engage staff who excel to be given extra responsibilities as heads of department, directors of directorates’, etc. these, participant 5 revealed, would go a long way to motivate staff members to work harder and earn some allowances as well. these findings reveal that the university believes in recognising the contribution of its talented staff and in line with earlier findings from theron et al. (2014), employees need some form of rewards as an acknowledgement of their dedication and contributions. it is also in recognition of talented staff dedication that matongolo et al. (2018) revealed that instituting a form of strategic rewards helps change the attitude of talents towards their work and their intention to stay longer with the university. limitations and recommendations although the findings of this study are insightful, there are some limitations worthy of note. there is limited literature on tm practices in the ghanaian context as well as in heis. this presented a limitation to the discussion of findings in the context of local literature. secondly, the use of one hei (technical university) is a limitation as a broader-based study involving a larger sample from other universities could hone in to validate exploratory insights as presented in this article. based on the findings and conclusions that have recognised the importance of both teaching and research activities to technical education, the study recommends that the university needs to identify pivotally high value-added roles in these activities. collings and mellahi (2009) have developed a framework that views tm as the architecture required to develop and sustain organisational success. the implementation of tm should therefore be given serious attention and measures should be put in place to ensure that tm is aligned with the university’s strategy, and is aligned with the standards that govern the identification, development and reward of talented individuals in order to ensure that the skills and experiences and motivation of the staff members are fully tapped (berger & berger, 2003; bradley, 2016; cheese, thomas, & craig, 2008; rodríguez-sánchez et al., 2020; theron et al., 2014). as research is of paramount importance in heis, as one way of identifying talents and staff needs, a tm retention strategy that would secure sponsorship from the government and other research institutions should be seriously pursued. in addition, it is recommended that a human resource strategy for researchers initiative as implemented by chandrachud and athavale (2015) should be introduced. this will ensure that a specific strategy for attracting, developing and retaining academic talents and researchers is adopted, and a strong research culture is fostered. again, it is recommended that annual performance appraisals should be fully implemented in all faculties to enable the needs assessment of staff members to be effectively conducted. it is also recommended that all incentives and broad motivational packages are fully outdoored for the university community to understand and embrace. if they are still on the drawing board, it is recommended that they are officially rolled out to encourage faculty to appreciate them. conclusion in line with the resource-based view, whose tenets stress on how firms accumulate and utilise resources they possess to attain and sustain competitive advantage and ultimately superior performance, the current study underscores the university’s firm acknowledgement of academic talents as a great internal resource and how they are being managed effectively to ensure their retention. the study explored how the university identifies its talented academic staff while determining the strategies employed in retaining them. based on the findings from the study, it can be concluded that strategies used in retaining talents of the university include fair handling of staff promotions, settling lawsuits and legal tussles, training and development measures, performance appraisals, awards and recognition of talented staff, giving of responsibilities and allowances, provision of a conducive office environment and office space for staff and better conditions of service for its talented staff members. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the management and academic staff of cape coast technical university for their support in the conduct of this research. competing interests the authors have declared that there exist no competing interests. authors’ contributions the original manuscript was formulated by m.b.-s., and it was further refined to a publishable standard with the help of a.o.b. and p.m. under the close supervision and scrutiny of n.y.o. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for a research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this study did not receive a research grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or non-profit sector. data availability the data used for this study have been stored and can be made available upon reasonable request to the author. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references acheampong, m., asare bediako, i., & acheampong, e. (2019). talent management and organisational performance in higher educational institutions. adri journal of arts and social sciences, 16(11), 58–87. acquah, p.c., frimpong, e.b., & borkloe, j.k. (2017). the competency based training (cbt) concept of teaching and learning in the technical universities in ghana: challenges and the way forward. asia pacific journal of contemporary education and communication technology, 3(2), 172–182. https://doi.org/10.25275/apjcectv3i2edu14 afeti, g., afun, j.v.k., aflakpui, g.k.s., sunnu, a.k., combey, j.a.c., nkwantabisa, d., … ankoma-asare, e.t. (2014). report of the technical committee on conversion of the polytechnics in ghana to technical universities (pp. 1–19). retrieved from http://ncte.edu.gh/images/pdf/trs2014final.pdf akpey-mensah, m.t.l. (2018). integration of talent management into human resource practices in public universities in ghana : an exploratory study. international journal of law, humanities & social science, 2(4), 13–24. al aina, r., & atan, t. (2020). the impact of implementing talent management practices on sustainable organizational performance. sustainability, mdpi, 12(20), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12208372 al-abbasi, s., & masri, h. (2020). optimizing faculty talents through identifying entrepreneurial champions: an electre iv approach. management decision, 58, 2527–2541. https://doi.org/10.1108/md-09-2019-1305 al-dalahmeh, m. (2020). talent management: a+ systematic review. oradea journal of business and economics, volume v, special issue, v(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1155/2010/706872 anlesinya, a., & amponsah-tawiah, k. (2020). towards a responsible talent management model. european journal of training and development, 44(2–3), 279–303. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejtd-07-2019-0114 anlesinya, a., amponsah-tawiah, k., & dartey-baah, k. (2019). talent management research in africa: towards multilevel model and research agenda. african journal of economic and management studies, 10(4), 440–457. https://doi.org/10.1108/ajems-12-2018-0371 appau, b.k., marfo-yiadom, e., & kusi, l.y. (2021). performance implication of talent management and innovative work behaviour in colleges of education in ghana. international journal of economics and business administration, 7(1), 1–10. retrieved from http://files.aiscience.org/journal/article/pdf/70220117.pdf atwah, m., aitah feras, a., al-shalabi, s., & aljamal, w.h. (2013). talent management and competitive advantage: the moderating effect of knowledge integration. international journal of computer applications, 66(11), 19–27. barney, j. (1991). firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. journal of management, 17(1), 99–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700108 berger, l., & berger, d. (2003). the talent management handbook: creating organizational excellence by identifying, developing and promoting best people. new york, mcgraw-hill usa. bethke-langenegger, p., mahler, p., & staffelbach, b. (2011). effectiveness of talent management strategies. european journal of international management, 5(5), 524–539. https://doi.org/10.1504/ejim.2011.042177 bolander, p., werr, a., & asplund, k. (2017). the practice of talent management: a framework and typology. personnel review, 46(8), 1523–1551. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-02-2016-0037 bourne, p.e. (2017). ten simple rules in considering a career in academia versus government. plos computational biology, 13(10), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005729 bradley, a. (2016). talent management for universities. australian universities’ review, 58(1), 13–19. braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa cappelli, p., & keller, j.r. (2014). talent management: conceptual approaches and practical challenges. annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behavior, 1(march 2014), 305–331. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091314 chandrachud, m.m., & athavale, s. (2015). talent management practices in higher educational institutions: german and usa perspective. iosr journal of business and management, 17(12), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.9790/487x-171220106 cheese, p., thomas, r.j., & craig, e. (2008). the talent powered organization: strategies for globalization talent management and high performance. london: kogan page. collings, d.g., & mellahi, k. (2009). strategic talent management: a review and research agenda. human resource management review, 19(4), 304–313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2009.04.001 cope, d.g. (2014). methods and meanings: credibility and trustworthiness of qualitative research. oncology nursing forum, 14(1), 89–91. https://doi.org/10.7748/nr2009.07.16.4.40.c7160 coy, p., & ewing, e. (2007). ‘where are all the workers?’, business week, 9, april, pp. 28–31. retrieved from www.businessweek.com/stories/2007-04-08/where-are-all-the-workers creswell, j.w. (2009). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (3rd ed.). los angeles, ca: sage. creswell, j.w., hanson, w.e., clark plano, v.l., & morales, a. (2007). qualitative research designs: selection and implementation. the counseling psychologist, 35(2), 236–264. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000006287390 dang, n.t.t., nguyen, q.t., habaradas, r., ha, v.d., & nguyen, v.t. (2020). talent conceptualization and talent management approaches in the vietnamese banking sector. journal of asian finance, economics and business, 7(7), 453–462. https://doi.org/10.13106/jafeb.2020.vol7.no7.453 dries, n. (2013). talent management, from phenomenon to theory: introduction to the special issue. human resource management review, 23(4), 267–271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2013.08.006 eghbal, f., hoveida, r., siadat, s.a., samavatyan, h., & yarmohammadian, m.h. (2017). identifying the talent management components of faculty members. strides in development of medical education, 14(2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.5812/sdme.66895 erasmus, b.j., grobler, a., & van niekerk, m. (2015). employee retention in a higher education institution: an organisational development perspective. progressio: south african journal for open and distance learning practice, 37(2), 33–63. https://doi.org/10.25159/0256-8853/600 erasmus, b.j., naidoo, l., & joubert, p. (2017). talent management implementation at an open distance e-learning higher educational institution: the views of senior line managers. international review of research in open and distance learning, 18(3), 83–98. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v18i3.2957 flick, u. (2018). an introduction to qualitative research (6th ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. gallardo-gallardo, e., nijs, s., dries, n., & gallo, p. (2015). towards an understanding of talent management as a phenomenon-driven field using bibliometric and content analysis. human resource management review, 25(3), 264–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.04.003 gallardo-gallardo, e., thunnissen, m., & scullion, h. (2019). talent management: context matters. international journal of human resource management, 31(4), 457–473. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2019.1642645 garg, b. (2014). talent management in banks. research journal of human resource, 2(3), 1–7. heinen, j.s., & o’neill, c. (2004). managing talent to maximize performance. employment relations today, 31(2), 67–82. https://doi.org/10.1002/ert.20018 hejase, h.j., hejase, a.j., mikdashi, g., & baseih, z.f. (2016). talent management challenges: an exploratory assessment from lebanon. international journal of business management and economic research, 7(1), 504–520. iles, p., chuai, x., & preece, d. (2010). talent management and hrm in multinational companies in beijing: definitions, differences and drivers. journal of world business, 45(2), 179–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2009.09.014 jooss, s., burbach, r., & ruël, h. (2019). examining talent pools as a core talent management practice in multinational corporations. international journal of human resource management, 32(11), 2321–2352. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2019.1579748 keeley, t., williamson, p., callery, p., jones, l.l., mathers, j., jones, j., … calvert, m. (2016). the use of qualitative methods to inform delphi surveys in core outcome set development. trials, 17(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-016-1356-7 keller, s., & meaney, m. (2017). attracting and retaining the right talent. mckinsey & company, november, 1–14. retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/attracting-and-retaining-the-right-talent knott, e. (2016). the effect of talent management practices on employee performance among real estate companies in kenya: a case of suraya property group limited. united states international university-africa, nairobi. korstjens, i., & moser, a. (2018). series: practical guidance to qualitative research. part 4: trustworthiness and publishing. european journal of general practice, 24(1), 120–124. https://doi.org/10.1080/13814788.2017.1375092 koshy, l., babu, a., & babu, g. (2013). retention strategy for talented faculty : a study on private management institutions in bangalore. caarmel journal of management research, 1(1), 99–105. kusi, l.y., opoku-danso, a., & afum, e. (2020). improving performance of public universities in ghana through talent management: does leadership support matter? global journal of management and business research, 20(10), 41–68. https://doi.org/10.34257/gjmbravol20is10pg41 kvale, s. (1996). interviews: an introduction to qualitative research interviewing. thousand oaks, ca: sage. lina, m.a. (2018). impact of globalization on human resource management. global disclosure of economics and business, 7(2), 51–62. https://doi.org/10.18034/gdeb.v7i2.109 lincoln, y., & guba, e. (1985). naturalistic inquiry. beverly hills, ca: sage. lincoln, y., & guba, e. (1986). but is it rigorous? trustworthiness and authenticity in naturalistic evaluation. new directions for program evaluation, 20, 15–25. https://doi.org/10.1002/ev.1427 matongolo, a., kasekende, f., & mafabi, s. (2018). employer branding and talent retention: perceptions of employees in higher education institutions in uganda. industrial and commercial training, 50(5), 217–233. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict-03-2018-0031 meyers, m.c., van woerkom, m., paauwe, j., & dries, n. (2020). hr managers’ talent philosophies: prevalence and relationships with perceived talent management practices. international journal of human resource management, 31(4), 562–588. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2019.1579747 miiro, f., othman, a., sahari, m., & burhan, m. (2016). a measurement model of talent management practices among university staff in central. journal of positive management, 7(3), 3–19. https://doi.org/10.12775/jpm.2016.013 mohammed, a.a., hafeez-baig, a., & gururajan, r. (2019). a qualitative research to explore practices that are utilised for managing talent development in the higher education environment. journal of industry-university collaboration, 1(1), 24–37. https://doi.org/10.1108/jiuc-02-2019-003 mohammed, a.a., hafeez-baig, a., & gururajan, r. (2020). talent management as a core source of innovation and social development in higher education. in innovations in higher education – cases on transforming and advancing practice (pp. 1–15). intech open. retrieved from https://www.intechopen.com/books/advanced-biometric-technologies/liveness-detection-in-biometrics morton, l., & ashton, c. (2005). managing people for competitive advantage. strategic hr review, 4(5), 28–31. https://doi.org/10.1108/14754390580000819 ngozwana, k., & rugimbana, r. (2011). assessment of talent retention strategies: the case of a large south african company (csa). african journal of business management, 5(5), 1524–1527. https://doi.org/10.5897/ajbm10.716 osei boakye, a., dei mensah, r., bartrop-sackey, m., & muah, p. (2021). juggling between work, studies and motherhood: the role of social support systems for the attainment of work–life balance. sa journal of human resource management, 19, 10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1546 panday, p., & kaur, g. (2019). a theoretical framework of factors contributing towards the talent management practices and employee retention in contemporary organization. international journal of advanced science and technology, 28(20), 193–201. rahi, s. (2017). research design and methods: a systematic review of research paradigms, sampling issues and instruments development. international journal of economics & management sciences, 6(2), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.4172/2162-6359.1000403 riccio, s.j. (2010). talent management in higher education: identifying and developing emerging leaders within the administration at private colleges and universities (proquest dissertations and theses), p. 226. retrieved from http://pitt.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/717600537?accountid=14709%5cnhttp://rt4rf9qn2y.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:utf-8&rfr_id=info:sid/proquest+dissertations+&+theses+full+text&rft_ rodríguez-sánchez, j. l., gonzález-torres, t., montero-navarro, a., & gallego-losada, r. (2020). investing time and resources for work–life balance: the effect on talent retention. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(6), 1920. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17061920 rudhumbu, n., & maphosa, c. (2015). implementation of talent management strategies in higher education: evidence from botswana. journal of human ecology, 49(1–2), 21–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/09709274.2015.11906820 salau, o.p., falola, h.o., & akinbode, j.o. (2014). induction and staff attitude towards retention and organizational effectiveness. iosr journal of business and management, 16(4), 47–52. https://doi.org/10.9790/487x-16464752 saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2012). research for business students. harlow, england, new york: pearson. sharma, j.k. (2019). impact of globalization on human resource management. international journal of scientific development and research, 4(2), 82–87. sharma, r.k. (2017). talent management of academic staff: professional development of teachers in higher educational institutes in uttar pradesh. international journal of academic research and development, 2(5), 327–331. stahl, g., björkman, i., farndale, e., morris, s.s., paauwe, j., stiles, p., … wright, p. (2012). six principles of talent management. sloan management review, 53(2), 25–42. strebler, m., neathey, f., & tackey, n. d. (2005). recruitment and retention of teachers with industrial or professional experience (vol. 33). london, blackmore limited. www.lsda.org.uk tansley, c. (2011). what do we mean by the term ‘talent’ in talent management? industrial and commercial training, 43(5), 266–274. https://doi.org/10.1108/001978511111458 theron, m., barkhuizen, n., & du plessis, y. (2014). managing the academic talent void: investigating factors in academic turnover and retention in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1117 thorne, k., & pellant, a. (2007). the essential guide to managing talent: how top companies recruit, train and retain the best employees. great britain: kogan page limited. thunnissen, m. (2015). talent management in academia an exploratory study in dutch universities using a multi-dimensional approach. retrieved from http://t.co/3xp5bwllq2 thunnissen, m., boselie, p., & fruytier, b. (2013). talent management and the relevance of context: towards a pluralistic approach. human resource management review, 23(4), 326–336. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2013.05.004 towns, a.b. (2019). effective strategies to increase employee retention in higher education institutions (proquest dissertations and theses, d.b.a.). retrieved from https://lopes.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/docview/2236470630?accountid=7374%0ahttps://lopes.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/docview/2236470630?accountid=7374 tyagi, s., singh, g., & aggarwal, t. (2017). talent management in education sector. international journal on cybernetics & informatics (ijci), 6(1), 47–52. https://doi.org/10.5121/ijci.2017.6206 utulu, c.c., (2000). cost management in a nigerian first-generation university. higher education in europe, xxv(1), 81–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/03797720050002233 venkateswaran, n. (2012). srategies for adopting talent management issues in software companies. international journal of management, economics and social sciences (ijmess), 1(2), 33–41. yeswa, l.s., & ombui, k. (2019). influence of talent management strategies on employee retention in hotel industry in kenya. international academic journal of human resource and business administration (iajhrba), 3(7), 83–103. yin, r.k. (2009). case study research design and methods, 4th edition, applied social research methods series. vol. 5, sage publications, newbury park (ca). abstract introduction method findings discussion translating shared african human values into leadership and business practice practical implications limitations and recommendations for future research acknowledgements references about the author(s) vusumuzi m. vilakati department of industrial psychology and people management, faculty of management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa willem j. schurink department of industrial psychology and people management, faculty of management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation vilakati, v.m., & schurink, w.j. (2021). an explorative-descriptive qualitative-constructivist study of three african leaders’ experiences and perceptions regarding the translation of shared african human values into leadership and business practice. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1433. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1433 original research an explorative-descriptive qualitative-constructivist study of three african leaders’ experiences and perceptions regarding the translation of shared african human values into leadership and business practice vusumuzi m. vilakati, willem j. schurink received: 30 june 2020; accepted: 11 feb. 2021; published: 29 apr. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the study explores three african leaders’ experiences, contextual influences and perspectives on how shared african human values can be incorporated into business leadership practice. research purpose: the study has twofold purposes: (1) to unravel and describe the experiences and perceptions of three business leaders in africa, (2) to integrate the leaders’ first-order conceptualisations with scholarly insights to construct a substantive framework for developing business leadership in africa. motivation for the study: to explore contextual circumstances, which may enhance the formation of african shared human values in leaders and how these values may be translated into business leadership practice. research approach/design and method: this is an explorative-descriptive qualitative-constructivist study of three african leaders’ experiences and perceptions regarding the translation of shared african human values into leadership and business practice in the continent. main findings: the findings reveal that each of the three participants substantially embrace african shared human values in their daily actions and decision-making. multiple themes covering the person, contextual and societal factors that influence the formation and use of these values are highlighted. practical/managerial implications: business leaders, strategists and managers should explore strategies for employing shared african human values as a way of strengthening a values-driven business culture, employee performance, and stakeholder management. contributions/value-add: the findings suggest that incorporating shared african human values promises a more humane organisational culture and thereby improving businesses’ financial and social performance in the african setting. keywords: african humanism; african shared values; business practice; case study; grounded theory; leadership practice; life-history; qualitative-constructivist approach. introduction in his book, i write what i like, biko (1987) writes: [w]e believe that in the long run, the special contribution to the world by africa will be in the field of human relationships. the great powers of the world may have done wonders in giving the world an industrial and military look, but the great gift still has to come from africa – giving the world a more human face. (p. 98) the concept of humanity in biko’s metaphorical use of ‘human face’ is based on values embedded in african cultural philosophies, often described as african humanism (mngxitama, alexander, & gibson, 2008). the current discourse surrounding the humanisation of african political, economic and social life crosscuts a variety of social science fields including african leadership and management (iwowo, 2015; msila, 2017). on africa day 2018, ashom (2018) wrote a short article in the independent online business report, where she calls for the humanising of business and its leadership in africa. ashom (2018, para. 1) defines humanising as the ability to ‘portray or endow with human characteristics or attributes; to make human’. also, a number of african leadership and management scholars (abegunrin & abidde, 2016; gumede, 2017; msila, 2017) have emphasised the need to rethink incorporating human values into african leadership practice. as gumede (2017) rightly points out, often african leadership practices do not sufficiently honour african human values. but why should african leadership actively try to incorporate human values into business leadership practice? in addition to the benefit of addressing ‘what is humanly correct to do’, such a task promises a more holistic and sustainable balance of relationships amongst businesses’ internal and external stakeholders. it is also believed that in the context of the current economic situation, there is a need for a significant shift in business leadership practice to enable organisations to survive and thrive (schwab & davis, 2018). to better understand how to invoke the beneficial aspects of africa’s values into business leadership, one should first explore the nature of african business leadership, and the human values which its leaders interact with on a daily basis. african leadership what does ‘african leadership’ mean? are certain leadership values, practices and contexts shared continent-wide? is there a mostly singular approach to being an african leader? or, do leadership values, practices and contexts vary extensively across settings? the vastness of the african continent’s historical, political, economic and cultural roots (jackson, 2004) would seemingly lead to significant differences in leadership approaches. africa’s story encompasses endless events occurring across millennia and entails highly divergent political interactions and economic development occurring across a vast array of national, tribal, ethnic and religious boundaries (kamoche, chizema, mellahi, & newenham-kahindi, 2012). besides, many commonalities exist across african leadership contexts and practice (fourie, van der merwe, & van der merwe, 2017). within african leadership and management research, there has been a persistent call to identify a continent-wide distinctive approach to leadership (nkomo, 2006). some scholars have begun the task of unifying and synthesising descriptions of leadership development and leadership practice across the continent (amah, 2019; fourie et al., 2017; nkomo, 2006, 2015; veldsman & johnson, 2016). leaders and researchers searching for shared aims often use words and phrases such as ‘african’, afro-centric, pan-african, ‘african renaissance’, ‘african consciousness and leadership in, within, for or by africans’ to describe in part similarities they observe (fourie et al., 2017; iwowo, 2015). many of these expressions share a common pan-african search for a deepened awareness of systemic leadership challenges facing africa (abegunrin & abidde, 2016). some have criticised the use of the term ‘african leadership’ as too monolithic (jackson, 2004; nkomo, 2006). in order to not essentialise the concept, some scholars (jackson, 2004; pillay, subban, & govender, 2013) have opted to use ‘leadership in africa’. cooper and morrell (2014) pointed at the diverse epistemologies and ontological underpinnings of african research hampering the discovery of a monolithic view of what it means to be an african. in the context of the preceding discussion, we regard ‘african leadership’ as intentionally africa-centred and focused (amah, 2019; pillay et al., 2013). this points at a dynamic quest for understanding the complexity of interconnected historical trends, current trajectories and future needs in the african context (jackson, 2004, 2018). ‘african leadership’ involves leaders ‘who truly and sincerely believe that the destiny of africa and its people lies in the ability of africans to find solutions to africa’s problems’ (pillay et al., 2013, p. 105). contextually driven african leaders focus on the continent’s leadership and developmental challenges (jackson, 2015; ndlovu, 2015). their leadership practice is grounded in shared indigenous cosmologies and knowledge systems on which african humanism is founded (bell, 2002). as amah (2019) points out, african leaders seek to translate these shared contextual values and practices into transformative, locally responsive and globally competent leadership responses. shared african human values linking africa’s human values with the future of business leadership in the continent requires an understanding of african humanism. often referred to as ‘the cradle of humankind’, africa has a rich history of community life and leadership wisdom that predates the colonial era (maslin, 2017). historians argue that a substantial amount of africa’s leadership wisdom dates back to early empires such as west sudan (500 bce), ghana (790 ce) and mali (1230 ce) (gutto, 2013). to this day, this wisdom exhibits itself in a very simple form: most indigenous africans have inherited ‘praise names’ in addition to their surnames (mbiti, 2015). these praise names often trace the individual’s clan history and honour, that is, the person’s connectedness to family, belonging to community and the environment and their strengths and anticipated contributions to society (rukuni, 2007). african humanism distinguishes itself from classic western humanism in several ways. according to bell (2002): [t]he western, classical notion of humanism stresses a particular concept of education and civilization; it is premised on ancient greek ideals such as balance of the arts and sciences, cultivation of individual virtues, and the exercise of rational self-control. (p. 39) at its heart is the valuing of cultivated skills, individual freedom and civil rights. a western humanist is typically a champion of secular, ecclesiastical and/or moral freedoms, whose success is measured by material and intellectual achievements. african humanism, on the other hand, holds the promise of creating a world around human dignity, excluding the contradictions of western humanism (wilder, 2005). it is based on collective moral values that are considered worthwhile for human well-being and building a cohesive society (mbiti, 2015). also, it entails a practice upholding the dignity of the human face of life over time in harmony with both living, non-living and cosmic supernatural realties (viriri & mungwini, 2010). bell (2002, p. 39) believes that african humanism entails a way of thinking and living which emphasises the constructive agency of human beings. finally, african humanism is based on embracing a person’s position within the broader social, cultural, economic and cosmic order of things (bell, 2002). african humanism as a research discipline emerged in the middle of the 20th century through the works of the senegal intellectuals, cheikh diop and léopold sédar senghor (jacques, 2011). over the last half century, african humanism with strong liberation themes found its expression in philosophy, literature, theology, political theory and political economy (coetzee & roux, 2004). notable present-day african humanism thinkers include kwame nkrumah, wole sonyika, franz fanon, steve biko, chinua achebe, desmond tutu and ngũgĩ wa thiong’o (encyclopedia.com, 2019). a dissected description of african humanism’s key values includes the following: communal interdependence and belonging, harmony and cooperation, human solidarity, respect and custodianship of life and cultivating a caring community (pillay et al., 2013). attitudes associated with these values incorporate humility, thoughtfulness, connectedness, consideration and focus on traditional wisdom, social sensitivity, reciprocity and tolerance and regard for humane virtues (irele & jeyifo, 2010). it is important to take cognisance of the fact that english language is generally inadequate to fully describe african humanism (msila, 2017). values and attitudes central to african humanism are embodied in several slightly varied philosophical concepts from across africa. they include ubuntu, botho, bantu, uhnu, avandu and bunye (southern africa); ujaama, watu and umoja (eastern africa); ngumtu, kubuntu and edubuntu (central africa); and amani, ogbara, ise and ika (west africa) (rukuni, 2007). these form the unifying philosophical, anthropological and sociocultural premise for an african to identify facilitation and relational ways of thinking and being (abegunrin & abidde, 2016). widely discussed are ubuntu (zulu), botho (sotho) or unhu (shona), which are derived from the southern african ‘maxim umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu (motho ke motho ka batho)’ (loosely translated as ‘i am a person through other people’ (coetzee & roux, 2004, p. 272). ubuntu-botho-uhnu provides an integrative framework for understanding african personhood, connectedness and flourishing in a community. according to tutu (1999, pp. 34–35), ubuntu-botho-uhnu means ‘i am human because i belong, i participate, i share’. drawing on wilber’s integral conception of reality, forster (2010, p. 10) observes that ubuntu philosophy integrates the objective, subjective and intersubjective aspects of identity facilitation. human beings discover their individual, mutual and shared dignity and identity through a dynamic engagement with others, their environment and the supernatural realm of life. ubuntu-botho-uhnu comprises an extended perspective of the african communal conception of life; from an african cosmology perspective, life is regarded as an ongoing connectedness with ‘the living, the living dead’ (ancestors) and the future generations (irele & jeyifo, 2010, p. 312). emphasis is placed on the continuity of the past, present and future as one single point in the present (matupire, 2016). whilst participating in generating and distributing material and non-material resources, people are custodians of the past, present and future (matupire, 2016). african consciousness involves the ethical principles of putting the common interests and advancement of community above all things. as lutz (2009) emphasises, it involves, firstly, encouraging affinity and equality in all social relations, and, secondly, developing the individual. in its purest form, african humanism should be viewed as a dynamic way of dialogue for facilitating community building and social cohesion (ntibagirirwa, 2009). as important leadership engagement and consensus building practice, african humanism should never be allowed to regress to a static or archaic management burden (lutz, 2009). in contrast, holistic transformation responsive to continual developmental challenges should be strived for. at the foundation of african human consciousness lies the primacy of strong and effective individuals, who co-creatively, in turn, form families, communities and organisations. families, communities and organisations can only be as strong as their participating individuals; likewise the individuals’ strength is enhanced by the force of their families, communities and organisations (rukuni, 2009). it is important to note that the current focus on maintaining the status quo of national and larger business institutions leaves a substratum of weak individuals, families and communities (rukuni, 2007, 2009). towards creating african business leadership practice enhanced by shared african human values according to khoza (2007): african leadership is dominated by values … internalised forces of predisposition which predispose people to behave and act in a certain way. values are deeper than feelings, deeper than opinions and attitudes, albeit in the same vein. (p. 24) in the african setting, these values create a particular world view, an afrocentric way of existence and consciousness. this consciousness, khoza (2007, p. 24) continues, is about anchoring people ‘in their own continent; its history, traditions, cultures, mythology, creative motif, ethos and value systems exemplifying the african collective will’. the west has typically been the reference point for humanity, modernisation and leadership development (ahluwalia, 2012). in order to relate its people with their resources and the wider world in a way that enhances the natural creativity of individuals, communities and their leaders (gumede, 2017; iwowo, 2015), africa must recognise and implement its own world view. over the last few decades, african countries have experienced substantial expansion and growth in their economies and business turnover (walsh, 2015). this has created both opportunities and challenges for business leadership. given the continent’s growth and change trajectories, the future world of african business is most certainly going to look different. veldsman and johnson (2016) characterise this emerging business context as a world of increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. in this environment, well-targeted business leadership responses are critical to help move africa’s social and economic advancement beyond the continent’s historical legacies and current realities (iwowo, 2015). those who lead business in africa are challenged to maintain responsible and high-performing organisations that will create wealth and contribute to the prospering of its societies (vilakati, schurink, & van wyk, 2018). the success of africa’s advancement is likely to be enhanced by (1) its ability to discover contextually attuned, effective and innovative leadership (adesida, karuri-sebina, & resende-santos, 2016), which is enhanced by (2) its ability to reclaim african leadership wisdom and shared human values (gumede, 2017; msila, 2017). according to gumede (2017), effective implementation of the continent’s wisdom and values in business leadership requires (1) thought leadership – the capacity to intellectually appropriate and prioritise africa in the current global space; (2) thought liberation – the cultivation of independent thinking devoid of colonial baggage and (3) critical consciousness – deep levels of awareness that are not easily swayed by dominant thinking. the present study currently lacking in african business and management thought is a perspective of how the strong belief in the common good inherent in shared african human values is translated and may be better translated into business practices that benefit african society. the study begins to address this challenge in several ways: (1) it unravels and describes the experiences and perceptions of three african business leaders; (2) it generates insights surrounding the context supporting the use of shared values in african business; (3) it generates insights on which shared african human values may guide business leaders’ workplace actions and (4) it generates insights on which personal circumstances shape managers to implement these values. method utilising a qualitative-constructivist approach (schwandt, 2014), life history (plummer, 2001) and grounded theory (charmaz, 2016) are employed as data gathering and analysis strategies. as denzin and lincoln (2017) point out, qualitative research approaches are used to (1) unravel social phenomena within their natural context, (2) capture dynamic social and processual components of research including the researcher–participant relationship and (3) generate data with rich descriptions to interpret social phenomena in context. using these positions and approaches, we generated and describe the subjective experiences and perspectives of three senior business executives from three african countries. underpinned by a subjective ontology and epistemology, the constructivist research paradigm asserts the existence of multiple truths and realities, and interpretations of social phenomena (charmaz, 2016). these realities and ways of seeing and understanding the social world are embedded within a particular social and cultural context, and within a specific time frame (denzin & lincoln, 2017). in line with the preceding paradigm, we employed a hybrid strategy that combines a multiple case study, life history (goodson, 2016; plummer, 2001) and grounded theory (charmaz, 2006) in unravelling and describing rich experiences and perceptions of the three business leaders’ personal, social, cultural, economic and political contexts. we used grounded theory which allows for an iterative reflection in context and which give voice to individual experiences and perspectives (goodson, 2016) in order to analyse and interpret the leaders’ worlds. research setting we decided on african business leadership as research setting. by africa, we refer to the geographical boundaries of the continent. we looked for senior executive business leaders with wide-ranging experience across a variety of business sectors in africa and beyond. we did not focus on any particular area of business specialisation, but instead searched for leaders who had crossed organisational and disciplinary boundaries. we sought leaders who had multi-national exposure. in a nutshell, we sought leaders with a good understanding of (1) africa’s complex historical and political realities, (2) its past, current and future economic trajectories, (3) its social/cultural context and (4) the beneficial values found in african humanism and their relevance to business leadership practice. entree and establishing researcher roles we invited the three research participants to participate in the study in their individual capacity and not as representatives of any particular organisation. thus, no permission was required from their organisations. in building trust with the participants and ensuring respectful and ethical research, the first author employed various researcher roles. sampling we selected research participants through reseacher’s contacts and by employing purposive sampling (yin, 2013). as plummer (2001) suggests, storytellers need to be individuals who are information-rich, accessible and prepared to participate in research, and who could provide in-depth information on the research subject. not looking for a marginal person who represented a specialised or extreme case, or a great person or public figure, we sought ordinary leaders who were knowledgeable about african business leadership. each participant selected has more than 20 years of business leadership experience. their experience spans across several african and international organisations and a variety of sectors, including consulting in strategic human resource (hr) management, remuneration, organisational development, business science and development, banking and risk management, international finance and investments, and strategic development and marketing. the business leaders’ profiles can be summarised as follows: leader 1 is african black male of ghanaian origin in his mid-40s. he is a male senior executive in the financial sector. he studied at international schools and universities and has lived and worked in the united kingdom (uk), nigeria, south africa and the ivory coast. his work experience covers key strategic and pioneering roles in at least three pan-african banking conglomerates, one with operations in 36 african countries. currently residing in johannesburg, he was instrumental in setting up a branch of the african bank in prominent business districts in south africa. he displays strong business management skills and excellent networking abilities. being passionate about african leadership and emerging markets, he is always looking for ways of improving economic value through collaboration and networking. leader 2 is a black zimbabwe-born female senior marketing and strategy executive. in her 40s, she completed postgraduate phd academic studies in marketing. her professional experience includes intercontinental leadership, teaching, consulting and strategic management. being passionate about africa’s people, business and development, she has played key consultancy roles in international investment and africa’s economic development. growing up with her parents in international service, she studied, lived and worked in ethiopia, europe, uk and south africa. she is a key player in africa’s economic and policy development, and currently heads one of africa’s leadership development agencies. formerly, she was employed as a senior strategist for a leading development finance institution in africa. leader 3 is a white south african male in his early 50s and a business executive and entrepreneur who is currently the chief executive officer (ceo) for a human capital and organisation development consulting company that consults in more than eight african countries. starting of as an educator, he became a banker and worked as an hr consultant for two international banks, responsible for south africa, east africa, west africa and the middle east. having consulted in more than 20 different countries on issues dealing with aspects of human capital and change management, his experience includes senior roles in freight, fleet and financial services industries. leader 3 is a leading human relations strategist who has developed an array of hr-enabling products. data collection methods the process of preparation, gathering and documenting the life stories took place over a period of 1 year. the data gathering process consisted of eight face-to-face in-depth unstructured and semi-structured interviews, each lasting for 50 min – 70 min. employing plummer’s (2001) life course events, the researcher first asked about the participants’ earliest recollections in order to guide them in sharing their personal backgrounds, life chapters, key scenes, values and vocational experiences. as plummer (2001) points out, linking life course events with a historical time as well as with context enriches the process of generating the life history. following plummer (2001), the first author interview process followed the leaders’ biographical timeline, beginning with general background and family details, moving to education, career choices and professional experiences and ultimately focusing on their experiences and insights on shared african values in leadership and business leadership’s role in advancing the continent. following plummer (2001), the first author considered (1) substantive questions, that is, concrete, empirical questions focusing on what one wants to know; (2) social science questions, the type of knowledge one strives for; (3) technical questions concerning processual details involved in executing the research, the ‘how’ of social research; (4) ethical and political questions, the so-called extra-technical and extra-scientific research issues relating to justifying the study, its ethical implications and ensuring that no one is marginalised during the research; and (5) personal questions, or questions related to the dual impact of the research on the researcher’s life and the research participants. also, reflecting his constructivist stance, the first author aligned the phrasing of the interview questions. he put the participants’ stories in the foreground whilst keeping his personal interest as far as possible in the background. therefore, whenever he posed questions, he remained flexible, giving the storytellers the opportunity to steer the conversation, whilst at the same time maintaining the research focus. we believe that this modus operandi facilitated a co-constructivist relational space between the storytellers and the researcher. creating a life history typically involves triangulating data from interviews, participant observation, document review, artefacts and researcher field notes and memos (de chesnay, 2014). therefore, interviews were supplemented with online conversations, document analysis, as well as participant observation, that is, vilakati and the three business leaders interacted in the latter’s setting (taylor & bogdan, 1984). also, he observed the business leaders’ office structure and the symbols they kept. the various images they had on their walls, along with observations of their office environment, provided him with valuable insights into personal values and the way each functioned within his or her particular business facility. in short, we believe that participant observation gave vilakati the opportunity to observe the experience and behaviour of the research participants in their respective situations and settings, first hand (waddington, 2004). part of the life history data was obtained from sources other than interviews and observations. several documents and media reports relating to the participants were available. leader 2, in particular, has written several academic and business articles, and has a number of recorded video segments available online. the researcher read the scripts and made notes of these documents. capturing and storing the data conducting the interviews, the researcher watched, actively listened and recorded supplemental data. more specifically, as menter, elliot, hulme, lewin and lowden (2011) point out, he created field notes and memos containing reflective insights. after each interview, he made an array of field notes which reflected on the data, the process and his observations. the first author audio recorded the interviews and transcribed the recordings – not verbatim copies of the original reality; instead, as brinkmann and kvale (2018) correctly point out, they are researcher-mediated interpretations and constructions for given research purposes. vilakati also kept a research journal as a reflective tool to aid the process of triangulating data sets (ward, 2014). journaling is a creative process that helps one to interrogate your assumptions and intuitions, reflect on your observations and clarify your ideas (butler-kisber, 2010).the journal included details of procedural plans, key learnings, research notes, insights and adjustments in terms of the research timeline, and reflections on the entire process. several of the entries contained ideas he thought had theoretical underpinnings and required follow-up and, in some cases, included his personal reflections of participants’ views and perceptions. these entries also assisted him in developing theoretical ideas, clarifying his role as a researcher as well as in making processual choices and changes along the course of the study. finally, all the data were stored electronically in a password-protected online dropbox server. hard copies of research files and documents were filed in a secure office at his home. data analysis and interpretation the process of grounded theory analysis followed three iterative and interrelated steps, namely, initial (open), focused and theoretical coding (charmaz, 2016). initial coding involved carefully reading the transcripts sentence-by-sentence to identify words and phrases that could be clustered into concepts, categories and themes (charmaz, 2016). in total, vilakati identified about 300 codes and distributed them across eight themes, namely, family background and context, education and career context, personal values and attitudes, economic and business context, political and sociocultural context, leadership development and response, african values and african advancement. the focused coding phase involved using constant comparison to crystallise and integrate the most significant and frequently coded themes (charmaz, 2016). lastly, vilakati performed theoretical coding to refine and integrate the first-order constructs generated from the life stories, with scholarly insights from african leadership and management literature. theoretical coding enabled him to organise, synthesise and integrate the key categories into a storyline around two key themes – african wisdom and values and themes supportive of enhancing values in business leaders (charmaz, 2016). reporting style the thesis from which this article is compiled reflects various qualitative writing styles. we strove towards a stimulating reading experience that would engage the reader, yet still meet academic rigour. simple, clear and accessible writing was ensured and formal academic writing (the so-called scientific tale) contextualises the study and outlines the research approach, research strategies and research methodology. whilst most of the formal arguments are presented in the third person, the first person was generally used for describing the research process and its various decision-taking steps. also, tables and figures served to bring to life and illuminate portions of the data and research process descriptions. excerpts from interviews were provided and pictures were offered. finally, a socalled research story, backstage (schurink, 2011) or teflexive ethnography (ellis, 2004) was compilled. ellis (2004) writes: … [d]ocument(s) ways a researcher changes as a result of doing fieldwork. existing on a continuum ranging from starting research from the ethnographer’s biography, to the ethnographer studying her or his life alongside cultural members’ lives, to ethnographic memoirs … or ‘confessional tales’ (van maanen, 1988) in terms of which the ethnographer’s backstage research endeavours become the focus of the investigation. (p. 50) vilakati constructed a backstage narrative to share special real-life moments of the study as well as to serve as an internal audit for assisting with assessing the research. strategies to ensure data quality and reporting the authors ensured quality data by providing rich and detailed descriptions of the research participants’ subjective experiences (schurink, 2009). more particularly, he incorporated lincoln and guba’s (1985) widely accepted and recognised criteria for demonstrating trustworthiness in qualitative research studies, namely, credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. in order to ensure credibility, data gathering and analysis methods were triangulated (yin, 2013). the respective phases of the entire research process were carefully documented to ensure that the findings are transferable to other settings. vilakati ensured dependability by employing member checking, that is, obtaining the participants’ evaluation of the findings. finally, data confirmability was safeguarded by clearly articulating the interactive processes during the study and compiling a research story as an audit trail (schurink, 2009). ethical considerations ethical clearances and approval to conduct the study was obtained from ethical clearance committee of the college of business and economics of the university of johannesburg (reference number ippm 2016-018 – phd). the interviews were conducted in a respectful and ethical manner, ensuring interview etiquette and participant confidentiality. each participant was properly brief and they all agreed to sign a letter of informed consent. this letter dialogue the research process, confidentiality and voluntary nature of participation that they could withdraw from the research at any point in time. findings three main themes emerged when we integrated the three business leaders’ stories with insights we obtained from scholarship: (1) the personal values and attitudes adopted by leaders in the workplace, (2) the societal context surrounding the use of these values and (3) circumstances that influence leaders’ adoption of african values. the findings are summarized in table 1. in the ensuing discussion, we expand on those mostly emphasised by the three leaders. table 1: themes and subthemes derived from the coding process relating to the use of shared african human values in the workplace by the three african leaders. discussion figure 1 presents a summary of the most highlighted themes related to the shared african values, their context and formational influences as described in the three leaders’ life histories. let us now take a closer look at these themes. figure 1: leaders’ shared african values according to context and formation influences. theme 1: distinguishing african wisdom-based work values from those of personal work in reviewing the african business leaders’ personal values in terms of their work values, several thrusts emerged that are shared by global leaders. these included a common interest in achieving intrinsic qualities of self-competence, excellence, sustainable motivation and extrinsic qualities, including the desire to achieve respect for all people, making a difference and pitching in to take matters further and to change them for the better. according to leader 3, ‘in general, these work values are true for a leader anywhere in the world … in the african setting they are highlighted by the strong focus on human relationships’. as we reflected on the leaders’ stories, it was evident that there was an additional emphasis on personal and work values embedded in african humanism, as as eloquently captured by leader 1: ‘i learned the importance of caring about the needs of my family, extended family and being a good citizen from my family, especially the values that were always hidden in my grandmother’s daily stories.’ these values are resonant with those found in african leadership research, such as ‘caring, community, harmony and hospitality, respect and responsiveness’ and custodianship of life (asamoah & yeboah-assiamah, 2019). associated attitudes include humility, thoughtfulness, connectedness, understanding, a focus on traditional wisdom, generosity, social sensitivity and reciprocity, sharing, tolerance and regard for human virtues (kazeroony, 2016). these values are acknowledged by current african management studies (amah, 2019; asamoah & yeboah-assiamah, 2019; gumede, 2017; iwowo, 2015; nkomo, 2015). theme 2: celebrating the richness of african cultural values whilst all three participants lived and worked outside africa, they believe that the continent is their home, in large part because of its cultural richness. in leader 3’s words: ‘[t]his is my home; i was born here, i live here, i have started my business here … while there may be so many challenges … and psychological costs of being a white male in this country (south africa), africa is a great continent … i want to make a difference here in africa, making it a better place … i know some of my white friends have opted to immigrate … or register their business outside the continent … but i see the potential in african business.’ the leaders strongly see themselves as africans and rooted in the continent’s history and current realties and cultural expressions. they all highlighted the beauty of the continent’s rich and diverse cultures, languages and the centrality of respect and humane behaviour in most cultures of the continent. leader 1 referred to the concepts of ubuntu in southern africa, ujamaa in east africa and weku in his native ghana culture. at the core of these concepts lie the african cultures of harmonious, caring and supportive human relationships and respect for human life (kazeroony, 2016). whilst the participants were celebrating the positive aspects of african cultures, they were also fully aware of their negative aspects, such as paternalistic tendencies, ageism or grey hair syndrome (leader 1), racial tensions (especially in south africa) (leader 3), patriarchy and entitlement by those who were involved in the struggle for independence (leader 2). these aspects have largely been the source of political instability, economic inequality, lack of regional cooperation and corruption in business and governments (asamoah & yeboah-assiamah, 2019). theme 3: leveraging african contextual wisdom and values all three leaders lamented the poor application of and the need to leverage african human values in the workplace: ‘[a]frican values can be used to support leadership development …; we can create institutions with an african spirit … these values can also inspire a united africa.’ (leader 1) ‘[w]hen we started our company, we wanted it to be a pan-african organisation … as africans, we are dynamic people … we are respectful … we are good relationship builders …; we are generally inclusive in our approach … when there is a deal at hand, we ask who else should be involved ….’ (leader 3) leader 2 referred to young professionals who have been trained in reputed institutions in the united states of america and europe and who came back to invest in africa and leverage cultural elements. a specific example given was about a young person who developed a reputable clothing line using some african cultural fabrics (leader 1). the above insights by and large represent the common ethos within african values. according to biko (2019), african leaders and organisations have the task of implementing and leveraging several cultural (pan-african) particularities, such as collective leadership, enhancing the centrality of personhood, embracing the strong belief in servant leadership, as well as the holistic conception of reality. when leaders are authentically grounded in african values at the personal level, they are inspired to act as responsible corporate citizens with an inclination towards the common good (malunga, 2009). theme 4: translating african values into organisational practice the importance of translating human values into all levels of organisational practice and stakeholder engagement was highlighted by all three leaders. in leader 3 words: ‘… [i] wish there were a way these values could be employed in leadership … especially in government … i really would like to see how business leaders and governments translate the values such as ubuntu into authentic business practices … because if they were able to, more businesses would emulate them and contribute to the advancement of societies.’ (leader 3) leader 1 also emphasised the need to create institutions with an african spirit. this is in agreement with malunga (2009) who underlines the need for african organisations to exhibit the continent’s positive values in their leadership development and organisational strategies. the leaders agreed that the wisdom contained in african values is important. the major challenge these posed is the struggle in translating them into organisational practice. theme 5: being grounded in family and leaders’ sociocultural background there is a strong belief in most african cultures that values are shaped by family background and community (rukuni, 2007). also, a person’s values are influenced by socio-economic status, self-awareness and spiritual/general beliefs and their general health and well-being (bass & bass, 2009). the three leaders’ accounts highlight the importance of being grounded in family as well as their sociocultural context. each leader spoke about distinct values related to work, gender roles, social class, family, religion, education and a variety of other life and professional dimensions having shaped their experience and values: ‘… [a]s grandmothers are known, she would delight in telling us stories. these stories were often a mixture of humorous and didactic folk tales imbued with ghana’s farming culture; tales celebrating the virtues of working hard to gain the harvest, counter-posed by cautionary tales of lazy farmers shirking hard work and stealing other farmers’ crops in the middle of the night; tales of obedient children who respected their parents and tales of children who learned through hardship how to be good.’ ‘… [t]he one thing that held our family together was our christian methodist faith and the support system provided by our families back in ghana.’ (leader 1) other important incidents and circumstances shaping the leaders included their exposure to different cultures through experience in their upbringing of multiple contexts and international experiences. leader 1, for example, outlined: ‘… having been exposed to various cultures has had an influence on me: even now, if i cook dinner, i’ll think, let me cook nigerian today or thai or indian or chinese’. during her childhood, leader 2’s parents worked for zimbabwe’s foreign ministry and were posted in a few embassies in east africa and europe. as a result, she studied in international schools, and ultimately obtained a phd in international marketing. her current position has a strong international perspective and emphasis, embodied within the value sets she formed during her childhood. also, worth noting is the influence of parents on the leaders’ level of education, and to a lesser extent their career choice. each pointed out that their families believed in the value of education in shaping one’s future. the families ensured that the participants received education from very reputed schools and universities both in africa and the uk. as suggested in the leader’s insights, bell (2002) observe that the level of exposure and cultural socialisation processes facilitate the broadening of individuals’ world view. for example, both leader 1’s and leader 2’s parents were involved in leading reputed business and government institutions. as a consequence, these leaders have an acute awareness of the needs of both public and business leadership affairs. such exposure allows them to see better the value of using shared african values to address the corruption found in some african societies. theme 6: the importance of formal education and career experience a review of the leaders’ educational experiences and career context reveals the impact of these experiences in shaping the leader’s personal and work values. all three leaders had formal academic experience in reputed public and international schools and universities. as leader 2 puts it: ‘… [i] studied in international schools and got exposed to a number of educational and cultural experiences from a young age … i then went to a university in the uk … actually i completed my masters and phd in marketing and international relations in the uk … i guess that makes me an international citizen.’ recounting his university experience, leader 1 observes, it helped to have parents who were already in business … their guidance landed me at a university in the uk doing a basic degree and master’s in international finance. as suggested by ndlovu (2015), african leaders should exhibit their sense of rootedness to context and community in team development processes and organisational goal-setting processes. also, all three leaders have worked across a number of sectors in africa and in more than one continent. by employing the richness of local and global knowledge, leaders are able to innovatively navigate the complex relationships between internal and external business stakeholders within africa (ayuso, rodríguez, garcía-castro, & ariño, 2014). in leader 2’s words, ‘it helps to have a global perspective in order to understand the dynamics of the african continent … and leverage her priorities across the key global value chains’. translating shared african human values into leadership and business practice the themes we identified support the idea of nurturing a value-based leadership that is entrenched in the african values of humanness, solidarity and interdependence (kazeroony, 2016). to effectively translate them into leadership and business practice, it appears that one must embrace an understanding of the continent’s cultural heritage, as well as its current challenges and future priorities (edozie, 2017). individual leaders or the businesses they serve can adapt these values. according to jackson (2004, p. 3), developing african leadership within its current multi-cultural context should be a process of ‘reconciling, integrating and synergising’ of essential (local and global) elements of leadership and management. he (jackson, 2004, p. 3) adds that developing african leadership within the current multi-cultural context should be a process of ‘reconciling, integrating and synergising’ of the essential (local and global) elements of leadership and management. the context, values and experiences of african business leaders should be integrated into what hassanzadeh, silong, asmuni and wahiza (2015, p. 137) have identified as the seven competencies points of effective global leaders, namely, ‘culture awareness and sensitivity, global mindset or perspectives, learning from experiences, developing and maintaining relationships, communication, traits or attitudes, and knowledge and skills’. besides these skills, leadership in present-day africans requires stronger abilities to effectively engage the increased energy in interaction between business and society (edozie, 2017). adequately employed, the african value system provides a perspective in which all people should be agents of the common good in a manner that facilitates social and economic solidarity and cooperation (wenger, 1999). as ntibagirirwa (2009) points out, from this position: [o]ne achieves one’s humanity as a producer and a consumer, or a buyer and a seller, who responds not only to the forces of the market but also to both the material and spiritual needs of the being human. this is the very meaning of ubuntu; i mean the ubuntu economy. (p. 307) this expresses the essence of african human consciousness, and the application of the inherent values of ubuntu ecology of humanity into responsive business practice (ntibagirirwa, 2009). one way the shared african human values identified in the study could be used to enhance effective african leadership and business practice is by adopting what (wenger, 1999) refers to as a community of practice approach. adopting such a perspective within the african context is a way of honouring the heartbeat of african humanism, bringing values to the heart of business practice. to operationalise this value-oriented practice, businesses need to develop relevant human capital in a manner that translates the embedded values into core processes, protocols and goal-setting strategies of organisations (vilakati et al., 2018). practical implications the findings of the study as illustrated in figure 1 have several implications for business leadership research and practice. the study offers an outline (figure 1) to better understand the shared african human values used in business practice, and their context and formational influences. the shared african human values identified by analysing the real-life experiences of the three african leaders offer building blocks that make leaders and researches aware of the extent and use of these values in taking decisions. the findings reveal the unfulfilled need to develop business leaders who will more fully embrace the use of shared african values in the workplace. such integration promises a more humane organisational culture as well as a sustainable balance in internal and external stakeholder relationships. finally, the research findings can be used by business strategists and leadership development practitioners to (1) enhance the active use of shared african human values in the workplace to improve leadership practice and (2) enhance the active use of shared african human values in improving business’ financial and social performance as well as their sustainability. limitations and recommendations for future research limitations the study’s qualitative-constructivist approach in exploring the subjective experiences of three purposively selected african business leaders may be criticised, especially by those who adhere to positivist-oriented perspectives. they will most certainly regard the sample of three leaders as not representative of cultures and business leaders across the continent. exponents of non-positivistic approaches whilst not concerned with a small number of cases may raise questions about whether the information obtained from the three leaders is sufficiently rich. also, as is true with other autobiographical work, valuable insights might have been overlooked and/or additional themes might have been revealed by employing a different analytic technique. recommendations for future research further research is required to confirm the actual level african business leaders of various racial and ethnic origins are concerned, about with the ability to lead with african values. we need to better understand whether managers think of leading with african values, whether they are ignorant of this or whether they practice it or are opposed to it. differently phrased, how transcendent are these values? this information is necessary to provide concrete information as to where to start to bring values to the african business setting. finally, it would be of great benefit to compare these african values and insights with the experiences of other business leaders from other continents. conclusion even though africa is home to 54 countries and hundreds of traditional cultures, african leadership and management scholarship have identified a host of shared human values. when effectively incorporated into strategies and practice of business leadership, these values could enhance these as well and their sustainability. the three african leaders’ life histories provide a tentative understanding of the context, influences and formation of these values in daily activities. careful consideration of how to implement the role of shared african human values has the potential to change the role of business in society. finally, there is a need to apply the same principles of the current study, analysing the same concepts to study african heads of state on the possibility of eliminating corruption and moving the continent forward. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of prof. rené celliers in the initial conceptualisation of this article. the authors would also like to acknowledge prof. scott hoenig for his contribution during the research and data analysis process. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions v.m.v. under the guidance of w.s. conceptualised, researched, analysed and compiled every draft of the research article. w.s. contributed as a supervisor, mainly guiding with the structure, methodology and editing of the article. the final product was a collaborative exercise of revisions and sharpening of the arguments through an iterative engagement between v.m.v. and w.s. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability this article is a directive of a phd thesis project submitted to the university of johannesburg. the complete scope of the data is available through the university’s thesis repository. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abegunrin, o., & abidde, s.o. (2016). pan-africanism in modern times: challenges, concerns, and constraints. london: lexington books. adesida, o.j., karuri-sebina, g., & resende-santos, j. (2016). innovation africa: emerging hubs of excellence. london: emerald group publishing. retrieved from http://0-search.ebscohost.com.ujlink.uj.ac.za/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&an=1423658&site=ehost-live&scope=site ahluwalia, p. (2012). politics and post-colonial theory: african inflections. london: routledge. amah, o.e. (2019). african leadership process in the development of globalisation. retrieved from https://0-link-springer-com.ujlink.uj.ac.za/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-98764-4_5 asamoah, k., & yeboah-assiamah, e. (2019). ‘ubuntu philosophy’ for public leadership and governance praxis: revisiting the ethos of africa’s collectivism. journal of global responsibility, 10(4), 307–321. https://doi.org/10.1108/jgr-01-2019-0008 ashom, n. (2018). africa is my business. iol. retrieved from https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/opinion/opinion-africa-is-my-business-15143402 ayuso, s., rodríguez, m.a., garcía-castro, r., & ariño, m.a. (2014). maximizing stakeholders’ interests: an empirical analysis of the stakeholder approach to corporate governance. business & society, 53(3), 414. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.982325 bass, b.m., & bass, r. (2009). the bass handbook of leadership: theory, research, and managerial applications. london: simon and schuster. bell, r.h. (2002). understanding african philosophy: a cross-cultural approach to classical and contemporary issues. london: psychology press. biko, h. (2019). africa reimagined: reclaiming a sense of abundance and prosperity. cape town: jonathan ball. retrieved from http://0-search.ebscohost.com.ujlink.uj.ac.za/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&an=2105776&site=eds-live&scope=site biko, s. (1987). i write what i like: a selection of his writings. johannesburg: heinemann. brinkmann, s., & kvale, s. (2018). doing interviews. thousand oaks, ca: sage. butler-kisber, l. (2010). qualitative inquiry: thematic, narrative and arts-informed perspectives. london: sage. charmaz, k. (2016). shifting the grounds: constructivist grounded theory methods. in j.m. morse, p.n. stern, j. corbin, b. bowers, k. charmaz, & a.e. clarke (eds.), developing grounded theory: the second generation (pp. 127–155). london: routledge. coetzee, p.h., & roux, a.p.j. (2004). the african philosophy reader. london: routledge. cooper, b., & morrell, r. (eds.). (2014). africa-centred knowledges: crossing fields and worlds (new edn.). suffolk: boydell & brewer. de chesnay, m. (2014). nursing research using life history: qualitative designs and methods in nursing. new york: springer publishing company. denzin, n.k., & lincoln, y.s. (eds.). (2017). the sage handbook of qualitative research (5th edn.). london: sage. edozie, r.k. (2017). charting new frames for african global engagement: resuscitated histories, reimagined concepts, and reapplied contexts. in r.k. edozie (eds.), ‘pan’ africa rising (pp. 23–51). new york, ny: palgrave macmillan. ellis, c. (2004). the ethnographic i: a methodological novel about autoethnography. new york, ny: altamira press. encyclopedia.com. (2019). humanism: africa. new dictionary of the history of ideas. retrieved from https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/humanism-africa forster, d.a. (2010). a generous ontology: identity as a process of intersubjective discovery – an african theological contribution. hts teologiese studies/theological studies, 66(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v66i1.731 fourie, w., van der merwe, s.c., & van der merwe, b. (2017). sixty years of research on leadership in africa: a review of the literature. leadership, 13(2), 222–251. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715015580665 goodson, i.f. (2016). the story of life history. in i.f. goodson, a. antikainen, p. sikes, & m. andrews (eds.), the routledge international handbook on narrative and life history (pp. 23–33). london: routledge. gumede, v. (2017). leadership for africa’s development: revisiting indigenous african leadership and setting the agenda for political leadership. journal of black studies, 48(1), 74–90. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934716678392 gutto, s.b.o. (2013). in search of real justice for africa and africans, and her/their descendants in a world of justice, injustices and impunity. international journal of african renaissance studies – multi-, interand transdisciplinarity, 8(1), 30–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/18186874.2013.834553 hassanzadeh, m., silong, a.d., asmuni, a., & wahiza, n. (2015). global leadership competencies. journal of educational and social research, 5(2), 137–146. https://doi.org/10.5901/jesr.2015.v5n2p137 irele, a., & jeyifo, b. (2010). the oxford encyclopedia of african thought. new york, ny: oxford university press. iwowo, v. (2015). leadership in africa: rethinking development. personnel review, 44(3), 408–429. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-07-2013-0128 jackson, t. (2004). management and change in africa: a cross-cultural perspective. abingdon: taylor & francis. retrieved from http://www.tandfebooks.com/action/showbook?doi=10.4324/9780203477069 jackson, t. (2015). management studies from africa: a cross-cultural critique. africa journal of management, 1(1), 78–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322373.2015.994425 jackson, t. (2018). what makes cross-cultural management scholarship critical? it depends on how we understand ‘culture’. international journal of cross cultural management, 18(3), 267–270. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470595818816414 jacques, t.c.f. (2011). philosophy in black: african philosophy as a negritude. sartre studies international, 17(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.3167/ssi.2011.170101 kamoche, k., chizema, a., mellahi, k., & newenham-kahindi, a. (2012). new directions in the management of human resources in africa. the international journal of human resource management, 23(14), 2825–2834. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.671504 kazeroony, h. (2016). sustainable management development in africa: building capabilities to serve african organizations. new york: routledge. khoza, r.j. (2007). values dominate the african leadership paradigm. management today, 23(6), 24–27. lincoln, y.s., & guba, e.g. (1985). naturalistic inquiry. london: sage. lutz, d.w. (2009). african ubuntu philosophy and global management. journal of business ethics, 84(s3), 313–328. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0204-z malunga, c. (2009). understanding organizational leadership through ubuntu. london: adonis & abbey publishers. maslin, m. (2017). the cradle of humanity: how the changing landscape of africa made us so smart. oxford: oxford university press. matupire, p.m. (2016). integral ubuntu leadership. london: taylor & francis group. mbiti, j.s. (2015). introduction to african religion (2nd edn.). long grove, il: waveland press. menter, i., elliot, d., hulme, m., lewin, j., & lowden, k. (2011). a guide to practitioner research in education. thousand oaks, ca: sage. mngxitama, a., alexander, a., & gibson, n.c. (eds.). (2008). biko lives! contesting the legacies of steve biko (1st edn.). new york, ny: palgrave macmillan. msila, v. (ed.). (2017). decolonising knowledge for africa’s renewal: (re)-examining african perspectives and philosophies. randburg: kr publishing. ndlovu, m. (2015). african leadership in the age of euro-north american-centric modernity: a decolonial critique of robert mugabe. in s.j. ndlovu-gatsheni (ed.), mugabeism? history, politics and power in zimbabwe (pp. 237–248). new york, ny: palgrave macmillan. nkomo, s.m. (2006). in search of african leadership. management today, 22(5), 10–11. nkomo, s.m. (2015). challenges for management and business education in a ‘developmental’ state: the case of south africa. academy of management learning & education, 14(2), 242–258. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2014.0323 ntibagirirwa, s. (2009). cultural values, economic growth and development. journal of business ethics, 84(s3), 297–311. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0203-0 pillay, p., subban, m., & govender, v. (2013). perspectives on african leadership in the spirit of ubuntu. african journal of public affairs, 6(2), 104–115. plummer, k. (2001). documents of life 2: an invitation to a critical humanism. london: sage publications. rukuni, m. (2007). being afrikan. johannesburg: penguin global. rukuni, m. (2009). leading afrika. johannesburg: penguin global. schurink, w.j. (2009). the internal audit as tool to enhance the quality of qualitative research. journal of public administration, 44(special issue 2), 788–802. schurink, w.j. (2011). on writing qualitatively, email notes to master and doctoral students. pretoria: silver lakes. schwab, k., & davis, n. (2018). shaping the future of the fourth industrial revolution: a guide to building a better world. westminster: penguin. schwandt, t.a. (2014). the sage dictionary of qualitative inquiry. los angeles, ca: sage. taylor, s.j., & bogdan, r. (1984). introduction to qualitative research methods: the search for meanings. hoboken, nj: wiley & sons. tutu, d., (1999). god has a dream: a vision of hope for our time. new york, ny: doubleday. veldsman, t., & johnson, a. (eds.). (2016). leadership: perspectives from the front line. randburg: kr publishing. vilakati, v.m., schurink, w.j., & van wyk, r. (2018). translating african human consciousness into evolving forms of leadership and organizational practice. in s.m. lee, d. kim, & y.-m. yu (eds.), innovation for value creation and beyond (pp. 286–289). seoul: pan pacific business association. viriri, a., & mungwini, p. (2010). african cosmology and the duality of western hegemony: the search for an african identity. journal of pan african studies, 3(6), 27–42. waddington, d. (2004). participant observation. in c. cassell & g. symonhe (eds.), essential guide to qualitative methods in organizational research (pp. 154–164). london: sage. walsh, j.p. (2015). organization and management scholarship in and for africa … and the world. academy of management perspectives, 29(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2015.0019 ward, d.a. (2014). teaching with the end in mind: a teacher’s life history as a legacy of educational leaders. university of south florida. retrieved from http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/5401/ wenger, e. (1999). communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. cambridge: cambridge university press. wilder, g. (2005). the french imperial nation-state: negritude and colonial humanism between the two world wars. chicago, il: university of chicago press. yin, r.k. (2013). case study research: design and methods. london: sage. van maanen, j. (1988). tales of the field: on writing ethnography. chicago, il: university of chicago press. article information authors: charlotte sieberhagen1 jaco pienaar1 crizelle els1 affiliations: 1workwell: research unit for economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa correspondence to: jaco pienaar email: jaco.pienaar@nwu.ac.za postal address: private bag x6001, potchefstroom 2520, south africa dates: received: 18 may 2010 accepted: 22 feb. 2011 published: 23 june 2011 how to cite this article: sieberhagen, c., pienaar, j., & els, c. (2011). management of employee wellness in south africa: employer, service provider and union perspectives. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #305, 14 pages. doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.305 copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) management of employee wellness in south africa: employer, service provider and union perspectives in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study • trends from the literature    • a brief history of employee wellness programmes in south africa    • research objectives    • the possible value of the study • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • employee wellness as participating organisations, service providers and labour unions define it    • reasons for introducing employee wellness programmes according to participating organisations, service providers and labour unions    • introduction dates    • negative consequences of introducing    • reasons why organisations rated their employee wellness programmes as successful    • measuring the effectiveness of programmes    • improving employee wellness programmes delivery    • determining employees’ needs    • participation rates of employees    • presenting the results of employee wellness programmes    • support from managers    • funding of employee wellness programmes • discussion and recommendations    • defining employee wellness    • introducing employee wellness programmes: reasons and negative consequences    • presenting the results of employee wellness programmes    • success, effectiveness and improvement of employee wellness programmes    • employee needs and participation of employees in employee wellness programmes    • expenditure and support from managers    • limitations and recommendations • references abstract (back to top) orientation: this article focuses on how south african organisations manage their employees’ wellness through their employee wellness programmes (ewps). research purpose: the objective of this research is to describe employee wellness in south africa by investigating the types, foci and perceived success of ewps. motivation for the study: despite the growing awareness of the importance of ewps in south africa, the nature, content, context, participants, role-players and anticipated benefits as well as the possible drawbacks of these programmes in the south african context are unclear. research design, approach and method: the researchers used a cross-sectional design. the first author developed the employee wellness survey, consisting of quantitative and qualitative questions, to collect data from 16 organisations, four service providers and seven labour unions in south africa. main findings: the results showed that organisations, service providers and labour unions define employee wellness differently and that these role players give different reasons for introducing ewps. almost half of the participating organisations have no baseline measurement with which to compare the effectiveness of their ewps. generally, all the organisations present the results of their programmes reasonably. however, the programmes involve little overall expenditure to the organisations. practical/managerial implications: organisations should monitor the state of their employees’ wellness in order to manage it effectively. this will only become possible when information about employee wellness improves. contribution/value-add: this study provides new information about the nature, content, context, participants, role-players, anticipated benefits and possible drawbacks of ewps in the south-african context. introduction (back to top) key focus of the study there is no universally accepted definition of employee wellness. in addition, there is little research to address the best practices for managing ewps. this poses great challenges for benchmarking the effectiveness of an organisation’s ewp. this article aims to provide insights into the nature, content, context, participants, role-players and anticipated benefits and possible drawbacks of ewps as organisations implement them in south africa. background to the study wellness is a badly defined concept in the literature because there is little agreement about what a definition should contain. definitions include: • ’a conscious and deliberate approach to an advanced state of physical, psychological, and spiritual health’ (ardell, 1985, p. 38) • ‘a multidimensional state of being describing the existence of positive health in an individual as exemplified by quality of life and a sense of well-being’ (corbin & pangrazi, 2001, p. 3). corbin, lindey, welk and corbin (2002) describe wellness as a person’s state of well-being that contributes to an improved quality of life. in addition, the literature uses the terms wellness and well-being interchangeably (korhonen et al., 1998; martin, kirkcaldy & siefen, 2003). this absence of a universal definition, and confusion about a preferred term to describe wellness, pose great difficulties to developing guidelines for good wellness practices in organisations. trends from the literature (back to top) organisations are currently becoming more aware of issues related to employee wellness or well-being (hooper, 2004) and there is increased public interest in integrating wellness activities with employers’ responsibilities (hillier, fewell, cann & shephard, 2005). this move towards healthy workplaces and empowered employees mirrors trends between positive psychological states and organisational well-being (maslach, schaufeli & leiter, 2001; van den bergh, 2000). this has led to the introduction of various programmes. they include employee assistance programmes (eaps) and ewps to address wellness issues in the workplace. according to berridge and cooper (1994) an eap is: a programmatic intervention at the workplace, usually at the level of the individual employee using behavioural science knowledge and methods for the recognition and control of certain workand non work-related problems. (berridge & cooper, 1994, p. 5) other authors have described eaps as programmes that cover the identification, assessment, monitoring, referral, counselling, and follow-up activities that aim at addressing employees’ problems (ramanathan, 1992; white, mcduff, schwartz, tiegel & judge, 1996; zarkin, bray & qi, 2000). wellness programmes are intervention strategies intended to promote the well-being of employees. they could be curative and preventative in nature. the purpose of introducing a wellness programme in an organisation is to create an awareness of wellness issues, to facilitate personal change and health management and to promote a healthy and supportive workplace (anonymous, 2007). these definitions of eaps and ewps make it clear that these two types of programmes address similar issues about employee wellness. this article will use ewps to describe programmes intended to improve employee wellness and well-being. when an organisation introduces an ewp, it allows employees to take charge of, and responsibility for, their own well-being (derr & lindsay, 1999). according to leiter and wahlen (1996), ewps typically include activities that focus on relieving the stress of employees that personal finances, substance abuse, health problems, career crises and job demands cause. the support employees receive from their organisations through ewps presents great benefits to those who use these programmes. they include increased mental wellness, energy, resilience, life and job satisfaction as well as reduced stress and depression (renaud et al., 2008; thøgersen-ntoumani & fox, 2005). the benefits organisations derive from their ewps include (addley, mcquillan & ruddle, 2001; allen, 1993; andrew, 1999; goetzel & ozminkowski, 2008; hemp, 2004; makrides, 2004; naidoo & jano, 2003; shaw, alfonso, howat & corben, 2007; thøgersen-ntoumani & fox, 2005): • reduced absenteeism • increased presenteeism • meeting labour legislation requirements • improved industrial relations • increased employee performance and productivity • reduced health care costs • a reduction in accidents. therefore, naidoo and jano (2003) suggest that organisations should approach problems in a structured way, focusing on the employee and on the organisation. the reasoning behind this approach is that the wellness of an employee can influence the wellness of an organisation, and vice versa. the success and effectiveness of ewps depend on a number of factors, including the rationale, use and evaluation of the programmes. various researchers emphasise the importance of a needs analysis to identify the stressors and issues that employees experience. organisations should conduct this needs analysis before designing and introducing an ewp. this will allow them to target issues that they need to address accurately (berridge, cooper & highley-marchington, 1997). it is essential to determine the utilisation rate as the reasons employees give as to why they participate in or ignore ewps will provide valuable information about the effectiveness of the programmes. according to highley and cooper (1994, p. 49), the importance of evaluating ewps cannot be overestimated. primarily, the purposes of evaluating ewps are to justify their existence, to determine the extent to which they achieve their objectives and to find ways of improving their effectiveness. incorrect measures that organisations use to evaluate the effectiveness of ewps could result in their drawing inaccurate conclusions from their evaluations. a brief history of employee wellness programmes in south africa this article focuses on the way(s) south african organisations manage their ewps in order to keep their employees well at work. ewps in south africa only started to emerge in the 1980s. the chamber of mines of south africa initiated them after it carried out a feasibility study in the mining industry in 1983 (terblanche, 1992). this feasibility study is a milestone in the development of ewps in south africa. resistance to them was clear when they first appeared. this was because many thought that the people who used them were alcoholics (gerber, 1995; naidoo & jano, 2003). participation in ewps is also sometimes problematic because employees do not trust their confidentiality. furthermore, employees see participation in an ewp as another demand rather than as a resource (myers, 1984; taute & manzini, 2009). fewer than half of south africa’s top 100 organisations have ewps, despite the important roles these programmes can play in promoting employee health and wellness and in assisting organisations and employees to adjust to rapidly changing contexts (naidoo & jano, 2003). terblanche (1992) conducted a survey to determine the conceptual sophistication of ewps in the south african business community. according to the survey, only 69% of employer respondents actually offered direct assistance to their employees. of this percentage, only 58% offered it in structured programmes. considering the significant changes in the south african organisational landscape since the advent of democracy, the shortage of ewps in south africa is alarming because change is a factor that greatly reduces wellness at work (hillier et al., 2005). when ewps do exist, they are often not part of core business structures (bennett, 1999). this suggests that organisations do not realise the extent to which employee wellness contributes to organisations’ bottom line. organisations that invest time and resources in an employee wellness culture, with the focus on being proactive rather than reactive, can expect a return on the investment. the possible return on investment might include lower absenteeism, healthier employees, fewer accidents and lower staff turnover (dhanesar & hales, 1994). based on the problem stated above, the general aim of this research is to describe the management of employee wellness in south africa by investigating the types, foci and successes of employee health and wellness programmes. research objectives the objectives of this study are to: • define employee wellness as it currently exists in selected south african organisations • determine the reasons why organisations introduce employee wellness programmes and the problems they experience in doing so • investigate how the organisations present the results of their programmes • investigate how organisations rate the success and effectiveness of their ewps • determine employee needs and participation of employees in ewps • determine how organisations fund their programmes • to investigate how managers are involved in managing ewps in their organisations. the possible value of the study employee wellness is a badly defined construct in industrial psychology. there is also a lack of research on specific practices in south african organisations to promote employee wellness. this article contributes to research in industrial psychology because it is a baseline study on how employee wellness practices function in south african organisations. the study also concludes how organisations, labour unions and providers of employee wellness services define employee wellness in the south african context. the sections that follow describe the research approach, research participants, measuring instruments and statistical analyses. the article presents the results of the study. a discussion of the results follows. finally, it draws conclusions and makes recommendations. research design (back to top) research approach the researchers used a mixed method design. they used a survey that contained quantitative and qualitative questions. the researchers used a cross-sectional design. the first researcher drew a sample from the available population at a particular point in time (shaughnessy & zechmeister, 1997). a cross-sectional design allowed them to use the information they collected to describe a population at that time and to assess interrelationships between variables within that population. research method research participants the participants consisted of organisations that contribute to employee wellness in various sectors of south africa. the researchers used a purposive sampling technique to select organisations that use the term ‘wellness programme’ when referring to programmes that address employee wellness or well-being. the researchers targeted 16 organisations (n = 16). of these, six were public companies and four were private. the other six organisations consisted of multinational companies, joint ventures, national departments and universities. four of the organisations were from the transport, storage and communications sector and two from each of the manufacturing and education sectors. five of the organisations have between 1001 and 3000 employees and four have between 5001 and 10 000. four of the organisations did not want to disclose their annual turnover. however, two of the organisations indicated that their annual turnover was between r1000 and r1250 million, whilst another two organisations had turnovers of more than r3500 million per annum. eight of the organisations could not provide information about their annual payroll as a percentage of annual turnover. however, for the organisations where this information was available, three indicated that their annual payroll, as a percentage of annual turnover, ranged between 31% and 40%. only four of the organisations were established after 1994. the youngest organisation is only six years old whilst the oldest has been operating for over a century. all of the participating organisations were registered at their relevant sector education and training authority (seta) for skills development purposes. setas ensure that the various sectors identify their skills requirements and that the adequate and appropriate skills are readily available. however, 11 of the organisations were unable to provide information about their monthly skills levies. in addition, the researchers incorporated the opinions of four service providers (n = 4) on employee wellness in south africa. two of them provided services to between 201 and 500 organisations. the smallest indicated that they provided services to between five and 10 organisations, whilst the service provider with the second largest customer base indicated that it services between 11 and 50 organisations. the oldest service provider was nine years old and the youngest only two. the researchers also approached seven labour unions (n = 7), in order to incorporate their opinions on employee wellness in south africa into a holistic understanding of employee wellness management. of these labour unions, four had members in all the sectors. the membership of the smallest was between 3001 and 5000, whilst the largest union had more than 500 000 members. the oldest union is more than 100 years old and was established in 1905. the youngest was established in 2001. three of the unions were established after 1994. measuring instruments the primary researcher developed the employee wellness survey to determine the nature, content, context, participants, role players, anticipated benefits and possible drawbacks of a wellness programme in each organisation. this survey included quantitative items and qualitative questions that required further explanation. to ensure its content validity, the researchers developed the questionnaire from the literature study. over a period of two years (2007–2008), the researchers sent the questionnaire to experts in the field of employee wellness (both in the academia and organisations) to judge its face validity. they used a trial run to assess whether the items were understandable and to detect problems in the questionnaire. the questionnaire was divided into five sections: • section 1 contained information about the organisations, including their types, sectors of operations, annual turnover, number of full-time employees and the setas where they are registered. • section 2 contained reasons for introducing ewps, their functions and perceived successes. for example, the researchers asked organisations to rate, on a 5-point likert scale, ‘how successful is your employee wellness programme?’ they then asked the organisations to give reasons to support their evaluations of their ewps. • section 3 contained information about the effectiveness, activities and levels of employee participation in ewps. for example, the researchers asked organisations ‘how is the effectiveness of the employee wellness programme determined?’ • section 4 contained information about organisations’ contributions, strikes, absenteeism and staff turnover. for example, the researchers asked ‘how many days sick leave were taken in the last 12 months for the organisation as a whole?’ they then asked organisations to give the five main reasons for the sick leave. • section 5 contained information about budgets, needs analyses and the foci of the organisations’ ewps. for example, the researchers asked the organisations to indicate ‘what is the total annual budget allocated to the employee wellness programme in your organisation?’ and ‘on which activities in the employee wellness programme do you spend most of your budget?’ the primary researcher developed the employee wellness survey (service providers) to determine how many organisations they provide services to, the nature of the services they provide and how they define employee wellness. the primary researcher developed the employee wellness survey (labour unions) to determine the sectors in which the labour unions operate, how many members they have, how they define employee wellness and how they influence employee wellness issues in their members’ organisations. research procedure the researchers invited the people responsible for managing ewps in some of the more prominent organisations in south africa and in some state institutions (n = 16), to participate in this study. they targeted only those organisations that use the term ‘wellness programme’ to refer to activities related to improving employee wellness. the researchers also targeted labour unions and service providers. they surveyed seven labour unions and four service providers to explore their definitions of employee wellness in south africa. they also asked the four service providers to describe the nature of the employee wellness services they provide in south africa. the researchers hoped to obtain to gain a good idea of the current situation about employee wellness practices in south africa from all major stakeholders. statistical analysis the researchers performed the statistical analysis with the help of the spss programme (spss, 2007). they used descriptive statistics (means, frequency counts and percentages) to analyse the data. they regarded descriptive statistics as suitable and sufficient for this analysis because the aim of the study was descriptive in nature. where participants gave qualitative answers, the researchers used codes to extract themes. the researchers transcribed the telephone interviews they held with the organisations, labour unions and service providers and extracted descriptive quotations. they then extracted themes from them. results (back to top) employee wellness as participating organisations, service providers and labour unions define it the heads of ewps in the 16 participating organisations defined employee wellness. the researchers first categorised the dimensions by grouping similar responses. after they had grouped the responses, they allocated a name to describe the dimension. the researchers identified 14 dimensions of employee wellness based on the responses from the participating organisations, service providers and labour unions. these 14 dimensions were: • health: this dimension includes information about employee health, medical issues, human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) management and organisational wellness. it refers to the improvements in the health of the employees in the organisation as part of the organisation’s definition of employee wellness. • occupational health and safety (ohs): this dimension includes items, like work safety and the environment in which employees work, which can influence employee wellness in their organisations. occupational health and safety is a component of how the participating organisations define employee wellness. • dimensions of wellness: this dimension includes items relating to the psychological, physical, financial, spiritual and social aspects of wellness. further information included wellness as a continuum that ranges from unwell to well and wellness as a concept. • work wellness: this dimension included information about employee happiness at work, workers enjoying occupational wellness and efficient work styles. the definitions were work related. • self-development: this dimension included items that concern the growth, self-development and personal improvement of all employees so that they can reach their potentials through training. generically, the definitions of employee wellness referred to the development of the employee in some way. • employee benefits: this dimension included items like the social, insurance, funeral and other benefits employees enjoy as part of their remuneration package. these all refer to benefits that organisations should offer employees in order to influence employee wellness. • legal requirements: this dimension related to the legal imperatives for employee wellness. participants referred to the basic conditions of employment act, the occupational health and safety act, the labour relations act (lra) and general labour relations. these items all refer to the legal requirements with which organisations need to comply in order to facilitate employee wellness. • performance: this dimension included items that cover employees’ performance, productivity, motivation, commitment, lifestyles, engagement, employees’ sense of coherence, staff morale, vitality, meaning and purpose. these items all referred to improved employee performance. • recognition of joint benefits: this dimension involved the benefits of wellness to both organisations and employees, their shared responsibilities, reducing absenteeism, achieving balance, reducing the possible negative effects of unhealthy employees on the organisation and reducing the effects of an unhealthy organisation on its employees. these items all referred to the positive influence that employee wellness should have on the organisation and on employees if there is employee wellness in the organisation. • employee services: this dimension covered the services that were available to employees. it included services like counselling, leave for family responsibilities, general employee services as well as specialised treatment and support. these items referred to services that promote employee wellness in organisations. • employee responsibility: this dimension focused on the employees’ responsibility for their own wellness. organisations felt that employee wellness was the responsibility of employees. • wellness management: this dimension covers managing wellness. organisations felt that identifying and rectifying existing problems are components of employee wellness. management activities that participants included were managing behavioural risk, recognising that this is a continuous process, that organisations can manage wellness, identify and rectify problems and identify risks. participants referred to organisational, interpersonal and personal levels. • stress: this dimension refers to the interaction between job demands and job resources as well as employees’ stress and distress. organisations felt that they should address these issues in order to promote employee wellness. • holistic: this dimension referred to the perception that wellness efforts need to be holistic, integrated and have a wide focus. organisations felt that they should take a broad view of employees. table 1 shows the dimensions that organisations used to define employee wellness. seven of the organisations referred to three dimensions only when they defined employee wellness. half of the organisations referred to ‘health’ and nine organisations referred to the ‘dimensions of wellness’ in their definitions of employee wellness. table 2 shows how the participating service providers defined employee wellness according to the 14 dimensions. only two of the service providers referred to ‘work wellness’ and to ‘positive work influences’ in their definitions. two of the service providers referred to ‘employee responsibility’ in their definitions. table 3 shows how the seven participating labour unions defined employee wellness according to the dimensions of wellness. four referred to ‘health’ in their definitions of employee wellness and four to ‘occupational health and safety’. five of the labour unions referred to ‘legal requirements’ and only one referred to ‘employee responsibility’. reasons for introducing employee wellness programmes according to participating organisations, service providers and labour unions table 4 gives the reasons for introducing employee wellness programmes according to the participating organisations, service providers and labour unions. table 4 shows that, for the participating organisations, the main reason for introducing ewps was the high incidence of sick leave. the second group of reasons was high rates of absenteeism and social responsibility. the third group of reasons was to address stress, meet employees’ needs for services, because of human relations (hr) incidents or because of the high numbers of people who were working overtime. the main reasons that the participating service providers thought that the organisations they serve introduced ewps were social responsibility, in order to become employers of choice and compliance with ohs law. according to labour unions, the reasons why their members’ employers introduced ewps were to make their employees more productive, social responsibility, compliance with ohs law and to retain employees. introduction dates of the 16 organisations, 14 introduced their ewps after 2000. one organisation did not know when it introduced its programme and one organisation’s programme has been running since 1970. table 1: employee health according to participating organisations, service providers and labour unions. table 2: definitions of employee wellness according to participating service providers. table 3:definitions of employee wellness according to participating labour unions. negative consequences of introducing when asked about the negative consequences of introducing their ewps, eight of the 16 organisations mentioned that introducing the programmes did not have any negative consequences. the other half indicated that it did have negative consequences. the reasons the eight organisations that experienced negative consequences included trust and confidentiality issues (four organisations). implementation and logistical problems because of remote locations (three organisations) were the second most noted reasons. other reasons for negative consequences included staff members’ insensitivity towards employees (one organisation), a low uptake on the programme (one organisation) and managers’ concerns that they were ‘getting soft’ (one organisation). table 4: reasons for introducing employee wellness programmes. table 5:reasons why employee wellness programmes were successful. table 6:reasons for rating employee wellness programmes as less successful. table 7:how organisations measure the effectiveness of programmes. table 8:percentage of employees who participate in their organisation’s employee wellness programmes. reasons why organisations rated their employee wellness programmes as successful in rating the effectiveness of their organisations’ ewps, 10 of the participating organisations rated their programmes as 70% successful, or higher. of the remainder, three rated their programmes as 60% successful and two of the organisations gave their programme a rating of only 50%. one organisation indicated that it could not rate its programme yet.table 5 shows that the reasons organisations gave for their ratings differed from one organisation to the next. three of the organisations, which rated their programmes as 70% or higher, gave a reduction in absenteeism as the reason. organisation 13 attributed its rating of 50% as problems with its service provider and because wellness, it asserts, is not measurable. organisation 6 gave no reason for its rating of 60%. the researchers allowed the organisations that gave their programmes a poor rating to give reasons for their rating. table 6 gives these reasons. three organisations indicated that assessing their programme was a problem. two of the organisations that gave the poorest ratings to their programmes attributed them to measurability. organisation 14 also indicated that it was not able to measure the outcomes of its programme. this made it difficult for the organisation to measure the effectiveness of its programme. however, organisation 14 still rated it 70% and higher. measuring the effectiveness of programmes seven of the 16 organisations do not measure the effectiveness of their ewps, but they do look at aspects like utilisation rates, absenteeism, reporting of chronic diseases and buy-in. although they considered these aspects, the organisations asserted that they are not true measures of effectiveness. one organisation stated that it could not measure the effectiveness of its programme because of a problem with the report from the service provider. nine of the organisations indicated that they did measure the effectiveness of their ewps by considering utilisation rates, feedback from staff and measuring absenteeism. improving employee wellness programmes delivery fourteen of the organisations felt that they could improve the delivery of their ewps. the researchers allowed the organisations to propose suggestions for improving delivery. some of the suggestions were: • making their programmes more holistic and integrated (four organisations) • allocating more resources and personnel (three organisations) • providing the ewps in-house (two organisations) • that they need to assess their ewps accurately (one organisation). one organisation each expressed these needs: • targeted interventions • improved training • follow-ups on interventions • new ideas relevant to ewps. one organisation each suggested: • a better return on investment • providing more support to employees • better communication and marketing • better coordinator focus on wellness programmes. in addition, one organisation reported that it was busy introducing an ewp. determining employees’ needs when asked how often organisations determine their employees’ need for employee wellness, five of the organisations said they consult their employees monthly. four conducted a quarterly needs analysis, three reported annual needs analyses, two determine their employees’ needs every six months and the remaining two conducted needs analyses every two years.the organisations reported that they use different ways to determine their employees’ needs. they include: • feedback and discussions with employees (eight organisations) • inputs from employee wellness personnel (five organisations) • surveys and questionnaires (four organisations) • health risk assessments (four organisations) • feedback from service providers (three organisations) • inputs from managers (three organisations) • organisational assessments (two organisations) • feedback from unions (two organisations) • considering trends and tendencies (one organisation) • looking at the profiles of employees (one organisation). participation rates of employees table 8 gives the participation rates of employees in their respective organisations’ ewps.table 8 shows that two organisations could not provide participation rates, five of the organisations’ participation rates were 20% and below, another five of the organisations’ participation rates were between 30% and 50% and three of the organisations’ participation rates were 60% and higher. presenting the results of employee wellness programmes fourteen organisations presented the results of their ewps to various stakeholders and at various times and events. four organisations presented their results once a year, three presented their results twice a year, three presented them quarterly and two presented their results monthly. two of the organisations presented their results on an ad hoc basis at executive meetings and one organisation presented the results after health days.some organisations presented the results of their ewps at board meetings (two) or at business units (two). one organisation each presented its results at the corporate office, at council meetings, during employee wellness programme committee meetings, at executive meetings, in parliament, at institutional meetings, at regional meetings and during senior management meetings. one organisation presented its results to all business unit managers and one organisation presented its results to the chief executive officer (ceo). support from managers when asked to rate the support organisations receive from managers, two of the organisations rated the support they receive as ‘excellent’, 13 indicated ‘good’ and one reported their support as ‘average’. funding of employee wellness programmes most of the participating organisations (13 of 16), reported that they had budgets for their ewp activities. the allocated budgets ranged from r140 000 to r5 million per year. three organisations used a flat rate – they paid a fixed amount per employee per year. the total amounts ranged between r38 000 and r1.4 million per year for all employees. this is equates to between r5 and r187 per employee. seven of the organisations used a fee-for-service system and the costs ranged between r600 000 and r800 000. only one organisation used a sponsorship of r17 000 to fund part of its programme. four organisations used a combination of budget and fee-for-service to fund their programmes and one used a combination of budget and sponsorships.table 9 shows that the main activities on which organisations spend their budgets were hiv and health services (11 organisations), eap providers (six organisations), wellness services (four organisations) and counselling (three organisations). the main activities on which organisations spend their flat rate budgets were counselling, e-care (health tips and advice via the internet), hiv and aids as well as programmes to manage disease risk. the main activities on which organisations spend their fee-for-service budgets were alcohol abuse, wellness activities, hiv and aids services, counselling and eap providers. table 10 shows the percentage of annual payroll that organisations spend on ewps. table 10 shows that six of the organisations spend less than 1% of their annual payrolls on ewps. in three of the organisations, this percentage was between 1.1 and 2%. five of the organisations did not know the percentage of annual payroll they spent on the ewps. thirteen of the organisations reported that their budgets for their ewps increased from the previous year and two said their budgets were unchanged. only one of the organisations reported that its budget decreased from the previous year. furthermore, 13 of the organisations expected that their budgets would increase for the next year and two said they expected their budgets to remain the same. only one of the organisations expected its budget to decrease for the next year. table 9: main activities on which organisations spend their budgets for employee wellness programmes. table 10: percentage of annual payroll organisations spend on employee wellness programmes. discussion and recommendations (back to top) this study had seven purposes: • to define employee wellness as it currently exists in selected south african organisations • to determine the reasons why organisations introduce employee wellness programmes and the problems they experience in doing so • to investigate how the organisations present the results of their programmes • to investigate how organisations rate the success and effectiveness of their ewps • to determine employee needs and participation of employees in ewps • to determine how organisations fund their programmes. • to investigate how managers are involved in managing ewps in their organisations. defining employee wellness employee wellness is a badly defined concept in south africa and around the world. when the researchers asked the participating organisations, labour unions and service providers to define employee wellness, they identified 14 dimensions. to complicate the matter, none of the organisations, labour unions or service providers could agree on what employee wellness is. in short, 16 organisations, four service providers and seven labour unions defined employee wellness in 27 different ways. even when the researchers separated them into groups, the organisations, service providers or labour unions did not emphasise the same dimensions of employee wellness. most of the organisations and service providers referred to ‘dimensions of wellness’ in their definitions but only one of the labour unions did. this could indicate that organisations and service providers focus more holistically on employee wellness than labour unions do. however, the nature of services they provide as part of their ewps does not necessarily reflect this. most of the labour unions referred to health, occupational health and safety issues or legal requirements in their definitions of employee wellness. although half of the organisations referred to health in their definitions, only one of the service providers did. only one organisation referred to occupational health and safety in its definition and legal requirements was not a dimension that featured with either the organisations or service providers. the literature reflects the same worrying situation. authors define the concept differently. they often refer to ‘employee well-being’ (noblet & rodwel, 2007, p. 2), ‘wellness at work’ (hillier et al., 2005, p. 1), ‘workplace wellness’ (wojcik, 2007, p. 3) and ‘work related well-being’ (launis & pihlaja, 2007, p.604; lindfors et al., 2007, p. 816). some authors see ‘wellness’ and ‘health’ as the same concept (demoranville, schoenbachler & przytulski, 1998; merina, 1992; porter, 2005). although the different terms all relate to improving employees through better health, fitness or otherwise, the focus of different organisations is not necessarily on improving the work-related issues of employees. therefore, in defining employee wellness, the organisations focused mostly on health, dimensions of wellness and positive work influences. the service providers focused mostly on the recognition of dual benefits to organisations and employees whilst the labour unions focused on legal requirements, occupational health and safety as well as health. it is clear that the three groups differ in their definitions of employee wellness. in addition, labour unions strongly associated wellness with adherence to the legal requirements (the occupational health and safety act and other legislation that influences employees). although the definitions of the three important role-players in the employee wellness sphere in south africa differ, the analyses of input from all of them present a broad and robust definition within which employee wellness can be conceptualised. introducing employee wellness programmes: reasons and negative consequences there were also many different reasons that organisations introduced ewps to their organisations. the main reasons were the high incidence of sick leave, high absenteeism and social responsibility. these reasons show that they are reactive in their approach and might indicate that organisations should start investigating the work factors that contribute to employees being sick and absent from work. south africa’s hiv and aids rate is of the highest in the world. this can also contribute to employees being sick. work stress can affect the health of employees directly (mcclenahan, giles & mallett, 2007) and the current high levels of sick leave and absenteeism may be symptoms of already existing problems. social responsibility was another major reason that employers introduced ewps to their organisations. the reason for this can be that organisations are beginning to draw a link between corporate social responsibility, improvements in their value to shareholders and the morale of employees. in addition, because organisations must list their corporate responsibility activities in government tenders, it ‘pays’ to invest in social responsibility (van den ende, 2004). the fourth most reported reason that organisations introduced ewps to their organisations was addressing stress, the occurrence of hr incidents and that many employees worked overtime. if organisations focused more on these issues, sick leave and absenteeism might reduce and employees may perceive the organisations as more caring. other reasons for introducing ewps include: • to reduce health care or medical costs (anonymous, 2007; janice & ho, 1997; naydeck, pearson, ozminkowski, day & goetzel, 2008; pallarito, 2007) • to increase employee productivity, welfare benefits and morale • to improve the image of the company (janice & ho, 1997) • to improve staff morale and productivity (watkins, 2003) • to help employees to stop smoking, lose weight and monitor their blood pressure (l.d, 2007) • to reduce absence because of sickness • to improve retention, productivity and well-being (brockett, 2007). it is clear that there is a whole range of reasons why organisations introduce ewps. the literature seems to focus more on issues of productivity and health, whilst the participating south african organisations focus more on reducing sick leave and meeting goals of social responsibility. although there is an overlap in the reasons for introducing programmes that south african organisations offer and those the literature cites, most still relate to individual health issues and not on organisational issues that might affect the employee. the main reasons service providers thought organisations introduced ewps were that the organisations want to be seen as employers of choice, need to comply with occupational health and safety law, or to meet their goals of social responsibility. therefore, social responsibility was an important reason for organisations introducing ewps. as employees in a developing country, many people in south africa still live in poor conditions and do not always have access to good medical care. therefore, whilst organisations can provide services like medical care and counselling services to their employees as wellness benefits, they can also claim to be acting in socially responsible ways to their employees and their families. the main reasons labour unions thought organisations introduced ewps were that the organisations want their employees to be more productive, they want to be seen as socially responsible, they want to comply with occupational health and safety law and want to retain employees. it is important to note that, although labour unions and service providers think that one of the main reasons that organisations introduce ewps is to comply with occupational health and safety law, only 3% of the participating organisations agreed. possible reasons might be that organisations see other benefits to employee wellness or that they do not see how employee wellness initiatives can help them to comply with the occupational health and safety act. although social responsibility emerged as a major reason for introducing the programmes for the surveyed stakeholders, one should view this conclusion with caution. for example, organisations may use their programmes as marketing tools rather than as employee benefits. analysts have shown that, in south africa, only 1% of a r1.7 trillion investments go toward social responsibility (finlay, 2004). furthermore, perceptions of what ‘socially responsibility’ means may vary widely, especially where the objectives may compete. an example is organisations that aim to make profits and unions that aim to protect employees. in introducing ewps, the main problems about trust and confidentiality were more prevalent when the people who provided the ewp services were also employees of the organisation. one cannot overemphasise the importance of ewp personnel confidentiality in dealing with the sensitive issues of employees. in cases where trust and confidentiality problems arise, it may be wise to use a service provider to provide employee wellness services. therefore, ethical conduct for employees who service ewps becomes an important issue. other problems noted about introducing programmes related to providing services to remote locations. organisations that use service providers can reduce the problem because service providers deliver many services that they can provide telephonically and via email or the internet. the assistance of service providers with existing infrastructure might be a more cost-effective way of managing employee wellness. this is particularly true for smaller organisations that do not have the technological infrastructure to render these services. presenting the results of employee wellness programmes almost all of the organisations presented the results of their ewps to board meetings, business unit meetings or ceos. most of the organisations presented the results once or twice a year or every quarter. with one exception, organisations presented the results of their programmes in-house. therefore, one can assume that organisations do not use the results of the programmes to attract employees or stakeholders. in order for organisations to use employee wellness for competitive advantage, they should market it for this reason. because of a lack of research on employee wellness, there are no benchmarks about how often organisations should present results about ewps. however, organisations can use this information as a competitive tool and improve its visibility. organisations should market it responsibly and base it on facts. success, effectiveness and improvement of employee wellness programmes organisations rated the success of their ewps differently and gave different reasons for their ratings. many organisations defended their ratings by indicating that they provide a good range of services (eap, counselling, hiv and health). however, very few referred to measurable and objective outcomes like reducing absenteeism or sick leave. several referred to high, or increased, participation from employees as an indicator of success. however, one should not equate high uptake with success. two organisations indicated that their ewps were less than effective because the wellness construct is not measurable. this relates again to the problem underlying the multiplicity of definitions — it is difficult to measure and operationalise a badly defined and poorly conceptualised construct. in addition, where one organisation felt that using a service provider helped to make its programme successful, another organisation felt that poor reporting from the service provider made the programme less effective because it could not focus its interventions properly. it is important, when measuring the effectiveness of ewps, that an organisation must conduct an assessment to address the root causes of problems. in addition, after implementing any intervention, an organisations needs to conduct a reassessment to determine whether the intervention was successful or not. it is clearly necessary to give accurate and timely data to manage employee wellness. kompier, de gier, smulders, and draaisma (1994) suggest that organisations should perform audits and reviews to manage health and safety effectively. this will ensure that an organisation can measure the effectiveness and success of its ewp. there are some differences in how organisations measure the effectiveness of their programmes. nearly half of the organisations indicated that they did not measure effectiveness but did consider things like utilisation rates, declines in absenteeism, people with hiv returning to work, reporting chronic diseases and buy-in from employees. in contrast, more than half of the organisations said that they did measure effectiveness and used utilisation rates and declines in absenteeism as measures of effectiveness. therefore, indicators of effectiveness, or understanding what should be indicators of effectiveness, differ between organisations. the organisations that noted that they measure the effectiveness of their ewps also indicated that extensive marketing, good planning, reaching more people and using exit interviews are good measures of effectiveness. however, none of these actually helps to determine effectiveness. however, these organisations also looked at declines in the numbers of suicides, the success of smoking cessation programmes and decreases in medical boardings. all of these could measure ewps effectively. one can conclude that it is difficult to measure the real effectiveness of these programmes because the measurement ultimately rests on the subjective perceptions of the organisations. however, one can suggest that improving positive employee outcomes and reducing negative employee outcomes could indicate the effectiveness of an ewp. these might include reducing stress and emotional exhaustion, improving social support at work (taris et al., 2003), improving morale, increasing loyalty, improving employee relations, improving productivity, reducing absenteeism and reducing accidents (andrew, 1999). most of the organisations felt that they could improve their service delivery by making their ewps more holistic and integrated and by allocating more resources and personnel. the organisations also felt that it would be better to provide the ewps in-house. in-house programmes can be custom-made for organisations and ewp teams can work closely with managers to make sure the programmes align with business goals and issues around employees (lesch, 2005). however, organisations need to find a balance with managing perceptions of confidentiality. employee needs and participation of employees in employee wellness programmes a quarter of the organisations determined employees’ needs four times (quarterly) a year. however, this was not an assessment of employee wellness in the organisations. instead, the organisations asked employees what services they would like to be part of the ewp. if organisations did a proper needs assessment, based on the state of employee wellness in the organisation (including ergonomic assessment), they could assess and address the types and intensity of interventions as well as the level of risk better. simply asking employees what they think they need only gives a biased picture of the true state of affairs. in addition, implementing interventions after an employee wellness assessment takes time and this might delay their effects. sufficient time must elapse after implementing interventions to determine their effectiveness. not more than 50% of the employees participated in ewps in eight organisations. one can attribute the low participation rates to a number of factors. on the one hand, overloaded employees may see participation in the programmes as another demand, rather than as a resource. in addition, the programmes might not address the specific problems the employees are experiencing. a possible reason for this may be that most of the organisations did not conduct objective surveys to determine the problem areas before implementing ‘solutions’. this probably resulted in the interventions not focusing enough on the real problems and needs of the organisations and their employees. however, 12 of the organisations indicated that they consulted their employees when developing their programmes. in some instances, they consulted unions and wellness coaches. one can question the intensity of these consultations because participation rates may have been low. expenditure and support from managers most of the organisations had budgets to fund their ewps. some had a flat rate budget. this meant that they had a fixed amount per employee per year. in some cases, the budget the organisations had for their ewps was less than r100 per person per year. organisations have to comply with the occupational health and safety act. however, many consider employee wellness a soft issue and not one that warrants investing the organisations’ capital in order to improve organisational profitability. setas can also play a major role in providing funds for training employee wellness practitioners for organisations. almost half of the organisations had allocated budgets supplemented by fee-for-service models to fund their ewps. most organisations expected their budgets for their employee wellness activities to increase in the following year. this might indicate that organisations are increasingly willing to invest more money in their ewps. two of the participating organisations rated the support they receive from managers for employee wellness as excellent and one indicated that its support was ‘average’. the results showed that 13 of the 16 organisations regarded their managers as supportive of ewp initiatives. this could be why most organisations expect their budgets for employee wellness to increase in the following year. limitations and recommendations in order for organisations to offer the necessary employee wellness services to their employees, it is important that they start with proper assessments of the state of employee wellness in their organisations. improvements in employee wellness will only become visible if organisations start to introduce focused interventions, because only then will organisations start addressing the causes of their employee wellness problems. in addition, it is important that organisations monitor the wellness states of their employees in order to manage employee wellness in their organisations effectively. this will only become possible when they improve their information about employee wellness. in the end, an ewp should positively influence employee outcomes like productivity, satisfaction, presenteeism, industrial relations incidents, accidents and safety. this study has limitations. the researchers suggest that larger samples are used in future studies. in addition, the researchers suggest that a standardised instrument is developed to examine wellness practices in the south african context. however, this would present challenges to researchers because organisations define, implement, manage and evaluate wellness very differently. another limitation to this study is the limited focus on qualitative data. in-depth interviews with the people who manage ewps in south african organisations would yield richer information on wellness practices in the country. references (back to top) addley, k., mcquillan, p., & ruddle, m. (2001). creating healthy workplaces in northern ireland: evaluation of a lifestyle and physical activity assessment programme. occupational medicine, 51(7), 439–449. doi:10.1093/occmed/51.7.439 , pmid:11719614 allen, j.r. (1993). organizational support plays integral role in shaping healthy lifestyles. wellness management, 9(3), 6–7. andrew, l. (1999). wellness promotion: a people ready strategy. the barbados advocate, business monday, 6–7. anonymous. (2007). can wellness programs cut medical claims and costs? contractor’s business management report, 8, 1–7. ardell, d. (1985). the history and future of wellness. dubuque, ia: kendall/hunt. bennet, j. (1999). employee assistance also helps productivity. the argus, business section, 3, 3. berridge, j., & cooper, c. (1994). the employee assistance program: its role in organizational coping and excellence. personnel review, 23(7), 4–20. doi:10.1108/00483489410072190 berridge, j., cooper, c.l., & highley-marchington, c. (1997). employee assistance programmes and workplace counselling. new york: wiley publishers. brockett, j. (2007). qvc buys in to wellness. people management, 13(7), 10. corbin, c.b., & pangrazi, r.p. (2001). toward a uniform definition of wellness: a commentary. president’s council on physical fitness and sports research digest, 3(15), 1–8. corbin, c.b., lindsey, r., welk, g.j., & corbin, w.r. (2002). concepts of fitness and wellness: a comprehensive lifestyle approach (4th edn.). new york: mcgraw hill. demoranville, c.w., schoenbachler, d.d., & przytulski, j. (1998). wellness at work. marketing health services, 18(2), 14–24. derr, w.d., & lindsay, g.m. (1999). eap and wellness collaboration. in j.m. oher (ed.), the employee assistance handbook (p. 305–318). new york: john wiley & sons. dhanesar, a., & hales, a. (1994). from fitness to wellness: a case study. people dynamics, 12(1), 26–31. finlay, a. (2004). investing in social responsibility. retrieved february 29, 2008, from http://www.southafrica.info/doing_business/economy/development/socialindex.htm gerber, m. (1995). employee assistance: combining communication and organisational development. hrm, 11(4), 31–32. goetzel, r.z., & ozminkowski, r.j. (2008). the health and cost benefits of work site health-promotion programs. annual review of public health, 29, 303–323. doi:10.1146/annurev. publhealth.29.020907.090930 , pmid:18173386 hemp, p. (2004). presenteeism: at work – but out of it. harvard business review, 82(10), 49–58. pmid:15559575 highley, j.c., & cooper, c.l. (1994). evaluating eaps. personnel review, 23, 1–12. doi:10.1108/00483489410072226 hillier, d., fewell, f., cann, w., & shepard, v. (2005). wellness at work: enhancing the quality of our working lives. international review of psychiatry, 17(5), 419–431. doi:10.1080/09540260500238363 , pmid:16194820 hooper, m. (2004). employee well-being: a hard issue. people dynamics, 22(3), 8–9. janice, t.s., & ho, c. (1997). corporate wellness programmes in singapore: effect on stress, satisfaction and absenteeism. journal of managerial psychology, 12(3), 177–189. doi:10.1108/02683949710174801 kompier, m., de gier, e., smulders, p., & draaisma, d. (1994). regulations, policies and practices concerning work stress in five european countries. work & stress, 8, 296–318. doi:10.1080/02678379408256538 korhonen, i., lappalainen, r., tuomisto, t., koobi, t., pentikainen, v., tuomisto, m., & turjanmaa, v. (1998). terva: wellness monitoring system. proceedings of the 20th annual international conference of the ieee engineering in medicine and biology society, 20, 1988–1991. launis, k., & pihlaja, j. (2007). changes in production concepts emphasize problems in work-related well-being. safety science, 45, 603–619. doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2007.01.006 l.d. (2007). wellness may get better. cfo, 23(10), 24–24. leiter, m.p., & wahlen, j. (1996). the role of employee assistance counselors in addressing organization problems. employee assistance quarterly, 12(1), 15–28. doi:10.1300/j022v12n01_02 lesch, n.k. (2005). motorola drives strategic initiatives through collaboration and interdependence. the integration of employee assistance, work/life, and wellness services, 77, 203–217. lindfors, p.m., meretoja, o.a., toyry, s.m., luukkonen, r.a., elovainio, m.j., & leino, t.j. (2007). job satisfaction, work ability and life satisfaction among finnish anaesthesiologists. acta anaesthesiologica scandinavica, 51, 815–822. doi:10.1111/j.1399-6576.2007.01343.x , pmid:17578460 makrides, l. (2004). the case for workplace health promotion. newsbeat of cacr, 12, 1–6. martin, t., kirkcaldy, b.d., & siefen, g. (2003). religiosity and health among german adolescents. journal of managerial psychology, 18(5), 453–470. doi:10.1108/02683940310484044 maslach, c., schaufeli, w.b., & leiter, m.p. (2001). job burnout. annual review of psychology, 52, 397–422. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397 , pmid:11148311 mcclenahan, c.a., giles, m.l., & mallett, j. (2007). the importance of context specificity in work stress research: a test of the demand-control-support model in academics. work & stress, 27, 85–95. doi:10.1080/02678370701264552 merina, a. (1992). wellness at work. nea today, 10(6), 4. myers, d.w. (1984). establishing and building employee assistance programs. westport, c.t.: quorum books. naidoo, a.v., & jano, r. (2003). the role of eaps the sa context. the social work practitioner-researcher: a journal on the application of research in practice, 15(2), 113–127. naydeck, b.l., pearson, j.a., ozminkowski, r.j., day, b.t., & goetzel, r.z. (2008). the impact of the highmark employee wellness programs on 4-year healthcare costs. journal of occupational & environmental medicine, 50(2), 146–156. doi:10.1097/jom.0b013e3181617855 , pmid:18301171 noblet, a.j., & rodwel, j.j. (2007). integrating job stress and social exchange theories to predict employee well-being. academy of management proceedings, p. 1–6. pallarito, k. (2007). weighing the benefits of wellness. business insurance, 41(15), 9–12. porter, m.v. (2005). wellness at work. association management, 57(4), 49–54. ramanathan, c.s. (1992). eaps response to personal stress and productivity: implications for occupational social work. social work, 37(3), 234–239. renaud, l., kishchuk, n., juneau, m., nigam, a., tétreault, k., & leblanc, m. (2008). implementation and outcomes of a comprehensive worksite health promotion programme. canadian journal of public health, 99(1), 73–77. seta. (2007). seta definition. retrieved october 24, 2007, from http://www.southafrica.info/doing business/economy/development/setas overview.htm shaughnessy, j.j., & zechmeister, e.b. (1997). research methods in psychology (4th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. shaw, g., alfonso, h., howat, p.a., & corben, k. (2007). use of pedometers in a workplace physical activity program. australasian journal of podiatric medicine, 41, 23–28. spss. (2007). spss 15.0 for windows. chicago, il: spss incorporated. taris, w.t., kompier, m.a.j., geurts, s.a.e., schreurs, p.j.g., schaufeli, w.b., de boer, e., sepmeijer, k.j., & wattez, c. (2003). stress management interventions in the dutch domiciliary care sector: findings from 81 organizations. international journal of stress management, 70, 297–325. doi:10.1037/1072-5245.10.4.297 taute, f., & manzini, k. (2009). factors that hinder the utilisation of the employee assistance programme in the department of labour. social work, 45(4), 1–9. terblanche, l.s. (1992). the state of the art of eaps in sa: a critical analysis. in r. p. maiden (ed.), employee assistance programmes in south africa (p. 17–28). london: the hawthorn press. thøgersen-ntoumani, c., & fox, k. (2005). physical activity and mental well-being typologies in corporate employees: a mixed methods approach. work and stress, 19(1), 50–67. doi:10.1080/02678370500084409 van den bergh, n. (2000). where have we been...? where are we going...? employee assistance practice in the 21st century. employee assistance quarterly, 16(1/2), 1–13. doi:10.1300/j022v16n01_01 van den ende, l. (2004). corporate social responsibility in south africa: fact or fiction. unpublished master’s dissertation in business management. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. watkins, j. (2003). wellness beats output slump. people management, 9(25), 12–12. white, r.k., mcduff, d.r., schwartz, r.p., tiegel, s.a., & judge, c.p. (1996). new developments in employee assistance programs. psychiatric services, 47, 387–391. pmid:8689369 wojcik, j. (2007). employers spot link between health, profit. business insurance, 41(50), p. 120. zarkin, g.a., bray, j.w., & qi, j. (2000). the effect of employee assistance programs use on healthcare utilization. health services research, 35, 77–100. pmid:10778825, pmcid:1089116 abstract introduction research purpose and objective literature review millennial workplace behaviours millennials and hofstede’s cultural values typology method results discussion limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) carolyn easton graduate school of business leadership, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa renier steyn graduate school of business leadership, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation easton, c., & steyn, r. (2022). millennials hold different cultural values to those of other generations: an empirical analysis. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1901. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1901 original research millennials hold different cultural values to those of other generations: an empirical analysis carolyn easton, renier steyn received: 06 feb. 2022; accepted: 12 apr. 2022; published: 28 july 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: literature on the appropriate management of millennials in the workplace is plentiful. this differential treatment is on the premise that millennials hold different values to other generations. research purpose: the aim of this research was to test the assumption of cultural value differences between the generations and to specify where these differences exist. motivation for the study: knowledge of specific values held by the millennials will assist those who work with this generation to adjust their behaviours. research approach/design and method: this research was conducted in south africa in organisations, sampling employees across three generations. cross-sectional data were collected using an instrument based on hofstede’s typology. after confirming the reliability and general factorial validity of the instrument, mean scores were compared using analyses of variance. as a broad measure, the correlation between age and the cultural values was determined. main findings: there were significant differences between the generations on three of hofstede’s cultural value dimensions, namely long-term orientation, power distance and masculinity. millennials scored lower on power distance and masculinity compared to the baby boomer generation and generation x. millennials scored higher on long-term orientation compared to the baby boomer generation. practical/managerial implications: this research affirms some of the existing stereotypes about millennials and specifies where these exist. these results can be used to better understand and effectively work with millennials in the workplace. contribution/value-add: through this study, we can acknowledge that millennials are somewhat different from the other generations in the workplace and so should be treated somewhat differently. keywords: hofstede; characteristics; cultural values; generations; millennials. introduction a generation is a group of individuals born within the same time period, having the same lifestyles and sharing life occurrences (parveen & vanaja, 2019; treffler & herzig, 2018). the events and social conditions in the life of a specific generational cohort shape their values and behaviours (noonan, bunn, & shearin, 2019), and generational groupings have proven to be a useful tool in explaining differences amongst people (campbell, campbell, siedor, & twenge, 2015). generational cohorts have common expectations and preferences in the workplace (otieno & nyambegera, 2019). where organisations strive for success, that success depends on their leadership having the ability to acknowledge and manage differences between the different generational cohorts (shuler, faulk, hidleburg-johnson, & williams, 2016). there are currently three generations in the workplace, namely the baby boomer generation (born between 1946 and 1964), generation x (born between 1965 and 1979) and generation y, also known as the millennial generation (born between 1980 and 2000) (kaifi, nafei, khanfar, & kaifi, 2012). given these distinctions, there is a need to identify if values are fundamentally different across the generational cohorts so that each segment of the workforce can be effectively managed (brink & zondag, 2019). research purpose and objective the purpose of this study was to investigate whether the millennial generation is different from other generations in the workplace by virtue of the values according to which they live and that they hold dear. this knowledge would then improve employer engagement with millennials and inform how they are treated in the workplace. literature review the millennial generation is known as the ‘digital generation’, that is, having been born in an era of information and communications technology advancement. this has caused them to be more ‘tech-dependent’, in that they are somehow incomplete without the technology that allows them to improve their knowledge anytime and anywhere (parveen & vanaja, 2019; wotapka, 2017; zainuddin, latif, sulaiman, yusof, & ahmad, 2019). millennial children have a reputation for having grown up receiving constant praise and reward from their parents. this phenomenon is known as ‘helicopter parenting’ and is characterised by parents hovering around their children, ready to swoop in when their children need them (casey, 2015). millennials are also regarded as the most educated generation and are likely to hold tertiary qualifications that will have prepared them well for the workplace and their careers (paulin, 2018; sabir, naved, khan, & khan, 2019). although the millennial generation may be stereotyped as being entitled and overly dependent (hallman, 2016), their upbringing has also enabled them to have positive qualities in their lives, such as optimism and confidence (kosterlitz & lewis, 2017). they look for meaning and purpose above that which is to be found in material gain (cox, stewart, lortie, & barreto, 2019), and they want to make a difference in the world (jirasevijinda, 2018). in addition, they like self-expression and for their thoughts and opinions to matter and be accepted (smith & turner, 2015). millennial workplace behaviours millennials have their own views of the ideal work environment – including the matter of authority – emanating from their own set of values and explanations (rony, 2019), and they believe that respect for authority is earned (casey, 2015). they are not impressed with positions and titles and tend to have a more familiar relationship with authority figures (sledge, 2016). this is reflected in how they look directly to authority figures for direction and validation instead of following the established chain of command, as this is seen as more effective and efficient by the millennial worker (gardner, 2016). being digitally minded and tech-savvy, millennials can carry out more than one task at a time because of the technological gadgets at their disposal (parveen & vanaja, 2019). they become bored by mundane employment as they strive to learn their jobs quickly and then move onto something new (axten, 2015). because of the ease at which they access and obtain information, millennial workers are impatient and less committed to a specific employer (pratama, nasution, & absah, 2019). accordingly, they consider commitment in the workplace as a shorter-term arrangement than do older workers and are, in turn, considered as less loyal to their employer (wotapka, 2017). in the workplace, they have a strong need for continuous learning and development (atieq, 2019) and are willing to work hard where they believe in the vision of the organisation and feel that they are included (firestone, 2016). because they like to be informed, they have a greater need for information than previous generations and prefer an ongoing flow of information (ben-hur & ringwood, 2017). millennial workers are confident achievers, energetic tech-understanding multi-taskers and globally minded, wanting to make a difference in the work they do (hallman, 2016). they are confident in the workplace, are risk-takers and tend to plan better than the older generations (sabir et al., 2019). they are open to change and will question the status quo (endress, 2019; maier, tavanti, bombard, gentile, & bradford, 2015). they will reject the notion that they are required to work within the rigid confines of a job description (endress, 2019) and will challenge norms in the workplace, such as dress codes and employee–supervisor relations (maier et al., 2015). millennial workers are not shy and are more likely than previous generations to let their employer know when they are not happy, being most satisfied when they are given a voice and when they know that their voice is heard in the decision-making of the organisation (bogosian & rousseau, 2017). they seek a caring interpersonal relationship with their employer that includes an empathetic connection to their needs (sharon, 2015). the millennial generation has been called a ‘contradictory’ generation as they seek independence, flexibility and challenge, and also look for clarity, regular feedback and ‘safety nets’ in case of failure (meng, reber, & rogers, 2017). millennials also have a lower resistance to stress in relation to their peers in older generations (pinzaru et al., 2016). compared to generation x and the baby boomer generation, millennial workers also show a larger sense of entitlement to perks or benefits, particularly where they are being paid less for doing the same work (allen, allen, & white, 2015). this sense of entitlement leads to conflict between generational workers because the older generations believe they had to work to get their promotions and rewards in the workplace (casey, 2015). millennials also have a high level of arrogance in relation to their peers in older generations (pinzaru et al., 2016). work–family life balance is an important value for millennials in employment (hattke, homberg, & znanewitz, 2017), and, inevitably, they will look to change jobs where they perceive they will have more opportunity for leisure (ramli & soelton, 2019). an inclusive culture in the workplace for the millennial generation is where individuals are connected because there is teamwork, collaboration and growth (smith & turner, 2015). this explains why millennials are team players in the workplace, believing that, together, everyone will achieve much more (parveen & vanaja, 2019). recognition is an important value for the millennial worker, and, being confident achievers, they look for direct constant physical feedback and mentoring from their employer (minhas & islamia, 2020) as well as positive reinforcement and praise (kosterlitz & lewis, 2017). this feedback, along with the resultant recognition and reward, needs to be fair and transparent (pratama et al., 2019) as millennials are an ethical generation, and these highly visible recognition practices must celebrate ethical best practices (maier et al., 2015). the work values of the millennial generation are best understood by categorising these values into extrinsic and intrinsic values, as referred to in the literature per table 1. table 1: millennials’ extrinsic and intrinsic work values. in essence, these values are in contrast with the values held dear by other generations, specific as they are to the millennial generation. millennials and hofstede’s cultural values typology geert hofstede, around 1970, created a multi-dimensional model for the study of cultural value differences across nations (hofstede, 2011; minkov & hofstede, 2011). when looking at the term ‘cultural values’, a person is regarded as part of the culture in which they are born into and live their life, and their total value judgements represent the cultural values of their society (gündüz, aktepe, sulak, baspinar, & buyukkarci, 2019). currently, the model comprises six dimensions of cultural values: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, long/short-term orientation and indulgence/restraint. in essence, hofstede looked at basic problems that may be inherent in all societies and these dimensions are further explained below (hofstede, 2011; minkov & hofstede, 2011): power distance refers to social inequality, including the relationship with authority. small power distance or low attraction to power distance indicates reduced respect for, or reduced fear of, older people and an expectation that employees will be consulted. large power distance implies a more entrenched hierarchy in which roles are unequal and have been established for convenience. uncertainty avoidance refers to how society feels about unclear, uncertain or unknown situations. weak uncertainty avoidance is where each day is taken as it comes in that uncertainty is accepted, changing jobs is not a concern, and rules – whether written or unwritten – are not favoured. individualism/collectivism refers to the relationship between the individual and the team or group. when collectivism is prioritised over individualism, the emphasis is on relationship rather than task, there is a need for belonging and harmony, and the objective of education is learning how to do rather than learning how to learn. masculinity/femininity concerns the emotional implications of being born a male or female. in a feminine society, as opposed to a masculine society, there is little differentiation between women and men when looking at their emotional and social roles in life. there is also work–family life balance and both men and women are expected to be humble and caring. long/short-term orientation refers to the choice that individuals make to focus their efforts on the future or on the present and past. in a long term, as opposed to a short term, society, traditions are adapted to changing circumstances, saving and determination are important goals, and individuals regard success as resulting from effort, whilst failure is seen as being caused by a lack of effort. indulgence/restraint represents the control exercised by society relating to how needs are gratified. indulgence occurs where people enjoy life and have fun, whereas restraint occurs where there is regulation and control through strict social norms. an indulgent society is characterised by autonomy in controlling one’s life, freedom of speech and a higher emphasis placed on leisure. from the literature review, we can infer that the millennial generation differs from other generations in the workplace in terms of the values they hold. by applying hofstede’s typologies, we can hypothesise on the nature of these differences. the general null hypotheses stated that the three generations, namely the baby boomer generation, generation x and the millennial generation, do not differ significantly across cultural values (represented by the dimensions per the hofstede scale). the following specific null and alternative hypotheses were set: the approach according to which these hypotheses were tested is described in the following: h10: there is no difference in the way the baby boomer generation, generation x and the millennial generation view power distance. h1a: the millennial generation shows a lower level of attraction to power distance than the other generations. this hypothesis is based on the literature review of bogosian and rosseau (2017), maier et al. (2015) and sledge (2016), suggesting that millennials do not respect the traditional employee–supervisor hierarchy structure in the workplace, are not impressed with positions and titles in the workplace and expect to have a voice in the decision-making of the organisation. h20: there is no difference in the way the baby boomer generation, generation x and the millennial generation view uncertainty avoidance. h2a: the millennial generation has weaker uncertainty avoidance than the other generations. this hypothesis is based on the literature review of kosterlitz and lewis (2018) and wotapka (2017), suggesting that millennials, because of being optimistic and confident in life, and driven by career growth, will remain in jobs for shorter periods than the previous generations. h30: there is no difference in the way the baby boomer generation, generation x and the millennial generation view collectivism. h3a: the millennial generation has a higher level of attraction to collectivism than the other generations. this hypothesis is based on the literature review of parveen and vanaja (2019) and smith and turner (2015), suggesting that the millennial generation wants to feel inclusive in the workplace as team players promoting collaboration and growth between the generations in the workplace. h40: there is no difference in the way the baby boomer generation, generation x and the millennial generation view masculinity. h4a: the millennial generation has a lower level of attraction to masculinity than the other generations. this hypothesis is based on the literature review of hattke et al. (2017), suggesting that work–family life balance is an important value for the millennial generation, thus accepting caring roles for both sexes. h50: there is no difference in the way the baby boomer generation, generation x and the millennial generation view long-term orientation. h5a: the millennial generation has a higher level of attraction to long-term orientation than the other generations. this hypothesis is based on the literature review of firestone (2016), and sabir et al. (2019), suggesting that millennials, being confident achievers, look to the future, plan better and are willing to work hard where they believe in the vision of the organisation and feel included. method population and sampling the target population of this study comprised employees across organisations. this research was conducted in a variety of organisations in south africa. the sample consisted of 1140 respondents across 19 south african organisations. these organisations included both private and public entities representing, amongst others, the telecommunication, financial services, media, manufacturing and electronics industries. the 19 organisations were identified using the criterion of each having an employee who was a registered master’s level student at the graduate school of business leadership at the university of south africa. entrance to the organisations, and thus access to the respondents, was obtained by leveraging the respective students as fellow researchers. random samples of 60 employees were drawn in each organisation. measurement instruments cross-sectional data were collected using an instrument based on hofstede’s typology, after which the data were segmented according to the three generations – millennials, baby boomer and generation x. the cultural values scale (cvs) (yoo, donthu, & lenartowicz, 2011) was used to assess subordinate cultural identity. the cvs was developed so that hofstede’s metric of culture, being a multi-dimensional measure of cultural values, could be used as a direct measure of cultural values at the individual level (yoo, et al., 2011). this scale is reliable and valid, ranging from 0.77 on uncertainty avoidance to 0.85 on collectivism (mazanec, crotts, gursoy, & lu, 2015), and consistent across sample types, for example americans and koreans (yoo et al., 2011). the cvs may be utilised to compare persons at the country level as well as cross-culturally (jakubczak & rakowska, 2014), but does not, as yet, include measures for indulgence. for this study, indulgence, as the sixth cultural value identity dimension, was not measured. the instrument consists of 26 statements. five statements address power distance (e.g. ‘people in higher positions should make most decisions without consulting people in lower positions’), five statements cover uncertainty avoidance (e.g. ‘standardised work procedures are helpful’), six statements deal with collectivism (e.g. ‘group success is more important than individual success’), whilst four measure masculinity (e.g. ‘it is more important for men to have a professional career than it is for women’) and six statements consider long-term orientation (e.g. ‘giving up today’s fun for success in the future’). age, the independent variable, was self-reported. statistical analyses data analysis was performed using ibm spss (statistical package for social sciences) software package. frequency analysis was performed to provide a descriptive view of respondent demographics based on gender and race. measures of central tendency were also calculated for the different age groups (generations). for the reliability assessment of the scale, cronbach’s coefficient alphas were calculated. where the alpha scores were above 0.7, reliability was deemed satisfactory (devellis, 2012), and where the scores were above 0.8, reliability was accepted as preferable (pallant, 2020). factorial validity was assessed using principal components analysis with varimax orthogonal rotation (pallant, 2020), with the aim of showing that the covariance between the items is explainable. the number of factors retained was based on kaiser’s criterion, applying the ‘eigenvalues greater than one’ rule (pallant, 2020). the one-way analysis of variance (anova) was performed, and it indicated whether there were significant differences in the mean scores on hofstede’s cultural values across the three generations. using the scheffe test for a post hoc analysis to determine where the differences lie, an appropriate alpha level of 0.05 was selected. once statistical significance was established; cohen’s d-values were calculated to assess the practical strength of the differences using cohen’s 2008 guidelines (values smaller than 0.2 equal small effect, those up to 0.5 equal medium effect and those up to 0.8 equal large effect). additionally, as a broad measure, correlation between age and the different cultural values was calculated using pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficients. correlations with p-values of less than 0.05 were deemed as significant. correlation coefficients were interpreted as practically significant when the strength of the statistically significant relationships was large (see cohen [1988]; large effect when r = 0.50 to 1.00, medium effect when r = 0.30 to 0.49 and small effect when r = 0.10 to 0.29). results demographic variables descriptive statistics were calculated for the respondents’ age, race and gender, as shown in tables 2, 3 and 4, respectively. table 2: respondents’ age (years). table 3: respondents’ race. table 4: respondents’ gender. in the ‘total group’, the respondents ranged from 20 to 64 years of age. the mean of the total group at 38.62 years of age is within the higher region of the millennial group. the majority by race represented in the sample were the black respondents at 66.8%, followed by the white respondents at 18.1% and the mixed race respondents at 10.2%. the smallest race group represented were the asian respondents at 4.9%. an interesting point to note from table 3 is the representation of the race groups per generation, considering the increase in black employees across the generations (baby boomers, 47.9%; generation x, 60.7%; and millennials, 71.8%) and the decline in white employees across the generations (baby boomers, 45.1%; generation x, 24.0%; and millennials, 12.5%). the tendency for asians and mixed-race people resembled the increase shown amongst black employees. the genders were almost equally represented in the total sample. in the millennial age group, the number of female respondents (53.7%) exceeded the number of male respondents (46.3%). conversely, for generation x, the number of male respondents (54.2%) exceeded the number of female respondents (45.8%). in the baby boomer generation, the number of male respondents (69.0%) exceeded the number of female respondents (31.0%) by a much larger difference. reliability in table 5, the cronbach’s coefficient alpha values of all the factors exceeded 0.7 (devellis, 2012), which is acceptable, and three met the 0.8 criterion (pallant, 2020), which is preferable. table 5: reliability data (n = 1140). factorial validity the validity of the instruments was assessed through factorial analysis. five factors had eigenvalues higher than 1, thus meeting kaiser’s criterion. the five factors explained 56.49% of the variance in the data, which is approaching the 60% rule of thumb (field, 2018). when applying the varimax rotational approach, the results showed that all the items for power distance, uncertainty avoidance, collectivism, masculinity, and long-term orientation loaded onto their respective factors, had weights exceeding 0.50. the weight of the lowest loading was 0.59, and that of the highest loading was 0.86, and there were no significant cross-loadings. the results (not presented in table format here) show significant support for the factorial validity of the scale. mean scores mean scores were calculated on each of the cultural identity dimensions for the three generations. table 6 shows a variation in the mean scores on all dimensions across generations. table 6: differences in mean scores. to assess the magnitude of the differences between the mean scores, anova was performed. the results of the anova are presented in table 7. table 7: one-way analysis of variance mean and p-value. in the anova analysis, there was more variability between the groups than within each group, as indicated by the large f ratio of 5.651 (p = 0.004) for long-term orientation, 4.126 (p = 0.016) for power distance and 3.319 (p = 0.037) for masculinity. in the scheffe post hoc test, which was performed to identify which groups differed, there were significant differences observed between the groups on the following dimensions: power distance between baby boomers and millennials (mean score difference = 0.276, p = 0.016, cohen’s d = 0.341) and between baby boomers and generation x (mean score difference = 0.249, p = 0.046, cohen’s d = 0.302). masculinity between baby boomers and millennials (mean score difference = 0.283, p = 0.041, cohen’s d = 0.302). long-term orientation between baby boomers and millennials (mean score difference = −0.210, p = 0.015, cohen’s d = 0.341) and between baby boomers and generation x (mean score difference = −0.255, p = 0.004, cohen’s d = 0.412). having significantly higher scores on long-term orientation, and lower scores on power distance and masculinity, millennials are primarily different from baby boomers in this area. for the sake of hypotheses testing, only the differences involving millennials are relevant. when considering the cohen’s d-values (see cohen [1988]; small effect when smaller than 0.2, medium effect up to 0.5 and large effect up to 0.8), the differences were of medium or moderate size, meaning that the differences shown above between the generations in terms of the cultural value dimensions – power distance, masculinity and long-term orientation – were not small nor large on a practical level. correlations statistically significant relationships were found between power distance, with a coefficient value of 0.10 (p = 0.001), and masculinity at 0.09 (p = 0.003). statistically insignificant relationships were found between long-term orientation, with a negative coefficient value of −0.04 (p = 0.151), uncertainty avoidance, with a negative coefficient value of −0.05 (p = 0.111), and collectivism at 0.06 (p = 0.053). pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient results showed that the strength of the statistically significant relationships was small (see cohen [1988]; small effect when r = 0.10–0.29). although the relationships between the three generations and the culture value dimensions, power distance and masculinity, were found to be statistically significant, the strength of the relationship between these dimensions and the generations was practically small. discussion the literature on the millennial generation and how they bring different cultural values to the workplace is abundant. from the literature, hypotheses on how millennials may differ culturally from other generations were formulated. the sample could be deemed as representative of the population, inasmuch as the gender distribution (in general) reflects the numbers provided by stats south africa. it is well known that, in general, more men than women are in the workforce (statistics south africa, 2020). it is also expected that this phenomenon will not be as dominant amongst millennials. in addition, the race composition of the total group mirrors the statistics provided by statistics south africa. it is interesting to note that, when divided into generational cohorts, the race composition of the cohorts testifies to the effects of affirmative action on the workplace, with much larger percentages of blacks present in the millennial generation, compared to the number in the baby boomer generation. the cvs showed acceptable psychometric characteristics and the cronbach’s alphas were acceptable (0.75–0.84). with regard to factorial validity, the cvs delivered highly acceptable results. table 8 presents a summary of the differences found in relation to the null and general hypotheses set. table 8: differences found in relation to hypotheses set. the results showed that the general null hypotheses could not be rejected completely, as there were significant differences between the generations on only three of the five cultural value dimensions. from this, we can conclude that it is irresponsible to make a blanket statement that millennials differ (in all respects) from other generations. the results, however, also showed that there are differences between the generations on some (three of the five) cultural value dimensions. considering statistical significance, and practical significance, it is evident that the largest difference pertained to long-term orientation, where millennials were shown to be more attracted to long-term orientation than the baby boomer generation, in that millennials look at the future and are willing to work hard in an inclusive organisation whose vision they believe in. this aligns well with the study of firestone (2016) and sabir et al. (2019). it is important to note that the difference is of medium size, that is, not small and not large. the second largest difference concerned power distance, where millennials were shown to be less attracted to power distance than the baby boomer generation, in that millennials do not respect positions and titles in the workplace, expecting to be consulted in decision-making. this aligns well with the studies of bogosian and rosseau (2017), maier et al. (2015) and sledge (2016). again, it is important to note that the difference is of medium size and neither small nor large. the third largest difference concerned masculinity, where millennials were shown to be less attracted to masculinity than the baby boomer generation, aligning with the belief of millennials that equality for women and men should exist in both emotional and social roles in life, and that this will result in work–family life balance. this aligns well with the study of hattke et al. (2017). again, it is important to note that the difference is of medium size and neither small nor large. it is further of importance that millennials did not differ from the other generations on two dimensions. contrary to what was hypothesised, no differences were found on uncertainty avoidance and collectivism. this suggests that the works of kosterlitz and lewis (2018) and wotapka (2017) could not be affirmed in this data for uncertainty avoidance. the same applies to parveen and vanaja (2019) and smith and turner (2015) for the collectivism cultural dimension. the results from the correlation analyses were mixed, and not in line with those found in tests of mean differences. long-term orientation, for example, showed the most significant differences when comparing the mean, whilst, when looking at the findings related to correlations, this cultural dimension did not significantly correlate with age. these discrepancies, as well as the fact that the significant correlations were small (r < 0.10), emphasise the complexity of generational issues and warrant further research. conclusion this study focused on whether the millennial generation differs from the preceding generations, generation x and the baby boomer generation in the workplace and was undertaken with the intention of better managing this young generation. in reviewing and aligning the outcomes of this study with the theoretical extrinsic and intrinsic values of the millennial generation, as shown in table 1, we can acknowledge that millennials are somewhat different in some respects from the other generations in the workplace and so should be treated somewhat differently. the difference is particularly marked with baby boomers and with respect to long-term orientation, masculinity and power distance. this provides important information for leaders and managers in the workplace so that they can adjust their behaviour accordingly to better work with and manage millennials as the largest emerging generation in the workplace. limitations and recommendations a limitation of this study was the convenient sampling of organisations. however, it should be noted that whilst the sampling of the respondents in organisations was random, the demographics of the respondents seemed to closely reflect the demographics of the country as a whole. a recommendation for future research is to use random sampling of both organisations and respondents. it is also recommended that indulgence should be measured in future research. the absence of a measure of indulgence is regrettable, as indulgence seems to be a central characteristic of millennials. the study also emphasised the complexity of generational issues. mean differences were found in some cases although the correlation analyses did not follow these trends. thus, further research is required on this topic, particularly qualitative research, which is often credited for exposing the complexities of phenomena. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions c.e. contributed towards the article through conceptualisation of the research problem, methodology and formal analysis and wrote the original draft of this article. r.s. contributed towards the article by being the supervisor in reviewing the article and also provided the data and software validation. ethical considerations permission to conduct this research was obtained from the research ethics review committee of the graduate school of business leadership at the university of south africa (approval number: 2016_sbl_003_ca). the data were collected by prof. r. steyn, the co-author of this article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data for this research is available upon reasonable request to the author. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references allen, r.s., allen, d.e., & white, c.s. (2015). are millennials really an entitled generation? an investigation into generational equity sensitivity differences. the journal of business diversity, 15(2), 14–26. atieq, m.q. (2019). comparative analysis of employee engagement in employees generation x, y, and z. al-amwal: jurnal ekonomi dan perbankan syari’ah, 11(2), 285–299. https://doi.org/10.24235/amwal.v11i2.4873 axten, c. (2015). millennials at work: the advice of great leaders. defense at&l, 39(1), 50–55. retrieved from https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ada620591.pdf ben-hur, s., & ringwood, d. (2017). making generational differences work: what empirical research reveals about leading millennials. imd | perspectives for managers, (1–17), 1–4. retrieved from www.imd.org/pfm bogosian, r., & rousseau, c. (2017). how and why millennials are shaking up organizational cultures. rutgers business review, 2(3), 386–394. brink, k.e., & zondag, m.m. (2019). examining job attribute preferences across three generational cohorts. journal of career development, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845319837384 campbell, w.k., campbell, s.m., siedor, l.e., & twenge, j.m. (2015). generational differences are real and useful. industrial and organizational psychology, 8(3), 324–408. https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2015.43 casey, s. (2015). how millennial are you? pm world journal, iv(x), 1–18. retrieved from https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/pmwj39-oct2015-casey-how-millennial-are-you-second-edition.pdf cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioural sciences. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. cox, k.c., stewart, s.a., lortie, j., & barreto, t.s. (2019). different strokes for different folks: generational differences, social salience, and social performance. international journal of entrepreneurship and innovation, 20(3), 170–181. https://doi.org/10.1177/1465750318796718 datta, a., & jain, a. (2017). millennials’ perception of work environment: a climate study amongst employees of hotel industry. synergy journal of management, 19(1&2), 23–30. devellis, r.f. (2012). scale development: theory and applications. thousand oaks, ca: sage. endress, t.w. (2019). the perception of millennial professional engineer regarding workplace job satisfaction: an exploratory study. doctoral dissertation. mn: capella university. field, a. (2018). discovering statistics using ibm spss statistics (5th ed.). london: sage. firestone, s. (2016). millennials are people too: evaluating other generations’ negative perceptions of millennials and the impact this has on workplace. review of business and technology research, 13(1), 87–91. gardner, s.k. (2016). mentoring the millennial faculty member. the department chair, 27(1), 6–8. https://doi.org/10.1002/dch.30088 gündüz, m., aktepe, v., sulak, s.e., başpınar, z., & büyükkarcı, a. (2019). cultural values defining turkish nation: from the perspectives of history teachers. international journal of instruction, 12(2), 193–208. https://doi.org/10.29333/iji.2019.12213a hallman, h.l. (2016). millennial teachers. learning to teach in uncertain times. new york, ny: routledge. hattke, f., homberg, f., & znanewitz, j. (2017). retaining employees – a study on work values of the millennial generation. academy of management proceedings, 2017(1). https://doi.org/10.13140/rg.2.2.35500.16006 hee, o.c., & rhung, l.x. (2019). motivation and employee retention among millennials in malaysia. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 9(2), 876–884. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v9-i2/5629 hofstede, g. (2011). dimensionalizing cultures: the hofstede model in context. online readings in psychology and culture, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1014 jakubczak, j., & rakowska, a. (2014). cultural values and entrepreneurship: pilot study. in human capital without borders: knowledge and learning for quality of life: proceedings of the management, knowledge and learning international conference, pp. 529–536. jirasevijinda, t. (2018). bridging the generation gap in the workplace: how i learned to stop worrying and love working with the millennial generation. journal of communication in healthcare, 11(2), 83–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/17538068.2018.1485830 kaifi, b.a., nafei, w.a., khanfar, n.m., & kaifi, m.m. (2012). a multi-generational workforce: managing and understanding millennials. international journal of business and management, 7(24), 88–93. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v7n24p88 kosterlitz, m., & lewis, j. (2017). from baby boomer to millennial: succession planning for the future. nurse leader, 15(6), 396–398. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2017.09.006 kuron, l.k.j., lyons, s.t., schweitzer, l., & ng, e.s.w. (2015). millennials’ work values: differences across the school to work transition. personnel review, 44(6), 991–1009. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-01-2014-0024 maier, t., tavanti, m., bombard, p., gentile, m., & bradford, b. (2015). millennial generation perceptions of value-centered leadership principles. journal of human resources in hospitality and tourism, 14(4), 382–397. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332845.2015.1008386 mazanec, j.a., crotts, j.c., gursoy, d., & lu, l. (2015). homogeneity versus heterogeneity of cultural values: an item-response theoretical approach applying hofstede’s cultural dimensions in a single nation. tourism management, 48, 299–304. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.11.011 meng, j., reber, b.h., & rogers, h. (2017). managing millennial communication professionals: connecting generation attributes, leadership development, and employee engagement. journal of turiba university, acta prosperitatis, 8, 68–83. minhas, c., & islamia, j.m. (2020). comparing generation x to millennial employees on their belief pertaining to work life balance at the workplace. ugc care journal, 40(10), 646–659. minkov, m., & hofstede, g. (2011). the evolution of hofstede’s doctrine. cross cultural management: an international journal, 18(1), 10–20. https://doi.org/10.1108/13527601111104269 noonan, c., bunn, j., & shearin, h. (2019). ranking of the generic abilities among baby boomer, generation x, and millennial physical therapists and physical therapy students. internet journal of allied health sciences and practice, 17(4), 7. https://doi.org/10.46743/1540-580x/2019.1861 otieno, j.o., & nyambegera, s.m. (2019). millennials and generation z employees are here : is your organization ready? journal of language, technology & entrepreneurship in africa, 10(2), 68–85. ozcelik, g. (2015). engagement and retention of the millennial generation in the workplace through internal branding. international journal of business and management, 10(3), 99–107, https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v10n3p99 pallant, j. (2020). spss survivor manual (7th ed.). allen & unwin, australia. parveen, s., & vanaja, m. (2019). changing the quality of teacher education with the perspective of y-learners. journal of information and computational science, 9(10), 626–631. paulin, g.d. (2018). fun facts about millennials: comparing expenditure patterns from the latest through the greatest generation. monthly labor review, 2018(3), 1–49. https://doi.org/10.21916/mlr.2018.9 pinzaru, f., vatamanescu, e., mitan, a., savulescu, r., vitelar, a., noaghea, c., & balan, m. (2016). millennials at work: investigating the specificity of generation y versus other generations. management dynamics in the knowledge economy, 4(2), 173–192. pratama, p., nasution, h., & absah, y. (2019). analysis of the influence of organizational justice, corporate social responsibility, and job satisfaction on employee commitment to millennial generation at pt capella dinamik nusantara, north sumatra, indonesia. american international journal of business management (aijbm), 2(4), 88–98. ramli, y., & soelton, m. (2019). the millennial workforce: how do they commit to the organization? international journal of business, economics and law, 19(5), 7–18. rony, z.t. (2019). generation y challenges in becoming innovative leaders at organization in the 21st century. international journal of recent technology and engineering, 8(2 special issue 9), 789–794. https://doi.org/10.35940/ijrte.b1164.0982s91z9 sabir, s., naved, r.t., khan, m., & khan, k. (2019). communicating business ethics : the role of ethics in the millennial entrepreneur’s decision to start a business. european journal of natural and social sciences, 8(3), 75–84. sharon, a.l. (2015). understanding the millennial generation. journal of financial service professionals, 69(6), 11–14. retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.laureatech.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=0a0336d0-b8da-410d-a5b3-7e42fa4cbe86@sessionmgr4004&vid=1&hid=4210 shuler, h.d., faulk, k., hidleburg-johnson, b., & williams, d. (2016). engaging diverse generations in the 21st century workplace. international journal of business research and management, 7(3), 31–39. retrieved from http://www.cscjournals.org/manuscript/journals/ijbrm/volume7/issue3/ijbrm-206.pdf sledge, c. (2016). influence, power, and authority: using millennials’ views to shape leadership practices. (february), 22. retrieved from http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/1037976.pdf smith, c., & turner, s. (2015). the radical transformation of diversity and inclusion: the millennial influence. deloitte university the leadership center for inclusion, pp. 1–24. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/us/documents/about-deloitte/us-inclus-millennial-influence-120215.pdf sruk, b. (2020). how millennials are changing organizations and business models – new values, new principles, new culture. diem : dubrovnik international economic meeting, 5(1), 101–108. statistics south africa. (2020). how do women fare in the south african labour market? retrieved from http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=11375 treffler, j., & herzig, a. (2018). cohabitation in multigenerational workplaces: leader-follower relationships between millennials and baby boomers. master’s thesis. linnaeus university. wotapka, d. (2017). q&a: don’t believe these millennial myths. journal of accountancy, may, 39–40. yoo, b., donthu, n., & lenartowicz, t. (2011). measuring hofstede’s five dimensions of cultural values at the individual level: development and validation of cvscale. journal of international consumer marketing, 23(3), 193–210. zainuddin, z.n., latif, n.e.a., sulaiman, s., yusof, f.m., & ahmad, m. (2019). critical thinking: way forward for human capital in the age of millennial. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 9(13), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v9-i13/6254 abstract introduction aim of study research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) adrian g. van der hoven department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa bright mahembe department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa desiree hamman-fisher department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa citation van der hoven, a.g., mahembe, b., & hamman-fisher, d. (2021). the influence of servant leadership on psychological empowerment and organisational citizenship on a sample of teachers. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1395. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1395 original research the influence of servant leadership on psychological empowerment and organisational citizenship on a sample of teachers adrian g. van der hoven, bright mahembe, desiree hamman-fisher received: 09 may 2020; accepted: 10 dec. 2020; published: 26 mar. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the exhibition of organisation citizenship behaviour (ocb) by teachers is of great benefit for human capital development. teachers’ perceptions of school principals as servant leaders play a critical role in their psychological empowerment and exhibition of ocbs. research purpose: the goal of the study was to analyse the relationship between servant leadership, psychological empowerment and ocb of teachers in the south african school system. motivation for the study: teachers are usually under pressure to attend to the academic needs of the learners, which may be required either during normal working hours or after hours. this has necessitated the need to investigate the role played by a school principal’s servant leadership style in influencing the exhibition of ocbs. research approach/design and method: a non-probability sample of 203 teachers drawn from selected schools in the western cape province of south africa was utilised. item and dimensional analysis as well as structural equation modelling were performed on the data. main findings: the constructs of servant leadership, psychological empowerment and ocb displayed high levels of internal consistency. generally, a reasonable model fit was found for the structural and measurement models of the latent variables through confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. positive relationships were found between servant leadership, psychological empowerment and ocb. practical/managerial implications: a principal’s servant leadership approach is likely to promote teacher empowerment and development as it enables the principal to develop teachers to their fullest potential through mentoring and coaching. the teachers are likely to respond with ocb, which benefits the learners and society at large. contribution/value-add: schools face the challenge of motivating teachers. one of the ways of achieving this objective is by encouraging servant leadership amongst principals. servant leadership promotes positive outcomes and extra-role behaviours. keywords: servant leadership; psychological empowerment; organisational citizenship behaviour; extra-role behaviour; teachers. introduction school principals and teachers play a pivotal role in imparting the important skills required for successful learning performance and further education and training (mahembe & engelbrecht, 2013; mestry, 2017; subedi & shrestha, 2020). according to the personnel administrative measures, section 4 of the employment of educators act (1998), the teacher’s core duties and responsibilities during and outside the formal school day include scheduled teaching time, relief teaching, extra and co-curricular duties, pastoral duties, administration, supervisory and management functions, professional duties, planning, preparation and evaluation. in addition to these teaching responsibilities, teachers take on various voluntary support roles such as offering additional classes, thus exhibiting organisational citizenship behaviour (ocb) (collett, 2013). organisational citizenship behaviour entails the display of voluntary extra-role behaviours that are not formally paid for but are essential for organisational success (katz, 1964; organ, 1988). generally, ocb has been found to be related to teacher efficacy and workplace spirituality (choong, ng, ai na, & tan, 2019; mahipalan & muhammed, 2019) and reduced turnover intention (risa & purba, 2019). it has also been reported that ocb predicts quality, creativity and efficient performance (yaakobi & weisberg, 2020). organisational citizenship behaviour is a function of antecedents such as job satisfaction, personality, organisational climate (asari, 2017; saxena, tomar, & tomar, 2019) and the nature of the psychological contract between the employer and employee (chahar, 2019) and organisational commitment (prasetio, yuniarsih, & ahman, 2017). although the offering of extra classes is not formally recognised or remunerated as part of a teacher’s core duties, it is a vital component of a teacher’s job. the variance in learner performance at the school level is thus by implication directly related to the extent to which teachers exhibit organisational citizenship behaviour (mahembe & engelbrecht, 2014). various studies have reported that employees who exhibit ocbs are more satisfied and committed to their organisations (aslam, 2012; foote & tang, 2008; hamman-fisher, 2008; mohammad, habib, & alias, 2011; organ & ryan, 1995; veloen, 2016). teachers perceive extra role, unrewarded and non-obligatory tasks to have a strong influence on themselves, their students and on their school (oplatka, 2009). it is, therefore, important to identify the behaviours that promote the enactment of ocbs. principals, as leaders, can play a critical role in helping teachers to realise their potential and engage in extra-role behaviour (cerit, 2009). one of the leadership approaches that are likely to affect school team effectiveness is servant leadership. servant leadership unlike traditional leadership styles, which were largely mechanical, bureaucratic and dictatorial focuses on developing employees’ potential using persuasive mapping and one-on-one coaching to achieve goals (greenleaf, 1977). principals are expected to act as role models that inspire teachers to have self-confidence and the ability to foster good long-term relationships with parents and other important stakeholders through respectful engagement (graham, 1991; liden, wayne, zhao, & henderson, 2008; van dierendonck & nuitjen, 2011). robert greenleaf, the father of servant leadership, defined a servant leader as one whose mind and behaviour is centred on the development and empowerment of followers, whilst encouraging them to act as servant leaders themselves (greenleaf, 1997; newman, scharwz, cooper, & sendjaya, 2017). therefore, the power of the servant leader lies in the leader’s ability to unleash the potential and thus the power of those around them (van winkle, allen, devore, & winston, 2014). in a school setting, the principal as a servant leader formulates a conducive environment where teachers collaboratively work towards a joint vision to ultimately improve the school environment and its functioning (cerit, 2009; du four, 2001). servant leaders motivate followers to go beyond their prescribed job requirements to exhibit ocbs (ehrhart, 2004; mahembe & engelbrecht, 2014). by its very nature, servant leadership is empowering (barbuto & wheeler, 2002; greenleaf, 1997). as the leader is available to nurture and coach his or her subordinates, the recipients of the nurturance become ‘wiser’ and psychologically empowered (barbuto & wheeler, 2002; greenleaf, 1997). in addition, when employees feel that leaders care for their employees’ development and growth, they feel psychologically empowered and are highly likely to engage in ocb. individuals who are empowered experience a sense of self-determination because they feel they are not micro-managed and can act autonomously (quinn & spreitzer, 1997). it is, therefore, proposed that leaders provide employees the opportunity to exercise their freedom to choose where and how they can contribute. leaders (principals) are responsible for the empowerment of their employees (teachers) (ehrhart, 2004). leadership empowerment behaviours include providing work that are meaningful, fostering participation in decision-making, expressing confidence in high performance and encouraging autonomy (quinn & spreitzer, 1997). although there has been an increase in studies on servant leadership and ocb (mahembe & engelbrecht, 2014; vondey, 2010), most of the studies are conducted in corporate environments with the exception of a study conducted by mahembe and engelbrecht (2014) in the education sector. this study investigated the role that servant leadership played in influencing ocb and team effectiveness. there is, however, a dearth in literature on the role played by servant leadership in influencing psychological empowerment and ocb amongst teachers in the south african education sector. aim of study the main goal of this research was to study the relationship between servant leadership, psychological empowerment and ocb in the south african school system at selected schools in the western cape province. the secondary goal was to validate the theoretical model exploring the structural relationships amongst these variables. conceptualising organisational citizenship behaviour over the past three decades, a substantial increase of interest in ocb occurred. organisational citizenship behaviour as a concept has gained considerable popularity, which is supported by a plethora of scholarly articles documenting ocb as an important work behaviour (hendricks, 2017; mahembe, engelbrecht, chinyamurindi, & kandekande, 2015; unal, 2013). employees who engage in positive work behaviours are characterised as good citizens. this is because ocbs promote organisational effectiveness, enhance work performance and positively contribute towards overall organisational functioning and survival (lavelle, 2010; mahembe & engelbrecht, 2014; özturk, 2010). organ (1990, pp. 43–72) as cited in unal (2013) itemised positive ocbs and actions as follows: expressing a personal interest in the work of others (helping others) staying late or working weekends providing suggestions for improvement performing at levels that exceed enforceable standards caring for organisational property punctuality willingness to endure occupational cost refraining from expressing resentment and complaining about insignificant matters. since its inception, numerous definitions and conceptualisations of ocb have been postulated, with organ’s (1988) conceptualisation as the most widely accepted (mahembe et al., 2015). organ (1988) defined ocb as work-related behaviours that are discretionary, not directly or explicitly acknowledged by the formal reward system, and summatively promote the effective and efficient functioning of the organisation. ocb is a multidimensional concept with overlapping dimensions and themes (see table 1). table 1: the dominant themes of organisational citizenship behaviour. the five dimensions of ocb as proposed by organ (1988) are widely accepted across the globe and are considered as one of the standard measures of this concept. the five dimensions that form the underlying factor structure of the organisational citizenship behaviour scale (ocbs), designed by podsakoff, mackenzie, moorman and fetter (1990) are altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship, courtesy and civic virtue (organ, 1988). altruism refers to the degree of willingness an employee exhibits when helping another employee with task related matters (unal, 2013). this can include tasks such as helping a colleague with a problem, voluntarily orientating a new employee, sharing strategies, showing employees how to accomplish challenging work-related tasks and teaching employees beneficial and useful knowledge or skills (unal, 2013). conscientiousness refers to the degree to which the employee would go beyond the basic role requirements of the organisation, in terms of observing the rules and regulations, working diligently, not taking extended breaks, attendance, punctuality and working overtime with no extra pay (farh, zhong, & organ, 2004; unal, 2013). sportsmanship refers to the display of willingness to tolerate trivial and temporary shortcomings such as minor grievances and inconveniences by staff members. sportsmanship involves the preserving of a positive attitude and good spirit amidst challenging work circumstances whilst accomplishing work-related tasks (sha, 2007). courtesy refers to discretionary behaviour demonstrated by employees in the interest of preventing and avoiding future workplace problems and conflicts (farh et al., 2004; unal, 2013). a courteous employee is described as an individual who performs thoughtful and considerate gestures towards fellow colleagues and avoids creating problems for co-workers by reducing intergroup conflict (ishak & alam, 2009; unal, 2013). civic virtue refers to the interest, constructive involvement and participation of an employee, in the activities of the organisation. this dimension consists of those behaviours such as attending and actively participating in meetings and managerial events, engaging in policy debates as well as expressing one’s opinion on the implementation of policy changes (ishak & alam, 2009). an employee that displays civic virtue will show commitment to the organisation by looking out for the institution’s best interest. conceptualising psychological empowerment the concept of psychological empowerment is widely accepted in both management practice and theory (cingoz & kaplan, 2015; conger & kanungo, 1988; gong, wu, huang, yan, & luo, 2020; khan, malik, & saleem, 2020; wang & lee, 2009). a plethora of research has been conducted over the past two decades refining the concept of psychological empowerment and also exploring its antecedents and consequences (wang & lee, 2009). psychological empowerment affects a broad range of outcomes in an organisational context, such as job satisfaction, innovative behaviour, intention to leave, organisational citizenship behaviour, employee creativity and innovation, job performance and organisational learning (cingoz & kaplan, 2015). psychological empowerment reflects an ‘active, rather than a passive orientation towards work roles’ (spreitzer, 1995, p. 1444). psychological empowerment refers to psychological states shaped by the work environment, making sense of an individual’s work roles and the active engagement of individuals (wang & lee, 2009). conger and kanungo (1988) referred to psychological empowerment as a process whereby one’s belief in himself or herself is enhanced. therefore, the conceptualisation of psychological empowerment is viewed as a motivational concept of self-efficacy (tastan, 2013). thomas and velthouse (1990) further defined psychological empowerment as increased intrinsic motivation manifested in a set of four cognitions. these cognitions reflect an individual’s orientation to the work role and include meaning, competence, self-determination and impact (tastan, 2013). meaning refers to the value placed on work in relation to an individual’s own ideals, beliefs, values and standards (aksel, serinkan, kizilogulu, & aksoy, 2013). work is meaningful to individuals when personnel understand the importance of their job for themselves and the organisation, thus they pay more attention to their role and duties (najafi, noruzy, khezriazar, nazari-shirkouhi, & dalvand, 2011). when employees find work meaningful, the outcome is that they work better and take pride in what they do and accomplish (najafi et al., 2011). according to spreitzer (1995) and thomas and velthouse (1990), competence is the degree to which an individual believes they can perform tasks and activities skilfully. this is the self-confidence of individuals in their personal abilities to fulfil their assigned duties or tasks. in addition, there is also the belief that they can utilise the resources provided by the organisation to perform and fulfil their responsibilities (najafi et al., 2011). self-determination refers to an individual’s sense of control and autonomy over his or her work activities (spreitzer, 1995). employees feel empowered when they form part of decision-making, have an opportunity to exercise authority and have the freedom to choose the extent to which they can contribute (theron, 2010). impact refers to the degree to which an individual may have an influence on work outcomes strategically, administratively and operationally (ashforth, 1989). impact refers to the amount of control an individual has over his or her jobs, the influential impact they have over pertinent organisational matters and the accomplishment felt in achieving the objective of a particular task (theron, 2010). conceptualising servant leadership servant leadership has its roots in the 1970s work of robert greenleaf who realised that for optimal leadership effectiveness the leaders need to serve and care for their followers first through coaching and prioritising the personal skill development of the followers. greenleaf (1977 as cited in spears, 2005) described servant leadership as follows: the servant-leader is servant first … it begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. the best test is: do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become wealthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? (p. 1) according to eva, robin, sendjaya, van dierendonck and liden (2019) in their meta-theoretical article on servant leadership, the prominence of servant leadership is increasing as indicated by the fact that over 100 research articles have been published during the past 4 years. servant leadership has been documented as essential for promoting gratitude, empowerment, innovativeness and organisational performance (baykal, zehir, & hole, 2018; cai, lysova, khapova, & bossink, 2018); organisational citizenship behaviour and team effectiveness (mahembe & engelbrecht, 2014) and work engagement (yang, ming, ma, & huo, 2017). servant leadership has a negative relationship with turnover intention (brohi et al., 2018). in addition to the beneficial work outcomes, servant leadership has been reported to enhance student engagement in the classroom (noland & richards, 2015); teacher empowerment (hammond, 2018) and teacher job satisfaction (georgolopoulos, papaloi, & loukorou, 2018; van der hoven, 2016). despite the prominence and beneficial outcomes of servant leadership, there is no universally agreed on conceptual definition (see table 2) (focht & ponton, 2015). scholars are, however, convinced that any theory of servant leadership should allude to humility, empathy, altruism, empowerment, caring, vision, trustworthiness, interpersonal acceptance, integrity and hope amongst others as indicated in table 2 (van dierendonck, 2011). table 2: the dominant themes of servant leadership. the relationships between servant leadership, psychological empowerment and organisational citizenship behaviour leadership behaviours were also found to be an important predictor of ocb. according to sha (2007), an employee’s willingness to engage in ocb is dependent on the leader’s influence. research has found that the quality of the relationship between the leader and the employee is thus of significant importance for ocb (podsakoff et al., 2000). organ, podsakoff and mackenzie (2005) stated that leaders who set a good example inspire followers to become servant leaders themselves. the servant leader encourages the follower to engage in ocb by serving them through the establishment of quality relationships and driving development and growth. a study conducted by shahzad et al. (2013) reported that there is a significant positive relationship between servant leadership and ocb. at the school level, teachers are more likely to engage collaboratively with a principal who cares for their own personal development and serves them with humility and unconditional positive regard. the feeling created is likely to motivate the teachers to engage in extra-role behaviours as a form of appreciation. this will in return ensure that the school achieves its objectives (mccrimmon, 2010; van dierendonck, 2011). based on the given empirical findings and theoretical arguments, it was hypothesised that servant leadership positively affects ocb. fong and snape (2015) posited that empowerment could be perceived as a state that comes from within an individual, demonstrating that the concept of empowerment and intrinsic motivation is similar. the results indicate that the role of empowering employees will result in employees exhibiting organisational citizenship behaviours (raub & robert, 2010). this is consistent with a study conducted by chan, taylor and markham (2008) with a sample of 374 participants from a healthcare and educational environment. the results indicated that ocb is a significant outcome of psychological empowerment. in addition, a study conducted by bhatnagar and sandhu (2005) collected data from 111 managers from various it organisations in india and found that managers who experienced psychological empowerment in their working environment exhibited ocbs. based on the given empirical findings and theoretical arguments, it was hypothesised that psychological empowerment positively affects organisational citizenship behaviour. empowerment is defined by van winkle et al. (2014, p. 72) as ‘letting people do their jobs by enabling them to learn, grow, and progress’ furthermore, they explain that through leader empowering behaviours, servant leaders grant followers the liberty to progress towards their goals and empower them to make their dreams a reality. principles of empowerment are at the heart of servant leadership (patterson, 2003). the power of the servant leader lies in the leader’s ability to unleash the potential and thus the power of those around them (van winkle et al., 2014). organ et al. (2005) stated that instead of using power to control subordinates, the servant leader empowers and encourages subordinates to become responsible for their actions. based on the given empirical findings and theoretical arguments, it was hypothesised that servant leadership positively affects psychological empowerment. theoretical model after an in-depth literature review, a theoretical model was developed. figure 1 illustrates the theoretical model that depicts the specific hypothesised causal linkages between servant leadership, psychological empowerment and ocb. figure 1: the conceptual structural model. statistical hypotheses close fit hypothesis: the overarching research hypothesis for the close fit null hypothesis is: h01: rmsea < 0.05 ha1: rmsea > 0.05 rmsea is the root mean square error of approximation. in order to test the validity of the proposed relationships in the structural model, the following specific research hypotheses were tested: hypothesis 1: a significant positive relationship exists between servant leadership (ξ1) and psychological empowerment (η1) (h02: γ11 = 0; ha2: γ11 > 0). hypothesis 2: a significant positive relationship exists between psychological empowerment (η1) and ocb (η2) (h03: β21 = 0; ha3: β21 > 0). hypothesis 3: a significant positive relationship exists between servant leadership (ξ1) and ocb (η1) (h04: γ21 = 0; ha4: γ21 > 0). research design research approach in order to test the hypotheses postulated in this study, a quantitative research design was employed. specifically, the theoretical model (see figure 1) was tested using structural equation modelling (sem). research procedure each participant received a questionnaire comprising of an information sheet, biographical section and three measuring instruments, namely servant leadership, psychological empowerment and organisational citizenship behaviour. information pertaining to the rationale of the study, basic instructions on how to complete the questionnaires and their ethical rights was provided. research method sample the sampling technique employed for this study was non-probability sampling. the research participants comprised of teachers from selected primary and secondary schools in the western cape province in south africa. the targeted metro south district has a population of about 4104 teachers. a total of 400 questionnaires were distributed to selected schools. a total of 203 candidates with usable responses were included in the sample. this total represented a 51% response rate. the sample meets the minimum sample size of 200 for structural equation modeling as recommended by diamantopoulos and siguaw (2000). the sample consisted of mostly female participants (71.9%). the predominant age groups of the sample were between 51–65 (30%) and 36–50 (38.9%). furthermore, 57.6% of the participants were married and 30.5% were single. the highest qualification obtained by most of the participants was a diploma (30.5%), a graduate degree (29.1%) and a postgraduate degree of 23.6%. regarding years of service, the majority have been working for over 10 years (56.7%). pertaining to position within the school structure, 86.2% of the sample were teachers and 10.8% were heads of departments (hods). the majority of those who formed part of the sample were intersen phase teachers (grade 4–9) (60.5%) followed by foundation phase teachers (grade r-3) (36.9%). with regard to the number of classes a teacher had, 48.8% of the sample had one class. in addition, the majority of the participants (62.6%) had a class size of 31–40 learners. measuring instrument three questionnaires were identified through the literature review as being reliable, valid and applicable when measuring the constructs under investigation. servant leadership the servant leadership of the principal was measured using the servant leadership questionnaire (slq) developed and conceptualised by barbuto and wheeler (2006), which measures five dimensions using 23 items. the reliability coefficients for the scale ranged from 0.82 to 0.92 (mahembe & engelbrecht, 2013). psychological empowerment the measuring empowerment questionnaire (meq) developed by spreitzer (1995) was used to measure the psychological empowerment levels experienced by the teachers. the meq consists of 12 items measuring four dimensions of psychological empowerment (meaning, competence, self-determination and impact). each subscale has three items. the candidates were asked to select responses from a seven-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). spreitzer (1995) reported sound psychometric attributes – an overall cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.92. the alpha coefficients for the subscales are 0.92 (meaning), 0.90 (competence), 0.85 (self-determination) and 0.84 (impact). organisational citizenship behaviour the ocbs was used to measure teachers’ organisational citizenship behaviours. the ocbs was developed by podsakoff et al. (1990) and includes 24 items measuring five dimensions (altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship, courtesy and civic virtue). a seven-point likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree), was used. the cronbach’s alpha values for the subscales ranged from 0.70 for civic virtue to 0.85 for altruism. a research study conducted by mahembe et al. (2015) reported reliabilities ranging from 0.80 to 0.98 on a south african sample. statistical analysis missing values: missing data are usually a common occurrence when self-reporting instruments such as questionnaires are used. the missing values problem can have a significant effect on the conclusions drawn from the data. for this study, however, no missing values were found. test for multivariate normality: the multivariate normality was initially investigated through the maximum likelihood estimation method. however, because of the fact that some of the data were still not normalised after using this technique, robust maximum likelihood (rml) estimation was used to estimate the parameters set free in the model (jöreskog & sorbom, 1996; mels, 2003). structural equation modelling: structural equation modelling is a sophisticated approach to data analysis that dwells on assessing the patterns of covariances amongst the variables specified in the model (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000; jöreskog & sorbom, 1996). it incorporates confirmatory factor analysis, which helps to ensure that the psychometric quality of the measures used is sound. a distinction is made between the measurement and structural models. the measurement model looks at the extent to which the items are representing the manifest variables whilst the structural model goes one step further by depicting the nature of the hypothesised relationships in the model (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). evaluating the measurement models item and dimensional analyses were conducted to determine the quality of the items and to ensure the uni-dimensionality of the scales. items with corrected item loadings less than 0.30 were flagged as poor whilst the reliability cronbach’s alpha coefficients above 0.70 were accepted. uni-dimensionality was performed as a prerequisite for item parcel creation (holt, 2004). the scales were subsequently subjected to confirmatory factor analyses (cfa) using the lisrel 8.80 software (jöreskog & sörbom, 2006). items with factor loadings less than 0.30 were excluded from inclusion in the model. no items were removed during item, dimensional and cfa. ethical considerations before commencing with the data collection and distributing the questionnaires, permission was obtained from the western cape education department: directorate of research and the university’s research committee. once permission was granted, the questionnaires were personally delivered to selected primary and secondary schools in the western cape province. convenience sampling was used and participation was strictly voluntary. results missing values missing values are common in quantitative studies as they dwell on the use of questionnaires. in this study, missing values were not recorded. hence, the sample size was 203. item and dimensional analysis item and exploratory factor analyses (efas) were performed to identify any poor items in the questionnaires. exploratory factor analysis was also used to test for uni-dimensionality of the scales (see table 3). uni-dimensionality was achieved for all the subscales. high levels of reliability (α = 0.70) were found for each of the scales (nunnally, 1967). table 3: measurement scales: factor loadings and reliability. goodness of fit of the measurement and structural models the goodness-of-fit (gfi) indices reported in table 4 generally indicate that the slq, meq and ocbs measurement and the structural models indicate a reasonable model fit with the data (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000; hair, black, babin, & anderson, 2010). the rmsea indices for the measurement models fell in the reasonable model fit category (0.05–0.08), as values < between 0.05 and 0.08 represent a reasonable model fit. table 4: goodness-of-fit indices obtained for the servant leadership questionnaire, measuring empowerment questionnaire and organisational citizenship behaviour scale measurement and structural models. the standardised root mean squared residual (srmr) values of 0.056–0.065 fell above the good model fit (< 0.05). the gfi values for the slq, ocbs and the structural models fell below the 0.90 cut-off level whilst the gfi value for the meq was above the required cut-off level. the results of the incremental fit measures indicate that all the measurement and structural models achieved a normed fit index (nfi), non-normed fit index (nnfi), comparative fit index (cfi), incremental fit index (ifi) and relative fit indices > 0.90, which represents a good fit (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000; hair et al., 2010; kelloway, 1998). these relative indices, therefore, appear to portray a positive picture of model fit. the lisrel program also tested the null hypothesis of a close fit (h0: rmsea ≤ 0.05). with the exceedance probability (0.032) being very small at the 0.05 level of significance, the close fit null hypothesis was rejected. the structural model, therefore, does not show a close fit. however, after interpreting all other fit indices, the conclusion was reached that the structural model fitted the data reasonably well (see table 4). the relationship between servant leadership and psychological empowerment a positive relationship was found between servant leadership and psychological empowerment (t = 2.49, p < 0.05) (see table 5). thus, hypothesis 1 was confirmed. table 5: the completely standardised gamma and beta matrix of path coefficients for the structural model. the relationship between servant leadership and organisational citizenship behaviour a positive relationship was found between servant leadership and organisational citizenship behaviour (t = 2.17, p < 0.05) (see table 5). thus, hypothesis 2 was confirmed. the relationship between psychological empowerment and organisational citizenship behaviour a positive relationship was found between psychological empowerment and organisational citizenship behaviour (t = 2.30, p < 0.05) (see table 5). thus, hypothesis 3 was confirmed. discussion the aim of the study was to test a theoretical model on the relationships between servant leadership, psychological empowerment and organisational citizenship behaviour on a sample of teachers working in the western cape. the specific objectives were to determine the manner in which servant leadership and psychological empowerment influence organisational citizenship behaviour. a further objective was to validate the theoretical model exploring the structural relationships amongst these variables in the south african school system at selected schools in the western cape province. the validation of the theoretical model entails inspecting the gfi indices for the measurement and structural models to determine whether the implied covariance (theoretical model) is supported by the observed covariance (the data). an inspection of the gfi indices indicates that the measurement and structural models generally display a reasonable and acceptable fit. the positive support for the measurement models further demonstrates that the items used in the questionnaires measured the latent variables as postulated by the instrument developers: hypothesis 1: servant leadership affects psychological empowerment. the t-value (t = 2.49) of the link between servant leadership and psychological empowerment is greater than 1.96. a significant (p < 0.05) positive relationship is, therefore, evident between these two constructs, which suggests that the proposed relationship between servant leadership and psychological empowerment was supported. therefore, school principals who practice servant leadership are likely to empower their teachers. this is consistent with the findings reported by van winkle et al. (2014) in a study involving 116 employees of small businesses working in the united states of america. the confirmation of the relationship is not surprising given the understanding that servant leadership incorporates ideals of empowerment and is at the heart of servant leadership (patterson, 2003): hypothesis 2: servant leadership affects organisational citizenship behaviour. the t-value of the link between servant leadership and ocb is more than 1.96, indicating that there is a significant relationship between servant leadership and ocb (t = 2.17, p < 0.05). this result is consistent with previous research studies that have reported the positive influence and significant relationship of supportive and value-based leadership styles on citizenship behaviour (mahembe & engelbrecht, 2014; podsakoff et al., 2000; shahzad et al., 2013). one can infer that principals as servant leaders are likely to use their attributes in ways that motivate school teachers to go beyond their job descriptions by engaging in extra-role behaviours. learning takes place all the time and, therefore, dedicated teachers are likely to assist their learners after class time: hypothesis 3: psychological empowerment affects organisational citizenship behaviour. there is a statistically significant relationship between psychological empowerment and ocb (t = 2.30, p < 0.05). this finding suggests that the proposed relationship between these two variables exists. this is consistent with a study conducted by chan et al. (2008) on a dyad sample of 374 participants from a health care and educational environment. the results emanating from this study indicated that ocb is a significant outcome of psychological empowerment. in addition, a study conducted by bhatnagar and sandhu (2005) collected data from 111 managers from various information technology (it) organisations in india and found that managers who perceive psychological empowerment in their working environment exhibited ocb. furthermore, a research study conducted by garg and suri (2013) in the public banking sector in india revealed that psychological empowerment and ocb are highly and significantly correlated with each other. more recently, bester, stander and van zyl (2015) provided further support with results revealing that leader empowering behaviours and psychological empowerment significantly influences ocb. power assessment the rweb (1.03) syntax developed by preacher and coffman (2006) was used to determine the statistical power of the sample size in relation to the number of variables used in the study. in the present study, the significance level of 0.05, the sample size of 203 and the degrees of freedom 242 were entered into the rweb syntax. the power value of 0.9982771 for the test of exact fit was obtained (see table 6). this power value is reasonably large. in this case, the authors rejected the null hypothesis of exact fit. they calculated the power of the test of close fit as 0.9998195, which was high implying that, in the conditions that characterised this specific study, one would reject approximately 99.98195% of incorrect models. this shows a high statistical power and confidence in the model tested in this study. table 6: power assessment. limitations of the study this study was of a cross-sectional nature and the use of an availability sample merely provides a representation of teachers’ opinions, feelings and perceptions at a particular point in time, and it does not capture maturational factors. this study collected data at a single point in time by using a single-point-in-time survey measurement. it is still widely accepted that measures employed in social sciences research are subject to a number of sources of error (mackenzie & podsakoff, 2012). data collected at a single point in time, rather than having a longitudinal study, may exacerbate same-source or common method bias (arnolds & boshoff, 2004; rylander, 2003). the sample size that was used was too small, hence the study cannot be generalised to the entire population of teachers within the western cape province. in addition, only schools within the western cape were used and specifically metro south district, thus the findings cannot be generalised to the entire population of teachers within the province or within south africa. another shortcoming of the study is the measurement instruments used. the measuring instruments (questionnaires) were based on self-reporting methods. self-report methods are influenced by how a teacher feels at a particular point in time and therefore, is subjective in nature and susceptible to social desirability. this study only used a quantitative research approach and data were collected using only questionnaires and no other data collection methods such as interviews. hence, the subjective experiences of the participants were not captured. in this study, the sample was disproportionate as the sample consisted mostly of female participants (71.9%). managerial implications this study reported positive relationships between servant leadership, psychological empowerment and organisational citizenship behaviour. the findings imply that school principals should practice servant leadership in order to create and develop a school environment that is conducive for teaching, learning and optimal functioning. a principal’s servant leadership approach is likely to promote teacher empowerment and development within a conducive learning environment, as it enables the principal to develop teachers to their fullest potential through mentoring and coaching. therefore, sufficient time should be made available to school leaders to build trusting relationships when empowering teachers. through empowering others, institutions are discovering that servant leadership can truly improve how organisations are developed and function, whilst successfully meeting organisational objectives (focht & ponton, 2015). this study will be of value to the human resource function specifically in the formulation of valid psychological explanations of the behaviour of teachers and the implementation of appropriate interventions to ensure an effective and efficient teaching workforce. it will also assist in the reviewing of the criteria used in the appointment of school principals. imparting servant leadership skill to principals is likely to be met with motivation from the teachers to go beyond their usual duties as payback for the efforts and interest in the development of followers (teachers) thereby improving the service delivery of the teachers. conclusion the principals who embrace the values of servant leadership are likely to propagate some feelings of psychological empowerment in their subordinates. servant leaders are concerned with the growth of their subordinates at the expense of their own development through engaging in selfless coaching and mentoring interventions. these efforts from the servant leader principals will, however, not go unnoticed. as indicated in this study, teachers whose principals engage in servant leadership are likely to go the extra mile in terms of performance. this research has shown that the use of servant leadership has important implications for teacher development interventions that can be used to improve learning in schools. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contribution a.g.v.d.h. was the project leader responsible for the data collection and article write-up, and the project is based on his master’s thesis. b.m. was responsible for the article write-up and statistical analyses. d.h-f. was responsible for the article write-up. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references aksel, i., serinkan, c., kiziloglu, m., & aksoy, b. (2013). assessment of teachers’ perceptions of organizational citizenship behaviors and psychological empowerment: an empirical analysis in turkey. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 89, 69–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.08.811 arnolds, c.a., & boshoff, c. (2004). the management of the early stages of restructuring in a tertiary-education institution: an organisational commitment perspective. south african journal of business management, 35(2), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajbm.v35i2.652 asari, a. (2017). effect of personality, organizational climate, and work satisfaction on organizational citizenship behavior teacher. ijhcm (international journal of human capital management), 1(2), 45–51. https://doi.org/10.21009/ijhcm.01.02.06 ashforth, b.e. (1989). the experience of powerlessness in organizations. organisational behaviour and human decision processes, 43(2), 207–242. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(89)90051-4 aslam, r. (2012). investigating the relationship of ocb with job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intensions. international journal of economics and management sciences, 1(9), 90–100. barbuto, j.e., & wheeler, d.w. (2002). becoming a servant leader: do you have what it takes? nebguide g02-1481-a. lincoln: university of nebraska, nebraska cooperative extension. barbuto, j.e., & wheeler, d.w. (2006). scale development and construct clarification of servant leadership. group and organization management, 31(3), 300–326. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601106287091 baykal, e., zehir, c., & kole, m. (2018). effects of servant leadership on gratitude, empowerment, innovativeness and performance: turkey example. journal of economy culture and society, 57, 29–52. https://doi.org/10.26650/jecs390903 bester, j., stander, m.w., & van zyl, l.e. (2015). leadership empowering behaviour, psychological empowerment, organisational citizenship behaviours and turnover intention in a manufacturing division. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 41(1), art. #1215, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v41i1.1215 bhatnagar, j., & sandhu, s. (2005). psychological empowerment and organisational citizenship behaviour (ocb) in ‘it’ managers: a talent retention tool. indian journal of industrial relations, 40(4), 449–469. brohi, n.a., jantan, a.h., qureshi, m.a., jaffar, a.r.b., ali, j.b., & hamid, k.b.a. (2018). the impact of servant leadership on employees’ attitudinal and behavioural outcomes. cogent business & management, 5(1), 1542652. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2018.1542652 buchen, i.h. (1998). servant leadership: a model for future faculty and future institutions. the journal of leadership studies, 5(1), 125–134. https://doi.org/10.1177/107179199800500111 cai, w., lysova, e.i., khapova, s.n., & bossink, b.a. (2018). the effects of servant leadership, meaningful work and job autonomy on innovative work behavior in chinese high-tech firms: a moderated mediation model. frontiers of psychology, 9, 1767. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01767 cerit, y. (2009). the effects of servant leadership behaviours of school principals on teachers’ job satisfaction. educational management administration & leadership, 37(5), 600–623. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143209339650 chahar, b. (2019). psychological contract and organizational citizenship behavior: exploring the interelatedness through cross validation. academy of strategic management journal, 18(1), 1939–6104. chan, y.h., taylor, r.r., & markham, s. (2008). the role of subordinates’ trust in a social exchange-driven psychological empowerment process. journal of managerial issues, 20(4), 444–467. choong, y.o., ng, l.p., ai na, s., & tan, c.e. (2019). the role of teachers’ self-efficacy between trust and organisational citizenship behaviour among secondary school teachers. personnel review, 49(3), 864–886. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-10-2018-0434 cingoz, a., & kaplan, a. (2015). the effect of workplace incivility on job satisfaction and organizational trust: a study of industrial enterprises in turkey. paper presented in 2015 wei international academic conference proceedings, vienna, pp. 12–15. collett, k.s. (2013). teacher perceptions of the role of a primary school principal in supporting their well-being: learning from a south african public school in challenging conditions (doctoral dissertation). university of the western cape. conger, j.a., & kanungo, r.n. (1988). the empowerment process: integrating theory and practice. academy of management review, 13(3), 471–482. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1988.4306983 dennis, r.s., & bocarnea, m. (2005). development of the servant leadership assessment instrument. the leadership & organisation development journal, 26(8), 600–615. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730510633692 diamantopoulos, a., & siguaw, j.a. (2000). introducing lisrel. london: sage. du four, r. (2001). in the right context. journal of staff development, 22(1), 14–17. ehrhart, m.g. (2004). leadership and procedural justice climate as antecedents of unit level organizational citizenship behavior. personnel psychology, 57(1), 61–94. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2004.tb02484.x eva, n., robin, m., sendjaya, s., van dierendonck, d., & liden, r.c. (2019). servant leadership: a systematic review and call for future research. leadership quartely, 30(1), 111–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2018.07.004 farh, j.l., early, p.c., & lin, s. (1997). impetus for action: a cultural analysis of justice and organizational behavior in chinese society. administrative of science quarterly, 42(3), 421–444. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393733 farh, j.l., zhong, c.b., & organ, d.w. (2004). organizational citizenship behavior in the people’s republic of china. organization science, 15(2), 241–253. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1030.0051 farling, m.l., stone, g.a., & winston, b.e. (1999). servant leadership: setting the stage for empirical research. journal of leadership studies, 6(1–2), 49–69. https://doi.org/10.1177/107179199900600104 focht, a., & ponton, m. (2015). identifying primary characteristics of servant leadership: delphi study. international journal of leadership studies, 9(1), 1–18. fong, k.h., & snape, e. (2015). empowering leadership, psychological empowerment and employee outcomes: testing a multi-level mediating model. british journal of management, 26(1), 126–138. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12048 foote, d.a., & tang, t.l.p. (2008). job satisfaction and organizational citizenships behaviour (ocb). does team commitment make a difference in self-directed teams? management decision, 46(6), 993–947. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740810882680 garg, a.n.s.h.u.l., & suri, s.a.m.t.a. (2013). analyzing the impact of psychological empowerment on organizational citizenship behavior in public banking sector. international journal of marketing, financial services & management research, 2(7), 80–94. georgolopoulos, v., papaloi, e., & loukorou, k. (2018). servant leadership as a predictive factor of teachers’ job satisfaction. european journal of education, 1(2), 15–28. https://doi.org/10.26417/ejed.v1i2.p15-28 gong, y., wu, y., huang, p., yan, x., & luo, z. (2020). psychological empowerment and work engagement as mediating roles between trait emotional intelligence and job satisfaction. frontiers in psychology, 11(232), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00232 graham, j. (1991). servant leadership in organisations: inspirational and moral. leadership quarterly, 2(2), 105–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/1048-9843(91)90025-w greenleaf, r.k. (1977). servant leadership: a journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. new york, ny: paulist press. hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2010). multivariate data analysis: a global perspective. (7th ed.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmva.2009.12.014 hamman-fisher, d. (2008). the relationship between job satisfaction and organisational commitment amongst academic employees in agricultural colleges in south africa (master’s thesis). university of the western cape, cape town. hammond, h.g. (2018). teacher empowerment and teacher perceptions of the principal’s servant leadership. lutheran educational journal, 23–33. hendricks, c.r. (2017). the influence of transformational leadership on perceptions of organisational justice, intention to quit and organisational citizenship behaviour among selected call centre employees in the financial services industry (unpublished master’s thesis). university of the western cape. holt, j.k. (2004). item parcelling in structural equation models for optimum solutions. paper presented at the 2004 annual meeting of the mid-western educational research association, columbus, oh, pp. 2–7. ishak, n.a., & alam, s.s. (2009). leader-member exchange and organizational citizenship behavior: the mediating impact of self-esteem. international journal of business and management, 4(3), 52–61. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v4n3p52 jöreskog, k.g., & sörbom, d. (1996). lisrel 8: user’s reference guide. chicago, il: scientific software international. jöreskog, k.g., & sörbom, d. (2006). interactive lisrel 8.80. chicago, il: scientific software international. katz, d. (1964). motivational basis of organisational behaviour. behavioural science, 9(2), 131–146. https://doi.org/10.1002/bs.3830090206 khan, j., malik, m., & saleem, s. (2020). the impact of psychological empowerment of project-oriented employees on project success: a moderated mediation model. economic research-ekonomska istraživanja, 33(1), 1311–1329. https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677x.2020.1756374 kelloway, e.k. (1998). using lisrel for structural equation modelling: a researcher’s guide. thousand oaks, ca: sage. laub, j.a. (1999). assessing the servant organisation: development of the organisational leadership assessment (ola) instrument. dissertation abstracts international, 60(2), 308a. (umi no. 9921922). lavelle, j.j. (2010). what motivates ocb? insights from the volunteerism literature. journal of organizational behavior, 31(6), 918–923. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.644 liden, r.c., wayne, s.j., zhao, h., & henderson, d. (2008). servant leadership: development of a multidimensional measure and multi-level assessment. leadership quarterly, 19(2), 161–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2008.01.006 lin, s.j. (1991). relationship between compensation equity, procedural justice, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior (doctoral dissertation). national chengchi university, taiwan. mackenzie, s.b., & podsakoff, p.m. (2012). common method bias in marketing: causes, mechanisms, and procedural remedies. journal of retailing, 88(4), 542–555. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2012.08.001 mahembe, b., & engelbrecht, a.s. (2013). a confirmatory factor analytical study of a servant leader measure in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1127 mahembe, b., & engelbrecht, a.s. (2014). the relationship between servant leadership, organisational citizenship behaviour and team effectiveness. sa journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1107 mahembe, b., engelbrecht, a.s., chinyamurindi, w., & kandekande, l.r. (2015). a study to confirm the reliability and construct validity of an organisational citizenship behaviour measure on a south african sample. sa journal of industrial psychology, 41(1), art. #1289, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v41i1.1289 mahipalan, m., & muhammed, s. (2019). examining the role of workplace spirituality and teacher self-efficacy on organizational citizenship behaviour of secondary school teachers: an indian scenario. vision, 23(1), 80–90. https://doi.org/10.1177/0972262918821241 mccrimmon, m. (2010). servant leadership. retrieved from http://www.leadersdirect.com/servant-leadership mels, g. (2003). a workshop on structural equation modelling with lisrel 8.54 for windows. port elizabeth: university of port elizabeth. mestry, r. (2017). principals’ perspectives and experiences of their instructional leadership functions to enhance learner achievement in public schools. journal of education, 69, 257–280. mohammad, j., habib, f.q., & alias, m.a. (2011). job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior: an empirical study at higher learning institutions. asian academy of management journal, 6(2), 149–165. moorman, r.h., & blakely, g.l. (1995). individualism-collectivism as an individual difference predictor of organizational citizenship behavior. journal of organizational behavior, 16(2), 127–142. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030160204 najafi, s., noruzy, a., khezriazar, h., nazari-shirkouhi, s., & dalvand, m.r. (2011). investigating the relationship between organizational justice, psychological empowerment, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior: an empirical model. african journal of business management, 5(13), 5241–5248. newman, a., schwarz, g., cooper, b., & sendjaya, s. (2017). how servant leadership influences organizational citizenship behavior: the roles of lmx, empowerment, and proactive personality. journal of business ethics, 145(1), 49–62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2827-6 noland, a., & richards, k. (2015). servant teaching: an exploration of teacher servant leadership on student outcomes. journal of the scholarship of teaching and learning, 15(6), 16–38. https://doi.org/10.14434/josotl.v15i6.13928 nunnally, j.c. (1967). psychometric theory. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. oplatka, i. (2009). organizational citizenship behaviour in teaching, the consequences for teacher, pupils and the school. international journal of educational management, 23(5), 375–389. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513540910970476 organ, d. (1988). organisational citizenship behavior: the good soldier syndrome. lexington, ky: lexington books. organ, d.w., podsakoff, p.m., & mackenzie, s.b. (2005). organizational citizenship behaviour: its nature, antecedents, and consequences. thousand oaks, ca: sage. organ, d.w., & ryan, k. (1995). a meta-analytic review of attitudinal and dispositional predictors of organizational citizenship behavior. personnel psychology, 48(4), 775–802. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1995.tb01781.x özturk, f. (2010). determinants of organizational citizenship behaviour among knowledge workers: the role of job characteristics, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment (doctoral dissertation). middle east technical university. patterson, k. (2003). servant leadership: a theoretical model. proceedings of the servant leadership roundtable. retrieved from https://www.regent.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/patterson_servant_leadership.pdf podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., moorman, r.h., & fetter, r. (1990). transformational leader behaviours and their effect on followers’ trust in leader, satisfaction, and organisational citizenship behaviour. leadership quarterly, 1(2), 107–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/1048-9843(90)90009-7 podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., paine, j.b., & bachrach, d.g. (2000). organisational citizenship behaviors: a critical review of the theoretical and empirical literature and suggestions for future research. journal of management, 26(3), 513–563. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630002600307 prasetio, a.p., yuniarsih, t., & ahman, e. (2017). job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and organizational citizenship behaviour in state-owned banking. universal journal of management, 5(1), 32–38. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujm.2017.050104 preacher, k.j., & coffman, d.l. (2006, may). computing power and minimum sample size for rmsea [computer software]. retrieved from http://quantpsy.org/ quinn, r.e., & spreitzer, g.m. (1997). the road to empowerment: seven questions every leader should consider. organizational dynamics, 26(2), 37–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0090-2616(97)90004-8 raub, s., & robert, c. (2010). differential effects of empowering leadership on in-role and extra-role employee behaviors: exploring the role of psychological empowerment and power values. human relations, 63(11), 1743–1770. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726710365092 risa, t.d., & purba, d. (2019). the role of organizational citizenship behavior as a mediator in the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention. intuisi jurnal psikologi ilmiah, 11(1), 1–9. russell, r.f. (2001). the role of values in servant leadership. leadership & organisation development journal, 22(2), 76–83. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730110382631 rylander, d.h. (2003). changes in organisational commitment for sales force newcomers: an exploratory look at early employment influences. in proceedings of the annual meeting of the association of collegiate marketing educators: advances in marketing, houston, tx, pp. 140–146. saxena, s., tomar, k., & tomar, s. (2019, january 6). impact of job satisfaction on organizational citizenship behavior. in proceedings of 10th international conference on digital strategies for organizational success. retrieved from https://ssrn.com/abstract=3323753 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3323753 sendjaya, s., sarros, j.c., & santorra, j.c. (2008). defining and measuring servant leadership behaviour in organisations. journal of management studies, 45(2), 402–424. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2007.00761.x sha, n. (2007). a study of the relationships between job satisfaction and procedural justice experienced by employees in a brick manufacturing company and their organizational citizenship behaviour (unpublished master’s thesis). university of the western cape. shahzad, a., rizvi, r.a., waheed, a., khan, i., usman, s.m., nazier, n., & kiyani, t.m. (2013). linking servant leadership with organizational citizenship behavior through trust: an embryonic structural modelling approach. european journal of social science, 39(2), 273–284. smith, c.a., organ, d.w., & near, j.p. (1983). organizational citizenship behavior: its nature and antecedents. journal of applied psychology, 68(4), 653–663. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.68.4.653 south africa (sa). (1998). employment of educators act 76 of 1998. personnel administrative measures. pretoria: government printer. spears, l.c. (1998). insights into leadership: service, stewardship, and servant leadership. new york, ny: wiley & sons. spears, l.c. (2005). the understanding and practice of servant leadership. international journal of servant leadership, 1(1), 29–46. spreitzer, g.m. (1995). psychological empowerment in the workplace: dimensions, measurement, and validation. academy of management journal, 38(5), 1442–1465. https://doi.org/10.5465/256865 subedi, r., & shrestha, m. (2020). student friendly teaching and learning environment: experiences from technical vocational educational training schools in nepal. european journal of educational technology, 3(1), 1–13. tastan, s.b. (2013). the relationship between psychological empowerment and psychological well-being: the role of self-efficacy perception and social support. öneri dergisi, 10(40), 139–154. https://doi.org/10.14783/od.v10i40.1012000360 theron, c.j. (2010). the impact of psychological empowerment and job satisfaction on organizational commitment amongst employees in a multinational organization (unpublished master’s dissertation). university of the western cape. thomas, k., & velthouse, b. (1990). cognitive elements of empowerment: an ‘interpretive’ model of intrinsic task motivation. academy of management review, 15(4), 666–681. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1990.4310926 unal, o.f. (2013). relationship between the dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior and the facets of job satisfaction (an empirical study in a group of companies in turkey). paper presented in wei international academic conference proceedings, antalya. retrieved from http://www.westeastinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/ant13-289-omer-faruk-unal-full-paper.pdf van der hoven, a.g. (2016). the influence of servant leadership on trust, psychological empowerment, job satisfaction and organisational citizenship behaviour on a selected sample of teachers in the western cape province (unpublished master’s dissertation). university of the western cape. van dierendonck, d. (2011). servant leadership: a review and synthesis. journal of management, 37(4), 1228–1261. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310380462 van dierendonck, d., & nuijten, i. (2011). the servant-leadership survey (sls): development and validation of a multidimensional measure. journal of business and psychology, 26(3), 249–267. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9194-1 van dyne, l., graham, j.w., & dienesch, r.m. (1994). organizational citizenship behavior: construct redefinition, measurement, and validation. academy of management journal, 37(4), 765–802. https://doi.org/10.2307/256600 van scotter, j.r., & motowidlo, s.j. (1996). interpersonal facilitation and job dedication as separate facets of contextual performance. journal of applied psychology, 81(5), 525–531. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.81.5.525 van winkle, b., allen, s., devore, d., & winston, b. (2014). the relationship between servant leadership behaviors of immediate supervisors and follower’s perceptions of being empowered, in the context of small business. journal of leadership education, 13(3), 70–82. https://doi.org/10.12806/v13/i3/rf5 veloen, m. (2016). the influence of paternalistic leadership on organisational commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour at selected organisations in the western cape province (doctoral dissertation). university of the western cape. vondey, m. (2010). the relationships among servant leadership, organizational citizenship behavior, person-organization fit, and organizational identification. international journal of leadership studies, 6(1), 3–27. wang, g., & lee, p.d. (2009). psychological empowerment and job satisfaction. group & organization management, 34(3), 271–292. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601108330089 williams, l.j., & anderson, s.e. (1991). job satisfaction and organisational commitment as predictors of organisational citizenship behaviour and in-role behaviours. journal of management, 17(3), 601–617. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700305 yaakobi, e., & weisberg, j. (2020). organizational citizenship behavior predicts quality, creativity, and efficiency performance: the roles of occupational and collective efficacies. frontiers in psychology, 11, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00758 yang, r., ming, y., ma, j., & huo, r. (2017). how do servant leaders promote engagement? a bottom-up perspective of job crafting. social behavior and personality: an international journal, 45, 1815–1828. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.6704 abstract introduction literature review research design results summary of major findings discussion intention to stay limitations recommendations and managerial implications trustworthiness and credibility acknowledgements references about the author(s) thapelo d. chaacha school of industrial psychology and human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, vanderbijlpark, south africa elrie botha school of industrial psychology and human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, vanderbijlpark, south africa citation chaacha, t.d., & botha, e. (2021). factors influencing intention to leave of younger employees in an academic institution. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1519. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1519 original research factors influencing intention to leave of younger employees in an academic institution thapelo d. chaacha, elrie botha received: 19 nov. 2020; accepted: 06 oct. 2021; published: 22 nov. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the retirement age of most of the academics currently in the workforce is approaching fast. to understand factors that would influence younger academics to leave the profession is becoming more important in order for institutions to avoid a knowledge gap and ensure information and skill transfer. research purpose: the purpose of the study was to investigate factors influencing the intention to leave younger employees in an academic institution. the objective was to explore factors that would result in younger employees leaving the institution. motivation for study: it is important to understand how younger employees experience the academic world in order to attract, develop and retain them within academia as employees. research design, approach and method: purposive sampling was utilised, which provided the researcher the opportunity to gain further understanding on participants whilst exploring their experiences. the participants were under the age of 35 years, either in possession of a master’s degree or in the process of obtaining a master’s degree. a thematic analysis was conducted after 17 semi-structured interviews were completed and transcribed. main findings: the study revealed that employment practices are the leading reason for the intention to leave of younger academics followed by job satisfaction. further reasons why employees considered leaving the institution were work engagement and well-being. these findings can assist in developing effective methods of attracting, managing, engaging and retaining these younger employees in the academic institution. practical/managerial implications: the results of this study provide insights into human resource management practices to better manage and design methods to reduce younger academics’ intention to leave the institution. contribution/value-add: thoroughly exploring factors that can influence younger academics’ intention of leaving the profession, meaningful methods to encourage them to stay in these academic institutions could be designed. keywords: academics; human resource management; younger employees; intention to stay; intention to leave. introduction the central focus of the study is centred on younger employees in an academic institution and their intention to leave. the study focused on employees who are employed as academics, younger than 35 years of age and in possession of a master’s degree or pursing one. thus it is focusing on exploring reasons that would lead to these employees leaving the academic institution. it is necessary for institutions to retain younger academic employees as the current academic workforce is close to retirement, and knowledge retention is essential for institutional success (powell, 2010). younger academics can be seen as the future of academia; it is important to study to retain them in academia as a source of innovation and knowledge retention. the study went further to explore factors that influence these employees to stay within the institution. research purpose and objectives the main purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that influence the intention to leave younger employees within an academic institution. the study also focuses on which factors would influence these employees to seek alternative employment. literature review academics, in general, play a major role in institutions to be able to thrive in the endless changing world of work. academic institutions are faced with multiple challenges. one of the major challenges is competition for employees by other sectors (higher education south africa, 2014; lesenyeho, barkhuizen, & schutte, 2018). in order for institutions to deliver quality results and to achieve their mandate, the retention of academics is crucial (gunter & raghuram, 2018; pienaar & bester, 2008). the importance of reducing and managing the intention to leave of academics is now more important than ever before. intention to leave is defined as the employees’ voluntary decision to leave their current employment by seeking alternative employment (nadiri & tanova, 2010). these intentions need to be managed as the workforce is ageing and numbers in the student population are increasing (department of higher education, 2016; higher education south africa, 2009). younger academics fulfil an imperative role in ensuring higher education institutions have the capacity to move forward. the older generation of employees is more experienced, highly qualified and generally seen as more productive and having vast knowledge to offer institutions in higher education (badat, 2010). institutions need to ensure sufficient time and opportunity for more experienced employees to transfer knowledge to younger academic staff. the challenge lies in younger academic staff being offered better rewards by other sectors, which then encourage them to act on their intention to leave and therefore increase high turnover rates (dube & ngulube, 2013). the risk of loose quality in higher education institutions increases if methods to retain employees are not improved (makondo, 2014). the exchange of knowledge between younger and more experienced groups in academia is important. similar to other sectors, the academic world globally is becoming more complex; this creates an increasing demand for highly competent employees in this environment (council on higher education [che], 2017; nwadiani & akpotu, 2002). the authors are of the view that the majority of previous studies have focused on retaining senior academic staff whilst a limited number of studies focused on young academics. more studies that research these younger academics are therefore necessary to understand them and their antecedents in the academic sphere more comprehensively. attracting, managing and retaining diverse employees are challenging as they are influenced by various factors such as remuneration, work–life balance, engagement, autonomy and other employment-related benefits (samuel & chipunza, 2013). koen (2003) argues that limited financial benefits are the leading reason institutions cannot adequately retain younger academic employees (che, 2017). however, this is not the only factor that influences young academics’ intention to leave the academic profession. challenges such as large classes, variety of needs of the diverse student population, underprepared student cohorts, growing regulation of quality assurance adding to the administrative load as well as a publish or perish culture increase the burden academics experience (cameron & woods, 2016). some of the factors seen to be influencing younger academic employees to leave are discussed below: factors such as expectation could influence employees’ intention to leave. new recruits into the world of academics have certain expectations, and if these expectations are not met, it might influence them to leave (islam & alam, 2014). moreover, personal factors such as well-being, family situation and social conditions could also influence employees’ intention to leave (rahman, naqvi, & ramay, 2008). moloantoa and darasamy (2017) raise a concern that academic staff might exit the academic environment because of dissatisfaction with work conditions, workload, benefits and remuneration. thus, job satisfaction is viewed as an important predictor of intention to leave as employees evaluate all aspects of their jobs and if they are not satisfied could increase the likelihood of leaving their jobs. (amah, 2009; sypniewska, 2013). young academic employees are driven by a sense of achievement, which by recognition of their efforts, could decrease their intention to leave (chew, 2004; kwiek, 2017). work environments that are flexible in their recognition practices and reward structures are more likely to retain academic staff (ng’ethe, iravo, & namusonge, 2012a). the role of academic leaders is, therefore, to create environments that highlight efforts and support from their managers through recognition, rewards, flexibility and regular feedback (michael, 2008; ng’ethe, iravo, m. e., & namusonge, 2012b; sayers, 2007; szromek & wolniak, 2020). in general, being included in the decision-making process, doing meaningful work, constant feedback and communication is motivating factor for younger employees (aruna & anitha, 2015; sissons & jones, 2012). these employees take their development seriously. therefore, a clear career plan is essential to guide them in achieving their goals. management needs to offer guidance and support to these younger employees (kim & yang, 2013). furthermore, young academic employees are motivated by factors, such as opportunities for development and promotion to stay in the academic environment (mabaso & dlamini, 2018; netswera, rankhumise, & mavundla, 2005). lesenyeho et al. (2018) found that career development and advancement, as well as opportunities to contribute, attract early career academics. although academic institutions need to equip these employees with the necessary skills to perform their jobs (mapesela & strydom, 2004; matongolo, kasekende, & mafabi, 2018), younger academic employees also have the responsibility to ensure that they are capable of achieving success in their roles. employees with low self-efficacy are generally seen as having a higher intent to leave (peterson, 2009). dedicated employees with low levels of intent to leave seem to be people who have the ability to perform in their roles. therefore, it is imperative that methods are developed to train and retain these employees (simons & buitendach, 2013). professional development in higher education requires a variety of knowledge and expertise (cameron & woods, 2016). even though the development of younger academic employees is important, some challenges occur. they experience pressure to complete post-graduate studies at different levels of their careers to gain promotion. the burden of administrative processes on academics, in general, is seen as a factor that causes a loss of autonomy in their roles (cameron & woods, 2016; kogan & teichler, 2007). factors such as external funding and integrating online learning are nowadays considered part of the academic profile (clarke, hyde, & drennan, 2013). academic job roles are no longer limited to teaching, research and community involvement. even though the above-mentioned factors add to the challenges experienced by the younger academics, institutions have to ensure that these employees are provided sufficient training and development to ensure that they are able to perform in their roles (chew, 2004). öldalen, brommesson, erlingsson, schaffer and fogelgren (2018) argued for the professionalisation of teaching in higher education. these researchers found that academics with less than three years of experience rated pedagogical training very useful. the sustainability of academic institutions rests on preparing adequate talent for the future. the south african government has developed the new generation of academics programme (ngap) to address the possible challenges that might arise in terms of a shortage of skills in academia (department of higher education and training, 2015). the programme outlines what is expected of the incumbent as well as the responsibilities of the new academic. it also refers to the university in which the role will be performed. the programme is designed to gradually develop the new academic through activities such as teaching and research and related aspects. the new employees will be provided with an experienced mentor to ensure that the programme is completed successfully. the researchers view the programme as a proactive move by the government to make academia more attractive to younger employees. especially as there is competition from other sectors for some of these potential employees who qualify to work in the academic environment. such a programme is important but can become obsolete if factors that influence younger academics are not explored and managed in time. henceforth, this study focuses on factors that influence younger academic employees to leave their current jobs. there is limited research on the phenomenon, as literature focuses mostly on academic employees, in general, or support staff. however, few studies concentrate on younger academic employees. the study takes an exploratory view to examine these factors, as some new factors might become apparent through the research. it is important to discover these factors as younger academic employees are important to the existence of academic institutions and the future of education in the country. research design research approach the research is qualitative, as this method of research entails exploring and understanding the meaning behind the experiences of participants (bryman, 2016; silverman & marvasti, 2008). a qualitative method enables the researcher to describe, explain and unpack experiences of participants (leavy, 2014), thus allowing the researcher to examine new concepts or thoughts that might arise (o’reilly & kiyimba, 2015). a phenomenological approach was utilised in the research to allow the researcher to gain a better understanding of the participants’ experiences from an objective perspective (starks & trinidad, 2007). phenomenology is critical in assisting the participants to describe their experiences (grbich, 2013). to better understand the meaning ascribed to these experiences, semi-structured interviews were used to aid participants to share their experiences with the researcher. research participants and sampling methods purposive sampling was utilised to identify potential participants for the research. purposive sampling is done with a specific objective in mind and is therefore particulary successful (palys, 2008). purposive sampling is done with specific characteristics of participants as qualifying criteria because of the nature of inquiry of the research (etikan, musa, & alkassim, 2016). purposive sampling is essential in the study as it allowed the researchers to meet the main purpose of the study and allowed for variety within the sample to ensure that participants met the inclusion criteria for the research (bryman & bell, 2017). a target population of (n = 12) participants was originally determined by the researchers. however, a total number of (n = 17) participants were interviewed because of the availability of employees that were willing to participate in the research. the researchers deemed it ethical not to exclude willing participants even though data saturation was met. participants were characterised as follows: they were younger than 35 years, in a lecturing or junior lecturing position, and either in possession of a master’s degree or in the process of obtaining a master’s degree. the participants included both female and male employees from various campuses, faculties and schools to gain in-depth knowledge about the intention to leave of younger academics at the institution. permission to contact participants was granted by the institution. formal emails were sent to recruit participants as interested participants could respond. firstly, consent was obtained from participants to continue with the research. thereafter interviews were set up with participants. the researchers could draw specific information about the phenomenon being investigated as the participants were well informed about the topic of interest and, therefore, shared knowledge and experience regarding the topic under investigation with the researchers. the ethical process required only interviewing participants willing to participate in the research. research procedure semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 participants across the institution. audio recordings of the semi-structured interviews were made in aid of transcription and coding. all recordings were stored electronically on a password-encrypted device. participants were allowed to raise any questions or concerns through the research leader, and all matters were addressed. ethical conduct was retained throughout the process. data collection potential participants were identified through open-source platforms. recruitment took place through emails inviting them to participate in the research project. to maintain anonymity throughout the research, emails were sent to each participant individually. participants consented to be audio recorded whilst being interviewed. the data were protected by ensuring the encryption of devices and documents with passwords. all participants were ensured of confidentiality, anonymity and privacy throughout the process and in future publication of the research. semi-structured interviews were conducted by asking specific questions to guide the interview process whilst allowing the participants a degree of freedom to express points of interest (hesse-biber, 2017). the process allows participants to comment on aspects that the researchers might not have considered, thereby providing additional information on the research topic. the following interview questions were utilised: what factors would influence you to stay in your current job? what factors would influence you to leave or seek other employment? probing questions: tell me more. what else? could you explain the statement in more detail? are you currently seeking employment elsewhere? why? is there anything else related to the topic or interview that you would like to ask, comment on or clarify? data analysis information gained through the audio-recorded interviews was transcribed. these transcriptions enabled the researchers to code the data. a thematic analysis approach was conducted to allow the researchers to identify, group, analyse and report on findings (boyatzis, 1998). the thematic analysis involves the required familirisation with the collected data, from which the data could be assigned descriptive codes, to identify recurring themes. the themes were then reviewed and finalised (clarke, braun, & hayfield, 2015). the thematic process presented an opportunity for the researcher to explore and understand the experiences of the participants (braun & clarke, 2006). the interview questions segmented the coding process and emphasised the intention of the study. coding can be seen as the process of discovering meaning in specific texts (hesse-biber, 2017). the first segment focused on the answers derived from the interview question, what factors would influence you to stay in your current job? the second segment focused on answers derived from the interview question, what factors would influence you to leave, or seek alternative employment? the first level of coding for the first question resulted in 81 ungrouped codes and the second level coding resulted in 18 unique codes. the first level of coding for the second question resulted in 71 ungrouped codes, and the second level of coding resulted in 16 unique codes. ethical considerations the researchers obtained ethical clearance to conduct the research from the research ethics committee of the university. participants provided informed consent to be interviewed and audio recorded. audio recordings are stored on an electronic device that is password encrypted. the primary researcher is the only person who has knowledge of this password. all participants were informed that participation is voluntary and that they could withdraw from the research at any point in time, without any consequences to them. moreover, participants were made aware of the intended purpose of the research and how information obtained will be utilised. information was shared with participants with regard to the safe keeping of their information. participants were assured that all information is treated as confidential and that they will not be identified in any material that will be published. results the thematic analysis of the data obtains through the 17 semi-structured interviews, provided the following findings. figure 1 below displays the coded factors that would influence younger academic employees to stay with the institution: environment was found to be the leading reason for these employees to stay in the institution. job satisfaction was ranked as the second important reason for employees to stay in their jobs. whilst rewards and work engagement were the third leading reason for younger academics to stay in the institution. growth and support were found to be the fourth reason that will keep these employees in the institution. opportunity was found to be the fifth reason. social and family dynamics and development are ranked as the sixth motive for younger academic employees to stay in the institution. furthermore, job security, career progress, interdisciplinary work, general intention to stay, openness, accountability and well-being were found to be some further reasons for younger academic employees to remain with the institution. interesting to note that employment practices are seen as factors that would generally influence employees to leave, however, respondents indicated that they viewed these practices as factors that, if addressed and improved, would motivate them to stay in the institution. figure 1: intention to stay factors. table 1 represents the description of the coded factors, as indicated in figure 1, influencing younger academic employees to stay in the institution. table 1: description of factors that affect intention to stay. the research aimed to investigate the factors that would influence younger academic employees to leave the institution. figure 2 below represents the coded factors that would influence or are influencing younger academic employees to leave the institution: employment practices were found to be the major leading reasons that would influence employees to leave. environment and support are the second most important reasons that would influence employees to leave the institution. the third leading factor is the geographical location of the campus. expectations, opportunities and rewards are the fourth leading reason for younger academic employees to leave the institution. career progress, resources, workload, social and family dynamics are the fifth reason that was found to influence employees’ decisions to leave the institution. culture, growth and recognition are the sixth leading reason that would influence younger academic employees to leave the institution. work engagement and well-being are amongst the other reasons that would influence younger academic employees to leave the institution. figure 2: intention to leave factors. table 2 represents the description of the coded factors that would influence younger academic employees to stay in the institution, as indicated in figure 2. table 2: description factors that influence intention to leave. with the focus of the study being the intention to leave of younger academic employees, the following, as indicated in figure 3, was found. figure 3 below represents the population of the 17 interviewed research participants. nine (52%) employees intend to stay in the institution. it was found that eight (47%) participants intend to leave the institution. three (37.5%) of these employees wish to complete their studies before they leave the institution for another sector. whilst another three (37.5%) of these employees expressed clear intentions to leave the institution. the remaining two (25%) of these eight employees wish to complete their studies before they leave for another institution. figure 3: intention to leave. summary of major findings the findings of the study indicate that younger academic employees’ intent to leave the institution for various reasons. these reasons include the employment practices that reflect how employees are treated within the institution. younger academic employees also highlighted the environment as one of the factors that would influence them to leave as the work environment is seen not to be enabling them enough. lack of support from managers is an influencing factor for some of the employees who intend to leave. however, in contrast to the above-mentioned reasons employees also indicated that they would stay in the institution because of the environment being ‘friendly’; other reasons to stay include job satisfaction, rewards and generally being engaged in their work. discussion the objective of the study was to explore factors influencing the intention of younger academic employees in the institution. semi-structured interviews were conducted to investigate these factors, followed by a thematic analysis of the information collected to discover the meanings associated with these factors. two main segments of the research were analysed, namely factors that would influence younger academic employees to stay in the institution and factors that would influence younger academic employees to leave the institution. intention to stay environment based on the findings on intention to stay of the participants, the environment is indicated as the most important reason why these young employees would stay in the academic institution. the environment, for the purpose of this article, is seen as the environment in which employees perform their work and includes factors such as flexibility and an enabling environment, for example, ‘create an environment in which you can follow your dream yourself’ and a general description of the work environment by employees. another reason associated with the environment was openness, as employees value such an environment. employees generally seek an academic environment that is able to offer them flexible work arrangements, in which they can pursue their goals, where they can have privacy and working conditions, which enable employees to participate in the decision-making process (beigi, shirmohammadi, & stewart, 2018; wood & wall, 2007). job satisfaction job satisfaction was found to be the second leading reason for younger academic staff to stay in the institution. in this article, job satisfaction is viewed as the employees’ attitude towards their jobs. the study revealed reasons, such as enjoying being in an academic environment and employees loving their jobs, as job satisfaction factors, for example, ‘i am comfortable with the institution and i would prefer not to leave’. another factor that can be associated with job satisfaction is job security, as employees feel secure about their jobs. ssesanga and garret (2005) indicate that age has a positive correlation with job satisfaction of employees in the teaching fraternity, with older employees being generally satisfied with their salaries, increasing their levels of job satisfaction (rhodes, 1983; tulen & eyupoglu, 2012). rewards participants indicated that another reason affecting their decision to stay was the rewards they receive from the institution, for instance, some indicated salary and others mentioned that they appreciate study benefits offered at the institution, for example, ‘your school should also invest in you’. this indicates satisfaction with both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards offered by the institution as a measure that can be utilised to retain employees (fallon, 2009; szromek & wolniak, 2020). of importance is that the rewards offered by the institution are significant to these employees as it aids them in their development as well as allowing both the employer and employee to meet their contractual obligations. despite these younger employees being the lowest paid, they nonetheless indicate satisfaction with and involvement in their work as an important factor. work engagement work engagement is characterised by the employees’ involvement in their work. some employees demonstrated high levels of involvement through their willingness to impart knowledge to students and to participate in the community in which they live, for example, ‘another thing that will make me stay is the research’; ‘i have people that actually care about me and that i care for’. recognition, growth and support the findings of the research reveal that employees require their efforts to be recognised. this demonstrates that the institution needs to value these employees for them to stay, for example, ‘meaning people trusting me with really very difficult responsibility’. this can be linked to the rewards and support received from the institution, as there are different ways in which employees can be recognised, for example, intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, support from management and support from colleagues (nienaber & bussin, 2011). jawabri (2017) found that low recognition and rewards for work done have a negative influence on job satisfaction of academic staff. stemming from the findings are factors of growth and support that would keep employees in the institution ‘promotion and support for academic growth’, ‘as long as there is support from the institution’. growth was seen as the employees’ aspiration to grow in their jobs and careers beyond the institution, with employees mentioning prospects such as promotion and the need to advance in research, where support was seen to be received from managers and the institution (rothmann & jordaan, 2006; turk, 2016). however, the findings indicate that opportunities need to be available for these employees to grow, suggesting that opportunities presented by the institution can assist employees that are self-effacing to develop. social and family dynamics another consideration for employees to stay was the role of social and family dynamics. reasons provided included personal factors such as family and the social environment in which employees find themselves, for example, ‘perhaps if there was some entertainment for us young people’. intention to leave the main objective of the study was to investigate factors that would influence employees to leave the institution. the findings of the study are that 47% of the research sample intends to leave the institution. employment practices there are various reasons for young employees intending to leave of which the leading reason being employment practices. for the purpose of the research, it is seen as everyday employment issues that employees experience because of how they are treated and how it affects them, for example, ‘a person who has 10 years more than you is going to be treated differently’. employees’ general perceptions included the notion that they are treated differently to older colleagues. in some instances, a perception that employees are treated differently based on their gender influences their decision to leave, for example, ‘women never get promoted here’. lack of respect from other colleagues was also seen as a determining factor. this is associated with the environment in which employees work, for example, ‘you are often seen as incompetent’. research indicates that dissatisfaction with various factors of employment increases turnover intention (johari, yahya, & ahmad, 2012). environment the work environment can be seen as a place in which employees perform their work and includes factors such as flexibility, enabling environment and a general description of the work setting by employees, for example, ‘changes in our working conditions, you know that decisions are made and we just have to comply whether we want to or not’. participants indicated an environment that is not sociable and culture that is not positive. they indicated the need for a healthier environment enabling growth as some of the environmental factors contributing to their intention to leave (alzayed & murshid, 2017; ssesanga & garret, 2005). support employees are influenced by the perceived lack of support from their managers and the institution (theron, barkhuizen, & du plessis, 2014). to corroborate this statement, participants cited a lack of funding for junior academics and increased administrative work resulting in limited time for their studies to be completed, for example, ‘it’s like you are running a sole race in academia’. others felt that their well-being is not considered. this indicates an increased workload that employees cannot manage. as a result of an increased workload, employees feel that their career progress is slow as they fear that their careers will stagnate, for example, ‘when you are young here at the university, you are like slave worker’, whilst others are motivated to leave to increase career prospects (bezuidenhout, 2015; pienaar & bester, 2006). resources resources are essential to ensure that employees carry out tasks that are required of them. issues such as the quality of technology utilised, lack of equipment and office space when employees are on-boarded in the institution have influenced these employees’ decisions to leave. employees, for example, stated, ‘you cannot do learning with the students because the technology is letting you down’. beyond this, employees are seeking better opportunities outside the institution (chen & hsieh, 2006; szromek & wolniak, 2020). some indicated that they would complete their studies first and then leave to go to other institutions, whilst other employees wish to complete their studies and then leave for other sectors. growth employees highlighted the lack of growth as another factor that would motivate them to leave, as they view being employed at one workplace for a long period as a lack of growth, for example, ‘the main thing generally being stagnating’. junior lecturers were found to be less satisfied with opportunities, feedback and job enrichment (jawabri, 2017). career progress is another factor that would influence these employees to leave, as they do not want to fall behind in their respective fields (lawton & chernyshenko, 2008). this can be linked to employees seeking better opportunities outside the institution, for example, ‘if there are opportunities out there, even if it means having to study further elsewhere’. some employees’ intention to leave is influenced by their expectations and their managements’ expectations of them being misaligned (noor, 2011). other employees are of the view that this is simply not what they expected or signed up for, as the job is completely different to what was advertised, for example, ‘i just feel that the job that is advertised is not actually the one’. rewards and recognition rewards received by the participants also contributed to their intention to leave as they feel that their needs not being met. some seek flexible financial support and others generally seek better pay (grobler, warnich, carrell, elbert, & hatfield, 2011). employees, for instance, stated, ‘moneywise, i wish to go any time’. the lack of recognition of these employees resulted in them feeling undervalued and viewing themselves as only being important when management requires them to perform specific tasks (theron et al., 2014). employees stated the following about recognition: ‘management only talk to you when they want something or want you to do something. it’s not simple, you know. i would appreciate it if the management would send me an email to say happy birthday, or just telling you that you are doing a good job but they only communicate with you when the want something.’ (participant 16) another reason that stood out is the geographical location in which some employees were situated that was seen as influencing the intention to leave, as employees longed for a more serviceable town. it should, however, be stated that these employees were mostly satisfied with their jobs. employees generally complained about basic services such as medical care, the schooling environment for their dependents and a lack of social activities for younger employees progressively affecting their social lives and family dynamics increasing their intention to leave, ‘so it’s more about the city itself, it’s not about the job’. limitations the study presented a few limitations. the institution consists of three different campuses in different locations; this in itself means that the experiences shared by participants are subjective to their respective campus. the effect of this is that there is limited consensus on practices described by employees, as practices and experiences are campus specific. another limitation of the study is that a population of n = 17 was interviewed, thus not representing the views of the majority of the younger academic staff profile. with the study being limited to a one age group, it was challenging for the authors to source supporting literature on younger academic staff. some employees might have experienced a bit of discomfort being audio recorded by the researcher, even though they had initially consented to this. the principal researcher, who is an academic staff member of the institution, belongs to ßthe category of participants being researched. this might have limited participants in openly taking part. participants were made aware of the researcher’s position. however, objectivity was maintained throughout the process, as the researcher was vigilant to uphold ethical conduct. qualitative research limitations for this specific study are that the majority sample of the study population is not represented. even though the purpose was to obtain rich data if makes it difficult to generalise the findings of the study. the data analysed is open to subjectivity by the researcher, as it is not measured against a specific item (creswell, 1994; mohajan, 2018). recommendations and managerial implications based on the findings of the research, 47% of the participants indicated an intention to leave the instution. it is therefore recommended that the institution pay more attention to younger academic employees. the institution can firstly conduct campus-focused research to address issues that can be resolved immediately in the institutional framework. management has the responsibility to manage daily activities, such as the perceived lack of respect from other employees and how younger academic employees are treated. proactive approaches and policies such as research funding and strategic administrative support can be offered and implemented to reduce the workload of these individuals. reduced workloads for employees will increase their well-being whilst providing resources for employees to perform their tasks will enable them to grow in their roles and respective fields. employees are generally seeking better opportunities. the institution must create opportunities for the employees, such as consulting work outside the institution, exposure to networking with individuals outside the academic environment for learning and growth purposes and opportunities for interdisciplinary work with colleagues in the institution. an environment fostering growth is necessary to avoid redundancy as junior employees seek growth and new challenges. a review of growth needs should therefore be conducted timeously to align expectations of both the employee and the institution. younger academic employees value various forms of recognition – not just financial recognition but also recognition in the sense that their contributions are appreciated and acknowledged by the institution, being allowed to participate in decision-making regarding matters that affect their work and being involved in tasks that are meaningful to them. the recognition of employees includes rewards, as some employees seek better pay and added benefits. a flexible reward system, therefore, needs to be established to accommodate employees’ needs. the institution needs to conduct further research on generational reward differences and preferences. this will create a better benchmarking system to ensure that employees can be retained. employees’ needs differ – some younger employees are in the process of establishing their families, provisional employment practices should be considered to accommodate such varying needs. employees’ engagement levels need to be maintained for them to stay in the institution, as some employees would prefer to leave for another institution. this indicates that the issue is not with the job but rather with the institution. it is further recommended that the institution engages with local municipalities on how to improve basic services such as medical care, basic education, water and electricity, as well as the management of environmental and social issues and the improvement of community facilities to cater for younger employees, in general. trustworthiness and credibility credibility is emphasised in the study. credibility refers to the factual representation of perspectives and data of participants by the researcher (polit & beck, 2012). the following steps ensured trustworthiness and credibility of the study: literature focusing on the study and industry was consulted to ensure the worthiness of the study. all participants in the study met the criteria for interviewing. interviews were audio recorded and safely stored. interview notes were consulted during transcribing and coding. first-level coding took place, with theory on related concepts being consulted; this was followed by second-level coding to ensure consistency of concepts and credibility of the study. all participants were made aware of the fact that the researcher forms part of the population being studied, before and during the interviews. the secondary researcher ensured consistency in data interpretation and research processes. the authors followed the ethical procedures set by the institution. conclusion the objective of the study was to explore factors that would influence younger academic employees to leave the institution. the study revealed various reasons that could result in employees leaving. these include employment practices, where management is seen as lacking integrity, and white male superiority is dominant, in an environment in which there is a general lack of respect for young academic employees, inadequate support for these academics to complete their studies, which perpetuates a culture of disregard for employee contributions, a lack of recognition of employees’ efforts and well-being, increased workloads, lack of resources to perform optimally and misaligned expectations and the geographical location of the campuses. the need for growth, and better rewards, creates a desire for better opportunities with other institutions and in other sectors. with 47% of the participants stating that they intend to leave the institution, management and leaders have a lot to consider regarding ways to reduce the intention to leave of these employees. it is important to note that 25% of the participants intend to leave for other institutions. influences on younger academic employees to stay are an enabling environment, job satisfaction, rewards, work engagement, recognition, growth, support and opportunities that these employees receive. it is therefore imperative that the environment in which these employees work is flexible, not only in terms of working hours but also in terms of recognition of these employees in various approaches that can meet their needs. these employees require support to stay engaged and satisfied with their jobs. management needs to create opportunities that encourage the growth of these employees to reduce their intention to leave … flexible programmes, such as the ngap, could be developed to assist employees in reaching their goals and achieving success, which in turn will reduce the intention to leave of younger academics. younger academics are essential for the future sustainability of institutions as they will be leaders of these institutions. retaining them not only reduces recruitment costs but also increases knowledge retention and critical skills development of these employees during their tenure. it is essential to retain these employees as they can keep updated with modern trends and develop new skills necessary for success in current times and the near future. institutions can preserve the quality of education by ensuring that the needs of these employees are met in the dynamic changing environment and reap such benefits of employee retention. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge all the research participants. research participants remain anonymous for confidentiality and privacy reasons. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. author’s contributions t.d.c. contributed as the primary researcher in the research by conceptualising the project, methodology, analysis, investigation, writing up original draft, visualisation and project administration. e.b. contributed as the supervisor in this research by ensuring review and editing, project adminsistration, conceptualisation and visualisation of the project. funding information this research project received no funding from any public, private and non-profit organisations. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [t.d.c.], upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references amah, o.e. (2009). job satisfaction and turnover intention relationship: the moderating effect of job role centrality and life satisfaction. research and practice in human resource management, 17(1), 24–35. alzayed, m., & murshid, m.a. (2017). factors influencing employees’ intention to leave current employment in the ministry of information in kuwait. european journal of business and management, 9(12), 17–31. aruna, m., & anitha, j. (2015). employee retention enablers: generation y employees. scms journal of indian management. a quarterly journal, 12(3), 94–103. badat, s. (2010). the challenges of transformation in higher education and training institutions in south africa. development bank of southern africa. beigi, m., shirmohammadi, m., & stewart, j. (2018). flexible work arrangements and work–family conflict: a metasynthesis of qualitative studies among academics. human resource development review, 17(3), 314–336. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484318787628 bezuidenhout, a. (2015). implications for academic workload of the changing role of distance educators. distance education, 36(2), 246–262. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2015.1055055 boyatzis, r.e. (1998). transforming qualitative information: thematic analysis and code development. sage. braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa bryman, a. (2016). social research methods (5th ed.). oxford university press. bryman, a., & bell, e. (2017). research methodology. business and management contexts. oxford university press. cameron, a., & woods, c. (2016). a proposed ‘ladder of learning’ for academics professional development in teaching. south african journal of higher education, 3(6), 176–190. https://doi.org/10.20853/306732 chen, h., & hsieh, y. (2006). key trends of the total reward system in the 21st century. compensation and benefits review, 38(6), 64–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886368706292542 chew, j.c. (2004). the influence of human resource management practices on the retention of core employees of australian organisations. doctoral thesis, murdoch university. retrieved from http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/656/ clarke, m., hyde, a., & drennan, j. (2013). the changing academy – the changing academic profession in international comparative perspective. in b.m. kehm & u. teichler (eds.), the academic profession in europe: new tasks and new challenges, 5, 8–21. clarke, v., braun, v., & hayfield, n. (2015). thematic analysis. in j.a. smith (eds.), qualitative psychology: a practical guide to research methods (3rd ed., pp. 222–249). sage. council on higher education. (2017). learning to teaching in higher education in south africa. an investigation into the influences of institutional context on the professional learning of academics in their roles as teachers. higher education monitor 14. council of higher education. creswell, j.w. (1994). research design: qualitative & quantitative approaches. sage. department of higher education and training. (2015). staffing south africa’s universities framework: a comprehensive, transformative approach to developing future generations of academics and building staff capacity. department of higher education and training. department of higher education and training [dhet]. (2016). policies and processes for phases 1 and 2 of the new generation of academic programme (ngap). [2015/16, 2016/17 cohorts]. pretoria: dhet. dube, l., & ngulube, p. (2013). pathways for retaining human capital in academic departments of a south african university. sa journal of information management 15(2). art. #560, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajim.v15i2.560 etikan, i., musa, s.a., & alkassim, r.a. (2016). comparison of convenience sampling and purposive sampling. american journal of theoretical and applied statistics, 5(1), 1–4. https://doi.org.10.11648/j.ajtas.20160501.11 fallon, t. (2009). retain and motivate the next generation. supervision, 70(5), 5–7. gunter, a., & raghuram, p. (2018). international study in the global south: linking institutional, staff, student and knowledge mobilities. globalisation, societies and education, 16(2), 192–207. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2017.1401453 grobler, p.a., wärnich, s., carrell, m.r., elbert, n.f., & hatfield, r.d. (2011). human resource management in south africa (4th ed.). cengage learning. grbich, c. (2013). qualitative data analysis. an introduction. sage. hesse-biber, s.n. (2017). the practice of qualitative research. sage. higher education south africa. (2009). hesa strategic framework for the next 10 years: pathways to a diverse and effective south african higher education system. insight, 1, 1–12. higher education south africa. (2014). remuneration of academic staff at south africa universities: a summary of the hesa statistical study on academic remuneration. higher education south africa. jawabri, a. (2017). job satisfaction of academic staff in higher education: evidence from private universities in uae. international journal of human resource studies, 7(4), 193–211. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijhrs.v7:4.12029 islam, m.f., & alam, j. (2014). factors influencing intention to quit or stay in jobs: an empirical study on selected sectors in bangladesh. stamford journal of business studies, 6(1). johari, j., yahya, k.k., & ahmad, m.n. (2012). understanding the influence of human resource management practices on intention to stay: evidence from malaysia. 3rd international conference on business and economic research proceeding, 12–13 march 2012, golden flower hotel, bandung, indonesia. kim, j., & tang, y.-c. (2013). what can we do to attract and retain young people to our company as we find it difficult to attract employees at all levels? cornell university. koen, c. (2003). academics. human resource development review, 501–517. retrieved from http://hrdwarehouse.hrsc.ac.za/hrd/academics/academics.pdf kogan, m. & teichler, u. (2007). key challenges to the academic profession and its interface with management: some introductory thoughts. in m. kogan & u. teichler (eds.), key challenges to academic profession, pp. 9–15. unesco forum on higher education research and knowledge, paris. kwiek, m. (2017). a generational divide in the academic profession: a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach to the polish case. european educational research journal, 16(5), 645–669. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f1474904116689684 lawton, k.e., & chernyshenko, o.s. (2008). examining determinants of employee benefit preference: joint effects of personality, work values, and demographics. asia pacific journal of human resources, 46(2), 220–240. https://doi.org/10.1177/1038411108091759 leavy, p. (2014). the oxford handbook of qualitative research. oxford university press. lesenyeho, d., barkhuizen, n.e., & schutte, n.e. (2018). factors relating to the attraction of talented early career academics in south african higher education institutions. journal of human resource management, 16, a910. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16:0.910 mabaso, c.m., & dlamini, b.i. (2018). total rewards and its effects on organisational commitment in higher education institutions. sa journal of human resource management, 16(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.913 matongolo, a., kasekende, f., & mafabi, s. (2018). employer branding and talent retention: perceptions of employees in higher education institutions in uganda. industrial and commercial training, 50(5), 217–233. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict-03-2018-0031 makondo, l. (2014). academics attraction and retention trends at a south african university. journal of sociology and social anthropology, 5(2), 169–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/09766634.2014.11885621 mapesela, m.l.e., & strydom, f. (2004). performance management of academic staff in south african higher education: a developmental research project. presented at the oecd conference on trends in the management of human resource in higher education 2004, south africa: university of the free state. michael, s.o. (2008). using motivational strategy as panacea for employee retention and turnover in selected public and private sector organisations in the eastern cape province of south africa. master of commerce thesis. university of fort hare. mohajan, h.k. (2018). qualitative research methodology in social sciences and related subjects. journal of economic development, environment and people, 7(1), 23–48. https://doi.org/10.26458/jedep.v7i1.571 moloantoa, m.e., & darasamy, n. (2017). job satisfaction among academic employees in an institution of higher learning. problems and perspectives in management, 15(3), 193–200. https://doi.org/10.21511/ppm.15(3-1).2017.03 nadiri, h., & tanova, c. (2010). an investigation of the role of justice in turnover intentions, job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior in hospitality industry. international journal of hospitality management, 29(1), 33–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2009.05.001 netswera, f.g., rankhumise, e.m., & mavundla, t.r. (2005). employee retention factors for south african higher education institutions: a case study. sa journal of human resource management, 3(2), 36–40. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v3i2.64 ng’ethe, j.m., iravo, m.e., & namusonge, g.s. (2012a). determinants of academic staff retention in public universities in kenya: empirical review. international journal of humanities and social science, 2(13), 297–302. ng’ethe, j.m., iravo, m.e., & namusonge, g.s. (2012b). influence of leadership style on academic staff retention in public universities in kenya: empirical review. international journal of humanities and social science, 3(21), 297–302. nienaber, r., & bussin, m. (2011). remuneration policy and strategy. in m. bussin (ed.), the remuneration handbook for africa: a practical and informative handbook for managing reward and recognition in africa. knowres publishing. noor, k.h. (2011). work-life balance and intention to leave among academics in malaysian public higher education institutions. international journal of business and social science, 2(11), 240–248. nwadiani, m., & akpotu n.e. (2002). academic staff turnover in nigerian universities (1990–1997). educ, 123(2), 305–312. öldalen, j., brommesson, d., erlingsson, g., schaffer, j., & fogelgren, m. (2018). teaching university teachers to become better teachers: the effects of pedagogical training courses of six swedish universities. higher education research & development, 38(20), 339–353. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2018.1512955 o’reilly, m., & kiyimba, n. (2015). advanced qualitative research. a guide to using theory. sage. palys, t. (2008). purposive sampling. in l.m. given (ed.), the sage encyclopedia of qualitative research methods (pp. 386–389). sage. peterson, j.z. (2009). job stress, job satisfaction, and intention to leave among new nurses. phd thesis. university of toronto. pienaar, c., & bester, c. (2006). die loopbaandilemmas van akademiese personeel verbonde aan ’n veranderende suid-afrikaanse hoëronderwysinstelling. acta academica, 38(3), 74–95. pienaar, c., & bester, (2008). the retention of academics in the early career phase. sa journal of human resource management, 6(2), 31–41. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v6i2.171 polit, d.f., & beck, c.t. (2012). nursing research: generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice. lippincott williams and wilkins. powell, w.w. (2010). understanding attrition and predicting employment durations of former staff in a public social service organization. journal of social work, 10, 407–435. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468017310369606 rahman, a.s., naqvi, m.m., & ramay, m.i. (2008). measuring turnover intention: a study of it professionals in pakistan. international review of business research papers, 4(3), 45–55. rhodes, s. (1983). age-related differences in work attitudes and behaviour: a review and conceptual analysis. psychological bulletin, 93(2), 328–367. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.93.2.328 rothmann, s., & jordaan, g.m.e. (2006). job demands, job resources and work engagement of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. sa journal of industrial psychology, 32(4), 87–96. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v32i4.247 samuel, m.o., & chipunza, c. (2013). attrition and retention of senior academics at institutions of higher learning in south africa: the strategies, complexities and realities. journal of social science, 35(2), 97–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/09718923.2013.11893151 sayers, r. (2007). the right staff from x to y. library management, 28(8/9), 474–487. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435120710837765 silverman, d., & marvasti, a. (2008). doing qualitative research. a comprehensive guide. sage. simons, j.c., & buitendach, j.h. (2013). psychological capital, work engagement, and organisational commitment amongst call center employees in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(2). art. #1071, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v.39i2.1071 sissons, p. & jones, k. (2012). lost in transition? the changing labour market and young people not in employment, education and training. london: work foundation. ssesanga, k., & garrett, r.m. (2005). job satisfaction of university academics: perspectives from uganda. higher education, 50, 33–56. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-004-6346-0 starks, h., & trinidad, s. (2007). choose your method: a comparison of phenomenology, discourse analysis, and grounded theory. qualitative health research, 17(10), 1372–1380. http://doi.org/10.1177/1049732307307031 sypniewska, b.a. (2013). evaluation of factors influencing job satisfaction. contemporary economics, 8, 57–72. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732307307031 szromek, a.r., & wolniak, r. (2020). job satisfaction and problems among academic staff in higher education. sustainability, 12(12), 4865. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12124865 theron, m., barkhuizen, n., & du plessis, y. (2014). managing the academic talent void: investigating factors in academic turnover and retention in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 40(1). art. #1117, 1–14. tulen, s., & eyupoglu, s.z. (2012). the age and job satisfaction relationship in higher education. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 55, 1020–1026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.593 turk, k. (2016). performance management of academic staff and its effectiveness to teaching and research-ased on the example of estonian universities. trames journal of the humanities and social sciences, 20(70/65), 1. https://doi.org/10.3176/tr.2016.1.02 wood, s.j., & wall, t.d. (2007). work enrichment and employee voice in human resource management – performance studies. the international journal of human resource management, 18(7), 1335–1372. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190701394150 abstract introduction literature review research design findings discussion management implications limitations and recommendations conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) mehauhelo melaletsa department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa mark bussin department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa emmerentia n. barkhuizen department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa centre for work performance, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation melaletsa, m., bussin, m., & barkhuizen, e.n. (2023). employee perceptions of organisational design interventions in the public sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2145. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2145 original research employee perceptions of organisational design interventions in the public sector mehauhelo melaletsa, mark bussin, emmerentia n. barkhuizen received: 19 oct. 2022; accepted: 05 apr. 2023; published: 03 aug. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: public sector departments (psd) play an essential role in rendering services for public welfare. unfortunately, psds are slow to adapt to change and apply the required interventions to ensure sustainable service delivery and performance to the broader society. research purpose: the objective of this study was to explore employee perceptions of organisational development interventions in a selected public sector organisation. motivation for the study: research on organisation design (od) interventions in the public sector remains scarce despite its strategic importance. research approach/design and method: a qualitative approach was utilised to obtain semi-structured interview data from a purposive sample of management (n = 15) from a selected public sector institution. theme analyses were applied to illicit themes for the data gathered. main findings: the findings showed that employees had negative experiences of od in the department. the participants highlighted various factors constraining the effective implementation of od interventions, such as a lack of consultation, communication and role clarity, poor change management, planning and time management. practical/managerial implications: the findings highlighted the importance of management creating inclusive workplace cultures with opportunities for proper dialogue with subordinates to prevent resistance against change. organisation design stakeholders can further benefit from role clarification and training to ensure that change initiatives are properly assembled in support of organisational strategies. contribution/value-add: this research adds to the limited body of empirical knowledge on od interventions within the public sector. keywords: change management; consultation; organisational development; interventions; public sector. introduction public sector departments (psds) play a vital role in improving society’s general welfare through the delivery of public goods and services (fourie & poggenpoel, 2017; linna et al., 2010) in the local and global economy (linna et al., 2010). blum et al. (2012, pp. 1–2) note that the public sector has the potential to be ‘a major contributor to the growth and social welfare’, by delivering quality outputs for citizens, managing infrastructure, regulating social and economic behaviour and ensuring fiscal and institutional sustainability. as stated by arnaboldi et al. (2015, p. 2), the public sector is faced with high expectations in terms of ‘delivery of social justice, social responsibility, equity in society, democratic entitlements and pressures for social change.’ the public sector is thus a complex environment (arnaboldi et al. 2015). lapsley and skærbæk (2012) describe the complexity as a function of the interface between a new post-apartheid managerial culture alongside political interference, which creates tensions for management discretions in the levels of accountability within and beyond public service institutions. in addition, the hybrid nature of psds adds to their complexity (de waele et al., 2021). the hybrid nature of these organisations refers to aspects such as the multiple, diverse stakeholders of psds, the (often conflicting) demands of these different stakeholders, as well as the role of politics in these organisations in terms of serving the elected government and serving all citizens of a country. against this backdrop of a highly complex environment, the importance of organisational performance in the public sector cannot be disputed. various studies have shown that south africa has, for a number of years, been subjected to poor psd performance in delivering public services (fourie & poggenpoel, 2017; janse van rensburg, 2014; nengwekhulu, 2009; shava & mazenda, 2021). factors contributing to poor performance are poor financial management; inadequate procurement practices; the politicisation of appointments; public servants’ lack of skills, knowledge, and experience; nepotism; corruption; lack of accountability; lack of performance management; tolerance of unethical behaviour and practices; and a lack of leadership (akinboade et al., 2012; fourie, 2015; fourie & poggenpoel, 2017; francis, 2013; janse van rensburg, 2014; magadzire et al., 2017; malila, 2020; muthien, 2014). the existence and sustainability of organisations and, in this context, public sector institutions depend, amongst various other factors, on organisational development (od) interventions to maximise profitability (brijball, 2012). shukla et al. (2015) refer to od as a purposeful process for the survival of organisations, and state that it is a long-term effort that contributes to the performance of an organisation. cilliers and henning (2021, p. 1) describe od as ‘an established function in organisations tasked to optimise organisational functioning and relationship building’. several studies indicate that public sector performance is a priority for governments worldwide (kealesitse et al., 2013), and that an efficient public service, in most cases, enhances or improves the social conditions of the citizens. moreover, smith and mackinnon (2019) argue for more od interventions to drive radical change in south african public sector institutions. therefore, research on employee perceptions of od interventions in a public sector institution is imperative. more specifically, this study aims to answer the following research questions: what are employee perceptions of od interventions in a selected public sector institution? what factors constrain the effective implementation of od interventions in the public sector? in what follows, the literature review is presented covering some of the essential aspects of od in the government context. thereafter, the research design adopted for the study is described followed by the presentation of the findings. finally, this paper concludes with a discussion of the findings, management implications and further avenues for od research within the public sector. literature review defining organisation design organisation design is a multidimensional and multi-level process covering an organisation’s breadth and depth. given this complex nature of od and its interdisciplinary foundation, there is no single definition of od (vosoughi’s, 2014). as such, the descriptions of od by different authors range from it being a process, a theory, and a field of study, to its being a profession (burke, 1994; french & bell, 1999, rothwell et al. 1995; schein, 2006; vaill, 1989). egan (2002) conducted a study of 27 definitions of od published since 1969, and found that there were as many as 60 different variables related to od in these definitions. according to karakas (2009) and french and bell (1984), od as a profession and field of study has existed since the 1950s. karakas (2009) further contextualises od as a discipline that emerged to enhance organisational effectiveness through problem-solving initiatives and renewal processes using collective practices, guided by theories of human and organisational behaviour. an early scholar in the field of od, beckhard (1969), provided one of the most-cited definitions of od: organisation development is an effort (1) planned, (2) organisation-wide, and (3) managed from the top, to (4) increase organisation effectiveness and health through (5) planned interventions in the organisation’s ‘processes’ using behavioural-science knowledge. (p. 3) according to anderson (2019), this definition has stood the test of time, as most of the elements incorporated in beckhard’s (1969) definition are present in many definitions of od. there has, however, been some criticism regarding two aspects of beckhard’s (1969) definition. firstly, some scholars disagree that od is always planned, as od interventions are often developed and implemented in response to what is happening inside and outside of an organisation (anderson, 2019). secondly, given that many organisations are becoming less and less hierarchical, many od interventions are not necessarily managed from the top. rothwell et al. (2010) define od as a mechanism to help people in organisations to identify and plan how to deal with changes. they further regard od as a planned initiative involving processes in the whole organisation, with the requirement that it be managed from the top, using behavioural science knowledge. organisation design is often referred to as a practice that uses systematic, planned and shared processes and the understanding of human values to advance the organisation’s functioning. these planned events affect the strategies, design, structures, processes, people, groups and cultures that impact the organisation (gasser, 2015). shukla et al. (2015) refer to od as a purposeful process for the survival of organisations, and state that it is a long-term effort that contributes to the performance of an organisation. as such, the existence and sustainability of organisations depend, amongst various other factors, on od interventions to maximise profitability (brijball, 2012). cilliers and henning (2021, p. 1) include od’s relational and task dimensions in their description of od as ‘an established function in organisations tasked to optimise organisational functioning and relationship building’. in the context of the present study, od is defined as a planned, holistic process that is applied across the systemic complexity of an organisation to create alignment of strategy, structure, people, processes, leadership and rewards (khan, 2015), to improve efficiency and productivity in the workplace and to ensure organisational profitability and sustainability through enhanced organisational performance. organisation design models various od models denote best practices for implementing od in the workplace. according to asumeng and osae-larbi (2015), od models are primarily influenced by the change process or implementation theory. the following section presents some of the most relevant and enduring models for od. the star model the star model was developed by galbraith (1995) to guide leadership in aligning organisational processes through five distinct categories, namely strategy, structure, processes, rewards and people. there are various aspects to consider with this model. firstly, this model’s architecture makes it evident that structure is just one component of organisational design. organisations frequently focus too much on structure because it affects status and power. for example, od interventions that follow too much of a top-down approach may make employees feel that their voices are not heard or important (bussu & marshall, 2020). the strong relationship between strategy and organisational design is a second significant aspect. galbraith (1995) asserts that the strategic criteria are essential to the selected design(s). secondly, the star model suggests that for policies to communicate a consistent message to employees effectively, they must be in harmony and align with one another. this idea relates to the significance of designing policies that influence behaviour as a tool for managers to influence organisational performance and culture (galbraith, 1995). finally, effective communication is essential during the change process to fill the gaps and prevent rumours that can harm how employees perceive future organisational change (smet et al., 2016). three-step model of change reviewing various definitions of od, the change aspect of od clearly plays a central role in od interventions. according to sangka et al. (2019): [c]hange refers to the ability of a manager to transition individuals, teams and organisations to a desired future organisational state through understanding the current state of the organisation and implementing appropriate strategies for change. (p. 1058) change management is a necessity in all organisations, as the organisation and the environment around which it operates evolve continuously. the three-step model of change was developed by kurt lewin in 1947, and is one of the most well-known and influential approaches to organisational change (burnes, 2020). this model focuses on the conditions or forces that drive human behaviour (i.e. unfreeze, change and refreeze), and the assumption is that specific driving forces promote certain behaviour, whilst restraining forces hinder certain behaviours (asumeng & osae-larbi, 2015). the first stage involves unfreezing, whereby the forces that direct employee behaviour towards change should be promoted and the restraining forces decreased to move away from the status quo. deghetto et al. (2017, p. 121), for example, state that unequal access to information about organisational change often leads to ‘increased uncertainty as well as negative perceptions and expectations about the pending change’. consequently, individuals will resist change. the second stage of this model emphasises the human element, where leaders encourage employees to view the situation from a new perspective and search together for new and relevant information that will support the change (asumeng & osae-larbi, 2015). employees, therefore, become part of the decision-making process and can share knowledge that can assist the organisation in solving problems and improving planning (austin & bartunek, 2012). finally, the refreezing stage involves incorporating new values and practices to avoid relapse to the original state and stabilise the new equilibrium by balancing both the driving and restraining forces (kritsonis, 2005). changes to organisational culture, policies, and practices are the main characteristics of this stage (asumeng & osae-larbi, 2015). the general model of planned change: the general model of planned change is a general framework that provides a road map for the od consulting process (asumeng & osae-larbi, 2015). the planned change is achieved in four stages: entering and contracting, diagnosis and feedback, planning and implementation, and evaluation and institutionalisation. entering and contracting involves defining the first set of events that change practitioners and the organisation need to employ. this includes data gathering to identify the problems or opportunities for change, joint discussions about the information gathered, undertakings to engage in the planned change, setting expectations around time, remuneration for the change agent, and the resources required (asumeng & osae-larbi, 2015). eriksson et al. (2016) further emphasise that securing participation among different organisational actors in the different implementation steps is essential. bartunek and jones (2017) stress the importance of consultation and refer to an unsuccessful od intervention as a situation whereby a change intervention was done in secret and on the sideline of the organisation. consequently, change will be rejected by organisational members. the diagnosis and feedback stage is when the planned activities to address causes and consequences are undertaken to understand the current state and clarify the necessary interventions to improve organisational effectiveness. this is regarded as the most important stage in the planned change process, such as choosing an appropriate diagnostic model, collecting important key data, analysing data, and communicating conclusions to organisational members (asumeng & osae-larbi, 2015). in addition, communication ensures that employees are informed about the reasoning behind an intervention, how it will take place, how it will affect employees, and the expected results (ibarra, 2019; jamieson et al., 2000; tanner & otto, 2016). the planning and implementation stage involves stakeholders in the change process in designing action plans or required interventions guided by the diagnosis. the type and magnitude of interventions identified and agreed upon will also be guided by organisational factors like readiness for change, change capability, organisational culture, and power base. the change agent plays a critical role in determining the nature and scope of the interventions developed. the change agent’s impact on the process is related to the change agent’s motivation, commitment, skills, and abilities. the change agent would also need to engage in the implementation of activities (asumeng & osae-larbi, 2015). kuna and nadiv (2018) state that employers do not always recognise the role of human resources (hr) in managing the human aspect of organisational processes. there has, however, been a change in terms of the functioning of hr managers in some organisations: ‘hr managers work closely with other managers whom they help to develop management skills and advise them how to deal with different situations that demand understanding of human aspects’ (kuna & nadiv, 2018, p. 854). cummings and worley (2008) also observe that managers do not always have the necessary knowledge and skills to manage change. they, therefore, need guidance on how to manage the change process. evaluating and institutionalising change are the last steps in the change process. during this stage, the change agent collects information on the situation following the implementation of the change intervention. this action will assess how well the intervention addressed needs and achieved the planned objectives. communication for feedback on the effect of the intervention is also critical at this stage to allow members and leadership to assess the need to advance the planned change intervention, make revisions to the change intervention, or terminate the intervention (asumeng & osae-larbi, 2015). communication does not only flow in one direction, from executive and managerial levels to lower levels in the organisation, but should be two-directional or dialogic (bushe & marshak, 2015; preget, 2013). phases of the organisation design process despite the various approaches and models followed in od, scholars generally agree with the five generic phases that usually form part of the od interventions: initiation, screening or diagnosis, action planning, implementation, and evaluation (nielsen & abildgaard, 2013). the initiation phase involves communicating the anticipated intervention and clarifying why the intervention is required. as russ (2009, p. 5) states: ‘frontline individuals are the true cogs in the implementation process; without them, change is merely an implementer’s idea’. russ (2009) further advocates that a lack of decision-making authority will challenge organisational change. role clarification of stakeholders is finalised during this stage but can be adjusted as the intervention progress. gasser (2015) advises that od practitioners should be rigorous in integrating theory and practice and ensure that each od intervention is relevant to the context within which it takes place. this demands business acumen and a thorough understanding of the business landscape and its stakeholders. kundu et al. (2019, p. 458) state that ‘perceived role clarity was found to be an important antecedent for various employee outcomes such as job performance, efficiency, organisational commitment, organisational citizenship behaviour and job satisfaction’. in service organisations, such as the department under study, role clarity is critical to delivering high-quality service (mukherjee & malhotra, 2005). screening involves a diagnosis of the context and forms the foundation of the type of intervention. firstly, nielsen and abilgaard (2013) emphasise the importance of collaboration and regular communication and feedback between the stakeholders (i.e. management, staff and od practitioner). secondly, and related to the theme of consultation, communication does not only flow in one direction, from executive and managerial level to lower levels in the organisation but should be two-directional or dialogic (bushe & marshak, 2015; marshak & bushe, 2009; preget, 2013). the action planning phase involves the development of the interventions in consultation with the stakeholders. according to chabke and haddad (2018, p. 102), a lack of accountability is often the result of ‘several changes in positions, role ambiguity, unclear reporting lines and other irregularities in hr management, and it can cause delays in projects and a loss of money’. irfan et al. (2020) emphasise the duty of management to prevent unnecessary delays: ‘if top management is involved in the project with a supportive and positive attitude then unnecessary delays can be eliminated during the course of project initiation till its closure’. finally, the implementation of the intervention focuses on various organisational levels, such as individuals, groups, and leadership, as well as organisational processes, procedures, structures, and rewards (khan, 2015; nielsen & abildgaard, 2013). finally, the evaluation phase involves collecting data to verify the effectiveness of the change intervention on single or multiple levels (cady & kim, 2017). nielsen and abildgaard (2013) advise that changes in attitudes, values, and knowledge, the development of individual resources, procedures, working conditions, employees’ general health and well-being, performance, and organisational health and safety practices should be studied and monitored. cooperrider (2017, p. 122) also stresses the importance of ‘analysis, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up evaluation’ to enable effective problem-solving. research design research approach a qualitative research was followed for this study. bryman and bell (2011) describe qualitative research as sensitive to how the participants view and experience the problem. duke and mallette (2011) characterise qualitative research as a set of practices to respond to research questions in the field of knowledge that requires collecting, analysing and interpreting non-numeric data. the way in which the nature of reality is understood also has implications for the relationship between the researcher and what is being researched. within an interpretivist paradigm, the assumption is that the researcher is not an objective observer, but is and becomes part of the experienced world of participants. interpretivists ‘attempt to minimise the distance between the researcher and that which is researched’ (collis & hussey, 2009, p. 59). this research, therefore, falls within the interpretivist paradigm. sampling the target population for this study was individuals with sufficient lived experience of the phenomenon under study, in this case, od interventions in a psd as either a manager or a subordinate. there are 40 departments in the national government in south africa and one of these departments was conveniently selected for this research. two selection criteria were applied to select participants in this department: experience (i.e. participation in) of the phenomena as either a manager or a subordinate. it is important to clarify that, within the context of psds, director generals (dg), deputy director generals, and chief directors (cds) are regarded as managerial levels, whilst directors, deputy directors (dds), and assistant directors (ads) are regarded as subordinates. in this study, 10 participants were male, and five were female. the age distribution for males was between 32 and 54 years, and for female participants, between 31 and 49 years. most participants were representative of the african ethnic groups (n = 14) with the highest educational qualification ranging between bachelor’s and doctoral degree (n = 14). all participants were employees in management positions ranging from assistance director to deputy director general. most of the participants in this study were employees as deputy directors (n = 6), followed by directors (n = 3). all participants had more than 15 years of work experience. entrée and establishing research roles permission to do the study at the department was submitted to the dg. the purpose and nature of the research were explained to the dg. the research outline addressed the practical relevance of the research, the type of information required from participants, and what the researcher would do to ensure anonymity and confidentiality. an orientation session was planned for all the individuals identified to participate in the study to ensure they understood the full scope of the research and their rights before participating. ethical clearance was obtained before the execution of the study. data collection method semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data in this study. semi-structured interviews are conducted based upon a broad framework of open-ended, pre-formulated questions, but the researcher strictly does not have to adhere to these questions (myers, 2013). semi-structured interviews allow for a process in which the open nature of the questions is designed to encourage participants to explore their own experiences and to enable new concepts to emerge through the interview process (dearnley, 2005). in addition, semi-structured interviews allow for deeper and broader exploration during the interview, as the researcher may ask probing questions and obtain clarity where needed (bryman, 2015; creswell & clark, 2007). thus, the participants’ responses shape the order and content of further questions. the researcher could, therefore, also ask additional questions as the interview unfolded while at the same time providing some structure to the interview to ensure that the overall interview remained focused on the research questions. data analyses theme analyses were applied in this study. braun and clarke (2006, p. 9) state, ‘a theme captures something important about the data concerning the research question and represents some level of patterned response or meaning within the data set’. this means the researcher needs to continuously reflect on the data to decide the important aspects of the data and whether these aspects constitute themes. this applies to the data set as a whole and individual data items. for example, the decision can be made based on the prevalence of a theme or the apparent importance of a single idea, possible only mentioned a few times across the data set but significant enough in terms of the research question to constitute a theme. in this study, both prevalence and importance were considered in selecting themes. data recording and storage the data were captured through audio recordings and note-taking to ensure that credible accounts of the interviews were recorded. according to braun and clarke (2006, p. 17), there is not a single set of prescriptive guidelines to follow when transcribing, but the minimum requirement is ‘a rigorous and thorough transcript’. the transcripts were returned to the participants to verify the accuracy thereof. the recorded data and transcripts are password-protected and will be kept for 5 years. findings this section presents the sub-themes relating to the department’s employee perceptions of od interventions. the data analyses resulted in 16 different themes relating to od interventions in the departments. as shown in figure 1, 14 themes were viewed as negative and two as positive. most participants reported a negative experience with od interventions being planned, articulated, implemented and managed. these perceptions were analysed to determine which aspect of od interventions was related and then categorised as either negative or positive. the most important themes are presented in the following section and supported by direct quotes from the participants. the participants are coded (i.e. participant f) to ensure their confidentiality. figure 1: employee perceptions of organisation design interventions in the department. sub-theme: consultation this theme relates to employees’ experience that there is insufficient consultation and involvement of all staff members in od interventions. it also includes the experience of being excluded and the impact of this experience, as well as a sense that input that is provided regarding od interventions is not valued. as mentioned by some of the participants: ‘a top-down approach is used in our department. i would strongly urge the organisation to ensure that employees share and be part of organisational development in the department. decisions are taken by executives and senior management, with minimal inclusion of other levels … people feel marginalised and get angry and personal.’ (participant b, female, generation y, assistant director, eight years in current job) and: ‘in the department, my experiences have not been positive. i was part of a number of od processes, but not all stakeholders that were affected were consulted on the need to restructure. they were not taken through of what was planned, how it would be done, and how the decision was arrived at of the new structure.’ (participant n, female, generation x, assistant director, five years in current job) in support, participant b mentions: ‘consultations are … not done adequately, and this is the area that could be approached differently. executives take decisions without consultation, and this poses a huge problem. mistakes happen in the process and in the implementation of those decisions. management do not consider views on serious issues, and this leads to negative outcomes. problems arise when change is forced.’ (participant b, female, generation y, assistant director, eight years in current job) participant k highlights the importance of including individuals in change initiatives and having a strategy in place: ‘consultation is key to not lose people. inclusivity of stakeholders or people affected by any change to be initiated is very important. people need to be consulted to understand why the change [is necessary]. inputs need to be taken from people. a road map of an od project to be initiated has to be provided to the affected people, so they are not lost in the process.’ (participant k, male, generation x, director, seven years in current job) participant k is supported by participant i, who mentioned that: ‘people want to get involved, but have lost hope in the system, because, where they want to review, say, their microstructures, they are mostly not supported, as there are financial implications.’ (participant i, male, generation x, deputy director general, five years in current job) sub-theme: communication this theme relates to issues experienced by employees in terms of communication around od interventions and the resultant lack of understanding of od interventions and related aspects. participant m emphasises the importance of communication and consultation to provide clarity for the change process: ‘communication and consultation ensure that people understand processes. to me, it becomes key, as, at least people would have questions such as ‘why?’, ‘how?’, and ‘when?’ answered. in that case, it promotes buy-in from people who become key to the performance of the organisation.’ (participant m, male, generation y, deputy director, three years in current job) participant g, highlights the challenges of ineffective communication and the consequences thereof for od implementation: ‘the challenges are in the effectiveness of communication and the actual implementation process of od interventions. there are gaps, for example, things communicated via emails in the department, but little communication from line managers. workshops are done, but there are no staff meetings to direct and provide leadership. what are prioritised are managers’ and exco meetings.’ (participant g, male, generation y, deputy director, six years in current job) sub-theme: change management this theme relates to how employees experience the way in which transitions or transformations are implemented in the department. the findings indicate that change management processes are experienced as disruptive and inefficient. participant b mentioned the importance of taking change management processes seriously: ‘change management should be taken seriously. people are suffering because of not taking this intervention seriously. the management and co-ordination of this process from human resources and management needs serious attention. this will, in turn, have a positive impact on employee relations.’ (participant b, female, generation y, assistant director, eight years in current job) in support, participant f highlights the consequences of imposed change processes: ‘you have a demotivated workforce that believes change is imposed and is lost as to exactly where the organisation is heading or wants to achieve.’ (participant f, male, generation y, deputy director, three years in current job) similar observations are made by participant i, who indicates: ‘elements of change can affect performance negatively if there are no proper ways of soliciting buy-in from people in the organisation.’ (participant i, male, generation x, deputy director general, five years in current job) and: ‘there has not been much change to accommodate the changes that are taking place globally. efforts are made, but not to the scale of the economic, industrial, and technological revolution that is currently taking place. hence, we find most employees frustrated in their workplace.’ (participant n, female, generation x, deputy director, five years in current job) sub-theme: role clarity this theme refers to the extent to which individual employees and teams understand what is expected of them in terms of their scope, input, required deliverables, processes, level of authorisation, and function within the organisation. the findings indicate that there is a lack of role clarity. according to participant c: ‘subordinates do not fully comprehend what their roles as subordinates are. managers, as well, may be challenged in this regard; for example, they may think all they need to do is just pass work to subordinates, which is a problem, because they need to give direction in the work that subordinates are involved in. they may put all responsibilities on the shoulders of subordinates.’ (participant c, female, generation x, chief director, seven years in current job) and: ‘some employees do not understand job profiles and contract things that are not within their job profiles. others would insist on changing job profiles when they want to contract, which shows a big gap in terms of understanding the role played by od … there has to be a role clarification and a clear distinction of who delivers what and for which role. most juniors in the department run with complex matters while the managers are relaxed.’ (participant i, male, generation x, deputy director general, five years in current job) participant b further highlights the importance of understanding roles to ensure the effectiveness of od interventions: ‘[the impact of od interventions is] limited to people’s understanding of their roles. there is confusion or a level of resistance as to roles that hr, managers, and incumbents play in, for example, redesign of a job. there could be exaggerated interference from managers in the process, or total isolation from the process, wanting hr to do all the work.’ (participant b, female, generation y, assistant director, eight years in current job) sub-theme: planning this theme refers to employees’ perspectives regarding the extent to which focused, deliberate thought is invested before implementing od interventions and the extent to which the implicit demands and potential consequences of interventions are deliberated and planned for. it emerged from the data that sufficient planning does not take place. participant k mentioned: ‘the transition took place in a haphazard manner … poor planning of initiating od interventions results in hampered relations, unsatisfied staff, low staff morale, which has a negative impact on performance … before initiation of realignment projects, there has to be work done to make sure that, at the conclusion of the project, there are resources. infrastructure and finances have to be in place to allow a smooth transition and continuity of work.’ (participant k, male, generation x, deputy director general, five years in current job) and: ‘[od interventions] feel more like a touch and go. some processes are beginning to take shape and become effective; however, there does not seem to be willingness to improve much, or it takes a long while for changes to take place.’ (participant n, female, generation x, deputy director, five years in current job) and: ‘[od systems can be improved] by synchronising some of the planning and reporting information to complement information required in a standardised format for reporting internally and externally.’ (participant g, male, generation y, deputy director, six years in current job) sub-theme: timing this theme refers to how participants experience the pace at which od interventions are implemented. the findings that emerged from the data suggest that these interventions are not implemented continuously and are characterised by either delays and disruptions or hasty implementation. as mentioned by some of the participants: ‘the od interventions exist, but are not implemented accordingly. the people involved in driving the process are delayed with decisions that take a long time or are not prioritised, for reasons unknown.’ (participant f, male, generation y, deputy director, three years in current job) and: ‘some processes are beginning to take shape and become effective; however, there does not seem to be willingness to improve much, or it takes a long while for changes to take place.’ (participant f, male, generation y, deputy director, three years in current job) and: ‘like i had indicated, we just pushed around. we are not given enough time to reflect appropriately on these plans and where we have capacity, financially or with human resources, to deliver on them. they are pushed for approval, and we are expected to do miracles.’ (participant f, male, generation y, deputy director, three years in current job) other sub-themes other themes to emerge to a lesser extent but worth mentioning relate to impact, strategy, structure and integration. the theme, impact, relates to the extent to which od interventions influence the performance of the department. the delays in implementation of od interventions, the skills, attitudes, and capabilities in the department, lack of proper consultation, and confusion in placements give rise to negative morale that, in turn, affects performance. as mentioned by participant j: ‘the od interventions that we spend money, time, and other resources on should give us value for money. we cannot spend, say, for example, 60% of our hr budget on od interventions and we have performance equating to 70% of achievement of targets. then it means we wasted resources in a way … we find there is a need to create positions to deliver on our strategies, but you have the central policy department limiting this exercise but allowing unnecessary positions at ministerial level, positions that could be merged to save on costs that could assist, in a way, at the operational levels.’ (participant j, female, generation y, assistant director, eight years in current job) the theme strategy relates to the extent to which employees regard the actions and decisions associated with od interventions as geared towards achieving organisational goals and objectives whilst considering business realities. the findings indicate that employees feel a disconnect between od interventions and organisational strategy. as mentioned by particpant f: ‘od cannot be done in a haphazard way. what we did in our department was merely movement of people. it then makes it difficult to even try to link it to performance in this context, because the foundation was not set properly.’ (participant f, male, generation y, deputy director, three years in current job) in support, participant o indicates: ‘it sometimes feels like [od interventions] are non-existent. as a result, there is sometimes a misfit when it comes to skills, attitudes, and capabilities in implementing strategy.’ (participant o, male, generation x, deputy director general, seven years in current job) the theme structure relates to how employees perceive how successfully od interventions impact the way the department is organised and the extent to which the existing structures are taken into consideration in planning od interventions. the data indicated that od interventions are missing the mark regarding their impact and the extent to which existing structures are reviewed during od interventions’ planning and implementation stages. participant i mentions: ‘structural interventions are supposed to match the way the department operates. if the structure is not reviewed, then the department misses out on external trends and benchmarks. services and the image of the department may be compromised.’ (participant i, male, generation x, deputy director general, five years in current job) participant b further emphasises: ‘the structure should be leading in giving direction that will provide [more proactive behaviour] of digging into the problems and managing them to eradicate subjectivity that may lead to bigger problems in the organisation.’ (participant b, female, generation y, assistant director, eight years in current job) integration relates to linking different functions, structures, and processes in od interventions and the role of od interventions to ensure that this linking takes place within the department. the data indicate that od interventions are not well integrated and do not play the necessary role in ensuring sufficient integration of functions, structures, and processes within the department. particpant a observes that: ‘there is still more work to be done in line with the integration and synergy in terms of multiskilling and managing silos, which, in the end, create problems in understanding how own work feeds into another. for example, when bursaries are awarded, there are no discussions as to whether they address portfolio requirements and the required development.’ (participant a, male, generation x, chief director, six years in current job) and: ‘[the] od function [should be elevated] to a strategic role with a strong link with both hr and strategic planning & governance. based on the hierarchical structure of the department, it will gain a strategic influence in the different committees.’ (participant l, male, generation x, director, four years in current job) discussion the main objective of this research was to determine employee perceptions of od interventions within a selected government institution. the initial analyses resulted in an exhaustive list of themes which mostly depicted negative employee perceptions regarding od interventions. the most prominent themes to emerge are discussed next. the participants’ perceptions of od interventions in terms of consultation are negative. there is insufficient consultation and involvement of all staff members in od interventions, and participants have a sense that input provided in terms of od interventions is not valued. the general model of planned change provides for consultation and information sharing with staff throughout the process (see asumeng & osae-larbi, 2015). however, as evidenced in the present study and support of bartunek and jones (2017), a lack of consultation for interventions and perceived irregular application of change initiatives are likely to result in employees rejecting the change. the study’s findings further revealed that employees believe their input is important in shaping the outcomes of interventions. still, they are not included at a stage or in a way that they can influence od interventions. participants’ experiences also indicate that executives make decisions, and managers then drive decisions without the input of employees on lower organisational levels. this leads to dissatisfaction and a lack of trust within the department. these findings support bussu and marshall, 2020) who indicated that top-down approaches to od interventions might result in employees feeling that their voices are not being heard or important (bussu & marshall, 2020). russ (2009) argues that frontline individuals are the key components in the effective implementation of change. employee participation in the change process is valuable as they can share knowledge to solve problems and improve the planning for change initiatives (austin & bartunek, 2012). participants in the present study indicated that there is not sufficient communication around od interventions. for example, employees were not informed of what was planned and how it would be done. a lack of communication also leads to a disconnect between strategy and operations. based on the present study’s findings, it seems that the need for dialogic od is not yet recognised in the department, and communication is still seen as a one-directional process. one of the central tenets of the star model of od (see galbraith, 1995) is to ensure harmony and alignment between policies and strategies to communicate a consistent message to employees during the change process. the study’s findings contradict the notion that communication flow should be two-directional and dialogic from executive and managerial levels to ensure effective od implementation (bushe & marshak, 2015; preget, 2013). the present study’s findings indicate a general absence of change management processes and a lack of awareness that such processes should be approached with sensitivity, caution and inclusivity of all affected parties. the participants indicated that they view consultation, communication and participation as essential to positive experiences of change in the department. lewin’s change model (see asumeng & osae-larbi, 2015; burnes, 2020) emphasises the important role of leaders in encouraging and systematically navigating employees through the change process by including them in the search for new and relevant information in support of the change. in support of deghetto et al. (2017), unequal access to information about the organisational change process results in uncertainty and negativity about forthcoming changes. in the present study, it was specifically noted that there is a lack of clarity in terms of the role of managers versus the role of subordinates. junior employees see themselves as being overworked, because managers assign complex work that should be done by the managers themselves to junior team members. the managers are consequently seen as not working, since there is no clear distinction between managerial and subordinate roles. it was also highlighted that managers, in particular, do not understand their role in od. managers often interfere with od processes or totally disregard the od processes and do not take part where they are required to do so. in addition, the hr department does not educate staff on od interventions, while employees expressed the need for increased awareness of od processes. according to kuna and nadiv (2018), employers do not always recognise the role of hr in managing the human aspect of organisational processes. kundu et al. (2019) emphasise the importance of role clarity for positive individual and organisational outcomes. consequently, there is a need for a greater understanding of od interventions complemented by business acumen and rigorous practice to ensure the success of change initiatives (gasser, 2015). planning for od is another theme that emerged in this study. from the data, it appears that sufficient planning does not take place. employees feel that the lack of planning leads to an absence of integration, with processes taking place in isolation. the lack of planning further leads to disorganisation, which impacts relations, job satisfaction, staff morale and performance. the findings contradict the suggestion of rothwell et al. (2010) that od should be a planned intervention driven by management across the entire organisation to assist employees in dealing with changes. moreover, as mentioned by gasser (2015), the findings show the spill-over effect of a lack of od planning of the entire organisation ranging from structures, processes and people to the cultures that impact the organisation. the theme timing refers to how participants experience the pace at which od interventions are implemented. the findings that emerged from the present study’s data suggest that these interventions are not implemented in a flowing way and are characterised by either delays and disruptions, or are too hastily implemented. some participants also noted concern that the delays might indicate that decision-makers are not taking od interventions seriously. the importance of a well-planned od process is well-documented (nielsen & abildgaard, 2013). irfan et al. (2020) further mention the duty of management to ensure the timely execution of change projects. lastly, other themes worth highlighting in this study include impact, strategy, structure and integration. from the findings, it was evident that od interventions do not meet its intended purpose and adversely affect the department’s performance. od interventions are required to promote the change required in public sector institutions (smith & mckinnon, 2019) and ensure sustainable service delivery and social responsibility (arnaboldi et al., 2015; de waele et al., 2021). very few government institutions can therefore afford od interventions to fail. the findings further revealed a disconnect between od interventions and the organisational strategy. as shukla et al. (2015) mentioned, od involves a purposeful process and long-term effort to contribute to the organisation’s performance. therefore it is not surprising that the structure and integration of od functions are lacking in this study. the star model of galbraith (1995) posits the importance of designing policies that could influence organisational performance and culture. clarity on structure and integration is essential as the type and magnitude of od interventions depend on organisational readiness to change, change capability, organisational culture and power base (asumeng & osae-larbi, 2015). management implications through analysis of the themes, it became apparent that there is a perceived lack of managerial transparency, which is associated with a lack of trust in od interventions and an unwillingness to engage in and take ownership of od interventions on the operational level. in addition, it was highlighted that a significant amount of role confusion exists, which is related to and associated with structural issues, misalignment and a lack of integration, workload imbalances, planning and timing issues, and duplication, which tend to cause wasteful expenditure. each of these issues contributes to challenges experienced during implementing od interventions in the department, which subsequently lead to either no effect or a negative impact on organisational performance. the need for leadership and managerial approach that values inclusivity, consultation and communication is highlighted. furthermore, the authors argued that inclusivity, consultation and communication should not only be core principles in the manager–subordinate relationship but also in the relationships between management and the od team, od managers and the hr department, as well as between the departmental management (including od management) and the department of public service and administration. this will ensure that all processes and procedures are conducive to aligning departmental strategy, operations and objectives to governmental strategy and goals and fulfilling the government’s public service duty. limitations and recommendations as this study was qualitative in nature, a small sample from one psd was used. this means that the findings are limited to the context within which the research was conducted. however, the research process was conducted in a manner that would allow for transferability. a detailed account of all aspects of the research process was provided, and the research process was described comprehensively and systematically. extensive methodological explanations were provided for key research decisions. the study can therefore be transferred to another setting based on the comprehensive discussion of the research design, the participant demographics, as well as the context in which the research was conducted. the authors are satisfied that the limitations of the study were managed appropriately and did not affect the trustworthiness of the study. the limitation in terms of the very specific research setting could be addressed through replicative research. the study could be conducted following the same methodology but in a different psd. this would allow a deepened understanding of which issues might be systemic to south african psds, and could consider the applicability of the framework presented in this study across psds. in addition, quantitative triangulation could be applied by using different quantitative methods to collect and analyse data relating to employees’ perception of od interventions in the public sector. this could be done by using the findings of this study to design a qualitative questionnaire that could be sent to a large sample across different psds. conclusion this research explored the current perceived state of od interventions in a selected public sector institution. although the use of od in the government sector seems promising from a theoretical point of view, the findings of this study highlighted various factors that constrain the effective implementation of change interventions. the study’s findings should motivate public sector managers to create an inclusive work culture and operational models that will allow for the effective roll-out of od initiatives that will benefit employees, institutions and the broader society. therefore, this study encourages psds to proactively address the factors that constrain the much-needed change interventions that drive superior public sector service delivery. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.m. compiled the initial draft. m.b. and n.b provided editorial inputs. m.b. was the promoter of the study and n.b. the co-promotor. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of johannesburg faculty ethics committee (fec) (no. ippm 2017-005[d]). funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, e.b. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references akinboade, o.a., kinfack, e.c., & mokwena, m.p. (2012). an analysis of citizen satisfaction with public service delivery in the sedibeng district municipality of south africa. international journal of social economics, 39(3), 182–199. anderson, d.l. (2019). organisation development: the process of leading organisational change. sage. arnaboldi, m., lapsley, i., & steccolini, i. (2015). performance management in the public sector: the ultimate challenge. financial accountability & management, 31(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12049 asumeng, m.a., & osae-larbi, a. (2015). organisational development models: a critical review and implications for creating learning organisations. european journal of training and development studies, 2(3), 29–43. austin, j.r., & bartunek, j.m. (2012). organisation change and development: in practice and in theory. in n. schmitt & s. highhouse (eds.), handbook of psychology, industrial and organisational psychology (vol. 12, pp. 390–410). wiley. bartunek, j.m., & jones, e.b. (2017). how organisational transformation has been continuously changing and not changing. in a.b. shani and d.a. noumair (eds), research in organizational change and development (vol. 25, pp. 143–169). bingley: emerald publishing. beckhard, r. (1969). organisation development: strategies and models. addison-wesley. bryman, a. (2015). social research methods. oxford university press. burke, w.w. (1994). organisational development: a process of learning and change (2nd ed.). addison-wesley. burnes, b. (2020). the origins of lewin’s three-step model of change. the journal of applied behavioral science, 56(1), 32–59. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886319892685 bushe, g.r. & marshak, r.j. (2016) the dialogic organization development approach to transformation and change. in w. rothwell, j. stravros & r. sullivan (eds.) practicing organization development (4th edn., pp. 407–418). wiley: san francisco. bushe, g.r., & marshak, r.j. (2015). introduction to the dialogic organisation development mindset. in dialogic organisation development: the theory and practice of transformational change (pp. 11–32). bussu, s., & marshall, m. (2020). organisational development to support integrated care in east london: the perspective of clinicians and social workers on the ground. journal of health organization and management, 34(5), 603–619. https://doi.org/10.1108/jhom-10-2019-0294 blum, j., manning, n., & srivastava, v. (2012). public sector management reform: toward a problem-solving approach. retrieved from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/extpremnet/resources/ep100.pdf braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa brijball, p. (2012). the effect of organisational context on organisational development (od) interventions. sa journal of industrial psychology, 38(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v38i1.1017 bryman, a., & bell, e. (2011). business research methods. oxford university press. cady, h.s., & kim, j. (2017). what we learn from evaluating od interventions: the paradox of competing demands. od practitioner, 49(1), 50–55. chabke, s.b., haddad, g. (2018). the influence of human resources’ practices on corruption behaviour in humanitarian aid. in a. bonomi savignon, l. gnan, a. hinna, & f. monteduro (eds.), hybridity in the governance and delivery of public services (pp. 89–122). emerald publishing limited, bingley, wa, uk. cilliers, f., & henning, s. (2021). a systems psychodynamic description of clinical psychologists’ role transition towards becoming organisational development consultants. south african journal of industrial psychology, 47(10), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v47i0.1891 collis, j., & hussey, r. (2009). business research. a practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. palgrave macmillan. cooperrider, d. (2017). the gift of new eyes: personal reflections after 30 years of appreciative inquiry in organizational life. research in organizational change and development, 25, 81–142. creswell, j.w., & clark, v.l.p. (2007). designing and conducting mixed methods research. sage. cummings, t.g., & worley, c.g. (2008). organisational development and change (9th ed.). cencage. dearnley, c. (2005). a reflection on the use of semi-structured interviews. nurse researcher, 13(1), 19–28. https://doi.org/10.7748/nr2005.07.13.1.19.c5997 deghetto, k., russell, z. a., & ferris, g. r. (2017). organizational change, uncertainty, and employee stress: sensemaking interpretations of work environments and the experience of politics and stress. in c.c. rosen & p.l. perrewé (eds.), power, politics, and political skill in job stress, research in occupational stress and well-being (volume 15, pp. 105–135). bingley: emerald publishing. de waele, l., polzer, t., van witteloostuijn, a., & berghman, l. (2021). a little bit of everything? conceptualising performance measurement in hybrid public sector organisations through a literature review. journal of public budgeting, accounting & financial management, 33(3), 343–363. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpbafm-05-2020-0075 duke, n.k., & mallette, m.h. (2011). literacy research methodologies. guilford press. egan, t.m. (2002). organisation development: an examination of definitions and dependent variables. organization development journal, 20(2), 59–71. eriksson, a., holden, j.r., williamsson, a., & dellve, l. (2016). a case study of three swedish hospitals’ strategies for implementing lean production. nordic journal of working life studies, 6(1), 105–131. fourie, d., & poggenpoel, w. (2017). public sector inefficiencies: are we addressing the root causes? south african journal of accounting research, 31(3), 169–180. https://doi.org/10.1080/10291954.2016.1160197 fourie, d.j. (2015). procurement in the south african public service: a reflection of the ethical and legislative framework. public and municipal finance, 4(2), 38–45. francis, h.j. (2013). restoring public confidence in the public sector. accountancy sa. french, w.l., & bell, c.h., jr. (1984). organisation development (3rd ed.) prentice hall. french, w.l., & bell, c.h. (1999). organisation development: behavioural science interventions for organisation improvement (6th ed.). prentice hall. galbraith, j.r. (1995). designing organisations: an executive briefing on strategy, structure and process. jossey-bass. gasser, l.s. (2015). reflections and perspectives on the future of organisation development interventions: honoring christina sickles merchant’s life. conflict resolution quarterly, 33(s1), s121–s126. ibarra, l.c.o. (2019). the impact of corporate communication in an od intervention process: instruments to excellence. master’s dissertation. university of manchester. irfan, m., malik, m.s.a., & khel, s.s.u.h.k. (2020). effect of factors of organisational structure influencing nonphysical waste in road projects of developing countries. engineering, construction and architectural management, 27(10), 3135–3153. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2019-0327 jamieson, p., fisher, k., gilding, t., taylor, p.g., & trevitt, a.c.f. (2000). place and space in the design of new learning environments. higher education research & development, 19(2), 221–236. https://doi.org/10.1080/072943600445664 janse van rensburg, j.o. (2014). internal audit capability: a public sector case study. doctoral dissertation. university of pretoria. karakas, f. (2009). new paradigms in organisation development: positivity, spirituality and complexity. organisation development journal, 27(1), 11–25. kealesitse, b., o’mahony, b., lloyd-walker, b., & polonsky, m.j. (2013). developing customer-focused public sector rewards schemes: evidence from botswana governments performance-based reward system (pbrs). international journal of public sector management, 26(1), 31–35. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513551311293426 khan, m.m.s. (2015). factors essential for longevity among dow jones index organisations: qca analysis. the journal of developing areas, 49(6), 469–479. https://doi.org/10.1353/jda.2015.0097 kuna, s., & nadiv, r. (2018). divided we stand? occupational boundary work among human resource managers and external organisation development practitioners. employee relations, 40(5), 848–867. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-07-2017-0160 kundu, s.c., kumar, s., & lata, k. (2019). effects of perceived role clarity on innovative work behavior: a multiple mediation model. rausp management journal, 55(4), 457–472. https://doi.org/10.1108/rausp-04-2019-0056 kritsonis, a. (2005). comparison of change theories. international journal of scholarly academic intellectual diversity, 8(1), 1–7. lapsley, i., & skærbæk, p. (2012). why the public sector matters. financial accountability & management, 28(4), 355–358. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0408.2012.00550.x linna, p., pekkola, s., ukko, j., & melkas, h. (2010). defining and measuring productivity in the public sector: managerial perceptions. international journal of public sector management, 23(5), 479–499. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513551011058493 magadzire, b.p., ward, k., leng, h.m., & sanders, d. (2017). inefficient procurement processes undermine access to medicines in the western cape province of south africa. south african medical journal, 107(7), 581–584. https://doi.org/10.7196/samj.2017.v107i7.11356 malila, h.c. (2020). an integrated conceptual diagnostic governance framework to address performance sustainability challenges of municipalities in south africa. doctoral dissertation. stellenbosch university. marshak, r.j., & bushe, g.r. (2009). further reflections on diagnostic and dialogic forms of organisation development. the journal of applied behavioral science, 45(3), 378–383. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886309339485 marshak, r.j., & bushe, g.r. (2013). an introduction to advances in dialogic organization development. od practitioner, 45(1), 1–4. mukherjee, a., & malhotra, n. (2005). antecedents and consequences of role clarity in explaining employee-perceived service quality in call centres. american marketing association, 17(4), 15–17. https://doi.org/10.1108/09564230610689777 muthien, y. (2014). public service reform: key challenges of execution. strategic review for southern africa, 36(2), 126. https://doi.org/10.35293/srsa.v36i2.173 myers, m.d. (2013). qualitative research in business and management. sage. nengwekhulu, r.h. (2009). public service delivery challenges facing the south african public service. journal of public administration, 44(2), 341–363. nielsen, k., & abildgaard, j.s. (2013). organisational interventions: a research-based framework for the evaluation of both processes and effects. work and stress, 27(3), 278–297. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2013.812358 preget, l. (2013). understanding organisational change as an interactional accomplishment: a conversation analytic approach. journal of change management, 13(3), 338–361. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697017.2013.822675 rothwell, w.j., stavros, j.m., sullivan, r.l., & sullivan, a. (2010). practicing organisational development: a guide for leading change (3rd ed.). wiley. rothwell, w.j., sullivan, r., & maclean, g.n. (1995). the practicing organisation development: a guide for consultants. pfieffer & company. russ, t.l. (2009). developing a typology of perceived communication challenges experienced by frontline employees during organisational change. qualitative research reports in communication, 10(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/17459430902751303 sangka, b.k., rahman, s., yadlapalli, a., & jie, f. (2019). managerial competencies of 3pl providers. a comparative analysis of indonesian firms and multinational companies. the international journal of logistics management, 30(4), 1054–1077. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijlm-04-2019-0098 schein, e.h. (2006). consultation and coaching revisited. in m. goldsmith & l.s. lyons (eds.), coaching for leadership (2nd ed.). jossey-bass. shava, e., & mazenda, a. (2021). ethics in south african public administration: a critical review. international journal of management practice, 14(3), 306–324. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijmp.2021.115107 smet, k., vander elst, t., griep, y. & de witte, h. (2016). the explanatory role of rumours in the reciprocal relationship between organizational change communication and job insecurity: a within-person approach. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 25, 631–644. shukla, k., heda, n., & panda, r. (2015). implications of organisation development interventions: case study of an edible oil company. review of management, 5(1/2), 19–30. smith, c. & mackinnon, m. (2019). organisation development: the argument still stands. journal of education, 77, 115–137. tanner, g., & otto, k. (2016). superior–subordinate communication during organisational change: under which conditions does high-quality communication become important? the international journal of human resource management, 27(19), 2183–2201. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1090470 vaill, p.b. (1989). managing as a performing art: new ideas for a world of chaotic change. jossey-bass. vosoughi, m. (2014). organizational development consulting: a study of expert consultants’ key strategies. unf graduate theses and dissertations. doctoral thesis. florida: university of north florida. article information author: cecile m. schultz1 affiliation: 1department people management and development, tshwane university of technology, south africa correspondence to: cecile schultz email: schultzcm@tut.ac.za postal address: po box 19138, pretoria west, 0117 keywords change; business knowledge; hr practices; personal skills; management skills dates: received: 03 june 2009 accepted: 24 mar. 2010 published: 15 june 2010 how to cite this article: schultz, c.m. (2010). hr competencies at a merged higher education institution. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #225, 8 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.225 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) hr competencies at a merged higher education institution in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction • research design    • research design and method       • population and sampling       • ethical considerations       • the measuring instrument       • data analysis • results • discussion    • conclusion    • recommendations and limitations    • suggestions for future research • references abstract (back to top) orientation: certain human resource (hr) competencies are essential to assist with the dynamics of change in the higher education landscape. research purposes: the aim of this study was to determine the hr competencies at a merged higher education institution. other objectives were to establish the satisfaction of academics, administrative staff and management regarding the hr competencies and the importance thereof. motivation for the study: human resource professionals require assistance by providing hr competencies necessary to add value at a merged higher education institution. research designs, approaches and methods: a quantitative research design was employed as the research strategy. the questionnaire was based on the literature, the business plan and the hr balanced scorecard report. the target population was 1363 permanent staff on one campus and the response rate was 28%. a principal factor analysis, spider charts and box plots were utilised for data analysis. the results indicated business knowledge, hr practices, personal skills and management skills as the vital hr competencies. practical implications: staff were not satisfied with the current hr competencies and consequently this necessitated attention to improve the deficient areas. contribution: this study shows that limited research was done with regard to hr competencies in the south african higher education backdrop. introduction (back to top) the south african higher education system experienced a complex restructuring process of merging higher education institutions. higher education institutions should treasure and nurture their own human capital during times of change (de lange & olivier, 2008). challenges like anxiety, low morale, work errors and loss of motivation can be caused by restructuring (arnolds, 2005). human resource (hr) departments have a role to play in dealing with these challenges. they could assist with creating an atmosphere of open communication that is free of fear, where loyalty is part of the organisation’s success (rampersad, 2003). the true competencies of hr, therefore, are those that add value and help predict success (nel, van dyk, haasbroek, schultz, sono & werner, 2006). the hr function could fulfil a more central role in merged institutions and should make a contribution to the success of higher education institutions. this needs to be done by creating a hr capability that ensures that institutions remain responsive to their environments and maintain their competitive edge. brewster, carey, grobler, holland and warnich (2008) urge that hr competencies need to be identified and developed to increase the competitive advantage. it is against this background that the hr department should have a hr strategy that is aligned to the organisation’s business strategy in order to gain a competitive advantage over its rivals. birkin (2005) raises the question about whether the hr management has demonstrable evidence of adding value and asks how it is assessed. measurement systems should be carefully matched with the institution’s unique competitive strategy and operational goals (becker, huselid & ulrich, 2001). measurement is critical to the achievement of strategy and adding value. according to hayes (2008, p. 1), ‘you can’t manage what you can’t measure.’ the balanced scorecard approach to performance measurement was introduced as a method of evaluating organisational performance from various perspectives. it is a performance measurement tool that takes into account four areas – financial, customers, internal processes and people/innovation/growth assets – that contribute to an institution’s performance (kaplan & norton, 2001). according to this approach, managers should develop goals in each of these areas and then measure whether the goals are being met in order to ensure the adding of value to the company. the necessary essential hr competencies can then be established. in this article, the related concepts of value, hr competencies and the hr balanced scorecard will be discussed. against this background, the study reported in the article aimed to determine the essential hr competencies required to add value within the context of the challenges posed at a merged higher education institution. it is imperative to determine the value of the various hr functions as they impact on adding value to the organisation. value reflects the standards within an institution. george and jones (2007, p. 567) define value as ‘general criteria, standards or guiding principles that people use to determine which type of behaviors, events, situations, and outcomes are desirable or undesirable.’ hr needs a measurement system that focuses on value creation. ulrich (1997) elaborates on value creation by stating that it is a process that deals with the way in which value can be added for the user of a service rather than paying attention to a function. presently, hr management involves becoming a business partner and plays a significant part in developing business strategy (van der westhuizen, van vuuren & visser, 2003). zulu and parumasur (2009) recommend that ongoing health surveys and the regular review of hr policies will disclose significant information to add value any organisation. training gaps should be identified (pillay & wijnbeek, 2006) as well as the implementation of strategies to retain staff (martin & roodt, 2009). van vuuren and eiselen (2006:27) state that ‘hr tertiary education and professional training need to include business ethics knowledge and an ethics management competence’. van aswegen and engelbrecht (2009) elaborate on this by stating that high standards of ethical behaviour and integrity encourage confidence and trust. training in change management skills will improve the transformation process (kilfoil & groenewald, 2005). the focus should shift to continual learning to gain the required skills to improve the transformation process (smith & schurink, 2005). obtaining these skills and starting to transform the hr department should add value to an organisation. a template for the transformation of any staff function is helpful in the workplace. ulrich and brockbank (2005) suggest five elements that can be used to create such a template for transformation: • knowing external business realties (technology, economics, globalisation and demographics). • serving external and internal stakeholders (customers, investors, managers and employees). • crafting hr practices (people, performance, information and work). • building hr (hr organisation and strategy). • assuring hr professionalism (hr roles and competencies). de bruyn and roodt (2009, p. 10) state that ‘now, more than ever, business success comes for hr, and the ‘dna’ for hr’s success is the hr value proposition’. transformation requires integrating the various hr practices and focusing them jointly on valued-added elements such as intangibles, customer connection, organisation capabilities and individual abilities (ulrich & brockbank, 2005). dreher and dougherty (2001) concur with ulrich and brockbank (ulrich & brockbank, 2005) by stating that hr practices should be valuable and non-substitutable. the hr department should consider different perspectives to contribute to this positive effect. higgins (2007) contends that hr value (or contribution) can be viewed and ultimately measured from three different perspectives – namely, the value of the hr function to the institution as a whole, the value of hr processes and the quantification of people value to the organisation and their inputs into strategic decision-making. these perspectives will determine the focus of the hr department. ‘hr should not be defined by what it does but by what it delivers – results that enrich the organisation’s value to customers, investors and employees’ (ulrich 1998, p. 29). the hr department also has a responsibility towards management. meisinger (2003) suggests that hr resource-managers should find out what top management and non-hr managers expect from the hr department and then act upon it. hr professionals add value when their efforts help people to achieve their goals. the hr value proposition, as suggested by ulrich and brockbank (2006), means that hr practices, departments and professionals produce positive outcomes for key stakeholders – namely, employees, line managers, customers and investors. ulrich and brockbank (2005, p. 18) elaborate on the concept of value by suggesting that ‘the universal value premise is that value is defined by the receiver more than by the giver. this premise mandates that hr professionals begin with the end in mind by ensuring a line of sight to their key stakeholders. it requires that hr professionals focus less on what they do and more on what they deliver.’ hr delivery is of great value to the relevant stakeholders. the hr manager should also be aware of tangible and intangible value. the hr department needs to know what to measure in order to add value. de bruyn and roodt (2009) suggest that the hr department should be assessed through a quantitative audit to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the hr function. the real aim of hr management is to produce a scorecard that contains more knowledge-based metrics that report value or contribution-type information (higgins, 2007). the purpose of the hr balanced scorecard is to manage organisational rather than individual performance. the various elements of the scorecard are included because they are understood to work together to achieve the desired performance outcome. an effective approach in improving business performance is to measure the performance of financial and administrative functions against internal targets and benchmarks. a performance management system can be automated to provide information to management, making rapid action possible if changes are required. the goal of such an automated scorecard system is therefore to supply managers with information as quickly as possible so they can make effective changes. phillips and schmidt (2005) elaborate on this view by stating that organisational performance can be measured by means of a balanced scorecard. hr competencies represent the characteristics, knowledge and skills of a hr professional. these competencies are necessary for successful performance. becker et al. (2001, p. 156) define competence as ‘an individual’s knowledge, skills, abilities or personality characteristics that directly influence his or her job performance.’ hr professionals have their own views on the necessary competencies they should possess. examples of such competencies are: skills in communication, problem solving, leadership, recruiting and selection, an adherence to employment law, training and development, technology, forecasting, compensation design, benefits design and administration, and accounting or finance record-keeping. it is important for the hr professional to be a relationship builder, an exceptional communicator, a conflict resolver, a creative hr leader one who assists line managers in pursuing the business strategy and one who increases an organisation’s capacity for rapid change through addressing changed circumstances in business (nel et al., 2006). becker et al. (2001) suggest five domains of competence – namely, personal credibility, management of change, management of culture, delivery of hr practices and knowledge of the business. an hr survey done by the chartered institute of personnel development (cipd) (2003) revealed the most important hr competencies and capabilities. these include a willingness to innovate, integrity, negotiating skills, business knowledge, an ability to deliver targets, strategic thinking, leadership ability, empathy/communication/listening skills, understanding hr practices and influencing/political skills. the international public management association for human resources (ipma-hr) (2009) emphasises that hr should have competencies in being a change agent, business partner, leader and hr expert. some of the competencies for a chartered hr practitioner according to the south african board for people practices (sabpp) (2009) include integrating hr management and practices into an organisation’s business strategy and operations, and co-ordinating and managing the core processes related to hr management and practices at an operational level in line with best practices. research conducted by the university of michigan business school also underscores this view of ulrich and brockbank (2006). the researchers determined that the success of the hr division is dependent on competency and specific skills in five key areas. mondy and noe (2005) mention these five key areas – namely, strategic contribution, business knowledge, personal credibility, hr delivery and hr technology. in order to sustain a competitive advantage, the hr department needs to master competitive intelligence (ci). according to kloppers (2005, p. 25), ‘ci could act as a sensor to trigger and support decision-making by alerting a company to changes in the environment.’ brewster et al. (2008) give emphasis to the six elements that the hr professional should cover in gaining a competitive advantage. these elements are: being a talent manager and organisational designer, a culture and change steward, a strategy architect, an operational executor, a business ally and a credible activist. these authors also identify competencies for the hr professional, such as, knowledge about labour relations, hr strategy and performance management; traits such as integrity, conscientiousness and courage; as well as skills such as consulting skills, cognitive skills and collaborative skills. nel et al. (2006) mention that the future integrative competencies for hr professionals are relationship builder, exceptional communicator, conflict resolver, creative hr leader, assisting line managers in pursuing the business strategy, and addressing changed circumstances in organisations. finally, more recent research of ulrich, brockbank, johnson, sandholtz and younger (2008) emphasises that the hr professional should be a credible activist, culture and change steward, talent manager/organisational designer, strategy architect, operational executor and business ally. one of the main challenges facing mergers is hr-related issues. the hr division should therefore have essential hr competencies to drive the transformation process and to create value. the aim of this study was to determine these hr competencies in order to add value to a merged public, residential higher education institution in gauteng. the research questions addressed in this study were as follows: • what are the hr competencies to add value to a merged higher education institution? • how satisfied are the staff with these identified hr competencies of the hr department at a merged higher education institution? • what do the staff perceive the importance of these identified hr competencies at a merged higher education institution to be? research design (back to top) research design and method in order to achieve the aim of determining the hr competencies to add value to a merged higher education institution, a quantitative research design using a survey was employed. population and sampling a convenience sample of 1363 permanent staff on one of the higher education institution’s campuses was conducted. all the academic and administrative staff as well as the management at this campus were included. the staff and management from other campuses were excluded in this study. due to the relocation of staff, only 1072 fulltime employees could be reached. questionnaires and letters of consent were hand-delivered to these 1072 employees. after two weeks, the researcher obtained 297 completed questionnaires from the various participating staff members. the response rate was 28%. background the questions of the questionnaire were compiled in such a manner that it did not have any negative impact upon the higher education institution. the anonymity of the respondents was also respected. it is important to obtain the consent of the respondents to participate in a research project (mouton, 2004). the respondents signed the informed consent forms that were handed out. the questionnaire, letter of consent and cover letter were approved by the institution’s research and ethical committees. the measuring instrument an hr balanced scorecard was conducted at this institution as part of obtaining relevant information for the design of the questionnaire. an integration of the hr balanced scorecard, the literature review and the business plan led to the design of the questionnaire. the questions in the 5-point likert scale questionnaire (where 1 = strongly agree, 2 = agree, 3 = uncertain, 4 = disagree and 5 = strongly disagree) were derived from the integration of the necessary hr competencies. this information was obtained from the literature review, the business plan of the institution, as well as from the findings of the hr balanced scorecard. two subscales were included – namely, satisfaction and importance. five themes were covered, with six questions in each theme. these questions were mixed and not posed under the headings. the reason for this was to avoid the leading of responses. only closed-end questions were posed. ten questionnaires were distributed among administrative and academic staff members as a pilot study to determine whether or not the questions were unambiguous and relevant. the cronbach’s alpha were utilised to measure the reliability of the questionnaire. data analysis a principal factor analysis was utilised to reduce the large number of variables to a smaller number of factors for the purpose of identifying the hr competencies according to the staff of this institution. the factor loadings are the correlation coefficients between the variables (rows) and factors (columns). in the statistical package for the social sciences (spss), the factor loadings are found in a matrix labelled factor matrix when conducting a principal factor analysis. an oblique rotation was performed, and a pattern matrix and structure matrix were provided. the pattern matrix was used to investigate the factors for this study so only unique contributions of coefficients were identified. spider charts shed light on the satisfaction and importance factors. box plots (also known as box-whisker diagrams) indicated the median, interquartile range, outliers and extreme cases of each factor. the graph was constructed in such a way that the distance between the lowest line and the edge of the shaded box indicates the lowest 25% of scores (bottom quartile). the shaded box indicated the distribution of the middle 50% of scores, while the top edge of the box up to the top part of the line indicates the top 25%. the median was indicated by a line inside the shaded box. outliers are unusual values with respect to the majority of the observations (field, 2005). these outliers were indicated as separate points and identified by the case numbers. results (back to top) in terms of gender, the sample is fairly evenly split between males and females, although there is a slight weighting towards female employees (58% female). most respondents are between the ages of 30 and 49 (66%), with 39% aged 30–39 and another 27% aged 40–49. the majority of the respondents speak afrikaans at home (63%) with english being the second-most spoken language (14%). of the respondents, 23% have an african home language of which northern sotho, the indigenous language, is the most prevalent (6%). the majority of the respondents are administrative staff (45%), with a further 37% academic staff. eight per cent of the respondents are at managerial level. most respondents have been working at this institution for at least five years (78%). the single largest categories are for the 5to 10-years group (31%) and the 10to 15-years group (22%). only 11% have been employed for longer than 20 years. all individual items in these subscales contributed well to the overall reliability of the instrument. the reliability of the importance scales were as follows: the business knowledge and hr practice scale shows an extremely high reliability of 0.925. cronbach’s alpha for the personal skills factor is satisfactory (larger than 0.70) with no single item not contributing to this factor, as illustrated by the item cronbach’s alphas which are all approximately 0.70 (if only reported to two decimal places). the reliability of the management skill factor overall is high (alpha = 0.838), while all the individual items also contribute well to the overall reliability. the reliability of the satisfaction scales were as follows: the satisfaction with business knowledge and hr practices factor shows an extremely high reliability of 0.881. all the individual items work well with this factor and it is therefore unnecessary to exclude any items in order to improve the reliability. the satisfaction factor for personal skills is somewhat lower than that of the same factor for importance (alpha = 0.730). by excluding the item on staff members trusting one another, the reliability will rise to above the 0.7 level, which is generally considered to be an adequate cut-off for reliable scales. this item is therefore excluded from further analyses and the factor consists of the remaining three items. the satisfaction factor for management skill is higher at 0.873 than for the corresponding factor for the importance scale (alpha = 0.838). although the reliability should be slightly improved from 0.873 to 0.882 by excluding one item, this is not considered to be a sufficient improvement on an already high reliability to validate the exclusion of the item. all items are therefore included in the analysis. a principal factor analysis was conducted and the items that loaded high on each of the three factors respectively were investigated for common themes. the items that loaded high on each of the three factors, namely, business knowledge and hr practices (factor 1), personal skills (factor 2) and management skills (factor 3), respectively, were investigated for common themes. a comparison of the mean scores of the importance and satisfaction factors was done. these three factors formed the essential hr competencies needed to add value to the higher education institution. figure 1 indicates the average scores for the importance factors, while figure 2 shows the view for the satisfaction factors. figure 3 shows the mean difference between scores on the satisfaction factors and the importance factors. in order to understand the distribution of the factor scores in more detail, box plots are provided for the three importance and satisfaction factors. figure 4 indicates the box plots for the importance scales and figure 5 shows the box plots for the satisfaction scales. table 1: home language of the respondents (n = 295) figure 1: the mean scores on the importance factors figure 2: the mean scores on the satisfaction factors figure 3: the mean difference between scores on the satisfaction factors and the importance factors figure 4: box plots for the importance factors figure 5: box plots for the satisfaction factors discussion (back to top) the following hr competencies were identified, as a result of table 4, to answer the research question with regard to the essential hr competencies to add value to a merged higher education institution: business knowledge and knowledge of hr practices: hr managers and hr staff should have business knowledge such as competitive intelligence. knowledge of external realities such as technology, economics, globalisation and demographics are of the essence. furthermore, knowledge of hr practices, such as how to align the hr strategy with the business strategy contributes to the overall strategy by linking the internal organisation to external customer expectations, which are essential contributions to a merged institution. this aligns with the views of ulrich and brockbank (2005) and storey (2007) about how the hr strategy and the business strategy must be integrated. streamlined administrative processes, a sound performance management system, dual career paths for academic staff (teaching and research), attracting and retaining relevant expertise through interventions such as employment equity, succession planning and skills development opportunities, insightful management reporting and recommendations, and the development of leadership capability and process-automation are also essential. hr managers ought to compile a talent-management strategy with the purpose of enabling employees to be a source of sustainable competitive advantage to the institution. this concurs with de bruyn and roodt’s (2009) findings. they (2009, p. 6) state that ‘… the right people with the right skills doing the right things will be attracted and retained’. hr managers should also be able to design the organisation by focusing on the capabilities the institution has that are embedded in structure, processes and policies that shape how an organisation works. operational execution is therefore of essence in order to add value. huselid, becker and beatty (2005) accentuate the importance of world-class hr practices and policies. finally, hr managers and staff have to manage computer information systems as well as budgets effectively. personal skills: a professional image can be revealed through integrity. rampersad (2003) presented much evidence of achieving performance with integrity. this concurs with the research of van aswegen and engelbrecht (2009) with regard to ethical behaviour and integrity that instil confidence and trust. it is imperative to encourage respect, trust, credibility and a keeping of commitments. accountability, accuracy, business ethics and inspiring others are essential competencies of the hr professional. this aligns with the views of ulrich et al. (2008) of hr being a credible activist. management skills: management skills will be discussed under the headings of managing change, managing culture and relationship management. managing change: internal policies and management practices must be examined to accommodate change. effective change agents guide the merged institution and keep its development process on track. the coordination of the different stages in the process and the constructive dialogue with all parties in the process are important. hr must have the ability to anticipate problems and implement solutions. managing change also consists of the building relationships: keeping staff updated and rewarding them for their efforts are essential competencies. hr professionals should also be able to develop a change in management communication strategies to provide effective communication on change. gibson, ivancevich, konopaske and donnely (2006) are also of the opinion that open communication and the sharing of information will assist with the effective management of change. ulrich et al. (2008) are in alignment with hr being a change and culture steward. managing culture: hr competencies with regard to managing culture are to recognise, articulate and help shape the institution’s culture by clarifying external customer expectations and translating these expectations into internal employee and organisational behaviours; improve organisational culture and morale by creating a caring, transparent environment conducive to managing change and diversity, and by building work relationships and internal partnerships through an environment that is conducive to open communication and trust. this is in agreement with martins and coetzee (2007) that respect and fair treatment and transparency are crucial to manage culture effectively. a diversity in the leadership team is required to do the following: guide the diversity initiative, implement a staff-satisfaction survey and establish communication channels to enhance effectiveness of internal communication and cooperation. charlton (2002) accentuates that diversity leadership is about creating synergy from diversity. hr professionals must coach managers in how their actions reflect and drive the institutional culture. relationship management: high-level-performance teamwork, for example, through multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary teams and the establishment of service-level agreements between internal functions are of the essence. becker et al. (2001) consider relationship management to be an integral part of hr. the improvement of relationship management can be done by means of positive internal relationships, open communication, staff motivation and culture, team development, and business allies. george and jones (2007) believe that the development of a positive organisational culture and effective team development will enhance productivity. the hr professional’s external relationships such as being a community ‘partner’ are of the essence. the research questions concerning the views of staff regarding the importance and satisfaction of these hr competencies (resulting from figures 1–5) will now be discussed. the scores for each of the factors were created by obtaining a mean score across all the items comprising a scale. in terms of importance, business knowledge, hr practices and personal skills are equally important (the mean score is 1.6) with management skills slightly less important with a mean score of 1.9 (a high score corresponds to low importance). the staff of the merging institution indicated that the hr department should have adequate business knowledge to add value to this institution. in order to be an effective hr function, the hr department should ensure that the different hr practices add value. the personal skills of the staff should be of such a nature that the staff can experience professionalism. inspection of the box plots confirms that the average rating of the satisfaction factors is higher than that of the importance factors, indicating that respondents are less satisfied relative to the importance attached to all business knowledge and hr practices, as well as management skills. the greatest difference between satisfaction and importance is observed for the personal skills factor relative to its importance. one would therefore conclude that the staff of this higher education merging institution are not entirely satisfied with the fact that the hr department does not have sufficient business knowledge, that the hr practices are currently not satisfactory, and that there is a lack of personal skills and management skills in the hr department. on the other hand, staff indicated that business knowledge, hr practices, personal skills and management skills are crucial to the hr department adding value to this institution. an emphasis should be placed on assisting the staff of the hr department to gain the necessary personal skills. in terms of satisfaction, however, all factor scores are similar with respondents being slightly more satisfied with business knowledge and hr skills (the average is 3.13 as opposed to 3.25 and 3.35 for management skills and personal skills respectively). calculating the gap between the satisfaction and the importance of a factor makes it possible to interpret the relative performance of the factors. overall, the respondents were less satisfied (i.e. high scores on the three factors relative to their adjudged importance). the greatest difference between satisfaction and importance is observed for the personal skills factor – relative to its importance, this factor performed the poorest. table 2: designation of the respondents (n = 296) (n = 296) table 3: number of years with the institution (n = 295) table 4: three-factor analysis results of the principal axis factor analysis conclusion change brings about many challenges for the hr professional and certain hr competencies are therefore needed to add value during these challenging times. higher education institutions have a unique environment and the purpose of this study was to establish the hr competencies that could add value to merged institutions. this was done by conducting quantitative research. the questionnaire was derived from the literature review, the business plan and the hr balanced scorecard conducted at the institution. the principal factor analysis indicated that knowledge of business and hr practices, personal skills and management skills are the essential hr competencies in this environment. the process followed whereby knowledge was gained by means of recent literature on hr issues, including the business plan, conducting a hr balanced scorecard as well as an empirical study all contributed to a holistic view that determined the essential hr competencies for a merged higher education institution. the resolution is to focus on these hr competencies to add value to a merged institution. a value-driven hr department should have the essential hr competencies to enhance the level of success and competitive advantage. recommendations and limitations hr departments could use these recommended hr competencies for effective management and facilitation during change and transformation. for conducting future research, it is recommended that an investigation should be conducted into the hr competencies of other higher education institutions in south africa as well as abroad. this study could be extended by conducting research in the private and public sector of south africa. the process of gaining knowledge through recent literature on hr management, the inclusion of the business plan, conducting a hr balanced scorecard as well as an empirical study could contribute to a holistic view of hr competencies needed in the south african milieu. it is recommended that other scorecards be used in the abovementioned process. the following scorecards are recommended: the workforce scorecard (huselid et al., 2005), the total performance scorecard (rampersad, 2003), the diversity scorecard (hubbard, 2004) and the leadership scorecard (phillips & schmidt, 2005). the number of respondents was limited due to the relocation of staff as a result of the merger. another limitation is the fact that this study focused on one campus only. it must be kept in mind that this study was conducted at one higher education institution and that no further assumptions can be made with regard to the higher education system as a whole. suggestions for future research in future research, this study could be extended by conducting research in other higher education institutions and other working environments for it is not known whether the hr competencies required may be different. the results of this study can be used as a starting point for developing a theoretical model that enhances the adding of value to hr departments. this model may also be used to measure the competence of the hr department. the application of the hr balanced scorecard and other scorecards in the higher education setting of south africa may be researched to determine the relevance and significance thereof. references (back to top) arnolds, c.a. (2005). an alderfer perspective of the higher education restructuring in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 31(2), 22−29. becker, b.e., huselid, m.a., & ulrich, d. (2001). the hr scorecard: linking people, strategy and performance. boston: harvard business school press. birkin, m. (2005). strategic hr scaling the peak. hr future, april, 10–13. brewster, c., carey, l., grobler, p., holland, p., & warnich, s. (2008). contemporary issues in human resource management. gaining a competitive advantage. (3rd edn.). cape town: oxford. charlton, g. (2002). human habits of highly effective organisations. pretoria: van schaik. chartered institute of personnel and development (cipd). (2003). hr survey report. retrieved november 26, 2009, from http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/hrpract/hrtrends /hrsurvey.htm de bruyn, l., & roodt, g. (2009). applying the criteria of ulrich and brockbank for the assessment of the role of human resources as a strategic business partner in a mining company. south african journal of human resource management, 7(1), 1–11. de lange, n., & olivier, m.a.j. (2008). nurturing human capital: a challenge for higher education institutions? south african journal of higher education, 22(1), 41–61. dreher, g.f., & dougherty, t.w. (2001). human resource strategy: a behavioural perspective for the general manager. boston: mcgraw-hill. field, a. (2005). discovering statistics using spss. thousand oaks, california: sage. george, j.m., & jones, g.r. (2007). understanding and managing organizational behavior. (5th edn.). englewood cliffs, nj: pearson/prentice-hall. gibson, j.l., ivancevich, j.m., donnelly, j.h., & konopaske, r. (2006). (12th edn.). organizations. behavior, structure, processes. boston: mcgraw–hill. hayes, j. (2008). six sigma critical success factors. retrieved january 29, 2008, from http://www.isixsigma.com/library/content/c020415a.asp higgins, n. (2007). what gets measured gets done: developing an hr scorecard. retrieved january 30, 2008, from http://www.workinfo.com/free/downloads/164.htm hubbard, e.e. (2004). the diversity scorecard: evaluating the impact of diversity on organizational performance. amsterdam: butterworth heinemann. huselid, m.a., becker, b.e., & beatty, r.w. (2005). the workforce scorecard: managing human capital to execute strategy. boston: harvard business school press. international public management association for human resources (ipma-hr). (2009). hr competencies. retrieved november 26, 2009, from http://www.ipma-hr.org/content.cfm kaplan, r.s., & norton, d.p. (2001). the strategic focused organization: how balanced scorecard companies thrive in the new business environment. boston: harvard busines school press. kilfoil, w.r., & groenewald, t. (2005). mergers and change management at the micro level: a case study. south african journal of human resource management, 3, 11–18. kloppers, c. (2005). can competitive intelligence inform hr decision making? hr future, july, 24–25. martin, a., & roodt, g. (2009). perceptions of organisational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intentions in a post-merger south african tertiary institution. south african journal of industrial psychology, 34(1), 22–31. martins, n., & coetzee, m. (2007). organisational culture, employee satisfaction, perceived leader emotional competency and personality type: an exploratory study in a south african engineering company. south african journal of human resource management, 5(2), 20–32. meisinger, s. (2003). strategic hr means translating plans into action – from the president – human resource management. hr magazine, march. retrieved august 23, 2008, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_3_48/ai_98830382 mondy, r.w., & noe, r.m. (2005). human resource management. (9th edn.). englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. mouton, j. (2004). how to succeed in your master’s and doctoral studies. pretoria: van schaik. nel, p.s., van dyk, p.s., haasbroek, g.d., schultz, h.b., sono, t., & werner, a. (2006). human resources management. (6th edn.). cape town: oxford university press. phillips, j.j., & schmidt, l. (2005). leadership scorecard. hr magazine, july. retrieved august 23, 2008, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_7_50/ai_n14811640 pillay, k., & wijnbeek, d. (2006). the corporate university training and learning solution for a south african airline industry. south african journal of human resource management, 4(2), 29–38. rampersad, h.k. (2003). total performance scorecard: redefining management to achieve performance with integrity. amsterdam: butterworth heinemann. smith, h, & schurink, w. (2005). the interface between knowledge management and human resources: a qualitative study. south african journal of human resource management, 3(1), 6–13. south african board for people practices (sabpp). (2009). chartered hr practitioner. retrieved november 26, 2009, from http://www.sabpp.co.za/prof-registration-criteria/ 83. html storey, j. (2007). human resource management: s critical text. (3rd edn.). london: thomson. ulrich, d. (1997). human resource champions: the next agenda for adding value and delivering results. boston: harvard business school press. ulrich, d. (1998). delivering results: a new mandate for human resource professionals. boston:harvard business school press. ulrich, d. (2006). how human resources can add value. management today, 21(10), 28–30. ulrich, d., & brockbank, w. (2005). the hr value proposition. boston: harvard business school press. ulrich, d., & brockbank, w. (2006). building sustainable value through your hr proposition. conference proceedings of global leaders, 22 february 2006. midrand, south africa: gallagher estate. ulrich, d., & brockbank, w., johnson, d., sandholtz, k., & younger, j. (2008). hr competencies: mastery at the intersection of people and business. colorado: society for human resource management. van aswegen, a.s., & engelbrecht, a.s. (2009). the relationship between transformational leadership, integrity and an ethical climate in organisations. south african journal of human resource management, 7(1), 1–9. van der westhuizen, c., van vuuren, l.j., & visser, d. (2003). human resource management as a profession in south africa: practitioners’ perspectives. south african journal of human resource management, 1(2), 1–12. van vuuren, l.j., & eiselen, r.j. (2006). a role for hr in corporate ethics? south african practitioners’ perspectives. south african journal of human resource management, 4(3), 22–28. zulu, p., & parumasur, s.b. (2009). employee perceptions of the management of cultural diversity and workplace transformation. south african journal of industrial psychology, 35(1),1–9. article information authors: betsie steyl1 eileen koekemoer2 affiliations: 1school of human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, south africa 2school of human resource sciences, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom campus, south africa correspondence to: eileen koekemoer email: eileen.koekemoer@nwu.ac.za postal address: private bag x6001, internal box 114, potchefstroom, 2531, south africa dates: received: 28 jan. 2010 accepted: 19 feb. 2011 published: 20 june 2011 republished: 22 sept. 2011 how to cite this article: steyl, b., & koekemoer, e. (2011). conflict between work and nonwork roles of employees in the mining industry: prevalence and differences between demographic groups. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #277, 14 pages. doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.277 note: this article is republished with an amended affiliation of betsie steyl. copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) conflict between work and nonwork roles of employees in the mining industry: prevalence and differences between demographic groups in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction • trends from the literature    • work–nonwork conflict    • multiple roles and role identity theory as theoretical frameworks    • prevalence of work–nonwork conflict and nonwork–work conflict    • demographic differences and work–nonwork conflict    • the potential value of the study • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants and sampling       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • preliminary analysis       • exploratory factor analyses on the 24 items that measure work–nonwork conflict    • descriptive statistics       • prevalence       • differences between demographic groups • discussion    • implications for managers    • limitations of the study    • suggestions for future research    • conclusion • references abstract (back to top) orientation: international researchers have increasingly recognised the interaction between work and nonwork roles as an interesting and important topic. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of different work–nonwork conflict subscales and differences between demographic groups in work–nonwork conflict. motivation for the study: several studies have shown that demographic groups differ in their experiences of the interaction between work and family life. this may also be true of conflict between work and nonwork roles. the prevalence of work–nonwork conflict and nonwork–work conflict is also very important for organisations that may find the results very valuable for developing organisational and individual interventions and performance management in organisations. research design, approach and method: the researchers chose a random sample of mining employees (n = 245) from a platinum mine in rustenburg. the researchers used self-developed items similar to items developed in the work–nonwork interference scale of koekemoer, mostert and rothmann (2010) to measure conflict between work and various nonwork roles. the researchers used descriptive statistics, paired-sample t-tests, multivariate analysis of variance and one-way analysis of variance to analyse the data. main findings: work–nonwork conflict was more prevalent than nonwork–work conflict. work–family conflict was more prevalent than work–domestic conflict and work–religion/spirituality conflict. the researchers found significant differences for marital status and language groups about work–nonwork conflict. results showed that participants who spoke african languages experienced higher levels of private–work conflict. practical/managerial implications: organisations need to recognise the negative interference or conflict between work and nonwork roles for different demographic groups and address the prevalent work–nonwork conflicts in their organisations. contribution/value-add: organisations are able to focus interventions and programmes that specifically address the problem of work–nonwork conflict in specific roles and for different demographic groups. introduction (back to top) there is growing evidence that workers have faced increased pressures at work and in their personal lives during the past few years (brink & de la rey, 2001; geurts & demerouti, 2003). according to geurts, rutte, and peeters (1999), the interdependence between these domains is increasingly recognised. this shows that, apart from work demands, workers also face increasing demands in their family or private lives (also called ‘nonwork’ domains). this is mainly because of the demographic and structural changes in family and workforce structures, both nationally in transformation and technological developments as well as high unemployment rates (cavaleros, van vuuren & visser, 2002) and internationally (geurts et al., 1999; geurts & demerouti, 2003). as a result, there is an increase in the number of women and dual-earner families entering the workforce (greenhaus & parasuraman, 1999; stevens, minnotte, mannon & kiger, 2007). as a result, increasing demands in their work and nonwork domains confront more and more employees and many of their daily work difficulties become incompatible with their private responsibilities (jansen, peeters, de jonge, houkes & tummers, 2004). consequently, the potential for interference or conflict occurring between a worker’s work and personal life, also known as work–family conflict (wfc), is increasing (byron, 2005; eby, casper, lockwood, bordeaux & brinley, 2005; greenhaus & beutell, 1985; greenhaus & powell, 2003; mesmer-magnus & viswesvaran, 2005). however, according to westman and piotrkowski (1999), as well as premeaux, adkins and mossholder (2007), one can only reach an adequate understanding of the interaction between work and personal life when one views it in the context of multiple roles outside work. these are also called nonwork roles, like domestic or home roles and religious or spiritual roles. having several roles can make life even more complex (tingey, kiger & riley, 1996). workers have to address several demands that could conflict (geurts & demerouti, 2003; nordemark, 2002; premeaux et al., 2007; small & riley, 1990). therefore, the involvement of workers in several roles can be very stressful. with few exceptions, the more one exhibits the behaviours particular roles expect, the more conflicting demands can arise from these roles. they could lead to work–nonwork interference or conflict (carlson, kacmar & williams, 2000; katz & kahn, 1978; olson-buchanan & boswell, 2005; premaux et al., 2007; tingey et al., 1996). most research and empirical studies on the interaction between work and personal life has shown that the interference or conflict that arises in the work domain is more prevalent than the interference or conflict that arises in the family or home domain (bond, galinksy & swanberg, 1998; eagles, miles & icenogle, 1997; eby et al., 2005; frone, 2003; frone, russel & cooper, 1992; geurts & demerouti, 2003; grzywacz & marks, 2000; gutek, klepa & searle, 1991; mesmer-magnus & viswesvaran, 2005; rost & mostert, 2007). these researchers suggest that workers are more likely to give preference to work-related matters. this results in less involvement in their home or family domains (frone, 2003). this might mean that their work domains are less flexible than the home or family domains or that employees might perceive their work roles as more important (carlson & kacmar, 2000; day & chamberlain, 2006; greenhaus & powell, 2003). consequently, employees might invest more emotion and time in their work. this could result in less investment in their private lives or nonwork domains and cause interference or conflict between their work and nonwork domains, known as work–nonwork conflict (carlson et al., 2000; premeaux et al., 2007). in addition, their experiences of the conflict between the different nonwork roles might differ. the work domain may interfere more with the more important nonwork roles (like those of parents or spouses). work–family conflict may be more prevalent than work–domestic conflict because of the importance of the family (frone, russell & cooper, 1992; luchetta, 1995; mcclellan & uys, 2009). alternatively, the prevalence of work–family or home conflict (or work–nonwork conflict) may suggest that the interference or conflict arising in the work domain is also more prevalent than the interference or conflict arising in the different nonwork roles (family, religion or spirituality and home or domestic). this might result in more work–nonwork conflict than nonwork–work conflict. in addition to the possible prevalence of work–nonwork conflict and nonwork–work conflict, several studies have shown that demographic groups may differ in their experiences of the interaction between work and family (de klerk & mostert, 2010; donald & linington, 2008; geurts & demerouti, 2003; greenhaus & parasuraman, 1999; grzywacz & marks, 2000; matthews & power, 2002; oldfield & mostert, 2005; pieterse & mostert, 2005; rost & mostert, 2007; van tonder, 2005). workers from different demographic groups have different working environments. they are also involved in different nonwork domains that they may experience differently (keene & reynolds, 2005; greenhaus & powell, 2003; nikandrou, panayotopoulou & apospori, 2008). there might be various reasons why workers from different demographic groups (gender, age, language, qualifications, marital and parental status) have different experiences of work–nonwork conflict (baca zinn, 1990; desrochers, andreassi & thompson, 2002; donald & linington, 2008; duxbury & higgins, 2001; greenhaus & parasuraman, 1999; grzywacz & marks, 2000; kreiner, 2006; nasurdin & hsia, 2008; wallis & prince, 2003). some could be individual preferences, individual personal or traditional roles, personal goals, or personal home or household situations (day & chamberlain, 2006; matthews & power, 2002; nikandrou et al., 2008; schulteiss, 2006). because the importance and meaning (also called ‘saliency’) that workers attach to certain roles in their private lives differ from person to person, the interaction between work and nonwork roles might also differ between workers from different demographic groups (frone, 2003; geurts & demerouti, 2003). the general objectives of this study were to investigate: • the prevalence of different work–nonwork conflicts and nonwork–work conflicts and their subscales • demographic differences (gender, age, language, and qualifications, marital and parental status) in work–nonwork conflict in a sample of mining employees. trends from the literature (back to top) work–nonwork conflict greenhaus and beutell (1985) initially defined wfc as: a form of inter-role conflict in which the role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible – in such way that participation in the work (or family) role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in the family (or work) role. (greenhaus & beutell, 1985, p. 77) this definition suggests a bidirectional dimension in which the work domain can interfere with the family domain and the family domain can interfere with the work domain. although this definition is widely accepted, this broad definition does not differentiate between the interaction or conflict between work and nonwork roles. kirchmeyer (1992) elaborated on this issue by stating that researchers need to accept people as parents, spouses or members of the community and not just as workers. many workers, and especially employed parents, struggle to combine their obligations to the work domain with those to the nonwork or personal domains (bailyn & harrington, 2004; byron, 2005; geurts & demerouti, 2003). the general demands of each role comprise the responsibilities, requirements, duties, commitments and expectations related to performance in a given domain or role (bulger, matthews & hoffman, 2007; netemeyer, boles & mcmurrian, 1996; mcclellan & uys, 2009; voydanoff, 2007). according to greenhaus and beutell (1985), the type of wfc could result from the role characteristics that affect the time involvement, strain or behaviour in one domain, but which are incompatible with the role characteristics of the other (work vs. home). the three forms of work–family conflict or family–work conflict the literature identifies mainly are (greenhaus & beutell, 1985): • strain-based conflict • behaviour-based conflict • time-based conflict. since the initial definition of greenhaus and beutell (1985), research on the interaction between work and family life has progressed substantially. it has introduced newer terms like work–life integration, work–family interaction, work–home interaction, work–life interference, work–nonwork interface and work–family integration (bailyn & harrington, 2004; carlson & frone, 2003; curbow, mcdonnell, spratt, griffen & agnew, 2003; desrochers, hilton & larwood, 2005; eby et al., 2005; geurts & dikkers, 2002; geurts et al., 2005; lewis & cooper, 2005; olson-buchanan & boswell, 2006; premeaux et al., 2007; thompson & bunderson, 2001). although researchers have studied all these terms well, the main limitation of the terms is that they exclude nonwork roles other than family or home life that may interact or interfere with the work domain (bellavia & frone, 2005; frone, 2003; geurts & demerouti, 2003; tetrick & buffardi, 2006). multiple roles and role identity theory as theoretical frameworks a very important aspect in work–nonwork conflict research is the different roles people have to participate in or perform in their personal lives (their nonwork roles). according to barnett and baruch (1985), role conflict might occur when the demands from two or more roles are such that adequate performance in one role jeopardises adequate performance in the other. the restricted resources people have to fulfil these role demands are often in a state of imbalance. this leads to conflict between domains (greenhaus & beutell, 1985). this relates to identity theory. it suggests that a particular situation evokes a particular identity (that also relates to roles) and the commitment of the person to the different identities or roles that make up the self-concept determines that identity (stryker, 1987). therefore, people or workers can engage in a variety of roles or identities (parental, spousal, domestic and religious) outside their work. thoits (1991) also stated that people who participate in different roles have various identities that are organised in a hierarchy of centrality. people derive more meaning and purpose from participating in a more salient role (thoits, 1991). therefore, they will invest more time or emotion in that identity or role (stryker & serpe, 1994). according to wiley (1991), people could experience stress when performing the behaviours and confirm the salient identity as poor. therefore, inter-role strain or conflict will arise when people perceive conflicting and competing expectancies from the two or more roles they perform (holahan & gilbert, 1979). it makes work–nonwork conflict possible. prevalence of work–nonwork conflict and nonwork–work conflict various research and empirical studies have shown that the negative interference of work to home is more prevalent than the negative interference of home to work (bond et al., 1998; frone, 2003; frone et al., 1992; geurts & demerouti, 2003; grzywacz & marks, 2000; rost & mostert, 2007). because of the forced structure and obligatory nature of work, workers are more likely to emphasise work over private and family matters. this reduces the amount of effort they invest at home rather than at work (frone et al., 1992; gutek et al., 1991). geurts et al. (2005) support this; they suggest that the home domain may offer more opportunity to adjust one’s behaviour to one’s present needs than the work domain does. this might also be the cause of the conflict between the work and various nonwork roles. from the perspective of identity theory, it is possible that, because of the saliency of the work role over other nonwork roles, people will invest more time and effort in their work. this might interfere, or conflict with, some nonwork roles (carlson & kacmar, 2000; day & chamberlain, 2006; greenhause & powell, 2003; perrone, webb & jackson, 2007; wiley, 1991). for example, people might attach high saliency to roles like parenting, religion or spirituality. however, because their work is so demanding and because there are inadequate opportunities to engage in these personal roles, specific work–nonwork conflict may arise and be more apparent or prevalent than others (like work–parent conflict and work–spirituality conflict). for some people, some nonwork roles might be more prevalent or salient and lead to more specific work–nonwork conflict than other nonwork roles do. based on the theoretical framework and literature review on the prevalence of work–nonwork conflict, the researchers formulated two hypotheses: • the direction of work–nonwork conflict is more prevalent than nonwork–work conflict (hypothesis 1a) • within each direction of conflict (work–nonwork conflict and nonwork–work conflict), some specific subscales of conflict are more prevalent than others and depend on the saliency of the nonwork roles (hypothesis 1b). demographic differences and work–nonwork conflict there is considerable literature on wfc and the differences in work–nonwork conflict between demographic groups (gender, age, language, qualifications as well as marital and parental status [see the overview in frone, 2003]). the evidence of gender differences in wfc is mixed (de klerk & mostert, 2010; frone, 2003; geurts & demerouti, 2003; nasurdin & hsia, 2008; nordenmark, 2002). some research has shown that men and women generally report similar levels of wfc and family–work conflict, or fwc (carnicer, sánchez, pérez & jiménez, 2004; demerouti et al., 2004; frone, 2003). other researchers have found that women experience more wfc than men do (frone et al., 1992; hammer et al., 1997). on the other hand, oldfield and mostert (2005), as well as rost and mostert (2007), observed that men experienced higher levels of wfc than women did. in addition, pieterse and mostert (2005) found a significant difference between men and women on wfc. this shows that men reported a higher level of wfc than was the case with women. one might attribute these differences in the experience of wfc for men and women to the traditional roles of people. previously, women had more of a parenting role and rarely participated in work roles (greenhaus & parasuraman, 1999). however, more women are now entering the workforce. this might cause clashes between their more traditional parenting roles and their work roles and lead to wfc (day & chamberlain, 2006; doumas, margolin & john, 2008; plaisier et al., 2008). in addition, more working fathers are now taking over some parenting responsibilities and helping to care for their children. this might also lead to conflicting role demands (daly & palkovitz, 2004; heraty et al., 2008; lingard & francis, 2005; root & wooten, 2008). furthermore, according to baxter (2007), the roles associated with men and fathers became multifaceted. men fulfil the role of breadwinners, must spend time with their families and must support and assist their spouses. fathers are now more involved in nurturing and rearing their children as well as providing emotional support instead of only being breadwinners (hand & lewis, 2002; kaufman & uhlenberg, 2000; root & wooten, 2008). once again, the saliency people attach to these roles becomes relevant. it is possible that the saliency of family roles has changed amongst fathers, possibly leading to more work–family conflict. in addition, fathers might value specific nonwork roles, like religion or spirituality, more than women do and, because of their demanding work, are unable to attend to these roles. this might lead to specific work–nonwork conflict. therefore, it makes sense that there might be differences in the interaction between work and other specific nonwork roles for men and women. most studies found no relationship between wfc and different age groups (frone et al., 1997; kinnunen & mauno, 1998; pieterse & mostert, 2005; van tonder, 2005). however, oldfield and mostert (2005) found that older people (those between the ages of 50 and 69) experienced statistically significant lower levels of wfc than their younger counterparts (those between the ages of 22 and 39) did. the younger group seems to experience the highest level of wfc. furthermore, duxbury and higgins (2001) reported that participants between 36 and 55 experienced more work–home conflict. rost and mostert (2007) found that younger employees (between the ages of 26 and 35 years of age) experienced statistically significant lower levels of positive work–home interference than older employees (between 46 and 65 years of age) did, whilst older employees experienced statistically significant lower levels of work–home conflict than younger employees did. grzywacz and marks (2000) also found more family–work conflict in younger men than in older men, whilst younger women reported less wfc than older women. this discrepancy in results between age groups might be attributed to the saliency of roles for specific age groups. some older employees might feel that their family or personal roles are becoming more important to them because they already have achieved their career goals or positions. alternatively, younger employees might still feel the need to prove themselves in their work and personal lives. therefore, it is possible that people from different age groups also differ in their experiences of the influences of other nonwork and work roles. as far as differences between language and ethnic groups are concerned, rost and mostert (2007) found that english-speaking participants experienced higher levels of work–home conflict than speakers of afrikaans and african languages did. grzcywacz and marks (2000) and van tonder (2005) also found that white and african groups have higher levels of work–home conflict than coloured and indian participants do. these findings contradict the findings of kinnunen and mauno (1998); frone et al. (1997) and pieterse and mostert (2005). they found no differences in work–home conflict and language groups. however, because household and family situations differ so much in the different cultural or language groups, differences in the experiences of the interaction or interference between work and family or home are possible. furthermore, the saliency that people from different language groups attach to their different nonwork roles might differ. it is possible that the work role is more important than the family roles or vice versa for specific language groups. this will influence the interaction between these roles. the research of frone et al. (1997) and pieterse and mostert (2005) found no significant relationships between qualifications and work–home conflict. however, rost and mostert (2007) found that employees with tertiary qualifications experienced significantly higher levels of positive work–nonwork interference than employees with postgraduate degrees did. oldfield and mostert (2005) also found that people with tertiary qualifications appear to experience lower levels of negative work–home conflict and home–work conflict than those with secondary education. it can be assumed that people with higher qualifications attach more value to their work role, seek higher qualifications and therefore do not accept interference with their work role. wfc research that considered marital status as a demographic variable found that single men and women report less wfc than married men and women. however, it also found that being unmarried was strongly associated with less positive spill over from home to work (grzywacz & marks, 2000). this supports the findings of herman and gyllstrom (1977) that married people experienced more work–family conflict than unmarried people did. demerouti et al. (2004) found that people who lived alone have more work–family conflict than those who lived with a spouse. however, oldfield and mostert (2005) reported no significant differences between married and unmarried people. the reasons for the differences could be people’s perceptions of marriage and the value, or meaning, that they attach to their spouses or partners and their perceptions of their responsibilities in a marriage (day & chamberlain, 2006). these might differ from person to person and it is possible that married people view their marriages as relationships that entail additional demands. alternatively, single people might feel that, because they do not have a partner or spouse to help them at home, they experience more strain and demands and, ultimately, more work–family conflict. with regard to parental status, employees with families often miss career opportunities when they need to put their family responsibilities before their work (rothbard & edwards, 2003). this suggests parent–work conflict. there are also indications that women with children experience more conflict between work and family compared to childless women and men (crouter, 1984; grzywacz & marks, 2000). the saliency that people attach to their parenting roles is important here. furthermore, one can view the responsibilities of parenting (caring for children) as added demands on people (day & chamberlain, 2006). oldfield and mostert (2005) reported that working parents appear to have higher levels of wfc than married people without children do. grzywacz, almeida and mcdonald (2002) found that having a child (aged between 6 and 18) was associated with less positive spill over from family to work compared to being childless. couples without children can act independently as they do not have children to look after (duxbury & higgins, 2001). therefore, it seems that the parental status of people will influence the degree of work–nonwork conflict they experience. the researchers formulated one hypothesis based on the differences between demographic groups. it is that there are differences in work–nonwork conflict for demographic groups based on gender, age, language, qualifications, marital status and parental status (hypothesis 2). the potential value of the study work–nonwork conflict is an important topic of research amongst various occupational and demographic groups. it can also play a significant role in a mining environment, which is widely acknowledged as very stressful and demanding (singer, 2002). because of its important contribution to the economy of south africa, various companies in the mining industry need to maintain competitive advantage whilst complying with the demands of change. they consequently impose various forms of stressors on their employees. amongst the present stressors are the consequences of a demanding work environment that tend to spill over into people’s personal lives and could negatively influence their well-being (brough, 2003). in a stressful mining environment, the different roles employees may have outside work (those of parents, spouses, religion or spirituality, and home or domestic) could interfere with their work and vice versa. when there is work–nonwork conflict, organisations need to focus more specifically on programmes and interventions to address the problem. more specifically, organisations need to know which forms of work–nonwork conflict cause problems to their employees and which specific nonwork roles are very demanding for them. šverko, arambašić, and galešić (2002) stated that more and more companies have adopted various family-responsive policies and other programmes to support their employees (like paid maternity leave) to address the issue. organisations, that know which nonwork roles and nonwork–work conflict are more prevalent, will also be able to attend to the problems better. research design (back to top) research approach this was a quantitative study in which the researchers used a cross-sectional survey design to achieve their research objectives. cross-sectional research designs involve measuring all variables for all cases within a narrow time span so that the measurements are contemporaneous. the researchers collected data at only one point in time and compared different participants (du plooy, 2001). they collected the primary data through surveys. research method research participants and sampling the researchers took random samples (n = 245) of employees working in a platinum mine in the rustenburg area. the response rate was 49%. according to devellis (2003), samples should be large enough to eliminate subject variance as a significant concern. researchers usually regard a sample of 300 as adequate. however, scales have been successfully developed and used with smaller samples. in order to identify and establish the sample population, the researchers obtained lists of all workers from middle managers in the human resource department of the mining company. the researchers asked workers in patterson grade levels c1–d4 (middle management) to participate in the study and gave them questionnaires to complete. they chose workers from these patterson levels only because workers from these grade levels in a mining environment are literate and could complete the questionnaires. table 1 gives the characteristics of the participants. table 1: characteristics of participants (n = 245). most of the participants were women (55.1%), afrikaans-speaking or english-speaking (63.7%) and between the ages of 20 and 39 years (30.6%). most were either white (54.3%) or african (38.8%). of the participants, 55.5% had tertiary education qualifications. most of the participants were married (61.2%) and had children (58.4%). the sample included employees from different patterson grade levels (c1–d4). of the participants, 18.4% were on a c upper (c4) level whilst 18% were on a c lower (c1) level. measuring instruments the researchers used the following measuring instruments in the empirical study. items to measure work–nonwork conflict: the researchers used self-developed items to measure the conflict between work and various nonwork roles. these items were similar to preliminary items used in developing the work–nonwork interference scale of koekemoer, mostert, and rothmann (2010). these items measure conflict in both directions, namely work-to-nonwork and nonwork-to-work. the researchers phrased all the items ‘how often does it happen that …’ and used a 4-point scale that ranged from 0 (‘never’) to 3 (‘always’). the researchers developed 24 items to measure conflict between work and various nonwork roles (like spousal, parental, religious or spiritual and home or domestic roles) and 24 items to measure conflict between nonwork roles (spousal, parental, religious or spiritual and domestic) and work. more specifically, the researchers developed six items for each proposed subscale in both directions: work–nonwork conflict and nonwork–work conflict; work–spouse conflict (‘… your work interferes with your relationship with your spouse or partner’); work–parent conflict (‘… your job makes it hard for you to have a good relationship with your child[ren]’); work–religion or spirituality conflict (‘… your work environment does not encourage your religious or spiritual beliefs’); work–domestic conflict (‘… your job interferes with your domestic responsibilities at home’); spouse–work conflict (‘… your relationship with your spouse or partner interferes with your work’); parent–work conflict (‘… your work suffers because you need to take care of your child[ren]’); religion or spirituality–work conflict (‘… your religious or spiritual commitments interfere with your work schedule’); and domestic–work conflict (‘… you have to rearrange your work schedule because of your domestic responsibilities’). the results section reports the construct validity of these items as preliminary analyses. a biographical questionnaire: the biographical characteristics the researchers measured were age, race, educational level, household situation (marital status and/or having children or not) and type of position. with the biographical information the researchers obtained, they were able to compare the differences in work–nonwork conflict and nonwork–work conflict for the different biographical groups in the platinum mine. research procedure the researchers gave the hr manager a research protocol letter explaining the research procedure and requesting participation before the start of the study. after the researchers obtained approval for the project, the participants were voluntarily involved in the research process. the researchers distributed questionnaires. the questionnaires included letters that explained the goal and importance of the study as well as a list of contact persons for enquiries. the letters also informed participants about the confidentiality and anonymity of their participation. the researchers kept all the data confidential. only the researchers involved in the study could capture or analyse the data. the researchers protected the completed questionnaires at all times and kept them in a safe and secure location (locked cupboards in the office of the main researcher). the researchers released no personal information that could lead to the identification of participants. booklets were completed anonymously and only included numbers for record-keeping purposes. the researchers also informed the participants that, if they participated in the research and completed the questionnaire, they were giving consent to the researchers to use the data for research purposes only. the researchers gave participants three weeks to complete the questionnaires. afterwards the researchers collected the questionnaires personally on an arranged date. statistical analysis the researchers performed the statistical analysis with the spss program (spss inc., 2005). in the preliminary analyses, the researchers performed exploratory factor analyses to determine the construct validity of the self-developed items that measured work–nonwork conflict. here they used cronbach alpha coefficients to assess the reliability of the instruments. the researchers also used descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations, skewness and kurtosis) and inferential statistics to analyse the data. in order to determine the prevalence of the work–nonwork conflict and nonwork–work conflict subscales, the researchers used paired-sample t-tests. paired-sample t-tests assess whether the means of two groups are statistically different from each other. the researchers used multivariate analysis of variance (manova) to determine the significance of the differences between the work-nonwork conflict scales of different demographic groups. manova is the counterpart of analysis of variance (anova). it covers cases where more than one dependent variable occurs and where one cannot simply combine the dependent variables. the researchers used wilk’s lambda to test whether the population mean vectors for all groups were likely to be identical to those of the sample mean vectors for the different groups (field, 2005; tabachnick & fidell, 2007). when an effect was significant (p ≤ 0.05) in manova, the researchers used one-way analysis of variance to discover which dependent variables had been affected. anova expresses the tests of interests as estimates of variance (muller & fetterman, 2002). results (back to top) preliminary analysis before analysing the data, the researchers used two exploratory factor analyses to determine the construct validity of the self-developed items that measure work–nonwork conflict. the researchers analysed the items that measure the two directions of conflict (work–nonwork conflict items and nonwork–work conflict items) separately with exploratory factor analyses where they applied an oblique rotation method. table 2: factor loadings, communalities and percentage variance for the work to nonwork conflict scale items (final factor analysis on 21 items). table 3: factor loadings, communalities, percentage variance for the nonwork to work conflict scale items. table 4: descriptive statistics and cronbach alpha coefficients of the work–nonwork conflict and nonwork–work conflict subscales (n = 245). exploratory factor analyses on the 24 items that measure work–nonwork conflict firstly, the researchers performed exploratory factor analyses on the 24 items that measure work–nonwork conflict. for this initial factor analysis on the work–nonwork conflict items, the researchers used multiple criteria to determine the number of factors. the initial specific criteria the researchers used to determine the number of factors were factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 (kaiser’s criterion), cumulative percentages of variance, communalities and a scree plot of the factor eigenvalues. using these initial criteria, three factors emerged from these items. the researchers labelled these factors ‘work–family interference’, ‘work–domestic interference’ and ‘work–religion or spirituality interference’. in order to refine the results from this initial factor analysis, the researchers used additional criteria to determine the number of items to retain for the work–nonwork conflict scale. they retained items with loadings greater than 0.45 on at least one factor (stephens & sommer, 1996). in addition, according to netemeyer, boles, and mcmurrian (1996) and bagozzi and yi (1988), it is not advisable to retain items with extremely high factor loadings (> 0.9). one should check them for redundancy in the item wording that could result in within-factor correlated measurement errors. based on these criteria, the researchers excluded three items from the additional factor analyses that followed. these were work–spouse item 1, work–spouse item 2 and work–religion/spirituality item 6. table 2 (factor analysis on 21 items) gives the final factor analysis for the items that measure work–nonwork conflict. it reports only the final items that the researchers retained. table 2 does not include the three items that the researchers excluded. nevertheless, three factors still emerged and measured the same three scales as before: work–family conflict, work–domestic conflict and work–religion/spirituality conflict. secondly, the researchers analysed the 24 items that measure nonwork–work conflict using an additional and separate exploratory factor analysis. table 3 gives the factor loadings and percentage of variance for these 24 nonwork–work conflict items. two factors emerged from the nonwork–work conflict items. the researchers labelled them ‘family–work conflict’ and ‘private–work conflict’ (see table 3). the researchers obtained high factor loadings and communalities for all the items. although the researchers used the same criteria as they did for the work–nonwork conflict items, they retained all 24 items. they developed the final two scales for nonwork–work conflict. descriptive statistics after the preliminary analyses, the researchers estimated the descriptive statistics and cronbach alpha coefficients for the work–nonwork conflict and nonwork–work conflict subscales (see table 4).table 4 shows that the researchers obtained acceptable cronbach alpha coefficients for all the subscales compared to the guideline of α > 0.7 (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). prevalence in order to determine the prevalence of the work–nonwork conflict and nonwork–work conflict subscales, the researchers performed separate prevalence analyses. firstly, it was important to establish which direction of conflict is more prevalent (work–nonwork conflict or nonwork–work conflict by testing hypothesis 1a). secondly, it was important to establish, within each direction of conflict, which specific work–nonwork roles and which specific nonwork–work roles were more prevalent by testing hypothesis 1b. table 5 gives the results of the different paired-sample t-tests to: • establish which direction of conflict is more prevalent • obtain the results of the paired-sample t-tests to indicate specifically, within the direction of conflict, which work–nonwork roles and which nonwork–work roles are more prevalent. with regard to the prevalent direction of conflict (work–nonwork conflict and nonwork–work conflict), paired-sample t-tests revealed that employees reported more work–family conflict (m = 1) than family–work conflict (m = 0.8, t(500) = 5.12, p < 0.01). the results also showed that workers experienced significantly more work–domestic conflict (m = 0.99) than private–work conflict (m = 0.58, t(500) = -9.79, p < 0.01) and more work–religion or spirituality conflict (m = 0.82) than private–work conflict (m = 0.58, t(500) = -5.17, p < 0.01). these results support hypothesis 1a. with regard to the prevalence of the different specific work–nonwork conflict subscales, workers experienced more work–family conflict (m = 1) than work–religion or spirituality conflict (m = 0.81, t(500) = 5.44, p <0.01) and more work–domestic (m = 0.99) than work–religion or spirituality (m = 0.82, t(500) = 4.75 p < 0.01). the researchers found no significant differences in the prevalence of work–family conflict (m = 1) and work–domestic conflict (m = 1, t(500) = 0.04, p > 0.01). with regard to the prevalence of the two nonwork–work conflict subscales, results indicated more family–work conflict (m = 0.8) than private–work conflict (m = 0.59, t(500) = 7.05, p < 0.01). therefore, these results support hypothesis 1b. table 5: paired-sample t-tests for the prevalence of the direction of conflict (work–nonwork conflict and nonwork–work conflict) and the prevalence of specific work–nonwork conflict and specific nonwork–work conflict. differences between demographic groups after the analyses of prevalence, the researchers used manova (multivariate analysis of variance) statistics to determine the differences between demographic groups with regard to work–nonwork conflict and nonwork–work conflict. the demographic groups that the researchers compared were gender, age, language, qualifications, marital and parental status. the researchers analysed the results for statistical significance using wilk’s lambda statistics (field, 2005; tabachnick & fidell, 2007). table 6 gives the results of the manova analyses. the analysis of the wilk’s lambda values showed no statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) in work–nonwork conflict between the gender, age, qualifications or parental status of the employees. however, the researchers found statistically significant differences (p <0.05) with language groups and marital status. the researchers used anova to analyse further the relationship between work–nonwork conflict and the demographic variable levels that showed a statistically significant difference. table 7 gives the results of the anova based on language. table 7 showed statistically significant differences between levels of private–work conflict. african-speaking participants experienced higher levels of private–work conflict compared to afrikaans-speaking and english-speaking participants. table 8 gives the results of the anova based on marital status. table 8 showed statistically significant differences between levels of private–work conflict. single participants’ experienced higher levels of private–work conflict compared to married ones. these results provide partial support for hypothesis 2. they show differences for work–nonwork conflict for some of the proposed demographic groups (marital status and language groups). table 6: manova – differences in work–nonwork conflict of demographic groupsa. table 7: anova – differences in work–nonwork conflict based on language. table 8: anova – differences in work–nonwork conflict based on marital status. discussion (back to top) the general objective was to investigate the prevalence and demographic differences in work–nonwork conflict in a mining environment. the first specific objective related to the overall and specific prevalence of work–nonwork conflict and nonwork–work conflict and their subscales. the results showed that mining employees reported more work–nonwork conflict than nonwork–work conflict. one might attribute the prevalent direction of conflict (work–nonwork over nonwork–work) to the mandatory nature of work so that employees tend to prioritise work over family or nonwork matters (frone et al., 1992; gutek et al., 1991). miners also work in severely stressful situations and are exposed to various demands like shift work, unplanned overtime, suffering and death, job pressures and emotional stressors (singer, 2002). they might feel that they are unable to change any of these factors. consequently, the interference or conflict from their work domain is more prevalent and supports hypothesis 1a. an alternative explanation might be that, for employees in this study, the work domain might be more salient than the nonwork domains. as a result, employees might invest more time and energy in their work domain. this might affect their time and investment in nonwork domains. burke and reitzes (1981) stated that the saliency people attach to their identities or roles influences how much effort they put into each role and how well they perform in each. according to stryker (1968), the various identities that make up the self exist in a hierarchy of salience. people are most likely to call upon the identities they rank highest in situations that involve different aspects of the self. in this study, the workers probably rated their family identities highest. therefore, work interferes most negatively on family life. more specifically, employees in this study experienced more work–family conflict than work–domestic conflict and work–religion or spirituality conflict. however, employees also experienced more work–domestic conflict than work–religion or spirituality conflict. this shows that the work environment conflicts most with the family domain and least with religion or spirituality. this might indicate that employees value their family lives and domestic roles more than their religious or spiritual ones. therefore, because they are unable to participate in these domains because of their high workloads or the mandatory nature of the mining work environment, the conflict in these domains is more prevalent. these findings seem to be consistent with other empirical studies, which showed that interference from the work domain is more prevalent than interference from the home domain (bond et al., 1998; frone, 2003; geurts & demerouti, 2003; grzywacz & marks, 2000; rost & mostert, 2007). in addition, work–family conflict might be more prevalent than work–domestic conflict because of the family salience that employees have (frone, russell & cooper, 1992; luchetta, 1995; mcclellan & uys, 2009). although work–nonwork conflict was more prevalent amongst mining employees, the results also showed the prevalence of the specific subscales of nonwork–work conflict. conflict that originates from family roles (including parental and spousal roles) was higher than the conflict that originates from the private ones (including religious and domestic roles). therefore, family roles are more likely to interfere with employees’ work than their domestic responsibilities or their religious or spiritual roles do. an explanation for this might be that, unlike with domestic roles, persons with family roles are not always able to plan according to a schedule because some unplanned situations may occur in these family roles. parents, for example, may not always foresee their children becoming ill. this might force employees to turn up late for work or to apply for family responsibility leave. in addition, according to the employment equity act, act 55 of 1998 (eea), persons may not be unfairly discriminated against on the grounds of their religions (venter, 2004). therefore, employees might feel that they can practise their religions at work without prejudice and this might reduced their conflict. these results, on the prevalence of the specific subscales of work–nonwork conflict and nonwork–work conflict, support hypotheses 1b. the second specific objective of this study related to the possible differences between work–nonwork conflict and nonwork–work conflict for various demographic groups (gender, age, language, qualifications, marital and parental status) in the mining industry. overall, the results showed significant differences in work–nonwork conflict based on employees’ language and marital status. therefore, they support hypothesis 2 partially. although the researchers expected differences for gender, age, qualifications and parental status, based on previous studies (oldfield & mostert, 2005; rost & mostert, 2007; van tonder, 2005), they found no statistically significant differences. one could suggest various reasons to explain the lack of differences in the different demographic groups. these could include the homogeneity of the sample (the distribution of demographic groups was not always equal) and the structure of the work environment (all participants were from the same patterson levels and possibly age groups). in addition, the possible perceptions of women in the work domain (women are working in a ‘male environment’) and because more fathers are becoming more active in family matters (daly & palkovitz, 2004; heraty et al., 2008; lingard & francis, 2005; root & wooten, 2008) might explain the lack of differences. although the researchers found no differences for some demographic groups, the differences based on language showed that participants who spoke african languages experienced higher levels of private–work conflict compared to afrikaans-speaking and english-speaking participants. a possible reason for this may be that each cultural or language group has different characteristics that influence how it understands conditions and situations. rost and mostert (2007) also stated that the cultural differences and backgrounds might influence the way workers perceive the working environment. people who speak african languages are more orientated towards society and more often merge the boundaries between work and home. as a result, they experience more conflict between private and work life (rost & mostert, 2007). for example, oldfield and mostert (2005) stated that it is considered disrespectful in the african culture not to attend family and/or community funerals. therefore, they have more family demands to address. in addition, a higher percentage of african children live with their grandparents (amoateng, heaton & kalule-sabiti, 2007). they usually live in different provinces to the parents, compared to other race groups. this may mean that the parents miss birthdays, sporting events or parent-teacher meetings. this, in turn, may cause higher levels of conflict between private and work life. affirmative action policies have also led to more women and dual-earning families entering the workforce, thereby changing the traditional role of men who speak african languages (brink & de la rey, 2001; schreuder & theron, 2001). they are usually very traditional and do not always want to adapt to changes in their way of life, thus causing african men to struggle to accept this new lifestyle. for example, it might be difficult for some african men to accept that their wives want to follow careers when their own mothers and grandmothers never worked. this can also explain why there are high levels of private–work conflict. these differences contradict the findings of frone et al. (1997), and pieterse and mostert (2005). they found no differences in work–home interaction between different language groups, even though they had small and economically homogeneous samples. unmarried workers experienced higher levels of private–work conflict than married ones. grzywacz and marks (2000) also showed that unmarried people tend to experience less positive work–family interaction. according to ross, mirowsky and goldsteen (1990), unmarried people have higher levels of depression, anxiety and other forms of psychological distress than married people do. a person who lives alone may be isolated from important social and economic ties (mirowsky & ross, 1989). these ties may help to create security, belonging and direction. without them, a person may feel lonely and unprotected. a partner or spouse who helps with domestic tasks, family matters or gives emotional support might provide a buffer against private–work conflict. unmarried people also have to handle their responsibilities and conflict without the support of spouses and can consequently experience higher levels of private–work conflict. unmarried people will most probably have family identities that are lower in their salience hierarchy. this means that the saliency unmarried people attach to their family roles is not as high as the saliency married people attach to their family roles. therefore, unmarried workers’ commitment to their family roles, and the effort they put into them, might be less. alternatively, married employees may occasionally miss career opportunities when they need to put their marital responsibilities ahead of their work. for example, when employers offer promotions that will cause employees to be away from home from time to time, unmarried people will be more motivated to take the promotion. on the other hand, married employees might reject promotions in order to maintain favourable relationships with their families. furthermore, married employees share responsibilities and decide how to handle conflict together. married people also have higher household incomes (bianchi & spain, 1986). this may mean that marital quality or spousal support is an important buffer to job-related stress (barnett, 1996) and can have an effect on levels of private–work conflict. in addition, grzywacz and marks (2000) stated that family-related social support correlated positively with home–work interaction. implications for managers this study yielded promising and valuable findings that organisations and their managers could use. some recommendations that emerged from this study include that the mining industry should: • provide support in terms of resources • effectively manage work–nonwork conflicts that are conducive to helping employees align their work and nonwork domains. training people to use the most effective ways of coping with demands in their work environments may reduce their work–family conflicts. the mining industry must be aware that the work domain is interfering with the different roles employees fulfil outside work (parental, spousal, religious or spiritual and home or domestic) and vice versa. more specifically, managers and supervisors must be aware that the negative interference between work and family roles are more prevalent than that between work and other life roles. therefore, managers should focus on interventions and programmes that address this problem specifically. these interventions and programmes will help to prevent crises and to help with the everyday management of employees. for example, organisations can offer flexible working hours, childcare facilities or parental leave. another example of an intervention to address the problem of private–work conflict may be extra family responsibility leave specifically for family and/or community funerals. workers will experience less stress and less work–nonwork conflict if they know there are programmes to address these issues. these specific interventions will result in the long-term well-being of employees and make organisations more successful. limitations of the study although this current study yielded promising results, it has limitations. the main limitation is the cross-sectional design of the study. cross-sectional studies mean that one can make no concrete decisions about the cause-and-effect relationship between the variables (field, 2005). the second limitation of this study is the use of self-report questionnaires. this may cause different kinds of problems. it includes that participants may not understand the questions or the phenomenon commonly called ‘method-variance’ or ‘nuisance’ (dollard & winefield, 1998; semmer, zapf & greif, 1996; spector, 1992; wall, jackson, mullarkey & parker, 1996). the size of the sample (n = 245) and it homogeneity is another limitation. the sample included only mining employees. therefore, it is difficult to generalise the results to other occupational groups. it could also explain why there are few statistically significant differences between the different demographic groups in work–nonwork role conflict. even though the instrument is valid and reliable, it can be a limitation because it is new and should be tested in different environments. suggestions for future research the researchers recommend larger sample sizes and that questionnaires are administered to various occupational groups in south africa. future studies could also investigate the possible positive interaction between work and other life roles of people. studies of interference could also be combined with certain antecedents and consequences. finally, the researchers recommend that longitudinal research designs are used in work–nonwork conflict research because, for many people, work–nonwork conflict undoubtedly fluctuates over time. conclusion in conclusion, these results suggest that there are different work–nonwork conflicts. they also suggest that people experience interference between life roles (family, parental, spousal, religious or spiritual and home or domestic) differently. the results also showed that different demographic groups differ in their experiences of work–nonwork conflict and nonwork–work conflict. work–nonwork conflict is more prevalent than nonwork-conflict and some specific work–nonwork role conflicts are more common. for example, work–family conflict is more prevalent than work–domestic conflict and work–domestic conflict is more common than work–religion conflict. the experiences of nonwork–work conflict differ for different language groups. participants who speak african languages experience more private–work conflict than family–work conflict. references (back to top) amoateng, a.y., heaton, t.b., & kalule-sabiti. (2007). living arrangements in south africa. retrieved october 28, 2009, from http://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/eq.html bailyn, l., & harrington, m. (2004). redesigning work for work-family integration. community, work & family, 7 (2), 197−208. doi:10.1080/136688004200024547, pmid:2576907 baca zinn, m. (1990). family, feminism, and race in america. gender & society, 4, 68–82. doi:10.1177/089124390004001006 bagozzi, r.p., & yi, y. (1988). on the evaluation of structural equation models. journal of the academy and marketing sciences, 16, 74−94. doi:10.1007/bf02723327 barnett, r.c. (1996). home-to-work spillover revisited: a study of full-time employed women in dual-earner couples. journal of marriage and the family, 56, 647−656. doi:10.2307/352875 barnett, r.c., & burach, g.k. (1985). women’s involvement in multiple roles and psychological distress. journal of personality and social psychology, 49, 135−145. doi:10.1037/0022–3514.49.1.135, pmid:4020611 baxter, j. (2007). when dad works long hours: how work hours are associated with fathering 4–5 year-old children. family matters, 77, 60−69. bellavia, g.m., & frone, m.r. (2005). work-family conflict. in j. barling, e.k. kelloway & m.r. frone (eds.), handbook of work stress (pp. 113−148). thousand oaks, ca: sage. bianchi, s.m., & spain, d. (1986). american women in transition. new york: russell sage foundation. bond, j.t., galinsky, e., & swanberg, j.e. (1998). the 1997 national study of the changing workforce. new york: families and work institute. brink, b., & de la rey, c. (2001). work-family interaction strain: coping strategies used by successful women in the public, corporate and self-employed sectors of the economy. south african journal of psychology, 31(4), 55−61. brough, p. (2003). the influence of perceived control, social support and inter-domain conflict upon psychological wellbeing: a longitudinal investigation. australian journal of psychology, 55, 117. bulger, c.a., matthews, r.a., & hoffman, m.e. (2007). work and personal life boundary management: boundary strength, work/personal life balance, and the segmentationintegration continuum. journal of occupational health psychology, 12 (4), 365−375. doi:10.1037/1076–8998.12.4.365, pmid:17953495 burke, p.j., & reitzes, d.c. (1981). the link between identity and role performance. social psychology quarterly, 44, 83−92. doi:10.2307/3033704 byron, k. (2005). a meta-analytic review of work-family conflict and its antecedents. journal of vocational behavior, 67, 169−198. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2004.08.009 calitz, p.l. (2004). the experience of women in the platinum mining industry. unpublished master’s dissertation. potchefstroom: north-west university. carlson, d.s., & frone, m.r. (2003). relation of behavioral and psychological involvement to a new four-factor conceptualization of work-family interference. journal of business and psychology, 17(4),515−535. doi:10.1023/a:1023404302295 carlson, d.s., & kacmar, k.m. (2000). work-family conflict in the organization: do life role values make a difference? journal of management, 26, 1031−1054. doi:10.1016/s0149–2063(00)00067–2, doi:10.1177/014920630002600502 carlson, d.s., kacmar, k.m., & williams, l.j. (2000). construction and initial validation of a multidimensional measure of work–family conflict. journal of vocational behavior, 56, 249−276. doi:10.1006/ jvbe.1999.1713 cavaleros, c., van vuuren, l.j., & visser, d. (2002). the effectiveness of a diversity awareness training programme. south african journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 28(3), 50−61. carnicer, m.p.l., sánchez, a.m., pérez, m.p., & jiménez, m.j.v. (2004). work-family conflict in a southern european country: the influence of job-related and non-related factors. journal of managerial psychology, 19 (5), 466−498. doi:10.1108/02683940410543579 clark, r.a., nye, f.i., & gecas, v. (1978). husbands’ work involvement and marital role performance. journal of marriage and the family, 40 (1), 9−21. doi:10.2307/350604 crouter, c. (1984). spillover from family to work: the neglected side of the work-family interface. human relations, 37, 425–442. doi:10.1177/001872678403700601 curbow, b., mcdonell, k., spratt, k., griffen, j., & agnew, j. (2003). development of the work-family interface scale. early childhood research quarterly, 18, 310−330. doi:10.1016/s0885–2006(03)00042–5 daly, k., & palkovitz, r. (2004). guest editorial: reworking work and family issues for fathers. fathering, 2, 211−213. doi:10.3149/fth.0203.211 day, a.l., & chamberlain, t.c. (2006). committing to your work, spouse and children: implications for work-family conflict. journal of vocational behavior, 68, 116−130. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2005.01.001 de klerk, m., & mostert, k. (2010). work-home interference: examining socio-demographic predictors in the south african context. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8, 1–10. demerouti, e., geurts, s.a.e., & kompier, m.a.j. (2004). positive and negative work home interaction: prevalence and correlates. equal opportunities international, 23, 6–35. doi:10.1108/02610150410787837 desrochers, s., hilton, j. m., & larwood, l. (2005). preliminary validation of the work-family integration-blurring scale. journal of family issues, 26(4), 442–466. desrochers, s., andreassi, j., & thompson, c. (2002).  identity theory, a sloan work and family encyclopedia entry. chestnut hill, ma: boston college. devellis, r.f. (2003). scale development, theory and application (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. dollard, m.f., & winefield, a.h. (1998). a test of the demand-control-support model of work stress in correctional officers. journal of occupational health psychology, 3, 243−264. doi:10.1037/1076– 8998.3.3.243, pmid:9684215 donald, f., & linington, j. (2008). work/family border theory and gender role orientation in male managers. sa journal of psychology, 38(4), 659−671. doumas, d.m., margolin, g., & john, r.s. (2008). spillover patterns in single-earner couples: work, self-care, and the marital relationship. journal of family economic issues, 29, 55−71. doi:10.1007/ s10834–007–9091–6 du plooy, g.m. (2001). communication research: techniques, methods and applications (2nd edn.). landsdowne: juta & co. ltd. duxbury, l. (2004). dealing with work-life issues in the workplace: standing still is not an option. the don wood lecture in industrial relations. canada: industrial relations centre. duxbury, l., & higgins, c. (2001). work-life balance in the new millennium: where are we? where do we need to go? cprn discussion paper no. w|12. ottawa, on: canadian policy research networks. retrieved march 15, 2009, from http://www.cprn.org eagles, b.w., miles, e.w., & icenogle, m.l. (1997). interrole conflicts and permeability of work and family domains: are there gender differences? journal of vocational behavior, 50, 168–184. doi:10.1006/jvbe.1996.1569 eby, l.t., casper, w.j., lockwood, c.b., bordeaux, c., & brinley, a. (2005). work and family research in io/ob: content analysis and review of the literature (1980–2002). journal of vocational behavior, 66, 124−197. employment equity act 55 of 1998. pretoria, south africa: government printers. field, a. (2005). discovering statistics using spss (pp. 8−14). london, uk: sage publications. frone, m.r. (2003). work-family balance. in j.c. quick, & l.e. tetrick (eds.), handbook of occupational health psychology (pp. 143–162). washington, dc: american psychological association. doi:10.1037/10474–007 frone, m.r., russel, m., & cooper, m.l. (1992). prevalence of work-family conflict: are work and family boundaries asymmetrically permeable. journal of organisational behavior, 13(7), 723–729. doi:10.1002/job.4030130708 frone, m.r., russell, m., & cooper, m.l. (1997). relation of work-family conflict to health outcomes: a four-year longitudinal study of employed parents. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 70, 325–335. geurts, s.a.e., & demerouti, e. (2003). work/non-work interface: a review of theories and findings. in m.j. schabracq, j.a.m. winnubst & c.l. cooper (eds.), the handbook of work and health psychology. chichester: john wiley & sons, ltd. geurts, a.r., & dikkers, s.e. (2002). the work-nonwork interface: what do we know and where should we go? paper presented at the european academy of management conference, stockholm, sweden. geurts, s.a.e., rutte, c., & peeters, m. (1999). antecedents and consequences of work-home interference among medical residents. social science & medicine, 48, 1135–1148. doi:10.1016/s0277–9536(98)00425–0 geurts, s.a.e., taris, t.w., kompier, m.a.j., dikkers, j.s.e., van hooff, m.l.m., & kinnunen, u.m. (2005). work-home interaction from a work psychological perspective: development and validation of a new questionnaire, the swing. work & stress, 19 (4), 319–339. doi:10.1080/02678370500410208 greenhaus, j.h., & parasuraman, s. (1999). research on work, family, and gender: current status and future directions. in g.n. powell (ed.), handbook of gender and work (pp. 391−412). newbury park, ca: sage. greenhaus, j.h., & powell, g.n. (2003). when work and family collide: deciding between competing role demands. organizational behavior & human decision processes, 90 (90), 291–303. doi:10.1016/ s0749–5978(02)00519–8 greenhaus, j.h., & beutell, n.j. (1985). sources of conflict between work and family roles. academy of management review, 10 (1), 76–88. doi:10.2307/258214 grzywacz, j.g., almeida, d.m., & mcdonald, d.a. (2002). work-family spillover and daily reports of work and family stress in the adult labour force. family relations, 51, 28–36. doi:10.1111/j.1741– 3729.2002.00028.x grzywacz, j.g., & marks, n.f. (2000). reconceptualizing the work-family interface: an ecological perspective on the correlates of positive and negative spillover between work and family. journal of occupational health psychology, 5 (1), 111–126. doi:10.1037/1076–8998.5.1.111, pmid:10658890 gutek, b.a., searle, s., & klepa, l. (1991). rational versus gender role explanations for work-family conflict. journal of applied psychology, 76 (4), 560–568. doi:10.1037/0021–9010.76.4.560 hammer, l.b., allen, e., & grigsby, t.d. (1997). work-family conflict in dual-earner couples: within individual and cross over effects of work and family. journal of vocational behavior, 50, 185–203. doi:10.1006/jvbe.1996.1557 hand, k., & lewis, v. (2002). fathers’s views on family life and paid work. family matters, 61, 26−29. heraty, n., morley, m.j., & cleveland, j.n. (2008). the work-family dyad: multilevel perspectives. journal of managerial psychology, 23 (5), 477−483. doi:10.1108/02683940810884496 herman, j.b., & gyllstrom, k.k. (1997). working men and women: interand intra-role conflict. psychology of women quarterly, 1, 319–333. doi:10.1111/j.1471–6402.1977.tb00558.x holahan, c.k., & gilbert, l.a. (1979). conflict between major life roles: women and men in dual careeer couples. human relations, 32(6), 451–467. doi:10.1177/001872677903200602 ilgen, d., & hollenbeck, j. (1991). the structure of work: job design and roles. in m. dunette & l. hough (eds.), handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (vol. 2, pp. 165−207). palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists. jansen, p.p.m., peeters, m.c.w., de jonge, j., houkes, i., & tummers, g.e.r. (2004). specific relationships between job demands, job resources and psychological outcomes and the mediating role of negative work-home interference. journal of vocational behavior, 65, 411–429. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2003.09.004 kaufman, g., & uhlenberg, p. (2000). the influence of parenthood on the work effort of married men and women. social forces, 78 (3), 931−949. doi:10.2307/3005936 katz, d., & kahn, r. (1978). the social psychology of organizations (2nd edn.). new york: john wiley. keene, j.r., & reynolds, j.r. (2005). the job costs of family demands, gender differences in negative family-to-work spillover. journal of family issues, 26 (3), 275−299. doi:10.1177/0192513x04270219 kinnunen, u., & mauno, s. (1998). antecedents and outcomes of work-family conflict among employed women and men in finland. human relations, 51,57–177. doi:10.1177/001872679805100203, doi:10.1023/a:1016962202639 kirchmeyer, c. (1992). perceptions of nonwork-to-work spillover: challenging the common view of conflict ridden domain relationships. basic and applied social psychology, 12, 231–249. doi:10.1207/ s15324834basp1302_7 koekemoer, e., mostert, k., & rothman, s. jr. (2010). interference between work and nonwork roles: the development of a new south african instrument. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 36(1), 1−14. kreiner, g.e. (2006). consequences of work-home segmentation or integration: a person-environment fit perspective. journal of organizational behaviour, 27, 485–507. doi:10.1002/job.386 lingard, h., & francis, v. (2005). does work-family conflict mediate the relationship between job schedule demands and burnout in male construction professionals and manager? construction management and economics, 23, 733−745. doi:10.1080/01446190500040836 luchetta, t. (1995). parental and work role salience, every day problems, and distress: a prospective analysis of specific vulnerability among multiple role women. woman & health, 22(4), 21−49. doi:10.1300/j013v22n04_02 lewis, s., & cooper, c.l. (1999). the work-family research agenda in changing contexts. journal of occupational health psychology, 4 (4), 382−393. doi:10.1037/1076–8998.4.4.382, pmid:10526842 lewis, s., & cooper, c. (2005). work-life integration: case studies of organisational change. chichester: wiley. matthews, s., & power, c. (2002). socio-economic gradients in psychological distress: a focus on women, social roles and work-home characteristics. social science & medicine, 54, 799−810. doi:10.1016/ s0277–9536(01)00110–1 mcclellan, k., & uys, k. (2009). balancing dual roles in self-employed women: an exploratory study. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 35, 1−10. mesmer-magnus, j.r., & viswesvarum, c. (2005). convergence between measures of work-to-family and family-to-work conflict: a meta-analytic examination. journal of vocational behaviour, 67, 215−232. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2004.05.004 muller, k.e., & fetterman, b.a. (2002). regression and anova: an integrated approach using sas® software. cary, nc: sas institute inc. & john wiley & sons inc. nasurdin, a.m., & hsia, k.l. (2008). the influence of support at work and home on work-family conflict: does gender make a difference? research and practice in human resource management, 16(1), 18−38. netemeyer, r.g., boles, j.s., & mcmurrian, r. (1996). development and validation of work-family conflict and family-work conflict. journal of applied psychology, 81 (4), 400−410. doi:10.1037/0021– 9010.81.4.400 nikandrou, i., panayotopoulou, l., & apospori, e. (2008). the impact of individual and organisational characteristics on work-family conflict and career outcomes. journal of managerial psychology, 23 (5), 576−598. doi:10.1108/02683940810884540 nordenmark, m. (2002). multiple social roles: a resource or a burden: is it possible for men and women to combine paid work and family life in a satisfactory way? gender, work and organization, 9(2), 25–145. doi:10.1111/1468–0432.00152 nordenmark, m. (2004). multiple social roles and well-being: a longitudinal test of the role stress theory and the role expansion theory. acta sociologica, 47, 115–126. doi:10.1177/0001699304043823 nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. oldfield, g.r., & mostert, k. (2007). job characteristics, ill health and negative work-home interference in the mining industry. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 33(2), 68–75. olson-buchanan, j.b., & boswell, w.r. (2006). blurring boundaries: correlates of integration and segmentation between work and nonwork. journal of vocational behavior, 68, 432−445. doi:10.1016/j. jvb.2005.10.006 perrone, k.m., webb, l.k., & jackson, z.v. (2007). relationships between parental attachment, work and family roles, and life satisfaction. the career development quarterly, 55, 237−248. pieterse, m., & mostert, k. (2005). measuring the work-home interface: validation of the survey work-home interaction (swing) instrument. management dynamics, 14(2), 2–15. plaisier, i., de bruijn, j.g.m., smit, j.h., de graaf, r., ten have, m., beekman, a.t.f., van dyck r., & penninx, b.w.j.h. (2008). work and family roles and the association with depressive and anxiety disorders: differences between men and women. journal of affective disorders, 105, 63−72. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2007.04.010, pmid:17524494 pleck, j.h. (1977). the work-family role system. social problems, 24 (4), 417−427. doi:10.1525/sp.1977.24.4.03a00040 premeaux, s.f., adkins, c.l., & mossholder, k.w. (2007). balancing work and family: a field study of multi-dimensional, multi-role work-family conflict. journal of organizational behaviour, 28, 705−727. doi:10.1002/job.439 rathbone, a.d. (2006). work engagement of employees in the mining environment. unpublished master’s dissertation. potchefstroom: north-west university. root, l.s., & wooten, l.p. (2008). time out for family, shift work, fathers, and sports. human resource management, 47 (3), 481−499. doi:10.1002/hrm.20228 ross, c.e. (1995). reconceptualizing marital status as a continuum of social attachment. journal of marriage and family, 57 (1), 129–140. doi:10.2307/353822 ross, c.e., mirowsky, j., & goldsteen, k. (1990). the impact of the family on health: the decade in re-view. journal of marriage and the family, 52, 1059–1078. doi:10.2307/353319 rost, i., & mostert, k. (2007). the interaction between work and home of employees in the earthmoving equipment industry: measurement and prevalence. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 33(2), 54–61. rothbard, n.p., & edwards, j.r. (2003). investment in work and family roles: a test of identity and utilitarian motives. personnel psychology, 56, 699–730. doi:10.1111/j.1744–6570.2003.tb00755.x schultheiss, d.e.p. (2006). the interface of work and family life. professional psychology: research and practice, 4, 334−341. doi:10.1037/0735–7028.37.4.334 schreuder, a.m.g., & theron, a.l. (2001). careers: an organizational perspective (2nd edn.). juta. semmer, n., zapf, d., & greif, s. (1996). shared job strain: a new approach for assessing the validity of job stress measurements. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 69, 293–310. sieber, s.d. (1974). toward a theory of role accumulation. american sociological review, 39, 567–578. doi:10.2307/2094422 singer, r. (2002). south african women gain ground below surface. usa today, 1–2, may. small, s.a., & riley, d. (1990). toward a multidimensional assessment of work spillover into family life. journal of marriage and family, 52, 51−61. doi:10.2307/352837 spss inc. (2005). spss 13.0 for windows. chicago, il: spss incorporated. statistics canada. (2000). women in canada 2000: a gender based statistical report. ottawa: statistics canada, catalogue no. 89–503–xpe. stephens, g.k., & sommer, s.m. (1996). the measurement of work to family conflict. educational and psychological measurement, 56 (3), 475−486. doi:10.1177/0013164496056003009 stevens, d.p., minnotte, k.l., mannon, s.e., & kiger, g. (2007). examining the ‘neglected side of the work-family interface’: antecedents and positive and negative family to work spillover. journal of family issues, 28, 242−262. doi:10.1177/0192513x06294548 spector, p.e. (1992). a consideration of the validity of meaning of self-report measures of job conditions. in c.l. cooper & l.t. robertson (eds.), international review of industrial and organizational psychology, (pp. 281–328). chichester: wiley. stryker, s. (1968). identity salience and role performance: the importance of symbolic interaction theory for family research. journal of marriage and the family, 30, 558–564. doi:10.2307/349494 stryker, s. (1987). identity theory: developments and extensions. london: wiley. stryker, s., & burke, p.j. (2000). the past, present and future of identity theory. social psychology quarterly, 63, 284–297. doi:10.2307/2695840 stryker, s., & serpe, s.t. (1994). identity salience and psychological centrality: equivalent, overlapping, or complementary concepts. social psychology quarterly, 57 (1), 16−35. doi:10.2307/2786972 šverko, b., arambašić, l., & galešić, m. (2002). work-life balance among croatian employees: role time commitment, work-home interference and well-being. social science information, 41, 282–300. tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2007). using multivariate statistics (5th edn.). new york: harpercollins publishers. tetrick, l.e., & buffardi, l.c. (2006). measurement issues in research on the work-home interface. in f. jones, r.j. burke & m. westman (eds.), work-life balance, a psychological perspective, (pp. 90−114). hove, new york: psychology press, taylor & francis group. thoits, p.a. (1986). multiple identities: examining gender and marital status differences in distress. american sociological review, 51, 259–272. doi:10.2307/2095520 thoits, p.a. (1991). on merging identity theory and stress. social psychology quarterly, 54(2), 101–112. doi:10.2307/2786929 thompson, j.a., & bunderson, j.s. (2001). work-nonwork conflict and the phenomenology of time, beyond the balance metaphor. work and occupations, 28 (1), 17−39. doi:10.1177/0730888401028001003 thompson, c.a., beauvais, l.l., & lyness, k.s. (1999). when work-family benefits are not enough: the influence of work-family culture on benefit utilization, organizational attachment, and work-family conflict. journal of vocational behaviour, 54, 392–415. doi:10.1006/jvbe.1998.1681 tingey, h., kiger, g., & riley, p.m. (1996). juggling multiple roles: perceptions of working mothers. the social science journal, 33 (2), 183−191. doi:10.1016/s0362–3319(96)90035–x turner, r.h. (1978). the role and the person. american journal of sociology, 84, 1–23. doi:10.1086/226738 van tonder, h.p. (2005). a psychometric analysis of the survey work-home interaction — nijmegen (swing) in a nursing environment. unpublished master’s dissertation. potchefstroom: north-west university. venter, r. (2004). labour relations in south africa (2nd edn.). south africa: oxford university press. voydanoff, p. (2007). work, family, and community, exploring interconnetions. mahwah, new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates. wall, t.d., jackson, p.r., mullarkey, s., & parker, s.k. (1996). the demands-control model of job strain: a more specific test. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 69, 153−166. wallis, t., & prince, l. (2003). the relationship between work-family conflict and central life interests amongst single working mothers. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 29, 26–31. westman, m., & piotrkowski, c.s. (1999). introduction to the special issue: work-family research in occupational health psychology. journal of occupational health psychology, 4(4), 301–316. doi:10.1037/1076–8998.4.4.301, pmid:10526834 wiley, m.g. (1991). gender, work, and stress: the potential impact of role-identity salience and commitment. the sociological quarterly, 32(4), 495–510. doi:10.1111/j.1533–8525.1991.tb00150.x abstract introduction research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) jose frantz department of physiotherapy, faculty of community and health sciences, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa vivienne lawack department of mercantile and labour law, faculty of law, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa anthea rhoda department of physiotherapy, faculty of community and health sciences, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa citation frantz, j., lawack, v., & rhoda, a., (2020). reflections of academic and professional leaders on leadership in a higher education institution. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1373. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1373 project research number: 130416-049 original research reflections of academic and professional leaders on leadership in a higher education institution jose frantz, vivienne lawack, anthea rhoda received: 11 apr. 2020; accepted: 16 sept. 2020; published: 20 nov. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: higher education institutions are under pressure to address the challenge of the leadership pipeline. therefore, the need exists to explore the potential of current leaders and their views of leadership in higher education. research purpose: the study aimed to explore the views of how academic and professional support leaders have shifted their thinking of and approach to leadership following their participation in a leadership development programme. motivation for the study: understanding the views of potential leaders about leadership and how leadership development programmes can influence their thinking is essential. research approach/design and method: qualitative data was gathered by means of a document analysis using reflections submitted by 19 participants of a leadership development programme. main findings: the results showed that the programme had an impact on how participants started reflecting on leadership styles beyond the usual description of leadership styles. additionally, participants used the opportunity for introspection of their own role as a leader and how they need to adapt. practical/managerial implications: higher education institutions are encouraged to implement leadership development programmes that will encourage stakeholders to engage in introspective activities that could influence behavioural change. contribution/value-add: it is evident from the results that the information is useful in indicating how participants had made personal adjustments in the way they viewed leadership with a greater sense of ownership and understanding of distributed leadership through the participation in a leadership development programme. keywords: academic; higher education; leadership development; reflections; professional support leaders. introduction orientation universities in south africa are in a period of change. in addition, there is increasing evidence that south africa is facing significant higher education leadership succession challenges (seale, 2015). one of the succession challenges in south african universities is the trend of appointing academic staff in leadership positions who have limited or no formal leadership training (parrish, 2015). more than a decade ago, kulati (2001) highlighted that studies on leadership in south african higher education institutions (hei) were not receiving enough attention. fourteen years later, seale (2015) concluded in his study that there remains inadequate preparation of academic leaders, especially at the level of deans, and emphasised the need for an integrated approach to leadership development. the author also concludes that the higher education sector needs leaders who focus on the needs of the collective rather than the individual. in addition, jones, harvey, lefoe and ryland (2014) highlighted that there is a need for a different form of leadership, such as a leadership style that recognises the complexity of formal and informal leadership in higher education. in addition, there is a need to acknowledge the past, whilst engaging with an uncertain future where accountability becomes more formalised and stakeholders’ demands increase. therefore, it is important to explore the current potential of leaders as well as their view of leadership in higher education to address the challenge of the leadership pipeline. research purpose and objectives effective leadership largely enables heis to meet current demands and contributes to institutional reform and transformation. however, effective leadership is characterised by general and specific competencies aligned to the needs of an institution. therefore, effective leadership within higher educational institutions may vary from traditional leadership leading to the rethinking of effective leadership within this sector. it becomes essential for leaders to understand their leadership style and how it may influence others in order to reach a shared desired goal. leadership development programmes may provide a platform for the rethinking of effective leadership in hei and provide individuals in leadership roles the opportunity to reflect upon their leadership styles and its impact on others. therefore, the purpose of this article is to explore the views of how academic and professional support leaders have shifted their thinking of and approach to leadership following their participation in a leadership development programme. academic staff is a staff in a leadership position, such as head of department (hod), deputy deans and deans, and professional support staff includes faculty managers and deputy registrars. literature review the growing interest in the role of leaders within heis in recent years was driven both by the influence of heis in developing learners who later develop as leaders in wider society and by the changing shape of higher education leadership itself in the face of global challenges in the sector. adding to the complexity is the need to increase the number of women leaders. according to a study by kele and pietersen (2015, p. 14), ‘higher education institutions in south africa are still unconsciously gender biased, regardless of how much women having proven themselves’. more recently, moodly and toni (2017) highlighted that there seems to be a lack of accountability on the part of universities to implement the national imperatives of appointing women in higher education leadership positions. higher education institutions have to make decisions of effective succession planning to ensure that there is a pipeline for the next generation of leaders. associated with this decision is the need to decide whether to recruit externally or harness and develop the skills of potential internal candidates (cappelli, 2008). there are pros and cons to both options, but according to bidwell (2011), focusing on internal candidates may ensure a better fit for the organisation. thus, if this option is chosen, then the institution through its human resource department should explore what skills need to be developed and how internal programmes can be used to develop the identified skills. this is supported by winiarska-januszewicz and winiarski (2014), who stated that growing your own timber contributed to building the pipeline and creating skills within the organisation. for effectiveness, leaders need to possess competencies, some of which are general, but some of which may be specific to the needs of the institutions at a particular time. some of the more general competencies for effective leadership include: honesty, openness, consulting others, listening skills, negotiation skills, the ability to think both broadly and strategically and the capacity to engage with others (bartman, 2005). the more specific competencies leaders need to possess, according to spendlove (2007), are credibility (reputation/respect), experience and people skills. ‘however, universities, particularly in developing countries, have traditionally appointed academic leaders based on seniority in the academic rank regardless of whether or not the candidates have proven leadership competencies’ (ngowi, 2018, p. i). leadership and management roles, which are perceived to be more middle level such as heads of school/department, have evolved into something more strategic and empowering and are no longer solely administrative and operational in their operations (bolden, petrov, & gosling, 2008). jooste, frantz and waggie (2018) highlighted that there is a need for mentorship and support for leaders in this category and programmes that address the core role of a leader. this raises questions related to the competencies for leaders in the academic sector and questions whether they are fundamentally different from traditional leadership competencies. as we aim to understand the competencies needed to be an effective academic leader, the importance of understanding your own leadership style and how it is perceived by others is important if as leaders we aim to influence our followers in a desired manner to achieve the desired goals. different leadership styles may affect organisational effectiveness or performance. as there is a widespread acceptance that there is a need for effective leadership in higher education to shape institutional reform and transformation, we have noticed an increase in the rethinking of leadership practices in higher education (herbst & conradie, 2011). as we look at the need to understand our leadership style and how we impact others through our style and the competencies we should have, there is a need for leadership development programmes that assist potential academic leaders in understanding their leadership styles and the significant impact it may have on others. kwok, hanig, brown and shen (2018) also highlighted that leadership role identities can be utilised as an effective concept in leadership development programmes in order to promote the transference of behaviours and skills. research design research approach this study used a case study qualitative approach to explore the views of how academic and professional support leaders have shifted their thinking of and approach to leadership following their participation in a leadership development programme. research strategy a case study design was used for this study. according to zainal (2007), case studies may have been described as a controversial approach but they are recognised in the social sciences as they can be used to obtain in-depth explanations of social behaviour. according to creswell (2017), case study research is a qualitative approach, where the researcher(s) explore a case or cases over a period of time; case(s) explored are in-depth, are detailed and data are collected through an array of information sources and researchers report a case description and case-based themes. research method this study used a retrospective archival research design. documents submitted as part of the programme for academic and professional leaders (p4apl) were reviewed to explore the views of how academic and professional support leaders have shifted their thinking of and approach to leadership following their participation in a leadership development programme, as part of the programme participants were expected to submit reflection half way through the programme and at the end of the programme. according to finnegan (1996), the use of archival analysis refers to a methodology that can be considered observational research, whereby the researcher examines a set of accumulated documents or archives. research setting leadership development has been identified as a core focus area at the (institution name redacted for peer review) historically disadvantaged university. this is evidenced by the fact that leadership was identified as one of the focus areas in the participating university’s institutional operating plan. as part of this goal, the university designed a p4apl, which included a combination of (1) theory to foster and understand leadership roles, mentoring, coaching; (2) and a learning project offering practical applications. entrée and establishing researcher roles the (institution name redacted for peer review) designed p4aplprovided the researchers with an opportunity to conduct a qualitative enquiry through using the case study approach. the researchers were all known by the participants as they were influential in the design and implementation of the programme. all of those who agreed to participate in the programme also agreed to write reflection pieces which were used to conduct this study. research participants and sampling methods the study sample consisted of 19 conveniently selected academics and professional support staff who participated in a p4apl. all of the participants were expected to write a reflective report as part of the programme and thus all agreed to be part of the study. data collection methods the p4apl programme was a 12-month programme, and thus midway through the programme and at the end of the programme, the participants had to write reflections. reflections were unstructured and guided by the following statement: ‘since you started the programme, what has shifted for you as a leader? any change in your leadership approach? any key learnings from the modules you have attended?’ each reflection was submitted electronically and coded by the authors to anonymise the information. the programme is a learning experience for both academics and professional staff and aimed at enhancing participants’ understanding of the higher education environment and assist in building personal and professional skills. participants attended an array of workshops over the 12-month period to develop their leadership skills. the duration of the workshops was between 1 and 2 days; this was dependant on the topic. included in the programme is the induction, 360 multi-rater assessments, presentations, workshops, networking opportunities, coaching and mentoring sessions, a project related to the university’s institutional operation plan (iop) and four coaching circles. strategies employed to ensure data quality and integrity to ensure the quality and integrity of the data, an audit trail and chain of evidence was utilised. the records of all the raw data (reflection pieces) were kept securely by the researchers. all records were stored on the laptops/desktops of the researcher, which were password-protected and only known and accessible by the researchers. all the information and the choices made were cross-referenced and discussed amongst the authors before final decisions were made (nowell, norris, white, & moules, 2017). data analysis the reflective reports provided by the participants formed the final data set to be analysed. analysis commenced at the end of the 12-month programme. it was an inductive and emergent process. content analysis was used to analyse the data obtained from participants. content analysis is a technique for making presumptions by systematically and objectively identifying special characteristics in data (grove, burns, & gray, 2014). this technique was suitable for the study because of its interpretive approach and nature, which gave the end result of understanding the perceptions of the participants regarding their leadership style. the analysis was conducted by two independent researchers who coded the information and presented the emerging themes. the collated codes and themes were presented by the researchers to the research team who further cross-checked and discussed differences until consensus was reached. there were no real changes to be made; only clarifications needed. reporting style the study reports the findings according to themes. each key finding is supported by at least three direct participant quotations. ethical consideration the research participants were informed that their participation in the study was voluntary. the reflections were submitted electronically and coded by the researchers so that the participants could remain anonymous. the limitations in relation to anonymity were discussed with the participants based on their role within the university. all participants agreed to continue to participate in light of these limitations. ethical approval to conduct this study was obtained. hs19/6/1 and 14/9/23. results participants in this study consisted of 11 females and 8 males, who were predominantly academic leaders (n = 15) and academic professional support leaders (n = 4). based on the data provided, four key themes emerged, namely, (1) ethical leadership; (2) leadership as building others; (3) sense of ownership; and (4) the complexity of leading, are presented and discussed in the following section. ethical leadership participants highlighted their appreciation for ethical leadership, as displayed by other individuals in management positions within their institutions. they highlighted that ethical leadership was characterised by consistency, fairness and good-natured action geared towards building others rather than ruling. additionally, participants highlighted that they perceived those who demonstrated ethical leadership to have a strong moral and ethical character. these ideas expressed by participants are presented in the excerpts below: ‘finally, i have learnt that leadership should be ethical. i am encouraged by many of the university top management who made presentations (who shared of their personal leadership styles) are highly ethical persons. a sound value system needs no words for understanding. saint francis’ words comes to mind, do good, only use words when it is necessary.’ (p2) ‘the coaching conversations also spoke to the need for ethical leadership that builds rather than rules, that is fair and consistent and sets the standard by doing rather than saying.’ (p18) ‘ethical leadership has become evident in how we must approach situations. although ethics is a word commonly used, applying it in your leadership can be challenging but is important.’ (p4) leadership as building and empowering others some of the participants highlighted (11/19) that they have come to appreciate the concept of distributed leadership through their participation in the programme. for participants, distributed leadership included the sharing of skills and knowledge with others for the development of future leaders. participants suggested that for distributed leadership to be achieved, they need to act as agents of the empowerment and encouragement of others through the process of social interaction. this developed understanding of the concept of distributed leadership, as reported by participants, is depicted in the excerpts below: ‘empowering team and build future leaders – “every person is an agent of change.” i have made a concerted effort not to take charge at all times and i have been requesting volunteers to co-ordinate projects in the faculty so as to expose them to leadership skills and competencies.’ (p3) ‘… via the p4apl programme i have come to realize the importance of having a “one-anothering” relationships with my fellow academics, wherein i serve as an encourager, builder and teacher. hence, i now see that transience of my impact and the lasting influence on academics and support staff, who now work together in collegial ways to develop, rejuvenate and create a supportive conducive environment.’ (p5) ‘i now make every effort to develop a leadership style that can cross boundaries, where i develop the cultural intelligence to be able to work together with people from different backgrounds. my ideal, currently, is to develop a democratic leadership which, in my opinion, affords participation and freedom to other group members. it would also encourage active decision-making and discussion which would have an all-round positive effect.’ (p7) sense of ownership more than half of the participants reported on the concept of a sense of ownership, as they are not passive agents who are limited by the directions and orders provided by others (10/19). rather, participants experienced a shift in view and greater understanding throughout the programme as they now regard themselves as active agents able to take initiative and engage and positively contribute towards decision-making processes. therefore, participants claimed a sense of ownership and accountability to bring about transformation and contributing towards the success of their programmes, students and, in turn, their institutions. the shift in participants’ views of leadership to incorporate a sense of ownership is displayed in the excerpts below: ‘my inside shifted from looking at senior management to bring about change to a place of taking ownership of the change myself. with this being said, i realised that i have to discern what my area of leadership is where i can bring about this change.’ (p4) ‘we, on the ground, have to take ownership of our programmes, our students and our institution to ensure its success in going forward.’ (p15) ‘i had the opportunity to reflect on motivating my team to take ownership and take authority with responsibility seriously.’ (p6) complexity of leadership styles as participants reflected upon their leadership styles throughout the programme, they became increasingly cognisant of the need to adapt. according to participants, adaption through the process of self-reflection was required as leadership is not instructional or rigid, but rather flexible and adaptive so that it may be applied effectively to varying contexts and situations. many of the participants (14/19) throughout the conversation alluded to the fact that there is no ‘right’ leadership style and that leadership styles are shaped by contextual factors such as experiences and contexts and may be further adapted so that it may be effective within a particular environment. these views expressed by participants are contained in the excerpts presented below: ‘at this point, i believe that there is no one “right” leadership style but that which lays the foundation for growth and stability within an organization.’ (p8) ‘i had been describing myself as a democratic leader, but the self-assessment exercise on leadership portrayed me as an autocratic leader. this made me to understand that being an autocratic leader does not always have a negative connotation. i began to realize that one’s experiences and surrounding circumstances are some of the factors that contribute in shaping one’s leadership style.’ (p11) ‘p4apl has brought me to the conclusion that there is no one or perfect leadership style and that being a leader means reflecting on your own actions and behaviour and being able to adapt to situations and people as your style in one environment will not be as effective in another.’ (p14) discussion the purpose of this article is to explore the views of how academic and professional support leaders have shifted their thinking of and approach to leadership following their participation in a leadership development programme. from the results, it is evident that the programme had an impact on how participants started reflecting on leadership styles broader than the usual description of leadership styles. participating in the leadership programme facilitated reflection on aspects such as ethical leadership, the importance of a leader in building capacity in others and taking ownership as well as the complexity of different leadership styles. when unpacking the aspect of ethical leadership, the participants highlighted the importance of (role) modelling. it was through the actions rather than the words of the facilitators (leaders in higher education) that values such as integrity contributed to the identification of ethical leadership. institutional integrity amongst leaders in higher education arose as an important consideration amongst participants during the focus group discussions. jean-louis (2017) highlighted that leaders in the higher education sector have the responsibility to manage and lead change in a strategic, sustainable and ethical manner. thus, the role of a leader is more than just their personality; it includes the values and content of leadership and thus how the leader portrays what s/he stands for (pityana, 2017). in addition, the notion of distributed leadership was raised. distributed leadership contributes to the development of future leaders, through sharing (chin, 2015). this involvement of others highlights the social dimension of leadership, which facilitates engagement in teams and groups. the findings of the study highlighted that leadership has a social dimension, which highlights the shared nature of the work. according to ba (2015), successful leaders encourage their followers to do more than they think they are capable of doing. the participants expressed that they realised that leadership had a social dimension and this encouraged them to engage and empower others. the study also touched on the aspect of ownership, where the participants expressed that as active agents it becomes important to take initiative and contribute positively towards the decision-making process. this involves taking ownership and recognising that the success of the institution rests on the shoulders of all and not only those in senior management positions. the aspect of ethical leadership referred to earlier has been found to directly affect ownership, which encourages responsibility towards your job (avey, wernsing, & palanski, 2012) and having an interest in the success of the institution. the realisation amongst participants that leadership is in the hands of not only the senior management but all academic and support staff can demonstrate exceptional leadership qualities. a sense of ownership can be seen as an aspect of sustainability, and it can be argued that this sense of ownership will ensure that the person is likely to contribute to the success of the institution. as we investigate the word ‘ownership’, the difference between accountability and ownership is raised. literature indicates that the business definition of the difference is the feeling of responsibility of your task at the company and a generalised sense of ownership regarding the company’s success as a whole. in the higher education sector, institutions are facing pressure to improve governance to facilitate both internal and external accountability. according to literature, the aspect of accountability in higher education is influenced by public policy, government authority, professional authority and the end users (students, parents and community) (burke & associates, 2005). the complexity of leadership was also discussed and the realisation that there cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach was accepted. a combined leadership style is often applied where the role of the leader is to lead teams (chin, 2015) as is the case in higher education. according to uhl-bien and arena (2017), there is a need for adaptability amongst leaders in organisations. the authors highlight that in their complexity leadership model, leaders need to enable adaptive spaces in ways that are nurturing and protective. the idea of being adaptive and creating adaptive spaces is reflected in the comments of participants, where they highlight their thoughts on their own leadership style, but how they need to adapt. important for developers of leadership development programmes is that they should recognise the inherent identity and strength of the individual and not advocate that a leader has to reconstruct their own leadership identity. adaptability becomes an important aspect as there is often a need for leaders to apply a different or a combination of leadership styles depending on the context (chin, 2015). limitations and recommendations although this study was limited to a confined sample of participants and thus cannot be generalised, the concept of using leadership development programmes to create an awareness of the changes happening in leadership in the higher education sector presents us with the opportunities to address the complexity of formal and informal leadership in higher education. conclusion the current study aimed to explore the views of academic and professional support leaders on what has shifted in their thinking of and approach to leadership following their participation in a leadership development programme. it is evident from the results that participants had made personal adjustments in the way they viewed leadership with a greater sense of ownership and understanding of distributed leadership. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions j.f. drafted the article based on the data and a.r. and v.l. contributed to refining the article prior to submission. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or non-profit sector. data availability statement data generated will be stored and can be made available on request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references avey, j.b., wernsing, t.s., & palanski, m.e. (2012). exploring the process of ethical leadership: the mediating role of employee voice and psychological ownership. journal of business ethics, 107(1), 21–34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1298-2 ba, b.g.m. (2015). understanding leadership and empowerment in the workplace. european scientific journal, 11(35), 342–365. bartman, d. (2005). the great eight competencies: a criterion-centric approach to validation. journal of applied psychology, 90(6), 1185–1203. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.90.6.1185 bidwell, m. (2011). paying more to get less: the effects of external hiring versus internal mobility. administrative science quarterly, 56(3), 369–407. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001839211433562 bolden, r., petrov, g., & gosling, j. (2008). developing collective leadership in higher education. leadership foundation for higher education. burke, j.c., & associates (2005). achieving accountability in higher education: balancing public, academic and market demands. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. cappelli, p. (2008). talent management for the twenty-first century. harvard business review, 86(3), 74. chin, r.j. (2015). examining teamwork and leadership in the fields of public administration, leadership, and management. team performance management: an international journal, 21(3/4), 199–216. https://doi.org/10.1108/tpm-07-2014-0037 creswell, j.w. (2007). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches. lincoln, or: sage publications. finnegan, r. (1996). using documents. in r. sapsford & v. jupp (eds.), data collection and analysis (pp. 138–151). london: sage. grove, s.k., burns, n., & gray, j. (2014). understanding nursing research: building an evidence-based practice. elsevier health sciences. herbst, t.h., & conradie, p.d. (2011). leadership effectiveness in higher education: managerial self-perceptions versus perceptions of others. sa journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i1.867 jean-louis, m. (2017). change leadership, ethics and the future of higher education. in d. singh & c. stückelberger (eds.), ethics in higher education values-driven leaders for the future (pp. 123–132). geneva: globethics.net. jones, s., harvey, m., lefoe, g., & ryland, k. (2014). synthesising theory and practice: distributed leadership in higher education. educational management administration & leadership, 42(5), 603–619. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143213510506 jooste, k., frantz, j., & waggie, f. (2018). challenges of academic healthcare leaders in a higher education context in south africa. educational management administration & leadership, 46(4), 692–708. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143216688468 kele, t., & pietersen, j. (2015). women leaders in a south african higher education institution: narrations of their leadership operations. international journal of sustainable development, 8(5), 11–15. kulati, t. (2001). leadership, management, and institutional change in south african higher education: 1994–1999. retrieved from http://www.epu.uwc.ac.za/conferenceproceedings/papers/kulati.doc kwok, n., hanig, s., brown, d.j., & shen, w. (2018). how leader role identity influences the process of leader emergence: a social network analysis. leadership quarterly, 29(6), 648–662. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2018.04.003 moodly, a., & toni, n.m. (2017). accessing higher education leadership: towards a framework for women’s professional development. south african journal of higher education, 31(3), 138–153. https://doi.org/10.20853/31-3-917 ngowi, a. (2018). recruiting and developing academic leaders. in m.e. auer & k.s. kim (eds.), engineering education for a smart society (pp. 82–91). switzerland: springer international publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60937-9_7 nowell, l.s., norris, j.m., white, d.e., & moules, n.j. (2017). thematic analysis: striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria. international journal of qualitative methods, 16, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406917733847 parrish, d.r. (2015). the relevance of emotional intelligence for leadership in a higher education context. studies in higher education, 40(5), 812–837. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2013.842225 pityana, n. (2017). leadership and ethics in higher education: some perspectives from experience. in d. singh & c. stückelberger (eds.), ethics in higher education values-driven leaders for the future (pp. 133–161). geneva: globethics.net. seale, o.j.j. (2015). building leadership and management capacity for deans in south africa higher education (doctoral dissertation). south africa: wits institutional repository spendlove, m. (2007). competencies for effective leadership in higher education. international journal of education management, 21(5), 407–417. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513540710760183 uhl-bien, m., & arena, m. (2017). complexity leadership: enabling people and organizations for adaptability. organizational dynamics, 46(1), 9–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2016.12.001 winiarska-januszewicz, a., & winiarski, j. (2014). advancing leadership pipeline through the development of high-potential employees. journal of intercultural management, 6(1), 17–25. https://doi.org/10.2478/joim-2014-0002 zainal, z. (2007). case study as a research method. kemanusiaan, 9, 1–6. article information author: boris urban1 affiliation: 1wits business school, university of witwatersrand, south africa correspondence to: boris urban email: boris.urban@wits.ac.za postal address: wits business school, university of witwatersrand, po box 98, wits 2050, south africa keywords entrepreneurship; technology; environment; hostility; dynamism dates: received: 24 april 2009 accepted: 18 jan. 2010 published: 25 may 2010 how to cite this article: urban, b. (2010). technology and entrepreneurial orientation at the organisational level in the johannesburg area. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #212, 9 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.212 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) technology and entrepreneurial orientation at the organisational level in the johannesburg area in this original research article... open access • abstract • introduction • literature review    • entrepreneurship in firms    • environmental factors       • dynamism       • hostility    • technology orientation    • hypotheses • research design    • research approach    • research method       • measuring instruments       • data collection and sampling       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • sample characteristics    • reliability and factor analysis    • descriptive statistics    • firm clustering    • multivariate analyses • discussion    • limitations and future research    • conclusion • references abstract (back to top) orientation: the 21st century is tilting towards an economy that is primarily driven by technology and knowledge, where entrepreneurs have to recognise and anticipate high-technology opportunities so as to join the ranks of future entrepreneurial leaders. research purpose: this study examines entrepreneurship and its relation with technology, which is often conceptualised as entrepreneurial orientation (eo) and technology orientation (to). the study is further contextualised by measuring environmental dynamism and hostility. motivation for the study: despite the weight of positive empirical findings and observations that eo and to are strategic imperatives, there is a danger that firms in africa are lagging behind and subsequently a study of this nature aids in understanding these imperatives. research design, approach and method: a survey is used to collect data from a population of diverse businesses in the johannesburg area (n = 1600), yielding a sample of 236 firms. instruments were subjected to principal component factor analysis and descriptive statistics were calculated. the hypotheses were tested using correlational analysis, with their significance reported in terms of pearson correlation coefficients. main finding: findings reveal significant correlations between eo and environment hostility and dynamism, but not between eo and to. practical and managerial implications: the study offers some solutions towards understanding how to and eo may promote firm innovation, which encourages the diffusion, adoption and application of the very latest technologies. this is particularly relevant in cases where a lot of potential exists in developing countries to ‘import and adapt’ technologies developed in industrialised countries. contribution of study: research on firm innovation in the african context may be considered valuable, as very few empirical studies that have been conducted previously focus on innovation and technology in the context of an emerging country. introduction (back to top) entrepreneurship and its relation to technology and innovation are studied extensively within organisations (bosma, jones, autio & levie, 2007; foba & de villiers, 2007; lee & wong, 2004). recent studies have advocated integrating innovation and technology at organisations where links have been established with firm performance (bhuian, menguc & bell, 2005; guan & liu, 2007). firms which have adopted a technology orientation (to) pursue advances in technology and innovations, and investments are made in discontinuous innovations and disruptive technologies with the assumption that entire new markets will emerge (schindehutte, morris & kocak, 2008). in emerging economies, such as south africa, where growth is often the primary goal of organisations, innovation in firms can be particularly critical for firm profitability and survival (antoncicm & hisrich, 2001). the 21st century is tilting towards an economy primarily driven by technology and knowledge, where entrepreneurs have to recognise and anticipate high-technology opportunities so as to join the ranks of future entrepreneurial leaders (kourilsky & walstad, 2002). technology and firm innovation can not only create value but can aid in the international expansion process which many firms in emerging countries are now undertaking. a strong technology and entrepreneurial orientation (eo) at the firm level can provide the necessary competitive advantage for companies in emerging countries to compete globally (rwigema, urban & venter, 2008). not only are organisations seeking to reorientate themselves to become strategically innovative (mcguigan & henderson, 2005), but previous literature and empirical findings point to entrepreneurial orientation as an important element in organisational and economic development. entrepreneurship within organisations is a fundamental posture, instrumentally important to strategic innovation, particularly under shifting external environmental conditions (knight, 1997). the eo construct is salient not only for large organisations, but also for small and medium-sized organisations in different stages of economic development and in varied cultural contexts. at the level of the organisation, entrepreneurship can provide direction to the company’s entire operation, serves as an integral component of a firm’s strategy and may serve as the core component of corporate strategy (chen, he & jin, 2008; guan & liu, 2007; morris, kuratko & covin, 2008). entrepreneurial actions are the bedrock of entrepreneurial processes and behaviour. these two dominant orientations, to and eo, often termed strategic orientations at the firm level, provide the focus for this study. since these orientations may be critical to the long-term survival of a firm (stevenson, 1983), it is important to facilitate the empirical study of them. this paper moves in this direction by empirically testing the relationship between eo and to. however, simply examining the direct eo–to relationship may provide an incomplete picture; it is necessary to understand how environmental factors might be linked with each orientation (wang, 2008). research suggests that a key part of a to is the interaction of that strategy with the venture’s external environment (zahra & bogner, 1999). moreover, eo is affected by and should fit the firm’s particular environment. consequently, in this present study, associations between eo and to and environmental hostility and dynamism are hypothesised. despite the weight of positive empirical findings and observations that eo and to are strategic imperatives (antoncic, 2006; autio, 2005; goel, gonzalez-moreno & saez-martines, 2003), there is a danger that firms in africa are lagging behind and subsequently a study of this nature aids in understanding these imperatives. another reason for focusing on eo is that, although studies using the eo scale have often been replicated, the majority of research in entrepreneurship and technology has been conducted in the united states. as the relevance of international entrepreneurship is recognised (jantunen, puumalainen, saarenketo & kylaheiko, 2005), the further investigation of eo and to in the context of an emerging country seems justifiable. literature review (back to top) entrepreneurship in firms the concept of entrepreneurship in corporations has been labelled in many different ways, which include intrapreneurship (antoncic & hisrich, 2001; kuratko, 2002), innovation entrepreneurship (schumpeter, 1934), innovation management (drucker, 1979), venture entrepreneurship (tang & koveos, 2004), corporate intrapreneurship (dess et al., 2003), strategic entrepreneurial posture (covin & slevin, 1989) and internal corporate venturing (hornsby, kuratko & zahra, 2002). prior theory and research (covin & slevin, 1989; lumpkin & dess, 1996; khandwalla, 1977; miller & friesen, 1983) indicate that an eo is a key ingredient for organisational success, found to lead to increased performance (kuratko, ireland & hornsby, 2001; wiklund & shepherd, 2003; zahra & covin, 1995). the concept of eo incorporates the firm-level processes, practices and decision-making styles of innovative firms (lumpkin & dess, 1996). the theoretical basis of the eo construct lies in the assumption that all firms have an eo, even if levels of eo are very low. the current organisational research provides theoretical support for the eo construct, in both the fields of entrepreneurship and strategic management. extensive research confirms that eo has three dimensions – namely, innovativeness, risk taking and proactiveness (covin & slevin, 1989, 1991, 1997; kreiser, marino & weaver, 2002; lumpkin & dess, 1996, 2001). innovativeness is the fundamental posture of an entrepreneurial organisation in terms of developing new products or inventing new processes (drucker, 1979; schumpeter, 1934). innovativeness as an attribute describes an organisation’s willingness to add newness with added value. risk-taking is associated with the willingness to commit significant resources to opportunities and to take calculated business risks (aloulou & fayolle, 2005). proactiveness is perseverance in ensuring that initiatives are implemented and is concerned with adaptability and tolerance of failure. these dimensions have been extensively documented and, according to lumpkin and dess (1996), all the dimensions are central to understanding the entrepreneurial process, although they may occur in different combinations, depending on the type of entrepreneurial opportunity the firm pursues. firms can be labelled as entrepreneurial only if they are simultaneously risk taking, innovative, and proactive (covin, green & slevin, 2006). the extent to which each of these dimensions is useful for predicting the success of business may be contingent on industry environment and norms for eo can be expected to vary among industries. lumpkin and dess (1996) provide a contingency perspective on how environmental and organisational factors moderate, mediate, independently effect, or interact with eo to enhance firm performance. typically, firms with an eo tend to outperform similar other organisational types in volatile environments (knight, 1997). the concept of eo is best understood as a complex mix of personal and situational factors. in addition to individual and firm differences, forces operating within other larger cultural contexts also determine levels of eo (aloulou & fayolle, 2005; urban, 2008). environmental factors as with previous studies (zahra & bogner, 1999), the present study emphasises environmental characteristics since these perceptions activate technology and entrepreneurial choices. theory on the environment and its effect on high technology ventures and eo are well documented (allen & stearns, 2004; pownall & lawson, 2005). specifically, the entrepreneur’s perception of the external environment is expected to moderate the relationship between a technology venture’s strategy and its financial performance (zahra & bogner, 1999). three characteristic of the firm’s external environment are discussed in the literature – namely, dynamism, hostility and heterogeneity. these characteristics reflect the objective conditions of an industry. the current study relies on two environmental dimensions, which is consistent with earlier research and theory building in the field of entrepreneurship, namely dynamism and hostility. dynamism dynamism reflects both the rate and unpredictability of change in the industry (dess & beard, 1984). these changes result from the entry or exit of competitors, changes in customers’ needs, and shifts in technological conditions. these changes create opportunities and threats for new ventures and compel their managers to act by building and leveraging technological resources. the unpredictability of these changes can also influence managers’ investment in introducing new products and timing of their release (porter, 1985). hostility hostility indicates an unfavourable business climate, such as intense competition for resources or market opportunities. hostility arises from the existence of too many competitors, unfavourable supply conditions and strict regulation. hostile environments are therefore resource-poor, lean environments; they lack the abundance of resources and capacity required to support a large number of ventures (dess & beard, 1984; zahra & bogner, 1999). technology orientation technology and innovation in entrepreneurial businesses is typically explained in a variety of ways. for instance, (1) by describing how early-stage entrepreneurs and established business owner-managers focus on the novelty (or unfamiliarity) of their products or services relative to customers’ current experience (bosma et al., 2007), or (2) by focusing on levels of innovativeness in entrepreneurial businesses as measured by the degree of competition faced by the business, or (3) by whether the owner-manager perceives that many, few or no other businesses offer similar products or services (lee, lee & penning, 2001). several types of new venture technology and innovation strategies are proposed in the literature, which include, but are not limited to: • reactive imitation • proactive localisation • import substitution • creative imitation • early-market entry • global niche and • global innovation (park & bae, 2004). strategic choice is of particular concern to technology-based ventures. for instance, they can adopt a product market strategy aimed at achieving growth in terms of revenues or a strategy where the objective is growth in the value of the technology with a view to an eventual exit through-sale to a strategic partner. a firm that is pursuing a strategy of differentiation based on innovative new product introductions might benefit from the human capital development through years of experience in technical jobs. such experience would provide insights into technical advances that might enhance product features (shrader & siegel, 2007). developing new product technology and concern for technical expertise demonstrates the importance for technology-based new ventures to select strategies which they can successfully execute. it has also been suggested that true measures of success for technological entrepreneurs is the extent to which they are able to develop and bring to market radically innovative new products and/or services. radical innovations are important not only for the positive economic impact they typically create but also because they fundamentally change the behaviour of consumers. evaluating regional transformation through technological entrepreneurship, venkataraman (2003) analyses how in a modern economy, universities and research and development laboratories are the incubators of novel technical ideas; it is no accident that areas around boston and silicon valley have produced a significant amount of wealth. infusing an enterprising spirit into technical endeavours and the promotion of inventive skills has been implemented as an impetus to promote technopreneurship in organisations (lee & wong, 2004). both entrepreneurs and technopreneurs have similar qualities, such as determination, a willingness to take risk, the capacity to mobilise resources and perseverance to overcome setbacks. however, the capabilities required of technopreneurs go beyond this to include an expert knowledge of relevant technological developments together with innovative acumen (wong, cheung & venuvinod, 2005). it is a person’s specific knowledge that is apparently the most important contributing factor in making a discovery and exploiting wealth-generating ideas (fiet, norton & clouse, 2002). technopreneurs are an important group that can contribute significantly to raise national competitiveness, productivity and efficiency (conway, 2008). in addition technopreneurs engage in go-to-market programmes through a global network of partners (asia africa intelligence wire, 2005). technopreneurism can be integrated into corporations through the formal strategy process. foo and foo (2000) conceptualise a model of corporations in singapore acting to contribute towards configuring a unique environment congenial for sprouting technopreneurs. in singapore, government built technological parks and research centres to encourage more firms to be involved in research and development activities; the government set aside billions of dollars in research funds and venture capital to encourage research in technologically related industries to become technopreneurs (lee & wong, 2004). the integration of entrepreneurship with strategy (i.e. technology orientation or to) relies on the critical aspects of entrepreneurial strategy and a strategy for entrepreneurship (kuratko & audretsch, 2009; morris et al., 2008). it is conceivable that in many situations, a firm would have to excel along all or most of the dimensions of eo in order to achieve the ability to create superior value with regard to to. this would indicate that there are significant associations between eo and to. hypotheses the following hypotheses are formulated by drawing on the emerging body of knowledge. given the lack of empirical evidence on eo and to in terms of environmental dynamism and hostility, particularly in the context of an emerging country, instead of numerous hypotheses, the study formulates broad-spanning hypotheses which allow for general explanations: h1: a positive correlative relationship exists between eo and to. entrepreneurship within organisations as a fundamental posture is conceived as eo, which is instrumentally important to a firm which adopts a to, i.e. a firm that is characterised by discontinuous innovations and disruptive technologies with the assumption that entire new markets will emerge (schindehutte et al., 2008). h2: to and eo is significantly associated with environmental dynamism and hostility. the greater the environmental dynamism and hostility, the greater the levels of to and eo in a firm. myers and marquis (1969) report that the more dynamic and hostile (i.e. competitive) the environment, the greater the need for innovation and the more likely that firms will be entrepreneurial, which in this case means increased levels of to and eo. an environment characterised as dynamic creates opportunities and threats for new ventures, and managers react by investing in and leveraging technological resources. the unpredictability of these changes can also influence the firm’s eo. hostility is indicative of an unfavourable business climate, typically more competitive, where firms will need to adopt a to and eo to remain competitive. research design (back to top) research approach a cross-sectional research design using a survey to generate quantitative responses was used. as to and eo refer to managers’ self-perception of a firm’s strategic orientation, their self-perception should be closely related to the behaviour of the firm. hence, as wiklund (1999) argues, what is really measured is the chief executive officer’s (ceo’s) self-perception, which accordingly serves as a relevant proxy for measuring eo and to. although regarded as a micro-level unit of analysis, the firm is an aggregate of different individuals and business activities, and the issues of relevance, size, size distributions and heterogeneity need to be acknowledged (davidsson, 2004). due to the variety of industry and firm heterogeneity anticipated in this present study, concerns of broad applicability versus perfect suitability for narrower groups were addressed. measures that apply to all firms may at the same time apply to none, since they only capture a tiny fraction of each firm’s manifestation of eo (davidsson, 2004). to counteract such discrepancies the instruments were carefully operationalised and are described in detail. consistent with previous studies (wiklund, 1999) control variables included the type of industry – based on the standard industrial classification (sic) index – firm age, and size of firm in employee numbers. other intervening factors that may have moderated/mediated the relationship between the study variables are partially accounted for by measuring the direct effect of the environment. research method measuring instruments the measures for eo, to, environmental dynamism and hostility relied on previously established instruments. the eo dimensions have evolved from the entrescale, which was derived at by identifying the innovative and proactive disposition of managers at firms. this scale, initially developed by khandwalla (1977) and refined by miller and friesen (1983) and covin and slevin (1989), has been found to be highly valid and reliable at cross-cultural levels (knight, 1997). although alternative eo conceptualisations are to be found (brown, davidsson & wiklund, 2001) and have demonstrated some usefulness, davidsson (2004) suggests using the existing eo measure, which has the advantage of theoretical backing, a multidimensional construct and theoretically meaningful relationships established in previous studies, thus allowing for more refined knowledge to evolve. subsequently, eo was measured along a seven-point bi-polar likert scale, representing the three dimensions of innovation, proactiveness and risk taking. respondents had to circle number 1 if the statement on the left-hand side of the scale best described their reaction to the item, or circle number 7 if the statement on the right-hand side of the scale best described their reaction to the item. moreover, an aggregated measure of eo can be useful when a differential relationship between the three dimensions and other variables under investigation are not expected (kreiser et al., 2002), as was the case in this present study. in order to operationalise a firm’s level of to, several different dimensions of technology which are generally considered to be most relevant to an organisation’s technology strategy were used. to allow for meaningful comparisons with earlier work, a core set of questions based on technology and competitive strategies from the panel study of entrepreneurial dynamics (psed) survey (gartner, shaver, carter & reynolds, 2004) was selected. the psed survey provides systematic, reliable data on those variables that explain and predict nascent entrepreneurship. measures for to were based on categories which divide firms into three types (allen & stearns, 2004). these are: (1) first mover (a pioneering entrepreneur with a disruptive technology that creates a new paradigm), operationalised with surrogate variable: was the product/service available five years ago?; (2) practitioner (an entrepreneur who employs current technology to improve products, services or processes); (3) innovator (an incremental strategy whereby a entrepreneur modifies or improves existing technology). for measures on the environment, the environmental dimensions of hostility and dynamism were selected due to the modest correlations reported between these two dimensions (zahra, 1993), suggesting that unique aspects of the environment are captured with each dimension. environmental dynamism (five items) and hostility (six items) were measured using a seven-point scale, in which 1 equals strongly agree and 7 equals strongly disagree with the statement. respondents were asked to circle numbers 2 through 6 depending upon their best estimate of an intermediate position. furthermore, respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with each statement as it applies to their business’s principal industry (i.e. the industry that accounts for the largest percentage of their business’s sales). data collection and sampling operationalisation of the empirical firm included firms that were legal entities – close corporations and private and public companies. a suitable sampling selection criterion was used where the minimum size criterion of firms sampled was set at 20 employees and the upper limit was set at 500 employees (here a single respondent still can report for an entire firm), which then overlaps with the criterion for relevance. this upper limit set also allowed for filtering out of the largest firms and presumably eliminated some of the typical organisational inertia characteristics of large firms, which may bias eo indicators (jantunen et al., 2005). by using these selection criteria, the surveyed population was based on a comprehensive membership list of businesses operating in the johannesburg area. all potential respondents were based in the gauteng province, the economic hub of south africa, which has the highest number of businesses and accounts for almost half of all enterprises in south africa. the sampling frame was identified from the johannesburg chamber of commerce and industry (jcci) database of businesses operating in the greater johannesburg area (jcci, 2008). a wide range of businesses, which included various industry sectors, were sampled. the population of this database is approximately 1 600 firms. based on eligibility criteria and employing a non-probability judgemental sampling technique, 755 potential respondents were surveyed. judgemental sampling is used when a sample is selected where certain judgements are made on the overall population. the frame selection process for this study can be viewed as a trade-off between practical considerations on the one hand and the demands of randomisation and generalisability on the other. davidsson (2004) suggests that firms are heterogeneous along many dimensions, and that one should acknowledge the heterogeneity, i.e. allow for samples to have reasonable and balanced representation of different kinds of valid empirical manifestations of the theoretical concept ‘firm’. consequently, due to the heterogeneity of the different industry sectors sampled, the generalisability of this study is strengthened. moreover, the important issue concerning sampling, in general, is not statistical but theoretical representativeness, i.e. the elements in the sample should represent the type of phenomenon that the theory makes statements about (davidsson, 2004). research procedure a compact disk of the total membership database from the jcci was obtained, and the necessary access codes received, allowing access to the total population with their respective contact details. once permission was obtained from the jcci offices, questionnaires were solicited electronically with periodic reminder telephone calls. a number of respondents indicated that not all items were applicable to their situation and subsequently these responses were assigned as missing data. based on these procedures and the suitability of respondents, 230 usable responses were generated as the final sample (30.5% response rate). statistical analysis instruments were subjected to principal component factor analysis; the results that were obtained are discussed in the next section in terms of factor loadings and reliability. descriptive statistics were calculated in terms of mean scores and deviations in scores. the hypotheses were tested using correlational analysis, with their significance reported in terms of pearson correlation coefficients. results (back to top) sample characteristics sample distribution by industry sector is reflected in table 1. certain industries were clearly under-sampled and others over-sampled. nonetheless, based on the heterogeneity of the several different industry sectors sampled, the generalisability of this study is strengthened. firm demographics are represented in tables 2 and 3. sampled firms were generally mature in age, with relatively high employee numbers. table 1: sample distribution by class of industry sectors table 2: sample characteristics table 3: sample characteristics reliability and factor analysis with regard to testing the scales for internal consistency, items measuring eo and to rendered satisfactory cronbach’s alpha values of 0.793 and 0.749, respectively. in terms of the environmental scales, the two distinct sub-scales of environmental hostility and dynamism produced satisfactory cronbach’s alpha values of 0.742 and 0.717 respectively. to test for scale validity, factor analysis using bartlett’s test of sphericity was employed, and a significant (0.000) chi-square of 638.228 at 36 degrees of freedom (df) was produced. this test calculates the determinate of the matrix of the sums of products and cross-products from the inter-correlation matrix. the kaiser meyer olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy produced a result of 0.823 (kmo values of 0.90 to 1.00 indicate a high degree of common variance). factor loadings greater than or equal to .30 were regarded as significant, and factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 (based on scree tests and kaiser’s stopping rule) (cooper & emory, 1995) were used to decide on the optimal number of factors to retain. the items used to measure the eo dimensions were factored using the principal axis factoring method, resulting in one factor (eigenvalue λ = 4.564) with a communality factor of 57%. refer to table 4 for factor loadings and cronbach’s alpha values. for the environmental hostility and dynamism sub-scales, communalities were calculated by way of principal axis factoring and using varimax rotation – converging in seven iterations – two factors with eigenvalues of 4.679 and 1.254 indicated suitable factor loadings. these two factors reflect the distinct sub-scales of environmental hostility and dynamism. these factor loadings and cronbach’s alpha values are consolidated with the descriptive results in table 6. table 4: http://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/article/downloadsuppfile/212/297 table 5: descriptive statistics of entrepreneurial orientation table 6: factor matrix for environmental scales: reliability and validity descriptive statistics by applying tests for normality, and by calculating the kolmogorov-smirnov and shapiro-wilk statistics, test scores (0.07) indicated that normality was not violated.descriptive analysis revealed that for the eo scale, above mid-point (3.5) scores across items were prevalent. a relatively high average score emerges for this scale, suggesting that firms have medium to high levels of eo, as captured through the dimensions of innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking. in a few instances the variance, as measured by the standard deviation, is relatively high, as the score for the first variable exceeds a value of two. this indicates that there is a lot of variation among firms with regard to some of the eo items. see table 5 for the descriptive statistical results. for descriptives on the environmental scales, both dynamism and hostility had above mid-point (3.5) scores, although many only just exceeded this mid-point score (see table 7). this means that firms perceive environmental hostility and dynamism to be slightly above average. however, managers’ perceptions of their environments do not always reflect the objective qualities of their markets and industries. such mismatches may arise from ineffective competitive analyses, poor environmental analyses, cognitive biases or managerial hubris (zahra & bogner, 1999). table 7: descriptives for environmental hostility and dynamism firm clustering consistent with previous studies, cluster analysis was used to empirically delineate between firms with different types of to (galbraith, rodriquez & denoble, 2008). the process of clustering the data set was performed with the use of clustering algorithms that identified similar characteristics in the data set and then filtered/partitioned firms into the three clusters. examining the difference in categorical values of the to variables (p < 01), the first cluster clearly reflected a grouping of firms with a ‘first mover’ to (21.74 % of sample), while the second cluster appeared to have more of an ‘innovator’ to (9.57 % of the sample), and the third cluster, which contained the majority of responses, had a ‘practitioner’ to (68.69 % of the sample). multivariate analyses to evaluate the hypothesised relationships between the variables, correlational analysis was employed. it has been suggested that the correlation significance should be checked before embarking on regressions (cooper & emory, 1995). for the correlation matrix, refer to table 8, in which the pearson correlation coefficients are reported, with the values in the second line of each row indicating the p-values. according to cohen and holliday (1998), a multiple correlation coefficient of 0.7 or above indicates a high relationship. anastasia and urbani (1997) maintain that it should be high enough to be statistically significant at the 0.05 and 0.01 levels. based on the findings represented in table 8, hypothesis 1 cannot be confirmed, as eo and to are not significantly correlated. however, both eo and to are highly correlated with environmental hostility and dynamism. in fact, eo has almost a perfect correlation with both environmental measures. this suggests that a variance in eo is highly attributable to a change in either environmental dynamism or hostility. to further explore associations with any of the control variables, firm age was juxtaposed against eo, to and a combined environmental dynamism or hostility score. all variables dipped in the 7–10 year category (not shown). a plausible explanation for this is that firms mimic the classical venture life cycle. when firms enter a late growth phase and the mature phase, a period of consolidation occurs in which to and/or eo and environmental factors drop off. when firms move into the rejuvenation phase (after 10 years), an increase in to and/or eo and environmental factors is evident. table 8: correlation matrix for eo, to and environmental hostility and dynamism discussion (back to top) the purpose of this study was to test the relationship between eo and to by measuring how environmental factors might be associated with each orientation type. contributing to literature by building on and complementing existing studies, this study emphasised the challenge and opportunity for firms in emerging economies to adopt technology and act entrepreneurially, which can optimise and maximise developmental efforts. in line with contemporary research, it was expected that the entrepreneurial and technology orientations of firms will be significantly associated with each other (hypothesis 1) as well as with perceived environmental dynamism and hostility (hypothesis 2). contrary to expectations, no evidence for hypothesis 1 could be detected. nonetheless, the lack of significant associations between eo and to is not trivial for exploratory research in a new domain such as entrepreneurship, particularly in the context of an emerging country. on the other hand, the significant and positive correlations between eo and environmental hostility and dynamism provide unequivocal support for hypothesis 2. the association between to and hostility and dynamism is less strong, yet significant at the 0.05 level. these findings resonate with research which has found that a key part of technology and innovation strategies is the interaction of that strategy with the venture’s external environment (zahra & bogner, 1999). another plausible explanation for the strong and positive associations is that, when the environment is characterised by complexity and dynamism, firms have to anticipate future scenarios and develop proactive eo and to strategies in ambiguous and unstructured surroundings (allen & stearns, 2004). this study also re-establishes scale reliability and validity in the context of an emerging country. concerns have been expressed as to whether imported instruments would stand up to validation across countries (nkosi & roodt, 2004; van de vijver & rothmann, 2004). this study has found support for the same factor structures across the measures used. research on firm innovation in the african context may be considered valuable, as very few empirical studies that have been conducted previously focus on innovation and technology in the context of an emerging country. the majority of research on firm innovation has been conducted in the united states and subsequently the generalisability of to and in particular eo remains limited, because of a western proclivity for limited cross-cultural testing (antoncic & hisrich, 2001). although studies (such as kreiser et al., 2002) have confirmed the cross-cultural validity of the eo scale, samples typically exclude african countries. therefore an empirical study of this nature is potentially valuable considering that technology and innovation and their effective diffusion are central and critical to the growth of economic output, productivity and employment. additionally, the importance of international entrepreneurship justifies that constructs are tested for relevance in the context of emerging countries as well (jantunen et al., 2005; ulijn, nagel & liang, 2001). the centrality of the to and eo constructs is not new; nevertheless, this study adds to a better understanding of these strategic orientations in a non-western context, which in turn enhances their generalisability. the study also offers some solutions towards understanding how to and eo may promote firm innovation, which encourages the diffusion, adoption and application of the very latest technologies. this is particularly relevant in cases where a lot of potential exists in developing countries to ‘import and adapt’ technologies developed in industrialised countries (von broembsen, wood & herrington, 2005). a deep and thorough understanding of eo, to and environmental conditions is important not only for academic purposes but also because the subject has salience for practitioners and policy makers. these implications relate to the profitability and competitiveness of the firm as well as to the overall economic performance of industry and the national economy (dorf & byers, 2008). businesses that incorporate innovation into their vision by relying on entrepreneurial strategies and actions understand that innovation is at the core of an entrepreneurial organisation. it is around this core that other elements of the organisation, such as strategy, management style and structure, are built. corporate environments supportive of entrepreneurship must provide appropriate reward systems, top management support, explicit goals and appropriate organisational values, which signal to employees that entrepreneurial behaviour action is desirable. moreover, government programmes and incentives could focus on established firms with higher levels of eo and to rather than on potential individual entrepreneurs, since in an emerging-country context, institutional conditions need to be strengthened first before entrepreneurship can flourish (minniti, bygrave & autio, 2005). around the world, most governments have recognised the potential in high technology and have begun nurturing this industry through support institutions. they acknowledge the importance of intellectual capital in growing knowledge economies and create conditions that foster innovation. limitations and future research because environmental conditions vary significantly from one industry to another (dess & beard, 1984) and because the nature of the environmental characteristics is inextricably linked to the stage of the industry’s evolution (zahra & bogner, 1999), controls for these variations are necessary in future studies. moreover, in some contexts there may be differences in how the environmental dimensions relate to eo and to. findings in this study may also be related to the influence of other contingencies not incorporated or to measurement issues unobserved. a further limitation of this study is that a cross-sectional study loses the dynamic aspects of eo and to, particularly in hostile and dynamic environments, which prevents conclusions about causal relationships to be drawn. conclusion entrepreneurship can provide direction to the company’s entire operation, serves as an integral component of a firm’s strategy and may function as the core component of corporate strategy (covin & slevin, 1997). each of the eo dimensions – innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking – is useful for predicting the success of business, which may be contingent on the environment. managers can establish the impact of environmental dynamism and hostility on eo and to and explore the effect of these factors on various performance indicators. indeed managers need to adopt a contingency perspective on how environmental and organisational factors moderate, mediate or interact with to and eo to enhance business performance. references (back to top) allen, k., & stearns, t. (2004). technology entrepreneurs. in w.b. gartner, k.g. shaver, n.m. carter & p.d. reynolds (eds.), handbook of entrepreneurial dynamics. the process of business creation (pp. 438–447). thousand oaks, ca: sage. aloulou, w., & faylolle, a. (2005). a conceptual approach of entrepreneurial orientation within small business context. journal of enterprising culture, 13, 21–45. anastasia, a., & urbani, s. (1997). psychological testing. (7th edn.). new jersey: prentice-hall. antoncic, b. (2006). impacts of diversification and corporate entrepreneurship strategy making on growth and profitability: a normative model. journal of enterprising culture, 14, 49–63. antoncic, b., & hisrich, r.d. (2001). intrapreneurship: construct refinement and cross cultural validation. journal of business venturing, 16, 495–527. asia africa intelligence wire. (2005, 14 november). promoting technopreneurship. autio, e. (2005). report on high-expectancy entrepreneurship. global entrepreneurship monitor report. babson: hec lausanne. bhuian, s.n., menguc, b., & bell, s.j. (2005). just entrepreneurial enough: the moderating effect of entrepreneurship on the relationship between market orientation and performance. journal of business research, 58, 9–17. bosma, n., jones, k., autio, e., & levie, j. (2007). global entrepreneurship monitor executive report. london: london business school. brown, t., davidsson, p., & wiklund, j. (2001). an operalization of stevenson’s conceptualization of entrepreneurship as opportunity-based firm behavior. strategic management journal, 22, 953–968. chen, j., he, y.b., & jin, x. (2008). a study on the factors that influence the fitness between technology strategy and corporate strategy. international journal of innovation and technology management, 5, 81–103. cohen, l., & holliday, m. (1998). practical statistics for students. london: paul chapman. cooper, r.d., & emory, c.w. (1995). business research methods. (5th edn.). chicago: irwin. conway, c. (2008). nanotechnology and biotechnology futures. the international journal of entrepreneurship and innovation, 19, 69–70. covin, j.g., & slevin, d.p. (1989). strategic planning of small firms in hostile and benign environments. strategic management journal, 10, 75−87. covin, j.g., & slevin, d.p. (1991). a conceptual model of entrepreneurship as firm behavior. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 16, 7−26. covin, j.g., & slevin, d.p. (1997). high growth transitions: theoretical perspectives and suggested directions. in d.l. sexton, & r.w. smilor (eds.), entrepreneurship 2000 (pp. 99–126). chicago: kaplan publishing. covin, j.g., green, k.m., & slevin, d.p. (2006). strategic process effects on the entrepreneurial orientation–sales growth rate relationship. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 30, 57−81. davidsson, p. (2004). researching entrepreneurship. international studies in entrepreneurship. new york: springer. dess, g.g., & beard, d.w. (1984). dimensions of organizational task environment. administrative staff quarterly, 29, 52–73. dess, g.g., ireland, r.d., zahra, s.a., floyd, s.w., janney, j.j., & lane, p.j. (2003). emerging issues in corporate entrepreneurship. journal of management, 29, 351–378. dorf, r.c., & byers, t.h. (2008). new technology ventures. (2nd edn.). boston: mcgraw–hill. drucker, p. (1979). the practice of management. london: pan books. fiet, j.o., norton, b., & clouse, v. (2002). a test model of discovery by technically trained employees. frontiers of entrepreneurship research xvii-si. wellesley, ma: babson college. foba, t.w.l., & de villiers, d. (2007). the integration of intrapreneurship into a performance management model. sa journal of human resource management, 5(2), 1–8. foo, c., & foo, c. (2000). socialisation of technopreneurism: towards symbiosis in corporate innovation and technology strategy. technovation, 20, 551–663. galbraith, c.s., rodriquez, c.l., & denoble, a.f. (2008). sme competitive strategy and location behaviour: an exploratory study of high-technology manufacturing. journal of small business management, 46, 183–202. gartner, w.b., shaver, k.g., carter, n.m., & reynolds, p.d. (2004). handbook of entrepreneurial dynamics: the process of business creation. thousand oaks, ca: sage. goel, s., gonzalez-moreno a., & saez-martines, f.j. (2003). performance implications of co-alignment of business and technological innovation strategy. the international journal of entrepreneurship and innovation, 4, 213–224. guan, j., & liu, j. (2007). integrated innovations between technology and organisation. international journal of innovation and technology management, 4, 415–432. hamel, g. (2000). leading the revolution. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. hornsby, s.j., kuratko, d.f., & zahra, s.a. (2002). middle managers’ perception of the internal environment for corporate entrepreneurship: assessing a measurement scale. journal of business venturing, 17, 253–273. jantunen, a.k., puumalainen, s., saarenketo, s., & kylaheiko, k. (2005). entrepreneurial orientation, dynamic capabilities and international performance. journal of international entrepreneurship, 3, 223–243. khandwalla, p.n. (1977). the design of organizations. new york: harcourt. knight, g.a. (1997). cross-cultural reliability and validity of a scale to measure firm entrepreneurial orientation. journal of business venturing, 12, 213–225. kourilsky, m.l., & walstad, w.b. (2002). the early environment and schooling experiences of high-technology entrepreneurs: insights for entrepreneurship education. international journal of entrepreneurship education, 1, 87–106. kreiser, p.m., marino, l.d., & weaver, m.k. (2002). assessing the psychometric properties of the entrepreneurial orientation scale: a multi country analysis. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 26 (spring), 71–94. kuratko, d.f. (2002). corporate entrepreneurship. mason, oh: harcourt college publishers. kuratko, d.f., & audretsch, d.b. (2009). strategic entrepreneurship: exploring different perspectives of an emerging concept. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 33(1), 1–17. kuratko, d.f., ireland, r.d., & hornsby, j.s. (2001). improving firm performance through entrepreneurial actions: corporate entrepreneurship strategy. academy of management, 15, 60–71. lee, c., lee, k., & penning, j.m. (2001). internal capabilities, external networks, and performance: a study on technology-based ventures. strategic management journal, 22, 615–640. lee, s.h., & wong, p.k. (2004). an exploratory study of technopreneurial intentions: a career anchor perspective. journal of business venturing, 19, 7–28. lumpkin, g.t., & dess, g.g. (1996). clarifying the entrepreneurial orientation construct and linking it to performance. academy of management review, 21, 135–166. lumpkin, g.t., & dess, g.g. (2001). linking two dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation to firm performance: the moderating role of environment and industry life cycle. journal of business venturing, 16, 429–451. mcguigan, m., & henderson, j. (2005). organizational strategic innovation: how is government policy helping? international journal of innovation and technology management, 2, 197–215. miller, d., & friesen, p.h. (1983). innovation in conservative and entrepreneurial firms: two models of strategic momentum. strategic management journal, 3, 1–25. minniti, m., bygrave, w.d., & autio, e. (2005). global entrepreneurship monitor executive report 2005. london: london school of economics. morris, m.h., kuratko, d.f., & covin, j.g. (2008). corporate entrepreneurship and innovation. cincinnati: thomson/southwestern. myers, s., & marquis, d.g. (1969). successful industrial innovation. washington, dc: national science foundation. nkosi, t.j., & roodt, g. (2004). an assessment of bias and fairness of the culture assessment instrument. south african journal of human resource management, 2, 24–36. park, s., & bae, z.t. (2004). new venture strategies in a developing country: identifying a typology and examining growth patterns through case studies. journal of business venturing, 19, 81–105. porter, m. (1985). competitive advantage. new york: free press. pownall, i., & lawson, v. (2005). a regional entrepreneurial orientation (reo) model for a northern english town. journal of enterprising culture, 13, 295–331. rwigema, h., urban, b., & venter, r. (2008). entrepreneurship theory in practice. cape town: oxford university press. schindehutte, m., morris, m.h., & kocak, a. (2008). understanding market-driving behavior: the role of entrepreneurship. journal of small business management, 46, 4–26. schumpeter, j.a. (1934). the theory of economic development. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. shrader, r., & siegel, d.s. (2007). assessing the relationship between human capital and firm performance: evidence from technology-based new ventures. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 31, 893–909. stevenson, h.h. (1983). a perspective on entrepreneurship. harvard business school working paper, 9, 384–131. tang, l., & koveos, p.e. (2004). venture entrepreneurship, innovation entrepreneurship, and economic growth. journal of developmental entrepreneurship, 9, 161–171. ulijn, j., nagel, a., & liang, t.w. (2001). the impact of national, corporate and professional cultures on innovation: german and dutch firms compared. journal of enterprising culture, 9(1), 21–52. urban, b. (2008). entrepreneurship orientation in a developing country context: juxtapositions with south africa’s innovation index. journal of developmental entrepreneurship, 13(4), 425–443. van de vijver, f.j.r., & rothmann, s. (2004). assessment in multicultural groups: the south african case. sa journal of industrial psychology, 30, 1–7. venkataraman, s. (2003). regional transformation through technological entrepreneurship. journal of business venturing, 19,153–167. von broembsen, m., wood, e., & herrington, m. (2005). global entrepreneurship monitor, south african report 2005. cape town: university of cape town graduate school of business. wang, c.l. (2008). entrepreneurial orientation, learning orientation, and firm performance. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 32(4) 635–656. wiklund, j. (1999). the sustainability of the entrepreneurial orientation-performance relationship. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 24, 37–50. wiklund, j., & shepherd, d. (2003). knowledge based resources, entrepreneurial orientation, and the performance of small and medium sized businesses. strategic management journal, 24, 1307–1314. wong, w.k., cheung, h.m., & venuvinod, p.k. (2005). individual entrepreneurial characteristics and entrepreneurial success potential. international journal of innovation and technology management, 3, 277–292. zahra, s. (1993). a conceptual model of entrepreneurship as firm behaviour: a critique and extension. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 16, 5–21. zahra, s.a., & covin, j.g. (1995). contextual influences on the corporate entrepreneurshipperformance relationship: a longitudinal analysis. journal of business venturing, 10, 43–58. zahra, s.a., & bogner, w.c. (1999). technology and software new ventures performance: exploring the moderating effect of the competitive environment. journal of business venturing, 15, 135–173. abstract introduction purpose literature review research design data analysis results discussion limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) wesley r. pieters department of human sciences, psychology section, faculty of humanities and social sciences, university of namibia, windhoek, namibia department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa ebben van zyl department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa petrus nel department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa citation pieters, w.r., van zyl, e., & nel, p. (2020). testing a model of turnover intention: lecturers at the university of namibia. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1450. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1450 original research testing a model of turnover intention: lecturers at the university of namibia wesley r. pieters, ebben van zyl, petrus nel received: 27 july 2020; accepted: 05 oct. 2020; published: 21 dec. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: institutions of higher learning lose talented academics to other educational institutions or organisations within namibia and other countries. in order for higher educational institutions to achieve academic excellence, they need competent and satisfied lecturers. research purpose: this study investigates the relationship between basic psychological need satisfaction, organisational commitment, job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention of lecturing staff. motivation for the study: academic institutions neglect to facilitate changes with the needed support, impacting negatively lecturers’ work-related attitudes and their intention to stay. research approach/design and method: a questionnaire was used to collect the data, and estimates of reliability, confirmatory factor analyses, goodness-of-fit statistics, pearson’s product–moment correlation and structural equation modelling (sem) were applied to analyse the data (n = 242). main findings: using sem, four different paths were found in the model, which explained how the variables collectively impact turnover intention. practical/managerial implications: lecturers should be included in decision-making, should work in a pleasant working environment and be given training opportunities to develop. in order to ensure that institutions reach their goals, job satisfaction needs to be assessed regularly to ensure that lecturers are satisfied, committed and willing to contribute to the success of the organisation. contribution/value-add: this study will add to the knowledge within industrial/organisational psychology and guide interventions to retain lecturing staff at namibian institutions of higher learning. keywords: basic psychological need satisfaction; organisational commitment; job embeddedness; work engagement; turnover intention. introduction in order to maintain core institutional goals with regard to education, research and administration, careful human resource management is required to maintain successful academic leadership (barkhuizen & rothmann, 2006). to enhance performance, it is important to understand the workforce and find ways to strategically manage these significant human resources. understanding what influences satisfaction and creates discontent amongst academics is critical when trying to cultivate and sustain these scarce resources. no academic institution can function without academics, which include lecturers, senior lecturers or professors (wai, dandar, rodesevich, brubaker, & kuo, 2014). considering how some disciplines need specialists or academics with vast experience, it is vital to develop academics and ensure that they will be able to effectively reach the goals of their tertiary institutions (wai et al., 2014). turnover is preceded by turnover intention. turnover intention can be defined as the intention of effective employees, which think about leaving their current organisation to work for another organisation (mensele & coetzee, 2014). it was noted that turnover intention is a strong antecedent of actual turnover (medina, 2012). the intention to leave can be because of positive or negative changes within the organisation. zhao et al. (2012) emphasised that previous literature on turnover intention has focused mostly on job attitudes and job alternatives to explain turnover intention. looking at the combined effect of various variables, such as basic psychological need satisfaction, organisational commitment, job embeddedness and work engagement, this study attempts to explain turnover intention in more detail and add to the understanding thereof within namibia. data were collected from lecturing staff working at the university of namibia (unam).it is the largest and leading national institute of higher learning in namibia, having also received a golden arrow award in 2006 for the best higher education institution in namibia. in 2017, unam celebrated its 25th year of existence, educating students from 43 different countries around the world, having a student population of 24 759 and having graduated 37 085 students from different disciplines (www.unam.edu.na). purpose this study aims to determine by means of a non-experimental research design whether basic psychological need satisfaction, organisational commitment, job embeddedness and work engagement have an effect on the turnover intention of lecturing staff at unam. considering how institutions are changing and the impact on staff members, as explained by the literature, this study investigates how the turnover intention of lecturing staff is influenced by these variables. literature review turnover intention organisations constantly need new employees but fail to satisfy the needs of these employees (sturges & guest, 2001). many tertiary institutions are employing recent graduates; these institutions do not know how to retain and keep these graduates committed and are likely to spend a large amount of money on the replacement and retraining of new academic staff members. high staff turnover and brain drain have been identified as some of the major problems experienced by african universities. skilled and competent academic staffs are leaving institutions of higher learning to work outside their country of birth and outside africa (nwadiani & akpotu, 2002; sawahel, 2016; theron, barkhuizen, & du plessis, 2014). research has been conducted on turnover intention by different researchers and in different work specialisations. as indicated by van schalkwyk, du toit, bothma and rothmann (2010), with the ever-growing number of unemployed people and a high level of unskilled workforce, skills shortage remains a challenge for countries to compete regionally and globally. in order to have the best teaching, research and publication reputation, the university management needs to attract and retain the top talent. qualified and experienced academics are vital for achieving strategic goals and it is very important to retain them (bezuidenhout & cilliers, 2011). the difference between turnover intention and actual turnover needs to be noted. it is emphasised that the intention to leave is an effective predictor of actual turnover (kassing, piemonte, goman, & mitchell, 2012). measuring turnover intention will give a clear picture of actual turnover in the future. turnover intention is a voluntary occurrence when an employee contemplates leaving his or her current job for another, and in many instances it involves job hunting. basic psychological need satisfaction basic psychological needs can be defined by looking at three components, namely, the need for autonomy, relatedness and competence (kovjanic, schuh, & jonas, 2013). the basic psychological needs have been explained by the self-determination theorists (ryan & deci, 2000) as comprising three components: autonomy, belongingness (relatedness) and competence (abc). these components influence motivation. autonomy is concerned with the experience of choice and psychological freedom when carrying out an activity (verstuyf, vansteenkiste, soenens, boone, & mouratidis, 2013). belongingness or relatedness is the need to feel close, to be valued by people, as well as experience a sense of belonging with peers, family and the larger community (verstuyf et al., 2013). competence is defined as the act, ‘know-how’ and skills to effectively execute work duties within a specific work context (grobler, warnich, carrell, elbert, & hatfield, 2011). organisational commitment organisational commitment relates to how the employee identifies with the organisation, how loyal he or she is towards the organisation and the involvement experienced within the organisation (lok, westwood, & crawford, 2005). organisational commitment is also a multidimensional variable. organisational commitment consists of continuance, normative and affective commitment (meyer, allen, & smith, 1993). continuance commitment can be attributed to employees’ commitment owing to the cost associated with leaving the organisation being too high and, as a result, their intention to stay is strengthened. some employees experience normative commitment, staying with the organisation owing to a perceived obligation to remain with the organisation based on other sacrifices undergone by the organisation on behalf of the employee. the type of commitment that employers would like to foster is affective commitment, where the employees stay with the organisation because they experience an emotional attachment towards it and want to actively contribute to its success (meyer et al., 1993). job embeddedness job embeddedness, as developed by mitchell, holtom, lee, sablynski and erez (2001), indicated that it is important to look at why employees stay with an organisation. in this way the organisation can try and enhance these attitudes, and improve the working conditions that keep employees at the organisation. job embeddedness studies explore how employees fit into the organisation and community, their links (relationships with other people within the organisation and community) and the sacrifices (cost of leaving the job and community) (holtom & inderrieden, 2006; mensele & coetzee, 2014). the components of job embeddedness will be defined next. links can be defined as the formal and informal connections between the employee and institution or the employee and other people in the institution. fit is the perceived compatibility or comfort with an organisation and community. sacrifice can be defined by the perceived cost of material and psychological benefits that come with the job and when deciding to resign could result in the loss of these benefits (holtom & inderrieden, 2006). work engagement employees spend much time at work; however, being at work does not necessarily mean that they are contributing to the effectiveness of the organisation. it is not only important for employees to be present at work but also that they are engaged in their work. work engagement is characterised by three constructs, namely, vigour, dedication and absorption (bakker, schaufeli, leiter, & taris, 2008). to understand work engagement better, the next section is aimed at defining each dimension. vigour is characterised by the feelings of perseverance, high levels of energy, mental flexibility, putting in extra effort in the work and employees who continue with their work task even when it might become difficult (schaufeli, 2014; stander & rothmann, 2010). dedication is related to being strongly involved in work, coupled with a sense of significance, enthusiasm, inspiration, challenge and pride (bakker, 2011; bakker & demerouti, 2008; schaufeli, 2014). absorption refers to feelings of being engrossed in one’s work, fully concentrated, happy, and where time passes quickly and the person finds it difficult to detach himself or herself from the work (bakker & demerouti, 2008; schaufeli, 2014). basic psychological needs such as satisfaction, organisational commitment, job embeddedness and work engagement are related to each other. the next section will discuss how the variables relate to turnover intention. turnover intention, basic psychological need satisfaction, organisational commitment, job embeddedness and work engagement lack of satisfaction in terms of autonomy and relatedness (basic psychological need satisfaction) has a significant impact on employees’ intention to leave (turnover intention) (rothmann, diedericks, & swart, 2013). when employees do not experience satisfaction in being able to influence their work roles and how to execute their duties, and do not have a sense of belonging to the organisation, they are more likely to want to leave. organisational commitment relates negatively to turnover intention. the more committed employees become, the lower the level of turnover intention (kim, im, & hwang, 2015). research has found a link between opportunities for career growth, organisational commitment and turnover intention (nouri & parker, 2013). according to research conducted in south africa, work engagement related negatively to turnover intention (bothma & roodt, 2013). cole (2014) found a significant negative relationship between engagement and intention to leave. according to the expectancy theory, human behaviour is goal directed and humans behave consciously, being aware of how their actions might have an impact on their goals (lunenburg, 2011; parijat & bagga, 2014). the degree to which employees will be motivated will depend on how effectively the organisation provides the necessary resources to help employees attain those goals that they have set for themselves. research design research approach this study used a quantitative research, cross-sectional design with a questionnaire to collect relevant information about the participants. the study looked at lecturing staff from all campuses of the unam across the country. the questionnaire was hand-delivered and participants completed the questionnaire in their spare time. the researchers collected the completed questionnaires a few days after distributing the questionnaires. participants this study targeted all lecturing staff working at unam, making use of convenience sampling, meaning that all lecturers who were willing and available to participate were included in the study (creswell, 2003). the total number of academics employed at the unam is 771. this is not a true reflection of only the lecturing staff members (teaching) because it includes librarians, technicians, lab assistants, tutors and non-teaching academics. a total of 300 questionnaires were distributed, of which 242 questionnaires were completed (with a response rate of 81%) and thus included in the analyses. the sample consisted of 242 lecturing staff members (114 men and 128 women); the rest of the details are presented in table 1. table 1: biographical details of the study participants. measuring instruments the biographical questionnaire was developed by the researchers. it was used to obtain information regarding lecturers’ sex, age and tenure at unam, highest qualification obtained, marital status, number of dependants (children) and position within the institution. the work-related basic psychological need satisfaction scale (w-bns) was developed by van den broeck, vansteenkiste, de witte and lens (2008). this questionnaire consists of 16 items and uses a 5-point response scale (1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree). it assesses the need for autonomy, competence and relatedness or belonging. rothmann et al. (2013) found this instrument to be reliable within a south african context (autonomy 0.78, competence 0.82 and relatedness 0.86); similarly pieters (2017) found an acceptable reliability for competence (0.83) and relatedness (0.96) in a namibian context. the organisational commitment questionnaire (ocq) was developed by allen and meyer (1990) to assess employees’ level of commitment to the organisation in these different categories and has been used. this questionnaire consisted of 24 items (eight items for each scale). the version developed in 1997 only made use of 18 items (six items for each scale). organisational commitment was measured by using the organisational commitment questionnaire, consisting of 18 items (brown, 2003). this instrument has been used within the namibian context and recorded acceptable levels of reliability (affective commitment 0.71, normative commitment 0.71 and continuance commitment 0.71) (pieters, 2015). the job embeddedness scale (jes) was developed by mitchell et al. (2001). it focuses on three components, namely, organisational links, organisational fit and organisational sacrifice (on the job and within the community). it is a self-report instrument measuring links, fit and sacrifice. the questionnaire has a 6-point response scale, from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). ferreira and coetzee (2013) recorded cronbach’s alpha of 0.84 for organisational fit, 0.77 for organisational links and 0.87 for organisational sacrifice. this study will only be focusing on the community dimension of job embeddedness. it was also noted that the organisational dimensions (fit, links and sacrifice) are better predictors of employee retention when compared with the community dimensions (fit, links and sacrifice) (takawira, 2012). the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) was developed by schaufeli and bakker (2004). this questionnaire includes three scales, namely, vigour, dedication and absorption. this is a self-report questionnaire with a response scale ranging from 0 (never) to 7 (always), with 17 items across the different dimensions. the uwes has been used in the namibian context and recorded cronbach’s alphas of acceptable standards (0.78, 0.89 and 0.91) (janik, 2012). the turnover intention scale (tis – six items) developed by bothma and roodt (2013) was used to measure turnover intention. this instrument measures employees’ intention to either stay with the organisation or leave the organisation. it uses a 7-point response scale, ranging from 1 (never/to no extent) to 7 (most of the time/to a large extent). bothma and roodt (2013) used the shortened version (tis-6) and found a cronbach’s alpha of 0.80. data analysis as part of the descriptive statistics, frequency distribution was used to present the results regarding the number and percentage of participants per variable and in each category regarding the sex, age, tenure, marital status, number of children and rank/position. inferential statistics help with establishing relationships amongst variables and to draw conclusions. in this study, estimates of reliability, goodness-of-fit statistics and pearson’s product-moment correlation was used to analyse the data (spss, 2016). pearson’s product-moment correlation was used to determine the relationship between variables and is presented by r. goodness-of-fit can be defined as the degree to which the results obtained in the survey can be relied on to make projections correctly and also how well it matches the expected outcome based on literature/hypothesised distribution (urdan, 2010). hu and bentler (1999) suggested using the two-index presentation strategy. this would include making use of a combination of fit statistics to assess goodness-of-fit more effectively. the following goodness-of-fit statistics have been applied: satorra–bentler chi-square (s-b χ2), standardised root mean residual (srmr), root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) and comparative fit index (cfi). confirmatory factor analysis is a way to specify which factors load onto a specific factor; this is usually strongly guided by theory and literature (templin, 2011). the measurement models for this study were tested by using mplus version 7.4 (muthen & muthen, 2015). after specifying these models, each model will be tested by looking at the goodness-of-fit statistics. confirmatory factor analysis is also regarded as a deductive process, testing hypotheses from theory. it also allows for second-order latent variable examination and allows for testing hypotheses related to construct validity. in this study, variance-based structural equation modelling (sem) was employed using smartpls (computer software) to evaluate the accuracy of the proposed theoretical model. structural equation modelling has also been referred to as a combination of exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression (schreiber, stage, king, nora, & barlow, 2006). making use of partial least squares (pls) will allow for exploration and prediction (henseler, ringle, & sinkovics, 2009). ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct the study was obtained from the university of the free state (clearance no. ufs-hsd2015/0562). results descriptive statistics and correlations the cronbach’s alpha and correlations were analysed and are reported in table 2. most of the variables are positively related with each other (basic psychological need satisfaction [bpns], organisational commitment [oc], job embeddedness [je] and work engagement [we]). it was found that most of these variables related negatively to turnover intention. these relationships are depicted in table 2. table 2: descriptive statistics and pearson’s correlation coefficient. goodness-of-fit statistics the work-related basic psychological need satisfaction scale is regarded as a valid measure, reporting an acceptable fit for cfi (0.915), an adequate fit for rmsea (0.063) and an acceptable fit for srmr (0.060), as used in this study. the requirements for cfi (< 0.9), rmsea (0.05 <x> 0.08) and srmr (0.05 <x> 0.08) have been met for the work-related basic psychological need satisfaction questionnaire. looking at the organisational commitment questionnaire, cfi (0.784), rmsea (0.095) and srmr (0.115) indicate some concerns regarding the validity of this instrument. comparative fit index for this instrument is below the required 0.9, rmsea is within the range of adequate fit (0.05 <x> 0.08) and the srmr is above the acceptable fit levels (0.05 <x> 0.08). for the job embeddedness scale, cfi (0.799), rmsea (0.070) and srmr (0.090) were reported. the job embeddedness scale meets one of the estimates; cfi being slightly lower than 0.9, the rmsea being regarded as an adequate fit (0.05 <x> 0.08) and srmr slightly above .08 which is also regarded to be adequate. the rmsea (0.079) for the utrecht work engagement scale indicated an adequate fit (0.05 <x> 0.08), making this a valid instrument as used in this study. comparative fit index (0.889) was reported to be slightly below the prescribed parameters (< 0.9). the srmr is regarded as acceptable at 0.067 (0.05 <x> 0.08). for the turnover intention scale, the following results were found: cfi (0.962), rmsea (0.074) and srmr (0.052), making this a valid instruments as used in this study. the cfi is regarded as an acceptable fit (< 0.90), rmsea as an adequate fit (0.05 <x> 0.08) and srmr as an acceptable fit (0.05 <x> 0.08). based on the guidelines for cfi and rmsea, the organisational commitment and job embeddedness instruments do not meet all the fit requirements and thus the interpretations of the results of these instruments need to bear this in mind. the work-related basic psychological needs satisfaction questionnaire, the work engagement scale and the turnover intention scale meet the expected requirements of cfi (< 0.9), rmsea (0.05 <x> 0.08) and srmr (0.05 <x> 0.08), with regard to goodness-of-fit, enhancing the reliability of the results. structural equation modelling the conceptual model has been analysed using pls-based sem (partial least squares method). paths 1–4 will be explained and are presented in figure 1. partial least square is used to assess the psychometric properties of the measurement model and estimates the parameters of the structural model. partial least square uses a two-step process (chin, 1998). this process suggests that the outer model (measurement model) first needs to be assessed for reliability and validity before the inner model (structural model) can be assessed. the outer model is related to the loading of each dimension to each variable. the inner model is related to the direction and strength of the relationship between the variables. the results related to the pls modelling will be presented in the next section, first discussing the outer model followed by the inner model. figure 1: the final model. the outer model all variables in the study met the requirements for composite reliability (above 0.6). when assessing the outer model, during the first analysis, it was noted that only bpns did not meet the expected average variance expected/extracted (ave). the expected ave should be above 0.50 and as indicated in table 4, the ave for bpns is 0.492, whilst the other variables met the required ave. a low ave occurs as a result of low or insignificant loadings by dimensions. this will be explored further by investigating the low or insignificant loadings of these variables. table 3: goodness-of-fit statistics. table 4: composite reliability, cronbach’s alpha and average variance expected/extracted, outer model (round 1). based on the outer model loadings, competence (bpns, 0.611) was found to have the lowest loading towards bpns (table 5) and it was decided to test if the ave would increase if competence (bpns) was excluded from the analyses. it was also noted that continuance commitment (oc) recorded an insignificant loading as indicated in table 5 (p = 0.2410). continuance commitment did not meet the expected level of significance of less than 0.01 and thus was removed from the next round of analysis. table 5: loadings per dimension towards each variable (round 1). the model was tested again without competence (bpns) and continuance commitment (oc). removing competence (bpns) increased the ave of bpns from 0.492 to 0.639 (table 6). without continuance commitment (oc), the ave of oc also improved from 0.05333 to 0.804, with the composite reliability changing from 0.659 to 0.892. the composite reliability (internal consistency reliability) ranges between 0.78 and 0.95, which exceeds the recommended threshold of 0.60. the average variance extracted/explained was also found to be above the required level of 0.50, ranging between 0.58 and 0.86. the composite reliability and ave and the dimensions of each variable with significant loadings are reported in table 7. the following ave values have been reported: bpns (0.639), je (0.575), oc (0.804) and we (0.858). the results presented in table 7 indicated that all variables met the requirements for reliability and validity. table 6: outer model (round 2). table 7: inner model (round 1). the inner model based on the analysis of the inner model (round 1, table 7) it was found that the path between bpns and je was significant (0.0000); the path between oc and je was significant (0.0000), the path between oc and ti was significant (0.0010), the path between oc and we was significant (0.0000), the path between we and je was significant (0.011) and the path between we and ti was significant (0.0010). the following paths were found to be insignificant: the path between bpns and ti (0.1220), the path between bpns and we (0.2490) and the path between je and ti (0.4370). significance was determined by a p-value of 0.05 and less. the insignificant paths were removed and the model was tested again; the results are presented in table 8. table 8: inner model (round 2). table 9: variance of final model explained. the beta path coefficients are positive amongst bpns, oc, je, we and ti; the paths between oc, we and ti are negative (table 8). the paths reported are only those that are statistically significant at p < 0.05. basic psychological need satisfaction (β = 0.22, p < 0.000) had a positive significant influence on job embeddedness. organisational commitment (β = 0.61, p < 0.000) had a positive significant influence on job embeddedness. job embeddedness (β = 0.25, p < 0.001) had a positive significant influence on work engagement. organisational commitment (β = 0.30, p < 0.000) positively influenced work engagement. organisational commitment (β = –0.37, p < 0.000) had a negative significant influence on turnover intention. work engagement (β = –0.23, p < 0.000) reported a negative significant influence on turnover intention. in the final model (figure 1), 55% (r² = 0.547) of the variance in job embeddedness is explained by organisational commitment and basic psychological need satisfaction, 26% (r² = 0.260) of the variance in work engagement is explained by organisational commitment and job embeddedness, and 27% (r² = 0.269) of the variance in turnover intention is explained by organisational commitment and work engagement. discussion path 1: organisational commitment through job embeddedness and work engagement to impact turnover intention based on sem it was found that organisational commitment through job embeddedness and work engagement impacted the turnover intention of lecturers. when lecturers understand that they would lose out on or when no other opportunities are available outside the organisation, they stay because of the cost associated with leaving (allen & meyer, 1990). lecturers also experience a higher level of job embeddedness that entails a greater organisational fit, organisational links and organisational sacrifice. employees experiencing organisational commitment, links and higher level of fit are likely to experience higher organisational sacrifices if they intend to leave. these sacrifices are also linked in with the side-bet theory, indicating that when employees evaluate the working environment as favourable, they are less likely to want to leave, especially taking into account the sacrifices that they would endure when leaving (becker, 1960). employees who are more embedded in their jobs tend to also experience a higher level of work engagement. job embeddedness was found to impact positively work engagement of lecturers at unam. based on the comprehensive burnout and engagement (cobe) model adapted from bakker, demerouti and verbeke (2004), employees who are more engaged in their work and have the required resources are more likely to achieve positive organisational outcomes instead of experiencing health problems such as fatigue and exhaustion. based on the conservation of resources theory by hobfoll (1989), when employees build up more resources, those that have been created and maintained tend to accumulate, resulting in higher levels of engagement instead of burnout. those employees who do not recognise the importance of these benefits would lack in energy and experience lower levels of performance. this relationship is also explained by the side-bet theory (becker, 1960), which posits that employees who would want to remain at the organisation would do more to avoid losing these benefits. the organisational equilibrium theory (barnard, 1938) indicates that when there is an imbalance between outcomes and inputs, these employees would find ways to restore this imbalance. in this instance, employees who are aware of the benefits provided by the organisation will also see the need to work harder for longer to ensure that their efforts match the outcomes provided by the organisation. work engagement impacted the turnover intention of lecturers. the job demands-resources model (bakker & demerouti, 2007) indicates that the greater the match between the job demands and the job resources, the more likely employees would experience work engagement and contribute to the productivity of the organisation. when there is a mismatch between the job demands and resources, employees may experience burnout (not part of this study) and become bored or disengaged, which results in turnover intention. path 2: organisational commitment through work engagement to impact turnover intention employees who are committed to the organisation tend to experience higher levels of work engagement (geldenhuys, laba, & venter, 2014). being aware of the benefits provided by the organisation, with no alternative employment opportunities outside the organisation, employees understand the need to perform to avoid losing these benefits. the side-bet theory (becker, 1960) argues that with no opportunities available outside the organisation, employees tend to stay at the organisation and work towards the success of the organisation. trying to hold on to these benefits, employees will also become more absorbed in their work. the organisational equilibrium theory (barnard, 1938) maintains that when there is an imbalance, employees would engage in behaviour to balance the relationship, working for longer to retain these benefits. the job demands-resources theory (bakker & demerouti, 2007) posits that when employees have the required resources they would be more engaged and experience better health instead of feeling tired or exhausted. these employees identify and are involved with the organisation, which means that they are also likely to work hard for longer periods of time as they identify with it. the link between work engagement and turnover intention has been explained in path 1. path 3: organisational commitment to impact turnover intention the side-bet theory (becker, 1960) demonstrated that when the organisation provides for the needs of employees and they experience normative commitment, they are likely to want to stay. as these employees would sacrifice these benefits when planning to leave, they are likely to want to remain and work towards the success of the organisation. the relationship between affective commitment and turnover intention is explained by the side-bet theory of becker (1960). path 4: basic psychological need satisfaction through job embeddedness and work engagement to impact turnover intention basic psychological needs impacted the job embeddedness of lecturers. the self-determination theory (ryan & deci, 2000) indicated that when these basic psychological needs are satisfied, employees experience motivation and identification with the organisation. based on the side-bet theory (becker, 1960), when the organisation satisfies the need for relatedness and enhances motivation of employees, they are likely to want to remain as they do not want to lose these benefits (organisational sacrifice). based on the self-determination theory (ryan & deci, 2000), employees who satisfy their need for autonomy are more likely to become motivated in their work, perform better and experience a greater level of organisational fit. employees who engage in autonomous motivation are likely to be productive employees and likely to also earn the respect of their colleagues. when employees are able to satisfy their need for autonomy, they are likely to experience a higher level of self-efficacy and experience more pleasure in their work. the satisfaction of autonomy can be regarded as a resource to help buffer against higher job demands and facilitate the execution of work-related activities. the side-bet theory (becker, 1960) shows that when employees evaluate the working environment as favourable, they would want to stay and avoid experiencing these sacrifices. the link between job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention has been explained in paths 1 and 2. practical implications to satisfy lecturers’ need for autonomy, it is suggested that task groups and work groups are created where all staff members could provide their input through a departmental representative. decisions that affect all academic staff members should be opened up for scrutiny and input at different levels of the organisation. in this way, lecturing staff may feel that their views are taken into account or that the organisation created these platforms to discuss these different views and that what academics have to say matters. in order to improve the relationship between colleagues and supervisors, the university should promote team building and social activities. it is also suggested that clear and effective measures should be set up to deal with disputes and grievances between staff members. when colleagues and supervisors have better relationship with one another, they will be more willing to assist when asked and also be more comfortable to ask for assistance or guidance when necessary. lecturers should be allowed to attend training, conferences, seminars and workshops. supervisors can facilitate the process where each employee could identify some career goals for the next year and, together with the supervisor, prioritise, budget and identify how these goals will be achieved. allowing employees with the necessary potential and interest to act during the absence of a supervisor or manager improves the perceived competence. when tasks are delegated with the necessary autonomy and guidance, employees might improve their skills, abilities, perceived competence and self-efficacy. when employees experience a higher level of perceived competence and improved level of self-efficacy, they would also strive to work harder and want to take on more challenging tasks within the organisation. it is also important to regularly assess the lecturers’ level of job satisfaction, which was not assessed in this study. when lecturers experience lower levels of job satisfaction, they become less committed to the organisation, more disengaged and decide to leave the organisation. identifying those factors that lecturers are satisfied or dissatisfied about will guide retention strategies and keep the top talent at unam. it is also recommended that the university should assess the equitable nature of salaries and benefits; this relates to internal and external equity. it is crucial to guarantee that lecturers within the organisation are paid for what they do and that unam provides competitive salaries and benefits to attract and retain the top talent within the market. limitations and recommendations this study was limited to only the five variables and may have excluded other environmental and individual factors that may have impacted the turnover intention. these factors may include job satisfaction that focuses on specific aspects of the job (anjum, fan, javed, & rao, 2014); work–life balance, which determines how the life of academics is impacted by their personal life or vice versa (ajala, 2013); job demands-resources and its impact on employee well-being (rothmann, barkhuizen, & tytherleigh, 2008); the self-efficacy of employees (onyishi & ogbodo, 2012); and burnout of academic staff members (bakker et al., 2008). the job demands-resources theory (bakker & demerouti, 2007) indicates that self-efficacy, job satisfaction, work–life balance and job demands-resources may impact the level of motivation experienced by employees and how resources may impact the experience of job demands. the interaction between these factors may have impact on the level of work engagement, organisational commitment, turnover intention and burnout experienced by academics. considering the nature and scope of this project, it is recommended that future research includes more staff members of unam to ensure that the findings can be generalised to the entire unam academic population. considering the relationships found between these variables and how it impacts the turnover intention, it warrants further investigation on a larger scale. conclusion this study also found that basic psychological need satisfaction impacts turnover intention through job embeddedness and work engagement. another path that was also established was the path from organisational commitment through job embeddedness and work engagement to turnover intention. organisational commitment also impacted the turnover intention through work engagement. organisational commitment also impacted the turnover intention directly. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information the university of the free state provided financial support for publishing this article. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references ajala, e.m. (2013). quality of work life and workers wellbeing: the industrial social workers approach. ife psychologyia, 21(2), 46–56. allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization. journal of occupational psychology, 63(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.x anjum, z., fan, l., javed, m.f., & rao, a. (2014). job characteristics model and ob satisfaction. international journal of education and research, 2(11), 241–262. bakker, a.b. (2011). an evidence-based model of work engagement. current directions in psychological science, 20(4), 265–269. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721411414534 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2007). the job demands-resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22(3), 309–328. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2008). towards a model of work engagement. career. development international, 13(3), 209–222. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430810870476 bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & verbeke, w. (2004). using the job demands-resources model to predict burnout and performance. human resource management, 43(1), 83–104. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20004 bakker, a.b., schaufeli, w.b., leiter, m., & taris, t.w. (2008). work engagement: an emerging concept in occupational health psychology. work and stress, 22(3), 187–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802393649 barkhuizen, n., & rothmann, s. (2006). work engagement of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. management dynamics, 15(1), 38–48. barnard, c.i. (1938). functions of the executive. ma: harvard university press, cambridge. becker, h.s. (1960). notes on the concept of commitment. american journal of sociology, 66(1), 32–40. https://doi.org/10.1086/222820 bezuidenhout, a., & cilliers, f. (2011). age, burnout, work engagement and sense of coherence in female academics at two south african universities. south african journal of labour relations, 35(1), 61–80. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.872 bothma, c.f.c., & roodt, g. (2013). the validation of the turnover intention scale. south african journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.507 brown, b.b. (2003). employees organizational commitment and their perception of supervisors’ relationship-oriented and task-oriented leadership behaviors. unpublished phd dissertation in human development, virginia polytechnic institute and state university, blacksburg, va. chin, w.w. (1998). the partial least squares approach to structural equation modeling. in g.a. marcoulides (ed.), modern methods for business research (pp. 295–336). mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. cole, b. (2014). the relationship between job demands, job resources, engagement, burnout and intention to quit. unpublished master’s dissertation, stellenbosch university, johannesburg. creswell, j.w. (2003). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (2nd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. ferreira, n., & coetzee, m. (2013). the influence of job embeddedness on black employees’ organisational commitment. southern african business review, 17(3), 239–255. geldenhuys, m., laba, k., & venter, c.m. (2014). meaningful work, work engagement and organisational commitment. south african journal of industrial psychology, 40(2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1098 grobler, p.a., warnich, s., carrell, m.r., elbert, n.f., & hatfield, r.d. (2011). human resource management in south africa (4th ed.). cengage learning emea, andover. henseler, j., ringle, c.m., & sinkovics, r.r. (2009). the use of partial least squares path modeling in international marketing. in r.r. sinkovics & p.n. ghauri (eds.), new challenges to international marketing (advances in international marketing, vol. 20, pp. 277–319). emerald group publishing limited, bingley, uk. hobfoll, s.e. (1989). conservation of resources. a attempt at conceptualizing stress. the american psychologist, 44(3), 513–524. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.44.3.513 holtom, b.c., & inderrieden, e.j. (2006). integrating the unfolding model and job embeddedness model to better understand voluntary turnover. journal of managerial issues, 18(4), 435–452. hu, l., & bentler, p.m. (1999). cut-off criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. structural equation modeling: a multidisciplinary journal, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 janik, m. (2012). well-being of educators in selected secondary schools in namibia. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of namibia, windhoek. kassing, j.w., piemonte, n.m., goman, c.c., & mitchell, c.a. (2012). dissent expression as an indicator of work engagement and intention to leave. journal of business communication, 49(3), 237–253. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021943612446751 kim, s.s., im, j., & hwang, j. (2015). the effects of mentoring on role stress, job attitude, and turnover intention in the hotel industry. international journal of hospitality management, 48, 68–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2015.04.006 kovjanic, s., schuh, s.c., & jonas, k. (2013). transformational leadership and performance: an experimental investigation of the mediating effects of basic needs satisfaction and work engagement. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 86(4), 543–555. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12022 lok, p., westwood, r., & crawford, j. (2005). perceptions of organisational subculture and their significance for organisational commitment. applied psychology: an international review, 54(4), 490–514. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2005.00222.x lunenburg, f.c. (2011). expectancy theory of motivation: motivating by altering expectations. international journal of management, business, and administration, 15(1), 1–6. medina, e. (2012). job satisfaction and employee turnover intention: what does organizational culture have to do with it? unpublished master of arts thesis, columbia university, columbia. mensele, c., & coetzee, m. (2014). job embeddedness, organisational commitment and voluntary turnover of academic staff at a higher education institution in south africa. south african journal of labour relations, 38(1), 9–30. https://doi.org/10.25159/2520-3223/5898 meyer, j.p., allen, n.j., & smith, c. (1993). commitment to organisations and occupations: extension and test of a three component model conceptualization. journal of applied psychology, 87(4), 538–551. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.4.538 mitchell, t.r., holtom, b.c., lee, t.w., sablynski, c.j., & erez, m. (2001). why people stay: using job embeddedness to predict voluntary turnover. academy of management journal, 44(6), 1102–1121. https://doi.org/10.5465/3069391 muthen, l.k., & muthen, b.o. (2015). mplus statistical analysis with latent variables: users guide, version 7. retrieved from https://www.statmodel.com/download/usersguide/mplususerguidever_7.pdf nouri, h., & parker, r.j. (2013). career growth opportunities and employee turnover intentions in public accounting firms. the british accounting review, 45(2), 138–148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bar.2013.03.002 nwadiani, m., & akpotu, n.e. (2002). academic staff turnover in nigerian universities (1990–1997). education, 123(2), 305–317. onyishi, i.e., & ogbodo, e. (2012). the contributions of self-efficacy and perceived organisational support when taking charge at work. south african journal of industrial psychology, 38(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v38i1.979 parijat, p., & bagga, s. (2014). victor vroom’s expectancy theory of motivation – an evaluation. international research journal of business and management, 7(9), 1–8. pieters, w.r. (2015). psychological empowerment and how it impacts on job satisfaction and organisational commitment of staff members at the university of namibia (unam). namibia journal of managerial sciences, 1(2), 98–120. pieters, w.r. (2017). basic psychological need satisfaction and the impact on turnover intention across industries, windhoek. journal for studies in humanities and social sciences, 6(1), 41–62. rothmann, s., barkhuizen, n., & tytherleigh, m.y. (2008). model of work-related ill health of academic staff in a south african higher education institution. south african journal of higher education, 22(2), 404–422. https://doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v22i2.25794 rothmann, s., diedericks, e., & swart, j.p. (2013). manager relations, psychological need satisfaction and intention to leave in the agricultural sector. south african journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1129 ryan, r.m. & deci, e.l. (2000). self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development and well-being. american psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.68 sawahel, w. (2016). academic brain drain threatens university education. university world newsafrican edition. retrieved from https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=2016110409304244 schaufeli, w.b. (2014). what is engagement? in c. truss, k. alfes, r. delbridge, a. shantz, & e. soane (eds.), employee engagement in theory and practice, 15–35, london: routledge. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organisational behavior, 25(3), 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.248 schreiber, j.b., stage, f.k., king, j., nora, a., & barlow, e.a. (2006). reporting structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis results: a review. journal of educational research, 99(6), 323–338. https://doi.org/10.3200/joer.99.6.323-338 spss. (2016). spss 24.0 for windows. chicago, il: spss incorporated. stander, m.w., & rothmann, s. (2010). psychological empowerment, job insecurity and employee engagement. south african journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.849 sturges, j., & guest, d. (2001). don’t leave me this way! a qualitative study of influences on the organizational commitment and turnover intentions of graduates early in their career. british journal of guidance and counselling, 29(4), 447–462. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069880120085992 takawira, n. (2012). job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention of staff in a higher education institution. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of south africa, pretoria. templin, j. (2011). introduction to factor analysis. lecture notes. retrieved from https://jonathantemplin.com/files/multivariate/mv11icpsr/mv11icpsr_lecture10.pdf the university of namibia. (2019). retrieved from www.unam.edu theron, m., barkhuizen, n., & du plessis, y. (2014). managing the academic talent void: investigating factors in academic turnover and retention in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1117 urdan, t.c. (2010). statistics in plain english (3rd ed.). mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. van den broeck, a., vansteenkiste, m., de witte, h., & lens, w. (2008). explaining the relationship between job characteristics, burnout, and engagement: the role of basic psychological need satisfaction. work and stress, 22(3), 277–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802393672 van schalkwyk, s., du toit, d.h., bothma, a.s., & rothmann, s. (2010). job insecurity, leadership empowerment behaviour, employee engagement and intention to leave in a petrochemical laboratory. south african journal of human resource management, 8(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.234 verstuyf, j., vansteenkiste, m., soenens, b., boone, l., & mouratidis, a. (2013). daily ups and downs in women’s binge eating symptoms: the role of basic psychological needs, general self-control and emotional eating. journal of social and clinical psychology, 32(3), 335–361. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2013.32.3.335 wai, p.y., dandar, v., radosevich, d.m., brubaker, l., & kuo, p.c. (2014). engagement, workplace satisfaction and retention of surgical specialists in academic medicine in the united states. journal of american college of surgeons, 219(1), 31–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2014.03.027 zhao, x., sun, t., cao, q., li, c., duan, x., fan, l., & liu, y. (2012). the impact of work life on job embeddedness and affective commitment and their co-effect on turnover intention of nurses. journal of clinical nursing, 22(5–6), 780–788. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2012.04198.x 3pretorius.indd post-apartheid south africa faces a major challenge in ensuring that municipalities provide optimal and professional services to citizens of heterogeneous cultures. the minister of provincial and local government, minister f.s. mufamadi, stated the following in the debate on the state of the nation address of president mbeki on 11 february 2005: “in designing the new system of local government, care was taken to ensure that we put in place, a framework for progressively doing away with the consequences of a system which exposed white and black south africans, to vastly different socio-economic environments. the continuing challenges we face therefore, is one of ensuring that all municipalities develop the requisite capacity to translate those resources into instruments with which to confront problems of poverty and underdevelopment. the interventions must make positive impact on the way we meet such challenges as: public participation, programme management as well as creating conditions for sustainable service delivery and economic development (mufamadi 2005, p. 1). this statement by the minister underscores the importance of service delivery at ministerial level. the monitoring of service delivery needs through effective governance and service administration is clearly crucial. this study is based on the belief that this is only possible through enhancing leadership in the local government sphere. in post-apartheid south africa, access to effective public services is no longer seen as an advantage enjoyed by only a privileged few in the community, but as a legitimate right of all residents, particularly those who were previously disadvantaged. this stance emphasizes “service to the people” as parameter for local government transformation. thus one of the most important indicators in assessing the transformation of local government is the experiences and perceptions people have of service delivery in their day-to-day lives, more specifically whether they perceive an improvement in the services delivered to them. the implication of this is for local government to transform words into deeds, and thus to prioritize and satisf y the needs of the communities they service. attempting to provide a framework for people-centred public service delivery the south african government introduced batho pele (derived from a sesotho word meaning “putting people first”) in 1997 (http://www.dpsa. gov.za/batho-pele/index. asp). this initiative strives towards moving public servants to become service orientated, to pursue excellence in service delivery and to commit themselves to continuously improve service delivery. it also sets the principles for transforming service delivery with regard to consultation, service standards, access, courtesy, information, openness and transparency, redress and value for money. these principles are required, since it is argued that a transformed local government needs to be measured against its commitment to continuous service delivery improvement.1 rapid changes fuelled by the world economy and technology have been forcing organizations to transform themselves in order to become more responsive and competitive. as day and halpin (2004, p. 3) correctly point out, this has resulted in “a pervasive need for people at every level to participate in the leadership process”. (emphasis added.) since no single leader has all the answers to all problems, all members or employees of an organization, as far as possible, need to be leaders. moreover, established leaders need to be better prepared to participate in leadership (day & halpin, 2004). while the scope of the current “crisis” in leadership is debatable, many contemporary scholars, practitioners and policy makers would agree that there is a pressing need to develop leadership more fully in organizations (day & halpin, 2004). in fact, according to the batho pele principles, good leadership is one of the most critical ingredients or successful organizations (http://www.dpsa.gov.za/batho-pele/ index.asp). the above statements emphasize that leadership qualities are needed to improve service delivery in local government, adjust to the ever-changing demands of local authority as well as address the inequalities of the past. moreover, local government needs to change from an institutional to a developmental organization. vehicles to achieve these objectives are not embedded and in the external organizational sphere (public-private partnerships and small, medium and micro enterprises), but also in the workplace conditions of service, and the quality and sustainability of the internal working environment (district municipality idp and idp review). from local newspapers as well as news bulletins appearing on national television it is clear that demands made by south african communities for service delivery from municipalities have escalated. local government has been in the news, sometimes for days on end particularly, in areas where communities have made forceful requests for improved services. complaints and demands have not only been made for services such as water and electricity, but residents have also claimed houses from local government. more recently, residents have embarked on mass action to underline their demands. in the light of these events it is now crucial for the south african government not only to ensure that practical steps are taken to implement “vision 2014” and the “apex priorities” recently dalené pretorius willem schurink wjs@webafrica.org.za department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract this article offers a leadership. it offers a leadership model for enhancing service delivery within local government. applying modernist qualitative methodology, particularly a combination of casing and grounded theory, the study offers the retro advanced leadership model which comprises (1) management of leadership performance, (2) legislative imperatives, (3) the achievement of realistic goals, and (4) continuous maintenance and monitoring of achievements. key implications and recommendations are provided. key words: leadership performance, governance, service delivery, monitoring, grounded theory enhancing service delivery in local government: the case of a district municipality 19 sa journal of human resource management, 2007, 5 (3), 19-29 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2007, 5 (3), 19-29 1 see pretorius (2006) for a more comprehensive discussion of batho pele principles. announced by president thabo mbeki (mbeki, 2008), but also to monitor and evaluate these steps. thus it is critical that the promise made by the african national congress (anc) in 2004 regarding the implementation of an improved monitoring system be realized, since this could, over the next few years, help to set our country on the road to faster realization of the ideals of our constitution. in this regard president mbeki stated: “we shall continue this year to intensif y efforts to strengthen local government capacity in line with the 5-year local government strategic agenda. to ensure systematic monitoring in this regard, salga has agreed to provide quarterly reports on the work being done” (mbeki, 2008, p. 4). with regard to the role of leadership, vil-nkomo’s (1998, p. 201) statement is apt: “south african cities are faced with tremendous development challenges. there is, however, a critical instit utional developmental challenge, which constitutes the crux of the success or failure of municipal leadership.2 to achieve success, specific leadership skills are needed to improve service delivery in local government in south africa. more specifically, skills are needed to address the ever-changing demands for improved services placed on local authorit y as well as the need to address the inequalities of the past. achieving these objectives also calls for skills in the establishment of public-private partnerships and small, medium and micro enterprises, as well as the improvement of conditions of service and the quality and sustainability of the internal working environment. given the challenges confronting leaders in the public service today, “a need exists to develop new skills of leadership at the same time, and to be in a position to address the salient issues of conf lict of interest. technical or functional skills are no longer sufficient. leaders are required to be strategic, to lead beyond boundaries, and importantly to keep sight of the vision ahead with their feet firmly on the ground.” (emphasis added.) these views tie in with local government’s strong emphasis on innovation, communication, skills transfer and development in enhancing service delivery on ground level. in short, these leadership qualities should help local government to make the much needed transformation from an institutional to a developmental organization. the aim of this study was thus to develop a leadership construct that could assist local government to achieve optimal service delivery and reach set goals aligned with the south african constitution (republic of south africa, 1996). research design research approach pretorius opted for symbolic interactionism3 as theoretical perspective. keen to develop a substantive tool4 by using grounded theory and following a modernist qualitative approach, she chose a case study5-6 design. more particularly, in terms of bogdan and biklen’s (1998) exposition, the study represented (1) an observational case study (participant observation supplemented by interviews and documents focusing on leadership in the district municipality), (2) a multi-case study (more than one of the leaders in the district municipality were studied, and (3) a situation analysis (leadership qualities were researched with the aim to enhance service delivery). research methodology participants the study was conducted in a district municipality located in south africa’s gauteng province.7 this district municipality was established in terms of section 12 of the municipal structures act by notice 141 published in provincial gazette extraordinary dated 1 october 2000 (as amended). it was argued that by interviewing four individuals who had substantive experience in this environment, rich material would be generated to explore and describe (1) leadership, (2) client focus, (3) corporate culture, (4) business results, and (5) transformation. the study was guided by the following research question: “which leadership qualities are required and how should these be implemented to ensure optimal service delivery by local government”? careful consideration was given to the question: “who should be approached to take part in the research?” it was decided to involve the managers responsible for service delivery in the district municipality where pretorius (2006) was employed. having been an employee at this local government institution for 12 years, pretorius realized that in order to gain the rich material that qualitative research demanded, her ideal sample needed to consist of the top two levels of decision makers. she therefore approached the municipal manager and the three employees directly accountable to him, namely the chief financial officer, the strategic executive: service delivery and the strategic executive: health and community services to participate in the study. methods of data gathering qualitative researchers generally rely on four basic types of data sources: interviews, observations, documents and audio-visual materials (see creswell, 1998). eager to capture, describe and appreciate the characteristics of leaders responsible for service delivery, and to find out how they address challenges and manage difficulties they experience in the execution of their day-to-day activities, pretorius employed all of these methods as well as theoretical concepts derived from the literature and municipal documents. documents pretorius scrutinized media reports and press statements as well as official reports and files (unsolicited documents). to be able to understand and interpret the experiences and viewpoints of the participants against their different backgrounds, she used socio-demographic information gained from the personal files of the participants. the accuracy of these data was verified during the first interviews with the participants. in addition, the participants provided essays and/or diaries (see zimmerman & wieder, 1977) (solicited documents) on request. pretorius also kept a project diary outlining important decisions and dates.8 face-to-face inter views as bogdan and biklen (1998, p. 35) state, “qualitative researchers are interested in how people act and think in their own settings; they attempt to ‘blend into the woodwork’, or to act so the activities that occur in their presence do not differ significantly from those that occur in their absence”. the interviews were therefore conducted in the research setting where participants felt comfortable. the following warning of bogdan and biklen (1998, p. 35) was heeded: “if you treat people as ‘research subjects,’ they will act like research subjects, which is different from how they usually act.” pretorius (2006) took special caution not to treat the participants any different from her normal day-to-day interaction with them. thus she went out of her way to treat them as leaders in the organization. since all the participants were her seniors, none of them had any reason to feel threatened by her in any way. pretorius, schurink20 2 municipal leadership in this regard has to be taken to include political leadership (executive and legislative) as well as those officials charged with the responsibility to execute and manage policies developed at the political level. 3 this theoretical perspective is described in bogdan and biklen (1998, 2003), bogdan and taylor (1975), taylor and bogdan (1998), glaser and strauss (1967), lincoln and guba (1985), lofland (1971), and lofland and lofland (1995). 4 in terms of mouton and marais (1990), graser and strauss’s (1967) proposed grounded theory may be seen as a symbolic tool that explains a particular research topic. 5 in addition to case study, creswell (1998) identifies biography, phenomenology, ethnography and grounded theory as the qualitative traditions of inquiry or qualitative designs most commonly used in qualitative research. 6 although the research design chosen for this study is above all a case study, it resembles grounded theory and biography in some respects. 7 in accordance with ethical practice in social science research (to protect both the research site and the research participants), the name and location of the district municipality are not disclosed. 8 the project diary supported the construction of a natural history, originally proposed by becker (1970) crucial for the establishment of a study’s credibility (see athens, 1984; schurink, 1989; silverman, 2000). this approaches what has become regarded as an audit trail (see schurink, 2005). from the outset pretorius made it clear that, within the research context, she was interested in how the research participants thought about their lives, their experiences and particular situations (bogdan & biklen, 1998). in order to capture and understand the vast experience of leadership, service delivery and transformation in local government and national policy, three rounds of interviews were conducted with each. these interviews (discussing and audio-recording key aspects or themes) yielded valuable in-depth knowledge of the participants’ life world. participant obser vation bogdan and biklen (1998, p. 35) state that “qualitative researchers try to interact with their subjects in a natural, unobtrusive, and non-threatening manner”. as already indicated, while doing the research, pretorius, in her capacity as manager of human resources, interacted with the research participants on a daily basis. being a member of the management team allowed her to compare research discoveries with her personal experiences of the daily activities in the district municipality (these expereiences were detailed in the natural history of the research). this dual role had the added advantage that the participants could openly and honestly share their opinion, since they knew that pretorius had inside information and they had known her inti, they knew that she could be trusted. literature study relevant scholarly works, textbooks and journal articles on leadership and service delivery were scrutinized for additional insight. audio-visual material (see creswell, 1998; descombe, 1998) the study made use of photographs to illustrate the day-to-day activities of the district municipality. procedure data capturing and storing as qualitative research yields a mass of material, easy retrieval for later detailed analysis had to be ensured. for this purpose pretorius (2006) made use of field notes, transcriptions and audio recordings. notes were made in the field, based on all conversations and observations. these notes were typed and stored directly after each interview and observation session. in addition, notes on non-verbal cues and physical circumstances were also jotted down during the interviews. the field notes formed the core of the audit trail and helped to ensure rigorous data generation and analysis (schwandt, 2007). data analysis and interpretation various applications of grounded theory are available today.9 pretorius followed that of strauss and corbin (1990). these two scholars identif y two main processes of grounded theory analysis, namely coding procedures and adjunctive procedures. these processes were used to design and develop a wellintegrated set of concepts that provided a thorough theoretical explanation of the phenomenon of leadership qualities (strauss & corbin, 1990). according to these scholars grounded theory begins with coding, which implies asking questions and making comparisons from the basis of the analysis. the data analysis was done systematically and followed the standard format. accordingly, the research problem was addressed by means of an analytical procedure that applies open, axial and selective coding (see strauss & corbin, 1990; dey, 1999; creswell, 1998). creswell (1998) emphasizes that the process outlined above results in a substantive theory, written by the researcher close to the specific problem or people concerned. because the researcher knows the categories from the field-based data, this theory is subjected to further empirical testing during follow-up research. atl as.ti was used to code and store the text on the computer, which later enabled pretorius to retrieve the coded text. open coding is the practice of breaking down and conceptualizing the data (strauss & corbin, 1990), starting from the moment the first data are gathered (holloway & wheeler, 2002). this phase brought themes to the surface from data that were “at a low level of abstraction” and came from the initial research questions asked (neuman, 2003, p. 443). as the coding process progressed, the level of abstraction increased. the use of atl as.ti enabled the retrieval of interviews with the codes attached to each of the different topics. this took care of the manual tasks associated with the coding process. however, the warning of schwandt (2007) was heeded, namely that the use of computer-assisted data analysis systems could distance and even alienate researchers from their data. pretorius thus also manually checked the emerging codes attached to each of the topics. the computer effectively took over the physical task of writing marginal codes, making photocopies of transcripts or field notes, cutting out all chunks of text relating to a code, and pasting them together (burden, 2006). however, atlas.ti did not do this automatically, and the data still needed to be interpreted by coding them. the software merely assisted in the systemization of the data and did not by any means contribute to the actual analysis of the data. while the computer indeed took over the manual labour involved, the main steps in the analysis of the data remained the same as those for the manual analysis. use was made of transcribed interviews as the main source for the open coding phase. in an attempt to ensure that the data were analyzed in a systematic and thorough manner, the strategies employed by nell (2005) and claassen (2004) were followed. pretorius read and re-read each sentence and paragraph so as to determine what it was all about. performing the actual coding by using atlas.ti enabled her to break down the data into distinct units of meaning.10 every line of the first transcribed interview was searched for key words or phrases that could give some insight into the question under study. these were then highlighted and extracted from each of the interviews (see nell, 2005). after completing the line-by-line analysis of the first interview, the process was repeated with another interview. the interviews were analysed in this manner until recurring patterns could be detected. at this point the codes that conveyed something about leadership and seemed to have a relation to each other were clustered into groups. this started “the process of abstraction and moved the interpretation on from merely describing what was occurring, to linking concepts” (nell, 2005, p. 68). with the assistance of atlas.ti, 677 concepts were initially identified. these were reduced to 40. the latter were then grouped together to form groups of concepts with the same or similar meaning. these groupings were then named. as an example, the label “district municipality challenge” was given to a group of codes that collectively described the central theme. in atlas.ti these groups are known as “families”.11 once the views and experiences of the participants were analyzed, the analysis was verified with the assistance of a peer who has used the same computer programme for his data analysis. eventually the identified themes emerged through excerpts of the participants' views and stories, thus giving them a “voice”. following claassen (2004), verbatim quotations were used to authenticate the identified trends and to explain the thinking and analysis patterns in the study. up to this point, no conscious attempt was made to interpret the data in relation to the themes that emerged from the data during the open coding phase. interpretation was reserved for service delivery in local government 21 9 other grounded theory applications include glaser and strauss (1968), glaser (1978), locke (1999), yin (1994), goulding (2002), cohen (2002), and guba and lincoln (1994). 10 dr nell’s willingness to serve as peer-debriefer in applying the atlas.ti process is gratefully acknowledged. 11 the next phase in the analysis process is axial coding which is discussed later. pretorius, schurink22 the axial coding phase, that is, appreciating concepts in terms of their interrelationships. this type of coding implies that the researcher moves to a higher level of abstraction, which is done by specif ying relationships and outlining a core category around which the other concepts revolve (goulding, 2002). she further points out that by using axial coding, the researcher develops a category by specif ying the conditions that give rise to it, the context in which it is embedded, and the action or interactional strategies by which it is handled, managed and carried out. strauss and corbin (1990, p. 96) define axial coding as “a set of procedures whereby data are put back together in new ways after open coding, by making connections between categories”. they further state that this involves intensive work with a single category, examining how it connects with other categories and also exploring its “conditions, contexts, action or interactional strategies and consequences” (strauss & corbin, 1990, p. 96). the following steps were applied during the axial coding: atlas.ti was used to determine the interrelationships between the various identified categories. the various codes that were identified during open coding were grouped together to indicate the possible relationship between the codes that all related to a similar category and could logically be clustered together (nell, 2005). the research participants assisted in the manual coding of some of the concepts. some concepts drawn from atlas.ti were printed and discussed with the aim to manually indicate the possible relations between the codes believed to be related to a category. in this way the number of themes emerging during open coding was also reduced to a more manageable number. after close scrutiny, the initial themes were explored and the relationships between them examined. this process assisted in integrating the themes with broader ones, which eventually encompassed all open coding themes. the seven categories became the central elements of the retro advanced leadership model developed by pretorius and were all derived in a similar way by means of the grounded theory application. following nell (2005) and others, member checking was applied to test the categories, that is, pretorius returned to the participants and obtained their opinions. in fact, not only did the participants check the interpretation, but they also actively criticized it and expanded on their earlier comments. taking a lead from the participants who felt that some of the concepts identified were not important, the focus shifted to those they believed to be important. the goal of grounded theory is to generate a theory that accounts for a pattern of behaviour that is relevant and works for those involved (strauss, 1987). strauss and corbin (1990) further explain that selective coding entails the process of selecting the central theme, which integrates all other inferred themes. this type of coding is thus the process of choosing one category to be the core category or, to put it differently, finding the engine that can drive the train. here, the task is essentially to develop a single storyline around which everything else is draped (see holloway & wheeler, 2002; polit, beck & hungles, 2001; seale, 1999; neuman, 2003). the criteria should fit and describe the phenomenon they stand for and be broad enough to cover subsidiary categories. as strauss and corbin aptly state: “the core category must be the sun, standing in orderly systematic relationships to its planets” (p. 124). the study draped the storyline around “the leadership qualities needed to enhance service delivery in local government. in thinking about the emergence of a main theme, the following criteria identified by strauss (1987) were used to judge which category should serve as the core category: l to be placed in the heart of the analysis, the identified category has to be central, and thus relate more to other categories than any other category does, as well as show a relationship to as many other categories and their properties as possible. l the core category must appear frequently in the data and form a pattern. l the core category must relate to other categories easily, but because of its relationship to many other categories it will take longer to saturate. a core category should have clear implications for the formation of a grounded theory. thus the development of a core category should lead to the emergence and further development of the theory. the core category not only allows for the development of a pattern, but should also allow for building the maximum variation for the analysis, since coding is done in terms of its dimensions, properties, conditions, consequences, strategies etc. in conclusion: during the data analysis, pretorius wrote personal notes regarding themes, and identified existing linkages that ultimately assisted in the crystallization of the core theme. in these notes, she also indicated how some of these themes related to the literature. finally, she linked all the themes to the core theme of “leadership qualities needed to enhance service delivery in local government”. findings municipal service delivery is governed by (1) the integrated development plan and the performance management system; (2) intergovernmental relations; (3) the expanded public works programme; (4) batho pele; (5) the budget; and (6) policy and procedure. the study focused on policy and procedure. when focusing on policy and procedure, it becomes clear that the role of the district municipalit y in the national imperative has altered radically over the past few years. parliament and provincial governments’ expectations of the district municipality and of local municipalities have changed drastically. the sleepy provider of municipal services has come to be seen as the vehicle that not only carries the hopes of the nation in delivering basic services but is also responsible for the upliftment of communities and the creation of job opportunities. in fulfilling these expectations, the district municipalit y must become a dynamic organization that demonstrates ingenuity, efficiency, transparency and accountability. the district municipality is as a vital entity in local government that must carry out the critical function of service delivery to all citizens in its area of jurisdiction. in order to give effect to the aforementioned expectations, the identified district municipality adopted eight priorities that are in line with the anc manifesto, namely (1) promotion of access to land; (2) poverty alleviation; (3) stimulating economic growth; (4) health care and hiv/aids controls; (5) public safety; (6) job creation and skills development; (7) public and infrastructure development and maintenance; and (8) good and democratic governance. the four participants may be regarded as elite members of the district municipality. however, it became clear that although the different problems they experienced were limited to their particular fields of expertise, they shared the same sentiments on components of service delivery such as lack of funding, resources, communication etc. nevertheless, despite these difficulties the leadership of the district municipality continued to pursue creative and innovative ways of improving the financial, administrative and service delivery capacity within the region. service delivery in local government 23 the leaders were also aware of the need to strengthen the ward committee structures in order to bridge the gap between government planning and programme implementation on the one hand, and community involvement on the other hand. they realized the importance of empowering the communities to fight poverty, creating job opportunities and ensuring meaningful development in their area. this would raise the credibility and integrity of local government and promote integrated development planning. as already stated, it is now crucial for the south african government to ensure that practical steps are taken to implement the goals set by “vision 2014” and the more recent “apex priorities” (http:// www.info.gov.za/speeches/2008/08020811021001.htm) and thus to fulfil the promises made to the people. local government is a kingpin in helping to accelerate progress towards the achievement of these objectives. in this regard, local economic development could play a major role, since it empowers communities to fight poverty and create job opportunities, and ensures meaningful development for local communities. the district municipality faces the following challenges: l promoting a seamless, open, ethical, professional and accountable system of governance. l ensuring service excellence through appropriate institutional arrangements and competent and committed politicians and officials who reflect the community’s demographic profile. l improving equitable access to social services and infrastructure. l co-ordinating and supporting the creation of an enabling environment for sustained economic growth and development. l facilitating integrated development that does not harm the ability of future generations to sustain it. l transforming the district municipality to ensure effective and efficient service delivery to its communities. l facilitating new core management systems in order to pursue the developmental path mapped out by the district municipality and other spheres of government. l developing procedures to ensure that resources and activities are aligned with the integrated development plan (idp). l ensuring funding for prioritized projects to meet the challenges of service delivery and to address infrastructure backlogs. l stimulating local economic development. speeding up the progress in the right direction could also contribute towards improving the credibility and integrity of integrated development plans and local economic development projects. it is therefore essential for each district municipality to identif y the obstacles holding it back from reaching the set goals. the difficulties in reaching the goals set by the district municipality as experienced by the participants were the following: no clear distinction between functions no clear distinction exists between functions to be performed respectively by ddistrict and local municipalities. certain functions seem to overlap. research participant 1 stated: “taking into consideration the position of the district municipality in accordance with your municipal structures act, there is no clear division of functions still at this stage between the district municipality and the local municipalities.” the participant continued: “because there is no clear division of functions, this resolved in a reluctance to cooperate from local municipality side and it hampers the execution of resolutions and activities throughout the region.” from the study it was clear that the lack of co-ordination and even co-operation between district and local municipalites poses a major challenge and needs to be urgently addressed in order to enhance service delivery, especially with development planning and the compilation of integrated development plans. it was emphasized that the task of the district municipality was to co-ordinate functions: “our role as the district municipality, we are coordinators, i think that i have not emphasized that enough, we are supposed to coordinate, we find ourselves doing the job, and the staff on the structure that we have, is not for doing the job, is for doing the job of coordinating, not of being, you know… on hands with it.” however, this problem should be addressed once the intergovernmental relations framework bill [b3b-2005] is enacted. the objective of this bill is to provide, within the principle of co-operative governance set out in chapter 3 of the constitution, a framework for the national government, provincial governments and local governments, and all organs of state within those governments, to facilitate co-ordination in the implementation of policy and legislation, including (1) coherent governmen, (2) effective provision of services, (3) monitoring implementation of policy and legislation, and (4) realization of national priorities. the enactment of this bill could also improve co-ordination of resources and affect budgets between local governments and between provincial departments and local government. tedious procedures procedures of approval are too tedious. this could be corrected through proper delegation of powers, as the research participants suggested: “in order to enhance ser vice delivery the methods and processes must be more speedily, there must be more funds towards infrastructure to stimulate development. ffrom my point of view most emphasis is placed on housing development without taking into consideration that infrastructure is needed to make the housing development self-sustainable.” “there needs to be a structure that will be looking specifically at policy-making whilst it was also stressed by research participant 3 that there needs to be a unit to look at ser vice delivery as we must let people know about ser vices right down in an efficient and effective manner. if we have systems that will guide the unfolding of local government ser vices it will help. at the moment the system in local government to look at ser vice delivery is very weak. legislation is very well, but the system and mechanisms to let the legislation unfold is lacking.” “systems should be driving new ways of doing things. such systems should be driving the concept of district or regional management and therefore people should attend courses in order for national government to assist municipalities so that transformation that happens in local municipalities or in local government is actually transformation that is in line with what happens nationally as well as provincially” (participant 3). the administrative procedures that must be followed in order to obtain approval from the council are hampering progress. the study showed that if the delegated of powers of the strategic executive: service delivery and those of the strategic executive: community services could be expanded-; decision-making on service delivery issues could be expedited. research participant 1 emphasized that the role of the district municipality in this regard is to follow a holistic approach whereby only projects that could benefit the region as a whole must be embarked upon. this would also link to the establishment of supportive governance, whereby local municipalities can provide the necessary support to one another lack of integration and co-ordination within any local area many different agencies contribute to development, including national and provincial departments, pretorius, schurink24 parastatals, trade unions, community groups and private sector institutions. it was indicated that poor co-ordination between service providers could severely undermine the development effort. lack of integration between land-use and transport planning is an example of the above that needs to be addressed. township development takes place without taking cognizance of accessibility to existing routes and proximity to amenities. this delays the implementation processes and at the end of the day service delivery is not visible in the community. derived from the individual local municipal spatial development frameworks, provincial studies and national policies, the district municipality spatial development framework was established to give guidance to the spatial structuring of the local municipalities falling under its jurisdiction. in this regard, the purpose of the district municipality spatial development framework is, firstly, to assess the position of the district municipality from a national and provincial perspective and, secondly, to serve as a guide for the respective local municipalities in order to ensure that their spatial development initiatives link to the overall development perspective for the district. the main purpose will therefore be to ensure that the district as a whole contributes towards the orderly spatial development of the gauteng province. the district municipality spatial development framework focuses primarily on macro development trends and proposals, integration and linkages. research participant 3 stressed that the objectives of residential development are to l promote the creation of sustainable human settlements and quality environments; l contain urban sprawl and promote residential intensification; l encourage settlement integration and redress the imbalances of the past; l guide the land-use management system; l restructure spatially ineffective settlements; l support the equitable protection of tenure and land-use rights; l reduce the impact of mining activities on residential environments; and l promote urban upliftment in certain areas. the segregated development of the apartheid policy, severe dolomitic conditions and the development of mining villages in close proximity to the respective mining operations largely dictated the urban formation of the region. these elements have created serious fragmentation within urban environments, which, in some cases, will always restrict effective integration. funding and human resources lack of funding, human resources and technical expertise is a common difficulty experienced, as mentioned by three of the four participants. the following statements prove this: “definitely we don’t have enough resources to make ends meet; (ii) i think we try to use our experience to let things happen, and sometimes when i look at things that we have done, i ask myself, how did we manage to do them with such limited staff; (iii) sometimes people misunderstand issues, they see the output that we have had, and then they think if they manage to do 1,2,3 then they can still manage without no staff, whenever that is not the case, so the thing of staffing needs to be looked at.” the participants agreed that “ser vices can also be enhanced by training our staff members to provide quality care, efficient care and the batho pele principles needs to be looked at.” “...support and capacitate our workers because they are still in the old style of just providing ser vices and not necessarily looking for customer care that is needed so much.” various interventions within the framework of a human resource development plan have been developed. these include an employment equity plan, a skills development plan, career planning and a performance management system. research participant 2 emphasized that “one must be able to strike a balance of keeping the municipality financially viable while at the same time extend ser vices specially to poor communities where they can not afford to pay for the ser vices.” funds are needed to give effect to projects that the community is waiting for. if there is a lack of funding, this hampers the visibility of service delivery to the communities. over the last few years the capital budget of the district municipality has declined. moreover, the new demarcation and the redistribution of duties add to the financial pressure felt by the district municipality. the district can only survive these pressures by developing sound financial management principles. there are many challenges to be addressed if the district municipality is to be a stable and financially sound municipality. these challenges relate to (1) effective collection of lev y revenue, (2) collection management, (3) integration of systems, (4) financial viability, (5) sound procurement, and (vi) tendering procedure and process. the premier has announced that the provincial government through the municipal institution support centre (misc) would assist municipalities in this regard. the district municipality has since put together strategies to ensure that it meets the treasury regulations. the establishment of the budget office will lead to a process of assessing the local municipalities’ needs and facilitate the provision of budget and financial control services. the training and development of staff members are very important because “in leadership, people that are skilled have got expertise, are capable and confident and got vision, so that in return the people that are recruited to the organization have got the necessary skills, necessary expertise, they share in values of the organization, they are willing to go out and do things, and that is the only way you could enhance ser vice delivery”. it was concluded by the research participants that, “for us to be efficient it means doing a number of things. we must have leadership vision because if a person doesn’t have vision that person in a leadership position will not be able to inspire and lead the organization, not be able to come up with means, strategies and programs and will not be able to motivate and inspire members of the organization”. communication all the participants mentioned lack of communication as a difficulty that can have an influence on leadership decisionmaking regarding service delivery. currently there are no formal structures in place to facilitate internal communication. formal structures such as section 80 committees serve as a platform for political deliberations – sometimes reluctance of politicians to attend meetings results in decisions not being formalized. the participants expresses thier concern about communication as follows: l “i think i speak organizationally there are many obstacles. one of them is communication...” l “i think communication is very terrible amongst all of us...; l communication is very terrible, interaction is very terrible, interface is very bad, sharing of information is very bad, so i think service delivery in local government 25 that if there was one thing i could rectify, given the opportunity, would be to put in place better communication...” l “...better communication between ourselves as strategic executives to the municipal manager and also improve communication between the municipal manager and the executive mayor as well as with the members of the mayoral committee...” l “...the main obstacle is being uninformed regarding strategic and higher level issues.” not only have problems been identified, but the research participants also made valuable recommendations on how to optimize service delivery. more specifically, research participant 4 suggested that “by means of more interaction between top management and personnel, not only through e-mail communication and notification of memoranda, but through effective communication and interaction which will result in officials feeling part and parcel of the organization and the objectives of the organization – remember people will change their behaviour, only if it make a difference for them to do so.” in conclusion: currently government is clearly seen as an “enabler” of service delivery to its citizens. municipalities are regarded as vehicles for local economic development, implying that they should create the climate and conditions that are favourable to investment and economic growth. municipalities should increasingly seek to establish partnerships with other stakeholders in the provision of services through ensuring interaction and communication, and build alliances around local development. in the south african situation, local economic development is regarded as an important outcome of the integrated development planning process. the municipal planning process should create the platform for putting development issues on the development agenda of a municipality and create opportunities for establishing co-operation and partnerships in support of local development. discussion the launch of the local government white paper in march 1998 provided a blueprint for final form of local government in south africa after its progression from apartheid structures, through the democratization of councils, to the creation of developmental local government. it was clear from the research that within the ambit of developmental local government and the emphasis on visible service delivery, the following aspects need to be addressed: highlighting distinctive functions the separation of powers between politicians and administrators has been a source of much debate in public policy. according to the district municipality’s annual report, there are many models in operation in various governments globally that address the issue in different ways. some systems enable a greater flow of political input through the top echelons of the administration such as the system in place in the usa where a large part of top management is replaced with each new political administration. other systems are very clear-cut with regard to the distinction between policy and administration, such as the classic british example where emphasis is placed on the independence of the administration, and its single-minded application of the policy of the day. the south african model relies heavily on the british model, and the distinction between politicians and administrators is made abundantly clear in legislation starting with the constitution. what is clear in all international examples of the politics-administration interface is the need to clarif y how this relationship will be managed. the district municipality has come up with the idea of a roles and responsibilities handbook to attempt to do this. the research clearly showed that the key to improving service delivery is the transformation of the institution and re-organization of powers between the district municipality and the local municipalities. this provides an opportunity for the district municipalityto deliver quality and equitable services to the communities that it serves through strategic coordination of local municipality programmes. to operationalize these principles and therefore implement the political mandate requires a financially stable municipality and a viable economic environment. the core programme that could deal with these challenges is the integrated development plan. section 53 of the municipal systems act (republic of south africa, 2000) states that in terms of roles and responsibilities a municipality must, within the legislative framework, define the specific role and area of responsibility of each political structure and political office bearer of the municipality and of the municipal manager. the respective roles and areas of responsibility of each political structure and political office bearer and of the municipal manager must l be defined in precise terms by way of separate terms of reference, in writing, for each political structure or political office bearer and the municipal manager; and l be acknowledged and given effect to in the rules, procedures, instructions, policy statements and other written instruments of the municipality. terms of reference may include the delegation of powers and duties to the relevant political structure or political office bearer or municipal manager. when defining the respective roles and areas of responsibility of each political structure and political office bearer and of the municipal manager, the municipality should determine: l the relationship between those political structures and political office bearers and the municipal manager, and the manner in which they interact; l appropriate lines of accountability and reporting for those political structures and political office bearers and the municipal manager; l mechanisms, processes and procedures for minimizing cross-referrals and overlap of responsibilities between those political structures and political office bearers and the municipal manager; l mechanisms, processes and procedures for resolving disputes between those political structures and political office bearers and the municipal manager; and l mechanisms, processes and procedures for interaction between – those political structures and political office bearers and the municipal manager and other staff members of the municipality; and – councillors and the municipal manager and other staff members of the municipality. the assumption was made by research participants that the political head of the council – the executive mayor is responsible for policy matters and outcomes. the head official – the municipal manger is responsible for outputs and implementation and is also the accounting officer. this approach is in line with the approach taken nationally and expressed in the new public service regulations, which rely on a performance driven system based on measurable outputs. based on the operating principles of the district municipality, the following recommendations were made to facilitate co-operation, co-ordination and communication between the political structures, political office bearers and the administration: l good working relationships built on mutual trust and with a development-orientated focus; pretorius, schurink26 l an operational environment shaped by a consultative process and policies; l a culture of open and mutually respectful communication; l honesty, integrity, team work and commitment; l adherence to applicable legislation and codes of conduct pertaining to politicians and officials; and l commitment to transformation and equity as a yardstick for all organizational processes and delivery. the way forward is based on the understanding that best practice dictates clear-cut formal systems of interaction and well articulated lines of accountability and reporting mechanisms, with timeous and effective dispute resolution mechanisms. this will improve relationships and minimize tension. expediting procedures the research has clearly indicated that the only way to expedite producers is to change the administrative mentality of the municipality to that of a developmental mentality. thus, less of an administrative attitude is needed and more emphasis must be placed on project implementation and delivery of services to the community, especially disadvantaged communities. here the batho pele principles, which emphasize a culture of effective service delivery, could play a major role. however, this would not be enough to address the problem of tedious procedures. the participants emphasised that it would also be imperative to get a project manage ment and project monitoring unit (pmu) in place. thus a systems approach based on information technology is needed. the establishment of a pmu to enhance and promote service delivery was an important milestone for the district municipality. a pmu is responsible for the administration and financial management of municipal infrastructure grant (mig) funds, within the municipal and national accounting system for infrastructure projects of the district municipality and any other municipalities where the pmu has been delegated this authority. the pmu will be responsible for the co-ordination of project based capacity-building and developmental initiatives. the capacity-building components of mig are only concerned with projects and the arrangements relating to effective municipal infrastructure. it is the responsibility of the pmu to ensure that a municipality has the resources to fulfil the operations and maintenance obligations for all capital projects. the pmu will assist wherever possible with the planning and implementation of operation and maintenance (o & m) programmes, directly or indirectly. it is critical to the success of an o & m programme that there is appropriate communication and liaison with communities in respect of project planning and implementation. this is needed to ensure buy-in and long-term sustainability of the projects so that the communities can understand the need to pay for services, as well as the development of community-based partnerships for the purposes of o & m programmes. the following recommendations made by the research participants were seen as an endeavour to fast-track procedures and still be in line with policy stipulations: l standards of service need to be defined and the standards must be specific, measurable, achievable, affordable and realistic as well as time bound. l powers must be clearly delegated – not only the powers of the district municipality, but also the responsibilities and functions of political office bearers versus the administration. promoting integration and co-ordination municipalities should actively develop ways to co-ordinate resources and investment from the public and private sectors to meet development targets. one of the most important methods for achieving greater co-ordination and integration is integrated development planning. the principles set out in the development facilitation act (republic of south africa, 1995) should guide municipalities in building integrated livable settlements. while strategies for building human settlements may differ between localities, it was clear that the establishment of sustainable and livable settlements depends on the co-ordination of a range of services and regulations, including land-use planning, housing infrastructure, environmental management, transport, health and safety. providing funding and human resources the effective utilization of funds, resources and expertise is an important success factor for the district municipality to work towards. performance budgeting within the integrated development plan (idp) planning framework is a tool to assist managers in the budgeting process. a budget handbook was developed by the chief financial officer in order for political office bearers and members of the administration to gain an understanding of the following: l the reasons why we budget; l incremental budgeting and its disadvantages l the change to performance budgeting l key performance budgeting concepts l the micro prioritization process l the medium-term expenditure framework l activity-based costing l zero-based budgeting l integration of strategic plans in analyzing the above, it is evident that developmental local government has four interrelated characteristics: (1) maximizing social development and economic growth; (2) integrating and co-ordinating; (3) democratizing development; and (4) leading and learning. in the future, developmental local government will therefore have to play a central role in representing our communities, protecting our human rights and meeting our basic needs. it must focus its efforts and resources on improving the quality of life of our communities, especially those members and groups that are most often marginalized or excluded, such as women, disabled people and very poor people. improving communication one of the outputs arising from the development strategy in the idp is a communication strategy for the district municipality and the local authorities. the communication strategy is underpinned by the understanding that integrated regional development is the primary goal of the district municipality. integrated regional development should therefore act as catalyst for the communication strategy with the local municipalities that fall within the area of jurisdiction of the district municipality. service delivery is viewed as the mechanism to activate the communication strategy. in other words, communication with the local municipalities is seen as a set of services provided by the district municipality, the latter facilitating integrated regional development. services should be understood in terms of the following categories: l services provided at the district level, which the local authorities must access; l services provided jointly by the district and the local municipalities; and l services provided voluntarily at the district level for the benefit of the local municipalities. the marketing of key services provided by the district municipality in the interest of integrated regional development should be the focus of the communication strategy. it was service delivery in local government 27 recommended that the communication strategy should operate on two levels: (1) conventional – using media such as newsletters, interactive web sites, fliers, posters and forums for regular meetings, and (2) strategic – using economies of scale services, legislative innovations, development frameworks and institutional interventions. the reasoning behind this two-tiered approach to communication is to address different levels of operational capacity at different local municipalities, while maintaining an optimum level of communication, co-operation and integration in planning for the region as a whole. so while some of the local municipalities will require greater assistance from the district municipality in terms of operational services, others will simply require more and better information. the development of a model for sustainable service delivery according to the constitution (republic of south africa, 1996), a municipality has the right to govern, on its own initiative, the local government affairs of its community, subject to national and provincial legislation. as is clear from this discussion, local government should: l provide democratic and accountable government for local communities; l ensure the provision of services to communities in a sustainable manner; l promote social and economic development; l promote a safe and healthy environment; and l encourage the involvement of communities and community organizations in the matters of local government. more specifically, a municipality has the developmental duty to manage its administration and budgeting and planning processes in such a way that, firstly, the basic needs of the community are prioritized, and, secondly, that the social and economic development of the community is promoted and to participate in national and provincial development programmes is increased. the vision of the district municipality is to build a safe and peaceful environment based on sustainable social, economic and physical development, thereby providing a better life for all the people in the area through transparent and accountable governance. the mission of the institution is to engage in co-operative governance to ensure the development of an environment that enables social, economic and physical development. this will be achieved through the implementation of an integrated development strategy and leveraging of developmental capital and related resources. the research underlined that in order to reach these goals, municipalities should be able to identif y their shortcomings, address the identified problems and consistently monitor their progress. the research clearly showed the need for the development of an integrated model whereby a transformation plan for the municipal area could be developed, implemented and monitored. such a plan should pertinently address conditions for sustainable service delivery and economic development. more specifically, problems such as those discussed in the above paragraphs should be identified and addressed. to echo the 2008 state of the nation address, in order to ensure the speedy, efficient and effective implementation of the necessary policies and programmes we have to substitute business as usual with “business unusual”. it is of the utmost importance that municipalities now develop the capacity to transform their resources into strategies (mbeki, 2008). figure 1: retro advanced leadership model pretorius, schurink28 the outcome of this research was the development of a model, the retro advanced leadership model, which is aimed at helping municipalities to meet their goals. these goals include the following: good governance, developing human resources, environmental stability, intermunicipal co-operation, economic development, public participation and programme management. the retro advanced leadership model (see figure 1) presents the key components for enhancing service delivery in local government identified in the study, namely (1) management of leadership performance; (2) legislative imperatives; (3) achieving realistic goals; and (4) continuous maintenance and monitoring of achievements has been identified. this model has been derived from the participants’ viewpoints and experiences of service delivery in local government and how it could be enhanced. the model is a modest theoretical contribution in that it places the focus on the following aspects of service delivery: l the creation or strengthening of a culture of performance excellence amongst employees; l leadership qualities that lead to service delivery excellence; l the contribution of internal systems (policy, procedures, budget, integrated development planning and the performance management system) to intergovernmental relations and infrastructure development; l legislation that stipulates local government’s responsibility and accountability in terms of service delivery; l the importance of human capital, good governance, environmental stability and economic growth for achieving realistic service delivery goals; and l the need for continuous monitoring to maintain and enhance the quality of service delivery. the a model should thus enable the district municipality to l address management and leadership performance; l adhere to and incorporate national and provincial legislation and utilize and meet all legislative requirements that drive external and internal delivery systems; l set clear, realistic goals to meet the service needs of the people; l link, integrate and co-ordinate all programmes and take into account proposals for the development of the municipality; l align the resources and capacity of the municipality with the implementation of the integrated development plan; l form the policy framework and general basis on which annual budgets must be based; l make provision for continuous monitoring of achievements; l comply with national and provincial development plans and planning requirements; l establish a performance management system that would set appropriate key performance indicators and measurable performance targets with regard to each of the development priorities and objectives; l evaluate progress against the key performance indicators; l review its performance and take steps to improve performance with regard to those development priorities and objectives that were not met; l establish a process of regular reporting to – the council, other political structures and political office bearers – staff of the municipality; and – the public and appropriate organs of state. l monitor the management of the district municipality’s administration in accordance with the directions of the council. it was clear from the research that performance on a local government level depends to a large extent on the quality of leadership provided by the executive and senior management. noticeable limitations of the research the purpose of the research was to add value to the current vision of the district municipality, not only to achieve the good governance objectives mentioned in the constitution, but also to provide affordable services to its communities. the model that was developed is to a large extent governed by the viewpoints and inputs of the participants. therefore it does not imply that the model could be implemented as a general tool to enhance service delivery in all local government. it could however be customized to address the needs of other local government institutions, provided that their specific culture, political viewpoint and service delivery objectives form the core elements for adaptation. suggestions for further research the suggestions below are set out in line with component 3 of the retro advanced leadership model, namely “achievement of realistic goals”. faster economic growth: in prioritizing the enhancement of service delivery, macro economic plans to address poverty and unemployment in the district do not attract sufficient attention. these macro economic plans, their potential and their application are to be investigated. environmental stability: multisectoral partnerships based on the spatial development framework could ensure better integration and co-ordination of sector initiatives to create sustainable communities. such partnerships should be investigated. human capital: the development of a healthy, skilled and productive workforce should be investigated to ensure that the basic needs of the communities are met. good governance: stakeholder participation in the integrated development plan should be extended beyond its compilation to include its implementation and monitoring. the role of councillors in this regard should therefore be investigated. inter municipal co-operation: the alignment between the priorities and activities of the local municipalities and the district municipality and the impact of this alignment on visible service delivery should be examined. references athens, l.a. (1984) scientific criteria for evaluating qualitative studies. in: n.k. denzin (ed.), studies in symbolic interaction. greenwich: jai press. batho pele principles (http://www.dpsa.gov.za/batho-pele/index. asp). becker, h.s. (1970) practitioners of vice and crime. in: r.w. habenstein (ed.), pathways to data: field methods for studying ongoing organisations. chicago: aldine publications. bogdan, r. & taylor, s.j. (1975) introduction to qualitative research methods: a phenomenological approach to the social sciences. chicago: university of chicago. bogdan, r.c. & biklen s.k. (1998) qualitative research for education. an introduction to theory and methods. united states of america: allyn & bacon. burden, f.j. (2005) the development of an organisational redesign model: a south african case study. (unpublished dissertation.) johannesburg: university of johannesburg. claassen, g. (2004) male menopause and decision-making: a qualitative study. (unpublished dissertation.) johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. cohen, m.z. (2002) introduction to qualitative research. in: g. lobiondo-wood & j. haber (eds), nursing research. methods, critical appraisal and utilisation. 4th ed. st lois: mosby. creswell, j.w. (1998) qualitative inquiry and research design. choosing among five traditions. london: sage publications. day, d.v., zaccaro, s.j. & halpin, s.m. (2004) leader development for transforming organizations. growing leaders for tomorrow. london: lawrence erlbaum associates publishers. service delivery in local government 29 denscombe, m. (1998) the good research guide for small-scale social research projects. buckingham: open university. department of public service and administration (2004) batho pele handbook. a ser vice delivery improvement guide. pretoria: resolve training works. dey, i. (1999) grounding grounded theory – guidelines for qualitative inquiry. san diego: academic press. district municipality (2004) draft copy of the integrated development plan (idp). south africa: district municipality. glaser, b.g. (1978) theoretical sensitivity. mill valley, ca: sociology press. glaser, b. & strauss, a. (1967) the discovery of grounded theory strategies for qualitative research. chicago: aldine. goulding, c. (2002) grounded theory – a practical guide for management, business and market researchers. london: sage publications ltd. guba, e. & lincoln, y. (1994) competing paradigms in qualitative research. in: n.k. denzin & t.s. lincoln (eds), handbook of qualitative research. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. holloway, i. & wheeler, s. (2002) qualitative research in nursing. 2nd ed. oxford: blackwell science ltd. lincoln, y.s. & guba, e.g. (1985) naturalistic enquiry. beverly hills, ca: sage publications. locke, k. (2001) grounded theory in management research. thousand oaks: sage publications. lofland, j. (1971) analyzing social settings. belmont, ca: wadsworth publishing co. lofland, j. & lofland, l. (1995) analyzing social settings: a guide to qualitative obser vations and analysis. 3rd ed. belmont, ca: wadsworth publishing co. mbeki, t. (2008) state of the nation (son) address. retrieved 10 march 2008 from http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/son/ index.html. mouton, j. & marais, h.c. (1989) metodologie van die geesteswetenskappe: basiese begrippe. [methodology of the human sciences: basic concepts.] pretoria, raad vir geesteswetenskaplike navorsing. mouton, j. & marais, h.c. (1990) basic concepts in the methodology of the social sciences. pretoria: hsrc publishers. mufamadi, f.s. (2005) speech delivered by minister fs mufamadi on the debate of the state of the nation address. retrieved on 10 march 2008 fromhttp://www.info.gov.za/ speeches/2005/05021608151001.htm. nell, t.l. (2005) a case study on the development of an organisational development model for a south african financial institution. (unpublished dissertation.) johannesburg: university of johannesburg. neuman, w.l. (2003) social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. 5th ed. boston: allyn & bacon. polit, d.f., beck, c.t. & hungles, b.p. (2001) essentials of nursing research: methods, appraisal and utilization. 5th ed. philadelphia: harper collins publisher. pretorius, e.m. (2006) the role of leadership in enhancing ser vice delivery in local government. (unpublished dissertation.) johannesburg: university of johannesburg. republic of south africa (1995) development facilitation act, act 67 of 1995. retrieved on 10 march, 2008 from http:// www.kzntransport.gov.za/reading_room/acts/nat ional/ developmentfacilitiationactregulations.pdf. republic of south africa (1996) constitution of the republic of south africa, act 108 of 1996. retrieved on 10 march, 2008 from http://www.info.gov.za/documents/constitution/ index.htm. republic of south africa (1998) local government: municipal structures act, act 117 of 1998, government gazette no 19614, 18 december 1998. republic of south africa (2000) local government: municipal systems act, act 32 of 2000, government gazette no 21776, 30 november 2000. republic of south africa (2004) intergovernmental relations framework bill (b3b – 2005), government gazette no 27031, of 26 november 2004. schurink, w.j. (1989) die realiteit van homoseksualisme: ‘n sosiologieskwalitatiewe ontleding. [the reality of homosexualism: a sociological-qualitative analysis.] (unpublished dissertation). potchefstroom university for christian higher education. schurink, w.j. (2005) experiencing qualitative research. winter methodology school. notes to d and m students, university of johannesburg. schwandt, t.a. (2007) the sage dictionary of qualitative inquiry. london: sage publications. seale, c. (1999) the quality of qualitative research. london: sage publications. silverman, d. (2000) doing qualitative research: a practical handbook. london: sage publications. strauss, a. (1987). qualitative research for social scientists. cambridge, uk: cambridge. strauss, a. & corbin j. (1990) basics of qualitative research. grounded theory procedures and techniques. london: sage publications. taylor, s.j. & bogdan, r. (1995) the variety of community experience. qualitative studies of family and community life. baltimore: paul h. brookes publishing co. vil-nkomo, s. (1997) meeting the challenges of the new millennium in governance and public sector development. pretoria: university of pretoria. yin, r.k. (1994) case study research – design and methods. thousand oaks: sage publications. zimmerman, d.h. & wieder, d.l. (1977) the diary. urban life, 5(4), pp. 479-497. abstract introduction literature review research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) samuel siwela department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, stellenbosch university, cape town, south africa francois van der bank department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, stellenbosch university, cape town, south africa citation siwela, s., & van der bank, f. (2021). understanding intention to quit amongst artisans and engineers: the facilitating role of commitment. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1409. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1409 original research understanding intention to quit amongst artisans and engineers: the facilitating role of commitment samuel siwela, francois van der bank received: 04 june 2020; accepted: 23 mar. 2021; published: 31 may 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: given the critical shortage of skilled artisans and engineers in the job market, retention of this key talent is of paramount importance. research purpose: the aim of this study was to identify the determinants of affective commitment and investigate the impact thereof on intention to quit (itq) amongst artisans and engineers. motivation for the study: for human resource management interventions to be effective in retaining artisans and engineers, the constructs underlying commitment and stay intentions need to be understood. whereas previous studies have mostly focussed on bivariate relationships, the current study was motivated by the need to develop and test an integrative explanatory model. research approach/design and method: a non-probability convenience sample of 154 artisans and 84 engineers employed in a manufacturing engineering company participated in this study. a cross-sectional design was employed, with structural equation modelling as analysis technique. main findings: the data supported the central role of affective commitment in reducing itq amongst artisans and engineers. job fit, psychological meaningfulness, perceived organisational support and satisfaction with pay all explained significant variance in affective commitment, whilst affective commitment demonstrated a strong negative relationship with itq. it was found that although perceived organisational justice does not necessarily create affective commitment, people are more likely to quit when they experience injustice. practical/managerial implications: for organisations to retain artisans and engineers, they have to foster both affective commitment and organisational justice. affective commitment can be facilitated by interventions focusing on job fit, meaningful work, organisational support and satisfaction with pay. contribution/value-add: this study provides practical insights into the antecedents of itq amongst artisans and engineers, informing human resource management interventions aimed at better retention. keywords: affective commitment; intention to quit; artisan; engineer; retention; job satisfaction. introduction background south africa is facing a critical shortage of professional engineers and artisans, hampering the country’s efforts towards achieving the national development plan (npl) (joint initiative on priority skills acquisition, 2010; mzabalazo advisory services, 2014; nyatsumba, 2017; xpatweb, 2020). this has serious economic implications for the country, including constraints to infrastructure development (breier, 2009), low productivity and competitiveness in industries such a mining, construction and manufacturing (merseta, 2018; reddy, rogan, mncwango, & chabana, 2017; the department of trade and industry, 2015; tshele & agumba, 2014); and fewer skilled workers available to accelerate small business development (local government sector educational and training authority, 2016). several government-sponsored initiatives have investigated the reasons for the scarcity of these critical skills in south africa (du toit & roodt, 2009; joint initiative on priority skills acquisition, 2010; mukora, 2009). reasons for the low supply of artisanal and engineering skills have been linked to ineffective career guidance, privatisation of some state-owned enterprises (soes), organisations cutting down on training development budgets, movement from the traditional apprenticeship system to learnerships, lack of opportunities for experiential learning, the quality and relevance of training provided by technical vocational education and training (tvet) colleges (pretorius, 2018) and unattractive salaries and wages (mzabalazo advisory services, 2014). for professional engineers, reasons also include the shortage of matriculants who meet the criteria to gain entrance to formal university programmes, transformation policies and the status of engineering professionals in relation to other lucrative careers such as chartered accountants (du toit & roodt, 2009). to make matters worse, high demand internationally for skilled workers have over the years led to widespread recruitment of experienced artisans and engineers by international recruitment agencies (breier, 2009). as the shortage of artisanal skills is evidently not a simple problem; it is a systemic problem that have plagued south africa for decades. various initiatives have been attempted to address the skills shortage problem in south africa (breier, 2009). more recently, the government has developed the national artisan development strategy and implementation plan (department of higher education and training, 2018). however, despite various enquiries, reforms and investment in training and development, creating sufficient capacity in artisanal and engineering skills remains a challenge (department of higher education and training, 2020; xpatweb, 2020). whilst the decline of apprenticeship numbers and the increasing need for artisanal and engineering skills are a global phenomenon (gow, warren, anthony, & hinschen, 2008; mukora, 2009), the consequences are more severe for developing countries, such as south africa, that strongly rely on these trades for economic growth and job creation (breier, 2009; sa commercial prop news, 2013). skills scarcity does not only affect the broader economy; it also directly affects the productivity and competitiveness of those organisations that rely on these scarce skills – especially at a time when large proportions of experienced individuals are going into retirement (breier, 2009). whilst organisations can do much more to increase the supply of artisans and engineers through apprenticeships and other initiatives, retaining talent in this area is reportedly a challenge (schlechter, faught, & bussin, 2014). voluntary turnover is said to plague many organisations because of the undersupply and over-demand of some of these technical skills (tshele & agumba, 2014; xpatweb, 2020), making it easier for employees to ‘shop around’ for more satisfying job opportunities. this of course puts organisations under pressure to hold onto these skills, especially when it may not be feasible for them to compete in terms of salaries. as alluded to earlier, the skills scarcity is further exacerbated by the talent war brought about by globalisation (beechler & woodward, 2009; michaels, handfield-jones, & axelrod, 2001). various indicators suggest that south africa is losing these skills to other countries for reasons such as higher salaries, development opportunities and prospects of better living standards (breier, 2009; xpatweb, 2020). thus, given the scarcity of the skills, organisations need to be intentional about developing strategies to retain the people they already have. to achieve this objective more insight is required into the psychological processes underpinning the continued attachment and stay intentions of artisans and engineers. contribution whilst extensive research has been carried out on psychological states, job attitudes and experiences related to turnover intentions such as overall job satisfaction, organisational commitment, work group cohesion and support, autonomy, organisational justice, promotional chances and alternative job opportunities (see the meta-analysis by griffeth, hom, & gaertner, 2000), relatively few studies have applied these explanatory models to the context of engineers and artisans. (note that this does not include software or information and communications technology workers, also sometimes referred to as engineers). interestingly, four of the only seven artisanal and engineering-related studies identified by the authors were conducted in south africa, of which all are published in the south african journal of human resource management – confirming the prevalence and need to curb turnover intentions locally. the other two studies were carried out on construction engineers in taiwan (sun, 2011) and australian male apprentices (gow et al., 2008). according to sun (2011), pay and promotion satisfaction and affective commitment are two major factors influencing turnover intentions amongst engineers in taiwan, whilst gow et al. (2008) found that an intrinsic motivation orientation, job satisfaction, working conditions and geographic location are significant predictors of staying in an apprenticeship in australia. in south africa, a descriptive study by jordaan and barry (2009) found that based on a 79-person survey consisting of various job factors, remuneration is one of the predominant reasons for artisan dissatisfaction. a study by schlechter et al. (2014) on artisan attraction and retention shed further light on the impact of remuneration, but from a total reward perspective. interestingly, work–life balance (a non-financial reward) was considered most important by participants, followed by compensation level and variable pay. also motivated by the need to improve retention strategies in the engineering environment in south africa, coetzee, mitonga-monga, & swart (2014) examined the impact of various human resource practices on organisational commitment. using the three forms of organisational commitment (i.e. affective, continuance and normative) as dependent variables, the authors regressed 13 organisational human resource (hr) practices separately on each of the three forms of commitment and found that training and development and rewards and remuneration were important predictors of both affective and normative commitment, whilst affective commitment was also influenced by job satisfaction. a modest proportion of 4% of variances was explained in continuance commitment with human resource policies and procedures identified as the only significant predictor. these findings corroborate the results of an earlier qualitative study by van rooyen, du toit, botha and rothmann (2010) conducted amongst 14 artisans, also in a south african organisation. according to their findings, remuneration and development opportunities were the two highest ranking factors for the retention of artisans. other important factors included equality, management and the work environment and work relationships. building on the relatively few available studies, this study also set out to investigate turnover intentions within the context of engineers and artisans – two occupations identified as critical for economic growth and development in south africa. whilst it needs to be acknowledged that professional engineers and artisans are not completely homogeneous groups, there are a number of similarities between the two groups – making it useful to study them together. both are highly technically orientated and often artisans are a steppingstone for becoming an engineer. the two groups also work closely together on projects and both are considered as critical skills resources. these similarities were especially evident in the company in which the study was conducted as the engineers were mostly of the electrical and mechanical type, working with physical objects such as generators and diesel engines. moreover, for the same reasons explained above, research and newspaper reports sometimes refer to these groups as a collective (the department of trade and industry, 2015), and a professional society such as artisan, technician and engineers association africa (ateaa) represents the combined interests of these groups. technical vocational education and training colleges also refer to technical orientated artisan programmes as engineering programmes (mukora, 2008). what makes this study unique is that it incorporates a relatively wide range of factors, with the focus on explicating the inter-relationships between the variables using structural equation modelling. this approach is different from that of, for example, coetzee et al. (2014) who investigated the impact of various job factors on organisational commitment, but without considering the subsequent effect of commitment on turnover intentions. neither did their study consider the pathways between the independent variables. the aim of this study was therefore to shed light on the complex nomological net or psychological processes explaining turnover intentions amongst engineers and artisans. whilst many years later, this approach is an attempt to respond to a call from mobley, griffeth, hand and meglino (1979) for process-based, multivariate studies: such studies are necessary in order to interpret the relative efficacy of numerous variables and constructs thought to be related to turnover, to resolve apparently contradictory bivariate studies, to attempt to account for a greater proportion of the variance in turnover and to move toward a more complete understanding of the turnover process. (p. 510) against the backdrop of developing a turnover intention structural model, the authors of this study identified affective commitment as a central feature in the psychological process. there is compelling research evidence that shows that affective commitment is one of the strongest predictors of turnover intentions and also a key mediator variable (chênevert, vandenberghe, & tremblay, 2015; fazio, gong, sims, & yurova, 2017; meyer, stanley, herscovitch, & topolnytsky, 2002; saleem & qamar, 2017; wong & wong, 2017). moreover, unlike continuance commitment, affective commitment is also linked to high attendance, extra-role effort and resiliency in pursuit of organisational goals (chênevert et al., 2015; meyer et al., 2002). this implies that organisations can benefit from an in-depth understanding of the antecedents of affective commitment because high affective commitment results in engaged employees and low withdrawal behaviours such as absenteeism and quit decisions. research purpose and objectives in summary, the purpose of this study was to come to a better understanding of the centrality of affective commitment for the retention of artisanal and engineering skills. to this effect, an integrated structural model was developed about the antecedents of organisational commitment amongst artisans and engineers and the effect thereof on their intention to quit (itq). more specifically, based on a review of previous studies on voluntary turnover, this study investigated the following antecedents: (1) affective commitment, (2) perceived organisational justice, (3) satisfaction with pay, including pay level, benefits, pay structure and administration, (4) perceived organisational support, (5) job fit, (6) satisfaction with career advancement and development opportunities and (7) work meaningfulness. literature review intention to quit the study of employee turnover is complicated by the fact that people are not available for research once they have left the organisation. to address this conundrum, many studies on voluntary turnover (mostly cross-sectional studies) have used itq as a proxy variable for voluntary employee turnover (bothma & roodt, 2013; griffeth et al., 2000; wong & wong, 2017). although itq does not necessarily result in the decision to quit, various conceptual and empirical evidence suggests that voluntary turnover is the next logical step when people express the intention to leave an organisation (firth, mellor, moore, & loquet, 2004; fishbein & ajzen, 1975; mobley et al., 1979). investigating the determinants of itq is therefore a practical alternative for studying turnover behaviour. affective commitment and intention to quit affective commitment is one of the single most important variables in studies involving employee turnover. a review of turnover literature by mobley et al. (1979) found that commitment-attachment exceeds overall job satisfaction as the strongest predictor of turnover behaviour. likewise, a meta-analysis by griffeth et al. (2000) showed the importance of the contribution of organisational commitment as a proximal precursor in the withdrawal process. in meyer and allen (1991) three-component model of organisational commitment, affective commitment is distinctively different from normative and continuance commitment. whilst normative commitment arises from reciprocity and continuance commitment from the perceived losses associated with leaving the organisation, affective commitment represents a state of emotional attachment to the organisation based on value congruence. simply put, with affective commitment, people stay with an organisation because they want to and not because they feel obliged or pressurised to do so. given the conceptualisation of affective commitment, it is not surprising that compared with the other two forms of commitment, affective commitment has the strongest relationship with itq (meyer et al., 2002). moreover, as mentioned earlier, affective commitment is also connected with various pro-social and organisational citizenship behaviours (chênevert et al., 2015), whilst this is not necessarily true for the other two forms of commitment. in fact, it could be argued that continuance commitment could potentially decrease performance if employees stay for the wrong reasons, such as not to lose out on their pension benefits (dulebohn, molloy, pichler, & murray, 2009). it is therefore plausible to propose that organisations that are able to influence the affective commitment of their workforce would be in a better position to retain them because of the employees’ emotional attachment to, identification with and involvement with the organisation (meyer & allen, 1991). it is subsequently proposed that affective commitment would be negatively related to itq amongst artisans and engineers: h1: affective commitment is negatively related to itq. the previous section explained that affective commitment represents the emotional ties that employees have with their organisations, making it a key variable in predicting turnover intentions. to this effect, various studies have shown that organisational commitment is an important mediator between various job and organisational characteristics and voluntary turnover (chênevert et al., 2015; fazio et al., 2017; saleem & qamar, 2017; wong & wong, 2017). the question therefore is, ‘what are the factors influencing the affective commitment of artisans and engineers?’ according to meyer and allen (1991), affective commitment develops from work experiences that satisfy employees’ needs and/or that are compatible with their values. such experiences are necessary for them to feel comfortable psychologically and to experience feelings of competence. using this as a guiding theory for understanding the mechanisms underlying affective commitment, along with previous research on turnover intentions amongst artisans and engineers, the following antecedents were considered: perceived organisational justice, satisfaction with pay, job fit, satisfaction with career advancement and development opportunities and work meaningfulness. perceived organisational justice and affective commitment experiences of injustice signal that employees’ needs and values are not being met (ilies, lanaj, pluut, & goh, 2018). when employees perceive to be treated unfairly, they often experience emotions of fear, anger, hopelessness, sadness decreased emotionality, coupled with a sense of being out of control (park et al., 2016; taris et al., 2004). it has been shown that these affective reactions create feelings of psychological discomfort or even emotional exhaustion, resulting in employees distancing themselves emotionally from the organisation (i.e. low affective commitment) as a form of psychological withdrawal, which precedes behavioural responses (i.e. turnover) (cole et al., 2010; latham & pinder, 2005). taris, horn, van schaufeli and schreurs (2004) explained that psychological withdrawal (lack of commitment) can be considered a strategy to cope with the emotional stress and frustration resulting from perceived unfairness. this is in line with meyer and allen’s (1991) explanation that for employees to develop affective commitment, they need to feel comfortable psychologically. from an employee-organisational relationship (oer) perspective it can also be argued that employees suppress parts of themselves because they feel that given current, or expected future injustice, investment in the relationship is not worth it (lee et al., 2017). perceived organisational justice is epitomised by three core dimensions, that is, distributive, procedural and interactional justice (colquitt, conlon, wesson, porter, & ng, 2001). distributive justice refers to the fairness that is perceived when one evaluates how outcomes such as benefits and rewards are distributed and how resources are allocated. procedural justice refers to perceptions of fairness that emanate from issues concerning methods, mechanisms, processes and procedures used to determine outcomes, whilst interactional justice refers to the fairness perceptions with regard to how individuals are treated and the truthfulness of information they receive when organisational processes and procedures are implemented. meta-analytic studies have shown that organisational justice, in particular procedural and distributive justice, is positively and significantly related to organisational commitment (cohen-charash & spector, 2001; colquitt et al., 2001). moreover, while some have considered perceived organisation justice to be a culturally sensitive variable, a study among airline workers in jordan suggests that justice perceptions are a significant predictor of organisational attitudes also in developing countries (suifan et al., 2017). it is thus postulated that perceived organisational justice will be positively related to affective commitment: h2: perceived organisational justice is positively related to affective commitment. satisfaction with pay and affective commitment satisfaction with pay refers to the extent of the overall positive or negative affect that individuals have towards their pay (micheli & lane, 1991, as cited in williams, mcdaniel, & nguyen, 2006), representing an important facet of overall job satisfaction, that contributes to need fulfilment (williams et al., 2006). satisfaction with pay is conceptualised as consisting of four dimensions, that is, satisfaction with pay level, benefits, pay rise, and pay structure and administration. pay satisfaction is maximised when these match employees’ personal preferences (bussin & brigman, 2019). previous research has shown that related remuneration and benefits as well as non-monetary incentives play an important role in enhancing an employee’s affective commitment (coetzee et al., 2014; kuvaas, 2006; lumley et al., 2011; nujjoo & meyer, 2012; schlechter et al., 2014). of note here is the study by kuvaas (2006) that showed that pay satisfaction influences affective commitment when controlling for justice perceptions. this suggests that the emotional experience of pay satisfaction itself, and not only perceived feelings of fairness (a by-product of pay comparisons), contributes to affective commitment, thus highlighting the need-fulfilling function of pay satisfaction. although pay on its own is no absolute guarantee of affective commitment, it can be posited that artisans and engineers who have a higher degree of satisfaction with pay are more likely to develop an emotional attachment or bond with the organisation. it is therefore proposed that satisfaction with pay will be positively related to affective commitment: h3: satisfaction with pay is positively related to affective commitment. perceived organisational justice and satisfaction with pay in addition to the hypothesised direct effect of perceived organisational justice on affective commitment, it is posited that perceived organisational justice can influence affective commitment indirectly via its influence on pay satisfaction. the relationship between justice perceptions and satisfaction with pay is well established in the literature (arnold & spell, 2006; dulebohn & werling, 2007; fong & shaffer, 2003; haynie et al., 2016; simantov-nachlieli & bamberger, 2020). a meta-analysis by colquitt et al. (2001) indicated that distributive justice had the strongest relationship with pay satisfaction, followed by procedural justice. the relationship between distributive justice and satisfaction with pay is rooted in equity theory (adams, 1963). equity theory states that employees tend to compare their perceived output-input ratio with referent others, where output refers to salaries and input refers to qualifications, performance and experience. if employees perceive their output-input ratio to be less than that of referent others, they experience inequity and feel under-reward, which causes dissatisfaction with their pay. the assumptions of equity of theory are well supported by empirical research (dulebohn & werling, 2007; till & karren, 2011). this is especially relevant for artisans since the union-based environment in which they operate does not always allow for pay differentials based on performance. van rooyen et al. (2010) found that artisans were disgruntled that the merit system did not fairly reward exceptional performers because despite their performance, the pay increase is negotiated by unions. therefore, high performing artisans who contribute more to business success may feel a strong sense of injustice that their salaries are the same as everyone even though they perceive themselves to contribute the most to the success of the organisation: h4: perceived organisational justice is positively related to satisfaction with pay. perceived organisational support and affective commitment perceptions of being cared for and valued by one’s organisation enhance self-esteem, sense of belonging and affiliation (rhoades, eisenberger, & armeli, 2001). as explained earlier, affective commitment is developed by work experiences that foster psychological contentment and feelings of competence (meyer & allen, 1991). it can thus be argued that when artisans and engineers view their organisation as caring and valuing their contributions, they will be more likely to develop an emotional bond or attachment with their organisation. such an emotional bond or attachment influences the employees to reciprocate by behaving in ways that benefit the organisation, and therefore they will be willing to stay in the organisation. ample empirical evidence exists to corroborate a positive association between perceived organisational support and affective commitment (chênevert et al., 2015; kim et al., 2016b; o’driscoll & randall, 1999; saks, 2006; wong & wong, 2017). a study by kim et al. 2016b reported a positive and significant correlation (r = 0.67, p < 0.01) between perceived organisational support and affective commitment. furthermore, other studies have indicated that perceived organisational support has a direct impact on affective commitment and an indirect impact on turnover intentions through affective commitment (addae, parboteeah, & davis, 2006; wong & wong, 2017). therefore, it is plausible to propose that perceived organisational support will be positively related to affective commitment. h5: perceived organisational support is positively related to affective commitment. job fit and affective commitment job fit is a dimension of job embeddedness that falls within the theoretical domain of person–job fit (p-j fit) (o’reilly, chatman, & caldwell, 1991). job fit refers to the congruence and compatibility of an employee’s skills, knowledge and abilities and the demands of the job or the alignment between the needs, desires and values of the employee and what the job provides (edwards, 1991). when a strong match exists between what the employee desires and what the job offers, the employee will be more likely to experience his or her needs being met, which is necessary for producing affective commitment (meyer & allen, 1991). in addition, when employees have the right skills for the job, they will experience feelings of competence, also an important determinant of affective commitment. various studies have reported a positive relationship between job fit and affective commitment and employee retention (holtom, lee, & tidd, 2002; hom et al., 2009; kooij & boon, 2018; kristof-brown, zimmerman, & johnson, 2005; mitchell, holtom, lee, sablynski, & erez, 2001; tebele, van dyk, & coetzee, 2013). it can therefore be expected that when artisans and engineers are able to successfully apply their technical knowledge and skills, whilst working in an environment tailored to their unique needs, they will be more likely to develop feelings of affective commitment to the organisation. it is therefore proposed that job fit will be positively related to affective commitment of artisans and engineers: h6: job fit is positively related to affective commitment. satisfaction with career advancement opportunities and affective commitment at least three of the studies on artisan and engineer turnover intentions highlighted the impact of training and development opportunities and promotion satisfaction (coetzee et al., 2014; sun, 2011; van rooyen et al., 2010). in the qualitative study by van rooyen et al. (2010), some participants expressed their dissatisfaction with limited promotional opportunities because of what they referred to as ‘rigid implementation of employment equity requirements’. in the 21st century, career development and advancement no longer denotes advancing up the career ladder but also means being affording the employee diverse opportunities such as stretch assignments, lateral moves and multiple project works that help build and broaden the employee’s skills and competency levels (arthur, 2014; baruch, 2004). employees who are satisfied with their career advancement opportunities are therefore more likely to develop a strong emotional attachment or bond with their organisation (fletcher, 2016; hirschi, 2018; meyer & allen, 1991). researchers have indicated that organisations that provide career development and mobility opportunities are more likely to positively influence the affective commitment of their employees (putri & setianan, 2019; robbins, 1993; weng, mcelroy, morrow, & liu, 2010). it is therefore proposed that satisfaction with career development and advancement opportunities will be positively related to affective commitment of artisans and engineers: h7: satisfaction with career advancement opportunities is positively related to affective commitment. work meaningfulness and affective commitment meaningfulness is a psychological state or experience that refers to ‘the degree to which the employee experiences the job as one which is generally meaningful, valuable and worthwhile’ (hackman & oldham, 1976, p. 256). according to may, gilson and harter (2004, p. 14), the meaningfulness of work is ‘judged in relation to an individual’s own ideals or standards’. work is more likely to be experienced as meaningful when it offers variety, requires responsibility for the whole task, has a significant impact in or outside the organisation (hackman & oldham, 1976) and is considered challenging, but not overwhelming (atkinson, 1964; locke, mento, & katcher, 1978). the provision of exciting, meaningful and challenging work is a leading factor for engaging and retaining employees regardless of industry, economic conditions and business challenges (bailey, yeoman, madden, thompson, & kerridge, 2019; fletcher, 2016; kaye & jordan-evans, 2002; sutherland & jordaan, 2004). research findings indicate that psychological meaningfulness has a significant positive influence on employees’ work attitudes, including affective commitment (chalofsky & krishna, 2009; jiang & johnson, 2018; song, yu, zhang, & jiang, 2015; willemse & deacon, 2015). according to jiang and johnson (2018), employees tend to reflect positively on meaningful work which explains the emotional bond with their organisation. it can subsequently be argued that artisans and engineers who view their tasks and job content as challenging and purposeful are more likely to have a sense of emotional attachment with their organisation and, therefore, will be less likely to leave the organisation: h8: work meaningfulness is positively related to affective commitment. proposed structural model the foregoing discussion highlighted the centrality of affective commitment as a core antecedent of itq, and proposed several variables influencing affective commitment amongst artisans and engineers. figure 1 outlines the relationships between the latent variables. the structural model represents the overarching research hypothesis concerning the psychological mechanism explaining variance in affective commitment and the concomitant influence thereof on itq. figure 1: proposed integrated model of intention to quit amongst artisans and engineers. research design research approach this study utilised a cross-sectional correlational design with the information collected through a survey. such a design lends itself well to evaluating the relationships between two or more variables where the researcher does not have control of the independent variables as their manifestations have taken place or cannot be influenced by the researcher (kerlinger & lee, 1964; landy & conte, 2013). whilst correlational studies do not prove causality between the variables of interest (kerlinger & lee, 1964), spector (2019, p. 1) argued that a well-designed cross-sectional study underpinned by theorising ‘can provide evidence for relationships amongst variables and can be used to rule out many potential alternative explanations for those relationships’. research method research participants research participants in this study were drawn from a large manufacturing and engineering company that has operations across south africa. a non-probability sampling method using convenience sampling was utilised to collect data from 238 employees. the participants consisted of 154 artisans (64.7%) and 84 engineers (35.3%) – the company employed a total of 317 artisans (response rate of 48.58%) and 115 engineers (response rate of 73.04%) at the time of the study. the sample was predominantly male-dominated (91.6%). the majority of participants (45.8%) were from the age group of 25–34 years, followed by 35–44 (31.1%), 45–54 (10.5%), 18–24 (9.7%) and more than 55 years (2.9%). the majority of participants were africans (66.8%) followed by white people (18.5%), whilst mixed race and indian participants constituted 9.2% and 5.5% of the sample, respectively. measuring instruments a total of eight instruments were used to operationalise the latent variables in the structural model. except for the itq scale, all scales utilised a five-point rating scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). the itq scale used a six-point scale ranging from 1 (never) to 6 (always). affective commitment was measured using the affective commitment subscale of the organisational commitment scale (ocs) (meyer & allen, 1991). the affective commitment subscale measures the emotional bond or attachment that an employee has with the organisation. the subscale consists of six items, including, for example, the item ‘i do not feel emotionally attached to my organisation’. van dyk, coetzee and tebel (2013) obtained a cronbach’s alpha of 0.90 for the affective commitment subscale. the current study yielded a cronbach’s alpha of 0.81 for the original scale and 0.86 after discarding two potentially problematic items. the unidimensionality of the reduced affective commitment subscale was confirmed using the eigenvalues-greater-than-unit rule and the four items loaded high (> 0.70) on the single underlying factor. satisfaction with pay was measured using the multidimensional pay satisfaction questionnaire (heneman & schwab, 1985) that consists of four subscales, namely, pay level, benefits, pay raise, and pay structure and administration. the pay satisfaction questionnaire consists of 18 items that measure the respondents’ level of satisfaction with pay level (4 items), benefits (4 items), pay raise (4 items) and pay structure and administration (6 items). sample items for the respective subscales include: ‘i am satisfied with my overall level of pay’, ‘i am satisfied with my benefit package’, ‘i am satisfied with the raises i have typically received in the past’ and ‘i am satisfied with how the company administers pay’. panaccio, vandenberghe and ben-ayed (2014) reported highly satisfactory cronbach’s alpha for pay level (0.96), pay raise (0.90), benefits (0.95) and pay structure and administration (0.95). this study also yielded satisfactory cronbach’s alphas for pay level (0.97), benefits (0.94), pay raise (0.85) and pay structure and administration (0.89). each of the subscales of the pay satisfaction questionnaire was confirmed to be unidimensional and all factor loadings were significant, with values ranging from 0.64 to 0.97. perceived organisational justice was measured in this study using distributive and procedural justice subscales (colquitt et al., 2001). the distributive justice subscale measures the perceived level of fairness with regard to how outcomes such as benefits and rewards are distributed and allocated, whilst the procedural justice subscale measures the perceived level of fairness with how procedures, processes, mechanisms and methods are applied to determine outcomes. the distributive justice subscale consists of four items (e.g. ‘are the outcomes you receive appropriate for the work you have completed?’) and the procedural justice subscale consisted of seven items (e.g. ‘have you been able to appeal the outcomes arrived at by those procedures?’). colquitt and rodell (2011) obtained acceptable cronbach’s alpha score for procedural justice subscale (0.86 for time 1 and 0.90 for time 2) and distributive justice subscale (0.97 for time 1 and 0.90 for time 2) in their longitudinal study. the cronbach’s alpha values in this study were 0.87 for the distributive justice subscale and 0.90 for procedural justice subscale. the unidimensionality of each subscale was confirmed and with the factor loadings above 0.70. job fit was measured using the nine-item job fit subscale of the job embeddedness scale (jes) (mitchell et al., 2001). the job fit subscale measures the degree to which there is compatibility and congruence between the demands of the job and skills, abilities and competencies required in the job and those possessed by the employee. representative sample items include ‘i fit with the company’s culture’ and ‘my job utilises my skills and talents well’. the job fit subscale has demonstrated reliable internal consistency, with a cronbach’s alpha of 0.84 (ferreira, coetzee, & masenge, 2013) and 0.81 (takawira, coetzee, & schreuder, 2014). the current study yielded an acceptable cronbach’s alpha of 0.85, thereby indicating high internal consistency. during item analysis and dimensionality analysis, two items were flagged as problematic items and were subsequently deleted. the remaining seven items had factor loadings between 0.60 and 0.76 and loaded on a single factor, thereby collaborating the unidimensionality of the job fit subscale. perceived organisational support was measured using an eight-item shortened version of the perceived organisational support scale (rhoades et al., 2001). this scale measures the extent to which an employee perceives that the organisation cares about him or her and values his or her contribution. sample items for the scale include, ‘my organisation really cares about my well-being’ and ‘my organisation is willing to help me if i need a special favour’. rhoades et al. (2001) and saks (2006) obtained cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the shorter version of the perceived organisational support scale that are above 0.70. the current study yielded a cronbach’s alpha of 0.89, which demonstrates high internal consistency. item analyses flagged two reverse-scored items to be problematic and were subsequently deleted. the remaining six items had factor loadings between 0.63 and 0.85 on a single underlying factor, thereby collaborating the unidimensionality of the scale. meaningfulness was measured using the psychological meaningful scale (pms) (may et al., 2004). this scale comprises six items and assesses the extent to which an employee derives meaning from work-related activities (e.g. ‘my job activities are personally meaningful to me’). the pms has demonstrated reliable internal consistency, with cronbach’s alpha of 0.90 (may et al., 2004). the current study yielded a cronbach’s alpha of 0.93, which demonstrates high levels of internal consistency. all items loaded on a single factor with loadings above 0.70, thereby confirming the unidimensionality of the pms. satisfaction with career advancement opportunities was measured using a 15-item multidimensional organisational growth scale (weng & hu, 2009). the organisational career growth scale comprises four dimensions, namely, career goals progress (four items), professional ability development (four items), promotion speed (four items) and remuneration growth (three items). the last dimension, growth of remuneration (three items), was excluded because of its overlap with the satisfaction with pay questionnaire. kim et al. (2016a) obtained reliable cronbach’s alpha coefficients of 0.94, 0.94 and 0.89 for career goal progress, professional ability development and promotion speed, respectively. in this study, the reliability estimates for the subscales were 0.87, 0.87 and 0.82. the unidimensionality of each subscale was confirmed using the eigenvalues-greater-than-unit rule, with factor loadings between 0.61 and 0.85. intention to quit was measured using two items derived from the turnover intention scale developed by roodt (2004). the two items were utilised in this study because they directly reflected the actual itq construct, whilst the rest of the items represented several push and pull factors explaining why a person may want to quit. in the current study, the cronbach’s alpha for the two items was 0.72. indicator variables were created from each scale to represent the latent variables in order to evaluate the measurement and structural models with linear structural relations (lisrel) 8.8. for the three multidimensional scales, the subscales averages were used as item parcels, and for the unidimensional scales, two item parcels per latent variable were created by averaging the even numbered and uneven numbered items, respectively. in the case of itq, the two individual items served as manifest indicators. research procedure and ethical considerations the inclusion criteria for the study were artisans that are in possession of a trade test certificate in millwright, electrician, plumber, boilermaker, mechanic, fitter and turner, pattern maker or injection moulder and engineers who hold a recognised and accredited qualification that can be the basis for registration with the engineering council of south africa. briefing sessions were held with potential participants in the workshops where they were based. the purpose of these briefing sessions was to explain the purpose of the study, confidentiality and to recruit the participants who were willing to participate. the participants were assured of the voluntary nature of their participation, and that they could withdraw at any time during the study. the researcher booked a boardroom for each session so that the employees who were willing to participate could complete the questionnaire in a controlled environment. participants were required to sign an informed consent form. there was a collection box that was placed in the boardroom so that once the participant had completed the questionnaire, they could drop their completed questionnaire in the box. this was done to guarantee the anonymity of the responses of the participants. statistical analysis the data yielded 238 cases of which 233 were complete cases without any missing values, whilst five cases had missing values. the imputation by matching procedure was used to deal with the aforementioned cases with missing values. this procedure allows for the substitution of missing values with real values, derived from other cases with similar response patterns over a set of matching variables (jöreskog & sörbom, 1999). as part of the preliminary analyses, the reliability estimates of the individual scales were calculated and the unidimensionality of the scales or subscales was confirmed. this was followed by evaluating the overall measurement model with confirmatory factor analysis to test how well the measured variables represented the constructs. acceptable results for the measurement model in terms of the fit statistics and factor loadings are considered a prerequisite for evaluating the structural model and consequently for interpreting the path coefficients representing the statistical hypotheses (hair, black, babin, & anderson, 2014a). robust maximum likelihood estimation method was used to produce estimates for the measurement and structural models. in evaluating the measurement and structural model fit, the following fit indices were utilised: root mean square error of approximation (rmsea), goodness-of-fit (gfi), normed fit index (nfi) and non-normed fit index (nnfi), comparative fit index (cfi) and standardised root mean square residual (srmr). the rmsea, gfi and srmr are absolute fit indices and the nfi, nnfi and cfi are incremental fit indices (hair et al., 2014a). the absolute fit indices indicate the accuracy with which the specified model reproduces the observed sample covariance matrix, whilst the incremental fit indices evaluate how well the estimated model fits relative to an alternative baseline model. moreover, whilst high values are indicative of good fit for the gfi, nfi, nnfi and cfi, the opposite is true for the rmsea and srmr – the reason being that as these two measures (sometimes referred to as ‘badness-of-fit’ measures) examine the discrepancies between the reproduced model and observed data, low values suggest a good fit. root mean square error of approximation values of up to 0.05 indicate a good model fit, whilst values of up to 0.08 indicate a reasonable model fit, and values between 0.08 and 0.10 suggest a mediocre fit (maccallum, browne, & sugawara, 1996). in addition, a non-significant p-value (> 0.05) for the obtained rmsea value indicates that the null hypothesis stating that the model has close, albeit imperfect fit in the population (h0: rmsea < 0.05) cannot be rejected. for the srmr, values below 0.08 demonstrate a good fit (hu & bentler, 1999). in terms of the gfi, nfi, nnfi and cfi, values of 0.90 and higher are considered indicative of good fit (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000) although hu and bentler (1999) suggest cut-off values of 0.95. ethical considerations this study was approved by the research ethics committee (human research) at stellenbosch university (rec-050411-032). results testing of the measurement model the unidimensionality of the individual scales (or subscales in the case of multiple scales) was confirmed and all scales yielded satisfactory alpha coefficients (reported under the measuring instruments section). the overall measurement model demonstrated a good fit to the data with rmsea = 0.0531 and its p value 0.335, indicating that the hypothesis of close fit (h0: rmsea ≤ 0.05) cannot be rejected. the other fit indices also suggested a good model fit (gfi = 0.909, nfi = 0.976, nnfi = 0.987, cfi = 0.990 and srmr = 0.052). moreover, inspection of the parameter estimates revealed that all indicators loaded significantly onto the latent variables they were tasked to reflect, supporting the measurement model’s adequacy. this gave justification for evaluating the structural model and the relationships specified thereof. testing of the research model table 1 indicates the fit indices for the hypothesised structural model. the rmsea value of 0.066 demonstrated a reasonable fit, but the hypothesis of close fit was rejected as indicated by the significant p-value associated with the test for close fit (0.011). the rejection of the hypothesis of close fit is not ideal, but the interpretation of the other gfi indices discussed here demonstrated that the structural model fitted the data reasonably with nfi (0.969), nnfi (0.979) and cfi (0.984). the gfi value of 0.883 marginally missed the 0.90 recommended cut-off value, but overall the results seemed reasonable. table 1: goodness of fit indices for the original and modified structural models. whilst the original structural model seemed satisfactory, it was decided to inspect the modification indices (mi) to guide in the development of alternative theory-based models. large modification indices (> 6.64) are indicative of the parameters that, if set free, lead to significant improvement of model fit (jöreskog & sörbom, 1999). consideration of modification indices is recommended only if such modifications make substantive and theoretical sense (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). inspection of the modification indices suggested two additional paths that could improve model fit and which could also be substantiated theoretically: a direct path from perceived organisational justice to itq (modification index value 7.57) and a path from perceived organisational support to satisfaction with pay (modification index value 66.97). with regard to the path between perceived organisational justice and itq, equity theory states (adams, 1963) that when people perceive inequity between their output-input ratio and that of referent others, they attempt to restore equity and if this is not attained they remove themselves from the situation (pritchard, 1969). turnover intentions have, therefore, been reported to be high when distributive, procedural and interpersonal justice perceptions are low (siers, 2007). the path from perceived organisational support to satisfaction with pay can be explained theoretically in that perceived organisational support may be viewed as a non-monetary reward that an organisation offers to its employees. for example, organisational support can be rendered in the form of providing artisans and engineers with adequate tools and resources to do their work effectively, training and developing them to increase their employability, designing their jobs to be more favourable or flexible to the individual (schlechter et al., 2014) or increasing opportunities for social interaction. according to discrepancy theory, this may decrease the amount that employees believe they should receive (or increase the amount that they perceive they are receiving) and subsequently improve equity perceptions (shapiro & wahba, 1978). note that it is not necessarily that with which the employee is supported, which is the decisive factor, but rather it is the overall perception that they are being cared for and their interests are being looked after by the organisation, which provides a sense of contentment with pay. the modified structural model with the inclusion of the aforementioned paths and standardised path loadings are presented in figure 2. figure 2: standardised coefficients for final integrated model of itq amongst artisans and engineers. the modified model was subsequently compared with the original model following the guidelines by bryant and satorra (2012) for testing chi-square differences with continuous non-normal data. the decrease in the satorra-bentler chi-square (2, n = 238) = 43.156 brought about by the addition of the two extra paths was statistically significant (p < 0.01). inspection of the fit indices of the modified model corroborated the improvement in model fit: gfi (0.90), nfi (0.97), nnfi (0.98) and cfi (0.98) (see table 1 for a comparison between the models). furthermore, the results show that the modified structural model obtained an rmsea value of 0.055 and an srmr value of 0.058, which are indicative of good model fit. finally, the hypothesis of close fit was not rejected as indicated by the non-significant p-value associated with the test for close fit (0.229). it was consequently decided to interpret the parameter estimates of the modified model. table 1 shows how the models compare in terms of the aforementioned fit indices. relationships between latent variables figure 2 depicts the standardised parameter estimates for the hypothesised relationships between the latent variables. strong support was found for the negative relationship between affective commitment and itq (h1: β = −0.61, p < 0.01), confirming that affective commitment is indeed a key proximal antecedent of itq. of the six constructs hypothesised to influence affective commitment, all the structural path estimates were in the expected direction, but two of the paths (h2 and h7) did not reach statistical significance at the 5% significance level (one-tailed, critical t-value: |1.65|) and therefore the null hypotheses could not be rejected for h2 and h7. (hair, hult, ringle, & sarstedt, 2014b). from this it can be concluded that neither perceived organisational justice (h2: β = 0.07, ns) nor satisfaction with career advancement opportunities (h7: β = 0.02, ns) had a significant relationship with affective commitment in the current model, that is, with all other predictors of affective commitment held constant. with regard to the other four constructs hypothesised to influence affective commitment, the data provided support that each predictor contributed to the explanatory variance in affective commitment: satisfaction with pay (h3: β = 0.18, p < 0.05), perceived organisational support (h5: β = 0.18, p < 0.05), job fit (h6: β = 0.43, p < 0.01) and meaningful work (h8: β = 0.17, p < 0.01). moreover, the results revealed that each of the four aforementioned constructs had an indirect effect on itq via their influence on affective commitment. this was tested by inspection of the critical values (t-values: |1.65| for 5% level of significance under one-tailed hypothesis) accompanying the product of the unstandardised parameter estimates of the intervening variables as produced in lisrel 8.8 (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000; hair et al., 2014b). the t-values for the indirect effect of the four predictors on itq were as follows: satisfaction with pay (t = −1.95, p < 0.05), perceived organisational support (t = −2.59, p < 0.01), job fit (t = −3.62, p < 0.01) and meaningful work (t = −2.54, p < 0.01). this further confirmed the central role of affective commitment in reducing itq. the results also supported the hypothesised relationship between perceived organisational justice and satisfaction with pay (h4: β = 0.30, p < 0.01), suggesting that although perceived organisational justice does not show a direct relationship with affective commitment, it potentially influences affective commitment via its effect on satisfaction with pay. partial support for the indirect effect was also confirmed by the accompanying t-value (1.65), interpreted as explained above. finally, the two additional paths added to the model proved to be statistically significant, with the results revealing a negative relationship between perceived organisational justice and itq (β = −0.24, p < 0.01), as well as between perceived organisational support and satisfaction with pay (β = 0.49, p < 0.01). overall, the structural model explained 59.4% of the variance in itq and 72.6% in affective commitment. the model thus indicates a reasonably successful attempt to explain variance in the two key target variables. discussion outline of the results this study sought to validate a theoretical model that explicates the antecedents of affective commitment and the impact thereof on itq. the validation of the structural model entailed the evaluation of the measurement and structural model and an assessment of whether the theoretical relationships specified in the structural model were supported by the data. the potential contribution of the study pertains to identifying variables that positively influence affective commitment and empirically establish the central role played by affective commitment in the retention of artisans and engineers. the evaluation of the fit indices indicated a good fit of the measurement model, which confirmed that the composite indicators reflected the latent variables they were tasked to reflect. the evaluation of the original structural model indicated that the structural model demonstrated a reasonable fit although the hypothesis of close fit was rejected. inspection of the modification indices indicated that the addition of two paths would improve model fit and because these paths could be theoretically justified, the model was modified accordingly. the modified structural model indicated a good fit and eight of the 10 specified structural paths in the model were found to be statistically significant. affective commitment was found to have a strong significant negative relationship with itq of artisans and engineers. this finding is consistent with other research findings that show the explanatory potential of affective commitment for employee retention (delobbe & vandenberghe, 2000; dockel, basson, & coetzee, 2006; fazio et al., 2017; griffeth et al., 2000; saleem & qamar, 2017; sun, 2011). the results also corroborate previous findings that show that job fit (kooij & boon, 2018; kristof-brown et al., 2005), psychological meaningfulness (geldenhuys, łaba, & venter, 2014; jiang & johnson, 2018), perceived organisational support (rhoades et al., 2001; wong & wong, 2017) and satisfaction with pay (coetzee et al., 2014; jordaan & barry, 2009; panaccio et al., 2014; schlechter et al., 2014; sun, 2011; van rooyen et al., 2010) are positively related to affective commitment. also of note is the indirect effect of these constructs on itq via its effect on affective commitment. these findings substantiate the central role played by affective commitment in the retention of artisans and engineers. this suggests that organisations will be more successful in facilitating affective commitment, and such reduce itq, when they create meaningful work; pay competitive remuneration; show that they really care about their workforce; and match the competencies, skills and abilities of employees with their roles. although perceived organisational justice did not show a significant relationship with affective commitment (contradicting the findings of some earlier studies, for instance, colquitt et al., 2001), the data revealed a direct effect on itq. this suggests that perceived organisational justice does not necessarily facilitate emotional ties with the organisation (affective commitment); nonetheless, when inequity is perceived, people are more likely to become dissatisfied and leave the organisation. according to this line of reasoning, perceived organisational justice is critical for retaining employees, but on its own is unlikely to create an engaged, committed workforce – thus functioning to some extent as a hygiene factor (sachau, 2007; woods & west, 2014). partial support for the effect of perceived organisational justice on affective commitment can, however, be found via its relationship with satisfaction with pay. as explained earlier, to facilitate an engaged, committed workforce, organisations need to pay attention to job fit, perceived organisational support, meaningful work and satisfaction with pay. of these four, job fit had the strongest relationship with affective commitment, emphasising the important role of human resource practices promoting work adjustment and integration in the work environment (boon, den hartog, boselie, & paauwe, 2011; dawis & lofquist, 1978; kristof-brown et al., 2005). moreover, the fact that job fit had such a strong relationship with affective commitment, whilst the effect of satisfaction with career advancement opportunities was insignificant, suggests that for specialists, such as artisans and engineers, being able to express themselves through their skills, competencies and values is of more importance than lateral promotions. from a human resource perspective, this highlights the importance of skill-based job evaluation systems for specialist jobs where people are rewarded for learning new skills, rather than for moving up the corporate ladder (noe, hollenbeck, gerhart, & wright, 2012). the lack of support for the positive relationship between satisfaction with career development and advancement opportunities contradicts previous research findings (coetzee et al., 2014; sturges, conway, guest, & liefooghe, 2005; weng et al., 2010). the positive relationship between perceived organisational support and satisfaction with pay is a somewhat unexpected finding that shows the impact of organisational support on people’s appraisal of the rewards they receive. as explained earlier, people’s expectancy of what they believe they should receive can be reduced by providing them with valuable, non-monetary rewards (schlechter et al., 2014; shapiro & wahba, 1978). to put it in slightly different terms, it can be argued that people are more tolerant of relatively lower salaries when they perceive the company to have their best interest in mind. it is also interesting to note that the effect of perceived organisational support on satisfaction with pay was larger than that of perceived organisational justice. again, this emphasises that companies should not only convey the message that they are fair in their dealings with employees, but that they genuinely care about each individual by how they recognise and reward employees. it must be stated that conveying the message that the organisation genuinely cares does not necessarily imply paying higher or unsustainable salaries; rather it speaks of a supportive management (bussin et al., 2019) that provides recognition and security to employees within current constraints. this matter seems especially important at the time of writing this article, that is, during the 2020 the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) lockdown, with employees anxious about their physical safety and job security. wang, ma, liu and liu (2014) explained that: [i]f employees perceive the organisation as willing to provide job security, they tend to regard the organisation as responsible and supportive and, in turn, engage in behaviour supporting organisational goals. (p. 1070) practical implications this study reported a strong negative relationship between affective commitment and itq. it also confirmed the central role of affective commitment as a mediator through which various job and organisational characteristics influence turnover intentions. this suggests that organisations that are serious about the retention of artisans and engineers should ensure that their human resource management interventions contribute to affective commitment. by measuring affective commitment on an ongoing basis, for example, organisations will be able to evaluate the impact of their interventions. moreover, knowledge about the level of affective commitment will enable organisations to predict future turnover and act proactively. according to the findings of this study, affective commitment can be fostered through focusing on job fit, providing meaningful work, demonstrating that the organisation cares and values its employees and providing competitive and market-related salaries. job fit in particular was highlighted as very important within the sample group. jobs and organisational cultures should therefore be designed with consideration of the unique needs and values expressed by artisans and engineers. for example, since artisans and engineers are specialists, it will be important for them to apply their technical skills and expertise and also receive recognition in this area. the results further indicated that perceived organisational support is important for experiencing pay satisfaction, even more so than perceived organisational justice. this implies that the relationship between the employer and employee should be more than purely transactional where the artisan and engineers are paid high salaries to get the work done without feeling cared for or valued by the organisation. special consideration should therefore be given to conveying a message of support to artisans and engineers. one way to do this is through supportive management (bussin et al., 2019) and non-monetary rewards such a work-life balance policies (nujjoo & meyer, 2012; schlechter et al., 2014). notwithstanding the need to emphasise non-monetary rewards, it would be futile to design rewards system without consideration of salary levels. a recent study among generation y employee in south africa reveals that salary levels remain a key consideration for the younger generation (bussin et al., 2019). the results also yielded a direct negative relationship between perceived organisational justice and itq. organisations should ensure that their policies, procedures, structures and systems are fair, just and promote trust and mutual respect (colquitt & rodell, 2011). one particular sensitive and challenging issue is that of employment equity, a transformation process of redressing past injustices in south africa. previous studies have indicated that employment equity policies, related to career advancement opportunities and increased pay, are often perceived as unfair by some artisans and engineers, contributing not only to low commitment but also to decisions to emigrate (du toit & roodt, 2009; mukora, 2009; van rooyen et al., 2010). whilst employment equity is important for social justice and developing a more representative workforce, organisations should be careful not to apply it in a rigid manner, focusing only on getting the numbers right. valid and reliable procedures should be used for selection and promotion decisions and where people are not promoted because of equity reasons, alternative ways should be sought to recognise and reward their contributions to their organisations (schlechter et al., 2014). limitations and suggestions for future research although this study yielded informative and insightful findings, it had some limitations. the study utilised the ex post facto research design that is cross-sectional in nature, hence the findings in this study do not prove causality between the exogenous and endogenous variables of interest. nonetheless, when relationships between latent variables are grounded in theoretical understandings that explain the causal mechanism, path estimates in structural equation modelling (sem) might be interpreted as yielding evidence of relationships believed to be consistent with causal relationship (bagozzi & yi, 2012; spector, 2019; weston & gore, 2006). to increase claims of causality, future studies can use longitudinal studies and, where feasible, experimental designs (bagozzi & yi, 2012; kerlinger & lee, 1964). a related concern is that self-report surveys may be subject to common method bias. this refers to the situation where there is an appearance of a relationship between variables, which in reality is the result of the method used to measure the constructs (podsakoff, mackenzie, lee, & podsakoff, 2003). specifically, common rater effect occurs when the participants are asked to rate themselves on all the constructs without objective measures, additional source of measurement or time delays in measurement. the risk of common method, however, is somewhat less pertinent when there is no need to respond in a socially desirable manner as in this study. also, the study aimed to control common method bias through the careful selection and design of scale items, including using structural equation modelling which to some extent accounts for measurement error (podsakoff et al., 2003). furthermore, siemsen, roth and oliveira (2010) observed that common method bias can actually decrease, rather than inflate, regression estimates in multivariate linear relationships because of a larger number of measured variables suffering from common method bias in the estimation. another limitation is the lack of generalisability of the study findings to the broader population of artisans and engineers. the sample used in this study was drawn from a single large manufacturing and engineering organisation, which limits generalisability across different industries and business sectors. notwithstanding the need for ongoing studies with different samples from different industrial sectors (landy & conte, 2013), reflecting on previous studies conducted in south africa and internationally suggests that the findings converge with previous research, giving credence to the external validity of the study findings. furthermore, the sample was male-dominated (91.6%). the findings presented are therefore not necessarily representative of female participants. more research is required to investigate the factors influencing female artisans and engineers. for example, a study by bussin et al. (2019) among knowledge workers revealed that gender can significantly impact salary and reward preference. the current study did not include variables that characterise the external labour market and employee’s perceptions of these characteristics. variables such as perceived alternative opportunities, perceived utility movement and perceived human capital are some of the useful external employment market variables that have been reported to be important in understanding turnover cognitions (griffeth et al., 2000; saleem & qamar, 2017). the current study only focused on one form of organisational commitment, namely, affective commitment. although, as explained earlier, affective commitment has consistently shown to be the strongest form of commitment (meyer et al., 2002) and is also related to various pro-social and organisational citizenship behaviours (chênevert et al., 2015), the two other forms of commitment included in meyer and allen’s (1991) three-component model (i.e. continuance and normative commitment) could further enhance our understanding of employees’ reasons for leaving their organisations. moreover, by knowing which antecedents are related to what type or kind of commitment, human resource practitioners will be empowered to design interventions that will influence the desired commitment. finally, the current study tested a structural model of artisan and engineer turnover intention. the conceptualisation of the structural model was informed by various studies about intention to quit and affective commitment in general, but also contextual studies focussing on artisans and engineers. in terms of the latter, qualitative studies have provided greater understanding of the variables and how they relate. in turn, the current study gives empirical credence to propositions and hypotheses emanating from these qualitative work. a logical next step would now be to return to the qualitative phase to obtain a more in-depth understanding of the various interrelated facets in the structural model (landy & conte, 2013); with emphasis on how each variable needs to be construed to further the engagement and retention of artisans and engineers in south africa. for example, job fit was found to be a critical factor in the research, suggesting that jobs and organisational cultures should be designed with consideration of the unique needs and values expressed by artisans and engineers. follow-up qualitative studies could, for example, investigate the exact nature of these unique needs and values. conclusion retention of highly skilled and experienced artisans and engineers is a key challenge for organisations in south africa. this study suggests that affective commitment and perceived organisational justice are strong predictors of intention to stay. for organisations to effectively influence affective commitment they should focus on providing competitive and market-related remuneration, meaningful work, organisational support and job design to enhance job fit. they should also ensure that their processes, procedures, policies, systems and structures are fair and just because perceived organisational justice lowers itq. positively influencing affective commitment and perceived organisational justice will result in the retention of artisans and engineers. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions s.w. was responsible for the theoretical development of the model, data collection, analysis and interpretation, and writing of the journal article. f.v.d.b was the project supervisor and was responsible for the project design, data analysis and interpretation, and writing of the article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author (s.s.) upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references adams, j.s. (1963). towards an understanding of inequity. the journal of abnormal and social psychology, 67(5), 422. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0040968 addae, h.m., parboteeah, k.p., & davis, e.e. (2006). organizational commitment and intentions to quit. international journal of organizational analysis, 14(3), 225–238. https://doi.org/10.1108/19348830610823419 arnold, t., & spell, c.s. (2006). the relationship between justice and benefits satisfaction. journal of business and psychology, 20(4), 599–620. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-005-9006-1 arthur, m.b. (2014). the boundaryless career at 20: where do we stand, and where can we go? career development international, 19(6), 627–640. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi-05-2014-0068 atkinson, j.w. (1964). an introduction to motivation. oxford: van nostrand. bagozzi, r.p., & yi, y. (2012). specification, evaluation, and interpretation of structural equation models. journal of the academy of marketing science, 40(1), 8–34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-011-0278-x bailey, c., yeoman, r., madden, a., thompson, m., & kerridge, g. (2019). a review of the empirical literature on meaningful work: progress and research agenda. human resource development review, 18(1), 83–113. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484318804653 baruch, y. (2004). transforming careers: from linear to multidirectional career paths: organizational and individual perspectives. career development international, 9(1), 58–73. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430410518147 beechler, s., & woodward, i.c. (2009). the global ‘war for talent’. journal of international management, 15(3), 273–285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2009.01.002 boon, c., den hartog, d.n., boselie, p., & paauwe, j. (2011). the relationship between perceptions of hr practices and employee outcomes: examining the role of person–organisation and person–job fit. the international journal of human resource management, 22(01), 138–162. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.538978 bothma, c.f.c., & roodt, g. (2013). the validation of the turnover intention scale. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.507 breier, m. (2009). introduction. in j. erasmus & m. breier (eds.), skills shortages in south africa: case studies of key professionals (pp. 1–21). cape town: human sciences research council press. bryant, f.b., & satorra, a. (2012). principles and practice of scaled difference chi-square testing. structural equation modeling: a multidisciplinary journal, 19(3), 372–398. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2012.687671 bussin, m.h.r., & brigman, n. (2019). evaluation of remuneration preferences of knowledge workers. sa journal of human resource management, 17(1), 1–10. bussin, m.h.r., mohamed-padayachee, k., & serumaga-zake, p. (2019). a total rewards framework for the attraction of generation y employees born 1981–2000 in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 17(1), 1–14. chalofsky, n., & krishna, v. (2009). meaningfulness, commitment, and engagement: the intersection of a deeper level of intrinsic motivation. advances in developing human resources, 11(2), 189–203. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422309333147 chênevert, d., vandenberghe, c., & tremblay, m. (2015). multiple sources of support, affective commitment, and citizenship behaviors. personnel review, 44(1), 69–90. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-08-2012-0144 coetzee, m., mitonga-monga, j., & swart, b. (2014). human resource practices as predictors of engineering staff’s organisational commitment. south african journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.604 cohen-charash, y., & spector, p.e. (2001). the role of justice in organizations: a meta-analysis. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 86(2), 278–321. https://doi.org/10.1006/obhd.2001.2958 cole, m.s., bernerth, j.b., walter, f., & holt, d.t. (2010). organizational justice and individuals’ withdrawal: unlocking the influence of emotional exhaustion. journal of management studies, 47(3), 367–390. colquitt, j.a. (2001). on the dimensionality of organizational justice: a construct validation of a measure. journal of applied psychology, 86(3), 386. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.386 colquitt, j.a., & rodell, j.b. (2011). justice, trust, and trustworthiness: a longitudinal analysis integrating three theoretical perspectives. academy of management journal, 54(6), 1183–1206. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2007.0572 colquitt, j.a., conlon, d.e., wesson, m.j., porter, c.o.l.h., & ng, k.y. (2001). justice at the millennium: a meta-analytic review of 25 years of organizational justice research. journal of applied psychology, 86(3), 425. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.425 dawis, r., & lofquist, l.h. (1978). a note on the dynamics of work adjustment. journal of vocational behavior, 12(1), 76–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(78)90008-8 delobbe, n., & vandenberghe, c. (2000). a four-dimensional model of organizational commitment among belgian employees. european journal of psychological assessment, 16(2), 125. https://doi.org/10.1027//1015-5759.16.2.125 department of higher education and training. (2018). skills development act no. 97 of 1998: draft national artisan development strategy and implementation plan 2017. government gazette no. 41704, pretoria: government printing works. department of higher education and training. (2020). list of occupations in high demand draft 2020. government gazette no. 43621, pretoria: government printing works. diamantopoulos, a., & siguaw, j.a. (2000). introducing lisrel. london: sage. dockel, a., basson, j.s., & coetzee, m. (2006). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. sa journal of human resource management, 4(2), 20–28. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v4i2.91 dulebohn, j.h., & werling, s.e. (2007). compensation research past, present, and future. human resource management review, 17(2), 1919–207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2008.10.001 dulebohn, j.h., molloy, j.c., pichler, s.m., & murray, b. (2009). employee benefits: literature review and emerging issues. human resource management review, 19(2), 86–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2008.10.001 du toit, r., & roodt, j. (2009). engineering professionals. in j. erasmus & m. breier (eds.), skills shortages in south africa: case studies of key professionals (pp. 75–112). human sciences research council press. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/4717 edwards, j.r. (1991). peson-job fit: a conceptual intergration, literature review and methodological critique. in c. l. cooper & i. t. robertson (eds.), international review of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 238–357). oxford: john wiley & sons. fazio, j., gong, b., sims, r., & yurova, y. (2017). the role of affective commitment in the relationship between social support and turnover intention. management decision, 55(3), 512–525. https://doi.org/10.1108/md-05-2016-0338 ferreira, n., coetzee, m., & masenge, a. (2013). psychological career resources, career adaptability and hardiness in relation to job embeddedness and organizational commitment. journal of psychology in africa, 23(1), 31–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2013.10820591 firth, l., mellor, d.j., moore, k.a., & loquet, c. (2004). how can managers reduce employee intention to quit? journal of managerial psychology, 19(2), 170–187. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940410526127 fishbein, m., & ajzen, i. (1975). belief, attitudes, intention and behavior. massachusetts: addison-wesley. fletcher, l. (2016). how can personal development lead to increased engagement? the roles of meaningfulness and perceived line manager relations. the international journal of human resource management, 30(7), 1203–1226. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1184177 fong, s., & shaffer, m. (2003). the dimensionality and determinants of pay satisfaction: a cross-cultural investigation of a group incentive plan. international journal of human resource management, 14(4), 559–580. https://doi.org/10.1080/0958519032000057592 geldenhuys, m., łaba, k., & venter, c.m. (2014). meaningful work, work engagement and organisational commitment. sa journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1098 gow, k., warren, c., anthony, d., & hinschen, c. (2008). retention and intentions to quit among australian male apprentices. education and training, 50(3), 216–230. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400910810873991 griffeth, r.w., hom, p.w., & gaertner, s. (2000). a meta-analysis of antecedents and correlates of employee turnover: update, moderator tests, and research implications for the next millennium. journal of management, 26(3), 463–488. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630002600305 hackman, j.r., & oldham, g.r. (1976). motivation through the design of work: test of a theory. organizational behavior and human performance, 16(2), 250–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(76)90016-7 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2014a). multivariate data analysis (7th edn.). harlow: pearson. hair, j.f., hult, g.t.m., ringle, c.m., & sarstedt, m. (2014b). a primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem). los angeles: sage. haynie, j.j., svyantek, d.j., mazzei, m.j., varma, v., adcroft, a., & murphy, p. (2016). job insecurity and compensation evaluations: the role of overall justice. management decision, 54(3), 630–645. https://doi.org/10.1108/md-04-2015-0134 heneman, iii. h.g., & schwab, d.p. (1985). pay satisfaction: its multidimensional nature and measurement. international journal of psychology, 20(1), 129–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207598508246743 hirschi, a. (2018). the fourth industrial revolution: issues and implications for career research and practice. career development quarterly, 66(3), 192–204. https://doi.org/10.1002/cdq.12142 holtom, b.c., lee, t.w., & tidd, s.t. (2002). the relationship between work status congruence and work-related attitudes and behaviors. journal of applied psychology, 87(5), 903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.5.903 hom, p.w., tsui, a.s., wu, j.b., lee, t.w., zhang, a.y., fu, p.p., & li, l. (2009). explaining employment relationships with social exchange and job embeddedness. journal of applied psychology, 94(2), 277. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013453 hu, l., & bentler, p.m. (1999). cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. structural equation modeling: a multidisciplinary journal, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 ilies, r., lanaj, k., pluut, h., & goh, z. (2018). intrapersonal and interpersonal need fulfillment at work: differential antecedents and incremental validity in explaining job satisfaction and citizenship behavior. journal of vocational behavior, 108, 151–164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2018.07.005 jiang, l., & johnson, m.j. (2018). meaningful work and affective commitment: a moderated mediation model of positive work reflection and work centrality. journal of business and psychology, 33(4), 545–558. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-017-9509-6 joint initiative on priority skills acquisition. (2010). growing priority skills in south africa final report on jipsa. republic of south africa. retrieved from https://hrdcsa.org.za/wp-content/uploads/research-reports/consolidated%20jipsa%20close%20out%20report_0.pdf jordaan, n., & barry, m.-l. (2009). investigating the reasons for lack of skilled artisans in south africa: the perspective of artisans. south african journal of industrial engineering, 20(1), 173–184. jöreskog, k., & sörbom, d. (1999). prelis 2: user’s reference guide (version 8.80). lincolnwood: scientific software international. kaye, b., & jordan-evans, s. (2002). retention tough in times. training & development, 56(1), 32. kerlinger, f.n., & lee, h.b. (1964). foundations of behavioural research (4th edn.). london: harcourt college publishers. kim, b., rhee, e., ha, g., jung, s.h., cho, d., lee, h.k., & lee, s.m. (2016a). cross-cultural validation of the career growth scale for korean employees. journal of career development, 43(1), 26–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845314568310 kim, k.y., eisenberger, r., & baik, k. (2016b). perceived organizational support and affective organizational commitment: moderating influence of perceived organizational competence. journal of organizational behavior, 37(4), 558–583. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2081 kooij, d.t.a.m., & boon, c. (2018). perceptions of hr practices, person–organisation fit, and affective commitment: the moderating role of career stage. human resource management journal, 28(1), 61–75. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12164 kristof-brown, a.l., zimmerman, r.d., & johnson, e.c. (2005). consequences of individuals’ fit at work: a meta-analysis of person–job, person–organization, person–group, and person–supervisor fit. personnel psychology, 58(2), 281–342. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2005.00672.x kuvaas, b. (2006). work performance, affective commitment, and work motivation: the roles of pay administration and pay level. journal of organizational behavior, 27(3), 365–385. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.377 landy, f.j., & conte, j.m. (2013). work in the 21th century: an introduction to industrial and organisational psychology (4th edn.). new york: wiley. latham, g. p., & pinder, c. c. (2005). work motivation theory and research at the dawn of the twenty-first century. annual review of psychology, 56, 485–516. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.142105 lee, t.w., hom, p.w., eberly, m.b., li, j. (jason), & mitchell, t.r. (2017). on the next decade of research in voluntary employee turnover. academy of management perspectives, 31(3), 201–221. local government sector educational and training authority. (2016). national enterprise and cooperative development strategy. retrieved from https://cdn.lgseta.co.za/resources/performance_monitoring_and_reporting_documents/smme%20research%20project.pdf locke, e.a., mento, a.j., & katcher, b.l. (1978). the interaction of ability and motivation in performance: an exploration of the meaning of moderators. personnel psychology, 31(2), 269–280. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1978.tb00446.x lumley, e.j., coetzee, m., tladinyane, r., & ferreira, n. (2011). exploring the job satisfaction and organisational commitment of employees in the information technology environment. southern african business review, 15(1), 100–118. maccallum, r.c., browne, m.w., & sugawara, h.m. (1996). power analysis and determination of sample size for covariance structure modeling. psychological methods, 1(2), 130–149. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989x.1.2.130 may, d.r., gilson, r.l., & harter, l.m. (2004). the psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety and availability and the engagement of the human spirit at work. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 77(1), 11–37. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317904322915892 merseta. (2018). promoting artisan development for employability: sector skills plan update. retrieved from http://www.merseta.org.za/announcements%20docs/merseta%20sector%20skills%20plan%202019-2020.pdf meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1991). a three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment. human resource management review, 1(1), 61–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/1053-4822(91)90011-z meyer, j.p., stanley, d.j., herscovitch, l., & topolnytsky, l. (2002). affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization: a meta-analysis of antecedents, correlates, and consequences. journal of vocational behavior, 61(1), 20–52. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2001.1842 michaels, e., handfield-jones, h., & axelrod, b. (2001). the war for talent. boston: harvard business press. miceli, m.p., & lane, m.c. (1991). antecedents of pay satisfaction: a review and extension. in k. rowland & j. ferris (eds.), research in personnel and human resources management (vol. 9, pp. 235–309). greenwich, ct: jai press. mitchell, t.r., holtom, b.c., lee, t.w., sablynski, c.j., & erez, m. (2001). why people stay: using job embeddedness to predict voluntary turnover. academy of management journal, 44(6), 1102–1121. https://doi.org/10.2307/3069391 mobley, w.h., griffeth, r.w., hand, h.h., & meglino, b.m. (1979). review and conceptual analysis of the employee turnover process. psychological bulletin, 86(3), 493. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.86.3.493 mukora, j. (2008). professions case study report: artisans. pretoria: scare and critical skills research project, department of labour. mukora, j. (2009). artisans. in j. erasmus & m. breier (eds.), skills shortages in south africa: case studies of key professionals (pp. 219–245). cape town: human sciences research council press. mzabalazo advisory services. (2014). expenditure performance review of the national artisan development programme. johannesburg: mzabalazo. retrieved from https://www.gtac.gov.za/perdetail/20.2%20technical%20report%20.pdf noe, r.a., hollenbeck, j.r., gerhart, b., & wright, p.m. (2012). human resource management: gaining a competitiveness advantage (8th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. nujjoo, a., & meyer, i. (2012). the relative importance of different types of rewards for employee motivation and commitment in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 10(2), 10. nyatsumba, k. (2017). south africa’s escalating engineering crisis. independent online (iol) business report. retreived from https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/south-africas-escalating-engineering-crisis-11670238 o’driscoll, m.p., & randall, d.m. (1999). perceived organisational support, satisfaction with rewards, and employee job involvement and organisational commitment. applied psychology, 48(2), 197–209. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.1999.tb00058.x o’reilly, c.a., chatman, j., & caldwell, d.f. (1991). people and organizational culture: a profile comparison approach to assessing person-organization fit. academy of management journal, 34(3), 487–516. https://doi.org/10.2307/256404 panaccio, a., vandenberghe, c., & ben ayed, a.k. (2014). the role of negative affectivity in the relationships between pay satisfaction, affective and continuance commitment and voluntary turnover: a moderated mediation model. human relations, 67(7), 821–848. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726713516377 park, y., song, j.h., & lim, d.h. (2016). organizational justice and work engagement: the mediating effect of self-leadership. leadership & organization development journal, 37(6), 711–729. podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., lee, j., & podsakoff, n.p. (2003). common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. journal of applied psychology, 88(5), 879–903. pretorius, l. (2018). are 60% of tvet colleges a failure? city press. retreived from https://www.news24.com/citypress/news/are-60-of-tvet-colleges-a-failure-20181217 pritchard, r.d. (1969). equity theory: a review and critique. organizational behavior and human performance, 4(2), 176–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(69)90005-1 putri, w.h., & setianan, a.r. (2019). job enrichment, organizational commitment, and intention to quit: the mediating role of employee engagement. problems and perspectives in management, 17(2), 518–526. https://doi.org/10.21511/ppm.17(2).2019.40 reddy, v., rogan, m., mncwango, b., & chabana, s. (2017). occupations in high demand in south africa: a technical report. pretoria: labour market intelligence partnership. rhoades, l., eisenberger, r., & armeli, s. (2001). affective commitment to the organization: the contribution of perceived organizational support. journal of applied psychology, 86(5), 825. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.5.825 robbins, s. (1993). organisational behaviour: concepts, controversies, and applications (6th edn.). englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. roodt, g. (2004). turnover intentions. unpublished document, university of johannesburg. sachau, d.a. (2007). resurrecting the motivation-hygiene theory: herzberg and the positive psychology movement. human resource development review, 6(4), 377–393. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484307307546 sa commercial prop news. (2013). sa running short of artisan skills. retreieved from http://www.sacommercialpropnews.co.za/construction-industry/5944-sa-running-short-of-artisan-skills.html saks, a.m. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169 saleem, s., & qamar, b. (2017). an investigation of the antecedents of turnover intentions and job hopping behavior: an empirical study of universities in pakistan. south asian journal of business studies, 6(2), 161–176. https://doi.org/10.1108/sajbs-05-2016-0046 schlechter, a., faught, c., & bussin, m. (2014). total rewards: a study of artisan attraction and retention within a south african context. south african journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.648 shapiro, h.j., & wahba, m.a. (1978). pay satisfaction: an empirical test of a discrepancy model. management science, 24(6), 612–622. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.24.6.612 siemsen, e., roth, a., & oliveira, p. (2010). common method bias in regression models with linear, quadratic, and interaction effects. organizational research methods, 13(3), 456–476. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428109351241 siers, b. (2007). relationships among organisational justice perceptions, adjustment, and turnover of united states-based expatriates. applied psychology, 56(3), 437–459. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2007.00269.x simantov-nachlieli, i., & bamberger, p. (2020). pay communication, justice, and affect: the asymmetric effects of process and outcome pay transparency on counterproductive workplace behavior. journal of applied psychology, 106(2), 230–249. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000502 song, w., yu, h., zhang, y., & jiang, w. (2015). goal orientation and employee creativity: the mediating role of creative role identity. journal of management and organization, 21(1), 82–97. https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2014.64 spector, p.e. (2019). do not cross me: optimizing the use of cross-sectional designs. journal of business and psychology, 34(2), 125–137. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-018-09613-8 sturges, j., conway, n., guest, d., & liefooghe, a. (2005). managing the career deal: the psychological contract as a framework for understanding career management, organizational commitment and work behavior. journal of organizational behavior, 26(7), 821–838. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.341 suifan, t.s., diab, h., & abdallah, a.b. (2017). does organizational justice affect turnover-intention in a developing country? the mediating role of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. journal of management development. sun, k.-s. (2011). the turnover intentions for construction engineers. journal of marine science and technology, 19(5), 550–556. sutherland, m., & jordaan, w. (2004). factors affecting the retention of knowledge workers. sa journal of human resource management, 2(2), 55–64. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v2i2.39 takawira, n., coetzee, m., & schreuder, d. (2014). job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention of staff in a higher education institution: an exploratory study. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.524 taris, t.w., horn, j.e. van schaufeli, w.b., & schreurs, p.j.g. (2004). inequity, burnout and psychological withdrawal among teachers: a dynamic exchange model. anxiety, stress & coping, 17(1), 103–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/1061580031000151620 tebele, c., van dyk, j., & coetzee, m. (2013). organisational commitment and job embeddedness of service staff with critical and scarce skills. south african journal of labour relations, 37(1), 61–78. the department of trade and industry. (2015). facts and figures on skills in manufacturing. retrieved from www.thedti.gov.za till, r.e., & karren, r. (2011). organizational justice perceptions and pay level satisfaction. journal of managerial psychology, 26(1), 42–57. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683941111099619 tshele, l., & agumba, j.n. (2014). investigating the causes of skills shortages in south african construction industry: the case of artisans. in tg59 ‘people in construction’ conference (pp. 101–110). port elizabeth. van rooyen, l., du toit, d.h., botha, e., & rothmann, s. (2010). artisan retention in an organisation in south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 8(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.300 wang, h., ma, b., liu, x., & liu, s. (2014). job security and work outcomes in china: perceived organizational support as mediator. social behavior and personality: an international journal, 42(7), 1069–1076. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2014.42.7.1069 weng, q., & hu, b. (2009). the structure of career growth and its impact on employees’ turnover intention. industrial engineering and management, 14(1), 14–21. weng, q., mcelroy, j.c., morrow, p.c., & liu, r. (2010). the relationship between career growth and organizational commitment. journal of vocational behavior, 77(3), 391–400. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2010.05.003 weston, r., & gore, jr. p.a. (2006). a brief guide to structural equation modeling. the counseling psychologist, 34(5), 719–751. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000006286345 willemse, m., & deacon, e. (2015). experiencing a sense of calling: the influence of meaningful work on teachers’ work attitudes. sa journal of industrial psychology, 41(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v41i1.1274 williams, m.l., mcdaniel, m.a., & nguyen, n.t. (2006). a meta-analysis of the antecedents and consequences of pay level satisfaction. journal of applied psychology, 91(2), 392. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.2.392 wong, y.-w., & wong, y. (2017). the effects of perceived organisational support and affective commitment on turnover intention: a test of two competing models. journal of chinese human resource management, 8(1), 2–21. https://doi.org/10.1108/jchrm-01-2017-0001 woods, s.a., & west, m.a. (2014). the psychology of work and organizations. in the psychology of work and organisations (2nd edn.). cengage learning. retreived from https://doi.org/10.1037/13167-012 xpatweb. (2020). new critical skills survey: the most in-demand skills per dhet draft list and skilled saffers leaving the country fuels the skills gap. retrieved from https://www.xpatweb.com/news/news-new-critical-skills-survey-the-most-in-demand-skills/ abstract introduction research purpose and objectives literature review research method results discussion limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) angelo fynn department of institutional research and business intelligence, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa hugo d. van der walt institute for open and distance learning, college of education, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation fynn, a., & van der walt, h.d. (2023). examining staff burnout during the transition to teaching online due to covid-19 implications. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2062. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2062 original research examining staff burnout during the transition to teaching online due to covid-19 implications angelo fynn, hugo d. van der walt received: 11 aug. 2022; accepted: 04 nov. 2022; published: 06 feb. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: covid-19 generated the need for changes in the higher education sector, sparking a shift to online approaches ultimately increasing workload. this study assessed the prevalence of burnout symptoms among academics at an online university in south africa. research purpose: assessing prevalence and severity of burnout symptoms among academics and its impact on work engagement. motivation for research: academics are central to the teaching and learning processes at higher education institutions. health and wellness has an impact on institutional functionality. as academic workloads increase, so does the likelihood of burnout, which can influence academic functioning. research approach/design and method: cross-sectional design. main findings: high levels of burnout within open, distance and e-learning (odel) academic staff member population is evident with 75% of staff experiencing high or very high burnout. high levels of burnout were concentrated among senior lecturers, with teaching experience and have at least a phd. the regression coefficient for work engagement (b = –0.364, p ≤ 0.001) indicated that for each point increase in work engagement, there was a decrease in burnout of 0.364. practical implications: high levels of burnout include job dissatisfaction, reduced quality of work, and increased absenteeism. addressing burnout contributes to retaining experienced staff, improved job satisfaction and quality output. this paper highlights the impact of teaching transitions on the academic workforce, contributing towards wellness interventions aiding burnout recovery. contribution/value-add: this paper highlights the impact of teaching transitions on the academic workforce within south africa, contributing towards wellness interventions aiding the recovery from burnout. keywords: academic burnout; academic workload; burnout assessment test; burnout; covid-19 teaching transitions; emergency remote teaching; job engagement; utrecht work engagement scale. introduction the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic had a profound impact on many aspects of society, and higher education was no exception, with many universities forced to stop face-to-face tuition and make a rapid shift to online education (hofer et al., 2021; robson et al., 2022). the shift to online education was completed under immense pressure and within an incredibly short time period, considering the scale of the changes to adapt pedagogy to a new mode of learning (littlejohn et al., 2021). in addition, many academics were not experienced in online teaching practices, which meant that they struggled to engage with students with no visual cues and had to negotiate a delicate balance between maintaining quality and treating students with compassion and accommodating their needs (littlejohn et al., 2021). in many contexts, particularly the south african context, students have constrained access to devices and internet connectivity, which may have caused considerable distress which, in turn, lecturers had to manage in addition to their workload and own stressors (dinu et al., 2021). in addition to prompting online learning, the lockdown associated with the pandemic prompted work-from-home (wfh) conditions for which universities and academics were underprepared (iwu et al., 2022). one of the consequences of the shift to working online from home was the increase in workload, with boundaries between work and home blurring through the encouragement of the ‘always on’ working practices brought on by increased access to staff through technology (molino et al., 2020, p. 13). in addition to work conditions, the pandemic also impacted family routines as many schools also closed and shifted to online education, adding to the responsibilities of staff and decreasing the setup of optimal working environments (hoffman et al., 2020). thus, the various impacts of the pandemic will likely add to the already elevated risk of burnout that academics faced prepandemic (gorczynski et al., 2017). research purpose and objectives the changes that universities had to implement because of the covid-19 pandemic took place over an incredibly short period of time, and it is assumed that it placed intense pressure on teaching academics to ensure that no student was left behind. the increased workload and work pressures associated with institutional attempts to adapt to the unprecedented circumstances increased the likelihood that academics would develop burnout symptoms. the purpose of this study was therefore to ascertain the prevalence of burnout symptoms among the population of academics at an open, distance and e-learning (odel) institution in south africa and to determine whether burnout had an impact on work engagement. the study objectives were to ascertain the prevalence of burnout symptoms among teaching academics and to determine whether burnout predicts work engagement among teaching academics. this study was guided by the following research questions: what is the prevalence of burnout symptoms among distance education staff during the transition to fully online learning? do burnout symptoms predict the level of job engagement among academics? literature review understanding burnout maslach et al. (2001) state that burnout is a prolonged response to chronic emotional and physical stressors on the job. burnout is a chronic ongoing reaction to one’s work, which is typically a negative affective state which is not immediately reversible by taking rest or changing activity (demerouti et al., 2002). demerouti et al. (2002) further argue that burnout is a chronic mental health impairment characterised by enduring physical, cognitive and emotional deterioration. maslach et al. (2001) argue that burnout is an individual experience within the work context. burnout has three components, namely emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and feelings of low accomplishment (jackson et al., 1998; leiter & maslach, 2017; maslach et al., 2001; taris et al., 2001). the exhaustion component represents the individual experience of being overextended and depleted physically and emotionally (maslach et al., 2001). the exhaustion component is the most frequently reported symptom of burnout but is not sufficient to capture the entirety of the experience of the syndrome. it neglects the relational nature of burnout between the individual and the workplace (maslach et al., 2001). the cynicism component represents the interpersonal dimension of burnout and is characterised by a negative, callous or detached response to aspects of the job (maslach, 2003; maslach et al., 2001). depersonalisation, as part of cynicism, is seen as an attempt to put distance between the self and service recipients by ignoring qualities that make them unique individuals; rather, one perceives recipients as objects of one’s work (maslach et al., 2001). distancing is such a common and immediate reaction to exhaustion that research has established consistent links between cynicism and exhaustion (byrne et al., 2013; maslach et al., 2001; watts & robertson, 2011). the inefficiency or lack of accomplishment component refers to feelings of incompetence and a lack of productivity at work (maslach et al., 2001; schwarzer et al., 2000). according to maslach et al. (2001), a workplace with chronic, overwhelming demands is likely to erode an individual’s sense of effectiveness relative to their job function. this component may arise as a result of exhaustion, cynicism or both or may develop in parallel, particularly in working conditions where there is a chronic lack of resources. a measurement that has been developed and applied frequently for the purposes of identifying burnout is that of the burnout assessment tool (bat), which theoretically identifies burnout as a work-related syndrome that is mainly characterised by exhaustion and mental distancing (sakakibara et al., 2020; schaufeli & taris, 2005). this measurement involves related constructs associated with burnout in the workplace, some of which were discussed above. burnout has been associated with a number of negative outcomes in the workplace, such as absenteeism, increased intention to leave and job turnover (maslach et al., 2001; sakakibara et al., 2020). bakker et al. (2004) see burnout as a negative spiral where employees do not seek help or are unlikely to strive for changes in the organisation, thus continually working ineffectively. in terms of individual health, the exhaustion component predicts stress-related health outcomes and mirrors the symptoms that indicate prolonged stress (bakker et al. 2004). research into the physiological consequences of burnout shows that burnout can predict cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders, depressive symptoms and insomnia (sakakibara et al., 2020). there remains a debate whether burnout precipitates mental illness in certain individuals or whether individuals who are mentally healthier cope better with job stressors. factors that influence the prevalence of burnout while there is a wide range of working conditions that could contribute to burnout, there are key correlates that have been identified by burnout researchers. the key correlates identified are job characteristics, occupational characteristics and individual factors (maslach et al., 2001). job characteristics job demands, specifically quantitative job demands, have been widely researched in burnout studies, and it has been established that experienced workload and time pressure are strongly and consistently related to burnout (darabi et al., 2017; maslach et al., 2001). even prior to the pandemic, there were concerns relating to increasing academic workload as a result of massification, internationalisation and increasing demands for quality teaching and research quantity within the highly competitive higher education landscape (sabagh et al., 2018). in particular, there are concerns raised about role conflict that occurs when there are competing, conflicting demands on an individual’s time and resources (jawahar et al., 2007; lei et al., 2020; yousefi & abdullah, 2019). role ambiguity refers to a lack of information that is required to perform the job well (yousefi & abdullah, 2019). related to job demands are job resources, which support productivity but the absence of which creates conditions that may lead to the development of burnout. resources include social support and supervisor support, among others (berthelsen et al., 2018; sabagh et al., 2018). occupational characteristics with the changes brought on by the covid-19 pandemic, the characteristics of the role of lecturers changed substantially, with a greater emphasis on student support and engagement (dinu et al., 2021). this shift in emphasis placed the burden of greater emotional labour on lecturers on behalf of students as they sought to help students navigate the challenges they faced as a result of the pandemic (iwu et al., 2022). as alluded to in the introduction, the expectation of online engagement increased with wfh arrangements, with microsoft (2022) estimating a 252% increase in weekly time spent in meetings for the average microsoft teams user per week and a 28% increase in after-hours work across all users, supporting the work of molino et al. (2020). while academics were engaging online throughout the pandemic, they also experienced social isolation, which refers to the perceived lack of availability of support and recognition, as well as the missed opportunity of informal interactions with coworkers (iwu et al., 2022). individual characteristics individual characteristics acknowledge that individuals are unique and bring a plethora of experiences, personalities, expectations and values to the workplace. it is the interaction between these individual characteristics and organisations that has formed a large part of burnout research (maslach et al., 2001). the new working arrangements brought on by the pandemic had differing effects on individuals, with some experiencing wfh as positive while others expressed feelings of psychological and physical isolation, loneliness, fear, scepticism, uncertainty and operational challenges, which are more likely to be associated with burnout (iwu et al., 2022). job expectations are another individual attribute that may play a role in burnout. those with higher expectations such as senior academics are hypothesised to be more likely to experience burnout when their expectations are not met for the amount of work they put in (dinu et al., 2021; maslach et al., 2001). interventions for burnout have typically focused on the individual with limited success. these interventions often neglect the notion that employees have limited autonomy with which they can alter the working environment or conditions to support wellness (maslach et al., 2001). reward systems, workload allocations and colleagues are all assigned according to roles and not according to personal compatibility or preference. maslach et al. (2001) suggest that the most effective interventions consider the job environment and the fit with the individual working within it. interventions should therefore focus on dynamically developing the fit of the employee within their environment. academic burnout gewin (2021) reported that stress and burnout levels had substantially increased during the pandemic compared with prepandemic levels. for instance, in a poll of united states faculty members, 70% of respondents reported feeling stressed compared with 32% in 2019, a sentiment which was echoed by a similar survey in europe. this effect was particularly pronounced among female faculty members, of whom 75% reported feeling emotional and other effects of pandemic-related burnout compared with 34% in 2019 and 59% of men in 2020 (gewin, 2021). academic workload has been an area of concern within higher education prior to the pandemic, with concerns raised about the equity of distribution and transparency of workload models and the impact of increasing workload on faculty mental health (reznichenko et al., 2008; van niekerk & van gent, 2021). furthermore, koga et al. (2015) suggested that, for the period 2007–2017, there was a significant increase in academic workload. dinu et al. (2021) conducted a study on the mental well-being of academics during the pandemic. they found that teaching workload increased during the pandemic, with 51% of respondents indicating that teaching took 41% – 80% of their time while 47.5% indicated no increase, suggesting that workload increase was not evenly distributed. furthermore, they found that workload increased with seniority, thus increasing risk of burnout (dinu et al., 2021). the rationale for this finding is that senior academics were more likely to be spending substantive amounts of time in meetings, developing plans to manage the impact of the pandemic. similarly, a survey conducted by de gruyter involving 3214 respondents indicated that the biggest shift was in the number of hours worked, which was largely driven by digital learning (gewin, 2021). in south africa, respondents in a study conducted by banda and malinga (2021) found that their teaching workload increased and that they were faced with substantial hurdles to implementing online learning, which included a lack of preparedness for online teaching, poor internet connectivity, the instability of the electricity grid and the affordability of data. gender has also been found to play a significant role in workload allocation, with female faculty members more likely to dedicate time to administrative tasks and be involved with more evaluation of academic activities (koga et al., 2021). the impact of working from home on burnout the shift to wfh arrangements brought about by the pandemic was generally viewed as a positive move by employees, who cited the lack of commute and flexible working conditions. however, work by daneshfar et al. (2022) found that negative perspectives about wfh were driven by additional child and adult care responsibilities, breach of the work–family boundary and a sense of increasing job insecurity. nevertheless, hoffman et al. (2020) found that wfh was positive for most of the workforce and was significantly (p = 0.031) associated with reduced burnout. the wfh experience was shaped by gender in that female faculties were expected to take on caring duties in addition to their professional workload (banda & malinga, 2021). in contrast, a study by littlejohn et al. (2021) found no significant effects on wfh experience by childcare responsibilities or gender, despite 52.8% of the sample indicating they had caring responsibilities, 40% caring for children, with a higher proportion of women reporting looking after children than men (43.1% vs. 29%), which proved to be a significant difference (x2 [1, n = 390] = 6.190, p = 0.013). work-from-home conditions also meant an increased engagement with technology in the workspace, which has been identified as a stressor and can be associated with mental fatigue, poor concentration, irritability, feelings of exhaustion, insomnia and memory disturbances (molino et al., 2020). molino et al. (2020) identify two stressors originating from the use of information and communication technologies (icts), namely information overload from multiple technological sources and large amounts of information; and constant availability as a result of access to internet connections, smartphones, laptops and tablets, which mean that workers can be connected anytime, anywhere, creating the expectation of constant reachability, availability and instant responses. measurement of burnout one of the most widely used instruments in burnout research is the maslach burnout inventory (mbi), which has been in use since the 1980’s (maslach et al., 2001; schaufeli et al., 2008). the mbi has three components, namely emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and feelings of low accomplishments, and yields three scores. the mbi has been criticised for not including impaired cognitive functioning as a symptom of burnout. furthermore, the depersonalisation and personal accomplishment domain of the mbi was determined to be debatable in the diagnosis of burnout (sakakibara et al., 2020). bakker et al. (2004) argued that personal accomplishment shows a weak relationship with the exhaustion and cynicism components of burnout. one measure was developed to address these criticisms, the bat. the underlying theory of the bat conceptualises burnout as a work-related syndrome characterised by exhaustion and mental distancing (sakakibara et al., 2020; schaufeli & taris, 2005). in a study conducted on the japanese version of the bat, cronbach’s alpha levels were reported at 0.96, with subscales ranging from 0.87 to 0.89 (sakakibara et al., 2020). in a study aimed at establishing the psychometric properties of the bat on a flemish sample, cronbach’s alpha levels of 0.88 and higher were reported for all subscales (schaufeli et al., 2020). the bat consists of two sections, namely core symptoms of burnout, consisting of 23 items, and the secondary symptoms of burnout, consisting of 10 items. the constructs of measurement within the core symptoms of burnout consist of eight items measuring exhaustion, five items measuring mental distance, five items measuring cognitive impairment and five items measuring emotional impairment. within the secondary symptoms of burnout, the constructs were as follows: five items related to psychological complaints and five items measured psychosomatic complaints (schaufeli et al., 2020). all items were expressed as statements with five frequency-based response categories (1 = never, 2 = rarely, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = always). work engagement the development of the concept of work engagement was the result of a positive psychology shift in burnout research. this concept was seen to be the antithesis of burnout initially (hakanen & bakker, 2017; van den broeck et al., 2008). research has indicated a negative relationship between work engagement and burnout (bakker & costa, 2014). the availability of job resources, such as the physical, psychosocial and organisational aspects of the job that are functional in achieving work goals, play a key role in developing and maintaining work engagement (babic et al., 2020). the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) operationalises the concept of work engagement into three domains. the first, vigour, refers to high levels of energy, willingness to exert effort and mental resilience in the line of work (lekutle & nel, 2012). dedication refers to strong involvement in one’s work, a sense of significance about one’s work and pride in one’s work (lekutle & nel, 2012; van den broeck et al., 2008), while absorption refers to difficulty tearing oneself away from work and being unaware of time lapsing as a result of concentration on one’s work (lesener et al., 2019). burnout is generally viewed as the erosion of engagement (lekutle & nel, 2012). measurement of work engagement the instrument consists of 17 items divided across the three domains described above. the instrument has been tested for validity and reliability in a sample of the south african university population with cronbach’s alpha levels of 0.70 for vigour and 0.78 for dedication (mostert et al., 2007). research method this study adopted a cross-sectional survey design as it aimed to draw on a cross-section of academics from the institution to ascertain the impact of the shift to online learning during the transition to online learning. sample the population for this study included all academics at the institution. the objective of this study was to ascertain the impact of the transition to online learning among academic teaching staff. the institution has approximately 1880 academic and research staff who are involved in the academic project at the institution. the sample for this study is 8% of the population, which equates to 147 academic staff members whose information was complete and useable. data collection data were collected through online anonymous surveys using qualtrics software (qualtrics international, inc., provo, utah, united states). academic staff members were sent an e-mail invitation to participate in the study. the e-mails were sent through the ict department on behalf of the researchers in order to ensure that anonymity was adhered to. research setting the research setting for this study is an open, distance and e-learning institution in south africa. entrée and establishing researcher roles gaining access to the setting involved obtaining ethical clearance from the institution and thereafter gaining research permission. the ethical clearance process ensured that respondents would be safe and their rights observed, while the research permission committee determined whether any reputational, financial or material harm to the institution could result from the research. one of the conditions of the latter committee was that the institution would not be explicitly mentioned in any externally reported papers. therefore, no mention of the institution is made within this paper. the corresponding author and researcher is the principal researcher for the project and has conducted multiple studies at the institution under study. the second researcher is an academic staff member at the institution and played a key role in data collection, analysis and interpretation. instrument the instruments used within this study consisted of a demographics section, work context scale, the bat and the uwes (bakker et al., 2008; sakakibara et al., 2020). the work context scale is an inventory of the quantitative and qualitative workload, turnover intention and demographics of the response set. the demographic inventory allowed for the gathering of vital information related to age, race, gender, academic position, contract type, tuition workload, supervision workload, module workload, admin workload, turnover, job demands and job resources. these aforementioned variables are known to play a crucial role in burnout and engagement within the working context. as mentioned above, the bat consists of the core symptoms scale and the secondary symptoms scale. the core symptom ranges are represented in table 1. for the purpose of the core symptoms scores, low levels of burnout score less than or equal to 1.60 on the bat; moderate levels of burnout score between 1.61 and 2.40; and high levels of burnout are represented by a score of between 2.41 and 3.29. as for very high levels of burnout, respondents would have to score 3.30 and above for the bat core symptoms. table 1: burnout score ranges (core symptoms). table 2: burnout score ranges (secondary symptoms). for the purpose of the secondary symptoms scores, low levels of burnout score less than or equal to 1.70 on the bat; moderate levels of burnout score between 1.71 and 2.75; and high levels of burnout are represented by a score of between 2.76 and 3.50. as for very high levels of burnout, respondents would have to score 3.51 and above for the bat secondary symptoms. these include psychological complaints and psychosomatic complaints. in table 3, the norm scores for the uwes are provided. the scores are categorised into five categories based on the mean score of the scale or subscale. table 3: utrecht work engagement scale norm scores. vigour is classified as very low when it has a score below 2.00, low when it has a score of between 2.01 and 3.25, average when it has a score of between 3.26 and 4.80, high when it has a score of between 4.81 and 5.65 and very high when it has a score above 5.66. dedication is classified as very low when it has a score below 1.33, low when it has a score of between 1.34 and 2.90, average when it has a score of between 2.91 and 4.70, high when it has a score of between 4.71 and 5.69 and very high when it has a score above 5.70. absorption is classified as very low when it has a score below 1.17, low when it has a score of between 1.18 and 2.33, average when it has a score of between 2.34 and 4.20, high when it has a score of between 4.21 and 5.33 and very high when it has a score above 5.34. the total score is classified as very low when it has a score below 1.77, low when it has a score of between 1.78 and 2.88, average when it has a score of between 2.89 and 4.66, high when it has a score of between 4.67 and 5.50 and very high when it has a score above 5.51. these norms will be used to interpret the findings of this study. strategies employed to ensure data quality and integrity data were checked for outliers and errors. as the data were collected online, there were no data capturing errors to consider. to determine the reliability of the instruments used, reliability analysis using the cronbach’s alpha statistic was used. the bat had a cronbach’s alpha of 0.963, which suggests that the items within the instrument have high internal consistency. the core symptoms subscale had a cronbach’s alpha score of 0.951. the exhaustion subscale had a cronbach’s alpha score of 0.922. the mental distance subscale had a cronbach’s alpha score of 0.863. the cognitive impairment subscale had a cronbach’s alpha score of 0.903. the secondary symptoms subscale had a cronbach’s alpha of 0.891. psychological complaints subscale had a cronbach’s alpha of 0.825. the psychosomatic complaints subscale had a cronbach’s alpha of 0.823. the uwes consists of three subscales known as vigour, dedication and absorption. the vigour subscale consists of six items, dedication consists of five items and absorption consists of five items. the vigour subscale had a cronbach’s alpha of 0.816, which indicates a high level of internal consistency. the dedication subscale presented a cronbach’s alpha of 0.869, which is considered a high level of internal consistency. the absorption subscale presented a cronbach’s alpha of 0.830 which is considered a high level of internal consistency. data analysis descriptive statistics and measures of central tendency were used to analyse demographic items such as race, age, gender and position. scores from the uwes were summed up and averaged. scores for the bat were descriptively analysed using frequency counts, and this was followed up by a confirmatory factor analysis to determine whether the underlying factor structure compares to that of international samples. furthermore, inferential analysis was conducted to determine whether burnout predicts work engagement. ethical considerations an application for full ethical approval was made to the professional research committee research ethics workgroup (prc_rew) and ethical approval was received on 3 february 2021 (ref. no. 2021_prc_rew_001). the online platform used to collect data is iso 2700 and is general data protection regulation (gdpr) compliant, is password protected and has role-based access, which means that only the researchers had access to the raw data. no identifiable information was collected during data collection, and the instrument was distributed through the institutional information and communication technology (ict) department. consequently, the survey was completely anonymous, as the researchers did not have access to respondent contact information such as e-mails that would be identifiable. confidentiality was maintained by reporting responses at an aggregated level and by informing respondents upfront that the research would be used for reporting and publication purposes. during analysis, the data were stored on password-secured computers to which the researchers had exclusive access. results demographics in terms of the demographic profile of respondents, 54% of the respondents were white people, followed by 29% african respondents and 7% indian respondents. this was followed by 6% of respondents who chose not to answer, 3% who did not identify with the selection of race and 1% who consisted of mixed race respondents. as for gender, 68% consisted of female respondents, 29% were male and 3% decided not to answer. respondents tended to be older, with the majority of respondents in the category of 51–60 years of age (36%), followed by the age category of 41–50 (30%) and 31–40 years of age (26%), respectively, while 9% of the respondents were aged 61 and older. the majority of the sample consisted of senior lecturers (40%), followed by lecturers at 28%. associated professors were 16% of the sample, followed by full professors (14%) and junior lecturers at 2%. an overwhelming majority of the sample consisted of permanent staff members (99%), who were followed by contracted staff members, who only consisted of 1% of the sample. the number of modules taught per staff member was two modules for 32% of staff members, followed by one module (18%) and five or more modules (18%), respectively. approximately 16% taught three modules and 10% of respondents taught four modules. respondents who did not teach any modules represented 6% of the respondents. during the data-capturing process, respondents were asked to indicate their tuition workload in terms of student numbers. the majority (33%) of respondents indicated that they were responsible for 0–500 students, followed by 21% of respondents indicating that they were responsible for 4000+ students. approximately 19% of respondents were responsible for 501–1000 students, while 14% were responsible for 1000–2000 students. fourteen per cent of the responses consisted of those who were responsible for 2000–4000 students. respondents were asked to indicate the number of postgraduate students who they were responsible for supervising at the time. table 1 indicated that the mean number of students consisted of 6.09, with a minimum of 0 and a maximum number of 30. the large number of students reported is because of postgraduate cohort supervision. the standard deviation was 7.418. for the overall estimated workload per week, respondents were asked to estimate the number of hours a week they spent on work activities to indicate their overall workload. the mean score indicated 41.04 h, with a minimum score of 0 h and a maximum score of 120 h in a week. the standard deviation of the number of hours per week was 21.037. work-related burnout in terms of burnout with regard to the core symptoms among academic staff members, 47.6% of staff members could be classified with very high levels of burnout, followed by 39.5% of academic staff members who were classified as high in terms of burnout, while 12.2% of academic staff scored as average. there were no staff members who presented with low levels of burnout. in terms of the levels of exhaustion, 65% of respondents showed very high levels of exhaustion, 29% showed high levels and 6% indicated an average level of exhaustion. there were no staff presenting low levels of exhaustion. in terms of mental distance, 43.5% of the respondents indicated a high level of mental distance, 36.7% showed very high levels, 18.3% showed average levels of mental distance and 1.4% showed low levels. regarding cognitive impairment levels, 51% of respondents scored high in levels of cognitive impairment, and 25.2% presented with very high levels, followed by 23.1% who scored average in terms of cognitive impairment. only 0.7% of respondents scored low in terms of cognitive impairment. in terms of emotional impairment, 36.7% of academic staff indicated a high level of emotional impairment, 33.1% of respondents showed a very high level of emotional impairment, 25% showed an average level of emotional impairment and 5.8% of academic staff reported low levels of emotional impairment. in terms of burnout regarding secondary symptoms among academic staff members, 46.3% of staff members could be classified as having very high levels of burnout, followed by 32.7% of academic staff members that were classified as high in terms of burnout. seventeen per cent of academic staff scored as average. only 4.1% of academic staff members presented low levels of burnout. in terms of psychological complaints, 63.3% of respondents reported very high levels of psychological complaints, 23.1% reported a high score, 11% scored average and 2.7% of academic staff indicated a low level of psychological complaints. for psychosomatic complaints, 34% of the respondents scored high in terms of psychosomatic complaints, 31% scored very high, 28% of respondents scored average in terms of psychosomatic complaints and 7.5% scored low in terms of psychosomatic complaints. factor analysis prior to conducting inferential testing of the hypotheses of the study, it is necessary to determine whether the factor structures of the instruments align with findings in international studies. both the bat and the uwes met all the assumptions for factor analysis to take place. burnout assessment tool core symptoms no items were removed from the factor equation, as all items loaded. it should be noted that no items showed communalities below 0.5 and none were therefore removed from the factor analysis equations. the kaiser–meyer–olkin measure of sampling adequacy was 0.83, above the commonly recommended value of 0.6, and bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (χ2 [6] 272.19, p < 0.001). overall, the factor analysis and the item analysis indicated that four distinct factors lay beneath the surface of bat. the factor analysis component matrix showed that the core symptoms, namely the exhaustion, mental distance, cognitive impairment and emotional impairment subscales, loaded onto a single factor, burnout, which explained 72%, 11%, 8% and 7% of the variance, respectively. the factor structure for the bat therefore corroborates findings from other studies that indicated that these factors loaded onto a single factor (schaufeli et al., 2020). burnout assessment tool secondary symptoms no items were removed from the factor equation as all items were loaded. it should be noted that no items showed communalities below 0.5 and were therefore not removed from the factor analysis equations. the kaiser–meyer–olkin measure of sampling adequacy was 0.5, which indicates inadequate sampling for the chosen variables, psychological complaints and psychosomatic complaints. work engagement respondents were categorised into five categories that ranged from very low to very high for vigour, dedication and absorption. this enabled analysis of the trends and distribution of these variables among the population. for vigour, 4% showed very low levels of vigour, 17% showed low levels, 41.50% showed average levels, 18.4% showed high levels and 19% showed very high levels of vigour. for dedication, 4% indicated very low levels of dedication, 11.6% reported low levels, 45.6% reported average levels, 18.4% reported high levels and 20.4% reported very high levels of dedication. in terms of absorption levels, 0.7% reported very low levels, 8.8% reported low levels, 27.9% reported average levels, 27.2% reported high levels and 35.3% reported very high levels of absorption. factor analysis no items were removed from the factor equation as all items loaded. it should be noted that no items showed communalities below 0.5 and were therefore not removed from the factor analysis equations. the kaiser–meyer–olkin measure of sampling adequacy was 0.76, above the commonly recommended value of 0.6, and bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (χ2 [3] 330.489, p < 0.001). overall, the factor analysis and the item analysis indicated that three distinct factors, vigour, dedication and absorption, lay beneath the surface of the uwes scale, which explained 86%, 7% and 6% of the variance, respectively. the factor analysis component matrix that showed that vigour, dedication and absorption loaded onto a single factor, which suggests a unidimensional construct known as work engagement. hypothesis testing in this section, the outcomes of the hypotheses testing are reported. the section is structured around two hypotheses: hypothesis 1: race, age, gender, current position, module amount, tuition workload, supervision, admin workload, and research workload positively predict burnout symptoms the multiple regression equation predicting whether race, age, gender, current position, module amount, tuition workload and supervision positively predict burnout within distance education academic staff members was conducted after all assumptions were met. statistically, the independent variables significantly predict the dependent variable, f(11, 110) = 4.011, p < 0.0001, r = 0.535, r2 = 0.286, r2adjusted = 0.215. the r2 indicates the proportion of variance, which can be predicted by the independent variables. in this case, r2 = 0.286, which indicates that the model explains 29% of the variance in burnout. observing the regression coefficients for the multiple variable, it can be seen that the only variables in the model that seem to be significant (p < 0.05) are those of race (p = 0.048), gender (p ≤ 0.001), current position (p = 0.028) and admin workload (p = 0.007). this indicates that for every one-point increase in current position, there is a 9% increase in burnout. gender was coded 1 for male and 2 for female, which indicates that for each point increase in the variable gender, there is a 33% increase in burnout. to further test whether the gender differences were significant, a mann–whitney u test was conducted. the results indicate a significant difference between groups (u = 1252, p ≤ 0.001), indicating that gender does play a significant role in workplace burnout risk. to test for significant differences in burnout scores by position, a kruskal–wallis h test was conducted that showed that there was a statistically significant difference in burnout scores between the different positions, x2(5) = 12.815, p = 0.025, with a mean burnout score of 45.11 for full professors, 74.30 for associate professors, 71.11 for senior lecturers or researchers, 83.33 for lecturers or researchers and 30.50 for junior lecturers or researchers: hypothesis 2: burnout symptoms negatively predict work engagement inferential statistical analysis was conducted to determine whether burnout negatively predicts work engagement. statistically, the independent variables significantly predict the dependent variable, f(1, 145) = 104.53 p < 0.0001, r = 0.647, r2 = 0.419, r2adjusted = 0.415. in this case, r2 = 0.287, which indicates that the model explains 29% of the variance in burnout. the regression coefficient for burnout symptoms (b = −0.1.15, p ≤ 0.001) means that for each point increase in burnout symptoms, there is a decrease in work engagement of 1.15. discussion this study aimed to investigate the prevalence of burnout symptoms and work engagement among odel academic staff members during the covid-19 pandemic. a secondary aim was to establish what relationship, if any, exists between burnout, descriptive variables of staff and work engagement. the purpose of this investigation was to proactively identify and support odel academic staff members who were at risk of burnout. the findings of the study show that there are high to very high levels of burnout within the odel academic staff member population; findings suggest that a total of 75% of staff does, in fact, fall within the parameters of being highly or very highly burnt out. this was evident through the descriptive statistics that indicated 40% of staff experienced a high level of burnout, while 35% of staff scored very high when it comes to burnout. these findings are in line with the findings of hoffman et al. (2020), who found that the rate of burnout among staff was 40%. burnout was also more prevalent among associate professors and senior lecturers, a finding which is supported by the findings of dinu et al. (2021), who found that workload increased with seniority, thus increasing risk of burnout. according to koga (2021), assistant (associate) professors are expected to do more research in order to be promoted; they were also the most involved in administrative tasks, placing a greater burden on them. in line with previous literature, women were more likely to experience burnout than their male counterparts. this finding may be as a result of the job characteristics female academics face, where they are more likely to take on a higher administrative workload than their male counterparts (koga et al., 2021). furthermore, these results corroborate those of gewin (2021), where pandemic-related burnout increased by 41% between 2019 and 2020 among female faculty members. while overall workload, tuition workload and supervision workload did not significantly predict burnout, administrative workload did. with the massification of higher education, alongside the increase in managerialism within institutions, faculties are expected to take on more administrative and management duties (naidoo-chetty & plessis, 2021). while these expectations preceded the pandemic, it is likely that the administrative workload, particularly among senior lecturers and associate professors, was exacerbated by the shift to online learning and the planning and reporting requirements generated by the rapid change in conditions. this is interesting in light of the fact that exhaustion explained 72% of the variance observed in core burnout symptoms among the sample, suggesting that academic staff are unable to sustain the pace required to keep the teaching and learning processes functional under current conditions. the implication of this is that there is a need to develop clear policies and procedures regarding online or hybrid learning, hybrid or wfh arrangements to accommodate the changes wrought by the pandemic with a view to long-term sustainability, as burnout cannot be recovered by short periods of rest but by substantive lifestyle changes. the findings also showed that burnout negatively affects work engagement, which could negatively impact productivity and ability to effectively engage with one’s work (bakker & costa, 2014). the implication of this finding is that universities need to carefully consider developing transparent workload models to ensure fair distribution of work and effectively plan staffing to ensure sufficient capacity to prevent burnout, which can have long-term effects on individual health (sakakibara et al., 2020). limitations and recommendations the primary limitation of this study is that it exclusively focused on the work environment and workload. the relatively low variance explained by burnout symptoms provides a clear indication that other factors play a role in the development of burnout symptoms. remote working conditions, which were not measured in this study, may have played a key role in the development of burnout symptoms, particularly for those who do not have optimal conditions for working (such as sharing spaces, caring for parents or children) or who do not have the necessary infrastructure to effectively perform at their job functions. the study was conducted at an institution that had been involved in distance education for a substantial amount of time. the shift to fully online education was therefore not as jarring as it may have been at contact institutions. studies examining the impact of emergency remote teaching, particularly the long-term effects thereof, would contribute greatly to understanding the true impact of the pandemic on higher education teaching staff. conclusion during the process of transitioning workspaces and the complex pressures that accompany a pandemic when it comes to odel teaching and learning, burnout risk will persist among the odel academic staff population unless dealt with accordingly. the findings of this study indicated that there are both high and very high levels of burnout within odel academic staff members. considering the long-term impact of burnout on performance and employee health, it is imperative that more integrated approaches towards workload allocation that are transparent and take a gendered view of workload distribution are developed to not only prevent future burnout but aid in the long recovery process among those currently experiencing burnout. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions a.f. conceptualised the study and developed the proposal, conducted data collection and drafted the initial manuscript. h.d.v.d.w. contributed to the proposal and conducted data analysis as well as contributing to the manuscript. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability special permission should be granted from the institution in order to gain access to data. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references babic, a., gillis, n., & hansez, i. (2020). work-to-family interface and well-being: the role of workload, emotional load, support and recognition from supervisors. sa journal of industrial psychology, 46(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v46i0.1628 bakker, a.b., & costa, p.l. (2014). chronic job burnout and daily functioning: a theoretical analysis. burnout research, 1(3), 112–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burn.2014.04.003 bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & verbeke, w. (2004). using the job demands-resources model to predict burnout and performance. human resource management, 43(1), 83–104. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20004 bakker, a.b., schaufeli, w.b., leiter, m.p., & taris, t.w. (2008). work engagement: an emerging concept in occupational health psychology. work and stress, 22(3), 187–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802393649 banda, b.c., & malinga, w. (2021). coronavirus (covid-19) and women in higher education in a south african university: academic and social implications. african journal of gender, society and development (formerly journal of gender, information and development in africa), 10(1), 7–34. https://doi.org/10.31920/2634-3622/2021/v10n1a1 berthelsen, h., hakanen, j.j., & westerlund, h. (2018). copenhagen psychosocial questionnaire – a validation study using the job demand-resources model. plos one, 13(4), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0196450 byrne, m., chughtai, a., flood, b., murphy, e., & willis, p. (2013). burnout among accounting and finance academics in ireland. international journal of educational management, 27(2), 127–142. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513541311297513 daneshfar, z., asokan-ajitha, a., sharma, p., & malik, a. (2022). work-from-home (wfh) during covid-19 pandemic – a netnographic investigation using twitter data. information technology and people. https://doi.org/10.1108/itp-01-2021-0020 darabi, m., macaskill, a., & reidy, l. (2017). a qualitative study of the uk academic role: positive features, negative aspects and associated stressors in a mainly teaching-focused university. journal of further and higher education, 41(4), 566–580. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877x.2016.1159287 demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., nachreiner, f., & ebbinghaus, m. (2002). from mental strain to burnout. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 11(4), 423–441. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320244000274 dinu, l.m., dommett, e.j., baykoca, a., mehta, k.j., everett, s., foster, j.l.h., & byrom, n.c. (2021). a case study investigating mental wellbeing of university academics during the covid-19 pandemic. education sciences, 11(11), 702. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11110702 gewin, v. (2021). pandemic burnout is rampant in academia. nature, 591, 491–493. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00663-2 gorczynski, p.f., hill, d., rathod, s., & gorczyns-ki, p.f. (2017). examining the construct validity of the transtheoretical model to structure workplace physical activity interventions to improve mental health in academic staff. ems community medicine journal, 2017(1), 2. hakanen, j.j., & bakker, a.b. (2017). born and bred to burn out : a life-course view and reflections on job burnout. journal of occupational health psychology, 22(3), 354–364. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000053 hofer, s.i., nistor, n., & scheibenzuber, c. (2021). online teaching and learning in higher education: lessons learned in crisis situations. computers in human behavior, 121, 106789. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106789 hoffman, k.e., garner, d., koong, a.c., & woodward, w.a. (2020). understanding the intersection of working from home and burnout to optimize post-covid19 work arrangements in radiation oncology. international journal of radiation oncology biology physics, 108(2), 370–373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrobp.2020.06.062 iwu, c.g., okeke-uzodike, o.e., anwana, e., iwu, c.h., & esambe, e.e. (2022). experiences of academics working from home during covid-19: a qualitative view from selected south african universities. challenges, 13(1), 16. https://doi.org/10.3390/challe13010016 jackson, s.e., schwab, r.l., & schuler, r.s. (1998). toward an understanding of the burnout phenomenon. journal of applied psychology, 71(4), 630–640. jawahar, i.m., stone, t.h., & kisamore, j.l. (2007). role conflict and burnout: the direct and moderating effects of political skill and perceived organizational support on burnout dimensions. international journal of stress management, 14(2), 142–159. https://doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.14.2.142 koga, g.k.c., melanda, f.n., santos, h.g., sant’anna, f.l., gonzález, a.d., mesas, a.e., & andrade, s.m. (2015). fatores associados a piores níveis de burnout em professores da educação básica. cadernos saúde coletiva, 23(3), 268–275. https://www.scielo.br/pdf/cadsc/v23n3/1414-462x-cadsc-23-3-268.pdf koga, s.m.n., beaupre-lavallee, a., & begin-caoette, o. (2021). accountability measures in higher education and academic workload: a ten-year comparison. brock education: a journal of educational research and practice, 30(2), 116–136. https://doi.org/10.26522/brocked.v30i2.872 lei, w., li, j., li, y., castaño, g., yang, m., & zou, b. (2020). the boundary conditions under which teaching–research conflict leads to university teachers’ job burnout. studies in higher education, 46(2), 406–422. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2020.1811218 leiter, m.p., & maslach, c. (2017). burnout and engagement: contributions to a new vision. burnout research, 5, 55–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burn.2017.04.003 lekutle, m., & nel, j.a. (2012). psychometric evaluation of the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) and oldenburg burnout inventory (olbi) within a cement factory. journal of psychology in africa, 22(4), 641–647. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2012.10820580 lesener, t., gusy, b., & wolter, c. (2019). the job demands-resources model: a meta-analytic review of longitudinal studies. work and stress, 33(1), 76–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2018.1529065 littlejohn, a., gourlay, l., kennedy, e., logan, k., neumann, t., oliver, m., potter, j., & rode, j.a. (2021). moving teaching online: cultural barriers experienced by university teachers during covid-19. journal of interactive media in education, 2021(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.5334/jime.631 maslach, c. (2003). job burnout: new directions in research and intervention. current directions in psychological science, 12(5), 189–192. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.01258 maslach, c., schaufeli, w.b., & leiter, m.p. (2001). job burnout. annual review of psychology, 52, 397–422. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397 microsoft. (2022). great expectations: making hybrid work work cusp of the shift to. molino, m., ingusci, e., signore, f., manuti, a., giancaspro, m.l., russo, v., zito, m., & cortese, c.g. (2020). wellbeing costs of technology use during covid-19 remote working: an investigation using the italian translation of the technostress creators scale. sustainability, 12(15), 5911. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12155911 mostert, k., pienaar, j., gauche, c., & jackson, l. (2007). burnout and engagement in university students: a psychometric analysis of the mbi-ss and uwes-s. south african journal of higher education, 21(1), 147–162. https://doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v21i1.25608 naidoo-chetty, m., & du plessis, m. (2021). systematic review of the job demands and resources of academic staff within higher education institutions. international journal of higher education, 10(3), 268. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v10n3p268 reznichenko, g., musingwini, c., yilmaz, h., & cawood, f. (2008). a perspective on university academic workload measurement. acta academica, 40(2), 153–179. robson, l., gardner, b., & dommett, e.j. (2022). the post-pandemic lecture: views from academic staff across the uk. education sciences, 12(2), 123. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12020123 sabagh, z., hall, n.c., & saroyan, a. (2018). antecedents, correlates and consequences of faculty burnout. educational research, 60(2), 131–156. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2018.1461573 sakakibara, k., shimazu, a., toyama, h., & schaufeli, w.b. (2020). validation of the japanese version of the burnout assessment tool. frontiers in psychology, 11, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01819 schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a. (2004). utrecht work engagement scale preliminary manual version 1.1. ku leuven, belgium: utrecht unpublished internal report. schaufeli, w.b., de witte, h., & desart, s. (2019). manual burnout assessment tool (bat) – version 2.0. ku leuven, belgium: utrecht unpublished internal report. schaufeli, w.b., leiter, m.p., & maslach, c. (2008). burnout: 35 years of research and practice. career development international, 14(3), 204–220. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430910966406 schaufeli, w.b., & taris, t.w. (2005). the conceptualization and measurement of burnout: common ground and worlds apart. work and stress, 19(3), 256–262. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370500385913 schwarzer, r., schmitz, g.s., & tang, c. (2000). teacher burnout in hong kong and germany: a cross-cultural validation of the maslach burnout inventory. anxiety, stress and coping, 13(3), 309–326. https://doi.org/10.1080/10615800008549268 taris, t.w., schreurs, p.j.g., & van iersel-van silfhout, i.j. (2001). job stress, job strain, and psychological withdrawal among dutch university staff: towards a dual-process model for the effects of occupational stress. work and stress, 15(4), 283–296. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370110084049 van den broeck, a., vansteenkiste, m., de witte, h., & lens, w. (2008). explaining the relationships between job characteristics, burnout, and engagement: the role of basic psychological need satisfaction. work and stress, 22(3), 277–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802393672 van niekerk, r.l., & van gent, m.m. (2021). mental health and well-being of university staff during the coronavirus disease 2019 levels 4 and 5 lockdown in an eastern cape university, south africa. south african journal of psychiatry, 27, 1589. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajpsychiatry.v27i0.1589 watts, j., & robertson, n. (2011). burnout in university teaching staff: a systematic literature review. educational research, 53(1), 33–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2011.552235 yousefi, m., & abdullah, a.g.k. (2019). the impact of organizational stressors on job performance among academic staff. international journal of instruction, 12(3), 561–576. https://doi.org/10.29333/iji.2019.12334a 183---12 nov 2009 [final version].indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #183 (page number not for citation purposes) the validation of the minnesota job satisfaction questionnaire in selected organisations in south africa authors: johanna h. buitendach2 sebastiaan rothmann1,2 affi liations: 1school of behavioural sciences, north-west university, south africa 2department of human sciences, university of namibia, namibia correspondence to: sebastiaan rothmann e-mail: ian@ianrothmann.com keywords: job satisfaction; happiness; positive emotional reactions; positive attitude; well-being dates: received: 08 aug. 2008 accepted: 23 jan. 2009 published: 15 may 2009 how to cite this article: buitendach, j.h., & rothmann, s. (2009). the validation of the minnesota job satisfaction questionnaire in selected organisations in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/ sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), art. #183, 8 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.183 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons att ribution license. abstract the objectives of this study were to assess the construct equivalence of the minnesota job satisfaction questionnaire (msq), and to investigate the manifestation of job satisfaction at selected organisations in south africa. a cross-sectional survey design with a random sample (n = 474) was used. the msq and a biographical questionnaire were administered. the results confi rmed a two-factor model of job satisfaction, consisting of extrinsic job satisfaction and intrinsic job satisfaction. exploratory factor analysis with target rotations confi rmed the construct equivalence of scales for the black and white groups. the results obtained from comparing job satisfaction levels of various demographic groups showed that practically signifi cant differences existed between the job satisfaction of different age and race groups. introduction job satisfaction is an important research topic in industrial and organisational psychology. warr (2007) regards job satisfaction as one important dimension of an individual’s happiness at work. rothmann (2008) points out that job satisfaction is one component of the work-related well-being that should be included in diagnostic studies of people’s well-being in organisations. much of the research regarding job satisfaction has been based on the assumption that job satisfaction is a potential determinant of absenteeism, turnover, in-role job performance and extra-role behaviours, and also that the primary antecedents of job attitudes are within management’s ability to infl uence (oshagbemi, 2003). the topic of job satisfaction is also important for individuals. it is relevant to the physical and mental well-being of employees. work is an important aspect of people’s lives and most people spend a large part of their time at work; therefore, job satisfaction shows signifi cant associations with several variables (yousef, 2000). for instance, it has positive associations with life satisfaction (judge, boudreau & bretz, 1994) and organisational commitment (fletcher & williams, 1996). according to sarker, crossman and chinmeteepituck (2003), a sizeable amount of work in the job satisfaction literature has been devoted to developing conceptual and operational defi nitions of job satisfaction, including overall or general job satisfaction and satisfaction with facets such as the work itself, co-workers, supervision, remuneration, working conditions and opportunities for promotion. in general, job satisfaction refers to an individual’s positive emotional reactions to a particular job. it is an affective reaction to a job that results from a person’s comparison of actual outcomes with those that are desired, anticipated or deserved (oshagbemi, 1999). according to robbins (2003, p. 72), job satisfaction refers ‘to an individual’s general attitude toward his or her job’. a person with a high level of job satisfaction holds a positive attitude about the job, while a person who is dissatisfi ed with his or her job holds negative attitudes about the job. since job satisfaction involves employees’ affective or emotional response, it has major consequences on their lives. locke (1976, p. 1311) describes the most common consequences of job satisfaction in terms of its effects on physical health, longevity and mental health, and the impact it has on interaction between employees and the feelings of employees toward their jobs and social lives. coster (1992) supports the fact that work can have an important effect on the total quality of life of the employee, behaviour such as absenteeism, complaints and grievances, frequent labour unrest and termination of employment (locke, 1976; visser, breed & van breda, 1997). the fi rst objective of this study was to determine the psychometric properties of the minnesota job satisfaction (msq) for workers in selected organisations in south africa. the second objective was to determine whether the levels of job satisfaction of employees differ in terms of demographic variables such as age, gender and race. job satisfaction job satisfaction can be described as an affective or emotional reaction to the job, resulting from the incumbent’s comparison of actual outcomes with the required outcomes (cranny, smith & stone, 1992; hirschfeld, 2000; locke, 1976). schneider and snyder (1975) defi ne job satisfaction as a personal evaluation of conditions present in the job, or outcomes that arise as a result of having a job. weiss, dawis, england and lofquist (1967) explain this comparison by stating that employees seek to achieve and maintain correspondence with their environment. this can be described in terms of the individual fulfi lling the requirements of the environment, and the environment fulfi lling the requirements of the individual (cook, hepworth, wall & warr, 1981). this means that employees will experience job satisfaction if they feel that their individual capacities, experience and values can be organised in their work environment, and that the work environment offers them opportunities and rewards (dawis, 1992; roberts & roseanne, 1998). job satisfaction thus has to do with an individual’s perceptions and evaluation of his job, and this perception is infl uenced by the person’s unique circumstances such as needs, values and expectations. 1vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 8 original research buitendach & rothmann sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 18 3 (page number not for citation purposes) one presumable advantage of multidimensional measures of job satisfaction is that the components may relate differently to other variables of interest in a manner that advances the science and practice of industrial/organisational psychology (hirschfeld, 2000). spector (1997) identified the 20-item short form of the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire (msq) (weiss et al., 1967) as a popular measure that is frequently used in job satisfaction research. one advantageous feature of the msq short form is that it can be used to measure two distinct components: intrinsic job satisfaction and extrinsic job satisfaction. intrinsic job satisfaction refers to how people feel about the nature of the job tasks themselves; extrinsic job satisfaction refers to how people feel about aspects of the work situation that are external to the job tasks or work itself (spector, 1997). evidence exists supporting some degree of discriminant validity between these two components of job satisfaction in their relationships with other relevant variables (hirschfeld, 2000). results of a study by moorman (1993) suggest that intrinsic job satisfaction has an affective basis, whereas extrinsic job satisfaction does not. intrinsic job satisfaction seems to be influenced to a greater degree by genetic factors than extrinsic job satisfaction (bouchard, 1997). although there exists empirical evidence involving the msq short-form subscales that it is consistent with the theoretical distinction between extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction (e.g. arvey, mccail, bouchard, taubman & cavanaugh, 1994), many researchers have suggested that assigning msq shortform items to extrinsic and intrinsic subscales as specified by the msq manual (weiss et al., 1967) results in lower construct validity (e.g. arvey, dewhirst & brown, 1978; spector, 1997). schriesheim, powers, scandura, gardinez and lakou (1993) conducted a content adequacy assessment of the msq shortform intrinsic and extrinsic subscales. these subscales initially were constructed through an empirical approach that relied on factor analytic results (weiss et al., 1967). on the basis of their analysis, schriesheim et al. (1993) concluded that the content adequacy of the original msq short-form subscales is questionable. job satisfaction among employees is also an important factor and concern for company managers, since it refers, to a certain extent, to the degree to which employees like (or dislike) their jobs (taormina, 1999). lower levels of job satisfaction have also been found to be related to turnover intentions (berman & nevo, 1994) and low organisational commitment (soler, 1998). south africa is a multicultural society. according to van de vijver and leung (1997), measurement equivalence should be computed for measuring instruments in any multicultural setting where individuals from different cultural groups are compared in terms of a specific construct. this is particularly relevant where no norms exist for different cultural groups, which is often the case in cross-cultural research. in line with the recommendations of van de vijver and leung (1997), measurement equivalence should be tested for a multicultural context where differences in scores could be attributed to cultural influences in terms of item meaning and understanding, rather than differences resulting from the measuring constructs by the measuring instruments. if cultural influences are not accounted for, invalid conclusions regarding the constructs under study could be made with serious implications for culturally diverse settings such as south africa. the following hypothesis is formulated based on the discussion above: h1: job satisfaction, as measured by the msq, is a twodimensional construct with acceptable levels of construct equivalence and internal consistency for each of its subscales. demographic variables and job satisfaction research has shown that demographic factors can affect job satisfaction (heslop, smith, metcalfe & macleod, 2002; locke, people will therefore evaluate their jobs on the basis of factors which they regard as being important to them (sempane, rieger & roodt, 2002). employees who are satisfied with their jobs are likely to be better ambassadors for the organisation and show more organisational commitment (agho, price & mueller, 1992). according to rothmann and agathagelou (2000), job satisfaction is a complex variable and is influenced by situational factors of the job environment, as well as dispositional characteristics of an individual. locke (1976) found that in order for researchers to understand job attitudes, they need to understand job dimensions which are complex and interrelated in nature. he mentions the common aspects of job satisfaction such as ‘work, pay, promotions, recognition, benefits, working conditions, supervision, co-workers, company and management’ (locke, 1976, p.1302). later research has shown that these different aspects can be arranged according to two dimensions: an intrinsic versus an extrinsic one (hirschfeld, 2000; spector, 1997). extrinsic satisfaction refers to satisfaction with aspects that have little to do with the job tasks or content of the work itself, such as pay, working conditions and co-workers. intrinsic satisfaction refers to the job tasks themselves (e.g. variety and autonomy). when people were asked what they want most from their jobs, the typical answers were mutual respect among co-workers, recognition for work well done, opportunities to develop skills and that the work should be interesting. people will be satisfied with their jobs when they enjoy their work, have a realistic opportunity to advance in the company, like the people they deal with, like and respect their supervisors and believe that their pay is fair (kleiman, 1997). for the purpose of this research, job satisfaction is defined as a positive or an affective function of the perceived relationship between what one wants from one’s job and what one perceives as offered. one of the arguments often brought against theories of job satisfaction is that they take little account of differences between people (oshagbemi, 2003). what is wanted by one group of individuals in terms of a job is often different from what is wanted by another group. personal correlates of job satisfaction have become a recent focus of at least some researchers’ interest (hickson & oshagbemi, 1999). what seems to be lacking according to oshagbemi (2003) is a fairly comprehensive approach to examine, in a single study, personal correlates of job satisfaction specifically looking at the influence of gender, age, and length of service. the search for an understanding of the causes of job satisfaction is an ongoing area of interest for social scientists and managers, the premise being that satisfied workers will be more productive and remain with the organisation longer, whereas dissatisfied workers will be less productive and are more inclined to quit (sarker, crossman & chinmeteepituck, 2003). recent research has investigated differences in job satisfaction levels according to age (ang, goh & koh, 1993; hickson & oshagbemi, 1999; luthans & thomas, 1989; oshagbemi, 1999) or tenure (oshagbemi, 2000). gardner and oswald (2002) found in their research that job level and qualifications were related to job satisfaction. gardner and oswald (2002) further indicated that job satisfaction differed between blacks and whites. measurement of job satisfaction job satisfaction has been conceptualised and operationalised as both a global construct and a multifaceted construct (hirschfeld, 2000). basically there are two types of job satisfaction measures: single-question versus multiple-item measures. single-question measures typically ask a question such as: ‘on the whole, would you say you are satisfied or dissatisfied with your job?’ (quinn, staines & mccullough, 1974). 2 vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 8 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #183 (page number not for citation purposes) job satisfaction questionnaire in selected organisations in south africa 3 1976; ting, 1997). petty, brewer and brown (2005) mentioned that although focusing on employee demographics shifts the burden away from the organisation to the employee, it has been important to study how demographic variables have affected job satisfaction so that a complete understanding of the concept can be gained. the relationships between three demographic variables, namely age, gender and race are relevant for the purposes of this study. regarding age and job satisfaction, clark (1996) pointed out that a u-shape relationship exists between age and job satisfaction. this is attributed to higher morale shown by younger workers, lower job satisfaction of middle-age workers (who often perceive less opportunities and have unmet expectations) and higher job satisfaction of older workers who have accepted the realities of their jobs and roles. mack (2000) and ting (1997) indicated that job satisfaction increased with age. however, other researchers have not found a relationship between age and job satisfaction (moak, 1992; niblock, 1992). the following hypothesis is formulated regarding the relationship between age and job satisfaction: h2: age groups differ significantly regarding their levels of job satisfaction. differences between gender and job satisfaction also have been evident (brief & weiss, 2002; kellough, 1990). while some studies (e.g. moak, 1992; pugliesi, 1995) found no relationship between gender and job satisfaction, other studies have shown that women are more satisfied with their jobs than men (mcduff, 2001; wharton, 1993). this might be related to perceived better opportunities for women in organisations (see also souza-poza & souza-poza, 2000). the following hypothesis is formulated regarding the relationship between gender and job satisfaction: h3: males and females differ significantly regarding their levels of job satisfaction. wharton (1993) found that white employees are more satisfied with their jobs than black employees. clark (1996) reported that blacks experience lower levels of job satisfaction compared to whites. this can be attributed to the fact that blacks often find themselves in work situations which are not conducive to job satisfaction. the following hypothesis is formulated regarding the relationship between race and job satisfaction: h4: race groups differ significantly regarding their levels of job satisfaction. research design research approach a cross-sectional survey design was used. cross-sectional designs are appropriate where groups of subjects at various stages of development are studied simultaneously, whereby the survey technique of data collection gathers information from the target population by means of questionnaires (burns & grove, 1993). research method participants a convenient sample of employees at selected organisations in south africa was used. the sample consisted of employees in the following organisations: a parastatal organisation (maintenance workers) (n = 178); a packaging organisation (n = 118); a mining organisation (n = 120); and employees in the chemical industry (n = 58). descriptive information of the sample is indicated in table 1. table 1 characteristics of the participants item category frequency percentage age 24 years and younger 29 6.1 25–35 years 115 24.3 36–45 years 205 43.2 46–55 years 100 21.1 56 years and older 25 5.3 gender male 403 85 female 71 15 race black 159 33.5 white 127 26.8 missing 188 39.7 as indicated in table 1, the highest age distribution is between the age groups 36–45 years of age. this is an indication that the employees are relatively in the middle of their working life. more males (85%) than females (15%) participated in the research. measuring instrument the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire (msq) was used to gather data about the job satisfaction of participants. the msq consists of 20 items (spector, 1997) and uses a 5-point likerttype response format. the msq comprises of two distinct components: intrinsic job satisfaction measures feelings about the nature of the job tasks. for example, question 15 covers: ‘the freedom to use my own judgement’. extrinsic job satisfaction measures feelings about situational job aspects, external to the job. for example, question 13 covers: ‘my pay and the amount of work i do’ (spector, 1997). test-retest reliabilities of between 0.70 and 0.80 are reported (cook et al., 1981), with an alpha coefficient of 0.96 (rothmann, scholtz, fourie & rothmann, 2000). a biographical questionnaire was used to measure the biographical variables included in the study. research procedure fieldworkers administered hard copies of the questionnaires to participants in the different organisations. the copies of the questionnaires were collected directly after they had been completed anonymously by the participants. the fieldworkers explained to the participants that the questionnaires would be treated confidentially. statistical analysis the statistical analysis was carried out with the spss program, 12.0 (spss, 2003). in the first step, means and standard deviations, skewness and kurtosis were determined to describe the data. the reliability and construct equivalence of the msq were determined by means of cronbach’s alpha coefficients as well as exploratory factor analysis. exploratory factor analysis with a procrustean target rotation was used to determine the construct equivalence of the msq for the different culture groups (van de vijver & leung, 1997). according to van de vijver and leung (1997), the comparison between the similarities of the factor structure of two cultural groups could be underestimated due to the arbitrary spatial allocation of factors during factor analysis. rather, it is suggested that target rotation be conducted prior to comparing the factor solutions of cultural groups by rotating the factor loading matrices with regards to each other in order to organise the agreement between the factors. during this process, one group vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 8 original research buitendach & rothmann sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 18 3 (page number not for citation purposes) table 2 pattern matrix of the msq item blacks item whites factor 1 (extrinsic) factor 2 (intrinsic) factor 1 (extrinsic) factor 2 (intrinsic) msq1 -0.02 0.50 msq1 0.01 0.70 msq2 -0.27 0.71 msq2 0.24 0.86 msq3 -0.04 0.81 msq3 0.11 0.76 msq4 0.065 0.56 msq4 -0.15 0.59 msq5 0.68 0.01 msq5 0.67 0.25 msq6 0.58 0.00 msq6 0.55 0.36 msq7 0.09 0.32 msq7 -0.04 0.45 msq8 0.33 0.47 msq8 0.44 -0.11 msq9 0.20 0.52 msq9 -0.14 0.54 msq10 0.17 0.61 msq10 -0.23 0.47 msq11 0.21 0.68 msq11 -0.38 0.48 msq12 0.66 0.20 msq12 -0.60 0.23 msq13 0.68 -0.15 msq13 0.65 0.10 msq14 0.67 0.08 msq14 0.59 0.13 msq15 0.73 0.09 msq15 -0.12 0.72 msq16 0.73 0.08 msq16 -0.02 0.76 msq17 0.75 0.00 msq17 0.47 -.0.88 msq18 0.59 -0.07 msq18 -0.24 -0.72 msq19 0.65 0.03 msq19 0.14 -0.69 msq20 0.49 0.32 msq20 0.43 -0.44 table 3 pattern matrix for the adapted msq item blacks item whites factor 1 (extrinsic) factor 2 (intrinsic) factor 1 (extrinsic) factor 2 (intrinsic) msq1 0.00 0.48 msq1 0.29 0.62 msq2 -0.29 0.70 msq2 0.46 0.56 msq3 -0.06 0.82 msq3 0.36 0.59 msq4 0.04 0.57 msq4 0.19 0.67 msq5 0.70 0.02 msq5 0.79 -0.23 msq6 0.61 0.00 msq6 0.79 -0.09 msq7 0.13 0.30 msq7 0.33 0.47 msq8 0.36 0.46 msq8 0.28 0.51 msq9 0.18 0.54 msq9 0.13 0.60 msq10 0.12 0.64 msq10 -0.00 0.61 msq11 0.19 0.69 msq11 -0.08 0.74 msq12 0.65 0.23 msq12 0.71 -0.25 msq13 0.69 -0.14 msq13 0.64 -0.31 msq14 0.65 0.11 msq14 0.60 -0.32 msq17 0.75 0.03 msq17 0.75 0.03 msq18 0.60 -0.05 msq18 0.38 -0.54 msq19 0.64 0.05 msq19 0.70 -0.32 table 4 descriptive statistics and alpha coefficients of the msq item mean sd skewness kurtosis a extrinsic job satisfaction 26.54 7.28 -0.30 -0.53 0.82 intrinsic job satisfaction 43.35 8.81 -0.45 -0.22 0.79 total job satisfaction 53.78 10.81 -0.37 -0.11 0.86 is arbitrarily assigned the target group and the factor loadings of the other group rotated towards the target group to form a common factor including matrix. factorial agreement between the two groups is then estimated with tucker’s coefficient of agreement (tucker’s phi). values higher than 0.95 are deemed to be evident of factorial equivalence across different cultural groups (van de vijver & leung, 1997), whereas values lower than 0.90 (van de vijver & poortinga, 1994) indicate that the factor structure is not invariant. multivariate analysis of variance (manova) was used to determine the significance of difference between job satisfaction (extrinsic and intrinsic) of demographic groups. manova tests whether mean differences among groups on a combination of dependent variables are likely to have occurred by chance (tabachnick & fidell, 2001). in manova, a new dependent that maximises group differences is created from the set of dependent variables. one-way analysis of variance is then performed on the newly created dependent variable. wilk’s lambda was used to test the significance of the effects. wilk’s lambda is a likelihood ratio statistic of the data under the assumption of equal population mean vectors for all groups against the likelihood under the assumption that the population mean vectors are identical to those of the sample mean vectors for the different groups. when an effect was significant in manova, anova was used to discover which dependent variables were affected. because multiple anovas were used, a bonferroni type adjustment was made for inflated type 1 error. tukey tests were done to indicate which groups differed significantly when anovas were done. effect sizes (cohen, 1988; steyn, 1999) were used in addition to statistical significance to determine the significance of relationships. effect sizes indicate whether obtained results are important (while statistical significance may often show results which are of little practical relevance). the following formula was used to determine the practical significance of differences (d) when anova was used (steyn, 1999): d = meana – meanb / root mse where mean a = mean of the first group mean b = mean of the second group root mse = root mean square error a cut-off point of 0.50 (medium effect) (cohen, 1988) was set for the practical significance of differences between means. results a simple principal component analysis was conducted on the 20 items of the msq on the total sample of workers at selected organisations in south africa. analysis of eigenvalues (larger than 1) and the scree plot indicated that two factors could be extracted. next, a principal factor analysis with direct oblimin rotation was used in carrying out factor analyses per race group. the pattern matrices for blacks and whites are reported in table 2. the pattern matrices of the two-factor solutions for blacks and whites were used as input for an exploratory factor analysis with target rotations. the two-factor structure was compared across groups by rotating one solution to the other. after target rotation, the following tucker’s phi coefficients were obtained: a) factor 1 = 0.91; factor 2 = 0.86. although the tucker’s phi coefficient for factor 1 compared well with the guideline of 0.90, it is clear that factor 2 showed an unacceptable low equivalence for the two race groups. 4 vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 8 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #183 (page number not for citation purposes) job satisfaction questionnaire in selected organisations in south africa 5 table 5 manova of job satisfaction of age groups value f df dendf p age 0.90 6.32 8 914 0.00* * statistically significant difference: p<0.01 the specific items that were problematic included item 15, reading, ‘the freedom to use my own judgement’, and item 16, reading ‘the chance to try my own methods of doing the job’. it was decided to remove these two items, because they load differently for the two races. item 20, reading, ‘the feeling of accomplishment i get from the job’, is according to hirschfeld (2000) an intrinsic item, and in this study it loads on the extrinsic subscale and it was therefore removed. the pattern matrices of the revised two-factor solutions for blacks and whites were again used as input for an exploratory factor analysis with target rotations (see table 3). the following tucker’s phi coefficients were obtained: a) factor 1 = 0.95; factor 2 = 0.95. these coefficients compare favourably with the guideline of 0.90. this finding provides support for hypothesis 1 that the msq is a construct equivalent measuring instrument for the different culture groups in selected organisations in south africa. the descriptive statistics, alpha coefficients, skewness and kurtosis of the two factors of the msq are given in table 4. the information in table 4 indicates that the scores on the subscales of the msq are normally distributed. the msq and the two subscales (extrinsic and intrinsic) job satisfaction presented with adequate levels of internal consistency, falling well above the 0.70 level as suggested by nunnally and bernstein (1994). this provides support for hypothesis 1 that the msq has a twofactor structure with acceptable levels of internal consistency for each of its subscales. next, manova, anova and t-tests were used to determine the relationship between job satisfaction and demographic characteristics, such as different age, gender and race. demographic characteristics were first analysed for statistical significance using wilk’s lambda statistics. the results of these comparisons are reflected in table 5. in an analysis of wilk’s lambda values, statistically significant differences (p < 0.01) were found between the job satisfaction levels of age groups. the relationship between extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction of age groups was further analysed to determine the practical significance of differences using anova, followed by tukey hsd tests. the differences between the job satisfaction levels of different age groups are reflected in table 6. practically significant differences (medium effect) were found between the extrinsic job satisfaction of different age groups. younger employees experience lower job satisfaction than employees older than 55 years of age. in terms of intrinsic job satisfaction, a statistically and practically significant difference (of medium effect) was found between employees in the age group 36–45 years of age and employees younger than 24 years. with regards to the employees in the age group 25–35 years, a statistically and practically significant difference exists with employees in the age group 46–55 years (medium effect) and employees older than 55 years (large effect). older employees experience higher levels of intrinsic job satisfaction. this finding provides partial support for hypothesis 2. t-tests were used to determine differences between the demographic groups of gender and race and the results are reported in table 7. there were no statistical differences between the levels of job satisfaction of males and females. hypothesis 3 is therefore rejected. as indicated in table 7 there is practically significant differences of medium effect in terms of race in the experience of job satisfaction. white employees experience higher levels of intrinsic job satisfaction. hypothesis 4 is therefore partially accepted for intrinsic job satisfaction. discussion the objectives of this study were twofold. the first objective was to investigate the construct equivalence and reliability of the msq. the msq showed construct equivalence for the white and black groups. reliability analysis revealed that the two subscales were sufficiently internally consistent. the second objective was to investigate the relationship of the subscales with demographic variables such as age, gender and race of employees at selected organisations in south africa. differences between the job satisfaction of age and race groups were found. table 6 anova of differences between extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction and age item younger than 24 25–35 years 36–45 years 46–55 years older than 55 years p root mse extrinsic job satisfaction 38.45 36.06 34.99a 36.97 39.28b 0.00* 8.44 intrinsic job satisfaction 32.28 a 36.04a 36.40 b 38.15 a; b 42.20b;c 0.00* 7.70 * statistically significant (p ≤ 0.01) a practically significant differences from age groups (in row) where b (medium effect), d ≥ 0.50 or c (large effect, d ≥ 0.80) are indicated table 7 differences between job satisfaction and the demographic variables of gender and race item blacks whites mean sd mean sd t p d race extrinsic job satisfaction 33.16 9.20 35.67 9.20 -2.40 0.016 0.27 intrinsic job satisfaction 35.20 7.66 40.27 6.39 -6.06 0.000* 0.66 gender extrinsic job satisfaction 35.99 8,89 36.61 8.65 0.46 0.64 0.24 intrinsic job satisfaction 35.47 7,75 35.47 7.80 -0.63 0.52 0.26 vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 8 original research buitendach & rothmann sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 18 3 (page number not for citation purposes) recommendations despite this study’s limitations, the results indicated that the msq is a reliable instrument to assess the extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction of employees at selected organisations in south africa. it is therefore recommended that the msq with the two subscales of extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction be used to assess the levels of job satisfaction of employees. regarding the demographic variables it is indicated that younger employees experience lower levels of intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction. it is therefore recommended that specific programs can be included in the organisation to enhance the experience of job satisfaction. regular feedback can possibly also enhance job satisfaction. the finding that there is a difference in terms of race in the experience of job satisfaction needs further investigation, and a recommendation could be that open communication regarding expectations could clarify this. six suggestions for future research are derived from the present findings. although this study found the msq to be reliable and confirmed the two-factor structure, additional research is needed to further determine the reliability and validity in other samples in south africa. also, research is needed in other occupations to establish norms for job satisfaction other than those used in the present study. future studies should use large samples and adequate statistical techniques (e.g. structural equation modelling). large sample sizes provide increased confidence that study findings would be consistent across other sample groups. longitudinal studies are also recommended. lastly, further studies should also investigate the relationship between extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction and particular job characteristics and work-related outcomes, such as organisational commitment, organisational citizenship, turnover and absenteeism. references agho, a.o., price, j.l., & mueller, c.w. (1992). discriminant validity of measures of job satisfaction, positive affectivity and negative affectivity. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 65, 185–196. ang, k.b., goh, c.t., & koh, h.c. (1993). the impact of age on job satisfaction of accountants. personnel review, 22, 31–39. arvey, r.d., dewhirst, h.d., & brown, e.m. (1978). a longitudinal study of the impact of changes in goal setting on employee satisfaction. personnel psychology, 31, 595–608. arvey, r.d., mccail, b.p., bouchard, t.j., taubman, p., & cavanaugh, m.a. (1994). genetic influences on job satisfaction and work values. personality and individual differences, 17, 21–33. berman, j., & nevo, b. (1994). job satisfaction, components task characteristics, organizational characteristics and turnover intention among data processing employees. international journal of management, 11, 585–590. brief, a.p., & weiss, h.m. (2002). organizational behavior: affect in the workplace. annual review of psychology, 53, 279–307. bouchard, t.j. (1997). genetic influence on mental abilities, personality, vocational interest and work attitudes. international review of industrial and organizational psychology, 12, 373–395. burns, n., & grove, s.k. (1993). the practice of nursing research: conduct, critique and utilization. (2nd edn.). philadelphia: w.b. saunders. clark, a.e. (1996). job satisfaction in britain. british journal of industrial relations, 34(2), 189–217. clark, a., oswald, a.m., & warr, p. (1996). is job satisfaction u-shaped in age? journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 8, 57–81. clugston, m. (2000). the mediating effects of multidimensional commitment on job satisfaction and intent to leave. journal of organizational behaviour, 21, 477–486. cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. (2nd edn.). hillside: erlbaum. the results obtained using exploratory factor analyses supported a two-dimensional factor structure. this finding supports findings of previous studies across various samples (hirschfeld, 2000; schriesheim et al., 1993). based on conceptual grounds, three items were removed, namely items 15, 16, and 20. item 15 measures a person’s satisfaction with his or her freedom to use his or her own judgement. item 16 measures a person’s satisfaction with his or her chance to try his or her own methods of doing the job. these two items might represent a different factor indicating satisfaction with opportunities to act autonomously. this results in a 17 item scale, eight items measuring extrinsic job satisfaction and nine items measuring intrinsic job satisfaction. the validation of these subscales is needed in further studies. the results of this study confirm the construct equivalence of the msq for black and white employees at selected organisations in south africa. this means that the mean scores of these groups could be compared in analyses. the second objective of the study was to investigate the relationship between job satisfaction (extrinsic and intrinsic) and various demographic characteristics. the results indicated that differences exist between the levels of extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction and age, indicating that employees in the age group older than 55 experience higher levels of extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction. the majority of studies on the relationship of age and job satisfaction have found some association between job satisfaction and age. some authors (clark, oswald & warr, 1996) suggest that job satisfaction is u-shaped in age, with higher levels of morale among young workers, but that this declines after the novelty of employment wears off and boredom with the job sets in. satisfaction rises again later in life as workers become accustomed to their role. this specific u-shape is confirmed in this study as far as extrinsic job satisfaction is concerned. in recent years south africa has experienced a political transition to a democratic society which is based on freedom and equality as pronounced in the constitution. historically, women have experienced many different levels of gender oppression and inequality in south african society. in a study conducted by higgs, higgs and wolhuter (2004) in the academic profession, no differences were found between males and females in terms of their experience of job satisfaction. the results in this study also confirmed those results. in other words, male employees do not experience practically significant higher levels of extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction compared to female employees. a reason for this could be that both males and females work under the same circumstances and there is no discrimination in terms of salary or benefits. the results of this study indicated that there is a practically significant difference of medium effect between black and white employees regarding their experience of intrinsic job satisfaction. employees of the black race group experience lower levels of intrinsic job satisfaction. a possible explanation for this could be that black employees need more feedback and acknowledgement than their white colleagues. however, this is only an assumption and needs to be studied. a limitation of this study was that it relied exclusively on self-report measures. this causes a particular problem in validation studies that use self-report measures exclusively, in that it increases the likelihood that at least part of the shared variance between measures can be attributed to method variance (schaufeli & enzmann, 1998). another limitation is the sampling procedure, and future studies could benefit from using a stratified random-sampling design. there are two main limitations regarding research design. when a cross-sectional design is used, inferences can be made about the relationship between particular variables, but causation cannot be determined. a longitudinal design would eliminate cohort effects confounding the data and their subsequent interpretations. 6 vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 8 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #183 (page number not for citation purposes) job satisfaction questionnaire in selected organisations in south africa cook, j.d., hepworth, s.j., wall, t.d., & warr, p.b. (1981). the experience of work: a compendium and review of 249 measures and their use. london: academic press. coster, e.a. (1992). the perceived quality of working life and job satisfaction. journal of industrial psychology, 18, 6–9. cranny, c.j., smith, p.c., & stone, e.f. (1992). job satisfaction. new york: lexington books. dawis, r.v. (1992). person-environment fit and job satisfaction. in c.j. cranny, p.c. smith & e.f. stone (eds.), job satisfaction: how people feel about their jobs and how it affects their performance (pp. 69–88). new york: lexington books. fletcher, c., & williams, r. (1996). performance management, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. british journal of management, 7, 169–179. gardner, j., & oswald, a. (2002, june). how does education affect mental well-being and job satisfaction? paper presented at the national institute of economic and social research conference, university of birmingham, united kingdom. heslop, p., smith, g.d., metcalfe, c., & macleod, j. (2002). change in job satisfaction and its association with selfreported stress, cardiovascular risk factors and mortality. social science & medicine, 54, 1589–1599. hickson, c., & oshagbemi, t. (1999). the effect of age on the satisfaction of academics with teaching and research. international journal of social economics, 26, 537–544. higgs, l.g., higgs, p., & wolhuter, c.c. (2004). re-thinking gender (in)equality within the south african academic profession. south african journal of higher education, 18, 273–289. hirschfeld, r.r. (2000). validity studies: does revising the intrinsic and extrinsic subscales of the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire short form make a difference? educational psychological measurement, 60, 255–270. hoskins, t.e. (2003). the effects of perceived over qualification on job satisfaction, organisational commitment and turnover: a study of afit graduates. unpublished master’s thesis, air force institute of technology, ohio, usa. judge, t.a., boudreau, j.w., & bretz, r.d. (1994). job and life attitudes of male executives. journal of applied psychology, 79, 767–782. kleiman, l.s. (1997). human resource management: a tool for competitive advantage. new york: west publishing. locke, e.a. (1976). the nature causes and causes of job satisfaction. in m.c. dunnette (ed.), handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 1279–1349). chicago: rand mcnally. luthans, f., & thomas, l.t. (1989). the relationship between age and job satisfaction: curvilinear results from an empirical study: a research note. personnel review, 18, 23–26. mack, p. (2000). perspectives on principles on job satisfaction. dissertation abstracts international, 61, 836. mcduff, e. (2001). the gender paradox in work satisfaction and the protestant clergy. sociology of religion, 62, 1–21. moak, r.j. (1992). job satisfaction of adult education administrative in virginia. dissertation abstracts international, 53, 4173. moorman, r.h. (1993). the influence of cognitive and affective based job satisfaction measures on the relationship between satisfaction and organisational citizenship behaviour. human relations, 6, 759–776. niblock, l.a. (1992). the demographics of job satisfaction: a florida public agency. dissertation abstracts international, 80, 1749. oshagbemi, t. (1999). overall job satisfaction: how good are single versus multiple-item measures? journal of managerial psychology, 14, 388–403. oshagbemi, t. (2000). is length of service related to the level of job satisfaction? international journal of social economics, 27, 108–123. oshagbemi, t. (2003). personal correlates of job satisfaction: empirical evidence from uk universities. international journal of social economics, 30, 1210–1232. nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory. (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. quinn, r.p., staines, g.l., & mccullough, m.r. (1974). job satisfaction: is there a trend? manpower research monograph no. 30. washington, dc: us department of labour. petty, g.c., brewer, e.w., & brown, b. (2005). job satisfaction among employees of a youth development organisation. child and youth care forum, 34(1), 5773. pugliesi, k. (1995). work and well-being, gender differences in the psychological consequences of employment. journal of health and social behavior, 36, 57–71. robbins, s.p. (2003). organizational behaviour. upper saddle river: prentice-hall. roberts, h.f., & roseanne, f.j. (1998). evaluating the interaction between self-leadership and work structure in predicting job satisfaction. journal of business psychology, 12, 257–267. rothmann, s. (2008). occupational stress, job satisfaction, burnout and work engagement as components of workrelated well-being. south african journal of industrial psychology, 34(3), 11–16. rothmann, s., & agathagelou, a. (2000). die verband tussen lokus van beheer en werkstevredenheid by senior polisiepersoneel. management dynamics, 9, 57–81. rothmann, s., scholtz, p.e., fourie, m., & rothmann, j.c. (2000). the relationship between individual variables and work related outcomes. south africa: potchefstroom university for christian higher education. sarker, s.j., crossman, a., & chinmeteepituck, p. (2003). the relationships of age and length of service with job satisfaction: an examination of hotel employees in thailand. journal of managerial psychology, 18, 745–758. schaufeli, w.b., & enzmann, d. (1998). the burnout companion to study and practice: a critical analysis. london: taylor & francis. schneider, b., & snyder, r.a. (1975). some relations between job satisfaction and organizational climate. journal of applied psychology, 60, 318–328. schriesheim, c.a., powers, k.j., scandura, t.a., gardinez, c.c., & lakou, m.j. (1993). improving construct measurements in management research: comments and a qualitative approach for assessing the theoretical content adequacy of paper-and-pencil survey-type instruments. journal of management, 19, 385–417. sempane, m.e., rieger, h.s., & roodt, g. (2002). job satisfaction in relation to organisational culture. south african journal of industrial psychology, 28, 23–30. soler, c.h. (1998). the relationship of organizational structure and job characteristics to teacher’s satisfaction and commitment. dissertation abstracts international, 60, 4273. souza-poza, a., & souza-poza, a.a. (2003). gender differences in job satisfaction in great britain, 1991–2000: permanent or transitory? applied economics letters, 10, 691–694. spector, p.e. (1997). job satisfaction: application, assessment, causes, and consequences. thousand oaks: sage. spss (2003). spss for windows. chicago: spss incorporated. steyn, h.s. (1999). praktiese betekenisvolheid: die gebruik van effekgroottes. wetenskaplike bydraes-reeks b: natuurwetenskappe nr. 117. potchefstroom: pu vir cho. tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2001). using multivariate statistics. (4th edn.). boston: allyn & bacon. taormina, r.j. (1999). predicting employee commitment and satisfaction: the relative effects of socialization and demographics. the international journal of human resource management, 10(6), 1060–1076. ting, y. (1997). determinants of job satisfaction of federal government employees. public personnel management, 9, 1–18. van de vijver, f., & leung, k. (1997). methods and data analysis for cross-cultural research. thousands oaks: sage. van de vijver, f., & poortinga, y.h. (1994). methodological issues in cross-cultural studies on parental rearing behavior and psychopathology. in c. perris, w.a. arrindell & m. eisermann (eds.), parental rearing and psychopathology (pp. 173–197). chicester: wiley. 7vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 8 original research buitendach & rothmann sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 18 3 (page number not for citation purposes) 8 visser, p.j., breed, m., & van breda, r. (1997). employee satisfaction: a triangular approach. south african journal of industrial psychology, 23, 19–24. warr, p. (2007). work, happiness and unhappiness. mahwah: lawrence erlbaum. wharton, a.s. (1993). the affective consequences of service. work and occupations, 20, 205–232. weiss, d.j., dawis, r.v., england, g.w., & lofquist, l.h. (1967). manual for the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire. minneapolis: university of minnesota. yousef, d.a. (2000). job satisfaction as a mediator of the relationship between role stressors and organizational commitment. journal of managerial psychology, 17, 250–266. vol. 7 no. 1 page 8 of 8 abstract introduction research design ethical considerations data analysis reporting style findings and discussion work flexibility co-worker support supportive supervisor supportive family programmed work–life schedule practical implications limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) augustine osei boakye department of management and human resource, faculty of it business, ghana communication technology university, takoradi, ghana department of human resource management, school of business, university of cape coast, cape coast, ghana rebecca dei mensah department of human resource management, school of business, university of cape coast, cape coast, ghana magdalene bartrop-sackey department of human resource management, school of business, university of cape coast, cape coast, ghana school of business and management studies, cape coast technical university, cape coast, ghana patricia muah department of human resource management, school of business, university of cape coast, cape coast, ghana department of business administration, faculty of business, heritage christian college, accra, ghana citation osei boakye, a., dei mensah, r., bartrop-sackey, m., & muah, p. (2021). juggling between work, studies and motherhood: the role of social support systems for the attainment of work–life balance. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1546. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1546 original research juggling between work, studies and motherhood: the role of social support systems for the attainment of work–life balance augustine osei boakye, rebecca dei mensah, magdalene bartrop-sackey, patricia muah received: 11 jan. 2021; accepted: 31 aug. 2021; published: 19 oct. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: in recent years, work–life balance has become one of the most important issues of interest to researchers and policymakers. although women have been identified to be more at risk of work–life imbalance, little is known about the work–life balance pursuits of women who study in addition to their work in non-western contexts. research purpose: drawing from the ecological system theory and the conservation of resources theory, this study explored the lived experiences of women who study in addition to their work to understand how they achieve work–life balance. motivation for the study: the views of working mothers on how they strive to balance their work, studies and motherhood can influence the development and implementation of hr policies that empower women to climb the upper echelon of organisations. research approach/design and method: six respondents knowledgeable on the subject were recruited with snowball sampling and further interviewed. main findings: thematic analysis of the interview transcripts revealed work flexibility, co-worker support, supportive supervisor, supportive family and programmed work–life as the main themes, which explained how working mothers maintained a sense of well-being. cardinal amongst the themes was the synergistic role of extended family members. practical/managerial implications: organisations are encouraged to develop and implement family-friendly policies that can promote healthy well-being of its workforce whilst facilitating the training and development of women. contribution/value-add: this study contributes to work–family literature by providing empirical evidence from a non-western context as previous research was predominantly conducted in western contexts. keywords: work–life balance; social support system; studying; motherhood; healthy well-being; women empowerment; sustainable development goals. introduction orientation the issue of work–life balance has received considerable attention across the globe over the last few decades (barber, conlin, & santuzzi, 2019; de cieri, holmes, abbott, & pettit, 2005; maxwell & mcdougall, 2004). indeed, work–life balance has been characterised as an important area of human resource management that is of great concern to researchers, governments, management and employee representatives globally (bateman, collins, & cunningham, 2016; de cieri et al., 2005). work–life balance has been identified as a vital feature of a healthy working environment as espoused in the ecological systems theory (grzywacz & marks, 2000). for individuals to experience work–life balance, the ecological systems theory posits that work and non-work microsystems must function together to create a permeable work–life boundary, which is mutually supportive (haddon, hede, & whiteoak, 2009). again, for an individual’s work and non-work environments to mutually support each other, the conservation of resources theory (cor) maintains that individuals tend to seek, maintain and protect resources that have salient value to them (hobfoll, 2001). thus, individuals must rely on resources that abound in their environment to facilitate the achievement of their set goals, whilst reducing stress and stimulating the maintenance of a healthy well-being (haddon et al., 2009; hobfoll, 2002). the evidence on the relevance of work–life balance to employee well-being and organisational outcome is ubiquitous (barber et al., 2019; bobat, mshololo, & reuben, 2012; igbinomwanhia, iyayi, & iyayi, 2012; tariq, aslam, saddique, & tanveer, 2012; whitehead & kotze, 2003). employees who report being satisfied with their work–life balance pursuits also report high job satisfaction and commitment and lower turnover intention (bobat et al., 2012; gomez, khan, malik, & saif, 2010; haar, russo, suñe, & ollier-malaterre, 2014; mas-machuca, berbegal-mirabent, & alegre, 2016; shujat, cheema, & bhutto, 2011). likewise, the correlates of work–life balance and employee physical and psychological health are well established in the literature (fotiadis, abdulrahman, & spyridou, 2019; haar et al., 2014; whitehead & kotze, 2003). similarly, employee’s satisfaction with work–life balance significantly impacts their job performance and organisational efficiency and effectiveness (de villiers & kotze, 2003; dousin, collins, & kler, 2019; johari, tan, & zukarnain, 2016; whitehead & kotze, 2003). this indicates that any endeavour to investigate on work–life balance cannot be overemphasised as the findings can be highly beneficial to the welfare of individuals and their organisation. more importantly, an exploration on how women maintain healthy well-being whilst juggling across work, studies and motherhood is timely as women have been identified to be at risk when it comes to work–life balance pursuits (cho et al., 2016; deshmukh, 2018; lendák-kabók, 2020; whitehead & kotze, 2003). individuals who combine their work with studying grapple with a range of responsibilities in their personal and professional lives that can affect their maintenance of healthy well-being and often result in work–family conflict (ruzungunde & mjoli, 2020). this is a challenge for working parents as they oversee multiple responsibilities. particularly, working mothers who fall in this category and are pursuing a university education are envisaged to be at risk of maintaining healthy well-being (nicklin, meachon, & mcnall, 2019; soysa & wilcomb, 2015). this is because, education at the university level has been identified to be generally associated with higher levels of stress and lower levels of well-being (nicklin et al., 2019; soysa & wilcomb, 2015). consequently, working mothers who study alongside are at higher risk as they will be dealing with competing and compelling responsibilities from work, university and home. yet, little research has explored how working mothers who are still engaged in post-school education maintain a sense of well-being whilst juggling with work, studies and motherhood. the paucity of research on mothers who study whilst working frustrates the formulation of targeted human resource policy and practice that are based on solid research. accordingly, the sustainable development goals (sdgs) 4 and 5 that encourage the empowerment of women through quality education will be under threat, particularly for women in paid employment who want to further their education as a means of climbing the upper echelon of their organisation (odera & mulusa, 2020). therefore, this study also contributes to the ongoing discourse on how sdgs can be harnessed to deepen the empowerment of women across the globe. the work–life interface can be generally described as intertwined (chummar, singh, & ezzedeen, 2019; martínez-león, olmedo-cifuentes, & sanchez-vidal, 2019). this is because, just as work activities can meddle with non-work and personal activities, non-work life can equally interfere in one’s job (martínez-león et al., 2019). a lot of negative consequences arise when people are unsuccessful in achieving work–life balance (chummar et al., 2019; martínez-león et al., 2019), and this can be devastating for women as they perform substantial responsibilities at home. when individuals are unable to balance their work with non-work life, it may result in reduced interaction with family members thereby thwarting the chances of spending quality time with them (watts, 2009). likewise, individuals who are unable to attain work–life balance may equally experience poor job performance and organisational performance (de villiers & kotze, 2003). moreover, when organisational structures require individuals to stay and work long hours as a proof of their commitment and readiness for career development, such organisational demands can adversely affect the non-work life of such individuals (marafi, 2013). for most workers, managing the boundaries between work and non-work life has become deleterious such that the time and energy for personal life and leisure is often constrained (kinman & jones, 2008). the difficulty in attaining a balance between work and non-work life can be traced to changes in workforce demographics with particular attention to the increased dual-earner partnership, increased women in paid employment and blurred gender roles (annor, 2016; chung, 2018; o’donnell, ruth-sahd, & mayfield, 2019). accordingly, many research reports contend that women tend to experience more challenges in balancing their work and nonwork life as they now perform economic roles at work in addition to their non-paid socio-cultural roles (cho et al., 2016; deshmukh, 2018; lendák-kabók, 2020; whitehead & kotze, 2003). consequently, human resource policies need to evolve if they are to adequately address these pressing challenges amidst contributing to the well-being of employees. this can be done properly when such changes are done based on continuous research that this study intends to provide. research purpose and objectives the plethora of literature on work–life balance has unequivocally demonstrated its utility to employees’ and organisational outcomes, respectively. although working parents perform numerous roles at work and home, which complicates their chances of successfully experiencing work–life balance, mothers who are studying in addition to their professional work are more at risk. yet, there exists a dearth of research on how mothers who are studying in addition to their work strive to maintain healthy well-being. as the sdgs aspire to reduce gender inequality whilst empowering women on a global landscape (odera & mulusa, 2020), findings from this study can help intensify such initiatives. therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore how mothers who are studying in addition to their work strive to achieve work–life. of paramount interest in this study is to also explore their lived experiences and bring to the fore some of the social support systems they harness in their bid to maintain healthy well-being. literature review the extant literature on work–life balance demonstrates that many employees continue to sacrifice their personal time to balance their work and non-work life (murthy & shastri, 2015). this observation is consistent with the findings of cho et al. (2016) who also reported that the gendered nature of the workplace coerces women to sacrifice their personal life to work longer hours. women are particularly noted to experience role conflict in addition to their maternal roles, they play other numerous roles within and outside their workplace (murthy & shastri, 2015; whitehead & kotze, 2003). admittedly, paternal role stereotypes are evolving with many men now who have reportedly taken up a lot of roles in their household, most of which hitherto were not ascribed men roles (murthy & shastri, 2015). because of the ever-changing gender role stereotypes, o’donnell et al. (2019) as well as chung (2018) maintain that gender roles are becoming blurred, with more women experiencing a lot of challenges in attaining work–life balance (murthy & shastri, 2015; whitehead & kotze, 2003). other studies have investigated the work–life balance experiences of men and women in mid-life qualitatively (emslie & hunt, 2009). the findings concluded that gender is deeply rooted in the experience of work–life balance with different gender expressing varied responses. whereas juggling between current multiple roles was observed to be a major source of constraint to women, men confined their discourse of such conflicts to the past when their children were younger (emslie & hunt, 2009). this indicates that even in the absence of children, women continue to experience higher difficulty in achieving work–life balance. in line with the ecological systems theory, women will require more institutional support to successfully maintain healthy well-being. this finding challenges previous results that contend that women with children rather need much institutional support to achieve work–life balance (smithson & stokoe, 2005). the relationship between boundary management strategies and work–life balance in the northeast united states has been investigated (bulger, matthews, & hoffman, 2007). the study showed that work flexibility and personal life permeability were significant predictors of work interference with family life. that is, higher levels of personal life permeability and lower work flexibility were significantly associated with higher levels of work interference with personal life. likewise, work flexibility and personal life flexibility emerged as the significant predictors of work enhancement of personal life. thus, higher work enhancement of personal life was significantly associated with higher work flexibility and higher personal life flexibility. these findings were later reaffirmed in similar studies on the instrumental role of work flexibility in the attainment of work–life balance (chandra, 2012; kinman & jones, 2008). other studies have also demonstrated that having a partner at home who tends to be supportive can buffer work–life balance (crowley & kolenikov, 2014). in a study on flexible work options and the perception of career harm amongst mothers and other caregivers, the results indicated that women with partners at home reported less stress and less adverse impact on their work unlike women without partners at home (crowley & kolenikov, 2014). it can therefore be deduced that relying on one’s supportive spouse is a coping mechanism that people adopt to achieve less stress at home and work. these findings are consistent with the results obtained by murthy and shastri (2015) who also saw spousal support and reliance on house helps as an avenue to achieve a satisfying work–life balance. in a recent study, the extent to which differences in working arrangements can impact on work–life balance satisfaction was investigated (sharkey & caska, 2019). the study showed that respondents whose working arrangements involved a combination of working from the office and home emerged being more satisfied with their job and life than their counterparts who worked only from their office. this finding is in line with the previous results obtained by bulger et al. (2007) so far as work flexibility as an intervention is concerned. this implies that flexible work schedules and telecommuting from home remains a substantial strategy that can be harnessed to improve the work–life balance outcomes of employees. in another study, the emotional consequences of blurred work–home boundaries on the well-being of working parents were investigated (matjasko & feldman, 2006). the findings of the study indicated that information communication technology (ict) as a boundary management intervention helped working parents continue their work at home, which increased their intrinsic motivation and helped them to get time for themselves. this ultimately affected their mood and emotions positively. thus, depending on the nature of the task to be performed, ict can be used as a boundary management intervention as it can create flexible working opportunities for individuals. such interventions when properly managed can also nurture positive psychological health amongst employees because, in addition to continuing their work from their preferred location, they get to have a life outside work. the practice of job sharing and job outsourcing has also been identified as an effective strategy to contain work pressures and job overload (bouwmeester, atkinson, noury, & ruotsalainen, 2020). working parents have also been observed to employ active adjustment techniques such as house help, leaving the office on time, planning work schedule in consultation with the spouse, working from home/part-time (murthy & shastri, 2015). moreover, some working parents coping strategies can be construed as action-oriented strategies, which included the adoption of strict rules to dine together (murthy & shastri, 2015). all these actions were taken to increase the quality of life the working parents had with their family after work. this literature review has demonstrated that the utility of work–life balance to individuals and their organisations is immeasurable. it also elucidates the challenges and the strategies that people adopt in their bid to balance their work and family life. the extant literature on the issue of work–life balance has thoroughly explored how it is experienced by both men and women. however, there is a dearth of literature on how working mothers balance their work, studies and motherhood as the literature is predominantly western in nature (waterhouse, hill, & hinde, 2017). in addition to women being at a higher risk of experiencing work–life imbalance, the meaning of motherhood and forms of economic activities they participate in are context specific (waterhouse et al., 2017). unlike in the western contexts where motherhood notions tend to be based on biological ties or childbearing, in non-western contexts, such identities can be achieved through the activity of child-rearing by an extended family member (waterhouse et al., 2017). likewise, whereas provision exists in western contexts for the social support of nannies to be acquired in the formal sector, such arrangements are sourced in the informal sector of non-western contexts via familial referrals (quisumbing, hallman, & ruel, 2007). hence, the paucity of research on mothers who combine their professional work with studying in non-western african contexts frustrates the development of interventions that can target such women (waterhouse et al., 2017). therefore, this study intends to fill this literature gap by conducting a study in ghana. this exploratory study is envisaged to help extend the work–family literature on women in the labour force and ongoing discourse on how sdgs 4 and 5 can be harnessed to empower and improve their well-being. research design research approach this study adopted the qualitative research approach as the research objectives can be best tackled from a qualitative standpoint. that is, although a lot of studies have been conducted on the phenomenon of work–life balance, the lived experiences on how working mothers balance their work, studies and motherhood is scarcely researched. guided by social constructionism, this study intends to unravel rich narratives and lived experiences of working mothers who are also studying on the phenomenon of work–life balance (creswell, 2007). research strategy the qualitative research method adopted for this study is phenomenology. phenomenology is a type of qualitative research approach that is used when a researcher wants to reduce several people’s experience of a concept or a phenomenon to a description that can be collectively represented (creswell, 2007; shi, 2013). in phenomenology, the phenomenologist collects qualitative data from respondents who have experienced a phenomenon to create a composite description that represents the true essence of the experiences for the entire respondents (creswell, 2007; shi, 2013). as this study intends to explore and construct a composite description of how mothers who study in addition to their work strive to achieve work–life balance, the phenomenology method becomes suitable. research method research setting the study was conducted in a research laboratory of the university where the first author works as a lecturer. this setting was suitable as it afforded the study an uninterruptible and convenient environment. all the respondents were familiar with the research laboratory and this helped them to relax and feel at ease during the interview sessions. entrée and establishing researcher roles throughout this research, the authors had to accomplish numerous roles to ensure the success of the study. firstly, the authors performed the role of a planner by meticulously deciding on issues such as the selection of respondents, data collection and data analysis. as the first author is a lecturer in the university where the study was conducted, he initiated contact with the appropriate authorities and recruited the respondents. furthermore, the first author played an interviewer role by interviewing all the respondents to share their experiences on how they balance their work, studies and motherhood. the authors played the role of listeners and transcribers after the data collection. thereafter, the authors performed the role of data analysts by providing a universal essence to various nuanced lived experiences shared by the respondents (creswell, 2007; shi, 2013). in all the numerous roles, the authors consciously made efforts not to influence the respondents with their personal opinion (creswell & creswell, 2018). research participants and sampling method the study is an all-female research as it recruited six working mothers from a tertiary institution in ghana. all six respondents were married with children and employed in different companies. respondent 1 was 37 years old and an assistant auditor of her firm. the second respondent was a 36 year old female who worked as a cashier. respondent 3 was 33 years old and a bank teller. the fourth respondent was a 36 year old female administrator. respondent 5 was 35 years old and an administrator as well. finally, respondent 6 was a 30 year old bank teller. the mean age of the six respondents was 35 years. the suitability of this sample for the study is that they constitute individuals who have wealth of experience in balancing their work, studies and motherhood. the respondents for this study were selected using the snowball technique. after one of their lectures, an announcement was made to invite women who are studying in addition to their work for an upcoming research and the first respondent volunteered. after identifying and interviewing the first respondent, she was asked to recommend some of her colleagues in the university who shared similar experiences. the recommendation process was repeated until the authors got to the sixth respondent where no new experiences were emerging as a result of data saturation (creswell & creswell, 2018). data collection methods the primary data that was used in this study was collected from respondents with the help of a semi-structured interview guide. a semi-structured interview guide is a type of guide in which the researcher (interviewer) does not follow a strict and formal list of questions (kvale, 1996). rather, in addition to predetermined themes, there is room for the interviewer to ask new questions based on the informant’s responses and how events unfold during data collection (kvale, 1996). an example of the predetermined questions that were on the interview guide is as follows: ‘can you share with me some of the arrangements in your organisation which assist you to balance your work and nonwork (family) life?’. data recording after obtaining the consent and permission from the participants, all the interview sessions conducted were recorded with an audio device. this assisted the authors to holistically capture all the conversations that ensued during the interview process. thereafter, all the recorded interviews were played back and transcribed word-for-word. strategies employed to ensure data quality and integrity to ensure the quality and integrity of the data, lincoln and guba’s criteria for quality in qualitative research was strictly adhered to (korstjens & moser, 2018; lincoln & guba, 1985). the four criteria include credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability, and together they demonstrate the trustworthiness of qualitative research findings. credibility was ensured in this study by reporting exactly what the respondents said and this was amplified with illustrative quotes. to ensure transferability, the authors synthesised the thick descriptions of the various individuals into phrases that have a universal essence (creswell, 2007; shi, 2013) and this can be generalised to other respondents with similar experiences (korstjens & moser, 2018). dependability was ensured in the study by meticulously planning and recording all the phases of the research process as qualitative research standards dictates (korstjens & moser, 2018). confirmability was achieved in this study by ensuring that all the interpretations given are grounded in the data but not a reflection of the authors’ viewpoints (korstjens & moser, 2018). ethical considerations the study adhered to three ethical considerations as suggested by welman, kruger and mitchell (2005), and these include informed consent, right of privacy and protection from harm. firstly, informed consent was read out to the respondents to communicate the purpose of the study after which they were made to sign to signify their consent and permission. secondly, to ensure the right of their privacy is secured, the respondents were assured that the data collected was for academic purpose only and under no circumstance will their identity be revealed. accordingly, their names were replaced with pseudonyms (eg., respondent 1, respondent 2, etc.) to hide their identities. finally, protection from harm was maintained throughout the study by ensuring that the respondents are not subjected to any physical, emotional and psychological harm. the respondents were further informed about their liberty to opt-out of the study at any point if they feel uncomfortable. data analysis all the interviews recorded were immediately transcribed word-for-word. the authors read over the transcripts several times to become immersed in the data. afterwards, the authors began the data analysis using the thematic analysis procedure (tap). the tap is a method of qualitative data analysis that attempts to identify, analyse and report patterns or themes in a given data set (braun & clarke, 2006). to do this, the researchers followed pratt, rockmann and kaufmann (2006) pattern by utilising their three major steps. the first step involved the use of first-order codes to create provisional categories and this triggered the data reduction process where we used open coding (pratt et al., 2006). open coding is a process of analysing the textual content of an interview transcript to create a word or phrase that provides a salient but summative attribute of the text (akanji, mordi, simpson, adisa, & oruh, 2020). in the second step, the researchers consolidated the first-order codes to create conceptual categories as many of them converged at some point. in the third or final step, the researchers consolidated the conceptual categories into themes as a way of generating explanations for how mothers who are studying in addition to their work strive to achieve work–life balance. reporting style the study presented the various themes that emerged from the data analysis and supported each theme with illustrative quotations. moreover, the discussion of the themes was interspersed with existing literature to provide a connection to the ongoing discourse on work–life balance. findings and discussion the main objective of this study was to explore how mothers who are studying in addition to their work strive to achieve work–life balance. of paramount interest in this study is to also explore their lived experiences and bring to the fore some of the social support systems they harness in their bid to maintain healthy well-being. from the data analysis, five main themes emerged to explain the lived experiences of working mothers. in some instances, some of the themes were further broken into subthemes to elaborate on their nuances. these themes are work flexibility, co-worker support, supportive supervisor, supportive family, programmed work–life schedule and challenges in work–life balance. these themes with illustrative quotes from the respondents are as elucidated in-turns in the following section. work flexibility when respondents were asked on how they strive to achieve work–life balance despite the multiple roles they play across different domains, several themes emerged. the first theme that emerged from the data analysis was work flexibility. some of the respondents opined that the relaxed operational procedures in their organisations granted them the opportunity to attend to personal errands, which contributed towards their work–life balance pursuits: ‘there is this kind of flexibility at my workplace. you can actually leave the office for some time to do your personal errands when the place is less busy. let’s say within 1 or 2 h without any problems. i sometimes use those hours to go to the market to buy some foodstuffs for home. sometimes too, i use that time to go for parents-teachers association (pta) meetings.’ (respondent 1, assistant auditor, female, 37 years) another respondent indicated that the flexible time for reporting, breaks and closing from work granted the opportunity to balance their work with non-work life: ‘after resuming from my 3 months of maternity leave, i was granted 2 h of free time for breastfeeding. the demarcation and usage of that 2 h depended on me. this gives me ample time to cater for the child before i come to work. it has reduced the pressure and stress on me to get to the office early.’ (respondent 5, administrator, female, 35 years) moreover, another respondent opined that the flexible working procedures and relaxed protocols in her organisation enabled her to continually breastfeed and bond with her baby: ‘i wanted to send my baby to school after 3 months but my manager said it was not a good idea. so they asked me to bring the baby along with the baby’s court covered with a mosquito’s net to a room in our workplace. after breastfeeding him in the morning, i put him to sleep in the baby’s court then go ahead to the banking hall. there are some mobile bankers around so when the baby wakes up, they will go and take care of him for me to finish serving the customers. when the place is less busy, then i will go and take care of him. these arrangements assisted me to take care of the child despite being at work.’ (respondent 6, bank teller, female, 30 years) this indicates that the flexible and accommodating nature of the respondent’s work assisted her to continue bonding with the child whilst performing her responsibilities at work. these preceding results are consistent with earlier findings by bulger et al. (2007) and kinman and jones (2008) as reported in the literature that individuals who experience greater control over their work as a result of flexible work arrangements also report a substantial amount of work–life balance. likewise, the findings corroborate the earlier results obtained by chandra (2012) who saw work flexibility as a strategy for achieving work–life balance. co-worker support co-worker support, which manifested in sub-themes like support from peers, teamwork and being there for each other in times of need, played an instrumental role in the work–life balance pursuit of the respondents. these found expression in the narratives of the respondent as shown below: ‘whenever my child is sick, my colleagues are always ready to give me all the necessary support. in that case, i can also go and take care of my child whilst somebody steps in for me.’ (respondent 1, assistant auditor, female, 37 years) in different parlance, another respondent projected the same idea by narrating this: ‘the staff over there are sociable and we are all united. there is one lady in my office i trained to do the cash-in so that when i am not around, she can help me. in my absence, they receive the payments on my behalf so that on my return, i will key in the vouchers and balance my cash.’ (respondent 6, bank teller, female, 30 years) furthermore, a different respondent contributed to the preceding discourse by indicating that: ‘some of my peers understand my situation as a working parent so they support in that regard with tasks in the office from time to time and this ease the work pressure.’ (respondent 5, administrator, female, 35 years) the sense of togetherness and working as a team can therefore be construed as a mechanism that eased task difficulty whilst expediting the pace with which respondents completed their work. consequently, some of the respondents were able to finish their work schedule on time and this enabled them to perform other non-work activities at home and in the university. these findings are in line with the earlier results obtained by bouwmeester et al. (2020), which reported employees who practice job sharing with colleagues in demanding times experience higher work–life satisfaction. again, the findings are consistent with the basic tenets of the ecological systems theory that postulates that to attain a healthy well-being, individuals must rely on resources in their environment. supportive supervisor supervisory support also emerged as another theme that explained the work–life balance pursuits of the respondents in this study. as epitomised in the quotations below, some of the respondents espoused that the empathy and assistance they received from their supervisors/manager enhanced the quality of life they experienced: ‘our supervisor organized periodic workshops for us to keep us abreast with best practices. he taught us how to get more customers. because if you don’t have the rapport and customer relation skill, it will be difficult to get them. this increased my confidence and control over the job and that is why i was able to combine it with my studies.’ (respondent 2, cashier, female, 36 years) other respondents also shared similar views so far as supervisory support in the achievement of work–life balance is concerned: ‘my baby was delivered prematurely so the 3 months maternity was not going to be enough. after discussing it with my manager, he supported me by extending my leave from 3 to 6 months. i would say it was really helpful since my baby still had some health complications even after 6 months. so i don’t know how i would have taken care of my baby and home with the 3 months leave.’ (respondent 3, bank teller, female, 33 years) this was further corroborated by respondents who indicated that: ‘when i was pregnant, my manager was doing a whole lot of things for me. sometimes i show up at work very weak and he asks me to go home and rest. he will then go into my teller cage and do all my transactions for me.’ (respondent 6, bank teller, female, 30 years) these results posit supervisory support as very much pivotal in the attainment of healthy well-being. the findings are consistent with earlier reports by bateman et al. (2016) who found that in organisations where supervisors offer career breaks like maternity leave, employee satisfaction with work–life balance tends to be high. in the same vein, the findings confirm the core argument of the ecological systems theory, which postulates individual’s reliance on resources in their environment. supportive family as a source of social support system, the family emerged as ever important for the achievement of work–life balance in this study. indeed, all the respondents provided narratives that portrayed the synergistic role family members played to enhance the quality of life they experience. for instance, respondent 1 opined that: ‘my husband has been very supportive in all my endeavours. as soon as my kids wake up in the morning, he will not even call me. he will bath them, dress and take care of them whilst i am at the kitchen working. again, whenever he sees me learning, he will tell all the kids to go inside and sleep because mummy is learning. he will engage them with something that will distract them. this has reduced my level of stress. most of the things that i am supposed to do has been cut off so i always go to the office fully relaxed and not stressed from the outset.’ (respondent 1, assistant auditor, female, 37 years) other respondents further provided accounts that predominantly projected the support they received from their husbands: ‘my husband has been very supportive. when it comes to washing, because he knows i am attending a university and working at the same time, he sometimes washes with me at dawn. other times too, he grants me the liberty to attend to my studies whilst he washes in order not to be tired. occasionally, he does the sweeping and a whole lot of things just to lessen my workload and i am so much grateful for that.’ (respondent 6, bank teller, female, 30 years) these findings are in support of the results obtained by crowley and kolenikov (2014) as well as murthy and shastri (2015) who reported that a supportive spouse at home can act as a buffer for the attainment of work–life balance. consistent with the ecological systems theory, these findings demonstrate that the support the respondents received from their nuclear family members allowed them to be successful not only at home but at work and in the university as well. thus, it helped in reducing the stress on them whilst saving their energy and concentration for other domains. it is worth noting that unlike the reports in the literature that predominantly centred on the support from the nuclear family members, this present study found that the extended family members continue to play a huge role in the attainment of work–life balance. below are quotations from some respondents to that effect: ‘when i wake up on weekends, all that i do is to instruct the children to brush their teeth. then i also take my bath and go to school. the remaining task in the house will be handled by my mother except for cooking. so she helps me a lot. also, when there is an occasion at work which will extend my closing time, it is my mother who takes care of the kids till i return.’ (respondent 1, assistant auditor, female, 37 years) likewise, other respondents provided narratives to suggest that the support they receive from other extended family members accounted for the feet they achieve in balancing their work with non-work activities: ‘when i am going for lectures on weekends, i take my child along and leave her with my junior sister who has a grocery shop in town. after my classes for the day, then i will go for my child so that we will all return home.’ (respondent 3, bank teller, female, 33 years) another respondent re-echoed the preceding narrative by saying that: ‘i am staying with my mother-in-law so some of the responsibilities are taken over by her. after taking the kids to school in the morning, i just go to my workplace. by the time the kids return too, i will be at work so my in-law will take care of them until i return to take over. she helps them to do their homework, prepares lunch and supper for them too while i concentrate on my work in the office.’ (respondent 4, administrator, female, 36 years) these accounts indicate that the extended family support system assisted the respondents in diverse ways towards the achievement of work–life balance, without which life would have been unbearable for them. these findings are not surprising as ghana is considered a collectivistic context and extended family members continue to play key roles in the upbringing of children (quisumbing et al., 2007; waterhouse et al., 2017). in the narration of one of the respondents, house-help emerged to play a pivotal role in the achievement of work–life balance. that is, a house-help (house-girl) who had become a member of the respondent’s family because of her long stay supported the respondent to juggle across work, university and family responsibilities. this can be inferred from the response from the participant below: ‘i have a girl who is assisting me as my house-help. so, what she does is wash the baby’s clothes whilst i prepare the baby’s food and send him to school in the morning. then the house-help will also go to school. but when she comes back from school, she stays with me at my workplace. usually, around 4 o’clock, they will bring the baby to me at the office. then the house-help will take care of the baby since i do not close early. whilst she is taking care of the baby, i also continue with my office work. sometimes too, i ask her to prepare something so that when we go home in the evening we can eat. because of the baby, i do not want to eat outside.’ (respondent 6, bank teller, female, 30 years) this report from the respondent indicates that without the house-girls assistance, combining work, studies and home responsibilities would have been a herculean task. this is because the house-girl assists the respondent in performing home chores as well as attending to the baby even at her workplace. this finding supports the previous results in the literature that posits that some working parents indulge in the assistance of house helps to assist in balancing their work with family life (matjasko & feldman, 2006). but unlike the participants in matjasko and feldmen (2006) who were only working parents, this present study was conducted with working mothers who were studying alongside, and this extends the literature. furthermore, the preceding result corroborates quisumbing et al.’s (2007) finding that in non-western contexts, social support for motherhood can be secured from the informal sector. programmed work–life schedule the last theme that emerged out of the data analysis is a programmed work–life schedule. by programmed work–life schedule, i am referring to the degree to which a trajectory can be deciphered from people’s daily work–life schedule. this is manifested when individuals in an attempt to narrate their lived experiences consciously or unconsciously project such as calculated work–life management. the theme of programmed work–life schedule can be illustrated by the response given by the participant below: ‘i am an assistant auditor and most of the time, our works are not all that difficult. it involves checking on the transactions of field officers and operational officers. usually, when it is getting to the end of the month, i go through stress a lot and leave the office very late. but in the first 2 weeks of the month, i don’t do much work. i take that opportunity to go through my university reading resources that i have not covered during those 2 weeks so that when we enter the third week and i am busy, it will not affect my studies.’ (respondent 1, assistant auditor, female, 37 years) this indicates that in their bid to adjust fluctuations in work pressures with studies and motherhood, some of the respondents adopt a programmed work–life pattern, which is followed to the latter. in a similar vein, the theme of programmed work–life schedule resonated in feedback from another respondent, which is presented below: ‘i live my life in such a way that weekends are always reserved for my personal studies. it is only after my lectures or when a class does not come on that i squeeze other things there. my weekends are always packed with my academic activities, so i am unable to attend to my work and family needs. this saturday for instance i closed early from lectures so i can do something which is not academic-related. i will just call my husband to verify if he would like me to prepare something for him in the evening, then i will just send the house-help to buy the foodstuffs.’ (respondent 6, bank teller, female, 30 years) the preceding narration further re-affirms the notion that, in an attempt to overcome the pressures associated with work, studies and motherhood, some of the respondents consciously programme their activities along their work–life interface. consequently, juggling between work, studies and motherhood, which can be perceived as a herculean task, is successfully managed by these respondents. these findings support murthy and shastri’s (2015) notion of active adjustment techniques, which posits that although the creation of family friendly work atmosphere is a good initiative to achieve work–life balance, the individual must take charge and personally tailor these initiatives for their well-being. practical implications the study has implications for organisational and managerial practice. organisations and managers are encouraged to develop and implement family friendly policies that facilitate the attainment of work flexibility, coworker support and supervisory support as such policies were noted to promote the healthy well-being of mothers who are studying in addition to their professional life. likewise, considering the peculiar challenges that mothers who are studying in addition to their work face, training and development opportunities should flexibly target them in order not to exclude them from such an empowerment drive. such programmes can equally remind them of the need to harness the extended family support system to augment the formal ones they receive from work as it was proven to be helpful in the study. it is believed that when governments and other gender advocates push for the formulation and implementation of family friendly policies at work, it will empower and improve the well-being of working mothers and their dependents that will ultimately facilitate the attainment of sdgs 4 and 5. limitations and recommendations although the findings of this study are encouraging, there are some limitations that are worth noting. the use of only six respondents makes it difficult to generalise the findings to a larger population. future research can replicate this study with a larger sample size to verify if different results are likely. again, the study had all-female participants, and this makes the findings more relevant to women and female advocates. however, emerging research demonstrates that men equally experience a great deal of difficulty in achieving work–life balance. consequently, gender analysis researchers can improve the study in the future by considering both men and women. conclusion drawing from the ecological systems theory and the cor, the present research explored the views of working mothers to verify how they balance their work, studies and motherhood. it is evident from the research findings that the amount of work flexibility, supervisory support and co-worker support the working mothers experience on their job contributed immensely to their work–life balance. this was strongly anchored on the familial support they received without which their well-being would have been deplorable. the authors believe that by developing and implementing family friendly human resource policies that target working women who aspire to empower themselves through university education, the well-being of women in general and their organisation can mutually improve. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declared that there exist no competing interests. author’s contributions the original manuscript was formulated by a. o. b., and it was further refined to a publishable standard with the help of m. b. s. and p. m. under the close supervision and scrutiny of r. d. m. funding information the study did not receive a research grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or non-profit sector. data availability the data used for this study has been stored and can be made available upon request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated institution of the authors. references akanji, b., mordi, c., simpson, r., adisa, t.a., & oruh, e.s. (2020). time biases: exploring the work–life balance of single nigerian managers and professionals. journal of managerial psychology, 35(2), 57–70. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmp-12-2018-0537 annor, f. (2016). work-family conflict: a synthesis of the research from cross-national perspective. journal of social sciences, 12(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.3844/jssp.2016.1.13 barber, l.k., conlin, a.l., & santuzzi, a.m. (2019). workplace telepressure and work–life balance outcomes: the role of work recovery experiences. stress and health, 35(3), 350–362. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2864 bateman, l.e., collins, j.m., & cunningham, s.j. (2016). a qualitative study of work-life balance amongst specialist orthodontists in the united kingdom. journal of orthodontics, 43(4), 288–299. https://doi.org/10.1080/14653125.2016.1229846 bobat, s., mshololo, n., & reuben, s. (2012). a qualitative exploration of women’s work–life balance over the life course: a case study of retail managers. journal of psychology in africa, 22(2), 227–232. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2012.10820521 bouwmeester, o., atkinson, r., noury, l., & ruotsalainen, r. (2020). work-life balance policies in high performance organisations: a comparative interview study with millennials in dutch consultancies. german journal of human resource management, 35(2), 6–32. https://doi.org/10.1177/2397002220952738 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa bulger, c.a., matthews, r.a., & hoffman, m.e. (2007). work and personal life boundary management: boundary strength, work/personal life balance, and the segmentation-integration continuum. journal of occupational health psychology, 12(4), 365–375. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.12.4.365 chandra, v. (2012). work-life balance: eastern and western perspectives. international journal of human resource management, 23(5), 1040–1056. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.651339 cho, y., park, j., ju, b., han, s.j., moon, h., park, s., … park, e. (2016). women leaders’ work-life imbalance in south korean companies: a collaborative qualitative study. human resource development quarterly, 27(4), 461–487. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21262 chummar, s., singh, p., & ezzedeen, s.r. (2019). exploring the differential impact of work passion on life satisfaction and job performance via the work-family interface. personnel review, 48(5), 1100–1119. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-02-2017-0033 chung, h. (2018). dualization and the access to occupational family-friendly working-time arrangements across europe. social policy & administration, 52(2), 491–507. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12379 creswell, j. w. (2007). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches (2nd ed.). london: sage publications. creswell, j.w., & creswell, j.d. (2018). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. crowley, j.e., & kolenikov, s. (2014). flexible work options and mothers’ perceptions of career harm. the sociological quarterly, 55(1), 168–195. https://doi.org/10.1111/tsq.12050 de cieri, h., holmes, b., abbott, j., & pettit, t. (2005). achievements and challenges for work/life balance strategies in australian organizations. international journal of human resource management, 16(1), 90–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/0958519042000295966 deshmukh, k. (2018). work-life balance study focused on working women. international journal of engineering technologies and management research, 5(5), 134–145. https://doi.org/10.29121/ijetmr.v5.i5.2018.236 de villiers, j., & kotze, e. (2003). work-life balance: a study in the petroleum industry. sa journal of human resource management, 2(1), 15–23. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v1i3.27 dousin, o., collins, n., & kler, b.k. (2019). work-life balance, employee job performance and satisfaction among doctors and nurses in malaysia. international journal of human resource studies, 9(4), 306. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijhrs.v9i4.15697 emslie, c., & hunt, k. (2009). ‘live to work’ or ‘work to live’: a qualitative study of gender and work–life balance among men and women in mid-life – emslie – 2008 – gender, work & organization – wiley online library. gender, work and organization, 16(1), 151–172. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2008.00434.x fotiadis, a., abdulrahman, k., & spyridou, a. (2019). the mediating roles of psychological autonomy, competence and relatedness on work-life balance and well-being. frontiers in psychology, 10(may), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01267 gomez, s.f., khan, n., malik, m., & saif, m. (2010). empirically testing the relationship of social support, job satisfaction and work-family balance in pakistani socio cultural set-up. international journal of sustainable development, 2(1), 51–57. grzywacz, j.g., & marks, n.f. (2000). reconceptualizing the work–family interface: an ecological perspective on the correlates of positive and negative spillover between work and family. journal of occupational health psychology, 5(1), 111–126. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.5.1.111 haar, j.m., russo, m., suñe, a., & ollier-malaterre, a. (2014). outcomes of work-life balance on job satisfaction, life satisfaction and mental health: a study across seven cultures. journal of vocational behavior, 85(3), 361–373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2014.08.010 haddon, b., hede, a., & whiteoak, j.w. (2009). work-life balance: towards an integrated conceptual framework. nz journal of human resources management, 9(3), 174–186. hobfoll, s.e. (2001). the influence of culture, community, and the nested-self in the stress process: advancing conservation of resources theory. applied psychology: an international review, 50(3), 337–370. https://doi.org/10.1111/1464-0597.00062 hobfoll, s.e. (2002). social and psychological resources and adaptation. review of general psychology, 6(4), 307–324. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.6.4.307 igbinomwanhia, o., iyayi, o., & iyayi, f. (2012). employee work-life balance as an hr imperative. african research review, 6(3), 109–126. https://doi.org/10.4314/afrrev.v6i3.8 johari, j., tan, f.y., & zukarnain, z.i.t. (2016). autonomy, workload, worklife balance and job performance teachers. international journal for researcher development, 7(1), 63–83. kinman, g., & jones, f. (2008). a life beyond work? job demands, work-life balance, and wellbeing in uk academics. journal of human behavior in the social environment, 17(1–2), 41–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/10911350802165478 korstjens, i., & moser, a. (2018). series: practical guidance to qualitative research. part 4: trustworthiness and publishing. european journal of general practice, 24(1), 120–124. https://doi.org/10.1080/13814788.2017.1375092 kvale, s. (1996). interviews: an introduction to qualitative research interviewing. thousand oaks, ca: sage. lendák-kabók, k. (2020). women’s work–life balance strategies in academia. journal of family studies, 0(0), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13229400.2020.1802324 lincoln, y.s., & guba, e.g. (1985). naturalistic inquiry. thousand oaks, ca: sage. https://books.google.com.gh/books?id=2oa9awlneooc marafi, h. (2013). perception of work life balance – an investigation of education sector of east and west. asian journal of business and management, 5, 174–180. https://doi.org/10.19026/ajbm.5.5826 martínez-león, i.m., olmedo-cifuentes, i., & sanchez-vidal, m.e. (2019). relationship between availability of wlb practices and financial results. personnel review, 48(4), 935–956. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-12-2017-0402 mas-machuca, m., berbegal-mirabent, j., & alegre, i. (2016). work-life balance and its relationship with organizational pride and job satisfaction. journal of managerial psychology, 31(2), 586–602. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmp-09-2014-0272 matjasko, j.l., & feldman, a.f. (2006). bringing work home: the emotional experiences of mothers and fathers. journal of family psychology, 20(1), 47–55. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.20.1.47 maxwell, g.a., & mcdougall, m. (2004). work – life balance: exploring the connections between levels of influence in the uk public sector. public management review, 6(3), 377–393. https://doi.org/10.1080/1471903042000256547 murthy, m.n., & shastri, s. (2015). a qualitative study on work life balance of employees working in private sectior. international journal of recent scientific research, 6(7), 5160–5167. nicklin, j.m., meachon, e.j., & mcnall, l.a. (2019). balancing work, school, and personal life among graduate students: a positive psychology approach. applied research in quality of life, 14(5), 1265–1286. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-018-9650-z o’donnell, m., ruth-sahd, l.a., & mayfield, c.o. (2019). an expanded holistic model of healthy workplace practices. international journal of organizational analysis, 27(5), 1542–1561. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoa-02-2019-1647 odera, j.a., & mulusa, j. (2020). sdgs, gender equality and women’s empowerment: what prospects for delivery? in m. kaltenborn, m. krajewski, & h. kuhn (eds.), sustainable development goals and human rights (pp. 95–118). cham: springer international publishing. pratt, m.g., rockmann, k.w., & kaufmann, j.b. (2006). constructing professional identity: the role of work and identity learning cycles in the customization of identity among medical residents. the academy of management journal, 49(2), 235–262. retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20159762 quisumbing, a.r., hallman, k., & ruel, m.t. (2007). maquiladoras and market mamas: women’s work and childcare in guatemala city and accra. journal of development studies, 43(3), 420–455. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220380701204380 ruzungunde, v.s., & mjoli, t. (2020). an exploration into the role of personality on the experiences of work–family conflict among the mining industry personnel in south africa. acta commercii, 20(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v20i1.774 sharkey, j., & caska, b. (2019). work-life balance versus work-life merge : rationale for research. dbs business review, 03, 49–72. shi, z. (2013). dilemmas in using phenomenology to investigate elementary school children learning english as a second language. education, 17(1), 3–13. https://doi.org/10.37119/ojs2011.v17i1.88 shujat, s., cheema, f.-e.-a., & bhutto, f. (2011). impact of work life balance on employee job satisfaction in private banking sector of karachi. ibt journal of business studies (jbs), 7(2), 2–7. https://doi.org/10.46745/ilma.jbs.2011.07.02.02 smithson, j., & stokoe, e.h. (2005). discourses of work-life balance: negotiating ‘genderblind’ terms in organizations. gender, work and organization, 12(2), 147–168. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2005.00267.x soysa, c.k., & wilcomb, c.j. (2015). mindfulness, self-compassion, self-efficacy, and gender as predictors of depression, anxiety, stress, and well-being. mindfulness, 6(2), 217–226. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-013-0247-1 tariq, a., aslam, h.d., saddique, a., & tanveer, a. (2012). work-life balance as a best practice model of human resource management: a win-win situational tool for the employees and organizations. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 3(1), 557–585. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2012.03.01.577 waterhouse, p., hill, a.g., & hinde, a. (2017). combining work and child care: the experiences of mothers in accra, ghana. development southern africa, 34(6), 771–786. https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835x.2017.1323627 watts, j.h. (2009). ‘allowed into a man’s world’ meanings of work-life balance: perspectives of women civil engineers as ‘minority’ workers in construction. gender, work and organization, 16(1), 37–57. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2007.00352.x welman, j. c., kruger, f., mitchell, b., & huysamen, g. k. (2005). research methodology. cape town: oxford university press. whitehead, t., & kotze, m.e. (2003). career and life-balance of professional women: a south african study. sa journal of human resource management, 2(1), 77–84. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v1i3.19 1roodt.qxd if one looks back at the record of published articles in the sa journal of industrial psychology it becomes evident that the largest majority of articles came from a quantitative and positivist research paradigm. this state of affairs created to a large extent a situation of imbalance of which we will understand the repercussions only at a much later stage. the quantitative paradigm seeks to explain phenomena from a global perspective, as it tries to unravel the relationships bet ween variables (constructs) by rigorously testing hypotheses to ultimately explain, predict or to control these variables. the research designs normally vary from highly controlled experimental research designs through quasiexperimental designs to ex post facto research designs with very little experimental control. the focus here is on generalisation – to understand the broad picture. this is perhaps why this paradigm appeals to people in managing or governing positions where it is important to have a broad perspective on issues and trends. the qualitative paradigm on the other hand seeks to understand and to appreciate how people experience certain life events, to interpret and learn how events affect them and also how people adapt and adjust themselves to cope with these events. the focus of this kind of research is inward – on the quality of the experience. research strategies used in this paradigm are the biography, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography and the case study with all kinds of variations within these broad categories. the qualitative paradigm is useful in gaining understanding of phenomena, to build theories or to elaborate on existing theories. from this short overview of both paradigms it is clear that they are not contradicting one another, nor are they in competition – they are merely complementing one another. human resource managers and industrial psychologists (as researchers and scientists) need to understand both paradigms and should also be able to command the operational side of these paradigms. this issue introduces different approaches in the qualitative paradigm and will therefore hopefully act as a reference source for reporting future qualitative research. we trust that this milestone edition under the capable guest editorship of dr willem schurink will break some of the barriers in the use of qualitative research in the human resource management and in the industrial psychology fields. gert roodt managing editor editor’s note on this milestone edition 1 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (3), 1 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (3), 1 abstract introduction study motivation methodology results discussion acknowledgements references appendix 1 appendix 2 appendix 3 appendix 4 appendix 5 appendix 6 appendix 7 appendix 8 appendix 9 about the author(s) shirleen titus department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa crystal hoole department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation titus, s., & hoole, c. (2021). the development of an organisational effectiveness model. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1509. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1509 original research the development of an organisational effectiveness model shirleen titus, crystal hoole received: 03 nov. 2020; accepted: 26 feb. 2021; published: 17 june 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: perceived leadership attributes as seen from a multiple stakeholder perspective have an effect on the quality of relationships (social capital) which in return effects organisational effectiveness. research purpose: the research aims to build and validate a conceptual model of relationships between perceived leadership attributes (plas), social capital (sc) and organisational effectiveness (oe). motivation for the study: state-owned companies (socs) in south africa are under enormous pressure and plagued by issues such as mismanagement, poor leadership and poor service delivery. central to these issues is the relationship between leadership and its stakeholders, and how it affects oe. there is lack of theory about the relationships between the concepts plas, sc and oe from a multiple stakeholder perspective. research approach/design and method: adapted grounded theory, using a two-phased exploratory qualitative approach, with purposive sampling was implemented. phase 1 included collecting data through focus groups and interviews. a delphi technique was used to validate the model. main findings: multiple stakeholders hold the leadership accountable for demonstrating desirable plas such as trust, which builds quality relationships found in sc and factors that lead to oe. courage, trust and reputation received the highest level of consensus, and several relationships are validated. practical/managerial implications: opportunities exist for the socs to strengthen important tangible and intangible attributes, quality relationships and factors that will create a successful turnaround. contribution/value-add: this is the first study to investigate the relationship between plas, sc and oe in an soc by multiple stakeholders, culminating in an actionable, validated model. keywords: leadership; social capital; organisational effectiveness; leadership attributes; trust; multiple stakeholders; state-owned company; adapted grounded theory. introduction leadership earns the right to set the strategic direction (clarke, murphy, & singer, 2014). through a process of influencing others, they achieve success, namely, organisational effectiveness (oe) (martin, 2019; yukl, 2012). this implies great accountability to maintain healthy relationships with multiple stakeholders. the quality of the relationships leadership has with stakeholders is an investment found in social capital (sc) (nohe et al., 2013). therefore, it is in the interest of leadership to gain an understanding of what stakeholders need from them to obtain co-operation (house et al., 2014; martin, 2019; read, 2013). leadership refers to the practices of directing a group of people towards the achievement of goals and opportunities (raelin, 2018; yukl, 2012). globally, it has become an obligation for leadership to conduct themselves in a socially, economically and environmentally responsible manner, meeting the needs of current and future stakeholders. stakeholders are demanding leadership to ensure that both the tangible (financial or hard) and intangible (human related or soft) factors for oe are met (svenson et al., 2016; udayaadithya & gurtoo, 2014; warren, 2016; zadeh et al., 2013). leadership behaviour is embodied by specific desirable and undesirable attributes constantly evaluated and perceived through the eyes of their stakeholders (lord et al., 2017; veldsman & johnson, 2016). multiple stakeholders include shareholders, customers, suppliers, employees and the wider community (robertson et al., 2002). given this view, the term ‘perceived leadership attributes’, abbreviated as plas, is introduced. in this study, stakeholders include executives, management, non-management, suppliers and customers who have unique relationships with the state-owned companies (socs) and their leadership. multiple stakeholders need the leadership to be trustworthy and not malevolent (house et al., 2014). the desirable and undesirable plas contribute to, or inhibit, the benefits of sc and, consequently, oe (warren, 2016). social capital is viewed as an intangible asset that gives an organisation a competitive edge (buta, 2016). the actual value from sc is found in a quality relationship characterised by trust and collaboration, which leads to oe (buta, 2016). organisational effectiveness therefore goes beyond the financial performance. it includes stakeholder confidence found in the relational dynamics nurtured by leadership (jiang & liu, 2015; nienaber & svenson, 2013). therefore, understanding the perceptions of multiple stakeholders and acknowledging their inputs increases the possibility of reaching oe. key to this study are the concepts plas, sc and oe, which are discussed next. perceived leadership attributes every theory presented on leadership has its advocates around desirable and undesirable plas that lead to oe (house et al., 2014). how well leaders obtain success along with others, is based on the perception of both leadership and stakeholders (lord et al., 2017). desirable attributes such as trustworthiness and honesty lead to exceptional leadership, whereas undesirable attributes such as being egocentric and dictatorial lead to ineffective leadership (house et al., 2014). important plas for effective leadership vary from culture to culture and from stakeholder to stakeholder. therefore, leadership and stakeholders will differ in their perceptions of attributes (lord et al., 2017). there are attributes found to be ‘most’ to ‘least’ universally desirable, given stakeholder perceptions (house et al., 2014). in the south african context, researchers found that leadership traits such as assertiveness orientation, respect for senior leadership, in-group collectivism, shared responsibility, entrepreneurship, social cohesion and uncertainty avoidance were desirable traits (geldenhuys & veldsman, 2011; house et al., 2014). ground-breaking research on the similarities or differences in norms, values and beliefs that lead to unique societal practices reinforces the universal attributes established by hofstede (1980), inglehart and carballo (1997), schwartz (1999), smith et al. (1996) and others (cited in house et al., 2014). similarly, different meanings to the people, planet and profit attributes are ascribed. for example, caring for people is about compassion, whereas caring for the planet is about social responsibility towards the environment. numerous desirable plas, such as honesty, integrity and trust, and undesirable attributes such as dishonesty, corrupt behaviours and unethical practices, are considered to be related to the concept of sc (kwon & adler, 2014; young, 2014). authors argue that when stakeholders perceive the actions of leadership to be undesirable, there may be a correlation in the decline of collective trust, affecting the quality of the relationships (jacobson & anderson, 2015). this may also hold true in the south african context when tested further. social capital social capital has been studied in political, economic, sociological and psychological contexts. social capital, cited as a tangible and an intangible resource, has value and exists in social and structural systems, interpersonal relationships, networks and values (fukuyama, 2001; lins et al., 2017; read, 2013; young, 2014). the literature emphasises these attributes can either have a negative or positive impact on organisations and societies in that way (buta, 2016; read, 2013). amongst stakeholders who benefit from sc are individuals, teams, organisations, communities, suppliers, customers, regulators and government. leadership is responsible for investing in these relationships, to ultimately build sc, and leverage later in the form of goodwill (warner, 2012). given that each stakeholder needs something different from leadership, they will respond to that which serves their own interest and what they value as important. fundamentally, differences may not always promote co-operation (buta, 2016). critics argue that macro-oriented research ignores the fact that individuals do not have equal access to sc and some claim those who live in high sc communities still benefit somehow (jiang & liu, 2015). at a micro-economic level, cognitive and structural sc, such as individual values, beliefs, attitudes and social norms found in groups, affects the evolution and performance of an organisation (sargis-roussel et al., 2017). the attributes are found in the intangible plas such as trust and co-operation, which make the organisation more effective (buta, 2016; nahapiet & goshal, 1998). the sum of organisational sc (relational + cognitive + structural) is impacted by the use of information related to organisational performance, which is an outcome variable (buta, 2016; read, 2013). the presence of sc in organisations is perceived as a consequence of leadership that encourages collective ownership and applies negotiation to resolve the competing interests of stakeholders (avgar, 2010; cohen & prusak, 2001).whilst authors hypothesise that there are likely benefits from quality relationships between leadership and stakeholders, clear evidence is not yet available (read, 2013). according to stakeholders, sc is created by desirable plas or eroded by undesirable plas (adler & kwon, 2002; fu, stephenson, & ebrahim, 2004). additionally, sc has a multiplying effect, which results in positive outcomes for all stakeholders (gholami & salimi, 2014). zavyalova et al. (2016) claimed an organisation often accrues sc earned from goodwill, a high reputation and collective action. in africa, the value gained from sc inherent in networks and quality relationships in an organisation, cannot be demonstrated (zoogah et al., 2015). therefore, a gap exists in the literature. organisational effectiveness the concept of oe is multidimensional, and leadership realises that oe extends beyond the traditional predictors for success. variables such as sustainability, reputation and organisational well-being are relatively complex to define and hard to measure. few empirical studies have introduced different kinds of oe models that describe the concept clearly (mikelsone & leila, 2016). beyond tangible financial (profit) performance, the principle of the triple bottom line now includes value created from societal (people), environmental (planet), technological (innovation) and cultural (well-being) indicators. the new indicators are deemed critical in monitoring oe (jacobson & anderson, 2015; mikelsone & leila, 2016; warren, 2016). organisational effectiveness is fundamentally influenced by the context and timeframe in which the study is conducted. in 1992, kaplan and norton created the balance score card and grouped some of the non-financial measures of oe (cited in udayaadithya & gurtoo, 2014) into specific categories, namely, customer, learning and growth, and internal business processes. the authors emphasise that the customer measure drives future financial performance. researchers such as juvekar and pandy (2017), mikelsone and leila (2016) and warren (2016) confirmed that financial viability, new technology and societal and environmental changes maintain a competitive edge and must be measured to demonstrate oe. organisational effectiveness has been studied in relation to approaches, assumptions, methods, models and perspectives in various contexts (mikelsone & leila, 2016; nadkarni & d’souza, 2015). leadership develops the business strategy that stimulates performance in others (house et al., 2014). therefore, the assumption that leadership is the reason for oe is relevant (hoxha, 2015). when stakeholders work together with leadership taking the lead, the purpose of the organisation can be realised, harnessing people assets (house et al., 2014). stakeholders are driven by moral sentiment that explains who they are, what they stand for and how they relate to others (tantardini & kroll, 2015). achieving oe requires an organisation to reflect on their goals and what they would like to be evaluated on by internal and external stakeholders (harter, 2015; sohmen, 2015). the impact of differences means attributes emerging are different, and often classified as integrated or fragmented. according to stoughton and ludema (2012), new insights and development in oe empower leadership to establish a culture of sustainability through sustainable initiatives from an organisational, functional and individual level. to date, most organisations assess their achievement of oe by looking at: financial performance and shareholder return as considered by economists human factors and relational dynamics, as considered by strategists emerging behavioural factors such as trust or corporate governance, primarily considered by social scientists (buta, 2016; clarke et al., 2014; lawler, 2014; nienaber & svenson, 2013, warren, 2016). through trust, stakeholders are enabled to function and provide the organisation with a competitive edge (warren, 2016). organisational effectiveness challenges have been experienced as a result of organisations not shifting their mindsets for inclusivity of new models available (warren, 2016). with increased globalisation, traditional oe definitions are falling short. the ambiguity of language caused by misinterpretation increases stakeholder confusion. for instance, one study asserted that organisations are effective when they reach consensus on the set of goals, where others interpret the goal-based model as the ability of employees to achieve goals (udayaadithya & gurtoo, 2014). similarly, creating dissonance in stakeholder relationships should be avoided. in a study conducted on african leadership, dissonance was created by overlooking the sociocultural and historical context and only applying psychological models to measure effectiveness. the inconsistency was largely influenced by cultural beliefs, values and attitudes of the african workforce, and not considering the societal transition (zoogah et al., 2015). research can help to contextualise these models more clearly, and in turn, help organisations learn how best to achieve oe. arguments for the presence of a positive relationship between plas and sc and the likelihood of it positively impacting oe, have been made (gholami & salimi, 2014). for example, charisma, a pla, will elicit improved co-operation and the understanding of shared goals, an sc indicator, leading to improved team performance, an oe indicator. fundamentally, the complexity of concepts is influenced by the environmental, political, economic, technological, cultural and societal drivers. in the south african context, the political system is fuelled with corruption, increased inequality exists in the economic system and the cultural system is diverse, to name just a few factors. the non-financial dimensions such as trust found in, for example, reputation, are difficult to measure (habibi et al., 2014b; zavyalova et al., 2016). the assumption is that a dimension such as trust relies largely on the perceptions of the public. therefore, in this study, the rigour comes from including the tangibles and intangibles that are perceived as being important by multiple stakeholders. study motivation conceptually, the motivation for this study is inspired by the lack of theory about the relationships between plas, sc and oe from a multiple stakeholder perspective and more so in an soc. geldenhuys and veldsman (2011), house et al. (2014) and svenson et al. (2016) confirmed that an organisation should become attuned to factors deemed satisfactory by all stakeholders to obtain their commitment. to address this research gap, the main objective of this study is to develop and validate a conceptual model of the relationships between plas, sc and oe, from a multiple stakeholder perspective. more specifically, there is no adequate understanding of how these concepts interact with each other, in the context of an soc. this research took place in the context of a large soc that employs a diverse internal staff complement and transacts with multiple external stakeholders. actively seeking their feedback is essential and will raise public confidence, for example, the current negative perception which has led to a poor reputation, shifts to a positive reputation. theoretical contribution in this study, a conceptual model was developed illustrating the relationships between plas, sc and oe from a multiple stakeholder perspective. this study empirically validates the relationship and helps to explain why attributes such as having a good reputation, building trust, collaborating with others and caring equally about stakeholder needs is going to make a significant contribution in socs. these relationships are complex, and the findings contribute towards theory building and the scientific body of knowledge. practical contribution it is critical for leadership in organisations to have access to a practical model that can contribute to the causal success of the organisation. state-owned companies are confronted with significant challenges for long-term sustainability and how to balance complex priorities. they need increased commitment from all stakeholders towards critical key performance areas to help turn the soc around. the practical gain for leadership is that going forward; they should be able to exercise discretion when they make decisions and engage with multiple stakeholders. with greater insights into plas, sc and oe as viewed by five stakeholder groups, it can help to shift actions, and accountability, and bring a competitive edge. methodology an exploratory sequential qualitative approach using adapted grounded theory, and applying flexible strategies to answer the research question, was used to execute the study. according to charmaz (2006), grounded theory permits the researcher to apply flexible strategies to expedite qualitative data collection and analysis. it may become necessary for the researcher to introduce an alternate technique for collecting data, for example, interviews. the principles of an adapted grounded theory methodology entail a non-prescriptive approach that novice researchers can apply in qualitative research to discover deeper meaning of the phenomena (bulawa, 2014). although some researchers such as glaser and strauss (1967) propagated that the literature review is conducted after data collection, there is increasing support to conduct the literature review before data collection, as awareness of the current gaps in the literature forms an important part of the research design and thinking about the research problem (bryant & charmaz, 2007; hussein et al., 2017). the primary intent was to hear the perception of multiple stakeholders and to validate a model that could be proposed for studying the relationships of desirable and undesirable attributes of plas, sc and oe, in the context of the soc, which is the overall purpose of this study. to ensure the quality of the research, the principles of credibility, transferability, dependability, confirmability and authenticity were applied by guba in 1981 (as cited in treharne & riggs, 2014), as can be seen in appendix 1. the study was executed in two phases. phase 1 involved collecting data from focus groups and interviews exploring the phenomenon and generating themes to develop the model, which was validated in phase 2 using a delphi survey. according to henning et al. (2010), working with qualitative content analysis as grounded theory analysis, the researcher has options for converting the raw data into final patterns of meaning. in this method, the qualitative coding and categorising of the data involved dividing the data into small units and systematically refining them. once this was achieved, the data were reviewed, which helped the researcher to obtain a global perspective of the content collected and the emerging themes. the more the researcher became familiar with the data, the better the data could be positioned (see appendix 2). according to glaser (2002), descriptions are vague, and practitioners should follow a systematic process to explain their abstraction from the conceptual ability of time, place and people, to discover the enduring patterns that provide conceptual power. the process of open coding permits the researcher to use data from the first focus group or interview to conduct phrase-by-phrase or word-by-word analysis. this technique gives rise to initial insights and discovering which categories and themes within the data ought to be explored. to increase the objectivity of the interpretation of the data, two phd graduates, who are also industrial-organisational psychologists, cross-examined the data. as there were no differences in their interpretation, this step confirmed that the researcher had arrived at a set of valid findings. the authors suggest that the initial procedure of coding and categorising is not sufficient for what will be discovered from empirical items (henning et al., 2010). the research took place in a large soc that employs a diverse staff complement and transacts with multiple stakeholders. the sample selected was purposive, including five stakeholder groups consisting of non-management, managers, executives, customers and suppliers as illustrated in table 1. table 1: qualitative sample for phase 1. where multiple stakeholder views are sought, economic, cultural, social, political, technological and environmental differences are likely to occur (martin & barnard, 2013). differences were observed in the social reality of the diverse sample regarding the phenomena being studied. according to pearse and kanyangale (2009), the researcher can apply a sufficiently increased level of interaction where the participants show a lower level of awareness of the concepts. this will ensure that the research study is a genuine output achievable through the eyes of multiple stakeholders. qualitative delphi does not need to consider the use of a random sample, and in this study, the researcher did not aim to show statistically significant results. most important is that the participants, namely the sample selected, are deemed experts based on their knowledge of the organisation, professional insight, and their interest in the problem being addressed (habibi et al., 2014b). a purposive sample that has particular expertise increases the content validity of the research study. in other words, representation is not the objective for selecting individuals, expertise is (avella, 2016). phase 1: focus groups and interviews three pilot focus groups were conducted to quality assure the design, time allocated, feasibility of questions scripted and test the overall practicality of the process. there were no uncertainties raised and no refinements were made. the researchers used a script of open-ended questions that follow, to hear the experiences of the groups: what are the desirable and undesirable attributes that make the leadership of an organisation effective or ineffective, based on your perception? what constitutes a quality relationship found in sc, for each of the stakeholder groups and the organisation from the perspective of both parties? what does each stakeholder want from the other? what are the hard and soft factors that lead to oe? what will you say to the board? during the interviews and focus groups, responses were captured and reviewed using handwritten notes, flipcharts and memos. the researcher typed up all transcriptions in microsoft excel, keeping track of the data recorded. the excel spreadsheets were arranged according to the specific groups’ names, namely, pilot, non-management, management, executives, customers and suppliers. constant comparison of the data allowed the researcher to maintain theoretical sensitivity, stay close to the data and stimulate new thoughts and ideas about the incidents, concepts, categories and their properties. the differences or similarities were mainly as a result of stakeholder differences affected by experiences or timeframe (see appendix 3). authors advise that new and emerging themes may be arranged according to differences and similarities per stakeholder group (bulawa, 2014). glaser (2002) asserted that validity is obtained after there has been many fitting of words, and the chosen ones best represent the pattern and become valid and grounded. respondents participated in the meaning-making process by reflecting on what they had heard from each other during the focus group discussion. face-to-face interviews, keeping the format consistent with focus groups, were implemented where the researchers could not gather a minimum of five participants, for example, the customer group. data were transcribed, coded and captured into microsoft excel (see appendix 2). through the process of content analysis, themes and patterns were identified until theoretical saturation was reached. many undesirable categories, namely opposites, were found during the fieldwork. frequent references were made, such as mistrust, the lack of communication or the lack of ethical behaviour. the researchers were mindful that this was recorded as trust, communication and ethical behaviour, to maintain a particular lens throughout. what emerged from the cumulative analysis of phase 1 was the developed model for the important plas, sc and oe themes proposed in figure 1. figure 1: conceptual model of the relationships between perceived leadership attributes, social capital and organisational effectiveness. the qualitative phase 1 was followed by the validation of the model by a panel of experts in phase 2 using a delphi technique. phase 2: delphi technique a delphi technique uses a self-administered survey asking experts to rank each item to reach consensus regarding the developed model. six experts per stakeholder group were selected based on their knowledge and experience of the soc, as well as sufficient awareness of the current context to make a decision about the proposed model and to comment on the themes. an important criterion was that all experts had a relationship of more than 5 years with the soc and had dealings with the soc over time. experts were invited to participate via a whatsapp call, giving brief reasons for their inclusion and getting their consent. all the instructions were captured in the same excel spreadsheet attached in the email, which included a brief introduction of what is required by them. participants were also emailed a consent form, which had to be completed. a breakdown of the two samples can be seen in table 2, round 1 and round 2. table 2: qualitative sample phase 2. authors recommend two or three rounds of iteration (alghaffari et al., 2018) and reaching data saturation (vonder gracht, 2012). in this study, two rounds were sufficient to reach consensus and saturation. delphi survey design a questionnaire, including four sections – namely biographical data, plas, sc and oe– was developed from the 24 themes that emerged from phase 1. responses to the survey were elicited on a 7-point likert-type scale starting from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7). each theme had a clear description and experts were invited to comment on their responses. at the end of round 1, 10 new themes and descriptions were proposed, which were then included in the round 2 survey design. each expert was presented with a detailed report of the consolidated results and was allowed to keep or change round 1 scores. they were asked to rank the refined survey, now consisting of 34 items, and volunteer any other comments. the survey was sent via an email. excel was used for collecting and recording data, consolidating feedback and analysing the responses using mean scores, percentage consensus and capturing qualitative narratives. final consensus was reached by 24 experts’ representative of the stakeholder groups. ethical considerations industrial psychologists are ethically bound by standards set by the health professions council of south africa as well as international guidelines such as the american psychological association. the context and organisational setting of the study, namely an soc, implies that the public has the right to know what has been researched. ethical approval was obtained from the organisation and the academic institution where the study took place. participation was voluntary and data were kept confidential. results phase 1 after conducting 13 focus groups and 5 interviews, on all stakeholder levels, data were rigorously analysed using thematic content analysis. three main themes emerged from the data collected, one for each main concept. intra-personal (plas) and inter-personal (sc) themes as well as themes relating to the eco-system (oe) were identified. in total, there were 24 subthemes identified. the themes which related to oe were complex, given the context of the organisation and current participant experiences. for example, participants believe that they will enjoy employee benefits relating to their job security, adequate rewards and recognition, which will in turn, impact their well-being and motivation, drive them to remain committed to the organisation and perform well. ethical behaviour, trust, good governance and decision-making are all inter-related. for example, ‘unethical behaviour’ and the ‘lack of co-operation involving processes and systems’ in turn leads to ‘mistrust’. attributes that are embedded in the context which derived the oe themes are also themes derived in plas and sc. the phase 1 results confirmed 24 themes, shown in figure 1, to be validated in the model. phase 2 consensus was determined by the percentage of experts in agreement and where a minimum of 60% majority rating was achieved (habibi, laroche, & richard, 2014a). the frequency of experts ranking an item ‘6’ and ‘7’ was counted. for example, 16 out of 25 experts accounted for an agreement of 64%. phase 2 results are represented in tables and substantiated by narratives to discuss the scores and view on consensus. delphi round 1 results twenty-five experts that included all stakeholder groups responded to round 1 and completed the survey fully. at this stage, the themes below 60% not reaching consensus were not yet removed (hsu & sanford, 2007). the controlled feedback between rounds in the delphi reduces the effect of researcher bias and ensures reliability (creswell, 2014; hsu & sanford, 2007). a breakdown of consensus reached in round 1 is shown in table 3. table 3: round 1 survey results in percentage for perceived leadership attributes, social capital and organisational effectiveness. nine plas were ranked, of which eight scored 60% consensus and above. there were six sc attributes, of which four scored 60% consensus and above, and nine oe factors, of which seven scored 60% consensus and above. non-consensus items are shown by scores less than 60%. an extract of qualitative comments, from experts in round 1, indicates the complexity of the themes. extract of the qualitative comments in round 1: there is an indication that the organisation is under severe pressure and cannot respond effectively to many of the conditions required for desirable plas, sc and oe. internal experts said the lack of competent leadership, self-serving behaviours, toxic culture and constant pressure has an impact on employee well-being and the overall morale of the employees. external experts expressed their dissatisfaction by saying the organisation is expecting us to be selfless referring to service and contracts. insights from the expert comments in phase 2 provide indications of differences and similarities amongst stakeholders (appendix 4). experts were asked to provide additional themes and descriptions relevant to include in the survey. they proposed 10 new themes as follows: perceived leadership attributes: execution, influence, development, empathy. social capital: culture. organisational effectiveness: state-owned companies’ commitment, shareholder expectations, productive culture, continuous learning and positional leadership. the new themes were added to the round 2 survey, as illustrated in appendix 5. delphi round 2 survey results after consolidating the collective results and preparing a controlled feedback report for each expert, the round 2 survey, now 34 items, was sent back to the experts. each feedback report consisted of clear instructions which were to look at the collective scores, decides whether they would like to update their original score, score the new items and provide any further comments. twenty-four experts responded in round 2. the themes that did not reach consensus after round 2 are illustrated and where relevant, removed from the final validated model. a less than 15% change in the mean score of two distributions of results was deemed stable enough to stop further rounds. the scores from the new survey items showed a similar trend. validity and rigour of phase 2 were substantiated by debate, giving relevance to the phenomenon being studied (von der gracht, 2012). the final breakdown of the consensus reached after round 2 is shown in table 4. table 4: survey items that reached consensus by the experts. in the final round, there were three plas and two sc and four oe attributes that did not reach a 60% consensus score and should therefore be excluded from the model according to the expert feedback. non-consensus items are shown in appendix 6. based on the narratives quoted, slight refinements were made to the validated model. the experts were selected based on the same groups of multiple stakeholders, namely, non-management, management, executives, suppliers and customers and had to have a sound understanding of the soc, given their tenure or relationship as supplier or customer. the highest-ranked items are courage, trust and reputation. the complexity of the relationships is discussed next. courage is linked to leadership influence: amongst experts, 92% agree that leaders are currently crippled by fear and not willing to take a risk. this creates helplessness. to be able to step out of this will turn the morale around. the leadership tends to be leading by fear, authoritative and dictatorship and not by coaching and collaborating with others. currently, it is not possible to have great courage standing up against the blatant wrong that is evident at the top, without fear of repercussions. the attribute ‘courage’ is multidimensional and when present can allow stakeholders to speak up. according to authors, courage refers to a combination of having the ability to tolerate high levels of uncertainty, show cultural adaptability, influence people who have different backgrounds and deal with change effectively (avolio et al., 2009; house et al., 2014; jacobson & anderson, 2015). trust is linked to collaboration in high-performing teams: amongst experts, 92% concurred that when trust exists, it will be the foundation of high performing teams and is currently a crucial element missing in leadership. another asks, ‘where does an organisation start with rebuilding trust with multiple stakeholders when trust is low and has such a multifaceted perspective?’ according to willems et al. (2016), the concept of trust describes the perceived genuineness of an organisation, which is distinguished from the satisfaction that symbolises a particular stakeholder relationship. reputation is linked to leadership: amongst experts, 96% confirm the organisation is hiding behind bureaucracy and refraining from introducing innovative solutions. it appears they want to protect personal architecture or legacies and reputation is now non-existent. there is constant negative media coverage, impacted directly by its inability to provide a secure and reliable service to industry and households. stakeholders award reputation in recognition of quality relationships accumulated over time by leadership and given the advantage of having gained social approval by doing the right thing (kwon & adler, 2014). having a good reputation, therefore, serves as an intangible resource embedded in the social context of an organisation (zavyalova et al., 2016). given insights from the narratives and inductive reasoning, three slight refinements were justified to the model. that is: add collaboration change productive culture to culture change positional leadership to leadership. collaboration exists where there is a mutual understanding of the job to be performed, teamwork and a desire to succeed. goa et al. (2016) asserted that the process of collaboration exists in factors that influence the culture, for example, differences in perceptions (house et al., 2014) that have impact. on the other hand, cohen and prusak (2001) proposed that trust, mutual understanding of shared values and attributes that bind members of human networks and communities, make co-operative action possible. multiple stakeholders confirm the organisational culture of the soc is as a result of several internal and external factors. therefore, organisational culture cannot be confined to productivity alone. culture in this instance comes with legacy, political agendas as well as the goodwill that still exists with those who have selflessly given of themselves to make the soc succeed. organisational culture is nuanced by a dynamic interplay of both the observable tangibles and invisible intangibles from multiple perspectives. the expert panel selected confirmed that leadership must involve all stakeholders in consultation to help turn the soc around and to ensure, collaboration is improving because the new leadership is addressing this. therefore, positional leadership in oe was replaced by leadership that participates in quality relationships, role modelling desirable attributes. the plas are influenced by factors beyond position, for example, psychological maturity and values (haynes et al., 2015). the final model is illustrated in figure 2. figure 2: final validated model. figure 2 confirms the connections and cyclical relationships between the three concepts, plas, sc and oe. the model confirms that there are plas which impact sc, which impacts oe and vice versa. the brown lines in the table signify how the plas are connected to sc and oe. for example, well-being connects with trust and leadership. the green lines signify how sc is connected to plas and oe. for example, organisational culture connects with ethical behaviour and sustainability. the blue lines signify how the oe is connected to plas and sc. for example, good governance connects with decision-making and accountability. the black dotted line signifies the combinations connecting both ways. for example, self-serving is connected to leadership and vice versa. the plas, sc and oe factors are the combinations shown both ways, as illustrated in appendix 7. this is significant in explaining the cyclical relationships in the model and the complexity of the relationships in the three major concepts, all of which has led to the current entropy the soc finds itself in. discussion the manifestation of the relationships found is a testament to the intensity of the challenges faced by the soc. there are themes in the model that stood out in terms of the relationships, for example, self-serving, strategic, courage, trust, organisational culture, collaboration, leadership, reputation and sustainability. this discussion highlights the complexity and dominant associations found between plas, sc and oe. the narratives indicate the voices of the experts as they contributed to the delphi survey debate. relationships between perceived leadership attributes, social capital and organisational effectiveness leadership stood out to be a key contributor to oe and has been linked to all of the plas shown in appendix 8. during the expert debate, leadership was linked to self-serving and ethical behaviour and they are described as the culprits responsible for the ineffectiveness of the soc. experts confirmed, only a select few are continuously being selected, and most of the same select few have been found to have had corrupt dealings. internal and external stakeholders have provided different examples of their perception of leadership. internal experts confirmed that most of the leadership is in self-preservation mode and acts in self-interest even though it is to the detriment of others at the company. similarly, external experts assert that in underperforming entities, leadership has a tendency to protect their turf, stifling innovation and competitive ways of doing things. leadership has been linked to the pla, ‘being strategic’ which has been linked to decision-making found in quality relationships (sc). decision-making has been linked to well-being and good governance and change management: factors found in oe. the majority of experts agree that leadership have not been strategic in matters that would serve the company or the country. however, a more sceptical view from experts indicates that they were quite strategic when enriching themselves and the strategy for self-enrichment was brilliantly executed. the discussion highlights that where the leadership has been self-serving, the act of being strategic was not about building quality relationships that would increase sc. in this instance, when leadership has been strategic, it was about fostering corrupt relationships that would serve individual needs rather than leading to oe. it will be an important task for the collective leadership when receiving the feedback to apply introspection (warren, 2016). this was echoed by the participants, where they started questioning the opportunity arising for greater introspection by the leadership. participants believe if leadership is asking the right questions it would be the game-changer and that a means of inclusivity needs to be found. there exists a desire to be heard within the leadership, as was expressed by the internal stakeholders. however, where too much political involvement in the engine room is found, it may continue to prevent the satisfaction of multiple stakeholders. a cyclical relationship between well-being and employee benefits and vice versa was established from the data analysis. internal stakeholders feel threatened by rumours of job losses, missed opportunities for development, budget and headcount cuts. the threat of job security and psychological safety impacts how employee benefits are perceived. the voices of the experts confirm that the degree of emotional strain is linked to absenteeism, and low morale has driven lower performance; however, there are people being physically present but not mindful. the perception is that the absenteeism is more an indicator of poor management/leadership. although there is a view that most people in the organisation are incompetent, there is also the view from external stakeholders that the organisation should cut the fat. these stakeholders do not endorse the ongoing behaviours of self-interest which have prevented employees from feeling that their employee benefits are secure. the dissonance stems from the need for an effective turnaround strategy; however, the uncertainty of the suggested restructuring of the soc has been challenging, especially when historically employee benefits were secured. according to graaf et al. (2019), such uncertainty in public sector organisations can create additional strain on employees, often contributing to low morale and/or well-being. self-serving and strategic themes have a cyclical relationship with collaboration and culture, as described in sc. experts agree that the culture in the organisation has changed: it isn’t now what it was then. organisational culture is impacted by the micro, meso and macro environment, and it has multiple stakeholder views of reality. goa et al. (2016) asserted that the process of collaboration exists in the factors that influence culture. for example, motivated individuals will display attributes of will and ability, which are embedded in the team attributes that create the team culture. furthermore, the structure and the relationships within the social network have a direct impact on the efficiency and the effectiveness of the performance culture (goa et al., 2016). eradicating the corruption and creating a psychologically safe environment, free from fear, will shift the willingness of stakeholders to collaborate. however, self-serving leadership will continue to erode the trust, respect and mutual commitments of stakeholders (avery & bergsteiner, 2011). furthermore, experts claim, collaboration is not a value and those who captured the organisation were only interested in securing their own gains. on the other hand, there is a belief that the size of the organisation does not enable collaboration and teamwork; however, practices for increasing collaboration will help turn the ship around. according to goa et al. (2016) and house et al. (2014), collaboration is an all-encompassing relational skill that starts with trust and contributes to the success of the organisation. stakeholders expect openness and honesty and transparency of information for the organisational leadership to be trusted. multiple stakeholders must understand and know where the organisation is going, which will allow them to be aligned and achieve common goals. the author suggests that, where social knowledge has grown exponentially through sharing of information, there is a need to build a social climate based on trust, healthy competition and stakeholder co-operation (buta, 2016). these attributes are characteristic in an organisation where the organisational culture cultivates high performance and collaboration (house et al., 2014). experts were in agreement that courage is linked to trust, collaboration, reputation and leadership. leadership that lacks the courage to speak out and is constantly in fear of victimisation from top leadership is perceived undesirably, as the wrong-doing known to the public continues. efforts of courageous leadership means doing something for the greater good, thereby, earning the trust of multiple stakeholders. avery and bergsteiner (2011) concurred that trust is a conscious practice, which is built through quality relationships and goodwill. the theme strategic was found to be connected to talent management, sustainability, competitive edge and employee benefits. given the downward spiral for a long while, there has been no strategic directional change which became more of a crisis. experts confirm the soc is not agile when it comes to innovation and change. being strategic about talent management and sustainability, key drivers contributing to oe (avery &bergsteiner, 2011), require consistency from collective leadership to lead effectively (yukl, 2008). apart from the fact that the leadership have to deal with the government in their engine room because of the soc commitments, they also dont want to listen or include bottom-up strategic inputs. instead, they continually insist on forcing down an uninformed recipe for disaster. being strategic means the leadership understands that the value of having a good reputation, an intangible asset, develops with multiple stakeholders over a long-term period, for example by listening to their stakeholders. furthermore, it is necessary that leadership understands what the factors are that constitute a good reputation (baka, 2016; zavyalova et al., 2016). reputation consists of intangible and tangible factors, and it either is affected by or affects plas and sc attributes. what stood out in this study is that there is a cyclical relationship between reputation and communication. there is constant negative media coverage, impacted directly by its inability to provide a secure and reliable service to industry and households, and ongoing bad practices are allowed which has a huge impact on trust of stakeholders. zavyalova et al. (2016) asserted that having a good reputation aids the investment in sc, and it is achieved by rebuilding trust and the transparency of communication that benefits an organisation following a negative event. others support the view that negative news in social media destroys trust, a key element of reputation (habibi et al., 2014b). additionally, the organisation has removed reputation from its risk assessment processes, now deemed less important. the authors consider reputation as a strategic asset that significantly contributes to sc, and it is critical for future actions and decision-making in organisations (baka, 2016; zavyalova et al., 2016). factors regarding rebuilding the reputation should be well understood by multiple stakeholders. svenson et al. (2016) agreed that multiple stakeholders should be made aware of why some considerations for rebuilding reputation will be more important than others. whilst the experts did not explicitly link trust in sc back to ‘self-serving’ in plas, it appeared very strongly in the qualitative feedback during the data collection. therefore, the link has been made. the mistrust was referred to as an input and output attribute. an extract from phase 1 refers: trust is an extreme variable. i can only trust you if you do as i say. when trust is broken – it should be measured and developed. trust equals reputation. trust is at the heart of a quality relationship which can create value in sc and oe (fu et al., 2004; putnam, 1995; warren, 2016). warren (2016) concurred, trust is perceived as a soft behavioural control which regulates relationships and the person who engenders trust must have a willingness to be vulnerable. multiple stakeholders have diverse needs for sustainability. therefore, these differences should set the strategic context and decision-making that can be positively linked to oe. authors concur that the leadership must align on what the purpose of the organisation is, and the values that multiple stakeholders can relate to that would support their purpose. nonetheless, the purpose and values need to be visible and experienced or felt by the multiple stakeholders in the organisation, starting with actions by the leadership, who have others looking up to them, to be the role-models (mansour et al., 2015; warren, 2016). it will take the entire leadership to steer the turnaround unlocking the intangibles and tangibles that are rooted in sustainability. leadership must shift from self-interest to shared interest, founded on attributes of mutual obligations towards each other (avolio et al., 2009). the intangibles are important for leadership to gain the co-operation of multiple stakeholders. nohe et al. (2013) found an intangible asset, such as having genuine kindness and promoted by good values and an awareness of desirable plas, such as empathy and positive influence, has led to increased co-operation in the task amongst multiple stakeholders. it is evident from this research that the tangible factor impacting oe, according to external stakeholders, is the constant risk of higher costs [which] causes a lot of uneasiness. on the other hand, some of the external stakeholders said cost and pricing are not the issue. however, an effective turnaround strategy is important. the internal stakeholders assert that the shareholder (government) has more trouble recognising these issues, than providing support for an effective turnaround strategy. the challenge runs deep and changing the perception of multiple stakeholders will be difficult as it still appears reasons are being created to support personal agendas that are not in the interest of the public. leadership must take accountability and make the right decisions regardless of uncertainty and risk. strategic direction involves a set of goals which can mobilise multiple stakeholders to act. buta (2016) asserted that the norms, values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours that lead to cooperative behaviours must have mutually beneficial collective actions for stakeholders of the organisation. it is in these circumstances that stakeholders show willingness for collaboration. stakeholders (the experts) believe that the shareholder (government) should be assured of their investment, and the year-end results and targets should speak for itself. however, graaf et al. (2019) concurred that talks of budget cuts in the public sector create added strain on employees. this triggers the uncertainty and contributes to the negative rumours and low morale of stakeholders (graaf et al., 2019). in essence, the strategies the soc designs for securing (reassuring) the sustainability of the employee benefits of internal stakeholders should help to regain trust. engert and baumgartner (2016) concurred that such strategies must be carefully designed to match specific soc circumstances. additionally, strategies need to be implemented with consistency, taking into consideration the soc context and therefore continuous alignment with the organisation’s goals, resources available and priorities and considering multiple stakeholder dynamics (hadders, 2010). given the current complexity in the soc and particular industry, leadership should actively seek feedback from all stakeholders. this will instil a belief that their concerns have genuinely been considered and which will help to rebuild confidence (akrofi, 2016; jiang & liu, 2015). the active involvement of government in the day-to-day operations is perceived by many as a move towards internal corruption. sustainability can be achieved with the right mix of sc attributes that places importance on the uniqueness of the social, economic, environmental, political and financial context, which assists in galvanising oe (kwon & adler, 2014). svenson et al. (2016) concurred this will provide the confidence that the organisation is being steered effectively towards the desired state of sustainability for the future. internal experts confirm, there is a slight improvement,which gives hope. however, the external experts claim that there are key aspects that must be addressed by leadership to get support from employees, customers and suppliers. according to buta (2016), in sc, communication contributes to the quality of relationships and social context. leadership unlocks this potential and helps to demonstrate the capacity to meet multiple stakeholder needs, which is the essence of a truly transformative organisation (monnavarian & mostafa, 2009). zavyalova et al. (2016) concurred, what the soc leadership needs most right now is stakeholders who are able to filter negative information that leads to a bad reputation, and who have access to positive information to reach social approval again. leadership must demonstrate that they are acting for the greater good and reinforce social equality, which serves the best interest of multiple stakeholders and has mutual benefit. conclusion this study started out with the intent to test the relationships between plas, sc and oe. a critical literature study indicated that many of the themes underscored by the main concepts were either vague or not yet understood in the context of an soc. significant results and insight in understanding the phenomena have been achieved. multiple stakeholders participated over two research phases, which led to the validation of the model. the research methodology, namely adapted grounded theory, resembles an iterative approach whereby the researcher has to go back and forth to the data, and is required to stay open throughout the research study, thereby allowing the data to speak for itself. given that the delphi survey uses a quantitative approach, the researcher chose to substantiate the quantitative results by sharing the voices of the experts and to build on the themes validated. there were a few limitations and future possibilities for this study. these are discussed next. limitations qualitative research allows for meaning to be derived from the experiences of the participants. however, including multiple stakeholders intensified the complexity of the themes, given similarities and differences. consensus was calculated on the overall consolidated results, and it was difficult to maintain a single stakeholder perspective without the sophistication of statistical analysis. in such examples, the reviewer substantiated overall consensus referring to the debate and qualitative comments by the experts. using an adapted grounded theory is not strictly in line with the analysis prescribed by pure grounded theory (glaser, 1992). according to glaser (2002), where descriptions have been vague, practitioners have an opportunity to explain the construct and share the context in order to increase the conceptual power. this may be an opportunity for a future study, given that this may have influenced the perception researchers have of the study, namely that the theoretical and paradigmatic underpinnings may be vague. glaser (1978) confirmed that in theoretical sensitivity, participants may not have an empirical understanding of the theory; however, grounded theory as methodology goes beyond description and transcends into a bigger picture. the researcher has the accountability to abstract the theory into core variables by cutting back and ordering the concepts that lend credibility. there are no specific rules for the process of delimiting in the face of copious and lengthy data. delphi surveys are anonymous, and feedback is controlled. therefore, experts could not debate their responses in a face-to-face setting in which they could reveal their unique stakeholder perspective. an enriched debate where each of the stakeholder concerns may be heard will enable opportunities for reflection on how they may be contributing to the problem, and then own and fix it. the two-phased study was conducted over an extended period of time, which stifles a solution-driven mindset for scientific research. the soc can no longer delay acknowledging the essential plas, gaining value from sc, which relates positively to oe. the results of this study are not being circulated to the employees of the soc or the public and this is potentially affecting an effective turnaround. future possibilities for the state-owned company everyone is responsible for helping turn the soc around. therefore, the onus rests on all stakeholders, in particular, for leadership to eradicate corruption, increase financial prudence and have the type of courage that nurtures quality relationships. goodwill exists because stakeholders understand that the perceived lack of development opportunities is because of real financial constraints and the need for prioritising tasks rather than development. the willingness to make trade-offs will help meet the demands of all stakeholders now and into the future, without compromising capability or stifling courageous efforts. this research has introduced a model accompanied by evidence of the tangibles and intangibles needed to enhance the work place through stakeholder co-operation. the opportunity to share this validated model most effectively must be established as a matter of urgency, and it is possible to build a case for collaboration as an important first capability to develop in the soc (appendix 9). acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions s.t. is the main author. she is the main contributor to collecting and analysing the data and writing the article, as part of her phd study. c.h. is the supervisor of the study and contributed in the conceptualisation, revision and editing of the article. ethical considerations ethical clearance, reference number ippm-2017-123 (d), has been granted by the ethical committee of the department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data are sensitive in nature, but if a reasonable request is made it can be made available. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references adler, p.s., & kwon, s. (2002). social capital: prospects of a new concept. academy of management review, 27(1), 17–40. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2002.5922314 akrofi, s. (2016). evaluating the effects of executive learning and development on organisational performance: implications for developing senior manager and executive capabilities. international journal of training and development, 20(3), 177–199. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijtd.12082 alghaffari, s., nguyen, h., & chen, p.s. (2018). critical factors in organisational effectiveness: the case of saudi arabian seaports. journal of sustainable development of transport and logistics, 3(2), 49–65. https://doi.org/10.14254/jsdtl.2018.3-2.3 anney, v.n. (2014). ensuring the quality of the findings of qualitative research: looking at trustworthiness criteria. journal of emerging trends in educational research and policy studies, (5)2, 272–281. retrieved from https://www.google.com/search?q=anney%2c+v.n.+(2014). avella, j.r. (2016). delphi panels: research design, procedures, advantages, and challenges. international journal of doctoral studies, 11, 305–321. https://doi.org/10.28945/3561 avery, g.c., & bergsteiner, h. (2011). sustainable leadership practices for enhancing business resilience and performance. strategy & leadership, 39(3), 5–15. https://doi.org/10.1108/10878571111128766 avgar, a.c. (2010). negotiated capital: conflict, its resolution, and workplace social capital. international journal of conflict management, 21(3), 236–259. https://doi.org/10.1108/10444061011063162 avolio, b.j., walumba, f., & weber, t. (2009). leadership: current theories, research, and future directions. annual review of psychology, 60, 421–449. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163621 baka, v. (2016). formative reputation: from being an organisational asset to becoming a process in the making. corporate reputation review, 19(2), 152–165. https://doi.org/10.1057/crr.2016.4 bryant, a., & charmaz, k. (2007). grounded theory research: methods and practices. in a. bryant & k. charmaz (eds.), the sage handbook of grounded theory (pp. 1–28). london: sage. bulawa, p. (2014). adapting grounded theory in qualitative research: reflections from personal experience. international research in education, 2(1), 79–114. https://doi.org/10.5296/ire.v2i1.4921 buta, s. (2016). the social capital: from macro to micro economic. the usv annals of economics and public administration, 16(1), 138–144. charmaz, k. (2006). constructing grounded theory: a practical guide through qualitative analysis. london: sage. clarke, j.r., murphy, c., & singer, s.j. (2014). when do leaders matter? ownership, governance and the influence of ceos on firm performance. the leadership quarterly, 25(2), 358–372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.09.004 cohen, d., & prusak, l. (2001). in good company: how social capital makes organisations work. in harvard business press (pp. 1–21). retrieved from http://www.andreabiancalani.it/ingoodcompany.pdf commission of inquiry into state capture. (2020). the judicial commission of inquiry into allegation of state capture. corruption and fraud in the public sector including organs of state. retrieved from https://www.statecapture.org.za/ creswell, j.w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (4th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. engert, s., & baumgartner, r. (2015). corporate sustainability strategy – bridging the gap between formulation and implementation. journal of cleaner production, 113, 822–834. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.11.094 fu, q., stephenson, m., & ebrahim, c. (2004). trust, social capital, and organizational effectiveness (pp. 1–44). blacksburg, va: university of virginia. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251443327_trust_social_capital_and_organizational_effectiveness/citation/download fukuyama, f. (2001). social capital, civil society and development. third world quarterly, 22(1), 7–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/713701144 geldenhuys, c.a., & veldsman, t.h. (2011). a change navigation based, scenario planning process within a developing world context from an afro-centric leadership perspective. sa journal of human resource management, 9(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.265 gholami, y., & salimi, y. (2014). evaluation of quantitative measurement and reporting of social capital in organisations. academic journal of research in economics and management, 2(2), 51–57. https://doi.org/10.12816/0006533 glaser, b.g. (1978). theoretical sensitivity: advances in the methodology of grounded theory. mill valley, ca: sociology press. glaser, b.g. (1992). basics of grounded theory analysis: emergence vs. forcing. mill valley, ca: sociology press. glaser, b.g. (2002). conceptualization: on theory and theorizing using grounded theory. international journal of qualitative methods, 1(2), 23–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690200100203 glaser, b.g., & strauss, a. (1967). discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. nursing research, 17(4), 364. https://doi.org/10.1097/00006199-196807000-00014 goa, s., guo, y., chen, j., & li, l. (2016). factors affecting the performance of knowledge collaboration in virtual team based on capital appreciation. information technology management, 17(2), 119–131. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10799-015-0248-y graaf, g., hengeveld-bidmon, e., & carnochan, s. (2019). change communication in public sector cutback management. public organization review, 19, 453–472. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-018-0408-8 habibi, a., sarafrazi, a., & izadyar, s. (2014b). delphi technique theoretical framework in qualitative research. the international journal of engineering and science, 3(4), 8–13. retrieved from https://scholar.google.co.za/scholar?q=habibi,+sarafrazi+%26+izadyar,+2014+cite&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholar habibi, m.r., laroche, m., & richard, o.m. (2014a). the roles of brand community and community engagement in building brand trust on social media. computers in human behavior, 37, 152–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.04.016 hadders, h. (2010). the adaptive quadruple bottom line scorecard: measuring organisational sustainability performance. retrieved from http://www.csin-rcid.ca/downloads/csin_conf_henk_hadders.pdf harter, j. (2015). introduction: history in the study of leadership. journal of leadership studies, 9(2), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.21362 haynes, k., hitt, m., & campbell, j. (2015). the dark side of leadership: towards a mid-range theory of hubris and greed in entrepreneurial contexts: the dark side of leadership. journal of management studies, 52(4), 479–505. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12127 henning, e.h., van rensburg, w., & smith, b. (2010). finding your way in qualitative research. pretoria: vanschaik publishers. hofstede, g. (1980). culture’s consequences – international differences in work-relatedvalues. beverly hills, london: sage. house, r.j., dorfman, p.w., javidan, m., hanges, p.j., & sully de luque, m.f. (2014). strategic leadership across cultures: the globe study of ceo leadership behaviour and effectiveness in 24 countries. los angeles, ca: sage. hoxha, a. (2015). empowerment and trust as mediators of the relationship between transformational leadership and organisational effectiveness. european journal of economic and political studies, 8, 43–60. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/agron_hoxha2/publication/337485685_empowerment_and_trust_as_mediators_of_the_relationship_between_transformational_leadership_and_organizational_effectiveness/links/5ddb7891458515dc2f4b7c06/empowerment-and-trust-as-mediators-of-the-relationship-between-transformational-leadership-and-organizational-effectiveness.pdf hsu, c., & sandford, b.a. (2007). the delphi technique: making sense of consensus, practical assessment. research and evaluation, 12, 10. https://doi.org/10.7275/pdz9-th90 hussein, m., kennedy, a., & oliver, b. (2017). grounded theory and the conundrum of literature review. the qualitative report, 22(4), 1199–1210. inglehart, r., & carballo, m. (1997). does latin america exist? (and is there a confucian culture?): a global analysis of cross-cultural differences. ps: political science & politics, 30(1), 34–47. https://doi.org/10.2307/420668 jacobson, c.b., & anderson, l.b. (2015). is leadership in the eye of the beholder? a study of intended and perceived leadership practices and organisational performance. public administration review, 75(6), 829–841. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12380 jiang, j.y., & liu, c.w. (2015). high performance work systems and organisational effectiveness: the mediating role of social capital. human resource management review, 25(1), 126–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2014.09.001 juvekar, a., & pandey, s. (2017). usage of balance scorecard in information technology industry. global journal of mathematical sciences: theory and practical, 9(2), 205–224. kwon, s., & adler, p.s. (2014). social capital: a maturation of a field of research. academy of management review, 39(4), 412–422. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2014.0210 lawler, e.e. (2014). sustainable effectiveness and organization development: beyond the triple bottom line. od practitioner, 46(4), 65–67. retrieved from https://ceo.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/2014-06-g14-06-640-sustainable_effectiveness_org_development.pdf lins, k.v., servaes, h., & tamayo, a. (2017). social capital, trust, and firm performance: the value of corporate social responsibility during the financial crisis. the journal of finance, 72(4), 1785–1824. https://doi.org/10.1111/jofi.12505 lord, r.g., day, d.v., zaccaro, s.j., avolio, b.j., & eagly, a.h. (2017). leadership in applied psychology: three waves of theory and research. journal of applied psychology, 102(3), 434–451. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000089 mansour, h.f., heath, g., & brannan, m.j. (2015). exploring the role of hr practitioners in pursuit of organizational effectiveness in higher education institutions. journal of change management, 15(3), 210–230. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697017.2015.1045539 martin, j. (2019). the leadership/followership process: a different understanding of library leadership. the journal of academic librarianship, 45(1), 15–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2018.11.004 martin, p., & barnard, a. (2013). the experience of women in male-dominated occupations: a constructivist grounded theory inquiry. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), a1099, 12 pages. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1099 mikelsone, e., & liela, e., 2016, idea management and organisational effectiveness: a research gap. journal of business management, 5(2), 4–23. retrieved from google.com/search?q=mikelsone%2c+e.+%26+liela%2c+e.%2c+2016%2c+‘idea+management+and+organisational+effectiveness%3a+a+research+gap’.+journal+of+business+management+12%2c+p.9+(4–23)&rlz=1c1gcej_enza889za890&oq=mikelsone%2c+e.+%26+liela%2c+e.%2c+2016%2c+‘idea+management+and+organisational+effectiveness%3a+a+research+gap’.+journal+of+business+management monnavarian, a., & mostafa, a. (2009). intrapreneurship: the role of social capital – empirical evidence and proposal of a new model of intrapreneurship and its relationship with social capital. business strategy series, 10, 383–399. https://doi.org/10.1108/17515630911005673 nadkarni, d., & d’souza, m. (2015). a study of the success value of the four approaches to organisational effectiveness in 18 companies in the indian service and industry sectors. journal of management, 11(1), 77–89. retrieved from http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jbm/papers/conf.17016-2017/volume%201/11.%2077-89.pdf nahapiet, j., & ghoshal, s. (1998). social capital, intellectual capital, and the organizational advantage. academy of management review, 23(2), 242–266. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1998.533225 nienaber, h., & svenson, g. (2013). an analysis of the contribution of leadership to organisational performance using complexity science. journal of management development, 32(8), 836–851. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd-08-2011-0101 nohe, c., michaelis, b., menges, j.i., zhang, z., & sonntag, k. (2013). charisma and organisational change: a multilevel study of perceived charisma, commitment to change, and team performance. the leadership quarterly, 24, 378–389. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.02.001 pearse, n., & kanyangale, m. (2009). researching organizational culture using the grounded theory method. the electronic journal of business research methods, 7, 67–74. retrieved from www.ejbrm.com public protector, state of capture. (2016). a report by the public protector. no. 6, pp. 1–335. retrieved from https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/state-capture-report-public-protector-14-october-2016 putnam, r.d. (1995). bowling alone: america’s declining social capital. journal of democracy, 6(1), 65–78. retrieved from http://www.socialcapitalgateway.org/content/paper/putnam-r-d-1995-bowling-alone-americas-declining-social-capital-journal-democracy-6-1raelin, j.a. (2018). what are you afraid of: collective leadership and its learning implications. management learning, 49(1), 59–66. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507617729974 read, e.a. (2013). workplace social capital in nursing: an evolutionary concept analysis. journal of advanced nursing, 70(5), 997–1007. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.12251 robertson, i.t., callinan, m., & bartram, d. (eds.). (2002). organizational effectiveness: the role of psychology. proquest ebook central. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com sargis-roussel, c., belmondo, c., & deltour, f. (2017). bringing people back in: how group internal social capital influences routines’emergence. european management review, 14, 101–112. https://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12100 schwartz, s.h. (1999). a theory of cultural values and some implications for work. applied psychology: an international review, 48(1), 12–47. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.1999.tb00047.x shenton, a. k. (2004). strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research projects. education for information, 22, 63–75. https://doi.org/10.3233/efi-2004-22201 smith, p.b., dugan, s., & trompenaars, f. (1996). national culture and the values of organizational employees – a dimensional analysis across 43 nations. journal of cross-cultural psychology, 27(2), 231–264. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022196272006 sohmen, v.s. (2015). reflections on creative leadership. international journal of global business, 8(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.13140/rg.2.1.1620.3366 stoughton, a.m., & ludema, j. (2012). the driving forces of sustainability. journal of organizational change management, 25(4), 501–517. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534811211239191 svenson, g., høgevold, n.m., petzer, d., padin, c., ferro, c., klopper, h.b., … wagner, b. (2016). framing stakeholder considerations and business sustainability efforts: a construct, its dimensions and items. journal of business & industrial marketing, 31(2), 287–300. https://doi.org/10.1108/jbim-05-2014-0094 tantardini, m., & kroll, a. (2015). the role of organizational social capital in performance management. public performance & management review, 39(1), 83–99. https://doi.org/10.1080/15309576.2016.1071163 treharne, g.j., & riggs, d.w., (2014) ensuring quality in qualitative research. in p. rohleder & ac. lyons (eds.), qualitative research in clinical and health psychology (pp. 57–73). basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-29105-9_5 udayaadithya, a., & gurtoo, a. (2014). effectiveness of local governance: interactions between social capital and institutional structures. asian social work and policy review, 8(1), 71–95. https://doi.org/10.1111/aswp.12026 veldsman, t.h., & johnson, a.j. (2016). leadership: perspectives from the front line. randburg, johannesburg: kr publishing. von der gracht, h.a. (2012). consensus measurement in delphi studies: review and implications for future quality assurance. technological forecasting and social change, 79(8), 1525–1536. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2012.04.013 warner, j. (2012). social capital and is leadership: a conceptual framework. academy of information and management sciences journal, 15(1), 85–98. retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/25667456/social_network_based_leadership_decision_making_supported_by_social_capital_knowledge_management_and_emotional_intelligence warren, j.s. (2016). the case for trust as a soft or behavioral control for organizational effectiveness (ob). academy of business research journal, 2, 59. retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1863560945?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true# willems, j., jegers, m., & faulk, l. (2016). organisational effectiveness reputation in the non-profit sector. public performance and management review, 39(2), 476–497. https://doi.org/10.1080/15309576.2015.1108802 willig, c. (2009). introducing qualitative research in psychology. mcgraw-hill education (uk). young, y. (2014). social context and social capital: governance, inequality, and the individual experience. international journal of sociology, 44(2), 37–62. https://doi.org/10.2753/ijs0020-7659440202 yukl, g. (2008). how leaders influence organisational effectiveness. the leadership quarterly, 19(6), 708–722. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2008.09.008 yukl, g. (2012). effective leadership behaviour: what we know and what questions need more attention. academy of management perspectives, 26(4), 66–85. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2012.0088 zadeh, h.h., feizi, m., & alipour, h. (2013). surveying the relationship between social capital and knowledge management implementation at custom house of imam khomeini port. journal of business management and social sciences research, 2(10), 65–66. retrieved from https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/surveying-the-relationship-between-social-capital-feizi-zadeh/54fe76dd7b1d806149c7ed08b7cc4d726f387346 zavyalova, a., pfarrer, m.d., reger, r.k., & hubbard, t.d. (2016). reputation as a benefit and a burden? how stakeholders’ organisational identification affects the role of reputation following a negative event. academy of management journal, 59(1), 253–276. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2013.0611 zoogah, d.b, peng, m.w., & woldu, h. (2015). institutions, resources, and organisational effectiveness in africa. the academy of management perspectives, 29(1), 7–31. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2012.0033 appendix 1 table 1-a1: provisions made to ensure quality research. appendix 2 figure 1-a2: illustration of the coding approach using an adapted version of grounded theory. appendix 3 table 1-a3: illustration of similar and different themes for internal and external stakeholders. appendix 4 table 1-a4: extract of consensus and quotes from multiple stakeholders (expert panel). appendix 5 table 1-a5: round 2 survey – new themes are shown. appendix 6 table 1-a6: items that did not reach consensus by experts. appendix 7 figure 1-a7: the dotted line illustrates the connection between both sides. appendix 8 figure 1-a8: all perceived leadership attributes relate to leadership. appendix 9 figure 1-a9: collaboration emerged as an important quality in social capital. abstract introduction results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) strauss chelius school of industrial psychology and human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa bouwer e. jonker school of industrial psychology and human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa marissa brouwers school of industrial psychology and human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa citation chelius, s., jonker, b.e., & brouwers, m. (2022). exploring the job demands experienced by employees with hearing impairment in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1998. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1998 original research exploring the job demands experienced by employees with hearing impairment in south africa strauss chelius, bouwer e. jonker, marissa brouwers received: 21 may 2022; accepted: 29 july 2022; published: 27 sept. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: south africa’s employment equity agenda towards persons with disabilities requires more insight to develop polices and standards of practice. research purpose: this study sought to inductively inquire about job characteristics that employees with hearing impairment (ewhis) experience as job demands. motivation for the study: scholarly research regarding job demands experienced by ewhis is underrepresented in lowand middle-income countries (lmics) and specifically on the african continent. therefore, this study aimed to address this gap in literature within the south african context. research approach/design and method: an exploratory, qualitative research approach was used. social constructivism served as the paradigm. the approach was complemented by a descriptive phenomenological design aimed at deeply understanding the job demands of ewhis within south africa purposive sampling was used to identify 14 respondents. data were collected by using open-ended deaf-accessible questionnaires. inductive qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data. main findings: communication demands and environmental stimuli demands emerged as unique job demands experienced by ewhis. these job demands were not previously listed in the literature. practical/managerial implications: the findings of this study have implications for policy, practice and decision-making. the implications relate to overcoming communication and task barriers as well as minimising task orientation variance experienced by ewhis. contribution/value-add: unlisted themes of job demands that apply to ewhis in south africa were discovered. the improved understanding of these job demands contributes to the body of knowledge on both the theory of job demands and managing the work environments of ewhis. keywords: deaf; employee; hard-of-hearing; health impairment; hearing-impaired; job demands. introduction orientation numerous findings involving employees with hearing impairments (ewhis) suggest a health impairment commonality among individuals of this employee group. to start with, higher levels of hearing loss have been found to be associated with lower health-related quality of life and lower energy levels (ringdahl & grimby, 2000). in other research, the health states of ewhis were found to be below par, in comparison to a hearing reference group (coniavitis gellerstedt & danermark, 2004). likewise, other findings substantiated that hearing impairment should be considered a risk factor for employee fatigue and mental distress. kramer, kapteyn and houtgast (2006) found ewhis to report sick leave because of fatigue, strain or burnout at a rate of 26%, compared to 7% in the hearing comparison group. furthermore, the need for recovery was found to be more common among employees with reduced hearing ability (nachtegaal et al., 2009). in an ewhi case study, almost a decade later, svinndal, solheim, rise and jensen (2018) reported similar types of findings. the conclusion reached was that hearing loss relates significantly to low workability, fatigue and sick leave. moreover, ewhis have been found more likely to report depression than hearing respondents do (woodcock & pole, 2008). the international classification of functioning model (world health organization, 2013) evolves its conceptualisation of disability around an individual’s health, judging it within context. accordingly, disability interventions concern guarding a person’s health to afford them functionality instead of disability. therefore, attention is also paid towards external factors that significantly relate to the individual’s health. in the present study, the job demands of ewhis were considered. job demands are energy-consuming aspects in the workplace that will lead an employee to exhaustion and eventually health deficits and lower performance capacity, if not controlled (bakker & demerouti, 2017). research purpose and objectives the purpose of the study was to qualitatively inquire about workplace aspects that ewhis experience as job demands. the primary objective of this study was to explore the job demands experienced by ewhis in south africa. literature review job demands the term, job demands, relates to job characteristics that incur effort-related costs on the employee (bakker & demerouti, 2018). such costs are described as taxes that employees inherit as charge for their involvement in the job environment (boudrias et al., 2011). therefore, job demands entail those aspects of a job that incur sustained efforts from an employee (bakker & demerouti, 2017). the more taxing job demand-related matters are, the more prolonged the mandatory level of effort that will be required from the employee (sonnentag & zijlstra, 2006). while job demands primarily cost energy from the employee (bakker & demerouti, 2014), they also have the positive effect of strengthening the motivational effect of job resources (bakker & demerouti, 2017). however, unmanaged job demands have the potential to take an employee beyond exhaustion towards health impairment (bakker & demerouti, 2017) and, ultimately, to a point of eliciting self-undermining behaviour (bakker & demerouti, 2014). consequently, job demands are noteworthy predictors of employee outcomes such as exhaustion, psychosomatic health complaints and repetitive strain injury (bakker & demerouti, 2014), accidents and injuries, adverse events, depression, negative work–home interference, physical ill health and unsafe behaviours (schaufeli & taris, 2014). while some job demands have a general application such as workload, others are unique to the context, for example, physical and/or psychological demands (bakker & demerouti, 2014). hearing impairment south africa’s department of labour (2015) classifies hearing impairment as a physical impairment incurred because of ‘partial or total loss of a bodily function’ (pp. 8, 11). ‘normal’ hearing is typically used to refer to hearing thresholds of 20 db or better in both ears (who, 2021). hearing impairment refers to hearing acuity outside the standard range (edwards & crocker, 2008). the stage of hearing loss onset can be distinguished as congenital (incurred during birth or acquired soon thereafter) or acquired (hearing loss onset at a stage later than the congenital). a case of acquired hearing loss can be further classified as either pre-lingual or post-lingual. in a case of pre-lingual onset, hearing loss occurred before the individual acquired speech and language skills; in a case of postnatal onset, the hearing loss occurred after the individual acquired speech and language skills. hearing loss can also be categorised in terms of whether it occurred to only one ear (unilateral hearing loss) or both ears (bilateral hearing loss). furthermore, a case of bilateral hearing loss can be categorised in terms of whether the degree of hearing loss is equal among the ears (symmetrical) or not (asymmetrical) (centres for disease control and prevention [cdc] 2021). degree of hearing impairment can range from mild hearing loss to total hearing loss or deafness (who, 2021). the who’s earlier framework for classifying the severity of hearing loss (who, 2016) suggested that hearing loss, applied to the better ear, will count as slight if it is amid the range of 26 – 40 db; moderate if within the range of 41 – 60 db; severe for the range of 61 – 80 db; and profound if equivalent to or more than 81 db. accordingly, hard-of-hearing (hoh) refers to hearing loss ranging between mild and severe; ‘deaf’ refers to profound hearing loss (table 1). table 1: world health organization framework for hearing loss. the who’s (2021) latest framework includes more subcategories and suggests that communication-related assumptions can be made about each. prevalence of hearing impairment is said to be constantly increasing on a global scale, with africa being among the regions expected to experience the highest increase, to the extent of more than doubling (who, 2021). in south africa, the last reported prevalence rate of hearing impairment was estimated at 3.6%, making it the third highest reported disability after vision (11%) and cognitive disability (4.2%) (statistics south africa, 2011). hearing impairment among south africans was found to be mainly prevalent in the age group of 35–39 years, and the majority of individuals with hearing impairment were found to be beyond the retirement age of 65 years. in the age groups preceding 35–39 years, only approximately 2% of south africa’s people were found to be hearing-impaired. however, the count of south africans with severe hearing loss was found to constitute approximately 1% of the country’s population. hearing impairment has often been referred to as an ‘invisible disability’, not just because of the lack of visible symptoms, but for reasons including that it has long been overlooked by policymakers. the extent to which hearing loss impacts a person’s life depends significantly on contextual factors, such as attention towards communication needs and environmental factors. management thereof through effective rehabilitative interventions will require attention to particular needs. however, relevant depth of insight may be lacking, thereby restricting the intervention that can be provided towards persons with hearing impairment (who, 2021). employee with hearing impairment a definition of ewhi was not found in the literature. however, a classification was developed by integrating the above description of hearing impairment (cdc, 2021; edwards & crocker, 2008; who, 2015) into the definition of an employee provided by section 200a(1) of south africa’s labour relations act (no. 66 of 1995: lra). section 200a(1) states that, until an opposing case is proven, an individual who works for or renders service to another party is regarded as an employee, notwithstanding the form of the employment contract. in light of the discussion above, the term ewhi therefore refers to an individual with a hearing impairment who works for or renders a service to another party, irrespective of the type of employment contract. in addition to the introductory discussion about the health impairment trend among ewhis, international studies also suggest disengagement and self-undermining behaviour among ewhis. employees experiencing hearing loss are said to be more likely to occupy jobs that do not require high levels of skill (hogan, o’loughlin, davis, & kendig, 2009); however, tye-murray, spry and mauzé’s (2009) findings included ewhis reporting to believe to have lost their competitive edge. furthermore, hearing impairment is associated with a higher risk of early retirement (helvik, krokstad, & tambs, 2012; kramer, 2008). literature covering ewhis in south africa was found to be limited. statistics south africa (2011) states that in south africa persons with disabilities face barriers to entering the labour market, and those whose impairments are more severe face the most obstacles. the most prevalent barriers include insufficiency of information about disability and lack of support in work environments furthermore, the department of labour (2015) reports that persons with disabilities who are employed in south africa often remain in low-status jobs (statistics south africa, 2011). south africa’s department of social development (2016) states that while significant progress has been made over the past 20 years in terms of disability consideration in the attitudinal sense, this alone has not proved sufficient. in addition, equity should also be pursued substantively. this includes disability-specific transversal interventions for addressing barriers to participation and creating more enabling environments for persons with disabilities; the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach is not viable for developing disability policy. novel local research is required of countries so that they can assess their own requirements and develop interventions most applicable to serving their population’s needs (who, 2021). job demands of employees with hearing impairment job satisfaction among ewhis is negatively related to on-the-job limitations (geyer & schroedel, 1998). relatedly, commotion and competing speech in the work environment are experienced as complications by ewhis (hua, anderzén-carlsson, widén, claes, & lyxell, 2015). likewise, ewhis indicate that meetings and training activities are problematic because of the experience of commotion (punch, hyde, & power, 2007). specifically, meetings, in-service training sessions and work-related social events are reported as challenging for ewhis (punch, 2016). moreover, lower levels of efficiency in the dominant language spoken in the workplace are related to higher levels of stress (van gils, van den bogaerde, & de lange, 2010). furthermore, the energy and stress levels of ewhis are negatively affected by noise, the number of people in the room and difficulty to communicate (lund, 2015). likewise, valid sick leave days taken are positively correlated with exposure to noise and reverberation as well as the difficulty to distinguish between sounds and effort in hearing (kramer et al., 2006). employees with hearing impairments are required to concentrate more when exposed to background noise that causes elevated levels of fatigue and stress (punch, 2016). lower physical functioning and higher perceived effort among ewhis experiencing conditions of increased noise levels are reported by hua et al. (2013). in addition, higher levels of noise are found to be more stressful to ewhis as compared to their hearing colleagues (jahncke & halin, 2012). specifically, increased noise levels are associated with reduced task performance that requires the recall of semantic information, increased fatigue and higher levels of stress hormones (jahncke & halin, 2012). these scholars do, however, state that the results should be interpreted with caution because of the small sample size. in contrast, van gils et al. (2010) reported that ewhis do not experience significantly higher levels of stress. however, ewhis experience significantly higher degrees of job demands than their hearing counterparts, even though the degree of job control (the level of control an individual has over his or her job, e.g., autonomy) is comparable between the two groups (van gils et al., 2010). from the ewhi job demands literature review, it is clear that the typology of job demands, experienced by ewhis, is not all represented in the mainstream body of knowledge noted either by bakker and demerouti (2017) or schaufeli and taris (2014) – namely, the physical, psychological, social or organisational job demands themes. therefore, an ewhi-focused job demands inquiry is suggested. furthermore, it is currently unclear how ewhis in south africa experience job demands because no local studies that have investigated this phenomenon could be located. based on the gap in the literature explained above, the present study qualitatively explored job demands from the perspective of ewhi in south africa. research design research approach a qualitative research approach and descriptive phenomenological research design were used to explore the job demands of ewhis. consequently, the study sought to develop a general structure about the lived experiences unique to the ewhis’ job demands while deriving conclusions from actual empirical samples (finlay, 2009). social constructivism was employed as the paradigm through which the study is viewed. the study presupposed norm-deviant outlooks (creswell, 2014) among ewhis regarding workplace factors that they experience as job demands. therefore, established assumptions and theoretical frameworks were acknowledged, but new perspectives were probed for by allowing ewhis to describe the subjective interpretations they attach to workplace factors. research strategy an interpretive description was used as the research strategy to guide the researchers in the exploration of the experiences of various participants in a specific social setting (thorne, reimer-kirkham, & macdonald-emes, 1997). this strategy was deemed appropriate to explore the job demands experienced by employees with hearing impairment in south africa. the interpretive description research strategy allows for the conception of a description encompassing the themes and patterns communicated by participants (thorne, 2008). research method research setting: workplaces of ewhis in south africa served as the research setting. in one organisation, ewhis represented the majority of the workforce. however, in most of the organisations that participated in this study, ewhis were in the minority. the researcher used email to make data collection arrangements with willing participants. the self-administered, open-ended qualitative questionnaire for the 5 working days’ data collection was administered in two modes: online or as a microsoft word document, based on a respondent’s indicated preference. entrée and establishing researcher roles: following an application to the research ethics committee, consent (emsmhw16/06/10-01/05) was obtained on 01 september 2016. all procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. contact was established with a facilitating organisation that specialises in the training and development of hearing-impaired individuals in south africa. this organisation is linked to ewhis who work in a variety of organisations and sectors. the human resource (hr) manager of this facilitating organisation disseminated the invitation to participate in the study to ewhis who fit the inclusion criteria of this study. in addition, the hr manager distributed the invitation to employees within the facilitating organisation who also fit the inclusion criteria. written informed consent was obtained from all respondents who chose to participate in this study. the language of the text was simplified in the event that a deaf respondent may possess a basic vocabulary (spencer & marschark, 2010). the questionnaires were distributed to participants individually. in addition to textual format, each question was accompanied by a link to an video clip of a south african sign language (sasl) translation (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvxvevmqjic). the content validity of the questionnaires and validity of the sasl interpretations were verified by an accredited interpreter throughout the development process. reminders to return the day’s completed questionnaire were sent to the participants daily. the researchers were responsible for coordinating the processes, obtaining permission from organisations to collect data, securing informed consent from participants, collecting and storing the data, ensuring that ethical standards were adhered to as well as organising, analysing and interpreting the data and reporting the findings. research participants and sampling methods: the study participants comprised ewhis within the south african context. these participants represented various categories of hearing impairment, for example, hoh and deaf. a purposive sampling was used to ensure that participants who can offer specific insights related to the phenomenon were included (jensen & laurie, 2016). the inclusion criteria of this sampling technique concerned having a hearing impairment – in the pre-lingual, post-lingual, unilateral, bilateral and/or hoh or deaf sense – and being employed in south africa. the attained sample consisted of eight pre-lingually deafened employees, four post-lingually deafened employees and two employees who are hoh (n = 14). transferability of the results was increased by using purposive sampling with specific inclusion criteria. data collection methods: a self-administered, open-ended questionnaire was used to collect data about ewhis’ job demands experiences. this was the most appropriate data collection technique for the present study because the researchers are not fluent in sasl and using an interpreter could have posed an ethical risk. this decision by the researchers increased the dependability of the study. the open-ended question for data collection during days 1–4 is presented below: firstly, the text, then the backward translation of the sasl rendition in italics. note that the backward translation in sasl is slightly different because of a dissimilar grammatical structure as compared to that of english: text question: when thinking about all of the things that happened to you today while at work, what are the experiences that took energy from you? please list all of the cases and explain each in detail. sasl question: when you think about all the things that happened to you today while at work, what are the experiences that took energy from you? please list all the cases and explain each in detail. the open-ended question for the fifth day’s data collection was preceded by an individualised summary of the first four working days’ responses. each participant therefore had a chance to check the accuracy of the data and to add additional responses if needed. this member checking strategy increased the confirmability of the study: all of the work experiences of the last four working days that you listed as taking energy from you are listed below: day 1: day 2: day 3: day 4: the fifth working day’s question aimed to include more cases of job demands, experienced by ewhis, during a more extended period than reported in the previous four consecutive working days: please tell us about any other work experiences from the last six months that took energy from you. in the box below, please list all of the cases and explain each in detail. in addition, a biographical questionnaire was used to collect information about the sample. employees with hearing impairments were asked about: the category of hearing loss (deaf or hoh), the stage of onset of the hearing impairment (preor post-lingual), the laterality of hearing loss (unilateral or bilateral), gender, industry and whether their workplace predominantly comprises hearing people. data collected from the biographical questionnaire enabled the researchers to accurately describe the characteristics of the sample, which increased the transferability of the study. data collection was initiated as a pilot study. the pilot study indicated that the questions used to probe responses were well understood. no adjustments were required to the questionnaire. therefore, the researcher proceeded with the main data collection phase on the same basis. data recording: respondents were asked, as part of the invitation, to avoid discussing their responses with any hearing-impaired colleague until after conclusion of the data collection. for each day of the data collection process, a new questionnaire was used. the final copies of the data were transferred to a microsoft word file as exact copies of the source texts. this practice increased the dependability of the study. the storage location of the data remained confidential and was not publicly accessible. data files were saved on a computer hard drive with an encrypted password. strategies employed to ensure data quality and integrity: the following strategies, as recommended by anney (2014), teddie and tashakkori (2009) and shenton (2004), were used to enhance the trustworthiness of the results of this study: credibility: this refers to the plausibility of research findings. the researchers enhanced the credibility of this study by using well-established research methods, obtaining thick descriptions of the job demands experienced by ewhi and making use of co-coders. transferability: this denotes the generalisability of the results of the study and the extent to which the findings can be applied to related contexts. the use of purposive sampling with inclusion criteria and by accurately describing the characteristics of the sample increased the transferability of this study. confirmability: this implies that strategies are put in place to ensure that results are a true reflection of the data collected. the researchers eliminated bias by allowing the respondents to inspect their individual responses after 4 days of data collection, thereby verifying the quality of the data. in addition, the researchers co-coded the data to guard against interpreter bias. dependability: this refers to fidelity of the findings over time. the researchers enhanced the dependability of the study by providing in-depth and clear descriptions of the respondents’ experiences and by explaining the decisions of the researchers regarding the procedures followed. data analysis: data analysis was aimed at capturing job demands categories without being anchored by previously defined job demands structures or knowledge – as prior research about job demands of ewhi is not extensive. accordingly, an inductive qualitative content analysis process, as recommended by elo and kyngäs (2008), was adopted to analyse the data. this decision of the researchers enhanced the credibility and transferability of the study. the phases of this process are explicated below: preparation: the researchers immersed themselves in the qualitative data and climate of the texts. consequently, the responses were read through several times. open coding: the researchers used the brainstorming technique to derive potential labels to the texts. in addition, the researchers co-coded the data to ensure credibility and confirmability creating categories: the individual labels were grouped, and a structure of overarching themes, and subthemes, was established. abstraction: titles were inductively assigned to themes and subthemes – without reverting to established classifications. reporting: a thorough narrative discussion was provided about the data analysis process and the conceptual model that emerged. reporting style: the themes and subthemes that emerged from the data analysis are delineated in the results section of this study. reporting was done in the form of a qualitative narrative, providing a rich and thick description of the job demands experienced by ewhis in south africa. this narrative was substantiated by direct quotations from the participants. this practice enhanced the credibility of the study. results the sample was predominantly compiled of deaf employees (86%). for most of the respondents (79%), hearing impairment applied to both ears, while 50% reported that the degree of hearing loss was equal in both ears. hearing loss having occurred before learning verbal communication was more common among the participants (64%). this finding is significant when the direct quotations of participants are considered. readers will observe that the use of language may seem underdeveloped, in some instances, with a variety of grammatical errors made. this is not uncommon when hearing loss occurred before verbal (and written) communication was properly developed (edwards & crocker, 2008). the male gender was the modal (57%), and the most common industries in which the respondents worked were those of education (36%), information technology (14%) and law (14%). half of the respondents (seven) indicated their workplaces to be mainly compiled of hearing staff members. the research objective of this study was to explore the job demands that are experienced by ewhis. pursuant of this objective, the researchers analysed the data with a view of demystifying the phenomenon. the main themes that emanated from the data level concerning the experiences of job demands of ewhis include communication barriers, task hindrances, task pressure, task environment variance, lack of cooperation, inconsideration and bounded rationality. these themes are explicated below and further refined in the form of subthemes. theme 1: communication barriers a variety of communication-related barriers were identified that need prolonged effort from ewhis in south africa. these barriers included the rates of speech of hearing individuals that are too fast, misunderstanding of the other party, having to explain repeatedly, experiencing a communication commotion and a communication gap. each of these hindrances constitutes subthemes of communication barriers and is elucidated below. subtheme 1: rate of speech too quick respondents indicated that a non-hearing-impaired person’s rate of speech can be experienced as too quick. therefore, an hie may find it difficult to follow what is being said and/or to respond at a reciprocal rate. this experience is illustrated in the following excerpt: ‘i’m struggling to communicate faster even when a person talks too fast, and i can’t keep up with every word though.’ (participant [p]6, deaf, both ears, male, 24 years old) subtheme 2: misunderstanding of other party the participants shared that misunderstandings in the workplace occur often, even if the organisation has basic sign language capabilities. the quotation below by participant 4 illustrates this effort-inducing job demand: ‘… [i]t is hard for me because there are lots of misunderstandings … they have sign language but not enough …’ (p4, deaf, both ears, male, 42 years old) subtheme 3: explaining repeatedly the experience of having to explain a work-related issue repeatedly emerged from the data. participants in this study found the process of repetitive explanation exhaustive. this taxing experience is substantiated by the following excerpt: ‘… [h]aving to constantly explain …’ (p5, hoh, one ear, female, 59 years old) in support of this view, participant 9 explained that: ‘i had to explain to them twice …’ (p9, deaf, both ears, male, 32 years old) subtheme 4: communication commotion the subtheme of communication commotion was extracted from descriptions of cases where ewhis found themselves surrounded by several instances of communication, making it difficult to follow the discussion directed at them. the following response illustrates this job demand: ‘in an open-plan environment, with people talking all around, it is hard to decipher who is actually addressing you and this can make one quite tired.’ (p5, hoh, one ear, female, 59 years old) furthermore, participant 6 added the following: ‘there are a lot of communication going around and i had to ask them to write down on paper for what they order while i do not understand what they are saying.’ (p6, deaf, both ears, male, 24 years old) subtheme 5: communication gap the communication gap subtheme highlights the prolonged hindrances experienced by ewhis regarding communication with task associates or clients. participants indicated that they had to find different ways to communicate with people and this takes a great deal of effort. the following excerpt illustrates the communication gap experienced by ewhis: ‘difficult communication that took me lot of effort to find ways of communication with people.’ (p6, deaf, both ears, male, 24 years old) in support of this view, participant 8 said: ‘in the beginning [it] was so hard for me, because i am profound deaf, and they don’t have [an] interpreter.’ (p8, deaf, both ears, male, 36 years old) theme 2: task hindrances two subthemes, poor task orientation and subordinate lack of motivation emerged from the data and constitute task hindrances. these subthemes are discussed next. subtheme 1: poor task orientation participants indicated that poor task orientation is experienced as energy consuming. the following quotation by participant 4 substantiates this view. ‘i did do [t he] drawing as what he want but [he did] not explain [it to] me enough.’ (p4, deaf, both ears, male, 42 years old) moreover, participant 6 added that: ‘i needed a partner to work with and [to] see what they do and how it [should be] done in the job, which will help me understand [the task] better.’ (p6, deaf, both ears, male, 24 years old) subtheme 2: subordinate lack of motivation the lack of motivation among subordinates is another task hindrance that takes effort from ewhis who participated in this study. the following extract supports this statement: ‘students [who were] absent made me [very] disappoint[ed]. that [made me feel as if i] lost energy.’ (p3, deaf, both ears, female, 27 years old) this view is supported by participant 9, who shared that: ‘learner’s lack of motivation … [takes effort from me].’ (p9, male, deaf, both ears, 32 years old) theme 3: task pressure task pressure emerged as a theme during the data analysis and comprises inquiry from authority holder, and creative output. these two subthemes are explicated below. subtheme 1: inquiry from authority holder some participants experience an inquiry from a higher authority as energy consuming. this experience is illustrated in the following quotation: ‘some time[s] i get stress with [an] email [coming] from [a] moderator.’ (p3, deaf, both ears, 27 years old) in support of this view, participant 4 stated that: ‘… [the boss] asked me why i took so long to complete my drawings.’ (p4, deaf, both ears, male, 42 years old) subtheme 2: creative output employees with hearing impairments participating in this study indicated that being pressured by someone in a managerial position to be inventive (creative output) is draining. participant 4 shared the following instruction to him from his manager: ‘do the drawing of conveyor in new ways and reduce for less cost.’ (p4, deaf, both ears, male, 42 years old) another example of creative output requiring considerable effort from an hie is: ‘… [h]aving a meeting to come up with the idea…’ (p14, deaf, both ears, female, 32 years old) theme 4: task environment variance changes in the task environment are experienced as energy sapping for ewhis who participated in this inquiry. two subthemes were identified and are discussed below. subtheme 1: interruption of task processes interruption of the task process takes considerable effort from some participants of this study. an example of such an interruption while the hie is performing a task is presented in the following quotation: ‘… [w]hen i started my drawing, then my boss asked me to do [a] delivery immediately. so, i saved my drawing. when i returned from delivery, i [wanted to] catch up [with] my drawing. then [second in charge] asked me to watch her dogs or staff [for a] while … lots of interruption[s]…’ (p4, both ears, deaf, male, 42 years old) subtheme 2: travelling some participants reported that travelling is experienced as energy depleting. the following excerpt supports this statement: ‘underground work is nice and doesn’t require too much effort but travelling up and down takes lots of energy.’ (p8, deaf, both ears, male, 36 years old) also relating to travelling, participant 14 reported that: ‘… [t]ravelling to braamfontein, from centurion, really [makes me] tired, from driving in the traffic.’ (p14, deaf, both ears, female, 32 years old) theme 5: lack of cooperation from the ewhis’ responses, it becomes apparent that they view the lack of cooperation from another party as a job demand. this lack of cooperation ranges from the subordinate to the management level. subtheme 1: subordinate one participant indicated that taking on additional work, because their subordinate did not deliver the required service, was energy consuming. the following quote conveys the point clearly: ‘dealing with unskilled staff and having to constantly explain procedures which their immediate bosses should cover.’ (p5, hoh, one ear, female, 59 years old) in another case, a subordinate did not complete a task: ‘learners’ lack of motivation of their gaining knowledge as they did not want to research more work of the tasks that i gave them.’ (p9, deaf, both ears, male, 32 years old) subtheme 2: co-worker some participants stated that co-workers fail to take on personal responsibility as part of the team. this behaviour of co-workers causes prolonged disappointment on the part of the participants. the following extract conveys a feeling of distress: ‘i [have] learnt that a large portion of the staff are only interested in what they are working on and have no time to pass knowledge on or are only trying to enhance their careers at the expense of others. there would appear to be [a] lack of respect for others, which is very disheartening.’ (p5, hoh, one ear, female, 59 years old) subtheme 3: management some participants indicate that the lack of cooperation from management is emotionally exhausting. this point is illustrated by the following excerpt: ‘in the beginning, the company was not deaf friendly at all … the former manager was not willing to co-operate with me … it was hell to deal with them.’ (p7, deaf, both ears, male, 35 years old) theme 6: inconsideration inconsideration was identified as an overarching theme experienced by participants in this study. from this theme, three subthemes emerged, namely, unreasonable expectation, unreasonable confrontation and critique without empathy. these subthemes are elucidated next. subtheme 1: unreasonable expectation participants stated that situations occur in the workplace where undue pressure is placed upon them to perform without taking their point of view or auditory disability into consideration. this view is supported by the following extract: ‘… [boss] asked me why i took so long to complete my drawings. and i told him that he didn’t give me chance to finish my drawing.’ (p4, deaf, both ears, male, 42 years old) in addition, a quotation from participant 6 can be offered in support of the statement: ‘also, when a person said something [and] when i do not understand, they get frustration [frustrated].’ (p6, deaf, both ears, male, 24 years old) subtheme 2: unreasonable confrontation some participants noted that unreasonable confrontation in the work environment is experienced as energy sapping. the following two instances entail ewhis who are hastily reprimanded by an ill-informed party: ‘… [boss] asked me why i took so long to complete my drawings. and i told him that he didn’t give me chance to finish…’ (p4, deaf, both ears, male, 42 years old) participant 7 added: ‘the company was not deaf friendly at all, and i got several verbal warnings and seven warning letters.’ (p7, deaf, both ears, male, 35 years old) subtheme 3: critique without empathy participants shared emotionally draining experiences where they received feedback from individuals who showed no empathy or consideration towards the realities of having a hearing impairment: ‘i feel mostly frustrated. my colleague responds to me, “relax …”’ (p2, deaf, both ears, 38 years old) this view was supported by participant 4 who added that: ‘i showed him my idea. … [boss’] reaction is: “expensive, not right.” no appreciation …’ (p4 deaf, both ears, male, 42 years old) theme 7: bounded rationality the ewhis participating in this study seemed to experience energy loss in relation to another party’s lack of comprehension. this view is directed at two groups of individuals, namely subordinate and co-worker. these groups therefore represent the subthemes that are discussed next. subtheme 1: subordinate some participants indicated that the delayed comprehension of subordinates requires prolonged effort on the part of ewhis. participant 5 explained this finding in the following quotation: ‘these learners who are struggled [struggling] to understand during the training.’ (p1, deaf, both ears, female, 31 years old) participant 5 added the following: ‘dealing with unskilled staff and having to constantly explain procedures which their immediate bosses should cover.’ (p5, hoh, one ear, female, 59 years old) subtheme 2: co-worker participants shared that the lack of perspective shown by some co-workers is another source of energy depletion. this experience is evidenced by the following response: ‘i am constantly amazed by people’s lack of common sense and i find this debilitating and it drains me … people are clearly not taight [taught] to think for themselves or manage their tasks.’ (p5, hoh, one ear, female, 59 years old) this view was shared by participant 7, who added the following: ‘after five years they understand me better; it was hell to deal with them.’ (p7, deaf, both ears, male, 35 years old) discussion outline of the results the objective of this study was to explore the job demands experienced by ewhis in south africa. job demands are normally categorised as physical demands, psychological demands, social demands or organisational demands (bakker & demerouti, 2017). even though the findings of this study generally correspond with those themes, two noticeable exceptions emerged, namely, communication barriers and task environment variance. communication barriers were derived from accounts where ewhis experienced energy depletion from job aspects primarily related to communication involving colleagues or clients. participants indicated that non-hearing-impaired individuals’ rate of speech can be experienced as too fast for their degree of audio receptivity. the idea is supported by a comparable finding, where ewhis experienced distinguishing sounds as demanding (kramer et al., 2006). misunderstanding of the other party is another subtheme that emerged, as well as having to explain repeatedly. similarly, it has been found that ewhis’ lower efficiency in the modal language can be associated with higher levels of stress (van gils et al., 2010). the subtheme of communication commotion was also inferred from the data of this study. employees with hearing impairments reported experiencing energy depletion while surrounded by several instances of communication because of difficulty in following the discussion that applied to them. correspondingly, several scholars have found that communication within commotion can be associated with hie health impairment (hua et al., 2015; kramer et al., 2006; lund, 2015; punch, 2016). furthermore, the communication gap subtheme, where ewhis highlighted the prolonged difficulties they experienced concerning communication with task associates and clients, was also drawn from the data. comparably, it has been concluded that ewhis’ energy levels are demoted, and stress levels are promoted, when they experience difficulties with communication (lund, 2015). task demand variance was derived from responses suggesting that ewhis experience exhaustion from variance in surroundings in terms of both intangible (e.g. sound waves) and/or tangible aspects (e.g. people moving around). interruption of the task process emerged as particularly exhausting for the participants. relatedly, ewhis are reported to commonly have low job control (punch, 2016), which can increase the risk of psychological strain (karasek, 1979). comparably, perceived reverberation has been found to correlate with ewhis’ stress-related sick leave (kramer et al., 2006). likewise, background noise may require higher concentration from ewhis and lead them to hypervigilance, stress and fatigue (punch, 2016). the responses grouped and labelled under travelling also convey the notion of environmental stimulus demands. hornsby (2013) suggests that while processing environmental stimuli, the absence of hearing may require more cognitive processing, thereby having an exhaustive effect. practical implication the results of this study have important practical implications for organisations that employ workers and supervisors with hearing impairments. to address possible communication barriers, communicators can speak slower and allow ewhis to respond. in addition, supervisors can consider using transcription technology to allow ewhis to follow group discussions and determine whether the hie has any queries or opinions to add. moreover, organisations can enhance its capacity to offer sign language interpretation. office managers should avoid placing ewhis in open plan arrangements where commotion and noise are unavoidable. task barriers can be addressed by providing adequate task orientation to ewhis. poor task orientation can be reduced by developing orientation manuals and/or videos with sasl translation and avoiding the interruption of ewhis during their initial review of task requirements. in addition, recognition should be given that the variation of tangible and/or non-tangible environmental aspects can intensify concentration required from an hie during task-related matters. supervisors should be more considerate towards ewhis by avoiding unrealistic expectations and unreasonable confrontations, and continuously making an effort to identify and manage mediating and/or moderating factors. moreover, supervisors should make a point of using a professional tone towards ewhis when consulting with them. furthermore, supervisors are advised to pair ewhis with subordinates or co-workers who are quick to understand what is expected of them. limitations and recommendations despite the contributions to the field of study, certain limitations must be factored in. firstly, the researchers’ proficiency in sasl is not at the level required for personal interviews. consequently, another method was needed to collect the data. the option of using a third party as interpreter in a semi-structured interview setting was rejected by the researchers because it would prove difficult to ensure confidentiality and privacy. the researchers circumvented the challenge by opting for a self-administered qualitative questionnaire, which included url links to online sasl translations of each question. secondly, the chosen data collection method meant that responses were provided by text. however, not all respondents were equally fluent in written communication – as evidenced by the sentence construction of some responses. proposed areas for further investigation could include socio-economic factors and other environmental aspects that may limit ewhis’ participation and/or functionality. insight that could allow preventative measures to be developed is also encouraged (mitra & shakespear, 2019). conclusion this research highlights the types of job demands experienced by ewhis across various south african industries. the main themes that emerged from the data and that represent job characteristics that are experienced as job demands include the following: communication barriers, task hindrances, task pressure, task environment variance, lack of cooperation, inconsideration and bounded rationality. while most of these themes are corroborated in mainstream literature (bakker & demerouti, 2017; schaufeli & taris, 2014), the communication barriers and task environment variance themes represent novel findings related to ewhis. attention towards job demands may advance awareness about work environment factors to consider or manage an hie’s functionality or disability, as well as aspects that may limit participation. the results of this study provide organisations with valuable information that can inform and/or enhance practices, decision-making and policy relating to ewhi. acknowledgements the authors thank all the individuals for participating in this study and the organisations for disseminating the research invitations on behalf of the authors. without their contributions, this study would not have been possible. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. author’s contributions s.c. made a substantial contribution to the conception and design of the study, acquisition of the data, and the analysis and interpretation of the data. furthermore, the primary author critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. in addition, s.c. approved the final version to be published. b.e.j. made a substantial contribution to the conception and design of the study, and analysis and interpretation of the data. in addition, he drafted the manuscript and approved the final version to be published. m.b. made a substantial contribution to the conception and design of the study, and analysis and interpretation of the data. moreover, this author critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content and approved the final version to be published. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct the study was obtained from the research ethics committee of the faculty of economic and management sciences at the north-west university (ethical clearance number: emsmhw16/06/10-01/05). funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data of this study will be available upon written request to the corresponding author. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references anney, v.n. (2014). ensuring the quality of the findings of qualitative research: looking at trustworthiness criteria. journal of emergi†ng trends in educational research and policy studies, 5(2), 272–281. bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2014). job demands-resources theory. in p.y. chen & c.l. cooper (eds.), wellbeing: a complete reference guide, work and wellbeing (pp. 37–64). john wiley & sons, inc. bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2017). job demands–resources theory: taking stock and looking forward. journal of occupational health psychology, 22(3), 273–285. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000056 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2018). multiple levels of job demands-resources theory: implications for employee well-being and performance. in e. diener, s. oishi, & l. tay (eds.), handbook of well-being (pp. 1–12). def publishers. boudrias, j.-s., desrumaux, p., gaudreau, p., nelson, k., brunet, l., & savoie, a. (2011). modeling the experience of psychological health at work: the role of personal resources, social-organizational resources, and job demands. international journal of stress management, 18(4), 372–395. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025353 centres for disease control and prevention (cdc). (2021). types of hearing loss. retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/hearingloss/types.html coniavitis gellerstedt, l., & danermark, b. (2004). hearing impairment, working life conditions, and gender. scandinavian journal of disability research, 6(3), 225–245. https://doi.org/10.1080/15017410409512654 creswell, j.w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative, & mixed methods approaches (4th ed., p. 342). sage. edwards, l., & crocker, s. (2008). psychological processes in deaf children with complex needs (p. 204). jessica kingsley. elo, s., & kyngäs, h. (2008). the qualitative content analysis process. journal of advanced nursing, 62(1), 107–115. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2007.04569.x finlay, l. (2009). exploring lived experience: principles and practice of phenomenological research. international journal of therapy and rehabilitation, 15(9), 474–481. https://doi.org/10.12968/ijtr.2009.16.9.43765 geyer, p.d., & schroedel, j.g. (1998). early career job satisfaction for full-time workers who are deaf or hard of hearing. journal of rehabilitation, 64(1), 33–37. https://doi.org/10.1353/aad.2016.0028 helvik, a.s., krokstad, s., & tambs, k. (2013). hearing loss and risk of early retirement. the hunt study. the european journal of public health, 23(4), 617–622. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/cks118 hogan, a., o’loughlin, k., davis, a., & kendig, h. (2009). hearing loss and paid employment: australian population survey findings. international journal of audiology, 48(3), 117–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/14992020802449008 hornsby, b.w. (2013). the effects of hearing aid use on listening effort and mental fatigue associated with sustained speech processing demands. ear hear, 34(5), 523–534. https://doi.org/10.1097/aud.0b013e31828003d8 hua, h., anderzén-carlsson, a., widén, s., claes, m., & lyxell, b. (2015). conceptions of working life among employees with mild-moderate aided hearing impairment: a phenomenographic study. international journal of audiology, 54(11), 873–880. https://doi.org/10.3109/14992027.2015.1060640 hua, h., karlsson, j., wildén, s., möller, c., & lyxell, b. (2013). quality of life, effort and disturbance perceived in noise: a comparison between employees with aided hearing-impairment and normal hearing. international journal of audiology, 52, 642–649. https://doi.org/10.3109/14992027.2013.803611 jahncke, h., & halin, n. (2012). performance, fatigue and stress in open-plan offices: the effects of noise and restoration on hearing impaired and normal hearing individuals. noise & health, 14(60), 260–272. https://doi.org/10.4103/1463-1741.102966 jensen, e., & laurie, c. (2016). doing real research (p. 400). sage. karasek, r.a. (1979). job demands, job decision latitude, and mental strain: implications for job redesign. administrative science quarterly, 24(2), 285. https://doi.org/10.2307/2392498 kramer, s.e. (2008). hearing impairment, work, and vocational enablement. international journal of audiology, 47, s124–s130. https://doi.org/10.1080/14992020802310887 kramer, s.e., kapteyn, t.s., & houtgast, t. (2006). occupational performance: comparing normally-hearing and hearing-impaired employees using the amsterdam checklist for hearing and work. international journal of audiology, 45(9), 503–512. https://doi.org/10.1080/14992020600754583 lund, k. (2015). hearing loss, health, stress and work-life: how to reduce labour market stress among persons with hearing loss. doctoral thesis. retrieved from http://www.cbg.dk/media/286468/katja_lund_phd.pdf mitra, s., & shakespeare, t. (2019). remodeling the icf. disability and health journal, 12(3), 337–339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dhjo.2019.01.008 nachtegaal, j., kuik, d.j., anema, j.r., goverts, s.t., festen, j.m., & kramer, s.e. (2009). hearing status, need for recovery after work, and psychosocial work characteristics: results from an internet-based national survey on hearing [article]. international journal of audiology, 48(10), 684–691. https://doi.org/10.1080/14992020902962421 punch, r. (2016). employment and adults who are deaf or hard of hearing: current status and experiences of barriers, accommodations, and stress in the workplace. american annals of the deaf, 161(3), 384–397. punch, r., hyde, m., & power, d. (2007). career and workplace experiences of australian university graduates who are deaf or hard of hearing. journal for deaf studies & deaf education, 12(4), 504–517. https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/enm011 republic of south africa. department of labour. (2015). revised draft code of good practice on the employment of persons with disabilities (government gazette 38872, notice 581, 15 may 2015). pretoria: government printer. republic of south africa. department of social development. (2016). white paper on the rights of persons with disabilities: official publication and gazetting of the white paper on the rights of persons with disabilities (government gazette 39792, notice 230, 9 march 2016). retrieved from http://www.gov.za/sites/www.gov.za/files/39792_gon230.pdf ringdahl, a., & grimby, a. (2000). severe-profound hearing impairment and health-related quality of life among post-lingual deafened swedish adults. scandinavian audiology, 29(4), 266–275. https://doi.org/10.1080/010503900750022907 schaufeli, w.b., & taris, t.w. (2014). a critical review of the job demands-resources model: implications for improving work and health. in g.f. bauer, & o. hämmig (eds.), bridging occupational organizational and public health: a transdisciplinary approach (pp. 473–503). springer science & business media. shenton, a.k. (2004). strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research projects. education for information, 22(2), 63–75. https://doi.org/10.3233/efi-2004-22201 sonnentag, s., & zijlstra, f.r.h. (2006). job characteristics and off-job activities as predictors of need for recovery, well-being, and fatigue. journal of applied psychology, 91(2), 330–350. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.2.330 spencer, p.e., & marschark, m. (2010). evidence-based practice in educating deaf and hard-of-hearing students: professional perspectives on deafness, evidence and applications (p. 264). oxford university press. statistics south africa. (2011). census 2011: profile of persons with disabilities in south africa. retrieved from http://beta2.statssa.gov.za/publications/report-03-01-59/report-03-01-592011.pdf svinndal, e.v., solheim, j., rise, m.b., & jensen, c. (2018). hearing loss and work participation: a cross-sectional study in norway. international journal of audiology, 57(9), 646–656. https://doi.org/10.1080/14992027.2018.1464216 teddie, c., & tashakkori, a. (2009). foundations of mixed methods research: integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches in the social and behavioural sciences (p. 387) sage. thorne, s. (2008). interpretive desciption (p. 272). sage. thorne, s., reimer-kirkham, s., & macdonald-emes, j. (1997). interpretive description: a non-categorical qualitative alternative for developing nursing knowledge. research in nursing and health, 20(2), 169–177. tye-murray, n., spry, j.l., & mauzé, e. (2009). professionals with hearing loss: maintaining competitive edge. ear and hearing, 30(4), 475–484. https://doi.org/10.1097/aud.0b013e3181a61f16 van gils, g., van den bogaerde, b., & de lange, r.o.b. (2010). the use of modern information and communication systems and technology and experienced stress at work in mixed deaf-hearing teams. sign language studies, 10(2), 231–257. https://doi.org/10.1353/sls.0.0041 woodcock, k., & pole, j.d. (2008). educational attainment, labour force status and injury: a comparison of canadians with and without deafness and hearing loss. international journal of rehabilitation research, 31(4), 297–304. https://doi.org/10.1097/mrr.0b013e3282fb7d4d world health organization. (2013). how to use the icf: a practical manual for using the international classification of functioning, disability and health (icf). geneva: world health organization. retrieved from https://www.who.int/classifications/drafticfpracticalmanual2.pdf?ua=1 world health organization. (2015). deafness and hearing loss. retrieved from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs300/en/ world health organisation. (2016). grades of hearing-impairment. retrieved from http://www.who.int/pbd/deafness/hearing_impairment_grades/en/ world health organization. (2021). world report on hearing. retrieved from https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/world-report-on-hearing article information authors: nonceba p. ntuta¹ willem j. schurink2 affiliations: ¹department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa 2department of human resources management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: willem schurink email: wjs@webafrica.org.za postal address: department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, po box 524, auckland park 2006, south africa keywords politically-driven reform; education; poor school performance; school improvement; transformation dates: received: 17 feb. 2009 accepted: 21 sept. 2010 published: 26 nov. 2010 how to cite this article: ntuta, n.p., & schurink, w.j. (2010). towards sustaining performance in a gauteng secondary school. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #191, 9 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.191 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) towards sustaining performance in a gauteng secondary school in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • the broad research question • research design    • research approach    • research strategy    • research method       • research setting       • entrée and establishing researcher roles       • sampling       • data-collection methods       • recording and management of data       • data analysis       • strategies used to ensure quality data       • reporting style • findings    • background to the problem    • learning new ways through education action zones involvement    • implementation of new ways by the school    • falling back into old ways       • theme 1       • theme 2 • discussion • conclsuion    • limitations of the study    • participants’ suggestions for sustaining performance • references abstract (back to top) orientation: poor school performance is a major problem in south africa. to date the success of intervention strategies that were aimed at turning the situation around in dysfunctional schools have been short lived and were not sustainable. research purpose: the aim of this study was to determine the reasons for the failure of an intervention programme in a school that managed to perform well for the time when it received assistance. motivation: it is essential to determine the reasons for this continuous failure of school intervention programmes if we want to address the serious problems experienced by the south african education system. research design, approach and method: in this study, a qualitative research approach within a case-study design was used. main findings: the main reasons for the inability of the school to sustain its performance were not internal (within the school itself) but external (within the education system). practical and managerial implications: the findings of this study highlight the importance of external leadership and support by the districts and the department of education in changing the poor performance of schools at large. main contribution: contrary to literature emphasising the lack of leadership at school level as the main problem of poor school performance, this study found that the problem was mainly due to a lack of leadership at departmental level. introduction (back to top) during the first five years of democracy, the south african parliament had the massive task of debating and passing very important legislation that laid the basis for transformation in the education system. notably these included the national education policy act of 1996 and the south african schools act of 1996, which, for the first time, created a framework for a single public-school system in the country. however, this transformation process and the policies that were put in place could not solve the more intricate problems of the education system. little and houston (2003) are of the same opinion when they argue that politically-driven school reform goes hand in hand with reform driven by the individual teacher and the school. they emphasise that unless efforts are directed squarely towards reform within the classroom, improvement in student outcomes will not occur. this was clearly reflected by the poor senior certificate results achieved during the period of 1994–1999. attempting to redirect and stabilise an unstable education system the former minister of education, professor kader asmal, announced a number of programmes to address the legacy of racist administration spanning over a hundred years which left many schools on the brink of collapse. this was particularly true for secondary schools in urban areas. whilst various policies were put in place, implementing them proved to be problematic, hence the introduction of a number of intervention programmes at provincial and national level. following this, ignatius jacobs, then member of the executive council (mec) for education in gauteng, introduced an intervention programme referred to as the education action zones (eaz). this programme was directed at 71 secondary schools in gauteng that had a pass rate of less than 20% in their senior certificate results at the end of 1999. the programme was designed to ensure direct and intensive support and capacity building to these schools by dedicated teams for a period of three years. the innovation was aimed at the following: • implementing special programmes for learners, for example, the training of learner leadership and conducting motivational talks for learners, in particular for grade 12s • monitoring progress in the implementation of the official school syllabus • providing additional training for teachers in high-risk subjects such as mathematics, physical science, accounting and english • providing additional training to school management teams and school governing bodies such as curriculum management, their roles and responsibilities and conflict management • establishing special business partnerships with other countries, eg with france to access extra resources, such as exchange programmes that are aimed at developing the management skills of principals, educators and school-governing bodies • entering into a partnership with the religious fraternities to provide after-school programmes • reaching special security agreements with the south african police services (saps). therefore the eaz programme was aimed at stabilising the school environment by controlling and structuring schools identified to be at risk. some scholars (fleisch, 2006) suggested that such troubled schools required the state to be more authoritative in its demands for change and enforcement of regulations. by implementing the eaz programme the government has taken firm control of the situation. according to fleisch (2006), the eaz programme in gauteng province, south africa, has been widely seen as a very successful school improvement initiative. this is of particular significance because it represents a unique model of top-down, bureaucratic accountability as a vehicle for turning around dysfunctional secondary schools. unfortunately at the end of 2004, when most eaz fieldworkers were withdrawn from the schools, a number of schools, after having graduated successfully from the eaz category, fell back into their old patterns. once again they achieved a poor grade 12 pass rate and had a low level of university exemption. notably eight of these schools obtained a pass rate mark of below 30%, whilst the majority performed below 60% which is the percentage required to be classified as an underperforming school. being an employee of the education department as one of the eaz field workers under the special task sub-directorate, this decline became a cause of great concern to the first author. this was the direct cause for her decision to undertake research to establish the reason why some schools succeeded in sustaining high-performance levels and positive change whilst others failed to do so. hence the researcher undertook a qualitative research study whereby her own experiences as an eaz team member were used as a guideline to explore the feelings of some staff members of a school where the eaz programme was implemented. fleisch (2002) supports the need for undertaking research on school-improvement models that are successful. bipath (2002) in her mini-dissertation echoes fleisch’s statements by recommending further research on transformation strategies for dysfunctional schools. the broad research question the broad research question or aim of this study is formulated as follows: how can the high performance and positive change, which was attained by some of the dysfunctional secondary schools in the gauteng province between 2001 and 2004 (the period that the gauteng department of education, south africa administered its eaz programme) be sustained?more specifically, the objectives were to explore the influence of external pressures on school improvement in comparison with internal motivation in sustaining high performance and positive change. these objectives included the development of guidelines that were based on the perceptions of school staff members, who were functioning at grass-roots level, of how educators could be empowered to improve sustainable performance. research design (back to top) research approach it is imperative for a qualitative researcher to explicitly outline his or her ontology. according to mason (1996) ontology refers to the researcher’s view on the essence and nature of the social world. the ontological view of the researcher needs to be understood in order to position him or her in terms of varying perspectives in this regard. there are three broad ontological perspectives by which the researcher can be positioned. the first of these is characterised by the view of the positivists that there is a reality ‘out there’ and that it can be studied objectively. ritchie and lewis (2003, pp. 11–23) refer to this reality as realism, that is, that ‘there is an external reality which exists independently of people’s belief and understanding about it’. the second ontological perspective also states that there is a reality ‘out there’, but this perspective acknowledges that this must be studied through people’s perceptions in order to access the richness of these experiences. ritchie and lewis (2003, p. 23) refer to this reality as materialism, that is, that ‘there is a real world, but only material features of that world hold reality’. the third, more radical, ontological perspective is characterised by the view that reality is constructed jointly when the researcher engages with the subject. ritchie and lewis (2003, p. 23) refer to this reality as idealism, where ‘reality is only knowable through the human mind and socially constructed meanings’.the second ontological perspective was followed in this study. there is a need to gain an understanding of the richness of people’s experiential worlds in order to make sense of the reality out there. the respondents’ own interpretation of the research question and their perspectives and feelings in this regard are of critical importance. the aim is to understand their perspectives in the context of their experiences in terms of the eaz programme. in addition to one’s ontology, one also needs to determine what one regards as knowledge or evidence of things in the social world and thus how knowledge could best be gained. this represents one’s epistemological perspective. according to mason (1996), epistemology is literally one’s theory of knowledge and should therefore concern the principles and rules by which one decides whether and how social phenomena can be known and how knowledge can be demonstrated. epistemological questions should direct one to a consideration of the philosophical issues that are involved in working out exactly what one would consider as evidence or knowledge of social things. generally speaking ontological and epistemological perspectives need to be corresponding and therefore the method of creating knowledge has to be in accordance with the particular ontological perspective of the researcher (mason, 1996). positivists believe that the methods of the natural sciences are appropriate for social enquiry because human behaviour is governed by law-like regularities; it is possible to carry out independent, objective and value-free social research. the interpretive tradition, on the other hand, claims that the social world is not governed by law-like regularities, but that social reality should be understood through the meaning that the subjects give to their experiences. qualitative research is largely associated with interpretivism (ritchie & lewis, 2003). research strategy a secondary school involved in the first cycle of the eaz programme was chosen for the purpose of this research. the reason for selecting this school was three-fold. firstly, during the eaz intervention it sustained and continuously improved its organisational performance, as measured by the grade 12 examination results. however, since graduating from the programme and the consequent withdrawal of eaz fieldworkers it showed a steady decline in the pass rates of matriculants. secondly, it provided a setting, which was rich in data as required by qualitative research and, finally, it suited the researcher logistically as the school was within easy reach of the researcher’s home. the first author, as an eaz fieldworker, also had previous contact with the school; thus making it easier to gain entrance to the research setting. research method research setting the school under investigation was identified as the research setting for the study. established in 1978, it started as a junior secondary school and graduated to senior secondary in 1987. the school is situated on the western side of a township, which is a very poor area, made up of informal settlements. zulu people represent the dominating ethnic group but there are also southern and northern sotho people. this part of the township is regarded as a dangerous section, where learners are mostly over-aged and often are involved in gang related activities, drugs and gambling even on the school premises. entrée and establishing researcher roles access to the research setting was obtained through the researcher’s experiences as an eaz team member at the school where the programme was implemented. an informed consent form was used to obtain the permission of each research participant to take part in the study. this informed consent form explained the aims of the study and insured the confidentiality of the research participants. special care was taken by the first author not to let her previous contact and familiarity with the school culture affect her observations at the school. continuous critical reflection on these observations helped to ensure the quality of the research. sampling the sample that was drawn from the organisation consisted of the principal and the deputy principal and staff members. the sampling method used can best be described as purposive sampling where access points are identified and informative subjects are selected in such a way that they assist in collecting information that is helpful in answering the research question. decisions regarding sampling were initially based on the researcher’s inside perspective and knowledge of the school. the sampling that followed was more theoretical, as decisions to involve additional sources of data were directed by the understanding of the situation which evolved during the research process. data-collection methods in seeking to explore the reason why the secondary school failed to sustain its high performance and positive change after the eaz programme had been administered to it, a single case-study design was employed. as an example, a funnel may best represent the general design of the case study. the start of the study was the wide end of the funnel. the design was continually modified and procedures were changed as more was learnt about the topic of study and the investigation became more focused. mason (1996) indicates that it is critical that the researcher establish ‘links’ between research questions, methodologies and methods and states that the researcher needs to be clear on the methodological implications of his or her choices. the researcher thus needs to identify appropriate data sources and methods to support the research question. unstructured interviews, focus groups and solicited documents such as essays or memoranda and unsolicited documents such as essays were used in this study in an effort to obtain rich data. three rounds of interviews were held, two with each research participant and a third with participants in a focus-group situation. each interview lasted between one and two hours. the main purpose of the first round of interviews was to establish the social and professional backgrounds of research participants and how they came to be employed at the specific school. these interviews also included the performance and the general organisational culture of the school before the intervention programme was administered. the second round concerned the role played by eaz programme and the reasons for the notable continuous decline of the general school functioning that followed, including, but not limited to the grade 12 final examination results as from 2004 to the date of the study. during the third and the last round of interviews, the researcher’s own views and understanding of the entire process and the problems encountered were presented for discussion to the research participants for feedback. the purpose of these interviews was for the grass-roots practitioners to help develop guidelines of how positive changes and performance in a secondary school could be sustained after an intervention programme had been terminated. in addition, participant observation, as well as solicited and unsolicited documents, was used to gain insight into the reasons why the school improvement programme failed. recording and management of data in qualitative research, it is important that the researcher must be able to provide detail descriptions of people, events, objects, activities and conversations. researchers also need to record all ideas, strategies, reflections and obstacles that emerged during the course of the study. these are recorded by means of audio recording, field notes and project diaries (schwandt, 2007). data analysis data analysis involves working with data, organising it, breaking it into manageable units, synthesising it, searching for patterns, discovering what is important and what is to be learned and deciding what to tell others. in short, qualitative data analysis is a process of inductive reasoning, thinking and theorising. the aim of analysis and interpretation in qualitative research, as in social-science research generally, is to attempt to gain insight and understanding into the phenomena under study. this is achieved through the systematic ordering and reordering of the data, that is, by continually trying to classify and categorise the data according to the similarities and dissimilarities found, as well as looking for underlying patterns and even universals. schurink’s (2004) general guidelines were followed by being attentive to words and phrases in the interviewees’ own vocabularies that captured the meaning of what they did or said. as babbie (1983) suggests, various themes were developed and compared with each other to find underlying similarities between them. these methods of analysis are not as formal as the grounded-theory approach or as analytical induction. more specifically: • the findings and insights were scrutinised by reading and re-reading the data • overarching themes were identified that led to non-sustainability of performance and change of the school after an intervention programme had been withdrawn • an analysis was undertaken of the perceptions of educators at grass-roots level to outline guidelines towards sustaining performance. in qualitative research, interpretation must be seen as a process that entails the entire study (maxwell, 2005). as the data were collected, the researcher simultaneously tried to make sense of, or interpret, the views and experiences that the research participants shared during the interviewing process, as well as of her own views and thoughts during these discussions and whilst listening to audio tapes afterwards. these reflections were outlined by compiling field notes where the data were linked with some relevant literature. the next step was the undertaking of intensive data analysis. more specifically the findings and insights were scrutinised and three overarching themes were identified that led to non-sustainability of performance and change of programmes implemented by the school under study after an intervention programme had been withdrawn. from this process, guidelines were developed towards sustaining performance as influenced by perceptions of educators at grass-roots level. strategies used to ensure quality data care was taken not simply to deal with the data management by merely recording the data. as marshall and rossman point out, … the researcher’s transcription, done with the literature review, previous data, and earlier analytical memos in mind, can become a useful part of data analysis and not a mere clerical duty. (marshall and rossman, 1995, pp. 110–111) care was thus taken to undertake a first round of analysis of the data whilst transcribing the tapes and writing field notes. the efficiency of data analysis was greatly increased by combining data, recording it and doing its preliminary analysis. continuous critical reflection and recording of the implications of the data brought awareness of the inter-subjective dynamics between the researcher and the research conducted. reporting style a modernistic qualitative research reporting style was used for this research where the author related the story about circumstances surrounding the school’s performance through the words of the research participants. findings (back to top) the school profile, which is an official document indicating the basic school information, revealed certain findings. the pattern of learner enrollment since 2000 up to 2007 was as follows: from table 1 it is clear that the enrollment during the 2000–2001 period was very high, but it dropped during the 2002–2003 period (although in 2003 it again began to escalate) when the eaz programme was operating there. since 2005 up to 2007 the figures were back to what they were in 2000. the grade 12 results from 1994 up to 2006 showed the following pattern: table 2 indicates that the school was never strong academically, but improved drastically in 2002 when eaz programme was fully implemented. it showed a steady decline since 2004, when most eaz fieldworkers were removed from the schools. according to the history of the school (as noted in the school profile) and from my own observation and experience during the execution of the eaz programme, the school battled with the following problems: • inadequate school funds • teenage problems where girl learners became pregnant and attended school irregularly • educators not sufficiently trained in new national curriculum syllabus • corporal punishment was abolished and alternatives given by the department were not effective • over-enrollment of learners • limited resources – over-enrollment exerting high pressure. these problems were unfortunately not being dealt with during the implementation of the eaz programme. in fact the school managed to improve performance despite these problems. after the eaz programme was discontinued teachers still had to face them head on. background to the problem apart from these problems, the research participants felt that the problems were escalated by the lack of performance by the first permanent principal. he was said to be too kind and soft-hearted, although he was a positive motivator who acknowledged good work where due and always made excuses for the poor performance of educators. he was not able to provide proper direction and guidance to educators or learners. as one participant put it: ‘… as the smt we were powerless, not given clear direction and having no smt meetings, we were just a group of people’.naturally, educators took advantage of this situation and of the principal. educators regularly stayed away from work and were generally doing as they pleased. however, there were good relationships amongst the educators themselves. another problem was that educators were performing below average, because they had a general lack of qualifications in the subjects that they had to teach. one research participant emphasised this by stating: ‘… as long as you have a 3-year diploma, even if you did not major in the subject you were teaching you were okay. within a month of my arrival at the school i realised that no merit was used to identify heads of departments, performance was driven by who was who.’ (participant) the problems experienced by this school were deepened by the poor school management team (smt) that had no direction, no meetings and no clear performance measures or guidelines, or any school documents to that effect. this lack of direction and performance focus in the school was evident from the poor performance of the grade 12s. as one of the research participants said: ‘… subject averages ranged in the region of 30%’. the lack of management systems further led to various forms of mismanagement and financial enrichment of educators who collected school funds and admitted learners, who did not qualify and who were over age, to certain grades. one research participant provided a further description of the deteriorating situation by referring to the case of sexual harassment and the fact that the heads of the departments were involved by stating: ‘the case of sexual harassment revealed low morals at the school, heads of the departments promoted immoral acts; this was a direct confirmation of mismanagement at the school.’ (participant) when the first principal resigned, another principal was appointed, but she did not last long before she also resigned. unfortunately, she followed the same laissez-faire policy. after she resigned, the school remained without a principal for 18 months, until the current principal was appointed in august 1997. upon her arrival, she had the difficult task of putting management systems in place. doing so naturally affected the educators’ freedom and opportunities to enrich themselves. this created a great deal of tension and resulted in very poor personal relationships between the new principal and the staff. owing to the lax attitude of the previous two principals who had been unable to discipline staff members; members of the smt and educators were expecting promotion after the resignation of these two principals despite the fact that they were under-performers. when the new principal did not oblige them as the previous ones did, ‘all hell broke loose and underground movements erupted’, in the words of one research participant. the research participant described this situation by using the sotho expression, which was mostly used by educators to undermine the authority of the new principal, ‘o nahana hore ke mang yena? o mang wena? – o nahana hore o sello mang?’, which means, ‘who do you think you are, coming onto our turf and changing our comfort zone’ (meaning emphasised to reflect the actual derogatory nature of this statement). the unhappy educators further incited learners to write a number of memorandums to the principal, the school-governing body and the district office indicating their grievances. these frictions ended with high-court orders and restraining orders against certain educators who wanted to harm the principal. although the department was aware of the problem, it unfortunately did absolutely nothing to address it. the total collapse of the school was the final outcome. eventually the principal was ousted and the school was without a principal for 14 months as from july 1998 to september 1999. during this period, there was no response from the department concerning this matter. the department in fact did not respond until the situation at school became so bad that it was exposed on a south african broadcasting commission (sabc) special assignment programme. it was only after the broadcasting of this particular episode, that the department (i.e. district office) did something about it. the principal was called back to work, but she was not taken back to the school. she worked at the district office and for all practical purposes the school remained without a principal until the end of 1999. during this time the district office sent one of the district officials to act as an administrator until the end of the year. learning new ways through education action zones involvement the eaz programme was formed and was preparing to start functioning in january 2000. this school, amongst others, was allocated to the programme because it had obtained less than 20% for its grade 12 results. this meant that the entire province and country knew that they were dysfunctional (names of all schools who obtained less than 20% were published in the star, a national newspaper). the eaz programme received widespread publicity at its inception and the schools involved in it lost their dignity and the respect of the community. despite the negative publicity of the schools classified as dysfunctional and the unhappiness of the teachers who were involved, the assistance of the eaz programme workers in general helped the non-performing schools to shape up and improve their pass rate for matriculants. the school under investigation was no exception seeing as eaz involvement improved the school in all aspects of its functionality. this was done by implementing the following measures and changes: • admission of learners who were too old to qualify for certain grades was stopped. • involvement of all stakeholders, especially parents, was encouraged in every possible way. • team-building and conflict-resolution workshops were organised by the eaz programme. • clear performance measurements and guidance were presented. • the school was well resourced. these efforts showed immediate results, with pass and exemption rates indicating a dramatic turnaround in 2000 and a sharp upward movement in subsequent years. these gains in school management, governance and most visibly and qualitatively grade 12 results continued until 2003. during these years of excellent performance, learners were fewer and individual attention was possible. there were three or four classes of grade 12s, with about 34 learners in each one. the participants voiced the following positive feedback regarding the eaz involvement in the school: ‘the eaz resourced our school in many ways, they did renovations, gave us textbooks, conducted workshops for all staff members in areas such as finances and computer software, they ensured that all monitoring systems were in place and thus helped with keeping educators on their toes.’ (participant) another participant confirmed this by stating that: ‘through the help of the eaz we managed to form a team working towards a common goal; they gave us incentives and held continuous meetings with parents, school governing bodies and learners.’ (participant) implementation of new ways by the school various initiatives were taken by the school; the following are remarks made by various research participants:• ‘we started inviting people like pastors to give talks to our learners on a weekly basis at the school assembly.’ • ‘as a school management team we started analyzing results on a quarterly basis, motivated learners who were not doing well and gave guidance to subject educators on how to improve their subject average. we arranged common tests with adjacent performing schools; educators from these schools were setting examination papers on critical subjects (mathematics, physical science, accounting etc) for grade 12s.’ the success of this collaborative approach is confirmed by ainscow, muijs and west (2006) when acknowledging that under the right circumstances school-to-school collaboration can be a powerful means of strengthening the capacity of schools to address complex and challenging circumstances, by widening student-learning opportunities and helping to address the needs of vulnerable groups of learners. according to the participants, the entire school was now a team that was working towards attainment of a common goal, namely learner achievement. highly-focused meetings of the smt were held on a weekly basis. the agenda focused on remedial work, tracking of syllabus completion, closing of identified loopholes and interrogation of the head of the department by the principal and deputy principals and giving them advice on how to improve the general management and performance of their departments. incentives were given to learners and educators who were walking the extra mile in achieving the school’s vision and mission. the school developed all the needed school policies for issues concerning admission, language, safety and hiv/aids. due to proper admission policies that required proper documentation from learners such as previous school reports, birth certificates, etc led to learner numbers dropping. learners of good quality were being admitted. the involvement of parents and the general community increased remarkably. it was clear that the external pressure that was placed on the educators resulted in them working together towards school improvement. one participant stated, ‘we had to do everything in our power to be removed from the eaz category’. all these efforts by the smt were directly responding to one of the objectives of the study, namely, the intention to explore the influence of external pressures in comparison with internal motivation in an effort to sustain performance and positive change. in other words, to these educators, internal motivation was a driving force for their high performance although the external pressure was used as a vehicle to achieve this. hollins, gunter and thomson (2006) support this when they state that effective improvement in kingswood (the school they were studying) was less about the implementation of external reform agendas and was more about working for educational goals regarding learners and learning. as agreed, the eaz intervention process ended when the targeted schools reached the desired performance standard and a senior certificate pass rate of 60%. it gradually withdrew from the first-cycle schools having registered visible and desired educational signs of performance. these schools, including the one under investigation, were handed back to the district for total control, support and monitoring of all aspects of school development. falling back into old ways findings by fleisch (2006) indicate that a small but significant group of schools were slipping back to the eaz programme after the third year. unfortunately, at the end of 2004, when most eaz fieldworkers were withdrawn from the schools, a number of eaz schools, after having graduated successfully from the eaz category fell back. the school under investigation was one of them. new performance standards indicating the pass rate for grade 12 students in a school as 60% were set by the department in december 2006. this resulted in the classification of the majority of the 71 schools identified as underperforming schools to once again experience the shame of being branded as such. this new benchmark upset educators in the school, as one participant said: ‘many educators are tired of the old school, we do not want to go back to the eaz’. the aim of this study was to determine the reasons for the failure of the eaz programme in a school which managed to increase the passing rate of grade 12 students and to perform well. being a qualitative study and thus being flexible and making provision for new discoveries, it was soon realised after embarking on the research process that the researcher’s preconceived ideas that the positive changes in the school could not be sustained owing to of the laziness of educators and a lack of commitment and leadership, were unfounded. this became especially clear during the third round of interviewing when the findings were verified. in fact, by being able to observe the principal and the way she was operating, she appeared to be a well-organised, committed person who knew what she was doing. the school records in her office were well kept. she clearly knew what was expected of her and what she in turn expected from the smt members. the management team thus has good direction, clear performance measures and guidelines to follow. therefore, the situation regarding the management of the school was very similar to that when the eaz was involved. by observing the grade 12 educators (july 2007) and discussing the recovery plan for grade 12s, it became clear that despite the problems that the school was experiencing at the time, they were a positive group of committed educators who were even prepared to teach on saturdays. after having studied the views of the research participant the researcher realised that the reasons for not being able to sustain the positive changes brought about by the eaz mostly concerned decisions and changes made in the education system as a whole and more specifically the introduction of the new curriculum. the new problems that the educators had to face were therefore mostly beyond their control, as one participant stated: ‘when the eaz pulled out there were many curriculum changes, and educators were very uncomfortable’. the school never had strong educators in further education and training (fet). the few educators that were there were over-stretched due to the many classes necessary for grade 12. the textbooks for grades 10–12 in the new national curriculum statement were intimidating to educators. one educator, after viewing these textbooks, asked whether there were no other easier reference books. in general, educators were minimally qualified to teach subjects allocated to them and this became worse as new subjects such as mathematics literacy, as well as new themes in certain subjects like evolution in biology (life sciences) were being introduced in the fet phase. this lack of control led to a growing feeling of helplessness and doubt in their ability to deal with the situation. the result was a resurfacing of old internal ‘izivunguvungu’ or ‘moya wa ho senya’ (meaning ‘cyclone’ or ‘destabilising spirit’). teachers’ confidence was dwindling and there was an inability to prepare lessons according to the standards of the new curriculum. more and more squabbles started to take place when doing subject allocation because teachers were not willing to teach in the fet phase. one research participant had this to say: ‘titshere walla o mo e ntse ing?’ (which means ‘teachers are crying. what are you doing to them?’). this situation gave rise to a high rate of absenteeism of educators claiming to be ill. naturally, the learners became frustrated, demotivated and unhappy with the situation. this unhappiness gave rise to an uncooperative, arrogant attitude and aggressive behaviour. the limited resources such as chairs, toilets and textbooks worsened this situation. on top of this, corporal punishment was abolished and alternative ways of punishment given by the department were not effective, thus making it almost impossible to control learners, especially those who were aggressive or using drugs. this negative situation impacted badly on the parents who, because of all this, became less involved with the school. the feeling amongst research participants was that: ‘… if the eaz were still here the introduction of the new curriculum in the fet phase would be very easy, because they could supplement the training done by the department by conducting more workshops on how to implement the new curriculum.’ (participant) this statement, however, cast doubts on the issue whether the eaz could have succeeded in helping the school as it was not their task to assist with the introduction of the new curriculum. at best, eaz officials could have identified the difficulties experienced with the new curriculum at an earlier stage. as the perceptions of educators at grass-roots level were analysed in an effort to outline guidelines towards the development of a policy aimed at sustaining secondary school performance, two overarching themes gave rise to poor school performance and the inability of the school to sustain its high performance. these were the following: theme 1 there were serious signs of instability in the school before the intervention programme started. the following type of problems caused this: • a serious lack of resources • poor leadership • lack of commitment of educators • insufficient knowledge of subject content • poor relationships due to changes brought about by the new principal • poor communication between the school and the education department. theme 2: the following difficulties were experienced with the new curriculum: • contrary to the researcher’s belief and the perceptions of eaz team members, the lack of sustainability of the intervention programme in the school was not caused by lack of accountability of the management team or a lack of commitment of teachers and the inability of the principal to manage the school. • the main reason for the difficulties was related to the introduction of the new curriculum with special emphasis on the fet phase for grades 10–12 without any support or guidance from the district. • another important reason for the existence of difficulties was the increase in enrollment figures with no provision for extra resources. discussion (back to top) this study was aimed at gaining an understanding of the reasons why the school in question was unable to sustain the high performance reached during the implementation of the eaz programme. according to fleisch and christie (2004, p. 100), research undertaken in dysfunctional schools in gauteng during the period of 1994–1995 identified the following four sets of problems: • poor physical and social facilities that had an ongoing negative impact on teaching and learning • serious organisational problems, including weak and unaccountable leadership and administrative dysfunctioning • poor communication and inadequate disciplinary and grievance procedures • poor relationships with surrounding communities, as well as poor communication between the schools and the education department. some of these findings, especially poor leadership and lack of direction and performance focus before the implementation of the eaz programme, point directly to the causes of instability in the school under study. various literature studies in education management over the last few years have consistently emphasised the importance of the school leadership, particularly that of the principal, in ensuring successful functioning of the school. thus, for any school to function properly and sustain the inputs made by the department, for example, the eaz programme, strong visionary leadership is needed that will enhance the performance of its employees and that will improve the production of the organisation in general. it is unfortunate that the training of educators in high-risk subjects such as mathematics and physical science was never done by the eaz, although it was one of its mandates. as (fleisch, 2006) indicates, the eaz was designed as a comprehensive systemic initiative, which would include monitoring schools and providing support and training to principals, teachers and pupils. however, in reality, focusing largely on accountability measures (fleisch, 2006), the programme did not fully meet its systemic intentions. the reasons were that the behavioural problems of the schools involved in the programme superseded their curricular problems. other reasons relating to national curriculum statement (ncs) training mentioned by interviewees include the lack of foundation in the lower grades, that is, grades 1–9. the recent ncs research findings by the department of education (2007) reveal that the implementation of the ncs in the foundation phase was not smooth and that the continuous review thereof did not take place. fleisch (2006) supports this argument by stating that some scholars have suggested that only coherent and systemic policies from the centre could drive large-scale reform. he states that these educators argue that strong instructional guidance driven through aligned curriculum framework, teacher development and assessment and learning materials could lead to substantial and sustained improvement in schools. added to these challenges faced by the school is the issue of forced over-enrollment of learners. this added to the frustrations of educators and managers because it directly impacted on disciplining learners who were fighting for limited resources such as chairs, toilets, etc. it is worth noting that no matter how much planning regarding admissions the provincial department is doing during a current year, it is a known fact that township parents will still bring children for admission in january the following year when teaching and learning should start. even the high migration to the gauteng province adds to the admission challenge. thus, schools are forced to admit huge numbers of extra learners for whom no provision was made. this causes insufficient resources that lead to many other problems as indicated earlier on. this puts a further strain on the educators who are already unhappy and on resources that are already inadequate. payne (2005) points to the fact that racial and class tensions, coupled with resource scarcity and a difficult environment, hindered the implementation of a school-reform project. it is not the termination of the eaz programme that caused this outcome. once again, at best, it could be reasoned that the eaz team members could have discovered the problems with the curriculum at an earlier stage. this was clear from the following statement of one of the research participants: ‘the introduction of the new curriculum was found to be the most crucial reason for the non-sustainability of the eaz programme. as indicated the school was never strong academically and could therefore not cope with the expectations of the department to employ a different curriculum with new subject content, for which teachers were not trained.’ (participant) these findings indicate the serious problems the country has in terms of teacher development and training. the situation is worse in the fet phase seeing as there is new content in certain subjects of the new curriculum. this directly leads to teacher confidence dwindling and to their poor self-esteem and gives rise to unnecessary behavioural problems of educators, for example, a high rate of absenteeism, absconding from classes, sickness, et cetera. all these problems are only symptoms of the deeper underlying problem, which reflects the lack of confidence of the teachers to perform in front of learners due to their insufficient knowledge of subject content, poor assessment and teaching strategies. conclusion (back to top) the aim of the study was to determine the reasons for the inability of the school to sustain school improvement. contrary to the perception of eaz members and scholars in the education field many of the reasons for the school’s failure were not found in expected circumstances such as a lack of leadership and motivation of educators who were responsible for the failure of the school prior to the implementation of the eaz programme. in fact the findings showed that despite the difficult circumstances this school that was, prior to eaz intervention, branded as highly dysfunctional still managed to retain most of the systems put in place by the eaz programme. the overarching reasons for the lack of sustainable performance of the school point to the entire education system rather than to the school per se. therefore the assumptions made that the school itself was unable to sustain its performance and the positive change when the eaz programme terminated were unfounded. the results of the research clearly indicate how complex education problems are in south africa and perhaps in the entire world. it also reflects the importance of qualitative research in the education sector, in that it reveals realities of the social phenomenon as witnessed by those involved in it on a daily basis, as opposed to external people who do not have a deeper understanding of social processes within a certain social institution. taylor (2003) states that strategies for change require focusing on both the school and the department of education. reeves, forde, o’brien, smith and tomlinson (2002) also confirm this by indicating that the need to engage with teachers in bringing about reform will be unavoidable in the end. schools need to establish for themselves exactly what they wish to achieve and they need to select and modify procedures and structures accordingly. they further state that it is the learning of teachers in action that makes a difference to their behaviour and therefore the task of performance management is to explore the ways in which such learning can be supported in school and how external provision and networking with other institutions can best enhance that support. that is why the grass-roots guidelines of the participants are so important. such guidelines that are based on the experience of the educators themselves, could help the department of education to both understand why successes in schools cannot be sustained, as well as prevent the failure of future intervention programmes. more importantly, these recommendations point to the fact that educators as practitioners show a need to work closer together with researchers, believing that this will enable them to achieve and sustain the successes that have been reached. limitations of the study a notable limitation is that the present study is at best an explorative one. because the research employed a case-study design which involved only a small sample, the knowledge gained from the research findings could not be generalised to other research settings. furthermore the overarching reasons for the lack of sustainable performance of the school pointed to the fact that a new curriculum was implemented without providing the necessary training and support to educators and not because the school was unable to sustain the improvements made under the guidance of the eaz. in fact, the unexpected finding was that the implementation of the new curriculum with its accompanying higher standards in a system where many educators were already not sufficiently trained to perform in the old system was to blame for the under-achievement of learners at the school. coupled with this was the unexpected higher enrollment figure of children due to a high influx of people into gauteng and the resulting lack of resources. although these were not limitations of the study, it points to the fact that urgent investigation into the implementation of the new curriculum and the influx of learners into areas where schools were already under-resourced needed to be undertaken. recommendations the existing forums of the gauteng department of education1 could be used to advance research within the department. curriculum and institutional support actions are core features of the department of education. those involved in these forums should therefore be the drivers behind capacity building in planning, assessment and reporting and the enhancement of the teachers’ confidence and their self-esteem and capabilities to teach. research questions and findings could be addressed in these forums. it is suggested that every meeting should have a standing agenda item on research findings or research that needs to be undertaken. an existing research unit that is based at the provincial head offices of the department could also assist in this manner. coupled with this can be the inclusion of educators in these research projects by means of an action-research framework. this will not only show us through reflection of what is happening in the classroom in terms of teaching and learning, but will also develop the educator’s research skills which are so needed in the underperforming schools. reeves et al. (2002) acknowledge that little is known about the impact of curriculum development and support on practice or the operations of particular approaches such as the use of critical reflection and action research. they further argue that teachers need opportunities to engage in understanding the implications of these changes and exploring the means of responding effectively to them by means of a consistent, persistent and progressive action-orientated approach to professional development. hollins, gunter and thomson (2006, p. 148) echo this by indicating that claims about improvement for the effective school need to be part of a close-to-practice strategy by involving practitioners and researchers who are working together to make use of the best available knowledge to develop strategies that are more effective. such a strategy could help even experienced practitioners to improve their performance. in the light of these results it is imperative that the current directorate for interventions and governance should spearhead the documentation of all interventions, both those previously done (if possible) as well as the current programmes implemented by the department. again, this may be done through the current research unit at head office. as indicated by mbeje (2007) in the past few years, a substantial amount of resources have been allocated to various schooland district-improvement programmes. some of these interventions were effective, but they were not sufficiently documented to ensure that they could be sustained and replicated. according to mbeje (2007) other interventions were not effective, but very rarely were shortcomings openly and honestly acknowledged and researched. participants’ suggestions for sustaining performance the participants acknowledged the following important prerequisites for the success of any intervention programme aimed at improving school performance: • the strategy for improvement should be based on teacher learning within the context of the school. • all teachers must be involved in the management and running of the school according to set guidelines and policies. • teachers, learners, parents and other stakeholders such as community members must be involved in the school and must take responsibility for their school’s functioning. more specifically, the following guidelines that are aimed at sustaining an intervention programme were proposed by the participants: • a similar eaz intervention team is to be set up, specifically to focus on providing guidance for the implementation of the curriculum. • intensified teacher and/or facilitator development is needed before introducing a new curriculum, followed by continuous quality in-service training undertaken by experienced nationally-appointed tutors. • effective cooperation must be created at all levels of the department, especially at district and sub-directorate level. • plans to work together with neighbouring schools, both primary and secondary, using and developing common work schedules, lesson planning and performing common assessment tasks must be developed and implemented. • over-enrolment must be avoided and proper resources for schools must be provided. • a social worker, policeman and psychologist must be available to cooperate when needed. • education service delivery at all levels, that is, school, district and provincial must be intensely monitored. • team spirit must be improved and strong relationships built through workshops to enhance the motivation and self-image of all staff members in a school. • the national department should provide a friendly detailed and clear instrument that defines and measures a functional school. • external evaluation should be undertaken annually at all levels, that is, school, district and provincial. references (back to top) ainscow, m., muijs, d., & west, m. 2006. collaboration as a strategy for improving schools in challenging circumstances. improving schools, 9(3), pp. 192–202. babbie, e. 1983. the practice of social research (third edition), belmont, ca: wadsworth publishing co. bipath, k. 2002. differentiating between functional and dysfunctional schools. unpublished master’s dissertation, johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. department of education 2007. national curriculum statement assessment guidelines for general education and training (intermediate and senior phases) technology http://www.education.gov.za/curriculum/get/doc/atechnology.pdf for the first 71 eaz schools (2000–2002). fleisch, b. 2002. tight control models for improvement. a case study of the education action zones. paper presented at the third educationally speaking conference. 23–25 may, buffelspoort, warmbath. fleisch, b. 2006. bureaucratic accountability in the education action zones of south africa. south african journal of education, 26(3), pp. 369–382. fleisch, b.d., & christie, p.h. 2004. structural change, leadership and school effectiveness/improvement: perspectives from south africa. discourse: studies in the hollins, k., gunter, h.m., & thomson, p. 2006. living improvement: a case study of a secondary school in england. sage, 9(2), pp.141–152. little, m. e., & houston, d. 2003. research into practice through professional development. remedial and special education, 24(2), pp.75–87. marshall, c., & rossman, g. 1995. designing qualitative research (second edition). newbury park: sage. mason, j. 1996. qualitative researching. thousand oaks: sage. maxwell, j.a. 2005. qualitative research design: an interactive approach. (2nd ed). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. mbeje, z. 2007. leadership and governance. paper presented at the gauteng department of education curriculum and governance cluster conference, 20 july, benoni, johannesburg. payne, r.k. 2005. a framework for understanding poverty. fourth revised edition. highlands: aha! process. reeves, j., forde, c., o’brien, j., smith, p., & tomlinson, h. 2002. performance in education improving practice. leicester: paul chapman publishing. ritchie, j., & lewis, j. 2003. qualitative research practice: a guide for social science students and researchers. thousand oaks: sage. schurink, w.j. 2004. lecture ten: data analysis. unpublished training course. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. schwandt, t.a. 2007. the sage dictionary of qualitative inquiry. thousand oaks: sage. taylor, j. 2003. institutional diversity in uk higher education: policy and outcomes since the end of the binary divide, higher education quarterly, 57, 3, pp.266–193. article information author: gerrit j. louw1 affiliation: 1department of industrial and organisational psychology, nelson mandela metropolitan university correspondence to: gerrit louw postal address: po box 77000, port elizabeth 6031, south africa dates: received: 11 aug. 2010 accepted: 18 may 2013 published: 14 aug. 2013 how to cite this article: louw, g. (2013). exploring recruitment and selection trends in the eastern cape. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #319. 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.319 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. exploring recruitment and selection trends in the eastern cape in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • problem statement       • key focus of the study       • background of the study       • recruitment       • selection       • objectives of the research    • literature review • method    • research approach    • the research strategy    • research method       • research setting       • entrée and establishing researcher role       • research participants       • research instrument       • research procedure       • data analysis • results • ethical considerations    • recruitment • discussion    • selection    • limitations of this research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the recruitment, selection and development of suitable candidates are crucial strategic functions to ensure the competitiveness of corporate and public sector organisations.research purpose: the purpose of the study was to determine whether targeted organisations have a clear recruitment and selection policy by means of a preliminary exploratory study. in addition to this, the objective was the need to establish the various techniques or methods in use to recruit and select candidates for vacant posts. motivation for the study: to develop a better understanding of the trends in the application of recruitment and selection methods within the eastern cape. research design, approach and method: this study has a non-experimental design. methodological processes followed a qualitative and quantitative mixed approach. structured interviews were used to collect data followed by a descriptive statistical analysis, summary and interpretation of results. main findings: whereas newspaper advertising and recruitment agencies are the most popular recruitment methods, the application blank and interviews were mostly preferred for selection purposes. although assessment centres and psychological assessments were also regarded as popular selection methods, assessment centres were; however, the most prominent selection method to follow of the above two mentioned selection methods. practical/managerial implications: the research findings could provide corporate leaders and their human resource functionaries with a theoretical pointer relative to recruitment and selection trends within the province which could guide more effective skills attraction and selection decisions. contribution/value-add: the study provided valuable strategic information to improve on organisational competiveness via effective recruitment and selection processes. in addition, training and educational programmes could eventually fill the needs and gaps identified in organisational functioning and professional service delivery. introduction top ↑ problem statement key focus of the study how would companies in a poverty stricken region procure quality and effective workers in an oversupply of unskilled workers? the aforementioned question is not only relevant to developing countries but it also became an international dilemma as overseas companies are uncertain as to what talent attraction and retention decisions they should make (crous, 2007; madia, 2011). at the same time the employment equity act of 1998 (republic of south africa, 1998) has disrupted the freedom of choice in the employee selection process by accelerating a law-driven need to appoint certain ethnic groups at the expense of other groups (nzukuma & bussin, 2011).a growing body of research evidence supports a tendency of european and american companies to increasingly use more technological advanced media to attract and select suitable applicants of quality (anderson, salgado & hülsheger, 2010; branine, 2008; madia, 2011; tippins, 2009; zibarras & woods, 2010). in addition, companies tend to strengthen their brand as a means of attracting applicants (madia, 2011; parry & wilson, 2009). the key focus of this research was to explore the use of recruitment and selection methods in the eastern cape. background of the study the effectiveness of an organisation depends on the effectiveness of its employees. without a highly skilled and qualified labour force, an organisation is destined to achieve mediocre performance. for this reason the recruitment and selection of human capital is a critical human resource function (grobler, wärnich, carrell, elbert & hatfield, 2006). human resource management, the overarching function of recruitment and selection, does not function in isolation as it did in the past but currently operates in conjunction with the management and decision processes within the economy (van rensburg, basson & carrim, 2011). as a result of human resource management’s crucial role in an organisation, the procurement of a suitable labour force has become part of an organisation’s business strategy (grobler et al., 2006). this function involves a variety of human resource activities, including the analysis of the labour market, long-term planning, procurement, interviewing and testing. the recruitment and selection process is; however, not without problems. retaining quality workers is challenging as a result of recent phenomena such as skills shortages, employee mobility and the expected retirement of baby boomers in the near future (masibigiri & nienaber, 2011). these phenomena negatively affect organisations’ ability to create and maintain their competitive advantage in the labour market. this situation will worsen if organisations do not handle the aforementioned dilemmas properly (masibigiri & nienaber, 2011). the constraints relevant to retention are further worsened by an undersupply of skilled or suitable candidates to fill the existing vacancies (nzukuma & bussin, 2011). according to survey results released by statistics south africa (stats sa, 2012), the unemployment rate in south africa stayed relatively unchanged between the first quarter of 2011 (25.0%) and the corresponding quarter of 2012 (25.2%). during the same period the eastern cape experienced a higher unemployment rate that increased from 26.9% to 28.0%. this means that in some provinces the unemployment rate is lower whilst it is higher in the said province (stats sa, 2012). the eastern cape, together with the provinces of limpopo, kwazulu-natal and mpumalanga are the poorest provinces in terms of socio-economic resources, education and monetary income (worku, 2011). like in other parts of the country the pool of suitable workers in this province, especially the talent of black people, is limited by equity legislation and the emigration of skilled workers (nzukuma & bussin, 2011). various recruitment and selection techniques and methods are at the disposal of the recruitment officer. harris, brewster and sparrow (2002) are convinced that the decision to use recruitment and selection methods differ from country to country and region to region. such decisions are dictated by labour legislation and the source of recruitment that may be available from within or outside the organisation. schreuder and coetzee (2010) postulate an increase in the use of technology inter alia in the recruitment and selection process. ployhart (2006) agrees and suggests a more modern approach to recruitment and selection to deal with challenges faced by recruitment and selection functionaries. however, such an inclination is unknown in the eastern cape because of its disadvantaged economic position. such circumstances limit the implementation of sophisticated recruitment and selection techniques because of high costs. furthermore, the last survey on this topic was published in 2002 (van der merwe, 2002) with the focus being on the employment of psychometrics in the selection process. research on the recruitment and selection trends in the eastern cape is; therefore, long overdue. research on this topic is further supported by the view that large differences exist between academic findings and the beliefs of managers in how the staffing process should be run (rynes, colbert & brown, 2002). to find a synchronized view between academia and the applied field of recruitment and selection in the eastern cape, preliminary research is warranted. a further need would be to establish recruitment and selection trends in this province that is experiencing a lack of capital to employ sophisticated methods and techniques. such information would boost the competitive advantage of companies in the region when using it to employ quality employees. recruitment recruitment is the process of generating a pool of capable candidates applying to an organisation for employment (gold, 2007). applicants with experience and qualifications most closely related to job specifications may eventually be selected. organisations become concerned when the cost of a mistake in recruitment is high. according to armstrong (2006) the aim is to obtain, at a minimum cost, the number of suitable and qualified candidates to satisfy the needs of the organisation. the organisation attracts candidates by means of identifying, evaluating and using the most appropriate sources of applicants. el-kot and leat’s (2008) observation is that recruitment begins with advertising existing vacancies. as already mentioned, this can be done internally or externally. in this instance the researcher was interested in external sources and processes as organisations in the province are currently experiencing an undersupply of suitable candidates. company policies related to the employment of relatives may influence its recruitment efforts. currently more and more companies implement anti-nepotism policies that prevent the employment of close relatives, especially relevant to placement of candidates in the same departments or work groups (hayajenh, maghrabi & al-dabbagh, 1994; mcmillan, 2006). for most organisations, direct applications by mail or by individuals applying in person, form the largest source of applicants. the usefulness of direct applications will often depend on the image the organisation has in the business community and the eventual quality of such applicants (beardwell, 2007). other sources of recruitment include personal contacts, walk-ins, university and school campus recruiting, career fairs, recruitment agencies, newspaper advertising and direct mail postings to suitable candidates (beardwell, 2007; cober & brown, 2006; grobler et al., 2006; madia, 2011; tucker, 2012; zottoli & wanous, 2000). several authors (beardwell, 2007; galanaki, 2002; stone, stone-romero & lukaszewski, 2006) refer to the aforementioned recruitment sources as traditional sources whilst radio, television and internet recruitment (e-recruitment) and job boards are regarded as recent sources. the latter includes technologically advanced methods such as twitter and cell phones (madia, 2011; tucker, 2012). e-recruitment includes job postings on company homepages as well as curriculum vitae (cv) uploads to central databases. other researchers (pollit, 2005; tong & sivanand, 2005) are of the opinion that the use of e-recruitment in the recruitment process is increasing because of its cost-effectiveness. however, recent authors (madia, 2011; tucker, 2012) are of the opinion that e-recruitment (job boards included) will soon be surpassed by twitter and cell phone recruitment. in addition, mcmanus and ferguson (2003) found that global organisations are increasingly utilizing their organisations’ websites for online recruitment. in 1998, these researchers found that 29% of the companies surveyed are making use of online recruitment, but in 2002, it increased to 91%. stone et al.’s (2006) explanation for the increase in online recruitment is that it reduces costs and that the time spent on the hiring process is also reduced. furthermore, the range of applicants can also be expanded. wuttke (2009) warns that online recruitment also has disadvantages. one of them is that prospective employees who do not have access to the internet or who are not using it for job searches due to a low socio-economic status, are consequently overlooked in the recruitment process. stone et al. (2006) are; however, of the opinion that online recruitment attracts applicants who have high expectations, who are achievement-orientated and self-driven. according to these authors such advantages overshadow the disadvantages of online recruitment. whereas the previous section explains the process of recruitment and concepts involved, the following section investigates selection as a process within the procurement domain. selection mondy (2010, p. 136) refers to selection as ‘the process of choosing from a group of applicants those individuals best suited for a particular position in an organization.’ whereas the recruitment process is aligned to encourage individuals to seek employment with the organisation, the selection process is to identify and employ the best qualified and suitable individuals for specific positions. the position in the united kingdom was that, traditionally, it was assumed that organisations could choose amongst applicants and that almost all job offers would be accepted by applicants. however, attracting a large number of applicants was not the problem, but recruiting the right applicants became the main concern amongst employers (branine, 2008). with the oversupply of unskilled applicants in south africa (nzukuma & bussin, 2011), it can be assumed that employers would be very careful before selecting any applicants. traditionally the person-environment fit construct was central when setting criteria in the selection process. according to ivancevich, konopaske and matteson (2011) this approach generally focuses on two dimensions. the one is the extent to which a job provides rewards that meet the individual’s needs. the second type of fit deals with the extent to which the applicant’s skills, abilities, and experience meet the requirements of the employer. if a misfit exists between either one of these types, an individual may develop stress during his or her stay with the employer. during recent years support for a multilevel fit for selection purposes emerged that requires a variety of selection sources or techniques to appoint the desired applicant (anderson, lievens, van dam & ryan, 2004; kristof-brown, jansen & colbert, 2002). such approaches are the person-job fit, person-team fit and the person-organisation fit. according to the aforementioned authors, different techniques, methods or tools are needed to evaluate each of these fit types. cognitive ability tests, unstructured interviews and value inventories could be techniques to assess the respective fit types (kristof-brown et al., 2002). schmidt and hunter (1998) list several ‘traditional’ sources through which applicants could be selected. the list contains open or structured application forms, tests of knowledge and skill, tests of ability and personality, interviews and assessment centre exercises. it seems that the applicant selection procedures of candidates vary from employer to employer (branine, 2008). it has been a common practice for many organisations to select candidates through face-to-face interviews and tests. according to lievens, dam and anderson (2002) an increasing number of organisations are using now other methods such as telephone interviews, assessment centres and online testing. a survey conducted by bevan and fryatt (1988) revealed that selection tests were basically optional in the united kingdom whilst the use of application forms, references and interviews was very popular. in 1994 schackleton and newell (1994) observed amongst european countries that the use of tests was on the increase whilst the use of application forms, reference checks and interviews were the most popular. in addition to these techniques it was also found that many companies used a pre-selection process. british companies regard school and university results as too inflated and this factor serves as a motivation to revert to a psychological assessment. jenkins and wolf’s (2002) observations support the findings of bevan and fryatt (1988) particularly with reference to the increasing use of tests. an explanation for this is that the results of recent qualifications tend to be inflated and companies seek more reliable and valid means to appoint the correct applicant. in addition, more and more qualifications are manipulated and it increases the difficulty of the selection process (cook & cripps, 2005; wolf & jenkins, 2006). consequently, major companies could not deal with selection flaws that hamper performance and productivity, and; therefore, they have reinstated psychological assessments as part of the selection process. such reversed processes have been reported in the united kingdom (wolf & jenkins, 2006) as well as in the united states of america (decenzo & robbins, 2007). no empirical research could be found on what the situation in south africa is. the last research paper published in this regard does not reflect on any changing tendencies relevant to the use of psychometric instruments for selection purposes (van der merwe, 2002). as a result of the increased availability of technology, more organisations use computerised testing and multimedia tests in the selection process. in addition, companies are increasingly viewing video conferencing as important and more useful as face-to-face interviewing (branine, 2008; straus, miles & levesque, 2001). although face-to-face interviews are sometimes regarded as subjective and unreliable, anderson and witvliet (2008) found that these interviews are the most frequently used selection technique. sackett and lievens (2008) reported in their study that the application blank, interviews, and reference checking are the most popular techniques used in the selection process when incorporated into assessment centres. according to branine (2008), united kingdom employers became more interested in the personal aspects of applicants such as attitudes towards work, personality and transferrable skills whilst an increased use of multiple selection methods were observed in order to be flexible to labour demands. the consequence is that lower premiums were placed on the type or level of qualifications. it is clear from the literature review that the process of recruitment and selection abroad involves the use of a variety of recruitment and selection methods. such methods were developed and changed in type and level of use over time. furthermore, as highlighted by nzukuma and bussin (2011), the south african labour market is experiencing its own unique challenges that reflect employee movement from organisation to organisation that makes retention difficult. another problem highlighted by the aforementioned literature review is the oversupply of unskilled workers that the south african labour market is currently experiencing which poses new challenges to recruitment and selection officials. whilst the literature review reflects a shift in theory and practice abroad, as well as in south africa in general, this study attempted to investigate the shift or development, if any, in the type of recruitment and selection methods currently in use in the eastern cape. the rationale for the study is that organisations and training institutions continuously need research data on strategic human resource information to maintain competitiveness by keeping pace with modern developments (grobler et al., 2006). the contribution of such information would be twofold. firstly, in order to stay competitive, organisations can adjust their practices by providing specialised training on new focus areas. secondly, universities in the region can adjust their curricula to empower future practitioners in the relevant field of practice. since a shift in recruitment and selection practices is observed in literature reports, the following two research questions were formulated: • do companies in the eastern cape have predetermined recruitment and selection policies? • what are the recruitment and selection trends in the eastern cape? objectives of the research as noted earlier, organisations in south africa in general are experiencing an unexpected labour turnover whilst dealing with an undersupply of skilled and suitable candidates. in particular, due to its economically disadvantaged position, the eastern cape is assumed to experience more difficulties in fulfilling the procurement task with limited recruitment and selection resources. the objective of the study was to determine whether targeted organisations had a clear recruitment and selection policy by means of a preliminary exploratory study. in addition to this objective, was the need to establish the various techniques or methods in use to recruit and select candidates for vacant posts. literature review according to researchers (ballantine, 2009; scolarios, lockyer & johnson, 2003), the recruitment and selection process begins by reviewing the need for labour and conducting a job analysis to develop clear job and person specifications. literature on this topic emphasises the importance of conducting a thorough needs analysis. this is to accurately forecast the labour demand and availability in order to establish any surplus or shortage (noe, hollenbeck, gerhart & wright, 2008). recruitment and selection efforts could be focussed on by either the internal or external environment depending on what the organisation’s need for new employees would be. in cases where organisations have no suitable candidates currently employed who could be promoted or transferred, or where a demand for a specific skill arises, such organisations will necessarily have to make extraordinary efforts to recruit suitable candidates from outside these organisations (mondy, 2010). although the selection process usually follows after recruitment, these two processes have their own definitions; therefore, recruitment and selection are discussed in separate sections commencing with recruitment. method top ↑ research approach the study is of a non-experimental, exploratory nature with mixed qualitative and quantitative research methodological processes. a qualitative structured interview was used to collect data followed by a descriptive, quantitative data analysis. the researcher followed an exploratory approach because no previous research was conducted in the same geographic area with the same focus. furthermore, accessibility is limited as not all organisations in the region have company websites on which contact particulars are published for research purposes. babbie (2009) suggests that exploratory research must be used when the topic or issue is new and when data are difficult to collect. in addition, armstrong (2006) supports a preliminary exploratory approach when it is uncertain which factors are influencing the choice of recruitment and selection processes in a human resource management context. a purposive sample was drawn of organisations identified from where the researcher could obtain research information on the recruitment and selection trends within the geographic area targeted for the research. as in this study, where no prior research was conducted in the region on a similar subject, merriam (1998) recommends a purposive sampling strategy through which participants are chosen from which the most benefit could be gained. the research strategy the research strategy the researcher used in this study was to explore the sample of accessible employers’ implementation of recruitment and selection policies and methods in their respective organisations through a researcher-administered structured interview. nineteen recruitment and selection officials were interviewed to gain more insight to what extent the organisations implement recruitment and selection procedures and methods. research method the following section deals with the research method. research setting the research was conducted in various settings as the organisations differed from each other. furthermore, the interviewees work in diverse organisations ranging from corporate to government organisations. each participant was approached in his or her respective normal work setting. entrée and establishing researcher role post graduate students in human resource management were assigned to establish voluntary participation and contact persons in targeted organisations. a contact list was composed by students with contact information of recruitment and selection officials at various organisations in the geographical research area. the list originated from officials who attend regular human resource management forum meetings, which is a subject-relevant interest group composed of corporate and public sector human resource management officials, lecturing staff and post graduate students. in a follow-up phase the researcher arranged individual interview sessions with contact persons who consequently acted as interviewees. research participants research-accessible organisations within the geographic region of the eastern cape were demarcated for sampling purposes, as mentioned earlier. organisations with at least 50 or more employees on the payroll whilst having staff members designated specifically, or in general, to the recruitment and selection function, qualified for inclusion in the study. one official with first hand recruitment and selection information and experience at each organisation acted as representative during the interview process. before each interview commenced, the researcher recorded what industry each organisation represents. various types of organisations were included in the study, namely: retail, automotive, automotive allied, pharmaceutical, banking, food and household, brewery, telecommunication, government, fitness and clothing industries. table 1 provides insight into the different sectors represented in the sample. this table shows that a large variety of sectors took part in the research whilst the automotive allied, automotive manufacturing, banking and financing as well as government organisations were in the majority of those included in the sample. table 1: types of organisations. research instrument to compose a structured interview questionnaire, the researcher followed welman, kruger and mitchell’s (2005) recommendation by using relevant literature sources to formulate research questions. the literature review provided useful information when the questionnaire was structured into different sections. the first section (section a) categorised organisations in terms of the number of employees in service (e.g., 50 to 100, 101 to 200, 201 to 300 – see table 2). the second section (section b) contained tick-box questions in a dichotomous format (‘yes’ or ‘no’). weller and romney (1988) recommend a dichotomous format when the correct answer is unknown ahead of time, and when an extension on the question is not required. the dichotomous format was well suited to this research due to its exploratory nature. section b of the questionnaire included questions that tapped into whether an organisation had a clear recruitment and selection policy, whether it made use of newspaper advertising, an application blank and other methods in the recruitment and selection process. methods listed were either ticked ‘yes’ or ‘no’ depending on which option was applicable. the third section (section c) provided recording space to add methods not listed or for comments in cases where the interviewees attempted to clarify some uncertainties relevant to answers given in section b, for example, when an interviewee indicated that presentations or in-basket exercises were used outside the assessment centre context. table 2: number of employees in organisations. research procedure before the interviews commenced, the researcher confirmed the organisation’s voluntary participation through the company representative (the interviewee). the researcher also assured the interviewees that company information would be treated as confidential. each respective interviewee was asked to provide the number of employees in service in his or her company, which was recorded by the researcher. questions in section b that covered the recruitment and selection methods in use were ‘ticked’ depending on the answer provided. data analysis information obtained from organisations relevant to section a were summarised in one table. information from section b was quantified and summarised in a cumulative descriptive table. raw data were converted into frequencies and percentages whilst tabulated in a descriptive format for analytical purposes. the frequency distributions indicated a clear preference for certain recruitment and selection methods. further statistical analyses were not possible due to the nature of the data. results top ↑ the main objective of this research study was to explore the recruitment and selection trends in the eastern cape. consequently, the aim of the study was to determine, by means of a preliminary exploratory study, whether targeted organisations have a clear recruitment and selection policy and which of the various recruitment and selection methods, or techniques, were still popular. insight into such information would indicate whether a shift to more cost-effective methods has taken place in the region. table 2 displays the respective organisations’ sizes that participated in this study in terms of the number of employees in service. according to the frequency distributions, eight out of the 19 organisations (42.11%) have 1000 or more employees in service. this category is evenly followed by those organisations who indicated that they have between 301 and 500 employees and the cluster has between 501 to 1000 employees in service. the aforementioned clusters represent 84.00% of the organisations interviewed. organisations that have between 201 and 300 employees (5.20%) represent the smallest portion of the sample followed by those organisations that have between 101 and 200 employees (10.53%). table 2 reflects a variety of organisational sizes that were included in the study. empirical results will be discussed in the following sections, commencing with recruitment. ethical considerations top ↑ recruitment table 3 displays the various recruitment and selection methods used by the participating organisations. all organisations indicated that they have a clear recruitment and selection policy that forms the foundation of such relevant activities. although it is not known what specific procedures are followed in each respective procedure, researchers (greenidge, alleyne, parris & grant 2012; klein, mccomber, schiemann & wright, 2005) are of the opinion that such formal procedure includes at least an assessment of whether the vacancy should be filled, a job analysis, a job description and personal specifications. in a south african context, the aforementioned is not surprising. nzukuma and bussin (2011) are of the opinion that a clear policy with specific procedures may make an organisation less susceptible to legal blunders made in the selection process, especially in the south african context where the government’s transformation agenda is monitored by equity legislation. table 3: recruitment and selection methods in use. the frequency distributions in table 3 depicts that none of the participating organisations use walk-ins and referrals as recruitment methods as they are mindful of potential accusations of nepotism. singanto (2003) agrees that in the south african context the use of external recruitment sources is one way of avoiding nepotism in the recruitment and selection process. it could further be argued that walk-ins and referrals may probably deliberately be avoided due to the employment equity act (republic of south africa, 1998) that obligates south african organisations to create equal opportunities for employment, especially in the case of larger organisations that are bound by law in terms of sporadic equity audits. when studying several research outputs (i.e. breaugh, 1981; saks, 1994; zottoli & wanous, 2000), greenidge, alleyne, parris and grant (2012) came to the conclusion that referrals and applicantinitiated contacts usually result in high quality workers who are committed to organisations. in the same vein, el-kot and leat (2008) observed that the word-of-mouth recruitment method such as employee referrals is more effective in the case of administrative work rather than management or professional positions. grobler et al. (2006) add to the debate by saying that referred employees are more committed to and satisfied with their organisations in comparison with other recruitment methods. when considering the avoidance of walk-ins and referrals as indicated in this research, a question that could be asked is whether south african labour legislation would not possibly improve job creation via informal recruitment methods such as employee referrals and walk-ins. a further inspection of table 3 reveals that newspaper advertising and recruitment agencies are the most popular of all methods in use by the sampled organisations. seventeen out of 19 (89.47%) indicated that they use newspaper advertising followed by 16 organisations (84.21%) who are using recruitment agencies to fill vacant posts. the result of newspaper advertising is analogous with results published by other researchers (el-kot & leat, 2008; wickramasinghe, 2007). the results published by the latter researchers were obtained from countries outside the united states and europe where internet usage is more popular. the low frequency of internet use reflected in this research; therefore, does not support the results of research conducted in europe or the united states of america. according to authors (grodeck, 2010; madia, 2011; streiter, 2011) it seems that internet recruitment has grown over the past decade across the world and is now widely used by both recruiters and job seekers. in the american context, cober and brown (2006) found that more than half of new candidates were recruited via the internet. job boards, which are job postings to an internet recruitment company, were the most popular recruitment source. this trend is expected to increase. in another study crispin and mehler (2006) revealed that just over 20% of external appointees were from corporate web sites whilst referrals are still most popular. in the same study it was noticed that job boards are the third most popular recruitment source surveyed by the researchers. with reference to the united kingdom, parry and wilson (2009) asserts that there is still a large proportion of organisations that has not yet used internet recruitment, whilst those who do use online recruitment often do so in addition with other techniques, such as print advertising and recruitment agencies. the use of the said methods is analogous with the researcher’s findings; however, recruitment agencies which are highly popular in this research do not share the same sentiments reported by wickramasinghe (2007) where it was ranked the least popular method. in a study conducted by el-kot and leat (2008), it was found that only 29 out of 52 of the respondents used recruitment agencies as a source. as mentioned before, the internet’s popularity is growing abroad whilst a limited number of organisations in this research study use the internet. a valid explanation would be that a large portion of the population in the eastern cape does not have access to the electronic media. the local job seekers see recruitment agencies as a point where cv’s could be manually submitted whilst employers have free access to such job seekers via agencies. this research detected that a very small portion of the organisations use headhunting as a method. recruitment companies are responsible for headhunting quality employees on behalf of companies; therefore it is difficult to establish the popularity of this technique amongst organisations. it is assumed this method is categorised under ‘recruitment agencies’ as the latter are usually assigned to do headhunting on behalf of organisations whilst it is not a function allocated to recruitment and selection specialists within companies. as indicated in table 3, graduate recruitment is a method that is not much in use in the eastern cape. it seems that it is only large organisations that require employees with specific academic qualifications who use graduate recruitment as a source. branine’s (2008) experience is that graduate recruitment became a problem in the united kingdom and europe as a result of the increased use of the internet. furthermore, difficulties with this recruitment method are aggravated by the fact that graduates increasingly apply for jobs that were previously occupied by school leavers. the increasing competition forces candidates to respond faster to available jobs on the internet which make it difficult to find the right people. this section concluded with a discussion on recruitment, the next section deals with selection. discussion top ↑ selection table 3 reveals that the application blank (100.00%) and the interview (94.73%) are the most popular selection methods followed by reference checking (84.21%). it is further noticed that a large portion of organisations (73.68%) made use of assessment centres. psychometric assessments are the fourth most popular (63.16%) method used in this research. a small percentage used presentations (21.05%) followed by in-basket tests (10.53%). it should be mentioned that whereas presentations and in-basket tests were usually used as part of the services rendered by assessment centres (eurich & krause, 2009; ployhart, 2006), interviewees in this research study indicated that presentations and in-basket tests are used as part of the selection process, in addition to other selection methods (e.g. application blank, interviews, etc.), excluding psychological assessments and assessment centres. in such cases, the organisation relied predominantly on the application blank, interviews, reference checks with either in-basket tests or presentations included in the process. some literature is analogous with this trend (fleenor & kurtz, 1987) and this is usually the case when selecting sales representatives. fleenor and kurtz (1987) assert that a single exercise fitted into the selection process could provide some valuable information on a significant number of skills required in organisations. although this research is not a comparative study, further similarities and dissimilarities found in this research and other literature reports are discussed in the following section. whereas the application blank is the most popular method in this research, a comparative study conducted by anderson and witvliet (2008) in six countries ranked the interview as the most popular selection method in their sample. another study conducted by sackett and lievens (2008) seems to be analogous with this research in which the application form, the interview and reference checking, in combination with assessment centres, are rated as the most popular selection methods. the application blank and the interview were also regarded as most popular in the eastern cape in an earlier study conducted by van der merwe (2002). the popularity in this research formed by the triad consisting of the application blank, the interview and assessment centres is supported by wickramasinghe’s (2007) findings produced in sri lanka. according to branine (2008) the popularity of assessment centres lies in the advantage that the employer has to observe the candidates in terms of behaviour in various situations such as leadership, influencing and persuasion abilities, competitiveness and motivation. branine is also of the opinion that assessment centres are especially popular amongst large organisations. researchers (tixier, 1996; zibarras & woods, 2010) are in agreement that larger organisations are using assessment centres and psychological assessments more than smaller ones as a result of cost. large organisations have more vacancies and more money available to make use of a wide range of selection methods to sift through applicants. zibarras and woods (2010) regard organisations with 250 or less as small organisations. in this study it was noticed that almost 84% of the organisations have more than 250 employees whilst the same percentage indicated that they made use of assessment centres; therefore, it can be argued that with regard to the findings on assessment centres, this research produced similar results to that published in the zibarras and woods (2010) study. results of this research suggest that approximately two thirds of the respondents used psychometric instruments. although this research did not focus on what attributes were mostly assessed in the eastern cape, in general it seems that the use of objective assessment tools and assessment centres were regarded as useful in the selection process. authors (burke, 2009; tippins, 2009) say that most organisations use psychometric instruments for the assessment of cognitive abilities, personality and integrity testing, but the soundness of online testing is still under suspicion in terms of the prevalence of faking, test security and individual confidentiality. in the same vein bartram (2004) asserts that organisations use various forms of assessment methods to focus on selection from outside the organisation. organisations are, however, very sensitive about how these various forms are used for assessment as this is very much under public scrutiny in europe. this is because assessments could harm or boost an organisation’s image depending on what applicants think are the most effective methods and which are not intrusive of the individual’s privacy (anderson et al., 2010). in addition to the aforementioned sensitivity issue, brown, bartram, holtzhausen, mylonas and carstairs (2005) found that most of the major traditional paper-and-pencil personality questionnaires are available on the internet. furthermore, the use of computers in the selection process has increased dramatically since its introduction into educational and psychological assessments (joubert & kriek, 2009). the popularity of computer-based testing can be attributed to the automation of test administration and the almost immediate scoring and interpretation of results (buchanan & smith, 1999). computer-based testing also makes it easier when dealing with missing data and out-of-range responses. bartram (2004) is of the opinion that small and medium size organisations with fewer employees than 200 tended not to use objective assessment methods or assessment centres as a result of the high cost involved. bartram’s (2004) opinion is echoed by zibarras & woods (2010) who concluded that cost is the deciding factor when considering psychological assessments or assessment centres. greenidge et al.’s, (2012) viewpoint, supported by landy and conte (2010), asserts that larger organisations tend to use more expensive selection methods such as assessment centres to select suitable candidates. a final word on assessment is that whereas psychometric assessments were used to tap specific individual attributes required for an individual-job fit in the past, there is a current tendency in organisations to rather assess an applicant’s ‘attitude’ towards the world of work; therefore, tests tapping integrity, personality and emotional intelligence tendencies are highly valued and used (bartram, 2004; branine, 2008). when considering the shift in assessment, kwiatkowski (2003) is further of the opinion that younger people tend to regard jobs as temporary. this is because it was found that organisations offering individual development, interesting work and equitable rewards were viewed as more important than those offering job stability and longevity of employment. organisations will need to do their utmost to recruit and retain committed applicants. limitations of this research as with all micro-studies, this study has several limitations that one should take notice of when evaluating results. literature mainly concentrates on europe and the usa which makes local comparison difficult. in addition, due to its exploratory nature, the empirical results cannot be generalized to all organisations in the eastern cape. the same applies to other geographic areas in south africa. furthermore, the study focused on the use of recruitment and selection methods in a descriptive manner and does not explain why such methods are not popular amongst the organisations sampled. to obtain research information on this topic for generalisation to the broader organisational population, it is recommended that future research be conducted via a larger random sampling process. in addition, such research should also focus on the rationale and motivation for methods in use. information obtained via such an extended focus could serve as additional knowledge for recruitment and selection officials within organisations, as well as for recruitment agencies and recruitment and selection lecturing staff for a total improvement in the competitiveness of the staffing component within the region. conclusion the study explored and summarized the various recruitment and selection methods in use in the eastern cape. the organisations that were interviewed reflected some order in the recruitment and selection process in the sense that they all have a clear recruitment and selection policy. the most profound findings on both recruitment and selection were that the methods and strategies used in the eastern cape were similar to those used elsewhere around the globe, however, judging by the literature review, three exceptions were found in recruitment. the first two refer to the use of walk-ins and referrals as recruitment methods that are, in accordance with the sample, not in use in the eastern cape. the third one is the use of online (internet) methods to attract suitable applicants and due to many potential applicants not having access to computers, the use of online recruitment lags behind in comparison with overseas countries. when dealing with walk-ins and referrals, it seems that the south african labour legislation may cause hesitation amongst organisations to consider referrals; a method that is seen in many parts of the world as a valuable source to recruit committed people of quality (see el-kot & leat, 2008; greenidge et al., 2012). in a poverty stricken province it is recommended that labour legislation be eased to enable organisations to use initiative in the recruitment and selection of skilled workers, especially lower level jobs, which may probably improve job creation. in order to provide more internet access to poor applicants, a further recommendation would be that the south african department of labour provides online facilities in the form of ‘internet cafés’ where applicants can obtain free access to advertisements, especially to lower level positions. the study provided valuable strategic information relevant to the staffing function within organisations as well as recruitment agencies. although the world is currently experiencing an economical downswing, recruitment agencies’ relevance is re-emphasised as a significant role player in the economic processes within the region. knowledge about the methods that are most prevalent may enhance organisational competiveness through the appointment of more suitable applicants of quality. in addition, training and educational programmes offered within the province can eventually be aligned accordingly to fill the needs and gaps identified in organisational functioning and professional service delivery. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. references top ↑ anderson, n., salgado, j.f., & hülsheger, u.t. (2010). applicant reactions in selection: comprehensive meta-analysis into reaction generalization versus situational specificity. international journal of selection, 18(3), 291–304. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2389.2010.00512.x anderson, n., lievens, f., van dam, k., &, ryan, a.m. (2004). future perspectives on employee selection: key directions for future research and practice. applied psychology: an international review, 53(4), 487–501. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2004.00183.x anderson, n., & witvliet, (2008). fairness reactions to personnel selection methods: an international comparison between the netherlaands, the united states, france, spain, portugal, and singapore. international journal of selection and assessment, 16(1), 1–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2389.2008.00404.x armstrong, m. (2006). a handbook of human resource practice (10th edn.). kogan page: london. babbie, e. (2009). the practice of social research (12th edn.). belmont, ca: wadsworth publishing. ballantine, i. (2009). recruiting and selecting staff in organizations. in s. gilmore and s. williams (eds.), human resource management, 92–107. oxford: oxford university press. bartram, d. (2004). assessment in organisations. applied psychology: an international review, 53(2), 237–259. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2004.00170.x beardwell, j. (2007). recruitment and selection. in j. beardwell & j. clayton (eds.), human resource management: a contemporary approach (5th edn., pp. 189–224). essex: pearson. bevan, s., & fryatt, j. (1988). employee selection in the uk. ims report no. 160, institute of manpower studies: brighton. branine, m. (2008). graduate recruitment and selection in the uk: a study of the recent changes in methods and expectations. career development international, 13(6), 497–513. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430810901660 breaugh, j.a. (1981). relationships between recruiting sources and employee tenure, absenteeism, and work attitudes. academy of management journal, 24(1), 142–147. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/255829 brown, a., bartram, d., holtzhausen, g., mylonas, g., & carstairs, j. (2005, april). online personality and motivation testing: is unsupervised administration an issue? paper presented at the 20th annual siop conference, los angeles, ca. buchanan, t., & smith, j.l. (1999). using the internet for psychological research: personality testing on the world wide web. british journal of psychology, 90(1), 125–145. burke, e. (2009). preserving the integrity of online testing. industrial and organizational psychology: perspectives on science and practice, 2(4), 35–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2008.01104.x cober, r., & brown, d. (2006). direct employers association recruiting trends survey booz. allen hamilton, washington: dc. cook, m., & cripps, b.c. (2005). psychological assessment in the workplace: a management guide. chichester: john wiley & sons. crispin, g., & mehler, m. (2006).career x roads 6th annual 2006 sources of hire study. retrieved june, 26, 2012, from http://www.careerxroads.com/news/sourcesofhire06.pdf crous, s. (2007). talent makes the rules now. corporate research foundation, 33, 4–7. decenzo, d.a., & robbins, s.p. (2007). fundamentals of human resource management. chichester: john wiley & sons. el-kot, g., & leat, m. (2008). a survey of recruitment and selection practices in egypt. contemporary middle eastern issues, 1(3), 200–212. eurich, t.l., & krause, d.e. (2009). assessment centres: current practices in the united states. journal of business psychology, 24(4), 387–407. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10869-009-9123-3 fleenor, c.p., & kurtz, d.l. (1987). selling & sales management in action: assessment centre selection of sales representatives. journal of personal selling and sales management, 7(1), 57–59. galanaki, e. (2002). the decision to recruit online: descriptive study. career development international, 7(4), 243–251. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430210431325 gold, j. (2007). recruitment and selection. in j. bratton & j. gold (eds.), human resource management: theory and practice (4th edn., pp. 239–273). hampshire: palgrave macmillan. greenidge, d., alleyne, p., parris, b., & grant, s. (2012). a comparative study of recruitment and training practices between small and large businesses in an emerging market economy: the case of barbados. journal of small business and enterprise development, 19(1), 164–182. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14626001211196460 grobler, p., wärnich, s., carrell, m.r., elbert, n.f., & hatfield, r.d. (2006). human resource management in south africa (3rd edn.). london: thomson. grodeck, r. (2010). social recruiting the unisys way. retrieved june, 25, 2012, from http://blogs.unisys.com/disruptiveittrends/2010/11/16/social-recruiting-the-unisys-way/ harris, h., brewster, c., & sparrow, p. (2002). globalising hr. cipd: london. hayajenh, a., maghrabi, a.s., & al-dabbagh, t.h. (1994). research note: assessing the effect of nepotism on human resource managers. international journal of manpower, 15(1), 60–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/eum0000000003933 ivancevich, j.m., konopaske, r., & matteson, m.t. (2011). organizational behaviour and management (9th edn.). mcgraw-hill: new york, ny. jenkins, a., & wolf, a. (2002). why do employers use selection tests? evidence from british workplaces, cee discussion paper no. 27: centre for the economics of education, london school of economics. retrieved june, 25, 2012, from http://158.143.49.19/_new/publications/author.asp?new_authorid=158 joubert, t., & kriek, h.j. (2009). psychometric comparison of paper-and-pencil and online personality assessments in a selection setting. sa journal of industrial psychology, 35(1), art. #727, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v35i1.727 klein, h.j., mccomber, k., schiemann, w.a., & wright, p.m. (2005). effective practice guidelines: selection assessment methods. alexandria, va: shrm foundation. kristof-brown, a.l., jansen, k.j., & colbert, a.e. (2002). a policy-capturing study of the simultaneous effects of fit with jobs, groups, and organizations. journal of applied psychology, 87(5), 985–993. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.87.5.985 kwiatkowski, r. (2003). trends in organisations and selection: an introduction. journal of managerial psychology, 18(5), 382–394. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ 02683940310483991 lievens, f., dam, k.v., & anderson, n. (2002). recent trends and challenges in personnel selection. personnel review, 31(5), 580–601. madia, s.a. (2011). best practices for using social media as a recruitment strategy. strategic hr review, 10(6), 19–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14754391111172788 masibigiri, v., & nienaber, h. (2011). factors affecting the retention of generation x public servants: an exploratory study. sa journal of human resource management, 9(1), art. #318, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.318 mcmillan, e.j. (2006). preventing fraud in non-profit organisations. hoboken, new jersey: wiley. mcmanus, m.a., & ferguson, m.w. (2003). biodata, personality and demographic differences of recruits from three sources. international journal of selection and assessment, 11(2&3), 175–183. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00241 mondy, r.w. (2010). human resource management (11th edn.). prentice-hall: upper saddle river, new jersey:prentice hall. noe, r.a., hollenbeck, j.r., gerhart, b., & wright, p.m. (2008). fundamentals of human resource management. mcgraw-hill: new york, ny. nzukuma, k.c.c., & bussin, m. (2011). job-hopping amongst african black senior management in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 9(1), http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.360 parry, e., & wilson, h. (2009). factors influencing the adoption of online recruitment. personnel review, 38(6), 655–673. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00483480910992265 ployhart, r.e. (2006). staffing in the 21st century: new challenges and strategic opportunities. journal of management, 32(6), 868–897. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206306293625 pollit, p. (2005). testing graduates at lloyds tsb: how banks select the people who will lead it into the future? human resource management international digest, 13(1), 12–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09670730510576347 republic of south africa. (1998). employment equity act 55 of 1998. pretoria: government printer. rynes, s.l., colbert, a.e., & brown, k.g. (2002). hr professionals’ beliefs about effective human resource practices: correspondence between research and practice. human resource management, 41(2), 149–179. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.10029 sackett, p.r., & lievens, f. (2008). personnel selection. annual review of psychology, 59, 419–450. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093716 saks, a.m. (1994). a psychological process investigation of the effects of recruitment source and organization information on job survival. journal of organizational behavior, 15(3), 225–244. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.4030150305 shackleton, v., & newell, s. (1994). european management selection methods: a comparison of five countries. journal of occupational psychology, 64, 23–36. schmidt, f.l., & hunter, j.e. (1998). the validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. psychological bulletin, 124(2), 262–274. schreuder, d., & coetzee, m. (2010). an overview of industrial and organisational psychology research in south africa: a preliminary study. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 1–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.903 scolarios, d., lockyer, c., & johnson, h. (2003). anticipatory socialization: the effect of recruitment and selection experiences on career expectations. career development international, 28(4), 182–197. singanto, n.k. (2003). a study of recruitment and selection policies with specific reference to the sundays river valley municipality. unpublished m. tech thesis. port elizabeth technikon, port elizabeth, south africa. stats sa. (2012). quarterly labour force survey. retrieved june, 26, 2012, from http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/statsdownload.asp?ppn=p0211&sch=5222 stone, d.l., stone-romero, e.f., & lukaszewski, k. (2006). factors affecting the acceptance and effectiveness of electronic human resource systems. human resource review, 16(2), 229– http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2006.03.010 straus, s.g., miles, j.a., & levesque, l.l. (2001). the effects of video conference, telephone and face-toface media on interviewer and applicant judgements in employment interviews. journal of management, 27(3), 363–381. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920630102700308 streiter, a. (september, 2011). emerging media: the best opportunities you aren’t taking advantage of. retrieved june, 26, 2012, from http://socialmediarecruitment.com/blog/2011/09/02/emerging-media-the-best-opportunities-you-aren%e2%80%99t-taking-advantage-of/ tippins, n.t. (2009). where is the unproctored internet testing train headed now? industrial and organizational psychology, 2(1), 69–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2008.01111.x tixier, m. (1996). employers’ recruitment tools across europe. employee relations, 18(60), 69–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01425459610151466 tong, d., & sivanand, c. (2005). e-recruitment service providers review: international and malaysian. employee relations, 27(1), 103–117. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01425450510569337 tucker, m.a. (2012, january). show and tell: more employers are conducting realistic job previews to let applicants know what the job they’re seeking actually involves. hr magazine, 51–53. retrieved june, 26, 2012, from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1g1-278008251.html van der merwe, r.p. (2002). psychometric testing and human resource management. sa journal of industrial psychology, 28(2), 77–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v28i2.52 van rensburg, h., basson, j.s., & carrim, n.m.h. (2011). the establishment and early history of the south african board for people practices (sabpp) 1977–1991. sa journal of human resource management, 9(1), art. #322, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.322 weller, s.c., & romney, a.k. (1988). systematic data collection. london: sage. welman, c., kruger, f., & mitchell, b. (2005). research methodology (3rd edn.), oxford university press: cape town. wickramasinghe, v. (2007). staffing practices in the private sector in sri lanka. career development international, 12(2), 108–128. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430710733613 wolf, a., & jenkins, a. (2006). explaining greater test use for selection: the role of hr professionals in a world of expanding regulation. human resource management journal, 16(2), 193–216. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2006.00008.x worku, z. (2011). a survival analysis of south african children under the age of five years. health sa, 16(1), art. #472, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hsag.v16i1.472 wuttke, f. (2009). e-recruitment vs. traditional recruitment: a descriptive analysis. norderstedt, germany: grin verlag. zibarras, l.d., & woods, s.a. (2010). a survey of uk selection practices across different organization sizes and industry sectors. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 83, 499–511. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317909x425203 zottoli, m.a., & wanous, j.p. (2000). recruitment source research: current status and future directions. human resource management review, 10(4), 353–382. http://dx.doi.org.nwulib.nwu.ac.za/10.1016/s1053-4822(00)00032-2 abstract introduction literature review research design results acknowledgements references about the author(s) ncumisa luzipho department of human resource management, faculty of management sciences, vaal university of technology, johannesburg, south africa pierre a. joubert faculty of economic and management sciences, sol plaatje university, kimberley, south africa manilall dhurup department of human resource management, faculty of management sciences, vaal university of technology, johannesburg, south africa citation luzipho, n., joubert, p.a., & dhurup, m. (2023). job stressors, work tension and job satisfaction of academics at a university in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2015. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2015 original research job stressors, work tension and job satisfaction of academics at a university in south africa ncumisa luzipho, pierre a. joubert, manilall dhurup received: 10 june 2022; accepted: 30 aug. 2022; published: 21 feb. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: stress in the workplace is a common phenomenon that is classified in different ways and which also impacts academics. previous research highlighted that job stressors in the workplace have been considered an important contributor towards low levels of job satisfaction (js) for academics. this perspective aids the study of the influence of job stress on js. research purpose: the aim of this research was to establish the influence of role conflict (rc), role ambiguity (ra), role overload (ro) and time pressure (tp) on work tension (wt) and the influence of wt on js among academics at a university of technology. motivation for the study: the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic and the reduction of government and associated agency funding changed the scenario of academic life from being considered idyllic, autonomous and well protected. congruent to these constraints, changes in the diversity of students and advances in technology, blended learning and the introduction of learning platforms created further challenges in the way students learn and how modules were offered. research approach/design and method: the researchers used a postpositivist quantitative paradigm with a convenience sample (n = 250) of academics in a university of technology in gauteng. a structured questionnaire encompassing the study constructs was used. main findings: results showed positive associations between rc, ra, ro and tp on wt. further, wt and js showed negative yet significant predictive relationships with js. practical/managerial implication: it is pivotal for universities to understand the effects of job stressors on job satisfaction to improve the working conditions for academics. contribution/value-add: this research provides findings to the present body of knowledge among academics on the influence of job stressors on wt and wt on js at heis. research on job stress and js has been of interest in many heis. the research makes a valuable contribution to the university management, especially the human resource division, on the effect of levels of job stressors (rc, ra, ro and tp) on wt among academics. keywords: job satisfaction; job stressors; role conflict; time pressure; academics; work tension. introduction university academics face high levels of stress that arise from the persistent demands of academic life, which results in low job satisfaction (js). these demands include extended working hours, inadequate information about the job, a lack of training with regards to new technology, meeting submission deadlines and extended hours for training purposes. therefore, academics who are not able to control their emotional state are prone to low js (lashkariani, 2020). stress in the workplace is a common phenomenon that is classified in different ways and impacts employees in different work circumstances and is affecting the work environment globally (jawabri et al., 2019). work-related stress is described as the negative psychosomatic and physiological response which occurs when work requests surpass the individuals’ ability to handle those demands (daniel, 2019). although moderate levels of stress are believed to enhance creativeness and effort, excessive levels of stress result in decreased creativeness and effort (international labour organisation, 2020). job stress has negative implications for academics, which range from anxiety, depression, absenteeism, tardiness, turnover and eventually lower js, which consequently leads to poor quality of the level of education (singh, 2019). with the emergence of universities of technology, academics were presented with more responsibilities, such as restructuring of educational programmes and qualifications and having to teach larger groups of students. these changes in higher education institutions (heis) lead to increased stress levels among academics (de oliveira barbosa et al., 2018). lashkariani (2020) states that increased levels of stress lead to poor job performance and cause demotivation for academics, which results in low js. a few studies have been conducted on job stressors and js in an organisational context (mark & smith, 2018; schulz, 2013), but very little research has been conducted on how job stressors influence work tension (wt) and how wt influences js in higher education settings. among numerous kinds of job stressors, this research focuses on the following types of job stressors: role conflict (rc), role ambiguity (ra), role overload (ro) and time pressure (tp). while reviewing the literature, these job stressors were the most cited and raised a question of whether they could be prevalent with the academic environment. academics undergo a considerable amount of strain to produce quality skill sets and employable, socially engaged and business-minded students who can influence society positively (oforka, 2020). further, they need to take charge of their work and be accountable, to provide scientific guidance, carry out administrative work and publish articles (valkov & peeva, 2020). these objectives cannot be accomplished if there are low satisfaction levels and high stress levels among academics (jawabri et al., 2019). objectives of the study the objectives of the study are: to explore the influence between rc and wt to determine the influence between ra and wt to establish the influence between ro and wt to discover the influence between tp and wt to identify the influence between wt and js. literature review theoretical grounding this study used two underlying theories to direct and guide the understanding of the variables under investigation. the job demand control support (jdcs) model was used to address the subject of job stressors, while herzberg’s two-factor theory was used to address the subject of js. job demand control support model the jdcs model emanates from an earlier model, which is the job demand control model established by karasek in 1979 (odetunde, 2021). the jdcs model comprised two essential aspects of the working environment, namely job demand and job control. it was developed to demonstrate that mental stresses are an outcome of the interaction between job demand and job control (taştan, 2016). the jdcs model posits that when job demands are high, with low job control and low support levels, it may lead to negative health outcomes that cause stress (pozo-antúnez et al., 2018). as portrayed in figure 1, the model highlights factors that cause an increase in psychological strain, which occurs when social support and autonomy are low and when there are high psychological demands. within the workplace, high job stress occurs when job demands are high and when there is low support and lack of job control (sakuraya et al., 2017). job demands are the psychological stressors which result from the combination of freedom of decision-making and the demands of the job situation. they include all types of stressors, inter alia, high workloads, rc and tp (crescenzo, 2016). figure 1: karasek’s job demand control support model. job control, on the other hand, refers to the decision latitude, which includes authority of making decisions and skills judgement (portoghese et al., 2020). according to karasek’s model, low strain results when the job demand is low and the control over it is high. on the other hand, high strain results from high job demands, which are associated with low control over them (fila, 2016). karimi et al. (2014) posit that if academic staff experience high job demands and low control to overcome a situation, they will experience the unconstructive results of decreased performance and reduced js. within the jdcs model, the external factors are social support and job control, whereas the internal factor is resilience. these factors help to improve the motivation and commitment of the employees, such as academics, as they are exposed to the pressures of high work demands (pozo-antúnez, 2018). skills discretion assists with the various types of job demands separately, which include emotional and cognitive workloads that enable academics to control their work and cope with job demands, which lead to a reduction of stress and improve the well-being of the academics (viotti & converso, 2016). the study seeks to evaluate the influence of job stress on wt and wt on js; therefore, the jdcs theory is used to better understand the effects of high job demands while having less control or support to execute tasks. van de doef and verhoeven (2017) state that academics who are exposed to isolation strain are reported to suffer from psychological and physical health, thus resulting in low levels of js. herzberg’s two-factor theory in addition to the jdcs theory, alrawahi et al. (2020) postulate that one of the major theories that contribute to the topic of motivation and satisfaction is herzberg’s theory of motivation, also known as the motivator-hygiene theory, which was formulated by fredrick herzberg in 1959. the theory was formulated as a result of a research study that herzberg conducted in pursuit of factors that are responsible for js and job dissatisfaction of employees. it indicates that js among individuals hinges on two different types of factors, the intrinsic and extrinsic factors. intrinsic factors refer to the motivator or satisfier factors, which are responsible for satisfaction, while extrinsic factors refer to factors which are responsible for dissatisfaction, known as hygiene factors (sanjeev & surya, 2016). motivating factors are generally inherent to the work. they generate positive satisfaction within the working environment, and employees find these factors intrinsically rewarding (habte, 2016). examples of motivators include growth, promotion, sense of achievement and being recognised for good performance at work, as these are believed to be the source of academics’ quest for fulfilment. hygiene factors symbolise the physiological needs that people anticipate being fulfilled and are considered crucial to foster motivation within the working environment. they are defined as maintenance factors given that they are needed to avoid dissatisfaction (asan & wirba, 2017). hygiene factors are generally regarded as various extrinsic factors that result in dissatisfaction of employees in their jobs; such factors therefore contribute very little towards total employee motivational needs. typical examples of hygiene factors include working conditions, security, relationships with colleagues and remuneration (phama & nguyen, 2020). herzberg’s theory mainly suggests that there are some factors within the workplace which can result in js, and there are a separate set of factors which can result in dissatisfaction (yousaf, 2020). however, it is important to note that the factors which result in satisfaction (motivators) are vital for the development of an institution. the case of university academics differs from that of other employees in different industries, as academics find satisfaction in both hygiene and motivator factors, and their motivation is largely dependent on the attainment of these hygiene factors (skiadas, 2020). fulfilling hygiene factors for academics may improve their performance, which will then improve overall js. role conflict ahmad et al. (2021) define rc as having more than two incompatible roles to perform at the same time. it exists when the job holder’s occupational responsibilities conflict with each other. kahn et al. (1964), as cited in ee et al. (2017) define rc as the predicament that employees face where two or more pressures occur simultaneously such that undertaking one task will mean neglecting the other. role conflict occurs more often among professionals who are at the beginning of their career paths and it arises because of the discrepancy between the conveyed expectations of employees in an institution with others outside or inside the institution (aguirre, 2019). role conflict often emerges as a result of balancing family life and work, taking into consideration the challenging demands of time, energy and commitment (thakur et al., 2018). it therefore negatively affects both the employee and the learning institution, as it leads to the rise in wt and a decline in js levels. when academics are overloaded with roles, an adverse emotional reaction occurs which leads to the inability to perform the job effectively because of lack of energy and time to carry out activities (badri & yunus, 2021). within the university context, academics’ rc may additionally arise when the demanding conditions such as meeting deadlines, learning new methodologies in teaching and learning, community engagement and the pressures to use blended learning and new learning platforms are placed on academics (karya et al., 2021). role ambiguity role ambiguity is described as lack of information regarding duties performed by employees (orgambídez & almeida, 2020). role ambiguity occurs when having inadequate understanding of how to execute the given task, and it arises from the incompatibility between the information available and the information that is required to perform a task. it involves information deficiency about the goals of an institution and the conditions in which work must be effectively performed (alshery et al., 2015). this refers to all the imprecise expectations from the supervisors about the exact way to execute a task, which create tension and cause poor outcomes for both personal and work life (azzahra et al., 2021). it can be concluded that ra has negative implications on the academics’ state of mind, their performance and overall self-esteem because of the negative effects of rc such as anxiety, worry and strain (maden-eyiusta, 2021). these negative effects can be eradicated if learning institutions have a detailed set of responsibilities or tasks in place at the disposal of academics. role overload haholongan and kusdinar (2019) define ro as not having enough capacity, time or resources to meet the high demands of certain tasks that need to be fulfilled within a specific period of time and which are more than what an individual could perform. when academic staff are exposed to job complexity and an increasing workload, stressful working conditions are likely to arise for academics; hence, a decrease in the js levels occurs (mittal & bhaker, 2018). over the years, student enrolments have increased without increasing the number of academics, resulting in ro, which eventually leads to emotional and mental strain (malik et al., 2017). identifying all the roles and responsibilities encountered by academics leads to the conclusion that there is high work overload in higher education, and for as long as academics feel burdened and overwhelmed by their occupational duties, they will not find working conditions to be favourable because of the stress and pressure they will be working under. failure to meet role targets as a result of ro may cause strain for academics and may result in lower levels of js. time pressure time pressure is regarded as psychological stress which occurs when a person has less time available than is required to accomplish a given task or to provide a given result (ordóñez et al., 2015). it is observed as not having sufficient time to complete a task and can result in increased levels of stress, limited time to recuperate and fatigue (sandmeier et al., 2017). it has been recognised as one of the significant stressors at universities which is related to stress and depression (apolinário-hagen et al., 2017). academics who experience emotional strain because of tp display behaviours of being worthless, poor communication, making errors and creating conflict, which add to already prevailing job strains (bakker & wang, 2019). academics who lack time management and spend a huge proportion of their time teaching often show signs of dissatisfaction and decreased productivity at the workplace (tjahjadi & cahyadi, 2020). work tension gandhi (2017) describes wt as a form of tension caused by the responsibilities related to work and which can be associated with the factors associated with corporate culture or personal conflicts. it is an unconscious matter that results in physical strain that is caused by a discrepancy between having job demands that are strict and an inability to cope and adapt to work. work tension significantly contributes to the development of mental tension because factors such as poor working conditions, unexpected workloads, changing deadlines, insufficient supervision and resources or work overload apply substantial pressure, which results in job dissatisfaction (mark & smith, 2018). mark and smith (2018) reveal that unexpected workloads, changing deadlines or work overload were stated as being particularly strenuous, leading to lower levels of job contentment and an increase in wt. work tension is further exacerbated when academics do not have sufficient supervision, when there is increased conflict with colleagues, increased job demands and insufficient resources, which result in low js levels (khamisa et al., 2015). job satisfaction job satisfaction is a combination of physiological, environmental and psychological circumstances that cause a worker to truthfully affirm that they are satisfied with their job (stankovska et al., 2017). it is a multifarious phenomenon influenced by factors such as the working environment, communication, salary, organisational commitment and autonomy. zhang (2020) describes js as a sense of accomplishment or feeling of contentment that academics derive from their work. alamanda et al. (2019) discovered that various variables exist that can possibly influence the js of an academic, which include the quality of the working environment, fringe benefits, salary, impartial system of promotion, leadership, socialising and the work tasks. these factors are extremely useful in determining the extent that academics dislike or like their work (alamanda et al., 2019). research design research approach a quantitative research approach using a survey was found to be more suitable in this study because of the nature of the topic, population size and large-scale numerical data collected that needed to be analysed by means of statistical procedures. a quantitative research approach forms the basis for associations and relationships to be statistically tested, which makes it more suitable for this study. research method the purpose of the study, availability of resources and type of research design followed influence the choice of a sampling method. a convenience sampling method was applied in drawing samples for the study as it gave all members of the targeted population a fair chance of being chosen. the study sample of 227 was drawn from the targeted population of 445 full-time academic employees from a university of technology. research instrument and data collection procedure the researchers used a survey questionnaire adapted from previous studies, as indicated below. the scales were selected based on their reliability and validity as reported in these studies. the questionnaire comprised seven sections: section a solicited demographic variables, while sections b–g used a five-point likert scale that ranged from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree to gather information on the study’s constructs. questions on both rc and ra were adapted from the questionnaire established by rizzo et al. (1970). questions pertaining to ro (section d) were adapted from bacharach et al. (1990). section e focused on tp, and the questions were adapted from a questionnaire that was prepared by parker and decotiis (1983). questions to solicit information on wt (section f) were adapted from a questionnaire developed by cook et al. (1981). finally, questions on js (section g) were adapted from a questionnaire developed by agho et al. (1992). prior to the main study data collection, a pilot study was done using survey administration to a small group of 50 junior and senior academics who have been employed by the institution for more than 1 year, from which only 40 academics (who were excluded from the main survey) took part in the study. the questionnaires were hand delivered to academics and some were sent using e-mails that were obtained from the academics’ administrators. the researchers used the pilot study to identify and detect errors on the questionnaire, and as such, the outcomes of the pilot study highlighted that sections e and f had some wording mistakes, while the second question of section g was ambiguous. these errors were rectified prior to collecting data for the main study. the cronbach’s alpha scores of sections b–g were acceptable (i.e. above the set minimum scale of 0.70) and ranged between 0.79 and 0.942, indicating that the measuring scales were reliable. data analysis the concept of data analysis is self-explanatory, as it involved the process of decoding and examining collected data in a way that makes practical sense and findings can be concluded (abuhamda et al., 2021). data collected in this study were analysed quantitatively using the statistical package for social science (spss) version 25 for windows (ibm corporation, armonk, new york, united states). the spss was used to conduct both correlations and regressions in this study to identify the relationship between job stressors, wt and js of academics. validity and reliability scale reliabilities were assessed using the cronbach’s alpha coefficient. table 1 reports the reliability outcomes of each of the six constructs. table 1: internal reliability statistics of the measuring instrument. the results of the study showed that all constructs, rc (α = 0.876), ra (α = 0.895), ro (α = 0.964), tp (α = 0.947), wt (α = 0.887) and js (α = 0.923) attained cronbach’s alpha values that were above 0.70, which meant that the scales met the minimum recommended threshold and were reliable. maree (2016) stated that to deem a measurement reliable and acceptable, it should score the minimum acceptable cronbach’s alpha value of 0.70–1. in determining the degree that a measuring scale precisely measures what it was supposed to measure, four types of validity were applied to the measuring instrument. content validity was assessed through the literature review and examination of the scale items for each construct by senior lecturers in the department of human resource management. feedback was obtained from these academics to improve the questionnaire. construct validity was established by undertaking a pilot study on 40 respondents. after analysing the pilot data for its reliability, the questionnaire was amended for the purpose of improving its construct validity. correlation analysis was used to evaluate convergent validity. work tension showed significant positive associations with rc, ro and tp, thus affirming convergence. predictive validity was established by applying the regression analysis procedure, which showed that rc, ra, ro and tp were statistically significant in predicting wt, thus affirming predictive validity. ethical considerations permission to conduct the study was obtained from the faculty research ethics committee unit at the university, which ensures that any research study involving people as subjects should adhere to ethical principles, respecting the confidentiality, informed consent and privacy of the participants. an ethical consideration letter explaining the purpose of the study was sent to the university academics. the role of the researchers was explained during the process of distributing the questionnaires. results test for unidimensionality of study constructs the study constructs, namely rc, ra, ro, tp, wt and js were subjected to exploratory factor analysis (efa). the efa was utilised to assess the unidimensionality of the constructs (i.e. the scale is not multidimensional in nature). the six study constructs demonstrated loading on one factor only with total variance explained, ranging from 53% to 73%. this implied that the total variance explained by each factor was satisfactory. the results of the unidimensionality test are reported in table 2. table 2: tests for unidimensionality of scale constructs. correlation analysis pearson correlation analysis was utilised to determine the power of the association among the study constructs. the pearson correlation coefficient indicated that a coefficient of −1 expressed a negative relationship that was perfect, whereas a coefficient of +1 expressed a positive relationship that was perfect (bryman & bell, 2011). table 3 presents the correlational relationships between rc, ra, ro, tp, wt and js, respectively. table 3: correlation analysis reporting. the posited relationships in this study were the four types of role stressors (rc, ra, ro and tp) on wt and wt on js. the results indicated that all four job stressors (rc, ra, ro and tp) were positively associated with wt. role conflict presented a large significant relationship (r = 0.585) with wt, meaning that high levels of rc resulted in academics experiencing wt. the relationship between ra and wt highlighted a significant negative result (r = −2.79), which suggested that an increase in levels of ra was associated with an increase in wt, meaning that when academics felt that their roles were not clearly described, they felt some tension in their jobs. there was existence of a strong positive association between ro and wt (r = 0.768). this meant that academic employees experienced more wt when they were tasked with more duties and responsibilities in addition to their daily jobs, which seemed impossible to complete within a specified period. time pressure also revealed a strong positive association with wt (r = 00.823), highlighting that an upsurge in tp was allied with an upsurge in wt. this was because of the fact that human beings experienced high stress levels when they had limited time to complete important job roles. the relationship between wt and js recorded a moderate significant negative association (r = −0.414). this indicated that wt was negatively associated with js, meaning that the more academic employees experienced wt in the occupational role, the more their level of js was affected. it was therefore posited that an increase in wt was associated with high job dissatisfaction (low levels of js). work tension negatively affected the morale and working stamina of academics, and this affected the rate at which they felt content about the jobs they occupied as their mental health was affected by all the tension. regression analysis in the context of this research, regression analysis was executed to explore the nature of predictive relationships that exist between various job stressors and wt. from the results provided in table 4, it can be concluded that there was a positive statistical significance between rc and wt at p < 0.05 (t = 2.019, b = 0.098, p = 0.045). table 4: regression analysis reporting of role conflict, role ambiguity, role overload and time pressure with work tension. this indicated that rc among academics engendered high levels of wt. given that earlier studies by tastan (2016) and abuaddous et al. (2015) found rc to have a positive impact on wt, it was not surprising that this study found rc to have a significant impact on wt. role ambiguity presented a positive significant predictive relationship with wt at p < 0.05 (t = 2.258, b = 0.90, p = 0.025). the results designated that high levels of ra among academics resulted in extremely higher levels of wt. it was posited that ra experienced by academics caused wt to increase significantly, as they lost control of their jobs (ali & farooqi, 2014; wei et al., 2011). from the results reported in table 4, a positive link between ro and wt was depicted at p < 0.05 (t = 6.415, b = 0.355, p = 0.000), indicating that the prevalence of high levels of ro resulted in high levels of wt. role overload had a positive impact on wt. the findings of this research were also in line with the empirical findings and the existing literature, which showed that ro had a positive influence on wt (ali & farooqi, 2014; crescenzo, 2016). time pressure displayed a significant association with wt at p < 0.05 (t = 11.382, b = 0.544, p = 0.000), indicating that high levels of tp resulted in high levels of wt. the outcome of this relationship was in consensus with the reviewed literature, which posited that if tp was not properly managed, it would lead to low job control, which resulted from failure to manage high job demands within a specified time, and this led to high levels of wt (wei et al., 2011). table 5 represents the regression analysis of wt and js. table 5: regression analysis reporting of work tension and job satisfaction. table 5 provides the outcomes of the analysis of a relationship between wt and js. the analysis indicated a negative significant relationship between wt and js at p < 0.05 (t = −6.815, b = −0.414, p = 0.000), which revealed that high levels of wt resulted in low levels of js. conclusion theoretically, this research provides findings to the present body of knowledge among academics on the influence of job stressors on wt and wt on js at heis. research on job stress and js has been of interest in many heis. the research makes a valuable contribution to the university management, especially the human resource division, on the effect of levels of job stressors (rc, ra, ro and tp) on wt among academics. additionally, an investigation was done between wt and js. the correlational and regression analysis results showed that wt negatively influenced js. the research findings may additionally assist the university to lessen the negative influence of job stressors on wt and wt on js by putting in place various initiatives such as wellness programmes and support programmes linked to the various types of job stressors. any further research can help aid the effect of job stressors on js and improve the lives of academics and their competence in the institution. therefore, the results of this study should encourage other institutions to investigate the effects of these job stressors on wt and wt on js on their academic employees. limitations of the research although this study yielded valuable information on how to improve the influence of job stressors on wt and the influence of wt on js, there are limitations that impacted the study. the research methodology was purely quantitative, limiting respondents in fully expressing their thoughts and feelings. future research could pursue the same study with the use of a mixed methods approach. this will help respondents to give rich and insightful information on the subject matter. another limitation is that correlation and regression analysis were used to establish if there exists a relationship among variables. however, the use of correlation and regression analysis did not take into effect control variables such as age, gender and income levels. further studies can make use of control variables. recommendations the researchers recommend that because rc and ro were found to influence wt, heis should ensure that the duties and responsibilities of academics are well defined. further, the human resource division of the university can arrange conflict management workshops that involve both employers and line mangers. in eradicating ro, the researchers recommended that the university develop a clear workload policy and workload model that ensures equitable work distribution among academics. wellness programmes for employees can be a valuable move in combatting wt in the workplace. various wellness programmes have the potential to ease the wt, unhealthy habits, burnout and mental and physical health damage, which may have the propensity towards academics’ health behaviours. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions n.m. is responsible for writing the original article, data collection and interpretation and project administration. p.a.j. is the supervisor, responsible for reviewing and editing and formal assessment of the article. r.d. is also the supervisor, responsible for data analysis, reviewing and editing the article and formally assessing it. funding information the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references abuaddous, m., hanefah, m.m., & laili, n.h. (2015). audit structure, time pressure and judgment accuracy: a comparison between strategic system audit and traditional audit. international journal of economics and finance, 7(8), 53–67. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijef.v7n8p53 abuhamda, e.a.a., ismail, i.a., & bsharat, t.r.k. (2021). understanding quantitative and qualitative research methods: a theoretical perspective for young researchers. international journal of research, 8(2), 71–87. agho, a.o., price, j.l., & mueller, c.w. (1992). discrimination validity of measures of job satisfaction, positive affectivity and negative affectivity. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 65(3), 185–196. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1992.tb00496.x aguirre, l.r. (2019). the mediating effects of external factors on intention to leave and organizational factors of hotel industry. journal of contaduría administración, 64(3), 1–18. ahmad, j., zahid, s., wahid, f.f., & ali, s. (2021). impact of role conflict and role ambiguity on job satisfaction: the mediating effect of job stress and moderating effect of islamic work ethics. european journal of business and management research, 16(4), 41–50. https://doi.org/10.24018/ejbmr.2021.6.4.895 alamanda, k.p., damayanti, d.d., kamaratih, d., & haq, a.h.b. (2019). factors that affect job satisfaction of academic employees. journal of advances in social science, education and humanities research, 436, 1011–1016. ali, s., & farooqi, y.a. (2014). effect of work overload on job satisfaction, effect of job satisfaction on employee performance and employee engagement: a case of public sector university of gujranwala division. internal journal of multidisciplinary science and engineering, 5(8), 23–30. alrawahi, s., sellgren, s.f., altouby, s., alwahaibi, n., & brommels, m. (2020). the application of herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation to job satisfaction in clinical laboratories in omani hospitals. journal of heliyon, 6(9), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04829 alshery, w.b.r., ahmad, f.b., & al-swidi, a.k. (2015). the moderating effect of role ambiguity on relationship of job satisfaction, training and leadership with employee performance. international journal of business administration, 6(2), 30–41. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijba.v6n2p30 apolinário-hagen, j., groenewold, s.d., fritsche l., kemper j., krings l., & salewski, c. (2017). die gesundheit fernstudierender stärken. prävention und gesundheitsförderung, 13, 151–158. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11553-017-0620-3 asan, j., & wirba, v. (2017). academic staff job satisfaction in saudi arabia: a case study of academic institutions in the eastern province of saudi arabia. research on humanities and social sciences, 7(2), 73–89. azzahra, s., ilmi, z., & wijaya, a. (2021). the influence of role ambiguity, job stress and leadership on job satisfaction and employee turnover at pt. bank bri syariah samarinda. saudi journal of business and management studies, 6(1), 15–23. https://doi.org/10.36348/sjbms.2021.v06i01.003 bacharach, s.b., bamberger, p.r., & conley, s.c. (1990). work processes, role conflict, and role overload: the case of nurses and engineers in the public sector. work and occupations, 17(2), 199–229. https://doi.org/10.1177/0730888490017002004 badri, s.k.z., & yunus, w.m.a. (2021). the relationship between academic vs. family/personal role conflict and malaysian students’ psychological wellbeing during covid-19 lockdown. journal of further higher education, 46(1), 76–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877x.2021.1884210 bakker, a.b., & wang, y. (2019). self-undermining behaviour at work: evidence of construct and predictive validity. international journal of stress management, 27(3), 241–251. https://doi.org/10.1037/str0000150 bryman, a., & bell, e. (2011). business research methods (3rd edn.). oxford university press. cook, j.d., hepworth, s.j., wall, t.d., & warr, t.d. (1981). the experience of work: a compendium of 249 measures and their use. academic press. crescenzo, p. (2016). an ancient theory for a current problem: review of the book healthy work: stress, productivity and the construction of working life. journal of health and social sciences, 1(3), 287–292. daniel, c.o. (2019). effects of job stress on employee’s performance. international journal of business, management and social research, 6(2), 375–382. https://doi.org/10.18801/ijbmsr.060219.40 de oliveira barbosa, m.l., pires, a., & dwyer, t. (2018). higher education, development, and inequality in brazil and south africa. journal of changing societies & personalities, 2(4), 366–392. https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2018.2.4.052 ee, m.j.y.c., teoh, w.m.y., & yen, y.y. (2017). role conflict, role ambiguity and role overload: the strains of work-family conflict. the social science, 12(9), 1566–1576. fila, m.j. (2016). the job demands, control, support model: where are we now? tkm international journal for research in management, 1(1), 15–44. gandhi, n. (2017). relationship between occupational stress and job satisfaction. international journal of advanced educational research, 2(6), 255–257. habte, a. (2016). a comparative study of the impact of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards on employees motivation between public and private commercial banks in ethiopia. addis ababa university college of business and economics, department of public administration and development management. retrieved from http://213.55.95.56/bitstream/handle/123456789/8544/melaku%20habte.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y haholongan, r., & kusdinar, d. (2019). the influence of role conflict and role overload to job satisfaction: advances in economics, business and management research. 6th annual international conference on management research (vol. 132, pp. 89–92). aicmar. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340590884_the_influence_of_role_conflict_and_role_overload_to_job_satisfaction/fulltext/5e92ffe84585150839d69a66/the-influence-of-role-conflict-and-role-overload-to-job-satisfaction.pdf?origin=publication_detail hussain, n., & khalid, k. (2011). impact of karasek’s job demand control model on the job satisfaction of the employees of nadra. interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, 3(5), 566–594. international labour organisation. (2020). managing work-related psychosocial risks during the covid-19 pandemic. retrieved from https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---safework/documents/instrumentalmaterial/wcms_748638.pdf jawabri, a., alarmotia, a., & mohammed, m.a. (2019). job stress and satisfaction among academic staffs in public universities: an empirical study in the united arab emirates (uae). journal of management science letters, 9(7), 973–986. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2019.4.007 karimi, r., omar, b.z., alipour, f., & karimi, z. (2014). the influence of role overload, role conflict and role ambiguity on occupational stress among nurses in selected iranian hospitals. international journal of asian social science, 4(1), 34–40. karya, d.f., zahara, m.y., anshori, t., & herlambang, t. (2021). work-family conflict and organisational commitment of female lecturers of nahdlatul ulama university of surabaya: an investigation of job satisfaction as a mediator using partial lease square. 3rd international conference on environmental geography and geography education (vol. 747, no. 1, pp. 12–110). ulama. retrieved from https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/747/1/012110/pdf khamisa, n., oldenburg, b., peltzer, k., & ilic, d. (2015). work related stress, burnout, job satisfaction and general health of nurses. international journal of environmental research and public health, 12(1), 652–666. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120100652 lashkariani, s.o. (2020). the influence of job stress on job satisfaction among female lecturers. international journal of innovative science and research technology, 5(4), 1263–1268. maden-eyiusta, c. (2021). role conflict, role ambiguity and proactive behaviours: does flexible role orientation moderate the mediating impact of engagement? the international journal of human resource management, 32(13), 2829–2855. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2019.1616590 malik, a., björkqvist, k., & österman, k. (2017). factors associated with occupational stress amongst university teachers in pakistan. journal of education, health and community psychology, 6(2), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.12928/jehcp.v6i2.7047 maree, k. (2016). first steps in research (2nd edn.). van schaik. mark, g., & smith, a.p. (2018). a qualitative study of stress in university staff. advances in social science research journal, 5(2), 238–247. https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.52.4195 mittal, m., & bhakar, s.s. (2018). examining the impact of role overload on job stress, job satisfaction and job performance: a study among married working women in banking sector. international journal of management studies, 2(7), 2231–2528. https://doi.org/10.18843/ijms/v5i2(7)/01 odetunde, o.j. (2021). job demand-control-support model: a study of nigerian contract bank employees. journal of acta universitatis danubius audoe, 17(1), 54–69. oforka, t.o. (2020). impact of educational qualification on work stress among academic administrators of universities in south-east nigeria. journal of engineering and applied sciences, 15(10), 2156–2164. ordóñez, l.d., benson, l., & pittarello, a. (2015). john wiley & sons, ltd. time-pressure perception and decision making. in g. keren & g. wu (eds.), the wiley blackwell handbook of judgment and decision making (pp. 517–542). orgambídez, a., & almeida, h. (2020). exploring the link between structural empowerment and job satisfaction through the mediating effect of role stress: a cross-sectional questionnaire study. international journal of nursing studies, 109, 103672. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2020.103672 parker, d.f., & decotiis, t.a. (1983). organisational determinants of job stress. organisational behaviour and human performance, 32(2), 160–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(83)90145-9 phama, h.v., & nguyen, h.t.h. (2020). the effect of motivation and hygiene factors on employees’ work motivation in textile and apparel enterprises. management science letters, 10, 2837–2844. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2020.4.025 portoghese, i., galletta, m., leiter, m.p., finco, g., d’aloja, e., & campagna, m. (2020). job demand-control-support latent profiles and their relationships with interpersonal stressors, job burnout, and intrinsic work motivation. international journal of environment research, public health, 17(24), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17249430 pozo-antúnez, j.j., ariza-montes, a., fernández-navarro, f., & molina-sánchez, h. (2018). effect of a job demand-control-social support model on accounting professionals’ health perception. international journal of environmental research and public health, 15(11), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15112437 rizzo, j., house, r., & lirtzman, s. (1970). role conflict and ambiguity in complex organisations. administrative science quarterly, 15(2), 150–163. https://doi.org/10.2307/2391486 sakuraya, a., shimazu, a., eguchi, h., kamiyama, k., hara, y., namba, k., & kawakami, n. (2017). job crafting, work engagement, and psychological distress among japanese employees: a cross-sectional study. journal of bio psychosocial medicine, 11(6), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13030-017-0091-y sandmeier, a., heim, k.d., windlin, d., & krause, a. (2017). negative beanspruchung von schweizer lehrpersonen trends von 2006 bis 2014. [negative stress on swiss teachers. trends from 2006 to 2014]. schweizerische zeitschrift für bildungswissenschaften, 39(1), 75–94. https://doi.org/10.24452/sjer.39.1.5000 sanjeev, m.a. & surya, a.v. (2016). two factor of motivation and satisfaction: an empirical verification. journal of annals of data science, 3(2), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40745-016-0077-9 schulz, j. (2013). the impact of role conflict, role ambiguity and organizational climate on the job satisfaction of academic staff in research-intensive universities in the uk. higher education research & development, 32(3), 464–478. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2012.680209 singh, m.m. (2019). role of job satisfaction. international journal of management studies, 5(4), 57–60. https://doi.org/10.18843/ijms/v6i4/08 skiadas, g. (2020). motivation – hygiene theory: greek teacher’s attitude towards maintenance factors and motivators in school environment. scientific educational journal, 8(1), 1–329. stankovska, g., angelkoska, s., osmani, f., & grncarovska, s.p. (2017). job motivation and job satisfaction among academic staff in higher education. journal of current business and economics driven discourse and education: perspectives from around the world bces conference books, 15, 159–166. tastan, s.b. (2016). predicting job strain with psychological hardiness, organisational support, job control and work overload: an evaluation of karasek’s jdcs model. postmodern openings, 7(1), 107–130. https://doi.org/10.18662/po/2016.0701.07 thakur, m., chandrasekaran, v., & guddattu, v. (2018). role conflict and psychological well-being in school teachers: a cross-sectional study from southern india. journal of clinical and diagnostic research, 12(7), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.7860/jcdr/2018/31776.11738 tjahjadi, k., & cahyadi, f.p. (2020). the influence of time pressure, role ambiguity, workload and lack of motivation on employee performance. journal of media bisnis, 12(2), 153–160. https://doi.org/10.34208/mb.v12i2.920 valkov, p., & peeva, k. (2020). stress among university teachers: an empirical research in bulgaria. trakia journal of sciences, 18(1), 257–266. https://doi.org/10.15547/tjs.2020.s.01.045 van de doef, m., & verhoeven, c. (2017). the job demand-control (-support) in the teaching context. in t.m. mclntyre, s.e. mclntyre, & d.j. francis (eds.), educator stress: an occupational health perspective (pp. 197–222). springer international publishing. viotti, s., & converso, d. (2016). relationship between job demands and psychological outcomes among nurses: does skill discretion matter? international journal of occupational medicine and environmental health, 29(3), 439–460. https://doi.org/10.13075/ijomeh.1896.00520 wei, s., shujuan, z., & qibo, h. (2011). resilience and social support as moderators of work stress of young teachers in engineering college. procedia engineering, 24, 856–860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2011.12.415 yousaf, s. (2020). dissection of herzberg’s two-factor theory to predict job satisfaction: empirical evidence from the telecommunication industry of pakistan. the lahore journal of business, 8(2), 85–128. https://doi.org/10.35536/ljb.2019.v8.v2.a4 zhang, s. (2020). workplace spirituality and unethical pro-organizational behavior: the mediating effect of job satisfaction. journal of business ethics, 161(4), 687–705. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3966-3 abstract introduction objectives research design results discussion limitations of the study and suggestions for future research conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) nelson gwamanda department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa bright mahembe department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa citation gwamanda, n., & mahembe, b. (2023). a confirmatory factor analytic study of an ethical climate measure in zimbabwe. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2184. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2184 original research a confirmatory factor analytic study of an ethical climate measure in zimbabwe nelson gwamanda, bright mahembe received: 15 nov. 2022; accepted: 10 mar. 2023; published: 30 may 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: a psychometrically sound ethical climate instrument helps in establishing the appropriate ethical values important for positive organisational outcomes. research purpose: the primary goal of the present study was to test the psychometric properties of the ethical climate questionnaire on a zimbabwean sample. motivation for the study: the ethical climate questionnaire (ecq) is one of the questionnaires used to measure ethical climate. there is a need to assess the reliability and construct validity of the ecq on a zimbabwean sample owing to the lack of studies on its psychometric properties in this setting. research design, approach and method: a quantitative design was adopted in this study. a non-probability sample consisting of 304 participants from selected security organisations was studied. the ecq was used to measure ethical climate and its reliability was determined by calculating cronbach alpha coefficients for each of the survey sub-scales. construct validity was assessed through confirmatory factor analyses (cfa). main findings: the ecq demonstrated a reasonable model fit. moderately high reliability coefficients were recorded on all the subscales of the ecq with the caring subscale having a cronbach alpha of 0.79, the law and code subscale, 0.86, rules, 0.85, 0.86 for instrumental and the independence subscale having 0.87. practical implications: the ecq has demonstrated acceptable reliability coefficients and the subscales are uni-dimensional. although most of the psychometric properties of the ecq are acceptable including the confirmatory factor analysis of the ecq, the underlying theoretical structure might have to be re-examined for its alignment with the values in the zimbabwean context. contribution/value-add: the study promotes the use of reliable and valid instruments in zimbabwe by confirming the psychometric properties of the ethical climate questionnaire. keywords: ethical climate; ethical climate questionnaire; reliability; confirmatory factor analysis; discriminant validity; construct validity. introduction ethical climate is described as a contextual factor reflecting an employee’s level of awareness of their moral obligation (wang & hsieh, 2012). it alludes to the beliefs and normative values shared by employees over and above their acceptance of the vision and mission of their employing organisation (treviño & weaver, 1998). in other words, the ethical climate stipulates a set of shared formal and informal guidelines that govern the existence of ethical behaviour in an organisation (teresi et al., 2019). the ethical climate, by implication, arguably provides the written and unwritten expectations that have a considerable influence on the employer–employee relationship. in recent years, researchers and practitioners have focused their attention on ethical climate because of its perceived influence on individual and organisational outcomes (demirtas et al., 2017; newman et al., 2017). an ethical climate propagates the development of trustworthiness among employees, which results in the exhibition of positive attitudes towards the organisation (farouk & jabeen, 2018). several studies detail the benefits of an ethical organisational climate (farouk & jabeen, 2018; teresi et al., 2019). ethical climate has been found to have a positive influence on proactive customer service performance when employees go the extra mile in assisting customers which, in turn, increases customer satisfaction (moon & choi, 2014). it has been linked with work attitudes including job satisfaction and organisational commitment (abou hashish, 2017; numminen et al., 2015), organisational citizenship behaviours (pagliaro et al., 2018), trust in supervisors (newman et al., 2017), perceived organisational support and positive affect (hsieh & wang, 2016), organisational identification (deconinck, 2011) and intention to participate in training and career commitment (kang et al., 2011). hsieh and wang (2016) report a strong negative relationship between ethical climate and organisational deviance mediated by job satisfaction and perceived organisational support. wolmarans (2014) submits that ethical climate is negatively linked to counterproductive work behaviours such as lax performance, tardiness, absenteeism and turnover, which may all be linked to organisational performance. ethical climate has also been reported to have a strong negative relationship with corruption (gorsira et al., 2018), an important organisational outcome given the rise in cases of unethical workplace conduct. numminen et al. (2015) document that ethical climate negatively affects turnover intentions by reducing conflict and role ambiguity among employees. in addition, an ethical climate is likely to enhance employee job performance (shin et al., 2015; teresi et al., 2019). the positive outcomes associated with ethical climate foster competitive advantage and return on investment for the organisation. ethical climate mediates the relationship between leadership style and organisational outcomes, for example, ethical leadership and the financial performance of organisations (shin et al., 2015), benevolent leadership and employees’ organisational citizenship behaviour (ghosh, 2015), instrumental leadership and employees’ work attitudes (mulki et al., 2009) and authoritarian leadership and team identification (cheng & wang, 2015). derin et al. (2022) put out that ethical climate plays a mediatory role between knowledge sharing and innovative work behaviour. evidence from otaye-ebede et al. (2020) shows that ethical climate also mediates the relationship between workplace spirituality and organisational citizenship behaviours and innovative workplace behaviours. ethical climate attenuates or accentuates how individual and team level constructs affect employee attitudes and behaviour. overall, studies demonstrate the importance of ethical climate in influencing employee attitudes and organisational success. despite the importance of ethical climate in ensuring organisational success, studies to validate its measurement in the zimbabwean context are relatively scarce. it is important to note that despite a number of instruments developed to measure ethical climate, none of them has been validated for use in zimbabwe. these include, but are not limited to, the following: the ethical climate questionnaire (ecq) (victor & cullen, 1987); the global ethical climate six-item scale developed by mayer et al. (2010); the ethical climate index arnaud (2010); schwepker’s (2013) scale; the ethical work climate (ewc) scale developed by babin et al. (2000); a four-item measure developed by jaramillo et al. (2013), a two-item measure developed by stewart et al. (2011), a six-item scale developed by luria and yagil (2008) and the hospital ethical climate scale (schluter et al., 2008) among others. while several instruments have been developed, the ecq developed by victor and cullen (1988) is one of the most widely used measures. the ecq was originally developed in the usa and tested on a sample of mba university students as well as managers and other employees in the manufacturing sector (victor & cullen, 1988). it was further tested for its factor structure and transportability in various settings that include the usa, japan, singapore and china (shafer, 2015) as well as australia (shacklock et al., 2011). in the south african context, the measure has been used in several studies to measure ethical climate among other variables (wolmarans, 2014). these studies did not specifically assess the reliability and construct validity of the measure. there are no studies that have been conducted in the zimbabwean context using the ecq. objectives the main objective of the study was to determine the reliability and construct validity of the 26-item ecq by victor and cullen (1988) on a zimbabwean sample. the specific objectives of the study were to confirm the: reliability of the ecq by computing the cronbach alpha reliability coefficients for each of the subscales construct validity of the ecq by testing the firstand second-order model goodness-of-fit using confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) discriminant validity of the ecq. contribution to the field ethical climate has a significant influence on employees’ work engagement where it acts as an organisational resource to bring about positive change and thereby increase organisational effectiveness (mitonga-monga & cilliers, 2015). the presence of an ethical climate reflects an organisation’s processes, procedures, policies and practices, with moral consequences that may help employees in the execution of their daily work (mitonga-monga, 2018). an ethical caring climate in particular is believed to be associated with lower organisational deviance (pagliaro et al., 2018; tastan, 2019). of importance to observe is that ethical climates reflect the climate that is adopted by management as it is leaders who define what ethical behaviour is and how ethical issues should be handled within organisations. the importance of ethical climate in influencing positive organisational outcomes highlights the importance of the measurement thereof. the ecq was identified as a widely used measures of ethical climate. however, this measure was developed in america. it was therefore deemed necessary to ascertain the reliability and validity of the instrument within the zimbabwean context. this study adds to the body of knowledge on the psychometric properties of the ecq. ethical climate theory and the ethical climate questionnaire ethical climates arise when leaders develop organisational policies and practices that exert significant influence on the ethical decision making of organisational members and their attitudes and behaviours at work (schminke et al., 2007; simha & cullen, 2012). the origins of ethical climate theory are attributed to victor and cullen (1988) who defined an ethical climate as the prevailing perceptions of typical organisational practices and procedures that have ethical content. it is characterised by the processes through which organisations implement and enforce ethical rules and policies to stimulate ethical behaviours and punish unethical behaviours (schwepker, 2013). olson (1998) suggested that ethical climate creates an environment that enhances ethical decision making and behaviours. arnaud (2010) broadens the definition of ethical climate by defining it as a moral concept that reflects the content and strength of the prevalent ethical values, norms, attitudes, feelings and behaviours of the members of a social system. arnaud (2010) developed the theoretical model of ewc as a critique of victor and cullen’s (1987, 1988) framework, questioning whether it was ‘comprehensive enough to capture the true breadth of the ethical climate construct’. while comprising the moral reasoning dimension that formed the basis of victor and cullen’s model, arnaud also incorporated dimensions of rest’s (1984, 1986) four-component cognitive development model, these being the dimensions of moral sensitivity, moral character, and collective moral motivation. however, arnaud’s model lacks sufficient empirical support partly because of the popularity of victor and cullen’s conceptualisation. victor and cullen (1987) developed a theoretical stratum of ethical climate that is grounded in kohlberg’s (1984) theory of cognitive moral development that proposed that individual moral development is personand context-specific. victor and cullen (1987) adapted this model to an organisational setting (buchan, 2009) that comprises two dimensions. according to this model, the first dimension is a classification of the ethical climate based on the moral development of the work group, these being egoism, benevolence and principled. furthermore, there are three loci of analysis that comprise the second dimension, these being the individual, local and cosmopolitan. when these dimensions are cross-classified together they form nine hypothetical approaches to ethical climate (victor & cullen, 1987). this nine-cell typology (victor & cullen, 1987) of ethical climates determines the condition of an organisation’s ethical climate and how ethical issues are dealt with. the individual locus of analysis identifies the sources of analysis as residing in the individual such as self-interest (grobler, 2016; victor & cullen, 1988). at the individual level of the criterion principle, morals are self-chosen (one’s morals), which is the principle loci. the local locus of analysis on the other hand identifies the sources of analysis as pertaining to the organisational collective (e.g. company profit). the basis of morals is founded in the organisation at the local locus (its rules and regulations). (principle loci). the cosmopolitan locus of analysis considers those outside the organisation as social responsibility (grobler, 2016; victor & cullen, 1988). moreover, the source of morals is found outside the organisation (laws and professional codes of ethics) at the cosmopolitan locus. in the context of the egoism criterion, an individual locus of analysis shows a climate that upholds self-interest while the local level of analysis considers the organisation’s interests (profit). finally, the cosmopolitan locus of analysis considers society’s best interest (efficiency) (victor & cullen, 1988; wyld & jones, 1997). benevolence aligns with the friendship at the individual level, team interest at the local level and the social responsibility at the cosmopolitan level as indicated in table 1. table 1: ethical climate types. as a result of insufficient reliable empirical support uniformly across all the nine theoretical ethical climate types, victor and cullen (1988) refined the original nine types into five climates for which empirical support was found (victor & cullen, 1988). the five types of ethical climates are caring, law and code, rules, instrumental and independence (martin & cullen, 2006; victor & cullen, 1988). a caring climate is characterised by an environment in which employees are sincerely interested in the well-being of each other (nafei, 2015). this genuine and sincere attitude is directed towards individuals within and outside the organisation who are likely to be affected by their decisions. the caring dimension is associated with the benevolence ethical criteria at the individual level (nafei, 2015). a law and code climate entails a context where employees are expected to abide by the laws, codes and professional standards of the organisation and government (nafei, 2015). the law and code dimension is associated with the principle criteria at the cosmopolitan level (grobler, 2016). a rules climate is associated with employees strictly obeying the rules and procedures of the organisation or their subunit (victor & cullen, 1988). this dimension is associated with the principled ethical criteria at a local level (victor & cullen, 1988). an instrumental climate focuses on the fulfilment of individual interests. it pertains to the extent to which employees look out for their self-interest in relation to company interest and that results in it being regarded as a negative type of climate (nafei, 2015). an independence climate allows employees to follow and be guided by their own moral beliefs when making decisions (nafei, 2015). attention is given to the individual’s convictions and personal morality. an independence climate is associated with principal criteria at the individual level (nafei, 2015). while the aforementioned suggests distinctions between typologies, organisations generally encompass multiple climate types because of the fact that they comprise diverse facets. furthermore, victor and cullen (1987, 1988) stress that the climate type reflected by an organisation is linked to the ethical dilemmas typically faced in that organisation. the ethical climate questionnaire the ecq was developed by victor and cullen (1987) as a measure of ethical organisational climate and based on the typology presented here as established by theory. barnett and vaicys (2000) describe the ecq ‘as a typology based on ethical philosophy as well as the sociological theory of reference groups’. the ecq assesses the perceptions of organisational members on how they deal with ethical choices (appelbaum et al., 2005). as indicated, the original ecq incorporated nine ethical climate types established by theory. this version required respondents to specify how precisely how each of 26 items describes their work climate on a six-point likert-type response scale (victor & cullen, 1987). the ecq thus regards respondents as observers, reporting on but not evaluating the perceived organisational climate. ten additional items were added to the scale when cullen et al. (1993) performed a review, which resulted in very strong reliability and validity. cullen et al. (1993, p. 673) reported that the 36-item version of the questionnaire yielded seven climate types as the benevolence, climates of friendship and team interest loaded on the same factor thereby prompting the authors to conclude that ‘the questionnaire lacks the precision necessary to discriminate between these two climates’. in addition, social responsibility was found to be a discrete climate in the same study. the 26-item version was also chosen because it yielded more ethical climates that are easier to interpret than the 36-item version as argued by grobler (2016). while limitations have been identified in victor and cullen’s (1987, 1988) conceptualisation and framework of measurement (salamon & mesko, 2016), the ecq remains a preferred measure of ethical climate because it has been widely validated (dark & rix, 2015). this provides a sound basis for the comparison of findings between studies. the 26-item version of the ecq evaluating five climate types was used in this study. the scale assesses organisational climate against the five dimensions of caring, law and code, rules, instrumental and independence. scale items are accompanied by six-point likert-type response scale ranging from disagree strongly (1) to agree strongly (6). victor and cullen (1988) found evidence of acceptable reliability for the 26-item ecq. the reliability coefficients ranged from 0.73 to 0.81, which are generally acceptable except for the independence dimension whose cronbach’s alpha was 0.65 (tabachnick & fidel, 2007). wimbush et al. (1997) confirmed these findings pertaining to the reliability for the dimensions, which ranged from α = 0.69 to α = 0.92. the independence dimension also had a relatively lower reliability (α = 0.69) that was, however, sufficient to establish internal consistency. victor and cullen (1988) reported evidence of convergence validity in the parameter estimates and t-values of the ecq. the measure was developed in the usa and typically utilised in japan, singapore, china and australia. while the psychometric properties have been established for these countries, evidence of use in african countries such as zimbabwe is not available. this study, therefore, assessed the reliability and construct validity of the ecq on a sample of participants from selected organisations in zimbabwe. research design the purpose of this study was to determine the psychometric properties of the ecq within the zimbabwean context. in order to realise the objectives of the study, a quantitative research design was employed. data were gathered by administering the ecq, which is a self-administered survey, to employees within various zimbabwean organisations. sample the population was made up of 5000 private security employees drawn from 10 companies. the overall sample of the study consisted of 304 participants drawn from selected security organisations in zimbabwe. the response rate was 76%. females constituted 28.9% while males constituted 69.9%. the majority (42.4%) fell in the 31–40 age category and 28.9% fell within the 41–50 age category. all of the respondents were black africans. a total of 89.1% of the respondents had an ordinary level certificate (equivalent of grade 11) as their highest level of education. a total of 64.5% of the participants were permanent employees while 24.7% were on contract. measuring instrument ethical climate was measured using the 26-item version of the ecq (victor & cullen, 1988). the questionnaire has five subscales for measuring caring; 7 items, law and code; 4 items, rules; 4 items; 7 items for instrumental and independence with 4 items. while evidence could not be found that the ecq had been utilised in studies within zimbabwe, the internal reliability of the subscales had been determined within the south african context. these ranged from α = 0.79–0.87 as reported by wolmarans (2014). example items are as follows: caring: ‘what is best for everyone in the company is a major consideration here’; law and code: ‘people are expected to comply with the law and professional standards over and above other considerations’; rules: ‘it is very important to follow the company’s rules and procedures here’; and on independence: ‘in this company, people are expected to follow their own personal and moral beliefs’. an example item for the instrumental subscale is: ‘in this organisation, people protect their own interests above all else’. research procedure and ethical considerations the questionnaires were distributed face-to-face through the human resources management (hrm) and operations units of the organisations. these two departments (hrm and operations) closely assisted in the study because they had easy access to all the employees in the organisations. convenience sampling was used and only willing participants took part. the participants were given 2 weeks to complete the questionnaires. the questionnaire was in english, and most of the employees were proficient in english as the minimum recruitment criteria are five ordinary-level subjects, which include english. the researcher personally collected the questionnaires directly from the participants to ensure confidentiality. participants were assured that their responses would be treated with anonymity and that no names would be revealed in the study. informed consent was obtained from the respondents before they completed the questionnaires and voluntary participation in the study was emphasised. statistical analysis the following analyses were conducted in this study: (1) item analysis, to determine the reliability of the scales using the reliability procedure in the spss program (corrected-item statistics, inter-item correlations and scale-if-item is deleted); (2) exploratory factor analysis (efa) (using the principal axis factoring method and direct oblimin rotation), to ascertain scale dimensionality; and (3) structural equation modelling (sem) to determine the construct validity of the ecq. structural equation modelling structural equation modelling is a collection of statistical techniques that allow a set of relationships representing causal hypotheses between one or more independent and dependent variables to be evaluated (tabachnick & fidell, 2013). it is a large sample technique that helps in explaining the patterns of covariances found among variables in terms of hypothesised relationships suggested by the measurement thereof and structural models (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). structural equation modelling is conducted to, firstly, determine if the measure reflects the intended constructs through cfa and to evaluate the measurement properties of psychological measures. secondly, sem allows for the specification and testing of path models. lastly, sem simultaneously assesses the quality of measurement and examines the predictive relationships among constructs by performing confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis at the same time. structural equation modelling was used to perform a confirmatory factor analysis on the observed inter-item covariance matrix using robust maximum likelihood estimation. confirmatory factor analysis the cfa is a technique by which hypotheses or theories relating to the structure underlying a set of variables are tested (pallant, 2016). the cfa serves to confirm whether a set of measures (the observed data) are related to specific latent variables according to the form described in the measurement model (blaikie, 2003) by producing a series of fit indices. these indices allow the researcher to establish how well the measurement model with its parameter estimates fits the observed data. the measurement model describes how the indicator variables are meant to reflect the specific underlying latent variables that they were earmarked to represent. the goodness-of-fit of the measurement model was tested with the cfa technique available in lisrel 8.80 (jöreskog & sörbom, 2006). in cfa, the number of factors or latent variables and the pattern of indicator-factor loadings are specified in advance. the pre-specified factor solution is evaluated in terms of how well it reproduces the sample covariance matrix of the measured variables (brown, 2006). the evaluation of the ethical climate questionnaire first-order model the evaluation of the ecq cfa models was based on the following indices: the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea); root mean squared residual (rmr); the goodness-of-fit index (gfi); normed fit index (nfi); non-normed fit index (nnfi); comparative fit index (cfi); incremental fit index (ifi) and the relative fit index (rfi). the rmsea is the most informative fit indices that tests for the closeness of fit in the null hypothesis (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000; schumacker & lomax, 2016). the rmsea values below 0.05 are suggestive of a good fit; those between 0.05 and under 0.08 suggest reasonable fit; values between 0.08 and 0.10 denote mediocre fit while values > 0.10 indicate poor fit (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). the rmr presents the average value of the difference between the sample covariance (variance) and a fitted (model-implied) covariance (variance). in other words, it is a summary measure of fitted residuals (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000; hair et al., 2010). the gfi depicts how closely the model comes to perfectly reproducing the observed covariance matrix. the gfi is usually recommended as the most reliable measure of the model fit (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). the values of the gfi greater than 0.90 are usually considered as indicating an acceptable fit (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). for model comparative purposes, the rfi; ifi; the bentler-bonett nnfi; the bentler–bonett nfi and the cfi (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000; schumacker & lomax, 2016) are recommended. values greater than 0.90 are usually regarded as acceptable (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). ethical considerations the researcher received ethical clearance from the human and social sciences ethics committee of the university of the western cape to conduct the study. the researcher was granted permission from the organisations from which participants were drawn. results missing values missing values were addressed through the use of multiple imputations (jöreskog & sörbom, 2006). this technique allowed the missing values to be substituted with values derived from averages with the aid of simulation (jöreskog & sörbom, 2006; rubin, 1987). the final sample size was 304; no cases were deleted. item analysis using the spss version 28 (spss inc., 2021), item and dimensional analyses were performed on the items of the ecq. all of the internal consistency coefficients of the ecq were above the acceptable cut-off level (α > 0.70) (nunnally & bernstein, 1994) (see table 2). the five ecq subscales were found to be uni-dimensional and the variance explained by each of the factors was generally above 50% (see table 2). table 2: reliability and exploratory factor analysis output for the ethical climate questionnaire dimensions. evaluating the fit of the measurement model the cfa was carried out on the items of the ecq through lisrel 8.80 (du toit et al., 2008) to evaluate the construct validity of the measurement models. the ecq measurement model was considered as an exogenous variable and list-wise deletion and the robust maximum likelihood estimation method were utilised to produce the required estimates. the normalised data set was used for subsequent analyses. goodness-of-fit of the first order and second-order measurement models the two measurement models for ecq tested in this study show similar levels of fit regarding the cfi, nfi, nnfi, ifi and rfi. both first order and second-order measurement models indicate reasonable model fit. in terms of the rmsea, the first order shows a value of 0.0771, while the second-order measurement models show a value of 0.0768. in terms of the srmr the first-order measurement model shows a value of 0.0707 while the second-order model shows a value of 0.0720. the gfi values for all the models missed the 0.90 cut-off (see table 3). table 3: goodness-of-fit indices obtained for the ethical climate questionnaire first-order and second-order measurement models. parameter estimates the unstandardised gamma matrix shows the strength of the relationship and influence of the exogenous latent variable (ethical climate) on its manifest variables. the parameters are significant (p < 0.05) if t-values are ≥│1.96│ (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). the t-values show that the dimensions are significant indicators of the ethical climate higher-order factor, as the t-values are greater than 1.96 except independence with 1.70. the results are shown in table 4. table 4: unstandardised gamma matrix. table 5: inter-correlations between latent ethical climate questionnaire dimensions, mean and standard deviations (n = 304). table 6: completely standardised factor loadings lambda-x (ethical climate questionnaire, n = 304). table 7: power assessment for the structural model for the tests of exact and close fit. inter-correlations between latent ethical climate questionnaire dimensions the inter-correlations among the five latent ecq dimensions are presented in table 3. the intercorrelations were within reasonable limits and not above 0.90 as this could indicate multicollinearity (pallant, 2016; tabachnick & fidell, 2013), except for the independence dimension, which correlated below 0.30 with the other dimensions. power assessment power assessment was conducted using the rweb (1.03) translation of the sas syntax (preacher & coffman, 2006). this syntax is used to derive the power estimates for the tests of exact and close fit. in the this study, the inputs for the analysis comprised a significance level (a) of 0.05, a sample size of 304 and 146 degrees of freedom (see table 7). a reasonably large power value of 0.9995581 for the test of exact fit was obtained. the power of the test of close fit obtained was 0.99732, which was high implying that, in the conditions that characterised this specific study, one would reject approximately 99.7% of incorrect models thereby instilling some confidence in the model. discussion this study sought to assess the transportability of the 26-item ecq by victor and cullen (1988) by ascertaining its reliability and construct validity on a zimbabwean sample. the cronbach’s alpha values obtained indicate that the reliability coefficients for the five dimensions of the ecq were above the 0.70 threshold (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). when treated as a unidimensional scale, cronbach’s alpha coefficient was high (α = 0.90). this is completely in tandem with the high reliability coefficients obtained by wolmarans (2014) on a south african sample. the reliability coefficients are also consistent with those obtained by victor and cullen (1988) during the development of the scale in the usa using mba students as well as managers and other employees in the manufacturing sector. the cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranged from α = 0.73 to 0.81. the inter-correlations between the latent dimensions were above 0.50 except for the independence dimension, which correlated below 0.30 with the other dimensions. this indicates that it may not be a credible manifest variable of the ethical climate latent construct. according to cohen’s (1988) guidelines, correlations that are between 0.10 and 0.29 are small, between 0.30 and 0.49 are medium while those between 0.50 and 1.0 are large. the problems relating to the psychometric properties of the independence dimension might possibly be the reason why different researchers decided to reconceptualise its dimensions. although the reliability and dimensionality psychometric properties of the ecq are generally accepted, it is noteworthy to report that most studies that attempted to validate the use of the ecq in the african setting offered competing typologies that subsequently influenced the operationalisation of the instruments that the studies tested (elm & nichols, 1993; grobler, 2016). hence, there are few studies that tested the original ecq in the african setting (wolmarans, 2014). for example, grobler (2016) reported three overarching typologies that were originally inspired by the victor and cullen (1988) conceptualisation of ethical climate. the three types of ethical climate reported in this article are ethical work environment, instrumental and personal morality. these ethical climate typologies still need to be tested for alignment with the values in various international contexts. the present study was a bit limited in the sense that it intended to evaluate the psychometric properties of the victor and cullen (1988) 26-item version of the ecq. a void still exists as to whether the original typology fits best in the african contexts compared with competing models. the five ecq subscales were found to be unidimensional and accounted for more than 50% of the variance. in terms of construct validity, the firstand second-order models showed reasonable model fit to the data. the fit indices were surprisingly within the same range. these findings are consistent with the findings by wolmarans (2014) in the south african context. limitations of the study and suggestions for future research although the study was less skewed in terms of gender, the sample may not be representative of the zimbabwean sample given that the convenience sampling technique was used. this technique affects the generalisability of the findings. future research must also confirm if the independence dimension is a credible indicator of the ethical climate construct. if it is confirmed that the independence dimension is not a good indicator of the latent construct, this necessitates a reconsideration of the conceptualisation of the ethical climate underlying model that was originally defined by victor and cullen (1988). conclusion given the reliability coefficients, the item analyses and dimensional analyses output, which point to the fact that the scales are reliable and unidimensional, it can be concluded that the scale at least meets the minimum requirements for use in other settings. however, the preliminary construct validity as assessed by testing the structural and measurement models indicates that the fit indices show reasonable fit and that the independence subscale is not correlating well with the other dimensions. the gamma indices confirmed that the independence scale is not a significant indicator of the ethical climate latent construct. therefore, the original scale by victor and cullen (1988) can be used in zimbabwe but with caution in terms of the decisions based on the independence subscale. acknowledgements this article is partially based on the author’s phd in logistics at the university of the western cape, south africa, available here: http://hdl.handle.net/11394/8120. the authors acknowledge the time taken by the participants in order to take part in the study as well as the permission granted by the security companies that allowed their employees to participate in the study. competing interests the author(s) declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions n.g. was the project leader responsible for the data collection and article write-up, the project is based on his phd thesis; b.m. was responsible for the article write-up and statistical analyses. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the author, b.m. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abou hashish, e.a. (2017). relationship between ethical work climate and nurses’ perception of organisational support, commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intent. nursing ethics, 24(2), 151–166. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969733015594667 appelbaum, s.h., deguire, k.j., & lay, m. (2005). the relationship of ethical climate to deviant workplace behaviour. corporate governance, 5(4), 43–55. https://doi.org/10.1108/14720700510616587 arnaud, a. (2010). conceptualising and measuring ethical work climate: development and validation of the ethical climate index. business & society, 49(2), 345–358. https://doi.org/10.1177/0007650310362865 babin, b.j., boles, j.s., & robin, d.p. (2000). representing the perceived ethical work climate among marketing employees. journal of the academy of marketing science, 28(3), 345–358. https://doi.org/10.1177/0092070300283004 barnett, t., & vaicys, c. (2000). the moderating effect of individuals’ perceptions of ethical work climate on ethical judgments and behavioural intentions. journal of business ethics, 27(4), 351–362. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1006382407821 blaikie, n. (2003). analysing quantitative data. sage. brown, t.a. (2006). confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. the guilford press. buchan, n. (2009). the complexity of trust: cultural environments, trust, and trust development. in r. bhagat & r. steers (eds.), cambridge handbook of culture, organisations, and work (pp. 373–417). cambridge university press. cheng, m.y., & wang, l. (2015). the mediating effect of ethical climate on the relationship between paternalistic leadership and team identification: a team-level analysis in the chinese context. journal of business ethics, 129(3), 639–654. cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). hillside, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. cullen, j.b., victor, b., & bronson, j.w. (1993). the ethical climate questionnaire: an assessment of its development and validity. psychological reports, 73(2), 667–674. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1993.73.2.667 dark, d., & rix, m. (2015). back to the future: using the ethical climate questionnaire to understand ethical behaviour in not for profits. asia pacific journal of health management, 10(3), si22–si31. deconinck, j.b. (2011). the effects of leader-member exchange and organisational identification on performance and turnover among salespeople. journal of personal selling & sales management, 31(1), 21–34. https://doi.org/10.2753/pss0885-3134310102 demirtas, o., hannah, s.t., gok, k., arslan, a., & capar, n. (2017). the moderated influence of ethical leadership, via meaningful work, on followers’ engagement, organisational identification, and envy. journal of business ethics, 145(1), 183–199. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2907-7 derin, o.b., toker, k., & gorener, a. (2022). the relationship between knowledge sharing and innovative work behaviour: the mediating role of ethical climate. knowledge management research & practice, 20(4), 557–570. diamantopoulos, a., & siguaw, j.a. (2000). introducing lisrel: a guide for the uninitiated. sage. du toit, s., du toit, m., mels, g., & cheng, y. (2008). lisrel for windows: simplis syntax files. scientific software international. retrieved from http://www.ssicentral.com elm, d.r., & nichols, m.l. (1993). an investigation of the moral reasoning of managers. journal of business ethics, 12, 817–833. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00871663 farouk, s., & jabeen, f. (2018). ethical climate, corporate social responsibility and organisational performance: evidence from the uae public sector. social responsibility journal, 14(4), 737–752. ghosh, k. (2015). benevolent leadership in not-for-profit organisations: welfare orientation measures, ethical climate and organisational citizenship behaviour. leadership & organisation development journal, 36(5), 592–611. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-12-2013-0164 gorsira, m., steg, l., denkers, a., & huisman, w. (2018). corruption in organisations: ethical climate and individual motives. administrative sciences, 8(1), 4. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci8010004 grobler, a. (2016). an adapted measure of ethical climate in organisations – a southern african study. african journal of business ethics, 10(2), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.15249/10-2-111 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2010). multivariate data analysis (7th ed.). prentice-hall. hsieh, h.h., & wang, y.d. (2016). linking perceived ethical climate to organisational deviance: the cognitive, affective, and attitudinal mechanisms. journal of business research, 69(9), 3600–3608. jaramillo, f., mulki, j.p., & boles, j.s. (2013). bringing meaning to the sales job: the effect of ethical climate and customer demandingness. journal of business research, 66(11), 2301–2307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2012.03.013 jöreskog, k.g., & sörbom, d. (2006). an introduction to lisrel 8.80 for windows. retrieved from www.ssicentral.com/lisrel/techdocs/session1.pdf kang, d., stewart, j., & kim, h. (2011). the effects of perceived external prestige, ethical organisational climate, and leader-member exchange (lmx) quality on employees’ commitments and their subsequent attitudes. personnel review, 40(6), 761–784. kohlberg, l. (1984). essays on moral development, vol. 2: the psychology of moral development. harper & row. luria, g., & yagil, d. (2008). procedural justice, ethical climate and service outcomes in restaurants. international journal of hospitality management, 27(2), 276–283. martin, k.d., & cullen, j.b. (2006). continuities and extensions of ethical climate theory: a meta-analytic review. journal of business ethics, 69, 175–194. mayer, d.m., kuenzi, m., & greenbaum, r.l. (2010). examining the link between ethical leadership and employee misconduct: the mediating role of ethical climate. journal of business ethics, 95(suppl. 1), 7–16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0794-0 mitonga-monga, j. (2018). employees’ work engagement in a railway organisation: a perspective of ethical work climate and leadership behaviour. acta commercii, 18(1), 598. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v18i1.598 mitonga-monga, j., & cilliers, f. (2015). perceived ethical leadership in relation to employees’ organisational commitment in an organisation in the democratic republic of congo. african journal of business ethics, 10(1), 36–51. https://doi.org/10.15249/10-1-122 moon, h.k., & choi, b.k. (2014). how an organization’s ethical climate contributes to customer satisfaction and financial performance: perceived organizational innovation perspective. european journal of innovation management, 17(1), 85–106. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejim-03-2013-0020 mulki, j.p., jaramillo, j.f., & locander, w.b. (2009). critical role of leadership on ethical climate and salesperson behaviors. journal of business ethics, 86(2), 125–141. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-9839-4 nafei, w. (2015). the influence of ethical climate on job attitudes: a study on nurses in egypt. international business research, 8(2), 83. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v8n2p83 newman, a., round, h., bhattacharya, s., & roy, a. (2017). ethical climates in organisations: a review and research agenda. business ethics quarterly, 27(4), 475–512. https://doi.org/10.1017/beq.2017.23 numminen, o., leino-kilpi, h., isoaho, h., & meretoja, r. (2015). ethical climate and nurse competence–newly graduated nurses’ perceptions. nursing ethics, 22(8), 845–859. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969733014557137 nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory (3rd ed.). mcgraw-hill. olson, l.l. (1998). hospital nurses’ perceptions of the ethical climate of their work setting. image: journal of nursing scholarship, 30(4), 345–349. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1547-5069.1998.tb01331.x otaye-ebede, l., shaffakat, s., & foster, s. (2020). a multilevel model examining the relationships between workplace spirituality, ethical climate and outcomes: a social cognitive theory perspective. journal of business ethics, 166(3), 611–626. pagliaro, s., lo presti, a., barattucci, m., giannella, v.a., & barreto, m. (2018). on the effects of ethical climate(s) on employees’ behavior: a social identity approach. frontiers in psychology, 9(6), 960. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00960 pallant, j. (2016). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using spss program (6th ed.). mcgraw-hill education. preacher, k.j., & coffman, d.l. (2006, may). computing power and minimum sample size for rmsea [computer software]. retrieved from http://quantpsy.org/ rest, j.r. (1984). the major components of morality. in w. m. kurtines & j.l. gerwirtz (eds.), morality, moral behavior, and moral development (pp. 24–38). john wiley sons. rest, j.r. (1986). moral development: advances in research and theory. praeger. rubin, d.b. (1987). multiple imputation for nonresponse in surveys. john wiley & sons. salamon, t., & mesko, m. (2016). can an ethical work climate influence payment discipline? journal of industrial engineering and management, 9(1), 73–89. https://doi.org/10.3926/jiem.1537 schluter, j., winch, s., holzhauser, k., & henderson, a. (2008). nurses’ moral sensitivity and hospital ethical climate: a literature review. nursing ethics, 15(3), 304–321. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969733007088357 schminke, m., arnaud, a., & kuenzi, m. (2007). the power of ethical work climates. organisational dynamics, 36(2), 171–186. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2007.03.005 schumacker, r.e., & lomax, r.g. (2016). a beginner’s guide to structural equation modeling (4th ed.). routledge. schwepker, c.h. (2013). improving sales performance through commitment to superior customer value: the role of psychological ethical climate. journal of personal selling and sales management, 33(4), 389–402. https://doi.org/10.2753/pss0885-3134330403 shacklock, a., manning, m., & hort, l. (2011). ethical climate type, self-efficacy, and capacity to deliver ethical outcomes in public sector human resource management. journal of new business ideas & trends, 9(2), 34–49. shafer, w.e. (2015). ethical climate, social responsibility, and earnings management. journal of business ethics, 126(1), 43–60. shin, y., sung, s.y., choi, j.n., & kim, m.s. (2015). top management ethical leadership and firm performance: mediating role of ethical and procedural justice climate. journal of business ethics, 129(1), 43–57. simha, a., & cullen, j.b. (2012). ethical climates and their effects on organisational outcomes: implications from the past and prophecies for the future. source: academy of management perspectives, 26(4), 20–34. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2011.0 stewart, r., volpone, s.d., avery, d.r., & mckay, p. (2011). you support diversity, but are you ethical? examining the interactive effects of diversity and ethical climate perceptions on turnover intentions. journal of business ethics, 100(4), 581–593. tabachnick, b. g., & fidell, l. s. (2007). using multivariate statistics (5th ed.). allyn & bacon/pearson education. tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2013). using multivariate statistics (6th ed.). pearson. tastan, s. (2019, may 15–17). the impacts of perceived ethical climate and codes of ethics on employees’ deviant behaviors in organisations. 12th lumen international scientific conference. rethinking social action. core values in practice rsacvp 2019, iasi, romania, 9, 308–330. https://doi.org/10.18662/lumproc.177 teresi, m., pietroni, d.d., barattucci, m., giannella, v.a., & pagliaro, s. (2019). ethical climate(s), organizational identification, and employees’ behaviour. frontiers in psychology, 10(1356), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01356 treviño, l.k., & weaver, g.r. (1998). punishment in organisations; descriptive and normative perspectives. in m. schminke (ed.), managerial ethics: moral management of people and processes (pp. 99–114). lawrence erlbaum. victor, b., & cullen, j.b. (1987). a theory and measure of ethical climate in organisations. in w.c. frederick (ed.), research in corporate social performance and policy (pp. 51–71). jai press. victor, b., & cullen, j.b. (1988). the organisational bases of ethical work climates. administrative science quarterly, 33(1), 101–125. https://doi.org/10.2307/2392857 wang, y.d., & hsieh, h.h. (2012). toward a better understanding of the link between ethical climate and job satisfaction: a multilevel analysis. journal of business ethics, 105, 535–545. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0984-9 wimbush, j.c., shepard, j.m., & markham, s.e. (1997). an empirical examination of the multi-dimensionality of ethical climate in organisations. journal of business ethics, 16(1), 67–77. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1017962229330 wolmarans, j. (2014). the effect of core ethical values on ethical leadership, organisational justice, ethical climate and leader effectiveness. master thesis, stellenbosch university. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/86357 wyld, d.c., & jones, c.a. (1997). the importance of context: the ethical work climate construct and models of ethical decision making – an agenda for research. journal of business ethics, 16(4), 465–472. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1017980515603 2schurink.qxd denzin and lincoln (1998), two renowned scholars in qualitative research, are correct when they point out that a quiet methodological revolution has been taking place in the social sciences and humanities, resulting not only in a blurring of disciplinary boundaries but also in the mutual focus on an interpretive, qualitative approach to research and theory. qualitative research has a long and distinguished history in the intellectual enterprise. well known is the pioneer work in sociology undertaken by the “chicago school” in the 1920s and 1930s during which the importance of qualitative research for the study of human group life was established. in anthropology, during the same period, the path-breaking studies of boas, mead, benedict, bateson, evanspritchard, radcliffe-brown and malinowski outlined the execution of the fieldwork method, wherein the researcher/observer went to a foreign setting to study the customs and habits of another society and culture (cf. denzin & lincoln 1998). qualitative research soon invaded other social disciplines. the extent of this invasion of the social sciences and its related professional fields, and the host of textbooks, journals, web sites, international conferences, research monographs and readers that have consequently been published in the mid-1970s are nothing but remarkable! among the professional areas that have thus far responded enthusiastically to qualitative methods and theory are: anthropology, sociology, education, psychology, criminology and criminal justice, social work, health, human development, family studies, communications, information studies, gerontology, industrial psychology and organisational and management studies. merriam and associates (2002: xv) are correct when they conclude: “… qualitative research is an accepted methodology in all the social sciences and applied fields of practice”. in this special edition of the journal of industrial psychology that is devoted to qualitative studies undertaken by local industrial psychologists and other colleagues working in the management and organisational fields, it seems appropriate, if not necessary, (i) to take a brief look at the nature of qualitative research abroad, (ii) to take stock of the state of the art in south africa, and (iii) to obtain a sense of the status of qualitative research in the management and organisational field as well as south africans’ approach to qualitative research in these two areas. while this is a pleasant task, qualitative research’s longdistinguished history, the divergent disciplines, philosophies, theories and traditions that contributed to this research style over a century, and the current key issues, like its “double crisis”, namely the inclusion of the other and the legitimation of the field, make this a demanding undertaking. however, a few cautionary words are in order. first, in tackling these three tasks, it must be cautioned that the article can at best scratch the surface, resulting in a discussion that is far from exhaustive, and represents, in the final analysis, an incomplete discussion that at would best pave the way for hopefully more discussions of qualitative-related issues to appear in subsequent issues of the journal. second, while reference will inevitably be made to more philosophical dimensions of social research such as ontology and epistemology, the emphasis will be on methodology1. finally, although, methodological issues will be addressed, because of the constraints of an introductory article, it is not possible to deal with methodical and technical matters, such as data collection, and data analysis here2. international qualitative studies: some brief observations a brief overview of the literature on qualitative research reveals among others, as already indicated, (i) an increase in social science attention to qualitative research and its associated terms particularly over the past three decades, which has been exceptional since it resulted in a large variety of books and journals on qualitative research; and (ii) which has grown out of a wide range of intellectual and disciplinary traditions, resulting in its contemporary adherents not using a unified set of philosophies or methods. not unexpected, these developments have resulted in contemporary scholars not reaching consensus on what qualitative studies entail. in fact, “qualitative research” means different things to different people. while this state of affairs has surely complicated researchers’ decision to choose qualitative methods when embarking upon research, it has not prevented them from utilising these methods. but what are the key assumptions and characteristics of these studies? i will now briefly discuss core aspects of this type of research. willem j schurink guest editor social science research consultancy abstract this introduction to this special edition of the journal dealing with recent qualitative work undertaken by local industrial psychologists, sketch the nature of qualitative research globally, its position in south africa, and finally, the status of such research as applied to the management/organisational field abroad as well as in south africa. from this and the other articles it is clear that qualitative research is healthy in management related areas in south africa, but that local scholars have work on their hands to train promising researchers in this research style in order to sustain it and developing it further. opsomming hierdie inleiding tot die spesiale uitgawe van die tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur wat handel oor kwalitatiewe studies wat deur plaaslike bedryfsielkundiges onderneem is, skets die aard van globale kwalitatiewe navorsing, die stand van die tipe navorsing in suid-afrika, en, ten slotte, die stand van hierdie tipe navorsing in die bestuurs-/organisasieveld in sowel die buiteland as plaaslik.vanuit hierdie artikel en die ander bydraes is dit duidelik dat kwalitatiewe navorsing organisasie verwante areas in suid-afrika gesond is maar dat werk op plaaslike geleerdes wag om belowende navorsers in hierdie navorsingstyl op te lei ten einde dit te handhaaf en verder te ontwikkel. qualitative research in management and organisational studies with reference to recent south african research requests for copies should be addressed to: w shurink, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 2 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (3), 2-14 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (3), 2-14 1 readers interested in these and other dimensions need to consult the various excellent works that are available (cf. in management research and excellent epistemological source is johnson and duberley’s understanding management research. an introduction to epistemology (2000), dimensions of qualitive research). 2 a number of excellent textbooks dealing with specific decision taking steps in research generally and organisational qualitive specifically are available (regarding management research methods, recent examples are: gill and johnson (2002), lee (1999), gummesson, (2000), symbol and cassell (1998). explaining qualitative research although sharing an anti-positivistic set of basic beliefs or paradigms3, qualitative researchers hold different perspectives, based on their worldviews, particularly with regard to ontology and epistemology, i.e. what should be researched and what scientific truth entails. this implies that the term “qualitative research” means different things to different people (cf. strauss & corbin, 1990). hence, it is difficult to describe qualitative research in a way that will satisf y everybody. the following views of t wo prominent scholars illustrate some of the differences as well as key commonalities of qualitative research: � “[q]ualitative research is: (i) grounded in a philosophical position which is broadly interpretivist in the sense that it is concerned with how the social world is interpreted, understood, experienced or produced. whilst different versions of qualitative research might understand or approach these elements in different ways (for example, focusing on social meanings, or interpretations, or practices, or discourses, or processes, or constructions) all will see at least some of these as meaningful elements in a complex – possibly multi-layered – social world; (ii) based on methods of data generation which are flexible and sensitive to the social context in which data are produced (rather than rigidly standardized or structured, or removed from ‘real life’ or ’natural’ social context, as in some forms of experimental method); and (iii) based on methods of analysis and explanation building which involve understandings of complexity, detail and context. qualitative research aims to produce rounded understandings on the basis of rich, contextual, and detailed data. there is more emphasis on ‘holistic’ forms of analysis and explanation in this sense, than on charting surface patterns, trends and correlations. qualitative research usually does use some form of quantification, but statistical forms of analysis are not seen as central” (mason 1996, p. 4). � “we use qualitative research as an umbrella term to refer to several research strategies that share certain characteristics. the data collected have been termed soft, that is, rich in description of people, places, and conversations, and not easily handed by statistical procedures. research questions are not framed by operationalizing variables; rather, they are formulated to investigate topics in all their complexity, in context. while people conducting qualitative research may develop a focus as they collect data, they do not approach the research with specific questions to answer or hypotheses to test. they also are concerned with understanding behavior from the subject’s own frame of reference. external causes are of secondary importance. they tend to collect their data through sustained contact with people in settings where subjects normally spend their time – classrooms, cafeterias, teacher’s lounges, dormitories, street corners” (bogdan & biklen, 1998, p. 2). some of the differences and commonalities are also reflected in the concepts and terms found in the field of qualitative research, as shown by the ensuing discussion. terms used for qualitative research qualitative research is, as john and lyn lofland (1984) note, a “many-labelled tradition”. the most commonly used labels appear to be “field research”/“fieldwork”, “naturalism”, “ethnography”, “interpretative research” and “constructivist research”. “field research” or “fieldwork” is t ypically used by anthropologists and derives its use from “the fact that data tend to be collected in the field as opposed to laboratories or other researcher-controlled situations” (bogdan & biklen, 1998, p. 3). “naturalism” or “naturalistic research” implies the minimising of the presuppositions with which the researcher approaches the phenomenon under study as well as a close and searching description of the mundane details of everyday life (lofland & lofland, 1984, p. 3). researchers typically frequent places where the events they are interested in occur naturally. data is gathered in the course of natural behaviour such as talking, visiting, looking, walking, working, eating, etc. the term “ethnographic” is applied to qualitative research as well. some scholars use the term in a formal sense to refer to a particular variant of qualitative research. others use it more generally and equate it to qualitative research, particularly when doing qualitative research of a predominantly descriptive nature. the term “interpretative” refers, according to mouton (1986, p. 2), to the fact that qualitative research is not aimed at explaining human behaviour in terms of universally valid laws or generalisations, but rather at understanding and interpreting the meanings and intentions that underlie everyday human action. “constructivism”, just as “interpretivism”, relates to the theory of meaning (hermeneutics). however, constructivism breaks away from the assumption that realit y can be understood by interpreting the meanings that people in a specific setting attach to it. to constructivists, reality is relative and the construction of the life worlds of subjects can never reflect the true picture. findings are actually created through interaction bet ween the researcher and the subject. finally, the term “qualitative research”, probably the most general, encompassing and widely accepted term, is an indication that this approach concentrates on the qualities of human behaviour, i.e. on qualitative aspects and not quantitatively measurable aspects of human behaviour (mouton, 1986, p. 2). bogdan and biklen (1998, p. ix) write that in the early 1970s, “qualitative research” broke out of the boundaries of anthropology and sociology and “came on the scene as a crossover designation for field research people not weeded to a particular discipline … not belonging to any one tradition, the phrase heralded twenty years of increased inf luence, development, and cross-fertilization. while some in the traditional disciplines resisted the use of the term, for most it united the old timers with those who are new to the approach”. at this juncture, it is important to emphasise what has been suggested in the preceding is that “qualitative research” has seen many changes during especially the last thirteen years, which has resulted in the field becoming much more diverse and “challenging”, if not, reflecting controversy and turmoil. bogdan and biklen (1998, p. x) describe this vividly: “while “qualitative research” gave affiliation to people in the 1970s and 1980s, in the 1990s shifts in the field began pulling adherents apart. the approach has attracted many who were trained in a more quantitative approach to research. they have championed a brand of qualitative research which is more structured and systematized than earlier methods, an approach which emphasizes qualitative technique more than a qualitative way of thinking. at the same time, other qualitative researchers were attracted by scholarship in the humanities which emphasised postmodern approaches to enquiry. these researchers deemphasized the careful collection of field data and concentrated more on research as representation through writing, and on the politics of research.” taking the early 1900s as the early stages of qualitative research, denzin and lincoln (2000) distinguish between six moments to describe its history. since these stages of qualitative development provide a good explanation of how the field became diverse and controversial, it is useful to take a closer look at them. qualitive research in organisational studies 3 3 a paradigm is a set of beliefs that constitutes the researcher’s ontology (i.e. the researcher’s perceptions regarding the nature of reality/the world and what there is to know about it); epistemology (i.e. the researcher’s perceptions of where s/he stands in relation to reality/the world); and methodology (the researcher’s perception of how s/he can find out about reality/the social world). a brief historical account of developments in qualitative research by now it should be clear that qualitative research as a field of enquiry in its own right crosscuts disciplines, fields and subject matters, and there is a complex, interconnected family of terms, concepts and assumptions surrounding the term qualitative research. these conditions and beliefs include the traditions associated with positivism, post-structuralism and the many qualitative research perspectives or methods, connected to cultural and interpretive studies. these features of qualitative research, according to denzin and lincoln (2000), operate in a complex historical field that crosscuts six historical moments, which simultaneously operate in the present. hatch (1997) points out that the assumptions raised from within these moments have crystallized into three paradigms of enquiry: the modernist, the interpretive and the postmodernist. the six moments can be summarized as follows: � traditional period (1900 to the 1940s). researchers such as malinowski, margaret mead and radcliffe-brown employed ethnography, phenomenology or ethnomethodology to study human phenomena. these strategies are characterised by observation (participant observation) and a description of the actions of a small number of subjects and the meanings that they attach to their actions. data analysis is mainly interpretative, involving descriptions of the phenomena. the main aim is to write objective accounts of lived experiences (fieldwork experiences). this notion of objectivity has however fallen into disrepute because ethnographers in particular have been accused of complying with imperialism, and their works have come to be seen as relics of the colonial past. however, in order to solve the qualitative researcher’s problems regarding objectivity and representation of subjects, proponents of phenomenology and ethnomethodology recently broadened their field of interest by linking lived experience with social context. � the modernist phase (the 1940s to the 1970s). the modernist phase was built on the works of the traditional period, social realism and naturalism. this phase is characterised by the interpretation of reality by means of formalised qualitative methods and the undertaking of rigorous data analysis (e.g. analytical induction and grounded theory). examples of this perspective (which still prevails in recent studies) include the symbolic interactionist perspective as reflected in the works of bogdan and taylor (1975), glaser and strauss (1967) and lofland (1971). between the 1940s and the 1970s, the modernist approach included phenomenology, ethnography, symbolic interactionism, critical theory, and applied and action research. strategies of enquiry ranged from grounded theory and the case study to the methods of historical, biographical, ethnographic and clinical research. methods of data collection varied from interviewing and participant observation to the study of human documents. data was analysed by means of analytical induction and grounded theory. � blurred genres (1970 to 1986). critics of the modernist phase argued that it is impossible for qualitative researchers to discover the real world, as the people living in it know it. qualitative studies are thus the researcher's interpretations of the subject's experiences. what we take to be objective knowledge and truth is the result of a particular perspective. knowledge and truth are thus constructed and not discovered by the mind. critical theory, including neo-positivism, neomarxism, materialism and participatory enquiry, was developed during this period of blurred genres. � crisis of representation (the mid-1980s). new models of truth and method that would best describe and interpret the experiences of other people and settings were continually being sought in the mid-1980s. the basic assumption in this period was that the researcher cannot be objective and value free and that rigorous studies of social processes (such as advocated by symbolic interactionism) are impossible. this assumption demanded a serious rethinking of concepts such as validity, reliability and generalisability. issues such as class, gender, race and values were also pertinent. the research process therefore had to become more reflective and fieldwork and writing had to converge. researchers and subjects thus became partners in the research process. this perspective has given rise to cultural studies as well as feminist and action research. � the fifth moment (the 1990s). this phase is defined and shaped by the assumption that qualitative researchers cannot directly capture lived experience. data should therefore not be interpreted or analysed. the researcher should rather gather and present data in such a way that the subjects speak for themselves (strauss & corbin, 1990, p. 21). lived experience cannot be created in the social text written by the researcher. theories are therefore written in narrative terms as tales of the field. researchers remain preoccupied with the representation of the other and the question of how to develop a social science that includes the other. when analysing the development of the qualitative research paradigm, the move to include the other in a larger research process is evident. however, the question of how the other could be included has not been solved. this trend in qualitative research, namely to become more “messy”, requires serious rethinking in terms of scientific validit y and reliabilit y. as neither the issue of representation nor the issue of legitimation has been solved, a double crisis is presently confronting qualitative researchers (denzin & lincoln, 1994). the question is whether the truth can ever be captured and represented by means of qualitative research, because even if the other is empowered to become a researcher, differences in power, knowledge etc. remain part of the relationship between researchers and subjects. the final product will still be that of a researcher and not that of the subjects. therefore, uncontaminated truth cannot be established. after all, the researcher, even by not positioning him/herself, does not relate to reality in the same way as his/her research subjects. it is clear that in order to solve this crisis of legitimation, qualitative researchers need to develop new criteria that allow them and their readers to make a connection between the text and the real world written about. the other should be empowered to undertake their own historical or social investigations, or researchers should engage together with the other in “narrative adventures” and “experimental” or “messy” texts. the researcher is therefore merely the link between the field text and the community. s/he empowers the other to become a co-researcher who will speak for him/herself. in their later discussion of the qualitative phases, denzin and lincoln (2000) talk of “a triple crises of representation, legitimation, and praxis” “in which the inevitably creative and interpretive nature of qualitative writing is put under the microscope, including the perspective of the qualitative writer, and searching questions are raised about how to evaluate the quality of qualitative research and evaluation” (patton, 2002, p. 79-80). � the sixth moment or “postexperimental” phase. here qualitative research’s boundaries are expanded in order to accommodate creative non-fiction, autobiographical ethnography, poetic representations and multimedia presentations. the brief overview of these six phases in qualitative research development will suffice. regardless of the possibility of more moments developing in future, it is clear that qualitative research should be seen as a discipline reflecting many interesting varieties. let’s take a closer look at some of these. types of qualitative research qualitative research is found in virtually all recognised social science disciplines and study areas (cf. patton 2002; merriam 2002), and therefore it should come as no surprise to find that schurink4 different disciplines and fields have drawn on, and contributed to, qualitative research differently. these diverse terminologies, strategies and procedures have confused particularly newcomers to qualitative enquiry and have led to the realisation that there is presently no consensus on how to classif y qualitative research. examples of the diverse ways in which scholars writing on qualitative texts have organised qualitative research are: (a) jacob (1987) distinguishes between ecological psychology, holistic ethnography, ethnomethodology of communication, cognitive anthropology and symbolic interactionism. (b) crotty (1998) draws a distinction between positivism (and postpositivism), interpretivism (including phenomenology, hermeneutics, and symbolic interactionism), critical enquiry, feminism and postmodernism. (c) creswell (1998) identifies the following five “traditions”: biography, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography and case study. (d) bogdan and biklen (1998), in their textbook on qualitative research for education, emphasize the phenomenological perspective and differentiate between phenomenology, symbolic interaction, culture, ethnomethodology, and cultural studies, feminisms, post modernism, and critical theory. (e) tesch (1990) listing 45 approaches, divides them into designs (e.g. case study), data analysis techniques (e.g. discourse analysis), and disciplinary orientation (e.g. ethnography). (f) denzin and lincoln (2000) identified the following research strategies: case study, ethnography, phenomenolog y, grounded theory, biographical, historical, participatory and clinical. (g) merriam (2002). using the more commonly used approaches to doing qualitative research, she distinguishes between: basic interpretive, phenomenology, grounded theory, case study, ethnography, narrative analysis, critical and postmodern-poststructural approaches. (h) patton (2002) distinguishes between the following 16 varieties of qualitative enquiry: ethnography, reality testing (e.g. positivist and reality approaches), constructionism/ constructivism, phenomenolog y, heuristic enquiry, ethnomethodology, symbolic interactionism, semiotics, hermeneutics, narratology/narrative analysis, ecological psychology, systems theory, chaos theory (e.g. non-linear dynamics), grounded theory and orientational (feminist enquiry, critical theory, and queer theory). when one takes a closer look at these classification attempts of traditions and approaches to qualitative enquiry, one is bound to conclude that the field is currently rather confusing. even seasoned researchers using this style of research, like miles and huberman (1994 p. 5), find qualitative enquiry rather bewildering: “as comprehensive and clarif ying as these catalogs and taxonomies may be, they turn out to be basically incommensurate, both in the way different qualitative strands are defined and in the criteria used to distinguish them. the mind boggles in trying to get from one to another”. the preceding brief overview of the field of qualitative research will have to suffice since this survey should now be supplemented by an outline of the state of the art in south africa. qualitative research in south africa: brief observations on its current status as far as could be established, there is no systematic historical analysis of qualitative studies in south african. a synoptic study of the local literature clearly reveals that while this research style has been institutionalized at certain south african universities, most notably sociology, psychology and education, and at certain centres and organisations, this is certainly not widespread (cf. mouton & muller, 1998). according to mouton and muller (1998), who include qualitative studies in their “tracking trends in theory and method: past and future”, ethnographic studies, participant observation, unstructured interviewing methods and the use of documentary sources have enjoyed, a long tradition especially in anthropological (cf. scholars such as wilson, kuper, radcliffbrown, hammond-tooke, preston-whyte, boonzaaier, sharp, kotze, gordon, and thornton) and historical studies (cf. bozzoli, 1990) in south africa. these scholars (mouton & muller 1998) seem to be correct in stating that as one moves outside south african anthropology and history, examples of qualitative empirical studies become harder to find. while this might be the case, there is no doubt that many local qualitative studies have been undertaken rather sporadically and are quite diverse. from my reading of mouton and muller’s (1998) and some other recent local methodological textbooks (cf. terre blanche & durrheim, 1999, mouton, et al. 1998, de vos, 1998) the following inferences seems reasonable: � a significant non-positivistic tradition is found in psychology in kruger’s and other’s phenomenological work (cf. kruger, 1988, stones, 1988, van vuuren, 1991), resembling the duquesne tradition in the usa (see the work of giorgi, 1997), and which is based on the european phenomenology of husserl and van den berg. � incidentally local qualitative work is quite similar to that of the modernist paradigm and especially to the extent that south african researchers make use of the “real” world in informing and shaping their theorizing. the following work provides good examples of these studies: crause and botha’s (1977) study of prostitutes and deviants in port elizabeth's harbour area4; schurink’s (1979) unstructured interview studies of various deviant and criminal worlds in a north eastern community of pretoria, schurink and co-workers’ work on sex workers and other sex industry participants in a number of south african cities (cf. schurink, 1985, schurink & winterbach, 1979; minnaar, venter & schurink, 1980; schurink & levinthal; 1983; schurink & ndabandaba, 1991; schurink, liebenberg & schurink, 1993); marais’ (1989) study of the relationship between the living context of a group of local liberation theologians and their interpretation of the bible; schurinks’ (1990a) participant observant study of a 1970s pretoria gay club; schurink’s studies of biographical sketches of homosexual women and men (1981; 1989), lötter and schurink’s (1984) study of prison gangs; ferreria’s (1988) sociological analysis of medical encounters of aged people at an outpatient centre, engelbrecht’s (1991) study of johannesburg bomb victims, trollip’s (1991) study of the meaning particular women in a ndyundya-ndebele kinship group attached to acculturated clothing practices; steenkamp’s (1991) situation analysis of swimming-pool managers at local authorities; graser's (1992a & 1992b) research into family murder; ferreira’s (1992) qualitative investigation of the emotional experiences of south african divorced men; schurink, et al.’s (1992) family murder research; schurink’s (1994) study of prison managers’ views on the 1994 election and prison violence; maree’s (1995 & 1996) criminological inspection of bankrobbers; schurink, molope & tshabalala’s (1997) study of child labour; nomoyi and schurink’s (1998) study of insider accounts of necklacing in three port elizabeth townships; and roos et al’s (2002) study of final-year medical students’ social construction/ experiences of ‘soft skills’ in the ‘old’ mbchb curriculum of the university of pretoria. � the phenomenon of an increasingly wide variety of local qualitative st udies that utilize different methods and traditions of such research. examples here are: danziger (1963); meyer and pinto (1982); pretorius (1984); mouton (1983, 1985 & 1986); siwani (1986); graham and zungu qualitive research in organisational studies 5 4 the latter two researchers selected a girl who had to infiltrate the meeting places of prostitutes and other people in this subculture, and on the basis of her five-week-long observations made a functional analysis of the social system of prostitution centred in the harbour area of port elizabeth by night. (1987); levett (1998 & 1990); siwani, et al. (1990), mazibuko (1990); lindegger and bosman (1990); berger (1990); davidoff and van den berg (1990); mcnaught and raubenheimer (1991); ballen et al. (1991); steyn (1992); potter and moodie (1992); macdonald, (1993); ramphele (1993); van zyl (1993); oliphant (1993); van vlaenderen and gilbert (1993); walker (1994); butchart, et al. (1994); sliep (1994); maconachie, et al.(1993); dixon, et al. (1994); cleaver and pallourios (1994); kaminer & dixon (1995); modungwa (1995); shantall (1995); duncan (1996); ashley et al. (1996); swartz (1995 & 1996); wilbraham (1996); sehlapelo and terre blanche (1996); terre blanche (1997); davies and terre blanche, (1997); payze (1997); suffla (1997); levett, et al. (1997); stevens and tighe doerr (1997); durrheim & dixon (1998); butchart (1998), minnaar, et al. (1998); thatcher and feldman (1998); esterhuizen (1999) and macleod (2002). a closer look at qualitative research locally leads to, among other things, the following observations: first, while qualitative research has been conducted for at least four decades in south africa, there has been keen interest among scholars to utilise qualitative methods in local research, particularly starting in the late 1970s and escalating since the 1990s. it seems fair to state that in terms of denzin and lincoln’s (2000) developmental stages of qualitative research, many local qualitative studies resemble the modernist paradigm, and there is some interest in the postmodernist phases, most noticeably the blurred genres and crisis of representation paradigms. while it is conceivable that there would be local qualitative research that could be typified as belonging to the so-called fifth moment, it seems from the limited literat ure performed for this contribution unlikely that much of south african work would reflect the so-called sixth moment or “postexperimental” phase. similar to the state of qualitative research abroad, but to a lesser degree, “contemporary qualitative research in south africa is characterised by plurality based on the variety of philosophical, theoretical and methodological approaches utilised in the field” (mouton & muller, 1998: 14). while one might expect that local debate and controversy might increase locally as local qualitative research reached the same level of development as such research abroad, it is interesting to note that there has been, except for a workshop lipsey presented in pretoria in 1994 (louw, 1998), no real recent antagonism between proponents of qualitative and quantitative approaches in south africa as was evident in many american universities (cf. mouton, 1983 & 1985; schurink & schurink, 1988; mouton & muller, 1998). second, all the known traditions and types of qualitative research are found in local qualitative studies. south africans have often used single methods, like unstructured interviews, but more recently, many have started employing multimethods, i.e., in-depth interviews, participant observation and/or documents of life. third, not uncommon to what is found in qualitative research abroad, local scholars, started utilising qualitative methods and approaches in evaluation research particularly since the late 1980s. while evaluation research is still very much a fledging discipline in south africa, it seems that guba and lincoln’s (1989) qualitative approach to evaluation has been quite popular. while many local scholars in the evaluation field would like researchers in general probably agree to the use of both qualitative and quantitative approaches to research generally, and evaluation particularly, there are indications that local scholars are to an increasing extent employing both qualitative and quantitative methods in research in our part of the world. examples are the works of van der burgh (1984), schurink and schurink (1990b), schurink et al. (1993), schurink, (1999), and page, et al. (2001). fourth, as far as analytic traditions of qualitative research are concerned, while local scholars have used all the known methods, like analytic induction, (ai) phenomenological analysis, discourse analysis and grounded theory (gt), the latter is particularly popular. mouton et al. (2001, p. 501) write: “grounded theory is one of the most commonly used approaches in qualitative research in south africa, especially in theses and dissertations”. fifth, a particularly distinct example of local postmodernism is found in a debate surrounding the relevance of “the discursive paradigm”. this debate, which is according to macleod (2002), related to discourse analysis and progressive or critical politics, involved quite a few prominent local scholars including van staden (1998), painter and theron (2001), terre blanche (1998), and durrheim (2001). finally, much of local qualitative data analysis, especially of small qualitative studies involving a few research participants, has been done manually, but there is an increasing interest in employing computer-aided qualitative data analysis software, or caqdas. mouton et al. (2001) found that most local usage, training and support currently in south africa is for winma x and atlas.ti. having briefly considered the status of qualitative research both abroad and locally, we now turn to a concise review of qualitative research in the organisational/management field. qualitative research and organisational/ management studies: brief observations in reviewing the application of qualitative research in the organisational/management field, we first take a look at the international scene, after which we turn to the situation in south africa. international qualitative management research a few good sources of qualitative organisational/management studies5 are currently available that discuss the origin, evolution and current state in the field6. from a scan of these works, the following inferences seem to be practically striking: (i) origin and development. qualitative research has been used intermittingly in management and organisational studies since their inception (locke & golden-biddle, 2002). during the 1950s and 1960s classic studies were undertaken: (a) dalton’s (1959) study into managerial practices in four companies in north america, (b) sayles’s (1964) research into the nature of managerial tasks in a particular division of a large american manufacturing organisation, (c) gouldner’s (1954b) research into aspects of a bureaucracy in a gypsum mine, (d) sayles’s (1958) work on shop-floor matters of industrial work groups, (e) gouldner’s (1954a) wildcat strike research, and (f) lupton’s (1963) study of the work organisation and culture of the shop-floor in two manufacturing plants attempting to explain the occurrence of restriction of output by employees (gill & johnson, 2002). hatch (1997) points out that as far as the history of qualitative research is concerned, the so-called moments or phases in its development are also found in management studies. it is consequently currently common practice to speak of qualitative research as falling within one of the three paradigms: modern, interpretive and postmodern. (ii) modenist qualitative research is inter alia evident in content analysis. boyatsis (1982), attempting to determine which managerial features were related to effective performance, draws on this and related practices. locke (2001, p. 8) writes: “in one phase of the study, transcripts were developed from interviews during which respondents were asked to describe incidents of on-the-job effectiveness and schurink6 5 “organisational” and “management” researchers and research will be employed interchangeable here. 6 arguably the most important of these works are those of: symbol and cassel (1998), lee (1999), lee, et al. (1999), gummesson (2000), and collins and hussey (2003) ineffectiveness. a coding system was developed to analyze these interview-based observations. previous work provided the basis from which 19 concept ual categories that comprised this study’s coding system were developed. the interview transcripts were independently coded by two coders for frequency of occurrence of each of the 19 categories. the frequencies determined for the conceptual categories then formed the basis for making comparisons of managers in high, average, and low performance groupings. the resulting correlations pointed to those characteristics that distinguished high from low performance”. from this study, it is clear that modernist qualitative researchers share with their quantitative colleagues an apprehension for the nature of the relationship between their revealed facts and the observable world that these claim to explain. (iii) interpretive and related constructivist paradigms. exponents of this paradigm are interested in understanding the world of lived experience from the point of view of those who live it. they focus on particular situated actors who they see as compromising out of events and phenomena through longlasting processes of interaction that include history, language and action. as a result, social reality is not a given but is built up over time through shared history, experience and communication so that what is taken for “reality” is what is shared and taken for granted as to the way the world is to be perceived and understood. in order to appreciate the lived world of experience, qualitative researchers must engage with and participate in it; they must actively interpret it (locke, 2001). examples of qualitative management work include: weick’s (1969) enactment theory, which highlights the active role that organisation members play in creating the very organisations in which they work; gephart’s (1978) study of organisation succession that concentrate on the language and activities through which succession is developed; isabella’s (1990) research of middle managers in a financial service institution, accent uating that changes in managers’ understanding and interpretations of organisational events are necessary in order for change process to develop; and bartunek’s (1984) study of a religious order that looks at the relationship between organisation members’ interpretive schemes and organisational structure (locke, 2001). (iv) the postmodern paradigm. popularized in the arts, literacy, criticism and philosophy, “postmodern” entails a variety of ideas, among others examining how power relations benefit particular worldviews while silencing others. “postmodernism suggests that what is taken for ‘reality’ is constructed by the discursive or language systems put in play by a particular social historical context – what is ‘real’ then is what is represented as such. and, researchers’ own attempts at uncovering ‘reality’ should also be seen as forms of discourse…indeed, postmodern theory has as one of its aims the deconstruction of grand narratives of truth and knowledge…” (locke, 2001, p. 11). examples of post-modern work in management studies are, among others: calas and smircich’s (1990) work that study organisational theoretizing on leadership, drawing on feminist deconstructive schemes to draw attention to the cultural influences and constraints on this ‘knowledge’; martin’s (1990) illumination of gender in an organisation’s response to the maternity leave of one of its female officials; boje’s (1995) explanation of the numerous and concealed realities that form disney; and covaleski et al.’s (1998) use of foucault’s ideas about power and knowledge to describe how mentoring and management by objectives work as techniques of control (locke, 2001). finally, a recent thoughtful discussion and evaluation of postmodern theory and research is hancock and tyler’s (2001) work. (v) approaches of qualitative research widely used in organisational studies. the preceding paradigms do not account for all the diversity found in presentday qualitative management research. “besides working from different research paradigms, qualitative investigators also work in various approaches or styles that reflect their orientation to particular communities of research practice. three such communities that are significantly represented among qualitative researchers are ethnography, action research, and case work” (locke, 2001). (vi) the repertory grid technique. this technique used in qualitative organisational research is derived from the personal construct theory (kelly, 1955). it provides a formal method of quantif ying qualitative data. according to stewart and stewart (1981, p. 5), it allows the researcher when conducting an interview, to obtain a mental map of how the research participant/interviewee views the world, and to write this map up with the minimum of observer bias. (vii) mixing qualitative and quantitative research methods. while limited, there are instances where qualitative organisational researchers supplement their studies with quantitative methods (cf. barley, 1990, eisenhardt, 1989). (viii) vague information on qualitative data analysis. management researchers utilising qualitative methods generally provide weak descriptions of how they analysed their data. nevertheless, the most important analytical methods of qualitative research are utilized. particularly noticeable is grounded theory (gt)7, analytic induction (ia)8, content analysis9 and phenomenological analysis. while symbolic interactionism underpinning grounded theory (gt) has not surfaced in management and organisational studies, it seems to be appealing to researchers including those trained at the business school, who tend to emphasize a logico-deductive approach. notwithstanding their interest in gt resources and discussions of the method, it is spread across various social science disciplines making it difficult for organisational and management scholars to track them down, resulting in their selective applying of its logic and practices. this invisibility of gt leads locke (2001) to restore and reveal more fully the future usage of the grounded approach in organisational and management studies. she attempts to materialize this by (i) detailing the disciplinary school of thought and procedural details of the approach as it has been articulated by its architects, and social scientists since the 1970s, and by (ii) discussing the use of gt in organisational and management studies over the same period. (xi) organisational researchers take a relatively narrow view of qualitative research. “glaser and strauss’s (1967) now classic book on grounded theory was the most common methodological citation. eisenhardt’s (1989) case study research design on the speed in strategic decision making was the reference cited next most often (larson & lowendahl, 1996, suggest that eisenhardt’s study appears to be moving towards the status of a ‘classic work’). finally, yin’s (1984) book on case study research was the methodological reference cited third most often” (lee, 1999, p. 15). before concluding this overview of qualitative organisational research abroad, it is worthwhile to present the views of crafford, a scholar of the department of human resource management at the rand afrikaans university, on qualitative trends in local organisational studies, as set out in an email to me in 2001: “i see human resource management drawing from amongst other disciplines, from psychology (particularly industrial psychology) and the management sciences. traditionally both psychology and management sciences have been placed firmly in an empirical-analytical paradigm and have been fairly positivistic in nature. i think the idea of prediction and qualitive research in organisational studies 7 7 argubly the most prominent qualitive organisational researcher in the grounded theory tradition is locke (2001). 8 while examples of a1 in management research are hard to find, lennon and wollin (2001) represent a recent example. in addition, johnson (1998) discussess the usage of analytic induction in management research. 9 content analysis entails a way of systematically translating text to numerical variables for quantitive data analysis. when applied to qualitive data it has a number of advantages. silverman (1993) provides a qualitive usage of this method. by analysing advertisements for information systems professionals placed in four major newspapers between 1970 and 1990, todd, mckeen and gallupe (1995) examined changes represented in the knowledge and skills requirements of information systems positions. control appealed in an organisational setting where people needed to be managed towards productivit y and effectiveness. the idea of being able to control people in service of profit was a good one. the field was (and i think still is) dominated by quantitative research because numbers give one a sense of exactness, which is appealing. i think over time people have become more aware that exactness is not always possible and there is a lot in organisations that has to do with meaning – something you can't really quantif y – immediately things like organisational culture, symbols and identity come to mind. one is working with people's perceptions and thus other methods are necessary – qualitative methods. i see three paradigms in research: empirical-analytical, interpretive and the critical (constructionist) paradigm. i believe qualitative and quantitative methods can be used in any of the paradigms although the underlying assumption of the paradigm will determine how the method is used and what the implications are for reliability, objectivity and validity. i also believe that each has its place in organisations and that one should be guided by the research problem as to which paradigm and method will be most appropriate. i do however think that quantitative methods have dominated the scene for too long and to the detriment of the field. i think there is a lot still to be explored in organisations, using qualitative methods particularly from an interpretive perspective. i think the critical paradigm with its focus on change and intervention is also important in organisations – very often this work is done all the time, for example change in management interventions – but is never really viewed as research” (schurink, 2001). in the light of the present state of qualitative organisational/ management research abroad, it seems fitting to conclude with the following two recommendations: � lee (1999, p. 17): “as such, it may be timely for organisational scientists to take a deeper look at methods and tactics of qualitative research for both generating and testing management theories.” � locke and golden-biddler (2000, p. 115-116): “while the variety (in qualitative research in the study of life at work) opens the doors to studying many different features of life at work, it brings serious challenges to those interested in pursuing and those who have to review qualitative research. coherence in paradigmatic stance, research operations, and the written research accounts become a central issue. for example, the modernist, interpretive, and postmodernist viewpoints make assumptions about the nature of reality and the nature of the act of research that are incommensurate. to avoid mixing and muddling paradigms and research approaches, researchers need to make explicit choices about their epistemological viewpoints and their research approaches and to execute their research projects accordingly … and journal editors need to ensure they have the requisite variety in their set of reviewers and to assign manuscripts appropriately. this is critical to ensuring the ongoing development of the practice of qualitative research and its ability to contribute to our understanding of life at work." qualitative research in local management/ organisational studies from a literature search i conducted, i was unable to find any state of the art literature on organisation science and qualitative research in south africa, confirming mouton and muller’s (1998) observation that qualitative studies are difficult to find outside the local disciplines of anthropology and history. therefore the following conclusions i reached must be regarded as tentative and awaiting systematic scrutiny: (i) as is the case with qualitative research in south africa local institutions of higher learning generally do not appear to have a tradition of training in qualitative research methods in their departments responsible for human resources management and related study areas. this unfortunate state of affairs is due to inter alia the exclusion of research methodology of tertiary institutions in favour of the “need for the operational relevance of knowledge”. schreuder (2001, p. 4) writes: “a subject such as research methodology is increasingly being excluded at undergraduate level. it is probably not regarded as a key subject in human resource management. the development of a scientific approach to problems is hampered by those who plan to make a career in industrial psychology”. except for a few exceptions, most notably the department of human resource management at the rand afrikaans university, it appears that local university departments have neither developed particular curricula for qualitative research in management studies nor industrial psychology, and when they do provide such training, it generally takes place on an ad hoc basis10. (ii) at least two local journals, namely the sa journal of industrial psychology and south african journal of psychology, accept articles based on qualitative management research, and have already published quite a few excellent articles. these journals together with the south african qualitative methods conference presented annually provide a platform where interchange of ideas bet ween south africans undertaking qualitative work in life at work could take place, which might in turn contribute to the development of this field in the country. (iii) at least some organisational qualitative research in south africa resembles at least the modernist paradigm (cf. vosloo & barnard, 2002; vermeulen, 2002; vermeulen, et al. 2003). (iv) as is the case with qualitative research in south africa qualitative organisational research in south africa generally does not represent only one type or a single tradition; it utilizes different methods and traditions. some recent examples are: focus groups (de beer & barnes, 2003; vosloo & barnard, 2002), repertory grid technique (vermeulen, 2002; vermeulen, et al. 2003), interviews (linde, rothmann & sieberhagen, 1999) and documentary sources (tlou & schurink, this volume). (v) as far as data analysis methods are concerned, south africans have used different methods: general informal methods (vosloo & barnard, 2002), grounded theory: du toit, 2002; groenewald, strümpfer & lessing, 2001; williams, crafford & fourie, 2003; phenomenological analysis (linde, rothmann & sieberhagen, 1999), and analytic induction (tlou & schurink, this volume). (vi) there are indications that local scholars are to an increasing extent employing both qualitative and quantitative methods in research in our part of the world. two recent examples are found in the work of vermeulen (2002), vermeulen, et al. (2003) and cilliers (2002). having reviewed the variet y of theoretical perspectives informing qualitative research, we now leave the world of theory and enter the world of practice and pragmatism. differently stated, we present nine qualitative studies that have recently been undertaken in the local study of life at work. introducing the articles apart from not having been published before and apart from their quality, the articles that are presented in this volume have been selected on their illustration of a particular variety of qualitative research in management studies, for example, the data collection and inferential methods used and/or tradition or paradigm represented. article one written by de villiers and kotze entitled: work-life balance: a study in the petroleum industry, represents an example of a case study as well as how interviews could be used in qualitative research. schurink8 10 particularly welcome is the fact that at least one local textbook on research methods for business and administrative sciences devotes one chapter to qualitive research designs and while it does not discuss any south african work, it provides brief but useful discussions of historical research, the phenomenological approach, the case study, participant observation and individual and focus interviews (welman & kruger, 1999). articles two and three, both by tlou and schurink and dealing respectively with a gay woman's experiences during her career in the department of defence and relating relevant social science constructs to her views, in addition to illustrating a particular type of case study, reflect the usage of a solicited human/personal document and a particular formal technique of qualitative data analysis, known as analytic induction. article four by hodgson and zaaiman (facilitative project management: a model for integrated change implementation) presents an interesting illustration of how they went about in analysing a number of case studies. article five “from the worst to the best”: an explorator y qualitative study of the process of social change at a south african secondar y school created by van aswegen and schurink, illustrates how the methodology they used and the analytic process utilized during the study were guided by certain assumptions of phenomenology, symbolic interactionism and grounded theory. second, it provides an example of the utilization of multi-methods, e.g. solicited essays and focus groups. finally, it indicates an inductive form of analysis, called grounded theory. article six by chawane, van vuuren and roodt, entitled personal change as a key determinant of the outcomes of organisational transformation inter ventions, demonstrates how content analysis could be performed, and how electronic mail could be employed to contact research participants and distribute research questions to them. article seven, by whitehead and kotze, which reports on a study of the career and life balance of local professional women, provides another example of the utilization of multiple qualitative data collection techniques, in-depth interviews and a focus group session, as well as the analytic technique of grounded theory. de jager, cilliers and veldsman in their leadership development from a systems psychodynamic consultancy stance (article eight) furnish another illustration of focus groups as a data collection method, and grounded theory as an inferential method. the final contribution (article nine) by groenewald and schurink, entitled the contribution of co-operative education in the growing of talent in south africa, offers an example of the usage of phenomenology in a qualitative exploration. conclusion from the preceding discussion and borne out by the nine qualitative contributions in this volume of the journal, it is clear that qualitative research is “alive” in organisational/ management and related areas and disciplines in south africa, but as to its being “well”, hard work seems to be required not only to sustain it in our part of the world, but also to expand it by taking advantage of developments and trends abroad. i firmly believe that anyone who is truly committed to create an optimally managed and profitable industry in the “rainbow nation” and believes that the social sciences generally and qualitative research particularly are necessary for such a course will recognise the tremendous responsibility resting on the shoulders of the younger generation of qualitative researchers in the organisational and other fields of study to undertake quality research that can inform local management policy. from my own experience of lecturing local students on qualitative research methods, i am convinced that only experienced researchers who are ready to lend committed youngsters who display particular personal qualities a hand can fulfil this task. more particularly, we need to develop and employ experimental pedagogies that are in line with the characteristics of our students and facilitate joint ventures with them in order for the young turks to develop into dedicated and creative researchers who are well-equipped to explore, describe and explain the many ways people in post-apartheid south africa creates their work – and assigns meaning to other areas of their lives. i have been very privileged over the last two and a half decades to have been intermittently part of various local training courses and schools on qualitative research methods and i thought it might be appropriate and hopefully of some value to share, in conclusion, some experiences and thoughts on the training of local qualitative researchers in the field of industrial psychology and organisational research. from my recollection of some training courses, lectures and workshops, it was apparent that being taught qualitative research is often quite a threatening experience for students and attendants. this has been borne out by a scan of the limited literature available on qualitative research training courses. such anxiety appears to be caused mainly when st udents’ taken-for-granted assumptions about various philosophical and theoretical assumptions are infiltrated and confronted. from my own experience, i have found that some course attendants, particularly colleagues from research institutions and universities, attended my lectures out of sheer curiosity and/or because their superiors or colleagues expected them to attend any course presented in order to bring back new ideas to their institutions. in my view, very few, if any, of these attendants have ever seriously considered conducting qualitative research themselves or guiding students who wanted to undertake such research. from discussions with them, it became clear that many of these young colleagues hold positivistic-oriented scientific beliefs that prevent them from participating fully in qualitative training courses, let alone undertaking qualitative research. the fact that a great variety of traditions are nested under the qualitative umbrella today as well as the very nature of qualitative research contribute to the complexit y of training students. it appears that field-based qualitative training courses, where students are taken through key aspects, if not the entire qualitative study, and are given guided experience doing field-based research, have proven to be particularly successful since the students experience how methods take shape as they become immersed in actual social life. however, there are obstacles inherent in the t y pical universit y course, specifically temporal constraints, e.g. the inclusion of qualitative research methods alongside quantitative methods and theory. my own local qualitative research courses where i have been presenting formal lectures on the nat ure of qualitative research, its underpinning philosophies and theories, its various data collection and analysis methods, involving the course attendants in role-plays in class, and enrolling them in a few hour visits to nat ural semi-public settings or small-scale worlds, like pubs, restaurants, emergency hospital wards, and streets where prostitutes solicit passers-by, have proved to be remarkably successful. feedback received from the course attendants, including lecturers, postgraduate students, police officials, employees and researchers working in provincial legislative offices, have thus far been very positive without exception. these attendants’ evaluation accounts which vary from the course having provided handson experience of qualitative methods, having being active and excit ing instead of passive of ten boring learning experience, have introduced innovative and creative ways of unpacking peoples’ experiences and feelings, and have provided insight into everyday life activities of communities in which the attendants themselves live. excluding attendants qualitive research in organisational studies 9 who because of their particular scientific views are opposed to qualitative research, the negative assessments received were t ypically that the course was too short and that more time should have been provided – especially for the study of local nat ural settings. references ashley, m., padayachee, m., & holderness, w.l. 1996. the implementation of the thousand schools project during 1955: an evaluation. cape town: independent development trust. babbie, e. & mouton, j, (with contributions by: payze, c., vorster, j., boshoff, n., & prozesky, h.) 2001. the practice of social research. south african edition. cape town: oxford university press southern africa. ball, m.s. & smith, g.w.h. 1992. analyzing visual data. newbury park, ca: sage. ballen, l., koloane, d., potter, c.s., ramogase, a., & siwani, j. 1991. an evaluation of the khula udweba project: 1989-1990. centre for continuing education, report and reprint series no 104. johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. barley, s.r. 1990. the alignment of technology and structure through roles and networks. administrative science quarterly, 35, 61-103. bartunek, j. 1984. changing interpretive schemes and organisational restructuring: the example of a religious order. administrative science quarterly, 29, 355-372. becker, h.s. 1995. visual sociology, documentary photography, and photo-journalism: it’s (almost) all a matter of context. visual sociology, 10 (1-2): 5-14. berger, s. 1990. an ‘inside story’ – the illness experiences of women with breast cancer. unpublished masters dissertation. cape town: university of cape town. bogdan, r. & biklen, s.k. 1998. qualitative research for education. an introduction to theory and methods. boston: allyn & bacon. boyatsis, r.e. 1982. the competent manager: a model for effective performance. new york: wiley. boje, d. 1995. stories of the storytelling organisation: a postmodern anmalysis of disney as “tamara-land”. academy of management journal, 38, 997-1035. bozzoli, b. 1990. intellectuals, audiences and history: south african experiences 1987/1988. radical historical review, 46 (7): 237-263. brown, l. 1997. a discursive analysis of the role of tertiary educational institutions in reproducing racism. unpublished masters dissertation. pietermaritzburg: university of natal. bryman, a. 1984. the debate about quantitative and qualitative research: a question of method or epistemology? the british journal of sociology, 35 (1): 75-92. bulbring, r. 1998. the near-death experience and it’s bearing on the sur vival problem: a multiple case study. unpublished phil d. thesis. grahamstown: rhodes university. burgess, r.g. 1984. in the field: an introduction to field research. london: allen & unwin. butchart, a., lerer, l.b.,& terri blanche, m.j. 1994. imaginary constructions and forensic reconstructions of fatal violence against women: implications for community violence prevention. forensic science international, 64, 21-34. calas, m.b. & smircich, l . 1990. voicing seduction to silence leadership. organisational studies, 12, 567-602. cleaver, g. 1988. a phenomenological analysis of victimization. the experience of having one’s house attacted and dam,aged. south african journal of psychology, 18, 76-83. cleaver, g. & pallourios, h. 1994. diabetes mellitus: experiencing a chronic illness. south african journal of psychology, 24, 175-183. covaleski , m.a., dirsmith, m.a., heian, j.b. & samuel, s. 1998. the calculated and the avowed: techniques of discipline and struggles over identity in big six public accounting firms. administrative science journal, 43, 293-327. davidoff, s., & van den berg, o. 1990. changing your teaching: the challenge of the classroom. pietermaritzburg: centaur. davies, s. & terre blanche, m. 1997. training to care: an evaluation of a bereavement counselling course. journal of educational evaluation, 5, 49-55. dawson, j., & scott, j. 1996. elevator etiquette. paper presented at the 2nd annual south african qualitative methods conference, (3-4 september) johannesburg. delius, p. 1996. a lion amongst the cattle: reconstruction and resistance in the northern transvaal. johannesburg: raven. dixon, j.a., foster, d.h., durrheim, k., & wilbraham, l. 1994. discourse and the politics of space in south africa: the ‘squatter crisis’. discourse & society, 5, 277-296. chaplin, e. 1994. sociology and visual representation. new york: routledge. cilliers, f. 2002. salutogenic coping with burnout among nurses. a qualitative study. south african journal of labour relations, 26 (4): 61-85. creswell, j.w. 1998. qualitative enquiry and research design. choosing among five traditions. thousand oaks, ca: sage. crafford, a. 2001. qualitative research. e-mail correspondence, 23 april. crotty, m. 1998. the foundations of social research: meaning and perspective in the research process. london: sage. coffey, a. & atkinson, p. 1996. making sense of qualitative data: contemporary research strategies. thousand oaks, ca: sage. collis, j. & hussey, r. 2003. business research. a practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. new york: palgrave macmillan. crause, h.l. & botha, p.m.c. 1977. prostitution: an analysis of the social system centred in the harbour area of port elizabeth by night. port elizabeth: university of port elizabeth (youth research project: publication number 3). dalton, m. 1959. men who manage. new york: wiley. de beer, m. & barnes, n. 2003. the assessment of intellectual capital (ic) in the south african context – a qualitative approach. sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (1), 17-24. denzin, n.k. 1989. interpretative biography. newbury park, ca: sage. denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. (eds). 1994. handbook of qualitative research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. 2000. (eds.). handbook of qualitative research 2nd ed. thousand oaks, ca: sage. denzin, n.k & lincoln, y.s. 2000. introduction: the discipline and practice of qualitative research. in n.k. denzin, & y.s. lincoln, y.s. (eds.). handbook of qualitative research 2nd ed. thousand oaks, ca: sage, pp. 1-28. durrheim, k. 2001. a defence of an ‘immanentist ‘ account of social form and experience. south african journal of psychology, 31, 9-11. du toit, s.w. 2002. virtual employees: a grounded theory of the impact on hrm. dissertation. johannesburg, rand afrikaans university. eckert, p. 1989. jocks & burnouts: social categories and identity in the high school. new york: teachers college press. eisenhardt, k.m. 1989. making fast decisions in high-velocity environments, academy of management journal, 32, 543-576. engelbrecht, e. 1991. slagoffers van bomaanvalle in johannesburg: ’n kriminologiese ondersoek. unpublished doctor litterarum et philosophiae. pretoria: universiteit van suid –afrika. esterhuizen, l.p. 1999. on method and madness: ambivalence and contingency in social research. m. phil. (social science methods) stellenbosch: university of stellenbosch. esterhuysen, r, jordaan, r., schurink, e., schurink, w.j., smit, j., snyman, p.h.r. & steyn, m. 1994. prison health care ser vices: legislation, perceptions and statistics. (report to the department of national health and population development). pretoria: hsrc. euvrard, g.e. 1996. an exploration of the factors which mediate the experience of parenting in an open adoptive parenting system. unpublished honours research project. grahamstown: rhodes university. schurink10 evans, s. 1998. contextual interpretations of sexual fantasy. unpublished masters dissertation. johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. ferreira, m. 1988. a sociological analysis of medical encounters of aged persons at an outpatient centre: a qualitative approach. in m. ferreira, j. mouton, g. puth., e. schurink, w. schurink, (eds.). introduction to qualitative research. pretoria: human sciences research council. ferreria, s. ’n kwalitatiewe ondersoek na die emosionele belewenis van suidafrikaanse blanke geskeide mans. ongepubliseerde magister in maatskaplike werk. pretoria: universiteit van pretoria. gephart, p. 1978. status degradation and organisational succession: an ethnomethodological approach, administrative science quarterly, 23, 553-581. germond, s., schomer, h., meyers, o., & weight, l. 1993. pain management in rheumatoid arthritis. south african journal of psychology, 23, 1-9. gill, j. & johnson, 2002. research methods for managers. 3rd ed. thousand oaks, ca: sage. giorgi, a. 1997. the theory, practice, and evaluation of the phenomenological research procedure. journal of phenomenological psychology, 28 (2): 235-260. (phenomenological analysis.) gouldner, a.w. 1954a. wildcat strike. new york: harper & row. gouldner, a.w. 1954b. patterns of industrial bureaucracy. glencoe, ny, free press. graham, p.m. & zungu, v.e. 1987. edendale lay ecumenical centre evaluation report. pietermaritzburg: university of natal centre for adult education. glaser, b. & strauss. 1967. the discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. new york: aldine de gruyter. graser, r.r. 1992a. a study of selected cases of family murder in south africa. pretoria: hsrc. graser, g.g. 1992b. victimization and victim precipitation in family murders. in w.j schurink, i. snyman & w.f. krugel (assisted by l. slabbert) (eds.). victimization: nature and trends. pretoria: human sciences research council. pp. 357-385. groenewald, j., strümpfer, d. & lessing, b. 2001. acceptance of co-operative education practice by the academic staff at technikon southern africa, journal of industrail psychology, 27 (3), 1-6. guba, e.g. & lincoln, y.s. 1994. competing paradigms in qualitative research. in: n.k. denzin, & y.s. lincoln, (eds.). handbook of qualitative research. thousand oaks: sage. gummesson, e.2000. qualitative methods in management research. 2nd ed. housand oaks, ca: sage. hancock, p. & tyler, m. 2001. work, postmodernism and organisation: a critical introduction. london: sage. hatch, m. 1997. organisational. modern symbolic, and postmodern perspectives. oxford: oxford university press. hay, w. 1998. discourse as power relations: concepts of self within situations of abuse of women in the traditional roman catholic marriage. unpublished master dissertation. johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. isabella, l.a. 1990. evolving interpretations as a change unfolds: how managers construe key organisational events. academy of management journal, 33, 7-41. ivey, g., & simpson, p. 1998. the psychological life of paedophiles: a phenomenological study. south african journal of psychology, 28 (i), 15-20. kaminer, d., dixon, j. 1995. the reproduction of masculinity: a discourse analysis of men’s drinking talk. south african journal of psychology, 25, 168-174. kelly, 1955. the psychology of personal constructs: a theory of personality. new york: norton. jacob, e. 1987. qualitative research traditions: a review. review of educational research, 57 (1): 1-50. johnson, p. 1998. analytical induction. in c. cassell & g. symon (eds.). qualitative methods and analysis in organisational research. london sage. johnson, p. & duberley, j. 2000. understanding management research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. kruger, 1988. the problem of interpretation in psychotherapy. pretoria: hsrc. kvale, s. 1996. inter views: an introduction to qualitative research inter viewing. thousand oaks, ca: sage. larsson, r. & lowendahl, b. 1996. the qualitative side of management research. paper presented at the annual meeting of the academy of management, cincinnati, oh. (april). quoted in lee, t.w. 1999. using qualitative methods in organisational research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. lee, t.w. 1999. using qualitative methods in organisational research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. lee, t.w., mitchell, t.r., & sablynski, c.j. 1999. qualitative research in organisational and vocational psychology, 19791999. journal of vocational behavior, 55, 161-187. lennon, a. & wollin, a. 2001. learning organisations: empirically investigating methaphors. journal of intelectual capital, 2 (4), 410-422. levett, a. 1989. psychological trauma: discourses of childhood sexual abuse. unpublished doctoral thesis. cape town: university of cape town. levett, a. 1990. discourses on childhood sexual abuse. in j. mouton & d. joubert, (eds.). knowledge and method in the human sciences. pretoria: human sciences research council. pp. 343-355. levett, a., kottler, a., burman, e., & parker, i. (eds.). 1997. culture, power and difference: discourse analysis in south africa. london: zed books. linde, l.h., rothmann, s. & sieberhagen, g.v.d.m. 1999.senior besdtuurders in ’n openbare maatskappy se belewing van loopbaanontwikkeling. journal of industrial psychology, 25 (2), 13-20. lindegger, g., & bosman, p. 1990 a systems view of chronic illness and its management african journal of psychology, 20, 32-41. locke, k. 2001. grounded theory in management research. thousand oaks< ca: sage. locke, k. & golden_biddle, k. 2002. an introduction to qualitative research: it’s potential for industrial and organisational psycholog y. in: s.g. rogelberg (ed.). handbook of research methods in industrial and organisational psychology. oxford: blackwell publishers. pp. 99-118. lofland, j. & lofland, l.h. 1984. analyzing social settings: a guide to qualitative obser vations and analysis. 2nd ed. belmont: wadsworth. lotter, h.p.p. 1995. kwantitatiewe of kwalitatiewe navorsing? ’n wetenskapfilosofiese perspektief. [quantitative or qualitative research? a scientific-philosophical perspective.] acta academica, 27 (3). lötter, j.m. & schurink, w.j. 1984. ge vangenisbendes: ’n ondersoek met spesiale ver wysing na nommerbendes onder kleuringgevangenes. pretoria: rgn. louw, j. 1998. programme evaluation: a structured assessment. in j. mouton, muller, p., franks, & t. sono (eds.), theory and method in south african human sciences research: advances and innovations. pretoria: hsrc, pp. 255-268. lupton, t. 1963. on the shop floor. oxford: pergamon. macdonald, a. 1993. commitments and constraints: evaluating the science education project in south africa. cape town: oxford university press. macleod, c. 2002. deconstructive discourse analysis: extending the methodological conversation. south african journal of psychology, 32 (1), 17-25. maconachie, m., angless, t. & van zyl, m. 1993. promoting personal safety for women. women set an agenda for policy formation. pretoria: human sciences esearch council. maree, a. 1995. die modus operandi van die bankrower: ’n kriminologiese introspeksie. (ongepubliseerde doctor litterarum et philosophiae), pretoria: universiteit van suidafrika. qualitive research in organisational studies 11 maree, a., joubert, s.j. & prinsloo, j.h. 1996. die begrondingsteorie as navorsingsmetode. acta criminologica, 9 (2): 47-54. martin, j. 1990. deconstructing organisational taboos: the suppression of gender conflict in organisations. organisation science, 1, 339-359. mason, j. 1996. qualitative researching. thousand oaks, ca: sage. mayekiso, t.v., & bhana, k. sexual harassment: perceptions and experiences of students at the university of transkei. south african journal of psychology, 24, 230-243. mazibuko, k. 1990. final evaluation report on the youth leader development programme. centre for continuing education, report and reprint series no 97. johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. mclaren, p. 1994. life in schools. 2nd ed. new york: longman. merriam, s.b. and associates. 2002. qualitative research in practice. examples for discussion and analysis. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. mcnaught, c., & raubenheimer, d. (eds.). 1991. critical reflections on teachers in action: an evaluation report of the natal primary science project. durban: the urban foundation. meyer, m.i., & pinto, d. 1982. perspectives on an inter vention programme for pre-university commerce students. centre for continuing education, report and reprint series no. 2. johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. mina, l. 1986. the ideology of rape in newlands east: a feminist perspective. unpublished masters dissertation. durban: university of natal. minnaar, a., wentzel, m. & payze, c.1998. witch killing with special reference to the northern province of south africa. in e. borman, r. van eeden, & m.e. wentzel, (eds). violence in south africa: a variety of perspectives. pretoria: hsrc printers. pp. 175-199. minnaar, g.g., venter, m.k. & schurink, w.j. 1980. ’n psigodinamiese verkenningstudie van ’n aantal blanke prostitute in johannesburg. (a psychodynamic exploratory study of some white prostitutes in johannesburg.) pretoria: rgn (navorsingsbevinding sn 194). morgan, d.l. 1997. focus groups as qualitative research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. mouton, j. 1983. kwalitatiewe en kwantitatiewe metodologieë in die sosiale wetenskappe. [qualitative and quantitative methodologies in the social sciences.] south african journal of sociology, 14 (4): 124-131. mouton, j. 1985. contemporary philosophies of science and the qualitative paradigm in the social sciences. south african journal of sociology, 16 (3): 81-89. mouton, j. 1986. the philosophy of qualitative research. in: m. ferreria, et al. (eds.). module 3: introduction to qualitative research methods. pretoria: human sciences research council. proceedings of the first hsrc winter school in research methodology, 30 june to 10 july. mouton, j. & marais, h.c. 1990. basic concepts in the methodology of the social sciences. pretoria: hsrc. mouton, j. & muller, j. 1998. tracking trends in theory and method: past and future. programme evaluation: a structured assessment. in j. mouton, j. muller, p., franks, t. & sono (eds.). theory and method in south african human sciences research: advances and innovations. pretoria: hsrc, pp. 255-268. neuman, w.l. 1994. social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. boston: allyn & bacon. moeketsi, a. 1998. psycho-cultural factors mediating the acquisition and use of condoms amongst black male university students. unpublished honours project. grahamstown: rhodes university. modungwa, n.m. 1995. the experience of mothers caring for their teenage daughters’ young children. m. cur. (psychiatric nursing) mini-thesis. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. nembahe, m. 1998. an investigation of mourning amongst urban zulus in relation to worden’s model of mourning. unpublished masters dissertation. johannesburg: universit y of the witwatersrand. nomoyi, n.c. & schurink, w.j. 1998. ukunxityiswa kwempimpi itayari njengotshaba lomzabalazo: an exploratory study of insider accounts of necklacing in three port elizabeth townships. in e. borman, r. van eeden, & m.e. wentzel, (eds). violence in south africa: a variety of perspectives. pretoria: hsrc printers. pp. 147-173. oberholzer, a.e. 1992. die belewenis van ’n kind in ’n intensiewesorgeenheid. m.curr. (intensive general nursing science) unpublished dissertation. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. oliphant, e.m. 1993. die gesinssisteem waarin dwelmmisbruik voorkom en die maatskaplike werker – ’n sistemiese perspektief. unpublished d.litt. et phil. thesis. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. page, o., moeketsi, p., schurink, w.j., molefe, l. & bruce, d. 2001. crime and crime prevention on public transport. pretoria: university of south africa. painter, d. & theron, w.h. 2001. heading south! importing discourse analysis. south african journal of psychology, 31, 1-8. palmary, i., barnes, b. 1998. bad boys and cool dudes: a study of school bullying. paper presented at the 4th annual qualitative methods conference (3-4 september) johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. patton, m.c. 1997. utilization-focused evaluation. the new century text. 3rd ed. thousand oaks, ca: sage. patton, m.c. 2002. qualitative research & evaluation methods. 3rd ed. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. payze, c. 1997. an overview of computer aided qualitative data analysis techniques. in m.j. terre blanche (ed.). the body politic. conference proceedings of the 2nd annual south african qualitative methods conference. johannesburg: university of south africa potter, c.s. & moodie, p. 1992. charting progress in large scale innovation: two studies – part two: a formative evaluation of curriculum development in a primary science project. journal of educational evaluation, 1, 50-70. pretorius, r. 1984. die vrou as slagoffer van geweld binne huweliksverband: ’n viktimologiese ondersoek. (ongepubliseerde d.phil-proefskrif) pretoria: universiteit van pretoria. radway, j. 1984. reading the romance. chapel hill, nc: university of north carolina press. ramphele, m. 1993. a bed called home: life in the migrant labour hostels of cape town. cape town: david phillip. rudenberg, s.l., jansen, p., & fridjohn, p. 1998. the effect of exposure during an ongoing climate of violence on children’s self-perceptions, as reflected in drawings. south african journal of psychology, 28, 107-115. roman, l. & apple, m. 1990. is naturalism a move away from positivism? materialist and feminist approaches to subjectivity in ethnographic research. in e. eisner, & a. peshkin (eds.). qualitative enquiry in education: the continuining debate. new york: teachers college press. pp. 38-73. roos, l., bergh, a., kruger c., pickworth, g., schurink, w. & van staden, w. 2002. final year medical students’ social construction/ experiences of ‘soft skills’ in the ‘old’ mbchb curriculum of the university of pretoria (first preliminary draft report) faculty of health science, university of pretoria, pretoria, april. sayles, 1958. the behaviour of industrial work groups. new york: wiley. sayles, l. 1964. managerial behaviour: administration in complex organisations. new york: mcgraw-hill. shantall, h.m. 1995. a phenomenological study of the meaning of suffering. unpublished d.phil. dissertation. pretoria: university of south africa. schreuder, d.m.g. 2001. the development of industrial psychology at south african universities: a historical overview and future perspective. journal of industrial psychology, 27 (4), 1-7. schurink, w.j. 1979. seksuele misdaad. in j.m. lötter, h.g. strijdom & w.j. schurink 1979. (eds.). eersterust: ’n sosiologiese studie van ’n kleurling-gemeenskap. (sexual crime in eersterust, a coloured community). pretoria: rgn, pp. 3 22 tot 3 22 91 (verslag s 63). schurink12 schurink, w.j. 1981. gay vroue: ’n sosiologiese verkenning van die leefwyse van ’n aantal lesbiërs aan die hand van outobiografiese sketse. (gay women: a sociological exploration of the lifest yle of some lesbians, based on autobiographic sketches.) pretoria: rgn (verslag s 74). schurink, w.j. 1985. ’n verkennende studie van prostitusie in eersterust. in j. mouton & h.c. marais (reds.). metodologie van die geesteswetenskappe: basiese begrippe. (an exploratory study of prostitution in eersterust.) pretoria: rgn (rgn studies in navorsingsmetodologie: 1). schurink, w.j. 1989. die realiteit van homoseksualisme: ’n sosiologies kwalitatiewe ontleding. (the realit y of homosexualism: a sociological-qualitative analysis.) potchefstroom: potchefstroomse universiteit vir christelike hoër onderwys. (unpublished doctoral thesis.) schurink, w.j. 1994. the 1994 election and prison violence. prison managers' views. (final report to the department of correctional services.) pretoria: hsrc. schurink, w.j. 1999. programme evaluation: views and practices from the field and general guidelines for the crime prevention iniatives at the wynberg, berea and marabastad/belle ombre modal interchanges. (draft discussion document for the project entitled: crime prevention on public transport). pretoria: hsrc. schurink, w.j. 2001. models of qualitative research. parts one & two. doctoral programme: leadership in performance and change. department of human resource management rau, johannesburg. 7-9 may 2001. schurink, w.j., de jongh van arkel, j.t. & roos, j.l. 1992. methodological account of the execution of qualitative methods in the family murder study. geneeskunde, 34 (8): 13-24. schurink, w.j. & levinthal, t. 1983. business women exchanging sex for money: a descriptive study. south african journal of sociology, 14 (4): 154 163. schurink, w.j., liebenberg, i. & schurink, e.m. 1993. commercial sex work. pretoria: hsrc (memorandum to department of national health and population development). schurink, w.j., maphatane, m., rip, s., schurink, e.m., smit, l. & tiba, m. 1993. street children. an investigation into the causes and incidence of the problem of street children in the rsa with the aid to develop a model for treatment, rehabilitation and prevention programmes. pretoria: human sciences research council. schurink, w.j., molope, c. & tshabalala, s. 1997. exploring some dimensions of child labour in south africa. working document. pretoria: the centre for human rights, university of pretoria. schurink, w.j. & ndabandaba, l.b.g. 1990. prostitution. in j.m. lötter, l.b.g. ndabandaba, & r. esterhuysen, r. (eds.). crime and its impact: a study in a black metropolitan area research papers. pretoria: hsrc (report ass/bbs 14 rp). schurink, w.j & schurink, e. m, 1988. developing practice wisdom into theory: the use of qualitative methodology. the social work practitioner-researcher, 1 (2): 27-37. schurink, w.j & schurink, e. m. 1990a. bms in the mykonos: participant observation in a south african gay club. in p. hugo (ed.). truth be in the field: social science research in southern africa. pretoria: university of south africa. schurink, w.j & schurink, e. m. 1990b. aids: lay perceptions of a group of gay men. pretoria: hsrc (report s 187). schurink, w.j. & winterbach, d.j. 1979. “seks te koop in diensorganisasies” ’n sosiologiese verkenning van prostitusie in masseersalonne en eskortagentskappe. (sex-for-sale in service organisations – a sociological exploration of prostitution in massage parlours and escort agencies.) pretoria: rgn (navorsingbevinding sn 174). sliep, y. 1994. a care – counselling model for aids patients in rural malawi. d.cur. unpublished (psychiatric nursing) thesis. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. siwani, j. 1986. an evaluation of a pilot programme for training community leaders. centre for continuing education, report and reprint series no. 36. johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. siwani, j., dzebu, m., & gentin, j.c. 1990. a review of the youth leadership development programme. centre for continuing education, report and reprint series no. 101. johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. sodi, t. 1996. phenomenology as a viable methodological approach to the study of indigenous healing. paper presented at the 2nd annual south african qualitative methods conference, (3-4 september) johannesburg. steenkamp, a. 1991. opleiding van sewmbadbestuurders by plaaslike owerhede: ’n situasie-analise. ongepubliseerde magister artium verhandeling. pretoria: universiteit van pretoria. stevens, p.e. & tighe doerr, b. 1997. trauma of discovery: women’s narratives of being informed that they are hivinfected. aids care, 9, 523-538. steyn, h.c. 1992. worldviews in transition: a study of the new age movement in south africa. unpublished doctor of literature and philosophy. pretoria: university of south africa. stewart, v. & stewart, a. 1981. business applications of repertory grid. maidenhead: mcgraw-hill. strauss, a.l. & corbin, j. 1990. basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques. newbury park: sage. stones, c.r. 1988. research: toward a phenomenological praxis (pp. 141-156). in d. kruger. an introduction to phenomenological psychology. 2nd revised edition. cape town: juta. suffla, s. 1997. experiences of induced abortion among a group of south african women. south african journal of psychology, 27, 214-222. symbol, g. & cassell, c. 1998. qualitative methods and analysis in organisational research: a practical guide, london: sage. swartz, s. 1996. shrinking: a postmodern perspective on psychiatric case histories. south african journal of psychology, 26, 150-161. taylor, s.j. & bogdan, r. 1984. introduction to qualitative research methods: the search for meanings. 2nd ed. new york: wiley. terri blanche, m.j. 1997. ‘the knowledge that one seeks to disinter’ psychiatry and the discourse of discourse analysis. in a. levitt, a. kottler, e. burman & i. parker (eds.). culture, power and difference: discourse analysis in south africa. london: zed books. terre blanche, m. & durrheim, k. (eds.), 1996. research in practice. applied methods for the social sciences. cape town: university of cape town press. sehlapelo, m. & terre blanche, m. psychometric testing in south africa: views from above and below. psychology in society, 21, 49-59. terre blanche, m. 1998. this is war. reply to fred van staden. south african journal of psychology, 28, 44-46. thatcher, a. & feldman, a. 1998. cybersex: no mess, no fuss? the search for virtual orgasm. in: m.j. terre blanche (ed.). touch me i’m sick. proceedings of the 3rd annual south african qualitative methods conference. pretoria: university of south africa. todd, pa., mckeen, j.d. & gallupe, r.b. 1995. the evolution of is job skills: a content analysis of is job advertisements from 1970 to 1990. mis quarterly, march, 1-24. trollip, a.m. 1991. die betekenis van die geakkultureerde kledingpraktyke vir bepaalde vroue in ’n ndyundya-ndebelever wantskapgroup [the meaning of acculturated clothing practices for particular women in a ndyundya-ndebele kinship group] (1991, d.phil., home economics and dietetics, university of pretoria). van der burgh, c. 1984. the social definition of mental illness by medical personnel: a sociological analysis. (unpublished doctor of literature and philosophy) pretoria: university of south africa. van maanen, j. 1988. tales of the field: on writing ethnography. chicago: university of chicago press. van staden, f. 1998. the ’new discursive paradigm’: as yet an elitist european import? comment on special edition of the sajp. south african journal of psychology, 28, 44. qualitive research in organisational studies 13 van vlaenderen, h., & gilbert, a. 1993. participatory research for human capacity building in rural development. in p. styger, & m. cameron (eds.). development in the transition. pretoria: development bank of south africa. van vuuren, r.j. 1991. dialogue beyond polemics. pretoria: human sciences research council. van zyl, c.b. die ge voelens, er varings en behoeftes van rasgemengde egpare in die suid-afrikaanse konteks – ’n gegronde teorie. unpublished d.litt. et. phil thesis. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. vermeulen, j. 2002. towards a genetic business code for growth in the transport industr y. unpublished dissertation. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. vermeulen, j., veldsman, t.h., roodt, g. & schurink, w. 2003. towards a genetic business code for growth in the transport industry. sa journal of human resource management, 1 (1), 1-16. vogelman, l. lewis, s., segal, l. 1994. life after death row: post traumatic stress and the story of philip takedi. south african journal of psychology, 24 (2), 91-99. vosloo, s. & barnard, a. 2002. a qualitative assessment of the development of employee assistance practice in south africa. south african journal of labour relations, 26 (4), 33-60. walker, m. 1994. research-based staff development. south african journal of higher education, 8, 49-53. weick, k.e. 1969. theory construction as disciplined reflexivity:tradeoffs in the 90’s. academy of management review, 24, 797-806. welman, j.c. & kruger, s.j. 1999. research methodology for the business and administrative sciences. cape town: oxford university press southern africa. wilbraham, l. 1996. “few of us are potential miss south africa’s but…”: psychological discourses about women’s bodies in advice columns. south african journal of psychology, 26, 162-171. williams, k., crafford, a. & fourie, l. 2003. an exploration of individual experiences of constant organisational change. sa journal of industrial psychology, 29 (2), 98-105. yin, r.k. 1984. case study research: design and methods. beverly hills, ca: sage. schurink14 abstract introduction theoretical background and hypotheses development research methodology results discussion conclusion, implications and future research acknowledgements references about the author(s) vongai ruzungunde department of industrial psychology, university of fort hare, east london, south africa willie t. chinyamurindi department of business management, faculty of management and sciences, university of fort hare, east london, south africa chioneso s. marange department of statistics, faculty of science and agriculture, university of fort hare, east london, south africa citation ruzungunde, v., chinyamurindi, w.t., & marange, c.s. (2023). determinants of mental health: role of organisational climate and decent work amongst employees. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2105. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2105 original research determinants of mental health: role of organisational climate and decent work amongst employees vongai ruzungunde, willie t. chinyamurindi, chioneso s. marange received: 08 sept. 2022; accepted: 07 feb. 2023; published: 07 aug. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: in south african organisations, a dual work is argued as important: first, the promotion of decent working conditions and secondly, encouraging workplaces that safe-guard the mental well-being of employees. research purpose: this study was aimed at investigating the determinants of mental health accounting for the role of organisational climate and decent work among public service employees in south africa. motivation of the study: there is a need for organisations to pay attention to those aspects that improve the mental well-being of employees. this also includes the promotion of workplace that in turn emphasises the promotion of decent work. research approach/design and method: a cross-sectional quantitative research design was adopted, using a self-administered questionnaire. a convenience sampling technique was used. data were collected from a sample of 289 public service employees working in the south african public service in the eastern cape province of south africa. main findings: the study found organisational climate to have a direct and positive association with decent work. further, there was support for the mediation of decent work on the relationship between organisational climate and employee mental health. practical/managerial implications: the main practical implication of the study is the need to argue for the promotion of decent working conditions through organisational interventions in supporting employee mental health. contribution/value-add: this becomes crucial in business environments where employees often suffer challenges that affect their well-being. keywords: employee mental health; organisational climate; decent work; organisation; south africa. introduction promotion of employee mental health is deemed vital for the success of contemporary businesses (nieuwenhuijsen et al., 2015; mayo et al., 2021). there are growing calls for businesses not only to embrace but also be advocating for the promotion of employee mental health (greenwood & anas, 2021; sachs et al., 2019). this becomes important especially as businesses seek to recover from the challenges posed by the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic (chinyamurindi, 2022; park & fowler, 2021). in post-recovery efforts from the covid-19 pandemic, employee mental health support services are needed, especially in organisations (greenwood & anas, 2021). these can be a safeguard and a resilience-building mechanism for businesses (maruping et al., 2021). from this, new envisaged roles are being argued for the human resource management (hrm) function, especially in the african continent (chinyamurindi et al., 2021). key to this role is the advocacy that can be done through the organisation and its employees in promoting health outcomes (hubert et al., 2022), especially mental health (mathibe & chinyamurindi, 2021). calls exist in the literature for the need to understand how organisations can assist employees in navigating through challenges that are being experienced (greenwood, 2021). in seeking to arrive at such interventions, a need exists for a collaborative spirit between the employer and the employee (chinyamurindi, 2022). a crucial aspect also concerns the conditions that promote harmonious work and decent working conditions (chada et al., 2022). within the confines of the workplace and considering the role of the hrm function, the promotion of well-being becomes crucial (d’auria et al., 2020), which also includes mental well-being (mathibe & chinyamurindi, 2021). such an understanding can potentially aid the hrm function in its service delivery to the organisation, especially in view of ongoing challenges (bapuji et al., 2020). further, such efforts can potentially address challenges faced, especially, in african organisations. these include low productivity, absenteeism and a high labour turnover (chinyamurindi, 2019). in essence, paying attention to issues related to mental well-being and the conditions of work can potentially enhance the competitiveness of business organisations (greenwood & anas, 2021). there is, therefore, a need to prioritise people management and support within organisations (handfield et al., 2020). potentially, this can be a source for gaining a competitive advantage (evans, 2019) and a more harmonious workplace (chada et al., 2022; chinyamurindi, 2022). some of the mental health challenges acknowledged in the workplace have been linked to factors in the workplace such as poor communication, the company’s organisational culture and management practices, workplace bullying and psychological harassment (kestel, 2019). these factors align with the definitions of organisational climate and potentially point to organisational climate as harbouring stressors, if not supervised, which may lead to experiencing mental health challenges in the workplace (qureshi et al., 2013). employees do not experience mental health issues in seclusion; the employers and organisational settings can also play a role (chinyamurindi, 2019). an unhealthy work environment may impact negatively on employees. psychological effects such as anxiety, anger and lack of concentration are some of the negative outcomes reported in unhealthy work environments (qureshi et al., 2014). mental health should, therefore, be viewed and treated as an organisational priority instead of an individual challenge (chinyamurindi, 2022). it becomes necessary for organisations to continually place emphasis on the promotion of employee mental health (mathibe & chinyamurindi, 2021). every employee desires working conditions that promote equity, freedom, security and safe working conditions (international labour organization, 2022). this has been espoused even in the sustainable development goals (united nations, 2015) calling for a link between business and society (köhler et al., 2019). these desired working conditions form the definition of decent work (international labour organization, 2022). the challenges experienced by public service employees have been noted to originate from their work conditions (chinyamurindi, 2019), with these challenges linked to negative outcomes in the workplace such as increased mental health challenges (chinyamurindi, 2019) and amplified turnover (shibiti, 2019). within the workplace, mental health risks can include excessive workloads and negative behaviour enabling culture, unsafe and poor working conditions and long inflexible working hours among many others (world health organization [who], 2022). challenges experienced by public service employees are recognised to be a result of alterations in work control, decision power and independence (schmidt et al., 2017). safe and healthy working environments, achieved through the promotion of decent work, can minimise work tensions and conflict, thereby plummeting staff turnover and increasing performance and productivity (who, 2022). by promoting decent work in organisations, mental health can be also be promoted through the inclusion and provision of opportunities for building positive relationships provided by decent work (chada et al., 2022; who, 2022). it, therefore, becomes necessary to consider decent work in the quest to understand employee mental health and promote healthy workplaces. an employee’s perception of their organisation’s policies, practices and measures as associated with their experience is important for organisations. there is an acknowledgement that if the organisation’s environment threatens an employee’s security, freedom, equity and safe working conditions, negative effects such as stress can affect their mental health (qureshi et al., 2014). it is against this background that this study explored the potential role that organisational climate can have as a determinant of employee mental health. this included ascertaining the role that decent working conditions could potentially play not just in the organisational climate but also regarding employee mental health. such a quest potentially answers a call in promoting a body of evidence around this topic especially within african organisations (shava & chinyamurindi, 2021). public service employees are important for the build-up of the nation, and this study contributes towards positive nation building by addressing the menace of challenges encountered by them. by considering decent work as a determinant, the study contributes towards the attainment of sustainable development goal number 8 that focuses on the promotion of decent work for sustainable development. the study will also provide organisations with pointers towards the relevant employee mental health support services needed in organisations post-covid-19. continued efforts and research need to be done to ensure that programmes and interventions introduced have their basis on the best information available for promoting the mental health of employees. there are few studies linking mental health, organisational climate and decent work. this study contributes to the body of research by considering the mediating role of decent work on organisational climate and employee mental health within an african organisation context. the paper follows a structure. the next section reviews the literature. this is followed by the methodology adopted in the study. thereafter, the results and discussion are presented in relation to the presented literature. the final section concludes the paper with practical implications being drawn for the organisation including policy ramifications. theoretical background and hypotheses development this paper focuses on two theories in understanding the determinants of employee mental health. the first is the organisational climate theory (aarons et al., 2014), the emphasis of which is that the organisational environment, through policies, procedures and practices, informs the resultant behaviours in the organisation (schneider et al., 2017). priority is placed on the social processes within the organisation and the resultant interactions and communication between employees and managers (schneider et al., 1992). these processes happen in response to job demands and from these resources are used to cope with challenges (bakker & demerouti, 2007). promoting a conducive organisational culture can serve as an aid for all stakeholders in organisations (andersson et al., 2020). the second theoretical consideration is the psychology of working theory (pwt) (duffy et al., 2016). in this theory, work is regarded as having an important meaning in the lives of individuals (blustein, 2001). an important outcome of this is the promotion of positive experiences of work that in turn support mental health (blustein, 2013). there is, therefore, a need to consider the role that the social, economic and political factors can have on the lives of individuals and their work (blustein et al., 2019). these factors can potentially affect the experience of decent work (duffy et al., 2016). within the pwt, tenets of decent work include: (1) physically and interpersonally safe working conditions, (2) access to health care, (3) adequate compensation, (4) hours that allow free time and rest and finally, (5) organisational values that complement family and social values (duffy et al., 2017). organisational climate and employee mental health the organisational climate is defined as consisting of those behaviours deemed to be acceptable or not acceptable in view of the goals of the business (kılıç & altuntas, 2019). such behaviours are encompassed within the rules, practices and procedures of the organisation (schneider et al., 2013). through the interaction of employees with the rules, practices and procedures of the organisation, an eventual climate is formed (ali et al., 2018). factors in the organisation such as the perceived organisational climate have been found to be linked with aspects related to how individuals adjust to change (valenzuela et al., 2020). the ideology here is that the organisational climate creates an environment in which employees respond to changes they face. it becomes prudent for managers to be intentional in creating an organisational climate that allows for employees not only to flourish but also be productive (datta & singh, 2018). this can be done in improving aspects that reinforce the organisational climate. these aspects include training and learning, teamwork, support services for employees and role clarity within the organisation (akrong et al., 2022). the organisational climate has been linked to several outcomes. findings in china show the organisational climate to be linked to the harmony and sense of self-responsibility that employees can develop (huang et al., 2022). others attribute a conducive organisational climate to healthy knowledge-sharing behaviours (al-kurdi et al., 2020). this potentially can affect the performance of employees and the productivity levels a business strives for (sherman et al., 2018). when organisations encourage a context where the organisational climate is prioritised, this usually results in empowered employees (liu & tang, 2019). these empowered employees through a conducive organisational climate have been found to be able to manage conflicts better (apipalakul & kummoon, 2017). from these, positive behaviours can potentially emerge favourable to the individual and the organisation. calls exist within the literature in extending an understanding through linkages between the organisational climate and employee health outcomes (loh et al., 2019). hypothesis 1: organisational climate has a direct and positive association with employee mental health decent work and employee mental health there are growing calls to pay attention to the promotion of decent work. scholars attribute decent work to consist of how individuals ascribe meaning and fulfilment through the work they do (di fabio & blustein, 2016). decent work also captures aspects that make work enjoyable. this includes adequate remuneration, social protection and a context conducive for work (ferraro et al., 2020). in essence, favourable and decent work conditions can assist individuals to ascribe a meaningful contribution in their lives (di fabio & maree, 2016). the result of this as an outcome is also a workplace that is productive and that allows individuals to thrive (blustein et al., 2019). this may potentially include positive healthy behaviours (bawuro et al., 2019). in promoting decent working conditions, some benefits may be accrued. with reference to the employee, addressing conditions of work may assist them to be more engaged in their work (bakker & van wingerden, 2021). this level of engagement may also result in positive work behaviours (schaufeli, 2021), including outcomes that encourage well-being (argote et al., 2021). for the organisation, addressing conditions of work can be attributed to organisational outcomes that affirm a level of productivity and better performance (ferraro et al., 2020; graça et al., 2021). hypothesis 2: decent work has a direct and positive association with employee mental health the effect of mediation of decent work on organisational climate and employee mental health the presence of a supportive organisational climate can only thrive in the presence of work conditions that support such an ideal. the presence of a meaningful and healthy environment can support such an organisational climate (zhang et al., 2022). the presence of decent working conditions assists both the realisation of an environment suitable for work (blustein et al., 2019) and achieving employee and organisation outcomes (adams et al., 2022). the context created can possibly allow the experience of decent work (di ruggiero et al., 2015). this requires paying attention to variables such as organisational climate as important contextual factors that can influence the experience of work (duffy et al., 2017), which in turn allows for employees to have confidence in their experience of work (savickas & porfeli, 2012) and possibly favourable outcomes in terms of mental and physical health (duffy et al., 2016). in prioritising their efforts towards business growth including productivity, emphasis should be on paying attention to factors that encourage conditions of work. these are noted to have advantages in also assisting the well-being of employees (argote et al., 2021). saliently, attending to the match between the organisational climate and priority for decent work can be useful in response to the challenges organisations face in the form of demands. such demands when not managed will potentially create mental health challenges (bjornberg, 2017; schaufeli, 2017). hypothesis 3: decent work mediates the relationship between organisational climate and employee mental health in view of the presented literature, figure 1 shows the research model to the study. figure 1: research model. research methodology data collection procedures a quantitative research approach was utilised relying on the survey data collection technique. the study was conducted in the eastern cape province of south africa relying on public service departments located in bisho. the research used a convenience sampling technique. five public entities were approached to take part in this research and a total of 500 questionnaires were distributed. from all this, a total of 289 respondents were attained with questionnaires deemed suitable for data analysis. this was a response rate of 58%. measures three main measures were used for this study. firstly, organisational climate was measured using a 15-item scale (peña-suárez et al., 2013). secondly, decent work was measured using a 15-item scale developed by duffy and colleagues (duffy et al., 2017) with five dimensions that include: (1) safe working conditions, (2) access to health care, (3) adequate compensation, (4) free time and rest and (5) complementary values. and thirdly, employee mental health was measured using a six-item scale, the kessler psychological distress scale (k6) (furukawa et al., 2003). respondents for the k6 were asked to indicate how they had felt during the past 30 days: (1) nervous; (2) hopeless; (3) restless or fidgety; (4) so depressed that nothing could cheer you up; (5) that everything was an effort and (6) worthless. all three scales were measured on a five-point likert scale. concerning reliability, the cronbach alpha coefficients (cacs) from the study all met the required threshold of 0.7, as stipulated (nunnally, 1978). all the scales used in the study have been validated in a similar context or setting. firstly, the decent work scale has been tested within a developing nation context and found to have sufficient psychometric properties hence its usage (atitsogbe et al., 2021; sanhokwe & takawira, 2022). secondly, the mental health scale has been used with success within a similar context of this study, the south african public service (mathibe & chinyamurindi, 2021) and internationally (bessaha, 2017). finally, the organisational climate has been used with similar success (berberoglu, 2018; prieto-díez et al., 2022). respondents the data were collected through a convenience sampling technique relying on a sample of public service employees in the eastern cape province of south africa. the use of convenience sampling can make it difficult to generalise results to a greater population; therefore, to reduce the chances of sampling error, a large sample size was used. ethical consideration the research team applied for ethical clearance through the participating institution, the university of fort hare. from this process, an institutional ethical clearance certificate was issued (reference number: chi151shar01). the research was also funded through a grant provided by the south african medical research council. data analysis steps the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 27 and the process macro for spss (hayes, 2013) were used for the data analysis. the underlying premise was the use of a regression-based approach to mediation as a basis for the analyses. before running the analysis, we examined the theoretical variables to determine if mediation was appropriate. the variables under study were decent work, organisational climate and employee mental health, all measured on a likert-type scale. in addition, for mediation analysis to be possible, we assessed the data to see whether the assumptions for linearity, homoscedasticity, normality of estimation error and independence of observations were met. for linearity, the relationship between x and y should be linear to minimise error (hayes, 2013). to assess this assumption, we plotted residuals against predicted values in regressions: x predicting y1, x predicting m, m predicting y1 and x and m predicting y1. for homoscedasticity, it is required that the estimation error be equal across all predicted y values (hayes, 2013). to check homoscedasticity, we used the same plots created to examine linearity, but looking for consistency in a vertical range across the x axis to see whether the data spread on the y axis consistently and equally throughout the plot, thus resembling a rectangle. to examine normality, q–q plots were used, and lastly, given that we sampled our participants from a participant pool, it is unlikely that we had underlying common characteristics that would compromise the independence of our estimation error. after assessing all the necessary assumptions, a descriptive analysis was then used to describe the study’s demographic features and theoretical variables. for inferential analysis, the cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to assess the reliability of the study’s theoretical variables and constructs. the hayes process macro was then used to address the hypothesised frameworks. following mackinnon et al. (2007), the strength of the indirect and the direct effects was used to determine the result of the mediation analysis. if the indirect effect is significant, then it is a successful mediation. when this occurs, the direct effect may disappear or remain significant: if it disappears, then there is complete mediation (i.e. the effect of x on y is entirely due to m), whereas if it remains, then there is partial mediation (i.e. m does account for part of the relationship between x and y, but x still predicts y even when taking m into account). adopting these guidelines, a simple mediation analysis was conducted for the hypothesised conceptual model. the next section presents the results of the study. results descriptive and reliability analysis table 1 shows a description of theoretical variables for the variables used in this study. table 1: descriptive analysis of theoretical variables (n = 289). table 1 also shows the descriptive statistics of the established theoretical variables and constructs. measured on a 5-point likert scale, all variables and constructs reported moderate mean levels. however, employee mental health had a slightly lower mean rating (mean = 2.61, sd = 0.46) from the sampled participants. confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis a confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) followed by a reliability analysis were conducted to assess the validity and reliability of the study’s measurement scales. literature was used as a guide on the empirical factors for these tools. for the cfa, some model fit indices and their criteria were used to examine the goodness-of-fit of the measurement models. these model fit indices include the chi-square value degrees of freedom ratio (χ2/df, abbreviated as cmin/df), the comparative fit index (cfi), the tucker-lewis index (tli), the standardized root mean square residual (srmr) and the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea). the criteria for a good fit were cfi, and tli values ≥ 0.95 (hu and bentler, 1998; west et al., 2012); cmin/df values ≤ 3 (kline, 1998) and srmr as well as rmsea values ≤ 0.05 (maccallum et al., 1996; diamantopoulos and siguaw, 2000). in case the model does not meet the criteria for a good fit, we used the criteria for an acceptable model fit. thus, the criteria for acceptable model fit were cfi, and tli values 0.90 ≤ cfi or tli < 0.95 (daire hooper, et al., 2008; west et al., 2012); cmin/df values 3 < cmin/df ≤ 5 (marsh and hocevar, 1985); srmr values 0.05 < srmr ≤ 0.09 (hu and bentler, 1998) and, rmsea values 0.05 < rmsea ≤ 0.10 (schermelleh and moosbrugger, 2003). in terms of reliability, a cronbach’s α coefficient larger than 0.70 (nunnally and bernstein, 1994) indicated acceptable internal consistency and according to pallant (2001) an alpha cronbach’s value above 0.6 is considered an acceptable index. to measure composite/construct reliability (cr), the joreskog rho coefficient (jöreskog, 1971; fornell and larcker, 1981) was utilized where according to hair, hult, ringle, and sarstedt (2014) the minimum composite reliability value should exceed 0.70. convergent validity was assessed by the average variance extracted (ave) (fornell and larcker, 1981), where ave > 0.50 was considered a good convergent validity (schumacker and lomax, 2016). a minimum cut-off point of 0.50 is recommended but <0.50 can be accepted provided the composite reliability is higher than 0.60, but some studies in literature indicated that the ave values < 0.50 are acceptable provided the cr values are > 0.60 (raines-eudy 2000; schumacker and lomax 2016; qin et al. 2022). table 2 shows these results. table 2: the organisational climate confirmatory factor analysis and internal consistency output. based on the results in table 2, a cfa and reliability analysis was conducted on the 35-item organisational climate scale. the most parsimonious model was achieved with only 15 items loading on six factors. all factor loadings were above 0.65 (see table 1). the established factor structure shows 2 items for organisational design (factor 1), 3 items for communication (factor 2), 3 items for leadership (factor 3), 2 items for teamwork (factor 4), 2 items for decision making (factor 5) and 3 items for motivation (factor 6). the value of the average variance extracted for the majority of the constructs is greater than the required minimum of 0.50 except for factor 5 (ave = 0.489). with a minimum cut-off point of 0.50, thus the convergent validity for the majority of these factors is deemed adequate. however, even though a minimum cut-off point of 0.50 is recommended but < 0.50 can be accepted provided the composite reliability is higher than 0.60, thus the convergent validity for factor 5 is also deemed adequate. the internal consistency of these factors is statistically acceptable since all the values are more than 0.60 for all the constructs with an overall cronbach alpha of 0.839. further, assessing the joreskog rho for measuring composite reliability, the values of cr are also more than 0.60 for all the constructs. these results show that the reliability and composite reliability is adequate for the established measurement model, for the organisational climate measurement tool. examining the fitness of the established measurement model (see table 3), the fit indices indicate that the organisational climate model had an acceptable fit for the data. thus, cmin/df is 2.661 which is < 3 and srmr is 0.049 which is < 0.05 are both regarded as a good fit. on the other hand, cfi is 0.923, which is just below 0.95 whilst tli is 0.901, which is just above 0.90, and rmsea of 0.076 with 90% ci [0.063 – 0.089] indicating an acceptable model fit for the organisational climate measurement model. table 3: the decent work confirmatory factor analysis and internal consistency output. the employee mental health confirmatory factor analysis and internal consistency output are presented in table 4. table 4: the employee mental health confirmatory factor analysis and internal consistency output. the cfa and reliability analysis was conducted on the 6-item mental health measurement tool and the most parsimonious model was achieved with 4 items. the factor loadings were all above 0.55 for the retained items. the average variance extracted was 0.434, which indicated an acceptable level of convergent reliability since the composite reliability (cr = 0.752) is greater than 0.60. the internal consistency shows a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.750, which reveals a statistically acceptable level of reliability for the mental health tool. in table 3, the fit indices indicate that the mental health measurement model had a good fit for the data. thus, cmin/df is 2.359 which is < 3 and srmr is 0.024 which is < 0.05 are both regarded as a good fit. in addition, cfi is 0.989, which is > 0.95 and tli is 0.968, which is also > 0.95 indicating a good model fit for the mental health measurement model. lastly, cfa and reliability analysis was conducted on the 15-item decent work scale. these results are shown in table 3. the most parsimonious model was achieved with 14 items loading on five factors with all loadings above 0.55 (see table 3). assessing the items for each factor, the established factors were named safe working conditions (factor 1), access to health care (factor 2), adequate compensation (factor 3), free time and rest (factor 4), and complementary values (factor 5). the ave for all the factors is greater than the required minimum of 0.50, thus the convergent validity for the established factors is deemed adequate. the internal consistency of these factors is statistically acceptable since all the values are more than 0.70 for all the constructs with an overall cronbach alpha of 0.713. further, assessing the joreskog rho for measuring composite reliability, the values of cr are also more than 0.70 for all the constructs. the results in table 3 show that the reliability and composite reliability is adequate for the established measurement model, for the decent work measurement tool. examining the fitness of the established measurement model (see table 3), the fit indices indicate that the decent work measurement model had a reasonably good fit for the data. thus, cmin/df is 2.321, which is < 3, srmr, is 0.047, which is < 0.05, and cfi is 0.955, which is > 0.95 are all regarded as a good fit. on the other hand, tli is 0.939, which is just below 0.95 and rmsea of 0.068 with 90% ci [0.054 – 0.082] indicating an acceptable model fit for the decent work measurement model. in conclusion (in view of tables 2, 3 and 4) all the measurement models have fulfilled all the model fit requirements, thus are suitable for building linkage between factors and determining contribution of constructs in measuring organisational climate, mental health and decent work within the sampled organisation. thus, the results for the fitness indexes assessment for the measurement models of the confirmatory factor analysis shows that the established measurement models are adequate. these established variables were then used for further analysis. simple mediation analysis we conducted a simple mediation analysis to investigate the hypothesis that decent work mediates the relationship between organisational climate and employee mental health as shown in table 5. table 5: mediation analysis to determine the mediating effect of decent work on the relationship between organisational climate and employee mental health. based on table 5 and through a simple mediation analysis, the following conclusions are made: hypothesis 1: while controlling for decent work (mediator), the results of the regression path analysis indicated that organisational climate had a positive and statistically significant association with employee mental health (β = 0.5233, t = 15.0668, p ≤ 0.0001). in addition, the total effect of organisational climate on employee mental health is statistically significant (β = 0.5511, t = 16.7074, p ≤ 0.0001). these results suggest that organisational climate has a direct and positive association with employee mental health. since organisational climate is a significant predictor of employee mental health after controlling for the mediator, decent work, this result is consistent with partial mediation. hypothesis 2: to assess hypothesis 2, we examined path b of the model in figure 2. the results reveal that decent work had a significant direct and positive association with employee mental health (β = 0.1220, t = 2.3788, p ≤ 0.0001). in addition, path a in figure 2 also indicates that decent work had a significant direct and positive association with organisational climate (β = 0.2270, t = 6.0305, p ≤ 0.0001). thus, higher levels of reported organisational climate were found to be related to higher levels of decent work. these results support the mediational hypothesis. hypothesis 3: the mediation effect was examined using the indirect effect. a 95% bias-corrected confidence interval based on 10 000 bootstrap samples indicated that the indirect effect (β = 0.0277) was entirely above zero (with 95% ci [0.0060–0.0521]). thus, employees reported greater employee mental health even after considering organisational climate’s indirect effect through decent work. higher levels of organisational climate were associated with employee mental health scores that were approximately 0.0277 points higher as mediated by decent work. in conclusion, decent work partially mediates the relationship between organisational climate and employee mental health. figure 2: simple mediation results. discussion this research sought to investigate the determinants of mental health accounting for the role of organisational climate and decent work among public service employees in south africa. based on hypothesis 1, the findings show support of the positive role that the organisational climate has on employee mental health. in essence, the rules, practices and procedures inherent in the organisation have the potential to enact positive behaviours within the organisation (schneider et al., 2013). this study shows that one such behaviour is employee mental health. it becomes crucial for the organisation to consistently work at re-defining itself in seeking to become better (ali et al., 2018). such a situation must have at its centre the employees as important stakeholders. due to the rapid change, organisations are experiencing (valenzuela et al., 2020) the need for a conducive organisational climate (datta & singh, 2018). the need for such a climate is emphasised in this study with a link being shown to employee mental health. in essence, the study, through this finding, extends to the list of organisational outcomes that can emanate from addressing the organisational climate (al-kurdi et al., 2020; huang et al., 2022; sherman et al., 2018). based on hypothesis 2, the findings show support of the effect of decent work on employee mental health. through promoting decent working conditions, organisations are assisting their employees in being able to perform optimally. further, this will promote their mental well-being. the conditions around work not only assist in how the work is done but also impact the general well-being of those doing the work (ferraro et al., 2020). the study in essence contributes to the ongoing inquiry into the effect that the role of decent work can have both on organisations and on employees (blustein et al., 2019; di fabio & blustein, 2016). the study also magnifies the importance of addressing conditions of work in assisting employee mental well-being (argote et al., 2021; bawuro et al., 2019). based on hypothesis 3, the study found support for the mediation of decent work in the relationship between organisational climate and employee mental health. this finding shows support of the importance of addressing conditions of work as a precursor to encouraging positive work behaviours (zhang et al., 2022). uniquely, this study accounts for the interaction of decent work and organisational climate to influence employee mental health. in doing so, answering calls for research seeking to understand how organisational experiences and work conditions can be combined in fostering positive work behaviours (adams et al., 2022; blustein et al., 2019). the study, therefore, directs organisations towards the relevant employee mental health support services that can be implemented to minimise the mental health issues and its repercussions. understanding the interaction of decent work and organisational climate and their influence on mental health can be useful in response to the challenges organisations face. conclusion, implications and future research conclusion the findings of the study heighten the need to pay attention to two key aspects en route to promoting employee mental health. the first is that there is a need for a concerted effort towards addressing aspects related to the organisational climate. this can be through the internal processes, rules and procedures specific to the organisation. such an effort addresses the context of work. the second aspect of importance is to pay attention to decent working conditions. the tenets of the pwt as to the constituents of decent work can assist in showing the areas for emphasis (duffy et al., 2017). saliently, these include: (1) physically and interpersonally safe working conditions, (2) access to health care, (3) adequate compensation, (4) hours that allow free time and rest and finally, (5) organisational values that complement family and social values (duffy et al., 2017). based on the findings of this research, decent working conditions merely create a platform through which a conducive organisational climate can assist the mental health of employees. theoretical implications the study shows support of theories used. firstly, in ensuring efforts of addressing employee mental health, the organisational climate theory (aarons et al., 2014) emphasises the existing internal order that must be existent. secondly, for decent working conditions to assist employee mental well-being, the tenets of the pwt are considered (duffy et al., 2016). viewed together and through the findings, the promotion of employee mental health is an integrative work between the need to foster a conducive environment and equally paying attention to the conditions of work. practical implications based on this research, we proffer some suggestions on how employee mental health can be promoted within the workplace. firstly, a need exists for an organisational climate conducive not just for conversations around mental well-being but also interventions to this. this can be achieved through resourcing organisations to be able to deal with the challenge of mental health. secondly, there is a need for the hrm function to play a more meaningful and intentional role in the promotion of mental well-being. this could be achieved through advocacy around improving decent working conditions. attention could be given to establishment of policies and organisational interventions that promote decent work such as (1) safe working conditions, (2) access to health care, (3) adequate compensation, (4) hours that allow free time and rest and finally, (5) organisational values that complement family and social values. in essence, this framing of decent work by duffy et al. (2017) becomes a useful starting point for practical interventions to assist in promoting employee mental health. the study’s findings highlight the need for organisations to consider the importance of workplace social support structures in promoting employee mental health. organisations can put policies in place and promote a work culture that advocates for employee mental health. such initiatives can be key in addressing issues related to stigma around mental health issues in workplaces (greenwood, 2021). organisations can also engage in employee assistance programmes as a way of dealing with employee mental health challenges. understanding the employees’ perception of decent work is key for organisations in the effective implementation of policies and structures that will promote safe working conditions and create a conducive organisational climate. based on the study’s findings, paying attention to mental health issues among employees with a focus on decent work and organisational climate will aid in having employees who are better equipped to deliver better services to the public. limitations and avenues for future research some limitations can be drawn from this study. we flag some issues inherent in the research approach we used. these include common method bias and the cross-sectional design of the study. finally, there is a need to take into consideration issues around aggregation of scores across dimensions as done in this research. caution is needed as combined scales may undermine the model fit. future research may be undertaken to overcome these limitations. further, future research angles can be proposed borrowing from this study. firstly, future research could incorporate a qualitative research inquiry, especially into the aspects stemming from the findings. for instance, this could be conducting interviews with employees to ascertain their experience of decent work as well as the type of organisational environments they deem to be supporting of their mental health. interviews will afford an opportunity for such an inquiry. potentially, this expands from the findings of this study. secondly, a comparative study could be done across different organisational formats, which could be comparing the experiences of employee well-being and mental health between the public and the private sector. future research could also include stakeholders within the organisation other than employees as done in this study. the role of managers becomes crucial in enforcing a conducive organisational climate and decent working conditions. future research could include varying management tiers in gauging their experience and understanding, especially of the issues investigated in this study. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions v.r. was a post-doctoral fellow supervised by w.c. c.s.m. assisted with the data analysis. w.c. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of fort hare research ethics committee (no. chi028). funding information the research received funding from the south african medical research council. data availability the data used were obtained via interviews and are represented in the manuscript in the presented tables. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references aarons, g.a., ehrhart, m.g., farahnak, l.r., & sklar, m. (2014). aligning leadership across systems and organizations to develop a strategic climate for evidence-based practice implementation. annual review of public health, 35, 255–274. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-032013-182447 adams, s., mustafa, m., bareham, c., carryer, j., tenbensel, t., & poghosyan, l. (2022). the organizational climate for nurse practitioners working in primary health care in new zealand: a national survey. the journal for nurse practitioners, 18(7), 736–740. https://doi.org/10.1071/hc21036 akrong, g.b., shao, y., & owusu, e. (2022). evaluation of organizational climate factors on tax administration enterprise resource planning (erp) system. heliyon, 8(6), e09642. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e09642 al-kurdi, o.f., el-haddadeh, r., & eldabi, t. (2020). the role of organisational climate in managing knowledge sharing among academics in higher education. international journal of information management, 50, 217–227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.05.018 ali, m., lei, s., & wei, x.y. (2018). the mediating role of the employee relations climate in the relationship between strategic hrm and organizational performance in chinese banks. journal of innovation knowledge, 3(3), 115–122. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10419/190738 andersson, m., moen, o., & brett, p.o. (2020). the organizational climate for psychological safety: associations with smes’ innovation capabilities and innovation performance. journal of engineering and technology management, 55, 101554. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jengtecman.2020.101554 apipalakul, c., & kummoon, d. (2017). the effects of organizational climate to conflict management amongst organizational health personnel. procedia-social and behavioural sciences, 237, 1216–1222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2017.02.192 argote, l., lee, s., & park, j. (2021). organisational learning processes and outcomes: major findings and future research directions. management science, 67(9), 5399–5429. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2020.3693 atitsogbe, k.a., kossi, e.y., pari, p., & rossier, j. (2021). decent work in sub-saharan africa: an application of psychology of working theory in a sample of togolese primary school teachers. journal of career assessment, 29(1), 36–53. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072720928255 bakker, a.b. & demerouti, e. (2007). the job demands-resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22(3) 309–328. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 bakker, a.b., & van wingerden, j. (2021). do personal resources and strengths use increase work engagement? the effects of a training intervention. journal of occupational health psychology, 26(1), 20. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000266 bapuji, h., de bakker, f., brown, j., higgins, c., rehbein, k., & spicer, a. (2020). business and society research in the times of the corona crisis. business & society, 59(6), 1067–1078. https://doi.org/10.1177/0007650320921172 bawuro, f.a., shamsuddin, a., wahab, e., & usman, h. (2019). mediating role of meaningful work in the relationship between intrinsic motivation and innovative work behaviour. international journal of scientific and technology research, 8(9), 2076–2084. retrieved from https://www.ijstr.org/final-print/sep2019/mediating-role-of-meaningful-work-in-the-relationship-between-intrinsic-motivation-and-innovative-work-behaviour.pdf berberoglu, a. (2018). impact of organizational climate on organizational commitment and perceived organizational performance: empirical evidence from public hospitals. bmc health services research, 18, 399. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-3149-z bessaha, m.l. (2017). factor structure of the kessler psychological distress scale (k6) among emerging adults. research on social work practice, 27(5), 616–624. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049731515594425 bjornberg, n.h. (2017). creativity and innovation through the job demands-resources model. phd dissertation psychology, old dominion university. retrieved from https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/psychology_etds/63 blustein, d.l. (2001). extending the reach of vocational psychology: toward an inclusive and integrative psychology of working. journal of vocational behaviour, 59(2), 171–182. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2001.1823 blustein, d.l. (2013). the psychology of working: a new perspective for a new era. in d.l. blustein (ed.), the oxford handbook of the psychology of working (pp. 3–18). oxford university press. blustein, d.l., kenny, m.e., di fabio, a., & guichard, j. (2019). expanding the impact of the psychology of working: engaging psychology in the struggle for decent work and human rights. journal of career assessment, 27(1), 3–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072718774002 chada, l., mashavira, n., & mathibe, m.s. (2022). the role of decent work in the zimbabwean retail sector: testing a job engagement and turnover intention model. south african journal of human resource management, 20, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.2029 chinyamurindi, w.t. (2019). mental health research in african organisations: advancing theory and practice. south african journal of industrial psychology, 45, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1437 chinyamurindi, w.t. (2022). the intended and unintended consequences of remote working: narratives from a sample of female public service managers in south africa. frontiers in psychology, 13, 949914. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.949914 chinyamurindi, w.t., masha, a.k., & tshabalala, n. (2021). the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on industrial organisational psychologists in south africa: imagining new professional roles. south african journal of industrial psychology, 47(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v47i0.1876 d’auria, g., nielsen, c., & zolley, s. (2020) tuning in, turning outward: cultivating compassionate leadership in a crisis. mckinsey & company. retrieved march 14, 2022 from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/tuning-in-turning-outward-cultivating-compassionate-leadership-in-a-crisis datta, a., & singh, r. (2018). determining the dimensions of organizational climate perceived by the hotel employees. journal of hospitality and tourism management, 36, 40–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2018.07.001 di fabio, a., & blustein, d.l. (2016). from meaning of working to meaningful lives: the challenges of expanding decent work. frontiers media. di fabio, a., & maree, j.g. (2016). a psychological perspective on the future of work: promoting sustainable projects and meaning-making through grounded reflexivity. counseling, 9(3), 1–5. retrieved from https://rivistedigitali.erickson.it/counseling/archivio/vol-9-n-2-2/pokret_im_article-12490/ di ruggiero, e., cohen, j.e., cole, d.c., & forman, l. (2015). competing conceptualizations of decent work at the intersection of health, social and economic discourses. social science & medicine, 133, 120–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.03.026 duffy, r.d., allan, b.a., england, j.w., blustein, d.l., autin, k.l., douglass, r.p., & santos, e.j. (2017). the development and initial validation of the decent work scale. journal of counseling psychology, 64(2), 206–22. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000191 duffy, r.d., blustein, d.l., diemer, m.a., & autin, k.l. (2016). the psychology of working theory. journal of counseling psychology, 63(2), 127. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000140 evans, p. (2019). making an hrd domain: identity work in an online professional community. human resource development international, 22(2), 116–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2018.1564514 ferraro, t., dos santos, n.r., moreira, j.m., & pais, l. (2020). decent work, work motivation, work engagement and burnout in physicians. international journal of applied positive psychology, 5(1), 13–35. retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41042-019-00024-5 furukawa, t.a., kessler, r.c., slade, t., & andrews, g. (2003). the performance of the k6 and k10 screening scales for psychological distress in the australian national survey of mental health and well-being. psychological medicine, 33(2), 357–362. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291702006700 graça, m., pais, l., mónico, l., santos, n.r.d., ferraro, t., & berger, r. (2021). decent work and work engagement: a profile study with academic personnel. applied research in quality of life, 16(3), 917–939. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-019-09780-7 greenwood, k. (2021). how to talk about your mental health with your employer. harvard business review. retrieved march 14, 2022 from https://hbr.org/2021/07/how-to-talk-about-your-mental-health-with-your-employer greenwood, k. & anas, j. (2021). it’s a new era for mental health at work. harvard business review. retrieved march 14, 2022 from https://hbr.org/2021/10/its-a-new-era-for-mental-health-at-work handfield, r.b., graham, g., & burns, l. (2020). coronavirus, tariffs, trade wars and supply chain evolutionary design. international journal of operations & production management, 40(10), 1649–1660. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijopm-03-2020-0171 hayes, a.f. (2013). introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: a regression-based approach. guilford press. huang, s., hu, x., chang, y., zhu, s., li, a., & bao, p. (2022). investigation and analysis of university library organizational climate in china. the journal of academic librarianship, 48(4), 102555. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2022.102555 hubert, p., hadi, s.a., mojzisch, a., & hausser, j.a. (2022). the effects of organizational climate on adherence to guidelines for covid-19 prevention. social science & medicine, 292, 114622. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114622 international labor organization (2012). decent work indicators: concepts and definitions. retrieved march 14, 2022 from http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—dgreports/–integration/documents/publication/wcms_229374.pdf. accessed 14 march 2022 international labour organization. (2022). advancing social justice, promoting decent work. retrieved august 8, 2022, from https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/decent-work/lang--en/index.htm kestel, d. (2019). mental health in the workplace: going global. world health organization. retrieved march 14, 2022 from https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/mental-health-in-the-workplace kılıç, e., & altuntas, s. (2019). the effect of collegial solidarity among nurses on the organizational climate. international nursing review, 66(3), 356–365. https://doi.org/10.1111/inr.12509 köhler, j., geels, f.w., kern, f., markard, j., onsongo, e., wieczorek, a., alkemaade, f., avelino, f., bergek, a., boons, f., fuenfschilling, l., hess, d., holtz, g., hyysalo, s., jenkins, k., kivimaa, p., martiskainen, m., mcmeekin, a., mühlemeier, m.s.,…, wells, p. (2019). an agenda for sustainability transitions research: state of the art and future directions. environmental innovation and societal transitions, 31, 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2019.01.004 liu, y., & tang, h. (2019). optimizing library’s organizational climate through improvement of the weak scales identified by climatequal™ surveys: a case study of nanjing agricultural university library. the journal of academic librarianship, 45(5), 102051. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2019.102051 loh, m.y., idris, m.a., dormann, c., & muhamad, h. (2019). organisational climate and employee health outcomes: a systematic review. safety science, 118, 442–452. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2019.05.052 mackinnon, d.p., fairchild, a.j., & fritz, m.s. (2007). mediation analysis. annual review of psychology, 58(1), 593–614. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085542 maruping, l., rai, a., aljafari, r., & venkatesh, v. (2021). overcoming cross-organizational barriers to success in offshore projects. industrial management & data systems, 121(12), 2365–2386. https://doi.org/10.1108/imds-09-2020-0559 mathibe, m.s., & chinyamurindi, w.t. (2021). determinants of employee mental health in the south african public service: the role of organizational citizenship behaviours and workplace social support. advances in mental health, 19(3), 306–316. https://doi.org/10.1080/18387357.2021.1938153 mayo, a.t., myers, c.g., & sutcliffe, k.m. (2021). organizational science and health care. academy of management annals, 15(2), 537–576. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2019.0115 nieuwenhuijsen, k., hees, h.l., & schene, a.h. (2015). predictors of impaired work functioning in employees with major depression in remission. journal of affective disorders, 185, 180–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2015.07.013 nunnally, j. (1978). psychometric theory (2nd ed.). mcgraw-hill. retrieved from https://www.worldcat.org/title/psychometric-theory/oclc/3167590 nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory (3rd ed.). mcgraw-hill. park, s., & fowler, l. (2021). political and administrative decentralization and responses to covid-19: comparison of the united states and south korea. international journal of organization theory & behavior, 24(4), 289–299. retrieved from https://pesquisa.bvsalud.org/global-literature-on-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov/resource/en/covidwho-1405103 peña-suárez, e., muñiz, j., campillo-álvarez, a., fonseca-pedrero, e., & garcía-cueto, e. (2013). assessing organizational climate: psychometric properties of the clior scale. psicothema, 25(1), 137–144. https://doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2012.260 prieto-díez, f., postigo, á., cuesta, m., & muñiz, j. (2022). work engagement: organizational attribute or personality trait?. journal of work and organizational psychology, 38(2), 85–92. https://doi.org/10.5093/jwop2022a7 qureshi, m.i., iftikhar, m., janjua, s.y., zaman, k., raja, u.m., & javed, y. (2013). empirical investigation of mobbing, stress and employees’ behavior at work place: quantitatively refining a qualitative model. quality and quantity, 49, 93–113. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-013-9976-4 qureshi, m.i., rasli, a.m., & zaman, k. (2014) a new trilogy to understand the relationship among organizational climate, workplace bullying and employee health. arab economics and business journal, 9, 133–146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aebj.2014.05.009 sachs, j.d., schmidt-traub, g., mazzucato, m., messner, d., nakicenovic, n., & rockström, j. (2019). six transformations to achieve the sustainable development goals. nature sustainability, 2(9), 805–814. retrieved from http://rdcu.be/bpzo6 sanhokwe, h., & takawira, s. (2022). evaluating the decent work scale measurement model in zimbabwe. journal of career development, 50(3), 727–742. https://doi.org/10.1177/08948453221120961 savickas, m.l., & porfeli, e.j. (2012). career adapt-abilities scale: construction, reliability, and measurement equivalence across 13 countries. journal of vocational behaviour, 80(3), 661–673. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2012.01.012 schaufeli, w. (2021). engaging leadership: how to promote work engagement? frontiers in psychology, 12, 754556. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.754556 schaufeli, w.b. (2017). applying the job demands-resources model. organisational dynamics, 2(46), 120–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2017.04.008 schmidt, e., groeneveld, s., & van de walle, s. (2017). a change management perspective on public sector cutback management: towards a framework for analysis. public management review, 19(10), 1538–1555. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.754556 schneider, b., ehrhart, m.g., & macey, w.h. (2013). organizational climate and culture. annual review of psychology, 64, 361–388. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011–143809 schneider, b., gonzález-romá, v., ostroff, c., & west, m.a. (2017). organizational climate and culture: reflections on the history of the constructs in the journal of applied psychology. journal of applied psychology, 102(3), 468–482. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000090 schneider, b., wheeler, j., & cox, j. (1992). a passion for service using content analysis to explicate service climate themes. journal of applied psychology, 77(5), 705–716. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.77.5.705 shava, h., & chinyamurindi, w.t. (2021). the effects of work resources and career adaptability on employee health: a case of sample of teachers in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 47, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v47i0.1816 sherman, s., hadar, i., & luria, g. (2018). leveraging organizational climate theory for understanding industry academia collaboration. information and software technology, 98, 148–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2017.12.006 shibiti, r. (2019). satisfaction with retention factors in relation to job embeddedness of public school teachers. south african journal of human resource management, 17(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1161 united nations. (2015). transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. sustainable development knowledge platform. retrieved december 2, september 2022, from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld/https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld/publication valenzuela, m.a., flinchbaugh, c., & rogers, s.e. (2020). can organizations help adjust?: the effect of perceived organizational climate on immigrants’ acculturation and consequent effect on perceived fit. journal of international management, 26(3), 100775. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2020.100775 world health organization (who). (september, 2022). mental health at work. retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-at-work zhang, q., li, x., liu, x., liu, s., zhang, m., liu, y., zhu, c., et al. (2022). the effect of non-invasive brain stimulation on the downregulation of negative emotions: a meta-analysis. brain sciences, 12(6), 786. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12060786 article information author: gabedi n. molefe¹ affiliation: ¹faculty of management sciences, tshwane university of technology, south africa correspondence to: gabedi molefe email: molefgn@vodamail.co.za postal address: po box 12665, the tramshed 0126, south africa keywords university lecturers; performance measurement dimensions; performance management; quantitative research; cross-sectional survey dates: received: 12 aug. 2009 accepted: 09 sept. 2010 published: 29 nov. 2010 how to cite this article: molefe, g.n. (2010). performance measurement dimensions for lecturers at selected universities: an international perspective. sa journal of human resource management/ sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #243, 13 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.243 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • performance management and performance measurement    • competencies as performance dimensions    • performance dimensions for a university lecturer’s job • research design    • research approach       • research methodology       • research context       • participants    • measuring instruments    • research procedure    • statistical analysis    • scale reliability testing and calculation of dimension scores • results • discussion    • general perceptions of the performance measurement process    • performance measurement dimensions designed as subsets of questionnaire items to describe specific performance measurement issues    • analysis of variance • summery of findings    • reliability of the dimensions tested    • practical or managerial implications    • recommendations    • limitations of the study • conclusion • references abstract (back to top) orientation: the study was necessitated by the need to develop a generally accepted performance measurement dimension framework for lecturers at universities. research purpose: the aim of the inquiry was to investigate the performance measurement dimensions for lecturers at selected universities in countries such as south africa, usa, uk, australia and nigeria. universities were selected on the basis of their academic reputation – being the best in their respective countries or continents. motivation for the study: whilst some studies mention certain attributes as important performance dimensions for the lecturer’s job, there was no scientific evidence to support this claim, hence the need for this study. research design: a quantitative research approach was adopted with the objective of casting the researcher’s net widely in order to obtain as much data as possible with the view to arriving at scientifically tested findings. a questionnaire was sent out to 500 academics and yielded a response rate of 36%. main findings: the study confirmed that a lecturer’s performance can be measured on the basis of seven performance dimensions and these dimensions, when tested, attracted a cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of above 0.70. practical and managerial implications: this study has the potential to equip the leadership at universities in south africa with an empirically tested guideline for formulating policy on performance evaluation frameworks for the lecturing staff. contribution/value-add: the major contribution of this study has been its argument for performance measurement for lecturers in the higher education environment and also its confirmation of the seven postulated performance measurement dimensions for lecturers. introduction (back to top) the key focus of this study is on performance measurement at universities. as simmons (2002) indicated, the past approaches to performance management in higher education in south africa were given limited emphasis by the government and its contribution to enhance institutional performance and quality has been neglected. consequently, universities adopted a laissez-faire approach to performance management and thus operated on a ‘high trust’ basis within an ethos that emphasised independence of thought and scholarship, academic freedom and collegiality. the high trust mode of operation therefore meant that academic staff were not closely monitored or assessed. however, higher education institutions are now expected to face the economic and social realities and become accountable and more market and consumer responsive to provide ‘value for money’ to its clients. furthermore, for almost a decade, south african higher education institutions have been undergoing radical transformation due to the release of a plethora of national policies which these institutions were expected to comply with. these policy demands lead not only to a change in scope, nature and intensity of academic work, but have also subjected academic work to performance management and quality assessment (mapesela & strydom, 2004). the aforesaid restorative national policies and legislative initiatives included the following: • national plan for higher education (2001) • south african qualification authority act (1995) • skills development act (1998) • skills development levies act (1999) • national training strategy initiative (1994) • white paper on transformation of higher education (1997) (mapesela & strydom, 2004; tait, van eeden & tait, 2002; taylor & harris, 2002; wilkinson, fourie, strydom, van der westhuysen & van tonder, 2004). furthermore, the said policy directives exerted pressure on higher education institutions to review their human resources strategies and practices with the aim of developing and fostering a competent, motivated and capable workforce that could assist in achieving the levels of excellence envisioned by stakeholders. to achieve this, these institutions now have to develop management models which will bolster desired behaviour, engender core values and promote performance excellence, whilst at the same time reinforcing an ethos of scholarship that upholds the intrinsic nature of these institutions as centres of innovative learning. in addition, the white paper on human resource management in the south african public service also singles out performance management as an integral part of an effective human resources management and development strategy and thus every organisation’s pillar of success (wilkinson, et al., 2004). therefore, this study is suggesting a call for an enquiry into efficacious performance measurement dimensions that can add value to the effectiveness of the models used for evaluating performance of academic staff and raise institutional growth measures that encompass increased graduate rates, research output and quality teaching. as mcgregor (2002) averred, the aforesaid growth measures are currently not up to standard. they should, as tait, van eeden and tait (2002) also indicated, be enhanced and the improvement initiative be seen to be driven at the ‘coal face’ by an effective and efficient lecturing cadre as primary agents of transformation and as the teaching ‘corps’ of quality and substance at universities that effectively utilise research, teaching or learning and community engagement to identify and solve problems (mapesela & strydom, 2004). furthermore, research has shown that higher education institutions are facing major challenges regarding the management of the performance of academic staff (mapesela & strydom, 2004). it is therefore on the basis of the foregoing, as well as the preceding background that this study aims to address the following research problem that may assist the leadership in higher education institutions to face the challenges referred to in the study’s background: the need for empirical evidence to confirm the relevance of the seven postulated performance measurement dimensions for lecturers posited by robbins, odendaal and roodt (2007). the core research objectives of this study are therefore to: • investigate the relevance of robbins, et al.’s (2007, p. 373) seven performance measurement dimensions for lecturers and explore the influence of demographic variables on these dimensions • explore and empirically test the seven performance dimensions for lecturers at universities as suggested by robbins, et al. (2007) and thus contribute towards the creation of generally acceptable measures for assessing performance of lecturers at universities. although robbins et al. (2007) intimated that research has shown that there are seven performance dimensions for the lecturer’s job, there was no evidence to support this claim and a need therefore arose to close this gap through this inquiry. therefore, the essential value-add that this study seeks to contribute is to provide a tested framework which universities can use as a guideline in policy formulation regarding performance measurement for lecturers. the questions that require answers regarding this study are: • which of the seven performance dimensions suggested by robbins et al. (2007) – knowledge or subject knowledge, testing procedure, student-lecturer relations, organisational skills, communication skills, subject relevance and utility of assignments – could be regarded as acceptable performance dimensions for lecturers? • to what extent would the demographic variables of the respondents influence their perceptions of these dimensions? this report presents the literature synopsis on performance measurement dimensions for lecturers followed by research design and the results and recommendations flowing from this study. performance management and performance measurement performance management is a goal-oriented process (mondy, 2008, p. 224) and the term is often used interchangeably with performance evaluation, performance appraisal or performance measurement (mello, 2006, p. 444). the conventional wisdom is that to manage performance one has to first be able to measure it (thorpe & holloway, 2008).it may be necessary at the outset to discuss the underlying definitions and assumptions of the terms ‘evaluation’, ‘assessment’, ‘measurement’ and ‘performance management’, since it is essential to understand the true relationship of these terms in the performance measurement process for lecturers in the higher education environment and also, because of the closeness in the meaning of these terms (arreola, 2000). to give credence to these views, airasian (2001) avers that performance evaluation judges the worth of information collected for a specific purpose such as determining effectiveness, whilst assessment is concerned with collecting, synthesising and interpreting the information that will be used in making the evaluation decision. in addition, performance measurement can be defined as a process of assessing the performance against pre-determined measures of performance, based on key success factors (ksf) which may include measures of deviation from the norm, tracking past achievements and measures of output and input. (millmore, lewis, saunders, thornhill &morrow, 2007, p. 530) therefore, based on these assertions, it is clear that performance measurement monitors and reports how well someone or something is doing. in theory, it is a broad term applicable to people, things, situations, activities and organisations whilst performance management is a process that helps organisations to formulate, implement and change their strategy in order to satisfy their shareholders’ needs (verweire & van den berghe, 2004). in the ultimate analysis, the performance measurement concept rests on the foundation of performance management. it is not something that should be reserved for the selected few. hence, in a high-performing organisation, measurement is very critical. if it is done correctly, both the organisation and the people within it will be impacted positively (spitzer, 2007, p. 182). furthermore, if performance measurement simply means the introspection and collection of historical results, it is very likely that little useful purpose will be served from the point of view of performance management (williams, 2002). the measurement process should therefore assist in the diagnosis of goal achievement and give some warnings in advance as input to the search for reasons for performance gaps (williams, 2002, p. 66). in the context of this discourse it is quite clear that measurement could be seen as an antidote to ambiguity; it forces one to impose clarity on vague concepts and to take action. what we measure communicates our priorities and thus has a powerful link to strategy (hammer, 2007). therefore, in the whole performance measurement process there has to be some measures that form the basis of performance measurement. the aforesaid statement begs the question: what exactly is a performance measure in the context of performance measurement? in light of the foregoing, lichielle and turnock (2007, p. 11) indicate that there is no ‘exactly’ when it comes to the extensive use of the term ‘performance measure’. different people have different views regarding what constitutes a ‘measure’. the good news, however, is that although there are many different ideas about what comprises a measure, they have one commonality which is that ‘a performance measure measures something … usually progress towards an objective or goal’. therefore it does not matter if it is called a performance measure, a performance indicator or in some cases a performance standard. what matters is the fundamental idea that a performance measure measures something! thus, a measure can be defined as a specific quantitative or qualitative representation of a capacity, process or outcome deemed relevant to the assessment of performance. hence, performance measures should be designed to drive people towards the overall vision of the organisation and to focus on the future and not simply on the past (millmore, et al., 2007). this then translates into pressure on managers in the higher education environment to ensure that their staff (particularly academic staff) is working more productively and their institutions are responsive to the changing demands placed upon them by stakeholders. furthermore, implicit in the pressure experienced by managers in the higher education environment is the demand for greater productivity in the wake of budget constraints, increased enrolments and more explicit social demands placed upon higher education institutions. therefore it is inevitable in the aforesaid scenario that the work that academic staff is required to perform will continually be under scrutiny, thus challenging institutional managers to manage the performance of their staff more effectively with the view to achieving higher levels of productivity and attain the ever increasing social demands and the number and range of institutional objectives and goals (parsons & slabbert, 2001). it may also be important to note that to attract much needed funding, the government and other private donors need to be sufficiently convinced about the institutional success in securing acceptable student numbers and a satisfactory pass rate. these expectations can reasonably be met by empowering staff to deliver through use of an effective performance management system that measures not only performance output in teaching research and service rendering, but also in the required competencies of the lecturing staff. competencies as performance dimensions competencies could be regarded as overt and manifest behaviour that allows a person to perform competently, which means that dimensions in the context of the aforesaid statement refer to a cluster of behaviours that are specific, observable and verifiable and that can be reliably and logically classified together. therefore, competencies could be seen as synonymous with performance dimensions largely because ‘the behavioural interpretation of the term competency is simply a replacement (or synonym) for performance dimensions’ (williams, 2002, p. 101). this study suggests that the required performance output (results) be combined with the behavioural dimensions that brought about that level of performance (i.e. competencies) so as to determine the lecturer’s level of performance. performance dimensions for a university lecturer’s job an approach adopted internationally in line with competency-based thinking suggests that the following are some of the competencies that may be associated with lecturers’ positions (arreola, 2000; franzen, 2003; hill, lomas & macgregor, 2003; sinclair & johnson, 2000; spitzer, 2007; white, 2008): • communication • interpersonal skills • leadership • self-development • development of others • change management • commitment to quality • student and stakeholder orientation • innovation and creativity • decision-making • judgement • research • subject mastery • professional relations • learner assessment • organisational skills • listening skills • project management • change management • originality • critical analytical skills • the ability to challenge conventional views. for this study the focus will fall on investigating the seven performance dimensions of the lecturer’s job as posited by robbins, et al. (2007). the researcher’s inquiry is poised to confirm or refute these dimensions as descriptors of the behaviour that lecturers are expected to exhibit when they successfully perform their duties. they are also the perspectives which could assist supervisors in the development of performance plans and ‘are generally categorised into three types, namely universal dimensions (included in all performance plans); job content dimensions (which vary from job to job); and other performance dimensions’ (anon., 2006, p. 1). for the purpose of this study, attention will be drawn to the universal dimensions with particular focus on the seven performance dimensions for lecturers, as suggested by robbins, et al. (2007): • knowledge (subject knowledge) • testing (assessment) procedures • student-teacher relations • organisational skills • communication skills • subject relevance • utility of assignments. it may be important to note that these dimensions overlap some of those suggested by scholars mentioned earlier. knowledge (subject knowledge): as learning is a relatively permanent positive or negative change in the learner’s behaviour that occurs as a result of practice or experience, the lecturer’s knowledge-base in the subject is fundamental to the creation and enhancement of the student’s opportunity to learn well (analoui, 2007). the knowledge-base referred to may include the declarative knowledge of facts and concepts, procedural knowledge of what to do and the motivation which could include effort and persistence to excel (aguinis, 2009, p. 79). sinclair and johnson (2000) posit thorough knowledge of the subject material as essential to accurate instruction and clear communication of content to students. the performance measurement for lecturers should therefore include some mechanisms to measure the faculty member’s expertise in the content area. competencies in this regard include not only content knowledge, but also the ability to organise, integrate, adjust and adapt this content in ways that make it accessible and thought provoking to the learner (arreola, 2000). this dimension also includes the ability to advance scholarship and generate research. implicit in the latter is the advancement of knowledge through discovery, integration, dissemination and application of knowledge (gill & johnson, 1997; white, 2008). testing (assessment) procedure: this dimension entails designing, developing and implementing tools and procedures for assessing students’ learning outcomes and is part of instructional design. the required skills in this dimension are, amongst others (arreola, 2000): • designing tests • preparing learning objectives • developing syllabi • preparing handouts and other supporting materials • properly using media and other forms of instructional technology • organising lectures and presentations for maximal instructional impact. feedback to students during the sessions and assignments is of paramount importance under this dimension (hill, lomas & macgregor, 2003). student-teacher relations: this dimension relates to the creation and maintenance of a student-centred environment that maintains and sustains learning and development. it is a dimension that is integral to high learner-performance. a teacher who can develop relationships that foster and encourage student engagement will enhance learning (arreola, 2000). encouragement of active participation in the classroom creates a supportive environment where questions and class discussions are promoted, which imbues the lecturer with enthusiasm for the subject and facilitates opportunities for generating regular informal feedback on students, as well as deeper understanding of the subject matter (sinclair & johnson, 2000). organisational skills: organising is a dimension that influences overall student experiences, as well as the quality of teaching (sinclair & johnson, 2000). it also relates to those bureaucratic skills utilised for operating and managing a course including, but not limited to, timely grading of examination, maintaining published office hours, arranging for and coordinating guest lecturers and generally making arrangements for facilities and resources required in the teaching of the course. organisation of the course materials and other academic activities has a profound effect on the learners’ ability to succeed in their area of learning. the lecturer therefore needs to provide an ongoing framework that orients learners to the course ideas, materials and activities. excellent teachers do their work in a well-prepared and well-organised manner. they organise their work in such a way that they allow themselves space to engage in activities relating to corporate citizenship and community outreach. therefore, a performance measurement instrument should search for evidence of careful planning in view of the fact that quality of planning would be an indication of successful learning (arreola, 2000). communication skills: communication is an important aspect in structural delivery skills. structural delivery skills can be defined as those human interaction skills and characteristics which: • facilitate clear communication of information, concepts and attitudes • promote learning by creating an appropriate and effective learning environment. characteristics such as clarity in exposition, demonstrated enthusiasm, ability to motivate, ability to capture and hold the interest and attention of learners and create an overall learning environment appropriate to the content being taught, are all included in the communication skills dimension (arreola, 2000). it is therefore essential that the lecturer communicates ideas clearly and interestingly to the learners (arreola, 2000). subject relevance: this dimension relates to the appropriateness of the content provided during the lesson and the way in which it is presented to the learners. subject relevance should also entail accuracy of the facts encapsulated in the course content. it is also important that relevant assessment instruments used in the course add to the relevance of the design architecture of the course and are within the frame of reference of the course materials and the real world associated with the subject. questions should be set at an appropriate level and graded according to the learning outcomes of the module. the text books and reference materials recommended by the lecturers, as well as the appropriate use of instructional methods and techniques used in the subject are also of vital importance. lastly, the course being offered should be valued by the workplace (hill, et al., 2003; white, 2008). utility of assignments: it is important that assignments given to students are meaningful and enhance their learning and developmental needs. they should be meaningful in the sense of being within the frame of reference of the course material and the ‘real world’ associated with the subject and socioeconomic life within which a student lives (white, 2008, p. 24). to further enhance utility, the assignment should reflect its learning objectives and make it interesting and challenging to the student (layman, williams & slaten, 2007, p. 1). in order to achieve the declared research objectives, the following research design was adopted for the study. research design (back to top) research approach the quantitative research approach, guided by the positivist paradigm, was chosen for this study. in terms of this paradigm, everything is observable and can be measured and therefore explained (van heerden & roodt, 2007).the reason for choosing the quantitative research tradition is largely because the researcher’s inquiry falls within an international domain and across the divide of countries and cultures and where a number of globally understood and accepted variables can be observed. also, the standardised and objective data related to this study’s research problem had to be collected from individual participants at universities across a wide divide of countries and cultures (parker, 2007). a quantitative research approach would furthermore ensure uniformity and consistency of data gathering and analysis in an attempt to cast the researcher’s net quite widely in order to obtain as much data as possible with the intention of arriving at findings that could possibly be broadly generalised. research methodology a quantitative survey questionnaire method was employed to explore the performance dimensions for lecturers at universities. research context participants involved in the study were drawn from a population of lecturers at south african universities, as well as from ‘top universities’ in the usa, uk, nigeria and australia who had access to e-mail facilities. these universities were chosen on the basis of their reputation of being the best on their respective continents. hence, those chosen in the usa were from the higher education institutions commonly referred to as ivy league universities. the rest of those chosen in other countries were amongst those ranked amongst the top hundred on their respective continents. for ethical reasons the names of the universities are not disclosed in this study. the prospective respondents were also assured that their identities would not be revealed to anyone, including their universities. participants participants in this study were permanently employed by their respective universities. however, in view of the time constraints and the potential administrative and logistical difficulty of drawing the desired sample from the total population, a convenient sampling method was adopted. a questionnaire was electronically sent out to 500 academics at the selected universities who had access to e-mail facilities. in total 178 questionnaire responses, representing a 36% response rate, were received and were included in the analyses. however, eight respondents described their positions within their institutions as administrative and had to be omitted from the analyses thus reducing the total of respondents from 178 to 170. in general and especially when using an online questionnaire (as in the case of this study), a 30% response rate is regarded as satisfactory; the response rate of 36% therefore exceeded this threshold (saunders, lewis & thornhill, 2003; tustin, ligthelm, martins & van wyk, 2005). an overview of the biographical details of the respondents is presented in table 1. the biographical data in table 1 indicates that 56.47% of the respondents were male, whilst 43.53% were female and the majority of responses received in the age group category were from respondents between 25 and 50 years old. the respondents thus constituted a reasonable spread between the younger and the older, as well as between male and female. regarding qualification, 51% of the respondents had doctorate degrees, 41% honours and master’s degrees and only 8% had bachelor’s degrees. all the respondents were therefore reasonably qualified. table 1,2,3 & 4 measuring instruments the measuring instrument specifically designed for this study was titled performance measurement dimension questionnaire. it was designed to measure specific performance dimensions for lecturers at selected universities, through the use of a 5-point liekert rating scale questionnaire. the rating of level ‘1’ indicated strong dislike and was labeled ‘not at all’, rating ‘2’ indicating dislike, was labeled ‘to a very little extent’, the level ‘3’-agreement level indicated ‘to a moderate extent’, the level ‘4’-agreement level indicated ‘to a reasonable extent’ and level 5-agreement level represented ‘to a great extent’. the instrument referred to consisted of biographical information, general perception of performance management and performance dimensions for academic staff.biographical information (section 1): this section contains the respondents’ personal particulars in respect of age, gender, length of service, position within the organisation, qualification and level of seniority. the information received could be used to make comparisons about respondents’ tendencies with respect to how they responded to questions and also, when employing factor analysis, to determine whether the postulated factors differ according to demographic variables. general perception of performance management (section 2): the items contained in this section attempted to solicit information in respect of the respondents’ general perception of performance management. performance dimensions for academic staff (section 3): this section highlights the seven performance dimensions for the job of a lecturer. an attempt was also made to assign at least five sub-dimensions to each question on the basis of a 5-point intensity scale, where 1 signified low preference, whilst 5 signified high preference. research procedure in broad terms, the research procedure involved the identification of international and south african universities that were considered by academic standards to be amongst the best.in order to establish contacts and facilitate the distribution of the questionnaire at the selected universities, these universities were visited before the questionnaires were sent out. thereafter, the questionnaire was developed and a pilot test administered to remove the possible flaws contained in it. a hard copy of the questionnaire was then converted into a web-based electronic format in order to ensure a quicker and more accurate response and to cover as many respondents as possible. the respondents were requested to log in to the link provided. the url button opened up a pop-up window reflecting the questionnaire they were expected to complete. each question contained a tamper-proof encrypted serial number set to expire after a certain period. thus, respondents could not change the contents of the questionnaire, nor could they write on the instrument itself. once the questionnaire had been completed, the respondents were requested to click the ‘submit’ window at the bottom of the questionnaire. the results would then be automatically encrypted and stored in the database hosted at the offices of the appointed statistical consultant responsible for managing the data. each respondent’s name would then be crossed off the list, thus guaranteeing the privacy and confidentiality of the information submitted and also preventing the respondents from completing the questionnaire more than once. the questionnaire was resent several times to those who did not respond. statistical analysis after a reasonable number of responses had been received, the report on the collated data was sent for analysis by a private statistical consultant who used the sas statistical analysis package1 version 9.1 to do the analyses. scale reliability testing and calculation of dimension scores the main focus of this subsection was to verify the internal consistency reliability of the performance measurement dimensions probed within the performance management questionnaire. scale reliability: in the foregoing discussion, factor analysis confirmed that all aspects probed within the performance measurement questionnaire validly addressed the academic performance management criteria. the next question considered was whether the subsets of questionnaire items designed to define the seven performance measurement dimensions (within the general performance measurement arena) all truly contributed towards explaining the particular performance measurement aspects. item analysis (also referred to as scale reliability testing) was conducted on each subset of questionnaire items to establish internal consistency reliability as shown in table 2. internal consistency is indicated by the cronbach alpha coefficient calculated as part of the scale reliability testing. an alpha value greater than or equal to 0.7 is generally seen as a good indication of reliability (hatcher, 1994, p. 137). calculation of dimension score: as can be seen from table 2, each row of the table represents the results of an analysis conducted on the subset of questionnaire items designed to represent a particular performance measurement dimension. these columns reflect the subset of items designed to represent the construct, the items excluded from the construct as indicated by the analysis as not contributing towards explaining the construct, the cronbach alpha coefficient, the dimension mean scores and standard deviations. the construct mean scores presented in the second to last columns of the summary table (table 2) represent a general measure on respondents’ perceptions of the pm aspects. for example, the construct mean score for the ‘knowledge’ dimension with a value of 4.10 (high on the perception rating scale) indicates that respondents perceived an academic’s knowledge of subject matter as an important element of pm. the dimension means scores of 3.16 for ‘organisational’ and 3.17 for ‘assessment procedures’ indicate that respondents regarded these pm aspects as less important than subject knowledge. discussion (back to top) the general perception of the pm process and the summary of deductions are discussed in detail. general perceptions of the performance measurement process general perceptions of the pm process also enquired into the respondents’ perceptions of competencies regarded as crucial to the pm process. to this end, the combined agreement ratings on the various competencies indicated that the priorities on some competencies were regarded as significantly more important than others. for example, ‘subject mastery’ and ‘research’ was perceived as significantly more important than ‘change management’ and ‘project management’. performance measurement dimensions designed as subsets of questionnaire items to describe specific performance measurement issues the general impression as to how respondents perceived the subsets of questions designed to jointly describe pm issues were obtained via frequency tables and descriptive statistics. analysis of the subsets of items in this regard indicated that ‘subject knowledge’ (dimension 1), ‘learner-lecturer relations’ (dimension 2), ‘communication skills’ (dimension 3), ‘organisational skills’ (dimension 4) and the ‘utility of assignments’ (dimension 7) revealed a positive perception tendency amongst respondents. although mostly positive, the perception pattern for ‘assessment methods’ seemed to present more than one aspect of assessment (addressed in the scale reliability analyses). analysis of variance the statistical significance of the apparent influential effects of university, position, age and qualifications was validated by analyses of variance. the significant influence of ‘university’ on ‘subject knowledge’ and ‘assessment procedure’ perceptions indicates that the usa rated ‘subject knowledge’ significantly higher than other universities and ‘assessment procedures’ significantly lower than other institutions. qualifications significantly influenced perceptions of ‘organisational skills’ and ‘assessment procedures’ in the sense that doctorate respondents perceived both these aspects significantly less positive than graduate respondents (‘organisational skills’) and master’s or honours respondents (‘assessment procedures’). perceptions of ‘assessment procedures’, ‘subject relevance’ and ‘utility of assignments’ indicated that the greatest difference in perceptions for all of these pm dimensions existed between ‘senior lecturers’ in the age category 56–60 and those in the age category of 41–45 years. for the purpose of assignments, professors in the age group 41–45 were included, the latter group being significantly more convinced of the impact of these pm issues than the senior group. as stated initially, the core objectives of this study were to: • investigate the relevance of robbins, odendaal and roodt’s (2007, p. 373) seven performance measurement dimensions for lecturers and explore the influence of demographic variables on these dimensions • explore and empirically test the seven performance dimensions for lecturers at universities as suggested by robbins, et al. (2007) and thus contribute towards the creation of generally acceptable measures for assessing performance of lecturers at universities. according to the results of this research, the essential value-add of this study has been achieved, that is, to contribute to a tested framework which universities can use as a guideline in policy formulation regarding performance measurement for lecturers. table 5,6,7 & 8 summery of findings (back to top) the following are the findings in line with the core research objectives of the study. research objective 1: investigate the relevance of robbins, odendaal and roodt’s (2007, p. 373) seven performance measurement dimensions for lecturers and explore the influence of demographic variables on these dimensions. it became evident from the results that respondents positively perceived aspects such as ‘subject knowledge’, including: • the currency of the subject material and in-depth tuition of the subject matter • ‘learner-lecturer relations’ • ‘communication skills’ • ‘subject relevance’ • ‘utility of assignments’ in a more positive light than ‘organisational skills’ and ‘assessment procedures’, albeit that these may be included in the pm dimension framework for lecturers. however, competencies such as ‘project management’ and ‘change management’ were perceived as unimportant, thus suggesting that they should not form part of the dimensions for performance measurement of lecturers. this, however, is contrary to the view that competencies including change management or project management are associated with performance excellence for lecturers (franzen, 2003; sinclair & johnson, 2000). research literature also revealed that lecturers’ knowledge base in the subject area is fundamental to the creation and enhancement of the students’ opportunity to learn (aguinis, 2009; arreola, 2000; sinclair & johnson, 2000). insofar as ‘organisational skills’ and ‘assessment procedures’ are concerned, theory specifies that skills in organisation (such as designing tests, preparing learning objectives, developing syllabi, handouts and other such supporting materials) including organising lectures and presentations for maximum instructional impact, should form part of the organising ability and capability to execute assessment procedures (arreola, 2000; hill, et al., 2003). the findings of the present study revealed that at the 5% level of significance based on anova: • the usa (respondents) rated ‘subject knowledge’ significantly higher than other universities whilst at the same time rating ‘assessment procedures’ significantly lower than other countries. the usa therefore perceived these aspects significantly different to the other countries. • ‘university’, academic ‘position’, ‘age’ and to some extent ‘experience’ and ‘qualifications’ affected the respondents’ perceptions. however, ‘gender’ appeared to have had no influential effect and the opinions of both men and women were the same in respect of these matters. • ‘qualifications’ significantly influenced perceptions of ‘organisational skills’ and ‘assessment procedures’ in the sense that doctorate respondents perceived both these aspects significantly less positively than graduate respondents. in other words, the doctorate respondents felt ‘organisational skills’ and ‘assessment procedures’ should not be part of the required competencies for lecturers at universities. in terms of theory, the findings of the present study revealed that the assessment criteria in pm should take into account teaching workload or the distribution of workload between members of the department, results of student evaluation based on an acceptable format used by the faculty, student numbers per course, research output with emphasis on accredited output and corporate citizenship which encompasses service to the community with the focus on service without compensation. the members’ participation in and availability to the faculty’s activities such as graduation ceremonies, meetings and committees, as well as their participation in and availability to the institution in general (e.g. portfolio committees, meetings, task teams, etc.) would also constitute a critical element of corporate citizenship (wilkinson, et al., 2004, p. 105). research objective 2: explore and empirically test the seven performance dimensions for lecturers at universities as suggested by robbins, et al. (2007) and thus contribute towards the creation of generally acceptable measures for assessing performance of lecturers at universities. the study confirmed that the seven postulated performance measurement dimensions of: • ‘subject knowledge’ • ‘assessment skills’ • ‘student-lecturer relations’ • ‘organisational skills’ • ‘communication skills’ • ‘subject relevance’ (course design skills) • ‘utility (meaningfulness) of assignments’ could be regarded as aspects of a uni-structured model of performance measurement. table 9a,9b & 9c reliability of the dimensions tested the seven postulated performance dimensions were tested for reliability in line with the aforementioned objective and the generally accepted cronbach alpha limit of 0.70. the said test yielded a cronbach alpha coefficient level of between 0.70 and 0.89, indicating an acceptable reliability and internal consistency of the said postulated dimensions. practical or managerial implications the study is poised to inform policy on performance measurement for lecturers and thus assist in introducing a performance culture and a broadly researched measuring tool that will assist universities to effectively manage performance of the lecturing staff and also to assist academic leaders in this sector to identify the developmental needs of the lecturing staff.in addition, literature review has revealed that organisations lacking a performance culture and a reliable system of managing performance often find it extremely difficult to fairly reward good performers (kaplan & norton, 1996; kushun, 2002; viedge & conidaris, 2000). the absence of such a performance measuring tool often causes degrees of demotivation amongst staff, especially amongst the excellent performers and those in need of development who may come to realise that good performance and positive attitude towards work does not mean anything to them in terms of both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards (mapesela & strydom, 2004). table 10a, 10b, 11a & 11b recommendations based on the value of the study, the following recommendations are made:• the suggested dimensions be used as a guiding framework for development of policies and as an instrument for measuring performance of academic staff at universities. universities in south africa that do not have a performance management system can use the pm framework to develop their systems. • the seven performance dimensions tested in this study be integrated with mutually agreed goals and the workload consideration when performance agreements are being entered into with lecturers. limitations of the study the limitations of the study were identified as follows: • in general terms, academics seemed reluctant to respond to a survey questionnaire. consequently, the ultimate response to the questionnaire was not very good, especially for factor analysis purposes and would render the results difficult to generalise. • sample size appeared to be a limitation in this study as well. therefore, the suggested performance measurement framework can at best be seen as a preliminary design framework with the view to verifying these results in larger samples. the said results can, however, be used as guidelines for universities in their endeavour to develop performance measurement for their lecturing staff. • not all lecturers contacted through the internet had e-mail addresses. a mail questionnaire could also have been used to supplement the electronic one and thus improve the response rate. • the performance dimensions or the critical success factors and sub-factors were not weighted or ranked in order of significance. • the inclusion of only five countries in the survey seemed to be insufficient to give a reasonable international or global picture of the results. suggestions for future research: it is suggested that a future study: • utilises an instrument designed to measure performance dimensions which is designed in such a manner that it narrows its attention to the performance measurement dimensions only and excludes the other sections of the questionnaire relating to the general perceptions about performance management. this might improve the response rate and would be less intimidating as respondents would be expected to answer relatively fewer questions. • be limited to either distance education institutions or contact institutions and not both, as the modes of tuition delivery at distance and contact institutions are not necessarily the same. • be repeated on a wider sample, broadened and strengthened to include not only the seven dimensions, but the other related performance dimensions including research skills incorporating analytical and synthetic ability as well as scholarship, analytical skills, communication and writing skills and ability to challenge conventional views. • be repeated and the performance dimensions or critical success factors and sub-factors be weighted or ranked according to their order of significance. table 12a, 12b, 13a & 13b conslusion (back to top) this study achieved its objectives of testing the lecturers’ perceptions, as well as developing a foundation for a social science framework consisting of the seven performance measurement dimensions which could be used to assist universities in managing performance of academic staff. this was in line with the core research objectives of the study to: • investigate the relevance of robbins, et al.’s (2007, p. 373) seven performance measurement dimensions for lecturers and explore the influence of demographic variables on these dimensions • explore and empirically test the seven performance dimensions for lecturers at universities as suggested by robbins, et al. (2007) and thus contribute towards the creation of generally acceptable measures for assessing performance of lecturers at universities. references (back to top) aguinis, h. (2009). performance management. london: pearson prentice hall. airasian, p.w. (2001). classroom assessment: concepts and applications. blacklick: mcgraw-hill. analoui, f. (2007). strategic human resource management. london: thomson learning. anon. (2006). virginia tech. performance management programme: performance dimension guideline. june 23, 2006. arreola, r.a. (2000). developing a comprehensive faculty evaluation system. bolton, ma: anker publishing company, inc. franzen, k. (2003). a critical overview of trends and practices in performance management in south african higher education environment. sajhe, 17(3), 131−138. gill, j., & johnson, p. (1997). research methods for managers. london: paul chapman publishing. hammer, m. (2007). deadly sins of performance measurement and how to avoid them: special report, measuring to manage. mt sloan management review, spring, 2007. hatcher, l. (1994). sas – system for factor analysis and structural equation modelling. sas inst inc., nc, usa. hill, l., lomas, l., & macgregor, j. (2003). students’ perceptions of quality in higher education. quality assurance in education, 11(1), 15−20. kaplan, s., & norton, d.p. (1996). balance scorecard: translating strategy into action. boston: harvard business school press. kushun, r. (2002). guide to south african universities and technikons. developing a global perspective. durban: artwork publishing. layman, l., williams, l., & slaten, k. (2007). note self: make assignment meaningful. computer science education. north carolina state university: raleigh, n.c, usa. lichielle, p., & turnock, b.j. (2007). turning point: guidebook for performance measurement. washington: turning point national programme office. mcgregor, k. (2002). study south africa. higher education in transition. retrieved may 31, 2002, from www.und.ac.za/und/ieasa mapesela, m.l.e., & strydom, f. (2004, november. performance management of academic staff in south african higher education system: a developmental project. presented at the oecd conference on trends in the management of human resources in higher education. university of free state, bloemfontein. mello, j.a. (2006). strategic human resource management. boulevard, mason, ohio: thomson, south western. millmore, m., lewis, p., saunders, m., thornhill, a., & morrow, t. (2007). strategic human resources management contemporary issues. london: prentice hall. mondy, r.w. (2008). human resource management. upper saddle river, nj: pearson prentice-hall. parker, a.j. (2007). validity of world-class business criteria across developed and developing countries. phd thesis. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. parsons, p.g., & slabbert, a.d. (2001). performance management and academic workload in higher education. south african journal for higher education, 15(3), 74–81. robbins, s.p., odendaal, a., & roodt, g. (2007). organisational behaviour – global and south african perspective. south africa: pearson education. saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2003). research methods for business students. london: prentice hall – financial times. simmons, j. (2002). an expert witness perspective on performance appraisal in universities and colleges. employee relations, 24(1), 86–100. sinclair, h., & johnson, w. (2000). students and staff perceptions of ‘good’ teaching feedback. educational studies, 25(3), 1−5. spitzer, d. r. (2007). transforming performance measurement: rethinking the way we measure and drive organisational success. new york: amacom. tait, m., van eeden, s., & tait, m. (2002). an exploratory study on perceptions of previously educationally disadvantaged first year learners of law regarding university education. south african journal for higher education, 16(2), 177−182. taylor, b., & harris, g. (2002). the efficiency of south african universities: a study based on analytical review technique. south african journal for higher education, 16(2), 183–192. thorpe, r., & holloway, j. (2008). performance management – multi-disciplinary perspective. new york: palgrave macmillan. tustin, d.g., lighthelm, a.a., martins, j.h., & van wyk, p.j. (2005). marketing research in practice. pretoria: unisa press. van heerden, w., & roodt, g. (2007). development of a measuring instrument for assessing a high performance culture. south african journal of human resources management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 33(1), 18−28. verweire, k., & van den berghe, l. (2004). integrated performance management – a guide to strategy implementation. upper saddle river, n.j: wiley pearson, prentice hall. viedge, c., & conidaris, c. (2000). the magic of the balance score card. people dynamics, 18(7), 38−43. white, a. (2008, 15, april). managing academic performance: understanding development in the academic environment. guardian news and media limited, pp. 1–29. wilkinson, a., fourie, m., strydom, a.h., van der westhuyzen, l.j., & van tonder, s.p. (2004). performance management for academic staff in south african higher education – a developmental research project. bloemfontein: handisa printers. williams, r.s. (2002). managing employee performance – design and implementation in organization. australia: thompson learning. abstract introduction purpose and problem statement literature review methodology results discussion and implications limitations conclusion and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) gaelle fitong ketchiwou department of business management, faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, bloemfontein, south africa matsidiso n. naong department of business management, faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, bloemfontein, south africa freda van der walt department of business management, faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, bloemfontein, south africa lineo w. dzansi department of business management, faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, bloemfontein, south africa citation fitong ketchiwou, g., naong, m.n., van der walt, f., & dzansi, l.w. (2022). investigating the relationship between selected organisational factors and women’s skills development aspirations and career progression: a south african case study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1958. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1958 original research investigating the relationship between selected organisational factors and women’s skills development aspirations and career progression: a south african case study gaelle fitong ketchiwou, matsidiso n. naong, freda van der walt, lineo w. dzansi received: 30 mar. 2022; accepted: 02 june 2022; published: 10 oct. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: there has been increased research in the past century on women within the workplace; however, women still face myriad gender-related challenges in their careers. research purpose: this research investigates how selected factors in and out of organisations affect women’s skills development and career progression. motivation for the study: there is a pervasive perception that the rate at which women progress across hierarchy of work levels in organizations varies appreciably from the experience of their male counterparts. research approach/design and method: a positivist research approach was used, employing a questionnaire survey which was administered via an online platform to a sample of 412 women working within the service sector in the gauteng province of south africa, using a convenient non-probability sampling method. the relationship between the dependent and independent variables was analysed using the structural equation modelling approach. main findings: results reveal that workplace support strategies and personal attributes influence women’s skills development. workplace support strategies, family responsibilities, personal attributes and skills development also play vital roles in women’s career progression. practical/managerial implications: to promote gender equity and stimulate a career path for women, organisational support and deliberate women’s skills development initiatives must be engendered. contribution/value-add: the empirical evidence demonstrates the positive effect that organisational support and personal responsibility have on women’s skills development and their career progression, confirming that skills development is a predictor of women’s career progression. keywords: career progression; service industry; skills development; south africa; training; women; workplace. introduction most developing countries are still battling to adequately address and eradicate gender discrimination and inequality. bosch (2017) and moalusi and jones (2019) opined that personal beliefs on gender, race, social revolution, cultural prejudice, gender bias and organisational structure continue to prevent women from fully participating in their workplaces. in spite of the attempts to reduce gender discrepancies in the labour market, disparities persist and need to be reviewed by governments, employers, workers and representative organisations (international labour organisation, 2018). several countries have made progress towards gender parity, with noticeable improvements in 101 out of the 149 countries surveyed in the last 2 years. however, the process has been slow, and investments in women’s talent is still limited in many countries (world economic forum, 2020). there are fewer women than men in general leadership and a greater disproportionate representation at senior and executive levels (african union, 2018). women around the world experience slower career development than men (komalasari, supartha, rahyuda, & dewi, 2017), thus making it difficult for them to progress to top positions. whilst developed countries are successively making progress towards gender equality, most developing countries, including south africa, still lag behind (international labour organisation, 2018; united nations, 2019). in south africa, women still have a skewed representation in the workplace and in management across all sectors of the economy. women are under-represented on corporate boards and top management roles. only 29.4% of executive managers and 20.7% of directors are women, and at the topmost leadership hierarchy of corporates, there are only about 11.8% of female ceos or chairpersons (business women’s association of south africa, 2017). this fissure in female representation and particularly in leadership positions is a result of gender inequalities (pwc, 2018b). when compared with men, women’s career trajectories are encumbered; hence, fewer women advance within organisations, and this disparity persists despite government legislation that affirms women and forbids discrimination against them (moalusi & jones, 2019). the myriad challenges women face in the workplace (chetty & naidoo, 2017; department of women, youth and persons with disabilities, 2019; jaga, arabandi, bagraim, & mdlongwa, 2017; steyn & jackson, 2015) impact their skills development and career progression (jáuregui & olivos, 2018), aspects that are constantly hindered by their life patterns and organisational conditions (mckie & jyrkinen, 2017). purpose and problem statement gender factors make it difficult for women to focus on their skills and career development (bakalim & tasdelen-karckay, 2017; jaga et al., 2017; moalusi & jones, 2019). although there is legislation to address gender disparities in women’s skills development and career progression within the workplace, women continue to face several challenges (alexander, 2019; chetty & naidoo, 2017; oosthuizen, tonelli, & mayer, 2019). this study leans on historical records of gender inequality mindsets that regard women as vulnerable, weak, less self-determined, inferior or second-class humans with limited autonomy and legal rights (lewis & beauregard, 2018) to investigate factors that impact women’s skills development and their career progression within the service industry. literature review theories and concepts discussed in this article provide context for this research and the rationale for approaches chosen to achieve research objectives. theoretical context feminist theories feminist theories aim to foster gender equality through the protection of women’s rights (gouws, 2019) by striving to end oppression, sexism and sexist exploitations (lewis & beauregard, 2018; priyadharshini et al., 2021; mohan, hariharasudan, & sangeetha, 2021). to date, the feminist agenda in south africa has been driven mostly by the younger generation of women, who are keen to enforce their social and political rights through their dedication to achieving gender equality (gouws, 2019). liberal feminism relies on the ideology of gender equality, democracy, autonomy, justice in all spheres and affirming the intellectual and physical capabilities of women within the workplace (baehr, 2017; karim, 2020). based upon this ideology, nienaber and moraka (2016) affirmed that women should have the same social, political, legal and educational rights as men. however, policies in place have not automatically achieved the desired gender goals (lwesi, 2019). hence, there is a need to remove omnipotent, imaginary bottlenecks that deprive women of human capital development and career benefits. human capital development from an economic angle, expenditures on human capital development are costs that command a price in the labour market (alnachef & alhajjar, 2017; fallon & rice, 2015); thus, organisations invest in employees when they perceive a return on their investments (hideg, krstic, trau, & zarina, 2018; judrups, zandbergs, & kazakovs, 2015; raheja, 2015). from a psychological perspective, the world consists of stimuli gathered in meaningful configurations, through which behaviours occur (ismail, abdul-majid, & musibau, 2017; mulder, 2018). employee development initiatives are prone to stimulate multiple employee behaviours that benefit the company. the system component of employee development further establishes that the world is an open system with inputs, processes and outputs with feedback loops (mehta, 2019; taulli, 2018). well-developed women have a better chance to both earn more and grow within the workforce, if they are afforded proper and deliberate career paths. career models traditional career models are characterised by bureaucracy, vertical progression, rigidity, full-time employment and uninterrupted careers (broadbridge, 2015; herman, 2015). this ideology gives little consideration for the complex challenges working women face and ignores the multiple demands placed upon women, thereby forcing them to adapt to criteria dictated by a patriarchal world (chanland & murphy, 2017; naudé, 2017). women have increased in the workplace and many neither want to exit the workplace completely nor neglect their careers in favour of their family lives. hence, rigid traditional career models are inappropriate for women in the contemporary world, giving room to modern career models that recognise the complexity of the career environment characterised by multiple breaks, nonlinearity, horizontal movements across organisations, periods of unemployment, increased instability, high mobility and increased personal initiatives (rapuano, 2020). however, research on current modern careers is lacking in contextual aspects, creating the need for a more comprehensive and systemic approach to careers which is called sustainable careers. the momentum for sustainability in careers has grown in recent years in response to changing demographic, socio-economic, technological and business contexts (de vos & van der heijden, 2017; mcdonald & hite, 2018; valcour, 2015). with sustainable careers, individuals are expected to take personal responsibility for their careers (akkermans, de vos, & van der heijden, 2016) while organisations provide learning opportunities that enhance the future employability of employees (de vos & van der heijden, 2017; rapuano, 2020) and assist them to manage their nonwork context (reichel et al., 2022). sustainable career models are multidimensional and evolving and thus ideal for women. conceptual context and development of hypotheses structural relationships between the constructs discussed below, and depicted in the conceptual framework in figure 1, led to the development of hypotheses figure 1: results for factors affecting women’s skills development and career progression. skills development skills development is the improvement of the qualitative aspect of a workforce that results in higher qualifications, improved capabilities and greater personal potential (stacho, stachová, & raišienė, 2019; vnoučková, urbancová, & smolová, 2015). skills development happens when employees learn new things (craig, 2018; greenhow & lewin, 2016) and develop themselves (turaba & casimir, 2015), hence allowing them to progress within the workplace. career progression progression happens when an employee moves from a lower position to a higher position (osibanjo, oyewunmi, & ojo, 2014), usually accompanied by increased work responsibilities, authority (heathfield, 2019; prossack, 2018) and a new job title (vasel, 2019). previous findings show that skills development, in the form of education and training, impacts women’s progression in the workplace (afande, 2015; rath, mohanty, & pradhan, 2019). this led to the development of the hypothesis that: h1: women’s skills development is positively linked to their career progression. workplace impediments the lack of support for education, inadequate skill development (joshi, neely, emrich, griffiths, & george, 2015; pwc, 2018b) and the lack of mentorship (ames, coplen, & malloy, 2019; oosthuizen et al., 2019) stall women’s careers. women’s careers are also hampered by unfair promotion practices (mckinsey & company, 2019; vasel, 2019) and male domination within the organisation (chetty & naidoo, 2017; islam, jantan, hashim, chong, & abdullah, 2018; naudé, 2017). likewise, women struggle in their careers when there is no support for work-family balance (kobayashi & kondo, 2019; malek, hassan, & sabil, 2019; world economic forum, 2020), and the absence of female role models is detrimental to women’s careers (athanasopoulou, moss-cowan, smets, & morris, 2017; moalusi & jones, 2019). therefore, deficiencies in skills development support, inadequate mentorship, unfair promotion practices, male domination, lack of support for work-family balance and limited role models negatively impact women’s careers, resulting in the following hypotheses: h2a: selected workplace impediments hinder women’s skills development. h2b: selected workplace impediments hinder women’s career progression. workplace support strategies unlike organisational impediments, some organisational factors promote women’s careers. facilitating developmental networks for women helps them ascend the organisational ladder faster (gipson, pfaff, mendelsohn, catenacci, & burke, 2017; mckinsey & company, 2019). similarly, learning and growth platforms (mehta, 2019; stacho et al., 2019; taulli, 2018), women-oriented leadership development programmes (ames et al., 2019; knipfer, shaughnessy, hentschel, & schmid, 2017) and career management assistance (afande, 2015; howson, coate, & de st croix, 2018) accelerate women’s careers. moreover, sponsorship initiatives, in which seniors use their authority to promote junior employees, positively impact women’s careers (chanland & murphy, 2017; kumara, 2018). furthermore, when organisations encourage women-to-woman support, women are more likely to strive within the workplace (ensour, al maaitah, & kharabsheh, 2017; faniko, ellemers,, derks, & lorenzi-cioldi, 2017; sheppard & aquino, 2017). an overall gender-friendly organisational culture facilitates the development and advancement of women within the workplace (jáuregui & olivos, 2018; kobayashi & kondo, 2019; mathur-helm, 2018). thus, networks, learning platforms, leadership development, career management, sponsorship, woman-to-woman support and gender-friendly cultures promote women’s careers. hence, the following hypotheses are tested: h2c: selected workplace support strategies promote women’s skills development. h2d: selected workplace support strategies promote women’s career progression. gender discriminatory practices gender inequalities within the workplace continue because employers are failing to adequately address them (pienaar, naidoo, & malope, 2018). gender stereotypes (bosch, 2017; kobayashi & kondo, 2019; jáuregui & olivos, 2018) and gender bias (ames et al., 2019; chanland & murphy, 2017; mckinsey & company, 2019) greatly impact women’s careers. furthermore, when women are treated based on their culturally assigned gender roles, their careers suffer (international labour organisation, 2018; stewart, 2020). there is also evidence that invisible organisational barriers prevent women from rising to senior leadership (chetty & naidoo, 2017; moalusi & jones, 2019). moreover, gender pay gaps in favour of men (auspurg, hinz, & sauer, 2017; pwc, 2018a; world economic forum, 2020), unfair representation of women at senior levels (mckinsey & company, 2019; osthuizen et al., 2019) and sexual harassment (mckinsey & company, 2019) are detrimental to women’s careers. moreover, the laxity with which organisations handle unfair practices plays a significant role in the eradication of gender malpractices which affect women’s careers (lahiri-dutt, 2015; pienaar et al., 2018). therefore, discriminatory practices such as misconceptions about women’s professional abilities, culturally assigned gender roles, gender bias, the glass ceiling, gender pay inequality, unfair gender representation at senior levels, sexual harassment and negligence in addressing gender discriminatory practices hamper women’s careers. this led to the hypotheses that: h3a: gender discriminatory practices negatively impact women’s skills development. h3b: gender discriminatory practices negatively impact women’s career progression. personal attributes women’s approaches towards their careers are critical for their professional success. it is imperative to put in the necessary effort to succeed (bosch, 2017; oosthuizen et al., 2019) and to take full responsibility for one’s career to move forward (prossack, 2018; rapuano, 2020). in the same vein, exhibiting professional confidence (athanasopoulou et al., 2017; mathur-helm, 2018), being optimistic about one’s career (ames et al., 2019; faniko et al., 2017) and effectively communicating one’s career plans (afande, 2015; howson et al., 2018) are vital for career advancement. this implies that effort, professional confidence, responsibility and optimism about one’s career are vital for success. hence, the following hypotheses are formulated: h4a: some personal factors impact women’s skills development. h4b: some personal factors impact women’s’ career progression. family responsibilities demands of family often interfere with women’s careers (malek et al., 2019; mythili, 2019) and produce strains that make it difficult for women to fulfil their career ambitions (bakalim & tasdelen-karckay, 2017; ensour et al., 2017). family responsibilities limit the time available for women to invest in their careers, as women often have to split their time between work and family (department of women, youth and persons with disabilities, 2019; rath et al., 2019). these often lead to family pressures which stress women and make it difficult for them to engage in career-related activities (neto et al., 2018; stewart, 2020). previous findings that family demands interfere, strain and pressurise women’s careers, thus limiting the time they have to invest in their careers, led to the test of the following hypotheses: h4c: family responsibilities impact women’s skills development. h4d: family responsibilities impact women’s career progression. legislation on gender in the workplace the south african government has promulgated legislation to promote gender equality within the workplace. the constitution of south africa act no.108 of 1996 (rsa, 1996); the labour relations act no. 66 of 1995 (rsa, 1995) and the basic conditions of employment act no. 75 of 1997 (rsa, 1997) ensure gender equity and gender fairness. the skills development act no. 97 of 1998 addresses the equitable skills development of employees, especially for employees from designated groups (rsa, 1998b). in addition, the employment equity act no. 55 of 1998 promotes equitable representation at all hierarchical levels within organisations (rsa, 1998a), whilst the broad-based black economic empowerment amendment act no. 46 of 2013 aims to increase the ownership, management control and employment of black men and women (rsa, 2013). although published, these laws (together with their associated policies and programmes) have not fully served their purposes as the day-to-day experiences of women still differ from promised standards (alexander, 2019) and women are still disadvantaged in the workplace (botha, 2017; gipson et al., 2017). hence the following hypotheses: h5a: there is a link between adherence to related existing legislation and women’s skills development. h5b: there is a link between adherence to related existing legislation and women’s career progression. methodology research design this research espoused a positivist approach to test existing theories (creswell & creswell, 2018). a quantitative method was used, and the research embraced a descriptive and correlative approach (apuke, 2017; bryman, 2016) to investigate constructs and relationships between them. population and sampling technique a total of 2000 women from the service industry were targeted to participate in the study and were sampled using a convenient nonprobability sampling technique (bryman, 2016). however, a sample of 412 was secured, which is far above the acceptable research sample of between 30 and 500 suggested by sekaran and bougie (2016), at a confidence level of 95%. data collection and analysis an online survey questionnaire was employed to collect data from 412 respondents within the service industry in johannesburg, south africa. the questionnaire consisted of 43 closed-ended questions and 12 biographical questions in a five-point likert rating scale ranging from strongly disagree (rated 1) to strongly agree (rated 5). descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse data (creswell & creswell, 2018), and the results are discussed thereafter. ethical considerations ethical approval for this study was obtained from the faculty research and innovation committee, faculty of management sciences (ref. no. gfk/2018). results descriptive statistics the majority of respondents, 84.2%, were black african women, followed by mixed race women at 10%, white women at 4.1% and finally indian women at 1.5%, whilst 0.2% of respondents’ racial categories were unaccounted for. a total of 22.1% of respondents in this study were semi-skilled, and 51.7% were skilled workers or junior managers. only 12.1%, 6.1%, 5.6% and 2.4% were managers, middle managers, senior managers and top managers, respectively. also, 90.8% of these women were employed full-time, whilst 9.2% were part-time employees, indicating that most of the respondents have career growth potential. kline (2015) recommended skewness below ± 3 and kurtosis values below ± 10 as appropriate. hence, findings in table 1 reveal that the supposition of univariate normality was met and normality was supported; therefore, the maximum likelihood method can be used to evaluate fitness of the model. more so, apart from gender discriminatory practices, which have a mean of 2.5, the means for the other constructs are above the midpoint and standard deviation values range between 1.038 and 1.561, indicating a narrow spread of the values around the mean. table 1: normality test and central tendencies. structural equation modelling structural equation modelling (sem) was used to analyse data, using ibm spss amos version 27. this analysis technique is ideal to represent, test and estimate theoretical models and to explain the extent of variance (ramlall, 2017). the confirmatory factor analysis and the structural model analysis are discussed next. confirmatory factor analysis this section provides statistical evidence of the construct validity, which consists of model fit indices, reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity. model fit indices: the maximum likelihood estimation method in spss amos 27 was employed to test the structural model. in line with hair et al. (2014), prior to testing the hypothesised relationships, the model’s fitness was assessed and results indicated a satisfactory fit [chi-square = 1939.456; p = 0.000; df = 825; chi-square/degree of freedom (cmin/df) = 2.351; goodness-of-fit index (gfi) = 0.819; normed fit index (nfi) = 0.934; tucker–lewis index (tli) = 0.957; comparative fit index (cfi) = 0.961; root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) = 0.057]. chi-square ratio of the model is less than 5, indicating a good model fit (bentler, 1989, 1990). the cfi and tli exceed 0.90, also signifying a good model fit (hair, black, babin, anderson, & tatham, 2010). likewise, nfi exceeds 0.90 (byrne, 1994) and the rmsea value is below 0.08 (browne & cudeck, 1993), indicating an acceptable model fit. hence, the structural model (hypothesised research) fits the data. the structural model in figure 1 can therefore be confidently used to test the hypothesised relationships in this study. reliability and validity: this section reports on the reliability and validity of the scale. reliability: reliability is the extent to which the measurement of a given construct yields consistent and stable results (taherdoost, 2016). composite reliability (cr) and cronbach’s alpha are often used to measure the reliability of a scale (field, 2013), and the acceptable value for both is 0.7 (malhothra et al., 2017). findings presented in table 2 reveal that the composite reliability (cr) coefficients range from 0.897 to 0.986, and the cronbach’s alpha values for the constructs range between 0.906 and 0.986, thus indicating a good level of internal consistency and reliability for the eight constructs. table 2: statistical results of reliability and convergent validity tests. convergent validity: convergent validity is the extent to which a set of items only measure one latent variable in a similar direction (hosany, prayag, deesilatham, cauševic, & odeh, 2015). table 2 reveals that all factor loadings (fls) are at least 0.5 and the average variance extracted (aves) estimates above 0.5, suggesting convergent validity of the model (malhothra et al., 2017). discriminant validity: discriminant validity is the degree to which a construct or latent variable discriminates against other constructs or latent variables (taherdoost, 2016). table 3 indicates that there are no discriminant validity concerns between the constructs because all their ave square roots exceed their own inter-construct correlation values (malhotra, nunan, & birks, 2017). hence, convergent and discriminant validity are supported in this study. table 3: correlation matrix to assess discriminant validity. structural model analysis after obtaining good model fit results, we estimated the significance of each relationship in the conceptual framework and the variance obtained (r2). the standardised regression coefficients and the significance of relationships are presented in figure 1. beta values indicate the strength and direction of the relationship, whereas p-values estimate the significance (for p-values below 0.05) (pallant, 2010). out of the 13 hypotheses, 6 relationships were significant whilst 7 were non-significant. career progression was statistically and significantly associated with skills development (β = 0.334, p = 0.000). therefore, hypothesis h1 is supported. likewise, the workplace support strategies construct was significantly and positively associated with skills development (β = 0.224, p = 0.000) and career progression (β = 0.187, p = 0.004). hence, there is support for hypotheses h2c and h2d, respectively. results also indicate that personal attributes have a significantly positive relationship with skills development (β = 0.687, p = 0.000) and career progression (β = 0.336, p = 0.000). consequently, hypotheses h4a and h4b are accepted, respectively. similarly, family responsibilities are statistically and positively linked to career progression (β = 0. 088, p = 0.005); therefore, hypothesis h4d is accepted. overall, workplace support strategies, workplace impediments, personal attributes, family responsibilities, workplace gender discriminatory practices, legislation on gender in the workplace explain up to 93% of the variance in skills development of women (r2 = 0.93) and 86% of the variance of career progression of women (r2 = 0.86), respectively. personal attributes are the greatest predictor of women’s skills development (p = 0.687) and their career progression (p = 336), followed by workplace support strategies (p = 224). discussion and implications from the findings of this study, it can be inferred safely that there are higher probabilities for women to experience career progression when their skills are developed (h1). these findings are in synch with afande (2015) and rath et al. (2019), who found that education, training and development impact women’s progression within the workplace. through the active promotion of women’s skills development, organisations (and individual women) can facilitate career progression. this study’s findings further revealed that women will be more likely to engage in skills development activities and progress when there is the right organisational support (h2c and h2d). these revelations are congruent with the plethora of previous findings, which all affirm the relevance of organisational support for employee’s skills development (coetzee, 2017; greenhow & lewin, 2016; mckinsey & company, 2019; mehta, 2019; rapuano, 2020; stacho et al., 2019; stachová, stacho, & vicen, 2017; taulli, 2018). the given findings accentuate the relevance of organisational support in promoting women’s skills development and their career progression (through initiatives such as support in networking, learning and growth, leadership development, career management, sponsorship, gender-friendly culture and woman–woman support). more so, women’s approach towards their own skills development and career progression is vital for their career growth. when a woman makes an effort, takes responsibility, expresses her career ambitions and exhibits optimism and confidence, she is more likely to engage in skills development activities (h4a). these results are in tandem with previous findings that individuals have a significant role to play in their skills development (khalid, rehman, muqadas, & rehman, 2017; howson et al., 2018; vnoučková et al., 2015). similarly, women who have positive attitudes towards their careers stand a better chance of progressing in the workplace (h4b). these results coincide with previous research which stipulates that women’s advancement in the workplace greatly depends upon their personal attitudes (ames et al., 2019; prossack, 2018; rapuano, 2020). furthermore, the career progression of women is impacted by their family responsibilities (h5b), implying that improvement in family responsibility will improve chances for career progression. this is because family-related demands, strains and time constraints put pressure on women’s careers as confirmed by previous findings that family responsibilities weigh on women’s career progress (bakalim & tasdelen-karckay, 2017; husin, ghazali, abdullah, & hadi, 2018; stewart, 2020). limitations despite the contribution of this study to research on women’s progression within the workplace, few limitations were encountered, which provide scope for further research. although hypotheses were informed by existing literature, relationships between women’s skills development and workplace impediments, gender discriminatory practices, family responsibilities and legislation on gender were not statistically significant (h2a, h3a, h4c and h5a were rejected, respectively). similarly, no statistical association was found between women’s career progression and workplace impediments, workplace gender discriminatory practices and legislation on gender (h2b, h3b, h5b were rejected, respectively). contradictory findings to the hypothesised relationships could be retested in subsequent studies. controversial result may also indicate the need to further test the unpublished research instrument for validation. also, due to low response rates and time constraints, the sample for this project was limited to women within the service sector in johannesburg, which reduces the extent of generalisation of its findings. more insight could be gained from research on women from specific professions (e.g. accounting, insurance, finance) within different provinces or nations or even a comparative study between genders or one on men’s career progression. conclusion and recommendations this article investigated factors that impact women’s skills development and their career progression within the service sector in johannesburg. it concludes that women need to put in the required effort and take full responsibility for their careers. also, corporations and national authorities need to be proactive in eliminating gender discriminatory practices, employ strategies that promote women’s careers and design systems to support women in their dual roles, thus ensuring a healthy work–life balance. a paradigm shift and differentiated approach become necessary to enhance and realise impactful results from organisational efforts geared towards women’s development and progression within the workplace. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions f.k.g. carried out the literature review and data collection for the first draft of the article. m.n., as the main supervisor, worked on the conceptualisation and refinement of the first draft and data analysis. f.v.d.w. was co-supervisor and attended to the appropriateness of the methodology design. l.w.d., as the co-supervisor, focused on language editing, technical issues and data presentation. funding information funding for this study was provided exclusively by the central university of technology, free state. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors, and the publisher. references afande, f.o. (2015). factors affecting women career advancement in the banking industry in kenya (a case of kenya commercial bank branches in nairobi county, kenya). journal of marketing and consumer research, 9, 69–94. african union. (2018). au strategy on gender equality and women’s empowerment (gewe) 2018–2028. author. retrieved from https://au.int/sites/default/files/documents/36817-doc-52569_au_report_eng_print.pdf akkermans, j., de vos, a., & van der heijden, b. (2016). going the distance: contextualizing and examining the sustainable career. academy of management annual meeting proceedings, 2016(1). alexander, s. (2019). an attorney’s work to make south africa’s promise of equality a reality. one. retrieved from https://www.one.org/international/blog/attorney-south-africa-equality/?gclid=eaiaiqobchmisjgvv7cp6aiv1ef3ch0m_aabeaayasaaegkmffd_bwe alnachef, t.h., & alhajjar, a.a. (2017). effect of human capital on organizational performance: a literature review. international journal of science and research, 6(8), 1154–1158. ames, j., coplen, c., & malloy, r. (2019). boston women leaders: how we got here. spencer stuart. retrieved from https://www.spencerstuart.com/research-and-insight/women-leaders-how-we-got-here apuke, o.d. (2017). quantitative research methods a synopsis approach. arabian journal of business and management review, 6(10), 40–47. https://doi.org/10.12816/0040336 athanasopoulou, a., moss-cowan, a., smets, m., & morris, t. (2017). claiming the corner office: female ceo careers and implications for leadership development. human resource management, 57(2), 617–639. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21887 auspurg, k., hinz, t., & sauer, c. (2017). why should women get less? evidence on the gender pay gap from multifactorial survey experiments. american sociological review, 82(1), 179–210. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122416683393 baehr, a.r. (2017). a capacious account of liberal feminism. feminist philosophy quarterly, 3(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.5206/fpq/2016.3.4 bakalim, o., & tasdelen-karckay, a. (2017). the mediating effect of work-life balance on the relationship between work-family conflict and life satisfaction. australian journal of career development, 26(1), 3–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1038416216682954 bentler, p.m. (1989). eqs structural equations program manual. bmdp statistical software. bentler, p.m. (1990). comparative fit indexes in structural models. psychological bulletin, 107(2), 238–246. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.107.2.238 bosch, a. (2017). rethinking women’s workplace outcomes: structural inequality. in a. bosch (ed.), south african board for people practices women’s report 2017 (pp. 13–17). sabpp. botha, d. (2017). barriers to career advancement of women in mining: a qualitative analysis. south african journal of labour relations, 41, 15–32. https://doi.org/10.25159/2520-3223/3766 broadbridge, a. (2015). how some women achieve success. in a.m. broadbridge & s.l. fielden (eds.), handbook of gendered careers in management: getting in, getting on, getting out (pp. 258–274). e. e. publishing. browne, m.w., & cudeck, r. (1993). alternative ways of assessing model fit. in k.a. bollen & j.s. long (eds.), testing structural equation models (pp. 136–162). sage. bryman, a. (2016). social science research (5th ed.). oxford university press. business women’s association south africa. (2017). women in leadership census. author. retrieved from https://bwasa.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/2017-bwasa-census-report.pdf byrne, b.m. (1994). structural equation modeling with eqs and eqs/windows. sage. chanland, d.e., & murphy, w.m. (2017). propelling diverse leaders to the top: a developmental network approach. human resource management, 57(1), 111–126. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21842 chetty, e., & naidoo, l. (2017). an investigation into the challenges faced by women≈when progressing into leadership positions at a manufacturing organisation in south africa. the international journal of business & management, 5(2), 127–142. coetzee, m. (2017). fairness as it relates to employment equity for women. in a. bosch (ed.), south african board for people practices women’s report 2017 (pp. 26–31). sabpp. craig, w. (2018). 8 ways to successfully develop employees year-round. forbes. retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamcraig/2018/08/21/8-ways-to-successfully-develop-employees-year-round/#1f78c04f5c41 creswell, j.w., & creswell, j.d. (2018). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed research methods approaches (5th ed.). sage. de vos, a., & van der heijden, b.i.j.m. (2017). current thinking on contemporary careers: the key roles of sustainable hrm and sustainability of careers. current opinion in environmental sustainability, 28, 41–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2017.07.003 department of women, youth and persons with disabilities. (2019). beijing + 25 south africa’s report on the progress made on the implementation of the beijing platform for action 2014–2019. department of women, youth and people with disabilities south africa. retrieved 11 march 2020, from http://www.women.gov.za/images/final-national-beijing-25-report-2014-2019--abrideged-.pdf ensour, w., al maaitah, h., & kharabsheh, r. (2017). barriers to arab female academics’ career development: legislation, hr policies and socio-cultural variables. management research review, 40(10), 1058–1080. https://doi.org/10.1108/mrr-08-2016-0186 fallon, b.j., & rice, s.m. (2015). investment in staff development within an emergency services organisation: comparing future intention of volunteers and paid employees. the international journal of human resource management, 26(4), 485–500. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.561222 faniko, k., ellemers, n., derks, b., & lorenzi-cioldi, f. (2017). nothing changes, really: why women who break through the glass ceiling end up reinforcing it. personality and social psychology bulletin, 43(5), 638–651. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167217695551 field, a. (2013). discovering statistic using ibm spss statistics (4th ed.). sage. gipson, a.n., pfaff, d.l., mendelsohn, d.b., catenacci, l.t., & burke, w.w. (2017). women and leadership: selection, development, leadership style, and performance. the journal of applied behavioral science, 53(1), 32–65. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886316687247 gouws, a. (2019). the state of women’s politics in south africa, 25 years after democratic transition. in a. bosch (ed.), south african board for people practices women’s report 2019 (pp. 3–9). sabpp. greenhow, c., & lewin, c. (2016). social media and education: reconceptualizing the boundaries of formal and informal learning. learning, media and technology, 41(1), 6–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2015.1064954 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2014). multivariate data analysis: pearson new international edition (vol. 1, no. 2). pearson education. hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., anderson, r.e., & tatham, r.l. (2010). multivariate data analysis (7th ed.). prentice hall. heathfield, s.m. (2019). an employee promotion recognizes their contribution to the firm. the balanced career. retrieved from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/a-promotion-rewards-an-employee-for-work-contributions-1918231#:~:text=an%20employee%20promotion%20recognizes%20their%20contribution%20to%20the%20firm&text=the%20advancement%20of%20an%20employee,organization%2c%20is%20called%20a%20promotion herman, c. (2015). rebooting and rerouting: women’s articulations of frayed careers in science, engineering and technology professions. gender, work & organisation, 22(4), 324–338. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12088 hideg, i., krstic, a., trau, r.n.c., & zarina, t. (2018). the unintended consequences of maternity leaves: how agency interventions mitigate the negative effects of longer legislated maternity leaves. journal of applied psychology, 103(10), 1155–1164. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000327 hosany, s., prayag, g., deesilatham, s., cauševic, s., & odeh, k. (2015). measuring tourists’ emotional experiences: further validation of the destination emotion scale. journal of travel research, 54(4), 482–495. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287514522878 howson, c.b.k., coate, k., & de st croix, t. (2018). mid-career academic women and the prestige economy. higher education research and development, 33(1), 533–548. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2017.1411337 husin, n.a, ghazali, a.s.m., abdullah, n., & hadi, m.i.b.a. (2018). work-life balance of malaysian lecturers. australian academy of business and economics review, 4(1), 43–49. international labour organisation. (2018). world employment social outlook: trends for women 2018. author. islam, m.a., jantan, a.h., hashim, h.b., chong, c.w., & abdullah, m.m. (2018). factors influencing female progression in leadership positions in the readymade garment (rmg) industry in bangladesh. journal of international business and management, 1(1), 1–13. ismail, a.i., abdul-majid, a.h., & musibau, h.o. (2017). employee learning theories and their organizational applications. academic journal of economic studies, 3(4), 96–104. jaga, a., arabandi, b., bagraim, j., & mdlongwa, s. (2017). doing the ‘gender dance’: black women professionals negotiating gender, race, work and family in post-apartheid south africa. community, work and family, 21(4), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2017.1311840 jáuregui, k., & olivos, m. (2018). the career advancement challenge faced by female executives in peruvian organisations. brazilian administration review, 15(4), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1590/1807-7692bar2018170137 joshi, a., neely, b., emrich, c., griffiths, d., & george, g. (2015). gender research in amj: an overview of five decades of empirical research and calls to action thematic issue on gender in management research. academy of management journal, 58(5), 1459–1475. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2015.4011 judrups, j., zandbergs, u., & kazakovs, m. (2015). competence based human resource development solution. engineering for rural development, 20, 669–674. karim, a. (2020). mohammed hanif’s red birds: ‘anti-colonial textuality’ and beyond. journal of postcolonial writing, 56(6), 747–760. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2020.1782250 khalid, s., rehman, m., muqadas, f., & rehman, s. (2017). women leadership and its mentoring role towards career development. pakistan business review, 19(3), 649–667. kline, r.b. (2015). statistical notes for clinical researchers: assessing normal distribution (2) using skewness and kurtosis. restorative dentistry & endodontics, 38(1), 52–54. https://doi.org/10.5395/rde.2013.38.1.52 knipfer, k., shaughnessy, b., hentschel, t., & schmid, e. (2017). unlocking women’s leadership potential: a curricular example for developing female leaders in academia. journal of management education, 41(2), 272–302. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562916673863 kobayashi, y., & kondo, n. (2019). organizational justice, psychological distress, and stress-related behaviors by occupational class in female japanese employees. plos one, 14(4), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214393 komalasari, y., supartha, w.g., rahyuda, a.g., & dewi, g.a.m. (2017). fear of success on women’s career development: a research and future agenda. european journal of business and management, 9(11), 60–65. kumara, y.a.d.r.r. (2018). career development of women in the hotel industry: an overview. journal of applied and natural science, 10(1), 330–338. https://doi.org/10.31018/jans.v10i1.1626 lahiri-dutt, k. (2015). the feminisation of mining. geography compass, 9(9), 523–541. https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12229 lewis, s., & beauregard, t.a. (2018). the meanings of work-life balance: a cultural perspective. in r. johnson, w. shen, & k.m. shockley (eds.), the cambridge handbook of the global work-family interface (pp. 720–732). cambridge university press. lwesi, d. (2019). neo-liberalism, gender, and south african working women. in a. bosch (ed.), south african board for people practices women’s report 2019 (pp. 10–16). sabpp. malek, n.s.b.a., hassan, z., & sabil, s. (2019). work-life balance among expatriates. trends in undergraduate research, 2(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.33736/tur.1535.2019 malhotra, n.k., nunan, d., & birks, d.f. (2017). marketing research: an applied approach (5th ed.). pearson vue. mathur-helm, b. (2018). lack of hr management interventions specifically directed at women blue-collar workers. in a. bosch (ed.), south african board for people practices women’s report 2018 (pp. 24–28). sabpp. mcdonald, k., & hite, l.m. (2018). conceptualizing and creating sustainable careers. human resource development review, 17(4), 349–372. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484318796318 mckie, l., & jyrkinen, m. (2017). my management: women managers in gendered and sexualised workplaces. gender in management: an international journal, 32(2), 98–110. https://doi.org/10.1108/gm-04-2016-0091 mckinsey & company. (2019). women in the workplace 2019. author. retrieved from https://wiw-report.s3.amazonaws.com/women_in_the_workplace_2019.pdf mehta, a. (2019). turn your company into a learning organisation. hr future, 18–21. moalusi, k.p., & jones, c.m. (2019). women’s prospects for career advancement: narratives of women in core mining positions in a south african mining organisation. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 45, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v45i0.1564 mulder, p. (2018). vroom’s expectancy theory. toolshero. retrieved from https://www.toolshero.com/psychology/theories-of-motivation/vrooms-expectancy-theory/ mythili, n. (2019). quest for success: ladder of school leadership of women in india. social change, 49(1), 114–131. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049085718821748 naudé, p. (2017). women in the workplace: en route to fairness? in a. bosch (ed.), south african board for people practices women’s report 2017 (pp. 3–7). sabpp. neto, m., chambel, m.j., & carvalho, v.s. (2018). work–family life conflict and mental well-being. occupational medicine, 68(6), 364–369. https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqy079 nienaber, h., & moraka, n.v. (2016). feminism in management research: a route to justly optimize talent. acta commercii, 16(2), 139–163. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v16i2.417 oosthuizen, r.m., tonelli, l., & mayer, c.-h. (2019). subjective experiences of employment equity in south african organisations. sa journal of human resource management, 17, a1074. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1074 osibanjo, a.o., oyewunmi, a.e., & ojo, s.i. (2014). career development as a determinant of organisation growth: modelling the relationship between these constructs in the nigerian banking industry. american of international journal of social science, 3(7), 67–76. pallant, j. (2010). spss survival manual: a step-by-step guide to data analysis using spss. open university press/mcgraw-hill. pienaar, h., naidoo, p., & malope, n. (2018). labour law and the trial and tribulations of women blue-collar workers. in a. bosch (ed.), south african board for people practices women’s report 2018 (pp. 29–35). sabpp. priyadharshini, p., mohan, s., hariharasudan, a., & sangeetha, j. (2021). authenticity of liberal feminism in namita gokhale’s texts. linguistics and culture review, 5(suppl. 1), 46–59. https://doi.org/10.21744/lingcure.v5ns1.1312 prossack, a. (2018). 5 things you can do to advance your career. forbes. retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashiraprossack1/2018/08/29/a-guide-to-advancing-your-career/#3869e4133cfa pwc. (2018a). 16 nudges for more #womenintech. quick and low-cost behavioural measures that bring gender equality to emerging tech. author. retrieved from https://www.pwc.co.za/en/assets/pdf/women-in-tech.pdf pwc. (2018b). time to talk: what has to change for women at work. author. retrieved from https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/about/diversity/iwd/international-womens-day-pwc-time-to-talk-report.pdf raheja, k. (2015). methods of training and development. innovative journal of business and management, 4(2), 35–41. https://doi.org/10.15520/ijbm.vol4.iss2.17.pp35-41 ramlall, i. (2017). applied structural equation modelling for researchers and practitioners: using r and stata for behavioural research. emerald group publishing. rapuano, v. (2020). toward sustainable careers: literature review. contemporary research on organization management and administration, 8(1), 41–54. rath, t.s., mohanty, m., & pradhan, b.b. (2019). an alternative career progression model for indian women bank managers: a labyrinth approach. women’s studies international forum, 73, 24–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2019.01.005 reichel, a., lazarova, m., apospori, e., afiouni, f., andresen, m., bosak, j., parry, e., bagdadli, s., briscoe, j.p., gianecchini, m., suzanne, p., & taniguchi, m. (2022). the disabling effects of enabling social policies on organisations’ human capital development practices for women. human resource management journal, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12431 republic of south africa. (1995). the labour relations act no. 66 of 1995. government printers. republic of south africa. (1996). the constitution of south africa act no.108 of 1996. government printers. republic of south africa. (1997). the basic conditions of employment act no. 75 of 1997. government printers. republic of south africa. (1998a). employment equity act, no. 55 of 1998. government printers. republic of south africa. (1998b). skills development act, no. 75 of 1998. government printers. republic of south africa. (2013). the broad-based black economic empowerment amendment act no. 46 of 2013. government printers. sekaran, u., & bougie, r. (2016). research methods for business: a skill-building approach (7th ed.). wiley. sheppard, i.d., & aquino, k. (2017). sisters at arms: a theory of female same-sex conflict and its problematization in organizations. journal of management, 43(3), 691–715. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314539348 stacho, z., stachová, k., & raišienė, a.g. (2019). changes in approach to employee development in organizations on a regional scale. journal of international studies, 12(2), 299–308. https://doi.org/10.14254/2071-8330.2019/12-2/19 stachová, k., stacho, z., & vicen, v. (2017). efficient involvement of human resources in innovations through effective communication. business: theory and practice, 18(1), 33–42. https://doi.org/10.3846/btp.2017.004 stewart, e. (2020). women are burned out at work and at home. vox. retrieved from https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/5/18/21260209/facebook-sheryl-sandberg-interview-lean-in-women-coronavirus?__source=newsletter%2525257cclosingthegap steyn, r., & jackson, l.t.b. (2015). general employee perceptions of gender-based discrimination in a selection of south african organisations. journal of contemporary management, 12(1), 734–756. taherdoost, h. (2016). validity and reliability of the research instrument; how to test the validation of a questionnaire/survey in a research. international journal of academic research in management, 5(3), 28–36. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3205040 taulli, t. (2018). how to create an effective company training program. forbes. retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomtaulli/2018/06/09/how-to-create-an-effective-company-training-program/#1492949b2224 turaba, a.g.m., & casimir, g. (2015). a model of the antecedents of training transfer. international journal of training research, 13(1), 82–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/14480220.2015.1051352 united nations. (2019). the sustainable development goals report 2019. author. retrieved from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2019/the-sustainable-development-goals-report-2019.pdf valcour, m. (2015). facilitating the crafting of sustainable careers in organizations. in a. de vos & b.i.j.m. van der heijden (eds.), handbook of research on sustainable careers (pp. 20–34). edward elgar publishing. vasel, k. (2019, 18 april). how to look for a new job when you already have one. cnn business. retrieved from https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/16/success/job-search-while-employed/index.html vnoučková, l., urbancová, h., & smolová, h. (2015). approaches to employee development in czech organisations. journal on efficiency and responsibility in education and science, 8(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.7160/eriesj.2015.080101 world economic forum. (2020). insight report: the global gender gap report 2020. author. retrieved from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/wef_gggr_2020.pdf abstract introduction the research gap organisational equilibrium theory methodology results discussion practical and managerial implications limitations acknowledgements references about the author(s) esmond n. kuuyelleh department of secretaryship and management studies, faculty of business and management studies, bolgatanga technical university, bolgatanga, ghana department of management, faculty of business and law, curtin university, perth, australia mohammad alqahtani department of business administration, college of business, king khalid university, abha, saudi arabia emmanuel akanpaadgi department of secretaryship and management studies, faculty of business and management studies, bolgatanga technical university, bolgatanga, ghana citation kuuyelleh, e.n., alqahtani, m., & akanpaadgi, e. (2022). exploring academic staff retention strategies: the case of ghanaian technical universities. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1975. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1975 original research exploring academic staff retention strategies: the case of ghanaian technical universities esmond n. kuuyelleh, mohammad alqahtani, emmanuel akanpaadgi received: 19 apr. 2022; accepted: 12 july 2022; published: 25 oct. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the crippling effects of staff turnover on higher education performance and success are disruptive and influence the core of national human capital development and thus call for a swift response using retention strategies. research purpose: this article sought to explore the nature of academic staff retention strategies of technical universities in ghana. motivation for the study: literature on academic staff retention strategies in the context of ghanaian technical universities appears to be limited, scattered and lack theoretical underpinning. this exploration is needed especially that institutions in the sector has been upgraded to the status of universities; and thus, attracting and retaining highly skilled academic staffs remains key. research approach/design and method: using organisational equilibrium theory, this qualitative research drew primary data from four technical universities through semi-structured interviews and applied the thematic analysis technique. main findings: although ghanaian technical universities are making considerable effort towards the development of feasible retention strategies to retain academic staff, the evidence points to the role of two major sets of factors (work-related and economic factors) that form the crux of managements’ strategic policy response. practical/managerial implications: work-related and economic factors were the main factors that encourages retention of academic staff of ghanaian technical universities. retention strategies of technical universities should be deepened and correspond with the recognised factors that enhance academic staff retention. contribution/value-add: this study, with the findings, articulates retention strategies of technical universities which can be adopted to retain highly skilled and talented academic staffs. the body of knowledge on retention strategies is extended from both empirical and theoretical perspective. keywords: retention; qualitative study; technical universities; ghana; higher education. introduction over the last three decades, the higher education sector in africa, in general, has undergone major changes, including a marginal increase in the level of funding, significant improvement in infrastructure, the establishment of additional higher education institutions, an increase in access to higher education and improvement in research culture (abugre, 2018; selesho & naile, 2014). however, the recurring narrative on retaining academic staff has become imperative in recent times as a result of increasing academic staff turnover rates in higher education institutions across developing countries, and particularly in sub-saharan africa (lata et al., 2021; matimbwa & ochumbo, 2019; saurombe & barkhuizen, 2022). the rising enrolment in higher education institutions supported by increasing access to higher education emphasises the need for retention and further attraction of academic staff members to meet the rising demand. the merits of academic staff retention are at the core of tertiary education in delivering its mandate for national development (sodirjonov, 2020). extant literature suggests that the retention of talented academic staff members contributes to building a country’s human capital (jafari-sadeghi et al., 2020; sodirjonov, 2020). the increasing access to tertiary education has been constrained by higher turnover rates with several consequences, including to fill vacant positions (al-khrabsheh et al., 2018; idiegbeyan-ose et al., 2018). over the years, successive governments have paid little attention to issues of employment conditions, turnover intentions and the retention of academic staff in ghanaian technical universities (kwami, 2001). the effect of poor funding as well as other challenges has been highly associated with academic staff turnover and a shortage of skilled and qualified staff, which directly affects the quality of graduates produced (amedorme & fiagbe, 2013) and other educational outcomes. higher education in sub-saharan africa has been noted to be fraught with institutional governance weaknesses and infrastructure deficiencies which worsen the retention of academic staff (abugre, 2018). retaining academic staff becomes difficult in the light of the lack of institutional and executive will to curtail the numerous challenges eminent in tertiary institutions. according to mushemeza (2016), these institutional weaknesses and deficiencies are peculiar to institutions of higher learning in africa. consequently, there is a continuous turnover of academic staff from universities in the sub-regions to the diaspora, the corporate sector or other civil society groups (mushemeza, 2016). the compounding challenges of retaining academic staff present a challenge for governments and administrators of tertiary institutions to remedy. selesho and naile (2014) asserted that the decline of quality academic staff in higher learning institutions affects the prospects and the potential for building relevant knowledge and learning. the literature demonstrates that organisational citizenship and compensation of academic staff are crucial factors in retaining academic staff (erasmus et al., 2015). furthermore, the demands of the profession as a result of low student–lecturer ratio, poor facilities and heavy workload lead to most academic staff defaulting on promotion and building capacity and resorting to leaving the profession (abugre, 2018; selesho & naile, 2014). the research gap prior literature provides an understanding of conditions of employment and other work-related environmental factors that influence employee turnover, job satisfaction and staff retention (kurniawaty et al., 2019). morrell (2016) contended that because the problem of recruitment and retention is market-driven, salary-based solutions contribute to employees feeling satisfied with their conditions of employment. lewis (2015) argued that some degree of turnover is unavoidable; nevertheless, high rates of employee turnover have both cost implications and affect the institutional reputation and the quality of learning and teaching. implicitly or explicitly, the expertise base of technical universities may be eroded through the attrition of academic staff. most studies conducted in different contexts have produced contradictory findings on the impact of conditions of service on staff retention and job satisfaction. these findings may have been influenced by different variables (theron et al., 2014). the nature of the overall employment conditions in technical universities in ghana may differ markedly from work conditions in other institutions and hence produce different influences on the overall organisational culture and behaviour (van zyl, 2019). furthermore, an important limitation of prior studies is that they did not examine specific retention strategies designed and implemented to retain critical or core academic staff, particularly in the context of higher education institutions (selesho & naile, 2014). another limitation of prior literature is that turnover and retention studies have largely employed quantitative methodology; qualitative studies remain a blind spot in the literature, especially within the settings of developing countries in sub-saharan africa (dehlor, 2006). this study thus draws on organisational equilibrium theory to address an important literature gap by examining the retention strategies ghanaian technical universities deploy towards the development of appropriate retention strategies. the article addresses three key research questions: what is the nature of ghanaian technical universities’ academic staff retention strategies? to what extent do ghanaian technical universities’ retention strategies align with factors that breed staff turnover? how can ghanaian technical universities design retention strategies to correspond with factors that breed academic staff turnover? the contribution of this article to the turnover and retention literature is threefold. firstly, this study contributes to the turnover and retention literature by establishing the factors that may breed academic staff turnover and management strategic policy response. secondly, this study contributes to the turnover and retention literature by offering feasible retention strategies identified to reduce academic turnover. finally, using the organisational equilibrium theory, the study contributes to the existing repository of literature and profession for employee retention. organisational equilibrium theory the theory of organisational equilibrium can be traced back to the late 1930s from the work of barnard in 1938, and that of march and simon in 1958. this theory argues that employees’ turnover intentions, satisfaction and retention can be influenced by the prevailing conditions of employment and other forms of organisational inducements (finster, 2013; morrell, 2016). organisational equilibrium theory opines that there should be a balance between the main employee turnover drivers and organisational inducements to reduce employee turnover intentions and ensure the survival of the organisation. march and simon (1958, p. 99) in their model of determinants of labour turnover suggest that ‘employees’ satisfaction with their organisations is the main force that affects their perceptions of the desirability of movement’. organisational equilibrium posits that the propensity of employees to exit an organisation can be reduced by increasing inducements. overall, employees’ intention to leave is determined by two underlying factors, namely, ‘perceived desirability of movement’ and ‘perceived ease of movement’ (job satisfaction), and is based on the assessment of perceived alternatives or opportunities (singh & loncar, 2010). primarily, most people will initially evaluate and compare their current jobs with accompanying prospects and organisational inducements before leaving their current jobs and engaging in job-search activity (hom et al., 2017; morrell, 2016). in a case where the organisational inducements (e.g. training and development, supervisory support, good working conditions and reward systems) are greater than the individual’s contributions (e.g. time, knowledge, efforts and skills) to the organisation, the individual worker will stay with the current job (lee et al., 2017). organisations can manage turnover cases by ensuring a balance between the employees’ contribution and organisational inducement equation. the interplay between incentives and contributions will determine the employees’ level of satisfaction and dissatisfaction, and their decision to either stay with the current job or leave (singh & loncar, 2010). prior literature argues that intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors collectively contribute to the overall satisfaction and retention of employees in an organisation (tarcan et al., 2017). therefore, there exists a direct correlation between management inducements and staff turnover rates and retention. singh and loncar (2010) found that although pay satisfaction affects employees’ turnover intent, employees’ job satisfaction is a more crucial factor that influences turnover intentions. conversely, academic staff, particularly ageing staff, may find career change difficult and thus remain at their institutions. this ample evidence suggests that employee turnover and retention may or may not be determined by job satisfaction or dissatisfaction (pop-vasileva et al., 2011). march and simon (1958) are considered both the inheritors and promoters of the social system school of thought in employee turnover research. they attempted to integrate the labour market with individual decision-making and behaviours. the central idea espoused in the theory of organisational equilibrium is that every action and motive of an organisation should seek to reach and maintain equilibrium. the following are the underlying postulates of an organisation’s equilibrium: an organisation is a cooperative system that consists of different individuals with interrelated social behaviour. each individual receives inducement for contributing towards the survival and existence of the organisation. individuals continually contribute to the existence of the organisation when the inducements received are greater than their contributions. the contributions from various individuals are the source from which the organisation generates inducements to pay others. equilibrium or solvency occurs when the organisation can continue to provide inducements to members for their contributions. maintaining equilibrium is the responsibility of management. a state of equilibrium is achieved when managers ensure a balanced fit between competing individuals and general interests or between organisational needs and the satisfaction of personnel within the organisation (froese, 2017). job satisfaction or dissatisfaction determines employees’ decision to stay and participate in their organisations’ activities. employees who are more satisfied with their jobs and do not have alternative jobs would rather stay and participate in the organisational activities and processes (lee et al., 2017). march and simon (1958) derived their conclusion from the model of influence processes in organisations and argued that an organisation is an interrelated system, which comprises social behaviours of various subgroups of actors and participants. these subgroups co-exist in the organisation and work collectively in diverse ways and make different contributions to ensure the survival of the organisation (matimbwa & ochumbo, 2019). these subgroups make one of two decisions. the first is the decision to participate in the processes within the organisation. employees’ attitude towards the job is the key factor that influences their decision to participate. individuals’ decisions to participate are based on a reasoned estimation of the exchange between their contributions and the inducements received from the organisation. second, the decision made by employees to participate in organisational activities is a result of the inducements received from the organisation (morrell, 2016). while inducements are responsible for employees’ decisions to continue contributing to the development of the organisation, other evidence points to remuneration (frye et al., 2019). organisational members presumably seek to optimise their net equilibrium of satisfaction over dissatisfaction to stay with their current organisation. if the expectations of a member result in net dissatisfaction over satisfaction, the member is more likely to leave their current position. the theory emphasises the need to balance employee contributions to the organisation and the inducements received by the employees (hom et al., 2017). job satisfaction is derived from the organisational inducements and is a function of several factors. there should be congruence between contributions and inducements for employees to remain with an organisation. organisational inducements refer to valued outcomes (both tangible and intangible rewards) that employees receive in exchange for their contributions to the organisational success and overall development. this exchange must benefit both the organisation and the individual to serve as the basis for a stable organisation. employees must prioritise inducements received from the organisation over their contributions to the organisation. in contrast, the organisation must place a higher value on the individual contributions received than on the inducements provided in exchange for the individual contributions (hom et al., 2017). organisations provide various forms of inducements to workers in reciprocity for actual and expected contributions from these employees. employees, therefore, receive different levels of organisational inducements because of differences in jobs and in structural and relational positions, as well as the degree of managerial support. these differences in the extent of inducements received by individual employees may breed different perceptions and organisational commitment (morrell, 2016; shin et al., 2012). the survival of an organisation depends on its ability to induce and succeed in arranging payment packages for its employees in order to motivate their sustained participation and contribution (morrell, 2016). when the organisational inducements are greater than the individual’s contributions to the organisation, the individual worker stays with the current job (mowday et al., 2013). organisations can manage instances of turnover by ensuring a balance between the employee’s contribution and organisational inducement equations. organisations estimate the economic values and the desired level of employees’ contributions, reinvest their contributions and consequently reward them to motivate their continued contributions (subramony et al., 2008). this view corresponds with social exchange and reciprocity, which suggests that both the organisation and employees are engaged in a battle of exchanging inducements and contributions. within this setting, management seeks to lure employees by maintaining a balance between the contribution and inducement mechanisms. the value and care shown by a supervisor to an employee for their contributions and well-being will result in the employee’s commitment to the success of the organisation (kang & kim, 2014). methodology research design qualitative research designs facilitate the interpretation of relationships between variables and support the assumption that real-world events must be interpreted through the perspectives of the participants being studied. this assumption presupposes that a qualitative research approach is more appropriate, meaningful and useful for studying and interpreting cases in the social world (creswell & creswell, 2017). in the domain of qualitative research design, it is assumed that reality is subjective and that human beings construct meaning based on their understanding and the social reality within their local context. moreover, qualitative research orientation is premised on the idea that a phenomenon has multiple realities and meanings, depending on the researcher, and that these realities and meanings are co-created by the researcher and the participants. following a qualitative research design, we applied the multiple case study strategy which allows for a relatively exhaustive and intensive study of a phenomenon in order to obtain details about that phenomenon from which triangulation can be achieved. multiple case studies enable the identification, exploration and explanation of behavioural patterns of participants (yin, 2017). according to verschuren (2003), the case study research strategy investigates a social phenomenon in a holistic manner. case and participant selection ghana has established 10 technical universities in its various political regions, out of which four technical universities were chosen for the social unit of analysis and institutional context (see table 1). table 1: characteristics of sample interviewed. using a non-probability sampling technique by means of purposive sampling, academic staff, union representatives, and ex-academic staff and registrars in charge of human resources (hr) were selected. the purposive sampling technique involves constituting a sample based on the researcher’s judgement. in the context of this study, the researcher’s judgement was such that respondents who occupied key positions and would be able to provide the needed information were involved. the purposive sampling technique ensured that the data collected were robust to answer the research questions. this is because the intentional selection of participants ensured that participants who had significant exposure or experience of the phenomenon investigated in the study were selected (johnson et al., 2020). table 1 presents the sample and participants that were interviewed, whereas table 2 reports the demographic characteristics of the participants. table 2: demographic characteristics of respondents. data collection a semi-structured interview was conducted with hr managers, trade union members, academic staff and former academic staff of the respective technical universities. interview questions were developed based on the research questions. interview sessions were recorded with a voice recorder and later converted into a textual microsoft word™ document format, coded and managed together with the interview data using the nvivo™ software. interviewees’ verbatim transcripts were prepared immediately after each interview was completed and returned for comments; yet all participants maintained their position and provided no comments. the interview was conducted one-on-one and face-to-face with the leading researcher where each session averagely lasted 40 min. none of the participants refused or repeated the interview. the authors thoroughly evaluated the data collection instrument. further, in appraising the validity and reliability of the data collection instrument, a pilot study involving three participants was conducted to check for errors. by means of triangulation, codes and themes that emerged were presented and cross-checked by other experienced investigators in the research area for credibility, reliability and consistency. data analysis the study used the thematic content analysis (saunders et al., 2019). this approach involves undertaking a search for themes in the interview transcripts or field notes. the frequency of occurrence of certain words or phrases serves as a common metric for generating themes. initially, the researchers examined the various codes that depicted central patterns. the coding was done by writing marginal notes and placing labels on the interview transcripts to indicate portions of the data that could be categorised and ‘thematised’. large volume of textual interview transcripts was reduced to capture only critical information. the coding generated clusters of meaning, which provided the means for determining general themes from the textual data. these themes were presented for further expansive qualitative interpretation. the themes provided the basis for organising, presenting and interpreting the remaining data in the study. the frequency of occurrence of certain words or phrases serves as a common metric for generating themes. the next step in this approach involved noting themes that were common to all or most of the interviews conducted. further, the researchers noted whenever themes occurred only in a single interview or in a minority of the interviews in the four case study sites, similar themes were fused together into a main concept. using this procedure accounted for the prominence given to some themes over others. this approach was widely used in both the within-case and cross-case analyses to generate the various themes. ethical considerations data were collected in 2018 at each participant’s private office after ethical clearance was obtained (approval number: hre2017-0709). the proposal met the requirements described in the national health and medical research council’s (nhmrc) national statement on ethical conduct in human research (2007). results while the findings are presented based on the organisational equilibrium theory, the themes were derived from the data. inducements are given to employees to promote their continued participation in making contributions to the existence of an organisation (cañibano et al., 2022; garcia et al., 2021). technical universities, unlike private and traditional universities in ghana, are currently not well endowed with various attractive packages, a satisfactory work environment and the appropriate physical infrastructure. nevertheless, employees expect incentives in return for their contribution to their institutions. the findings are categorised into themes and aggregated into work-related and economic dimensions. thus, from the data, work-related and economic factors were the main factors that encourage the retention of academic staff. work-related factors this study found that the management of technical universities use various kinds of work-related inducements with the aim of improving the working environment in order to retain academic staff. prior human resource management (hrm) literature highlights that academic staff need a satisfactory and favourable work environment, which directly results in an increased commitment to the organisation (mabaso & dlamini, 2018). the themes under work-related factors consist of improved infrastructure and facilities, institutional collaboration, opportunities for career development and advancement, and flexible work arrangements. theme 1: infrastructure and facilities evidence from the study suggests that for the past 4 years, most technical universities have made a significant effort to provide improved physical infrastructure and facilities. participants highlighted the provision of some state-of-the-art classrooms, engineering equipment, laboratories and office space. unlike previously, these new and emerging infrastructures are well ventilated or air-conditioned, and most of the recently built lecture halls have the capacity to accommodate a large number of students. the participants further noted that the provision of academic facilities such as office space, lecture halls and projectors is an important improvement in the work environment, albeit the rate of infrastructural expansion and better facilities are still inadequate to meet the continuously increasing enrolment numbers of students. these improvements in the physical infrastructure are unevenly distributed throughout the various technical universities. for example, accra technical university and several others mostly located in the south have improved their infrastructure and facilities more than others. for instance, those technical universities located in the north highlighted unevenness in infrastructural development as compared to other technical universities: ‘getfund [ghana education trust fund] has put up very beautiful structures; i mean so many structures but the latest is the faculty of engineering block. very beautiful, very big, ventilated, air-conditioned and most of the lecture theatres are opened to make them more legal to accommodate the intake of ventilation. and lighting is provided adequately to cater for lectures. so, this one, we don’t have problems with structures.’ (participant 5, 56, male, lecturer) participants stated that the recent construction of lecture halls and office space funded by the ghana education trust fund (getfund) had improved their working environment, which allowed them to work freely without a sense of difficulty and frustration, although they believe more is still required. some participants indicated that since being appointed as academic staff some years ago, they had been sharing the general staff common room, but recently, they were allocated office spaces with only one or two colleagues. although they would have preferred individual offices, they were happy to finally share an office with only one colleague, rather than share a staff common room with 35 colleagues. this improvement gave them some comfort and a sense of freedom. the recent upgrading of infrastructure, particularly lecture halls with modern ventilation systems, library facilities and office accommodation, has created a sense of belonging and interest in working in their institutions. government’s commitment to support technical education, which had been relegated to second-class status after independence, has occasioned the recent upgrading of some infrastructure. this commitment, demonstrated by the recent improvements in technical universities, has made them more comparable to traditional universities: ‘so that in all, i have my laboratory and my condition of service is good. i have my workshop, i have my office, i have my key to my office, a computer is there, and the internet is working. and when i move to the lab, the machines are working, and electricity is on. so, why should i leave? in any case, any work i will do here, it is the same amount i will be receiving if i leave here and go to legon or knust. the same allowances.’ (participant 16, 43, f, lecturer) theme 2: institutional collaboration institutional collaboration and teamwork create collegiality between higher education institutions and industry partners within ghana and beyond towards the advancement of teaching and research outcomes. technical universities are currently establishing institutional–industrial collaborations both in ghana and abroad, especially with china, japan and south africa. the collaborations aim to create opportunities for academic staff to partner with other institutions to conduct research and source funding to support their teaching, research and career advancement. participants noted that the technical universities had already created some networks in ghana and abroad. consequently, some staff are receiving financial and technical support to undertake research projects and have also benefited by upskilling themselves. a participant noted that through an institutional collaboration, he had travelled to china to participate in workshops and seminars. another important dimension of institutional collaboration occurs when memoranda of understanding between ghanaian and international higher education institutions are reached (e.g. with china, italy, the united kingdom and the netherlands). these memoranda assist in training academic staff to complete terminal degrees to meet the required teaching standards for universities. these collaborations have increased the number of academic staff with degrees in the past few years: ‘the institution is also liaising with other sister institutions both within and outside to grant scholarship packages for our teaching staff; and we have got one sister institution in china which in the past three years has granted not less than four full scholarships to our staff in the courses of it.’ (participant 2, 48, m, hr manager) theme 3: opportunities for career development and advancement participants from all the technical universities demonstrated some convergence in their responses on the provision of training and special career growth and development initiatives to ensure they build the required human capital and retain staff. technical universities need to build the capacity and increase the number of academic staff with terminal degrees to increase their contribution to the core activities of technical universities. recently, technical universities have demonstrated significant commitment by allocating internally generated funds (igf) to support career development through offering scholarships and reimbursement of school fees to their academic staff. these internal sponsorship arrangements have helped some academic staff upskill and remain committed to their institutions after benefiting from such career development initiatives: ‘yes, some of them you see, for instance, we have the academic progression. postgraduate studies and things. there is an opportunity if you want to progress the school can sponsor you. so currently we have about more than 20 people who are pursuing a phd and the school is sponsoring them. some partially, some fully. so, some people are going to stay to enjoy this benefit. so, they would not go.’ (participant 9, 38, m, hr manager) academics from the four universities acknowledged that currently many academic staffs are given the opportunity to pursue further studies, which demonstrates the universities’ commitment to supporting staff advance their careers. the study found that the management of technical universities were enthusiastic and committed to take advantage of the partnerships established with other universities both in ghana and abroad to ensure that many of their academic staff undertake their terminal degrees: ‘as i said, the institution is doing a lot when it comes to staff development. within the last three years, a lot of people have had the opportunity to further their education and then [gain] promotions.’ (participant 26, 51, m, hr manager) another special career growth and development initiative within the various technical universities was establishing memoranda of understanding with the getfund to sponsor academic staff to pursue doctoral studies in ghana and abroad. at the time of the fieldwork, more than 100 academic staff out of eight ghanaian technical universities were undertaking doctoral studies in various research fields. these special initiatives supported technical universities in upgrading the qualifications of their academic staff between 2013 and 2017, which has helped retain some academic staff. this management approach to academic staff development forms part of the broader strategies of talent management towards reducing the rising tide of academic staff turnover and helping tackle the problem of insufficient qualified academic staff in the ghanaian education labour market. technical universities in ghana are greatly challenged with the turnover of their competent and experienced staff to private and traditional universities. the study found that academic staff sponsored to undertake further training and development opportunities were contracted or bonded by management to remain with and serve the technical university on completion of their studies for a specified number of years. bonding is a staff retention strategy pursued by the management of the four selected universities. bonding aims to limit the mobility of sponsored academic staff. an hr manager explained: ‘once you are granted study leave, the first thing is to bond you and you have to accept the terms and condition of the bond before you are allowed to go or else it could be revoked.’ (participant 10, 47, f, hr manager) the bond is a legal contract between the applicant and the management of a university signed in the presence of three guarantors who are held accountable if the applicant fails to return after studies. the number of years for the bond is determined by the duration of the training programme. staff members must fulfil all the conditions of the bond before they can leave. some beneficiaries have been able to violate their contractual agreement because most technical universities fail to police such breaches. sometimes, beneficiaries completed their studies and failed to return to their institutions to serve the bond conditions, and also failed to pay back the funds. a few secured better jobs elsewhere to work and paid off the funds. the study further revealed that technical universities provide a more flexible promotion system than traditional universities: the evidence suggests that academic staff members in technical universities are promoted to senior lecturer or professorial ranks faster than their counterparts in traditional universities. a participant stated: ‘this school does well regarding appointment and promotion. within a short time, they have been able to promote a lot of lecturers to senior lecturer status. and most of them are very happy. it’s not easy getting senior lectureship status in any other public universities or traditional universities but this place has provided a condition for them and that is one.’ (participant 15, 41, f, lecturer) human resource participants from all the selected universities revealed that management used promotion and appointment to serve in various capacities (e.g. heads of department and committees) as an organisational inducement strategy to motivate staff members both financially and non-financially. serving in different administrative roles comes with significant financial rewards in most tertiary education institutions. many academic staff members are influenced by the large financial benefits to declare their interest and desire to serve. the opportunity for academic staff members to take up administrative responsibilities may induce many to stay. they are less likely to move to new institutions where they might wait for a few years for the opportunity to serve in such lucrative administrative capacities. moreover, the main criteria for selection of these positions are seniority and years of service in the institution. serving in these administrative capacities further strengthens academic staff members’ opportunities for promotion. these roles are rotated to ensure that all academic staff members benefit from such responsibilities by increasing their chances of promotion. it was also revealed that management in technical universities have demonstrated a strong commitment to fast-tracking administrative procedures in the promotion process. management ensures that academic staff members with the required publications and teaching evaluations, together with some level of community service, pass through the process without the difficulties and delays previously perceived by many staff members. these acts to support academic staff in their career advancement were alluded to by participants as an important incentive to stay: ‘apart from training and development, appointment or promotion is also another key factor as far as the institution is concerned; we don’t want to delay the promotion of staff.’ (participant 1, 42, f, lecturer) theme 4: flexible work arrangements some participants argued that they stayed with the technical universities because of the flexibility in carrying out their duties and responsibilities that supports work–life balance and work–family balance: ‘somebody teaches the regular time like this and after 4 o’clock the school has closed. so, all those who come to school after 4 o’clock, that 4 pm to 9 pm they are more like what we call the parallel program or evening program. they have paid tuition and the tuition fee components are shared for the teachers and the department that engages those teachers. so, if somebody is able to teach in this program, the person is getting the money. these are institutionally induced and once you go to someplace if you go to the departments with higher numbers, they are happy in those areas. because at the end of the semester somebody can be making 10,000 from that one alone. somebody can be making 8000 from that one alone. so that is good for the person. this is institutionally induced.’ (participant 14, 56, m, lecturer) flexibility in work arrangements also offers financial benefits when academic staff engage in part-time work with other institutions. some academic staff members have limited teaching allocations, which give them the opportunity to teach in other universities and undertake their private business activities. participants indicated that work flexibility was something that frequently influenced their decision to stay. they believed that this flexibility may not exist in other industries or traditional universities. for example, some participants said that they earned between us$1000 and us$1500 (gh₵8000–gh₵10 000) from part-time teaching. for them, this was sufficient motivation to stay in a technical university with a flexible job schedule. although this arrangement generally reduces work hours in these technical universities, management have relaxed some policies regarding full-time academic staff commitment. they generally choose to ignore the practice of staff having second jobs to allow their staff to explore other business opportunities. the staff can then generate additional income to supplement their wages, which are considered low compared to the wages of their counterparts in traditional universities. the study further noted that technical universities have introduced weekend and evening school programmes targeting full-time workers. programmes are offered alongside the regular programmes. lecturers who teach these programmes are paid as part-time staff. academic staff members were willing to do extra teaching in these programmes as it provided additional income, which led staff members to compete for the positions: ‘we have what is called part-time teaching that people always fight on it. people are prepared to teach more in the evening and in the weekend programs because it gives them more money. because the institution has made it in such a way that the fees that are paid for the evening school, they put what they call tuition fee on it. so, all the tuition fees are for the teachers who will teach in the evening program. so, this is institutionally induced form of an allowance.’ (participant 7, 37, m, lecturer) economic factors universities have offered attractive financial inducements such as subsidised accommodation facilities for academic staff in a bid to support and retain them. the current organisational inducements used to persuade academic staff to remain are broadly categorised as ‘economic factors’ and comprise three themes. theme 5: financial incentives technical universities support staff with loan schemes to purchase vehicles or offer vehicle allowances. generally, the interest rates charged by ghanaian financial institutions compelled university management to grant loans with low interest rates to their academic staff to eliminate difficulties in obtaining bank loans. in addition, participants explained that management gave them rental loans for which the repayment arrangements were very flexible: ‘i have talked about car loans. it’s not easy if you go to the bank to borrow to buy a car. the interest rate is very high but the car loan that we give here the interest rate is very low. so that is the motivational factor. aside from that, the rent loan is also subsidised. so, all these things put together will motivate staff to stay or may induce them to stay, because if you know you have worked for more than three years they can sponsor you to go for further training. then another one is fuel allowance and car maintenance allowance to staff. these are being paid every month so there is regular payment in addition to their salaries. these are specific things that are implemented.’ (participant 17, 49, m, hr manager) theme 6: subsidised accommodation although not very attractive compared with the accommodation facilities offered by traditional universities, the evidence suggested that employees of technical universities who are given a residential facility do not want to leave. management of the selected institutions helped their academic staff to overcome the difficulty associated with obtaining accommodation, which has become a national challenge: ‘well, some of them, you know conditions in accra is [sic] very difficult. very hard, so some of them they have accommodation here, so when you compare accommodation, city accommodation outside and here you might think that this place is better. accommodation is not easy to come by at the university. and then we have other soft loans and other things that they receive from the institution. so, accommodation is one of the factors that have made the staff stay. the accommodation has also contributed to retention.’ (participant 28, 45, m, hr manager) the study also revealed that the management of technical universities have implemented several measures to ensure that accommodation and housing facilities are available. through the introduction of the owner–occupier policy, management pay an allowance to academic staff who live in their own residential properties. in addition, management lease some residential properties for use by academic staff and deduct the lease amount from their monthly salaries: ‘we also introduce rent loan that we give loans to the staff at a subsidised rate so that they can rent their own accommodation. and are also trying to introduce what we call owner-occupier so that if you have your own houses, we can give you some allowance, at least, and that will motivate others to put up their own houses to reduce stress on the few that we have.’ (participant 7, 43, m, hr manager) discussion the evidence from this study supports assertions in favour of factors and conditions that directly and indirectly influence and affect employee retention. from the exploratory investigation, the retention of academic staff in ghanaian technical universities over the years has been influenced by two key sets of factors: work-related factors and economic factors. effective employee retention strategy results in heightened morale within the workplace among the existing workforce (matimbwa & ochumbo, 2019). retention increases productivity, which in turn affects overall organisational success (morrell, 2016). the hrm literature posits that job dissatisfaction and turnover are lessened when employees receive appropriate and adequate incentives for their contribution (audenaert et al., 2019). generally, ghanaian technical universities are making a considerable effort towards the development of feasible retention strategies to retain academic staff. the evidence points to various institution-specific and higher education sector-targeted initiatives as well as management strategic policy responses that encourage academic staff retention. these initiatives have resulted in moderating ghanaian technical universities’ academic staff turnover rate over the past decade. aside from the institutional-specific and management strategic policy responses, improved infrastructure and facilities, institutional collaboration, opportunities for career advancement and flexible work arrangements were the key work-related factors employed by the management of ghanaian technical universities to induce their academic staff to stay. on the contrary, poor work environment can lower employees’ levels of job satisfaction and culminate in intentions to quit (kinman, 2016). in contrast, improving the conditions of employment heightens employee motivation and job satisfaction, which helps retention (al-hamdan et al., 2017). conditions of employment are critical to employees’ decisions to either stay or quit (miller jr, 2017). the study found that most technical universities have recently made some progress in improving their physical infrastructure and other key facilities. for example, getfund was established with a sole purpose of improving infrastructure in ghanaian educational institutions. the fund has over the years helped improve infrastructure in many technical universities. in addition, management of technical universities have also demonstrated commitment in tackling the poor state of infrastructure and other facilities, including equipment, laboratories and office spaces. the government’s and university management’s commitment to improve infrastructure was visible in some ongoing projects and the purchase of some state-of-the-art equipment and materials to enhance teaching and learning. the limited human capital in ghana has forced technical universities to develop institutional collaborations to offer training opportunities in order to upgrade the capacity of academic staff to meet the standards of higher education and improve teaching and research outcomes (adjei et al., 2014). this study highlighted how ghanaian technical universities are engaging in partnerships and signing memoranda of understanding with institutional and industrial collaborators, both in ghana and abroad, to improve research outcomes, increase access to funding and advance career prospects of academic staff. prior evidence maintains that institutional collaboration and teamwork create collegiality among employees and help improve group cohesion and staff retention (finster, 2013). the study found that academic staff without terminal degrees could advance their academic studies to acquire terminal qualifications, which in turn increase their commitment and job satisfaction. as part of management career development initiatives, a memorandum of understanding between all technical universities and the getfund to sponsor academic staff to pursue doctoral studies in ghana and abroad has been established. in addition, the study also found that technical universities are using igf to support their academic staff to pursue further studies. these sponsorships ranged from study leave with full pay to full or partial payment of tuition fees, which was generally administered as a reimbursement programme. for the past few years, these special career development initiatives have supported technical universities in upgrading academic staff qualifications. bryant and allen (2013) indicated that employees who believe that there are opportunities for future career growth and advancement are more likely to stay even if they are thoroughly dissatisfied with their job and their present circumstances. academic staff workloads and retention are intricately related. prior evidence highlights that a flexible work structure constitutes an important determinant of employee satisfaction and their decision to stay with an organisation (hausknecht et al., 2009). similarly, job autonomy and flexibility have been used to induce academic staff to stay with technical universities in ghana. a high level of flexibility in job scheduling motivates staff to stay. kenny and fluck (2014) argued that job flexibility and autonomy act as intrinsic motivators that attract academics to seek university careers. management of ghanaian technical universities occasionally offer economic incentives as part of their organisational inducement strategies to retain academic staff. these incentives include attractive financial incentives and subsidised accommodation facilities. various financial incentives such as low-interest loans to purchase vehicles and household equipment and car allowances were granted to academic staff to encourage them to stay. the hrm literature states that various financial and non-financial inducements can boost employee morale, job satisfaction, organisational commitment and retention (asante, 2015; banerjee & nayak, 2018). in addition, there is the creation of a provident fund to complement the social security and national insurance trust retirement package which increases staff job satisfaction and engagement. the hrm literature posits that financial incentive is an effective reward system and motivator to retain employees in their workplaces (jansen & hlongwane, 2019). generally, ghanaian technical universities lack basic facilities, including accommodation for their staff, which promotes the drift of their staff to traditional universities with better infrastructure. accessing affordable and decent accommodation in ghana, particularly in urban locations, has been challenging because of the housing deficit (owusu-ansah et al., 2019). therefore, management of these technical institutions support staff to access appropriate accommodation as part of their retention strategy. some technical universities have built a few residential facilities for academic staff on university campuses while negotiating with private residential owners for accommodation for academic staff off-campus. practical and managerial implications the implementation of retention policies and plans has several beneficial implications for academic staff retention in ghanaian technical universities. ghana’s educational development history highlights the level of uneven development between the north and the south of the country. infrastructure linked to growth and development is still concentrated in institutions in the south to the detriment of those in the north (poku-boansi & amoako, 2015). the government must support the funding of infrastructure projects in the north of the country for inclusive development to support academic staff retention in technical universities located in that part of the country. for example, technical universities located in northern ghana should be resourced with state-of-the-art laboratories similar to technical universities located in the south. nevertheless, technical universities should endeavour to lobby government to ensure that development also reaches the northern sector in order to alleviate employees’ perceptions of such phenomena (varela & harré, 1996). for an effective retention strategy, there should be the need to address negative managerial outcomes that do not support academic staff retention. thus, an effective retention strategy requires structured policy intervention around, for example, addressing issues of fairness, transparency and special interests during major decision-making is important (toxopeus et al., 2020). such policies would help eliminate perceived and actual conflicts of interest and perceived favouritism in the distribution of incentive packages, such as granting of loans, subsidised accommodation and career advancement opportunities. technical universities may need to develop strong national guidelines and procedures around promotions, granting of loans, allocation of accommodation and recruitment to ensure transparency and fairness. nepotism, favouritism and tribalism are minimised when there are clear codes of conduct and policies relating to sensitive issues around people management (safina, 2015). the promotion system of technical universities should be based on merit without compromising trust and transparency in the system of administering promotions. vice chancellors of the institutions should encourage strict adherence of appropriate policies. this would elevate the trust and confidence in management among academic staff in their institution. further, although technical universities have some attractive incentive packages, retention strategies should be reconciled with that of traditional universities to address the stack disparity prevalent between technical universities and traditional universities in ghana. such disparities create disaffection and disregard for fairness. importantly, the recent upgrading of technical universities in ghana represents some signs of development and recognition of technical education, which means technical universities should now be able to operate in a similar capacity as mainstream traditional universities. however, this demands a proactive management approach to push the frontiers of development of their respective universities to improve infrastructure and address the historically low status and recognition of technical education. for success, management must demonstrate visionary and distributed leadership to meet the needs and career aspirations of employees and spearhead the advancement of technical universities. this approach is important for decision-making and paving the way for ameliorating procedural injustice in the administrative system. conclusion the findings of this study have several implications for both university management and government policy for developing appropriate staff retention strategies for ghanaian technical universities. the study makes a significant contribution to the extant literature and managerial practice for employee retention through the lens of organisational equilibrium theory. beyond this theoretical benefit, it expands the understanding and explanation of the inducement–satisfaction nexus among academic staff in technical universities in the ghanaian context. it also sheds light on the fitness of employee contributions, organisational inducements and retention behaviour among academic staff of ghanaian technical universities. it presupposes that situating this study within the organisational equilibrium theory can further equip organisational leaders with the requisite knowledge and understanding of how to adapt and respond to employee turnover. further, from this exploratory study, we posit that a transparent and prioritised academic support initiative will go a long way to improve the professional growth and retention of academic staff. limitations this study has some limitations. this study applied the organisational equilibrium theory. however, the theory is dependent on utilising organisational inducements to retain academic staff. motivation and satisfaction theories also highlight several factors that could explain academic staff’s turnover intentions. thus, the organisational equilibrium theory provides some limited view of the research problem under investigation. further, using four out of 10 technical universities partially depicts the retention issues eminent in all technical universities. future studies can include all technical universities to appraise the phenomenon under investigation comprehensively. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank mr frederick mwinsoayelle and mr asare boateng for transcription of recorded interviews. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions e.n.k. wrote the manuscript with support from m.a. and e.a. m.a. wrote the methodology while e.a. reviewed the literature and did the editing. e.n.k. conceived the original idea and the formal analysis funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data used for this study will be made available upon request from the corresponding author [e.n.k]. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abugre, j.b. (2018). institutional governance and management systems in sub-saharan africa higher education: developments and challenges in a ghanaian research university. higher education, 75(2), 323–339. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0141-1 adjei, n.a.k., nyarko, d.a., & nunfam, v.f. (2014a). industrial attachment in polytechnic education: an approach to polytechnic-industry nexus in human capital development of selected polytechnics in ghana. journal of education and practice, 5(33), 33–49, available at: https://www.iiste.org/journals/index.php/jep/article/view/16973. al-hamdan, z., manojlovich, m., & tanima, b. (2017). jordanian nursing work environments, intent to stay, and job satisfaction. journal of nursing scholarship, 49(1), 103–110. https://doi.org/10.1111/jnu.12265 al-khrabsheh, a.a., abo-murad, m., & bourini, i. (2018). effect of organisational factors on employee turnover intention: an empirical study of academic professionals at jordanian government universities. international journal of human resource studies, 8(2), 164–177. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijhrs.v8i2.12847 amedorme, s.k., & fiagbe, y.a. (2013). challenges facing technical and vocational education in ghana. international journal of scientific & technology research, 2(6), 253–255. asante, g.y. (2015). recruitment and retention of academic staff in private university colleges in the greater accra region of ghana. university of ghana. audenaert, m., george, b., & decramer, a. (2019). how a demanding employment relationship relates to affective commitment in public organizations: a multilevel analysis. public administration, 97(1), 11–27. https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12378 banerjee, t., & nayak, a. (2018). is it the wage premium that targets worker turnovers? applied economics letters, 25(11), 796–799. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2017.1366638 bryant, p.c., & allen, d.g. (2013). compensation, benefits and employee turnover: hr strategies for retaining top talent. compensation & benefits review, 45(3), 171–175. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886368713494342 cañibano, a., curto-millet, d., & rojahn, l. (2022, january 4–7). sustained participation in open source: a psychological contract approach. 55th hawaii international conference on system sciences, hicss 2022, virtual event / maui, hawaii. creswell, j.w., & creswell, j.d. (2017). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. sage. dehlor, s.a. (2006). towards academic staff satisfaction of working conditions of service at ho polytechnic, ghana. university of twente. erasmus, b.j., grobler, a., & van niekerk, m. (2015). employee retention in a higher education institution: an organisational development perspective. progressio, 37(2), 33–63. https://doi.org/10.25159/0256-8853/600 finster, m.p. (2013). teachers’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intentions, and actual turnover: a secondary analysis using an integrative structural equation modeling approach. doctoral dissertation. university of washington. froese, a. (2017). organisations in balance: revitalising the concept of organisational equilibrium. uwf umweltwirtschaftsforum, 25(1–2), 51–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00550-017-0453-8 frye, w.d., kang, s., huh, c., & lee, m.j.m. (2019). what factors influence generation y’s employee retention in the hospitality industry?: an internal marketing approach. international journal of hospitality management, 85, 102352. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2019.102352 garcia, p.r.j.m., amarnani, r.k., bordia, p., & restubog, s.l.d. (2021). when support is unwanted: the role of psychological contract type and perceived organizational support in predicting bridge employment intentions. journal of vocational behavior, 125, 103525. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2020.103525 hausknecht, j.p., rodda, j., & howard, m.j. (2009). targeted employee retention: performance-based and job-related differences in reported reasons for staying. human resource management, 48(2), 269–288. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20279 hom, p.w., lee, t.w., shaw, j.d., & hausknecht, j.p. (2017). one hundred years of employee turnover theory and research. journal of applied psychology, 102(3), 530. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000103 idiegbeyan-ose, j., opeke, r., nwokeoma, n.m., & osinulu, i. (2018). influence of organisational culture on turnover intention of library staff in private university libraries, south-west nigeria. academy of strategic management journal, 17(4), 1–13. jafari-sadeghi, v., kimiagari, s., & biancone, p.p. (2020). level of education and knowledge, foresight competency and international entrepreneurship: a study of human capital determinants in the european countries. european business review, 32(1), 46–68. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr-05-2018-0098 jansen, m.r., & hlongwane, p. (2019, july 3–5). employee performance reward and recognition inequity in the western cape provincial department of transport and public works. the 4th annual international conference on public administration and development alternatives (ipada) held at kempton park, johannesburg. johnson, j.l., adkins, d., & chauvin, s. (2020). qualitative research in pharmacy education. american journal of pharmaceutical education, 84(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe7120 kang, g.s., & kim, j.h. (2014). the effects of self-efficacy and collective efficacy on job satisfaction and organisational commitment of nurses. korean journal of occupational health nursing, 23(3), 123. https://doi.org/10.5807/kjohn.2014.23.3.123 kenny, j.d., & fluck, a.e. (2014). the effectiveness of academic workload models in an institution: a staff perspective. journal of higher education policy and management, 36(6), 585–602. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080x.2014.957889 kinman, g. (2016). effort–reward imbalance and overcommitment in uk academics: implications for mental health, satisfaction and retention. journal of higher education policy and management, 38(5), 504–518. kurniawaty, k., ramly, m., & ramlawati, r. (2019). the effect of work environment, stress, and job satisfaction on employee turnover intention. management science letters, 9(6), 877–886. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2019.3.001 kwami, f. (2001). report of the technical committee on polytechnic education in ghana. national council for tertiary education (ncte). lata, l., mohamed zainal, s.r., jan, g., & memon, u. (2021). the nexus of physical, cognitive, and emotional engagement with academic staff turnover intention: the moderating role of organisational politics. global business and organizational excellence, 40(3), 36–49. https://doi.org/10.1002/joe.22077 lee, t.w., hom, p.w., eberly, m.b., li, j., & mitchell, t.r. (2017). on the next decade of research in voluntary employee turnover. academy of management perspectives, 31(3), 201–221. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2016.0123 lewis, tiffany e., (2015). a research study on the reasons for high employee turnover rates in a manufacturing facility. georgia educational research association conference, 33. https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gera/2015/2015/33 mabaso, c.m., & dlamini, b.i. (2018). total reward and its effects on organisational commitment in higher education institutions. sa journal of human resource management, 16(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.913 march, j.g., & simon, h.a. (1958). organizations. john wiley & sons. matimbwa, h., & ochumbo, a. (2019). academic staff motivation and retention in higher learning institutions in tanzania: evidence from selected universities in iringa region. economic research, 3(6), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.29226/tr1001.2019.129 miller jr, o. (2017). employee turnover in the public sector, routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315267951 morrell, k. (2016). understanding and measuring employee turnover. in g. saridakis & c. cooper (eds.), research handbook on employee turnover (pp. 26–58). edward elgar publishing. mowday, r.t., porter, l.w., & steers, r.m. (2013). employee–organisation linkages: the psychology of commitment, absenteeism, and turnover. academic press. mushemeza, e.d. (2016). opportunities and challenges of academic staff in higher education in africa. international journal of higher education, 5(3), 236–246. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijhe.v5n3p236 owusu-ansah, a., soyeh, k.w., & asabere, p.k. (2019). developer constraints on housing supply in urban ghana. international journal of housing markets and analysis, 12(1), 59–73. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhma-07-2018-0052 poku-boansi, m., & amoako, c. (2015). dimensions of spatial inequalities in ghanaian cities. journal of geography and regional planning, 8(5), 131–142. https://doi.org/10.5897/jgrp2014.0477 pop-vasileva, a., baird, k., & blair, b. (2011). university corporatisation: the effect on academic work-related attitudes. accounting, auditing & accountability journal, 24(4), 408–439. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513571111133045 safina, d. (2015). favouritism and nepotism in an organisation: causes and effects. procedia economics and finance, 23, 630–634. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00416-5 saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2019). research methods for business students (8th ed.). pearson education limited. saurombe, m.d., & barkhuizen, e.n. (2022). talent management practices and work-related outcomes for south african academic staff. journal of psychology in africa, 32(1) 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2021.2002033 selesho, j.m., & naile, i. (2014). academic staff retention as a human resource factor: university perspective. international business & economics research journal (iber), 13(2), 295–304. https://doi.org/10.19030/iber.v13i2.8444 shin, j., taylor, m.s., & seo, m.-g. (2012). resources for change: the relationships of organisational inducements and psychological resilience to employees’ attitudes and behaviors toward organisational change. academy of management journal, 55(3), 727–748. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.0325 singh, p., & loncar, n. (2010). pay satisfaction, job satisfaction and turnover intent. relations industrielles/industrial relations, 65(3), 470–490. https://doi.org/10.7202/044892ar sodirjonov, m.m. (2020). education as the most important factor of human capital development. theoretical and applied science, 4(84), 901–905. https://doi.org/10.15863/tas.2020.04.84.161 subramony, m., krause, n., norton, j., & burns, g.n. (2008). the relationship between human resource investments and organisational performance: a firm-level examination of equilibrium theory. journal of applied psychology, 93(4), 778. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.93.4.778 tarcan, m., hikmet, n., schooley, b., top, m., & tarcan, g.y. (2017). an analysis of the relationship between burnout, socio-demographic and workplace factors and job satisfaction among emergency department health professionals. applied nursing research, 34, 40–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnr.2017.02.011 theron, m., barkhuizen, n., & du plessis, y. (2014). managing the academic talent void: investigating factors in academic turnover and retention in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1117 toxopeus, h., kotsila, p., conde, m., katona, a., van der jagt, a.p., & polzin, f. (2020). how ‘just’ is hybrid governance of urban nature-based solutions? cities, 105, 102839. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2020.102839 van zyl, l.e. (2019). a critical reflection on the psychology of retention. durbanville, cape town: aosis publishing. varela, c.r., & harré, r. (1996). conflicting varieties of realism: causal powers and the problems of social structure. journal for the theory of social behaviour, 26(3), 313–325. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5914.1996.tb00293.x verschuren, p. (2003). case study as a research strategy: some ambiguities and opportunities. international journal of social research methodology, 6(2), 121–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645570110106154 yin, r.k. (2017). case study research and applications: design and methods. sage. abstract introduction literature review research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) christoff prinsloo gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, johannesburg, south africa charlene lew gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, johannesburg, south africa citation prinsloo, c., & lew, c. (2021). openness to change and conservation in value-laden decisions. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1468. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1468 original research openness to change and conservation in value-laden decisions christoff prinsloo, charlene lew received: 04 sept. 2020; accepted: 25 feb. 2021; published: 09 apr. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: values influence decision-making in organisations; however, it is not yet clear how values of openness to change and conservation determine decision quality when managers are faced by competing values. research purpose: the research examines the relationships between managerial values of openness to change and conservation and cognitive decision quality. motivation for research: we argue that values influence cognitive decision-making quality. research approach/design and method: the quantitative research design made use of the portrait value questionnaire–based values of openness to change and conservation in relation to a measure of decision-making quality based on two value clashing decision scenarios. main findings: the results revealed that the managers’ cognitive decision-making quality was lower for those who valued tradition within the conservation value block, with some indication that self-directed thought related to better cognitive processing of decision alternatives. contribution/value-add: the research demonstrates how the operationalised integrative complexity measure may be used as a novel decision-making quality metric. in addition, it introduces new value-sensitive decision-making scenarios. it also demonstrates that decision quality considerations in the value-driven decision-making dialogue are as important as ethical considerations. a values and quality decision-making framework gives managers an approach to higher quality decisions. practical/managerial implications: as values are stable rules of behaviour, the results support the development of decision-making quality and values awareness for managers. keywords: decision-making quality; managerial values; openness to change; conservation; value clashes. introduction orientation management decision-making is an important business practice (franklin, 2013) and is a core function of management itself (baba & hekenzadeh, 2012; harrison & pelletier, 2000). somewhere between skill (lejarraga, pachur, frey, & hertwig, 2016), process (seo, lee, & lee, 2017) and intuitive art form (hess, quees, & patterson, 2012), it has been the topic of study for more than 60 years. despite this, the problem of poor decision-making persists, often because of disparate viewpoints rooted in individual value systems (ariail, aronson, aukerman, & khayati, 2015; bazerman & moore, 2013; fritzsche & oz, 2007). the call for research on how individual-level values impact workplace outcomes has been evident for some time (cohen & caspary, 2011). literature has shown that managers’ stable values influence human behaviour (bilsky & schwartz, 1994; rokeach, 1973) and play a significant role in decision-making (lichtenstein, lichtenstein, & higgs, 2017). recently, stephan (2020) reiterated the need for an understanding of the mechanisms through which values influence organisational behaviour. we know that values inform ethical choice (connor & becker, 2003; fritzsche & oz, 2007); however, this relationship is complex (hewlin, dumas, & burnett, 2015; shepherd & baron, 2013). moreover, decision success or decision quality (rausch & anderson, 2011; seo et al., 2017) goes beyond ethical choice. given that decision success holds the position of ‘the sine qua non of good management’ (harrison & pelletier, 2000, p. 469), we proposed that managers’ decision-making quality presents a significant and undervalued research variable in relation to values. research purpose and objectives values act as guiding principles to yield coherence in our decisions across different situations (schwartz, 1992). yet, value differences are evident in contemporary society, reflected, for instance, in political upheavals and corporate scandals. it is not yet clear whether differences in the quality of decisions relate to managerial value sets when managers are faced with difficult choices. difficult decisions include, for instance, when managers are faced with competing good or sacred drivers such as regarding the earth, equality of people, human life or authority. the research asks whether managers who embrace different value sets differ in the quality of the decisions they make in such circumstances. specifically, this article sheds light on whether the quality of decisions differs between those managers who value conservation (conformity, tradition and security) and those who are open to change (self-direction and stimulation). therefore, the objective of the study was to examine the relationships between managerial values of openness to change and conservation and cognitive decision quality for value-laden decisions. literature review values: conservation versus openness to change values are ‘enduring beliefs that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or common mode of conduct or end-state of existence’ (rokeach, 1973, p. 5). to simplify, a manager’s values dictate whether any behaviour or life outcome should be socially preferred over another. schwartz’s (1992) theory of universal values is most salient to understand people’s views on ‘what ought to be’. schwartz’s (1994) initial value map categorised 56 human values into 10 value-type groupings. an updated framework incorporates 19 values structured around two axes: self-enhancement versus self-transcendence and conservation versus openness to change (schwartz et al., 2012). this research focused on the conservation and openness to change value axis. motivated partially to protect oneself and escape anxiety whilst having a social focus, managers who value conservation do so because of varying intensities of valuing interpersonal conformity, conformity to rules, tradition, societal security and personal security. in other words, the goal of conservation lies in a need to avoid actions that could upset or harm other people, to abide by the laws that govern and to preserve traditions embedded in religion, family or culture (schwartz et al., 2012). individuals who value conservation tend to have stable big five personality traits of agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, emotions of calmness and reduced fear (tamir et al., 2016; vecchione, alessandri, barbaranelli, & caprara 2011). the distinct facets of the conservation value set are conformity, or the ‘restraint from actions, inclinations, and impulses likely to upset or harm others and violate social expectations or norms’; tradition, or ‘respect, commitment, and acceptance of the customs and ideas that one’s culture or religion provide’; and security, or ‘safety, harmony, and stability of society, of relationships, and of self’ (schwartz, 1994, p. 22). on the other side of the spectrum are individuals who are motivated by a calm or anxiety-free need to grow, whilst having a personal focus. a value set of openness to change encompasses the three values of self-directed thought, self-directed action and stimulation (schwartz et al., 2012). managers living by openness to change values, specifically stimulation and self-direction, may display big five personality traits of openness and extraversion (vecchione et al., 2011). the most desirable emotions for these managers are interest and excitement (tamir et al., 2016). the distinct facets of this value set are stimulation or the ‘excitement, novelty, and challenge in life’, and self-direction or ‘independent thought and action – choosing, creating, exploring’ (schwartz, 1994, p. 22). values and organisational behaviour former research shows that those who value conservation may more readily accept organisational change (cohen & caspary, 2011). within the value of openness to change, self-direction may negatively impact new team processes such as team coherence, efficacy, and may increase conflict. in contrast within conservation, the value of security supports positive team processes (woehr, arciniega, & poling, 2013). it may not be surprising that openness to change relates to political activism, whereas conservation does not (vecchione et al., 2015). openness to change may also entail lower propensity towards making decisions that support environmental sustainability, given a reduced focus on others (grebitus, steiner, & veeman, 2013). these examples do not suggest that openness to change consistently leads to negative organisational behaviour, as entrepreneurs are often motivated by the self-direction component of openness to change (looi & kamarulzaman, 2015). these examples from research in values theory suggest that emotions, values, decisions and behaviours interrelate in ways not yet fully understood. although there are multiple examples in literature of how values determine behaviours in organisations, literature says very little about values and quality of decisions, other than from an ethical viewpoint. values and decision-making an understanding of personal values provides a useful perspective on decision-making, with schwartz’s (1992) value framework, described above, being particularly relevant. researchers have been interested in the relationship between personal values on the one hand and ethical decision-making (fritzsche & oz, 2007), environmentally sensitive choices (grebitus et al., 2013) and the selection of decision support systems (ariail et al., 2015) on the other hand. implicitly personal value systems play an important role in decision-making in as far as ‘choice involves judgement, and judgement implies values’ (ariail et al., 2015, p. 137). organisational decision-making is often compromised when taboo or sacred topics, such as issues of religion, sexuality, human life or respect are avoided. one strategy to deal with such issues is reframing the taboo scenarios as trade-offs, where one sacred value is favoured at the expense of another (schoemaker & tetlock, 2012). shortland and alison (2020) purport that in value clashes, a decision-maker will attempt to choose the least negative outcome, or ‘least-worst outcome’. routine trade-offs occur when having to decide between secular values, such as different organisational policies. when a single sacred value is dominant, the decision-maker is able to make taboo trade-offs. however, when both competing values are equally sacred, this may result in redundant deliberation and indecision. good decisions the question of what constitutes quality in decision-making is often vague (franklin, 2013), focusses on idealistic and perhaps synthetic ‘true measure’ comparisons (boyle, hanlon, & russo, 2012; hess et al., 2012; lejarraga et al., 2016) or employs cumbersome measurement techniques (wanous & youtz, 1986). different paradigms define quality decisions in different ways. from an ethical decision-making perspective, good decisions refer to making the right moral choice. in managerial thinking, the power of analysis and decision-making processes may constitute quality decision-making (dean & sharfman, 1996). this process perspective, in turn, rests on the notion that better access to data implies higher decision quality (warnock & gantz, 2017). within this normative view of decision quality mathematical models, such as have been pioneered by von neumann and morgenstern’s formula, define quality decisions as those according to which the decision-maker seeks to maximise utility and fulfil assumptions of the weights and probabilities of decision options (leonard, 1995). in addition to maximised utility, this rational decision-making view highlights good process and probability analysis as indicators of decision quality. it seems that managers in practice regard decision outcomes as a better indicator of decision quality than ‘science-based’ procedural approaches (arvai & froschauer, 2010). kock and gemünden (2016) linked decision quality to optimal rigour and rationality when decision-makers use ‘more and better information’ in decision processes. citing dean and sharfman (1996) and eisenhardt and zbaracki (1992), they differentiated between decision effectiveness that require the achievement of a desired outcome, and decision quality that is not defined by the outcome (kock & gemünden, 2016). in big data decision-making, a high-quality decision depends on the quality of inputs or information and the process to transform this into outputs. in business intelligence, quality decisions are characterised by problem-solving, alignment to risk preferences and the structure of the decision process (visinescu, jones, & sidorova, 2017). management decisions require systemic, iterative, adaptive, self-correcting and innovative processes (rausch & anderson, 2011). however, franklin (2013) argued that the complexity of managerial decision contexts invalidates rational decision processes. neither good processes nor outcomes are adequate indicators of decision quality because poor decision processes may have good outcomes, and vice versa. circumstantial coincidences, unconsidered factors, cognitive processes (gino, shu, & bazerman, 2010; white & poldrack, 2014) or simply blind luck may have greater impact than process in the decision outcomes. measuring the quality of decisions as integrative complexity given the shortcomings of different models of quality decisions, this research operationalises quality of decisions not in terms of process or outcomes, but in terms of the real-time cognitive processing of the decision itself. the concept of integrative complexity (schroder, 1971) is significant and useful as a proxy for cognitive decision-making quality. tetlock (1986) operationally defined integrative complexity as the achievement of: (1) construct differentiation, which is the ‘variety of aspects or components of an issue that a person recognises’ (p. 822) when faced with a choice and (2) integration, which is the ‘development of conceptual connections among differentiated constructs’ (p. 822). accordingly, high-quality decisions from a cognitive processing perspective are those choices that are more considered (higher levels of differentiation), and where the interactions of the various options are fully evaluated (higher levels of integration). considering different value orientations of managers in making decisions according to tradition or what society expects, versus following their own thinking and needs for stimulation, we may ask: ‘when managers align themselves closer to social norms, would they also give more consideration to options in decisions where multiple value sets are at stake (conservationists)?’ or: are individuals who value their own goals and stimulation (openness to change) more likely to go through a rigorous cognitive processes when there are complexities in the values within a choice? this leads to the hypothesis that there is a difference in the cognitive decision-making quality of those who value conservation and those who value change in situations where values are heightened because of internal tensions between them. the research suggests that those who are open to change will differentiate the aspects of the decision they consider and also integrate more connections amongst competing cues. conversely, the research also suggests that those who value conforming to rules and society and tradition will be less effective in considering competing cues in the cognitive decision process: hypothesis 1: there is a positive relationship between openness to change and cognitive decision quality during value clashes. hypothesis 2: there is a negative relationship between conservation values and decision quality during value clashes. hypothesis 3: individuals with higher levels of openness to change will make better quality decisions than individuals with lower levels of openness to change. hypothesis 4: individuals with higher levels of conservation will make lower quality decisions than individuals with lower levels of openness to change. research design research method and approach the study employed a quantitative research design that incorporated an assessment of values and a vignette-based task to code for cognitive decision quality. the data gathering strategy involved a single integrated online questionnaire, and the pilot study indicated a duration of 15 to 45 min to complete the assessment on a qualtrics platform (hewson & stewart, 2016). research participants the sample was drawn from the management population of a large company within south africa characterised by cultural diversity and resource shortages, an insurance company and a production company. this represented an ideal population to ensure value diversity. a total of 204 managers were included in the study with a response rate of 61%. the majority of the sample (67%) fell within the 30–50-year-old age bracket. in terms of gender, 73% were male participants and 27% were female participants. mother tongue classifications were of european descent – afrikaans (42.2%), of european descent – english (20.4%), of indian descent (7%), of african descent – indigenous languages such as isizulu, isixhosa, sesotho and others (26.4%) and mixed race – afrikaans (3.5%). measuring instruments in addition to demographic variables, the survey included a measure of values, two scenarios to measure value-sensitive situations and a measure of integrative complexity to indicate cognitive decision quality. portrait value questionnaire the portrait value questionnaire (pvq) (schwartz et al., 2012) measures human values and has been tested on at least 55 samples, involving 11 000 participants (bilsky & schwartz, 1994; schwartz et al., 2012). this test measures 19 value orientations through 57 items and yields a two-dimensional representation of an individual’s personal value orientation. the research focused on the items for conservation (four items each for tradition and conformity and five items for security) and openness to change (four items for self-direction and three items for stimulation). typical items portrayed different values: it is important to him/her never to violate rules or regulations or it is important to him/her to take risks that make life exciting, giving participants the opportunity to compare the statements to themselves. the analysis included only the central values of openness to change and conservation. scenarios for value-sensitive decision-making (context) building on existing approaches (ametrano, 2014; fritzsche & oz, 2007; hanselmann & tanner, 2008; schoemaker & tetlock, 2012), scenarios were developed that (1) depicted a sacred value or secular value clash to increase the likelihood of value-driven decision-making and (2) exploited the tensions within the emerging market context to illustrate value permeability and resultant value clashes. the first value clash scenario described a decision facing a south african municipal manager (mayor). faced with limited funds, the manager was given the task of either appointing 20 additional teachers to address causes of recent poor education results, or alternatively to adhere to the demands of disgruntled municipal workers threatening labour action. the real-world context of the scenario elicits value conflicts linked to a flailing education system in the south african context. this scenario was changed for half the respondents by making it explicit that should the mayor choose to back the municipal workers, and his re-election would be virtually guaranteed. this reframing intensified the clash between valuing (1) community welfare through social upliftment and (2) personal gain and power. the second scenario measured decision-making quality in a manufacturing firm. the respondents were compelled to make a decision based on a scenario with a clash between potential personal financial loss and the introduction of new anti-pollution technology. the scenario was reframed for half of the respondents to juxtapose potential harm against society or the community and environmental concerns. the scenarios were admitted to three rounds of pilot testing that served to test the applicability thereof to the design criteria, and to receive feedback from the respondents regarding its believability and applicability to their contexts. cognitive decision quality the integrative complexity measure required respondents to write a paragraph (taking 5 min or less) to motivate the decision based on the scenario (tetlock, 1986). these texts are then coded and themed for construct differentiation and integration, using pre-developed integrative complexity guidelines (baker-brown et al., 1990). contextual differentiation refers to the extent to which the subject is willing to incorporate alternative ways of looking at a decision problem. lower scores reflect decision rigidity and adherence to decision rules, a dichotomous predisposition towards the process and unwillingness to be open to alternative solutions. in contrast, higher scores are indicative of openness to alternative interpretations of decision cues and less stringent adherence to decision rules. integration coding assesses the extent to which the subjects applied decision flexibility and openness to multiple alternatives in the decision-making process, specifically in that low scores indicate few conceptual connections between decision options, whereas higher level scores indicate propensity to link, compare, contrast and synthesise alternative solutions from various interpretations of the decision situation (tetlock, 1986). based on correlations between handand computer-coded decision quality scores (conway, conway, gornick, & houck, 2014), combined coding scores were used as the average of the two scores equally weighted. statistical analysis cronbach’ alpha scores were calculated for the dimensions of the pvq (schwartz et al., 2012). the effectiveness of the decision scenarios was assessed in terms of discriminatory value, levels of value clash of discomfort produced and decision sureness. firstly, based on a yes or no split, the scenarios sufficiently elicited value disagreement to indicate the presence of a value clash during the decision-making process. secondly, measures of discomfort and uncertainty were calculated for the scenarios. pearson’s correlation scores for integrative complexity (decision quality) were calculated to indicate correlations between the hand-coded and computer-coded data. a combination of value orientation plots with t-tests, pearson’s correlations, linear regression analyses, decision tree analyses and t-tests were used given the complexity of scenario-specific decision-making. the value orientation plots were used to indicate any demographic differences in values. the correlation and linear regression analyses were employed to show initial relations and predictions of values and decision quality. decision tree analyses (using the chi-square automatic interaction detector (chaid) algorithm, that indicates the optimal relationship configuration between variables to predict an outcome) have been shown to be particularly robust in assessing data sets with multiple variables with complex and non-linear relationships (patel & rana, 2014), and offered a further predictive model of decision quality as a dependent variable. this multiple variable methodology was also shown to be beneficial in analysis for its power in variable screening, comprehensiveness and ease of interpretation (he, wang, zang, & cook, 2013; milanovic & stamenkovic, 2016). the analysis also included recursive partitioning used in decision tree analysis (milanovic & stamenkovic, 2016) to classify heterogeneous data into subsets of homogenous data groups, as this better reflects the trade-off process people apply when making decisions. as a result, the chaid algorithm could indicate the core contributors to decision-making quality for the scenarios. thereafter, independent t-tests were used to calculate the differences between the qualities of decisions of managers scoring lower and higher on the value sets. ethical considerations ethical clearance for the research was obtained via the (associated university’s) research ethics committee. data gathering followed ethical principles and ethical clearance approval, ensuring voluntary participation and the anonymity of respondents. ethical clearance number: drec-30032015-9417729. results the pvq measure was reliable for this sample for openness of change (α = 0.77) and conservation (α = 0.86) values. for the education versus worker demand scenario, a 76/23% split between yes and no for educational service delivery over labour harmony indicated the presence of value disagreement, and 88% of respondents were comfortable and 97% were very or fairly sure about their decision. the personal or societal gain versus environment scenario elicited a value clash too, with a 74/26% agreement or disagreement for purchasing environmental saving technology at the cost of personal or societal gain. this indicated the validity of the measure to elicit a value clash. significant pearson’s correlation scores between the hand-coded and computer-coded data of decision quality (r = 0.53, p ˂ 0.00) compared favourably with correlations (r = 0.4 and r = 0.6) for prior use of these tests (conway et al., 2014). the descriptive statistics for the sample appear in table 1. table 1: descriptive statistics. figure 1 relates four specific value orientations plots, each for a different demographic group. the value plots indicate no significant general differences between the average value orientations based on gender, age, cultural group and managerial level. cultural differences were more acute for this sample on the value of interpersonal conformity. figure 1: value orientations and demographic groupings; (a) value orientations by age; (b) value orientation by gender; (c) value orientation by management level; (d) value orientations by cultural group. lower t-test scores appear for the tradition component of conservation for the younger over older participants (−0.50 versus −0.36, p < 0.05), and for females over males (−0.69 versus −0.23, p < 0.05). interpersonal conformity, which together with conformity to rules make up the conformity dimension of conservation, was valued higher by those who speak indigenous languages over those who speak afrikaans (0.08 vs. −1.14, p < 0.05) and lower levels of management over top management (−0.42 vs. −1.19, p < 0.05). the top management group displayed a preference for self-directed thought and action (a component of openness to change) instead. in the service delivery-labour harmony value clash (scenario 1), more female participants (83%) than male participants (73%) and more top managers (81%) than middle managers (75%) were in favour of the appointment of teachers. most supportive of educational service delivery was the 31–40-year age group (83%), and least supportive were those over the age of 50 (65%). the participants displayed higher decision quality for the unframed scenario (m = 3.87, sd = 1.55) than the framed scenario, (t[203] = 35.56, p = 0.00). in the value clash between curbing environmental impact and financial interest of the firm (scenario 2), the framing that included only personal gain was indicative of higher levels of consideration during decision-making (m = 3.94, sd = 1.31) than the framed scenario that included financial value for the firm, (t[203] = 43.04, p = 0.00). the majority of all the demographic groups were in favour of investment in the technology. in terms of the relationships amongst the variables, table 2 indicates that only one of the values significantly related to decision quality, namely a negative relationship between tradition values and decision quality for scenario 1, r (202) = −0.212, p < 0.001, and scenario 2, r (202) = −0.161, p < 0.05. the hypotheses of the relationships between the value blocks and decision quality could therefore not be accepted (hypotheses 1 and 2). however, the finding that tradition values relate to decision quality is significant. table 3 echoes these findings in as far as tradition was shown to significantly predict lower decision quality for scenario 1, β = −0.16, t(5) = −3.90, p < 0.001 and scenario 2, β = −0.16, t(5) = −3.90, p < 0.001, but only 2.5% of the variance in decision quality was explained by tradition values. the conservation value block significantly predicted lower decision quality for the financial gain versus environmental investment scenario at the 5% level of significance, yielding partial support for hypothesis 2. table 2: pearson’s correlation results. table 3: linear regression results for the values and decision quality. when confronted by a clash between service delivery and maintenance of labour harmony, the decision tree analysis confirmed the significance of the tradition value on lower decision quality (m = 2.8, sd =1.1 vs. m = 2.4, sd = 1.0, p = 0.00, split around a tradition value of −0.3) as per figure 2. gender came into play for the more traditionally orientated male participants who scored lower than female participants on decision quality (m = 2.4, sd = 0.9 vs. m = 2.8, p ˂ 0.05). decision comfort also featured with the respondents most comfortable with their decision-making displaying lower quality decisions (m = 2.1, sd = 0.7 vs. m = 2.6, sd = 1.0, p ˂ 0.05). the results show that the lower quality decisions were made by tradition-oriented male participants, most comfortable with their decisions (m = 2.1, sd = 0.7). figure 2: decision tree analysis for the tradition value in conservation for scenario 1. when participants were confronted by a clash between financial interests and investment in the environment (scenario 2), a different configuration of factors was found. the decision tree analysis still showed the predictive value of tradition, with the lowest traditional scores predicting higher decision quality (m = 3.05, sd = 0.96, p = 0.00). however, in this scenario, introducing societal financial interests increased decision quality significantly (m = 2.81, sd = 0.83 vs. m = 3.25, sd = 1.03, p ˂ 0.05). thet-test results comparing the decision quality of the openness to change and conservation values groups in table 4 suggest support for hypotheses 3 and 4. the 145 managers with higher conservation value scores (m = 2.40, sd = 0.94) had lower decision-making scores than the 93 managers opposing conservation (m = 2.79, sd = 1.10), t[236] = –2.87, p = 0.00). this occurred when splitting the population at a conservation score of 0.1. table 4: the t-test results for decision-making quality and value blocks. managers with higher openness to change value orientations (n = 144) exhibited higher decision-making quality scores (m = 2.75, sd = 1.08) compared to those with low scores for this value set (n = 94, m = 2.48, sd = 0.94), (t[236] = 2.05, p = 0.04) when the population was split at an openness to change value of 0.08. taking the analysis at a lower level, two individual values played a significant role in predicting decision-making quality. the value of tradition, a subset of the conservation value block, showed a similar relationship with decision-making quality, with the 116 managers with low tradition values (m = 2.43, sd = 0.91) obtaining higher decision-making scores than the 122 managers with high traditional values (m = 2.88, sd = 1.15), (t[236] = 3.40, p = 0.00). concurrently, managers with the value of self-directed thought (n = 116), a subset of the openness to change value block, made higher quality decisions (m = 2.78, sd = 1.01) than the 122 managers with low scores for this value (m = 2.51, sd = 1.11), (t(236) = –2.02, p = 0.04). discussion the research examined whether managers who valued openness to change made better quality decisions than those who valued conservation when faced by value clashes. decision quality was defined as conceptual recognition and integration of multiple constructs in the decision task. overall, the results led to the rejection of the hypotheses that a model of value blocks will predict cognitive decision quality, but with some indication that conservation values negatively predict decision quality. however, the results show that a value such as tradition can negatively impact decision quality. this finding is scenario-specific as different variables come to play in the cognitive processing of value-laden decisions. the results support the hypotheses that higher or lower levels of conservation values and openness to change values relate to decision quality. specifically, lower quality decisions are associated with higher traditional values and higher quality decisions with self-directed thought. in other words, the research showed that in a heightened value situation, we can predict that decision-makers with conservation values (valuing security and traditions) may make less considered decisions, particularly because of traditional values. traditional values are associated with being devout, moderate, detached and respecting tradition (schwartz, 1994, p. 31). decision makers more open to change than their counterparts who oppose change make more considered decisions. within the value block of openness to change are decision-makers who value stimulation, such as an exciting, varied or daring life, as well as those who are self-directed and therefore enjoy freedom, independence, curiosity, creativity, their own goals and self-respect (schwartz, 1994, p. 31). according to the results, it is particularly self-directed thought, or valuing the freedom to nurture one’s own ideas and abilities (schwartz, 2012) that relates to taking decisions that are less constrained by decision rules and limited alternatives. whilst literature has shown that the supportive role values could play in improving sophisticated decision support systems (ariail et al., 2015) and addressed the personal value versus professional value conflict in ethical decision-making (ametrano, 2014), the link between personal values and cognitive decision quality has been neglected till now. whilst fritzsche and oz (2007) expected a positive relationship between traditional (conserving) values and decision ethicality and a negative relationship between openness to change and decision ethicality, they found the opposite. our study shows a negative relationship between decision quality and conservation (traditional values), comments on the fritzsche and oz (2007) findings by underlining the importance of values in decision-making and, more importantly, adding a further proxy for decision quality evaluation. figure 3: decision tree analysis for the tradition value in conservation for scenario 2. although studies targeting decision-making quality have in the past been forced to adopt idealised target variables (boyle et al., 2012; hess et al., 2012; lejarraga et al., 2016), elaborate attribute calculations (wanous & youtz, 1986), or have strayed into unspecified metrics for quality (franklin, 2013), this study presents a workable cognitive decision quality measure. it offers a way to employ integrative complexity (tetlock, 1986) as an indicator of the quality of the actual decision, building on previous applications of the instrument (baker-brown et al., 1990). practical implications the findings highlight important considerations for human resource practitioners. managers are constantly faced by adaptive challenges in an increasingly complex work environment (uhl-bien & arena, 2018). moreover, they need to make decisions where values compete, such as when both labour and societal needs have to be taken into account, or environmental preservations are at odds with the need to conserve finances. this calls for strategies to develop decision-making skills according to which managers will internalise the complexity of the decision situation, understand the competing values and consider the influence of their own values, in order to be more open to multiple possibilities. especially at top-level management, where greater ambiguity is expected, there is a need for managers to overcome tendencies to conform. instead, top managers need to be selected and developed to be open to flexible considerations of decision options and need to grow in the ability to integrate these intelligently whilst remaining open to change. this is particularly relevant when faced by competing but significant options or value clashes, such as drivers for social welfare competing with personal needs. to improve the quality of decisions in organisations, human resource practitioners could develop systems and policies that reward creative and independent thinking. management teams could be assisted to develop their cognitive complexity capabilities by encouraging them to find alternative ways of looking at decision problems. when value clashes arise, processes could be implemented to balance the tensions and derive value from different perspectives before decisions are made. figure 4 proposes a decision framework that incorporates consideration of contextual values embedded in the decision situation, personal values, differentiated preferences of multiple stakeholders and integrative solutions. the framework may be used to challenge managers to open thinking when making complex value-laden decisions. figure 4: decision-making framework for value-laden decisions. limitations and recommendations the current study has some limitations. the findings relate to specific scenarios and different results may appear with the use of new vignettes. a large proportion of the sample was male participants, and a more heterogeneous sample would have been preferred. moreover, the study followed a cross-sectional design and the research setting relied on a single cultural context. the results only begin to elucidate the personal antecedents of cognitive decision quality. future work should target additional value blocks, alternative personal attributes (such as risk propensities) and environmental or circumstantial aspects of the scenarios to create better predictive models of cognitive decision quality. different perspectives of decision theory lay emphasis on different facets of decision quality. moving away from moral, outcomes and process-based indicators thereof, this research focused specifically on the cognitive processing of conflicting values to make a decision that takes multiple cues into account and that integrates multiple decision alternatives. the focus on a quality measure of decision-making, rather than a normative or ethical perspective, contributes to a richer understanding of values theory in decision-making. further work can explore other dimensions of information and value processing in decision-making. conclusion within the context of organisational decision-making, the research found that tradition, a conservation value, negatively predicts decision quality, and harbouring the value of self-directed thought encourages considered decisions in value-laden circumstances. managers with low tradition values or high self-directed thought values are likely to better process the complexity of value-laden decision clashes. the newly created decision-making scenarios in this research give further insight into the context-specific impact of value clashes on decision-making quality. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the participants of this research project. competing interests the authors declare that there have been no personal relationships or financial incentives that inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions c.p. conducted the research as part of doctoral studies under the supervision of c.l. c.l. co-authored the article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data are available in a separate repository upon request from the corresponding author. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references ametrano, i.m. (2014). teaching ethical decision making: helping students reconcile personal and professional values. journal of counseling and development, 92(2), 154–161. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.2014.00143.x ariail, d.l., aronson, j.e., aukerman, r., & khayati, a. (2015). support for the inclusion of personal value preferences in decision support. journal of management information and decision science, 18(1), 123–143. arvai, j.l., & froschauer, a. (2010). good decisions, bad decisions: the interaction of process and outcome in evaluations of decision quality. journal of risk research, 13(7), 845–859. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669871003660767 baba, v.v., & hakemzadeh, f. (2012). toward a theory of evidence based decision making. management decision, 50(5), 832–867. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251741211227546 baker-brown, g., ballard, e.j., bluck, s., de vries, b., suefeld, p., & tetlock, p.e. (1990). coding manual for conceptual/intergative complexity. berkeley, ca: university of british columbia and university of california. bazerman, m., & moore, d. (2013). judgment in managerial decision making. nj: john wiley and sons. bilsky, w., & schwartz, s.h. (1994). values and personality. european journal of personality, 8(3), 163–181. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2410080303 boyle, p.j., hanlon, d., & russo, j.e. (2012). the value of task conflict to group decisions. the journal of behavioral decision making, 25(1), 217–227. https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.725 cohen, a., & caspary, l. (2011). individual values, organizational commitment, and participation in a change: israeli teachers’ approach to an optional educational reform. journal of business & psychology, 26(3), 385–396. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9186-1 connor, p.e., & becker, b.w. (2003). personal value sytems and decision making styles of public managers. public personnel management, 32(1), 155–180. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306307017719702 conway, l.g., conway, k.r., gornick, l.j., & houck, s.c. (2014). automated integrative complexity. political psychology, 35(5), 603–624. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12021 dean, j.w., & sharfman, m.p. (1996). does decision process matter? a study of strategic decision making effectiveness. academy of management journal, 39(2), 368–396. https://doi.org/10.2307/256784 eisenhardt, k.m., & zbaracki, m.j. (1992). strategic decision making. strategic management journal, 13(s2), 17–37. https://doi.org/10.2307/2486364 franklin, c.l. (2013). developing expertise in management decision making. academy of strategic management journal, 12(1), 21–38. fritzsche, d.j., & oz, e. (2007). personal values’ influence on the ethical dimension of decision making. journal of business ethics, 75(4), 335–343. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-006-9256-5 gino, f., shu, l.l., & bazerman, m.h. (2010). nameless + harmless = blameless: when seemingly irrelevant factors influence judgment of (un)ethical behavior. organizational behavior & human decision processes, 111(2), 93–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2009.11.001 grebitus, c., steiner, b., & veeman, m. (2013). personal values and decision making: evidence from environmental footprint labeling in canada. american journal of agricultural economics, 95(2), 397–403. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aas109 hanselmann, m., & tanner, c. (2008). taboos and conflicts in decision making: sacred values, decision difficulty, and emotions. judgment and decision making, 3(1), 51–63. harrison, e.f., & pelletier, m.a. (2000). the essence of management decision. management decision, 38(7), 462–470. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251749610106972 he, s., wang, g.a., zang, m., & cook, d.f. (2013). multivariate process monitoring and fault identification using multiple decision tree classifiers. international journal of production research, 51(11), 3355–3371. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2013.774474 hess, t.m., quees, t.l., & patterson, t.r. (2012). to deliberate or not to deliberate: interactions between age, task characteristics, and cognitive activity on decision making. journal of behavioral decision making, 25(1), 29–40. https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.711 hewlin, p., dumas, t., & burnett, m. (2015). to thine own self be true? facades of conformity, values incongruence, and the magnifying impact of leader integrity. academy of management journal, 60(1), 178–199. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2013.0404 hewson, c., & stewart, d.w. (2016). internet research methods. london: john wiley and sons ltd. kock, a., & gemünden, h.g. (2016). antecedents to decision making quality and agility in innovation portfolio management. journal of product innovation management, 33(6), 670–686. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpim.12336 lejarraga, t., pachur, t., frey, r., & hertwig, r. (2016). decisions from experience: from monetary to medical gambles. journal of behavioral decision making, 29(1), 67–77. https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.1877 leonard, r.j. (1995). from parlor games to social science: von neumann, morgenstern, and the creation of game theory 1928–1944. journal of economic literature, 33(2), 730–761. https://doi.org/10.2307/2729025 lichtenstein, s., lichtenstein, g., & higgs, m. (2017). personal values at work: a mixed-methods study of executive’s strategic decision-making. journal of general management, 43(1), 15–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306307017719702 looi, k., & kamarulzaman, y. (2015). convergence in the priorities of entrepreneurial values: empirical evidence from malaysia. journal of international entrepreneurship, 13(1), 67–88. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10843-014-0136-2 milanović, m., & stamenković, m. (2016). chaid decision tree: methodological frame and application. economic themes, 54(4), 563–586. https://doi.org/10.1515/ethemes-2016-0029 patel, b.r., & rana, k.k. (2014). a survey on decision tree algorithm for classification. international journal of engineering development and research, 2(1), 1–5. rausch, e., & anderson, c. (2011). enhancing decisions with criteria for quality. management decision, 49(5), 722–733. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251741111130814 rokeach, m. (1973). the nature of human values. new york, ny: free press. schoemaker, p.j.h., & tetlock, p.e. (2012). taboo scenarios: how to think about the unthinkable. california management review, 54(2), 5–24. https://doi.org/10.1525/cmr.2012.54.2.5 schroder, h.m. (1971). conceptual complexity and personality organization. in h.m. schroder & m.j. driver (eds.), personality theory and information processing (pp. 240–273). new york, ny: ronald press. schwartz, s.h. (1992). universals in the content and structure of values: theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. advances in experimental social psychology, 25, 1–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0065-2601(08)60281-6 schwartz, s.h. (1994). are there universal aspects in the structure and contents of human values? journal of social issues, 50(4), 19–45. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1994.tb01196.x schwartz, s.h., cieciuch, j., vecchione, m., davidov, e., fischer, r., beierlein, c., … dirilen-gumus, o. (2012). refining the theory of basic individual values. journal of personality and social psychology, 103(4), 663–688. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029393 seo, y.w., lee, k.c., & lee, s. (2017). decision quality of the research project evaluation mechanism by using particle swarm optimization. management decision, 55(4), 745–765. https://doi.org/10.1108/md-03-2016-0141 shepherd, d.a., & baron, r.a. (2013). ‘i care about nature, but …’: disengaging values in assessing opportunities that cause harm. academy of management journal, 56(5), 1251–1273. https://doi.org/10.2307/43589216 shortland, n., & alison, l. (2020). colliding sacred values: a psychological theory of least-worst option selection. thinking & reasoning, 26(1), 118–139. https://doi.org//10.1080/13546783.2019.1589572 stephan, u. (2020). the value of values for understanding organizational life: editor’s introduction to the lead article. applied psychology: an international review, 69(2), 223–229. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12213 tamir, m., cieciuch, j., torres, c., dzokoto, v., schwartz, s.h., riediger, m., … vishkin, a. (2016). desired emotions across cultures: a value-based account. journal of personality and social psychology, 111(1), 67–82. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000072 tetlock, p.e. (1986). a value pluralism model of ideological reasoning. journal of personality and social psychology, 50(4), 819–827. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.50.4.819 uhl-bien, m., & arena, m. (2018). leadership for organizational adaptability: a theoretical synthesis and integrative framework. leadership quarterly, 29(1), 89–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2017.12.009 vecchione, m., alessandri, g., barbaranelli, c., & caprara, g. (2011). higher-order factors of the big five and basic values: empirical and theoretical relations. british journal of psychology, 102(3), 478–498. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.2010.02006.x vecchione, m., schwartz, s.h., caprara, g.v., schoen, h., cieciuch, j., silvester, j., … alessandri, g. (2015). personal values and political activism: a cross-national study. british journal of psychology, 106(1), 84–106. https://doi-org.uplib.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/bjop.12067 visinescu, l.l., jones, m.c., & sidorova, a. (2017). improving decision quality: the role of business intelligence. journal of computer information systems, 57(1), 58–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/08874417.2016.1181494 wanous, j.p., & youtz, m.a. (1986). solution diversity and the quality of group decisions. academy of management journal, 29(1), 159–169. https://doi.org/10.2307/255866 warnock, s., & gantz, j.s. (2017). gaming for respondents. a test of the impact of gamification on completion rates. international journal of market research, 59(1), 117–137. https://doi.org/10.2501/ijmr-2017-005 white, c.n., & poldrack, r.a. (2014). decomposing bias in different types of simple decisions. journal of experimental psychology: learning, memory & cognition, 40(2), 385–398. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034851 woehr, d., arciniega, l., & poling, t. (2013). exploring the effects of value diversity on team effectiveness. journal of business & psychology, 28(1), 107–121. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-012-9267-4 sajhrm 18(1)_2020_contents.indd http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access table of contentspage i of iii original research measuring the effectiveness of work–life balance strategies in the manufacturing sector idris o. ganiyu, evelyn derera, sulaiman o. atiku, ziska fields sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1216 | 08 june 2020 original research performance management and employee engagement: a south african perspective michelle govender, mark h.r. bussin sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1215 | 08 june 2020 original research the indirect effect of servant leadership on employee attitudes through diversity climate in selected south african organisations sean mccallaghan, leon jackson, marita heyns sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1297 | 11 june 2020 original research the relationship between the graduate trainee programme and talent management in corporate organisations in eswatini lungile z. gama, emmanuel i. edoun sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1249 | 30 june 2020 original research a conceptual model to retain non-professionals in a private healthcare setting shiksha gallow, jo nel, adri williams sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1281 | 07 july 2020 original research toxic leadership: effects on job satisfaction, commitment, turnover intention and organisational culture within the south african manufacturing industry amelda paltu, marissa brouwers sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1338 | 13 july 2020 original research the influence of psychological capital and self-leadership strategies on job embeddedness in the banking industry martha harunavamwe, daphne pillay, petrus nel sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1294 | 14 july 2020 original research factors that influence knowledge management systems to improve knowledge transfer in local government: a case study of buffalo city metropolitan municipality, eastern cape, south africa samuel s. ncoyini, liezel cilliers sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1147 | 22 july 2020 original research exploration of the reward preferences of generational groups in a fast-moving consumer goods organisation dale fobian, frans maloa sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1244 | 31 august 2020 103 113 132 145 151 157 168 179 190 table of contents original research a case study of the evolving management of leadership development in the retail banking sector ajay m. jivan sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1155 | 18 march 2020 original research a confirmatory factor analytic study of an authentic leadership measure in nigeria tolulope v. balogun, bright mahembe, charles allen-ile sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1235 | 30 march 2020 original research human resource management moral competencies yendor r. felgate sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1193 | 31 march 2020 original research the influence of flexible work arrangements on employee engagement: an exploratory study marcel weideman, karl b. hofmeyr sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1209 | 27 april 2020 original research positive affect and mindfulness as predictors of resilience amongst women leaders in higher education institutions daphne pillay sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1260 | 12 may 2020 original research relationship between executive pay and company financial performance in south african state-owned entities craig carlson, mark h.r. bussin sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1211 | 14 may 2020 original research performance management, vigour, and training and development as predictors of job satisfaction in low-income workers molefe j. maleka, leigh-anne paul-dachapalli, suzette c. ragadu, cecilia m. schultz, lize van hoek sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1257 | 18 may 2020 original research improving general health and reducing burnout of nurses in namibia wesley r. pieters, letisha matheus sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1138 | 25 may 2020 original research industry 4.0: the role of human resource professionals nelesh dhanpat, zanele p. buthelezi, marilyn r. joe, tshepo v. maphela, nonduduzo shongwe sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1302 | 28 may 2020 1 13 22 30 48 58 69 79 92 vol 18 (2020) issn: 1683-7584 (print) | issn: 2071-078x (online)sa journal of human resource management http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access table of contentspage ii of iii original research implementation of human resource management functions in selected small manufacturing companies in ga-rankuwa industrial area, gauteng, south africa ingrid l. potgieter, segopotse e. mokomane sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1282 | 31 august 2020 original research illustrating school-to-work transition through drawings: an exploratory study with a sample of south african students tinashe harry, willie t. chinyamurindi sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1272 | 03 september 2020 original research critical success factors for integrating talent management strategies with wellness interventions jennifer c. nzonzo, yvonne du plessis sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1353 | 28 september 2020 original research work pressure, emotional demands and work performance among information technology professionals in south africa: the role of exhaustion and depersonalisation jessica dos santos tome, leoni van der vaart sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1362 | 08 october 2020 original research cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence and personality types as predictors of job performance: exploring a model for personnel selection pfungwa dhliwayo, melinde coetzee sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1348 | 26 october 2020 original research strategies to establish rapport during online management coaching salome van coller-peter, linda manzini sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1298 | 29 october 2020 original research mediating effect of perceived organisational support on authentic leadership and work engagement theresa vermeulen, caren b. scheepers sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1212 | 09 november 2020 original research leadership contingencies in the retention of women in higher education mariette coetzee, maryam moosa sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1326 | 12 november 2020 original research skills-related underemployment amongst south africa’s informally employed and self-employed: a case study of potchefstroom mosima ngwenya, phillip f. blaauw, anmar pretorius, carike claassen, rinie schenck sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1308 | 16 november 2020 original research the relationship between the determinants of executive remuneration in south african state-owned enterprises frans maloa sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1250 | 19 november 2020 201 212 222 233 245 258 267 279 290 302 original research reflections of academic and professional leaders on leadership in a higher education institution jose frantz, vivienne lawack, anthea rhoda sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1373 | 20 november 2020 original research exploring public sector managers’ attitudes towards people with disabilities petrus a. botha, lenky m. leah sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1421 | 23 november 2020 original research managing in a war zone: somalian managers in the banking and mobile telecommunications sectors abdulkadir noor, john walsh sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1148 | 26 november 2020 original research psychological capital and organisational citizenship behaviour in selected public hospitals in the eastern cape province of south africa shingirayi f. chamisa, temba q. mjoli, tatenda s. mhlanga sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1247 | 04 december 2020 original research the effectiveness of human resources practices in driving proactive experimentation and risk-taking work behaviours in organisations rose b. mathafena, anton grobler sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1259 | 04 december 2020 original research the influence of school principals’ leadership behaviour and act of fairness on innovative work behaviours amongst teachers peter p. khaola, francis a. oni sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1417 | 08 december 2020 original research an exploration of key human resource practitioner competencies in a digitally transformed organisation michiel j. van den berg, marius w. stander, leoni van der vaart sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1404 | 08 december 2020 original research towards the innovative university: what is the role of organisational culture and knowledge sharing? desere kokt, william makumbe sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1325 | 08 december 2020 original research talent attraction and retention through brand building: an exploration of practices in companies that are top south african brands michelle b. wolfswinkel, carla enslin sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1443 | 08 december 2020 original research the year-on-year analysis of the relationship between chief executive officer remuneration and state-owned company performance in south africa magdalena l. bezuidenhout, mark h. bussin sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1411 | 15 december 2020 318 324 334 344 356 367 375 388 399 410 http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access table of contentspage iii of iii original research analysis of human relations theory of management: a quest to re-enact people’s management towards peace in university system bunmi i. omodan, cias t. tsotetsi, bekithemba dube sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1184 | 21 december 2020 original research testing a model of turnover intention: lecturers at the university of namibia wesley r. pieters, ebben van zyl, petrus nel sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1450 | 21 december 2020 original research an analysis of transformational leadership, talent acquisition and talent retention of engineers at an energy provider in south africa chuma a. mangisa, cecile m. schultz, lize van hoek sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1356 | 21 december 2020 423 433 445 original research relationships between employee retention factors and attitudinal antecedents of voluntary turnover: an extended structural equation modelling approach pieter schaap, chantal olckers sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1358 | 22 december 2020 reviewer acknowledgement sa journal of human resource management | vol 18 | a1514 | 22 december 2020 457 472 abstract introduction literature review research design discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) wiza munyeka department of human resource management and industrial relations, college of law and management studies, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa ashika maharaj department of human resource management and industrial relations, college of law and management studies, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa citation munyeka, w., & maharaj, a. (2022). a quantitative study on salient work-life balance challenge(s) influencing female information and communication technology professionals in a south african telecommunications organisation. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1874. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1874 original research a quantitative study on salient work-life balance challenge(s) influencing female information and communication technology professionals in a south african telecommunications organisation wiza munyeka, ashika maharaj received: 13 jan. 2022; accepted: 23 feb. 2022; published: 31 mar. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: there have been numerous studies on women’s wlb in various industries in south africa. this study is unique in that it investigates work-life balance among female ict professionals in south africa who work in a male-dominated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem) sector. research purpose: the study aimed to investigate the salient wlb challenges influencing female ict professionals in a south african telecommunications organisation. motivation of the study: in male-dominated sectors, understanding the factors that influence women in combining work and family life is invaluable in gaining a competitive advantage by having a committed and diverse workforce and understanding how women cope with wlb challenges. research approach/design and method: data were collected using a quantitative approach employing a cross-sectional survey design from female information communications and technology professionals (n = 50). cronbach’s alpha coefficients, measure central tendency and dispersion, and exploratory factor analysis were used in analyzing the data. main findings: the main findings indicated the challenges of the different age groups, with the age group 21–25 exhibiting the highest score for the ability to combine work and family roles successfully. practical/managerial implications: this study may lead to practical applications to support human resource management practitioners towards comprehending the impact of work-life balance practices, either directly or indirectly, especially females. contribution/value-add: this study will fill the unexplored area of improving work-life balance by highlighting a unique insight into how females cope with their work-life challenges in their chosen careers. keywords: female; work-life balance; information and communication technology; male-dominated; telecommunications; women in technology. introduction according to suganya (2019), human resources are an organisation’s valuable and unique assets. additionally, suganya (2019) states that most organisations expect employees who possess higher competencies and multitasking skills to achieve sustained growth in the organisation in today’s competitive world. ongoing endeavours characterise post-apartheid south africa to establish equality for all citizens, including marginalised employees. despite 25 years of democracy, south african society remains one of the world’s most unequal societies (meiring, kannemeyer, & potgieter, 2018). science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem) careers are traditionally male-dominated sectors that do not address diversity issues, and women have multiple life roles. problem statement significant research has been undertaken on work-life balance (wlb) in western developed nations (wilkinson, tomlinson, & gardiner, 2017) and asian countries (rajadhyaksha, 2012). little is known about wlb challenges and experiences in africa, such as south africa. anila and krishnaveni (2016) assert that achieving a wlb stabilises the work and home responsibilities, and an imbalance can lead to stress and strain. in addition, anila and krishnaveni (2016) argue that women tend to be affected more than men by the demands of a wlb due to their traditional responsibilities at home. anila and krishnaveni (2016) state that, as families are faced with many challenges and problems for daily survival, this necessitates balancing the responsibilities at work and home and creates the need to share family responsibilities among family members. a woman faces more household responsibilities than a man, as she is responsible for doing all the chores, that is, if a woman is divorced with two young children and suddenly thrust into work from home and homeschooling, this will be detrimental to both work and home life. amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic, a recent study by karne and sharma (2021) in india highlights how the pre-existing intra-household inequalities of consumption and expenditure have worsened during covid-19 and predict its long-term implications for gender relations in india. this is also true for south africa, and therefore, women may have more of a challenge with wlb than men. this study investigates the salient wlb challenge(s) influencing female information and communication technology (ict) professionals in a south african telecommunications organisation. research purpose this study’s primary purpose was to investigate the salient wlb challenge(s) influencing female information and communication technology (ict) professionals in a south african telecommunications organisation. this study is essential as it holds the potential to determine the proportion of discrepancies in the salient wlb challenge(s) faced by female ict professionals and their ability to balance work and family life at the telecommunications company. research objective to investigate the actual challenges faced by female ict professionals in combining work and family life at the telecommunications company. literature review the term wlb has gained increasing popularity in the public discourse (kelliher, richardson, & boiarintseva, 2019). work-life balance is not merely the time divided between work-life and non-work-life. it needs to be achieved by minimising the conflict among these two domains by balancing the multiple roles and tasks involved (kumarasamy, pangil, & isa, 2015). work-life balance is a canopy term describing different social concepts, including work, life, family, home, balance, harmony, equilibrium, conflict, enrichment, and integration (braun & peus, 2018). factors that contribute to work-life balance in today’s fast-paced world, with a significant number of women entering the workplace, several factors now influence the way wlb is attained. the following section details the factors that contribute to wlb. firstly, the dual-career woman and role conflict are discussed in the following section. the current south african workforce comprises diverse individuals with their historical challenges. therefore, achieving a wlb is difficult for most employees. however, women from these diverse backgrounds face multifaceted challenges, because of their roles as mothers, carers, housewives and so forth. the dual-career woman and role-conflict in an online survey, pretorius, mawela, strydom, de villiers and johnson (2015) found that 87% of the south african female respondents indicated that they found the information technology (it) industry challenging rather than chaotic. the respondents (58%) showed that the biggest challenge was finding time for the continuous demand for an education upgrade to keep up with the ever-changing it industry. organisational culture the organisational culture of an organisation influences wlb. the wlb was created through a robust organisational support system, developed through organisational culture (rife, hamilton, & hall, 2015). overall, the success of wlb initiatives depends on the nature of an organisation’s prevailing culture (adisa, mordi, & osabutey, 2017). organisational time expectations ajith and vidya (2013), in their study on wlb for role prioritisation of ict employees, showed that employees were able to fulfil their professional and personal commitments at the same time because of better wlb policies where other activities such as travelling and the work itself took up 50% of their time. the relationship between wlb policies and role prioritisation was significant. their study examined variables such as travelling time, depression, temper, the work itself to know the relationship between wlb and stress management. mubeen and rashidi (2014) also asserted that working hours were a significant factor in achieving and managing wlb. mubeen and rashidi (2014) opined that excessive working hours without flexibility could create imbalances that negatively affect employees’ personal and social aspects. previous studies by jones (2013), li, cardinal and settersten (2009), haustein, klockner and blobaum (2009), wethington (2005), elder and johnson (2003), ganz et al. (2003), settersten (2003), wheaton and gotlib (1997) and george (1993) all explored the related topics of the perception and usage of time, trajectories, linked lives, life pathways and time’s changing dynamics in a rapidly changing world, especially in the ict sector, and how specific life paths shift an individual’s direction. in the ict environment, time is vital because of organisational time expectations and workers being expected to have a good sense of time management, to achieve organisational goals because of the innovative, inventive and fast-paced nature of ict. harteis (2017) strengthens this argument by stating that the nature of ict work is becoming more flexible and fast-paced. organisational and social support in achieving work-life balance the most significant problem that working professionals have is the inability to balance the demands and pressures needs and pressures on the home front (mohanty & jena, 2016). hence in a fast-paced work environment of ict, social support from one’s family structure could reduce work-life conflict, thus helping avert other issues such as stress that could negatively impact job performance and wlb. yadav’s (2014) study in mumbai of 100 employees from the education and ict sectors compared women employees’ wlb with their educational field (degree colleges permanent employees) and it industries. it was observed that the duration of the working hours was not always uniform in the case of women in ict professionals in mumbai city, and the operating hours varied based on the nature of the project assigned to them. a survey by gupta and rao (2019) found that, at an organisational level and unconducive work environment, unsupportive team and management, safety, and conveyance issues become major deterrents in striking wlb. the study by gupta and rao (2019) also confirmed that more women-friendly policies, adequate infrastructural support, and the need for timely and effective law enforcement action in case of harassment and emergencies are identified to be the need of the hour. the government’s focus on developing policies on wlb should aim to reduce strain on workers and improve their well-being and efficiency. co-worker/colleague support george (2015) found that support from both work colleagues and supervisors was essential for the motivation of employees when performing their duties, while relationships between coworkers were frequently featured among workplace stressors. in addition, a study by pitts, marvel and fernandez (2011), as cited by george (2015), gives evidence that suggests that the employees’ satisfaction with the way they relate to their co-workers is linked to employee retention. the factor, organisational commitment, is discussed in the next section. work-life balance programmes and policies zheng, molineux, mirshekary and scarparo (2015) highlighted that there were many ways an organisation could meet employee needs to achieve balance in their work-life. they suggest five distinct groups that represent organisational wlb programmes and policies, namely, flexible work arrangements, provision of health and wellbeing programmes, provision of childcare services or provision of leave as needed to address family matters, organisational support, and understanding individual needs. research approach taking a quantitative approach within a positivist paradigm, which rahi (2017) describes as one associated with quantitative research, this study sought to investigate the research phenomena studied thoroughly. the challenge(s) influencing the wlb of female ict professionals in a south african telecommunications company were examined through a positivistic paradigm. research design using a quantitative design, this research investigates the salient wlb challenges influencing female ict professionals in a south african telecommunications organisation. creswell and creswell (2018) state that quantitative research involves examining relationships among variables to test objective theories. data can be analysed using statistical methods using these variables, typically measured with instruments. research participants deanscombe (2017) describes a target research population as people likely to provide valuable data for the study if asked to participate. in their research, sekaran and bougie (2016) found that target populations must be described elements, geographical borders, and time. women working in the organisation’s pretoria headquarters are included in the study. the study focused on the ict section, consisted of a population of 57 (n = 57) female ict professionals. google forms distributed the questionnaire to 50 recipients, and 50 valid responses were received. the response rate equates to 100%. using the raosoft sample calculator, a sample size of 50 was obtained using 57 female ict professionals with an assumed response rate of 50% (raosoft, 2004). the following section shows the raosoft (2004) formula. in equation 1 where n is the sample size, n is the population size, and e is the level of meticulousness: measuring instruments a self-designed instrument was developed to investigate the salient wlb challenge(s) influencing female ict professionals in a south african telecommunications organisation in south africa. to explore the salient wlb challenge(s), this instrument included 20 items grouped into eight factors. based on cronbach’s alpha test, this study evaluated the inter-item consistency of the instrument. the cronbach alpha coefficient is regarded as an indicator of reliability when it is above 0.5, according to sekaran and bougie (2010, p. 289). a cronbach’s alpha of above 0.5 for all the factors was calculated for the instrument. they found the instrument to have good reliability and validity. cooper and schindler (2003, p. 134) stated that an alpha value above 0.5 indicates reliability (see table 1). table 1: cronbach’s alphas for the scales and factors. face validity was ensured by administering a pilot test to participants who would not form part of the final study. five methodology specialists from two universities in south africa were consulted as part of the design process to ensure that the questions accurately reflected the issues they wanted to address and inform authorities in research methodology. exploratory factor analysis (efa) was also performed to establish the instrument’s construct validity. reliability statistics for the work-related scale and the life-related scale the reliability of the measuring instruments was measured using cronbach’s alpha values. composite reliability values ranged between 0.571 and 0.814, all above 0.5, the cut-off value proposed by sekaran and bougie (2010) (see table 1). cortina (1993, p. 98) and neuman (2000) stated that ‘reliability coefficients of less than 0.50 are unacceptable, while those between 0.50 and 0.60 are regarded as significant and those above 0.70 as acceptable’. various authors differ on the interpretation of acceptable or significant results in terms of reliability; however, overall, the life-related scale items have a cronbach’s alpha value of 0.745, indicating an acceptable to good inter-item reliability for the overall scale. descriptive statistics and reliability analysis descriptive statistics were calculated for all items in the questionnaire. descriptive statistics utilising frequencies and percentages were carried out to describe the demographic characteristics of the respondents (see table 2). according to levine, stephan and szabat (2016), the mean score represents the central tendency, whereas standard deviation indicates the dispersion of the individual values around the mean. table 2: demographic profile of the sample group. for the age variable, 40% described the highest number for 20–25, with 35–40 representing the lowest percentage of 3%. racial distribution had the black group with 39 respondents representing 7% and the mixed-race representing three respondents, indicating a 6% response rate. marital status had the single respondents at 21, making 44%, and those divorced at two, making it 4% of the sample. the sample included 24 respondents with spouses and partners employed full-time. this represents 44%. individuals with part-time employment for spouses or partners and those not used/not applicable (comprised of non-disclosing workers) accounted for 8% each. the educational level had those with a post-graduate degree, making them 25 at 50% of the sample, and those with a diploma at eight respondents, making up 16%. information and communication technology services under the section employees worked under accounted for 66% of a sample of 33 respondents. information and communication technology auxiliary services accounted for the remaining 16%. within the field of years worked for the organisation, respondents within the 2–5-year bracket comprised 18% of the sample, while respondents within the group less than 6 months and 11–20 years each represented 12% of the sample. the working hours variable had respondents who worked for 40 h/week at 18, which was 36%, and respondents at 70 h and over per week with two respondents, which was 4% of the sample. there were 26 respondents without children under 18 living at home, representing 52% of the sample, and 24 respondents with children under 18 living at home, representing 48% of the sample. research procedure google drive forms were used to administer the questionnaire and collect the data. as a result of the online survey configuration, no incomplete surveys were submitted by respondents, and therefore the forms handed in were all complete. statistical analysis utilising cronbach’s alpha analysis and factor analysis, the psychometric properties of the online web-based google drive forms called ‘work-life balance study employee survey’ were determined. several changes were implemented after improving the survey’s internal consistency and construct validity. exploratory factor analysis for the work-related scale and the life-related scale the psychometric properties of the work-related scale were established using efa. according to hair, anderson, tatham and black (2010, p. 67), ‘the the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy (msa) must be 0.60 or higher to be acceptable’. table 3 shows that the msa is 0.728. bartlett’s test is significant for the work-related scale and 0.607 for the life-related scale, indicating that the data set comply with the sampling adequacy and sphericity requirements for factor analysis to be performed. table 3: reliability statistics for the work-related scale and the life-related scale. in the following section, the evaluation of the actual challenges faced by female ict professionals in combining work and family life at the telecommunications company is presented. challenges female information and communication technology professionals faced in balancing work and family life the wlb scale asked the respondents various questions about the challenges they faced in balancing work and family life. descriptive statistics describe the 10 demographic variables, namely, gender, age, racial distribution, marital status, spouse/partners’ employment, educational level, departmental section, number of years worked for in the organisation, working hours and number of children less than 18 living at home. a description of the results of the questionnaire’s statistical analysis of the challenges that emerged, using descriptive statistics, is provided for each of the wlb scale questions in the following section. gender stereotypes on gender stereotypes, which had the two questions, the statistics revealed a mean (m = 2.10) and standard deviation (standard deviation [sd] = 0.974). the mean and standard deviation indicated an inclination towards ‘always’ instead of ‘never’ on the likert scale, signifying that those women felt they were treated fairly. the statistics showed that 20 respondents (40.0%) thought they were ‘frequently’ treated fairly, which was the highest frequency. the lowest frequencies emerged from five respondents (10.0%) who felt ‘sometimes’ treated relatively, and five respondents (10.0%) indicated ‘never’, respectively. the statistics revealed a mean (m = 2.44) and standard deviation (sd = 1.110) for the second question. the mean and standard deviation indicated an inclination towards ‘always’ instead of ‘never’ on the likert scale, signifying that those women were given fewer tasks because they were female. the statistics showed that 14 respondents (28.0%), which was the highest frequency, indicated they ‘always’ felt they were given fewer tasks. six respondents (12.0%), which was the lowest, indicated ‘seldom’ (see table 4). table 4: measure central tendency and dispersion for challenges information and communication technology professionals face. flexibility flexibility had the two questions. the statistics revealed a mean (m = 2.46) and standard deviation (sd = 1.147). the mean and standard deviation indicated an inclination towards ‘always’ instead of ‘never’ on the likert scale, signifying that those women felt afforded flexibility in the workplace. the statistics showed that 14 respondents (28.0%), which was the highest frequency, thought they were ‘frequently’ afforded flexibility in the workplace as a female. six respondents (12.0%), who were the lowest, indicated ‘seldom’. additionally, for the second question, the statistics revealed a mean (m = 2.62) and standard deviation (sd = 1.086). the mean and standard deviation indicated a wide variation in the response between ‘always’ and ‘never’ on the likert scale, signifying that those women felt afforded flexibility in the workplace. the statistics show that most 12 respondents (24.0%) ‘frequently’ felt flexible work arrangements negatively affected promotion chances. three respondents (6.0%), which were the lowest, indicated ‘seldom’. on the challenges related to gender flexibility, question 2 had a higher mean and standard deviation (m = 2.62, sd = 1.086) than question 1 (m = 2.46, sd = 1.147) (see table 4). dependent adults/children-related tasks dependent adults/children-related tasks had two questions. the statistics revealed a mean (m = 3.04) and standard deviation (sd = 1.160). the mean and standard deviation indicated an inclination towards ‘never’ instead of ‘always’ on the likert scale, signifying that the respondents cared for dependent adults/children. however, the findings revealed that many respondents did take care of dependent adults/children. the statistics showed that a majority of 15 respondents (30.0%), which was the highest, indicated ‘seldom’, and three groups of eight respondents (16.0%) showed that they ‘always’ ‘frequently’ and ‘sometimes’ felt they took care of dependent adults/children, respectively. for the second question, the statistics revealed a mean (m = 2.94) and the standard deviation (sd = 1.236), a significant variation from the mean. the standard deviation indicated an inclination towards ‘never’ instead of ‘always’ on the likert scale, signifying that those respondents cared for dependent adults/children. the statistics showed that the majority of 15 respondents (30.0%), which was the highest, indicated ‘never’ took care of dependent adults/children. five respondents (16.0%) who were the minority ‘sometimes’ took care of dependent adults/children. the high frequencies on the ‘seldom’ and ‘never’ responses explained why the inclination was more towards ‘never’. these results showed that the respondents bordered on the negative in their responses to these items. on the challenges related to dependent adults/children-related tasks, question 1 had a higher mean and standard deviation (m = 3.04, sd = 1.160) than question 2 (m = 2.94, sd = 1.236) (see table 4). work/home interference work/home interference had three questions. the statistics revealed a mean (m = 2.76) and standard deviation (sd = 1.098). the mean and standard deviation indicated a central or mid-point response set between ‘always’ and ‘never’ on the likert scale, signifying that work/career interfered with responsibilities at home, such as yard work, cooking, cleaning, repairs, shopping, paying the bills, childcare. the responses showed that several respondents did feel that work/career interfered with their responsibilities at home. fifteen respondents (30.0%), which was the highest, indicated ‘sometimes’. three respondents (6.0%), which was the lowest, indicated ‘seldom’ (see table 4). for the second question, the statistics revealed a mean (m = 2.56) and standard deviation (sd = 1.163). the mean and standard deviation indicated an inclination towards ‘always’ than ‘never’ on the likert scale, signifying that their work/career kept them from spending the amount of time they would have liked to spend with their families. the responses showed that work/career reduced family time. thirteen respondents (26.0%), which was the highest, indicated ‘frequently’. six respondents (12.0%), which were the lowest, indicated ‘seldom’. the third question revealed a mean (m = 2.28) and standard deviation (sd = 1.161). the mean and standard deviation indicated an inclination towards ‘always’ rather than ‘never’ on the likert scale, signifying that work/career interfered with home life. based on the numbers, it was clear that the respondents felt work/career interfered with their home life. the statistics showed that 17 respondents (34.0%), which was the highest, indicated they ‘always’ felt that their work/career interfered with their home life, and four respondents (8.0%) the lowest indicated ‘seldom’. on the challenges related to work/home interference, question 1 had the highest mean and standard deviation (m = 2.75, sd = 1.098) followed by question 2 (m = 2.56, sd = 1.163) and lastly question 3 (m = 2.28, sd = 1.161). a challenge for age groups was identified, with 21–25 (m = 3.87) exhibiting the highest score for combining work and family challenges. (see table 4). time management time management had three questions, and statistics revealed a mean (m = 2.58) and standard deviation (sd = 1.090). the mean and standard deviation indicated a central or mid-point response set between ‘always’ and ‘never’ on the likert scale, signifying that those respondents felt they were being afforded flexibility in the workplace as females in the ict industry. the number of respondents affirmed that they were afforded flexibility in the workplace as females in the ict industry. the statistics showed 19 respondents (38.0%), the highest indicated ‘sometimes’, and four respondents (8.0%), the lowest indicated ‘seldom’. question 2 on time management revealed a mean (m = 2.58) and standard deviation (sd = 1.071). the mean and standard deviation indicated a central or mid-point response set between ‘always’ and ‘never’ on the likert scale, signifying that those respondents felt they managed their time effectively and efficiently. the respondents felt their work/career interfered with their home life based on the numbers. the statistics showed that 18 respondents (36.0%), which was the highest, indicated ‘sometimes’, and two respondents (4.0%), which was the lowest, indicated ‘seldom’. the third question revealed a mean (m = 2.50) and standard deviation (sd = 1.182). the mean and sd indicated an inclination towards ‘always’ rather than ‘never’ on the likert scale, signifying that those respondents balanced their lives between work and domestic chores. the respondents balanced their life between work and domestic chores based on the numbers. the statistics showed that 14 respondents (28.0%), which was the highest, indicated they ‘always’ felt that they balanced their life between work and domestic chores. five respondents (10.0%), which was the lowest, indicated ‘seldom’. on the challenges related to time management, question 2 had a higher mean and standard deviation of (m = 2.58, sd = 1.071) then followed by question 1 (m = 2.58, sd = 1.090) and lastly question 3 (m = 2.50, sd = 1.182) (see table 4). sense of accomplishment this item had two questions, and for the first question, the statistics revealed a mean (m = 2.34) and standard deviation (sd = 1.171). the mean and standard deviation indicated an inclination towards ‘always’ rather than ‘never’ on the likert scale, signifying those respondents felt that their work/career provided them with a sense of accomplishment, which helped them be better friends and family members. seventeen respondents (34.0%), which were the highest, indicated they ‘always’ felt that their work/career provided them with a sense of accomplishment, which helped them be better friends and family members. five respondents (10.0%), which were the lowest, indicated ‘seldom’. the second question revealed a mean (m = 2.58) and standard deviation (sd = 1.144). the mean and standard deviation indicated an inclination towards ‘always’ rather than ‘never’ on the likert scale, signifying that their work/career did not provide them with a sense of accomplishment, which prevented them from being better friends or family members. based on the numbers, work/career did not give the respondents a sense of accomplishment, thereby preventing them from being better friends and family members. the statistics showed that 13 respondents (26.0%), which was the highest, indicated ‘sometimes’ and five respondents (10.0%), which were the lowest, indicated ‘never’. on the challenges related to a sense of accomplishment, question 2 had a higher mean and standard deviation (m = 2.68, sd = 1.144) than question 1 (m = 2.34, sd = 1.171) (see table 4). skills acquisition there were two questions on skills acquisition. the first question revealed a mean (m = 2.58) and standard deviation (sd = 1.263). the mean and standard deviation indicated an inclination towards ‘always’ and towards ‘never’ on the likert scale, showing that there was a slight difference in how the respondents felt about their work/career-enhancing acquisition of new skills, something that could help them become a better friend and family member. based on the findings, the number of respondents felt their work/career did not feel skills acquisitions helped them acquire skills that helped them be better friends and family members. the statistics showed that 15 respondents (30.0%), which were the highest, indicated ‘frequently’, and four respondents (8.0%), which was the lowest, indicated ‘seldom’. the statistics for question 2 revealed a mean (m = 2.32) and standard deviation (sd = 1.151). the mean and standard deviation indicated an inclination towards ‘always’ rather than ‘never’ on the likert scale, signifying that there was a feeling that respondents’ work/career did not help them acquire new skills that helped them be better friends and family members. a closer look at the statistics showed that 16 respondents (32.0%), which was the highest, indicated they ‘always’ felt that their work/career did not help them acquire new skills that enabled them to be better friends and family members, and two respondents (16.0%) which were the lowest indicated ‘seldom’. on the challenges related to skills acquisition, question 1 had a higher mean and standard deviation (m = 2.58, sd = 1.263) than question 2 (m = 2.32, sd = 1.151) (see table 4). discussion this article reports the challenges faced by female ict professionals in combining work and family life at the telecommunications company. six significant factors emerged from the analysis of the questionnaires and the research conducted related to wlb challenges that women it professionals in the telecommunications sector face: gender stereotypes, flexibility and time management, dependent adults/children-related tasks, work/home interference, a sense of accomplishment, skills acquisition. when perceived from the personal, professional, social, and most overlooked legislative level, these factors highlight the large discrepancies that women in the ict sector face on a day-to-day basis. in the following section, a discussion of the results presented above will be embarked on. inferential statistics discussion factor scores were compared between various independent groups. for gender, an independent t-test was performed. a one-way analysis of variance (anovas) was performed for age groups. cohen’s d was calculated to determine significant practical differences between standardised means. cohen’s (1988) guideline values were used. an effect size of 0.2 shows a small effect or practical nonsignificant difference. an effect size of 0.5 reveals a medium impact or visible practical difference, and 0.8 is a considerable influence or significant practical difference. gender stereotypes most women felt they were treated fairly and could manage others, lessening the challenges of working in a male-dominated industry. this supported the employment equity act 55 of 1998: code of good practice, which addressed a specific aspect of workplace discrimination, and the undervaluing of work, based on listed or any other arbitrary grounds. the findings also contradicted lyons, sweitzer and ng (2009). they stated that stereotypically feminine traits and management styles (consultative, conciliatory, partnership-oriented, and collaborative) were generally viewed as positive but not used to describe successful managers or view management positions. science, technology, engineering, and mathematics jobs have always been considered ‘men’s work’, while childcare, teaching, and clerical work had been ‘women’s work’. some women reported discrimination and gender stereotypes, which was in line with a study by gupta and rao (2019), which confirmed that a vast majority of respondents shared instances of gender discrimination they had experienced across the spectrum. beginning at a personal level, most women were held accountable for the primary responsibility of homemaking and caretaking despite active careers and interests, much like their male counterparts. gupta and rao’s (2019) findings also point out that gender mainstreaming can be a powerful tool to achieve gender equality. the current study findings also confirm gupta and rao’s (2019) findings that, at work, women on a day-to-day basis experience some of the very detrimental effects of gender discrimination. unequal opportunities, the disparity in promotions, male dominance in decision making, and prejudice of being less competent than male counterparts were recurring subjects. flexibility and time management most of the women confirmed they were frequently afforded flexibility as evidenced in the use of the organisation’s policy on hours of work: (other working opportunities and overtime) of 2015, and the virtual assistance programme of organisation in the workplace as females, thus lessening the challenges of working in a male-dominated industry. some individuals expressed that they did not have the time and flexibility to do other things, such as upgrading their education. this could be difficult for women with children who still tended to take the lion’s share of household and caregiving responsibilities and, therefore, did not have time to engage in training outside of office hours. the equal sharing of home responsibilities could play a key role in giving women equal chances in building their careers. the findings in this study are consistent with previous studies by jones (2013), li et al. (2009), haustein et al. (2009), wethington (2005), elder and johnson (2003), ganz et al. (2003), settersten (2003), wheaton and gotlib (1997) and george (1993) which looked at how people perceive and use time, trajectories, connected lives, life routes, and time’s shifting dynamics in a fast-changing world, particularly in the ict sector, as well as how specific life paths change an individual’s direction. a finding by gupta and rao (2019) confirmed this current study’s conclusion in terms of time management and flexibility that women felt the need to relook and regulate work hours and late hours and take more steps towards gender mainstreaming (integration of gender differences into the formulation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policies). dependent adults/children-related tasks many women indicated that much of their time was spent at home looking after their elderly parents/extended family and children. this put tremendous strain on their care and study time at home. this is supported by santhana and gopinath (2013), who also found that the workers crept into the time required to attend to the children and the other dependents. a study that supports this finding by gupta and rao (2019) points heavily to the importance of spouse/family support for women it professionals to achieve wlb. unfair distribution of responsibilities, lack of motivational support, domestic help, and absence of childcare options lend greatly to an imbalance in work-life at a personal level. work/home interference the interference was with home, yard work, cooking, cleaning, repairs, shopping, paying the bills, or childcare. the participants’ responses showed that several respondents did feel that work/career interfered with their responsibilities at home because they spent more time at work. some women felt that engaging in work activities did not interfere with their home domain. instead, it enabled them to carry out work activities without interference. the findings showed both the positive and negative aspects, which was in line with a study by barnett (1998) and grzywacz and marks (2000), who explained that although employed women could experience harmful interference between work and family, the interaction between those domains could also be a positive one. participating in multiple roles could provide the individual with more opportunities and resources to promote growth and better functionality in other life domains. sense of accomplishment in terms of the sense of accomplishment, several respondents felt that this was a benefit rather than a challenge, as it helped them become better friends and family members. this was supported by feyerherm and vick (2005), who asserted that for fulfillment and accomplishment, women defined relationships in terms of how they provided internal happiness or joy with family, and close friends, who provided the motivation, energy, and purpose in their lives. skills acquisition several respondents appreciated the benefits of skills acquisition and felt that their work/career helped them acquire skills, which allowed them to become better friends and family members. the current study findings are supported by earlier findings by feyerherm and vick (2005), that relationships in the professional success of employees an inclusion of support mechanisms, such as a mentor or a collaborative, coaching boss, and working in a supportive environment of relationships and fun fueled by the energy of constant challenge assisted women in having conducive relationships. subgroup comparisons in summary, the black race exhibited the highest challenges with combining work and family biographical variables. this was mainly because they constituted the largest population of the sample at 39 out of 50 respondents. women with children under 18 had higher means than those without children under 18, indicating the challenges in combining work and family. married women also faced a challenge combining work and family, with partners/spouses working part-time. the number of years worked for the organisation revealed that those who worked 6 months to 1 year experienced the highest challenges in combining work and family. at the educational level, those with diploma qualifications showed the most increased difficulty in balancing work and family. on the professional front, the current study confirmed the study findings of gupta and rao (2019) who indicated that declining promotions, opting for slow career progression, dropping out of the workforce were the prime compromises women made. what may seem like mere factors are life-altering decisions that most of the women in the cohort have had to make compared to their spouses, male members of the family, or male counterparts. the new findings indicated the challenges of the different age groups. the young age group of 21–25 exhibited the highest score for the ability to successfully combine work and family roles compared to the other age groups older than that, and women with or without children sometimes had difficulty being flexible, resulting in a disruption of their life roles. limitations while this study explored the salient wlb factor(s) influencing female ict professionals in a south african telecommunications organisation, it had some limitations. the population of the telecommunications company where the study was conducted was too small to generalise the findings to the larger population (57 ict workers). this resulted in a small sample of 50 female ict workers. a cross-sectional sample was employed, resulting in people overthinking their responses on items in the scales. relatively little research has been done on the salient wlb factor(s) influencing female ict professionals in a south african telecommunications organisation, making it difficult to relate the findings to the south african context. the present research field included only one organisation. the research identified specific problems within wlb that might be organisation-specific. recommendations for future research with the growing changes in family structures represented in the workforce, it is essential that human resource professionals better understand the interface of work and family relationships and the resulting impact on the workplace. a comparison of ict organisations should be employed to see if the same results would be obtained. the study might have identified broader aspects or challenges if the researcher had included more organisations. future studies should use a longitudinal design to examine the salient wlb factor(s) influencing female ict professionals in south african telecommunications organisations. furthermore, future studies may explore the experiences of a more diverse range of occupations or a comparative study between a female sample versus a male sample to ascertain the differences in challenges and experiences. furthermore, a study to see how wlb affects women in ict after the covid-19 pandemic should be considered for the future. a vast amount of wlb studies has been undertaken in western and asian contexts, leaving out the sub-saharan african experience and, in this case, the south africa context. for a newly developed instrument, larger sample sizes are recommended to increase the validity and reliability. this study identified the importance of understanding the dynamics of wlb in female ict professionals in a male-dominated sector, reflecting on future research areas. implications in practical terms, the new knowledge gained from exploring the salient wlb factor(s) influencing female ict professionals in a south african telecommunications sector is crucial because it holds the potential to determine how effectively females combine work and family life and the degree to which these challenges differ from those faced by men. the results identified challenges that human resource practitioners should attend to ensure that organisations address wlb more effectively. due to the potential challenges that human resource practitioners usually face when addressing the wlb aspects, employers should carefully consider issues related to wlb. gupta and rao (2019) acknowledge that society plays an essential part in establishing and eliminating social evils. gender bias has plagued in many ways, from patriarchal control at home to male dominance at work and androcentrism in society. most women expect initiatives on gender awareness, regulation of labour laws on hiring ratio, more stringent rules on women’s safety, severe punishment on sexual harassment, and other necessary actions. conclusion this research has complemented prior studies by extending the insights into the wlb challenges women face in the ict industry in south africa. to achieve a wlb, every woman should be proficient both in career and family. planning, organising, and setting limits are some of the strategies that women can use at home and the workplace to accomplish a satisfying, fulfilling, well-balanced life professionally and personally. on an individual level, the female employee should care for the family both physically and financially to satisfy the family needs and work to accomplish organisational objectives and personal improvement to fulfil the career needs. from an organisational level, a need to adopt human resource strategies and policies to overcome the issues of women’s wlb in the current business environment is important. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the research was undertaken by w.m. the first draft of the article was written by w.m. a.m. supervised the research and co-wrote the article and prepared it for submission. ethical considerations the research ethics committee of the university of kwazulu-natal approved this university study where the researchers are based with protocol reference number: hss/0810/018d. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and not an official position of the university of kwazulu-natal. references adisa, t.a., mordi, c., & osabutey, e.l. (2017). exploring the implications of the influence of organisational culture on work-life balance practices. personnel review, 46(3), 454–473. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-05-2015-0138 ajith, m., & vidya, s. (2013). an empirical study on work-life balance for role prioritisation of it employees. rvim journal of management research, 5(1), 31–40. anila, k.p., & krishnaveni, v. (2016). influence of family environment and work environment on work-life balance among women employees. international journal of management research and reviews, 6(3), 341. barnett, r.c. (1998). toward a review and reconceptualisation of the work/family literature. genetic, social, and general psychology monographs, 124(2), 125–182. braun, s., & peus, c. (2018). crossover of work-life balance perceptions: does authentic leadership matter? journal of business ethics, 149(4), 875–893. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3078-x cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioural sciences (2nd ed.). hillsdale, ny: lawrence erlbaum associates. cooper, d., & schindler, p. (2014). business research methods (12th ed.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill education. cortina, j.m. (1993). what is coefficient alpha? an examination of theory and applications. journal of applied psychology, 78(1), 98–104. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.1.98 creswell, j.w., & creswell, j.d. (2018). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approach. thousand oaks, ca: sage. deanscombe, m. (2017). the good research guide for small scale research projects (5th ed). london: mcgraw hill educations. elder, jr. g.h., & johnson, m.k. (2003). the life course and aging: challenges, lessons, and new directions (49–81) in invitation to the life course: toward new understandings of later life, edited by richard a. settersen jr. new york, ny: baywood publishing company inc. feyerherm, a., & vick, y.h. (2005). generation x women in high technology: overcoming gender and generational challenges to succeed in the corporate environment. career development international, 10(3), 216–227. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430510598337 ganz, p., desmond, k., leedham, b., rowland, j., meyerowitz, b., & belin, t.r. (2003). quality of life in long-term, disease-free survivors of breast cancer: a follow-up study. jnci: journal of the national cancer institute, 94(1), 39–49. https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/94.1.39 ganz, p., desmond, k., leedham, rowland, j., meyerowitz, b., & belin. (2003). quality of life in long-term, disease-free survivors of breast cancer: a follow-up study. j. natl. cancer inst, 94, 39–49. george, c. (2015). retaining professional workers: what makes them stay? employee relations, 37(1), 102–121. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-10-2013-0151 george, l.k. (1993). sociological perspectives on life transitions. annual review of sociology, 19(1), 353–373. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.19.080193.002033 grzywacz, j.g., & marks, n.f. (2000). re-conceptualising the work-family interface: an ecological perspective on the correlates of positive and negative spillover between work and family. journal of occupational health psychology, 5(1), 111–126. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.5.1.111 gupta, c., & rao, k.v.s.r. (2019). a conceptual framework & analysis of work-life balance challenges of women professionals in the it industry. international journal of latest technology in engineering, management & applied science–ijltemas, 1(6), 32–37. hair, j.f., balck, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2010). multivariate data analysis (7th ed.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice-hall. harteis, c. (2017). machines, change and work: an educational view on the digitalisation of work. in c. harteis (ed.), the impact of digitalisation in the workplace: an educational view (pp. 1–12). dotrecht: springer. haustein, s., klockner, c., & blobaum, a. (2009). car use of young adults: the role of travel socialisation. transp. res, 12, 168–178. jones, h. (2013). understanding walking and cycling using a life course perspective. unpublished doctoral thesis. london: university of the west of england. retrieved from http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/22172 karne, m., & sharma, m. (2021). labour force participation and economic challenges for women in post-covid india. in gendered experiences of covid-19 in india (pp. 57–75). cham: palgrave macmillan. kelliher, c., richardson, j., & boiarintseva, g. (2019). all of work? all of life? reconceptualising work-life balance for the 21st century. human resource management journal, 29(2), 97–112. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12215 kumarasamy, m.m., pangil, f., & isa, m.f. (2015). individual, organisational, and environmental factors affecting work-life balance. asian social science, 11(25), 111–123. levine, m., stephan, d., & szabat, k. (2016). statistics for managers using microsoft excel. upper saddle river, ny: pearson prentice hall. li, k.-k., cardinal, b. j., & settersten, r. a. (2009). a life-course perspective on physical activity promotion: applications and implications. quest, 61(3), 336–352. lyons, s., sweitzer, l., & ng, e. (2009). the shifting nature of careers in canada: a framework for research. niagra falls: asac. meiring, t., kannemeyer, c., & potgieter, e. (2018). the gap between rich and poor: south african society’s biggest divide depends on where you think you fit in. southern africa labour and development research unit (saldru) working paper series, 220(1), 1–31, university of cape town. mohanty, a., & jena, l.k. (2016). work-life balance challenges for indian employees: socio-cultural implications and strategies. journal of human resource and sustainability studies, 4(01), 15. https://doi.org/10.4236/jhrss.2016.41002 mubeen, h., & rashidi, m.z. (2014). impact of long working hours on job satisfaction of employees working in services sector of karachi. journal of business strategies, 8(1), 21. neuman, w.l. (ed.). (2000). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches (4th ed.). boston, ma: allyn & bacon. pitts, d., marvel, j., & fernandez, s. (2011). so hard to say goodbye? turnover intention among us federal employees. public administration review, 71(5), 751–760. pretorius, h., mawela, t., strydom, i., de villiers, c., & johnson, r. (2015). continuing the discourse of women in information technology: a south african perspective. gender, technology and development, 19(3), 346–369. https://doi.org/10.1177/0971852415597100 rahi, s. (2017). research design and methods: a systematic review of research paradigms, sampling issues and instruments development. international journal of economics &management sciences, 6(2), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.4172/2162-6359.1000403 rajadhyaksha, u. (2012). work-life balance in southeast asia: the indian experience, south asian journal of global business research, 1, 108–127. https://doi.org/10.1108/20454451211207615 rife, a.a., hamilton, b.a., & hall, r.j. (2015). work-life balance. siop white paper series. a white paper prepared by the visibility committee of the society for industrial and organisational psychology. ohio: society for industrial and organisational psychology, inc. raosoft sample size calculator. (2004). raosoft inc. retrieved august 13, 2020 from http://www.raosoft.com/samplesize.html. santhana, l.k., & gopinath, s.s. (2013). work-life balance of women employees with reference to teaching faculties. international monthly refereed journal of research in management and technology-ii, 2(3), 53–62. sekaran, u., & bougie, r. (2010). research methods for business: a skill-building approach (3rd ed.). west sussex: john wiley & sons. sekaran, u., & bougie, r. (2016). research methods for business: a skill-building approach. hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons. settersten, r.a. (2003). age structuring and the rhythm of the life course. in handbook of the life course (pp. 81–98). boston, ma: springer. south africa. (1998). employment equity act 55 of 1998: code of good practice on the integration of employment equity into human resource policies and practices. retrieved from http://www.labour.gov.za suganya, k. (2019). the factors affecting work-life balance among post graduate students in eastern province, sri lanka. asian journal of economics, business and accounting, 11(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.9734/ajeba/2019/v11i130118 wethington, e. (2005). an overview of the life course perspective: implications for health and nutrition. journal of nutrition education and behaviour, 37, 115–120. wheaton, b., & gotlib, i. (1997). stress and adversity over the life course. cambridge: cambridge university press. wilkinson, k., tomlinson, j. & gardiner, j. (2017). exploring the work-life challenges and dilemmas faced by managers and professionals who live alone. work, employment and society, 31(4), 640–656. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017016677942 yadav, n. (2014). comparison of the work-life balance of women employees in educational field degree college permanent employees and i.t industries. sies journal of management, 10(1), 36–42. zheng, c., molineux, j., mirshekary, s., & scarparo, s. (2015). developing individual and organisational work-life balance strategies to improve employee health and wellbeing. employee relations, 37(3), 354–379. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-10-2013-0142 abstract introduction literature review research design research method results discussion limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) musawenkosi d. saurombe department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa simone s. rayners department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa kedibone a. mokgobu department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa keketso manka department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation saurombe, m.d., rayners, s.s., mokgobu, k.a., & manka, k. (2022). the perceived influence of remote working on specific human resource management outcomes during the covid-19 pandemic. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a2033. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.2033 original research the perceived influence of remote working on specific human resource management outcomes during the covid-19 pandemic musawenkosi d. saurombe, simone s. rayners, kedibone a. mokgobu, keketso manka received: 01 july 2022; accepted: 13 sept. 2022; published: 21 nov. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: remote work recently gained traction globally due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic, however, not all companies promptly adapted to this. research purpose: the study investigated the perceived influence of working remotely on employee productivity and performance management in south africa. motivation for the study: the ambivalent trajectory of the covid-19 pandemic and its long-term accompanying impacts have rendered research topics around the subject pertinent. research approach, design, and method: a quantitative research approach was employed, and the sample population included remote workers within three south african provinces, between the ages of 18 and 65. the sampling method employed was purposive sampling with a complementary snowball sampling approach. main findings: the results revealed that respondents preferred working remotely, as this was more convenient and cost efficient for them. however, respondents indicated that remote working caused them to work in isolation and longer hours than in the office to prove their productivity to their line managers and employers, thus impeding their social life. practical/managerial implications: hr professionals should develop different policies aligned with remote work and restructure business operations in a way that aligns work responsibilities with the online working environment, as respondents felt their organisation’s current performance management and hr policies were not suited for working remotely. contribution/value-add: the study offers insights that could assist south african organisations to adopt more effective remote work structures and policies, especially those who will continue with remote work even after the pandemic. keywords: remote working; employee productivity; performance management; work-life balance; covid-19 pandemic. introduction orientation remote working has been in existence even before the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic. recently, remote working is more in use in different organisations around the world because of the covid-19 pandemic, which forced these organisations to adapt quickly and strategically. remote working has been studied under various terminologies, which are all connected and, to some extent, mean the same thing. common terms for remote working are telecommuting, virtual working, working from home (wfh) and teleworking. according to anastasios and prodromos (2018), remote work is the work that an employee can perform from any location other than the conventional workplace. benjamin (2020) states that remote working is when the employee resides outside of the organisation’s main office’s geographical location for work. a remote-working employee works away from the office and makes use of telecommunication (lopaz, 2020). according to virtanen (2020), remote work is working from other premises rather than the employer’s premises. different authors discovered different views about the remote working influence on employees, in that remote work has both negative and positive impacts on organisations and employees and that some employees enjoy remote work more than others. traditional work is slightly different from remote work. in a traditional work setting or environment, employees partake in face-to-face interactions, which improve productivity since there is guidance from other employees (nield, 2016). regarding face-to-face meetings, colleagues can read each other’s body language and facial expressions when ideas are shared during the meetings. there is also a chance for team building when employees work traditionally. now that businesses have transitioned to remote working, work is performed differently. employees do not have much engagement, and team building meetings or exercises are not considered a priority anymore. as for employees who depend on interactions with fellow employees, it may be more difficult for them to execute their work deliverables while working remotely, as it sometimes takes longer to reconcile schedules with colleagues who are not in the same physical working environment. according to thorstensson (2020), remote working decreases costs for organisations and employees and increases the spending of time with families. in addition, costs are cut due to not commuting to work. organisations provide technological equipment to employees so that work can continue to be performed as effectively and efficiently at home as when working from the office. performance management (pm) in the workplace is key as it enables organisations and line managers to determine whether employees are achieving the necessary milestones towards an organisation’s objectives (saurombe & barkhuizen, 2020) and is consequently linked to the assessment of employee productivity (ngobeni et al., 2022). considering how the covid-19 pandemic has impacted the world of work, especially concerning the increased prevalence of remote working employment arrangements, line managers have had to employ unconventional ways of managing employees during the pandemic and are likely to be compelled to keep rethinking the way pm processes are dealt with beyond the covid-19 pandemic, given the increasing expectation by employees of a hybrid work or employment structure (ngobeni et al., 2022). this study examined the perceived influence of remote working on specific human resource (hr) outcomes, namely employee productivity and pm. research purpose and objectives the study sought to investigate the perceived influence of remote working on employee productivity and pm. the specific objectives of this study were: to investigate the differences between traditional working and remote working during the covid-19 pandemic to investigate the perceived influence of wfh during the covid-19 pandemic on employee productivity to investigate the perceived influence of wfh during the covid-19 pandemic on pm. literature review theoretical framework of the study: the agency theory early researchers employed the agency theory (baiman, 1990; jensen & meckling, 1976) to delineate the principal–agent dynamics underpinning management control matters. consequently, it is imperative to dissect the main elements of agency theory to understand how it influences management control theory. agency theory seeks to explain this relationship using the metaphor of a contract (white, 2018) an agency scenario results when one of two or more parties – that being the agent – acts on behalf of or represents the other party, called the principal, in decision-making (kivistö & zalyevska, 2015) agency theory seeks to resolve two challenges in agency relationships. the first is the challenge that occurs when (1) the goals of the principal and agent are incongruent, and (2) it is either problematic or expensive for the principal to verify the agent’s work. the challenge is that the principal cannot verify the appropriate or inappropriate behaviour of the agent. secondly, the principal and the agent may prefer different actions due to varying risk preferences (jensen & meckling, 1976). since the contract governs the relationship between the principal and the agent in this instance, the focus of the agency theory is on determining the best contract to govern the principal–agent relationship considering preconceptions about people (e.g. self-interest, bounded rationality and risk aversion), organisations (e.g. goal conflict among parties) and information (e.g. information is a commodity for sale or purchase) (eisenhardt, 1989). the question then becomes: is a behaviour-orientated contract (e.g. salaries, hierarchical governance) better than an outcome-orientated contract (e.g. commissions, stock options, market governance, etc.)? the developed theory about the efficiency of the agency contract highlights two solutions that the principal can choose to solve the agent–principal contention (tosi et al., 2000). firstly, when the principal can comprehensively access information regarding the agent’s efforts, the best contract is based on observing the agent’s behaviour (monitoring) (zenger & gubler, 2018). this prevents a contract from being based on results, which would unnecessarily transfer the risks to the reluctant agent. secondly, when the principal cannot monitor the agent’s efforts and there is high information misalignment, the principal is led to transfer the risks to the agent using an incentive contract (zenger & gubler, 2018). remote performance can be more challenging to observe in practice, as presence is often associated with performance. before the covid-19 pandemic, managers were mainly reluctant to permit wfh and similar ways of flexible working (lal et al., 2021). the prevailing sentiment among managers was worrying about tracking what employees are doing at any given time. the global remote working movement driven by the covid-19 pandemic has revealed that such concerns are not as weighty as they were thought to be (pechan, 2021). nevertheless, organisations and managers still tend to favour being able to see people working long hours and putting in office face time (lal et al., 2021). comparisons between traditional and remote working traditionally, a completely furnished workplace entails an array of advantages in many organisations. several people discovered that it is simpler to do their jobs in an environment that is favourable for attentiveness, and they appreciate the classification of their work and domestic lives (brough et al., 2020; hjálmsdóttir & bjarnadóttir, 2020). the opportunity to socialise away from their homes is additionally valuable; numerous individuals make new friends within the office that outlive their tenure in the company, and some create beneficial relationships towards the organisation (purwanto et al., 2020; singer-velush et al. (2020). the chance to engage with one’s coworkers also offers a chance to make valuable business connections and superior team bonds. in numerous cases, having a proficient office environment is basic to keeping up connections with vital clients, because clients or people are more persuaded in a face-to-face scenario (stat international writing staff, 2020). traditional office employees previously reported that they spent quality time during their workday at this workspace (hill et al., 2003). remote work improved efficiency, adaptability, access to worldwide abilities, cost saving, superior workforce and natural impact. nevertheless, it presents problems and challenges that may include social separation, laziness, difficulties in organising tasks and other negative effects towards people. caramela (2017) highlights that the introduction to the remote working concept ought to be executed circumspectly, so that those concerned will be well guided and educated, as well as to also assist them in accomplishing sound decision-making (jalagat & jalagat, 2019). because of the abrupt introduction of remote working in response to the covid-19 pandemic, employers and employees, especially in developing countries, did not have enough time to implement sound wfh strategy and policy. the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on performance the current covid-19 emergency has, and will proceed to have, a huge impact on people, organisations and societies, on a worldwide level. at the institutional level, the widespread pandemic brings into the spotlight the role of leaders and administration in reshaping their organisations to survive during and beyond the crisis. the pandemic is influencing both personal and work lives; therefore, most individuals depend on organisations to keep them informed about security measures, how the crisis is influencing their occupations and other things that may matter to them (akkermans et al., 2020). the existing covid-19 worldwide pandemic is phenomenal. it is considered one of the turning focuses in history, as it is rearranging social and financial benchmarks and triggering a modern human era. the measurement and speed of collapse in numerous activities that have followed are not at all like anything experienced in this generation (gopinath, 2020). employees are an imperative resource to any organisation, and they may influence it either positively or negatively (saurombe & barkhuizen, 2022). therefore, employee performance is essential for an organisation to attain its goals and objectives (saurombe & barkhuizen, 2020). employee performance is characterised as how a worker satisfies their work obligations, performs their required tasks and fulfils organisational projects (aguinis, 2015). it refers to the effectiveness, quality and productivity of their outputs. performance also contributes to the evaluation of how important an employee is to the company. technological changes in this respect can also be a consideration in influencing employees’ productivity in different ways such as redundancy, worker turnover and the level of inspiration at work (belzunegui-eraso & erro-garcés, 2020; nkuraru & wanza, 2016; parry & battista, 2019). because of unavoidable natural changes, institutions have lately been challenged to advocate for changes that affect employees’ performance. hence, the top administration ought to ensure that components that affect employees’ performance are taken into consideration. administration can be portrayed as a creative and systematic flow of information that can be applied to achieve quality results by using human as well as other vital resources in an effective manner (payne & petrenko, 2019). benefits and challenges of remote working for employees according to nield (2016), people who work remotely are more productive and much happier than traditional workers, even though remote workers are not physically present and actively involved in the office. like any other work arrangement, remote working has both its advantages and disadvantages. recent research (gigauri, 2020b) has indicated that there are many benefits from wfh. jalagat and jalagat (2019) state that flexible working hours is an advantage for remote working employees. firstly, individuals who wfh enjoy the freedom of managing their own schedule, allowing them to attend to other appointments while working, and this makes them feel less pressured and allows them to complete tasks with ease. the second advantage is cost saving, which makes remote working beneficial to employees. employees save on transport costs and travelling time to work. employees also save costs on childcare and transportation while they are at work. the third advantage is change of environment; employees tend to work freely with no bosses around and can move around freely with no micromanagement, as is the case in the office. the fourth advantage of remote work for employees is that there are low levels of stress; individuals travelling to work daily and who were in traffic for long hours tend to be stressed by the time they reach work, which can have a negative influence on the individual’s productivity for the day. lastly, there is an increase in productivity and motivation in that remote working may result in job satisfaction when individuals feel freer to do their work (jalagat & jalagat, 2019). in contrast, there are also pitfalls that employees and organisations experience as a result of the abrupt transition that took place at the onset of the covid-19 pandemic between working at the employer’s premises and working remotely, including the loss of motivation among employees because of the atmospheric difference of a house in comparison to an office (gigauri, 2020b; singer-velush et al., 2020). at home, one can be distracted by social media, television shows or entertainment, as well as family. secondly, there is less teamwork; working remotely has led to employees not being exposed to teamwork, and employees are communicating less with each other. this might cause employees to not be updated with current events or issues in the organisation. thirdly, the feeling of isolation, not being able to interact and share ideas, may impact employees’ performance and productivity in a negative manner (purwanto et al., 2020). this isolation also has an impact on the employees’ psychological state and will reduce sense of belonging. the fourth disadvantage is that employee personal costs increase. although employees may save on transport, the savings of employees go back into ensuring an appropriate office space at home (gigauri, 2020a). in many instances, employees’ costs increase as a result of increased electricity consumption at their homes, data costs, mobile bill increases, buying comfortable chairs and tables to turn a home into a comfortable office space and increases in their grocery budgets, as employees spend most of their time at work drinking coffee and having a lunch box, whereas at home you tend to consume more. lastly, there are more distractions associated with remote working, such as noise in the neighbourhood or restaurants or noisy kids at home, which may have an impact on concentration levels as well as employee productivity (purwanto et al., 2020). benefits and challenges of remote working for employers deloitte (2020) mentions that organisational expenditures such as rent, repairs, computers, telephones, offices, utilities, supplies, parking spaces and other expenses are minimised. another benefit for organisations is increased productivity, according to deloitte (2020), as long commutes are eliminated and workplace disturbances (coffee breaks, coworker disruptions, etc.) are reduced. the third benefit of remote work for organisations is reduced absenteeism, as according to lupu (2017), impediments such as illnesses, unavoidable personal responsibilities, unfavourable climatic conditions and psychological unfitness, among others, usually increase absenteeism, of which such impediments would be more disruptive to employees working from their employer’s premises, compared to those working remotely. the fourth benefit is that there is a possibility of employing those who may otherwise be unable to come to work, such as mothers, the handicapped and workers who live far from the workplace and do not want to relocate (lupu, 2017). lastly, lupu (2017) states that reducing the spread of infectious diseases among workers, which causes disruptions in the workplace and imposes certain extra costs, benefits the organisation. deloitte (2020) states that working remotely can present problems with power, internet access and hardware, which are more difficult to address at home, even with remote information technology (it) support. another setback to remote work is loss of control over the employees. according to thorstensson (2020), organisations are concerned that employees will prioritise personal errands over work or give their tasks to others to complete on their behalf, further reducing organisational power. this could result in data protection issues. the third setback is productivity and work quality problems. supervisors reported distractions in the employees’ home environments as a disadvantage. they also complained about a lack of sufficient work-related tools, such as technical equipment and files stored at the main worksite that are required to conduct work-related tasks when working remotely (greer & payne, 2014). this further poses challenges to the effective pm of employees (diamantidis & chatzoglou, 2018). finally, the company’s disadvantage, according to thorstensson (2020), is not just the risk of harm or misuse to office equipment but also the liability issue that arises when the office equipment is off-site. other drawbacks include the cost of repairing and transporting broken office equipment, identifying who is responsible for the repair (the company or the individual) and deciding how to replace the broken equipment (gigauri, 2020b). the role of human resource management in facilitating effective remote working the covid-19 pandemic has recently formed extremely tough circumstances for hr management (hrm). human resource practitioners must help their workers in adapting to the fast changes that are happening within the working environment and in society. according to akkermans et al. (2020), covid-19 has a critical impact on occupations and may cause individuals to encounter career shock. as a result of remote working, which has blurred the barriers between work and family life, hrm must now adjust to the rising stress levels among its employees (virtanen, 2020). digital systems, mechanical technology, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and blockchain are cases of new technology that will alter the way hr professionals conduct their occupations. workers ought to learn modern skills to adjust to advanced work and enhance their employability. they can be supported in utilising new technology within the working environment through hrm. employees struggle to adapt to new technology on their own; therefore, hr practitioners need to help them in developing digital abilities and planning their well-being. furthermore, modern technologies progress to empower workers to work remotely; therefore, hr professionals in this case must create approaches and performance processes to guarantee that employees meet expectations while also reducing the negative impacts of digital working in the workspace, particularly in terms of social interactions (parry & battista, 2019). van der lippe and lippényi (2020) state that individual performance is influenced by job characteristics, satisfaction and engagement, while team performance suffers when employees work from home for more than 8 h a week, and flexible work should be organised accordingly. according to singer-velush et al. (2020), employees are also adversely impacted by social isolation. as a result, hr managers must ensure that workers who work remotely retain social contact. to combat loneliness, small-group gatherings, networking and virtual interactions should be coordinated, as work relationships are a source of motivation. managers have used digital data and online dashboards to measure the workload and efficiency of hrs, such as the number of transactions, tickets closed, calls received, hours logged on or number of customers served (narayandas et al., 2020). as a result, hrm can assist businesses in transforming their business processes into the digital realm by improving employee skills, creating an organisational culture that is adaptable to digitalisation and maintaining a work–life balance to keep workers healthy, inspired and productive (brough et al., 2020; gigauri, 2020a). performance management strategies during remote working performance of employees has been measured and managed for traditional work, and organisations had to adapt and change how they measure performance in terms of remote working. good pm practice for remote working will lead to job satisfaction and productivity. according to wang et al. (2021), the following are strategies and tips to manage and support remote workers: equip remote-working employees: the organisation must ensure that remote workers have the right resources and technologies to ensure they function effectively to perform their work. organisations need to ensure that if employees must make work calls, they are provided with airtime for mobile phones or data to conduct work remotely. they further need to ensure that the virtual communication tools used are easy for employees to navigate, since some individuals will be using these technologies and programs for the first time when working remotely. set clear goals and objectives: an organisation with clear goals and objectives gives employees a sense of belonging and helps to increase motivation, as employees will receive some guidance as to what is expected from them to complete their work remotely. engage with employees in one-on-one sessions: the quick office meetings or chats must be replaced by having conversations remotely with staff regarding work, discussing the issues they are facing working remotely, what is expected from them in terms of performance, the state of their well-being and their personal development plan. this will make employees feel valued and will increase motivation. have feedback sessions: it is crucial to conduct regular feedback sessions with employees, as they are always waiting to get feedback from management. having feedback sessions will assist in eliminating misunderstandings among remote workers, and this will be a perfect platform to convey the correct communication so everyone in the organisation is on the same page. it is also crucial to highlight the remote working challenges the organisation is facing in terms of what is working and what is not working and clarifying whether employees are doing what is expected of them. ask for updates on tasks staff is working on: ask employees to keep a log of what they are working on weekly; that way, both employees and the manager will know what task is pending and the progress thereof. keeping track of employee task progression is beneficial to both parties as it helps in measuring individual performance and acknowledging employee accomplishments. research design the type of design for this research was descriptive as it sought to describe perceptions regarding the influence of remote working on specific hr outcomes, namely employee productivity and pm during the covid-19 pandemic. the data collected were carefully selected and studied for each hr outcome. the factors which were identified as affecting employee productivity were working alone (wa), keeping work and home life separate (kwahls), self-motivation and productivity (smap) and work-related travel (wrt). since the data were collected through survey responses, the variables were not controlled or manipulated, and there was no intervention application. research approach a quantitative research approach was used in this study. the measuring instrument was adapted from existing questionnaires and sought to investigate the impact of remote working on employee productivity and performance. the survey was compiled and distributed specifically to remote working individuals in various sectors. a sample of 150 respondents had been targeted; however, only 102 completed questionnaires were obtained, which was still sufficient to conduct the necessary data analyses. research method research participants the respondents who were consulted included individuals within a working environment who were 18 years of age up to the retirement age of 65 years, as the shift from traditional work to remote work affects all generations of the current workforce. the focus was on people who have a minimum of more than 3 years of work experience, especially in the following identified sectors: finance, banking, market research, trade, public administration, education, communications or it and other sectors. the main reason behind the minimum work experience part of the questionnaire was to find respondents who had substantial experience of working before and during the covid-19 pandemic. the sampling method that was used for conducting the research was purposive sampling, whereby the researchers’ experience and knowledge were used to create samples. the sample chosen for the study consisted of an array of individuals in full-time remote working, flexible remote working and part-time remote working, who volunteered to be part of the research rather than being chosen to participate. a complementary snowball sampling approach was thus employed, whereby surveys were completed by individuals who then referred the study to other remote workers, as the researchers encouraged them to disseminate the link of the survey to other people they knew in the same field or profession they were working in. measuring instruments the measuring instrument for this research was an adapted version of previous questionnaires, compiled by the main researcher. the survey consisted of three sections. section a was based on the biographical information of respondents; section b included pertinent subsections about the teleworking experiences of the respondents; and section c covered pm, while addressing matters of related hr policy. the ranges used for the survey questions were from strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree and strongly disagree for section b, while section c ranged from 1 to 10, 1 being ‘not at all’ and 10 being ‘absolutely’. example items in section b include working alone or in isolation (‘i am able to work in isolation without my manager or supervisor’s support’, ‘i am okay with neither my boss nor my colleagues being there to see how well i manage problems except at a distance’ and ‘i struggle to create or keep up a social life outside of work’); keeping work and home life separate (‘i am able to resist the temptation of doing household tasks or chores during my typical working hours’, ‘despite not physically working from my organisation’s premises, i am able to keep work and home apart’ and ‘i have a conducive workstation and sufficient work-related equipment at home’); and self-motivation and productivity (‘i mostly thrive on intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation’, ‘i am able to be more productive when i work autonomously and don’t need a support structure or system from my colleagues and/or supervisors’ and ‘i work better with routine than without’). example items in section c include: ‘on a scale from 0 to 10, do you think the usual performance of most workers in a job similar to yours is good?’, ‘do you think your overall performance during the past year has been good?’, ‘has your employer provided you with all the necessary tools or equipment for you to perform your job well?’ and ‘do you feel your organisation’s hr performance criteria is reasonable or realistic for employees working from home?’ research procedure the data were collected electronically using a google forms link (alphabet, inc., mountain view, california, united states) that was disseminated among the respondents. this was to minimise physical contact with respondents, in adherence to the covid-19 protocols and national lockdown regulations at the time of data collection. in conducting the research, the researchers adhered to ethical conduct and standards. the names and details of the respondents were not disclosed and were kept confidential. throughout the research, the researchers ensured that no one was harmed or hurt emotionally or physically due to the study. respondents signed a consent form, which proved that they agreed to participate in the research. statistical analysis after collecting the data for the study via google forms, statistical analysis method was utilised to analyse the collected data. statistical analysis is a method for carrying out numerous statistical operations, where the goal is to quantify the data using some form of statistical analysis. descriptive data, such as survey data and observational data, are examples of quantitative data. the software that was used to perform statistical analysis is the statistical package for the social sciences (spss; ibm corporation, armonk, new york, united states). descriptive statistics, including correlation and reliability analyses, were performed using the spss software. biographical comparative information was generated and depicted in table format in the results section, as well as descriptive statistics specifically depicting employee perceptions of the hr outcomes examined in this study, namely employee productivity and pm. ethical considerations ethical clearance was sought from the research ethics committee of the college of business and economics (department of industrial psychology and people management), university of johannesburg (ref. no. ippm-2021-549[h]). results descriptive statistics the classification of information provides socio-economic descriptors of the respondents in the survey, which are referred to as demographic data (malhotra, 2010). pie charts are used to illustrate the information gathered. the demographic information of the complete sample is included in section a of the questionnaire, which includes the respondents’ city or town of work, gender, generational cohorts, ethnicity, years of experience, highest educational qualification and field of employment. the next subsections go over each of these qualities. table 1 presents the classification of information related to the respondents’ city or town of work. the largest portion of the sample indicated that they work in gauteng 89.22% (n = 91), followed by those who revealed that they work in limpopo 5.88% (n = 6). moreover, the remainder of the respondents, 4.90% (n = 5), revealed that they work in the free state province. table 1: place of residence. table 2 presents the classification of information related to the respondents’ gender. the largest portion of the sample indicated that they were female at 60.78% (n = 62), followed by those who revealed that they were male at 39.22% (n = 40). table 2: gender. table 3 presented the classification of information related to the generational codes. the largest portion of the sample indicated that respondents were from generation z at 49.02% (n = 50), followed by millennials at 31.37% (n = 32), generation x at 16.67% (n = 17) and, lastly, baby boomers at 2.94% (n = 3). table 3: generational codes. table 4 presented the classification of information related to ethnicity. the largest portion of the sample indicated that respondents were black at 58.82% (n = 60), followed by mixed race at 26.47% (n = 27), white at 4.90% (n = 5), asian at 4.90% (n = 5) and lastly other at 4.90% (n = 5), referring to ethnic groups that were not mentioned in the survey. table 4: race. table 5 presents the classification of information related to the respondents’ years of experience. the largest portion of the sample indicated that they had worked for 3–5 years at 59.80% (n = 61), followed by those who had worked for 6–8 years at 12.75% (n = 13), followed by those who had worked for 16–18 years at 6.86% (n = 7), followed by those who had worked for more than 26 years at 6.86% (n = 7), followed by those who had worked for 22–25 years at 4.90% (n = 5), followed by those who had worked for 9–15 years at 3.92% (n = 4), followed by those who had worked for 19–21 years at 3.92% (n = 4). moreover, the remainder of the respondents (0.98%, n = 1) revealed that they had 9–11 years of working experience. table 5: years of experience. table 6 presents the classification of information related to the respondents’ highest level of educational qualification. the largest portion of the sample indicated that there were those who had matric or grade 12 at 35.29% (n = 36), followed by those who possessed a 3-year degree at 30.39 (n = 31), followed by those who possessed a 4-year degree at 23.53% (n = 24), followed by those who had a diploma at 4.90% (n = 5), followed by those who had a master’s degree at 4.90% (n = 5). the remainder of the respondents at 0.98% (n = 1) possessed a doctoral degree. table 6: highest level of education or qualification. table 7 presented the classification of information related to the respondents’ field of work. the largest portion of the sample indicated that they worked in banking or finance (30.39%, n = 31); followed by others (24.51%, n = 25) who were revealed to be working in various fields, followed by those who worked in marketing or communications (22.55%, n = 23), followed by those who worked in it (12.75%, n = 13). the remainder of the respondents, 9.80% (n = 10), worked in education. table 7: field of work. the analysis proceeded to determine the level of respondents’ agreement or disagreement for each construct. table 8, table 9, table 10, table 11 and table 12 report on the basic descriptive statistics comprising the means and standard deviations (sds) of the predetermined constructs. mean values were computed as the measures of central tendency for this study. all the tables presented below reveal that the mean value for all the items ranges between 3 and 4, indicating that most of the respondents had either a neutral standpoint (‘3’ on the likert scale) or they agreed (‘4’ on the likert scale) with the statements provided. standard deviation values were computed to measure the variance of responses on each variable. as posited by hair et al. (2003), the relationship between the mean and the sd is that a small estimated sd denotes that respondents’ responses were consistent and that the response distributions lay close to the mean. conversely, a large sd indicates that the responses are varying, making the response distribution values fall away from the mean of the distribution (drost, 2011). moreover, the sd value ‘should be less than 1 but it is recommended to at least include a value of less than 2 to ensure that there is no issue of outliers’ (drost, 2011, p. 87). table 8: descriptive statistical analysis (section b – working alone). table 9: descriptive statistical analysis (section b – keeping work and home life separate). table 10: descriptive statistical analysis (section b – self-motivation and productivity). table 11: descriptive statistical analysis (section b – work-related travel). table 12: descriptive statistical analysis (section c – performance management). working alone, which constituted part 1 of section b from the questionnaire, had the highest mean score of 3.73 (item wa2), and the lowest mean score was 2.52 (item wa5), giving a range of 1.21. precisely, the lowest mean score of 2.52 (item wa5) indicated that respondents struggled to create or keep up a social life outside of work, while results from section b of the questionnaire highlighted the fact that the highest mean score was 3.73 (item wa2). most of the respondents admitted that they could work in isolation without a manager or with the supervisor’s support. table 8 reveals that the wa scale had the highest sd value reported at 1.158 (item wa6) and the lowest sd value was 1.088 (item wa4). this information indicates that the data points are clustered around the mean. the sd values are below 2, hence an indication that there is no presence of outliers. descriptive statistics for the second part of section b, kwahls in this study, are given in table 9. as illustrated in the table, the highest mean score was 3.32 (item kwahls1), while the lowest mean score was 2.92 (item kwahls5), as considering the range value, this resulted in a total range of 0.4. specifically, the lowest mean score (item kwahls5) from the statistics table indicated that some respondents are unable to separate normal work from overtime while wfh, as asked from the questionnaire. while the highest mean score (item kwahls1) reveals that most respondents could keep work and home apart during their working hours, table 9 demonstrates that the kwahls scale had the highest sd value reported at 1.325 (kwahls5), and the lowest sd value was 1.136 (kwahls1). this suggests that the data points were reasonably in support of the mean with no presence of outliers. self-motivation and productivity from the statistics table, which constituted part 3 of section b from the questionnaire, indicated the lowest mean score of 2.42 (item smap4), while the highest mean score was 3.67 (item smap6), resulting in a range of 1.25. precisely, the lowest mean score of 2.42 (item smap4) indicated that few respondents struggle to outperform their task when wfh than when working from the office, while results from part 3 of section b in the questionnaire highlighted the fact that the highest mean score of 3.67 (item smap6) is in support of the respondents positing that they are still able to pull weight in a team when wfh as when working from the physical office. in addition, table 10 reveals that the smap scale had the highest sd value reported at 1.239 (item smap5) and the lowest sd value was 0.907 (item smap1), which implies that the data points are clustered around the mean and there is no presence of outliers again. basically, this means that individuals find it easy to motivate themselves to enhance work productivity. the closing part of section b from the questionnaire is represented by wrt scale, and it contained the highest mean score of 3.93 (item wrt3), and the lowest mean score was 3.51 (item wrt4), giving 0.42 in total range. consequently, the lowest mean from the table, item wrt4 (3.51), indicated that despite respondents not having to travel to and from work, some are still struggling to have a reasonable start and finish work time, whereas the highest mean, item wrt3 (3.93), revealed that most respondents viewed this shift as beneficial in some cases, because they believe it has made a significant difference in household expenditure because of less travelling. moreover, table 11 also illustrated the different sd wrt scale in values which included the highest sd value reported, at 1.217 (item wrt4), with the lowest sd value of 1.074 (item wrt3). as per the results, the information indicated that the data points or the sd average distance to the mean is quite close, as they are all below 2. lastly, the descriptive statistics for section c of the questionnaire pm in this study are given in table 12. the highest mean score was 8.85, with the lowest sd value of 1.550 (item pm4), while on the other side the lowest mean score from the statistically analysed data was 7.13 (item pm9), with the highest sd score of 2.609 (item pm5). considering the range value from the analysed data, it is there to produce 1.72 in total range. in addition, the lowest mean score of 7.13 (item pm9) from the statistics table indicated that some respondents did not believe that their organisation’s current hr policies are aligned with employees wfh, while the highest mean score of 8.85 (item pm4) revealed that some respondents know exactly what is expected from them even while wfh. in terms of the minimum sd value, it is known to be below 2, and according to the information provided from the table, this revealed that the data points were somehow a bit distant from the mean. reliability reliability refers to how consistent a research measure is; for instance, a respondent completing a survey on employee motivation should complete it similarly on each attempt (heale & twycross, 2015). reliability was measured by the cronbach’s alpha, where the values are expected to reach 0.6 to confirm reliability (pallant, 2016). the results presented in table 13 show these reliability scores. table 13: cronbach’s alpha. the statistics demonstrating the perceived influence of remote work on the hr outcomes in table 13 can be considered to be reliable because the reliability scores of all the constructs – except for one which had a score of 0.6 – are above 0.7, and they are generally closely related as a group, which shows consistency. while a score of 0.6 is average in terms of reliability compared to a score of 0.7, which is more widely acceptable as a good score, ursachi et al. (2015) imply that 0.6 is still sufficient to denote acceptable reliability. correlation analysis in accordance with the study objectives outlined towards the beginning of the study and in the discussion section, it was imperative to examine the relationships between the constructs under investigation, namely employee productivity (which included factors such as wa, kwahls, smap and wrt) and pm. therefore, it was necessary to employ correlation analysis among the mentioned constructs to determine the strength of the underlying relationship. the pearson correlation coefficient (r) was used to measure the degree of linear association between the variables, as proposed by malhotra (2010, p. 562). the composite correlation was undertaken and presented in table 14. table 14: correlations matrix between constructs. as table 14 shows, there are positive correlations (+1.00) between the five variables. since the significance level of correlation is supposed to be smaller than 0.5 to be statistically significant, a significant and medium correlation was revealed with the wa and kwahls association (r = 0.469; p < 0.01). discussion outline of the results the purpose of this research was to investigate the impact of remote working on employee productivity and pm. the subsequent subsections entail a discussion of the research results, as per the research objectives. specific objective 1: to investigate the differences between traditional working and remote working during the covid-19 pandemic different literature have indicated that the transition from traditional work to remote work is hard for most employees (gigauri, 2020b; hjálmsdóttir& bjarnadóttir, 2020). employees prefer to work in traditional offices because they can interact with their colleagues and make friends. it is also easier for employees to ask for assistance in a face-to-face setting (purwanto et al., 2020). higher mean scores in relation to the wa construct examined in this study indicated most respondents can work in isolation without manager or supervisor support. most respondents indicated that they still must pull their weight in a team when wfh the same way as working from the physical office. the result’s highest mean scores in relation to the wrt construct examined in this study revealed that most respondents viewed a shift from traditional work to be beneficial in some cases because it has made a significant difference in household expenditure because they are travelling less. this is similarly revealed in the study by singer-velush et al. (2020) who found that working remotely not only saves employees time but also saves them the cost associated with travelling to an employer’s work premises. specific objective 2: to investigate the perceived influence of working from home during the covid-19 pandemic on employee productivity the literature revealed that most employees do not prefer to work remotely because they become unproductive, they have separation anxiety from being far from their colleagues and cannot separate work and personal lives because of difficulty organising work (hjálmsdóttir & bjarnadóttir, 2020). in relation to the kwahls construct examined in this study, respondents indicated they were able to keep their work and home lives apart during their working hours. on the other hand, the results from this study also revealed that respondents struggled to create and/or keep a social life outside of work. some respondents could not separate normal work from overtime work while wfh. this aligned with the results found by singh et al. (2017). although respondents did not have to travel to and from the office, which saves money, some indicated that they struggled to have a reasonable start and finish work time, which they believed would adversely affect their productivity in the long term. in relation to the smap construct examined in this study, the highest mean scores showed that respondents were still able to motivate themselves while working remotely, thus maintaining their usual productivity. this result was supported by pechan (2021), who suggested that many employers who initially, at the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, worried about whether their employees would still maintain their productivity while working remotely soon realised that this was in fact not something to worry much about. the low mean scores in relation to the smap construct proceeded to show that some respondents struggled to outperform their tasks when wfh than when working from the office. specific objective 3: to investigate the perceived influence of working from home during the covid-19 pandemic on performance management existing literature emphasises the crucial role that pm plays in ensuring the achievement of an organisation’s objectives by employees (jalagat & jalagat, 2019). the literature also indicates that it is hard for most hr professionals in organisations to measure employee performance remotely as compared to working traditionally (van der lippe & lippényi, 2020). employees also worry as to whether they are evaluated fairly, as there is no physical contact where their work and efforts can be shown, which then leads to employees not being able to manage their performance as well (purwanto et al., 2020; singh et al., 2017). in relation to the pm construct examined in this study, the results suggested that the respondents knew exactly what was expected of them even when wfh, implying their ability to maintain the same or similar performance when working remotely as when working from their employer’s premises. the results further revealed, however, that some respondents did not believe that their organisation’s current hr policies were aligned with employees wfh, thus posing pm challenges, as corroborated by van der lippe and lippényi (2020). practical implications like the study by wang et al. (2021), the results of this study implied that organisations are yet to properly align their policies with remote working employees and to also find more effective ways to determine the productivity of remote working employees during and beyond the covid-19 pandemic. the indication that some respondents were not sure what was expected of them while wfh implies that the pm process is compromised, which presents challenges for its custodians, as similarly implied by serapicos et al. (2020). literature stated that remote work due to covid-19 has affected the way employers and hr departments evaluate performance (van der lippe & lippényi, 2020). while the literature largely suggests that many employees prefer traditional work over remote work (singh et al., 2017; singer-velush et al., 2020; van der lippe & lippényi, 2020), the results from this study show that respondents preferred to work remotely because they deem it convenient and less costly, as similarly found in nield (2016). limitations and recommendations a limitation to the study was that respondents may have had limited internet access, which resulted in getting fewer respondents (102 instead of the target sample of 150) to complete the survey online. there were also time constraints associated with the predetermined completion period of the research, which was in partial fulfilment of a postgraduate qualification, which prevented further data collection; thus, the smaller sample limited the ability to make broader comparisons. it is recommended that hr professionals need to come up with different policies that are aligned with remote work and find ways to reconstruct or restructure their organisations’ business operations to provide and allocate employees with jobs (same or new) that have additional or entirely changed roles and responsibilities, as remote work has to do with online environment. future research, on the other hand, should be conducted on hr practitioners which will focus on the challenges associated with aligning remote work with company’s policies and how measurements are aligned with employee performance contracts. a mixed-methods research approach may be beneficial in future to establish the contrasting perceptions between employers and employees. a larger future sample size is also recommended. conclusion the focus of the research was on unravelling the impact of remote work on the productivity and performance of employees in opposition to traditional work, the advantages and disadvantages of remote work for employees, the setbacks and benefits for organisations and the impact it has on hr functions. the research philosophical strategy covered how the research was conducted, which was via a questionnaire survey, and the various research questions that were asked, which had to be aligned with the responses provided by respondents and have some sort of connection to the aims and objectives of the research. the ethical part of the research has also been addressed, which included confidentiality and anonymity, accuracy of information, voluntarily participation and informed consent. another essential segment of the research was the descriptive statistics data analysis, where the level of respondents’ agreement or disagreement for each construct on the basic descriptive statistics comprising the means and sds computed was highlighted as the measures of central tendency for the mean and measures of the variance of responses on each variable for sds. in the global economy, technology introductions have a significant impact on the change management system and the operations of a business. while remote working had only minimally been practiced before the covid-19 pandemic, which undeniably exacerbated its embrace, there are indications that it will continue to prevail in some way or form even after the pandemic. it is also clear that no matter how much people may resist remote work, it indeed has an important place in today’s rapidly technologically advancing workplace and world and thus, organisations must be well geared up to implement various remote employee processes such as remote hrm. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions this article was adapted from the honours research of s.s.r., k.a.m. and k.m., who executed and wrote-up the study, while m.d.s. was the study leader and provided supervision, conceptualisation guidelines, methodology refinement, data analysis and interpretation, editorial input and the write-up of the research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the original dataset from which the results of this article were analysed and delineated is available on the researchers’ electronic database. disclaimer the views expressed in the submitted article are the researchers’ own and not an official position of the researchers’ affiliated institution. references aguinis, h. (2015). performance management. university press. akkermans, j., richardson, j., & kraimer, m. (2020). the covid-19 crisis as a career shock: implications for careers and vocational behavior. journal of vocational behavior, 119, 1–3. anastasios, d., & prodromos, c. (2018). factors affecting employee performance: an empirical approach. international journal of productivity ad performance management, 63(1), 11–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2020.103434 baiman, s. (1990). agency research in managerial accounting: a second look. accounting, organizations and society, 15(4), 341–371. https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(90)90023-n belzunegui-eraso, a., & erro-garcés, a. (2020). teleworking in the context of the covid-19 crisis. sustainability, 12(9), 3662. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12093662 benjamin, l. (2020). achieving the dream through a screen: exploring employee engagement and commitment in virtual environments. dissertation. university of pennsylvania. brough, p., timms, c., chan, x.w., hawkes, a., & rasmussen, l. (2020). work–life balance: definitions, causes, and consequences. in t. theorell (eds.), handbook of socioeconomic determinants of occupational health: from macro-level to micro-level evidence (pp. 473–487). springer. caramela, s. (2017). communication technology and inclusion will shape the future of remote work. business news daily. retrieved from https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/8156-future-of-remote-work.html deloitte. (2020). remote work the new norm. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/gh/documents/human-capital/gh-remote-work-the-new-normal.pdf diamantidis, a.d., & chatzoglou, p. (2018). factors affecting employee performance: an empirical approach. international journal of productivity and performance management, 68(1), 171–173. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-01-2018-0012 drost, e.a. (2011). validity and reliability in social science research. education research and perspectives, 38(1), 86–105. eisenhardt, k.m. (1989). agency theory: an assessment and review. the academy of management review, 14(1), 57–74. https://doi.org/10.2307/258191 gigauri, i. (2020a). effects of covid-19 on human resource management from the perspective of digitalization and work-life-balance. international journal of innovative technologies in economy, 4(31), 15–24. https://doi.org/10.31435/rsglobal_ijite/30092020/7148 gigauri, i. (2020b). remote working concerns during the covid-19 pandemic. international journal of social science and economic research, 05(10), 2803–2818. https://doi.org/10.46609/ijsser.2020.v05i10.005 gopinath, g. (2020). the great lockdown: worst economic downturn since the great depression. international monetary fund blog. retrieved from https://blogs.imf.org/2020/04/14/the-great-lockdown-worst-economic-downturn-since-the-great-depression/ greer, t.w., & payne, s.c. (2014). overcoming telework challenges: outcomes of successful telework strategies. the psychologist-manager journal, 17(2), 87. https://doi.org/10.1037/mgr0000014 hair, j.f., bush, r.p., & ortinau, d.j. (2003). marketing research: within a changing information environment (2nd ed.). mcgraw-hill. heale, r., & twycross, a. (2015). validity and reliability in quantitative studies. evidence-based nursing, 18, 66–67. https://doi.org/10.1136/eb-2015-102129 hill, e.j., ferris, m., & martinson, v. (2003). does it matter where you work? a comparison of how three work venues (traditional office, virtual office, and home office) influence aspects of work and personal/family life. journal of vocational behaviour, 63(2), 220–241. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0001-8791(03)00042-3 hjálmsdóttir, a., & bjarnadóttir, v.s. (2020). ‘i have turned into a foreman here at home’: families and work–life balance in times of covid-19 in a gender equality paradise. gender, work & organization, 28(1), 268–283. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12552 jalagat, r.c., & jalagat, a.m. (2019). rationalizing remote working concept and its implication on employee productivity. global journal of advanced research, 6(3), 95–100. jensen, m.c., & meckling, w.h. (1976). theory of the firm: managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure. journal of financial economics, 3(4), 305–360. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-405x(76)90026-x kivistö, j., & zalyevska, i. (2015). agency theory as a framework for higher education governance. in j. huisman, h. de boer, d.d. dill, & m. souto-otero (eds.), the palgrave international handbook of higher education policy and governance (pp. 132–151). palgrave macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-45617-5_8 lal, b., dwivedi, y.k., & haag, m. (2021). working from home during covid-19: doing and managing technology-enabled social interaction with colleagues at a distance. information systems frontiers, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-021-10182-0 lopaz, m.r. (2020). telework decision strategy: a systematic review. university of maryland global campus. lupu, v.l. (2017). teleworking and its benefits on work-life balance. the 4th international multidisciplinary scientific conference on social sciences and arts sgem 2017 (pp. 693–700). the proceedings of the 4th international multidisciplinary scientific conference on social sciences & arts sgem. malhotra, n.k. (2010). marketing research: an applied orientation (6th ed.). pearson. narayandas, d., hebbar, v., & liangliang, l. (2020). lessons from chinese companies’ response to covid-19. harvard business review. retrieved from https://hbr.org/2020/06/lessons-from-chinese-companies-response-to-covid-19 nield, d. (2016). people who work remotely are happier and more productive, study finds. retrieved from http://www.sciencealert.com/working-remotely-makes-you-happier-and-more-productive ngobeni, d.a., saurombe, m.d., & joseph, r.m. (2022). the influence of the psychological contract on employee engagement in a south african bank. frontiers in psychology-organisational psychology, 13, 958127. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.958127 nkuraru, j.k., & wanza, l. (2016). influence of change management on employee performance: a case of university of eldoret, kenya. international journal of business and social science, 7(4), 190–199. pallant, j. (2016). ebook: spss survival manual. mcgraw-hill education. parry, e., & battista, v. (2019). the impact of emerging technologies on work: a review of the evidence and implications for the human resource function. emerald open research, 1(5), 5. https://doi.org/10.12688/emeraldopenres.12907.1 payne, g.t., & petrenko, o.v. (2019). agency theory in business and management research. oxford research encyclopedia of business and management. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190224851.013.5 pechan, c. (2021). measuring performance in a hybrid workplace. betterworks. retrieved from https://www.betterworks.com/magazine/measuring-performance-in-a-hybrid-workplace/ purwanto, a., asbari, m., fahlevi, m., mufid, a., agistiawati, e., cahyono, y., & suryani, p. (2020). impact of work from home (wfh) on indonesian teachers performance during the covid-19 pandemic: an exploratory study. international journal of advanced science and technology, 29(5), 6235–6244. saurombe, m.d., & barkhuizen, e.n. (2020). a talent value proposition for academic staff in a south african hei. journal of global business and technology, 16(2), 85–102. saurombe, m.d., & barkhuizen, e.n. (2022). talent management practices and work-related outcomes for south african academic staff. journal of psychology in africa, 32(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2021.2002033 serapicos, a.j.c., leite, j.m., & fernandes, p.o. (2020). agency theory approach of the relationship between performance, compensation and value creation in the companies listed on euronext lisbon. contaduría y administración, 64(3), 116. https://doi.org/10.22201/fca.24488410e.2018.1693 singer-velush, n., sherman, k., & anderson, e. (2020). microsoft analyzed data on its newly remote workforce. retrieved from https://workplaceinsights.microsoft.com/workplace-analytics/microsoft-analyzed-data-on-its-newly-remote-workforce/ singh, r., kumar, m.a., & samuel, t.v. (2017). impact of working remotely on productivity and professionalism. journal of business and management, 19(5), 17–19. https://doi.org/10.9790/487x-1905021719 stat international writing staff. (2020). the benefits of traditional offices and virtual offices. stat international. retrieved from https://stat.international/the-benefits-of-traditional-offices-and-virtual-offices/ thorstensson, e. (2020). the influence of working from home on employees’ productivity: comparative document analysis between the years 2000 and 2019–2020. dissertation. karlstad business school, sweden. tosi, h., werner, s., katz, j.p., & gomez-mejia, l.r. (2000). how much does performance matter? a meta-analysis of ceo pay studies. journal of management, 26(2), 301–339. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630002600207 ursachi, g., horodnic, i.a., & zait, a. (2015). how reliable are measurement scales? external factors with indirect influence on reliability estimators. procedia economics and finance, 20, 679–686. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00123-9 van der lippe, t., & lippényi, z. (2020). co-workers working from home and individual and team performance. new technology, work and employment, 35(1), 60–79. https://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12153 virtanen, m. (2020). the impact of remote working on employees’ work motivation & ability to work. metropolia university of applied sciences. wang, b., liu, y., qian, j., & parker, s.k. (2021). achieving effective remote working during the covid-19 pandemic: a work design perspective. applied psychology, 70(1), 16–59. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12290 white, d. (2018). agency theory and work from home. labour, 33(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/labr.12135 zenger, t., & gubler, t. (2018). agency problems. in m. augier & d.j. teece (eds.), the palgrave encyclopedia of strategic management (pp. 25–27). palgrave macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-00772-8_531 abstract introduction objectives of the study literature review theoretical framework research methodology results discussion limitations of the research recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) munodani chapano department of human resources management, faculty of business and economic sciences, nelson mandela university, gqeberha, south africa michelle r. mey department of human resources management, faculty of business and economic sciences, nelson mandela university, gqeberha, south africa amanda werner department of human resources management, faculty of business and economic sciences, nelson mandela university, gqeberha, south africa citation chapano, m., mey, m.r., & werner, a. (2023). perceived challenges: unfounded reasons for not forging ahead with digital human resource management practices. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2085. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2085 original research perceived challenges: unfounded reasons for not forging ahead with digital human resource management practices munodani chapano, michelle r. mey, amanda werner received: 22 aug. 2022; accepted: 08 nov. 2022; published: 20 jan. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: understanding the challenges that influence the adoption of digital human resource management (hrm) practices across the human resource (hr) value chain enables hrm departments and organisations to optimise hrm digitalisation. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to identify challenges that influence the adoption of digital hrm practices across the hr value chain in the south african workplace. motivation for the study: challenges hindering the adoption of digital hrm practices needed to be identified and proactively addressed to accelerate the process of hrm digitalisation. research approach/design and method: a cross-sectional quantitative research design was adopted, with an on-line questionnaire as data collection tool. a purposive and snowball sampling method was used. data were collected from 312 hrm professionals and line managers in the automotive industry in the eastern cape province of south africa. the data were processed using statistical package for social sciences (spss), version 27, and analysed using exploratory factor analysis (efa), descriptive analysis, pearson product moment correlations and regression analysis. main findings: the study revealed people, organisational, technological and environmental aspects that posed challenges to the adoption of digital hrm practices. however, these challenges did not become deterrents in the adoption of digital hrm practices in the automotive manufacturing organisations surveyed. practical/managerial implications: organisations need to forge ahead with the digitalisation of hrm practices. the challenges experienced in the process should be addressed proactively. contribution/value-add: this study emphasises the challenges that should be monitored and addressed throughout the implementation of digital hrm practices in south africa. keywords: digitalisation challenges; hrm digitalisation; digital hrm technologies; hr value chain; digital hrm practices; south africa. introduction an avalanche of digital technologies in the market engendered by the fourth industrial revolution (4ir) can and should be exploited in various business functions (kraus et al., 2022). the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic induced lockdown demonstrated the importance of digital technologies in the workplace in ensuring continuity in work processes and optimal service delivery to customers (komm et al., 2021). business leaders, human resource management (hrm) practitioners and employees were forced to work from home and had to meet and interact via various digital platforms. as a result of shifts in working operations and arrangements, technology vendors are inundating the market to meet the demand for technology (bersin, 2021). prior to covid-19 pandemic, the adoption of digital hrm technology within organisations was increasing at a linear rate (friedman, 2016) but had been projected to increase substantially (komm et al., 2021). digital hrm practices, such as digital recruitment and selection, digital training and development and digital remuneration management, are observed as being mostly adopted within organisations compared with other digital hrm practices such as digital dispute resolution management and the digital management of change (burbach, 2019; parry & battista, 2019). this indicates that there are challenges that deter organisations from digitalising hrm practices across the human resource (hr) value chain. seeing that south africa was the first country in the world to adopt national hr standards, which outline seven broad hrm practice areas across the hr value chain (sabpp, 2014), the country should also be a leader in the adoption of digital hrm practices. the seven functional hrm practice areas identified comprise workforce planning, performance management, learning and development, reward and recognition, employee wellness management, employment relations management and organisational development (sabpp, 2018). thus, in south africa, hrm practitioners and leaders should plan and implement digitalisation in the seven hrm practice areas in a holistic manner to contribute to the attainment of an organisational strategy (sabpp, 2014). in support of the seven hrm value chain elements, 30 hrm professional practice standards were formulated. these include, among others, succession planning, culture management, coaching and mentoring and recruitment and selection (sabpp, 2014). these are therefore aspects of the hr value chain that could be digitalised. in addition, authors such as jammulamadaka (2020), thite (2020), imperatori et al. (2019) and kiron and spindel (2019) propose that to meet the demands of the 4ir, digital hrm practices should be adopted to make the workforce technologically savvy and to enhance human–machine interaction (thite, 2020). however, there is a lack of empirical studies on the challenges that may impede the adoption of digital hrm practices in the south african workplace (sabpp, 2019). most studies (although limited) in this domain had been conducted in european countries and developed nations, such as the united states of america, china, russia and germany (bengtsson & bloom, 2017; bondarouk et al., 2016; zavyalova et al., 2022). identifying and effectively managing challenges that influence the adoption of digital hrm practices are imperative to enhance hrm digitalisation across the entire hr value chain and ensure return on investment in hrm technology. also, understanding the challenges and being able to preempt them strengthens the position of hrm in planning for and arranging resource requirements for hrm digitalisation (ulrich, 2018). objectives of the study the objective of this study was to explore challenges that influence the adoption of digital hrm practices across the hr value chain in the south african workplace. literature review the literature review explores challenges affecting the adoption of digital hrm practices. on the one hand, digital hrm technologies refer to technologies such as social, mobile, analytics, cloud (smac), robotic process automation, blockchain, gamification, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and machine learning adopted in digital hrm practices (thite, 2019). on the other hand, digital hrm practices refer to hrm functions such as digital recruitment and digital selection that are adopted by applying digital hrm technologies (barman & das, 2019; zavyalova et al., 2022). in addition, digital hrm refers the use of digital hrm technologies in the overall management of talent or hr within an organisation (barman & das, 2019; strohmeier, 2020; thite, 2019; zavyalova et al., 2022). as the focus of this research is on challenges affecting the adoption of digital hrm practices, the term adoption is used interchangeably with the term implementation, whereas the term hrm digitalisation is used interchangeably with the terms digital hrm or digital hrm practices. the terms adoption and implementation refer to ‘the use’, meaning the use of digital hrm or digital hrm practices to enhance hr services delivery (strohmeier, 2020; thite, 2019). theoretical framework the theoretical framework that depicts challenges influencing the adoption of digital hrm practices is illustrated in figure 1. while there are many frameworks used to explain and understand issues related to technology adoption, the conceptual model developed by tornatzky et al. (1990) is incorporated in this study. early research into the challenges affecting the adoption of digital hrm practices revealed three categorical factors, namely people, technology and the organisation (bondarouk et al., 2017). as further research was carried out, the environment was added as an additional categorical factor (azhar, 2019; burbach, 2019). as the theoretical framework presented by tornatzky et al. (1990) refers only to technology, organisation and environment (toe), the framework has been adjusted in this study to include people factors as well, as indicated in figure 1. figure 1: challenges in adopting digital human resource management practices. investigation of people factors is crucial to fully comprehend the challenges influencing the adoption of digital hrm practices across the hr value chain (alam et al., 2016). to this end, considering the fast-evolving world of work and technological explosion as both an antecedent and product of the 4ir, new factors and more issues related to the four factors are likely to emerge. the following sections discuss the four categorical factors of the theoretical framework. people factors more emphasis is placed on people issues when adopting digital hrm practices across the hr value chain (bondarouk et al., 2017). this is because of every aspect of the business operation involving human beings and people being the end users of hrm service delivery. hence, if people issues are ignored, the success rate and intended purpose of adopting digital hrm practices within organisations could be derailed. in this respect, thite and bhatta (2019) observe that the failure rate of digital technology projects is often caused by paying more attention to technology than to people and process issues. this failure correlates with a lack of executive support, emotional maturity, user involvement and the availability of skilled staff as four of the top five factors affecting the adoption of technology (hastie & wojewoda, 2015). these factors are all people factors, placing technology as a secondary issue. in managing the human aspect in the adoption of digital hrm, pertinent factors that require attention include user reaction, involvement, satisfaction and acceptance, communication or collaboration with stakeholders, buy-in from top management and hrm skills and leadership (burbach, 2019). this suggest that hrm practitioners must consider the needs of employees and line managers when planning, designing and adopting digital hrm technology solutions across the hr value chain. the approach of designing processes and practices with the user experience in mind is called ‘design thinking’ (thite & bhatta, 2019). top management support is viewed as the most influential factor. top management provides finance, support and emotional backing for the adoption of digital hrm (bondarouk et al., 2017; muhammad, 2018). top management should not regard the adoption of digital hrm as a less important and costly investment (bondarouk et al., 2017). it is therefore important that hrm practitioners gain the support and commitment of top management and provide regular feedback to them. in addition, hrm practitioners should build a strong business case for their digital hrm agenda to gain support and funding from top management, by illustrating the link between the digital hrm agenda and the overall business digital agenda (ulrich, 2019). ulrich (2019, p. xvi) underlines that ‘hr is not about hr, but about delivering value to employees, organisations, customers, investors and communities’. therefore, hrm practitioners should get clarity on their current digital hrm position in relation to where they want to be (audit and vision) and craft strategies to get there (thite, 2019). users of digital hrm such as hrm practitioners, line managers and employees expect hrm solutions and service delivery that are easy to use, efficient and that add value (burbach, 2019). conversely, digital hrm solutions that do not empower end users will have a low adoption rate. it is expected that hrm practitioners themselves may not have all the skills required and therefore have to collaborate with essential other people, such as experts from information and technology (it), in articulating the digital hrm agenda (bondarouk et al., 2017). line managers and general employees must be trained in the use of digital hrm practices (hosain, 2019) to increase their motivation and a positive attitude towards the adoption of digital hrm. it is a concern that hrm practitioners may not have the required expertise to articulate a digital hrm strategy (dhanpat et al., 2020). crummenerl et al. (2018) emphasise that, in the context of 4ir, hrm practitioners need digital skills to be agile enablers, innovation architects, data analysts and act as digital consultants in the adoption of digital hrm practices. to act as strategic partners in the new world of work, entry-level hrm practitioners also need to be competent in digital hrm processes, data processing and identifying trends (joseph et al., 2021). however, it is a concern that hrm practitioners are believed to be mostly experts in the entry, editing and retrieval of data, tasks that demand less analytical and technical skills (hannon et al., 2020). the upskilling or reskilling of these practitioners is essential for the successful adoption of digital hrm. data integrity is also indicated as challenge in digital hrm, with subramaniyan et al. (2019) observing that transformation in technology in the new world of work has compounded issues related to the loss and leakage of data because of the vague ownership of data. as such, hrm practitioners, managers and employees are rendered vulnerable. in south africa, laws such as the protection of personal information (act 4 of 2013) (popia) requires organisations to develop effective organisational policies, guidelines and practices, to ensure information security and privacy. organisational factors organisational factors such as size, capabilities, structure and culture could influence the rate at which digital technology is adopted. organisations with large amounts of capital that trade on large scale find the adoption of digital hrm easier than those without such capital as the digitalisation of hrm requires a large financial investment (hosain, 2019). as such, small businesses struggle to invest in digital hrm (muhammad, 2018). financial resources are required for technology, combat the risk of hackers and train hrm practitioners and employees (brahma, 2020; zavyalova et al., 2022). similarly, bureaucratic structures as opposed to centralised organisational structures discourage the adoption of digital hrm. thite (2019) stresses the importance of reducing red tape in the switch to technology and recommends the adoption of a centralised structure, which aids quick decision making and fosters agility. however, it should be noticed that centralised structures are inflexible and susceptible to discouraging creativity and innovation within organisations (büschgens et al., 2013). zavyalova et al. (2022) boldly state that a lack of digital orientation within the organisational culture is a main barrier to the adoption of digital hrm. this view is supported by kokt (2019) who states that, in the new world of work, openness and flexibility are a prerequisite for change. other challenges cited are an unclear vision and ambiguous goals and competition in the allocation of resources (burbach, 2019). in this regard, because of a lack of knowledge of digital hrm technologies, inadequate research and a lack of digital skills, hrm practitioners may adopt too ambitious digital hrm agendas that are likely to fail (ghosh & tripathi, 2018). ghosh and tripathi (2018) suggest a step-by-step approach to the implementation of digital hrm to meet the resource capacity of the organisation and reduce the risk of failure. technological factors larger organisations are more likely to deploy state-of-the-art technologies (thite, 2019). technological factors to consider include it infrastructure, technological compatibility, technology complexity and the relative advantage of technology (alam et al., 2016; muhammad, 2018). alam et al. (2016) argue that it infrastructure is most significant in the adoption of digital hrm and refers to the availability of computers, software, hardware, data, networks, computing resources, applications and devices. this view is supported by al-mobaideen et al. (2013) who found a positive correlation between rich technological infrastructure and the successful adoption of digital hrm. in addition, complex technology, which is difficult to understand and implement, is likely to face resistance from hrm practitioners and other users (al-mobaideen et al., 2013). this strengthens the assertion that the adoption of technology positively correlates with ease of use, benefit to the user and provision of support to the user (andersson et al., 2016). pillai and sivathanu (2020) underscore that digital hrm technology solutions should enable users (hrm practitioners, line managers, employees) to easily execute their tasks. for sufficient support in the implementation of digital hrm, in addition to having technological skills (joseph et al., 2021; schultz, 2021), the hrm team should collaborate with it professionals who deal with technology in their daily operational tasks (andersson et al., 2016). on the other hand, muhammad (2018) posits that digital hrm technology should be compatible with the culture, values, overall strategy, practices and the organisation’s other digital technology solutions. this challenges hrm practitioners to be both business partners and digital technology proponents to be successful in the implementation of digital hrm (andersson et al., 2016). environmental factors the degree of digital technology adoption varies across the world and continents and within countries. this is because of unevenness in the intensity and penetration of technology across the world (thite, 2019). as such, organisations operating in different countries may do so at different levels to accommodate different technology adoption policies and practices in the different countries (thite, 2019). other environmental factors that impact the adoption of technology include legislation, social cultures, different levels of competitive pressure and political freedom, extent of support offered by government and the support offered by hrm technology vendors to their clients (alam et al., 2016). in countries with restrictive laws for the adoption of technology and where the freedom of citizens is limited, organisations struggle to adopt digital hrm even if they are able to source global and digital talent (ahmadi et al., 2015; thite, 2020). this is despite the pressure exerted by the 4ir and subsequently the covid-19, which forced many organisations to adopt digital hrm (komm et al., 2021). in south africa, for example, labour laws and the popia should be adhered to at all times and considered in the implementation of digital hrm. particularly small organisations without internal it expertise and it infrastructure may have to use external consultants or vendors to digitalise their hrm functions (baykal, 2019). according to bersin (2021) successful vendors of digital hrm technology are those supplying quality technological solutions that improve both the productivity and overall experience of employees. as such, hrm practitioners also require digital competencies to negotiate viable digital hrm technology to deal with vendors (joseph et al., 2021; schultz, 2021). table 1 presents a summary of challenges that organisations typically face in the adoption of digital hrm, as gleaned from the literature review. table 1: summary of challenges in the successful adoption of digital human resource management. research methodology the research was conducted from a positivistic paradigm, which assumes that a current reality or a truth can be revealed through objectively collecting and analysing data from a representative sample of a population (hair et al., 2018). a cross-sectional survey design was adopted and data were collected by means of an on-line questionnaire of which the data were statistically processed and analysed. research population and sampling the population for this study comprised 160 automotive manufacturing companies in the eastern cape province of south africa (naacam or naamsa, 2018). the participants for this study, namely representatives of these organisations, included hrm professionals and line managers who were recruited via purposive and snowball sampling methods. a total of 425 questionnaires were distributed to the targeted respondents. research procedure and ethical considerations for this study, an online questionnaire administered on the platform questionpro was used to collect data. the questionnaire comprised three sections. the first section elicited demographic information and the second section measured challenges experienced in the adoption of digital hrm practices. this second section contained 22 items on a five-point likert rating scale with answer options ranging from not at all (1), small extent (2), moderate extent (3) great extent (4) to very great extent (5). examples of items in this section included ‘difficulties in customising to digital hrm’, ‘a lack of awareness or knowledge of hrm digitalisation’, ‘a lack of buy-in from senior or top management’, ‘data security concerns’ and ‘lack of conducting an audit for hrm technology suitability’, as also depicted in figure 2. as there was no existing validated questionnaire found, the items included in this section were derived from the literature review conducted on challenges that influenced the adoption of digital hrm. a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.97 confirmed reliability of this scale. figure 2: challenges in adopting digital human resource management practices. the third section measured the extent to which digital hrm practices were adopted in the organisations of the respondents. this section included 34 items. items for this section were based on the seven functional areas contained in the sabpp hrm system standards model, as well as 30 hr professional practice standards (sabpp, 2014), which are considered the architecture of hrm in south africa. examples of items included in this section were ‘digital recruitment’, ‘digital selection’, ‘digital management of grievance procedure’, ‘digital management of remuneration practices’ and ‘digital instilling of a culture of adaptability and flexibility’. these items were also measured on a five-point likert rating scale, ranging from not at all (1), small extent (2), moderate extent (3) great extent (4) to very great extent (5). this third section was included to ascertain, through regression analysis, the extent to which the identified challenges influenced the adoption of digital hrm practices. cronbach’s alpha coefficients for factors that emerged from this section ranged above 0.8, indicating reliability of the scale. ethical approval to conduct the study was obtained from the university from where the study was conducted. ethical considerations included being transparent about the purpose of the study, voluntary participation of the respondents and the right to withdraw at any given time. anonymity was ensured through using a web-administered survey instrument, which was accompanied by a cover letter and guidelines on how to complete the questionnaire. consent was indicated and withdrawal was enabled through an exit button. statistical analysis descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the collected data. utilising the statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 27, exploratory factor analysis (efa) was conducted to establish structures and latent factors underlying the item variables. the results of kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) and bartlett’s test of sphericity (bts) showed sampling adequacy and data suitability for efa (hair et al., 2018). the kmos for the sections ‘challenges’ and ‘digital hrm practices’ were 0.959 and 0.929, respectively, and sphericity on the bts was indicated at 0.000. the factor extraction method used was principal axis factoring (paf) (williams et al., 2012). descriptive statistics were used to describe and explain the factors, while pearson product-moment correlation and regression analysis were used to establish and explain relationships between the factors measured. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from nelson mandela university research ethics committee (h20-bes-hrm-016. 14 april 2020). results of a total of 425 questionnaires distributed, 328 were completed, and 312 were found usable. the response rate was 73.41%. the sample comprised mostly hrm professionals (63.77%) and line managers (34.94%). most respondents (52.56%) reported a degree, followed by respondents with a diploma (31.73%), masters (12.50%) or doctoral (0.64%) degree, and those without a tertiary qualification, reported a grade 12 certificate (2.56%) as highest qualification. these demographics confirmed that the respondents suitably represented the targeted group. challenges experienced in the adoption of digital human resource management practices the pattern matrix and related loadings produced one factor for the variables measuring challenges experienced in the adoption of digital hrm practices, and this factor was labelled ‘challenges’. these challenges were discussed in the literature review and are listed in figure 2, with the mean scores obtained for each item. for sample sizes of 300, a factor loading of 0.30 is considered significant (hair et al., 2018). in this study, all the items for ‘challenges’ were valid as they revealed loadings higher than the acceptable 0.3, with the highest loading being 0.883 and the lowest 0.584 (hair et al., 2018). figure 2 shows that the variable ‘competing organisational priorities’ accounted for the highest perceived obstacle in the adoption of digital hrm practices with a mean of 4.28, followed by ‘a lack of conducting an audit for digital hrm technology suitability’ (m = 4.20), ‘difficulties in customising to digital hrm’ (m = 4.17), ‘bureaucratic structure’ (m = 4.16), ‘a lack of awareness or knowledge of hrm digitalisation’ (m = 4.16), ‘data security concerns’ (m = 4.15), ‘unclear goals or vision for hrm digitalisation’ (m = 4.08), ‘resistance to change’ (m = 4.08), ‘lack of involving diverse people groups’ (m = 4.07), ‘hrm digitalisation seen as an issue for hrm management only’ (m = 4.07), ‘passive organisational culture’ (m = 4.04), ‘inadequate training in using digital hrm processes’ (m = 4.03) and ‘lack of buy-in from senior or top management’ (m = 4.01). overall, all the variables obtained mean scores of above 3.00, with the factor ‘restrictive labour laws’ accounting for the least perceived obstacle in the adoption of digital hrm (m = 3.38). this shows that the respondents perceived these identified challenges as obstacles in the adoption of digital hrm practices across the hr value chain within their organisations. adoption of digital human resource management practices concerning the efa, four factors were extracted from the variables measuring adoption of digital hrm practices. in examining the items that clustered together within each factor for ‘digital hrm practices’, the four factors were labelled as follows: factor 1 (digital talent management practices). factor 2 (digital organisational design and culture practices). factor 3 (digital employment relations management practices). factor 4 (digital media practices). all the items were valid as they loaded onto each factor, revealing loadings higher than 0.30, with the highest loading being 1.02 and the lowest 0.374 (hair et al., 2018). digital hrm practices clustered together on factor 1 (digital talent management practices) relate to the digital acquisition, onboarding, remuneration, development, management of performance, succession planning and retention of talented people within the organisation, as well as digital leadership development and predictive hr analytics. items that clustered together on factor 2 (digital organisational design and culture practices) relate to the digital management of organisational culture and design, including the use of hr dashboards and scorecards, development of programmes to coordinate human and machine interaction, use of chatbots to resolve employees’ hr-related queries, digital ethics and risk management and digitally enabling adaptability and flexibility. factor 3 (digital employment relations management practices) items relate to the digital management of the employment relationship, including digital management of employment relation processes, digital diversity management and digital management of grievance, disciplinary and collective bargaining processes, as well as the digital monitoring of employee wellness, and digital coaching and mentoring. factor 4 (digital media practices) items relate to everyday digital hrm practices, applications and platforms that keep employees connected, including the use of mobile applications to transact hr work, digital absenteeism management and the use of social media platforms such as whatsapp, facebook, twitter and linkedin, to advertise jobs and connect staff. descriptive statistics and cronbach’s alpha coefficients obtained for the factors digital hrm practices and challenges are depicted in table 2. table 2: descriptive statistics for the factors. the cronbach’s alpha coefficients obtained for challenges is 0.978 and for the digital hrm practices range from 0.807 to 0.944. these coefficients indicate that both the questionnaire and data collected are reliable and valid. challenges obtained the highest mean and standard deviation scores (m = 4.00; sd = 0.91), indicating that the respondents experienced to a ‘great extent’ the challenges as obstacles in the adoption of digital hrm practices, with consistency in the way they responded to the items loading onto this factor. digital media practices obtained the highest mean score (m = 3.69; sd = 0.88), followed by digital talent management practices (m = 3.52; sd = 0.74), digital organisational design and culture practices (m = 3.11; sd = 0.84) and lastly digital employment relations management practices (m = 2.88; sd = 0.87). these mean scores with accompanying standard deviations (sds) showed that the respondents to a ‘great extent’ experienced the adoption of digital media practices and digital talent management practices, while they experienced to a ‘moderate extent’ the adoption of digital organisational design and culture practices and digital employment relations management practices in their organisations. pearson product-moment correlation pearson product-moment correlation statistics are outlined in table 3 and indicate how the factor challenges relate to digital hrm practice factors as identified in the efa. interestingly, the results reveal weak correlations between challenges and all the digital hrm practice factors. notably, while all the correlations are weak, positive correlations are identified between challenges and digital talent management practices (0.01) and between challenges and digital media practices (0.115), with the latter being significant at a 0.05 level. this suggests that an increase, albeit a small one, in the adoption of digital talent management practices and digital media practices correlates with a small increase in challenges. on the other hand, negative and significant correlations (−0.166) were identified between challenges and digital organisational design and cultural practices and between challenges and digital employment relations practices (−0.167) (see table 3). this suggests that the adoption of these digital hrm practices were decreasing with every increase in challenges, with significance at a 0.01 level. table 3: correlation analysis: challenges and digital human resource management practices. regression analysis: effect of challenges on adoption of digital human resource management practices to provide further insight into the relationship and connectedness between challenges and digital hrm practice factors, regression statistics were computed. as summarised in table 4, challenges as a predictor explains 0.00% of the variance in adoption of digital talent management practices. the f-value (f = 0.034), p-value (p = 0.854), (t = 0.185), unstandardised coefficient (β = 0.008) and standardised coefficient (β = 0.01) indicate that the challenges insignificantly predict the variance in digital talent management practices. table 4: regression analysis: challenges and digital human resource management practices. as summarised in table 5, challenges as a predictor explained 2.7% of the variance in adoption of digital organisational design and culture practices. the f-value (f = 8.754), p-value (p = 0.003), (t = −2.959), unstandardised coefficient (β = −0.153) and standardised coefficient (β = −0.166) indicate that challenges significantly predict the variance in digital organisational design and culture practices. in addition, the negative nature of the unstandardised and standardised coefficients indicate that the challenges is an obstacle to the adoption of digital organisational design and culture practices in the organisations although with a small effect. table 5: regression analysis: challenges and digital human resource management practices. as summarised in table 6, challenges, as a predictor, explain 2.8% of the variance in adoption of digital employment relationship practices. the f-value (f = 8.853), p-value (p = 0.003), (t = −2.975), unstandardised coefficient (β = −0.158) and standardised coefficient (β = −0.167) indicate that the challenges significantly predict the variance in digital employment relationship practices. in addition, the negative nature of the unstandardised and standardised coefficients indicate that the challenges is an obstacle to the adoption of digital employment relationship practices in organisations although the effect is small. table 6: regression analysis: challenges and digital human resource management practices. as summarised in table 7, challenges, as a predictor, explain 1.3% of the variance in the adoption of digital media practices. the f-value (f = 4.119), p-value (p = 0.043), (t = 2.03), unstandardised coefficient (β = 0.11) and standardised coefficient (β = 0.115) indicate that challenges significantly predict the variance in digital media practices. however, the positive signs of the unstandardised and standardised coefficients indicate that the challenges are not an obstacle in the adoption of digital media practices in organisations. table 7: regression analysis: challenges and digital media practices. discussion outline of the results this study aimed at identifying challenges that influence the adoption of digital hrm practices across the hr value chain in the south african workplace. the following discussion focuses on the results for challenges, adoption of digital hrm practices and correlation and regression analyses. challenges experienced in the adoption of digital human resource management practices the results for challenges, as presented in figure 2, suggest a range of challenges were perceived as obstacles in the adoption of digital hrm practices. these included issues such as a lack of a vision and goals for hrm digitalisation, digitalisation being seen as an hrm issue, not involving diverse people groups, data security concerns, inadequate training, bureaucracy, lack of top management support, competing priorities, a passive organisational culture and resistance to change. challenges emerged as one factor in the efa, with an aggregate mean score of 4.00 and sd of 0.91 and being indicative of the ‘great extent’ answer option (table 2). the scale itself was found reliable with an alpha coefficient of 0.978 obtained option (table 2). adoption of digital human resource management practices the results for digital hrm practices leaned towards the answer option ‘great extent’ for adoption of digital talent management and digital media practices and ‘moderate extent’ for adoption of digital organisational design and culture and digital employment relations management practices. these factors emerged as the focus areas of hrm digitalisation across the hr value chain and could be seen as an emerging digital hrm value chain. the scales for these factors were found reliable, with alpha coefficients ranging from 0.807 to 0.944 (table 2). considering the results, it is observed that even though challenges were experienced in the adoption of digital hrm practices, digital hrm practices were still adopted to a moderate or great extent (figure 2 and table 2). it was the intention of this study to determine whether the challenges experienced effected the adoption of digital hrm practices. the outcome could be that the challenges experienced hindered the adoption of digital hrm practices or that the challenges experienced spurred the adoption of digital hrm practices, with hrm digitalisation possibly being seen as a panacea for dealing with the challenges experienced. it was also plausible that no relationship existed between the challenges and digital hrm practices. as such, correlation analysis was performed and after that regression analysis. correlation analysis interestingly, the correlation analysis (table 3) revealed weak correlations between challenges and all four digital hrm practice factors, with the correlation between challenges and digital media practices (0.115) found positive and significant. negative, weak but significant correlations were found between challenges and digital organisational design and culture practices (−0.166) and between challenges and digital employment relations practices (−0.167). the very weak correlation between challenges and digital talent management (0.01) was found significant. as such, the correlation analysis could not convincingly illustrate a relation between challenges and the adoption of digital hrm practices. regression analysis in addition, results from the regression analysis revealed that the challenges had no effect (r square 0.00) on the adoption of digital talent management practices and predicted only 2.7% of the variance in digital organisational design and culture practices, 2.8% of the variance in digital employment relations practice and 1.3% of the variance in digital media practices (see table 4 to table 7). these results confirmed that, even though challenges were experienced, these did not have a meaningful impact on the adoption of digital hrm practices, either in a positive or a negative manner. as such, the following can be argued: the digitalisation of hrm practices will continue to occur on a moderate, great or even a very great extent, irrespective of challenges that may be associated with this process. these results are somewhat surprising in the sense that the literature suggests that challenges in adopting digital hrm practices manifest when few stakeholders are involved in hrm digitalisation, when there is stiff competition in the allocation of resources within the organisation, when the hrm team does not have the appropriate expertise to use digital hrm and when there is a lack of top management buy-in, among others (azhar, 2019; bondarouk et al., 2017; burbach, 2019; masum, 2015). in addition, andersson et al. (2016) and burbach (2019) stated that the challenge of competing organisational priorities results in poor planning and a lack of clear goals and vision for the implementation of digital hrm. also, setting a clear digital hrm agenda and objectives should involve different stakeholders (bengtsson & bloom, 2017; ghosh & tripathi, 2018; mosca, 2020; thite & bhatta, 2019). an additional challenge to address is data security in the implementation of digital hrm as was stressed by hosain (2019) and subramaniyan et al. (2019), especially in terms of personal information, data loss and leakage. it is apparent in this study that although challenges were experienced in the organisations as reported by the participants (figure 2), these challenges were not deterrents in the adoption of digital hrm practices. however, although the effect is small, challenges significantly and negatively predicted the variance in digital organisational design and culture practices (2.7%) and digital employment relationship practices (2.8%) (table 5 and table 6). the small and negative effect on the adoption of these digital hrm practices cannot be ignored if organisations want to ingeniously leverage on these digital hrm practices, and the literature somewhat supports this. burbach (2019) and parry and battista (2019) indicated that it was difficult to digitalise employment relations and management-related practices, as hrm teams and leaders often resisted these practices because of a fear to losing face-to-face contact and making the environment less humane (burbach, 2019; parry & battista, 2019). in this regard, while the use of digital platforms gives employees the option of engaging with hrm and line managers via digital platforms, the demerit is that the boundaries between working life and personal life could be blurred, resulting in time and personal strain, which cause stress (parry & battista, 2019). even though fenech et al. (2019) advocate for investment in digital hrm in attainment of the strategic goals of the organisation, they actually found that in most organisations digital hrm was less often used to support strategic organisational design, culture and change efforts. moreover, bersin (2021) confirmed that digital hrm technology was mostly utilised for hrm administration and payroll. ulrich (2019) also stated that digital hrm technology was more often adopted to optimise administrative tasks and to modernise hrm practices, while less was performed to forge connections and promote the experience of employees. this suggested that challenges such as resistance to change, lack of knowledge, lack of digital competence and difficulties in customising to digital hrm could be obstacles in the adoption of these digital hrm practices. however, the results of this study showed that the digitalisation of hrm practices was not significantly hampered by the identified challenges, and therefore the results of this study are profound. having said that it is possible that the organisations surveyed experienced the challenges but then dealt with these challenges sufficiently to enable the digitalisation of hrm practices. bersin (2021) pointed out that organisations are forced to adopt easy-to-use digital hrm solutions that interface via digital and mobile platforms despite challenges experiences. in addition, because of an acute shortage of talent in specific sectors and job types, caused by the ‘war for talent’, against all odds, organisations adopt digital hrm solutions that enhance the acquisition, appraisal, development and retention of the right talent (bersin, 2021). this means that despite the challenges, organisations in general continue with adopting digital media practices and digital talent management practices. burbach (2019), and parry and battista (2019) observed that digital hrm practices that were mostly adopted within organisations were digital recruitment and selection, digital training and development and digital remuneration management (burbach, 2019; parry & battista, 2019). practical implications the implication of the results for organisations and specifically hrm departments or units is that organisations will increasingly adopt digital hrm practices to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of hrm services to support the organisational vision and goals. while some organisations’ plans for digitalisation may be hampered because of challenges experienced and perceptions of the strength of these challenges, other organisations will simply go ahead and digitalise, giving them a competitive advantage and elevating their hrm function to a level where it is recognised as being very professional and essential to the success of the organisation. the results of the study demonstrated that the identified challenges were not to be used as reasons or excuses for not forging ahead with hrm digitalisation, as it was evident from the results that the organisations surveyed in this study managed to digitalise to some or even a great extent irrespective of challenges observed. the study also highlighted domains for hrm digitalisation, namely digital talent management, digital media practices, digital organisational design and culture and digital employment relations management practices. organisations need to adopt suitable digital hrm practices in these focus areas to attract and retain talented employees, foster a flexible organisational design and culture to promote knowledge sharing, innovation and a sense of belonging, and foster constructive and collaborative relationships between management and employees and employees themselves. the adoption of digital hrm practices should promote collaboration, communication and cohesion among managers, in support of excellence and achievement. organisational culture and design processes and practices related to the management of a productive employment relationship within the workplace should strengthen the strategic role of the hrm towards achieving organisational goals (bissola & imperatori, 2013; ma & ye, 2015; thite, 2019). instead of focusing too much on challenges, the positive outcomes of digital hrm practices should be emphasised. however, it would be short sighted not to acknowledge the challenges, or perceptions of challenges, that could make the adoption of digital hrm practices challenging. these challenges, as presented in figure 2, are related to technology, the organisation, people and environment factors (azhar, 2019; burbach, 2019; masum, 2015). the empirical results also brought afore the challenges that were experienced or observed by hrm professionals and managers in automotive manufacturing organisations in south africa. it will also be futile to assume that digitalising hrm practices, specifically using digital media and digital talent management practices, will be a panacea for resolving organisational issues, the reason being that social dialogue and problem solving may be experienced as more authentic, interactive and effective, in face-to-face situations rather than in a digitalised space. however, these challenges need to be identified and strategies devised to overcome them as they manifest in organisations. attention should be given to the outcome of this study, in which it was proven that these challenges do not necessarily have to have a significant effect on hrm digitalisation. as such, a problem-solving mindset rather than a blame or fault-finding mindset is encouraged so that these identified and observed challenges can be dealt with proactively to smoothen the path to hrm digitalisation. limitations of the research the population and sample surveyed in this study were limited to the south africa’s (sa’s) automotive manufacturing industry in the eastern cape province of south africa. the results of this research could be expanded and deeper insight drawn if an investigation into the present phenomenon is conducted beyond the automotive manufacturing industry and beyond the eastern cape province. recommendations based on the empirical findings of this study, as well as the related literature, the following priorities are proposed to organisations: organisations should prioritise the adoption of digital hrm practices to foster a flexible and adaptive organisational culture and optimise employee relationships by addressing the challenges proactively. to achieve this, hrm practitioners and leaders should be skilled enough to navigate the 4ir world of work disruptions and apply digital hrm technologies across all hrm critical practices (crummenerl et al., 2018; zavyalova et al., 2022). a digital culture, typically a developmental culture, should be adopted (kokt, 2019; zavyalova et al., 2022). ulrich et al. (2017) urged hrm practitioners to be paradox navigators, strategic partners and credible activists, who have digital and data fluency to operate within a digital world of work (dhanpat et al., 2020; joseph et al., 2021; schultz, 2021) and be able to conduct thorough research within the digital hrm technology market to enable them to adopt worthwhile digital hrm practices and digital hrm solutions with quality vendors of digital hrm technology (andersson et al., 2016; bersin, 2021; colbert et al., 2016; mazurchenko & maršíková, 2019). in addition, this will assist hrm practitioners to adopt digital hrm practices that align with the culture and organisational structure aspirations of the organisation (muhammad, 2018). in south africa, it could be recommended that organisations use digital hrm technologies or vendors who are approved by the sabpp. referring to digital and data fluency, colbert et al. (2016) and thite (2019) suggest that these skills can be sourced from the outside via the recruitment of digital talent or sourced from within the organisation through training (rambe et al., 2022). the buy-in of senior management can be gained by developing a compelling digital hrm agenda that has an impact on the overall business digital agenda. digital hrm agendas that have a convincing bottom-line impact will rather attract attention and resources for implementation (ulrich, 2019). however, ghosh and tripathi (2018) cautioned hrm practitioners to desist from adopting ambitious and risky digital hrm agendas but rather to adopt a staged approach to hrm digitalisation. this suggests that hrm practitioners should develop viable digital hrm strategy frameworks, customised to their value needs and the resource capacity of the organisation. the digital hrm framework will basically spell out the vision, goals and the execution plan of the hrm function regarding hrm digitalisation (thite, 2019). to reduce resistance to digital hrm, interested employees and stakeholders with technological expertise, such as people from the it department, should be involved in the hrm digitalisation process from the beginning to the end. this will enable hrm practitioners to tap into their expertise and win their trust (burbach, 2019). to address data security concerns, appropriate controls such as firewalls should be used to prevent personal data and security breaches. to achieve this, personal information should only be accessed by using a password or other security controls (subramaniyan et al., 2019). the entire hrm staff and the workforce should be trained and alerted on ways to prevent security breaches when using digital hrm technologies. this training should be ongoing, and policies and guidelines on information pertaining to data security and privacy should be shared with the entire workforce (lewis, 2014). thus, adherence to the popia should be strictly enforced, while hrm practitioners and senior management should occupy a leading role in dealing with the threat of data and information security breaches to gain the confidence of lower-level managers and the entire workforce (lewis, 2014). conclusion this study aimed at identifying challenges that influence the adoption of digital hrm practices across the hr value chain in the south african workplace. the prolific advance in digital technologies and the inevitable need for quick solutions by business operations, call for the hrm function to adopt digital technologies across the hr value chain. however, the digitalisation of hrm practices come with challenges, as revealed in the study. these challenges should be monitored in the adoption of digital hrm. various strategies had been proposed for addressing these challenges. the study also provided empirical evidence that the challenges do not have to be cited as excuses for not forging ahead with the digitalisation of hrm practices, based on the results of the survey performed among hrm professionals and managers in the automotive manufacturing industry in the eastern cape province in south africa. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge ms carmen stindt who assisted with data processing. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions m.c. was the main writer of the manuscript. m.r.m. and a.w. contributed to the writing of the manuscript. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for profit sector. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references ahmadi, h., nilashi, m., & ibrahim, o. (2015). organizational decision to adopt hospital information system: an empirical investigation in the case of malaysian public hospitals. international journal of medical informatics, 84(3), 166–188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2014.12.004 alam, m.g.r., masum, a.k.m., beh, l.s., & hong, c.s. (2016). critical factors influencing decision to adopt human resource nformation system (hris) in hospitals. plos one, 11(8), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0160366 al-mobaideen, h., allahawiah, s., & basio, e. (2013). factors influencing the successful adoption of human resource information system: the content of aqaba special economic zone authority. journal of intelligent information management, 5(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4236/iim.2013.51001 andersson, l., lanvin, b., & van der heyden, l. (2016). digitalisation initiatives and corporate strategies: a few implications for talent. in b. lanvin & p. evans (eds.), the global competitiveness index 2017: talent and technology (pp. 51–57). insead. azhar, m.n. (2019). factors affecting the acceptance of e-hrm in iraq. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 9(2), 264–276. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v9-i2/5542 barman, a., & das, k. (2019). businesses through human resource technology – innovations and dominance. london journal of research in management and business, 18(10), compilation 1.0. baykal, e. (2019). digitalization of human resources: e-hr. in y. meral (ed.), tools and techniques for implementing international e-trading tactics for competitive advantage (pp. 268–286). igi global. bengtsson, c., & bloom, m. (2017). human resource management in a digital era: a qualitative study of hr managers’ perceptions of digitalization and its implications for hrm. unpublished master’s thesis, lund university school of economics and management. bersin, j. (2021). hr technology 2021: a definitive guide. isa. retrieved from https://isaconnection.org/wpcontent/uploads/2021/04/bersin_hr_techmarket_2021_v6.pdf bissola, r., & imperatori, b. (2013). facing e-hrm: the consequences on employee attitude towards the organisation and the hr department in italian smes. european journal of international management, 7(4), 450–468. https://doi.org/10.1504/ejim.2013.055282 bondarouk, t., parry, e., & furtmueller, e. (2017). electronic hrm: four decades of research on adoption and consequences. the international journal of human resource management, 28(1), 98–131. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1245672 bondarouk, t., schilling, d., & ruël, h.j.m. (2016). e-hrm adoption in emerging economies: the case of subsidiaries of multinational corporations in indonesia. canadian journal of administrative sciences, 33(2), 124–137. https://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1376 brahma, g. (2020). technology at work: new challenges. human capita online. retrieved from https://humancapitalonline.com/tech/details/1258/technology-at-work-new-challenges burbach, r. (2019). strategic evaluation of e-hrm. in m. thite (ed.), e-hrm: digital approaches, directions and applications (pp. 235–249). routledge. büschgens, t., bausch, a., & balkin, d. (2013). organizational culture and innovation: a meta-analytic review. journal of product innovation management, 30(4), 763–781. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpim.12021 colbert, a., yee, n., & george, g. (2016). the digital workforce and the workplace of the future. academy of management journal, 59(3), 731–739. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2016.4003 crummenerl, c., jacob, f., & funk, l. (2018). now or never – hr’s need to shape its own future. results and insights from capgemini’s exploration: ‘the future role of hr’. retrieved from https://www.capgemini.com/consulting-de/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2018/05/nowor-never-hrs-need-to-shape-capgemini-consulting.pdf dhanpat, n., buthelezi, z.p., joe, m.r., maphela, t.v., & shongwe, n. (2020). industry 4.0: the role of human resource professionals. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18, a1302. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1302 fenech, r., baguant, p., & ivanov, d. (2019). the changing role of human resource management in an era of digital transformation. journal of management information and decision sciences, 22(2), 166–175. friedman, t. (2016). thank you for being late: an optimist’s guide to thriving in the age of accelerations. farrar, straus & gioux. ghosh, v., & tripathi, n. (2018). cloud computing and e-hrm. in m. thite (ed.), e-hrm: digital approaches, directions and applications (pp. 106–122). routledge. hair, j.f., babin, j.b., anderson, r.e., & black, w.c. (2018). multivariate data analysis (8th ed.). prentice hall. hannon, j., jelf, g., & brandes, d. (1996). human resource information systems: operational issues and strategic considerations in a global environment. international journal of human resource management, 7(1), 245–269. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585199600000127 hastie, s., & wojewoda, s. (2015). standish group 2015 chaos report: q&a with jennifer lynch. infoq. retrieved from https://www.infoq.com/articles/standish-chaos-2015 hosain, m.s. (2019). the role of information technology on strategic hrm: transformation of traditional mindset. bizinfo (blace) journal of economics, management and informatics, 10(1), 15–27. https://doi.org/10.5937/bizinfo1901015h imperatori, b., bissola, r., butera, f., & bodega, d. (2019). work and hrm in the 4.0 era: insights and research directions. studi organizzativi, xxi(2), 9–26. https://doi.org/10.3280/so2019-002001 jammulamadaka, n. (2020). digital reverse mentoring as a strategic hrm tool: case study of an indian firm. in p. kumar, a. agrawal & p. budhwar (eds.), human and technological resource management (htrm): new insights into revolution 4.0 (pp. 89–109). emerald publishing limited. joseph, r.m., thomas, a., & abbott, p. (2021). information technology competencies for entry-level human resource strategic partners. sa journal of human resource management, 19, a1327. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1327 kiron, d., & spindel, b. (2019). rebooting work for a digital era. mit sloan management review, 60(3), 1–10. kokt, d. (2019). the role of human resource professionals in navigating the new world of work. sabpp. retrieved from https://sabpp.co.za/the-role-of-human-resource-professionals-in-navigating-the-new-world-of-work-by-desere-kokt/ komm, a., pollner, f., schaninger, b., & sikka, s. (2021). the new possible: how hr can help build the organization of the future. mckinsey & company. retrieved from https://www.mckin-sey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/the-new-possible-how-hr-can-help-build-the-organization-of-the-future kraus, s., durst, s., ferreira, j.j., veiga, p., kailer, n., & weinmann, a. (2022). digital transformation in business and management research: an overview of the current status quo. international journal of information management, 63, 102466. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2021.102466 lewis, r. (2014). what hr can do to prevent data breaches and cyber threats. human resource online. retrieved from http://www.humanresourcesonline.net/hr-can-help-prevent-data-breaches-cyber-threats/ ma, l., & ye, m.l. (2015). the role of electronic human resource management in contemporary human resource management. open journal of social sciences, 3(4), 71–78. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2015.34009 masum, a.k.m. (2015). adoption factors of electronic human resource management (e-hrm) in banking industry of bangladesh. journal of social sciences, 11(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.3844/jssp.2015.1.6 mazurchenko, a., & maršíková, k. (2019). digitally powered human resource management: skills and roles in the digital era. acta informatica pragensia, 8(2), 72–87. https://doi.org/10.18267/j.aip.125 mosca, m. (2020). digitalization of hrm: a study of success factors and consequences in the last decade. master’s thesis, university of twente. muhammad, k. (2018). the effects of electronic human resource management on financial institutes. journal of humanities insights, 2(1), 116–120. naacam/naamsa. (2018, march 22). automotive export manual. abr buzz. retrieved from https://abrbuzz.co.za/publications/press-and-customers/naamsa/automotiveexportmanual2018.pdf parry, e., & battista, v. (2019). the impact of emerging technologies on work: a review of the evidence and implications for the human resource function. emerald open research, 1, 5. https://doi.org/10.12688/emeraldopenres.12907.1 pillai, r., & sivathanu, b. (2020). adoption of artificial intelligence (ai) for talent acquisition in it/ites organizations. benchmarking: an international journal, 27(9), 2599–2629. https://doi.org/10.1108/bij-04-2020-0186 rambe, p., mpiti, n., & khaola, p. (2022). technology acquisition and the hair salon performance: the explanatory roles of human resources practices. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20, a1822. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1822 sabpp. (2014). sabpp hrm standards. retrieved from https://www.sabpp.co.za/page/hr_standards sabpp. (2018). an update on the south african #hrstandards and #hraudits by marius meyer. retrieved from https://sabpp.co.za/an-update-on-the-south-african-hrstandards-and-hraudits-by-marius-meyer/ sabpp. (2019). the official communication for all hr practitioners. hr voice. retrieved from https://sabpp.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/hr-voice_february-2019_with-active-links.pdf schultz, c.m. (2021). the future and the role of human resource management in south africa during the fourth industrial revolution. sa journal of human resource management, 19, a1624. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1624 strohmeier, s. (2020). digital human resource management: a conceptual clarification. journal of human resource management: zeitschrift für personalforschung, 34(3), 345–365. https://doi.org/10.1177/2397002220921131 subramaniyan, s., thite, m., & sampathkumar, s. (2019). information security and privacy in e-hrm. in m. thite (ed.), e-hrm: digital approaches, directions and applications (pp. 250–267). routledge. tornatzky, l.g., fleischer, m., & chakrabarti, k. (1990). processes of technological innovation. lexington books. thite, m. (2019). e-hrm: digital approaches, directions and applications. routledge. thite, m. (2020). digital human resource development: where are we? where should we go and how do we go there? human resource development international, 25(1), 87–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2020.1842982 thite, m., & bhatta, n.m.k. (2019). soft systems thinking approach to e-hrm project management. in m. thite (ed.), e-hrm: digital approaches, directions and applications (pp. 42–56). routledge. ulrich, d. (2018). 5 things that will help you sort through endless hr technologies. australian hr institute. retrieved from http://www.hrmonline.com.au/section/featured/5-help-sort-endless-hr-technologies/ ulrich, d. (2019). foreword and forward thinking of digital hrm. in m. thite (ed.), e-hrm: digital approaches, directions and applications (pp. xxvi–xxiv). routledge. ulrich, d., kryscynski, d., ulrich, m., & brockbank, w. (2017). competencies for hr professionals who deliver outcomes. wiley periodicals. williams, b., brown, t., & onsman, a. (2012). exploratory factor analysis: a five-step guide for novices. australasian journal of paramedicine, 8(3), 1. https://doi.org/10.33151/ajp.8.3.93 zavyalova, e., sokolov, d., kucherov, d., & lisovskaya, a. (2022). the digitalization of human resource management: present and future. foresight and sti governance, 16(2), 42–51. https://doi.org/10.17323/2500-2597.2022.2.42.51 abstract introduction literature review methodology and research design results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) retno p. setyaningrum department of management, faculty of economics and business, universitas pelita bangsa, bekasi, indonesia muafi muafi department of management, faculty of business and economics, universitas islam indonesia, bekasi, indonesia citation setyaningrum, r.p., & muafi, m. (2023). managing job burnout from workplace telepressure: a three way interaction. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2151. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2151 original research managing job burnout from workplace telepressure: a three way interaction retno p. setyaningrum, muafi muafi received: 26 oct. 2022; accepted: 14 mar. 2023; published: 10 may 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the massive development of information, communication and technology (ict) in the last decade has motivated companies to adopt it in their business. however, this becomes one of the pressures faced by employees, as it may lead to job burnout. research purpose: to explore the influence of workplace telepressure on employee burnout by considering transformational leadership and perceived organisational support (pos) as moderators. motivation for the study: the literature on how workplace telepressure affects job burnout still needs to be explored, and there is a need to examine the condition by which this relationship can be strengthened or weakened. research approach/design and method: this study employs a quantitative approach with 388 employees of manufacturing companies in three provinces in indonesia. the data processing is done using conditional process analysis with spss macro-process. main findings: workplace telepressure is positively related to higher levels of job burnout. transformational leadership moderates the influence of workplace telepressure on job burnout. finally, pos strengthens the moderating role of transformational leadership in workplace telepressure on job burnout. practical/managerial implications: managers must be aware that workplace telepressure can trigger job burnout among employees. leaders need to apply a transformational leadership style, and organisations need to provide full support for employees. contribution/value-add: this study builds a model of stress management, represented by job burnout, because of the existence of workplace telepressure by considering contextual factors that individuals can use as resources to regulate the pressure they feel on having to respond to ict continuously in their work. keywords: workplace telepressure; job burnout; transformational leadership; perceived organisational support; conditional process analysis. introduction the massive development of information, communication and technology (ict) in the last decade has motivated companies in various industrial sectors to adopt it in their business. on the one hand, this can increase flexibility while facilitating easy communication and coordination between individuals, so as to achieve organisational goals. but, on the other hand, the development of ict also has its own paradox in the sense that this ease of communication makes it difficult for employees to leave their workplaces (barber et al., 2019; firoozabadi et al., 2018). employees are expected to always be ready for doing their jobs because of the flexibility offered by ict. as a result, there is a blur to their working time and working arrangement, as when they leave their workplace, employees still receive and need to reply to texts, e-mails or messages regarding their jobs. in addition, because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) lockdown, there is an increase in this connectivity as a result of remote work and flexible work arrangements. this phenomenon has been addressed by a number of studies, such as samaniego (2022) who conducted research on american workers and found that these conditions lead employees to experience increased levels of stress and burnout. in addition, page et al. (2021) carried out two studies on working students and working individuals who are exposed with the same conditions and found that they have higher levels of burnout. this kind of work-related experience is called workplace telepressure. it is the tendency of employees to feel pressured to respond to work-related messages and communications (barber & santuzzi, 2015; barber et al., 2019). because of the high connectivity with ict, employees have this paradox of being constantly connected to work, but at the same time also experiencing negative consequences with regard to their physical and mental health as they cannot completely leave the work itself. at the same time, the mental and physical state of employees currently become one of the organization’s main concerns. organization now put more attention regarding their employees’ welfare, and it includes their physical and mental health. the decline of this and other employee conditions, which are related to excessive workload, work pressure and work stress (grau-alberola et al., 2022; johnson et al., 2018). long working hours also lead to fatigue and a reduction in the quality of work of employees (eurofound, 2019; gu et al., 2019; oros et al., 2020). job burnout is a sign of a decline in the quality of work that employees in various industries are prone to experience. there are three components of job burnout, as mentioned by demerouti et al. (2021), namely emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment. job burnout is a state of exhaustion felt by individuals, making them feel cynical about the value of the job and doubting their capacity to do work (cheng & yi, 2018; page et al., 2021). this issue regarding workplace telepressure and job burnout ultimately requires organisations to try to minimise these negative impacts. regarding this, the leadership style adopted by superiors in the organisation can shape employees’ perceptions of their condition (gilbert et al., 2017; mahmmud et al., 2020). leaders with a transformational style tend to have foresight are able to respond to change effectively and develop the potential of all members in the organisation (grau-alberola et al., 2022). these abilities of transformational leaders enable them to face and overcome challenges in their jobs. so far, transformational leaders have been found to be able to influence employee welfare, productivity, satisfaction work quality and health (akar & ustuner, 2019; chebon et al., 2019; specchia et al., 2021). in addition, the support provided by the organisation to employees will also determine their attitudes and behaviour. in simple terms, perceived organisational support (pos) can be understood as a condition in which employees feel that the organisation appreciates their efforts and pays attention to their welfare (imran et al., 2020; wen et al., 2019). so far, the moderating role of pos has been found in several studies to enhance positive behavioural outcomes at workplace, such as lowering turnover intention, work meaningfulness, positive attitude and innovation capability (le & lei, 2019; li et al., 2019; wang & xu, 2019) while also influencing employee burnout (cheng & yi, 2018; le & lei, 2019). a number of scholars have confirmed a positive relationship between workplace telepressure and job burnout (kao et al., 2020; page et al., 2021; santuzzi & barber, 2018). however, this relationship still needs to be explored, in the sense that previous scholars have not taken into account how workplace telepressure can affect job burnout. kao et al. (2020) mentioned the need to consider the moderating variables that underlie the strong or weak influence of workplace telepressure on job burnout. the role of workplace telepressure in influencing the condition of well-being, such as burnout itself also needs to be examined (park et al., 2018; santuzzi & barber, 2018). in addition, the study conducted by samaniego (2022) has demonstrated the important role of supervisor support in reducing the negative influence of workplace telepressure. he suggests testing other aspects of support, such as pos, and looking at its effectiveness as a contextual factor in moderating the influence of workplace telepressure on job burnout. based on the above explanation, there is a need to have a deeper understanding of the conditions under which workplace telepressure can have a stronger or weaker influence on employee job burnout. this study aims to fill the gap from previous studies by exploring the relationship between workplace telepressure and job burnout and to see how this relationship is moderated by contextual factors that exist in the organisation. firstly, this study predicts that employees are more likely to experience job burnout when they perceive workplace telepressure. secondly, the researcher expects that the social context in the organisation, which is represented by transformational leadership style and pos, will have a role in the influence of workplace telepressure on job burnout by enabling a conducive and supportive climate for employees. literature review workplace telepressure and job burnout workplace telepressure is the compulsive motivation of individuals to respond to messages and communications. the study conducted by barber et al. (2019) and samaniego (2022) shows that employees who experience telepressure feel that they have no control over their leisure time, because of the need to respond to unpredictable work-related messages. this, of course, can lead to boredom, as employees find it difficult to leave their workplaces (mahmmud et al., 2020; page et al., 2021). employees who feel excessive workload or pressure will experience a decrease in physical and psychological health conditions (gonzales-mulé & cockburn, 2020). the ease and flexibility of ict become a paradox for employees, which causes them to perceive pressure to always be connected to work (kao et al., 2022). this condition can burden employees in carrying out their responsibilities regarding matters outside of work (barber et al., 2019). job burnout, one of the signs of the lack of employee welfare, is a growing issue. job burnout is a psychological and physical response to prolonged stress and frustration in the organisation (cheng & yi, 2018). introduced by herbert freudenberger in 1970, job burnout has three components, namely emotional exhaustion, negative attitude towards others (depersonalisation) and reduced personal accomplishment (demerouti et al., 2021). emotional exhaustion is the feeling of an individual who is burdened with their work. depersonalisation is an individual’s impersonal feeling or reaction to another party. meanwhile, reduced personal accomplishments are feelings of incompetence and a lack of achievement experienced by individuals (santuzzi & barber, 2018). during the initial development of the concept of burnout, maslach et al. (1997) mentioned that burnout can be caused by the unfit between individuals and their work setting, which includes workload, control, reward, community, justice and value. burnout can arise from the presence of psychologically straining conditions. employees who constantly feel the need to respond to work-related communications and messages, whether during working hours or outside of it, are likely to experience physical and mental fatigue (barber & santuzzi, 2015; kao et al., 2020). this is because employees must continue to devote their attention to their work and make them lose the opportunity to recover from it (pfaffinger et al., 2022). based on this explanation, the hypothesis developed (figure 1) is as follows: h1: workplace telepressure is positively related to higher levels of job burnout. figure 1: research model. the moderating role of transformational leadership introduced in around 1980s, transformational leadership refers to a leader who has several characteristics, namely idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualised consideration (bass et al., 1987; bass, 1985). in idealised influence, leaders show confidence in taking risks and building a core set of values, trust and increase their followers’ commitment. in inspirational motivation, leaders articulate a vision for the future, provide challenges for employees, are optimistic and provide encouragement. when it comes to the third characteristic, that is, intellectual stimulation, leaders stimulate new perspectives and encourage individuals to express ideas. finally, in individualised consideration, leaders listen and consider individual aspirations, needs and abilities (nguyen et al., 2022; terkamo-moisio et al., 2022). this concept continues to receive attention from scholars regarding its impact on organisational culture (bass & avolio, 1994), organisational and personal outcomes (givens, 2008), as well as how it affects human behaviour in organisations (bakker et al., 2022; scuotto et al., 2022). this study considers the role of social context to buffer the influence of workplace telepressure on employee job burnout. the researchers predict that the relationship between workplace telepressure and job burnout will change, along with the level of transformational leadership and pos in the organisation. when leaders with a transformational style are present in the organisation, they will influence employees’ perceptions of their work by providing personal attention, consideration, intellectual stimulation and coaching (hentrich et al., 2017; sinclair et al., 2021). this will allow employees to be less engrossed in the telepressure they feel, thereby minimising burnout (miao & cao, 2019; tafvelin et al., 2019). transformational leadership can help employees to manage the pressures faced by them, including workplace telepressure, and make the necessary changes to distribute the tasks at hand (st-hilaire et al., 2018; terkamo-moisio et al., 2022). this will stimulate employees with the perception that workplace telepressure is something that can be managed and will not be a pressure that causes them to experience burnout at work. conversely, when leaders do not use a transformational leadership style, this can actually make employees feel like they are in an unfavourable work environment and make them feel the need to respond to work-related messages quickly (grau-alberola et al., 2022; miao & cao, 2019; tafvelin et al., 2019). if this happens continuously, the impact will be in the form of employees who will feel increased burnout. this condition is shown by the study by spagnoli et al. (2020), which considers the moderating role of authoritarian leadership on the relationship between workaholism and technostress. authoritarian leaders were found to strengthen the negative influence of workaholism because they did not help their employees to address the conditions they were experiencing, in this case the tendency to continue working (workaholism), thus leading to technostress. in this study, when employees perceive the attitude of transformational leaders who empathise with their condition, pay attention to the condition of each member in the organisation and help employees to manage the pressure they feel, they will feel helped in managing the conditions of workplace telepressure they experience, thereby reducing the risk of burnout in employees. based on this explanation, the hypothesis developed (figure 1) is: h2: workplace telepressure will have a weaker influence on job burnout when the leader practises transformational leadership style. the moderating role of perceived organisational support perceived organisational support can be defined as a condition in which employees feel that the organisation appreciates contributions while paying attention to their welfare (imran et al., 2020; wen et al., 2019). the support and appreciation felt by employees from their organisation show that the organisation cares and pays attention to the welfare of employees. according to cheng and yi (2018), pos provides employees with emotional support, affiliation and increased self-esteem. perceived organisational support represents the principle of positive reciprocity perceived by employees; that positive treatment from the organisation will be responded to by employee attitudes that also benefit the organisation itself (eisenberger et al., 1986; rhoades & eisenberger, 2002). social support is one aspect that can reduce the risk of burnout felt by individuals (klaver et al., 2021). this is because employees with high pos will feel obliged to repay their organisation with positive work attitudes and behaviour. in this regard, several studies have shown that pos plays an important role in moderating relationships in organisations (srivastava & agrawal, 2020). strong support from the organisation is indicated by the existence of socio-emotional and physical assistance, so that employees have more abilities to achieve their goals. in addition, high organisational support was found to increase the effectiveness of individual communication and collaboration in the organisation (giao et al., 2020; le & lei, 2019). kao et al. (2020) mentioned that the situation in the employees’ work environment, including social norms in it, has an important role in influencing workplace telepressure. when employees are in an environment that requires them to be accessible and respond quickly, there will be an increase in workplace telepressure that leads to burnout (barber & santuzzi, 2015; hu et al., 2019; santuzzi & barber, 2018). in contrast, pos can facilitate the growth of a supportive climate while providing adequate resources for employees to do their jobs (le & lei, 2019; suifan et al., 2018). related to this, the researcher predicts that pos is estimated to increase the moderating role of transformational leadership to weaken the effect of workplace telepressure on job burnout. this explanation shows that there is a three-way interaction between workplace telepressure, transformational leadership and pos. the effect of workplace telepressure on job burnout when transformational leadership is high will be weaker when employees feel the support from their organisation. based on this explanation, the hypothesis formulated (figure 1) is as follows: h3: the negative moderating influence of transformational leadership on the workplace telepressure–job burnout relationship will be stronger at a high level of pos. methodology and research design this study was conducted quantitatively on employees working in manufacturing state-owned enteprises (soes) in three provinces in indonesia, namely dki jakarta, west java and central java. the population in this study were manufacturing soes employees who were selected by purposive sampling method, resulted in 388 respondents as the research sample. manufacturing soe employees are specifically chosen since during the covid-19 pandemic, employees are required to carry out their jobs at home to prevent the spread of the virus. the data in this study were taken through the distribution of questionnaires to the respondents through online platforms using google forms for 2 months, starting from august to september 2022. the researchers shared the questionnaire links through social media. to ensure that this study has the right sample, the following criteria were set to select the participants: (1) employees who are working in manufacturing soes located in dki jakarta, west java and/or central java, (2) have worked remotely for at least 3 months during their job at the organisation and (3) have been working in the organisation for at least 3 years. these criteria were purposively used to ensure that the respondents have experienced the conditions of remote working and to assess whether they have been led by transformational leaders. in filling out the questionnaire, the respondents were first asked to state that they meet the criteria for the sample. respondents were then asked to fill out their characteristics such as gender, highest level of education and age. furthermore, they were asked to rate the statement items according a 5-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). the data obtained were then tested for validity and reliability. the criteria for validity are seen from the r-count value, which must be greater than r-table (0.500) for an item to be declared valid. the criteria for reliability in this study is seen from the value of cronbach’s alpha, which must exceed 0.7 for a variable to be called reliable (hair et al., 2019). next, the researcher tested the hypothesis using the conditional process analysis method with spss macro-process. this study consists of four variables, with one independent variable (workplace telepressure), one dependent variable (job burnout) and two intervening variables (transformational leadership and pos). workplace telepressure was assessed with a measurement item developed by barber and santuzzi (2015), which has eight items. examples of items are ‘i feel a strong need to respond to others immediately’ and ‘i can’t stop thinking about a message until i’ve responded’. job burnout in this study was assessed using the copenhagen burnout inventory (cbi) consisting of seven items adopted from the study of kristensen et al. (2005; kao et al., 2020). examples of items are ‘i feel worn out at the end of the working day’ and ‘i am exhausted in the morning at the thought of another day at work’. transformational leadership is assessed with the global transformational leadership scale (carless et al., 2000; tafvelin et al., 2019), which has seven items. an example of an item is ‘my leader gives encouragement and recognition to staff’. finally, the pos variable was assessed with an eight-item measurement developed by eisenberger et al. (1997). examples of items are ‘my organisation cares about my opinion’ and ‘my organisation really cares about my well-being’. ethical considerations the research has complied with the research code of ethics. the study has been granted research permission from the institution and the respondents. there is no particular interest related to the research institution. results respondents’ characteristics most of the respondents in this study were male (72%); 55% of all respondents have bachelor’s degree, with the majority of respondents in the age group of 26–33 years old (51%). the majority of respondents have been working for 3–4 years (43%). more details about the respondents’ characteristics are shown in table 1. table 1: respondents’ characteristics. validity and reliability all measurement variables show a reliable value for measuring the tested sample with cronbach’s alpha value on the workplace telepressure variable of 0.799, job burnout variable of 0.802, transformational leadership variable of 0.797 and pos variable of 0.788. the indicators used in the study showed valid results as a measuring instrument with a validity value exceeding 0.500. furthermore, the correlation results from each variable all show a positive correlation, with a correlation between workplace telepressure and job burnout (r = 0.564; p < 0.01), workplace telepressure with transformational leadership (r = 0.560; p < 0.01) and the correlation of workplace telepressure with pos (r = 0.564; p < 0.01). more details on validity and reliability test are presented in table 2 and table 3. table 2: reliability and correlation coefficient results. table 3: results of validity test. hypothesis test to determine the effect of transformational leadership and pos (moderating variables) on the relationship between workplace telepressure and job burnout, the following data were obtained (see table 4): table 4a: model summary. table 4b: model summary. workplace telepressure variable has a direct positive effect on job burnout with a value of b of 0.559 with a p-value < 0.05. hypothesis 1 (h1) is acceptable. transformational leadership has a negative or inverse relationship to job burnout with a b of −0.360 and a p-value < 0.05. this means that the higher the value of transformational leadership, the lower the job burnout. the role of interaction between workplace telepressure and transformational leadership on job burnout generates a b value of −0.205 with a p-value < 0.05. the b value generated for this interaction is smaller or weaker than the direct relationship between workplace telepressure and job burnout. this means that transformational leadership as a moderating variable plays a significant role in reducing the level of job burnout. hypothesis 2 (h2) is acceptable. perceived organisational support variable has a negative or reverse relationship with job burnout with a value of b of −0.299 and a p-value < 0.05. this means that the higher the value of pos, the lower the level of job burnout. the interaction between the workplace telepressure variable and pos on job burnout resulted in the value of b of −0.329 with a p-value < 0.05. this means that pos can reduce the level of job burnout. the moderator role of transformational leadership and pos on the relationship between workplace telepressure and job burnout generates a value of b of −0.401 with a p value < 0.05. the resulting b value indicates that the role of pos can help increase the role of transformational leadership to reduce the level of job burnout. hypothesis 3 (h3) is acceptable. discussion the massive development of ict is currently extensively utilised by organisations as a means to streamline and speed up information flow to serve business and customers’ needs. this is because ict improves business’ efficiency, effectiveness and ability to react quickly to their surroundings, as it enables coordination between individuals and teams to occur without having to meet face to face. the use of ict becomes more significant and is applied to various organisations during the covid-19 pandemic, when employees are forced to work remotely because of the lockdown situation. however, this development of ict and its adoption in work in organisations have an impact on the pressure on human resources that leads to job burnout (caldara et al., 2022). during the pandemic, more and more people are working from home using information and communication technology. this condition makes it difficult for individuals to leave their workplace, and feel a situation called workplace telepressure (jonas, 2022). this underlies the importance of looking at the possible relationship of information and communication to workplace telepressure and its impact on employee well-being (derks et al., 2015). in testing the first hypothesis, regarding the effect of workplace telepressure on job burnout, the findings of this study showed positive and significant results (h1 was accepted). this means that the presence of workplace telepressure felt by employees makes them experience one of the conditions of work stress, which is marked by job burnout. the higher the workplace telepressure felt by employees, the higher the job burnout they felt. the results of this study are in line with several previous studies that have been carried out by barber and santuzzi (2015; kao et al., 2020). this is because employees who continuously feel the need to respond to work-related communications, even outside of working hours, will experience physical and mental fatigue, which in this case is seen from job burnout. in the long run, individual fatigue will make them less competent in completing tasks and less than optimal in pursuing their achievements. in the last two decades, transformational leadership has become a concern for companies because this leadership style is considered to have a significant influence on employee work results. in addition, transformational leadership is also considered as a contextual factor that can relieve employee fatigue (khan et al., 2020). the effects of fatigue and stress in the workplace have an impact on employee interpersonal relationships, so there needs to be a leadership style that can reduce the influence of workplace telepressure on job burnout. transformational leadership is also relevant for this, considering that leaders with this leadership style are very concerned about employees (jensen & bro, 2018; khan et al., 2020). the results of the second hypothesis test regarding the moderating role of transformational leadership in reducing the influence of workplace telepressure on job burnout showed a significant results (h2 is accepted). this study supports the findings of several previous studies (st-hilaire et al., 2018; terkamo-moisio et al., 2022). the characteristics possessed by transformational leaders enable employees to manage workplace telepressure, thereby reducing its impact on job burnout. furthermore, in testing the third hypothesis, the researcher considers the moderating effect of pos in influencing the interactions between transformational leadership, workplace telepressure and job burnout. the results indicate that pos can help increase the role of transformational leadership in minimising the effect of workplace telepressure on job burnout (h3 is accepted). in this case, the support from the organisation through socio-emotional and physical assistance will make it easier for employees to complete their work, achieve goals and increase the effectiveness of communication and cooperation between individuals in the organisation. perceived organisational support, along with transformational leadership, can influence the workplace telepressure relationship on job burnout. employees are likely to experience less burnout when their organisation provides support and have transformational leader in their workplace. this is because pos and transformational leadership act as resources for employees to carry out their duties and work. conclusion this study explored the relationship among workplace telepressure, job burnout, transformational leadership and pos in the context of employees in manufacturing companies in three provinces in indonesia. according to the discussion and results of hypothesis testing, all hypotheses proposed in this study are accepted. workplace telepressure is found to have positive influence on job burnout, as employees who feel telepressure will experience job burnout. furthermore, this study also confirms the moderating role of transformational leadership and pos. these two variables can buffer the influence of workplace telepressure on job burnout. this study has contributed to the literature, especially regarding organisational behaviour, how to manage stress and fatigue experienced by employees by looking at the role of transformational leadership style and pos. however, this study has some limitations that should be taken into consideration by future researchers. firstly, the data in this study were taken by cross-sectional method. future research needs to conduct deeper examination on the same topic using longitudinal method in order to obtain robust results. secondly, this study considers only contextual factors that can minimise the influence of workplace telepressure and job burnout. future studies may consider involving internal factors from individuals to regulate pressures they may experience in their working conditions. from the study conducted, there are several implications provided by this study. firstly, regarding theoretical implication, this study builds a model of stress management, represented by job burnout, because of the existence of workplace telepressure. the researchers also consider contextual factors that individuals can use as resources to regulate the pressure they feel on having to respond to ict continuously in their work. this allows researchers to be able to see the factors that underlie the reduced effect of workplace telepressure on job burnout. secondly, regarding managerial implications, this study can be a recommendation for managers or leaders in companies, especially those that require employees to communicate regarding their work, or who implement work-from-home (wfh) or work-from-anywhere (wfa) policies. to successfully manage this, leaders need to apply a transformational leadership style, and companies or organisations need to provide full support for employees in carrying out their duties or work. senior leaders and line managers are suggested to practise this leadership style by providing clear instructions and expectations for the organisational members in order to establish effective and efficient workflow while also preventing unnecessary communication outside working hours. this will enable employees to feel less workplace telepressure, thus reducing their burnout. in addition, to address the condition by which the employees are already experiencing telepressure and burnout, the organisation must be aware and realise that employees are vulnerable to workplace telepressure; thus they could deal with the problem. organisations must create a positive culture that embraces all members of the organisation. it should be emphasised that carrying out a job or task remotely during working hours is employees’ part of responsibility, and they should not feel burdened as the organisation has the willingness to help and assist them. as another form of support, organisations must promote a culture of open communication. it is also recommended for the organization to create policies and programs that allows employees to complain and convey their aspirations, such as through employee assistance programme (eap). acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions all authors have contributed in writing this article. retno contributed to the methodology, formal analysis, writing the original draft, visualisation, project administration, software validation, data curation, writing, reviewing, editing the draft, and funding acquisition. muafi conducted conceptualisation, investigation, writing, review and editing and supervised the process. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the author, r.s. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references akar, h., & ustuner, m. (2019). the relationships between perceptions of teachers’ transformational leadership, organizational justice, organizational support and quality of work life. international journal of research in education and science (ijres), 5(1), 309–322. bakker, a.b., hetland, j., olsen, o.k., & espevik, r. (2022). daily transformational leadership: a source of inspiration for follower performance? european management journal, in press, corrected proof, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2022.04.004. barber, l.k., conlin, a.l., & santuzzi, a.m. (2019). workplace telepressure and work–life balance outcomes: the role of work recovery experiences. stress and health, 35(3), 350–362. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2864 barber, l.k., & santuzzi, a.m. (2015). please respond asap: workplace telepressure and employee recovery. journal of occupational health psychology, 20(2), 172. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038278 bass, b.m. (1985). leadership: good, better, best. organizational dynamics, 13(3), 26–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(85)90028-2 bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1994). transformational leadership and organizational culture. the international journal of public administration, 17(3–4), 541–554. https://doi.org/10.1080/01900699408524907 bass, b.m., avolio, b.j., & goodheim, l. (1987). biography and the assessment of transformational leadership at the world-class level. journal of management, 13(1), 7–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920638701300102 caldara, d., conlisk, s., iacoviello, m., & penn, m. (2022). the effect of the war in ukraine on global activity and inflation. feds notes, 2022, 3141. https://doi.org/10.17016/2380-7172.3141 carless, s.a., wearing, a.j., & mann, l. (2000). a short measure of transformational leadership. journal of business and psychology, 14(3), 389–405. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1022991115523 chebon, s.k., aruasa, w.k., & chirchir, l.k. (2019). influence of individualized consideration and intellectual stimulation on employee performance: lessons from moi teaching and referral hospital, eldoret, kenya. iosr journal of humanities and social science, 24(7), 11–22. https://doi.org/10.6018/analesps.471121 cheng, j.c., & yi, o. (2018). hotel employee job crafting, burnout, and satisfaction: the moderating role of perceived organizational support. international journal of hospitality management, 72, 78–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2018.01.005 demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., peeters, m.c., & breevaart, k. (2021). new directions in burnout research. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 30(5), 686–691. derks, d., van duin, d., tims, m., & bakker, a.b. (2015). smartphone use and work-home interference: the moderating role of social norms and employee work engagement. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 88(1), 155–177. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12083 eisenberger, r., cummings, j., armeli, s., & lynch, p. (1997). perceived organizational support, discretionary treatment, and job satisfaction. journal of applied psychology, 82(5), 812. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.82.5.812 eisenberger, r., huntington, r., hutchison, s., & sowa, d. (1986). perceived organizational support. journal of applied psychology, 71(3), 500–507. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.71.3.500 eurofound. (2019). working conditions and workers’ health. office of the euro-pean union. retrieved from https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/publications/report/2019/working-conditions-and-workers-health firoozabadi, a., uitdewilligen, s., & zijlstra, f.r. (2018). solving problems or seeing troubles? a day-level study on the consequences of thinking about work on recovery and well-being, and the moderating role of self-regulation. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 27(5), 629–641. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2018.1505720 giao, h.n.k., vuong, b.n., huan, d.d., tushar, h., & quan, t.n. (2020). the effect of emotional intelligence on turnover intention and the moderating role of perceived organizational support: evidence from the banking industry of vietnam. sustainability, 12(5), 1857. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12051857 gilbert, m.h., dagenais-desmarais, v., & st-hilaire, f. (2017). transfor-mational leadership and autonomy support management behaviours: the role of specificity in predicting employees’ psychological health. leadership and organization development journal, 38(2), 320–332. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-08-2015-0173 givens, r.j. (2008). transformational leadership: the impact on organizational and personal outcomes. emerging leadership journeys, 1(1), 4–24. gonzales-mulé, e., & cockburn, b.s. (2020). this job is (literally) killing me: a moderated-mediated model linking work characteristics to mortality. journal of applied psychology, 106(1), 140–151. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000501 grau-alberola, e., figueiredo-ferraz, h., lópez-vílchez, j.j., & gil-monte, p.r. (2022). the healthy management: the moderator role of transformational leadership on health workers. anales de psicología/annals of psychology, 38(1), 128–138. https://doi.org/10.6018/analesps.471121 gu, b., tan q., & zhao s. (2019). the association between occupational stress and psychosomatic wellbeing among chinese nurses: a cross-sectional survey. medicine, 98(22), 15836. https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000015836 hair, j.f., jr., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2019). multivariate data analysis (8th ed.). cengage learning. hentrich, s., zimber, a., garbade, s.f., gregersen, s., nienhaus, a., & petermann, f. (2017). relationships between transformational leader-ship and health: the mediating role of perceived job demands and oc-cupational self-efficacy. international journal of stress management, 24(1), 34–61. https://doi.org/10.1037/str0000027 hu, x., santuzzi, a.m., & barber, l.k. (2019). disconnecting to detach: the role of impaired recovery in negative consequences of workplace telepressure. revista de psicología del trabajo y de las organizaciones, 35(1), 9–15. https://doi.org/10.5093/jwop2019a2 imran, m.y., elahi, n.s., abid, g., ashfaq, f., & ilyas, s. (2020). impact of perceived organizational support on work engagement: mediating mechanism of thriving and flourishing. journal of open innovation: technology, market, and complexity, 6(3), 82. https://doi.org/10.3390/joitmc6030082 jensen, u.t., & bro, l.l. (2018). how transformational leadership supports intrinsic motivation and public service motivation: the mediating role of basic need satisfaction. american review of public administration, 48(6), 535–549. https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074017699470 johnson, s., robertson, i., & cooper, c.l. (2018). well-being: productivity and happiness at work (2nd ed.). palgrave macmillan. jonas, m.s. (2022). new ways of working and workplace telepressure. tilburg school of social and behavioural sciences, tilburg university. kao, k.y., hsu, h.h., lee, h.t., cheng, y.c., dax, i., & hsieh, m.w. (2022). career mentoring and job content plateaus: the roles of perceived organizational support and emotional exhaustion. journal of career development, 49(2), 457–470. khan, h., rehmat, m., butt, t.h., farooqi, s., & asim, j. (2020). impact of transformational leadership on work performance, burnout and social loafing: a mediation model. future business journal, 6(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43093-020-00043-8 klaver, m., van den hoofdakker, b.j., wouters, h., de kuijper, g., hoekstra, p.j., & de bildt, a. (2021). exposure to challenging behaviours and burnout symptoms among care staff: the role of psychological resources. journal of intellectual disability research, 65(2), 173–185. https://doi.org/10.1111/jir.12800 kristensen, t.s., borritz, m., villadsen, e., & christensen, k.b. (2005). the copenhagen burnout inventory: a new tool for the assessment of burnout. work & stress, 19(3), 192–207. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370500297720 le, p.b., & lei, h. (2019). determinants of innovation capability: the roles of transformational leadership, knowledge sharing and perceived organizational support. journal of knowledge management, 23(3), 527–547. https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-09-2018-0568 li, j.j., bonn, m.a., & ye, b.h. (2019). hotel employee’s artificial intelligence and robotics awareness and its impact on turnover intention: the moderating roles of perceived organizational support and competitive psychological climate. tourism management, 73, 172–181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2019.02.006 mahmmud, n.a., hassan, h., & shaharudin, s. (2020). the moderating role of transformational leadership towards employees’ commitment to change: a conceptual framework. the interdisciplinary of management, economic, and social research, 48–58. maslach, c., jackson, s.e., & leiter, m.p. (1997). maslach burnout inventory. scarecrow education. miao, r., & cao, y. (2019). high-performance work system, work well-being, and employee creativity: cross-level moderating role of transformational leadership. international journal of environmental research and public health, 16(9), 1640. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16091640 nguyen, t.m., malik, a., & budhwar, p. (2022). knowledge hiding in organizational crisis: the moderating role of leadership. journal of business research, 139, 161–172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.09.026 oros, l., vargas-rubilar, n., & chemisquy, s. (2020). estresores docentes en tiempos de pandemia: un instrumento para su exploración [teachers’ stressors in times of pandemic: an instrument for their ex-ploration]. revista interamericana de psicología/interamerican journal of psycho-logy, 54(3), e1421. https://doi.org/10.30849/ripijp.v54i3.1421 page, k.j., nastasi, a., & voyles, e. (2021). did you get that thing i sent you? mediating effects of strain and work-family conflict on the telepressure and burnout relationship. stress and health, 37(5), 928–939. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.3052 park, y., liu, y., & headrick, l. (2018). improving lives of teachers: staying connected to work, work-family boundary control, and strain. in g. atinc (ed.), proceedings of the seventyeighth annual meeting of the academy of management, 10–14 august 2018 (pp. 28–34). academy of management. pfaffinger, k.f., reif, j.a., & spieß, e. (2022). when and why telepressure and technostress creators impair employee well-being. international journal of occupational safety and ergonomics, 28(2), 958–973. https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2020.1846376 rhoades, l., & eisenberger, r. (2002). perceived organizational support: a review of the literature. journal of applied psychology, 87(4), 698. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.87.4.698 samaniego, a.n. (2022). under pressure: can supervisors help reduce negative outcomes of workplace telepressure? doctoral dissertation. san diego state university. santuzzi, a.m., & barber, l.k. (2018). workplace telepressure and worker well-being: the intervening role of psychological detachment. occupational health science, 2(4), 337–363. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41542-018-0022-8 scuotto, v., nespoli, c., tran, p.t., & cappiello, g. (2022). an alternative way to predict knowledge hiding: the lens of transformational leadership. journal of business research, 140(4), 76–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.11.045 sinclair, m.a., stephens, k., whiteman, k., swanson-biearman, b., & clark, j. (2021). managing and motivating the remote employee using the transformational leadership model. nurse leader, 19(3), 294–299. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2021.01.001 spagnoli, p., molino, m., molinaro, d., giancaspro, m.l., manuti, a., & ghislieri, c. (2020). workaholism and technostress during the covid-19 emergency: the crucial role of the leaders on remote working. frontiers in psychology, 11, 620310. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.620310 specchia, m.l., cozzolino, m.r., carini, e., di pilla, a., galletti, c., ricciardi, w., & damiani, g. (2021). leadership styles and nurses’ job satisfaction. results of a systematic review. international journal of environmental research and public health, 18(4), 1552. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041552 srivastava, s., & agrawal, s. (2020). resistance to change and turnover intention: a moderated mediation model of burnout and perceived organizational support. journal of organizational change management, 33(7), 1431–1447. https://doi.org/10.1108/jocm-02-2020-0063 st-hilaire, f., gilbert, m.h., & lefebvre, r. (2018). managerial practices to reduce psychosocial risk exposure: a competency-based approach. canadian journal of administrative sciences/revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration, 35(4), 535–550. https://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1506 suifan, t.s., abdallah, a.b., & al janini, m. (2018). the impact of transformational leadership on employees’ creativity: the mediating role of perceived organizational support. management research review, 41(1), 113–132. https://doi.org/10.1108/mrr-02-2017-0032 tafvelin, s., nielsen, k., von thiele schwarz, u., & stenling, a. (2019). leading well is a matter of resources: leader vigour and peer support augments the relationship between transformational leadership and burnout. work & stress, 33(2), 156–172. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2018.1513961 terkamo-moisio, a., karki, s., kangasniemi, m., lammintakanen, j., & häggman-laitila, a. (2022). towards remote leadership in health care: lessons learned from an integrative review. journal of advanced nursing, 78(3), 595–608. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.15028 wang, z., & xu, h. (2019). when and for whom ethical leadership is more effective in eliciting work meaningfulness and positive attitudes: the moderating roles of core self-evaluation and perceived organizational support. journal of business ethics, 156(4), 919–940. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3563-x wen, j., huang, s.s., & hou, p. (2019). emotional intelligence, emotional labor, perceived organizational support, and job satisfaction: a moderated mediation model. international journal of hospitality management, 81(1), 120–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2019.01.009 abstract introduction literature review method results discussion implications limitations future research acknowledgements references about the author(s) herring shava department of business management, faculty management and commerce, fort hare university, alice, east london, south africa willie t. chinyamurindi department of business management, faculty management and commerce, fort hare university, alice, east london, south africa citation shava, h., & chinyamurindi, w.t. (2021). the moderating role of career adaptability on the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee mental and physical health. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1437. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1437 original research the moderating role of career adaptability on the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee mental and physical health herring shava, willie t. chinyamurindi received: 03 july 2020; accepted: 27 jan. 2021; published: 16 nov. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: aspects of religion and spirituality are now being infused into the experience of work. the key to this is understanding how religion and spirituality affect individual and organisational functioning. research purpose: this study investigated the influence of career adaptability on workplace spirituality and employee health. in this study, employee health refers to mental and physical health. motivation for the study: this study’s context was the south african public service noted to be undergoing change affecting employees. strategies that assist employees in promoting mental and physical health are needed. research approach/design and method: quantitative data were gathered through a self-administered questionnaire, and 214 teachers took part in this study. simple linear regression and hierarchical regression analyses were performed to make meaning of the data. respondents of the study were teachers in rural high schools of south africa. main findings: the results indicate that workplace spirituality significantly influences mental and physical health. furthermore, career adaptability moderates the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee health. practical/managerial implications: given the positive role that workplace spirituality has on employee health, that is, mental and physical health, we advocate for some interventions. this could be in the form of employee-friendly policies. furthermore, training can assist in developing a heightened sense of individual and organisational workplace spirituality. contribution/value-add: paying attention to how employees develop workplace spirituality and career adaptability can encourage positive behaviours around employee health. keywords: career adaptability; workplace spirituality; mental health; physical health; employee; public service. introduction the world of work is changing. this change is mostly attributed to most economic and social issues (skaalvik & skaalvik, 2017). these positions, especially within the work psychology stream, continued inquiry from a theoretical and practitioner domain to assist individuals (savickas, 2019). in such a world of change, the individual needs career adaptability as an important responsive competence (maree, 2017). this can be in the form of re-planning, re-constructing and re-designing career plans, given the changing environmental context (rossier, ginevra, bollmann, & nauta, 2017). career adaptability is viewed as a critical factor to the individual and the organisation. links have been between career adaptability with career success, career satisfaction and well-being (savickas, 1997; savickas & porfeli, 2012). there are continued calls to understand the career adaptability construct (maree, 2018) and health outcomes (chinyamurindi, 2019). for those tasked with assisting with aspects of career counselling, there is a need to rethink practice, especially given the challenges faced (maree, 2018). the key issue is the individual’s response, or the organisation is given an uncertain environment (doyle, 2017). possible alternatives are needed to understand contemporary work challenges (skaalvik & skaalvik, 2017). there is a focus on understanding the role of religiosity and spirituality as such alternatives (garg, 2017; hill & smith, 2010). within the domain of work psychology, there is noted engagement with aspects related to religion and spirituality (e.g. giacalone & jurkiewicz, 2010; eds. hill & dik, 2012; ed. neal, 2013; zsolnai & flanagan, 2019). furthermore, there is an acknowledgement that aspects of religion and spirituality are now being infused into how individuals shape and model their behaviour as agents at an individual and collective level (lorusso, 2017; neubert, 2018; eds. pargament, mahoney, & shafranske, 2013). some argue that this allows employees to apply themselves to work through heart and soul (pfeffer, 2010). in essence, issues such as spirituality can be linked to work-related outcomes, potentially affecting employees’ general well-being (dong, wu, zhu, jin, & zhang, 2017). ashmos and duchon (2000) defined workplace spirituality as nourishing the inner life through their work. subsequently, this can also affect how individuals perceive issues of meaning (duffy & dik, 2013; duffy, dik, & steger, 2011; duffy, douglass, autin, & allan, 2014). despite these strides, foster and foster (2019) noted topics of workplace spirituality as still under-researched. this warrants further empirical attention. such inquiry angles fit within the need to develop and understand new methods that help individuals cope with the challenges of work (savickas, 2019). there is a need within the work psychology discipline to focus on aspects of employee health (follmer & jones, 2018) with concepts such as spirituality and religiosity. a starting point is to use cooper and williams’ (eds. 1994) framing of employee health as consisting of mental and physical health. the importance of employee health arises from some calls within the literature. a south african study calls for more studies that explore how employees function and flourish within their organisations (redelinghuys & rothmann, 2020). this includes at the core prioritising issues of employee health (joubert & hay, 2019). such health expressions for employees consist of physical health (eds. cooper & williams, 1994) and mental health (chinyamurindi, 2019). calls exist for more studies that prioritise employee health, especially within organisational contexts (holland & collins, 2020). the south african public service the south african public service is noted to be in a state of flux (fihla & chinyamurindi, 2018) but still acknowledged as an important vehicle in the realisation of service delivery outcomes (mafini & dlodlo, 2014). public service employees are considered to be those at the forefront of service delivery to the public. these may include (but are not limited to) teachers and social workers (barling, dupré, & kelloway, 2009). despite all this, the south african public service has to address challenges such as (1) maladministration, (2) corruption and (3) wasteful expenditure (eastern cape province office of the premier, 2018). given the nature of such services to the public, workers in the public service are often the target of abuse and aggression (dick, 2011; dubois, 2010). conversely, all these challenges seem to also have a toll on the agents of this delivery of service to the public, one of them being public employees (shibiti, 2019). the challenges faced by public employees in their delivery of work outcomes are noted to lead to high turnover (shibiti, 2019; zondo, 2018). calls exist to pay attention to understanding those factors that influence service delivery outcomes for the benefit of the public (kanyane, 2010; thornhill & van dijk, 2018). empirical efforts within the public should be targeted at also ascertaining those factors, favourable or unfavourable, that influence how public employees work (ijeoma, nzewi, & sibanda, 2013). organisational interventions like the training provided in the public service can be informed by such evidence-based research (mbandlwa & mishi, 2020; munzhedzi, 2017), and this can influence efforts towards talent (ukanwah & ndaguba, 2015) and performance management in the public service (mavhungu & bussin, 2017). empirical work that exists within the south african public service context attributes a range of factors to influence employee well-being. for instance, the usage of technology has recently been attributed to positively influencing work outcomes and was also found to negatively affect employee well-being (mahlasela & chinyamurindi, 2020). others (e.g. jumat, bezuidenhout, & neething, 2014; mbola, human, & melariri, 2019) found the public service’s under-resourced nature to have an impact not only on the outcomes of work but also on the public service employees. some challenges that affect public service employees have been attributed to have their origin in personal challenges emanating from home and society (conradie et al., 2017). these subsequently trickle into affecting the work front. these noted challenges can also create psychological distress amongst public service employees (gumani, 2019). the emphasis as enshrined within the occupational health and safety act of 1993 is on creating conducive work environments that can promote physical and mental health (sieberhagen, rothmann, & pienaar, 2009). this focuses on understanding employee health, an important individual, societal and organisational construct (welthagen & els, 2012). literature review workplace spirituality, career adaptability and employee health quests for religious and spiritual practices have been attributed to individual consciousness, a sense of purpose, health and general well-being (tackney et al., 2017). the thinking here is that practices related to workplace spirituality help generate awareness and a sense of connectedness by the individual of themselves, their family, community and natural environment (sheldrake, 2017). this is supported by theorising that when aspects of work are deemed going well, individuals derive a sense of purpose (blustein, 2015). a challenge affecting modern-day organisations is around issues of employee health. one such employee health issue noted to be on the rise globally (hasin et al., 2018) and in south africa concerns mental illness (chinyamurindi, 2019). research generally links employee health aspects to a range of outcomes, such as employee productivity (de vries, timmer, & de vries, 2015). furthermore, others attribute employee health challenges such as mental illness to be linked to the experience of stigma in the workplace (elraz, 2018) and a potential source for stereotyping (follmer & jones, 2018). the onus is often on the individual to manage their employee health issues such as mental health, given that organisations (shann, martin, & chester, 2014) and managers (martin, woods, & dawkins, 2015) are unaware of strategies of response to assist employees (martin, 2010). concerning the relationship between spirituality, career adaptability and employee health, the extant literature suggests a link amongst these three variables (e.g. brown, 2003; hancock, 1997; mitroff, 2003; wang, lesage, schmitz, & drapeau, 2008). the mentioned studies point out that workplace spirituality provides opportunities for employees to perform meaningful work willingly. this potentially results in significant employee benefits, for example, the absence of injuries leading to desired success in terms of physical and mental health. conversely, wang et al. (2008) provided evidence indicating that when an employee fails to adapt to career demands, the employee’s health deteriorates significantly owing to fatigue and depression. also, job control is another factor that indicates an individual’s ability to adapt to their career. furthermore, research also shows that low job control leads to poor employee health (amstad, meier, fasel, elfering, & semmer, 2011; hilton, sheridan, cleary, & whiteford, 2009). thus, when career adaptability is present, employee health improves significantly, and when there is a presence of spirituality in the individual, employee health benefits also increase (altaf & awan, 2011; ahmad & omar, 2014; issa & pick, 2011; karakas, 2010; prior & quinn, 2012; van der walt & de klerk, 2014). research by rego and cunha (2007) found that employees who experience workplace spirituality felt more effectively attached to their organisations. also, ng and allen’s (2018) research suggested that there is a significant positive relationship between workplace attachment and employee health. it may be correct to assume that workplace spirituality predicts employee health, given that it also predicts workplace attachment, as evidence shows this as a proven predictor of employee health (dykas & cassidy, 2011; meuwly et al., 2012). based on the presented literature, it can be expected that: h1: workplace spirituality predicts employee mental health. h2: workplace spirituality predicts employee physical health. an assumption can be made about the interaction between workplace spirituality and career adaptability. this interaction can be found in each variable’s role in career development or the work–life experience. harry and coetzee (2013) flagged demographic factors such as age, gender and meaningfulness on an individual’s career adaptability. research has also pointed out that workplace spirituality enables employees to find meaning and fulfilment in life and in their work (garg, 2017; göçen, 2017; krishnakumar & neck, 2002; petchsawanga & duchon, 2012; smith & louw, 2007). this also posits the possibility of using career adaptability as a way to navigate through challenges that may result as part of individual career development (savickas, 2013). the thinking here is that constructs such as career adaptability can help individuals navigate through their career roles and impose a more meaningful work and home life (chen et al., 2020). the context in which public service workers operate has been attributed to a range of challenges. some researchers attribute the challenge of aggression meted out to public service workers by the public to result in burnout, reduced well-being and less organisational commitment (hershcovis & barling, 2010). others find such experiences to reduce motivation and a desire to serve the public (vandenabeele, 2008) and aspects of trust (van de walle, 2010). strategies that assist in devising interventions to reduce stress and subsequently promote employee health are needed (chinyamurindi, 2019). based on the literature, one such outlet can be through workplace spirituality. despite such experiences being varied, the argument is how the individual can derive a sense of transcendence by viewing their lives, including work experience, as meaningful and fulfilling a purpose of service to others (millinan, gatling, & bradley-geist, 2017; saks, 2011). based on this presented literature, the following hypotheses are proposed: h3: career adaptability moderates the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee mental health such that when career adaptability is high, the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee mental health is stronger. h4: career adaptability moderates the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee physical health such that when career adaptability is high, the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee physical health is stronger. goal of the study this study aimed to investigate the moderating effect of career adaptability on the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee health. the study’s specific research question was, ‘what is the influence of career adaptability on the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee mental and physical health?’ figure 1 presents the conceptual model tested in this study. figure 1: conceptual model. as argued by pawar (2016), workplace spirituality is an area receiving much empirical attention globally. such studies are necessary, especially in organisations, as individuals carry aspects related to spirituality in such contexts (van der walt & de klerk, 2015). in this study, we sought to contribute to this literature and answer such calls by investigating whether workplace spirituality predicts employee health. we went a step further in our quest to understand this proposed relationship, and we factored in career adaptability as a moderating variable (shown in figure 1). by so doing, we investigated whether career adaptability moderates the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee mental and physical health. to provide answers to proposed relationships, we relied on data collected from a sample of rural public high school educators in south africa, as explained in the next section. method participants and setting the study participants comprised a convenience sample of 214 teachers working in the eastern cape province of south africa who were accessed over a 10-month period in 2018. the sample by gender consisted of 54% women and 46% men; the sample by race consisted of mostly the black population cohort (95%) and mixed race people (5%). about 25% of the participants were below the age of 30 years, 33% were between 30 and 40 years, 36% were between 41 and 50 years, whilst 6% were in the 51 years and above category. furthermore, 70% of the sample had over 10 years of work experience. measures given that three main constructs existed in this study, this section reports on the measures used for these constructs. career adaptability was measured through four subscales on a measure originally designed by savickas and porfeli (2012). the career adaptability scale had four subscales: (1) concern, (2) control, (3) curiosity and (4) confidence. the concern subscale was made up of six items. an example of the scale items includes, ‘thinking about what my future will be like’. the control subscale also had six items, and an example of the scale items is, ‘taking responsibility for my actions’. the curiosity subscale also had six items where one of the scale items reads, ‘looking for opportunities to grow’. finally, the confidence subscale was made up of six scale items, and an example of the scale item is, ‘learning new skills’. all the 24 career adaptability scale items were rated on a five-point likert scale (1 = not strong and 5 = strongest). workplace spirituality was measured by three dimensions: meaningfulness of work, sense of community and alignment with organisational goals. other scholars used the work spirituality scale adopted in this study (e.g. ashmos & duchon, 2000; milliman, czaplewski, & ferguson, 2003). the meaningfulness of the work dimension was measured through four scale items, and an example of the scale items includes, ‘i understand what gives my work personal meaning’. the sense of community subscale was made up of four scale items where one of the scale items reads, ‘i think employees are linked with a common purpose’. the alignment with the organisational value subscale was made up of four scale items. an example of the scale is, ‘my organisation has a conscience – a sense of right or wrong’. all 12 workplace spirituality scale items were measured on a five-point likert scale, where 1 represents ‘strongly disagree’ and 5 being the highest rating represented ‘strongly agree’. employee mental health was measured by a scale with six items developed by wu (1984). an example of the scale item is, ‘during the past 30 days, i have often felt restless or fidgety’. to measure the employee physical health, a scale developed by cleeland and ryan (1994) was adopted. this scale comprises six items, and an example is, ‘in the past 30 days, did health issues interfere with walking ability?’ both mental and physical health items were measured on a five-point likert scale, where 0 represents none of the time and 4 represents all the time. procedure participants consented to participate in the study and were approached over a 10-month period at teaching and learning summits organised within the eastern cape province of south africa. these summits would see the gathering together of teachers, and the researchers used the opportunity to collect data through the filling out of a survey. participants in the study were informed of their rights, including the right to withdraw from the study without any penalty. no identification was made to any participants in the study. data analysis given the presented research model in figure 1, a simple linear regression analysis was utilised to measure direct relationships – the effect of workplace spirituality on employee mental health and physical health. a hierarchical multiple regression analysis was undertaken to measure the moderating effect of career adaptability on employee mental and physical health. the statistical package for social sciences version 25 was used to perform the statistical analysis. ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained from the university of fort hare research ethics committee (reference number chl151shar01). results outcomes of reliability tests we performed reliability tests of the career adaptability scale and found associated cronbach’s alpha coefficients as follows: concern (0.735), control (0.718), curiosity (0.742) and confidence (0.739). the cronbach’s alpha coefficient scores of the workplace spirituality subscales were 0.804 for the meaningfulness of work, 0.821 for alignment with organisational values and 0.762 for the sense of community scale. the mental health taken from a previous study (wu, 1984) yielded a cronbach’s alpha coefficient score of 0.751, and the physical health scale had a cronbach’s alpha coefficient score of 0.80. based on the analysis we conducted, all scales used yielded a cronbach’s alpha coefficient above the recommended threshold of 0.7 (cronbach, 1951; nunnally, 1978). workplace spirituality and employee mental health this study hypothesised that workplace spirituality predicts employee mental health. before the simple linear regression was performed, the independent variable (iv) and the dependent variable (dv) data were checked to determine whether it had adhered to normality assumptions. the normality tests, that is, the kolmogorov–smirnov and the shapiro–wilk tests, were performed and observed, and the results for both tests, the iv and the dv data, have a p-value of less than 0.05, indicating that the data did not conform to the assumptions of normality. as a result, the researchers had to perform the simple linear regression analysis with bootstrapped confidence intervals (cis) and their significance levels as these do not rely on assumptions of normality and homoscedasticity. the simple linear regression analysis was performed with workplace spirituality as an iv and employee mental health as a dv. the results revealed a moderate positive correlation between workplace spirituality and employee mental health (r = 0.427). furthermore, the results revealed that workplace spirituality accounts for 18.3% of the variation in employee mental health (r2 = 0.183). the results further informed us that approximately 82% of the variation in employee mental health is explained by factors other than workplace spirituality, which are not accounted for by this model. however, if we are to better understand the concept of employee mental health, this result suggests that it is worth paying special attention to workplace spirituality. given this result, cohen’s f2 or the regression effect, which measures the iv impact on the dv, is 0.224. in other words, the impact of workplace spirituality on employee mental health ranges from medium to large. the cohen’s f2 was derived using the formula r2/(1 − r2). the f ratio that seeks to explain whether the use of the model in predicting employee mental health was significantly better than relying on the mean value of employee mental health was examined, and the results revealed a significant f = 47.352 at p < 0.05. in other words, making use of this model is significantly better in predicting employee mental health as opposed to making use of the employee mental health mean value. table 1 summarises the above results. table 1: simple linear regression model fit and summary for workplace spirituality on employee mental health. the estimates of the model were observed as b0 = 17.323 and b1 = 0.19. the b1 value represents a change in the outcome variable because of a unit change in the explanatory variable; and from this result, we learn that a unit change in workplace spirituality results in a corresponding positive change in employee mental health of 0.19 units. more importantly, this change is significant at p < 0.05. in other words, the hypothesis stating that workplace spirituality predicts employee mental health is supported. the discussed results are summarised in table 2. table 2: parameter estimates for workplace spirituality on employee mental health. workplace spirituality and employee physical health to test the hypothesis stating that workplace spirituality predicts employee physical health, the iv and the dv data were examined to determine whether it adhered to normality assumptions. both the kolmogorov–smirnov and the shapiro–wilk tests were examined, and the results pointed out that the iv and the dv data violated the assumptions of normality as the p-values were less than 0.05. given that the data did not adhere to normality assumptions, the simple linear regression analysis was performed, and bootstrapped cis and their significance levels were requested as these do not rely on assumptions of normality and homoscedasticity. in the simple linear regression model, workplace spirituality was the explanatory variable, and employee physical health was the outcome variable. the model summary results indicated a weak to moderate positive relationship between workplace spirituality and employee physical health (r = 0.382). furthermore, it was observed that workplace spirituality accounted for 14.6% of the variance in employee physical health (r2 = 0.146). this implies that approximately 85% of the variation in employee physical health is accounted for by factors other than workplace spirituality. cohen’s f2 given as the stated formula gives us the result of 0.171, which informs us that workplace spirituality has a medium impact on employee physical health. however, if we are to extend our understanding of employee physical health, the stated results suggest that it is worth paying more attention to the concept of workplace spirituality. the f-ratio results explaining whether the model is significantly better in predicting employee physical health than relying on the mean value of employee physical health revealed that f = 36.193 and significant at p < 0.05. this result means that the model is significantly better in predicting employee physical health than relying on the mean value of employee physical health. the discussed results are presented in table 3. table 3: simple linear regression model fit and summary for workplace spirituality on employee physical health. the estimates of the model were observed as b0 = 21.055 and b1 = 0.152. the value of b1 represents a unit change in the outcome variable because of a unit change in the explanatory variable. from this result, we learn that a unit change in workplace spirituality will result in a corresponding positive charge equal to 0.152 units in employee physical health. this change is significant at p < 0.05. given this result, we fail to reject the hypothesis stating that workplace spirituality predicts employee physical health as there is enough evidence to back this claim. the results discussed are outlined in table 4. table 4: parameter estimates for workplace spirituality on employee physical health. linear predictors of mental health h3: career adaptability moderates the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee mental health such that when career adaptability is high, the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee mental health is stronger. to examine the stated hypothesis, a hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis was performed with career adaptability as a moderating variable, workplace spirituality as the iv and employee mental health as the dv. the study results focusing on the conditional effects of the iv on the dv at values of the moderator indicated that (1) when career adaptability is low, to be precise when career adaptability is −4.62, there is a non-significant positive relationship between workplace spirituality and employee mental health (b = 0.046, 95% ci [−0.031, 0.123], t = 1.17, p = 0.241); (2) when career adaptability is −1.62, there is a significant positive relationship between workplace spirituality and employee mental health (b = 0.075, 95% ci [0.0111, 0.138], t = 2.316, p = 0.02); and (3) when career adaptability is high at 4.379, there is a significant positive relationship between workplace spirituality and employee mental health (b = 0.0132, 95% ci [0.06, 0.204], t = 3.618, p = 0.0004). table 5 presents these results. table 5: conditional effects of the focal predictor at values of the moderator(s). the johnson–neyman method was further examined, and it revealed that the threshold for significance between workplace spirituality and employee mental health relationship ends when career adaptability is equal to −2.48, and at this value, a weak but positive significant relationship between workplace spirituality and employee mental health is observed (b = 0.066, 95% ci [0.000, 0.133], t = 1.971, p = 0.05). the results are presented in table 6. table 6: conditional effects of the focal predictor at values of the moderator(s)/johnson–neyman significance region(s). the johnson–neyman method also revealed that with increases in the value of career adaptability, the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee mental health goes from a small significant positive relationship (b = 0.066, p = 0.05) to a fairly stronger significant positive relationship (b = 0.27, p = 0.0048) at career adaptability = 19.38. given this outcome, we fail to reject the null hypothesis as there is enough evidence to support the study’s claim and conclude that when career adaptability is high, the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee mental health is significant and stronger. table 7 presents bootstrapped results of the linear predictors of employee mental and physical health. the value of r2 = 0.3023 in relation to linear predictors of mental health is observed, and with it, the cohen’s f2 is derived as 0.43. this indicates that the effect of workplace spirituality on employee mental health in the presence of the moderating variable (i.e. career adaptability) is substantial. the results mean that in order for workplace spirituality to have a meaningful impact on employee mental health in the workplace, intervention measures should be designed to enhance employee career adaptability. table 7: bootstrap results for employee mental and physical health. linear predictors of physical health h4: career adaptability moderates the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee physical health such that when career adaptability is high, the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee physical health is stronger. to investigate the stated hypothesis, a hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis was performed with career adaptability as a moderating variable, workplace spirituality as the iv and employee physical health as the dv. the study results, shown in table 8, explaining the conditional effects of iv on the dv at values of moderating variable revealed that (1) when career adaptability is low, to be precise career adaptability is −4.622, there is a non-significant positive relationship between workplace spirituality and employee physical health (b = 0.045, 95% ci [−0.028, 0118], t = 1.212, p = 0.227); (2) when career adaptability is −1.622, there is a significant positive relationship between workplace spirituality and employee physical health (b = 0.071, 95% ci [0.01, 0.131], t = 2.31, p = 0.022); and (3) when career adaptability is high, that is, 4.379, there is a significant positive relationship between workplace spirituality and employee physical health (b = 0.122, 95% ci [0.053, 0.190], t = 3.51, p = 0.000). table 8: conditional effects of the focal predictor at values of the moderator(s). furthermore, the output of the johnson–neyman method was examined, as shown in table 9, and it revealed that career adaptability value of −2.49 was the minimum threshold for a significant positive relationship between workplace spirituality and employee physical health (b = 0.063, 95% ci [0.000, 0.13], t = 1.97, p = 0.05). the results further revealed that as the career adaptability values increased, the strength of the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee physical health grew from a small significant positive effect (i.e. career adaptability is −2.494, b = 0.063, p = 0.05) to a relatively strong significant positive effect (career adaptability is 18.38, b = 0.24, p = 0.007). given this result, the study fails to reject the hypothesis, stating that career adaptability moderates the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee physical health as there is enough evidence to support this claim. this result means that career adaptability plays a pivotal role in the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee physical health. also, the cohen’s f2 equal to 0.28 reveals that workplace spirituality in the presence of a moderating variable (career adaptability) has an above-average impact on employee physical health. in other words, in order for workplace spirituality to have a meaningful impact on employee physical health, an intervention mechanism targeted at enhancing employee career adaptability issues should be designed. table 9: conditional effects of the focal predictor at values of the moderator(s)/johnson–neyman significance region(s). discussion the study aimed at investigating the influence of career adaptability on the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee health. based on the findings of this study, career adaptability is framed as an important construct in the career development process (maree, 2017; rossier et al., 2017; savickas et al., 2009). we illustrate this in a threefold manner. firstly, we place focus on a context that is noted to be in a state of flux (fihla & chinyamurindi, 2018) in the form of the south african public service. through this study, we proffer solutions to some of the south african public service challenges, especially given the documented employee challenges (ijeoma et al., 2013; shibiti, 2019; zondo, 2018). secondly, concerning workplace spirituality, we suggest this as a possible intervention that can be encouraged to assist in public service employees’ well-being. the study results provide evidence that workplace spirituality has an impact on employee mental health that is above average (cohen’s f2 = 0.224) and an impact on employee physical health that is slightly above average. these findings are in line with previous researches which concluded that workplace spirituality positively predicts employee mental health (dykas & cassidy, 2011; meuwly et al., 2012; ng & allen, 2018). finally, our study illustrates the importance of career adaptability away from factors such as a person’s career success, satisfaction and well-being (dong et al., 2017; savickas, 1997; savickas & porfeli, 2012) to focus on employee mental and physical health outcomes. as observed, in the presence of career adaptability, the impact of workplace spirituality on employee mental health is large (cohen’s f2 = 0.43). similarly, in the presence of career adaptability, the impact of workplace spirituality on employee physical health is slightly below large (cohen’s f2 = 0.28). this finding concurs with the empirical evidence which pointed out that when career adaptability is present, there is an improvement in employee health, that is, both mental and physical health (ahmad & omar, 2014; altaf & awan, 2011; issa & pick, 2011; karakas, 2010; prior & quinn, 2012; van der walt & de klerk, 2014). in essence, through this study, we answer calls to more studies exploring workplace spirituality (foster & foster, 2019; garg, 2017; hill & smith, 2010). in essence, workplace spirituality and career adaptability can exist as useful contemporary competencies that help employees cope with the challenge of work (savickas, 2019) and improve their health, albeit in an ever-changing environment. implications some practical implications can be drawn from this study. firstly, given the positive role of workplace spirituality on employee health (both mental and physical health), we advocate for some interventions. these could be in the form of encouraging employees regarding issues related to workplace spirituality. this could be in the form of employee-friendly policies. furthermore, training can assist in developing a heightened sense of individual and organisational workplace spirituality. secondly, given the moderating role of career adaptability on the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee health, support intervention that assists employee adaptability to changes can be provided. this can be done through an effective and efficient ongoing programme of career counselling that focuses on developing aspects of workplace spirituality to improve employee health. a point of departure could be to identify and address those inhibitors of career adaptability and workplace spirituality. limitations out study has some limitations. we acknowledge challenges with obtaining a reliable sampling frame. therefore, caution should be exercised not only when interpreting the findings of this research but also when concerning generalisability issues. our study utilised self-report measures, which may potentially result in issues of social desirability bias. future research future research could also utilise qualitative research methods to capture the ensuing complexity that can arise out of career adaptability as a processual activity, including the role of workplace spirituality in such processes. furthermore, it will be interesting for a multi-industry study to ascertain whether any variation potentially exists. our study heightens focus on the role of workplace spirituality and career adaptability on employee health amongst a sample of public service employees. our study is a useful basis for providing evidence to improve employee health quests through individual and organisation interventions. conclusion this research provides evidence for the role of workplace spirituality as an organisational variable and its influence on employee health to include mental and physical health. the findings become relevant, especially within a changing workplace that should be cognisant of the role of values such as spirituality. this becomes critical, especially in some workplace contexts laden with challenges putting a physical and mental strain on employees. in addition to workplace spirituality, individual experiences of career adaptability are also important in assisting employees. acknowledgements the researchers acknowledge the role of the respondents in the public service for taking part in the survey. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interest that may have influenced the undertaking of this research. authors’ contributions h.s. and w.t.c. conceptualised and designed the study. w.t.c. structured, wrote part of the literature review and discussed the results. h.s. also undertook literature review, oversaw the data collection, carried out the analysis and reported the results. funding information this study was funded by the south african medical research council under the self-initiated research grant awarded to prof willie chinyamurindi between 2018 and 2020. additional funding was sourced internally at the university of fort hare, faculty of management and commerce’s research niche area. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [h.s.], upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and are not an official position of the institution or funder. references ahmad, a., & omar, z. (2014). reducing deviant behavior through workplace spirituality and job satisfaction. asian social science, 10(19), 107–112. https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v10n19p107 altaf, a., & awan, m.a. (2011). moderating effect of workplace spirituality on the relationship of job overload and job satisfaction. journal of business ethics, 104(1), 93–99. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0891-0 amstad, f., meier, l., fasel, u., elfering, a., & semmer, n. (2011). a meta-analysis of work-family conflict and various outcomes with a special emphasis on cross-domain versus matchingdomain relations. journal of occupational health psychology, 16(2), 151–169. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022170 ashmos, d.p., & duchon, d. (2000). spirituality at work: a conceptualization and measure. journal of management inquiry, 9(2), 134–145. https://doi.org/10.1177/105649260092008 barling, j., dupré, k.e., & kelloway, e.k. (2009). predicting workplace aggression and violence. annual review of psychology, 60, 671–692. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163629 blustein, d.l. (2019). the importance of work in an age of uncertainty: the eroding work experience in america. new york: oxford university press. brown, r.b. (2003). organizational spirituality: the sceptic’s version. organization, 10(2), 393–400. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508403010002013 chen, h., fang, t., liu, f., pang, l., wen, y., chen, s., & gu, x. (2020). career adaptability research: a literature review with scientific knowledge mapping in web of science. international journal of environmental research public health, 17(16), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/9793425 chinyamurindi, w.t. (2019). mental health research in african organisations: advancing theory and practice. south african journal of industrial psychology, 45(0), a1727. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v45i0.1727 cleeland, c.s., & ryan, k.m. (1994). pain assessment: the global use of the brief pain inventory. annals academy of medicine singapore, 23(2), 129–138. conradie, m., erwee, d., serfontein, i., visser, m., calitz, f.j.w., & joubert, g. (2017). a profile of perceived stress factors among nursing staff working with intellectually disabled in-patients at the free state psychiatric complex, south africa. curationis, 40(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/curationis.v40i1.1578 cooper, c.l., & williams, s. (eds.). (1994). creating healthy work organizations. chichester, uk: university of michigan, john wiley sons. cronbach, l.j. (1951). coefficient alpha coefficient and the internal structure of tests. psychometrika, 16, 297–334. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02310555 de vries, g.j., timmer, m.p., & de vries, k. (2015). structural transformation in africa: static gains, dynamic losses. journal of development studies, 51(6), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2014.997222 dick, g.p. (2011). the influence of managerial and job variables on organizational commitment in the police. public administration, 89(2), 557–576. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2010.01874.x dong, m., wu, s., zhu, y., jin, s., & zhang, y. (2017). secular examination of spirituality-prosociality association. archive for the psychology of religion, 39(1), 61–81. https://doi.org/10.1163/15736121-12341332 doyle, a. (2017). how often do people change jobs? the balance careers. retrieved from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-often-do-people-change-jobs2060467 dubois, v. (2010). the bureaucrat and the poor: encounters in french welfare offices. aldershot: ashgate. duffy, r.d., & dik, b.j. (2013). research on calling: what have we learned and where are we going? journal of vocational behaviour, 83(3), 428–436. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.06.006 duffy, r.d., dik, b.j., & steger, m. (2011). calling and work-related outcomes: career commitment as a mediator. journal of vocational behaviour, 78(2), 210–218. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2010.09.013 duffy, r.d., douglass, r.p., autin, k.l., & allan, b.a. (2014). examining predictors and outcomes of a career calling among undergraduate students. journal of vocational behaviour, 85(3), 309–318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2014.08.009 dykas, m.j., & cassidy, j. (2011). attachment and the processing of social information across the life span: theory and evidence. psychological bulletin, 137(1), 19–46. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021367 eastern cape province office of the premier. (2018). annual report: 2017/2018 – vote 1. ec provincial government of south africa. retrieved from http://www.ecprov.gov.za/knowledgehub/documents/annual%20report%20(2017-18).pdf elraz, h. (2018). identity, mental health and work: how employees with mental health conditions recount stigma and the pejorative discourse of mental illness. human relations, 71(5), 722–741. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726717716752 fihla, s., & chinyamurindi, w. (2018). human resources management practices on employee commitment: the case of a local municipality in south africa. journal of public administration, 53(2), 215–233. follmer, k.b., & jones, k.s. (2018). mental illness in the workplace: an interdisciplinary review and organizational research agenda. journal of management, 44(1), 325–351. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206317741194 foster, s., & foster, a. (2019). the impact of workplace spirituality on work-based learners: individual and organisational level perspectives. journal of work-applied management, 11(1), 63–75. https://doi.org/10.1108/jwam-06-2019-0015 garg, n. (2017). workplace spirituality and employee well-being: an empirical exploration. journal of human values, 23(2), 129–147. https://doi.org/10.1177/0971685816689741 giacalone, r.a., & jurkiewicz, c.l. (2010). handbook of workplace spirituality and organizational performance (2nd edn.). new york: m. e. sharpe. göçen, a. (2017). an experimental implementation to develop workplace spirituality in educational organizations. unpublished doctoral thesis. gaziantep university educational sciences. gumani, m.a. (2019). the influence of organisational stressors on the well-being and performance of operational police members. south african journal of industrial psychology, 45, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v45i0.1674 hancock, p.g. (1997). citizenship or vassalage? organizational membership in the age of unreason. organization, 4(1), 93–111. https://doi.org/10.1177/135050849741006 harry, n., & coetzee, m. (2013). sense of coherence, career adaptability and burnout of early-career black staff in the call centre environment. south african journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1138 hasin, d.s., sarvet, a.l., meyers, j.l., saha, t.d., ruan, w.j., stohl, m., & grant, b.f. (2019). epidemiology of adult dsm-5 major depressive disorder and its specifiers in the united states. jama psychiatry, 75(4), 336–346. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2017.4602 hershcovis, m.s., & barling, j. (2010). towards a multi-foci approach to workplace aggression: a meta-analytic review of outcomes from different perpetrators. journal of organizational behaviour, 31(1), 24–44. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.621 hill, p.c., & dik, b.j. (eds.). (2012). psychology of religion and workplace spirituality. charlotte, nc: information age publish. hill, p. c., & smith, g. s. (2010). coming to terms with spirituality and religion in the workplace. in r.a. giacalone & c.l. jurkiewicz (eds.), the handbook of workplace spirituality and organizational performance (2nd edn., pp. 171–184). new york: m. e. sharpe. hilton, m.f., sheridan, j., cleary, c.m., & whiteford, h.a. (2009). employee absenteeism measures reflecting current work practices may be instrumental in a re-evaluation of the relationship between psychological distress/mental health and absenteeism. international journal of methods in psychiatric research, 18(1), 37–47. https://doi.org/10.1002/mpr.275 holland, p., & collins, a.m. (2020). supporting and retaining employees with rheumatoid arthritis: the importance of workplace social support. the international journal of human resource management, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2020.1737175 ijeoma, e., nzewi, o., & sibanda, m. (2013). south africa’s public administration for community development. pretoria: verity publishers. issa, t., & pick, d. (2011). ethical mindsets in the australian services sector. asia pacific journal of business and management, 1(1), 29–42. joubert, c., & hay, j. (2019). capacitating postgraduate education students with lay counselling competencies via the culturally appropriate bibliotherapeutic read-me-to-resilience intervention. south african journal of education, 39(3), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v39n3a1543 jumat, j.d., bezuidenhout, m.c., & neethling, t.g. (2014). pre-deployment preparation of military nurses of the south african national defence force for participation in peace support operations. curationis, 37(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/curationis.v37i1.75 kanyane, m.h. (2010). public service delivery issues in question. in k. kondo & m.h. maserumule (eds.), the zuma administration: critical challenges (pp. 77–94). pretoria: hsrc press. karakas, f. (2010). spirituality and performance in organizations: a literature review. journal of business ethics, 94(1), 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0251-5 krishnakumar, s., & neck, c.p. (2002). the “what,” “why” and “how” of spirituality in the workplace. journal of managerial psychology, 17(3), 153–164. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940210423060 lorusso, j.d. (2017). spirituality, corporate culture, and american business. new york: bloomsbury academic publishing. mafini, c., & dlodlo, n. (2014). the relationship between extrinsic motivation, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction amongst employees in a public organisation. south african journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1166 mahlasela, s., & chinyamurindi, w.t. (2020). technology-related factors and their influence on turnover intentions: a case of government employees in south africa. the electronic journal of information systems in developing countries, 86(3), e12126. https://doi.org/10.1002/isd2.12126 maree, j.g. (2018). contextualisation is a determining factor for career counselling throughout the world. in j.a. athanasou & h.n. perera (eds.), international handbook of career guidance (2nd edn., pp. 555–578). switzerland: springer international publishing. maree, k. (2017). psychology of career adaptability, employability and resilience. switzerland: springer international publishing. martin, a. (2010). individual and contextual correlates of managers’ attitudes towards depressed employees. human resource management, 49(4), 647–668. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20370 martin, a., woods, m., & dawkins, s. (2015). managing employees with mental health issues: identification of conceptual and procedural knowledge for development within management education curricula. academy of management learning & education, 14(1), 50–68. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2012.0287 mavhungu, d., & bussin, m.h.r. (2017). the mediation role of motivation between leadership and public sector performance. south african journal of human resource management, 15, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.840 mbandlwa, z., & mishi, s. (2020). ward councillors’ leadership characteristics and their impact on service delivery: case of ethekwini metropolitan municipality, south africa, in 2018. journal of local government research and innovation, 1, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/jolgri.v1i0.5 mbola, p., human, i.s., & melariri, p.e. (2019). environmental health community service: confronting the human resource challenges. south african journal of human resource management, 17, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1135 meuwly, n., bodenmann, g., germann, j., bradbury, t.n., ditzen, b., & heinrichs, m. (2012). dyadic coping, insecure attachment, and cortisol stress recovery following experimentally induced stress. journal of family psychology, 26(6), 937–947. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030356 milliman, j., czaplewski, a.j., & ferguson, j. (2003). workplace spirituality and employee work attitudes: an exploratory empirical assessment. journal of organizational change management, 16(4), 426–447. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810310484172 milliman, j., gatling, a., & bradley-geist, j.c. (2017). the implications of workplace spirituality for person–environment fit theory. psychology of religion and spirituality, 9(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000068 mitroff, i.i. (2003). do not promote religion under the guise of spirituality. organization, 10(2), 375–382. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508403010002011 munzhedzi, p.h. (2017). a reflection on the relationship between performance management and training in the south african public service. south african journal of human resource management, 15, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.864 neal, j. (ed.). (2013). handbook of faith and spirituality in the workplace. switzerland: springer international publishing. neubert, m.j. (2018). with or without spirit: implications for scholarship and leadership. academy of management perspectives, 33(3), 253–263. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2016.0172 ng, t.w.h., & allen, t.d. (2018). organizational attachment and health. journal of vocational behavior, 107, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2018.03.003 nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory (2nd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. pargament, k.i., mahoney, a., & shafranske, e.p. (eds.). (2013). apa handbook of psychology, religion, and spirituality: an applied psychology of religion and spirituality (vol. 2). washington, dc: american psychological association. pawar, b.s. (2016). workplace spirituality and employee well-being: an empirical examination. employee relations, 38(6), 975–994. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-11-2015-0215 petchsawanga, p., & duchon, d. (2012). workplace spirituality, mediation and work performance. journal of management, spirituality & religion, 9(2), 189–208. https://doi.org/10.1080/14766086.2012.688623 pfeffer, j. (2010). business and the spirit: management practices that sustain values. in r.a. giacalone & c.l. jurkiewicz (eds.), handbook of workplace spirituality and organisational performance (pp. 27–43). new york: m. e. sharpe. prior, m.k., & quinn, a.s. (2012). the relationship between spirituality and social justice advocacy: attitudes of social work students. journal of religion & spirituality in social work: social thought, 31(1–2), 172–192. https://doi.org/10.1080/15426432.2012.647965 redelinghuys, k., & rothmann, s. (2020). exploring the prevalence of workplace flourishing amongst teachers over time. south african journal of industrial psychology, 45, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v46i0.1764 rego, a., & cunha, m.p. (2007). workplace spirituality and organisational commitment: an empirical study. journal of organisational change management, 21(1), 53–75. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810810847039 rossier, j., ginevra, m.c., bollmann, g., & nauta, l. (2017). the importance of career adaptability, career resilience, and employability in designing a successful life. in j.g. maree (ed.), handbook of career adaptability, employability, and resilience (pp. 65–84). switzerland: springer international publishing. saks, a.m. (2011). workplace spirituality and employee engagement. journal of management, spirituality and religion, 8(4), 317–340. https://doi.org/10.1080/14766086.2011.630170 savickas, m. (1997). career adaptability: an integrative construct for life-span, life-space theory. career development quarterly, 45(3), 247–259. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.1997.tb00469.x savickas, m.l. (2013). career construction theory and practice. in r.w. lent & s.d. brown (eds.), career development and counseling: putting theory and research to work (2nd edn., pp. 144–180). hoboken, nj: john wiley and sons. savickas, m.l. (2019). career counselling. washington, dc: american psychological association. savickas, m.l., & porfeli, e.j. (2012). career adapt-abilities scale: construction, reliability, and measurement equivalence across 13 countries. journal of vocational behaviour, 80(3), 661–673. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2012.01.011 savickas, m.l., nota, l., rossier, j., dauwalder, j.p., duarte, m.e., guichard, j., & van vianen, a.e.m. (2009). life designing: a paradigm for career construction in the 21th century. journal of vocational behaviour, 75, 239–250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.04.004 shann, c., martin, a.j., & chester, a. (2014). improving workplace mental health: a training needs analysis to inform beyondblue’s online resource for leaders. asia pacific journal of human resources, 52(3), 298–315. https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7941.12032 sheldrake, r. (2017). science and spiritual practices: transformative experiences and their effects on our bodies, brains and health. london: hodder stoughton. shibiti, r. (2019). satisfaction with retention factors in relation to job embeddedness of public school teachers. south african journal human resource management, 17, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1161 sieberhagen, c., rothmann, s., & pienaar, j. (2009). employee health and wellness in south africa: the role of legislation and management standards. south african journal of human resources management, 7(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.144 skaalvik, e.m., & skaalvik, s. (2017). teacher stress and teacher self-efficacy as predictors of engagement, emotional exhaustion, and motivation to leave the teaching profession. creative education, 7(13), 1785–1799. https://doi.org/10.4236/ce.2016.713182 smith, d., & louw, m. (2007). conceptualisation of the spiritual life dimension: a personal and professional leadership perspective. south african journal of human resource management, 5(1), 19–27. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v5i1.104 tackney, c.t., chappell, s., harris, d., pavlovich, k., egel, e., major, r., … stoner, j. (2017). management, spirituality, and religion (msr) ways and means: a paper to encourage quality research. journal of management, spirituality & religion, 14(3), 245–254. https://doi.org/10.1080/14766086.2017.1316764 thornhill, c., & van dijik, c. (2018). public administration theory: justification for conceptualisation. research articles, school of public management and administration (spma). retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2263/14976 ukanwah, c.h., & ndaguba, e.a. (2015). management in achieving competitive advantage in nigerian public organisations under the global economy. africa’s public service delivery & performance review, 3(3), 177–196. https://doi.org/10.4102/apsdpr.v3i3.94 vandenabeele, w. (2008). government calling: public service motivation as an element in selecting government as an employer of choice. public administration, 86(4), 1089–1105. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2008.00728.x van der walt, f., & de klerk, j.j. (2014). workplace spirituality and job satisfaction. international review of psychiatry, 26(3), 379–389. https://doi.org/10.3109/09540261.2014.908826 van der walt, f., & de klerk, j.j. (2015). the experience of spirituality in a multicultural and diverse work environment. african and asian studies, 14(4), 253–288. https://doi.org/10.1163/15692108-12341346 van de walle, s. (2010). new public management: restoring the public trust through creating distrust? in t. christensen & p. lægreid (eds.), the ashgate research companion to new public management (pp. 309–320). aldershot: ashgate. wang, j., lesage, a., schmitz, n., & drapeau, a. (2008). the relationship between work stress and mental disorders in men and women: findings from a population-based study. journal of epidemiology and community health, 62(1), 42–47. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2006.050591 welthagen, c., & els, c. (2012). depressed, not depressed or unsure: prevalence and the relation to well-being across sectors in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 38(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v38i1.984 wu, w.y. (1984). clinical global impression test. shanghai mental health journal, 2, 9–21. zondo, r.w.d. (2018). the influence of a 360-degree performance appraisal on labour productivity in an automotive manufacturing organisation. south african journal of economic management sciences, 21(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v21i1.2046 zsolnai, l., & flanagan, b. (2019). routledge international handbook of spirituality in society and the professions. london: routledge. abstract introduction literature review methodology study results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) philani m. khumalo department of entrepreneurial studies and management, faculty of management sciences, durban university of technology, durban, south africa robert w.d. zondo department of entrepreneurial studies and management, faculty of management sciences, durban university of technology, durban, south africa citation khumalo, p.m., & zondo, r.w.d. (2021). perception of the influence of cultural diversity on business performance in the automotive component manufacturing in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1451. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1451 original research perception of the influence of cultural diversity on business performance in the automotive component manufacturing in south africa philani m. khumalo, robert w.d. zondo received: 04 aug. 2020; accepted: 09 feb. 2021; published: 30 mar. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: global market demands that organisations remain competitive, flexible and relevant in order to adequately react to culturally diverse changes in their human resources. this sentiment describes the importance of cultural diversity in organisations. however, cultural diversity phenomenon has not been given serious attention by business. research purpose: this study examines the perception on the influence of cultural diversity on business performance in automotive component manufacturers in south africa. motivation for the study: cultural diversity in the organisation has grown over the passage of time with an increase in globalisation. people no longer live in an insular environment. they are part of the worldwide economy competing within a global framework. hence, cultural diversity becomes a way of creating competitive advantage. research design, approach and methods: the study was quantitative in design, with middle-level managers in two large automotive component manufacturers in the ethekwini district municipality in kwazulu-natal participating in the study. of the 168 individuals identified for participation, 118 participated in the study, representing a 70.2% response rate. descriptive, correlative and t-tests, using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) were used to analyse the data. main findings: study results indicates that a culturally diverse workforce is associated with greater organisational performance, improved strategic decision-making and innovation. hence, organisations must manage cultural diversity among their workforce for the improvement of business performance. managerial implications: culturally diverse workforce are associated with greater organisational performance, improved strategic decision-making and innovation. hence, management must develop an understanding of their cultural settings if their organisations are to perform effectively. contribution: the original value of this study is its approach in uncovering the strengths and weaknesses of cultural diversity on business performance in south africa. keywords: automotive; business performance; cultural diversity; workgroup; organisational performance; south africa. introduction over the years, cultural diversity has been a subject of great interest to businesses and researchers. as a result of an increase in globalisation, cultural diversity has grown as a trend in organisations (martin, 2014). this shows that people are part of the worldwide economy competing within a global framework. martin (2014) added that cultural diversity is present when differences in race, ethnicity, language, nationality, religion and sexual orientation are represented within a community. mazur (2010) identified geographical location, work experience, income, religious beliefs and marital status as concepts that identify cultural diversity. people’s self-image and the way they view the world are shaped by these dimensions (singh, 2014). numerous studies (ehimare & ogaga-oghene, 2011; martin, 2014; patrick & kumar, 2012; simons & rowlands, 2011) examined the effects of cultural diversity in commerce. however, little research has explored the significance of cultural diversity on business performance. consequently, this study investigates the influence of cultural diversity on business performance in the automotive industry in south africa. some of the benefits of cultural diversity include creating a competitive advantage, thus increasing work productivity in the organisation (green et al., 2015). however, ehimare and ogaga-oghene (2011) indicated that cultural diversity is associated with creativity and innovation, effective decision-making and greater organisational performance. mazur (2010) stressed that the increase in cultural diversity increases cognitive bias and social comparisons in the organisation. it results in barriers to social intercourse and could possibly lead to negative performance outcomes for an organisation. hence, this study examines its influence on business performance in the automotive component manufacturing organisations in south africa. the study is guided by the following research questions (rqs): rq1: is cultural diversity perceived to have an influence on business performance in the automotive component manufacturing industry in south africa? rq2: what are the opportunities of cultural diversity for business performance in the automotive component manufacturing industry in south africa? changes in the cultural make-up of organisations have made it imperative for managers to understand cultural diversity and how it can affect their respective organisations. mazur (2010) indicated that cultural diversity can influence businesses in various ways. the positive influences include building a sound knowledge base with in-house talent. this can create a smoother integration of the organisation into foreign cultures. however, negative effects include communication problems, dysfunctional adaptation behaviours and the creation of barriers. when culturally diverse employees are placed in a group to achieve a goal with mutual effort and collaboration, these differences of perceptions and other variables encumber the development of unity (martin, 2014). hence, this study explores the influence of cultural diversity on business performance in automotive component manufacturing organisations in south africa. the remaining sections of the article consider the literature review, research methodology, results, discussion and the implications of the results for policy and practice, limitations, as well as the conclusion. literature review this section discusses the overview of culture as a collective programming of the mind, as well as diversity as a variable that influences personal identity. cultural diversity and business performance conclude the theoretical framework of the study. culture as a collective programming of the mind numerous studies (dike, 2013; hofhuis, van der zee, & otten, 2013; holmgren & johnsson, 2013b) presented different definitions of culture (schnalke & mason, 2014), the most common being found in anthropological literature. mazur (2010) saw culture as a human-made variable, learned and communicated from one generation to another. this is supported by schnalke and mason (2014), who stated that cultures are ways of living built up by a group of people and communicated from one generation to another. mazur (2010) added that culture is a collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another. in accordance with mazur’s (2014) definition, macheo (2016) indicated that culture is a set of collective beliefs, values and norms that distinguish people of a nation from those of another. it is a multidimensional concept that cannot be dealt with in a single study; it is observed as a concept divided into material and non-material cultures. sharma (2016) described material culture as physical pieces that are clear and evident, such as clothing, technology, tools and art. however, non-material culture refers to abstract ideas and ways of thinking, languages, morals, norms, attitudes and values admitted and shared in a society. they cannot be seen or touched but can be discovered through the behaviour of individuals. diversity as a variable that influences personal identity diversity is defined as a subjective phenomenon, created by members of a group themselves who, based on their different social identities, categorise others as similar or dissimilar (mazur, 2010). a group is diverse if it is composed of individuals who differ on a characteristic on which they base their own social identity. this definition is supported by simons and rowland (2011) who asserted that diversity distinguishes one group of people from another along primary and secondary dimensions. primary dimensions exert primary influences on people’s identities (mazur, 2010; simons & rowland, 2011) and include gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, age, mental or physical abilities and characteristics. according to mazur (2010), primary dimensions shape individuals’ self-base image and their ultimate worldview and have an impact on groups in the society and the workplace. however, secondary dimensions are less noticeable, but exert a more variable influence on personal identity and add a more indirect richness to the primary dimensions of diversity (mazur, 2010). secondary dimensions include geographical location, educational background, religion, first language, work style, family status, work experience and income, as well as style of communication (richard & bernett, 2004). secondary dimensions have an impact on individual’s self and self-definition (simons & rowland, 2011). the position and dominance of each dimension is not fixed, but is more dynamic, thus making the concept of diversity more complex (martin, 2014). consequently, secondary dimensions of diversity are more flexible than primary dimensions and change over time. diversity is neither easy to grasp nor manage. mazur (2010) emphasised that diversity in the workplace has been associated with multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-racial aspects of the workforce. consequently, simons and rowland (2011) defined diversity as any mixture of items characterised by both similarities and differences. in support of this view, benaglio (2013) proposed that cultural diversity be re-defined as the collective, all-encompassing mix of human differences and similarities along any given dimension. hence, martin (2014) concurred that cultural diversity is when differences in race, ethnicity, language, nationality, religion and sexual orientation are represented within an organisation. singh (2014) indicated that problem-solving in a culturally diverse group provides different perspectives. in a cultural diverse environment, work group increases their effectiveness, thus creating a competitive advantage (martin, 2014). cultural diversity and business performance the cultural diversity phenomenon has not been given serious attention by businesses because of a corporate culture that is seemingly characterised by socio-political patronage of people in authority in businesses (singh, 2014), although indigenous businesses with a global focus are beginning to pay attention to this management challenge. according to ehimare and ogaga-oghene (2011), little research on the phenomenon of cultural diversity in the african context has been conducted. hence, this study assesses cultural diversity in the south african context. ehimare and ogaga-oghene (2011) added that the cultural diversity phenomenon is one of the challenging human resource and organisational issues. cultural diversity has been researched in both laboratory and field settings. laboratory studies, grounded in the value-in-diversity perspective, have indicated that diversity within work groups increases their effectiveness (sharma, 2016). however, field studies, characterised by social identity and self-categorisation theories, have suggested that cultural diversity is associated with negative performance outcomes. in contrast, singh (2014) stated that businesses with different levels of cultural diversity experience dissimilar dynamics and organisational outcomes. within culturally homogeneous groups, members will tend to communicate with one another more often because they shared worldviews and a unified culture, resulting in in-group attachments and shared perceptions (sharma, 2016). thus, social identity theory suggests that cultural homogeneity in management groups may increase satisfaction, improve performance and cooperation, and reduce emotional conflict. cultural diversity is found to have a contrasting double implication for business performance. martin (2014) believed that the impact of cultural diversity in the organisation can be both favourable and unfavourable. some of the negative effects include dysfunctional conflict and lost productivity. however, positive effects comprise of in-house resources of cultural trainers and informers, a strong knowledge base created by an assortment of cultural experiences and a tendency to expand the business in foreign cultures. according to ehimare and ogaga-oghene (2011), cultural diversity is a double-edged sword. it increases the opportunity for creativity, as well as the probability that group members will be dissatisfied and fail to identify with the group. hence, some studies have found that various forms of diversity are associated with greater organisational performance, improved strategic decision-making and innovation (martin, 2014). however, other research shows that various types of organisational diversity increase conflict, reduce social cohesion and increase employee turnover (mazur, 2010). richard, barnett, dwyer and chadwick (2004) support ehimare and ogaga-oghene (2011), thus indicating that cultural diversity in organisations has a curvilinear relationship with business performance, in which businesses with low and high levels of homogeneity outperform those with moderate levels of homogeneity. according to gómez-mejia and palich (2016), there are various reasons why global diversification and business performance should positively be related. this view is supported by kumar (2014) cited in gómez-mejia et al. (2016), who stated that there is a positive relationship between international diversification and business performance. however, martin (2014) in gómez-mejia et al. (2016) reported non-significant or equivocal support for the proposition that business performance is a positive function of international diversification. however, research findings have been contradictory, suggesting that other factors may be responsible for the observed results (mazur, 2010). cultural diversity has been widely accepted by businesses as a way of reacting to a competitive edge. the reason for this is that businesses have the opportunity to utilise a vast collection of knowledge, skills and abilities found in a culturally diverse workforce (stahl, maznevsk, viogt, & jonsen, 2010). furthermore, macheo (2016) and stahl et al. (2010) stated that all organisations function within a specific culture. it has thus been widely recognised in contemporary discussions of organisational performance that management and other organisational practitioners have to develop an understanding of their cultural setting if their organisations are to perform effectively. every business organisation’s aim is to sustain its existence and meet the needs of its highly competitive market by constantly improving its performance (arslan & staub, 2013). organisational performance has been defined as the transformation of inputs into output for achieving certain results. however, arslan and staub (2013), cited in macheo (2016), defined business performance as the execution or accomplishment of work, tasks or goals to a certain level of desired satisfaction. there are various ways to understand business performance. for the purpose of this study, business performance is described as the ability of an organisation or business to satisfy the desired expectations of both owners and customers. owners’ satisfaction is measured with financial returns or profits from organisational operations (macheo, 2016). however, customers’ expressed satisfaction is measured by the quality of the products or services of the organisation (stahl et al., 2010). mazur (2010) indicated that financial growth of a business is measured through its sales performance. sales performance refers to economic activities or investments carried out in the organisation within a given period of time. sales performance is measured by the total amount of income collected for the goods sold. however, employee satisfaction and morale are related to cultural affiliations and identity groups. factors such as creativity, problem-solving and intra-organisational communication in both formal and informal structures of the organisation are impacted by the degree of diversity (macheo, 2016). the way people feel and think about their jobs and their employers is influenced greatly by their cultural beliefs, norms and value systems. mazur (2010) stated that this is essential because behaviour is driven by perceptions of reality. cox (1994), cited in macheo (2016), stated that to a great extent, cultural differences shape a person’s beliefs and relationship with other employees, as well as with customers. there is general agreement that proper management of cultural diversity can be an asset to performance (gómez-mejia et al., 2016). however, if it is overlooked or mismanaged, it may diminish the performance of an organisation. managing cultural diversity is the action of planning and implementing organisational systems, which includes practices to manage people so that the potential advantages of diversity are maximised, whilst minimising its drawbacks. the goal of cultural diversity management is to maximise the ability of all employees to contribute to organisational goals and to achieve their full potential unhindered by cultural identities such as religion, norms, value systems and language. as culture affects peoples’ behaviour, values and customs, people of different cultures work in different ways in business situations (schnalke & mason, 2014). this can be seen through different approaches to punctuality, conflict, structure, different relations to authority and differences in how people see work in relation to their lives (simons & rowland, 2011). cultural diversity can thus have a significant impact on organisational performance where there is a culturally diverse workforce. hofhuis et al. (2013) accentuated that culturally diverse groups work in different ways depending on their cultural diversity. culturally heterogeneous and culturally homogeneous groups have advantages over one another, in different contexts (holmgren & jonsson, 2013b). homogeneous groups are more effective in situations with a complex context, whereas heterogeneous groups fall short because of perception and attribution differences, as well as communication issues (macheo, 2016). on the other hand, holmgren and jonsson (2013b) advocated that members of heterogeneous groups have different experiences and backgrounds. these groups have the potential to generate more diverse solutions to problems and achieve higher quality results because of greater creativity. conflicts arise more easily in heterogeneous groups, but they can be more productive and creative in the long run with more generated ideas simon and rowland (2011). however, it can be concluded that neither of these groups is superior to the other. dike (2013) supported this view by indicating that heterogeneous groups tend to be either the most or the least effective teams, whilst homogeneous groups tend to be average. however, it can be assumed that a company could benefit from using both types of groups in different situations to create the highest benefits possible (sharma, 2016). according to hofhuis et al. (2013), people often see cultural diversity as something that will not benefit their organisation; yet, it may bring many positive outcomes (sharma, 2016). hence, this study examines the perceptions on the influence of cultural diversity on business performance. it explores opportunities of cultural diversity on the performance of the automotive component manufacturers in south africa. methodology the methodology covers the target population, sample size, data collection, as well as the measurement and analysis. target population this study was quantitative in design and carried out in two large automotive component manufacturers operating in the ethekwini district municipality. company a had six manufacturing and assembly plants. it employed over 700 people, of whom 91 were middle-level managers. however, company b had two plants, including the head office. it had a total 603 employees, with 77 middle-level managers. sample size of the 168 individuals identified for participation, 118 participated in the study, representing a 70.2% response rate. in addition, 44.6% of the participants were white people, 29.5% were indians, 14.3% were mixed race and 11.6% were africans. data collection a self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. according to godwill (2015), self-administered questionnaires are useful for collecting data from a large number of participants. the distribution and retrieval of questionnaires were performed from 168 randomly selected middle-level managers. however, a total of 118 questionnaires were returned through the company’s human resources managers, representing a 70.2% response rate, considered high compared with the norm for survey responses (baruch & holtom, 2008). company a was represented by 67 respondents whilst 51 respondents were from company b. measurement and analysis the questionnaire was developed from previous research and measured six dimensions on a likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). it measured the perception of cultural diversity in the organisation based on the representation in race and culture, as well as organisational performance based on work group problem-solving, work group effectiveness and creating competitive advantage. the measurements considered on the perception of cultural diversity were also used in measuring the opportunities of cultural diversity on business performance. macheo (2016) defined opportunity as a situation or condition favourable for attainment of a goal. hence, the opportunities for cultural diversity include the exchange of creative and innovative ideas, improvement in productivity and profitability and reduction in employee turnover (sharma, 2016). the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 23.0 was used to do the data analysis. descriptive, correlation and t-tests were used to analyse the data in line with the study objectives. study results descriptive analyses on the perception of cultural diversity in business table 1 presents percentage responses on the influence of cultural diversity in business. table 1: influence of cultural diversity in business. middle managers strongly agreed that cultural diversity had an influence on business in south africa. critical factors as presented in table 1 include critical diversity factors such as the presence of race and different cultures, and the influence is mostly perceived in terms of problem-solving and effectiveness of work groups. the items that received slightly lower scores refer to the broader organisation and specifically organisational performance and competitiveness. however, all the items received mostly positive responses. the results are supported by ehimare and ogaga-oghene (2011) who stated that a culturally diverse workforce is associated with greater organisational performance, improved strategic decision-making and innovation. in addition, simon and rowland (2011) asserted that cultural diversity leads to higher flexibility, creativity and ultimately higher effectiveness of the organisation. furthermore, green et al. (2015) stated that cultural diversity is a tool that enhances competitive advantage. a t-test on the influence of cultural diversity on business performance four race groups are evident in the study (i.e. africans, mixed races, asians and white people), but t-tests were conducted to determine differences in mean scores between two groups. the results should indicate whether there are significant differences between the mean scores of two groups. according to welman, kruger and mitchel (2010), t-tests determine whether a population mean is significantly different from the hypothesised value. table 2 presents test results on the influence of cultural diversity on business performance: the test results as shown in table 2 reveal that there is no statistical significant agreement between race group on the study variables relating to the influence of cultural diversity and business performance at p-value of 0.265 (t[118] = 3.969, p > 0.05), and thus, the hypothesis of no significant agreement between the two variables is acceptable. according to mazur (2010), racially diverse teams working in relatively homogeneous organisations experienced performance deficits relative to the more homogeneous teams. however, simon and rowland (2011) argued that a performance deficit was not evidence for racially diverse teams working in culturally diverse organisations. furthermore, given the nature of the tasks performed by these teams, in racially homogeneous organisations, the race differences amongst members of diverse teams become more salient and are more likely to interfere with performance (simon & rowland, 2011). table 2 determines the significant agreement on the study variables relating to the opportunities of cultural diversity. the study reveals that there is no statistically significant agreement between race groups on the study variables relating to the opportunities of cultural diversity and business performance at p-value of 0.831 (t[118] = 0.876, p > 0.05), and thus, the hypothesis of no significant agreement between the two variables is acceptable. the results are supported by mazur (2010) who indicated that a racially diverse workforce is associated with greater organisational performance, improved strategic decision-making and innovation. table 2: a t-test on the influence of cultural diversity on business performance. correlation test on the influence of cultural diversity on business performance the spearman’s rho correlation analysis (table 3) was also used to test the relationship between the influence of cultural diversity on business performance and the opportunities of cultural diversity on business performance. these tests measure the statistical relationship, or association, between two continuous variables (welman, kruger, & mitchell, 2010). table 3: spearman’s correlation test on the influence of cultural diversity on business performance. test results in table 3 on the influence of cultural diversity on business performance and opportunities of cultural diversity on business performance show a coefficient r-value of 0.383. this indicates a directly proportional relationship between the two variables. this finding is supported by martin (2014) who indicated that cultural diversity is associated with greater organisational performance, improved strategic decision-making and innovation. the goal of cultural diversity is to maximise the ability of all employees to contribute to organisational goals and achieve their full potential unhindered, by cultural identities such as religion, norms, value systems and language (schnalke & mason, 2014). discussion the study investigates the influence of cultural diversity on business performance in the automotive components manufacturing industry in south africa. it examined the opportunities of cultural diversity on business performance, using descriptive and t-tests to analyse data. the study indicates that a culturally diverse workforce is associated with greater organisational performance. cultural diversity within a work team increases their effectiveness. this is confirmed by ehimare and ogaga-oghene (2011) who indicated that a culturally diverse workforce is associated with greater organisational performance, improved strategic decision-making and innovation. simon and rowland (2011) added that cultural diversity may lead to higher flexibility, creativity and ultimately higher effectiveness of the organisation. implications of results for policy and practice it is essential that management and other organisational practitioners develop an understanding of their cultural settings if their organisations are to perform effectively (macheo, 2016). this must be based on an understanding of the economic factors affecting cultural diversity on business performance (stahl et al., 2010). besides the achievements of study objectives, organisations should consider the following practices: a culturally diverse workforce must be associated with greater organisational performance, improved strategic decision-making and innovation (ehimare & ogaga-oghene, 2011). cultural diversity within a work group should be able to increase business effectiveness (simon & rowland, 2011). study limitations the study provided with a series of theoretical observations that pertain to the entire world and not specifically to south africa. such data were broader in their general application. however, the investigation on the perceptions of cultural diversity on business performance was limited in two automotive component manufacturing organisations that operate within the ethekwini district municipality. as there are 22 registered automotive plants in south africa (sainfo, 2018), the results cannot be extrapolated to other companies within the sector. conclusion a culturally diverse workforce is a true reflection of a changing world and marketplace (mazur, 2010). given the importance of business performance in most economies, this study provided important practical implications for management’s decision-making and policy. hence, benaglio (2013) proposed that diversity be re-defined as the collective, all-encompassing mix of human differences and similarities along any given dimension. thus, cultural diversity must be associated with creativity and innovation, effective decision-making and greater organisational performance (ehimare & ogaga-oghene, 2011). acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions r.w.z. was the project leader. p.m.k. initiated the project, collected theoretical and raw data, and analysed the data. r.w.z. prepared and compiled the manuscript to an acceptable level. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. ethical considerations the researchers complied with the following: the process for the collection of data did not involve access to confidential personal data; the research fulfils the criteria for informed consent; respondents were not asked to perform any acts or make statements, which might be expected to cause discomfort; researcher did not expect to obtain any direct or indirect financial or other benefits from conducting the research. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references arslan, a., & staub, s. (2013). theory x and theory y type leadership behavior and its impact on organisational performance: small business owners in the şishane lighting and chandelier district. journal of social and behavioral science, 75, 102–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.04.012 baruch, y., & holtom, b.c. (2008). survey response rate levels and trends in organisational research. human relations, 61(8), 1139–1160. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726708094863 cox, t. (1994). cultural diversity in organizations: theory, research and practice. san francisco: berett-koehler. dike, p. (2013). the impact of workplace diversity on organisations. diversity management, 2(3), 1–59. ehimare, o.a., & ogaga-oghene, j.o. (2011). the impact of workforce diversity on organisational effectiveness: a study of a nigerian bank. annals of the university petrosani, economics, 11(3), 93–110. gómez-mejia, l.r., & palich, l. (2016). cultural diversity and the performance of multinational firms. journal of international business studies, 28(2), 309–335. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490103 green, k., lopez, m., wysocki, a., kepner, k., farnsworth, d., & clark, j. (2015). diversity in the workplace: benefits, challenges and the required managerial tools. journal of food and resource economics 2–3. hofhuis, j., van der zee, k., & otten, s. (2013). measuring employee’s perception on the effects of cultural diversity at work: development of the benefits and threats of diversity scale. quality & quantity, 49(3), 177–201. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-013-9981-7 holmgren, d., & jonsson, a. (2013a). cultural diversity in organisations: a study on the view and management on cultural diversity. business administration, 2, 85–100. holmgren, k., & jonsson, r. (2013b). does unbalanced gender composition in the workplace influence the association between psychosocial working conditions and sickness absence? work, 46(1), 59–66. https://doi.org/10.3233/wor-121529 krishna, g. (2017). managing cross-cultural issues in global software development. communications of the acm, 47(4), 62–66. kumar, r. (2014). research methodology: a step by step for beginners (4th edn.). london: sage. luis, g., & palich, l. (2016). cultural diversity and the performance of multinational firms. journal of international business studies, 28(2), 309–335. macheo, k. (2016). the effects of cultural diversity on organisational performance. nj: beverly. martin, g.c. (2014). the effects of cultural diversity in the workplace. journal of diversity management, 9(2), 89–92. https://doi.org/10.19030/jdm.v9i2.8974 mazur, b. (2010). cultural diversity in organisational theory and practice. journal of intercultural management, 2(2), 5–15. patrick, h.a., & kumar, v.r. (2012). managing workforce diversity: issues and challenges. sage open, 2(2), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244012444615 richard, o., barnett, t., dwyer, s., & chardwick, k. (2004). cultural diversity in management, firm’s performance, and the moderating role of entrepreneurial orientation dimensions. academy of management journal, 47(2): 255–266. https://doi.org/10.5465/20159576 sainfo. (2008). south africa’s automotive industry, retrieve from http://www.southafrica.info/doing_business/economy/key_sectors/motorindustryboost.html schnalke, m., & mason, r. (2014). the influence of culture on marketing communications: critical culture factors influencing south african and german businesses. problems and perspectives in management, 12(1), 172–180. simons, n., & rowland, k. (2011). doversity and its impact on organiszational performance: the influence of diversity constructions on expectations and outcomes. journal of technology management and innovation, 6(3), 172–183. https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-27242011000300013 singh, d. (2014). managing cross-cultural diversity: issues and challenges in global organisations. journal of mechanical and civil engineering, 3, 43–50. stahl, g., maznevski, m., viogt, a., & jonsen, k. (2010). unraveling the effects of cultural diversity in teams: a meta-analysis of research on multicultural work groups. journal of international business studies, 41(4), 690–709. https://doi.org/10.1057/jibs.2009.85 welman, c., kruger, f., & mitchell, b. (2010). research methodology (8th edn.). cape town: oxford university press. article information authors: nicholas baard1 adéle thomas1 affiliations: 1department of business management, university of johannesburg, gauteng, south africa correspondence to: adéle thomas email: adelet@uj.ac.za postal address: department of business management, university of johannesburg, po box 524, auckland park 2006, south africa keywords human resources practices; management practices; survey; telecommuting; virtual working arrangements dates: received: 03 may 2010 accepted: 24 aug. 2010 published: 28 oct. 2010 how to cite this article: baard, n., & thomas, a. (2010). teleworking in south africa: employee benefits and challenges. sa journal of human resource management/ sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #298, 10 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.298 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) teleworking in south africa: employee benefits and challenges in this original research article... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study    • trends from the research literature    • research objective    • potential value-add of the study    • literature review      • the virtual organisation      • benefits of virtual working arrangements      • challenges of virtual working arrangements      • technology      • implementing virtual working arrangements • research design    • research approach    • research method      • research participants      • measuring instrument      • research procedure      • data analysis • results    • perceived benefits of teleworking    • perceived challenges of teleworking    • additional identified benefits and challenges of teleworking    • selected associations between teleworking and other variables • discussion • acknowledgement • references abstract (back to top) orientation: virtual working arrangements present possible benefits to organisations and their employees. however, in south africa, few organisations have implemented teleworking as a specific form of virtual work. the benefits and challenges to teleworkers are therefore largely unknown. research purpose: the present study aimed to identify employee perceptions of personal benefits and challenges of teleworking. motivation for the study: the study sought to contribute insights for south african business practice in this under-researched field. research design, approach and method: this exploratory study collected primary data through the distribution of an electronic questionnaire to 94 employees at three south african organisations, with a 67% response rate. the survey included both closed and open-ended questions that were analysed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques. main findings: most of the internationally identified benefits of teleworking were supported by participants, such as improved productivity, increased job satisfaction and organisational loyalty, decreased stress and improved work-life balance. challenges identified included an increase in working hours and the lack of availability of training opportunities. practical/managerial implications: the possible employee benefits and challenges of teleworking may assist organisations in devising teleworking practices and procedures that leverage benefits and address challenges inherent in this form of work practice. contribution/value add: the study aims to supplement the dearth of knowledge about teleworking, specifically in the south african context, to assist organisations practically in their development of this form of virtual work arrangement for the benefit of organisations and their employees. introduction (back to top) key focus of the study internationally, virtual working arrangements are increasingly becoming part of the traditional organisational structure (ingham, 2006). however, the globally documented benefits of teleworking for employees and organisations, as a particular aspect of virtual working, have largely not been studied in south africa. the present study aims to explore the perceived benefits to and challenges of teleworking for employees in three selected companies in south africa. background to the study in response to competitive imperatives, a visible artefact of the changing work environment is the global expansion of organisational boundaries (watson-manheim, chudoba & crowston, 2002). in this regard, helms and raiszadeh (2002) and thorne (2005) state that the creation of virtual organisations is the only response to the current chaos of global competition; jackson, gharavi and klobas (2006) note how it-enabled organisations are making greater use of virtual teams as an integral part of their operations. kowalski and swanson (2005) indicate that ibm®, boeing®, at&t®, merrill lynch® and hewlett-packard® are a few of the multinational organisations that are making a success of virtual working arrangements in their global operations, indicating the size and type of organisation that can adopt such a structure. according to morgan (2004), microsoft founder, bill gates claims that by 2050, 50% of all workers globally will be virtual workers. trends from the research literature in terms of international markets, the benefits of teleworking to employees have been noted to include increased job satisfaction and work life balance (heneman & greenberger, 2002), increased productivity (siha & monroe, 2006) and a reduction in stress related to the home environment, particularly for women (martinez-sanchez, perez-perez, vela-jimenez & de-luis carnicer, 2008). ahmadi, helms and ross (2000), however, note that disadvantages of teleworking can include isolation from colleagues and the organisation, lack of support from the organisation and reduced career opportunities. studies have also noted an increase in stress related to teleworking employees' working environments wherein work and home life become inseparable (cf. kowalski & swanson, 2005). management experiences challenges in terms of developing policies and rewards that ensure that teleworking arrangements function optimally for the benefit of employees (including teleworkers) and the organisation as a whole (macky, gardner & forsyth, 2008). research objective the objective of the present study was to explore perceptions of the benefits and challenges posed by teleworking for employees in three selected south african companies. potential value-add of the study a search conducted by the authors between 2000 and 2010 within the sabinet, gale, ebscohost and emerald academic publication data bases for specific articles on teleworking in south africa identified only four articles, (1) odendaal and roodt (2002) compare australian and south african perspectives on implementing flexible work practices, (2) horwitz, bravington and silvis (2006) identify key factors in the effectiveness and failure of virtual teams, (3) nortje, van brakel and rensleigh (2004) discuss the context of the information environment within which teleworkers work and (4) langa and conradie (2003) explore the perceptions and attitudes of teleworking among public sector officials. the present study, accordingly, aims to contribute to this small existing body of theory on teleworking, specifically in the south african context, to assist organisations practically in their understanding and development of this form of virtual working arrangement for the benefit of organisations and their employees. literature review the virtual organisation the current global business environment is characterised by (1) an increasing scarcity of human and material resources as well as by (2) an increase in competition from existing and new global and local players (akkirman & harris, 2005; johnson, 2004; siha & monroe, 2006). demands such as these require that organisations are flexible to address competition effectively (gibson, 2003). conner (2003) highlights how, through virtual working arrangements, organisations can locate many business activities in low-wage countries, creating economies of scale for global operations and reducing input costs. panteli and duncan (2004) and shekhar (2006) note that there is not one universally accepted definition of virtual working arrangements. helms and raiszadeh (2002) describe four types of virtual working arrangements: • a working environment which is 100% virtual, for example, internet organisations where all non-core business functions are outsourced. • hollow firms that, through workforce reduction and reengineered business processes, are 'doing more with less' (helms & raiszadeh, 2002, p. 240). • those that outsource some of the non-core business functions. • virtual offices or teams that form part of the greater organisation but which operate virtually to a greater extent than the rest of the organisation. similarly, conner (2003, p. 133) notes three degrees of 'virtualness': • the teleworking or telecommuting arrangement where technology allows employees to work away from the office and each other. • the front-line arrangement where front office activities are taken closer to the customer. • the cyber link arrangement where many different organisations work together through technology to achieve set goals. shekhar (2006) describes the degree of 'virtuality' of organisations as the proportion of the activities of the organisation that are completed through non face-to-face interactions facilitated by information and communication technologies. akkirman and harris (2005) describe the virtual workplace as one that is not bound by the traditional limitations of organisational structures, reporting relationships and job descriptions. beasty (2005) notes that the difference between an office on site and an employee's spare bedroom is becoming increasingly insignificant with less of an effect on business activities. tietze and musson (2003, p. 439) suggest that changes to the duration of the working period, that is, to the timing of work and to the utilisation of work time, constitute 'the fundamental temporal structure that defines the experience of work'. within the virtual office, helms and raiszadeh (2002) indicate the possibility of four alternatives, each with their own distinctive benefits and challenges: • teleworking or telecommuting, the most common type of virtual employment, is an arrangement whereby an employee has a desk or office at the organisation but is able to work from home on an agreed basis a few days a week. • 'hotelling', common with consultancy firms, is where employees have no fixed offices or desks, but reserve spaces for the times when they will be present on the premises. • home workers are employees who work from home on a daily basis and never commute into the office. • fully mobile workers are those who do not have an office at all, but spend time on the road visiting customers and working from customers' premises on a full time basis, a common approach with sales people and auditors. johnson (2005) includes in his definition of the virtual organisation, managers based at their organisations' offices but who manage widely dispersed employees, as another alternative within the virtual office environment. similarly, siha and monroe (2006, p. 456) include the group, 'occasional home worker', as part of the virtual working community, referring to those employees who extend working hours while at home utilising cellular telecommunications technology. benefits of virtual working arrangements as with any business decision, ideally, prior to choosing a virtual working arrangement, the purpose and benefits sought for all stakeholders need to be clearly understood. the description of virtual organisations being revolutionary in nature and unconstrained by the material aspects of organisational structures, a view noted by thorne (2005), needs to be tempered by considering the benefits and challenges posed by virtual working arrangements. virtual working arrangements are not suitable for all employment types and need to be assessed by organisations in terms of appropriateness prior to embarking on any such arrangement (baruch & yuen, 2000; morgan, 2004; watad & will, 2003). baruch (2003), heneman and greenberger (2002) and ingham (2006) note that when considering virtual working arrangements, the main benefits sought by organisations relate to reducing the costs of physical accommodation, the streamlining of operations, increasing productivity and attracting and retaining employees through greater employee flexibility and loyalty. o'brien and hayden (2007) add two further reasons for the promotion and development of virtual working arrangements, (1) allowing organisations to manage variable workloads to deal with peak periods of demand and (2) creating additional and suitable coverage over the weekends or holidays for specific business areas. kowalski and swanson (2005), morgan (2004) and shekhar (2006) suggest that such practices also lead to greater customer service over extended hours, improved speed with which organisations can respond to and resolve customer issues as well as enable the sourcing of specialised staff who may be spread across the globe. virtual working arrangements are sometimes used as reward mechanisms, allowing dedicated and hardworking employees to work from home, thereby building trust and loyalty between employees and management (kurland & egan, 1999). in this regard, heneman and greenberger (2002) and johnson (2004) note how virtual workers often remain at the organisation for longer periods, positively affecting employee retention and reducing hiring costs. in this vein, wilsker (2008) found that 64% of employees would turn down a 20% pay rise if they could continue working according to a virtual arrangement. non-wage benefits can also be as effective in retaining employees as paying higher than market related salaries (kowalski & swanson, 2005) and can improve employees' morale, job satisfaction and work-life balance (hamilton, gordon & whelan-berry, 2006; martinez-sanchez et al., 2008). wilsker (2008) states that the average full-time teleworker within a virtual working arrangement in the usa, regardless of salary scale, receives an annual salary increase of $8400 due to the reduced expenses that result from teleworking (vehicle, clothing, parking, food and insurance costs). wilsker (2008) further notes that organisations can annually add $20 000 per full-time teleworking employee to their bottom lines if all potential savings to the organisation are calculated. meadows (2007) indicates a reduction in sick leave as another financial benefit to organisations utilising teleworking arrangements. martinez-sanchez et al. (2008) add that women may derive the most benefit from virtual working arrangements, specifically teleworking arrangements, because of family commitments and ahmadi et al. (2000) note that virtual working arrangements can assist employees in reducing home stress and can afford dual-career couples a balance between work and home life. johnson (2004) states that such family-friendly employment policies are increasingly being used as tools to attract and retain employees and to encourage women to return to the workforce. kepczyk (1999) and patrickson (2002) observe that organisations are able, through virtual working arrangements, to include people who were previously excluded from the employee pool due to parental responsibilities, being physically disabled or being unable to travel the distance required from home to office. this is an important benefit in times of global scarcity of talented human capital (heneman & greenberger, 2002). virtual working arrangements may also encourage older workers in semi-retirement to remain employed for a few days a week, ensuring potentially sound work output. older workers usually experience fewer interruptions due to the absence of children within the home environment (patrickson, 2002). while the above mentioned benefits apply to virtual working arrangements, the specific benefits of teleworking include an increase in productivity (siha & monroe, 2006) and a willingness on the part of employees to work harder (kowalski & swanson, 2005; mann, varey & button, 2000). in this regard, kepczyk (1999) states that quieter, more focused work environments with fewer interruptions, the freedom to work in comfort and the absence of office politics are often translated into increased employee productivity. ilozor and ilozor (2002) report that job satisfaction is higher in teleworkers than in other employees because of a reduction in stress levels. increasing traffic congestion may be a motivating factor for embarking on virtual working arrangements (siha & monroe, 2006). this factor is pertinent within the south african context with its annual increase of 5.2% in vehicles and with the cost of accidents during the 2007-2008 period totalling r13.27 billion (road traffic management corporation, 2008). sperling and yeh (2009) note how the increase in vehicles adds to the already overburdened road infrastructure and to growing pollution in the country. beastley, lomo-david and seubert (2001) note that teleworking results in less impact on the environment and thus contributes positively to society at large. siha and monroe (2006) suggest that virtual working arrangements may be used in future as a carbon offsetting or reduction technique, thereby allowing organisations to avoid paying the penalties of additional taxes that may be imposed for exceeding set carbon emission quotas. in addition, siha and monroe (2006) note that the average worker spends 400 hours a year travelling to and from work and being caught up in inner city traffic congestion, all of which contribute to lost and unproductive hours. challenges of virtual working arrangements in seeming contrast to the growing awareness of virtual working arrangements internationally, o'brien and hayden (2007) state that the actual adoption of virtual working arrangements is still a passive strategy within the business world and is not taken seriously enough to be implemented as part of corporate-wide strategy. kowalski and swanson (2005) advance that the reasons for this lack of implementation include the perception that teamwork suffers, the potential negative impact on employees who have less time to socialise with co-workers, organisational information security concerns and the lack of global reach of broadband technologies. to these perceived constraints, johnson (2004) and martinez-sanchez et al. (2008) add that (1) flexible working arrangements are not always viewed as priority in business, (2) the perception exists that those who work flexible hours are not really working and (3) a belief exists that it is difficult to manage staff who work flexible hours. some of the challenges to organisations considering the establishment of virtual working arrangements (kepczyk, 1999) include: • insurance of the home office environment and the equipment contained therein. • security requirements relating to equipment and data movement. • local laws governing activities at private residences. • the provision of remote technical support. legal issues surrounding virtual working arrangements and insurance, compensation and other such issues differ between countries and have not yet been established (tidd, 1999). o'brien and hayden (2007) note that the abuse of information technology and communication tools, such as using equipment for personal use or allowing family members access to such resources, is a potential downside of virtual working if employees are not properly managed throughout the process. johnson (2004) suggests that virtual working arrangements negatively impact the level of commitment of teleworkers to their organisations, requiring employee incentives that encourage such commitment to be devised and revised continuously. for the individual virtual worker, ahmadi et al. (2000) and mann et al. (2000) document the following disadvantages of teleworking: • isolation • longer working hours • lack of support • less sick leave • reduced career progression. these issues demand considerable management attention. lim and teo (2000) and horwitz et al. (2006) note that full time virtual workers may enjoy fewer promotions in the work environment due to the lack of opportunities for employees to engage in networking activities. conner (2003) highlights that virtual workers do not have immediate colleagues against whom they can compare their productivity which hampers benchmarking or comparison of performance and progress. he suggests that this absence can result in weaker performance caused by a lack of exposure to positive peer pressure and can lead to increased feelings of isolation. moustafa-leonard (2007, p. 197) notes how manager-subordinate trust can be negatively impacted by virtual work arrangements due to the little face-to-face interaction 'creating risk and uncertainty as cornerstones of this dyadic relationship'. horwitz et al. (2006) stress that virtual workers often have difficulty in separating work from private life, particularly when work involves liaising with colleagues in different time zones. tietze and musson (2003) state that not only the teleworker, but also other residents in the home are often unprepared for integrating paid work into the household. in this regard, kowalski and swanson (2005) and o'brien and hayden (2007) refute one of the most commonly cited benefits of teleworking, that is to say, work-life balance, noting that having to address family responsibilities during work hours actually increases stress among teleworkers. kepczyk (1999) and allert (2001) believe that it is essential to the success of virtual working arrangements that the right people are recruited as teleworkers at the outset. employees need to be able to work in a virtual work arrangement, away from direct management and colleagues and should possess a sound balance of technical and interpersonal skills (horwitz et al., 2006). tietze and musson (2003) include self-discipline as one of the key personal characteristics of a good virtual worker. when considering the characteristics of effective virtual teams, employees who may experience problems could be expected to be: • those who may have difficulty in operating as empowered professionals using their initiative (hunsaker & hunsaker, 2008). • those who miss informal work and non-work related conversations (furst, reeves, rosen & blackburn, 2004). • those who experience difficulties with interdependence (dafoulas & macauley, 2002). • those who find it demanding to fulfil their work functions through computer-mediated technology (hunsaker & hunsaker, 2008). technology new wireless communication and data technologies are constantly improving, bringing faster data transfer speeds to the mobile worker, resulting in minimal difference between network and mobile connectivity (nandhakumar & baskerville, 2006). bal and teo (2001) and watad and will (2003) mention the advantageous use of audio and video conferencing tools for meetings within virtual teams. real time sharing of data and presentations are now possible with all participants present (curseu, schalk & wessel, 2008). other tools readily available include online chat forums or software such as google talk®, skype® and windows instant messaging®. stanford (2003) notes the use of such technology in facilitating quick and easy communication at reduced costs between virtual employees themselves and between virtual employees and their managers. integrated and intensive e-hr platforms also enable virtual employees to resolve queries themselves without having to contact human resources (hr) departments. investment in technology, accordingly, is a prerequisite for the successful operation of virtual organisations (shekhar, 2006; siha & monroe, 2006), often resulting in a definite increase in certain hardware costs that reduce potential savings made on office space when first embarking on virtual working arrangements (kowalski & swanson, 2005; mann et al., 2000). nevertheless, it is the actual people who ensure the effectiveness of virtual working arrangements, technology is only the enabler (akkirman & harris, 2005; vakola & wilson, 2004). in this respect, it is essential that effective communication exists along with trust between employers and employees (siha & monroe, 2006). panteli and duncan (2004, p. 423) underscore this sentiment, noting that 'virtuality requires trust to make it work; technology on its own is not enough' particularly with little face-to-face time and with social relationships under pressure (helms & raiszadeh, 2002). a large component of interpersonal communication is not what is said, but the tone that is used, the accompanying body language and facial expressions, the pitch of the speaker's voice and how the message is delivered (sundaram & webster, 2000). the absence of these elements when communicating virtually can have an important impact on the conveyed message. mann et al. (2000) state that computer mediated communication removes the ability to communicate emotion, an essential part of the communication and understanding process and can bring with it a new set of complications and challenges for virtual workers and management. for geographically dispersed virtual workers, information processing and communication problems may be exacerbated by time zones, different country norms and different languages spoken (hughes & love, 2004). implementing virtual working arrangements lardi-nadarajan (2008) notes the necessity for a gradual transition to virtual working, as well as both management and employee support for the initiative. moving towards virtual arrangements requires the transformation of large parts of the existing organisational structure which takes time to develop and document (lardi-nadarajan, 2008; siha & monroe, 2006) and requires new human resource approaches (heneman & greenberger, 2002). according to thorne (2005), there are no clear guidelines for developing virtual working teams to indicate how best to deal with strategy, information systems and accounting practices. accordingly, bal and teo (2001), kowalski and swanson (2005) and morgan (2004) recommend benchmarking, including the benchmarking of processes, as a tool to determine how organisations that have embarked on virtual working arrangements are performing against other organisations. kowalski and swanson (2005) further note that the areas that need to be considered in the success of virtual working arrangements include: • support from all areas of management, especially direct supervisor encouragement. • technological support and the provision of necessary tools along with appropriate training. • sound communication and trust across all levels and all relationships. horwitz et al. (2006) state that managers who exhibit a need to control people are unlikely to succeed as managers of employees in virtual settings. relinquishing control over employees and affording them more freedom, however, should not detract from the manager's role as mentor and evaluator of daily performance (morgan, 2004). managers of virtual employees have to provide employees with greater support and positive feedback more than do managers operating in traditional settings (horwitz et al., 2006). the management of virtual workers, however, requires a shift in management approach from measuring 'process' to measuring 'output' (stanford, 2003) and, accordingly, calls for clear work requirements and a careful balance between virtual and face-to-face meetings which need to be maintained in order to retain the interpersonal balance between virtual employees and management. the global multi-generational workforce (dwyer, 2009) presents additional challenges to management in terms of the policies, reward structures and the technology introduced to ensure success in virtual working arrangements (macky, gardner & forsyth, 2008). various authors (cf. allert, 2001; curseu et al., 2008; kurland & egan, 1999; stanford, 2003) refer to the importance of creating opportunities for regular and formal face-to-face discussions between management and employees who work virtually with regard to work issues and performance. siha and monroe (2006) go further by cautioning the use of emails in trying to address employee problems or in conveying criticism, suggesting that critical areas of the work relationship must still be addressed in person in order to promote and retain relationships and open communication. curseu et al. (2008) state that without the presence of an effective leader within a team of virtual workers, focus will be lost and the difficulties of working virtually may outweigh the benefits. management needs to ensure that virtual workers are an integral part of the greater organisation and this demands that the larger organisational culture is transmitted to virtual workers, including the transmission of established norms and values that form common ground between the body of employees and the virtual worker. in this regard, moore (1999) notes that the diverse cultures that are present within the south african workplace create additional complexity in managing and maintaining the organisational culture linking virtual workers to the macro work environment. the sense of belonging and pride that workers experience as part of a large organisation is difficult to retain in the long term with virtual workers and, accordingly, managers need to focus on developing and maintaining these elements to promote employee retention (jackson et al., 2006). the strength of organisational identification and association is critical to the successful management of virtual workers and is important in understanding the employee's need for affiliation and social support (wiesenfeld, raghuram & garud, 2001). similarly, porter and kakabadse (2006) stress the need for managers to be aware of employees who are susceptible to overworking themselves, who will ultimately burn themselves out and who will, for that reason, no longer function optimally. in this regard, they note the importance of the development of an organisational culture that recognises a work-life balance. implementing virtual working arrangements involves many changes in the organisation, for example, how it operates, how it communicates and how employees function. these changes need to be understood and planned prior to the introduction of this organisational initiative to ensure that the resistance to change does not prevent the successful implementation of the virtual working arrangement (diefenbach, 2007; smith, 2005). establishing the willingness and readiness of the organisation and its employees to accept change should be undertaken early as it impacts how and what change can and will be implemented (meyer, srinivas, lal & topolnytsky, 2007). with regard to virtual working arrangements, change will need to be managed in terms of both the employees who are moving into such arrangements and those who remain in the traditional office environment. research design (back to top) research approach the present study is exploratory in nature, as the field under investigation has commanded little research attention in south africa. to collect primary data, a cross sectional field survey was utilised, involving teleworkers from three large south african organisations in order to determine their perceptions about the benefits and challenges of this form of virtual working arrangement. teleworking was regarded as an activity that involved participants working from home at least 1 day every week, but less than 5 days a week, while still maintaining a regular desk space at an office of the organisation (helms & raiszadeh, 2002). the survey included both closed and open-ended questions that were analysed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques. the open-ended questions sought to elicit additional insights to supplement the quantitative survey data. research method research participants a purposive sample of three south african organisations that had embarked upon active teleworking arrangements in particular departments was used. one organisation is a large cellular telecommunications company and the other two are large companies in the financial sector. at the commencement of the study, with a view to including as many companies as possible, several companies that appeared to engage in forms of virtual working practices were approached. however, most of these companies could not be included in the present study as they had no formal policy or common understanding of teleworking or did not practice teleworking according to the definition adopted for this study. the dearth of companies incorporating teleworking practices according to the definition employed in this study, rendered only a small base from which to draw the sample. to preserve anonymity, the names of the companies that participated in the study were omitted. the entire population from each teleworking department in each company was included in the study (n = 94) with those 63 participants who returned questionnaires comprising the sample, giving a response rate of 67.0%. while not all 63 participants answered all questions, response rates did not fall below 61 participants for any question. the sample comprised 34 males (54.0%) and 29 females (46.0%) with 21 participants (33.3%) between the ages of 23 and 34 years, 24 participants (38.1%) aged 35-40 years and 18 participants (28.6%) being over the age of 40 years. nine participants (14.3%) were black (i.e. african, coloured and indian) and 53 participants (84.1%) were white. one participant did not identify his or her race. eighteen participants (28.6%) occupied senior management positions, 22 (34.9%), lower or middle management positions and 23 participants (36.5%) did not fall into any management category. forty-five participants (71.4%) reported having one or more dependants living at home. the majority of participants (42 participants or 66.7%) indicated that they had been teleworking for less than 2 years at their current organisations. measuring instrument a questionnaire was constructed containing closed and open-ended items, drawing on the major benefits and challenges of teleworking noted in the literature. the first section of the questionnaire required participants to indicate demographic details as well as the nature of the teleworking arrangement in which they were involved. the second section of the questionnaire commenced with questions regarding employees' personal desire to increase teleworking ('would you like to work from home more than you currently do?') where simple-dichotomy, frequency-determination and dichotomous-alternative questions (zikmund, 2003) were used in order for participants to differentiate between particular alternatives. this section also included more specific questions relating to perceived benefits and challenges of teleworking, where a five-point likert-type scale was used to determine the degree of respondent attitudes (grover & vriens, 2006). an example of questions included 'teleworking results in greater loyalty to my organisation'. within this section, an item on the questionnaire required participants to provide their views regarding the possible compensation that teleworking could offer in place of salary increases. this question demanded only a 'yes' or 'no' response. the third section of the questionnaire concluded with open-ended questions that aimed to acquire additional information on the topic under review that may not have been gained through the closed-ended questions (grover & vriens, 2006). research procedure a pilot test of the questionnaire was undertaken with a group of participants who engage in teleworking but who were not part of the research population at any of the companies in the study, as recommended by reynolds, diamantopoulos and schegelmilch (1993). the pilot test led to a change in sequencing of questions to ensure that later responses were not influenced by prior questions. senior management approved the questionnaire prior to the questionnaires being distributed electronically to participants during june and july 2009 via the intranets of the three companies. participants were informed that participation in the study was voluntary and were afforded the opportunity of refusing to participate or stopping midway during the answering of the questionnaire if they deemed it necessary. they were assured of complete confidentiality. after the data collection period, ten participants were contacted to verify selected answers given to a particular number of questions in order to assess the reliability of the responses by confirming that the same participant gave the same answers to selected questions for the second time. data analysis descriptive statistics were used to summarise the data. while participants could record their responses to questions on a five-point scale in the second section of the questionnaire, the five categories were collapsed into three categories (i.e. positive, neutral and negative) for ease of analysis. seeing as a non-probability sampling method was used and the sample size was relatively small, non-parametric tests were used to test associations between variables. tests used included the pearson chi-square and kruskal-wallis tests. the relationships tested included, (1) gender and interest expressed by participants about increasing teleworking activity, (2) teleworking and having dependants at home, (3) teleworking and family time, (4) teleworking and work-life balance, (5) teleworking and stress levels and (6) teleworking and working longer hours. content analysis, through systematic and objective observation of responses, was used to analyse data from the open-ended questions in order to identify common themes, as recommended by babbie and mouton (2009). results (back to top) perceived benefits of teleworking over half of the participants (57.1%) indicated that they would prefer to work from home more than they currently do. table 1 indicates the most commonly reported benefits of teleworking by participants (in some instances only 62 of the 63 participants answered the question).table 1 seems to be suggesting that the majority of participants perceived that teleworking affords them most of the internationally accepted benefits associated with the practice, such as: • less distraction and greater productivity • greater work flexibility and increased job satisfaction • increased morale and organisational loyalty • greater work-life balance • less stress • somewhat of a reduction in monthly expenses. however, training opportunities for participants appeared to have increased only in a limited way, with 44.4% reporting that training opportunities had not increased at all or had increased only to a limited extent; many of the participants (42.9%) responded neutrally to this item. mixed findings were reported in terms of the perceived benefits of being employed as teleworkers, such as an increase in time spent with family and a decrease in the amount of sick days taken. while participants noted these factors to be less important in terms of benefits than those listed above, nevertheless, to some extent, these factors were still regarded as benefits by some participants. with regard to a separate question that asked participants whether they regarded the option of teleworking as an acceptable replacement for a salary increment, despite the benefits reported in table 1, the majority of participants (45 or 71.4%) did not regard the option of teleworking as an acceptable replacement for a salary increase. table 1: benefits of teleworking table 2: challenges of teleworking perceived challenges of teleworking table 2 details the perceived challenges of teleworking as noted by participants against those challenges described in the international literature (in some instances, only 61 or 62 of the 63 participants answered the question). as indicated in table 2, many of the internationally reported challenges, personal to the teleworker, were not perceived by participants as challenges, with the exception of working longer hours. participants appeared to be divided on the issues relating to support offered by their organisations in terms of purchasing home office equipment and providing assistance in setting up the home-office environment. a number of participants also reported a difference in the organisational team culture between those who telework and the larger organisation to which they belong. additional identified benefits and challenges of teleworking participants were asked in open-ended question format to identify any particular benefits and challenges of teleworking that were not addressed in the questionnaire. thirty-six participants provided additional comment in terms of the benefits and 25 participants provided comment in terms of the challenges.from table 3 it can be seen that the most frequently cited additional benefits of teleworking in response to the open-ended questions was that less time was wasted in traffic by not travelling to the office during peak hours, followed by increased flexibility and family time all commonly agreed benefits of teleworking and ones that echoed the findings noted in table 1. unique comments included being more self-disciplined, improved eating habits and the ability to work and smoke at the same time. these findings primarily relate to the personal benefits of teleworking for employees, as opposed to the work-related benefits of this practice. all additional comments relating to the challenges of teleworking could be grouped with the attributes (previously identified in table 2) and were ones of a personal nature, including the impact that this arrangement has had on the teleworker. however, the tendency to work longer hours was specifically stressed in line with the finding that the majority of participants (65.6%) identified longer working hours as the main challenge of teleworking (table 2). selected associations between teleworking and other variables the relationship between gender and desire to increase teleworking activity was explored because there were roughly the same number of men (34) and women (29) in the sample and because issues of work and family balance are often suggested as being more important to women than to men (martinez-sanchez et al., 2008). a statistically significant relationship was observed between gender and desire to increase teleworking activity (χ2 = 10.48, df = 1, p = 0.001), with proportionally more men than women indicating a desire to work from home more than they currently do. table 4 indicates the association between dependants at home (e.g. 0 dependants, 1-2 dependants, 3+ dependants) and the benefits and challenges of teleworking. as indicated in table 4, a significant association was found between the number of dependants at home and an improvement in work-life balance since teleworking (χ2 = 12.69, p = 0.005), with a higher proportion of participants who have three or more dependants at home more likely to express improvement in work-life balance. a significant association was found between the number of dependants at home and the increased time participants spent with family since teleworking (χ2 = 11.57, p = 0.009), with a higher proportion of participants who have three or more dependants indicating the greatest increase in time spent with family. again, a significant association was found between the number of dependants at home and a decrease in stress levels since teleworking (χ2 = 10.26, p = 0.016), with a higher proportion of participants having three or more dependants at home reporting a decrease in stress levels than those who have no dependants or have one or two dependants. a significant association was also found between the number of dependants at home and working longer hours since teleworking (χ2 = 8.921, p = 0.030), with a higher proportion of participants with no dependant or only one dependant at home, indicating an increase in working hours since teleworking. table 3: additional benefits of teleworking table 4: dependants at home and benefits or challenges of teleworking discussion (back to top) although, internationally, virtual workers are increasingly becoming part of the traditional organisation, the anticipated employee benefits and challenges of teleworking, a specific form of virtual work, have largely not been investigated in the south african context. the study sought to understand the perceptions of teleworkers at three south african companies with regard to the challenges and benefits of this form of work arrangement. as a result, the overall objective of the study was addressed by highlighting the perceptions reported by participants of such benefits and challenges. it is hoped that the present study will contribute to the consideration of teleworking as a form of work arrangement at south african organisations. the findings support the internationally identified benefits of teleworking, such as: • increased productivity (siha & monroe, 2006) • greater organisational loyalty (siha & monroe, 2006) • increased morale and job satisfaction (hamilton et al., 2006) • additional flexibility (mann et al., 2000) • increased family time and work-life balance (martinez-sanchez et al., 2008) • decreased stress (ahmadi et al., 2000) • fewer monthly expenses (wilsker, 2008) • less sick days taken (meadows, 2007). in addition, participants appeared not to identify many of the challenges associated with this virtual working arrangement as documented in the literature, viz. a lack of technological and organisational support for teleworking, including the poor facilitation of change to this working arrangement (kowalski & swanson, 2005; shekhar, 2006). unlike findings reported by akkirman and harris (2005), johnson (2004), panteli and duncan (2004), siha and monroe (2006), thorne (2005) and vakola and wilson (2004), trust relationships and communication with superiors were not indicated as areas of concern for participants. similarly, in contrast to various studies, participants did not report: • decreased levels of trust and commitment to the organisation (sundaran & webster 2000) • irregular feedback, interpersonal communication difficulties and being overlooked for promotion (horwitz et al., 2006) • the absence of clear work expectations (mann et al., 2000) • the absence of measurement of output (horwitz et al., 2006) • feelings of isolation (ahmani et al., 2000) • problems with family relationships (kowalski & swanson, 2005) • greater family stress (horwitz et al., 2006). however, participants did report that working longer hours was a challenge in line with the findings of ahmani et al. (2000) and mann et al. (2000) and a significant association was found between the number of dependants at home and working longer hours. a higher proportion of participants with no dependants or with only one dependant at home, indicated the highest increase in working hours since teleworking. over half of the participants (57.1%) indicated that they would prefer to work from home more than they currently do, possibly indicative of the positive experience of teleworking and that the current arrangement must, to a large degree, work for them, their families and their organisations. significantly, men, more so than women, expressed a desire to work from home more than they currently do, indicating that teleworking may not primarily benefit women as it was originally intended (martinez-sanchez et al., 2008) possibly due to the emergence of dual-career families and the related change in family dynamics. mixed views with regard to the time spent with family since teleworking were reported in line with the findings of kowalski and swanson (2005). however, this finding could have been influenced by participants who are single or divorced (12.7%), those who do not have any dependants living at home (28.6%) or those who are in the youngest age group (33.3%) who may possibly choose to spend additional free time with friends and not family. however, for those participants who had dependants living at home, teleworking appears to have promoted increased family time. in contrast to o'brien and hayden (2007) who found that 70% of teleworkers experience stress from having to deal with family responsibilities when working at home, an increase in the number of dependants at home was positively associated with flexibility, time spent with family by the teleworker and decreased levels of stress. the finding that over 50% of participants reported a general reduction in their monthly expenses since teleworking (cf. helms & raiszadeh, 2002; mann et al., 2000; wilsker, 2008) could suggest that teleworking, if compatible with job requirements, may be a human resources tool for retaining and rewarding staff over the long term in order to build and maintain a competitive workforce. however, the majority of participants did not believe that teleworking could substitute for remuneration, contrary to the findings of martinez-sanchez et al. (2008) and wilsker (2008), a possible explanation for which could be the current economic downturn in the country. output-based performance management, the preferred performance measurement technique for teleworking (stanford, 2003; tietze & musson, 2003), could possibly have contributed to the reported increased productivity. participants stated that they were given clear guidelines of what is expected of them as well as regular feedback, ensuring that any uncertainty is quickly resolved and that little ambiguity and confusion is present when working virtually. removing the physical organisational boundaries by allowing employees to telework should not result in removing the institutional factors that afford employees direction and purpose within the organisation. one benefit mentioned by participants that does not appear prominently in the international literature is the ability of teleworkers to improve their lifestyles by leading a healthier lifestyle through eating better meals and attending the gym more often. participants indicated that their companies effectively facilitated the change to teleworking and were committed to the teleworking arrangement. these actions may have contributed towards the positive trust and communication noted which, in turn, may positively impact morale and reported increased job satisfaction (johnson, 2004; kowalski & swanson, 2005; martinez-sanchez et al., 2008). feelings of isolation, indicated by ahmadi et al. (2000), curseu et al. (2008) and mann et al. (2000) were not raised as concerns by participants and, again, this finding could possibly be attributed to the companies' commitment to teleworking and to the well-facilitated change to this form of virtual working arrangement, as noted by participants. two of the challenges of teleworking that were highlighted relate to the absence of training for teleworkers and the long hours worked. akkirman and harris (2005), horwitz et al. (2006) and tietze and musson (2003) suggest that on-going training is an essential component to the success of a virtual working arrangement. the reported lack of training may impact the long-term sustainability and performance of teleworking arrangements. long working hours may lead to burn out as has been noted by mann et al. (2000) and accordingly, productivity may be affected. teleworking requirements can be expected to differ between organisations resulting in no single 'fail-safe' model (morgan, 2004) and, as a result, the present study merely provided insights into this practice gained from employees within selected companies. within this parameter, the following broad recommendations are made to south african organisations: • organisation should adopt pilot programmes (morgan, 2004) to determine the suitability of teleworking arrangements prior to the investment in capital cost. pilot studies would allow organisations to test the processes required and establish benchmarks upon which to develop teleworking arrangements to address, amongst other things, organisational flexibility, based on the benefits and challenges to employees that have been identified in the present study. • specific human resource policies and organisational development strategies for teleworking must form part of teleworking arrangements to ensure that before entering into the new arrangement, each party is fully aware of the potential expectations, benefits and challenges. • managers of teleworkers will need to adjust their management styles and performance measurement processes to include the changes in working conditions of personnel and to ensure that performance management still forms an integral part of the manager-employee relationship (stanford, 2003). the benefits of teleworking may be diluted if insufficient objective performance management does not ensure that the teleworker can still progress in the organisation although not being physically present. • attention must focus on the ongoing training of teleworkers, as would be the case for those employees who work in traditional work arrangements. creative processes should be devised to incorporate teleworkers into the existing 'office' culture of the greater organisation. • teleworking can be utilised as part of an organisation's wellness programme and as a recruitment and retention tool to improve the overall desirability of an organisation to potential employees (baruch, 2003; heneman & greenberger, 2002). at the same time, organisations that take part in 'green' initiatives to reduce their impact on the environment could integrate teleworking into the strategy to achieve the objectives of this initiative (siha & monroe, 2006). in the course of the study, the following limitations were encountered: • the majority of participants were white (84.1%), largely the views of participants from other ethnic groups were not captured. in addition, participants were drawn from only three companies and sample numbers were small within each company. accordingly, the findings may not be representative of all teleworkers nor of the actual conditions of teleworking in the specific industries represented and caution must be observed in generalising the findings of the study to other groups and other organisations. • the majority of participants (66.7%) had teleworked for less than two years in their companies and therefore, may have constituted a sample of participants who did not have sufficient exposure to this form of work arrangement to comment knowledgeably on the subject. • the possibility always exists in surveys that participants may not have correctly understood the questions or may have believed that they could be identified in some way and, accordingly, responses may have been influenced. the verification of the accuracy of a percentage of responses aimed to address this issue. • the study addressed only the perceived benefits and challenges of teleworking arrangements as they pertain to individual employees. no attempt was made to identify the organisational benefits and challenges of this form of work arrangement and the findings and recommendations must be viewed within this context. research on teleworking in south africa is sparse and the present study was an attempt to begin addressing this gap. possible research avenues that could be beneficial to local companies in terms of developing ideas in this area include: • identifying and quantifying the benefits and challenges of teleworking arrangements to organisations themselves, as distinct from the potential benefits and challenges for employees. such research could include exploring the potential benefits of cost reductions, greater employee productivity and increased staff retention. • documenting potential social savings and positive impacts on the environment and on society in general, if teleworking had to be adopted as a work arrangement by a large number of local organisations. • identifying how teleworking arrangements could impact employee retention and talent management in the local context. • investigating appropriate reward structures for different groups of teleworkers to obtain optimal performance from such teleworkers within the context of different organisational settings. teleworking arrangements are on the increase globally because of the clear benefits offered by these arrangements in the current business environment. south african organisations have yet to capitalise on this new employment trend and the benefits that it has to offer. the study aimed to highlight the potential benefits of this work practice for employees as well as to highlight issues that may need to be addressed if this work practice is introduced. if the future projection of the number of international teleworkers is correct, it is imperative that south african organisations begin to understand how this form of work arrangement could be used to advance competitiveness. acknowledgement (back to top) the authors wish to extend their sincere appreciation to mr richard devey, head of statkon, university of johannesburg, for his comments on methodology and data analysis. references (back to top) ahmadi, m., helms. m., & ross, t. (2000). technological developments: shaping the teleworking environments of the future. facilities journal, 18(1/2), 83-89. akkirman, a.d., & harris, d.l. (2005). organizational communication satisfaction in the virtual workplace. journal of management development, 24(5), 397-409. allert, j. (2001). you're hired, now go home. training and development, 55(3), 54-58. babbie, e., & mouton, j.j. (2009). the practice of social research. 9th edn. cape town: oxford university press. bal, j., & teo, p.k. (2001). implementing virtual teamworking: part 3 a methodology for introducing virtual teamworking. logistics information management, 14(4), 276-292. baruch, y. (2003). the desert generation: lessons and implications for the new generation of people management. personnel review, 33(2), 241-256. baruch, y., & yuen, y. (2000). inclination to opt for teleworking: a comparative analysis of united kingdom versus hong kong employees. international journal of manpower, 21(7), 531-539. beastley, r.e., lomo-david, e., & seubert, v.r. (2001). telework and gender: implications for the management of information technology professionals. industrial management and data systems, 101(9), 477-482. beasty, c. (2005). virtual contact centres need some fine-tuning. customer relationship management, 9(6), 13. conner, d.s. (2003). social comparison in virtual work environments: an examination of contemporary referent selection. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 76, 133-147. curseu, p.l., schalk, r., & wessel, i. (2008). how do virtual teams process information? a literature review and implications for management. journal of managerial psychology, 23(6), 628-652. diefenbach, t. (2007). the managerialistic ideology of organizational change management. journal of organizational change management, 20(1), 126-144. dwyer, r.j. (2009). prepare for the impact of the multi-generational workforce! transforming government: people, process and policy, 3(2), 101-110. furst, s.a., reeves, m., rosen, b., & blackburn, r.s. (2004). managing the life cycle of virtual teams. academy of management executive, 18, 6-20. gibson, v. (2003). flexible working needs flexible space? towards an alternative workplace strategy. journal of property investment and finance, 21(1), 12-22. grover, r., & vriens, m. (2006). the handbook of marketing research. uses, misuses, and future advances. london: sage publications inc. hamilton, e.a., gordon, j.r., & whelan-berry, k.s. (2006). understanding the work-life conflict of never-married women without children. women in management review, 21(5), 393-415. helms, m., & raiszadeh, f. (2002). virtual offices: understanding and managing what you cannot see. work study, 51(4/5), 240-247. heneman, r.l., & greenberger, d.b. (2002). human resource management in virtual organizations. columbus, ohio: ohio state university. horwitz, f.m., bravington, d., & silvis, u. (2006). the promise of virtual teams: identifying key factors in the effectiveness and failure. journal of european industrial training, 30(6), 472-494. hughes, v., & love, p.e.d. (2004). toward cyber-centric management of policing: back to the future with information and communication technology. industrial management and data systems, 104(7), 604-612. hunsaker, p.l. & hunsaker, j.s. (2008). virtual teams: a leader's guide. team performance management, 14, 86-101. ilozor, d.b., & ilozor, b.d. (2002). australian teleworking: management communication strategies. logistics information management, 15(2), 80-87. ingham, j. (2006). closing the talent management gap. strategic hr review, 5(3), 20-23. jackson, p., gharavi, h., & klobas, j. (2006). technologies of the self: virtual work and the inner panopticon. information technology and people, 19(3), 219-243. johnson, j. (2004). flexible working: changing the manager's role. management decision, 42(6), 721-737. johnson, j. (2005). the virtual workplace: the price is right. network world, 22(36), 37. kepczyk, r. (1999). evaluating the virtual office.â ohio cpa journal, 58(2), 16-17. kowalski, k.b., & swanson, j.a. (2005). critical success factors in developing teleworking programs. benchmarking: an international journal, 12(3), 236-249. kurland, n., & egan, t. (1999). teleworking: justice and control in the virtual organization.â organization science, 10(4), 500-513. langa, g.z., & conradie, d.p. (2003). perceptions and attitudes with regard to teleworking among public sector officials in pretoria: applying the technology acceptance model (tam). communicatio, 29(1&2), 280-296. lardi-nadarajan, k. (2008). breathing a second life into the synthetic worlds. new york: deloitte mcs limited. lim, v.k.g., & teo, t.s.h. (2000). to work or not to work at home. journal of managerial psychology, 15(6), 560-586. macky, k., gardner, d., & forsyth, s. (2008). generational differences at work: introduction and overview. journal of managerial psychology, 23(8), 857-861. mann, s., varey, r., & button, w. (2000). an exploration of the emotional impact of teleworking via computer-mediated communication. journal of managerial psychology, 15(7), 668-690. martinez-sanchez, a., perez-perez, m., vela-jimenez, m.j., & de-luis carnicer, p. (2008). telework adoption, change management, and firm performance. journal of organizational change management, 21(1), 7-31. meadows, v. (2007). versatile bureaucracy: a telework case study. the public manager, 36(4), 33-37. meyer, j.p., srinivas, e.s., lal, j.b., & topolnytsky, l. (2007). employee commitment and support for an organizational change: test of the three-component model in two cultures. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 180, 185-211. moore, s. (1999). understanding and managing diversity among groups at work: key issues for organisational training and development. journal of european industrial training, 23(4/5), 208-218. morgan, r.e. (2004). teleworking: an assessment of the benefits and challenges. european business review journal, 16(4), 344-357. moustafa-leonard, k. (2007). trust and the manager-subordinate dyad: virtual work as a unique context. journal of behavioral and applied management, 8(3), 197-201. nandhakumar, j., & baskerville, r. (2006). durability of online teamworking: patterns of trust. information technology and people, 19(4), 371-389. nortje, h., van brakel, p.a., & rensleigh, c. (2004). information environment of teleworkers in south africa. south african journal of information management, 6(1), retrieved february 22, 2010, from www.journals.co.za/ej/ejour_info.html o'brien, t., & hayden, h. (2007). flexible work practices and the lis sector: balancing the needs of work and life? library management, 29(3), 199-228. odendaal, a., & roodt, g. (2002). australian and south african perspectives on the implementation of flexible work practices (fwp): an exploratory study. sa journal of industrial psychology/ sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 29(3), 75-82. panteli, n., & duncan, e. (2004). trust and temporary virtual teams: alternative explanations and dramaturgical relationships. information technology & people, 17(4), 423-441. patrickson, m. (2002). teleworking: potential employment opportunities for older workers? international journal of manpower, 23(8), 704-715. porter, g., & kakabadse, n.k. (2006). hrm perspectives on addiction to technology and work. journal of management development, 25(6), 535-560. reynolds, n., diamantopoulos, a., & schegelmilch, b. (1993). pretesting in questionnaire design: a review of the literature and suggestions for further research. journal of market research society, 35(2), 171-173. road traffic management corporation. (2008). road traffic report. retrieved march 26, 2009, from http://www.arrivealive.co.za/documents/march_2008_-_road_traffic_report_-_march_2008.pdf shekhar, s. (2006). understanding the virtuality of virtual organisations. leadership & organizational development journal, 27(6), 465-483. siha, s.m., & monroe, r.w. (2006). teleworking's past and future: a literature review and research agenda. business process management journal, 12(4), 455-482. smith, i. (2005). continuing professional development and workplace learning. resistance to change recognition and response. library management, 26(8/9), 519-522. sperling, d., & yeh, s. (2009). low carbon fuel standards. issues in science and technology, 25(2), 57-66. stanford, p. (2003). managing remote workers.â executive excellence, 20(6), 6-7. sundaram, d.s., & webster, c. (2000). the role of nonverbal communication in service encounters. journal of services marketing, 14(5), 378-391. thorne, k. (2005). designing virtual organizations: themes and trends in political and organisational discourses. journal of management development, 24(7), 580-607. tidd, r. (1999). establishing your virtual office.â taxes, 77(6), 6-7.â tietze, s., & musson, g. (2003). the times and temporalities of home-based telework. personal review, 32(4), 438-455. vakola, m., & wilson, i.e. (2004). the challenge of virtual organisation: critical success factors in dealing with constant change. team performance management, 10(5/6), 112-120. watad, m.m., & will, p.c. (2003). telecommuting and organisational change: a middle-managers' perspective. business process management journal, 9(4), 459-472. watson-manheim, m.b., chudoba, k.m., & crowston, k. (2002). discontinuities and continuities: a new way to understand virtual work. information technology and people, 15(3), 191-209. wiesenfeld, b.m., raghuram, s., & garud, r. (2001). organizational identification among virtual workers: the role of need affiliation and perceived work-based social support. journal of management, 2, 213-229. wilsker, c. (2008). unleashing the hidden productivity of your small business. new york: avaya. zikmund, w. (2003). business research methods. mason, ohio: thomson: south-western. s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 2 pp. 25 31 original research benchmarking of human resource management in the public sector: prospects, problems and challenges david m akinnusi organisational/industrial psychology and human resources management north west university south africa correspondence to: david m akinnusi e-mail: david.akinnusi@nwu.ac.za abstract this paper reviews the role of human resource management (hrm) which, today, plays a strategic partnership role in management. the focus of the paper is on hrm in the public sector, where much hope rests on hrm as a means of transforming the public service and achieving much needed service delivery. however, a critical evaluation of hrm practices in the public sector reveals that these services leave much to be desired. the paper suggests the adoption of benchmarking as a process to revamp hrm in the public sector so that it is able to deliver on its promises. it describes the nature and process of benchmarking and highlights the inherent difficulties in applying benchmarking in hrm. it concludes with some suggestions for a plan of action. the process of identifying “best” practices in hrm requires the best collaborative efforts of hrm practitioners and academicians. if used creatively, benchmarking has the potential to bring about radical and positive changes in hrm in the public sector. the adoption of the benchmarking process is, in itself, a litmus test of the extent to which hrm in the public sector has grown professionally. keywords: benchmarking, benchmarking process, human resource management, public sector, public sector management 25 in any organised human activity, human beings naturally take precedence over other resources, as it is they and they alone who are capable of directing and utilising other resources. effective human resource management (hrm) has, therefore, become crucial and critical to the achievement of individual, organisational, community, national and international goals and objectives. ironically, even though human beings are widely considered as the most important assets of any organisation or nation, their development, motivation and utilisation have not always occupied the central place in management (bendix, 1996, p. 4-10). in the history of management thought, the neglect of the human side of enterprise brought the scientific school of management to its knees and led to the rise of the human relations and the behavioural schools of thought which firmly succeeded in putting human beings as the core of management (carrell, elbert & hartfield, 1995). in the practical world, the commodification or de-personalisation of human beings during the industrial revolution was also associated with the rise of trade union movements, leading to government interventions and regulations and the emergence of labour relations and personnel administration as fields of study (bendix, 1995, p. 7). in the 1990s, personnel management metamorphosed into human resource management in clear recognition of its strategic role in the overall performance of organisations (authur, 1994; cascio, 1995; huselid, 1995; gerber, nel & van dyk, 1998). the state of hrm in south africa the history of south africa, rising from the ashes of the apartheid regime, is replete with cases of poor hrm, to the point of constricting its development more than a decade after its independence (deputy president, phumzile mlambongcuka, 2006). the deputy president while launching the joint initiative for priority skills acquisition (jipsa) remarked that: nothing short of a skills revolution by a nation united will extricate us from the crises we face. we are addressing logjams, some of which are systemic and therefore in some cases entrenched even in post-apartheid south africa. the systemic nature of some of our challenges undermine our excellent new policies, at least in the short term, hence the need for interventions such as jipsa to enhance implementation of our policies (http:// www.info.gov.za/speeches/2006/06032810451001.htm) historically, south africa has performed very poorly in practically all the criteria on the liability side of human resources balance sheet as measured by the world competitiveness ratings (1998, 1999). some of these include equal opportunity, skilled labour, aids, worker motivation, brain drain, unemployment, alcohol and drug abuse, values of the society, illiteracy, dependency ratio, human development index and competent managers. the field of labour relations (lr), like its human resources counterpart, reflects the country’s sociopolitical history which was characterised by deep divisions along racial and political lines, discrimination, unfair labour practices and gross distortions in the labour market systems, resulting in serious confrontations between the social partners and perennial industrial unrest (bendix, 1996, p. 71-104). these stark realities have prompted the democratic government to enact a series of laws designed to bring radical changes in the areas of hrm and labour relations. some of these include: occupational health and safety act no 85 of 1993• labour relations act 66 of 1995 and labour relations • amendment act no 127 of 1998 south african qualifications act no 58 of 1995• basic conditions of employment act no 104 of 1997• employment equity act no. 55 of 1998• skills development act no 97 of 1998• skills development levies act no. 9 of 1999 • promotion of equality and the prevention of unfair • discrimination act 4 of 2000 white paper on human resource management in the • public service, 2000 the intention of these acts was to create a healthy, humane, just and equitable workplace or society, free from discrimination and oppression and in which people and workers are educated and continuously trained to meet the challenges of national original research akinnusi vol. 6 no. 2 pp. 25 31sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sahrm.co.za health and safety at work remains a contentious issue, 4. especially in small and medium establishments, in mines and on farms. the public sector itself being too bureaucratic and change 5. resistant. skills and income disparities have continued along racial 6. lines. the scourge of hiv/aids has complicated and worsened 7. the human resources situation in the nation and in organisations. strikes and protests have continued unabated, as the 8. economy plods along and inflation, power outages and hikes in fuel prices and interest rates seriously erode wages. pressures from the influx of illegal immigrants from 9. politically unstable neighbouring countries, leading to overloading of services and resulting in xenophobic clashes, which left more than sixty people dead in may/ june 2008. in short, although south africa is armed with formidable legislative armoury to create a humane society and organisational environments conducive to hrm, the fact remains that it will take many more years to undo the legacy of apartheid in “creating structural inequalities in the acquisition of education, work skills and access to managerial, professional and occupational positions” (horwitz, browning, jain & steenkamp, 2002). this situation, therefore, calls for innovative practices such as benchmarking, the focus of this study. aims and structure of the paper the role of benchmarking will be discussed in the context of the above concerns. the aim of this paper is to advocate the adoption of benchmarking as a tool to revamp, in order for government to be able to deliver on its promises. the objectives are to describe the nature and process of benchmarking, to highlight the inherent difficulties in applying benchmarking in hrm and to suggest a plan of action. accordingly, the rest of this paper is structured, first, to highlight the nature and process of benchmarking and then to review the literature on benchmarking as applied to the hrm function. the problems and prospects of benchmarking in hrm are highlighted and discussed. in conclusion, approaches and suggestions for using benchmarking to improve hrm practices in the public sector are made. the nature of bench marking camp (1989), who first wrote a book on the subject based on his experience at xerox corporation in the usa, defined benchmarking as the search for industry best practices that will lead to superior performance. a more elaborate definition was offered by the international benchmarking clearing house design committee which regards benchmarking as “a systematic and continuous measurement process; a process of continuously measuring and comparing an organisation’s business process against business leaders anywhere in the world to gain information which will help the organisation to take action to improve its performance” (lema & price, 1995). benchmarking has gained acceptance worldwide as an instrument of continuous improvement in the context of total quality management and as a means of enhancing competitiveness (carpinetti & de melo, 2002, p. 1). this process is used intensively and extensively in the private sector and its use is growing steadily in the public sector (dorsch & yasin, 1998; auluck, 2002). indeed, auluck (2002, p. 1) regards both benchmarking and the learning organisation ideal as “institutional fairy godmothers”, which offer potential to improve organisational performance in the public sector”. in this regard, benchmarking is said to have reached maturity 26 development and globalisation in a peaceful industrial climate. in 2006, the nation launched the joint initiative on priority skills acquisition (jipsa) to develop skills that are most urgently needed as part of the accelerated and shared growth initiative for south africa (asgisa), which was to propel south africa at a development trajectory of 6% gdp by 2010. the implementation and the realisation of these acts and initiatives require, among other things, managers and, especially, human resource professionals, whose responsibility it is to effectively manage the human resources of their organisations. for its own part, the south african board of personnel practice has proposed a bill, the human resource profession bill (2005), which intends to professionalise the practice of hrm in south africa. the focus of this paper is on hrm in the public sector, where the challenges are most acutely felt. the government white paper on human resource management in the public service (2000) notes that national departments and provincial administrations employ approximately 1,2 million people, who account for more than 50% of all public expenditure. it declares that “people are therefore the public service’s most valuable asset, and managing human resources effectively and strategically must be the cornerstone of the wider transformation of the public service”. appropriately, government has embraced the shift of focus from personnel administration to hrm. therefore, government’s vision of hrm in the public service is that it will “result in a diverse, competent and well-managed workforce, capable of, and committed to, delivering high quality services to the people of south africa”. it further stressed that the practice of hrm would be underpinned by the following values which derive from the constitution: fairness, accessibility, transparency, accountability, participation and professionalism. however, the white paper on human resource management in the public service (2000) was quick to point out the inadequacies and out-dated practices of hrm in the public sector, describing various aspects of it in the following ways: (it is) over-centralised, excessively bureaucratic and rulebound. it is focused on form rather than substance and results. human resource planning is weak; post-filling and promotion criteria over-emphasize educational qualifications and seniority and little or no emphasis is placed on the requirements of the job to be done. performance management is also underdeveloped. all these inadequacies and the racial imbalance simply mean that government’s avowed desire to transform public service delivery by putting people first (via the “batho pele principles”) would be greatly frustrated by an inefficient and ineffective management, in general, and lacklustre state of human resource management, in particular. more than a decade after independence, the state of hrm in south africa has not changed as drastically as expected at either the macro or micro level. this is due to a number of factors including the following (gerber, nel and van dyk, 1998; bowmaker-falconer, horwitz, jain & taggar, 1998; white paper on hrm, 2000; horwilt, browning, jain & steenkamp, 2002; http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2008/05/27/115219. html): reluctance by corporations to embrace transformation 1. and major changes implied or required by the various legislations. reluctance on the part of trade unions to buy into the 2. perceived capitalist agenda of the new government, leading to a shaky alliance between government and its alliance partners, the congress of south african trade unions (cosatu) and south african communist party (sacp). fear of reverse discrimination by whites, sparking off 3. emigration in large numbers and leading to only modest gains in the area of employment equity and diversity management. benchmarking of human resource management original research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 2 pp. 25 31 27 within the uk, with over 60% of uk companies claiming some involvement. zairi and ahmed (as quoted by auluck, 2002, p. 115) noted that benchmarking is reported to be the third most popular management technique worldwide and the fourth in the uk between 1992 and 1996. watson (1993) is of the opinion that benchmarking has moved from being an art to a science. the following benefits of benchmarking have been noted in the literature (camp, 1989; rodwell, jeremy & fastenau, 2000; auluck, 2002; carpinetti & de melo, 2002): it helps to develop an improvement mindset among staff.1. it promotes an organisational dialogue about how 2. things are and what needs to change; this gives people throughout the organisation an outlet for their experiences and thinking. it facilitates an understanding of best practices and 3. processes in the industry. it helps to develop a better understanding of processes.4. it challenges existing practices within the business, thus 5. encouraging innovation and exchange of ideas. it assists in setting goals based on facts.6. it provides an educated viewpoint of what needs to be 7. done rather than relying on whim and ‘gut feel’. it helps in defining better measures of productivity.8. it improves companies’ competitive position.9. it has produced a high degree of job satisfaction, learning, 10. excitement and networking among benchmarkers. benchmarking also speeds the change process by expediting the identification of necessary improvements and motivating companies to accept these improvements. improvements can be in the form of simplified processes, shorter times and reduced costs (carpinetti & de melo, 2002). employees generally gain a sense of professional growth from benchmarking with the realisation that they are taking on the best in their field. according to auluck (2002, p. 116), the fact that benchmarking is not prescriptive and can be easily adapted to reflect the culture and language of any given organisation was reported as being one of its key strengths. hence, as noted by carpinetti and melo (2002, p. 246), there are many areas where benchmarking can be applied, ranging from manufacturing to non-manufacturing organisations including education, public sector administration and health care. in the manufacturing industry, benchmarking has focused on subjects such as product innovation, logistics, maintenance, hrm and quality assurance among others. the benchmarking process benchmarking processes can be classified into five basic steps as in figure 1 (drew, 1997): identify the object of the study;1. select the superior performer (benchmarking partner);2. collect and analyse data;3. set performance goals for improvement and 4. implement plans and monitor results.5. in a study by longbottom (2000), involving more than 200 british organisations, he found little evidence to show that organisations are identifying and prioritising projects based on their corporate and strategic planning process. rather, selection of projects for benchmarking is ad hoc, mostly arising from project/benchmarking champions, based on the need to update equipment or technology, or reacting to rising costs or falling profits. this approach may limit the impact of the benchmarking exercise. hence, carpinetti and de melo (2002, p. 245) emphasise the importance of aligning benchmarking to strategic objectives and market demands, rather than taking a short term, operational view of improvements. benchmarking types there are four main types of formal benchmarking (camp, 1989; guimaraes & langley, 1994; carpinetti & de melo, 2002): internal benchmarking• competitive benchmarking• functional benchmarking• generic benchmarking• internal benchmarking this is the easiest form of benchmarking to conduct. it involves benchmarking between businesses or functions within the same group of companies. in this way, best practice and initiatives are shared across the corporate business. some advantages of internal benchmarking are: the information is readily available; attention can be focused on specific areas for improvement; constructive competition is possible and performance measures can be linked to internal appraisal and reward systems. internal benchmarking also has several disadvantages: it ignores competition; encourages a narrow or internal perspective; may emphasise company trends, and may create a tendency to postpone major change. competitive benchmarking this is a comparison against the direct competitors within a company’s market. it is often difficult, if not impossible in some industries, to obtain the data for this form of benchmarking as, by the very nature of being a competitor, the company is seen as a threat. hence, it is usually done through third party consultants who assess a consortium of companies in the same industry and individual companies receive only summary information. external benchmarking encourages a broad perspective and many times redefines old paradigms by providing previously unavailable, objective data. it can often detect market trends and create a sense of urgency that provides a legitimate basis for instituting essential change. external benchmarking can ensure that a company’s goals are proactive and industryleading instead of just being an improvement on last year’s performance. functional benchmarking this involves comparison of specific processes with “best in class” in different industries, often considered to be world class in their own right. functional relates to comparing a particular business function in two or more organisations in the same industry. figure 1 generic benchmarking process 1. determine what to benchmark e 2. f te form a eam 3. identify partners 4. and collect d analyze data 5. impleme and monit results ent tor source: drew (1997) original research akinnusi vol. 6 no. 2 pp. 25 31sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sahrm.co.za28 generic benchmarking generic benchmarking searches for the best practice irrespective of industry. it is similar with functional benchmarking but the aim is to compare with the best in class without regard to industry. best-in-class benchmarking is important because it allows companies to identify desirable objectives. camp (1989) stresses that great improvements are possible only when comparisons are made with industry leaders and best practices are well understood. research is necessary to make sure that the company being benchmarked is really the best. the most important part of any type of benchmarking is identifying the factors behind the benchmark’s success and adapting and applying those factors to a person’s own organisation. benchmarking services and tools in the literature, there are many organisations that offer benchmarking services which facilitate the development of the benchmarking process (carpinetti & de melo, 2002). examples are: the benchmarking exchange, which enables members, 1. among other things, to locate and communicate with potential benchmarking partners electronically, to research best-in-class companies, find out how they achieved best-in-class performance or to seek assistance and advice from others who are already benchmarked in the area that a company is about to benchmark. benchmarking clearinghouse of the american 2. productivity and quality centre (aqpc). there are a variety of frameworks and tools for carrying out benchmarking. the most widely used are briefly summarised as follows (loffler, 2001; auluck, 2002): quality awards. in many oecd member countries, 1. quality awards have become an important benchmarking instrument for public and especially private sector organisations. quality awards pursue two main goals: one is to introduce elements of competition in areas of the public and private sectors that lack market competition; the other is to encourage organisational learning (loffler, 2001). examples are the deming prize in japan, the malcolm baldrige national quality award in the usa; and the european quality award in western europe, with many individual nations establishing their own national awards. these practices have also spread to canada, australia and new zealand (loffler, 2001). on the african continent, for example, the african union 2. (au), the new partnership for africa’s development (nepad) and the 5th pan africa conference of ministers of public service launched their first annual all africa public sector innovation awards in 2007. the purpose of the awards is to promote and encourage best practice in public sector innovation and service delivery (http:// www.nepad.org/2005/files/hsgic.php). peer review which uses people who have practical 3. experience of a particular area or situation to act as “friendly critics” to another organisation facing similar issues can be used to bring new insights into the organisation, help to identify priorities and facilitate the sharing of good practice. this has been used extensively in the uk. business excellence model, the brainchild of the european 4. foundation for quality management, launched a european quality award framework as a tool for reviewing and identifying an organisation’s improvements. the business excellence model provides a set of criteria against which any organisation can assess itself and use the framework to identify any “gaps” or for making award submissions. it can be used at various points in the organisation’s development, such as at the beginning of an improvement programme to identify areas for improvement and to establish priorities or periodically, yearly or every two years to provide comparative data and to steer improvement programmes. investors in people standard, established in 1990 in the 5. uk, sets up standards against which to measure good human resource practices in order to achieve business goals. the standard is based on four key principles, namely, commitment, planning, action and evaluating. these principles are divided into 12 indicators and 33 evidence criteria against which organisations wishing to be recognised as an “investor in people” can be measured (investors in people brochure). benchmarking of hrm best practice in the case of hrm refers to high performance work practices such as recruitment, selection, performance management and training that may in turn have an impact on the institution’s performance and, ultimately, on the competitive advantage of an organisation (huselid, 1995; schuler & macmillan, 1984). the search for the best practice in hrm is driven by two major considerations. the first is the fact that labour costs are generally high everywhere and south africa is not an exception. the second is that evidence highlighting the value of hrm to an organisation may help the human resource function to gain strategic status (torrington & hall, 1996). a positive relationship has been found between certain key hrm practices and organisational performance (arthur, 1994; huselid, 1995; huselid, jackson & schuler, 1997; shadur, rodwell, simons, & bamber, 1994). these studies have generally taken the form of examining the hrm practices proposed as possible best practices affecting performance (e.g. employee welfare schemes and performance pay) and their relationship with measures of firm performance (e.g. quality and efficiency). a range of hrm practices often incorporated into these analyses includes the following: incentive plans, training and development, recruitment and selection, compensation, industrial relations and performance appraisals. these have been identified as high-performance work practices that can lead to lower employee turnover, greater productivity and better corporate financial performance (huselid, 1995; huselid & becker, 1996). other potential best practices are occupational health and safety (nelson, 1994) and enterprise bargaining, reflecting management quality and equal employment opportunities (eeo) and affirmative action (aa) policies as indicators of human resource utilisation. the ultimate benefit of strategic hrm to an organisation is its ability to facilitate hrm’s contribution to the organisation in the acquisition and maintenance of a sustainable competitive advantage (teo, 1998). one way to achieve improvements in competitiveness, which is the focus of this paper, is through benchmarking hrm best practices. yet, ascertaining hrm “best” practices has proved rather elusive. in a study titled “benchmarking hrm and the benchmarking of benchmarking”, rodwell, lam and fastenau (2000) made the important point that benchmarking may only reveal industry practices that have been widely adopted by organisations but not does not necessarily identify those that make for competitive advantage. their search for those “best” practices which differentiate between good and bad performing organisations eventually led them to a set of factors, which they classified as common/standard practices, borderline best practices and best practices. the rodwell, lam and fastenau (2000) paper is a significant contribution to benchmarking for two major reasons. firstly, it is an attempt by academics to seek the “best” set of hrm practices which distinguishes poor from better performing benchmarking of human resource management original research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 2 pp. 25 31 organisations. in this respect, their example is worth emulation, as the set of best practices is contingent on the nature of the industry and the environment investigated. rodwell et al’s (2000) study surveyed the finance industry in australia where, they found, counter-intuitively, that a lack of written policies on health and safety was one of the major “best” practices. it is immediately apparent that the findings of this study are not only limited to the industry and the country studied, but also cannot be generalised to the finance industry of another country, say south africa, where the issue of safety has taken on dramatic importance in that industry in the era of bombings of atm cash points and cash-in-transit heists that are a daily occurrence in south africa, with crime statistics reporting a 74% rise in cash-in-transit heists in june 2008 (allafrica.com/ stories/200609280232.html, accessed in july 13, 2008). secondly, what are regarded as “common/standard” hrm practices in australia may not be so regarded in other countries such as south africa. according to rodwell et al, these practices are common and necessary but do not make for enhanced organisational performance. examples such as eeo/aa policies and customer satisfaction that are relevant to south africa are not applicable in other countries, yet constitute very serious concerns here. again, their findings are not applicable to a country like south africa, where such issues are widely shared and, therefore, constitute very serious national concerns (horwitz, browning, jain & steenkamp, 2002). the lesson of this illustration, therefore, is that the specific “best” practices found in one country or industry cannot simply be adopted by other countries or industries. nevertheless, the broader message of their paper, namely, to be as inclusive as possible when considering hrm practices that may be “best” practices, would be transferable to other industries and nations. another lesson to be learnt from benchmarking is that even though benchmarking may lead to the establishment of new industry standards, it does not automatically produce competitive advantages for the replicating organisations. organisations need to research their competitors’ policies and practices to identify factors that produce their competitive advantage, but they can only achieve competitive advantage themselves by the development and innovation of new practices within their own organisations. in short, this development and innovation may be a key mechanism for an organisation benchmarking to become a learning organisation as well. it calls for an organisation to become an innovator in the management of their hr rather than just an imitator of the champion. this is the real challenge facing organisations trying to benchmark (rodwell, lam & fastenau, 2000). furthermore, harrington (1997) talked about the “fallacy of universal best practices” to drive home the point that what may be best practices for one organisation may be disastrous for another. based on a review of one of the world’s largest international management practice’s databases (involving industries from japan, germany, usa and canada), the author indicated that there were only five practices considered universal best practices, and even then there was only a very small chance (5%) that these approaches would benefit an organisation’s performance, depending on whether it is a low-, mediumor a highperforming organisation. the major lesson is that “…there is no hypothetical universal best practice combination that is applicable to all organisations which strive to improve” (harrington, 1997, p. 70). finally, researchers in the past (see, for example, mendonca & kanungo, 1996) have long warned against the indiscriminate and uncritical transfer to developing countries of techniques and practices based on western thought and value systems on the grounds that although the principles embodied in these practices have “pan-cultural applicability”, the manner in which these practices are carried out are constrained by the socio-cultural environments of the host organisations. hence, the state-of–the-art human resource management practices from the western world need to be modified or their mode of implementation adapted to “fit” the cultural values and beliefs of developing countries. as for benchmarking itself, one of the key points to its adoption world wide is that the concept itself enjoys universal appeal. the fact that benchmarking is not prescriptive and can be easily adapted to reflect the culture and language of any given organisation was reported as being one of its key strengths (auluck, 2002, p. 116). in summary, in the area of hrm, there is no short cut to finding out the “best” practices relevant to a particular industry and environment. suggestions for benchmarking hrm in the public sector benchmarking presents managers of public sector institutions in south africa with the challenge of venturing to compare their functions, not only internally among themselves, but also against other best-run government departments or best-run companies in south africa. admittedly, there are differences in the ethos and cultures of public and private sector organisations; nevertheless, the call for the public service to be more results oriented can only be met by understanding and learning from practices of their private sector counterparts and initiating creative and appropriate changes. benchmarking is no longer the monopoly of the private sector. public sector institutions in most of western countries are using benchmarking to meet the enduring challenge to provide maximum value for money – i.e. highest quality at least cost (see, also sedgwick, 1995; and dorsch & yasin, 1998). as for hrm managers in public sector institutions in south africa, benchmarking presents them with the challenge of moving out of their cocoons. benchmarking presents hrm professionals in the public sector with a golden opportunity to improve their image and deliver on the government hope that: “human resource management in the public service should become a model of excellence,…..the management of people should be regarded as a significant task for those who have been charged with the responsibility and should be conducted in a professional manner” (white paper on human resource management in the public service, 2000; italicised for emphasis) this challenge is an enormous one, considering the desperate state of human resource management problems enumerated at the beginning of this paper. hrm functionaries must, therefore embark on a process of discovery and fundamental change, using the benchmarking process described above. the process itself is a litmus test of the extent to which hrm professionals have grown beyond technical skills and embraced the badlyneeded strategic skills of designing and implementing a set of internally consistent policies and practices that ensure an institution’s human capital contributes to the achievement of its business objectives. it is an area which definitely requires them to demonstrate their skills as change leaders, service providers, measurement experts, consultant and information journalists (nel, 1997; herbst, 1998). research results have clearly indicated that investments in human resources are a potential source of competitive advantage, with increase in overall hrm effectiveness leading to increase in the performance of the institutions concerned (huselid, et. al., 1997). the practical implication of this is that improving hrm efficiency and effectiveness will hold off the threat of downsizing, increase job satisfaction and service 29 original research akinnusi vol. 6 no. 2 pp. 25 31sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sahrm.co.za delivery. benchmarking may be the technique which could bring about a true revolution in hrm in the public service. for this to happen, the following suggestions are made: human resource managers in the public service must 1. improve their skills in strategic human resource, since the adoption of benchmarking should focus on strategic rather than operational objectives, if it is to succeed. academics in collaboration with public sector hr 2. managers should search for the “best” combination of hrm practices in their respective sectors. meanwhile, there are benchmarking tools such as peer 3. reviews, excellent models or even investors in people, which could be adopted as ways of stimulating creative changes in the human resource arenas. the government of south africa should follow the 4. american, european, canadian and australian’s examples of instituting national awards for best practices in public sector management in general or in hrm in particular. it is hoped that hrm directors and managers in national, provincial and municipal councils would embrace the challenge of benchmarking in order to make the desired impact on service delivery, productivity and job satisfaction of their employees. this challenge is enormous, considering the desperate state of human resource management problems enumerated at the beginning of this paper. it is a process of a guided tour and fundamental change. the adoption of the benchmarking process is, in itself, a litmus test of the extent to which hrm managers have grown professionally by implementing a set of internally consistent policies and practices, ensuring that the institution’s human capital contributes to the achieve of government’s objectives. references arthur, j. b. (1994). the effects of human resources management systems on manufacturing performance and turnover. academy of management journal, 37(3), 670-687. auluck, r. (2002). benchmarking: a tool for facilitating organisational learning. public administration and development, 22(2), 109-2002. bendix, s. (1996). industrial relations in the new south africa. third edition. cape town: juta & co. bowmaker-falconer, a., horwitz, f. a. jain, h. & taggar, s. (1998). employment programmes in south africa: current trends. industrial relations journal, 29(3), 222-233. camp, r. c. (1989). benchmarking: the search for industry best practices that lead to superior performance. milwaukee: asqc quality press. camp, r. c. (1992). learning from the best leads to superior performance. journal of business strategy, 13(3), 3-6. carpinetti, l. c. r. & de melo, a. m. (2002). what to benchmark? a systematic approach and cases. benchmarking: an international journal. 9(3), 244-255. carrell, m. r. elbert, n. f. &. hatfield r. d (1995). human resource management: global strategies for managing a diverse workforce. nj: prentice hall. cascio, w. e. (1995). managing human resources. new york: mcgraw-hill coe, c. (1999) local government benchmarking: lessons from two major multi-government efforts. public administration review, march/april, 59(2), 110-124. dorsch, j.j. & yasin, m.m. (1998). a framework for benchmarking in the public sector: literature review and directions for future research. international journal of public sector management, 11(2/3), 91115. drew, s. a. w. (1997). from knowledge to action: the impact of benchmarking on organisational performance, long range planning. 30(3), 427-441. emf foundation. world competitiveness report, 1998, 1999. geneva: switzerland. geber, p.d., nel. p.s. & p. s. van dyk (eds.), (1996). human resources management. (4th ed.), cape town: international thomson publishing (southern africa) pty (ltd). guimaraes, t. & langley, k. (1994). developing innovation benchmarks: an empirical study. benchmarking for quality and technology, 1(3), 3-20. herbst, t. (1998). management competencies for the new millennium, people dynamics, january 1998, 31-35. horwitz, f. m., browning, jain, h. & steenkamp, a. j. (2002). human resource practices anddiscrimination in south africa: overcoming the apartheid legacy. the international journal of human resource management, 13(7), 1105-1118. huselid, m. a. (1995). the impact of human resources management on turnover, productivity and corporate financial performance. academy of management journal, 38(3), 635-672. huselid, m. a. & becker, b. e. (1994). the strategic impact of human resources: results from a panel study. working paper, rutgers university. new brunswick, n. j. huselid, m. a., jackson, s. e. & schuler, r. s. (1997). technical and strategic management effectiveness as determinants of firm performance. academy of management journal. 40(1), 171-188. harrington, h.j. (1997). the fallacy of universal best practices. the tqm magazine, 9(1), 61-75. horvarth, p. & herter, n. r. (1992). benchmarking: comparing the best of the best. controlling, jan-feb. 1(1), 4-11. human resources professions bill, 2005. http://www.workinfo. com/free/downloads/hract.htm. lema, n. & price a. (1995). benchmarking – performance improvement toward competitive advantage. journal of management engineering, 11(1), 28-37. loffler, e. (2001). quality awards as a public sector benchmarking concept in oecd membercountries: some guidelines for quality award organizers. public administration and development, 21(1), 27-40. longbottom, d. (2000). benchmarking in the uk: an empirical study of practitioners and academics. benchmarking, 7(2), 98117. mendonca, m. & kanungo, r.n. (1996). impact of culture on performance management in developing countries. international journal of manpower, 17(4/5), 65-75. mlambo-ngcuka, phumzile. deputy president of south africa. speech delivered at the launch ofthe joint initiative for priority skills acquisition (jipsa), 27 march 2006. retrieved july 15, 2008 , from the world wide web: http://www.info. gov.za/speeches/2006/06032810451001.htm nel, c. (1997). hr is dead, long live hr. people dynamics, sept. 15(9), 16-21. nelson, l. (1994). managing managers in occupational health and safety. asian pacific journal of human resources, 35(1), 5364. republic of south africa (1993). occupational health and safety act no 85 of 1993. retrieved july 15, 2008, from the world wide web: http://llnw.creamermedia.co.za/articles/ attachments/02063_occhealth&safetya85.pdf republic of south africa (1995). labour relations act 66 of 1995. retrieved july 15, 2008 from the world wide web: http:// ll nw.creamermedia.co.za/art icles/at tach ments/02720_ labourrelationsact66.pdf republic of south africa (1995). south african qualifications act no 58 of 1995. retrieved july 15, 2008, from the world wide web: ht t p://l l nw.c rea mer me d i a.co.z a/a r t ic le s/ attachments/02709_saqualauthact58.pdf republic of south africa (1998), employment equity act no. 55 of 1998, government gazette no 19370, 19 october 1998. republic of south africa (1998), skills development act no 97 of 1998, retrieved july 15, 2008, from the world wide web: ht t p://l l nw.c rea mer me d i a.co.z a/a r t ic le s/ attachments/03387_sklldevac97.pdf republic of south africa (1999), skills development levies act no. 9 of 1999, government gazette no 1984, 30 april 1999. 30 benchmarking of human resource management original research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 2 pp. 25 31 republic of south africa (2000), promotion of equality and the prevention of unfair discrimination act 4 of 2000, government gazette no 20876, 9 february 2000. republic of south africa (2000), white paper on human resource management in the public service. retrieved july 15, 2008, from the world wide web: http://www.polity. org.za/govdocs/white_papers/servicedec.html rodwell, j. j. lam, j. f. & fastenau, m. (2000). benchmarking hrm and the benchmarking of benchmarking. employee relations, 22(4), 356-374. shadur, m. a., rodwell, j. j., simons, d. e. & bamber, g. j. (1994). international best practice, quality management and high performance: inferences from the australian automotive sector. the international journal of human resource management, 5(3), 609-632. schuler, r. s. & macmillan, i. c. (1984). gaining competitive advantage through human resource practices. human resource management, 23(3), 77-89. sedgwick, s. (1995) benchmarking and best practice: promise and performance. australian journal of public administration, 54(3), 401-408. teo, s. t. t. (1998). changing roles of australian hrm practitioners. research and practice in human resources management, 6(1), 67-84. torrington, d. & hall, l. (1996). chasing the rainbow: how seeking status though strategy misses the point of the personnel function. employee relations, 18(6), 87-97. treadwell, j. & maguire, j. (1995). benchmarking corporate services: a south australian publicsector case study. australian journal of public administration, 54(3), 408-514. watson, g. h. (1993). strategic benchmarking: how to measure company’s performance against the world’s best. wiley: chichester. zairi, m. & ahmed, p. (1999). benchmarking maturity as we approach the next millennium. total quality management journal, 4(5), 810-816. 31 article information authors: ingrid l. potgieter1 melinde coetzee2 affiliations: 1department of human resource management, university of south africa, south africa 2department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: ingrid potgieter email: visseil@unisa.ac.za postal address: po box 72798, lynwood ridge, pretoria 0040, south africa keywords competency framework; head of department; management development; managerial competencies; tertiary education dates: received: 26 may 2010 accepted: 21 sept. 2010 published: 25 nov. 2010 how to cite this article: potgieter, i.l., & coetzee, m. (2010). management competencies in higher education: perceived job importance in relation to level of training required. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #306, 10 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.306 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) management competencies in higher education: perceived job importance in relation to level of training required in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study    • trends from the research literature       • management competencies       • research objectives       • the potential value-add of the study       • what will follow • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instrument       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • hypothesis testing    • competencies relating to planning and organising    • competencies relating to controlling    • competencies relating to human resource specific aspects    • competencies relating to personal attributes • discussion    • competencies relating to planning and organising    • competencies relating to leadership    • competencies relating to controlling    • competencies relating to human resource specific aspects    • competencies relating to personal attributes    • limitations and recommendations • conclusions • references abstract (back to top) orientation: the increasing changes and demands placed on higher education institutions in the 21st century and resultant impact on the roles and responsibilities of heads of department (hods) have led to an increasing emphasis on the development of core hod management competencies. research purpose: the aim of this article is to determine the relationship between a specific set of hod managerial competencies identified as being important for the job and the level of training required in terms of these competencies. motivation for the study: research has provided evidence that hods are often ill-prepared for their managerial role, which requires the development of specific management competencies to enable them to fulfil their roles effectively. research design, approach and method: a non-experimental quantitative survey design approach was followed and correlational data analyses were performed. a cross-sectional sample of 41 hods of 22 departments from various faculties of a higher education institution in gauteng participated in this study. the management competency inventory (mci) of visser (2009) was applied as a measure. main findings: the pearson product-moment analysis indicated that there is a significant relationship between the competencies indicated as being important for the job and the level of training required. practical/managerial implications: training needs of hods should be formally assessed and the depth of training required in terms of the identified management competencies should be considered in the design of training programmes. contributions/value-add: the information obtained in this study may potentially serve as a foundation for the development of an hod training programme in the south african higher education environment. introduction (back to top) key focus of the study in this study the focus is on the managerial competencies required by heads of departments (hods) to function effectively in a changing higher education environment. the increasing changes and demands placed on higher education institutions in the 21st century have impacted on the roles and responsibilities of academic leaders and in particular the hods in higher institutions (du toit, 2007; greene, loughridge & wilson, 1996; yang, 2003). greene, loughridge and wilson (1996) posit that higher education institutions are being held more accountable in terms of financial aspects. the south african government is putting more pressure on higher education institutions to transform to business models, as universities create large turnovers, making profits that sometimes run into millions and, solely for this reason, hods need to function more effectively on a managerial level. the era of post-apartheid has also led to major transformations in the higher education arena, requiring hods to act as leaders of change and transformation (simon, 2007; smith & hughey, 2006).the emphasis on the managerial role of the hod has led to a renewed interest in the managerial competencies and values that hods need to develop, display and practise at work. however, in spite of the changing role of hods, very little is done to help prepare them for their roles as managers. according to hecht (2004), little or no competency training programmes exist within higher education institutions to equip the hods with the required managerial competencies and, therefore, no indication exists as to which competencies are important for these managers and on which level they need to function to be effective managers. hecht (2004) found that most hods emerge from faculty ranks. individuals who have been in the discipline for long enough are in most circumstances nominated and appointed as the hod. she expresses her concern, however, that although these individuals know their institutions and departments inside out, the knowledge one needs as an hod is more complex and invites several additional competencies that are needed to function as a manager, in addition to being a faculty member. background to the study the role of an hod has evolved over a long period starting in the 1960s, when booth (1969) first commented on the changing role of the hod and it is still changing today. the hod worldwide is known by a number of titles, including department head, chair, academic leader, department chair, division dean or academic dean (gillet-karam, 1999). sharma (2003) is of the opinion that institutions and organisations are defined by roles and role expectations. higher education is also designed to carry out specific functions within specific roles. ivancevich and matteson (1990, p. 271) refer to a role as ‘the expected behaviour patterns attributed to a particular position in an organisation’. they state that certain activities and tasks are expected from each position in an organisation. these activities constitute the role for that position and may be unique to every particular organisation. parker and wilson (2002) note that it is imperative for all hods to clearly understand what their roles entail to prepare adequately to make the transition from lecturer to academic head.several authors have commented on the variety of roles that hods need to perform. based on an extensive literature review, visser (2009) identified four core roles that hods appear to fulfill in the higher education environment. these roles have been labelled as: 1. academic 2. administration 3. management 4. leadership. the academic role refers to the role of hods as that of lecturers: • in teaching classes (gmelch, 2002; lyons, 2008; sharma, 2003) • dealing with faculty affairs (dyer & miller, 1999; gillet-karam, 1999; lyons, 2008) • acting as departmental official and representative (dyer & miller, 1999; lyons, 2008) • evaluating and facilitating academic matters (dyer & miller, 1999; lyons, 2008; smith & hughey, 2006; sorcinelli, 2000) • as faculty and programme developer (gmelch, 2002; lyons, 2008; sharma, 2003) • as researcher (gmelch, 2002; hare & hare, 2002; lyons, 2008; smith & hughey, 2006). the administrator role refers to administrative duties and responsibilities, such as the administration of examinations, admissions and practicals (dyer & miller, 1999; pettitt, 1999; williams, 2001; wolverton et al., 1999) and the channelling of information and policies (gillet-karam 1999; parker & wilson, 2002; lyons, 2008). the management role is concerned with some combination of planning, organising, directing and controlling the activities of staff towards the achievement of a set of departmental and institutional objectives (rollinson, 2005). these activities include the role of the hod as: • advocate or politician and change agent (dyer & miller, 1999; gillet-karam, 1999; lyons, 2008) • morale builder and maintainer (brent, 1992; lyons, 2008; sharma, 2003) • communicator (hecht, 2004; lyons, 2008; raines & alberg, 2003) • conflict handler (parker and wilson, 2002; lyons 2008) • coordinator and delegator (dyer & miller, 1999; lyons, 2008) • diversity manager (sorcinelli, 2000; raines & alberg, 2003) • financial manager (hare & hare, 2002; raines & alberg, 2003; sharma, 2003; hecht, 2004; smith & hughey, 2006; lyons, 2008) • handling disciplinary matters and negotiation (dyer & miller, 1999; parker & wilson, 2002; smith & hughey, 2006) • officer in charge (hare & hare, 2002) • performance manager (sorcinelli, 2000; hare & hare, 2002; parker & wilson, 2002; lyons, 2008) and planner (parker & wilson, 2002; raines & alberg, 2003; lyons, 2008) • problem-solver (wolverton et al., 1999; smith & hughey, 2006; lyons, 2008) • quality controller (dyer & miller, 1999; hare & hare, 2002; parker & wilson, 2002) • recruitment and selection (wolverton et al., 1999; hare & hare, 2002; parker & wilson, 2002; sharma, 2003) • strategic planner (dyer & miller, 1999; hare & hare, 2002; parker & wilson, 2002; smith & hughey, 2006) • time manager (wolverton et al., 1999; gmelch, 2002; lyons, 2008). the leadership role is concerned with activities which involve 1. acting as an advisor and counsellor (lyons, 2008; smith & hughey, 2006) 2. mentor and coach (sorcinelli, 2000; williams, 2001; raines & alberg, 2003) 3. motivator (hecht, 2004; smith & hughey, 2006; lyons, 2008) 4. risk taker (smith & hughey, 2006). according to yielder and codling (2004), leadership and management are closely integrated in the academic context. they are of the opinion that both the academic leadership role and the management role require aspects of leadership, which in this sense cannot be written into a job description as a function. the academic leadership role is therefore regarded as a quality that an individual brings to the position. yielder and codling (2004), furthermore, emphasise that hods are vested in a position and the focus should therefore be on the management role of hods, which incorporates leadership. table 1: overview of head of department management competency framework table 2: pearson product-moment correlations: competencies relating to planning and organising trends from the research literature management competencies botha and camphor (2008) regard the development of management skills and competencies in higher education institutions as essential. according to these authors, the focus of management training and development should be on developing the management skills and competence required in support of the university’s vision, mission and strategy. hirokawa, barge, becker and sutherland (1989) and hecht (2004) advocate a competency-based approach to the training and development of hods. these authors found that a competency-based approach aims at uncovering the fundamental skills that academic managerial leaders need in order to deal effectively with various taskand relation-orientated administrative problems. gmelch (2002) also posits that, in order for hods to perform their roles effectively, certain skills need to be present. skills can be learnt formally either through seminars, workshops and lectures and these skills can further be practiced through simulations, case studies, role plays and action planning. acquiring these skills will ultimately result in hods having the necessary competencies to perform their roles effectively (hecht, 2004). in the context of the present study the term ‘competency’ is viewed as the blend of knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviours needed to carry out tasks successfully. managerial competence depends on both skills and knowledge based on understanding. competence includes the capacity to transfer knowledge and skills to new tasks and situations (warn & tranter, 2001). visser’s (2009) management competency framework for the training and development of hods is of relevance to the present study. this management competency framework is based on an extensive literature review conducted by visser in the south african higher education environment and describes the competencies required for effective or excellent performance on the job. the competencies identified can be clustered into five different dimensions: 1. planning and organising 2. leadership 3. controlling 4. human resource (hr) specific aspects 5. personal attributes. table 1 provides a more detailed overview of the various competencies that relate to each of these five dimensions. based on the preceding literature review, we hypothesise the following: hypothesis 1: management competencies regarded as being important for the job, will be significantly related to the level of training needed. research objectives to date, the development of management competencies in higher education institutions has received very little research attention in south africa. the aim of this article, therefore, was to identify the relationship between a specific set of hod managerial competencies identified as being important for the job and the level of training required in terms of these competencies. the potential value-add of the study the information obtained in this study can be of value when determining the training and development needs of hods and may potentially serve as a foundation for the development of an hod training programme in the south african higher education environment. what will follow in the next section, the research design will be elaborated on and the research approach and method will be covered. the results will then be presented and the findings will be discussed. the article concludes with a brief synopsis of the most important conclusions, limitations of the research design and recommendations for possible future research initiatives. research design (back to top) research approach a non-experimental, quantitative survey approach was followed to achieve the objectives of the study. the advantages of the survey research approach include savings of time and money, a lack of interviewer bias, accurate results, more privacy for participants and the fact that samples need not be very large in relation to the population (salkind, 1997). the major disadvantage of this design is that findings can only be generalised to the sampled population at the time of the survey (dooley, 1995). primary data were used and correlational statistical procedures were performed to analyse the data. research method research participants a stratified sampling technique was used. babbie and mouton (2007) describes stratified sampling as a method by which the population is organised into homogeneous subsets (with heterogeneity between subsets) and the appropriate number of elements is selected from each. they furthermore note that stratified sampling is a method for obtaining a greater degree of representativeness and to decrease the probable sampling error. participants constituted a sample of 41 of a total population of the 52 hods in a higher education institution from different faculties (79% response rate). the sample was represented by 66% male participants and 34% female participants. this is not surprising as the majority of participants are male seeing as gender studies and other research revealed that there were fewer women in managerial or leadership positions. the sample furthermore consisted of predominantly white males. most of the hods in the sample had worked in the academic environment for approximately 12 years, while the average years of service in the sample was almost 20 years in an academic environment. the average age of the participants was approximately 49 years. these hods were representative of 37% of the departments in the higher education institution. measuring instrument the management competency inventory (mci), developed by visser (2009), was used to measure the variables of concern to this study. the mci is a self-rated, multi-factorial measure designed to determine hod training needs based on a set of managerial competencies identified as being a requirement for functioning effectively as a manager within the higher education institution. the mci contains 40 items. participants have to indicate on a 5-point likert-type scale whether they regard the competency as being important for the job. they also have to indicate on a 4-point likert-type scale the level or depth of training they require in terms of the specific competency (basic to advanced). an extensive literature review and panel of experts reviewed by visser (2009) provided evidence of the content validity of the items. in terms of reliability (internal-consistency), the overall cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the mci job importance and level of training required scales were 0.97 (high) and 0.98 (high) respectively. research procedure in terms of ethics, permission to conduct the research was obtained by the management of the institution. a memo was drafted to the vice principle of operations manager in order to ask permission to gather the data which he signed and returned to the researcher. the total population of hods was invited to attend a workshop during which the purpose of the research was explained and the questionnaires completed. participants were invited to participate on a voluntary basis. each questionnaire included a cover letter explaining the nature and the purpose of the study. informed consent was obtained and confidentiality and anonymity were guaranteed. participants had the right to withdraw at any stage during the research process. the questionnaires were administered by a professionally registered psychometrist under the supervision of an industrial psychologist. statistical analysis the data analysis procedures chosen for this research were based on their applicability to the exploratory nature of the research design. pearson product-moment correlations were performed to test the research hypothesis. although a cut-off point of p < 0.05 was set, a practical effect size of r ≥ 0.30 ≤ 49 medium effect (cohen, 1992) was also considered for the correlational analyses to be able to interpret the practical significance of the findings. table 3,4,5 & 6 results (back to top) hypothesis testing hypothesis 1 was analysed by performing pearson product-moment correlations. hypothesis 1 proposed that management competencies regarded as being important for the job will be significantly related to the level of training needed. pearson’s product-moment correlations allowed the researcher to identify the direction and strength of the relationship between the competencies regarded as being important for the job of an hod and the level of training required in the various management competencies. as shown in tables 2–6, a vast number of significantly positive relationships were observed between the variables. the significant correlations range from r = 0.33 (r ≥ 0.30 ≤0.49, medium practical effect size) to 0.58 (p ≤ 0.05; r ≥0.50, large practical effect size) (cohen, 1992). competencies relating to planning and organising table 2 shows that the management competency strategy implementation significantly and positively relates to the level of training required in terms of handling grievances and disputes (r = 0.33; p ≤ 0.05). significant positive associations are also observed between the environmental scanning and analysis competency and the level of training required in the day-to-day management competencies: • planning (r = 0.34; p ≤ 0.05) • individual and team leadership (r = 0.51; p ≤ 0.01) • motivation of individual or team (r = 0.39; p ≤ 0.05) • communication skills (r = 0.41; p ≤0.05) • monitoring and disseminating information (r = 0.41; p ≤ 0.05) • environmental scanning and analysis (r = 0.40; p ≤ 0.05) • rewarding performance (r = 0.36; p ≤ 0.05) • managing external stakeholder and supplier relations (r = 0.48; p ≤ 0.01) • planning and running meetings and follow-up (r = 0.46; p ≤ 0.01) • creating and giving effective presentations to groups (r = 0.47; p ≤ 0.01) • external customer care and service management (r = 0.48; p ≤ 0.01). competencies relating to leadership: in table 3 it is evident that the management competency of individual and team leadership relates significantly and positively to the level of training required in terms of individual and team motivation (r = 0.39; p ≤ 0.01). significant positive relations are also found between the management competency of individual and team motivation and the level of training required in individual and team motivation (r = 0.34; p ≤ 0.01). the management competency of managing change and renewal also relates significantly to the level of training required in terms of negotiation and conflict resolution (r = 0.35; p ≤ 0.01). managing external stakeholder and supplier relations relates positively and significantly to the level of training required in external customer care and service management (r = 0.34; p ≤ 0.01). the management competency of external customer care and service management furthermore relates significantly to the level of: • training required in strategy implementation (r = 0.34; p ≤ 0.01) • time management (r = 0.36; p ≤ 0.01) • team and individual leadership (r = 0.41; p ≤ 0.01) • team and individual motivation (r = 0.42; p ≤ 0.01) • task delegation (r = 0.41; p ≤ 0.01) • managing external stakeholder and supplier relations (r = 0.36; p ≤ 0.01) • creating and giving group presentations (r = 0.43; p ≤ 0.01) • external customer care and service management (r = 0.35; p ≤ 0.01) • internal customer care and service management (r = 0.34; p ≤ 0.01). the competency of internal customer care and service management relates significantly to the level of: • training required in time management (r = 0.37; p ≤ 0.01) • team and individual motivation (r = 0.33; p ≤ 0.01) • task delegation (r = 0.44; p ≤ 0.01) • managing external stakeholder and supplier relations (r = 0.35; p ≤ 0.01) • creating and giving group presentations (r = 0.52; p ≤ 0.01) • creating problem-solving and decision-making (r = 0.33; p ≤ 0.01) • negotiation and conflict resolution (r = 0.35; p ≤ 0.01) • occupational health and safety awareness and management (r = 0.37; p ≤ 0.01) • external customer care and service management (r = 0.36; p ≤ 0.01) • internal customer care and service management (r = 0.37; p ≤ 0.01). more positive significant relations have been observed between the management competency of risk identification and the level of training required in risk identification. the management competency of managing diversity and cross-cultural issues relates significantly to the level of training required in: • time management (r = 0.35; p ≤ 0.01) • monitoring and dissemination of information (r = 0.25; p ≤ 0.01) • dealing with issues of discipline (r = 0.34; p ≤ 0.01) • negotiation and conflict resolution (r = 0.43; p ≤ 0.01) • managing diversity and cross-cultural issues (r = 0.54; p ≤ 0.01). competencies relating to controlling as shown in table 4, the management competency of performance management relates significantly and positively to the level of: • training required for individual and team leadership (r = 0.35; p ≤ 0.01) • individual and team motivation (r = 0.37; p ≤ 0.01) • performance management (r = 0.39; p ≤ 0.01) • project management (r = 0.37; p ≤ 0.01) • negotiation and conflict resolution (r = 0.34; p ≤ 0.01) • quality awareness and management (r = 0.37; p ≤ 0.01). further positive significant relations have been observed between the management competency of rewarding own and team performance and the level of: • training required for individual and team leadership (r = 0.41; p ≤ 0.01) • individual and team motivation (r = 0.46; p ≤ 0.01) • environmental scanning and analysis (r = 0.37; p ≤ 0.01) • rewarding own and team performance (r = 0.42; p ≤ 0.01) • project management (r = 0.36; p ≤ 0.01) • external customer care and service management (r = 0.35; p ≤ 0.01). the effective use of it relates significantly and positively to the level of: • training required in day-to-day planning (r = 0.38; p ≤ 0.01) • time management (r = 0.46; p ≤ 0.01) • task delegation (r = 0.40; p ≤ 0.01) • effective use of information technology (it) (r = 0.41; p ≤ 0.01) • creating and giving effective group presentations (r = 0.43; p ≤ 0.01) • negotiation and conflict resolution (r = 0.35; p ≤ 0.01). the management competency of financial and commercial understanding relates significantly and positively to the level of: • training required in strategy implementation (r = 0.34; p ≤ 0.01) • individual and team leadership (r = 0.34; p ≤ 0.01) • handling grievances and disputes (r = 0.41; p ≤ 0.01) • dealing with issues of discipline (r = 0.51; p ≤ 0.01) • managing change and renewal (r = 0.36; p ≤ 0.01) • financial and commercial understanding (r = 0.41; p ≤ 0.01) • negotiation and conflict resolution (r = 0.58; p ≤ 0.01). the management competency of planning and running meetings and follow-up shows a significant positive relationship between: • strategic planning (r = 0.37; p ≤ 0.01) • day-to-day planning (r = 0.34; p ≤ 0.01) • time management (r = 0.35; p ≤ 0.01) • managing change and renewal (r = 0.33; p ≤ 0.01) • planning and running meetings and follow-up (r = 0.42; p ≤ 0.01). furthermore, the management competency of administration, reporting performance and financials, monitoring, maintaining and developing reporting systems relates significantly to the level of: • training required in day-to-day planning (r = 0.32; p ≤ 0.01) • time management (r = 0.41; p ≤ 0.01) • individual and team motivation (r = 0.34; p ≤ 0.01) • task delegation (r = 0.47; p ≤ 0.01) • creating and giving group presentations (r = 0.34; p ≤ 0.01) • creative problem-solving and decision-making (r = 0.46; p ≤ 0.01). competencies relating to human resource specific aspects evident in table 5 is that the management competency of handling grievances and disputes indicates a positive and significant relationship to the level of training required in negotiation and conflict resolution (r = 0.47; p ≤ 0.01). dealing with issues of discipline relates significantly to the level of: • training required in strategy implementation (r = 0.40; p ≤ 0.01) • day-to-day planning (r = 0.34; p ≤ 0.01) • dealing with issues of discipline (r = 0.45; p ≤ 0.01). further positive and significant relations have been observed between the competency of attracting talent and the level of: • training required in strategic planning (r = 0.35; p ≤ 0.01) • day-to-day planning (r = 0.40; p ≤ 0.01) • time management (r = 0.39; p ≤ 0.01) • delegation of tasks (r = 0.48; p ≤ 0.01) • effective use of it (r = 0.41; p ≤ 0.01) • managing external stakeholder and supplier relations (r = 0.35; p ≤ 0.01) • effective induction and orientation of new staff (r = 0.45; p ≤ 0.01) • negotiation and conflict resolution (r = 0.38; p ≤ 0.01). positive significant relations have been found between the management competency of employment and hr policy awareness and management and negotiation and conflict resolution (r = 0.40; p ≤ 0.01). lastly, the management competency of occupational health and safety awareness and management relates significantly to the level of: • training required of day-to-day planning (r = 0.36; p ≤ 0.01) • time management (r = 0.34; p ≤ 0.01) • managing interdepartmental peer relationships (r = 0.35; • p ≤ 0.01) • managing external stakeholder and supplier relations (r = 0.46; p ≤ 0.01) • creating and giving effective group presentations (r = 0.38; p ≤ 0.01) • negotiation and conflict resolution (r = 0.51; p ≤ 0.01) • employment and hr policy awareness and management • (r = 0.41; p ≤ 0.01) • occupational health and safety awareness and management (r = 0.54; p ≤ 0.01) • internal customer care and service management (r = 0.33; p ≤ 0.01). competencies relating to personal attributes table 6 shows that the management competency of time management indicates a positive and significant relationship to the level of training required in time management (r = 0.37; p ≤ 0.01). positive and significant relations have also been found between the management competency of business writing and the level of: • training required in day-to-day planning (r = 0.38; p ≤ 0.01) • time management (r = 0.47; p ≤ 0.01) • team and individual motivation (r = 0.34; p ≤ 0.01) • planning and running meetings and effective follow-up • (r = 0.34; p ≤ 0.01) • business writing (r = 0.32; p ≤ 0.01) • creating and giving effective group presentations (r = 0.43; p ≤ 0.01). creating and giving effective group presentations relates significantly to the level of: • training required in day-to-day planning (r = 0.46; p ≤ 0.01) • time management (r = 0.56; p ≤ 0.01) • monitoring and dissemination of information (r = 0.41; p ≤ 0.01) • effective use of it (r = 0.38; p ≤ 0.01) • managing external stakeholder and supplier relations (r = 0.35; p ≤ 0.01) • creating and giving effective group presentations (r = 0.51; p ≤ 0.01) • occupational health and safety awareness and management (r = 0.34; p ≤ 0.01). positive and significant relations are found between the management competency of negotiation and conflict resolution and the level of: • training required in day-to-day planning (r = 0.36; p ≤ 0.01) • time management (r = 0.44; p ≤ 0.01) • team and individual motivation (r = 0.34; p ≤ 0.01) • communication skills (r = 0.37; p ≤ 0.01) • task delegation (r = 0.34; p ≤ 0.01) • managing external stakeholder and supplier relations (r = 0.33; p ≤ 0.01) • negotiation and conflict resolution (r = 0.58; p ≤ 0.01). lastly, the management competency of emotional intelligence relates significantly to the level of: • training required in day-to-day planning (r = 0.38; p ≤ 0.01) • time management (r = 0.42; p ≤ 0.01) • negotiation and conflict resolution (r = 0.49; p ≤ 0.01). based on the results, hypothesis 1 (‘management competencies regarded as being important for the job will be significantly related to the level of training needed’) is accepted. discussion (back to top) the study explored the relationship between the perceived importance of a managerial competency for the position of an hod and the level of training required in the various management competencies. overall, various significant associations of practical significance were observed between the variables. more specifically, certain observations were made. competencies relating to planning and organising the results suggest that the participants regarded it as important for hods to have comprehensive specialist knowledge and skills in the implementation of strategies, conducting environmental scanning and analysis, delegating tasks and project management planning. the significant relationship observed between strategy implementation as an important job competency and the level of training required in handling grievances and disputes suggest that hods need additional skills to implement grievance and dispute policies outlined in the strategic plan.the results further suggest that in order for participants to be able to conduct environmental scanning and analysis, they will also require an advanced level of training in daily planning and project management activities, including the prioritisation and organisation of costand quality-related tasks and activities, leading and motivating individuals and teams, monitoring and dissemination of information by means of group presentations and communication, managing external relationships with key external stakeholders and suppliers as external customers. choo (1999) emphasises this link in his article, ‘the art of scanning the environment’, in which he stated that environmental scanning is the acquisition and use of information and the ability to understand outside factors, such as stakeholders and suppliers. a manager needs to lead his subordinates in the right direction and on the right time resulting from information gathered outside of the organisation. participants also seem to require an advanced level of training in time management to effectively delegate tasks and manage costand quality-related projects. bluedorn (1992) also states that a manager needs to delegate some tasks so as to gain some time to manage one’s organisation effectively. competencies relating to leadership the results suggest that the participants regarded it as important for hods to have comprehensive specialist knowledge and skills in individual and team leadership, motivating individuals and teams, managing change and renewal, managing external stakeholder and supplier relations, both internal and external customer care and service, risk identification and managing diversity as well as cross-cultural issues. according to the results, participants require extensive training in motivating their teams and individual members in order to successfully execute their skills as a leader. these results are in agreement with the literature which emphasises that a key trait of leaders is to motivate their staff (ellemers, de gilder & haslam, 2004). the significant relationship observed between managing change and renewal as an important job competency and the level of training required in negotiation and conflict resolution suggest that hods need additional skills to ease the implementation of change into an organisation. the results further suggest that hods might need extra skills in excellent service delivery to enhance external relationships. according to slater and narver (2000), the management of customer services is a key driver for the cultivation of satisfactory stakeholder relationships. this might be due to the fact that employees (as internal customers of an organisation) are also viewed as stakeholders of the organisation. studies have also shown that satisfied customers (as key stakeholders) have a positive effect on external stakeholder and supplier relations (oliver, 1997). the results also suggest that in order for participants to be able to manage diversity and cross-cultural issues within their teams or departments, they will also require an advanced level of training in managing time to make enough opportunities to handle such sensitive issues. information, such as the institution’s policy regarding discrimination and grievance procedures, needs to be disseminated throughout the organisation. a manager also needs extensive training on emotional intelligence so as to have self-control, display humanity and to take responsibility for dealing with sensitive issues such as managing diversity and cross-cultural issues; feelings have been shown to influence judgements that people make. george (2000) states that managers need to display emotional intelligence to enhance their ability to deal with such challenges and issues in a professional and humane way. competencies relating to controll it seems as if participants regard performance management, rewarding performance, the effective use of it, financial and commercial understanding, planning and running meetings and follow-ups, as well as the administration of above concepts, as important managerial competencies for their role as hod. the results suggest that for participants to execute performance management as a managerial competency effectively, they need advanced training in leading and motivating their subordinates to be able to perform and buy into the performance management system as well as to implement performance management effectively. as far back as 1971, house (1971) concluded that leading and motivating staff to perform effectively is a key trait of performance management. van knippernberg (2001) confirmed this link when he stated that managers needed to lead outcomes. outcomes are specifically measured by means of performance management. seeing as motivation is a key aspect of leadership, managers therefore need to motivate their staff to achieve their outcomes during the performance management process. mahoney and mcgagan (2007, p.83) also stated that ‘leadership and motivation are distinctive skills and both are crucial to the performance of the firm’. negotiation and conflict resolution also needs to be included in a training programme to enhance an hod’s ability to successfully execute performance management. the participants, furthermore, regard training in project management in terms of planning, scope, time and quality awareness and management, according to quality standards and policies as an important requirement to link the desired performance to the project and expected results. it seems as if environmental scanning and analysis is an important training requirement for managers to successfully reward themselves and team members. rewards and standards need to comply with competitors and the labour market. various companies conduct pay surveys to benchmark and compare their compensations and standards to those of other companies (mathis & jackson, 2004). the results further suggest that in order for participants to be able to make effective use of it, they will require extensive training in day-to-day planning and time management and task delegation so as to prioritise and organise their tasks effectively. the results also indicated that the participants require advanced training in the utilisation of it to give effective presentations. it is evident from the results that for hods to have a financial understanding, especially in budgeting, cost control and financial reporting, they require advanced training in strategy implementation, leadership, handling labour relation issues and change management. this might suggest that hods need extra training to execute plans set out in the strategic plan and to lead and direct their subordinates to successfully comply with what is set out and changed in the strategic plan. the results further suggest that planning one’s daily activities, the organisation’s strategy and implementing the changes are regarded as important training requirements to successfully plan and run meetings. the significant relationship observed between administration, reporting performance and financials, monitoring, maintaining and developing reporting systems and the level of training required in day-to-day planning, time management and task delegation might suggest that managers once again need to distinguish between what they need to plan to do themselves and what administration tasks they should delegate to their subordinates. in this regard, swierczek (1991) correctly noted that learning how to delegate tasks is an important competency for any leader. furthermore, leaders need to implement creative problem-solving and decision-making to overcome administrative issues. competencies relating to human resource specific aspects it is evident from the results that the participants regard handling grievances and disputes, dealing with issues of discipline, attracting talent, employment and hr policy awareness and management and occupational health and safety as important managerial competencies. the significant relationship between the importance of the handling of grievances and disputes and the extensive training required in dealing with issues of discipline might indicate that the participants need additional skills to execute sensitive labour-related issues. the results, furthermore, suggest that in order for them to effectively deal with issues of discipline they need advanced training on how to align their way of dealing with discipline to the strategic plan, as well as planning it and making time for dealing with such issues on a day-to-day basis. deeds (2010) confirms that time management is of utmost importance when dealing with sensitive issues, such as a disciplinary hearing. managers need to make time to deal with the issues as effectively and thoroughly as possible and also to make sure that the issues are dealt with as soon as possible. according to the findings, for participants to effectively attract talent, they appear to require additional skills and knowledge to include talent management in their strategic planning. talent management needs to be closely aligned with a company’s strategic plan (mcgarrity, 2007). this effort needs to be managed on a daily basis. tasks could be delegated to attract the right talent via the use of it to advertise and source the correct candidate for the position. portals such as careerjunction and pnet can be utilized. when the candidate is selected, to induct and orientate the new staff member effectively. hods further require training in managing external stakeholder and supplier relations and negotiation and conflict. this might suggest that when hods make use of head-hunting, they still need to maintain their relationship with external competitors and stakeholders. competencies relating to personal attributes the participants regarded time management, business writing, creating and giving effective presentations to groups, creative problem-solving and decision-making, negotiation and conflict resolution and emotional intelligence as important competencies for their role as managers. the positive relationship between business writing as a managerial competency and the requirement of additional skills in planning regarding daily activities, meetings and time might suggest that the participants need to participate in advanced time management training so as to plan and make time for executing all the necessary administration and documentation required from a hod. the results, furthermore, suggest that for the participants to create and give effective presentations, they once again require skills in managing their time and daily activities. they also need training in monitoring what information is released so as to maintain a good external relationship with their stakeholders and suppliers as well as skills in making use of technology effectively to give professional presentations to groups. for the participants to effectively implement creative problem-solving and decision-making, it seems as if they require extensive training in making time to come up with the best solutions and to motivate their teams to think outside the box so as to come up with more creative alternative solutions. they, furthermore, seem to require training in monitoring information from conducting environmental analyses. this might suggest that they need guidance on how to scan the environment and competitors to find better solutions to current problems as well as to delegate these tasks and trust their subordinates to make creative decisions. it could also suggest that managers need guidance in disseminating the information concluded from environmental scanning and analysis. the results suggest that in order for participants to negotiate and resolve conflict as a managerial competency they need advanced knowledge on planning the task, making efficient time for executing this task and implementing the correct communication skills during negotiation and conflict resolution in terms of active listening, questioning, building trust, empathy and mutual understanding. hods furthermore, require training in motivating their subordinates as well as maintaining external relationships during conflict resolution procedures. in addition, they need to be able to delegate the task of handling these issues to others, should the need arise. the results further suggest that the demonstration of emotional intelligence is important to be able to plan and make time for self-development, personal growth and self-control. it appears from the results that the participants, furthermore, require training in negotiation and conflict resolution on an intrapersonal level to seek responsibility and to show compassion and humanity. in summary, it seems as if most of the participating hods require extensive training on day-to-day planning with regard to prioritising tasks and activities, time management, motivating their teams and individual team members, delegation of tasks, creating and giving effective presentations to groups and negotiation and conflict resolution in order to execute most of their managerial tasks successfully. visser (2009) also found that hods regard leadership, financial management and project management as the three most important managerial competencies for the role of a hod. limitations and recommendations seeing as the present study was limited to a group of predominantly white hods in a particular higher education institution, the findings cannot be generalised to other occupational, institutional and race contexts. furthermore, given the exploratory nature of the research design, this study cannot yield any statements about causation. associations between the variables have therefore been interpreted, rather than established. these findings, therefore, need to be replicated with broader samples across various occupational, age and race groups and economic sectors before more extensive conclusions can be drawn about the relationship between the constructs of concern to this study. conslusions (back to top) the results provide evidence of the relationship between important managerial competencies for hods and the level of training required. the associations found focused attention on the practical importance of utilising management competency frameworks for the identification of training needs of hods in the higher education environment. considering the large amount of significant relationships that exist between the perceived importance of the competencies and the level of training required, the findings seem to be in agreement with the assertion of lyons (2008) that very little and inadequate training exists to sufficiently prepare hods for their managerial role. it seems imperative to train the hod on the most important managerial competencies and couple it with the level of training required on the specific competency. the overall results suggest that every higher education institution should consider identifying the competencies they deem necessary for their hod development and balance it with the requirement for training for hods to be effective in the specified managerial competencies. the above findings could be used as a guideline to construct a training framework for hods to assist them in their managerial role within the higher education institution environment. references (back to top) bluedorn, a.c. (1992). how many things do you like to do at once? an introduction to monochronic and polychronic time. academy of management executives, 6(4), 17−26. booth, d. (1969, march). the training of new department chairmen: the need, present and proposed programs. paper presented at the american association for higher education’s 24th national conference on higher education, chicago, il. booth, d.b. (1982). the department chair: professional development and role conflict. washington: american association for higher education. botha, l., & camphor, f. (2008). proposal for the development and phased implementation of a up-specific management and development programme. pretoria: university of pretoria. babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2007). the practice of social research: south african edition, oxford: university press. brent, r.l. (1992). the changing role and responsibilities of a chairman in clinical academic departments: the transition from autocracy. department of pediatrics, 90(1), 50–57. choo, c.w. (1999). the art of scanning the environment. bulleting of the american society for information science ,25(3), 194−203. cohen, j. (1992). statistical power analysis. current directions in psychological science, 1(3), 98−101. deeds, r. (2010). supervisor’s checklist for handling employee disciplinary problems. retrieved may 18, 2010, from http://hubpages.com/hub/supervisors_checklist_for_handling_employee_disciplinary_problems dooley, d. (1995). social research methods. upper saddle river. nj: prentice-hall. du toit, a. (2007). council on higher education: autonomy as a social compact. south africa: council on higher education. dyer, b.g., & miller, m. (1999). a critical review of literature related to the department chair position. university of alabama: tuscaloosa. ellemers, n., de gilder, d., & haslam, s.a. (2004). motivating individuals and groups at work: a social identity perspective on leadership and group performance. the academy of management review, 29(3), 459−478. george, j.m. (2000). emotions and leadership: the role of emotional intelligence. human relations, 5, 1027–1041. gillet-karam, r. (1999). midlevel management in the community college: a rose garden? san francisco: jossey-bass. gmelch, w.h. (2002, february). where have all the leaders gone? paper presented at the annual meeting of the american association of colleges for teacher education. new york, ny. greene, f., loughridge, b., & wilson, t. (1996). the management information needs of academic heads of departments in universities: the role of academic heads of departments. retrieved march 9, 2008, from http://informationr.net/tdw/publ/hodsin/chap03.html hare, p., & hare, l. (2002). the evolving role of head of department in uk universities. perspective, 6(2), 33−37. hecht, i.w.d. (2004). the professional development of department chairs. journal for new directions for higher education summer, 126, 27–44. hirokawa, r.y., barge, j.k., becker, s.l., & sutherland, j.l. (1989). the department chair as responsible academic leader: a competency-based perspective. association for communication administration bulletin, 67, 8–19. house, j.r. (1971). a path goal theory of leader effectiveness. journal of administrative science quarterly, 16(3), 321−339. ivancevich, j.m., & matteson, m.t. (1990). organisational behaviour and management. (2nd edn.). boston: richard d. irwin. lyons, m. (2008). the leadership role of head of departments at university. unpublished doctorate. university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. mahoney, j.t., & mcgagan, a.m. (2007). the field of strategic management within the evolving science of strategic organizations. journal of strategic organization, 5(1), 79−99. mathis, r.l., & jackson, j.h. (2004). human resource management. mason, ohio: thomson south-western. mcgarrity, g. (2007). strategic talent management. retrieved march 12, 2010, from http://www.amanet.org/training/articles/strategic-talent-management.aspx oliver, r.l. (1997). satisfaction: a behavioral perspective on the consumer, new york: m e sharpe inc. parker, l., & wilson, m. (2002). becoming an academic head of department: sink or swim? new zealand: herdsa. pettitt, j.m. (1999). situating midlevel managers’ training: learning and doing in context. san francisco: jossey-bass. raines, s.c., & alberg, m.s. (2003). the role of professional development in preparing academic leaders. new direction for higher education, 124, 33–39. rollinson, d. (2005). organisational behavior and analysis: an integrated approach. (3rd edn.). prentice-hall: financial times, hallow. salkind, n.j. 1997. exploring research. forth worth, tx: harcourt brace. sharma, j.t. (2003). role of the department head in a university: a study report on the need for management training for academic personnel. training and development journal, june, 35–39. slater, s.f., & narver, j.c (2000). the positive effect of a market orientation on business profitability: a balanced replication. journal of business research, 48(1), 69–73. smith, b.l., & hughey, a.w. (2006). leadership in higher education – its evolution and potential: a unique role facing critical challenges. industry and higher education, 20(3), 157−163. simon, p. (2007). transformation agenda. retrieved march 20, 2008, from http://blogs.uct.ac.za/blog/transformation-agenda/archives/2007/08/ sorcinelli, m.d. (2000). principles of good practice: supporting early-career faculty guidance for deans, department chairs, and other academic leaders. washington: american association of higher education. swierczek, f.w. (1991). leadership and culture: comparing asian managers. journal of leadership and organizational development, 12(7), 3−10. van knippenberg, d. (2001). work motivation and performance: a social identity perspective. journal of applied psychology, 49(3), 357−371. visser, i.l. (2009). development of a proposed management competency training framework. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. warn, j., & tranter, p. (2001). measuring quality in higher education: a competency approach. australia: taylor and francis. williams, j.o. (2001). academic department head as key university administrator. journal of education, 112(2), 164–167. wolverton, m., gmelch, w.h., wolverton, m.l., & sarros, j.c. (1999). a comparison of department chairs in australia and the united states. journal of higher education, 38, 333−350. yang, r. (2003). globalisation and higher education development: a critical analysis. international review of education, 49(3–4), 269–291. yielder, j., & codling, a. (2004). management and leadership in the contemporary university. journal of higher education policy and management, 26(3), 315−328. 6-simon.qxd reasons for the establishment of epzs in developing countries the heckscher-ohlin (h-o) 1924 theory is an important general framework for thinking about epzs and a good point of departure for this paper as it raises some important issues concerning investment in epz host countries. the epz model is derived from the heckscher-ohlin theory on the patterns and determinants of international trade. the theory states that: a country will be able to produce at lower cost (and therefore have comparative advantage in) those products whose production requires relatively large amounts of the factors of production (also known as factor endowments e.g. land, labor, capital, natural resources) with which that country is relatively endowed (husted & melvin, 2001). labor abundant developing countries should therefore specialize in labor-intensive products adds sloman (2000). there are a variety of reasons as to why developing countries establish epzs. studies by abeywardene (1994), khan (2000), madani (1998), the international labor organizations (ilo) (1998), kusago et al (1998) indicate that many developing countries establish epzs to help increase their foreign exchange, provide jobs for the educated unemployed, upgrading the skills of local manpower, create linkages with the hinterland by stimulating, technology transfer and develop underdeveloped regions in the country. a study by jauch et al (1996) on “epzs in southern africa: economic, social and political implications” revealed that a large number of southern african countries adopting epzs had high rates of unemployment, these countries were also characterized by import-substitution strategies, low levels of foreign investment mainly focused on mining, declining incomes from unprocessed primary commodit y exports, dwindling foreign exchange reserves and low levels of technological know-how and general economic stagnation. the study concluded by saying that the introduction of epzs is regarded as a signal of a country’s departure from import substitution strategies toward an export-oriented economy. epzs have been appropriately described as “one aspect of the integration of national economies into the global economy.” the kenyan epz program commenced in 1990, with the enactment of the epz act (cap 517, laws of kenya) and by march 2002, 23 zones had been designated, with 15 in operation. the kenyan government had established its own zone and had licensed 14 private ones (export processing zones authority (epza), 2002). according to a study by glenday and ndii (2000) on “export platforms in kenya” the main objectives of the epz program were to increase manufactured exports, create employment and increase export-oriented investment. the major factors attracting investors to epzs according to studies by the international confederation of free trade unions (icftu) (1996) and the world export processing zones authority (wepza) (1996) investors prefer epzs, instead of having to explore unknown territory, adapting to inadequate infrastructure and often very complex legislation, thus epzs provide a modern predictable environment with ready-to-use infrastructure. other incentives epzs offer investors include the low level of capital goods required in the establishment of industries in the zones which makes it easier for such enterprises to break off their activities and repatriate their capital any time, duty free importation of raw materials, generous company income tax holidays, streamlined administration such as streamlined customs documentation the provisions of superior physical infrastructure and subsidized utilities and the ample kariuki m simon nico j smith faculty of commerce and administration, department of business management university of zululand simior@yahoo.com nicosmit@twr.ac.za abstract the kenyan government’s export processing zone (epz) policy has conceded large parts of existing labour laws to epz investors. this article sets out to establish whether there is a difference in the working conditions employers in the public and private zones expose their workers to and from which zone possible disruptive employee behaviours emanate from. a random sample of 376 employees was selected from epz garment firms located in both private and public zones. statistical procedures were applied to determine possible differences. the findings indicate that employees from companies in the private zones were exposed to better working conditions than those employed in companies located in the public zone, which explains why disruptive employee behaviour originates from the public zone. it is recommended that working conditions of companies in the pubic zone should be improved. opsomming die regering se uitvoerprosesseringsbeleid (epz) het toegewings in terme van bestaande arbeidswetgewing aan epz investeerders gedoen. hierdie artikel het ten doel om vas te stel of daar ’n verskil bestaan in die werktoestande waaraan werkgewers in die openbare en private sones hulle werknemers blootstel en van watter sone moontlike ontwrigtende gedrag hul oorsprong het. ’n ewekansige steekproef van 376 werknemers is uit epz kledingfirmas in beide die private en openbare sones getrek. statistiese prosedures is gebruik om moontlike verskille te bepaal. die bevindinge dui daarop dat werknemers van maatskappy uit private sones aan beter werkstoestande blootgestel is teenoor dié wat uit die publieke sone afkomstige is, wat ook verklaar waarom ontwrigtende gedrag uit die openbare sone onstaan. dit word aanbeveel dat werktoestande van maatskappye in die openbare sone verbeter word. is disruptive employee behavior in export processing zones (epzs) influenced by their employment in firms situated in public or private zones? requests for copies should be addressed to: s. kariuki, faculty of commerce and administration, department of business management, university of zululand, private bag, kwadlangezwa, 3886 45 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (1), 45-49 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (1), 45-49 supply of cheap labor soto (1999). studies by abbot (1997), hillary (1999), hunter (2001) and the nlc (1998) indicate that epz investors also take advantage of relaxed labor laws and relatively lower working condition standards than those of their home countries. the investment incentives offered by the kenyan epz program (2002) identif y with those listed above. as at february 2002, only one of the 23, epzs was run (and developed) by the public sector while the other 22 were being run (and developed) by the private sector. by february 2002, 15 of the 23 zones were in operation. eight of the other designated zones were either available for development or under construction, among the eight, one had completed constructing the buildings but had not yet been occupied. by february 2002, there were about 50 operational enterprises in the 17 zones (one public and 16 private) (epza, 2002). focus of the paper according to the epza a two week strike late in january and early february 2003, that emanated from the public zone and spread over to the private zones made the epzs loose ksh. 800 million (approx. us$ 10 million or r100 million). six foreign investors also shelved plans to open industries in the country (bosire, 2003). to avoid or to be able to predict trends in the origin and spread of disruptive employee behavior across the zones (from public to private zones and vice versa) an investigation into the working condition practices that employers located in the public and private zones expose their workers to is therefore necessary to determine the salient issues that negatively influence the perceptions and attitudes of epz employees towards their working conditions. more specifically this paper attempts to explore whether the attitudes and perceptions of kenyan garment epz employees from companies located in the public and the private zones towards the state of their working conditions are influenced by similar factors; and whether the state of the working conditions in private and public epz garment firms’ are similar. the assumption being that there are no significant differences in the attitudes and perceptions of epz workers from companies located in the public zone as well as those employed by companies located in the private zones. method this study was conducted as an ex post facto research. as it examined how specific independent variables (in this study’s case: education qualifications, length of service, and the employment stat us) affected the dependent variable(s) (working conditions). the population of the study consisted of all kenyan garment epz employees. the target population consisted of 16 garment firms, which employed 14,817 employees. random and purposeful sampling was used to select the subjects of this study. according to the krejcie and morgan table on the configuration of sample sizes cited in leedy (1997), a sample of 375 cases should be selected from a population of 15,000 cases. the researcher thus selected 376 employees and responses were received from 302 respondents, which represented an 80 per cent response rate. uhl and schoner (1969) state that a response rate of at least 75% should be achieved though beyond this there is little gain in accuracy. welman & kruger, (2001) also indicate that a response rate of less than 50% of a selected sample presents an entirely incorrect picture of the population. questionnaires were the main data collection instruments used. the rules and regulations contained in the codes of conduct of about 30 multi-national enterprises (mnes) heavily involved in epz operations, consumer and human rights non governmental organizations (ngos) such as the united nations (un), the (ilo) among many others were converted into questions which were then posed to the epz employees from companies located in the public zone and those employed by companies located in the private zones to identif y (i) what factors significantly influenced their perceptions towards their working conditions and (ii) whether the state of working conditions in epz garment firms’ was similar. the contents of these codes of conduct were then grouped into seven broad categories, which include: � education and training facilities (four items/questions) � remuneration structures (five items/questions) � employment structures (avoid employment discrimination) (three items/questions) � working facilities (five items/questions) � interpersonal relationships (two items/questions) � working relationships (four items/questions) � dispute resolution structures (seven items/questions) these items (questions) that made up each of these seven categories were then converted into a questionnaire. the responses to these questions were then rated on a four point likert rating scale where scoring was done as follows: positively stated items negatively stated items always, strongly agree, very 4 always, strongly agree, very 1 agree, often, good 3 agree, often, good 2 disagree, sometimes, fair 2 disagree, sometimes, fair 3 never, strongly disagree, poor 1 never, strongly disagree, poor 4 the mean scores were then calculated for the responses obtained for the range of items in the seven categories listed above to show the perceptions of both sets of employees towards the state of their working conditions. the mean scores obtained thus gave an overall perception of both sets of employees’ attitudes towards each epz working condition item (question) contained in each of the seven broad categories. these means were then compared to determine which set of employees had a higher score than the other. when one group had a higher mean score on an item than the other it was interpreted to mean that, that group (the one with a high mean) perceived that item better than the other group. in analyzing what factors significantly influenced epz employees from companies located in the public and private zones attitudes and perceptions towards their working conditions the analysis of variance (anova) (f-test) was used to test for significant differences. to test null hypothesis ho1 ho2 and ho3 the anova test, was used. the 0.05 level of confidence was used to reject or not reject each of the hypotheses. nb: each of the hypotheses was tested twice one test being done for employees from companies located in the public zone and another one being done for employees located in private zones. (tables are only provided for results that had significant relationships). results the impact of the various labor law exemptions on investors located in private and public epzs investors located in the public zone rated the exemptions from the factories act and from paying the minimum wage higher than investors from companies located in the private zones. on the basis of this finding it can therefore be concluded that the exemption from applying the factories act and from paying minimum wages had contributed significantly to the operations of investors located in public but not those from companies located in private zones. simon, smith46 factors that significantly affect labor relations between employees working for epz companies located in private and the public zones after exposing nine factors that were assumed to influence the at t it udes and percept ions of epz workers from companies located in both the public and private zones towards the state of their working conditions to appropriate statistical tests (t-tests or f-tests) three factors; education qualificat ions, length of service, and the employment stat us of an employee in the zones were found to significantly influence the attitudes of epz workers from companies located in both public and private zones towards their working conditions. table 1 present the results related to the first hypothesis, which stated that the education qualifications of epz employees from companies located in public and private zones does not affect their attitudes towards the state of their working conditions. table 1 analysis of the variance for education qualifications and employees from companies located in private zones perceptions towards the state of their working conditions employees from sum of squares df mean square f private zones between groups 196.656 3 65.552 3.104 within groups 2766.944 131 21.122 total 2963.600 134 (critical value 2.67) table one above indicates that the f ratio (3.104) was greater than the critical value (2.67) which indicates that there was a significant relationship bet ween the educational qualifications of epz employees from companies located in the private zones and their attitudes towards the state of their working conditions. on the basis of this finding the null hypothesis was rejected. a similar f-test was also carried out to determine whether the education qualifications of epz employees from companies located in public zones affected their attitudes towards the state of their working conditions revealed no significant relationship. on the basis of these results the null hypothesis (for the public zone employees) was not rejected. table 2 presents the results related to the second hypothesis, which stated that the length of service of epz employees from companies located in public and private zones does not affect their attitudes towards the state of their working conditions. table 2 analysis of the variance for length of service and employees from companies located in public and private zones perceptions towards the state of their working conditions employees from sum of squares df mean square f private zones between groups 226.657 4 56.664 2.691 within groups 2736.943 130 21.053 total 2963.600 134 table 2 above indicates that the f ratio (2.691) was greater than the critical value (2.43), which indicates that there was a significant relationship between the length of service of epz employees from companies, located in the private zones and their attitudes towards the state of their working conditions. on the basis of this finding the null hypothesis was rejected. a similar f-test was also carried out to determine whether the length of service of epz employees from companies located in the public zone affected their attitudes towards the state of their working conditions revealed no significant relationship. on the basis of these results the null hypothesis (for the public zone employees) was not rejected. table 3 present the results related to the third hypothesis, which stated that the employment status of epz employees from companies located in public and private zones does not affect their attitudes towards the state of their working conditions table 3 analysis of the variance for employment status and employees from companies located in private zones perceptions towards the state of their working conditions employees from sum of squares df mean square f private zones between groups 249.121 2 124.560 6.057 within groups 2714.479 132 20.564 total 2963.600 134 table 3 above indicates that the f ratio (6.057) was greater than the critical value (3.91), which indicates that there was a significant relationship between the employment status of epz employees from companies, located in the private zones and their attitudes towards the state of their working conditions. on the basis of this finding the null hypothesis was rejected. a similar f-test carried out to determine whether the length of service of epz employees from companies located in the public zone affected their attitudes towards the state of their working conditions revealed no significant relationship. on the basis of these results the null (for the public zone employees) hypothesis was not rejected. the scope of the labor relations’ gap in kenyan epzs the five subsections that follow below point out areas where a labor relation’s gap exists between the perceptions of employees from companies located in the public and the private zones. education, training and work experience epz employees from companies located in the private zones had higher mean perception scores than employees from companies located in the public zone in all the five items that were tested under the education and training structures category. on the basis of this finding it can therefore be concluded that epz employees from companies located in the private zones were exposed to better education and training structures than their co-workers employed in companies located in the public zone. employment discrimination epz employees from companies located in the private zones had higher mean perception scores than their co-workers employed by companies located in the private zone in all the four items tested in the employment discrimination category. this means that employment discrimination on the basis of age or gender was higher in companies located in the public zone than in those located in the private zones. this finding partially supports those of abbott (1997), hillary (1999) and disruptive employee behaviour in epzs 47 hunter r. (2000) whose studies indicate that epz employees experience various forms of discrimination at the epz workplace. remuneration structures epz employees from companies located in the private zones had higher mean perception scores than their coworkers employed by firms located in the public zone in four out of the five items that were tested in the remuneration structures category. this can be interpreted to mean that, on average employees from companies located in the private zones had better remuneration structures than their coworkers from companies located in the public zone. this finding partially confirms the findings of the icf tu (1996), hunter, (2001) and the nlc (undated) which all indicated that epz wages quite low. working facilities epz employees from companies located in the private zones had higher mean perception scores than employees from companies located in the public zones in four out of the five items tested in the working facilities category. this means that on average, epz employees from companies located in the private zones were exposed to better working conditions than their colleagues from companies located in the public zones. this finding partially supports those of abbot (1997) and hillary (1999) whose studies indicated that epz employees were exposed to poor working conditions. interpersonal relationships epz employees from companies located in the private zones had higher mean perception scores than their co-workers from companies located in the public zone in the two items tested under the interpersonal relationships category. this means that epz employees from companies located in the private zones had better employer-employee interpersonal relationships than their co-workers from companies located in the public zones. working relationships epz workers from companies located in the private zones had higher mean perception scores than their co-workers from companies located in the public zone in the four items examined under the state of epz working relationships category. this can be interpreted to mean that epz employees from companies located in the private zones have better employer-employee working relationships than employees from companies located in the public zone. the perceptions of epz investors and other kenyan epz stakeholders towards the effectiveness of the existing problem-solving (regulation) frameworks unions/workers bodies epz employees from companies located in the private zone had higher mean perception scores than their co-workers from companies located in the public zone in the t wo items examined under the effectiveness of unions/workers bodies as employer-employee dispute settlement structures. this indicates that epz workers from companies located in the private zones had more effective unions/workers bodies than their co-workers from companies located in the public zone. this finding partly supports those of hillary (1999) who found that unions had not been of help to epz workers at the epz workplace. the epza epz employees from companies located in the private zone had higher mean perception scores than their co-workers from companies located in the public zone in all the three items examined under the effectiveness of the epza as an employeremployee dispute settlement structure. this means that the epza as a dispute settlement body has been more effective in companies located in the private zones than in companies located in the public zone. codes of conduct epz workers from companies located in the private zones had a higher mean perception score than their co-workers from companies located in the public zone on the item tested under the effectiveness of mne codes of conduct as dispute settlement structures at the epz workplace. this indicates that employees from companies located in the private zones are more aware of the mne codes of conduct that their companies contract from than their co-workers from companies located in the public zone. discussion education qualifications, length of service and the employment status of epz employees from companies located in the private zones are the factors that shape their perceptions towards the state of their working conditions. on the other hand no major factors were identified that influenced the perceptions and attitudes of epz employees from companies located in the public zones towards the state of their working conditions. the state of epz remuneration structures, education/training structures, employment structures, working facilities, interpersonal relationships and the effectiveness of unions in the epz workplace were found to be more favorable by epz workers from companies located in the private zones while epz workers located in the public zone found the state of these items to be less favorable to them. it is the opinion of this researcher based on the responses of both sets of epz employees’ that the epz garment firms located in the private zones expose their workers to superior working conditions than those located in the public zone. it is therefore necessary for epz employers from companies located in the public zone to narrow down this working conditions imbalance that seems to be negatively affecting their employees who in turn spread their disruptive behavior to employees located in the private zones, which ends up disrupting epz operations in kenya. references abbott, j. (1997). export processing zones and the developing world. contemporary review, 00107565, vol. 270, issue 1576, p232, 6p. abeywardene, j., et al. (1994). export processing zones in sri lanka: economic impact and social issues. mep, wp no. 69, geneva: ilo. 94:5, 12-19, 23, 30-40) bosire, j. (2003, february). sh800m lost in strikes at epz: six firms shelve plans to invest in kenya. nairobi: nation media group [online]. available: http://www.nationaudio.com/news/ dailynation/today/business/business1.html date of access: (26-02-2003). epza. (2002). information for prospective epz investors. nairobi: epza. glendy, g. & ndii d. (2000, february). export platforms in kenya. harvard: harvard institute for international development, harvard university (discussion paper no.752; 00: 10, 11, 12, 13, 23). hilary, a. (1999, november). endangering women’s health for profit: health and safet y in mexico’s maquiladoras. development in practice, 09614524, nov99, vol. 9, issue 5 http://www.transnationale.org/pays/epz.htm, date of access: (09-06-2002). hunter, r. et al. (2001, february 11). first impressions of the san marcos free trade zone. national labor committee, [available on internet]: http://www.nlcnet.org/behindclosed/elsalvador.htm, date of access: (05-09-2001). simon, smith48 husted, s. & melvin, m. (2001). international economics, 5th ed. boston: addison wesley longman inc. icftu. (1996). behind the wire: anti union repression in epzs. online available at: http://www.transnationale.org/anglais/ sources/tiersmonde/zones_franches__icftu_epz.htm, date of access: (02-06-2002). ilo. (1998, september). export processing zones growing steadily, providing a major source of job creation. labor/productivity problems continue to mount. geneva: ilo. online available at: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/magazine/ 27/news.htm date of access: (08-05-2001). jauch, h. et al. (1996). export processing zones in southern africa: economic, social and political implications. cape town: international labor resource and information group (ilrig). online available at: http://aidc.org.za/ilrig/research/ epz_namibia.html date of access: (05-09-2001). khan, f. (2000). labor: making export processing zones more worker friendly. cape town: inter press service (end/ips/fk/sm/00). online available at: http://www.oneworld.org/ips2/apr00/ 12_00_040.html date of access: (05-06-2002). kusago, t. et al. (1998). export processing zones; a review in need of update. washington d.c.: world bank social protection discussion paper; no. sp 9802. report no. 20046. online available at: http://www-wds.org/servlet/wds_ibank_ servlet?pcont=details&eid=00094946_000305302247 date of access: (12-05-2001). leedy, p. d. (1997). practical research: planning and design, 6th ed. upper saddle river, nj: merrill. madani, d. (1999, november). a review of the role and impact of export processing zones. washington d.c.: trade and development research group. world bank research working paper no. 2238. online available at: http://wbln0018. worldbank.org/research/workpapers.nsf/%28allworkingpap ers%29/042a38e8445ed9be8525682c006733ae?opendocu mentd9be date of access: (12-05-2001). national labor committee (nlc). (1998). young women in free trade zones injected with depro provera: national labor committee calls for investigation. online available at: http://www.nlcnet.org/hondurus/depropro.htm date of access: (05-06-2002) sloman, j. (2000). economics, 4th ed. harrow: prentice hall. soto, g. (1999). the case against free export processing zones. online available at: http://www.stanford.edu/class/e297c/ trade_environment/rights/hfree.html date of access: (05-092001). uhl, k.p. & schoner, b. (1969). marketing research: information systems and decision-making. new york: john wiley & sons inc. welman, j.c. & kruger, s. j. (2001). research methodology. cape town: oxford university press southern africa. wepza. (1996). behind the wire: wepza comments and questions. online available at: http://www.wepza.org/behindthewire/ bh181200.htm, date of access: (15-06-2002). disruptive employee behaviour in epzs 49 abstract introduction theoretical base research design results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) syed r. naqvi amity business school, amity university, noida, india puja sareen amity business school, amity university, noida, india tanuja sharma management and development institute, gurgaon, india swati chawla management education and research institute, new delhi, india sheela n. wadhwa management education and research institute, new delhi, india ritika malik bharati vidyapeeth (deemed to be university), pune institute of management and research, new delhi, india citation naqvi, s.r., sareen, p., sharma, t., chawla, s., wadhwa, s.n., & malik, r. (2023). covid-19: job insecurity as a moderator of e-learning acceptance in indian organisations. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2130. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2130 original research covid-19: job insecurity as a moderator of e-learning acceptance in indian organisations syed r. naqvi, puja sareen, tanuja sharma, swati chawla, sheela n. wadhwa, ritika malik received: 30 sept. 2022; accepted: 18 may 2023; published: 02 aug. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic caused the loss of jobs of more than 340 million individuals worldwide in the middle of 2020. at the same time, covid-19 pandemic sparked increased usage of digital products, internet resources, online media technology and e-learning practices. research purpose: the research strives to explore the moderating role of job insecurity caused by the coronavirus towards the usage of e-learning. motivation for study: this study aimed to assess the behavioural effects of employees working in the most damaged sectors related to rental and business services of indian businesses. research approach/design and method: the investigation used a structured questionnaire for the survey data obtained from 307 employees from the most affected sectors in major cities of india. the research utilised the conservation of resources (cor) theories and the general extended technology acceptance model for e-learning (getamel) framework for the investigation. to probe the evidence, the researchers used structural equation modelling techniques. main findings: the findings revealed a substantial impact of ‘job uncertainty’ as a moderator in employees’ acceptability towards e-learning. practical/managerial implications: the study provides a deep insight to experts, educators, top management, policymakers, team managers and human resource (hr) practitioners about the moderation effect of job insecurity created by pandemics on technology acceptance. contribution/value add: this study is unique as no researcher investigated the moderating influence of job instability on e-learning acceptability. keywords: getamel; job insecurity; behavioural intention; e-learning; covid-19. introduction the coronavirus pandemic (covid-19), as per the international labour organization-asian development bank (ilo-adb, 2020), has caused severe chaos in businesses and job markets worldwide, with terrible effects on employment in youth. as per recent projections from the international labor organization (ilo, 2020), the pandemic might cause job loss for more than 340 million individuals worldwide in the middle of 2020. at the same time, the covid-19 pandemic has sparked increased usage of digital products, internet resources, online media technology and e-learning practices (basilaia & kvavadze, 2020). this research strives to figure out how they interact in the perspective of surging job insecurity and mandatory technology adoption. relevance of context in asia and the pacific, the worst covid-19-affected sectors are: (1) rental and business services, (2) retail and wholesale trade, (3) accommodation and food services and (4) manufacturing and repair services, employing nearly 50% of the younger generation (exceeding 100 million) at the advent of covid-19 (ilo-adb, 2020). therefore, the authors identified the necessity for a study to assess the behavioural effects on employees working in the most damaged sectors related to rental and business services of indian businesses. rationale in the covid-19 scenario, the primary sufferers were workers whose livelihood was severely affected by covid-19 along with historic numbers of furloughs and layoffs worldwide (hamouche, 2020) and higher rates of unemployment (congressional research service [crs], 2021), for example, europe (6.0%), the americas (2.7%) and arab states (1.7%). the study was undertaken at a time of worst job scenario conditions and the worst psychological behaviour of employees in india, which makes the study unique compared to the other studies. during the current pandemic, e-learning is more like compelled learning than planned learning (bao, 2020). it is therefore required to understand how mandated e-learning might combat employment insecurity caused by covid-19. despite numerous studies on work insecurity and e-learning adoption, no researcher investigated the moderating influence of job instability on e-learning acceptability. moreover, the authors found no research on e-learning acceptability in the pandemic scenario in india. this paper fills the identified research gap in the body of knowledge. the key objectives of the investigation are as follows. to re-validate the general extended technology acceptance model for e-learning (getamel) in the present covid-19 scenario. to look into the effect of job insecurity caused by covid-19 as a moderator. theoretical base preliminary literature the getamel framework and the conservation of resources (cor) theory serve as the research framework’s foundation. conservation of resource theory is based on three crucial tenets. as per cor theory’s fundamental tenet, resource loss is disproportionately more significant than resource gain. the second tenet of cor theory is that in order to guard against resource loss, make up for losses and acquire resources people must spend resources. the third tenet of cor theory is paradoxical. it argues that resource advantage becomes more significant when resource depletion is prevalent. after thoroughly assessing 107 existing research publications regarding e-learning, abdullah and ward (2016) formulated the getamel framework for e-learning acceptability. among the 152 distinct external variables evaluated in the 107 researches, technology acceptance model (tams) confirmed and most often used external factors were: (1) experience, (2) enjoyment, (3) subjective norm, (4) computer anxiety and (5) self-efficacy (davis, 1989). they realised these five widely exploited and proven external variables in their suggested getamel approach. moreover, the model is specific to e-learning adoption. consequently, in the existing covid-19 scenario, the study used and enhanced the same model based on literature recommendations. in the covid-19 scenario, the authors utilised the cor mechanism and the getamel model to establish the affinity of job insecurity to behavioural response to e-learning. the current study uses the first investigation applying cor theory to assess the covid-19 impact using the getamel model. many factors favour cor postulations as a defence strategy over other theories. the cor theory is widespread stress and motivational theory, so the authors found it suitable for the impact of covid-19-related job insecurity on behavioural response (hobfoll, 2001). moreover, the conceptual model used in this study mentions the acquisition and forfeiture of resources. to the researcher’s knowledge, the extant literature is mute regarding covid-19’s involvement in changing employee perception of e-learning, except for a few studies (bhatt & shiva, 2020; elahi et al., 2021). conservation of resource postulations, the authors believe, better match their suggested framework than the other theories. research hypotheses behavioural intent to use behavioural intent is the estimated chances of an individual participating in a specific conduct (fishbein & ajzen, 1975, p. 288). the current study identified perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, computer anxiety, perceived enjoyment, computer self-efficacy, subjective norms and job insecurity as critical determinants of behavioural intent for e-learning adoption. the determinants of behavioural intent are essential to understand because of the atmosphere of mandatory e-learning acceptability. perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use the tam used in the research studies comprised two key predictors – perceived ease of use (peou) and perceived usefulness (pu). past studies (adenuga et al., 2019; davis, 1989; salloum et al., 2019; venkatesh & bala, 2008) explained the prominence of these variables. perceived ease of use characterises the amount a person conceives about employing a specific entity without any stress on the brain. on the other hand, pu relates to how a person envisions improved work performance after using a given entity (davis, 1989, p. 320). past studies (bhatt & shiva, 2020; kamal et al., 2020; rizun & strzelecki, 2020; tarhini et al., 2017; venkatesh & bala, 2008) have established that pu and peou positively influenced behavioural intention (bi) to utilise e-learning. khan et al. (2020) advocated a longitudinal study because users’ perceptions of the utility and convenience of online learning may change over time (ching-ter et al., 2017). there is a need to re-validate the relationship between peou and bi. when employees feel that e-learning mechanisms are simple to use and that their use would improve their learning performance, their intention to utilise them will increase. as a result, the authors undertook the following hypothesis: h1: the measures of control pu influence bi positively. h2: the measures of control peou influence bi positively. perceived enjoyment perceived enjoyment characterises ‘the amount with which the action of utilising a certain system is deemed delightful in and of itself, regardless of any performance implications resulting from system usage’ (venkatesh, 2000). based on previous studies (elkaseh et al., 2016; rizun & strzelecki, 2020), the authors hypothesised that when employees perceive an e-learning methodology as pleasurable, it is more likely to have a favourable influence on behavioural intent to utilise it. as a result, the authors came up with the following hypothesis: h3: the measures of perceived enjoyment (pej) influence bi positively. computer anxiety computer anxiety refers to ‘the amount of a person’s trepidation, or even panic when presented with the idea of using computers’ (venkatesh, 2000). previous studies (igbaria & parasuraman, 1989; rifa & gudono, 1999) have established a significant influence of computer anxiety on employees’ behaviour towards adoption of e-learning. based on previous studies, the authors assumed that individuals with lesser computer anxiety have greater technical proficiency and a stronger behavioural intent to utilise e-learning. as a result, the authors came up with the following hypothesis: h4: the measures of e-learning anxiety would have a considerable negative impact on bi. computer self-efficacy computer self-efficacy (cse) is ‘the amount to which a person thinks she/he can execute a particular job through the computer’ (compeau & higgins, 1995). based on previous studies (abbasi et al., 2015; vijayasarathy, 2004), the authors hypothesised that individuals comfortable with computers will find technology simple and should have a favourable perception of it. thus, the authors came up with the following hypothesis: h5: the e-learning self-efficacy indicators have a favourable impact on bi. subjective norm subjective norm (sn) is a person’s perspective that the main characters of his life feel whether an individual should or should not do in a specific manner (venkatesh et al., 2003). few investigations have shown the substantial influence of sn (venkatesh & davis, 2000; venkatesh et al., 2003), whereas others (chau & hu, 2002; lewis et al., 2003) found no linkage between sn and bi. the following hypothesis has been added after seeing the contradiction in the current literature: h6: the measures of subjective norm would have a considerable positive influence on bi. computer experience computer experience (xp) is ‘the extent and nature of an individual’s computer abilities over time in work’ (rizun & strzelecki, 2020). based on previous studies (rizun & strzelecki, 2020; vijayasarathy, 2004), the authors hypothesised that more experienced users are more prone to utilise e-learning. therefore the authors adopted the following hypothesis: h7: the measures of e-learning experience would have a considerable positive impact on bi. job insecurity job insecurity is ‘the perception of a threat toward an individual’s existing job’s continuance’ (heaney et al., 1994). the current study applies the cor postulations proposed by hobfoll (1989) for building the remaining hypotheses. resource loss is the most crucial component in forecasting the psychological consequences of distressing events (hobfoll, 1989, 2001). resources are objects, people’s attributes, situations or energies that are valuable in and of themselves or because they behave as channels for acquiring or preserving valuable resources (hobfoll, 1989). coronavirus disease 2019 created an atmosphere of job insecurity (ilo, 2020). this process is consistent with the cor postulation: job insecurity is a prime example of energetic resource depletion leading to more resource loss, such as job insecurity. job insecurity causes a loss of resources, leading to a protective attitude and consuming more resources while slowing the growth of other resources. job insecurity can proactively steer people’s behaviour and processes to safeguard resources or recoup from forfeiture of resources (hobfoll et al., 2006). according to the cor model, avoidance of loss spirals is possible even if an organisation introduces brief periods of gain at some time. the authors propose that e-learning serves as a substantial personal resource that aids individuals in regaining and retaining their resources, based on cor theory (job loss). after stating e-learning is a unique resource (hobfoll, 2001), the authors suggest that a greater degree of covid-19-related job insecurity leads to a high behavioural intent to utilise e-learning. as a result, the authors formulated the hypothesis as follows: h8: the measures of e-learning job insecurity would have a considerable positive impact on bi. based on cor theory, resource drain in the perspective of job insecurity motivates the constructs of antecedents of bi, which can be stated in the form of hypotheses as mentioned below: h1a: job insecurity moderates the linkage of pu to bi. h2a: job insecurity moderates the linkage of peou to bi. h3a: job insecurity moderates the linkage of perceived enjoyment to bi. h4a: job insecurity moderates the link of computer anxiety to bi. h5a: job insecurity moderates the link of self-efficacy to bi. h6a: job insecurity moderates the linkage of subjective norms to bi. h7a: job insecurity moderates the linkage of computer experience to bi. figure 1 depicts the proposed hypotheses in diagrammatic form. figure 1: proposed research model. research design the current study adopts a positivist philosophy as per the classification of orlikowski and baroudi (1991). the formal propositions established through literature review, operationalisation of quantifiable constructs, the testing of hypotheses and generalisation are all examples of positivist shreds of evidence that form the blueprint of the study. as the authors used a quantitative and a qualitative study to support their findings, a mixed method technique was used in this research. little qualitative research helps guide data gathering in a primarily quantitative investigation, generate ideas and produce material for questionnaires. data collection and employee sample the study’s online survey methodology was adopted through a 38-item question sheet. non-probability sampling was used, viz., the purposive sampling approach to select the sample. data was collected from the rental and business services employees in major indian cities from september to december 2020. the final sample consisted of 307 employees. data are collected online (n = 247) and in hard copy format (n = 160). out of the total responses received, 100 responses were because of missing values in the gathered data. harman’s single-factor test was applied to the final data collected to verify the evidence of common method bias (podsakoff et al., 2003). the first unrotated factor recorded only 25.4% data variance, suggesting no common method variance (cmv) issue in the current investigation. measures the survey was divided into two sections: a section for employees’ demographic characteristics, followed by a questionnaire for measuring the study’s 10 constructs. a total of 38 statements were employed to gauge the nine constructs: pu, peou, pej, cse, computer anxiety (ca), sn, xp, bi and job insecurity (ji). all the constructs utilised in this investigation contained items with five-point likert-type scales varying from ‘1’ indicating strong agreement to ‘5’ indicating strong disagreement. the authors used a three-item scale designed by adenuga et al. (2019) for assessing the pu for e-learning, a five-item scale designed by adenuga et al. (2019) for determining the peou, a five-item scale designed by salloum et al. (2019) for assessing the pej, a four-item scale designed by venkatesh and bala (2008) for evaluating the ca, a five-item scale designed by salloum et al. (2019) for assessing the cse, a five-item scale designed by salloum et al. (2019) for determining the sn, a four-item scale designed by rizun and strzelecki (2020) for assessing the xp, a three-item scale designed by adenuga et al. (2019) for determining the bi and a four-item scale designed by vander elst (2014) for assessing the ji e-learning acceptability for the survey. the authors prepared a questionnaire of 38 items and referred to 10 experts in social work practice and academic and industrial management. the authors modified each item and reorganised the questionnaire based on the experts’ suggestions and a pilot study of roughly 50 questionnaires. data analysis amos 21.0 was used to test this investigation’s path and postulated model. the authors separated the analysis into two parts to validate the suggested model as per anderson and gerbing’s (1988) methodology. the first part verified the measurement model for factor analysis, the goodness of fit and construct validity. after achieving a good measurement model, the authors utilised sem (structural equation modelling) to empirically characterise the structural link between the constructs using path estimations. for hypothesis testing, a three-step multiple hierarchical regression analysis was performed. in the first phase, the authors took all constructs of the getamel model as independent variables with the augmentation of the moderator variable in the second phase and then interaction terms augmented in the third phase. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. results descriptive information the demographic characterisation of employees under study are mentioned in table 1, which includes employees’ age, annual income, company experience, education, employment nature, job role, marital status and sex (n = 307, male = 192, female = 115). table 1: demographic characteristics of employees under study. measurement model analysis performed measurement model analysis with factor analysis using the principal component analysis (pca) with oblimin rotation on each construct. the kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) test was applied to demonstrate factorability, and the kmo values for pu, peou, pej, ca, cse, sn, xp, ji and bi are 0.722, 0.904, 0.842, 0.835, 0.853, 0.9, 0.813, 0.836 and 0.748, respectively. the kmo measure validated the sampling adequacy for the assessment; the authors found kmo values for all discrete items and the overall model (overall kmo = 0.886) to be more than the tolerable limit of 0.6 (tabachnick & fidell, 2007, p. 619). researchers carried out the confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) in spss-amos 21.0 to evaluate the data’s fitness to the study’s suggested measurement model. as part of the cfa, the authors looked at convergent validity, construct reliability, discriminant validity and goodness of fit statistics. indicator reliability indicator reliability is the percentage of a single indicator’s variance obtained from pertinent latent variables. as demonstrated in table 2, the standardised estimates for each construct were between 0.76 and 0.94, more than the acceptable threshold of 0.7 recommended by carminezs and zeller (2008). indicator reliability for each construct is above 0.5 per recommendations (carmines & zeller, 1979). the authors employed the bootstrap approach with 5000 samples proposed by henseler et al. (2009); all item loadings were statistically significant at p ≤ 0.001 (henseler et al., 2009). furthermore, the study instrument’s cronbach’s alpha is 0.918 because it exceeds the allowed limit of 0.6 (hair et al., 2014, p. 125). table 2: latent variable with validity and reliability. construct reliability construct reliability is the ‘estimation of the level to which change in the measure echoes variation in the underlying construct,’ according to westen and rosenthal (2003). construct reliability establishes convergent validity, content validity and discriminant validity. content validity the measures from prior literary works were taken by the authors to ascertain face validity. the authors further modified the scales to suit the requirements of the ongoing investigation. convergent validity the authors performed convergent validity by applying average variance extracted (ave) and composite reliability (cr), as demonstrated in table 2. the cr values for each measure varied from 0.851 to 0.948, well above bagozzi and yi’s (1988) suggested criteria of 0.7. the item’s ave values fell in the range of 0.649–0.785, exceeding the acceptable thresholds of 0.5 (bagozzi & yi, 1988), indicating high convergent validity. discriminant validity discriminant validity depicts how the items employed in measurement deviate from one another (campbell & fiske, 1959). table 3 displays the mean, sd, kmo, matrix of factor correlation and √ave on the diagonal cells. the square root values (√ave) are larger than the construct correlations, demonstrating that the data have robust discriminant validity, as stated by fornell and larcker’s (1981) criteria. table 3: mean, sd, cronbach alpha, kmo value and factor correlation matrix with √ave values on the diagonal cells. for the estimation of the parameters of the model, the maximum-likelihood method is adopted. the measurement model’s goodness-of-fit statistics established that it was well-fit to the data (p < 0.05; minimum discrepancy function by degrees of freedom divided [cmin/df] = 1.672 [less than 3], tucker lewis index [tli] = 0.95 [> 0.9], comparative fit index [cfi] = 0.955 [> 0.9], normed fit index [nfi] = 0.9 [> 0.9] and root mean square error of approximation [rmsea] = 0.038 [< 0.1], standardized root mean square residual [srmr] = 0.038 [less than 0.08]). thus, the measurement model exhibits sound construct validity. structural model and testing of hypotheses table 4 demonstrates the results of the hypotheses tests. figure 2 exhibits the measurement model displaying the beta coefficients and r2. figure 2: confirmatory factor analysis model. figure 3: measurement model. table 4: hypothesised results summary. the authors examined the suggested model’s goodness-of-fit parameters; the model produced a statistically significant chi-square, χ2 = 873.16; df = 499; cmin/df = 1.75; p < 0.001. the fit indices were cfi = 0.957, tli = 0.952, rmsea = 0.05 and srmr = 0.0362, which indicated a good model fit. as a result, the authors proceed to investigate the model’s hypothesised linkages. while performing three-stage multiple hierarchical regression, the first stage supports hypotheses h1 to h7 except for h4 and h6. the authors noted pu (β = 0.13; p < 0.01) and peou (β = 0.248; p < 0.01) to get a substantial positive effect on bi for the usage of e-learning, strengthening h1 and h2. the influence of pej (β = 0.369; p < 0.01) on bi maintains hypothesis h3. furthermore, cse (β = 0.163; p < 0.01) and xp (β = 0.116; p < 0.01) influence bi, which supports assumptions h5 and h7. the direct effect of ca (β = 0.001; p is higher than 0.01) and sn (β = 0.012; p is at a higher level than 0.01) are not significant, implying that h4 and h6 are unsupported hypotheses. in the second stage, moderator variable ji (β = 0.199; p < 0.01) has reported a substantial positive effect on bi. in the third stage, interaction variables on bi were regressed. job insecurity moderates the relationship between pu and bi (β = 0.16; p < 0.01), strengthening hypothesis h1a, between peou and bi (β = 0.144; p < 0.01), supporting hypothesis h2a, between cse and bi (β = −0.117; p < 0.01) strengthening hypothesis h5a and xp and bi (β = 0.2; p < 0.01) strengthening hypothesis h7a. the moderating effect of pej (β = −0.085; p > 0.01), ca (β = −0.085; p > 0.01) and sn (β = −0.086; p > 0.1) on bi is not found to be significant, which does not support hypotheses h3a, h4a and h7a. the authors took all constructs of the getamel model as independent variables with the augmentation of the moderator variable in the second stage; then, they augmented interaction terms in the third stage. predictor variables constituted by basic getamel constructs explain 43%, model augmented by moderator 46% and then interaction terms included 56% of the variance in bi. discussion the first two hypotheses, h1 and h2, suggesting the positive association of peou and pu with bi, are compliant with the findings of tarhini et al. (2017) and salloum et al. (2019). hypothesis h3 supports the positive impact of pej on bi, which is in synchronisation with salloum et al. (2019). this study establishes the non-significant association of ca with bi found in hypothesis h4 of the current research, which contradicts the significant negative relation reported by adenuga et al. (2019). the assumptions h3, h4 and h5 are synchronised with sriningsih et al. (2018), stating that pej and cse had a considerable influence, and ca had no significant impact on bi. hypothesis h6 posits that sn does not significantly impact bi, synchronising with salloum et al. (2019). hypothesis h7 states that experience (xp) particularly moved bi, synchronising with rizun and strzelecki (2020). therefore the objective of revalidation of the getamel model in the covid-19 scenario is met. the results established in hypothesised relationships h1a, h2a, h3a, h4a, h5a, h6a and h7a represent new findings not reported in previous studies to the author’s best knowledge. from the perspective of severe economic slowdown, a recession, reduced income, rising unemployment and poverty caused by covid-19, job insecurity is a crucial variable. therefore, ji was added as a new dimension to the earlier studies, as an essential variable for study in a covid-induced environment. organisational psychologists are concerned about job insecurity, and research has shown that it has a negative impact on an employee’s levels of anxiety and depression (bert et al., 2020; ganson et al., 2021). this study supports hypotheses h1a, h2a, h5a and h7a and does not support ideas h3a, h4a and h6a. coronavirus disease 2019 established a climate of job insecurity, or the risk of resource loss (i.e. employment), causing employees to reduce their resource investment (disengaging from job and investing in e-learning) to retain their existing resources (employability). therefore job insecurity can moderate the association between bi and its antecedents, for example, perceived usefulness, ease of use, self-efficacy and computer experience. however, job insecurity perceptions cannot moderate the affinity between bi and a few of its antecedents, for example, pej, computer anxiety and sn. the positive perception of e-learning adoption may be attributed to either securing a better position in the organisation or strengthening the external labour market (van hootegem et al., 2019). the positive perception towards e-learning during job insecurity contradicts the studies by naswall and de witte (2003) because of the negative attitude developed by job insecurity. the findings in this study contradict the study outcomes by fawaz and samaha (2021) about online learning as a cause of depression and anxiety because of a change in instruction methodology among undergraduate students. practical implications perhaps the most vital implication of this investigation is highlighting the basic idea of applying e-learning as the best coping strategy in the prevalent covid-19 scenario. organisations can use it to alleviate job insecurity among employees to reinforce their external labour market position (van hootegem et al., 2019) and fill the skill gap required in the organisation. therefore top management should not focus on short-term financial gains and invest and allocate sufficient funds to e-learning tools, technology and infrastructure. whitelaw et al. (2020) mentioned that managers could improve employee engagement with digital technology. understanding the moderating effect of job insecurity on technology acceptance is critical to experts, educators, top management, policymakers, team managers and hr practitioners. contributions to theory the contributions to theory contributions of the current research are multi-fold. firstly, the recent study by abdullah and ward (2016) recommended replication across different domains, disciplines and settings. moreover, the current research strengthened the previous analysis (abdullah et al., 2016) by augmenting the moderation effect of ji, as ji seems to be a crucial parameter in the covid-19 scenario. secondly, the current study undertook ‘ji’ as a moderator variable as abdullah and ward (2016) recommended. thirdly, the study’s main findings challenged the negative attitude predicted by job insecurity as predicted by naswall and de witte (2003). it also reinforces many of the earlier results established in middle east and western cultures (abdullah et al., 2016) and augments coverage of novel demographic and geographic environments. moreover, the examination conducted in developed countries may be or may not be appropriate for developing countries like india. for continual revalidation of conceptions in varied job contexts, repetitions of research in sociology are encouraged (agarwal & gupta, 2018). fourthly, the study also justifies the positive perception towards using e-learning in organisations in the covid-19 scenario. fifthly, the cor postulations proposed by hobfoll (1989) was employed to clarify the e-learning utilisation mechanism as a coping strategy to alleviate covid-related job insecurity. the cor postulations (hobfoll, 1989) elucidate how employees save, gather, preserve resources and prevent loss of resources. the authors debated that unfavourable fear and anxiety because of covid-19 exhaust employees’ energy levels, resulting in loss of resources. therefore employees strive to save their available resources while deciding about their list of activities for execution, including their achievements (hobfoll, 2001; hobfoll & shirom, 2000). it indicates that employees utilise resources like e-learning to regain their lost resources. however, according to cor, such predicted behaviour is contingent on employees’ ability to use relevant personal resources to offset resource losses caused by pandemics like covid-19 (hobfoll & shirom, 2000). though getamel constructs have been the subject of a few investigations in the past (abdullah et al., 2016), the moderation effect of job insecurity examined in the present study makes the study unique. employees undergoing covid-related job insecurity show low perceived employability, which motivates employees to strengthen their position outside the organisation (van hootegem et al., 2019); hence they develop a positive perception of e-learning usage. the research adds to the literature on positive attitudes towards e-learning (elahi et al., 2021; khan et al., 2020). the current analysis augments the information about the affinity between the variables under consideration and confirms the previously established link. shortcomings and future scope of research the recent work has a few shortcomings, just like any other study. the current investigation employed a limited sample size influencing the accuracy and steadiness of approximations of parameters. because of the minuscule sample size, as cohen (1992) suggested. the authors are confident in the validity of their results because the majority of their assumptions were accepted. the restrictions imposed because of covid-19 were the main constraints of the researcher. few employees were not available for participation in the survey because of the severe effect of covid-19. the utilisation of self-reported survey data is assumed to have inherent biases. despite efforts to mitigate common method bias, as advocated by podsakoff et al. (2003), the possibility of vestiges of common method bias remains. the study comes out with ‘new landscapes’ for future research in a promising way. future researchers could generalise results by enhancing sample size and diversity in the sample in various other economies and other industry sectors for broader coverage. future studies may conduct a comparative survey of employees’ perceptions in covid-19 and non-covid-19 scenarios. this study explores a new vista to observe the moderation function of job insecurity caused by covid-19 on the relationship between behavioural intention for e-learning utilisation and its antecedents. as a result, the authors recommend that future research may expand the findings in this study by looking at the other moderator-mediator variables, for example, perceived employability, etc. conclusion to summarise, the data show that in the covid-19 scenario, job uncertainty substantially modifies employees’ positive attitudes regarding e-learning. the current study finds escalation in the overall behavioural intention of employees for e-learning as job insecurity moderates the linkage of bi to most of its antecedents significantly. as e-learning satisfies all covid-19 protocols, it keeps employees from falling into the traps of negative attitudes because of job insecurity and inculcates positive perceptions. therefore, it can be concluded that e-learning is a panacea in the covid-19 scenario. acknowledgements the authors are very thankful to all the participants of their survey, who were drawn from various companies, for giving their valuable time and effort to fill up the questionnaire form. the authors also thank them for providing noteworthy feedback. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions s.r.n. made a substantial contribution to the conceptualisation and design of the study. s.r.n. collected data from various organisations. p.s. contributed to the final presentation of data. t.s. supervised the data analysis stage and finalised the article. sc contributed to the literature review to meet the reviewer’s remarks. snw elaborated on cor theory and refined theoretical contributions. rm contributed to the final manuscript writing after considering the reviewer’s comments. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data are available from the corresponding author s.r.n., upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors, and the publisher. references abbasi, m.s., tarhini, a., elyas, t., & shah, f. (2015). impact of individualism and collectivism over the individual’s technology acceptance behaviour: a multi-group analysis between pakistan and turkey. journal of enterprise information management, 28(6), 747–768. https://doi.org/10.1108/jeim-12-2014-0124 abdullah, f., & ward, r. (2016). developing a general extended technology acceptance model for e-learning (getamel) by analysing commonly used external factors. computer in human behavior, 56(1), 238–256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.11.036 abdullah, f., ward, r., & ahmed, e. (2016). investigating the influence of the most commonly used external variables of tam on students’ perceived ease of use (peou) and perceived usefulness (pu) of e-portfolios. computers in human behaviour, 63(1), 75–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.014 adenuga, k.i., mbarika, v.w., & omogbadegun, z.o. (2019). technical support: towards mitigating effects of computer anxiety on acceptance of e-assessment amongst university students in sub saharan african countries. in: y. dwivedi, e. ayaburi, r. boateng, j. effah, (eds.), ict unbounded, social impact of bright ict adoption vol. 558. tdit 2019. ifip advances in information and communication technology. agarwal, u.a., & gupta, v. (2018). relationships between job characteristics, work engagement, conscientiousness and managers’ turnover intentions: a moderated-mediation analysis. personnel review, 47(2), 353–377. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-09-2016-0229 anderson, j., & gerbing, d. (1988). structural equation modeling in practice: a review and recommended two-step approach. psychological bulletin, 103(3), 411–423. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.103.3.411 bagozzi, r.p., & yi, y. (1988). on the evaluation of structural equation models. journal of the academy of marketing science, 16(1), 74–94. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02723327 bao, w. (2020). covid-19 and online teaching in higher education: a case study of peking university. human behavior and emerging technologies, 2(2), 113–115. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.191 basilaia, g., & kvavadze, d. (2020). transition to online education in schools during a sars-cov-2 coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic in georgia. pedagogical research, 5(4), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/7937 bert, f., gualano, m.r., thomas, r., vergnano, g., voglino, g., & siliquini, r. (2020). exploring the possible health consequences of job insecurity: a pilot study among young workers. gaceta sanitaria, 34(4), 385–392. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaceta.2018.08.011 bhatt, s., & shiva, a. (2020). empirical examination of the adoption of zoom software during covid-19: zoom tam. journal of content, community & communication, 12(6), 70–88, https://doi.org/10.31620/jccc.12.20/08 campbell, d.t., & fiske, d.w. (1959). convergent and discriminant validation by the multi-trait-multi-method matrix. psychological bulletin, 56(2), 81–105. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0046016 carmines, e.g., & zeller, r.a. (1979). reliability and validity assessment ([nachdr.] ed.). sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412985642 chau, p., & hu, p. (2002). examining a model of information technology acceptance by individual professionals: an exploratory study. journal of mis, 18(4), 191–229. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421222.2002.11045699 ching-ter, c., su, c.-r., & hajiyev, j. (2017). examining the students’ behavioral intention to use e-learning in azerbaijan? the general extended technology acceptance model for elearning approach. computers & education, 111(c), 124–143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2017.04.010 cohen, j. (1992), a power primer. psychological bulletin, 112(1), 155–159. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155 compeau, d.r., & higgins, c.a. (1995). computer self-efficacy: development of a measure and initial test. mis quarterly, 19(2), 189–211. https://doi.org/10.2307/249688 congressional research service. (april 26, 2021). global economic effects of covid-19 (crs report no. r46270). retrieved from https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/r46270.pdf davis, f.d. (1989). perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. mis quarterly, 13(3), 319–340. https://doi.org/10.2307/249008 elahi, m.z., liang, g., malik, m.j., dilawar, s., & ilyas, b. (2021). fear of covid-19 and intentions towards adopting e-health services: exploring the technology acceptance model in the scenario of pandemic. ijbem, 8(4), 270–291. https://doi.org/10.18488/journal.62.2021.84.270.291 elkaseh, a.m., wong, k.w., & fung, c.c. (2016). perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of social media for e-learning in libyan higher education: a structural equation modeling analysis. ijiet, 6(3), 192–199. https://doi.org/10.7763/ijiet.2016.v6.683 fawaz, m., & samaha, a. (2021). e-learning: depression, anxiety, and stress symptomatology among lebanese university students during covid-19 quarantine. nursing forum, 56(1), 52–57. https://doi.org/10.1111/nuf.12521 fishbein, m., & ajzen, i. (1975). belief, attitude, intention and behaviour: an introduction to theory and research. addison-wesley publishing co, inc. fornell, c., & larcker, d. (1981). evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. journal of marketing research, 18(1), 39–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378101800313 ganson, k.t., tsai, a.c., weiser, s.d., benabou, s.e., & nagata, j.m. (2021). job insecurity and symptoms of anxiety and depression among u.s. young adults during covid-19. the journal of adolescent health, 68(1), 53–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.10.008 hamouche, s. (2020). covid-19 and employees’ mental health: stressors, moderators and agenda for organizational actions. emerald open research, 2, 15. https://doi.org/10.35241/emeraldopenres.13550.1 hair, jr. j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., anderson, r.e., & tatham, r.l. (2014). multivariant data analysis (7th ed.). pearson international edition. heaney, c.a., israel, b.a., & house, j.s. (1994). chronic job insecurity among automobile workers: effects on job satisfaction and health. social science & medicine, 38(10), 1431–1437. https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(94)90281-x henseler, j., ringle, c.m., & sinkovics, r.r. (2009). the use of partial least squares path modeling in international marketing. in r.r. sinkovics & p.n. ghauri (eds.), new challenges to international marketing (advances in international marketing, vol. 20) (pp. 277–319). emerald group publishing limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/s1474-7979(2009)0000020014 hobfoll, s.e. (1989). conservation of resources: a new attempt at conceptualizing stress. american psychologist, 44(3), 513–524. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.44.3.513 hobfoll, s.e. (2001). the influence of culture, community, and the nested-self in the stress process: advancing conservation of resources theory. applied psychology: an international review, 50(3), 337–370. https://doi.org/10.1111/1464-0597.00062 hobfoll, s.e., & shirom, a. (2000). conservation of resources theory: applications to stress and management in the workplace. in: r.t. golembiewski (ed.), handbook of organization behaviour (pp. 57–80). marcel dekker. hobfoll, s.e., tracy, m., & galea, s. (2006). the impact of resource loss and traumatic growth on probably ptsd and depression following terrorist attacks. journal of traumatic stress, 19(6), 867–878. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.20166 igbaria, m., & parasuraman, s. (1989). a path analytic study of individual characteristics, computer anxiety, and attitudes toward microcomputers. journal of management, 15(3), 373–388. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920638901500302 ilo. (2020). ilo monitor: covid-19 and the world of work. retrieved from https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/coronavirus/impacts-and-responses/wcms749399/ ilo-adb. (2020). tackling the covid-19 youth employment crisis in asia and the pacific. retrieved from https://www.adb.org/publications/covid-19-youth-employment-crisis-asia-pacific kamal, s.a., shafiq, m., & kakria, p. (2020). investigating acceptance of telemedicine services through an extended technology acceptance model (tam). technology in society, 60(1), 101212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2019.101212 khan, s.a., zainuddin, m., mahi, m., & arif, i. (december 2020). behavioral intention to use online learning during covid-19: an analysis of the technology acceptance model. in international conference on innovative methods of teaching and technological advancements in higher education (imttahe). ssrn. retrieved from https://ssrn.com/abstract=3756886 lewis, w., agarwal, r., & sambamurthy, v. (2003). sources of influence on beliefs about information technology use: an empirical study of knowledge workers. mis quarterly, 27, 4. https://doi.org/10.2307/30036552 näswall, k., & de witte, h. (2003). who feels insecure in europe? predicting job insecurity from background variables. economic and industrial democracy, 24(2), 189–215. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831x03024002003 orlikowski, w.j., & baroudi, j.j. (1991). studying information technology in organizations: research approaches and assumptions. information systems research, 2(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2.1.1 podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., lee, j.y., & podsakoff, n.p. (2003). common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. journal of applied psychology, 88(5), 879–903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879 rifa, d., & gudono. (1999). pengaruh faktor demografi dan personality terhadap keahlian dalam end user computing. jurnal riset akuntansi indonesia, 2(1), 20–36. rizun, m., & strzelecki, a. (2020). students’ acceptance of the covid-19 impact on shifting higher education to distance learning in poland. ijerph, 17(18), 468. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186468 salloum, s.a., qasim mohammad alhamad, a., al-emran, m., abdel monem, a.r., & shaalan, k.f. (2019). exploring students’ acceptance of e-learning through the development of a comprehensive technology acceptance model. ieee access, 7, 128445–128462, https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2019.2939467 sriningsih, e., pontoh, g.t., & amiruddin (2018). the effect of computer self-efficacy, computer anxiety, and perceived enjoyment on the attitudes of computer users. journal of research in business and management, 6(4), 48–55. tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2007). using multivariate statistics (5th ed.). pearson education. tarhini, a., hone, k., liu, x., & tarhini, t. (2017). examining the moderating effect of individual-level cultural values on users’ acceptance of e-learning in developing countries: a structural equation modeling of an extended technology acceptance model. interactive learning environments, 25(3), 306–328. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2015.1122635 van hootegem, a., de witte, h., de cuyper, n., & elst, t.v. (2019). job insecurity and the willingness to undertake training: the moderating role of perceived employability. journal of career development, 46(4), 395–409. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845318763893 vander elst, t., de witte, h., & de cuyper, n. (2014). the job insecurity scale: a psychometric evaluation across five european countries. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 23(3), 364–380. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2012.745989 venkatesh, v. (2000). determinants of perceived ease of use: integrating control, intrinsic motivation, and emotion into the technology acceptance model. information systems research, 11(4), 342–365. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.11.4.342.11872 venkatesh, v., & bala, h. (2008). technology acceptance model 3 and a research agenda on interventions. decision sciences, 39(2), 273–315. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5915.2008.00192.x venkatesh, v., & davis, f.d. (2000). a theoretical extension of the technology acceptance model: four longitudinal field studies. management science, 46(2), 186–204. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.46.2.186.11926 venkatesh, v., morris, m.g., davis, g.b., & davis, f.d. (2003). user acceptance of information technology: toward a unified view. mis quarterly, 27(3), 425–478. https://doi.org/10.2307/30036540 vijayasarathy, l.r. (2004). predicting consumer intentions to use online shopping: the case for an augmented technology acceptance model. information & management, 41(6), 747–762. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2003.08.011 westen, d., & rosenthal, r. (2003). quantifying construct validity: two simple measures. journal of personality and social psychology, 88(3), 608. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.84.3.608 whitelaw, s., mamas, m.a., topol, e., & van spall, h.g.c. (2020). applications of digital technology in covid-19 pandemic planning and response. lancet digital health, 2(8), e435–e440. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30142-4 abstract introduction and background literature review research methodology discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) hlanganipai ngirande department of industrial psychology, faculty of management and commerce, university of fort hare, alice, south africa citation ngirande, h. (2021). occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment in higher education: job satisfaction as a moderator. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1376. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1376 original research occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment in higher education: job satisfaction as a moderator hlanganipai ngirande received: 16 apr. 2020; accepted: 11 sept. 2020; published: 20 jan. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: committed employees contribute to the success of an organisation. therefore, organisations need to understand the level of employees’ occupational stress and uncertainty to minimise their negative effects on both the individuals and the organisation. organisations should also understand the effect of job satisfaction in explaining occupational stress and organisational commitment, as well as uncertainty and organisational commitment. research purpose: the purpose of the study was to investigate the relationships between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment of academic staff from two south african historically black institutions of higher learning. the study further investigated whether job satisfaction moderated the relationship between (1) occupational stress and organisational commitment and (2) uncertainty and organisational commitment. motivation for the study: institutions of higher learning gain a competitive advantage by having a committed workforce. therefore, it is necessary to investigate the drivers of organisational commitment to attain organisational success. research approach/design and method: a quantitative approach by using a cross-sectional survey design was used to collect data from the academic staff from two institutions of higher education (n = 424). both institutions are contact institutions and are of the same level. cronbach’s alpha coefficients, factor analysis, pearson product–moment correlation coefficient and multiple regression analyses were used to analyse the data. main findings: this study found a negative, significant relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment and a negative relationship between uncertainty and organisational commitment. however, uncertainty was found to be only a significant predictor of organisational commitment. the study also found that job satisfaction moderates the relationship between uncertainty and organisational commitment. however, it does not moderate the relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment. practical/managerial implications: institutions of higher learning need to establish a conducive working climate and provide employee assistance programmes to minimise the levels of occupational stress and uncertainty and improve job satisfaction to have committed academic staff. contribution/value-add: the research is one of the few studies that explored the moderating role of job satisfaction with the relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment, and the relationship between uncertainty and organisational commitment in the higher education sector. hence, it adds new information to the body of knowledge in the sector. institutions of higher learning can consider evaluating the levels of occupational stress, uncertainty and job satisfaction of their academic staff to promote the issue of the organisational commitment of their employees. thus, this study has the potential to influence organisational policy on how to reduce work stress and uncertainty and improve organisational commitment. keywords: academic staff; confirmatory factor analysis; higher education; job satisfaction; moderator; occupational stress; organisational commitment; south africa; uncertainty. introduction and background the inception of democracy has seen the south african higher education sector undergoing a radical shift in form and identity. increases in student diversity and access have been witnessed in the sector compared with pre-1994 (council on higher education [che], 2013; mawoyo, 2014; smit, 2012). policy documents such as the white paper of 1997 and the south african qualifications authority (saqa) of 1997 were introduced to redress the social injustices of the past by increasing access to higher education for all (department of higher education, 1997). however, this positive paradigm shift in higher education came with its challenges. greater access to higher education led to higher student enrolments (de oliveira barbosa, pires, & dwyer, 2018). for instance, in 25 years enrolment almost doubled, from 473 000 in 1993 to some 800 000 in 2008 (badat, 2010). by 2016, 2 million students were enrolled in higher education, 78.3% of them in public institutions and 21.7% in private institutions (de oliveira barbosa et al., 2018). this massification exerted excessive pressure on already limited resources in universities, thereby affecting their success rate (akalu, 2016; mohamedbhai, 2014; smit, 2012), epistemological access (boughey, 2005; mckenna, 2012) and graduation rate (machingambi, 2011). various universities are under financial strain such that some have resorted to recruiting adjunct academic staff (independent contractors) rather than permanent staff to save on the wage bill (bozzoli, 2016; herman, 2016; nortje, 2013). however, this cost serving mechanism may result in low organisational commitment because of high levels of occupational stress, high uncertainties about future job security and low job satisfaction among the employees regardless of one’s nature of employment, which may be explained by low job satisfaction. zagelmeyer, sinkovics, sinkovics and kusstatscher (2018) report that employees become less committed when they are stressed, when and their job security is threatened. several studies also revealed that insecure, less satisfied and highly stressed workforce exhibits less emotional attachment to the organisation (arnolds, lillah, & stofile, 2013; cooper, 2018; martin & roodt, 2008; öztürk, karagonlar, & emirza, 2017). therefore, for an organisation to be effective and efficient, it requires a highly committed workforce. this can be achieved when talent is managed in such a way that occupational stress and uncertainty are minimised, and job satisfaction is increased. this study argues that it is not only the organisational change that may lead to high occupational stress, uncertainty and less organisational commitment, but it is also the level of job satisfaction of an individual in an organisation following a change. literature review occupational stress boyd, tuckey and winefield (2014) define stress as the individual’s response to an imbalance that is perceived between the demands made in the situation and the resources available. organisational change can lead to high occupational stress. according to slade, ribando and fortner (2016), stress negatively affects employee organisational commitment. therefore, to have committed employees, organisations should reduce the level of employee stress. the demands made on an individual (stressors) serve as a stimulus for evoking a response, such as emotions of anger, anxiety and stress (cooper, 2018). these stressors can be internal or external. although a single stressor may cause major stress, stressors usually combine to put pressure on an employee in a variety of ways until stress develops (graebner, heimeriks, huy, & vaara, 2017). hence, organisations should take note of these stressors to minimise employee occupational stress and improve organisational commitment. uncertainty the significant changes introduced in the south african higher education system soon after 1994, in redressing the imbalances and injustices of the past, directly or indirectly affected the well-being of employees and consequently the organisation at large (chipunza & gwarinda, 2010). this implies that changes can stimulate feelings of uncertainties about job security and in turn likely to influence individual employees’ commitment towards their organisation. uncertainty can be described as the threat of job loss (kinnunen, mauno, nätti, & happonen, 2000). for this study, the term uncertainty will be used synonymously with the term job insecurity. hence, employees who experience uncertainty about future job security are likely to be insecure about whether they will be able to continue working, or will lose their jobs in the near future. having said this, employees become uncertain about their jobs if they perceive the threat to their job to be dire and feel powerless to do anything about their situation (moshoeu & geldenhuys, 2015). uncertainty has not received as much attention in the literature on organisational commitment (lumingkewas, nimran, raharjo, & utami, 2019; moshoeu & geldenhuys, 2015). studies have shown that employees who perceive that they have an uncertain future in their jobs often feel threatened and anxious and may exhibit symptoms of distress such as depression (lee, huang, & ashford, 2018). organisations, therefore, should minimise the uncertainties of job security among its employees. to minimise uncertainties in any organisation, management should constantly communicate the organisational strategic plan to its employees as well as assure them of job security, especially during difficult times such as what the higher education sector is currently facing (bryson, 2018). one can also argue that employment security is a vital aspect of employees’ quality of life. for instance, moshoeu and geldenhuys (2015) establish that being employed gratifies several individual needs, such as earning income, and the need for personal and social growth. when these aspects are not met, uncertainties can affect the behaviour and emotional well-being of employees in an organisation (khan, soundararajan, wood, & ahammad, 2017), leading to low organisational commitment (clark, knabe, & rätzel, 2010), particularly with high uncertainties created in the south african labour market. this study hypothesises that it is this uncertainty or insecurity that leads to the low level of employee organisational commitment among higher education academic staff. therefore, the study investigates whether this is indeed the case. job satisfaction despite various studies on the concept of job satisfaction, its meaning can differ based on particular contexts or theoretical positions. however, job satisfaction can, in general terms, be viewed as the extent to which individuals like their job and thus derive gratification from it (de nobile, 2017; spector, 2008; valaei & rezaei, 2016). it has been conceptualised as how an individual feels about his or her job (george & zakkariya, 2018). there are various facets of job satisfaction, and these include the work itself, pay, promotion opportunities, supervision and co-workers (matla & xaba, 2019). employee job satisfaction is deemed important aspects within the workplace. mabasa and ngirande (2015) state that job satisfaction increases employee organisational commitment and productivity. it is, therefore, vital to consider how employees in the organisation can be kept satisfied to achieve better results. thus, job satisfaction is one of the important variables that contribute to the success of the organisation as a whole. the inverse relationship between occupational stress and job satisfaction has been strongly linked in various studies, including the education sector (cheng, liou, tsai, & chang, 2015; collie, shapka, perry, & martin, 2015; courtney & phelan, 2019; rana & soodan, 2019). uncertainty about the future of one’s job has also been found to be linked to low job satisfaction (cheung, wu, & ching chi, 2019). although studies on job satisfaction are reported previously (cheng et al., 2015; cheung et al., 2019; collie et al., 2015; courtney & phelan, 2019; rana & soodan, 2019), studies that examined the moderating role of job satisfaction on the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment in higher education could not be found, hence the assumption that job satisfaction will moderate the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment of academic staff in the higher education sector. organisational commitment organisational commitment can be viewed as the psychological attachment that employees have with the organisation and its goals and the desire to stay with that particular organisation (pieters, van zyl, & nel, 2019). organisational commitment is characterised by three dimensions, namely continuance, normative and affective commitment (meyer, allen, & smith, 1993). continuance commitment refers to one’s commitment towards the organisation because of the costs associated with leaving it. normative commitment is a result of one’s desire to remain with the organisation because of perceived obligation. for instance, one can feel attached to an organisation because it has paid for their further studies. affective commitment is the ‘psychological and emotional attachment towards the organisation and working towards achieving the goals and objectives of the organisation’ (pieters et al., 2019, p. 2). various factors influence employee organisational commitment. these include occupational stress, uncertainty and job satisfaction (haque, aston, & kozlovski, 2018; nelson, 2018; tekingündüz, top, tengilimoğlu, & karabulut, 2017). for the institutions to remain productive and efficient, they need to make sure that their employees are committed and less stressed with their working environments. this is in line with burke’s (2017) view that employees who are highly stressed and uncertain about their future job security are likely to be less committed to their organisation. authorities in higher education institutions may need to understand the factors affecting the workforce’s commitment. higher education institutions should also understand the impact occupational stress and uncertainty have on employees’ levels of organisational commitment, particularly when changes like a merger take place (abildgaard, nielsen, & sverke, 2018; vosse & aliyu, 2018). in a similar view, van der westhuizen (2001) revealed that educators become more stressed and less committed when new educational policies are being introduced and new structures emerge as a result of interventions. the two institutions selected in this study were both affected by the higher education merger process. therefore, it is important to explore the study variables. the relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment several studies have found a negative relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment (burke, 2017; haque et al., 2018; slade et al., 2016). these studies show that the more stressed an individual is, the less the likelihood that the individual will be committed to the organisation. however, a study by faragher, cass and cooper (2013) and arnolds et al. (2013) revealed that no relationship exists between occupational stress and organisational commitment. the relationship between uncertainty and organisational commitment a study by lee et al. (2018) revealed that there is an inverse significant relationship between uncertainty and organisational commitment. in a similar view, lumingkewas et al. (2019) pointed out that an employee experiencing high job uncertainty appears to have poor organisational commitment. this shows that as employees feel more uncertain about their jobs in the near future, they tend to be less committed to their organisation. in addition, moshoeu et al.’s (2015) study on academic staff in an open distance learning institution revealed a negative significant relationship between uncertainty and organisational commitment. the moderating role of job satisfaction on the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment in the south african higher education context – historically black institutions – there is a paucity of literature on job satisfaction as a moderator of the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment. however, job satisfaction was found to be a predictor of occupational stress (cheng et al., 2015; rana & soodan, 2019), uncertainty (cheung et al., 2019) and organisational commitment (mabasa & ngirande, 2015). hence, the assumption that job satisfaction moderates the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment. existing literature has shown that most studies that were conducted on the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment focussed mainly on different settings and on each variable separately (cheung et al., 2019; moshoeu & geldenhuys, 2015). little is known about these relationships from the perspective of higher education. besides, there is a dearth of knowledge on whether the relationship between occupational stress and uncertainty on organisational commitment is moderated by job satisfaction, hence the need to explore further. several studies have been conducted on the general effects of occupational stress, uncertainty and job satisfaction on employee organisational commitment (cheng et al., 2015; cheung et al., 2019; lumingkewas et al., 2019; rana & soodan, 2019). however, none of these studies investigated the relationship between occupational stress and uncertainty on organisational commitment together in the higher education sector. furthermore, the researcher could not find information on the moderating role of job satisfaction on the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment. this made it necessary to explore the matter. thus, this study investigates the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment and further explores whether job satisfaction moderates this relationship among higher education academic staff. research purpose the main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment among academic staff in south african higher learning institutions. the study also explored whether job satisfaction moderates the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment. this study is important as it holds the potential to determine the proportion of variance in occupational stress and uncertainty on organisational commitment that is because of job satisfaction. research objectives the objectives of the study are: to investigate the relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment. to investigate the relationship between uncertainty and organisational commitment. to determine whether job satisfaction moderates the relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment. to determine whether job satisfaction moderates the relationship between uncertainty and organisational commitment. research hypotheses the study hypothesised that: h1: there is a negative relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment. h2: there is a negative relationship between uncertainty and organisational commitment. h3: job satisfaction moderates the relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment. h4: job satisfaction moderates the relationship between uncertainty and organisational commitment. conceptual model a conceptual model based on reviewed literature and the researchers’ logical deductions as shown in figure 1 was developed, and it shows the hypothesised moderating role of job satisfaction on the relationships between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment. figure 1: theoretical moderating role of job satisfaction on occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment. research methodology research design a quantitative approach was used to gather data by using a cross-sectional research design. this was deemed appropriate in investigating the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty, job satisfaction and organisational commitment and in testing research hypotheses (creswell & creswell, 2017). furthermore, as in du plooy-cilliers, davies and bezuidenhout (2019), the quantitative approach was used in this study because the data were numerically and statistically presented. research participants a sample of 424 academic staff, employed on a fixed-term, temporary contract from two rural-based higher education institutions – selected by using raosoft sample size calculator online software – participated in the study. one institution is in the limpopo province, and the other one in eastern cape province of south africa. both institutions share almost the same characteristics in terms of student profile and are rural based. the characteristics of the respondents listed in table 1 show that the overall sample had an equal number of males and females. the highest number of participants (45.8%) were aged between 36 and 45 years, followed by the 46–55-year age group (37.7%). the least number of the participants were those aged 25 years and below (0.5%). furthermore, the majority of the respondents had postgraduate degrees (83%) and more than 10 years of working experience (63.2%). table 1: characteristics of the respondents (n = 424). measuring instruments a self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. the questionnaire consisted of biographical information and study variables such as occupational stress, uncertainty, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. the biographical information was collected by using a questionnaire developed by the researcher to get information regarding the respondents’ gender, age, highest qualification and working experience from two institutions of higher learning. to measure occupational stress, a 16-item effort-reward imbalance (eri) questionnaire, composed of the effort and rewards subscale, was used. however, eight items were found to be good items (tabachinick & fidell, 2013). the questionnaire previously established a coefficient alpha of 0.68 to 0.86 from five different groups of nursing home samples (siegrist & peter, 1996). in the south african context, an alpha of 0.88 was found (ngirande, 2019). items that formed part of the scale include the following: ‘i have constant pressure because of a heavy workload’ and ‘i receive the respect i deserve from my superiors’. uncertainty regarding future job security was measured by using a 10-item questionnaire (de witte, 2000), which asked the respondents to indicate their degree of certainty on whether they will have a job in the organisation in the near future. the questionnaire was rated on a 5-point rating scale ranging from ‘strongly agree’ (1) to ‘strongly disagree’ (5). its previous alpha coefficient ranges between 0.76 and 0.96 (de witte, 2000). in the south african context, ngirande (2019) found an alpha of 0.77. job satisfaction was measured by using the 10-item halpern’s (1966) job satisfaction questionnaire. examples of the items included in this scale are working conditions, opportunities for achievement, work itself and overall satisfaction. organisational commitment was measured by using an 18-item organisational commitment questionnaire (meyer & allen, 1997). this questionnaire has three subscales measuring normative commitment, affective commitment and continuance commitment, with six items on each subscale. however, the organisational commitment items were combined to form a single measure in this article, and 10 items were found to be good items for this study as well. previous studies conducted in south africa reported cronbach’s alphas ranging from 0.73 to 0.81 for the organisational commitment scale (lumley, coetzee, tladinyane, & ferreira, 2011; simons & buitendach, 2013). the whole questionnaire was measured on a 5-point rating scale ranging from ‘strongly agree’ (1) to ‘strongly disagree’ (5). data processing and analysis the statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 26 was used to analyse data. descriptive statistics were used to describe the sample profile. several inferential, statistical techniques were conducted to analyse data in this study. firstly, an item analysis was performed to inspect the internal consistency of variables under investigation. secondly, confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) was also conducted to examine the construct validity of the measuring instruments. correlation and multiple regression analyses were conducted to test the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment, and to check the predictor variable of organisational commitment respectively. finally, to test the degree to which job satisfaction moderates the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted (hayes, 2015). descriptive statistics and reliability analysis table 2 shows a summary of the key descriptive statistics of occupational stress, uncertainty, job satisfaction and organisational commitment scales by showing means and standard deviations (sds). the normality of the data-set is also assessed by using skewness and kurtosis values. cronbach’s alphas are also displayed. the mean scores of the occupational stress, uncertainty, job satisfaction and organisational commitment were 3.3 (sd = 6.33), 2.7 (sd = 2.5), 2.3 (sd = 4.67), 2.5 (sd = 10.5) and 2.3 (sd = 10.30), respectively. data were also normally distributed and allow for further analysis as they range from −2 to 2 for both skewness and kurtosis (tabachinick & fidell, 2013). table 2: descriptive statistics and reliability statistics. the reliability of the instruments was also shown by using cronbach’s alpha coefficients as depicted in table 2. items correlating below 0.30 with the total score were considered as poor items and were excluded from further analysis (pallant, 2016). all four scales obtained good coefficient alphas, which range from 0.767 to 0.941 (pallant, 2016). the highest reliabilities amongst the scales included job satisfaction (α = 0.941) and organisational commitment (α = 0.940), followed by uncertainty (α = 0.801) and occupational stress (α = 0.767). evaluating the fit of the measurement model confirmatory factor analysis was carried out on all the scales utilised in the study to assess the goodness-of-fit of the measurement models by using amos version 26. several fit indices were used to assess model fit. the results in table 3 show an acceptable p-value of 0.000 (hair, black, babin, & anderson, 2010). diamantopoulos and siguaw (2000) and balogun, mahembe and allen-ile (2020) pointed out that the standardised root mean square residual values below 0.05 are suggestive of good fit, those between 0.05 and under 0.08 suggest reasonable fit, values between 0.08 and 0.10 denote mediocre fit and values > 0.10 indicate a poor fit. results show a model misfit of standardised root mean square residual of 0.293. the goodness of fit index, the comparative fit index, the incremental fit index and tucker–lewis index show the good fit category of 0.904, 0.941, 0.941 and 0.90 respectively (hair et al., 2010). likewise, the normed fit index (0.936) was also good. however, the relative fit index (0.888), the adjusted goodness of fit index (0.784) and parsimony goodness fit index (0.402) slightly fail to meet a good model fit cut off point level of 0.90. table 3: structural model fit summary. the measurement model is shown in figure 2. figure 2: measurement model. validity and reliability of the measurement model according to awang (2015), the assessment of modelling unidimensionality, validity and reliability for the measurement model is important before testing the relationships between traits. in this article, the requirement of unidimensionality was met when the fitness indices reached the required level in the measurement model. furthermore, all items obtained positive factor loadings. consequently, after the cfa measurement model procedure, the validity and reliability of each construct was calculated. the composite reliability (cr) requirement was achieved as all cr values were > 0.60 as shown in table 4 (awang, 2015; byrne, 2016). the validity requirement was checked by assessing the convergent validity, construct validity and discriminant validity of the measurement model. to meet the requirements for convergent validity, all values of the average variance extracted (ave) for each variable should be at least 0.5 (rose, awang, & yazid, 2017). as shown in table 4, all values exceeded 0.5. in addition, the construct validity for the measurement model was also achieved when the fitness indices met the required level as shown in table 3. table 4: validity and reliability. the diagonal values (in bold) is the square root of ave of the construct, whereas other values are the correlation between the respective constructs. the discriminant validity for all constructs shown in table 4 was achieved as the diagonal values (in bold) are higher than the values in its rows and columns. the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment table 5 shows the pearson product–moment correlation coefficients calculated to determine the strength of the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment. hypothesis 1 stated that there is a significant relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment. a negative significant relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment (table 5) was found (r = −0.311; p < 0.01). hence, both hypotheses 1 and 2 were supported. a negative significant relationship between uncertainty and organisational commitment was also found (r = −0.362; p < 0.01). furthermore, regression analyses were performed to determine whether the two independent variables (occupational stress and uncertainty) are significant predictors of organisational commitment. table 5: pearson product–moment correlation coefficients. occupational stress and uncertainty as predictors of organisational commitment multiple regression analyses were performed to determine whether occupational stress and uncertainty can predict organisational commitment. in model 1, organisational commitment was used as the dependent variable, with occupational stress and uncertainty as independent variables. as shown in table 6, entry of occupational stress and uncertainty at the first step of the regression analysis produced a statistically significant model (f(3.420) = 50.885; p < 0.01) and accounted for 19.5% of the variance. from the results, uncertainty (β = −0.318; t = −7.162; p < 0.01) is a significant predictor of organisational commitment. occupational stress was also found to be a significant predictor of organisational commitment (β = −0.256; t = −5.760; p < 0.01). occupational stress was therefore, found to be the most significant predictor of employees’ organisational commitment when compared to uncertainty. table 6: multiple regression with organisational commitment as the dependent variable and occupational stress and uncertainty as the independent variable. the moderating role of job satisfaction to test hypothesis 3 that states that job satisfaction moderates the relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment, a two-stage, moderated, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was also performed (baron & kenny, 1986). as displayed in table 7, in the first step, two variables were included: occupational stress and job satisfaction. these variables accounted for a significant amount of variance in organisational commitment, r2 = 0.794, f(3, 420) = 541.005, p = 0.000. to avoid potentially problematic high multicollinearity with the interaction term, the variables were also centred, and an interaction term between occupational stress and job satisfaction was created (aiken & west, 1991). table 7: the moderating role of job satisfaction on the relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment. next, the interaction term between occupational stress and job satisfaction was added to the regression model, which accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in organisational commitment, δr2 = 0.002, δf(1, 420) = 4.503, β = −0.011, t(420) = −2.122 p = 0.0.034 as shown in table 6. from these results, job satisfaction moderates the relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment. therefore, the hypothesis was supported. from the slope analysis depicted in figure 3, it can be interpreted that employees with high stress and low job satisfaction experience low level of organisational commitment. however, employees with high job satisfaction had higher levels of organisational commitment regardless of their level occupational stress. figure 3: testing the interaction effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment. to test hypothesis 4 that stated that job satisfaction moderates the relationship between uncertainty and organisational commitment, a two-stage, moderated, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed (baron & kenny, 1986). in the first step, two variables were included: uncertainty and job satisfaction. these variables accounted for a significant amount of variance in organisational commitment, r2 = 0.793, f(3, 420) = 537.758, p < 0.001 (table 8). to avoid potentially problematic high multicollinearity with the interaction term, the variables were centered, and an interaction term between uncertainty and job satisfaction was created (aiken & west, 1991; pu, hou, ma, & sang, 2017). table 8: the moderating role of job satisfaction on the relationship between uncertainty and organisational commitment. next, the interaction term between uncertainty and job satisfaction was added to the regression model, which accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in organisational commitment, δr2 = 0.006, δf(1, 420) = 11.691, β = −0.020, t(420) = −3.419, p < 0.05 (table 8). job satisfaction, therefore, moderates the relationship between uncertainty and organisational commitment. hence, hypothesis 4 was supported. from the slope analysis depicted in figure 4, it can be interpreted that employees’ level of organisational commitment is at its highest when there is high job satisfaction and low uncertainty. it was also noted that employees’ level of organisational commitment was at its lowest when there was high uncertainty and low job satisfaction. figure 4: testing the interaction effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between uncertainty and organisational commitment. discussion the purpose of the study was to determine the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment among academic staff in south african higher learning institutions and to determine whether job satisfaction moderates the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment among academic staff. an equal number of males and females participated in the study, with the highest number of participants in the middle age group of between 36 and 45 years old. as expected of academics, the majority of the respondents had a postgraduate degree with more than 10 years’ working experience in the higher education sector. reliability and validity of instruments high levels of internal consistency reliabilities for the measuring instruments used in this study were found. all four scales obtained acceptable cronbach’s alpha coefficients (α) according to the guideline of α ≥ 0.70 (pallant, 2016). the highest reliabilities amongst the scales included job satisfaction (α = 0.941), organisational commitment (α = 0.940), uncertainty (α = 0.801) and occupational stress (α = 0.767). confirmatory factor analysis used to test whether the observed data correlate with the variables based on the form defined in a measurement model through creating classified-fit indices (kline, 2016) shows that model fits the data. the construct validity was achieved as all model fit indices were greater than 0.05 (jöreskog & sörbom, 1996). the results also show that all constructs are well measured by their indicators as the average variance explained was > 0.05. convergent validity and discriminant validity was therefore achieved (see rose et al., 2017). the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment the study used pearson product–moment correlation coefficients to assess the relationship between occupation stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment. the results confirm the first hypothesis of the study that there is a negative significant relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment. the results show that occupational stress has an inverse relationship with organisational commitment. likewise, several studies confirm that highly stressed employees are more likely to be less committed to their organisations (burke, 2017; haque et al., 2018; slade et al., 2016). however, arnolds et al.’s (2013) study revealed that there is no relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment. from the findings, one can argue that occupational stress can be an antecedent of organisational commitment and a significant predictor of organisational commitment. this might be explained by the rapid changes in higher education, which can make the academic staff to become less committed to their organisation because of high pressures in the working environment. a negative significant relationship between uncertainty and organisational commitment was also found. this finding confirms hypothesis 2 that states that as employees become more uncertain about their future job security, their level of organisational commitment decreases as well. previous studies confirm the finding that a negative relationship between uncertainty and organisational commitment exists (lee et al., 2018; lumingkewas et al., 2019). moshoeu and geldenhuy’s (2015) study of staff in higher education also revealed the same result. this shows that as employees feel unsure about their jobs, they tend to be less committed to their organisation. the regression analysis also confirms that both uncertainty and job stress are predictors of organisational commitment. slade et al. (2016) support the results of the current study that uncertainty and occupational stress have a significant predictive value to organisational commitment. khan et al. (2017) echoed the same sentiments by pointing out that when employees perceive their job as uncertain, they are more likely to become less attached to the organisation. therefore, these results are important as employee behaviour is determined by various organisational aspects, and they should be explored. this will assist organisations to make well-informed policies that will promote high employee commitment. job satisfaction as moderator of occupational stress and organisational commitment, as well as the relationship between uncertainty and organisational commitment the findings of the study confirm hypothesis 3 that states that job satisfaction moderates the relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment. the results indicated that stressed employees will experience less commitment. however, this relationship can be explained by job satisfaction. therefore, job satisfaction does moderate the relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment. job satisfaction was also found to be a moderator of the relationship between uncertainty and organisational commitment among academic staff in higher education. therefore, the results confirmed hypothesis 4 that states that job satisfaction moderates the relationship between uncertainty and organisational commitment. these findings brought new insight into the body of knowledge as there is a dearth of knowledge about the intervening role of job satisfaction on the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment in general, and in higher education in particular. organisations can use the study findings to develop interventions and strategies that promote employee organisational commitment. limitations whilst this study explored work-related issues such as occupational stress, uncertainty and job satisfaction, and the effect thereof on organisational commitment for individuals and organisations, it had some limitations. the population of higher education institutions is too small to generalise the findings to the larger population. a cross-sectional sample was employed, which may result in employees overthinking their responses on items in the scales. relatively little research has been conducted on the moderating role of job satisfaction on the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment in south african higher education, which makes it difficult to relate the findings to the south african context. recommendations for future research it is recommended that future studies make use of a longitudinal design to examine the relationship between the variables of the study. future research can address the limitations of the generalisation of the study results by using a larger sample size of higher education institutions. in this study, the moderating role of job satisfaction on the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment was investigated, and insignificant results were found on the moderating role of job satisfaction on the relationship between occupational stress and organisational commitment. further studies can investigate the mediating role of job satisfaction in these relationships to gain more insight into employee attitudes and behaviour. implications in practical terms, the new knowledge gained from observing the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment may be useful in the retention and promotion of organisational commitment of employees in the higher education sector. the results suggest that to have employees who identify themselves attached to their respective organisations, managers need to review existing policies and practices to lessen job stress and job uncertainties and promote positive attitude and behaviour among employees. conclusion the relationship between occupational stress, uncertainty and job satisfaction on organisational commitment can be viewed as valuable to managers in enabling them to develop workplace strategies that minimise occupational stress, uncertainty and increase job satisfaction and to contribute towards improving positive workplace outcomes such as organisational commitment. it is evident that less occupational stress and uncertainty lead to more committed employees. occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment need further investigation in employees within the south african higher education to explicitly understand how they relate to each other, and how an understanding of these phenomena can contribute to employees’ organisational commitment. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. author’s contributions h.n. is the sole author of this article. ethical consideration this article followed all ethical standards for carrying out research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references abildgaard, j.s., nielsen, k., & sverke, m. (2018). can job insecurity be managed? evaluating an organisational-level intervention addressing the negative effects of restructuring. work & stress, 32(2), 105–123. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2017.1367735 aiken, l.s., & west, s.g. (1991). multiple regression: testing and interpreting interactions. thousand oaks, ca: sage. akalu, g.a. (2016). higher education ‘massification’ and challenges to the professoriate: do academics’ conceptions of quality matter? quality in higher education, 22(3), 260–276. https://doi.org/10.1080/13538322.2016.1266230 arnolds, c.a., lillah, r., & stofile, r.n. (2013). assessing the outcomes of the higher education mergers in south africa: implications for strategic management. acta commercii, 13(1), 1–11. awang, z. (2015). sem made simple: a gentle approach to learning structural equation modelling. bandar baru bangi: mpws rich resources. badat, s. (2010). the challenges of transformation in higher education and training institutions in south africa. development bank of southern africa, 8, 1–37. balogun, t.v., mahembe, b., & allen-ile, c. (2020). a confirmatory factor analytic study of an authentic leadership measure in nigeria. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1235. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1235 baron, r.m., & kenny, d.a. (1986). the moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. journal of personality and social psychology, 51(6), 1173. boughey, c. (2005). ‘epistemological’ access to the university: an alternative perspective. south african journal of higher education, 19(3), 230–242. https://doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v19i3.25516 boyd, c.m., tuckey, m.r., & winefield, a.h. (2014). perceived effects of organisational downsizing and staff cut on the stress experience: the role of resources. stress and health, 30(1), 53–64. bozzoli, b. (2016, july 14). top south african university says it is ‘financially vulnerable’. business tech. retrieved from https://businesstech.co.za/news/finance/130160/top-south-african-university-says-it-is-financially-vulnerable/ bryson, j.m. (2018). strategic planning for public and non-profit organisations: a guide to strengthening and sustaining organisational achievement. twin cities: john wiley & sons. burke, w. w. (2017). organization change: theory and practice. washington: sage publications. byrne, b.m. (2016). structural equation modeling with amos: basic concepts, applications, and programming (3rd edn.). new york, ny: routledge. cheng, c.y., liou, s.r., tsai, h.n., & chang, c.h. (2015). job stress and job satisfaction among new graduate nurses during the first year of employment in taiwan. international journal of nursing practice, 21(1), 410–418. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijn.12281 cheung, f.y.l., wu, a.m., & ching chi, l. (2019). effect of job insecurity, anxiety and personal resources on job satisfaction among casino employees in macau: a moderated mediation analysis. journal of hospitality marketing & management, 28(3), 379–396. chipunza, c., & gwarinda, s.a. (2010). ‘transformational leadership in merging higher education institutions: a case study. sa journal of human resources management, 8(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.195 clark, a.e., knabe, a., & rätzel, s. (2010). ‘boon or bane? others’ unemployment, wellbeing and job insecurity’, labour economics, 17(1), 52–61. collie, r.j., shapka, j.d., perry, n.e., & martin, a.j. (2015). teachers’ beliefs about social-emotional learning: identifying teacher profiles and their relations with job stress and satisfaction. learning and instruction, 39(1), 148–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2015.06.002 cooper, c.l. (ed.). (2018). managerial, occupational and organisational stress research. new york, ny: routledge. council on higher education (che). (2013). a proposal for undergraduate curriculum reform in south africa: the case for a flexible curriculum structure. pretoria: council on higher education. courtney, j., & phelan, m. (2019). translators’ experiences of occupational stress and job satisfaction. translation & interpreting, 11(1), 100–113. https://doi.org/10.12807/ti.111201.2019.a06 creswell, j.w., & creswell, j.d. (2017). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approach. london: sage. department of education. (1997). a programme for the transformation of higher education, education white paper 3. pretoria: government printers. de nobile, j. (2017). organisational communication and its relationships with job satisfaction and organisational commitment of primary school staff in western australia. educational psychology, 37(3), 380–398. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2016.1165797 de oliveira barbosa, m.l., pires, a., & dwyer, t. (2018). higher education, development, and inequality in brazil and south africa. changing societies & personalities, 2(4), 366–392. de witte, h. (2000). work ethic and job insecurity: assessment and consequences for well-being, satisfaction and performance at work. from group to community, 52, 325–350. diamantopoulos, a., siguaw, j. a., & siguaw, j. a. (2000). introducing lisrel: a guide for the uninitiated. sage publications. du plooy-cilliers, f., davis, c., & bezuidenhout, r.m. (2019). research matters. cape town: juta. faragher, e.b., cass, m., & cooper, c.l. (2013). the relationship between job satisfaction and health: a meta-analysis. in from stress to wellbeing volume 1 (pp. 254–271). london: palgrave macmillan. george, e., & zakkariya, k.a. (2018). job satisfaction and job-related stress. in psychological empowerment and job satisfaction in the banking sector (pp. 87–126). london: palgrave pivot, cham. graebner, m.e., heimeriks, k.h., huy, q.n., & vaara, e. (2017). the process of post-merger integration: a review and agenda for future research. academy of management annals, 11(1), 1–32. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2014.0078 halpern, g. (1966). relative contributions of motivator and hygiene factors to overall job satisfaction. journal of applied psychology, 50(3), 198–200. hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2010). multivariate data analysis: international version. new jersey: pearson. haque, a.u, aston, j., & kozlovski, e. (2018). the impact of stressors on organisational commitment of managerial and non-managerial personnel in contrasting economies: evidence from canada and pakistan. international journal of business, 23(2), 166–182. hayes, a. f. (2015). an index and test of linear moderated mediation. multivariate behavioural research, 50(1), 1–22. herman, p. (2016, august 26). 16 sa universities in ‘financial distress’ named. cape town: news24. retrieved from https://www.news24.com/southafrica/news/16-sa-universities-in-financial-distress-named-20160826 jöreskog, k.g., & sörbom, d. (1996). lisrel 8 user’s reference guide. chicago, il: scientific software. khan, z., soundararajan, v., wood, g., & ahammad, m. f. (2020). employee emotional resilience during post-merger integration across national boundaries: rewards and the mediating role of fairness norms. journal of world business, 55(2), 1–11. kinnunen, u., mauno, s., nätti, j., & happonen, m. (2000). organisational antecedents and outcomes of job insecurity: a longitudinal study in three organisations in finland. journal of organisational behaviour, 21(4), 443–459. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(200006)21:4<443::aid-job24>3.0.co;2-n kline, r. b. (2016). principles and practices of structural equation modelling (4th edn.). new york: guilford press. lee, c., huang, g.h., & ashford, s.j. (2018). job insecurity and the changing workplace: recent developments and future trends in job insecurity research. annual review of organisational psychology and organisational behaviour, 5, 335–359. lumingkewas, c.s., nimran, u., raharjo, k., & utami, h.n. (2019). effect of job insecurity to organisational commitment and intention to leave. wacana, jurnal sosial dan humaniora, 22(4), 256–260. lumley, e.j., coetzee, m., tladinyane, r., & ferreira, n. (2011). exploring the job satisfaction and organisational commitment of employees in the information technology environment. southern african business review, 15(1), 100–118. mabasa, f.d., & ngirande, h. (2015). perceived organisational support influences on job satisfaction and organisational commitment among junior academic staff members. journal of psychology in africa, 25(4), 364–366. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2015.1078102 machingambi, s. (2011). is access to higher education a sufficient condition for social equity in south africa? a critical analysis. journal of social sciences, 28(1), 13–20. martin, a., & roodt, g. (2008). perceptions of organisational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intentions in a post-merger south african tertiary institution. sa journal of industrial psychology, 34(1), 23–31. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v34i1.415 matla, s.j., & xaba, m.i. (2019). teachers’ job satisfaction at well-performing, historically disadvantaged schools. international journal of educational management, 34(4), 725–736. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijem-08-2019-0303 mckenna, s. (2012). the context of access and foundation provisioning in south africa. in r. dhunpath (ed.), alternative access to higher education: underprepared students or underprepared institutions (pp. 51–61). cape town: pearson education south africa. meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1997). commitment in the workplace: theory, research, and application. thousand oaks, ca: sage. meyer, j.p., allen, n.j., & smith, c. (1993). commitment to organisations and occupations: extension and test of a three-component model conceptualization. journal of applied psychology, 78(4), 538–551. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.4.538 mohamedbhai, g. (2014). massification in higher education institutions in africa: causes, consequences and responses. international journal of african higher education, 1(1), 59–83. moshoeu, a.n., & geldenhuys, d.j. (2015). job insecurity, organisational commitment and work engagement among staff in an open distance learning institution. southern african business review, 19(1), 22–43. https://doi.org/10.25159/1998-8125/5832 nelson, a. (2018). uncertainty amidst change: the impact of privatisation on employee job satisfaction. managerial, occupational and organisational stress research, 68, 345. ngirande, h. (2019). job satisfaction, organisational commitment, occupational stress and the moderating effect of uncertainty in merged and unmerged institutions in south africa. doctoral thesis. eastern cape: university of fort hare. nortje, n. (2013, may 28). the great debatepermanent employee or contract? johannesburg: intuate group. öztürk, e.b., karagonlar, g., & emirza, s. (2017). relationship between job insecurity and emotional exhaustion: moderating effects of prevention focus and affective organisational commitment. international journal of stress management, 24(3), 247. https://doi.org/10.1037/str0000037 pallant, j. (2016). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using spss (6th edn.). london: mcgraw-hill. pieters, w.r., van zyl, e., & nel, p. (2019). job attitudes as a predictor of work engagement of the lecturing staff at the university of namibia. sa journal of human resource management, 17, 11. pu, j., hou, h., ma, r., & sang, j. (2017). the effect of psychological capital between work-family conflict and job burnout in chinese university teachers: testing for mediation and moderation. journal of health psychology, 22(14), 1799–1807. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105316636950 rana, a., & soodan, v. (2019). effect of occupational and personal stress on job satisfaction, burnout, and health: a cross-sectional analysis of college teachers in punjab, india. indian journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 23(3), 133. rose, i., awang, z., & yazid, s. (2017). inflight service quality of malaysia airlines: validation using sem and amos. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 7(10), 478–497. siegrist, j., & peter, r. (1996). threat to occupational status control and cardiovascular risk. israel journal of medical sciences, 32(3–4), 179–184. simons, j.c., & buitendach, j.h. (2013). psychological capital, work engagement and organisational commitment amongst call centre employees in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1071 slade, c.p., ribando, s.j., & fortner, c.k. (2016). faculty research following a merger: a job stress and social identity theory perspective. scientometrics, 107(1), 71–89. smit, r. (2012). towards a clearer understanding of student disadvantage in higher education: problematising deficit thinking. higher education research & development, 31(3), 369–380. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2011.634383 spector, p.e. (2008). industrial and organisational psychology (5th edn.). hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons. tabachinick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2013). using multivariate statistics (6th edn). boston, ma: pearson education. tekingündüz, s., top, m., tengilimoğlu, d., & karabulut, e. (2017). effect of organisational trust, job satisfaction, individual variables on the organisational commitment in healthcare services. total quality management & business excellence, 28(5–6), 522–541. valaei, n., & rezaei, s. (2016). job satisfaction and organisational commitment. management research review, 39(12), 1663–1694. https://doi.org/10.1108/mrr-09-2015-0216 van der westhuizen, p.c. (2001). effective educational management. pretoria: haum: kagiso. vosse, b.j.f., & aliyu, o.a. (2018). determinants of employee trust during organisational change in higher institutions. journal of organisational change management, 31(5), 1105–1118. https://doi.org/10.1108/jocm-05-2017-0203 zagelmeyer, s., sinkovics, r.r., sinkovics, n., & kusstatscher, v. (2018). exploring the link between management communication and emotions in mergers and acquisitions. canadian journal of administrative sciences, 35(1), 93–106. https://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1382 abstract introduction literature review discussion limitations recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) marius badenhorst department of sociology, faculty of humanities, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa doret botha department of sociology, faculty of humanities, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa citation badenhorst, m., & botha, d. (2022). workplace bullying in a south african higher education institution: academic and support staff experiences. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1909. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1909 original research workplace bullying in a south african higher education institution: academic and support staff experiences marius badenhorst, doret botha received: 11 feb. 2022; accepted: 08 june 2022; published: 10 aug. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: workplace bullying is a common occurrence in organisations worldwide, and higher education institutions are no exception. research purpose: this study was conducted with the aim of determining the perceptions of workplace bullying amongst academic and support staff at a higher education institution in south africa and to ascertain how they are affected by selected sociodemographic variables. motivation for the study: currently, there are limited published research studies reporting on the prevalence and/or experience of workplace bullying at tertiary education institutions in south africa. research approach/design and method: the study used a quantitative-based survey design. the research setting was limited to one higher education institution in south africa. the target population of the study comprised all academic and support staff of the institution. a web-based standardised questionnaire was used to collect the data. main findings: the results revealed that the respondents experienced negative behaviours related to exclusion the most, followed by managerial misconduct, humiliation and belittlement and hostility the least. practical/managerial implications: understanding and addressing workplace bullying is critical to counteract this problem in organisations. the longer the phenomenon is left unattended, the worse it will become and the more difficult it will be to combat. employers can play a pre-emptive role in the prevention of and intervention in workplace bullying. contribution/value-add: the study sheds light on the experiences of bullying at a south african university and adds to the body of literature on bullying in the tertiary education sector in the national context. keywords: academic staff; higher education; sociodemographic variables; south africa; support staff; workplace bullying. introduction workplace bullying is a common occurrence in organisations (hauge, skogstad, & einarsen, 2010) and has been reported in countries ranging from france, canada and sweden to the united kingdom (uk) and the united states (yamada, 2010); south africa is no exception (botha, 2019; cunniff, & mostert, 2012; kalamdien & lawrence, 2017). workplace bullying is the act of one individual, organisation or even groups of individuals targeting another individual in the workplace through negative and aggressive behaviour that can cause degradation of the employee’s mental and physical health (madan, 2014, p. 1742). the concept of workplace bullying is used conversely with the term ‘mobbing’ (einarsen, hoel, zapf, & cooper, 2011; keashly & neuman, 2010). in german-speaking countries, the term ‘mobbing’ is preferred, whereas in english-speaking countries, the term ‘bullying’ is preferred to describe the same phenomenon (chirilă & constantin, 2013). in this study, the terms ‘mobbing’ and ‘workplace bullying’ are used interchangeably to describe the same phenomenon. workplace bullying is identified through repeated negative acts at the workplace directed at a specific individual or groups of individuals who are unwanted and negative in nature (langos, 2012, p. 285). negative acts include snarly comments, unnecessary sarcasm, mockery, belittling (langos, 2012), introduction of impossible target expectations, extreme forms of observation of work that may cause unnecessary stress, as well as physical harm (kortjan & von solms, 2014).these negative acts must occur repeatedly over a set period (at least once a week for a period of no less than 6 months) in order for it to be considered workplace bullying (einarsen et al., 2011; kortjan & von solms, 2014). workplace bullying has a negative impact on employees as well as organisations. being a victim of bullying may cause serious physical and psychological health problems. the physical harm that may befall employees can range from heart or cardiovascular diseases to musculoskeletal diseases, including shaking, insomnia, blood pressure problems, heart palpitations and stomach problems (kortjan & von solms, 2014; langos, 2012; miller et al., 2012). psychological issues include lack of enthusiasm, low self-esteem, inability to concentrate, loss of motivation (smit, 2014), depression, excessive fear, forgetfulness, panic attacks, insecurities, suicide and its thoughts (momberg, 2011). people who are bullied to such an extent that they feel there is no possible way of escaping the bullying may eventually experience a psychosomatic breakdown (bristow, 2016). on an organisational level, workplace bullying is negatively linked to organisational commitment, team cohesion, creativity, work climate, organisational performance, productivity, job satisfaction and employee engagement (adera, 2017; hoel, glasø, hetland, cooper, & einarsen, 2010; livingstone, stoilova, & kelly, 2016; madan, 2014). if not addressed effectively, bullying behaviour can escalate and become a problem for the organisation, which could lead not only to a reduction in productivity but ultimately to the collapse of the entire organisational structure – and in some instances, the closing down of organisations as a whole (burke & mouton, 2013; kortjan & von solms, 2014; law, dollard, tuckey, & dormann, 2011; livingstone et al., 2016). unfortunately, there is no specific legislation that deals with workplace bullying in south africa (smit, 2014, p. 229). smit (2021) recently stated that: [t]he matter of workplace violence undoubtedly requires attention: from the 1944 declaration of philadelphia to the 2019 international labour organisation recommendation 206 and convention 190 call for a world of work free from violence and harassment. (p. 25) on 18 march 2022, the minister of employment and labour, thembelani waltermade nxesi, published a draft code of good practice on the prevention and elimination of violence and harassment in the world of work (ramjettan, 2020); the act became effective on 18 march 2022 (stein, 2022). workplace bullying is also listed and defined in the code of good practice (ramjettan, 2020). the goal of the code of good practice is to set a framework for the interpretation and implementation of the employment equity act (no. 55 of 1998) in regard to the elimination of violence and harassment in the workplace (ramjettan, 2020; republic of south africa [rsa], 2020; stein, 2022). furthermore, it seeks to provide employees, employers and other parties with guidelines on the understanding and handling of violence and harassment in the workplace (ramjettan, 2020; rsa, 2020). finally, it aims to act as a guide to human resource policies and practices that are related to violence and harassment in the workplace (ramjettan, 2020; rsa, 2020). workplace bullying at tertiary education institutions in south africa has been grossly under-researched; few studies (jacobs & teise, 2019; ngwane, 2018; van der nest, long, & engelbrecht, 2018) have reported on the prevalence of the phenomenon amongst employees. this study was conducted to determine the perceptions of workplace bullying amongst academic and support staff at a higher education institution in south africa. the study adds to the body of knowledge on workplace bullying in the tertiary education sector globally and in south africa specifically. furthermore, the results of the study provide management, human resource practitioners and industrial psychologists with insights into the phenomenon at tertiary education institutions. research purpose and objectives the objective of this research study was to determine the perceptions of workplace bullying amongst academic and support staff at a higher education institution in south africa and to ascertain how they are affected by the sociodemographic variables of gender, age, marital status, highest qualification, length of employment, nature of employment and employment contract. literature review theoretical framework for workplace bullying in order to investigate workplace bullying, the leymann model (leymann, 1996), the conflict escalation model of glasl (1982) and the theoretical framework developed by einarsen, hoel, zapf and cooper (2004) were explored as the point of departure for the study and management of bullying at work. the leymann model was created by heinz leymann in the late 1980s and early 1990s to understand the role that mobbing plays in the working environment (leymann, 1996). leymann (1996, p. 168) uses the term ‘mobbing’ in order to encompass all actions that are related to forms of bullying and/or harassment in the working environment. mobbing is defined by leymann (1996, p. 168) as social interaction that takes place between two individuals or groups of individuals, where one individual is attacked by another individual or a group of individuals over a period. the act of mobbing places the individuals who are being harassed (the victims) under immense pressure, making them feel helpless and extremely uncomfortable with the situation in which they find themselves (leymann, 1996, p. 168). according to the leymann model, organisational factors (not individual factors) such as weaknesses in leadership behaviour and work design; the victims’ socially exposed position; the low morale of management and the workforce; and poor conflict management are determining factors of workplace bullying (einarsen et al., 2004; leymann, 1990, 1996). the leymann model (leymann, 1990, 1996) outlines four stages of bullying that take place over time, and it is postulated that mobbing (bullying) can be viewed as an escalated conflict situation. the first stage is critical incidents. a triggering situation is most often a conflict; the source of the conflict may be unknown and the duration of this initial stage may be shorter than the others (leymann, 1990, 1996). the second stage is mobbing (bullying) and stigmatising. in this stage, mobbing (bullying) activities may involve a number of behaviours that are targeted at an individual or group on a daily basis over an extended time. this stage is characterised by aggressive manipulation, and as a result, it often leads to a person being stigmatised and bullied (leymann, 1990, 1996). the third stage is personnel management. once the need arises for management to step in, the conflict situation becomes an official case. unfortunately, it often happens that in this stage, management misjudges the situation as being the fault of the victim, thereby accepting the negative preconceived notions that have been projected by the bully’s negative view of the victim. this most often results in a serious violation of rights and ultimately leads to the victim becoming marked and further stigmatised. furthermore, colleagues and management have the tendency to create explanations based on personal characteristics rather than organisational and environmental factors (leymann, 1990, 1996). the final stage is the expulsion of the victim from the organisation. the victim may develop serious illnesses and may seek medical or psychological help. there is the possibility of medical professionals not believing the victim and as a result, misdiagnosing the victim. the most common misdiagnosis is that of paranoia, character disturbance and manic depression (leymann, 1990, 1996). according to zapf and gross (2001, p. 502), one of the strongest critiques that can be levelled against the leymann model of workplace mobbing is that of specificity. the model focuses on organisational factors as antecedents to workplace bullying and by doing so, excludes important variables that need to be considered. for example, einarsen, raknes and matthiesen (1994) found in their research within seven different organisational settings that working environment factors only account for 10% of the variance in the prevalence of workplace bullying; in no subsetting was this greater than 24%. the conflict escalation model of glasl (1982) has been suggested as an appropriate model to explain how conflicts may escalate into bullying (einarsen et al., 2004; zapf & gross, 2001). conflict in the workplace occurs at two levels: conflict at the level of interest (i.e. there is a difference between parties over desired outcomes) and conflict at the level of behaviour (i.e. when parties seeking different outcomes, expressing their differences through gestures such as acting destructively) (watson, 2017, p. 336). conflict in the workplace is unavoidable, and in some instances, it is even fruitful, encouraging innovation, performance and learning (einarsen et al., 2011, p. 26). bullying is explained ‘as a certain subset of conflicts’ (zapf & gross, 2001, p. 499). whilst conflicts consist of only one episode, can be resolved relatively quickly and are regarded as even positive, conflicts underlying bullying consist of a series of related conflict episodes, can last for a long time and may become extremely harmful for the victim (zapf & gross, 2001) as well as the organisation (einarsen et al., 2011). glasl’s model distinguishes between three phases and nine stages of conflict escalation and also offers conflict de-escalation strategies for each phase. according to zapf and gross (2001), bullying is regarded as a kind of conflict and tending to occur between phases 2 and 3: phase 1: rationality and control. in phase 1 (stages 1–3), the parties who are engaged in conflict are still invested and interested in reasonable solutions to the problems they are facing (zapf & gross, 2001). during this phase, there is some degree of cooperation in order to deal mostly with impersonal issues. the parties are aware of the existence of conflict; however, they try to handle such conflict in a controlled and rational manner (zapf & gross, 2001). in phase 1, the conflict de-escalation strategy to be used is moderation. moderation takes place when both parties are still willing to resolve the conflict through mediation (talking through the conflict). the conflict may be resolved through self-help, help from friends and families, as well as professional moderation by a third party that is neutral and unbiased (george, 2007). phase 2: severing the relationship. phase 2 (stages 4–6) focuses on severing the relationship. during this phase, the origin of the conflict has more or less disappeared, and the root of tension has now become the relationship between the parties. overt hostility, lack of respect and distrust start to evolve during this phase, and as a result, the parties no longer work together to solve the conflict but rather seek to exclude each other (zapf & gross, 2001). in phase 2, the conflict de-escalation strategies to be used are process company (professional process support from within the company), sociotherapeutic process company (seeking help through external sociotherapeutic process support) and professional mediation (an objective third party decision-maker) (george, 2007). phase 3: aggression and destruction. the final phase (stages 7–9) focuses on aggression and destruction. during the third phase, confrontations become seemingly more destructive than in the first two phases (zapf & gross, 2001). because of the lack of willingness from either party to resolve the conflict, the ‘other party’ is seen as having no human dignity, and as a result, any possibility of positive outcome is blocked. the escalation has reached such a detrimental level that the parties involved are willing to risk everything, even their existence, in order to hurt or destroy the other (zapf & gross, 2001). however, glasl argues that this phase would rarely be reached in an organisation (zapf & gross, 2001). in phase 3, the conflict de-escalation strategies to be used are voluntary or mandatory participation in arbitrary awards and power intervention from seniors (zapf & gross, 2001). einarsen et al. (2004) developed a theoretical framework to understand and manage bullying behaviour at work. according to the authors, bullying is a complex social phenomenon characterised by multicausality. it involves a variety of factors and can be explained at many levels (einarsen et al., 2004). on an individual level, the personality of the perpetrator as well as the victim may contribute to both bullying behaviour and perceptions of being bullied. individual factors play a role in the victim’s emotional and behavioural reactions to the perceived treatment, as well as the extent to which the victim can cope with the treatment (einarsen et al., 2004). on a dyadic level, the focus is on the power differential, as well as the dynamics between the parties (perpetrator and target), in the course of the conflict (einarsen et al., 2004). on a social group level, ‘scapegoating’ processes in groups and organisations are used to explain bullying; groups transfer their frustration and aggression on to a suitable and less powerful group member (e.g. an outsider or a minority; einarsen et al., 2004). on the organisational level, many factors may contribute to bullying at work, for example, the organisational culture, a high degree of cooperation combined with restricted control over one’s own time and a strained and competitive atmosphere (einarsen et al., 2004). on a societal level, the national culture and historical, legal and socio-economic factors may contribute to bullying behaviour. furthermore, the level of stress of both a perpetrator and victim is enhanced by the following factors that characterise the working life in many countries: the high rate of change, increasing workloads and work hours and uncertainty regarding future employment. the level of aggression, the coping resources, the tolerance of organisations and their management of cases are influenced by societal factors (einarsen et al., 2004). the framework developed by these authors suggests that organisational factors as well as an effective support system for victims are of utmost importance to moderate the perceptions and reactions of the victim (einarsen et al., 2004). from the above discussion, it is evident that more than one theoretical lens is required to help understand the workplace-bullying phenomenon. the leymann model suggests that organisational factors rather than individual factors contribute to workplace bullying and outline the stages of bullying. glasl’s conflict escalation model specifies how conflicts may escalate into bullying; the model presents the different phases and stages of conflict escalation and offers de-escalation strategies for each phase. the theoretical framework developed by einarson et al. proposes that workplace bullying is a complex social phenomenon and involves a variety of factors that need to be considered in any bullying situation. sociodemographical variables and workplace bullying previous research (ariza-montes, arjona-fuentes, law, & han, 2017; awai, ganasegeran, & manaf, 2021; botha, 2019; chan et al., 2019; cunniff & mostert, 2012; einarsen & skogstad, 1996; giorgi, ando, arenas, shoss, & leon-perez, 2013; hoel & cooper, 2000; jones, 2006; kivimäki, elovainio, & vahtera, 2000; lange, burr, conway, & rose, 2019; leo, reid, geldenhuys, & gobind, 2014; lópez-cabarcos, vázquez-rodríguez, & gieure, 2017; moreno-jiménez, rodríguez-muñoz, salin, & morante, 2008; namie & namie, 2018; niedhammer, david, & degioanni, 2007; notelaers, vermunt, baillien, einarsen, & de witte, 2010; owoyemi, 2011; salin, 2018; salin & hoel, 2013; skuzińska, plopa, & plopa, 2020; yadav, dash, sinha, & patky, 2020; yang & zhou, 2021) indicated that sociodemographic variables play a role in the experiences of workplace bullying; some of the results are elaborated below. gender and workplace bullying a large number of studies indicate ambiguous or conflicting results for the association between gender and workplace bullying (salin & hoel, 2013). according to leo et al. (2014, p. 6059), the reason for this tendency might be because different studies conceptualise ‘gender’ and ‘bullying’ differently, and they might be using different measurement methods. in a study conducted by botha (2019) investigating employees’ perceptions and experiences of bullying in the workplace in a south african setting, the author found no significant relationship between gender and workplace bullying. in contradiction, a study conducted by chan et al. (2019) investigating the prevalence of workplace bullying and its association with socio-economic factors and psychological distress amongst 5235 malaysian employees revealed clear gender differences in terms of the prevalence of work bullying; a higher proportion of female employees reported being bullied in comparison with their male counterparts. gender differences in the prevalence of workplace bullying were also confirmed by studies conducted by moreno-jiménez et al. (2008) and salin (as cited in jones, 2006). moreno-jiménez et al. (2008) conducted a study focusing on the prevalence of workplace bullying amongst spanish employees and found that women experienced higher incidents of bullying than men in the workplace. salin (as cited in jones, 2006), in a study conducted amongst business professionals forming part of the finnish association of graduates in economics and business administration, also found that women experienced more workplace bullying than men. according to salin (2018, p. 24), the expectation that men should be independent and self-reliant might prevent them from seeking help and/or reporting a bullying incident. this might be an explanation of the lower prevalence rate of workplace bullying amongst men (namie & namie, 2018). age and workplace bullying previous research reported mixed results on the effect of age on workplace bullying. lópez-cabarcos et al. (2017, p. 1023) state that there is uncertainty in the scientific community regarding the validity of age as a characteristic that makes individuals more susceptible to workplace bullying behaviour. botha (2019) and skuzińska et al. (2020) found no significant relationship between age and workplace bullying. skuzińska et al. (2020) investigated the moderating role of individual (gender, age and education) and occupational (employment duration, workplace position, duration of negative behaviour and number of perpetrators) characteristics of victims and perpetrators of negative workplace behaviours in the relationship between workplace bullying and mental health. the study was conducted amongst administrative staff, police officers and hospital staff of a city in northern poland (skuzińska et al., 2020). in contradiction, ariza-montes et al. (2017), einarsen and skogstad (1996), hoel and cooper (2000), lange et al. (2019) and cunniff and mostert (2012) found that age affects the prevalence of workplace bullying. einarsen and skogstad (1996) explored the prevalence of harassment and workplace bullying in various norwegian professions and organisations; the results indicated that older individuals experienced higher levels of bullying. in a study conducted by hoel and cooper (2000) amongst 5288 individuals from more than 70 different organisations in manchester, england, the authors found that middle-aged and younger employees experienced higher rates of bullying. concomitantly, a study by cunniff and mostert (2012) amongst 13 911 employed individuals across six different sectors of work (financial, mining, government, manufacturing, academic and call centres) in south africa found that younger employees experienced higher rates of bullying in the workplace, whereas older employees experienced significantly lower instances of bullying. in a study by lange et al. (2019) amongst 4143 employees working in all work sectors across germany, it was found that older employees reported significantly fewer experiences of bullying. the study focused on prevalence estimates and the role of the perpetrator in the german workforce. lange et al. (2019) concluded that there were significant differences between the three age groups (31–40 years; 41–50 years; 51–60 years) for both bullying by co-workers and bossing. the study reported that when focusing on supervisors or bosses as the perpetrators in the working environment, young employees were targeted more severely than their older counterparts (lange et al., 2019). similarly, ariza-montes et al. (2017) found that age is a decisive factor in the occurrence of harassment at work, such as workplace bullying. the study investigated workplace bullying amongst hospitality employees across europe. the results of the study indicated that 74.1% of employees experienced bullying in their professions. furthermore, the results indicated that the average age for bullied hospitality employees was 36, with the average age of employees who did not experience workplace bullying being 38.8 years (ariza-montes et al., 2017). marital status and workplace bullying previous studies revealed a significant relationship between workplace bullying and marital status. yang and zhou (2021), in their study on workplace bullying amongst nurses in china, found that marital status was a determining factor in the bullying process at work; married nurses were more likely to experience workplace bullying. similarly, in a study by yadav et al. (2020), focusing on the impact of workplace bullying on turnover intention, it was found that amongst indian school teachers, marital status affects the likelihood of teachers in indian schools experiencing workplace bullying. furthermore, the results indicated that married women who have a longer work tenure tended to be least affected by workplace bullying (yadav et al., 2020). coherently, giorgi et al. (2013) found that married individuals reported lower instances of workplace bullying than unmarried individuals. giorgi et al. (2013) explored the organisational and personal determinants of workplace bullying amongst a sample of japanese employees. asakura et al. (giorgi et al., 2013) argue that married adults might experience less workplace bullying than those who are single or divorced. the results of the study showed that marriage can be a source of support for such bullying experiences, whilst maintaining the integrity of the victim (asakura et al., as cited in giorgi et al., 2013). level of education and workplace bullying previous research indicated that level of education has an effect on the prevalence of workplace bullying. the study conducted by moreno-jiménez et al. (2008) showed that individuals with ‘elementary education’ reported higher levels of bullying than those with ‘medium’ or ‘higher education’. according to moreno-jiménez et al. (2008), those with higher levels of education may experience less bullying, as education can offer security through supplying skills to manage conflict. niedhammer et al. (2007) found that unskilled workers experienced higher incidences of bullying than those with qualifications or higher levels of education. the study investigated the prevalence of workplace bullying amongst 3132 men and 4562 women of the general working population in the southeast of france. cunniff and mostert (2012) also found that south africans with tertiary education reported less incidences of workplace bullying than those with only secondary education. length of employment and workplace bullying previous studies have shown that there is a significant relationship between the length of employment and workplace bullying. the study conducted by moreno-jiménez et al. (2008) found that workers employed for 16–42 years reported lower instances of workplace bullying than those employed for 8–15 years. in addition, those employed from 8 to 15 years reported lower instances of workplace bullying than those employed for 5–7 years (moreno-jiménez et al., 2008). moreno-jiménez et al. (2008, p. 104) noted that with the increase in time and experience at work, the risk of workplace bullying tended to decrease. likewise, a study conducted by owoyemi (2011) amongst 452 emergency service organisation employees in the uk found that individuals working in an emergency service organisation in the uk from 1 to 5 years reported higher incidences of bullying at work than those who have been employed longer. awai et al. (2021) investigated the prevalence of workplace bullying and its associated factors amongst 178 hospital workers in kuala lumpur, malaysia. the authors reported higher rates of bullying amongst individuals employed for 10 years or less than those employed for more than 10 years. type of employment contract and workplace bullying previous studies exploring the relationship between the type of employment contract and workplace bullying reported indecisive results (moreno-jiménez et al., 2008). kivimäki et al. (2000) investigated workplace bullying and sickness absence amongst a cohort of 674 male and 4981 female hospital employees aged 19–63 years across finnish organisations. the authors found no significant differences between the workplace bullying experienced by temporary and permanent employees. in contrast, hoel and cooper (2000) found that permanent employees experienced higher instances of workplace bullying than temporary workers. the authors investigated destructive conflict and bullying at work across various professions and organisations in manchester. moreno-jiménez et al. (2008) found higher rates of workplace bullying amongst spanish workers in europe with temporary contracts than those with permanent contracts. moreno-jiménez et al. (2008) subsequently argue that workplace bullying can be influenced by ‘employment flexibility’. notelaers et al. (2010) explored risk groups and risk factors of workplace bullying amongst 8985 flemish respondents across 86 firms. the results showed that temporary employees may be more at risk because of being seen as a ‘potential disturbance’ to the social setting of permanent employees. temporary employees may be too afraid to defend themselves when the conflict arises with a permanent employee (notelaers et al., 2010). from the above discussion, it is evident that sociodemographic variables influence how workplace bullying is perceived and experienced in the working environment. research design and methodology the study was conducted in a positivistic research paradigm, which is guided by a realist and objectivist ontology and an empiricist epistemology (sarantakos, 2013). a quantitative-based survey design was used. a survey design describes trends, attitudes and opinions of a population and/or tests for associations amongst variables of a population (creswell & creswell, 2018, p. 147). research setting, population and sampling the research was conducted in 2020 during the national lockdown period in south africa. the research setting was limited to one higher education institution in south africa. the target population of the study comprised all employees (academic and support staff) of the higher education institution. therefore, employees with full-time, fixed-term and temporary employment contracts were targeted, as well as those with a postdoctoral fellowship. no one was excluded based on age, gender or ethnicity. a complete survey of the target population was undertaken, but as not all employees participated in the research, it resulted in a nonprobability sample. therefore, convenience sampling was used to select the respondents. convenience sampling refers to research participants who are available to the researcher by virtue of their accessibility (creswell, 2014, p. 204). instrumentation and data collection a web-based questionnaire was used to collect the data, which included two sections. section a contained biographical questions, which included questions on gender, age, marital status, highest qualification, length of employment, nature of employment at the university and employment contract at the university. for section b, the negative acts questionnaire_revised (naq-r) developed by einarsen, hoel and notelaers (2009) for measuring perceived exposure to bullying and victimisation at work was used. the scale has excellent reliability and construct validity; cronbach’s alpha for the one-dimensional model, the two-dimensional model (person-related bullying and work-related bullying) and the three-dimensional model (person-related bullying, work-related bullying and physically intimidating bullying) exceeded 0.70 (einarsen et al., 2009, p. 31). permission was obtained from the bergen bullying research group to use the survey. the naq-r consisted of 22 items; however, two of the items, ‘[b]eing ignored or excluded’ and ‘[b]eing ignored or facing a hostile reaction when you approach’, were divided into two questions to avoid double-barrelled questions and to enhance the understanding of the individual items. this resulted in a 24-item scale measuring perceived exposure to bullying and victimisation at work. a five-point likert-type scale was used consisting of the following categories: ‘never’ (1), ‘now and then’ (2), ‘monthly’ (3), ‘weekly’ (4) and ‘daily’ (5). analysis and reporting the data collected were processed using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 27. a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to validate the factor structure of the workplace bullying construct and the reliability of cronbach’s alphas. three goodness-of-model-fit indices were used to determine how well the measurement model fits the data of the sample. according to hancock and mueller (2010), it is a good practice to report multiple-fit indices, preferably from three broad classes. the following indices were reported: chi-square statistic divided by degrees of freedom (cmin/df), the comparative fit index (cfi) and the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) with its 90% confidence intervals. cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to determine the internal consistency and reliability of the scale. cronbach’s alpha is the most common measure of scale reliability (field, 2005, p. 667). ideally, the cronbach’s alpha coefficient of a scale should be above 0.7 (devellis, as cited in pallant, 2016, p. 101). cronbach’s alpha values are quite sensitive to the number of the items in a scale; therefore, a scale with fewer than 10 items might result in a low value. in this case, the mean inter-item correlation may be appropriate to report. briggs and cheek (as cited in pallant, 2016, p. 101) recommend inter-item correlation values of 0.2–0.4 as an optimal range to be reported. descriptive statistics were interpreted and reported by mean and standard deviation. the independent-samples t-test was used to compare the mean scores of two independent groups on the continuous variable workplace bullying to determine whether there is statistical evidence that the population means differed significantly (frost, 2020). analyses of variance (anovas) were used to determine whether the mean scores of two or more groups on the continuous variable workplace bullying differed significantly (see pallant, 2016, p. 109). effect sizes were used to measure the strength of the relationship between two groups; the larger the effect size, the stronger the relationship between two variables in a population and vice versa (mcleod, 2019). cohen’s d-values were used as effect sizes to determine whether differences in means are important in practice. cohen (1988) suggests that d = 0.2 be considered a small effect size, d = 0.5 a medium effect size and d = 0.8 a large effect size. spearman’s rank-order correlation was used to determine the strength and direction of the linear relationship between two ranked variables (pallant, 2016, p. 132). cohen (pallant, 2016, p. 137) suggests the following guidelines for interpretation: r = 0.10–0.29 is considered a weak (small) relationship, r = 0.30–0.49 a moderate (medium) relationship and r = 0.50–1.0 a strong (large) relationship. ethical considerations the following ethical considerations were adhered to when conducting and reporting the research: maintaining professional integrity, obtaining informed consent, voluntary participation and protecting the privacy of the respondents by ensuring the anonymity and confidentiality of the research setting, as well as during data collection, analysis and reporting, as recommended by babbie and mouton (2011) and sarantakos (2013). approval to conduct the research was obtained from the basic and social sciences research ethics committee of the university under investigation (reference number nwu-00900-19-a7). empirical results sociodemographic information table 1 presents the sociodemographic information of the participants. table 1: sociodemographic information. the study sample consisted of an all-inclusive sample of academic and support staff across the higher education institution; 282 responses were received for the online questionnaire. from table 1, it is evident that more women (68.8%) than men (30.9%) participated in the research. most of the respondents were from the age categories 30–39 (29.8%), 40–49 (30.9%) and 50–59 (20.9%). the majority of the respondents were married (61.9%), had either a postgraduate degree (37.2%) or a phd (35.1%) and had been working at the institution between 6 and 10 years (27%) and 11 and 20 years (28.7%). academic staff represented 49.6% and support staff 48.9% of the respondents. a large majority (88.6%) of the respondents were employed in full-time contracts at the institution. confirmatory factor analysis results of the workplace-bullying measurement model confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the structure and relations between the latent variables that underlay the data. as the three-factor solution of the negative acts questionnaire had been theoretically and empirically supported (einarsen et al., 2009), the measurement model was tested. the measurement model included seven items on work-related bullying, 14 items on person-related bullying and three items on physically intimidating bullying. the results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed that all factor loadings were statistically significant at the 0.05 level. factor loadings ranged from 0.540 to 0.869 for work-related bullying, from 0.422 to 0.841 for person-related bullying and from 0.401 to 0.672 for physically intimidating bullying. the standardised regression coefficients were interpreted as factor loadings. field (2005) suggests that a factor loading of an absolute value of more than 0.3 is considered important. confirmatory factor analyses showed that the three-factor solution of the workplace bullying scale did not fit well to the data of the sample (see table 2). a cmin/df value of 4.628 was found for the measurement model, indicating an acceptable model data fit, as suggested by mueller (1996) and paswan (as cited in shadfar & malekmohammadi, 2013). a cfi of 0.801 was found for the measurement model, indicating not a good model data fit as it is lower than 0.9 as suggested by hair, anderson, tatham and black (2010) and mueller (1996). the measurement model obtained an rmsea value of 0.114 with a 90% confidence interval of 0.107 (low) and 0.120 (high), indicating not a good model data fit. hu and bentler (as cited in brown & moore, 2012) recommend a value equal to or smaller than 0.06 as a cut-off value for a good fit. according to blunch (2008), models with rmsea values of 0.10 and larger should not be accepted. table 2: goodness-of-model-fit indices comparing the three-factor model with the four-factor model. exploratory factor analysis of workplace bullying as the measurement model analysed indicated ‘not a good fit’, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the 24 likert-type scale items measuring perceived exposure to bullying and victimisation at work. principal component analysis and oblimin rotation were used. the kaiser–meyer–olkin test returned a value of 0.942, indicating that the sample size was adequate for factor analysis. the p-value of bartlett’s test of sphericity obtained a value smaller than 0.05, indicating that the correlation between items was sufficient for factor analysis (field, 2005). four factors, namely exclusion, hostility, managerial misconduct and humiliation and belittlement, were extracted through kaiser’s criteria (field, 2005), which explained 66.41 of the total variance. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for all four factors (exclusion: α = 0.928; hostility: α = 0.765; managerial misconduct: α = 0.787; humiliation and belittlement: α = 0.920) measured above 0.7, showing high reliability and internal consistency, as suggested by field (2009). eight statements loaded on exclusion (ranging from 0.427 to 0.869), four on hostility (ranging from 0.525 to 0.792), four on managerial misconduct (ranging from 0.475 to 0.841) and eight on humiliation and belittlement (ranging from 0.505 to 0.705). all items loaded satisfactorily with a factor loading of above 0.4. the following mean scores were obtained for the factors: exclusion: m = 1.95, hostility: m = 1.23, managerial misconduct: m = 1.79 and humiliation and belittlement: m = 1.66, which indicates that, on average, the respondents’ answers ranged between ‘never’ (1) and ‘now and then’ (2). a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the structure and relations between the latent variables that underlay the data of the four-factor workplace bullying model; the results are presented in figure 1. figure 1: confirmatory factor analysis results for the four-factor workplace bullying model with standardised regression weights and correlations. all factor loadings were statistically significant at the 0.05 level. factor loadings ranged from 0.622 to 0.914 for exclusion, from 0.555 to 0.788 for hostility, from 0.662 to 0.748 for managerial misconduct and from 0.709 to 0.814 for humiliation and belittlement. table 2 indicates the goodness-of-model-fit indices of the four-factor model. all the indices showed an acceptable model fit; a cmin/df value of 3.218, a cfi of 0.880 and an rmsea value of 0.089 with a 90% confidence interval of 0.082 (low) and 0.096 (high) were obtained as opposed to the values reported for the three-factor model. effect of sociodemographic variables on workplace bullying effect of gender, nature of employment, nature of employment contrac t and marital status on workplace bullying: table 3 presents the results of the independent sample t-tests for gender, nature of employment and nature of employment contract. table 3: effect of gender, nature of employment and nature of employment contract on workplace bullying. the results of the t-tests indicated no significant differences between the means of male and female respondents, as well as for respondents with full-time and fixed-term, temporary or postdoctoral fellowship employment contracts for all the factors of workplace bullying. the results of the t-test revealed no significant differences between the means of academic and support staff respondents for hostility and managerial misconduct; the p-values measured higher than 0.05. however, the p-values of exclusion and humiliation and belittlement both measured 0.01, indicating a significant difference in the mean scores of academic (exclusion: m = 1.81; humiliation and belittlement: m = 1.55) and support staff (exclusion: m = 2.08; humiliation and belittlement: m = 1.77) respondents. the effect sizes showed a small effect; the d-values for both factors were 0.28. the results of the anova test showed no significant differences between the means of the different categories for marital status for all the factors of workplace bullying. correlation between age, highest qualification and years working a t the university and workplace bullying: table 4 presents the results of spearman’s rank-order correlation test between ordinal sociodemographic variables and workplace bullying. table 4: correlation of age, highest qualification and years working at the university with workplace bullying. small negative correlations were found between highest qualification and hostility (p = 0.01, r = −0.146), as well as highest qualification and humiliation and belittlement (p = 0.02, r = −0.135). small positive correlations were found between the number of years working at the university and managerial misconduct (p = 0.014, r = 0.147) and the number of years working at the university and humiliation and belittlement (p = 0.038, r = 0.124). correlation between workplace bullying factors: table 5 outlines the results of spearman’s rank-order correlation test between exclusion, hostility, managerial misconduct and humiliation and belittlement. table 5: correlation between exclusion, hostility, managerial misconduct and humiliation and belittlement. medium to large positive correlations were found between exclusion and hostility (p = 0.00; r = 0.472), exclusion and managerial misconduct (p = 0.00; r = 0.621) and exclusion and humiliation and belittlement (p = 0.00; r = 0.811). medium to large positive correlations were observed between hostility and managerial misconduct (p = 0.00; r = 0.428) and hostility and humiliation and belittlement (p = 0.00; r = 0.585). a large positive correlation was found between managerial misconduct and humiliation and belittlement (p = 0.00; r = 6.33). discussion this study was conducted to determine the perceptions of workplace bullying amongst academic and support staff at a higher education institution in south africa and to ascertain how they are affected by the sociodemographic variables of gender, age, marital status, highest qualification, length of employment, nature of employment and employment contract. confirmatory factor analyses showed that the three-factor structure of the workplace bullying measurement model did not fit well with the data of the sample. only the cmin/df goodness-of-model-fit indices indicated an acceptable fit. therefore, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the likert-type scale items of the workplace bullying scale; four factors (exclusion, hostility, managerial misconduct and humiliation and belittlement) were extracted through kaiser’s criteria (field, 2005). the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for all four factors showed high reliability and internal consistency. all three goodness-of-model-fit indices (cmin/df, cfi and rmsea) showed an acceptable model fit. the mean scores for all four factors ranged from ‘never’ (1) to ‘now and then’ (2). the mean scores showed that on average, the respondents were subjected to negative behaviours related to exclusion (m = 1.95), managerial misconduct (m = 1.79) and humiliation and belittlement (m = 1.66) more often than hostility (m = 1.23). davenport (2014, p. 16) states that workplace bullying is increasingly experienced amongst educators who lack the knowledge and skill to be able to cope with or handle the phenomenon. concomitantly, gilman (2015) argues that the longer the phenomenon is left unattended, the worse it will become and the more difficult it will be to counteract workplace bullying. if bullies believe that they can get away with their behaviour, workplace bullying can become even more prevalent. in this regard, woodrow and guest (2017) emphasise the necessity of proper prevention and intervention measures being put in place to protect employees against the workplace bullying phenomenon. through the use of intervention measures as both proactive and reactive to workplace bullying, catley et al. (2013) believe that employers can play a pre-emptive role in the prevention of and intervention in workplace bullying. regarding the effect of the sociodemographic variables on workplace bullying, the results of the statistical tests revealed the following: the results of the t-tests showed no significant differences between the mean scores of male and female respondents, as well as for respondents with full-time and fixed-term, temporary or postdoctoral fellowship employment contracts for all the workplace bullying factors. furthermore, the results of the anova test indicated no significant differences between the mean scores of the different marital status categories for all workplace bullying factors. the results of this study confirmed those of the study conducted by botha (2019) and kivimäki et al. (2000). botha (2019) found no significant differences between the workplace bullying experiences of male and female respondents. kivimäki et al. (2000) found no significant differences between the workplace bullying experiences of temporary and permanent employees. however, the results of this study contradicted those of previous studies, which found that gender (chan et al., 2019; moreno-jiménez et al., 2008; salin, as cited in jones, 2006), marital status (giorgi et al., 2013; yadav et al., 2020; yang & zhou, 2021) and employment contract (hoel & cooper, 2000; moreno-jiménez et al., 2008; notelaers et al., 2010) influence the experiences of workplace bullying. the t-tests showed that the mean scores of academic and support staff respondents differed significantly in terms of exclusion and humiliation and belittlement. it can be deduced that the support staff respondents were more subjected to exclusion and humiliation and belittlement than the academic staff respondents. westbrook et al. (2021) as well as kakumba. wamala and wanyama (2014) found that amongst management and other employees, administrative staff reported being bullied more regularly. small negative correlations were found between highest qualification and humiliation and belittlement and hostility. this indicates that the more qualified respondents were, the less they were subjected to hostility and humiliation and belittlement. this result is supported by studies conducted by moreno-jiménez et al. (2008), niedhammer et al. (2007) and cunniff and mostert (2012), who found that employees with higher levels of education may experience less bullying. small positive correlations were found between the number of years working at the university and managerial misconduct and humiliation and belittlement, indicating that the longer the respondents had worked at the university, the more they had been exposed to managerial misconduct and humiliation and belittlement. this result is in contrast with the those of the studies conducted by moreno-jiménez et al. (2008), owoyemi (2011) and awai et al. (2021), who found that workers with longer tenure reported lower instances of workplace bullying. medium to large positive correlations of between 0.428 and 0.811 were found between the four workplace bullying factors. this suggests that the more respondents experienced being excluded, the more they were subjected to hostility, managerial misconduct and humiliation and belittlement. furthermore, the more hostile the working environment was perceived to be by the respondents, the more likely they were subjected to exclusion, managerial misconduct and humiliation and belittlement. finally, the more the respondents experienced managerial misconduct, the more they were subjected to hostility, exclusion and humiliation and belittlement. limitations the research was conducted in the early stages of the national lockdown period in south africa in 2020. this may have affected the participation of the respondents in the web-based survey, as people still had to adapt to the variety of challenges posed by the lockdown and might not have been willing to participate in the research. furthermore, the sample of the study only included employees of one higher education institution in south africa, and therefore the results cannot be generalised to the tertiary education sector of south africa. recommendations bullying in the working environment has become an increasingly detrimental phenomenon that can also be observed in higher education institutions. similar studies could be conducted at other higher education institutions in south africa to create a better understanding of the experiences of workplace bullying in the higher education context in the country. further research on the psychometric properties of the four-factor workplace bullying model could be conducted to determine whether it is applicable in other contexts as well. qualitative investigations might provide further in-depth insights into the phenomenon. managers, human resource departments and human resource practitioners can implement the following practical recommendations in an attempt to combat bullying in organisations: establishing an anti-bullying culture by adopting a clear zero-tolerance stance against bullying behaviour. implementing and operationalising an anti-bullying policy; such a policy should entail clear definitions of the acts that are associated with workplace bullying and the procedures to follow to report and handle incidents. creating awareness of workplace bullying and procedures to follow in the case of incidents. education and training on policies, procedures and practices to follow in reporting bullying incidents. effectively addressing incidents of conflict and bullying in the working environment; in this regard, the conflict de-escalation strategies suggested by glasl (1982) can be followed. conclusion the main purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of workplace bullying amongst academic and support staff at a higher education institution in south africa and to ascertain how they are affected by selected sociodemographic variables. from the quantitative results, it is evident that workplace bullying was experienced, to a certain extent, at the higher education institution under investigation. the respondents experienced negative behaviours related to exclusion the most, followed by managerial misconduct, humiliation and belittlement and hostility the least. the results revealed that nature of employment, highest qualification and length of employment played a role in the experiences of workplace bullying at the higher education institution under investigation. in order to understand and address bullying in working environments, it is of utmost importance that the variety of factors (individual, personal, power differentials, organisational and societal) that might contribute to bulling behaviour are considered. the study contributed by producing a four-factor workplace bullying model that can be further investigated in different contexts. acknowledgements the authors are grateful to the university under investigation that granted permission to conduct the research, the respondents who participated in the research and the statistical consultation services of the higher education institution under investigation, which processed the collected data. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.b. conducted the literature review as well as the empirical study. d.b. acted as the supervisor of the research project, assisted with the literature review and the empirical research and wrote up the article. ethical considerations approval to conduct the research was granted by the arts research ethics committee of the faculty of humanities of the university under investigation (ref. no. nwu-00900-19-a7) and the research data gatekeeper committee of the north-west university (ref. no. nwu-gk-2019-059). funding information this research work received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the author (d.b.). disclaimer the views and opinion expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references adera, r.b. (2017). the impacts of workplace bullying on organizational climate. unpublished doctoral dissertation. university of maryland university college. ariza-montes, a., arjona-fuentes, j.m., law, r., & han, h. (2017). incidence of workplace bullying among hospitality employees. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 4(29), 1116–1132. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm-09-2015-0471 awai, n.s., ganasegeran, k., & manaf, m.r.a. (2021). prevalence of workplace bullying and its associated factors among workers in a malaysian public university hospital: a cross-sectional study. risk management and healthcare policy, 14, 75–85. https://doi.org/10.2147/rmhp.s280954 babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2011). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford university press. blunch, n.j. (2008). introduction to structural equation modelling using spss and amos. england: sage. botha, d. (2019). employees’ perceptions and experiences of bullying in the workplace. journal of contemporary management, 16(1), 180–208. https://doi.org/10.35683/jcm19004.0010 bristow, c. (2016). cyber bullying and the workplace. retrieved from http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=9289b8fc-3cd5-4827-8d90-bc05c8c60fd4 brown, t.a., & moore, m.t. (2012). confirmatory factor analysis. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/michael-moore-75/publication/251573889_hoyle_cfa_chapter_-_final/links/0deec51f14d2070566000000/hoyle-cfa-chapter-final.pdf burke, i., & mouton, f. (2013). an investigation of the current state of mobile device management within south africa. in: paper presented at the council for scientific and industrial research, pretoria, 23 march. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/francois_mouton/publication/260012344_an_investigation_of_the_current_state_of_mobile_device_management_within_south_africa/links/0deec52f0d246dbd49000000.pdf catley, b., bentley, t., forsyth, d., cooper-thomas, h., gardner, d., o’driscoll, m., … trenberth, l. (2013). managing workplace bullying in new zealand: perspectives from occupational health and safety practitioners. journal of management and organization, 19(5), 598–612. https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2014.2 chan, c.m.h., wong, j.e., yeap, l.l.l., wee, l.h., jamil, n.a., & nantha, y.s. (2019). workplace bullying and psychological distress of employees across socioeconomic strata: a cross-sectional study. bmc public health, 19(4), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-6859-1 chirilă, t., & constantin, t. (2013). understanding workplace bullying phenomenon through its concepts: a literature review. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 84, 1175–1179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.06.722 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). erlbaum hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. creswell, j.w. (2014). research design: quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods approach (4th ed.). thousand oaks, california: sage publications. creswell, j.w., & creswell, j.d. (2018). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). los angeles: sage. cunniff, l., & mostert, k. (2012). prevalence of workplace bullying of south african employees. sa journal of human resource management, 10(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i1.450 davenport, p.m. (2014). educators’ perspectives on having been cyber harassed: a phenomenological study. doctoral dissertation. liberty university. einarsen, s., hoel, h., & notelaers, g. (2009). measuring exposure to bullying and harassment at work: validity, factor structure and psychometric properties of the negative acts questionnaire-revised. work & stress, 23(1), 24–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370902815673 einarsen, s., hoel, h., zapf, d., & cooper, c. (2004). the concept of bullying at work: the european tradition. in s. einarsen, h. hoel, & c. cooper (eds.), bullying and emotional abuse in the workplace: international perspectives in research and practice (pp. 16–30). taylor & francis. einarsen, s., hoel, h., zapf, d., & cooper, c. (2011). the concept of bullying and harassment at work: the european tradition. in s. einarsen, h. hoel, & c. cooper (eds.), bullying and harassment in the workplace: developments in theory, research, and practice (pp. 3–39). boca raton, florida: taylor & francis. einarsen, s., raknes, b.i., & matthiesen, s.b. (1994). bullying and harassment at work and their relationships to work environment quality, an exploratory study. the european work and organizational psychologist, 4(4), 381–401. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594329408410497 einarsen, s., & skogstad, a. (1996). bullying at work: epidemiological findings in public and private organizations. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 5(2), 185–201. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594329608414854 field, a. (2005). discovering statistics using spss (2nd ed.). london: sage. field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss (3rd ed.). london: sage. frost, j. (2020). how t-tests work: t-values, t-distributions and probabilities. retrieved from https://statisticsbyjim.com/hypothesis-testing/t-tests-t-values-t-distributions-probabilities/ george, a. (2007). mediation: the preferred alternative for conflict resolution. retrieved from https://www.gdrc.org/u-gov/conflict-amoh.html gilman ii, c.c. (2015). computer-mediated communication in the workplace: problems and solutions. unpublished doctoral dissertation. university of oregon. giorgi, g., ando, m., arenas, a., shoss, m.k., & leon-perez, j.m. (2013). exploring personal and organizational determinants of workplace bullying and its prevalence in a japanese sample. psychology of violence, 3(2), 185–197. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028049 glasl, f. (1982). the process of conflict escalation and roles of third parties. in g.b.j. bomers & r.b. peterson (eds.), conflict management and industrial relations (pp. 119–140). dordrecht: springer. hair, j.r., anderson, r.e., tatham, r.l., & black, w.c. (2010). multivariate data analysis (7th ed.). upper saddle river: prentice hall. hancock, g.r., & mueller, r.o. (2010). the reviewer’s guide to quantitative methods in the social sciences. new york: routledge. hauge, l.j., skogstad, a., & einarsen, s. (2010). the relative impact of workplace bullying as a social stressor at work. scandinavian journal of psychology, 51(5), 426–433. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.2010.00813.x hoel, h., & cooper, c.l. (2000). destructive conflict and bullying at work. manchester school of management, manchester: umist. hoel, h., glasø, l., hetland, j., cooper, c.l., & einarsen, s. (2010). leadership styles as predictors of self-reported and observed workplace bullying. british journal of management, 21(2), 453–468. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2009.00664.x jacobs, l., & teise, k.l. (2019). educators’ subjective experiences of workplace bullying within a perceived neoliberalist education system. south african journal of education, 39(4), 9, art. #1868. https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v39n4a1868 jones, c. (2006). drawing boundaries: exploring the relationship between sexual harassment, gender and bullying. women’s studies international forum, 29(2), 147–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2006.03.001 kakumba, u., wamala, r., & wanyama, s.b. (2014). employment relations and bullying in academia: a case of academic staff at makerere university. journal of diversity management, 9(1), 63–74. https://doi.org/10.19030/jdm.v9i1.8623 kalamdien, d., & lawrence, a. (2017). a proposed typology of the military bully. scientia militaria, 45(1), 122–144. https://doi.org/10.5787/45-1-1196 keashly, l., & neuman, j.h. (2010). faculty experiences with bullying in higher education: causes, consequences, and management. administrative theory & praxis, 32(1), 48–70. https://doi.org/10.2753/atp1084-1806320103 kivimäki, m., elovainio, m., & vahtera, j. (2000). workplace bullying and sickness absence in hospital staff. occupational and environmental medicine, 57(10), 656–660. https://doi.org/10.1136/oem.57.10.656 kortjan, n., & von solms, r. (2014). a conceptual framework for cyber-security awareness and education in sa. south african computer journal, 52(1), 29–41. https://doi.org/10.18489/sacj.v52i0.201 lange, s., burr, h., conway, p.m., & rose, u. (2019). workplace bullying among employees in germany: prevalence estimates and the role of the perpetrator. international archives of occupational and environmental health, 92(2), 237–247. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-018-1366-8 langos, c. (2012). cyberbullying: the challenge to define. cyberpsychology, behaviour, and social networking, 15(6), 285–289. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2011.0588 law, r., dollard, m.f., tuckey, m.r., & dormann, c. (2011). psychosocial safety climate as a lead indicator of workplace bullying and harassment, job resources, psychological health and employee engagement. accident analysis & prevention, 43(5), 1782–1793. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2011.04.010 leo, l., reid, r., geldenhuys, m., & gobind, j. (2014). the inferences of gender in workplace bullying: a conceptual analysis. gender and behaviour, 12(1), 6059–6069. leymann, h. (1990). mobbing and psychological terror at workplaces. violence and victims, 5(2), 119–126. https://doi.org/10.1891/0886-6708.5.2.119 leymann, h. (1996). the content and development of mobbing at work. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 5(2), 165–184. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594329608414853 livingstone, s., stoilova, m., & kelly, a. (2016). cyberbullying: incidence, trends and consequences. retrieved from http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/68079/1/livingstone_cyberbullying%20incidence%20trends_2016.pdf lópez-cabarcos, m.á., vázquez-rodríguez, p., & gieure, c. (2017). gender and age differences in the psychosocial risk factors of workplace bullying. psychology & marketing, 34(11), 1023–1030. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21041 madan, a.o. (2014). cyber aggression/cyber bullying and the dark triad: effect on workplace behavior/performance. international journal of social, management, economics and business engineering, 8(6), 1725–1730. mcleod, s. (2019). what does effect size tell you? retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/effect-size.html#:~:text=cohen%20suggested%20that%20d%20%3d%200.2,if%20it%20is%20statistically%20significant miller, k.w., voas, j., & hurlburt, g.f. (2012). byod: security and privacy considerations. it professional, 14(5), 53–55. https://doi.org/10.1109/mitp.2012.93 momberg, m.a. (2011). the prevalence and consequences of workplace bullying in south africa. unpublished doctoral dissertation. nelson mandela metropolitan university. moreno-jiménez, b., rodríguez-muñoz, a., salin, d., & morante, m.e. (2008). workplace bullying in southern europe: prevalence, forms and risk groups in a spanish sample. international journal of organisational behaviour, 13(2), 95–109. mueller, r.o. (1996). basic principles of structural equation modeling: an introduction to lisrel and eqs. new york: springer. namie, g., & namie, r. (2018). risk factors for becoming a target of workplace bullying and mobbing. in m. duffy & d.c. yamada (eds.), workplace bullying and mobbing in the united states (pp. 53–74). abc-clio, california: santa barbara. ngwane, k.s. (2018). workplace harassment and its impact on staff performance: a case study of a south african higher education institution. journal of management & administration, 2, 163–189. niedhammer, i., david, s., & degioanni, s. (2007). economic activities and occupations at high risk for workplace bullying: results from a large-scale cross-sectional survey in the general working population in france. international archives of occupational and environmental health, 80(4), 346–353. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-006-0139-y notelaers, g., vermunt, j.k., baillien, e., einarsen, s., & de witte, h. (2010). exploring risk groups and risk factors for workplace bullying. industrial health, 49(1), 73–88. https://doi.org/10.2486/indhealth.ms1155 owoyemi, o.a. (2011). exploring workplace bullying in an emergency service organisation in the uk. international journal of business management, 6(3), 63–80. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v6n3p63 pallant, j. (2016). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using ibm statistics (6th ed.). england: berkshire, open university press. ramjettan, d. (2020). draft code of practice on workplace violence and harassment published. retrieved from https://www.bbrief.co.za/2020/09/21/draft-code-of-practice-on-workplace-violence-and-harassment-published/ republic of south africa. (2020). draft code of practice on the prevention and elimination of violence and harassment in the world of work. pretoria: government gazette. salin, d. (2018). workplace bullying and gender: an overview of empirical findings. in p. d’cruz, e. noronha, c. caponecchio, j. escartin, d. salin, & m. tuckey (eds.), dignity and inclusion at work, handbooks of workplace bullying, emotional abuse and harassment, vol 3. singapore: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5338-2_12-1 salin, d., & hoel, h. (2013). workplace bullying as a gendered phenomenon. journal of managerial psychology, 28(3), 235–251. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683941311321187 sarantakos, s. (2013). social research (4th ed.). new york: palgrave macmillan. shadfar, s., & malekmohammadi, i. (2013). application of structural equation modeling (sem) in restructuring state intervention strategies toward paddy production development. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 3(12), 576–618. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v3-i12/472 skuzińska, a., plopa, m., & plopa, w. (2020). bullying at work and mental health: the moderating role of demographic and occupational variables. advances in cognitive psychology, 16(1), 13–23. https://doi.org/10.5709/acp-0280-9 smit, d.m. (2014). bullying in the workplace: towards a uniform approach in south african labour law. doctoral dissertation. university of the free state. smit, m. (2021). the double punch of workplace bullying/harassment leading to depression: legal and other measures to help south african employers ward off a fatal blow. law, democracy & development, 25, 24–63. https://doi.org/10.17159/2077-4907/2021/ldd.v25.2 stein, p. (2022). new harassment code will require employers to overhaul existing policies. retrieved from https://www.polity.org.za/article/new-harassment-code-will-require-employers-to-overhaul-existing-policies-2022-05-27 van der nest, a., long, c., & engelbrecht, j. (2018). the impact of formative assessment activities on the development of teacher agency in mathematics teachers. south african journal of education, 38(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v38n1a1382 watson, t. (2017). sociology, work and organisation (7th ed.). new york: routledge. westbrook, j., sunderland, n., li, l., koyama, a., mcmullan, r., urwin, r. … mcinnes, e.c. (2021). the prevalence and impact of unprofessional behaviour among hospital workers: a survey in seven australian hospitals. medical journal of australia, 214(1), 31–37. https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.50849 woodrow, c., & guest, d.e. (2017). leadership and approaches to the management of workplace bullying. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 26(2), 221–233. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2016.1243529 yadav, r.s., dash, s.s., sinha, s., & patky, j. (2020). impact of workplace bullying on turnover intention: a study among indian school teachers. south asian journal of management, 27(4), 33–59. yamada, d.c. (2010). workplace bullying and the law: emerging global responses. in s. einarsen, h. hoel, d. zapf, & c.l. cooper (eds.), bullying and harassment in the workplace: developments in theory, research, and practice (2nd ed., pp. 470–483). boca raton: crc press. yang, y.m., & zhou, l.j. (2021). workplace bullying among operating room nurses in china: a cross-sectional survey. perspectives in psychiatric care, 57(1), 27–32. https://doi.org/10.1111/ppc.12519 zapf, d., & gross, c. (2001). conflict escalation and coping with workplace bullying: a replication and extension. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 10(4), 497–522. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320143000834 abstract introduction research purpose and objectives research design results and discussions practical implications limitations and future research acknowledgements references about the author(s) hendrik c. (hekkie) van der westhuizen department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa lia m.m. hewitt department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation van der westhuizen, h.c., & hewitt, l.m.m. (2021). leadership development process maturity: an afrocentric versus eurocentric perspective. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1495. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1495 original research leadership development process maturity: an afrocentric versus eurocentric perspective hendrik c. (hekkie) van der westhuizen, lia m.m. hewitt received: 08 oct. 2020; accepted: 11 feb. 2021; published: 19 apr. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: organisations continuously find it a challenge to focus on the right areas that would result in successful and effective leadership development. this article reports on a comprehensive study to identify the leadership development process maturity areas fit for southern africa. research purpose: this article aims to identify and report on eurocentric and afrocentric leadership development process maturity areas and assess how these are similar or different. motivation for the study: this study was conducted to help enhance the understanding of which eurocentric and afrocentric leadership development areas, organisations, especially in southern africa, need to focus on in support of a mature leadership development process. research approach: a qualitative, deductive approach was adopted, which included an extensive, in-depth literature review, followed by in-depth, semi-structured interviews with southern african leadership development expert panel members. main findings: a complementary, inclusive and comprehensive list of 125 leadership development process maturity areas was developed within the southern african context, which could be used by leadership development practitioners as a guide to focus their resources and leadership development efforts. it also functions as a new foundation for future leadership development research. practical implications: southern african organisations should focus more on what works in this geographical context to ensure that focused leadership development interventions are implemented, resulting in a higher return on leadership development investment. contribution and value-added: this article contributes to the leadership development body of knowledge, specifically relating to the maturity of this process within the southern african context. keywords: leadership development; process; maturity areas; southern africa; afrocentric; eurocentric. introduction long-term sustainability of companies depends on the choice and cultivation of their future leaders (conger & fulmer, 2003). as a result, companies spend enormous amounts of money on leadership development (armitage, brooks, carlen, & schultz, 2006; cohen, 2019; martineau, hoole, & patterson, 2009; thomas, jules, & light, 2012; vogel, reichard, batistič, & černe, 2020). yet, organisations do not necessarily know exactly which leadership development areas they should invest in so as to ensure the best possible return on its learning investment. the ultimate goal of leadership development research should be to identify which components of the leadership development process have the most significant outcomes and impact (hopkins & meyer, 2019). owusu-frempong (2005) referred to afrocentrism as an african worldview and value system that guides the knowledge of the people of africa and knowledge transfer thereof to future generations. iyioke (2017) claimed that to deny afrocentrism is to effectively deem all life and cultural experiences as being the same. he adds that afrocentrism is an approach that deals with life experiences in africa. this view was supported by kumah-abiwu (2016) when he called for african intellectuals to persist with research to expose common cultural foundations and values amongst africans as part of the afrocentric paradigm. he makes an important distinction between scholars who truly share afrocentric ideas and those who claim to adopt a pure afrocentric paradigm but actually share strong eurocentric views in their analyses of africa. chawane’s (2016) view is that afrocentricity represents a call for recognition of the african viewpoint. eurocentrism holds a worldview (akpan & odohoedi, 2016), which advocates the use of european and united states standards and models (hoskins, 1992), whereas afrocentrism deals with a specific cultural history that originated in africa and consists of norms based on which african people judge or measure themselves. according to chawane (2016), the eurocentric version prioritises europeans and does not acknowledge the historical role africans have played in world development. hoskins (1992) further distinguishes between these two worldviews – afrocentrism places the human being central to all existence, whilst eurocentrism places political power and material possessions central to all existence. research purpose and objectives in most african organisations, the building of a robust leadership development system is utterly neglected (walumbwa, avolio, & aryee, 2011). there is also a claim from iwowo (2015, p. 6) that ‘there have been several calls for a more indigenised model of leadership in africa’. there is increasing interest in research and developing theory focused on leadership across cultural contexts (avolio, walumbwa, & weber, 2009), as most leadership studies have been conducted in a eurocentric context. historical research has proven that many companies do not have a process in place that is structured to develop its leaders, as such a leadership development process will also focus on future competencies and capabilities that the company thinks it needs (van dongen, 2014). a gap has therefore been identified in the field of leadership development, specifically in the southern african geographical context, to pursue research that would achieve the following research objectives (ros): ro1: to identify the critical areas in the leadership development process from a historical (eurocentric) research point of view, which indicate leadership development process maturity in an organisation, across all the levels of leadership as follows (1) senior managers, (2) middle managers and (3) supervisory level and junior management (griffith, baur, & buckley, 2019) ro2: to identify the critical areas in the leadership development process across all the levels of leadership, from an afrocentric point of view ro3: to determine to what extent the identified critical areas are different and/or similar from a eurocentric versus an afrocentric point of view. the purpose of this research study, after achieving these ros, is that it will lay a solid foundation to address some of the concerns that were highlighted with regard to a lack of indigenised leadership development systems and leadership models in africa. research design the researchers adopted an approach similar to what hanson (2013) followed to develop his leadership development interface model. firstly, secondary data were gathered from existing literature, followed by empirical research. this approach connected leader and leadership development with individuals and the organisation. the researchers combined the data from qualitative interviews with southern african leadership development specialists, with the data from a rigorous literature review of leadership and leadership development, to develop holistic leadership development process maturity areas for further analysis. a systematic process was followed in the present study to access leadership development articles, textbooks and other credible, peer-reviewed secondary sources. to identify the leadership development process maturity areas, a structured content analysis approach was applied and only those factors that were critical to the successful implementation of a leadership development process were extracted from the literature. a total of 55 leadership development process maturity areas were identified from 11 published books and 63 academic or peer-reviewed articles on the topic of leadership development. whilst not deliberately selected as such, all these books and virtually all the articles were european or united states sources, which jointly represent eurocentric sources. new literature sources were no longer added to the review process, when it became clear that data saturation had been achieved – in other words, when no new themes emerged (see braun & clarke, 2013; guest, namey, & mitchell, 2013). ten themes emerged, namely leadership development methods, required resources, alignment, continuity, culture, design, feedback, management support, skills or competencies and customisation. these themes formed the basis of the interview questions, conducted with the expert panel members, as each of the southern african leadership development experts were asked, in their experience, which areas were critical to the success of the leadership development process in organisations, as it relates to each of these themes within this process. as recommended by braun and clarke (2013), an additional open-ended question was added, posed at the end of the interview, which allowed each participant to add any knowledge he or she deemed important but, which did not fall under any of the 10 themes. expert panel population the expert panel population comprised all and everybody who specialises in leadership development in africa. however, it has to be borne in mind that different african regions are characterised by different contextual factors, history, political backgrounds and cultural richness and diversity. therefore, leadership development is not necessarily the same in all regions in africa (muchiri, 2011). for these reasons, and for the sake of practicability, the scope of this study was then limited to southern africa, the most southern region in africa. the following countries are the member states of the southern african development community (sadc) (https://www.sadc.int/member-states/): angola, botswana, comoros, democratic republic of congo, eswatini, lesotho, madagascar, malawi, mauritius, mozambique, namibia, seychelles, south africa, united republic of tanzania, zambia and zimbabwe. therefore, the population of this study comprised the leadership development practitioners in sadc member countries. sample method and participant profile purposive sampling (a form of non-probability sampling) was used in the present study, as it is suitable for qualitative research, which tends to use smaller samples as compared to quantitative research (braun & clarke, 2013). guest et al. (2013) posited that the logic and power of purposive sampling can only be realised by applying appropriate criteria for inclusion of participants in a study. the criteria for inclusion in this study were similar to those employed by burke and collins (2005) in their study on providers of leadership development. the participant profile that was sought and obtained, possessed the following research criteria – they had to have: been working as a leadership development practitioner for at least 5 years managed this area of work as a full-time business worked as leadership development practitioner in all three levels of work (supervisory level and junior management, middle management and senior management) worked as a leadership development practitioner in at least one, but preferably more, sadc member states a formal post-matric qualification in leadership development or be able to demonstrate that he or she had been sufficiently and holistically mentored throughout their careers to be recognised by his or her peers as a leadership development practitioner. purposive sampling was first applied on a limited scale, where participants 3 and 7, who were well-known to the author from previous involvement in leadership development projects, were chosen based on their experience and level of involvement in the leadership development field. participants 1 and 2 were referred by the co-author. thereafter, snowball sampling, another non-probability sampling technique whereby participants referred other possible participants (gray, 2018; guest et al., 2013) was used to get additional participants. guest et al. (2013) explained that snowball sampling makes it possible to utilise the social networks of research participants, enabling sampling from hard-to-reach populations. noy (2008) stated that snowball sampling (figure 1) is arguably the most widely used sampling method in qualitative research across various disciplines in the social sciences. figure 1: visual illustration of snowball sampling. expert panel and rational for choosing participants expert knowledge is valuable in contributing to research, especially if empirical information on the topic is scarce or not readily available (orsi, geneletti, & newton, 2011). guest et al. (2013) highlighted the importance of including the most knowledgeable individuals and documenting multiple viewpoints, in order to enhance the trustworthiness of a research study. experts were therefore chosen based on them being considered active and leading practitioners in the field of leadership development. krueger et al. (2017) stated that the participation of experts enhances the accuracy of a study’s findings. they also suggested that experts on a topic possess diverse pertinent expertise and that a process be used that encourages the active sharing of this knowledge. as a result of the specialised nature of the field of study, nine experts were identified who met or exceeded the stated research criteria and were selected to participate in the study. the demographic details of this sample of leadership development practitioners who took part in the study are provided in table 1. table 1: demographic summary of expert study participants who met or exceeded the research criteria the in-depth, semi-structured interviews allowed for the probing of the leadership development experts to provide greater detail on their responses (see braun & clarke, 2013; gray, 2018). open-ended questions were used to maximise the inductive and conversational aspects of the interview (guest et al., 2013). as recommended by these authors, each expert was interviewed separately, using open-ended questions to gather data on each theme. inductive probing was conducted by asking questions like ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ to gain deeper insights. a pilot interview (guest et al., 2013; mouton, 2013) was conducted with one participant. the intention was not to use the data, only to test the questions, but because of the richness of the data that were gathered during this interview, it was then classified as the first interview. minor adjustments were made to the sequence of the open-ended questions and the interviewing process, before the other eight leadership development experts could be interviewed. all interviews were recorded (braun & clarke, 2013; creswell, 2014; gray, 2018; guest et al., 2013). there are no fixed rules for coding qualitative data analysis, as it is challenging to analyse a vast amount of written data and convert the findings into a compelling argument (gray, 2018). passages were labelled with terms that were relevant to the ro, as explained by belotto (2018) to identify all possible leadership development process maturity areas from the transcript. after coding the data, the next step was to look for larger patterns across the dataset (braun & clarke, 2013). thematic analysis was applied and ‘involves identifying and coding emergent themes within data’ (guest et al., 2013, p. 9). with the thematic analysis process, new afrocentric and existing eurocentric themes were identified from the coded transcriptions. in determining to what extent, the identified critical areas are different and or similar from a eurocentric versus an afrocentric point of view, the themes were compared. similarities and differences had to be analysed and documented further although, by also categorising these areas as more process related or more people related. strategies to ensure data quality and integrity various approaches were followed to ensure quality and rigour across all phases of the study (guba, 1981; shenton, 2004). with regard to credibility – structured content analysis combined with literature reviews using peer-reviewed articles, as well as in-depth, semi-structured interviews are all well-established methods in qualitative research. in addition to data accuracy and other quality checks, triangulation was employed when similarities and differences between the literature review and in-depth, semi-structured interview data sets were analysed (flick, 2007; gray, 2018). furthermore, strategies were employed to ensure participants’ honesty and iterative questioning took place during the in-depth, semi-structured interviews to confirm participant feedback accuracy. transferability, dependability and confirmability were also addressed, which included steps that were taken to avoid researchers bias and the use of a data-tracking log to manage the data. ethical consideration this article followed all ethical standards for a research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. results and discussions results obtained from the extensive in-depth literature review a total of 55 euro-centric leadership development process maturity areas (across 598 citations) were identified from the literature, namely: alignment is needed between the leadership development process and business strategy. the leadership development process should be integrated into the business. the leadership development programme must be tied to the succession planning in the organisation. the leadership development process should include a strategy to retain high-potentials. the leadership development program should be evaluated continuously for continuous improvement purposes. leadership needs to understand that leadership development is a continuous process. the culture and values of the organisation and that of its leaders should be considered in the development of a leadership development program. a leadership development culture should be present in the organisation. the leadership development model or approach should best fit the company’s unique culture and should be integrated into this culture. each organisation should have a leadership development model. a formal exercise should be completed to ensure that all the required components have been included in the design of the leadership development process of the organisation. participants in the leadership development program should be involved in its design. a pilot program is required, before the leadership development program launch. technology should be used in the leadership development process. formal and informal leadership development experiences are required as part of the leadership development process. the successes of the leadership development programme should be celebrated. the developmental readiness of the leader should be assessed at the start of the leadership development process, which includes his or her willingness to receive feedback. feedback from formal assessments should regularly be shared with the leader. leaders should be encouraged to take time to reflect on their leadership and leadership development journey. 360-degree feedback should be used to provide feedback in the leadership development process. it is critical to have some form of return on learning or return on investment measurement in place for the leadership development process. the selection of the participants in the leadership development program should be communicated to the organisation, but with sensitivity. the leadership development process should include a range or variety of leadership development methods. coaching is required for successful leadership development. mentoring is required as support to leadership development initiatives. action learning needs to be used in the leadership development programme. job expansion is a successful leadership development method. job rotation is a successful leadership development method. international assignments are a successful leadership development method. experiential learning is a successful leadership development method. simulation-based learning is a successful leadership development method. stretch assignments are a key method in the leadership development process. networking is used as a method of leadership development. competency-specific training is used as a method of leadership development. informal assessment is important in the leadership development process. self-development activities are used as methods of leadership development. job shadowing is used as a method of leadership development. the leaders that are in charge of the leadership development process should be well respected in the organisation. senior management should provide long-term support to the leadership development process as a strategic priority in the organisation. leadership development initiatives should be coordinated by a steering committee. senior managers should personally act as facilitators in the leadership development programme. senior management and the human resources department are partners in the leadership development process. leaders that focus on the leadership development of their people should be remunerated for these efforts. internal and external organisational resources should be used in the leadership development process. a leadership development process resource requirement assessment should be conducted. all the stakeholders in the leadership development process should commit the required amount of time to this process. resources should be invested to identify the high-potential leaders (hipo’s) in the organisation. the establishment of a corporate university will assist in fostering leadership development in the organisation. participants in the leadership development programme should have a long-term commitment towards self-development. the start of the leadership development process is to hire leaders with the right leadership skills or competencies. the leadership development process should focus on identifying and closing the gaps between the leader’s current versus required competencies. the leadership development process should focus on developing hard and soft skills in each leader. baseline assessments are required to confirm the leader’s baseline competencies, skills or behaviours. the leadership development process should be unique for each leadership level in the organisation. each leader should have an individual development plan that needs to be revised over time. the identification of these 55 eurocentric leadership development process maturity areas from historical research, addressed ro1. results obtained from the in-depth semi-structured interviews the in-depth, semi-structured interviewing process resulted in identifying the following 70 new afrocentric leadership development process maturity areas: as part of the leadership development process each person should have a ‘personal manifesto for leading’, which includes their own personal values. training that helps develop the ability of the leader to be strategic and to think at the strategic level, is critical to the leadership development process. as part of the leadership development process leaders should be taught how to ensure and to maintain personal resilience. it is important that team-based leadership development is included in the design of the leadership development process. diversity management should be incorporated into the leadership development process. the harnessing, synthesis and sharing of innovations and a focus on innovation should form part of the leadership development process. the principle of connectivity between people and the ubuntu philosophy should be incorporated into the leadership development process. ethics should be an underlying theme throughout the leadership development process. sufficient funds or a budget should be allocated to the implementation of the leadership development process. senior management should take the foundational and physical aspects in the organisation seriously, in support of organisational practices, such as the leadership development process. the business cycle and economic climate should be taken into account before finalising the content and the scope of the leadership development process. during the induction of each new potential leader it needs to be communicated what is required to become a leader in the organisation and what this process entails. a sponsor-driven approach should be adopted in the leadership development process where a developing leader can continuously check in and share his or her reflections with an assigned sponsor. senior leaders should create an environment where developing leaders can share what they have learnt in the leadership development process and where these learnings or changes are at least considered for implementation or trial in the organisation. as part of the leadership development process it is important to ensure that the developing leaders understand their meaning and purpose at work and in the world. teaching our leaders to ask the right questions with the information that is available to them, is an important part of the leadership development process. the ability to be able to cope with a world that is full of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (vuca) should be incorporated into the leadership development process. the leadership development process should focus on creating leaders that are in service of both driving the business goals and creating a safe productive place in which people are inspired and enjoy coming to work. the leadership development process should teach leaders how to manage the political map inside the organisation. the leadership development process should focus on cultivating the right habits in leaders. each of the leadership development methods that are being used in the leadership development process should be measurable. peer group interventions are important in the leadership development process. for the leadership development process to have value, the participants in this process should commit their own resources to the process. the start of the leadership development process should be to hire leaders based on their whole being, which is more than only their skill and knowledge. the leadership development process should be aligned to the purpose and calling of the leader that is being developed. for the leadership development process to be successful a culture of authentic people care should exist in the organisation. a key focus of the leadership development process should be to develop the leader’s ability to manage himself or herself. the leadership development process should be outcome-based. the developing leader should be involved in the design and the content of his or her individual development plan. the leadership development process should be a focused process, without overwhelming the leader with too many leadership development interventions or leadership development methods. indigenous leadership development methodologies that are specific to its wider geographical region should be included in the leadership development process of the organisation. an important aspect of the leadership development process is, to not only focus on the end result, but to also focus on and appreciate the learning that takes place during the leadership development process. storytelling is an important transformational learning method that should be used in the leadership development process. with every leadership development method that is being used by the organisation, mutual respect and authenticity should form the basis of all interactions with developing leaders. the success of the leadership development process is not dependent on the amount of available resources to support this process, but is dependent on the commitment and the passion of the people who are involved in the leadership development process. the leadership team that drives the leadership development process needs to be good leaders with a long enough tenure at the organisation, to ensure the continuity of the leadership development process. the purpose of the leadership development process is not only to teach leaders to become better leaders, but it should also be to develop them into better beings. to include developing leaders from all levels of work in the organisation into the same leadership development process, the learning experience that takes place from this process would be improved (vs. developing leaders separately per level of work). the leadership development process should be implemented, not only for the greater good of the organisation, but also for society to benefit from it. at the start of the leadership development process it is important that an assessment is completed, which will highlight the leadership and business challenges that the organisation is facing, in order to ensure that the leadership development process provides solutions to these challenges. ongoing role alignment is required in the leadership development process where the specific capability, skill or competency to deliver on the work that’s needed, is aligned to a changing business environment. in order to support the leadership development process, ongoing alignment is required between the organisational structure and new ways of working. whenever an organisation uses external leadership development resources to assist in the leadership development process, it is important that a true partnership is formed with these external resources to co-create the leadership development journey map of the organisation. the leadership development process should include specific leadership development programmes that are structured in a specific order and structured according to how their business needs to win in their market. it is critical to the success of the leadership development process that clear communication exists and that developing leaders understand the way concepts are put across to them. before the leadership development process is launched it is important that each facilitator has an in-depth understanding of the developing leaders and their unique context, which should deal with any discomfort that might exist in this developmental relationship. for the leadership development process to be successful, senior management must first and foremost change their mindset that leadership development is not an expense, but an investment. for learning in the leadership development process to be most effective, it needs to occur by taking developing leaders away from the workplace, to where an atmosphere exists that is supportive of structured learning and development. each of the participants in the leadership development process must be assured that the company appreciates them and that this process will be improving their lives in general and also their chances of career advancement. the contributions of the participants in the leadership development process must be formally recognised in the organisation. the leadership development process should include a mechanism where developing leaders are continuously aligned back to the culture of the organisation. with the design of the leadership development process it is important to have an end in mind of what the organisation would like to achieve with this process. all the feedback that is given during the leadership development process, also to developing leaders, should be constructive. as part of their commitment to and involvement in the leadership development process, senior management must demonstrate that they can also learn from the leaders that are being developed. senior management should adopt the principles of servant leadership in order to create the right environment in the organisation to successfully implement the leadership development process. the ultimate purpose of the leadership development process should be to develop leaders who are whole and complete. in the leadership development process it is critical to teach developing leaders how to handle and to embrace conflict and tension. during the leadership development process leaders should be taught how to successfully handle their personal finances, otherwise the leader cannot lead diligently without any financial burden. the ability to forgive in order to remove the hindrances of the past, should be taught during the leadership development process. senior management in the organisation should accept the responsibility of character development in their leaders during the leadership development process, especially if other formal institutions such as schools and churches previously failed in this regard. the use of technology is important in the leadership development process, but not at the expense of personal face-to-face contact. an environment should exist in the organisation that is conducive to leadership development and learning. the leadership development process should form part of a change management process in the organisation. for the leadership development process to be successful it is important that the leadership in the organisation truly understand the adult learning process, growth and development. the leadership development process should take place in an environment where it is acceptable for the developing leader to make mistakes and where they are encouraged to fully express themselves. there should be a positive philosophy of inclusiveness in the leadership development process where the developing leader matters, is valued and is deemed as worthy. included in the leadership development process should be a mechanism for capturing the feedback from every leadership development encounter, also to determine its impact on the business. to ensure business continuity it is important that each leader, as part of the leadership development process, develops someone in his or her team who is able to do their job and take over in their absence, when and if required. the competencies that are required from the developing leader should be integrated into his or her individual performance contract to ensure that it is sufficiently developed. the leadership development process should be aligned to the strategic talent plan, which details the strategic talent pipelines of the organisation. the identification of these afrocentric leadership development process maturity areas addressed ro2. linking the outcomes of the analysis to existing literature by determining how the findings contribute to, further develop or challenge what we already knew about the research topic is important (braun & clarke, 2013). the identification of these 70 new afrocentric leadership development process maturity areas allowed for a comparison of these areas with the 55 existing eurocentric areas from the literature review. comparing afrocentric and eurocentric leadership development process maturity areas hoskins (1992) observed that afrocentricity is a mindset that is rooted in the african communal value system and heritage. he added that, in afrocentricity, people are the central focus or ‘centrality of existence’, whereas in eurocentricity, people are not central and the focus is on material possessions and political power. one of the findings of the present study is that the afrocentric leadership development process maturity areas that were identified from the in-depth, semi-structured interviews seem to be significantly more people orientated than the eurocentric areas that were identified from the literature review. applying thematic analysis, 51 of the original 55 eurocentric areas that were identified from the literature review were confirmed by one or more of the nine research participants as a critical requirement in the leadership development process in organisations, from an afrocentric point of view. the focus in this section is a comparison of areas that were originally classified from the literature as important from a eurocentric point of view, with the afrocentric areas that were extracted from the in-depth, semi-structured interviews that were conducted. in the same manner in which the themes were originally assigned to each of the 55 eurocentric areas, the identical themes were also used and assigned to the 70 afrocentric areas. each of the 125 statements was therefore classified by theme, but also as either being more process related or more people related. in analysing these results, the 55 eurocentric areas seem to be more process-related or process-driven, whereas the 70 afrocentric areas seem more focused on people-related issues or prioritisation of the developing leader and his or her specific needs. the detailed observations were as follows in both sets of data, leadership development methods were the most prevalent theme across all the statements. for the eurocentric data set this theme represented 27% (or 15) of the 55 statements versus 23% (or 16) of the 70 statements for the afrocentric perspective. however, of these 15 eurocentric statements, 67% were classified as process related. only 33% were therefore classified as people-related, as opposed to 88% of the 16 afrocentric statements being categorised as people-related statements. the eurocentric statements typically included areas such as job expansion, stretch assignments and action-learning, compared with the afrocentric statements under this theme typically including the following areas: teaching the developing leader to be able to operate in a world that is vuca; a focus on indigenous leadership development methods to cater for different groups of people and ensuring that the leader is not overwhelmed with too many leadership development interventions during the development process. the design theme was the second-largest priority in both the eurocentric and afrocentric data sets. for the afrocentric dataset, this theme also represented 23% (or 16) of the 70 statements, versus 13% (or 7) of the 55 statements for the eurocentric perspective. a similar observation was made with the design theme as with the leadership development methods theme in the previous paragraph: of the seven eurocentric statements, 71% were classified as process-related, or, conversely, only 29% were classified as people-related statements. this was again in contrast to the 63% (or 10) of the 16 afrocentric statements that were categorised as people related. table 2 highlights examples of statements that were categorised under the design theme, indicating the contrast between the eurocentric and afrocentric views. table 2: eurocentric versus afrocentric design theme statements: examples. another interesting observation was that culture, with regard to frequency, was ranked as the third-most important afrocentric theme, but ranked as only the eighth-most important eurocentric theme. the remaining themes of required resources, alignment, continuity, feedback, management support, skills or competencies and customisation ranked similarly from a relative position or percentage point of view, when comparing the afrocentric and eurocentric views. overall, across all 10 themes, almost two-thirds (65%) of the eurocentric statements were classified as process-related, where the picture was reversed for the afrocentric perspective, where two-thirds (67%) of all statements were people-related. in summary, it was observed from the analysis that there is certainly some truth in the claim by hoskins (1992) that eurocentrism does not prioritise the human factor or element as a central theme, to the extent that afrocentrism does. this is an important validation as designers, developers and implementers of leadership development processes in organisations need to take into consideration that the content of these processes needs to be adapted to the unique requirements of the afrocentric or eurocentric geographical context in which they operate, in order to be successful. the detailed observations that were made in comparing the eurocentric and afrocentric areas, addressed ro3. practical implications the findings of this research should benefit all southern african organisations, who assumed that its leadership development process could be based on eurocentric areas only. it would also be of value to multinational organisations that operate in africa, as these organisations may have erroneously assumed that a eurocentric approach to leadership development would necessarily be successful in their african operations. the research findings allow these organisations to place more focus on afrocentric leadership development process maturity areas, which is representative of ‘what works’ in the southern african geographical context. southern african organisations that are serious about the success of their leadership development process and about investing in their people for the right reasons, including financial gain, should use the results from this research to close its leadership development process gaps. this would be achieved by including in its leadership development strategy, and actively driving the implementation of, the areas that have been identified as critical to the success of leadership development in this geographical context. this process should be led by chief executive officers (ceos), managing directors and human resources directors, as support at the highest echelons in organisations is vital to the success of such programmes. limitations and future research the biggest limitation to this study is that it was completed at organisational level across all levels of leadership and also that it is difficult to know where to start in terms of focusing on a comprehensive list of 125 leadership development process maturity areas. this article reports on the first phase of a more comprehensive study. the second phase of the study used the findings from this research to successfully shortlist these leadership development process maturity areas and to then include it in a measure or ‘tool’ that could be used to assess, according to the different individual levels of leadership (supervisory level and junior management, middle management and senior management levels), to what extent organisations are mature as far as its leadership development process is concerned. conclusion bent-goodley, fairfax and carlton-laney (2017) highlighted the fact that afrocentric researchers should promote the voice of african research participants, relate their unique experiences and use their stories to generate knowledge. this research study answers this call and makes a significant and unique contribution to the body of knowledge on leadership development. from the extensive literature review conducted in the secondary research phase, it was obvious that there was a lack of afrocentric leadership development research. this view is supported by authors such as bolden and kirk (2009), geber and keane (2013), kuada (2010) and mbigi (2005). the research revealed that almost all of the eurocentric leadership development process maturity areas were deemed relevant by the southern african leadership development experts, as critical to the leadership development process. in addition to these areas, the research participants have identified 70 other areas that are critical to the successful implementation of the leadership development process in organisations within the southern african geographical context. when comparing these two sets of data, it became apparent that the focus of the afrocentric areas differed from that of the eurocentric areas. afrocentric leadership development process maturity areas were found to be more people related as opposed to eurocentric areas that were more process related. this article focused extensively on extracting an afrocentric perspective on the critical success areas that are required for leadership development in organisations. this addressed the gap in the knowledge identified by chawane (2016), that eurocentric literature does not acknowledge african perspectives. owusu-frempong (2005) called for a joint employment of both african and european views in harmonious growth and development of a society. this view is shared by chawane (2016) when he calls for the co-existence of eurocentricity and afrocentricity. according to iwowo (2015), a system that combines indigenous african leadership development knowledge with mainstream eurocentric leadership development theories, is the most viable option for leadership development in africa. by achieving the stated ros in this study, a complementary, inclusive and comprehensive list of 125 leadership development process maturity areas was developed within the southern african context, which can be used by leadership development practitioners as a guide to focus their resources and leadership development efforts. the output from the current research study allows for the 70 newly identified afrocentric areas, being part of the stated comprehensive list of areas, to be included in the leadership development processes in organisations, which creates a new foundation for future leadership development research. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions h.v.d.w. conducted the literature review, collected and processed all the data and was also responsible for the write-up of the article. l.h. guided the conceptualisation and interpretation of the results, provided commentary throughout the research and co-authored the article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references akpan, b.s., & odohoedi, c.c. (2016). eurocentric and afrocentric views on the origin of philosophy. international journal of modern research and reviews, 4(12), 1431–1434. armitage, j., brooks, n.a., carlen, m., & schultz, s.p. (2006). remodeling leadership: developing mature leaders and organizational leadership systems (an introduction to the leadership maturity model™). performance improvement, 45(2), 40–47. https://doi.org/10.1002/pfi.2006.4930450208 avolio, b.j., walumbwa, f.o., & weber, t.j. (2009). leadership: current theories, research, and future directions. annual review of psychology, 60(1), 421–449. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163621 belotto, m.j. (2018). data analysis methods for qualitative research: managing the challenges of coding, interrater reliability, and thematic analysis. the qualitative report, 23(11), 2622–2633. bent-goodley, t., fairfax, c.n., & carlton-laney, i. (2017). the significance of african-centered social work for social work practice. journal of human behavior in the social environment, 27(1–2), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2016.1273682 bolden, r., & kirk, p. (2009). african leadership: surfacing new understandings through leadership development. international journal of cross-cultural management, 9(1), 69–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470595808101156 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2013). successful qualitative research: a practical guide for beginners. london: sage. burke, v., & collins, d. (2005). optimising the effects of leadership development programmes: a framework for analysing the learning and transfer of leadership skills. management decision, 43(7/8), 975–987. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740510609974 chawane, m. (2016). the development of afrocentricity: a historical survey. yesterday & today, 16, 78–99. https://doi.org/10.17159/2223-0386/2016/n16a5 cohen, h.b. (2019). an inconvenient truth about leadership development. organizational dynamics, 48(1), 8–15. https://doi.org/org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2017.10.002. conger, j.a., & fulmer, r.m. (2003). developing your leadership pipeline. harvard business review, december, 76–84. creswell, j.w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. thousand oaks: sage. flick, u. (2007). managing quality in qualitative research. london: sage. geber, h., & keane, m. (2013). extending the worldview of coaching research and practice in southern africa: the concept of ubuntu. international journal of evidence based coaching & mentoring, 11(2), 8–18. gray, d.e. (2018). doing research in the real world. london: sage. griffith, j.a., baur, j.e., & buckley, m.r. (2019). creating comprehensive leadership pipelines: applying the real options approach to organizational leadership development. human resource management review, 29(3), 305–315. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2018.07.001 guba, e.g. (1981). criteria for assessing the trustworthiness of naturalistic inquiries. educational communication and technology, 29(2), 75–91. guest, g., namey, e.e., & mitchell, m.l. (2013). collecting qualitative data: a field manual for applied research. thousand oaks: sage. hanson, b. (2013). the leadership development interface: aligning leaders and organizations toward more effective leadership learning. advances in developing human resources, 15(1), 106–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422312465853 hopkins, k., & meyer, m. (2019). evaluating behavioral and organizational outcomes of leadership development in human service organizations. human service organizations: management, leadership & governance, 43(4), 290–298. https://doi.org/10.1080/23303131.2019.1664695 hoskins, l.a. (1992). eurocentrism vs. afrocentrism: a geopolitical linkage analysis. journal of black studies, 23(2), 247–257. https://doi.org/10.1177/002193479202300208 iwowo, v. (2015). leadership in africa: rethinking development. personnel review, 44(3), 408–429. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-07-2013-0128 iyioke, i.v. (2017). from nuremburg to kano, eurocentrism to afrocentrism. international journal of arts and humanities, 3(2), 1–10. krueger, k.l., bottom, d.l., hood, w.g., johnson, g.e., jones, k.k., & thom, r.m. (2017). an expert panel process to evaluate habitat restoration actions in the columbia river estuary. journal of environmental management, 188, 337–350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2016.11.028 kuada, j. (2010). culture and leadership in africa: a conceptual model and research agenda. african journal of economic and management studies, 1(1), 9–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/20400701011028130 kumah-abiwu, f. (2016). beyond intellectual construct to policy ideas: the case of the afrocentric paradigm. africology: the journal of pan african studies, 9(2), 7–27. martineau, j., hoole, e., & patterson, t. (2009). leadership development: is it worth the money? global focus: the efmd business magazine, 3(3), 44–47. mbigi, l. (2005). the spirit of african leadership. johannesburg: knowledge resources. mouton, j. (2013). how to succeed in your master’s and doctoral studies. pretoria: van schaik publishers. muchiri, m.k. (2011). leadership in context: a review and research agenda for sub-saharan africa. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 84(2011), 440–452. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.2011.02018.x noy, c. (2008). sampling knowledge: the hermeneutics of snowball sampling in qualitative research. international journal of social research methodology, 11(4), 327–344. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645570701401305 orsi, f., geneletti, d., & newton, a.c. (2011). towards a common set of criteria and indicators to identify forest restoration priorities: an expert panel-based approach. ecological indicators, 11(2), 337–347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2010.06.001 owusu-frempong, y. (2005). afrocentricity, the adae festival of the akan, african american festivals, and intergenerational communication. journal of black studies, 35(6), 730–750. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934704268575 shenton, a.k. (2004). strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research projects. education for information, 22(2), 63–75. https://doi.org/10.3233/efi-2004-22201 thomas, r.j., jules, c., & light, d.a. (2012). making leadership development stick. organizational dynamics, 41(1), 72–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2011.12.009 van dongen, m.a. (2014). toward a standardized model for leadership development in international organisations. global business and organisational excellence, 33(4), 6–17. https://doi.org/10.1002/joe.21549 vogel, b., reichard, r.j., batistič, s., & černe, m. (2020). a bibliometric review of the leadership development field: how we got here, where we are, and where we are headed. the leadership quarterly, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2020.101381 walumbwa, f.o., avolio, b.j., & aryee, s. (2011). leadership and management research in africa: a synthesis and suggestions for future research. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 84(3), 425–439. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.2011.02034.x abstract introduction literature review research design sampling research method statistical analyses results discussion limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) nicolene e. barkhuizen department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa bongekile gumede southern business school, krugersdorp, south africa citation barkhuizen, n.e., & gumede, b. (2021). the relationship between talent management, job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions of employees in a selected government institution. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1396. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1396 original research the relationship between talent management, job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions of employees in a selected government institution nicolene e. barkhuizen, bongekile gumede received: 11 may 2020; accepted: 08 dec. 2020; published: 25 feb. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract introduction: talent management plays an essential role in the retention of competent employees in the workplace. research purpose: the main objective of this research was to determine the relationship between talent management, job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions of employees in a selected south african government institution. motivation for the study: talent management research within the context of south african government institutions has yet to reach its full potential. research design, approach, and method: this study followed a quantitative research design. data was collected from employees at the head office of the selected government institution (n = 208). a talent management measure, job satisfaction questionnaire and a voluntary turnover intention questionnaire were distributed. findings: the results showed a weak leadership talent mindset. talent management practices such as talent development, performance management, talent retention strategies and compensation practices were poorly applied. almost half of the sample was dissatisfied with their jobs, whilst 68% considered quitting their jobs. talent management practices were significantly related to job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions. job satisfaction moderated the relationship between talent management and voluntary turnover intentions. management implications: government leaders are encouraged to adopt a talent mindset that will instil a talent culture where talented individuals are allowed to add value and contribute to the success of the institution. value add: this research adds to the limited body of research done on talent management in the public sector context. conclusions: this research highlights the importance of talent management in contributing to critical individual outcomes required for sustainable government institutions. keywords: government institutions; job satisfaction; leadership talent mindset; talent management; voluntary turnover intentions. introduction the field of talent management (tm) has gained a lot of interest amongst researchers and practitioners over the past two decades. studies show that tm has predictive potential for various individual and organisational outcomes in the southern african context (barkhuizen, lesenyeho, & schutte, 2020; masale, 2020; mokgojwa, 2019). yet, the conceptualisation of talent and tm remains a pressure point in academic literature, which in turn undermines the practical application thereof in the workplace (gallardo-gallardo, thunissen, & scullion, 2020). according to gallardo-gallardo et al. (2020), questions remain as to how tm is defined and implemented within organisations. this can be a consequence of scholars who have differing opinions on whether talent is inborn or acquired (meyers, van woerkom, & dries, 2013). others debate the contextual meanings and jargon that organisations globally use to coin workplace talent (wiblen & mcdonnell, 2020). the authors believe that individuals are born with a unique gift(s). these gifts need to be uncovered and cultivated for individuals to be recognised as a talent in the workplace, and enable them to make a valuable and distinctive contribution towards achieving organisational goals. talent, therefore, is a combination of talent intelligence competencies (visser, barkhuizen, & schutte, 2018), complemented by the willingness and ability to acquire and maintain core employability skills (barkhuizen, 2015). as for a basic approach to tm, the majority of definitions appear to include the concepts of ‘attraction’, ‘development’ and ‘retention’ of core skills (davies & davies, 2010, fitzgerald, 2014, lockwood, 2006). other authors follow a more ‘strategic’ approach to tm by defining it as ‘integrated systems and processes’, ‘corporate strategy’, ‘achievement of business goals’, ‘competitive advantage’ and ‘sustainability’ (see bethke, mahler, & staffelbach, 2011; collings & mellahi, 2009; sparrow, hird, & cooper, 2015). for this study, tm is defined as a strategic process that should be integrated with the business and balanced scorecard of organisations. talent management should be value-driven and encapsulate a compelling talent value proposition (saurombe, barkhuizen, & schutte, 2017) that will enable talented employees to be a return on investment for any company (yapp, 2009). talented individuals can, therefore, be the critical role players for the competitive advantage and survival of any organisation in an ever-changing business world (rabbi, ahad, kousar, & ali, 2015). the main objective of this research was to determine the relationship between tm, job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions of employees in a selected south african government institution. more specifically, the following research questions are addressed: what is the relationship between tm and job satisfaction? what is the relationship between tm and voluntary turnover intentions? what is the role of job satisfaction in the tm-voluntary turnover intention relationship? to what extent do participants differ in their perceptions of tm practices based on their demographic characteristics? this research is motivated by the fact that context is often ignored when doing tm research (see gallardo-gallardo et al., 2020). king and vaiman (2019) posit that organisational tm operates within a broader macro-level context with micro-level tm (i.e. talent management practices) embedded in the macro-tm system. as such, we argue that the validity and contribution of tm in the south african context and especially the government sector has yet to reach its full potential. for the same reason, we also chose voluntary turnover intentions as a possible outcome of tm for local government employees in this study. a study by hom, lee, shaw and hausknecht (2017, p. 539) focused on 100 years of research on employee turnover. they concluded that researchers need to ‘delve into context-specific investigations of turnover’ instead of following a ‘one size fits all’ approach. previous research showed that tm predicts voluntary turnover intentions in other contexts (kwaeng, barkhuizen, & du plessis, 2018; theron, barkhuizen, & du plessis, 2014). lastly, we chose job satisfaction as a possible moderator in the tm-turnover relationship. according to aziri (2011), job satisfaction is one of the most complicated aspects for managers in managing their employees. moreover, job satisfaction is consistently related to the productivity and performance of businesses via employee motivation, which is pivotal for the survival of any institution (pang & lu, 2018). talent management appears to have a significant impact on the job performance of government employees via job satisfaction (magolego, barkhuizen, & lesenyeho, 2013). we believe that this research can make a useful contribution to the tm practice and outcomes thereof for south african government institutions. khilji, tariq and schuler (2015) challenge governments’ involvement in attracting and developing national talent and the effective mobilisation of expertise across government institutions. in south africa, public institutions are struggling to attract and retain talent because of high competition levels, as the private sector can entice potential staff with packages and other benefits that exceed what the government can offer (khan, 2018). moreover, budget constraints in public institutions negatively affect the running of the institution, and have a detrimental effect on personnel (ganyaupfu, 2019). the staff turnover and vacancy rate have been high over the recent financial years, and the institution continually loses talented employees (ogony & majola, 2018). a report by mzezewa (2019) shows that the voluntary turnover rate for public sector employees ranges between 4% and 7%. therefore, a study on tm, job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions is imperative from a research point of view. literature review managing talent through a talent-career life cycle this study adopts the talent career life cycle framework of schutte and barkhuizen (2016) to determine the practices that should ideally form part of the tm processes of talented individuals in the workplace. this framework includes the following tm practices: talent mindset, talent branding, talent onboarding and deployment, talent engagement, talent development, talent performance management and recognition, talent compensation and talent retention practices. talent mindset the leadership talent mindset is critical to ensure that tm strategies are supported throughout the organisation (tladi, 2016). a talent mindset can be defined as the conviction that talented employees add value to the bottom-line of any organisation (luna-arocas & morley, 2015). a study by sadeli (2012) shows that leaders need to initiate and implement talent practices to understand what fundamental factors would attract high-potential individuals. leaders can further develop learning and development programmes to build organisational competence through talent pools and smooth succession pathways. talent stakeholders should create a talent culture whereby individual talents are aligned with organisational goals (saurombe et al., 2017), and enabled to perform optimally (mokgojwa, 2019). a recent study by masale (2020) showed that leadership drive and foresight is a significant predictor of organisational values and norms, strategic direction, success orientation and organisational dynamics and innovation. studies show that leadership is an essential factor in the attraction of generation y employees (bussin, mohamed-padayachee, & serumaga-zake, 2019). zaharee, lipkie, mehlman and neylon (2018) found that all age groups view quality talent leadership as necessary. other research shows that talent leadership is a consistent predictor of the voluntary turnover intentions of employees in government institutions (matobako & barkhuizen, 2017). moreover, significant discrepancies prevail between management levels and their perceptions of the application of tm practices. the trend to emerge is that top and senior managers experience a more positive implementation of tm practices compared to middleand lower-level management, as well as supervisory and operation staff (see barkhuizen & veldtman, 2012; masale, 2020). talent branding according to wilska (2014), employer branding is an important shortand long-term strategy to acquire top talent. saurombe et al. (2017) found that fringe benefits/incentives and remuneration, leadership and managerial support, work-life balance, performance management and development, occupational health and safety, and job security are essential components of the talent employment brand of public sector institutions. rudhumbu, chikari, svotwa and lukusa (2014) found those additional factors such as an open, friendly and honest workplace environment; the recognition and rewarding of employee competencies; employee-friendly recruitment processes and a dynamic, high-performance culture is vital to attract and retain talent. a study by maurya and agarwal (2018) showed that tm practices such as fair rewards and remuneration and work-life balance were the most effective predictors of a compelling organisational brand. talent onboarding and deployment according to pike (2014), the primary goal of employee onboarding programmes is to ensure an optimal fit between a new employee and the job/organisation, which in turn should translate into higher levels of job performance. a great deal of research shows that a job-person match is not only essential to reduce stress but also prevent turnover intentions (kumar & jain, 2012). mokgojwa (2019) found that talented employees value jobs that are in line with their qualifications, experience, skills acquired and life purpose. moreover, the talent onboarding processes and induction are essential to building a culture of trust between the employer and newly hired talent employee (caldwell & peters, 2018). molefi (2015) found that poorly applied tm practices could result in a breach of the psychological contract in the employer–employee relationship. according to campbell and hirsch (2013), talent deployment can be achieved by implementing career movement opportunities for talented individuals and prioritise high potential individuals for the pivotal jobs in the organisation. the early identification of talent pools is supported by succession planning methods to nurture and maintain talent pools for business continuity. muslim, haron and hashim (2012) advise that succession planning and the identification of talent pools should be a formalised and long-term strategy for any organisation. muslim et al. (2012) further advocate that organisations reduce conflict by filling the right candidate with the right qualification in the correct position. moreover, in a more home-grown approach from within, when employees see institutions giving promotions, it motivates and allows individuals to take responsibility and stretch themselves further (mccaffry & sexton, 2018). talent engagement a great deal of research is devoted to understanding the concept of ‘engagement’ in the workplace. researchers use the terminologies such as ‘job engagement’, ‘employee engagement’ and ‘work engagement’ interchangeably. for this research, we coin the concept of talent engagement as those employees who display a high level of energy, who are willing to invest a lot of effort in their jobs and who are fully devoted to achieving work tasks and to perform (bakker & albrecht, 2018). in essence, talent engagement implies that the individual employee is satisfied with the job, and they are keen on doing their duties (mathafena, 2015). talent engagement is dependent on the availability of resources such as management and collegial support, clear job and performance expectations, compensation and work values (kotze, 2018). talent development studies by lesenyeho (2017) and saurombe et al. (2017) show that opportunities for training and development, and career advancement are critical considerations for employees to join a preferred employer of choice in the government sector. organisations are positively perceived if they display the desire to improve talent (saurombe et al., 2017). van dyk (2009) maintains that employees who consider a career path in the public sector should be exposed to developmental opportunities and widening of their skills to benefit the organisation, themselves and the community at large. according to roman (2011), career growth, learning and development are the most critical motivational aspects for retention. as such, employers should focus on implementing career development programmes not merely aimed at supporting individual development, but to engage and retain their employees (alias, noor, & hassan, 2014). according to diseko (2015), the development of public servants can improve their efficiency in service delivery. bussin and thabethe (2018) found that employees aged between 19 and 29 years had a higher preference for learning and development of career paths compared to other groups. barkhuizen (2013) found that those employees with a lower level of education, such as a bachelor’s degree experienced fewer talent development opportunities compared to those with post-graduate qualifications in government institutions. talent performance and recognition according to masri and suliman (2019), tm and performance management are strategic tools that can assist in the implementation of strategic objectives that can in turn, enhance employee and organisational performance. organisations are responsible for creating a talent culture that will enable employees to contribute to their strategic objectives (masale, 2020) and to keep talent performance sustainable (vural, vardarlier, & aykir, 2012). vural et al. (2012) further found that talent performance systems are pivotal to keep talent committed towards their jobs. talented employees therefore need role clarity, opportunities to apply skills, and participate in career decisions to achieve career success (lesenyeho, 2017). altindağ, çirak and acar (2018) found that fair and trustworthy performance appraisal systems, as well as the management of performance appraisals, are essential to instil feelings of trust, a sense of belongingness and job satisfaction for talented individuals. a study by marcus and gopinath (2017) showed that generation y and z employees perceive that institutions do not set achievable targets to earn performance rewards and are impartial in its rewards and recognition. talent compensation talent compensation and rewards are rapidly growing research fields. the latest prominent definition of total rewards refers to the components of compensation, well-being, benefits, development and recognition (worldatwork, 2020). compensation plays an essential role in the attraction and retention of talented employees. slechther, hung and bussin (2014) found that talent attraction depends on a reward package that includes high levels of remuneration as well as benefits and variable pay. according to bryant and allen (2013), factors such as compensation structure, compensation procedures, types of compensation, perceived fairness and equity in salary, and linking compensation and benefits are essential solutions to retain talent in the workplace. in the public sector, pay and employee benefits policies are subject to a collective bargaining process by all stakeholders, mostly unions and politicians (knies, boselie, gould-williams, & vandenabeele, 2018). there are monetary and non-monetary incentives that act as motivators for employees to remain in the organisation. the higher the incentives an employee receives, greater is the loss if the employee exits the organisation (van dyk, coetzee, & takawira, 2013). organisations predominantly use competitive pay packages as an effective retention strategy (roman, 2011). bussin and toerien (2015) advocate a holistic approach to total rewards in companies is required to prevent increased turnover and job-hopping. according to pregnolato, bussin and schlechter (2017), generation y considers a comprehensive rewards package such as benefits, performance, recognition, remuneration and career advancement as essential components in their decision to remain in an organisation. talent retention practices research to date shows that talent retention practices remain one of the most neglected methods in the tm process (barkhuizen et al., 2020). most of the time, government institutions do not have retention practices in place or managements neglect to have frequent talent retention conversations with employees. lewis and sequeira (2012) believe that the design and implementation of employee retention strategies is a skill that management should prioritise. mandhanya (2015) found that additional factors such as recruitment and selection, training and development, compensation packages, working environment, recognition, and rewards and leadership are significantly related to employee retention policies practised by the institution. shipena (2019) revealed that government employees who had fewer chances for promotion experienced a weaker application of talent retention practices. molefi (2015) found that public sector nurses working overtime perceived that their institution is less inclined to retain their services compared to those working fewer hours in a work week. outcomes of talent management: job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions talent management and job satisfaction job satisfaction is an essential attitudinal variable to research because of its strategic importance for organisational functioning (sila & širok, 2018), and as a critical talent indicator (paadi, barkhuizen, & swanepoel, 2019). job satisfaction has been defined in various ways that involves the individual’s attitude to aspects of the work and the work context. according to roman (2011) job satisfaction is a consequence of the degree of pleasure that one derives from compensation, management support, promotion opportunities, work environment, organisational culture, colleagues and the duties executed. job satisfaction can also include employees’ feelings towards their organisations’ performance, policies and general human resource (hr) practices (dixit & arrawatia, 2018; theron et al., 2014). there is some research evidence to link tm with job satisfaction in the public sector. magolego et al. (2013) found that talent is a positive predictor of job satisfaction in a sample of local government employees. similar results were obtained by dixit and arrawatia (2018), who found that tm in general and tm practices had a direct impact on the job satisfaction of employees. a study by hafez, abouelneel and elsaid (2017) showed that tm components, such as motivating outstanding performance, training and development, and job enrichment had a positive effect on job satisfaction. senona (2017) found that tm practices such as talent strategy, staffing (deployment), talent acquisition, talent retention and financial rewards were significant predictors of the job satisfaction of public school teachers. paadi et al. (2019) found that the availability of talent internship programmes for public sector, early-career employees significantly enhanced their job satisfaction: h1: talent management would be a significant positive predictor of the job satisfaction of government employees talent management and voluntary turnover intentions arshad and puteh (2015) regards turnover as an individual’s behaviour of leaving the organisation. according to uğural, giritli and urbański (2020), employees are the custodians of a voluntary movement of turnover, whilst involuntary turnover involves processes initiated by organisations to terminate the service of employees. voluntary employee turnover is an area of concern because of the costs associated with it (surji, 2013). moreover, talent turnover has a direct negative impact on organisational effectiveness (ahmed, sabir, khosa, ahmad, & bilal, 2016). managers should therefore have regular talent retention conversations with employees to mitigate risk factors that can result in voluntary turnover intentions (mokgojwa, 2019). research studies to date consistently relate tm to talent retention. the talent mindset of managers appears to be one of the main predictors of the turnover intentions of talented employees (matobako & barkhuizen, 2017). other talent factors contributing to voluntary turnover intentions in the workplace include inadequate compensation (theron et al., 2014), a lack of meaningful work (saurombe, 2015), poor workforce planning, talent retention strategies and talent development opportunities (masale, 2020) and inferior talent branding, talent deployment and talent engagement (shipena, 2019). lee and jimenez (2010) found that a performance-based supporting supervision combined with a performance-based reward system reduced the likelihood of voluntary labour turnover. a study by bussin and thabethe (2018) showed that a monthly salary is mostly related to attracting, retaining and motivating employees: h2: talent management would be significantly negatively related to the voluntary turnover intentions of government employees job satisfaction as a moderating variable between talent management and voluntary turnover intentions although job satisfaction is a consistent, intervening variable in many studies, research on the effect of job satisfaction in the tm-voluntary retention relation has yet to emerge. masale (2020) found that a combination of positive, work-related outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction, hope, locus of control, meaning, productive organisational energy and organisational commitment) partially moderated the relationship between talent culture and the intention to quit. there is some evidence that job satisfaction can play a moderating role between tm dimensions and turnover intentions. a study by turgut, bekmezci and ateş (2017) showed that job satisfaction partially moderated the relationship between servant leadership and employee turnover intentions. kwaeng et al. (2018) found that job and organisational satisfaction moderate the relationship between recognition and voluntary turnover intentions, as well as managing talent and voluntary turnover intentions. in light of the above discussion, we predict that: h3: job satisfaction moderates the relationship between talent management and voluntary turnover intentions of government employees research design research approach a quantitative research approach was followed using surveys to collect data. a cross-sectional research design was adopted whereby data was collected at one point in time. cross-sectional research is ideally suited to test the relationship between the variables in this study, which is tm, job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions (field, 2019). this research falls within the positivist research paradigm. positivism implies that the research methodology applied to collect data is objective or detached to measure variables and test hypotheses to derive causal explanations (antwi & kasim, 2015). sampling the head office of the respective institution was identified as the unit of analyses for this study. the researchers approached chief directors, directors, assistant directors, middle managers and the lower levels of staff to obtain a comprehensive overview of tm practices and their outcomes in the institution. the stratified random sampling technique used in the study resulted in a diverse group of respondents. five hundred questionnaires were distributed to managers and employees at the head office. the total number of respondents was n = 208, which represents a 42% response rate. according to nulty (2008), internal surveys generally receive a 30% – 40% response rate. most of the respondents in this study were female (56.3%), aged between 40 and 49 (42.3%), from the african ethnic group (82.7%), and sepedi-speaking (16.3%). the respondents had a bachelor’s degree as their highest level of educational qualification (31.8%) and employed in operational positions (38%). the majority of the participants were employed in the institution for 6 and 10 years (38.5%), and employed in their current job for 6 and 10 years (45.7%), never been promoted (58.2%), and working between 31 h and 40 h per week (53.8%). research method measuring instruments a tm measure (barkhuizen, 2018a) was used to measure the participants’ perceptions of the current application of tm practices. the tm measure consists of 48 items and measure eight tm practices. the tm practices include talent mindset, talent branding, talent onboarding and deployment, talent engagement, talent development, talent performance management and recognition, talent compensation, and talent retention practices. respondents were requested to indicate their responses on a six-point likert scale ranging from ‘strongly disagree (1)’ to ‘strongly agree (6)’. the questionnaire obtained acceptable reliabilities of α ranging from 0.793 to 0.920 (shipena, 2019). a job satisfaction questionnaire (self-developed) was used to determine the level of job satisfaction with several aspects of the work itself, and the working environment. the questionnaire consisted of 10 items. each item referred to a feature or factor that enforces or reinforces job satisfaction in the working environment. the questionnaire was distributed to subject matter experts to verify the face and content validity. the response choices offered for each item or statement is ‘strongly disagree (1)’ to ‘strongly agree (6)’. the reliability of the questionnaire was established in the present study. the final questionnaire used in the study was the employee retention questionnaire (barkhuizen, 2018b). this consisted of up to six items and determined the employees’ intentions to quit the institution. the respondents in the study were requested to rate the items on a six-point scale from ‘strongly disagree (1)’ to ‘strongly agree (6)’. this questionnaire obtained an acceptable internal consistency of 0.921 (shipena, 2019). biographical information such as gender, age, ethnicity, home language, highest educational qualification, job level, years of employment in current organisation and job, promotion opportunities and working hours were gathered from the respondents. research procedure the researchers obtained ethical clearance before the commencement of the study. the top management of the government institution granted permission to do the research. the researchers distributed the questionnaires both, as hard copies and electronically. the confidentiality of the respondents was maintained at all times. statistical analyses statistical analysis was carried out using the spss software (spss inc., 2019). the reliability and validity of the tm measure, job satisfaction questionnaire, and the voluntary turnover intention measures were determined using exploratory factor analysis and cronbach’s alpha coefficients. pearson correlation analyses and hierarchical regression analyses were applied to determine the relationships between the variables in this study. the following guidelines (see cohen, 1988) were used to determine the magnitude of the relationships where significance was obtained: r ≤ 0.29, p ≤ 0.05 (statistically significant relationship), 0.30 ≤ r ≤ 0.49, p ≤ 0.05 (practically significant, medium effect) and r ≥ 0.50, p ≤ 0.05 (practically significant, large effect). multivariate analyses of variance were used to determine whether there were any significant differences amongst demographic groups based on tm. hierarchical regression analyses were used to determine the moderating effect of job satisfaction between tm and voluntary turnover intentions. the guidelines of baron and kenny (1986) were followed. four steps are involved. first, the predictor variable (i.e. tm) of voluntary turnover intentions is added; second the moderator variable (i.e. job satisfaction). third, both the predictor and moderator variable are added. the final step involves adding the interaction variable (i.e. multiplying the predictor value with the moderation variable) together with the predictor and moderator variable. the result of the interaction variable must be significant for moderation to occur. in line with the recommendation of cohen (2008), both the independent (predictor) and moderator variables were centred on reducing multi-collinearity. ethical considerations the research was subjected to ethical clearance at southern business school. at the time of the research, sbs did not have a system whereby ethics numbers were provided to students. student numbers were used; refer to the attached letter. ethical clearance number: 21510675 results factor and reliability analyses the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy and bartlett’s test of sphericity was performed on the three measures to determine its suitability for factor analyses. the measures obtained the following kmos: tm, 0.930; job satisfaction, 0.860, and voluntary turnover, 0.902. the measures all complied with the guidelines of kmo ≥ 0.60 (hair, black, & babin, 2010) and were subsequently subjected to an exploratory factor analyses. talent management the principal component factor analyses for the tm measure initially resulted in an eight-factor solution. the tm measure was subsequently subjected to a principal component factor analysis using varimax rotation. the results showed eight underlying factors for the tm measure: talent onboarding and deployment (factor 1), talent performance management and recognition (factor 2), talent mindset (factor 3), talent engagement (factor 4), talent development (factor 5), talent compensation (factor 6), talent branding (factor 7) and talent retention practices (factor 8). the factors explained 73.233% of the total variance. eight items were deleted because of problematic loadings. the remaining items showed acceptable loadings of above 0.50. job satisfaction principal components factor analyses resulted in one underlying factor for the job satisfaction measure. the factor was labelled job satisfaction and explained 49.665% of the total variance. all items showed acceptable loadings. voluntary turnover intentions principal components factor analyses resulted in one underlying factor for the voluntary turnover intention measure. the factor was labelled job satisfaction and explained 71.982% of the total variance. all items showed acceptable loadings. the descriptive statistics and reliabilities of the measurements are reported in table 1. table 1: descriptive statistics and reliabilities of the measurements. the results in table 1 show acceptable to excellent cronbach’s alphas of α ≥ 0.70 (field, 2019) for the different factors. as regards the results on tm, about half of the participants experienced a lack of talent mindset in the institution. also, the institution seems to lack opportunities for talent development, poor performance management practices and limited talent retention strategies. almost 40% of the sample perceived inadequate talent compensation practices. the results further showed that more than 60% of the sample experienced a positive talent brand and felt that they are employed in a job that is in line with their skills, competencies, and experience. about 75% of the sample appeared to be engaged in their careers. the results further showed that about 45% of the sample was not satisfied with their jobs, whilst 68% of the sample considered quitting their jobs. the next section reports on the testing of the hypotheses developed for this study. testing of hypotheses pearson correlation analyses were used to test the first two hypotheses set for this study: h1: talent management would be a significant positive predictor of the job satisfaction of government employees h2: talent management would be significantly negatively related to the voluntary turnover intentions of government employees the results of the hypotheses testing are reported in table 2. table 2: pearson correlation analyses between talent management, job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions. the results in table 2 show that all tm practices (i.e. talent mindset, talent branding, talent onboarding and deployment, talent engagement, talent development, talent performance and recognition, talent compensation and talent retention) are practically, significantly and positively related to the job satisfaction. the effects were large. the results support hypotheses 1 that tm practices would be significantly positively related to job satisfaction. the results further revealed that all tm practices (i.e. talent mindset, talent branding, talent onboarding and deployment, talent engagement, talent development, talent performance and recognition, talent compensation and talent retention) are practically, significantly and negatively related to the voluntary turnover intentions of staff. the effect of talent development was large and for the remainder of the tm practices were medium. the results support hypothesis 2 that that tm practices would be significantly negatively related to voluntary turnover intentions. hierarchical regression analyses were used to test the moderating effect of job satisfaction tm and voluntary turnover intention. a second-order factor analysis was performed on the tm measure (total variance explained, 65.298%). all variables were centred for the analyses. the results are reported in figure 1. figure 1: regression analyses: talent management, job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions. the first step reveals a significant negative relationship between tm and voluntary turnover intentions (β = −0.582; p = 0.000), an indication that weak tm practices are associated with higher voluntary turnover intentions. talent management explained 33.9% of the variance in voluntary turnover intentions (r2 = 0.339; p < 0.001). the second step reveals a significant negative relationship between job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions (β = −0.584; p = 0.000), an indication that employees with lower levels of job satisfaction would experience higher levels of voluntary turnover intentions. job satisfaction explains 30.1% of the variance in organisational commitment (r2 = 0.301; p < 0.001). the third step in the moderation analyses yielded a significant prediction result for tm and voluntary turnover intentions (β = −0.428; p = 0.000) but a non-significant prediction result for job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions (β = −0.178; p = 0.116). talent management and job satisfaction (and its covariates) explained 34.7% of the variance in voluntary turnover intentions (r2 = 0.347; p = 0.000). the final step with the adding of the interaction variable (talent management × job satisfaction) yielded a significant result (β = −0.122; p = 0.038), with a slight increase in the total variance explained (r2 = 0.361; p = 0.000). job satisfaction, therefore, moderates the relationship between tm and voluntary turnover intentions. based on the above results, we accept hypothesis 3 that job satisfaction moderates the relationship between tm and voluntary turnover intentions. in this study, we were also interested to determine how the participants perceived tm practices based on their demographic characteristics. the results of the manova analyses between tm and demographic variables are reported next. the results in table 3 show that significant differences exist between demographic groups and tm practices based on their job level. regarding job level, post-hoc analyses revealed that middle management perceived a higher level of talent deployment than those employed on operational level (f[3.205] = 4.127, partial eta, 0.058). the effect was small. the results further showed that senior management experienced a higher level of compensation compared to lower-level management and operational-level employees (f[3.205] = 4.196, partial eta, 0.059]. the effect was small. table 3: manova analyses between talent management and demographic variables. discussion the main objective of this research was to determine the relationship between tm, job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions of employees in a selected south african government institution. we also explored the possible moderating effect of job satisfaction in the tm-voluntary turnover intentions relationship. lastly, we investigated whether significant differences exist between the participants in their perceptions of tm practices based on their demographic characteristics (i.e. gender, age, ethnicity, home language, highest educational qualification, job level, years of employment in current organisation and job, promotion opportunities and working hours). this research was motivated by the fact that little knowledge currently exists on the application of tm practices in the context of the south african government itself and the outcomes thereof (i.e. job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions) on individual employees. concerning tm practices, the results showed that the government institution lacks the leadership talent mindset to recognise the value that talented people can add to the institution. according to masale (2020) a lack of leadership talent mindset and drive undermine the creation of a talent culture and the strategic direction required to ensure the success of the institution. consequently, talented employees will not be able to function optimally in the workplace (mokgojwa, 2019) and may seek employment opportunities elsewhere (motabako & barkhuizen, 2017). the critical effect of a leadership talent mindset in individual behaviours can, therefore, not be underestimated (turgut et al., 2017; zaharee et al., 2018). in this study, a lack of career development opportunities also emerged as a problematic tm practice. this is an area of concern as career development is a critical factor in employees’ decision to seek employment with a prospective employer (lesenyeho, 2017; saurombe et al., 2017). moreover, as mentioned by roman (2011), opportunities for career growth and development are some of the critical factors that drive the turnover intentions of employees. as with previous research, talent development was significantly related to voluntary turnover intentions, implying that employees are likely to leave the organisation because of a lack of career development and growth opportunities (masale, 2020). furthermore, poor talent development practices also significantly reduced the job satisfaction of employees (hafez et al., 2017). the management of talent performance emerged as an area of great concern in this study. about half of the participants experienced a mediocre application of performance management practices. effective talent performance management practices are essential strategic tools to ensure that the strategic objectives of the organisations are met through the optimal performance of talent (masri & suliman, 2019). moreover, the fair and trustworthy application of performance management systems and appraisal contributes to feelings of trust, belongingness and job satisfaction of talented employees (altindağ et al., 2018). our results showed that poor talent performance management had a direct impact on the job dissatisfaction of employees (see hafez et al., 2017). moreover, poor performance management also enhanced the voluntary turnover intentions of employees (see lee & jimenez, 2010). the recognition and rewarding of talent and a high-performance culture is, therefore, essential to retain talent (rudhumbu et al., 2014). the results showed that about 40% of the sample perceived inadequate talent compensation practices. consequently, public sector institutions are at risk of talented employees being poached by the private sector because of higher salary offerings (khan, 2018). public sector compensation is already a complicated bargaining process that involves a vast majority of stakeholders (knies, et al., 2018). institutions should, at a minimum, possess a properly assembled compensation structure, compensation procedures, and differentiation in types of rewards to retain key talent (bryant & allen, 2013). the results of this study support senona (2017) in that inadequate compensation can reduce the job satisfaction of employees and enhance voluntary turnover intentions (kwaeng et al., 2018; theron et al., 2014). the results of this study also showed that senior management experienced better-structured compensation compared to lower-level management and operational-level employees. a possible explanation for this finding is that management earn higher salaries and incentives as they move up the ranks. another reason can be found in the popular press that continues to highlight discrepancies in the remuneration of higher-level management. schlecther et al. (2014) advise that institutions can benefit from introducing more compelling reward practices as a method to motivate employees at all job levels. the participants furthermore highlighted a lack of retention strategies in the institution. these results are concerning as about 68% of the sample voluntarily considered quitting their jobs. as mentioned by mokgojwa (2019), managers should have frequent talent retention conversations with talented individuals to ensure they are continually committed to the institution. in this study, a lack of talent retention strategies had a significant impact on the job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions of employees. in line with lewis and sequeira (2012), we argue that the design and implementation of employee retention strategies should be a skill and priority by management. in this study, about 60% of the sample perceived a somewhat adequate talent brand and talent onboarding and deployment processes. the talent employer brand is essential to attract and retain key people and support the shortand long-term strategies of organisation (wilska, 2014). the results of this study further showed that the perceived talent brand has a significant impact on the job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions of employees. government institutions should therefore develop compelling talent value propositions to support the employment brand of the institution (saurombe et al., 2017) that can foster positive work-related behaviours and prevent turnover. although most of the participants displayed a positive attitude towards talent onboarding and deployment, more attention should be devoted to expanding the effectiveness of these practices for the entire talent workforce. the induction of new talent as well as matching talent with the right positions and institutional culture is of considerable significance if institutions are to build a trust relationship with individuals and ensure optimal performance (see caldwell & peters, 2018; kumar & jain, 2012; pike, 2014). the breach of the employer–employee trust relationship and subsequent psychological contract (see molefi, 2015) at the start of a new incumbent’s employment can translate into higher voluntary turnover intentions (shipena, 2019) and undermine business continuity (campbell & hirsch, 2013; muslim et al., 2012). in line with senona (2017), we also found that a mismatch between employee–employer expectations as far as tm practices in the institution is concerned. poor deployment significantly reduced the job satisfaction of talented employees. the regression analyses in this study revealed that onboarding and talent deployment practices have a spillover effect on the job satisfaction and subsequent voluntary turnover intentions of employees. these findings again emphasise the importance of a well-established onboarding process right at the start of the tm process to ensure the continued employment of talented employees. middle management in this study reported a higher job-person match compared to lower-level employees. one can argue that management is more established in their positions whilst operational level employees still have to craft their career paths in the organisation. this assumption is open for speculation, and follow-up research is required to explain these findings. a surprising result of this study is that employees seemed to be highly engaged in their jobs and willing to walk the extra mile for the institution. in line with kotze (2018) the authors argue that institutional resources such as the relatively well implemented talented brand and talent onboarding practices could enhance talent engagement. the present study showed significant relationships between talent branding, talent onboarding and talent engagement. lastly, we found support that job satisfaction moderates the relationship between tm and voluntary turnover intentions (see kwaeng et al., 2018). these results provide evidence that individual attitudes, in this case job satisfaction, can diminish the adverse consequences of weak tm for the individual and broader organisation by reducing voluntary labour turnover. the prevention of voluntary turnover is essential for the effectiveness and survival of government institutions (ahmed et al., 2016; pang & lu, 2018). implications for human resource managers and practitioners the results of this research have important implications for hr managers and practitioners. the weak application of tm practices in this study highlights the call for hr managers and practitioners to play a more active business partner role and ensure that tm becomes a strategic imperative for government institutions. as evidenced in the present study, the absence of adequately assembled tm practices contributed significantly to the voluntary turnover intentions of government employees. high labour turnover can diminish institutional effectiveness and sustainability and prevent government institutions from delivering essential services to the broader public. the lack of leadership mindset and support for tm requires from hr practitioners to educate government leaders on the strategic institutional importance of tm. leadership talent mindset and commitment is pivotal to ensure institutional and broader societal efficiency through talented employees. a tm strategy that is aligned with the goals of the institution can also assist in eradicating the disconnect between the perceived effectiveness of tm practices between the different job levels in the government institution. a more integrated and strategic tm approach can foster an institutional culture of inclusivity that is essential for the enhancement of positive, work-related outcomes such as job satisfaction and talent retention. limitations and recommendations as with any research, this study also had some limitations. first, a cross-sectional research design was used, which limited the researchers to make cause and effect inferences over a more extended period. longitudinal studies could be beneficial to determine the interrelationships between tm, job satisfaction, and voluntary turnover intentions over multiple periods to allow for the prediction of staff turnover in any give situation. this study yielded some exciting results that could not be explored because of its quantitative and objective nature. a mixed-method research approach using semi-structured interviews can determine, for example, the reasons behind the high work engagement levels of employees, whilst experiencing poor tm and leadership practices. conclusion the study emphasised the importance of tm in the productivity and sustainability of government institutions. the research and practice of tm has still to gain its full contextual potential. in this study, our focus was on the government in a developing context such as south africa. based on our findings, more research is required to understand tm in multiple, global, contextual domains. this will also allow for cross-cultural comparisons, and prepare government institutions more adequately to manage global talent effectively. finally, government leaders are also encouraged to adopt a talent mindset that will instil a talent culture where talented individuals are allowed to add value and contribute to the success of the institutions. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contribution n.b. constructed the article and did the statistical analyses b.g. collected the data and provided editorial inputs. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data is available on request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in the article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references ahmed, z., sabir, s., khosa, m., ahmad, i., & bilal, m. (2016). impact of employee turnover on organisational effectiveness in the telecommunication sector of pakistan. iosr journal of business and management (iosr-jbm), 11, 88–96. alias, n.e., noor, n.m., & hassan, r. (2014). examining the mediating effect of employee engagement on the relationship between talent management practices and employee retention in the information and technology (it) organizations in malaysia. journal of human resources management and labor studies, 2(2), 227–242. altindağ, e., çirak, n., & acar, a. (2018). effects of talent management components on the employee satisfaction. journal of human resources management research, 2018(2018), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.5171/2018.895618 antwi, s.k., & hamza, k. (2015). qualitative and quantitative research paradigms in business research: a philosophical reflection. european journal of business and management, 7(3), 217–225. arshad, h., & puteh, f. (2015). determinants of turnover intention among employees. journal of administrative science, 12(2), 1–15. aziri, b. (2011). job satisfaction: a literature review. management research and practice, 3(4), 77–86. bakker, a., & albrecht, s. (2018). work engagement: current trends. career development international, 23(1), 4–11. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi-11-2017-0207 baron, r.m., & kenny, d.a. (1986). the moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. journal of pernality and social psychology, 51(6), 1173–1182. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173 barkhuizen, e. (2018a). talent management measure. unpublished research paper. barkhuizen, e. (2018b). talent retention scale. unpublished research paper. barkhuizen, e., & veldtman, g. (2012). the impact of talent management practices on the retention of employees in an electricity supply company. poster presented at the 30th international congress of psychology. july 2012, cape town. barkhuizen, e.n. (2015). talent management: the catalyst for the 21st century business world. inaugural lecture. north west university. retrieved from http://www.nwu.ac.za/sites/www.nwu.ac.za/files/files/mc/documents/2015%20-%20inaugural%20lecture%20prof%20barkhuizen.pdf barkhuizen, n.e., lesenyeho, d.l., & schutte, n.e. (2020). talent retention of academic staff in south african higher educational institutions. international journal of business and management, 12(1), 177–190. bethke, p., & mahler, p., & staffelbach, b. (2011). effectiveness of talent management strategies. european journal of international management, 1(5), 524–539. https://doi.org/10.1504/ejim.2011.042177 bryant, p., & allen, d. (2013). compensation, benefits and employee turnover: hr strategies for retaining top talent. compensation & benefits review, 45(3), 171–175. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886368713494342 bussin, m., mohamed-padayachee, k., & serumaga-zake, p. (2019). a total rewards framework for the attraction of generation y employees born 1981–2000 in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 17(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1066 bussin, m., & toerien, w. (2015). influence of reward preferences in attracting, retaining, and motivating knowledge workers in south african information technology companies. acta commercii, 15(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v15i1.290 bussin, m.h., & thabethe, n.n. (2018). reward preferences in south africa’s media industry. sa journal of human resource management, 16(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.1010 caldwell, c., & peters, r. (2018). new employee onboarding–psychological contracts and ethical perspectives. journal of management development, 37(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd-10-2016-0202 campbell, v., & hirsh, w. (2013). talent management: a four-step approach. brighton: institute for employment studies. cohen, m. (1988). wellness in the workplace: beyond the point of no return. health values: achieving high level wellness, 12, 16–22. cohen, b.h. (2008). explaining psychological statistics. john wiley & sons. collings, d.g., & mellahi, k. (2009). strategic talent management: a review and research agenda. human resource management review, 19(4), 304–313. davies, b., & davies, j.b. (2010). talent management in academics, international journal of educational management, 24(5), 418–426. diseko, m.e. (2015). the relationship between talent management and retention of teachers in botswana [unpublished masters dissertation]. north-west university. dixit, s., & arrawatia, m. (2018). the impact of talent management on job satisfaction and employee performance in public sector banks of rajasthan. international journal of creative research thoughts, 6(1), 425–435. du plooy, j., & roodt, g. (2013). biographical and demographical variables as moderators in the prediction of turnover intentions. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i1.1070 field, a. (2019). discovering statistics using spss. (4th ed.). london: sage publications. fitzgerald, m. (2014). talent and talent management insights. nhs leadership academy. gallardo-gallardo, e., thunnissen, m., & scullion, h. (2020). talent management: context matters. the international journal of human resource management, 31(4), 457–473. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2019.1642645 ganyaupfu, e. (2019). fiscal sustainability in south africa: recent evidence. journal of social economics, 1(4), 159–167. hafez, e., reem abouelneel, r., & elsaid, e. (2017). an exploratory study on how talent management affects employee retention and job satisfaction for personnel administration in ain shams university egypt. journal of management and strategy, 8(4), 1–17. hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2010). multivariate data analysis: a global perspective. (7th edn.). new jersey: pearson education. hom, p., lee, t., shaw, j., & hausknecht, j. (2017). one hundred years of employee turnover theory and research. journal of applied psychology, 102(3), 530–545. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000103 kamal, m., & lukman, z. (2017). the effects of talent management on performance management. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 7(9), 372–385. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v7-i9/3333 khan, s. (2018). factors attracting and retaining professionals: a comparative study between the private and public sector [unpublished masters dissertation]. north-west university. kheswa, p. (2015). the role of employer branding in talent attraction and talent retention in south africa. johannesburg: university of witwatersrand. unpublished paper. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10539 khilji, s. e., tarique, i., & schuler, r. s. (2015). incorporating the macro view in global talent management. human resource management review, 25, 236–248. king, k. a., & vaiman, v. (2019). enabling effective talent management through a macro contingent approach: a framework for research and practice. brq business research quarterly, 22(3), 194–206. knies, e., boselie, p., gould-williams, j., & vandenabeele, w. (2018). strategic human resource management and public sector performance: context matters. the international journal of human resource management, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1407088 kotze, m. (2018). how job resources and personal resources influence work engagement and burnout. african journal of economic and management studies, 9(2), 148–164. https://doi.org/10.1108/ajems-05-2017-0096 kumar, s., & jain, a. (2012). essence and consequences of stress in the workplave. journal of organisation & human behaviour, 1(3), 1–11. kwaeng, n., barkhuizen, e.n., & du plessis, y. (2018). exploring factors affecting talent retention in a selected state owned enterprise in the north west province. paper presented at the 12th international business conference, mauritius. lee, g., & jimenez, b. (2010). does performance management affect job turnover intention in the federal government. the american review of public administration, 41(2), 168–184. https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074010368991 lesenyeho, d.l. (2017). talent management of early career academics in south african higher education institution [unpublished doctoral thesis]. north-west university. lewis, a., & sequeira, a. (2012). effectiveness of employee retention strategies in industry. ssrn electronic journal, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2167719 lockwood, n.r. (2006). talent management: driver for organizational success hr content program. shrm research quarterly, 51(6), 1–11. luna-arocas, r., & morley, m. (2015). talent management, talent mindset competency and job performance: the mediating role of job satisfaction. european journal of international management, 9(1), 28–51. https://doi.org/10.1504/ejim.2015.066670 magolego, h., barkhuizen, e., & lesenyeho, d. (2013). talent management and job performance: the mediating role of job satisfaction. 30th pan pacific conference (pp. 132–235). 3–6 june. johannesburg: ppba. mandhanya, y. (2015). a study on talent retention practices: fostering employee retention. pacific business review international, 7(9), 40–49. marcus, a., & gopinath, n. (2017). impact of the demographic variables on the employee engagement – an analysis. ictact journal on management studies, 3(2), 502–510. https://doi.org/10.21917/ijms.2017.0068 masale, r. (2020). exploring the antecedents and consequences of a talent culture for government institutions in botswana. vol. unpublished doctoral thesis. mmabatho: department of industrial psychology. masri, n., & suliman, a. (2019). talent management, employee recognition and performance in research institution. studies in business and economics, 14(1), 127–140. https://doi.org/10.2478/sbe-2019-0010 maurya, k., & agarwal, m. (2018). organisational talent management and perceived employer branding. international journal of organizational analysis, 26, 2, 312–330. mathafena, v. (2015). a talent management framework for the private sector. bloemfotein: university of free state, unpublished thesis. matobako, m., & barkhuizen, e.n. (2017). leadership talent mindset as a predictor of the motivation and retention of junior correctional officials. proceedings of the 34th international academic conference, florence, italy. (pp. 17–33). isbn 978-80-87927-43-4. mccaffry, r., & sexton, l. (2018). improving government perfomannce through effective talent management. unpublished research report, vol. 4, association of international certified professional accountants, durham, nc, us. meyers, m., van woerkom, m., & dries, n. (2013). talent – innate or acquired? theoretical considerations and their implications for talent management. human resource management review, 23(4), 305–321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2013.05.003 mokgojwa, d.m. (2019). the development of a talent risk management tool for academic staff in south african higher education institutions [unpublished doctoral thesis]. north west university. molefi, m. (2015). a structured model for talent management for professional nurses in the north-west province. phd industrial psychology, north-west university. mmabatho: department of industrial psychology, north-west university. muslim, s., haron, s., & hashim, g. (2012). talent pool management, succession planning or replacement planning? finding a fit for public universities: the initial finding. proceedings of international conference on public policy and social science, uitm melaka malaysia. november 2012, pp. 1–9, singapore: springer, isbn 978-981-287-076-6. mzezewa, t. (2019). state of staff turnover & retention in municipalities of south africa. unpublished research report. johannesburg: lgseta. nulty, d.d. (2008). the adequacy of response rates to online and paper surveys: what can be done? assessment & evaluation in higher education, 33(3), 301–314. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930701293231 ogony, s., & majola, b. (2018). factors causing employee turnover in the public service, south africa. journal of management & administration, 1(1), 77–100. paadi, k., barkhuizen, e., & swanepoel, s. (2018). exploring the antecedents and outcomes of a graduate intrenship programme. mmabatho: saapam. pang, k., & lu, c. (2018). organizational motivation, employee job satisfaction and organizational performance: an empirical study of container shipping companies in taiwan. maritime business review, 3(1), 36–52. https://doi.org/10.1108/mabr-03-2018-0007 pike, k. (2014). new employee onboarding programs and person-organization fit: an examination of socialization tactics. rhode island: schmidt labor research center. retrieved from http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/lrc_paper_series/24 pregnolato, m., bussin, m., & schlechter, a. (2017). total rewards that retain: a study of demographic preferences. sa journal of human resource management, 15(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15.804 rabbi, f., ahad, n., kousar, t., & ali, t. (2015). talent management as a source of competitive advantage. journal of asian business strategy, 5(9), 208–214. ramogale, m. (2016). the relationship between organisational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intention in the deaprtment of rural development and land reform, limpopo province (pp. 1–165). unpublished dissertation. polokwane: university of limpopo. roman, k. (2011). assessing talent management within the western cape provincial treasury (wcpt). master of public administration dissertation. stellenbosch: university of stellenbosch. rudhumbu, n., chikari, g., svotwa, d., & lukusa, j. (2014). use of employer branding as a tool for attracting and retaining talent: evidence from private higher education institutions (pheis) in botswana. journal of education and practice, 5(28), 61–71. sadeli, j. (2012). the influence of leadership, talent management, organizational culture and organizational support on employee engagement. international research journal of business studies, 5(3), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.21632/irjbs.5.3.30-50 saurombe, m.d. (2015). talent management as a predictor of positive work-related outcomes for academic staff in a higher education institution [unpublished masters dissertation]. north-west university. saurombe, m., barkhuizen, n., & schutte, n. (2017). exploring the determinants of a talent value proposition for sustainable higher education institutions: a conceptual paper. winter london business research conference. london: proceedings of 2017 winter london business research conference. saurombe, m., barkhuizen, n., & schutte, n. (2017). exploring the determinants of a talent value proposition for sustainable higher education institutions: a conceptual paper. paper presented at the winter london business research conference 11–12 november, london uk. schlechter, a., hung, a., & bussin, m. (2014). understanding talent attraction: the influence of financial rewards elements on perceived job attractiveness. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.647 schutte, n.e. & barkhuizen, e.n. (2016). the development of a talent life cycle for government institutions. paper presented at 34th international business research conference, london, uk. senona, m.e. (2017). the relationship between talent management and job satisfaction among teachers in limpopo province: a case of maleboho east circuit [unpublished masters dissertation]. southern business school. shipena, d. (2019). a study of talent managment practices in the namibian police force. unpublished masters dissertation. krugersdorp: southern business school. sila, e., & širok, k. (2018). the importance of employee satisfaction: a case study of a transportation and logistics service company. management, 13(2), 111–136. https://doi.org/10.26493/1854-4231.13.111-136 sparrow, p., hird, m., & cooper, c. (2015). strategic talent management (chapter 2). in c. cooper (ed.), do we need hr? repositioning people management for success. london: palgrave macmillan. spss inc. (2019). spss for windows. chicago, il: spss inc. surji, k. (2013). the negative effect and consequences of employee turnover and retention on the organization and its staff. european journal of business and management, 5(25), 52–65. theron, m., barkhuizen, n., & du plessis, y. (2014). managing the academic talent void: investigating factors in academic turnover and retention in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), 14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1117 tladi, k. (2016). leadership mindset: the existence or absence of leadership styles that encourages talent management and its practices and how this affects both career orientation and burnout. mmabatho: department of industrial psychology, north-west university. turgut, h., bekmezci, m., & ateş, m. (2017). the moderating role of job satisfaction on the relationship between servant leadership and turnover intention. journal of business research, 9(2), 300–314. https://doi.org/10.20491/isarder.2017.273 uğural, m.n., giritli, h., & urbański, m. (2020). determinants of the turnover intention of construction professionals: a mediation analysis. sustainability, 12(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12030954 van dyk, h. (2009). administration vs. talent: the administrative context for talent manaagement. journal of public administration, 44(3.1), 520–530. van dyk, j., coetzee, m., & takawira, n. (2013). satisfaction with retention factors as predictors of the job embeddedness of medical and information technology services staff. southern african business review, 17(1), 57–74. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.433 visser, k., barkhuizen, n., & schutte, n. (2018). exploring the role of a work integrated learning programme in facilitating sustainable graduate employment in the transport industry: a conceptual paper. organisational studies and innovation review, 3(3), 65–75. vural, y., vardarlier, p., & aykir, a. (2012). the effects of using talent management with performance evaluation system over employee commitment. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 58(1), 340–349. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.1009 wiblen, s., & mcdonnell, a. (2020). connecting ‘talent’ meanings and multi-level context: a discursive approach. the international journal of human resource management, 31(4), 474–510. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2019.1629988 wilska, e. (2014). employer branding as an effective tool in acquiring talents. journal of positive management, 5(3), 46–54. https://doi.org/10.12775/jpm.2014.019 worldatwork. (2020, march 25). world at work. retrieved from https://www.worldatwork.org/docs/marketing/2020_bro_trmodel_j16197_fnl.pdf yapp, m. (2009). measuring the roi of talent management. strategic hr review, 8(4), 5–10. https://doi.org/10.1108/14754390910963856 zaharee, m., lipkie, t., mehlman, s.k. & neylon, s.k. (2018). recruitment and retention of early-career technical talent. research-technology management, 61(5), 51–61. about the author(s) marcel weideman gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, illovo, johannesburg, south africa karl b. hofmeyr gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, illovo, johannesburg, south africa citation weideman, m., & hofmeyr, k.b. (2021). corrigendum: the influence of flexible work arrangements on employee engagement: an exploratory study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1522. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1522 note: doi of original article published: https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1209 corrigendum corrigendum: the influence of flexible work arrangements on employee engagement: an exploratory study marcel weideman, karl b. hofmeyr published: 26 july 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. in the version of this article published earlier, weideman, m., & hofmeyr, k.b. (2020). the influence of flexible work arrangements on employee engagement: an exploratory study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1209. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1209, the first author’s affiliation was given incorrectly in the ‘authors’ and ‘affiliations’ sections. the correct affiliation should be ‘gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, illovo, johannesburg, south africa’ instead of ‘independent, johannesburg, south africa’. this correction does not alter the study’s findings of significance or overall interpretation of the study results. the authors apologise for any inconvenience caused. abstract introduction literature review method results discussion of the findings practical implications limitations recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) wasnaar mokoena department of people management and development, faculty management sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa cecilia m. schultz department of people management and development, faculty management sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa leigh-anne paul dachapalli department of people management and development, faculty management sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa citation mokoena, w., schultz, c.m., & dachapalli, l-a.p. (2022). a talent management, organisational commitment and employee turnover intention framework for a government department in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1920. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1920 original research a talent management, organisational commitment and employee turnover intention framework for a government department in south africa wasnaar mokoena, cecilia m. schultz, leigh-anne paul dachapalli received: 24 feb. 2022; accepted: 10 may 2022; published: 19 oct. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: talent management should be used as a strategy to improve organisational commitment and reduce employee turnover intention. research purpose: the purpose of this research was to develop a talent management, organisational commitment and employee turnover intention framework for a government department in south africa by determining the relationship between these three variables. motivation of the study: most studies focus on talent management and organisational commitment in the private sector, with limited studies conducted on the development of a talent management, organisational commitment and employee turnover intention framework for a government department in south africa. research approach/design method: a survey was conducted by using a non-probability sample of 372. a quantitative research approach was used. data were collected manually by using a questionnaire. structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data. main findings: the results of the study showed that talent management acted as a mediator between organisational commitment and employee turnover intention. there was a significant relationship between talent management, organisational commitment and employee turnover intention. practical/managerial implications: talent management should form part of a strategic approach to attract and retain talent in the department. talent management as the mediator explains the causal links between organisational commitment and employee turnover intention. contribution and value addition: the new knowledge was produced by the development of a framework for talent management, organisational commitment and employee turnover intention at a government department in south africa. keywords: talent management; organisational commitment; employee retention; employee turnover intentions. introduction background of the study according to nijis, dries, van vlasserlaer and sels (2021), organisations today invest significantly in talent identification practices, as they believe that these will support them in detecting and developing the future leaders. determining who should be included in these talent pools remains a challenge. talent management (tm) is one of the critical issues faced by organisations worldwide – recruiting and retaining talented employees is key to achieving strategic objectives and remaining competitive. musakuro and de klerk (2021) and poisat, mey and sharp (2018) stated that organisations typically adopt one of the three strategies when they would like to recruit people to fill vacancies. organisations either identify talented employees within their existing workforce or focus on the recruitment of external candidates by headhunting senior managers or signing up candidates with potential from the reputable graduate programmes. erasmus, naidoo and joubert (2017), govender and grobler (2017) and shobane (2017) opined that the war for talent remains a challenge to many organisations. human capital is an essential part of any organisation and employees’ skills, competencies and expertise are indispensable resources assisting the organisation to achieve a competitive advantage. research gap and purpose theys and schultz (2020) stated that the ongoing shortage of skills and poor talent management strategies is the root cause for the organisational failure to retain key talent and contributed to poor service delivery in public institutions. little information is available on studies conducted on tm as a link between organisational commitment and employee turnover intention in the south african public sector. talent management should be developed and integrated into the overall organisational strategies to assist organisations to recruit talent and retain it; this is essential to ensure a lower turnover rate. organisational commitment and employee turnover intention reflect employees’ level of willingness to remain employed and contribute to the organisation’s success. the south african department under study does not have a framework for tm, organisational commitment and employee turnover intention that can assist human resource (hr) managers and line managers to properly manage talent, organisational commitment and employee turnover. the purpose of the study was to assist with closing this research gap by developing a framework for tm, organisational commitment and employee turnover intention at a south african government department. literature review talent management according to lesenyeho, barkhuizen and schutte (2018), barkhuizen and matobako (2017) and van zyl, mathafena and ras (2017), tm is a systematic utilisation of human resource management (hrm) activities to attract, select, develop and retain talent. lewis and heckman (2006) stated that the term ‘talent management’ is a typical process of implementing hr practices and functions, for example, recruitment, selection, development and retention of employees. lesenyeho et al. (2018) and musakaro and de klerk (2021) posited that tm generated more interest from academics and hr practitioners in the 21st century and changed into various stages over the period. barkhuizen and matobako (2017) stated that whilst tm practices hold benefits for both individual and organisational performance, poor implementation of tm practices has a negative impact on psychological contracts, organisational commitment, work engagement, motivation, job satisfaction, well-being and retention of employees in diverse settings. lee (2018) and musakuro and de klerk (2021) opined that in the last decade, organisations have increasingly identified and developed talent, resulting in improved employee and organisational performance. implementing tm strategies is an ongoing concern for executives, because failure to do it properly may have a negative impact on the effective operation of the business. organisational commitment ngirande (2021) and pieters, van zyl and nel (2020) opined that in the 21st century successful organisations rely on the ability to manage human capital so that employees are committed to assisting their organisations to achieve their objectives. employees’ organisational commitment is characterised by a strong sense of acceptance of their role in supporting the organisation’s goals, values and objectives and the desire to remain members of the organisations where they are employed. according to setsena, botha and paul-dachapalli (2021), organisational commitment refers to the employees’ emotional attachment to the organisation. it is concerned with the extent of the employees’ desire to remain with the organisation and the relative strength of an individual’s identification with a particular organisation. organisational commitment has three dimensions – affective commitment (ac), continuance commitment (cc) and normative commitment (nc). affective commitment skosana, maleka and ngonyama-ndou (2021) defined ac as the employees’ emotional attachment to the organisation. employees’ emotional attachment to the organisation is influenced by several dimensions, such as the employees’ positive work experiences, loyalty and working environment. pieters et al. (2020) posited that employees with a high level of ac and nc are satisfied with their organisations because they reflect a high degree of intention to stay with the organisation; however, employees with a high level of cc look for new jobs and score high on anxiety and depression. continuance commitment according to govender and grobler (2017) and pieters et al. (2020), cc refers to the employees’ awareness of the financial costs associated with leaving the organisation. the level of commitment determines the extent to which the employee may choose to remain with the organisation. some employees are stuck with one organisation based on reasons such as lack of alternative employment and consideration of the investment they had made in the organisation during the period of employment. employees assess the cost associated with leaving the organisation compared with the cost of staying and make decisions based on this analysis. normative commitment according to paltu and brouwers (2020), nc refers to employees’ general perception of their moral obligation to the organisation. employees with a strong nc have a sense of moral obligation to remain committed and serve the organisation regardless of the circumstances. normative commitment does not conform to any individual feeling of attachment to the organisation but rather reflects moral obligation to the organisation. employee turnover els, brouwers and lodewyk (2021) and gupta, bhattacharya, sheorey and coelho (2018) opined that in recent years turnover has become a critical factor for hrm and organisations. paltu and brouwers (2020) stated that turnover intention is described as a conscious and deliberate intention of the employee to leave the organisation, turnover intentions are likely to lead to voluntary turnover because the process is initiated by the employee, compared with the decision taken by the employer to terminate contracts. turnover refers to individual’s actual behaviour of leaving the organisation based on the personal reasons. employees are responsible for voluntary movement of turnover; however, involuntary turnover process involves the steps initiated by the employer based on the actions of the employee to terminate the contract of employment (barkhuizen & gumede, 2021). according to kwon (2017), turnover as a concept is receiving attention in the public sector because of the escalating employee turnover rate linked to poor management of grievances. employee turnover is a serious challenge for organisations worldwide because of fast-growing economies and increased job opportunities. a study conducted by the price water house coopers (pwc) around 2020 found that the highest turnover rate in south africa is (11%); however, 50% of employee turnover was because of resignation, reasons cited by employees included job satisfaction, compensation, benefits not meeting their needs and inability to achieve their career objectives (pwc, 2020). bazana and reddy (2021) opined that turnover is the employees’ voluntary decision to cease their membership of a particular organisation, resulting from the working conditions and other social and psychological factors. turnover is inevitable in some instances; it is detrimental and costly for both the individual and organisation. according to dhanpat, modau, lungisani, mabojane and phiri (2018), the cost of turnover is high in south africa especially in call centre industry; this excludes employees with a low morale who choose to remain with the organisation and display counterproductive behaviour and a lack of contribution to organisational performance. akgunduz and sani (2017) and bazana and reddy (2021) mentioned that voluntary employee turnover refers to the employees’ conscious and deliberate decision to leave the organisation. it occurs when employees quit the organisation to accept jobs elsewhere. turnover has become a huge problem for organisations, exceeding the normal corporate layoffs. organisations struggling to retain employees need to value and appreciate the contribution they make to the organisation. talent management frameworks shikweni, schurink and van wyk (2019) conducted a tm study in a prominent south african internationally operating construction company and the main objective of their study was to develop a framework for tm practices. this study reported the following findings: talent management in the construction industry supposes mutual actions from the organisation and its talented employees. internal enablers drive business outcomes in alignment with a well-crafted strategy. a regulatory framework should acknowledge labour dynamics and diversity. effective implementation of tm practices results in sustainability and competitiveness. shikweni et al. (2019) stated that tm is enhanced by the development of policies and procedures to cater for employee needs. their framework emphasises the four practices steering tm in line with organisational strategy, viz. sourcing, managing, growing and compensation. van zyl et al. (2017) studied the development of a tm framework for the private sector. the study found that formal tm initiatives should be linked to hrm functions, flowing vertically from the corporate strategy-making process. the study identified the following dimensions as critical for the successful implementation of tm: attraction, sourcing and recruitment, development, performance management, talent reviews, rewarding and recognition, engagement and retention. employees interacting with line managers could improve the degree of employee retention (van zyl et al., 2017). several studies have been conducted on tm frameworks. the findings of two of those were selected to compare with this study. the objectives of the study conducted by van zyl et al. (2017) were to develop a tm framework in the private sector. this study established several important tm dimensions to assist organisations with the implementation of talent management strategies. a study conducted by barkhuizen and gumede (2021) reported a significant negative relationship between tm and voluntary turnover intentions, an indication that weak tm practices are associated with higher employee turnover intention. the study also found that a lack of career development was significantly related to voluntary turnover intention. employees are likely to leave the organisation because of a lack of career development and growth opportunities. poor talent development practices also significantly reduce the job satisfaction of employees (barkhuizen & gumede, 2021). according to lesenyeho et al. (2018), tm factors such as talent development, compensation and recognition are significantly positively related to organisational commitment and negatively related to employee turnover intention. talent management practices are significant predictors of staff turnover intentions. labour turnover has negative consequences in terms of loss of knowledge and experience, time and cost related to training new employees. abazeed (2018) posited that talented employees are selected based on their skills, knowledge and competencies and are nurtured through leadership development programmes. malkawi (2017) and betheke-langenegger et al. (2011) supported the findings of the study conducted by abazeed (2018). this is a significant finding because there is no substantial evidence in the literature to support it. talent management plays a crucial role in influencing employees’ psychological state, which determines whether they stay with the company or leave. organisational commitment frameworks according to previous studies, the relationship between organisational commitment and employee turnover intention is negative and significant (allen & mayer, 2003; gnanakkan, 2010; malaeb & garavan, 2013; ncube, 2016). baron and kenny (1986) and ncube (2016) found that organisational commitment did not mediate the relationship between tm and employee turnover intention. however, other studies reported that tm had a positive and significant relationship with organisational commitment (malaeb & garavan, 2013). organisational commitment was significantly and negatively related to employee turnover intentions. no relationship was found when adding organisational commitment as a moderator between tm and employee turnover intention. talent attraction was significantly positively related to turnover intention of the employees (gnanakkan, 2010). employee turnover intention frameworks ngo henha (2019) reported that demographic variables of age and gender had a significant relationship with turnover intention. this finding was further confirmed by the results from the studies conducted by mobley et al. (1979) and zhou and volkwein (2004). the model postulated that the senior employees are likely to reduce turnover intention. theron, barkhuizen and du plessis (2014) reported that more than half of the academics considered quitting their jobs to accept better jobs with better compensation. talent management practices exacerbated employees’ intentions to quit (lesenyeho et al., 2018). the same results are associated with the length of service: the study assumed that the more years employees worked for the same organisation the less likelihood that they would leave or lessen the turnover intention. committed employees are less likely to leave their organisations. method research method empirical research was conducted in this study using a survey method. the study followed a quantitative research approach within a positivistic research paradigm. musakuro (2018) opined that positivism philosophy holds the view that there is one objective reality that is singular and separate from consciousness. knowledge is acquired using scientific means where data can be measured using objective methods. factual data can be measured using controlled variables, independent of the observer and the instrument used, to give an objective account of the real world. a questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents and conclusions were drawn based on the analysis of the data (manenzhe & ngirande, 2021). population the population of the study consisted of employees in the government department under study. this department had 9 provincial offices, 125 labour centres, a compensation fund, an unemployment insurance funds and a head office. sample for the purposes of the study, the researchers used purposive non-probability sampling, targeting employees from salary level 6 to salary level 13 who attended the training interventions conducted by the department at any given point. training interventions such as the advanced management development programme, emerging management development programme and an executive development programme were offered. these training interventions were available for all the categories of employees within the department. a survey was conducted by using a non-probability sample of 372. only 214 employees completed the questionnaires in the study. the study obtained the response rate of 57.5%. research approach and design a quantitative research method and survey research design were used for the purpose of the study. a self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents (miko, 2017; poisat et al., 2018). the results were presented in graphs and tables. the choice of research approach was influenced by the nature of the research problem under review. research instrument according to setsena et al. (2021) and maleka, paul-dachapalli, ragadu, schultz and van hoek (2020), a questionnaire is defined as a written, structured document containing a set of questions designed to collect data from the respondents for the research purposes. the questionnaire used a five-point likert scale (1 represents strongly disagree and 5 represents strongly agree). the questionnaire has four sections: biographic information, 29 questions on tm, 24 questions on organisational commitment and 20 questions on employee turnover intention. talent management measurement the tm questionnaire from van hoek (2014) was used. this questionnaire consisted of 29 questions. examples of items posed in this questionnaire are: i was attracted by the compensation package offered by the organisation. i am satisfied with the way in which the organisation’s performance management system is applied. there are career improvement programmes in the organisation that empowers me to advance my career. in this study, performance management obtained a cronbach’s alpha of 0.85; however, remuneration had a cronbach’s alpha of 0.62 and career development a cronbach’s alpha of 0.63. in this case two factors, that is, remuneration and career development, obtained a cronbach’s alpha just below the acceptable level and performance management obtained an acceptable level of 0.85 that made the scale more reliable. organisational commitment measurement the organisational commitment questionnaire of allen and meyer (1990) was used. this questionnaire consisted of 24 questions. examples of items posed in this questionnaire are: i would be very happy to spend the rest of my career with the organisation. i enjoy discussing my organisation with people outside it. this organisation has a great deal of personal meaning for me. the three dimensions of organisational commitment obtained different cronbach’s alphas in this study: ac had 0.87, cc scored 0.75 and nc obtained 0.79. employee turnover intention measurement the turnover intentions scale developed by of o’ driscoll and beehr (1994) and used by riley (2006) was used. this questionnaire consisted of 20 closed-ended questions. examples of items posed in this questionnaire are: my work schedule is fair. i think the level of pay is fair. i consider my work load to be fair. this study produced a cronbach’s alpha of 0.91; the instrument obtained an acceptable level of cronbach’s alpha, which makes it acceptable and reliable. work and family life balance (wflb), work environment and work demands were detected as the three factors that were generated after conducting a factor analysis. data collection procedure the questionnaire was manually distributed to the respondents. sealed boxes were used for the collection of completed questionnaires to ensure anonymity and confidentiality. returned responses with missing values were excluded from the data analysis. data analysis the statistical analysis was conducted by using the statistical package for social science (spss) (oosthuizen, mayer, & zwane, 2021). the structural equation modelling (sem) approach was adopted to analyse data, followed by bootstrapping methods used to estimate the parameters and associated standard errors in the direct and indirect effects in the statistical analysis (sem) through the non-parametric method. measurement model evaluation measurement model assessment seeks to evaluate the consistency and validity of the manifest variables. consistency is evaluated through an individual manifest and construct reliability test. however, the validity of the variables was tested through convergent and discriminant validity. individual manifest reliability explains the variance of latent variables by calculating standardised outer loadings of the manifest variable (hair, sarstedt, hopkins, & kuppelwiesser, 2014; memon & rahman, 2014). structural equation modelling consists of two parts, namely measurement model evaluation and testing of the structural model. the measurement model is intended to evaluate the validity and consistency of the manifest variables. validity of the variables is tested based on convergent and discriminant validity and individual manifest reliability explains the variance of individual manifest variables relative to latent variables by calculating standardised outer loadings of the manifest variables; however, consistency evaluations are performed through an individual manifest and construct reliability test. ethical considerations the faculty committee of research ethics of tshwane university of technology approved the questionnaire used in the study. according to koch, geber and de klerk (2018), research ethical considerations are upheld throughout the process of conducting research. for the purposes of this study, the research was guided by the approved guidelines of the department under study, viz. the tut ethics committee’s approval. the ethical issues of the research were considered whilst conducting research and permission was received from the department under study before conducting the research. participation of the respondents was on a voluntary basis. all the ethical guidelines, principles and procedures were adhered to during the data collection process. results profile of the respondents the profile of the respondents is presented in table 1. it was clear that the majority of the respondents were females (62.15%), between 31–40 years old (47.20%), administration clerks (37.38%), worked at the department for 1 to 5 years (30.84%), possessed a diploma (28.97%) and worked in limpopo (21.96%). factor analysis a principal component factor analysis was conducted to identify the factors of each variable: for tm, three factors were identified, namely performance management (perf), remuneration (remu) and career development (care). for organisational commitment, three factors were identified, namely ac, cc and nc. for turnover intention, three factors were identified, namely wflb, work environment (work) and demand of the job (demand). reliability analysis the cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated to assess the reliability of each scale. the cronbach’s alpha should be more than 0.70 to make the scale reliable, but a lower level has been acceptable in some literature (nunnaly, 1978, p. 245 as quoted by reynaldo & santos, 1999, p. 3). the cronbach’s alphas of the questionnaires were reported in the given research instrument section. structural equation model results direct effect the direct effect of the statistical analysis of the structural equation model was performed through the non-parametric analysis. the non-parametric analysis method established that the loadings close to 1 show a strong relationship with the perc 0975 equal to 95% confidence interval. further loading with zero involved in the reading of interval (−0.12832) becomes insignificant. bootstrapping was used to estimate the parameters and associated standard errors in the direct and indirect effect in the statistical analysis of the structural equation model using the non-parametric method. table 2 depicts the total effects of the different paths from the direct and indirect statistical results (hair et al., 2014). table 1: profile of the respondents. the findings reported in table 2 indicate a significant positive direct relationship between ac and performance management, β = 0.409, confidence interval (ci) (0.279, 0.555). the results of the model assessment indicate a significant positive direct relationship between ac and remuneration, β = 0.413, the ci (0.260, 0.548). the relationship between ac and career development is also positive and significant: β = 0.434 ci (0.306, 0.568). the positive relationships indicate that the increase in ac results in an increase in performance management, remuneration and career development. table 2: direct relationship estimation of parameters and associated standard errors. the results indicate that there is a significant positive direct relationship between the ac and work environment (β = 0.155), ci (0.022) and (0.290). moreover, the results reveal a positive direct relationship between ac and demands of the job. however, it emerged that there is a significant positive direct relationship between affective commitment, and work life and family balance, β=0.380, confidence interval (ci) 0.201 and 0.541. the results further indicate a significant positive direct relationship between nc and work environment, β = 0.180, ci (0.046) and (0.292). the results show a significant positive direct relationship between nc, wflb and demand of the job, β = 0.192, ci (0.004) and (0.356). the model result reported a significant positive direct relationship between nc and job demand, β = 0.185, ci (0.021) and (0.336). the results indicate a significant positive direct relationship between performance management and work environment, β = 0.242, ci (0.105) and (0.38). furthermore, the results of the model assessment reveal a significant positive direct relationship between career development and wflb β = 0.260, ci (0.09786) and 0.4500. the results further show a significant positive direct relationship between career development and wflb, β = 0.260, ci (0.097) and 0.45. the results also reveal a significant positive direct relationship between remuneration and work environment, β = 0.235, ci (0.093) and (0.392). the goodness of fit (gof) can be used as a global criterion that helps to evaluate the performance of the model in both the inner and outer models. goodness of fit assesses the overall prediction performance of the model. the drawback with the gof index is that there is no threshold that allows one to determine the statistical significance and there is no number that could be considered a good gof value or an index of average prediction for the entire model. figure 1 supports the findings based on the bootstrapping method; it shows the direct and indirect relationships between the key variables. figure 1: a framework for talent management, organisational commitment and employee turnover intention at a government department in south africa. discussion of the findings the purpose of this study was to develop a tm, organisational commitment and employee turnover intention framework for a government department in south africa by determining the relationship between these three variables. the results pointed to significant relationships between tm, organisational commitment and employee turnover intention. other studies reported that hr practices were negatively and significantly related to turnover intention; however, the hr practices were positively and significantly related to organisational commitment and the relationship between organisational commitment and turnover intention was negative and significant. these results were confirmed by allen et al. (2003), gnanakkan (2010) and malaeb and garavan (2013). the study conducted by chang (2018) on tm found that the relationship between tm practices and employee turnover intention was not significant. this study found that tm mediated the relationship between organisational commitment and turnover intention. baron and kenny (1986) and ncube (2016) found that organisational commitment did not mediate the relationship between tm and turnover intention. ncube (2016) opined that a limited number of studies have explored the implementation of tm in the public service (national and provincial governments); however, a study was conducted on tm as a strategic tool to retain talent. the findings of this study that hr practices were negatively and significantly related to employee turnover intention were supported by other studies. the hr practices were positively and significantly related to organisational commitment. the relationship between organisational commitment and employee turnover intention was negative and significant (ncube, 2016), confirming the results of allen and mayer (2003), gnanakkan (2010) and malaeb and garavan (2013). according to thakur and bhantngar (2017), the results of various studies indicated that tm practices, for example, employee recruitment, selection, training and talent retention – resulted in decreased employee turnover intention. the results of the study were supported by the findings of gnanakkan (2010), career development was positively and significantly related to employee turnover. gnanakkan (2010) and malaeb and garavan (2013) found that there was a positive relationship between tm and employee turnover intention and a positive relationship between employee turnover intention and performance management. the study conducted by chang (2018) disagreed with the findings of this study and found that tm practices did not have a significant impact on employee turnover intention. in studies conducted by baron and kenny (1986) and ncube (2016), organisational commitment did not mediate the relationship between tm and employee turnover intention. however, other studies reported that tm had a positive and significant relationship with organisational commitment (ncube, 2016). practical implications the complex changes in the world of work highlight the importance of tm, organisational commitment and employee turnover intention at a government department in south africa. management should develop tm strategies on retaining talent to improve organisational performance. talent management should be linked to the day-to-day operation of the business. based on the findings of the study, managers need to invest time in training and development of the low and middle-level employees and make them aware of opportunities for promotion. employees should be encouraged to attend the identified developmental initiatives – in-house or external training – to make employees feel recognised by the employer. should the recommendations of the study not be implemented, this will result in poor tm practices in the department and increased staff turnover because of poor organisational commitment. limitations this research had some limitations: firstly, limitations relate to the limited body of knowledge, as this was the first study conducted in a government department. secondly, the research was conducted in one government department and therefore the research results cannot be generalised to other government departments. finally, the sample included only employees who participated in tm practices of the department and excluded the majority of the employees. the study was affected by the limited number of respondents and few senior managers sampled participated in the survey. the researcher used a quantitative method to arrive at the research results and maybe the results could have been explained better if both methods had been used. recommendations it is recommended that the government department should properly implement tm strategies to retain talent for the organisation and thus remain competitive. sustained career improvement programmes empower employees to advance their careers and contribute to organisational success. this will assist the organisation to retain key employees because they expressed satisfaction with the promotion opportunities. the department needs to enhance the organisational culture and ethical standards. the lack thereof will affect the organisation negatively. the workforce will display counterproductive behaviour. finally, the department needs to boost the financial rewards it gives to employees for good performance. financial rewards serve as a motivating factor for employees and excellent performance should be rewarded to motivate employees to perform better to assist the organisation to remain competitive. in future research, this study can be duplicated in all the south african government departments to compare results and develop a universal model that can be used across different government departments. other mediators that will link organisational commitment and employee turnover intention should be investigated. a study should be conducted to determine whether this framework will assist with the improvement of service delivery and retaining key talent. finally, a qualitative study can be conducted to obtain rich data about tm, organisational commitment and employee turnover intention. conclusion the purpose of this study was to develop a tm, organisational commitment and employee turnover intention framework for a government department in south africa by determining the relationship between these three variables. it was found that there were significant relationships between tm, organisational commitment and employee turnover intention. there were demographic differences regarding tm, organisational commitment and employee turnover intention. finally, tm mediated between organisational commitment and employee turnover intention. talent management interventions should be developed to improve organisational commitment and to reduce turnover intention. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge ms magriet engelbrecht who assisted with the language editing. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions w.m. conducted his research and c.m.s. and l.-a.p.d. were the supervisors. funding information the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. data availability the data were recorded on an excel spreadsheet and captured into the spss software package. the data were kept electronically as well as in hard copy. the original completed questionnaires were also stored. disclaimer the views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abazeed, r.a.m. (2018). the impact of talent management on organisational commitment of the employee of telecommunication companies in jordan: the mediating role of employee work engagement. international journal of academic research in accounting, finance and management science, 8(4), 153–162. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijrafms/vb-i4/5501 akgunduz, y., & sani, s.c. (2017). the effects of employee advocacy and perceived organisational support on job embeddedness and turnover intention in hotels. journal of hospitality and tourism management, 31, 118–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2016.12.002 allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organisation. journal of occupational psychology, 63(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.x allen, d.g., shore, l.m., & griffeth, r.w. (2003). the role of perceived organizational support and supportive human resources practices in the turnover process. journal of management, 29(1), 99–118. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630302900107 amusan, l. (2018). multinational corporations’ (mncs) engagement in africa: messiahs or hypocrites? journal of african foreign affairs, 5(1), 41–62. https://doi.org/10.31920/2056-5658/2018/v5n1a3 baron, r., & kenny, d. (1986). the moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychology research: conceptual, strategic and statistical consideration. journal of personality and social psychology, 51(6), 1173–1182. https://doi.org/10/10/1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173 barkhuizen, n., & matobako, m.p. (2017). leadership talent mindset as a predictor of motivation and retention of junior correctional officials. in proceedings of the 34th international academic conference. 17 october, 2017. international institute of social and economic science. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1396 barkhuizen, n.e., & gumede, b. (2021). the relationship between talent management, job satisfaction and voluntary turnover intentions of employees in a selected government institution. south african journal of human resource management, 19(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1396 bazana, s., & reddy, t. (2021). a critical appraisal of the recruitment and selection process of the public protector in south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 19(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1207 betheke, p., mahler, p., & staffelbach, b., (2011). effectiveness of talent management strategies. european journal of international management, 1(5), 524–539. https://doi.org/10.1504/ejim.2011.042177 chang, y., wei-chung, c., che-yuan, c., & hui-ru, c. (2018). transformational leadership influence on unit performance: cross-level moderated mediation evidence. leadership & organization development journal, 39(4), 554–571. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-082017-0224 dhanpat, n., modau, f.d., lungisani, p., mabojane, r., & phiri, m. (2018). exploring employee retention and intention to leave within a call centre. south african journal of human resources, 16, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16io.905 els, v., brouwers, m., & lodewyk, r.b. (2021). quality of work life. effects on turnover intention and organisational commitment amongst selected south african manufacturing organisations. south african journal of human resource management, 19(4), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1407 erasmus, b., naidoo, l., & joubert, p. (2017). talent management implementation at an open distance e-learning higher institution: the views of senior line managers. international review of research, 18(3), 1–16. retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f17f/240dd8c2002f gnanakkan, s. (2010). mediating role of organizational commitment on hr practices and turnover intention among ict professionals. journal of management research, 10(1), 39–61. govender, l., & grobler, s. (2017). job satisfaction and organisational commitment in a south african airline. african journal of hospitality and leisure, 6(2), 1–24. retrieved from www.ajhtl.com/uploads/7/1/6/3/7163688/article_25_vol_6__2__2017.pdf gupta, p.d., bhattacharya, s., sheorey, p., & coelho, p. (2018). relationship between on boarding experience and turnover intention: intervening role of locus of control and self-efficacy. industrial and commercial training, 50(2), 60–81. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict-03-2017-0023 hair, j.f., sarstedt, m., hopkins, l., & kuppelwiesser, v.g. (2014). partial least square equation modeling (pls-sem): an emerging tool in business research. european business review, 26(2), 106–121. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr-10-2013-0128 koch, t., geber, c., & de klerk, j.j. (2018). the impact of social media on recruitment: are you linkedin? south african journal of human resource management, 16(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.861 kwon, h.w. (2017). a social embeddedness perspective on turnover: intention the role of informal networks and social identity evidence from south korea. public personnel management, 46(3), 263–287. https://doi.org/10.1177/009102601771759 lee, g.j. (2018). talent measurement: a holistic model and routes forward. south african journal of human resource management, 16(2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.990 lesenyeho, d.l., barkhuizen, n.e., & schutte, n.e. (2018). exploring the casual relationship between the antecedents and consequences of talent management for early career academics in south african higher education institutions. south african journal of human resources, 16(9), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.912 lewis, r.e., & heckman, r.j. (2006). talent management: a critical review. human resource management review, 16(2), 139–154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2006.03.1 malaeb, r.c., & garavan, t. (2013). talent and leadership development practices as drivers of intention to stay in lebanese organisation: the mediating role of affective commitment. the international journal of human resource management, 24(21), 4026–4062. https://doi.org/1080/09585192.2013.789445 maleka, m.j., paul-dachapalli, l.-a., ragadu, s.c., schultz, c.m., & van hoek, l. (2020). performance management, vigour and training development as predictors of job satisfaction in low-income workers. south african journal of human resource management, 18(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1257 malkawi, e. (2017). the relationship between talent management and organisational commitment case study: aqaba special economic zone authority, jordan. international business and management, 14(1), 80–84. https://doi.org/10.3968/9195 manenzhe, p.m., & ngirande, h. (2021). the influence of compensation, training and development on organisational behaviour. journal of industrial psychology, 47, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v47i0.1845 memon, a.h., & rahman, i.a. (2014). sem –pls analysis of inhibiting factors of cost performance for large construction projects in malaysia: perspective of clients and consultants. sci. world j, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/165158 mobley, w.h., horner, s.o., & hollingsworth, a.t. (1978). an evaluation of precursor of hospital employee turnover. journal of applied psychology, 63, 408–414. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.63.4.408. miko, j.a. (2017). collaboration strategies to reduce technical debt. doctoral thesis. minneapolis, mi: walden university college of management and technology. retrieved from https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent musakaro, r.n. (2018). a framework for talent management in the higher education sector : a study at a selected university of technology, western cape, south african. unpublished master’s thesis, cape peninsula university of technology, cape town. musskaro, r.n., & de klerk, f. (2021). academic talent: perceived challenges to talent management in south africa higher education sector. south african journal of human resource management, 19(0), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i0.1394 ncube, c.m. (2016). mediating the relationship between talent management practices and intention to quit. master’s dissertation. johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. retrieved from https://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/bitstream/handle ngirande, h. (2021). occupational stress, uncertainty and organisational commitment in higher education: job satisfaction as a moderator. south african journal of human resource management, 19(2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1376 ngo henha, e.p. (2019). an exploratory study on the predictors of turnover intentions among expatriate academics and talent retention strategies at selected universities in kwazulu-natal south africa. thesis. durban university of technology. nijis, s., dries, n., van vlasserlaer, v., & sels, l. (2021). reframing talent identification as a status organising process: examining talent hierarchies through data mining. human resource management journal, 32(1), 169–193. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12401 o’driscoll, m.p., & beehr, t.a. (1994). supervisor behaviour, role stressors and uncertainty as predictors of personal outcome for subordinates. journal of organisational behaviour, 15, 141–155. oosthuizen, r.m., mayer, c.h., & zwane, n.j. (2021). burnout, employee engagement and self-perceived employability in the south african public sector. south african journal of human resource management, 19(3), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1787 paltu, a., & brouwers, m. (2020). toxic leadership: effects on job satisfaction, commitment, turnover intention and organisational culture within the south african manufacturing industry. south african journal of human resource management, 18(4), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i0.1338 pieters, w.r., van zyl, e., & nel, p. (2020). testing a model of turnover intention: lectures at the university of namibia. south african journal of human resource management, 18(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i0.1450 pwc. (2020). hr quarterly first edition. gauteng: pwc south africa. retrieved august 03, 2022, from https://pwx.co.za poisat, p., mey, m.r., & sharp, g. (2018). do talent management strategies influence the psychological contract within a diverse environment? south african journal of human resource management, 16(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.1044 reynaldo, j.a., & santos, a. (1999). cronbach’s alpha: a tool for assessing the reliability of scales. journal of extension, 37(2), 1–4. riley, d. (2006). turnover intention. the mediation effect of job satisfaction, affective commitment and continuance commitment. master’s thesis. hamilton: university of waikato. retrieved from https://www.scirp.org/(s(351jmbntvnsjt1aadkposzje setsena, l.n., botha, c.t., & paul-dachapalli, l.-a. (2021). relationship between organisational commitment and effectiveness of human resource management practices in a south african information technology company. south african journal of human resource management, 19, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1586 shikweni, s., schurink, w., & van wyk, r. (2019). talent management in the south african construction industry. sa journal of human resources, 17, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1094 shobane, t.s. (2017). the integration of talent management and knowledge management in the south african public service. master’s dissertation. pretoria: unisa. retrieved from https://www.semantincscolar.org/paper skosana, t.b., maleka, m.j., & ngonyama-ndou, t.l. (2021). predictors of affective commitment at municipalities in the nkangala district, mpumalanga. south african journal of human resource management, 19, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.1567 thakur, s.j., & bhatnagar, j. (2017). mediator analysis of job embeddedness: relationship between work–life balance practice and turnover intentions. employee relations, 39(5), 718–731. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-11-2016-0223 theron, m., barkhuizen, e.n., & du plessis, y., 2014. managing the academic talent void: investigating factors in academic turnover and retention in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1117 theys, n.a., & schultz, c.m. (2020). a qualitative perspective of talent management. journal of contemporary management, 17(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.35683/jcm19111.56 van hoek, c.e. (2014). a competitive talent management strategy for a natural resources mining company in selected countries in africa. dtech thesis. pretoria: tshwane university of technology. retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/69614158 van zyl, e.s., mathafena, r.b., & ras, j. (2017). the development of a talent management framework for the private sector. south african journal of human resource management, 5, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.880 zhou, y., & volkwein, j.f. (2004). examining the influence of faculty departure intentions: a comparison of tenured versus non tenured faculty at research university using nsopf-99. research in higher education, 45, 139–176. https://doi.org/10.1023/b:rihe.0000015693.38603.4c abstract introduction literature review results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) retno p. setyaningrum department of management, faculty of economics and business, universitas pelita bangsa, bekasi, indonesia muafi muafi department of management, faculty of business and economics, universitas islam indonesia, yogyakarta, indonesia citation setyaningrum, r.p., & muafi, m. (2022). the effect of creativity and innovative behavior on competitive advantage in womenpreneur. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a2069. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.2069 original research the effect of creativity and innovative behavior on competitive advantage in womenpreneur retno p. setyaningrum, muafi muafi received: 10 aug. 2022; accepted: 19 oct. 2022; published: 18 nov. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: indonesia is currently in the industrial revolution 4.0 and 5.0. woman entrepreneurs must be able to increase creativity, innovative behaviour and trust in digital technology to have sustainable competitive advantage for their firm. research purpose: this study aimed to examine and analyse the impact of creativity and innovative behaviour on competitive advantage mediated by trust in digital technology for women entrepreneurs. motivation for the study: the literature of creativity, innovative behaviour, trust in digital technology and competitive advantage is still limited in women entrepreneur context. research approach/design and method: a quantitative approach with cross-sectional survey design was used to collect data from 300 small and medium enterprises (smes) female entrepreneurs in the special region of jogjakarta and west java, but only 206 were sampled. the data analysis technique used structural equation modelling with partial least squares (sem-pls) 23. main findings: creativity and trust in digital technology have no significant effect on competitive advantage, but creativity positively and significantly affects trust in digital technology and innovative behaviour. innovative behaviour positively and significantly affect trust in digital technology and competitive advantage. trust in digital technology does not mediate the effect of creativity on competitive advantage. practical/managerial implications: women entrepreneurs are able to increase competitive advantage with innovative behaviour. likewise, creativity and innovative behaviour require trust in digital technology and become able to increase competitive advantage. contribution/value-add: this study fills the literature gap by explaining the relationship between creativity, innovative behaviour, trust in digital technolog, and competitive advantage in the context of women entrepreneurs in indonesia. keywords: creativity; innovative behavior; trust in digital technology; competitive advantage; women entrepreneur. introduction the industrial revolution 4.0 and 5.0 has changed the way creative actors carry out their activities. today opportunities are given by creative industry 4.0 to developing countries such as indonesia today. currently, many women entrepreneurs in indonesia are starting to move forward in the creative industry. over the past half-century, women have been present in income-generating activities and have taken concrete steps to maximise women’s entrepreneurial activities by increasing their creativity (agussani, 2020; shah et al., 2017). creativity and innovative behaviour are very relevant discussion topics in research work, which are seen as important factors in the creation of competitive advantage. however, some researchers have stated that creativity has a direct effect on product innovative behaviour but is not directly related to competitive advantage (bulut et al., 2022; elidemir et al., 2020; ferreira et al., 2020; zameer et al., 2020). because of the intense competition to achieve competitive advantage, women entrepreneurs are required to devote more efforts to improve creative performance through trust (chen et al., 2021; heuwinkel, 2013), so that trust and creativity become an important driving force in increasing competitive advantage. trust in digital technology is a very crucial aspect in this digital era (fink et al., 2015), especially in the context of small and medium enterprises (smes). trust is very important in every aspect of social life, including its rising practice in the business context. likewise, innovative behaviour is an important driving force for companies to maintain competitive advantage and drive sustainable economic growth (mady et al., 2022; qu et al., 2022). creativity is positively predicted as innovative behaviour through organisational trust (hughes et al., 2018; sano & sumiya, 2021; yu et al., 2018). therefore, this study proposes that trust in digital technology mediates creativity on competitive advantage and the relationship between creativity and innovative behaviour and innovative behaviour on trust in digital technology. furthermore, trust in digital technology on competitive advantage and the influence of innovative behaviour on competitive advantage is very important and becomes a strategic issue in this era. competitive advantage is very much needed by companies in order to maintain their position and win the competition with their existing and potential rivals. it has been considered as the prerequisite for company success for a long time. many companies are currently developing and evolving their businesses, all looking for the best way, the best mechanism, to run their business and gain competitive advantage (khan et al., 2019; kiyabo & isaga, 2020). most of them have also realised that one of the most important aspects in the company that can help them to achieve competitive advantage is human resources (hamadamin & atan, 2019; kryscynski et al., 2021; minbaeva, 2018). individual, or employees, in the organisation, can exert their numerous capabilities to help companies achieve their goals. this study specifically considers creativity as the predecessor for competitive advantage. furthermore, this study also employs innovative behaviour and trust in digital technology as the underlying mechanisms that link the relationship between creativity and competitive advantage. the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of (1) creativity on competitive advantage, (2) creativity on trust in digital technology, (3) trust in digital technology on competitive advantage, (4) creativity on innovative behaviour, (5) innovative behaviour on trust in digital technology, (6) innovative behaviuor on competitive advantage and (7) trust on digital technology in mediating the effect of creativity on competitive advantage. literature review creativity creativity is a capacity that is highly targeted in all science disciplines. in this regard, creative thinking is operated as a force that drives new knowledge and novel ideas, as well as encourages growth and changes in the community. creativity is an act of changing new and imaginative ideas into reality (márquez et al., 2016; oecd, 2019). the discussion regarding creativity has been known in three paradigmatic stages, namely the genius stage, the creative person stage and the social stage (glǎveanu, 2010; gralewski, 2015). creativity also acts as a component for the managerial process, which will contribute to the development and competitive advantage of a firm (benea-popuşoi & duca, 2022). creativity in the organisational context is a valuable, useful, novel and effective creation to a number of people. therefore, in de facto, creativity is seen as the precursor of innovative behaviour (chaubey & sahoo, 2021; leoni & cristofaro, 2022). creativity can be understood as the process, result and product of an effort to develop and introduce new ways in carrying things out (anderson et al., 2014). creativity can be practiced by individuals, teams or groups and even organisations. previous studies have shown that organisations or companies can obtain various benefits from the existence of creativity in the organisation, as it contributes to innovation, effectiveness and organisational longevity (amabile et al., 1996; shalley et al., 2009). employees who possessed creative ideas, develop it and disseminate it to other members of the organisation will enable companies to adapt to changes, seize the opportunities, as well as win the competition (shalley et al., 2004). innovative behaviour innovative behaviour is an important factor in the recognition of entrepreneurship, and it is considered to have a significant influence on the development of the company (amir, 2015; kamran & ganjinia, 2017; lumpkin et al., 2011). the growth and development of a company cannot be maintained without additional innovation. innovation is seen as the manifestation of creativity into a product or service that can be utilised. all innovations are started with the existence of creative ideas (anderson et al., 2014; marković et al., 2012). the resulting innovation is associated with a new or better form of product or process, and the results of the creative process function as an important tool for innovative processes (antonites & vuuren, 2005; juliana et al., 2021). introducing new products is viewed as a part of innovative processes, which is seen as an engine that can drive sustainable growth and development (kadam, 2015; uzunidis, 2009). the process of transforming creative ideas, or creativity, can result as an innovative product or innovation. however, creativity is not always a result of innovation (neto et al., 2019; zhou, 2003). trust in digital technology a number of scholars have emphasised the importance of trust in the entrepreneurship programme (agrawal et al., 2018; sundin et al., 2016). the ability to rely on mutual trust is a fundamental element in determining the success of interfirm partnerships (bidault & castello, 2009; daudi, 2007; fadol & sandhu, 2013). trust is a key aspect of many social interactions and a critical condition that triggers collaboration and efficient organisational performance. trust is also playing an increasingly important role in online commerce, and in business negotiations, especially in situations involving risk, uncertainty and interdependence (akhmedova et al., 2020; chen et al., 2021). trust in digital transaction or technology is often seen as something that can actually motivate an individual to actively carry out digital transactions (khan et al., 2021; kittl & petrovic, 2003). without trust, digital and traditional transaction will be dominated by chaos, fear and inertia. therefore, the role of trust in digital transactions and technology is very necessary (kuldosheva, 2021; rainie & anderson, 2017; saragih & sinay, 2015). competitive advantage competitive advantage is what makes an entity’s goods or services superior to all other customer choices. competitive advantage contributes to the company’s performance in the long term. this allows entrepreneurs to apply individual skills as a trigger or stimulus for flexibility and high creativity towards business competitive advantages (zainol & al mamun, 2018). companies that use their internal capability to seize the opportunities and neutralise threats, as well as hindering their internal weaknesses will have more possibility to obtain competitive advantage compared with their competitors. therefore, companies must understand their strengths and weaknesses and combine them with the external competitive environment (barney, 1995, 2014). in order to reach competitive advantage, companies can use resource-based view (rbv) and value, rarity, imitability and organisation (vrio) framework. these tools and views help companies to analyse and identify their strength and weaknesses in competing in the volatile business environment. in simple terms, rbv and vrio framework proposes that the valuable, rare, inimitable and inexploitable resources and capabilities of organisation will lead companies to sustainable competitive advantage (barney, 1995, 2014). the relationship between creativity and competitive advantage creativity will produce imaginative skills to create something new. the creative industry is one of the most influential economic sources, and it plays a role in increasing economic growth. in practice, this industry relies heavily on the role of human resources and other economic resources in creating creativity (ferreira et al., 2020). creativity is needed for the creative industry to create a competitive advantage. competitive advantage is considered a very important element to achieve. to maintain a competitive advantage, the entity must have the ability to show a difference or relative value that is more significant than its competitors, and this requires creativity from its human resources (urbancova, 2013). moreover, barney (2014) also mentioned that competitive advantage is the responsibility of all individuals in the organisation, which includes managers, supervisors and employees. companies should exploit and utilise valuable, rare and inimitable resources rather than just imitate them from their competitors. when individuals or employees in the company have creativity, engage in it and practice it on their daily basis, they will be able to lead the company to achieve competitive advantage and win the competition: hypothesis 1: there is a significant positive effect of creativity on competitive advantage. the relationship between innovative behaviour and competitive advantage in the current industrial revolution 4.0 and 5.0, the competitive strategic management of an organisation determines its focus on how to be able to achieve competitive advantage. thus, awareness from management is needed to make something different. moreover, organisations also need to continuously make profits and meet customers’ demands more effectively (aitbar, 2021). organisations have learned that in addition to reducing costs, it is necessary to create differentiation through innovative behaviour in its products, which places an emphasis on human resources that are essential to develop and maintain competitive advantage (kuo et al., 2022). organisational innovative activities significantly affect competitiveness based on unmatched skills and abilities to be able to face competitive advantage (bibi et al., 2020). employees who practice innovative behaviour can help their organisation to achieve superior performance and competitive advantage and win against their competitors. liu (2017) conducted a study on 595 hotel managers in china and found that competitive advantage can be achieved through increased innovative behaviour. innovative behaviour is seen as a complex process that involves knowledge and information searching, idea generation, as well as selection and application of new ideas to improve organisational performance (ottenbacher & gnoth, 2005). moreover, elidemir et al. (2020) also examined the influence of innovative behaviour on competitive advantage in 323 customer contact or frontline employees at 4and 5-star hotels in turkey. the findings indicate that innovative behaviour has a positive impact on competitive advantage: hypothesis 2: there is a significant positive effect of innovative behaviour on competitive advantage. the relationship between creativity and trust in digital technology there is a definite relationship between trust and shared creativity, leaving room for uncertainty about the relationship between the two variables, all of which should support higher levels of creativity (perry-smith & mannucci, 2017). the impact of belief at different levels on creativity manifests mainly in three ways, namely: (1) trust has a positive effect on creativity; (2) interpersonal trust helps to increase the shared creativity of the whole group through mediators such as team communication and shared commitment with security that evokes trust and motivation to take risks and (3) group trust has a positive, mostly indirect effect on creativity through mediating variables such as collaborative culture or climate and team communication (perry-smith & mannucci, 2017). new digital technologies definitely help in the development of the creative process going further. technology and creativity are related to each other through special segment and artistic segment (bereczki & kárpáti, 2021; fragnito & annarumma, 2014; niemi, 2018). hypothesis 3: there is a significant positive effect of creativity on trust in digital technology. the relationship between creativity and innovative behaviour it is generally believed that there is a strong positive relationship between creativity and innovative behaviour, especially at the individual level. the team size affects the relationship between creativity and innovative behaviour, small teams need new, more creative ideas, but having too many team members hinders the interaction, coordination, exchange and participation necessary for the effective implementation of ideas (e.l. telyani et al., 2022). innovative behaviour that is performed by individual or employees in an organisation is a result of their intention to generate new ideas, processes and procedures. creativity and innovation, which is the idea creation and idea implementation, are two interdependent aspects in an organisation (karatepe et al., 2020). this is because creativity is considered an effective tool that enables employees to carry out innovative behaviour in carrying out their daily tasks. a number of scholars have also confirmed the existing relationship between creativity and innovative behaviour in different contexts (abdullah et al., 2016; carnevale et al., 2017; karatepe et al., 2020; tajeddini et al., 2020). therefore, the hypothesis proposed is: hypothesis 4: there is a significant positive effect of creativity on innovative behaviour. the relationship between innovative behaviour and trust in digital technology innovative organisations must create an environment of mutual trust within the company. trust is an important factor in creating and facilitating innovative acceptance (lazányi, 2017). trust, security and innovative behaviour are closely intertwined. innovative behaviour brings change, change brings risk, risk brings potential for failure and failure triggers various emotions that can stop or hinder trust. when trust is built on purpose, innovative behaviour can thrive in business (chen et al., 2021), in the realisation of practices that turn the idea into an innovative behaviour in new products, services and work practices. the open innovative behaviour paradigm has been successfully applied in high-tech settings. innovative behaviour in information and communication technology is increasingly being used to monitor process paths, resulting in the creation of new value networks (bencsik et al., 2022; schwarzmüller et al., 2018): hypothesis 5: there is a significant positive effect of innovative behaviour on trust in digital technology. the relationship between trust in digital technology and competitive advantage trust is the basis of every business relationship, especially when the relationship is maintained in the long term (abosag & lee, 2013; mouzas et al., 2007), thus having an impact on competitive advantage. business reputation will have an impact on trust that ultimately has an impact on competitive advantage; however, a negative company reputation can lead to various negative things, consequences such as low vendor reliability and distrusting customers so they are unable to face competitive advantage (esenyel & emeagwali, 2019). digital technology is rapidly changing the basis of competitive advantage. trust in digital disciplines is necessary for competitive advantage and explains how to transform industries as diverse as entertainment, pharmaceuticals and automotive (awamleh & ertugan, 2021): hypothesis 6: there is a significant positive effect of trust in digital technology on competitive advantage hypothesis 7: trust in digital technology mediates the effect of creativity on competitive advantage methodology and research design this research is carried out using quantitative approach, which is aimed to understand the causal relationship between variables. this research used a survey because it was based on a number of variables that explain a phenomenon under study (mackenzie & lutz, 1989). the population in this study was sme entrepreneurs in the special region of jogjakarta and west java with a target of 300 smes. the authors conducted the study for 5 months, starting from february to june 2022. the respondents were asked to fill out the questionnaires for 2 weeks each. the sampling technique used was purposive random sampling. after sorting, it turned out that the sample collected and answered completely came from 206 sme women entrepreneurs. this study uses primary data, which is conducted by giving questionnaires to sme entrepreneurs in the special region of jogjakarta and west java. as this study used purposive sampling, there are several criteria that must be met by the respondents, namely (1) smes that had been operating for at least 3 years, (2) smes that had a net profit of idr 5 million per month and (3) smes entrepreneurs whose education was at least high school. the first and second criteria are used to make sure that the smes have been through the business dynamics and completely understand their business. the third criterion is to indicate that the women entrepreneurs in smes are capable to anwers to the research question. the statistical model used is structural equation modelling (sem) assisted by partial least square analysis techniques. the likert scale technique was used with a score of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), which was used to measure the variables of creativity, trust in digital technology and innovative behaviour. meanwhile, competitive advantage used a score of 1 (very not superior) to a score of 5 (very superior) compared with similar smes from competitors for the last 4 years. the results of the validity and reliability tests can be explained in the sub-explanation of the research results. the sources and the number of indicators for each variable are as follows: creativity has three indicators modified from fink et al. (2015) and kelly morr (2019) trust in digital technology has three indicators modified from abosag and lee (2013); frei and morriss (2020); jaffe (2018); mouzas et al. (2007); nterai and liu (2019). innovative behaviour has three indicators modified from amabile et al. (1996); purc and lagun (2019). competitive advantage has four indicators modified from malik et al. (2021) and tukamuhabwa et al. (2021). figure 1: conceptual framework. furthermore, the operational definitions and measurement of variables are as follows: creativity is the ability to go beyond traditional ways of thinking or acting and to develop new and original ideas, methods or objects. trust in digital technology is someone’s hope and belief in digital technology because of considerations of security, convenience and economic benefits. innovative behaviour is behaviour that produces creative and innovative ideas and solutions that are useful for increasing work efficiency and effectiveness. competitive advantages are the added value of smes, which is an advantage that is superior compared with competitors with similar businesses both in terms of products and services. results respondents’ description the majority of respondents in this study had high school education (82%), came from smes that had been operating for at least 3 years (87%), came from smes that had a net profit of at least idr 5m (78%) and came from smes that had a trading business type (78%). outer model evaluation the author first carried out the outer model evaluation and identified that there is an item from creativity construct with a loading factor value of < 0.70, namely cr1. in innovative behaviour construct, there are three items with loading factor value of < 0.70, namely ib1, ib2 and ib3. items with the loading factor value of < 0.70 are invalid and must be eliminated from the research model. furthermore, the research model is revised, and the invalid items are dropped from the model. finally, the output of outer loading after the research model is revised shows that all constructs with items or reflective indicator are valid. figure 2 displays the full model of the research after the invalid items that have loading factor value below 0.7 are eliminated from the research model. after it is confirmed that all items are valid, the researchers carried out the reliability test. furthermore, hypothesis test is performed to explore the relationship between variables in the inner model evaluation. figure 2: full model of research result. furthermore, the items have also met the criteria of reliability test. the output of construct reliability and validity indicates that the average variance extracted (ave) value for all reflective construct is > 0.5; thus it has met the requirement for convergent validity and reliability. in addition, the value of composite reliability of all reflective construct belongs to very good category (> 0.70); thus it can be concluded that all indicators of reflective construct are reliable or have met the assumption of reliability test. more details about the value of each construct are shown in table 1. table 1: results of construct reliability and validity. inner model evaluation based on the results of data processing using partial least squares (pls) version 23, the path results are obtained as shown in table 2 as follows: table 2: original sample, standard deviation, t-values. the output of path coefficient indicates that the variable of creativity does not have significant effect on competitive advantage. this finding is proven from the value of t-statistics of 0.855, or < 1.96; thus it can be stated that the first hypothesis is rejected. moreover, the construct of innovative behaviour has a positive and significant effect on competitive advantage, which is proven from the findings of t-statistics value of 2.405 or > 1.96. therefore, the second hypothesis is accepted. the construct of creativity is then found to have a positive and significant effect on trust in digital technology, which is proven from the value of of t-statistics of 3.405 or > 1.96. therefore, the third hypothesis is accepted. the construct of creativity has a positive and significant effect on innovative behaviour, with the t-statistics value of 10.116 or > 1.96. this means that the fourth hypothesis is accepted. the construct of innovative behaviour has a positive and significant effect on trust in digital technology. this is indicated from the t-statistics value of 8.683 or > 1.96; thus the fifth hypothesis is accepted. furthermore, the construct of trust in digital technology is found to not have a significant effect on competitive advantage. this is indicated by the findings of t-statistic value of 1.463 or < 1.96; thus the sixth hypothesis is rejected. finally, the author carried out indirect effect testing to find out the mediating role of trust in digital technology. the indirect effect testing is performed using sobel test. based on the results of sobel test, the t-statistics value (table 2) indicates the value of 1.301, which is smaller than 1.96. this means that creativity cannot indirectly affect competitive advantage through trust in digital technology. in other words, the output of specific indirect effect indicates that the construct of trust in digital technology does not mediate the influence of creativity on competitive advantage; thus the seventh hypothesis is rejected. discussion the purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of creativity on competitive advantage in mediating digital trust and innovative behaviour. this study involved smes in the special region of jogjakarta and west java, indonesia. the results show that most respondents had high creativity and innovative behaviour that encouraged business development through new and original ideas, methods or objects. those behaviours are needed to be able to survive. this becomes a challenge for entrepreneurs to face competitive advantage, and this has been proven in this research that creativity has an effect on competitive advantage as supported by research from marković et al. (2012); petrakis and kafka (2016). in understanding how to facilitate creativity throughout the organisation and to maximise employee creativity, innovative behaviour is required (mumford et al., 2002). khan and mohiya (2020) recognised innovative behaviour as a series of direct processes from identifying problems, creating new creative ideas, evaluating and implementing them. so being creative is considered a prerequisite for innovative behaviour, and this study states that there is an influence of creativity on innovative behaviour, and this is supported by several researchers who state that the impact of hr practices can be explored on employee creativity and innovative behaviour (panigrahy & pradhan, 2015). trust in digital technology and creativity are the two fundamental elements that drive the reproduction and development of human society. most studies regard trust in digital technology as a variable or construct of existing organisational theory, yielding inconsistent and mixed findings on the hierarchy of trust in digital (chen et al., 2021; wu et al., 2016). this study states that creativity affects trust in digital technology, but it also states that trust in digital technology does not affect the influence of creativity on competitive advantage. trust in digital technology involves and has faith in others and goodness and intentions even when risk is involved. therefore, creativity will emerge if there is digital trust from the organisation and from its customers, so that they are able to face a competitive advantage (chen et al., 2021). the existence of trust in digital technology will create a synergy effect and innovative ideas (afsar et al., 2020; song & yu, 2018), and this supports this research where innovative behaviour affects trust in digital technology. this is supported by researchers who state that with trust in digital, innovative behaviour not only helps companies to avoid the social and economic costs of environmental destruction but also helps businesses to develop new market opportunities and competitive advantages. conclusion the purpose of this study is to find out and determine the factors that predict competitive advantage in the company. based on the discussion and results of hypothesis testing that has been carried out, it is known that not all of the hypothesis proposed are accepted. the direct effect of creativity on competitive advantage and trust in digital technology is rejected. however, the results also indicate that creativity has an influence on innovative behaviour. innovative behaviour of employees is found to be able to affect competitive advantage and trust in digital technology. similarly, trust in digital technology has a positive impact on competitive advantage. finally, regarding this study does not confirm the indirect influence of creativity on competitive advantage through trust in digital technology. although this finding suggest that creativity does not have direct effect on competitive advantage, the role of creativity should not be neglected. both managers and employees in the organisation still should consider creativity and enhance this aspect in their job as it is able to increase innovative behaviour, which then leads to competitive advantage. as explained before, competitive advantage is increasingly becoming a concern in this era, and it becomes the responsibility of the whole member of the organisations to achieve it. this study has identified the variables that can lead to competitive advantage, such as innovative behaviour and trust in digital technology. therefore, these two aspects must be encouraged in the company. managers and leaders must look for ways to increase their employees’ innovative behaviour and trust in digital technology. in addition, employees must also realise their important role to practice innovative behaviour, creativity and trust in digital technology, as they are also one of the main contributors that can lead companies to achieve competitive advantage. this study has been carried out with the appropriate scientific rule, but it still has several limitations that need to be addressed. firstly, the type of the data obtained in this study is cross-sectional data. therefore, future studies should examine the linkage between variables used in this study using longitudinal data to find out more about the causality. secondly, this study is carried out in the context of women entrepreneurs who run smes in developing countries, namely indonesia. it is recommended for future studies to conduct research with this topic in different geographical context and populations, in order to ensure the generalisability of the result. furthermore, this study has not yet addressed the mediating role of innovative behaviour in the relationship between creativity and competitive advantage; thus future studies can examine it. finally, it is suggested for future studies to use moderating variable in testing the linkage between the variables, in order to find out more about the underlying conditions that can strengthen or weaken the relationship. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions all authors have contributed in writing according to the writing contribution statement. r.p.s. conducted methodology, formal analysis, writing the original draft, visualisation, project administration, software validation, data curation resources, writing, reviewing and editing the draft and funding acquisition. muafi conducted conceptualisation, investigation, writing, review and editing and supervise the process. ethical considerations all procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. funding information the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, r.p.s. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abdullah, i., rozeyta, o.m.a.r., & panatik, s.a. (2016). a literature review on personality, creativity and innovative behavior. international review of management and marketing, 6(1), 177–182. abosag, i., & lee, j.w. (2013). the formation of trust and commitment in business relationships in the middle east: understanding et-moone relationships. international business review, 22(3), 602–614. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2012.09.002 afsar, b., al-ghazali, b.m., cheema, s., & javed, f. (2020). cultural intelligence and innovative work behavior: the role of work engagement and interpersonal trust. european journal of innovation management, 24(4), 1082–1109. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejim-01-2020-0008 agrawal, a., schaefer, s., & funke, t. (2018). incorporating industry 4.0 in corporate strategy. in r. brunet-thornton & f. martinez (eds.), analyzing the impacts of industry 4.0 in modern business environments (pp. 161–176). igi global. agussani. (2020). are women the dominant entrepreneurs in indonesia? the international journal of social sciences and humanities invention, 7(05), 5935–5947. https://doi.org/10.18535/ijsshi/v7i05.01 aitbar, i. (2021, november 16–17). impact of innovative work behavior on strategic management in competitive sector: role of social media. in mdsrc – 2016 proceedings, wah. akhmedova, a., vila-brunet, n., & mas-machuca, m. (2020). building trust in sharing economy platforms: trust antecedents and their configurations. internet research, 31(4), 1463–1490. https://doi.org/10.1108/intr-04-2020-0212 amabile, t.m., conti, r., coon, h., lazenby, j., & herron, m. (1996). assessing the work environment for creativity. academy of management journal, 39(5), 1154–1184. https://doi.org/10.5465/256995 amir, m.t. (2015). entrepreneurial behavior and innovative behavior: a conceptual clarification. the asian journal of technology management (ajtm), 8(2), 160–171. https://doi.org/10.12695/ajtm.2015.8.2.7 anderson, n., potočnik, k., & zhou, j. (2014). innovation and creativity in organizations: a state-of-the-science review, prospective commentary, and guiding framework. journal of management, 40(5), 1297–1333. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314527128 antonites, a.j., & van vuuren, j.j. (2005). inducing entrepreneurial creativity, innovation and opportunity – finding skills. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 8(3), 255–271. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v8i3.1197 awamleh, f., & ertugan, a. (2021). the relationship between information technology capabilities, organizational intelligence, and competitive advantage. sage open, 11(2), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211015201 barney, j.b. (1995). looking inside for competitive advantage. academy of management executive, 9(4), 49–61. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.1995.9512032192 barney, j.b. (2014). gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. prentice hall. bencsik, a., hargitai, d.m., & kulachinskaya, a. (2022). trust in and risk of technology in organizational digitalization. risks, 10(5), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.3390/risks10050090 benea-popuşoi, e., & duca, s. (2022). the development of creativity skills and formation of creative human capital in the knowledge economy: theoretical benchmarks. in g. belostecinic (ed.), 30 years of economic reforms in the republic of moldova: economic progress via innovation and competitiveness (vol. 2, pp. 154–159). moldova: academy of economic studies. bereczki, e.o., & kárpáti, a. (2021). technology-enhanced creativity: a multiple case study of digital technology-integration expert teachers’ beliefs and practices. thinking skills and creativity, 39, 100791. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2021.100791 bibi, s., khan, a., qian, h., garavelli, a.c., natalicchio, a., & capolupo, p. (2020). innovative climate, a determinant of competitiveness and business performance in chinese law firms: the role of firm size and age. sustainability (switzerland), 12(12), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12124948 bidault, f., & castello, a. (2009). trust and creativity: understanding the role of trust in creativity-oriented joint developments. r and d management, 39(3), 259–270. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9310.2009.00557.x bulut, c., kaya, t., mehta, a.m., & danish, r.q. (2022). linking incremental and radical creativity to product and process innovation with organisational knowledge. journal of manufacturing technology management, 33(4), 763–784. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmtm-01-2021-0037 carnevale, j.b., et al. (2017). leading to stimulate employees’ ideas: a quantitative review of leader–member exchange, employee voice, creativity, and innovative behavior. applied psychology, 66(4), 517–552. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12102 chaubey, a., & sahoo, c.k. (2021). the drivers of employee creativity and organizational innovation: a dynamic capability view. benchmarking: an international journal, 29(8), 2417–2449. https://doi.org/10.1108/bij-06-2021-0316 chen, y., yu, c., yuan, y., lu, f., & shen, w. (2021). the influence of trust on creativity: a review. frontiers in psychology, 12, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.706234 elidemir, s.n., ozturen, a., & bayighomog, s.w. (2020). innovative behaviors, employee creativity, and sustainable competitive advantage: a moderated mediation. sustainability, 12(8), 3295. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083295 e.l. telyani, a., farmanesh, p., & zargar, p. (2022). an examination of the relationship between levels diversity-organizational performance: does innovative culture matter? sage open, 12(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211067244 esenyel, v., & emeagwali, o.l. (2019). the relationship between perceived corporate reputation and employee’s positive word of mouth behavior: the mediation effect of trust to managers. management science letters, 9(5), 673–686. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2019.2.004 fadol, y.y., & sandhu, m.a. (2013). the role of trust on the performance of strategic alliances in a cross-cultural context: a study of the uae. benchmarking, 20(1), 106–128. https://doi.org/10.1108/14635771311299515 ferreira, j., coelho, a., & moutinho, l. (2020). dynamic capabilities, creativity and innovation capability and their impact on competitive advantage and firm performance: the moderating role of entrepreneurial orientation. technovation, 92–93, 102061. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2018.11.004 fink, m.r., ma, x., & traue, h.c. (2015, september). trust in digital technology: reliability and validity. in s. biundo-stephan, a. wendemuth & e. rukzio (eds.), international symposium on companion technology (pp. 23–25). springer-verlag berlin: springer-verlag. fragnito, r., & annarumma, m. (2014). knowledge and creativity in digital society. european journal of open, distance and e-learning, 17(1), 227–237. https://doi.org/10.2478/eurodl-2014-0015 frei, x., & morriss, a. (2020). everything starts with trust. harvard business review. retrieved from https://hbr.org/2020/05/begin-with-trust glǎveanu, v.p. (2010). paradigms in the study of creativity: introducing the perspective of cultural psychology. new ideas in psychology, 28(1), 79–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2009.07.007 gralewski, j. (2015). the psychology of creativity: a discussion between creative potential and its realization. creativity. theories – research – applications, 2(1), 49–55. https://doi.org/10.1515/ctra-2015-0007 hamadamin, h.h., & atan, t. (2019). the impact of strategic human resource management practices on competitive advantage sustainability: the mediation of human capital development and employee commitment. sustainability, 11(20), 5782. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11205782 heuwinkel, k. (2013). framing the invisible – the social background of trust. lecture notes in computer science (including subseries lecture notes in artificial intelligence and lecture notes in bioinformatics), 7407, 16–26. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37346-6_3 hughes, m., rigtering, j.p.c., covin, j.g., bouncken, r.b., & kraus, s. (2018). innovative behaviour, trust and perceived workplace performance. british journal of management, 29(4), 750–768. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12305 jaffe, d. (2018). the essential importance of trust: how to build it or restore it. leadership. retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/dennisjaffe/2018/12/05/the-essential-importance-of-trust-how-to-build-it-or-restore-it/?sh=b4ebafc64fe5 juliana, n.o., hui, h.j., clement, m., solomon, e.n., & elvis, o.k. (2021). the impact of creativity and innovation on entrepreneurship development: evidence from nigeria. open journal of business and management, 9(4), 1743–1770. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojbm.2021.94095 kadam, r. (2015). creativity and innovation: the evaluation of leadership. advances in economics and business management (aebm), 2(8), 845–851. kamran, s.n., & ganjinia, h. (2017). innovative behavior and factors affecting it : the importance of innovative behavior and its dimensions. international journal of business, 2(1), 31–34. retrieved from https://sciarena.com/storage/models/article/czjmwwa8jwqq60fqr1kntrkpyl5xibue9ztjhl9tucoixleef9zuagcbyjcr/innovative-behavior-and-factors-affecting-it-the-importance-of-innovative-behavior-and-its-dimensi.pdf karatepe, o.m., aboramadan, m., & dahleez, k.a. (2020). does climate for creativity mediate the impact of servant leadership on management innovation and innovative behavior in the hotel industry? international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 32(8), 2497–2517. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm-03-2020-0219 kelly morr. (2019). what is creativity? the ultimate guide to understanding today’s most important ability. in 99designs. retrieved from https://99designs.com.co/blog/creative-thinking/what-is-creativity/ khan, s., & mohiya, m. (2020). determinants of smes employees’ creativity and their impact on innovation at workplace. management science letters, 10(16), 3865–3872. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2020.7.025 khan, s.z., yang, q., & waheed, a. (2019). investment in intangible resources and capabilities spurs sustainable competitive advantage and firm performance. corporate social responsibility and environmental management, 26(2), 285–295. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1678 khan, t., singh, k., hasan, m.h., ahmad, k., reddy, g.t., mohan, s., & ahmadian, a. (2021). eters: a comprehensive energy aware trust-based efficient routing scheme for adversarial wsns. future generation computer systems, 125, 921–943. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2021.06.049 kittl, c., & petrovic, o. (2003, january 21–29). trust in digital transactions and its role as a source of competitive advantage in the network economy. international conference, portugal. kiyabo, k., & isaga, n. (2020). entrepreneurial orientation, competitive advantage, and smes’ performance: application of firm growth and personal wealth measures. journal of innovation and entrepreneurship, 9(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13731-020-00123-7 kryscynski, d., coff, r., & campbell, b. (2021). charting a path between firm-specific incentives and human capital-based competitive advantage. strategic management journal, 42(2), 386–412. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3226 kuldosheva, g. (2021). challenges and opportunities of digital transformation in the public sector in transition economies: examination of the case of uzbekistan. adbi, issue 1248. asian development bank institute (adbi), tokyo. kuo, f.i., fang, w.t., & lepage, b.a. (2022). proactive environmental strategies in the hotel industry: eco-innovation, green competitive advantage, and green core competence. journal of sustainable tourism, 30(6), 1240–1261. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2021.1931254 lazányi, k. (2017). innovation – the role of trust. serbian journal of management, 12(2), 329–341. https://doi.org/10.5937/sjm12-12143 leoni, l., & cristofaro, m. (2022). guest editorial: creativity management and manufacturing firms’ performance. journal of manufacturing technology management, 33(4), 645–655. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmtm-06-2022-506 liu, c.h. (2017). creating competitive advantage: linking perspectives of organization learning, innovation behavior and intellectual capital. international journal of hospitality management, 66, 13–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2017.06.013 lumpkin, g.t., steier, l., & wright, m. (2011). in family business business and strategic. strategic entrepreneurship journal, 306(2008), 285–306. https://doi.org/10.1002/sej mackenzie, s.b., & lutz, r.j. (1989). an empirical examination of the structural antecedents of attitude toward the ad in an advertising pretesting context. journal of marketing, 53(2), 48. https://doi.org/10.2307/1251413 mady, k., abdul halim, m.a.s., & omar, k. (2022). drivers of multiple eco-innovation and the impact on sustainable competitive advantage: evidence from manufacturing smes in egypt. international journal of innovation science, 14(1), 40–61. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijis-01-2021-0016 malik, a., mirza, r., & platteau, j.-p. (2021). entrenched political dynasties and development under competitive clientelism: evidence from pakistan. retrieved from http://edi.opml.co.uk marković, j., prodanović, r., & mutibarić, j. (2012). creativity and innovation in entrepreneurship. ekonomija: teorija i praksa, 5(3), 47–59. márquez, b.v., ontiveros, m.á.c., & pons, m.o. (2016). the small temples in the forum of pollentia (mallorca, balearic islands). mélanges de l’école française de rome. antiquité, 11(128–1), 53–74. https://doi.org/10.4000/mefra.3428 mouzas, s., henneberg, s., & naudé, p. (2007). trust and reliance in business relationships. european journal of marketing, 41(9–10), 1016–1032. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090560710773327 minbaeva, d.b. (2018). building credible human capital analytics for organizational competitive advantage. human resource management, 57(3), 701–713. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21848 mumford, m.d., scott, g.m., gaddis, b., & strange, j.m. (2002). leading creative people: orchestrating expertise and relationships. leadership quarterly, 13(6), 705–750. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(02)00158-3 neto, j.c., filipe, j.a., & caleiro, a.b. (2019). creativity and innovation: a contribution of behavioral economics. international journal of innovation studies, 3(1), 12–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijis.2019.06.003 niemi, t. (2018). digital technology as a source of creative organizational resource and service delivery: building a climate for organizational creativity with deliberative democracy. journal of media critiques, 4(14), 241–253. https://doi.org/10.17349/jmc118218 nterai, s., & liu, y. (2019). influence of guanxi and trust on business to business relationships in the chinese market. university of gavle. oecd. (2019). pisa 2021 creative thinking framework, vol. 53(9), pp. 1689–1699. oecd. retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/pisa/publications/pisa-2021-creative-thinking-framework.pdf ottenbacher, m., & gnoth, j. (2005). how to develop successful hospitality innovation. cornell hotel and restaurant administration quarterly, 46(2), 205–222. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010880404271097 panigrahy, n.p., & pradhan, r.k. (2015, september 1–17). creativity and innovation: exploring the role of hr practices at workplace. in presentation of paper at national conference organized by ravenshaw b-school, cuttack, india. perry-smith, j.e., & mannucci, p.v. (2017). from creativity to innovation: the social network drivers of the four phases of the idea journey. academy of management review, 42(1), 53–79. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2014.0462 petrakis, p.e., & kafka, k.i. (2016). entrepreneurial creativity and growth. in mario franco (ed.), entrepreneurship – practice-oriented perspectives. intechopen. purc, e., & lagun, m. (2019). personal values and innovative behavior of employees. frontiers in psychology, 10, 865. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00865 qu, g., xin, l., & qi, w. (2022). the effect of trust asymmetry and network embedding on team innovation mechanism. science research management, 43(4), 177–184. retrieved from http://journal26.magtechjournal.com/jwk3_kygl/en/y2022/v43/i4/177 rainie, l., & anderson, j. (2017). the fate of online trust in the next decade | pew research center. pew research center. retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/08/10/the-fate-of-online-trust-in-the-next-decade/ sano, h., & sumiya, l.a. (2021). variety of strategies in primary education: the responses of the four uk nations to the covid-19 crisis. european journal of educational management, 4(2), 127–139. retrieved from https://pdf.eujem.com/eujem_4_2_127.pdf saragih, f.d., & sinay, d.t. (2015). trustworthiness perception and decision to conduct transactions through e-commerce websites in indonesia. bisnis & birokrasi journal, 21(3), 137–145. https://doi.org/10.20476/jbb.v21i3.4838 schwarzmüller, t., brosi, p., duman, d., & welpe, i.m. (2018). how does the digital transformation affect organizations? key themes of change in work design and leadership. management revue, 29(2), 114–138. https://doi.org/10.5771/0935-9915-2018-2-114 shah, s.s., shah, a.a., pathan, s.k., & ansari, k. (2017). the consideration of motivational aspects to boost women entrepreneurship. the women, research journal, 9, 1–12. shalley, c.e., & gilson, l.l. (2004). what leaders need to know: a review of social and contextual factors that can foster or hinder creativity. the leadership quarterly, 15(1), 33–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2003.12.004 shalley, c.e., gilson, l.l., & blum, t.c. (2009). interactive effects of growth need strength, work context, and job complexity on self-reported creative performance. academy of management journal, 52(3), 489–505. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2009.41330806 song, w., & yu, h. (2018). green innovation strategy and green innovation: the roles of green creativity and green organizational identity. corporate social responsibility and environmental management, 25(2), 135–150. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1445 sundin, p., callan, j., & mehta, k. (2016). why do entrepreneurial mhealth ventures in the developing world fail to scale? journal of medical engineering & technology, 40(7–8), 444–457. https://doi.org/10.1080/03091902.2016.1213901 tajeddini, k., martin, e., & altinay, l. (2020). the importance of human-related factors on service innovation and performance. international journal of hospitality management, 85, 102431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2019.102431 tukamuhabwa, b., mutebi, h., & kyomuhendo, r. (2021). competitive advantage in smes: effect of supply chain management practices, logistics capabilities and logistics integration in a developing country. journal of business and socio-economic development, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1108/jbsed-04-2021-0051 urbancová, h. (2013). competitive advantage achievement through innovation and knowledge. journal of competitiveness, 5(1), 82–96. https://doi.org/10.7441/joc.2013.01.06 uzunidis, d. (2009). innovation, growth and sustainable development: general presentation. journal of innovation economics, 3(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.3917/jie.003.0005 weinhofer, m. (2007). the role of trust in strategic alliances. master’s thesis, baltic business school, university of kalmar, sweden. wu, j., zhao, h., & pan, d. (2016). effects of different trust on team creativity: taking knowledge sharing as a mediator. communications in computer and information science, 660, 44–56. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2857-1_4 yu, m.c., mai, q., tsai, s.b., & dai, y. (2018). an empirical study on the organizational trust, employee-organization relationship and innovative behavior from the integrated perspective of social exchange and organizational sustainability. sustainability (switzerland), 10(3), 864. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10030864 zainol, n.r., & al mamun, a. (2018). entrepreneurial competency, competitive advantage and performance of informal women micro-entrepreneurs in kelantan, malaysia. journal of enterprising communities: people and places in the global economy, 12(3), 299–321. https://doi.org/10.1108/jec-11-2017-0090 zameer, h., wang, y., & yasmeen, h. (2020). reinforcing green competitive advantage through green production, creativity and green brand image: implications for cleaner production in china. journal of cleaner production, 247, 119119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119119 zhou, j. (2003). when the presence of creative coworkers is related to creativity: role of supervisor close monitoring, developmental feedback, and creative personality. journal of applied psychology, 88(3), 413–422. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.3.413 article information authors: melinde coetzee¹ ziel bergh¹ dries schreuder¹ affiliations: ¹department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: melinde coetzee email: coetzm1@unisa.ac.za postal address: department of industrial and organisational psychology, ajh vd walt room 4-07, po box 392, unisa, 0003, pretoria, south africa keywords entrepreneurial creativity; general management competence; pure challenge or competitiveness; service or dedication to a cause; technical or functional competence; life satisfaction; job or career satisfaction; happiness; work as a valuable activity dates: received: 08 feb. 2010 accepted: 17 aug. 2010 published: 19 nov. 2010 how to cite this article: coetzee, m., bergh, z., & schreuder, d. (2010). the influence of career orientations on subjective work experiences. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #279, 13 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.279 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) the influence of career orientations on subjective work experiences in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of and background to the study    • trends from the research literature       • career orientations       • subjective work experiences • research design    • research approach    • research method       • participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure • results • discussion • conclsuions, limitations and recommendations • references abstract (back to top) orientation: in an increasingly turbulent business context in which people are less dependent on organisational career arrangements and have greater agency in career decisions, organisations have come to pay increasing attention to retaining valuable talented managerial potential. research purpose: the study empirically assessed the causal influence of individuals’ career orientations on their perceived life satisfaction, job or career satisfaction, sense of happiness and their perceptions of work as a valuable activity as aspects of their subjective work experiences. motivation for study: from an organisational perspective, research on individuals’ inner definitions of career success and satisfaction is needed to guide current selection, placement, development, reward and retention practices. research design, approach and method: a quantitative survey was conducted on a random sample of 2997 participants at predominantly managerial and supervisory level in the service industry. the measuring instruments consisted of an adapted five-factor career orientations model of the career orientations inventory and a 4-item global subjective work experiences scale. structural equation modelling (sem) was conducted to achieve the aim of the study. main findings/results: statistically significant causal relationships were observed between the career orientations and subjective work experiences variables. practical implications: individuals’ career orientations influence their general sense of life and job or career satisfaction, happiness and perceptions of work as a valuable activity. organisations concerned with the retention of staff need to find a way of aligning individuals’ career needs and motives with the goals and aspirations of the organisation. contribution/value-add: the research confirms the need for assessing the inner career orientations of employees as these provide valuable information regarding the motives and values driving individuals’ career decision making and subjective experiences of their working lives. introduction (back to top) key focus of and background to the study in an increasingly turbulent business context in which people are less dependent on organisational career arrangements because they experience more frequent career transitions, people have greater agency in career decisions and must ensure that they are able and adaptable learners; organisations have come to pay increasing attention to attracting, engaging and retaining key employees and potential organisational leaders (arthur, khapova & wilderom, 2005; baruch, 2004; kock & burke, 2008). moreover, the national drive to achieve employment equity has heightened the competition for talent and managerial potential amongst people from designated groups (kotzé & roodt, 2005). consequently, subjective career measures that emphasise psychological attributes and subjective work experiences (such as employees’ life satisfaction), job and career satisfaction and happiness in the workplace have assumed greater significance in today’s work environment (brown, george-curran & smith, 2003; ebberwein, krieshok, ulven & prosser, 2004; judge, bono, erez & locke, 2005; kokou & ierodiakono, 2007; van dam, 2004). employees’ subjective work experiences are also increasingly being assumed to be determinants of employee morale and the intention to stay or leave the organisation (anastasiadou, 2007; kokou & ierodiakonou, 2007; martin & roodt, 2008). as individuals start to take ownership of their careers, the focus on the subjective or inner career becomes increasingly more important than that of the more objective, organisationally defined career (derr & briscoe, 2007; hall, 1976). whereas the internal career is a self-definition of career success as it is more subjective, long-term and stable and represents life goals as well as work goals, the external career is an organisational or professional definition of career success that is more short term, unpredictable and fast-changing (derr & briscoe, 2007). researchers such as derr (1986), driver (1982) and schein (1975; 1978) have extensively explored the internal career paradigm and found that people differ significantly in the way they think about their careers. their research suggests that people’s career choices and experiences of subjective career success and general satisfaction with their working lives are driven by a set of master career motives that seem to form part of the career self-concept or inner career orientation. these master motives act as a cognitive compass (fugate, kinicki & ashforth, 2004) that motivates and pulls people towards (or constrains them from) specific career choices and decisions (schein, 1978, 1990). researchers in the careers field have stated in support of the foregoing that the attention given to individuals’ inner definitions of career success (as defined by their career orientations), as a means of predicting employees’ organisational commitment, job satisfaction, motivation and performance is a prominent trend in organisations today (coetzee & de villiers, 2010; havran, visser & crous, 2003; kanye & crous, 2007; lumley, 2010). organisations that endeavour to retain valuable employees are therefore urged to provide incentives and career paths that are consistent with the career values, expectations and aspirations that underlie the career orientations of these employees (coetzee & schreuder, 2009a; järlström, 2000; schein, 1996; suutari & taka, 2004). if there is no fit between employees’ inner career orientations and their job environment, the result may well be anxiety, stress, job and career dissatisfaction, unhappiness and high turnover (coetzee & bergh, 2009; feldman & bolino, 1996; jiang & klein, 2000; jiang, klein & balloun, 2001). from an organisation’s perspective, research on career orientations is needed to guide current selection, placement, development, reward and retention practices (ramakrishna & potosky, 2002). the primary objective of the present study is to empirically assess whether people’s career orientations significantly influence their subjective work experiences as explained by their general sense of life satisfaction, job or career satisfaction, happiness and perception of work as a valuable activity. assessing the relationship between the inner career orientations of employees and their subjective experiences of their working lives may provide valuable information regarding the motives and values driving individuals’ career decision making and turnover intentions. in this regard, research has indicated that level of pay, lack of career development opportunities, unmet needs due to a lack of person-organisation fit, lack of support from line manager and working conditions or job stress are some of the major push factors that lead to unwanted staff turnover (aamodt, 2010; marchington & wilkinson, 2008). the next section of the article will create the context of the present study by means of a literature review after which the research design (which covers the research approach and method) will be elaborated on. this is followed by the presentation of the results and a discussion of the findings of the study. the article concludes with a brief synopsis of the main conclusions, implications for practice and recommendations for potential future research. trends from the research literature career orientations career orientations have been coined by schein (1978) as career anchors. these career anchors denote a pattern of self-perceived talents and abilities, basic values and the evolved sense of motives and needs (as they pertain to the career), that influences a person’s career-related decisions (schein 1974, 1975, 1978, 1996). the conceptual model associated with schein’s (1978) career anchor or orientations theory is best understood in terms of individuals’ career self-concept, which develops as a person gains life experience. as individuals are required to make choices related to their self-development, family or career, they may become more aware of the values and motives that govern the choices they make. in other words, an individual’s career self-concept acts as a stabilising force such that when an important life (or career) choice needs to be made, there are certain concerns, needs or values that the individual will not give up (schein, 1975). research by schein (1978, 1990, 1996) suggests that most people’s career self-concepts (motives and values) are grounded in eight categories or anchors: 1. autonomy or independence includes a person’s need to be free of organisational constraints in order to pursue professional competence. 2. technical or functional competence is the motivation to develop one’s technical or functional knowledge and expert skill. 3. general managerial competence, which can be described as the desire to attain a position that requires the application of interpersonal, political, analytical and financial skills associated with management. 4. entrepreneurial or creativity, the need to create or build (rather than manage) something that is entirely one’s own project. 5. lifestyle, the need to integrate work, family and self-concerns into a coherent lifestyle. 6. pure challenge, the need to test one’s abilities by single-mindedly focusing on winning out over or competing with extremely tough opponents and solving a variety of challenging problems. 7. service or dedication to a cause, the need to align work activities with personal skills and values related to helping society and to improve the world in some fashion. 8. security or stability, the need for job security associated with benefit packages and long-term employment in an organisation and stability in a geographical area. feldman and bolino (1996, 2000) reconceptualised schein’s eight career anchors, dividing them into three distinct groupings along with their inherent motivations. these motivations are described as being either talent-based, need-based or value-based anchors. the work of these authors provided a useful framework for the present study. the talent-based anchors consist of: • managerial competence (willingness to solve complex, whole-of-organization problems and undertake subsequent decision-making) • technical or functional competence (the achievement of expert status among peers) • entrepreneurial creativity (the opportunity for creativity and identification of new businesses, products or services). the need-based anchors consist of: • security and stability (long-term employment for health benefits and retirement options) • autonomy and independence (personal freedom in job content and settings) • lifestyle motivations (balancing one’s personal and the family’s welfare with work commitments). the value-based anchors consist of: • pure challenge (testing personal endurance through risky projects or physically challenging work) • service and dedication to a cause (working for the greater good of organisations or communities). research conducted by coetzee and schreuder (2009a) on the structural equivalence of schein’s (1978) original eight-factor career orientations or anchors model for south african populations, culminated in a five-factor career orientations model for the south african organisational context and consists of the following career anchors or orientations: 1. autonomy or independence 2. general managerial competence 3. entrepreneurial or creativity 4. pure challenge (which coetzee and schreuder label pure challenge or competitiveness) 5. service or dedication to a cause. the suggested five-factor career orientations model depicted in figure 1 is of relevance to the present study owing to its relevance to the south african organisational context. figure 1: five-factor career orientations model subjective work experiences in the context of this research, subjective work experiences consist of employees’ self-evaluations, perceptions, attitudes, feelings and psychological experiences which characterise their life satisfaction, job and career satisfaction, personal happiness and the meaning they attach to work (coetzee & bergh, 2009). research has shown that both factors intrinsic to employees and extrinsic work-related determinants contribute to employees’ subjective experiences of their lives, jobs or careers, their general state of happiness and perceptions of work as a meaningful activity in their lives. personal intrinsic factors generally include individual difference factors or personal dispositions and traits such conscientiousness (ashton, 2007; de fruyt & salgado, 2003; flett, 2007; maltby, day & macaskill, 2007), as well as positive emotionality or affectivity, for example, happiness, hope and optimism (peterson & seligman, 2003; snyder & lopez, 2002) and personal biographical factors such as age, gender and marital status (arnold & cohen, 2008). work-related factors generally relate to task and skill variety, autonomy, meaningfulness and whether the nature of jobs allows employees to feel satisfied in their jobs and provide opportunities to grow. satisfaction with life is defined as a global evaluation by individuals of their lives (diener, gohm, suh & oishi, 2000). life satisfaction refers to a person’s subjective perception that all aspects of life are more or less in balance and according to personal expectations, which contribute to the level of personal happiness a person may experience. happiness is therefore regarded as an important component of general life satisfaction and subjective well-being (perrone, webb, wright, jackson & ksiazak, 2006; seligman, 2002; snyder & lopez, 2002). happiness refers to an emotional, cognitive and even physiological sense that life is good with as little pain as possible (seligman, 2002; snyder & lopez, 2002). happiness is generally related to aspects such as the enjoyment of a good or pleasurable life as well as aspects beyond pleasure. these may include good health and social interactions, religion, love and marriage, work and internal experiences (e.g. internal motivation, flow and meaningfulness in work and life) (diener & seligman, 2002; diener & seligman, 2004; lucas, clark, georgellis, & diener, 2004).boehm and lyubomirsky (2008) posit that happiness should be viewed as one of the major sources of positive outcomes in the workplace. happiness at work is about mindfully making the best use of the resources individuals have to overcome the challenges they face. actively relishing the highs and managing the lows help individuals maximise their performance and achieve their potential. others are also energised and affected by people’s sense of happiness (pryce jones, 2010). dawis (1984) regards job satisfaction as cognition with affective components that results from certain perceptions about one’s work and which has behavioural consequences such as tenure, longevity, physical health, mental health and productivity. as a cognition, job satisfaction is linked to other personal cognitions and work-related outcomes such as self-esteem, job involvement, work alienation, organisational commitment, morale, career and life satisfaction (fritzsche & parrish, 2005; herr, cramer & niles, 2004). whereas job satisfaction usually centres on one’s immediate emotional reactions to one’s current job, career satisfaction is a broader reflection of individuals’ satisfaction with both past and future work history taken as a whole. as a holistic concept, career satisfaction is defined by people’s reactions to their unfolding career and job experiences and their personal points of view, which may include pay and social position and issues such as well-being and emotions (kidd, 2008). career satisfaction is also regarded as a core measure of individuals’ experiences of intrinsic career success, life satisfaction and job satisfaction (judge & kammeyer-mueller, 2007). work is regarded as a central and fundamental activity in people’s lives and has been linked to job or career satisfaction (harpaz & fu, 2002; whitehead & kotze, 2003). in addition to its obvious economic functions, work has a powerful potential to fulfill other important roles and needs of the individual such as personal growth and skills development, self-esteem, psychological fulfillment, identity, social interaction and sustaining a standard of living and status (harpaz & fu, 2002). people also strive towards various goals and values through work which result in work being regarded as a valuable activity that influences people’s general life satisfaction and happiness. barrick and ryan (2003) refer to a large body of research indicating the positive influence of positive emotions, for example personal happiness and related aspects such as life satisfaction, on work performance and work attitudes. research conducted by whitehead and kotze (2003) and woodd (2000) indicated that people’s main motivations for working were related to intrinsic values that give their lives meaning. in view of the apparent paucity of research concerning the five-factor career orientations model suggested by coetzee and schreuder (2009a) and individuals’ subjective work experiences as represented by their perceived life and job or career satisfaction, sense of happiness and perceptions of work as a valuable activity in the south african organisational context, the present study aims to empirically assess whether there is a causal relationship between these variables. on the basis of research (arthur et al., 2005; brown et al., 2003; coertse & scheepers, 2004; coetzee & bergh, 2009; coetzee & schreuder, 2009b; ebberwein, krieskok, ulven & prosser, 2004; judge et al., 2005; kim, 2005; van dam, 2004) that has revealed relationships between subjective or psychological career variables such as career orientations, personality attributes, emotional intelligence, career resiliency and career maturity and a number of career related variables such as career adaptability, job or career satisfaction, life satisfaction, goal attainment, career decision making and entrepreneurial activity, the following research hypothesis was formulated: hypothesis 1: individuals’ career orientations significantly influence their levels of life satisfaction, job or career satisfaction and happiness and their perception of work as a valuable activity. research design (back to top) research design (back to top) research approach for the exploratory pilot study reported on in this article, a quantitative survey design was used to achieve the research objective. table 1: cronbach’s alpha coefficients research method participants the participants were a random sample of employed students registered across various fields of study at a higher distance education institution for a particular year. the descriptive statistics revealed that the total sample of 2997 constituted predominantly african participants (41%) followed by white participants (31%). indians, coloureds and other minority cultural groups speaking languages such as portuguese, german, polish, french and chinese were under-represented (5%). overall, black (67%) and female (58%) participants predominated in the sample. the sample was predominantly represented by participants in the early adulthood life stage (25–40 years) (82%). the mean age of the participants was 32, which implies well-established internal career preferences and values (schein, 1996). the sample of participants had generally attained a relatively high educational level, with 84% having attained a grade 12 qualification, diploma and undergraduate higher education qualification. students with a post-graduate qualification represented only 3% of the sample. the majority of the participants was in full-time employment (80%) and occupied relatively high-level positions at senior and middle management level (18%) and middleand first-level supervisory level (54%) in the service industry (81%). the following economic sectors were represented, government (35%); services (15%); financial, insurance, real-estates and business (18%); wholesale and retail (7%); transport, storage and communication (6%) and other sectors, such as agriculture; mining; manufacturing; electricity or gas and construction (19%). the predominant fields of expertise reported by the participants were as follows: finance field (including accounting, auditing, banking and economics) (21%); education (11%); human resource management (9%); protective services (i.e. saps; security, military) (9%); health care (8%); marketing, media or communication (6%); public administration (6%); information technology (5%); legal or law (3%); retail or sales (5%) and catering or hospitality (2%). measuring instruments an adapted version of the career orientations inventory (coi) developed by schein in collaboration with delong (1982a, 1982b) and a 4-item global subjective work experiences scale (bergh, 2009) were used to measure the variables of concern to this study. career orientations inventory (coi): the original coi (delong, 1982a, 1982b) is a self-rated measure containing 41 items. to avoid neutral answers, a 10-point likert-type scale was used for subject responses to each of the 41 items. based on schein’s (1974, 1978) eight career anchors model these items related to perceived importance of an agreement with statements. total scores obtained for each of the eight categories of career anchors were added together and averaged to yield an individual score for each career anchor. the coi provides a pretested instrument with demonstrated high internal validity and reliability (burke, 1983; custodio, 2004; delong, 1982a, 1982b; wood, winston & polkosnik, 1985). custodio (2004) reports cronbach alpha reliability coefficients ranging from 0.78 to 0.84, while coetzee and schreuder (2008) report cronbach alpha coefficients ranging from 0.46 (lifestyle) to 0.85 (entrepreneurial creativity). for the purpose of this research, only the items related to the five-factor model identified by coetzee and schreuder (2009a) were retained in the questionnaire. as shown in table 1, the reliability of the five-factor career orientations model was determined by means of cronbach’s alpha coefficient which ranged from 0.71 to 0.86. subjective work experiences scale: a single 4-item subjective work experiences scale (bergh, 2009) measuring global self-perceived life satisfaction, job or career satisfaction, happiness and participants’ perception of their work as a valuable activity was used. the selection of the four items was based on aspects pointed out by researchers in the field of careers and organisational behaviour as being factors influencing employees’ psychological experiences of career success and organisational commitment (arthur et al., 2005; judge et al., 2005; perrone et al., 2006; sempane, rieger & roodt 2002; whitehead & kotze, 2003). researchers (schimmack & oishi, 2005; wanous, reichers & hudy, 1997; woods & hampson, 2005) have also advocated that the psychometric properties of single item measures such as the swes generally compare well with multiple-item measurement scales. a 5-point likert-type scale was used for subject responses to each of the four items. in terms of validity, inter-item correlations conducted on the four items ranged from 0.13 to 0.56 (p ≤ 0.01), indicating small to large practical effect size. as shown in table 1, the reliability of the four items was determined by means of cronbach’s alpha coefficient which ranged from 0.45 to 0.71. seeing as the purpose of the present study was not to make individual predictions based on the adapted version of the coi and the global swe scale, but rather to investigate broad trends and certain relations between variables, the instruments were considered to be psychometrically acceptable. research procedure using the postal facilities of the institution, questionnaires were posted to a randomly selected number of 6000 students who were registered at the higher education institution for the particular year. each questionnaire was accompanied by a covering letter inviting subjects to participate in the study and assuring them that their individual responses would remain confidential. participants were asked to complete the questionnaires and return them by mail to the researchers using the return envelope supplied. in total, 2997 usable questionnaires were returned. the questionnaires were scored electronically. statistical analysis as per the research aim and hypothesis, the intention was to conduct a causal investigation of the five-factor career orientations model suggested by coetzee and schreuder (2009a) by using structural equation analysis or modelling. structural equation modeling (sem) is a multivariate procedure that combines multiple regression and factor analysis in examining a researcher’s hypotheses of causality within a system. sem is divided into two parts, a measurement model and a structural model. the measurement model deals with the relationships between measured variables and latent variables, while the structural model deals with the relationships between latent variables only. the abilities of sem to distinguish between indirect and direct relationships between variables and to analyse relationships between latent variables without random error differentiate sem from other simpler, relational modeling processes such as multiple regression (hoyle, 1995). as a confirmatory approach, a model is postulated, based on theory and empirical evidence from previous research. in the context of this study, the first model therefore represented the five-factor career orientations model as proposed by coetzee and schreuder (2009a) as the measurement or input part of the model and to postulate relationships between the five latent variables measuring career orientations and the subjective work experience measure (bergh, 2009) as representing four directly observed variables in the structural part of the model. the model was then tested in a single group analysis, using sem goodness-of-fit tests to determine whether the pattern of variances and covariances in the data was consistent with the postulated theoretical model (garson, 2008). the sem process focuses on validating the measurement model by obtaining estimates of the parameters of the model and by assessing whether the model itself provides a good fit to the data (garson, 2008). to investigate lack-of-fit, each sub-scale or dimension is then evaluated individually. firstly, the face validity of each item as a measure of the proposed dimension was evaluated in the context of this study. secondly, the reliability of each dimension was evaluated and items that lowered the reliability of the dimension were then removed until none of the items within the dimension lowered the reliability. subsequent to the reliability analysis, a second model, which is also the core focus of this study, was then tested. this model excluded the items that were indicated as performing poorly in the item-reliability analyses and also excluded the dimensions that did not perform well. the model adequacy was evaluated by means of goodness-of-fit measures. goodness-of-fit tests determine whether the model being tested should be accepted or rejected (garson, 2008). the model chi-square was used as it is the most common goodness-of-fit test when comparing models (strasheim, 2008). with the chi-square, the difference between the observed data and the hypothesised model is tested (garson, 2008). a significant chi-square indicates lack of satisfactory model fit, while a non-significant chi-square indicates a good model fit. however, a limitation of the chi-square test is that the size of the sample has an impact on chi-square values. garson (2008) suggests that if the sample is large (as in the case of this study), even small differences between the model and the data will result in a statistical significance. hence with large samples the chi-square will almost certainly be significant (hox & bechger, 1998). a variety of alternative fit indices have therefore been proposed by researchers (garson, 2008; hu & bentler, 1999). all goodness-of-fit measures are some function of the chi-square (cmin) and degrees of freedom (df). these alternative indices consider not only the fit of the model but also its simplicity. even though the goodness-of-fit indices still depend on sample size and distribution, the dependency is much smaller than that of the routine chi-square test (hox & bechger, 1998). the goodness-of-fit index (gfi) indicates the relative amount of the variances or covariances in the sample predicted by the estimates of the population. in addition, the adjusted goodness-of-fit index (agfi) is a measure of the relative amount of variance accounted for by the model, corrected for the degrees of freedom in the model relative to the number of variables. gfi and agfi range between 0 and 1 and when models fit well, these indices will be closer to 1.00. the non-normed fit index (nnfi), or tucker-lewis index (tli) as it is termed in the statistical package amos 17.0 which was utilised in the present study is a relative measure of covariation explained by the model (garson, 2008). with regard to the tli fit index, it is generally accepted that a value of less than 0.90 indicates that the fit of the model can be improved (hoyle, 1995), although a revised cut-off value close to 0.95 has been advised by hu and bentler (1999). to overcome the problem of sample size, brown and cudeck (1993) suggest using the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) and the 90% confidence interval of the rmsea. the primary principle of the rmsea is that it evaluates the extent to which the model fails to fit the data. the rmsea estimates the overall amount of error, it is a function of the fitting function value relative to the degrees of freedom. the rmsea point estimate should be 0.05 or less and the upper limit of the confidence interval should not exceed 0.08 (raykov & marcoulides, 2000). hu and bentler (1999) suggested a value of 0.06 as being indicative of good fit between the hypothesised model and the observed data. fabrigar, wegener, maccallum and strahan (1999) elaborated on these cut-off points and noted that rmsea values ranging from 0.08 to 0.10 indicate mediocre fit and those greater than 0.10 indicate poor fit. the statistical significance level for the interpretation of the findings was set at p ≤ 0.05. results (back to top) the causal model depicted in figure 2 shows all possible path coefficients from the five latent career orientations variables measuring career orientations to the construct subjective work experiences (swe) which is represented by the four directly observable variables: • life satisfaction • job or career satisfaction • happiness • work as valuable activity. this model has 81 parameters and a good fit, with a chi-square of 1651.004 (244 df); cmin/df = 6.766; p = 0.000; gfi = 0.956, agfi = 0.942; ifi = 0.943, tli = 0.930, rmsea = 0.044 and the 90% confidence interval of the rmsea ranging between 0.042 and 0.046. it must be noted that although the highly significant chi-square measure for the model indicates a poor fit, given the large sample size, it would be incorrect to conclude a poor fit based on the significance of the chi-square index only (garson, 2008; hu & bentler, 1999). the alternative indices all indicate a good fit. apart from the fit measures, the significance of the estimated regression coefficients between the latent coi variables and the observed swe variables in the structural part of the model (provided in tables 2 and 3) were also considered. table 2 shows that with the exception of the coefficients between the career orientations variable entrepreneurial creativity and work as valuable activity (p ≤ 0.06), all the coefficients between the coi and swe variables are significant at the 5% level of significance. the path or regression coefficients between the five coi variables and the four swe variables generally vary from 1 and above, with the exception of the coefficients between the coi variable autonomy or independence and all four of the swe variables from 0.16 to 0.92 and the service or dedication to a cause coi variable and the swe variables happiness (0.91) and work as a valuable activity (0.42). the highest coefficients (and thus strongest relationships) are observed between the coi pure challenge or competitiveness variable and the swe life satisfaction (-15.54) and job or career satisfaction (-12.41) variables, the coi general managerial competence and life satisfaction variables (12.58) and general managerial competence and job or career satisfaction variables (10.09). an interesting observation is that a negative relationship is indicated between the coi pure challenge or competitiveness variable and the four swe variables, suggesting that the higher the score on the pure challenge or competitiveness career orientation, the lower the score on life satisfaction, job or career satisfaction, happiness and work as a valuable activity. the path coefficients between the coi variables shown in table 3 suggest especially strong relationships between the general managerial competence and pure challenge or competitiveness (2.10), pure challenge or competitiveness and entrepreneurial creativity (2.36), general managerial competence and entrepreneurial creativity (1.79) and autonomy or independence and entrepreneurial creativity (1.51) variables, suggesting some overlap between them. however, due to the large standard errors observed for the path coefficients between the coi and swe variables, it was decided to model the four swe items as a single latent variable, labeled as swe. modification indices indicated a path to be added from ‘work is a valuable activity’ to ‘happiness’ and an additional path from the coi autonomy or independence variable to q18 of the general managerial competence variable (‘to rise to a high position in general management’) which improved the model fit substantially. the regression coefficients in the simplified model were highly significant and the model fitted the data very well. the chi-square = 2.624 (df = 1); cmin/df ratio = 2.624; p = 0.105 and gfi = 1.000, agfi = 0.996; ifi = 0.999, tli = 0.995, rmsea = 0.023 and the 90% confidence interval of rmsea 0.000 to 0.060. seeing as the results suggested that the dependent variable could be considered as a single latent variable labeled swe, it was then incorporated as a single latent variable in the causal model depicted in figure 3. the simplified model depicted in figure 3 provides a more parsimonious view of the relationship between the coi variables and the swe construct. the model fitted the data very well, with the chi-square value = 1586.991 and df = 253; cmin/df = 6.273; p = 0.000. the gfi = 0.958, agfi = 0.946; ifi = 0.946 and tli = 0.936. the rmsea = 0.042 with the 90% confidence interval of rmsea between 0.040 and 0.044. table 4 shows that significant relationships are observed between the swe construct and the coi general managerial competence and pure challenge or competitiveness variables (p ≤ 0.05) only. similarly, table 5 shows a strong relationship between these two coi variables (2.07), including entrepreneurial creativity (1.81 and 2.45 respectively, suggesting some overlap between these constructs. the negative relationship observed between the swe construct and the coi pure challenge or competitiveness variable suggests that the higher the career orientation towards pure challenge or competitiveness, the lower or more negative the subjective work experience. in terms of the swe construct variables, table 4 shows that the service or dedication to a cause career orientation relates significantly and positively with the swe variable work as a valuable activity (0.112; p ≤ 0.001) and happiness correlates positively with work as a valuable activity (0.14; p ≤ 0.001). table 2 & 3 figure 2: causal model depicting the relationship between the five career orientations inventory variables and four subjective work experiences variables figure 3: causal model depicting the relationship between the five career orientations inventory variables and the single subjective work experiences construct discussion (back to top) the main objective of this study was to determine the relationship between participants’ career orientations and their subjective work experiences. overall, the structural equation modeling analyses suggested a significant causal relationship between these variables. the research hypothesis is therefore accepted. in interpreting the results, the following socio-demographic characteristics of the sample were kept in mind: the participants were predominantly from the service industry and held mostly managerial and supervisory level positions. furthermore, the sample represented predominantly black and female participants in full time employment in the entry and establishment life or career stages (25–40 years, mean age 32), most of whom were enrolled for undergraduate level studies at the higher education institution. the strong relationship observed between the swe construct and the general managerial competence and pure challenge or competitiveness career orientations on the one hand and the strong relationship observed between these two career orientations on the other hand, suggest that participants who value being in charge of an entire organisation, rising to a high managerial position and being able to supervise, influence, lead and control people at all levels also value being constantly challenged by a competitive situation and solving tough problems. this in turn suggests that participants’ talent-driven career motives are strongly associated with their values-based career motives. both career orientations seem to be strongly associated with a need to manage others in positions of higher seniority and responsibility. these findings are in line with an exploratory factor analysis conducted by coetzee and schreuder (2009a) which demonstrates that these two constructs overlap in terms of career motives that concern competition and winning, being constantly challenged by a competitive situation and solving tough problems that involve the supervision of others at higher levels of responsibility and authority. considering that the participants were predominantly employed in the service industry, the positive relationship observed between the pure challenge, autonomy and the service or dedication to a cause career orientations (which is also positively related to work as a valuable activity), further suggests that the participants value challenging opportunities to serve and help others and working toward some important values of improving the world in some manner. coetzee, bergh and schreuder (2010) found in this regard that having a strong sense of career purpose or viewing one’s career as a calling to serve (and not merely as a job or career) is a strong positive driver of people’s perception of work being a valuable activity. in agreement with the foregoing, blustein (2006) posits that working involves effort, activity and energy in given tasks that contribute to the overall social and economic welfare of a culture. the participants also seem to value fair pay and recognition for their contributions and prefer opportunities to move into positions with more influence and freedom to deal with tougher or more challenging problems concerning society at large. the findings suggest that the career motives and values underlying the participants’ career orientations significantly influence their subjective work experiences and especially their sense of life satisfaction and job or career satisfaction. it appears from the findings that participants who are motivated by the talent-based career motives and values which underlie the managerial competence career orientation have a positive experience or perception of their working lives. in this regard, coetzee et al. (2010) found happiness to be positively predicted by a managerial career preference. on the other hand, those participants who are motivated by the values-based career orientation, pure challenge or competitiveness appear to perceive their subjective work experiences significantly more negative, with a significant lower sense of life and job or career satisfaction and happiness and a significantly negative perception of the working lives. some of the major factors that have been reported to lead to job or career dissatisfaction include feeling bored and needing more stimulating and challenging work, having no opportunity to express one’s creative ideas and/or talents and feeling underutilized and stuck with no clear future career path (coetzee et al., 2010). the results also suggest a strong relationship between the general managerial competence, pure challenge or competitiveness and entrepreneurial creativity career orientations. research by goffee and sease (1992) indicates that people are encountering fewer opportunities for promotion in the contemporary workplace due to increased competitive pressures and corporate downsizing. instead, individuals who have a strong managerial career anchor are often expected to behave as ‘entrepreneurs’ and to be flexible and responsive to changing work requirements. coetzee et al. (2010) found entrepreneurial career motives to be a negative predictor of job or career satisfaction. they further note that people who are behaviourally adaptable have significantly more negative perceptions of their working lives. coetzee and schreuder (2009b) further note that both the general management and entrepreneurial creativity career orientations show a negative association with the ability to adapt to changing situations and the ability to deal with setbacks and failures. this may be due to a high need for achievement, status, personal power and a sense of being in control, which are often linked to these two career orientations (lee & wong, 2004). the negative relationship observed between the pure challenge or competitiveness and the participants’ subjective work experiences constructs may be due to the constant need for a variety of new and challenging assignments, including opportunities for higher levels of authority and responsibility in a service orientated environment where they can make a difference. table 4 & 5 conclusions, limitations and recommendations (back to top) similar to findings reported by coetzee and schreuder (2009a, 2009b), the results of the present study suggest that the career orientations of the participants relate to different aspects of the master career motives that underlie the general management, pure challenge and entrepreneurial or creativity career orientations which significantly influence their subjective work experiences and in particular their life and job or career satisfaction. this finding is contrary to schein’s (1978) argument that people tend to have one dominant career anchor and is more in keeping with feldman and bolino’s (1996) observation that one to three career anchors (a combination of the talents-based, values-based and needs-based career orientations) tend to cluster together to form an individual’s career and work preferences. the research confirms the need to assess the inner career orientations of employees as these provide valuable information regarding the motives and values driving individuals’ career decision making and significantly influence their life and job or career satisfaction, sense of happiness and perceptions of work as a valuable activity. individuals’ master career motives and values form an integral part of their career consciousness. the career consciousness includes people’s conscious, career-related cognitions (i.e. perceptions, awareness and self-evaluations) of their career preferences or orientations, values, skills, attitudes and behaviours that they understand and regard as being helpful in realising their goals and achieving career success (coetzee, 2007). because research (coetzee et al., 2010; coetzee & schreuder, 2008, 2009a, 2009b; kanye & crous, 2007) has shown that employees’ inner career orientations are related to their life satisfaction, job or career satisfaction, organisational commitment, performance and motivation, it is suggested that both quantitative and qualitative measures be employed to gain deeper insight into the broader career consciousness of the individual. given the paucity of empirical work on the causal relationship between the career orientations and subjective work experiences constructs relevant to this research, it would seem sensible not to over-interpret the present findings with reference to practical implications without further corroborative research. nevertheless, two preliminary implications may be suggested. firstly, as the findings illustrate that people’s career orientations may potentially influence their life and job or career satisfaction, happiness and perceptions of work as a valuable activity, it is suggested that organisations and managers consider the importance of and need for more effective career matching which can be accomplished by offering multiple rewards and career paths that address the diverse career interests and needs of a multi-cultural workforce. favourable organisational conditions and career development support practices that foster proactive and effective career development and management may elicit higher levels of subjective and objective experiences of career success, possibly leading to other important outcomes such as job or career satisfaction, organisational commitment, talent retention, employee engagement and job performance. in this regard, retaining talent statistics (hughes & half, 2009) indicate that compensation and benefits are often less of a reason why people leave and that the primary reasons employees stay at companies and are engaged include: • the manager understands what motivates them • they feel engaged in challenging and meaningful work • they have career advancement opportunities • they perceive their manager as being visible, honest and consistent • the company shows an interest in their employees. employees who feel that their manager does not respect their psychological needs are three times more likely to leave the employer than those who feel respected. secondly, although the findings highlight the need for further research to explore the relationship between working adults’ inner career orientations and their subjective work experiences, the practical value of the findings lies in the richness of new knowledge gained regarding the identified associations between participants’ career orientations, life and job or career satisfaction, sense of happiness and perceptions of work as a valuable activity. considering the competitive global and south african employment equity context, which has resulted in greater attention being paid to the retention of black managerial talent in particular, the findings add valuable new knowledge that may be used to guide organisational career development support practices relating to the attraction, engagement, development and retention of managerial potential. research by kuijpers and scheerens (2006) indicates that career support practices affect the career development ability, behaviour and motivation of employees. in light of the results of the present study, practices that satisfy the need for autonomy, challenging work, creativity and advancement can be satisfied, for example, by putting the manager in charge of a new project that has to be driven from the conceptual phase to the completion phase (arnolds & boshoff, 2001). creating a supporting environment in which diversely skilled employees on various levels interact, communicate, challenge, assist, trust and commit themselves to the search for new ideas in solving tough problems may help to reduce the feelings of dissatisfaction experienced by participants who value the pure challenge or competitiveness career orientation. coetzee and bergh (2009) also note that the education, guidance and coaching for self-empowering career behaviours and career meta-skills that clearly underpin individuals’ inner career orientations may lead to higher levels of life and job or career satisfaction. it is important to note that although the findings of this study apply predominantly to working adults in the entry and establishment phases of their lives, organisations and practitioners need to realise that adults across all life or career stages must continue to cope with trying to implement an evolving self-concept in their lifestyles, in their work, in their choices and in their career development planning. most people struggle throughout their lives to find a satisfactory match between their career needs and preferences and those associated with their work life (herr et al., 2004). coetzee and bergh (2009) suggest that establishing career development support practices that foster positive work experiences for all age, gender and race groups may enhance experiences of intrinsic career success and promote their life and job or career satisfaction and a general sense of well-being. seeing as the present study has been limited to participants employed predominantly in the south african service industry, the findings cannot be generalised to other occupational contexts. in addition, sem cannot test directionality in relationships. the empirical causal models presented in this study represent only the researchers’ hypothesis of causality within a system which limits the structural equation models’ ability to recreate the sample covariance and variance patterns that have been observed in nature (garson, 2008). these findings therefore need to be replicated with broader samples across various occupational groups and economic sectors before final conclusions can be drawn about the relationship between individuals’ career orientations and subjective work experiences. references (back to top) aamodt, m.g. (2010). industrial/organisational psychology: an applied approach. (6th edn.). belmont, ca: wadsworth cengage learning. anastasiadou, s.d. (2007). job commitment is highly influenced by job motives and job satisfaction: the case of greek teachers in higher education. the international journal of knowledge, culture and change management, 7 (7), 69−79. arnold, j., & cohen, l. (2008). the psychology of careers in industrial and organisational settings: a critical but appreciative analysis. in g.p. hodgkinson & j.k. ford (eds), international review of industrial and organisational psychology vol. 23 (pp. 1−43). london: john wiley & sons. arnolds, c.a., & boshoff, c. (2001). the challenge of motivating top management: a need satisfaction perspective. journal of industrial psychology, 27(1), 39−42. arthur, m.b., khapova, s.n., & wilderom, c.p.m. (2005). career success in a boundaryless career world. journal of organisational behaviour, 26, 177−202. ashton, m.c. (2007). individual differences and personality. amsterdam: academic press. baruch, y. (2004). transforming careers: from linear to multi-directional career paths. career development international, 9(1), 58−73. barrick, m.r., & ryan a.m. (eds). (2003). personality and work: reconsidering the role of personality in organisations. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. bergh, z.c. (2009). psychometric properties of the subjective work experiences scale. unpublished research report, department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. blustein, d.l. (2006). the psychology of working: a new perspective for career development, counselling and public policy. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. boehm, j.k., & lyubomirsky, s. (2008). does happiness promote career success? journal of career assessment, 16(1), 101−116. brown, m.w., & cudeck, r. (1993). alternative ways of assessing model fit. in: k.a. bollen, j.s. long (eds.). testing structural equation models (pp. 136−162). newsbury park, ca: sage. brown, c., george-curran, r., & smith, m.l. (2003). the role of emotional intelligence in the career commitment and decision-making process. journal of career assessment, 11(4), 379−392. burke, r.j. (1983). career orientations of type a individuals. psychological reports, 53, 979−989. coertse, s., & scheepers, j.m. (2004). some personality and cognitive correlates of career maturity. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 30(2), 56−73. coetzee, m. (2007). exploratory factor analyses of the psychological career resources inventory. unpublished research report, department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. coetzee, m., & bergh, z. (2009). psychological career resources and subjective work experiences of working adults: an exploratory study. sa business review, 13(2), 1−31. coetzee, m., bergh, z.c., & schreuder, a.m.g. (2010). career orientations and psychological career resources as predictors of subjective work experiences. unpublished research report, department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. coetzee, m., & de villiers, m.a. (2010). sources of job stress, work engagement and career orientations of employees in a south african financial institution. sa business review,14 (1), 27–57. coetzee, m., & schreuder, a.m.g. (2008). a multi-cultural investigation of students’ career anchors at a south african higher education institution. sa journal of labour relations, 32(2), 1−21. coetzee, m., & schreuder, a.m.g. (2009a). using the career orientations inventory (coi) for measuring career orientations in the south african organisational context. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 35(1), article #806, 13 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajip.v35i1.806. coetzee, m., & schreuder, a.m.g. (2009b). psychological career resources as predictors of working adults’ career anchors: an exploratory study. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 35(1), article #833, 13 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajip.v35i1.833. custodio, l.p. (2004). career anchors of filipino academic executives. school of commerce research paper series: 00-13, college of business and accountancy, virac. dawis, r.v. (1984). job satisfaction: worker aspirations, attitudes, and behaviour. in n.c. gysbers (ed). designing careers, counseling to enhance education, work and leisure. san francisco: jossey-bass. de fruyt, f., & salgado, j.f. (2003). personality and industrial, work and organisational applications. european journal of personality, 17, 1. delong, t.j. (1982a). the career orientations of mba alumni: a multi-dimensional model. in r. katz. (ed.), career issues in human resource management (pp. 50-64). upper saddle river, nj: prentice-hall. delong, t.j. (1982b). reexamining the career anchor model. personnel, 59(3), 60−61. derr, c.b. (1986). managing the new careerist: the diverse career success orientations of today’s workers. san francisco: jossey-bass. derr, c.b., & briscoe, j.p. (2007). the catalyctic 1970s: lessons for the 2000s. in h. gunz & m. peiperl (eds.), handbook of career studies (pp. 528-541). london: sage. diener, e., & seligman, m.e.p. (2002). very happy people. psychological science, 13, 81−84. diener, e., & seligman, m.e.p. (2004). beyond money: toward an economy of well-being. psychological science in the public interest, 5(1), 1−31. diener, e., gohm, c.l., suh, e., & oishi, s. (2000). similarity of the relations between marital staus and subjective well-being across cultures. journal of cross-cultural psychology, 31, 419−436. driver, m.j. (1982). career concepts: a new approach to career research. in r. katz (ed.), career issues in human resource management (pp. 23-32). englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. ebberwein, c.a., krieshok, t.s., ulven, j.c., & prosser, e.c. (2004). voices in transition: lessons on career adaptability. the career development quarterly, 52(4), 292−308. fabrigar, l.r., wegener, d.t., maccallum, r.c., & strahan, e.j. (1999). evaluating the use of exploratory factor analysis in psychological research. psychological methods, 4(3), 272−299. feldman, d.c., & bolino, m.c. (1996). careers within careers: reconceptualising the nature of career anchors and their consequences. human resource management review, 6(2), 89−112. feldman, d.c., & bolino, m.c. (2000). career patterns of the self-employed: career motivations and career outcomes. journal of small business management, 38, 53−67. flett, g.l. 2007. personality theory & research. ontario: wiley & sons. fritzsche, b.a., & parrish, t.j. (2005). theories and research on job satisfaction. in s.d. brown and r.w. lent (eds.), career development and counseling: putting theory and research to work (pp. 180-202). hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons. fugate, m., kinicki, a.j., & ashforth, b.e. (2004). employability: a psycho-social construct, its dimensions, and applications. journal of vocational behaviour, 65, 14−38. garson, g.d. (2008). structural equation modeling: statnotes, pa765. retrieved january 12, 2009, from http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/garson/pa765/structur.html goffee, r., & sease, r. (1992). organisational change and the corporate career: the restructuring of managers’ job aspirations. human relations, 45, 363−385. hall, d.t. (1976). careers in organisations. pacific palisades, ca: wiley. harpaz, i., & fu, x. (2002). the structure of the meaning of work: a relative stability amidst change. human relations, 55(6), 639−667. havran, h., visser, d., & crous, f. (2003). the internal career orientations of permanent and contracting information technology staff. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 29(3), 53−60. herr, e.l., cramer, s.h., & niles, s.g. (2004). career guidance and counseling through the lifespan. london: prentice-hall. hox, j.j., & bechger, t.m. (1998). an introduction to structural equation modeling. family science review, 11, 354−373. hoyle, r.h. (ed.). (1995). structural equation modeling. thousand oaks, ca: sage. hughes, l., & half, r. (2009). the war for talent. retrieved may 14, 2009, from http://www.globalexpertbase.com/wp-8-212.html hu, l.t., & bentler, p.m. (1999). cut-off criteria for fit indices in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. structural equation modeling, 6(1), 1−55. järlström, m. (2000). personality preferences and career expectations of finnish business students. career development international, 5(3), 144−154. jiang, j.j., & klein, g. (2000). supervisor support and career anchor impact on the career satisfaction of the entry-level information systems professionals. journal of management information systems, 16(3), 219−240. jiang, j.j., klein, g., & balloun, j.l. (2001). the joint impact of internal and external career anchors on entry-level is career satisfaction. information and management, 39, 31−39. judge, t.a., bono, j.e., erez, a., & locke, e.a. (2005). core self-evaluations and job and life satisfaction: the role of self-concordance and goal attainment. journal of applied psychology, 90(92), 257−268. judge, t.a., & kammeyer-mueller, j.d. (2007). personality and career success. in h. gunz & m. peiperl (eds), handbook of career studies (pp. 59-78). london: sage. kanye, b., & crous, f. (2007). graduate interns’ experiences: a career success orientations approach. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 33(3), 84−93. kidd, j.m. (2008). exploring the components of career well-being and the emotions associated with significant career experiences. journal of career development, 35, 166−186. kim, n. (2005). organisational interventions influencing employee career development preferred by different career success orientations. international journal of training and development, 9(1), 47−61. kock, r., & burke, m. (2008). managing talent in the south african public service. retrieved may 14, 2009, from http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/192352088_2.html kokou, g., & ierodiakonou, c. (2007). job satisfaction and employee commitment in the academic profession: a gender approach. international journal of knowledge, culture and change management, 6(8), 101−123. kotze, k., & roodt, g. (2005). factors that affect the retention of managerial and specialist staff: an exploratory study of an employee commitment model. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 3(2), 48−55. kuijpers, m.a.c.t., & scheerens, j. (2006). career competencies for the modern career. journal of career development, 32(4), 303−319. lee, s.h., & wong, p.k. (2004). an exploratory study of technopreneurial intentions: a career anchor perspective. journal of business venturing, 19(7), 7−28. lucas, r.e., clark, a.e., georgellis, y., & diener, e. (2004). unemployment alters the set point for life satisfaction. psychological science, 15 (1), 8−13. lumley, l. (2010). the relationship between career anchors, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. unpublished master’s dissertation, department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. maltby, j., day, l., & macaskill, a. (2007). introduction to personality, individual differences and intelligence. harlow: pearson/prentice hall. marchington, m., & wilkinson, a. (2008). human resource management at work: people management and development. london: cipd. martin, a., & roodt, g. (2008). perceptions of organisational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intentions in a post-merger south african tertiary institution. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 34(1), 23−31. peterson, c., & seligman, m. e. p. (2003). values in action (via) classification of strengths. retrieved august 20 2003, from http://www.psych.upenn.edu/seligman/ciamanualintro.pdf perrone, k.m., webb, l.k., wright, s.l., jackson, z.v., & ksiazak, t.m. (2006). relationship of spirituality to work and family roles and life satisfaction among gifted adults. journal of mental health counseling, 28(3), 253−268. pryce jones, j. (2010). happiness. retrieved february 2, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/happiness_at_work ramakrishna, h.v., & potosky, d. (2002). structural shifts in career anchors of information systems personnel: a preliminary empirical analysis. the journal of computer information systems, 42(2), 83−89. raykov, t., & marcoulides, g.a. (2000). a first course in structural equation modelling. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. schein, e.h. (1974). career anchors and career paths: a panel study of management school graduates. technical report no. 1. sloan school of management, mit, cambridge, ma. (eric document reproduction service no. ed 099581). schein, e.h. (1975). how “career anchors” hold executives to their career paths. personnel, 52(3), 11−24. schein, e.h. (1978). career dynamics: matching individual and organizational needs. ma: addison-wesley. schein, e.h. (1990). career anchors: discovering your real values. san diego, ca: pfeiffer & company. schein, e.h. (1996). career anchors revisited. implications for career development in the 21st century. academy of management executive, 1, 80−88. schimmack, u., & oishi, s. (2005). the influence of chronically and temporarily accessible information on life satisfaction judgments. journal of personality and social psychology, 89, 395−406. seligman. m.e.p. (2002). authentic happiness. new york: free press. sempane, m.e., rieger, h.s., & roodt, g. (2002). job satisfaction in relation to organisational culture. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 28(2), 23−30. sinclair, v. (2009). career satisfaction. retrieved february 8, 2009, from http://www.vsinclair.counselling.co.uk/career-e.html snyder, c. r., & lopez, j. (eds). (2002). handbook of positive psychology. washington: apa. strasheim, c. (2008). simultaneous normalisation as an approach to establish equivalence in cross-cultural marketing research. unpublished phd thesis, university of witwatersrand, johannesburg, south africa. suutari, v., & taka, m. (2004). career anchors of managers with global careers. journal of management development, 23(9), 833−847. van dam, k. (2004). antecedents and consequences of employability orientation. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 13(1), 29−51. wanous, j.p., reichers, a.e., & hudy, m.j. (1997). overall job satisfaction: how good are single-item measures? journal of applied psychology, 82, 247−252. whitehead, t., & kotze, m.e. (2003). career and life-balance of professional women: a south african study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 1(3), 62−76. woodd, m. (2000). the move towards a different career pattern: are women better prepared than men for a modern career? career development international, 5(2), 99−105. abstract introduction the evolving role of the people practitioner the professional personas and capabilities of the people practitioner of the future method findings discussion limitations and future work conclusion: way forward for the professional development of the people practitioner of the future acknowledgements references about the author(s) dieter veldsman department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa melinde coetzee department of industrial and organisational psychology, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation veldsman, d., & coetzee, m. (2022). professional personas and capabilities of the future people practitioner: a thematic review. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a2017. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.2017 original research professional personas and capabilities of the future people practitioner: a thematic review dieter veldsman, melinde coetzee received: 12 june 2022; accepted: 02 aug. 2022; published: 30 sept. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the transformation of the technology-enabled workplace has a significant impact on the future professional roles, services and capabilities of both the human resource professional (hrp) and industrial/organisational psychologist (iop). research purpose: the present study aimed to identify the intersecting professional personas and capabilities that speak to both the hrp and iop as people practitioners of the digital era. motivation for the study: an integrated 2020s capabilities framework outlining iop and hrp services-linked personas and capabilities in their conjoint roles as people practitioners seems to be lacking. research approach/design and method: the study utilised a configurative thematic review analysis methodology to identify convergences among contemporary scholarly and empirical views on the professional personas and capabilities of the 2020s multidisciplinary people practitioner. main findings: the thematic analysis revealed professional development in terms of four digitally-dexterous capabilities proficiency domains and six professional personas relevant to the technology-enabled working environment. practical/managerial implications: the proposed integrative conceptual personas and capabilities model may inform the context-relevant professional development of the digital-era people practitioner. contributions/value-add: the study adds to the research literature on the shifting roles and capabilities of iops and hrp as future people practitioners in technology-enabled hybrid and virtualised work environments. keywords: capabilities model; people practitioner; digital-era working world; future-fit people practitioner capabilities; people practitioner personas; professional development; human resource professional; industrial/organisational psychologist. introduction the pandemic-impacted fourth industrial revolution (4ir) fast-tracked technological augmentation and distributed technology-enabled business models that resulted in a redefinition and redesign of work along with challenges of people-technology integration across human resource (hr) management systems (cipd, 2020; howe, chauhan, soderberg, & buckley, 2021; rotatori, lee, & sleeva, 2021). the multifarious nature of technology-enabled, virtualised work processes and arrangements has raised the need for more strategic, coordinating and innovative tasks with advanced responsibilities for people practitioners (rotatori et al., 2021). organisations need multidisciplinary digital expertise that help them develop standardised interfaces and open architectures that enable co-operative work on different digital platforms. leaders and employees must further acquire the capabilities for optimal performance and productivity in competitive and virtualised work contexts (ross & maynard, 2021). for business leaders, the complexities of a 4ir technology-driven business world have put the workforce at the centre of the business agenda with a dire need for multidisciplinary professional people practitioners to take on the personas of strategic business partners, change champions, and employee advocates who help shape a better future for leaders and employees (cipd, 2020; heathfield, 2021; oosthuizen, 2022; ulrich, ulrich, burns, & wright, 2021; van vulpen, 2022). in the present study, the term ‘people practitioners’ encapsulates the integrative roles and services of human resource professionals (hrps) and industrial/organisational psychologists (iops). human resource professionals generally are known to provide effective administrative, transactional, and process-driven hr management services that meet the strategic and operational business needs of the organisation. such services generally include hr planning, recruitment and selection, employee development, employee rewards, employee relations, employee wellness, and health and safety management with a focus on compliance to policies and procedures (msingi, 2021; van zyl, nel, stander, & rothmann, 2016). human resource professionals further act in strategic roles through processes that guide the alignment of organisational strategies with hr management practices for enhanced organisational and employee performance and wellbeing (van zyl et al., 2016). professionally qualified iops are known as strategic behavioural scientist-practitioners who bring psychological and research expertise that contributes to the understanding, modification and optimisation of individual, group and organisational behaviour, performance and well-being (coetzee & veldsman, 2022). generally, iops are seen to focus on the design and facilitation of psychological-based strategies, systems, theories and methodologies for enhancing individual, team, leader and organisational performance and wellbeing (van zyl et al., 2016). the services of iops typically involve designing, facilitating and evaluating evidence-based behavioural interventions for effective individual, group and organisational functioning. industrial/organisational psychologists also perform psychometric and other assessments in support of hr management practices relevant to selection, employment, career and wellness guidance and counselling, training and development, employee performance, organisational culture and climate, and leadership, team, organisational development and change (coetzee & veldsman, 2022; van zyl et al., 2016). the roles and services of the hrp and iop are distinctively unique in their focus and expertise. however, conjointly both professions function as people practitioners who, through their multidisciplinary synergetic expertise and services to management, line managers, team leaders and employees, help to optimise sustainable business performance and market competitiveness (coetzee, botha, & de beer, 2021). the transformation of the technology-enabled 4ir workplace will have a significant impact on the future professional roles, services and capabilities of both the hrp and iop. the 4ir complexities have ushered in a new paradoxical era: on the one hand, the opportunity for hrps and iops as people practitioners to support the reshaping and drive toward people-led organisational transformation; on the other hand, the risk of becoming irrelevant and losing the strategic impetus that has been gained over the past three decades (cheese, 2020; cipd, 2020; coetzee & veldsman, 2022; ulrich et al., 2021). consequently, scholars highlight the imminent accelerated upskilling, reskilling and continual agile professional development of both hrps and iops to meet the evolving needs of the modern, digital-era business (bersin, 2021; cheese, 2020; coetzee & veldsman, 2022; marion & fixson, 2021; mazurchenko & maršíková, 2019; van vulpen, 2022; van vulpen & veldsman, 2022; veldsman, 2020). the present study was interested in identifying the intersecting professional personas and capabilities that speak to both the hrp and iop as future-fit people practitioners of the digital era. the aim was to conceptualise an integrative conceptual people practitioner personas and capabilities model for the professional development of the hrp and iop of the future. scholars in the people profession field have come up with people practitioner capabilities frameworks to inform higher education hr management and iop curricula and training and development practice to ensure the sustainable employability and relevance of the 2020s people practitioner (bersin, 2021; coetzee & veldsman, 2022; ulrich et al., 2021; van vulpen, 2022; van vulpen & veldsman, 2022; veldsman, 2020). taking a capabilities framework approach is corroborated by scholars interested in future-proofing the employability and lifelong learning of professional graduates (see e.g. bates, rixon, carbone, & pilgrim, 2019; bowles, bowes, & wilson, 2019; bowles, ghosh, & thomas, 2020; oliver & de st jorre, 2018). modern people practitioner future-fit capabilities frameworks attempt to map professional capabilities as a multidisciplinary business-oriented set of skills, knowledge, expertise and attributes that can be tested, observed and proven in the 2020s workplace (bersin, 2021; van vulpen & veldsman, 2022; veldsman, 2020). it is evident from studying the various 2020s hrp and iop people practitioner capabilities models that the pervasive changes in technology-driven business environments and models are leading towards a dire need for both hrps and iops to go beyond the traditional professional personas of advisor, business partner or consultants, and to function conjointly in new context-relevant professional persona roles to remain employable in the digital era (cheese, 2020; chinyamurindi, masha, & tshabalala, 2021; coetzee & veldsman, 2022; howe et al., 2021; van vulpen & veldsman, 2022; veldsman, 2020). however, digital skills and proficiency still seem to rank among the scarcest talent. even though talent capability models related to hybrid, remote and flexible working models have allowed emerging markets to become significant players in the global talent marketplace, a lot of work still needs to be done to ensure the future-proofing capabilities of people practitioners, leaders and the workforce for sustainable business success (ewers, khattab, babar, & madeeha, 2022). of concern is the findings of a global capabilities-assessment among 5648 people professionals that only 21% of the sample had the required level of competency and proficiency in the future-ready hrp capabilities outlined by van vulpen and veldsman (2022). the survey findings signal the need for an integrated hrp and iop future-ready people practitioner capabilities model that could inform the professional development and sustainable employability of the 2020s people practitioner. a 2020s capabilities framework that integrates the services-linked skills and attributes of the future-fit hrp and iop in their conjoint roles as people practitioners seems to be lacking. the present study endeavours to address this gap in research. a key issue that needs resolution is the highlighting of convergences in the 2020s era’s published literature on future-ready hrp and iop personas and capabilities. the aim was to holistically understand the core integrative hrp and iop personas and capabilities that the future-fit people practitioner requires for context-relevant professional development and employability. the study makes the following key contributions. utilising a configurative thematic review analysis methodology (gough, thomas, & olivier, 2012), this study sheds light on convergences among contemporary scholarly and empirical views on the future-fit professional personas and capabilities of the hrp and iop in their roles as people practitioners. the study further proposes an integrative conceptual hrp and iop personas and capabilities model that may inform the professional development of the digital-era people practitioner. the evolving role of the people practitioner historically, the role of the people practitioner could be segmented into several eras in alignment with the nature of work and organisational requirements (mommsen & husung, 2017). the industrial revolutions played a big part in evolving the role of the people practitioner and organisational expectations. the 1910s and 1920s saw a rise in legislation, the strong emergence of trade unions, and more formalisation regarding workplace conditions and terms (mommsen & husung, 2017). in response, the people practitioner contribution evolved regarding the negotiation of labour conditions, and a strong focus on legislative compliance became the norm. as world wars started to disrupt the workplace, the role of the people practitioner again shifted because male workers were called to war, and local factories and businesses were run by the remaining workforce, which consisted predominantly of females and children (greenwald, 1990). during the world war era, the people practitioner role evolved in terms of searching and managing the supply of available talent while selecting the right talent for the appropriate roles. the people practitioner also aided the war efforts in developing psychological assessments geared towards better leveraging the available skills and attributes of soldiers being sent to the frontline (sutker & allain, 1995). this brought greater awareness regarding the contribution of better understanding human behaviour and its contribution towards fit, productivity, and performance. as the world was rebuilt following the end of the wars, the people practitioners were faced with a growing discontent within the workforce and especially in the developed world, the rise of civil unrest and rising inequality became a workplace reality (edelman, 1990). during this time, the personnel, or as some refer to it, hire and fire mentality within human resources, also developed as organisations started to formalise the practices of hiring, training, compensation, and firing (haslinda, 2009). unfortunately, during the world war era, many reputational issues about hrp and iop as people practitioners emerged, and for several hr management professionals, this still forms the perception of their role and contribution to workplaces. the 1970s and 1980s gave rise to the idea of human capital development and an increasing interest in the psychology of human motivation and behaviour (mahutga, 2019). this was in response to organisations moving towards the knowledge economy workplace and becoming increasingly interested in human beings as a source of competitive advantage. the now-famous ‘strategic business partner’ concept was articulated in the late 1990s and early 2000s as businesses realised that human capital has a strategic role in organisational performance (conner & ulrich, 1996). recent studies conducted by van vulpen and veldsman (2022) and veldsman (2020) also highlighted the changing value-added role of both the hrp and the iop as people practitioners in the broader social and humanitarian context. this is evident with the rise of a multidisciplinary humanitarian work psychology (veldsman, 2020) with the question being posed as to how the people practitioner can contribute towards solving societal challenges such as climate change, inequality and poverty (coetzee & veldsman, 2022). the 4ir, technology-enabled business world further impacted the people practitioner role by replacing some responsibilities through automation or enhancing the ability of the people practitioner to operate in more digital-driven, virtualised and hybrid work contexts (meduri & yadav, 2021). hybrid and remote workplaces exacerbated the need for the people practitioner to adapt or face the risk of extinction as artificial intelligence became increasingly more pervasive (veldsman, 2020). van vulpen and veldsman (2022) studied 55 traditional hr practitioner roles and the risk and value that automation could bring to the future workplace. in this study, almost 49% of roles fall within categories where automation will bring additional value. the study further highlighted that the expectation that all people practitioner roles will be impacted by technology leads towards the conclusion that the people practitioner of the future needs to learn to adapt, evolve and reframe how services and solutions are delivered to remain relevant (van vulpen & veldsman, 2022). these findings align with studies by charlwood and guenole (2022), chinyamurindi et al. (2021), coetzee and veldsman (2022), and veldsman (2020) that state that both hrps and iops as people practitioners of the future need to reshape and rearticulate their role contributions (professional personas) and capabilities requirements in the digital-era workplace. the professional personas and capabilities of the people practitioner of the future the present study focused on published studies on the professional personas and capabilities of the 2020s people practitioner. earlier models of the capabilities of hrps allude to competency and proficiency in professional domain behaviours of excellence in hr management. such behaviours include inter alia the role of the hrp as strategic change champion and business partner, manager of human relations, and hr innovator and integrator (shrm, 2012; ulrich, brockbank, johnson, & younger, 2007; ulrich younger, brockbank, & ulrich, 2012). table 1 shows that the 2021–2022 hrp personas and capabilities models propose multifaceted skills alluding to the granular areas of expertise in specific hr functional domain tasks, systems, or practices, including experiences in designing, implementing, measuring and optimising various people and talent-related solutions. in addition, expertise in building collaborative connections and relations to deepen expertise, and exhibiting context-awareness are also deemed as important for professional and business success in the digital-era organisation (bersin, 2021; ulrich et al., 2021; van vulpen, 2022). table 1: overview of professional personas and capabilities of the human resource professionals: 2021–2022. van vulpen and veldsman (2022) developed a novel hrp capabilities model (coined as the aihr [academy to innovate hr] t-shaped hr professional competency model). the aihr t-shaped model maps the required future-fit hrp personas, technology, process, skills and resources that future-fit people practitioners require to deliver on the people strategy and drive sustainable business results. as shown in table 1, the aihr t-shaped model was used as an overall modern framework to review the most prominent 2021–2022 professional personas and capabilities that emerged for the hrp with the full swing onset of the 4ir. in the framework (table 1), professional personas denote employer requirements of the expected roles of people practitioners. business acumen refers to the ability to apply insights to business strategy and align people practices in an impactful, customer-focused manner. data literacy denotes the ability to apply, translate and communicate data to influence business decision-making and action. digital dexterity comprises creating the mindset for adopting digital people solutions and memorable employee experiences, and the ability to leverage technology to drive value at scale. the ability of people advocacy helps build organisational cultures and workplaces where people feel they belong. such cultures drive open communication, navigate change, and ensure the business acts in an ethical and sustainable manner. the functional competency domain refers to expertise across the spectrum of hr management services which are supported and enabled by credible and ethical professional behaviours (van vulpen & veldsman, 2022). in table 2, we again utilised the aihr t-shaped model of capabilities (van vulpen & veldsman, 2022) as a framework for organising the 2020s future-fit professional personas and capabilities of the digital-era iop. this allowed for a reliable comparison of the future-ready hrp and iop capabilities and professional personas. table 2: overview of professional personas and capabilities of the industrial/organisational psychologists: 2020–2022. titus, starke and sibiza (2020) highlight future-fit domains pertaining to the personal attributes and abilities, knowledge abilities and expertise, and personal, interpersonal and organisational abilities of the successful iop as future-fit people practitioner. oosthuizen (2022) proposes a stara-intelligent (smart technology, artificial intelligence, robotics and algorithms) capabilities framework for the future-fit iop. empirical research by coetzee and veldsman (2022) among employers who adopted technology-enabled business models points to digital dexterity along with iop practice-related capabilities that are more suitable for the 2020s technology-enabled workplace. their research further emphasises the professional roles of iops as future-ready people practitioners and the concomitant future-fit distinct elements of talent (coined as deltas: dondi, klier, panier, & schubert, 2021) they need for sustainable employability and professional success in the digital era. it is evident from the published literature (table 1 and table 2) that since 2020, both the hrp and iop professional personas and capabilities models demonstrate a substantial shift towards digitally-oriented competencies such as data literacy, digital communication, analytics, and dealing with data. the shifting capability requirements have not been restricted to the domain of technology but also extended to include elements such as the ability to deal with strategic business decisions and solutions, complexity and change, employee physical and mental health, and being able to deal with increasing ethical ambiguity involving technology-human interaction (chinyamurindi et al., 2021; coetzee & veldsman, 2022; oosthuizen, 2022; ulrich et al., 2021; van vulpen, 2022; van vulpen & veldsman, 2022). we were interested in identifying the core future-fit professional personas and capabilities of the digital-era people practitioner. the 2020s professional persona and capabilities of the hrp and iop outlined in table 1 and table 2 show some commonalities that signal the need to find the convergences among these personas and capabilities that could allow for a more holistic and integrative view of the people practitioner of the future. the following research questions guided our thematic review of the 2020–2022 hrp and iop personas and capabilities models: what are the convergences among the future-ready hrps’ and iops’ professional personas and capabilities? which core, converged, hrp and iop professional personas and capabilities emerged for the future-fit people practitioner? method research approach the study utilised a configurative thematic review analysis methodology (gough et al., 2012) to enable a critical-evaluative and qualitative exploration of convergences among the 2020–2022 hrp and iop personas and capabilities models outlined in table 1 and table 2. the google search engine was deemed adequate as the chosen tool for the rapid review process and interpretive exploration of intersecting 2020–2022 themes. the search process yielded six (n = 6) publications relevant to the future-ready hrp personas and capabilities (2021–2022) and five (n = 5) publications relevant to the digital-era iop (2020–2022). the inclusion criteria pertained to only 2020–2022 publications to ensure that only publications relevant to the digital era were reviewed. synthesis and interpretative analysis the configurative thematic review allowed the synthesis or organisation of the conceptual themes from the included studies (table 1 and table 2) to answer the two research questions. based on guidelines by pratt, rockmann and kaufmann (2006) and gough et al. (2012), the researchers independently reviewed the publications in depth and proposed a summary table aligned to the literature themes outlined in table 1 and table 2. areas of agreement and disagreement were highlighted and tabled for discussion. consensus was achieved over time through an iterative process of open-coding and analysis. the findings of the reviews showed that thematic saturation was adequately achieved. to answer research question 1, three labels were utilised to categorise the extent of theme convergences across the (n = 11) publications: high levels of congruence, some similarities, and limited similarities. the findings are shown in figure 1. using the initially identified themes, the researchers were able to identify emerging theoretical categories and incorporate the existing literature into the findings. to answer research question 2, the authors integrated the reviewed and categorised themes into a conceptual model (figure 2) in line with the original publication themes to ensure relevance to the findings. figure 1: convergences between the future-fit human resource professionals’ and industrial/organisational psychologists’ capabilities. figure 2: integrative conceptual model of the future-fit people practitioner professional personas and capabilities. ethical considerations the study formed part of a larger research project (erc ref#: 2020_cems/iop_014) for which ethical clearance was granted. to ensure the integrity of the data, a thorough record was kept of the research process, the codes assigned to the themes, the data coding, and the identified theme categories. this contributed to the trustworthiness (i.e., credibility, transferability, dependability, and conformability) of the study (nowell, norris, white, & moules, 2017). the data were stored in a secure, password-protected cloud-based format, which limited access to the data by the researchers. findings the thematic review highlighted the publications of van vulpen and veldsman (2022) and coetzee and veldsman (2022) as incorporating the most prominent overlapping themes. it appears from the two publications that the dominant 2020–2022 themes of the other hrp and iop publications in table 1 and table 2 were already integrated in their research findings. thematic saturation was therefore evident and adequate. this finding enabled us to focus on the convergences among the studies of van vulpen and veldsman (2022) and coetzee and veldsman (2022). the two studies provided a framework for comparing a dominant contemporary well-researched hrp personas and capabilities model with an evidence-based, empirical iop professional personas and capabilities model. convergences between the future-ready hrp and iop practitioners’ professional personas and capabilities the review findings are summarised in figure 1. high levels of convergence among the themes of the two studies were evident regarding the need for business acumen. the converged themes point to the ability to integrate technology into business and link workspaces to productivity as part of the business acumen capability. strategic business acumen further alludes to the ability to apply systemic thinking, translate business needs and strategy, understand macro-environmental and industry context, and apply these to drive competitive advantage in the business. high levels of convergence emerged among the digital stara skills and the description of data literacy and digital dexterity as described in the aihr t-shaped capabilities model (van vulpen & veldsman, 2022). data-driven behaviour and the ability to work with data to inform evidence practice, utilise analytical skills to make decisions, and gather insights and apply evidence-based practice (as described in the aihr t-shaped model) is more specific than the skills described in the model proposed by coetzee and veldsman (2022). however, the coetzee and veldsman (2022) model proposes a stronger focus on digital-savvy practitioner skills and the ability to incorporate these skills into a hybrid work environment through application and facilitation. digital dexterity, described as the ability to adopt a digital mindset and incorporate technology into people practices, shows high levels of congruence with the digital stara skills and attributes. coetzee and veldsman (2022) proposed several iop practice-orientated skills such as virtual change management, consulting, coaching, counselling, communication, and interviewing skills. the aihr t-shaped capabilities model (van vulpen & veldsman, 2022) does not explicitly describe these skills; however, it does propose a number of personas that the people practitioner of the future needs to play in the shape of workplace-and-culture-champion and communications-and-change-navigator. these personas show some similarities with the skills and attributes proposed by coetzee and veldsman (2022). this is further highlighted by high levels of convergence with the need for behavioural skills such as persuasion, adaptability, resilience, and compassion that are also encapsulated in the aihr t-shaped capability model (van vulpen & veldsman, 2022) as part of the people advocacy capability. coetzee and veldsman (2022) also indicated the ability to utilise people practitioner tools in the virtual and digital environment as a critical attribute. this finding alluded to some similarities with van vulpen and veldsman’s (2022) suggestion regarding the digital dexterity competency and the ability to master hr practice in this ever-changing world of work. interestingly, though, is that van vulpen and veldsman (2022) view these capabilities as a key contributor towards business acumen or, more specifically, the ability to apply people practices within the context of business, while coetzee and veldsman (2022) views this as a key attribute of the work of a people practitioner in a virtual and hybrid world of work. the aihr t-shaped model of van vulpen and veldsman (2022) also proposes in-depth domain-specific expertise to complement the core behavioural capabilities of business acumen, data literacy, digital dexterity, and people advocacy. this shows similarities with the more technical and domain-specific expertise coetzee and veldsman (2022) proposed in terms of change management, counselling, coaching, consulting skills, and people-behavioural measurement tools. however, van vulpen and veldsman (2022) do not differentiate the application of these skills in an exclusively virtual sense, while this is evident in the model proposed by coetzee and veldsman (2022). van vulpen and veldsman (2022) also propose the persona of the people practitioner as ethics and risk custodian, which positions the role of the practitioner as a conduit to create communities and ecosystems of value, holding each other to designated moral codes and promoting the greater good in terms of sustainability and societal impact. even though this is not evident in the skills and attributes (capabilities) proposed by coetzee and veldsman (2022), there are visibly evident overlaps with the personas proposed as the people practitioner’s contribution toward a multidisciplinary humanitarian work psychology. the industry 4.0 talent capabilities framework suggested by kohl and swartz (2019) and coetzee and veldsman (2022) in their model further organises these capabilities into four categories: intrapersonal – business acumen, adaptability, resilience. interpersonal – persuasiveness, communication, people, behaviour, motivation skills. interdigital – virtual change management, virtual consulting, coaching and counselling, virtual behavioural, measurement, assessment. intradigital – intelligence and acumen in digital iop tools and development. this categorisation provides further clarification of the nature of the attributes and skills (capabilities) in terms of intrapersonal (me), interpersonal (me and the world), interdigital (how) and intradigital (what). coetzee and veldsman (2022) go further and describe the roles of the future people practitioner in terms of their contribution towards a multidisciplinary humanitarian work psychology, strategic technological (stara) intelligence, people technology integration, well-being and multidisciplinary scientist-practitioner. although this categorisation is not evident in the models proposed by van vulpen and veldsman (2022) and coetzee and veldsman (2022), their research findings seem to allude to four (hr professional) people practitioner personas that, based upon the work context, apply these capabilities differently as outlined in table 3. the professional personas outlined in table 3 describe a shared set of professional capabilities distinctively relevant to a specific persona. the persona capabilities speak to the contribution made to the workplace context within which the practitioner delivers services. the professional personas of the future-ready 2020s people practitioner were labelled as: strategist, solution architect, service champion, and business advisor. table 3: the future-fit people practitioner professional personas and distinctive professional capabilities. as is evident from the thematic review, high levels of overlap exist between the two proposed capabilities models regarding the need to be digitally savvy, the application of people practitioner skills in a hybrid and virtual world of work, and the inherent knowledge of macro-environmental factors and business acumen. as can be expected, the hrp and iop models differ slightly in terms of role and scope focus, yet even in this domain, there seems to be noteworthy convergences regarding the role of the people practitioner as strategist, provider of people solutions and services, and the role of business advisor. both models acknowledge the extension of scope beyond traditional organisational borders and the impact that people practitioners need to play in the broader societal context. given the nature of the changing world of work, it is evident that the application of traditional people practices needs to be adapted to be relevant in the digital world of work, while there is also an expectation that new responsibilities and roles will come to the fore. integrated conceptual model of core professional personas and capabilities for the people practitioner of the future based on the observed convergent themes among the professional personas and capabilities of the future-ready hrp and iop, the thematic review culminated into an integrative conceptual model relevant to the 2020s people practitioner is shown in figure 2. the model (figure 2) postulates that the people practitioner of the future requires four proficiency domains. the first, intrapersonal, refers to business acumen and the ability to apply systemic thinking to the world of work, adaptability to deal with the changing ambiguity and the ability to demonstrate compassion for people within that context. this is in line with the study conducted by coetzee and veldsman (2022) and the model proposed by titus et al. (2020). the second, the interpersonal domain refers to the ability to communicate with impact, champion workplaces for individuals to thrive, and have the persuasiveness to influence others. this domain aligns with the models proposed by ulrich et al. (2021) as well as the study by van vulpen and veldsman (2022). the third, the interdigital domain refers to applying functional expertise in this digital world, such as organisational development or talent management, underpinned by the ability to lead change and play the roles of coach, counsellor, and facilitator in a digital environment. this aligns with capability models that discussed mastery as a key differentiator for the people practitioner, yet this model promulgates applying these skills in a digital and virtual world of work. the fourth domain refers to intradigital, the ability to work with data, read data, and interpret data to drive evidence-based practice. this is complemented by digital dexterity, or the mindset to survive and thrive in a digital world and working with technology to drive impact. this domain builds upon the research conducted by coetzee and veldsman (2022) in terms of the attributes required for the future people practitioner to remain relevant in the virtual world of work. the model further sees the multidisciplinary people practitioner in the role of six professional personas, which apply to these four domains within a different context, whether that be working in or with organisations, in service of the community or society as a whole. these personas are described in terms of the terminology assigned by van vulpen and veldsman (2022) as the strategist, the business advisor, the solutions architect, and the service champion. based on the thematic review, two additional personas are proposed. the additional first persona is the multidisciplinary humanitarian champion, as proposed by coetzee and veldsman (2022), focusing on driving the balance between societal, organisational and individual requirements. the second additional persona refers to the ethics custodian and positions the people practitioner as the voice for good, to act as the compass of moral principles and values. this aligns with the movement towards a higher awareness of people risk and moral and societal values, as proposed by van vulpen and veldsman (2022). in summary, the integrative conceptual model positions the future people professional as a multidisciplinary scientist-practitioner who is able to apply people expertise in a digital and virtual world while demonstrating a strong sense of strategic business acumen and macro-environmental awareness. they demonstrate digital dexterity, can work with technology and utilise virtual platforms to reach more people, more of the time for the good of individuals, organisations and societies. they play various roles and balance in-depth expertise in specific functional domains with a core transferable set of competencies that enables them to navigate the ambiguity of the changing world of work and guide individuals, leaders, organisations and society into the future. discussion this study builds upon the current understanding of the 2020s people practitioner capabilities requirements and employers’ hrp and iop personas expectations through the lens of the changing, virtual and digital world of work. as our literature review indicated, the digital-era professional personas and capabilities of the people practitioner as a guide into the 2020s uncertain future will be critical for employees, leaders, organisations and society to transition and adapt. based upon the findings in this study, we proposed an integrative conceptual model that incorporated the prominent intersecting insights from the aihr t-shaped hrp model (van vulpen & veldsman, 2022) and the digital-era iop model proposed by coetzee and veldsman (2022) to inform the professional development of the future-ready people practitioner. the proposed conceptual model (figure 2) highlights professional development in terms of the four digital dexterous capabilities proficiency domains (intrapersonal, intra digital, interdigital, interpersonal), and professional capabilities (business acumen, adaptability, compassion, functional mastery, change, coaching and counselling, communication, workplace champion, persuasiveness, digital dexterity, data literacy). the model also elucidates six professional personas (humanitarian champion, strategist, ethics custodian, business advisor, solution architect, service champion) in relation to the technology-enabled working environment. the findings corroborate research pointing to general essential digitally dexterous capabilities that are needed to operate in the technology-enabled hybrid and virtualised work environment (dondi et al., 2021; kohl & swartz, 2019). in addition, the findings are supported by research among professional practitioners and employers of technology-enabled businesses that highlights a dire need for multidisciplinary professional personas and capabilities of the people practitioner that can guide digital-era organisational transformation and workforce capability building (coetzee & veldsman, 2022; veldsman, 2020). limitations and future work the study is limited to only evaluating people practitioners within traditional hrp and iop roles. this excludes some roles related to individuals working within the people technology and learning and development domains. the study was also limited to publications within the 2020–2022 timeline and culminated into dominant themes derived from two key publications. further work is required to conduct a more inclusive study that extends beyond the boundary of the present study. checking the findings and interpretations with a broader range of scholars in the hrp and iop field will shed new light to the present study. the future-readiness of hrps and iops are a critical requirement for their sustained employability in a rapidly changing digital-era work context and deserves further interrogation and debate. conclusion: way forward for the professional development of the people practitioner of the future the study contributes to the current knowledge regarding the future-fit capabilities and professional personas requirements of hrps and iops as future multidisciplinary people practitioners. through this study, we also contribute towards the discussion regarding the reskilling of the future-ready people practitioner and the changing requirement to build multidisciplinary scientist-practitioners that can operate beyond traditional organisational borders (veldsman, 2020). the study also proposed a shift in the scope of the people practitioner to move beyond the traditional organisational level focus and to become a key contributor towards societal level goals as facets of their professional personas. it is assumed that the converged personas and capabilities encapsulated in the proposed conceptual model will find distinctively unique expression in the focus and scope of practice relevant to the expertise and professional training of the hrp and iop. however, the integrative conceptual model may be useful in guiding professional development initiatives that ensure the context-relevant employability of the hrp and iop professions. although the conceptual model integrated themes shared by both hrps and iops, the extent to which each people practitioner needs to develop, and the importance of each of the capabilities and personas within their unique hrp and iop roles will differ in accordance with the scope of practice of either profession. hyper-personalised professional development initiatives will provide the proficiency, agility and mindset needed to become the future-fit multidisciplinary people practitioner needed in the digital-era work world. the study was explorative in nature and paves the way for future debate about the core professional personas and capabilities that hrps and iops as multidisciplinary people practitioners require in the digital-era work context. the continued context-relevant employability of people practitioners remains a topic of high priority in higher education and practice alike. it is hoped that the study stimulates further debate and research on the development of key professional capabilities for people practitioners in today’s technologically-driven society and business environment. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the authors contributed equally to the research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial. or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data availability only upon approval from the corresponding author’s research institution’s research ethics committee upon formal reasonable request to the dr dieter veldsman. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors, and the publisher references bates, g.w., rixon, a., carbone, a., & pilgrim, c. (2019). beyond employability skills: developing professional purpose. journal of teaching and learning for graduate employability, 10(1), 7–26. https://doi.org/10.21153/jtlge2019vol10no1art794 bersin, j. (2021). the global hr capability project: a new approach to accelerating hr capabilities. josh bersin. retrieved from https://joshbersin.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/acceleratingthecapabilities_v2.pdf bowles, m., ghosh, s., & thomas, l.m. (2020). future-proofing accounting professionals: ensuring graduate employability and future readiness. the journal of teaching and learning, 11(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.21153/jtlge2020vol11no1art886 bowles, m.s., bowes, n.i., & wilson, p.t. (2019). future-proof human capabilities: raising the future employability of graduates. international journal of business and social science, 10(9), 10–21. https://doi.org/10.30845/ijbss.v10n9a2 charlwood, a., & guenole, n. (2022). can hr adapt to the paradoxes of artificial intelligence? human resource management journal, 1, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12433 cheese, p. (2020). foreword: cipd report: people profession 2030 – a collective view of future trends. cipd. retrieved from https://www.cipd.co.uk/images/people-profession-2030-report-compressed_tcm18-86095.pdf chinyamurindi, w.t., masha, a.k., & tshabalala, n. (2021). the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on industrial organisational psychologists in south africa: imagining new professional roles. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 47, a1876. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v47i0.1876 cipd. (2020). chartered institute of personnel and development (cipd) report: people profession 2030 – a collective view of future trends. author. retrieved from https://www.cipd.co.uk/images/people-profession-2030-report-compressed_tcm18-86095.pdf coetzee, m., botha, e., & de beer, l.t. (eds.). (2021). personnel psychology: an applied perspective. cape town: oxford university press. coetzee, m., & veldsman, d. (2022). the digital-era industrial/organisational psychologist: employers’ view of key service roles, skills and attributes. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 48, a1991. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v48i0.1991 conner, j., & ulrich, d. (1996). human resource roles: creating value, not rhetoric. human resource planning, 19(3), 38–51. dondi, m., klier, j., panier, f., & schubert, j. (2021). defining the skills citizens will need in the future world of work. mckinsey.com. retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/defining-the-skills-citizens-will-need-in-the-future-world-of-work edelman, l.b. (1990). legal environments and organizational governance: the expansion of due process in the american workplace. american journal of sociology, 95(6), 1401–40. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2780330. ewers, m.c., khattab, n., babar, z., & madeeha, m. (2022). skilled migration to emerging economies: the global competition for talent beyond the west. globalizations, 19(2), 268–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2021.1882816 gough, d., thomas, j., & olivier, s. (2012). clarifying differences between review designs and methods. systematic reviews, 1(28), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1186/2046-4053-1-28 greenwald, m.w. (1990). women, war, and work: the impact of world war i on women workers in the united states. pittsburgh, pa: cornell university press. haslinda, a. (2009). evolving terms of human resource management and development. the journal of international social research, 2(9), 180–186. heathfield, s.m. (2021). the 3 new roles of the human resources professional: traditional hr is transforming and adding new critical roles. thebalancecareers. retrieved from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/the-new-roles-of-the-human-resources-professional-1918352 howe, d.c., chauhan, r.s., soderberg, a.t., & buckley, m.r. (2021). paradigm shifts caused by the covid-19 pandemic. organisational dynamics, 50(4), 100804. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2020.100804 kohl, k., & swartz, j. (2019). building industry 4.0 talent. in m. coetzee (ed.), thriving in digital workspaces: emerging issues for research and practice (pp. 15–40). cham: springer nature. mahutga, j. (2019). the generation z handbook: a grounded theory approach to motivation in the workplace. brookings, south dakota: south dakota state university. marion, t.j., & fixson, s.k. (2021). the transformation of the innovation process: how digital tools are changing work, collaboration, and organisations in new product development. journal of product innovation management, 38(1), 192–215. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpim.12547 mazurchenko, a., & maršíková, k. (2019). digitally-powered human resource management: skills and roles in the digital era. acta informatica pragensia, 8(2), 72–87. https://doi.org/10.18267/j.aip.125 meduri, y., & yadav, p. (2021). automation invading human resources. delhi business review, 22(1), 65–72. https://doi.org/10.51768/dbr.v22i1.221202105 mommsen, w.j., & husung, h.g. (eds.). (2017). the development of trade unionism in great britain and germany, 1880–1914 (vol. 11). oxfordshire, uk: taylor & francis. msingi, m. (2021). role of human resource practitioner in an organization. masomo msingi publishers. retrieved from https://masomomsingi.co.ke/role-of-human-resource-practitioner-in-an-organization/ nowell, l.s., norris, j.m., white, d.e., & moules, n.j. (2017). thematic analysis: striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria. international journal of qualitative methods, 16, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406917733847 oliver, b., & jorre de st jorre, t. (2018). graduate attributes for 2020 and beyond: recommendations for australian higher education providers. higher education research & development, 37(4), 821–836. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2018.1446415 oosthuizen, r.m. (2022). the fourth industrial revolution – smart technology, artificial intelligence, robotics and algorithms: industrial psychologists in future workplaces. frontiers in artificial intelligence, 5, 913168. https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2022.913168 pratt, m.g., rockmann, k.w., & kaufmann, j.b. (2006). constructing professional identity: the role of work and identity learning cycles in the customisation of identity among medical residents. academy of management journal, 49(2), 235–262. https://doi.org/10.2307/20159762 ross, p., & maynard, k. (2021). towards a 4th industrial revolution. intelligent buildings international, 13(3), 159–161. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508975.2021.1873625 rotatori, d., lee, e.j., & sleeva, s. (2021). the evolution of the workforce during the fourth industrial revolution. human resource development international, 24(1), 92–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2020.1767453 shrm [society for human resources management]. (2012). shrm competency model. retried from https://www.shrm.org/learningandcareer/competency-model/documents/full%20competency%20model%2011%202_10%201%202014.pdf sutker, p.b., & allain, a.n. (1995). psychological assessment of aviators captured in world war ii. psychological assessment, 7(1), 66–68. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.7.1.66 titus, s., starke, n., & sibiza, l. (2020). the capabilities, education, training and development required to make industrial-organisational psychologists future-fit. in t.h. veldsman (ed.), industrial-organisational psychologists engaging with the new world of work: the unfolding challenge of future-fitness for the 4th industrial revolution (pp. 115–130). randburg: kr publishing & society for industrial & organisational psychology (siopsa). ulrich, d., brockbank, w., johnson, d., & younger, j. (2007). human resource competencies: responding to increased expectations. employment relations today, 34(3), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1002/ert.20159 ulrich, d., ulrich, m., burns, e.w., & wright, p. (2021). new hrcs 8 competency model focuses on simplifying complexity. the rbl group. retrieved from https://www.rbl.net/insights/articles/new-hrcs-8-competency-model-focuses-on-simplifying-complexity ulrich, d., younger, j., brockbank, w., & ulrich, m. (2012). hr from the outside in: six competencies for the future of human resources. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. van vulpen, e. (2022). leading transformation: why most hr operating models fail. academy to innovate hr [aihr]. retrieved from https://www.aihr.com/blog/why-hr-operating-models-fail/ van vulpen, e., & veldsman, d. (2022). the current state of hr competencies: aihr research. academy to innovate hr [aihr]. retrieved from https://www.aihr.com/blog/hr-competency-research-statistics/ van zyl, l.e., nel, e., stander, m.w., & rothmann, s. (2016). conceptualising the professional identity of industrial or organisational psychologists within the south african context. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 42(1), a1326. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v42i1.1379 veldsman, t.h. (2020). industrial-organisational psychologists engaging with the new world of work: the unfolding challenge of future-fitness for the 4th industrial revolution. randburg: kr publishing & society for industrial & organisational psychology (siopsa). abstract introduction problem investigated research objectives literature review research method results and findings discussion of the findings practical implications and recommendations limitations recommendations for future research acknowledgements references about the author(s) magdalena l. bezuidenhout department of human resource management, faculty of health sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa mark h. bussin department of human resource management, gordon institute, faculty of business science, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation bezuidenhout, m.l., & bussin, m.h. (2020). the year-on-year analysis of the relationship between chief executive officer remuneration and state-owned company performance in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1411. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1411 original research the year-on-year analysis of the relationship between chief executive officer remuneration and state-owned company performance in south africa magdalena l. bezuidenhout, mark h. bussin received: 08 june 2020; accepted: 13 oct. 2020; published: 15 dec. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: executive remuneration remains very much at the centre of academic and policy debates. there seems to be a lack of consensus on the origins of the substantial increase in executive remuneration. research purpose: this study aimed to further explore the relationship between chief executive officer (ceo) remuneration and state-owned company (soc) performance by investigating the year-on-year behaviour of the relationship. the observed trends regarding the direction and strength of the relationship inform business and economic occurrences that provide an organisation with an in-depth understanding of the relationship. motivation for the study: the rationale for this analysis was to broaden the understanding of the behaviour of the relationship over a period by studying the year-on-year correlation coefficients. research approach/design and method: this quantitative, longitudinal study collected secondary data from the annual reports of 18 schedule 2 socs over the period 2006 to 2014. spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was the principal statistical technique utilised in the study. main findings: overall, the results revealed a fluctuation in the relationship between ceo remuneration and soc performance with turnover having the most stable relationship with both fixed pay and total remuneration. practical/managerial implications: the use of discretion in the determination of ceo remuneration within socs is likely to attract attention considering the fluctuating, sometimes volatile, relationship between the constructs. this will create the motivation for dynamic-policy frameworks to ensure consistency and fairness. contribution/value add: the value of this research is that soc remuneration committees now have empirical evidence of the importance that turnover plays as a performance measure. keywords: business performance; ceo compensation; ceo remuneration; fixed pay; state-owned companies; state-owned entities; south africa. introduction south african state-owned companies (socs) have been plagued by financial misalignment and ineffective corporate governance (timothy, 2018). taking into consideration that most of the schedule 2 socs directly affect the lives of south african citizens because of the services and infrastructure they provide, poor governance as well as a dearth of financial sustainability at some of these socs placed them in the spotlight during the past few years (accountant general south africa, 2016). this, as well as the seemingly poor performance of socs, resulted in an increased focus on south african socs (bussin & ncube, 2017). it is important to determine the year-on-year analysis of the relationship between chief executive officer (ceo) remuneration and business performance because of the division between ownership and management in these companies. this leads to an agency problem, whereby managers follow their self-interest above the interest of stakeholders (bognanno, 2014; kang, kumar, & lee, 2006). this is specifically true in the socs’ environment because the principal is unable to monitor the ceo as the agent (li & xia, 2007). even though the research on executive remuneration is going as far back as the work of berle and means (1932), there remains a virtual void in empirical research into ceo remuneration in south african socs (marimuthu & kwenda, 2019). bearing in mind the important role of socs in the south african economy, this omission could have adverse effects (govender, 2010). many studies model the relationship over the period studied; however, this study investigates whether the year-on-year relationship between ceo remuneration and soc performance has strengthened and/or changed the direction over time to provide an in-depth understanding of the behaviour within, and across, a year(s). problem investigated recently, the public’s attention has been drawn to the socs because of the revelations of corrupt practices at these socs. in some instances, these were orchestrated through poor oversight by the boards and delays in taking appropriate action where wrongdoing was revealed (department of public enterprises, 2019). furthermore, numerous socs are facing financial difficulties that have led to credit-rating downgrades, increasing financial deficits (krugel, 2018). bearing in mind the poor performance of south african socs with highly remunerated ceos and the importance of socs to the economy altogether (pricewaterhouscoopers, 2015), the performance of socs needs to be investigated (mbo & adjasi, 2013). most of the previous studies conducted in relation to executive remuneration in south africa have mostly related to the relationship between executive pay and a company’s financial performance within private companies (bussin & blair, 2015; bussin & modau, 2015; kuboya, 2014; scholtz & smit, 2012; shaw, 2011; van blerck, 2012). limited academic research, however, has been undertaken to investigate the trend in the relationship between ceo’s remuneration and company performance over 9 years. it is acknowledged that analysing the relationship on a year-on-year basis is uncommon; however, conducting a trend analysis allows one to assess how performance has changed over time. by doing this, analysing the trend becomes a powerful tool for strategic planning by creating a plausible, detailed picture of how the future of socs might look like (oecd, 2019). research objectives considering the research gap as discussed above, along with the relevance of the topic from a social justice point of view, the primary objective of this study is to enhance the understanding of the overall results found whilst using the multivariate regression approach. the specific objective is to further explore the behaviour of the relationship between ceo remuneration and soc performance on a year-to-year basis over the period 2006 to 2014. the period 2006 to 2014 provided the researchers with an opportunity to analyse and test the influences of different ceo remuneration components on the strength of the relationship amongst ceo remuneration and soc performance. the importance of conducting a trend analysis is to evaluate the performance of socs. by evaluating the changes and percentage movements, one can evaluate the performance of the soc (dbs partners, 2018). the trend will further help stakeholders determine whether the socs are deteriorating or improving in terms of their performance. the study contributes to knowledge by providing empirical support on the behaviour of the relationship between ceo remuneration and company performance on a year-to-year basis. literature review theoretical grounding the theoretical foundation of this article resides in agency theory, and li and xia (2007) highlight the significance of the agency problem in socs. in mainstream finance, according to erturk, froud, johal and williams (2005), the agency theory is concerned with how appropriate pay for performance can incentivise executives to deliver value for stakeholders. the agency theory hypothesises that a contracting problem exists involving principals and agents who have opposing interests (fama & jensen, 1983). as for socs, the ceos are the agents. consistent with the agency theory, remuneration plans should be designed to motivate managers to make decisions in such a way that would maximise shareholders’ prosperity and minimise the manager–shareholder agency problem (ngwenya, 2016). even though the agency theory has been regarded as the dominant underlying principle in explaining executive remuneration, there are researchers who question the exactness of this opinion. according to filatotchev and allcock (2010), to mention but one example, the agency theory has been critiqued as under-socialised owing to its inability to account for cross-country differences. li and xia (2007) also question the competence of a principal to oversee the agent. li and xia (2007 further maintain that this skill shortage leads to further possibilities for soc executives engaging in thriftless projects, to the benefit of their interest. in addition, the predictive ability of agency theory is continuously questioned. several studies found a limited or weak correlation between ceo pay and business performance (gopalan, milbourn, song, & thakor, 2014; otto, 2014). aguinis, gomez-mejia, martin and joo (2018) concur that the agency theory does not predict a very strong relationship between ceo pay and business performance. however, aslam, haron and tahir’s (2019) findings support the notion that the pay–performance framework supports the agency theory. chief executive officer remuneration executive remuneration packages typically include basic salary, benefits, short-term incentives (stis) and long-term incentives, hence a mix of fixed and variable pay (bussin, 2012). even though there are multiple explanations for the composition of executives’ total annual package, definitions of the 21st century pay solutions group (2010) for fixed pay (fp), stis and total remuneration (tr) are adopted for this study. these definitions are as follows: fp comprises basic salary and benefits. it is all the guaranteed components of the remuneration package. stis measure performance of up to 1 year and typically include profit share, gainshare, commission and bonus schemes. tr comprises fp and stis. even though the poor performance of south african socs is widely publicised, many do not follow the remuneration guidelines issued in 2011 by the department of public enterprises (dpe) that require soc remuneration to be benchmarked with the private sector (marimuthu & kwenda, 2019). davies (2013) postulates that executive remuneration frameworks and practices are inconsistent amongst south african socs, having a direct impact on their performance which is under constant public scrutiny, especially when these packages are disconnected from the firm’s performance. measures of business performance even though business performance can be defined as the overall performance of a business (musvasva, 2013, p. 19), there is no consensus on what exactly is meant by business performance (jeppson, smith, & stone, 2009). two seminal studies by jensen and murphy (1990) and hall and liebman (1998) formalised the pay-to-performance ratio that examined the sensitivity of remuneration concerning company performance. in a study conducted by murphy (1998), it has been found that there is no definite development in the utilisation of performance measures whilst studying the relationship between business performance and ceo remuneration. even though academics have recorded several indicators of business performance, there are contradictory opinions on the indicators that are the most appropriate ones (motala & fourie, 2014). bussin (2015) postulates that the economic theories of remuneration propose that business performance influences an executive’s remuneration only to such a degree that it functions as a substitute for unobservable executive competence. whilst these theories propose a relationship between remuneration and perceived performance, most studies differ concerning the measure of business performance (bussin, 2015). there is a difference in opinion vis-à-vis the optimal measure of business performance in observed remuneration literature. the reason is that researchers operationalise the company performance in various ways (abowd, 1990; attaway, 2000; jeppson et al., 2009). all through previous studies, the financial performance of a business is determined by using various equations, percentages and ratios. financial measures of business performance can be grouped into three major classifications: absolute financial performance measures (audited measures within a specific year), financial performance ratios (ratios derived from absolute performance measures) and market performance measures (performance within equity markets) (bussin, 2015). although there are various potential predispositions engrained in utilising either marketor accounting-based business performance (gentry & shen, 2010; murphy, 1999), in most cases, researchers use accounting-based measures as measures of business performance (demirer & yuan, 2013). the reason for this is that these measures can be considered as the fulfilment of the economic goals of a business (barney, 2002, p. 37; venkatraman & ramanujam, 1986). seminal authors, such as ittner, larcker and rajan (1997), suggest that accounting measures have been used for several years as significant measures of business performance. for this study, mostly accounting measures were utilised. these measures can be verified and are universally known (murphy, 1999). empirical evidence on chief executive officer remuneration and company performance research by jensen and murphy (1990) has shown that in the late 1970s, ceo remuneration changed by $3.25 for every $1000 change in shareholder wealth. bootsma (2010), in a study conducted on dutch-listed companies during the period 2002 to 2007, established that the relationship between ceo remuneration and business performance strengthened after the inception of the dutch corporate governance code in 2004. this was concurred by duffhues and kabir (2008). frydman and saks (2010) have found that the relationship between executive directors’ remuneration and business performance has increased since the 1970s because of increased incentives. in south africa, otieno (2011), studying 21 schedule 2 south african socs, during 2007–2009, found a positive relationship between executive remuneration and company performance. shaw (2011), studying south african banks from 2005 to 2010 found that although there was a moderate to a strong relationship between corporate performance and ceo remuneration, the relationship experienced a decline. scholtz and smit (2012) found a strong relationship between executive director remuneration and performance measures such as turnover, total assets and share price. bussin and modau (2015) discovered that after the 2008 financial crisis, the relationship between ceo remuneration and performance decreased. marimuthu and kwenda (2019) found an inverse relationship between executive remuneration and the financial performance of south african socs (schedule 1, 2, 3a, 3b and 3d socs). there is, however, a dearth in research investigating that the year-on-year analysis is to explore the behaviour of the relationship between ceo remuneration and company performance on a year-to-year basis, especially within south african socs. research method this study was a longitudinal, empirical, quantitative study, and the desktop study was archival by nature. research context the research data were obtained for south african schedule 2 socs for the period 2006 to 2014. according to the department of national treasury, there were 21 south african schedule 2 socs as on 30 april 2015. schedule 2 socs were chosen for this study as they are regarded as major public entities, which are sovereign entities, partly or wholly owned by the state. their mandate is to achieve the various socio-economic plans of the government. it is expected of schedule socs to realise a two-fold commercial and development directive (accountant general south africa, 2016). sampling the total population of 21 socs was used in the study and because of the small target population, all socs were included. however, the 21 socs had to meet the following conditions to be included in this study, which was the accessibility of: the annual reports from either the mcgregor bfa database or the socs’ websites. a 9-year financial history for the socs, including the remuneration of the ceos. eighteen of the 21 schedule 2 socs were, therefore, included in the study after the implementation of the selection criteria. measuring variables because the objective of this study was to establish whether ceo remuneration varied according to soc performance, the ceo remuneration components were the dependent variables, and the soc performance components were independent variables. for this study, there were no control variables. dependent variables the dependent variables for this study were ceo’s fp, stis and tr. in general, severance packages were not included in the data analysis. however, there were exceptions where the severance pay was included in the analysis. the reason is that, in the annual report, there was no clear distinction between a ceo’s fp and severance pay. the researchers acknowledge that these inclusions could have influenced the results of this study. independent variables the independent variable for this study was the financial performance of the socs. the investigation into soc performance was approached from an organisational theory perspective. this study further draws on research conducted by the department of public enterprises on measures identified in driving the performance of socs under its authority (anon, 2016). the soc performance components in this analysis were turnover (revenue), operating profit, net profit (loss), liquidity ratio, solvency ratio, return on capital employed, return on equity, audit opinion (ao) and fruitless and wasteful expenditure. even though it is acknowledged that turnover is the single most prominent driver of any element of ceo pay and that is generally used as a proxy for company size, the latter was not investigated in this article. considering that the ao and irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure were not utilised in prior studies, they are discussed in more detail. the following ao categories were used in this research (schmidt, 2019): an unqualified opinion. the term ‘unqualified’ suggests that in the auditor’s opinion, the financial statement (1) conforms to generally accepted accounting principles (gaaps) and (2) objectively depicts the socs’ financial accounts. a qualified opinion means that the auditor finds that reports comply with gaaps, except in a few areas. for these areas, the auditor cannot assert compliance. auditors report the audit outcome as ‘qualified’ when they are not confident in depicting it either ‘unqualified’ or ‘adverse’. an adverse opinion means that the auditor finds one or both of the following: (1) statements do not fairly represent the socs accounts and (2) the audited statements do not comply with gaaps. an emphasis of matter is a paragraph included in the annual report to draw attention to something, so the reader can better understand the financial statements. an example of when such a paragraph may be included is when there is a major catastrophe that has a significant effect on the socs’ financial position. with a disclaimer of opinion, an accurate audit report could not be completed. with this, auditors choose not to render an opinion. there are various reasons why an auditor would include a disclaimer of opinion (schmidt, 2019). irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure was categorised as follows (le roux, 2018): irregular expenditure is an expenditure that is earned in breach of, or that is not complying with any related legislation. it also includes expenditure in contravention of, or that is not according to a requirement of the supply and demand chain management policy, or any applicable laws. unauthorised expenditure refers to the expenditure that socs incurred without provision having been made for it in the approved budget. fruitless and wasteful expenditure refers to the expenditure that was made in vain and could have been avoided, had reasonable care been taken (accountant general south africa, 2017). research procedure secondary, longitudinal data were obtained from the socs’ annual financial statements in the annual reports. for this study, secondary data provided relevancy and addressed the research objectives whilst longitudinal data allow researchers to explore movements and changes overtime (crossman, 2019). since the financial year-end of all the socs is 31 march, the remuneration and financial data were reflected as at 31 march of each year-end. chief executive officer turnover was considered given that ceos changed during the study. chief executive officer remuneration values may therefore not have related to a full financial year (01 april to 31 march). during the 5 years, there were 36 ceo position changes. to equalise for this, the data of the ceo with the longest office term during the financial year were included. the remuneration of these ceos was annualised to ensure that it represents a full year’s remuneration. the reasons for this were not to: (1) omit the 36 observations from the sample (the calculations in annualising the data were straightforward) and (2) distort remuneration data. baptista (2010) employed a similar approach. there were six instances where the acting ceos’ remuneration was used. in these instances, the researchers utilised unadjusted ceo remuneration. in three instances, termination payments were incorporated in the fp part of the ceos package. therefore, the researchers used the previous years’ fp by calculating a percentage package increase for the specific year, not to misrepresent the remuneration data. in all three cases, the researchers utilised the projected salary increase. this was based on information obtained from the socs’ annual reports. statistical analysis the software spss (version 22) was used to analyse the data. non-parametric correlation statistics were used to test the strength of the correlation between ceo remuneration components and soc performance components per year to further explore the behaviour of the relationship on a year-to-year basis. because of the small sample size, the spearman’s rank-order correlation coefficient was employed to explore the relationship between each measure of ceo remuneration and soc performance. the correlation coefficients per year were used to chart the trend between ceo remuneration and soc performance on year-on-year basis across the nine years. the value denotes the strength and direction of the relationship varying between –1 and +1 (bryman & cramer, 2011). for this study, the researchers employed a cut-off point of r ≥ 0.30 (medium effect) at ρ ≤ 0.05 to determine the practical significance of correlation coefficients (cohen, 1988). ethical considerations university of south africa, college of economic and management sciences research ethics review committee (ethical clearance number: 2013_2013_cemc_022). results and findings descriptive statistics of the total data set for this study, the median results will be reported on because there were several cases where there were variations in the descriptive results amongst the mean and median values for ceo remuneration and soc performance. according to mcchesney (2017), medians ignore all outliers because they ignore all values in a data set. in cases where data sets have outliers (when describing the median), the central tendency of the data regularly presents a greater predictable data value than the mean (weiers, 2010). table 1 shows a summation of the ceo remuneration for the total data set over 9 years. the data set consisted of a panel of 162 observations. research making use of time series data (data collected over a period) implies that one variable is tested several times within the same time interval. panel data are a mix of cross-sectional (data collected at one point in time) and time series data (dougherty, 2002). panel data are a special type of pooled data, in which the same cross-sectional unit is surveyed over a period and has a spaceas well as a time dimension (gujarati & porter, 2009). in the present study, panel data were used because the tr of the ceos of all 18 socs was tested against several variables during the years 2006 to 2014, and the data therefore became multidimensional (resnick, 2013). table 1: descriptive statistics: chief executive officer remuneration components for the data set (2006–2014). because of incomplete ceo demographic data for some years, the researcher adopted an unbalanced data panel approach with appropriate regression estimates, by using eviews 8 software. for company performance measures, the researcher followed a balanced panel data approach. the difference between fp and tr can be ascribed to the different industries in which the socs function. this could influence their tr. a possible explanation for the nil sti values could be that (1) either there are fewer ceos who earned stis, or (2) the stis were not individually reported on. it is further observed that the median of ceo remuneration was lower than the mean throughout the study period. this suggests that the data are skewed to the right. this is in line with a study conducted by aguinis, martin, gomez-mejia, o’boyle and joo (2018), wherein it has been found that the mean pay levels of american ceos were higher than the median. table 2 presents a summary of the business performance components for the total data set over the 9 years. table 2: descriptive statistics: business performance of total data set (2006–2014). from table 2, results for the soc performance components were predominantly skewed and not normally distributed. results of the year-on-year analysis the outcomes of spearman’s correlation were assessed, by using the values of the correlation coefficient as applied by nel (2012) to explore the relationship between ceo remuneration and the performance of south african schedule 2 socs on a year-on-year basis over 9 years. the focus is on the strength and direction of the relationship and not the statistical significance of a correlation per se as the sample consists of 18 of the 21 socs and generalisability is not of relevance. these results were used to illustrate and discuss the strength and direction of the relationship between ceo remuneration and soc performance. the correlation coefficients per year were used to chart the trend over the 9-year period. trends: fixed pay and state-owned companies performance the correlation matrix that shows the direction and strength of the linear relationship between the variables is presented in table 3. table 3: correlation: fixed pay and state-owned companies’ performance (n = 18 per year). the results indicate that there was a strong correlation between fp and five measures of soc performance: turnover, operating profit, net profit, liquidity and roce. however, the relationship between fp with liquidity and roce was mainly negative. from table 3, it is evident that over the 9-year period, there is a very strong statistically significant positive relationship between pf and turnover per year. figure 1 shows the strength of the relationship between fp and soc performance measures from 2006 to 2014. figure 1: fixed pay and state-owned companies’ performance. roce, return on capital employed; roe, return on equity; ifwe, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure. from figure 1, a varying relationship is evident. a very strong positive relationship between fp and turnover existed throughout the period. turnover appeared to have the most stable relationship with fp. however, this stable relationship does not infer that the relationship strengthened. it simply implies that the values are similar and that they are moving in the same direction. the relationship with the other components of soc performance (except operating profit) appeared to vary between a positive and negative weak to very weak linear relationship during the study period. unmistakably, there was a steep decrease during 2013 in the strength of the linear relationship between fp and all the soc performance components (excluding turnover). this infers that during 2013, the linear relationship between fp and soc performance components was at an all-time low. in 2014, a rising trend in the strength of the linear relationship amongst fp and nearly all the soc performance components is noted. trends: short-term incentives and company performance table 4 presents the correlation coefficients (rs) of the relationship between stis and all the soc performance components per year. table 4: short-term incentives and state-owned companies’ performance. evident from the results is a statistically significant strong or very strong positive correlation between stis and turnover, operating profit and net profit in several years. the results further show a strong negative linear relationship between stis and liquidity ratio (2006), and return on capital employed (2009, 2013) and return on equity (2007, 2009) in several years. figure 2 illustrates the direction of the relationship between stis and the components of soc performance components for the period 2006 to 2014. figure 2: short-term incentives and state-owned companies’ performance. roce, return on capital employed; roe, return on equity; ifwe, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure. evident from figure 2 is a fluctuating linear relationship between stis and soc performance. furthermore, these trends were inconsistent during the 9 years. trend: total remuneration and state-owned companies’ performance table 5 displays the spearman correlation coefficients and their associated p-values for the relationship between tr and soc performance. table 5: total remuneration and state-owned companies’ performance. the results indicate a strong to a very strong statistically significant positive relationship between tr and turnover. nearly all the other soc performance components exhibited varying levels of correlation over time stronger in some instances and weaker in other instances. the strength of the relationship between tr and soc performance components from 2006 to 2014 is illustrated in figure 3. once more, turnover seemed to have the steadiest trend in the strength of the relationship. figure 3: total remuneration and state-owned companies’ performance. roce, return on capital employed; roe, return on equity; ifwe, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure. evident from figure 3 is an instability in the strength of the linear relationship between tr and soc performance components. from figure 3, we can observe that there is a distinct diminishing trend in the strength of the relationship during 2013. trend: audit opinion and state-owned companies’ performance the statistical analysis to establish the relationship between ceo remuneration components and ao was run independently from those for the other soc performance components because of the ordinal value of ao. once more correlation coefficients were used to plot the year-on-year movement over the 9-year period. for this study, ao was classified as follows: 0 = unqualified; 1 = qualified; 2 = emphasis of matter; 3 = adverse/going concern; and 4 = disclaimer. an adverse (going concern) ao, for example, casts doubt on whether the socs will be capable to continue their operations for another year and that they will not close and liquidate their assets (accountant general south africa, 2016). the results are presented in table 6. table 6: correlation – chief executive officer remuneration components and audit opinion. the results reveal that differing degrees of correlation are evident throughout the 9 years. in several instances, the correlation was stronger and there was either a negligible relationship or no relationship at all. the correlation coefficients were used to plot the year-on-year movement across the 9 years. figure 4 shows the strength of the relationship for the period 2006 to 2014. figure 4: audit opinion and state-owned companies’ performance. ceo, chief executive officer. figure 4 shows an unstable or fluctuating negative linear relationship between ceo remuneration and ao. figure 4 also presents an inconsistent positive linear tendency over the 9 years. this negative linear relationship suggests that as ao increases (thus, the more adverse [negative] ao is), ceo remuneration decreases. discussion of the findings the main objective of this study was to explore the relationship between ceo remuneration and soc performance further based on a year-on-year basis from 2006 to 2014. the key findings of the study are discussed in this section. fixed pay the results reveal that the trend in the relationship between fp and soc performance was typified by a flux over the 9 years. the findings reveal an unmistakable steep decrease during 2013 in the strength of the linear relationship between fp and all the soc performance components (excluding turnover). this infers that, during 2013, the linear relationship between fp and soc performance was at an all-time low. a probable explanation for this deterioration could be the downturn in the economic markets or because of political unrest (aslam et al., 2019). the 16% decline in the value of the rand during 2013 could be another justification. the rising trend during 2014 in the strength of the linear relationship amongst fp and nearly all the soc performance components could be because of political stability at the time (aslam et al., 2019). turnover had a stronger impact on fp than on the other soc performance components. over a period of 9 years, mainly a positive relationship is observed between fp and turnover. this positive relationship could be an indication that fp within the socs is appropriately designed that limits the self-interest behaviour of management (kang et al., 2006). the finding of a positive relationship between turnover and fp is in line with the agency theory that posits that executive remuneration is positively linked to firm performance. the other soc performance components appeared to move in and out of the different relationship thresholds, fluctuating in other years. even though fp increased by 83% over the 9 years, further scrutiny of the fp median data points shows that there was an 11% increase on a year-on-year basis from 2006 to 2010 in the median. however, from 2011 to 2014, the fp median data points increased by only 3% on a year-on-year basis. the higher fp increases and decline in almost all the soc performance component measures (except turnover) across the first half of the study period seem to attribute to the declining relationship between fp and most of the soc performance components. short-term incentives the results indicate an unstable and inconsistent linear relationship between stis and soc performance components. this fluctuating positive and negative linear relationships could indicate that stis were determined independently from soc performance. it could moreover infer that socs do not adhere to remuneration policies and guidelines in awarding stis as eluded to by marimuthu and kwenda (2019). it could furthermore suggest that the performance measures entered vary in each of the socs. this is consistent with results from the public service review committee (prc) that there is no overarching framework for performance monitoring of socs (prc, 2013) because not all the socs fall in the same jurisdictions. the year-on-year fluctuations in stis during the 9 years could moreover suggest that ceo remuneration is probably not linked to accounting performance. this supports the notion of jensen and murphy (1990). for the same reason, it could also imply that stis are not sensitive to soc performance (nulla, 2015), or even that ceos were rewarded with stis that are not in line with their efforts and the performance of the socs (kirsten & du toit, 2018). a further examination of the median sti data points signifies that the median sti reduced by 29% over the 9 years. over the period 2011 to 2014, the median sti data points declined with 26% year-on-year. although kuboya’s (2014) study was conducted in private companies, these results concur kuboya’s finding in that variable performance bonuses experienced a decline during the economic recession of 2007 to 2008. concurrently, the median of four out of the eight components of soc performance (operating profit, net profit, return on capital employed and return on equity) declined by between 29% and 74% over the 9 years. thus, whilst there was a decline in stis over the 9 years, it was not aligned with the decline in soc performance measures. this could be one of the reasons for the fluctuating linear relationship and why the relationship did not improve. the downward slope in stis, together with the escalation of fp over the 9 years, implies that the emphasis was more on fp to compensate ceos for a decline in stis. when it is difficult to attain stis because of situations beyond the control of the ceo, how remuneration is structured would favour a guaranteed cost-to-business or fp (ellig, 2007). the universal trend would be to lower or postpone inter alia stis and incentive bonuses (bussin & modau, 2015). total remuneration the trend seems to mirror that of fp where inconsistency was noted over the 9 years. furthermore, no explicit pattern of improvement in the strength of the linear relationship was observed year-on-year. except for turnover, a decline in the relationship was observed during 2013. this might be a sign that the structure of ceo tr is changing over the years (klingenberg, n.d.). apart from 2010, and as with fp, turnover revealed a growing significant correlation with tr. contrary to van blerck’s (2012) results, almost all the soc performance measures exhibited various degrees of correlation during the study period. from the descriptive statistics, it is evident that tr’s rate of change was exorbitant, with an escalation of 93% across the 9 years. the increase in tr may, therefore, have been as excessive as stated in the newspapers (anon, 2016). the volatile and fluctuating year-on-year growth of tr across the 9 years is at odds with the findings of kuboya (2014). this author has found that tr steadily escalated through 5 years. according to the results of the current study, the relationship between tr and the soc performance measures fluctuated because the initial tr increases had not been aligned with the decline in soc performance measures from 2006 to 2010. analysing the tr data together with the measures of soc performance, it is evident that the trend lines over the 9 years varied. total remuneration was not sensitive to soc performance measures during the 9 years. as with stis, this suggests that the remuneration committees of socs did not consider the socs’ performance in determining tr. this finding supports the findings of kirsten and du toit (2018) that executive director remuneration is primarily linked to the value of the company as opposed to the financial performance. audit opinion the unstable or fluctuating negative linear relationship between the ceo remuneration components and ao is clear from the analysis. even though there was a statistically strong, negative relationship between fp and tr in some of the years, no statistically significant relationship was found between stis and ao. the negative linear relationship infers that poor aos were associated with lower ceo remuneration. leadership instability could be a possible cause of poor audit outcomes at socs. in fact, during the analysis, it became apparent that, from a panel observation of 162, there were 36 instances where there were ceo position changes. in fact, at some of the socs, ceos had been in the position for an average of only 2.5 years (accountant general south africa, 2016). because an adverse or negative ao is damaging for the soc, the negative relationship should, in theory, imply that ceos are being punished for the poor aos that their socs receive. this seems to occur rarely. in the results for almost all the soc performance measures, a steep deterioration was apparent in the strength of the linear relationship during the 2012/2013 financial year amongst fp, stis and tr. this suggests that the linear relationship with ceo remuneration was fragile during this time. the instability of the worldwide economy, political insecurity or unemployment in south africa at that time could be a plausible justification for the fragile relationship. according to davies (2013), there were 99 reported strikes during 2012. this trend continued in 2013. several of these strikes were characterised by violence (davies, 2013). the inference that could be made is that as the political and economic conditions in south africa became more volatile (2011 to 2013), the increase in ceo remuneration was smaller, suggesting that the tougher economic conditions became a reality. practical implications and recommendations based on the results, it is recommended that human resources (hr) practitioners in socs should develop appropriate remuneration frameworks with due consideration of soc performance and according to the following guiding principles: appropriateness, fairness and effectiveness. it is further recommended that the remuneration policies of socs be more closely aligned with the long-term worth of the socs. based on the variation in strength, significance and direction of correlations in the yearly correlation results, it is further recommended that socs follow a tailored approach when establishing remuneration contracts for their ceos. these contracts should be adaptable enough to change as and when specific microand macro-economic factors that socs face change. findings from this study indicate that the relationship between ceo remuneration and soc performance fluctuated year-on-year over 9 years. this could result in the remuneration system not being aligned to, amongst others, the interests of corporate governance. state-owned companies’ hr practitioners, remuneration committees and stakeholders should, therefore, seek ways to ensure a better alignment of interests, a stronger link between pay-and-performance as well as to promote corporate governance. limitations whilst this study has contributed to the body of knowledge of the relationship between components of ceo remuneration and components of financial performance within south african socs, there are several limitations. firstly, this research focussed only on schedule 2 socs. the inferences from this study may, as a result, not be generalisable to other socs. secondly, considering that executives could manipulate profitability indicators, the use thereof as a performance measure is susceptible to criticism (attaway, 2000). including these measures in this study could, therefore, have influenced the results. besides, the period under investigation could influence the study, because it included the financial crisis. according to klingenberg (n.d., p. 9), the financial crisis had a big influence on the financial and ceo remuneration characteristics. recommendations for future research the inclusion of ao and ifwe as performance measures, and the fact that these measures have not been used in previous studies examining the pay–performance relationship, it is recommended that future studies extend the investigation on these two measures and explore how these two measures relate to ceo pay. also, the study did not focus on causality. the fact that it has been proved that there is a relationship between the two constructs suggests that further research may be necessary to expand on these findings and determine whether causality exists in the relationship. conclusion although there seems to be a relationship between the two constructs, the unstable relationship can be a reason for concern. in addition, the role of turnover as an overall performance measure is highlighted, having the most stable relationship with fp and tr of the 9 years. as a general observation, the fluctuating and unstable relationships between ceo remuneration and soc performance emphasise the role that labour market forces, a contributing factor to ceo remuneration, play. this supports the findings of shaw (2011). furthermore, the fact that the relationship did not improve year-on-year over the 9 years could suggest that there are factors other than soc performance that influence ceo remuneration. it is recommended that this be further investigated. the use of discretion in the determination of ceo remuneration within socs is likely to attract attention considering the fluctuating, sometimes volatile, relationship between the constructs. this will create the motivation for vigorous policy frameworks to ensure consistency and fairness. the change in the structure of ceo remuneration packages (with more emphasis being placed on fp) raises a concern as it suggests an increasing lack of alignment between shareholders and ceos. managing this shift will require remuneration committees to either reverse the shift or realistically manage the shift within reasonable target levels. notwithstanding the scrutiny on the ceo pay–performance relationship and the unease that ceo pay is not related to the ceos contributing to the business, this study has found that the traditional pay–performance link has been lost. even though this proposes that ceo pay may be more closely linked to business performance measures than society perceives, the concern over the pay–performance relationship may not in all situations be unjustified. acknowledgements parts of this article were taken from a thesis that was used in the fulfilment of doctorate of philosophy qualification. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.l.b. wrote the article, and m.h.b. assisted with the review and proofreading. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or positions of any affiliated agency of the authors. references 21st century pay solutions. (2010). global reward trends. johannesburg. abowd, j.m. (1990). does performance-based managerial compensation affect corporate performance? industrial & labour relations review, 43(3), 52–73. https://doi.org/10.1177/001979399004300304 accountant general of south africa. (2016). status of state-owned enterprises. general report on the national and provincial audit outcomes for 2016–17. retrieved from https://www.agsa.co.za/portals/0/reports/pfma/201617/gr/04%20status%20of%20state-owned%20enterprises.pdf aguinis, h., gomez-mejia, l.r., martin, g.p., & joo, h. (2018). ceo pay is indeed decoupled from ceo performance: charting a path for the future. management research: journal of the iberoamerican academy of management, 16(1), 117–136. https://doi.10.1108/mrjiam-12-2017-2018 aguinis, h., martin, g.p., gomez-mejia, l.r., o’boyle, jr. e.h., & joo, h. (2018). the two sides of ceo pay injustice. a power law conceptualization of ceo over and underpayment. management research: journal of the iberoamerican academy of management, 16(1), 3–30. https://doi.org.10.1108/mrjiam-02-2017-0731 aslam, e., haron, r., & tahir, m.n. (2019). remuneration impacts firm performance: an empirical analysis of executive director remuneration in pakistan. borsa istanbul review, 19(2), 186–196. retrieved from https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/s2214845018301248?token=dd48b63ddb78d88c49424baf92fd28c919a634b4116a763febf2509ebbb49ece4993e5ce3fc258254b136a332910109f attaway, m.c. (2000). a study of the relationship between business performance and ceo compensation. american business review, 18(1), 77–85. baptista, m. (2010). ceo compensation and firm performance (msc thesis). paris: hec. barney, j. (2002). gaining and sustaining competitive advantage (2nd edn.). upper saddle river, mj: prentice-hall. berle, a.a., & means, g.c. (1932). the modern corporation and private property. new york, ny: macmillan. bezuidenhout, m.l. (2016). the relationship between ceo remuneration and company performance in south african state owned entities. doctoral thesis, pretoria: university of south africa. bognanno, m.l. (2014). efficient markets, managerial power, and ceo compensation. iza world of labor, 34, 1–10. https://doi:10.1518/izawol.34 bootsma, a.a. (2010). an empirical investigation of the relationship between executive compensation and firm performance in the netherlands. retrieved from https://repub.eur.nl/pub/20029/176-194_bootsma.pdf bryman, a., & cramer, d. (2011). quantitative data analysis with ibm spss 17, 18 and 19: a guide for social scientists (1st ed.). new york, ny: routledge press. bussin, m. (2012). the remuneration handbook for africa (2nd edn.). randburg: knowres. bussin, m. (2015). ceo pay-performance sensitivity in the south african context. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 18(2), 232–244. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v18i2.838 bussin, m., & blair, c. (2015). financial indicators of company performance in different industries that affect ceo remuneration in south africa. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 18(4), 534–550. https://doi.org/10/4102/sajems.v18i4.1249 bussin, m., & modau, m.f. (2015). the relationship between chief executive officer remuneration and financial performance in south africa between 2006 and 2012. south african journal of human resource management, 13(1). https://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.668 bussin, m., & ncube, m. (2017). chief executive officer and chief financial officer compensation relationship to business performance in state-owned entities. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 20(1), a1644. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v20i1644 cohen, j.w. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd edn.). hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum. crossman, a. (2019). pros and cons of secondary data analysis: pros and cons of secondary data analysis. thoughtco. retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/secondary-data-analysis-3026536 davies, r. (2013). strikes hit five-year high in 2012 and worrying trend appears to be continuing. business daily. retrieved from http://worldinstruggle.blogspot.co.za/2013/09/south-africa.html#!/2013/09/south-africa.html dbs partners. (2018). trend analysis: the importance of performing trend analysis on financials. retrieved from https://dbs-partners.com/trend-analysis-the-importance-of-performing-trend-analysis-on-financials demirer, i., & yuan, j.j. (2013). executive compensation structure and firm performance in the us restaurant industry: an agency theory approach. journal of foodservice business research, 16(5), 421–438. https://doi.org/10.1080/15378020.2013.850374 department of public enterprises. (2019). annual performance plan 2008/19. retrieved from http://www.dpe.gov.za/resourcecentre/publications/annual%20performance%20plans/department%20of%20public%20enterprises%20annual%20performance%20plan%202018-19.pdf dougherty, c. (2002). introduction to econometrics (pp. 98–100). oxford: oxford university press. duffhues, p., & kabir, r. (2008). is the pay-performance relationship always positive? evidence from the netherlands. journal of multinational financial management, 18(1), 45–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mulfin.2007.02.004 ellig, b.r. (2007). the complete guide to executive compensation. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. erturk, i., froud, j., johal, s., & williams, k. (2005). pay for corporate performance or pay as social division? rethinking the problem of top management pay in giant corporations. competition and change, 9(1), 49–74. fama, e.g., & jensen, m.c. (1983). agency problems and residual claims. journal of law &economics, 26(2), 327–349. retrieved from https://chiagounbound.uchicago.edu/jle/vol26/iss2/9 filatotchev, i., & allcock, d. (2010). corporate governance and executive remuneration: a contingency framework. academy of management perspectives, 24(1), 20–33. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.24.1.20 frydman, c., & saks, r. (2010). executive compensation: a new version from a long-term perspective, 1936–2005. review of financial studies, 23(5), 89–122. https://doi.org/10.1093/rfs/hhp120 gentry, r.j., & shen, w. (2010). the relationship between accounting market measures of firm financial performance: how strong is it? journal of managerial issues, xii(4), 514–530. gopalan, r., milbourn, t., song, f., & thakor, a.v. (2014). duration of executive compensation. journal of finance, 69(6), 2777–2817. https://doi.org/10.1111/jofi.12085 govender, d. (2010). factors influencing job satisfaction of managers at state-owned enterprises. research report, gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria. retrieved from https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/23807/dissertation.pdf;sequence=1 gujarati, d.n., & porter, d.c. (2009). basic econometrics (5th edn.), new york, ny: mcgraw-hill international edition. hall, b.j., & liebman, j. (1998). are ceos really paid like bureaucrats? the quarterly journal of economics, 113(3), 653–691. retrieved from https://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/redir.pf?u=http%3a%2f%2fhdl.handle.net%2f10.1162%2f003355398555702;h=repec:oup:qjecon:v:113:y:1998:i:3:p:653-691 ittner, c.d., larcker, d.f., & rajan, m.v. (1997). the choice of performance measures in annual bonus contracts. academic review, 72, 231–255. retrieved https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/248554.pdf jensen, m., & murphy, k. (1990). performance pay and top management incentives. journal of political economy, 98, 225–264. retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/2937665?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents jeppson, c.t., smith, w.w., & stone, r.s. (2009). ceo compensation and firm performance: is there any relationship? journal of business & economics research, 7(11), 81–93. https://doi.org/10.19030/jber.v7i11.2357 kang, s., kumar, p., & lee, y. (2006). agency and corporate investment: the role of executive compensation and corporate governance. journal of business, 79(3), 1127–1147. https://doi.org/10.1086/500671 klingenberg, r. (n.d.). ceo compensation and incentives: is there a relationship between the level of ceo compensation and the company performance? bachelor thesis, finance. retrieved from http://arno.uvt.nl/show.cgi?fid=129642 kirsten, e., & du toit, e. (2018). the relationship between remuneration and financial performance for companies listed on the johannesburg stock exchange. south africanjournal of economic and management sciences, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems,v21i1.2004 krugel, l. (2018). budget 2018: towards more sustainable funding for state-owned enterprises (soes). pricewaterhousecoopers. retrieved from https://www.pwc.co.za/en/press-room/budget-2018--towards-more-sustainable-funding-for-state-owned-en.html kuboya, d. (2014). a critical analysis of executive remuneration and business performance for south african listed companies (masters of business administration thesis). stellenbosch: university of stellenbosch. le roux, k. (2018). what ‘fruitless’, ‘wasteful’, irregular’ and ’unauthorised’ expenditure mean. 702. retrieved from http://www.702.co.za/articles/304807/a-dummies-guide-to-what-fruitless-wasteful-irregular-and-unauthorised-expenditure-mean li, s., & xia, j. (2007). the roles and performance of state firms and non-state firms in china’s economic transition. world development, 36(1), 39–45. retrieved from https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/s0305750x07001969?token=b77407320f390608f9530d98295adbb8b4252a987a043868b964102800e0ad05593ee752eefc52fa83abd0ec4658fce1 marimuthu, f., & kwenda, f. (2019). the relationship between executive remuneration and financial performance in south african state-owned entities. academy of accounting and financial studies journal, 23(4), 1–10. mbo, m., & adjasi, m.j. (2013). drivers of organisational performance: a state-owned enterprises perspective. bloemfontein: the biennial convergence of the economic society of south africa, university of the free state. mcchesney, j. (2017). don’t ignore bears: the pitfalls of summarizing data with medians in towards data science. retrieved from https://towardsdatascience.com/dont-ignore-bears-the-pitfalls-of-summarizing-data-with-medians-3c07b4d509db motala, z., & fourie, n. (2014). effectiveness of share-based payments to executives. presentation at the actuarial society of south africa’s 2014 convention, october 22–23, cape town international convention centre. retrieved from http://actuarialsocietyconvention.org.za/convention2014/assets/pdf/papers/2014%20assa%20motala%20fourie.pdf murphy, k.j. (1998). executive compensation. ssrn. retrieved from http:www.//ssrn.com/abstract=163914 murphy, k.j. (1999). executive compensation. in o.c. ashenfelter & d. card (reds.), handbook of labor economics (pp. 248–256), part b, elsevier. retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s15744699300249 musvasva, j. (2013). the impact of mergers and acquisitions on the corporate performance of south african listed companies in the financial sector (mcom minor dissertation). johannesburg: university of johannesburg. nel, m. (2012). sensitivity of guaranteed cost to business of ceos in the south african retail and consumer goods sector (master’s dissertation). gordon institute of business science, pretoria: university of pretoria. ngwenya, s. (2016). ceo compensation, corporate governance, and performance of listed platinum mines in south africa. corporate governance & control, 13(2), 408–416. retrieved from ir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/21873/ceo%20compensation%2c%20corporate%20governance%20and%20performance%20of%20listed%20platinum.pdf?sequence=2&isallowed=y nulla, y.m. (2015). pay for performance: an empirical review. corporate ownership & control, 12(4), 69–70. https://doi.org/10.22495/cocv12i4p5 oecd. (2019). trend analysis as method’, schooling of tomorrow: knowledge bank. retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/site/schoolingfortomorrowknowledgebase/futuresthinking/trends/trendanalysisasamethod.htm otieno, d.o.a. (2011). the relationship between financial performance and executive remunerationin south african state-owned enterprises: an agency theory perspective’ (unpublished mcom minor dissertation). johannesburg: university of johannesburg. otto, c.a. (2014). ceo optimism and incentive compensation. journal of financial economics, 114(2), 366–404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2014.06.006 resnick, a.a. (2013). the relationship between executive remuneration and company performance: a study of 20 of the largest companies listed on the johannesburg stock exchange ltd (mcom minor dissertation). johannesburg: university of johannesburg. schmidt, m. (2019). auditor’s opinion, account’s statement, report. what investors and regulators see in the auditor’s opinion. business encyclopaedia. retrieved from https://www.business-case-analysis.com/auditors-opinion.html#unqualified scholtz, h., & smit, a. (2012). executive remuneration and business performance for south african companies listed on the alternative exchange (altx). southern african business review, 16(1), 22–38. shaw, p. (2011). ceo pay-performance sensitivity in south african financial services business. mba research report. gordon institute of business science, pretoria: university of pretoria. timothy, s. (2018). governance in state-owned enterprises – how they are held accountable. schoeman law inc. retrieved from http://www.polity.org.za/article/governance-in-state-owned-enterprises-how-they-are-held-accountable-2018-09-06 van blerck, t.g. (2012). the relationship between executive remuneration at financial institutions and economic value-added (mba thesis). gordon institute of business sciences, pretoria: university of pretoria. venkatraman, n., & ramanujam, v. (1986). measurement of business performance in strategy research: a comparison of approaches. academy of management review, 11, 801–814. weiers, r.m. (2010). introduction to business statistics (7th edn.). florence, united states: cengage learning. 9whitehead.qxd family and work are the two most important domains for many adults. when conflicts between these two domains occur, there are potentially adverse effects for individuals, families and organisations (andrews & withey, 1976). although men increasingly express interest in a more balanced commitment to their work role, it is women who experience the highest levels of conflict between work and family, since women are still expected to perform the bulk of family and household tasks and responsibilities (burke, 2001). since the second world war women have played an increasingly important role in the economies of both developing and developed countries, and south africa is no exception. together with political and economic transformation, the transformation of the labour market, and the increased numbers of women occupying positions of leadership, the role of women in the socioeconomic environment is a significant development in the history of this country (booysen, 2000; verhoef, 1996). statistics concerning the economic power of women are staggering: the south african woman is becoming an economic force to be reckoned with (de bruin, 2000). in 2000, 40% of the economically active population of south africa were women. although more men (60%) than women (40%) were employed, there were more professional women (55%) and administrators (69%) than men (de bruin, 2000). however, at management level in the private sector, women have not done so well. although 28% of management posts were filled by women in 2000 (compared to 19% in 1990), the ratio is inadequate when compared to men, and is a source of concern for both society and business. this trend, combined with the inequality in earning (whereby women generally earn 16% less than men), poses a big challenge for south africa and countries all over the world (de bruin, 2000). to be able to achieve sustainable political success and economic growth, the role of women is essential. according to booysen (1999), there exists a need for feminine values in leadership and organisational change so that organisations can meet the challenges of the next millennium more successfully. as a result, an increasing number of women are engaged in performing multiple roles at various times in their lives. multiple roles and professional women one of the leading authors in career psychology, donald super, identified six common life-roles (super, 1995). he also indicated that the need to balance these different roles simultaneously is a reality for most individuals at various stages throughout their lives. rather than following a transitional sequence from one role to another, women are required to perform an accumulation of disparate roles simultaneously, each one with its unique pressures (kopp and ruzicka, 1993). multiple role-playing has been found to have both positive and negative effects on the mental health and well-being of professional women (anonymous study, 1990). in certain instances women with multiple roles reported better physical and psychological health than women with less role involvement. in other words, they cherished motivational stimulation, self esteem, a sense of control, physical stamina, and bursts of energy (doress-worters, 1994). however, multiple roles have also been found to cause a variety of adverse effects on women’s mental and physical health, including loss of appetite, insomnia, overindulgence, and back pains (hughes and glinsky, 1994). as society moves to a more equal distribution of work and family responsibilities between the sexes, conflict and confusion between these two roles have become a major concern for both organisations and individuals (anonymous study, 1990). the phenomenon of work-family conflict is increasingly experienced by women (fu and shaffer, 2001). work-family conflict is generally defined as a form of inter-role conflict in which compliance to one of the role pressures makes it more difficult to comply with the other (fu and shaffer, 2001). consequently, it seems as if professional women in the 21st century have the exceptional challenge of balancing the multiple tasks associated with their homemaker and work roles, namely, fulfilling the responsibilities of mother, caregiver, thana whitehead me kotze programme: leadership in performance and change faculty of economic and management sciences rand afrikaans university abstract a woman’s ability to balance multiple life-roles is directly related to her physical and mental well-being, and her career performance and success. this study aims to infer a theoretical framework for the in-depth understanding of the phenomenon of life-balance in the lives of 24 south african professional women. the grounded theory as a qualitative method was applied to derive a theory about the phenomenon inductively. purposeful sampling was used to identif y 24 professional women. in-depth interviews and a group session were conducted to gather data, and to confirm themes and concepts on which the theoretical framework was based. it was concluded that life-balance is a life-process with a cyclical nature, and a useful tool for achieving personal growth. life-balance is therefore not “one, single ultimate experience”, but a series of individual experiences unfolding over time, which could be better described as “life-balance moments”. opsomming ‘n vrou se vermoë om meervoudige lewensrolle te balanseer is direk verwant aan haar fisiese en geesteswelsyn en ook haar loopbaanprestasie en -sukses. hierdie studie het ten doel om ‘n teoretiese raamwerk af te lei uit die indiepte begrip van die lewens-balansverskynsel van 24 suid-afrikaanse professionele vroue. die begronde teorie as ‘n kwalitatiewe metode is toegepas om ‘n teoretiese model induktief van die verskynsels af te lei. doelgerigte steekproefneming is gebruik om 24 professionele vroue te identifiseer. in-diepte onderhoude en ‘n groepsessie is gevoer om data in te samel en om die temas en konsepte waarop die teoretiese raamwerk gebaseer is, te bevestig. daar is tot die slotsom gekom dat lewensbalans ‘n lewensproses is met ‘n sikliese aard en ‘n nuttige instrument om persoonlike groei te bewerkstellig. lewensbalans is dus nie “een enkele beslissende erevaring” nie, maar ‘n reeks van individuele ervarings wat oor tyd ontvou en wat ten beste beskryf kan word as “lewensbalans momente”. career and life-balance of professional women: a south african study requests for copies should be addressed to: t whitehead, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 77 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (3), 77-84 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (3), 77-84 spouse and employee simultaneously. it is also clear that women’s ability to balance these roles has a direct bearing on their physical and mental well-being, as well as their career performance and success (burke, 2001; burke and mc keen, 1996; facione, 1992; sharma, 1999). it is suggested that it may be more difficult than ever to manage a balanced commitment to one’s work and personal life (burke, 2001). as a result of organisations being faced with heightened competition globally, employees experience increasing performance pressures. the hours spent in the workplace, especially for managers and professionals, are increasing. high performance organisations have raised their expectations regarding time, energy and work commitment. the dual role women have to play makes it difficult for them to meet these higher organisational expectations (hochschild, 1997). they are thus faced with a unique challenge to balance the competing expectations of work and home, along with all their other roles. during the past decade, an increasing number of articles and books have promoted the importance of life-balance (aaroncorbin, 1999). this indicates the current concern within society and organisations about the impact of multiple roles on the health and well-being of professional women, and its implications regarding work and family performance, and women’s role in society. in a review of international literature, the following variables influencing the experience of life-balance were identified: a) the multiple roles performed by women (adelman, 1994; carlson, kacmar and williams, 1998; facione, 1992; super, 1995); b) role strain experienced because of multiple roles, i.e. role conflict and role overload (fu and shafer, 2001; greenhaus and buetell, 1985; kim and ling, 2001); c) organisation culture and work dynamics. organisational values supporting work-life-balance have positive work and personal well-being consequences( burke, 1997,2000,2001; stover, 1994); d) personal resources and social support. several studies confirmed the positive relationship between personality, practical and emotional support and well-being (amatea and fong, 1991; gill and davidson, 2000; sharma, 1999); e) career orientation and career stage. women careers need to be viewed in the context of their life course and time lines. (rapaport and rapaport, 1980; white, 1995); and f) coping and coping strategies. women use both emotional and problem-focused coping strategies to deal with role conflict (folkman and lazarus, 1984). research and literature within the south african context seems to be more limited. this is not surprising: the emergence of women in the developing socio-economic environment happened more slowly and later on than in developed countries such as the united states and britain. over the past three years research on the topics of women’s careers, women in positions of leadership, multiple roles, coping strategies and mechanisms, and role conflict has been more prominent (booysen, 1999,2000; brink en de la rey, 2001; dimati, 1997; jano, 2000; redelinghuys, botes and de wet, 1999). this study is motivated by the lack of knowledge and understanding about professional women’s subjective experience in balancing their lives within a south african context. the aim of this study is therefore to gain an in-depth understanding of the meaning of life-balance for south african professional women, and the factors, which influence and support the experience thereof. method the study aimed to answer the following research questions: 1. what is an acceptable definition of the concept of lifebalance for professional women in south africa? 2. what are the key supporting factors for professional women in successfully balancing their life-roles of work/career, family and self? 3. what are the key factors which influence the phenomenon of life-balance, and the achievement or non-achievement thereof? research procedure the literature review revealed limited research on the concept of life-balance in south africa. an attempt, therefore, to proceed directly to a positivistic approach to measure a concept that has not yet been fully explored will put ontological restrictions and limitations on the study of such a phenomenon. the study was therefore conducted within a qualitative paradigm, and the grounded theory method was used to develop an inductively derived theory (strauss and corbin, 1990). this method enabled the researcher to study the phenomenon of life-balance holistically within its context, and facilitated the systematic generation of a theory from, and grounded in, the data. the qualitative data collection techniques in this study included interviews (in-depth, unstructured) and a focus group session. during the interviews open-ended questions were put to participants to obtain their specific experience of life from a grounded perspective. the focus group was conducted, as proposed by schurink (2001), in an open conversation style, whereby participants were given an opportunity to make comments, ask questions of other participants, or respond to the comments of others. the focus group enabled the researcher to inductively confirm, and further develop, concepts and theories grounded in, or reflecting intimate knowledge of, the women participating in the group session. in order to ensure that all the data was accurately recorded, interviews were audiotaped, and extensive notes were taken during the interviews and the focus group. participants the purposeful sampling method was used in combination with the chain reference sampling and theoretical sampling techniques identified by patton (1990). data was collected from twenty-four participants and analysed until the sample had been theoretically sat urated, that is, no new data regarding the identified concepts emerged, and the relationship between the various concepts had been well established and validated (strauss and corbin, 1990). of the 24 women in the sample, ten occupied executive or senior management positions in the private sector, five occupied executive or senior management positions in the public sector, five owned their own businesses or were self employed and practising their professions, and four worked in a management capacity at non-governmental organisations (ngo’s). the mean age of participants was thirty-six, with their ages ranging from thirty to forty two. the sample included eleven white women, five black women, and eight coloured women. of the sample, nine had one child, twelve had two children, and three had three children. data analysis based on the suggestions of strauss and corbin (1990) and creswell (1994), data analysis was conducted systematically whereby the researcher keeps track of emerging themes during the data gathering process, and develops concepts and propositions to make sense of the data. the processes of data collection and data analysis were interwoven from the beginning of the st udy. analysis during data collection provided whitehead with the opportunity to move back and forth between thinking about the existing data and generating strategies for collecting new data. whitehead kept track of emerging themes, read through field notes, and developed concepts and propositions to begin to make sense of the data. coding was used systematically to develop and refine data whitehead, kotze78 interpretation. the coding process involved bringing together and analysing all the data with a bearing on the themes, ideas, concepts, interpretations and propositions. results the main findings indicated that professional women experienced similar pressures and challenges, irrespective of cultural background, in their efforts to balance their multiple roles. of the 24 women interviewed in the study, fifteen indicated that they did experience life-balance, and nine indicated they did not. as suggested by strauss and corbin (1990) and cresswell (1994), several themes relating to the phenomenon of life-balance emerged from the data analysis. in the next section these themes will be discussed. from the themes it was possible to develop responses to the formulated research questions and to link international and south african studies with the results of this study. a definition of life-balance for professional women according to the participants’ responses, the experience of lifebalance seems to be elusive and ever changing for professional women. different experiences of life-balance are evident, and it is clear that what represents life-balance to one person is not necessarily applicable to another. the first results which can be drawn from the study in defining the phenomenon of life-balance include: � it is important to consider all the roles performed by an individual over her lifetime; � what constitutes life-balance for one person, might not be applicable to another; � self-awareness is the main point of departure from which any individual achieves life-balance; � it is important to accept ”who you are” and what is important to you in order to experience life-balance; � it is also important to take responsibility for the choices you make; � life-balance has a cyclical nature, and therefore it is important to be constantly aware of your life experiences; � life-balance is not an ”end”, but a process, and an everpresent tool for achieving personal growth; � life-balance is therefore not “one, single ultimate experience”, but a series of individual experiences over time, which can better be described as “life-balance moments”. participants reporting the experience of imbalance indicated that the areas most neglected by them referred to their relationship with their husbands or partners, the time devoted to themselves or leisure activities, and their involvement in their communities. the experience of life-balance seemed to be closely linked to whether a participant spent time on the roles, which were important to her. several participants indicated that they were not experiencing life-balance because they were not prioritising either their life-roles or their time in accordance with what was important to them. a final observation was the close relationship bet ween the participant’s experience of life-balance and their experience of health and well-being. participants who indicated a lack of lifebalance also experienced health and well-being issues. this included less serious conditions, such as insomnia, fatigue, regular ‘flu and colds, as well as more serious conditions, such as panic attacks, depression and cancer. roles performed by professional women part icipants ident ified seven roles expected of them, including worker, mother, wife, housekeeper, family member (sister, child), communit y member, and friend. these identified roles coincide with the six life-roles defined by super (1995). the findings from the interviews and focus group indicated that all participants were aware of the above roles, but viewed the importance of various roles differently, and therefore spent different amounts of time on them. the importance of a role and the time spent on it were closely linked to the life-priorities and life-stage of a participant. this finding supports the research conducted by cook (1994), indicating that the amount of time and energ y spent on a role determine that role’s salience, that is, its significance. the ages of the participants, their children, and their parents were identified as examples of the variables, which determine the salience of a particular role in the participant’s lifespan. this coincides with the career models of both levinson (1987) and white (1995). they indicated that a woman’s career had a direct relationship with her age. participants also indicated they could identif y, and felt more comfortable, with some roles but not others. this finding supports the research of carlson, kacmar and stephina (1995): life-roles provide sources of identit y, and different people gain their identit y from different roles. situational conditions also appear to influence the time spent on a role, and thus its salience. poole and langan-fox (1997), in their studies on professional women, found that it was important to view the roles performed by women within the context of their “life course”, indicating that at different stages of a woman’s life, different situational factors are influential, which in turn influence the salience of a specific role. all participants indicated that the beliefs and attitudes of societ y significantly inf luenced how they perceived the importance of their multiple roles. furthermore, participants indicated that conflicting views still exist within the societ y regarding the career and family roles of women. it was also clear that some participants seemed to gain energ y from performing multiple roles, whereas others viewed it as overwhelming and stressful. this finding supports the studies of doress-worters (1994) and hughes and glinsky (1994), indicating inconsistent trends in the effect of multiple roles on the health and wellbeing of women. the main finding was that t went y of the t went y-four participants were responsible for the children and household tasks. this supports the findings of berardo, shehan and leslie (1987) and grant, simpson and rong (1990), suggesting that evidence exists that women still carry the primary responsibilit y for family and household activities. only in four instances were the husbands playing an act ive and true part nership role, taking a shared responsibilit y for children and household tasks. husbands, in most instances, didn’t seem to be negative about getting involved, but it would generally happen from a “helping” perspective, and not as a nat ural response to a situation. the experience of conflict between the multiple roles performed by professional women all participants indicated that the experience of role conflict was dynamic, a constant challenge, and experienced in varying degrees over time. only six participants indicated that they constantly experienced feelings of conflict. these participants were the ones with the youngest children, and/or with only one child; thus lending support to bedeian, burke and moffet (1988) and buetell and greenhaus’ (1980), who found that more role conflict is experienced by women with younger children. according to sharma (1999), the support and involvement of a husband positively relates to lower levels of role conf lict experienced by working women. participants all indicated their husbands’ support of their careers, although only a minorit y experienced their husbands’ proactive support and involvement with the children and housekeeping. the four participants who indicated their husbands to be a true partner in all instances, also reported low levels of role conflict. this finding thus supports sharma’s perspective. throughout the data analysis process it was clear that the one constant dynamic inf luencing the experience of role conf lict amongst participants was when a disproportionate amount of time was spent on a role as compared to the identit y gained from that career and life-balance 79 role. for example, participants for whom career and work were a large part of “who they are” but were not spending enough time on this role due to family or other role obligations, experienced high levels of role conflict. this supports the findings of carlson et al. (1995): conflict arises when an individual who values a particular role is forced by situational constraints to spend less time than she would like on that role. in a study conducted by carlson et al. (1998), participants indicated that they experienced work demands to negatively influence family responsibilities in more instances than family demands influence work responsibilities. all participants indicated that the t ype of conflict most often experienced is that of job-parent conflict. the meaning of career and work in the lives of professional women all the participants in the study described themselves as “career-orientated”. with the exception of one participant, all participants indicated that they did not consider their careers as “just doing a job”. their career was part of “ who they are”. this finding supports raynor (in poole and langan – fox, 1997), who defined career as the shaping and developing of self-identity. all participants indicated that their main motivations for working were related to intrinsic work values that give people’s lives meaning. consequently, this supports the research conducted by woodd (2000), who found that women rated the intrinsic value of their jobs higher than their male counterparts. however, although remuneration was not cited as a main reason, participants did indicate that they also worked to be financially independent from their husbands, to provide for a better future for their children, and to maintain a certain standard of living. another important finding indicates that the majority of participants had already moved through their first careers, and were currently involved in second or later careers in other related or, in some instances, unrelated fields. personal characteristics and life participants seemed to share the opinion that certain personal characteristics were more conducive to the achievement of lifebalance than others. the data analysis indicates an overwhelming agreement that the distinguishing personal characteristic needed to achieve life-balance is to “know and understand yourself”. furthermore, it was important to prioritise life-roles in alignment with “who you are”, to make choices about time and areas of focus, and to take control and responsibility for choices made. to have confidence in yourself and your abilities, and a positive approach to dealing with the “curveballs life throws at you” also seemed to be important in the achievement of life-balance. the presence and extent of support structures the main findings of the st udy on support struct ures identified, firstly, the need for support from the husband in the woman’s career, and secondly, the need for a stable and strong immediate support structure. this is supportive of kim and ling (2001), who found in their st udies of women entrepreneurs that the spouse’s attit ude and emotional support have the greatest influence on reducing women’s conflict and stress levels. only two participants indicated that their husbands were completely involved in the upbringing of their children and that there was no difference in the level of responsibility between husband and wife. all participants had some degree of household support. twenty of the twenty-four participants had full-time housekeeping support, living in or working five days a week. the other four had support for a minimum of two days a week. in the case of fourteen participants, the grandparents were actively involved in the taking care and upbringing of children. eight of the participants had their children attending a crèche or aftercare facility, three made use of an au pair (either full-time or in the afternoons), and the rest either had a full-time housekeeper or a parent involved, or, in the case of flexible working hours, took responsibility themselves. the organisation and life-balance a significant finding was that all participants in full-time positions in the private, public or ngo sectors indicated a complete lack of support and understanding for working women from their organisations. these experiences of professional south african women support the findings of burke and mckeen (1996), who found in their studies of professional women in the usa a complete lack of organisational sav v y in dealing with professional women, and a working environment not at all conducive to living a balanced life. burke (2001) further found that organisations are merely paying lip service to the work/life-balance issue. flexible working hours seemed present in a minority of organisations, and the participants in this study indicated that they were expected to keep normal, fixed working hours. in many instances employers considered expectations of working after-hours to be normal. morrison, white and van velsor (1997) found that after-hour meetings and overtime made it more difficult for women to balance their roles. however, hyman, baldry, scolarios and bunzel (2002) indicated in their research that the issue of work/ life-balance is more complex than just making simple adjustments to working time. they suggested that in order to address the issue of work/life-balance successfully, organisations need to review their current value and belief systems and promote a culture of work/life-balance. another important experience related by the participants is the presence of a “male base of performance” within their organisations. the participants experienced constant comparisons to their male colleagues, resulting in their “working harder and longer hours” than their male counterparts. the above findings coincide with the views of burke (2000,2001), burke and mckeen (1996), davidson, cooper and baldini (1995) and mavin (2001), which indicate that male career models, prejudices, and sexual stereotypes are still prevalent in organisations. the experience of coping and the overall well-being of professional women the experience or non-experience of life-balance was strongly associated with experiences of coping and well-being. this supports the studies conducted by burke (2001) and sharma (1999), which found a positive relationship bet ween the experience of life-balance and the health and well-being of professional women. participants used a combination of coping strategies. they indicated the need for planning and proact ive problem-solving, including the proact ive ident ificat ion of support-related needs and the implementation of the necessary support structures, as well as the upfront structuring and planning of a week. these coping strategies, as listed by brink and de la rey (2000) above, were also reported by participants in this study. the respondents included changing the situation, minimising the significance of a sit uation, rationalising, obtaining social support, accepting responsibilit y, planning, and positive reappraisal in their responses. the finding of dimati (1997) that women tend to seek social support to cope was confirmed by participants. all the participants indicated the need for greater social support in the form of interaction with other women facing similar challenges. to counter the effects of an imbalance in their lives, part icipants all stressed the importance of nutrition and exercise. however, they all indicated that they were not currently spending enough time on this. their reasons included, “i do not have the time”, “if i have to choose bet ween spending time with my children or going to the g ym, i rather spend any available time with them”, and “i feel guilt y when i take time out for myself, having already spent so much time away from my children”. whitehead, kotze80 discussion as stated, the main purpose of this study is to explore the lifeworlds of professional women in south africa in order to arrive at a theoretical framework of the phenomenon of life-balance. in the next section the original research questions will be discussed, after which a proposed theoretical framework for lifebalance will be suggested. what is an acceptable definition of life-balance for professional women? according to the participants’ responses, the experience of lifebalance is an elusive and ever changing one for professional women. different experiences of life-balance exist, and it is clear what represents life-balance to one person is not necessarily applicable to another. this raises the question of whether it is possible to have an all-encompassing definition of life-balance, applicable to various people in various situations. the first conclusions to be drawn from the study on a definition of lifebalance include: � it is important to consider all the roles performed over a lifetime; � what constitutes life-balance for one might not apply to another; � self-awareness is the main point of departure from which to achieve life-balance; � it is important to accept “who you are” and what is important to you; � it is also important to take responsibility for the choices you make; � life-balance has a cyclical nature, and therefore it is important to be constantly aware of your life experiences; � life-balance is a process and a tool for achieving personal growth; � life-balance is therefore not “one, single ultimate experience”, but a series of individual experiences over time, which can be called “life-balance moments”. another conclusion is that two main types of factors influence and support the experience of life-balance: internal/influential factors, and external/supporting factors. the study indicates that the key differentiator between women who experience life-balance and those who do not is the existence of internal/influential factors. without these factors, life-balance will never be truly experienced, even though external/ supporting factors might exist. what are the key factors which influence the phenomenon of life-balance and the achievement or non-achievement thereof? the key factors influencing the experience of life-balance include: � the level of self-awareness at which a person lives life; � the ability to “know and understand yourself”; � the ability to take responsibility for your decisions and life choices; � the ability to understand and deal with personal fears; � the application of proactive coping strategies; � a positive attitude towards life and dealing with chosen demands; and � a level of trust in others who assist and support you. when a woman establishes these internal factors, choices regarding career performance and other roles are made, enabling the experience of life-balance. what are the key supporting factors for professional women in successfully balancing their life-roles? one conclusion drawn from this study is that the main differentiating supporting factor for professional women is the support and involvement of their husbands with regards to both their careers and the family and homemaking. the study further concludes that the following external variables are supportive: � societal views and attitudes: the views and attitudes of society regarding the role of women are important in this discussion. in most instances participants indicated having experienced conflicting views of society. � support structures: the existence and extent of support structures are instrumental in the experience of life-balance. examples of support structures include housekeepers, au pairs, home managers, friends and/or parents and family, and after-care centres or crèches. � organisational values and support: the study confirmed that the non-existence and non-awareness of a “balanced lifestyle organisational culture” and organisational support impacted negatively on participants’ experience of lifebalance. a conclusion can be drawn that an organisation culture which supports balanced life-styles and provides support and flexibility through human resource policies and practices will better enable female employees to experience life-balance. in order to understand and confirm this study’s above conclusions, two life-balance models were developed. the first model guides the discussion on a definition of life-balance and the characteristics associated with the phenomenon. in figure 1 (defining life-balance: a holistic approach) an outline of this model is provided. this model represents a holistic view of the phenomenon of life-balance. from the conclusions reached regarding a definition, it seems as if there are two prerequisites for the experience of true life-balance, namely selfawareness and a high level of consciousness at which a person lives her life. these two dynamics are presented as two axes on the proposed model. the horizontal axis represents the level of self –awareness and refers to the level of awareness an individual has of her own identity, and what is important in life to her. the vertical axis represents consciousness and refers to the level of consciousness at which an individual lives her life. in a woman’s lifetime she can “pass” through the four stages of this model a few times. each stage within the model is characterised by levels of self-awareness and consciousness, resulting in experiences of life-balance, growth and self-development. the second model was developed to present an understanding of the external/supporting and internal/influencing factors present in the experience of life-balance. in figure 2 (a lifebalance process model) an outline of the model is presented. the experience of life-balance is supported and influenced by both internal and external factors. an external dynamic, namely family background, or the “way we have been brought up”, impacts and shapes the identity of an individual. on the other hand, internal factors and abilities, such as selfawareness and reflection, are important in the understanding of one’s own needs and preferences, and the shaping of identity. when an individual knows and understands herself and her preferences, she can make choices based on this understanding. as indicated in the results of this study, the one distinguishing personal characteristic which facilitates the experience of life-balance is “to know and understand yourself’ and to prioritise life-roles accordingly. choices once again are either supported or not supported by external factors. society plays an important role in the choices women make, as societal views and attitudes seem to be an important support base for the choices women make. in this study participants indicated experiencing conflicting expectations from society. however, being true to one’s identity, and making choices in alignment with “who you are”, is an important building block in the experience of life-balance. the choices a woman makes include the roles she wants to perform in her lifetime. to perform these roles in a balanced manner successfully, external support factors need to be considered, namely, husband support, work arrangements, support structures and an organisational culture. internal factors which influence the performance of multiple roles career and life-balance 81 whitehead, kotze82 figure 1: defining life-balance: a holistic approach figure 2: a life-balance process model include the ability to plan and structure proactively, the implementation of support structures, trust in others, and the ability to apply appropriate coping strategies. the results of this study indicate that personality and personal resources have a positive relationship with the experience of lifebalance. in performing multiple roles an individual will grow and develop, and, if conducted in alignment with her identity, an individual can experience life-balance, health and wellbeing in the process. examples of external factors which support the experience of growth and development include literature, and training and development courses. internal factors which play a role in self-development and growth are the ability to reflect, and the level of self-awareness. this, in turn, shapes identity. it is important to consider that in order to experience lifebalance both external/supporting factors and internal/ influencing factors are important. it has, however, been concluded in the discussion of this study’s research questions that should the internal factors not be present in an individual’s life, true life-balance will not be experienced, even if the external factors are present. limitations and recommendations as with all research, this study has limitations. first and foremost, it must be noted that because of the qualitative nature of the study, one cannot generalise the present study’s results to working women as a whole. participants represented working women in the western cape, were not (in terms of quantitative research) representative of a national sample of working women. once again, this could impose certain limitations on the generalisation of the findings. as this field of research is still relatively new within the south african context, there are a number of research topics, which could be investigated. in the first place, a research opportunity exists to develop and test the reliability and validity of the “life-balance questionnaire” which was developed as a secondary objective of this study. since this study focused on professional women, there is an opportunity to conduct a similar study amongst other women in the workplace, and also to investigate the phenomenon of life-balance among single mothers. this study can also be further researched by including the husbands of the participants in the study. other interesting and related future research topics can include: to establish the relationship between various personality types and life-balance experiences; to investigate the extent of life-balance friendly organisation cultures in south africa; and to conduct a study on males and their experiences of life-balance. references aaron-corbin, c. (1999). the multiple-role balancing act. management review, 88 (9), 62-65. adelmann, p.k. (1994). multiple roles and health among older adults. research on aging, 16 (2), 142-166. amatea, e. s. & fong, m. l. (1991). the impact of role stressors and personal resources on the stress experience of professional women. psychology of women quarterly, 15, 419430. andrews, f. & withey, s. (1976). social indicators of wellbeing. new york: plenum press. anonymous study (1990). women with multiple roles: role compatibility perceptions, satisfaction, and mental health. journal of marriage and family, 52 (1), 63-74. buetell, n.j. & greenhaus, j.h. (1980). some sources and consequences of inter-role conflict among married women. paper presented at the annual meeting of the academy of management: vol. 17, (pp.2-6). california. bedeian, a.g., burke, b.g. & moffet, r.g. (1988). outcomes of work-family conflict among married male and female professionals. journal of management, 14 (3), 475-491. berardo, p.h., shehan, c.l. & leslie, g.r. (1987). a residue of tradition: jobs, careers, and spouses’ time in housework. journal of marriage and family, 49, 381-390. booysen, a.e. (1999). challenges facing black and white women managers in south africa. management today, 16 (5), 22-28. booysen, a.e. (2000). towards a more feminine business leadership for the 21st century: a literature overview and a study of the potential implications for south africa. south african journal of labour relations, 1 (23), 31-54. brink, b. & de la rey, c. (2001). work-family interaction strain: coping strategies used by successful women in the public, corporate and self-employed sectors of the economy. south african journal of psychology, 31 (4), 55 – 61. burke, r.j. (1997). culture’s consequences: organisational values, family-friendliness and a level playing field. women in management review, 12 (6), 222-227. burke, r.j. (2000). workaholism among women managers: personal and workplace correlates. journal of managerial psychology, 15 (6), 520-534. burke, r.j. (2001). organisational values, work experiences and satisfactions among managerial and professional women. the journal of management development, 20 (4), 346-354. burke, r. j. & mckeen, c.a. (1996). employment gaps and work and career satisfaction of managerial and professional women. international journal of manpower, 17 (1), 47-55. carlson, d.s., kacmar, k.m. & stepina, l.p. (1995). an examination of two aspects of work-family conflict: time and identity. women in management review, 10 (2), 17-25. carlson, d.s., kacmar, k.m. & williams, l.j. (1998). the development and validation of a multi-dimensional measure of work-family conflict. paper presented at the 1998 academic management meeting. california. cook, e.p. (1994). role salience and multiple roles: a gender perspective. the career development quarterly, 43, 85-94. creswell, j.w. (1994). research design: qualitative & quantitative approaches. california: sage publications. davidson, m.j., cooper, c.l. & baldini, v. (1995). occupational stress in female and male graduate managers – a comparative study. stress medicine, 11, 157-175. de bruin, w. (2000). women: a growing economic force: an f and t finance week feature. finance week, 22 september 2000, 37-47. dimati, i.n. (1997). gender role attitudes, sense of coherence and coping among working women. unpublished master thesis in clinical psychology, university of medunsa, south africa. doress-wortes, p.b. (1994). adding elder care to women’s multiple roles: a critical review of the caregiver stress and multiple roles literatures, sex roles, 31, 597 – 613. facione, n. c. (1992). role overload and health: the married in the waged labour force. health care for women international, 15, 157 – 167. folkman, s. & lazarus, r.s. (1984). stress, appraisal, and coping. new york: springer publishing. fu, c.k. & shaffer, m. a. (2001). the tug of work and family. personnel review, 30 (5), 502-522. gill, s. & davidson, m.j. (2000). problems and pressures facing lone mothers in management and professional occupations – a pilot study. women in management review, 17 (8), 383-399. grant, l., simpson, l.a. & rong, w.l. (1990). gender, parenthood and work hours of physicians. journal of marriage and family, 52, 39-49. greenhaus, j.h. & buetell, n.j. (1985). sources of conflict between work and family roles. academy of management review, 10 (1), 76-88. hochschild, a.r. (1997). the time bind. new york: metropolitan books. hughes, d.l. & glinsky, e. (1994). gender, job and family conditions, and psychological symptoms. psychology of women quarterly, 18, 251 – 270. career and life-balance 83 hyman, j., baldry, c., scolarios, d. & bunzel, d. (2002). work-lifebalance for the knowledge worker? paper presented at the 8th biannual conference of the international society for the study of work and organisational values (pp. 184-190). poland, academy of humanities and economics: lodzi academia printers. jano, r. (2000). role and career salience of dual career professional women. unpublished masters thesis in psycholog y, university of the western cape, cape town. kim, j.l.s. & ling, c.s. (2001). work-family conflict of women entrepreneurs in singapore. women in management review, 16 (2), 204-221. kopp, r. g. & ruzicka, f. m. (1993). women’s multiple roles and psychological well-being. psychological reports, p. 1351 – 1354. levinson, d.j. (1978). the season’s of a man’s life. new york: a.a. kopf. mavin, s. (2001). women’s career in theory and practice: time for change? women in management review, 16 (4), 183-192. morrison, a., white, r. & van velsor, e. (1987). breaking the glass ceiling. reading, ma: addison-wesley. patton, m.q.(1990). qualitative evaluation research methods. newbury park: sage. poole, m.e. & langan-fox, j. 1996. australian women and careers. cambridge: cambridge university press. rapoport, r & rapoport, r.n. (1980). work, family and the career. new york: praeger publishing. redelinghuys, n., botes, l.j.s. & de wet, m. (1999). role conflict among women employees: fact or fiction. society in transition, 30 (1), 54-68. sharma, s. (1999). multiple roles and women’s health: a multi-linear model. equal opportunities international, 18 (8), 16 – 23. schurink, w.j. 2001. qualitative research. paper presented at the “leadership in performance and change doctoral programme”. rand afrikaans university. stover, d.l. (1994). the horizontal distribution of female managers within organisation. work and occupation, 21 (4), 385-402. strauss, a.l. & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques. newbury park: sage. strauss, a. & corbin, j. (1994). grounded theory methodology: an overview. in denzin, n., lincoln, y. handbook of qualitative research. california: sage publications. super, d.e. (1980). a life-span, life-space approach to career development. journal of vocational behaviour, 16, 282-289. super, d.e. & sverko, b. (1995). life-roles, values, and careers: international findings of the work importance study. san fransico: jossey bass publishers. verhoef, g. (1996). the role of women in the south african economy. the south african journal of economics, 64 (3), 216234. white, b. (1995). the career development of successful women. women in management review, 10 (3), 4-15. woodd, m. (2000). the move towards a different career pattern: are women better prepared than men for a modern career? career development international, 5 (2), 99-105. whitehead, kotze84 232 -12 nov 2009 [final version].indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #232 (page number not for citation purposes) applying the nominal group technique in an employment relations conflict situation: a case study of a university maintenance section in south africa authors: cornelis (kees) s. van der waal1 josephine (tina) m. uys1 affi liations: 1department of sociology and social anthropology, stellenbosch university, south africa 2department of sociology, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: cornelis (kees) van der waal e-mail: csvdw@sun.ac.za postal address: department of sociology and social anthropology, stellenbosch university, private bag x1, matieland 7602, south africa keywords: nominal group technique (ngt); confl ict resolution; workers; focus groups; employment relations dates: received: 15 sept. 2008 accepted: 26 june 2009 published: 09 sept. 2009 how to cite this article: van der waal, c.s., & uys, j.m. (2009). applying the nominal group technique in an employment relations confl ict situation: a case study of a university maintenance section in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), art. #232, 7 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.232 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. abstract after a breakdown in employment relations in the maintenance section of a higher education institution, the authors were asked to intervene in order to try and solve the employment relations confl ict situation. it was decided to employ the nominal group technique (ngt) as a tool in problem identifi cation during confl ict in the workplace. an initial investigation of documentation and interviews with prominent individuals in the organisation was carried out. the ngt was then used in four focus group discussions to determine the important issues as seen by staff members. the ngt facilitates the determination of shared perceptions and the ranking of ideas. the ngt was used in diverse groups, necessitating adaptations to the technique. the perceived causes of the confl ict were established. the ngt can be used in a confl ict situation in the workplace in order to establish the perceived causes of employment relations confl ict. 137vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 7 introduction confl ict in the workplace is a challenge for employment relations and often leads to non-statutory attempts at resolution. in this article the authors report on the use of the nominal group technique (ngt) in an employment relations setting in a non-academic section of a south african university. although the ngt is most commonly used in educational and health research settings, it was used with success to identify the causes of confl ict between black african workers and mainly white skilled labourers. as theories of confl ict and confl ict resolution are usually based on empirical studies, insight gained from the use of the ngt in a relatively unusual setting may indicate its possible applicability in new settings. labour and employment relations in south africa refl ect the divisions and consequential confl icts in this transforming society. south african organisations are well acquainted with the problems caused by a high level of confl ict due to socioeconomic and political differences as well as diversity of values and orientations (van aarde & nieumeijer, 1998). white people used to dominate politically, economically and socially, until the political transformation of 1994 introduced far-reaching changes, including a focus on deracialisation and the restructuring of work (buhlungu & webster, 2006; moleke, 2006). in the tertiary education context, the need to transform south african universities extends not only to the improvement of access of the previously excluded population, but also to the need to increase the population diversity in academic and non-academic settings. especially where racial, social and cultural differences are experienced as signifi cant, these processes often give rise to tension in employment relations and may carry identity dimensions based on class and ‘race’. the labour relations act of 1995 regulates the balance of power between employers, employees and the state (bendix, 1996). the act provides for a variety of dispute resolution mechanisms: bargaining councils; statutory councils; the council for conciliation, mediation and arbitration; the labour court; and non-statutory, private, voluntary, informal mechanisms (du toit, 1998 et al.; swanepoel, 1998; van aarde & nieumeijer, 1998). a useful defi nition of confl ict is provided by anstey , writing about confl ict management: confl ict exists in a relationship when parties believe that their aspirations cannot be achieved simultaneously, or perceive a divergence in their values, needs or interests (latent confl ict) and purposefully employ their power in an effort to eliminate, defeat, neutralise, or change each other to protect or further their interests in the interaction (manifest confl ict). (anstey 2002, p. 6) kriesberg (2003, p. 2) puts it very simply: ‘[a] social confl ict arises when two or more persons or groups manifest the belief that they have incompatible objectives’. confl ict in employment relations often exists between managers, supervisors and employees and can be attributed to several causes, broadly categorised as communication, structure and personal behaviour (bunker & rubin, 1995; deutsch, 1973; edwards 1986; langan-fox, cooper & klimoski, 2007; rahim, 1986; van aarde & nieumeijer, 1998). confl icts are normal in interpersonal and structural relationships and may have positive (constructive) consequences when they contribute to better decision making (kriesberg, 2003; robbins, 2003), but when confl icts escalate they may become negative (destructive) and a threat to an organisation’s existence (nelson & quick, 2003). problem-solving workshops have become a familiar technique for improving relations between co-workers. this is probably why the human resource department at a local university requested that the researchers (a social anthropologist and a sociologist) try and resolve an employee relations confl ict situation in a section of maintenance service workers by this means. the nature of the confl ict situation was described as a breakdown in relations between the ‘supervisors’ (managers and skilled labourers) and the workers. previous attempts at resolving the confl ict situation by means of a workshop facilitated by an external consultant had apparently exacerbated the problems in the original research van der waal & uys sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 23 2 (page number not for citation purposes) 138 vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 7 section. involving the researchers seems to have been a lastditch attempt by management to resolve the issues internally. facilitators and mediators are usually selected on the basis of their perceived impartiality and acceptance to both sides (anstey, 2002; bendix, 1996; robbins, 2003). as a first step, the researchers ensured that all parties to the dispute, namely university management, employees of the maintenance section and the trade union representatives, accepted their involvement and were prepared to co-operate. it was felt by both researchers that an initial assessment was needed in order to determine the root causes of the problem, something they felt more secure about in the light of their disciplinary experience and knowledge. without such an investigation, they felt that the facilitation would be very difficult, as the facilitators would be at the mercy of the social dynamics between the two polarised groups and would not be able to establish the underlying causes of the conflict situation that needed to be handled (van aarde & nieuwmeijer, 1998). mediators often begin their intervention in a conflict situation by using ‘reflexive tactics’ to establish rapport, build their own power base and discover the issues behind the conflict (anstey, 2002). when the initial interviews with the key stakeholders had been concluded, it was decided to employ the ngt during four focus group discussions. the ngt would be applied to separate groups of workers and skilled labourers in order to determine their views on the nature of the problems experienced in the maintenance section as well as on possible solutions to these problems. the main aims of this article are to illustrate the use of the ngt in a non-academic employee • relations conflict situation at a higher education institution compare the use of the ngt in diverse groups (white skilled • labourers, black workers) discuss the adaptations that had to be made during the • implementation, and make recommendations based on this experience.• research design research approach the investigation commenced with a study of documentation made available by the parties involved as well as semistructured interviews conducted with a series of key individuals. these individuals were either employed in the maintenance section or played an important role in its immediate context. they included black african workers (including union representatives), mainly white supervisors, a member of the management committee of the university and staff members of personnel services. the interviews provided a basis for a more representative consultation process. these initial investigations revealed a serious and high level of polarisation and conflict in the maintenance section, which had built up over time. this should be understood within the context of various factors and events that could not be attributed to the actions of any of the current members of the section. they however bore the brunt of the consequences of these factors and events. it seemed that the tension had escalated in the previous three years, probably due to the effects of rationalisation in the section and the fact that promises regarding training had not materialised as expected. in the recent past, the staff situation in the section had changed tremendously, as many skilled labourers had left the university and were not replaced. this had placed a very heavy burden on the remaining staff, with the former black african ‘tool boys’ (level c3 workers, who are service workers) being allocated more responsibilities, without the necessary training and support that was needed. the understaffing in the section, coupled with the aging of the university facilities and a substantial increase in the number of users of these facilities, had led to a situation characterised by a shortage of skilled staff and insufficient supervision of workers performing tasks that they were not fully qualified to do. the decreased availability of university resources, increased threats of pending changes towards outsourcing, the knowledge that outsourcing had already taken place at other universities and the layoff of staff in preceding years had all contributed to an atmosphere of tension and insecurity in the section. another stakeholder in the issue was the trade union that was involved on the side of the workers. it was important to gain the cooperation of the trade union representatives at each stage of the process that the facilitators followed. this was done by means of a meeting with prominent union members in which the intended process was discussed in detail. although sceptical, the shop steward and the leadership of the union at the institution agreed that the process be given a fair chance. involving the facilitators in the resolution of the conflict situation at such a late stage of its development meant that they were confronted with a high level of polarisation between the two groups, with dominant personalities taking leading positions on both sides, combined with an intense distrust of the value of any process aimed at conflict resolution. therefore, the methodology to be used by the researchers was of the utmost importance if the cooperation of the polarised parties was to be secured. differences of class, levels of education and ‘race’ between the role-players complicated matters, including in terms of levels of trust and difficulties in communication. these social differences also impacted on the perceptions and relationships emerging between the researchers and the workers. research strategy it was decided to conduct four focus group discussions with staff members of the section during which the ngt would be used in order to determine the priorities of the staff members employed in the section with regard to their perceptions of the problems and the solutions to these problems. the intention was to use the ngt as part of the investigation by the researchers, following on from the semi-structured interviews and the analysis of documents. this investigation was to lead to recommendations on which the management of the university was expected to act. research method sampling the following groups were identified for the ngt focus groups: the workers in the departments of plumbing, electricity • and air-conditioning the workers in the departments of welding and painting• the workers in the department of carpentry• the skilled labourers.• the size of the four groups that were constituted for the ngt process was very similar, averaging eight participants per group, as is recommended by the literature (delbecq, van de ven & gustafson, 1975). the groups were ‘natural’, similar to the work of gepson, martinko and belina (1981), in the sense that they consisted of people who usually worked together and had a similar status in the organisational hierarchy. group 1 consisted of a combination of workers in the fields of electricity, air-conditioning and welding. group 2 was a combination of painters and the rest of the welders. group 3 was the most homogeneous, as it was composed of a work team, namely the carpenters. group 4 included the various skilled labourers and the secretary of the section, who also shared much as colleagues and who were the supervisors of the workers in groups 1 to 3. all the workers were black africans, whereas all the skilled labourers and the secretary were white people, with the exception of one coloured person. as indicated s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #232 (page number not for citation purposes) applying the nominal group technique in an employment relations conflict situation 139vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 7 above, the cultural and social differences between the groups of (a) workers, (b) the skilled labourers and (c) the university management were considerable. the staff included only one woman, the secretary working with the skilled labourers. the composition of the groups worked well for the purposes of the facilitators, as the aim was to involve everybody in the process and to focus on information and perceptions, with the avoidance of confrontation, in the phase of the intervention during which the ngt was used. data-collection method the ngt was used because it is known as a useful tool to minimise individual domination of group meetings and to facilitate the determination of shared perceptions (chapple & murphy, 1996; delbecq & van de ven, 1971; delbecq et al., 1975; gepson et al., 1981; lloyd-jones, fowell & bligh, 1999; lomax & mcleman, 1984; macphail, 2001; moore, 1987; skibbe, 1986; taffinder & viedge, 1987; viedge, 1988). anstey (2002) mentions that the ngt is particularly useful for finding solutions to a problem in a conflict-resolution process where subgroups are involved. the technique is described as follows by the center for rural studies at the university of vermont (1998): research in group dynamics indicates that more ideas are expressed by individuals working alone but in a group environment than by individuals engaged in a formal group discussion. the nominal group technique is a good way of getting many ideas from a group. it has advantages over the usual committee approach to identifying ideas. group consensus can be reached faster and everyone has equal opportunity to present their ideas. (crs 1998, n.p.) the technique guarantees that each idea has an equal chance in the establishment of the perceptions of the group. furthermore, the technique facilitates an unbiased ranking of the ideas that were generated by the groups. the ngt is a tool used in aiding judgemental decision making where [t]he central element of this situation is the lack of agreement or incomplete state of knowledge concerning either the nature of the problem or the components which must be included in a successful solution. (delbecq et al., 1975, p. 5) its main aim is solving problems or generating ideas and it is less useful as a technique for conducting routine meetings or resolving conflicts. it should be stated at the outset that the use of ngt by the facilitators focused on identifying the issues that motivated the lack of co-operation and the atmosphere of distrust and hostility that existed in the section as well as possible solutions to these issues. recording of data delbecq et al. (1975) summarise the ngt process in terms of four steps: group members start off by writing down their ideas with 1. regard to the issue in silence. each group member takes a turn to provide one idea at a 2. time. the essence of each idea is recorded on a flip chart. this process continues until all the ideas are exhausted. the recorded ideas are discussed in order to clarify and 3. evaluate them. ideas that are sufficiently similar can also be combined at this stage. the group members vote individually on the importance 4. of each idea. the group decision is calculated by means of rank ordering or rating. using the ngt to structure the discussion in the focus groups had particular advantages when attempting to identify the major issues and solutions. it enabled the facilitators to balance the socio-emotional dimension of the group situation with its focus on accomplishing the task successfully. the inability of dominant members to dictate the final outcome implies that independent thinking is encouraged and that a diversity of ideas is tolerated as a result of the minimisation of emotion. members get to know each other and also become more familiar with the task. the technique was therefore particularly useful in a context that was highly charged in emotional terms and where the impact of dominant members on both sides of the dispute was clearly visible from the beginning. one of the main limitations of the use of the ngt in this context is its requirement that participants are functionally literate in the particular language in which the focus group discussion is conducted. findings the procedure followed when employing the ngt with the four focus groups was based on a south african training manual (viedge, 1988), which provides documentation such as overheads and forms to be used during each step of the ngt process. a further benefit of the manual is its clarity in terms of the description of the steps of the technique. preparation for the ngt process: different expectations the preparation for the process involved the formulation of an ngt question, the scheduling and practical arrangements for the focus group meetings, as well as obtaining the help of an interpreter (a female black african clerk from the human resource department with academic training). where needed, translation into african languages took place and assistance was given to those workers who could not write in order to record their views as well. the main focus of the discussion was on the problems in the section as well as their causes. the authors acted as facilitators during the meetings, taking turns in leading the group through the various steps of the ngt process. during the word of welcome the facilitators explained that it was their purpose to involve all the members of the section in the focus group discussions. they also indicated that a workshop aimed at addressing the problems in the section would be held at a later stage. the aim of the focus group meeting, they explained, was to identify the problems in the section and to discuss possible solutions. they also explained the ngt process, using overheads to describe each step. they emphasised the fact that the ngt process would give all the ideas that would be generated an equal chance to be considered; that some parts of the process involved a discussion and other parts were based on individual work. they then handed out the forms that were to be used and wrote the question that was to be considered on a white board. the question was: ‘what are the reasons for the lack of co-operation in this section?’ the lack of co-operation in the section was understood by the facilitators as a manifestation of an underlying employment relations conflict situation. the facilitators also explained the steps in the process to the participants at each stage of the ngt process. right at the outset it became apparent that while the facilitators were focusing on the ngt process as a research tool and wanted to use the process to obtain more certainty about the extent of the perceptions and feelings in the section, the workers were approaching the process from a completely different position. they were initially quite sceptical about the focus group meetings and about the intervention process in its entirety. it was said, for instance, that the university had spent a lot of money on the process in the past without achieving anything. they were therefore not convinced that the process should be trusted this time. one of the workers said that meetings had taken place in the past as well, but nothing positive had resulted, therefore ‘to hold such meetings was like watering a garden with a leaky can’. he reckoned that he ‘would probably go on pension without having seen any positive change’. it was original research van der waal & uys sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 23 2 (page number not for citation purposes) 140 vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 7 also a concern among the workers whether the ideas generated at the meeting would have any effect on the ultimate outcome of the process. the facilitators could only answer that they were positive about the process and were spending time on it in order to find solutions. the workers who raised these questions nevertheless took part in the process in a very cooperative way. they understood that the use of the interviews and the ngt focus groups was part of a problem-clarification process and that the facilitators would hand the results and recommendations over to management for action. adapting the ngt for the labour relations intervention the usual steps of the ngt process were followed, with some modifications. the first adaptation to the specific situation was the use of an interpreter in the three groups that contained the ‘black african’ workers, similar to what parker (1975) reported about the use of the ngt in micronesia. the interpreter used tswana, as this accommodated the language needs of most of the workers. as the interpreter was more conversant in english than in afrikaans, the facilitators used english during the focus group meetings composed of the black african workers. some of the workers wrote their ideas down in their own languages, which the interpreter translated during the next step. another adaptation had to be made during the first step in the ngt process, which involved the silent generation of ideas by the participants and its recording on paper. about 40% of the workers were illiterate (nearly all in group 2) and could therefore in many cases not record their ideas themselves. in each case, those workers were assisted by the interpreter or one of the facilitators (when english or afrikaans could be used). this assistance prolonged the process and led to a situation where some participants had to wait for the others to be helped. in some cases, the participants started to help each other with the recording of their ideas. the need for assistance with the recording of ideas led to a situation in which it was impossible to retain silence in the group, as is required in the ngt process. this of course opened up the possibility of manipulation and influencing by dominant members. however, the facilitators are fairly confident that they managed to limit any such attempts by intervening to stop any discussions when they started. after the initial individual recording of ideas on the nature of the problems in the section, each individual participant had the opportunity to present one idea at a time, which was then recorded on flip charts. the ideas that were offered as reasons for the lack of co-operation in the section were then discussed in the group and, where possible, the number of ideas was reduced by subsuming ideas under more comprehensive categories. in the next step, ranking and prioritising, another adaptation to the normal procedures of the ngt process took place. the complex voting procedure was found to be too cumbersome for the specific ngt situation in two of the groups, as every step had to be translated and many of the workers could not read or write. the voting, or the determination of the ideas considered by the group to be the most important, was therefore done by raising hands and counting the number of votes per idea. each idea was read out, a vote was taken and the result determined which idea was considered as the most important for the group. each time the winning idea was eliminated and a next round of votes was taken for the remaining ideas. despite this adaptation, some participants still got it wrong and voted twice in the same round, for instance. this can be ascribed to several causes, including the artificiality of voting for ideas in a group situation during several rounds, the difficulties of communication due to the translation of what was said and the difficulty involved in making a choice between ideas that were all considered to be important. nevertheless, the results of the different ngt meetings were sufficiently complementary to regard the outcomes as a reflection of their real concerns. the second part of each focus group meeting was dedicated to a discussion of the possible solutions to the problems in the section. in this discussion the problems that had been identified in the ngt part of the meeting were mentioned and solutions to them were discussed in focus group style. the solutions that were suggested were recorded on flip charts and formed a valuable input into the facilitators’ understanding of the causes for the conflict in the maintenance section. they also contributed significantly to the planning of the workshop that was to follow. minimising group dynamics during the ngt process although the ngt is supposed to minimise the influence of the researcher and of group dynamics, as it was ‘designed to receive input from all members, and in so doing to avoid the potential dominance of the interview by more vocal members’ (macphail, 2001, p. 164), the dominance by some participants was clearly present in some of the focus groups. the literature also reports that group pressures do influence participants’ contribution to the process, for instance in the case of students’ evaluation of teaching and learning (chapple & murphy, 1996). in group 1 it was evident that one of the workers was the dominant person in the group and that he was influencing the ngt process, especially in the first phase, when ideas were to be written down in silence. his relaxed body language and his saying out loudly what he was writing down in all probability influenced the other participants. he was one of the workers who had confronted the supervisors about problems in the section and was therefore a leading figure in the employee relations conflict situation. this difficulty in implementing the ngt according to the rules is also echoed by lomax and mcleman (1984, p. 187) and by chapple and murphy (1996, p.151): ‘[t]he no discussion rule is essential if peer conformity pressures are to be reduced and in practice this is difficult to enforce’. in another group of workers the atmosphere of the ngt focus group was tense when the process started. the leader of the workers, also a labour union shop steward, introduced himself by getting up and addressing the meeting shortly. during the ngt process, when the reasons for the lack of co-operation in the section were discussed, some of the workers used the opportunity to make strong statements about the problems they had experienced with a white supervisor. they seemed to make strong short speeches to convince the other workers and the facilitators that the situation was serious. again, this problem seemed to diminish when the ngt process proceeded and a more relaxed atmosphere for discussion became possible. the more confrontational and sceptical position taken by some of the leading workers seemed to change towards co-operation in the ngt process that the facilitators were implementing, possibly due to the attempt the latter made to be as impartial as possible. in one of the groups it even occurred that some of the participants wrote down the results of the analysis of the ngt process for their own purposes. for them the points that were raised and the terminology used were probably a basis for further lobbying. this was an interesting use of the results of the ngt, something that was foreseen by the designers of the technique, who stated that the output of ngt meetings was used by professionals, but that it could also be used by the community concerned to make sure their needs were met (delbecq et al., 1975). the positive influence of the ngt process on at least some of the participants, in terms of their commitment to finding a solution to the problems in the section, was also indicated by another event. one of the participants stayed behind after the ngt meeting and gave the facilitators valuable insights into the relationships in the maintenance section. the ngt meeting seemed to have facilitated the volunteering of these views. identification of problems the results of the ngt and the discussion in the focus groups s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #232 (page number not for citation purposes) applying the nominal group technique in an employment relations conflict situation 141vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 7 after the ngt process proved to be very useful for the process of facilitation. the facilitators were able to identify the problems in the section as ranked by the workers and skilled labourers. this enabled the facilitators to compare these views with the understanding they had gained from individual interviews and from the scrutiny of the available documentation. they were able to prepare the final workshop on the basis of this knowledge and eventually report to management in terms of the problems and their possible solutions. the list of the problems in the section, as reflected in table 1, was the result of the ngt process. it is of interest to look at the way in which the ideas in table 1 were often a combination of several points raised by individuals during the first round of idea generation. group 1, for instance, initially listed the following ideas: racism and discrimination• no communication• no co-operation between supervisors and workers• supervisor does not handle workers well• no understanding• working under pressure• sick leave denied• lack of training• unfair treatment with regard to injuries• lack of tools• promises not kept• no respect for others’ views• transport problem not considered when arriving late for • work lack of transport to get to workplace• supervisor not truthful about clients’ views about the work • done. in the discussion of these ideas the group decided to reduce these 15 ideas to 6, as listed in table 1. for instance, various instances of the way in which a supervisor was perceived to treat the workers unfairly were combined into one idea, namely ‘treatment by supervisor’. group 2 generated 10 ideas that were reduced to five, group 3 generated 11 ideas that were reduced to 10, and group 4 generated 26 ideas that were reduced to 11. the facilitators played an important role in the process of idea combination, by pointing out possibilities for the combination or subsuming of ideas that had been offered by the members of the groups and that were logically linked. the facilitators ensured that these proposals for the reduction of the number of ideas were accepted by the group. nevertheless, it is possible that the intervention and facilitation removed some of the tendencies to blame specific individuals and tended to move away from polarisation, by combining ideas that were centred on specific instances and examples into more general categories. a good example of this process occurred when the ideas generated by the skilled labourers were reduced. the following ideas involving the attitudes of the workers had been listed in the initial round: attitude towards work by the workers• work times not adhered to• workers who regard themselves as being untouchable • workers do not accept discipline• workers are not proud of their work• instigation by one individual• lack of motivation among workers• lack of responsibility for tools among workers• refusal to carry radios• refusal to be accountable for spending of time• lack of self-control• intimidation• the informal supervision by skilled labourers is not • accepted. all 13 of these ideas were combined into two in the final list, namely: problem with discipline, intimidation and instigation• weak work ethic among the workers.• with hindsight, looking back at the total flow of the facilitation process, the facilitators may have tried to influence the ngt process towards less confrontational attitudes, given the polarised state of the conflict at that stage. by so doing, they could have contributed, unwittingly, to the eventual discharge of confrontational emotion that occurred at the end of the workshop, which followed a few weeks after the ngt focus group discussions. the facilitators, as outsiders to the section, may have underestimated the strong feelings of polarisation in the section, especially at the initial stages of the process. the implication of this is that the ngt process can be charged with emotion and with strong indications of strained relations, especially in a case like the one described here, where the ngt is part of a conflict-resolution process. when the quantity and contents of the ideas from the various groups are compared, interesting differences and similarities can be observed. it can be seen from table 1 to what extent the views of the worker groups (groups 1 to 3) were similar in content and in ranking. the group containing the strongest leaders of the workers and with only one illiterate member (group 3) generated the most ideas. group 4 generated even more ideas, again possibly related to the higher level of training that was represented in this group. it is evident that the problems that were identified and ranked by group 4 (the skilled labourers) had much in common with the views expressed in groups 1 to 3, but were based on different perceptions and experiences. the most glaring difference was that the groups composed of black african workers put racism and discrimination at the top of their list, whereas these terms were not even mentioned in group 4 (consisting of white people and one coloured person). group 4 did refer to the strained relations in the section indirectly, by mentioning reasons such as ‘interpersonal relations are weak’ and ‘the tearoom’. however, not identifying racism and discrimination as a problem was probably directly due to their own social position in the racial caste system that seemed to persist in this working environment. one indication of the table 1 ranking of the ideas generated by the ngt focus groups on the question: ‘what are the reasons for the lack of co-operation in this section?’ group 1 group 2 group 3 group 4 racism and discrimination• lack of training• treatment by the supervisor• no understanding• lack of tools• lack of communication and • co-operation racism and discrimination• post structure and job description• lack of communication• poor treatment by the supervisor• lack of training• racism and discrimination• lack of training• lack of management skills• lack of communication• lack of respect between black • and white people need for a telephone• personnel services not sufficiently • involved poor time management • access to machines• lack of rules about private work• promises are not kept with regard to training • and salaries lack of communication and consultation• discipline and intimidation• post structure and job opportunities are • unclear poor attitude to work• personnel services and management not • sufficiently involved inconsistency of orders• interpersonal relations are weak• unpleasant physical working environment• conflict about the exclusive use of the • tearoom original research van der waal & uys sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 23 2 (page number not for citation purposes) 142 vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 7 racial caste stratification was found in the fact that only white people and one coloured person were supervisors and that the use of three separate tearooms underlined the separateness of the racial categories. some of the ideas generated in the ngt groups reflected the needs of the specific groups. group 1, for instance, had a problem with a lack of tools, which led to continuous negative interaction with their supervisor. similarly, participants in group 3 had a need for a telephone in order to organise their work more effectively. members of this group were also very frustrated about the lack of rules about private work that was allowed for the supervisors but seemingly not for the workers. group 4, again, experienced resistance by the workers to the problems in the section as ‘poor attitude to work’ and as a problem with ‘discipline and intimidation’, reflecting their position as supervisors. it is clear, then, that the perceptions, work situation and experiences of the members of each group very strongly influenced the way that problems were identified. particularly, there was a division between the supervisors (skilled labourers) and the workers in terms of the identification of the most pressing problem. on the other hand, there was consensus between the various groups in terms of their blaming of the human resource department and of management for some of their problems. this referred to unkept promises, the lack of training opportunities, problems with the structure of the posts in the section and a lack of interest by management in the conditions and problems in the section. discussion it is generally accepted that the ngt is a useful tool in facilitating employee contributions to improvements in their work situation (taffinder & viedge, 1987). this article illustrates that the technique can also be used successfully to explore employee perceptions of the causes of a lack of cooperation as a manifestation of social conflict in an employee relations context even when there is a high level of polarisation. the initial aim of the use of the ngt in this case was to get maximum participation by the people involved in the conflict situation, without the dominating influence of the leaders who were mobilising the participants. it is important in employee relations disputes that the issues are identified properly and that those involved participate in working towards possible solutions. in terms of the results that were obtained, the ngt intervention was very successful. the facilitators were able to draw conclusions about the causes of the conflict, as the views of four separate focus groups complemented and corroborated each other, and to present these to the management of the institution as well as to the section as a whole. however, a word of caution is needed. the ngt should not be used as a solitary technique to negotiate or resolve conflict, as the developers of the technique have also indicated (delbecq et al., 1975). the facilitators employed other methods as well in order to gather information (mainly interviews and the study of documents) and to work towards resolving the conflict situation (a daylong workshop for the whole section). in hindsight, it was a wise decision to use the ngt, as it emerged during the intense emotional interaction at the workshop exactly how much conflict potential existed in the section. less structured focus groups, where dominant individuals could exert more pressure, would have led to less open interaction and airing of ideas than was possible with the ngt. the ngt, therefore, can be used in a labour relations conflict situation, not to mediate in a conflict situation, but to identify problems and their possible solutions. what is especially attractive about the ngt is its focus on the ‘consumer’ rather than the ‘producer’, by encouraging participants to use their own categories (lomax & mcleman, 1984). the ngt is a technique that fits in with the anthropological approach to a problem, namely to understand a situation from the emic viewpoint of the people concerned. one would therefore also not attempt to claim that the results of the ngt are totally objective. the ngt succeeds in producing a list of issues (causes of conflict and lack of co-operation in this case study) as seen and formulated by ‘consumers’, which they rank in a priority order. it should, however, not be assumed that consensus exists within a group about these issues, even though the technique is sometimes known as a formal consensus method (chapple & murphy, 1996; lomax & mcleman, 1984; moore, 1987). some seem to doubt the non-consensual nature of ngt results: the debate revolves around the degree to which group dynamics influence the ngt process; essentially, whether the outcomes of a group in which interaction and group dynamics are controlled can be equated with those of a freely interacting one. (lloyd-jones et al., 1999, pp. 11–12) the authors maintain that the views raised during the ngt process still represented the ideas of individual participants, which cannot be seen as the consensus of the group as a whole. the authors therefore agree with lomax and mcleman when they claim the following: the problem is that decisions in interacting groups are made in interaction and are influenced by dominant, influential group members. removing group pressure is not conducive to reflecting reality. … removing conformity pressures in a group situation not only fails to reflect reality, it ignores the very basis upon which group life is sustained. (lomax & mcleman 1984, p. 190) this also explains the difference between the relatively relaxed atmosphere during the ngt group discussions and the intense emotional outpourings during the workshop in which all the members of the section participated. in the specific situation that is reported here, the ngt was used in diverse groups in terms of the status of the groups and their levels of education. some of the participants were totally illiterate and unable to express themselves in english or afrikaans, whereas others had technical training certificates and could express themselves very effectively in english or afrikaans. despite this difference, and despite some authors claiming that the ngt needs participants who can write (oosthuizen, 1991), the authors’ experience confirmed that the ngt can be used with groups from any socioeconomic level or background, as also stated in parker (1975). the technique was developed to involve marginalised people in the context of community development. the developers of the technique reported enthusiasm among disadvantaged people about the technique, despite the need for assistance with the phrasing of ideas (delbecq et al., 1975). the facilitators in this case study found that there was a need for translation in the groups as well as a need for assistance with the recording of ideas by those participants who were illiterate. problems were experienced in ensuring silence during the parts of the ngt process where participants were supposed to work as individuals, but this may have been more a function of the tension in the work situation of the employees, rather than of the socioeconomic background of the participants. the facilitators did modify the ngt to some extent to fit the situation in which they were using it, especially in terms of simplifying the voting procedure, as discussed above. lastly, what more did the authors learn from the use of the ngt in this situation that they would like to share with potential users of the technique in similar situations? in the first place, more documentation on the process in the form of audiotapes or videotapes would have been very useful. for their final analysis, the facilitators had to rely on notes that were taken during the ngt discussions, while simultaneously facilitating the process. although taped recordings of the proceedings would have been intrusive and possibly inhibiting, they would have been invaluable for the analysis since they would have provided verbatim records of the interaction during the ngt focus group discussions. secondly, having used the ngt successfully for a very limited part of the process, it appears that it would have been possible to extend the use of the technique s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #232 (page number not for citation purposes) applying the nominal group technique in an employment relations conflict situation 143vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 7 to other parts, as suggested by delbecq and van de ven (1971). for instance, further rounds of focus group discussions in the form of an ngt process could have worked well with more senior staff members of the institution, e.g. representatives from management and the human resource department. whether the greater use of the ngt would have led to a different result of the intervention as a whole is an open question. the use of the ngt enabled the facilitators to identify certain key issues in the operation of the section that needed to be explored during the workshop. these included a lack of clarity with regard to the post structure of and insufficient staff provision to the section, training needs, inadequate involvement of senior management in the affairs of the section, insufficient opportunities for open communication and mutual decision making, segregated use of facilities by workers and supervisors and the possible redeployment of certain senior staff members. the impact of the results from the focus group discussions on the structuring of the workshop was such that some clearing of the air was achieved. this encouraged the creation of an atmosphere of co-operation that laid the ground work for reconciliation between the various participants in the section. the ngt procedure enabled the facilitators to present results and recommendations to management that were strongly convincing due to the structured research technique that was followed. at a meeting of all the workers in the section with the vice-chancellor, union leaders and representatives from the human resource department, the facilitators could report on the progress with the process and the need for implementing the proposals contained in their report. the authors ascribe the implementation of most of their proposals by management partly to the use of the ngt. conclusion the use of the ngt in a relatively unusual setting, that of employment relations in a university non-academic section, was discussed in this article. the ngt was found to be a useful technique, after some adaptations had been made based on the local setting and the capacities of the participants. although the ngt was used to identify the causes of the employment relations conflict situation that was investigated, the technique was not designed for conflict resolution, nor do the authors recommend its use for that purpose. the ngt is, however, based on very sound insight into the social dynamics of group settings and proved its usefulness in a context of tense interpersonal relations. on the basis of the experience reported in this article, the authors recommend that the ngt be considered for use in settings where it is important to elicit the views of all participants, including in employment relations contexts. references anstey, m. (2002). managing change: negotiating conflict. lansdowne: juta. bendix, s. (1996). industrial relations in the new south africa. kenwyn: juta. buhlungu, s., & webster, e. (2006). work restructuring and the future of labour in south africa. in s. buhlungu, j. daniel, r. southall & j. lutchman (eds.), state of the nation: south africa 2005–2006, pp. 248–269. pretoria: hsrc press. bunker, b.b., & rubin, j.z. (eds.). (1995). conflict, cooperation and justice: essays inspired by the work of morton deutsch. san francisco: jossey-bass. center for rural studies. university of vermont. (1998). guidelines for using the nominal group technique. retrieved march 17, 2005, from http://crs.uvm.edu/gopher/nerl/ group/a/meet/exercise7/b.html chapple, m., & murphy, r. (1996). the nominal group technique: extending the evaluation of students’ teaching and learning experiences. assessment and evaluation in higher education, 21(2), 147–160. delbecq, a.l., & van de ven, a. (1971). a group process model for problem identification and program planning. journal of applied behavioral science, 7, 466–491. delbecq, a.l., van de ven, a.h., & gustafson, d.h. (1975). group techniques for program planning: a guide to nominal group and delphi processes. glenview: scott, foresman and company. deutsch, m. (1973). the resolution of conflict: constructive and destructive processes. new haven: yale university press. du toit, d., woolfrey, d., murphy, j., godfrey, s., bosch, d., & christie, s. (1998). the labour relations act of 1995. durban: butterworths. edwards, p.k. (1986). conflict at work: a materialist analysis of workplace relations. oxford: basil blackwell. gepson, j., martinko, m.j., & belina, j. (1981). nominal group techniques. training and development journal, september, 78–83. kriesberg, l. (2003). constructive conflicts: from escalation to resolution. lanham: rowman & littlefield. langan-fox, j., cooper, c.l., & klimoski, r.j. (2007). research companion to the dysfunctional workplace: management challenges and symptoms. cheltenham: edward elgar. lloyd-jones, g., fowell, s., & bligh, j.g. (1999). the use of the nominal group technique as an evaluative tool in medical undergraduate education. medical education, 33, 8–13. lomax, p., & mcleman, p. (1984). the uses and abuses of nominal group technique in polytechnic course evaluation. studies in higher education, 9(2), 183–190. macphail, a. (2001). nominal group technique: a useful method for working with young people. british educational research journal, 27(2), 161–170. moleke, p. (2006). the state of labour market deracialisation. in s. buhlungu, j. daniel, r. southall & j. lutchman (eds.), state of the nation: south africa 2005–2006, pp. 202–222. pretoria: hsrc press. moore, c.m. (1987). group techniques for idea building. newbury park: sage. nelson, d.l., & quick, j.c. (eds.). (2003). organizational behaviour: foundations, realities and challenges. mason: south-western. oosthuizen, j.h. (1991). die ontwikkeling van ’n besluitnemingsmodel vir bestuursdoeleindes. unpublished master’s thesis, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. parker, a.w. (1975). introduction. in a.l. delbecq, a.h. van de ven & d.h. gustafson (eds.), group techniques for program planning: a guide to nominal and delphi processes. glenview: scott, foresman and company. rahim, m.a. (1986). managing conflict in organizations. new york: praeger. robbins, s.p. (2003). organizational behaviour. upper saddle river: prentice hall. skibbe, a. (1986). assessing campus needs with nominal groups. journal of counseling and development, 64, 532–533. swanepoel, b.j. (1998). employment relations policy. in j.a. slabbert, j.j. prinsloo, w. backer & b.j. swanepoel (eds.), managing employment relations in south africa. durban: butterworth. taffinder, p.a., & viedge, c. (1987). the nominal group technique: standing alone in group problem solving. productivity south africa, 13(6), 34–38. van aarde, m.c., & nieumeijer, l.j. (1998). conflict management. in j.a. slabbert, j.j. prinsloo, w. backer & b.j. swanepoel (eds.), managing employment relations in south africa. durban: butterworth. viedge, c. (1988). the nominal group technique: a structured approach to problem-solving for small groups. facilitator’s manual [unpublished document]. the training channel. abstract introduction literature review research method findings discussion practical implications limitations and recommendations recommendations for practice conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) anoziva c. gumbie department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa nelesh dhanpat department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa renjini m. joseph department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation gumbie, a.c., dhanpat, n., & joseph, r.m. (2023). perspectives of human resource practitioners in two urban local authorities in zimbabwe. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2188. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2188 original research perspectives of human resource practitioners in two urban local authorities in zimbabwe anoziva c. gumbie, nelesh dhanpat, renjini m. joseph received: 21 nov. 2022; accepted: 14 mar. 2023; published: 04 may 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: this study examines the experiences of human resource (hr) practitioners in two urban local authorities (ulas) in zimbabwe. research purpose: the research aimed to understand the human resource management (hrm)-oriented strategies and the extent to which hr practitioners’ experiences could enable effective implementation. motivation for the study: there is a need to understand the challenges hr practitioners in ulas in zimbabwe face in delivering effective hrm. research approach/design and method: the study adopted a qualitative research approach using semi-structured interviews with 17 purposively selected hr practitioners. thematic analysis was used to extract themes from the interviews. main findings: the findings revealed five themes of hrm challenges in zimbabwean ulas, including political interference, resource constraints, bureaucracy and the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19). human resource management delivery is hindered by stakeholder involvement, performance management gaps, technology gaps and limited interaction with line management. additionally, traditional hrm approaches committee-focused procedures, and inadequate investment in employee education limit hrm capabilities and procedures. practical/managerial implications: the study suggests that policymakers and hr practitioners in ulas in zimbabwe should pay attention to the identified hrm challenges and proposed solutions to enhance hrm delivery and hr performance. the proposed conceptual model can serve as a guide to overcoming hrm challenges. contribution/value-add: this study adds to the limited research on public sector hrm in africa, and stakeholders and hr practitioners can benefit from the conceptual model and recommendations for streamlining hrm procedures in ulas in zimbabwe. keywords: urban local authority; human resource management; hr practitioners; lived experience; public sector; zimbabwe. introduction policymakers and stakeholders have embarked on varying human resource management (hrm)-oriented strategies, such as performance-based bonus, to improve employee performance and public sector services (bradley, 2019; poperwi, 2018). subsequently, to achieve organisational objectives and to enhance performance in urban local authorities (ulas) in zimbabwe, researchers have recommended linking hrm objectives and organisational objectives (muchadenyika, 2014; poperwi, 2018). the government of zimbabwe introduced the integrated results-based management (irbm) programme (zvavahera, 2014) in 2005 to improve the performance and service delivery of human resources (hrs) in the public sector (chikwariro, bussin & de braine, 2021). nevertheless, subsequent improvement in the performance of hrs was slow, with the major reason suggested as being the lack of alignment between organisational and hrm objectives (ngwenyama, 2014; sixpence, 2021). other findings showed that employee performance had no link to salaries and benefits, which lowered job satisfaction and institutional performance (ngwenyama, 2014; sixpence, 2021). also, poperwi’s (2018) study expressed concern that implementing the irbm system was counterproductive because it concentrated on hrm at the expense of broader service delivery issues. however, there is no documentation of the knowledge of hr practitioners on the existing gaps between employee performance and their salaries and benefits. in addition, the lived experiences and the opinions of hr practitioners on their role, if any, in the implementation of the irbm system were not discussed (ngwenyama, 2014; poperwi, 2018). such experiences may affect their understanding of the barriers they face in fulfilling their roles and how they solve them. purpose the purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of hr practitioners in fulfilling their roles in ulas in zimbabwe, focusing on confronting the challenges that prevent them from fulfilling their roles. attempts to enhance ula performance and their achievement of objectives through people-oriented strategies have proven futile (ngwenyama, 2014; poperwi, 2018). however, the perspectives of hr practitioners in ulas in zimbabwe on what they think are the hindrances to fulfilling their roles were undetermined despite the implication of hrm as a crucial factor in improving ulas’ performance and their achievement of objectives. the broad objective of this study is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the lived experiences of hr practitioners in ulas in zimbabwe, with a focus on the hindrances that prevent them from fulfilling their roles. this includes exploring their perspectives on their roles and identifying the specific challenges they face in carrying out their duties. ultimately, the objective is to generate practical suggestions for overcoming these hindrances and improving the effectiveness of hr practitioners in ulas in zimbabwe. literature review across organisations in the corporate and public sectors alike, hrs are considered the backbone, contributing to the organisation’s competitive advantage (leisink et al., 2021). to usher more clarity on hrm and the hrm-public sector relationship, this section will discuss local authorities, hrm theory, role of hr practitioners, hrm delivery and hrm challenges. local authorities as important institutions in a country’s local government system, local authorities are characterised by their mandate to provide various obligatory services that affect the quality of life of people living in their area of jurisdiction (galang & osman, 2016; sixpence, 2021). cloete (2016) maintained that an effective local authority promotes various socio-economic development efforts towards sustainable community development. human resource management in effective local authorities effective local authorities have a high-performance team culture and actively encourage employees to contribute to this culture (garavan et al., 2019; nyauchi & jagero, 2014). these work teams obtain a better understanding of departmental goals owing to their involvement in the planning processes (nyauchi & jagero, 2014). also, successful local authorities adopt a progressive relationship between their hrm and trade unions. in their role as agents, trade unions may increase the effectiveness of hrm on employee well-being and performance through the enforcement and monitoring of employment contracts (meardi et al., 2021). besides these hrm instruments (teamworking and positive hrm-trade union relationship), there is a need for clarity regarding hrm theory and the roles of hrm in the public sector. role of human resource practitioners in the public sector training and development a vital role of hr departments in public institutions is to provide employee training and development opportunities (knies et al., 2022). for practical training and development to occur in local authorities, hr practitioners must initially identify operational needs based on their current resources and staff (nyauchi & jagero, 2014). in this changing digital world, progressive city councils implement media-based training programmes that ensure stakeholder satisfaction (bradley, 2019). strategic partnership in their role as strategic partners, hr practitioners should proactively recruit talented individuals who add value to the local authority’s short-, mediumand long-term activities (poperwi, 2018). to strengthen recruitment practices, thistlethwaite et al. (2019) suggested formulating a workforce plan that integrates specific activities. these activities involve talent inventories to analyse the available skills, action plans to increase qualified employees, thorough selection and onboarding programmes, workforce forecasting to enable the prediction of future personnel needs and control and evaluation to monitor the achievement of goals and provide feedback (thistlethwaite et al., 2019). while there are several other roles played by hr, this section discusses some primary roles of concern to this study. nevertheless, there may be differences between the design and the practice of hrm. thus, the next section will bridge the gap by discussing the delivery of hrm in various organisations. human resource management delivery human resource information system human resource information system (hris) refers to an information system utilised to record, analyse and manage hr-related data (andry & chakir, 2020). global organisations have increased interest in hris driven by external trends, such as slow financial growth and the emergence of sophisticated competition that employs advanced technologies (bilgic, 2020; bradley, 2019). comprehensive implementation of hris integrates hr knowledge and technological skills for the enhancement of personnel services, ultimately enabling hr practitioners to become complete business partners (bradley, 2019). accordingly, informative models such as the one proposed by dhanpat et al. (2020) may assist hr practitioners to focus on technology-related competencies and better navigate their role in industry 4.0. strategic management strategic management involves setting organisational objectives, analysing the internal organisation, analysing the external environment and evaluating the current strategy (hejase et al., 2016). as a means of hrm delivery, strategic management effectively enables hr practitioners to encourage management support and promote planned personnel activities (poperwi, 2018). more specifically, to benefit strategic management, the hrm department in public institutions should assist heads of policy in their oversight role (brunetto & beattie, 2020). performance management performance management (pm) is the integration of employee contribution with the organisations’ strategic goals. in a well-managed institution, a performance management system (pms) is designed to hold management accountable for implementing the organisation’s values (meyer, 2017). it follows that the government of zimbabwe’s implementation of the irbm system (sixpence, 2021) intended to produce accountability for performance outcomes and to realise exceptional service in zimbabwe’s local authorities. however, the status of the implementation of the pms in relation to hrm and hr practitioners is unknown. it is important to note that some hrm strategies are challenging to implement in large, complex institutions such as the government as organisational stakeholders may want different processes and be pulling in different directions (maatman & meijerink, 2017). human resource management challenges government regulations often, government regulations restrict the ability of an organisation to exercise autonomous hrm (ahmed & dantata, 2016). for instance, government legislation can, at any time, affect an organisation’s labour force policy through the gazetting of minimum compensation and stipulation of working hours (galang & osman, 2016). such regulations significantly impact an organisation’s productivity, the cost of labour and employee satisfaction. therefore, organisations are expected to align their hr policies with organisational objectives while promoting social justice and employment equity (knies et al., 2022). lack of top management support numerous executives in large institutions regard the hr function solely as a support function without strategic importance, which can be overlooked when formulating the firm’s strategy (gasela, 2021). subsequently, hr practitioners tend to ‘administer’ hr rather than strategically manage it, focusing exclusively on transactional activities and neglecting transformational activities (yusliza et al., 2019). furthermore, hrm departments struggle to make colleagues and top management acknowledge the value of hr operations (rogozinska-pawelczyk & gadomska-lila, 2022). thus, to earn executive support, hr practitioners can highlight the reduced costs and low turnaround time achieved through the implementation of hris in payroll operations (bradley, 2019). human resource management challenges in the public sector bureaucracy bureaucracy refers to a complicated operational procedure characterised by multi-layered systems, strict chains of command and predefined channels for decision-making (malay & fairholm, 2020). owing to this operational procedure, hr and line managers experience numerous rules and do not have discretionary powers (mcdonnell, 2017). the lack of such discretionary powers limits the scope of roles hr departments can perform. for instance, extended waiting periods when dealing with employee issues reduce trust in the ability of employee champions. corruption corruption represents a law-breaking vehicle that demonstrates greed and complete disregard for ethics while destroying an organisation’s internal functions (saha & sen, 2021). the efficiency of an organisation is affected by the possibility of external corruption when key individuals are corrupt, and internal corruption when the organisation’s procurement processes are abused (jancsics, 2019). in the first instance, practices such as recruitment and selection may suffer the most as personnel will be recruited based on individual interests. in the second instance, training and outsourcing initiatives may be compromised as the selection of vendors is motivated by financial favours (jancsics, 2019). political interference political interference has a profound negative influence on effective hrm, distorting public-sector organisations’ functions and their ability to maintain efficiency (ahmed & dantata, 2016). some politicians in local government deliberately slow down institutional operations and perpetuate a continual culture of public-office abuse in the name of service to the party (mapuva & takabika, 2020). the associated problems include cadre deployment, incompetent staff and gross corruption (makapela & mtshelwane, 2021). technology gap noviyanti et al. (2019) argued that public-sector employees do not receive adequate training on the use of technology, and their interaction with its tools is not measured against performance. it can be assumed that the implementation and competencies concerning technology realise slow improvement owing to the prevailing absence of performance measurement and reporting, which is necessary for analysing faults and feedback. accordingly, this technology knowledge gap hinders hr practitioners’ role as change agents on account of lacking the competencies that effectively lead public organisations towards industry 4.0 (joseph, thomas & abbot, 2021; noviyanti et al., 2019). research method research approach this study followed a qualitative research approach, which proved valuable in investigating the lived experiences of hr practitioners. this approach was deemed suitable as it allowed for investigating the phenomenon from different perspectives, finding out what is taking place and pursuing new insights (quick & hall, 2015). this study employed a phenomenological research strategy. phenomenology outlines the researcher’s effort to understand and describe occurrences as experienced by people who lived through them (swanson & wojnar, 2004). accordingly, great emphasis was placed on gaining knowledge from the lived experiences of the hr practitioners themselves. research philosophy this study adopted an interpretivist research philosophy. the study emphasises two assumptions, namely, ontology and epistemology, which guided the investigation of the lived experiences harboured by hr practitioners in ulas, the challenges they face when fulfilling their roles and establishing ways to overcome these challenges. population and sample the sample consisted of 17 hr practitioners working in the two ulas in zimbabwe that accepted to participate in the study. these two ulas provided convenient access to an adequate number of hr practitioners from which to obtain a sample of participants. purposive sampling was used to reach participants from varying job roles to discover the lived experiences of public-sector hr practitioners at different stages of their careers. a total of 17 participants were interviewed using semi-structured interviews to gain insight into their experiences. saturation was reached at the 14th participant onwards, indicating that new data were no longer being generated. the sample comprised two top managers, six senior managers, three middle managers, three hr generalists (operational) and three entry-level hr clerks. table 1 shows the full participant profile. to validate the findings and ensure that data saturation had indeed been achieved, the researcher considered interviewing three additional participants. however, after conducting the 17th interview, it was confirmed that no new information was being generated, and data saturation had indeed been achieved. as such, the sample size of 17 was deemed sufficient for the study, as data saturation had been achieved, and further data collection would not have contributed to the findings. table 1: participant profile. research instrument semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. this strategy allowed the researcher to gain an understanding of the lived experiences of hr practitioners in fulfilling their roles, to identify the hindrances they face and to detail their views on ways in which the hindrances could be overcome. a consistent interview guide was used for all participants thereby sustaining dependability of the study. questions such as ‘what are the hindrances you face in fulfilling your role in the workplace?’ and ‘please describe how you conduct hrm procedures in your role’ were posed to participants. probing questions were used to clarify participant responses. data collection gatekeepers of the organisations provided a list of departmental heads and employees within the hr division, to whom interview invitations were sent. interviews were conducted in an environment chosen by participants, where they were comfortable sharing their ideas, which proved conducive to forthright discussion and feelings of security. zimbabwe was under level 3 lockdown at the time of the interviews, which prompted strict adherence to coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) protocols. face-to-face interviews enabled the researcher to observe the participants’ nonverbal behaviour and other potentially valuable information for the study (van zyl, 2014). each interview lasted for an average of 45 min with the longest lasting 65 min. some interviews were affected by changes in covid-19 protocols and were rescheduled for a mutually agreed-upon date. participant responses were audio recorded and manually captured through the use of field notes. data analysis and interpretation braun and clarke’s (2006) six-phase approach to thematic analysis was used to identify themes and analyse the data. the six phases followed were (1) familiarising oneself with one’s data, (2) generating initial codes, (3) searching for themes, (4) reviewing themes, (5) defining and naming themes and (6) producing the report (braun & clarke, 2006). the researcher was aware of the complexity of thematic analysis and conducted each phase of the process diligently. ensuring data quality trustworthiness was ensured through lincoln and guba’s (1985) criteria of credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. credibility entails to what extent research instruments can measure what they are supposed to measure (kramar, 2014). dependability is achieved when a different researcher applies the same research techniques and obtains the same research findings (shenton, 2004). credibility and dependability were achieved in the present study by using a consistent interview guide, which maintained the accuracy and consistency of the information being sought. transferability relates to qualitative research findings’ being applicable in another setting, despite different beliefs that researchers may have (creswell & poth, 2017). in the present study, transferability was achieved by retrieving data from two different organisations with different groups of individuals. confirmability is defined as scientific objectivity related to applying qualitative research techniques, which do not prioritise individual perception (bricki & green, 2007). confirmability was ensured in this study by presenting outcomes that resulted from participants’ thoughts and understandings instead of inclinations of the researcher’s own. ethical considerations research ethics exist primarily to guide the researcher’s conduct and protect participants’ rights, well-being and dignity, regardless of any setbacks or expenses it may present to the study (quick & hall, 2015). the researcher informed ula gatekeepers and participants of the study objectives in advance. all interviews were conducted after receiving ethical clearance (ethical clearance number: 2020-413[m]) from the university of johannesburg department of industrial psychology and people management’s research ethics committee. consent for interview participation was requested from participants on an entirely voluntary basis. also, files containing participant information and responses were anonymised by assigning pseudonyms to participants to enhance confidentiality and protect the identity of participants. all participants were informed that the interviews were audio-recorded for the purposes of the research. appropriate referencing techniques will be utilised to credit any information that does not belong to the researcher. findings the purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of hr practitioners in fulfilling their roles in ulas in zimbabwe, focusing on confronting the challenges that prevent them from fulfilling their roles. five major themes and a number of sub-themes were identified as essential issues in ulas in zimbabwe through an inductive process of thematic analysis. the major themes were: (1) hrm challenges, (2) hrm delivery and line management support, (3) hrm capabilities and procedures in ulas in zimbabwe, (4) employee perceptions of hrm in ulas and (5) measures to overcome hrm challenges. the themes are listed in table 2 according to which came up the most to which came up the least. table 2: summary of themes. theme 1: human resource management challenges the findings related to hrm challenges incorporated four sub-themes, namely, lack of resources, political interference, bureaucracy and covid-19. lack of resources lack of resources was identified as a common concern in both ulas, spanning from shortages in stationery, fuel and technology. participants stated the following: ‘we don’t have the computers or electronic systems to do administration … like now other people use hrm systems to put leave forms … we are still doing everything from files.’ (participant 9/ula 2/middle management) ‘we don’t have internet and computers. we need these things … because we do paperwork every day.’ (participant 15/ula 2/entry-level) ‘[m]y desktop is very slow; i don’t even use it. i use my personal tablet for council business … what it means is when i go, i will go with the council information.’ (participant 10/ula 1/middle management) political interference political interference seemed to be a major hindrance to the success of hrm initiatives because it affected decision-making within ulas in zimbabwe as these comments serve to confirm: ‘councillors, by virtue of being like a board of directors … there is political interference during recruitment … they will be saying, “oh maybe … put this guy.” when it’s higher posts … they can decide before the interview that we will give a certain person higher marks.’ (participant 3/ula 2/senior management) ‘sometimes you don’t agree with city councillors and as the executive they wait for when you also want something, and they decline. it becomes a tit-for-tat … it is as if there is a division between elected officials and those appointed.’ (participant 1/ula 1/top management) ‘when recruiting casual employees, councillors want to put people from their wards. at the same time, we have our parent ministry, local government, they say … take people from labour [department] … the moment i want to take people from there, the councillors complain, and they see that if they don’t put people from their wards, they are losing political mileage.’ (participant 2/ula 2/top management) bureaucracy here, participants could not seamlessly deliver their duties, were compromised on time, and, in some instances, employees suffered delays in filing injury claims. exhibits of participants explaining their experiences are given below: ‘[t]raining officers generate reports, i check, it goes to my superior and he also checks … then … it goes to the director’s office, and he signs … from there it goes to the finance director’s office and gets signed and then it goes to the town clerk’s office for signature again … from the person who prepared it to me to the people signing there is no value addition … its wasting time for mahala [nothing].’ (participant 5/ula 1/senior management) ‘[i]f you are injured … report to your immediate supervisor … some supervisors by just having ignorance … they just don’t report their subordinate’s case … you even dig out the information … and then you see the supervisor just filled in a report on their department and keeps quiet. because of the structures, i can’t just go there, there [are] rules for reporting it.’ (participant 9/ula 2/middle management) ‘[w]hen i write a letter today and i sign it and the manager signs it … because of bureaucracy, it can just sit here … it can even sit at the directors’ because he doesn’t want people to go [for a workshop]. the meeting will even pass, the council hr central meeting … they are the ones who approve everything. if it passes … the person won’t go … you won’t go because of delaying tactics.’ (participant 4/ula 1/senior management) coronavirus disease 2019 some participants noted how the pandemic negatively affected their work as shown in the following quotations: ‘especially now with covid, it’s not everybody in the office so it’s hard to share resources.’ (participant 14/ula 2/operational level) ‘[w]hen covid-19 started … we lost some time before our new entrants could appreciate the nitty-gritties of the job.’ (participant 1/ula 1/top management) theme 2: human resource management delivery and line management support the findings concerned with hrm delivery and line management support included three sub-themes, namely, technology gap, stakeholder involvement and disengaged pm. technology gap this sub-theme describes the technological shortcomings hr practitioners experience while attempting to deliver hrm within ulas. participants explained: ‘[w]e have internet, but it does not work well. you might have it … but the person you are interacting with might not … when you want to do webinars and virtual meetings … we struggle to all be available because of connectivity issues.’ (participant 11/ula 1/middle management) ‘we use this other system called proman and proman is just confusing, we don’t have enough training … because you don’t have enough training … you just go back to the paperwork you are used to.’ (participant 9/ula 2/middle management) stakeholder involvement participants explained that there are stakeholders to consider when delivering hrm in ulas, namely, government, councillors, town clerks, the mayor and top management. participant 6 (ula 1/senior management) explained, ‘everything we do has to go through the town clerk and council and get agreed. our executive has both top managers and councillors to help run the local authority’, and participant 2 (ula 2/top management) added, ‘at the same time, we have our parent ministry, local government’. participant 5 stated a unique point that in some instances, they use their legal acumen and experience in ulas to overcome hurdles that may hinder or slow down hrm delivery and decision-making. her contribution was: ‘[i]f you bring your request just after the committee has sat it means you wait for a month for the next one. we end up doing shortcuts … that the person goes before council sits, because some of these things will be time sensitive and we can’t wait a month.’ (participant 5/ula 1/senior management) gaps in performance management this sub-theme highlights participant experiences regarding the existence of gaps in pm. participants stated: ‘[w]e are using irbm management, but it has been implemented at executive only … so they were supposed to be on performance bonus … there has been a lot of resistance from the executive to implement it.’ (participant 5/ula 1/senior management) ‘they do give feedback reports but not all. if i request feedback from a director, he doesn’t even have the time to give me …’ (participant 4/ula 1/senior management) some participants pointed out that irbm is difficult to grasp and implement. participant 2 (ula 1/top management) stated, ‘yes irbm, it’s there. irbm is difficult and the model we are using is a bit complicated’. selective interaction with line management a fourth sub-theme elaborated on the status of participant interaction with line managers in their roles. participant accounts on the matter are presented below: ‘i give them [line managers] support when they have issues for management. i supervise some of them … we have job grades that are just the same but sometimes the experience and duties are different.’ (participant 6/ula 1/senior management) ‘they come to me when they need help with employment relations and i go to them when i need help in their different departments. just here and there.’ (participant 11/ula 1/middle management) theme 3: human resource management capabilities and procedures in urban local authorities in zimbabwe the findings related to this theme incorporated two sub-themes, namely, traditional hrm approach and committee-focused hrm procedures. traditional human resource management approach this sub-theme presented a notable set of traditional hrm activities fulfilled by hr practitioners involved in this study. participant 2 (ula 2/top management) listed the duties considered standard for an hr practitioner: ‘recruitment and selection, labour relations, industrial relations, salary administration, counselling employees, training and development … pension claims, nssa claims’, while participant 7 (ula 1/senior management) added ‘supervising people in the department, creating human capital reports, drafting needs analysis, monitoring administration requirements in the department, [and] employee welfare’ to this list. participant 11 concurred with the existence of similar hr processes stating, ‘everyone here is from hr no matter which department, the division is the same, so you follow the same process’ (participant 11/ula 1/middle management). committee-based human resource management procedures this sub-theme highlights the distinct focus on the use of committees in conducting hrm procedures. ‘decisions in a local authority work through committees which makes plans harder to make than it seems because there are timelines and meetings to follow’, stated participant 7 (ula 1/senior management): ‘[w]e use workers committees … let’s say we are having policy formulation … workers’ committee take these policies to the employees and also bring employee grievances.’ (participant 9/ula 2/middle management) theme 4: employee perceptions of human resource management in urban local authorities the findings related to employee perceptions of hrm in ulas largely highlighted ‘low regard for hrm’ as a contentious issue that affected hr practitioners’ execution of duties. low regard for human resource management this sub-theme outlined how hrm is not prioritised in the organisation, and the department receives low recognition: ‘[r]espect in local authority is very low … some employees view hr as small … they want to voice their control because they have political presence … the environment is not conducive for professionals. like even a car … if you go to any private company, you won’t find an hr manager walking.’ (participant 2/ula 2/top management) participant 2 expressed strong feelings for this matter, especially indicated by his comparison of hrm professionals in the private and public sectors. in addition, the participant demonstrated his disappointment using gestures and sighing. the researcher gained first-hand observations from the face-to-face interview, which added practically to the richness of the findings. theme 5: measures to overcome human resource management challenges the findings relating to measures to overcome hrm challenges incorporated three sub-themes, namely, an improved reward system, increased oversight and efficient approaches to technology. improved reward system participants believed that improving rewards would significantly motivate employees to perform better with their current resources as proposed in the following comments: ‘employees should be incentivised for bettering their skills. they have the mentality … “if i get another qualification, i should get an allowance,” but it doesn’t happen that way here ….’ (participant 8/ula 1/senior management) ‘there are no rewards when you do your job … but you must be rewarded. the same things apply to everyone, whether you are in hr or anywhere else, everyone should be rewarded. that’s the first motivation, reward.’ (participant 4/ula 1/senior management) participant 9 (ula 2/middle management) simply stated: ‘people go because of small pay, we should fix that’. improved stakeholder oversight some participants stated that increasing the level of stakeholder oversight in ulas would ease the challenges they encountered. below are some of the statements in support of this claim: ‘we should have ministerial interventions to protect local authorities because if these things are not done, these guys will run down the council.’ (participant 3/ula 2/senior management) ‘we need support from government to put laws that improve the policies in local authorities.’ (participant 1/ula 1/top management) efficient approaches to technology some participants noted the need to improve the organisation’s approach to technology to realise the potential of hrm, as noted by the participants: ‘… the manual challenge, maybe it’s about innovation, we should go totally paperless, we should go green because there are a lot of files’. opined participant 6 (ula 1/senior management). ‘our admin should be electronic, we should be having computers to write minutes properly and to keep records on google drive’, suggested participant 12 (ula 2/operational level), while participant 17 (ula 1/entry level) stated, ‘… they should just give every office a computer and the printer because most of the work needs me to print things and file them’. discussion theme 1: human resource management challenges despite the extensive challenges found in both ulas, the findings suggested four sub-themes related to hrm challenges, namely, political interference, lack of resources, bureaucracy and covid-19. the challenge of political interference profoundly affects hrm in ulas as it promotes cadre deployment, distorts hrm procedures and cripples decision-making (ahmed & dantata, 2016; mapuva & takabika, 2020). the findings of this research confirm that the lack of technological tools poses an information-security risk as employees can store confidential information on their personal device, which creates the potential for sharing of sensitive information and fraud. the research findings highlight that bureaucracy reduces the discretionary power of hr practitioners and causes extended delays in dealing with employee issues (mcdonnell, 2017). lastly, the covid-19 pandemic invoked anxiety among professionals and exacerbated already-existing hrm challenges, in particular, regarding deficiencies in technology (coombs, 2020). therefore, decision-makers in ulas in zimbabwe should consider engaging hr practitioners on how to effectively apply the measures to overcome hrm challenges suggested in this study as they may imply demoralised employees and unrealised organisational goals. theme 2: human resource management delivery and line management support human resource is delivered through the hr function, hr’s architecture of systems and information and communications technology (ict), which line managers aim to support (surette et al., 2018). the findings suggest four sub-themes, namely, stakeholder involvement, pm gaps, technology gaps and selective interaction with line management. the present study’s findings outlined that the implementation of hr policies is a challenge as ula stakeholders usually pull in different directions (maatman & meijerink, 2017). consequently, stakeholder considerations involved in hr decisions can be restrictive and contradictory in a way that delays hrm delivery in ulas. therefore, the findings indicated that hrm delivery in the present study is articulated by the harvard model as the perception, direction and overall mission for organisational performance are determined by the ula’s context (i.e. zimbabwean public sector) and its stakeholders (boselie et al., 2019). participants highlighted pm gaps as the irbm system is not fully utilised because of its technical and complicated nature. the value of hrm increases when technology is used to automate and swiftly complete administrative duties that would have otherwise been delayed by manual processes (bilgic, 2020). despite bilgic’s (2020) support for technology, participants still defaulted to using manual processes because of insufficient technological skills. participants also emphasised that there is limited interaction between line managers and the hr department, which delays employee requests, such as injury claims. dhanpat (2015) asserts the need to devolve hr capabilities to line managers. therefore, continual delays in addressing welfare matters weaken the employment relationship in ulas in zimbabwe. theme 3: human resource management capabilities and procedures in urban local authorities in zimbabwe human resource management capabilities and procedures are drivers of hrm in various organisations operating in any sector. the findings proposed two sub-themes, namely, traditional hrm approach and committee-focused hrm procedures. as corroborated by the findings, gasela (2021) and yusliza et al. (2019) stated that large institutions regard the hr function solely as a support function without strategic importance, which can be overlooked when formulating institutional strategy. moreover, the findings showed that hr practitioners were inclined to administer hr rather than strategically manage it, emphasising exclusively traditional activities and neglecting transformational activities (yusliza et al., 2019). also, the findings indicate that top management in ulas does not prioritise training programmes and is reluctant to invest in employee education, which indicates a fragmented approach to the hct (garavan et al., 2019; marginson, 2017). the findings, therefore, imply that the lack of shrm and the focus on traditional hrm will make the transformation from traditional hrm to shrm difficult in ulas in zimbabwe. the findings explained that committee-focused ula procedures necessitate organisation-wide consultation and regular involvement of employees in developing hr policies (knies et al., 2022). in contrast, management committees sometimes create bottlenecks that delay hrm procedures thereby driving hr practitioners to implement shortcuts to fulfil their objectives. thus, hr practitioners in the public sector should avoid unprocedural means of fulfilling hr duties as they are not a sustainable means of prolonged ula competitive advantage. theme 4: employee perceptions of human resource management in urban local authorities in zimbabwe in various instances, the value of hr operations in an organisation is dependent on the perceptions of top management and colleagues (rogozinska-pawelczyk & gadomska-lila, 2022). the findings linked to employee perceptions suggested one sub-theme, namely, the hr department is of limited importance and that hr practitioners are merely supporting staff. in the findings, participants in management roles categorically stated that hr initiatives are not viewed as priorities, rather as minuscule ‘issues’, and hr function heads are undermined, excluded from the board and operate predominantly in support roles (yusliza et al., 2019). therefore, hr practitioners experience limited respect, difficulties in communicating hrm programmes and incessant demotivation, which compromises the performance and quality of work produced by hr departments in ulas in zimbabwe. theme 5: measures to overcome human resource management challenges this theme presented participants’ opinions on what they believed were measures to overcome the prevailing hrm challenges. despite the numerous suggestions, the findings related to measures to overcome hrm challenges, including three sub-themes, namely, an improved reward system, increased stakeholder oversight and efficient approaches to technology. the findings proved that participants desired to receive economically sustainable salaries and impartial benefits for everyone, such as residential stands. consequently, an improved reward system will enable hr departments to champion hct, improve employee motivation and reduce employee turnover in ulas in zimbabwe (leisink et al., 2021; meardi et al., 2021). increased stakeholder oversight must prevail to combat some hrm challenges such as cadre deployment (makapela & mtshelwane, 2021). in addition, increasing hr managers’ autonomy implies an improved rules framework and a higher job grade for hr managers that deters stakeholders from abusing their power (mashamaite & lethoko, 2018). the findings of this study outlined that ulas require contemporary ict tools, reliable computers and suitable hrm software packages for hr practitioners to optimally fulfil their roles through hris (sari, 2016). furthermore, the covid-19 pandemic emphasised the need for more efficient approaches to technology in ulas as manual hr processes are obsolete in the face of unprecedented challenges such as pandemics. subsequently, the implication is that introducing efficient approaches to technology should be accompanied by the respective training to enhance the abilities and performance of hr practitioners in ulas in zimbabwe. practical implications findings from this study can be used to enhance the hr profession, both in general and with regard to ulas, more specifically to the practice of hr in zimbabwe. by dealing with the hr challenges arising from lack of resources, technological gaps and disengaged pm, ulas and their stakeholders can optimise the way that hr practitioners carry out their duties and improve personnel performance. further, understanding how key stakeholders, politics and bureaucracy affect hrm delivery in local authorities can provide insight to policymakers. such insight can aid in creating a consultative and robust legislative framework delineating stakeholders’ duties, roles and authority in ulas in zimbabwe. figure 1 shows a conceptual model outlining the reality of the lived experiences of hr practitioners in ulas in zimbabwe, encompassing the way in which they encounter their role, the hrm challenges they face and how to overcome them. the challenges are indicated as forces acting on the hr department from the left side of the diagram. bureaucracy and political interference are indicated as forces acting on the hr department from the top as they are primarily caused by stakeholders. possible solutions, namely, improved reward system, increased stakeholder oversight, efficient approaches to technology and training and development are still yet to be realised to overcome the depicted challenges. figure 1: conceptual model: addressing human resource management challenges affecting human resource practitioners in urban local authorities. limitations and recommendations although this study took a unique perspective on studying hrm by considering the actual lived experiences of hr practitioners, the information obtained was based on participants’ subjective views. probing questions aided in overcoming this limitation. the study was conducted in ulas in the public sector in zimbabwe. therefore, findings from the study cannot be generalised to other industries or the private sector and should be interpreted with caution. for future research, it is recommended that studies focus on the comparison of similarities and differences in hr practices in the public sector between zimbabwe and other southern african countries. also, future research could seek to replicate this study in different settings, for example, in other local authorities, a different country or with a larger sample size that includes all ulas in the chosen country. recommendations for practice it is recommended that decision-making in ulas should be decentralised. decentralisation and granting the hrm department a higher level of autonomy means that hr practitioners in ulas can fulfil their roles quicker, thereby creating capacity for time-demanding tasks such as monitoring and needs-assessment visits (mcdonnell, 2017). human resource management duties should undergo a digitisation programme where intranet networks are established to improve internal ula communication, while reliable internet connections should be provided to enable virtual work among hr practitioners and interaction with external stakeholders (bradley, 2019; sari, 2016). it is also recommended that ulas initiate an improved rewards system that includes opportunities for career development and economically sustainable remuneration and benefits across all job grades. an improved reward system, inclusive of the benefits mentioned by hr participants themselves, will motivate employees and reduce human capital turnover. furthermore, ulas should increase stakeholder oversight while operating under an enforced rules framework to deter them from abusing power (mashamaite & lethoko, 2018). more specifically, there should be a consultative and robust legislative framework delineating stakeholders’ duties, roles and authority in ulas in zimbabwe. this recommendation for practice can help solve the problems associated with stakeholder involvement and political interference. it is recommended that efforts must be made to build the hr function’s reputation as a contributor as there is an urgent need for the hr department to champion a more proactive and critical role within ulas, especially regarding the formulation, structure and implementation of organisational strategy (surette et al., 2018). in summary, advice from the hr function should be accepted and respected, regardless of whether it meets the preferences of a particular group of stakeholders. conclusion this study explored the lived experiences of hr practitioners in zimbabwe. it showed that although there is a potential for efficient hrm delivery in ulas, hr practitioners face multiple challenges, namely, technology gaps, lack of resources, political interference, disengaged pm, selective interaction with line management, bureaucracy, low regard for hrm and the threat of pandemics (covid-19). nevertheless, as presented in the conceptual model, the findings allude to the notion that if an improved rewards system, efficient approaches to technology, holistic training and development, and more stakeholder oversight were to exist, hrm delivery in ulas could become swift, more efficient and less complicated. in closing, initiating the recommendations for practice identified in this study will optimise the hr departments in ulas in zimbabwe. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exist. authors’ contributions n.d. supervised the study. r.j. co-supervised the study. a.g. was responsible for the initial writing, the collection and transcribing of data and data analysis. ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained from the ippm research ethics committee, university of johannesburg (ippm-2020-413[m]). funding information the research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references ahmed, i.k., & dantata, b.s. (2016). problems and challenges of policy implementation for national development. research on humanities and social sciences, 6(15), 60–64. retrieved from https://iiste.org/journals/index.php/rhss/article/viewfile/32141/33029 andry, j.f., & chakir, a. (2020). assessment it governance of human resources information system using cobit 5. international journal of open information technologies, 8(4), 59–63. bilgic, e. (2020). human resources information systems: a recent literature survey. in m.a. turkmenoglu & b. cicek (eds.), contemporary global issues in human resource management (pp. 73–87). emerald publishing. boselie, p., van harten, j., & veld, m. (2019). a human resource management review on public management and public administration research: stop right there … before we go any further …. public management review, 23(4), 483–500. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2019.1695880 bradley, s. (2019). an exploratory study of the role of the human resource information system professional. athens journal of technology and engineering, 6(1), 63–76. https://doi.org/10.30958/ajte.6-1-4 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa bricki, n., & green, j. (2007). a guide to using qualitative research methodology. medecins sans frontieres. retrieved from https://scienceportal.msf.org/assets/6984 brunetto, y., & beattie, r. (2020). changing role of hrm in the public sector. public management review, 22(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2019.1645876 chikwariro, s., bussin, m., & de braine, r. (2021). reframing performance management praxis at the harare city council. sa journal of human resource management, 19, 1438. cloete, h.c.a. (2016). human resource development in local government: a management perspective. doctoral dissertation. stellenbosch university, sunscholar research repository. retrieved from https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/100134 coombs, t. (2020). public sector crises: realizations from covid-19 for crisis communication. the open journal of sociopolitical studies, 13(2), 990–1001. creswell, j.w., & poth, c.n., (2017). qualitative inquiry and research design (international student edition): choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). sage publications. dhanpat, n. (2015). turning the tide’ a new wave of hr: devolving hr capabilities toline managers. in s. lee (ed.), pan pacific business conference, hanoi (pp. 28–30). may 2015. pan pacific business association. dhanpat, n., buthelezi, z.p., joe, m.r., maphela, t.v., & shongwe, n. (2020). industry 4.0: the role of human resource professionals. sa journal of human resource management, 18, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1302 galang, m.c., & osman, i. (2016). hr managers in five countries: what do they do and why does it matter? international journal of human resource management, 27(13), 1341–1372. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1072099 garavan, t., mccarthy, a., maura, s., lai, y., saunders, m.n.k., clarke, n., carbery, r., & shanahan, v. (2019). measuring the organisational impact of training: the need for greater methodological rigor. human resource development quarterly, 30(3), 291–309. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21345 gasela, m.m. (2021). the impact of strategy alignment on organisational performance in national public entities in the northern cape province of south africa. africa’s public service delivery and performance review, 9(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/apsdpr.v9i1.489 hejase, h.j., hejase, a.j., mikdashi, g., & bazeih, z.f. (2016). talent management challenges: an exploratory assessment from lebanon. international journal of business management & economic research, 7(1), 504–520. jancsics, d. (2019). corruption as resource transfer: an interdisciplinary synthesis. public administration review, 79(4), 523–537. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13024 joseph, r.m., thomas, a., & abbott, p. (2021). information technology competencies for entry-level human resource strategic partners. sa journal of human resource management, 19, 1327. https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/article/view/1327 knies, e., borst, r.t., leisink, p., & farndale, e. (2022). the distinctiveness of public sector hrm: a four-wave trend analysis. human resource management journal, 32(4), 799–825. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12440 kramar, r. (2014). beyond strategic human resource management: is sustainable human resource management the next approach? the international journal of human resource management, 25(8), 1069–1089. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.816863 leisink, p., borst, r.t., knies, e., & battista, v. (2021). human resource management in a public-sector context. in e. parry, m.j morley, & c. brewster (eds.), the oxford handbook of contextual approaches to human resource management (pp. 415–436). oxford university press. lincoln, y.s., & guba, e.g. (1985). naturalistic inquiry. sage. maatman, m., & meijerink, j. (2017). why sharing is synergy: the role of decentralized control mechanisms and centralized hr capabilities in creating hr shared service value. personnel review, 46(7), 1297–1317. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-09-2016-0245 makapela, l., & mtshelwane, n.d.p. (2021). exploring the use and influence of human resource policies within south african municipalities. sa journal of human resource management, 19, a1534. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1534 malay, j., & fairholm, m.r. (2020). how ideological divides serve to limit bureaucratic autonomy: a case study of the blm. american review of public administration, 50(4–5), 375–386. https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074020911783 mapuva, j., & takabika, t. (2020). urban local authorities in zimbabwe and the new constitution. international journal of peace and development studies, 11(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.5897/ijpds2019.357 marginson, s. (2017). limitations of human capital theory. studies in higher education, 44(2), 287–301. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2017.1359823 mashamaite, k., & lethoko, m. (2018). role of the south african local government in local economic development. international journal of ebusiness and egovernment studies, 10(1), 114–128. mcdonnell, e.m. (2017). patchwork leviathan: how pockets of bureaucratic governance flourish within institutionally diverse developing states. american sociological review, 82(3), 476–510. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122417705874 meardi, g., simms, m., & adam, d. (2021). trade unions and precariat in europe: representative claims. european journal of industrial relations, 27(1), 41–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959680119863585 meyer, m. (2017). managing human resource development: a strategic learning approach (5th ed.). lexis nexis. muchadenyika, d. (2014). contestation, confusion and change: urban governance and service delivery in zimbabwe (2000–2012). master’s thesis. university of western cape, uwcscholar etd repository. retrieved from http://etd.uwc.ac.za/xmlui/handle/11394/4132 ngwenyama, p. (2014). an evaluation of the effectiveness of a performance management system towards employee performance in a local authority: the case of city of harare from 2009 to 2013. unpublished master’s thesis, university of zimbabwe. noviyanti, rosdiana, w., utami, d., & anggraini, n. (2019). the challenges of civil servant’s payroll service in local government. advances in social science, education and humanities research, 383(2), 275–278. https://doi.org/10.2991/icss-19.2019.150 nyauchi, m., & jagero, n. (2014). the relationship between training and employee performance: the case of mutare city council. international journal of human resource studies, 4(4), 61–72. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijhrs.v4i4.6620 poperwi, l. (2018). making sense of poor service delivery in harare city council. unpublished doctoral thesis. harare: zimbabwe open university. quick, j., & hall, s. (2015). part two: qualitative research. journal of perioperative practice, 25(7–8), 125–133. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750458915025007-803 rogozinska-pawelczyk, a., & gadomska-lila, k. (2022). the mediating role of organisational identification between psychological contract and work results: an individual level investigation. international journal of environmental research and public health, 19(9), a5404. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095404 saha, s., & sen, k. (2021). the corruption-growth relationship: does the political regime matter? journal of institutional economics, 17(2), 243–266. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1744137420000375 sari, l.r. (2016). internal control over the payroll system of the blitar city regional financial and asset management agency. unpublished master’s thesis, state university of malang. shenton, a.k. (2004). strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research projects. education for information, 22(2), 63–75. https://doi.org/10.3233/efi-2004-22201 sixpence, s. (2021). a comparative study of performance management systems for harare and johannesburg municipalities. doctoral dissertation. university of johannesburg, uj institutional repository. surette, w., carrell, m.r., elbert, n.f., & hatfield, r.d. (2018). human resource management in south africa (6th ed.). marinda louw. swanson, k.m., & wojnar, d. (2004). optimal healing environments in nursing. the journal of alternative and complementary medicine, 10(1), 43–48. https://doi.org/10.1089/1075553042245935 thistlethwaite, j.e., dunston, r., & yassine, t. (2019). the times are changing: workforce planning, new health-care models and the need for interprofessional education in australia. journal of interprofessional care, 33(4), 361–368. https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2019.1612333 van zyl, l.e. (2014). research methodology for the economic and management sciences. pearson. yusliza, m.y., choo, p., jayaraman, k., rimi, n.n., & muhammad, z. (2019). hr line manager’s reflections on hrm effectiveness through hr roles and role stressors. south east european journal of economics and business, 14(1), 34–48. https://doi.org/10.2478/jeb-2019-0002 zimbabwe government portal. (2019). results based management. retrieved from http://www.zim.gov.zw/results-based-management zvavahera, p. (2014). an evaluation of the effectiveness of performance management systems on service delivery in the zimbabwean civil service. journal of management and marketing research, 14, 1. abstract introduction literature review research design results discussion limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) xander van lill department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa department of product and research, jvr africa group, johannesburg, south africa nicola taylor department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa department of data enablement, jvr africa group, johannesburg, south africa citation van lill, x., & taylor, n. (2022). the validity of five broad generic dimensions of performance in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1844. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1844 original research the validity of five broad generic dimensions of performance in south africa xander van lill, nicola taylor received: 26 nov. 2021; accepted: 23 mar. 2022; published: 15 june 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: disconnected scholarly work on the theoretical and empirical structure of individual work performance negatively impacts predictive studies in human resource management. greater standardisation in the conceptualisation and measurement of performance is required to enhance the scientific rigour with which research is conducted in human resource management in south africa. research purpose: the present study aimed to conceptualise and empirically validate the structural validity of five broad generic dimensions of individual work performance, based on 20 narrow dimensions of performance. motivation for the study: a generic model and standardised measurement of individual work performance, measuring performance at the appropriate level of breadth and depth, may help human resource professionals to make accurate decisions about important work-based criteria and their related predictors. a validated generic model of performance could further increase the replicability of science around performance measurement in south africa. research approach/design and method: a cross-sectional design was implemented by asking 448 managers across several organisations to rate the performance of their subordinates on the individual work performance review (iwpr). the quantitative data were analysed by means of hierarchical confirmatory factor analyses. main findings: an inspection of the discriminant validity of the 20 narrow performance dimensions supported the multidimensionality of performance to a fair degree. the bifactor statistical indices, in turn, suggested that the five broad factors explained a significant amount of common variance amongst the manifest variables and could therefore be interpreted as more unidimensional. practical/managerial implications: practitioners can interpret the broader performance dimensions in the iwpr as total scores, especially when high-stakes decisions are made about promoting or rewarding employees. the interpretation of the narrow performance dimensions might be more useful in low-stakes development situations. cross-scale interpretations are encouraged to enable a holistic understanding of employees’ performance, as the narrow performance dimensions covary. keywords: individual work performance; generic performance; performance measurement; hierarchical factor analysis; five-factor model. introduction according to campbell and wiernik (2015), individual work performance is: [t]he basic building block on which the entire economy is based. without individual performance there is no team performance, no unit performance, no organisational performance, no economic sector performance, no gdp. (p. 48) although individual work performance (hereafter referred to as performance) is one of the most important criteria used in predictive analytics in human resource management and industrial psychology, more is known about the theoretical and empirical structure of antecedents to performance, such as personality, than about performance itself (campbell & wiernik, 2015; schepers, 2008). the lack of clarity and disconnected literature (campbell & wiernik, 2015; carpini, parker, & griffin, 2017) appear to have spillover effects on research in the south african context. based on a meta-analysis of the predictive validity of personality, van aarde, meiring and wiernik (2017) revealed shortcomings in the measurement of performance in south africa in terms of the conceptualisation of performance models and the relevance of performance dimensions utilised in predictive studies. if human resource management and industrial psychology are to be taken seriously as scientific fields in south africa, related scientists and practitioners must ensure the development and use of carefully conceptualised measures of performance (van aarde et al., 2017). a problem often associated with the validation and prediction of performance is the difficulty in obtaining sufficiently large data sets to validate or draw predictive inferences based on job-specific performance criteria. consequently, practitioners are often left making desk-based judgements about the nature of job criteria without empirically validating the performance measurements implemented. available samples may be even smaller if there is a limited number of specific positions for a local validation (myburgh, 2013). the identification and standardised measurement of generic dimensions of performance might be the first step in obtaining sufficiently large data sets to build valid and replicable science around the rating and prediction of performance in south africa. generic performance dimensions reflect actions independent of specific jobs (harari & viswesvaran, 2018) that enable or thwart organisations in achieving goals (campbell & wiernik, 2015). replicative studies on generic performance dimensions come with the added advantage that organisations are more likely to measure universal behaviours that are most likely to contribute to team and organisational effectiveness (carpini et al., 2017; hunt, 1996). noteworthy research in south africa on the conceptualisation and measurement of generic performance include schepers’s (2008) development of the work performance questionnaire (wpq), myburgh’s (2013) generic performance questionnaire (gpq) and van der vaart’s (2021) validation of the internationally developed individual work performance questionnaire (iwpq). dimensions measured by the wpq, gpq and iwpq are listed here: broad, empirically derived performance dimensions in the wpq (schepers, 2008), include work performance, initiative or creativity and managerial abilities. narrow theoretically derived dimensions identified and empirically validated by myburgh (2013) include task performance, effort, adaptability, innovation, leadership potential, communication, interpersonal relations, management, analysing and problem solving, counterproductive work behaviours, organisational citizenship behaviours and self-development. van der vaart (2021) validated three broad dimensions of performance proposed by koopmans et al. (2012), namely task performance, contextual performance and counterproductive behaviours. cronbach and gleser (1965) captured an important problem in the measurement of human behaviour, namely the bandwidth–fidelity dilemma. cronbach and gleser (1965) observed that ‘there is some ideal compromise between a variety of information (bandwidth) and thoroughness of testing to obtain more certain information (fidelity)’ (p. 100). the dilemma is intensified by the dissimilar approaches to the number and type of performance dimensions, as well as the level (either broad or narrow) at which generic performance is currently conceptualised and measured in south africa. the aim of this study was to address the bandwidth–fidelity problem by proposing a variety of narrow dimensions of performance that still enable the in-depth measurement of broader performance dimensions. this was performed by inspecting preliminary evidence for a simplified model of performance consisting of five broad dimensions, divided into 20 narrower performance dimensions, to extend construct coverage of performance measurement in south africa. instead of employing standalone unidimensional constructs, as in schepers (2008), myburgh (2013) and van der vaart (2021), hierarchical models of performance are proposed. literature review the most recent published study of generic performance in south africa supports the three-dimensional structure of the iwpq, namely task performance, contextual performance and counterproductive work behaviours (van der vaart, 2021). koopmans et al.’s (2011) systematic review served as a thorough and contemporary point of departure to conceptualise generic performance in the present study. a more recent review conducted by carpini et al. (2017) excluded counterproductive performance, which is considered an important part of generic performance (rotundo & sackett, 2002). the broader structure of carpini et al.’s (2017) performance model was considered not as comprehensive as koopmans et al.’s (2011) four-factor model of performance. however, carpini et al.’s (2017) theoretical propositions still proved useful in the conceptualisation of some broad dimensions of the individual work performance review (iwpr). koopmans et al.’s (2011) initial conceptualisation of performance included adaptive performance, which was removed after an empirical study revealed statistical overlap with contextual performance (koopmans et al., 2012). this revised model was adopted by van der vaart (2021) with the local validation of the iwpq. aguinis and burgi-tian (2021) argued that crises, like the covid-19 pandemic, bring about rapid change that requires employees to cope with and respond to unfolding complexity. myburgh (2013) further reasoned that long-term systemic change in the internal and external environment is inevitable, which requires that employees demonstrate the flexibility required to adjust. adaptive performance was retained as a broad dimension of performance to ensure construct coverage (aguinis, 2019; carpini et al., 2017; myburgh, 2013). leadership performance was a fifth dimension included by myburgh (2013) as a standalone narrow dimension in the gpq but was not included in the wpq or iwpq. leadership plays a central role in assisting organisations to achieve goals (campbell, 2012; hogan & sherman, 2020). demonstrating the ability to progress to higher levels of leadership is an important consideration in talent management and can therefore not be excluded as a dimension of performance (myburgh, 2013). five broad dimensions of performance are proposed in the present study, namely in-role performance (task performance), extra-role performance (contextual performance or organisational citizenship behaviour), adaptive performance, leadership performance and counterproductive performance (counterproductive work behaviours). each broad dimension has 4 narrow dimensions and 16 associated items (four items per narrow dimension), to ensure sufficient coverage of behaviours (carpini et al., 2017). the restriction on dimensions was aimed at reducing the length of the measure to ease the process of administering the review for performance feedback (e.g. 80 items × 10 employees to be rated by one manager) or include it in predictive studies along with other predictive measures. narrow dimensions of performance were derived from existing generic models of individual work performance (myburgh, 2013). narrow dimensions were considered for inclusion if they were: included in published (reputable books and journals) or unpublished (high-quality dissertations and theses) scholarly works (viswesvaran, schmidt, & ones, 2005) methodologically sound, in the case where empirical findings were shared associated with one of the five broad performance dimensions defined in terms of observable behaviour (koopmans et al., 2011) relevant to the achievement of organisational goals (koopmans et al., 2011) generic and thus applicable to a wide variety of jobs (myburgh, 2013; schepers, 2008) representative of individuals’ actions (koopmans et al., 2011). as recommended by campbell and wiernik (2015) and carpini et al. (2017), the performance model in the present study was purged of terms that are theorised to have conceptual overlap with job knowledge and skills (antecedents to performance), such as analysing and problem solving. communication as a skill that facilitates performance is difficult to disentangle from performance itself and was therefore excluded. however, it should be observed that communication has been highlighted as a narrow dimension of generic performance in previous models by, for example, myburgh (2013), viswesvaran et al. (2005) and campbell, mccloy, oppler and sager (1993). in-role performance in-role performance refers to actions that are official or known requirements for employees (carpini et al., 2017; motowidlo & van scotter, 1994). these behaviours could be viewed as the technical core (borman & motowidlo, 1997) that employees must demonstrate to be perceived as proficient and able to contribute to the achievement of organisational goals (carpini et al., 2017). unlike the performance models proposed by schepers (2008), koopmans et al. (2012) and myburgh (2013), quality and quantity of work were divided into two separate, narrow performance dimensions, which align more with viswesvaran et al.’s (2005) conceptualisation of performance. technical performance was included under in-role performance, based on borman and motowidlo’s (1997) definition of task performance, namely the technical core tasks that employees perform, and was conceptualised in accordance with campbell et al.’s (1993) definition. finally, whereas following rules and organisational procedures was categorised by borman and motowidlo (1997) under contextual performance, it was included under in-role performance as an official (minimum and less voluntary) requirement of acceptable behaviour, as it is expected that employees will comply with organisational rules and procedures (carpini et al., 2017; katz, 1964). definitions of the narrow dimensions comprising in-role performance are provided here: quality of work: the thoroughness with which employees perform work tasks, evident in the degree to which employees pay attention to detail and minimise errors. conceptual overlap with thoroughness (hunt, 1996), quality concern (tett, guterman, bleier, & murphy 2000), work quality (renn & fedor, 2001), maintaining quality processes (bartram, 2005), quality (viswesvaran et al., 2005) and quantity and quality of work (schepers, 2008). quantity of work: how productive employees are in meeting challenging work goals in terms of both the volume of output and meeting the required time frame. conceptual overlap with quantity concern (tett et al., 2000), work quantity (renn & fedor, 2001), maintaining productivity levels (bartram, 2005), productivity (viswesvaran et al., 2005) and quantity and quality of work (schepers, 2008). rule adherence: employees’ tendency to comply with informal and formal rules and regulations of the organisation. conceptual overlap with following organisational rules and procedures (borman & motowidlo, 1997), rule orientation (tett et al., 2000), following procedures (bartram, 2005) and compliance or acceptance of authority (viswesvaran et al., 2005). technical performance: the degree to which employees perform well at tasks that are differentiated, complicated and require a certain level of expertise. conceptual overlap with technical proficiency (borman & motowidlo, 1997; tett et al., 2000) and technical performance (campbell, 2012). the following hypothesis was formulated based on the conceptualisation of in-role performance as a hierarchical model: h1: the broad in-role performance dimension explains covariance between the 16 in-role performance items, independent of the covariance that the narrow dimensions quality of work, quantity of work, rule adherence and technical performance explain in the same set of items. extra-role performance extra-role performance refers to acts orientated towards the future or change (carpini et al., 2017), aimed at benefitting coworkers and the team (organ, 1997), which are discretionary or not part of the employee’s existing work responsibilities (borman & motowidlo, 1997; van dyne, cummings, & mclean, 1995). these behaviours shape the team in a way that creates a work setting that contributes to the achievement of organisational goals (borman & motowidlo, 1997). in the present study, altruism and initiative were untangled to form two separate, narrow dimensions, instead of the unidimensional construct measured by the iwpq (koopmans et al., 2012) and gpq (myburgh, 2013). two narrow dimensions outlined by george and brief (1992) and podsakoff, mackenzie, paine and bachrach (2000) as extra-role behaviours and applied as narrow, standalone dimensions in the gpq (myburgh, 2013) were further included to extend current conceptualisations of extra-role performance in south africa, namely self-development and innovation. self-development and innovation share conceptual overlap with adaptive performance (pulakos, arad, donovan, & plamondon, 2000), but were retained because of their discretionary and future-orientated nature (carpini et al., 2017; george & brief, 1992). the narrow dimensions of extra-role performance are defined here: helpful behaviours: employees’ acts of kindness towards coworkers. conceptual overlap with altruism (organ, 1988), interpersonal performance (murphy, 1990), helping coworkers (george & brief, 1992), supporting others (borman & motowidlo, 1997), working with people (bartram, 2005), interpersonal competence (viswesvaran et al., 2005) and peer or team member leadership performance (campbell, 2012). taking initiative: demonstrated by employees showing self-starting behaviour and doing more than is expected of them. conceptual overlap with persisting with enthusiasm and extra effort (borman & motowidlo, 1997), volunteering to carry out task activities (borman & motowidlo, 1997), personal initiative (frese, fay, hilburger, leng, & tag, 1997), initiative (tett et al., 2000), acting on own initiative (bartram, 2005), effort (viswesvaran et al., 2005), initiative and creativity (schepers, 2008) and initiative, persistence, and effort (campbell, 2012). self-development: reflected in employees’ initiatives to enhance their competence by actively gaining knowledge and learning new skills that could benefit the team. conceptual overlap with developing oneself (george & brief, 1992), self-development (tett et al., 2000), embracing personal and professional development (hedge, borman, bruskiewicz, & bourne, 2004), pursuing self-development (bartram, 2005), job knowledge (viswesvaran et al., 2005) and self-development (myburgh, 2013). innovative behaviour: employees exploring or generating new opportunities and implementing new and creative ideas. conceptual overlap with making constructive suggestions (george & brief, 1992), innovative behaviour (scott & bruce, 1994), innovating (bartram, 2005), initiative and creativity (schepers, 2008), innovating (myburgh, 2013) and creative and innovative performance (harari, reaves, & viswesvaran, 2016). the conceptualisation of extra-role performance as a hierarchical model gave rise to the following hypothesis: h2: the broad extra-role performance dimension explains covariance between the 16 extra-role performance items, independent of the covariance that the narrow dimensions helpful behaviours, taking initiative, self-development and innovative behaviours explain in the same set of items. adaptive performance adaptive performance relates to employees’ demonstration of the ability to cope with and effectively respond to crises or uncertainty (carpini et al., 2017; pulakos et al., 2000). it is also reflected in employees’ flexibility when dealing with novelty or working with coworkers who have different views (pulakos et al., 2000). a broad multidimensional conceptualisation of adaptive performance (pulakos et al., 2000), instead of a narrow dimension (koopmans et al., 2012; myburgh, 2013), was used as a primary orientation, but was adjusted to fit the performance model of this study. firstly, dealing with uncertainty was reformulated as dealing with complexity to enlarge the scope of the construct and increase its relevance to important psychological predictors of performance, for example, cognitive ability (sackett, zhang, berry, & lievens, 2021). secondly, interpersonal and cultural adaptability were collapsed into a single dimension for brevity of measurement. thirdly, two narrow dimensions of adaptive performance identified by pulakos et al. (2000), namely solving problems creatively and learning to extend existing knowledge on the job, were considered better suited to extra-role performance and were therefore not categorised under adaptive performance in this study. finally, physical adaptability was conceived to be less generalisable across office and non-office settings and was thus excluded. definitions of the narrow dimensions of adaptive performance are as follows: emotional resilience: demonstrated when employees maintain their composure when they have to work under high pressure. conceptual overlap with handling crises and stress (borman & brush, 1993); handling work stress (pulakos et al., 2000); resilience (tett et al., 2000); stress management (tett et al., 2000); and coping with pressure and setbacks (bartram, 2005). dealing with complexity: demonstrated when employees think, decide and act sensibly under uncertain and unusual situations when there are no clear guidelines. conceptual overlap with dealing with uncertain and unpredictable situations (pulakos et al., 2000) and adapting and responding to change (bartram, 2005). adapting to crises: the degree to which employees remain objective, make swift decisions and react with appropriate urgency to a crisis. conceptual overlap with handling crises and stress (borman & brush, 1993) and handling emergencies or crisis situations (pulakos et al., 2000). interpersonal flexibility: reflected in how comfortable employees are with situations in which people with diverse views do not agree with each other. it is also represented by employees’ open-mindedness in interaction with coworkers from different backgrounds. conceptual overlap with demonstrating interpersonal adaptability (pulakos et al., 2000), demonstrating cultural adaptability (pulakos et al., 2000), tolerance (tett et al., 2000), cultural appreciation (tett et al., 2000), adapting interpersonal style (bartram, 2005) and showing cross-cultural awareness (bartram, 2005). the following hypothesis was formulated to test the tenability of the hierarchical model of adaptive performance: h3: the broad adaptive performance dimension explains covariance between the 16 adaptive performance items, independent of the covariance that the narrow dimensions emotional resilience, dealing with complexity, adapting to crises and interpersonal flexibility explain in the same set of items. leadership performance leadership performance refers to the effectiveness with which an employee can influence co-workers to achieve collective goals (campbell & wiernik, 2015; hogan & sherman, 2020; yukl, 2012). leadership does not necessarily have to be tied to a position of authority (campbell & wiernik, 2015; myburgh, 2013) and could be portrayed by anyone who supports, directs and connects coworkers and changes coworkers’ views or approaches to doing things (hedge et al., 2004; yukl, 2012). yukl’s (2012) taxonomy of leadership effectiveness was used as the primary orientation in the conceptualisation of leadership performance. external leadership was changed to network-orientated leadership, to reflect recent developments in complexity leadership (uhl-bien & arena, 2017). the narrow dimensions of leadership performance are defined as follows: task leadership: demonstrated by employees when they direct the efforts of coworkers towards the achievement of team goals. conceptual overlap with providing direction and coordinating action (bartram, 2005); initiating structure, guiding and directing (campbell, 2012); goal emphasis (campbell, 2012); task-orientated leadership behaviours (yukl, 2012); and management (myburgh, 2013). relations leadership: demonstrated when consideration is used to empower and motivate coworkers to achieve team goals. conceptual overlap with seeking input (tett et al., 2000); consideration, support and person-centredness (campbell, 2012); relations-orientated leadership behaviours (yukl, 2012); and leadership (myburgh, 2013). change leadership: reflects the degree to which employees inspire their coworkers to effect required changes to the way they do their work. conceptual overlap with creative thinking (tett et al., 2000), seeking and introducing change (bartram, 2005) and change-orientated leadership behaviours (yukl, 2012). network leadership: the degree to which networking is used to connect coworkers with key role players inside and outside the organisation. conceptual overlap with networking (bartram, 2005), external leadership behaviours (yukl, 2012) and leveraging network structures (uhl-bien & arena, 2017). the following hypothesis was formulated based on the conceptualisation of leadership performance as a hierarchical model: h4: the broad leadership performance dimension explains covariance between the 16 leadership performance items, independent of the covariance that the narrow dimensions of task-orientated, relations-orientated, change-orientated and network-orientated leadership explain in the same set of items. counterproductive performance counterproductive performance reflects intentional or unintentional acts (spector & fox, 2005) by an employee who negatively affects the effectiveness with which an organisation achieves its goals and causes harm to its stakeholders (campbell & wiernik, 2015; marcus et al., 2016). the present researchers deliberately chose forms of counterproductive performance that are of a lesser severity (bennett & robinson, 2000). less severe behaviours (e.g. incivility) were chosen as narrow dimensions that are more frequently observable, less situation-dependent and easier to report on and utilise in performance feedback. examples of more severe behaviours excluded are wilful damage to property of the employer, wilful endangering of the safety of others, physical assault and sexual harassment (gruys & sackett, 2003; venter et al., 2014). these acts are viewed as forms of gross misconduct in south africa – and warrant summary dismissal – which might be outside the purview of performance feedback and more in the realm of disciplinary action, which is subject to confidentiality (venter et al., 2014). however, it must be acknowledged that more severe behaviours of counterproductive performance, such as physical assault, have serious consequences for organisations and there should be mechanisms in place to deal with such acts. severe behaviours are less frequently endorsed in performance questionnaires and appear to increase the statistical multidimensionality of the construct. the deliberate exclusion of severe forms of counterproductive performance in this study might have increased the unidimensionality of the construct (marcus et al., 2016). in contrast to the unidimensional conceptualisation of counterproductive performance in the iwpq (koopmans et al., 2012) and cpq (myburgh, 2013), intrapersonal-focused and interpersonal-focused dimensions of counterproductive performance were differentiated in this study. intrapersonal-focused counterproductive performance reflect avoidant behaviours such as withholding effort, aimed at escaping work situations. in contrast, interpersonal-focused counterproductive performance reflect approach behaviours such as interpersonal rudeness, which focuses on a dysfunctional engagement in work situations (spector et al., 2006). stagnation and stubborn resistance (tepper, schriesham et al. 1998) are seldom categorised under counterproductive performance (marcus et al., 2016) but were included as narrow dimensions to extend the intrapersonal and interpersonal focus of counterproductive performance. definitions of the narrow dimensions of counterproductive performance are as follows: interpersonal rudeness: disrespectful acts that reflect a lack of regard for others. conceptual overlap with interpersonal deviance (bennett & robinson, 2000), workplace incivility (cortina, magley, williams, & langhout, 2001), hostility (martin & hine, 2005), gossiping (martin & hine, 2005) and abuse (spector et al., 2006). withholding effort: demonstrated when employees show a lack of enthusiasm in their work by exerting less effort than is expected for the position they hold. conceptual overlap with downtime behaviours (murphy, 1990), off-task behaviour (hunt, 1996), poor-quality work (gruys & sackett, 2003) and withdrawal (spector et al., 2006). stagnation: demonstrated when an employee displays an unwillingness to learn new skills, thereby affecting team effectiveness. this is a newly created dimension. stubborn resistance: reflected in an employee’s unreasonable opposition to change or an unwillingness to support initiatives at work and suggests a destructive form of opposition to team goals. conceptual overlap with unruliness (hunt, 1996); dysfunctional resistance (tepper et al., 1998); short-term focus (oreg, 2003); and cognitive rigidity (oreg, 2003). the following hypothesis was formulated to test the tenability of the hierarchical model of counterproductive performance: h5: the broad counterproductive performance dimension explains covariance between the 16 counterproductive performance items, independent of the covariance that the narrow dimensions interpersonal rudeness, withholding effort, stagnation and stubborn resistance explain in the same set of items. research design research approach a cross-sectional, quantitative research design was utilised in this study. the selection of a cross-sectional design ensured a composite view of the multifaceted nature of managers’ ratings of their subordinates’ performance at one point in time, as well as an efficient quantitative exploration of commonalities between a large set of variables across different organisational contexts (spector, 2019). research method participants aguinis and edwards’ (2014) recommendation of sampling from organisations in different economic sectors was implemented to increase the external validity (generalisability) of the results (holtom, baruch, aguinis, & ballinger, 2022). a total of 15 organisations across different sectors in south africa were invited to participate in the study, and a sample of 448 employees from 6 organisations was drawn via a census (or stratified) sampling strategy, with the final sample representing the industrial, agricultural, financial, professional services and information technology sectors. the ratio (9:1) of the number of observations (n = 448) to the number of mathematical parameters of the primary statistical test (bifactor) models (q = 48) was larger than or equal to other generic performance models validated in south africa (wpq: n = 278 and p = 79; gpq: n = 205 and p = 158; iwpq: n = 296 and p = 32). the number of observations also exceeded the typical number of observations (n = 200) reported in studies in which structural equation modelling was used (kline, 2011). a calculation of statistical power, based on computer software developed by preacher and coffman (2006), computed a power value of unity, which suggested that an incorrect model with 88 degrees of freedom would be correctly rejected (α = 0.05; null rmsea = 0.05; alternative rmsea = 0.08). the mean age of employees was 38.77 years (s.d. = 7.02 years). most of the employees self-identified as white people (n = 201; 48%), followed by black african (n = 136; 30%), indian (81; 18%), mixed race (mixed ancestry; n = 27; 6%) and asian (3; 1%). the sample comprised more women (n = 249; 56%) than men (n = 199; 44%). most of the employees were registered professionals (n = 142; 32%), followed by mid-level managers (n = 106; 24%), skilled employees (103; 23%), low-level managers (n = 84; 19%), semi-skilled employees (n = 9; 2%) and top-level managers (4; 1%). measurement instrument hinkin’s (1998) guideline for scale construction was used to develop a measure of individual work performance, the iwpr. items were deductively generated by two senior researchers with due consideration of the theoretical definitions highlighted in the literature review. the items were carefully formulated to avoid double-barrelled, leading and negatively worded items. myburgh (2013) stressed the need to simplify the language used in the gpq to improve the measurement. therefore, items in the iwpr were shortened and simplified as much as possible and qualitative feedback, up until the write-up of report, suggested that raters had few or no issues in understanding the items. the items were subjected to an item-sort exercise with 13 registered psychologists who utilise psychometrics in the work context, and the results were used to calculate substantive validity coefficients. anderson and gerbing’s (1991) guidelines were used to structure the item-sort exercises. thresholds, based on guidelines from howard and melloy (2016), were used to adjust or, in severe cases, remove items that appeared to have low substantive validity. the final iwpr consisted of 80 items (4 items for each of the 20 narrow performance dimensions) that covered five factors, namely in-role performance, extra-role performance, adaptive performance, leadership performance and counterproductive performance. per the guidelines of aguinis (2019), each item was measured using a five-point behavioural frequency scale. word anchors defined the extreme points of each scale, namely (1) never demonstrated and (5) always demonstrated. the guidelines of casper, edwards, wallace, landis and fife (2020) were used to guide the qualitative interpretation of numeric values between the extreme points, to better approximate an interval rating scale, namely (2) rather infrequently demonstrated, (3) demonstrated some of the time and (4) quite often demonstrated. the internal consistency reliability of all the narrow dimensions of the iwpr was satisfactory (α and ω ≥ 0.83). an example of a performance review item is provided in box 1. box 1: example item from quality of work. research procedure and ethical considerations direct managers of the participants completed the review via an e-mail link. at the outset of the review, the direct managers and participants received information on the development purpose of the study, the nature of the measurement, voluntary participation, benefits of participation and anonymity of the data; they were informed that their data would be used for research purposes. the department of industrial psychology and people management’s research ethics committee members at the university of johannesburg granted ethical clearance for the study (ref. no. ippm-2020-455, 06 october 2020). statistical analysis the objective of the study was to determine the plausibility of five hierarchical dimensions (factors) of performance in the south african context. confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) was performed, using version 0.6–8 of the lavaan package (rosseel, 2012; rosseel & jorgensen, 2021) in r (r core team, 2016), to first inspect the interfactor correlations between all the narrow performance factors, whereafter the hierarchical factor structure of the broad performance factors was investigated. the guidelines recommended by credé and harms (2015) were followed in exploring the plausibility of alternative models (including hierarchical factor models), based on the five performance factors. the bifactor models were, in turn, subjected to analysis of bifactor statistical indices to determine whether unidimensional models better represented the structure of the five factors (reise, bonifay, & haviland, 2013; rodriguez et al., 2016). mardia’s multivariate skewness and kurtosis coefficients were 146297.60 (p < 0.001) and 105.56 (p < 0.001), which indicated that the data had a non-normal multivariate distribution. given the medium (n = 448) sample size (rhemtulla, brosseau-liard, & savalei, 2012), the employment of rating scales with five numerical categories (rhemtulla et al., 2012) and violation of multivariate normality (satorra & bentler, 1994; yuan & bentler, 1998), cfa results with robust maximum likelihood (mlm) estimation were deemed appropriate (bandalos, 2014). model–data fit of the cfa models was evaluated using the comparative fit index (cfi), the tucker–lewis index (tli), standardised root mean-square residual (srmr) and root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) (brown, 2015; hu & bentler, 1999). the fit was considered suitable if the rmsea and srmr were ≤ 0.08 (brown, 2015; browne & cudeck, 1992) and the cfi and tli were ≥ 0.90 (brown, 2015; hu & bentler, 1999). even if comparative fit indices display a marginally good fit to the data (cfi and tli in the range of 0.90 to 0.95), models might still be considered to display acceptable fit if other indices (srmr and rmsea) in tandem are in the acceptable range (brown, 2015). results descriptive statistics of the iwpr table 1 provides the mean item score and standard deviation for each scale of the iwpr, along with the alpha and omega reliability estimates and standardised interfactor correlations of the 20 narrow performance factors. the interfactor correlations were obtained by conducting an oblique lower-order confirmatory factor model. the fit statistics for the oblique lower-order confirmatory factor model of the entire iwpr (χ2 [df] = 4769.72 [2890]; cfi = 0.94; tli = 0.93; srmr = 0.05; rmsea = 0.04 [0.04; 0.05]) were satisfactory (brown, 2015; hu & bentler, 1999). table 1: descriptive statistics for narrow performance factors on the individual work performance questionnaire. the interfactor correlations below the diagonal in table 1 suggest that the narrow factors under in-role, extra-role, adaptive and leadership performance, respectively, covaried as expected. narrow performance factors also covaried, with narrow factors outside of the broader related performance dimensions, suggesting that alternative theoretical configurations could be explored in future. the size of the interfactor correlations between all the narrow factors suggested that a general performance factor may exist across these factors in the iwpr (viswesvaran et al., 2005). evidence forwarded by schepers (2008), myburgh (2013) and van der vaart (2021) also suggested performance factors tend to covary. the upper limit of 87% of the interfactor correlations in table 1 were below the cut off (ul < 0.80, as proposed by rönkkö & cho, 2020) and therefore the majority of the narrow dimensions of performance displayed sufficient discriminant validity. rönkkö and cho (2020) considered interfactor correlations of 0.80 ≤ ul < 0.90 as marginally problematic and 0.90 ≤ ul < 0.10 as moderately problematic. according to this guideline, 13% of the upper limit correlations in table 1 have lower discriminant validity. however, 6% of the upper limit correlations with marginal to moderate problematic discriminant validity are between narrow performance dimensions of the same broad dimension. the remaining 7% indicates marginally to moderately problematic discriminant validity between narrow performance dimensions that fall under different broader performance dimensions, which could be areas for future theoretical exploration and empirical replication. hierarchical confirmatory factor analysis hierarchical cfa was performed to analyse the data gathered on employees using the iwpr. the purpose of hierarchical factor analysis was to provide a more parsimonious account, based on a pre-defined theory, of a latent variable that consists of various underlying narrow factors that have something in common (brown, 2015). credé and harms (2015) argued that five sequential models should be tested before claiming a hierarchical structure amongst latent variables, namely orthogonal first-order, single-factor, higher-order, oblique lower-order and bifactor models. figure 1 provides an example, using in-role performance, of how each of the factor models was specified. not all the items of in-role performance are displayed in figure 1 (the scale of each factor consists of 16 items). figure 1: factor structures of in-role performance based on guideline of credé and harms (2015). as portrayed in figure 1, both higher-order and bifactor models are hierarchical factor models. in-role performance narrow factors (quality of work, quantity of work, rule adherence and technical performance) mediated the relationship between the manifest variables and the in-role performance broad factor in the higher-order model (beaujean, 2014). the broad performance factor therefore did not explain unique variance in the manifest variables beyond the narrow factors (beaujean, 2014; mcabee, oswald, & connelly, 2014). bifactor models, in contrast, accounted for the unique variance explained in the manifest variables by the orthogonal broad performance factor, beyond the variance explained by the orthogonal narrow factors (beaujean, 2014; mcabee et al., 2014). the model–data fit of the different factor models outlined in figure 1 is specified in table 2. table 2: fit statistics of different performance factor models. the cfi, tli, srmr and rmsea reported in table 2 convey that a first-order and single-factor model fit the data poorly, whereas acceptable fit for an oblique lower-order factor, higher-order factor and bifactor model provided evidence of the existence of a hierarchical structure in the data. overall, the bifactor models seemed to provide the best fit to the data, which supported h1 to h5. bonifay, lane and reise (2017) indicated that the superiority of bifactor models’ fit indices, relative to that of other confirmatory factor models, could be a symptom of overfitting. rodriguez et al. (2016) recommended that bifactor statistical indices be calculated to determine the practical meaningfulness of group factors, such as the explained common variance (ecv), coefficient omega hierarchical (ωh), construct replicability (h), factor determinacy (fd), percentage of uncontaminated correlations (puc) and relative percentage bias (arpb). group factors were considered plausible when ωh, h and fd2 were > 0.50, 0.70 and 0.70, respectively (dueber, 2017; reise et al., 2013). the ecv for the general factor > 0.70 and puc > 0.80 were indicative of unidimensionality (reise et al., 2013). the arpb of 10% to 15% indicated little difference in the factor loadings between a single-factor model and the general factor in a bifactor model (rodriguez et al., 2016). bifactor statistical indices were calculated using version 0.2.0 of the bifactor indices calculator package (dueber, 2020) in r (r core team, 2016). the bifactor statistical indices are reported in table 3. table 3: bifactor statistical indices for personality aspects. the bifactor statistical indices in table 3 provide evidence of: (h1) a strong general factor for in-role performance and a small group factor for technical performance. an interpretation of in-role performance as a total score, instead of a hierarchical factor with subscores for quality of work, quantity of work, rule adherence and technical performance may be a more appropriate representation of the data when used to differentiate high-performing employees. (h2) a strong general factor for extra-role performance and a small group factor for helpful behaviours. an interpretation of extra-role performance as a total score, instead of a hierarchical factor with subscores for helpful behaviours, taking initiative, self-development and innovative behaviours may be a more appropriate representation of the data when used to differentiate high-performing employees. (h3) a strong general factor for adaptive performance and a small group factor for interpersonal flexibility. an interpretation of adaptive performance as a total score, instead of a hierarchical factor with subscores for emotional resilience, dealing with complexity, adapting to crises and interpersonal flexibility, may be a more appropriate representation of the data when differentiating high-performing employees. (h4) a strong general factor for leadership performance. an interpretation of leadership performance as a total score, instead of a hierarchical factor with subscores for task-orientated, relations-orientated, change-orientated and network-orientated leadership, may be a more appropriate representation of the data when used to differentiate high-performing employees. (h5) a strong general factor for counterproductive performance and a small group factor for interpersonal rudeness. an interpretation of counterproductive performance as a total score, instead of a hierarchical factor with subscores for interpersonal rudeness, withholding effort, stagnation and stubborn resistance may be a more appropriate representation of the data with which to differentiate risk-prone employees. discussion outline of results the iwpr is an attempt to address the bandwidth–fidelity problem in the measurement of performance by enabling researchers to inspect the validity of predictors and measure performance using a variety of narrow dimensions that still enable the in-depth measurement of the broader performance dimensions (hunt, 1996). the broader dimensions may be of benefit when predictions need to be made about broader criteria in predictive studies. for example, in-role performance may be a more appropriate criterion when determining the predictive validity of the personality trait conscientiousness (judge et al., 2013). the narrow performance dimensions quality and quantity of work may, however, be more appropriate when detailed predictions are required. for example, the personality aspects of industriousness (effort exerted in performing work) and orderliness (meticulousness with which tasks are performed) may explain unique variance in the quantity and quality of work produced by employees (van lill & taylor, 2021). evidence for the hierarchical structure of the iwpr could therefore enable practitioners to run predictive analytics at their preferred level of criterion, without compromising either accuracy or specificity. the overall oblique lower-order model for the entire iwpr provides preliminary evidence of a fair degree of discriminant validity (87% of interfactor correlations) between the 20 narrow performance dimensions. the 20 narrow dimensions can be interpreted simultaneously with the five broader dimensions of in-role, extra-role, adaptive, leadership and counterproductive performance, based on the fit of the bifactor models. however, caution should be taken when interpreting each dimension as a hierarchical factor, as the bifactor indices suggested that each of the broader factors could be more parsimoniously interpreted as a unidimensional factor. practical implications contrasting evidence on the hierarchical structure of individual work performance merits two positions regarding the interpretation and use of scales based on the iwpr. firstly, it may be more prudent to interpret the broader performance dimensions as total scores, especially when high-stakes decisions are made, for example, to identify, reward and promote star performers in organisations. by contrast, the fair degree of discriminant validity indicated that the narrow dimensions could capture differences between individuals, which could be useful in low-stakes situations, for example, tailoring performance feedback, setting performance goals and establishing new work habits to achieve performance goals. carpini et al. (2017) argued that even in the presence of unidimensionality, narrow interpretations might still add to context when interpreting scores based on general factors, which, at times, could appear as more vague formulations. cross-scale interpretations are further encouraged to enable a holistic understanding of employees’ performance. the practical benefits of a carefully constructed measure of generic individual work performance for industrial psychologists and human resource professionals, such as the iwpr, include: creating a shared language for performance development in organisations. drawing comparisons between employees independent of occupational specific tasks to identify, reward, promote and retain star performers across an organisation. the effective and efficient identification of star performance is amplified by the proposition that performance is non-normally distributed (following power laws) in organisations. aggregating performance results across different units of analyses (i.e. the individual, team or organisation) to, for example, create context-specific performance benchmarks for organisations or industries. integrating psychology and human resource functions by enabling human resource professionals to manage organisational effectiveness based on reliable and valid performance metrics. simultaneously, it can assist industrial psychologists to build larger databases against which criterion validity studies can be run, based on psychological predictors. predictive studies based on a diverse number of job-specific criteria may reduce the sample sizes (statistical power) and therefore make predictive studies unfeasible (myburgh, 2013). utilising more scientific performance data to calculate return on investment when using psychological assessments in selection or implementing performance development programmes based on, for example, the brogden-chronbach-gleser formula (cascio & boudreau, 2011). demonstrating the monetary value of using psychological assessments in selection to predict future performance or evaluating the increases in performance because of development initiatives could further bolster human resource professionals’ and industrial psychologists’ strategic position in organisations. limitations and recommendations statistical power did not enable an inspection of the inter-factor correlations between the broad dimensions. a bifactor model could be specified in the future, one that extracts the five general factors whilst freeing in-role, extra-role, adaptive, leadership and counterproductive performance to covary, to determine discriminant validity at a broad dimensional level. a calculation of statistical power for a bifactor cfa, based on computer software developed by preacher and coffman (2006), suggested that 18.65 participants per variable (k = 80) would be required to ensure a 0.80 probability that an incorrect model with 2990 degrees of freedom is correctly rejected (α = 0.05; null rmsea = 0.05; alternative rmsea = 0.08). the required sample size would amount to 1492 performance ratings in the future (maccallum, browne, & sugawara, 1996). the scope of the present study did not extend to a hierarchical level above the five performance factors. future studies could investigate the presence of a general factor amongst the in-role, extra-role, adaptive, leadership and counterproductive performance factors as a general pro-organisation component of performance in the iwpr (viswesvaran et al., 2005). a general pro-organisation factor may provide an even more reliable score of individual work performance and may be used to run validity studies at the corresponding level of predictors. for example, the general performance factor could be used when the predictive validity of the metatrait integrity (a composite of conscientiousness, agreeableness and neuroticism) has to be determined (ones, dilchert, viswesvaran, & judge, 2007). the present study alluded to constructs that could help build the nomological network of antecedents to performance such as personality. other predictors of performance that could be inspected in the future include cognitive ability and interest congruence (sackett et al., 2021). a further important part of the nomological network, which is currently neglected in performance literature, is the consequences of individual work performance. future studies could expand the relevance of the iwpr by considering factors related to individual and unit-level effectiveness, such as salaries and profitability, respectively (campbell & wiernik, 2015; carpini et al., 2017). similar to the approach used by schepers (2008) and myburgh (2013), performance reviews based on the iwpr were limited to direct managers, to obtain a conservative estimate of performance. there is considerable evidence that rating source affects the psychometric properties of performance ratings (conway & huffcutt, 1997; heidemeier & moser, 2009). collecting data with just one combination of contextual features can thus serve only as preliminary evidence in establishing the structure of the instrument. based on the recommendations of scullen, mount and judge (2003), future studies could inspect the inter-rater reliability and measurement invariance of the factor model when assessments are completed by different raters, including the self, subordinates and peers. as more data are collected, the invariance of the model across job families could also be inspected as an additional contextual feature that should be taken into consideration. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank their colleagues at jvr africa group and the university of johannesburg for thoughtfully engaging them in stimulating conversations on the conceptualisation and measurement of individual work performance. competing interests both authors are employees of jvr africa group, which is the company for which this instrument was developed. authors’ contributions x.v.l. and n.t. developed the conceptual framework and devised the method. x.v.l analysed the data. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability coefficients based on the bifactor confirmatory factor analysis are available on request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references aguinis, h. (2019). performance management (4th ed.). chicago, il: chicago business press. aguinis, h., & burgi-tian, j. (2021). talent management challenges during covid-19 and beyond: performance management to the rescue. brq business research quarterly, 24(3), 233–240. https://doi.org/10.1177/23409444211009528 aguinis, h., & edwards, j.r. (2014). methodological wishes for the next decade and how to make wishes come true. journal of management studies, 51(1), 143–174. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12058 anderson, j.c., & gerbing, d.w. (1991). predicting the performance of measures in a confirmatory factor analysis with a pretest assessment of their substantive validities. journal of applied psychology, 76(5), 732–740. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.76.5.732 bandalos, d.l. (2014). relative performance of categorical diagonally weighted least squares and robust maximum likelihood estimation. structural equation modeling, 21(1), 102–116. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2014.859510 bartram, d. (2005). the great eight competencies: a criterion-centric approach to validation. journal of applied psychology, 90(6), 1185–1203. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.90.6.1185 beaujean, a.a. (2014). latent variable modeling using r: a step-by-step guide. new york, ny: routledge. bennett, r.j., & robinson, s.l. (2000). development of a measure of workplace deviance. journal of applied psychology, 85(3), 349–360. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.85.3.349 bonifay, w., lane, s.p., & reise, s.p. (2017). three concerns with applying a bifactor model as a structure of psychopathology. clinical psychological science, 5(1), 184–186. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702616657069 borman, w.c., & brush, d.h. (1993). more progress toward a taxonomy of managerial performance requirements. human performance, 6, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup0601_1 borman, w.c., & motowidlo, s.j. (1997). task performance and contextual performance: the meaning for personnel selection research. human performance, 10(2), 99–109. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup1002_3 brown, t.a. (2015). confirmatory factor ana lysis for applied research. new york, ny: the guilford press. browne, m.w., & cudeck, r. (1992). alternative ways of assessing model fit. sociological methods & research, 21(2), 230–258. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124192021002005 campbell, j.p. (2012). behavior, performance, and effectiveness in the twenty-first century. in s.w.j. kozlowski (ed.), the oxford handbook of organizational psychology (pp. 159–194). new york, ny: oxford university press. campbell, j.p., mccloy, r.a., oppler, s.h., & sager, c.e. (1993). a theory of performance. in n.w. schmitt & w.c. borman (eds.), personnel selection in organizations (pp. 35–70). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass publishers. carpini, j.a., parker, s.k., & griffin, m.a. (2017). a look back and a leap forward: a review and synthesis of the individual work performance literature. academy of management annals, 11(2), 825–885. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2015.0151 cascio, w.f., & boudreau, j. (2011). investing in people: financial impact of human resource initiatives (2nd ed.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson education. casper, w.c., edwards, b.d., wallace, j.c., landis, r.s., & fife, d.a. (2020). selecting response anchors with equal intervals for summated rating scales. journal of applied psychology, 105(4), 390–409. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000444 conway, j.m., & huffcutt, a.i. (1997). psychometric properties of multisource performance ratings: a meta-analysis of subordinate, supervisor, peer, and self-ratings. human performance, 10(4), 331–360. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup1004_2 cortina, l.m., magley, v.j., williams, j.h., & langhout, r.d. (2001). incivility in the workplace: incidence and impact. journal of occupational health psychology, 6(1), 64–80. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.6.1.64 credé, m., & harms, p.d. (2015). 25 years of higher-order confirmatory factor analysis in the organizational sciences: a critical review and development of reporting recommendations. journal of organizational behavior, 36(6), 845–872. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2008 cronbach, l.j., & gleser, g.c. (1965). psychological tests and personnel decisions (2nd ed.). urbana, il: university of illinois press. dueber, d.m. (2017). bifactor indices calculator: a microsoft excel-based tool to calculate various indic es relevant to bifactor cfa models. lexington, ky: uknowledge, university of kentucky. https://doi.org/10.13023/edp.tool.01 dueber, d.m. (2020). bifactor indices calculator. retrieved from https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/bifactorindicescalculator/bifactorindicescalculator.pdf frese, m., fay, d., hilburger, t., leng, k., & tag, a. (1997). the concept of personal initiative: operationalization, reliability and validity in two german samples. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 70(2), 139–161. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1997.tb00639.x george, j.m., & brief, a.p. (1992). feeling good-doing good: a conceptual analysis of the mood at work–organizational spontaneity relationship. psychological bulletin, 112(2), 310–329. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.2.310 gruys, m.l., & sackett, p.r. (2003). investigating the dimensionality of counterproductive work behavior. international journal of selection and assessment, 11(1), 30–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00224 harari, m.b., reaves, a.c., & viswesvaran, c. (2016). creative and innovative performance: a meta-analysis of relationships with task, citizenship, and counterproductive job performance dimensions. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 25(4), 495–511. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2015.1134491 harari, m.b., & viswesvaran, c. (2018). individual job performance. in d.s. ones, n. anderson, c. viswesvaran, & h.k. sinangil (eds.), the sage handbook of industrial, work, and organizational psychology: personnel psychology and employee performance (pp. 55–72). thousand oaks, ca: sage. hedge, j.w., borman, w.c., bruskiewicz, k.t., & bourne, m.j. (2004). the development of an integrated performance category system for supervisory jobs in the u.s. navy. military psychology, 16(4), 231–243. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327876mp1604_2 heidemeier, h., & moser, k. (2009). self-other agreement in job performance ratings: a meta-analytic test of a process model. journal of applied psychology, 94(2), 353–370. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.94.2.353 hinkin, t.r. (1998). a brief tutorial on the development of measures for use in survey questionnaires. organizational research methods, 1(1), 104–121. https://doi.org/10.1177/109442819800100106 hogan, r., & sherman, r.a. (2020). personality theory and the nature of human nature. personality and individual differences, 152, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.109561 holtom, b., baruch, y., aguinis, h., & ballinger, g.a. (2022). survey response rates: trends and a validity assessment framework. human relations, 00(0), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267211070769 howard, m.c., & melloy, r.c. (2016). evaluating item-sort task methods: the presentation of a new statistical significance formula and methodological best practices. journal of business and psychology, 31(1), 173–186. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-015-9404-y hu, l., & bentler, p.m. (1999). cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. structural equation modeling: a multidisciplinary journal, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 hunt, s.t. (1996). generic work behavior: an investigation into the dimensions of entry-level, hourly job performance. personnel psychology, 49(1), 51–83. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1996.tb01791.x judge, t.a., rodell, j.b., klinger, r.l., simon, l.s., & crawford, e.r. (2013). hierarchical representations of the five-factor model of personality in predicting job performance: integrating three organizing frameworks with two theoretical perspectives. journal of applied psychology, 98(6), 875–925. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033901 katz, d. (1964). the motivational basis of organizational behavior. behavioral science, 9(2), 131–146. https://doi.org/10.1002/bs.3830090206 kline, r.b. (2011). principles and practice of structural equation modeling. new york, ny: the guilford press. koopmans, l., bernaards, c., hildebrandt, v., van buuren, s., van der beek, a.j., & de vet, h.c.w. (2012). development of an individual work performance questionnaire. international journal of productivity and performance management, 62(1), 6–28. https://doi.org/10.1108/17410401311285273 koopmans, l., bernaards, c.m., hildebrandt, v.h., schaufeli, w.b., de vet, h.c.w., & van der beek, a.j. (2011). conceptual frameworks of individual work performance: a systematic review. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 53(8), 856–866. https://doi.org/10.1097/jom.0b013e318226a763 maccallum, r.c., browne, m.w., & sugawara, h.m. (1996). power analysis and determination of sample size for covariance structure modeling. psychological methods, 1(2), 130–149. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989x.1.2.130 marcus, b., taylor, o.a., hastings, s.e., sturm, a., & weigelt, o. (2016). the structure of counterproductive work behavior: a review, a structural meta-analysis, and a primary study. journal of management, 42(1), 203–233. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206313503019 martin, r.j., & hine, d.w. (2005). development and validation of the uncivil workplace behavior questionnaire. journal of occupational health psychology, 10(4), 477–490. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.10.4.477 mcabee, t.s., oswald, l.f., & connelly, s.b. (2014). bifactor models of personality and college student performance. european journal of personality, 28, 604–619. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.1975 motowidlo, s.j., & van scotter, j.r. (1994). evidence that task performance should be distinguished from contextual performance. journal of applied psychology, 79(4), 475–480. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.79.4.475 murphy, k.j. (1990). performance measurement and appraisal: motivating managers to identify and reward punishment. rochester, ny: business – managerial economics research center. myburgh, h.m. (2013). the development and evaluation of a generic individual non-managerial performance measure (unpublished magister dissertation). stellenbosch university, stellenbosch. retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.985.2008&rep=rep1&type=pdf ones, d.s., dilchert, s., viswesvaran, c., & judge, t.a. (2007). in support of personality assessment in organizational settings. personnel psychology, 60(4), 995–1027. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2007.00099.x oreg, s. (2003). resistance to change: developing an individual differences measure. journal of applied psychology, 88(4), 680–693. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.4.680 organ, d.w. (1997). organizational citizenship behavior: it’s construct clean-up time. human performance, 10(2), 85–97. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup1002_2 organ, d.w. (1988). organizational citizenship behavior: the good soldier syndrome. lexington, ma: lexington books. podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., paine, j.b., & bachrach, d.g. (2000). organizational citizenship behaviors: a critical review of the theoretical and empirical literature and suggestions for future research. journal of management, 26(3), 513–563. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630002600307 preacher, k.j., & coffman, d.l. (2006). computing power and minimum sample size for rmsea [computer software]. retrieved from http://quantpsy.org/ pulakos, e.d., arad, s., donovan, m.a., & plamondon, k.e. (2000). adaptability in the workplace: development of a taxonomy of adaptive performance. journal of applied psychology, 85(4), 612–624. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.85.4.612 r core team. (2016). r: a language and environment for statistical computing. retrieved from reference index website https://cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-release/fullrefman.pdf reise, s.p., bonifay, w.e., & haviland, m.g. (2013). scoring and modeling psychological measures in the presence of multidimensionality. journal of personality assessment, 95(2), 129–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2012.725437 renn, r.w., & fedor, d.b. (2001). development and field test of a feedback seeking, self-efficacy, and goal setting model of work performance. journal of management, 27(5), 563–583. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0149-2063(01)00108-8 rhemtulla, m., brosseau-liard, p.é., & savalei, v. (2012). when can categorical variables be treated as continuous? a comparison of robust continuous and categorical sem estimation methods under suboptimal conditions. psychological methods, 17(3), 354–373. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029315 rodriguez, a., reise, s.p., & haviland, m.g. (2016). applying bifactor statistical indices in the evaluation of psychological measures. journal of personality assessment, 98(3), 223–237. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2015.1089249 rönkkö, m., & cho, e. (2020). an updated guideline for assessing discriminant validity. organizational research methods, 25(1), 6–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428120968614 rosseel, y. (2012). lavaan: an r package for structural equation modeling. journal of statistical software, 48(2), 1–36. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v048.i02 rosseel, y., & jorgensen, t.d. (2021). latent variable analysis. package ‘lavaan’. retrieved from https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/lavaan/lavaan.pdf rotundo, m., & sackett, p.r. (2002). the relative importance of task, citizenship, and counterproductive performance to global ratings of job performance: a policy-capturing approach. journal of applied psychology, 87(1), 66–80. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.1.66 sackett, p.r., zhang, c., berry, c.m., & lievens, f. (2021). revisiting meta-analytic estimates of validity in personnel selection: addressing systematic overcorrection for restriction of range. journal of applied psychology, 1–29. advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000994 sackett, p.r., zhang, c., berry, c.m., & lievens, f. (2021). revisiting meta-analytic estimates of validity in personnel selection: addressing systematic overcorrection for restriction of range. journal of applied psychology. advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000994 satorra, a., & bentler, p.m. (1994). corrections to test statistics and standard errors in covariance structure analysis. in a. von eye & c.c. clogg (eds.), latent variables analysis: applications for developmental research (pp. 399–419). thousands oaks, ca: sage. schepers, j.m. (2008). the construction and evaluation of a generic work performance questionnaire for use with administrative and operational staff. sa journal of industrial psychology, 34(1), 10–22. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v34i1.414 scott, s.g., & bruce, r.a. (1994). determinants of innovative behavior: a path model of individual innovation in the workplace. academy of management journal, 37(3), 580–607. https://doi.org/10.5465/256701 scullen, s.e., mount, m.k., & judge, t.a. (2003). evidence of the construct validity of developmental ratings of managerial performance. journal of applied psychology, 88(1), 50–66. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.1.50 spector, p.e. (2019). do not cross me: optimizing the use of cross-sectional designs. journal of business and psychology, 34(2), 125–137. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-018-09613-8 spector, p.e., & fox, s. (2005). the stressor–emotion model of counterproductive work behavior. in p.e. spector & s. fox (eds.), counterproductive work behavior (pp. 151–174). washington, dc: american psychological association. spector, p.e., fox, s., penney, l.m., bruursema, k., goh, a., & kessler, s. (2006). the dimensionality of counterproductivity: are all counterproductive behaviors created equal? journal of vocational behavior, 68(3), 446–460. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2005.10.005 tepper, b.j., schriesham, c.a., nehring, d., nelson, r.j., taylor, e.c., & eisenbach, r.j. (1998). the multi-dimensionality and multifunctionality of subordinates’ resistance to downward influence attempts. in annual meeting of the academy of management. san diego, ca. tett, r.p., guterman, h.a., bleier, a., & murphy, p.j. (2000). development and content validation of a ‘hyperdimensional’ taxonomy of managerial competence. human performance, 13(3), 205–251. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup1303_1 uhl-bien, m., & arena, m. (2017). complexity leadership: enabling people and organizations for adaptability. organizational dynamics, 46(1), 9–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2016.12.001 van aarde, n., meiring, d., & wiernik, b.m. (2017). the validity of the big five personality traits for job performance: meta-analyses of south african studies. international journal of selection and assessment, 25(3), 223–239. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsa.12175 van der vaart, l. (2021). the performance measurement conundrum: construct validity of the individual work performance questionnaire in south africa. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 24(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v24i1.3581 van dyne, l., cummings, l.l., & mclean, p.j. (1995). extra-role behaviors: in pursuit of construct and definitional clarity (a bridge over muddied waters). in l.l. cummings & b.m. staw (eds.), research in organizational behavior (pp. 215–285). greenwich, ca: jai press. van lill, x., & taylor, n. (2021). the manifestation of the 10 personality aspects amongst the facets of the basic traits inventory. african journal of psychological assessment, 3, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajopa.v3i0.31 venter, r., levy, a., holtzhausen, m., conradie, m., bendeman, h., & dworzanowskiventer, b. (2014). labour relations in south africa. cape town, south africa: oxford university press. viswesvaran, c., schmidt, f.l., & ones, d.s. (2005). is there a general factor in ratings of job performance? a meta-analytic framework for disentangling substantive and error influences. journal of applied psychology, 90(1), 108–131. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.90.1.108 yuan, k.h., & bentler, p.m. (1998). normal theory based test statistics in structural equation modeling. british journal of mathematical and statistical psychology, 51, 289–309. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8317.1998.tb00682.x yukl, g. (2012). effective leadership behavior: what we know and what questions need more attention. academy of management perspectives, 26(4), 66–85. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2012.0088 article information authors: antoni barnard1 dorè peters2 helene muller3 affiliations: 1department of industrial and organisational psychology, unisa, south africa 2summit financial partners, south africa 3computer services department, unisa, south africa correspondence to: antoni barnard email: barnaha@unisa.ac.za postal address: po box 392, unisa 0003, pretoria, south africa keywords employee wellness; financial health; insurance industry; industrial psychology sense of coherence (soc); quantitative-relational survey design dates: received: 31 aug. 2009 accepted: 18 nov. 2009 published: 04 june 2010 how to cite this article: barnard, a., peters, d., & mueller, h. (2010). financial health and sense of coherence. sa journal of human resource management/ sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #247, 12 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.247 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) financial health and sense of coherence in this original research article... open access • abstract • introduction    • psychological wellness and sense of coherence    • financial health    • problem statement and research objective • research design    • research approach    • research methodology       • sampling       • measuring instruments       • data collection       • data-analysis methodology • results    • sample description    • exploratory analysis of fhs data    • calculation of an fh index    • factor analysis of olq-13 data    • scale-reliability testing on olq-13 responseitem subsets    • inferential analysis of the relationship between financial health and soc       • anova on general soc scores: model (income, fh index, reason, age)       • anova on general soc scores: model (fhs indicators)       • profile of respondents with a high or low soc       • profile of respondents with a healthy or unhealthy financial profile • discussion    • integration of results    • managerial implications    • possible limitations of the study    • suggestions for future research    • conclusion • references abstract (back to top) orientation: this article reports on a quantitative-relational study addressing the impact of sense of coherence (soc), which is a psychological-wellness construct, on the financial-health profile of employees in an insurance company. research purpose: the objective of the study was to explore the relationship between psychological wellness as operationalised in the soc construct and in financial health. motivation for the study: financial pressure can be a major stressor in the workplace, affecting employees’ ability to function optimally. the debt crisis in south africa is therefore necessitating employers to invest in the financial health of their employees. in light of the national credit act 34 of 2005, employers should, in fact, provide debt counselling to employees struggling with financial problems. in the south african context, however, studies investigating the potential influence of psychological-wellness constructs on financial health are lacking. research design, approach and method: a cross-sectional survey design was applied and a quantitative-relational approach followed. from the 1 100 employees in a financial insurance company, 435 completed questionnaires were received. main findings: the empirical results indicated a significant relationship between the variables, confirming that a stronger soc impacts positively on employees’ financial health. a stronger soc therefore relates positively to more effective debt management and retirement planning. practical/managerial implications: the findings emphasised the importance of debt management and retirement planning being addressed and integrated into employee-assistance strategies and programmes. contribution/value-add: this study is a significant step in addressing financial health from a psychological perspective. introduction (back to top) turbulence and uncertainty in the international economic climate have been mirrored in the south african context over the past couple of years. many have praised the good economic climate in south africa since becoming a democracy. in retrospect, however, havenga (2008) questioned the effect that low interest rates prior to 2008 have had on consumer expectations and spending behaviour. it seems that the little financial pressure that people experienced gave rise to an increase in spending behaviour and a concurrent increase in lending and household debt. the increase in interest rates, fuel price hikes, living expenses and the steep inflation rate have, since the beginning of 2008, increasingly put pressure on household-income spending. despite relief in the form of lowered interest rates since december 2008 (whitfield, 2009), financial pressure is being exacerbated by the lending culture that has evolved in the country. recently, economists have been concerned that consumers will increase their debt loan until they can literally borrow no more (enterprise risk, 2008) and many agree that the bad debt situation in south africa will remain serious for some time (steyn, 2009; whitfield, 2009). according to south africa’s national credit regulator (ncr1) (in whitfield, 2009), household debt (such as mortgage, credit-card, leasing and instalment debt) deteriorated in the fourth quarter of 2008 and bad debt increased. during this time, piliso (2008), reviewing a consumer-debt report, concluded that south africans are trapped in the worst debt crisis yet. moreover, a survey by summit2 during september/november 2008 in the it industry indicated that over-indebtedness remains a reality in many south african households. summit’s findings indicated that, for example, members of the higher-income group of the sample show lower financial health because they struggle to repay their debt. these findings seem to support the argument by carrier and maurice (1998) that dysfunctional spending behaviour is exhibited by people in all spheres of the economic continuum. carrier and maurice further suggested that spending behaviour is determined largely by psychological factors rather than by level of income. concern regarding consumer spending and over-indebtedness is also reflected in the institution of the national credit act 34 of 2005, which came into operation in june 2007 (steyn, 2009). the purpose of the act is to assist consumers with their financial planning, especially with controlling their debt. according to the ncr, which is the regulator of the act (in whitfield, 2009), more than 50 000 consumers have applied for debt counselling. we agree with carrier and maurice (1998) that a better understanding of psychological factors impacting on one’s financial health may improve the capacity of organisations, debt counsellors and employee-assistance consultants to provide financial assistance. 1.information on the functioning of the ncr can be accessed on their website at http://www.ncr.org.za 2.summit is an independent company consisting of financial well-being experts focusing on improving people’s quality of life through financial consulting, training and coaching. financial pressure and especially debt can be a major source of stress in the workplace (cox, hooker, markwick & reilly, 2009; siahpush, spittal & gopal, 2007). bosman (2007) argued that employees’ debt-related problems become the organisation’s problems due to the fact that such strain affects employees’ productivity and their ability to function optimally (also see hr highway, 2007). although the link between spending behaviour and psychological characteristics was noted by some (burgess, 2005; carrier & maurice, 1998; macewen, barling, kelloway & higginbottom, 1995), carrier and maurice (1998) strongly suggested that further research needs to be done on exploring the psychological aspects that may impact on spending behaviour to improve the organisation’s efficiency in providing financial-planning assistance. in view of the above, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between employees’ financial health and their psychological wellness as operationalised in the sense of coherence (soc) construct. psychological wellness and sense of coherence from a holistic perspective, wellness is regarded as a complete state of well-being or of integrated optimal living in different spheres of life, including the physical (body), emotional, intellectual (mind), spiritual (spirit), work and social spheres (csiernik, 1995; els & de la rey, 2006; myers & sweeney, 2005; wissing, 2000). the scientific study of optimal living has a research record spanning over 36 years and includes numerous approaches, theories and concepts, currently regarded as constituting the field of positive psychology (coetzee & viviers, 2007). as a result, various psychological wellness constructs have evolved, supporting the view that psychological wellness is a multidimensional phenomenon with optimal living at its core (gropp, geldenhuys & visser, 2007). a construct from the field of positive psychology of particular interest to this study is the salutogenic construct of soc, identified by antonovsky (1979) in his exploration of people’s psychological coping. according to van schalkwyk and rothmann (2008), soc has been the focus of much research, the usefulness of the construct being widely supported because it correlates strongly with health in general. soc has also been a widely researched variable in south african research in the field of industrial and organisational psychology, both in the past (strümpfer & wissing, 1998; viviers & cilliers, 1999) and more recently (herbst, coetzee & visser, 2007; nel, crafford & roodt, 2004; oosthuizen & van lill, 2008; van der colff & rothmann, 2009; van schalkwyk & rothmann, 2008).the salutogenic approach accepts that stress, uncertainty, trauma and other difficulties are an inevitable part of life in general and of work life in particular (coetzee & cilliers, 2001; oosthuizen & van lill, 2008; strümpfer, 1995). however, despite these life and work stressors (in the context of this study, for example, the economic climate and ensuing financial stress articulated above), people manage to control them and some even thrive under such difficult circumstances due to the strength of their soc (antonovsky, 1979). antonovsky (1979, p. 123) defined soc as ‘a global orientation that expresses the extent to which one has a pervasive, enduring though dynamic feeling of confidence that one’s internal and external environments are predictable and that there is a high probability that things will work out as well as expected’. he continued to explain that soc represents a basic life orientation that enables one to consider the best coping strategy for a specific problem (antonovsky, 1987). similarly, gropp et al. (2007) and van schalkwyk and rothman (2008) referred to soc as a general orientation to one’s environment that serves as a source of general resistance resources in order to deal with life demands. as such, soc facilitates one’s ability to perceive and control the environment for meaningful and appropriate action (van schalkwyk & rothmann, 2008). salutogenic functioning and soc in particular consist of three constructs – namely, comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness (antonovsky & sourani, 1988; coetzee & cilliers, 2001; gropp et al., 2007; herbst et al., 2007). the comprehensibility construct refers to a constructive cognitive function through which individuals perceive confronting environmental stimuli as understandable and constructive and they can use it to facilitate effective decision making. the manageability construct refers to the extent to which individuals perceive that their resources are adequate to meet the demands posed by external stressors and challenges. the meaningfulness construct refers to the extent to which individuals feel that life makes sense and that challenges and stimuli encountered are worthwhile to address and resolve. financial health on the one hand, financial health implies a relatively objective meaning referring to the ability to manage income and expenses in a manner that results in an acceptably stable and manageable financial situation or what whitfield (2009) referred to as ‘normal economic activity’, which includes a manageable debt situation. on the other hand, financial health also involves the subjective experience of financial well-being (compare carrier & maurice, 1998; hr highway, 2007). the subjective experience of financial well-being implies the perception of being able to manage a good and satisfactory living within the boundaries of one’s income. in this regard, siahpush et al. (2007, p. 2283) referred to ‘material well-being’, which they measured by ascertaining people’s perceptions of their material well-being on a continuum ranging from being prosperous to being very poor. in summary, cox et al. (2009, p. vi) defined financial well-being comprehensively as referring to ‘subjective perceptions and objective indicators of individuals’ personal financial status’.although general definitions of wellness specify optimal functioning with regard to the physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual and social spheres of life, the financial aspects of one’s life may definitely be included as an additional wellness dimension, as it also affects many other spheres of life, such as family and social life (carrier & maurice, 1998) and work life (hr highway, 2007). problem statement and research objective the increasing economic pressure over the last couple of years is a reality, giving rise to employee debt, which should be managed by organisations to retain a psychologically and financially healthy workforce. according to hr highway (2007), it is generally known that anyone under financial stress struggles to work optimally, affecting not only the individual’s performance but also that of co-workers and, ultimately, of the organisation (also see cox et al., 2009). apart from demographic characteristics and personal financial behaviours that predict financial well-being (cox et al., 2009), there is no evidence identifying particular psychological constructs that may relate to financial health. due to the recognition of psychological strengths, such as soc, in facilitating optimal living despite environmental challenges and stressors, it seems reasonable to question whether a strong soc would enable a person to manage economic pressures more effectively than a person with a lower soc.in light of the above-stated research problem, the objective of this study was to explore the relationship between soc and financial health. the following research hypotheses were formulated: hypothesis 1: respondents with a healthy financial profile present with a significantly higher soc than those with an unhealthy financial profile. hypothesis 2: respondents with a high soc present with a significantly healthier financial health profile than those with a low soc. research design (back to top) research approach a cross-sectional survey design was applied in this study and a quantitative-relational approach was followed, through which the statistical relationships between the relevant variables – namely, soc and financial health, were analysed. data were collected by means of questionnaires. research methodology sampling a population of 1 100 employees at a financial insurance company was approached to partake in the study. all post levels were approached to ensure a representative sample and to adhere to the principles of a cross-sectional survey design. participation was voluntary (convenience sampling) and 435 completed questionnaires were returned, constituting a 40% response rate. measuring instruments orientation to life questionnaire (olq): antonovsky (1987) constructed a 29-item scale to measure soc as well as a 13-item format of the same scale, both of which are referred to as the olq. various adapted forms of the olq have since been used (van schalkwyk & rothmann, 2008). in this study, soc was measured by means of the shortened 13-item version of the olq. the olq-13 is a self-report questionnaire evaluating one’s tendency to experience life, in general, as comprehensible, manageable and meaningful. the higher the score on the olq, the stronger the soc. the reliability and validity of the olq-13 were established in various previous studies (antonovsky, 1993; feldt & rasku, 1998; muller, 2007; sandell, blomberg & lazar, 1998; strümpfer & wissing, 1998; van schalkwyk & rothmann, 2008). financial health survey (fhs): according to cox et al. (2009), objective indicators of financial well-being include measures such as income, debt, savings, financial planning and budgeting as well as knowledge of financial services and products. the fhs was developed for this study based on various objective indicators of financial health and was used to gather data on the respondents’ financial-health behaviour. the fhs includes seven biographical questions and six items describing a person’s income status, debt situation, reason for over-indebtedness, financial planning in general as well as orientation towards retirement and saving. data collection all the employees of the financial insurance company were invited to attend the launch of the company’s financial-health services during a two-day health conference. company management had been approached for consent for this study to be conducted. among other activities, the employees were consequently personally invited to complete the measurement instruments. the ethical aspects of freedom of choice, confidentiality and privacy were addressed in the sense that participation was anonymous and vol untary. a trained assessor was available to each participant for guidance through the instructions and to answer any questions. data-analysis methodology the research questions imbedded in the research objectives were addressed by implementing a logical sequence of statistical-analysis techniques as indicated in the following paragraphs. all analyses were performed with the statistical analysis system software package version 9.1. an exploratory analysis was first conducted on biographical and fhs data. the one-way frequency distributions of the sample demographics reflected in table 1 were used to describe the sampled population of the insurance-company employees who participated in the study. composite-frequency distributions calculated on the fhs variables provided an initial cursory overview of the general trend of the respondents’ financial well-being. three of the six non-biographical fhs variables were subsequently used to calculate a financial-health index (fh index) used in further analyses to explore the relationship between soc and financial health. an intercorrelation matrix among fhs indicators was calculated to determine interrelationships. table 1: sample characteristics ( n = 435) an exploratory-factor analysis was conducted to investigate the underlying structure of the olq-13 response data. structure verification was deemed necessary, since findings of other studies in literature indicated varying soc data structures ranging from a single-factor structure (one general construct) to several-factor structures (specific soc constructs). factor-analysis results for a single-factor structure analysis and a three-factor structure analysis were therefore tested for internal-consistency reliability with scale-reliability testing. the best factor-structure option was selected based on internal-consistency reliability and, in the final preparatory analyses, a set of soc scores per factor was derived (calculated per individual as the average response to all olq-13 questionnaire-item responses included in the factor). the general one-factor structure proved to be the best option. the single set of general soc construct scores was then classified as representing a high or a low soc according to a predetermined rule. once preparatory analyses of fhs and soc data were completed, the relationship between financial health and soc was addressed through analyses of variance (anova) using the general linear model (glm) approach; bonferroni multiple-comparisons-of-means tests were conducted on the soc general-construct scores. the two techniques established whether the soc general construct had a significant effect on financial-health indicators and, once identified, how soc affected financial health. financial-health indicators were represented in a first anova model by the fhs income variable, the calculated fh index, reason for over-indebtedness and age. in a second anova model, financial-health indicators were represented by the fhs indicators income, debt situation, financial planning, reason for over-indebtedness and attitude towards retirement. the two anova models were investigated to determine which anova model explains the most variability in the set of general soc scores. anova thus established whether a statistically significant relationship between financial health and soc existed. multiple comparisons of means tests identified how soc affected significant financial-health indicators. in this way, the established relationship between financial health and soc could be described. in a concluding step, a financial-health profile of the respondents with a high/low soc was extracted from two-way frequency tables as well as an soc profile of the respondents with a healthy/unhealthy financial situation. results (back to top) sample description the biographical properties of the respondents included in the study are presented in table 1 and serve to describe the sampled population.the response group was relatively young, with 43% of the respondents falling in the 26–35-year-old age category, 24% of the respondents being younger than 26 and only 33% being older than 35. the black population group was best represented in the sample (54%), followed by the white population group (19%), the indian population group (15%) and the coloured population group (12%). by far the majority of the respondents indicated that they had two or fewer or no dependants (85%), which is in agreement with the relatively young age distribution of the sampled employees. this also coincides with the fact that the largest contingent of the respondents (58%, plus 6.42% if divorced respondents are included) indicated that they were single. the female/male composition of the sample group was 67% (female) and 33% (male), with only 38% of the respondents indicating that they were the only household earner. exploratory analysis of fhs data the frequency distributions of the financial-health variables in table 2 present a general picture of the respondents’ financial health, indicating that 48% of the respondents earned less than r10 000 per month, while 52% earned more. results further indicated that 57% reported manageable debt and 34% a more sombre debt situation. table 2: frequency of fhs indicators only 28% indicated that they did active financial planning, with a substantial proportion (52%) indicating their intent to plan but lacking the know-how. almost 20% of the respondents had no clear financial direction. a total of 34% of the respondents indicated that they were over-indebted (146 out of the total of 435). these employees either struggled to pay their monthly debt instalments or could not afford to pay them at all. primary reasons cited for over-indebtedness were unplanned expenses, forcing unaffordable loans (33.45%) and irresponsible spending by themselves (35%) or by their spouses (6.18%) as well as an increase in interest rates, which had not been foreseen, catering for 23%. a large proportion of the respondents (61.23%) did not seem to plan sufficiently for retirement, with 38.77% able to save more than the minimum retirement premium each month. the figures in the fhs therefore seemed to suggest a fairly unhealthy financial position among a substantial proportion of the sampled employees. calculation of an fh index since the relationship between soc and financial health was the main purpose of the research, a single index of financial health – the fh index – was derived from four of the financial-health indicators probed in the fhs questionnaire. entering a single fh index variable into the regression model would later produce a parsimonious prediction model and an easily interpretable relationship between financial health and soc. cox et al. (2009) reported that financial health is predicted by people who do proactive financial planning and have manageable debt. following this assumption, an fh index was subsequently calculated based on the indicators of proactive financial planning and manageable debt contained in the fhs categories of debt situation, financial planning and retirement planning. another reason that the particular fhs indicators were selected was that significant correlations among them were established. these are presented in table 3. table 3: intercorrelation matrix of fanancial health survey indicators the fh index for each respondent was initially set to a value of six. individual indices were derived by adding 2, 1, -1 or -2 to the value depending on the option selected for each of the three indicators mentioned above. a negative value was added to the initial index value if an option for an indicator was regarded as contributing to an unhealthy personal financial situation and a positive value was added if an option was regarded as contributing to a healthy personal financial situation. table 4 provides a summative indication of the protocol that was followed in deriving the fh index for each participant. the value of the fh index varies between 1 and 12. the respondents’ index values were categorised as representing either a healthy, average or unhealthy financial situation depending on whether the individual fh indices fell between 1 and 4 (unhealthy), 5 and 7 (average) or 8 and 12 (healthy) below or above 5. table 4: protocol followed in deriving an index of financial health factor analysis of olq-13 data a factor analysis was conducted on the olq-13 scores to investigate the underlying structure of the data. the maximum likelihood method factor analysis with varimax rotation (orthogonal rotation) was initially used. promax rotation (non-orthogonal rotation) was also investigated to accommodate the interrelationships between the constructs as mentioned by antonovsky (1987).firstly, results from these analyses indicated, with statistical significance, that at least one factor could be assumed for the soc data structure (the probability associated with the chi-square statistic of 1 068.89 in the null hypothesis of no common factor structure was less than 0.0001). secondly, however, additional results indicated that a large proportion of the variation in the soc scores could be accounted for by three factors; scree-plot results also suggested the possibility of three factors. analysis results thus offered the options of a one-factor or a three-factor data structure. the three-factor structure of the current research was compared against factors initially identified in research by antonovsky (1987) as comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness. table 5 summarises this comparison. table 5: comparison of sense of coherence constructs identified in current and other research the comparison firstly indicated that the factor analysis in the current research excluded the contribution of three olq-13 questionnaire items (items 1, 4 and 7) from the factor structure due to their factor loadings being less than the critical value of 0.3. the comparison secondly indicated that aspects of the three factors agreed to some extent but that discrepancies among constructs were evident. disparity could be ascribed to the sample size being relatively small (419) and to the intertwined nature of the three constructs described by antonovsky (1987) and other researchers (schumann, hapke, meyer, rumpf & john, 2003). according to schumann et al. (2003), repeated factor analyses of the olq scale failed to identify distinctive separate factors representing the theoretically suggested three-construct structure of soc. originally, according to antonovsky, a general soc construct that can often be arranged according to three soc components exists – namely, comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness. he did later, however, suggest that these three theoretical components should not be considered as subscales of the soc measure and, based on a review of several studies, concluded that a single factor is more likely to result from factor analysis (van schalkwyk & rothmann, 2008). muller (2007) also commented on studies confirming high intercorrelations among the three components. the outcome of the comparison of the three constructs prompted the researchers to use the one-factor structure option – the general soc construct – rather than the three-factor structure option in further analyses on the relationship between soc and financial health. this decision was substantiated by internal-consistency reliability testing conducted both on the single factor of the one-factor structure option and on the three factors of the three-factor structure option suggested by the factor analysis results. the results of the scale-reliability testing are described in the next section. scale-reliability testing on olq-13 response-item subsets scale-reliability testing was conducted on the responses of each subset of the olq-13 questionnaire items identified in the factor analyses describing a factor in the soc data structure. the subsets are given in table 6. scale-reliability testing evaluates internal-consistency reliability.the internal-consistency reliability for each of the three subsets of questionnaire items comprising the factors of the three-factor soc data structure was found to be unsatisfactory. this was expected due to the results of the previous factor-analysis studies mentioned above and because the factor analysis described in the preceding section indicated that constructs in the current analysis and those suggested by antonovsky (1987) did not agree. the internal-consistency reliability of the general soc construct, identified in the single-factor soc data structure, was, however, satisfactory, with a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.76. the results are presented in table 6. the findings of this study also confirmed the high internal-consistency reliabilities (with cronbach alpha values ranging between 0.84 and 0.93) found in several other studies mentioned by muller (2007). this fact substantiated the decision to use the general soc construct in further analysis. a general soc score was therefore calculated for each respondent as the mean response of the olq-13 questionnaire-item response ratings of each respondent. since internal-consistency reliability had been established, it could be assumed that the mean soc score would provide a reliable measure of the respondents’ soc. the construct mean scores for the relevant factors are also reported on in table 6. table 6: cronbach alpha associated with sense of coherence inferential analysis of the relationship between financial health and soc anova on general soc scores: model (income, fh index, reason, age) anova was conducted on the general soc construct scores, with income, fh index (which represented the combined effects of debt, financial planning and retirement planning), reason for indebtedness, age and interaction effects included in the model. the significance of models incorporating the other biographical variables as well was also investigated (including second-order interaction effects). the first-mentioned model, however, provided the model of best fit and is reported on below. the glm approach to anova was used, since the data was unbalanced. the anova assumptions of the normality of residuals and of the homogeneity of variances were complied with. from the results presented in table 7, general significance was established for the anova model on the 0.1% level of significance with a model-f statistical value of 5.86. income, fh index, reason for over-indebtedness and the interaction effect of age and fh index further proved to have a significant effect on soc. a significance level of at least 5% was associated with the respective f statistics. the r square value of 0.3119631 furthermore indicated that the model explained 32% of the variability in the soc scores. (the interaction effects that proved not to be significant were added to the error term.) the anova results thus established the significance of the effects of income, fh index, reason for over-indebtedness and age-by-fh-index interaction on soc but did not, however, explain the nature of the relationship between soc and statistically significant effects. the nature of the relationship was therefore investigated through bonferroni multiple-comparisons-of-means tests for mean effects and the multiple comparison of least-square means (with the bonferroni multiple-comparison adjustment for the p values for the differences of ls means) for interaction effects. table 8 illustrates soc means arranged according to income, fh index, reason for over-indebtedness and age-by-fh-index interaction categories and further illustrates that soc mean scores differed significantly among the financially healthy (with an soc mean of almost 58), average (with an soc mean of 52) and financially unhealthy (with an soc mean of 47) categories as well as between the higher-income (with an soc mean of almost 55) and lower-income (with an soc mean of almost 50) groupings. the tendency for higher soc means to be associated with higher fh was repeatedly illustrated for each age category in the age-by-fh interaction table. the nature of the interaction significance was explained by the very low 46+ age and unhealthy soc mean (of 38.2), which differed significantly from the greater soc means for all the financially healthy age groups (with mean scores of 56, 56, 60 and 58 for the age groups < 25, 26–35, 36–45 and 46+, respectively). the same holds true for the 46+ age and financially unhealthy respondents (with a mean of 38) and the financially average healthy age categories of < 25, 26–35 and 46+ (52, 53 and 58, respectively). table 7: anova on sense of coherence (soc) scores table 8: bonferroni multiple comparisons of means tests: main effect financial health survey (fhs) categories (income, fh-index, reason, age-by-fh-index) on sense of coherence (soc) table 8 continued... anova on general soc scores: model (fhs indicators) in the prediction model discussed in the previous section, the fh index was regarded as a parsimonious measure representing the fhs indicators of the level of indebtedness, financial planning and retirement planning. as an alternative to this relational model, an anova was conducted on the soc scores, with the individual fh effects of retirement planning, financial planning and debt situation included in the model. the effects of income, reason for over-indebtedness and second-order interaction effects were also entered into the model. in this model, there were 205 complete observation sets as opposed to the prediction model discussed in the previous section, with n = 203 complete observations. in the latter analysis, biographical variables again did not prove to have a significant effect on soc values and were therefore dropped from the model. the glm approach to anova was again used to accommodate the unbalanced data. anova assumptions of the normality of residuals and the homogeneity of variances were validated. the results of the anova presented in table 9 indicate general significance for the prediction model, with a probability of less than 0.0001 associated with the model-f statistic of 6.11, which was highly significant. significant effects on at least the 1% level of significance were indicated for the four fhs explanatory variables of income, debt situation, reason for over-indebtedness, retirement planning and the interaction effect of income-by-reason for over-indebtedness (with an f statistical-values range of 10.73, 8.67, 5.52, 5.47 and 2.09, respectively). financial planning was dropped from the model, since no significant effect could be established for this explanatory variable. since non-significance was indicated for the other interaction effects, their effect was added to the error term in the anova. the r square value of 0.310440 associated with this model implied that the model explained 31% of the variability in the soc scores. once significant effects had been identified, the nature of the relationship between soc and statistically significant financial-health effects was further investigated through bonferroni multiple-comparisons-of-means tests. table 10 illustrates the soc means arranged according to the categories of the main effects of the fhs indicators and illustrates the categories of the soc mean scores that differ significantly among the various indicators of financial health. the respondents in the > r10 000 income bracket displayed a significantly higher soc (55.06) than the respondents in the < r10 001 bracket, with an soc mean score of 50.55. the respondents with manageable debt had a significantly higher soc (56.36) than the respondents who claimed to have no debt (with an soc mean score of 52.5). those who struggled to handle their debt had an even lower soc mean score of 50.9. in terms of debt situation, those respondents who could not pay their monthly instalments displayed the lowest soc of all (soc mean = 44.29). reason for over-indebtedness also showed significant differences in mean soc scores. interestingly, the respondents who ascribed their over-indebtedness to credit providers who overcharged on interest and to increased interest rates displayed a significantly higher soc (57.2 and 55.9, respectively). lower soc mean scores were found for people who had unplanned expenses (soc = 48) and who declared their debt to be due to irresponsible spending (soc = 53.7). the table of means furthermore indicated that those respondents who paid a higher retirement premium than the minimum required and those planning to invest more once debt was repaid had a statistically significantly higher soc (55.4 and 53.11) than those who had no surplus cash on a monthly basis to invest in their retirement planning (mean soc of 49.47). the nature of significant income-by-reason-for-over-indebtedness interaction is explained in table 10 by a very low soc mean score of 45.32 for the lower-income respondents who had unexpected expenses and unaffordable loans. the mean differed significantly from all the higher income-indebted categories (except higher income, unplanned expenses). table 9: anova on sense of coherence (soc) and independent financial health survey (fhs) variables table 10: bonferroni multiple comparisons of means tests: main effect financial health survey (fhs) categories (income, debt situation, retirement planning, reason for over-indebtedness,) on sense of coherence (soc) table 10 continued... table 11:two way frequencies of sense of coherence (soc)-categories cross referenced with financial health survey (fhs) indicators and bio-data profile of respondents with a high or low soc on the strength of the significant relationship found between soc and financial-health indicators, a financial-health or demographic profile of respondents with a high or low soc was deduced from the two-way frequency tables and associated pearson chi-square and cochran-armitage trend tests (where applicable). this is presented in table 11. by comparing the within-category ratios for each of the biographical attributes and financial-health indicators for the high and low soc respondents, the profile of high soc respondents emerged from table 11 as respondents who more often • fell into the higher-income bracket (69/33 = approximately 2, as opposed to 41/64 = 0.64 for the low soc group) • did more constructive financial planning (as opposed to respondents with no direction) (61/14 = 4.36, as opposed to 16/38 = 0.42 for the low soc group) • planned constructively for retirement (the ratio of paying a larger premium to save once debt was paid off was 69/36 = 1.92, as opposed to 26/43 = 0.60 for the low soc group) • were financially healthy (as illustrated by the above-mentioned specific financial-health indicators and the healthy/unhealthy ratio of 96/5 = 19.2 for the high soc respondents, as opposed to 30/48 = 0.63 for the low soc respondents) • made use of a debt consultant, but proportionately significantly less often than the low soc group (99/33 = 3 as opposed to 111/10 = 11) • benefited from attending debt-management workshops but proportionately significantly less so than the low soc group (105/27 = 3.89 as opposed to 108/11 = 9.81) • were either white or indian (with a high soc to a low soc for whites with 39/7 = 5.6, for indians with 24/16 = 1.5, for coloureds with 12/15 = 0.80 and for blacks with 49/78 = 0.63) and • were married (the married to not-married ratio was 142/260 = 0.54 for the high soc group, as opposed to the ratio of 27/90 = 0.3 for the low soc group). by observing the same within-category ratios for each of the attributes for the high and low soc respondents as above, it can be seen that a significantly greater proportion of respondents (that is a statistically significant proportion) with a poor soc tended • to fall into the lower-income group (< r10 000 per month) • not to practise active financial planning (not to have aspirations and did not know how to work towards their goals or had no clear financial vision) • not to plan actively for retirement (they would start saving once debt was repaid and/or they had no monthly surplus cash available to plan with) • to have a financially unhealthy situation (with an fh index below 5) • to indicate that they would benefit from the advice of a debt counsellor and from attending a debt-management workshop • to be black or coloured and • to be single or divorced. profile of respondents with a healthy or unhealthy financial profile the significant distribution differences in the soc scores for financially healthy, average and financially unhealthy respondents are indicated in table 12. the accompanying trend test identified the established distribution difference as a significant difference in the trend between the financially healthy and the financially unhealthy respondents. by examining the two soc distributions, a lag in the soc values can be detected. the unhealthy financial-health distribution tends to be spread over an soc range of approximately 31–60, while the healthy fh-index distribution tends to range between 51 and at least 80. the deduction can be made that the soc of the respondents who were financially unhealthy was, on average, lower than that of the financially healthy respondents (the anova results in table 8 verify this, showing significantly different soc score means of 57.47 [for the healthy fh index] and 47.21 [for the unhealthy fh index]). table 12:sense of coherence (soc) distribution of financially healthy, average or unhealthy respondents discussion (back to top) the primary objective of this study was to explore the relationship between soc and financial health. both hypotheses initially formulated in this study were accepted. a statistically significant relationship was found between soc and financial health, highlighting the importance of approaching employees’ financial health not only from an economic perspective but also from a psychological perspective. research linking financial health to psychological wellness in the south african context is lacking and this research initiates studies in this regard. integration of results differences in the financial-health profile of people with a high soc and people with a low soc were explored, as was the soc distribution of the respondents exhibiting a healthy financial profile as opposed to those exhibiting an unhealthy financial profile. prior to the relational investigation between the two constructs, a factor analysis and an item analysis on olq-13 items were conducted. results support the use of a single general soc construct in further comparative analyses with fhs indicators, as opposed to the use of the 3-factor model initially suggested by antonovsky (1987). scale-reliability testing furthermore confirms that a general soc score would provide a reliable measure of respondents’ soc.when comparing various fhs indicators with soc, several influential and statistically significant effects were identified. the results with regard to an overall fh index show that the respondents with a healthier overall financial profile display a significantly higher soc than the respondents with an unhealthy financial profile. this implies that people with a higher soc probably have a greater ability to mobilise and generate resources to cope with financial pressure in a proactive manner. they may also tend to perceive themselves as able to cope with financial demands, thus strengthening their ability to remain financially healthy. by further implication, one can expect employees with a higher soc to react more positively to difficult financial times. specific fhs indicators, such as income, debt management, over-indebtedness and retirement planning, also show significant effects on soc mean scores and, together, explain 31% of the variance in soc scores. the result of the anova directly addresses the research question regarding a relationship between soc and financial health and confirms that a statistically significant relationship exists between soc and the fhs indicators of income, debt situation, reason for over-indebtedness and retirement planning. the respondents in the higher-income bracket display a significantly higher soc than the respondents in the lower-income bracket. this is contrary to the findings of an initial pilot study mentioned at the onset of this article, which suggested that higher-income group respondents exhibited less financial health. the reason for the different finding may, however, be related to the moderating effect of a very small sample size used in the pilot study. further results in this study are in agreement with the pilot-research findings. the respondents who manage their debt responsibly have a significantly higher soc than those unable to manage their debt and the respondents’ soc is also significantly higher when they have no debt. the findings furthermore indicate that those respondents presenting with healthier retirement planning have a significantly higher soc than those exhibiting poor retirement planning. the fact that various reasons for over-indebtedness are significantly related to soc is interesting. the results seem to indicate that motivations underlying over-indebtedness relating to impulsive and irresponsible spending behaviour are related to a lower soc. similar findings result from the analysis of the financial-health profile of the respondents with a high versus a low soc and from analysing the differences in the soc mean scores for the financially healthy versus the financially unhealthy respondents. the financial profile of the respondents with a high soc tend to display more financially healthy characteristics, such as good debt management and proactive retirement planning. the lower soc respondents do not seem to practise active retirement planning despite aspirations to do so and seem to lack control over their debt situation. the frequency distributions on the fhs indicators suggest that a generally unhealthy financial position is evident among the participants in this sample. the reported findings should, however, be interpreted with caution. the fact that the respondents are fairly young, unattached, not the only household earners and have two or fewer dependants could also affect the outcome of the relationship between soc and financial health because the sampled population does not represent the section of the population most consumed by family and financial responsibilities. these findings do, however, concur with literature reported by cox et al. (2009) in that people with poor financial well-being are more likely to be young, single and with lower incomes. according to cox et al., those with better financial-health profiles are older and married or living with a partner and fall into higher-income brackets. managerial implications from a practical perspective, it seems evident from the findings of this study that companies should focus holistically and proactively on the financial health of their employees. debt and retirement-planning counselling may be more effective if integrated with aspects addressing employees’ sense of self and confidence in their coping resources. it is also suggested that the continuous development of employees’ psychological wellness may proactively lower the probability of their developing financial problems. interventions aimed at enhancing employee wellness should integrate financial health as a core area to be addressed and employee-assistance programmes should have financial health as an integral part of their operations. possible limitations of the study due to the fact that financial health is a fairly unexamined phenomenon in the field of industrial and organisational psychology, financial-health indicators included in the fhs may have been limited and other meaningful indicators may have been overlooked.the value of this study lies in the fact that it explores financial health as a potential variable of workplace well-being that has not been studied before in the south african context and that has become a dire reality for employees and employers alike. suggestions for future research the soc profiling described in this study is based on individual and on separate soc cross-classification, with other financial-health and biographical variables. it is suggested that, in follow-up research, the joint effect of these cross-classifications and their interactions should be investigated by means of a data-classification method, such as a decision tree algorithm. the chi-square interaction detection method is an example of this particular technique.follow-up studies in which additional financial-health indicators are explored, such as specifying the nature of debt (mortgages, credit cards and other) and specific financial-planning behaviours (budgeting, saving etc.), are recommended. the construct of financial health also needs to be explored further, as it may entail more aspects than explored in this study. conclusion as suggested by cox et al. (2009), studies exploring people’s personal competence in handling financial matters would enhance employers’ ability to customise interventions targeted at improving the financial health of their employees. organisations will ultimately benefit, as financially healthy employees are significantly more productive than their counterparts (cox et al., 2009). references (back to top) antonovsky, a. (1979). health, stress and coping. san francisco: jossey-bass. antonovsky, a. (1987). unraveling the mystery of health: how people manage stress and stay well. san francisco: jossey-bass. antonovsky, a. (1993). the structure and properties of the sense of coherence scale. journal of science and medicine, 36, 725–733. antonovsky, a., & sourani, t. (1988). family sense of coherence and family adaptation. journal of marriage and the family, 50(1), 79–92. bosman, p. (2007, sept/oct). employee assistance and the new national credit act. professional accountant, 34–336. burgess, s.m. (2005). the importance and motivational content of money attitudes: south africans with living standards similar to those in industrialised western countries. south african journal of psychology, 35(1), 106–126. carrier, l., & maurice, d. (1998). beneath the surface: the psychological side of spending behaviours. journal of financial planning, 11(1), 94–98. coetzee, s., & cilliers, f. (2001). psychofortology: explaining coping behaviour in organisations. the industrial-organisational psychologist, 38(4), 62–68. coetzee, s., & viviers, r. (2007). an overview of research on positive psychology in south africa. south african journal of psychology, 37(3), 470–490. cox, a., hooker, h., markwick, c. & reilly, p. (2009). financial well-being in the workplace. research report 464. sussex: institute for employment studies. csiernik, r. (1995). wellness, work and employee assistance programming. employee assistance quarterly, 11(2), 1–13. els, d.a., & de la rey, r.p. (2006). developing a holistic wellness model. sa journal of human resource management, 4(2), 46–56. debt woes for sa. (2008). enterprise risk, 2(6), 37–38.retrieved may, 22, 2009, from http://www.sabinet.co.za/abstracts/sh_eprise/sh_eprise_v2_n6_a15.html feldt, t., & rasku, a. (1998) the structure of antonovsky’s orientation to life questionnaire. personality and individual differences, 25(3), 505–516. gropp, l., geldenhuys, d., & visser, d. (2007). psychological wellness constructs: relationships and group differences. sa journal of industrial psychology, 33(3), 24–34. havenga, r. (2008). the current economic situation: not all bad news. management today, 24(4), 5. herbst, l., coetzee, s. & visser, d. (2007). personality, sense of coherence and the coping of working mothers. sa journal of industrial psychology, 33(3), 57–67. employee debt affects you. (2007) hr highway, 1(20), 18–19. retrieved may, 22, 2009, from http://www.sabinet.co.za/abstracts/sh_hrh/sh_hrh_v1_n2_a8.xml  macewen, k.e., barling, j., kelloway, e.k., & higginbottom, s.f. (1995). predicting retirement anxiety: the roles of parental socialization and personal planning. the journal of social psychology, 135(2), 203–213. muller, y. (2007). sense of coherence and employees’ experience of helping and restraining factors in the working environment. unpublished master’s thesis, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa. myers, j.e., & sweeney, t.j. (2005). counselling for wellness: theory, research and practice. alexandria, va: american counselling association. nel, d.j., crafford, a., & roodt, g. (2004). the relationship between sense of coherence and goal setting. sa journal of industrial psychology, 30(2), 46–55. oosthuizen, j.d., & van lill, b. (2008). coping with stress in the workplace. sa journal of industrial psychology, 34(1), 64–69. piliso, s. (2008, 8 november). debt nightmare. sunday times, n.p. sandell, r., blomberg, j., & lazar, a. (1998). the factor structure of antonovsky’s sense of coherence scale in swedish clinical and nonclinical samples. personality and individual differences, 24(5), 701–711. schumann, a., hapke, u., meyer, c., rumpf, h.j. & john, u. (2003). measuring sense of coherence with only three items: a useful tool for population surveys. british journal of health psychology, 8(4), 409–421. siahpush, m., spittal, m., & gopal, g.k. (2007). american journal of public health, 97(12), 2281–2287. steyn, g. (2009, 14 may). focus on de-leveraging. finweek, p. 43. strümpfer, d.j.w. (1995). the origins of health and strength: from ‘salutogenesis’ to ‘fortigenesis’. south african journal of psychology, 25(2), 81–89. strümpfer, d.j.w., & wissing, m.p. (1998). review of south african data on the sense of coherence scale as a measure of fortigenesis and salutogenesis. paper presented at the national congress of the psychology society of south africa, durban, south africa. van der colff, j.j., & rothmann, s. (2009). occupational stress, sense of coherence, coping, burnout and work engagement of registered nurses in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 35(1), 1–10. van schalkwyk, l., & rothmann, s. (2008). validation of the orientation to life questionnaire (olq) in a chemical factory. sa journal of industrial psychology, 34(2), 31–39. viviers, a.m., & cilliers, f. (1999). the relationship between salutogenesis and work orientation. sa journal of industrial psychology, 25(1), 27–32. whitfield, b. (2009, 19 march). bad debt rising. finweek, p. 21. wissing, m.p. (2000, may). wellness: construct clarification and a framework for future research and practice. paper presented at the first south african national wellness conference, port elizabeth, south africa. abstract introduction research design trustworthiness discussion limitations and recommendations conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) tessa de wet optentia research unit, faculty of humanities, north-west university, vanderbijlpark, south africa sebastiaan rothmann optentia research unit, faculty of humanities, north-west university, vanderbijlpark, south africa citation de wet, t., & rothmann, s. (2023). capabilities of secondary school teachers in sub-saharan africa: a systematic literature review. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2120. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2120 note: additional supporting information may be found in the online version of this article as online appendix 1. original research capabilities of secondary school teachers in sub-saharan africa: a systematic literature review tessa de wet, sebastiaan rothmann received: 17 sept. 2022; accepted: 15 dec. 2022; published: 25 apr. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: education trends in africa indicate that key ingredients for effective education are elusive, impacting the teachers who need to remain productive, motivated and healthy in this environment. research purpose: using machine learning active learning technology, the study aimed to review current literature related to the factors affecting the capabilities and functionings of secondary school teachers in sub-saharan africa (ssa). motivation for the study: the capability approach (ca) provides a framework for studying the sustainable employability (se) of teachers, including what they require to be able to convert valued opportunities into the needed achievements. research approach/design and method: a systematic literature review was conducted following preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (prisma) guidelines, using machine learning active learning technology. eighty six articles from 14 ssa countries were included for analysis, prioritising articles in the south african context first. main findings: analysis identified four groupings of resources that are potentially useful or valuable, creating access or empowerment if utilised effectively, namely knowledge commodities, soft commodities, hard commodities, and organisational commodities. sub-resources were also identified. practical/managerial implications: this research would assist policy and decision-makers to focus their interventions in the most effective way to sustain productivity and well-being in the workplace. the resource groupings should be included in a model that focuses on enhancing secondary school teachers’ capabilities to promote their well-being and productivity. contribution/value-add: this article provides new applied knowledge related to machine learning active learning technology as a methodology, and provides further insight into secondary school teacher employability. keywords: capability; work; secondary school teachers; sub-saharan africa; 21st-century; competency; active learning models. introduction education, broadly defined as the opportunity to have basic learning needs met (world conference on education for all, 1990), is arguably one of the most critical factors in the economic growth of a country (heckman et al., 2018) and the well-being of its people (comim et al., 2018). the sustainable employability (se) of teachers in education has garnered much interest, not only due to the demands of the fourth industrial revolution (schwab, 2017), but also because of the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic (oades et al., 2021). however, education trends in africa indicate that key ingredients for effective education are not in place, and investment in education does not seem to translate into pupils’ or teachers’ flourishing, with a downturn in completion rates for primaryand secondary-level children in sub-saharan africa (ssa; cilliers, 2020). the act of teaching requires an individual to let someone else learn (walker & unterhalter, 2007). it entails a concentrated and wide-ranging knowledge of content and an understanding of different ways to present such knowledge for it to be understandable to learners (botha & reddy, 2011) and to facilitate the acquisition of 21st-century competencies (gordon, 2010). research confirms that teacher behaviour and competence have been significant school-level predictors of learner progress and teacher employability (armstrong, 2014; pretorius, 2013; van der berg et al., 2016; verspoor & bregman, 2008). problem statement and research objectives contextual constraints experienced by teachers in the sub-saharan african educational sphere might negatively impact on work capabilities of teachers (murangi et al., 2022). this, in turn, impacts the stability and productivity of the employment relationship between the teachers and their employers. sustainable employability is an interactive co-creative concept which requires workplaces that facilitate the optimisation of capabilities and the conducive employee attitude and motivation to utilise such opportunities (van der klink et al., 2016). this study focuses on perspectives of secondary school teachers in the sub-saharan african context relating to their capabilities and functionings by framing it within the capability approach (ca; sen, 1999). current theoretical perspective the ca (sen, 1999) provides a framework for studying the se of teachers by providing an extensive, if complex, theoretical structure for recounting the many-sided nature of well-being at work, understanding its roots and consequences, and investigating interconnected layers of analysis that have traditionally been largely ignored or not adequately debated (chiappero-martinetti, 2008). the ca concerns agency, that is, the ability to aim for goals that a person values and has rationale to value (sen, 1999), as essential for se. closely linked to values is the concept of empowerment (also referred to as enablement), as a multifaceted concept of increased intrinsic task motivation that reflects individuals’ view of their role at work and their opportunities to shape and influence the work role and context (spreitzer, 1995). moreover, they should have the freedom and opportunity to pursue and achieve officially determined goals of their profession. a ca-based model (see figure 1) that allows to look at the application of well-being of people in the workplace is the se model (van der klink et al., 2016). sustainable employability can be defined as opportunities (in the form of capability sets) that individuals can achieve throughout their working lives, while enjoying the circumstances that allow them to make an appreciated impact through their work and maintaining their health and well-being (van der klink et al., 2016). knowing what individuals value in their work and whether they can realise these areas supports their se. figure 1: the sustainable employability model. this model allows scientists and practitioners to probe what employees see as valued doings and beings. the model focuses on aspects such as what the means are that they have to achieve, what the work and personal factors are in converting these means into valued opportunities, what the choices are that they exercise concerning these opportunities, and whether these lead to the achievement of valuable functionings and, ultimately, have the required utility for individuals (van der klink et al., 2016). resources (monetary and non-monetary) are personal and work-related variables valued in their own right or valued because they are means to achieve or protect other valued resources, being employed as a means to achieve a specific outcome (bakker & demerouti, 2006; van der klink et al., 2016). additionally, these resources should be transformed into possibilities for achieving valuable work-related goals (van der klink et al., 2016). thus, in the se model, different resources can be affected positively or negatively, depending on the contextual moderating variables that act as conversion factors, functioning as neutral catalytic agents in processing resources into capabilities by either constraining or enabling these (robeyns, 2016, 2017) – placing a demand on, or being a buffer to, the capability – thereby moderating the conversion resources into capabilities. however, conversion factors can become resources in a different context and be affected by other conversion factors. three types of conversion factors (namely, personal, environmental, and social conversion factors) moderate the formation of capabilities in that specific context (wolff & de-shalit, 2007). furthermore, dynamic interactions between personal and contextual factors affect functionings and capabilities (chiappero et al., 2018). while a capability is a valued opportunity to achieve, the supportive resources (potential conversion factors) are helping or hindering factors that have an impact on how the potential of the resource is translated into the capability to use the resource in achieving the desired outcome and/or functionings (van der klink et al., 2016). if the conversion factors that hinder capability freedom could be mitigated and those that capacitate it could be leveraged (wolff & de-shalit, 2007), an individual would have extended capability. capabilities are a set of tangible opportunities and freedom to achieve and maintain these outcomes (nussbaum, 2011; sen, 1980) through experiences of value, enablement and ability (van der klink et al., 2016). the absence of a capability would disadvantage both the job incumbent and the organisation in realising valuable functionings (saito, 2003). another element that acts as a catalyst in the se model is the variable of choice. choice incorporates the individual, the context and the impact on the achievement of valued functionings. constraints on these choices link back to the capabilities and conversion factors that constrain the individual and organisation (van der klink et al., 2016). a functioning is voluntary behaviour that flows from an individual’s and an organisation’s exercise of choices about and through their broader capability set (van der klink et al., 2016). such functionings are ideally valued by both the individual and the organisation, may have multiple functions, and contribute to well-being and the perception of a life well lived (jayawickreme et al., 2012). the outcome in the study’s application of the se model was conceptualised as the flourishing and well-being, as well as the achievement/performance of teachers and having future-ready learners as the final independently measurable variables and utility obtained through this model. therefore, it was envisaged that this end state had to be intrinsically motivating to teachers by itself and, therefore, pursued for its own sake (jayawickreme et al., 2012). rationale or value-add of the study the ca (sen, 1999) suggests that it is insufficient to measure the functioning of people via economic resources or predefined outcomes only. it is essential to consider capabilities (i.e. valued opportunities and freedom to be and do) and the realisation of functionings (i.e. valued outcomes). resources alone (as inputs to create capabilities) are a limited measure of well-being and only useful if they translate into achievements. in the ca, capabilities allow that conversion to take place (oades et al., 2021), as the value that specified outcomes have for job incumbents is considered (robeyns, 2016), enabling or disabling the effectiveness and well-being of these (abma et al., 2016). therefore, conducting research on secondary school teachers’ valued capabilities and understanding the factors that have an impact on these valued opportunities and freedom to be effective teachers are paramount. research and literature on the capabilities and functionings of teachers in ssa have focused on the primary school level (buckler, 2016; cooksey et al., 1991; murphy & wolfenden, 2013; tao, 2014) and tertiary level (walker, 2012; walker & mclean, 2010). little is known about the capabilities and functionings of secondary school teachers from the ca perspective, specifically from what they perceive as valuable in their jobs and what they need to be enabled to effectively do their job and be well (chigona & chigona, 2010). it is vital to identify the aspects that play into teachers’ effective and efficient functioning, especially in the ssa region, which experiences poor educational outcomes (cilliers, 2020). research design research approach the study was conducted from a post-positivism philosophical worldview, where a compromise exists between qualitative and quantitative research paradigms. ontologically, this perspective posits that reality is constructed by the individual – being value-laden – while also positing that some relatively stable relationships occur between phenomena (djeffal, 2019). research method a systematic literature review (slr) was conducted in this study, aiming to search for, appraise, and synthesise research evidence by following a systematic process (grant & booth, 2009). the unit of research was secondary school teachers, and the concepts under scrutiny were the perceived resources, capabilities and functionings as identified by means of the slr. targeted body of literature studies considered for inclusion in the original database included the following: (1) academic (peer-reviewed) articles available on electronic academic search databases and/or platforms; (2) the original study needed to be empirically grounded research – either qualitative or quantitative; (3) the original research data had to have been collected on, and be identifiable as, mainstream secondary school teachers working with grades 8 to 12 learners (mainly, if not solely); (4) the original research needed to have collected data from the secondary school teachers’ perspective; (5) the article had to be available in english or afrikaans; and (6) the article needed to have been published between 2010 and 2019. electronic searches were conducted between october and november 2020 to trace relevant articles. databases included scopus (elsevier), web of science, sciencedirect, african journals (sabinet), education resources information centre (eric), american psychological association psychinfo and psycharticles, journal storage (jstor), econlit and elton bryson stephens company information services (ebscohost). a keyword search was entered into each database using the delimiters mentioned above. in addition, a combination of the search phrases ‘capabilities approach’ or ‘capability approach’ or ‘capabilities and functionings’ was utilised, together with the search phrases ‘secondary school teacher’ or ‘high school teacher’ or ‘secondary school educator’ or ‘high school educator’. results were imported into endnote (thomson researchsoft, 2005), a citation manager, which was then utilised to remove duplicates and export a database file in text format ready for screening. gathering the data an automated screening with automated systematic review software (asr) was utilised to detect relevant articles. such machine learning active learning models for screening prioritisation with algorithms and a software development platform (ferdinands et al., 2020) allow for time and cost savings and facilitated faster retrieval of relevant publications for a time-effective transition to the subsequent steps in the review process while providing solution to potentially missed literature in screening phase due to human errors or excluded by searching algorithms (odintsova et al., 2019). the active learning model technology utilised for this screening process was asreview (van de schoot et al., 2021). this software utilised the title and abstract of each electronic article to prioritise the article in terms of relevance. the naive bayes and term frequency-inverse document frequency combination were the chosen classification and extraction techniques, as these were found to demonstrate high performance on all measures across all datasets (ferdinands et al., 2020; odintsova et al., 2019). preference was given to empirical studies that focused solely on secondary-level teachers (grades 8–12), while studies including middle schools were considered separately due to middle school being diluted or mixed with the upper primary grades (grades 6 and 7). in addition, studies that included different school phases (e.g. primary, secondary and tertiary) were scrutinised to extract data relating to secondary school teachers. where this was not possible, the study was discarded. south african (sa) and ssa articles were extracted for analysis during the secondary eligibility screening phase. this secondary-phase screening was conducted to prioritise articles according to south africa (first) and then other ssa countries (all seen as developing countries). the restriction to ssa countries recognised that teaching was inherently cultural and could vary across contexts (gay, 2013). all articles related to educational phases other than the secondary-level educational context were removed, as were any documents that had not been published as peer-reviewed empirical data articles. most of the articles did not explicitly focus on secondary school teachers’ capabilities and functionings from the perspective of the ca. however, inferences relating to the perceived value, enablement and implementation ability of secondary school teachers could be made from these articles. variables that were sought for this study were narrative evidence that pointed to the following aspects: (1) the resources that were the foci of the studies (i.e. they answered the question as to what resource the article mentioned from the teachers’ point of view); (2) the supporting sub-resources (personal, social and environmental) that secondary school teachers perceived as aiding and constraining their doings and beings in utilising the identified resources; and (3) any identifiable capabilities or functionings secondary school teachers perceived in the articles. analysis of the data to understand the data and the resources, capabilities and functionings, structural and pattern coding were used to categorise content-based or conceptual phrases (saldaña, 2013). further analysis of the coded segments was then conducted. a second coding cycle structured the codes identified in the first cycle by developing category and subcategory labels that gave meaning to the sequencing and organisation of the codes (saldaña, 2013). the summary measures in this slr included themeand pattern-based coding (saldaña, 2013), utilising atlas.ti (friese, 2021) and microsoft excel 2010 (microsoft, n.d.), where the variables identified from the research articles were thematically coded according to similarities. the results were synthesised by scrutinising each article for data that related to resources, capabilities and functionings. the risk of bias in this study was mitigated by assessing each of the studies included in the literature review for the risk of containing biased information (selection bias, selective reporting or inadequate sampling). however, the risk of bias was still possible because the focus was placed solely on peer-reviewed academic journal articles that were electronically available on the different e-distribution databases mentioned before. no unpublished manuscripts (such as master’s or phd studies) were considered, and any journals not available digitally were, therefore, also excluded. another area of risk was that the resource and outcome factors identified in the studies could be author-influenced (not teacher-generated), although other capability factors (such as the sub-resources) were teacher-generated. presentation of the data table 1 summarises the number of peer-reviewed articles regarding secondary school teacher capabilities screened as relevant to the literature review. table 1: number of articles sourced on secondary school teacher capabilities and functionings. of the 1256 articles that were originally sourced, 40 articles contained information relating to secondary school teachers in an sa context, and 178 articles contained studies on the rest of ssa. of these 218 articles, 172 were found to contain empirical study data that related directly to various aspects that addressed the functionality of secondary school teachers in various contexts of ssa. however, many of the articles had either been published in non-accredited journals or contained very basic or dubious empirical data. in the end, the information in 86 articles was utilised to inform the literature review. of the 86 usable literature articles, only one (chigona & chigona, 2010) utilised the ca as its conceptual framework by looking at information and computing technology (ict) capability deprivation in disadvantaged communities. therefore, it was necessary to analyse each of the other articles for inferred capability factors, from which a preliminary capability set could be conceptualised. table 2 provides information on the remaining articles in terms of the countries and types of studies analysed. table 2: number of studies analysed by country, subject, and research design. trustworthiness reliability the literature review was undertaken by implementing an slr protocol, using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (prisma) process (prisma, n.d.). the objective of the prisma process is to assist authors in improving their reporting during systematic reviews and meta-analyses (liberati et al., 2009) and has been applied effectively in social sciences research studies (page et al., 2021), thereby increasing the reliability of the findings (see figure 2). figure 2: preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses flow diagram for new systematic reviews. validity the validity of the findings was ensured by working within validated social science frameworks, namely the capabilities approach and the sustainable employability model. discussion outline of the results during article analysis, the literature was coded into resource categories and subcategories, capabilities (both value and enablement), and functionings as identified from the inputs of ssa secondary school teachers. firstly, linking the article analysis to the van der klink et al. (2016) categories, the resource subcategories were divided into three elements, namely, personal factors (relating to the teachers themselves), social factors (aspects relating to interactive dynamics involving elements and stakeholders internal to the school), and environmental factors (aspects relating to elements and stakeholders external to the school environment). secondly, after the aspects mentioned in the literature had been consolidated, the findings were grouped according to overarching themes that are referred to as commodity groupings (in order to distinguish it from resources and prevent confusion), with a commodity being defined as a grouping of resources that are potentially useful or valuable, creating access or empowerment if utilised effectively. the identified commodity groups included knowledge commodities (table 3), soft (skill) commodities (table 4), hard (tool) commodities (table 5), and organisational (school system) commodities (table 6). table 3: knowledge commodity capability factors identified from the systematic literature review. table 4: soft commodity capability factors identified from the systematic literature review. table 5: hard commodity capability factors identified from the systematic literature review. table 6: organisational commodity capability factors identified from the systematic literature review. knowledge commodity capability factors two main resource categories related to knowledge as a commodity (table 3) were reported in the literature, namely, the knowledge, skills, and abilities that secondary school teachers possessed and their training and development. knowledge, skills, and abilities refer to secondary school teacher literacy in subject content, pedagogy (shulman, 2013), and technology (koehler & mishra, 2009). a variety of sub-resources were reported that had an impact on the achievement of secondary school teacher functionings, among which the amount of teaching experience, the complexity of cognitive functionality required, the use of pedagogical strategies, the practical application of teacher knowledge, and the gender of the teacher were mostly reported as personal sub-resources. most of the social sub-resources mentioned included time, teaching load, class size, materials needed and equipment, while physical infrastructure, curriculum, policy guidelines and involvement of external organisations were the most-reported environmental sub-resources. in terms of capabilities, secondary school teachers reported valuing using ict in teaching and using effective teaching strategies. regarding training and professional development, many aspects were reported once-off, with only leadership support being reported more often as a social sub-resource. teachers placed high value on being trained to utilise ict and being involved in decision-making with regard to training decisions that affected them. an enabling factor that was reported was a reference to being enabled to attend training to improve and develop their competence, participate in school-based development, use ict tools effectively, and be committed to their teaching. soft commodity capability factors soft commodity capability factors were grouped as shown in table 4. the main resource categories identified included the secondary school teacher as a person (being), attitude towards ict, motivation, job satisfaction, confidence, stress (management), decision-making and communication. only personal subcategories with more than one occurrence were reported. these subcategories included the interest the secondary school teachers themselves had in their subject and its meaning to them, their behaviour and habits, their gender and the level of expectations they had of their learners. secondary school teachers valued their position as teachers and the capability to maintain order and discipline, while engaging in their work. there was also one reported occurrence where secondary school teachers indicated their need to be involved in decision-making that affected them, to be confident, and to achieve the outcomes of their subjects and learner performance. reports on sub-resources that moderated their attitude towards ict (as a resource category) mainly related to secondary school teachers’ ability to apply their knowledge and skills and the level of cognitive complexity required in their work. they reported valuing the use of digital technology as an educational tool and the confidence and empowerment that came with adopting and using ict well in teaching. stress was also reported as a resource moderated by various sub-resources, of which gender was the most-reported aspect. functionings linked to stress as a resource included managing stress well and getting learners to perform up to standard. confidence in their competence to teach was reported as a resource category, with the level of exposure and practical experience being reported as sub-resources in this. secondary school teachers reported that they valued being busy with aspects that built their confidence in executing teaching and learning to effectively use the tools at their disposal and be competent at their jobs. their motivation was indicated as a resource moderated by sub-resources, including various benefits and the availability of equipment and materials needed, to support them to achieve a positive attitude towards their job, thereby supporting learners to perform to their full potential. less-reported resources included decision-making, communication, and job satisfaction. secondary school teachers valued and wanted to be enabled to be involved in decision-making, placing a high value on their ability to add value and be involved in decision-making that affected their job, and to achieve involvement in selection and organisation of learning experiences. communication was reported as a resource towards the innovative use of computer technology in class, affected by the abstractness of concepts that had to be taught as sub-resource. finally, job satisfaction was indicated as a resource towards reducing secondary school teachers’ intention to leave, which was affected by their attitude towards their job and the income and job security they experienced. hard commodity capability factors table 5 presents the identified main resource categories: ict, curriculum, assessment, teaching aids, teacher networks, media and time. of these, ict was by far the most-researched resource. personal resources that affected ict capability and functionings included the knowledge, skills, and confidence to do so, as well as the level of competence secondary school teachers could apply, the subject field they taught, the pedagogical strategies they used, and how they experienced the use of ict. other personal factors reported multiple times were age, gender, qualification level, training received, and motivation to use ict. the most-reported social sub-resources were time and the opportunity and types of training received. leadership support, class size, and access to ict facilities and equipment were also reported more than once. environmental sub-resources included availability of ict infrastructure, facilities and equipment, technical and technological support, the location and type of school at which secondary school teachers worked, the school policy, the budget and other facilitating conditions, and government policy. in multiple articles, secondary school teachers reported that they placed a high value on being trained, integrating and using ict in their teaching, doing so without facing barriers, and using pedagogical methods that considered the context and content of their teaching. they indicated the need to be enabled to take advantage of and use ict to benefit the learners, for ict to be easy to use, and to integrate it in a manner that allowed for various pedagogical methods. they also indicated wanting to be involved in policymaking on ict integration in the delivery of the curriculum, using technology at school, and being enabled through ict support in all subject areas. the most-reported purposes of having ict were the achievement of acceptance and use of ict, pedagogical integration of ict, having a positive attitude towards ict, and having interactive classes. the other less-reported resource categories included curriculum, where the fit of the materials for the context in which the secondary school teachers taught and the content load were the two main sub-resources reported. teachers valued being involved in, and enabled to make, decisions around the curriculum to ensure effective curriculum implementation. the category of media was seen as a resource mediated by its impact on learners, the availability and depth of support materials, and the focus on examinations (versus practical life application). time was also a resource that was moderated by secondary school teachers’ use of time, on the one hand, and time requirements by the system in which they functioned, on the other hand. for assessment as a resource, once-off reports indicated various sub-resources towards the achievement of effective assessment practices and participation in testing programmes. even though it was mediated by conceptual understanding and required effort, time intensity, class size, workload, and mark standardisation practices, secondary school teachers placed a high value on the liberty to choose to participate in assessment (or not), as well as assessment as a mechanism to help learners in their development. other aspects that were reported to lead to the achievement of learner performance included planning, availability, and standard of teaching aids, which were valued for their use in making learning practically applicable. teacher networks were seen as a resource towards professional development, moderated by the regularity and attendance of such meetings and having these happen interschool. organisational commodity capability factors table 6 shows that school leadership and learner discipline were the most-mentioned organisational capability factors, but also that reports included organisational health, justice, and the teacher job role as resources. leadership was reported to be facilitated mainly by social sub-resources, among which leadership style, ability to inspire, communication and collaboration, and role modelling were reported most, together with secondary school teacher gender as a personal sub-resource. secondary school teachers reported valuing leadership positions in schools as being key in influencing and having an effective teaching and learning environment, placed a high value on leadership figures being active and present in their roles, and valued leadership involving them in decisions that had an impact on their jobs. the need to be enabled to earn reasonable salaries and benefits was also reported. leadership as resource was seen as pertinent in supporting teachers to perform in their jobs and in achieving effective pedagogical practices, professional development, job satisfaction, an effective learning environment, school development, collaboration between multiple stakeholders, and learner performance. learner discipline as a resource was reported multiple times as being facilitated by secondary school teachers’ views of discipline and belief about the utility of different disciplinary methods. social factors included learners’ background, behaviour, habits, and beliefs about discipline and the power relations between the learners and the secondary school teachers. other factors included the effectiveness and time consumption of the different disciplinary methods. aspects that played a role in the environment included the value system of the particular society, its ethics and justice of practices, parents’ views, and support from both the parents and the school leadership in terms of culture and regulations. secondary school teachers indicated that they valued discipline in creating a conducive teaching and learning environment and having effective disciplinary methods. they reported needing to be enabled to create order and attention in class. the purposes reported were to achieve a controlled, ordered, and attentive classroom environment, be aware of and use non-violent disciplinary methods, be empowered as teachers, have balanced rights for both learners and teachers, develop good conduct in learners, have sustainable behavioural change results, and have learner performance that was up to standard. the secondary school teachers’ job role was also reported as a resource category affected by their expectations, ability to apply their knowledge and skills, and incentive to do so. socially, it was affected by the staff complement, leadership and administrative support, and the work conditions in which these teachers were functioning. environmental sub-resources with an impact were reported to include policy (and its implementation), systemic alignment between government and the school context, and societal acceptance of their role. finally, the purpose of the job role was reported as the achievement of engagement and commitment, having a positive experience (affect and satisfaction) in their job, having role clarity, focusing on what the role entailed, and being able to progress in their careers. lastly, organisational health and justice were reported as resources mediated by the school sector, type of justice (distributive or procedural), and social practices in terms of political bribery, religion, corruption, and tribalism. secondary school teachers reported valuing being involved in decision-making on the organisational front and being enabled to experience order and discipline in the learning and teaching environment to achieve learner performance and reduce intention to leave. practical implications the study aimed to review current literature related to factors that have an impact on the capabilities of secondary school teachers in ssa (see figure 3). of the 86 articles included in the analysis, only one author utilised the ca as framework to understand secondary school teacher capabilities and functionings. other articles were analysed utilising structural and pattern coding, where 21 resource categories were identified, which were reported in four commodity groupings: (1) knowledge, skills, and abilities, and development and training (knowledge commodities); (2) the secondary school teacher as a person (being), the person’s attitude towards ict, motivation, job satisfaction, confidence, stress, decision-making, and communication (soft commodities); (3) ict, curriculum, assessment, teaching aids, teacher networks, media, and time (hard commodities); and (4) leadership, learner discipline, the job role, organisational health, and organisational justice (organisational commodities). a variety of sub-resources were reported (divided into personal, social, and environmental factors), and any mentions of value or enablement (capabilities) and functionings were extracted. figure 3: framework of literature review findings. the summary below provides mentions of value and enablement (capabilities) that were reported from the literature as contributing to the effective functioning and well-being of secondary school teachers in ssa, offering an entry point for understanding the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that these teachers reported as playing a role in their enablement to be well and do their work well. the following capabilities were included: (1) knowledge and skills utilisation (including being effective and competent at ict, discipline, pedagogy, and practical application); (2) further development and training (including building confidence, learning more skills, and having the opportunity to train and gain awareness of areas that need improvement); (3) integrating ict in their teaching and learning (including use, training, curriculum, and pedagogy); (4) being involved in decisions that have an impact on their work and role and making valued choices; (5) having constructive relationships with leadership and learners; (6) having a conducive learning and teaching environment; (7) being able to transfer knowledge and develop learners to the learners’ benefit; (8) being able to make a difference and add value (as teachers); (9) having health, income, benefits, and work-life balance; and (10) receiving support to do their jobs (from leadership, ict, and the teaching environment). the resource factors as reported by secondary school teachers indicated that the majority of articles analysed focused on knowledge, skills, and abilities (and the development of these), ict, leadership, the secondary school teacher as a person (a being), self-efficacy (confidence), and learner discipline as the most-reported resources. these were buttressed by a variety of sub-resources. personal factors as sub-resource included teacher characteristics (including experience, gender, age, subject field, training, and qualification), motivation, beliefs and expectations, and the ability to apply their knowledge and skills. these emerged as prominently reported sub-themes. in terms of reported social sub-resources, the elements reported most were class size, school culture, leadership support, time, workload, support from various other stakeholders (technological, collegial, administrative and learner support services), and staff complement, which could have an impact on capability creation. environmental sub-resources that were reported often included the schooling context (location, type, and community socio-economic context), government support (through policy and implementation guidance and alignment), the curriculum (contextual relevance and content load), and parental and community involvement and influence on school functionality. prominently reported functionings included learner performance (by far the most-mentioned aspect), teacher functionality, competence and development, and the effectiveness and well-being of teachers, schools, leadership, and relationships. a few observations regarding the above findings are necessary. firstly, it is important to note the number and variety of sub-resource factors that were reported in the literature. these aspects were reported as neutral entities that could (context-specific) bolster or constrain the utility of any resource, thereby potentially acting as conversion factors (nambiar, 2013), and so either hinder or promote capability. a lack of these resources could create a corrosive disadvantage (wolff & de-shalit, 2007), where a disadvantage in one domain would be likely to affect other areas negatively. the study showed that this could be the case for secondary school teachers’ contexts. the literature indicated that time, class size, leadership support and contextual ability application were dominant resource themes in being able to function as teachers, influencing the majority of areas. this may imply that addressing these aspects constructively can make an exponential difference in the enablement of teachers on various levels of capability enhancement. the same can be said of functionings, where the achievement of specific functionings may have a significantly larger effect overall than at the point that the functioning is addressing. these fertile functionings (wolff & de-shalit, 2007) should be a priority for public policymakers to anticipate the effects of corrosive disadvantages and fertile functionings. these reports may provide a necessary starting point for institutional decision-makers in the educational sphere to identify intervention areas where being cognisant of attributed value and providing enablement in those areas may have an exponential effect in creating other capabilities, as capabilities rarely improve exponentially without enabling institutions (nambiar, 2013). secondly, it was not only what was reported that was of interest, but also what was not reported. if juxtaposed to the work on 21st-century competencies (lonka, 2018), the ssa literature did not report on the role of identity building, emotional skills and maturity, thinking and learning to learn, being a member of a well-functioning society, readiness for work-life, and working life in practice (for instance) or on anything relating to culture, except for single mentions of learner background, as well as parental support and involvement, having an impact on teachers’ capabilities. the eurocentric perspective of education in africa may have implications of which teachers may be unaware. several africans who had undergone eurocentric schooling have reported that it had the effect of undercutting traditional african cultural being, on the one hand, by presenting an individualistic value system that was foreign to african communal functionings and, on the other hand, by separating learners from their native communities (woolman, 2001). if the concept of ‘neo-colonial cultural dependency as a threat to african psychological autonomy and sovereignty’ (woolman, 2001, p. 30) is taken as true, a question is raised: how do teachers who work and live in such a dichotomy manage to teach in a system that, for the most part, does not speak to their identity in their continental context? to understand contemporary african identity and education in the 21st century, such questions concerning colonial and postcolonial education are critical (chopra & duraiappah, 2008; rajan, 2019). thirdly, secondary school teachers reported that the impact the society in which they worked had, as well as the school context, influenced their capabilities and functionings. however, little concrete information was reported on prioritising capability creation in rural and urban settings and independent and public school settings or on understanding the interplay of sub-resources in achieving the valued functionings. the reported secondary school teacher capabilities showed some overlap with findings of studies on teachers in rural ssa contexts (buckler, 2012). for example, the study included the capabilities for professional development, teaching and assessment, discipline, support, and relationships, but did not mention the need for capabilities around parenting, love and nurturance, religious guidance, and fundraising as reported by primary school teachers. tao (2013) reported capabilities with regard to female teachers in one ssa country as including the personal capabilities to take care of their family, live in an acceptable home, and have good health and the occupational capabilities to help learners learn, upgrade their own qualifications, and be respected. tao (2014) found that female teachers working in rural schools valued the capability to live with family, satisfactory accommodation, access and empowerment for health, safety and security, adequate and timeous income, dealing with productive students and supportive parents, and physical mobility. when comparing these findings with those of the current study, there are overlaps in capability creation, but also distinct differences between the capability needs reported by teachers. fourthly, the identified capability factors seemed to be aligned with at least some of the 21st-century competencies identified by practitioners in developed countries. for example, secondary school teachers reported a preference for capability in using and developing a variety of knowledge and skills and ict competence, which is related to multi-literacy and ict competence (transversal themes 4 and 5) in the 21st-century competency framework (lonka, 2018). this may indicate teachers’ awareness of the need for, and engagement in, 21st-century competencies. furthermore, the number of occurrences in the results that referred to relevance and development of teacher knowledge and skills indicated the substantial priority teachers gave to being and feeling competent for the job at hand. this is also aligned with applied research on the se model (abma et al., 2016), which indicated both use and development of knowledge and skills as part of a set of seven generic se work values that had been indicated to form the basis for capability generation for individuals at work. another finding in line with the application of the ca focused on 21st-century competencies included multiple mentions of teachers seeing the value of these competencies (andoh, 2019; bansilal et al., 2012; govender, 2013). however, the value ascribed to these competencies was constantly reported as being seemingly higher than the actual implementation and usage of the competencies. lastly, although se was used to provide a framework for categorising the different capability factors, most of the reporting was done from a primarily utilitarian point of view that focused on the aspects of resources and functionings. the current study did not take an in-depth look at the capabilities that would create the necessary value and enablement of the sustainable and effective employment of secondary school teachers in the context of ssa in the 21st-century. many of the variables included in a developed-country model such as lonka’s (2018) were reported to be sub-resources (therefore, potential conversion factors) rather than primary foci of teachers. limitations and recommendations a possible methodological limitation is that information might have been missed due to articles being screened out because their abstracts did not contain information on the above. the use of active learning model technology necessitated a heavy reliance on the ability of the author of each article to provide the necessary information in the abstract, which could have influenced the researcher’s effectiveness in distinguishing between relevant and non-relevant items. it might not be effective to use active learning model technology in multidisciplinary studies or to use it in fields in the early stages of development. in terms of contextual bias, this study only considered the perspectives of secondary school teachers in the literature review. further studies could include comparing these views to other stakeholder perspectives on the teacher-mentioned capabilities factors and generating empirical data to validate whether the perceptions and behaviours are aligned. a further limitation is that this study included studies from different countries in ssa, giving a generalised view of capability factors, whereas differences might occur between countries and the education systems within countries. further studies are needed to understand the capabilities of secondary school teachers in ssa. future research could include measuring se capabilities in this context. conceptualising and measuring the role and manifestation of conversion factors in creating or hampering capability are also untapped aspects of teachers’ functionality. research is needed to conceptually grasp the exercise of choice as a catalytic function between the capabilities and the functionings. moreover, it is necessary to identify secondary school teachers’ perceptions regarding the priority of identified capabilities and conversion factors in different contexts. also, understanding the impact of practically addressing capabilities in the secondary school work context and measuring the utility of incorporating capabilities into decision-making could be valuable. lastly, research focusing on precarity and capital (baart, 2021) in the work contexts of teachers would be valuable in understanding the prioritisation of capability creation in work contexts. conclusion capabilities imply that there is more to education than the development of specific teacher competencies. by including the enhancement of the perspectives, well-being, values, and freedom of the teachers (walker, 2012), it is possible to identify what makes them vulnerable to poor functioning and not delivering quality education. from the perspective of the ca, education strives to go deeper than focusing on inputs and resources and performance standards alone. it focuses on enhancing the capability of individuals in the education realm to raise the functionings of individuals and systems. the type of schooling system that best enunciates the concept of the ca from sen’s point of view seems to make stakeholders (teachers included) more self-directed and, at the same time, advances their judgement about capabilities and how to use them (saito, 2003). the value of a theoretical framework such as the ca is its ability to recognise complexity, represent many-sided phenomena, and investigate exhaustive relationships, causes, and effects among the plurality of dimensions involved. complex concepts should not only be considered for the existence of a multidimensional nature, but also by giving attention to the connections and links among the analysis levels. in the ca, multidimensionality and the absence of potentially constrictive, predefined limits are seen as strengths rather than constraints or faults. acknowledgements the authors acknowledge ms. cecilia van der walt for english language editing of the original article. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions t.d.w. and s.r. conceived of the presented study design. t.d.w. performed the systematic literature review. s.r. validated and supervised the findings of this work. both authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript. ethical considerations this study formed part of a larger research project. even though the systematic literature review did not require ethical clearance, ethical approval was granted by the health research ethics committee (hrec) at the north-west university (nwu-00430-19-a1) for the research project as a whole and permission was obtained from the gauteng department of education’s (gde) research division. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or non-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article, as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abma, f.i., brouwer, s., de vries, h.j., arends, i., robroek, s.j.w., cuijpers, m.p.j., van der wilt, j.g., bültmann, u., & van der klink, j.j.l. (2016). the capability set for work: development and validation of a new questionnaire. scandinavian journal work, environment and health, 42(1), 34–42. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3532 akyildiz, s.t. (2019). do 21st-century teachers know about heutagogy or do they still adhere to traditional pedagogy and andragogy? international journal of progressive education, 15(6), 151–169. https://doi.org/10.29329/ijpe.2019.215.10 andoh, c.b. (2019). factors that influence teachers’ pedagogical use of ict in secondary schools: a case of ghana. contemporary educational technology, 10(3), 272–288. https://doi.org/10.30935/cet.590099 armstrong, p. (2014). teacher wages in south africa: how attractive is the teaching profession? stellenbosch economic working papers, wp07/14. university of stellenbosch. retrieved from https://econpapers.repec.org/paper/szawpaper/wpapers213.htm baart, a. (2021). precariousness, precarity, precariat, precarization, and social redundancy: a substantiated map for the ethics of care. in m. hamington, & m. flowers (eds.), care ethics in the age of precarity (pp. 91–119). university of minnesota press. retrieved from https://lccn.loc.gov/2021023220 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2006). the job demands-resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22(3), 309–328. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 bansilal, s., brijlall, d., & mkhwanazi, t. (2014). an exploration of the common content knowledge of high school mathematics teachers. perspectives in education, 32(1), 34–50. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10321/2306 booth, a. (2006). clear and present questions: formulating questions for evidence based practice. library hi tech, 24(3), 355–368. https://doi.org/10.1108/07378830610692127 botha, m.l., & reddy, c.p.s. (2011). in-service teachers’ perspectives of pre-service teachers’ knowledge domains in science. south african journal of education, 31(2), 257–274. https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v31n2a354 buckler, a. (2012). understanding the professional lives of female teachers in rural sub-saharan african schools: a capability perspective. doctoral thesis. the open university. buckler, a. (2016). teachers’ professional capabilities and the pursuit of quality in sub-saharan african education systems: demonstrating and debating a method of capability selection and analysis. journal of human development and capabilities, 17(2), 161–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/19452829.2014.991706 chiappero, e., salardi, p., & scervini, f. (2018). from resources to functioning: rethinking and measuring conversion rates. in f. comim, s. fennell, & p. anand (eds.), new frontiers in the capability approach (pp. 232–245). cambridge university press. chiappero-martinetti, e. (2008). complexity and vagueness in the capability approach: strengths or weaknesses? in s. alkire, m. qizilbash, & f. comim (eds.), the capability approach: concepts, measures and applications (pp. 268–309). cambridge university press. chigona, a., & chigona, w. (2010). capability approach on pedagogical use of ict in schools. the journal for transdisciplinary research in southern africa, 6(1), 209–224. https://doi.org/10.4102/td.v6i1.117 chopra, k., & duraiappah, a.k. (2008). operationalizing capabilities in a segmented society: the role of institutions. in s. alkire, m. qizilbash, & f. comim (eds.), the capability approach: concepts, measures and applications. cambridge university press cilliers, j. (2020). africa first! igniting a growth revolution. jonathan ball publishers. retrieved from https://www.jakkiecilliers.org/africa-first comim, f., fennell, s., & anand, p.b. (2018). introduction. in f. comim, s. fennell, & p.b. anand (eds.), new frontiers of the capability approach (pp. 1–11). cambridge university press. cooksey, b., ishumi, a., malekela, g., & galabawa, j. (1991). a survey of living and working conditions of primary and secondary school teachers on mainland tanzania. tadreg. departments of basic education and higher education and training. (2011). integrated strategic planning framework for teacher education and development, 2011–2025. author. retrieved from https://www.dhet.gov.za/teacher%20education/intergrated%20strategic%20planning%20framework%20for%20teacher%20education%20and%20development%20in%20south%20africa,%2012%20april%202011.pdf djeffal, c. (2019). how post-positivism sheds light on treaty interpretation: celebrating the vclt rule of interpretation. in l. siliquini-cinelli (ed.), legal positivism in a global and transnational age (vol. 131, pp. 277–294). law and philosophy library, springer. eyre, d. (2016). high performance learning: how to become a world class school. routledge. ferdinands, g., schram, r., de bruin, j., bagheri, a., oberski, d., tummers, l., & van de schoot, r. (2020, september 16). active learning for screening prioritization in systematic reviews a simulation study. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/w6qbg friese, s. (2021). atlasti user manual. atlas.ti scientific software development gmbh. retrieved from https://doc.atlasti.com/manualwin.v9/index.html?pk_vid=befa5b52573c578b16284274827c3f5f gay, g. (2013). teaching to and through cultural diversity. curriculum inquiry, 43(1), 48–70. https://doi.org/10.1111/curi.12002 gordon, j. (2010). key competences for a changing world: draft 2010 joint progress report of the council and the commission on the implementation of the education and training 2010 work programme. commission of the european communities. retrieved from http://aei.pitt.edu/42899/ govender, d.w. (2013). a model to predict educators’ attitudes towards technology and thus technology adoption. africa education review, 9(3), 548–568. https://doi.org/10.1080/18146627.2012.741101 grant, m.j., & booth, a. (2009). a typology of reviews: an analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. health information and libraries journal, 26, 91–108. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x heckman, j.j., humphries, j.e., & veramendi, g. (2018). the nonmarket benefits of education and ability. journal of human capital, 12(2), 282–304. https://doi.org/10.1086/697535 inglehardt, r., & welzel, c. (2005). modernization, cultural change, and democracy: the human development sequence. cambridge university press. jayawickreme, e., forgeard, m.j.c., & seligman, m.e.p. (2012). the engine of well-being. review of general psychology, 16(4), 327–342. https://doi.org/10.1177/1056787919841501 koehler, m.j., & mishra, p. (2009). what is technological pedagogical content knowledge? contemporary issues in technology and teacher education, 9(1), 60–70. retrieved from https://citejournal.org/volume-9/issue-1-09/general/what-is-technological-pedagogicalcontent-knowledge lonka, k. (2018). phenomenal learning from finland. edita. retrieved from https://phenomenallearning.fi/ microsoft. (n.d.). excel help & learning. retrieved from https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/excel moher, d., liberati, a., tetzlaff, j. & altman, d.g. (2009). preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (prisma). bmj, 339, b2535. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.b2535 murphy, p., & wolfenden, f. (2013). developing a pedagogy of mutuality in a capability approach: teachers’ experiences of using the open educational resources (oer) of the teacher education in sub-saharan africa (tessa) programme. international journal of educational development, 33(3), 263–271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2012.09.010 nambiar, s. (2013). capabilities, conversion factors and institutions. progress in development studies, 13(3), 221–230. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464993413486547 nussbaum, m.c. (2011). creating capabilities: the human development approach. harvard university press. oades, l.g., jarden, a., hou, h., ozturk, c., williams, p.r., slemp, g., & huang, l. (2021). wellbeing literacy: a capability model for wellbeing science and practice. international journal of environmental research and public health, 18(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020719 pretorius, s.g. (2013). teacher effectiveness in the south african context: first steps towards a comprehensive definition. journal of social science, 36(3), 235–246. https://doi.org/10.1080/09718923.2013.11893191 rajan, r. (2019). the third pillar: how markets and the state leave the community behind. penguin press. robeyns, i. (2016). capabilitarianism. journal of human development and capabilities, 17(3), 397–414. https://doi.org/10.1080/19452829.2016.1145631 robeyns, i. (2017). wellbeing, freedom and social justice: the capability approach re-examined. cambridge university press. saito, m. (2003). amartya sen’s capability approach to education: a critical exploration. journal of philosophy of education, 37(1), 17–33. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.3701002 saldaña, j. (2013). the coding manual for qualitative researchers (2nd ed.). sage. schwab, k. (2017). the fourth industrial revolution. penguin books. retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/about/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-by-klaus-schwab sen, a.k. (1980). equality of what? in s. mcmurrin (ed.), tanner lectures on human values (pp. 195–220). cambridge university press. retrieved from https://scholar.harvard.edu/sen/publications/equality-what sen, a.k. (1999). the possibility of social choice. the american economic review, 89(3), 349–378. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.89.3.349 shulman, l. (2013). those who understand: knowledge growth in teaching. journal of education, 193(3), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1177/002205741319300302 spreitzer, g.m. (1995). psychological empowerment in the workplace: dimensions, measurement, and validation. academy of management journal, 38(5), 1442–1465. https://doi.org/10.5465/256865 tao, s. (2013). why are teachers absent? utilising the capability approach and critical realism to explain teacher performance in tanzania. international journal of educational development, 33(1), 2–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2012.01.003 tao, s. (2014). using the capability approach to improve female teacher deployment to rural schools in nigeria. international journal of educational development, 39, 92–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2014.08.011 thomson researchsoft. (2005). endnote 9 manual. retrieved from https://support.clarivate.com/endnote/s/article/endnote-9-manual?language=en_us utrecht university (n.d.). about asreview. retrieved from https://asreview.nl/#!/up van de schoot, r., de bruin, j., schram, r., zahedi, p., de boer, j., weijdema, f., kramer, b., huijts, m., hoogerwerf, m., ferdinands, g., harkema, a., willemsen, j., ma, y., fang, o., hindriks, s., tummers, l., & oberski, d.l. (2021). an open source machine learning framework for efficient and transparent systematic reviews. nature machine intelligence, 3(2), 125–133. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-020-00287-7 van der berg, s., spaull, n., wills, g., gustafsson, m.a., & kotzé, j. (2016). identifying binding constraints in education: synthesis report for the programme to support pro-poor policy development (psppd). research on socio-economic policy. department of economics, university of stellenbosch. van der klink, j.j.l., bültmann, u., burdorf, a., schaufeli, w.b., zijlstra, f.r.h., abma, f.i., brouwer, s., & van der wilt, g.j. (2016). sustainable employability – definition, conceptualization, and implications: a perspective based on the capability approach. scandinavian journal of work, environment & health, 42(1), 71–79. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3531 verspoor, a., & bregman, j. (2008). at the crossroads: challenges for secondary education in africa. africa human development department (afthd), world bank. walker, m. (2012). a capital or capabilities education narrative in a world of staggering inequalities? international journal of educational development, 32(3), 384–393. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2011.09.003 walker, m., & mclean, m. (2010). making lives go better: university education and ‘professional capabilities’. south african journal of higher education, 24(5), 847–869. retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc37637 walker, m., & unterhalter, e. (eds.). (2007). amartya sen’s capability approach and social justice in education. palgrave macmillan. wolff, j., & de-shalit, a. (2007). disadvantage. oxford university press. woolman, d.c. (2001). educational reconstruction and post-colonial curriculum development: a comparative study of four african countries. international education journal, 2(5), 27–46. world conference on education for all (1990). world declaration on education for all. world conference on education for all. jomtien, thailand. retrieved from https://bice.org/app/uploads/2014/10/unesco_world_declaration_on_education_for_all_jomtien_thailand.pdf abstract introduction research methods and design results conclusion acknowledgements references footnotes about the author(s) thabo f. saul department of public affairs, faculty of humanities, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa mzikayise s. binza office of the deputy vice-chancellor: academic affairs and research, walter sisulu university, east london, south africa kabelo moeti department of public affairs, faculty of humanities, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa citation saul, t.f., binza, m.s., & moeti, k. (2023). an alignment of personal development plans with training and development of employees at sassa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2161. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2161 research project registration: project number: fcre/pm/std/2020/01. original research an alignment of personal development plans with training and development of employees at sassa thabo f. saul, mzikayise s. binza, kabelo moeti received: 01 nov. 2022; accepted: 08 may 2023; published: 07 july 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the success or failure of organisations depends on the quality of programmes designed and implemented for improving the performance and productivity of their staff members. research purpose: the purpose of this study is to identify and analyse the causal factors for the lack of alignment between the performance development plans (pdps) with the training and development plans (tdps) of the staff of the south african social security agency (sassa) in the gauteng province from the period 2015 to 2020. motivation for the study: the study was based on the assumption that training and development aimed at equipping staff with skills and knowledge to perform better should be informed by pdps. research approach/design and method: to investigate this relationship, the study used a qualitative research approach to collect data through in-depth telephonic interviews and digital platforms such as zoom and document analysis. main findings: the study found that within sassa the staff pdps are not aligned with the tdps of the organisation; hence, there is negative performance and underspending on the budget for training and development which renders pdps ineffective. practical/managerial implications: this article proposes effective strategies that can be implemented from the 2024–2025 financial year going forward to enable sassa to be an effective learning organisation and to ensure the alignment of pdps with both staff and organisational tdps. contribution/value-add: the study concludes that digital learning, training and development programmes and epistemologies aimed at improving individual and organisational performance and productivity must be adopted, developed and implemented. keywords: personal development plans; training and development plans; employees’ performance; organisational performance; productivity. introduction south african social security agency (sassa) is a state organisation mandated to disburse social security grants to those qualifying south african citizens who are experiencing persistent and high levels of poverty and unemployment. south african social security agency has been spearheading a comprehensive safety and social security net for south african citizens. it is a national department with its head office in the city of tshwane that operates in the nine provinces1 of the republic of south africa. south african social security agency disburses more than r2 billion every year and cannot afford to be perceived as performing poorly because of the absence or ineffective implementation of the performance management development system (pmds) policy. in 2016, sassa developed and implemented its pmds policy as a tool to regulate the management of the performance of employees in order to align individual performance with the strategic objectives of the organisation. the connotation of the word ‘alignment’ goes well beyond the mere description of the extent and/or direction of correlation between variables. volk et al. (2017:28), for example, describe alignment as the ‘link’ or ‘fit’ between key organisational components such as strategy, culture, processes, people, leadership and information technology (it) systems that are brought together for the purpose of achieving common goals, and it is widely agreed that alignment has a positive influence on corporate performance. according to the authors, there is a distinction between internal and external alignment, which brings greater clarity to the concept of alignment. internal alignment refers to aligning all internal processes, structures, systems and employees towards a common goal. organisations aim to create a fit between corporate values, corporate culture, organisational identity and corporate strategy to ensure consistency and coherence. in a global economy made worse by the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic, employees and organisational performances have become a central issue not only for continuous organisational growth and development but also for the organisation to be responsive, effective and efficient in the manner in which they deliver services to customers. digital learning, and training and development of employees have become something increasingly difficult to ignore. performance management and evaluations through signing performance agreements by employees and their line managers have also become a necessity to ensure that organisations achieve their strategic goals and the targets set in their annual performance plans (apps). in order to meet their developmental challenges, organisations need to train and develop their employees. this study takes as a case study, the sassa ekurhuleni district offices and head office in tshwane, to investigate whether there is an alignment between personal development plans (pdps) and training and development plans (tdps). in this regard, firstly, the causes of poor implementation of the pdps and the extent of the misalignment of the tdp to the pdps of the employees in gauteng region at ekurhuleni district and the national head office in the city of tshwane from 2015–2016 to 2019–2020 financial years of sassa were investigated. secondly, the article investigated why the training and development programmes could not be considered effective strategic developmental tools to improve employees’ and organisational performances, and how sassa can do better in the post-covid-19 periods. lastly, strategies are developed to suit the sassa environments and these are proposed to sassa for adoption to enable it to align the pdps with the tdps of staff and with apps in order to improve both the employees’ and organisational performance. recent developments in the public service have led to renewed interest in a continuous search for better ways to ensure effective and efficient delivery of public services that are supposed to be provided by staff in a batho pele way. performance management and development systems are often used as a tool to assess individual performance and to identify the necessary training skills required for pdps. implementing the performance management development system policy in terms of the framework for strategic plans and annual performance plans from treasury (2010:12), the organisational apps are a presentation of the institution’s programme performance indicators together with targets. annual performance plans detail the specific performance targets that the institutions will aim to achieve in the budget year and in the next 2 years of the medium term expenditure framework (mtef), in pursuit of strategic outcomes, oriented goals and objectives set out in its strategic plan. an annual performance plan sets out what the agency intends to do in the upcoming financial year and during the mtef towards the implementation of its strategic plan. in developing the app, the agency convened several strategic sessions for the identification of priorities so as to inform the allocation of resources aligned to the human resources (hr) priorities such as the budget for training and development to promote effective and efficient management and development of its human capital to ensure the achievement of its strategic goals and objectives in line with its mandate. at the level of the employee, beausaert et al. (2015:336) assert that a pdp can be described as an assessment tool embedded in a larger assessment cycle of development and performance interviews, used to gather and document information about the competencies the employee worked on and is planning to develop further. moreover, khan et al. (2016:33) define the job performance of an employee at the workplace as employee performance that deals with the accomplishment of tasks given to the employee by his or her line manager. the authors state that employee performance can also be defined as a fulfilment of a particular task calculated against already known standards such as accuracy, speed, cost and how accurately employees perform the task, which determines good performance. also, organisations have some expectations regarding the performance of employees. organisational and employee performance objectives can be expected to be achieved by way of continuous organisational performance improvement plans, and formal performance measurement and personal development (sassa, 2016a:7). in this regard, sassa as an employer and her employee should enter into a performance agreement so as to work towards the achievement of set organisational goals. the introduction of pmds at sassa was aimed at measuring individual performance and identifying employees’ skills gaps. south african social security agency continued to implement its performance management and development policy to communicate the expected level of performance and assess the individual performance of its employees. contrary to expectations, sassa’s performance reports towards the achievement of its performance targets in the last 5 years leave much to be desired, as shown in table 1. table 1: south african social security agency national annual performance in the past five financial years: 2015–2016 to 2019–2020. south african social security agency received a qualified audit report during the financial years 2016–2017 and 2017–2018 because of incompleteness of irregular expenditure disclosure, which the auditors expressed as a concern. according to the auditor-general’s audit findings for the 2018–2019 annual report and budget review and recommendations report (brrr), sassa acknowledged that the agency struggled to obtain a competent audit in the 2016–2017 and 2017–2018 fiscal years. the negative audit result in the 2016–2017 fiscal year necessitated performance adjustments. incomplete irregular expenditure receipts, which amounted to financial mismanagement, were the source of the problems in 2016–2017 and 2017–2018. members of the portfolio committee stated that what got sassa into this situation was a lack of planning and negligence, because people should have been paying attention to administrative detail, during a presentation to the portfolio committee on sassa’s audit action plan for 2018–2019 and financial misconduct cases on 06 november 2019. the committee needed assurance that the essential supply chain management (scm) roles will be filled after the auditor general noted that the majority of the irregular expenditure was attributable to sassa’s lack of scm capabilities. members also pointed out inconsistencies in the reporting. retraining scm and users at sassa’s head office and regional offices on scm is one of the recommended control measures to put in place to minimise recurrences of fruitless and wasteful expenditures documented in all yearly audited reports from 2015 to 2020 and similar audit findings in the future. furthermore, to drive the organisation towards creating an efficient social security agency to improve organisational effectiveness which, among others, should help reduce wastage of resources and ensure effective and efficient service delivery. ekurhuleni district office and head office of sassa are located in gauteng province; therefore, it is important to share the apps of the province. south african social security agency gauteng region and head office in tshwane are situated in gauteng and the national office incorporates all performance reports of all nine regions. table 1 is the summary of the performance of the organisation nationally. according to the framework for strategic plans and annual performance plans from treasury (2010:1), the apps should identify the performance indicators and targets that the institution will seek to achieve in the upcoming budget year and it is important that these performance indicators and targets are aligned across an institution’s annual plans, budgets, in-year and annual reports. training budgets as reflected in the annual audited reports of the sassa from 2015 to 2020 were underspent throughout these financial years, which is a reflection of the misalignment or the lack of priority of the tdp of the organisation. despite the implementation of pmds in sassa, the performance and achievement of annual targets during the past five financial years have remained a setback. a number of persons indicated in their pdps that they would need training but such was not conducted, perhaps because of the general undesirable performance of the organisation, among other factors. this brings into question whether there is correlation between personal development plans, and tdps in sassa. as van de wiel et al. (2004) state that pdp is an: [a]ssessment tool entrenched in a larger assessment cycle of development and appraisal interviews which is used to gather and document information concerning the competencies of the employee and a plan to further develop. (pp. 181–206) the aforementioned concerns raise the question of how training requirements for employees are determined. as a result, this problem statement was created as a result of the identified knowledge gap in the public sector regarding the alignment of employees’ pdps and tdps with specific reference to sassa. theoretical perspectives of alignment of performance development plans with training and development plans performance development plans are an integrated and comprehensive development approach to harness human potential and further proliferate a total performance solution for an organisation to achieve its strategic goals driven by increasing the competencies of employees (grobler et al., 2006:481). beausaert (2011:28) states that a pdp is an assessment tool used by an employee to reflect on and document the competencies they have been working on and to use it as a comprehensive plan for further development. training and development training and development of employees, on the other hand, deals with the acquisition of understanding, know-how, techniques and practices. this is derived from employee assessment processes that lead to the development of pdp. kadiresan et al. (2015:165) assert that training and development are concerned with enhancing and apprising the skills, erudition, proficiencies and understandings of employees by providing a succession of training and development courses. it is imperative to provide employees with the requisite abilities and proficiencies in the current situation, which is driven to develop efficiency, organisational effectiveness and execution of duties. opperman and meyer (2008:66) maintain that many organisations use pdps to identify training needs. these needs are jointly used by employees and managers to identify employees’ personal development needs and thereafter to agree on the expected outcomes and the date by which employees should be ready to perform at the desired level. in fact, training and development are one of the imperatives of human resource management as they can improve performance at individual, collegial and organisational levels. human capital theories support the tendency towards investment in training and development because such investment is considered very beneficial for the performance and productivity of employees, and the performance of the organisation as a whole. in many organisations, training and development contribute to ensuring competitiveness, maximisation of profit and enhanced service delivery. additionally, training and development are essential intentional means for applicable individual and organisational performance, according to falola et al. (2014:162). as a result, organisations are paying considerable sums for training and development with the conviction that it will earn them a viable advantage in the business world. according to mulang (2015:190), training and development are beneficial not just for the organisation itself but also for the individual employees. experiential learning theory in relation to training and development, and performance the theoretical underpinning of this study is grounded in experiential learning theory. more specifically, kolb’s theory of experiential learning was selected, which propagates that training and development have a positive effect on the productivity of employees and on the performance of the organisation as a whole (kolb et al., 2014:3–4). he further writes that the ‘workplace is a learning environment that can enhance and supplement formal education and can foster personal development’ through meaningful work and career development opportunities (kolb, 2014:3–4). rughani (2001) in support of kolb et al.’s theory, points out that the learning cycle demonstrates how experiences lead to a cycle of reflection and change that results in learning. the author reflects on the experience of a general practitioner examining a child’s heart: ‘the doctor listens to the child’s heart and hears a murmur, an experience that makes him uneasy and prompts him to reflect as to why this might be. the sense of unease alerts him to the fact that a gap exists between what he needs to know and what he actually knows. he realises that the cause of his discomfort is his inability to differentiate between an innocent murmur and a pathological one in a child of this age and he, therefore, defines his educational need as learning how to make this distinction. therefore, in order to learn, he has to identify not only what he needs to learn but also how he wishes to address that need, and on the basis of this, he decides to attend a course on community paediatric assessment. having improved his skills, he is now able to apply his learning so that the next time he examines a child’s heart and hears a murmur, he feels good because he is able to recognise it as being innocent, to reassure the parents and thus avoid causing distress through an unnecessary referral.’ (rughani, 2001:7–8) mabe et al. (2018:730) writes that organisations that are on a path from good to great must be able to identify the needs for training and development and select techniques suitable for these needs to be included in the pdps, plan how to implement them and thereafter evaluate so that the performance outcomes can be achieved. south african social security agency can learn from experiential learning theory by adopting and committing to the effective implementation of the tool to improve the productivity and performance of both the organisation and staff members. the experiential learning theory can help sassa to improve its system of governance to ensure the efficient and effective implementation of pdps as a strategic developmental tool for employees and organisational performance. in terms of effective pdps, stone (2008:299) asserts that performance improvement comes about by building strengths and overcoming weaknesses. he argues that it is the manager’s job to remove negative effects on employee performance and to help each employee to grow and develop (stone, 2008:299). globally, pdps have become a central issue for training and development in order for organisations to meet their strategic, business and operational goals. with regard to challenges in the implementation of pdp, lejeune et al. (2021:1086–1112) point out that today’s world of work is forcing companies to change their approach to learning. their talent strategy needs to foster self-directed learning (sdl), which is possible during and post the times of covid-19 through the development of digital learning epistemologies to enable the staff to access training and development anywhere and anytime. digital learning would assist sassa to enhance job performance and effective competencies of staff, which will support effective competence development, such as pdps. research methods and design the study used a qualitative research approach that allowed the respondents to be interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. in employing qualitative modes of enquiry, the researcher has the opportunity to interact and gather data directly from the research participants to investigate the alignment between pdps and tdps in the gauteng region at ekurhuleni district and the head office in tshwane. in this case, a constructivist paradigm formed the basis with which to understand the training of human resources. qualitative data was gathered through in-depth telephonic interviews and digital platforms such as zoom and document analysis. kumar (2018:16–23) points out that a qualitative approach is embedded in the philosophy that follows an open, flexible and unstructured approach to enquiry. the approach aims to explore diversity rather than to quantify and it emphasises the description and narration of feelings, perceptions and experiences rather than their measurement. a qualitative approach communicates findings in a descriptive and narrative rather than an analytical manner, placing no or less emphasis on generalisations. the interview schedule was sent to 72 participants before covid-19 was declared a pandemic in september 2020, some of whom agreed to be interviewed face-to-face and others through focus groups. the data collection was undertaken in 2021 during the covid-19 lockdown, and as a result, not all 72 sampled members of the population were available to participate, only 39. of 16 managers, seven are from the head office, nine are from the ekurhuleni district office and there were 23 office administrators from the ekurhuleni district office. this sample of 39 participants was then approved to be sufficient to conduct the research without prejudice. the researchers conducted in-depth telephonic interviews and digital platforms such as zoom and document analysis. to limit discrepancies in the document analysis, the researcher used policy documents relevant to pmds to validate the information obtained from the interviews. the questions of the interview schedule were structured to focus on four thematic areas: training and development. employee and organisational performance and productivity. organisational performance and productivity in sassa. alignment of pdps with tdps. the interview questions used allowed the respondents to respond in a standard direct way that was unbiased and objective. the sample population comprised office administrators and managers from various directorates of sassa in the ekurhuleni district and the head office in the city of tshwane. data analysis qualitative data analysis, which is a process of making sense of data (merriam, 2018), was used to transform qualitative data into meaningful accounts and to interpret and draw conclusions from the mass of collected data so as to make sense. as the primary purpose of the research was to produce data that could help answer research questions, data analysis entailed the process of reducing, consolidating, interpreting and describing the data in the light of the purpose of the study and the process of re-organising data to facilitate conceptual understanding relevant to research questions under investigation. in the case of this study, the first stage was to capture the diversity of experiences of respondents by allowing the unique patterns of each layer of respondent information to emerge (eisenhardt, 2008). descriptions of data formed the basis for interpretation and were carried out reflecting the important connection between the flow of events and the context within which such events were situated. the goal of the cross-case analysis was to identify specific variables that describe each category of respondents in order that a meaningful contrast and comparison could be made (gartner, 1985). data collected was organised and classified into themes that, inductively derived from the information, were coded to identify emerging critical themes emerging from the raw data, also illustrating broad patterns and linkages. dey (1993:78) has outlined coding as ‘a method of reorganising data by making an explicit distinction between different categories of data, segmenting and re-grouping data into conceptually relevant categories that facilitate comparison between and within cases’. as such, thematic coding was used to assess elements and group them into conceptually relevant themes to facilitate comparison. the purpose of coding was not only to describe but more importantly to acquire an understanding of a phenomenon of interest, to obtain a general sense of the information, identify patterns and to reflect on the overall meaning or make sense of the data. in coding the raw data, the researcher allocated specific meanings to the specific part or categories of data to expose the most salient qualities and to make the dataset manageable and sensible. results from interviews and document analysis were ‘examined for specific meanings that they might have in relation to the case’ (leedy & ormrod, 2001:150). data were also analysed during the data collection process by considering and selecting information relevant to the research questions. that is, data analysis was done simultaneously with data collection as there was a significant overlap between the data collection and analysis phases. the researcher could not wait until all data were collected as this: [i]s to lose the opportunity to gather more reliable, relevant and valid data or could have amassed a huge amount of data, some of which may not have been relevant to the research. (merriam, 2018:14) therefore, analysis was done simultaneously with the collection of data to reduce the problem of data overload. it was also done to prevent the researcher from losing sight of the original research purpose and questions. ethical considerations faculty committee for research ethics – humanities (fcre-hum). the study investigates the alignment between personal development plans and the training and development plan in the south african social security agency. it is not an ethically sensitive topic. the ethics checklist and ethics declaration have been submitted and are in order. the information leaflet and informed consent documentation have been submitted and are in order. interview schedule has been submitted. a letter giving permission to conduct the research has now been provided. results there are various plausible reasons for the findings. imran and tanveer (2015:22) report that the findings of a study conducted with employees working in pakistani banks revealed that training and development had a beneficial impact on their job knowledge, work quality and quantity, functional skills, motivation, and loyalty, and these are all linked to their performance either strongly or moderately but in a supporting direction. the findings from the interviews in this study reveal that training and development were positively correlated and show a significant relationship between employee and organisational performance. findings 1: training and development an analysis of sassa policy documents and reports indicates that training and development are central to sassa’s effective service delivery, as they address business needs related to learning, behaviour change and performance improvement, and accord with the earlier observations that showed that pdps need to be implemented to avoid further poor performance. however, the research findings show that reflections from the respondents articulate how training and development implemented by sassa from the 2015–2016 to 2019–2020 financial years were not relevant to the identified needs or skills gap of the employees. the respondents also mentioned that the training was not communicated adequately to employees for them to participate in the design of the training and attend the training sessions. findings 2: employee and organisational performance and productivity an assessment of policy documents in relation to the interview findings reveals that the pmds for employees on salary levels 1–12 was not given the appropriate attention by management, which resulted in poor organisational performance and productivity caused by poor individual staff performance (sassa, 2016). given the above, it becomes necessary to determine the alignment between pdps with tdps to continuously improve the quality of employee performance and productivity within sassa. as such, despite the implementation of pmds in sassa, the performance and achievement of annual targets during the past five financial years remained a problem. during the interview process, a number of persons indicated that they would need some training on their pdps, but such was not conducted. this might be attributed to the generally poor performance of the organisation, among other factors. also, the covid-19 pandemic has led to a reduction in the budget for training and development as organisations had to adjust budgets (sassa, 2020). the mail & guardian (2021-06-19) stated that sassa had commenced with plans to ‘re-engineer’ the organisational structure by trimming top management positions and giving the remaining managers more responsibilities. this was done to address the sassa’s existing ineffective structure, which would lead to better accountability. this move would reveal how many managers sassa required to operate efficiently. findings 3: organisational performance and productivity in south african social security agency an assessment of signed audited reports from the sassa for the 2015–2020 fiscal years and the pmds policy documents in relation to the interview findings reveal that management did not give the pmds for employees on salary levels 1–12 the appropriate attention, which contributed to the poor organisational performance brought on by unmotivated individual staff members (sassa, 2016). south african social security agency received a qualified audit report during the financial years 2016/17 and 2017/18 because of the incompleteness of irregular and wasteful expenditure disclosure, which the auditors expressed as a concern. according to the auditor-general’s audit findings for the 2018/19 annual report and brrr, sassa acknowledged that the agency struggled to obtain a competent audit in the 2016/17 and 2017/18 fiscal years. the negative audit result in the 2018/19 fiscal year necessitated performance adjustments. incomplete irregular expenditure receipts, which amounted to financial mismanagement, were the source of the problems in 2016/17 and 2017/18. findings 4: alignment of performance development plans with training and development plans the most striking result to emerge from the data is that the training implemented was not in line with the pdps submitted by supervisors. these findings suggest that the training implemented was not fit for purpose, something which attributed to the generally poor performance of the organisation, among other factors. comparing the results from managers and professional and general staff (i.e. non-managers) who are doing the actual work, it became apparent that there was no alignment between training and the organisation’s development plans, taking into consideration the underspending of the budget allocated for training. imran and tanveer (2015) agree that training and development have a beneficial impact on employee job knowledge, work quality and quantity, functional skills, motivation and loyalty. another finding is that because of the non-implementation of pdps and irrelevant training and development programmes, sassa may not have an effective alignment of pdps with the tdps of staff. these findings have important implications for developing organisational goals and achieving performance targets; hence, it is important to appropriately align pdps with the tdps. during the document analysis, it was observed that the auditor’s annual reports showed a negative performance recurring for the past 5 years of the sassa strategic plan, which reflected a concern for a negative performance (auditor-general south africa, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020) including underspending of the budget allocated for training for the gauteng region and the head office in tshwane. the failure of the organisation to spend on and implement the pdps and tdps is a result of dependence on the non-functional ability of sassa’s scm policy. the misalignment of pdps to the organisation’s tdp is a result of the lack of accountability by the supervisors and/or management of the organisation for their staff development. as such, the above-mentioned might be the contributory factor in the negative performance of the organisation. conclusion the study recommends that effective training programmes and carefully set development plans should be provided to all employees to enable them to enhance their skills and upgrade their knowledge. foreseeable future research can be conducted to cover other variables such as the impact of the budget on the implementation of performance development plans (pdps) and training and development, which might affect the performance and productivity of the organisation. the study concluded that pdp and training and development impact employee and organisational performance and productivity. from the foregoing discussion, it is evident that there should be alignment between pdps and tdps as an organisation will be successful if its employees are trained according to their needs. gaps that need to be addressed should be identified and appropriate pdps should be formulated with the manager and expounded throughout the period in question. the onus is on the supervisor to monitor, explain and motivate where necessary as employees cannot be expected to achieve what they intend to achieve without the appropriate training. consequently, it is imperative to align the pdps with training and development because the significance of aligning pdps cannot be disregarded. taking these findings into consideration would benefit sassa as it is pointless having pdps and training and development if they are not aligned. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions t.f.s., m.s.b. and k.m. contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author, t.f.a. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references auditor-general of south africa. (2016). management report of the south african social security agency of 2016/17. auditor-general of south africa. (2017) management report of the south african social security agency of 2017/18. auditor-general south africa. (2020). auditor-general of south africa. 2016. management report of the south african social security agency of 2016/17. beausaert, s.a. (2011). the use of personal development plans in the workplace. effects, purposes and supporting conditions (p. 188), springer. beausaert, s., segers, m., & grohnert, t. (2015). personal development plan, career development, and training. in k. kraiger, p.n.r. dos santo, & s. malvezzi (eds.), in the wiley blackwell handbook of the psychology of training, development, and performance improvement. chichester: wiley blackwell handbooks in organizational psychology (pp. 336–353). john wiley & sons. dey, i. (1993). qualitative data analysis. routledge. falola, h.o., osibanjo, a.o., & ojo, i.s. (2014). effectiveness of training and development on employees’ performance and organisation competitiveness in the nigerian banking industry. bulletin of the transilvania university of braşov, 7(1), 161. gartner, w.b. (1985). a conceptual framework for describing the phenomenon of new venture creation. academy of management review, 10(4), 696–706. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1985.4279094 grobler, p.a., warnic, s., carrell, m.r., elbert, n.f., & hartfield, r.d. (2006). human resource management in south africa (3rd ed.). cengage learning. imran, m., & tanveer, a. (2015). impact of training & development on employees’ performance in banks of pakistan. european journal of training and development studies, 3(1), 22–44. kadiresan, v., selamat, m.h., selladurai, s., ramendran, c.s., & mohamed, r.k.m.h. (2015). performance appraisal and training and development of human resource management practices (hrm) on organizational commitment and turnover intention. asian social science, 11(24), 162. https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v11n24p162 khan, a.a., abbasi, s., waseem, r.m., ayaz m., & ijaz, m. (2016). impact of training and development of employees on employee performance through job satisfaction: a study of telecom sector of pakistan. business management and strategy, 7(1), 29–46. https://doi.org/10.5296/bms.v7i1.9024 kolb, d.a., boyatzis, r.e., & mainemelis, c. (2014). experiential learning theory: previous research and new directions. in r.j. sternberg, & l-f. zhang (eds.), in perspectives on thinking, learning, and cognitive styles (pp. 227–248). routledge. kumar, r. (2018). research methodology: a step-by-step guide for beginners. sage. leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2001). practical research: planning and design (7th ed.). merrill prentice hall. lejeune, c., beausaert, s., & raemdonck, i. (2021). the impact on employees’ job performance of exercising self-directed learning within personal development plan practice. the international journal of human resource management, 32(5), 1086–1112. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2018.1510848 mabe, i.i., makamu, n.i., & juta, l.b. (2018). the impact of training and development on employees’ performance in ngaka modiri molema district municipality. journal of public administration, 53(3), 718–730. merriam, s.b. (2018). qualitative research: a guide to design and implementation. jossey-bass. mulang, a. (2015). the importance of training for human resource development in organizations. journal of public administration and governance, 5(1), 190–197. https://doi.org/10.5296/jpag.v5i1.7505 opperman, c., & meyer, m. (2008). integrating training needs analysis, assessment and evaluation: aligning learning with business results. knowres publishing. republic of south africa. national treasury. (2010). national treasury framework for strategic plans and annual performance plans from treasury. government printers. rughani, a. (2001). the gp’s guide to personal development plans. radcliffe publishing. south african social security agency (sassa). (2016a). cooperate services: performance management and development system policy for e mployees on salary level 1–12. south african social security agency (sassa). (2016b). annual report. retrieved from https://static.pmg.org.za/sassa_annual_report_2015_2016_low_res.pdf south african social security agency (sassa). (2017). annual report. retrieved from https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/25157/ south african social security agency (sassa). (2018). annual report. retrieved from https://static.pmg.org.za/sassa_ar_201718_web.pdf south african social security agency (sassa). (2020a). annual report. retrieved from https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/31591/ south african social security agency (sassa). (2020b). reflection on lessons learned during covid19 pandemic season. stone, j.r. (2008). managing human resources (2nd ed.). john wiley and sons, australia ltd. van de wiel, m.w.j., szegedi, k.h.p., & weggeman, m.c.d.p. (2004). professional learning: deliberate attempts at developing expertise. in h.p.a. boshuizen, r. bromme, & h. gruber (eds.), professional learning: gaps and transitions on the way from novice to expert (pp. 181–206). kluwer. volk, s.c., berger, k., zerfass, a., bisswanger, l., fetzer, m., & koehler, k. (2017). how to play the game. academic society for management & communication – an initiative of the günter thiele found ation burgstraße. footnotes 1. eastern cape, free state, gauteng, kwazulu-natal, limpopo, mpumalanga, northern cape, north west and western cape. article information authors: crispen chipunza1 shungu a. gwarinda1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology, university of fort hare, south africa correspondence to: crispen chipunza email: cchipunza@ufh.ac.za postal address: department of industrial psychology, university of fort hare, private bag x1314 alice 5700, south africa keywords transformational leadership; merger; incorporation; executive management; higher education dates: received: 20 feb. 2009 accepted: 14 dec. 2009 published: 17 june 2010 how to cite this article: chipunza, c., & gwarinda, s.a. (2010). transformational leadership in merging higher education institutions: a case study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #195, 10 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.195 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) transformational leadership in merging higher education institutions: a case study in this original research article... open access • abstract • introduction    • the concept of transformational leadership    • mergers and transformational leadership • research design    • qualitative research approach    • research strategy    • research method       • research setting       • entrée and establishing research roles       • target population       • sampling       • data collection methods       • reliability of the interview data       • recording of data       • data analysis       • reporting       • quantitative research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • ethical considerations • results    • question 1    • questions 2 and 3    • shared vision       • clarity of strategic direction       • empowering climate       • capacity for change discussion    • meaning of transformational leadership    • shared vision    • strategic direction    • empowering climate    • capacity for change    • conclusion • references abstract (back to top) orientation: the use of transformational leadership in the implementation of merger and incorporation policy in the higher education sector is well documented in other parts of the world and not in countries in transition like south africa. research purpose: the objectives of this study were to establish an understanding of ‘transformational leadership’ and to determine the extent to which it was employed by leaders in an institution of higher education which had incorporated another institution. motivations for the study: the study provides a starting point, not only for the successful implementation of higher education changes in the future but also the building of leadership commitment and alignment to the proposed changes in the sector as well as the development of institutional leadership teams to take responsibility for any other transformation processes. research design, approach and method: the population of the study consisted of 350 full-time employees of the institution who had experienced the incorporation process. two samples – one consisting of six executive management leaders and the other consisting of 153 employees – were used. both qualitative and quantitative research approaches were employed using the case study method. main findings: results showed that transformational principles of idealised influence, intellectual stimulation, and inspirational motivation principles were used more than others and that employees were generally not satisfied with how the incorporation process had taken place. practical/managerial implications: the results of the study affected the attitude and satisfaction of the employees in this study. contribution/value-add: the study reveals that leaders in the institution played key roles such as shared vision, team work and the creation of an enabling environment. an important point that has emanated from this study is the evidence that during transformation, a lack of strategic direction and empowering of followers and capacitating them leads to dissatisfaction with the whole process, despite the transformation process being declared a success. introduction (back to top) the advent of south africa’s political independence democratised and brought new challenges to institutions of higher learning. institutions became exposed to a new global economy characterised by labour and capital organised on a global scale, calling for role players who had access to, and were in possession of, the necessary knowledge and information. these characteristics of the new economy, combined with the new government’s aims of ‘redressing past inequalities, serving a new social order, meeting the pressing needs and responding to new realities and opportunities in the education sector,’ resulted in the south african government initiating the transformation of the higher education landscape (van der westhuizen, 2004, p. 155). this transformation aimed at ensuring increased accessibility to, and equity in, the provision of higher education for all. to this end, the ministry of education established an advisory body – the national working group on education – which put forward recommendations on the transformation of the higher education sector (department of education, 2001), centred on the reduction of the country’s 36 universities and technikons to 23. the primary instruments in the facilitation of this reduction were mergers and incorporations of previously separate institutions into bigger institutions under one management. section 23 of the higher education act 101 of 1997 defines a merger as ‘the combination of two or more separate institutions into a single entity with a single governing body, whereby all the assets, liabilities, and responsibilities of the former institution are transferred to the single new institution’. section 24 states that ‘incorporation of a subdivision refers to the situation when an identified subdivision, faculty, school, department, section or component of a public higher education institution becomes part of another public higher education institution while the latter institution’s legal personality… is not affected.’ merger and incorporation plans are contained in the national plan for higher education policy (council for higher education, 2001). to facilitate a smooth transition, the implementation of the policy and the creation of new institutions to achieve ‘fitness for purpose’– that is, the creation of conditions necessary to implement new visions and missions through mergers and incorporations – the ministry of education’s (moe) guidelines on mergers and incorporations noted the importance of ensuring there was no vacuum in leadership and management during the process. the primary concern was regarding management (leadership) and the development of appropriate, effective integrating mechanisms by which mergers and incorporations could be facilitated, resulting in the full absorbtion of an incorporated campus into a receiving one (moe, 2003). the proposed mergers and incorporations occurred against reports of: (1) increased leadership instability – that is, movement of high profile people in and out of senior administrative positions from the country’s higher education institutions (wolf, 2000) (2) divergent views on the roles of leaders in mergers and incorporations of higher education institutions (april & hill, 2000) (3) a number of the institutions proposed to merge or incorporate have not yet developed and operationalised minimum systems (e.g. human resources) to enable effective implementation of the policy (bendix, 2000) (4) a disturbingly poor quality and credibility of higher education academic leadership at most historically disadvantaged institutions (hdis) before and after independence which, it was feared, could have resulted in poor and improper mergers or incorporations. this poor type of leadership has yet to find ways of acting credibly in developing strong and diverse academic and intellectual communities of scholars. such inaction exposed these institutions to the political claim that transformation in the higher education sector was being stalled’ (jansen, 2003, 2004) (5) the future existence of universities in south africa was being undermined by growing corporatisation, rampant managerialism and state control. consequently, most of the universities earmarked for mergers or incorporations had been transformed into commercial centres, where every management meeting was focused on balancing the budget and where the response to external intervention was being met with compliance and consent; teaching methodology was equated with technology and mechanisms of research confused with the elegance of scholarship.’ (jansen, 2004). in addition, the national merger and incorporation policy document did not specifically mention the type of leadership that should drive the process and only gave a generic outline of the importance of good governance from institutional leaders. despite these concerns, the merging or incorporation of the affected institutions proceeded. one of the requirements was for new institutional leaders to successfully manage the transformation process, not because of their political expediency or racial preference, but because of leadership qualities which gave them credibility. the emerging picture was one that challenged management in the merging or incorporating institutions to ensure that leadership issues were fundamentally addressed. successful mergers and incorporations have highlighted the fact that there is a common denominator that determines success: the way in which leaders manage the process (pritchard, 1993). thus, although good preparation, communication and support, etcetera, are vital elements for a merger or incorporation, their existence will not contribute to successful implementation, but rather how leaders utilise and manage them. in this regard, it is imperative to assess the issue of leadership among the transformed institutions. this results not only in the future successful implementation of higher education changes, but also the building of leadership commitment for and alignment to the proposed changes in the sector and the development of institutional leadership teams to take responsibility for any other transformation process. the concept of transformational leadership the concept of transformational leadership was developed by burns (1978), who regard it as an extension of transactional leadership. transactional leaders exchange and promise rewards for followers’ efforts and respond to subordinates’ immediate interest (balster, 2002). on the other hand, transformational leadership involves charisma, inspiration, intellectual stimulation and individual consideration (bass, 1990). by using charisma, the leader shares the vision and mission of the organisation, instills pride in subordinates and gains respect and trust. a transformational leader communicates high expectations, uses symbols to focus efforts and expresses important purposes in simple ways. intellectual stimulation is used by transformational leaders to promote intelligence, rationality and careful problem solving (avolio, waldman & yammarino, 1991). the transformational leader gives personal attention, treats each employee individually and coaches and advises, thus giving individualised consideration to employees. considering these characteristics of transformational leadership and the work of morakul and wu (2001), lim (1997), jansen (2000) and drew and smith (1995), it is possible to identify the following transformational roles of a leader:(1) development of a shared vision (lim, 1997). (2) clarification of strategic direction (lim, 1997): these two entail that the leader defines the vision of the organisation and its value to the followers, ensuring that followers are aware of the content and meaning of the direction that the organisation is following. the leader also ensures that the link between the vision and the type of organisational principles is well established. (3) empowering (morakul & wu, 2001): a leader who empowers provides followers with the authority to make decisions, rewards them when they become innovative and take risks, involves followers in important change initiatives, allows followers to have access to relevant information pertaining to the change taking place and rewards followers for supporting positive change. (4) development of capacity for change (jansen, 2000): this involves leaders making an assessment of the readiness of followers to participate in the transformation process, ensuring that followers have the necessary skills and training to participate effectively in the change process and dealing with the emotional aspects of followers. these four tasks indicate that the role of a leader in the change process is essentially transformational. indeed, the overall focus of transformational leadership is therefore to produce levels of effort and performance in followers that go beyond what would be achieved with transactional leader (robbins, 2001). mergers and transformational leadership evidence has shown that there are no difference in transformational leadership, whether it is utilised within an educational or a business environment (hoover, 1991), especially considering the present day trend of running educational institutions as businesses. (hoover, 1991). this is true, considering the fact that today educational institutions are run along business practices. studies on mergers and incorporations in educational settings have show that transformational leadership is an important factor in the success of the merger (hope, 2002; fernandez, 2005). in a study done in poland, mikulowski (2002) found reports that the threat posed by a lack of leadership competencies on the proposed incorporation of educational institutions was ameliorated when institutional leadership received training on leading the transformation process. similarly, in australia mergers have been found to be successful in the presence of strong and visionary leadership (reddy, 2001). in china, where the education system was traditionally characterised by centralised planning, merger and incorporations were performed in an effort to change the obsolete system under which universities were owned and run. this objective was achieved through the appointment of leaders considered to be charismatic. the examples cited above indicate that in the context of mergers, using the principles of transformational leadership provides an opportunity for leaders to gain the commitment of relevant stakeholders through shared values and vision. leaders who play transformational leadership roles in the merger will be able to promote risk-taking behaviours among followers and mobilise resources towards followers in an effort to produce the desired level of effort for success. the use of these principles also helps in the development and maintenance of a collaborative and professional organisational culture. indeed, literature (keup, walker, astin & lindholm, 2001) argues that mergers bring together different cultures, procedures, systems and policies and therefore there is a need for the creation of a common distinctive culture. however, given that culture develops on the basis of shared vision and mission, strategy, policies, systems and procedures, it can be argued that, though the creation of a common culture or identity after a merger takes time, it is best done by leaders who play transformational leadership roles. hall, symes and leucher (2004) support this view, when they argue that institutions whose governance of the process of mergers or incorporations has been democratic and based on transformational leadership style will establish a very different culture as opposed to those whose governance has been management focused. literature points out that the institutional leaders who championed the process of mergers or incorporations in south african did not have minimal or previous experience (mcknight, 2002) because these were rare occurances within the framework of higher education organisation and management. therefore, institutional leaders largely relied on research literature for guidance and advice. prior to mergers of higher education institutions in south africa, research (manser, 1999; msila, 2000; lokotsch, 2002; singh & manser, 2002) revealed that there was a major flaw regarding the way transformational leadership principles were contemplated and implemented. this was evident, especially in the case of some hdis, where a shared vision was interpreted as a once-off event, rather than a ongoing part of the evolutionary process of transformation (manser, 1999; msila, 2000). mistakenly, a change in leadership strategy was regarded simply as a final product rather than a continuous process. previous research has indicated that, for the mergers to be successful, transformational leadership had to be carefully nurtured by the institutional leaders who had been mandated to lead the transformation. indeed, fernandez (2005) found that transformational leadership can be effectively utilised to extract the best from people and create the most effective and efficient educational climate at institutional level. besides the identified flaws and shortcomings in the use and conceptualisation of transformational leadership among some south african higher education institutions, reports on transformational leadership issues on various forms of amalgamations globally have been limited to developed countries (john, 1999; adams-matuszynska, 2001; reddy, 2001). these examples do not offer much in the way of providing usable generalisations to serve as guidelines to nations in transition, such as south africa. furthermore, empirical studies show that praxis and theory concerning mergers and incorporations in different countries and institutions do not always converge and experiences with mergers and/or incorporations among institutional leadership vary (skodvin, 1999:76). because transformational leadership among nations in transition (especially developing countries) that have embarked on higher education transformation have not yet received sufficient analytical attention, there is need to analyse the issue at institutional level. this would provide critical leadership information for comparing and contrasting such leadership styles across different contexts. additional information on whether transformational leadership principles were applicable under the prevailing conditions of policy, laws and state-sector relations in south africa could also be obtained. the tertiary institution selected for this study incorporated (legally, though not substantially different from a merger) another institution the incorporation strategy was highlighted in the institutional operation plan (2003), approved by the department of education (doe), and resulted in the streamlining of some operations and the reformulation of structures as initial major changes towards the incorporation. this was in line with the requirements of the ministry’s guidelines on mergers and incorporations which state the following: it is vital to the success of mergers and incorporations that there is accountable and effective governance and management all the time. the challenge is to ensure good governance and management even while the governance and management structures themselves are subject to change. institutions must be run effectively throughout the process, and at no stage should there be vacuum in governance and management. the responsibility for driving the project however rests with the institutional leadership, who must ensure that the process is not brought to a halt over issues where there are high contestations… the institutional leadership together with the merger manager should be responsible for driving the process, maintaining a broad perspective on objectives and desired outcomes, establishing necessary links, identifying overlaps, and ensuring proper sequencing of actions. (moe, 2003, 4–11) issues of governance and management as well as maintaining broad perspective on objectives in the above statement are aspects of transactional and transformational leadership, respectively. this means that the implementation of the transformation process for the planned mergers and incorporations rested on good and appropriate leadership styles. previous literature points out that during the period of higher education transformation in south africa, academic leadership in the formerly disadvantaged institutions was poor and that the new guidelines on mergers lacked guidance with regard to the leadership style suitable during mergers and incorporations. in spite of the fact that utilisation of transformational leadership has been found essential to the success of mergers and incorporations, the extent to which leaders in the merging institutions in south africa have incorporated it, has not been clearly established. an investigation into its use in the mergers that took place in south africa could be a starting point in developing a good management approach for future mergers in the higher education sector. this study therefore, aimed to determine the perceptions and opinions of the target population by answering the following questions: • how does the institution’s executive management understand the term ‘transformational leadership?’ • what transformational leadership roles did the institution’s executive management play during the merger process? • to what extent do employees feel the institution’s executive management used transformational leadership during the merger process? research design (back to top) a mixed-method research design (babbie & mouton, 2001) using both qualitative and quantitative methods was used in the study. the mixed-method design was employed to raise the data above possible biases stemming from use of single methodology (babbie & mouton, 2001). this is known as triangulation of information. newman (1997) defines triangulation as an attempt to gather observations using various sampling strategies to ensure that a theory is tested in more than one way. in the present research, triangulation data was done by verifying and validating information from the interviews using information from the questionnaires. participants in the study therefore, consisted of two separate samples, one comprising the institution’s executive management and the other one other employees. qualitative research approach in order to answer questions 1 and 2 posed by the study, a qualitative research approach was followed: interviews were used to obtain information as to how the concept of ‘transformational leadership’ was interpreted by the executive management and how they perceived their roles in the incorporation process. as previously indicated, transformational leadership entails sharing vision and strategic direction, creating an empowerment climate and capacity for change. a qualitative design was appropriate for this part of the research, because it is used when a researcher wants to study a phenomenon in its natural setting and interpret it in terms of the meanings attached in that situation (swanson & holton, 1997). in this research, a qualitative approach was deemed appropriate because of the nature of the issue under investigation, which required detailed information about the meanings that people attached to the matters under consideration, given the emotive nature of change. research strategy a case study strategy using structured interviews as a data collection method was used to gain an in-depth understanding of the transformational leadership roles used by the target sample in the incorporation process. research method research setting interviews were conducted within the institution’s environment, specifically in the office of each of the respondents in the executive management sample. entrée and establishing research roles prior to each of the interviews, the researcher telephonically called each of the respondents in the target sample and explained the purpose of the research. thereafter, appointments for interviews were secured. target population the institution from which the two samples were drawn employed 210 academics and 140 non-academics. the qualitative part of the research focused at the executive level of the institution. they were the group responsible for driving the merger process. sampling six purposefully selected institutional leaders of the institution’s executive management team who had driven the merger constituted the sample. these included the special assistant to the vice chancellor, human resources director, director of communications, the academic deans of research, law and science and agriculture. there was one woman (black) and five males in the sample. three of the male participants were white and two black. among the black males, one was a non-south african. data collection methods the ‘phenomenological interview’ (kvale, 1996) was used as the interview method. using a 16-item structured interview guide, the interviewer asked a core question to solicit institutional leaders’ understanding of transformational leadership. the question asked was: ‘as one of the institutional leaders responsible for the incorporation process, what is your understanding of the term transformational leadership?’ to establish the transformational leadership roles the leaders had played during the merger, questions 2–15 derived from the categories of transformational leadership tasks as defined by different authors were used. examples of questions from each category were: • idealised influence (shared vision, [lim, 1997]) ‘what were the values guiding the merger process?’ ‘did the general employees know the new vision and mission and their content? why?’ • inspirational motivation (provision of strategic direction, [lim, 1997]) ‘please explain your understanding of the knowledge of employees in terms of knowing benefits and key priorities set by the institution during the merger process.’ • intellectual stimulation (empowerment climate, [morakul & wu, 2001]) ‘what plans were put in place to ensure that employees had the necessary skills and knowledge to participate in, and cope with the merger process?’ • individual consideration (capacity for change, [jansen, 2000; drew & smith, 1995]) ‘what is your opinion on the extent to which the personal needs of employees were catered for during the merger process?’ reliability of the interview data several strategies that ensured reliability of data were employed. guba’s (babbie & mouton, 2001) method was applied to achieve credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability. thus, reliability was achieved by triangulation, debriefing and purposive sampling. recording of data each interview was audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. data analysis aligned to the method suggested by tesch (cresswell, 2003), analysis of the qualitative data was conducted through transcribing each interview and a content analysis was used to determine the underlying themes for each question. content analysis is unobtrusive compared to other research methods. the content analyst seldom has any effect on the subject being studied. however, it is only limited to the examination of recorded communications and therefore problems of validity are likely to be experienced. reporting for each interview question, an aggregation of similar individual responses was done in order to establish the emerging theme(s). quantitative research approach in order to answer question 3 of the study, a quantitative research approach using questionnaires was used to solicit data to understand employees’ perception of the extent to which the institution’s executive management played transformational roles during the incorporation. quantitative designs, on the other hand, deal with a large number of respondents, use numbers to generalisable comparisons and conclusions about populations (ghauri & gronhaug, 2005). it was for this reason that a qualitative approach was chosen: a large number of employees were involved, making the interviews a time-consuming process, and in addition it provided a platform for the comparison of data. research method research participants the second sample consisted of 153 employees (80 academic and 73 non-academic staff) representing 38% and 52% of the total population for each category, respectively. they were randomly selected from all three campuses of the institution. seventy-nine were females and 74 were males. the increase in the number of academic and non-academic staff was based on the assumption that they were the population largely affected by the behaviour of leaders driving the merger process. one hundred and five of the respondents had work-experience of between 1–10 years, 30 of which had experience of 11–20 years and 10 of less than a year. only eight had worked 20 years at the institution. measuring instruments a questionnaire was used to collect data. the philosophical thinking of positivism (newman, 2000) which argues that information can be quantified and that interpretations made justified the use of a questionnaire to collect data from the sample of academics and non-academics. as all participants were literate, they were capable of completing the questionnaires unassisted. items in the questionnaire were the same as those in the interview schedule, based on the four transformational tasks, that is, shared vision (lim, 1997), clarity of strategic direction (lim, 1997), empowerment (morakul & wu, 2001) and capacity for change (jansen, 2000). however, the phrasing was such that they solicited employees’ perceptions regarding executive management’s use of transformational leadership roles during the merger. the items were measured on a 4-point likert scale ranging from (4) ‘strongly agree’ to (1) ‘strongly disagree’ in order to avoid situations where participants indicate that they do not know or are uncertain about a particular issue. using cronbach-alpha coefficients, the internal consistency reliabilities for each section of the questionnaire were as follows: shared vision (0.71), strategic direction (0.74), empowerment climate (0.73) and capacity for change (0.73). a cronbach-alpha level of 0.5 and above is regarded as acceptable. research procedure the questionnaire was distributed to all the academic and non-academic staff from the three campuses of the institution via e-mail. statistical analysis using a confidence level of 95%, a non-parametric statistic, the chi-square for goodness of fit (equal opportunities) was used to determine academic and non-academic employees’ responses regarding executive management’s use of transformational leadership during the merger. choosing chi-square was based on the assumption that it deals with nominal data as in the current study consisting of frequencies in most cases. the idea was to establish whether the participants’ responses for each question were equally distributed across the values of the variables tested and then compare these with the interview responses from the executive management. ethical considerations (back to top) permission was sought and granted by the institution’s authority. voluntary informed consent was sought from the interviewed participants through a telephonic conversation in which the researcher explained the purpose of the study. after each interview, time was allocated for the participants’ debriefing to avoid any harmful effects of their participation in the study. in addition, confidentiality was maintained at all times and participants were informed of the rationale, recording and safekeeping of interviews and transcriptions. for the questionnaires, respondents were informed through a letter sent via email from the hr office which communicated essential information about the research. confidentiality of information was also guaranteed. results (back to top) the first section presents results from qualitative data analysis. question 1 the study first question in the interview guide sought to establish an understanding of transformational leadership among the six executive members of the institution. key two main themes, as indicated in table 1, emerged from asking the first question in the interview schedule: the creation of vision and mobilisation of resources. table 1: knowledge of transformational leadership three respondents indicated that a transformational leader sets the institution’s vision. one noted that ‘...a transformational leader is a person who is not only concerned with the day-to–day running challenges, but a person who seems to see a bigger picture, one who is able to judge the horizon.’ another viewed a transformational leader as ‘a person with good intellectual acumen ... one with the ability to formulate a vision based on the historical strength of the university.’ four of the six institution’s executive management members indication that the mobilisation of resources was an important aspect of transformational leadership and should be done in line with understanding the landscape of transformation. one participant stated that ‘transformational leadership involves a person who is able to mobilise resources and study the landscape for the performance of the future.’ conceptualising the same theme, another respondent exemplified the method of using external consultancy to achieve transformation goals. ‘as a transformational leader, you will have to engage maybe sometimes external knowledge by means of consultancy where you feel that you do not have expertise.’ four of the respondents indicated that transformational leaders focus on team work and staff development. one stated: ‘to achieve success as a transformational leader, it is important to work as a team to support each other in our skills acquisition.’ questions 2 and 3 question two of the study was meant to identify the transformational leadership roles played by the institution’s executive management during the merger process. results from the interviews were analysed in terms of interview questions from each category of the transformational leadership roles as identified in literature. conversely, question 3 of the study sought to determine the perceptions of employees regarding executive management’ use of transformational leadership during the merger. the results were analysed in terms of responses per item using chi-square for goodness of fit. results of both analyses are presented below in order to facilitate comparison. shared vision values and beliefs guiding the transformation: five (83%) of the six executive samples indicated their familiarity with the values and beliefs guiding the transformation process, stating that they made every effort in ensuring these were known by all stakeholders during incorporation. some of the values that emerged included the identity of the institution as an african university, tolerance of diversity, accountability and quality of service. one respondent noted that ‘fort hare is guided by the values of being an african university and diversity of workforce and students in order to be reflective of the community that it is part of. it is guided by the values of delivering quality tuition and accountability and these are what we emphasised.’awareness of the content and meaning of the new vision: all six executive management members interviewed agreed they had ensured that staff was aware of the university’s vision and mission. ‘yes they knew … it was our job as management to take the vision and mission from the university to our faculties and departments.’ ‘the vision and mission, people know them, they may not be able to repeat word by word.’ knowledge of the valued and inspiring aspects of the vision: the african heritage, history, diversity and international focus of the vision were cited by all six executive management members as aspects valued by staff: ‘the fact that fort hare identified itself with its african identity and not eurocentric is valued.’ and ‘the valued and inspiring aspects of the vision are the diverse programmes that make our students marketable.’ in terms of shared vision, as indicated in table 2, 58% of the employees showed awareness of values and beliefs guiding the major process as indicated in the (x² = 19.21, p < 0.0001). seventy-three per cent agreed they were aware of the content and meaning of the new vision and mission (x² = 47.44, p < 0.001) while 70% of employees confirmed that the diversity aspect of the vision and mission inspired them (x² = 48.18, p < 0.0001). table 2: chi-square result for shared vision role clarity of strategic direction understanding the benefits of transformation: five (83%) out of six of the executive management stated that though they explained, staff did not know the benefits of the incorporation: ‘we explained the benefits. they did not see the benefits of restructuring for the reason that once you talked of it …everybody thought of retrenchment. i will lose my job or will my union members lose their job. to them, it was bringing in insecurity ...’ as indicated in table 3, 52% of the employees indicated they did not know the benefits of the merger (x² = 41.27, p < 0.0001). table 3: chi-square results for strategic direction role table 4: chi-square results for empowering role empowering climate access to information on progress of incorporation: fifty per cent of the executive management agreed that staff were informed regularly of the progress of the incorporation: ‘it was not 100 percent [sic per cent] although we tried and disseminated the information as much as possible through the consultation process. the problem was that a lot has been expected from us in a short space of time. we slipped at times, because we had to rush to meet the time frames and the demands of the processes themselves.’ provision of opportunities to be innovative and take risks: the role of creating opportunities for staff to be innovative and promoting risk-taking among them was stated by five (83%) of the executive management sample. ‘we had great opportunity and equality for being innovative and take risk although we were constrained, but people did their work with a lot of energy. we gave people the opportunity to take calculated risks to mobilize resources that were at their disposal so that they could achieve the stated goals of transformation.’ giving opportunity to make and influence decisions: four (67%) out of the six executive management sample agreed that opportunities were available for staff to make decisions pertaining to the incorporation. ‘yes, staff had all the opportunities to make every strategic decision and they were being recognised for that. the creation of positions for directorships was meant to provide the freedom for them to make decisions and also work within their units.’ provision of an enabling environment: sixty-seven per cent of the executive management stated that they provided an enabling environment for staff to do their best during the incorporation process: ‘i think in general we can feel that the environment and the broad fort hare were put in place for everyone to do their best. we however might have been limited by funding in some of our activities.’ sixty-three per cent of the employees indicated they had no access to information pertaining to the process (x² = 23.24, p < 0.0001). seventy-one per cent of the employees showed that innovativeness and risk-taking were not recognised and encouraged during the merger period (x² = 51.84, p < 0.0001) and 67% indicated that they lacked the opportunity to influence decisions during the merger process ( x² =26.95, p <0.0001). only 58% agreed they had the opportunity to excel and do their best (x² = 38.50, p < 0.0001). capacity for change opportunity to work in teams: five (83%) of the six executive management highlighted that they played the role of creating teams to help in the incorporation: ‘the whole operation of the university was such that there were small teams of common purpose. we had committees and task teams whose aims were to create team spirit and working together for a common purpose.’ preparation of staff for the transformation: four (67%) out of six executive management sample indicated they had no time to prepare staff for the commencement of the incorporation: ‘i do not think the university had time to prepare its staff, or could have prepared its staff because the staff at the incorporated institution was new. in addition, nobody clearly knew what this ‘animal’ called merger and incorporations was. so, i certainly do not think the university could have prepared them adequately.’ knowledge of priorities and solutions for successful transformation: fifty per cent of executive management reported that they had played their role in ensuring that staff knew the university’s priorities in ensuring success of the incorporation. ‘i do not think anyone at this institution can claim ignorance of what the institutional priorities were, in terms of performance and going forward.’ institutional initiatives to deal with emotional effects: fifty per cent of the executive management reported that the university had initiated ways to address the emotional effects of the incorporation among staff: ‘yes, they were there including the legal services. they were put in place and a number of colleagues were working towards that. even if there was no transformation, we still needed to cater for the emotional reactions of staff every day.’ development of skills and knowledge to operate in the new environment: five (83%) out of the six executive management stated that the institution needed to do more in train staff during the merger, citing evident discrepancies between the skills of staff at the two institutions that merged. ‘this is an area where the university did not pay much attention to. look, people in east london were always complaining about the level of skills of people in alice. these changes could have come along with re-skilling people to match the new challenges during the incorporation.’ catering of career and personal needs: four (67%) out of the six executive sample expressed ignorance about plans to cater for personal needs and career plans, but indicated an awareness of certain units designated for that purpose and that the university was in the process of complying with certain national legislation regarding skills development. the following reports attest to these: ‘i think there was more that needed to be done … there was a lot to be done at departmental and faculty levels…there was a huge challenge especially for the human resources department of the university which seemed not very much active in these matters when it was supposed to be.’ ‘not really, were in the process of revising, especially with the department of labour requiring us to engage in skills and comply with the act.’ perceptions of overall satisfaction with the progress of the incorporation process: fifty per cent of the management sample agreed there was no satisfaction among staff regarding the progress and the way the incorporation had been done: ‘no, definitely not. it is not everyone who understood what was going on.’ ‘i think this is an area where we needed to do a lot … the transformation brought changes to things like policies among the people … which put them under bureaucratic pressure. there was no way in which we could have expected them to be satisfied at that stage.’ in terms of creating capacity for change, 68% of the employees confirmed they had the opportunity to work in teams (x² = 23.92, p < 0.0001). a relatively high percentage (65% of the employees indicated that staff did not get enough preparation for the merger (x² = 29.98, p < 0.0001). fifty-three per cent admitted that they were aware of the set of priorities and solutions during the process (x² =33.80, p < 0.0001). sixty-five per cent of the employees indicated that nothing had been done to ensure they were emotionally prepared before or after the merger (x² = 29.89, p < 0.0001). fifty-five per cent of the employees indicated they were unaware of university plans and actions to provide skills and knowledge needed for successful incorporation (x² = 17.48, p < 0.0001) while 69% indicated that their career plans had not been catered for during the period of the merger (x² = 30.92, p < 0.0001). regarding the overall satisfaction with the merger process, 61% of the employees expressed unhappiness with how the merger process had been carried out (x² = 25.95, p < 0.0001). table 5: chi-square results for capacity development role discussion (back to top) meaning of transformational leadership from the responses of the executive management of the institution, it is evident that they understood the importance of creating a vision during the merger process. indeed, the creation of an organisation’s vision is one of the important tasks of a transformational leader, entailing the indication of a desirable future state of an organisation especially during transition phases. in relation to mergers and incorporations, the findings concur with the moe’s guidelines on mergers which recommended the creation of a sense of whole and provision of adequate organisational support by institutional leaders (moe, 2003). the mobilisation of resources also emerged as a theme in explaining what transformational leadership entails. in any transformation process, the use of all relevant stakeholders is highlighted and can be rightly regarded as a means of resource mobilisation to achieve transformational goals. thus, harman and meek (2002) indicate that good governance, in terms of creation of structures, processes and systems should be supported by great affinity on the part of institutional leadership to incorporate and inspire all the relevant stakeholders. these activities are linked to the transformational leadership principle of inspirational motivation. similarly, in south africa, the 2003 guidelines on mergers stated that relationships among different stakeholders had to be established in order for institutions to successfully merge or incorporate. a transformational leader uses teams for capacity development. this notion is supported by bowring and west-burham (1994) who argue that to effectively manage change, shared leadership must prevail. the creation of teams during mergers and incorporations of higher education institutions in south africa also meant giving followers the opportunity to share decision-making processes in their respective units. the concept of transformational leadership seems to have been well understood by the executive management of the institution under study. shared vision a comparison of interview results from interviews and employees’ responses shows that the executive management of the institution had played the idealised influence role. employees indicated that they had knowledge of the vision and its content during the merger management executive management and employees. these results support recommendations from the ministry of education that, ‘a merger or incorporation should first identify the ethos and trajectory of the new institution,’ (moe, 2003:11). they also indicate adequate communication regarding the vision of the university among the staff during the merger. literature on mergers support the importance of timely, clear, consistent, accurate and full communication to all stakeholders about the direction the organisation is taking (moe, 2003). designing of strategic direction is regarded as the first step recommended in literature on mergers (parker, 1998). similarly, avolio and bass (1997) state that transformational leaders should spend time clarifying the vision and mission to create a context of achieving goals and objectives of the organisation. it is therefore prudent to consider that a core value system existed within the institution during the time of merger and it was shared. strategic direction any transformation process contains benefits for different stakeholders (gibbon, 2005). the results of this study indicate that employees did not understand the benefits of the transformation that took place. this was confirmed by the executive management who insisted that the benefits were explained, but were misinterpreted as retrenchment by the employees.from these results, the inference is that although institutional leadership might have played their transformational role of inspirational motivation, the emphasis was only on institutional and not national benefits, such as increased access, equity and diversity as stipulated in government policy guidelines on mergers. in any change process it is critical that stakeholders, such as employees, position themselves effectively within transformation, and receive information about the change – its rationale, progress and implications. this helps provide focus, commitment, motivation and a sense of belonging among those participating in the process. in the current study, it was the leadership’s responsibility to inform the staff about both the national and institutional benefits and this objective seems not to have been achieved. empowering climate the executive management accepted that they played the role of information dissemination. however, this was in contradiction to the responses of employees who indicated that they did not have access to adequate information pertaining to the merger. according to the moe (2003) guidelines, the communication function is best located within the leadership structures of the institution so that communicating the progress of the transformation becomes the prerogative of the organisation’s leadership. provision of information is one way of playing the empowering role of a transformational leader. followers with adequate information about any change process are likely to be more committed to the process than those without (avolio, 1995). slabbert, theron and roodt (2000) point out that responsive and responsible information regarding the process and progress of transformation is vital in ameliorating anxiety and uncertainty among staff. these findings indicate that information regarding the incorporation was not totally accessible amongst the general staff members of the institution. employees of the institution showed that they were not recognised for being innovative and taking risks yet the executive management insisted they did. the results do not concur with avolio (1995:12) who argues that a good transformational leader should use the principle of intellectual stimulation; encouraging followers to think differently about situations, promoting creativeness and constantly asking them to query assumptions and redefine problems. there were also contradictions between employees’ perception and management assertions regarding decision-making opportunities during the merger. johnson (1995) asserts that an empowering climate is one in which leaders in terms of playing an empowerment role during the merger process, the institutional leadership seem not to have played that role adequately. capacity for change in terms of capacity for change, both employees and executive management agreed that opportunities were provided for employees to work in teams. this confirms assertions by morakul and wu (2001) who argue that the cultures of togetherness, subordinate empowerment and shared decision-making are important during the period of transformation. results also confirmed findings by kouzes and posner (1997:16) that work teams are a way of empowering followers and democratising the workplace. employees also acknowledged that they were aware of the priorities and solutions needed for the merger to succeed and this was also confirmed by the executive management. these priorities and solutions are regarded as part of interventions that are needed during the time of change. according to drew and smith (1995) they enable followers to develop the required skills and knowledge required to operate in the new environment.the executive management acknowledged that there was no time to prepare employees for the merger. this was confirmed by the employees as well. management felt the process was just imposed on employees. this is in line with stumpf’s (2005) argument that when the transformation of higher education was announced, institutions were left to grapple with the processes and to define their own trajectory. the results also support the notion that the designing of strategic direction is the first step recommended in literature on mergers (parker, 1998). itutions was mooted and there was disturbingly poor quality of institutional leadership to manage the mergers especially among the hdis (jansen, 2003). if the institutional leadership was not prepared to drive the process, there was no way in which the people they were leading would be prepared to participate positively. there were also agreements between the leaders and employees regarding lack of plans to develop skills among followers, as well as taking care of individual and career needs during the merger process. organisations that provide career programmes, helping employees identify and shape their career path and showing them the opportunities available during any change process have had a low labour turnover (shultz & schultz, 1994). a transformational leader should stimulate and provide opportunities for employees’ personal growth and development. the leader pays special attention to individual needs, achievements and the growth of followers by providing challenges that suit individuals (hoover, 1991). the results are, however, not surprising, considering arguments that in south africa, mergers and incorporations have taken place amid reports of discrepancies in skills and a readiness to manage among the institutional leaders (wyngaard & kapp, 2004). results contradict hay and fourie’s (2002) recommendation that capacity development should be an integral part of the merger process and involve programmes designed to prepare staff for the new challenges and changes. skills development among the different task teams in preparation for the incorporation could have helped to make the institution fit the ‘new purpose’ as espoused by the government. the executive management of the institution indicated that they had initiated ways to deal with the emotional effects of the merger process on employees. this assertion was refuted by employees. one of the challenges which hinder the successful implementation of mergers and incorporations, according to scott (1988), is the devastating impact they have on the emotional and professional lives of academic staff. some evidence in literature argues that mergers and incorporations cause anxiety, stress and depression among the survivors (van der westhuizen, 2004; verhage & chipunza, 2005). if not addressed, work productivity, relations and morale are most likely negatively affected. during a change-process such as a merger, transformational leaders can deal with these emotional aspects through individualised consideration, dealing with how each employee reacts to the process. in terms of overall satisfaction with the manner in which the merger process was conducted, both employees and executive management indicated that they were not satisfied. employee satisfaction has a number of facets, ranging from satisfaction with structures, procedure, conditions of work, fairness in decisions, leadership, to the degree of freedom an employee exercises. it was the responsibility of the institutional leadership to constantly assess the satisfaction levels of staff during and after the transformation. this could have resulted in the provision of appropriate incentives, resources and decisions to create spin-offs in securing employee commitment which was aligned to the new organisational goals. in line with dimmock (1995), a lack of satisfaction among employees indicates that the institutional leadership did not identify all the threats and opportunities that could have enabled staff satisfaction with the overall institutional strategy regarding the incorporation. in summary this study has shown that leaders in the institution played key roles such as shared vision, team work and the creation of an enabling environment. an important point that has emanated from this study is the evidence that during transformation, a lack of strategic direction and empowering of followers and capacitating them leads to dissatisfaction with the whole process, despite the transformation process being declared a success. what this entails is that there is need to build a leader’s understanding of, and commitment to, mergers and an emphasis on transformational rather than transactional leadership well before a merger takes place. this could be done through collegial leadership (singh, 2005), which is based on the assumption that transformation is best achieved when leaders devolute power to followers and other stakeholders, guided by the organisation’s shared vision. conclusion the study is limited in terms of the generalisation of results, because a case-study method was followed. in addition, two years had passed since the merger when the interviews were conducted, therefore the memory of what really took place could have been compromised. the study, however, provides a useful departure-point and highlights areas that could be researched further, for example, embarking on a more comprehensive study involving other institutions that also merged. references (back to top) adams-matuszynska, a. (2001). implementing new public policy in poland: barriers and stimuli. journal of european area studies, 9(2), 243–259. april, a.a., & hill, s. (2000). the uncertainty and ambiguity of leadership in the 21st century. south african journal of business management, 31(2), 45–52. avolio, b.j. (1995). integrating transformational leadership and afro-centric management. human resources management, 9(8), 8–13. avolio, b.j., & bass, b.m. (1997). the full range of leadership development. manual for multi-factor leadership questionnaire. new york: bass/avolio associates. babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2001). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford. balster, l. dps (2002). transformational leadership. washington, dc: us department of education, office of educational research and improvement. bendix, s. (2000). industrial relations in the new south africa. (3rd edn.). cape town: juta. bowring-carr, c., & west-burman, j. (1994). managing quality in schools. essex: longman. burns, j.m. (1978). leadership. new york: harper and row. bush, t. (1993). exploring collegiality: theory, process and structure in managing schools. milton keynes: open university. coleman, t. (2004). theories of leadership. in m. thurlow, t. bush & m. coleman (eds.), leadership and strategic management in south african schools (n.p). london: commonwealth secretariat. council on higher education (che). (2001). promoting good governance in south african higher education. pretoria: government printers. cresswell, j.w. (2003). research design; qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. thousand oaks: sage. denzin, n.k., & lincoln, y.s. (2000). handbook of qualitative research. (2nd edn.). london: sage. department of education. (2001). the restructuring of higher education in south africa. (sec. 2.16, 2.42 & 3.25). pretoria: government printers. dimmock, c. (1995). school leadership: securing quality teaching and learning. in c.w. evers & j.d. chapman (eds.), educational administration: an australian perspective (pp. 274–295). sydney: allen and unwin. drew, s.a.w., & smith, p.a.c. (1995). the learning organisation: change proofing and strategy. the learning organisation, 2 (1), 4–14. fernandez, s. (2005). developing and testing an integrative framework of public sector leadership: evidence from the public education arena. journal of public administration, 15(2), 197–208. hall, m., symes, a. & leucher, t. (2004). the governance of merger in south africa. pretoria: government printers. harman, k., & meek, v.l. (2002). mergers revisited: international perspectives on mergers in higher education. higher education, 44, 1–4. hay, d., & fourie, m. (2002). preparing the way for mergers in southern african higher and further education institutions: an investigation into staff perceptions education. higher education, 44(8), 115–131. hope, w.c. (2002). implementing educational policy: some considerations for principals. the clearing house, 76(1), 40–44. hoover, n.r. (1991, april). transformational and transactional leadership: an empirical test of theory. paper presented at the annual meeting of the american educational reseach association (pp. 1-36), chicago, il. jansen, j. (2003). mergers in south african higher education: theorising change in transitional contexts. politikon, 30(1), 27–5. jansen, j. (2004, 24 november). the politics of learning. daily dispatch, p. 12. jansen, k. j. (2000). the emerging dynamics of change: resistance readiness and momentum. human resources planning, 23(12), 53. jansen, j. (2005, 03 april). the clash of campus cultures. sunday times education supplement, p. 2. john, p. (1999). analysing public policy. london and new york: pinter. keup, j.r., walker, a.a., astin, h.s., & lindholm, j.a. (2001). organisational culture and institutional transformation. (eric document reproduction service no. ed 464 521). kouzes, j.m., & posner, b.z. (1997). the leadership challenge. san francisco: jossey-bass. kvale, s. (1996). an introduction in qualitative research interviewing. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. leithwood, k.a. (2000). the move toward transformational leadership. educational leadership, 49(5), 12–56. lim, b. (1997). transformational leadership in the uk management culture. leadership and organisation development journal, 18(6), 283–289. lokotsch, m. (2002). the impact of transformational styles of leadership on human resources management in primary schools. unpublished m ed dissertation, vista university,port elizabeth, south africa. lokotsch, m. (2002). the impact of transformational styles of leadership on human resources management in primary schools, unpublished master’s thesis, vista university, port elizabeth, south africa. manser, p.g. (1999). the effects of collegiality on learning in a historically disadvantaged secondary school, unpublished med dissertation, vista university, port elizabeth, south africa. mcknight, s. (2002). managing cultural change: the challenge of merging library services, curriculum development and professional development. in 68th ifla council and general conference, 18–24 . glasgow, scotland. ministry of education. (2003). higher education restructuring and transformation: guidelines for mergers and incorporations. pretoria: ministry of education. morakul, s., & wu, f.h. (2001). cultural influences in the abc implementation in thailand’s environment. journal of managerial psychology, 16(2), 149. msila, v. (2000). a comparative study of the effects of shared leadership on staff performance in secondary schools, unpublished med dissertation, vista university, port elizabeth, south africa. newman, w.l. (2000). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. boston: allyn & bacon. newman, w.l. (1997). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches (3rd edn.). needham heights: allyn & bacon. parker, a.j. (1998). the role of employment relations management in the business strategy of a south african organization’s pursuit of world class status, unpublished dissertation rau, johannesburg, south africa. reddy, j. (2001). merging higher education institutions. the lessons from international experience for the reconfiguration of the south african higher education system. in y. sayed & j. jansen (eds.), implementing education policies: the south african experience, (n.p). cape town: university of cape town press. republic of south africa. (2002). higher education amendment act, no.63 of 2002 pretoria: government printers. republic of south africa. (1997). higher education act, no. 101 of 1997 pretoria: government printers. schultz, d., & schultz, s.e. (1994). psychology and work today. london: pearson. scott, r. (1988). the amalgamation of james cook university with the townsville college of advanced education: preliminaries to implementation. in g. human, & v.l meek (eds.), institutional amalgamations in higher education-process and outcome in five countries (pp. 11–37). armidale, nsw: university of new england, department of administrative and higher education studies. singh, p. (2005). use of collegial leadership model of emancipation to transform traditional management practices in secondary schools. south african journal of education, 25(1), 11–18. singh, p., & manser, p.g. (2002). collegiality in education: a case study. south african journal of education, 22, 56–64. skodvin, o. (1999). mergers in higher education-success or failure? tertiary education and management, 5(1), 65–80. slabbert, j.a., theron, e. & roodt, g. (2000). the role of value-laden leadership culture in a company’s pursuit of world-class status: a case study of a financial institution. industrial relations journal, 25(1), 21–45. stumpf, r. (2005). university greater than the sum of its parts. sunday times higher education magazine. (n.p). university of fort hare. (2003). institutional operation plan. university of fort hare: alice. verhage, h.m., & chipunza, c. (2005, 8–9 march). the extent and magnitude of depression among employees of a tertiary educational institution. paper presented at the international conference on the changing world of work: south africa: north-west university’s vaal triangle campus. van der westhuizen, c.n. (2004). the games institutions play – or the impact of university incorporation on the attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of college lecturers. south african journal of higher education, 18(1), 153–164. wyngaard, a., & kapp, c. (2004). rethinking and reimagining mergers in further and higher education: a human perspective. south african journal of higher education, 18(1), 185–201. wolf, r.p. (2000). tertiary education in the new south africa: a lover’s complaint. pretoria: government printers. article information authors: chris a. geldenhuys1 theo h. veldsman1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: theo veldsman email: theov@uj.ac.za postal address: po box 524, auckland park 2006, south africa dates: received: 08 oct. 2009 accepted: 23 sept. 2010 published: 23 feb. 2011 how to cite this article: geldenhuys, c.a., & veldsman, t.h. (2011). a change navigation-based, scenario planning process within a developing world context from an afro-centric leadership perspective. sa journal of human resource management/ sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #265, 17 pages. doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.265 copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) a change navigation-based, scenario planning process within a developing world context from an afro-centric leadership perspective in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction • motivation and problem statement for the research • research design    • research approach    • research process    • evaluation criteria • research process stage 1: a multidisciplinary literature review    • complexity theory    • organisational storytelling and stories    • scenario-based planning and scenarios    • organisational change navigation    • developing country    • afro-centric leadership • research process stage 2: insights gained from practice views solicited from seasoned scenario planning practioners • research process stage 3: the proposed cnbspp as based on the literature review and practioners’ initial views • research process stage 4: seasoned practioners’ views on the proposed cnbspp stages or steps    • the empirical validation of cnbspp    • steps included in a change navigation based, scenario planning process    • unique factors strongly influencing scenariobased planning in a developing country context from an afro-centric leadership perspective • research process stage 5: the finalised change navigation-based, scenario planning process    • conclusion • references abstract (back to top) orientation: in the hyper turbulent context faced currently by organisations, more flexible strategic planning approaches, such as scenario planning which take into account a more comprehensive range of possible futures for an organisation, will position organisations better than conventional forecast and estimates that depend only on a single, linearly extrapolated, strategic response. research purpose: this study aimed to investigate how scenario-based planning (a strictly cognitive management tool) can be combined with organisational change navigation (a practice addressing the emotionality of change) and how this integrated process should be aligned with the prerequisites imposed by a developing country context and an afro-centric leadership perspective in order to make the process more context relevant and aligned. motivation for the study: the integration of organisational change navigation with conventional scenario based planning, as well as the incorporation of the perquisites of a developing countries and an afro-centric leadership perspective, will give organisations a more robust, holistic strategic management tool that will add significantly more value within a rapidly, radically and unpredictably changing world. research design, approach and method: the adopted research approach comprised a combination of the sourcing of the latest thinking in the literature (the ‘theory’) as well as the views of seasoned practitioners of scenario planning (the ‘practice’) through an iterative research process, moving between theory and practice, back to practice and finally returning to theory in order to arrive at a validated expanded and enhanced scenario-based planning process which is both theory and practice ‘proof’. main findings: a management tool incorporating the change navigation and the unique features of developing countries and afro-centric leadership was formulated and empirically validated. this management tool is referred to as a change navigation based, scenario planning process (cnbspp). practical/managerial implications: cnbspp is available for use by organisations wishing to apply a strategic planning tool that fits within a developing country context and an afro-centric leadership approach. contribution/value add: the research makes a unique contribution to the current level of knowledge by integrating two disciplines usually practised independently of one another, namely scenario-based planning and organisational change navigation. it also embedded the process into a different context of application, that is, the developed world as viewed from an afro-centric leadership perspective. introduction (back to top) the speed, scope and complexity of discontinuous change have increased dramatically in the last 20 years (blickle & witzki, 2008; legrain, 2010; meyer & boninelli, 2004; van tonder, 2004; veldsman, 2002; 2008). deciding whether or not to change is a luxury ill afforded by organisations. these turbulent and radically changing circumstances faced by organisations are rendering existing approaches to organisational success less effective, or even obsolete. however, many leaders still are still driving their organisations into the future whilst metaphorically looking into a rear-view mirror of approaches that may have worked well in the past but may no longer be fit for purpose (veldsman, 2002; weeks, 1990). one example of a management tool (or methodology) that may be in need of rethinking is strategic planning (veldsman, 2007) with ‘management tool’ referring to a formalised process of doing things in an organisation. mintzberg (1994) is even of the view that strategic planning is an outdated and non-value adding management tool. in contrast, veldsman (2007) argues that strategy crafting has a place but needs to be re-invented for a newly emerging world order. the assumptions underlying the conventional strategic planning paradigm state that organisations are like intricate, mechanical clockworks operating in a setting that can be determined, objectively assessed and predicted by experts, the so-called newtonian world view. however, it can be argued that in the hyper turbulent context faced currently by organisations, requiring a complexity chaos view of reality, more flexible strategic planning approaches such as scenario planning which take into account a more comprehensive range of possible future scenarios, will position organisations better than conventional forecast efforts that depend only on a single, linearly extrapolated, strategic response (steil & gibbons-carr, 2005; veldsman, 2002). scenario-based planning allows emerging signals of change to be detected much earlier than conventional strategic planning. in addition, multiple perspectives on complex events, knowledge and experience can be woven into coherent, systematic and plausible stories to construct possible futures (april, 1999; bood & postma, 1998; steil & gibbons-carr, 2005). the generation of future based thinking frameworks through scenario planning by means of which mental models, assumptions and key decisions can be wind tunnelled for their robustness, serves as a continuous learning tool in this way giving organisations and its leadership a more sustainable competitive edge (nell, 1999). it therefore appears reasonable to assume that an appropriately designed, scenario-based planning process as a management tool seems more in tune with the current and future expected context characterised by profound, ongoing and unpredictable change. within a globalising world with disappearing boundaries (the so-called emergent post-modern world), the further question of particular importance is the validity of management tools developed in and for use in essentially an anglo-saxon context, such as scenario planning, indiscriminately applied in different contexts (e.g., developing countries or different industries). this question becomes even more pressing if the debate of the relevancy of a western versus afro-centric leadership across the divide of developed versus developing countries (or called emerging economies in some quarters) is also introduced into this contextual validity debate (mangaliso & damane, 2001; mbigi, 1997; 2000; 2005). the random migration of developed world strategic management tools, such as scenario-based planning, from one context to another without testing for contextual validity could be a high risk event (parker and veldsman, 2010; veldsman, 2002). for example, parker and veldsman (2010) have empirically shown that the criteria for world class organisations differ across developed and developing countries. if leaders practising afro-centric leadership are to be truly successful, they need to find ways of balancing the intelligent copying and borrowing of ideas, values, methodologies, tools and practices from the rest of the world (i.e. other cultures such eastern culture) with the need to anchor themselves and their organisations in their own cultural roots (mbigi, 2005). motivation and problem statement for the research (back to top) scenario-based planning serves to create stories about future expected realities (see the discussion regarding scenario-based planning and scenarios below). scenario-based planning thus is a form of organisational story telling (van der heijden, 2005). however, it does not explicitly address how the intended change needs to be navigated whilst moving from the current state to the future desired state (see the discussion on organisational change navigation below) as expressed in these stories about the future. scenario-based planning is a cognitive (or rational) way of doing strategic planning based on the mutual, intellectual understanding between participants in the process (de geus, 1988; hodgkinson & healy, 2009; van der heijden, 2005). in contrast, organisational change navigation tends to be more of an emotional process requiring shared acceptance, buy-in and commitment by diverse stakeholders to the desired future state and the willingness to undertake the change journey into the future to realise the desired future state. in other words, scenario-based planning allows one to see the future world in different plausible ways (i.e. the stories) but it does not address how the change implied by these stories affects people emotionally. neither is the necessary support and commitment required of them to these different future stories and the changes required by these stories, addressed. put slightly differently, as it currently stands traditional scenario-based planning process as a cognitive process does not take into account the principles embodied in organisational change navigation as the process addressing people’s emotional response, as well as the building of the needed buy-in and ownership to the intended change. a rare exception in this regard is the combination of large group change processes with conventional scenario planning by steil and gibbons-carr (2005). although the practices of scenario-based planning and organisational change navigation may be based on elements of several theories from strategic management and behavioural sciences, there is thus no single all-encompassing, integrated process fusing scenario-based planning and organisational change navigation in a seamless manner. if such an integrated process could be designed, change navigation would complement the rationality of scenario planning with the emotionality of people buying into and taking ownership of the outcomes of scenario planning. inclusion of the steering of change as an inherent, core component of scenario-based planning would strengthen and enhance the value and impact of traditional scenario-based planning, especially under conditions of rapid, radical and unpredictable change. an integrated change navigation-based scenario-based planning process would give an organisation a strengthened and more robust management tool to build and sustain a sustainable competitive advantage in a changing world which requires as essential precondition high levels of buy-in and ownership by all stakeholders. as yet scenario-based planning as an anglo-saxon generated management tool has not been fully deconstructed to lay bare explicitly the validity of its premises and requirements in applying this tool in a developing world context from an afro-centric leadership frame of reference and approach (meyer & boninelli, 2004). at face value it appears that a strong difference may exist between the underlying business assumptions and modes within a developed world versus those required by a developing world per se, with the added on possible difference because of adopting an afro-centric leadership mode. theorising about and the application of developing world leadership will not be advanced by uncritically accepting that which prevails in the developed world is also of necessity equally applicable to the developing world (bernstein, 2010; blunt & jones, 1996; booysen, 2001; 2009). the need for this explicit critical reflection is important because it would appear that the underlying principles of management in a developing world per se, but more particularly leadership from an afro -centric leadership perspective, are quite different from those in the west due to cultural differences influencing individual expectations and assumptions about management (blunt & jones, 1996; mbigi, 1997; 2000; 2005; meyer & boninelli, 2004; nzelibe, 1986). at issue therefore is whether a meaningful and real difference exists between western leadership and afro-centric leadership when applying management tools such as scenario-based planning. the effective adoption of a mainly western business and management tools in developing countries, such as scenario-based planning, calls for an indigenous cultural renaissance of management practices within and a creative alignment with developing worlds’ uniqueness, whatever it may be (mbigi, 2000). in fact, hypothesising about possible differences is superfluous. the differences between anglo-saxon (or western) and afro-centric leadership have actually been empirically confirmed (booysen, 2001; 2009). the more appropriate question is therefore not whether there are differences but how these differences impact on, and need to be incorporated into, scenario-based planning. given the motivation, the problem statement informing the study is therefore: • how can scenario-based planning (a strictly cognitive management tool) be combined with organisational change navigation (a practice addressing the emotionality of change) to give an organisation a more robust, holistic management tool that adds significantly more value? • how must this integrated process be aligned with the prerequisites imposed by a developing world context and an afro-centric leadership perspective in order to make the process more context relevant and aligned? research design (back to top) research approach the adopted research approach was a combination of the sourcing of:• the latest thinking in terms of the concepts covered in the literature (the ‘theory’) • the views of seasoned practitioners of scenario planning (the ‘practice’) through an iterative research process moving between theory and practice, back to practice and finally back to theory in order to arrive at a validated change navigation based, scenario planning process (cnbspp) that is both theory and practice ‘proof’. hodgkinson and healy (2009) adopted a similar two-way, iterative theory-practise research approach when investigating the role of the personality of team members of planning teams with respect to scenario planning (for a similar research approach see steynberg‘s (2006) research into people integration during mergers and acquisitions). research process figure 1 shows diagrammatically the five stages of the research process followed in this study. the process to develop and empirically validate the proposed cnbspp comprised nine steps. some steps were executed simultaneously and others consecutively. as indicated in figure 1, the research process commenced with a multi-disciplinary literature review and synthesis (stage 1: steps 1–5). simultaneously twelve seasoned practitioners of scenario-based planning were asked to provide their expert views on scenario-based planning with its commensurate steps, as well as their views on the factors significantly influencing scenario-based planning within a developing world context from an afro-centric leadership perspective (stage 2: step 6). based on the preceding stages, an initial cnbspp was developed (stage 3: step 7). the proposed cnbspp was validated empirically by requesting the very same practitioners to assess the proposed process (stage 4: stage 8). lastly, the results of the empirical validation were interpreted by comparing the finalised cnbspp against the literature review and practice validation (stage 5: step 9). figure 1: schematic illustration of the five stage research process followed in this study. evaluation criteria evaluation design criteria were set up front for the to-be-developed process based cnbspp to be used during its development and by the practitioners to assess cnbspp as management tool. these criteria were: • simplicity: the process must be plain, simple and straightforward • comprehensiveness: the process must embrace the full set of activities or steps included in the planning cycle • practicality: the process must make sense from a practice point of view • relevancy to context: the process must match the context in which it is to be applied • transparency: the process must be open to public scrutiny • cost-effectiveness: the process must deliver a service at an equal or lower cost than current practice • robustness: the process must be relatively stable with a minimum of variation in the face of changing circumstances • flexibility: the process must be adaptable to changing circumstances • involvement: the process must allow for a high level of engagement by participants • completeness: the process must include all the necessary steps to construct scenarios and navigate change properly • reliability: following the process steps suggested, the process must yield consistent and dependable results • validity: on the face of it, the process must be able to do the work for which it was built. research process stage 1: a multidisciplinary literature review (back to top) the multidisciplinary literature review represents ‘stage 1: steps 1–5’ of the research process outlined in figure 1. from the introduction and the stated research purpose, it should be clear that the key concepts informing this study (and having a bearing on the to-be-proposed cnbspp within a developing country context from an afro-centric leadership perspective) are: • organisational storytelling and stories • scenario-based planning and scenarios • organisational change navigation • developing countries • afro-centric leadership. complexity theory as a key concept is also included because this theory has in recent times emerged as a more appropriate theory to understand and interpret reality, also organisational reality, with all the preceding concepts being embedded in a theory of reality. each concept is discussed in turn, starting with complexity theory. complexity theory complexity theory entails the nature, make-up and dynamics of reality (kurtz & snowden, 2003; lewis, 2004; stacey, 1995; 1996; veldsman, 2002; wheatley, 2006). in contrast to a newtonian, mechanistic or cybernetic input-throughput-output-feedback view of reality, complexity theory postulates that reality has the following features:• reality consists of patterns that emerge through the interaction of multiple, interconnecting components or agents. that is, reality is self-organising and forms complex adaptive system(s) (kurtz & snowden, 2003; lewis, 2004; stacey, 1995; 1996; veldsman, 2002). • the relationships and interactions between components, and the patterns that emerge from the former, are the organising principle of reality (lewis, 2004; veldsman, 2002; wheatley, 2006). • the components interact with each other according to a few simple sets of lawful ‘order-generating or guiding rules’ or schematas (stacey, 1995; 1996; wheatley, 2006). • the patterns emerging from the relationships and interactions (which bring order into the chaos) form cycles of functioning which can either be virtuous or vicious (veldsman, 2002). different types of chaos and order may be distinguished (kurtz & snowden, 2003). • the patterned interaction of components affects and reinforces individual behaviour and thus the behaviour of the overall system of which the components form part, through nonlinear feedback loops (stacey, 1995; 1996; wheatley, 2006). non-linearity implies many possible options. • current changes have a rippling effect on future events or activities, and hence the pattern that will emerge (lewis, 2004). the implication of complexity theory as theory of reality for the intended cnbspp is that the scenarios to be built must have the nature of interconnected pictures or patterns of a self-organising reality that emerges through the relationships and interactions of many components based on a few simple guiding rules. scenario-based planning as a process must also take on a more organic, systemic nature in its execution. change navigation as the means to obtain buy-in and ownership before and during the change journey implied by the future referenced stories produced by scenario planning, must also be informed by these features of complexity theory and (in the same vein as scenario-based planning based on complexity theory) take on a systemic, organic nature as a process. organisational storytelling and stories at the most basic level conversations (or dialogue) refer to what is being said and listened to between people (berger & luckman, 1966). the word ‘dialogue’ stems from two greek roots, ‘dia’ and ‘logos’, jointly suggesting the meaning of ‘meaning flowing through’. dialogue stands in stark contrast to the word ‘debate’ or even ‘discussion’, meaning in greek ‘to break things up’ (april, 1999). as people gather to dialogue they commit to (april, 1999; gerard & teurfs, 1997):• listening and speaking without judgement • acknowledging each speaker • suspending role and status differentials • respecting differences arising out of underlying belief systems, assumptions and experiences • realising the need for specific shared, commonly agreed upon outcomes • balancing inquiry, reflection and advocacy • avoiding cross talk and hidden agendas • focusing on shared, ongoing learning. it can be argued that organisations are essentially networks of interpersonal interconnections based on conversations as expressed through stories (berquist, 1993; christie, 2009; ratcliffe, 2002). stories are naturally occurring phenomena through which information, shared experiences, expectations and culture are passed on within organisations (broodryk, 2005; christie, 2009; ratcliffe, 2002; rubel, 2000). a story as a form of type of conversation is capable of representing and transferring a complex, multi-dimensional organisational reality to a listener in a simple and effortless way (allen, fairtlough & heinzen, 2002). stories add a psychological dimension to organisational life. this implies a feeling and experiencing dimension in the form of sense making, meaning giving, as well emotional attachment and involvement that rational, empirical data lack (rubel, 2000). storytelling serves multiple purposes (cf. brown, 1990; christie, 2009; martin, 1982; mcconkie, 1980; mcconkie & boss, 1986; wilkens, 1983): • sense making • the substantiation of asserted states of affaires • the conveyance of unwritten rules • social bonding • the triggering and affecting of change • the expression and transfer of values • the verbal codification of the organisational history and memory. scenario-based planning (with its intended outcome of scenarios) is nothing other than systematic conversations about expected futures for an organisation, producing stories about those futures in order to prepare the organisation pro-actively for those futures. in african indigenous cultures, against the backdrop of a developing world context, storytelling is raised to an edifying art. persons are awarded status and esteem in their communities terms of their capability to tell stories. traditional african societies transmit their values, ethics and spiritual beliefs through folklore, songs, praise, poetry, dances, prayer and storytelling. leadership is an oral art in africa since the indigenous cultures are oral cultures. therefore, storytelling becomes a key skill in leadership practice and indigenous african teaching methods (broodryk, 2005; mbigi, 2005). scenario-based planning and organisational change navigation are about conversations (or dialogue) and stories in an organisational setting. when cnbspp is applied as planning tool embedded in an institutionalised, organisational storytelling process, only then will one may see the emergence of consensus, the shared focus necessary for joint action and high levels of emotional energy and excitement infusing the process. framing scenario-based planning as organisational storytelling, particularly in a developing country context where a strong verbal tradition exists, the intended cnbspp must allow for the opportunity for information, shared experiences and expectations to be passed on in the form of folklore, songs, praise poetry, dances, silent rituals, ceremonies, prayer and storytelling. participants must be able to tell illustrative stories to encourage commitment, generate belief, create understanding, build ownership, reduce people’s resistance to change and allow them to interpret and understand events that may otherwise be chaotic. scenario-based planning and scenarios scenario-based planning has enjoyed a long history of over 30 years originating in the military (with herman kahn as proponent) and later in business (pierre wack, originally at shell, as a prime example) and government (klinec, 2004; van der heijden, 2005). scenario-based planning, in contrast to estimates and forecasts, can be described as ‘a tool for ordering one’s perceptions about alternative future environments in which one’s decisions might be played out’ (schwartz, 1996, p 4). scenario-based planning ‘involves developing future environment situations and describing the path from any given present situation to these future situations’ (ratcliffe, 2000, p 129). scenario-based planning attempts to set up a logical and plausible sequence of high risk and uncertain events in order to show how a future state may evolve step-by-step (ilbury & sunter, 2005; more, 2003). estimates rely on an assessment of current conditions to identify possible future events. forecasts rely primarily on trends based analysis and represent long range assessments in order to arrive at a single accurate, predictive picture of the future. scenarios pertain to a set of stylised narratives connecting a series of interrelated events about alternative futures. they describe not only the future end-state, but also what path the present will take to progress to that point. they are grammatical and contextual, rather than strictly numerical or statistical. they are used to arrange both facts and perceptions about the future in such a manner so as to give order and meaning to future expected events (david, 1987; klinec, 2004; nell, 1999; ritson, 1997; schnaars, 2001; schwartz, 1996; weeks, 1990; wright, 2005; zentner, 1982). scenario-based planning comprises a number of basic steps (daum, 2001; ibm advanced business institute, 2002; ratcliffe, 2000; saunders & harris, 2000), including: • setting the scenario-based planning agenda • determining the focal question • identifying and ranking the key global and local factors • selecting the scenario logics • fleshing out the scenarios • analysing the implications of the scenarios for the organisation • reviewing (or developing) existing and new strategies based on the evolving scenarios • selecting leading indicators (or signposts) to monitor the implementation of scenarios or strategies and to alert one about unfolding scenarios • maintaining ongoing organisational learning. a successful scenario-based planning process with scenarios as its outcome requires extensive strategic conversations (or story telling) throughout the entire organisation. some of the more important principles required to ensure effective scenario-based planning are (courtney, 2003; ratcliffe, 2002): • a recognition of the uncertainty and complexity of the context • a high degree of organisational learning • a simple, credible, reflective and inclusive process • sufficient time to develop scenarios • holistic, systemic thinking • top management involvement • diverse internal and external inputs • extensive, inclusive participation • having a sense of fun and enjoyment • internally consistent and coherent scenarios • replication of the process and scenarios to ensure continuing relevance • the tracking and monitoring of scenario realisation. the ultimate benefit for an organisation is a pro-active preparedness for and anticipation to deal with the future to be faced by the organisation whatever form it may take. an organisation can modify its strategic direction and priorities more rapidly as actual events unfold in a more informed, thoroughly thought through and innovative manner (schnaars, 2001; van der heijden, 2005). scenario-based planning and scenarios in the to-be-proposed cnbspp must arrange both facts, premises and intuitions about the future in such a manner that gives order, coherence and meaning to the events, trends and trend breaks to be explored, discovered and crafted into future referenced stories. as can be seen, from the review of the scenario-based planning literature however, no reference is made to or consideration is given to the importance of either change navigation to obtain buy-in and ownership of the change implied by the scenarios and the undertaking of the change journey to realise the most likely scenario. currently the context (developed versus developing country) and/or the most appropriate leadership assumptions (western versus afro centric) to ensure successful scenario-based planning are not part of the body of knowledge regarding scenario-based planning. the intended cnbspp aims to close these gaps. organisational change navigation organisational change as an outcome can be defined as affecting a lasting change in the character, functioning and/or dynamics of an organisation that significantly alters its performance and even success (mohrman, mohrman, ledford, cummings, & lawler, 1989; van tonder, 2004; veldsman, 2002). applied to scenario-based planning, organisational change refers to changing the organisation to perform successfully within different possible futures. change as a process refers to the difference in the state of the organisation at two separate locations (or points) in time and/or space. the earlier location refers to the ‘what is’ state of the organisation whilst the latter location refers to its ‘what should or must be’ state. ‘state’ refers to the mode of existence and functioning of the organisation. the ‘what is’ state is real. in contrast, the ‘what should or must be’ state exists only in the thoughts, wishes and words of those who visualise this state, for example, the future referenced stories contained in the scenarios. change encompasses the conversion of the ‘what is’ state into the ‘what should or must be’ state. the conversion refers to the ‘in between state’ (or the void) whilst moving the organisation from its current state to its future state. organisational change navigation actions serve to defuse the people dynamics and tensions arising from the difference between the presence of the two states in the organisation and how to navigate the ‘in between’ state people wise successfully (beckhard & harris, 1987; burke, 1987; kotter, 1996; veldsman, 2002). organisational change navigation consists of the following basic steps (burke, 1987: kotter, 1996; nadler & nadler, 1998; van tonder, 2004; van tonder & roodt, 2008; veldsman, 2002), including: • mobilising dissatisfaction with the status quo • shaping a guiding coalition • diagnosing organisational problems • building organisational capacity • developing a shared vision • formalising change strategies and generating short-term wins • dismantling temporary transition structures and processes • ensuring organisational learning. in order to enhance the chances of affecting lasting, successful change, organisational change navigation needs to be guided by at least the following principles (burke, 1987; kotter, 1996; nadler & nadler, 1998; nadler, shaw & walton, 1995; veldsman, 2002): • believing in the possible actualisation of a clear vision • linking change to the organisation’s strategic intent (i.e. a central or overall change theme) and the concerns of organisational members • steering the overall change in a manner that mirrors the desired future state; maintaining congruence between all aspects of the change and the organisation itself • providing organisational members with adequate or high-impact training and emotional support • investing substantial resources in support of the change • dealing with the resistance to change in an open and fearless manner • conducting frequent assessments of the change’s effects (or impact) • the ongoing, wide sharing of information • dealing with the historical baggage of previous change journeys • celebrating milestones and successes • providing visible and active transformational leadership • encouraging responsible and active participation (or engagement) by organisational members • developing a conceptual model as an intellectual map to aid in conceptualising and systematising the change that the organisation has to undergo. the intended cnbspp must incorporate the necessary organisational change navigation process with its associated steps and principles to defuse the tension arising from the difference (or chaos) between the presence of the ‘what is’ state and the ‘what should or must be’ state. that is, the ‘in between’ state in the organisation, arising from the scenario-based planning with its commensurate scenarios. in addition, cnbspp must contain change navigation actions to facilitate buy-in and commitment towards the change and change journey as organisational members set out to realise the most probable future as indicated by their scenario-based planning. the ultimate outcome of the change navigation process is to enable organisational members to arrive in the desired future state as defined in the most probable scenario, able and willing to perform. without the enabling contribution of organisational change navigation, scenario-based planning with its scenarios run a real risk of becoming merely an interesting, stimulation academic exercise, with no real, committed implementation. lack of implementation of strategic intents and plans is the most prevalent downfall of strategising. it can readily be assumed that the rapid, radical changes faced by organisations, now and in the future, will require significantly different scenarios which will demand most stressful changes from people. the incorporation of organisational change navigation as an inherent part of scenario-based planning will hence become even more pressing. developing country the term ‘developing country’ (also referred to as the ‘south’, ‘non-industrialised countries’ or ‘emerging nations’) generally encompasses the economically underdeveloped countries of asia, africa, oceania and latin america relative to the developed countries represented by north america, western europe and the far east (chaliand, undated). though treated as one for the purposes of this discussion, developing countries are not homogeneous. they are characterised by diversity, contrasts and contradictions both within and between themselves. some of these differences revolve around variables, such as (kiggundu, 1989):• geography and size • levels of social and economic development • population size and make-up • degree of urbanisation • natural resources endowment • level of technological advancement • political systems • culture • religion • languages • distribution of income • quality of life. against this backdrop, in what general ways do developing countries differ from developed countries? at least the following three differentiating features are important for the purpose of the study in order to design a contextually valid cnbspp: • a fundamental transformation is occurring in these countries at the foundational level of society (i.e. in the norms, values, beliefs and assumptions underpinning the society), affecting the structural arrangements (e.g. legislative or regulatory arrangements) and day-to-day functioning (e.g. market competition) of societies in these countries. diverse, competing ideological positions and camps exist about the ‘right’ foundational level in ideological terms, appropriate to the newly emerging society being brought into existence. for example, a socialist versus capitalist economic system; the role of the state in the economy; the relationship between the state and the church and what rights should be recognised in terms of the country’s constitution (agbakoba, 2004; bernstein, 2010; veldsman, 1997; 2002). conventional scenario-based planning most often assume that the foundation of a society is in place. that is, that ideological closure and consensus have been achieved. the changes to be accounted for in scenarios thus are limited to trends and trend breaks at the structural arrangements and day-to-day functioning levels of these societies. in other words, conventional scenario-based planning is ideological and value free. in contrast, developing counties are intensely engaged in ideological and value debates and struggles. • the wide (and in many cases the widening) gaps between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’, the latter in these countries mostly being in the majority, creating severe socio-cultural and economic tensions and divides. usually the latter group feels excluded, exploited and see no future for itself. frequently the members of the ‘have nots’ do not have the knowledge or skills, resources and/or opportunities to aspire and realise a better future for themselves and their dependents. people in developed countries usually feel that they can have a different, better future as the result of taking personal initiate relative to available opportunities (e.g. the ‘american dream’). developing countries therefore have much stronger socio-economic class divides (bernstein, 2010; veldsman, 2002). conventional scenario-based planning assumes a narrow range of stakeholders being actively involved in the process, typically internal stakeholders, including the organisational leadership and perhaps employees and shareholders. more ‘enlightened’ organisations may include a broader range of stakeholders like suppliers and customers as well. scenario-based planning in developing countries will have to consider how to bring the ‘voices’ of different segments of the community and society into the room and process, in this way demonstrating tangibly and visibly their intentions as a good corporate citizen. in other words, organisations engaging with developing countries need to enlarge their view of stakeholders and their active engagement in scenario-based planning. these organisations should go even further by concretely demonstrating through publicly visible, community engagement projects their commitment to social upliftment.for example, upgrading schools or funding competent teachers (bernstein, 2010). • the dominant presence of multi-national or global, capital strong companies in developing countries to the detriment of local, upcoming companies unable to compete successfully on equal footing with the former. this may pose a real threat in terms of bankruptcy and employment loss to the local organisations and a knock-on effect onto communities and individuals. this frequently affects the reputation and legitimacy of multinational (or global) companies in those countries detrimentally who are seen as profiteering exploiters. it may even result in these organisations been expelled or only permitted restricted access. sometimes the local community may mobilise against the presence of such a company in the country (bernstein, 2010). this negative view is worsened if the multinational or global company has an ethnocentric attitude and practices, which assumes there is only one way and that is their way as per their home country. everything these organisations say and do, takes on the flavour of how they do things back home (perlmutter, 1969). this position is one of imported cultural imperialism. a less parochial position is where executive and senior leadership positions, especially in critical functions, are reserved for nationals from the organisation’s home country, whilst locals are given less important, more junior positions in less critical positions in these organisations, a polycentric attitude (perlmutter, 1969). this attitude allows the organisation to be able ‘localise’ their approach in terms of in situ demands and conditions. both the ethnocentric, but also the polycentric to a lesser degree, will result in undermining and eroding any shared sense of a common destiny amongst organisational members since they are seen as individuals and their cultures (or countries) as inherently inferior. a ‘them’ and ‘us’ divide will exist in the organisation. multi-national (or global) organisations should rather adopt a geocentric mind set and basic attitude (perlmutter, 1969). in this case, it is acknowledged that no single culture or management approach is superior, but each and every culture should be seen as equal and of value. conventional scenario-based planning does not require a pre-process questioning regarding the mind set and basic attitude of the leadership participating in the process and whether that mind set and attitude fit the context. context relevant scenario-based planning, appropriate to developing countries, requires an in depth questioning of participants’ mind sets and attitudes in order to arrive at contextually aligned scenario-based process which will be seen as legitimate and credible. in this way a sense of community and a shared destiny with co-responsibility in the organisation will be engenderer. furthermore, in a concrete and real manner genuine partnershiping with local companies in creating shared futures and destinies need to be created, again requiring the broadening of the group of stakeholders to be involved in the scenario-based process to demonstrate good local corporate citizenship as discussed above, but also in transforming the relationship model of the organisation in terms of equity participation. the intended cnbspp, in taking the context of developing countries into account, will have to: • be more strongly leveraged from and informed by competing ideological, value based positions as departure points to generated more ideologically and valued based (or framed) scenarios • ask more penetrating questions about who must be seen as stakeholders and consequently who must be participants in the scenario-based planning process • preceded by an in depth pre-process questioning and surfacing of the appropriateness of existing leadership mind sets and basic attitudes. in other words, in contrast to conventional scenario-based planning originating in a anglo-saxon context, in developing countries the factors that may have an impact on the credibility and legitimacy of the scenario-based planning process and may impact on the organisation’s standing as a good corporate citizen in affecting its ability to realise expected futures, must be interrogated much more aggressively as an integral part of the scenario-based planning process. afro-centric leadership by way of introduction, it must be stated that afro-centric leadership must not be seen to be practised only by ‘black-skinned’ leaders, or african leaders. afro-centric leadership must rather be viewed as a contrasting leadership mode (or a different approach or paradigm) to western leadership. put differently, afro-centric leadership must be seen as a proxy for a different mode of leadership. however, it is true that this mode of leadership is an inherent part of the african culture and in this way persons growing up in this culture are spontaneously acculturated into afro-centric leadership (knight, 1999; madi, 2000). the question to be answered here is whether afro-centric leadership is any different to western leadership. if this is the case, the question can posed as to how this difference impacts on scenario-based planning as a management tool when applied from such a leadership perspective. central to afro-centric leadership is a ‘community’ concept of management (broodryk, 2005), expressed in terms such as ubuntu (amongst the zulus), botho (in both tswana and sotho), obotho (amongst the pedi) or mensheid (in afrikaans). the cardinal belief of ubuntu is summed up by the zulu and sotho expression, ‘a person being only a person because of other people’. ubuntu thus means ‘humanness through others. it is based on the belief that ‘i am because we are’ (booysen, 2001; 2009; broodryk, 2005; khoza, 2003; mbigi, 1997; 2000; 2005). the collective brotherhood of mankind is thus at the heart of afro-centric leadership. in its most fundamental sense, ubuntu places great emphasis on a concern for people, good citizen behaviour and working for the common good. the key values of ubuntu are to encourage individuals to express themselves through unconditional compassion and empathy, treating other humans with dignity, acting morally, demonstrating collective sharing and solidarity, as well as service to others in the spirit of harmony (boon, 1996; booysen, 1999; 2001; 2009; broodryk, 2005; mangaliso, 2001; mbigi, 1997; 2000; mbigi & maree, 1995; meyer & boninelli, 2004; pietersen, 2005; prime, 1999). the implications of an ubuntu-orientated leadership mode include not only teamwork and inclusive participation down to grassroots level, but also the encouragement of team members to sacrifice their personal gain not only for the benefit of the group but also for the common good of the wider community. openness, transparency and consensus decision making and decisions, as well as structure through rituals and ceremonies are also inherent to ubuntu-orientated leadership (avolio, 1995; booysen, 2001; mangaliso & damane, 2001; mbigi, 1995; 2005; mbigi & maree, 1995). afro-centric leadership is thus very close to what is also called servant leadership. this style of leadership is regarded in many quarters as the more appropriate leadership mode for the emerging new world of work and the knowledge worker of the future in a knowledge economy (dubrin; 2004; northouse, 2007). in contrast to afro-centric leadership, western leadership inter alia is (booysen, 2001; 2009): • individualistic or self-sufficient (i.e. the ‘individual hero’), competitive, leadership from the mind which is logical, factual and analytical • performance driven • achievement orientated (sometimes at any, or even all, costs) • organisation-centric, as well as seeing and using people as a means and not an end. from this discussion, it should be apparent that real qualitative differences exist between afro-centric and western leadership modes. having originated in an anglo-saxon context, it can be readily assumed that conventional scenario-based planning would assume and be infused by a western leadership mode. using an afro-centric leadership mode as a departure point for the intended cnbspp will infuse cnbspp with a different leadership quality at the core of which is ubuntu with its associated central values of human centricity expressed in compassion and empathy, collective solidarity and responsibility, participation and stewardship. the adoption of such a leadership mode may also ‘re-invent’ conventional scenario-based planning leadership wise for a knowledge economy in which knowledge workers have to be led and managed. the manner in which scenario-based planning will thus be designed, planned and executed from a leadership perspective will look qualitatively different. in summary, based on the literature review it was argued in order for conventional scenario-based planning to become a more value-adding management practice it has to be complemented, enriched and transformed by: • assuming a different theory of reality, that is, complexity theory • be framed as organisation wide story telling process • be integrated (or fused) with change navigation as the essential enabling process to deal with the people side of the intended changes implied by this planning • incorporate the unique features of developing countries: competing ideological, value based positions as departure points to generated more ideologically and valued based (or framed) scenarios; a wider definition of stakeholders; and in depth pre-process questioning and surfacing the appropriateness of existing leadership mind sets and basic attitudes • afro-centric leadership as a more appropriate leadership mode in which to embed scenario-based planning for more narrowly defined a developing country context and more widely defined a knowledge economy populated by knowledge workers. the to-be-designed and validated cnbspp intends to incorporate these components as ways in which to strengthen conventional scenario-based planning in order to enhance its value-adding contribution as a management tool. research process stage 2: insights gained from practice views solicited from seasoned scenario planning practioners (back to top) the views from 12 seasoned scenario planning practitioners were solicited through one-on-one interviews (‘stage 2: step 6’ of the research process; see figure 1). according to these practitioners, a scenario planning process needs to include the following basic steps: • confirmation of the agenda for scenario development • identification and seeking of information on the major business drivers in the external organisational environment • categorisation of the major business drivers under ‘important’ and ‘critical uncertainties’ • development of scenario logics reflecting probable storylines that portray possible futures convincingly • the writing of plausible scenarios, taking the form of stories • the development of business strategies and action maps with full consideration of each scenario. the practitioners proposed that the following factors influencing scenario-based planning in a developing world context from an afro-centric leadership perspective which need to be incorporated into the to-be-developed cnbspp: • having strong and wide involvement/participation/consultation to ensure buy-in at all organisational levels • emphasising the quality of intense strategic dialogue or storytelling with the focus on divergent conversations • using symbols and exercises to describe the various storylines such as metaphors, storytelling, music, proverbs, drawing, acting or creating something • selecting the level of sophistication and use of technology or terminology carefully because scenario-based planning as a tool must be kept simple • understanding the cultural background (or context) for storyline interpretation • having adequate time to develop proper scenarios • having knowledge applicable to the relevant country (such as the regulatory system) • demonstrating respect for the individual. from these interviews of seasoned practitioners it was concluded that the intended cnbspp must include both the basic steps normally included by scenario planning practitioners in a typical scenario-based planning process, as well as those unique factors that would strongly influence scenario-based planning in a developing country world context from an afro-centric leadership perspective. the literature review and practice views enabled the development of cnbspp (the next step in the research process) described in the next section. research process stage 3: the proposed cnbspp as based on the literature review and practioners’ initial views (back to top) the initially proposed cnbspp was crafted from the insights gained from the literature which were reported above (stage 1: steps 1–5) and initial practice views solicited from seasoned scenario planners (stage 2: step 6). figure 2 provides a high-level graphic overview of the proposed cnbspp applicable to a developing country context from an afro centric leadership perspective (stage 3: step 7 of the research process; see figure 1). the proposed cnbspp process comprises seven stages consisting of eleven steps. from a complexity theoretical perspective, the seven stages must be thought of as an overall cyclical road map enabling one to traverse a complex and highly unpredictable environment. every step is interconnected within a circular, organic and systemic process. construing scenarios is hence an iterative process moving back and forth between the interrelated stages or steps. the details of every step included in the proposed cnbspp, incorporating the insights gained from the multidisciplinary literature review and the seasoned practitioners, are elucidated in the next section after having tested the proposed process with the practitioners, the next step in the research process. figure 2: a graphic representation of cnbspp applicable to a developing country context from an afro-centric leadership perspective. research process stage 4: seasoned practioners’ views on the proposed cnbspp stages or steps (back to top) the empirical validation of cnbspp having built the proposed cnbspp in stage 3, the expert opinions of the seasoned practitioners consulted before were again solicited in order to validate the proposed cnbspp empirically (‘stage 4: step 8’ of the research process; see figure 1). their views of the proposed cnbspp follow below. this stage/step of the research process was seen as the empirical validation of the proposed cnbspp. the practitioners were of the view that assuming that there is a need for change (or dissatisfaction with the status quo) in an organisation may not always be true in all cases. ‘mobilising dissatisfaction with the status quo’ appears to them to be manipulative and agenda driven. the practitioners stressed the need for written and unwritten rules regarding the use of cnbspp to be defined clearly. it must also be scoped clearly whether the scenarios are about the organisation or whether they focus on the external environment and whether a need exists to distinguish between the contextual and transactional worlds. if one intends to make use of normative scenarios, which run the risk of being agenda driven and manipulative, it is important to make this clear and warn users of possible abuse. in addition, the practitioners felt it is useful to identify the implications of the scenarios for the current organisation and the opportunities for the future possible organisation. the action maps must be tested for robustness against all possible scenarios. finally, the practitioners were of the opinion that it may be useful to distinguish between leading indicators to measure the implementation of strategy and indicators to alert the organisation about the unfolding scenarios. according to the scenario planning practitioners, cnbspp generally complied with most of the evaluation design criteria decided on to assess cnbspp against (see research design section). the practitioners asserted that cnbspp does not fully satisfy ‘cost-effectiveness’ and ‘completeness’. several of the participants indicated, however, that they were not in a position to assess cnbspp properly on the criteria of ‘cost-effectiveness’ and ‘reliability’ because compliance with these criteria can only be assesed with accuracy when cnbspp is applied practically. the following conclusions emerged when comparing the insights gained from the literature review against the assessment of the proposed cnbspp by the seasoned scenario planners in empirically validating the proposed cnbspp. steps included in a change navigation based, scenario planning process although the literature review highlighted the need for conducting an obstacles, negatives, positives and opportunities appraisal’ and ‘building organisational capacity to be included in a scenario-based planning process, these steps were not specifically highlighted by the practitioners. the experts identified no steps in addition to those already ascertained during the literature review for inclusion in cnbspp. unique factors strongly influencing scenario-based planning in a developing country context from an afro-centric leadership perspective various factors influencing scenario-based planning in a developing country context and an afro-centric leadership perspective (identified in the literature review) were not emphasised by the practioners. these factors were: • appealing to the ‘invisible agency forces of the spirits’ • having a shared vision • an evolutionary, bottom-up, present-into-futurebased process that is people driven • a cyclical planning approach • the ubuntu philosophy • valuing the role of women • democratic or participative leadership • low assertiveness • high entrepreneurship • reasonably high uncertainty avoidance • valuing seniority as expressed in age • a tendency to deviate from formal agenda items • sharing responsibility • emergent (or flexible) outcomes • celebrating accomplishments. those factors influencing scenario-based planning that were raised by the practitioners (in addition to those identified from the literature review) included: • select the type and level of sophistication of technology to support the planning process carefully • acknowledge different approaches to strategic planning • employ a practical approach to scenario-based planning • convince stakeholders of the need for a scenario-based planning approach • deal with the fear of doing strategic planning. research process stage 5: the finalised change navigation-based, scenario planning process (back to top) having completed stages 1– to 4 as reported on above, this section deals with ‘stage 5: step 9’ of the research process, that is, the finalised cnbspp as the outcome of the empirical validation by seasoned experts relative to the current body of knowledge. table 1 shows how the insights gained from the literature review, the practice views and the inputs received during the empirical validation of the proposed process were integrated into the finalised cnbspp. in other words, how these insights have been incorporated into traditional scenario-based planning to expand the process to incorporate change navigation and be contextually relevant for application in a developed country from an afro-centric leadership perspective. table 1 indicates that the finalised cnbspp contains various contributions from scenario-based planning and scenarios, organisational change navigation, afro-centric leadership, storytelling and stories (the literature review) and practitioner views. the empirical validation provided little additional information, over and above that which were provided by the literature review and initial practice views that were to be incorporated into the initially proposed cnbspp. according to table 1, the following activities were included in the finalised cnbspp in addition to those activities (or steps) normally used in the conventional scenario-based planning process: stage 1 step 1: use available means to fuel or mobilise an awareness of the need for change. persistently sell the change to a critical mass of individuals whose active commitment is necessary to provide the energy for the change to occur. coupled with generating awareness for change, is the need for personal storytelling and open dialogue. stage 1 step 2: select a technology (or terminology) appropriate to the participants’ level of sophistication. stage 1 step 2: implement participation and communication mechanisms to create momentum and energy in support of the organisational change, including using language and unifying symbols to represent the change goals; creating heroes and stories about ‘larger-than-life’ figures and myths to convey a sense of what is important and addressing language difficulties in cross-cultural communication. stage 5 step 8: carry out an assessment of the internal capacity of the company to perform the newly allocated responsibilities with respect to the unfolding scenarios with efficiency and greater productivity. stage 6 step 9: constantly communicate a detailed picture of the intended future to organisation members. set up rapid feedback and feed forward communication channels with wide frequency bandwidths to enable the continuous tracking of the rollout of the change. stage 6 step 9: formally and informally reward organisational members to reinforce values and behaviour congruent with the new organisational order, placing a strong focus on promoting group incentives or rewards. the total research process as outlined in figure 1 was concluded at this point. table 1: a contextually aligned and empirically validated cnbspp applicable to a developing country from an afro-centric leadership perspective. conclusion the problem statement informing the study was to examine how scenario-based planning (a strictly cognitive management tool) can be combined with organisational change navigation (a practice addressing the emotionality of change) to give an organisation a more robust, holistic management tool that adds significantly more value. futhermore, this integrated process must be aligned with the prerequisites imposed by a developing country context and an afro-centric leadership perspective in order to make the process more context relevant and aligned. the finalised cnbspp is the outcome of addressing this problem statement. the research makes a unique theoretical contribution to the current level of knowledge by integrating two disciplines usually practised independently of one another, namely scenario-based planning and organisational change navigation, as well as embedding the process into a different context of application (i.e. the developed country) as viewed from an afro-centric leadership perspective. methodologically, the cnbspp is a generic planning framework requiring little customisation to make the process ‘fit for purpose’ for a specific setting. from a practice point of view the cnbspp enables leaders to integrate insights from diverse stakeholders into different interpretations about how the future might unfold. legitimate and credible strategies can now be crafted in terms of probable futures and can be translated into flexible, stakeholder owned, implementation plans. a strength of the study is that the development of cnbspp was based on an all-embracing literature review, supplemented by the views of seasoned practitioners in scenario-based planning. maintaining the participation of these practitioners (i.e. their availability) over the entire research period posed, however, a major challenge. some practitioners indicated their difficulty in reviewing an abbreviated version of the cnbspp because of the information provided. a major limitation of the study was that the empirical validation of the cnbspp was only based on a thorough assessment by the practitioners and not based on the tool’s actual application in practice. this would be the next logical step in further research regarding the cnbspp. the dominant developed country management paradigm needs to move in the direction of equally valuing developed and developing country management tools. simultaneously, leaders in developing countries should craft their own context (or culture-specific) strategic planning approaches and tools instead of uncritically imitating those originating in developed countries. the cnbspp is an example of such an attempt. this drive, however, should not exclude learning from best practices applicable to cultural realities prevalent in developing countries. refrences (back to top) agbakoba, j.c. (2004). transitional african political thought and the crises of governance in contemporary african societies. journal for the study of religions and ideologies, 7 (spring), 137−154. allen, j., fairtlough, g., & heinzen, b. (2002). the power of the tale: using narratives for organisational success. chichester: john wiley and sons. april, k.a. (1999). leading through communication, conversation and dialog. leadership and organisation development journal, 20(5), 231−241. doi:10.1108/01437739910287108 avolio, b.j. (1995). integrating transformational leadership and afro-centric management. human resource management, 11(6), 17−21. beckhard, r., & harris, r.t. (1987). organisational transitions. (2nd edn.). reading, mass: addisonwesley. berquist, w. (1993). the postmodern organisation. san francisco: jossey-bass. berger, p., & luckmann, t. (1966). the social construction of reality. new york: anchor books. bernstein, a. (2010). the case for business in developing economies. johannesburg: penguin books. blickle, g., & witzki, a. (2008). new psychological contracts in the world of work: economic citizens or victims of the market? the situation in germany. society and business review, 3(2), 149−161. doi:10.1108/17465680810880071 blunt, p., & jones, m.l. (1996). exploring the limits of western leadership in theory in east asia and africa. personnel review, 26, 6−24. doi:10.1108/00483489710157760 bood, r.p., & postma, t.j.b.m. (1998). scenario analysis as a strategic management tool. department of management and organisation. faculty of economics, university of groningen. retrieved 4 october 2004 from http://www.ub.rug.nl/eldoc/som/b/98b05/98b05.pdf boon, m. (1996). the african way: the power of interactive leadership. sandton: zebra press. booysen, a.e. (1999). an examination of race and gender influences on the leadership attributes of south african managers. dbl dissertation, pretoria: university of south africa. booysen, l. (2001). the duality in south african leadership: afrocentric or eurocentric. south african journal of labour relations, 25(3-4), 36−64. booysen, l. (2009). basic approaches to leadership. in s.p. robbins, t.a. judge, a. odendaal, a. & g. roodt. organisational behaviour. cape town: pearson education, 288−320. broodryk, j. (2005). ubuntu management philosophy. exporting ancient african wisdom into the global world. randburg: knowres publishing. brown, m.h. (1990). defining stories in organisations: chacteristics and functions. in j.a. anderson (ed.), communication yearbook. newbury park, ca: sage, 13, 162−190. burke, w.w. (1987). organisation development. a normative view. reading, mass: addision-wesley. chaliand, g. (undated). third world traveller. third world: definitions and descriptions. retrieved october 11, 2004, from http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/general/thirdworld_def.html chistie, p. (2009). every leader a story teller. johannesburg: knowres. courtney, h. (2003). decision-driven scenarios for assessing for levels of uncertainty. strategy and leadership, 31(1), 14−22. doi:10.1108/10878570310455015 daum, j. (2001). how scenario planning can significantly reduce strategic risks and boost value in the innovation chain. the new economy analyst report. retrieved november 3, 2004, from http://www.juergendaum.com/news/09_08_2001.htm david, f.r. (1987). concepts of strategic management. london: merril. de gues, a.p. (1988). planning as learning. harvard business review, 66, 70−74. dubrin, a.j. (2004). leadership. new york: houghton mifflin. gerard, g., & teurfs, l. (1997). dialogue and transformation. executive excellence, 14(8), 16. hodgkinson, g.p., & healy, m.p. (2009). towards a (pragmatic) science of strategic intervention: design propositions for scenario planning. in s. boros (ed.) exploring organisational dynamics. los angeles: sage, 523−545. ibm advanced business institute. (2002). managing the uncertain future. the value of scenario planning. 2002 ofda dealer strategies conference. retrieved october 4, 2004, from http//www.ofdanet.org/content/2002fallconference/documents/ scenario%20planning-09-2002-ofda.pdf ilbury, c., & sunter, c. (2005). games foxes play planning for extraordinary times. south africa: human & rousseau. khoza, r. (2003). prince of paradox. fm cover story. financial mail, 25 july 2003, 20−22. kiggundu, m.n. (1989). managing organizations in developing countries: an operational and strategic approach. west hartford, connecticut: kumarian press. klinec, i. (2004). strategic thinking in the information age and the art of scenario designing. the first prague workshop on futures studies methodology, ceses, charles university, 16-18 september 2004, prague. knight, i. (1999). great zulu commanders. london: cassell group. kotter, j.p. (1996). leading change. boston: harvard business school press. kurtz, c.f., & snowden, d.j. (2003). the new dynamics of strategy: sense-making in a complex and complicated world. ibm systems journal, 42(3), 462−483. doi:10.1147/sj.423.0462 legrain, p. (2010). aftershock. reshaping the world economy after the crisis. london: little, brown. lewis, l. (2004). complexity science: implications for business. management today yearbook 2004, 20, 8−15. madi, p.m. (2000). leadership lessons from emperor shaka zulu the great. randburg: knowledge resources. mangaliso, m.p., & damane, m.b. (2001). building competitive advantage from ubuntu: management lessons from south africa. academy of management executive, 15(3), 23−35. martin, j. (1982). stories and scripts in organisational settings. in a.h. hastrof and a.m. ilsen. cognitive social psychology. new york: elsevier-north holland, 255−305. mbigi, l. (1995). a new dimension for business. randburg: knowledge resources. mbigi, l. (1997). ubuntu: the african dream in management. randburg: knowres publishing. mbigi, l. (2000). in search of the african business renaissance. randburg: knowres publishing. mbigi, l. (2005). the spirit of african leadership. randburg: knowres publishing. mbigi, l., & maree, j. (1995). ubuntu. the spirit of african transformation management. randburg: knowledge resources. mcconkie, m.l. (1980). organisational stories and the practice of od. southern review of public administration, 4, 211−228. mcconkie, m.l., & boss, r.w. (1986). organisational stories: one means of moving the information the organisation needs during change effort. public administration quarterly, 10, 189−205. meyer, t.n.a., & boninelli, i. (2004). conversations in leadership. south african perspectives. randburg: knowledge resources. mintzberg, h. (1994). the rise and fall of strategic planning. englewood cliffs: prentice-hall. mohrman, a.m., mohrman, s.a., ledford, g.e., cummings, t.g., & lawler, e.e. (eds.). (1989). large-scale organizational change. san francisco: jossey-bass publishers. more, h. (2003). strategic planning, scenario planning or does your organisation rain dance? new zealand management, may, 32− 34. nadler, d.a., shaw, r.b., & walton, a.e. (1995). discontinuous change. leading organisational transformation. san francisco: jossey-bass. nadler, d.a., & nadler, m.b. (1998). champions of change. how ceos and their organisations ate mastering the skills of radical change. san francisco: jossey-bass. nell, j.h. (1999). utilising scenario planning in formulating the strategic marketing plan in the commercial vehicle market sector in south africa. doctoral thesis, johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. northouse, p.g. (2007). leadership. thousand oaks: sage publications. nzelibe, c.o. (1986). the evolution of african management thought. international studies, management and organisation, 16(2), 6−11. parker, a.j., & veldsman, t.h. (2010). the validity of world class business criteria across developed and developing countries. south african journal of human resource management/ sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #255, 17 pages. doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.255 perlmutter, h. (1969). the tortuous evolution of the multinational corporation. columbia journal of world business, january/ february, 9−18. pietersen, h.j. (2005). western humanism, african humanism and work organizations. sa journal of industrial philosophy/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 31(3), 54–61. prime, n. (1999). cross-cultural management in south africa: problems, obstacles and agenda for organisations. retrieved november 3, 2004, from http://marketing.byu.edu/htmlpages/ccrs/proceedings99/ rime.htm ratcliffe, j.s. (2002). scenario planning: strategic interviews and conversations. foresight, 4(1), 19−30. doi:10.1108/14636680210425228 ratcliffe, j.s. (2000). scenario building: a suitable method for strategic property planning? property management, 18(2), 127−144. doi:10.1108/02637470010328322 ritson, n. (1997). scenario planning in action. management accounting, 75(11), 24−28. robbins, s.p., odendaal, a., & roodt, g. (2009). organisational behaviour. global and southern african perspectives. cape town: pearson education south africa. rubel, c.s. (2000). newcomers’ stories: an analysis of informal organisational story telling and employee socialisation at st cloud state university. masters of science thesis. minnesota: st cloud state university. saunders, c., & harris, j. (2000). strategic scenarios: planning and preparing for possibilities. retrieved october 20, 2004, from http://www.strategicadvantage.com/strategicscenarios.pdf schnaars, s. (2001). the essentials of scenario writing. business horizons. retrieved november 3, 2004, from http://www.findarticles.com schwartz, p. (1996). the art of the long view: planning for the future in an uncertain world. new york: doubleday. stacey, r.d. (1995). the science of complexity: an alternative perspective for strategic change processes. strategic management journal, 16, 477−495. doi:10.1002/smj.4250160606 stacey, r.d. (1996). emerging strategies for a chaotic environment. long range planning, 29(2), 182−189. doi:10.1016/0024-6301(96)00006-4 steil. g., & gibbons-carr, m. (2005). large group scenario planning. scenario planning with the whole system in the room. the journal of applied behavioural science, 41(1), 15−29. doi:10.1177/0021886304272888 steynberg, h.p. (2006). a comprehensive, holistic integration process for mergers and acquisitions. unpublished doctoral thesis. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. van der heijden, k. (2005). scenarios. the art of strategic conversation. (2nd edn.). new york: john wiley and sons. van tonder, c.l. (2004). organisational change. theory and practice. pretoria: van schaik publishers. van tonder, c., & roodt, g. (2008). (eds.). organisational development. pretoria: van schaik. veldsman, t.h. (2002). into the people effectiveness arena. navigating between chaos and order. johannesburg: knowledge resources. veldsman, t.h. (2007). strategising in a hyperturbulent and hyperfluid world: a lost cause? acta commerci, 7, 40−53. veldsman, t.h. (2008). people management in the new order. in pursuit of world class practice (part 1). management today, 24(8), 56−60. wariboke, n. (1999). the african world view and the structure and strategy of traditional business enterprises: the case of kalabari of southern nigeria. nordic journal of african studies, 8 (2), 18−50. wheatley, m.j. (2006). leadership and the new science. san francisco: berrett-koehler publisers. weeks, r.v. (1990). managing strategic and corporate change within a turbulent environmental context: a strategic management approach. doctoral thesis. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. wilkens, a.l. (1983). organisational stories as symbols which control the organisation. in l.r. pondy, p.j. frost, g. morgan & t.c. dandridge (eds.). organisational symbolism. greenwich, ct: jai press, 81−92. wright, a. (2005). the role of scenarios as prospective sense making devices. management decision, 43(1), 86−101. doi:10.1108/00251740510572506t.c. zentner, r.d. (1982). scenarios: past, present and future. long range planning, 15(3), 12−20. doi:10.1016/0024-6301(82)90024-3t.c. 5schwartz.indd it is clear from the literature that police agencies all over the world are striving for policing methods that would satisf y community needs (mckenzie, 2005; geldenhuys, 2005; stevens & yach, 1995; o’toole, 2004, wood 2005; puthpongsiriporn & quang, 2004; egharevba, 2005; chetty, 2004). a definite trend advocating the move away from traditional crimefighting techniques has developed over the last few decades, in an attempt to involve communities and to improve service delivery. this “move” resulted in various philosophies of policing and problem-oriented policing, community policing and partnership policing emerging as possible solutions to serve communities better (stevens & yach, 1995). however, attempts to change police behaviour to suit these new philosophies take time and are not always successful (stevens & yach, 1995). south africa too has been struggling to establish a client-driven policing culture in its south african police service (saps). the first democratic election in 1994 did not automatically bring about an acceptable policing system that could cater for all south african citizens. in 1996 the south african government adopted the national crime prevention strategy (ncps) to serve as a framework for a multi-dimensional approach to crime prevention. the ncps is based on comparative international research and pays attention to particular south african factors which underline high crime levels. crime levels in the country are affected by many of the same universal factors which manifest themselves in other countries (department of safety and security, 1996). in admitting that there is no single cause of crime in south africa, the ncps identified the following underlining factors among others: l crime levels increase during periods of political transition – based on comparative research conducted in the former soviet union and ireland. l the new democracy inherited the entire government service, including a racially biased, disproportionate distribution of criminal justice resources. l insufficient and ill-equipped personnel, combined with outdated systems and fragmented departments have contributed to a system that was unable to provide a satisfactory service to all the people of south africa (department of safety and security, 1996). in a further effort to establish a client-driven policing culture the saps has reviewed its mission and vision statements to align them with the new police service act, 1995, and in accordance with the constitution of the republic of south africa, 1996 (act 108 of 1996). a service charter was also launched in 2002 to commit the saps to an improved service delivery to victims of crime (de beer, 2002) and in the same year, human and physical resources were redistributed to various police stations in an effort to bring about better service delivery to communities (saps circular, 2002). in addition to spreading resources more evenly the saps also adapted its policing philosophy to include community policing (through sector policing) in an attempt to be more professional in its service delivery. this has not always been successful as police officers tend to concentrate more on the procedures of how to do the job than on the product they deliver to the public (department of safety and security, 1997). brown (in dantzker, 1997) warns that although organisational change towards professionalism improves the organisation, it tends to have a minimal effect on the line officer. in fact, the situation as far as the saps is concerned is far from ideal. despite the implementation of sector policing and the service charter numerous complaints of poor service by the east rand police service1 (erps) are lodged. police managers and commanders are indeed concerned about the quality of its services. there has also been considerable speculation as to the reasons for this apparent poor service delivery (schwartz, 2004). most senior officers believe that there is an overall lack of discipline and that the so-called demilitarisation of the saps is responsible for this poor service delivery (schwartz, 2004). they believe that although police officers are competent, they do not want to provide a professional service because it demands more effort and input from them and that members have thus adopted a bad attitude towards service delivery (schwartz, 2004). research confirmed that client-service training improves knowledge of client service but has very little effect on improving attitudes towards clients in the long run (schwartz, 2004). this finding is supportive of the statement of swanepoel, erasmus, van wyk and schenk (2000, p. 79) that “…the ability to learn is one thing; the will to actually perform well is something quite different.” it is not simply a matter of whether or not police officers are able to do their job, but also whether or not they are committed to doing it. factors such as employee-manager relationships, organisational culture, employee empowerment, job satisfaction and commitment to the job, all play a role in whether or not police personnel want to provide a better client service. a degree of resistance to provide better service is surfacing amongst erps employees (schwartz, 2004). gj schwartz wj schurink kj stanz karels@uj.ac.za department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract the social construction of frontline employees’ client service plays a major role in organisational success. this study illuminated why frontline personnel are reluctant to accept organisational change which is in line with new policing philosophies. applying modernist qualitative methodology, and particularly grounded theory within a case study design a ‘process satisfaction model’ was developed with the aim to improve employee satisfaction with internal processes and ultimately service delivery. this model may be used for change in the south african police service (saps) and other government departments. key words: leadership performance, client service, organisational change and modernist qualitative methodology, grounded theory frontline police employees’ social construction of client service 38 sa journal of human resource management, 2007, 5 (3), 38-47 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2007, 5 (3), 38-47 1 the saps has restructured during 2006 and 2007. the erps does not exist anymore. former east rand police stations report directly to the provincial head office of gauteng as a result of the restructuring. constructing client service 39 while these factors (which also impact on organisational change) are known to the saps very little research has been conducted to advise policy makers of individual needs for the future police service. fourie and reynecke (2001) listed a number of factors that pose challenges to organisational change, and mention that the police should know the social make-up of its employees as it influences their morale. however, not much has been done to understand how individual police officers feel about change although some research has been conducted in the organisational change field2 (marks, 2003; kiley, 1997; mcneil, 1995). it should be clear that if the saps is striving to implement any change in police strategies, philosophies and/or activities it would be wise to make an attempt to understand how their employees are feeling about the change and this is exactly why this study was done. moreover, the reasons why police officers don’t want to change were explored and therefore a much closer look was taken at the perceptions of police officers regarding what is needed to convince them to change their behaviour. the following paragraphs explicate the research approach of the study. it elucidates the data gathering methods, the research methodology and data gathering and – analysis procedures applied. research design research approach a modernist qualitative research approach was followed since it is committed to understanding social phenomena from the actors’ own perspectives and examining how they experience their world. ontologically and epistemologically, this approach regards social reality as what research participants perceive it to be (taylor & bogdan, 1998), and seeks to understand (verstehen) by applying qualitative methods such as participant observation, in-depth interviewing and others yielding descriptive data (taylor & bogdan, 1998). more specifically a grounded theory approach was used, within a case study design to develop a model that could be utilised to explain how employees felt about changes in the saps and that could be used to accomplish the aim of the study namely, to improve service delivery within the erps. in order to determine why police offers resist change, it was necessary to understand that their social construction of client service is built on their own meanings, experiences, understandings, ideas, constructions of reality, social and cultural practices and processes, ethical values and belief systems. epistemologically, the assumptions about knowledge and how it can be obtained or produced (myers, 1997), rests on the belief that scientific knowledge is built by exploring and describing the erps’s experiences and perceptions of their service to clients by applying unstructured methods3 that would enable capturing the richness of their social construction of service delivery. as mouton (2002, p. 38) points out, qualitative researchers should “continuously strive to obtain the optimal truthful and valid findings”. schwartz (2007) tried to stay as close to the truth as possible in his observations and interpretations. this was seen as one of the most important ethical obligations of the study. this requires one to acknowledge any personal bias and interpreting findings in such a way that it accurately reflects the participant’s reality. to accomplish this ethical obligation, schwartz (2007) returned to the subjects at critical points of data interpretation to ask for “clarification or validation” (liehr & marcus, 2002, p. 157 in smith, 2004, p. 37). other equally important ethical standards that were adhered to were the basic ethical requirements as set by bachiochi and weiner (2002). namely firstly, that no harm should come to an individual due to his or her participation in a research study; secondly, that the participant is fully informed of any potential consequences of his or her participation (informed consent); thirdly, that invitees understand their participation is voluntary; and, finally, that, all reasonable measures are taken to ensure the anonymity and confidentiality of the data. participants were eager to participate in discussions which could mainly be contributed to four reasons. firstly, schwartz was known to most participants as a reliable and trustworthy person, and thus there already was a relationship of trust between them; secondly, participants were given a full explanation of the study, how it would be conducted, the time that would be required from each participant and group and what would be done with the findings, thirdly, a promise was made to participants that anonymity and confidentiality would be maintained and nothing would be published without their consent, which made it easier for them to open up to him, and fourthly, schwartz indicated that he also participated in the study by writing an ethnographic essay about his experiences. in line with the research approach a case-study design was utilised. neuman (1997 p. 331) explains the value of the case study as follows: “… gather a large amount of information on one or a few cases, go into greater depth, and get more details on the case being examined.” in order to explore the experiences and perceptions of police officers in the erps it was essential that the study be conducted on east rand police officers who receive training at the decentralised training centre (the research setting). denzin and lincoln (2003, p. 137) call this type of study an “instrumental case study” because it is aimed at obtaining insight into a specific issue. the case only plays a supportive role. the purpose of schwartz’s case study design was to serve as an “instrument” to improve understanding of a topic or to refine theory (swanson & holton, 1997). theoretical sensitivity is a “personal quality of the researcher” and it is a reflection of one’s “awareness of the subtleness of the meaning of data” (strauss & corbin, 1990, 41). it is the combination of professional and personal experience and one’s reading of literature that influences one’s theoretical sensitivity (schurink, 2005). strauss and corbin’s (1990) emphasis on theoretical sensitivity was heeded in the research. as they state an important feature of grounded theory is theoretical sensitivity, which refers to a personal quality of the researcher and relates to understanding the meaning and subtlety of data. theoretical sensitivity is thus the insight with which a researcher comes to the research situation. such insight should be conceptual rather than concrete. it is often referred to as a creative aspect of grounded theory and involves the researcher working in an area to obtain experience and expertise. thus for schwartz (2007) experience in the organisation weighed more than knowledge of it, as experience impacted more heavily on his understanding of terminology and participant vocabulary that were specific to the police. by gaining theoretical sensitivity the researcher was able to recognise important data and formulate conceptually dense theory. as bogdan and biklen (1998) state: “good researchers are aware of the theoretical base and use it to help collect and analyse data. theory helps data cohere and enables research to go beyond and aimless, unsystematic piling up of accounts.” the study applied the grounded theory approach of strauss and corbin (1990). such theories represent intellectual tools that are developed to illuminate particular social phenomena within a particular field of study. as recommended by swanson and holton (1997), special care was taken in using existing literature and theory. firstly the literature was scanned to gain an understanding of the 2 organisational culture has also been studied (barendse, 2002; smit, 1996) and numerous studies on training and the effect of training on service delivery have been executed. whether the saps policy makers consult these researchers or their reports before or during development of new policies remains to be seen. 3 these methods needed to be flexible in order to obtain information-rich data, which would shed light on resistance to change. schwartz, schurink, stanz40 state of the art of service delivery in the police sector. this enabled schwartz to formulate a relevant problem statement. through the process of data gathering and analysis schwartz then gradually searched deeper and deeper into specific issues raised by research participants. this assisted schwartz in categorising the data and to gain a deeper understanding of the themes that were identified so as to be able to refine focus, questions and methods. even after the data was categorised did schwartz refer to the literature to better understand the themes that emerged during data analysis and eventually to find “supporting evidence” of the emerging substantive theory. research methodology participants. permission to conduct the study in the east rand saps was granted by the area human resource manager. no limitations or restrictions on any information, whether sensitive or confidential, were imposed, but special caution was taken not to disclose any confidential information that could jeopardise any criminal investigation or that could lead to civil action as a result of the study. the training centre where schwartz (2007) worked was the research setting where the study was undertaken. initially all frontline members who were receiving training at the erps training centre formed part of the study. both civilian personnel and functional police officers working at different departments within the east rand such as detective units, specialised units, crime-prevention units and administration departments were included. a large number were shift workers who attended to complaints in community-service centres or who were placed out in the field. snowball sampling was applied to reach particular participants. table 1 illustrates the demographic profile of participants. table 1 demographic information of research participants participant race and gender rank type of duties years of service p1 w/m inspector uniform response 13 p2 w/m inspector detective 15 p3 a/f inspector detective. firearm licences 12 p4 c/f captain complaints, administration 12 p5 w/f inspector human resources, complaints 16 p6 w/m sergeant uniform response 13 p7 w/m captain uniform, csc and complaints 12 p8 w/m captain management, administration 14 methods of data gathering data collection was done in various ways. focus-group interviews and in-depth, one-on-one interviews were conducted. punch (1998, pp. 174 – 175) asserts: “…the inter view method for data collection is a good way of assessing people’s perceptions, meanings, definitions of situations and constructions of reality.” participant observation was used and field notes were compiled and analysed. unsolicited (where researchers have no input) official police documents such as the police performance enhancement plans of members and solicited documents (eg. the researcher requesting essays and/or memoranda) were used to gain further insight into the actual performance of actors. using these various data sources enabled triangulation, which in turn enhanced the quality of the research (flick 2007). schwartz’s own experiences and perspectives served as an additional data source. procedure data capturing and storing. data was captured in the form of field notes, tape recordings and transcriptions thereof. digital photographs were taken by schwartz of the research setting. in this way an attempt was made to capture the spaces between research participants and schwartz, as well as the “atmosphere” within which the interviews were conducted4. kanstrup (2002) noted that interview responses that are studied against the photographs taken at the scene of the interview could help the researcher to re-evaluate the overtones and circumstantial detail of what took place. on the whole the research was guided by silverman (2000, p. 142) who suggested a broad route to data capturing that included: “short notes made at the time, expanded notes made as soon as possible after each session, a fieldwork journal to record problems, and ideas that arise during each stage of fieldwork, and a provisional running record of analysis and interpretation.” these field notes were captured on schwartz’s notebook using microsoft word software. a hard copy of the field notes was then printed and filed in a folder for analysis. focus-group and in-depth interviews were also recorded on tape by using a small handheld voice recorder. recordings of interviews were immediately transcribed after the completion of an interview. these transcriptions contained the whole interview. a summary of each interview was then made (glaser & strauss, 1967) that contained theoretical notes on emerging patterns and similarities. printouts of transcripts, solicited documents, schwartz’s ethnographical essay, back–up data, tape recordings and photographs were filed and safely stored personal memos were handwritten and kept at hand to enable easy access to information whenever schwartz needed to study them or to add something to them. data was mainly stored on computer, in back-up files on compact disc and in its original form. data analysis and interpretation. data analysis started after the first focus-group interview was conducted. this was done to sort and order the vast amount of data. a grounded approach was followed because this approach is ideal for studying social change (parry, 1998 in schurink, 2004). strauss and corbin (1990) developed a systematic coding process to compare data in a variety of ways. their developments provided for strict application of a process of open coding, axial coding and selective coding. open coding occurs when data is broken down and conceptualised (holloway & wheeler, 2002). sentences are taken apart in order to find similarities and differences which in turn will facilitate the identification of central ideas (mostly referred to as discrete concepts). open coding was applied as soon as the first interview was completed. this process gave rise to 21 emerging themes. axial coding is done by means of a “coding paradigm involving conditions, context, action and/or interactional strategies and consequences” (strauss & corbin, 1990, p. 96). it is a process where connections are made in new ways between the formulated categories and their sub-categories (priest, roberts & woods, 2002). axial coding is also aimed at making connections between a category and its subcategories. it was important at this stage understand the context in which participants provided their client service because it could be useful to develop categories (denzin & lincoln, 2003). this type of coding was applied by purposefully reducing the number of categories identified during open coding. this in turn was done by reconsidering each property and category and by reevaluating the terminology used to describe the understanding of the data. secondly, each theme and its properties or concepts was studied to try to understand what was going on and why it happened. concepts revealed the circumstances that caused the phenomenon enabling schwartz (2007) to identif y 8 core categories. central to the identification of core categories was the use of memos. the process of memoing was used to reflect on the data and thus to make more sense of it (locke, 2001). this enabled schwartz to “see” the relationship between categories 4 kanstrup (2002) used photography in her study to focus on the social spaces between teachers in their work practices. constructing client service 41 and properties. dick (2002) explains that memoing is the process of adding relationships to link categories or properties with each other. tying these main themes or core categories together in one central theme was the next step. selective coding occurs when all other inferred themes are integrated into one theme (strauss & corbin, 1990). a conceptual framework of themes builds up to a single storyline covering all inferred themes (holloway & wheeler, 2002). the result of selective coding is manifested in the relationship between concepts or theme categories and core categories from which a single storyline is built. as already indicated, schwartz referred to existing literature at several stages. during the axial coding phase a preliminary literature study on the emergent themes was done to determine the interconnectedness of these themes. it was important to know whether or not there was any theme that was totally unrelated and which might have demanded further investigation. in an attempt to find the single storyline schwartz turned to the relevant literature once again during the selective coding stage (holloway & wheeler, 2002). the existing theoretical concepts were reviewed to get clarity on the emerging core categories namely organisational change, managing change, resistance to change and development for change. some police studies that were conducted within the saps were also studied and schwartz took a close look at the world of the frontline employee in the organisation. once the data was analysed and the literature review completed he started to work towards developing a substantive model grounded in the data. this model applied to front-line employees’ experiences and behaviour in the saps. the relationship between theoretical concepts and research generally focus on theory. in the study it was important to point out that this argument needs to include other constructs as well, in this case, definitions, typologies and models. in inter-subjective research the researchers themselves serve as research instruments (schurink, 2005). qualitative researchers are thus part and parcel of the world they study and they accept that this influences the data they collect. instead of trying to eliminate their influence on their research subjects and data collection, they account for it in their data analysis and accounts. more importantly they believe that research demands from them a level of reflection upon the ways in which the findings of the study is formed by the research process itself (murphy & dingwall, 2003). in reflecting back to collecting data schwartz was fortunate to have had quite a number of ‘ears’ at his immediate disposal to listen to and to respond as peer debriefers. these included a colleague and fellow facilitator, a seasoned and experienced training manager, and his wife karin which intermittently offered valuable perspectives. a diary was kept and intermittently updated as events occurred in the course of the study. this served as an audit trail of decisions and occurrences to enhance credibility of the study’s findings as in pretorius (2006). findings open coding the excerpts used in this article portray the general feeling of frontline employees. the following obstacles identified by the research participants lay at the root of poor service delivery: lack of managerial skills. managers were regarded as being inexperienced and incompetent to lead in the face of change. due to their inexperience managers tended to make bad decisions. this was especially true of the newly appointed managers. managers holding the same rank as their subordinates were also not regarded as good enough for management positions in the saps. in general, participants felt that management was not able to address the problems in the workplace. they were also not able to discuss their problems with their commanders because commanders cannot solve these problems and later on use the same issues raised by subordinates against them. even maintaining a basic level of discipline among their subordinates was a challenge that most line managers have failed to meet. many do not understand how to operate the new disciplinary system, and even if they do, they feel they do not have sufficient organisational support. newly appointed managers were not suitably equipped and supported to effectively manage those in their command. older managers, on the other hand, were perceived to be more empathic towards their subordinates. there was very little middleand lower-level management accountability and blame shifting was a common practice when the quality of service was being questioned. station commissioners did not visit community service centres after hours to establish the level of client service and also did not enforce discipline out of fear for accusations of racism. another reason for poor relations and poor performance was the fact that non-performing members were simply being transferred without addressing their non-performance. it seems as if personnel’s non-performance was tolerated and/or accommodated to avoid conflict, but participants regarded this don’t care attitude of colleagues as a result of lack of managerial skills. participants were particularly disappointed in the promotion policies and processes of the organisation since they strongly felt that the people who were promoted were not always able to do the job, while those who could do the job were not promoted. this application of affirmative action policies and patronising attitude resulted in a lowering of standards, a growing feeling of distrust and a loss of respect for authority. some openly expressed their dissatisfaction and distrust in their managers as was evident in the following excerpt: p3 (african female inspector): “they don’t promote people who are competent. what is the use if they say they are balancing the equity, but the people they promote to balance the equity are not competent.… the station standard went down from 4to 1-star performance. i feel ashamed of what is happening; people will think black females cannot do the work because she was an affirmative action appointment”. lack of support. participants in general did not trust or rely on the organisation’s support system because they felt that the confidentiality of matters could not be guaranteed. members of the employee assistance services (eas) had to report matters to the area commissioner and/or station commissioners. such matters further had to be shared with direct supervisors of employees. participants felt that these socalled confidentiality assurances were misleading. managers at stations were largely to blame for this. front-line staff members tried very hard to avoid the station support systems and dealt with their problems privately by seeking private psychologists or dealing with it on their own. participants blamed the area management for their stagnation in the organisation and had a general distrust in the area management. they felt that when changes were made in the organisation senior managers were not affected by it. senior managers were thus perceived to be unfair and inconsistent in their handling of matters. participants also felt that they couldn’t direct their problems to the area management, because issues such as collective grievances were simply swept under the carpet. managers’ inability or unwillingness to solve their personnel’s problems added to further distrust, alienation and low employee morale. schwartz, schurink, stanz42 the performance enhancement process was perceived to be a tool for managers to manipulate their subordinates. it was the same performance measurement instrument that exposed the unfair and inconsistency of management judgement. participants indicated that this kind of behaviour was responsible for poor manager/employee relations. they perceived station managers as antagonistic and unable to handle criticism. managers branded employees with opposing views as troublemakers or as “problem children”5. participants regarded their managers as insensitive regarding feedback from employees. managers’ relations with particular staff members were therefore questioned when promotions and performance appraisals were announced. p8 (w/m), essay written in january 2006: “my experience is that my manager supports and agrees with me on issues when he is in my presence, but later when he is in the company of others, he also agrees with them. he pretends to care about personnel, but he phones the promotion panels to influence their short-list selection. i have seen its effect on a colleague. he has ruined her career…” poor departmental coordination and cooperation. front-line personnel did not know or understand the internal processes of other departments and the way in which these were related to what their own tasks entailed. this was the cause of much frustration at crime scenes. the sequencing of crimescene experts, photographers, uniform members, vehicle tow-in services were at times not well coordinated. another issue that impacted negatively on service delivery was the poor interpersonal relations between members. this could have serious consequences in the field where patrol officers need to depend on each other for assistance. front-line officers indicated that when they ask for assistance in cases of serious crimes (such as armed robbery), the other patrol officers did not even respond to such radio calls. others did not assist their colleagues who got promoted because they regarded the promotion itself as unfair. there was also outspoken hostility between detective units and uniform members due to the egoistic and arrogant behaviour of senior detectives towards their uniform counterparts. the core of this friction was the perception of detectives that they were more skilled and more competent than the “plat kepse” 6 in spite of the organisation’s efforts to remind all police officers and departments to work towards the same objectives. there was also a degree of tension between oldschool police officers and new police officers who recently joined the organisation. old-school members were used to instructions, while newer personnel did not want to be told what to do. adding to the dilemma was the fact that nonperforming members were being transferred to other units or sections without addressing their non-performance attitude or behaviour. the following excerpt is illustrative of this: “in private companies they have this policy that if you don’t deliver they cannot keep you in the company. it’s because they know we don’t deliver! but here, if you are useless, they just move you from one unit to another. we move the problems from one unit to another”. lack of resources. poor resource management was a huge concern to front-line staff. change was implemented and driven without providing the necessary logistical resources to affect the change. research participants claimed that they found it hard to obtain the necessary resources to deliver quality service. because of the serious lack of resources employees had to work under circumstances that hampered their performance and made them feel ashamed of their occupation. for example they were instructed to implement new servicedelivery strategies without having the floor space for it. personnel were placed in overcrowded offices where there was no sense of privacy, personal space or confidentiality of any sort or proper furniture. the study showed that it was difficult to secure proper equipment or even vehicles. at some stations members were even expected to work without bullet-proof vests. this left these police officers with the awkward option to either slow down their reaction against crime, by waiting until the situation is safe or to jeopardise their own lives. others stated clearly that they were not being paid enough to risk their lives and the security of their families to take on armed robbers without the proper equipment and arms. lack of information and communication. in general, participants felt that front-line employees were not wellinformed of what was happening within the organisation or even of what was happening in their policing area. front-line staff members had to be aware of actuality matters and of what were in the news. participants felt that they were regarded as “stupid” because they received no proper information from management. they indicated that they did not understand the changes made in the police service as it sometimes did not make sense. the situation worsened to such an extent that front-line workers joked about which new changes will ‘hit’ them when they reported for duty. furthermore, participants felt that front-line employees were not properly informed on acceptable service standards. their communication with the public was usually restricted to police matters because that is a topic they felt comfortable with. frontline employees found it hard to implement new policing strategies because as they explained they were not informed in time of such changes. they therefore did not have enough time to prepare themselves or their families for changes that affected their private lives. police officers felt strong about the fact that their needs were not acknowledged and that their contribution to policy development was ignored. they felt left out and as a result became alienated from the system. continuous feedback to front-line personnel was regarded as an empowering measure that cannot be ignored. participants felt that they couldn’t approach their managers to obtain information because their managers didn’t know either. supervisors and managers couldn’t explain new change drives and provide employees with their own interpretations of what was happening. junior managers were the real culprits, they added, because they couldn’t guide, mentor or inform their subordinates. instead they were just ‘bossy’ and not being in touch with people at grass-root level. that was also why they did not support organisational change. the situation was deteriorating even further because front-line staff had lost their interest in formal internal communication. they didn’t attend station lectures where important information was shared simply because they didn’t want to. however, station commissioners had to keep their personnel informed to address uncertainties. participants admitted that they didn’t put in much effort from their side to become more informed or work together to change things. this negative situation was clearly explained in the following excerpt: “changes are not communicated to members in time or not well enough. members are not kept up to date. i don’t feel part of any changes in the police service, because everything just comes as an instruction. if we ask them the response is that it is an instruction, we have to do it, but we don’t understand why we do it. if management wants to introduce something they must go to the members at the ground and not think about their management positions, and hear how they are feeling about it”. the study also revealed that first-line managers were not aware of the existence of some policies and its content. yet, it should be noted that, when policies are drafted it was sent via e-mail to all relevant role players and even to all e-mail addresses on the police communication network to obtain comments and suggestions regarding its purpose and suitability for implementation. 5 the term “problem child” refers to a person who is seen as an instigator, or one who usually divides the workforce, one who has close relations with labour unions or one who lodges many grievances against management. the term is also used to describe an employee who tends to misbehave. 6 this term applies to personnel who wear uniforms. freely translated, the afrikaans words “plat keps” literally mean “flat cap” and refer to the cap that is worn as part of the official police uniform. constructing client service 43 protesting behaviour. front-line staff members expressed their dissatisfaction, anger and their resulting negative attitude towards management through their behaviour. they protested against unfair internal treatment by either openly restricting their client service or covertly by working slowly or omitting parts of their job. front-line staff members also showed their dissatisfaction through unbecoming conduct, and by openly rejecting the authority of senior personnel at times. to show their dissatisfaction with the rewarding mechanisms of performance incentives and promotion front-line employees restricted their services to the basics only in very much the same fashion as labour’s work-to-rule principle. they provided poor service as a means of getting back at management for not rewarding their efforts. research participants identified the inconsistent application of policies and instructions as the reason for their unwillingness to do more for clients. instead of addressing the problems hampering change they rather joked about policy changes and cheated their supervisors in the implementation of such initiatives. another problem was that inspection teams that had to monitor implementation of new directives took note of deviations but condoned such negative conduct by turning a blind eye to it. members book offsick to escape the effects of change in the police department. a further disturbing tendency was that some frontline police officers were so demoralised that they had passed the stage where they cared about the organisation or the role they were supposed to play in it. as a result they were no longer concerned about change in their working conditions. some of them already reverted to operating private businesses while they were at work. they openly stated that they would stay in the organisation for as long as possible, but in the mean time they will carry on operating their private businesses. this negative behaviour could be attributed to pessimism that resulted from slow career growth. managers were blamed for being inconsistent and biased in their application of internal policies and this drove members away: p8 (w/m), field note, 14 september 2005: “i have witnessed the effect of not receiving a performance bonus. three colleagues of equal rank who do the same work, having the same job description and performance plan, who received the same supervisor rating were assessed by the same evaluation panel. one of them received an incentive and the other two did not. they felt ashamed and left out. the following year they were asked to apply for the same type of incentives. one individual replied that he was no longer interested in such nonsense. the other one applied for a transfer.” table 2 theme categories of open coding theme category theme category lack of managerial skills unfair treatment poor departmental coordination unsupportive working climate (sceptical) questionable personnel utilisation unsupportive working conditions resource availability escaping effect of change distrust management personnel feel excluded (alienated) uninformed personnel acknowledge importance change not understood uncertain career future unclear goals low morale disagreement on change process staff not committed protesting behaviour competence unhappy with rewarding mechanisms open, axial and selective coding initially a total of 21 themes emerged from the data. these were reduced to eight main themes that emerged from the data during axial-coding. all of these could be linked to employees’ dissatisfaction in the organisation. the eight main themes are: l objectionable managerial skills l distrust in managers l front-line staff not well informed l employees dissatisfied with internal processes l employees have little support l personnel questioning their relationship with organisation l employees not committed l employees lack interpersonal skills the next and final step was to apply selective coding. after carefully analysing the data, three themes were emerging as a possible theoretical basis. these themes revolved around job dissatisfaction, employee non-commitment and dissatisfaction with the internal processes. it was only after schwartz had consulted the literature and reverted back to the data that he was able to identif y a single emerging core category that could explicitly explain the phenomenon. this core category met the requirement set by strauss and corbin (1990) namely to be able to integrate all other inferred themes. it was clear from the data that front-line employees were being managed within a set of rules. these rules were guided by organisational policies and directives which had to be implemented and applied by managers. however, this is exactly where employee dissatisfaction with the organisation originates from, because all managers do not apply organisational policies in the same way and not consistently. employees’ dissatisfaction can be illustrated as in figure 1. figure 1: current application of policies and directives it is quite obvious that the phrase “dissatisfaction with internal processes” does include all the categories that emerged during axial coding. dissatisfaction with internal processes as core category mainly emerged from – (i) the application of, and (ii) non-involvement with formulation of internal human resource policies and directives, and not necessarily from changes in policing strategies or the policy instruments themselves. the outcome of this research was the development of a model, the process satisfaction model. this model could explain what was happening in the organisation as far as change and client service was concerned. schwartz, schurink, stanz44 discussion interpretation one has to remember that the saps does not recruit clients, but must satisf y them in such a way that they will return and advertise the saps with pride (basson & nel, 1998). the saps module for improving client service is basic enough for all its employees to understand and is also comprehensive enough for front-line personnel to be able to improve basic service delivery. the training module also focuses on issues that would promote professional and balanced relationships in the workplace. from the south african government’s point of view service delivery must meet the customer’s expectations. the specific requirements as to the way in which these needs have to be met are indicated in the eight batho pele principles contained in the white paper for transforming public service delivery. they are: l consultation with the public in terms of quality and level of service. l service standards to be expected. l access for all citizens on equal basis. l courtesy and consideration. l information on services entitled to receive. l openness and transparency of how government departments are run. l redress the situation if the problem is not solved and offer a remedy. l value for money. because of the interconnectedness of factors it was difficult to identif y the core reasons that gave rise to the general feeling of discontent and poor service delivery in the east rand saps (erps). as was evident from the findings police officers’ resistance to change could primarily be traced back to the way decisions were made by managers. more specifically, the inconsistent manner in which organizational policy and changing processes were implemented and especially the impact it had on their ability to move vertically and horizontally in their careers and the effect it had on rewarded systems. however, the research participants also felt that they were cut off from internal decision making processes and that their interests and contributions were not acknowledged. yet, participants admitted that they didn’t put in much effort from their side to become more informed or work together to change things. their reasons for this dissatisfaction could thus mainly be traced back to the inadequate leadership skills of their commanders, poor working conditions, lack of information and involvement in decision making and lack of proper resources and equipment to address the crime situation more effectively as well as the fact that they experienced feelings of alienation. in the long term this lead to lack of commitment and motivation among the frontline personnel. the biggest contributing factor to the de-motivation of employees was the criteria used for the awarding of performance bonuses and incentives such as pay progression. front-line staff accused their supervisors of being biased and of favouritism. hartle (1995) indicates that the goal of effective performance management is to create an organisational climate in which employees continuously strive for performance improvement. a performance management system should strive to embed acceptable behaviours and values in the way things are done in the organisation. it should therefore be developed with reference to the existing or the preferred culture (torrington and hall, 1998). this was not the case in the present study. in fact one of the major contributors towards dissatisfaction with internal processes was the way promotions were handled. employee commitment can be viewed as “…giving all of yourself while at work”. this means that employees should use work-time constructively, pay attention to detail, put in that extra effort and accept change. they should further cooperate with others, engage in self-development, respect trust, have pride in their abilities, seek improvement and give loyal support (mullins, 1999). generally speaking none of these requirements for commitment were met by the research participants. employee commitment can be characterised by at least three factors. there must be a strong belief in and acceptance of the organisation’s goals and values and a willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organisation by the employee (mourday, porter & steers, 1982 in swanepoel et al, 2000). moreover, employees must have a strong desire to maintain membership of the organisation (mourday, porter & steers, 1982 in swanepoel et al, 2000). martin and nicholls (1987, in mullins, 1999) identified three pillars of commitment, each with their own three elements. after analysing the data it was clear that the presence of these pillars and/or their underlying elements were sorely lacking in the present study. in this study, participants have argued that personnel had no sense of belonging. in fact without the opportunity to share in the success of the organization and thus by not being rewarded for good performance; not being involved in decision making processes and not receiving any information to explain changing processes and decision making they felt totally left out and alienated from the system. they experienced no sense of excitement in their jobs and had no sense of pride in their work. what made it worse was the total lack of accountability since those who did not meet performance standards or deviated by not refusing to take orders or worse those who went so far as to run their own private businesses from work were not punished. research participants had no confidence in management and did not regard managers as competent to lead. in fact a major contributor towards dissatisfaction with internal processes was the way that promotions were handled. participants felt that promotions were being awarded to employees who did not meet the required level of standard and skill to be effective in their new posts. this resulted was a clear level of distrust in the capabilities of immediate supervisors or of employees. table 3 three pillars of employee commitment (adapted from martin and nicholls, 1987, in mullins, 1999) sense of belonging sense of excitement in the job confidence in management informed in work place involvement share in success pride trust accountability for results authority dedication competence service delivery was seriously affected by their dissatisfaction with the situation. police officers withheld their service from the public and employees stated openly that they will not do anything extra when they don’t get an incentive. some were actually questioning their relationship with the organisation and did no longer see a future for themselves in the saps. however, when asked if they actively tried to change things for the better, the tendency was not only that they did not but also that they were no longer interested to do so. watson (2003) warns that untrusting management policies and control techniques are likely to be reciprocated with low-trust employee attitudes and behaviour. such behaviour is often followed by conflict. other factors that could according to the literature lead to conflict included the following: l differences in perception of how the real world is seen; l competition over limited resources from the time of budgeting to allocation and use; l the nature of work activities where one person’s work depends on the work of others; constructing client service 45 l inequitable treatment such as perceptions of unfair treatment in the application of organisational policies; l violation of territory where departments exceed their responsibility and start doing the work of another department, and l environmental changes such as changing client demands or statutory requirements (mullins, 1999). judging from the above most of the ingredients for conflict was present in the study. however at the time the study was undertaken the negative feelings and anger expressed by the research participants were mostly kept hidden and seemed to surface only in the form of passive resistance to change manifested as an unwillingness to cooperate with others, blame shifting, lack of respect of and trust in management, ridiculing the system by joking about change, slow response or non response to orders, and disinterest in the organisation. the question is what role does organisational culture play in change processes. according to the literature there are no “best” and “worst” organisational cultures, and the issue to be addressed is rather how well organisational culture can match and support organisation products or services (johnson & scholes, 1999). in contrast to this veldsman (2002) asks whether or not organisational cultures can become pathological. the centrality and pervasive influence of organisational culture make the emergence of a pathological culture a threat to the long-term effectiveness and the well-being of the organisation. the source of such pathological cultures rests on the shoulders of the organisation’s leadership. pathological cultures reflect characteristics that are also found in other organisational cultures, but the difference lies in the extreme manifestation of these characteristics. veldsman (2002) argues that three types of pathological culture exist, namely: the defensive culture, the reality estranged culture and an ethically numbed organisation. an analysis of the organisational culture of the erps showed clear indications of all three of these types of pathological cultures namely: l the defensive organisation resulting from a neurotic culture characterised by marked inactivity and passivity, unwillingness to for example unwillingness or inability to make decisions, blame shifting, not responding to complaints, turned a blind eye to deviant behaviour of subordinates or did not attempt to do anything to change the negative situation they were in. l the reality estranged culture resulting from a leadership cadre that does not support and enable organisational members to cope with the new realities the organisation has to face. behaviour in the form of non-involvement, withdrawal, estrangement, alienation, apathy, an inward withdrawal, a lack of genuine excitement and enthusiasm, an indifference to praise or criticism and a lack of interest in the present or future are common. l the ethically numbed organisation that looses its ability to make decisions based on generally accepted moral and ethical norms. for example when people choose to engage in private business while they are supposed to patrol the streets. this type of organisation is characterised by opportunism and a loss of any sense of conscience. client service was seriously influenced by the lack of commitment of the police employees. police officers withhold their service from the public and employees stated openly that they would not do anything extra when they don’t get an incentive. however, despite the seemingly insurmountable obstacles encountered in the study concerned efforts should be made to deliver a better service to clients and in the process also improve working conditions for police officers. in general the study explains the consequences of policy implementation problems found in krause’s (2004) study. it further supports the findings of van graan (2005) that there is a breach between national legislation, saps policies and directives and the implementation thereof. it illustrated the perceptions and feelings of front-line personnel including civilian staff members regarding the way they are managed as well as their organisational commitment. most importantly it offered an explanation of core reasons as to why front-line personnel resisted change. the findings clearly showed an urgent need for a model to address the factors that gave rise to this dissatisfaction with internal processes. employee satisfaction was dependent on the internal service quality (heskett, et.al. 1994). service quality is therefore dependent on the way that internal processes are executed. this statement is supported by eygelaar (2004) who summarised the determining factors7 of employee performance excellence (and therefore client service) as: l people management and people satisfaction; l resources and information management; l policy and strategy; l organisation processes; l customer and stakeholder focus, and l customer and stakeholder satisfaction. schwartz’ version of a process satisfaction model (see figure 2) presented the key components identified in the study. the model clearly shows the important impact of human and social factors, such as motivation, resistance, culture, satisfaction and morale on the functioning of the organisation internal processes and service delivery. this model could be utilised to improve employee satisfaction with internal processes and could ultimately lead to improved service delivery. it could be used to turn the tables around by helping leaders to develop and sustain an environment characterised by: l effective and accountable management; l sharing of information and providing regular feedback to employees; l education and preparation for change; l respect and tolerance for one another; l fairness towards all employees especially concerning the implementation of promotion policies and processes. employees should thus be rewarded in accordance with effort and performance; l high morale, motivation and commitment; l trust among employees themselves and among management and employees; l emotional support by management and among employees; l involvement of staff in decision making processes that affect them; l accountability and a proper disciplinary system; l commitment to the vision, mission, and values of the organisation; l co-operation and coordination with each other as well as other departments l effective and accountable resource management figure 2: process satisfaction model (psm) 7 these determining factors show a marked resemblance with the eight core categories that emerged during axial coding. schwartz, schurink, stanz46 as pheng (1999) points out, the successful implementation of change strategies depends on the ability of middle and junior managers to convert such strategies into operational ones. since inadequate managerial skills are some of the biggest barriers to effective change, it is essential to ensure that managers are capable and visible during a change process and are able to provide support when needed. client service will only improve when managers show their interest and support to front-line personnel to render the quality service that is marked by availability, willingness and effectiveness. the substantive model puts the responsibility for making internal organisational processes on the shoulders of both the employer/manager and the front-line employee unlike most models that highlight the manager or change makers’ responsibility to facilitate change. this model is purposefully kept simple to be used in organisational communication to market the partnership in making internal processes more acceptable. conclusions the study found the following: l front-line employees are de-motivated by the effects of unfair application of internal processes l employees are not committed to their jobs anymore although the saps try to keep employee commitment through rapid promotions as part of the process of addressing equity l policy implementation is the major cause of dissatisfaction with internal processes of promotion, transfers, and rewards l inadequate resources are prevailing in the erps. this situation contributes to culture that is leaning towards a pathological culture where employees feel that their careers are in the hands of forces beyond their control l front-line employees resist change aimed at improving service delivery because they do not agree with the processes applied to bring about change l willingness to render client service is dependent on employee satisfaction with the internal processes of the organisation l a culture in which employees do not support each other, cheat each other through false reporting, and fear for safety due to inadequate resources are prevailing in the erps. this is further indication that the prevailing culture is leaning dangerously towards a pathological state. the constructed model could be used as the much needed building block for change in the saps, other government departments, and organisations in the country. managers can reduce change resistance with the aid of the basic concept of satisfaction with internal processes that is contained in the ‘process satisfaction model’. in this way the study could make a contribution to the field of leadership studies. the most important contribution the study makes is in the area of policy studies. the study, to some extent, may be regarded as a qualitative/interpretive policy analysis tool shedding light on the meanings frontline police officers attached to policy guiding management, training and human resource allocation by the saps. limitations a notable limitation is that the study is at best an explorative one that managed to expose a ‘weakness’ in the surface of the police service. since the research employed a case study design which involved only a small sample the knowledge gained from the research findings could not be generalized to other research settings. recommendations one of the most important indicators (and sometimes the only indicator) used by citizens to evaluate the effectiveness of the saps, and for that matter that of other state departments, is their perception of the quality of services rendered to them. thus there is a direct relationship between the public’s perception of the service provider and the quality of services received. generally speaking poor service delivery will not only lead to dissatisfaction with services among the public and a growing feeling of distrust. it is thus of the utmost importance that state departments become results-focused. realising this, various mechanisms was put into place to improve service delivery rendered by state departments. these included the department of public service administration’s white paper on transforming public service delivery (batho pele) and also the public service regulations (july 1999) require all government departments to establish and sustain service delivery programmes and emphasises that these programmes must be monitored regularly (http://www.iss.co.za/ pubs/ crimeindex/01vol5n03/critical.html) monitoring accountability in service delivery should thus be a major priority for state departments. this is especially true in view of the fact that achieving the millennium development goals rely on improving the supply and quality of public services (admin, das & goldstein, 2008). even more important is the fact that the south african government is currently seriously challenged to meet the goals set by “vision 2014”, and the more recent “apex priorities” (http://www.info.gov.za/speeches /2008/08020811021001.htm). because service delivery has become the kingpin in measuring the effectiveness of an entity it is essential to address the identified factors impacting negatively on services rendered by the saps. the most important recommendation is therefore to take the study further by developing the identified concepts of the process satisfaction model into indicators that could be used to evaluate the situation and to monitor change. references bachiochi, p.d. & wiener, s.p. (2002). qualitative data collection and analysis. in basson, a. & nel, l. (1998). customer ser vice module for saps. paarl: saps. basson, a. & nel, l. (1998). customer ser vice module for saps. paarl: saps. barendse, l. (2002). ‘n verkennende studie oor werknemers se persepsies van die organisasiekultuur van die sapd george. dissertation. technikon south africa (unisa). florida. bogdan, r. & biklen, s.k. (1998). qualitative research for education. an introduction to theory and methods. boston: allyn & bacon. chetty, s. (2004). icd hosts policing oversight accountability and transformation conference. saps journal, march, 24 – 29. dantzker, m.l. (1997). contemporary policing: personnel, issues and trends. boston: butterworth-heinemann. de beer, e. (2002). the saps service charter is launched in guguletu, cape town. saps journal, 3(1), 12 13. denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y. s. (2003) strategies of qualitative inquiry. second edition. london: sage. department of safety and security. (1996). national crime prevention strategy. available at: internet:http://www.org. za/reports/1996/crime1.htm. department of safety and security. (1997). community policing: policy framework and guidelines. pretoria. department of safety and security. (1998). white paper on safety and security: 1999 – 2004. pretoria: 1 –12. dick, b. (2002). grounded theory: a thumbnail sketch. available from: http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/arp/grounded. html. egharevba, s. (2005). an investigation into african immigrants’ experiences with the police in finland. international journal of police science and management, 7(1), 44-61. eygelaar, s.j.d. (2004). the application of the excellence model to enhance military health ser vice delivery and performance excellence. dissertation. johannesburg, university of johannesburg flick, u. (2007) managing quality in qualitative research. london: sage publications. constructing client service 47 fourie, m. & reynecke, f. (2001). police management: beyond 2000. pretoria. geldenhuys, k. (2005). crime and crime prevention. ser vamus,. 98(2): 48-50. glaser, b. & strauss, a. (1967). the discovery of grounded theory. chicago: aldine. hartle, f (1995). how to re-engineer your performance appraisal process. london: kogan page. heskett, j.l., jones,.t.o., loveman, g.w.,sasser, w.e. & schlesinger, l.a. (1994). putting the service-profit chain to work, har vard business review, march/april. holloway, i. & wheeler, s. (2002). qualitative research in nursing. (2nd ed.). oxford: blackwell science ltd. ivkovic, s.k. (2003). to serve and collect: measuring police corruption. journal of criminal law and criminology, 93(2-3). johnson, g. & scholes, k. 1999. exploring corporate strategy. 5th edition. london: prentice hall. kanstrup, a.m. (2002) picture the practice – using photography to explore use of technology within teachers’ work practices. forum qualitative sozialforschung/forum: qualitative social research (on-line journal), 3(2). available at www.qualitativeresearch.net/fqs-texte/2-02/2-02kanstrup-e.htm. kiley, j.d. (1997). the effects of organisational change in a public ser vice organisation. masters dissertation, university of south africa, pretoria. krause, b. (2004).the evaluation of the performance enhancement process (pep) of the south african police ser vice (saps): a case study at parrow police station. unpublished dissertation. university of stellenbosh: stellenbosh. liehr, p.r. & marcus, m.t. (2002). qualitative approaches to research. in g. l. wood & j. haber (eds.). nursing research. methods, critical appraisal and utilization (5th ed). london: mosby. locke, k. (2001). grounded theory in management research. thousand oaks, california: sage publications. marks, m. (2003). transforming robocops? a case study of police organisational change. .society in transition, 31(2): 144 – 161. martin, p. & nichols, j. (1987). created a committed workforce. institute for personnel management. in mullins, l. (1999). management and organisational behaviour. 5th edition. hong kong: prentice hall. mckenzie, i.k. (2005). handbook of policing. in t. newburn (ed.), international journal of police science and management, 7(1), 64-66. mcneil, w.m. (1995). evaluation of organisational change, development in the south african police ser vice. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of kwazulu-natal, durban.1995. mouton, j. (2002). how to succeed in your master’s and doctoral studies. pretoria: van schaik. mourday, r.t., porter, l.w., & steers, r.m. (1982). employeeorganization linkages: the psychology of commitment, absenteeism and turnover. new york. academic press mullins, l. (1999). management and organisational behaviour. 5th edition. hong kong: prentice hall. murphy, e. & dingwall, r. (2003). qualitative methods and health policy research. new york: aldine de gruyter. myers, m.d. (1997). qualitative research in information systems. mis quarterly, 21(2), pp. 241-242. neuman, w.l. (1997). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. third edition. boston: allyn & bacon. o’toole, k.m. (2004). editorial: police check. third edition. boston globe. mass. dec 18, 2004, a.14. parry, k. w. (1998). grounded theory and social process: a new direction for leadership research. leadership quarterly, 9 (1), 85-105.169. pheng, l.s.(1999). towards managerial efficiency: back to 2,000year-old guiding principles. the learning organisation, 6(3), pp. 121-131. pretorius, e.m. (2006).the role of leadership in enhancing ser vice delivery in local government (unpublished doctor in philosophy) faculty of economic and management sciences, johannesburg: university of johannesburg. priest, h., roberts, p. & woods, l. (2002). an overview of three different approaches to the interpretation of qualitative data. part 1: theoretical issues. nurse researcher, 10(1), pp. 30-43. punch, k.f. (1998). introduction to social research. quantitative & qualitative approaches. thousand oaks, ca: sage. puthpongsiriporn, s. & quang, t. (2004). promoting a service culture for community policing in thailand. international journal of police science and management, 7(1), 24 – 35. schurink, w. j. (2004). qualitative research: introducing key features of a humanistic approach to social science research: lecture ten: data analysis: leadership in performance and change. department of human resource management, rau, johannesburg. 27 -28 february 2004. schurink, w. j. (2005). considerations during qualitative research analysis: brief notes. e-mail notes to dand mstudents. pretoria. 14 july 2005. schwartz, g.j. (2004). the influence of training on attitudes towards clients in the east rand police ser vice. unpublished master’s dissertation, technikon south africa, florida. schwartz, g.j. (2007). employees’ social construction of client ser vice. unpublished dissertation. university of johannesburg: johannesburg. silverman, d. (2000). doing qualitative research. a practical handbook. london: sage publications. smit, j.m. (1996). a critical assessment of the south african police ser vice culture from a learning perspective. dissertation. johannesburg, rand afrikans university. smith, h. (2004). south african knowledge managers’ social construction of knowledge management and human resources: a grounded theory approach. (unpublished dissertation). johannesburg: rand afrikaans university south african police service.(2002). resolution 7/2002: circular 25/7/5/14/1 dated 2002-09-04. unpublished document. pretoria: saps. strauss, a. & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research. grounded theory procedures and techniques. london: sage publications. 206. stevens, p. & yach, d.m. (1995). community policing in action: a practitioners guide. cape town: juta. swanepoel, b., erasmus, b., van wyk, m. & schenk, h. (2000). south african human resource management. theory and practice. cape town: juta. swanson, r. a. & holton, e.f. (1997). human resource development research handbook: linking research and practice. san francisco: berrett-koehler publishers. taylor, s.j. & bogdan, r. (1998). introduction to qualitative research methods: a guidebook and resource. third edition. new york: john wiley & sons. torrington, d and hall, l (1998) human resources management. london: prentice hall. van graan, j. (2005). obstacles impeding the transformation process in the south african police ser vice. unpublished dissertation. university of south africa. pretoria. veldsman, t.h. (2002). into the people effectiveness arena: navigating between chaos and order. randburg: knowledge resources (pty) ltd. watson, t.j. (2003). sociology, work and industry. fourth edition. london: routledge. wood, d.b. (2005). in l.a., trying to keep a lid on racial strife. christian science monitor. boston, mass. mar 10, 2005, 03. abstract introduction orientation objectives of the study literature review research design results discussion limitations acknowledgements references about the author(s) victor c. ngwenya department of economic and management, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa department of educational management and leadership, faculty of education and arts, zimbabwe open university, bulawayo, zimbabwe nduduzo phuthi department of institutional research and quality management, national university of science and technology, bulawayo, zimbabwe citation ngwenya, v.c., & phuthi, n. (2022). academic leadership and decision-making in institutions of higher learning in zimbabwe: trends and tribulations. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1982. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1982 original research academic leadership and decision-making in institutions of higher learning in zimbabwe: trends and tribulations victor c. ngwenya, nduduzo phuthi received: 27 apr. 2022; accepted: 06 july 2022; published: 02 dec. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the global technological and sociopolitical transformations sweeping across tertiary institutions demand dynamic, proactive and creative leaders who are capable of harnessing the various leadership and decisional skills the diversified experts possess through shared governance. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to demonstrate that academic leaders are endowed with leadership and decision-making skills and use a preferred situational style or model to attain organisational goals. motivation for the study: tertiary institutions demand transformational leaders endowed with appropriate decisional skills and a participative culture for the attainment of organisational goals with the ultimate aim of achieving world-class standards in their volatile environments. research approach/design and method: pragmatism informed the mixed methods approach (mma) utilised. qualitative data was generated from 10 purposely selected participants using open-ended questions of a case study design, while quantitative data was gathered from 58 systematically sampled respondents using a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. samples were limited by the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic. main findings: the study revealed that the institutional leaders investigated preferred the transformational leadership style used in conjunction with the rational and creative decision-making models because they were found to be participative, innovative and compatible with the ministry’s education 5.0 policy. an eclectic approach was equally suggested. practical/managerial implications: shared governance and collective responsibility were suggested in conceiving strategic plans as effective leadership and decision-making skills are not confined to a single individual. contribution/value-add: managerial leadership in tertiary institutions must devolve power and flatten the organogram if leadership and decisional skills possessed by followers are to be tapped. keywords: creative; laissez-faire; rational; transformational; transactional. introduction trends to address the social demand and universalisation of basic education in post-independence zimbabwe have inevitably propelled the phenomenal expansion of higher and tertiary education provision and the number of institutions (ngwenya, 2020; zvobgo, 2004) linked to globalisation of markets and internationalisation (black, 2015). the resultant increase in the diversity of student and staff credentials thus calls for proactive and effective leadership and decision-making skills for institutions to achieve world-class standards of excellence, particularly in turbulent environments (aioqla, 2021). within this context, effective leadership and decision-making processes enhance the attainment of an organisation’s strategic goals, vision and mission (faraci, lock, & wheeler, 2013). in the evolution of leadership theories over time (black, 2015), decision-making is not only regarded as an indispensable ingredient of organisational success but its lowest common denominator (state university of new york [suny], 2009). leadership behaviour is thus made synonymous with decision-making, the bedrock of leadership behaviour (suny, 2009). against this background, this study sought to investigate the trends and tribulations of academic leadership and decision-making in zimbabwean institutions of higher learning. orientation historically, leadership has been associated with heredity and the heroic accomplishments of individuals based on ‘unscientific’ personal traits, according to social scientists (bogenschneider, 2016). nevertheless, successful leaders such as martin luther king and nelson mandela arose in times of need due to situational variables prevailing at their time (khan, nawaz, & khan, 2016). their heroic accomplishments were based on describable behaviour. however, the historical fall of significant leaders such as hitler (khan et al., 2016) made fiedler (1972, p. 26) argue that leadership cannot be confined to an individual’s heroic acts and traits alone, but it can be shaped by ‘managerial rotation to provide leaders with a base of experience on which to draw’. bush and west-burnham (1994, p. 56) opine that leadership ‘is not necessarily confined to one person in an organisation, nor is there one style of leadership’, while suny (2009) argues that there is no one-size-fits-all decision-making model suitable for tertiary institutions of diverse staff composition. consequently, because leadership and decision-making processes run parallel in a leader’s organisational activities, both skills could be learned (durai, 2015). effective deployment of the skills would require a person with a combination of personal traits and training, and where not possible, a shared responsibility must be brought to the fore (burleigh, 2020). while owens (1996) and fiedler (1972) concur that a leader in one situation may not necessarily be so in another, suny (2009) does not view decision-making as a neat, symmetrical and mental activity that rests on a definite knowledge base. different leadership and decision-making skills are needed in different situations, because both are determined by several situational variables such as the type of the institution, its size, the nature of the problem at hand, work experience, maturity, convictions, principles and staff expertise (aioqla, 2021; musundire, 2015). therefore, leadership and decision-making values in tertiary institutions call for participative cultures and collegial leader–follower relationships, with emphasis on collective responsibility and a common mission to exploit the potentials of both parties (jomah, 2017). such a leadership and decision-making thrust would not only shape the management structures but inspire followers, enabling them to be organic and innovative for their success and development (kumar & gautam, 2018). besides, behavioural and contingent theories demand that effective leadership and decision-making make one cognisant of one’s expertise and not traits (stoner, freeman, & gilbert, 2008). such consideration enables managerial leaders to identify transformative leadership capabilities among their followers and delegate the bases of managerial powers (e.g. legitimacy) to incumbents, enabling institutions to respond to technological, pedagogical innovations and be accessible to key segments of the population (portugal, 2006). this would not only guide the followers but nurture an environment of trust, empowerment and encouragement to rise above their self-interests for the sake of the organisation (jomah, 2017). consequently, such organisations stand to realise increased productivity and enriched employees’ interpersonal relationships (faraci et al., 2013). zimbabwean state universities’ vice chancellors are appointed by the president or chancellor following the recommendations of university councils. in private entities, the responsible authorities appoint both a chancellor and a vice chancellor. these top institutional leaders are often chosen using the ‘best among equals criteria’, an inappropriate consideration nowadays as university leadership and decision-making demand a myriad of skills (amey, 2010). such appointees may be good planners but evidently lack decisional and motivational skills to inspire enthusiasm and devotion in their followers (jomah, 2017; lunenburg, 2010). little wonder that modern tertiary institutions put a high premium on leaders with sound leadership and decision-making skills who can attract funding, sponsorship, gifted learners and quality staff, ultimately outdoing their competitors and earning a reputation and prestige for themselves (loveren, 2007; portugal, 2006). managerial leadership and decision-making skills steer institutions towards achieving corporate objectives (jomah, 2017), epitomising the situational leadership continuum between task-oriented and people-centred functions, and evoking shared responsibilities between leader and follower (bass, 2008). however, where a leader may not possess both qualities, shared leadership may be practised. for example, a formal leader may perform task-related functions while the informal one focuses on group maintenance functions to avert a leadership crisis in any given institution (stoner et al., 2008). despite such efforts, studies in the united states of america have proven that task-oriented leaders make unilateral decisions embracing coercion, while the people-centred ones emphasise involvement to improve performance (stoner et al., 2008). the preference of the latter approach to leadership and decision-making has averted grievances and high turnover rates in organisations, while the former is counterproductive (stoner et al., 2008), making leadership and decision-making a daunting task even to the most accomplished leader (namubiru, onen, & oonyu, 2017). universally, universities espouse freedom of choice, intellectual pursuits and, more recently, diversity (portugal, 2006). a decentralised system of governance allows collective decision-making, often termed ‘shared governance’ (lunenburg, 2010), giving academic staff their preferred autonomy which accommodates traditional rituals and duties (clegg & mcauley, 2005). autonomous institutions embrace high-quality interpersonal relationships because they ‘have high levels of expertise in their particular fields who can be passionate about issues and tasks in which they have a professional interest or stake’ (latchem & hanna, 2001, p. 279). such an approach enables managerial leadership to identify individual faculty passions and then draw upon them to foster a sense of organisational citizenship and transformative collaboration (lunenburg, 2010). similarly, university leaders must be prepared to listen and learn from their followers who equally qualify to be leaders by adopting fellowship qualities (portugal, 2006). however, interpersonal competition by area of specialisation, in pursuit of individual glory and rewards, should be heeded (black, 2015). because most tertiary institutions have formal bureaucratic structures and systems of authority which guide managers’ relations to their subordinates, their activities are further grouped according to departments and subdepartments (owens, 1996). within these structures and systems, effective communication should direct people’s actions towards the attainment of goals and individual interests through shared understanding (aioqla, 2021). effective institutional communication is a predictor of the leadership and decision-making style or model academic leaders employ at any given time (aioqla, 2021). this calls for an effective managerial leadership which coordinates the activities of the organisation with interpersonal relationships between leaders and followers through utilising appropriate communication skills meant to enhance effective decision-making skills (kiplangat, 2017). most importantly, situational leadership and decision-making recommend a supportive, flexible, participative and dynamic style instead of a static, prescriptive and authoritarian one (iqbali, akhtar, & saleem, 2020). however, leaders need to be wary of situations demanding both styles or models of leadership and decision-making (stoner et al., 2008). fiedler (1972) urges leaders to either match the situation at hand or change it to suit their preferred style(s). objectives of the study the specific objectives of this study were: to demonstrate that tertiary institutions are made up of different professionals endowed with different potentials which need tapping, such that academic leadership and decision-making cannot be confined to a single individual to determine the type of leadership style and decision-making model academic leaders in tertiary institutions utilise in executing their leadership duties to establish the relationship between a preferred leadership style and a decision-making model adopted. literature review concept of leadership scholars are agreed that one’s epistemological definition of leadership determines one’s theoretical understanding of the concept and, more so, that leadership has no universally acceptable definition (namubiru et al., 2017). effective leadership in this regard would influence followers to perform as expected or beyond (aioqla, 2021), and effective leaders are defined and distinguished by their decisional skills, because leadership is viewed as synonymous to decision-making (suny, 2009). conceptualisation of the concept (leadership) and the subsequent discussion of the leadership styles enable one to visualise the symbiotic relationship between leadership and the decision-making process. bass (1990) views leadership as: an interaction between two or more members of a group that often involves structuring and restructuring of the situation and the perceptions and expectations of members … occurs when one group member modifies the motivation or competences of others in the group. any member of the group can exhibit some amount of leadership. (p. 19) while bass’s definition seems to incorporate elements of the transactional and transformational leadership styles which are elaborated below, it also epitomises the perception adopted in this study that managerial leadership at tertiary level, in its attempt to motivate employees to perform as expected, cannot be confined to an individual (cf. bush & west-burnham, 1994; fiedler, 1972; portugal, 2006). on the other hand, hersey and blanchard (1996) and phuthi and mpofu (2021) view leadership as a process of influencing individuals or group activities to attain common goals. in essence, effective managerial leadership would entail directing and influencing the task-related activities of group members towards the attainment of organisational goals in an inspirational and motivational manner (stoner et al., 2008). leadership styles effective leadership plays a pivotal role in the accomplishment of organisational goals (aioqla, 2021). because organisations are hierarchically and bureaucratically structured for their functionality, the leader’s responsibility is to coordinate the activities of the followers for the purposes of attaining organisational goals using the appropriate leadership style(s) (stoner et al., 2008). managerial leadership in this context is determined by one’s philosophical orientation (black, 2015). leaders who are taskor production-oriented are good at goal-setting, planning and organising while the humanor people-oriented ones focus on interpersonal relationships among their followers and achieve a position of personal acceptance to the exclusion of the task (bush & west-burnham, 1994). however, depending on the prevailing situational variables, both orientations may be adopted with adaptations. such an exposition would demand effective leadership with effective decision-making skills (luneburg, 2010) to decide between utilising a transactional, transformational, laissez-faire or eclectic leadership style to get the job done (bass, 2008). transactional leadership style according to bush and west-burnham (1994), transactional leadership is a functional or psychological contract between the leader and followers empowering the leader to accomplish performance objectives, complete given tasks, maintain current organisational situations, motivate followers through contractual agreements, direct behaviour of followers towards achievement of established goals, emphasise extrinsic rewards, avoid unnecessary risks and focus on improving organisational efficiency (jomah, 2017). in turn, it allows followers to fulfil their own self-interest, minimise workplace anxiety and concentrate on their organisational objectives such as increased production, quality customer service and reduced costs (mccleskey, 2014). the focus in this study is the leader’s exchange with followers, as both parties are interested in the fruitful production of the educative enterprise (bass, 2008). the fact that the leader determines what followers need to do to achieve objectives classifies these requirements and helps followers become confident in the process, but this makes it dictatorial in practice (stoner et al., 2008). furthermore, the transactional leadership’s production-oriented emphasis aligns it with taylor’s classical scientific management thought (black, 2015). in taylorism, followers were scientifically chosen and trained to produce high-quality goods in a hierarchically structured organisation, with bureaucratic systems put in place stipulating how tasks were to be executed in order to achieve organisational efficiency and effectiveness (amey, 2010). crucial decisions were made at the managerial level and cascaded to the followers in a top-down fashion (amey, 2010). command and control compelled the followers to perform assigned tasks according to stipulated standards, and the leader wielded considerable authority in the process (aioqla, 2021). moreover, leaders used coercion to compel followers to perform tasks according to their wishes (owens, 1996). both the leader and follower were held accountable for their decisions and actions respectively (black, 2015). followers who excelled were rewarded accordingly (khan et al., 2016). while transactional leadership in tertiary institutions may be suitable in situations requiring immediate action or prompt decisions without consultation or in a crisis (bennet, glatter, & levacic, 1994), universities, employers of high levels of expertise in their specialist fields and administrative structures, loathe a command-and-control mindset (black, 2015). besides, when leaders become overly responsible, followers feel ‘underutilised, over-controlled and ultimately uncommitted’ (keith & girling, 1991, p. 64). thus, the leadership theory construction that disregards situational and contextual factors related to organisational challenges would curtail and frustrate the academic freedom most academic staff yearn for (black, 2015). instead, an adaptive and open-sense leadership which minimises the ‘us and them’ mentality would be ideal (black, 2015). transformational leadership style according to black (2015), transformational leadership is a 1970’s behaviourist theory which sought to infuse a human-relation approach to organisational effectiveness. transformational leaders use their personal vision and energy to inspire followers to perform as expected through involvement which promotes organisational effectiveness (khan et al., 2016). bass (2008) reiterates that such leaders aim to raise followers from lower-level needs to self-actualisation through idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration with high psychological impact. the leaders’ inspirational powers derived from attributes such as referent power, strong connection to righteousness and beliefs and the ability to convince others make them charismatic (mccleskey, 2014). resultantly, it becomes easier for such leaders to communicate their visions to followers and capture their energy and commitment, inculcating confidence and high expectations in them (northouse, 2016). leaders who possess such attributes become drivers of change in organisations (gronn, 2011). besides, they are usually portrayed as heroes capable of transforming the loyalties and behaviours of the staff through a shared organisational culture (black, 2015). because transformational leadership is inspirational and ostensibly people-centred, it resonates well with democratic principles of leadership (gronn, 2011), ensuring that transformations entail the participation and persuasion of followers who must first change themselves for successful organisational change (namubiru et al., 2017). this feat may be achieved through a group-centred approach with decentralised authority and decision-making powers under the influence of a delegated leader (bennet et al., 1994). in that light, a formal leader would be required to mentor or coach capable followers in a flexible manner in pursuance of common goals and involve them in determining or planning the objectives, making decisions and executing activities so that both have a shared responsibility in their undertakings to evoke ownership and commitment (khan et al., 2016). most importantly, managerial leaders follow an open-door policy towards their followers by valuing their inputs in decision-making to develop a positive group spirit (bennet et al., 1994). while transactional leadership styles have previously dominated organisational leadership, current trends demonstrate that transformational leadership styles produce quality outcomes (khan et al., 2016). however, the latter’s major flaw is that over-participation, if improperly handled, may degenerate into conflicts and alienation (davar, 1993). moreover, being a recent phenomenon, transformational leadership’s influence on organisations as a whole is not yet clear (stoner et al., 2008), and furthermore, some university experts do need close supervision (bennet et al., 1994). laissez-faire (free reign) leadership style on a continuum, leadership styles range from transactional to laissez-faire, the pivot being transformational (bennet et al., 1994). the laissez-faire leadership style is thus perceived as the opposite of the transactional one as it allows the ‘let everyone do as they wish’ philosophy reign in an organisation (bennet et al., 1994), prompting bass and avolio (1990) to describe it as ‘the absence of leadership’. while encouraging follower participation, it does not provide the direction or framework for constructive participation (khan et al., 2016). leadership in this context is practised by suggestion and delegation, with the formal leader remaining in the background, assuming that followers have all the experience, maturity and expertise needed to execute whatever task is assigned to them and are intrinsically motivated to achieve (al-malki & juan, 2018). furthermore, the organisation has no vision or mission statement to direct the activities of the followers and planning lacks a strategic orientation. to make matters worse, no goals are set for followers, and problems are solved randomly by whoever is available (khan et al., 2015). in the long run, followers must be self-motivated because they operate autonomously, and there is minimum leadership feedback on their performances (ekmekci & tosunnoglu, 2016). resultantly, followers are frustrated by the formal leader’s inactivity on leadership duties (bass & avolio, 1990). the successful completion of various tasks depends entirely on the inputs of the followers (khan et al., 2016). while too much freedom of action associated with this leadership style might be found to be attractive to followers, as it allows them to be creative and innovative, if it is not checked by the formal leader, the organisation may lose direction; followers may fail to meet deadlines, leading to chaos and anarchy (khan et al., 2016). concept of decision-making effective decision-making entails a deliberate, interactive thought process of making a best choice, informed by the best data, alternatives or ideas available within the limited resources about what future actions to pursue given a set of objectives (bauer & erdogan, 2012; uzonwanne, 2016). conclusions drawn from gathered intelligent data become learning experiences (schoemaker & russo, 2014). to achieve this, an effective leader utilises different decision-making models matching one’s preferred leadership style depending on the prevailing situation. noteworthy is that some problems may demand inaction (bauer & erdogan, 2012). models of decision-making decisions must be made regarding planning, coordination, execution, evaluation and leadership patterns in different operational departments (salmi & pham, 2019). decision-making is deemed to be a social process that develops with time (iqbali et al., 2020), and having a skilled decision-maker in an organisation is an indispensable ingredient for success (suny, 2009). consequently, effective leaders seek to make effective decisions which enhance productivity and attainment of the organisational goals (salmi & pham, 2019), determined by one’s philosophical orientation (iqbali et al., 2020) and influencing how decisions made are successfully communicated to the followers (loveren, 2007; namubiru et al., 2017). for that reason, leaders must know when to make a decision, who to involve and the appropriate model to employ, as decisions made may either hinder or promote organisational performance (jomah, 2017), and moreover, every individual in an organisation is affected by whatever decision is made and each reacts and responds as interest dictates (suny, 2009). rational decision-making model according to uzonwanne (2016, p. 2) the rational decision-making model (rdmm) can be defined as ‘a method of systematically selecting among possible choices that are based on reason and facts’. similarly, bauer and erdogan (2012, p. 52) describe the rdmm as ‘a series of steps that decision makers should consider if their goal is to maximise the quality of their outcomes’. in this case, the leader or followers are using available facts and information to analyse the problem at hand, following prescribed procedures to make a decision (uzonwanne, 2016). the proponents of the rdmm identified the following eight steps which may be utilised in the decision-making process: problem identification, definition and clarification. decision or solution criteria must be established. potential options generated must be evaluated. weigh decision or solution criteria against the generated options. generate as many options as one can surrounding the gap established in number 3. evaluate the alternatives in terms of functionality, resources available and time. choose the best alternative. implement the decision chosen to solve the problem. evaluate the final outcome (bauer & erdogan, 2012; uzonwanne, 2016). the rdmm’s major weakness is that it does not represent how all decisions are made in an organisation, because some decisions are programmed while others are nonprogrammed (stoner et al., 2008). the former occur frequently enough and demand ‘an automated response’ while the latter ‘require conscious thinking, information gathering and careful consideration of alternatives’ (bauer & erdogan, 2012, p. 520). above all, ‘the generation of ideas may lead to analysis paralysis, a situation which arises when more time is spent on gathering information and pondering it without a decision being made’ (bauer & erdogan, 2012, p. 521). bounded rational decision-making model although akin to the rdmm, bauer and erdogan (2012, p. 521) claim that this model arises where ‘individuals knowingly limit their options to a manageable set and choose the first acceptable alternative without conducting an exhaustive search for alternatives’. stoner et al. (2008) believe that coping with inadequate information about the nature of the problem and its possible solutions is better than being overwhelmed with information which one might not use or even remember. in that way, time and resources are saved. turpin and marais (2004) further opine that options are examined one at a time instead of examining all, the one arrived at is acceptable even if it is not the best. similarly, simon (in stoner et al., 2008) a strong advocate for bounded rational decision-making model (brdmm) posits that decision-makers satisfice, meaning that they accept the first satisfactory decision they uncover. the acceptance of the first alternative that meets the minimum threshold rather than searching for an alternative that produces the best results is its major flaw as it compromises the decision made (bauer & erdogan, 2012). intuitive decision-making model the intuitive decision-making model (idmm) does not require conscious reasoning, as most such decisions ‘are made under challenging circumstances including time pressure, constraints, uncertainty, changing conditions and highly visible and high stakes outcomes’ (bauer & erdogan, 2012, p. 521). it is adopted on the premise that when presented with problems, experts use their past experiences related to the current problem to make decisions buoyed by training and technical knowhow to arrive at a workable decision (uzonwanne, 2016). the potential options are weighed against past experiences, tested mentally and, if not workable, are discarded until workable solutions are found (uzonwanne, 2016). however, its major flaw is that one decision is considered at a time and heavily relies on past experience and training, which might be problematic to novice leaders (bauer & erdogan, 2012). creative decision-making model the leader who intends to use the creative decision-making model (cdmm) must first flatten the hierarchical structure of the organisation to allow intense participation and competition among followers in the generation of new and imaginative ideas (bauer & erdogan, 2012). although creating new ideas through brainstorming or wildstorming is a costly exercise, bauer and erdogan (2012) argue that the cost is worthwhile when doing business in a healthy and competitive environment. its five distinctive phases are as follows: problem recognition. immersion which involves consciously thinking about the problem and gathering data on it. this demands training or expertise on the area being investigated. illumination or insight moment, which involves musing over a solution to the problem into your mind until a solution is found. verifying the feasibility of the solution and application. implementation (bauer & erdogan, 2012, p. 529). the cdmm’s weakness is that creativity is determined by one’s personality traits, attributes, situational context, experience, background and perspective (bauer & erdogan, 2012). while group participation may enhance commitment and ownership of the decision at implementation because every individual will have invested time and energy in it, it may be time consuming and costly to prompt decisions which need immediate implementation. furthermore, leaders who utilise the group approach must guard against outspoken members who might outshine passive ones during the brainstorming or wildstorming sessions (bauer & erdogan, 2012). research design research approach the philosophical assumption underpinning the mixed methods approach (mma) utilising the convergent parallel model adopted for this study was pragmatism (edmonds & kennedy, 2017) in an attempt to answer the question: ‘how does the academic leader’s leadership style influence the decision-making process in zimbabwean institutions of higher learning?’ the researchers believed that the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data would not only eliminate bias and weaknesses but neutralise the latter of each form of data in the attempt to resolve the phenomenon (buchholtz, 2019). besides, the ‘between-methods triangulation’ inherent in the mma would enable researchers to triangulate their different viewpoints, data sources, methodology and theory (salvador, 2016). research methods because both qualitative and quantitative data were collected simultaneously, it allowed contradictions to be explained and further electronically probed until saturation was achieved (mohajan, 2018). the former utilised a case study design and the latter a cross-sectional survey. the case study allowed the researchers to develop a detailed view of the meaning of the phenomenon from the participants’ views, while the survey results were meant to generalise from the sample to the population, boosting the full understanding of the phenomenon under investigation (funmilola & david, 2019). research participants and sampling methods the study was concentrated in nine tertiary institutions located in the western part of zimbabwe with an estimated population of n = 200. ten participants judged to have rich qualitative data on the phenomenon were purposively selected and the sample was determined by saturation. in addition, 58 respondents responded to the quantitative questionnaire. the latter sample was far lower than expected, largely due to the reduced flexibility in movement during the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) lockdown restrictions and the general apathy towards surveys by academic staff. even the repeated visits and reminders ended in vain. the sample comprised vice-chancellors, principal officers, deans, departmental chairs, director, college principals or vice-principals, heads of divisions or departments and registrars or assistant registrars. their qualifications ranged from higher national diploma to phds and work experiences from 5 months to 22 years. it was the quality of participants and respondents which made the researchers proceed with the study, despite the low sample of the respondents. in addition, the use of both databases allowed member-checking of data generated and an in-depth analysis of each case over a period of 6 months (samul, 2020). data collection instruments and data quality and integrity qualitative data was elicited from selected participants using an online semistructured open-ended questionnaire, while the quantitative portion used a closed-ended one in compliance with covid-19 pandemic guidelines, with an option of hardcopies for both instruments. the open-ended questionnaire comprised 17 items, an attached letter explaining the purpose of the study and soliciting for voluntary participation. section a (q1–3) sought biographic data, and section b (q4–10) explored the concept of leadership and decision-making, leadership and decision-making styles or models, preferred style(s) or model(s), challenges or opportunities encountered and additional comments on the phenomenon. in some instances, clues were given to enhance the understanding of the technical terms used. the quantitative questionnaire had 39 content items utilising a five-point likert scale. section a captured biographic data (q1–5); section b, the concept of leadership (q6–10); section c, the concept of decision-making (q11–15); section d, leadership styles (q16–27); and section e, models of decision-making (q28–39). the open-ended responses allowed participants to freely express their views on the phenomenon while the fixed responses allowed researchers to statistically analyse the responses (eddles-hirsch, 2015). both instruments were pilot tested on five nonparticipants before administration, which enhanced their trustworthiness and reduced validity and reliability errors (guest, namey, & mitchell, 2013). furthermore, the triangulation of data sources, methodology and investigators employed (mohajan, 2018) enhanced the credibility of both databases (tonkin-crine et al., 2015). data analysis analysis and interpretation of the qualitative database followed the traditional thematic approach, which was relied upon to produce trustworthy and insightful findings, even when the process could have been judged subjective (nowell, norris, white, & moules, 2017). thematic analysis typifies hermeneutic content analysis for interpreting non-numerical data, using pattern recognition to derive meaning and linking parts to the whole (roberts, dowell, & nie, 2019). the quantitative database derived its interpretation and analysis through frequency tables and by means of a five-point likert scale responses, together with a correlation test in response to objective 3. ethical considerations both ethical clearance and permission to conduct fieldwork in the research sites were sought from the zimbabwe open university (reference number zqnsp/5/21) and the secretary for the ministry of education (reference number ref/p) respectively. permission was further sought from the heads of institutions before informed consent was sought from the targeted participants. consenting parties were first informed of the risks associated with the research before they signed consent forms. they were also assured that their names and those of their institutions were going to be masked and data gathered was going to be reported anonymously. confidentiality was guaranteed in the process as well, with an assurance that such data would be secured in encrypted files for a period of 5 years and used for academic purposes only. thereafter the files would be deleted permanently from the laptop’s hard drive and hard copies shredded. results the results are discussed under the following headings: concept of leadership and decision-making, leadership styles, decision-making models, preferred style or model and challenges or opportunities. concept of leadership and decision making participants collectively perceived leadership as ‘the ability to influence, guide, inspire or motivate followers and coordinate their activities towards the attainment of organisational goals’. furthermore, the respondents admitted that their own leadership style influenced the performance of their followers (89.9% see table 1). for that reason, ‘power should be devolved to all levels of the hierarchy’ to enable academic leaders to be ‘accountable for their actions’ (participant h, i). this sentiment was also confirmed by 70.7% of the respondents. however, the mixed reactions of those who viewed leadership as an inborn trait (44.8%) and that it was confined to individuals (36.2%) are inconsistent with this study. table 1: concepts of leadership and decision-making (n = 58). on the other hand, participants viewed decision-making as: [a] process which entails making judgements or analysing several options from a basket of available ones informed by information gathered in order to solicit the best alternative to resolve an identified problem using a chosen model. similarly, the respondents viewed it as a process involving making choices among given alternatives (1.9 see table 1), informed by the best available data (1.9) with conclusions being drawn based on the intelligent data gathered (2.0). however, they rejected inaction when a problem occurs (3.9) and a top-down decision-making model (3.8). arguably, the participants’ dominant views on these concepts resonate with those expressed in this study. leadership styles transactional leadership style participant a summed it all up when she indicated that the style was ‘applicable in situations where followers were unwilling to take an extra effort to finish an urgent assignment’, although some loathed it because it ‘bred hatred, disunity’ and ‘demeaned the staff’. in corroboration, participants b, c, f, h and i used it mainly to ‘monitor systems’, ‘set deadlines for students’ feedback’, ‘implement ministerial policies such as performance management’, ‘give direct tasks or assignments which should be completed within set parameters’, ‘assign duties’, ‘reward achievers or reprimand failures in critical situations … under time constraints that do not allow debate’. however, participant g, who subscribed to the carrot-and-stick approach when engaging followers, was seemingly compelled by ‘resource constraints’ to use ‘force’ instead. in denial were participants d and j, who claimed to utilise the ‘command element’ which they felt was ‘inappropriate for academics’, although they unconsciously made followers ‘obey instructions’. even the surveyed institutional leaders doubted its usability, although they admitted that in contractual engagements between the leader and followers, it was suitable (2.5 see table 2). table 2: leadership styles (n = 58). transformational leadership style five of the participants utilised this style ‘when conceiving institutional or departmental strategic plans’. such an effort demanded ‘a visionary consensus-building approach’ (participant i) and ‘active participation’ from followers (participants c, d, f, g, j). perhaps all that was needed in such a scenario was ‘role modelling’ (participant e), ‘guidance, support, resources or motivation’ (participant j) and ‘mentorship to upcoming leaders’ (participant d). little wonder that participants a and h further viewed it as ‘autonomous’ and a ‘foundation to their leadership style’, respectively. in consonance, 91.4% of the respondents guided their teams towards unified goals and through inspiration and motivation towards the attainment of unified goals (89.7%), thus creating a shared vision (86.2%). however, participant b, perhaps ignorantly, found the style inappropriate. laissez-faire style participant a conveniently found the style appropriate for ‘small-scale decisions demanding no authorisation from the superordinate’. in concurrence, participants b, g, h, i and j collectively used it to ‘delegate noncritical activities or tasks to followers’ who possessed the ‘expertise related to the job’, particularly, ‘departmental issues’. furthermore, participants g, i and the majority of respondents investigated (2.2.) quipped that ‘mature and self-motivated followers thrived best in environments where autonomy and resources were guaranteed by the leadership’. on the contrary, participants b, e and f used the style ‘sparingly’ because it was ‘not effective for goal attainment’ in their perception. even the respondents investigated expressed mixed reactions on its ‘innovativeness’. models of decision-making the rational decision-making model participants unanimously agreed that when faced with challenges of whatever magnitude, they ‘actively engaged subordinates in brainstorming sessions’ aimed at generating ‘several options’ which they would ‘assess against set benchmarks’ before ‘jointly choosing the best option for implementation’. likewise, most respondents strongly contended (2.0, 2.1, 2.0; see table 3). furthermore, participants g and i asserted that such functions could be ‘delegated to academic leaders’ as the rdmm is ‘participant-driven’ thereby enabling ‘them to derive joy or satisfaction in creating footprints in organisational processes’ (participant b). table 3: models of decision-making (n = 58). the bounded rational decision-making model generally, in the absence of a probe, the perceptions of the participants lacked clarity. participant g ‘vetted alternatives given’, which she found ‘divisive’ without stating what followed thereafter. using a combination of the brdmm and the idmm were participants a, c, d, e and i, who used the former when ‘dealing with emergencies’ or ‘were forced by circumstances to make ad hoc decisions on the spot, fully aware of the available options … to save time and avoid prolonged debates’. confusing were those who used the brdmm when ‘acting upon some new policy guidelines’ (participants f, h) and those who did not (participants b, j). in agreement was participant h, who used the brdmm when ‘collaborating and having a staff meeting’. overall, it appears the brdmm was infrequently used, as testified by the respondents (3.6, 3.9, 3.2; see table 3). intuitive decision-making model most participants indicated that they used the idmm when making ‘prompt decisions’ based on ‘past experience’ (75.9%) amid ‘limited time’ which would have ‘set precedence by yielding positive results’, thereby becoming ‘a reference point’ when dealing with ‘recurring issues’. for that reason, knowledgeable users (63.8%) denied that it required some degree of thinking (82.8%). creative decision-making model most participants admitted that the cdmm was suitable when ‘conceptualising strategic plans at both institutional and departmental level’ by ‘actively involving’ followers ‘to generate ideas’ freely (2.1) in ‘an experimental, innovative and creative manner’ in sync with the ministry’s education 5.0 policy. the latter thrust made participants g and h liken it to the ‘transformational leadership style’ and ‘some growth model’ of some sort in any given institution respectively. however, the majority of respondents (2.6) agreed that followers needed adequate training and expertise in order to use the model to its maximum. the relationship between preferred leadership style and decision-making model most participants preferred the transformational leadership style together with the rdmm and cdmm because the former embraced multiple stakeholders in a creative manner, and the latter resulted in ‘comprehensive decisions’. a correlation test for the two yielded a pearson correlation coefficient of 0.83 (rdmm) and 0.65 (cdmm) respectively, suggesting a very strong positive linear relationship between participants’ preferences for the transformational leadership style and rdmm against other alternatives proposed. similarly, respondents preferred to adjust their leadership style depending on the prevailing situation (91.4% see table 2) or using all the three styles interchangeably (82.8%). also utilising the latter view were participant c and i in decision-making, excluding the brdmm which respondents least preferred (see table 3). equally unfavourably was the idmm which subjected participants to ‘prescribed standard operating procedures’ (participant a, c). interestingly, participant a claimed that the laissez-faire style ‘allowed followers the freedom to accomplish tasks in the absence of the leader’. challenges or opportunities encountered generally, the purported transactional leaders were constrained by resources for rewarding goal achievers. likewise, those who heavily relied on the top-down decision-making model ended up implementing ‘wrong decisions’, especially when ‘systems from within were not sensitive’ to grass-roots views and ‘external forces’ were at play. similarly, ‘shop-floor decisions lacked superordinate support’, which resulted in ‘role conflict’ and ‘divisions’. most important was ‘the lack of information’ which resulted in ‘decisions made being overtaken by events’. they, however, acknowledged that situations exposed to them presented leadership growth opportunities and chances for self-evaluation. discussion the participants’ understanding of the concept of leadership and decision-making and their expertise resonate well with the literature surveyed. evidently, shared governance must be brought to the fore (cf burleigh, 2020), with emphasis on devolution if the potentials of the diversified academic leaders would be exploited to the maximum, because academic leadership cannot be monopolised. such a thrust would develop a participative culture and collegial relationship between leaders and followers with emphasis on collective responsibility and common mission (jomah, 2017). in turn, managerial leadership should facilitate a unified front by effectively coordinating the activities of the different departments. because the argument advanced in this study is that leadership and decision-making are synonymous (suny, 2009) as correlated (hariri, monypenny, & prideaux, 2014), academic leaders seized by the global technological changes engulfing zimbabwean tertiary institutions utilised the transformational leadership style in conjunction with the cdmm and to a lesser extent the rdmm, because these enhanced participation, innovation and creativity, which in turn rejuvenated their efficiency and effectiveness (edu & amadi, 2020). these theoretical persuasions are compatible with the ministry’s education 5.0 policy, which entails teaching, research, community service, innovativeness and industrialisation as zimbabwe sought to reconfigure university degrees in line with its vision 2030 (education 5.0, 2019). similarly, knowledgeable leaders utilised the eclectic approach interchangeably depending on the prevailing situation. contrarily, however, academic leaders used the idmm in programmed situations, although they seemed to be ignorant of how the brdmm functioned. however, for ministerial directives and policies, the transactional leadership style was found convenient, although prone to conflicts and divisions. unbelievable though was their scepticism about the laissez-faire leadership style, even if it was the best in affording them the academic freedom they often yearned for. perhaps, familiarisation of the style through capacity-building programmes would be the way forward. finally, resources should be availed and bureaucratic structures democratised to allow the free flow of information from top to bottom and vice versa, if academic leaders are to operate effectively and efficiently. limitations although the open-ended questions employed to generate qualitative data did not permit participants to be probed further for clarity and quantitative data sought was limited by the sample, the triangulation of both databases made the findings credible. accordingly, more studies and information sharing on the phenomenon are necessary to empower academic leaders whose mission is partly to attain world-class standards. conclusion institutional leaders operating in environments of rapid sociopolitical change have the onerous task of aligning their personal leadership styles with official institutional mandates, as well as ensuring effectiveness in their missions. subsequently, the utilisation of the transformational leadership style, backed by the rdmm and the cdmm, together with shared governance must be a top priority in tertiary institutions. these findings reinforce the unfolding development in global organisational leadership patterns where leaders aim to give their followers space to transform in tandem with the prevailing dynamic environment. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the academic leaders in institutions of higher learning such as the vice chancellor, deans, chairpersons, heads of departments and registrars who participated in this study. the authors also thank the professional editor who edited the final manuscript. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions writing the abstract, conceptualisation of the problem, literature survey, designing the online semistructured open-ended questionnaire, generation of qualitative data, analysis and interpretation, triangulation of databases, discussion, writing the original draft and editing the final draft and references were done by v.c.n. writing the methodology, designing an online quantitative questionnaire, quantitative data collection, analysis, interpretation, discussion, conclusion and reviewing and editing the draft were carried out by n.p. all authors approved the final draft. funding information the researchers only receive funding when the article has undergone peer review and been published in an accreditable journal suggested by unisa college of economic and management sciences on behalf of the african union agenda 2063 (personnel no. 90381696). data availability after the article has been peer reviewed and published, it will be available in the public domain for use by other researchers. disclaimer the views expressed in this article are purely those of the researchers and not the official position of the institution or funder. references aioqla, r.m.a. (2021). the effect of leadership styles on improving communication methods among academic administrators. cypriot journal of educational science, 16(1), 396–410. https://doi.org/10.18844/cjes.v16i1.5539 al-malki, m., & juan, w. (2018). impact of laissez-faire leadership on role ambiguity and role conflict: implications for job performance. international journal of innovation and economic development, 4(1), 29–43. https://doi.org/10.18775/ijied.1849-7551-7020.2015.41.2003 amey, m.j. (2010). leadership in higher education: change. bass, b.m. (1990). from transactional to transformational leadership: learning to share the vision. organizational dynamics, 18(3), 19–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(90)90061-s bass, b.m. (2008). the bass handbook of leadership: theory, research, and managerial applications (4th ed.). new york, ny: free press. bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1990). transformational leadership development: manual for the multifactor leadership questionnaire. palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. bauer, t., & erdogan, b. (2012). an introduction to organisational behaviour. retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0342.pdf bennet, n., glatter, r., & levacic, r. (1994). improving educational management through research and consultancy. london: chapman. black, s.a. (2015). qualities of effective leadership in higher education. journal of leadership, 4(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojl.2015.42006 bogenschneider, b.n. (2016). leadership epistemology. creighton journal of interdisciplinary leadership, 2(2), 24–37. https://doi.org/10.17062/cjil.v2i2.37 buchholtz, n. (2019). planning and conducting mixed methods studies in mathematics educational research. in g. kaiser & n. presmeg (eds.), compendium for early career researchers in mathematics education, icme-13 monographs (pp. 131–152). cham: springer. burleigh, c. (2020). education leaders’ perceptions of faculty ethical decision-making: awareness, learning, and change. journal of educational research & practice, 10(1), 365–376. https://doi.org/10.5590/jerap.2020.10.1.23 bush, t., & west-burnham, j. (1994). the principles of educational management. london: pitman publishing. clegg, s., & mcauley, j. (2005). conceptualising middle management in higher education: a multifaceted discourse. journal of higher education policy and management, 27(1), 9–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600800500045786 davar, r.s. (1993). creative leadership. delhi: ubspd. durai, p. (2015). principles of management. delhi: pearson india education services ltd. eddles-hirsch, k. (2015). phenomenology and educational research. international journal of advanced research, 3(8), 251–260. retrieved from http://www.journalijar.com edmonds, w., & kennedy, t. (2017). convergent-parallel approach. in an applied guide to research designs. retrieved from https://www.doi.org/10.4135/9781071802779 education 5.0. (2019, march 28). education 5.0 and vision 2030 … re-configuring zim university degrees. the patriot. retrieved from https://www.thepatriot.co.zw/education/education-5-0edu, d.i., & amadi, m.a. (2020). role of initiative in institutional leadership and management. international journal of institutional leadership, policy and management, 2(3), 535–546. education 5.0. (2019, march 28). education 5.0 and vision 2030 … re-configuring zim university degrees. the patriot. retrieved from https://www.thepatriot.co.zw/education/education-5-0ekmekci, o.t., & tosunnoglu, h. (2016). laissez-faire leaders and organizations: how does laissez-faire leader erode the trust in organizations? journal of economics, finance and accounting, 3(1), 89–99. https://doi.org/10.17261/pressacademia.2016116538 faraci, p., lock, m., & wheeler, b. (2013). assessing leadership decision-making styles: psychometric properties of the leadership judgement indicator. psychology research and behavior management, 6, 117–123. https://doi.org/10.2147/prbm.s53713 fiedler, f.e. (1972). a theory of leadership effectiveness. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. funmilola, b.a., & david, a.a. (2019). evaluation of diagnostic analysis and predictive analysis for decision making. in paper presented at the conference on transition from observation to knowledge to intelligence at the university of lagos, 15–16 august 2019, nigeria. gronn, p. (2011). hybrid configurations of leadership. in a. bryman, d. collinson, k. grint, b. jackson, & m. uhl-bien (eds.), the sage handbook of leadership (pp. 437–454). thousand oaks, ca: sage. guest, g., namey, e., & mitchell, m. (2013). participant observation. in collecting qualitative data. retrieved from https://www.doi.org/10.4135/9781506374680 hariri, h., monypenny, r., & prideaux, m. (2014). leadership styles and decision-making in an indonesian school context. school leadership and management, 34(3), 284–298. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2013.849678 hersey, p., & blanchard, k.h. (1996). great ideas revisited: revisiting the life-cycle theory of leadership. training & development journal, 50(1), 42. iqbali, h.c., akhtar, m.m.s., & saleem, m. (2020). a study of decision making styles of academic managers in public sector universities of the punjab. bulletin of education and research, 42(2), 181–196. jomah, n.b. (2017). perceptions of employees in the effects of decision-making and leadership styles on relationships and perceived effectiveness in king saud university development context. international education studies, 10(1), 197–210. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v10n1p197 keith, s., & girling, r.h. (1991). education management and participation: new directions in educational management. boston, ma: allyn and bacon. khan, z.a., nawaz, a., & khan, a. (2016). leadership theories and styles: a literature review. journal of resource development and management, 16, 1–7. kiplangat, h.k. (2017). the relationship between leadership styles and lecturers’ job satisfaction in institutions of higher learning in kenya. universal journal of educational research, 5(3), 435–446. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2017.050315 kumar, s., & gautam, n. (2018). decision making styles among professors in central university of bihar – an empirical study of predictors. international journal of law and society, 1(2), 84–91. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijls.20180102.15 latchem, c., & hanna, d. (2001). leadership for 21st century learning: global perspectives from educational innovators. new york, ny: routledge. loveren, v.r.k. (2007). the effects of decision making and leadership styles on relationships and perceived effectiveness in the university development context. unpublished doctoral dissertation. university of south florida. scholar commons. lunenburg, f.c. (2010). models of decision making. focus on colleges, universities and schools, 4(1), 1–9. mccleskey, j.a. (2014). situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership development. journal of business studies quarterly, 5(4), 117–130. mohajan, h.k. (2018). qualitative research methodology in social sciences and related subjects. journal of economic development, environment and people, 7(1), 23–48. https://doi.org/10.26458/jedep.v7i1.571 musundire, a. (2015). effectiveness of the developmental supervision model as a toll for improving quality teaching: perceptions of the south african teachers and educators. retrieved from https://hd/.handle.net/10500/18892 namubiru, g., onen, d., & oonyu, j. (2017). university leadership during times of significant transformation: a case of kyambogo university in uganda. journal of education and practice, 8(10), 78–85. ngwenya, v.c. (2020). curriculum implementation challenges encountered by primary school teachers in bulawayo metropolitan province, zimbabwe. africa education review, 17(2), 158–176. https://doi.org/10.1080/18146627.2018.1549953 northouse, p.g. (2016). leadership: theory and practice (7th ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. nowell, l.s., norris, j.m., white, d.e., & moules, n.j. (2017). thematic analysis: striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria. international journal of qualitative methods, 16, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406917733847 owens, r.g. (1996). organizational behaviour in education (4th ed.). englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. phuthi, n., & mpofu, i. (2021). critical reflection in science teaching and learning: crossing borders into western science. american journal of educational research, 9(5), 313–319. https://doi.org/10.12691/education-9-5-9 portugal, l. (2006). diversity leadership in higher education. academic leadership journal, 4(3), 1–10. retrieved from http://scholars.fhsu.edu/alj/vol4/iss3/2 roberts, k., dowell, a., & nie, j.b. (2019). attempting rigour and replicability in thematic analysis of qualitative research data: a case study of codebook development. bmc medical research methodology, 19, 66. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-019-0707-y salmi, j., & pham, l.t. (2019). academic governance and leadership in vietnam: trends and challenges. journal of international and comparative education, 8(2), 103–118. https://doi.org/10.14425/jice.2019.8.2.103 salvador, j.t. (2016). exploring quantitative and qualitative methodologies: a guide to novice nursing researchers. european scientific journal, 12(18), 107. https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2016.v12n18p107 samul, j. (2020). the research topics of leadership: bibliometric analysis from 1923 to 2019. international journal of educational leadership and management, 8(2), 116–143. https://doi.org/10.17583/ijelm.2020.5036 schoemaker, p.j.h., & russo, j.e. (2014). decision-making. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320042464 state university of new york. (2009). introduction: leadership, decision making and unexplored issues of decision making. albany, ny: author. stoner, j.a.f., freeman, r.e., & gilbert, d.r. jr. (2008). management (6th ed.). cape town: prentice-hall international. tonkin-crine, s., anthierens, s., hood, k., yardley, l., cals, j.w.l., francis, n.a. … little, p. (2015). discrepancies between qualitative and quantitative evaluation of randomised controlled trial results: achieving clarity through mixed methods triangulation. implementation science, 11, 66. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13012-016-0436-0 turpin, s.m., & marais, m.a. (2004). decision-making: theory and practice. orion, 20(2), 143–160. https://doi.org/10.5784/20-2-12 uzonwanne, f. (2016). rational model of decision making. ede: redeemer’s university. zvobgo, r.j. (2004). the organisation and administration of primary and secondary education. harare: zimbabwe open university. abstract introduction research purpose and objectives literature review research design results discussion limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) karina olivier department of industrial and organisational psychology, school of management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa antoni barnard department of industrial and organisational psychology, school of management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa annelize van niekerk department of industrial and organisational psychology, school of management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation olivier, k., barnard, a., & van niekerk, a. (2021). selection of industrial and organisational psychology master’s students: exploring the predictive validity of a person–job fit approach. sa journal of human resource management/satydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1477. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1477 original research selection of industrial and organisational psychology master’s students: exploring the predictive validity of a person–job fit approach karina olivier, antoni barnard, annelize van niekerk received: 10 sept. 2020; accepted: 02 feb. 2021; published: 28 apr. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: valid selection of master’s students is essential to the training and development of competent industrial and organisational psychologists. research purpose: to validate a person-job fit data aggregation approach based on an integration of psychometric results in the selection of industrial and organisational psychology master’s students. motivation for the study: the employment equity act requires psychological assessment to be valid, reliable, culturally fair and based on the inherent requirements of the job. this mandates context-specific validation research, such as the current study. research approach/design and method: a non-experimental design was applied to secondary data (n = 133) derived from the occupational personality questionnaire, verify ability tests and academic success results of 5 student cohorts registered in the years 2012 to 2016. data was analysed by means of descriptive and correlation statistics. main findings: the overall person job match score did not show a statistically significant relationship with academic success. a significant relationship was observed between cognitive ability and academic success. specific person job match competencies presenting a significant relationship with academic success, contained scores from both personality and cognitive measures. practical implication: ability tests should be weighted more strongly in selecting master’s students. a review of the master’s students’ competency profile may be needed to align with future world of work demands, and to improve its predictive role in academic success. contribution/value added: this study contributes to the predictive validity of the selection criteria for industrial and organisational psychology master’s students. keywords: academic success; vmg3; nmg3; opq32r; competency-based assessment introduction the future world of work poses several challenges to human resources and talent management, such as machine intelligence exceeding human capability, political uprising being driven online, virtual reality and artificial intelligence moving into the space of academia and research (franklin, 2017; spreitzer, cameron, & garrett, 2017; xu, david, & kim, 2018). it is predicted that over 26 billion devices will be connected through the internet of things (iot) by the year 2020, replacing many current jobs and creating new ones (morgan, 2014). the fourth industrial revolution, or otherwise referred to as the digital revolution, is said to be the cause of this rapid change in the industry (xu et al., 2018). moreover, the uncertainty of the future world of work remains real (omarjee, 2015) in the context of rising oil prices and the depletion of natural resources (gratton, 2011; maitland & thomson, 2011). in addition to global and technological changes impacting employees and the organisation, research scrutinising the changing face of the workforce points towards a slowly declining birth rate, an ageing workforce, a global lack of skilled employees and increased cultural diversity (ganaie & haque, 2017). as a result of the lack of highly skilled employees to face this technologically driven future world of work, organisations are at war for talent to remain competitive and relevant (ganaie & haque, 2017; wilcox, 2016). branson (2014) wrote that an organisation is only as strong as its people and that selecting talent and putting employees at the centre of the business are central to remaining viable and successful. one discipline dedicated to providing evidence-based data to improve organisational effectiveness is the field of industrial and organisational (io) psychology (salas, kozlowski, & chen, 2017). the io psychologist plays a vital role in helping organisations to understand the impact of the digital revolution that is currently disrupting every industry, in every country, along with the entire system of management, governance and production (xu et al., 2018). the society of industrial and organizational psychology (siop), in the united states of america, defines the role of the io psychologist as someone who works with individuals, organisations and society as a whole, understanding systemic interdependence and recognising the effects that political influences, consumers and skill shortages have on the future world of work (landy & conte, 2016). industrial and organisational psychology is the scientific study of individual, group and organisational behaviour in the workplace and is aimed at optimising performance throughout (cilliers & flotman, 2016). the io psychologist is additionally tasked to help his or her clients manage talent resources (ganaie & haque, 2017; theron, 2009; wilcox, 2016), ensuring a work environment that is focused on the well-being and individuality of the employee (lawler, 2011; van vuuren, 2010) and on challenges that the employee faces outside of the work environment (barkhuizen, jorgensen, & brink, 2014; landy & conte, 2016). to register as an io psychologist in south africa, certain educational and professional registration requirements must be met (health professions act, no. 56 of 1974). these include completion of relevant bachelors and honours degrees, a coursework master’s degree, a 12-month supervised internship and passing the profession’s board of psychology examination (cilliers & flotman, 2016; hpcsa, 2017). with relevance to this study, the coursework master’s degree is structured into two parts: one being the coursework year (referred to as the m1 year) and the second part is the m2 year that encompasses the dissertation section, spanning 1–3 years (cilliers & flotman, 2016; viviers & van niekerk, 2012). the m1 year entails coursework covering career, personnel and organisational psychology, as well as psychometrics, psychological research and personal growth (cilliers & flotman, 2016). the m1 and m2 parts each contribute 50% towards the final mark for the degree (cilliers & flotman, 2016; viviers & van niekerk, 2012). in their 2016 study, cilliers and flotman raised concerns that, even though most of the selected students in the io psychology coursework master’s degree seemed to have passed the m1 part of the degree, only 60% of these students completed the m2 part of the programme, resulting in an overall lower throughput rate (cf. cilliers & harry, 2012). to build capacity of qualified io psychologists in the world of work, educational institutions need to select the best candidates to complete the qualification successfully, in a reasonable time frame at the standard of the institution (taylor, mcmanus, & davison, 2018). having a valid selection procedure to select students who meet the requirements of the m1 and the m2 years successfully is, therefore, imperative. using valid selection measures in south africa is also a legal requirement constituted in the employment equity act (eea), no. 55 (1998). research purpose and objectives the purpose of this study was to validate a person-job fit data aggregation approach applied in the selection of io psychology master’s students. such an approach is based on deriving a person job match (pjm) score from an integration of results from cognitive and personality measures applied in the selection battery. the research objectives therefore included an investigation of the predictive validity of the pjm score that makes up one part of the final result of the competency-based assessment battery applied to select io psychology master’s students, regarding their academic success. the following research hypotheses were formulated to guide the study: h0: the pjm score as a result of the io psychology master’s selection assessment battery is not a valid predictor of academic success. h1: the io psychology master’s pjm score is a valid predictor of academic success. h2: the graduate verify verbal ability test (vmg3) and graduate verify numerical ability test (nmg3) display a significant relationship with academic success. h3: the occupational personality questionnaire (opq32r) displays a significant relationship with academic success. literature review predictors of academic success common factors that are traditionally related to predicting academic success include the students’ socio-economic status and biographical details (tinto, 1993), as well as the academic marks that they achieved during their schooling (jeynes, 2016). although these factors remain regarded as valid predictors, recent research points to a variety of factors relating to the prediction of academic success. these include the students’ interests and motivation, self-confidence, emotional intelligence, challenging themselves cognitively, conscientiousness, ethnicity, gender, reflective writing, stable role-models, parental support, communication skills, technological competence, support received and the general communication skills of the students and teachers (adamiak & sauls, 2017; akgündüz & akınoğlu, 2017; bartram, 2005; biçer, 2017; grass, strobel, & strobel, 2017; kale & etyemez, 2017; kappe & van der flier, 2011; khan, khan, zia-ul-islam, & khan, 2017; killen, 1994, kotzé & griessel, 2008; machika & johnson, 2015; önder & şeyma, 2017; parker, saklofske, & keefer, 2017; roksa & whitley, 2017; salend & whittaker, 2017; schreiber & yu, 2016; schmidt & hunter, 1998; tsingos-lucas, bosnic-anticevich, schneider, & smith, 2017). of importance to this study, in a meta-analysis of 19 selection methods taken over 85 years with the criteria being job and training performance, schmidt and hunter (1998) found job experience as the lowest predictor and biographical data, conscientiousness, integrity and cognitive ability amongst the most reliable predictors for academic success. cognition far outranked the rest of the predictors in the meta-study (bartram, 2005; kotzé & griessel, 2008). the general mental ability, or what is commonly referred to as a person’s intelligence, is the ‘most validated individual differentiating construct in psychology’ (puchert, dodd, & viljoen, 2017, p. 1). mathematics as a problem-solving ability has further been found to be a strong predictor for academic success and is motivated by puchert et al. (2017) to be a critical part of the selection criteria for post-school training programmes. the study, additionally, adds that secondary training can be used as a useful pre-screening tool to admit candidates into higher level training programmes. in general, the predictive validity of personality measures has been widely documented (dilchert, ones, & krueger, 2019; van aarde, meiring, & wiernik, 2017). the inclusion of personality measures combined with measures of cognition is commonly used in selection for access to training programmes (kappe & van der flier, 2011). in this regard, and in the context of the eea (1998), a competency-based approach is imperative (potgieter & van der merwe, 2002). when cognitive and personality assessments are used to inform selection, which is the case in this study, the validity of the specific measurement outcomes, such as the pjm score, remains essential. validity psychometric measures form part of the competency-based assessment battery that is currently applied in selecting io psychology master’s students at the research institution. specifically, this includes a personality measure, the opq32r, and a cognitive measure, the verify ability tests (vmg3 & nmg3), from which the pjm score is derived. as these psychological assessments are used for selection, specific legislative guidelines need to be adhered to according to the eea, no. 55 (1998). the eea (1998), in this case, has the dual objective of ensuring that only valid and reliable assessments are used, and that assessments are used in a fair manner, free from bias and unfair discrimination. in this legal context, it is critical that the pjm score that is derived from the psychometric measures used to select io psychology master’s students’ be evaluated for its predictive validity in terms of academic success. psychometric measures are grounded in the validity of the measure used (schmidt, 2006). the validity of a measure is concerned with how well the assessment measures what it is supposed to be measuring. there are three types of validities, namely, content, construct and criterion validities (foxcroft & roodt, 2009; salkind, 2016). content validity is a non-statistical method that concerns itself with whether the measure actually measures what it is designed to measure (foxcroft & roodt, 2009; salkind, 2016). construct validity refers to the theoretical construct of the measure and its validity (roodt, 2009; salkind, 2016). lastly, criterion validity concerns itself with the relationship between the predictor(s) (in this study, the results of the psychometric measures) and the criterion (in this study, academic success) (salkind, 2016). salkind (2016) pointed towards two essential aspects to consider when conceptualising validity. one, validity refers to the results of the measure or test and not the measure or test itself. two, the results show a degree of validity (not absolute validity) referring to the degree of relationship between the covariates and the criterion (potter, 2006; salkind, 2016). in this study, the validity degree of how well the pjm score predict academic success was investigated and significant relationships between the individual psychometric measures and academic success was explored (foxcroft & roodt, 2009; kriek, 2009; roodt, 2009; salkind, 2016). fairness in selection: competencies reflecting the inherent requirements of the job regarding fairness, the eea (1998) stated that discrimination (relevant to selection) may be regarded as fair when it is aligned with the inherent requirements of the job. therefore, when establishing an assessment battery, following a competency-based assessment framework is essential to ensure compliance with fair discrimination in the eea (1998) (potgieter & van der merwe, 2002). the competency profile of an ideal io psychology master’s student was created by conducting a job analysis of the io psychologist’s role. this competency profile was designed by subject matter experts (smes), which consisted of practising io psychologists and io psychology master’s academic staff members (viviers & van niekerk, 2012). shl’s 20 generic competencies (shl, 2009) were used as a point of departure, as it includes competencies that have been found to contribute to superior performance in different roles and positions in the workplace (shl, 2011). the competencies were chosen according to their relevance with the competencies described by the smes, which, in turn, was guided by success criteria in the io psychologist’s role identified by the texas io psychologists (tiops) (blakeny et al., 2002) and the hpcsa’s professional training and registration requirements (viviers & van niekerk, 2012). the competency profile was organised along essential, desirable, less relevant and not relevant competencies. essential competencies indicate those competencies identified by the sme panel to be required for nearly all the role objectives of an io psychologist. desirable competencies are those competencies identified to be crucial to most job requirements, whereas relevant competencies were those required in meeting at least some objectives. less relevant and not relevant competencies were indicated by the sme panel to have very little relevance to the competency profile of the io psychologist and were, therefore, excluded from the final competency profile (viviers & van niekerk, 2012). table 1 outlines the competencies in the competency profile of an io psychology master’s student. the essential and desirable competencies consequently constituted the selection criteria against which applicants were assessed for entry into the io psychology master’s programme at the research institution from the period 2012 to 2016. table 1: shl’s 20 generic competencies† included in the industrial and organisational psychology master’s competency profile. research design research approach in this non-experimental, positivist study, a descriptive quantitative approach was followed. multivariate statistical techniques were used to analyse secondary data that were collected over a period of 5 years, to explain the relationships of the constructs and variables (babbie, 2005). secondary data were derived from the period 2012 to 2016 including the psychometric and academic results for io psychology master’s students. the psychometric results included students’ verify graduate ability test scores, opq32r sten scores and the overall pjm competency profile scores. these scores were covariates assumed to be affecting the academic success of the io psychology master’s student (cf. potter, 2006). the verify graduate ability test is a cognitive measure and the opq32r, a personality measure. the pjm competency profile is constructed on the essential and desirable competencies of an io psychologist. scores are calculated for each of these pjm competencies from the results of the verify graduate ability tests and the opq32r. the verify graduate ability tests’ sten scores, the opq32r sten scores, the pjm competency profile sten scores and the pjm overall scores were sourced from the responsible, independent test publisher. the students’ academic success scores were accessed from the student system of the research institution from the period 2012 to 2016. the academic results included students’ final results of the m1 year, the final results of the m2 year and the overall results of the completed degree. research method research participants the sample (n = 133) consisted of the io psychology master’s students who have been successfully selected into the io psychology master’s programme from the years 2012 to 2016. the sample consisted of female students (72.2%) and males (27.8%). the white student cohort made up the largest number of students (40.6%) with the remainder being african (34.6%), indian (15%) and mixed race (9.8%). the minimum requirement to apply for the io psychology master’s degree is a related honours degree. only 1.5% of the students had a degree or 3-year diploma before entering the io psychology master’s programme, where the rest had honours degrees (98.5%). the few diploma and/or undergraduate students (1.5%) were because of them having been busy completing their honours degrees during the time of the data collection. the sample showed the following along the native language of the students: english (39.8%), afrikaans (24.1%), zulu (7.5%), tswana (6%), tsonga (5.3%), unspecified (4.6%), southern sotho (2.3%), xhosa (2.3%) and venda and ndebele at both (1.5%) each. measuring instruments the data were collected on the io psychology master’s students’ results on the verify graduate ability tests, the opq32r, the pjm competency profile scores, the pjm overall score and academic results from their m1 and m2 years and final overall master’s, in a 5-year period spanning from 2012 to 2016. verify graduate ability tests: shl’s verify graduate ability tests were used to measure verbal (vmg3) and numerical (nmg3) reasoning. both the numerical and verbal tests are deductive reasoning tests that work on the assumption that problems can be solved by applying previously established rules (burke, van someren, tatham, & downey, 2013). the results of the verify graduate ability tests are presented in two transformed standard score scales, namely, a t-score and a sten score along which interpretations can be made (shl, 2007). studies based on both ability tests have proven to be predictable, significant and substantial in their correlations with academic success, with estimated validities ranging from 0.4 to 0.6 (kotzé & griessel, 2008; shl, 2007). in terms of the reliability of the ability tests, kotzé and griessel (2008) reported high alpha coefficients (between 0.82 and 0.91). the norm group used for the verify graduate ability tests was the general uk population who had been normed for south african purposes (shl, 2007). occupational personality questionnaire: the opq32r was developed based on the trait theory of personality and applies a forced-choice method that has normative properties (ceb, 2010).a benefit of the opq32r is that it is highly reliable (shl, 2009) with the mean of the item response theory (irt) composite reliability being 0.84 (shl, 2009). this personality measure provides information on the individual’s preferred style of behaviour at work and is commonly used for managerial and professional applications (shl, 2009). thirty-two dimensions of an individual’s preferences about behaviour at work make up this occupational model of personality (burke et al., 2013; ceb, 2010; joubert, ilke, bartram, dowdeswell, & lin, 2015). the 32 dimensions are clustered in eight broad sub-domain scales and are also referred to as the ‘great eight’ competency factors that have been developed through self-rating and manager ratings of work performance. they are further categorised under three main categories, namely, relationships with people, thinking styles and feelings and emotions (bartram, 2005, p. 1185). the norm group applied in interpreting applicants’ opq32r results consisted of a large uk population who had been normed for south african purposes (shl, 2009). according to the hpcsa’s list of classified and certified psychological assessments, the opq32r is registered as a psychological assessment (hpcsa, 2017). the person job match profile: the scores from two of the psychometric measures applied in the selection assessment were used to create a candidate’s pjm profile, weighted in accordance with the competency profile of an identified role (shl, 2018). the verify graduate ability tests (vmg3, nmg3) and the opq32r were used to calculate a competency potential score considering each of the desirable and essential competencies in which the io psychology master’s student needs to prove competence for selection purposes. these scores constitute the candidate’s pjm profile and indicate the extent of fit between the applicant’s competencies and the required role competencies. an overall match score is also calculated, indicating an overall pjm score, as well as the bands of an extremely weak, weak, moderate, strong or extremely strong match (shl, 2018). the pjm profile, thus, provides an overall score and a competency potential score for a candidate for each of the competencies in the profile (i.e. the essential and desirable competencies indicating the student’s level of suitability for the role of an io psychology master’s student) (shl, 2011). all the essential and desirable competencies derive their pjm competency scores from the opq32r. competencies in the pjm profile that specifically include results from the verify ability tests are presenting and communicating, writing and reporting, analysing and learning and researching (shl, 2007). additional competencies that are not part of the io psychology master’s students’ pjm profiles that include scores from the verify ability tests are applying expertise and technology, creating and innovative and formulating strategies and concepts (shl, 2007). statistical analyses descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) were used to determine and describe the degree to which the variables exist in the sample. a pearson’s two-tailed correlation was used to measure the level of strength between two variables (lachenicht, 2002), namely, the students’ academic achievement scores (their m1, m2 and final percentage scores) and the sten scores of the verify graduate ability tests, the opq32r and the 12 competency scores of the pjm profile. additional pjm competencies that are not part of the io psychology master’s student’s competency profile were investigated with regard to possible significance to academic success. the statistical significance was set at 0.01 and 0.05. in terms of interpreting the size of the relationship, cohen’s (1988) guidelines for practical significance were adopted, where a magnitude of r ≥ 0.100 is considered small, ≥ 0.300 is considered moderate and ≥ 0.500 is considered large. for the purpose of this study, the small, substantial, strong and dependable relationships are reported. ethical considerations the initial instructions for the online assessments were sent to applicants via e-mail. the e-mail provided a link to the online assessment portal. informed consent was obtained from each potential student, on the online assessment portal, before the applicant was able to proceed with the assessments. applicants were informed of the purpose and nature of the assessment and that their results may be used for research purposes. further ethical clearance was sought from the research institution to access the nonidentifiable data from the student management system. ethical clearance to use the secondary data was obtained from the research ethics review committee of the relevant college at the research institution (erc reference number: 2017_cems/iop_010). results of the total sample (n = 133), a small number of io psychology master’s students failed their m1 year (6.8%). as the m2 year can be completed on a fullor part-time basis (viviers & van niekerk, 2012), a large number of student data were outstanding (n = 78). the outstanding data result from the number of io psychology master’s students still in the process of completing their m2 year (n = 63) plus those who have dropped out (n = 15). furthermore, no-fail data were available for the m2 year because the thesis that forms part of the m2 year only gets submitted once it has been thoroughly checked by the attending supervisors, at the research institution, before the io psychology master’s student can submit it to be examined (viviers & van niekerk, 2012). this means that up until 2016, only 41.4% (n = 55) of students registered from 2012 to 2016 had completed both the m1 and m2 years successfully. correlation statistics pearson’s two-tailed correlation is used to measure the level of strength between variables (lachenicht, 2002). the variables consisted of the verify graduate ability test sten scores, the opq32r sten scores, the pjm overall score and the pjm competency scores that were used as covariates affecting the dependent variable, namely, the academic success rates of the io psychology master’s students (potter, 2006). academic success is seen as the percentage scores obtained in the m1 year, the m2 year and the final percentage score on completion of the degree. the m1 year consists of five compulsory course work modules, each for which a final mark is derived from the students’ formative and summative assessments for the module. the m1 percentage score is the average of the five course work modules’ final marks. the m2 percentage score is the average of the marks allocated to the student’s dissertation of limited scope by two examiners. the final overall percentage score is the average of the student’s m1 and m2 percentage scores. the results of the correlation analysis pertain to the set hypotheses and are discussed here in terms of whether they confirm the research hypotheses. hypothesis 1: the industrial and organisational psychology master’s person job match score is a valid predictor of academic success table 2 reports on the correlation coefficients of the overall pjm and pjm band scores with academic success. no statistically significant relationship was found between either the overall pjm scores or the pjm band scores. table 2: pearson’s correlation between the person job match overall score and band score and academic success. table 3 reports the correlation coefficients of the io psychology master’s student’s pjm competency profile with academic success. individual competencies that have proven to display a statistically significant relationship of small effect size (cohen, 1988) with academic success (p ≤ 0.05) include writing and reporting (r = 0.209) and coping with pressure and setbacks (r = -0.183) for the m1 year. a statistically significant relationship with academic success (p ≤ 0.01) was also found for competencies that include learning and researching (r = 0.238) and analysing (r = 0.232) for the m1 year. individual competencies that have proven to display a statistically significant relationship with academic success in terms of the final result (p ≤ 0.05) include learning and researching (r = 0.288). hypothesis 1 is not accepted. table 3: pearson correlation statistics: essential and desirable person job match competency scores with academic success. for the sake of interest, table 4 reports the correlation coefficients of the pjm competencies that are not included in the io psychology master’s competency profile with academic success. two of these competencies display a statistically significant relationship with academic success, namely, creating and innovating with the m1 year (r = 0.271) (p ≤ 0.01) and the final result (r = 0.324) (p ≤ 0.05) and formulating strategies and concepts with the m1 year (r = 0.173) (p ≤ 0.05). table 4: pearson’s correlation statistics: less relevant and not relevant person job match competency scores with academic success. hypothesis 2: the verify graduate ability test display a significant relationship with academic success table 5 shows the correlation coefficients of the verify graduate ability test with academic success. the correlation between the verify graduate numerical ability test and academic success displays a correlation coefficient of 0.199 (p ≤ 0.05) for the m1 year, 0.323 (p ≤ 0.05) for the m2 year and 0.305 (p ≤ 0.05) for the overall result of the programme. in terms of cohen’s (1988) guide to interpreting effect sizes, a definite, small to moderate relationship is evident, demonstrating the verify graduate numerical ability test’s ability to predict academic success as seen in the m1 year, the m2 year and the overall programme results. the correlation between the verify graduate verbal ability test and academic success displays a correlation coefficient of 0.218 (p ≤ 0.05) for the m1 year, -0.004 for the m2 year and 0.193 for the overall result of the programme. the magnitude of r is between 0.201 and 0.400 of the m1 year only. therefore, a significant relationship of small effect size is evident, demonstrating the verify graduate verbal ability test’s ability to predict academic success as seen in the m1 year only. hypothesis 2 is accepted. table 5: pearson’s correlation between academic success and to verify graduate ability tests (verbal and numerical). hypothesis 3: the occupational personality questionnaire displays a significant relationship with academic success table 6 reports on the correlation coefficients between the opq32r sten scores and academic success. only a few individual competencies were found to display a statistically significant relationship with academic success on the lower score for the m1 year that includes outspoken (r = -0.198), relaxed (r = -0.217), optimistic (r = -0.175) and trusting (r = -0.192) (p ≤ 0.05) and on the higher score for emotionally controlled (r = 0.224) (p ≤ 0.01). the competency, innovative, saw a significant relationship on the lower score (r = -0.278) (p ≤ 0.05) with the m2 year results and worrying on the higher score (r = 0.298) (p ≤ 0.05) with the m2 year results of the io psychology master’s students. hypothesis 3 is not accepted because of the limited significant relationships of small effect size observed. table 6: pearson’s correlation between academic success and the occupational personality questionnaire sten scores. the null hypothesis which states that the pjm score of the io psychology master’s competency profile is not a valid predictor of academic success is, therefore, not rejected. only the verify graduate ability tests displayed significant relationships for the m1, m2 and final academic results of the io psychology master’s student. the opq32r sten scores only displayed a select few competencies that display a small, but definite relationship with academic success. the overall pjm score and pjm band score did not display any relationship with predicting academic success, and of the pjm competencies used for the selection of the io psychology master’s students, only a few displayed a significant relationship, which was mostly because of the fact that the verify graduate ability test has a weighting in the competency scores that displayed predictive values. discussion the aim of this study was to investigate whether cognitive and personality-based psychometric results, aggregated into a person-job fit pjm score, predict academic success for a sample (n = 133) io psychology master’s students registered between 2012 and 2016. an average number of 27 students made up the student cohort in each year. more than two-thirds of the sample was made up of female students and close to half of the sample consisted of white students. not all students who had been selected displayed a strong to extremely strong match with regard to their pjm student profile results or band category. this could be because of the fact that the pjm band match only weighs 25% of the final recommendation for access to the programme and other selection criteria are considered such as, academic performance in the honours degree, an interview and a simulation exercise. the overall academic success results of the io psychology master’s students with regard to pass and fail percentage was only available for the m1 year, which displays a pass rate of 93.4% for the total sample (n = 133). this means that most students who were selected into the m1 year completed the academic requirements of the m1 year, whilst the academic requirements of the m2 year are incomplete for a large proportion of the sample. of the students in the sample who started with the master’s programme, 15 students dropped out, 55 students completed their io psychology master’s degree and 78 students were still in the process of completing their io psychology master’s degree. the m2 year consists of a research component, where the student is tasked to complete a research dissertation of limited scope that can be completed over 2–4 years (viviers & van niekerk, 2012). it is, therefore, acceptable that most of the students who completed their master’s degree were registered in the 2012–2014 period. only a few students first registered in 2015 and 2016 completed their degrees at the time of the study. yet, many students who had been registered for 4 or more years have not completed their degrees and mostly because the m2 year was not finalised. a study that focused on postgraduate throughput rates found that students who are busy with the research component of a master’s or doctoral degree are said to struggle with multiple roles, feelings of isolation and rigid programme structures (abiddin, 2011). suggestions along supporting students during their research section of the postgraduate degree include establishing regular meetings between supervisor and student and requesting regular progress reports from the students (abiddin, 2011). the verify graduate ability tests displayed a definite, but small relationship with academic success of the m1 year results. more specifically, the verify graduate numerical reasoning test specifically showed a definite, but small relationship with the m1, m2 and final results of the io psychology master’s students. the verify graduate verbal reasoning test showed a definite but small relationship with the m1 marks only. the validity coefficients as found in this study (0.199–0.323) are not in line with kotzé and griessel’s (2008) study that found correlation coefficients from 0.400 to 0.600. this discrepancy may be influenced by the restriction of range on the ability tests, in that results were only available for those students selected into the program. regardless, one could postulate that the verify graduate ability test displays the strongest relationship in this study as mirrored in various studies which suggest that cognition may be the best predictor for academic success (bartram, 2005; kappe & van der flier, 2011; kotzé & griessel, 2008; puchert et al., 2017). numerical reasoning is further motivated to be included as selection criteria into higher training because of its predictive values for academic success (puchert et al., 2017). the opq32r sten scores presented with minor statistical relevance to the criterion. statistically significant relationships between select competencies and the m1 and m2 academic results can be highlighted. with significance levels with academic achievement, respectively (p ≥ 0.0005 and p ≥ 0.0001), the io psychology master’s student who achieved academically, appears most likely to be reserved by holding back from criticising others and may not express his or her own views or own opinions (outspoken), may tend to be tenser (relaxed), nervous before significant events (worrying), concerned about the future (optimistic) and wary of others’ intentions (trusting) whilst displaying emotions clearly (emotionally controlled) (shl, 1999). the limited relationship of the opq32r and academic success could be attributed to possible range restriction as the sample constituted only successfully selected students. the correlational analysis found no relationship between the overall pjm score and pjm band score and academic success. when regarding the specific competencies of the competency profile, some competencies were found to display a significant relationship with academic success. from the essential competencies of the pjm, writing and reporting (m1 year), learning and researching (m1 year and final result), analysing (m1 year), and coping with pressure and setbacks (m1 year) were the only competencies that displayed a small relationship with academic success. noteworthy, is that most of the individual pjm profile competencies that have shown a relationship with academic success included scores from both the opq32r and the verify graduate ability test and mostly predicted academic success for the m1 year. only coping with pressure and setbacks as a competency that displays some statistical significance does not include scores from the verify graduate ability tests. of the pjm competencies that were not included in the io psychology master’s pjm competency profile, two competencies display a further statistical significance to academic success, namely creating and innovating (m1 year and final result), and formulating strategies and concepts (m1 year). both of these competencies include scores from the verify graduate ability tests. it could then be argued that the addition of the verify graduate ability tests to the overall competency score adds validity to the competency with regard to academic success. taking a closer look at the io psychology master’s pjm competency profile, it begs the question if it is useful to base access requirements to the master’s programme on an io psychologist’s job profile. the shl’s 20 generic competencies (shl, 2009) were used as a point of departure and include competencies that have been found to contribute to superior performance in different roles and positions in the workplace (shl, 2011). the profiling session should also focus on academically successful io psychology master’s students as opposed to only focussing on the profile of a practising io psychologist. revisiting the io psychology master’s student’s competency profile may also be necessary in the light of the changing world of work. this study points to some predictive competencies and measures that can be used to revise the io psychology master’s student’s competency profile for future selection and development applications to ensure validity, reliability, credibility and fairness as required by the eea (1998). the empirical aim of this study was to determine whether the psychometric component of the assessment battery is a valid predictor of academic success for the io psychology master’s students at the research institution. the cognitive component of the psychometric assessment was found to display the strongest relationship to academic success, as seen in both the verify graduate ability test sten scores and all the pjm competencies that included scores from the verify graduate ability tests. practical implication the practical implication of the results from this study is that the verify graduate ability test result be used as a separate weighting in addition to the pjm scores as part of the selection process. by regarding the verify graduate ability test results separately from the pjm scores, the verify graduate ability test results will carry more weight towards the final recommendation along with access into the io psychology master’s degree at the research institution. limitations and recommendations four areas of measure contribute towards the final acceptance of the io psychology master’s student into the programme at the research institution. one is the academic result of the student’s honours degree, the other is the pjm score of the candidate, the third is a competency-based interview score of the student, and the last one is a simulated assignment that the student has to complete, which is independently scored. each of these four measures contributes 25% towards the final recommendation for acceptance. this study only regarded the pjm score that resulted from the psychometric component of the selection assessment. as the sample was restricted to candidates successfully selected into the programme, a restriction of range is expected to have affected the correlations obtained, suggesting that the coefficients observed are underestimates of the actual relationships under study. the sample was further skewed by the period of study that is acceptable for a master’s degree, namely 4 years and the small number of students (only 25–30) that are selected each year for entry into the programme. it is a challenge to obtain a significant enough sample in a 5-year period, which will present students with a completed degree and, therefore, a better picture of the criterion of academic success (i.e. m1, m2 and final percentage results). as a result of the limited scope of this study, the other measures in the selection assessment have not been included in the analyses. these include the previous academic results of the student, the simulation assignment and the interview that all contribute equally to the final decision of acceptance of the io psychology master’s student. it is recommended that this study be replicated with a larger sample size, on the m2 and final results of the students, in order to gain results that may not be so heavily impacted by the limited sample size and current restriction of range. the previous academic results (e.g. honours results), the article assignment and the competency based interview (cbi) should also be included to derive additional insight into the potential incremental validity of the full assessment battery, together with the final decision-making strategy used in line with siop’s (2018) recommendations. it would also be valuable to conduct a predictive validity study on the entire selection process and to consider all personality competencies of the students who have been able to complete their degrees within the 4 years, as is required, against those students who are struggling to complete the degree within the required 4 years. finally, it is recommended to increase the weighting of the cognitive assessment results because these measures seem to have the strongest validity coefficient in selecting io psychology master’s students who will meet the programme requirements. the verify graduate numerical ability test has the best predictive value for the m1, m2 and final result. particular attention should, therefore, be given to the numerical score for selection purposes. selecting students for the master’s programme is driven by a dual objective. firstly, the aim is to select students who meet the competency criteria of a practicing io psychologist and secondly, to select students who will successfully complete the academic programme. the latter is essential to adhere to the minimum academic requirements for io psychology registration and constituted the focus of this study. academic success is a fundamental condition for becoming an io psychologist; the extent to which academic success is predictive of being a good or successful io psychologist was however not explored in this study. selection criteria assessed through personality and simulation measures are believed to remain of value in the selection battery as they align with the io psychologist competency profile. the need to research the extent of this value remains an unaddressed challenge. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge shl for sharing the psychometric data and enabling this study. competing interests the authors declare that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions the authors collaboratively designed the research project, and k.o. conducted the analysis as part of her master’s degree, with a.b. (unisa) as primary supervisor and a.v.n. as co-supervisor. k.o. (unisa) was responsible for data analysis, literature review and interpretation of results. a.b. and a.v.n. (unisa) contributed significantly to the choice of literature, guided the interpretation of results and comprehensively refined the final report. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abiddin, n.z. (2011). attrition and completion issues in post-graduate studies for student development. international review of social sciences and humanities, 1(1), 15–29. adamiak, j., & sauls, r.r. (2017). influencing mathematics students’ academic success through online interventions: a case study. south african journal of higher education, 31(3), 230–248. https://doi.org/10.208535/31-3-1573 akgündüz, d., & akınoğlu, o. (2017). the impact of blended learning and social media-supported learning on the academic success and motivation of the students in science education. education & science, 42(191), 69–90. https://doi.org/10.15390/eb.2017.6444 babbie, e. (2005). the basics of social research: research design. thomson wadsworth. barkhuizen, h., jorgensen, l.i., & brink, l. (2014). exploring the role of the industrial-organisational psychologist as a counsellor. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 40(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1193 bartram, d. (2005). the great eight competencies: a criterion-centric approach to validation. journal of applied psychology, 90(6), 1185–1203. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.90.6.1185 biçer, n. (2017). the influence of student-centred methods in turkish language instruction on academic success: a meta-analysis study. universal journal of educational research, 5(4), 687–697. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2017.050419 blakeny, r., broenen, r., dyck, j., frank, b., glen, d., johnson, d., & mayo, c. (2002). implications of the results of a job analysis of i-o psychologists. the industrial-organisational psychologist, 39(4), 29–37. https://doi.org/10.1037/e576932011-004 branson, h. (2014). an organisation is only as strong as its people: how to set up your purpose-driven business now. retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141204101307-369575369-an-organisation-is-only-as-strong-as-its-people/ burke, e., van someren, g., tatham, n., & downey, k. (2013). shl verify graduate ability test portfolio. thames ditton: shl group ltd. ceb (2010). occupational personality questionnaire (opq32). summary of test review. the british psychological society. https://ptc.bps.org.uk/test-review/occupational-personality-questionnaire-opq32 cilliers, f., & flotman, a. (2016). the psychological well-being manifesting among masters’ students in industrial and organisational psychology. sa journal of industrial psychology, 42(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v42i1.1323 cilliers, f., & harry, n. (2012). the systems psychodynamic experience of first-year masters’ students in industrial and organisational psychology. sa journal of industrial psychology, 38(2), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v38i2.992 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd edn.). lawrence erlbaum associates. hillsdale: new jersey dilchert, s., ones, d.s., & krueger, r.f. (2019). personality assessment for work: legal, i-o, and clinical perspective. industrial and organizational psychology, 12(2), 143–150. https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2019.27 employment equity act, no. 55. (1998). government gazette 400 (19370). retrieved from https://www.labourguide.co.za/download-top/135-eepdf/file foxcroft, c., & roodt, g. (2009). introduction to psychological assessment. cape town: oxford university press. franklin, d. (2017). the economist: the world in 2017. new york, ny: saratoga springs. ganaie, m.u., & haque, m.i. (2017). talent management and value creation: a conceptual framework. academy of strategic management journal, 16(2), 1–9. grass, j., strobel, a., & strobel, a. (2017). cognitive investments in academic success: the role of need for cognition at university. frontiers in psychology, 8, 790. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00790 gratton, l. (2011). workplace 2025 – what will it look like? organisational dynamics, 40(4), 246–254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2011.07.002 health professions act, no. 56. (1974). government gazette 41100 (31433). retrieved from https://hpcsa.co.za/uploads/mdb/rules%20%26%20regulations/regulations_gnr_237_2009.pdf health professions council of south africa. (2017). profession board for psychology: application for registration psychologists. retrieved from https://www.hpcsa.co.za/uploads/registration_forms/psb/2020%20forms/form_24_ps_psychologists_08072020.pdf jeynes, w.h. (2016). a meta-analysis: the relationship between parental involvement and african american school outcomes. journal of black studies, 47(3), 195–216. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934715623522 joubert, t., ilke, i., bartram, d., dowdeswell, k., & lin, y. (2015). a comparison of the psychometric properties of the forced choice and likert scale versions of a personality instrument. international journal of selection and assessment, 23(1), 92–97. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsa.12098 kale, e., & etyemez, s. (2017). the moderating role of trait anxiety in the impact of self-concordance on academic success. journal of international social research, 10(50), 1005–1013. https://doi.org/10.17719/jisr.2017.1729 kappe, r., & van der flier, h. (2011). predicting academic success in higher education: what’s more important than being smart? european journal of psychological education, 27(4), 605–619. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-011-0099-9 khan, a., khan, s., zia-ul-islam, s., & khan, m. (2017). communication skills of a teacher and its role in the development of the students’ academic success. journal of education and practice, 8(1), 18–21. killen, r. (1994). differences between students’ and lecturers’ perceptions of factors influencing students’ academic success at university. higher education research and development, 13(19), 9–212. https://doi.org/10.1080/0729436940130210 kotzé, m., & griessel, l. (2008). predicting the academic performance of mba students: a south african study. international journal of the humanities, 6(1), 147–156. https://doi.org/10.18848/1447-9508/cgp/v06i01/42349 kriek, h.j. (2009). criteria: standards for decision-making. in p.m. muchinsky, h.j. kriek, & a.m.g. schreuder (eds.), personnel psychology (3rd edn., pp. 45–76). cape town: oxford university press. lachenicht, l. (2002). correlations. in c. tredoux & k. durrheim (eds.), numbers, hypotheses & conclusions: a programme in statistics for the social sciences (4th edn., pp. 160–180). cape town: university of cape town press. landy, f., & conte, j.m. (2016). work in the 21st century: an introduction to industrial and organizational psychology (5th edn.). hoboken, nj: wiley. lawler, i.e. (2011). creating a new employment deal: total rewards and the new workforce. organisational dynamics, 40(4), 302–309. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2011.07.007 machika, p.p., & johnson, b.b. (2015). post-graduate students’ experience of poverty and academic success at a university of technology in south africa. south african journal of higher education, 29(6), 167–181. https://doi.org/10.20853/29-6-542 maitland, a., & thomson, p. (2011). future work: how businesses can adapt and thrive in the new world of work. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. morgan, j. (2014). a simple explanation of ‘the internet of things’. forbes. retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobmorgan/2014/05/13/simple-explanation-internet-things-that-anyone-can-understand/#2faf68f51d09 omarjee, l. (2015). 2025: the changing world of work, 4 june 2015. finweek. önder, e., & seyma, s. (2017). chaid analysis to determine socio-economic variables that explain students’ academic success. universal journal of educational research, 5(4), 608–619. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2017.050410 parker, j.a., saklofske, d.h., & keefer, k.v. (2017). giftedness and academic success in college and university: why emotional intelligence matters. gifted education international, 33(2), 183–194. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261429416668872 potgieter, t.e., & van der merwe, r.p. (2002). assessment in the workplace: a competency-based approach. sa journal of industrial psychology, 28(1), 60–66. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v28i1.31 potter, c. (2006). programme evaluation. in m. terre blanche, k. durrheim, & d. painter (eds.), research in practice: applied methods for the social sciences (2nd edn., pp. 3–17). cape town: university of cape town press. puchert, j.i., dodd, n., & viljoen, k.l. (2017). secondary education as a predictor of aptitude: implications for selection in the automotive sector. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 43(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v43i0.1416 roksa, j., & whitley, s.e. (2017). fostering academic success of first-year students: exploring the roles of motivation, race, and faculty. journal of college student development, 58(3), 333–348. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2017.0026 roodt, g. (2009). validity: basic concepts and measures. in c. foxcroft & g. roodt (eds.), introduction to psychological assessment in the south african context (pp. 55–64). cape town: oxford university press. salas, e., kozlowski, s.j., & chen, g. (2017). a century of progress in industrial and organisational psychology: discoveries and the next century. journal of applied psychology, 102(3), 589–598. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000206 salend, s.j., & whittaker, c.r. (2017). udl: a blueprint for learning success. educational leadership, 74(7), 59–63. salkind, n.j. (2016). exploring research, global edition. boston, ma: pearson. schmidt, c. (2006). validity as an action concept in io psychology. sa journal of industrial psychology, 32(4), 59–67. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v32i4.251 schmidt, f.l., & hunter, j.e. (1998). the validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. psychological bulletin, 124(3), 262–274. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.124.2.262 schreiber, b., & yu, d. (2016). exploring student engagement practices at a south african university: student reliable predictor of academic performance. south african journal of higher education, 30(5), 157–175. https://doi.org/10.20853/30-5-593 shl. (1999). opqr32 manual and user guide. london: shl group ltd. shl. (2007). the shl verify range of ability tests: technical manual. manual. thames ditton, london: shl group ltd. shl. (2009). opq32r technical manual. thames ditton, london: shl group ltd. shl. (2011). opqr32. thames ditton, london: shl group ltd. shl. (2018). person-job match (pjm) south african research supplement. london: shl group ltd. siop. (2018). principles for the validation and use of personnel selection procedures. industrial and organizational psychology: perspectives on science and practice, 11(suppl 1), 2–97. https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2018.195 spreitzer, g.m., cameron, l., & garrett, l. (2017). alternative work arrangements: two images of the new world of work. annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behaviour, 4, 473–499. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032516-113332 taylor, c., mcmanus, i.c., & davison, i. (2018). would changing the selection process for gp trainees stem the workforce crisis? a cohort study using multiple-imputation and simulation. bmc medical education, 18(1), 1–81. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-018-1160-z theron, c. (2009). the diversity-validity dilemma: in search of minimum adverse impact and maximum utility. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 35(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v35i1.765 tinto, v. (1993). leaving college: rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition (2nd edn.). chicago, il: university of chicago. tsingos-lucas, c., bosnic-anticevich, s., schneider, c.r., & smith, l. (2017). using reflective writing as a predictor of academic success in different assessment formats. american journal of pharmaceutical education, 81(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe8118 van aarde, n., meiring, d., & wiernik, b.m. (2017). the validity of the big five personality traits for job performance: meta-analyses of south african studies. international journal of selection and assessment, 25(3), 223–239. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsa.12175 van vuuren, l.j. (2010). industrial psychology: goodness of fit? fit for goodness? sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 36(2), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i2.939 viviers, r., & van niekerk, a. (2012). assessment and development towards graduateness and employability of masters’ students in industrial and organisational psychology. in m. coetzee, j. botha, n. eccles, h. nienaber, & n. holtzhausen (eds.), developing student graduateness and employability: issues, provocations, theory and practical guidelines (pp. 263–276). randburg: knowledge resources. wilcox, m. (2016). effective talent management: aligning strategy, people and performance. abingdon, oxon: routledge. xu, m., david, j.m., & kim, s.h. (2018). the fourth industrial revolution: opportunities and challenges. international journal of financial research, 9(2), 90–95. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijfr.v9n2p90 abstract introduction literature review development of the hypotheses method results discussion practical implications limitations of the study recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) yvonne t. muzondiwa department of people management and development, faculty of management science, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa ilze swarts department of management and entrepreneurship, tshwane university of technology, polokwane, south africa cecile m. schultz department of people management and development, faculty of management science, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa citation muzondiwa, y.t., swarts, i., & schultz, c.m. (2022). the relationship between transformational leadership, perceived organisational effectiveness and organisational culture in a selected multinational corporation in africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1888. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1888 original research the relationship between transformational leadership, perceived organisational effectiveness and organisational culture in a selected multinational corporation in africa yvonne t. muzondiwa, ilze swarts, cecile m. schultz received: 27 jan. 2022; accepted: 12 apr. 2022; published: 27 sept. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: multinational corporations (mncs) in africa are facing leadership, effectiveness and cultural challenges. research purpose: the purpose was to determine the relationship between transformational leadership, perceived organisational effectiveness and organisational culture from the perspective of a mnc in africa. motivation of the study: transformational leadership, organisational culture and perceived organisational effectiveness have been studied in different contexts, yet it is not clear how these three variables relate to one another in a selected mnc in africa. research approach, design and method: a survey was conducted amongst a non-probability sample of 400 employees from a population of 1256 employees. a quantitative research approach was applied and structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data. main findings: the results indicated that organisational culture did not positively relate to transformational leadership; perceived organisational effectiveness positively related to organisational culture; perceived organisational effectiveness did not positively relate to transformational leadership; and organisational culture mediated perceived organisational effectiveness and transformational leadership. practical and managerial implications: the research highlighted the important role of organisational culture in transformational leadership and overall perceived organisational effectiveness. contribution or value add: this study found that the mnc should focus on organisational culture in order to improve transformational leadership and perceived organisational effectiveness. an academic contribution was the dynamic relationship between the three variables. keywords: transformational leadership; perceived organisational effectiveness; organisational culture; multinational corporation; africa. introduction background and contextualisation of the study multinational corporations (mncs), also referred to as multinational enterprises, transnational corporations or transnational enterprises are key actors in contemporary international economic relations and have consistently grown in scope and influence because of globalisation (zekeri, 2016). according to leke, chironga and desvaux (2018), for global and african-based organisations looking to access new growth markets, africa offers exciting opportunities to build large, profitable businesses. its population is young, fast-growing and increasingly urbanised, whilst rapid technology adoption makes the continent a fertile arena for innovation, its population is young, fast-growing and increasingly urbanised, whilst rapid technology adoption makes the continent a fertile arena for innovation, although africa’s business environment remains poorly understood by many executives in the developed world. yet zekeri (2016) stated that the number of mncs in africa has increased over the years in various sectors of the african economy, such as manufacturing, production and services, and that the following have played a significant role in the expansion of mncs and their activities worldwide: the developments in transportation and in communications technologies and costs organisational innovation within large organisations and institutions, which have made control at a distance possible the favourable political environment after the second world war. the sustained liberalisation and privatisation programmes of many developed and developing countries. research gap and purpose mello (2019) stated that people are critical to the success of any global endeavour. if one adopts the perspective that people do determine an organisation’s success or failure, people management needs to be a key strategic issue in any global undertaking. ironically, people are often neglected in the planning and establishment of global operations. global leadership has been identified as a critical success factor for large mncs (mello, 2019). recently, leadership has also come under the spotlight as a key factor shaping how successfully organisations can deal with crises such as a pandemic (wardman, 2020). people look to leaders for crisis management and need trust, stability, compassion and hope in the current unprecedented covid-19 situation (bierema, 2020). according to van dongen (2014), to ensure continued existence and growth in a competitive and rapidly changing global environment, organisations must develop leaders that are willing to take on and effectively handle both current issues and future challenges. brown (2020) stated that the hope is that post-pandemic leaders will display the characteristics of resilience, vulnerability and empathy, yet the research of wardman (2020) showed that many organisations do not have a structured process in place for developing their leaders, especially during a pandemic or in preparation for a pandemic. the pandemic posed another challenge to organisations: as they adapted to the digital era, more employees started to work from home. organisational leaders had to develop new strategies on how to maintain their culture whilst ensuring that systems were in place for continued organisational effectiveness. multinational corporations in africa are facing leadership, effectiveness and cultural challenges (amusan, 2018) and it led to the researchers addressing this research gap by specifically focusing on transformational leadership, perceived organisational effectiveness and organisational culture at a large mnc that provides insurance, investment and financial services worldwide. for the purpose of this research, only african branches were selected. it is against this background that the study aimed to establish that transformational leadership, perceived organisational effectiveness and organisational culture interact with one another in this mnc. literature review the theoretical framework, transformational leadership, perceived organisational effectiveness and organisational culture are discussed next. theoretical framework contingency theory suggests that in order for organisations to be effective, organisational functions must fit with the organisation or external environment aspects to achieve organisational goals (harney, 2016). rekers (2013) stated that organisational culture and globalisation have a direct influence on organisational functions. the contingency theory claims that there is no best way to organise a corporation, to lead a company or to make decisions. instead, the optimal course of action is contingent (dependent) upon the internal and external situations that mncs constantly face. contingent leaders should therefore be flexible in choosing and adapting to succinct strategies to suit changes in situation at a particular period in time in the running of the organisation (samimi et al., 2020). to contextualise transformational leadership, organisational effectiveness and organisational culture, contingency theory is therefore suitable as a theoretical framework for this study. transformational leadership meraku (2017, p. 336) defined leadership as the process of influencing people so that their efforts are oriented towards achieving the goals of the organisation. the current covid-19 pandemic has added another layer organisations have to contend with. as nohria (2020) stated, whilst many leaders think crisis management is not their job, creating organisations that are strong and resilient in the face of uncertainty requires a new mindset, and that must be driven from the top. certain leadership styles suited to a fast-moving world may not be successful in dealing with current leadership challenges, hence the ongoing development of the potential of employees in the organisation is regarded as a vital tool to keep abreast of competitors (avolio, 2005). according to rentfrow (2020), some universal leadership principles have been identified as being effective when employed specifically in a mnc. goleman (2000) found that effective leadership in a multinational environment could be achieved by employing three primary leadership styles: mobilising people toward change using vision serving by building emotional bonds leading others to greatness by developing people for future responsibility. tokar (2020) stated that leadership in organisations is a management approach in which leaders help set strategic goals for the organisation whilst motivating individuals within the group to successfully carry out assignments in service to those goals. van dongen (2014) agreed that leadership implies the capability to extract the utmost potential in others. business leaders and chief human resource officers recognise the need to manage relationships actively and strategically with workforce segments beyond the enterprise, which increasingly has an impact on how an organisation delivers services and interacts with customers, especially in the current pandemic (van dongen, 2014). greeshma (2020) labelled these leaders as transformational, leaders with a style that extends beyond mere interaction, not only influencing and inspiring employees to look past their own interests, but also generating awareness of and alignment with the organisation’s purpose and mission. the theory of transformational leadership was first coined by downton (1973). downton (1973) categorised three leadership tendencies: transactional leadership, charismatic leadership and inspirational leadership. avolio, waldman and yammarino (1991), bass and avolio (1990) mentioned the four is of transformational leadership, namely idealised influence (modelling ethical and socially desirable behaviour, exhibiting enthusiasm about company strategy), inspirational motivation (to impart a vision that is appealing and worthy), intellectual stimulation (empowering employees to constantly be learning) and individualised consideration (giving employees a feeling of ownership in company goals and independence in the workplace). this work of bass and avolio (1990) was used as part of measuring transformational leadership. perceived organisational effectiveness according to mohamad (2020, p. 123), perceived organisational effectiveness means that an organisation optimises its resources and capabilities to achieve short-term and long-term objectives. an organisation is effective if it finds a balance between the demands of owners, employees, customers and community. efficiency is created by setting objectives and goals that are clear, communicating effectively, securing resources from the environment, exhibiting great leadership and having an efficient and harmonious internal structure (manoharan & singal, 2019). babalola and nwanzu (2020) stated that effective functioning is the goal for every organisation. perceived organisational effectiveness is the central question in any form of organisational analysis, the decisive dependent variable for organisational researchers and a consequence of the multitude of activities and behaviours of employees that is highly sought-after by organisational practitioners. perceived organisational effectiveness aids in the assessment of the progress made towards the fulfilment of mission and the achievement of the organisation’s set goals (mwai, namada, & katuse, 2018). according to rahmawati, haerani, taba and hamid (2016), there are three main perspectives in analysing the effectiveness of the organisation, namely: perspective optimisation purposes, namely effectiveness assessed according to how much an organisation managed to achieve a worthy goal; focusing on a worthy goal achieved optimally; allowing a clearly recognisable assortment of often conflicting objectives; and noting some of the obstacles in order to achieve objectives. system perspective, namely the effectiveness of the organisation considering the integration of a variety of factors related to following a pattern (input, conversion, output and feedback) and including the environment as an external factor. in this perspective, the goal is not treated as an end state or as static, but as something that can be changed in the course of time (karam, haidar, khawaja, & al laziki, 2017). the perspective of human behaviour, namely the concept of perceived organisational effectiveness, emphasising people behaviour in the organisation that affects the success of the organisation in the long term. the balanced scorecard, according to rigby (2017, p. 58), is a management tool to establish organisational effectiveness. a balanced scorecard defines an organisation’s performance and measures whether management is achieving desired results. the balanced scorecard translates mission and vision statements into a comprehensive set of objectives and performance measures that can be quantified and appraised. the study of ramoutar-prieschl (2015) investigated organisational effectiveness by providing insights into the factors associated with the balanced scorecard. the questionnaire used by ramoutar-prieshl (2015) to measure organisational effectiveness was used in this study. organisational culture organisational culture consists of a set of values and beliefs shared by members of a group that determine the way people think and act within the group context (schein, 1984). thus, organisations will differ from each other because of their culture (alves & alves, 2015). recent studies have supported the notion that cultural factors play a crucial role within the business and management field (boscari, danese, & romano, 2016). organisational culture has been attracting more attention in the last few decades because of its potential role in improving the organisation’s prospects from the managerial perspective (fisher & wilmoth, 2018). organisational culture is a collection of behaviours and traits in an organisation. it includes the behaviour, values and beliefs of those within the organisation (groysberg, lee, price, & cheng, 2018). according to robbins and judge (2019), the culture in the organisation is created and maintained in the organisation for a long time and is embedded amongst the employees. joseph and kibera (2019) argued that cultural values and assumptions build the mental frame for reasoning and responding to stimuli within the business environment. the values and assumptions determine employees’ perceptions of time, the nature of human activities and the horizontal and vertical relationships at the various levels within the organisation. the culture shared by most of the organisational members determines how the firm relates with its internal and external environment in the search for solutions to the organisation’s concerns about performance and survival in times of crisis (morgan & vorhies, 2018). according to rozkwitalska (2017, p. 1), the role of organisational culture seems to be more significant in multinational organisations, namely mncs that need to create a consistent culture which combines all divergent subcultures in each country of their operations. for a mnc that is expanding its business globally, it is imperative to incorporate a cross-cultural framework that improves cross-cultural understanding and interactions. its expatriate leaders need to develop the mindset of a globalist by mastering cross-cultural core competency (lee & shah-hosseini, 2019). according to janz (1987), rules, power and shared values are essential factors when measuring organisational culture. janz (1987) stated that rules protect the rule user, power distribution varies from organisation to organisation and the way in which values are shared by employees may also differ. in this study, the organisational culture questionnaire of janz (1987) was used to measure organisational culture. development of the hypotheses in this study, four research hypotheses were developed and investigated. the development of each of these hypotheses is discussed next. transformational leadership and organisational culture bass and avolio (1992) found that an organisation’s culture derives from its leaders and that culture affects the development of its leadership. furthermore, effective leaders need to be attentive to the beliefs, values and assumptions in an organisation – in short, the organisational culture. kolisang’s (2011) research showed that a strong organisational culture with values and internal guides for increased autonomy at lower levels can prevent top administration from expanding its personal power at the expense of middle-level administration. the relationship between transformational leadership and organisational culture highlighted the following hypothesis: hypothesis 1: organisational culture will be positively related to transformational leadership. organisational culture and organisational effectiveness locander, hamilton, ladik and stuart (2002) conducted research on the effect of culture on organisational performance, which showed a statistically significant relationship between organisational culture and performance: r (0.658); p < 0.01. in contrast, a study conducted by on mncs in the egyptian market found no direct or indirect relationship between organisational culture and performance. the relationship between organisational culture and organisational effectiveness highlighted the following hypothesis: hypothesis 2: perceived organisational effectiveness will be positively related to organisational culture. organisational effectiveness and transformational leadership according to ivana and nukic (2014), empirical research and analysis indicated that transformational leadership has a positive effect on individual performance and organisational outcomes. harris, leithwood, day, sammons and hopkins (2007) reported that transformational leadership has a positive impact on follower performance and firm outcomes. the results of this study are in line with these findings. madachian, hussein, noordin and taherdoost (2016) stated that leadership is one of the vital factors for improving organisational performance. the relationship between organisational effectiveness and transformational leadership highlighted the following hypothesis: hypothesis 3: perceived organisational effectiveness will be positively related to transformational leadership. organisational culture is a mediator between perceived organisational effectiveness and transformational leadership in multinational corporations according to randeree (2009), leadership is above all responsible for providing proper organisational structure and shaping the flow of organisational culture. effective leadership in companies tends to increase both the efficiency of employees and the efficiency, effectiveness, flexibility and productivity of the entire organisation; these in turn enhance the company’s performance. this study aimed to validate this notion. one of the assumptions of organisational performance is that employees’ capabilities improve organisations’ internal processes. these capabilities are influenced by several factors, including organisational culture that is divided into various factors and aspects, each of which has a different effect on performance. in fact, the existence of culture helps the organisation to have a clear, defined and understandable set of values aligned with its strategic goal and direction (obafolli, adame, & garcia, 2018). organisational culture as a mediator between perceived organisational effectiveness and leadership in mncs highlighted the following hypothesis: hypothesis 4: organisational culture mediates perceived organisational effectiveness and transformational leadership. a graphic presentation of the hypothesis is presented here. the relationship between work engagement and talent management highlighted the following hypotheses: according to research conducted by church (2013), talent management positively relates to work engagement. the findings of sopiah, kurniawan, nora and narmaditya (2020) confirmed that talent management positively influences work involvement and employee performance. there is a significant positive relationship between talent management and work engagement (toka & hamida, 2020). nobutaka (2021) found that talent management has an impact on work engagement. a summary of the hypotheses is illustrated in figure 1. figure 1: hypothesised relationships and conceptual model. method the research method, research context, sample, research approach and design, research instrument, data collection procedure, data analysis, measurement model evaluation and ethical considerations are discussed next. research method in this study, a quantitative research approach was applied within a positivic research paradigm. edmonds and kennedy (2010) described quantitative analysis as a kind of academic analysis within which the researcher decides what to study, asks specific narrow questions, collects quantifiable data from participants, analyses these numbers and statistics and conducts the inquiry in an unbiased, objective manner. bless and higson-smith (1995) stated that quantitative research is a research that depends on quantifying with the purpose of comparison and analyses of different variables. for this study, current, proven and tested questionnaires on the variables of transformational leadership, perceived organisational effectiveness and organisational culture were used. data were collected directly from the sample group prepandemic. from the analysis of the statistical data gathered, conclusions were drawn. research context this study was conducted at a large organisation that provides insurance, investment and financial services worldwide. the population was a selected mnc in africa. although the selected mnc has a direct presence in 32 african countries, only 4 countries, namely namibia, angola, zambia and botswana within the southern african development community region, were considered for this study (the target population). the reason for this decision was that these four countries were accessible and executing the study in these countries was feasible and logistically practical. south africa was excluded from the sample as it is seen as the parent country. the selected mnc had 1256 employees in managerial positions employed across the four southern african countries, as per the sample frame provided by the human resources department at the headquarters in south africa. these ranged from senior managers to intermediate managers and junior managers who were classified on the questionnaire as others. from a total population of 1256, a sample of 400 employees were targeted. a total of 262 respondents from the targeted sample completed the questionnaire on transformational leadership, organisational culture and organisational effectiveness. sample for the purposes of this research, the sample was calculated as follows: target population size for survey (n) = 1256 and the targeted sample size (s) = 400. according to sekaran (2000), for a sample of 1000 a 14% target is sufficient. to increase the response rate, a target sample of 400 was chosen. hence the sampling fraction for each stratum was determined as 400/1256 = 0.32. the selected sampling method was proportional stratified random sampling. the total number of managers in each stratum (junior, intermediate and senior management) was supplied by the human resources department in the organisation and these numbers were used for the given calculations to determine how many questionnaires should be distributed to each stratum. table 1 illustrates that the sample size of responses was 262 across all four countries where the data were collected. botswana contained most respondents with a percentage (%) value of 47 (n = 123), followed by namibia, which had 33% of their respondents participating in the study. zambia and angola had the least number of participants taking part in the research study, with percentages of 15% and 5%, respectively. table 1: total sample size at each country setting. research approach and design to reach the goal of this research, a survey research design was employed. according to the national science foundation (2000), surveys are resourceful because numerous variables can be calculated without a substantial increase in either time or expenditure. data are gathered relatively quickly from multiple respondents with limited costs and variations on the research design. survey strategies offer the possibility of sampling from substantial predetermined groups. thus, a survey method is exceedingly attractive at a point in which simplification of a sample is a fundamental research objective. the survey method is at times the only way to create a clear image of the mindsets and features of a huge population (nardi, 2006). a self-administered questionnaire survey design was utilised for data collection purposes. research instrument the following instruments discussed, namely transformational leadership, organisational culture and organisational effectiveness, are those that were used in the study. transformational leadership: the 21-item multifactor leadership questionnaire by bass and avolio (1990, 1992) was utilised to measure the leadership variable. in the study of louw, muriithi and radloff (2017), a cronbach’s alpha assessment was performed to establish the reliability of the scales of the measuring instrument and the scores were considered very reliable compared with the minimum acceptable score of 0.7 (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). in their study, the cronbach’s alpha was determined to be 0.7894. sufficient evidence of validity and reliability for the scales measuring the independent and dependent variables is thus provided. organisational culture: the 18-item organisational culture questionnaire adapted from janz (1987) was utilised to measure organisational culture. day and carroll (2003) determined the reliability of this questionnaire to be 0.8298. perceived organisational effectiveness: the 50-item questionnaire developed by ramoutar-prieshl (2015) was used to measure perceived organisational effectiveness. the questionnaire is based on the balanced scorecard. the cronbach’s alpha for this section was determined by ramaoutar-prieschl in his study to be 0.8912. data collection procedure in the data collection process, the primary researcher travelled to all four locations to ensure that the questionnaires were distributed to the identified sampled employees. a contact person from the human resources department assisted the researcher with the distribution of the questionnaire. participation was voluntary. the completed questionnaires were placed in a sealed box to ensure confidentiality and the signed consent forms were placed in a separate sealed box from the completed questionnaires. the returned responses with missing values were excluded from the analysis. data analysis the spss analysis software was used for the analysis of data. descriptive statistics were reported in the form of frequencies, means and chi-squares. in terms of inferential statistics, the structural equation modelling (sem) was used. structural equation modelling’s goal is to determine the interrelationships amongst latent variables; it is also the same as path analysis because researchers will look at hypothesised relationships between constructs (best & kahn, 2006). for this reason, path analysis was used to test for mediation using the partial least squares path modelling approach. confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) was conducted as part of sem; florian, young and rouse (2010) stated that cfa is a statistical technique used to verify the factor structure of a set of observed variables. confirmatory factor analysis permits the investigation of the hypothesis that a relationship between determined variables and their underlying latent constructs exists. bootstrapping was used to estimate the parameters and associated standard errors in the direct and indirect effect in the statistical analysis of the structural equation model through the non-parametric method. measurement model evaluation factor analysis was used to determine the construct validity of the questionnaire (best & kahn, 2006). this was done to ensure that the questionnaire was valid in a southern african environment. in this study, content validity was conducted on all research instrument variables, and measuring items agreed and corresponded accordingly. this was achieved through consultation with professionals in both language and research, and each construct was assessed and modified appropriately for the study purpose. to measure internal consistency, the researcher used cronbach’s alpha. according to gliem and gliem (2009), the cronbach’s coefficient alpha is a measure of squared correlation between observed scores and true scores. the reliability of the questionnaires used was assessed using cronbach’s alpha coefficient. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient measures internal consistency, which refers to the degree to which the measuring instrument items are consistent in the construct that the instrument is attempting to measure. bryman and bell (2007) stated that cronbach’s alpha, once computed, will produce a value that varies between 1 (representing perfect internal reliability) and 0 (representing no internal consistency), with the values 0.60 and 0.70 typically used as a cut-off point for a good level of internal reliability. in this study, a score of 0.70 was used as a cut-off score. ethical considerations during the research stages, the researcher ensured that all processes undertaken in data gathering were ethical. the faculty research ethics committee of tshwane university of technology approved the study and permission was also obtained from the selected mnc to conduct the study at the organisation. the study followed the ethical principles of voluntary participation and harmlessness, autonomy and confidentiality disclosure, as well as analysis and reporting. these are explained briefly: the anonymity and confidentiality, interests of the subjects, identity and wellbeing were protected during the survey. participants were informed that their participation was voluntarily and harmless. participants gave their consent to participate in the study by signing a consent form. the purpose and outcomes of the study were clearly explained to the participants before the study commenced. autonomy of the participants was preserved throughout the research process. results descriptive statistics demographic profiles of participants are presented in table 2. male participants made up 66% of the respondents in the study, whilst 34% were female. the age group of 26–35 years old (n = 120; 45%) predominated. respondents who had been in service in the organisation for 11–20 years formed a majority of 87%, whilst the rest of the categories only constituted 13% of the total. whilst 16% participants had a grade 12 qualification, 84% of participants overall had a post-grade 12 qualification. just over a third of the participants had a diploma or degree (n = 93; 36%). respondents in the intermediate management group constituted the highest proportion at 49% (n = 128), whilst 29% were in junior management and 22% in senior management positions. table 2: demographic profiling of respondents. factor and reliability analysis the factor and reliability analysis of the three variables is discussed next. reliability analysis to measure cronbach’s alpha scores is presented in table 3. cronbach’s alpha was used to determine the acceptability of internal consistency. reliability was acceptable when the cronbach’s alpha score was 0.70 and above. all cronbach’s alpha scores were above 0.70, which is an indication of reliability being acceptable for all three variables: transformational leadership (0.7994), perceived organisational effectiveness (0.8896) and organisational culture (0.8139). table 3: cronbach’s alpha scores for transformational leadership, perceived organisational effectiveness and organisational culture. inferential statistics the correlation and mediation analyses are presented next. in table 4 the mean, standard deviation (sd) and pearson correlation coefficients are presented. perceived organisational effectiveness had the highest mean score (3.6) and the lowest sd = 0.05. transformational leadership had the second highest mean score, whilst organisational culture had the lowest mean score (2.9); the sd for both was equal to 0.09. the pearson correlation measures if there is a significant relationship between different paths and whether the relationship is negatively or positively correlated. as shown in table 4, there was a negative relationship between transformational leadership and organisational culture (r = −0.003) as well as between organisational culture and perceived organisational effectiveness (r = −0.435). the transformational leadership and organisational effectiveness path was positively correlated (r = 0.134). the organisational culture and perceived organisational effectiveness path was the only path that was significant; this indicates that the path was negatively correlated. table 4: mean, standard deviation and pearson correlations between transformational leadership, perceived organisational effectiveness and organisational culture. mediation effects: structural equation results path analysis using sem was used to measure if organisational culture was the mediator. the direct effect and total effects are presented and discussed in tables 5 and 6. table 5: direct effects between different paths. table 6: total effects between different paths. coefficients (coef.) in table 5 were about 0.55 with a significant level (p = 0.001) for organisational culture, predicting perceived organisational effectiveness, and also for transformational leadership, predicting perceived organisational effectiveness. there was a change in coefficient and a change in the significant level (coef. = 0.18; p = 0.431). therefore, this is an indication that organisational culture was a mediator in transformational leadership, predicting perceived organisational effectiveness. the mediation model is illustrated in figure 2. figure 2: mediation model. the path from leadership to organisational culture had a negative coefficient and was significant (p-value = 0.02). the path from leadership to perceived organisational effectiveness and path from organisational culture to organisational effectiveness had positive coefficients of 1.11 and 1.14, respectively, with the p-value of 0.020 and 0.001. thus, both paths were significant. the different paths of the mediation effect are illustrated in table 7. table 7: path analysis between transformational leadership, perceived organisational effectiveness and organisational culture. discussion the results from this study showed a high correlation between organisational culture and transformational leadership. the relationship was significant at 0.05 but the coefficient was negative, meaning that transformational leadership could have a negative effect on organisational culture and vice versa. this study showed that the path between organisational culture and perceived organisational effectiveness was 1.14 with a p-value of 0.001 and thus was significant. there was a high and positive correlation between the subfactors of organisational culture and perceived organisational effectiveness, meaning that as awareness of one increased so did the other. the results showed that culture had a strong impact on organisational performance. the mnc’s values that govern it indicate that the organisation understands the importance of culture for its operations and sustainability in the long term. culture and performance are interlinked, as culture provides the foundation upon which effective performance can take place. the path analysis of the 3 variables is presented in table 8. table 8: path analysis of the three variables. the path from leadership to organisational effectiveness had positive coefficients of 1.11 with the p-value of 0.020. madachian et al.’s (2016) view that leadership is one of the vital factors for improving organisational performance supports these results. leaders, as key decision-makers, determine the acquisition, development and deployment of organisational resources, the conversion of these resources into valuable products and services and the delivery of value to organisational stakeholders. thus, they are strong sources of managerial and sustained competitive advantage (lincoln & guba, 1985). there is a significant relationship between leadership and perceived organisational effectiveness (ahmad et al., 2020; ali & anwar, 2021), as reflected in the findings of this study. previous studies confirmed that there is a significant relationship between organisational culture and leadership (syakur, susilo, wike, & ahmadi, 2020; zoghbi-manrique-de-lara & viera-armas, 2017) and that organisational culture mediates the relationship between leadership and organisational commitment (abdullah, shamsuddin, & wahab, 2015). leadership and organisational culture influence organisational performance (omira, 2015). the results from this study showed a strong correlation between culture and leadership. the relationship was significant at 0.05 but the coefficient was negative, meaning that leadership could have a negative effect on culture and vice versa. there are some cultures that make it very difficult for leaders to be effective. the overall results of this study were consistent with the findings of obafolli et al. (2018) that transformational leadership and culture play an important role in empowering people. the results also supported chang’s (2018) findings that unit-level knowledge-sharing mediates the positive relationship between firm-level transformational leadership and unit-level performance. organisational culture insignificantly predicted leadership in the study of tran (2021). organisational culture mediates the relationship between leadership and organisational commitment (abdullah et al., 2015) and in this study organisational culture was a mediating variable. leadership and organisational culture influence organisational performance (omira, 2015); this concurs with the findings of this study. park, jeong, jang, yoon and lim (2018) established the importance of a leadership framework in the global arena. the hypothesis description and decision are presented in table 9. table 9: hypothesis description and decision. practical implications according to ricardo and heather (2020), whilst respecting the local culture is important, organisations still need a cultural identity that unites employees throughout all locations. it is not always simple to understand organisational culture within a mnc, but it is of practical value that transformational leaders make an effort to better understand it. the organisational culture must therefore be conducive to positively influencing transformational leadership and to properly managing perceived organisational effectiveness. limitations of the study a limitation of the study was that the sample size was small, even though it fell within the prescribed guidelines; a bigger sample could have produced more representative results. geographical location was another limitation, as the locations were geographically dispersed and sending questionnaires via electronic media yielded no acceptable response rate at the start of data gathering. although the world has shifted to the information technology age, a number of people are still sceptical about responding to online research. thus, the researcher had to travel to all locations to hand-deliver the copies of the questionnaires. this slowed down the data-gathering process and could have influenced the response rate negatively. another limitation was that the study was limited to one mnc with uniform operations procedures, so the perceptions are only applicable and relevant to that organisation, and the results may not to a certain extent be generalised to other independent organisations. recommendations it is important to create an awareness amongst the managers of the mnc that perceived organisational effectiveness is positively related to the organisational culture. they should also notice that organisational culture did not positively relate to transformational leadership and that perceived organisational effectiveness did not positively relate to transformational leadership. the fact that organisational culture mediated perceived organisational effectiveness and transformational leadership should be further discussed and interventions should be developed and implemented to improve the organisational culture. participation brings forth more opinions regarding what should be done (ahmen, 2017). all the managers should be trained on ensuring the effectiveness of the mnc. managers should also be trained to ensure that they are transformational leaders. hence it is important for the managers as transformational leaders to recognise that they will expand their positive influence if they have a willingness to identify the limitations of their own cultural norms and accept and adapt to the culture of the host country. for future research, a similar study can be conducted at other global branches of the mnc to compare the findings. a qualitative research method should be used to obtain more views and rich data about transformational leadership and other valuable leadership styles and perceived organisational effectiveness and organisational culture at this mnc. research on the effectiveness of leaders during and after the covid-19 crisis should examine an array of activities, including the degree to which remote leaders are persuasive if they (1) clearly state their values that will guide institutional actions, (2) understand and openly discuss the travails and hopes of their organisations, (3) clearly communicate an ambitious vision of the direction that the unit will head towards and (4) demonstrate confidence that strategic goals can be achieved. these skills are referred to as charisma (antonakis et al., 2016; grabo, spisak, & van vugt, 2017) and require training and investment. indeed, crises can bring about changes in leadership styles (stoker, garretsen, & soudis, 2019) and firms can be better prepared by ensuring they have adequately invested in professional development. conclusion the purpose of this research was to determine the relationship between transformational leadership, perceived organisational effectiveness and organisational culture in a selected mnc in africa. it was clear that perceived organisational effectiveness positively related to organisational culture and that organisational culture mediated perceived organisational effectiveness and transformational leadership. this study found that the mnc should focus on organisational culture in order to improve transformational leadership and perceived organisational effectiveness. an academic contribution was the dynamic relationship between the three variables. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions y.t.m. did the research together with analytical analysis of the researched data and the development of a framework determining the mediating factor. i.s. was the supervisor and c.m.s. was the cosupervisor for this study. ethical considerations the faculty research ethics committee of tshwane university of technology approved the study (no. frec2016/fr/09/005-m5) and permission was also obtained from the selected mnc to conduct the study at the organisation. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data were recorded on an excel spreadsheet and captured using the spss v23 software package. the data were kept electronically and in hard copy. the original completed questionnaires were also stored. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abdullah, n.h., shamsuddin, a., & wahab, e. (2015). does organizational culture mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational commitment? international journal of organizational leadership, 4(1), 18–32. https://doi.org/10.33844/ijol.2015.60344 ahmad, s., ali, n.a., jantan, a.h., bowyer, d., campbell, n., & reaz, m. (2020). organizational effectiveness through transformational leadership and technology innovation: a systematic literature review and future research agenda. journal of international business and management, 3(4), 1–17. ahmen, c. (2017). leadership and organizational culture are linked to project performance. retrieved from https://www.intechopen.com alves, j.r.x., & alves, j.m. (2015). production management model integrating the principles of lean manufacturing and sustainability supported by the cultural transformation of a company. international journal of production research, 53(17), 5320–5333. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2015.1033032 amusan, l. (2018). multinational corporations’ (mncs) engagement in africa: messiahs or hypocrites? journal of african foreign affairs, 5(1), 41–62. https://doi.org/10.31920/2056-5658/2018/v5n1a3 antonakis, j., & house, r.j. (2014). instrumental leadership: measurement and extension of transformationaltransactional leadership theory. the leadership quarterly, 25(1), 746–771. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2014.04.005 ali, b.j., & anwar, g. (2021). strategic leadership effectiveness and its influence on organizational effectiveness. international journal of electrical, electronics and computers, 6(2), 11–24. https://doi.org/10.22161/eec.62.2 avolio, b.j., waldman, d.a., & yammarino, f.j. (1991). leading in the 1990s: the four i′s of transformational leadership. journal of european industrial training, 5(4), 9–16. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090599110143366 avolio, b.j. (2005). leadership development in balance: made/born. mahwah, nj: lea. babalola, s.s., & nwanzu, c.l. (2020). role of organizational strategy and entrepreneurial orientation on organizational effectiveness. international journal of entrepreneurship, 24(1), 23–34. bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1990). transformational leadership development: manual for the multifactor leadership questionnaire. palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1992). the implications of transactional and transformational leadership for individual, team, and organizational development. research in organizational change and development, 4, 231–272. best, j.w., & kahn, j.v. (2006). research in education (10th ed.). cape town: pearson education. bierama, l.l. (2020). hrd research and practice after the great covid-19 pause: the time is now for bold, critical, research. human resource development international, 23(4), 347–360. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2020.1779912 bless, c., & higson-smith, c. (1995). fundamentals of social research methods: an african perspective (2nd ed.). livingstone: juta. boscari, s.p., danese, p. & romano, p. (2016). implementation of lean production in multinational corporations: a case study of the transfer process from headquarters to subsidiaries. international journal of production economics, 176, 53–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2016.03.013 brown, b. (2020). leadership in a pandemic. retrieved from https://www.smartcompany.com.au/people-human-resources/leadership/brenebrown-crisis-leadership/ bryman, a., & bell, e. (2007). business research method. research gate, 6, 1–67. chang, y., wei-chung, c., che-yuan, c., & hui-ru, c. 2018. transformational leadership influence on unit performance: cross-level moderated mediation evidence. leadership & organization development journal, 39(4), 554–571. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-08-2017-0224 church, a. (2013). engagement is in the eye of the beholder: understanding differences in the od vs. talent management mindset. od practitioner, 45, 42–48. day, a., & carroll, s. (2004). using an ability-based measure of emotional intelligence to predict individual performance, group performance, and group citizenship behaviors. personality and individual differences, 36(6), 1443–1458. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0191-8869(03)00240-x downton, j.v. (1973). rebel leadership: commitment and char isma in the revolutionary process. new york, ny: free press. edmonds, w.a., & kennedy, t.d. (2010). a reference guide to basic research design for education and the social and behavioural sciences. new york, ny: pearson. fisher, e.m., & wilmoth, m.c. (2018). do i take the job? assessing fit with the organization. journal of professional nursing, 34(2), 82–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2017.08.003 florian, l., young, k.s., & rouse, m. (2010). preparing teachers for inclusive and diverse educational environments: studying curricular reform in an initial teacher education course. international journal of inclusive education, 14(7), 709–722. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603111003778536 grabo, a., & vugt, m. (2016). charismatic leadership and the evolution of cooperation. evolution and human behavior, 37(2), 44–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2016.03.005 goleman, d. (2000). leadership that gets results. cambridge, ma: harvard business school publishing corporation. gliem, j.a., & gliem, r.r. (2009). calculating, interpreting, and reporting cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient for likert-type scales. in proceedings of the midwest research to practice conference in adult, continuing, and community education. retrieved from https://nedsi.decisionsciences.org/wpcontent/uploads/2021/03/nedsi-2020-proceedings.pdf greeshma, g. (2020). multinational corporation: meaning, definitions, concept, characteristics, types, strategic approach, rationale and regulations. retrieved from https://www.businessmanagementideas.com groysberg, b., lee, j., price, j., & cheng, j.y. (2018). the leader’s guide to corporate culture. harvard business review, 2(1), 44–52. harney, b. (2016). contingency theory: an encyclopaedia of human resource management (pp. 72–73). cheltenham: edward elgar. harris, a., leithwood, k., day, c., sammons, p., & hopkins, d. (2007). distributed leadership and organisational change: reviewing the evidence. journal of educational change, 8(4), 337–347. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-007-9048-4 ivana, š., & nukic, j.m. (2014). importance and trends of organisational culture in construction in eastern croatia. economic views journal, 27(1), 1–39. janz, t. (1987). measuring and shaping effective work cultures: frontal assaults vs. flanking manoeuvres. journal of management development, 6(4), 65–80. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb051654 joseph, o., & kibera, f. (2019). organizational culture and performance: evidence from microfinance institutions in kenya. retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244019835934 karam, r., haidar, m.a., khawaja, a., & al laziki, g. (2017). effectiveness of subliminal messages and their influence on people’s choices. european scientific journal, 13(17), 262. https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2017.v13n17p262 kolisang, l.o. (2011). exploring the relationship between leadership and organisational culture. retrieved from https://repository.nwu.ac.za/handle/10394/7359 lee, s., & shah-hosseini, s. (2019). how does an international company ensure that its culture remains intact while also be flexible enough to cater to local behaviours? cornwell, md: cornwell university library. leke, a., chironga, m., & desvaux, g. (2018). africa’s business revolution: how to succeed in the world’s next big growth market. boston, ma: harvard business review press. lincoln, y.s., & guba, e.g. (1985). naturalistic inquiry. beverly hills: sage. locander, w.b., hamilton, f., ladik, d., & stuart, j. (2002). developing a leadership-rich culture: the missing link to creating a market-focused organisation. new york, ny: mcgraw hill. louw, l., muriithi, s.m., & radloff, s. (2017). the relationship between transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness in kenyan indigenous banks. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a935. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.935 madachian, m., hussein, n., noordin, f., & taherdoost, h. (2016). effects of leadership on organisational performance. retrieved from https://ssrn.com/abstract=3224209 manoharan, a., & singal, m. (2019). organizational effectiveness in hospitality: manager’s perspectives. international journal of hospitality management, 80(1), 123–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2019.02.004 mello, j.a. (2019). strategic human resource management. boston, ma: cengage. meraku, a. (2017). role of leadership in organizational effectiveness. journal of economics, business and management, 5(11), 336–340. https://doi.org/10.18178/joebm.2017.5.11.535 morgan, n.a., & vorhies, d.w. (2018). the business performance outcomes of market orientation culture and behaviors. review of marketing research, 10(1), 225–282. https://doi.org/10.1108/s1548-643520180000015012 mohamad, a. (2020). increasing the effectiveness of clinical practices with health informatics: systematic literature review. association for information systems, 8(10), 132–141. mwai, g.m., namada, j.m., & katuse, p. (2018). influence of organizational resources on organizational effectiveness. american journal of industrial and business management, 8(6), 58–71. https://doi.org/10.4236/ajibm.2018.86109 nardi, p.m. (2006). doing survey research: a guide to quantitative methods (2nd ed.). boston, ma: pearson. national science foundation. (2000). research design and data collection. retrieved from http://www.nsf.gov/home/ebullettin/researchdesign/160 nobutaka, a. (2021). the influence of leadership on innovation processes and activities. organisational dynamics, 55(1), 64–72. nohria, n. (2020). faith and leadership. harvard business review, 7(4), 42–53. nunnally, j., & bernstein, l. (1994). psychometric theory. new york, ny: mcgraw hill. obafolli, q., adame, r., & garcia, y. (2018). how does organisational culture influence the process of change towards pbl? journal of problem based learning in higher education, 6(2), 32–57. omira, o.d.b.o. (2015). the effect of leadership styles and organisational culture on organisational performance of the public sector in saudi arabia. phd thesis. university of utara, malaysia. park, s., jeong, s., jang, s., yoon, s.w., & lim, d.h. (2018). critical review of global leadership literature: toward an integrative global leadership framework. human resource development review, 17(1), 95–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484317749030 rahmawati, a., haerani, s., taba, m.i., & hamid, n. (2016). measures of organizational effectiveness: public sector performance. ira-international journal of management & social sciences, 5(2), 203–213. https://doi.org/10.21013/jmss.v5.n2.p1 ramoutar-prieschl, r. (2015). a framework for the perceived organisational effectiveness of funding agencies in the science sector. phd thesis. potchefstroom: north-west university. randeree, k. (2009). strategy, policy and practice in the nationalisation of human capital: ‘project emiratization’. research and practice in human resource management, 17(1), 71–91. rekers, m.t. (2013). hr competencies: a contingency approach a quantitative study into business context factors influencing hr competencies. a research submitted to the degree of master business administration at faculty school of management & governance, track ‘human resource management’. rentfrow, t.j. (2020). effective leadership within a multinational environment. leadership advance, summer, 1–8. ricardo, h., & heather, n. (2020). how cultural factors shape economic outcomes. journal of business, 30(1), 3–8. https://doi.org/10.1353/foc.2020.0005 rigby, d.k. (2017). management tools: an executive’s guide. boston, ma: bain & company. robbins, s.p., & judge, t.a. (2019). organisational behaviour (18th ed.). san diego, ca: pearson. rozkwitalska, m. (2017). cognition of the multicultural work environment in multinational corporations and intercultural interaction outcomes. in m. rozkwitalska, l. sułkowski, & s. magala (eds.), intercultural interactions in the multicultural workplace. contributions to management science. new york, ny: springer. samimi, m., cortes, a.f., anderson, m.h. & herrmann, p. (2020). what is strategic leadership? developing a framework for future research. the leadership quarterly, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2019.101353 schein, e.h. (1984). coming to a new awareness of organizational culture. sloan management review, 25(2), 3–16. sekaran, u. (2000). research methods for business: a skill building approach (3rd ed.). new york, ny: john wiley & sons. sopiah, s., kurniawan, d.t., nora, e., & narmaditya, b.s. (2020). does talent management affect employee performance? the moderating role of work engagement. the journal of asian finance, economics, and business, 7(7), 335–341. https://doi.org/10.13106/jafeb.2020.vol7.no7.335 stoker, j.i., garretsen, h., & soudis, d. (2019). the relevance of personality traits for urban economic growth: making space for psychological factors. journal of economic geography, 19(3), 541–565. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lby025 syakur, a., susilo, t., wike, w., & ahmadi, r. (2020). sustainability of communication, organizational culture, cooperation, trust and leadership style for lecturer commitments in higher education. budapest international research and critics institute journal (birci-journal), 3(2), 1325–1335. https://doi.org/10.33258/birci.v3i2.980 toka, m.f., & hamida, a.s.m. (2020). examining the relationship between talent management practices, work engagement and intention to quit of academic staff: insights from egyptian faculties of tourism and hotels. international journal of hospitality & tourism systems, 13(1), 1–12. tokar, s. (2020). what is organisational leadership? retrieved from https://www.snhu.edu/about-us/newsroom/2018/07/what-is-organizational-leadership tran, q.h.n. (2021). organisational culture, leadership behaviour and job satisfaction in the vietnam context. international journal of organizational analysis, 29(1), 136–154. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoa-10-2019-1919 van dongen, m.a.d. (2014). towards a standardised model for leadership development in international organisations. global business & organisational excellence, 33(4), 6–17. https://doi.org/10.1002/joe.21549 wardman, j. (2020). recalibrating pandemic risk leadership: thirteen crisis ready strategies for covid-19. journal of risk research, 23(7–8), 1092–1120. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2020.1842989 zekeri, m. (2016). multinational corporations (mncs) and corruption in africa. journal of management and social sciences, 5(2), 80–96. zoghbi-manrique-de-lara, p. & viera-armas, m. (2017). corporate culture as a mediator in the relationship between ethical leadership and personal internet use. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 24(3), 357–371. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051817696877 abstract introduction orientation motivation of the study objectives of the study literature review the major sources of stress in workplaces management of stress in the workplace research methodology results discussion practical implications and recommendations limitations acknowledgements references about the author(s) victor c. ngwenya department of economic and management sciences, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa department of educational management and leadership, faculty of education and arts, zimbabwe open university, bulawayo, zimbabwe citation ngwenya, v.c. (2021). recognising stressors and managing stress in bulawayo metropolitan province primary schools. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1549. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1549 original research recognising stressors and managing stress in bulawayo metropolitan province primary schools victor c. ngwenya received: 17 jan. 2021; accepted: 24 aug. 2021; published: 30 nov. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: knowledge of work-related stressors which trigger an avalanche of stress-related illnesses is crucial if teachers are to successfully manage stressful situations in their workplaces. research purpose: the purpose of this research study was to gain a deeper understanding of the potential causes of stress in primary schools with the intention of suggesting coping strategies to deal with it. motivation of the study: teachers who were successful in managing stressful situations in their workplaces were able to enhance their creativity, productivity, efficiency and effectiveness, consequentially the organisation and learners being the net beneficiaries. research approach/design and method: post-positivism informed the quantitative approach employed. a cross-sectional survey design utilising a standardised questionnaire was used to collect data from 87 qualified and experienced teachers who were systematically sampled. the concept of stress was examined first followed by the identification of stressors. resultantly, coping strategies to remedy stressful situations experienced were proffered. main results: the study revealed that primary school teachers were conscious of what stress entails, its consequences for themselves and the organisation, the potential stressors which were likely to hinder their job performance or cause stress related illnesses, and ways of dealing with them. practical and management implications: participative management was suggested when engaging teachers in job-related decisions so as to avoid overloading them beyond their expectations and capacities to avert stressful encounters. contribution/value-add: the teachers’ knowledge of how negative stressors reduce their production levels at their workplaces enables them to develop coping strategies to deal with the stressors head-on. keywords: distress; exhaustion; general adaptation syndrome; relaxation stress; stress management. introduction the advent of modern life, influenced by the events of the industrial revolution, ushered in job-related stress in schools and has the potential of reducing staff efficiency and effectiveness (haokip & latha, 2018; rosch, 2017). worldwide, the unfavourable working conditions prevailing in the teaching profession caused by the socio-economic ills of the times (ngwenya, 2021), have resulted in teachers experiencing stressful conditions in one way or another. although chronic stress may be dangerous to one’s health if not managed properly, acute stress motivates teachers to focus on the task or act to solve the task (legg, 2020; tran et al., 2020). the motivating effects of positive stress on teachers makes its presence in organisations inevitable. it is not surprising that contemporary researchers have dubbed stress the ‘illness of the century’ as its presence enhances the creativity and productivity levels of teachers (panigrahi, 2017, p. 154). to that end, the absence of stress would make life a dull endeavour which would be not worthy living at all (schmidt & chen, 2021). since negative stress has physical, cognitive, physiological, psychological and emotional effects on teachers, which in turn will affect the educative enterprise with the net sufferers being learners, the purpose of this study, therefore, is to enable teachers recognise negative stressors in schools at their infancy if stress is to be successfully managed (tran et al., 2020). orientation teaching is one of the most stressful professions worldwide, which of late has been aggravated by the outbreak of the coronavirus; in the current state of african economies, stress has become a matter of contention (schmidt & chen, 2021). consequently, the presence of negative stressors in an individual may cause alarm and confusion, and reactions to it may be different as people are biologically wired differently (legg, 2020). some may withstand stressful situations while others may breakdown (haokip & latha, 2018). the pleasant and unpleasant stress teachers experience in their workplaces may best be described using lazarus’ transactional theory of stress which identified them as eustress and distress, respectively (cohen, murphy, & prather, 2019). eustress demands are seen as psychological and physical opportunities for learning, growth and achievement (cohen et al., 2019). resultantly, time pressure, work complexity and work responsibility fulfil the human need for self-esteem and self-actualisation (cohen et al., 2019). this accomplishment leads to relaxation and satisfaction, necessary ingredients for healthy and productive work (addison & yankyera, 2015). taking this into consideration, if eustress is carefully managed in schools, goal attainment may be enhanced (cohen et al., 2019). all that might be needed, perhaps, is to assign such tasks to the teachers which are within their capabilities, thereby making them excel. goal accomplishment would make them feel relaxed but when demands of the task exceed expectations and capabilities, relaxation turns into exhaustion and satisfaction turns into distress (legg, 2020). distress may not only cause physical, mental and behavioural problems in the workplace which may be detrimental to the goals, ethos, values and norms of the organisation, but fatalities too (cohen et al., 2019; james & sidin, 2017). some distressful effects include: inability to pay attention to work, drug and alcohol abuse, and harmful behaviour to self or others, hence compromising the effectiveness and efficiency of the individual and the organisation (the american institute of stress, 2020). comforting though is that teachers may be trained to recognise negative stressors in their workplaces and manage them (panigrahi, 2017). all that teachers need is to identify the stressors early on before they become disastrous so that they can be in a position to remedy and overcome them (legg, 2020). however, of noteworthy in this context is that distress is not an illness but creates a state which when it becomes excessive and prolonged, may develop into a physical and mental illness, hence the need to manage it using various coping strategies (tan & yip, 2018). selye (1936), pioneered a study which eloquently explained the general adaptation syndrome (gas) model, based on physiology and psychology. his study revealed that every event that threatens the well-being of an organism (i.e. a stressor) leads to a three-stage bodily response, namely: (1) alarm stage reaction, (2) resistance or adaptation stage, and (3) exhaustion stage, as detailed below. alarm reaction stage the body upon perceiving a stressor is activated into ‘fight-or-flight’ response and the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated as its resources are mobilised to encounter the threat or danger (lucile, 2016). the heart beats faster sending blood to the arms or legs in case one needs to fight or flee. this response to a threatening situation is biologically programmed (legg, 2020). during this stage, the brain sends an emergency signal to the other parts of the body, which lets those parts know, that one is in a dangerous situation (legg, 2017). as the body mobilises itself to react, one can choose either a ‘fight or flight’ response to which the nervous system will be programmed (legg, 2017). this kind of reaction to stress serves as the body’s defence mechanism (saini, 2016). resistance or adaptation stage if the alarm stage does not help one escape from a stressful situation, the body progresses to the next stage, where one remains in an alert stage for a longer time (panigrahi, 2017). during the resistance stage, the body resists and compensates as the parasympathetic nervous system attempts to return many physiological functions to their pre-stress levels, while the body focuses the resources against the stressor and remains on red alert (lucile, 2016). prolonged stressful conditions without relaxation and rest may make the body prone to fatigue, lack of concentration, irritability and lethargy, which are all symptoms of negative stress (higuera & legg, 2017; saini, 2016). teachers need to guard against these negative developments in their bodies. exhaustion stage if the stressor continues beyond the body’s capacity, the resources will become exhausted and it will be susceptible to disease and death (lucile, 2016). the stressed person may give up or feel that the situation is hopeless (panigrahi, 2017). signs of exhaustion may include: fatigue, depression, burnout, anxiety and decreased stress tolerance (higuera & legg, 2017). teacher burnout in this context refers to ‘a state of mental, physical and emotional exhaustion, usually resulting from chronic and persistent stress’ (saini, 2016, p. 99). by the same token, selye (1936) observed that, when one is in such a state, the immune system is weakened and the body is put at risk of stress-related illnesses. resultantly, prolonged stress of this magnitude would lead to physical and psychological disorders such as hypertension, heart-related diseases, sleep disturbances, back pains and ulcers (the american institute of stress, 2020). furthermore, at a personal level, relationships with family and friend may also be disturbed (legg, 2020). knowledge of the gas model enables teachers to recognise chronic stressors in their workplaces which resolve themselves by being ignored and those which need confrontation. both approaches prevent stressors from developing into prolonged stress which may lead to exhaustion and numerous stress-related illnesses. motivation of the study besides stress having a negative impact on the retention and recruitment of teachers and their health and working conditions, where it manifests itself, it must be sufficiently managed in order to reduce absenteeism, depression, mental illness so as to improve health, happiness and effectiveness of teachers at work (tran et al., 2020). most importantly, teachers must guard against negative stress which disturbs their physical and mental capabilities in their workplaces (haokip & latha, 2018). to that end, a nigerian study on stress revealed that teachers at their workplaces are stressed by factors such as long working hours, heavy workload, pressure to complete a given task within a short period of time, sudden changes in the workplace and society, lack of skills to do the job, discrimination and harassment among several others (haokip & latha, 2018). in corroboration, pelser and van wyke’s (2016) south african study added the following potential stressors at workplaces: new curricula, teacher shortages, teachers who are burdened with having to make a variety of modifications in their personal and professional lives. likewise, the socialist ideology adopted by the zimbabwean government in 1980, which was mainly driven by ‘growth with equity’, ushered in stressful radical curriculum reforms in the education sector as attempts were being sought to redress the social inequalities and imbalances caused by the past colonial policies (sibanda & young, 2020). racialism was abolished and primary education was universalised though without regulatory enforcement, which increased the admission rates to stressful levels (government of zimbabwe [goz], 2020; ngwenya, 2021). the political and ideological changes undertaken in the education sector resulted in a high teacher/learner ratio, overcrowding, inadequacy of infrastructure which led to double session (i.e. hot seating), shortages of teachers, as well as learning and teaching materials(ngwenya, 2021). ngwenya’s (2020) study, conducted after the introduction of a new competence-based curriculum in 2015 on the recommendations of the nziramasanga’s 1999 commission, furthermore confirmed the existence of similar stressors in the teaching fraternity. in addition to the stressors enumerated above, teachers were found to be stressed by the congested timetable, the introduction of new learning areas which deskilled them, the emphasis on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem) subjects (goz, 2015) amidst a shortage of teaching and learning resources which was further aggravated by the incapacitation of the parents to pay fees because of the unpredictable hyper-inflationary environment. besides that, the mainstreaming of the early childhood development (ecd) classes to the regular school also increased overcrowding. such job duties and working conditions which are beyond the person’s capabilities create anxiety and tension which are symptoms of stress (haokip & latha, 2018). in adherence to its socialist path, the zimbabwean government further introduced the philosophy of ‘education with production’ which was crafted along the marxist-leninist ideological concept of ‘polytechnic education’, and paulo freire’s ideas concerning the dialectic of knowledge and practice (kanyongo, 2005; shizha & kariwo, 2011). this was meant to marry theory and practice across the curriculum. vocational subjects had to be introduced and teaching pedagogy had to be tailor-made in sync with the philosophy which government had adopted. towards that end, child-centred and democratic teaching methods which focused on collectivism were encouraged as opposed to individualism; learners were grouped according to abilities so as to accommodate their individual differences in the planning of teaching and learning activities (kanyongo, 2005). such changes were stressful for the already overburdened classroom practitioner. also, the experienced teachers needed re-orientation so as to familiarise them with the new strategies of teaching and philosophy. this radical paradigm shift in pedagogical requirements deskilled and further stressed zimbabwean primary teachers. moreover, the lack of relevant training programmes affected the school’s performance and retention rate which also had a bearing on teachers’ satisfaction levels at their workplaces as alluded to earlier by haokip and latha (2018). given such a scenario, stress management at workplaces becomes an inevitable component in the development of the ideal teacher. arguably, the technological changes which seem to be occurring minutely in the teaching profession with zimbabwe introducing a new competence-based curriculum with an information communication technological (ict) bias, results in teachers feeling physically and emotionally disabled as they are unable to keep abreast with such developments (goz, 2015). teachers are warned to brace up for similar changes which will be prevalent for the next decade or so as new jobs will emerge which will increase the risk of psychological disorders (legg, 2020; tran et al., 2020). the situation becomes increasingly unpredictable for the employed women, whose multiple role demands (i.e. parenting status, household chores and job commitment) and constrained economic opportunities may put them at high risk for psychological disorders and job displacements, along with the advent of computers and robots in workplaces (addison & yankyera, 2015). the same authors further observed that women as a group experience completely different stress from that of men. they have been found to easily succumb to psychological stress involving depression and emotional discomfort, while men are prone to coronary cardiovascular disease and liver cirrhosis. however, despite the weakness, women have been found to manage stressful conditions far better than men (addison & yankyera, 2015). since teaching in many african countries is rated to be among one of the low-paying jobs, teachers have been found to be a high risk group when confronted with stressful situations. judging by the low remuneration which they receive, they seem to be annoyed by excitement and a person’s talents or a worker’s resources and needs (haokip & latha, 2018). various studies conducted in african countries have revealed that many teachers were found working under negative stressful conditions which led to emotional breakdown, burnout and distress (tran et al., 2020). the latter state is confirmed by a recent zimbabwean study which was conducted by the friendship bench services, african mental health research initiative which revealed that more than 100 000 people sought help on depression and anxiety (zvanyanya, 2020). the study further revealed that more people would be prone to mental illness in the future, and the situation would be further compounded by the fact that most african countries, zimbabwe included, do not have the capacity to deal with such a surge as guidance and counselling services and mental hospitals were limited. suicidal cases committed by zimbabwean teachers over welfare issues and depression as widely reported in the print media confirms the scarcity of such services (dube, 2020). weighing in are worldwide researches which have revealed that teachers as individuals are stressed differently in their workplaces depending on their cultural backgrounds and gender (tran et al., 2020). while some have been found to be stressed by failure to accomplish an allocated task, worse still if it is beyond their capabilities, others have been found to be stressed by competition depending on whether it is physical or emotional (saini, 2016). teachers competing to complete given tasks either as individuals or as a group can either be healthy or unhealthy to one’s well-being (legg, 2020). on a positive note, competition may create energy for a person to learn new duties and skills; whereas on the negative side, if the daily requirements cannot be overcome, it may result in exhaustion which is equally stressful (saini, 2016). to make matters worse, the hierarchical structure of the school has also been found to be stressful to subordinates when rigidly adhered to (saini, 2016). moreover, education managers in their attempt to control and increase productivity in the organisation sometimes use fear and stress (tran et al., 2020). arguably under such circumstances, stress seems to cause physical, mental and behavioural problems which affect one’s capabilities to perform his or her job and will in turn affect the productivity levels of the organisation if not successfully managed (tran et al., 2020). more so that in its extremity it may lead to distress, a mental or psychological condition which is harmful and can be fatal (haokip & latha, 2018). as noted above, stress can be disastrous for an individual or organisation; negative stress and its consequences however, can be prevented by training teachers effectively for better recognition and management of stress factors through appropriate coping strategies (mujtaba, cavico, & senathip, 2020). objectives of the study the objectives of the study are as follows: to discover the major causes of stress among primary teachers teaching in zimbabwean schools and highlight their consequences. to explore various ways zimbabwean primary teachers may manage stressful conditions utilising various coping strategies with the intent of either minimising or eliminating stressful behaviours at their workplaces. literature review since stress is a universal phenomenon and affects individuals in their daily lives differently, researchers also define it differently depending on its physiological and psychological impact on the individual or organisation (legg, 2020). according to the national institute for occupational safety and health (niosh, 2014, para. 10) stress may be defined as ‘the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources or needs of the worker’. in the same vein, jayashree (as cited in gulati & parashar, 2016, p. 98) perceived it as ‘caused when a person is subjected to extreme expectations, unusual situations, pressures or demands that are difficult to handle’. such physical, emotional or mental pressures experienced by an individual create anxiety and tension which may lead to burnout (tran et al., 2020). addison and yankyera (2015) and legg (2020) go further to elaborate that stress may be from the environment, psychological or social situations or illness or a medical procedure. in the teaching arena, when too much pressure is exerted on teachers to meet certain demands or deadlines in an unfavourable environment with limited resources regardless of their needs and capacities may result in stress (tran et al., 2020). teachers, like machines, can also breakdown if job expectations are beyond their capabilities (saini, 2016). the major sources of stress in workplaces as individuals and organisations experience stress differently, stressors discussed in this study are not exhaustive. therefore, the major sources of stress identified in this study have conveniently been divided into three categories, namely; life events, personal and organisational/work-related factors. life events and personal factors life events could be any event or events that disrupt a person’s attitudes, emotions or behaviours, and may end up in a life trauma such as financial difficulties, marital problems, sudden physical illness or the death of a beloved one (cohen et al., 2019; legg, 2020). on the other hand, personal factors in this context would refer to stress which affects people in different ways determined by their personalities which are identified as two categories – type a and type b (saini, 2016; tran et al., 2020). james and sidin (2017) posited that type a people are always energetic; they have a strong sense of urgency, a high need for power, are often obsessed with their work, and are extremely competitive. they want to get things done and will do almost everything to achieve their goals. they often get aggressive, impatient and irritable if people interfere with their work and are easily affected by responsibilities. on the contrary, type b people work at a steady and relaxed pace, dislike hostility, feel more confident about their work and are less anxious about time and colleagues, making them the opposite of type a (james & sidin, 2017). james and sidin further stated that both personalities are present in an individual with one of them being dominant. in this study, it is the type a personality traits which the teachers must be concerned about, because such traits may lead to burnout or severe health problems such as heart attacks. organisational and work-related stress career concerns such as threats and intimidation may make workers feel insecure in their jobs (panigrahi, 2017). setting deadlines on tasks which are beyond their capabilities are equally stressful (ngwenya, 2020). most importantly, the lack of opportunity for growth and rapid changes for which workers are unprepared may aggravate stress (goz, 2015; haokip & latha, 2018; pelser & van wyke, 2016). factors related to the design of the task which can be stressful include: heavy workload, infrequent rest breaks, long working hours and shift work, and routine tasks that have inherent learning (legg, 2020; ngwenya, 2020). similarly are the role demands of the teachers that require them to have a good rapport with the learners during the teaching and learning enterprise, at the same time evaluating their performance and disciplining them which may cause a role conflict – a situation that demands ‘a simultaneous occurrence of two (or more than two) groups of pressures such that compliance with one would make more difficult compliance with the other’ (gulati & parashar, 2016, p. 99). in the same vein, conflicting expectations and too many ‘hats to wear’ may result in role ambiguity (legg, 2020), role ambiguity being ‘a degree of vagueness … or un clarity in desired expectations that creates difficulties for a person to fulfil requirements’ (gulati & parashar, 2016, p. 99). likewise when policy formulation and decision-making is the preserve of top management, teachers may resist them triggering perpetual stressful conflicts in schools (gulati & parashar, 2016; health and safety executive, 2020; tran et al., 2020). such a scenario may be worsened by the interpersonal demands of an individual group. group members wanting to conform to expected or prescribed group norms and values regardless of their capabilities may be overstretched (satpathy & mitra, 2015). moreover, if such expectations are not applied consistently and equitably may result in personality clashes (tran et al., 2020). stressful for female workers would also be male chauvinists who would stereotype them because of their feminine prejudices (addison & yankyera, 2015). above all are interpersonal relationships which may prevail between teachers and top management. if teachers feel that their efforts are not being recognised or appreciated by the top management, such relationships may be counterproductive. such negative forces would further be compounded if teachers felt that top management was ill-treating them and was not supportive of their work endeavours (health and safety executive, 2020). in the same way, crowded classrooms or economic problems emanating from the physical and psychological environment teachers found themselves operating in would also be stressful (ngwenya, 2021; tran et al., 2020). management of stress in the workplace researchers are in agreement that before teachers think of intervention strategies to employ to manage stress, the size of the organisation and availability of resources to implement whatever strategy needs execution must be considered (haokip & latha, 2018; juneja, 2015). teachers must be made to understand their working conditions (ngwenya, 2021), stress levels, health and satisfaction, if they are to be able to recognise stressful conditions in their workplaces (haokip & latha, 2018; juneja, 2015). haokip and latha (2018) further posited that at the micro level, official discussions of preventive strategies may suffice. whereas at a macro level, processes to combat stress need to be put in place. towards this direction, stress may be dealt with at either individual or organisational level (panigrahi, 2017). noteworthy in this context is that stress management strategies are ‘not one-size-fits-all’. teachers are encouraged to experiment and find out what works in their organisations first prior to implementation (legg, 2020). individual strategies at an individual level, teachers may belong to trustworthy support groups involving the significant others or colleagues to lean against when in dire need of assistance. sharing problems or doing favours for each other within such groups, does not only boost one’s confidence levels but strengthens the relationship as well (health and safety executive, 2020; tran et al., 2020). apart from that, teachers must develop the habit of having prioritised list of tasks to be executed daily as part of their time management training (kaizen business coaching, 2021; legg, 2020). this would enable them to execute their tasks productively without trying to impress their supervisors (gulati & parashar, 2016). however, where roles are conflicting and ambiguous, they should not hesitate to seek clarification from the management (juneja, 2015; legg, 2020). alternatively, when confronted with such a stressful situation one can either confront it or leave it (lucile, 2016; saini, 2016). confrontation to resolve role ambiguity may sometimes lead to workable solutions and declining promotion when roles conflict may reduce stress as well. besides that, teachers may minimise stressful situations by engaging in various physical exercises. exercise diverts minds from the pressures of work, boosts self-confidence and optimism, increases the body’s blood circulation and thus keeping one fit too (legg, 2020). balancing work and play in the workplace augurs well with legg’s (2020, p. 7) assertion that ‘all work and no play is a recipe for burnout’; cracking jokes during such sessions has been found to spice up the occasion as well (tran et al., 2020). furthermore, teachers may be encouraged to be optimistic when confronted with challenges of whatever magnitude in their attempt to cope with stress. to achieve optimal performance in such a scenario, they must be assigned realistic goals, be stimulated towards achieving them, and be given constant feedback in the process (tran et al., 2020). this can only be achieved if the distribution of the incentive system is equally fair and just. although at a personal level, teachers might be driven to achieve set targets, this must not compromise on their family, health, peers and social life (juneja, 2015; legg, 2020). in the process, those portraying symptoms of stress-related illnesses should be encouraged to find solace in prayer and meditation (addison & yankyera, 2015; tran et al., 2020). optionally, a vacation would relax and revitalise them (legg, 2020; tran et al., 2020). by the same token, studies by haokip and latha (2018), legg (2020) and tran et al. (2020) proposed the utilisation of the following method to evoke the relaxation response in an individual: sit quietly in a comfortable position. close your eyes. deeply relax all your muscles, beginning at your feet and progressing up to your face. keep them relaxed. breathe in and out through your nose and be aware of your breathing by saying a word at each instance such as ‘one’. continue for 20 min. you may open your eyes to check on time but do not use an alarm clock. when you have finished, sit quietly for some time first with your eyes closed and later with them opened. wait for a few minutes before standing up. do not be bothered by quick results and let the relaxation occur at its own space. when distracting thoughts occur, ignore them by not dwelling on them. replace them with your single word like ‘one’. however, the frequency of the relaxation response method would be determined by the need. organisational strategies job enrichment, job rotation, decentralisation, positive reinforcement, participative management, and a just and fair hearing and orientation procedure are some methods which may be used to deal with stress in organisations (juneja, 2015). although researchers condemn leaving stress management to individuals, they suggest that organisations may assist staff to deal with stress as described below. teachers should be trained to recognise unpleasant emerging situations and then use coping strategies to reduce the resultant stress (legg, 2020). such management training should entail: time management, conflict resolution, decision-making, and dealing with people (james & sidin, 2017). in order for them to know their role expectations, reporting relationships and responsibilities in their workplaces, a role analysis technique must be employed (addison & yankyera, 2015). this would enable them to discover whether they have a type a personality which might need management (james & sidin, 2017; legg, 2020). another way of achieving optimum stress levels in an organisation is by sharing responsibilities (juneja, 2015) and involving teachers in the decision-making process (james & sidin, 2017). as studies have revealed that professional women easily succumb to stress compared to men, organisations must have built-in coping strategies such as establishing mentors and developing training programmes to boost their self-confidence and self-awareness (addison & yenkyera, 2015; james & sidin, 2017). above all, teachers who would have undergone some traumatic experience with regard to their career would need to be rehabilitated so that their behaviour is modified through properly constituted guidance and counselling sessions (juneja, 2015; panigrahi, 2017). research methodology research approach post-positivism was the underlying philosophical perspective which informed the epistemological methodology utilised to investigate the question: ‘how the recognition of stressors aids teachers to manage stress at their workplace’. this feat was achieved by adopting a quantitative approach which measured the objective reality that exists ‘out there’ in schools on stress management through a meticulously structured questionnaire (creswell, 2018). in light of this, as a normative researcher, the intention was to reduce the opinions of teachers on stress management into small and discrete set of variables which could be connected to theory on the observed phenomenon and observations that are verifiable and testable using the scientific method empirically (denzin & lincoln, 2013). this was based on the belief that there are theories and laws that govern the causes of stress and its effects on teachers which may be tested deductively and refined or revised or supported using statistical methods in order to understand the ways in which the stressors could be minimised or eliminated (best & khan, 2014). research design the strategy of inquiry employed to unravel the truth on the causes of stress in schools and its impact as remedies were sought was the cross-sectional survey (o’leary, 2014). a survey was considered ideal for this study as large masses of data with a broader spectrum on the phenomenon were sought. opinions were derived from (n = 87) systematically selected respondents for the purposes of drawing inferences on its impact (o’leary, 2014). in that regard, names of teachers at every school were alphabetically arranged and every third name from the list was selected. the sample size represented (29.5%) of the parent population (n = 295), and was considered reliable, valid, accurate, replicable and suitable for the study in terms of cost, time and convenience (mccombes, 2020; sharma, 2017). research participants the research respondents were teachers working in primary schools located in one of the five districts of bulawayo metropolitan province (bmp). from a targeted sample of 91 respondents only 87 were returned representing 95% of the respondents. the majority of the respondents were females (72%), showing how the deployment of teachers in bmp urban schools favours women as per government’s gender policy. most of the teachers investigated underwent training after o level (80%) and their professional qualifications were varied: diploma in education and bachelor of education (33%) apiece, masters in education (19%), and certificate in education (15%). their teaching experiences revealed that the majority of them had taught for more than 21 years (35%) with the least having taught for less than 20 years (19%). some had taught for less than 15 years (24%), while others for 10 years (22%). judging by the professional qualifications of the respondents and their varied teaching experiences, the researcher was convinced that valid and reliable data would be collected on the phenomenon under investigation. measuring instrument the primary instrument used to collect the raw data was a self-designed structured questionnaire consisting of 61 items and was categorised in four sections. section a inquired about the biographic data of the respondents (q1–5); section b explored the concept of stress as revealed by literature surveyed focusing on the difference between eustress and distress (p6–11); section c looked at stressors comprising life events, personal and organisational/work related factors (q12–38); and section d suggested remedies to stressful experiences in the workplace based on related literature reviewed and the cited gas theory cited (q39–61). the tool was standardised and the responses were pre-coded and rated by means of a 5-point likert-type scale with options ranging from strongly disagree, disagree, agree, strongly agree and undecided as an escape clause (bissonnette, 2007). however, in reporting the results, the 5-point likert scale was collated to three categories – negatives to disagree (d), positives to agree (a) and undecided (u) which remained as it were on the instrument. the fixed responses were meant to enhance the response rate of the respondents within the stipulated timeframe, cover a multitude of observations on the phenomenon, and facilitate the statistical analysis of the data collected (ngwenya & pretorius, 2013). to enhance the tool’s validity and reliability, it was pilot tested on 10 non-participating respondents and verified by five colleagues. in the process, ambiguity was minimised and clarity was enhanced (ngwenya & pretorius, 2013). the questionnaire was used to gather data which was analysed and used to draw inferences based on the phenomenon under investigation (mccombes, 2020). research procedure and ethical considerations permission was initially sought from the ministry of primary and secondary education (mopse). the approval letter was then used to seek permission from the provincial education director (ped) of bmp. thereafter, clearance was sought using the ped’s letter from the district schools inspector. ethics clearance was then sought from the zimbabwe open university before fieldwork was conducted. after that schools under investigation were visited, where formal introductions were made before seeking permission to conduct research in the respective schools from various education managers. thereafter, names of the teachers were sought from education managers from which the respondents were finally selected. the selected respondents were briefed about the study with regards to its benefits, the psychological discomforts and dangers that would be experienced by participating so as to elicit their informed consent and voluntary participation (denzin & lincoln, 2013). willing respondents were made to complete consent forms and were also advised that they were free to withdraw from the study at the data collection stage without risking any penalties (banister, 2007). the structured questionnaires were then distributed and specific instructions were explained. confidentiality and anonymity were adhered to by not demanding personal and institutional identifiers (denzin & lincoln, 2013). respondents were further assured that data collected were going to be used for study purposes only and thereafter would be coded, encrypted and stored in the hard drive of the laptop for a period of 5 years before it would be permanently deleted or discarded. they were also promised that results of the study would be made accessible to them at their request (creswell, 2018). by consensus, the collection date of the completed questionnaire was agreed upon. statistical analysis since the analysis methodology was meant to interpret data collected in order to uncover patterns and trends on which inferences would be drawn about the population values, the variables in the data were categorised, frequency tables and descriptive statistics were used to describe each questionnaire item included within each aspect. analysis of the data was undertaken by a professional statistician using the statistical package of social sciences (spss, version 16). ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained from the zimbabwe open university, zqnsp/1/20. results the results are discussed under the following headings used to capture the data, namely: the concept of stress, major sources of stress in the workplace, and the management of stress. concept of stress table 1 reveals that the majority of respondents seem to be aware that stress causes physical and emotional harm when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources or needs of the workers (92%). they further noted the resultant mental feelings which emanate from job duties which are beyond their capabilities (90%), thus confirming definitions cited in literature by the niosh (2014) and jayashree’s (as cited in gulati & parashar, 2016) respectively. respondents also admitted that its presence, if excessive and prolonged, would develop into physical and mental illness (85.1%), triggered anxiety, depression and anger in them resulting in role conflict, ambiguity, work overload and daily hassles (81.6%), and made them fail to attain their educational goals effectively (62.1%). however, they contradicted cohen et al.’s (2019) suggestion that stress provided psychological and physical opportunities for learning, growth and achievement (63.2%), implying that they are ignorant of the role eustress plays in their workplace. table 1: respondents’ perception of the concept of stress (n = 87). sources of stress in the workplace as highlighted in the related literature surveyed, stress occurs at three levels, namely; life events, personal and organisational level. however, table 2 reports only on the first two factors. table 2: effects of stress on life events and personal factors (n = 87). table 2 reveals that the majority of respondents are stressed by events that cause marital problems, financial difficulties and sudden physical illness or the death of their beloved ones (94.3%), disrupt their attitudes, emotions and behaviours which end up in a trauma (82.8%) and income which is below the poverty datum line (79.3%), thus affirmatively confirming cohen et al.’s (2019) and legg’s (2020) findings on these attributes. further interrogation on the personal factors led to the admission that teachers who are anxious of time and peer pressure (75.9%), are extremely competitive (63.2%) and power hungry (51.7%) were prone to stress. however, there were mixed feelings about those who were confident about their work (47.1), had a strong sense of urgency (42.5%) and were hostile (42.5%) as noted by the ratings which are below average. on the contrary, they denied that teachers who were always energetic in their work (75.9%) and worked steadily and at a relaxed pace (67.8%) were affected by stressful conditions at all. table 3 reveals that the majority of respondents are stressed by being intimidated, threatened and deadlines set by the top management (94.5%), economic problems (92%), being ill-treated by the top management (90.8%), uncertainty of job expectations and too many responsibilities (89.7%), infrequent rest breaks and long working hours (87.3%), high teacher/learner ratio and routinised tasks (83.9%), lack of support from the top management (80.5%), autocratic leaders (79.3%), rapid changes which occur in schools (79.3%), crowded classrooms (74.7%), conforming to standards beyond expectations (73.6%), poorly equipped classrooms (72.4%), lack of opportunity for growth and advancement (63.2%) and gender stereotypes (58.6%) in their workplaces. however, they denied that democratic leaders (71.3%) and top management who recognise their efforts (51.7%) stressed them. table 3: causes of organisational and work-related stress (n = 87). of noteworthy here is that the results of the survey conform and confirm the negative and positive stressors established by the majority of studies cited in this study. however, of major significance to this survey are the radical curricula changes (79.3%) that the zimbabwean government undertook (goz, 2015; ngwenya, 2020), and seem to have triggered most of the stressors prevalent in the educational arena as observed by kanyongo (2005) and shizha and kariwo (2011). management of stress having identified the major stressors, it was imperative to establish coping strategies which teachers use when confronted by stressful situations. the results are presented in table 4. table 4: management of stress (n = 87). table 4 reveals that the majority of respondents managed stress by trying all means to reduce it in whatever way was possible (90.8%), sharing stressful experiences with their colleagues (88.5%), having planned activities daily (88.5%), avoiding overloading oneself with too much work (88.5%), avoiding conflicting situations (87.4%), engaging oneself in relaxation activities (83.9%), becoming prayerful (83.9%), trying to be aware about the job expectations of the management (83.9%), working harder when one’s efforts are recognised (80.5%), engaging management in decisional issues concerning their work (77.9%), avoiding being overzealous when duties are being allocated (62.1%), moving away from a stressful situation (58.6%), avoiding being pessimistic when confronted with a challenging situation (56.3%), sharing one’s stressful situation with management (54%), confronting it head-on (54%), and seeking guidance and counselling services within the school system (51.7%). interesting though was the discovery that teachers did not surrender easily when experiencing a stressful situation (70.1%). little wonder that they avoided being pessimistic when confronted with a challenging situation (56.3%). neither did they prefer to teach the same grade/class regularly (57.5%). however, surprising was their contradiction that going on vacation leave reduced stress levels (51.7%) as suggested by legg (2020) and tran et al. (2020), yet earlier on they had admitted that relaxation activities did so (83.9%). probably their incomes which were below the poverty datum line and the prevailing economic conditions could have influenced their negative response on vacation leave or they might not be aware that relaxation is a part of it. conflicting sentiments were also manifested when teachers were required to share stressful experiences with their colleagues (49.4%) and manage stress in the manner they were trained (47.1%). in the absence of a probe, although the ratings are below average, the researcher deduced that for reasons best known to them, teachers investigated did not have faith in their social support groups and doubted whatever stress management training they had undergone. discussion generally, bmp primary teachers seem to be conscious of the fact that if overstretched beyond their physical and mental capabilities they are likely to experience emotional breakdown, burnout or distress, stressful conditions which may reduce their creativity, productivity, efficiency and effectiveness if not successfully managed (haokip & latha, 2018; rosch, 2017; tran et al., 2020). besides, if such stressful conditions are prolonged unhindered, the body’s immune system may collapse and be put at risk of an avalanche of stress-related illnesses (legg, 2020; the american institute of stress, 2020; tan & yip, 2018). these conditions are of concern to this study, more so that guidance and counselling services and mental hospitals are limited in zimbabwe as observed by zvanyanya (2020). of significance to this study is that the bmp primary teachers in the investigated schools were able to identify life events, personal and organisational factors which stressed them at their workplaces as suggested by the literature surveyed. it was also encouraging to note that they were aware that a type a personality was stressful as revealed by their positive ratings on the following attributes: ‘power hungry’, ‘extremely competitive’ and ‘anxious of time and peer pressure’ (cf. table 2; james & sidin, 2017). the existence of such a personality is further confirmed in their admission that teachers who ‘have a strong sense of urgency’ and ‘are hostile’ are equally prone to stress, although their ratings are below average. the presence of such attributes in a teacher may be worsened if one is undergoing traumatic experiences which are caused by marital problems, financial difficulties, physical illness or death of a beloved one and the effects of low salaries (cf. table 2; cohen et al., 2019; legg, 2020). based by these observations, the researcher deduced that the bmp primary teachers are aware of characteristics which constitute a type a personality which they are supposed to guard against so as to avoid burnout or extreme health effects such as heart attacks in the future as noted by james and sidin (2017). confusing though within this scenario was their refusal that their counterparts who were always energetic in their work were probably stressed as well. similarly, while recognition of their efforts (cf. table 3) may make them work harder (cf. table 4), education managers must guard against demanding expectations beyond their capabilities as this may exert too much pressure on them, thus creating tension and anxiety which are a danger to their well-being as observed by higuera and legg (2017). pleasing to note is that the bmp primary teachers are capable of repelling stressors of different magnitude emanating from the radical curriculum reforms introduced at post-independence and thereafter (goz, 2015) using the stress coping strategies suggested in this study, although they doubted whether they received any form of training in stress management (cf. table 4). evidence from the study points out that when confronted by a stressful situation they ‘fight or flight’ as observed in: ‘avoiding conflicting situations’, ‘engaging management in decisional issues involving work’, ‘moving away from a stressful situation’ and ‘confronting it head-on’ (cf. table 4), defence mechanisms needed for their body’s survival (saini, 2016). it was also encouraging to note how they avoided stress by not being ‘overzealous when it came to allocation of duties and responsibilities’, ‘avoiding work-overload’ and ‘planning their daily’ routines – critical and crucial factors in overcoming distress, burnout and exhaustion in their workplace (juneja, 2015; legg, 2020). based on the unearthed empirical data, the researcher deduced that the majority of the bmp primary teachers are determined at all cost to propel their schools to greater heights in a stress-free environment as long as the job requirements and resources available match their capabilities and needs. disturbing though was their failure to view vacation leave as a stress reliever and that eustress provided psychological and physical opportunities for learning, growth and achievement. the indication that gender stereotypes are stressors in a workplace populated by women who according to gender studies easily succumb to psychological stress and emotional distress although are more capable of managing stress than their male counterparts is a grey area in need of further investigation (addison & yankyera, 2015; james & sidin, 2017; tran et al., 2020). however, solace may be derived from the fact that the bmp primary teachers are aware of stressors which need management and are likely to trigger an avalanche of stress-related illnesses, distress, burnout and exhaustion (haokip & latha, 2018; james & sidin, 2017; tran et al., 2020). practical implications and recommendations the study is meant to expose teachers to different appropriate coping strategies of recognising stressors at their workplace and manage stress so as to enhance their productivity levels and well-being, including that of the organisation as well. where stress combating strategies lack, empowerment workshops, courses or seminars may be put in place either at micro or macro level for practising teachers. furthermore, stress management courses could be offered at tertiary institutions if non-existent. however for female teachers appointed to management posts, more attachment programmes, self-awareness and self-confidence training programmes would be ideal (james & sidin, 2017). since the study has also revealed that when the job requirements of a teacher exceed one’s physical and mental capabilities and expectations, it results in physical or emotional breakdown or exhaustion which are gross symptoms of stress. to avert this dire consequence, the following strategies meant to assist teachers in coping with stressful situations emanating from the workplace may be put in place: teachers must be engaged transparently in decisional issues involving their work. before staffing is done, wide consultations must be made to avoid conflicts with teachers. teachers must be made aware of their stressful working conditions during induction as a way of physically, psychologically, physiologically and emotionally preparing their body for such encounters. tasks assigned must be realistic, challenging and achievable. when teachers have been assigned duties and responsibilities, management must be supportive to their concerns, avail whatever resources are within their capabilities for the fulfilment of such tasks, and stimulate them to attain targets set by using tangible or non-tangible rewards. during the execution process, the communication system must be structured in such a way that teachers consult freely without fear or favour. teachers who resemble a type a personality must be identified and be assisted to execute their jobs in a less stressful way. since a problem shared is a problem solved, besides having a professional guidance and counselling unit (gcu) in the school manned by tried and tested teachers with a strong psychological background, teachers must be encouraged to have social groups which they may resort to when faced with traumatic experiences concerning their personal life or professional work. the gcu must be governed by ethical and legal principles with regard to the respect of human dignity, privacy, confidentiality and anonymity, to enable teachers to confidently and faithfully confide their stressful experiences with them. the gcu and social group must also be made aware of how damaging it can be for the teacher or member respectively, when sensitive information about them is released to third parties via the grapevine or various social media platforms. all things being equal, education managers must create time where they engage with teachers, either as a group or in their gender groups in relaxation exercises, for just about 20 min perhaps once or twice a week depending upon the need for such sessions. teachers trained in physical education may be utilised to spearhead such sessions or a fitness trainer may be hired for such purposes. such sessions, if meant to relieve stress, must be informal and be punctuated with jokes here and there. above all, excursions organised by and for the teachers could be undertaken at least once a year. while their low salaries may be a hindrance, monthly savings and fundraising activities may be introduced for this purpose. alternatively, sponsorship may be sought from community business people to augment their contributions. excursions and other social functions and get togethers, which should be organised by teachers, allow them to bond and share their stressful experiences in a relaxed environment away from the hassles of work. limitations although the limited sample utilised for this study was homogenous, males were outnumbered by females because of the gender deployment policy which favours the latter. since gender studies claim that women by their nature are believed to easily succumb to psychological stress and the study was situated in one urban district of bmp out of five, it demands that generalisations to the parent population be made with due care. furthermore, the use of structured questions and standardised responses did not allow respondents to give their open opinions on the phenomenon under investigation, neither were the probes accommodated for clarification. therefore, it is recommended that a comparative study be conducted at a macro level with a bigger sample using rigorous statistics to authenticate the results. conclusion in conclusion, zimbabwean primary teachers teaching in the bmp seem to be conscious of the different types of stressors present in their professional working environment that are stressful, which provides a fertile ground for equipping them with coping strategies to either remedy or overcome them. although stress can be a stimulant (i.e. eustress) or a hindrance (i.e. distress), it is the latter which many teachers must guard against because it may be fatal, cause mental, physical and emotional exhaustion which may make the body prone to stress related illnesses of different magnitude. while participative management in the engagement with teachers reduces stress, on the other hand, prolonged negative stress is not only harmful to the teacher but the organisation as well the learners being the net sufferers. therefore, bmp primary teachers must be trained to recognise stressors in their workplaces earlier on if they are to devise appropriate strategies to successfully manage stress (legg, 2020). acknowledgements the author gratefully acknowledges teachers who were the participants, education managers who are the gatekeepers of the institution, the ethics committee, the permanent secretary of education and provincial education director who allowed that the research be conducted in zimbabwean schools. finally, the professional editor and the statistician. competing interests the author is remunerated when the article has been published in an accreditable peer reviewed journal suggested by unisa college of economic and management sciences. author’s contributions this is my original work of an empirical investigation which i conducted independently and reported on. works of other researchers have been acknowledged in the appropriate referencing style. funding information the researcher only receives funding when the article has undergone peer review and published in an accreditable journal suggested by unisa college of economic and management sciences on behalf of the african union agenda 2063 (personnel no: 90381696). data availability the article will be available in the public domain for use by other researchers after it has been peer reviewed and published. disclaimer the views expressed in this article are purely mine and not the official position of the institution or the funder. references addison, a.k., & yankyera, g. (2015). an investigation into how female teachers manage stress and teacher burnout: a case study of west akim municipality in ghana. journal of education and practice, 6(10), 1–24. banister, s. (2007). ethical issues and qualitative studies in the 21st century: how can digital techniques be embraced in the research community? journal of ethnography and qualitative research, 1, 1–10. best, j.w., & khan, j.v. (2014). research in education (11th ed.). london: alyn and beacon. bissonnette, v. (2007). statistical tables. victor bissonnette’s home page. 23 march 2004. department of psychology, georgia: berry college. cohen, s., murphy, l.m., & prether, a.a. (2019). ten surprising facts about stressful life events and disease risk. retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc6996482/ creswell, j.w. (2018). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approach (4th ed.). london: sage. denzin, n., & lincoln, y.s. (2013). strategies of qualitative studies. thousand oaks, ca: sage. dube, m. (2020, march 17). deputy head assaults headmistress. the chronicle. retrieved from www.chronicle.co.zw government of zimbabwe (goz). (2015). curriculum framework for primary and secondary education. harare: author. government of zimbabwe (goz). (2020). education amendment act. harare: author. gulati, c., & parashar, a. (2016). effort of role stress on job satisfaction in banking sector. in s.s. bhakkar, c. gulati, g. mathur, & r. pathak (eds.), global advancements in hrminnovations and practices (pp. 99–105). new delhi: bhati publications. haokip, t.s., & latha, k.l. (2018). a study of stress in management in the workplace. research review international journal of multidisciplinary. retrieved from www.rrjournals.com health and safety executive. (2020). what are the management standards? retrieved from https://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/standards/ higuera, v., & legg, t.j. (2017). what is general adaptation syndrome? retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/general-adaptation-syndrome james, k.e., & sidin, j.p. (2017). revisit the effects of type a and b personality, and its effect on job-related stress in the organization. proceedings of international conference of economics, 334–344. juneja, p. (2015). employee stress – strategies for managing stress at workplace. retrieved from https://www.managementstudyguide.com/employee-stress.htm kanyongo, g. (2005). zimbabwe’s public education system reforms: successes and challenges. international education journal, 6(1), 65–74. kaizen business coaching. (2021). goal setting and stress management. retrieved from https://www.kaizen.zone/management-and-leadership-company-culture-and-mission/goal-setting-and-stress-management/ legg, t.j. (2017). what to know about general adaptation syndrome? retrieved from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320172 legg, t.j. (2020). causes of stress: recognising and managing your stressors. retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/stress-causes lucile, h. (2016). general adaptation syndrome (gas) stages. retrieved from https://www.integrativepro.com/resources/integrative-blog/2016/general-adaptation-syndrome-stages mccombes, s. (2020). understanding different sampling methods. retrieved from https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/sampling-methods/ mujtaba, b.g., cavico, f.j., & senathip, t. (2020). strategies for personal, organizational and professional leadership success. scientific journal of research and reviews, 2(3), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.33552/sjrr.2020.02.000538 national institute for occupational safety and health (niosh). (2014). stress …at work. centre for disease control and prevention. retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/99-101/default.html ngwenya, v.c. (2020). curriculum implementation challenges encountered by primary school teachers in bulawayo metropolitan province, zimbabwe. africa education review, 17(2), 158–176. ngwenya, v.c. (2021). job performance: working conditions of urban teachers in zimbabwean schools. sa journal of human resource management, 19(0), a1454. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1549 ngwenya, v.c., & pretorius, s.g. (2013). the legal framework governing parental involvement with education in zimbabwe. kamla-raj j soc sci, 34(2), 135–144. o’leary, z. (2014). the essential guide to doing research. london: sage. panigrahi, a. (2017). managing stress at workplace. journal of management research and analysis, 3(4), 154–160. https://doi.org/10.18231/2394-2770.2016.0001 pelser, a.m.f., & van wyke, c. (2016). teacher participation in stress management: through different theoretical lenses; a study conducted in mahikeng area. international journal education research, 12(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.19030/jier.v12i1.9562 rosch, p.j. (2017). reminiscences of hans selye, and the birth of ‘stress’. american institute of stress. retrieved from https://www.stress.org/about/hans-selye-birth-of-stress saini, a. (2016). effort of role stress on job satisfaction in banking sector. in s.s. bhakkar, c. gulati, g. mathur, & r. pathak (eds.), global advancements in hrm: innovations and practices (pp. 265–276). new delhi: bhati publications. satpathy, i., & mitra, b. (2015). stress management policies by it companies – an overview. retrieved from researchgate.net schmidt, m.v., & chen, a. (2021). frontiers of stress research: the 2nd munich winter conference on stress. the international journal on the biology of stress, 24(2), 121–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/10253890.2021.1895937 sharma, g. (2017). pros and cons of different sampling techniques. internal journal of applied science, 3(17), 749–752. shizha, e., & kariwo, m.t. (2011). education and development in zimbabwe: a social, political and economic analysis. rotterdam: sense publishers. selye, h. (1936). a syndrome produced by diverse nocuous agents. nature, 138, 32. https://doi.org/10.1038/138032a0 sibanda, l., & young, j. (2020). towards a postcolonial curriculum in zimbabwe: a critical review of literature. africa education review, 17(2), 50–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/18146627.2018.1507622 tan, s.y., & yip, a. (2018). hans selye (1907–1982): founder of the stress theory. singapore medical journal, 59(4), 170–171. https://doi.org/10.11622/smedj.2018043 the american institute of stress. (2020). how stress affects your body? retrieved from https://www.stress.org/how-stress-sffects-your-body tran, c.t.h., tran, h.t.m., nguyen, h.t.n., mach, d.n., phen, h.s.p., & mujtaba, b.g. (2020). stress management in the modern workplace and the role of human resource professionals. business ethics and leadership, 4(2), 26–40. https://doi.org/10.21272/bel.4(2).26-40.2020 zvanyanya, m. (2020, march 2). 100 000 seek help for depression and anxiety. the chronicle. retrieved from www.chronicle.co.zw introduction the long-term socio-economic impact of covid-19 pandemic cannot be predicted organisations need to manage business unusual managing (people) costs the impact to employees – psycho-social impact of covid-19 virtual emotions virtual teams conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) mark h.r. bussin department of industrial psychology and people management, faculty of management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa christina swart-opperman graduate school of business, faculty of commerce, university of cape town, cape town, south africa citation bussin, m.h.r., & swart-opperman, c. (2021). covid-19: considering impacts to employees and the workplace. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1384. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1384 opinion paper covid-19: considering impacts to employees and the workplace mark h.r. bussin, christina swart-opperman received: 26 apr. 2020; accepted: 22 june 2021; published: 20 aug. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. introduction the current global pandemic is a socio-economic crisis and a very emotional event that caught most businesses, globally and locally, unaware in terms of moving rapidly from a traditional corporate structure to a mostly remote workforce arrangement at best. at worst, companies have to consider their sustainability, making difficult and business-changing decisions in an unpredictable and fast-moving environment. it has become clear that the impact from the pandemic will not be short-term, but will affect countries for the years to come, changing economic development and social cohesion (orchard, 2020). there is no aspect of life that will not be impacted in one form or another. for companies, this constant state of uncertainty and crisis management place pressure on the organisational system, impacting decisions of business strategy to people management. there is a need to balance the pressure from shareholders and those of employees; in a pandemic, which pressure takes precedence? what options exist for companies to manage the pandemic with an eye on longevity and survival? and, what opportunities exist in a ‘forced change’ workplace environment that may change the way companies operate from now on? as friedman (2020) argues: [t]he more sequestered the population is, the less efficient the economy becomes not merely for financial reasons but also because to produce things, even ideas, workers must be at their jobs, goods must be moved freely and so on. the coronavirus is frightening, but a recession that is more than just a cyclical event is also frightening, for it can extract a massive social cost as jobs are lost, banks fail and so on. the sequestration of larger and larger groups of the population cannot become a long-term feature of society without repercussions. (p. 49) as the pandemic evolved, little preparation was possible. and even though from a technical point of view some things are manageable (at least to a reasonable extent), employees’ emotions and the management thereof are a great challenge. organisations are emotional communities with certain social networks (robbins & judge, 2019) and unspoken emotional rules which impact all job behaviours, job performance as well as their customers’ experience (ashkanasy & ashton-james, 2005). this sense of community as well as the sociogram (robbins & judge, 2019) has been broken abruptly, requiring new emotional and networking rules whilst emotional dissonance for employees is increasing. the long-term socio-economic impact of covid-19 pandemic cannot be predicted the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic is clearly a black swan event (taleb, 2007), unpredicted, highly improbable and with significant impact. containing covid-19 has led to closed borders, a severe reduction in manufacturing and an impact to the economy that are likely to result in a global recession or depression. whilst the global financial crisis of 2008 was generally unexpected, with enormous financial impact, the covid-19 pandemic’s impact is likely to be even larger and more pervasive exacerbating poor economic performance in many countries (kamp, 2020). the full economic impact of the pandemic cannot be predicted and will ultimately depend on the spread and ability to contain the virus. whilst orchard (2020) notes that some industries may face an exponential recovery when the virus is contained, others are likely to never recover. the economic impacts are likely to result in a loss of growth because of a constrained consumption because of isolation and lack of manufacturing; a severe disruption to labour as business activity reduces, workers are retrenched or furloughed and migrant works can no longer travel and travel of goods and people stops and remains inhibited (orchard, 2020). this is the ‘new normal’ that companies must navigate, embracing agility and innovation, adapting strategy and managing people to ensure resilience and commitment during very uncertain times. organisations are being forced to adapt and innovate. the argument for new ways of work has proliferated in academic and mainstream writing for decades. the covid-19 virus has forced the hand of many organisations to adapt quickly and put into effect theories and debates on remote working, managing teams online, ensuring business continuity through technological innovation. the scale at which this is occurring provides a unique opportunity to change the world of work. the challenge is that this must be balanced against emotional upheaval, uncertainty for health and financial security, sustainability of business services and products and potential slowing in growth because of the medium-term reduction in global trade. organisations need to manage business unusual companies are making business decisions that will impact their sustainability. there is a balance between commitment to staff, and the ability to have a potential recession or depression through difficult cost-saving decisions. companies must manage sustainability by being empathetic and compassionate to employees (zinn, 2020). business is being called on to stay connected to their employees, to retrench at last resort and understand the challenges employees face. at the same time, companies need to ensure that the company remains maintainable through and after the pandemic (deloitte, no date). ultimate sustainability will depend on how well companies are able to manage the changes brought about by the pandemic. are business continuity plans appropriate and reasonable? is leadership able to manage the balance between running the business and managing people? is communication appropriate to the situation: calm and transparent? is reputational risk being considered by how the company is managing the pandemic? at all of these levels, the impact on people cannot be underestimated. executives and leaders are under considerable pressure to maintain the company. larger organisations face stakeholder pressure to contribute towards the pandemic response financially, through business changes (possibly manufacturing health products, ensuring essential services remain operational) and by changing ways of working to accommodate isolation efforts (world economic forum, 2020). unless involved in strictly essential services (health services, banking, food retailers), individual employees, managers and teams are being asked to continue working – but doing so remotely. the constant state of unease and uncertainty of having a job will impact employee well-being, levels of commitment and loyalty. van hoof (09 april, 2020) calls the lockdown the biggest psychological experiment as an estimated 2.6 billion people are isolating. van hoof predicts that stress and burnout are likely to result, with increased absenteeism. she argues that business needs to consider the psychological impact on the mental well-being of employees. companies need to balance these employee pressures against shareholder pressures to retain value. managing (people) costs one of the most common factors business must consider under stress is cost reduction. this may result in retrenchments, furloughing employees or cutting salaries and wages (with or without associated hours of working reduction). maréchal, sebastian and puppe (2013) investigated whether wage cuts damage morale. as the authors argue, staff morale is imperative for workers to remain committed and directed towards achieving the company’s goals. wages are seen as a reflection of the morale and level of commitment. this is especially important when wages are not linked to specific outputs (e.g. a target of x products sewn). the authors found that whilst wage reductions impacted morale and productivity, wage increases had no significant impact on productivity. but would this be the case when the trade-off for employees is retrenchment? and do the co-occurring national feelings of social cohesion, staying at work, assisting society with altruism during a pandemic impact the results? an alternative to wage cuts (which are a cut in financial remuneration without the associated cut in time) is work-sharing arrangements. work sharing is more likely to be used during a crisis such as a pandemic, when the sustainability of the company is financially at risk, but continuing productivity is essential. work sharing includes the reduction of work hours instead of retrenchment. in this way, all workers remain in work, versus a smaller number being layed-off. shelton (2010) argues that work-sharing arrangements may help with employee morale. the compounding impact of isolation, reduced working hours and perceived loyalty to a company during the pandemic would be interesting to ascertain. kiviat (2009; in shelton, 2010) argues that work sharing is preferential to retrenchments as staff who remain employed may have ‘survivor guilt’, impacting morale with emotional contagion and lowering productivity. it may well be the case that the impact of retrenchments on staff who remain would impact productivity and a cost-benefit analysis would need to be considered. as shelton (2010) points out: [f]or employers, the decision between layoffs and an arrangement combining work sharing with short time compensation (stc) may rest on both financial and non-quantifiable factors such as employee morale. some firms may find that the combination of work sharing and stc helps reduce total costs during a downturn; however, other firms may find that layoffs are more cost-effective. (p. 9) time and wages are not the only consideration in managing people costs appropriately whilst ensuring employee morale and loyalty. in a pandemic, it may be the case that employees are more loyal to companies they trust or whose values they align with (singh & gupta, 2015). for instance, isenhour (2006) argues that companies should consider that employees may trade-off job prestige over pay, aligning with their cultural values. the response and adaptation to the pandemic have highlighted and forced new ways of working, some of which have been proposed for some time (bussin, 2017). the impact to employees – psycho-social impact of covid-19 the most pervasive response to the pandemic has been to place countries in lockdown, to recommend or enforce isolation and to quarantine people when at high-risk of being positive to covid-19 disease. in terms of the affective events theory (weiss & cropanzano, 1996), a workplace event (which the impact of the pandemic can be) usually triggers emotional reactions which are reflected in all aspects of work behaviour. the current affective event impacting individuals, groups and the organisation is the covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent state of emergency and lockdown. the challenge managers and employees face is that they are ‘working out of the office and separated from each other for the first time’ (larson, vroman, & makarus, 2020, p. 1). brooks et al. (2020), in a review of psychological literature on quarantine, concluded that the impact of isolation includes post-traumatic stress disorder, negative emotions such as anger and confusion, as well as pervasive feelings of frustration, boredom, fear (health and financial) and stigma. the authors also list mitigants of stress under isolation as communicating in a clear and transparent way with clear deadlines and rationale for the isolation, as well as mental health assistance and support. therefore, if there is a need to make a drastic business decision, from working from home, to a reduction in salaries or hours, to business unit closures, the most important factor is to communicate the decisions and decision-making clearly from leadership to provide certainty to employees. certainty and trust in leadership are linked to greater loyalty and better customer service (chen, zhu, & zhou, 2014; chuang, judge, & liaw, 2012). there are very specific challenges managers and employees might face during this period of forced separation as the emotional bonds between employees have been broken. there is reference in the literature to more stress and eventual burnout because of difficulties in lying down boundaries between home and work (larson et al., 2020), information overload or insufficient information that lead to increased potential for conflict (gallo, 2015), professional isolation and weakening of personal networks (golden, veiga, & dino, 2008), feelings of fear as well as self-doubt (decreased feelings of self-efficacy). brooks et al. (2020) list the following stressors that may exist during isolation/quarantine: duration of quarantine – the longer the isolation, the worse the psychological stress. fear from infection of self or family members. frustration and boredom linked to a change in routine, reduced contact, lack of work if unable to work virtually and reduced ability to do daily activities. inadequate supplies of food, water and health supplies. inadequate information because of either poor government communication, institutional communication or workplace communication. after isolation, the following stressors were reported: financial loss because of changes in work circumstance, potential change in working hours and wages. stigma, especially, if one was exposed to a virus. brooks et al. (2020) argue that transparent and clear communication is essential, assist with supplies, ensure activities continue and promote altruism. as emotions are contagious, it is yet unknown how online or virtual emotions in a time of crises will determine individual, team and organisational mood. it can also be expected that internet trolls could create more emotional turmoil and uncertainty. an internet troll is someone ‘who enters an online discussion and posts comments almost exclusively to upset the discussants or disrupts the conversation’ (shiraev, 2017, p. 433). virtual emotions several scholars (cascio, 2000; clark, karau, & michalisin, 2012; hannay, 2016) reported that individuals with certain personality traits tend to be more suited to work remotely and be part of virtual teams. similarly, not all managers have the required emotional stamina to manage and lead remotely. for example, individuals who are more introvert with a high need for achievement and a lower need for affiliation, preferring sensing in contrast to intuition and thinking instead of feeling, as well as judging instead of perceiving, seem to be more suited for working remotely. the challenge that organisations face is that employees who do not fit this description might experience increased boredom, anxiety, anger, frustration, isolation, despondency and feelings of being misunderstood. it can, therefore, be postulated that some employees adjust easily emotionally during a crises than others. employees’ emotions and moods impact coping behaviour and mental health. this article proposes that employee’s emotional reaction to the current reality could be discussed using an adjusted emotive outlook framework (swart-opperman, 2019) to indicate which emotions could be surfacing during times of crises. an adjusted definition of emotive outlook is the emotional disposition and subsequent psychological and behavioural manifestations when faced with intra-psychological, interpersonal, team, organisational or situational challenges (see figure 1). table 1: emotional constructs context and emotions emerging during crises. virtual teams a virtual team is defined by cascio (2000) as members who interact ‘through some combination of electronic communication system’ (p. 83) working towards an agreed upon goal (robbins & judge, 2019). thus, collaboration is technologically enabled instead of face-to-face interaction. virtual teaming has become a forced reality as team members, often unaccustomed and unprepared for virtual interaction. it is emphasised by hassett, harikkala-laihinen, nummela and raits (2018) that ‘managing emotions and emotionality is one of the most important challenges that organization face for virtual teams (vt’s)’ (p. 167). ashkanasy and ashton-james (2005) also highlight the role that emotion display in groups plays to establish group-cohesion and that ‘emotional expression is an essential social process in group formation and maintenance’ (p. 249). it can be foreseen that the biggest challenge teams will face for the foreseeable future could be attaining cohesion and subsequent group formation and their sense of team efficacy and identity. in their qualitative single case study, 32 virtual team members were interviewed on their experienced emotions during a cross-border acquisition. they reported ‘emotions as moderators of how well the vt perform’ (p. 182) and that team members’ ‘emotions toward virtuality (technology and means of communication) and the emotions that virtuality brings may greatly affect the communication strategy’ (p. 182). even though their study focused on m&a’s, the findings apply to all vt’s as trust is important for team functioning and cultural differences could cause lack of understanding and increased misunderstandings and frustrations amongst team members. shapira (2020) also emphasises the challenge that leaders face whilst communicating to teams during periods of uncertainty and fear. the current reality for forced virtual teams is that immediate performance is required, without being afforded the change to establish virtual relationships, laying down the rules for team member engagement or developing shared mental modes (refer to bonebright [2010] for a complete discussion of the tuckman and jensen [1977] model of small group development). this is also reinforced by salas, priest, stagl, sims and burke (2007) asserting that: [w]e do not have a good understanding of the impact that becoming ‘virtual’ has on team member and team processes and performance. in fact, most of what is currently known has been generalized from research with collocated teams. (p. 430) emotional triggers for virtual team members often arise from a lack of shared context: [y]ou’re not sitting in the same building, experiencing the same weather, seeing the same things – it’s easy to make assumptions about how your colleague feels or why he is acting the way he is. (gallo, 2015, p. 2) conclusion the covid-19 pandemic is sure to change the way we work (the economist, 2020). at the very least, companies are assessing their preparedness for a ‘black swan’ event, the impact to business continuity and how employees and customers have responded. virtual meetings, online collaboration and agile ways of working are becoming normal in workplaces that can use these strategies. organisations are finding new ways to remain connected to their customer base, ensuring that their communication is transparent and clear. the socio-economic impact of the pandemic will last for some time, with shrinking global growth, constrained global trade, but also new areas of innovation and opportunities for fast recovery as the pandemic resolves (the economist, 2020). as companies use this time to innovate, change ways of working, adapt and respond to the impact of the pandemic, so resilience is built. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions both authors contributed equally to this work. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for a research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references ashkanasy, n.m., & ashton-james, c.e. (2005). emotion in organizations: a neglected topic in i/o, but with a bright future. in g.p. hodgkinson & j.k. ford (eds.), international review of industrial and organizational psychology (vol. 20, pp. 221–228). london: john wiley & sons. bonebright, d.a. (2010). 40 years of storming: a historical reviews of tuckman’s model of small group development. human resource development international, 13(1), 111–120. https://doi.org/10.1080/136788610035890999 brooks, s.k., webster, r.k., smith, l.e., woodlands, l., wessely, s., greenberg, n., & rubin, g.j. (2020). the psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. the lancet, 395(10227), 912–920. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30460-8 bussin, m. (2017). organisation design in uber times. randburg: knowledge resources. cascio, w.f. (2000). managing a virtual workplace. academy of management executive, 14(3), 81–90. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2000.4468068 chen, z., zhu, j., & zhou, m. (2015). how does a servant leader fuel the service fire? a multilevel model of servant leadership, individual self-identity, group competition climate, and customer service performance. journal of applied psychology, 100(2), 511–521. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038036 chuang, a., judge, t.a., & liaw, y, j. (2012). transformational leadership and customer service: a moderated mediation model of negative affectivity and emotion regulation. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 21(1), 28–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2010.532911 clark, l.a., karau, s.j., & michalisin, m.d. (2012). telecommuting attitudes and the ‘big five’ personality dimensions. journal of management policy and practice, 13(3), 31–46. deloitte. (no date). covid-19: managing risks and ensuring business continuity. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/cz/en/pages/risk/solutions/covid-zajisteni-kontinuity-cinnosti.htm friedman, g. (2020). george friedman’s thoughts: compromising on corona. retrieved from https://geopoliticalfutures.com/george-friedmans-thoughts-compromising-on-corona/ golden, t.d., veiga, j.f., & dino, r.n. (2008). the impact of professional isolation on teleworker job performance and turnover intentions: does time spent teleworking, interacting face-to-face, or having access to communication-enhancing technology matter? journal of applied psychology, 93(6), 1412–1421. hannay, m. 2016. telecommuting: using personality to select candidates for alternative work arrangements. journal of management and marketing research, 20, 1–12. hassett, m.e., harikkala-laihinen, r., nummpla, n., & raitis, j. (2018). emotions and virtual teams in cross-border acquisitions. individual, relational, and contextual dynamics of emotion in organizations, 14, 163–187. https://doi.org/10.1108/s1746-979120180000014016 isenhour, l.c. (2006). the relations among cultural values, ethnicity, and job choice trade-off preferences. unpublished doctoral dissertation. university of central florida, orlando, fl. kamp, a. (2020). covid-19: economic and socila impact. in w. crous (eds.), managing organisations during the covid-19 vortex. randburg: kr publishing. larson, b.z., vroman, s.r., & makarius, e.f. (2020). a guide to managing your (newly) remote workers (pp. 1–7). retrieved from https://hbr.org/2020/03/a-guide-to-managing-your-newly-remote-workers maréchal, m.a., kube, s., & puppe, c. (2013). do wage cuts damage work morale? evidence from a natural field experiment. journal of the european economic association, 11(4), 853–870. https://doi.org/10.1111/jeea.12022 orchard, p. (2020). assessing the economic effects of the coronavirus. retrieved from https://geopoliticalfutures.com/assessing-the-economic-effects-of-the-coronavirus/ robbins, s.p., & judge, t.a. (2019). organisational behavior (18th edn.). harlow: pearson education limited. salas, e., priest, h.a., stagl, k.c., sims, d.e., & burke, c.s. (2007). work teams in organizations: a historical reflection and lessons learned. in l.l. koppes (ed.), historical perspectives in industrial and organizational psychology (chapter 17, pp. 407–438). new york, ny: psychological press. shapira, h. (2020). how to reassure your team when the news is scary. 05 march. retrieved from https://hbr.org/2020/03how-to-reassure-your-team-when-the-news shelton, a.m. (2010). compensated work sharing arrangements (short-term compensation) as an alternative to layoffs. congressional research services. retrieved from https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/20100203_r40689_1fddbb3a8fbe7008fdbdba79e6b36d8697722bc8.pdf shiraev, e. (2017). personality theories: a global view. london: sage. singh, a., & gupta, b. (2015). job involvement, organizational commitment, professional commitment, and team commitment: a study of generational diversity. benchmarking, 22(6), 1192–1211. https://doi.org/10.1108/bij-01-2014-0007 swart-opperman, c. (2019). today and beyond in strategic human resource management. in d. viljoen (ed.), ifr institute for futures research: south african futures (vol. 3, no. 20, pp. 2– 7). stellenbosch: south africa. swart-opperman, c., & april, k. (2018). innovation team composition: the enabling role of the individual emotive outlook. african journal of business management, 12(12), 357– 371. https://doi.org/10.5897/ajbm2018.8547 taleb, n.n. (2007). the black swan: the impact of the highly improbable. new york, ny: random house. the economist. (2020, april 11). the changes covid-19 is forcing onto business. the briefing. retrieved from https://www.economist.com/briefing/2020/04/11/the-changes-covid-19-is-forcing-on-to-business tuckman, b.w., & jensen, m.a.c. (1977). stages of small-group development revisited. group & organization studies, 2(4), 419–427, december. van hoof, e. (2020, april 9). lockdown is the world’s biggest psychological experiemet – and we will pay the price. world economic forum. retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/this-is-the-psychological-side-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-that-were-ignoring/ weiss, h.m., & cropanzano, r. (1996). affective events theory: a theoretical at work. research in organizational behaviour. retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/covid-responsible-businesses-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/ world economic forum. (2020, march 20). how repsonisble business can step forward to fight coronavirus. retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/covid-responsible-businesses-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/ zinn, s. (2020). foreward. in w. crous (ed.), managing organisations during the covid-19 vortex. randburg: kr publishing. abstract introduction literature review research design results and discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) malebo motshwane department of industrial and organisational psychology, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa annelize van niekerk department of industrial and organisational psychology, college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation motshwane, m., & van niekerk, a. (2022). human capital investment selection criteria: who is worth the investment? sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a2086. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.2086 original research human capital investment selection criteria: who is worth the investment? malebo motshwane, annelize van niekerk received: 22 aug. 2022; accepted: 30 sept. 2022; published: 25 nov. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: employee investment is an important contributor to advancing both the employee and the organisation. using the correct criteria to select employees to participate in a human capital investment (hci) initiative is vital. research purpose: the purpose of the study was to explore the impact of hci within an organisation and to understand how selection criteria are determined and applied when selecting knowledge assets in which to invest. the study also aimed to formulate recommendations on suitable selection criteria for hci beneficiaries. motivation for the study: the ability to effectively identify relevant skills to invest in provides an opportunity to leverage employees’ innovation capacity, crucial in the development of commercial products and the improvement of business processes. research approach/design and method: a qualitative, interpretive research design was adopted within the phenomenological paradigm. eight semistructured interviews were conducted with purposively selected participants. data were analysed using thematic analysis while all ethical protocols were observed. main findings: the findings reveal a disparity in perceptions regarding criteria used in the application and selection process of hci beneficiaries. the findings also reveal the risks and benefits of hci programmes for both the employee and the organisation. practical/managerial implications: standardised procedures, processes and criteria, aligned to organisational strategy and for the purpose of employee development and succession planning, should be clearly formulated and communicated to all the stakeholders. contribution/value-add: recommendations are made to management, human resources practitioners and researchers on ensuring effectively developed hci initiatives. keywords: human capital investment; selection criteria; beneficiaries; knowledge assets; phenomenology; interpretivist paradigm; succession planning. introduction orientation internal organisational factors, as well as the unpredictable nature of external factors, require organisations to be agile and adaptable; however, changing existing modalities and practices remains challenging in most industries (starr et al., 2018; van zyl, 2019). to retain competitive advantage and remain relevant in the ever-changing world of work, it is in the interest of organisations and employees to continuously invest in the development of intellectual capital in order to obtain the necessary competencies to ward off disruptive internal and external factors (sutherland et al., 2015). according to boon et al. (2018), human capital comprises the intangible knowledge assets unique to an employee and it has the potential to substantially impact the achievement of the organisational strategy. consequently, it is of great importance that organisations implement and effectively manage human capital investment (hci) initiatives, as this allows insight into the human capital potential and enables organisations to assess their value-creation potential in relation to their market position and organisational objectives (martin-de castro, 2015). human capital theory posits that formal education, training and employment enable individuals to develop their capability and become empowered and can increase their value-creation potential towards facilitating organisational and economic growth (marginson, 2019; zhang et al., 2016). however, as human capital typically impacts productivity positively (hassan, 2016), the human capital theory also suggests inconsistent results regarding potential return on investment because of uncontrollable factors such as market requirements, technological advancements and artificial intelligence (marginson, 2019). yet it is critical for organisations to identify and effectively manage the fundamental knowledge assets (employees) that drive value and ensure organisational success (martin-de castro, 2015). current literature points to an overemphasis on quantifiable factors such as organisational objectives and strategy, effective leadership and alignment of business and customer needs, instead of considering human capital as a critical driver of success, because it is much more complicated to quantify its impact on monetary loss or gain (adelowotan, 2013; argyle, 2015). however, gamerschlag and moeller (2011) and hassan (2016) believe that a cause-and-effect model of human capital can be used to link human capital to financial performance by measuring employee engagement and performance management trends while monitoring innovation capacity. research purpose and objectives south africa can benefit greatly from economic growth should organisations choose to use hci as an essential tool for building supportive infrastructural capability and meeting market demands by leveraging the capabilities of their employees for organisational and national economic well-being (ilesanmi & tewari, 2017). to remain competitive and keep ahead of the demands of change, employee competency and skill development (key drivers of success) should be strategically aimed at developing and harnessing the most critical skills and talent (bester et al., 2015; boon et al., 2018). yet that alone is not enough. while hci creates and enables an environment in which employees can harness their innovative capacity and contribute meaningfully to the strategic objectives of an organisation, hci also enables employees to realise their personal aspirations (bester et al., 2015; martin-de castro, 2015; zhang et al., 2016). still, this could result in employees choosing to resign and pursue other employment opportunities, thus having no value yield for the organisation’s investment and impacting negatively on the organisation’s competitive advantage (boštjančič & slana, 2018; collings et al., 2019; starr et al., 2018). consequently, starr et al. (2018) propose that hci should be uniquely company specific and not easily transferable to other organisational contexts, resulting in longer tenure (boštjančič & slana, 2018). evidently, the ability to identify the unique yet specific type of human capital needed within the organisation is necessary to unlock the full potential of the organisation and its employees and to increase the innovative capacity of employees to meet both internal and external organisational demands (canibano & potts, 2019; zhang et al., 2016). the findings of this study may assist employers in mitigating their risk of a failed hci initiative, as it will guide effective identification of and investment in the beneficiaries of hci programmes using suitable selection criteria. the latter may contribute substantially towards shortto long-term development of high-potential talent or human capital within the organisation. this study further assists in closing the gap in existing knowledge pertaining to the attainment and accessibility of employee talent and skills. this study will provide a greater understanding of the current selection criteria used, which may be evaluated in comparison to desired or preferred criteria or practices. therefore, this study aimed to answer the following research questions. what is the impact of hci within an organisation and how do the employer and human resources (hr) business partners determine which selection criteria to apply when selecting knowledge assets in which to invest? subsequently, this study explored the impact of hci within an organisation and how the employer and hr business partners determine which selection criteria to apply when selecting knowledge assets in which to invest. this study was therefore aimed at formulating recommendations on how suitable criteria can best be identified and applied by the organisation to select beneficiaries in order to benefit from an hci programme. literature review human capital investment in the context of the growing need for skilled, educated human capital, investing in human capital will enable organisations not only to upskill employees but also to generate scarce skills. in doing so, organisations will be able to regain and maintain a competitive advantage within the markets in which they operate (black et al., 2017; starr et al., 2018). also, organisations that invest in hci enable competency and skills development to become an instrument for establishing powerful workforces known for their inspired, high performance–enabling organisational success (lo et al., 2017). to further conceptualise human capital, the cause-and-effect model of human capital and its perspectives should be further explored (gamerschlag & moeller, 2011). the cause-and-effect model quantifies the impact of human capital on the financial performance of an organisation using a three-factor model consisting of workforce-related factors, company internal factors and company external factors (lo et al., 2017). workforce-related factors are the human factors present in an organisation that enable employees to feel motivated and be committed and competent in doing their work and are the result of a reasonable degree of investment in human capital to enhance employee engagement (gamerschlag & moeller, 2011; starr et al., 2018). company internal forces, or structural capital, are the drivers that enable organisational sustainability through employee performance, stakeholder engagement and organisational culture (gamerschlag & moeller, 2011). company external factors, also referred to as relational capital, signify the position of the organisation relative to its image in the market in which it operates. such an image is built on its reputation and the favourable way in which it is assessed by the context or market in which it operates (starr et al., 2018). the market space in which successful organisations function is known by constant advancement towards bigger and better, increasing its dynamism and demanding agility (najm & manasrah, 2017). to ensure sustainable and relevant human capital development, effective talent management strategies are required that are aligned with the changing context within which the organisation operates (ingram, 2016; lambert et al., 2018; metz et al., 2018). as economies evolved globally, so business had to adapt and embrace mechanisation, automation and electronics as mass production demanded, and more recently digitalisation and artificial intelligence, and adaptation to the fourth industrial revolution and pandemics such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic. therefore, organisations are required to adopt multiple approaches to ensure growth and sustainability (najm & manasrah, 2017; volini et al., 2021). value of human capital investment in organisations the value of hci in organisations is situated especially within the value-creation potential of an employee within the organisational context. human capital investment further forms part of an organisation’s talent management approach with the aim of attracting, developing and retaining human capital aligned with organisational objectives and strategy (ogbari et al., 2018). yet, according to malik et al. (2017), a balanced relationship should be established between the organisation recognising the value-creation potential in its employees and the employee feeling engaged and willing to invest their intellectual capital within and to the benefit of the organisation. consequently, numerous factors impact the value of hci, including employing a transformational leadership style that promotes agility towards leveraging competitive advantage through innovative capacity and intellectual capital enhancement (chitiga, 2018; ingram, 2016). other factors are job satisfaction, employee retention and organisational commitment. employees who experience a high level of job satisfaction and feel the empowered result in greater commitment; higher productivity, quality and innovation levels; well-being; and possibly longer tenure with the organisation because of loyalty (lambert et al., 2015). investing in education and training should be a strategic process in organisations to ensure that the hci is impactful in that it is received positively while developing skills, knowledge and competence towards enhanced productivity and organisational sustainability (ziwei & chunbing, 2020). the talent strategy should include the conceptualisation of talent in relation to organisational and market needs, as it is also a value driver that directly impacts the organisational culture and well-being of employees (najm & manasrah, 2017). also, as talented employees specifically aligned to the strategy and objectives of the organisation usually represent a small percentage of the workforce (boštjančič & slana, 2018), it is important that an hci not only focuses on these employees but encapsulates every employee and deems them worthy to be upskilled and invested in. as sparrow et al. (2015) note, there is no consensus on intellectual boundaries. organisations run the risk of becoming reactive and not attaining their strategic objectives if they do not intentionally evolve knowledge and skills, which are the organisational value creators (metz et al., 2018). selection criteria applied in human capital investment it is well known that subjectivity greatly impacts selection decisions in the workplace, even though research clearly highlights the importance of establishing scientifically based, standardised decision-making practices (villegas et al., 2019). such standardised practices should be founded and based on relevant and effective selection criteria aligned with the organisational strategy (morris, 2015). consequently, several specific factors should be considered when formulating criteria in accordance with which beneficiaries of hci programmes should be selected. firstly, employee performance is an important factor to acknowledge, as it directly impacts whether organisational objectives will be achieved and is a great indicator of the current and future potential of an employee (inuwa, 2016). secondly, as factors such as motivation and job satisfaction influence employee performance, it is important that organisations acknowledge their power and ensure that measures are implemented to ensure healthy levels of motivation, engagement and accountability (inuwa, 2016; lo et al., 2017). thirdly, succession planning is an important element of an effective talent management strategy. it enhances the retention of employees by providing a structured professional development plan and gives the employee purpose, especially when such a plan is well aligned to the organisational strategy and objectives and it is clear to the employees how they contribute and belong within the organisation (rothwell, 2016). finally, selection criteria should be informed by the ability to identify which strategic organisational objectives are directly dependent on employee capability and competence (lo et al., 2017). research design research approach and strategy a qualitative, interpretive research design was adopted for this study, in line with the phenomenological paradigm, as it allowed the researchers to explore the lived experiences and perceptions of the participants (levitt et al., 2018; thanh & thanh, 2015) in terms of the impact of hci within an organisation. a qualitative approach, through the use of semistructured interviews, enabled the researcher to analyse the data through the explanations and experiences of the participants (levitt et al., 2018). this research approach and strategy further enabled insight into how the employer determined which employees (their skills, qualifications, experience and overall potential) to invest in in order to benefit both the employee and the organisation. finally, it allowed for recommendations to be formulated on suitable criteria to select hci beneficiaries. research method research setting the research was situated within a multinational agricultural organisation where the researcher is an employee and became aware of the need to conduct research on how best suitable criteria can be identified and applied by the organisation to select beneficiaries who can benefit from an hci programme. semistructured interviews were conducted with participants operational in several locations across south africa. entrée and establishing researcher roles the research project was planned by both researchers. permission was granted by the organisation to conduct the study, whereafter the first researcher proceeded with the recruitment of participants, conducted the semistructured interviews and transcribed them. the researchers thereafter analysed the data and reported on the findings. the researchers established a relationship of trust with the participants to ensure an ethical research environment. research participants and sampling methods the participants were selected purposively from a population of two groups (that is, leaders and hr business partners) based on various locations nationally, considering a set of predetermined inclusion criteria (howitt, 2019). for group one, the inclusion criteria included leaders on all levels with a minimum of 5 years’ experience, ensuring they had sufficient experience in leading individuals within this organisation. the inclusion criteria for group two were based on them holding the position of hr business partner for a minimum of 3 years, as it was believed to have equipped them with a solid understanding of hci practices and procedures. the sample size consisted of eight participants (six leaders and two hr business partners) and was determined through data saturation, that is, when no new themes emerged from the data analysis (rosenthal, 2016). data collection method considering this study adopted a phenomenological paradigm, semistructured face-to-face interviews were deemed appropriate to gain insight into the subjective lived experiences of the participants of this phenomenon being studied. all the interviews were conducted in a private setting to ensure participant confidentiality and anonymity and lasted approximately 60 min. the interview questions asked were: what is your understanding of the current employee investment programme hosted in this organisation? what is its purpose? how is it coordinated? how is it currently impacting employees who are participating in this program? do you think the company benefits from investing in its employees through an employee investment programme? what criteria do you apply, or is currently applied by the organisation, when selecting employees to invest in? do you think this criterion is effective? (why or why not?) what changes can be made to the current selection criteria to make it more effective? what would the impact (to the company and employees) of such changed criteria have on, firstly, the organisation and, secondly, the beneficiaries participating in such an employee investment programme? data recording the interviews were audio-recorded using a recording device, and the interviewer took notes during the interviews once each participant gave consent for it. the audio recordings were transcribed verbatim. all the electronic copies of the data are password protected, and the hard copies of the data are stored in a secure location for a period of 5 years, whereafter all records will be destroyed. strategies to ensure quality data to ensure trustworthiness and rigour, the criteria of credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability were ensured. credibility was ensured by providing detailed descriptions of the participants’ lived experiences and by categorising the information they shared into themes and subthemes (cope, 2014; sarma, 2015). transferability was realised as the results are proposed to be meaningful, adaptable and transferable to other environments that adopt hci programmes in accordance with prescribed methods of protocols (sarma, 2015). therefore, the study can be replicated in similar contexts in which hci programmes are implemented, also ensuring dependability. the researchers ensured the absence of bias during the data collection, data analysis and reporting phases in order to finally ensure confirmability (amankwaa, 2016). the analysis and verbatim transcriptions used to support the analysis were cross-checked by both researchers to ensure objectivity. data analysis the six phases of thematic analysis were adopted to analyse the data and generate themes (belotto, 2018; howitt, 2019; terry et al., 2017). these six phases are: (1) preparing the data and making impressionist notes on the transcriptions; (2) systematically arranging the data in accordance with key features and common trends and coded in relation to the research aims; (3) generating themes and subthemes based on the codes; (4) using a spreadsheet to collate preliminary themes while following a process of review and modification; (5) refining and defining themes; and (6) forming a concluding analysis of the data and linking it to the research objectives. ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained from the tertiary institution’s research ethics review committee (reference number 2019_cems/iop_003). informed consent was obtained from the participants prior to the data collection. all ethical protocols were observed to ensure participant confidentiality, anonymity and data security; participation was voluntary. reporting style a narrative reporting style was adopted to report on the findings of this research. the themes and subthemes that emerged from the data are illustrated in table 1, and all analysis and interpretation of data are supported with verbatim quotes. pseudonyms are used to differentiate between participants while protecting the anonymity of the participants. the participant number, position, race and gender are indicated. for example, p1, lwf describes participant 1 as leader, white, female. table 1: themes and subthemes. results and discussion outline of the results the general conclusions from the eight semistructured interviews are presented in the results section that follows. the study yielded three main themes, from which numerous subthemes evolved because of the valuable information contained in each theme (see table 1). theme 1: barriers of the human capital investment programme the primary theme that emerged from the data revealed several possible challenges for the hci programme. to better understand the programme, subthemes pertaining to the application and selection process as well as the criteria used to select beneficiaries were investigated. employee willingness, employment contract status, budget from the employer and a supportive environment were also investigated and identified as potential barriers to the hci programme’s efficacy. application process participants seemed to have had a vague awareness of the organisation’s application procedure. it was evident that a standardised application process was not applied. consensus was, however, apparent as it related to the requirement for hr to be involved in the process. participant 6 stated the following: ‘firstly, the employee will have a discussion with the manager to establish alignment, then it will be discussed with hr and it may be discussed with the management peers, and it could go up to a higher leadership level.’ (p6, lif) while acknowledging the inclusion of hr, participant 7 indicated a divergent application procedure: ‘here, the individual basically makes the request via e-mail. that request is escalated to the head of hr for africa. so, some of the information the employee would provide is the cost, duration, and content of the course, uhm, and the head of hr would make a decision based on that and whether the course is budgeted for and approved by the manager.’ (p7, hrif) it is evident that the participants each had unique perceptions about the procedures followed while applying to an hci programme. there was no shared knowledge of the organisation’s actual procedure. unfortunately, this reflects poorly on the visibility of communication channels within the organisation. ogbari et al. (2018) contend that awareness is a crucial element that contributes to establishing strategic success in an organisational setting. an environment that promotes knowledge and resource access is likely to benefit from having an engaged workforce (renard & sneglar, 2017). therefore, it is essential that the organisation pursues tactics to enable hci programme stakeholders to agree on a global and validated application process. selection process factors such as performance and potential impact were considered in the selection process. as participant 4 put it: ‘for me, in this department, the way we do it with the team here locally, we look at the person’s performance, impact that he has in the department and then obviously, potential.’ (p4, lwm) similarly, participant 6 said: ‘based on his performance there then you can say that he has earned the right to receive financial support from the company because he is showing willingness and competence.’ (p6, lif) criteria it appears that the criteria used to select beneficiaries of the hci programme were unstructured. the potential ineffectiveness of the investment programme selection criteria was reiterated from several perspectives, and this revealed a lack of consistency. participant 1 believed that the selection criteria were too ambiguous and said: ‘for me the current criteria that we have is very vague. i don’t think there is a standard.’ (p1, lwf) participant 4 offered an account of inconsistency in the selection criteria: ‘there’s a lot of people that’s done mbas and there’s a lot of people that’s been declined mbas or further studies and the reasons given, to me, is very wishy washy. some of it was “there’s no budget”, others were that people are not in a leadership position, and things like “i don’t think it will have an impact on your current position”, and for me that is very short sighted.’ (p4, lwm) the hr representatives outlined the standards or requirements that employees had to meet to be selected for an investment programme. they believed that working for the organisation for a full year was the minimum requirement for consideration in an investment programme. in the words of participant 7: ‘the employee needs to be employed permanently for 12 months … so, i think those are the two main things that we look at. sorry, there were three: readiness, capability, and willingness.’ (p7, hrif) it was also evident that an employee’s performance and other factors could play a significant role in determining whether he or she was admitted to an hci programme. participant 8 thoughtfully posited the following questions: ‘what we take into consideration is whether someone has been employed with us for a year. are they a good performer? are they studying something that can add value to the business? and do we have a plan to develop them in the company?’ (p8, hrwf) the findings of the study point to a selection procedure and criteria that demanded precision and measurable standards on which the organisation could base its choices. villegas et al. (2019) claim that selecting which employees will benefit from a certain programme is usually a subjective process. unfortunately, using subjectivity in a selection process exposes the organisation to the possibility of bias and/or bad judgement (villegas et al., 2019). however, the results indicate that certain controls were in place to guide the application of the selection criteria. the performance, perceived value addition and willingness of recipients were considered. these results are consistent with those of onekelix et al. (2016), who postulate that companies are more likely to make investments in employees who show aptitude and inventiveness. employee willingness there was a perception that not all employees had the desire to advance beyond their current roles, while others may have demonstrated a lack of interest because of external causes. participant 5 claimed the following: ‘someone might have good potential, but they are not willing … the onus is also on the employee because you can take the horse to the river, but you can’t make it drink the water. it’s up to the employee.’ (p5, lbf) participant 6 added: ‘some people are comfortable. there are people who don’t want to be managers but are okay with staying where they are forever. there are people who want to be influential leaders, but others don’t.’ (p6, lif) according to grobler et al. (2018), job satisfaction refers to how content a person is with their work and may also be measured by how involved they are in their daily tasks. the results indicate that leaders believed not all employees were engaged in hci programmes or expressed a desire to advance into new roles. thus, it can be concluded that employees who showed little interest in hci programmes may have been somewhat content with their occupations. alternatively, employees who chose not to develop their skills through training with the possibility of promotion or movement within the organisation may have been disengaged or undermotivated at work, indicating normative commitment – a commitment to the organisation that is solely marked by obligation (thakur & malhotra, 2019). employment contract status several leaders agreed that nonpermanent employees were valuable contributors to the organisation, yet hci programmes did not account for them. participant 2 stated: ‘it’s [the existing employee investment programme] effective for permanent people, but it’s not effective for good talent that’s contract or temporary workers.’ (p2, lwf) participant 3 added: ‘we have such excellent talent that’s temporary workers. to keep such talent, we need to also develop them. they are giving just as much to the company as the permanent people. we should be able to decide if we [leaders] want to invest in them or not.’ (p3, lbf) a leader observed that while certain employees may not have had the motivation to advance themselves, those with the desire may not have been able to receive assistance from the organisation because of their employment status. participant 3 said: ‘with regard to the contractors and the permanent as well, that’s a barrier: that the company only limits sponsorship to full-time employees. you might find that a minority of employees [full-time] are not interested in studying but those that are eager or have the drive to study are contract workers … and they [contractors] are limited because of their employment conditions.’ (p3, lbf) the results suggest that certain employees may not have had access to hci programmes because of certain constraints. this likely had a negative impact on morale and/or employee engagement, as worthy employees may have been excluded from hci programmes owing to factors beyond their control. employees who believe they are being treated unfairly at work are less likely to be motivated and willing to take part in organisational activities (tung & dung, 2018). budget some leaders believed that they should have had the autonomy to influence the allocation of funds for employees’ additional education and training, irrespective of their employment status. participant 4 said: ‘we always put in a budget for it [further education] to make sure money is available.’ (p4, lwm) participant 2 added: ‘and there, i think, it might be a touchy subject because we might not be able to (budget wise) give everyone opportunities but i do think that if you as a manager has somebody on a contract base in your team that’s really showing excellent talent, i think you should be able to make the call to say, “look, i want to use my budget on that person”.’ (p2, lwf) in opposition to having the ability to influence the allocation of funds, a leader claimed to have no control over the money disbursed to hci programmes. participant 3 claimed: ‘i don’t have direct access to money. they [senior leaders] would be saying this thing of “it’s not in the budget, we would rather budget it for next year”.’ (p3, lbf) employee resistance and a lack of motivation in their work may be signs that they do not feel supported (lambert et al., 2018). thus, it is crucial for the organisation to have a just and consistent hci programme. theme 2: benefits of the human capital investment programme the second theme that emerged from the data pointed to possible benefits of the current hci programme. subthemes related to benefits for both the employer and the employee led to reasonably consistent perceptions of the hci programme’s positive influence or impact. benefits to the employer the data revealed a subtheme related to the benefits of hosting an investment programme for the organisation. participants noted that employees responded favourably to investment opportunities. this suggests the potential for favourable employee engagement and greater loyalty. participant 2 said: ‘we get better buy-in [from employees] when you are implementing a new project or technology because we keep on providing them new opportunities to learn … if you don’t train your people, you’re never going to get those projects off the ground … it’s a reciprocal type of engagement.’ (p2, lwf) similarly, participant 3 said: ‘my thinking would be: “because this company has allowed me to get my post-grad degree, i need to give back by working harder and showing my loyalty”.’ (p3, lbf) participant 7 reasoned by positing the following question: ‘if you’re able to bring in an employee and continue to develop them then you’re more likely to keep them, right?’ (p7, hrif) organisational commitment is characterised as an employee’s loyalty to their employer (malik et al., 2017). the results indicate that employees who benefited from hci programmes were likely to exhibit traits such as a likelihood to perform favourably in their professional roles and display commitment in response to the favourable effects of being invested in. according to ingram (2016), employees who exhibit loyalty to their employers are likely to be pleased with their jobs and the working conditions. thus, a well-received hci programme may contribute to increased job satisfaction among employees. benefits to the employee participants were able to draw on their personal experiences as previous recipients of hci programmes. perceptions of the effects of hci programmes were also conveyed. participant 2 said: ‘being one myself [a beneficiary], it’s really great that the company is willing to invest in you as a person because it’s opportunities that you will not get from a lot of companies. it shows that if you are willing to walk the extra mile, the company will support you … i would never have been in this position if i didn’t continue studying and financially, i could not do it myself. if i didn’t continue up to a master’s, i probably would’ve never been in this role. it makes me feel appreciated.’ (p2, lwf) participant 5 added: ‘what it has done is develop me both personally and professionally … that is the benefit i saw through this type of a programme.’ (p5, lbf) it was perceived that employee engagement influenced morale. in agreement, participant 6 said: ‘i think the company definitely benefits from investing in employees. firstly, it’s the benefit of engagement. it helps with the morale of not only that particular individual, but also the people working with them and around them. the additional skills and knowledge of this person will then benefit the company and broaden the horizons of the individuals.’ (p6, lif) similarly, participant 8 stated: ‘when employees feel supported, we can see it reflects in the overall morale of the staff. they are more willing to participate in initiatives that are not really related to their work and they are generally more engaged with what’s happening in the organisation.’ (p8, hrwf) according to human capital theory, providing employees with education and training opportunities boosts productivity and builds individuals’ intellectual capital (lecounte et al., 2017). the results indicate that participants believed hci recipients were likely to be engaged when the employer invested in their skills (ziwei & chunbing, 2020). participants also acknowledged that because of the opportunities for professional growth provided by the hci programme, employees were likely to advance in their careers. participants further believed that there was a link between morale and engagement as it related to hci programmes. according to pivac et al. (2017), there is a favourable link between donors and recipients of opportunities for education and training within the organisation. employees who receive support from hci programmes are therefore more likely to be motivated and view their workplace favourably. theme 3: risks of the human capital investment programme there are perceived risks to investing in an hci programme. some of these risks relate to the high expense of focused employee development, the possibility of not experiencing a return on investment and the possibility of limited career paths for beneficiaries of the hci programme. retention perceptions on potential risk factors were discussed and linked to the investment’s return or financial and intellectual loss. as participant 4 put it: ‘the investment is very high … i don’t believe we always get the full benefit, especially if people leave the organisation.’ (p4, lwm) participant 8 added: ‘when we choose to support people, there is always the risk that they might not perform if we promote them, they could leave the company, or they could still stagnate. but we can’t really control the outcome once we have made that decision.’ (p8, hrwf) leaders also recognised that without upskilling opportunities, employee retention would suffer. when employees are aware of the skills that can improve their employability, they may be more motivated to acquire those talents. employees may therefore consider leaving an organisation if an employer is unable to provide the right opportunities for development. participant 1 shared the following insight: ‘people in the team study what they can use … the knowledge and the calibre of people we have here is at a very high standard. we’ve got quality and high calibre people that have the experience or got their experience and their training from the company. if you take that away from the company, i think we [the company] might lose people working for us.’ (p1, lwf) similarly, participant 4 noted: ‘i think talented people like the opportunity to develop themselves, and if they don’t get it from this company, they will go get it from somewhere else.’ (p4, lwm) human capital investment programmes cannot ensure beneficiaries’ performance. while it may be difficult to forecast whether a recipient of an hci programme will perform well at work, the situation is comparable to trying to predict whether an employee will remain with an employer once he or she has profited from an investment. limited opportunities perceptions on potential hci programme limitations were expressed in relation to opportunities for development. there was a widespread belief that opportunities for professional progression were limited. participants voiced that it was important to consider alternative means to ensure the retention of employees. participant 4 claimed: ‘in some cases, we don’t have a full career path for some individuals which could be why people choose to leave sometimes. we shouldn’t only look at the immediate benefit to the department, we need to look wider when we consider the benefits.’ (p4, lwm) participant 6 shared the following perspective: ‘look, promotion is not always possible and that can be frustrating for people. that’s why you have to think about ways to keep employees engaged, especially if you know they are good workers.’ (p6, lif) to address the perceived risk associated with the availability of opportunities, participant 8 suggested that the organisation had to inform employees of the need for specific skills and then nurture and support those who expressed an interest: ‘the company has objectives at the end of the day. we should offer people opportunities based on the gap. for example, ai (artificial intelligence) is a field that has boomed but we don’t see people in the business really showing interest, maybe because we haven’t communicated the need for skills like that.’ (p8, hrwf) the findings indicate the perceived risks associated with an hci initiative. although there was a procedure for selecting beneficiaries, it did not ensure employee commitment or a return on the investment made for two reasons: firstly, once they profited from an investment, employees could decide to leave the organisation. secondly, if the organisation did not create provisions to support their development with career path planning, employees may not have been able to put their newly acquired information or skills into practice. although the organisation was unable to ensure that employees would have access to opportunities for vocational growth, leaders and hr business partners believed that employees were assets worth investing in. practical implications understanding the criteria for selecting hci programme beneficiaries and learning the steps that the business takes to determine which employees are eligible for hci opportunities were the two main goals of the study. the results imply that several ongoing impediments detracted from the success of the organisation’s hci programme. benefits that pertained to both the organisation and the employee were discovered, even though the barriers revealed inefficiencies in the hci programme. despite any potential advantages of the hci programme, risks are highlighted in the study’s findings. a summary of the findings (figure 1) is offered to illustrate the pertinent themes and implications discussed in the findings section of this article. figure 1: summary of findings. barriers of the hci programme have implications on the application process, selection process, criteria, employee willingness or interest, employee contract status and budgets. the benefits of the hci programme influence both employers in terms of buy-in and loyalty, as well as the employees pertaining to their skills and knowledge gain, promotion, engagement and morale. there are also some risks involved in an hci programme such as retention and limited opportunities. in conclusion, the findings clearly indicate a need for standardised procedures, processes and criteria that should be aligned with the organisational strategy and subsequently required employee performance outcomes. such standardised procedures, processes and criteria should be developed and clearly formulated together with all the stakeholders while keeping the purpose of employee development and succession planning in mind. then, it remains the organisations’ responsibility to ensure that the hci is clearly communicated to all the stakeholders. limitations and recommendations the study has three significant limitations. firstly, the study only examined a small subset of the participants’ perspectives within an agricultural organisation. the organisational context may have included elements that affected the participants’ impressions. secondly, the results cannot be applied to other organisational environments. finally, the study only evaluated hr business partners and leadership perspectives within the organisation. it is possible that including the perspectives of hci programme participants or employees would have provided a valuable viewpoint to the study. the first recommendation is directed at hr business partners and relates to enhancing hci programmes. by making sure that the selection and application processes are uniform for all employees, hci programmes can be improved. in addition, it is crucial that selection criteria informed by hci programme stakeholders (leaders, hr business partners and hci beneficiaries) are impartial, precisely stated and well communicated. the employer is the target of the second recommendation. leaders are urged to focus their efforts on making sure that employees are interested and aware of hci within the organisation. in addition, it is advised that leaders become involved in the selection criteria and ensure that impartial procedures are followed when selecting the recipients of hci programmes. while it remains the responsibility of each employee to take ownership of their own growth and development, organisations should create an environment that encourages and fosters a culture of learning and enables and supports further training and education to also attract and retain the skills needed for the organisation to succeed. finally, it is advised that future research and development on the subject of this study take into account the perspectives of hci programme participants and that a follow-up study be carried out once all the potential areas for improvement have been addressed. such studies should also be expanded to include other industries. a supplementary study should be conducted with the aim of ensuring that best practices are applied; that the experience of investment programmes hosted by the organisation is favourable for both the employer and the employees; and that the procedure for selecting beneficiaries is standardised, open to all the employees and understood by all the parties involved. conclusion in conclusion, the following important components should be present when determining selection criteria: the employee’s ability to demonstrate potential through their performance; the employer’s ability to indicate how investing in employees will serve the interests of the business; the capability of the employer to validate how the selection of beneficiaries may influence engagement, motivation and job satisfaction and in so doing increase the likelihood of an invested commitment to the organisation. the results of the empirical study shed light on how hr business partners and leaders view hci programmes and their implementation in the context of the organisation. the inefficiencies observed with the hci programme that was studied were largely caused by subjective, ill-defined selection criteria that were not adequately explained. however, there are acknowledged advantages to hci programmes that benefit both the employer and the employee. finally, hci programmes – whether successful or inefficient – are exposed to potential risks that may influence both the organisation and the employee and necessitate specialised risk-reduction measures. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions both authors contributed equally to this article. ethical considerations ethical clearance was granted by the university of south africa (unisa) college of economic and management sciences and industrial–operational psychology (2019-cems/iop-003). funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references adelowotan, m.o. (2013). human capital disclosure in corporate annual reports. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of south africa. amankwaa, l. (2016). creating protocols for trustworthiness in qualitative research. journal of cultural diversity, 23(3), 121–127. retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rzh&an=118362617&site=ehost-live&scope=site argyle, v.a. (2015). recognising human capital as an asset: the potential influence on decision making. unpublished master’s thesis, north-west university. belotto, m.j. (2018). data analysis methods for qualitative research: managing the challenges of coding, interrater reliability, and thematic analysis. the qualitative report, 23(11), 2622–2633. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2018.3492 bester, j., stander, m.w., & van zyl, l.e. (2015). leadership empowering behaviour, psychological empowerment, organisational citizenship behaviours and turnover intention in a manufacturing division. sa journal of industrial psychology, 41(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v41i1.1215 black, a., craig, s., & dunne, p. (2017). capital intensity, employment and sustainability in the south african manufacturing sector. in trade and industrial policy strategies conference, june 2017 (pp. 1–32). school of economics, university of cape town. boon, c., eckardt, r., lepak, d.p., & boselie, p. (2018). integrating strategic human capital and strategic human resource management. the international journal of human resource management, 29(1), 34–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1380063 boštjančič, e., & slana, z. (2018). the role of talent management comparing medium-sized and large companies – major challenges in attracting and retaining talented employees. frontiers in psychology, 9, 1750. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01750 canibano, c., & potts, j. (2019). toward an evolutionary theory of human capital. journal of evolutionary economics, 29(3), 1017–1035. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00191-018-0588-y chitiga, m. (2018). an exploration of the implications of transformational leadership behaviors on empowering employees and transforming organisations. african journal of public affairs, 10(1), 60–82. retrieved from https://0-hdl-handle-net.oasis.unisa.ac.za/10520/ejc-e5e38a437 collings, d.g., mellahi, k., & cascio, w.f. (2019). global talent management and performance in multinational enterprises: a multilevel perspective. journal of management, 45(2), 540–566. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206318757018 cope, d.g. (2014). methods and meanings: credibility and trustworthiness of qualitative research. oncology nursing forum, 41(1), 89–91. https://doi.org/10.1188/14.onf.89-91 gamerschlag, r., & moeller, k. (2011). the positive effects of human capital reporting. corporate reputation review, 14(2), 145–155. https://doi.org/10.1057/crr.2011.11 grobler, b.r., moloi, k.c., & van tonder, e.o. (2018). relationship between perceived organisational support, job satisfaction and organisational citizenship behaviour in a public service organisation. journal of public administration, 53(4), 828–848. retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-1723fa7c48 hassan, r. (2016). the role of human capital management in enhancing engagement and retention among top talent in organization: a critical literature review. journal of emerging economies and islamic research, 4(4), 54–67. https://doi.org/10.24191/jeeir.v4i4.9103 howitt, d. (2019). introduction to qualitative research methods in psychology: putting theory into practice (4th ed.). pearson. ilesanmi, k.d., & tewari, d.d. (2017). energy consumption, human capital investment and economic growth in south africa: a vector error correction model analysis. opec energy review, 41(1), 55–70. https://doi.org/10.1111/opec.12094 ingram, t. (2016). relationships between talent management and organizational performance: the role of climate for creativity. entrepreneurial business and economics review, 4(3), 195–205. https://doi.org/10.15678/eber.2016.040315 inuwa, m. (2016). job satisfaction and employee performance: an empirical approach. the millennium university journal, 1(1), 90–103. retrieved from http://www.themillenniumuniversity.edu.bd/journal/index.php/tmuj/article/view/10 lambert, e.g., qureshi, h., frank, j., klahm, c., & smith, b. (2018). job stress, job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment and their associations with job burnout among indian police officers: a research note. journal of police and criminal psychology, 33(2), 85–99. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-017-9236-y lecounte, j.f., prieto, l.c., & phipps, s.t. (2017). ceo succession planning and organizational performance: a human capital theory approach. journal of leadership, accountability and ethics, 14(1), 46–57. retrieved from https://www.articlegateway.com/index.php/jlae/article/view/1613/1533 levitt, h.m., bamberg, m., creswell, j.w., frost, d.m., josselson, r., & suárez-orozco, c. (2018). journal article reporting standards for qualitative primary, qualitative meta-analytic, and mixed methods research in psychology: the apa publications and communications board task force report. american psychologist, 73(1), 26–46. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000151 lo, m.c., mohamad, a.a., ramayah, t., abdullah, m.a., & lim, m.c. (2017). the role of knowledge management on organisational effectiveness: organisational culture as the moderator. international journal of business and society, 18(4), 808–818. retrieved from http://www.ijbs.unimas.my/images/repository/pdf/vol18-s4-paper19.pdf malik, w.u., javed, m., & hassan, s.t. (2017). influence of transformational leadership components on job satisfaction and organizational commitment. pakistan journal of commerce and social sciences, 11(1), 147–166. retrieved from https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/188286/1/pjcss363.pdf marginson, s. (2019). limitations of human capital theory. studies in higher education, 44(2), 287–301. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2017.1359823 martin-de castro, g. (2015). knowledge management and innovation in knowledge-based and high-tech industrial markets: the role of openness and absorptive capacity. industrial marketing management, 47, 143–146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2015.02.032 metz, d., ilies, l., & hörmann, b.o. (2018). the impact of human resources management system effectiveness on performance. annuals of the university of oradea, economic science series, 27(1), 471–478. retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsu&an=134350095&site=ehost-live&scope=site morris, c. (2015). an industry analysis of the power of human capital for corporate performance: evidence from south africa. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 18(4), 486–499. https://doi.org/10.17159/2222-3436/2015/v18n4a4 najm, a., & manasrah, a.k. (2017). the effect of talent management on organizational performance: applied study in jordanian banks. review of applied socio-economic research, 13(1), 36–51. https://doi.org/http://reaser.eu/archives.php ogbari, m.e., onasanya, y.a., ogunnaike, o.o., & kehinde, o.j. (2018). talent management as a determinant of firm performance: a conceptual approach. business & social sciences journal, 3(1), 21–32. retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-105865ef90 onekelix, j., manolova, t.s., & edelman, l.f. (2016). the human factor: investments in employee human capital, productivity, and sme internationalization. journal of international management, 22(4), 351–364. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2016.05.002 pivac, s., barać, ž.a., & tadić, i. (2017). an analysis of human capital investments, profitability ratios and company features in the eu. croatian operational research review, 8(1), 167–180. https://doi.org/10.17535/crorr.2017.0010 renard, m., & snelgar, r.j. (2017). positive consequences of intrinsically rewarding work: a model to motivate, engage and retain non-profit employees. southern african business review, 21(1), 177–197. retrieved from https://0-hdl-handle-net.oasis.unisa.ac.za/10520/ejc-8e0defabe rosenthal, m. (2016). qualitative research methods: why, when, and how to conduct interviews and focus groups in pharmacy research. currents in pharmacy teaching and learning, 8(4), 509–516. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cptl.2016.03.021 rothwell, w.j. (2016). effective succession planning: ensuring leadership continuity and building talent from within (5th edn.). harper collins publishers, amacom. sarma, s.k. (2015). qualitative research: examining the misconceptions. south asian journal of management, 22(3), 176–191. retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsu&an=110908596&site=ehost-live&scope=site sparrow, p., hird, m., & cooper, c.l. (2015). do we need hr? repositioning people management for success. palgrave macmillan. starr, e., ganco, m., & campbell, b.a. (2018). strategic human capital management in the context of cross-industry and within-industry mobility frictions. strategic management journal, 39(8), 2226–2254. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2906 sutherland, m., naidu, g., seabela, s., crosson, s., & nyembe, e. (2015). the components of career capital and how they are acquired by knowledge workers across different industries. south african journal of business management, 46(4), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajbm.v46i4.104 terry, g., hayfield, n., clarke, v., & braun, v. (eds.). (2017). the sage handbook of qualitative research in psychology (2nd edn.). sage. thakur, a., & malhotra, m. (2019). do work values influence organization commitment? journal of strategic human resource management, 8(3), 1–9. retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsu&an=138077991&site=ehost-live&scope=site thanh, n.c., & thanh, t.t. (2015). the interconnection between interpretivist paradigm and qualitative methods in education. american journal of educational science, 1(2), 24–27. retrieved from http://www.aiscience.org/journal/ajes tung, p.d.h.t., & dung, p.d.n.t. (2018). the sense of fairness in attitudes of treatment at the workplace and working motivation of the lecturers. international journal of education and research, 6(9), 57–70. retrieved from http://www.ijern.com/ van zyl, l.e. (2019). enhancing scientific credibility: an open science strategy for the south african journal of industrial psychology. sa journal of industrial psychology, 45(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v45i0.1768 villegas, s., lloyd, r.a., tritt, a., & vengrouskie, e.f. (2019). human resources as ethical gatekeepers: hiring ethics and employee selection. journal of leadership, accountability and ethics, 16(2), 80–88. https://doi.org/10.33423/jlae.v16i2.2024 volini, e., hatfield, s., & schoble-williams, n. (2021). from survive to thrive: the future of work in a post-pandemic world. deloitte. zhang, s., loaiza, e., & snow, r. (2016). sub-national estimates of human capital indicators: localizing investments for the demographic dividend. african population studies, 30(2), 2376–2392. https://doi.org/10.11564/30-2-842 ziwei, y., & chunbing, x. (2020). education, employment and human capital investment in china: reality and expectation. china economist, 15(2), 77–91. https://doi.org/10.19602/j.chinaeconomist.2020.03.06 8-groenewald.qxd “unlike other forms of capital – land, equipment, labor and money – … [t]here is always a new idea waiting to be discovered – new ways of doing things, new products, new strategies, new markets” (mcelroy, 2000, p. 195). because knowledge is theoretically infinite, the aim is to get to the next important discovery first. according to karamuftuoglu (1999), the knowledge-based economy, alternatively called innovation economy or information society, heralds the start of a period where humans will be liberated from mundane and often dangerous work. the knowledge-based economy will enable humans to channel their potential to more creative and challenging tasks. knowledge is the ‘capital’ of the global information society. the knowledge economy is an emergent reality, because no nation can any longer depend on its ability to acquire and convert raw materials (laszlo & laszlo, 2002; mehra, 2001). megill (1997) states that in the electronic age, information is an asset that must be managed like all other assets. information is created, stored, kept and used; it can be sold and traded; and it can be used and reused. when other assets are used for a specific purpose it can usually not be used for another. “information, however, is different. shared information is not lost. in fact, when information is shared and put into context, it often gains value for the creator as well as for the person with whom it is shared. information is not only not a depletable resource, it is one that grows and thrives with use” (p. 2). information grows and prospers in an environment in which it is shared, used and reused. the better an organisation is able to share its information, the more valuable that information becomes. knowledge has emerged as a critical factor in controlling the global economy (laszlo & laszlo, 2002; mehra, 2001). the significance of knowledge creation, learning, and innovation to the knowledge economy therefore cannot be underestimated. with the drastic increase in electronic documentation, an electronic document management system with reliable storage and backup procedures is essential. the potential weak link is the human element and therefore a burning people management issue. according to mcelroy (2000, p. 195) “corporate knowledge is now being viewed as the last and only sustainable untapped source of competitive advantage in business”. alternative terms to corporate knowledge include intellect ual capital, intellect ual propert y, knowledge assets, or business intelligence. in this regard dove (1999, p. 1) post ulates that “new knowledge has no value until it is applied”, and when it is, it introduces change into the environment, which generates value. within the context of corporate knowledge as competitive advantage dove (1999), meredith and francis (2000) and vernadat (1999) propose the term ‘agility’, for example an ‘agile enterprise’ or ‘agile manufact uring’. dove associates the word agile with cats – both physically adept at movement and also mentally adept at choosing the appropriate movement in a given sit uation. vernadat (1999, p. 37) defines agilit y as “the abilit y to closely align enterprise systems to changing business needs in order to achieve competitive performance”. meredith and francis (2000) support this definition by stating that in order to retain a competitive advantage, an enterprise needs to be aware of, and creatively respond to many elements within the compet it ive environment. similar to vernadat’s definition, dove regards organisational agilit y as the abilit y of an organisat ion to thrive in a cont inuously and unpredictably changing environment. as a result of the escalat ing pace of knowledge development and the concomitant knowledge-value decay, organisations need to develop competence in knowledge agilit y. an over emphasis on knowledge management results in an organisational state of ‘muscular rigidit y’. an overemphasis on the abilit y to respond results in involuntary sudden and violent organisational ‘muscular contractions’ or sudden convulsive movements. kraak (2000) also highlights the paradoxical state of net working or co-operation on the one hand and competition on the other. this striving to achieve a fine balance is illustrated in figure 1. thomas groenewald programme in leadership in performance and change department of human resource management rand afrikaans university tgroenew@tsa.ac.za abstract this case study serve as exemplar regarding what can go wrong with the implementation of an electronic document management system. knowledge agility and knowledge as capital, is outlined against the backdrop of the information society and knowledge economy. the importance of electronic document management and control is sketched thereafter. the literature review is concluded with the impact of human resource management on knowledge agility, which includes references to the learning organisation and complexity theory. the intervention methodology, comprising three phases, follows next. the results of the three phases are presented thereafter. partial success has been achieved with improving the human efficacy of electronic document management, however the client opted to discontinue the system in use. opsomming die gevalle studie dien as voorbeeld van kan verkeerd wat loop met die implementering van ’n elektroniese dokumentbestuur sisteem. teen die agtergrond van die inligtingsgemeenskap en kennishuishouding word kennissoepelheid en kennis as kapitaal bespreek. die literatuurstudie word afgesluit met die inpak van menslikehulpbronbestuur op kennissoepelheid, wat ook die verwysings na die leerorganisasie en kompleksietydsteorie insluit. die metodologie van die intervensie, wat uit drie fases bestaan, volg daarna. die resultate van die drie fases word vervolgens aangebied. slegs gedeelte welslae is behaal met die verbetering van die menslike doeltreffendheid ten opsigte van elektroniese dokumentbestuur. die klient besluit egter om nie voort te gaan om die huidige sisteem te gebruik nie. electronic document management: a human resource management case study requests for copies should be addressed to: t groenewald, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 54 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (1), 54-62 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (1), 54-62 knowledge has been found to be a substantial influential factor with regard to the accelerated pace and magnitude of economic growth (mehra, 2001). consequently, the concept of knowledge sharing and the use of knowledge have changed. knowledge is preserved as capital and transformed by entrepreneurs into income and wealth. knowledge remains capital as long as it remains the property of either an individual or an organisation. karamuft uoglu (1999) highlights a number of key characteristics of knowledge: � once produced it can easily be reproduced and transmitted at low cost; � it can never be consumed or depleted; � to maintain a monopoly of knowledge is extremely difficult and knowledge tends to flow into the public domain; and � therefore knowledge only retains an exchange value (price) as long as it is protected by, for example, copyright or patents. to remain competitive, an organisation needs to continuously develop new knowledge. the smallest unit of knowledge generation (according to mehra, 2001) is the individual. he therefore concludes that knowledge resides as human capital. against the preceding background of the electronic age, the knowledge-based economy, the importance of knowledge agility and the need for continuous knowledge development, the key aspects of electronic document management systems (edms) are next presented. electronic document management and control the purpose of edms is to manage and control all electronic documentation – whether word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics or e-mail messages through their life cycle. it enables an organisation to ensure the availability of information wherever it is needed. it also ensures the security of electronic documents through version control, audit trails for each document, and by controlling access to documents via various security levels. edms manage and control all unstructured information – that is, informat ion in for example word processing documents, presentation packages, spreadsheets, e-mail, graphics – in one single database accessible through a single interface. it gives companies the abilit y to ensure the availabilit y of information whenever it is needed and ensures document integrit y. it further avoids or limits duplication of effort already undertaken. just as there are standard procedures to manage and control paper documents and records, suitable procedures should be implemented to manage electronic documents throughout their life cycle. the control offered by an edms also ensures document integrit y. document integrit y includes the abilit y to identif y and access records over time, as well as ensuring that the document is the authentic master copy/authoritative version. a document has integrit y when it can be shown that the document has not changed, without going through the proper channels. this is very difficult to do where electronic files are concerned. it is easy to open a file and change it without anyone knowing. with an edms, document integrit y will be ensured, since audit trails can be used as proof that a document is still the authorised copy; securit y will ensure that no unauthorised access can take place; and version control will ensure that the latest, most current or approved version will be easy to identif y. without document management, it will be difficult to prove the integrit y of an electronic document, should a legal need arise. if the act ual electronic document is controlled and can be shown to be controlled, document integrit y can be ensured more easily. there are numerous edms packages on the market. some scanning and storage software packages are marketed as an edms. although real edms differ in the way they are structured and operate, they usually have in common the functionalities given in table 1. electronic document management 55 figure 1: agility = knowledge management + response ability (dove, 1999, p. 2). regarding retrieval and version control mccready & murray (n.d., p. 10) emphasise the time value of money and use the phrase ‘waiting is not free’ with regard to locating existing documents. they also highlight the need for ‘streamlining the review and approval process’ (p. 11) and the importance of ‘ensuring that everyone is working with the latest’ version (p. 12). white (2001, p. 2) shares a horrif ying experience: i have many times come across the situation where the people on the ground actually building a plant or fabricating an item are not working from the latest drawings because they did not know they existed or the document control system failed in some way to deliver the drawings to the people who needed them. according to venter (2002), the national archives of south africa (nasa) have used until very recently, the us department of defence (dod) 5015.2 standard of functional requirements to ensure that records management (rm) applications meet rm requirements. at present, nasa and the state information technology agency (sita) are in the process of compiling specifications for integrated document management systems (idm) as the required standard for electronic records management in the public sector. integrated document management solutions consist of document management, records management, file/document tracking, integrated imaging and scanning, integrated workflow and integrated search and retrieval functionality. these standards are based on international standards, taking the south african context into account, and can be used as guidelines for companies to select the best edms for their needs. regardless of the features and sophistication of the edms in use, the success of sound document and records management, as well as information sharing and knowledge generation remains dependent upon the commitment of the users. the human element, the employees of an organisation that introduced edms, will be considered next. knowledge agility and human resource management the sensitive balance between knowledge management and response abilit y, that is, knowledge agilit y, had been mentioned earlier. edms is an element of knowledge management. bender and fish (2000) assert that knowledge management is a way of working that needs to be imbedded into the work setting, through the organisational strategy, operations design and human resource management. they argue for a change of mind-set from “knowledge = power, so hoard it” to “knowledge = power, so share it and it will multiply” (p. 134). they make a plea for the abandonment of the tradition of knowledge hoarding. because people are at the heart of knowledge management (km), the success thereof depends on an organisation’s ability to manage its employees relative to the organisation’s knowledge management requirements. it not only requires a change in organisational culture (to informality and openness in knowledge sharing), but profound changes in human resource management (hrm) practices – linking both km and hrm to the business strategy (bender & fish, 2000; carter & scarbrough, 2001; farquharson & baum, 2002; hislop, 2003; mink, esterhuisen, mink & owen, 1993; swan, newell, scarbrough & hislop, 1999; yahya & goh, 2002). the hrm practices these authors mention include appraisals, compensation or rewards strategy, decision-making, education, employee relations, empowerment, the design of jobs, job descriptions, leadership, motivation, organisational development, performance-related pay, psychological contracting, recruitment and selection, teamwork, training and groenewald56 table 1 the functionalities of electronic document management systems domain functionality elements/description manage managing the life cycle of documents from creation to sharing, – the document is created on the system. distribution, storing and archiving or disposal. – stored on the system. – accessed through the system. – shared via the system. – archived according to specified retention schedules. – some systems also allow relationships to other documents to be created and shown. check-in/check-out. (documents are ‘checked-out’ while they are being edited so that only one person at a time can work on a document). off-line options. – for files to be exported to laptops, stiffies, memory sticks, modified, and checked back in to the system. – some systems will allow the user to keep working on open documents when the system goes down for some reason, and prompt to synchronise the off-line copy with the on-line copy when the system is back on-line. control security – control access to the system. – control access to the documents. – various types of access to documents (view profile, read only, modif y, change security). version/revision control. (the history of the document). audit trails. identification and metadata – system and customised capturing of metadata. (system metadata are captured automatically by the system and would retrieval include date created/modified, application, location. these data can usually not be modified. customised metadata are captured by the originator, and can include anything the company finds most useful in retrieving documentation, e.g. document type, division, technical order/project number, file number, client.) retrieval – basic and advanced search functionalities. most systems also allow the user to save searches so that they can be rerun with one click. indexing – metadata and usually full text of the documents are indexed for searching. development, and trust. carter and scarbrough (2001) perceive a symbiotic relationship bet ween human resources management and knowledge management. hong (1994) cautions about dissonance of human resource practices (versus knowledge management objectives) going undetected. hislop (2003) draws attention to a disjuncture between the rhetoric and the reality with regard to employment practices and points out indicators such as turnover and job security impacting negatively on km. the actual edms document stat us (explicit knowledge) does not take into consideration the tacit knowledge (hislop, 2003, p. 184; yahya & goh, 2002) “possessed by people (embrained and embodied …) and … locked in the human mind”. in order to make this knowledge explicit, through either codification or personalisation, there must be a willingness to do so (carter & scarbrough, 2001). the human resource processes should encourage and give recognition tacit knowledge made explicit. mcelroy (2000) points out that three otherwise separate communities of hrm practice are converging, because they share an intrinsically co-dependant view of km. the communities involved in the meeting of minds are: � the budding second km generation, � the advocates of the learning organisation and systems thinking, and � the supporters of the applications of complexity theory in business enterprises. laszlo and laszlo (2002), mcelroy (2000), and senge (1990) differentiate bet ween t wo generations of km. the first generation focused on information indexing, retrieval and dissemination, usually through technolog y. the second generation is about sustainable creation, transfer and dissemination of corporate knowledge. whereas firstgeneration km concentrated on standards and benchmarks (imitation), the second promotes education and innovation. the second generation km practitioners complain that firstgeneration km largely “amounted to little more than a re-hash of yesterday’s ‘information management’ schemes”, which “have had little to do, if anything, with knowledge, per se” (mcelroy, 2000, p. 199). however, karamuftuoglu (1999) points out that retrieval, of especially previously unnoticed connections, still has a contribution to make regarding knowledge creation. the first wave of km has been about repackaged information capturing, storage, access and retrieval systems sold under the guise of km. the first generation km schemes were about the enhancement of day-to-day business process performance. first generation km is all about delivering information to support a task. however, parker (1999) emphasises the importance of km and the ability to recreate the organisation and its work from scratch after disasters such as the destruction of the twin towers on 11 september 2001, new york. to the ‘km consortium’, a think-tank of km practitioners that holds an unconventional view, the management of knowledge has nothing to do with computer-based repositories. their view is that “knowledge is the product of natural innovation schemes inherent to all living systems” (mcelroy, 2000, p. 197). they postulate that the evolution of new knowledge will be the natural effect of the existence of conditions in which innovation thrives. their mission is to “crack the secret of innovation” by promoting techniques to enable business “to out-learn, out-innovate, and out-perform their competitors” and to accelerate the production of new knowledge (mcelroy, 2000, p. 197). the advocates of the learning organisation, or organisational learning (ol) practitioners (also known as ‘organolearners’) differentiate bet ween what individuals know and collective knowledge. it is not just individuals, but also organisations that learn. the tension bet ween the t wo st imulates innovation and creativit y. in this regard, yahya and goh (2002) observe that in an individualist ic working environment it is not realistic to expect employees to share knowledge willingly and contribute to the work of colleagues. hislop (2003) cautions that scientists/specialists often regard commitment to a profession more important than commitment to an employer. mcelroy (2000) observes that established ways of doing must make way for more efficient ones. the well-known arie de gues, quoted by mcelroy (2000, p. 199), eloquently made the point “the abilit y to learn faster than your compet itors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage”. it would be a mistake to conclude that organisational learning is merely the accumulative result of individual learning (ingelgård, roth, styhre & shani, 2002). although organisations do not have brains they do have cognitive systems and the corporate memory, which preserves behaviours, norms, values and mental maps. ingelgård et al. (2002) further point out that there are three perspectives on organisational learning: � the normative perspective – ol only occurs under a unique set of conditions. � the developmental perspective – where ol is seen as a late stage of organisational development. � the capability perspective – presuming that learning is innate to all organisations, and there is no best way for all organisations to learn. complexit y theory (or more precisely, the science of complexity) is the study of emergent order in what appear to be disorderly systems. “spirals in whirlpools, funnels in tornadoes, flocks of birds, schools of fish – these are all examples of orderly behavior in systems that are neither centrally planned nor centrally controlled. how and why such coherence emerges in complex systems is a mystery. nevertheless, understanding its influence on the performance of human organizations could lead to major gains in the conduct of human affairs, especially business” (mcelroy, 2000, p. 196). business enterprises are seen as just another group of complex systems because they display similar behaviours as those found in weather systems or animal populations. business enterprises are living systems and should therefore be managed accordingly. macintosh and maclean (2001) observed from a complexity theory perspective that system patterns are stable until they reach a critical threshold, the bifurcation point. at this point the stresses make the system unstable and far-from-equilibrium conditions develop, introducing the possibility of radical, qualitative change. at this point the system becomes open to its environment and susceptible to signals which would have had little impact during equilibrium. the literature review of this article started with a background sketch about the importance of the electronic age and the knowledge-based economy. thereafter the need for knowledge agilit y and continuous knowledge development were highlighted. the key aspects of edms, as an element of km, were presented next. the necessity of parity between hrm practices and knowledge followed thereafter. however, the body of literature transcends good hrm practice and includes (a) knowledge evolution as result of innovative conditions; (b) the necessity of developing a learning organisation; and (c) the importance of regarding organisations as complex living systems that should be managed accordingly. intervention design in contrast to a conventional article on a research undertaking, this article is about a consulting intervention. the intervention was perceived by the client (a research-type organisation) to improve the human efficacy of their edms. ultimately the intervention spanned a period of nine months and comprised electronic document management 57 three phases. the aim of the first phase involved inculcating custodianship, of the commercialisation and business corporate memory and knowledge repository, among the various levels of management and knowledge workers. the custodianship campaign started with a presentation to the client’s management committee to gain their support. during the discussion at the meeting the need for the subsequent phases emanated. markham (1994) cautions that a consultant should be aware of the possibility of a four level hierarchy of an intervention; judge at which level it is necessary to start, and guide the client accordingly. markham’s four levels of intervention are: � purpose: the aims the client had in mind when agreeing to the intervention. � issues: the perceived problem that needed to be addressed and the problem areas that transpired during the duration of the intervention. � solutions: the resolution of the perceived and real problems encountered. � implementation: the governance and chosen intervention methodology to resolve the problem(s). markham (1994) further suggests that a consulting intervention project consists of three major stages, that is, entry, execution and completion. each stage may consist of a number of steps. the entry stage may comprise: � introduction: the consultant needed to familiarise her/himself with the client’s processes, procedures, document management culture and divisional structures. markham (p. 25) calls this unstructured data collection “wallowing”. � contracting entails both clarification of expectations and attaining commitment. � organising which includes the practicalities (the ‘5wh’ — who, when, where, what, why and how) that are key to each level or phase of an intervention, and which should be coupled to the contracting. the execution stage usually includes data collection, analysis, diagnosis and inter vention. however, in reality it very much depends on the nature of the project and the particular level of the phase. the final stage, withdrawal, entails transfer (leaving residual capacity), evaluation (undertaken for quality assurance and credibility purposes), and disengagement. after a period of wallowing, and in consultation with the edms’s administrator, it was proposed to and approved by the project/intervention sponsor that user briefing/training at divisional level could proceed. this would be done in order to inculcate custodianship for the commercialisation and business corporate memory and knowledge repository among the various levels of management and knowledge workers. the following phase 1 deliverables were agreed to: � facilitation of a ‘commercialisation & business edms’ session at the client’s management committee meeting, with the general managers and their respective managers in attendance. this session included: �� a briefing about the importance of corporate intelligence and electronic knowledge management with regards to the client’s transition from being a research and development organisation to being a commercially driven enterprise; �� a work session on the identification of what kinds of documents ought to be captured on the edms; and �� a discussion about the custodian role of managers with regards to the commercial & business corporate memory and knowledge repository. � facilitation of divisional level ‘commercialisation and business edms’ sessions, with the divisional heads and their respective subordinates in attendance. these sessions included: �� a briefing about the importance of corporate intelligence and electronic knowledge management with regards to the client’s transition to being a commercially driven enterprise; �� a demonstration of the basic edms functions and a suggested flow of information within the client; �� a work session on the role of staff with regards to building the commercial and business corporate memory and knowledge repository and sensitisation to determining distribution and access requirements for the divisional edms person; and �� identification of a departmental representative to serve on an edms user group. during phase 1 t wo focused powerpoint presentations were developed, one aimed at the client’s management (which was cleared by the project/intervention sponsor prior to the session) and the other aimed at divisional staff. the divisional presentation included key points with regards to knowledge as capital and the management of knowledge as a key asset of the client. the systems administrator prepared an on-line edms demonstration and a concise handout. the demonstration covered aspects such as accessing a document from an e-mail reference, various searches, various view options, copying and printing out of the edms, document security/access control versus distribution, version control, document audit trails and tips on the most common problems experienced by users. the demonstration followed the introductory presentation, whereafter staff members were given the opportunity to ask questions, raise problems and give commentary. the discussions were facilitated in such way that (a) the line authority of the divisional manager concerned; and (b) the responsibility of staff with regard to electronic document management were highlighted. divisions were further prompted to identif y their key business documents that should be captured on the edms. the discussions were concluded by the election or appointment of a edms representative. however, there are several electronic systems, each used for a specific purpose, in use at the client. during the presentation to the management committee a policy with regard to where different t ypes of documentation should be stored and a consolidation of electronic systems where possible were requested. the working committee that was formed to address the management committee’s request questioned the efficacy of the existing edms; and suggested that various alternatives be explored. this resulted in the t wo additional phases of the intervention: � the deliverable of phase 2 entailed a comprehensive needs analysis report to the client’s informat ion technolog y steering committee, which would ultimately take a decision either to remain with the existing edms or to implement an alternative edms. the needs analysis entailed a survey by means of structured group interviews. it was agreed that the group sessions should ideally include (1) the head of the division, (2) the key knowledge creators and/or key pc users within the division, (3) the information technolog y user group representat ive, (4) the ident ified edms user group representative, (5) the division’s current key edms input person, (6) the administration person(s) dealing with the division’s records, and (7) anybody the manager concerned felt should be present. the consultant further suggested and facilitated, based on the nat ure of the findings, the insertion of commentary regarding the implicat ions of the perceived needs, from the knowledgeable informat ion scient ists. the survey findings, supplemented with counter arguments by information scientists, were presented to the client’s information technolog y steering committee. � phase 3 involved an in-depth comparison of the existing edms to another proposed by the working committee, and guidelines from the national archives of south africa on selecting an edms. groenewald58 the intervention the client, as research and development organisation, not only relies on knowledge as capital for survival in the global economy, but also has a responsibility towards its stakeholders and clients to keep this knowledge in a safe repository. during 1999 the client recognised the increasing need to manage electronic documents and investigated various edms packages. at the time the client’s information systems were largely paperbased and all documentation related to a project often not filed consistently, with the result that important information were at times unavailable or lost. entire files sometimes went missing, because file tracking was not automated and monitored. the client further wanted to improve the productivity of its research staff, as well as cut down on its large volumes of paper usage. the client wanted to ensure that all relevant information generated was retained and easily accessible to those who have the applicable access rights. during 2 – 6 august 1999 the then local edms supplier carried out various functional specification meetings at the client and customised the software accordingly. from the functional specification meetings held, it became evident that there was no structure within the client with regard to saving electronic documentation, and that each division or individual saved their documentation in their own peculiar format of choice. the supplier expressed their concern in this regard and pointed out that there would need to be strong discipline from the users to input the necessary information. since the inception of the edms at the client, the aim had been to capt ure the most important technical documentation (mostly reports to clients). however, with a rapidly decreasing research funding, the client had had to generate an increasing income from business ventures. the result was a drastic increase in business-related documentation, which was not yet captured on the edms. the intervention would serve to impress on managers and staff, not only the importance of edms, but also the importance of capturing all documentation – including work-in-progress and business documents – for commercial viability. a substantial body of documents (about 4200) had been saved to the edms over the t wo and a half years prior to the intervent ion. however, it appears as if document management at the client depend largely on the insistence (or lack thereof) of the secretaries or divisional administration officers, and also on the information & communications division, which is responsible for the administration and maintenance of the system. executive management through to research and development staff, as the knowledge leaders, were for the most part apathetic about the idea of electronic document management. for an edms to succeed at the client, this group had to be made aware of the role an edms could play in the productivit y of the organisation as a whole. the client makes use of soft ware that, among others, monitors the user activit y on the intranet. the soft ware identifies each user based on the net work user identification. figure 2 indicates, for the period april 2002 to january 2003, (a) the number of unique users who had accessed the edms, (b) which of these users visited once, and (c) which of these users visited more than once. during the three-month period (april – june 2002) prior to the intervention, an average of 20.7 unique users had accessed the edms, of which 13.7 accessed once and only 7 more than once. this does not even account for the number of divisional heads. the number of unique users who had accessed the edms equates to only 15.1% of the n = 137 knowledge workers who could possibly have accessed the edms. only 5.1% had accessed the edms more than once per month. figure 2: the edms user statistics for the period april 2002 to january 2003 the analysis of the usage statistics clearly showed that the edms was not being used to its full potential. during the management committee and divisional presentations, the following reasons emerged: � confusion about which documents should go to which system. � lack of management motivation to use the system. � apathy towards a system that staff had read-only access to. the ideal would be for all staff to have full access (create, store and edit). � bottlenecks created by numerous documents sent to divisional secretary or administrative person, with full access, for inclusion in the edms. the client’s document culture had undergone a change from secretaries typing most documents to research and development staff creating their own documents. � unfamiliarity with the system. since usage was not enforced staff were not motivated to familiarise themselves with the system. these problems were partly addressed during phase 1 (a presentation about the benefits and importance of edms and an on-line demonstration of the basic functions). it was clear that a further phase would be necessary, which would include a working committee to create a document management policy and a edms user group that would communicate problems and needs to the systems administrator. it also became clear that the installation of facilit y that would enable users to double click on an e-mail reference to open a document, was a top priorit y. without it users had to copy the extract document number from the link name, open edms and then do a search on the document number. this was experienced as unnecessarily cumbersome and time consuming. the immediate outcome of phase 1 was a dramatic improvement in the edms usage statistics from september 2002 (see figure 2). the anomalous sudden increase in july 2002 can be ascribed to (a) increased document retrieval in preparation for an iso 9001 accreditation which took place in this month, and (b) the systems administrator frequently logging in to update the edms user manual and to put together the demonstration. the same observation (b) is made about the bar reflecting unique users visited more than once during september 2002, when the systems administrator repeatedly logged in as an edms user to do the live demonstrations. a comparison of the statistics of the periods before the intervention is reflected in table 2. electronic document management 59 table 2 comparison of user statistics, before and after the intervention average for april average for sept percentage to june 2002 2002 to jan 2003 improvement number of unique users 20.7 35.2 70.3% users who visited once 13.7 22.4 63.9% visited more than once 7.0 12.8 82.9% a number of points were raised during the various divisional presentations of phase 1: � an urgent plea for a firm policy on document management which would simplif y the lives of staff and prevent duplication, including policy guidelines on the management of e-mails. � a need was expressed for an overarching web interface facility that would enable staff to search and access all the various knowledge systems at the client through a single point of entry. � a strong need was conveyed for all staff to at least be able to view the profile of documents even if they could not access the document itself, because valuable information may be withheld from staff if they are not aware of the existence of particular documents. individual staff members could then arrange access to confidential documents if needed. the systems administrator immediately changed the default securit y of new documents accordingly, and promised to amend the security of existing documents. � the environmental impact of using less paper was mentioned. � during t wo sessions enquiries were made about documentation dated prior to the inception of the edms. it was explained that documents can either be imported (if available in electronic format), scanned in, or paper profiled and referenced to their existing physical location. � frustration was voiced about the vagueness of the subject lines of e-mails announcing documents on the edms. the systems administrator undertook to ‘educate’ full-access users to identif y a document clearly. � a proposal was made that scientific papers obtained through interlibrary loans should be saved on the edms for internal use. the copyright implications, however, need to be considered and clarified. � due to the high turnover of secretaries, consideration should be given to make a divisional administrative staff member the full-access user. � registry often assigns insignificant file names to scanned documents. it is foreseen that this will result in difficulty with searches. registry should remedy the situation. � at one session the view was strongly expressed that the client does not need an sophisticated edms like the existing one. the point was made that there were much cheaper alternatives available. it is believed that an appropriate directory structure, a rigid filename convention and a suitable search engine are all that is needed. however, such a system would not constitute document management, and would necessitate enforcing policies regarding the naming and storage of documents. the edms access is controlled on an operating system (windows nt) level. however, the nt accounts did not always correspond to the edms individual user and group accounts. the reason for this was that the system administrator was not always informed of changes to the nt accounts due to staff movements. during the session with the human resources division, it became evident that they experienced equal frustration with keeping track of staff movements. a firm standard operating procedure that would ensure that human resources, informat ion technolog y, finance and the edms’ administrator are kept up to date with regard to staff movements is considered essential. the phase 2 needs analysis survey involved 39 staff members from 11 different divisions of the client. participants were asked to rate various identified features of electronic document management in general and to indicate if the feature is considered (a) essential, (b) important, (c) nice to have, or (d) irrelevant. with regard to some features additional information was collected. any commentary volunteered was further recorded. ☺ = 75-100%, � = 50-75%, essential important nice to irrelevant � = 25-50% & � = 0-25% have management of documents ☺� �� �� �� collaboration among users � �� �� � saving of documents ☺ � importation of documents ☺� �� � relationships between ☺ � � documents control of documents ☺� � � � system & document ☺� � � security search functinality ☺� �� �� integration with ☺� �� �� � applications archiving � � � other edms features �� �� � � figure 3: summary of the needs-analysis survey about electronic document management figure 3 represents a summary of the survey findings. management of documents included six subsidiary items, that is, management of standard types of electronic documents; management of scanned images; management of paper documents; capt uring of information about documents (metadata); multiple authors; and distinguishing between typist and author. the ratings of the subsidiary items were averaged. that is the reason for the range ratings. the item collaboration among users included two subsidiary items, that is, sharing documents with collaborating co-authors and sharing without breaching security. importation of documents included both existing documents and mass importation. control of documents included four subsidiary items, that is, capturing the audit trail or history of each document; version control of documents; standardised entry of metadata; and prevention unauthorised deletion of documents. system and document security included four subsidiary items, that is, controlled access to edms; document-level access control for confidentiality; assignment of different levels of security to specified user groups; and the ability to assign e.g. open access to a final document but only access to the author(s) of the draft versions. search functionalit y included eight subsidiary items, that is, ease of searching; abilit y to do advanced searching; abilit y to do searches on metadata; abilit y to search the contents of documents; ranking of search results according to relevancy; highlighting of search terms in retrieved documents; saving of regular searches; and the abilit y of printing search results. integration with other applications included four subsidiary groenewald60 items, that is, edms must integrate with commonly used applications within the client organisation; abilit y to save to the edms from within a commonly used application; abilit y to quick view documents; and a viewer enabling the viewing of documents created in applications that are not installed on the user’s pc. the item other edms feat ures included accessibilit y to all staff; working in off-line mode; when the net work goes down continue working without losing modifications; flexibilit y to cater for changing needs; and the abilit y to see the history of the path a document followed. a comprehensive report in this regard was presented to the client. at the client the principal author of a document controls the input and is responsible for collating, editing, and ensuring that the tables and figures are correctly numbered. in extreme situations an appendix is stuck in at the back. the principal author signs off the document and takes responsibilit y for the content. they do not see collaboration as a function of edms. there is a concern that it would slow the process down. the general collaboration process is illustrated in figure 4. the process might go backwards and forwards multiple times. one participant labelled the process as diabolical: contributors send notes to each other, e-mail one another, meet each other – the survey participant concluded that it is important to collaborate. another participant stated “i hate the current process, it is so clumsy.” in contrast to these t wo views some other participants were satisfied that ms word’s ‘track changes’ worked well for their purposes. however, another participant viewed an edms process as a recipe for disaster. draft written � sent (via e-mail) to contributors for perusal or made available on shared directory. � commentary made � returned to main author for integration and consolidation figure 4: illustration of the document collaboration process due to the confidential nature of phase 3 it is regrettably not possible to publish the results, suffice to state that the client’s existing edms is the superior product. the saving and prior investment would not have warranted the loss of functionality. the report produced in phase 3, together with the needs analysis report (phase 2), were tabled at the meeting of the client’s information technolog y steering committee held in february 2003. at this meeting, it was decided (a) to phase out the existing edms (the system was considered too expensive, especially in the light of the hardware upgrades that would be needed to give full access to the system to all staff members), (b) not replace the edms with another (due to important points raised in the comparison), and (c) disregarding the warnings about ‘storage & retrieval’ versus edms, to create a proprietary system based on windows 2000. it had been envisaged that this system would be functional by july 2003. a final warning about the possible legal implications of disregarding ‘best practice’ guidelines from the national archives of south africa, in particular those pertaining to version control, audit trails, metadata, and selection lists to capt ure metadata had been the last step in this intervention. discussion the initial brief of this intervention was limited to improving the efficacy of the edms in use. markham (1994) cautions that if an intervention starts at level 1 (‘purpose’) it is not easy to predict what will happen. work at subsequent levels depends on what had transpired at preceding levels. he recommends an iterative process, breaking the overall intervention into separate phases. the consultant realised the utmost importance of clarif ying and contracting at each phase of a consulting intervention, as it unfolds, and if any new expectancies or complexities arise, that the brief is again clarified and contracted. it is essential that respective understandings are reduced to a written agreement. an undertaking of this nature is a careful balancing act of project management principles; consulting principles; know-how related to the nature of the consulting intervention; an arsenal of people management skills; and a sixth sense pertaining to organisational politics. the phase 2 needs analysis survey uncovered a prevailing ‘storage-and-retrieval’ paradigm at the client, as well as an ignorance of what document management entails and a lack of management input. it also became clear that ‘buy-in’ would only be achieved if all staff members had full access to the edms, both to access and to store, edit and share information. from this intervention it became evident that the client had to undertake an extensive change management intervention to shift the paradigms of especially, but not only, their research and development staff. the client’s human resource management systems must be transformed to support a knowledge management paradigm. it is evident that the majority of the staff perceives an edms to be a replacement of the former paper registry (storage facility). the edms is not perceived as a way to store, manage and control the current intellectual capital. consequently, the value of the electronic sharing of documented knowledge in pursuing a learning organisation is not perceived. this article attempted to illustrate that if an organisation introduces edms without doing the required groundwork, edms alone would not secure the corporate memory. managing the knowledge capital of an organisation as strategic intelligence requires a comprehensive organisation intervention. this includes the simultaneous review of human resource management policies and procedures in order to create a knowledge management culture, which would be conducive to knowledge agility. references bender, s. & fish, a. (2000). the transfer of knowledge and the retention of expertise. journal of knowledge management, 4 (2), 125-137. carter, c. & scarbrough, h. (2001). towards a second generation of km? the people management challenge. education & training, 43 (4), 215-224. dove, r. (1999). agility = knowledge management + response ability. paradigm shift international. retrieved december 09, 2002 http://www.parshift. com/essay/essay051.htm. farquharson, l. & baum, t. (2002). enacting organisational change programmes: a centre stage role for hrm? international journal of contemporar y hospitality management, 14 (5), 243-250. hislop, d. (2003). linking human resource management and knowledge management via commitment, a review and research agenda. employee relations, 25 (2), 182-202. hong, j-c. (1994). technology transfer and human resource development. industrial and commercial training, 26 (11), 1721. electronic document management 61 ingelgård, a., roth, j., styhre, a. & shani, a.b. (2002). dynamic learning capability and actionable knowledge creation. the learning organization: an international journal, 9 (2), 65-77. karamuftuoglu, m. (1999). information retrieval and the perpetual innovation economy. aslib proceedings: new information perspectives, 51 (4), 99-108. kraak, a. (2000). changing modes, new knowledge production and its implications for higher education in south africa. pretoria: human sciences research council. laszlo, k.c. & laszlo, a. (2002). evolving knowledge for development: the role of knowledge management in a changing world. journal of knowledge management, 6 (4), 400-412. macintosh, r. & maclean, d. (2001). conditioned emergence: researching change and changing research. international journal of operations & production management, 21 (10), 1343-1357. markham, c. (1994). the top consultant, developing your skills for greater effectiveness. revised edition. london: kogan page. mcelroy, m.w. (2000). integrating complexit y theory, knowledge management and organisational learning. journal of knowledge management, 4 (3), 195-203. megill, k.a. (1997). the corporate memor y: information management in the electronic age. west sussex: bowker-saur. mehra, k. (2001). two aspects of knowledge dynamics: knowledge as capital or as infrastructure. national institute of science and development studies, india. retrieved december 09, 2002 from www.delft2001.tudelft.nl/ abstract%20files/ abstract1008.doc. meredith, s. & francis, d. (2000). journey towards agility: the agile wheel explored. the tqm magazini, 12 (2), 137-143. mink, o.g., esterhuisen, p.w., mink, b.p. & owen, k. q. (1993). change at work. san francisco, calif.: jossey-bass. parker, e. (1999). managing your organisation’s records. london: library association publishing. senge, p. (1990). the fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organisation. new york, ny: currency doubleday. swan, j., newell, s., scarbrough, h. & hislop, d. (1999). knowledge management and innovation: networks and net working. journal of knowledge management, 3 (4), 262-275. venter, l. (2002). strategy for the management of electronic records in the public sector: building strategic alliances. presented at the electronic records workshop, 21-22 february 2002, unisa, pretoria. vernadat, f.b. (1999). research agenda for agile manufacturing. international journal of agile management systems, 1 (1), 37-40. white, a. (2001). new technologies in document management. in the minex conference. http://www.debretts.com.au/ minex/white.html. yahya, s. & goh, w-k. (2002). managing human resources toward achieving knowledge management. journal of knowledge management, 6 (5), 457-468. groenewald62 abstract introduction literature review research design data collection methods results discussion limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) samuel chikwariro department industrial psychology and people management, faculty of management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa mark bussin department industrial psychology and people management, faculty of management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa roslyn de braine department industrial psychology and people management, faculty of management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation chikwariro, s., bussin, m., & de braine, r. (2021). reframing performance management praxis at the harare city council. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1438. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1438 original research reframing performance management praxis at the harare city council samuel chikwariro, mark bussin, roslyn de braine received: 04 july 2020; accepted: 27 oct. 2020; published: 13 jan. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the study is a response from the complaints arising from the performance deficiencies of harare city council (hcc) employees. this brought into focus the need to reframe the performance management (pm) practises to match or exceed the stakeholder expectations. research purpose: the study sought to understand factors that could improve employee performance at hcc in line with the requirements of the performance tool. motivation for the study: the study’s findings may assist the management at hcc to improve manpower utilisation towards the achievement of the city’s service delivery objectives. research approach/design and method: this is a qualitative study that used the interpretivist approach to understand the lived experiences and perceptions of employees towards the pm. purposive sampling was used to identify 10 participants who were interviewed following a semi-structured questionnaire. main findings: the study revealed that the implementation of pm is facing hindrances because of factors in both the internal and external environment. therefore, collective effort is required to overcome the challenges and improve implementation of the pm at hcc. practical implications: line managers should explore available reward options to enhance employee motivation, adopt an inclusive approach in addressing the institutionally created barriers to the pm and further attend to other challenges inhibiting employee performance. contribution/value-add: the discovery of the inadequacies of the pm at hcc provided a new insight of perceptions towards pm at hcc. therefore, the study was able to recommend practices that support the improvement of the pm implementation. keywords: employee motivation; inclusion; learning transfer; institutional factors; organisational effectiveness. introduction orientation like other resources, employees must be managed to perform as expected (mwangi & njuguna, 2019). the achievement of organisational goals does not depend on the mere availability of resources, but on how they are managed to produce desired results (aguinis, 2019; armstrong, 2014). the management of employee performance has a central role in ensuring the achievement of organisational goals (hamid, muzamil, & shah, 2019; kossivi, xu, & kalgora, 2016). human resource (hr) practitioners are challenged to design performance management systems (pms) that support organisational goals (armstrong, 2014; mwangi & njuguna, 2019). in response to the government call to improve employee performance, harare city council (hcc) introduced a pms in 2005 that uses the integrated results based management (irbm) as a performance tool (chimbabkwe, 2016). integrated results based management is performance management (pm) tool designed for the public sector (mayne, 2004; zinyama, nhema, & mutandwa, 2015). substantial resources were committed to pm activities since the introduction of irbm (ruwende, 2017). however, there is no change in employee performance (chihambakwe, 2016). poor service delivery, corruption, high turnover of critical skills and employee strike action have become the hallmark on the face of the once famed ‘sunshine city’ (poperwi, 2018). bandauko (2018) argued that hcc requires pm reforms to improve employee performance. urban dwellers expect value for their money. meanwhile, cities are located at the nexus of driving service delivery and should accordingly capacitate their employees to respond to the expectations of the wider stakeholder community (chirasha, chipunza, & dzimbiri, 2017; poperwi, 2018). however, the quality of service delivery in most urban centres in zimbabwe has been deteriorating since the turn of the century (chigudu, 2014; chigunwe, kudenga, & chigunwe, 2016). poor service is attributed to poor employee performance (chigunwe et al., 2016). it is, therefore, justifiable to conduct an inquiry that seeks to address employee performance deficiencies at hcc. this study examined the pm practices employed by hcc to improve employee performance. in other words, the study seeks to answer the question: what are the practises that may improve employee performance at hcc? research purpose and objectives the study seeks to identify practises that may improve employee performance at hcc. the research purpose will be achieved by pursuing two objectives, namely (1) to identify the challenges hindering the successful implementation of the pm and (2) to determine practices that support the improvement of employee performance. literature review performance management is defined as a process that seeks to align employee contribution to the strategic goals of the organisation (aguinis, 2019; armstrong, 2014). performance management assists employees to achieve the strategic business objectives (ryazanova, mcnamara, & aguinis, 2017). salah (2016) explained pm reinforces behaviours consistent with the attainment of organisational goals and sanctions negative behaviours. another function of the pm system derived from its description is that it serves to furnish management with valid and useful information in making administrative decisions (armstrong, 2014; mwangi & njuguna, 2019). effective performance can be achieved if line managers recognise that human beings are not machines, rather they have emotions and needs (al salman & hassan, 2016). unlike other resources, hrs have feelings; therefore, the impact of employee motivation on performance cannot be questioned (cloutier, felusiak, hill, & pemberton-jones, 2015). in concurrence with this view, some scholars in organisational behaviour have developed theories that explain the factors that impact the employee performance in the organisational goals (adams, 1965; adelfer, 1972; aruma & hanachor, 2017; herzberg, mausner, & snyderman, 1957; latham & locke, 1979; maslow, 1954; vroom, 1964). this study, therefore, unpacks various perspectives that could inform practises to improve employee performance at hcc. storey (1989) described the spectrum of hr issues as hard and soft approaches. an analysis of the two approaches reveals that both the hard and the soft approaches seek to enhance employee performance but in different ways (armstrong, 2014). the hard approach maintains a rigid focus on business interests (boon, eckardt, lepak, & boselie, 2018; plaskoff, 2017). on the other hand, the soft approach is sensitive to human needs and achieves high employee performance through practices that motivate employees(saad, 2018). however, following the soft approach alone can result in a high-cost structure, which is not sustainable for the business (hecklau, galeitzke, flachs, & kohl, 2016; plaskoff, 2017). therefore, achieving a balance between the two extremes is critical for sustainability (hamid et al., 2019; hecklau et al., 2016; kumari & singh, 2018). under the desire to identify the human needs that drive employee performance, maslow in 1954 posited that human needs exist in the form of a hierarchical pyramid (aruma & hanachor, 2017). maslow (1954) argued that employee performance can be stimulated by matching rewards to individual need levels on the pyramid (ma’ruf, hadari, & amalia, 2019). the limitations of the needs theory are that it is difficult to defend the existence of the hierarchical structure of needs in all people (kuvaas, buch, weibel, dysvik, & nerstad, 2017; saad, 2018). maslow’s theory suggests that individuals seek to satisfy one need level at a time; however, this assertion is difficult to prove as human behaviour is too complex to accept such an assumption (saad, 2018). it informs line managers’ decisions on the best way to reward individual employees to stimulate improved performance. in an effort to close the gaps in maslow’s theory, alderfer proposed the existence relatedness and growth (erg) theory (armstrong, 2014). the erg theory rearranged the hierarchy pyramid by collapsing it into three categories to close overlaps between need levels (alderfer, 1972). the erg accepts the simultaneous existence of needs in employees and asserts that the order of needs should not be the same for all people. furthermore, if one is frustrated by the failure to achieve a higher level need, he may regress to a lower level need. the erg theory can be viewed as a more accommodative perception than the hierarchy of needs (armstrong, 2014). implications for management are that line managers should stimulate employee performance by satisfying the multiple needs in employees (kuranchie-mensah & amponsah-tawiah, 2016). furthermore, employees should be sufficiently capacitated in time to prepare themselves for possible future challenges associated with higher-order needs. this helps to avoid employee frustration that can arise when they fail to achieve growth needs, thereby resulting in diminished performance. in another theory of motivation, douglas mcgregor coined a theory x and theory y of motivation (kuranchie-mensah & amponsah-tawiah, 2016). mcgregor (1960) argued that in both theory x and y, management has a central role in bringing together factors of production to enhance performance. in theory x, he posited a negative view on human behaviour and argued that human beings dislike work and will not perform unless they are forced (al salman & hassan, 2016). theory x links the command and control style of leadership to the lower order needs in the maslow’s pyramid as the only available sources of motivation (kuranchie-mensah & amponsah-tawiah, 2016). however, an analysis from this view shows that in modern societies the lower order needs are already satisfied. therefore, it gives the implication that modern day employees have no motivation to work. from that rational, he further proposes theory y as an alternative theory. he argued that human beings are naturally inclined to love work, motivation increases if higher-order needs are addressed and people are innovative and can handle responsibility. management implications for theory y are that line managers can assist their employees to reach their full potential by employing various techniques such as delegation, job enlargement, participative management and performance appraisal. if the correct environment is created, employees will do everything within their ability to achieve high-performance levels (osborne & hammoud, 2017). from another perspective, herzberg (1968) proposed the hygiene-motivation two-factor theory and argues that employee performance is a function of their motivation. herzberg (1968) identified the motivators as factors that cause satisfaction and these emanate from the work itself. on the other hand, the hygiene factors emanate from the external environment and can lead to dissatisfaction (kuvaas et al., 2017). the motivators have a long-term effect in stimulating employee performance whilst the influence of the hygiene factors is short-lived. the traditional methods of rewarding good performance centred on hygiene factors such as high salaries and improved working conditions. however, contemporary research has shown that hygiene factors on their own cannot sustain high levels of performance in the long term (kuvaas et al., 2017; salah, 2016). hygiene factors are subject to the dictates of various environmental factors that are sometimes beyond control, whilst motivators are a function of an individual’s will power and, therefore, sustainable (howard, gagne, morin, & van den broeck, 2016). therefore, motivators should form part of the critical part of the job design (salah, 2016). implications to line managers are that jobs should be designed to continuously challenge the employee to fully utilise the potential. although hygiene factors should not be eliminated, they should be complemented with motivators to maximise employee performance. job enrichment should remain as part of an ongoing management process (herzberg et al., 1957). high achievers should be given tasks that match their levels of competency. therefore, when the job seizes to be challenging, the employee should be replaced by a machine or by other less skilled employee. herzberg’s theory of motivation has been criticized for assuming that the relationship between job satisfaction and performance is strong in all cases (ma’ruf et al., 2019). furthermore, human beings are naturally inclined to take credit for satisfaction and lay the blame for dissatisfaction on external factors that brings to test the validity of the earlier claim that motivators inspire performance better than hygiene factors. in another view, the cognitive evaluation theory (cet) by deci (1975) argued that intrinsic motivation is influenced by external environment. therefore, the implication to line managers is that they should create an environment that is conducive for employees to perform with commitment. in line with the views on the relationship between the external environment and employee performance, skinner (1974) proposed the reinforcement theory. the reinforcement theory states that an individual’s behaviour is shaped by the consequences that follow his or her actions. skinner (1974) argued that behaviour that is followed by positive consequences tend to be repeated whilst behaviour that is followed by negative consequences is eliminated. the theory, therefore, overlooks the internal state of mind. the implications for line managers are that rewards should be structured in such a way that they reinforce the desired performance outcome or eliminate unwanted behaviour. line managers should, therefore, continuously provide feedback on employee performance and clarify their expectations. chordiya, sabharwal and goodman (2017) argued that all performance interventions could not succeed without top management’s support. the importance of top management commitment in driving performance improvement is well acknowledged in literature (kanwal, zafar, & bashir, 2017; nazir & islam, 2017; nazir, shafi, qun, nazir, & tran, 2016). top managers drive performance by communicating the organisational goals, resourcing the change effort and monitoring the resource utilisation (nazir et al., 2016). when top managers are not committed to pm, general employee performance outputs diminish (kanwal et al., 2017). galletta et al. (2019) argued that when the commitment profiles interact positively, the level of employee commitment towards performance increases. in any case, performance must not be induced by rules but should be driven by commitment (nkhukhu-orlando, brow, wilson, forcheh, linn, & fako, 2019). in another observation, the indicators of poor employee commitment include high absenteeism (miraglia & johns, 2016). however, new evidence indicates that presenteeism has the same negative effect on performance as absenteeism (sermanet, xu, & levine, 2019). presenteeism is when work attendance is high, but employees engage in unethical behaviours such as theft and corruption (pohling, buruck, jungbauer, & leiter, 2016). unethical employee behaviours have far-reaching consequences in the public sector as they tarnish the image of the organisation and destroy stakeholder’s confidence (tonelli, de souza bermejo, aparecida dos santos, zuppo, & zambalde, 2017). both absenteeism and presenteeism hinder performance and organisational growth (miraglia & johns, 2016; pohling et al., 2016). sun and bunchapattanasakda (2019) argued that it is important for organisations to offer competitive employee value propositions to minimise incidents of absenteeism and presenteeism. an organisation that has a behaved workforce is more attractive as an employer of choice than an organisation that has multiple disciplinary issues (kossivi, xu, & kalgora, 2016; naim & lenka, 2018). a stable industrial relations climate is, therefore, conducive for performance improvement. in an attempt to further understand the drivers of employee performance, vroom (1964) in his expectancy theory asserted that employees work hard if they can achieve the set goals and receive rewards that they value (luneburg, 2011; miraglia & johns, 2016). it, therefore, implies that line managers should set achievable goals, provide rewards on successful performance and provide rewards that have value to the employee. in line with the link between performance and rewards, adams (1963) proposed the equity theory. the theory argues that employees apply the effort that they perceive to be fair in relation to their effort. in assessing the fairness of their rewards employees compares their earnings with similarly placed professionals. when there is an imbalance employee feel unfairly treated and, therefore, diminish their effort in protest of the unfairness (kuvaas et al., 2017). training and development play a key role in improving employee competencies to perform (jang, lee, hwang, & shin, 2019). primarily training seeks to improve attitudes, skills and knowledge (armstrong & landers, 2018). although motivation and rewards influence employee attitudes to perform, the skills and knowledge can be enriched by training processes (jang et al., 2019). sharma and taneja (2018) accepted that training has a major role in equipping employees with the relevant skills to enhance performance. skinner (1974) asserted that employee training is part of positive reinforcement that seeks to enhance improved performance. however, training becomes relevant when it is based on identified needs as opposed to routine training programmes (grespan, fioring, & collucci, 2019; phillips, 2016; sharma & taneja, 2018) organisations should not underestimate the impact of change on employee performance (petrou, demerouti, & schaufeli, 2018; rebeka & indradevi, 2017). when change is mismanaged employees tend to resist the intervention and this can manifest through poor performance (douglas, muturi, & douglas, 2017). lewin (1947) in his change theory argued that the change process should involve unfreezing, changing and refreezing. the systematic management of the change process minimises resistance to change and supports the attainment of the performance goals (rebeka & indradevi, 2017; shah, irani, & sharif, 2017). use of change agents assists in maintaining high-performance levels during the change process (rangus & slavec, 2017; rebeka & indradevi, 2017). ochurub, bussin and goosen (2012) accepted the notion of using change agents and further emphasised on the importance of involving the employees in developing performance strategies during the change process. given the various theories provided in the literature to explain the performance concept aguinis (2019) argued that hr practices play a pivotal role in enhancing employee performance. research design this section describes the components that form the blueprint for managing the data that was used in the study to address the research problem. research approach the study adopted the qualitative methodology that relies on the interpretivist paradigm. the interpretivist approach was preferred because it is pragmatic and reveals the truth about lived experiences (merriam, 1998). it enhances the understanding of employees’ views and experiences in implementing pm. the researcher gained first-hand knowledge from the participants’ expressions. this influenced interpretations of how to reframe current human resources management (hrm) practices to improve employee performance. the interpretive approach is concerned about the quality and texture of life rather than frequency of occurrence (yin, 2009). the ontological and epistemological views accepted the plurality of reality, the importance of social interactions in unearthing the unknown realities (merriam, 1998). furthermore, the study embraced the importance of interaction and engaging participants to understand their experiences (creswell, 2014). the study rejects the notion of objectivity in life and places emphasis on deriving meaning from understanding the perceptions of the affected individuals (merriam, 1998). therefore, the researcher was not a detached object but actively engaged the participants (creswell, 2014). the researcher’s prior knowledge of the municipal environment contributed to derive the interpretation of the research findings (miles, & huberman, 1994). research strategy the study utilised a case study method to understand in detail the challenges faced by the participants and develop solutions for the chosen case (farquhar, 2012). the case study focused on employee performance deficiencies at hcc, hence interviewed participants within their natural setting. research method the study used a qualitative method because the primary intention was to obtain a detailed description and understanding of the challenges at hcc (babbie & mouton, 2001). the information gained informed the recommendations made for improving pm praxis at hcc. the qualitative method was, therefore, the most appropriate method as it resonates with the purpose of the study, which is to discover better ways of improving employee performance. it permitted the emergent existence of unknown realities and created room for new thinking, unlike the quantitative that is prefigured and restricted to what is already known (yin, 2009). research setting in line with the requirements of the qualitative methodology, the study was conducted in its natural setting (bhattacharya, 2008). the study was conducted at a municipal establishment in zimbabwe. harare city council adopted irbm on a trial basis in 2005 (ngwenyama, 2014). the implementation was scaled up for full implementation in 2013 as a public sector pm tool (chilunjika, 2016). however, the city is struggling to improve employee performance and to operationalise the irbm. therefore, the researcher engaged hcc employees to gain familiarity with the challenges faced and recommended practices that could improve pm. entrée and establishing researcher roles the researcher applied to seek permission from the highest authority at hcc to be allowed to access the interview participants (creswell, 2014). an application was made to the town clerk and permission was granted. the researcher drafted an agreement with binding terms between himself and the organisation, which outlined the research process, projected impact on the employees and the organisation, specific researcher roles, projected timelines, handling of findings and possible benefits of the study. research participants and sampling methods harare city council has a total population of approximately 10 000 employees. purposive sampling was used to target potential rich sources of data. the identified sample comprised five managerial and five non-managerial employees who have been in the organisation since the irbm was introduced. the decision to use managers and non-managers assisted in obtaining balanced views from both classes of employees. importantly, participants were not merely chosen to represent a dominant opinion but to enrich the inquiry under their knowledge and experience (merriam, 1998). data collection methods semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants. the semi-structured interviews have unique strengths in the sense that they allow all participants to respond to the same set of questions, at the same time providing the flexibility to probe emerging issues (merriam, 1998; miles & huberman, 1994). data recording the researcher employed the services of experts for audio-recording and transcribing the verbatim responses. the use of experts in data recording allowed for speedy and professional recording of the interview responses (yin, 2009). furthermore, it allowed the researcher to concentrate on the interview process with minimum disruptions (neuman, 2003). strategies employed to ensure data quality and integrity participants were allowed to read through the collected interview data and sign off to acknowledge authenticity before and after interpretation (yin, 2009). any doubtful information and ambiguities were cleared (neuman, 2003). the researcher familiarised himself with participants before interviewing them to gain their trust. the participants were reassured of the confidentiality of the information (yin, 2009). furthermore, before conducting the interview, the researcher attended a professional interview skills course to equip himself with the relevant knowledge and skills that enabled him to conduct the interviews competently. sources of data were triangulated by interviewing both managerial and non-managerial employees. to minimise bias in data coding, the researcher employed the services of an experienced researcher to review the coded data and his comments were incorporated to enrich the data quality (miles & huberman, 1994). data analysis the atlas.ti was used to analyse the interview data. the collected data for each objective was retrieved and classified into manageable sizes. the data groups were coded to create identity marks of commonalities. themes were developed by sorting the data with commonalities into categories and sub-categories that show relationships and links in a format that permitted the drawing of conclusions. special attention was given to both semantic and latent level of analysis (yin, 2009). the themes that directly responded to the research questions were embraced whilst deviant cases were analysed to check for any relevance to the phenomenon under study. field notes were regularly referred to and participants were consulted to verify conformity of the interpretations to the original data. reporting style the revealed themes were summarised in line with the study objectives. the literature on the themes was explored and supporting theories were examined to check agreements and disagreements with the new findings as they relate to the study. consequently, conclusions and recommendations were made to achieve the research purpose. ethical consideration the ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the university of johannesburg, ethical clearance code: ippm-2018-169(d). results the findings revealed three themes, namely motivation to perform, institutional factors and training and development as outlined in this section. motivation to perform the theme poor motivation to perform was supported by five codes as shown in figure 1 code network. figure 1: code network for the theme employee motivation. low morale: some participants indicated that they are not happy because of the poor grievance handling practices in the organisation: ‘in this organisation nobody cares to address our grievances, as i speak we are working with no protective clothing, our salaries are in six months arrears so our morale is low but our supervisors insist on achieving targets.’ management explained that it is difficult to sustain morale because everyone is demotivated including the supervisors. one non-managerial employee, however, indicated that the organisation does not have any clear grievance handling procedure and the line managers are insensitive. however, an unexpected finding was that the labour turnover for non-managerial employees was very low despite the low morale. furthermore, probing revealed that the low turnover is because of high unemployment in the economy and the employees stay because they cannot make alternative employment in the country. however, other young professionals insisted that they are not leaving the organisation because it gives them the practical exposure they require for professional growth and this would enable them to find more paying jobs in future. as a result, the organisation was left with poorly skilled and less knowledgeable employees. poor readiness for change: the study found that the employees were poorly prepared for change when the new pm was introduced. most employees were not consulted, but the government was anxious to see results in the shortest possible time: ‘we were taken by surprise when the government directed us to use irbm and we were inadequately prepared for it … everything was rushed.’ ‘the effort could have yielded better results but the challenge is that it was imposed on us.’ ‘i think it is a waste of resources because the implementation was rushed … the authorities expected an overnight change in employee behaviour without establishing the fundamentals that are important for change to happen.’ ‘the organisation is ill prepared for change, the supervisor lack the required competencies to implement pm.’ the findings revealed that employees are not ready to accept the new pm. the organisation did not prepare the employees for the new pm tool; hence, some employees have a negative attitude towards pm issues. lack of top management commitment: the top managers were accused for lacking commitment towards the pm: ‘top managers do not take the initiative to lead the process; they have negative attitudes towards the irbm.’ the lack of commitment by top managers was viewed as the primary cause of implementation failure. the top managers revealed that they feel that the design of the pm instrument is inappropriate for the municipal environment. they accused the authorities for not involving them: ‘the pm tool should have been designed to suit our context because our structure and operational dynamics are different from the rest of the civil service.’ there is no sense of ownership of the pm initiative, the majority of top managers are frustrated and are anxious to leave the organisation whenever opportunities arise. as a result, the organisational vision and strategy is weakly supported. poor rewards: participants across the board concurred that there are no incentives to support the change initiatives: ‘i do not understand the point of increasing my workload when there is no corresponding increase in rewards.’ (p10, typist, female) the new pm increased workload, but the organisation did not put incentives to encourage employees to increase effort. the participants indicated that the government instead used threats of victimisation against resistant employees. good and bad performers are all treated the same. high absenteeism: the interviews revealed that employees who work in areas where there is no room to engage in corruption have high absenteeism rates: ‘my job as a nurse does not expose me to any form of corruption because i do not handle cash, so i do not report for duty every day i absent myself and find other part time work to supplement the meagre salaries that i get here.’ (p9, nurse, female) however, employees such as municipal police have minimum absenteeism reports, when the researcher probed to check the reasons, the findings revealed that the employees are known for soliciting bribes from motorists. one participant from the municipal police expressed himself as follows: ‘i come to work every day because the money that i collect in bribes from the traffic offenders is far better than a manager’s salary in this organisation … i have no option, i do not care even if i get arrested because if i do not accept the bribes i will starve.’ (p7, municipal police officer, male) the above expressions show that high absenteeism and corruption is being influenced by the poorly remunerated employees. institutional factors the theme institutional factors emerged as another hindrance to performance improvement as shown in the code networks in figure 2. figure 2: code network for the theme institutional factors. hr, human resource. involvement of elected officials in appraising employee performance: managerial employees complained against the involvement of elected officials in their performance appraisals: ‘some of the elected officials lack basic education so it is wrong to expect them to appreciate the technical aspects of my job as a technocrat as a result their ratings are biased.’ the managers argued that whilst the representation of elected officials in their performance evaluation can be necessary, however, they need guidance whilst conducting the assessment process. the performance appraisal processes emerged as a source of conflict and industrial disharmony: ‘there is no clear office of appeal whenever we have disputes with the councillors.’ the employees suggested the need to expand the grievance procedure to assist in settling disputes between senior managers and elected officials. poor management of information systems: participants argued that management of information system (mis) is poor because it relies on manual methods. the performance records are compiled and kept in hard copy, which makes it difficult to retrieve: ‘it requires a lot of time to be writing, filling and retrieving these hard copy files, at the end of the day you waste more time on filling than on the actual work.’ the interviews revealed that the hr information system is not integrated with the information technology (it) grid to necessitate easy to access and analysis. participants complained that many information from the performance evaluation is lost because of the poor mis. as a result, the performance ratings lack objectivity. in line with the noted deficient, non-managerial employees noted that they are prejudiced of the credit that they deserve. the whole pm system becomes a farce and employees lose interest in the process. poor financial resource capacity: participants bemoaned the poor financial support for pm activities: ‘the pm activities are poorly funded and the organisation cannot afford competitive salaries and incentives.’ (participant 1, finance officer, male) participants indicated that they were at one point promised incentives, but management failed to pay because of low revenue inflows compounded by the deteriorating economic environment that is characterised by a hyper inflationary environment. as a result, the employees have lost faith in their management: ‘these managers are a bunch of liars, they promise one thing and do the opposite, so there is no need to kill yourself with work when you don’t get any recognition.’ (p6, cleaner, male) the non-managerial employees feel that the pm was management’s ploy to exploit employees by giving them false promises to work, yet they know that they are not able to fulfil the promises. poorly supported hr function: participants noted that top management does not value the importance of the hr department: ‘this organisation has gone for more than 3 years without a substantive head of hr and all hr activities are poorly resourced.’ (p7, human resource officer, male) the interviews revealed that the organisation does not value the hr function in the same way that other departments are valued as shown by the failure to support its requirements. as a result, it negatively impacts the departmental deliverables such as the implementation of the irbm within the council. training and development the theme emerged from an inquiry that sought to reveal the reasons for the employees’ failure to operationalise the pm tool, although substantial investment had been made towards employee learning and development. the theme was supported by three codes as shown in the code network in figure 3 below. figure 3: code network for the theme training and development. employees’ negative attitudes: the participants revealed that the employees have negative attitudes towards the pm. training workshops on operationalising the irbm were conducted, but knowledge accumulation is very low. upon further probing, the participants revealed that employees could not relate their personal goals and ambitions to the pm goals: ‘it seems the pm is all about ‘them’ and not ‘us’ because it focuses on achieving organisational goals without any consideration on us as employees.’ the employees indicated that the pm goals should be redesigned to ensure that they balance organisational and employee goals. absence of learning incentives: the participants complained that the organisation does not have incentives for learners: ‘what exactly do i benefit from learning irbm and is there any reward for it?.’ (p6, cleaner, male) the interviews revealed that the organisation does not recognise the employees who show interest in acquiring new skills and knowledge. participants argued that the organisation should explore options for both monetary and non-monetary rewards to motivate employees to learn. the participants further indicated that there are no training impact assessments, which are conducted after attending the training. as a result, employees cannot tell whether the training has benefited them or not. over reliance on external consultants: the organisation over relies on external consultants to lead the training sessions. participants complained that some of the external consultants lack the municipal operational knowledge and their training is too theoretical: ‘the external consultants have become a conduit for siphoning municipal coffers my brother. … i do not see their value because their trainings are too theoretical.’ (p7, human resource officer, male) the non-managerial employees view external consultants as agents for siphoning municipal funds as most of them lack the required knowledge and expertise to train employees on performance issues. they recommend training programs to the train the trainer programmes to equip line managers to train others on the job, especially on the technical aspects of the irbm tool. discussion outline of results this section outlines the major findings as drawn from the objectives of the study. factors that hinder the implementation of performance management the findings revealed that employees feel neglected as nobody cares to listen to their concerns. the organisation is concerned about achieving its strategic goals without considering human needs. boon et al. (2018) argued that the hard approach to people management should not be taken to extremes as it has the effect of diminishing employee loyalty and commitment towards the organisation. storey (1989) acknowledged the negative effects that the hard approach can have on employee performance. al salman and hassan (2016) found that unlike machines, human beings have a soft part that requires attention, therefore, when management fails to recognise their needs, they express their frustration through poor performance. other indicators of employee frustration are high absenteeism and unethical behaviours such as corruption. the findings are consistent with the observations made by sun and bunchapattanasakda (2019), who argued that if employees are poorly remunerated, they engage in unethical behaviours such as moonlighting and corruption. kuvaas et al. (2017) on their study on the link between employee motivation and performance outcomes found that poorly motivated employees are the worst performers. this finding is consistent with the current study findings that revealed that employee performance outcomes are diminishing by the day. the interviews revealed that the reward structure does not recognise skill differences as all employees are treated the same as a result high performers are deteriorating. the findings can relate to the views of the equity theory as proposed by adams (1963). highly experienced employees feel unfairly treated, their frustration manifests through high turnover and poor performance. vroom (1964) in his expectancy theory further argues that when the organisation fails to meet employee expectations they deliberately diminish their performance as a way of expressing their frustration. the findings revealed that the environment within which hcc is operating has negative factors that impact on performance. the environment is characterised by a hyperinflationary environment, low revenue inflows, absence of a legal framework that govern the implementation of irbm, absence of information communication technolgy to enhance efficiency in mis. these environmental concerns are sources of employee stress and negatively impact on performance. deci (1975) argued in his cet that events in the external environment can affect individual internal motivation to work. skinner (1974) in his reinforcement theory contended that employee perfomance is largely influenced by the factors in the external environment. in support of the effect of the organisational climate on employee performance, douglas et al. (2017) found that employee performance is a function of their environment. when the environment is stressing, they either decide to quit or engage in compensatory behaviour such as diminished performance. factors that support the implementation of performance management the findings revealed that the transition of adopting the irbm could be improved. it emerged that employees require involvement in developing performance improvement tools such as irbm, they need incentives, and they develop negative attitudes if threats are used on them. rebeka and indradevi (2017) found that positive employee attitudes are critical for the successful implementation of any change effort. when employees are happy, they own the change process and perform well to prove that the change works. lewin (1947) in his change theory, placed emphasis on the importance of managing the change process systematically, to enhance performance. the use of change agents and involvement of employees could enrich pm during the change process (ochurub, bussin and goosen 2012; rangus & slavec, 2017). the findings revealed that training has a critical role of enhancing employee competencies to improve the implementation of pm. it was noted that whilst the hr department makes an effort to conduct the training needs, the actual training programs being conducted are not informed by the identified needs. jang et al. (2019) argued that training helps to improve employee competencies which in turn impact on performance outcomes. sharma and taneja (2018) further confirmed that employees who are regularly trained can perform better than employees that are not trained. jang et al. (2019) concurred with the observation by arguing that the learning curve can be shortened by using on-the-job training techniques under the guidance of coaches who have practical knowledge of the operations. the ultimate objective is to improve employee performance, therefore, the training environment should be as close as possible to real-life challenges (phillips, 2016). furthermore, there is a need to conduct training impact evaluation to assess the extent of knowledge transfer (armstrong & landers, 2018). practical implications of the study the study revealed that performance improvement interventions should always be implemented with a human face. line managers should reward employees for their individual contribution as opposed to rewarding everyone the same. goal achievement should be balanced between business interest and people needs, therefore, line managers should set performance objectives that recognise both interests. remuneration plays a key role in enhancing employee performance. when employees are poorly remunerated, they become frustrated and diminish their performance. their minds become preoccupied with the fight for survival. therefore, line managers can stimulate employee performance by paying a living wage. this should be supported by providing opportunities for growth to stimulate intrinsic motivation. external environment impacts the employees’ psychological state of mind. when employees are motivated, they become innovative and the quality of their performance outcomes improves. line managers should create an environment that promotes a harmonious industrial relations climate. change management should be handled systematically to avoid diminishing employee performance. line managers should prepare employees for change and support the change effort by offering relevant incentives. factors that promote resistance to change should be suppressed to minimise employee resistance to change. employee training should be based on identified needs. training and development should be an ongoing process throughout the entire life of an employee to keep the skills relevant to the new business challenges. limitations and recommendations the study was confined to hcc and relied on a small sample. future studies could focus on other settings to cover a wider geographic area to increase the generalisability of the findings. future researchers may want to pursue a quantitative trajectory and test the cause and effect of the variables in the matrix of pm in local authorities. the study further recommends that hcc fully implements the irbm and supports it with training and relevant incentives. the hr function should take a leading role of coordinating performance improvement interventions. given the hyperinflationary environment within which the municipality is operating, the line managers should explore other non-monetary rewards to enhance employee motivation. conclusion the study revealed hindrances to the implementation of pm and further proposed practices that can inform the framework of pm at hcc. future researchers are challenged to explore other factors that may have a bearing on pm in local authorities. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references adams, j.s. (1963). toward an understanding of inequity. journal of abnormal and social psychology, 67(5), 422–436. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0040968 adams, j.s. (1965). inequity in social exchange. in l. berkowitz (ed.), advances in experimental social psychology (vol. 2, pp. 267–299). new york, ny: academic press. aguinis, h. (2019). performance management for dummies. hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons, inc. alderfer, c. (1972). existence, relatedness and growth. new york, ny: the free press. al salman, w., & hassan, z. (2016). impact of effective teamwork on employee performance. international journal of accounting and business management, 4(1), 76–85. https://doi.org/10.24924/ijabm/2016.04/v4.iss1/76.85 alderfer, c. (1972). existence, relatedness and growth. new york, ny: the free press. armstrong, m. (2014). handbook of human resource management in government. british library cataloguing-in-publication data, philadelphia, pa : kogan page ltd. armstrong, m.b., & landers, r.n. (2018). gamification of employee training and development. international journal of training and development, 22(2), 162–169. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijtd.12124 aruma, e.o., & enwuvesi hanachor, m. (2017). abraham maslow’s hierarchy of needs and assessment of needs in community development. international journal of development and economic sustainability, 5(7), 15–27. babbie, e., & mutton, j. (2001). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford university press. bandauko, e. (2018). strategic planning in the city of harare: what went wrong and what needs to be fixed? spiked. retrieved from https://spiked.co.zw/ bhattacharya, h. (2008). research setting. in l.m. given (ed.), the sage encyclopedia of qualitative research methods (pp. 254–255). thousand oaks, ca: sage. boon, c., eckardt, r., lepak, d.p., & boselie, p. (2018). integrating strategic human capital and strategic human resource management. international journal of human resource management, 29(1), 34–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1380063 chigudu, d. (2014). implementing new public management in zimbabwe: challenges and obstacles. journal of governance and regulation, 3(2), 43–49. https://doi.org/10.22495/jgr_v3_i2_c1_p4 chigunwe, t., kudenga, m., & chigunwe, g. (2016). opinions of residents on local government practices and service priorities vis-a-vis actual delivery by local authorities: a case of bindura, zimbabwe. international journal of scientific and research publications, 6(9), 579–584. chihambakwe, w. (2016). the effectiveness of management strategies in local authorities in zimbabwe: a case study of harare city council. scholars journal of arts, humanities and social sciences, 4(11), 1381–1387. https://doi.org/10.21276/sjahss.2016.4.11.4 chilunjika, a. (2016). assessing the operationalisation of the results based management approach in the ministry of transport, communication and infrastructural development in zimbabwe. public policy and administration rresearch, 6(6), 1–12. chirasha, v., chipunza, c., & dzimbiri, l. (2017). self versus employees’ appraisal of managers’ emotional intelligence: the case of gweru and kwekwe city councils, midlands province, zimbabwe (pp. 180–200). the dyke: special edition. retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/11408/1848 chordiya, r., sabharwal, m., & goodman, d. (2017). affective organizational commitment and job satisfaction: a cross-national comparative study. public administration, 95(1), 178–195. https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12306 cloutier, o., felusiak, l., hill, c., & pemberton-jones, e. (2015). the importance of developing strategies for employee retention. journal of leadership, accountability and ethics, 12(2), 119–129. creswell, j.w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (4th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. douglas, j., muturi, d., douglas, a., & ochieng, j. (2017). the role of organisational climate in readiness for change to lean six sigma. the tqm journal, 29(5), 1754–2731. https://doi.org/10.1108/tqm-04-2017-0046 deci, e.l. (1975). intrinsic motivation. plenum press. esther, n-o., byron, b., debra, r.w., ntonghanwah, f., james, g.l., & thabo, t.f. (2019). the affective commitment of academics in a university in botswana. international journal of educational administration and policy studies, 11(2), 12–19. https://doi.org/10.5897/ijeaps2019.0595 farquhar, j.d. (2012). case study research for business. london: sage. galletta, m., portoghese, i., melis, p., gonzalez, c.i.a., finco, g., d’aloja, e., … campagna, m. (2019). the role of collective affective commitment in the relationship between work-family conflict and emotional exhaustion among nurses: a multilevel modeling approach. bmc nursing, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-019-0329-z grespan, l., fiorini, p., & colucci, g. (eds.). (2019). training. in the route to patient safety in robotic surgery: springer tracts in advanced robotics (vol. 126, pp. 143–148). cham: springer. hamid, z., muzamil, m., & shah, s.a. (eds.). (2019). strategic human resource management. in handbook of research on positive organizational behavior for improved workplace performance (pp. 260–275). hershey, pa: igi global. hecklau, f., galeitzke, m., flachs, s., & kohl, h. (2016). holistic approach for human resource management in industry 4.0. procedia cirp, 54, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2016.05.102 herzberg, f. (1968). one more time: how do you motivate employees? (pp. 109–120). boston, ma: harvard business review. herzberg, f.w., mausner, b., & snyderman, b. (1957). the motivation to work. new york, ny: wiley. howard, j., gagné, m., morin, a.j.s., & van den broeck, a. (2016). motivation profiles at work: a self-determination theory approach. journal of vocational behavior, 95–96, 74–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2016.07.004 jang, y., lee, h., hwang, s.j., & shin, j. (2019). learning what and where to transfer. in 36th international conference on machine learning, icml 2019 (vol. 2019-june, pp. 5360–5369). international machine learning society (imls). kanwal, n., zafar, m.s., & bashir, s. (2017). the combined effects of managerial control, resource commitment, and top management support on the successful delivery of information systems projects. international journal of project management, 35(8), 1459–1465. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.08.007 kossivi, b., xu, m., & kalgora, b. (2016). study on determining factors of employee retention. open journal of social sciences, 4(5), 261–268. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2016.45029 kumari, n., & singh, d. (2018). impact of organizational culture on employee performance. prabandhan: indian journal of management, 11(6), 53–63. https://doi.org/10.17010/pijom/2018/v11i6/128442 kuranchie-mensah, e.b., & amponsah-tawiah, k. (2016). employee motivation and work performance: a comparative study of mining companies in ghana. journal of industrial engineering and management, 9(2), 255–309. https://doi.org/10.3926/jiem.1530 kuvaas, b., buch, r., weibel, a., dysvik, a., & nerstad, c.g.l. (2017). do intrinsic and extrinsic motivation relate differently to employee outcomes? journal of economic psychology, 61, 244–258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2017.05.004 latham, g., & locke, r. (1979). goal setting – a motivational technique that works. organizational dynamics, 8(2), 68–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(79)90032-9 lewin, k. (1947). frontiers in group dynamics. human relations, 1(1), 5–42. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f001872674700100103 lunenburg, f.c. (2011). expectancy theory of motivation: motivating by altering expectations. international journal of management, business, and administration, 15(1), 1–6. ma’ruf, f., hadari, i.r., & amalia, d. (2019). employee motivation and performance models. international review of management and marketing, 9(6), 80–86. https://doi.org/10.32479/irmm.8811 maslow, a. (1954). motivation and personality, new york, ny: harper & row. mayne, j. (2004). reporting on outcomes: setting performance expectations and telling performance stories. canadian journal of program evaluation, 19(1), 31–60. mcgregor, d. (1960). the human side of enterprise. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. merriam, s. (1998). qualitative research and case study applications in education. san fransisco, ca: jossey-bass. miles, m., & huberman, a. (1994). qualitative data analysis. thousand oaks, ca: sage. miraglia, m., & johns, g. (2016). going to work ill: a meta-analysis of the correlates of presenteeism and a dual-path model. journal of occupational health psychology, 21(3), 261–283. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000015 mwangi, b.w., & njuguna, r. (2019). performance appraisal strategies on performance of teachers in public secondary schools in kiambu county, kenya. international journal of current aspects, 3(11), 218–230. https://doi.org/10.35942/ijcab.v3iii.19 naim, m.f., & lenka, u. (2018). development and retention of generation y employees: a conceptual framework. employee relations, 40(2), 433–455. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-09-2016-0172 nazir, o., & islam, j.u. (2017). enhancing organizational commitment and employee performance through employee engagement: an empirical check. south asian journal of business studies, 6(1), 98–114. https://doi.org/10.1108/sajbs-04-2016-0036 nazir, s., shafi, a., qun, w., nazir, n., & tran, q.d. (2016). influence of organizational rewards on organizational commitment and turnover intentions. employee relations, 38(4), 596–619. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-12-2014-0150 neuman, w.l. (2003). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. boston, ma: allyn & bacon. ngwenyama, p. (2014). an evaluation of the effectiveness of a performance management system towards employee performance in a local authority. the case of city of harare from 2009 to 2013. unpublished masters dissertation. university of zimbabwe, zimbabwe. nkhukhu-orlando, e., brown, b., wilson, d. r., forcheh, n., linn, j. g., & fako, t. t. (2019). the affective commitment of academics in a university in botswana. international journal of educational administration and policy studies, 11(2), 12–19. ochurub, m., bussin, m., & goosen, x. (2012). organisational readiness for introducing a performance management system. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(1), art. #389, 11 pages. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i1.389 osborne, s., & hammoud, m.s. (2017). effective employee engagement in the workplace. international journal of applied management and technology, 16(1), 50–67. https://doi.org/10.5590/ijamt.2017.16.1.04 organizational dynamics, autumn, pp 68–80 petrou, p., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2018). crafting the change: the role of employee job crafting behaviors for successful organizational change. journal of management, 44(5), 1766–1792. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206315624961 phillips, j.j. (2016). handbook of training evaluation and measurement methods. london: routledge. plaskoff, j. (2017). employee experience: the new human resource management approach. strategic hr review, 16(3), 136–141. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr-12-2016-0108 pohling, r., buruck, g., jungbauer, k.l., & leiter, m.p. (2016). work-related factors of presenteeism: the mediating role of mental and physical health. journal of occupational health psychology, 21(2), 220–234. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039670 poperwi, l. (2018). making sense of poor service delivery in harare city council. unpublished doctoral thesis. harare: zimbabwe open university. rangus, k., & slavec, a. (2017). the interplay of decentralization, employee involvement and absorptive capacity on firms’ innovation and business performance. technological forecasting and social change, 120, 195–203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2016.12.017 rebeka, e., & indradevi, r. (2017). employees attitude towards organizational change. man in india, 97(4), 99–106. ruwende, i. (2017, 24 may). performance contracts for town council heads. retrieved from http://www.herald.co.zw/ ryazanova, o., mcnamara, p., & aguinis, h. (2017). research performance as a quality signal in international labor markets: visibility of business schools worldwide through a global research performance system. journal of world business, 52(6), 831–841. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2017.09.003 saad, d.d.m.z.b.s. (2018). impact of employee motivation on work performance. international journal of scientific and research publications (ijsrp), 8(3), 295–308. https://doi.org/10.29322/ijsrp.8.3.2018.p7544 salah, m. (2016). the influence of rewards on employees performance. british journal of economics, management & trade, 13(4), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.9734/bjemt/2016/25822 sermanet, p., xu, k., & levine, s. (2019). unsupervised perceptual rewards for imitation learning. 5th international conference on learning representations, iclr 2017 – workshop track proceedings, 24–26 april 2017, toulon, france. shah, n., irani, z., & sharif, a.m. (2017). big data in an hr context: exploring organizational change readiness, employee attitudes and behaviors. journal of business research, 70, 366–378. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.08.010 sharma, s., & taneja, m. (2018). the effect of training on employee performance. international journal of recent technology and engineering, 2(2), 52–59. https://doi.org/10.31104/jsab.v2i2.49 skinner, b.f. (1974). about behaviourism, london: cape. storey, j. (1989). from personnel management to human resource management. in j. storey (ed.), new perspectives on human resource management (pp. 18). london: routledge. sun, l., & bunchapattanasakda, c. (2019). employee engagement: a literature review. international journal of human resource studies, 9(1), 63–80. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijhrs.v9i1.14167 tonelli, a.o., de souza bermejo, p.h., aparecida dos santos, p., zuppo, l., & zambalde, a.l. (2017). it governance in the public sector: a conceptual model. information systems frontiers, 19, 593–610. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-015-9614-x vroom, v.h. (1964). work and motivation. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. yin, r.k. (2009). case study research methods: design and methods. thousand oaks, ca: sage. zinyama, t., nhema, a.g., & mutandwa, h. (2015). performance management in zimbabwe: review of current issues. journal of human resources management and labour studies, 3(2), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.15640/jhrmls.v3n2a1 article information authors: marissa de klerk1 karina mostert1 affiliations: 1workwell: research unit for economic and management sciences, school of human resource sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom campus, south africa correspondence to: karina mostert email: karina.mostert@nwu.ac.za postal address: economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom campus, private bag x6001, potchefstroom 2520, south africa keywords: work–home interference; home–work interference; socio-demographic characteristics; occupation; age; marital status; parental status; education; gender; language dates: received: 16 mar. 2009 accepted: 21 sept. 2009 published: 15 apr. 2010 how to cite this article: de klerk, m., & mostert, k. (2010). work–home interference: examining socio-demographic predictors in the south african context. sa journal of human resource management/ sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #203, 10 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.203 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) work–home interference: examining socio-demographic predictors in the south african context in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • work–home interaction    • socio-demographic characteristics and work–home interaction       • occupation       • age       • marital status       • parental status       • education       • gender       • language • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • descriptive statistics    • multiple regression analysis • discussion    • occupation    • age    • marital status    • parental status    • education    • gender    • language    • limitations of the study    • recommendations • acknowledgements • references abstract (back to top) orientation: the focus of this study was to investigate the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics and the work–home interaction in different occupational groups in south africa. research purpose: the main research aim of the study was to investigate the socio-demographic predictors of negative and positive work–home interaction of south african employees. motivation for the study: little information is known about the prevalence of work–home interaction within groups. this study is aimed at enabling the researcher and organisations to identify those groups that are at risk of negative interference and which are prone to positive interaction, to allow for the development of appropriate strategies and intervention programmes. research design, approach and method: a cross-sectional survey design was used in the study. a sample (n = 2040) was taken from four south african industries (i.e. the police service, the earthmoving equipment industry, mining and nursing). a socio-demographic questionnaire and the survey work–home interaction-nijmegen (swing) were used. main findings: the results indicated that robust predictors included occupation, gender and language for negative work–home interference; occupation, age and language for positive work–home interference; occupation and language for negative home–work interference; and occupation, age, education and language for positive home–work interference. practical/managerial implications: the implications of the study are that negative and positive work–home interaction is uniquely associated with socio-demographic characteristics. work–life balance initiatives should, therefore, be carefully tailored to address the needs of each socio-demographic group. contribution/value-add: the findings of the study suggest answers to the management of the work–home interaction among various socio-demographic groups in organisations. introduction (back to top) in modern society, two of the central and salient domains in the life of an employed individual are work and home. the subject of work–home interference (whi) and home–work interference (hwi) has received widespread publicity and has been subjected to an increasing number of investigations (eby, casper, lockwood, bordeaux & brinley, 2005; jones, burke & westman, 2006; pitt-catsouphes, kossek & sweet, 2006). many researchers have sought different ways in which to explain the integration of work and home responsibilities, with the integration of the two domains becoming more difficult as a result of the major changes that have taken place, both in the composition of the workforce and in the nature of work (barnett, 1998; edwards & rothbard, 2000). transformations that have changed the nature of work over the last two decades consist of increased domestic and international competition, restructuring, downsizing, outsourcing, cuts in government funding, changes in management style and structure, lay-offs, mergers, rapidly changing technology, as well as demands for higher quality products and services (gillespie, walsh, winefield, dua & stough, 2001). since the first democratic elections took place in south africa in april 1994, striking changes and prominent transformations have also occurred in the country. high unemployment rates have become particularly problematic for employees, placing pressure on them to work harder and for longer hours, in response to their feelings of uncertainty about their future. in keeping with international trends, more men and women are working longer hours and are reporting greater demands in their workplaces. such increase in demand is mainly due to advances that have occurred in the technological and telecommunications fields (in terms of portable computers, mobile phones, etc.), which have made it possible to work longer hours and to perform job-related tasks in a variety of locations (lewis & cooper, 2005). inevitably, such demographic and structural transformations and changes directly affects the workforce, placing more pressure on employees as they struggle with heightened worldwide competition and increasingly demanding customers in an environment that is subject to the demands of speed and cost-effectiveness (lewis & cooper, 2005). employees may be unaware of the effect that such changes and transformations have on their well-being and functioning in the home environment (bond, galinsky & swanberg, 1998; ferber, o’farrell & allen, 1991; greenhaus, 1988; parasuraman & greenhaus, 1999). when negative interaction is experienced between work and home as a result of such changes, that interaction can have a negative effect on institutional competitiveness, and can be associated with various negative organisational outcomes, which, in turn, can create a problem not only for the employees, but also for the institutions themselves (duxbury, 2004; duxbury & higgins, 2001; kotzé, 2005; parasuraman & greenhaus, 1999). the negative organisational outcomes associated with a poor work–home interaction may include burnout, work-related stress, complaints regarding depression, job turnover, the increased likelihood of mental illness, general health-related stress, low levels of job performance, and the prevalence of accidents (adams, king & king, 1996; allen, herst, bruck & sutton, 2000; geurts & demerouti, 2003; kossek & ozeki, 1998; parasuraman, purohit, godshalk & beutell, 1996). work-related stressors could spill over into a person’s home life, which could have a negative effect on the health and well-being of those concerned (brough, 2003; strazdins & broom, 2003). in contrast, a positive interaction between the work–home domains could lead to positive outcomes, such as satisfaction with life and work engagement, for the individuals concerned (montgomery, peeters, schaufeli & den ouden, 2003; mostert, 2006; mostert, cronjé & pienaar, 2006; voydanoff, 1988). many researchers have examined the consequences, prevalence, antecedents and outcomes of work–home interaction (barnett, 1998; frone, russell & cooper, 1992; greenhaus & parasuraman, 1994; perry-jenkins, repetti & crouter, 2000; voydanoff, 2005). in south africa, several studies have addressed measurement issues (e.g. marais, mostert, geurts & taris, 2009; pieterse & mostert, 2005; rost & mostert, 2007), as well as the correlates of negative and positive interaction between work and home (e.g. de villiers & kotze, 2003; koekemoer & mostert, 2006; mostert, 2006; mostert et al., 2006; mostert & oosthuizen, 2006; oldfield & mostert, 2007; whitehead & kotze, 2003). however, in south africa, contrasting findings have been reported with regard to the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics and the work–home interaction. in an attempt to address such findings, the aim of the current study is to investigate the socio-demographic predictors of negative and positive work–home interaction with a sample of 2040 south african employees. such an investigation should enable researchers and organisations to identify the relevant risk groups and to develop appropriate strategies and intervention programmes that will effectively support the workers’ integration of their work and personal lives. the socio-demographic characteristics in the current study include occupation, age, marital status, parental status, education, gender and language. work–home interaction the most widely cited definition of work–family conflict is that of greenhaus and beutell (1985, p. 77), who define the concept as ‘a form of inter-role conflict in which role pressures from the work and family domai ns are mutually incompatible’. in other words, participation in the work (family) role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in the family (work) role. however, the definition focuses almost exclusively one-sidedly on the negative impact of work on the home domain (i.e. on the work–family conflict), and does not consider the fact that the interaction between work and home can also be positive. recently, researchers have come to realise that the work–home interface is a broad concept, which also encompasses a positive side. for example, fulfilling multiple roles in both the work and home domains may produce resources (e.g. energy mobilisation; skill acquisition; greater self-esteem), which could facilitate the functioning in both life spheres positively (grzywacz & marks, 2000). geurts et al. (2005) investigated the total spectrum of work–home interaction, defining it as not only a process of interaction between both work and home, but also, more specifically, as an interactive process in which a worker’s functioning (behaviour) in one domain is influenced by either negative or positive load effects that have built up in the other domain. this definition suggests that any interference that occurs between the two domains can occur in both directions, so that they might influence each other in either a negative or a positive way. work–home interaction, therefore, comprises four dimensions, namely (1) negative whi, which refers to a situation in which negative load reactions build up at work, hampering a person’s functioning at home, (2) negative hwi, referring to those negative load reactions which develop at home that fetter a person’s functioning at work, (3) positive whi, which is defined as positive load reactions built up at work that facilitate functioning at home, and (4) positive hwi, which occurs when positive load reactions developed at home facilitate functioning at work (geurts et al., 2005). socio-demographic characteristics and work–home interaction the current study focuses on seven socio-demographic characteristics, namely: occupation (police officers, construction workers, mine workers, or nurses), age, marital status (married vs unmarried), parental status (parents vs non-parents), education (individuals with a school education vs individuals with a postgraduate education), gender (male vs female), and language (english, afrikaans or a vernacular african language). occupation police work has been identified as one of society’s most stressful occupations (alexander, 1999; anshel, 2000; paton & violanti, 1999). some studies that have been undertaken in south africa show that police workers are exposed to such elements as demanding work characteristics (e.g. shift work, unplanned overtime, exposure to suffering and death, etc.), relatively low levels of decision latitude and support at work, organisational transformations, irregular working hours the lack of resources, exposure to violence, job pressure, and emotional stressors (biggam, power, macdonald, carcary & moodie, 1997; marais, 2006; sekwena, mostert & wentzel, 2007; swanepoel & pienaar, 2004). such stressors tend to spill over to police officials’ home life (emslie, hunt & macintyre, 2004; frone et al., 1992) and ultimately have a negative impact on their personal well-being (brough, 2003; strazdins & broom, 2003). the construction industry has grown substantially over the past fifty years (singh, 1997). according to applebaum (1981), the construction industry includes the construction of: schools, buildings, shopping centres, dams, bridges, sewer treatment facilities, industrial plants, roads and highways. employees in the industry are exposed to: relatively long working hours, increased job demands, a dangerous working environment, reduced organisational commitment and the likelihood of injuries and accidents. all such factors create feelings of uncertainty and stress (lingard, 2003; lingard & sublet, 2002; pieterse & mostert, 2005). the mining occupation may be regarded as an environment in which many people’s lives are put at risk due to the nature of the job and the challenging physical environment that is associated with work in processing plants or underground (singer, 2002; wynn, 2001). mineworkers are faced with various forms of stressors, including having to maintain a competitive advantage in complying with the demands of change, the harsh working conditions (e.g. mining underground at temperatures in excess of 28 °c long working hours, sometimes unsafe working conditions, and highly unionised environments), pressure to perform, role conflict and the need to produce quickly within a limited amount of time (calitz, 2004). the nursing profession is regarded as very stressful and emotionally demanding (coffey & coleman, 2001; fagin, brown, bartlett, leary & carson, 1995; hodson, 2001; peter, macfarlane & o’brien-pallas, 2004; snellgrove, 1998). in south africa, nurses are faced with such stressors as: pressure to improve the quality of service, budget constraints, overcrowded hospitals, high patient loads and exposure to hiv/aids-infected patients (gmeiner & poggenpoel, 1996; hall, 2004). it is generally agreed that stressful job characteristics (e.g. unfavourable working time schedules, work overload, job pressures, mental demands, social support, excessive job control or restriction on decision-making and insufficient career opportunities) play a central role in preceding negative interaction between work and home. stressful aspects of, and a lack of resources in, the workplace could hinder positive interaction from taking place (e.g. grzywacz & marks, 2000; mostert & oosthuizen, 2006). age with regard to the relationship between age and work–home interaction, some studies have found no relationship between different age groups (pieterse & mostert, 2005; van tonder, 2005). however, the study conducted by grzywacz and marks (2000) found that younger men tended to report more negative spill-over between work and home (as well as between home and work) and less positive spill-over from family to work, than did older men. they also found that younger women tended to report more positive spill-over from work to family and more negative spill-over from family to work than did older women. furthermore, grandey and cropanzano (1999) found age to be negatively related to work–family conflict. a south african survey conducted among construction workers reported that, in general, younger employees tended to experience higher negative and lower positive interference between work and home than did older employees (rost, 2006). mostert and oldfield (2009) reported that older employees experienced higher positive whi than did younger employees. marital status the relationship between marital status and work–home interaction has not yet been thoroughly investigated, because most studies have included a large percentage of married employees in their study sample. rost (2006), van tonder (2005), and pieterse and mostert (2005) reported finding no significant differences between married and unmarried employees. grzywacz and marks (2000) reported that being unmarried was associated with less negative spill-over from work to family and with less spill-over from family to work, compared to that of married counterparts. in a sample of 685 police officers, marais and mostert (2008) reported that unmarried employees experienced significantly higher levels of positive whi than did married employees. mostert and oldfield (2009) support such findings, but also report that married employees tend to experience higher levels of negative whi. parental status both the age and the number of children living at home have been found to have a bidirectional influence on whi (grandey & cropanzano, 1999; grzywacz & marks, 2000). grandey and cropanzano (1999) found that the number of children living at home related positively to family–work conflict. grzywacz and marks (2000) reported that men who had children (with an oldest child under 5 years of age) living at home tended to experience more positive spill-over from work to home than did men without children. the researchers also found that women with (young) children living at home tended to experience more negative interaction between work and family, in comparison with women without children. furthermore, demerouti, geurts & kompier (2004) found that, compared to women without children, women with children reported experiencing more positive than negative influences from the home domain. in their south african studies, pieterse and mostert (2005), rost (2006) and van tonder (2005) found no significant differences with regard to the relationship between parental status and work–home interaction. however, marais and mostert (2008) reported that those police officers with children in their sample reported experiencing higher levels of positive hwi than did those police officers without children. mostert and oldfield (2009) reported that parents experienced higher negative whi, as well as higher positive hwi, compared to childless individuals. education some studies investigating whi differences based on educational level reported finding no significant differences between the possession of different educational levels and the experiencing of whi (pieterse & mostert, 2005; rost, 2006). however, grzywacz and marks (2000) found that having a lower level of education was robustly associated with experiencing a lower level of positive spill-over from work to home. van tonder (2005) and marais and mostert (2008) found that employees with a higher level of education tended to experience more negative interference from work to home. mostert and oldfield (2009) reported that those employees with a higher level of education tended to experience significantly higher levels of negative whi and hwi, though also higher levels of positive hwi. gender across a variety of samples, international studies almost consistently revealed that there were hardly any differences between how men and women experienced negative or positive interaction between work and home bidirectionally (demerouti et al., 2004; eagle, miles & icenogle, 1997; frone et al., 1992; grandey & cropanzano, 1999). however, grzywacz and marks (2000) found that women reported experiencing more positive whi compared with the amount which was reported as being experienced by men. however, they also found that men and women did not differ in how much negative whi and hwi they reported experiencing. some south african studies (marais & mostert, 2008; mostert & oldfield, 2009; pieterse & mostert, 2005; rost, 2006) have found that men tend to report experiencing a significantly higher level of negative whi when compared with the amount reported as being experienced by women. mostert and oldfield (2009) also reported that men tended to report experiencing more positive whi and more negative hwi than did women. language with the exception of pieterse and mostert (2005), all south african studies found differences between the language and ethnic groups. van tonder (2005) reported that black nurses were found to experience statistically lower levels of negative hwi and higher levels of positive hwi in comparison with white nurses. mostert and oldfield (2009) found that, compared with white mineworkers, black mineworkers reported significantly experiencing higher levels of positive whi/hwi and negative hwi. marais and mostert (2008) found that afrikaans-speaking participants reported experiencing statistically significant lower levels on all four dimensions of work–home interaction, compared with englishand setswana-speaking participants. rost (2006) also reported finding differences between white, black, coloured and indian earthmoving workers in terms of the experiencing of negative whi and positive whi/hwi. research design (back to top) research approach a cross-sectional survey design was used in the current study. in terms of such a design, one group of people is observed at one point in time, over a short period, such as a day or a few weeks (du plooy, 2001). the design is used to assess interrelationships among variables within a particular population (struwig & stead, 2001). research method research participants for the purposes of the current study, selected employees from the following four occupational groups were used (n = 2 040): the south african police service (n = 685), the construction industry (n = 528), the nursing profession, including registered, as well as auxiliary, nurses (n = 507) and the mining industry (n = 320). the participants were equally distributed with regard to gender (consisting of 50.9% male and 49.1% female). of the participants, 33.6% were between the ages of 27 and 36 years and 33.4% were between the ages of 37 and 46 years. most (65.2%) of the participants were married, with 64% having children. those participants who were in possession of a school education comprised 54.6%, with 40.6% possessing a postgraduate qualification. in total, 53.8% of the participants were afrikaans-speaking, 15.1% were english-speaking and 29.3% of the sample consisted of various vernacular language-speaking participants. measuring instruments socio-demographic characteristics: questions on the following socio-demographic characteristics were included in the booklets used in the study: occupation, age, marital status, parental status, level of education, gender and the participant’s language. work–home interaction: the survey work–home interference-nijmegen (swing) was used to measure the amount of work–home interaction experienced (geurts et al., 2005). the swing is a 22-item whi measure which measures four types of whi, namely: (1) the negative interference of work on home (negative whi), which refers to the negative impact of the work situation on one’s functioning at home (in the form of eight items, e.g. ‘how often does it happen that your work schedule makes it difficult to fulfil domestic obligations?’), (2) the negative interference of home on work (negative hwi), which refers to the negative impact of the home situation on one’s job performance (in the form of four items, e.g. ‘how often does it happen that you have difficulty concentrating on your work, because you are preoccupied with domestic matters?’), (3) the positive interference of work on home (positive whi), which refers to the positive influence of the work situation on one’s functioning at home (in the form of five items, e.g. ‘how often does it happen that you come home cheerfully after a successful day at work, positively affecting the atmosphere at home?’) and (4) the positive interference of home on work (positive hwi), which refers to the positive impact of one’s home situation on one’s job performance (in the form of five items, e.g. ‘how often does it happen that you are better able to interact with your colleague/supervisor as a result of the environment at home?’). all items were scored on a four-point frequency rating scale, ranging from 0 (‘never’) to 3 (‘always’). geurts et al. (2005) report cronbach’s alpha coefficients of 0.84 for negative whi and 0.75 for positive whi, as well as 0.75 for negative hwi and 0.81 for positive hwi. in a south african sample, marais et al. (2009) provided evidence of the construct validity, construct equivalence and reliability of the scale. they reported the following cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the swing: negative whi = 0.90, positive whi = 0.84, negative hwi = 0.87 and positive hwi = 0.82. research procedure the measuring battery was first compiled. after the appropriate permission had been obtained from the management bodies of the various occupational groups, a letter requesting their participation was handed to each individual prior to the administration of the battery. ethical aspects relating to, and the motivation regarding, the research were discussed with the participants before the questionnaires were handed out. a letter explaining the purpose and importance of the research accompanied the questionnaires, which the participants in the study were required to complete. participation in the study was voluntary. the participants, who were assured of the confidentiality and anonymity of their answers, were given two to three weeks in which to complete the questionnaires, after which the latter were personally collected on a set date. statistical analysis the statistical analysis was carried out using the spss program (spss inc., 2005). multiple regression analyses were carried out to determine the significant predictors of the four work–home interaction dimensions. to determine whether the model fit the actual outcomes, goodness-of-fit statistics were used. such statistics are used to assess the fit of a multiple model against the actual data (field, 2005). r correlation coefficients were used to determine the overall fit of the regression model and r2 was used to obtain a good estimation of the substantive size of the relationship, which, in turn, is the amount of variation in the outcome variable that is accounted for by the model. the f-ratio was used to determine how much the model has improved the prediction of the outcome, compared with the level of inaccuracy of the model. the predictors of the regression analysis of the sample were based on the assumptions made, enabling findings to be generalised in respect of the wider population. prior to the analysis, the assumptions for the predictors were checked. these assumptions included the following: •the predictors must be quantitative or categorical. •the predictors should have some variation in value. •the predictors should not correlate too highly in terms of multi-colinearity. •no external variables should correlate with the predictors included in the regression model. •there should be homogeneity between the groups. •at each level of the predictors’ variable(s), the variance of the residual terms should be constant. for the categorical variables with more than two categories, ‘dummy coding’ was used (field, 2005). a baseline group (the majority group) was created, and was coded with a value of 0 (e.g. in the case of occupation, the saps participants were chosen to be the baseline group for the study). secondly, the dummy group was created and coded with a value of 1 (in the case of occupation, the group might have consisted of construction workers, nurses or miners). to determine whether any differences existed between the baseline and the dummy group, the beta value was used. such a value shows the change in outcomes due to a unit change in the predictor, and tells the relative difference between each group and the group which has been chosen as the baseline group. in order to determine the significant predictors of the four work–home interaction dimensions, the sample was randomly divided into two groups, namely group 1 (n = 972) (used as the experimental group) and group 2 (n = 1 068) (used as the control group). for group 1, a multiple regression analysis using the forward method was used to determine whether there were any statistically significant predictors. to determine whether such predictors were robust, the same model (including only the significant predictors in group 1) was tested with group 2, using the enter method. at the statistical level, the test for the successful replication of the model involves using the χ2 statistics to determine the difference in statistical fit between model 1 and model 2, by determining the difference in r2. non-significant differences between the models indicate statistical support for the hypotheses that are tested. results (back to top) descriptive statistics table 1 shows the means, standard deviations, cronbach’s alpha coefficients and the correlation coefficients between the work–home interaction scales. table 1: mean, standard deviations (s.d.), cronbach’s alpha (á) and correlations between the work–home interaction variables as can be seen from the results in table 1, the cronbach’s alpha coefficients of all the scales were considered acceptable, when they were compared with the guideline of α ≥ 0.70 (nunnally & bernstein, 1994), suggesting that all the scales used in the test were reliable. table 1 also provides the correlation coefficients of the work–home interaction variables. multiple regression analysis to determine which socio-demographic characteristic predicts each work–home interaction variable (i.e. negative whi, positive whi, negative hwi and positive hwi), four standard multiple regression analyses, using the forward method with the first group and the enter method with the second group, were performed. the results are reported in tables 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.table 2 summarises the regression analysis, using socio-demographic characteristics as predictors of negative whi. for group 1, the forward method was used. the model indicated that the statistically significant predictors consisted of employment in construction (β = -0.50; t = -14.80; r2 = 0.08; ρ ≤ 0,05), mining (β = -0.38; t = -11.72; r2 = 0.13; ρ ≤ 0.05), or nursing (β = -0.18; t = -4.86; r2 = 0.23; ρ ≤ 0.05), gender (β = -0.23; t = -6.73; r2 = 0.21; ρ ≤ 0.05), age (β = -0.07; t = -2.33; r2 = 0.24; ρ ≤ 0.05) and the use of the vernacular as the home language (β = 0.06; t = 2.05; r 2 = 0.24; ρ ≤ 0.05), explaining approximately 24% of the variance obtained. table 2: multiple regression analysis with negative whi as dependent variable the entry of socio-demographic characteristics for group 2 produced a statistically significant model (f(6,997) = 52.48; ρ = 0.00), which accounted for approximately 24% of the variance. taken together, it seems that significant predictors of negative whi are employment in construction (β = -0.48; t = -14.78; ρ ≤ 0.05), mining (β = -0.36; t = -11.60; ρ ≤ 0.05), and nursing (β = -0.19; t = -5.06; ρ ≤ 0.05); gender (β = -0.20; t = -5.45; ρ ≤ 0.05); and the use of the vernacular as the home language (β = 0.07; t = 2.19; ρ ≤ 0.05). the difference in r2 was 0 and non-significant, indicating that the model obtained in group 1 appeared as robust in group 2. table 3 summarises the regression analysis with socio-demographic characteristics as the predictors of positive whi. for group 1, the forward method was used. the model indicated that the statistically significant predictors were the use of the vernacular (β = 0.33; t = 10.77; r2 = 0.12; ρ ≤ 0,05) or of english (β = 0.09; t = 2.89; r2 = 0.22; ρ ≤ 0,05) as the home language; employment in mining (β = -0.32; t = -9.87; r2 = 0.15; ρ ≤ 0.05), nursing (β = -0.27; t = -8.02; r2 = 0.17; ρ ≤ 0.05), and construction (β = -0.27; t = -7.46; r2 = 0.21; ρ ≤ 0.05); and age (β = 0.09; t = 3.23; r2 = 0.21; ρ ≤ 0.05), explaining approximately 22% of the variance obtained. table 3: multiple regression analysis with positive whi as dependent variable the entry of socio-demographic characteristics for group 2 produced a statistically significant model (f(6,999) = 53.02; ρ = 0.00), accounting for approximately 24% of the variance obtained. taken together, it seems that the significant predictors of positive whi are the use of the vernacular (β = 0.30; t = 9.99; ρ ≤ 0.05) or english (β = 0.07; t = 2.24; ρ ≤ 0.05) as the home language, employment in mining (β = -0.28; t = -9.15; ρ ≤ 0.05), nursing (β = -0.31; t = -9.44; ρ ≤ 0.05), or construction (β = -0.26; t = -7.87; ρ ≤ 0.05) and age (β = 0.11; t = 3.71; ρ ≤ 0.05). the difference in r2 was 0 and non-significant, indicating that the model obtained in group 1 appeared as robust in group 2. table 4 summarises the regression analysis with the socio-demographic characteristics as the predictors of negative hwi. for group 1, the forward method was used. the model indicated that the statistically significant predictors consisted of the use of the vernacular (β = 0.15; t = 5.00; r2 = 0.06; ρ ≤ 0.05) as the home language; employment in construction (β = -0.45; t = -13.12; r2 = 0.10; ρ ≤ 0.05), nursing (β = -0.36; t = -9.84; r2 = 0.16; ρ ≤ 0,05), or mining (β = -0.35; t = -10,67; r2 = 0.24; ρ ≤ 0.05); gender (β = -0.08; t = -2.47; r2 = 0.25; ρ ≤ 0.05); age (β = -0.08; t = -2,59; r2 = 0.25; ρ ≤ 0.05); and parental status (β = -0.06; t = -2.20; r2 = 0.25; ρ ≤ 0.05), which explained approximately 25% of the variance obtained. table 4: multiple regression analysis with negative hwi as dependent variable the entry of socio-demographic characteristics for group 2 produced a statistically significant model (f(7,776) = 44.44; ρ = 0.00), accounting for approximately 29% of the variance obtained. taken together, it seems that the significant predictors of negative hwi are the use of the vernacular (β = 0.16; t = 4.89; ρ ≤ 0.05) as the home language; employment in construction (β = -0.44; t = -12.02; ρ ≤ 0.05 ), nursing (β = -0.40; t = -9.45; ρ ≤ 0.05), or mining (β = -0.39; t = -11.10; ρ ≤ 0.05). the difference in r2 was 0 and non-significant, indicating that the model obtained in group 1 appeared as robust in group 2. table 5 summarises the regression analysis with socio-demographic characteristics as the predictors of positive hwi. for group 1, the forward method was used. the model indicated that the statistically significant predictors were employment in mining (β = -0.30; t = -9.08; r2 = 0.14; ρ ≤ 0,05); nursing (β = 0.23; t = -6.64; r2 = 0.16; ρ ≤ 0.05), or construction (β = 0.21; t = -6.04; r2 = 0.19; ρ ≤ 0.05), the use of the vernacular language as the home language (β = 0.30; t = 9.91; r2 = 0.11; ρ ≤ 0.05), parental status (β = -0.08; t = -2.56; r2 = 0.20; ρ ≤ 0.05), age (β = 0.07; t = 2.27; r2 = 0.21; ρ ≤ 0.05); and education (β = -0.06 ; t = -2.08; r2 = 0.21; ρ ≤ 0.05), explaining approximately 21% of the variance obtained. table 5: multiple regression analysis with positive hwi as dependent variable entry of socio-demographic characteristics for group 2 produced a statistically significant model (f(7,710) = 25.69; ρ = 0.00), accounting for approximately 20% of the variance obtained. taken together, it seems that the significant predictors of positive hwi are employment in mining (β = -0.37; t = -9.66; ρ ≤ 0.05 ), nursing (β = -0.29; t = -7.02; ρ ≤ 0.05), or construction (β = -0.26; t = -6.37; ρ ≤ 0.05); age (β = 0.13; t = 3.59; ρ ≤ 0.05); the use of the vernacular language as the home language (β = 0.21; t = 5.78; ρ ≤ 0.05); and education (β = 0.07; t = -2.03; ρ ≤ 0.05). the difference in r2 was 0 and non-significant, indicating that the model obtained in group 1 appeared as robust in group 2. based on the multiple regressions, a summary of predictors for the four work–home interaction dimensions is displayed in table 6. the predictors found in both group 1 and group 2 are indicated in bold. such predictors that were only found in group 1 and not in group 2, are indicated in normal font. as can be seen in table 6, occupation acted as the predictor in all four work–home interaction dimensions in both the experimental and control groups. age also acted as the predictor in all four work–home interaction dimensions, though it was a robust predictor for only the positive interaction dimensions in both groups. marital status did not serve as a predictor for any of the work–home interaction dimensions, whereas parental status served as a predictor for the negative and positive hwi dimensions in the experimental group. furthermore, education served as a predictor for the positive hwi dimension. gender acted as the predictor of the negative whi dimension in both groups, though of the negative hwi dimension only in the experimental group. finally, language served to predict all four work–home interaction dimensions. table 6: multiple regression summary table discussion (back to top) the aim of the study was to investigate the socio-demographic predictors of the negative and positive work–home interaction of south african employees. those socio-demographic characteristics that were investigated in this study included occupation, age, marital status, parental status, education, gender and language. occupation the results showed that occupation was a significant predictor of all four work–home interaction dimensions in both the experimental and control groups. more specifically, participants in the police group experienced statistically significantly higher levels of negative whi, positive whi, negative hwi and positive hwi, compared to the participants in the other three occupational groups. a possible explanation of such high levels might be that the participants from the police generally experienced more stressful circumstances compared with the participants from the other occupational groups. police officials are often exposed to stressful elements, such as demanding work characteristics (e.g. shift work, unplanned overtime, exposure to suffering and death, etc.), lower levels of decision latitude and support at work, organisational transformations, irregular working hours, the lack of resources, job pressures and emotional stressors, which might influence the interaction between the work and home domains (biggam et al., 1997; sekwena et al., 2007). however, the presence of resources (e.g. energy mobilisation, skills acquisition, the boosting of self-esteem, domestic help, domestic appliances the provision of babysitters, etc.) and support (e.g. that of spouse, family, friends colleagues, etc.) might enable police officers to deal more effectively with the demanding aspects of their job (demerouti et al., 2004; geurts & demerouti, 2003; grzywacz & marks, 2000). rewarding aspects of the job and the home environment might facilitate a positive interaction between the different domains. however, further research is needed to explore which factors might help to explain such findings. age age seems to have been a robust predictor of both positive whi and positive hwi (with it being a significant predictor of negative whi/hwi interaction only in the experimental group). however, the effect of age was relatively small (with β-values ranging between 0.07 and 0.13). the younger participants appeared to experience statistically significantly higher levels of negative whi/hwi, while the older participants experienced statistically significantly higher levels of positive whi/hwi. such results conflict with the findings of pieterse and mostert (2005) and van tonder (2005), whereas they give support to other studies (e.g. those of grandey & cropanzano, 1999; grzywacz & marks, 2000; mostert & oldfield, 2009; rost, 2006). a possible explanation could be that younger participants, who are at an early stage in their careers, tend to invest a large amount of time and energy in their work in order to establish themselves firmly on their career path, resulting in higher levels of negative interaction in both domains. younger participants might also not yet have acquired the necessary skills for dealing with the integration of their personal life and work, as compared to older participants, who tend to be more experienced. the latter might have, by dint of their greater experience, learned the necessary skills to separate work and home and, therefore, be able to better manage the integration of personal life and work. marital status marital status was found not to be a predictor of the work–home interaction for either the experimental or the control group. such a finding was congruent with that of rost (2006), who found no significant difference between participants in terms of their marital status. it might be assumed that the impact of such status (as it affects the household situation) requires future investigation. parental status parental status was identified as a significant predictor of both negative and positive hwi, but only in the experimental group. the results indicated that participants with children experience not only higher levels of negative hwi, but also higher levels of positive hwi compared with the findings made in relation to childless participants. such results are similar to previous findings that have been made in this regard (demerouti et al., 2004; marais & mostert, 2008; mostert & oldfield, 2009). having to fill multiple roles (e.g. the roles of worker, parent and homemaker) might evoke both a negative and a positive process. tingey, kiger and riley (1996) shows that working parents (specifically mothers) might be subject to stress, largely as a result of having to shoulder the heavy responsibilities that are associated with having to perform both household tasks and child care in combination with their job demands. as a result, the rewards and sense of independence that can result from employment might be negated by role overload and family–work spill-over. in contrast, several studies point to the fact that it might be beneficial to be required to fulfil multiple roles. for example, crosby (1982) showed that married working mothers are more satisfied than are childless women (see also bersoff & crosby, 1984). hoffman (2000) states that working mothers tend to feel less depressed and more empowered, with their morale being higher than that of their stay-at-home counterparts. such a finding is in line with the ‘role enhancement hypothesis’, which assumes that managing multiple roles might boost energy levels and help to provide extra resources, which contribute to positive spill-over from the home to the workplace (cf. geurts & demerouti, 2003). education the results of the study described in this article showed that education was a significant predictor of only one dimension, namely of positive hwi. participants with a postgraduate education were found to experience statistically significantly higher levels of positive hwi compared with the levels obtained by participants with only a school education. such findings contradict previous findings, in terms of which no significant difference was found between educational levels and whi (pieterse & mostert, 2005). participants with a postgraduate qualification might be assumed to have more home resources (such as financial stability, domestic help or the services of a babysitter) and support at home. it is also assumed that they might have learned to become more skilled in prioritising their home and work lives, facilitating their concentration on other obligations. gender with regard to gender, the findings of this study showed that the men experienced significantly higher levels of negative whi compared with those experienced by the women (as well as compared with the higher levels of negative hwi that were reported as having been experienced by the experimental group). such results, resembling some of those that had previously been found (e.g. marais & mostert, 2008; mostert & oldfield, 2009; pieterse & mostert, 2005), might mean that men tend to perceive their work activities as more demanding than women do their own such activities. men might also find it more difficult to separate their work life from their personal life, due to the traditional roles that men once held evolving into more flexible ones. an increasing number of women have come to enter the workforce, resulting in men also having to assist with household chores. men are also increasingly being expected to become more involved with raising their own children. men might find it difficult to deal with such demands, thus leading to the tension caused by the conflicting interests of work and home. language language was found to be a significant predictor of all four work–home interaction dimensions in both the control and experimental groups. such findings were found to contradict those of previous studies, in which no such difference was found in terms of the different language groups (pieterse & mostert, 2005). the results showed that the afrikaans-speaking participants experienced statistically significantly lower levels of negative whi/hwi and positive whi/hwi compared with those participants who spoke one of the languages of the vernacular. hofstede’s pioneer work regarding cross-cultural research distinguished between individualistic and collectivistic cultures. according to hofstede (1991), the quality of individualism refers to those societies in which the ties between individuals are loose, with everyone being expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family. in contrast, collectivism refers to those societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, which, throughout their lifetime, continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty to the group as a whole. language is important as a means of expressing ethnic and cultural identity. the knowledge, beliefs and practices of a particular society are also reflected in its language (naudé, 2005). each distinct culture (whether it speak a language of the vernacular or afrikaans) might, therefore, have distinguishing attributes and backgrounds that affect the way in which situations and circumstances are interpreted. black culture is a relatively collectivistic culture, in which people are more conscious of groups, and more emotionally dependent on one another, so that it might more often merge the boundaries between work and home. consequently, such a culture accommodates relatively more interaction between the work and home spheres, which allows them to influence each other more profoundly. in contrast, the afrikaans culture is a very reserved individualistic culture, in which there tend to be distinct boundaries drawn between work and home. such boundaries might prevent the work and home spheres from influencing each other significantly. in conclusion, the results of the study revealed that the different socio-demographic characteristics predicted different dimensions of work–home interaction. the present findings may have important implications for future research and practice. firstly, in order to promote the work–life balance and to prevent negative interference between work and home, organisations should provide work–family facilities that enable employees to better align both life spheres. secondly, the focus of such organisations should be on the development of formal policies (allowing for compressed work schedules, flexible starting and finishing times, childcare facilities and parental leave), as well as on improving the informal work environment (geurts & demerouti, 2003). lastly, organisations tend to regard work and the individual as the sole unit of analysis, whereas it is imperative that they examine the cross-over effect of spouses and families on work–home interaction, using the couple or family as the unit of analysis. doing so may increase our understanding of the complexities relating to the fulfilment of multiple roles in different domains. limitations of the study the study described in this article had some limitations. the first limitation related to the use of self-report questionnaires to obtain work–home interaction scores, which increased the likelihood that contamination of the reported relationships by means of the common-method variance would occur. although the strength of such variance cannot be tested, several studies have indicated that it is not as much of an interference factor as one might expect (semmer, zapf & grief, 1996; spector, 1992). owing to the fact that south africa has 11 official languages, a further limitation may be that english is not the respondent’s first language. it is, therefore, recommended that the questionnaires be translated into the other official languages. the results of the study discussed in the current article could also not be generalised to other occupational groups. future studies should include coverage of other occupational groups in south africa. by doing so, the generalisation of the findings would be more effective, promoting the in-depth investigation of work–home interaction and various socio-demographic characteristics across the different cultures that are present in south africa. in conclusion, the current study focused only on a limited number of socio-demographic characteristics and did not take into account other variables that have been found in the past to relate to work–home interaction (e.g. work and home characteristics, psychological involvement, personality variables, etc.). future research should, therefore, focus on examining a model with different sets of variables. recommendations research that is conducted in south africa should focus on those processes that are aimed at helping individuals to develop a balanced lifestyle and an awareness of unhealthy practices. organisations can assist by investigating staff management practices and by fostering the development of a culture that is conducive to the maintenance of a balanced lifestyle. by studying the work–home interaction along with other variables, such as the demands of work and home, and the different coping/recovery strategies employed, valuable lessons could be learned about how to manage whi, as well as about how to enhance the positive spill-over effects between the work and home domains. furthermore, organisations should not merely provide workrelated training and support to employees, but also provide training and support in how to cope with non-work-related demands (e.g. parental training, role reorientation for couples, opportunities for working from home, childcare facilities, etc.). the most important recommendation for future research regards the use of longitudinal designs. such designs might be used to validate the hypothesised causalities of the relationships still further, as well as to examine whether the reported relationships hold true over time. although longitudinal designs are important, montgomery et al. (2003) suggest that they be reserved for use in such circumstances as those in which they can be used to maximum advantage, rather than in exploratory investigations into new research domains. demerouti et al. (2004) suggest that, although the relationship between work and non-work can be seen as such a relatively new domain, there is, nevertheless, the need for longitudinal studies within such a domain. additional studies should be carried out in all the provinces of south africa, as each province has its own inherent characteristics (such as those pertaining to language, culture, crime, etc.). the results obtained in such studies might then be compared with the results obtained in the study currently under review. various occupations, job and socio-demographic characteristics, personality traits and family situations should also be investigated. since the working conditions are unique within the different occupations, though they are still related to the work–non-work interface, the investigation of heterogeneous populations is important. future research should also be directed towards conducting cross-national comparative studies. such investigations should not only serve to broaden and strengthen the findings made in the study under review, but also provide valuable information in regards to the development of interventions that are directed at achieving balance between work and home. acknowledgements (back to top) the material described in this article is based upon work that was supported by the national research foundation, with the reference number ttk2006061200018. the article is based on marissa de klerk’s master’s dissertation. references (back to top) adams, g.a., king, l.a., & king, d.w. (1996). relationships of job and family involvement, family social support, and work-family conflict with job and life satisfaction. journal of applied psychology, 81(4), 411– 420. alexander, c. (1999). police psychological burnout and trauma. in j.m. violanti, & d. paton (eds.), police trauma: psychological aftermath of civilian combat (pp. 54–64). springfield: thomas. allen, t.d., herst, d.e., bruck, c.s., & sutton, m. (2000). consequences associated with work-to-family conflict: a review and agenda for future research. journal of occupational health psychology, 5, 278–308. anshel, m.h. (2000). a conceptual model and implications for coping with stressful events in police work. criminal justice and behaviour, 27, 375–400. applebaum, h.a. (1981). royal blue: the culture of construction workers. new york: rinehart & winston. barnett, r.c. (1998). toward a review and reconceptualization of the work/family literature. genetic, social and general psychology monographs, 124, 125–182. bersoff, d., & crosby, f. (1984). job satisfaction and family status. personality and social psychology bulletin, 10, 79–83. biggam, f.h., power, k.g., macdonald, r.r., carcary, w.b., & moodie, e. (1997). self-perceived occupational stress and distress in a scottish police force. work & stress, 11, 118–133. bond, j.t., galinsky, e., & swanberg, j.e. (1998). the 1997 national study of the changing workforce. new york: families and work institute. brough, p. (2003). the influence of perceived control, social support and inter-domain conflict upon psychological wellbeing: a longitudinal investigation. australian journal of psychology, 55, 117. calitz, p.l. (2004) the experience of women in the platinum mining industry. unpublished master’s thesis. north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa. coffey, m., & coleman, m. (2001). the relationship between support and stress in forensic community mental health nursing. journal of advanced nursing, 34, 397–407. crosby, f. (1982). relative deprivation and working women. new york: oxford university press. de villiers, j., & kotze, e. (2003). work-life balance: a study in the petroleum industry. south african journal of human resource management, 1(3), 15–23. demerouti, e., geurts, s.a.e., & kompier, m.a.j. (2004). positive and negative work-home interaction: prevalence and correlates. equal opportunities international, 23(1), 6–35. du plooy, g.m. (2001). communication research: techniques, methods and applications. (2nd edn.). pretoria: juta. duxbury, l. (2004). dealing with work-life issues in the workplace: standing still is not an option. don wood lecture in industrial relations. kingston: industrial relations centre. duxbury, l., & higgins, c. (2001, october). work-life balance in the new millennium: where are we? where do we need to go? cprn discussion paper. retrieved september 22, 2006, from http://www.cpm.org eagle, b.w., miles, e.w., & icenogle, m.l. (1997). interrole conflicts and the permeability of work and family domains: are there gender differences? journal of vocational behavior, 50, 168–184. eby, l.t., casper, w.j., lockwood, a., bordeaux, c., & brinley, a. (2005). work and family research in io/ob: content analysis and review of the literature (1980–2002). journal of vocational behavior, 66(1), 124–197. edwards, j.r., & rothbard, n.p. (2000). mechanisms linking work and family: clarifying the relationship between work and family constructs. academy of management review, 25, 178–199. emslie, c., hunt, k., & macintyre, s. (2004). gender, work-home conflict, and morbidity amongst white-collar bank employees in the united kingdom. international journal of behaviour medicine, 11, 127–134. fagin, l., brown, d., bartlett, h., leary, j., & carson, j. (1995). the claybury community psychiatric nurse stress study: is it more stressful to work in hospital or the community? journal of advanced nursing, 22, 347–358. ferber, m.a., o’farrell, b., & allen, l.r. (eds.). (1991). work and family: policies for a changing work force. washington, dc: national academy press. field, a. (2005). discovering statistics using spss. london: sage. frone, m.r., russell, m., & cooper, m.l. (1992). prevalence of work-family conflict: are work and family boundaries asymmetrically permeable? journal of organizational behavior, 13, 723–729. geurts, s.a.e., & demerouti, e. (2003) work/non-work interface: a review of theories and findings. in m.j. schabracq, j.a.m. winnubst, & c.l. cooper (eds.), handbook of work and health psychology (pp. 279–312). chichester: wiley. geurts, s.a.e., taris, t.w., kompier, m.a.j., dikkers, j.s.e., van hooff, m.l.m., & kinnunen, u.m. (2005). work–home interaction from a work psychological perspective: development and validation of a new questionnaire, the swing. work & stress, 19(4), 319–339. gillespie, n.a., walsh, m., winefield, a.h., dua, j., & stough, c. (2001). occupational stress in universities: staff perceptions of the causes, consequences and moderators of stress. work & stress, 15, 53–72. gmeiner, a., & poggenpoel, m. (1996). nursing service managers’ views on problems they experience in their everyday lives: part 1. curationis, 19(1), 55–60. grandey, a., & cropanzano, r. (1999). the conservation of resources model applied to work-family conflict and strain. journal of vocational behavior, 54, 350–370. greenhaus, j.h. (1988). the intersection of work and family roles: individual, interpersonal, and organisational issues. journal of social behaviour and personality, 3, 23–44. greenhaus, j.h., & beutell, n.j. (1985). sources of conflict between work and family roles. academy of management review, 10, 76–88. greenhaus, j.h., & parasuraman, s. (1994). work-family conflict, social support and wellbeing. in m.j. davidson, & r.j. burke (eds.), women in management: current research issues (pp. 213−229). london: chapman. grzywacz, j.g., & marks, n.f. (2000). re-conceptualizing the work-family interface: an ecological perspective on the correlates of positive and negative spillover between work and family. journal of occupational health psychology, 5, 111–126. hall, e.j. (2004). nursing attrition and the work environment in south african health facilities. curationis, 27(4), 29–36. hodson, c. (2001). psychology and work. new york: routledge. hoffman, l.w. (2000, 20 april). positive effects of working mothers. usa today, p. 4–5. hofstede, g. (1991). cultures and organizations: software of the mind. new york: mcgraw-hill. jones, f., burke, r.j., & westman, m. (eds.). (2006). work-life balance: a psychological perspective. new york: psychology press. koekemoer, f.e., & mostert, k. (2006). job characteristics, burnout and negative work-home interference. south african journal of industrial psychology, 32(3), 87–97. kossek, e.e., & ozeki, c. (1998). work-family conflict, policies, and the job-life satisfaction relationship: a review and directions for organizational behaviour – human resources research. journal of applied psychology, 83, 139–149. kotzé, t. (2005). the nature and development of the construct ‘quality of work life’. acta academica, 37(2), 96–122. lewis, s., & cooper, c. (2005). work–life integration: case studies of organisational change. chichester: wiley. lingard, h. (2003). the impact of individual and job characteristics on ‘burnout’ among civil engineers in australia and the implications of employee turnover. construction management and economics, 21(1), 69–80. lingard, h., & sublet, a. (2002). the impact of job and organizational demands. construction management and economics, 21(1), 69–80. marais, c. (2006). work-home interaction and wellbeing in the south african police service. unpublished doctoral dissertation, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa. marais, c., & mostert, k. (2008). work-home interaction of police officers in the north west province: examining socio-demographic differences. acta criminologica, 21(1), 62–76. marais, c., mostert, k., geurts, s., & taris, t. (2009). the psychometric properties of a translated version of the survey work-home interaction – nijmegen (swing) instrument. south african journal of psychology, 39(2), 202–219. montgomery, a.j., peeters, m.c.w., schaufeli, w.b., & den ouden, m. (2003). work-home interference among newspaper managers: its relationship with burnout and engagement. anxiety, stress and coping, 16(2), 195–211. mostert, k. (2006). work-home interaction as partial mediator between job resources and work engagement. southern african business review, 10(1), 53–74. mostert, k., cronjé, s., & pienaar, j. (2006). job resources, work engagement and the mediating role of positive work-home interaction of police officers in the north west province. acta criminologica, 19, 64–87. mostert, k., & oldfield, g.r. (2009). work-home interaction of employees in the mining industry. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 12(1), 81–99. mostert, k., & oosthuizen, b. (2006). job characteristics and coping strategies associated with negative and positive work-home interference in a nursing environment. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 9(4), 429–443. naudé, j. (2005). the cultural turn in south african translation: rehabilitation, subversion and resistance. acta academica, 37, 22–25. nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory. (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. oldfield, g.r., & mostert, k. (2007). job characteristics, ill health and negative work-home interference in the mining industry. south african journal of industrial psychology, 33(2), 68–75. parasuraman, s., & greenhaus, j.h. (1999). integrating work and family: challenges for a changing world. westport: praeger. parasuraman, s., purohit, y.s., godshalk, v.m., & beutell, n.j. (1996). work and family variables, entrepreneurial career success, and psychological well-being. journal of vocational behavior, 48, 275–300. paton, d., & violanti, j.m. (1999). trauma stress in policing: issues for future consideration. in j.m. violanti, & d. paton (eds.), police trauma: psychological aftermath of civilian combat (p. 327). springfield: thomas. perry-jenkins, m., repetti, r.l., & crouter, a.c. (2000). work and family in the 1990s. journal of marriage and family, 62, 981–998. peter, e.h., macfarlane, a.m., & o’brien-pallas, l.l. (2004). the moral habitability of the nursing work environment. journal of advanced nursing, 47(4), 356–367. pieterse, m., & mostert, k. (2005). measuring the work-home interface: validation of the survey work-home interaction – nijmegen (swing) instrument. management dynamics, 14(2), 2–15. pitt-catsouphes, m., kossek, e.e., & sweet, s. (eds.). (2006). the work and family handbook: multidisciplinary perspectives, methods, and approaches. mahwah: lawrence erlbaum associates. rost, i. (2006). work wellness of employees in the earthmoving equipment industry. unpublished doctoral dissertation, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa. rost, i., & mostert, k. (2007). the interaction between work and home of employees in the earthmoving industry: measurement and prevalence. south african journal of industrial psychology, 33(2), 54–61. sekwena, e., mostert, k., & wentzel, l. (2007). interaction between work and personal life: experiences of police officers in the north west province. acta criminologica, 20(4), 37–54. semmer, n., zapf, d., & grief, s. (1996). shared job strain: a new approach for assessing the validity of job stress measurements. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 69, 293–310. singer, r. (2002, 20 may). south african women gain ground below surface. usa today, 1–2. singh, s. (1997). state of the art in automation of earthmoving. journal of aerospace engineering, 10(4), 179–188. snellgrove, s.r. (1998). occupational stress and job satisfaction: a comparative study of health visitors, district nurses and community psychiatric nurses. journal of nursing management, 6, 97–104. spector, p.e. (1992). a consideration of the validity of meaning of self-report measures of job conditions. in c.l. cooper, & l.t. robertson (eds.), international review of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 281–328). chichester: wiley. spss inc. (2005). spss 14.0 for windows. chicago: spss inc. strazdins, l., & broom, d.h. (2003). servicing emotions at work and at home: implications for stress and wellbeing. australian journal of psychology, 55, 145. struwig, f.w., & stead, g.b. (2001). planning, designing and reporting research. cape town: pearson. swanepoel, c., & pienaar, j. (2004). coping, stress and suicide ideation in the south african police service in gauteng province. acta criminologica, 17(2), 17–33. tingey, h., kiger, g., & riley, p.j. (1996). juggling multiple roles: perceptions of working mothers. social science journal, 33, 183–191. van tonder, h.p. (2005). a psychometric analysis of the survey work-home interaction nijmegen (swing) in a nursing environment. unpublished master’s thesis, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa. voydanoff, p. (2005). the effects of community demands, resources, and strategies on the nature and consequences of the work-family interface: an agenda for future research. family relations, 54, 583–595. voydanoff, p. (1988). work role characteristics, family structure demands and the work/family conflict. journal of marriage and the family, 50, 749–761. whitehead, t., & kotze, m.e. (2003). career and life-balance of professional women: a south african study. south african journal of human resource management, 1(3), 77–84. wynn, e.j. (2001, may) women in the mining industry. paper delivered at the aus imm youth congress, brisbane, australia. abstract introduction research purpose and objectives literature review research design findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) angela glover gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, johannesburg, south africa charlene lew gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, johannesburg, south africa citation glover, a., & lew, c. (2021). time-use preference and adaptation in relational exchanges. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1452. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1452 original research time-use preference and adaptation in relational exchanges angela glover, charlene lew received: 11 aug. 2020; accepted: 25 feb. 2021; published: 13 apr. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: similarity of leaders and members encourage positive relational exchanges. however, the role of different time-use preferences, and how leaders and members adapt to the preferences of others in relational exchanges have not yet been studied. research purpose: this research explores how time-use preference plays a role in the dyadic relationships between leaders and members within leader–member exchange (lmx) theory. motivation for the study: we argue that differences between the time-use preferences of leaders and team members result in relational adaptations. research approach/design and method: the qualitative research design employed semi-structured interviews with nine leaders and 11 employees in a major retail bank in south africa and data were analysed through thematic analysis. main findings: the research shows the nature of time-use preference in varying relational exchanges, discover how time-use preferences manifest and how leaders and members adapt to one another’s preferences. contribution/value add: the study contributes to time-use preference literature by illustrating how polychronic and monochronic preferences may manifest in the workplace. furthermore, we contribute to an understanding of the nature of relational exchanges in lmx theory by illustrating the influence of polychronicity on dyadic relationships and discuss how leaders and members adapt their preferences. practical/managerial implications: we propose a framework of the dynamics of time-use preference-based relational entrainment and provide practical considerations to help mitigate the negative impacts that differing preferences can have. keywords: leader-member adaptation; monochronicity; polychronicity; relational exchanges; time-use preference. introduction it is well established that the quality of work relationships is an antecedent of positive organisational behaviour (graen & uhl-bien, 1995). leader-member exchange (lmx) theory provides a basis for understanding how, through participating in varying forms of social exchanges, leaders and followers develop relationships, which affect how they treat each other (dansereau, graen, & haga, 1975; martin, guillaume, thomas, lee, & epitropaki, 2016). high quality lmx experiences positively relate to desirable work outcomes, such as improved task performance, organisational citizenship and reduction in turnover intentions (martin, thomas, legood, & dello russo, 2018). according to lmx differentiation theory similarity results in better exchanges and differences result in poorer exchanges in relationships. as perceived similarity is a well-recognised antecedent of quality relational exchanges (henderson, liden, glibkowski, & chaudhry, 2009; murphy & ensher, 1999), exploration of differences in work preferences becomes significant. work values dissimilarity can increase differentiation, creating challenges for leaders who must meet their demands for differing exchange interactions (le blanc & gonzález-romá, 2012). thus, the relationship between a leader and member, crucial to the cohesive fabric of the team, is influenced by differences or similarities in various individual preferences and behaviours. an integral but often ignored dimension of individual preference and behaviour is time-use preference (capdeferro, romero, & barberà, 2014). time-use preference influences how an individual manages his or her own time: the importance they place on punctuality, how firmly they adhere to deadlines and whether they like to complete tasks sequentially or work on many tasks simultaneously (capdeferro et al., 2014). working together in dyadic relationships, leaders and members with opposing time-use preferences may find each other’s approaches frustrating or difficult to cope with (schein, 1991). research purpose and objectives the nature of time-use preference in leader–member relationships is not well understood; a need which was recognised more than a decade ago (bluedorn & jaussi, 2008), but has still not been adequately addressed (mittal & bienstock, 2020). individuals perceive and manage time through differing lenses, which impacts the way they conduct themselves at work and approach tasks. it may also affect their relationship with others, particularly between leaders and members (bluedorn & jaussi, 2008). leader–member relationships are a crucial enabler to bigger organisational success, as individual performance is reliant on high-quality lmxs (tanskanen, mäkelä, & viitala, 2019). underlying concealed differences that are tacit and not confronted, such as time-use preference, can create tension and negatively impact a working relationship. this leaves us with the question of how expressed time-use preference differences play out in lmxs. specifically, how do they manifest, what is their impact on individuals and relationships and how do individuals change their behaviour to adapt to such differences? the aim of this work is to explore the role of time-use preference and adaptation in relational exchanges. we build propositions that time-use preferences are recognisably different between individuals within organisations and that this helps to inform the quality of relationships and interpersonal adaptation. literature review time-use preference the framework of polychronicity versus monochronicity is of value to this study. the polychronicity concept was first identified as a factor influencing behaviour by hall (1977). hall (1977) defined monochronicity as an importance placed on schedules, deadlines, plans and punctuality. in contrast, polychronic individuals prioritise interpersonal relationships over the arbitrariness of linear time and prefer to combine multiple tasks simultaneously, not objecting to interruptions. other early descriptions of polychronicity referred to the importance of control and efficient use of time (macan, shahani, dipboye, & phillips, 1990), the passing of time awareness (landy, rastegary, thayer, & colvin, 1991) and temporal depth that indicate the time horizons considered when thinking of the past and future (bluedorn, 2002). individual differences in time-use preference referred to the pattern of time-use and urgency of work completion, specifically as it pertained to how a culture understands time and the preferred temporal pattern of behaviour (conte, rizzuto, & steiner, 1999). these researchers found that polychronic individuals are achievement-oriented and impatient and have more fluid time awareness, for instance as seen in the french culture (conte et al., 1999). this differs from hofstede’s and minkov (2010) supposition that long-term oriented cultures focus their efforts on future rather than the past and focus efforts on frugality, hard work and persistence. more recent expansions on the definition characterised polychronic individuals as multitaskers who prefer to be involved in many projects or operations simultaneously, whilst monochronic individuals prefer to work linearly on sequential tasks, focusing on one thing at a time. poposki and oswald (2010) defined polychronicity as ‘an individual’s preference for shifting attention amongst ongoing tasks, rather than focusing on one task until completion and then switching to another task’ (poposki & oswald, 2010, p. 250). this indicates that polychronicity may be a ‘trait-like preference’ (kirchberg, roe, & van eerde, 2015, p. 114). nowack (2016) added psychological time to the definition, showing the significance of perception of the reality of time. polychronicity stems from ‘three non-mutually exclusive dimensions that illuminate the differences between polychronic and monochronic people: tangibility, involvement and scheduling’ (capdeferro et al., 2014, p. 306). therefore, a monochronic individual will prefer subdivided schedules for precise use of time and punctuality (tangibility), participation in one task at a time without interruption (involvement) and inflexibility regarding plans (scheduling) in order to make best use of the scarce resource of time. a polychronic individual prefers closer relationships to people over tasks, to be involved in several activities at one time and fluid planning (capdeferro et al., 2014). beyond individual preference, certain environments are also more suitable to monochronic or polychronic tendencies, for instance, a fast-paced environment dealing with complexity and ambiguity and a need to manage multiple stakeholders is described as a polychronic environment (schein, 1991). persing (1999) suggested that engineers and scientists prefer monochronic environments with fewer interferences, but that creative individuals align better with polychronicity. polychronicity has been found to be positively correlated to performance in environments where juggling multiple tasks simultaneously is a requirement. this included diverse jobs in the telecommunication industry (kantrowitz, grelle, beaty, & wolf, 2012). the nature of the work environment of sales executives requires them to have polychronic preferences to thrive (fournier, weeks, blocker, & chonko, 2013). organisations need a shared expectation of time, if only to co-ordinate activities within and between teams (hampden-turner & trompenaars, 2011). time-use preferences hold implications for perceiving similarity between individuals in the organisation and implicitly the quality of their exchanges. an exploration of how leaders and members experience these time preferences was therefore needed. bluedorn and jaussi (2008) for instance called for research on polychronicity specifically as a role-player in relationships between leaders and followers. dille, söderlund and clegg (2018) argued that organisations involved in complex projects need to constantly assimilate divergent time preferences to overcome tensions of competing demands. leader–member exchange individual differences affect the quality of relational exchanges in organisations, as premised within lmx theory. leader-member exchange theory focuses on the dyadic relationships between leaders and followers. the core concept of this theory is that the dyadic relationships that leaders develop with their members differ in quality and type as a result of the varying social exchanges that occur between them (graen & uhl-bien, 1995; martin et al., 2018). first developed by dansereau et al. (1975), the theory asserts that leaders divide members into two groups: the in-group and the out-group. members of the in-group experience high-quality interactions with the leader and a relationship built on respect and mutual trust. trust is an inextricable characteristic of a high-quality lmx relationship (dirks & ferrin, 2002). members of the out-group display opposing characteristics: low quality interactions with the leader and low trust (graen & uhl-bien, 1995). it therefore follows that being part of the in-group is more desirable than being part of the out-group and members can benefit from knowing which behaviours to strive for to land in the most desired group. attitudinal similarity leads to better relational exchanges between managers and members (henderson et al., 2009). in addition, perceived similarities play a greater role in positive leader–member relationships than real demographic similarities (murphy & ensher, 1999). leaders and members exchange currencies such as extra-role contribution, affective engagement, demonstration of loyalty and respect (liden & maslyn, 1998). even though similarity between a leader and team member has a strong influence on the quality of relationships (henderson et al., 2009), there are many more personal and interpersonal factors that impact the development of quality relational exchanges (dulebohn, bommer, liden, brouer, & ferris, 2012). different attachment styles such as the predisposition to be anxious, secure or avoidant in relationships, sometimes affect the relational quality too (fein, benea, idzadikhah, & tziner, 2020). this research concerns the notion of exchanges in as far as we explore the role of different time-use preferences in the relational exchanges. we propose that differences in time-use preference manifest within teams, and that individuals are able to identify characteristics betraying these dissimilarities within their peers, leaders and members. it is therefore important to understand how these differences manifest. the process of lmx differentiation (liden, erdogan, wayne, & sparrowe, 2006) refers to the varying ranges of lmx within a group, and the informal, often unconscious, processes undergone to distinguish between members and classify them into an in-group and an out-group, or into a range of differing quality lmx relationships (martin et al., 2018). the mechanism of differentiation falls outside the scope of this study. however, we recognise that individual characteristics of leaders, individuals and team members, such as their time preferences and their behavioural characteristics may affect the lmx differentiation process as intangible factors. therefore, building an understanding of how people adapt to differing time-use preferences could lay a foundation for future research in the role of intangible factors in exchange differentiation. in this study, finding differences in time-use preference may offer an additional key to why differentiation takes place. entrainment following from our proposition that time-use differences affect relational exchanges, we propose that leaders and members will adapt their own behaviours to meet the time-use preferences of the other. this may be explained through the concept of entrainment or the synchronisation of pace or cycle of activity, adjusted to match the pace or cycle of another activity (bluedorn & jaussi, 2008). entrainment pertains to individuals adjusting their own behaviours to meet the rhythms of others. in a dyadic relationship, entrainment may take place at an emotional level and a social level (cropanzano, dasborough, & weiss, 2017). when two rhythmic activities interact, they may become coherent, creating a single, ordered and stable rhythm. this manifests as alignment between time, pace, rhythm and cycles in organisational behaviour (sandra & nandram, 2017). the aim of entrainment is to synchronise or align the temporal components of activities in a system and in relationships (agndal & nilsson, 2019). yet, organisations are characterised by diversity of members’ traits, skills, competencies, behaviours and preferences (harvey, 2015). consequently, individuals often need to align conflicting behaviours and preferences to collaborate successfully (van dick, van knippenberg, hägele, guillaume, & brodbeck, 2008). we therefore propose that because of organisational entrainment, individuals may adapt their time-use behaviour to meet one another’s preferences and needs when working together. the exploration of time-use preference as a facet of relational exchanges becomes a vital new exploration to understanding how individual differences impact the complex dynamics thereof. from the literature reviewed we proposed that leaders and members are aware of their differences in time-use preferences – this leads to differentiation of exchanges amongst leaders and members and individuals will adapt to one another’s time-use preferences. to this end, we investigate three research questions: q1: how do time-use preference differences manifest? q2: what is the experience of time-use preference in dyadic leader-member relationships? q3: how do individuals adapt their time-use behaviours in the workplace? research design research approach and philosophy we adopted an interpretivist philosophy with qualitative design (glaser & strauss, 2009) to study time-use preferences in dyadic relationships through an inductive semi-structured interview approach, to build on an underexplored area of human preferences and behaviours. population and sample to control for organisation-specific factors and an in-depth investigation (eisenhardt & graebner, 2007), the research was conducted amongst leaders and members in a single product house in a financial institution. the unit represents multiple work types through customer service, operations, finance, compliance and marketing. through non-probability purposive sampling, we ensured diversity of time-use preference, job type and work experience. nine leaders and 11 employees were selected. the 19 interviews represented 11 dyadic case studies. adequate representation was ensured by including multiple ranges of experience and responsibilities in the sample (see table 1a and table 1b). table 1a: leader and member demographics. table 1b: leader and member demographics. research setting the research was undertaken within a major retail bank in south africa in 2019. the bank has been operating for over 180 years and employs approximately 40 000 people. the bank is known as an innovator with an owner–manager culture and comprises of a diverse workforce. employees deal with varying levels of complexity in an often fast-paced environment, with complex demands and multiple stakeholders. data collection the first author held semi-structured face-to-face interviews with each participant over a 6-week period, aligning to a cross-sectional approach (creswell & creswell, 2017). the interviews continued until data saturation was reached and concepts were adequately explained. the interview guide covered three themes: (1) manifestation of time-use preferences, (2) impact thereof on relationships and (3) adaptation to differences in time-use preferences. section one focused on the respondent’s own time-use preference and behaviour (polychronicity versus monochronicity) based on the inventory of polychronic values (ipv) (bluedorn, kalliath, strube, & martin, 1999). section two examined the relationships between leaders and members, asking participants to describe the time-use preference of their leader or member and the quality of the dyadic relationship between them. section three questioned the adaptions and behavioural shifts experienced by asking what adaptations the respondent may have made to adapt to a leader or member, as well as what adaptations they had observed in a leader, member or peer making to adapt to others. the interviewer also asked participants to base their responses on their behaviour in the workplace, and then to compare and contrast it to their behaviour in their personal lives and allowed further open-ended reflection (johnson, 2017). data analysis after recording and transcribing the interviews, 86 codes were through an inductive approach (bryant & charmaz, 2019) linked to literature. codes, categories and themes were identified through thematic analysis (braun & clarke, 2006) by using atlas-ti software. coding commenced during the interview process and codes were continually compared during the analysis. the coding process continued until after theoretical saturation was attained. member interviews increased the rate of addition of new codes, thus validating the inclusion of members into the sample and allowing for comparison with leaders’ perspectives. in addition, the responses from members could be compared with those of the leaders, by using the same codes to describe aspects from differing perspectives. adaptations of leaders and members were coded, respectively, as ‘adapt to leader’ and ‘adapt to member’. the resultant 86 codes covered 958 quotes, with no code containing less than three quotations. nine code categories were created through clustering (gibbs, 2018). these categories were then further grouped to answer the three themes (see figure 1). figure 1: data themes, categories and category definitions. data quality and integrity we implemented several methods to ensure appropriate rigour, validity and reliability in the iterative, qualitative process. in the research design phase, we ensured reliable results through a carefully designed interview guide, pilot study and prior discussion of methodology with research colleagues. we addressed transferability by formulating questions from a standardised interview protocol with prompts. including interviewees of varying tenure strengthened the confirmability of the results. for generalisability, saturation was ensured (gibbs, 2018). we mitigated observer error and bias by recording and transcribing the interviews before commencing analysis (saunders & lewis, 2017). in the analysis itself, we ensured valid findings by seeking any disconfirming evidence within the data after the primary themes were identified. small pockets of disconfirming evidence were found, and these were retained in the findings when weighed against the confirming evidence (creswell & miller, 2000). the use of transparent coding systems and codebook enabled inter-rate reliability for generalisability (morse, 2015). findings considering the research aim to explore the role of time-use preference and adaption in relational exchanges, three themes emerged relating to the manifestation of time-use preferences within teams, the impact of temporal behaviour on the individual and on the dyadic relationship and the adaptations of leaders and members to manage the tensions generated by time-use preference differences. theme 1: manifestations of time-use preference the findings show that time-use preferences manifest in numerous ways in the workplace, which can be identified and articulated between peers and within the dyadic leader–member relationship. these manifestations can be in the form of diverging preferences and behaviours, where individuals are forced to behave in ways that differ from their natural preferences. time-use preferences and behaviours the findings confirm differing manifestations of time-use preferences within teams. in this study, team members who have worked together understand each other’s time-use preferences (conte et al., 1999), especially where individuals with strongly opposing preferences must work together. one member with strongly polychronic preferences said this about her monochronic peer: ‘[h]e likes to zone out, focus on one thing. that’s the kind of person that he is. even when he is sitting with the team, nine times out of ten, he will have his headphones on. he doesn’t want to be bothered. we call it closing the door.’ (member 10, polychronic, female) the same polychronic member described a different colleague who also has a monochronic preference, in a similar manner: ‘[s]he gets a bit flustered if you sort of go to her and you disturb her. so, you need to leave her alone. she is not the kind of person who will juggle multiple things at the same time.’ (member 10, polychronic, female) members also notice the time-use behaviours of their leaders. one monochronic member observed the challenge that arises from opposing preferences to his direct line manager: ‘[s]he is very much very structured, and she is able to juggle and multitask on a number of different things. and i think sometimes there’s a bit of a disconnect between the two of us in that she will maybe want something and i will say to her no, look, i will get to it, but i just want to do it right.’ (member 08, monochronic, male) the findings show that the context did not support monochronic preferences. many respondents, despite their indicated monochronic preference, shared how their workplace behaviour was often pushed into a polychronic direction because of constant, competing demands. similarly, schein (1991) observed business contexts more suited to polychronics. one leader described the contrast by saying: ‘[i] allow the office to dictate multiple projects to happen at the same time, but at home i do prefer to have fewer projects that i do for a dedicated amount of time.’ (l07, monochronic/flexible, male) another monochronic member said: ‘[i]deally it would be nice to complete something, a project in a day, but unfortunately, we do complete parts of everything, but ultimately, it’s to deliver the entire thing, if you get what i am saying, because we have to multitask.’ (l09, monochronic, female) those with polychronic preferences indicated that they thrived under such circumstances. one member described being more productive as a result: ‘[i] like to have a few things going on at the same time because, for me, if i just have one thing to work with, i tend to get a bit bored with it, or i take longer if it’s one thing, whereas if it’s many things, it forces me to do a lot more.’ (m09, polychronic, female) this distinction between preference and behaviour shows that there is in fact a necessity to use one’s time in a certain manner (in this context, polychronically), which is similar to extant literature (adams & van eerde, 2010). however, it is this distinction that manifests differences in behaviour amongst peers and within the dyadic leader–member relationship. associations with individual-specific attributes the findings show that individuals tend to link some personal attributes with polychronicity. for instance, some mentioned that women are more prone to polychronicity because of their roles as mothers, which often requires an ability to multitask. others made the connection to introversion and extroversion, describing the more polychronic team members as extroverts, whilst the introverts displayed monochronic tendencies. this aligns to extant literature on polychronicity being a personality trait (conte & gintoft, 2005; kirchberg, roe, & van eerde, 2015). personality type was used frequently by respondents to describe characteristics of their members and peers, with some incorporating time-use preference into their conceptualisation of personality. ‘[i] think also because of my personality, i cannot work in an environment where there is absolute silence. i get very distracted; i think of a million things.’ (m10, polychronic, female) it would appear that insight into personality and time-use preference can improve the quality of relationships in the workplace. individual coping mechanisms literature suggests that monochronic individuals prefer not to be interrupted and to work on tasks sequentially and may structure their time to allow them space to do so (capdeferro et al., 2014). however, the findings show that the environment may require them to manage multiple tasks simultaneously. the monochronic interviewees described developing coping mechanisms, learning to be flexible and shifting their mindsets, as well as prioritising their tasks and relying on collaboration with their teammates to maintain delivery. one monochronic deals with polychronic work demands and tensions by structuring his time: ‘[i] have a particular routine that i follow … even though we are not required to use the spreadsheets, i still use it because that’s what works for me.’ (m02, monochronic, male) polychronics thrive on interruptions of their work flow and may become bored if undisturbed or unchallenged for too long, for instance, a polychronic said: ‘[i]’m actually very happy to stop, it, it’s almost like a breather for me. because with every interaction for me, it’s an opportunity to learn. it’s an opportunity to get creative … so, when somebody interrupts me, it’s an opportunity. i am brainstorming at the same time just by the engagement that i am having.’ (m10, polychronic, female) conversely, monochronic individuals find that disturbances interrupt the flow of their thought, especially during complex tasks. they strive to create the space to be uninterrupted, for instance through remote work or seeking the silence of early morning hours. according to one monochromic: ‘[i] don’t want to be interrupted because i want to think.’ (m05, monochronic, female) this presents new findings that time-use preferences manifest as attributes, which are visible to colleagues. theme 2: impact on relationships and individuals the findings show that different time-use preferences impact the dyadic relationship between members and leaders, with leaders preferring polychronic team members. dyadic relationship aspects and differentiation polychronic members in this study are perceived as being more easy-going and adaptable to change and require less investment of time from their manager, according to the findings. those with a strong monochronic preference were viewed as resistant to change or unable to cope with the demands of the environment, which requires more time investment from the leaders. one leader described the differentiation in his team like this: ‘[t]he ones that are more one-task aligned, i will actually give them more support and more guidance in how to go about doing it. the ones that can do multiple, i’m a little bit more relaxed on them, reason being i know the person that is used to one task finds it a bit difficult to handle multiple, so to support and to guide them and to suggest how to handle more than one task, and to make the best use of their time.’ (l04, monochronic/flexible, male) at the dyadic level, the similarities or dissimilarities between leaders and members form the foundation of the relationship (murphy & ensher, 1999). closer relationships may result from similarities. one leader said: ‘[y]ou tend to gravitate to people who actually have got commonalities with you.’ (l05, monochronic, female) the study found that the trust built over time between a leader and a member is vital to a good relationship. one leader described the trust he places in his subordinates: ‘[w]e have this level of understanding that she does her work in her own fashion and her own time. and i don’t have to concern about what she’s doing and how she’s doing it. and we have sort of gone to that level of trust and that openness and trust.’ (l07, monochronic/flexible, male) the findings show that this trust and a common understanding of expectations also allows members to work independently of their leaders in terms of time frames of delivery of tasks. this allows the members to revert to their preferences without the constant influence of their leader. one leader described a trusted monochronic member’s behaviour as follows : ‘[n]ow he would come in the morning, make sure he clears his queue before he takes on new things, so that he can still apply his preference to some extent, so that it’s not so hard for him during the day. so i see that he has actually found that method to help him quite a bit.’ (l04, monochronic/flexible, male) the findings show that building a quality relationship with a leader gives a member the space to behave in their preferred time-use manner. managing upwards and downwards investigating the mutual understanding of each others’ time-use preferences, the findings show that many participants were able to describe their manager’s preferences accurately in line with the managers’ own perceptions of their preferences (conte et al., 1999). however, regardless of preference, all indicated that managers exhibited polychronic behaviours because of environmental and role demands. one member said the following about a leader’s work preferences: ‘[l]ots of things at once. and i think, with him … it can change as well. so, like today , he may think, okay, he wants to do it this way, but then tomorrow he will kind of have a brainwave. no, no, no, no, no. i think we should do it another way around.’ (m09, polychronic, female) members described the pressure leaders faced within the organisation to conform to the time-use demands associated with that office: ‘[i] don’t think you can be flexible in that level … i think he is more like from his level, there are certain things that you must just fall in.’ (m01, polychronic, female) this behaviour necessitated members to pre-empt their leaders’ needs to prevent being caught on the back foot. the constant juggling of tasks by both leader and member meant that there could be confusion about expectations, necessitating tight management of stakeholders and deliverables to align priorities and allocation of resources. in addition, members needed to set boundaries to prevent work impeding into their personal time or planned work activities. one leader described the boundaries that a monochronic member has set for herself: ‘[s]he likes doing one thing at a time. she is very clear about it. she is got very clear boundaries about what things she is doing and how often she does them.’ (l07, monochronic/flexible, male) many leaders were able to recognise the different preferences of their team members in the same way that they were able to recognise their individual strengths and weaknesses. some leaders valued the heterogeneity within their teams, specifically if the diversity of time-use preference was able to lend itself to a more cohesive team dynamic. one leader said: ‘[m]y focus would be less on working like me or a set time type of thing, i will let you to find a flow to know what works for you. but making sure that it works within the overall flow of what we are trying to achieve as a team and if it does not work with the overall flow, that for me is more of a problem in itself.’ (l02, polychronic/flexible, female) the continuous need to deliver within the study’s context, the need to perform and deliver to deadlines overrode any individual time-use preferences. this high-pressure environment seems to drive polychronic behaviour, as alluded to earlier, as polychronics perform better under these circumstances (kantrowitz et al., 2012). this means that an inability of a member to adapt to the polychronic requirements becomes more noticeable to a leader: ‘[y]ou will be able to see from a poor-quality report that this person could not juggle.’ (l09, monochronic, female) individuals who found it difficult to adapt to the pace of the environment and polychronic demands seemed more conspicuous to the interviewed leaders, drawing more attention to their own behaviour. the tension between delivering quantity and quality began to emerge, as monochronic members referred to a desire to spend more time on tasks to be able to deliver a quality output, whilst the environment demanded quantity and deadline-adherence instead. leaders valued the ability of members to overcome their own preferences to meet required outputs and deadlines: ‘[i] think the key is also to be agile enough to be able to be, not to be dead-set in terms of “i prefer this,” “this is how i like working,” because when things need to be done, you need to chip in, come in, do what you need to do, move on to the next.’ (l05, monochronic, female) according to the findings, leaders play a vital role in encouraging and guiding their members to be able to perform tasks outside of their comfort zones, whilst peers provide support. theme 3: adaptations to time-use preference differences where time-use preferences differ between individuals and a working relationship is required, individuals must adjust their behaviour to be able to synergise through entrainment (cropanzano et al., 2017). we found that individuals do, in fact, adjust their behaviour according to the time-use preference of their leaders and members, as well as the demands of the environment. we also identified some of the factors that drive these changes, as well as the impact these changes have on individuals. behavioural adaptations to adjust to the time-use preferences of others most of the respondents gave examples of how they adjust their behaviour. one member said: ‘[y]ou need to change. you know, our business is changing. we want to remain relevant. so, there are things that we need to do to adapt to what the business requires.’ (m04, polychronic/flexible, female) there was a mixed response to questions regarding who should adapt to the preference of the other, that is, the leader or the member. some insisted that it is a leader’s responsibility to understand their people and adapt to meet their preferred time-use. a member, who is also a leader of her own team, described her view: ‘[i] don’t think a team should change how they work for a leader. i think your leader needs to understand your specific workings and support you in that way.’ (m07, monochronic, female) others viewed it as the member’s responsibility to adapt to the needs of their manager, citing the extra pressure placed on a leader by virtue of their role and responsibility as motivation for members to make the shift. one member said: ‘[i] would think that because of their responsibilities, you know, we as a team should adjust also, we can adjust to it.’ (m04, polychronic/flexible, female) thus, the members indicated the need to adjust to the time-use preference of their leaders. having established that these shifts in behaviour do indeed occur, the next question to ask was what triggers these changes. forces driving the behavioural changes the findings showed that the process of initiating and effecting adjustment and adaptation occurs in differing ways across differing teams and no standard method stood out from the responses. some, for example, held discussions with their leaders in order to reach a common understanding and engagement method. communicating about the differences is an effective means to proactively address them, as it also allows leaders and members to put in place a means to improve engagement. one monochronic member spoke of value of conversation with the leader: ‘[w]e’ve had the discussion to say that, look, this is how i typically work. i like working on one thing, focus on it. but at the same time, i understand that you want things to be turned out a bit quicker but we need to get to a point where, you tell, whenever you brief me on something or you want something just at least give me an idea of how urgent this thing is and i know how to prioritise it.’ (m08, monochronic, male) others identified drivers of change included conflict, change in leadership, urgency of tasks, as well as support and encouragement from a leader or peer. the fundamental motivation for change comes from a desire to deliver on the task at hand, as described by one leader: ‘[i] think getting out of one’s comfort zone is never an easy thing, at any point. but the reality of the matter is that we know that life is uncomfortable, in any shape or form … i try not to fixate in terms of what my preferences are, but in terms of the job at hand, and just get work done.’ (l05, monochronic, female) some leaders and members saw the ability to move from monochronic to polychronic as a development need, either within themselves or expected from their teams. part of improving this capability required investment from the leader, deliberate interactions, learning and teaching from both member and leader, as well as observing one another. one leader explained how he has engaged with a highly monochronic member to help her understand the need for interruptions in her daily work: ‘[s]he doesn’t mind that because the multiple engagements and meetings and other topics satisfy her general sense of curiosity in wanting to learn … she just realises that these are placeholders to fulfil the task at a later stage.’ (l07, monochronic/flexible, male) experience emerged as a further enabler to moving to polychronic behaviour; as individuals gained more experience in a certain role, their competence improved and they could then move to handling multiple tasks simultaneously. for monochronics, once members have had time to build up confidence and competence within the tasks they are performing, they find it easier to move away from their natural preference. one monochronic leader said: ‘[i] think a lot of my experience in the bank and working environment actually helped me to become the person that i am not normally at home, in terms of handling more than one thing, because at home i am actually a perfectionist, that is why i start one thing and finish it, i will not move on to other stuff. but at work, it’s completely different, i can handle more than one thing.’ (l04, monochronic/flexible, male) the impact of behavioural shifts on individuals the behavioural shifts described by the respondents in this study bore impact on the individuals adapting on an emotional level. some leaders and members were able to describe not only their own feelings about the shifts being adopted, but the responses of others as well. one leader spoke of his monochronic members who were forced to engage in polychronic behaviours: ‘[t]he only frustration from these personalities that prefer to have these limited amounts of things at a time is that they are not people who are comfortable with having engagement as a normal part of their day. so that they find it emotionally taxing for them to have to do these multiple engagements on a regular basis.’ (l07, monochronic/flexible, male) the majority of interviewees reported that shifting from a monochronic preference to polychronic behaviour took a toll on them emotionally, using words such as ‘overwhelming’, ‘frustrating’, ‘stressful’ and ‘anxiety’. the findings showed that there is much more to be learned in this field, and that time-use preference is a facet that deserves considerable attention in research and literature. table 2 summarises the key findings as described here. table 2: key findings on manifestations, impact and adaptation of time preference. discussion outline of the results we have made several discoveries through this research. firstly, time-use preference and behavioural differences manifest in the workplace in ways that are visible and can be articulated by leaders and members alike. we found clear examples of monochronic and polychronic preferences, both within interviewees themselves and as observed in their co-workers. we found associations between time-use preference and other personality or demographic traits, thus confirming previous suppositions that polychronicity is trait-like (kirchberg & roe, 2015). individuals described the coping mechanisms they employ to manage the need to work with individuals with opposing preferences to their own. secondly, we found that time-use preference differences impact the quality of the dyadic relationship between leader and member. leaders were able to identify the preferences of their members and had put tools in place to manage these where they presented challenges. leaders generally found it easier to work with polychronics, who were viewed as more adaptable and requiring less micro-management. interviewees also voiced the need to manage upwards, as well as to tightly manage stakeholders within a polychronic environment, to ensure expectations are aligned. underlying this theme is a need to deliver and perform; leaders felt that individuals’ preferred ways of working must come second to a required outcome and that deadlines must be met regardless of how the work is performed. thirdly, we found that members and leaders adapt to one another and to the environment they are working in, shifting away from their own preference to a way of working, that is, more aligned to business requirements. this suggested temporal entrainment or synchronisation of behaviour (sandra & nandram, 2017). we found that both leaders and members made these adjustments and that opinions of who should adapt to whom varied through the data. several forces drive these changes, ranging from the environment to a change in leadership, a conflict or as a result of a conversation. implemented adaptations had an emotional impact on individuals, with monochronic members expressing stress, frustration and anxiety arising from exhibiting polychronic behaviours. this study contributes to an understanding of time-use preference and its intersection with lmx. the contribution is significant given the increasingly multicultural, diverse nature of organisations and that implicit differences in individual’s behaviour and preferences are often misunderstood, negatively impacting relationships (conte et al., 1999). it addresses the need to understand how organisations manage tensions based on temporal differences (bansal et al., 2019). quality exchanges are a crucial enabler to individual and thus organisational performance (martin et al., 2016). it is vital to understand the factors influencing differentiation in exchanges in order to better manage these underlying differences between individuals, which manifest themselves in very real ways within the organisational context. the dyadic relationships between leaders and members are not uniform (dansereau et al., 1975) and the varying quality of these relationships can have an impact on workplace outcomes (martin et al., 2018). this study offers insight into the role of time-use preference as a characteristic of individual behaviour (capdeferro et al., 2014) in influencing the varying quality of relationships at the dyadic level. we conclude that the manifestation of time-use preferences cannot be ignored. this means that leaders and members should be cognisant not only of their own behaviours and preferences, but also those of their colleagues, in order to manage the impact they will have on their relationships. this research takes us one step closer by contributing time-use preference as one explanation for differentiations in dyadic relationships, which should be further studied. we have also identified the adaptations that leaders and members make to adjust to one another’s preferences, adding to the body of knowledge regarding relationship exchanges. figure 2 depicts our proposed framework of the dynamics of time-use preference-based relational entrainment. our findings suggest that temporal choice results from individual factors and performance requirements. figure 2: dynamic process of time-use preference-based relational entrainment. moreover, based on dyadic relational factors and related management of relationships, members and leaders adapt their temporal choices to suit one another. several factors, such as communication or urgency, drive the adaptation, and this manifests in changed behaviour. the outcome of these temporal adaptations are new temporal choices, but also unintended emotional impact and stress. practical implications for leaders and members to navigate time-use preference differences, we provide some practical guidelines. firstly, leaders and members should discuss time-use preferences and understand their own preference as well as those of their colleagues. a common lexicon to describe ‘the silent language’ (hall, 1977) may help to build understanding and empathy before conflict arises and relationships are damaged. secondly, time-use preference influences this relationship differentiation. to aid in creating a higher-quality relationship, time-use behaviours should be convergent within a team and align to the environment. leaders can drive these behavioural adaptations through creating a shared purpose for the team, which encompasses a way of working, albeit with some flexibility. leaders can put structures and processes in place to support their members as they diverge from their natural preference to behave in a more cohesive manner with the team and environment. members need to be motivated to make the shifts by understanding the shared purpose and the positive effects that adaptations can have. in addition, members need to proactively communicate with their leaders regarding their deliverables, to build trust and to give themselves space to work in their preferred style when possible. thirdly, leaders must be cognisant of their role in influencing shifts in behaviour. leaders have the power to help their monochronic members develop polychronic behaviours, should members have a flexible mindset and a willingness to adapt. leaders have control of many of the forces, which drive time-use behavioural shifts. recognising the importance of management to ensure control, efficiency and accountability, kniffin, detert and leroy (2020) observed that leadership is preferred over management when members work under time pressure. however, forcing a behavioural shift in a strongly monochronic member can have negative implications, resulting in poor quality work or undesirable emotional impact on the members. leaders need to strike a balance between pushing members to grow and creating a supportive environment where they can play to their strengths. limitations and recommendations time-use preference is a rich and diverse construct. this study focused mainly on the multi-tasking aspect of polychronicity, thus future research should explore other aspects of the construct such as punctuality and a preference for scheduling. this study was scoped to one organisation, which provided a polychronic context, therefore future research should test this conceptual model in a monochronic context, as well as perform comparisons across different organisations. the mechanisms through which time-use preferences and other preferences impact lmx differentiation are still unknown and therefore further personal and contextual factors may be examined in the terms of time-use preferences and the quality of relational exchanges. in addition, it was expected that an element of culture would emerge in this study, given the multicultural nature of the organisation and literature reviewed on the topic (brislin & kim, 2003). whilst this did not emerge from the research, a future study could focus more on cultural aspects to attempt to draw this out or to eliminate it as a cultural dimension. more insight into personality traits and polychronicity would be useful in contributing to the body of knowledge on relational exchanges. conclusion the construct of time-use preference is pervasive but silent within organisations, yet this study has shown that despite its silence, it manifests within teams and affects individuals and relationships. it also influences behaviour, with leaders and members adapting to one another. factors which affect the leader–member relationship become vital to understand as the quality of relationship impacts directly on work outcomes and strategic management. by contributing knowledge of time-use preferences in relational exchanges, this article also provides tools to help leaders and members overcome the negative impact these unspoken differences may have. by simply being aware of and addressing time-use preference with their members, leaders can mitigate potential negative impacts of diverging preferences and improve the quality of lmx. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the financial institution and the interviewees for their participation. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s), which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.g. conducted the research and wrote the first draft of the article. c.l. supervised the research and co-authored the later versions of the article. ethical considerations gordon institute of business science, mba research ethics committee. ethical clearance was obtained through the ethics committee of gordon institute of business science, mba research ethics committee prior to conducting the research. we assured participants of confidentiality and anonymity and posed non-threatening questions for research integrity. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data are available in a separate repository upon request from the authors. disclaimer the views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not the formal views of the affiliated academic institution. references adams, s.j.m., & van eerde, w. (2010). time use in spain: is polychronicity a cultural phenomenon? journal of managerial psychology, 25(7), 764–776. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683941011075292 agndal, h., & nilsson, u. (2019). the fast and the furious: the role of entrainment in controlled inter-organizational relationship transformation. management accounting research, 43(1), 15–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mar.2018.09.001 bansal, p., reinecke, j., suddaby, r., & langley, a. (2019). special issue of strategic organization ‘temporal work: the strategic organization of time’, strategic organization, 17(1), 145–149. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476127018824166 bluedorn, a.c. (2002). the human organization of time: temporal realities and experience. stanford, ca: stanford university press. bluedorn, a.c., & jaussi, k.s. (2008). leaders, followers, and time. the leadership quarterly, 19(6), 654–668. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2008.09.006 bluedorn, a.c., kalliath, t.j., strube, m.j., & martin, g.d. (1999). polychronicity and the inventory of polychronic values (ipv): the development of an instrument to measure a fundamental dimension of organizational culture. journal of managerial psychology, 14(3/4), 205–231. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683949910263747 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa brislin, r.w., & kim, e.s. (2003). cultural diversity in people’s understanding and uses of time. applied psychology: an international review, 52(3), 363–382. https://doi.org/10.1111/1464-0597.00140 bryant, a., & charmaz, k. (2019). the sage handbook of current developments in grounded theory. london: sage. capdeferro, n., romero, m., & barberà, e. (2014). polychronicity: review of the literature and a new configuration for the study of this hidden dimension of online learning. distance education, 35(3), 294–310. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2015.955249 conte, j.m., & gintoft, j.n. (2005). polychronicity, big five personality dimensions, and sales performance. human performance, 18(4), 427–444. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup1804_8 conte, j.m., rizzuto, t.e., & steiner, d.d. (1999). a construct-oriented analysis of individual-level polychronicity. journal of managerial psychology, 14(3/4), 269–288. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683949910263837 creswell, j.w., & creswell, j.d. (2017). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. thousand oaks, ca: sage. creswell, j.w., & miller, d.l. (2000). determining validity in qualitative inquiry. theory into practice, 39(3), 124–130. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip3903_2 cropanzano, r., dasborough, m.t., & weiss, h.m. (2017). affective events and the development of leader-member exchange. academy of management review, 42(2), 233–258. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2014.0384 dansereau, f., graen, g., & haga, w. (1975). a vertical dyad linkage approach to leadership within formal organizations: a longitudinal investigation of the role making process. organizational behavior and human performance, 13(1), 46–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(75)90005-7 dille, t., söderlund, j., & clegg, s. (2018). temporal conditioning and the dynamics of inter-institutional projects. international journal of project management, 36(5), 673–686. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2018.03.007 dirks, k.t., & ferrin, d.l. (2002). trust in leadership: meta-analytic findings and implications for research and practice. journal of applied psychology, 87(4), 611–628. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.611 dulebohn, j.h., bommer, w.h., liden, r.c., brouer, r.l., & ferris, g.r. (2012). a meta-analysis of antecedents and consequences of leader-member exchange: integrating the past with an eye toward the future. journal of management, 38(6), 1715–1759. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206311415280 eisenhardt, k.m., & graebner, m.e. (2007). theory building from cases: opportunities and challenges. academy of management journal, 50(1), 25–32. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2007.24160888 fein, e.c., benea, d., idzadikhah, z., & tziner, a. (2020). the security to lead: a systematic review of leader and follower attachment styles and leader–member exchange. european journal of work & organizational psychology, 29(1), 106–125. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2019.1696774 fournier, c., weeks, w.a., blocker, c.p., & chonko, l.b. (2013). polychronicity and scheduling’s role in reducing role stress and enhancing sales performance. journal of personal selling & sales management, 33(2), 197–210. https://doi.org/10.2753/pss0885-3134330204 gibbs, g.r. (2018). analyzing qualitative data (2nd edn.). london: sage. glaser, b.g., & strauss, a.l. (2009). the discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research (4th edn.). new brunswick, nj: aldine. graen, g.b., & uhl-bien, m. (1995). relationship-based approach to leadership: development of leader-member exchange (lmx) theory of leadership over 25 years: applying a multi-level multi-domain perspective part of the management sciences and quantitative methods commons. the leadership quarterly, 6(2), 219–247. https://doi.org/10.1016/1048-9843(95)90036-5 hall, e.t. (1977). beyond culture. new york, ny: anchor books. hampden-turner, c., & trompenaars, f. (2011). riding the waves of culture: understanding diversity in global business. london: hachette. harvey, s. (2015). when accuracy isn’t everything. group & organization management, 40(1), 35–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601114561786 henderson, d.j., liden, r.c., glibkowski, b.c., & chaudhry, a. (2009). lmx differentiation: a multilevel review and examination of its antecedents and outcomes. leadership quarterly, 20(4), 517–534. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.04.003 hofstede, g., & minkov, m. (2010). longversus short-term orientation: new perspectives. asia pacific business review, 16(4), 493–504. https://doi.org/10.1080/13602381003637609. johnson, l. (2017). interviewing. in l. johnson (ed.), community-based qualitative research (pp. 80–100). thousand oaks, california: sage publications, inc. https://www-doi-org.uplib.idm.oclc.org/10.4135/9781071802809. kantrowitz, t.m., grelle, d.m., beaty, j.c., & wolf, m.b. (2012). time is money: polychronicity as a predictor of performance across job levels. human performance, 25(2), 114–137. https://doi.org/10.1080/08959285.2012.658926 kirchberg, d.m., roe, r.a., & van eerde, w. (2015). polychronicity and multitasking: a diary study at work. human performance, 28(2), 112–136. https://doi.org/10.1080/08959285.2014.976706 kniffin, k.m., detert, j.r., & leroy, h.l. (2020). on leading and managing: synonyms or separate (and unequal)? academy of management discoveries, 6(4), 544–571. https://doi.org/10.5465/amd.2018.0227 landy, f.j., rastegary, h., thayer, j., & colvin, c. (1991). time urgency: the construct and its measurement. journal of applied psychology, 76(5), 644–657. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.76.5.644 le blanc, p.m., & gonzález-romá, v. (2012). a team level investigation of the relationship between leader–member exchange (lmx) differentiation, and commitment and performance. the leadership quarterly, 23(3), 534–544. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.12.006 liden, r.c., erdogan, b., wayne, s.j., & sparrowe, r.t. (2006). leader-member exchange, differentiation, and task interdependence: implications for individual and group performance. journal of organizational behavior, 27(6), 723–746. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.409 liden, r.c., & maslyn, j.m. (1998). multidimensionality of leader-member exchange: an empirical assessment through scale development. journal of management, 24(1), 43–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0149-2063(99)80053-1 macan, t.h., shahani, c., dipboye, r.l., & phillips, a.p. (1990). college students’ time management: correlations with academic performance and stress. journal of educational psychology, 82(4), 760–768. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.82.4.760 martin, r., guillaume, y., thomas, g., lee, a., & epitropaki, o. (2016). leader-member exchange (lmx) and performance: a meta-analytic review. personnel psychology, 69(1), 67–121. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12100 martin, r., thomas, g., legood, a., & dello russo, s. (2018). leader–member exchange (lmx) differentiation and work outcomes: conceptual clarification and critical review. journal of organizational behavior, 39(2), 151–168. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2202 mittal, r., & bienstock, j. (2020). leadership styles and polychronicity: impact on work-home boundaries and life satisfaction. academy of management annual meeting proceedings, 2020(1), 1. https://doi.org//10.5465/ambpp.2020.13479abstract morse, j.m. (2015). critical analysis of strategies for determining rigor in qualitative inquiry. qualitative health research, 25(9), 1212–1222. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732315588501 murphy, s.e., & ensher, e.a. (1999). the effects of leader and subordinate characteristics in the development of leader–member exchange quality. journal of applied social psychology, 29(7), 1371–1394. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1999.tb00144.x nowack, k. (2016). about time: individual temporal orientation, time succession, and cognitive capacities. berlin: humboldt-universität zu berlin. persing, d.l. (1999). managing in polychronic times. journal of managerial psychology, 14(5/6), 358. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683949910277111 poposki, e.m., & oswald, f.l. (2010). the multitasking preference inventory: toward an improved measure of individual differences in polychronicity. human performance, 23(3), 247–264. https://doi.org/10.1080/08959285.2010.487843 sandra, d., & nandram, s. (2017). spiritual leadership as a driver of organizational entrainment. proceedings of the 13th european conference on management, leadership and governance, london (pp. 444–451). reading, uk: academic conferences and publishing international limited. saunders, m.n.k., & lewis, p. (2017). doing research in business and management. harlow: pearson education limited. schein, e.h. (1991). organizational culture and leadership. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. tanskanen, j., mäkelä, l., & viitala, r. (2019). linking managerial coaching and leader–member exchange on work engagement and performance. journal of happiness studies, 20(4), 1217–1240. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-018-9996-9 van dick, r., van knippenberg, d., hägele, s., guillaume, y.r.f., & brodbeck, f.c. (2008). group diversity and group identification: the moderating role of diversity beliefs. human relations, 61(10), 1463–1492. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726708095711 abstract introduction literature review methodology results discussion implications to theory and practice research limitations and directions for future research acknowledgements references about the author(s) mohamed m. saad college of management and technology, arab academy for science, technology and maritime transport, alexandria, egypt hazem r. gaber college of management and technology, arab academy for science, technology and maritime transport, alexandria, egypt ashraf a. labib college of management and technology, arab academy for science, technology and maritime transport, alexandria, egypt citation saad, m.m., gaber, h.r., & labib, a.a. (2021). investigating the impact of human resource management practices on employee engagement, and the moderating role of strategy implementation in egypt. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1412. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1412 original research investigating the impact of human resource management practices on employee engagement, and the moderating role of strategy implementation in egypt mohamed m. saad, hazem r. gaber, ashraf a. labib received: 08 june 2020; accepted: 09 mar. 2021; published: 13 may 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the concept of employee engagement has attracted the attention of both academics and practitioners due to its importance in enhancing the performance and profitability of organisations. research purpose: this article examines the impact of human resource management (hrm) practices on employee engagement in the egyptian context. the purpose of this article was to develop an in-depth understanding of the concepts of hrm practices and their impact on employee engagement, and the moderating role of strategy implementation. motivation for the study: given the scarcity of research that examines the impact of hrm practices on employee engagement especially in the banking sector, this article examines how different hrm practices can influence the level of employee engagement. research approach/design and method: for the purpose of answering the research questions and testing the proposed hypotheses, a quantitative research approach was adopted by distributing a questionnaire to 228 employees from the banking sector in egypt. main findings: the findings indicated that hrm practices had a positive significant impact on employee engagement. in particular, these practices included selection and hiring, job design as well as reward and payment systems. however, the findings showed that the strategic implementation does not moderate the relationship between hrm practices and employee engagement. practical/managerial implications: this article provides some guidelines for organisations to follow to fully utilise the power of employee engagement by applying effective hrm practices. contribution/value-add: the contribution of this study is that it is one of the few studies that have so far investigated this relationship in the egyptian environment. keywords: human resource management practices; hrm practices; employee engagement; egyptian context; developing countries. introduction in today’s competitive business environment, many organisations are looking for new ways to enhance the productivity and performance of their human resources (przytuła, strzelec, & krysińska-kościańska, 2020). attracting, maintaining and developing an effective workforce is becoming one of the key challenges that these organisations are facing (diaz-carrion, lópez-fernández, & romero-fernandez, 2021). in particular, after the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19)pandemic, many organisations across different business sectors have been eager to learn new ways of enhancing the efficiency and productivity of their operations (przytuła et al., 2020). one of the main concepts that has been rising in the recent organisational behaviour literature is the concept of ‘employee engagement’ (sun & bunchapattanasakda, 2019). this concept is used to describe employees who are eager to play vital roles in enhancing the value creation processes of their organisations (deeb et al., 2020). engaged employees tend to put much effort and time for the purpose of enhancing the productivity and performance of the firms that they are working in (sun & bunchapattanasakda, 2019). for these reasons, it is critical for organisations to search for new ways to make employee engaged in the workplace. the extant literature proposes three dimensions of employee engagement. for instance, shuck, adelson and reio (2017) argued that the concept of ‘employee engagement’ is used to describe employees who are cognitively, emotionally and behaviourally engaged in the workplace. cognitive engagement (ce) refers to the degree to which employees are focused on their tasks, where they are mentally immersed and absorbed in performing their expected tasks (joo, zigarmi, nimon, & shuck, 2017). on the other hand, emotional engagement (ee) refers to the degree of affection and devotion that employees have towards their tasks and organisations (reina, rogers, peterson, byron, & hom, 2018). finally, the behavioural dimension refers to a group of actions that can be seen in employees’ commitment to their tasks and their exertion of the highest effort possible for the benefit of their organisations (shuck et al., 2017). the purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between human resource management (hrm) practices and the three dimensions of employee engagement. the article focuses on five main hrm practices, which are the selection and hiring processes, training and development, job design, job security, and rewards and payment systems (barrick, thurgood, smith, & courtright, 2015). this is considered important because the extant literature shows some shortcomings regarding the antecedents of employee engagement (saks, 2019). thus, our article fills this important research gap where there is scarcity of research that examines the impact of hrm practices on employee engagement, especially in developing countries like egypt (soliman & wahba, 2019). this article examines the five hrm practices for their key role in organisational success. for instance, selection and hiring processes represent an important stage for choosing the best workers who fit into the organisation and to the required tasks (przytuła et al., 2020). on the other hand, training and development is essential to keep the task force equipped with the latest skills and knowledge required to perform their jobs (karim, choudhury, & latif, 2019). additionally, the job design plays an important role in inspiring employees and decreasing turnover rates (oldham & fried, 2016). moreover, job security is essential for giving employees feelings of stability, which in turn will have a positive impact on their willingness to stay at their jobs (reina et al., 2018). job security is becoming very important for employees especially after the outbreak of covid-19 pandemic, where many companies started aggressive layoff strategies for the purpose of cost reduction (restubog, ocampo, & wang, 2020). finally, the last hrm practice involves an effective reward and payment system which is considered one of the main factors that enhance employees’ satisfaction and commitment (aust, matthews, & muller-camen, 2020). by examining the impact of these five hrm practices on employee engagement, the present article can provide important guidelines for practitioners to follow to enhance the level of engagement of their workforce by applying effective hrm practices. another purpose of the current study is to examine the role of implementation of the organisational strategy on moderating the relationship between hrm practices and employee engagement. this is considered important because it is critical for all employees to clearly understand the mission and strategies of the organisations that they are working in (osborne & hammoud, 2017). the extant literature shows that when employees understand the overall strategies of their organisations, they are more likely to be satisfied and loyal (groen, wouters, & wilderom, 2017). this article is organised as follows: firstly, a literature review about the concepts of human resource practices and employee engagement is introduced. the literature review section further discusses the proposed conceptual framework together with the research hypotheses. following this, the methodology that was adopted to collect and analyse the data is presented. then the results and discussion of key findings are introduced. finally, the contributions, limitations and scope of further research are presented. literature review the concept of employee engagement the first formal definition for personnel engagement was provided by kahn (1990). this definition considered it as the harnessing of organization members’ selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances (kahn, 1990, p. 694). likewise, saks (2019) argued that engaged employees have high sense of responsibility, where they feel that they should enhance their performance for the sake of their organisations. thus, engaged employees generally possess high levels of involvement and commitment towards their organisations and values (anitha, 2014). therefore, it is critical for organisations to enhance the level of engagement of their employees, where engaged employees are enthusiastic about their work, where they put their maximum efforts for their organisations’ interests and reputation (sun & bunchapattanasakda, 2019). in contrast, disengaged employees usually escape from doing their work tasks, where they are generally passive and would cause damaging effects to their organisations’ performance (bhebhe, 2020). the extant literature proposes three dimensions of employee engagement, which are cognitive, emotional and behavioural. these dimensions were first proposed by kahn (1990) when he argued that engaged employees should possess the three forms of engagement to achieve superior performance in the workplace. ashforth and humphery (1995) supported this view by indicating that an engaged employee uses his or her ‘hands, head and heart’ when performing any task at work. these three dimensions were further examined in many later research studies that aimed at examining the nature of employee engagement in different organisations (bakker, 2017; budhiraja & yadav, 2020; macey & schneider, 2008). in the current study, we examine the impact of hrm practices on the cognitive, emotional and behavioural dimensions of employee engagement. cognitive engagement refers to the degree to which employees concentrate and focus on their tasks, where they are mentally engaged and absorbed in achieving the mission of their organisations (schuck & wollard, 2013). joo et al. (2017) argued that the ce is one of the main factors that enhance the psychological well-being and happiness of employees. thus, it is very critical for organisations to search for innovative ways that enhance the ce of their workers (lauring & selmer, 2015). on the other hand, ee refers to the degree to which employees have positive affection towards their tasks and their organisations. it is linked to the emotions that affect employees’ attitudes, whether negative or positive, towards the organisation and its top managers (alhozi, hawamdeh, & al-edenat, 2021). employees’ positive emotional experiences, as well as their relationship with their colleagues, would form meaningful connections with the organisation (luthans & peterson, 2002). the role of ee in enhancing the work performance has been highlighted in many articles in the field of organisational behaviour. for instance, reina et al. (2018) argued that ee plays a critical role in decreasing the turnover rates in organisations, where employees’ emotions towards their managers and their workplaces have a key role in their satisfaction at work. finally, the behavioural dimension of engagement can be considered the physical representation of the cognitive and emotional dimensions. it can be recognised by observing employees’ behaviours in the workplace (park & tran, 2018). these behaviours can include commitment to finishing tasks on time, being proactive and active team leaders (amin, ghazali, & hassan, 2020). behaviourally engaged employees tend to exert the highest possible efforts at work, where they are committed to the achievement of their organisational missions (shuck et al., 2017). the role of human resource management practices in enhancing employee engagement the extant literature underscores the importance of human capital in achieving superior performance and sustainability for organisations (diaz-carrion et al., 2021). this is in line with the view of strategic human resources scholars who argued that hrm practices can be a source of sustainable competitive advantage (bogićević-milikić, 2019; boxall, 2018). this view has been proven empirically in numerous research studies that examined the relationship between various hrm practices and various firm-level outcomes (boxall, 2018). for these reasons, many companies across various business sectors have been eager to improve their hrm practices for the sake of enhancing their long-term profitability, employees’ commitment and engagement (otoo, 2019). the relationship between various hrm practices and employee engagement has been studied in a number of academic publications (ashill & rod, 2011; presbitero, 2017; yeh, 2013). for example, rathnaweera (2010) argued that a number of hrm practices are needed to enhance the level of engagement. these practices include proper selection and hiring policies, adequate training and development of the task force as well as effective job design that is able to match the skills of employees to the required tasks. van zyl, van eeden and rothmann (2013) further highlighted the role of job security programmes that tend to eliminate the fears of employees from losing their jobs. in the current article, we focus on five hrm practices as we argue that these practices are essential in enhancing employee engagement. the first hrm practice that is examined in this study is the selection and hiring. this involves the recruitment of the best candidates who fit to the job requirements (villegas, lloyd, tritt, & vengrouskie, 2019). the literature shows some positive outcomes for the fairness in the selection and hiring process. for instance, adam, ogolla and maore (2017) indicated that attracting and appointing qualified personnel is one of the most influential hrm practices that predict organisations’ performance and profitability. another hrm practice that is relevant to our study is the training and development. this practice involves providing employees with continuous training that allows them to perform their jobs in an effective and efficient manner (karim et al., 2019). it also includes providing opportunities for self-development and career progress (bibi, ahmad, & majid, 2018). fletcher, alfes and robinson (2018) found that effective training and development will lead to better employee attitude and retention. the third hrm practice that is examined in our study is the job design. it involves designing work in an interesting way that inspires employees. also, effective job design includes giving the employees flexibility to do the job in their own ways as long as they are doing it right (oldham & fried, 2016). ho and wo (2019) argued that job design is a significant predictor of employees’ motivation and excellent service quality. furthermore, our study proposes that job security can be an antecedent of employee engagement. job security refers to the degree that employees feel that their organisations will keep them working as long as they are able to perform their tasks. job security is a relevant hrm practice in our study because our study is conducted in egypt, where individuals have high degree of risk avoidance and tend to look for stability (badran & youssef-morgan, 2015). in particular, after the outbreak of covid-19 pandemic, the importance of job security has risen, where many organisations across different sectors tended to use downsizing strategies in order to survive during the pandemic (wilson et al., 2020). job insecurity is considered a major threat to employees because it gives employees a high sense of instability and stress, which negatively impacts their performance (stander & rothmann, 2010). the final hrm practice that is examined in our study is the rewards and payment system. crawford et al. (2014) argued that rewards and recognition are crucial and beneficial for employee engagement. thus, it is very essential for companies to ensure that employees are rewarded based on their performance and that they feel that the organisations provide a fair rewarding and compensation system. from the previous discussions, we present the following hypotheses: h1: human resource management practices have a significant influence on employees’ cognitive engagement. h2: human resource management practices have a significant influence on employees’ emotional engagement. h3: human resource management practices have a significant influence on employees’ behavioural engagement (be). the moderating role of strategic implementation the extant literature highlights the importance of strategic implementation in enhancing the effectiveness of hrm practices. for instance, barrick et al. (2015) indicated that for hrm practices to be properly executed in organisations, there should be strong support from top management to these practices. strategic implementation refers to top managements’ willingness to execute a clear strategy that has specific strategic objectives, and to use well-defined metrics to monitor and measure the achievement of these objectives (barrick et al., 2015). in order to achieve this, everyone in the organisation should clearly understand the strategic goals and management goals should be built on the strategic priorities of the organisation (hitt & ireland, 2017). furthermore, the management should get continuous feedback from the organisational stakeholders (barrick et al., 2015). in the current study, we propose a moderating role for strategic implementation on the relationship between hrm practices and employee engagement, where the literature shows the critical role of top management’s support for formulating, and implementation of the strategy on hrm practices (vance, 2006). for instance, ho, wu and wu (2014) highlighted the role of top management’s strategic implementation in fostering the organisations’ ability to utilise their resources effectively and efficiently. from these discussions, we conclude the following hypothesis: h4: strategic implementation moderates the relationship between hrm practices and employee engagement. in summary, figure 1 shows the proposed conceptual model and research hypotheses. figure 1: proposed conceptual model. methodology the current study followed a quantitative research approach by adopting the survey method. the target population of this study was employees from the banking sector in egypt. the banking sector was chosen to study the impact of hrm practices on employee engagement for several reasons. firstly, the banking sector is considered one of the strongest economic sectors that have contributed to the development of the egyptian economy over the past few years (shared, 2019). another reason is the wide adoption of hrm practices in the egyptian banks (zaky & soliman, 2017), which represent the main construct in our study. from the purpose of the data collection, a link of an online survey was posted on the linkedin profiles of employees who work in a number of private and public banks in egypt. after a period of 2 months, the researchers were able to get 228 complete questionnaires. the collected data were analysed using the statistical package for the social sciences (ibm spss statistics 25). the questionnaire was designed based on previously validated scales, where the researchers used a five-item likert scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. to measure selection and hiring, five items were adapted from rathnaweera (2010). to measure training and development, four items were adapted from a study by lee and bruvold (2015). to measure job design, four items were adapted from rathnaweera (2010). to measure job security, four items were adapted from van zyl et al. (2013). to measure rewards and payment, four items were adapted from barrick et al. (2015). on the other hand, 10 items were adapted from purcell (2010) to measure ce and ee. five items were further adapted from shuck and reio (2014) to measure the be. finally, six items were adapted from barrick et al. (2015) to measure the strategic implementation. the items of the questionnaire are displayed in table 1. table 1: items of the questionnaire. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for a research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. results demographic statistics the analysis started by examining the descriptive statistics of the sample. the findings showed that out of the 228 respondents, 153 (67%) were men, whilst 75 (33%) were women. also, the results indicated that 131 (57.4%) of the respondents worked in private banks, whilst 97 (42.54%) worked in public banks. furthermore, the analysis showed that the majority of the respondents (183; 80.26%) have experience more than 10 years in the banking sector, whilst 45 respondents (19.74%) have less than 10 years of experience in the banking sector. finally, the analysis showed that 115 (50.43%) of the respondents worked in cairo (the capital of egypt), 84 (36.84%) worked in alexandria, whilst 28 (12.28%) lived in other cities. reliability analysis ensuring the reliability of the study’s constructs is important before testing the research hypotheses. thus, the analysis showed that all the study constructs possess strong reliability, with a cronbach’s alpha value above the recommended threshold of 0.7 (bryman & bell, 2015). table 2 demonstrates cronbach’s alpha values of the study constructs. table 2: cronbach’s alpha values of the study constructs. regression analysis for hypotheses testing h1: human resource management practices have a significant influence on employees’ cognitive engagement. (supported) as shown in table 3, hypothesis 1 was supported, where the findings showed a significant effect of hrm practices on ce (β = 0.564, p = 0.000). table 2 also indicates that r square = 0.318, which indicates that 31.8% of the change in ce is predicted by the five hrm practices, which are selection and hiring, training and development, job design, job security, and rewards and payment: h2: human resource management practices have a significant influence on employees’ emotional engagement. (supported) table 3a: model summary for the predictors of cognitive engagement. table 3b: model summary for the predictors of cognitive engagement. as displayed in table 4, hypothesis 2 was supported, where the findings indicated a significant influence of hrm practices on ee (β = 0.666, p = 0.000). furthermore, table 3 shows that r square = 0.443, which indicates that 44.3% of the change in ee is predicted by the five hrm practices, which are selection and hiring, training and development, job design, job security, and rewards and payments: h3: human resource management practices have a significant influence on employees’ behavioural engagement. (supported) table 4a: model summary of the predictors of emotional engagement. table 4b: model summary of the predictors of emotional engagement. as shown in table 5, it was found that hrm practices have a positive significant impact on be (β = 0.483, p = 0.000). on the other hand, r square = 0.233, which indicates that 23.3% of the change in be is predicted by the five hrm practices, which include selection and hiring, training and development, job design, job security, and rewards and payment: h4: strategic implementation moderates the relationship between hrm practices and employee engagement. (rejected) table 5a: model summary of the predictors of behavioural engagement. table 5b: model summary of the predictors of behavioural engagement. there are two models in this analysis. model 1 shows the relationship between hrm practices, strategic implementation and employee engagement. the model is significant where β = 0.632 and p = 0.001. on the other hand, model 2 involves testing the moderating effect of the strategic implementation on the relationship between hrm practices and employee engagement. the model is significant as p = 0.01, whilst β = 0.632. the r square is 0.399, which indicates that 39.9% of the change in the dependent variable is predicted by the independent variables. the result of the coefficients table is that model 1 is significant but model 2 is not because the moderator effect of (censi*cenhrm) has a p-value equal to 0.990, which is greater than 0.05. hence, hypothesis 4 is rejected. discussion the findings underscore the importance of hrm practices in enhancing the emotional, cognitive and behavioural dimensions of employee engagement. in particular, the article highlights the role of five important hrm practices which are selection and hiring, training and development, job design, job security, and rewards and payment. these findings are in line with the findings of some articles that showed the critical importance of hrm practices in enhancing employee engagement. for instance, aktar and pangil (2017) indicated that a variety of hrm practices, such as the job security and career development, are important to enhance the level of engagement. these findings have also been confirmed in the work of jose (2012), which indicated that the level of employee engagement is determined by the level of satisfaction with the human resource practices. our findings provide an important contribution to the literature about employee engagement. for instance, the findings showed the importance of selection and hiring in enhancing the level of engagement. this view was supported in the literature, which indicated that the recruitment process plays an important role in predicting employees’ active engagement in the workplace (bhutta & zafar, 2019). additionally, our findings highlighted the role of training and development in enhancing employee engagement. these findings have been supported by the work of mansour (2020) which showed that the level of employee engagement depends on the training that employees get access to in the workplace. another interesting finding of this article is the importance of job security in enhancing engagement levels of employees. this result finds much support in several empirical studies which indicated that employees’ perceptions of insecurity in the workplace will lead to poor performance and high levels of disengagement (chen, 2018; ugwu & okojie, 2016). the importance of providing job security to employees has grown in importance, especially after the covid-19 pandemic (wilson et al., 2020). our article shows the importance of providing job security, especially in counties like egypt, where employees are generally looking for stability, where egyptians, in general, are less likely to change their jobs and companies (soliman & wahba, 2019). our findings further underscore the importance of job design and reward systems in improving employee engagement. these findings are consistent with that of tims and bakker (2014), which showed that well-designed jobs can be inspiring for employees and can largely contribute to their level of engagement. also, they are consistent with the findings of waqas and saleem (2014) that highlighted the role of monetary and non-monetary rewards in increasing the level of employee engagement and performance of organisations. however, our findings showed that strategic implementation does not moderate the relationship between hrm practices and employee engagement. this might be attributed to the lack of knowledge that employees have about the strategies and objectives of the egyptian banks. these findings are not in line with the findings of barrick et al. (2015) which showed that strategic implementation plays an important role in increasing employees’ performance and productivity. thus, it is apparent that the majority of egyptian banks have been unsuccessful in explaining their strategies to employees. implications to theory and practice this article responds to several calls from management scholars for studying the factors that enhance employee engagement (bhutta & zafar, 2019; jose, 2012). through an empirical study by drawing a sample of employees from the banking sector in egypt, this article was able to show the significant role of various hrm practices in enhancing employee engagement. our study contributes by being one of the first studies that examine how hrm practices impact employee engagement in egypt as an example of developing countries. furthermore, the current study contributes by examining the three dimensions of employee engagement that were proposed by shuck et al. (2017). this is considered important, where investigating the different facets of engagement provides a detailed explanation of the relatively new concept in the field of organisational behaviour studies. our study also provides some important guidelines for hr managers in the banking sector to follow in order to be able to enhance employee engagement. firstly, organisations should ensure that they have effective hiring and selection policies. by doing this, they will be able to attract the best candidates that fit to the organisational culture. another importance of this practice lies in the fact that when employees perceive that selection and hiring is conducted fairly, they will feel that their organisations apply fair hrm practices, which subsequently enhances their engagement. also, organisations should not neglect the importance of continuous training and development of their staff. this is becoming very important with the new technological innovations that are introduced in the banking sector. effective training that equips employees with relevant skills can make them more satisfied whilst doing their daily tasks. another important hrm practice that should be developed is the job design. this could be conducted by designing jobs in a way that is flexible and decentralised, where employees should be given more freedom to do their tasks in their own way as long as they are doing it right. furthermore, organisations should increase the perception of the job security by their employees, especially in countries like egypt, where employees tend to have high risk avoidance. this hrm practice is becoming more important with the outbreak of covid-19 pandemic, where many employees have high fears to be forced to leave their jobs. also, organisations should provide fair compensation and reward systems that are based on performance. this is critical, where the findings showed the importance of this hrm practice in enhancing employee engagement. finally, organisations should make sure to focus on internal marketing practices that ensure the alignment of all employees to the strategic objectives. this can be conducted by providing awareness sessions to employees about the mission statements, strategic objectives and key performance indicators of their organisations. research limitations and directions for future research despite the fact that this article provides important contributions to theory and practice, it has some limitations. firstly, the article only examined the impact of five hrm practices on employee engagement. future studies can further examine some other important hrm practices, such as the quality of work environment and work safety. another limitation of our study is that it only examined employees working in one industry, that is, the banking sector in egypt. future studies can draw samples from other industries in different countries, where they can investigate how culture can impact the acceptance of hrm practices. also, future studies can investigate each of the hrm practices separately to be able to provide a comparison of the impact of each of them on employee engagement. furthermore, future studies can adopt qualitative approaches, which will provide an in-depth understanding of the factors that enhance employee engagement. finally, further research is needed to examine how internal marketing practices influence employee engagement, especially in developing countries like egypt. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions this article was written by a team of researchers from the arab academy for science, technology and maritime transport. m.m.s. had a key role in data collection, data analysis and writing the first draft of the article. h.g. and a.l. had key roles in revising the article and responding to reviewers’ comments. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data are available within the article or its supplementary materials, and other data are available from the authors upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references adam, o.a.s., ogolla, d., & maore, s. (2017). influence of human resource hiring practices on performance of united nations agencies in mogadishu, somalia. international academic journal of human resource and business administration, 2(3), 677–701. aktar, a., & pangil, f. (2017). the relationship between employee engagement, hrm practices and perceived organizational support: evidence from banking employees. international journal of human resource studies, 7(3), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijhrs.v7i3.11353 alhozi, n., hawamdeh, n.a., & al-edenat, m. (2021). the impact of employee empowerment on job engagement: evidence from jordan. international business research, 14(2), 1–90. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v14n2p90 amin, m., ghazali, z., & hassan, r. (2020). a conceptual model: frontline employee’s behavioral engagement in value co-creation. humanities & social sciences reviews, 8(2), 474–481. https://doi.org/10.18510/hssr.2020.8254 anitha, j. (2014). determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance. international journal of productivity and performance management, 63(3), 308–323. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-01-2013-0008 ashforth, b.e., & humphrey, r.h. (1995). emotion in the workplace: a reappraisal. human relations, 48(2), 97–125. ashill, n.j., & rod, m. (2011). burnout processes in non-clinical health service encounters. journal of business research, 64(10), 1116–1127. aust, i., matthews, b., & muller-camen, m. (2020). common good hrm: a paradigm shift in sustainable hrm? human resource management review, 30(3), 100705. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2019.100705 badran, m.a., & youssef-morgan, c.m. (2015). psychological capital and job satisfaction in egypt. journal of managerial psychology, 30(3), 354. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmp-06-2013-0176 bakker, a.b. (2017). strategic and proactive approaches to work engagement. organizational dynamics, 46(2), 67–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2017.04.002 barrick, m.r., thurgood, g.r., smith, t.a., & courtright, s.h. (2015). collective organizational engagement: linking motivational antecedents, strategic implementation, and firm performance. academy of management journal, 58(1), 111–135. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2013.0227 bhebhe, m. (2020). employee disengagement from the perspective of frontline employees: a hotel case study in zimbabwe. journal of management & administration, 2020(1), 73–100. bhutta, z.m., & zafar, s. (2019). impact of hrm practices on employee engagement: evidence from banking sector of pakistan. numl international journal of business & management, 14(2), 140–156. https://doi.org/10.26573/2020.14.2.4 bibi, p., ahmad, a., & majid, a.h.a. (2018). the impact of training and development and supervisor support on employee’s retention in academic institutions: the moderating role of work environment. gadjah mada international journal of business, 20(1), 113–131. https://doi.org/10.22146/gamaijb.24020 bogićević-milikić b. (2019). promoting gender-responsive talent management in police organizations through strategic hrm measuring. strategic management, 24(1), 19–29. https://doi.org/10.5937/straman1901019b boxall, p. (2018). the development of strategic hrm: reflections on a 30-year journey. labour & industry: a journal of the social and economic relations of work, 28(1), 21–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/10301763.2018.1427423 bryman, a., & bell, e. (2015). business research methods. new york: oxford university press. budhiraja, s., & yadav, s. (2020) employer branding and employee-emotional bonding — the csr way to sustainable hrm. in s. vanka, m.b. rao, s. singh, m.r. pulaparthi (eds.) sustainable human resource management. singapore: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5656-2_8 chen, s.l. (2018). cross-level effects of high-commitment work systems on work engagement: the mediating role of psychological capital. asia pacific journal of human resources, 56(3), 384–401. https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7941.12144 crawford, e.r., rich, b.l., buckman, b., & bergeron, j. (2014). the antecedents and drivers of employee engagement. employee engagement in theory and practice, 44(6), 57–81. deeb, a., alananzeh, o.a., tarhini, a., & masa’deh, r.e. (2020). factors affecting job performance: the case of jordanian hotels’ kitchen staff. international journal of public sector performance management, 6(3), 340–360. diaz-carrion, r., lópez-fernández, m., & romero-fernandez, p.m. (2021). constructing an index for comparing human resources management sustainability in europe. human resource management journal, 31(1), 120–142. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12286 fletcher, l., alfes, k., & robinson, d. (2018). the relationship between perceived training and development and employee retention: the mediating role of work attitudes. the international journal of human resource management, 29(18), 2701–2728. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1262888 groen, b.a., wouters, m.j., & wilderom, c.p. (2017). employee participation, performance metrics, and job performance: a survey study based on self-determination theory. management accounting research, 36, 51–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mar.2016.10.001 hitt, m., & ireland, r. (2017). the intersection of entrepreneurship and strategic management research. in l. donald, sexton hans landström (ed.), the blackwell handbook of entrepreneurship (pp. 45–63). new jersey: hoboken. ho, c.w., & wu, c.c. (2019). using job design to motivate employees to improve high-quality service in the airline industry. journal of air transport management, 77, 17–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2019.02.008 ho, j.l., wu, a., & wu, s.y. (2014). performance measures, consensus on strategy implementation, and performance: evidence from the operational-level of organizations. accounting, organizations and society, 39(1), 38–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2013.11.003 joo, b.k., zigarmi, d., nimon, k., & shuck, b. (2017). work cognition and psychological well-being: the role of cognitive engagement as a partial mediator. the journal of applied behavioral science, 53(4), 446–469. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886316688780 jose, g. (2012). satisfaction with hr practices and employee engagement: a social exchange perspective. journal of economics and behavioral studies, 4(7), 423–430. https://doi.org/10.22610/jebs.v4i7.343 kahn, w.a. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 33(4), 692–724. https://doi.org/10.2307/256287 karim, m.m., choudhury, m.m., & latif, w.b. (2019). the impact of training and development on employees’ performance: an analysis of quantitative data. noble international journal of business and management research, 3(2), 25–33. lauring, j., & selmer, j. (2015). job engagement and work outcomes in a cognitively demanding context. personnel review, 44(4), 629–647. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-11-2013-0216 lee, c.h., & bruvold, n.t. (2003). creating value for employees: investment in employee development. the international journal of human resource management, 14(6), 981–1000. https://doi.org/10.1080/0958519032000106173 luthans, f., & peterson, s. (2002). employee engagement and manager self-efficacy. journal of management development, 21(5), 376–387. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710210426864 macey, w.h., & schneider, b. (2008). the meaning of employee engagement. industrial and organizational psychology, 1(1), 3–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2007.0002.x mansour, m. (2020). the relationship between human resources management practices and job engagement: the mediating role of psychological capital. management science letters, 10(13), 3047–3056. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2020.5.019 oldham, g.r., & fried, y. (2016). job design research and theory: past, present and future. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 136, 20–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2016.05.002 osborne, s., & hammoud, m.s. (2017). effective employee engagement in the workplace. international journal of applied management and technology, 16(1), 4. https://doi.org/10.5590/ijamt.2017.16.1.04 otoo, f.n.k. (2019). the mediating role of employee competencies. international journal, 41(5), 949–970. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-02-2018-0053 park, j.h., & tran, t.b.h. (2018). internal marketing, employee customer-oriented behaviors, and customer behavioral responses. psychology & marketing, 35(6), 412–426. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21095 presbitero, a. (2017). how do changes in human resource management practices influence employee engagement? a longitudinal study in a hotel chain in the philippines. journal of human resources in hospitality & tourism, 16(1), 56–70. przytuła, s., strzelec, g., & krysińska-kościańska, k. (2020). re-vision of future trends in human resource management (hrm) after covid-19. journal of intercultural management, 12(4), 70–90. https://doi.org/10.2478/joim-2020-0052 purcell, j. (2010), building employee engagement, acas policy discussion paper, london: acas. rathnaweera, r.r.n.t. (2010). do hrm practices impact employee satisfaction, commitment or retention? an empirical study of sri lankan public sector banks. a master’s dissertation of the university of agder, sri lanka. reina, c.s., rogers, k.m., peterson, s.j., byron, k., & hom, p.w. (2018). quitting the boss? the role of manager influence tactics and employee emotional engagement in voluntary turnover. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 25(1), 5–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051817709007 restubog, s.l.d., ocampo, a.c.g., & wang, l. (2020). taking control amidst the chaos: emotion regulation during the covid-19 pandemic. journal of vocational behavior, 119, 103440. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2020.103440 saks, a.m. (2019). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement revisited. journal of organizational effectiveness, 6(1), 19–38. https://doi.org/10.1108/joepp-06-2018-0034 shared, h.a. (2019). the relationship between e-service quality and e-customer satisfaction: an empirical study in egyptian banks. international journal of business and management, 14(5), 171. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v14n5p171 shuck, b., & reio, jr. t.g. (2014). employee engagement and well-being: a moderation model and implications for practice. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 21(1), 43–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051813494240 shuck, b., adelson, j.l., & reio, jr. t.g. (2017). the employee engagement scale: initial evidence for construct validity and implications for theory and practice. human resource management, 56(6), 953–977. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21811 shuck, m.b., & wollard, k.k. (2009). a historical perspective of employee engagement: an emerging definition. coerc 2009, 133. soliman, m., & wahba, m.s. (2019). investigating influencers of employee engagement in travel agents in egypt. anatolia, 30(1), 75–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/13032917.2018.1503965 stander, m.w., & rothmann, s. (2010). psychological empowerment, job insecurity and employee engagement. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 1–8. sun, l., & bunchapattanasakda, c. (2019). employee engagement: a literature review. international journal of human resource studies, 9(1), 63–80. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijhrs.v9i1.14167 tims, m., & bakker, a.b. (2014). job design and employee engagement. in c. truss, r. delbridge, k. alfes, a. shantz, & e. soane (eds.), employee engagement in theory and practice (pp. 131–148). oxon: taylor and francis. ugwu, c.c., & okojie, j.o. (2016). human resource management (hrm) practices and work engagement in nigeria: the mediating role of psychological capital (psycap). international journal of social sciences and humanities review, 6(4), 71–87. vance, r.j. (2006). employee engagement and commitment. in f.p. morgeson (ed.), society for human resource management (shrm) (pp. 1–53). va: alexandria. van zyl, l., van eeden, c., & rothmann, s. (2013). job insecurity and the emotional and behavioural consequences thereof. south african journal of business management, 44(1), 75–86. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajbm.v44i1.149 villegas, s., lloyd, r.a., tritt, a., & vengrouskie, e.f. (2019). human resources as ethical gatekeepers: hiring ethics and employee selection. journal of leadership, accountability and ethics, 16(2), 80–88. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajbm.v44i1.149 waqas, z., & saleem, s. (2014). the effect of monetary and non-monetary rewards on employee engagement and firm performance. european journal of business and management, 6(31), 73–82. wilson, j.m., lee, j., fitzgerald, h.n., oosterhoff, b., sevi, b., & shook, n.j. (2020). job insecurity and financial concern during the covid-19 pandemic are associated with worse mental health. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 62(9), 686–691. https://doi.org/10.1097/jom.0000000000001962 yeh, c.m. (2013). tourism involvement, work engagement and job satisfaction among frontline hotel employees. annals of tourism research, 42, 214–239. zaky, a.h.m., & soliman, m.m. (2017). the effect of knowledge management critical success factors on knowledge management effectiveness and performance: an empirical research in egyptian banking sector. the business & management review, 9(2), 201–211. abstract introduction theoretical framework research methods research results and discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) muzakar isa department of management, faculty of economic and business, universitas muhammadiyah surakarta, surakarta, indonesia nur indrayati department of magister management, faculty of economic and business, universitas muhammadiyah surakarta, surakarta, indonesia citation isa, m., & indrayati, n. (2023). the role of work–life balance as mediation of the effect of work–family conflict on employee performance. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a1910. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.1910 original research the role of work–life balance as mediation of the effect of work–family conflict on employee performance muzakar isa, nur indrayati received: 14 feb. 2022; accepted: 12 july 2022; published: 30 mar. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: many employees find it difficult to balance their role in family and work. for the organisation to be successful in achieving its goals, management must be fully aware of the employee’s needs as well as responsibilities towards the employee’s family. research purpose: this study aimed to analyse the effect of work–family conflict on work–life balance, the effect of work–family conflict on performance, the effect of work–life balance on performance and the effect of work–family conflict on employee performance through work–life balance as the intervening variable. research approach/design and method: the population of this study comprised all taxation civil services in the solo region totaling 694 participants. a sample of 254 people. the primary data was obtained through questionnaires distributed to respondents. this research employed the partial least square analysis method. main findings: work–family conflict had a negative and significant effect on work–life balance and performance. work–life balance had a positive and significant effect on employee performance. work–family conflict showed a negative and significant effect on employee performance through work–life balance. practical/managerial implications: in an effort to minimise the possibility of work–family conflict, employees should remain knowledgeable in balancing the fulfilment of role demands in work and life domains. the organisation is expected to create a comfortable and supportive work atmosphere in order to avoid employee role conflicts efficiently. contribution/value-add: this study provides a new contribution to proving the theory of the relationship between work–family conflict, work–life balance and individual performance. keywords: work–life balance; work–family conflict; employee performance; working hours introduction work and family are essential parts of an employee’s life that may cause conflict. employee conflict between their role in the family and role in work is termed work–family conflict. many employees find it difficult to balance their role in family and work, especially during long working hours and in elaborate organisations (lingard & francis, 2012; žnidaršič & bernik, 2021). the management may assume this is a personal problem for each employee, yet the family is a fundamental part of society, in which traditional management theory that divides family problems from work problems is no longer relevant. work–family conflict experienced by employees is a stressor that leads to a decrease in employee welfare, so it affects employee performance and ultimately organisational performance (lingard & francis, 2006). work–family conflict is experienced by all employees, regardless of gender. although male and female employees have different roles in the family, they are assigned to the same role in the work setting. for the organisation to be successful in achieving its goals, management must be fully aware of the employee’s needs as well as responsibilities towards the employee’s family. management is expected to make policies based on social justice for employees and effectiveness for the sake of the organisation. work–family conflict is a form of dual role conflict, in which role pressures in work and family are not aligned (breyer & bluemke, 2016). work–family conflict is an inter-role conflict that occurs when the energy and time devoted, the tension experienced and the expected behaviour in the role at work perplex employees to fulfil their role obligations in the family (gunaprasida & wibowo, 2019). employees with work–family conflicts will attempt to find solutions to reduce the impact of the conflict. according to lingard and francis (2006), the solution is to seek support from superiors, coworkers and organisations so that they are able to balance roles and responsibilities at work and in the family. the organisation as a setting to work stabilises roles and responsibilities by providing support and accommodating the interests of employees outside the organisation. work–life balance has become one of the most interesting topics in academic, business, political and social contexts. according to osoian, lazar and raţiu (2009), this phenomenon emerges in response to demographic, economic and cultural changes such as the increasing integration of women in the workplace, the increasing number of partners working outside the home or the transformation of family structures, following the population growth, technological advances, declining birth rates and the need to improve human resource management. these social, economic and political changes have involved organisations in work, family and personal life issues. work–life balance emerged as a response to work–family conflict (osorio, aguado & villar, 2014). in this case, the organisation should implement a proactive approach to work–life balance practices (gómez & marti, 2004), create a flexible structure for environmental change and contribute to increasing individual life satisfaction (ahn, 2005). work–life balance as a human resource policy is deemed a major challenge for organisational leaders, which can be a source of competitive advantage. as an effort to obtain committed and highly motivated employees, work–life balance policies help retain skilled employees in the organisation (konrad & managel, 2000) and are expected to improve employee performance. if an employee can achieve a state of balance between work and family life, they will experience smaller overloads roles, carry out bigger roles easily, have lower depression rates, increase the achievement of organisational goals, cut unnecessary expenditures, improve the organisation they are in and experience increased job satisfaction (clark, 2000). work–life balance positively affects organisational commitment (rumangkit & zuriana, 2019), and it has a positive impact on employees, such as increasing the motivation, reducing job stress, creating higher productivity and minimising turnover rates (johari, yean & tjik, 2018). however, when employees are unable to achieve a work–life balance, the consequences are reduced job satisfaction, poor productivity and performance, lower organisational commitment, inferior career ambitions and success, increased absenteeism and intention to resign, burnout, work stress, poor physiological and psychological health and declined performance in personal and family life (shobitha & sudarsan, 2014). work–life balance is important in the continuity of an organisation; thus, further research is required. work–family conflict is a form of dual role conflict in which the role pressures in work and family are not aligned in several ways. meanwhile, work–life balance is a balance between individual life in carrying out each role, both work life and personal life. the lack of conflicts that occur makes employees more capable to manage themselves to balance the various roles they have, so they can achieve work–life balance, thereby increasing productivity or performance. the main objective of this study is to analyse the effect of work–family conflict on employee performance through work–life balance as an intervening variable. theoretical framework employee performance sapada (2017) and sarini et al. (2020) define employee performance as the result of an individual’s work in terms of quality and quantity during a particular period of working according to the assigned responsibilities. according to sopiah (2016), performance is work achieved by a person in carrying out the tasks assigned to him or her based on skills, experience, keenness and time. performance is an actual behaviour displayed by an individual as work performance by employees according to his or her role in the agency. the success of the organisation relies on the performance of the actors within the organisation. each work unit in an organisation must be assessed for its performance so that the performance of human resources in the units of an organisation can be assessed objectively. based on samwel (2018) interpretation, performance is defined as a level in which employees meet or achieve the specified work requirements, while performance appraisal is a process in which employee contributions to the organisation are assessed over a period of time. based on several definitions of performance, it can be determined that performance is the result of work achieved by an employee or worker in carrying out his or her functions given the assigned responsibilities. maryani, entang and tukiran (2021) suggest that performance appraisal is done by taking into account several aspects, comprising the following: quality of work is the work accuracy, work thoroughness and work competence to achieve results without neglecting the workload. good work quality minimises the error rate in completing work and produces beneficial work productivity for the success and progress of the organisation. the quantity of work is the workload completed under normal circumstances. the quantity of work is perceived from the types of work carried out simultaneously with effective and efficient fashion according to organisational goals. responsibility can be viewed based on employee responsibility for the results of their work, the infrastructure at work and employee behaviour at work. initiative is the employee’s ability to analyse a problem, assess, create and make decisions in the face of problems. cooperation is the employee’s ability to actively participate and be ready to work with peers, either with superiors or with coworkers, in order to achieve better results. compliance is the employee’s ability to abide by all regulations in the organisation and work according to the instructions. there are four indicators to measure performance (alexandro, 2021), which include the following: quantity: this is measured from employee perception of the assigned activities and their results. quality: it is measured by employee perception of the quality of the work produced and the perfection of tasks on employee skill and ability. the results of the work that has been completed are almost perfect or close to expected work goals. punctuality: it is measured from the employee perception of an activity completed from the beginning to output – completing the task successfully in the designated time and optimising available time for other activities. effectiveness: this means optimising the use of resources and time available to the organisation in order to increase profits and reduce losses. work–family conflict chang, zhou, wang and heredero (2017) state that work–family conflict is a role conflict between two significant domains. these domains are family domain and work domain. work–family conflict is a result of a dual role between role as a worker at work and role as spouse or parents in the family. those who have roles at work and in the family encounter two different role demands. netemeyer, boles and mcmurrian (1996) further explain that there are five main demands in a role that each individual possesses. the five demands are responsibility, requirements, expectations, duties and commitments. roles in the family have different responsibilities, requirements, expectations, duties and commitments compared to those of work. chang et al. (2017) suggest that every individual requires physical and psychological resources to fulfil these demands. therefore, when they feel that resources cannot guarantee these demands, there will be a conflict arising between work and family. frone, russell and cooper (1994) elaborate that married people will prioritise their roles in the family over work. those who focus more on roles in the family than roles in work will devote more time, energy and thoughts to perform their roles in the family. problems may emerge when the role at work also demands time, energy and thought from them. this happens as an outcome of roles at work and in the family not supporting one another, or in the worst case, they contradict each other (frone et al., 1994). meanwhile, the resources owned by individuals in the form of time, energy and thoughts to meet the demands of work and family are limited. amran et al. (2021) assert that there are three main forms of work–family conflict, which include the following (see table 1): time-based conflict. this is a conflict because the time spent in one role interferes with the time that should be allocated in another role. for example, the night shift will force a person not to attend to family events at night. strain-based conflict. this is a conflict due to the tension experienced by the individual in carrying out one role which affects other roles negatively. for instance, a person who has just received a strong reprimand or complaint from a customer at work will feel depressed or tense, so that once a person reaches home it will be difficult for him or her to act casually with the spouse or children. behaviour-based conflict. this is a conflict because of differences in behavioural demands between roles in work and family. for example, a police officer who faces a crime must behave firmly and even ruthlessly, which may trigger conflict when this behaviour is brought into the family context. table 1: dimensions of work–family conflict. according to chang et al. (2017), each of the three forms of work–family conflicts entails two directions: (1) conflict arises because work interferes with family, known as work interfering with family (wif) and (2) conflict arises because family interferes with work, or family interfering with work (fiw). the combination of the three forms and the two directions will yield six dimensions of work–family conflict, which are as follows: (a) time-based wif, (b) time-based fiw, (c) strain-based wif, (d) strain-based fiw, (e) behaviour-based wif and (f) behaviour-based fiw. work–life balance daipuria and kakar (2013) state that work–life balance is a balance between work and life, feeling comfortable at work and having a commitment to family. the concept of work–life balance implies that work life and personal life must complement each other and must be balanced in order to avoid work–life conflicts. yuile, chang, gudmundsson and sawang (2011) define work–life balance as the state of an individual who can manage real or potential conflicts in various demands of different roles using time and energy they have so that they can achieve prosperity and self-fulfilment. according to johari et al. (2018), someone who has good potential expects to work in a reputable company or institution and applies the concept of work–life balance. the balance between time and energy for work and personal activities by a person is an effort to achieve harmonious life in connection with work–life balance. lazar, osoian and ratiu (2010) argue that work–life balance is the achievement of meaningful enjoyment of life; a better work–life balance is when all work is done perceptively, making more work completed in a brief time. in the most scope of business, work–life balance is perceived as a new opportunity in human resource management (osorio et al., 2014). organisations must be conscious of employee needs and provide them with flexibility, allowing them to combine work and personal spheres to meet professional and personal goals (osorio et al., 2014). the application of the right work–life balance policy provides greater autonomy for employees to manage the work and nonwork domains in their lives (wheatley, 2012). byrne (2005) also explains that someone who achieves work–life balance will rarely experience conflict between the ‘work’ and ‘nonwork’ domains and will find satisfaction in their life, be it in work roles or other roles, so their motivation and productivity at work will improve. based on the understanding, it can be determined that work–life balance is a balance between individual live in carrying out each role, both work life and personal life, to avoid conflicts between roles and achieve life satisfaction in each role. research conducted by aryateja, susita and sebayang (2021) proved a more relevant and valid measure in assessing work–life balance based on four dimensions, including: work interference with personal life (wipl). based on role theory and resource conservation theory, wipl is a work stressor. this dimension is assessed from how a job interferes with personal life. for example, frequent extra working hours will impede a person’s ability to manage time to do things outside of their work or personal life. personal life interference with work (pliw). this dimension is seen from how personal life interferes with one’s work life. for example, personal problems make a person unable to concentrate at work, resulting in poor performance at work. work enhancement of personal life (wepl). this dimension is viewed from how work improves the quality of a personal life. for example, the skills and experience gained in the work setting are used to deal with problems in personal life. personal life enhancement of work (plew). this dimension is seen from how personal life increases one’s ability to work. for example, pleasant things that happen in one’s personal life will add to one’s enthusiasm to perform better. research methods this research is quantitative in nature. creswell and plano (2018) interpret quantitative research as the process of collecting and analysing numerical data. it is used to find patterns and means, make prediction, test causal relationships and generalise research results to a wider population. in quantitative research, the researcher analyses data by considering symptoms that have certain characteristics in human life called variables. the population of this research was all tax civil services in the greater solo area, totalling 694 participants. the sample in this study involved 254 participants who were selected based on the calculation of slovin’s formula. this study employed primary data obtained from survey results through the questionnaire distributed to respondents. this research uses the partial least square (pls) analysis method with the smartpls program. the pls is one of the structural equation modelling (sem) techniques that can analyse latent variables, indicators and measurement errors directly. partial least square analysis is a combination of confirmatory factor analysis (cfa), regression analysis and path analysis. (hair, howard and nitzl 2020). research results and discussion the number of respondents in this study was 254 employees, of which 65.35% were male and 34.65% were female. as many as 72.44% were implementers and 27.56% of respondents worked as functional employees. based on the age category, 7.09% were 25 years or younger, 11.42% were 26–30 years, 20.08% were 31–35 years, 23.62% were 36–40 years, 16.54% fell between the 41 and 45 years age range, 12.99% were 46–50 years and 8.27% were over 50 years of age. as many as 87.80% of respondents were married, and 12.20% were single. of those who were married, 85.83% had children, and the remaining 14.17% did not have children. furthermore, 61.81% of respondents lived with family, parents or siblings, and 38.19% did not live with family, parents or siblings. a total of 47.64% of respondents had employed partners (husband or wife), and 52.36% had unemployed partners (husband or wife). a total of 17.32% of respondents had other sources of income, and the majority of 82.68% did not have other sources of income. a total of 43.70% were active in community activities, and the other 56.30% were not active in community activities. only 24.41% of respondents obtained a diploma, 52.36% had undergraduate degrees (s-1), 21.26% obtained master’s degrees (s-2) and 1.97% had other educational backgrounds. a total of 7.87% of respondents worked for less than 5 years, 17.72% for 5–10 years, 24.02% for 11–15 years, 20.87% for 16–20 years and 29.53% more than 20 years. path diagram the path diagram of the effect of work–family conflict on work–life balance and employee performance is illustrated in figure 1. figure 1: path diagram. evaluation of measurement model convergent validity convergent validity is to determine whether the dimension is valid in measuring variables. a dimension is deemed valid in measuring the variable if the loading factor is positive and greater than 0.6. the results of the measurement of the work–family conflict variable using six dimensions indicate that all dimensions had a loading factor greater than 0.6; thus, the dimensions are valid (see table 2). the strain-based work interfering with the family (x3) dimension yielded the largest loading factor, which was 0.819. it means that the strain-based work interfering with the family (x3) dimension is the most dominant dimension in measuring the work–family conflict variable with a representation level of 81.9%. table 2: convergent validity test results. table 3: average variance extracted. the results of the measurement of the work–life balance variable using four dimensions denote that all dimensions had a loading factor greater than 0.6, thus showing that the dimensions are valid. the dimension of wepl (z3) obtained the largest loading factor, which was 0.791. it implies that the dimension of wepl (z3) is the most dominant dimension in measuring the work–life balance variable with a representation level of 79.1%. the results of measuring employee performance variables using seven dimensions show that the entire dimensions measuring employee performance variables produced a loading factor greater than 0.6; hence, it is deemed valid (see table 4). the dimension of work quality (y2) produced the largest loading factor, which was 0.908. it implies that the dimension of work quality (y2) was the most dominant dimension in measuring employee performance variables, with a representation level of 90.8%. table 4: cross-loading calculation results. besides using loading factors, the assessment can be seen through the average variance extracted (ave). an instrument is declared to meet the convergent validity test if it has an ave above 0.5 (see table 3). the value of ave on the variables of work–family conflict, work–life balance and employee performance was greater than 0.5. based on the calculation of ave, all dimensions measuring work–family conflict, work–life balance and employee performance variables are declared valid. discriminant validity discriminant validity is calculated using cross-loading, with the criteria that if the loading factor value is greater than the correlation between the dimensions and other variables, then the dimension is valid. overall, the dimensions that measure the variables of work–family conflict, work–life balance, and employee performance obtained a loading factor greater than the cross-loading of other variables. therefore, the dimensions are valid. reliability test the calculations used to test the reliability of the constructs are cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability. the test criteria state that if the composite reliability is greater than 0.7 and cronbach’s alpha is greater than 0.6, then the construct is reliable (see table 5). table 5: composite reliability and cronbach’s alpha calculation results. the value of composite reliability on the variables of work–family conflict, work–life balance, and employee performance was greater than 0.7, so all dimensions are reliable. furthermore, the value of cronbach’s alpha on the variables of work–family conflict, work–life balance and employee performance was greater than 0.6, meaning all dimensions are deemed reliable. goodness-of-fit model the goodness-of-fit model is used to determine the ability of endogenous variables to explain the heterogeneity of exogenous variables, or in other words, to determine the significance of the contribution of exogenous variables to endogenous variables. the goodness-of-fit model in pls analysis was performed using r-square and q-square predictive relevance (q2). the r-square of the work–life balance variable was 0.442. it signifies that the heterogeneity of work–life balance variable can be explained by the work–family conflict variable with 44.2%. in other words, the contribution of work–family conflict to work–life balance was 44.2%, while the remaining 55.8% was the contribution of other variables that were not discussed in this study (see table 6). table 6: goodness-of-fit model results. next, the r-square of the employee performance variable was 0.235. this indicates that the heterogeneity of employee performance variable can be explained by the work–family conflict and work–life balance variables with 23.5%. in other words, the contribution of work–family conflict and work–life balance to employee performance was 23.5%, while the remaining 76.5% were the contribution of other variables that were not discussed in this study. the q-square predictive relevance value obtained was 0.573. this implies that the heterogeneity of employee performance variable can be explained by the work–family conflict and work–life balance variables (direct effect and indirect effect) of 57.3%. in other words, the contribution of work–family conflict and work–life balance to employee performance was 57.3%, while the remaining 42.7% was the contribution of other variables that were not discussed in this study. direct effect hypothesis testing testing the direct effect hypothesis is employed to test whether there is an effect of exogenous variables on endogenous variables. the test criteria state that if the probability level of significance (alpha = 5%), then there is a significant effect of exogenous variables on endogenous variables. the structural model of the effect of work–family conflict on work–life balance is as follows (see table 7): table 7: hypothesis testing results. the effect of work–family conflict on work–life balance earned a probability of 0.000. the test results show the probability < level of significance (alpha (α) = 5%). therefore, work–family conflict had a significant effect on work–life balance. the path coefficient of the effect of work–family conflict on work–life balance was –0.665, indicating that work–family conflict had a negative and significant effect on work–life balance. it implies that the higher the work–family conflict, the lower the work–life balance will be. the structural model of the effect of work–family conflict and work–life balance on employee performance is as follows: the effect of work–family conflict on employee performance generated a probability of 0.010. the test results show the probability < level of significance (alpha = 5%). thus, work–family conflict had a significant effect on employee performance. the path coefficient of the effect of work–family conflict on employee performance was –0.283, denoting that work–family conflict had a negative and significant effect on employee performance. so the higher the work–family conflict, the lower the employee performance will be. the effect of work–life balance on employee performance produced a probability of 0.023. the test results show the probability < level of significance (alpha = 5%). this means that work–life balance had a significant effect on employee performance. the path coefficient of the effect of work–life balance on employee performance was 0.248, meaning that work–life balance had a positive and significant effect on employee performance. hence, the higher the work–life balance, the higher the employee performance will be. testing of indirect effect hypothesis the testing of the indirect effect hypothesis was conducted to determine whether there is an indirect effect of exogenous variables on endogenous variables through intervening variables. the test criteria assert that if the p-value level of significance (alpha = 5%), then there is a significant effect of exogenous variables on endogenous variables through intervening variables of testing of indirect effect hypothesis results. the effect of work–family conflict on employee performance through work–life balance obtained a probability of 0.030. the test results imply the probability < level of significance (alpha = 5%). it implies that work–family conflict had a significant effect on employee performance through work–life balance. the path coefficient of the effect of work–family conflict on employee performance through work–life balance was –0.165, indicating that work–family conflict had a negative and significant effect on employee performance through work–life balance. in other words, the lower the work–life balance due to a higher work–family conflict, the lower the employee performance will be (see table 8). table 8: indirect effect hypothesis testing results. dominance exogenous variables with a dominant effect on endogenous variables were discovered through the largest total coefficient, regardless of the sign of the positive or negative coefficient. the analysis results inform that the variable with the largest total coefficient on the employee performance variable was the work–family conflict variable, with a total coefficient of –0.448. work–family conflict is the variable with the most dominant effect on employee performance. based on the results of data analysis, the following issues shall be discussed (see table 9): the effect of work–family conflict on work–life balance produced a probability of 0.000. the test results show the probability < level of significance (alpha = 5%). this implies that work–family conflict had a significant effect on work–life balance. the path coefficient of the effect of work–family conflict on work–life balance was –0.665, indicating that work–family conflict had a negative and significant effect on work–life balance. based on the results of hypothesis testing, it can be said that the higher the work–family conflict experienced by an employee, the lower the employee’s work–life balance will be. similarly, the lower the work–family conflict experienced by an employee, the higher the employee’s work–life balance will be. the effect of work–family conflict on employee performance generated a probability of 0.010. the test results show the probability < level of significance (alpha = 5%). this denotes that work–family conflict had a significant effect on employee performance. the path coefficient of the effect of work–family conflict on employee performance was –0.283, signifying that work–family conflict had a negative and significant effect on employee performance. based on the results of hypothesis testing, it can be concluded that the higher the work–family conflict experienced by an employee, the lower the employee performance will be. likewise, the lower the work–family conflict experienced by an employee, the higher the employee performance will be. the effect of work–life balance on employee performance attained a probability of 0.023. the test results show the probability < level of significance (alpha = 5%). this implies that work–life balance had a significant effect on employee performance. the path coefficient of the effect of work–life balance on employee performance was 0.248, indicating that work–life balance had a positive and significant effect on employee performance. based on the results of hypothesis testing, it can be said that the higher the work–life balance of an employee, the higher the employee performance will be. in the same way, the lower the work–life balance of an employee, the lower the employee performance will be. the effect of work–family conflict on employee performance through work–life balance acquired a probability of 0.030. the test results show the probability < level of significance (alpha = 5%). this means that work–family conflict had a significant effect on employee performance through work–life balance. the path coefficient of the effect of work–family conflict on employee performance through work–life balance was –0.165, thus indicating that work–family conflict had a negative and significant effect on employee performance through work–life balance. based on the results of hypothesis testing, it can be said that a lower work–life balance because of a higher work–family conflict experienced by an employee will reduce the employee performance. similarly, a higher work–life balance because of lower work–family conflict experienced by an employee will improve employee performance. table 9: total variable coefficient. the results of this study correspond to the previous theory that events occurring at work are related to events at home and vice versa (clark, 2000). fundamentally, family life and work life are interrelated. when conflict occurs because work life interferes with family life, performance and satisfaction in family roles will be compromised. conversely, if family life interferes with work life, performance will decrease (tiroina & mahdani, 2021, aryateja et al., 2021). the reality now is that many people have dual roles as workers as well as parents, spouses and children, and sometimes these roles conflict with each other and become the roots of conflict. on the other hand, human life is not solely built upon work and family life, but demands in other life aspects also lead to conflict. counterbalancing various roles requires one to control the tension arising as a result of inter-role conflict that occurs due to the demands in those roles (yuile et al., 2011). likewise, along with their role as employees in the office, they also function as parents, spouses and children in their family. indeed, it will trigger a conflict between work life and family life. conflicts between these roles can be minimised by fully and effectively participating in each role undertaken so that individuals have a balanced state in performing each role. this is the concept of work–life balance. work–life balance is an essential aspect of human life. yet achieving such balance is easier said than done. in the process of attaining a balance between work life and personal life, various conflicts and problems will arise and should be accepted by individuals. when employees in the office experience work–family conflict, the fulfilment of one role will eventually interfere with the fulfilment of other roles, affecting their performance as an employee. if functional and implementers experience work–family conflict, a solution should be sought so that they continue to carry out their roles properly. in this way, a work–life balance will be achieved. work–life balance is very important for organisations and individuals. work–life balance is a major factor in increasing employee productivity, and this has a positive impact on the general performance of the organisation (ainapur, vidyavathi, kulkarni & mamata, 2016, semlali & hassi, 2016, garg & yajuverdi, 2018). bataineh (2019) stated that work–life balance creates a superior work ethic. when the balance between work and life is at a high level of satisfaction, the work ethic will improve in order to provide the best contribution and service. with a superior work ethic, it is expected that it will facilitate employees in carrying out their duties and responsibilities. conclusion work–family conflict had a negative and significant effect on work–life balance and performance. the higher the employee work–family conflict, the lower the work–life balance and employee performance will be and vice versa. work–life balance had a positive and significant effect on employee performance. work–family conflict had a negative and significant effect on employee performance through work–life balance. this means that the lower the work–life balance due to the higher work–family conflict experienced by an employee, the lower the employee performance will be and vice versa. work–family conflict is a stressor that leads to a decrease in employee welfare, thus affecting employee performance and ultimately organisational performance. in an effort to minimise the possibility of work–family conflict, employees should remain knowledgeable in balancing the fulfilment of role demands in work and life domains, in other words, without putting aside other important aspects of life, including work, family, personal, social and spiritual. furthermore, employees should never cease to establish good teamwork with colleagues and superiors to create a positive work atmosphere that will increase performance productivity. employees should have good time management skills in order to carry out each role optimally. if employees often experience work–family conflicts that forbid them to achieve work–life balance, the consequences are reduced job satisfaction, poor productivity and performance, lower organisational commitment, inferior career ambitions and success, increased absenteeism, intention to resign, burnout, work stress, poor physiological and psychological health and decreased performance in personal and family life. these consequences will eventually affect the productivity of organisational performance. the organisation is expected to create a comfortable and conducive work environment and to sustain a positive and supportive work atmosphere to help minimise the occurrence of conflict in the roles of employees. moreover, the government should maintain existing work–life balance policies, such as a flexitime policy for going to and leaving the office, maternity and paternity leaves, lactation room facilities, work from home policy during the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic and immediate implementation of remote work plans and other policies that support work–life balance practices. these policies aim to make employees happier, which in turn will make them more productive at work and ultimately improve organisational performance. many other factors can affect employee performance. further research is encouraged to add several other variables such as workload, happiness at work, flexibility working, job satisfaction, motivation, organisational commitment and so on. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank lppi and lppm universitas muhammadiyah surakarta for the financial support for this study. competing interests this research is quantitative research using primary data. the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions m.i. and n.i. contributed equally to the design and implementation of the research, the analysis of the results and the writing of the manuscript. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the source of funds for the implementation of this research and the publication of research results came from the university of muhammadiyah surakarta. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references ahn, n. (2005). factors affecting life satisfaction among spanish workers: relative importance of wage and others factors. documento de trabajo 17. madrid: fedea. ainapur, p., vidyavathi, b., kulkarni, k., & mamata, p. (2016). work life balance policies, practices and its impact on organizational performance. international journal of latest technology in engineering, management & applied science, 5(7), 11–21. alexandro, r., tonich, u., fendy, h.h., uci, l. (2021). the effect of employee performance on consumer satisfaction at setia hotel, puruk cahu, murung raya. international journal of social science and business, 5(3), 399–409. https://doi.org/10.23887/ijssb.v5i3.38211 amran, a., lestari, t., komalasari, y., putriyandar, r., rahayu y.s., & drajat, d.y. (2021). the phenomenon of work-family conflict and work stress and their effect on employee performance. journal of international conference proceedings (jicp), 4(2), 98–108. aryateja, k.b., susita, d., & sebayang, k.d.a. (2021). the influence of work-life balance and work environment on employee commitment. the international journal of social sciences world, 3(2), 152–168. bataineh, k.a. (2019). impact of work-life balance, happiness at work, on employee performance. international business research, 12(2), 99. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v12n2p99 breyer, b., & bluemke, m. (2016). work-famil y conflict scale (issp). mannheim: gesis leibniz-institut für sozialwissenschaften. byrne, u. (2005). work-life balance: why are we talking about it at all? business information review, 22(1), 53–59. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266382105052268 chang, x., zhou, y., wang, c. & heredero, c.d.p. (2017). how do work-family balance practices affect work-family conflict? the differential roles of work stress. frontiers of business research in china, 11(8), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-017-0008-4 clark, s.c. (2000). work/family border theory: a new theory of work/family balance. human relations, 53(6), 747–770. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726700536001 creswell, j.w., & plano, c.v.l. (2018). designing and conducting mixed methods research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. daipuria, p., & kakar, d. (2013). work-life balance for working parents: perspectives and strategies. journal of strategic human resource management, 2(1), 45–52. frone, m.r., russell, m., & cooper, m.l. (1994). relationship between job and family satisfaction: causal or noncausal covariation. journal of management, 20(3), 565–579. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639402000303 garg, p., & yajuverdi, n. (2018). impact of work-life balance practices on employees retention and organizational performance – a study on it industry. indian journal of applied research, 6(8). retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326607206 gómez, s., & martí, c. (2004). la incorporación de la mujer al mercado laboral: implicaciones personales, familiares, personales, y profesionales, y medidas estructurales de conciliación trabajo-familia. documento de investigación, no. 557. barcelona: iese. gunaprasida n., & wibowo, a. (2019). the effect of work-family conflict and flexible work arrangement on turnover intention: do female and male employees differ? jurnal siasat bisnis, 23(1), 27–36. https://doi.org/10.20885/jsb.vol23.iss1.art3 hair, j.f., howard, m.c., & nitzl, c. (2020). assessing measurement model quality in plssem using confirmatory composite analysis. journal of business research, 109(5–6), 101–110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.11.069 irmawati, i., & wulandari, a.s. (2017). pengaruh quality of work life, self determination, dan job performance terhadap work engagement karyawan (effect of quality of work life, self determination, and job performance on employee work engagement). jurnal manajemen d ayasaing, 19(1), 27–36. johari, j., yean tan, f., & tjik zulkarnain, z.i. (2018). autonomy, workload, work-life balance and job performance among teachers. international journal of educational management, 32(1), 107–120. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijem-10-2016-0226 konrad, a., & managel, r. (2000). the impact of work-life programs on firm productivity. strategic management journal, 21(12), 1225–1237. https://doi.org/10.1002/1097-0266(200012)21:12%3c1225::aid-smj135%3e3.0.co;2-3 lazar, i., osoian, c., & ratiu, p. (2010). the role of work-life balance practices in order to improve organizational performance. european research studies journal, 8(1), 201–214. https://doi.org/10.35808/ersj/267 lingard, h., & francis, v. (2006). does a supportive work environment moderate the relationship between work-family conflict and burnout among construction professionals? journal construction management and economics, 24(2), 185–196. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697010500226913 lingard, h., & francis, v. (2012). the case for family-friendly work practices in the australian construction industry. australasian journal of construction economics and building, 2(1), 28–36. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v2i1.2884 maryani, y., entang, m., & tukiran, m. (2021). the relationship between work motivation, work discipline and employee performance at the regional secretariat of bogor city. international journal of social and management studies, 2(2), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.5555/ijosmas.v2i2.14 netemeyer, r.g., boles, j.s., & mcmurrian, r. (1996). development and validation of work–family conflict and family-work conflict scales. journal of applied psychology, 81(4), 400–410. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.81.4.400 osoian, c., lazar, l., & ratiu, p. (2009). the benefits of implementing and supporting work – life balance policies in organizations. cluj-napoca: babeş-bolyai university. osorio, d.b., aguado, l.m., & villar, c. (2014). the impact of family and work-life balance policies on the performance of spanish listed companies. aims management, 17(4), 214–236. https://doi.org/10.3917/mana.174.0214 rumangkit & zuriana, z. (2019) work-life balance as a predictor of organizational commitment: a multidimensional approach stefanus. diponegoro international journal of business, 2(1), 18–22. https://doi.org/10.14710/dijb.2.1.2019.18-22 samwel, j.o. (2018). an assessment of the impact of performance management on employee and organization performance – evidence from selected private organizations in tanzania. international journal of human resource studies, 8(3), 199–217. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijhrs.v8i3.13415 sapada, a.f.a., modding, h.b., gani, a., & nujum, s. (2017). the effect of organizational culture and work ethics on job satisfaction and employees performance. the international journal of engineering and science, 6(12), 28–36. https://doi.org/10.9790/1813-0612042836 sarini, wajdi, m.f., syamsudin, isa, m., (2020). the role of motivation as mediation in the relationship between communication and work discipline on employee performance. issuees on inclusive growth in developing countries, 1(2), 93–104. semlali, s., & hassi, a. (2016). work–life balance: how can we help women it professionals in morocco? journal of global responsibility, 7(2), 210–225. https://doi.org/10.1108/jgr-07-2016-0017 sopiah, (2016). the relationship between performance appraisal and job performance. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 6(6), 104–115. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v6-i6/2182 tiroina, s.d., & mahdani, s. (2021). the effect of work from home during the covid-19 pandemic on work-life balance and its impact on employee performance of aceh communication, informatics and encoding office. international journal of business management and economic review, 4(2), 55–63. https://doi.org/10.35409/ijbmer.2021.3240 wheatley, d. (2012). work-life balance, travel to work, and the dual career household. personnel review, 41(6), 813–831. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481211263764 yuile, c., chang, a., gudmundsson, a., & sawang, s. (2011). the role of life friendly policies on employees’ work–life balance. journal of management & organization, 18(1), 53–63. https://doi.org/10.5172/jmo.2012.18.1.53 žnidaršič, j., & bernik, m. (2021). impact of work-family balance results on employee work engagement within the organization: the case of slovenia. plos one, 16(1), e0245078. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245078 abstract introduction ethics in coaching ethical dilemmas in coaching research method findings discussion practical implications limitations and recommendations for future research acknowledgements references about the author(s) puleng ratlabala department of economic and management science, stellenbosch business school, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa nicky terblanche department of economic and management science, stellenbosch business school, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch, south africa citation ratlabala, p., & terblanche, n. (2022). supervisors’ perspectives on the contribution of coaching supervision to the development of ethical organisational coaching practice. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1930. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1930 original research supervisors’ perspectives on the contribution of coaching supervision to the development of ethical organisational coaching practice puleng ratlabala, nicky terblanche received: 15 mar. 2022; accepted: 13 may 2022; published: 29 june 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: organisational coaches operate in an increasingly complex environment where they regularly face ethical dilemmas. because of the confidential nature of coaching, coaches may find themselves isolated with limited means to deal with ethical challenges. research purpose: this research investigated the typical ethical dilemmas that coaches bring to supervision and the role that supervision could play in helping coaches deal with ethical challenges. motivation for the study: the role of coaching supervision in promoting ethical coaching practice is important but not well studied or understood. research approach/design and method: in this qualitative study, 13 south african coaching supervisors were interviewed about the role of supervision in developing ethical organisational coaching practice. data were analysed using thematic analysis. main findings: coaches typically bring two types of ethical challenges to supervision: three-way relationship and confidentiality and coach–organisation contracting. supervisors employ several strategies to assist coaches with ethical dilemmas: they analyse the ethical dilemma using frameworks, observe supervisor–coach boundaries, remind coaches of contracting and encourage coaches’ professional competence development. practical/managerial implications: coaching supervision offers a space for reflective practice for coaches to understand and deal with their ethical dilemmas. coaches are encouraged to actively seek and engage in ongoing supervision to safeguard themselves, their clients and the organisations they serve against the potential harm of ethical dilemmas. contribution/value-add: this study adds knowledge on the value and application of the important, growing phenomenon of coaching supervision. keywords: coaching; coaching supervision; ethical dilemmas; contracting; continued professional development. introduction organisational coaching is a well-established and rapidly growing human development practice that can be beneficial to individuals and their organisations (athanasopoulou & dopson, 2018; jones, woods, & guillaume, 2016; theeboom, beersma, & van vianen, 2014). organisational coaching involves structured, focused interaction and the use of appropriate strategies, tools and techniques to promote desirable and sustainable change for the benefit of the coachee and other stakeholders, including the sponsoring organisation (bachkirova, cox, & clutterbuck, 2014, p. 1). some of the benefits of organisational coaching include improved performance and skills, well-being, goal-directed self-regulation, improved work–life balance, psychological and social competencies, self-awareness and assertiveness, adapting to change more effectively, helping to set and achieve goals, role clarity and changing behaviours (blackman, moscardo, & gray, 2016; theeboom et al., 2014). when coaches apply the core coaching competencies correctly, they add value to the well-being and success of their clients and their organisations. the rapid development of coaching comes with great responsibility and simultaneously a certain degree of notoriety, because coaching, unlike other similar professions (such as medicine, nursing, social work or counselling and psychotherapy), continues to remain unregulated, despite its growing popularity (brennan & wildflower, 2010). as a result, coaches sometimes find themselves in situations that are ethically challenging. there are ethical frameworks available to help guide coaches through these challenges. however, these frameworks fail to offer practical guidance (bond, 2000). because of the confidential nature of coaching interventions, coaches may therefore feel isolated and unsure of how to handle ethical dilemmas appropriately, and they need external support. coaching supervision plays an increasing role in supporting and developing professional standards for coaches (passmore, 2011; tkach & digirolamo, 2020). coaching supervision is a process to support the efficacy of the coaching practice through reflection, evaluation, sharing of skills and ensuring the continuous growth of the coach (bachkirova, stevens, & willis, 2005; passmore & mcgoldrick, 2020). coaching supervision has grown significantly in recent years and is now an established practice, supported and encouraged by most professional coaching bodies (bachkirova, jackson, henning, & moral, 2020). supervision allows the coach to mirror their coaching practice in the company of a knowledgeable supervisor and stimulates continuous learning and development of the coach (bluckert, 2005). supervision also provides the coach with specialised support that contributes to their growth and the efficacy of their practice (bachkirova et al., 2005). such development is achieved through interactive reflection, interpretive evaluation and sharing of expertise (lucas, 2020). supervision provides an ideal platform where a coach can reflect on ethical dilemmas they face in practice. however, despite the importance of supervision, there is currently no single agreed-upon model of coaching supervision, and there is little research available on the praxis of supervision and its efficacy (joseph, 2016), especially regarding dealing with ethical dilemmas. the question this research therefore asked was: how does supervision contribute to organisational coaches’ ethical practice? understanding the role of supervision in helping coaches deal with ethical dilemmas is important not only to supervisors and coaches but also to organisations who employ coaches. organisations are not privy to the details of the coaching conversations because of confidentiality. therefore, knowing that coaches have a platform to discuss and resolve ethical challenges is of significant importance to organisational sponsors. ethics in coaching ethics is defined as a branch of philosophy dealing with values that relate to human conduct concerning the rightness or wrongness of specific actions (chandler & plano, 1988). rightness refers to what ought to be or what is acceptable, and wrongness to what ought not to be or what is unacceptable to a particular society or group (kirkpatrick, 1987). ethics is concerned not only with distinguishing right from wrong and good from bad but also with the commitment to do what is right or acceptable (chapman, 1993). people have the capacity, knowledge and tools to be ethical and distinguish between right and wrong. however, whether or not a person will act morally depends on their principles, values and experience (de jong, 2006; passmore, 2009; weiner, 2004). translated to the world of coaching, these definitions can be interpreted to mean that ethics in coaching promotes coaching practitioners’ acceptable behaviour and the right actions in performing entrusted duties. a coach practitioner would be deemed ethical if he or she portrays acceptable conduct (stout-rostron, 2012). to guide coaches in terms of ethics, ethical codes of conduct are provided by most of the coaching associations and are similar but by no means identical in content (icf-international coach federation, 2016). the european mentoring and coaching council (emcc) (as cited in gray, 2011), for example, requires that coaches ensure that their level of competence is sufficient to meet the needs of a client, to understand and identify potential conflicts of interest and boundary issues and to maintain confidentiality and high standards of work. the emcc-european mentoring and coaching council (2009) emphasises that coaches must avoid conflict of interest and ensure proper contracting with their clients and sponsor. the ethics code of the association for coaching (2010) highlights the need for coaches to refer clients to experts either for coaching, psychotherapy or other specialist services in cases where their skills prove inadequate (gray, 2011). the icf is committed to high ethical standards for coaches (gray, 2011). the purpose of the icf code of ethics is to promote professional and ethical coaching practices and to raise the awareness of people outside the profession about the integrity, commitment and ethical conduct of icf members and icf credentialed coaches (icf-international coach federation, 2019). the non-statutory professional body for coaches and mentors of south africa (comensa) has aimed to set ethical standards for coaching and mentoring in south africa. the code of ethics and conduct outlines values, standards and fundamental principles with which members of comensa agree, and by which they may be measured, supervised or assessed (comensa-coaches and mentors of south africa, 2015). it is necessary for coaching bodies to consider the capacity of various codes to complement each other, the likelihood of conflict between the codes and processes to resolve such issues (gray, 2007). codes of ethics are a catalyst for moral thinking and are useful in providing means of discipline and quality control (passmore, 2011). nevertheless, they cannot replace the individual ethical decisions that coaching practitioners need to make (bailey & schwartzberg, 1995). ethical codes are supportive systems to expand the coaches’ knowledge; however, they have gaps because they cannot address the dilemmas faced by coach practitioners in diverse situations and reflect on one perspective only, namely that of professional bodies on ethics (turner & passmore, 2018). it is important to note that no unified code of ethics has been able to ease the challenges of making ethical decisions, and for this reason, scholars and practitioners have proposed the development of ethical decision-making frameworks as an option for making ethical decisions (duffy & passmore, 2010; passmore & mortimer, 2011). de jong (2006) notes that codes of ethics are useful as basic guidelines for ethical coaching practice, yet they do not provide answers as to how coaches should respond to those dilemmas. neither do codes of ethics instil the power of judgement necessary to develop a sense of professional ethical responsibility in coaches (de jong, 2006; weiner, 2004). clearly, coaches need mechanisms to deal with ethical challenges. one suggestion is that they should build their awareness of ethical dimensions and responsibilities in preparation for difficult situations (anderson & williams, 2006). the coach practitioners must explore and reflect on their moral standards and how they influence their coaching competence. however, ethics cannot be applied by just reading a book (rossiter, walsh-bowers, & prilleltensky, 1996). hence, discussions with fellow professionals are crucial and are to be held in a non-judgemental setting (rossiter et al., 1996). supervision provides such a space and could therefore potentially play a role in helping coaches deal with ethical dilemmas. in fact, coaching supervision is emphasised as beneficial because it develops new approaches and learning (sgcp-special group in coaching psychology, 2007). however, it is unclear to what extent supervision is used to deal with ethical issues and the manner in which it is carried out. ethical dilemmas in coaching ethical dilemmas in coaching develop under a variety of circumstances where coaches are faced with situations in which sound ethical decisions are required (turner & passmore, 2018). various researchers have identified and classified typical ethical dilemmas. pomerantz and eiting (2007) found that common ethical dilemmas faced by coaches relate to serving multiple clients, confidentiality, breach of contract and overstepping boundaries (e.g. acting as a psychologist). passmore and mortimer (2011) found ethical challenges relating to issues with the coachee, issues with the coach, confidentiality and boundary management issues and challenges stemming from the multiple-role relationship nature of coaching in organisations. several strategies are suggested for coaches to manage ethical dilemmas. a fundamental strategy is the ongoing review of the coaching contract (bennett, 2008). a coach may, for example, find it difficult to terminate a coaching contract when the situation so requires. to address this challenge, the coach must ensure that there is a clear agreement that defines the services (passmore & mortimer, 2011). the challenges related to the multiple-role relationship nature of coaching stem from working with many clients in the same organisation, meaning that a coach must ensure that confidentiality is upheld at all times (passmore & mortimer, 2011). success in navigating multiple-role relationships depends on full disclosure of any conflict of interest; clearly defined roles, responsibilities and boundaries; a client-focused approach; reflective practice; and supervision (zur & anderson, 2006). here again, the coaching contract must spell out the rules of behaviour of the coach–coachee relationship to safeguard against crossing certain boundaries (passmore & mortimer, 2011). the importance of the client’s autonomy and the boundary responsibility of managing oneself within this relationship is emphasised by bond (2015). the research regarding ethical decision-making is under-developed, especially in the area of coaching as an intervention (duffy & passmore, 2010). an action decision-making framework was developed to assist individual coaches in addressing the limitations of ethical codes of practice (passmore, 2009). the model consists of six stages of ethical decision-making and seeks to offer a flexible and nonlinear approach to the resolution of dilemmas (passmore, 2009). the six stages are as follows: awareness; classify; time for reflection, support and advice; initiate; option evaluation; novate. however, passmore (2009) cautioned that the action model is not conclusive and encouraged others to reflect on it through research to enhance both the understanding of the dilemmas and ethical challenges faced by coaches and to build comprehensive models to guide coaches in resolving ethical problems. in conclusion, dealing with ethical issues can be complex, and inexperienced coaches can become overwhelmed with the decision-making process (comensa-coaches and mentors of south africa, 2015). research by turner and passmore (2018) on how coaching supervisors handle ethical dilemmas in practice highlighted gaps in the practice, which may have negative effects on the profession and its status: ‘the findings suggest a lack of clarity and understanding around ethical decision-making and a lack of consistency in the possible implementation of codes’ (p. 139). they emphasise the complexity of ethics in organisational coaching and state that there is often not a simple case of right or wrong. clearly, coaches need help with managing ethical dilemmas, and supervision provides a potential mechanism in this regard. research method methodology the research study was undertaken as a primary qualitative study. in using the qualitative research method, the aim was to explore the nature of ethical dilemmas coaches bring to supervision and how supervisors deal with them, as perceived by those who have an in-depth understanding of the phenomena (elliott, fischer, & rennie, 1999). the collection of qualitative data allowed flexibility to address issues as they arose during data collection (such as finding appropriate participants) and to access the deep insights and personal meanings of the supervisors in relation to the contribution of coaching supervision to the development of ethical practice for coaches. sampling and research population the primary data was collected via interviews with 13 supervisors from comensa and the icf. invitations were sent to supervisors via the research committees of icf and comensa. supervisors contacted the first author and were asked to sign an informed consent form that explained the research and participants’ rights. to qualify for participation, supervisors had to have: a diploma or master’s degree in coaching more than 5 years’ coaching practice experience more than 20 one-on-one or group supervision sessions formal training in supervision. participant demographics table 1 shows that nine of the participants had between 5 and 10 years and four participants had 10–15 years of coaching experience. five participants had diploma qualifications, and eight participants had postgraduate degree qualifications. all participants had received formal training in supervision. based on the aforementioned features, the participants were regarded as suitably qualified and experienced to provide the necessary data and insight into ethical coaching practices. table 1: demographic representation of participants. data collection one-on-one interviews lasting between 45 and 60 min were conducted using open-ended questions to collect data on typical ethical dilemmas that coaches bring to supervision and strategies and tools that supervisors use in advising coaches to deal with dilemmas. example questions include: ‘what is your understanding of the term “ethical dilemmas”?’ and ‘describe the importance of having strategies to deal with ethical dilemmas’. interviews were electronically recorded and transcribed by the first author. data analysis the data analysis process involved in-depth interrogation of data from the interview transcripts. reflective notes were made on the key elements that were dominant in the interviews. the interview notes were validated against each transcript as confirmed by the participants to ensure accuracy of the information and to check for errors in the transcripts or notes. the atlas.ti version 8 software tool was used to code data. interviews were analysed inductively into codes, categories and themes, using a thematic analytical procedure (braun & clarke, 2006) to identify, analyse and report the patterns or themes within the data. coding of the data was done per paragraph, searching and identifying concepts. the first round of coding generated 592 codes. codes were merged and refined through a process of memo-writing where ideas of possible code groupings were noted. the codes were merged into possible main themes and subthemes aligned to the research objectives (braun & clarke, 2006). the code-refining process resulted in two main themes and six subthemes, as illustrated in table 2. these subthemes were checked against the data numerous times, observing the linkage to the research objectives and questions. table 2: main and subthemes that emerged from supervisor interviews. findings this section presents the findings of the research study that explored the contribution of coaching supervision to the development of ethical coaching practice from the perspective of supervisors. the findings are grouped into two main themes and six subthemes, as illustrated in table 2, and presented in detail below. coaches’ ethical dilemmas to understand how supervisors deal with ethical dilemmas presented by coaches, it is helpful to have insight into what supervisors consider to be ethical dilemmas and the types of ethical dilemmas coaches bring to supervision. the first theme that emerged from the data deals with this aspect. supervisors’ understanding of what constitutes a coach’s ethical dilemma was captured by bella: ‘ethical dilemmas is [sic] about the potential harm to a client – client-company, even – for the coach, and it is about the notion that there would be more than one way of approaching something, each of which has consequences. it is about exploring those approaches, the consequences and selecting the most appropriate approach to take amongst those options.’ (bella) there were two major types of typical ethical dilemmas that coaches brought to supervision: three-way relationships and confidentiality (greg, sarah, vanessa, amanda, charne, daisy) and contracting (ella, kate, peter). three-way relationships and confidentiality coaches seemed to encounter ambiguity in the face of the complex three-way relationships in organisational coaching between the coach, coachee and sponsoring organisation. several ethically challenging situations were observed by supervisors. a particularly challenging situation is when the organisation expects coaches to break coach–coachee confidentiality and provide feedback to the organisation about the coachee, as described by daisy, sarah, kate, charne, frank and greg: ‘i think the biggest one for me was organisations asking the coach (whom i supervise) – i am thinking of an soe here, where management asked them for a report on a coachee. and they simply refused to do it. they said: “i won’t unless i give feedback in front of coachee.” so if they invite the coachee into the room and me into the room, i’d have an open conversation, but i’m not prepared to do a confidential report about the coachee.’ (greg) ‘the biggest one is confidentiality, which is about the organisation wanting a coach to reveal what’s happening in the coaching session.’ (frank) supervisors also observed how some coaches unintentionally blur the lines between being a work colleague or friend and a coach, as expressed by kate and greg: ‘you know, coaches sometimes get themselves into a bit of trouble because they coach colleagues and that becomes an ethical dilemma, because one colleague will tell the coach something and then their colleague will tell the same coach something else, and it puts the coach in a very awkward situation.’ (kate) ‘it is about people bumping into friends at parties and recognising that you know someone who you’re coaching or that you know a family member and then behaving with integrity, because you have inside information as to what’s going on. you know, that is always a tricky one as well.’ (greg) a variation on this theme is where the coach and coachee initially do not have an existing relationship, but then a friendship develops as a result of the coaching: ‘so … often when the coach is involved with the client in a relationship, and i’m talking about coaching relationship[s] that can actually overstep boundaries quite easily, … the friendship develops or it starts to become more social.’ (vanessa) coach and organisation contracting supervisors stated that coaches often seem to struggle with either creating a clear contract or sticking to the rules of the contracts once the coach starts: ‘a very common one is contracting, particularly when coaches are new; they tend to think of the contract that they have with the client [coachee], but if the organisation is paying for the coaching, then they must understand that the organisation is also a client. the ethical dilemma often happens when the coach starts to collude with the client against the organisation or the manager against the client.’ (vanessa) another illustration of how a contract could be breached by a coach was shared by daisy: ‘among the issues relates to neutrality of the coach in situations where the company’s human resource is responsible for paying for the clients’ coaching fees. in some cases, the client may be planning to resign, while the company is still paying for his [or] her fees. this becomes an ethical dilemma because the coach will be caught between the human resources, which is the paying client, and the client who is going through the coaching.’ (daisy) supervisors also observed that organisations sometimes abuse the coaching process and the contracting to get rid of employees: ‘i’m thinking it’s a bit of an ethical dilemma sometimes when they are the coaches told by the company that they want to performance-manage the person out by putting them into coaching. i mean, that is a serious one.’ (vanessa) coaches are also faced with loyalty issues by having to decide whether they should be loyal to the coachee or the organisation who is paying them: ‘so one of them [an ethical dilemma] would be coaching somebody who’s being groomed for a future position, and this person has now been approached by another company, and they’re wanting to take that job. the coach often feels torn around loyalties.’ (bella) finally, supervisors observed how certain coachee actions could lead the coaches to want to take sides with the organisation, but they were hesitant to do so: ‘one of the ethical dilemmas is a situation whereby the coach is aware of the incongruence or unethical behaviour, such as fraud or incriminating evidence. however, reporting or disclosure becomes an ethical dilemma since they are bounded by the confidentiality clause [of the contract].’ (vanessa) supervisors noted that ethical dilemmas represent potential harm to clients (peter and frank), and as a result, the coach has the responsibility to apply the correct framework or guidelines (e.g. the icf code of ethics) to make an ethical decision. it is the role of the supervisor to remind coaches of this duty. supervision strategies the data revealed several mechanisms used by supervisors to help coaches deal with ethical dilemmas, as captured by the four subthemes: analysis and frameworks, supervisor and coach boundaries, contracting and professional development. analysis and frameworks despite building ethical intelligence and using all of the tools at supervisors’ disposal, there may be times when coaches are faced with ethical decisions that have to be made or an ethical dilemma that has to be faced. supervisors noted that such matters could be managed more easily with the use of an ethical decision framework. considering the challenges of dealing with ethical dilemmas, this research found that there is a strong reliance on ethical frameworks and tools when dealing with ethical dilemmas. supervisors mentioned that they relied on models such as the six-step action decision-making framework (passmore, 2009), the seven-eyed process model of supervision (hawkins & smith, 2006), the icf standards and guidelines in coaching (icf-international coach federation, 2019) and the tool that goes by the acronym right (cochrane & newton, 2017). supervisors employ these tools in the interaction with coaches and also remind coaches to use these tools in their own practice. one of the supervisors explained their use of the right framework as follows: ‘a little strategy by trudi newton, which is an acronym called right, is quite useful for ethical dilemmas. it is a reminder to look at the rules. so the r is for rules, and the i is for integrity, and that the g is looking at good – what is good for whom – and the h is around harm – is there any harm being effected in this situation? and the t is the truth of it. what is the real core issue here that needs to be declared or noticed or responded to?’ (daisy) other supervisors cited personal strategies such as listening to ignite, avoiding harm, assessing the dilemma at systemic levels, peer supervision and referring to previous experiences on how dilemmas were resolved (amanda, daisy, kate and sarah). one of the supervisors pointed out that a dilemma must be analysed to determine the cause and effect thereof: ‘what [is] the actual dilemma …? then what is the actual agreement that the coach has with the client? so what was the mandate that was given? are there any grey areas that needs to be defined or clarified? is there conflict of interests?’ (sarah) the supervisors reported that they assess and analyse the dilemma in detail, as dilemmas are usually complex. the dilemmas are assessed from the point of origin, and the risk level or impact is also assessed. supervisor and coach boundaries one of the findings of the research related to the scope of profession for coaches. supervisors observed how coaches were caught in ethical dilemmas where their clients (coaches) presented psychologically embedded problems that required therapeutic intervention. it was important for supervisors to help their coaches with a clear understanding of their scope of practice to ensure that they did not overstep their boundaries. one of the supervisors noted that very few supervisors have a solid grounding in psychological theory, which is problematic: ‘it is one of the reasons that i believe it is essential for supervisors to have a solid grounding in psychological theory, because if you do not have a grounding in psychological theory, you are not going to pick these things up.’ (bella) contracting supervisors noted that contracting remains one critical strategy that is used by coaches to manage the complexity with clients and sponsors. it is used as a safeguard for supervisors in maintaining the coach–client relationship. daisy expressed the importance of contracting in managing the coaching relationship and the client’s expectations: ‘multilevel contracting is important to check if there are multiple stakeholders involved. sketching that triangle to see where the client is located, where the coach is or the client or the sponsor and where hr is in the picture.’ (daisy) greg noted that he regularly reminds coaches of the importance of contracting: ‘in addition, contracting and understanding what that contract means. it is helping coaches to learn to contract well and to hold the organisation to the contract.’ (greg) developing professional competence supervision provides a reflective container to develop competencies and to provide continuous professional development and action learning for the coach practitioner. the competence of the coach has an impact on the ability to deal with ethical dilemmas. supervisors expressed their concerns regarding the training of coaches and their competence in dealing with ethical dilemmas. although there are legislative frameworks that provide guidelines in resolving some of the ethical dilemmas, the competence of the coach has a bearing on how the coach interprets and applies the knowledge in a situation of ethical dilemma. the supervisors supported the notion of supervision enhancing the professional competence for coaches: ‘coaching supervision is a collaborative learning practice that continually build[s] the capacity of the coach through reflective dialogue. the intention is to benefit both the coach and their clients. it offers coaches an opportunity for continuous professional development in a safe, supportive and confidential space.’ (sarah) discussion this research investigated the role that supervision plays in developing coaches’ ethical coaching practice. the findings reveal firstly which ethical dilemmas coaches bring to supervision and secondly the strategies supervisors employ to assist coaches. in this study, the ethical dilemmas that coaches brought to supervisors were in line with what was observed by other coaching ethics researchers. confidentiality and contracting as well as the complex multiparty relationships were the primary causes of ethical challenges, as also observed by pomerantz and eiting (2007) and passmore and mortimer (2011). the complexities of organisational coaching contracting is well known especially in terms of creating and maintaining alignment between the coach, the coachee and the sponsoring organisation (van coller-peter & burger, 2019). it seems that this complex landscape with potentially competing objectives provides fertile ground for ethical challenges, because situations arise where appropriate decisions are not always straightforward. problems occur because of many alternatives or approaches that could be taken to resolve the dilemmas. it was clear that the responsibility is upon the coach to apply the correct framework or guidelines to make an ethical decision. in fact, strong contracting can help coaches decide whether they are in fact the right coach for the situation (turner & passmore, 2019). findings show that supervision provides coaches with an opportunity to debrief and develop their capacity to handle ethical dilemmas. the supervisors noted that strategies and tools are key in dealing with dilemmas. they felt that a multipronged approach is required to resolve dilemmas successfully. the research by turner and passmore (2018) highlighted gaps in supervision and ethical practice, suggesting that there is not sufficient clarity and understanding around ethical decision-making and observing ‘a lack of consistency in the possible implementation of codes’ (turner & passmore, 2018, p. 139). the findings of the present study, however, suggest that there is a fairly mature awareness and use of standard ethical frameworks by supervisors during supervision. supervisors agree with the notion that strategies and tools provide resources and show a clear way forward to coaches in working with their clients. thus, the coaches’ capabilities in resolving dilemmas are strengthened. supervisors rely on models such as the action decision-making framework (passmore, 2009), the seven-eyed process model of supervision (hawkins & smith, 2006) and the icf standards and guidelines in coaching (icf-international coach federation, 2019) to assist coaches in dealing with dilemmas. the use of these frameworks points to a possible maturing of the level of training supervisors undergo. in addition to ethical frameworks, supervisors could also use ethical case studies to help sensitise coaches to potential ethical dilemmas and explain how to deal with them (turner & passmore, 2019). using these approaches could help develop ethical maturity by developing confidence in ethical understanding (turner & passmore, 2018). the present study showed that supervision provides a reflective container to develop coach competencies and assist with continuous professional development and action learning for the coach practitioner (hawkins & smith, 2013). this satisfies the need for coaches to continually reflect on their moral standards in a practical, not just theoretical, manner (anderson & williams, 2006). it is therefore important that the supervisor and coach relationship is on firm footing. this can be achieved through open conversations, mutual trust, being open to emerging truths, intense listening and remaining flexible (de vries, 2019). ultimately, ethical mastery rests on the need for coaches to understand themselves (jackson & bachkirova, 2019). supervisors are in a primary position to help facilitate this self-awareness and hence ethical mastery in coaches. the study found that the competence of the coach has an impact on the ability to deal with ethical dilemmas. supervisors expressed their concerns regarding the training of coaches and their competence in dealing with ethical dilemmas. this serves as a wake-up call to coaching training providers to ensure a firm focus on ethics during new coach training (diller, passmore, brown, greif, & jonas, 2020). coaching bodies such as icf, comensa and emcc also play a role in continued development of coaching ethical practice by ensuring that sufficient continuous development opportunities are made available to coaches and supervisors. practical implications this study has several practical implications for supervisors, coaches, coach training providers, coaching regulatory bodies and organisations that use coaching services. supervisors should familiarise themselves with practical ethical frameworks to help their clients (coaches) deal with ethical dilemmas. supervisors should also be aware of the potential ethical dilemmas coaches could face and facilitate a reflective discussion on this with their clients. coaches should ensure that they continue to stay alert for the possibility of becoming embroiled in an ethical dilemma and mitigate risks through contracting and seeking out the assistance of qualified supervisors. coaching schools should ensure that adequate focus is placed on training coaches to avoid, identify and deal with ethical challenges. coaching regulatory bodies should continue to offer continuous development opportunities to both supervisors and coaches on ethical coaching practice. finally, organisations that purchase coaching services should insist that coaches are enrolled for supervision. limitations and recommendations for future research the study has a number of limitations and identifies areas for future research. a limitation is that data were only collected from supervisors. additional perspectives could enhance the understanding of how supervision interacts with coaching ethics; therefore, the insights and experiences of coaches on how supervision assists them with ethical practice should be included. the voices of coaching bodies such as icf, comensa and emcc should also be heard in terms of how the training of coaching supervisors prepares them for assisting coaches with ethical dilemmas. a future study could include all these perspectives in a triangulation of data sources to further enhance our understanding of the role of supervision in promoting ethical coaching practice. conclusion the primary objective of this research study was to investigate the contribution of coaching supervision to the development of ethical practice for coaches. coaches typically bring ethical challenges relating to relationships and contracting to supervision, and supervisors employ several strategies to assist coaches with ethical dilemmas, including the use of tools and framework. coaching supervision is an important aspect of coaching that offers a space for coaches to reflect and deal with their ethical dilemmas. this study adds to our growing knowledge on the importance of coaching supervision. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions p.r. conducted the field work and wrote the original thesis. n.t. supervised the research and contributed to the writing of this paper. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. ethical considerations this research was ethically approved by the university of stellenbosch research ethics committee (social, behavioural and education research) (ref. no. 16783). data availability interview data available on request, but subject to confidentiality and anonymity requirements. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references anderson, s., & williams, p. (2006). law and ethics in coaching. hoboken, nj: wiley. association for coaching. (2010). shared values statement. retrieved from www.associationforcoaching.com/news/m80221.doc athanasopoulou, a., & dopson, s. (2018). a systematic review of executive coaching outcomes: is it the journey or the destination that matters the most? the leadership quarterly, 29(1), 70–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2017.11.004 bachkirova, t., cox, e., & clutterbuck, d. (2014). the complete handbook of coaching. elaine cox publisher. bachkirova, t., jackson, p., hennig, c., & moral, m. (2020). supervision in coaching: systematic literature review. international coaching psychology review, 15(2), 31–53. bachkirova, t., stevens, p., & willis, p. (2005). coaching supervision. oxford: coaching and mentoring society. bailey, d.m., & schwartzberg, s.l. (1995). ethical and legal dilemmas in occupational therapy. philadelphia, pa: f. a. davis company. bennett, j.l. (2008). contracting for success. the internafional journal of coaching in organizafions, 6(4), 7–14. blackman, a., moscardo, g., & gray, d.e. (2016). challenges for the theory and practice of business coaching: a systematic review of empirical evidence. human resource development review, 15(4), 459–486. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484316673177 bluckert, p. (2005). the similarities and differences between coaching and therapy. industrial and commercial training, 37(2), 91–96. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197850510584241 bond, t. (2000). standards and ethics for counselling in action (3rd ed.). london: sage. bond, t. (2015). standards and ethics for counselling in action (4th ed.). london: sage. braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa brennan, d., & wildflower, l. (2010). ethics in coaching. in e. cox (eds.), the complete handbook of coaching (pp. 369–380). london: sage. chandler, r.c., & plano, j.c. (1988). the public administration dictionary (2nd ed.). new york, ny: clio press. chapman, r.a. (1993). ethics in the public service. london: edinburgh university press. cochrane, h., & newton, t. (2017). supervision and coaching: growth and learning in professional practice. routledge. comensa-coaches and mentors of south africa. (2015). revised code of ethics and conduct. retrieved from https://www.comensa.org.za/information/codeofethic de jong, a. (2006). coaching ethics: integrity in the moment of choice. in j. passmore (ed.), excellence in coaching: the industry guide (pp. 191–202). london: kogan page. de vries, k. (2019). moving from frozen code to live vibrant relationship: towards a philosophy of ethical coaching supervision. in coaching supervision (pp. 135–146). london: routledge. diller, s.j., passmore, j., brown, h.j., greif, s., & jonas, e. (2020). become the best coach you can be: the role of coach training and coaching experience in workplace coaching quality and quality control. organisationsberatung, supervision, coaching, 27(3), 313–333. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11613-020-00662-8 duffy, m., & passmore, j. (2010). ethics in coaching: an ethical decision-making framework for coaching psychologists. international coaching psychology review, 5(2), 140–151. elliott, r., fischer, c.t., & rennie, d.l. (1999). evolving guidelines for publication of qualitative research studies in psychology and related fields. british journal of clinical psychology, 38(3), 215–229. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466599162782 emcc-european mentoring and coaching council. (2009). emcc coach mentoring competence standards. retrieved from http://www.emccouncil.org/ gray, d.e. (2007). towards a systemic model of coaching supervision: some lessons from psychotherapeutic and counseling models. australian psychologist, 42, 300–309. https://doi.org/10.1080/00050060701648191 gray, d.e. (2011). journeys towards the professionalization of coaching: dilemmas, dialogues and decisions along the global pathway. coaching: an international journal of theory, research and practice, 4(1), 4–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/17521882.2010.550896 hawkins, p., & smith, n. (2006). coaching, mentoring and organisational consultancy. maidenhead: open university press. hawkins, p., & smith, n. (2013). coaching, mentoring and organisational consultancy: supervision, skills, and development (2nd ed.). maidenhead: open university press. icf-international coach federation. (2016). coaching supervision. retrieved from www.coachfederation.org/credential/landing icf-international coach federation. (2019). icf code of ethics. adopted by the icf global board of directors, september 2019. jackson, p., & bachkirova, t. (2019). the 3 ps of supervision and coaching: philosophy, purpose and process. in the heart of coaching supervision. working with reflection and self-care (pp. 20–40). abingdon: routledge. jones, r.j., woods, s.a., & guillaume, y.r. (2016). the effectiveness of workplace coaching: a meta-analysis of learning and performance outcomes from coaching. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 89(2), 249–277. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12119 joseph, s. (2016). a review of research into business coaching supervision. coaching: an international journal of theory, research and practice, 9(2), 158–168. https://doi.org/10.1080/17521882.2016.1210187 kirkpatrick, b. (1987). roget’s thesaurus of english words and phrases. london: longman group. lucas, m. (ed.). (2020). 101 coaching supervision techniques, approaches, enquiries and experiments. london: routledge. passmore, j. (2009). coaching ethics: making ethical decisions – novices and experts. the coaching psychologist, 5(1), 6–10. passmore, j. (2011). supervision and continuous professional development in coaching. in j. passmore (ed.), supervision, ethics and continuous professional development (pp. 3–10). london: kogan page. passmore, j., & mcgoldrick, s. (2020). super-vision, extra-vision, or blind faith? a grounded theory study of the efficacy of coaching supervision. coaching researched: a coaching psychology reader, 145–165. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119656913.ch8 passmore, j., & mortimer, l. (2011). ethics in coaching. in g. hernez-broome & l. boyce (eds.), advanced executive coaching: the course for successful leadership coaching (pp. 205–208). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. pomerantz, s.i., & eiting, j. (2007). drawing lines in the sand: ethics in coaching, contracting and confidentiality. international journal of coaching in organisations, 5(1), 94–102. rossiter, a., walsh-bowers, r., & prilleltensky, i. (1996). learning from broken rules: individualism, bureaucracy and ethics. ethics and behaviour, 6(4) 307–320. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327019eb0604_2 sgcp-special group in coaching psychology. (2007). guidelines on supervision for coaching. london: the british psychological society. stout-rostron, s.s. (2012). business coaching: wisdom and practice. knowres publishing. theeboom, t., beersma, b., & van vianen, a.e. (2014). does coaching work? a meta-analysis on the effects of coaching on individual level outcomes in an organisational context. the journal of positive psychology, 9(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2013.837499 tkach, j.t., & digirolamo, j.a. (2020). the state and future of coaching supervision. coaching researched: a coaching psychology reader, 23–41. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119656913.ch2 turner, e., & passmore, j. (2018). ethical dilemmas and tricky decisions: a global perspective of coaching supervisors’ practices in coach ethical decision-making. international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring, 16(1), 126–142. turner, e., & passmore, j. (2019). mastering ethics. in j. passmore, b. underhill, & m. goldsmith (eds.), mastering executive coaching (p. 29). abingdon: routledge. van coller-peter, s., & burger, z. (2019). a guiding framework for multi-stakeholder contracting in executive coaching. sa journal of human resource management, 17(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1114 weiner, k. (2004). the little book of ethics for coaches: ethics, risk management, and professional issues. bloomington, in: author house. zur, o., & anderson, s.k. (2006). multiple-role relationships in coaching. in p. williams & s.k. anderson (eds.), law and ethics in coaching: how to solve and avoid difficult problems in your practice (pp. 126–129). hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons. 4mulenga.indd a census of the recruitment and placement agency industry was last conducted in 1993 when registered organisations in the sector were surveyed by the central statistical service (css). the report identified 677 registered agencies (central statistical services 1993). currently, it is difficult to ascertain the size of the recruitment agency industry as no empirical evidence of organisations is available from data sources at the department of trade and industry, statistics south africa or the department of labour. a recent inspection of job advertisements in popular media and industry journals reveals that the south african job market is characterised by the prominence of recruitment agencies as the initial contact point for employment seekers (harris, 2007). the south african labour market is characterised by a shrinking pool of skilled personnel, a continuous brain drain and a very slow pace of skills development (centre for development and enterprise, 2007). attracting and selecting skilled individuals become a critical issue for organisations to ensure that organisation’s values and strategy are achieved (bhorat, 2001; centre for development and enterprise, 2007; hall & roodt, 1999; lewis, 2001). the intermediary role of recruitment agencies in identif ying and matching qualified job seekers with the appropriate jobs forms the basis of a successful selection decision for the client organisation. according to scholarios and lockyer (1999) the recruitment process emphasises candidates personality, work experience and general attributes for senior posts and values interviews and informal sources of information in assessing these qualities. scholarios and lockyer also contends that recruiters of professionals attached more importance to an applicant’s personality, and general attributes than to technical qualifications and specific job-related knowledge. skills shortage over the past decade, the south african labour market has experienced a shift from employment in the primary manufacturing sectors to a rise in demand for labour in the service sectors. the demand for highly skilled workers has risen by over 25% over the past 25 years (bhorat, 2001). this trend is predicted to escalate. hall and roodt (1999) predicts a significant rise in jobs at the top professional level with 10% of jobs expected by 2003 in the south african economy. the business services sub-sector was projected to experience an even higher growth rate in jobs contributing more than 25% of the total job growth rate (bhorat). with an increase in jobs for the professional sectors, the demand for skilled personnel becomes more acute. although statistics on documented migration are currently not reported due to unavailability of data from the department of home affairs (tourism & migration august 2007), evidence indicates that a constant stream of professionals are leaving the country (lucas, amoateng & kalule-sabiti, 2006; nel, van dyk, haasbroek, schultz, sono, & werner, 2004). the legacy of apartheid, which reserved better education and training for the minority of whites, and led to under investment in the skills of the majority, has contributed to the current lack of skilled human capital (bhorat, 2001; lewis, 2001). emigration of the better educated groups has eroded the meagre pool of skilled individuals (lewis, 2001). the skills shortage is not unique to south africa. the emigration of south africans who are already trained indicate a trend that shows a high increase in skilled personnel in education, humanities, engineers and top executive and managerial personnel (human sciences research council, 2004). developed countries such as canada, united states of america, australia, new zealand and a few from latin america have established elaborate skills immigration policies to attract required skills from outside their borders (bernstein, 1998; esses, 2001; gray, 2005; pellegrino, 2001; private sector job ads double, 2007; ward & masgoret, 2004). in view of south african history it was thought the labour market will favour the group of job seekers dominated by whites with high skills. a decline in white unemployment is reported (bhorat, 2001) that can be attributed to either emigration or early retirement especially from the public sector. evidence suggests that significant emigration of skilled white south africans has consistently increased over the past decade (bhorat). a worrying estimate of 43,000 highly skilled graduates between the ages 24 – 34 have migrated between 1994 and 1997 (bhorat). according to kahn et al (2004), issues such as the brain drain, brain gain, brain circulation, and brain development are an integral part of the world community. issues of global labour mobility require novel strategies to reverse the effects of the brain drain, especially in developing countries of africa (nel et al., 2004). chao nkhungulu mulenga chao.mulenga@uct.ac.za school of management studies university of cape town burger van lill burger.vanlill@uct.ac.za school of management studies university of cape town abstract this study investigated procedures and processes used in the selection of prospective foreign applicants by recruitment agencies in south africa. an electronic survey was distributed to the accessible population of 244 agencies on a national employment website, yielding 57 respondents. the results indicate that the recruitment industry does not have standard, well articulated procedures for identif ying and selecting prospective foreign employees and considered processing foreign applicants difficult. difficulties with the department of home affairs were a major hindrance to recruiting foreign applicants. key words: foreign professionals; skills; brain drain; recruitment agencies; recruitment processes; recruitment procedures. recruitment and selection of foreign professionals in the south african job market: procedures and processes 30 sa journal of human resource management, 2007, 5 (3), 30-37 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2007, 5 (3), 30-37 recruitment of foreign professionals 31 the above trends pose challenges to the labour market in terms of sources for recruitment of skilled candidates especially for top level management positions validating the suggestion by duncan (2007) that: “talent is the new oil, and demand far outstrips supply.” sources of skilled personnel common sources of skilled personnel include graduate recruitment programmes, retiring individuals who can be reintegrated into the workforce on a part time or consultancy basis and the open labour market (bhorat, 2001). expatriates represent another source of skilled employees (duncan, 2007). the demand for skilled professionals is high, with the brain drain and the predicted increase in jobs at the professional level cited as the major factors for the increased shortfall in skilled staff. current south african government policies such as accelerated and shared growth initiative for south africa (asgisa) and joint initiative on priority skills acquisition (jipsa) are designed to address the current drop in registered artisans from 33, 000 in 1975 to 1,440 in 2005 (olivier, 2006). policies designed to attract skilled foreign workers (the economist, 2002) however have not addressed internal issues in the functioning of government agencies procedures and procedures to ensure higly skilled professionsals are attracted to come to sa in order to address the critical labour shortage. current skills shortage, especially in top management levels requires the government to re-examine the current policies such as asgisa and jipsa to be able address the skills shortfall. previous attempts by the south african government to address the skills shortage resulted in a draft green paper on international migration (1997). the paper made several recommendations for aggressive local skills training (brain train) and brain gain strategies for the short term. brain gain recommendations are aimed at promoting links with distinguished and highly skilled former nationals to encourage temporary or permanent return. this would allow this category to become a source of skills (campbell, 2002). the draft paper further recommends joint posts, periodic return visits and short term training assignments. pellegrino (2001, p.118) proposes the concept of “brain exchange or brain circulation” as an option to counter the brain drain phenomena. in south africa, bernstein (1998) argues that the elaborate recommendations of the green paper for skills immigration are unworkable as they are costly to implement and could undermine the recognition of less formal accomplishments of local job seekers. attraction of expatriates as a source of skilled professionals has been used extensively elsewhere in first world countries resulting in positive skills arriving in the host country. some negative aspects of skills immigration are however highlighted in recent studies (bernstein, 1998; esses, 2001; gray, 2005; pellegrino, 2001; ward & masgoret, 2004). other countries such as the united kingdom, united states of america and canada have implemented programmes to encourage highly skilled people to immigrate to their countries (duncan, 2007). esses, dietz, bhardwaj and josh (2003) reported issues of negative attraction and selection of foreign applicants when differences are recorded between immigrants and non immigrants in the selection for available posts. a study by tukufu and sibanda (2004) identified trends that exist in some european countries where differences are recorded between immigrants and nonimmigrants in the selection for available posts. other studies conducted in canada, australia and the usa (chiswick, 1999; esses, dovidio, jackson & armstrong, 2001; esses et al. 2003; evans, 1991) present similar findings. hostile attitudes towards foreign immigrants hostile attitudes towards foreign workers are not unique to south africa. ward and masgoret (2004) found similar perceptions and hostility from the locals in new zealand in situations where competition for resources such as jobs and housing occurred. in canada negative perceptions and the discounting of immigrant skills are well documented (chiswick, 2000; esses, dietz & bhardwaj, 2003; reitz, 2004). hostility towards foreign workers is evident in south africa as indicated by reports in the popular media about the violence and tension that arises from perceptions by locals that foreigners are “taking our jobs” (bronwyn, 2002). recent events in cape town where immigrant workers have been targets of fatal attacks illustrate extreme forms of violence and negative perceptions towards immigrants that compete for resources and facilities with host nationals (roberts, 2006). this trend is however manifested in the unskilled and semiskilled labour sectors. economic and labour market disparities in the southern african region make south africa an attractive option for skilled professionals and unskilled workers from the region (campbell, 2002). other studies suggest that most immigrants in formal employment in south africa are skilled (mcdonald et al. cited in campbell, 2002). insufficient data hinder the examination of the direct effects of skilled immigration in southern africa; however, it is proposed “that skilled migration contributes significantly towards economic efficiency at the destination” campbell (2002, p.2). studies on negative assessment of foreign credentials by the host country labour market are widely acknowledged (chiswick, 2000; esses, 2003; ward & masgoret, 2004). the study by esses reveals the devaluation of skills of foreign trained employees in comparison to local skills, even when the professional quality of those skills was equivalent. this devaluation is manifested in discounting foreign education, professional training and skills and other work related experience. reitz (2004) reports that in the united states of america, acknowledgement of knowledge of credentials gained from outside the host country’s jurisdiction has been slow. esses’ study identifies the lack of knowledge on the equivalence of education and training obtained outside of the host country as the major factor in the negative assessment of foreign applicants. this was attributed to the perception held by recruiting organisations that work experience obtained outside of the host country was not readily transferable to the new environment (chiswick). bias and discrimination were reported to be prevalent in contexts where normative behaviour was unclear and justification other than prejudice was readily available (esses, 2003). the ambiguity of evaluating foreign skills allowed subjectivity to play a dominant role in the decision making process. esses suggested that in the context of assessing foreign emigrant applicants, foreign education and work experience may be used as a legitimate justification for prejudice in the selection process. reitz (2004) found that recognition of foreign educational qualifications presents problems across the non regulated occupations. this creates an area of ambiguity which provides an opportunity for prejudice in the selection of foreign applicants. organisations in south africa are targeting applicants from previously disadvantaged groups to comply with legal requirements such as the employment equity act (no. 55 of 1998) (eea) which requires favourable consideration of applicants who are not classified in the white group in all categories and levels of an organisation. recent amendments to the eea ensure that foreign skilled professional cannot be considered under the “designated groups” category (boyle, 2006). a challenge for the current government is to efficiently implement the skills development act (97 of 1998) which allows firms to be reimbursed for training employees. the workplace is recognised as an ideal environment for skills development and as such the government has encouraged organisations to participate by offering initiatives for the training of employees. mulenga, van lill32 research design research approach this research is descriptive in nature and is located within the quantitative research paradigm. the aim of the project was to investigate the way in which professional foreign applicants are assessed as a potential source of personnel to address the skills shortage and a large sample of recruitment agencies was surveyed to achieve this. the following generic research question was posed: do the initial selection procedures and processes for foreign professionals address the current skills shortage in south africa? to answer this question, the following hypotheses were stated: l current recruitment and selection processes are not geared to alleviate the skills shortage in south africa l screening processes implemented by recruitment organisations negatively influences recruitment of foreign professionals l the department of home affairs' processes are a hindrance to the effective recruitment of foreign professionals. research method participants/respondents participants for the study were selected from a listing of personnel recruitment on the website using a south african search engine. a total of 400 recruitment agency contact details from all nine provinces of south africa were identified and targeted. an electronic questionnaire was sent to all agencies with a status tracking to determine the number of recipients. a total of 244 organisations received the questionnaire; this elicited 57 responses, a rate of 25.4% from four provinces. the response rate was considered acceptable, particularly for a survey targeted at senior management and decision makers in the recruitment industry. the responses show that the majority of organisations were from t wo economic centres, western cape and gauteng. as the survey was anonymous, a pattern could not be established for the non-responses. measuring instruments/methods of data gathering the researcher developed a questionnaire operationalised from a literature review. the questionnaire consisted of six sections: 1. key characteristics of organisation and respondents; 2. recruitment process and procedures for local applicants; 3. assessment procedures for local applicants 4. recruitment processes and procedures for job order applicants; 5. employment equity job order and recruitment of foreign applicants. section 6 had two sub sections: (a) comparison and verification of foreign applicant criteria and (b) south african skills immigration policy. procedure a pilot questionnaire was sent to 10 organisations, the comments and suggestions were incorporated in the final questionnaire. the terms “walk-in” and “job-order” were descriptions of job seekers obtained from discussions during the initial piloting of the survey tool. a walk-in applicant referred to a job seeker who initiated the search process. a joborder applicant refers to a foreign job seeker responding to a job search initiated by the recruitment organisation on behalf of a client organisation. to measure the frequency of administrative processes or procedures used by a recruitment organisation, a 5-point likert scale ranging from daily, weekly, monthly, sometimes and never was used. for assessment of foreign applicants a 6-point likert scale ranging from strongly agree; agree; slightly agree; slightly disagree; disagree and strongly disagree was used. respondents indicated their agreement or disagreement with statements given as reasons for not considering foreign applicants for example: it is difficult to verif y foreign qualifications and work experience; it is difficult to compare foreign qualifications to south african standards. to establish selection prejudice, the survey probed three areas considered influential in the recruitment of foreign applicants. firstly the respondents were asked to indicate on a 6-point likert scale their agreement or disagreement with statements that listed challenges considered to hinder the recruitment of foreign applicants. for example it is difficult to process foreign applicants with the department of home affairs; information for comparing foreign qualifications to south african standards is easy to obtain. secondly, perceptions on strategies for increasing skills development and policies considered to influence recruitment of foreign nationals were elicited to obtain agreement or disagreement with given statements. for example; my organisation targets foreign applicants who are suitably qualified for particular vacancies. finally the respondents were required to indicate their perception on the current emigration policy and the effect on the recruitment of foreign professionals in response to statements such as: “south african immigration policy is not proactive to attract skilled personnel into the country”; “south africa should develop proactive emigration policy designed to attract skills from the global skills market”; “regional economic disparities will impact negatively on the region if south africa recruits foreign applicants from the southern african development community region”. follow up emails were sent to the 244 identified organisations to increase the response rate. results descriptive statistics were used to extract the frequency values of respondent recruitment agencies on the given statements. the study used nominal and ordinal rather than interval scales, therefore means and standard deviations are not reported. key characteristics of organisations and respondent table 1 indicates that the majority of recruitment agencies are from the western cape (48%) and gauteng (39%). most organisations (79%) employed fewer than 20 individuals. seventy percent of the respondents were female, with a relatively even age distribution of up to 50 years and very few older than that. in terms of tenure in an organisation a high percentage (65%) of respondents fall in the category 0-5 years and as such they are relatively new in the job. only 7% of respondents had been with an organisation for over 20 years. the overall number of respondents with tertiary qualifications is reported to be high with 80% of respondents holding tertiary qualifications. seventy two percent of respondents were white and 28% were coloured or indian. from the organisations surveyed, 70% were affiliated to an industry association in the personnel selection and recruitment industry. seventy three percent of individuals who completed the survey were members of a regulating association linked to recruitment and selection. recruitment process for local applicants table 2 illustrates similar patterns for the recruitment of top managerial applicants and lower managerial applicants. organisations attend to 84% of applicants responding to various forms of media advertisements. headhunting of local applicants is a common recruitment strategy amongst the surveyed organisations. recruitment of foreign professionals 33 table 1 key characteristics of organisations and respondent location of agency no of respondents percentage eastern cape gauteng kwazulu natal western cape 2 22 5 28 4% 39% 9% 48% number of employees fewer than 20 21-50 51-80 above 111 45 6 3 3 79% 11% 5% 5% gender female male 40 17 70% 30% age 20-30 years 31-40 41-50 51-60 16 14 18 4 29% 25% 33% 9% tenure 0-5 years 6-10 years 11-20 years over 20 years 36 12 5 4 65% 22% 10% 7% academic qualifications post-graduate qualification diploma/certificate undergraduate high school 20 19 7 11 35% 33% 12% 19% professional affiliation organisational affiliation individual affiliation 40 41 70% 73% table 2 recruitment process for local applicants questions daily n (%) weekly n (%) monthly n (%) sometimes n (%) never n (%) 1 2 3 4 5 6 recruits applicants in top managerial posts recruits applicants in middle managerial posts recruits applicants in lower managerial posts attend to “walkin” job seekers attend to applicants responding to adverts head hunts potential candidates 20(35) 19(33) 20(35) 19(33) 48(84) 35(61) 8(14) 13(23) 15(26) 5(9) 4(7) 5(9) (13)23 16(28) 9(16) 2(4) 4(7) 3(5) 14(25) 7(12) 9(16) 14(25) 8(14) 2(4) 2(4) 4(7) 17(30) 1(2) 6(11) assessment procedures for local applicants in table 3 findings reveal that surveyed organisations use similar procedures for attracting and selecting local applicants. respondents indicated that interviews were conducted as a standard procedure with all applicants, with verification of employment records as an integral part of the recruitment process. a majority of the organisations surveyed report that they do not charge a fee from applicants for processing local applicants. table 3 assessment procedures for local applicants questions daily n. (%) weekly n (%) monthly n (%) sometimes n (%) never n (%) 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 biographical data academic qualifications employment history obtained other information interview each candidate employment history verified administration fee charged 54(95) 55(96) 55(96) 54(95) 47(82) 47(82) 9(1)6 1(2) 1(2) 1(2) 2(4) 2(4) 2(4) 1(2) 6(11) 7(12) 2(4) 1(2) 1(2) 1(2) 1(2) 48(84) recruitment processes and procedures for job order applicants table 4 illustrates that organisations in general had similar processes for recruiting foreign job order applicants to the local applicants. table 4 recruitment processes and procedures for foreign job order applicants daily n (%) weekly n (%) monthly n (%) sometimes n (%) never n (%) 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 job orders via telephone job orders via written communication interview client organisation for job order biographical data academic qualifications employment history obtained special information interview job applicant employment history verified advertises in national media advertises in professional journals advertises on the web uses professional and personal networks 44(77) 22(39) 32(56) 55(96) 55(96) 55(96) 52(93) 47(82) 47(82) 22(39) 18(32) 48(84) 37(65) 2(4) 3(5) 9(16) 2(4) 2(4) 2(4) 2(4) 2(4) 3(5) 11(19) 1(2) 2(4) 5(9) 2(4) 2(4) 2(4) 1(2) 1(2) 4(7) 6(11) 2(4) 1(2) 7(12) 14(25) 12(21) 2(4) 7(12) 6(11) 16(28) 17(30) 5(9) 11(19) 2(4) 16(28) 2(4) 4(7) 15(26) 3(5) diversity job orders and recruitment of foreign applicants table 5 presents frequency of requests for equity and diversity applicants through job orders. a majority of respondents reported receiving job order with specific requirements for diversity and employment equity candidates. most respondents in the survey revealed that they seldom or never (65%) receive or recruit foreign applicants. mulenga, van lill34 table 5 diversity job orders and recruitment of foreign applicants questions daily n (%) weekly n (%) monthly n (%) sometimes n (%) never n (%) 27 28 29 30 31 employment equity job orders employment diversity job orders non-south african applicants foreign applicant procedures frequency of foreign applicant job orders 35(61) 38(67) 13(23) 13(23) 9(16) 11(19) 9(16) 4(7) 3(5) 6(11) 2(4) 3(5) 3(5) 4(7) 5(9) 6(11) 5(9) 26(46) 21(37) 26(46) 3(5) 2(4) 11(19) 16(28) 11(19) comparison and verification of foreign criteria several factors were identified as the reason for the low frequency of recruiting foreign applicants. the verification of foreign applicant qualifications and experience was identified as a major hindrance in the recruitment of foreign applicants. another issue that was considered a major deterrent was the department of home affairs processing of work permits. this was singled out as posing a major challenge that hinders the consideration of foreign applicants. difficulty with verif ying applicants’ foreign credentials are reported as another challenge in placement of foreign applicants. the comparison of foreign qualifications and experience to south african standards and the articulation of the standards for comparison are cited as some of the main reasons why recruitment organisations do not consider foreign applicants. table 6 comparison and verification of foreign criteria questions sa n (%) ag n (%) sla n (%) sld n (%) dis n (%) sdi n (%) 32 does not consider foreign applicants 13(23) 6(11) 5(9) 9(16) 15(26) 9(16) 33 difficulty processing with home affairs 31(54) 8(14) 9(16) 4(7) 4(7) 1(2) 34 difficulty verif ying foreign qualifications 27(47) 12(21) 4(7) 6(11) 5(9) 3(5) 35 understands criteria for comparing foreign qualifications 23(40) 10(18) 8(14) 4(9) 6(11) 4(9) 36 does not understand criteria for comparison of qualifications 10(18) 3(5) 6(11) 10(18) 17(30) 11(19) 37 difficulty comparing foreign qualifications to south african standards 10(18) 12(21) 6(11) 11(19) 12(21) 6(11) 38 comparison criteria is well articulated 13(23) 4(7) 15(26) 5(9) 15(26) 5(9) 39 comparison info not easy to obtain 14(25) 10(18) 7(12) 10(18) 10(18) 6(11) 40 comparison criteria inhibits consideration 17(30) 10(18) 9(16) 6(11) 13(23) 2(4) 41 head hunts foreign applicants 15(26) 3(5) 2(4) 6(11) 21(37) 10(18) key: sa = strongly agree; ag = agree; sla = slightly agree; sld = slightly disagree; dis = disagree sdi = strongly disagree. calculated from measurements based on a 6-point scale. the study revealed that organisations do not often process foreign applicants. in response to the statement “my organisation has established processes for processing foreign applicants”, 65% of respondents indicated they did not have established procedures for processing foreign job applicants. generally respondents reported difficulty with recruiting and processing foreign applicants as reported in table 6. challenges in the verification of foreign experience and qualifications and difficulties with the department of home affairs are reported by respondents. in response to statements on targeting foreign applicants, most of the respondents reported that they did not head hunt foreign applicants. a high percentage of respondents reported difficulty with the verification of foreign qualifications and work experience. the criteria for assessment of foreign qualifications were not well understood most of the respondents. in response to the statement “criteria for assessment of foreign qualifications are not well articulated”, of respondents agreed with the statement. respondents considered the criteria for considering foreign applicants as a hindrance to recruiting from this source for the labour market. skills immigration policies findings reveal that south africa does not have a proactive skills emigration policy to attract the required skills to address the current skills shortage. respondents indicated that skills emigration should be determined by labour demand and were of the opinion that south africa should develop proactive emigration policies to address the skills shortage. table 7 skills immigration policies questions sa ag sla sld dis sdi n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) n (%) 42 skills immigration 26(46) 13(23) 6(11) 6(11) 5(9) 1(2) policy not proactive to attract foreign skilled applicants 43 sa should develop 31(54) 13(23) 5(9) 1(2) 5(9) 2(4) proactive skills immigration policies 44 sa has serious 31(54) 11(19) 8(14) 2(4) 4(7) 2(2) shortage at higher levels of labour market 45 sa has serious 24(42) 9(16) 8(14) 2(4) 12(21) 2(4) shortage at middle level of labour market 46 sa has serious 11(19) 2(4) 1(2) 9(16) 19(33) 15(26) shortage at lower level of labour market 47 recruiting from sadc 16(28) 7(12) 9(16) 8(14) 12(21) 5(9) will impact negatively on region due to economic disparities 48 labour market need 31(54) 16(28) 5(9) 3(5) 2(4) should influence strategic immigration 49 skills development 46(81) 9(16) 1(2) 1(2) strategies should be accelerated 50 organisation is 31(54) 9(16) 2(4) 12(21) 3(5) affiliated to professional association 51 respondent is 32(56) 9(16) 1(2) 2(4) 11(19) 2(4) affiliated to a professional association key: sa = strongly agree ag = agree sla = slightly agree sld = slightly disagree dis = disagree sdi = strongly disagree calculated from measurements based on a 6-point scale. recruitment of foreign professionals 35 there was general consensus amongst respondents regarding the levels at which the skills shortage prevails, in line with current labour market trends. statements on skills development policies revealed that respondents agreed that there was a skills shortage at the top and middle levels of professions. respondents agreed that there was no skills shortage at the lower level of the labour market. these findings are in line with widely accepted knowledge on skills shortages in the south african labour market. in response to the statement on urgent strategies to accelerate skills development, respondents were in agreement with the statement that there was urgent need for strategies directly aimed at skills development to be accelerated to address the skills shortage. discussion similar processes and procedures are used to process both walkin and job order applicants. where processes and procedures exist, there is relatively little standardisation among recruitment agencies to ensure that quality of service is maintained and assured to client organisations and applicants. this creates a gap for involvement for the recruitment industry to propose and establish a “code of conduct” for the industry. given that 70% of respondents are affiliated to a profession, the recruitment industry can exert influence for the development of a standardised protocol for recruiting organisations to follow in an effort to work towards a regulated industry. the large number of recruitment agencies who attend to applicants responding to various media advertisements (84%) indicates the critical role of recruitment agencies in the process of sourcing professional and skilled personnel. making a wrong hiring decision is costly in a financial and other non-tangible ways as exemplified by the recent inefficient screening of an applicant by a recruitment agency (harris, 2007). here an inappropriate appointment resulted in physical, verbal and sexual abuse of students and the organisation has suffered irreparable harm to its reputation. agencies are tasked to recruit skilled personnel from a depleted employment pool, the screening of applicants in this environment makes this task doubly difficult. this creates an environment where head hunting and informal networks prosper (scholaris & lockyer 1999). the use of informal networks to source candidates for vacancies is preferred and perceived as a reliable source of prospective employees by both recruitment agencies and client organisations. this confirms earlier results on the size of organisation and preferred for use of informal networks for recruitment purposes (scholaris & lockyer 1999). the high value placed on informal sources of information in assessing applicants can imply that candidates who are not local to the environment will not be readily considered for available positions. findings from the study imply that recruitment organisations use similar processes and procedures for foreign and local job applicants. organisations report receiving a high number of employment equity job orders with 80% of organisations attending to employment equity requests. the limited pool of black applicants with the desired skills means that recruitment agencies have to source equity applicants beyond the south african borders. however, several factors were identified as a hindrance to foreign applicant recruitment. difficulties with verification of foreign qualifications and work experience emerged as one of the major reasons for not recruiting foreign applicants. this has a negative effect for applicants of foreign origin as employment organisations who review their curricula vitae do evaluate skills and qualifications as a standard procedure. the study revealed that organisations had difficulty understanding the criteria for assessment and comparing foreign qualifications and credentials to the south african equivalent. ambiguity in recruitment processes and procedures increased the chances of prejudice towards a foreign applicant by an organisation. both esses (2003), and ward and masgoret (2004) established that when the criteria used for recruitment are vague it could potentially lead to prejudice during the selection process. concerns that foreign qualifications and work experience may not be relevant to the south african context are ambiguous and vague and therefore may pose as an excuse for not considering a foreign applicant. such attitudes and perceptions have the potential to result in prejudice and discrimination in the evaluation of foreign job applicants (esses, 2003). respondents identif y the department of home affairs as a major hindrance to recruiting skilled foreign candidates. the south african business community has consistently accused the department of home affairs of hindering efforts to recruit scarce skilled resources (boyle, 2006; centre for development and enterprise, 2007). inefficient service when trying to obtain work permits for applicants is cited as one of the reasons recruitment agencies are discouraged from considering foreign applicants. the poor service at home affairs is attributed to “senior managers who do not pull their weight” (boyle 2006 p. 39), implying a lack of either skilled personnel or commitment to ensure that quality service is provided. this finding is not unique to south africa. in canada, it has been established that potential employers routinely ignore foreign applicants with foreign qualifications esses (2003). problems encountered between government agencies involved in the processing of foreign applicants, the client organisation, the recruitment agency, and the department of home affairs create a “multijurisdictional nightmare” (immigrants welcome, 2004). the slightly higher percentage of placements occurring at lower management levels in comparison to high and middle managerial positions does not provide a solution to the current skills shortage where a gap of expertise is evident at top management levels of the labour market. however, the recruitment of graduates is an acknowledged source of skills development as a long term effort to address the skills shortage in south africa (bhorat, 2001; lewis, 2001). most respondents would like to see the government play a more active role in skills development with accelerated programmes to alleviate the brain drain. a “brain gain” strategy is suggested by the majority of respondents, implying that foreign highly skilled personnel should be enticed to come to south africa. respondents view the current skills immigration policy as reactive rather than proactive. the majority of respondents 86% would like to see a proactive skills immigration policy implemented to address the current skills shortage. despite the skills shortage, respondents would not want to see skills immigration from the sadc region and africa for fear of “depleting” other neighbouring countries of scarce skill resources. this finding suggests negative bias towards the recruitment of professionals from the african region and could actually be a subtle form of xenophobia towards people from the african continent. further research needs to be done before a definitive case can be made in this regard. two important viewpoints on skills migration to south africa emerged from the present research. firstly, there are those who would encourage skills immigration to ensure the current skills shortage is rectified, citing the contribution that these skills would bring to the country’s development as a reason for encouraging foreign skills acquisition. secondly, those who oppose skills immigration alleging that such a practice would impede the training and development of nationals and would lead to exclusion from economic participation. the globalisation of labour markets mean that conditions suitable for a high mobility of skilled individuals has emerged in multinational organisations and the academic workplace (bhorat, 2001). this means the immigration of skilled mulenga, van lill36 personnel to south africa would be enhanced by a supporting environment for recruitment organisations in terms of standardisation of processes and procedures. the government can contribute to reducing the skills shortage by ensuring that favourable policies are in place to attract skilled professionals. skills development of local nationals can be accelerated for future sustainability of a solid skills base through mentoring programmes utilising skilled expatriates as guides for training and development. creating a unified body in both organisational and individual affiliation for the recruitment industry would go a long way towards consolidating the industry and creating an environment where organisations can develop a unified strategy to address the skills shortage. conclusion in a report the centre for development and enterprise (2007) concludes: “we are failing to meet the increased demand for skills which we need to feed both the private sector of an economy that is growing faster and needs to grow faster yet, as well as a public sector that is failing at basic levels of service delivery, never mind the great ambitions of the ‘developmental state’ …” (p. 13). the results of the present study suggest that recruitment agencies cater for a wide range of professions and that no standardised regulated procedures currently exist to guide the initial selection of either local or foreign applicants. furthermore, findings suggest that foreigners are prejudiced in the recruitment process due to the difficulty experienced by recruitment agencies in the comparison of foreign qualifications and skills and also due to difficult in understanding the criteria for making such comparison (cf. centre for development and enterprise, 2007). the difficulties that client organisations experience with the department of home affairs reinforce the negative evaluation of foreign applicants by the agencies. of particular importance is the suggestion from findings that the problem of processing foreign skilled applicants with home affairs is a hindrance to the recruitment of skilled immigrants. in this regard the centre for development and enterprise (2007) states: “our immigration system is flawed in conception and in its capacity to deliver, and it is obstructing our ability to recruit the skilled people we need from abroad” (p. 13). it is likely that recruitment agencies can benefit from a unified regulatory body to ensure quality control of services offered to their clients. professional organisations such as the association for personnel service organisations may play an important role in ensuring that recruitment agencies are working in accordance with department of labour guidelines and professional standards are established. references ahmad, s., & schroeder, r.g. (2002). the importance of recruitment and selection process or sustainability of total quality management. international journal of quality and reliability management, 19(2), 540-555. bartram, d. (2000). internet recruitment and selection: kissing frogs to find princes. international journal of selection and assessment, 8(4), 261. bernstein, a. (1998, february). unworkable and costly…crossings, p.4. bhorat, h. (2001). some people are more jobless than others. in essays on the south african labour market. cape town: university of cape town, development policy research unit. bhorat, h., leibbrandt, m., maziya, m., van der berg, s., & woolard, i. (2001). fighting poverty: labour markets and inequality in south africa. cape town: university of cape town press. bhorat, h., & lundall, p. (2004). employment and labour market effects of globalisation: selected issues for policy management. cape town: university of cape town, development policy research unit. bhorat, h., & lundall, p. (2002). employment, wages and skills development: firm specific effects – evidence from two firm sur veys in south africa. cape town: university of cape town, development policy research unit in association with skills development planning unit – department of labour. boyle, b. (2006, october 15). sorry state of affairs. the sunday times, p. 39. campbell, e. k. (2002). skills and brain drain and the movement of skilled migrants in southern africa. paper presented at samp /lhr/hsrc workshop on regional integration, poverty and south africa’s proposed migration policy, pretoria. canadian labour and business centre. (2004, february 18). immigrants welcome, roadblocks ahead. retrieved july 8, 2006, from http://www.clbc.ca/media_room/newsletters_archive/ news_wt02180401.asp central statistics services (1997). census of professional and business ser vices. employment placement agencies, recruiting organisations and labour broker’s ser vices. (report no. 88-0701, 1993). pretoria: author. centre for development and enterprise. (2007, june). the south african skills crisis: a report from the corporate coalface. cde focus (no. 12). johannesburg: author. chiswick, b. r. (2000) are migrants favourably self-selected? an economic analysis. in c.d. brettell & j. f. hollifield, (eds.) migration theory: talking across the disciplines. new york: routledge. duncan, f. (2007). no one wants to come to work in sa. moneyweb. retrieved november 6, 2007 from http://www. moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page87?oid=164647&sn= detail. duncan, f. (2007, october 22). this ain’t gonna work. moneyweb. retrieved november 6, 2007 from http://www. moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page149519?oid=167079& sn=detail. esses, v., dietz, j. & bhardwaj, (2005). the role of prejudice in the discounting of immigrant skills. in r. mahalingham (ed.), immigrant psychology. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. esses, v., dietz, j., bhardwaj, a., & joshi, c. (2003). race prejudice and the evaluation of immigrant skills. ontario: university of western ontario, richard ivey school of business. esses, v. m., dovidio, j. f., jackson, l. m., & armstrong, t. l. (2001). the immigration dilemma: the role of perceived group competition ethnic prejudice and national identity. journal of social issues, 57, 389-412. evans, m. d. r., & kelly, j. (1991). prejudice discrimination and the labour market; attainments of immigrants in australia. the american journal of sociology, 97(3), 721-759. human sciences research council. (2004, february 25). hsrc fact sheet 5: skills migrations and the brain drain in south africa. pretoria: author. gray, j. (2005, march 14). the credential conundrum: we lure professionals but insist on canadian experience. toronto region immigrant employment council. retrieved june 15, 2006 from http://www.triec.ca/index.asp?pagei d=43&int=newsite/news-media/inthenews/mediaclippings/ cdnbusinessmar1405-2.htm government tightens up the employment equity act (2006, october 8). sunday times, p.14 hall, e. & roodt, j. (1999). skills needs of the south african labour market:1998:2003. pretoria: human sciences research council unit: labour market analysis. harris, b. (2002). xenophobia: a new pathology for a new south africa? in d. hook, & g. eagle (eds.), psychopathology and social prejudice (pp. 169 -184). cape town: university of cape town press. harris, m. (2007, november 18) careless hiring can be disastrous: if candidates aren’t properly screened, companies can land up with bad apples. business times: careers, p. 7. recruitment of foreign professionals 37 human, l. (1996). managing workforce diversity: a critique and example from south africa. international journal of manpower, 17(4/5), 46-64. human resources development review (2003): education, employment and skills in south africa. pretoria: human sciences research council kahn, m., blankley, w., maharaj, r., pogue, t.e., reddy, v. cele, g. & du toit, m. (2004). flight of the flamingos: a study on the mobility of research and development workers. cape town: hsrc publishers. lewis, j. d. (2001). policies to promote growth and employment in south africa.world bank: trade and industrial policy strategies. lucas, d., amoateng, a.y. & kalule-sabiti, i. (2006). international migration and the rainbow nation. population, space and place, 12(1) 45-63. murray, j. p. (1999). successfully hiring and retaining it personnel. information systems management, 16(2), 18-26. nel, p.s., van dyk, p.s., haasbroek, g.d., schultz, h.b., sono, t. & werner, a. (2004). human resources management (6th ed.). cape town: oxford university press southern africa. olivier, m. (2006, march 7). skills key imponderable as sa reaches for 6% growth. creamer media’s engineering news: real economy news. retrieved november 6, 2007 from http:// www.engineeringnews.co.za/print_version.php?a_id=82267 pellegrino, a. (2001). trends in latin american skilled migration: brain drain or brain exchange? international migration, 39(5), 111-132. private sector job ads double: number of positions on offer increases sharply due to times classifieds. (2007, november 4). business times: careers, p. 1. roberts, h. (2006, august 23). another shopkeeper gunned down: city somalis hunted down and executed. cape times, pp. 1-3. scholarios, d. & lockyer, c. (1999). recruiting and selecting professionals: context qualities and methods. international journal of selection and assessment, 7(3), 142-156. stewart, j. & knowles, v. (2000). graduate recruitment and selection: implications for he graduates and small business recruiters. career development international, 5(2), 65-80. recruitment – catalyst for economic growth. (2007, november). biz-community: daily media, marketing & advertising news. retrieved november, 5, 2007 from http://www. bizcommunity.com. reitz, j. g. (2005). tapping immigrants skills: new directions for canadian immigration policy in the knowledge economy. choices: journal of the institute for research on public policy, 11(1), 2 15. south african immigration: want them, throw them out. (2002, june 8). the economist, p. 43. south africa department of home affairs. (1997). draft green paper on international migration: task team on international migration. (general notice 849 of 1997. government gazette no. 18033, 30 may 1997). pretoria: department of home affairs. tourism and migration. (2007, august). statistical release p00351. pretoria: statistics south africa. retrieved november 13, 2007 from www.statssa.gov.za. tukufu, z. & sibanda, a. (2004). how do migrants fare in a post apartheid south african labour market? international migration review, 38(4), 1462-1492. ward, c. & masgoret, a. (2004). new zealanders’ attitudes towards immigrants and immigration. victoria: university of wellington, centre for applied cross-cultural research. about the author(s) karel j. stanz department of human resource management, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation stanz, k.j. (2022). 2022: an editorial reflection. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a2089. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.2089 editorial 2022: an editorial reflection karel j. stanz copyright: © 2022. the author licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the publication of the 20th volume of the sa journal of human resource management (sajhrm) marks an important milestone in the journal’s existence in the broader field of management sciences. since its inception as an accredited scientific journal in 2003, following what professor gert roodt and his colleagues at the department of human resource management (hrm) rand afrikaans university (rau) described as ‘building on the brilliant initiative to establish the sajhrm’, it continues to grow in status and reputation. it advanced quickly to be recognised as a cutting-edge journal, publishing the highest quality research within the southern african context before its orbit expanded to include african and developing world contexts. the sajhrm serves as a leading catalyst for peer-reviewed research in hrm. it therefore explores aspects related and relevant to hrm in various organisational settings. it aims to emphasise and promote the theory and good practices of hrm within africa’s vulnerable labour market groups, which have unique economic, cultural, political and social concerns. the 20th volume lives up to the high standard of the volumes produced over two decades, thereby sustaining the impact of the journal in the field of hrm. it is evident from the 59 publications in volume 20 of 2022 that the journal publishes a diversity of topics, reflecting the scope of the sajhrm, and thus serves the scholarly community by providing a podium for the dissemination of vigorous and trustworthy hrm research. the journal’s metrics and accreditation listing attest to the quality of the scholarly material it has provided within the scope and practice of the sajhrm. this status and impact were confirmed in the academy (academy of science of south africa [assaf]) peer-review report of south african journals in the economics and business management group released in august 2021. testimony to its maturity, status and growing impact was the recommendation by the panel that the journal increase its international standing and visibility. it is evident from the 59 publications in volume 20 of 2022 that the journal publishes a diversity of topics, reflecting the scope of the sajhrm, and thus serves the scholarly community by providing a podium for the dissemination of vigorous and trustworthy hrm research. aosis, the publisher of the sajhrm, recognises the standards and code of practices of the directory of open access journals, ithenticate, open access scholarly publishers association, crossref, portico and the committee on publication ethics (cope). the peer-review and ethics practices applied by the sajhrm are obtainable on the journal’s website. the sajhrm has significantly expanded its indexing in reputable national and international research repositories such as the dhet sa list, scielo sa, ebsco host, gale cengage learning, google scholar, proquest, hinari and the norwegian register for scientific journals, series and publishers, level 1. its recent inclusion on scopus and the directory of open access journals, chartered association of business schools academic journal guide 2021, is a true reflection of its standing and proof that the journal is enhancing its international reputation. it also confirms the sajhrm as an established, trustworthy and well-informed site for advanced scholarship on behaviour in the workplace. this outstanding achievement signifies the impact of the journal and its publications. the published articles are increasingly being viewed as rigorous by academic scholars and as relevant by practitioner communities. some figures, at the time of writing this editorial, support this view: the number of new submissions increased from 2016 (n = 96) to 2021 (n = 224). desk pre-screening and post-reviews have become more rigorous, with an increase in the rejection rate: pre-screening (2016: n = 23; 2021: n = 114) and post-review (2016: n = 30; 2021: n = 50). the average desk rejection rate for the period 2016–2021 was 24%, and the average post-review rejection rate was 33%. the sajhrm publication rate per annum over the last 2 years is a steady 55 articles. the crossref citations have increased from n = 111 (2016) to n = 478 (2021). after 20 years of growth, the journal projects a dynamic and very positive trajectory. the continued dedication of previous and current editors, section editors, authors, aosis editorial assistants and peer reviewers has boosted the growth of the sajhrm and the standing that it enjoys today. i would like to thank the sajhrm editorial team, accomplished aosis staff members, the section editorial board and the committed scholarly peer reviewers of manuscripts, and recognise their selfless dedication, time and energy. they were surely inspired by the authors who chose the sajhrm as the preferred outlet for their valued research and who helped to build the standing of the journal. we should also recognise the scholarly and exacting hrm practitioner community. these efforts are reflected in each volume, especially the 2022 edition, which celebrates 20 years of the sajhrm. abstract introduction literature review methodology results discussion of the findings acknowledgements references about the author(s) reward utete department of human resource management, faculty of management sciences, durban university of technology, durban, south africa citation utete, r. (2021). capacity building as a strategic tool for employment equity implementation in the financial sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1532. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1532 original research capacity building as a strategic tool for employment equity implementation in the financial sector reward utete received: 30 nov. 2020; accepted: 28 july 2021; published: 29 oct. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: employment equity (ee) has gradually seeped into various levels of many organisations, from private to public companies and small to large companies, in both developing and developed countries. research purpose: the aim of this study was to investigate the influence of capacity building on ee implementation with particular reference to the financial sector. motivation for the study: the rise in demand for ee appointees and the lack of skills and reasonable accommodation of these employees in the workplace hamper ee implementation in south africa. for this reason, a pool of employees from the designated groups remains stuck at the unskilled and semi-skilled skills levels. research approach or design and method: this study utilised the exploratory research approach. in addition, the study adopted a quantitative research methodology. a sample size of 172 was considered appropriate for this study and returned usable responses were n = 95. main findings: the key findings revealed that capacity building is imperative in promoting the implementation of ee in the workplace. based on the findings of this study, it is undeniable that improved capacity building is a strong catalyst for executing ee. practical or managerial implications: the findings of this study serve as a guide for decision-making and provide advice related to capacity building and implementation of ee to both business leaders and line management. contribution or value-addition: the current study contributes new insights and builds the knowledge base on how capacity building influences ee implementation. keywords: capacity building; employment equity; designated groups; south africa; financial sector. introduction orientation racial discrimination and the consistent poverty experienced by people from previously disadvantaged groups have forced national governments to enact conventions at global level and statutes at country level that govern stakeholders and actors in the labour market. of note are the conventions of the international labour organisations, the united nations as well as the african union’s agenda 2063 which seek to accomplish gender parity by 2030 (horwitz & jain 2011). the south african constitution, in section 9(3) and 4, dictates the prohibition of discrimination against any person by any other person. the employment equity act (eea) focuses on affirmative action and the removal of unfair discrimination measures in the workplace in a bid to align with the requirements of the united nations (un), international labour organization (ilo), africa union and the constitution of south africa. in the context of south africa, sesant (2017) highlights that although the economically active population (eap) of the african group is 77.4%, its representation is predominantly under the category of unskilled employees accounting for 83.2% and 76.3% of the semi-skilled category. furthermore, although the eap of the black people (african, indian and coloureds) constitutes 90% of the total eap, in the financial sector, the senior managerial level only consists of 48% black people across the entire spectrum of financial organisations, whilst only 30% of black people occupy the top managerial level and 64% at the middle management level (department of economic development and tourism 2014). a remarkable number of employees from the designated groups are unable to be promoted given that these jobs demand higher competencies. consequently, the pool of the employees in the designated group remains stuck at unskilled and semi-skilled skills levels. the term designated groups refer to black people (african, indian and coloureds), white women and people with disabilities who were previously discriminated against and denied opportunities by the apartheid regime. the literature reviewed reveals that there is no evidence that any study has examined the influence of capacity building on employment equity (ee) implementation. in the context of this study, capacity building refers to the development of skills, operational infrastructure, and processes as well as the micro-environment of the organisation in order to achieve organisational goals (maiyo & yamoah 2013). although various studies were conducted on each individual variable, none of those studies researched incorporating either two of the variables or all three variables. recent studies related to this current study are the following: (1) a study carried out by olckers and zyl (2016) on the relationship between ee perceptions and psychological ownership in a south african mining house using a quantitative methodology; (2) a study carried out by jain, horwitz and wilkin (2012) on ee in canada and south africa: a comparative review using a systematic review methodology and (3) a study carried out by horwitz and jain (2011) on an assessment of ee and broad based black economic empowerment developments in south africa methodology. this research sought to fill the gap that exists within these studies. problem statement poor accommodation of designated employees in the workplace as well as their lack of skills and experience is retarding ee implementation in financial sector companies. canham (2012) states that ee appointees have insufficient competences and are, therefore, mainly appointed for window dressing and for in filling quotas. a skills audit carried out by statistics south africa (2017) shows that the margin of black african technical, professional and managerial employees in the age group of 25–35 years had slumped by 2% over 20 years. potgieter, coetzee and ximba (2017) also point out that the conversion of the business environment into a disability-friendly environment is often neglected by organisations in south africa. equally, the lack of necessary equipment to support people with disabilities tends to hinder their effectiveness and efficiency in bringing tangible results to their appointed positions. given an estimate that 1.2% of people with disabilities are employed, one tends to find that approximately 0.8% of them fall under the semi-skilled work category. the other significant constituency of designated employees, namely women, makes up a large percentage of the population in south africa but accounts for approximately only one-third of the workforce (commission-for-employment-equity, 2020). although the organisation under this study in its 2017 integrated annual report states that it does not have any appetite for non-compliance, it has a great under-representation of women and people with disabilities across all races at the managerial levels of the company. the organisation’s 2018 integrated annual report indicates that although women comprise 64% at the workplace, they only constitute 33% of the management (middle management and above). a remarkable number of employees from the designated groups are unable to be promoted given that the managerial jobs demand high competencies. therefore, this study sought to fill the existing research gap by determining the following research objectives. main objective establish the impact of capacity building on ee implementation. sub-objectives establish the extent to which the provision of professional development impacts ee implementation. determine the extent to which organisational processes influence ee implementation. establish the extent to which the state of the internal environment impacts the ee implementation. literature review the concept of capacity building capacity building has many interpretations and meanings which vary according to the context within which it is utilised in and who utilises it. capacity building is closely related to human resources development. in the context of this study, capacity building refers to the development of skills, operational infrastructure and processes as well as the micro-environment of the organisation in order to achieve organisational goals (maiyo & yamoah, 2013). according to el-mouallem and analoui (2014), the term ‘capacity’ does not mean the same thing as ‘capacity building’. in fact, the lack of ‘capacity’ triggers the emergence of the term ‘capacity building’. therefore, for proper capacity building to take place, it should be preceded by an appropriate assessment of the current capacity. capacity building strengthens the organisation and its facilities, and also concentrates on conditions that permit employees to engage in the transformation process and change adaptation. capacity building could be categorised as building decision-making capacity, building awareness capacity, and building analytical capacity. however, capacity building is viewed as an endogenous dynamic which greatly depends on an individual’s perseverance, effort and motivation to progress and learn. in other words, without meaningful perseverance, effort and motivation on the part of the learner, capacity building does not achieve its intended purpose. the facets of professional development include mentoring, learnerships, coaching, apprenticeship, workshops, understudy, team-building, job rotation and simulations, amongst others. the facets of organisational policy encompass the streamlining of processes, procedures and systems, promotion policy, training policy, career pathing, succession planning, job re-design, mission and vision, amongst others. in order to fully grasp the concept of capacity building, the framework provided by maiyo and yamoah (2013) has been utilised to conceptualise capacity building (see table 1). table 1: approaches to capacity-building and their methods. in reference to this particular research study, the facets of the environment relate to internal environmental aspects. shams (2016) states that the company is expected to develop the internal environment of the organisation to make it conducive for employees from designated groups, particularly employees with disabilities. ojokuku and adegbite (2014) see professional development as a long-term process of enhancing non-human and human potential. whilst all employees have to live up to the job demands as well as performing at their level best, similar expectations are held for employees from designated groups. ahmad, farrukh and nazir (2015) state that the facets of organisational policy and process development encompass the streamlining of processes, procedures and systems, career paths, succession planning, job re-design, mission and vision, amongst others. farah and waqar (2015) state that the internal aspects of the environment include physical aspects such as the level of comfort (natural lighting, artificial lighting, overall comfort), office layout (work area) and non-physical aspects such as organisational structure, company culture, mission and objectives, amongst others. implementation and critical evaluation of the importance of employment equity the purpose of the eea is to achieve equity in the workplace by promoting equal opportunity and fair treatment in employment (matyala 2016). this is done by the elimination of unfair discrimination and implementing affirmative action measures in order to redress the disadvantages in employment experienced by designated groups and to bring about their equitable representation in all occupational categories and levels in the workforce. in terms of fair treatment, the eea protects two groups of employees under designated groups: (1) employees from designated employees who are already employed within the organisation and (2) persons from designated groups who are applying for jobs against unjust discrimination (mkhonza 2017). the economic division or gap between the have-nots and the haves is shortened by the ee’s entrenchment of the elimination of discrimination and hence builds a sustainable and solid base for development in south africa. however, the ee puts emphasis on numerical representations of designated employees at different levels in the organisation whilst overlooking the fact that they need to be skilled to suitably fit into positions. heerden (2015) indicates that although setting numeric goals is important, the government should note that the achievement of successful ee implementation demands more than the mere aspect of getting the numbers right. theoretical model: kolb’s experiential learning theory mostly, intelligence of higher value is linked to skills and competencies that are acquired through experience. because of its emphasis on experience, this research study adopts kolb’s experiential learning theory. according to yeo and marquardt (2015), kolb’s experiential learning theory explains the process of learning through experience. it reflects knowledge formation as a result of experiential transformation. knowledge is acquired through the comprehension of experiential aspects. the experiential learning theory further states that the acquisition of knowledge takes place in a cyclical manner. in this regard, effective learning takes place when one completes the entire cycle. li, mobley and kelly (2013) state that the experiential learning model has four learning stages in which the two polar opposites indicate dimensions of grasping experience, namely abstract conceptualisation and concrete experience whilst another two opposite polar dimensions show transforming experience, namely active experimentation and reflective observation. as such, experiential learning is a knowledge construction process that incorporates deliberate creative tension amongst these four learning dimensions. critical evaluation of the connection between capacity building and employment equity implementation many organisations tend to neglect engaging in comprehensive capacity building, thereby hampering efficiency, growth, effectiveness and productivity. according to yülek (2018), capacity building improves an employee’s capability to effectively deal with disequilibria in the labour market. in this case, the disequilibrium is addressed by reviewing the human resource development policies and embarking on the re-allocation of organisational resources as part of dealing with the internal environment. an acute lack of capacity to properly meet the responsibilities of certain higher level positions by employees from designated groups does affect the inclusivity of these individuals in financial organisations. horwitz and jain (2011) state that a change process that recognises ee requires all employees from designated groups to develop novel skills so that they deliver up to the standard of their appointed duties. only if capacity building is adequately adopted to harness professional development, it will help employees acquire the necessary skills expected of them in their positions. a study conducted by felício, couto and caiado (2014) on human capital, social capital and organisational performance found that high professional experience of managers offers exceptionally strong support when facing work challenges. according to jenna (2015), organisations that continuously capacitate their employees with skills and resources always have willing and ready employees from designated groups to succeed in up to 61% of positions that may arise within the organisation. businesses need to properly perform the jobs they get paid to do. therefore, enforcing black people quotas when it is obvious that the job can neither get done nor meet the minimum standards because of inadequate experience is meaningless. the rise in demand of ee appointees and the lack of skills and reasonable accommodation amongst these employees hamper ee implementation at the workplace. a study carried out by portnoi (2003) focused on eea in south africa’s higher education sector using a systematic review method and found that the dearth of qualified and skilled employees from previously disadvantages groups has led to a phenomenon called ‘poaching’. the well-skilled workers are often headhunted by other companies which offer them high income. this is in line with a view of gul, akbar and jan (2012) who reinforce that many employers are reluctant to provide employees with capacity building in case they eventually exit the organisation. in addition, most organisations are striving to cut expenditure in this poor economic climate in south africa and one of the areas of expenditure that tends to be cut is that of capacity building of employees. capacity building may be seen as a luxury item in the budget of the organisation. in accordance with the literature reviewed, the following research hypotheses were tested at the significance level of 5%: h1: capacity building has a positive relationship with ee implementation. h2: provision of professional development has a positive relationship with ee implementation. h3: the processes within the organisation have a positive relationship with ee implementation. h4: the internal environment of the organisation has a positive relationship with ee implementation. methodology research design according to creswell (2014), there are three research processes in social sciences, namely explanatory research, exploratory research, and descriptive research. this study utilised exploratory research with a quantitative method. quantitative research is highly pre-determined, fixed, rigid and structured to promote the reliability and validity of the data of the research project. for this study, capacity building is the independent variable whilst ee implementation is a dependent variable. exploratory research focuses on clarifying and defining the problem of a particular nature that has not been clearly defined in a given setting. additionally, exploratory research addresses all types of research questions and is used when problems are at an initial stage (adams & lawrence, 2015). as such, an exploratory study would be suitable for this particular study as no researcher has conducted it before. exploratory research is usually utilised to develop formal hypotheses and stands as a foundation for research projects of the future. only exploratory research helped to develop all five hypotheses for this study. exploratory research gives a better comprehension of a problem or concept. in respect of this study, exploratory research focuses on the insights drawn through reviewing current literature as contained in reports, books, periodicals and studies that relates to the investigation associated with capacity building and ee implementation. in addition, a survey was used in this study. total population and sample size in this study, the target population comprises all employees who occupy lower and middle level positions, except those from the historically advantaged group as well as foreign nationals who do not hold line management and human resource management positions at the selected private company. the new amendment that now excludes foreign nationals as part of the designated groups is contained in the employment equity amendment act 47 of 2013, which was enacted on 01 august 2014. therefore, this group is now excluded from the target population. hence, the target population group was 302. for this study, the target population of 302 consisted of sub-groups (75 indians, 150 african black people, 40 coloureds [0 south african chinese], 24 white women and 13 employees with disability). for this study, only one company was selected to serve as the case study from which the respondents were drawn. because of the fact that it was impossible to cover the entire respondents in the population, determining a sample size was crucial for the study. the statistical formula utilised for calculation of sample size for this study was adopted from wiid and diggines (2011) and is as follows: where: e, 0.05, the level of precision. n, the population n, expected sample size in line with the statistical formula, the sample size for the study at 5% level of significance is n = 302/1+302 (0.0025) = 172 respondents. in summary, the population was 302, the sample selected was 172, a total of 123 responses were returned, and n = 95 were usable responses. sampling procedure and sample size probability sampling was chosen in order to lessen the bias in the selection, as well as in order to conduct statistical inferences from the data. for the researcher to eliminate sampling bias, the stratified sampling technique and simple random sampling technique without replacement were utilised. the stratified sampling technique breaks down the population into groups or ‘strata’. after obtaining the sample size, the allocation of each stratum was carried out and calculated utilising the following formula by wushe and shenje (2019): where: n, number of members in the entire population ni, number of members in the population from strata i for i = 1, 2, 5. n, sample size. ni, number of members in the sample from strata i for i = 1, 2, 5. in accordance with the statistical formula ni = n *ni/n, the racial make-up of these 172 respondents was then drawn randomly without replacement from the strata, and it constituted 85 african black people, 43 indians, 23 coloureds, 14 white women and 7 employees with disabilities across all races. this formula was utilised to pick a reasonably sized sample that equates the aggregate representation of indian employees, african employees, coloured employees, women and employees with disabilities. in this case, the simple random sampling technique without replacement was utilised to pick the members from each stratum. since random sampling without replacement does not permit the same element of the target population to be chosen in the sample more than once, it has greater efficiency as compared to a random sampling with replacement. measuring instruments in this study, data were collected through a structured questionnaire to assess the influence of capacity building on ee implementation. by incorporating pre-coded questions, data capturing may be easily done as the respondent is only asked to put an (x) next to the numerical code on each statement on the likert scale. the responses of the respondents were provided on a five-point likert scale in which ‘strongly disagree’ is represented by numeric (1) ‘disagree’ is represented by numeric (2) ‘neutral’ is represented by numeric (3) ‘agree’ is represented by numeric (4) and ‘strongly agree’ is represented by numeric (5) ‘disagree’ and ‘strongly disagree’ scores are represented by scores equivalent to a mean of 0–2.5. the score mean of 2.6–3.4 is represented by the likert scale score equivalent to ‘neutral’. the score mean of 3.5–5.0 is represented by the likert scale score equivalent to ‘strongly agree’ and ‘agree’. mean calculations were conducted utilising statistical package for the social sciences (spss) software to analyse the respondents’ responses and subsequently address the objectives of this study. data analysis gray (2017) posits that the statistical analysis is the key tool for organising, highlighting and extracting information for hypotheses testing, developing theories, as well as drawing conclusions from the existing investigation. statistics explore the interdependence and relationships between variables, read data, determine the degree of existing relationships, deduce the sense of data and build certainties in the findings. the responses were first recorded in excel and then exported to spss. the responses captured in a data set were analysed utilising the latest version of the spss (version 25 for windows). the analysis of the statistics was carried out in two phases, that is, the descriptive statistical analysis and inferential statistics. the spss version 25 for windows was also used to analyse the questionnaire in order to test the hypotheses statistically. the spss version 25 for windows assists to break the gathered raw data into simple tabular forms of a quantitative nature that make for easy assimilation and understanding. ethical considerations the ethical clearance for this research was granted by the university. as part of ethical consideration, permission to conduct research at the selected company in the financial sector was obtained. furthermore, a letter of permission to carry out the research was attached to every questionnaire that was sent to the respondents. during the research study, the following issues were considered: violation of privacy, informed consent, confidentiality and anonymity, rectification of any harm, information concealment, debriefing and deception of respondents. the questionnaires that were completed by respondents were kept in a safe place and will only be shredded after a 5 year period. results the questionnaire containing 42 likert scale typed statements was distributed to a sample of 172 selected respondent employees from the selected organisation. the response rate was approximately 72%, as 123 respondents returned the questionnaire. in the scrutiny exercise of the 123 returned questionnaires, it was found that 28 questionnaires were incomplete and therefore were discarded for any further analysis. therefore, the researcher considered 95 questionnaires for the analysis of the data. the cronbach alpha was utilised as a measurement item for internal consistencies and construct stability with regard to capacity building and ee implementation. reliability is computed by taking several measurements on the same subjects. reliability entails the measurement instrument that produces the same outcome from the same inputs (bryman & bell 2015). a reliability coefficient of 0.60 or higher is considered as ‘acceptable’ for a newly developed construct. the reliability scores for all sections exceeded the recommended cronbach’s alpha value. as seen in table 2, professional development and organisational process both scored 0.69, internal environment scored 0.70, unfair discrimination garnered 0.76 and affirmative action scored 0.76. table 2: reliability test. as can be seen from table 3, there was an even spread of females and males in this study. females comprised 50.5%, whilst 49.5% were males. in this study, 77.90% of the staff are up to the age of 35 years. in this study, 87.4% of the participating employees do not have more than 9 years of experience. in terms of race, the organisation in this study has more africans, followed by indians, then coloureds and the least were white women. upon examining the educational qualifications, the study found that the majority of respondents (74.70%) possessed diploma and degree qualifications. table 3: analysis of demographic data of the respondents (n = 95). descriptive analysis in this study, capacity building is assessed within three areas, namely professional development, organisational processes, and internal environment. the responses of the respondents were provided on a five-point likert scale in which ‘strongly degree’ is represented by numeric (1) ‘disagree’ is represented by numeric (2) ‘neutral’ is represented by numeric (3) ‘agree’ is represented by numeric (4) and ‘strongly agree’ is represented by numeric (5) ‘disagree’ and ‘strongly disagree’ scores are represented by scores equivalent to a mean of 0–2.5. the score mean of 2.6–3.4 is represented by the likert scale score equivalent to ‘neutral’. the score mean of 3.5–5.0 is represented by the likert scale score equivalent to ‘strongly agree’ and ‘agree’. mean calculations were conducted utilising spss software to analyse the respondents’ responses and subsequently address the objectives of this study. the results in table 4 clearly point to a significant number of respondents seeing themselves as lacking the appropriate experience to hold higher positions within the organisation, with a mean score of 1.86. a sign of frustration may be detected in respect of the staff, given that the designated employees pointed out that they cannot see themselves occupying a higher position because of them having inadequate experience. hideg and ferris (2014) indicate that employees from designated groups need much greater exposure to work-related aspects. this correlates with the view held by the respondents that if they were given the necessary work experience, they may get to a higher level, as indicated by a mean score of 3.67. this means that, from a practical organisational point of view, the respondents do not believe that the experience they possessed could see them as being in a position to undertake higher levels of work. the results in table 4 also show that the respondents felt that if they received appropriate training and development, they may qualify for a higher position in their organisation, with a mean score of 3.98. some concerns could also be seen in relation to that the respondents did not feel that their organisation gave them appropriate skills to handle decision-making in circumstances where uncertain conditions may arise. table 4: descriptive analysis (n = 95). in respect of organisational processes, the promotion of ee is dependent, amongst other things, on having well-defined development processes for individual mobility within the organisation, as well as a clearly formulated promotions policy. in this respect, the respondents agreed that a well-formulated policy on promotions and training supports the elevation of employees from designated groups, as shown by a mean score of 3.78. a well-defined development process for an individual to move from one job to another is crucial in order to effectively implement ee. in terms of the internal environment, majority of respondents show that a supportive culture is important for ee implementation, as pointed out by a mean score of 3.67. the majority of respondents (mean score of 3.68) were of the view that a pleasant work environment supports the elevation of employees from designated groups. as a way of accommodating employees with disabilities, it is useful to make sure that buildings are accessible, braille is made available for visually impaired employees and hearing impaired employees are given sign language interpreters at conferences, workshops and meetings. in respect of organisational processes, there is incongruency between the process of promotions and that of the development of designated employees, as indicated by the polarities between promotion and professional development. the polarities tend to reveal an element or existence of ‘unfairness’. in this respect, one would not lose sight to the historical context that south africa finds itself in, that there has been a hierarchy of ee beneficiaries that arose which favoured certain races within the designated groups to benefit a lot more in respect of training and promotion, as compared to treating all the different racial groups who are designated equally. however, this practice by companies has been dissipating over a period of time. regression analysis inferential statistics were used in this study to test hypotheses and predictions. for parametric tests, the main tests conducted were multiple regression analysis and analysis of variance (anova). multiple linear regression analysis was undertaken to determine whether the independent variable (capacity building; professional development; organisational processes; and internal environment) influences the dependent variable (ee). multiple linear regression analysis was also utilised in determining which amongst the independent sub-variables (professional development, organisational processes, and internal environment) has a higher contribution to the variation of the dependent variable (ee). table 5 illustrate and cover the results relating to capacity building and ee. table 5a: regression analysis (n = 95). table 5b: analysis of variance (anova). table 5c: the coefficients and ranking of standardised coefficients. table 5d: ranking of standardised coefficient, beta (β). the r-square value shown in the ‘model summary’ assists to explain the variance in the dependent variable (ee). in table 5, the value of r-square is 0.808. this points to the independent variable (capacity building; professional development; organisational processes; and internal environment) as a predictor (influencing) of the dependent variable (ee) by 80.8%. this also means that there are other independent variables which were not considered in this study, but are crucial in explaining ee. the results of this study revealed that capacity building is a major contributor to the achievement of ee as indicated by r-square, which is 0.808 (table 5). this implies that capacity building explained 80.80% of the total variance. one can conclude that rigorous investment in capacity building is enough to realise great strides in ee implementation, especially at under-represented levels. for testing the statistical significance of the regression model, the anova technique was used. analysis of variance tests whether the regression model is a perfect descriptor of the relationship between predictor variables (capacity building; professional development; organisational processes and internal environment) and dependent variables (ee). hence, in considering the results in table 5, the model is a perfect descriptor of the connection between independent variables (capacity building: professional development; organisational processes and internal environment) and the dependent variable (ee) (f = 20.108; p = 0.000). a high f-value reflects a good descriptor value, whilst a small p-value means that the results are significant and hence become sufficient for predicting the response. the f-value is utilised to conclude whether the entire model has statistically significant predictive capability. the p-value is considered statistically significant when it is less than or equal to 0.05. therefore, this indicates that the independent variables (capacity building; professional development; organisational processes and internal environment) are significant in explaining the variation in the dependent variable (ee). thus, one can conclude that there is a positive relationship between capacity building and ee implementation. with the ability to learn within a realistic time to carry out a job, relevant experience and or prior learning are factors that are considered for the suitability of a person. table 5 contains the coefficients that allow one to make a comparison as to which of the three independent sub-variables (professional development, organisational processes and internal environment) makes the highest contribution to the variation of ee (dependent variable). hence, the beta standardised coefficients were utilised in making comparisons. the results indicate that professional development is the most predictor (influencing) variable that contributes the highest to the variation of ee (β = 0.594; p = 0.000). following were organisational processes: (β = 0.549; p = 0.000) and the internal environment (β = 0.259; p = 0.000). this implies that skills are critical for managerial level and their presence makes the implementation of ee that much easier. from the findings of this study, it is clear that successful ee implementation without negatively affecting performance of the business is largely achieved when prospective equity appointees are provided with sound professional development. this implies that skills are critical and their presence makes the implementation of ee that much easier. again in respect of hypothesis testing, it emerged that there is a positive relationship between capacity building and ee implementation. the results report that pearson’s chi-square p < 0.001 is below the cut-off parameter: pearson’s significance (p < 0.05). this test shows that organisations should give capacity building priority in order to accomplish meaningful ee implementation. therefore, the hypothesis (h1) was accepted. this test shows that organisations should give capacity building priority in order to accomplish meaningful ee implementation. the results of this study contribute to the advancement of ee as it empirically reveals that employing intensive capacity building is a major ee implementation success factor. the pearson’s chi-square showed that professional development has a positive relationship with ee implementation. the pearson’s chi-square test result of p < 0.01 is beneath the cut-off parameter that is pearson’s significance (p < 0.05). hence, the results of the statistical tests reveal a significant relationship between professional development and the elimination of discrimination at the workplace. therefore, the hypothesis (h2) was accepted. employees from designated groups require professional development to commensurate with the new skills and knowledge expected in higher positions. it should be noted that there is a positive relationship between sound organisational processes and ee implementation. the results report that pearson’s chi-square p < 0.001 is below the cut-off parameter: pearson’s significance (p < 0.05). consequently, the hypothesis (h3) was accepted. management is required to verify the capacity of the business organisation with regard to designing an ee policy that reflects a commitment to the fairness and equity in the workplace. organisational processes and policies such as the provision of reasonable accommodation in the form of flexible working hours and the prohibition of sexual harassment are important in addressing past discriminatory tendencies. the positive relationship between the state of the internal environment and ee was revealed by pearson’s chi-square test result of p < 0.03 which is under the cut-off parameter: pearson’s significance (p < 0.05). hence, hypothesis (h4) was accepted. employment equity gathers momentum in an organisation when previous cultures, core values and basic structure are dismantled to form new paradigms that enhance ee implementation. discussion of the findings a sign of frustration may be detected in respect of the staff, given that the designated employees pointed out that they cannot see themselves occupying a higher position because of them having inadequate experience. the finding is in line with a study carried out by cilliers and stone (2005) which focused on ee practices in three information technology companies in south africa involving a survey of 285 participants where the results revealed a lack of managerial and leadership skills amongst designated groups. some concerns could also be seen as the respondents did not feel that their organisation gave them appropriate skills to handle decision-making in circumstances where uncertain conditions may arise. in relation to the financial sector, designated employees who want to occupy managerial positions should gain skills that are crucial for the financial sector, such as customer care skills, communication skills, time management skills, presentation skills and conflict management skills, amongst others. the results of this study revealed that capacity building is a major contributor to the achievement of ee. there is a positive relationship between capacity building and ee implementation. according to ojokuku and adegbite (2014), formal programmes of capacity building prepare employees to be ready to take on higher posts. according to yülek (2018), capacity building may help the organisation to effectively deal with disequilibria in the labour market. in this case, the disequilibrium is addressed by reviewing the human resource development policies and embarking on the re-allocation of organisational resources as part of dealing with the internal environment. human capital leadership has a role to play in encouraging a change of organisational culture. amongst three independent sub-variables (professional development, organisational processes and internal environment), professional development makes the highest contribution to the variation of ee (dependent variable). the results indicate that professional development is the most predictor (influencing) variable that contributes the highest to the variation of ee. according to jenna (2015), organisations that continuously capacitate their employees with skills and resources always have willing and ready employees from designated groups to succeed in up to 61% of positions that may arise within the organisation. this finding is in line with onwujekwe et al. (2020) who studied capacity building in health sector in nigeria and found that workshops provided employees with new skills and competencies. there is a positive relationship between the state of the internal environment and ee. capacity building plays a fundamental role in transforming the culture within the organisation that is associated with unfair discrimination, segregation and stereotypes (maiyo & yamoah 2013). a study carried out by potgieter et al. (2017) on career advancement challenges faced by people with disabilities at work in the south africa found out that generally people with disabilities encounter career advancement challenges. they found that human resource practices particularly those that aligned to promotion opportunities discriminate against employees with disabilities. professional development has a positive relationship with ee implementation. fierce competition amongst businesses, particularly in the financial sector, requires properly qualified and skilled employees for these businesses to survive (powell, reddy, & juan 2016). there is a positive relationship between sound organisational processes and ee implementation. however, goddy (2014) states that for stimulating the self-management and self-development of potential employees to occupy positions of manager, proper strategic planning is required. in the same manner, organisational systems and procedures need to be fine-tuned to meet conditions of personal growth. practical implications the results inform human resources managers of the organisation under the study to put more emphasis on capacity building as the study empirically reveals that employing intensive capacity building is a major ee implementation success factor. the study also informs the organisation under this study to cultivate an environment that makes it conducive for designated groups to learn. employment equity beneficiaries lack experience to assume duties of senior positions. hence, managers at this organisation may consider mentorship to be availed to these employees from designated groups in order for them to gain knowledge of the job. the study results also inform the human resource management team to monitor the rate of promotions through promotional policy and skills development of employees from disadvantaged groups through training policy at the professional level, senior management level and top management levels to combat skills discrepancies. the results also inform managers of the organisation under this study that having a conducive organisational culture is imperative in promoting the implementation of ee. in light of the empirical findings and the present economic situation in south africa, the study informs the organisations with the same or similar settings with the organisation under the study, which need to embark on ee practices, to have adequate support of sound professional development interventions because mere implementation without development of skills compromises performance improvement. at a broad level, it also informs the national, provincial and local governments about the importance of capacity building in accelerating the implementation of ee. recommendations and limitations employment equity beneficiaries lack experience to assume duties of senior positions, therefore the management of the organisation under this study should avail mentorship to these employees from designated groups in order for them to gain knowledge of the job. awareness about the availability of professional development programmes such as mentoring and coaching should be created within the organisation. the management of the organisation under this study should provide employees from designated groups with opportunities for experiential learning. the level of competence of ee-appointees and the criticality of the job should be considered when making appointments. the organisation must foster mutual adaptation. this research study area has limited prior research studies that have been conducted. however, the available prior research studies help to create a platform from which the research problem is better understood and also lays a concrete foundation for the literature review. in addition, some respondents did not return the questionnaires upon completion and some questionnaire were spoiled and were thus excluded from the study. this study is in short of prior research studies on capacity building and ee implementation. it is clear that embarking on capacity building is costly and the organisations may have budgetary constraints, however it is beneficial in the long run. because this study focused on one selected company in the financial industry, future studies should focus on other industries. the future studies should research other interventions other than capacity building that might contribute towards speeding up the implementation of ee. conclusion the findings of this study revealed that capacity building has great influence on the effective and proper implementation of ee. all capacity building variables namely professional development, sound organisational processes and conducive internal environment have positive relationships with ee implementation. the overall viewpoint is that organisations need to take capacity building seriously in order to abide by the ee requirements, there is no choice with regard to when, what and how it should be executed. acknowledgements my sincerest appreciation is extended to the human resources management head of department, dr m.e. lourens, for her support, encouragement and motivation. sincere appreciation to mrs mercillene mathews (language editor) for language editing. competing interests the author has declared that no competing interest exists. author’s contributions i declare that i am the sole author of this research article. funding information this research received funding from the durban university of technology. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author, and the publisher/s. references adams, k.a., & lawrence, e.a. (2015). research methods, statistics and applications. thousand oaks, ca: sage. ahmad, t., farrukh, f., & nazir, s. (2015). capacity building boost employees performance. industrial and commercial training, 42(3), 61–66. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict-05-2014-0036 bryman, a., & bell, e. (2015). business research methods. oxford: oxford university press. canham, h. (2012). examining barriers to employment equity: the complexities of gender and race solidarities in a bank’s empowerment discourses. international journal of psychology, 47(1), 660–660. cilliers, f., & stone, k. (2005). employment equity practices in three south african information technology organisations: a systems psychodynamic perspective. south african journal of industrial psychology, 31(2), 49–57. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v31i2.193 commission for employment equity (cee). (2017). 17th annual report (2016-2017). retrieved from https://www.workinfo.com/index.php/articles/item/1804-commission-for-employment-equity-annual-report-2016-2017/ creswell, j.w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. thousand oaks, ca: sage. department of economic development and tourism. (2014). financial services sector assessment report 2014. retrieved from http://www.westerncape.gov.za el-mouallem, l., & analoui, f. (2014). the need for capacity building in human resource management related issues: a case study from the middle east (lebanon). european scientific journal, 1(1), 245–254. farah, s., & waqar, a. (2015). evaluation the role of hr audit in organization effectiveness: evidence from banking sector in karachi-pakistan. evaluation, 7(22), 149–161. felício, j.a., couto, e., & caiado, j. (2014). human capital, social capital and organizational performance. management decision, 52(2), 350–364. https://doi.org/10.1108/md-04-2013-0260 goddy, o.i. (2014). capacity building – a tool for increase productivity in nigeria public sector organization. global journal of human resource management, 2(3), 45–58. gray, e.d. (2017). doing research real world. thousand oaks, ca: sage. gul, a., akbar, s., & jan, z. (2012). role of capacity development, employee empowerment and promotion on employee retention in the banking sector of pakistan. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 2(9), 284. heerden, a.v. (2015). consequences of late/ non-filing of employment equity reports. south african labour guide: pretoria. hideg, i., & ferris, d.l. (2014). support for employment equity policies: a self-enhancement approach. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 123(1), 49–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2013.11.002 horwitz, f.m., & jain, h. (2011). an assessment of employment equity and broad based black economic empowerment developments in south africa. equality, diversity and inclusion: an international journal, 30(4), 297–317. https://doi.org/10.1108/02610151111135750 jain, h.c., horwitz, f., & wilkin, c.l. (2012). employment equity in canada and south africa: a comparative review. the international journal of human resource management, 23(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.606115 jenna, p. (2015). the importance of performance management. retrieved from http://technologyadvice.com/blog/human-resources/importance-of-performance-management/ li, m., mobley, w.h., & kelly, a. (2013). when do global leaders learn best to develop ci? an investigation of the moderating role of experiential learning style. journal of academy of management learning and education, 12(1), 32–50. maiyo, p., & yamoah, e.e. (2013). capacity building and employee performance. journal of canadian social science, 9(3), 42–45. matyala, q. (2016). call for employment equity tribunals to ensure redress. cape times. 2016 apr 25. p. 1. mkhonza, t. (2017). 50 jse securities companies not compliant with ee act. business report. 2017 oct 31. p. 1. ojokuku, r., & adegbite, t. (2014). the impact of capacity building and manpower development on staff performance in selected organisations in nigeria. international journal of economics, commerce and management, 2(5), 1–9. olckers, c., & zyl, l.v. (2016). the relationship between employment equity perceptions and psychological ownership in a south african mining house: the role of ethnicity. journal of social indicators research, 127(2), 887–901. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-015-0972-z onwujekwe, o., mbachu, c., etiaba, e., ezumah, n., ezenwaka, u., arize, i., okeke, c., … uzochukwu, b. (2020). impact of capacity building interventions on individual and organizational competency for hpsr in endemic disease control in nigeria: a qualitative study. implementation science, 1(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13012-020-00987-z portnoi, l. (2003). implications of the employment equity act for the higher education sector: perspectives on higher education. south african journal of higher education, 17(2), 79–85. potgieter, i.l., coetzee, m., & ximba, t. (2017). exploring career advancement challenges people with disabilities are facing in the south african work context. sa journal of human resource management, 15(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.815 powell, m., reddy, v., & juan, a. (2016). skills in south africa: the journey towards credible planning. journal of development southern africa, 33(3), 298–311. https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835x.2016.1153456 sesant, s. (2017). affirmative action isn’t going anywhere, says minister. cape argus. 2017 may 10. p. 1. shams, s.m.r. (2016). capacity building for sustained competitive advantage: a conceptual framework. journal of marketing intelligence and planning, 34(5), 671–691. https://doi.org/10.1108/mip-08-2015-0161 statistics south africa. (2017). quarterly employment statistics. work and labour force. 28 sept 2017. p. 1. utete, r. (2020). the influence of capacity building on employment equity implementation and employee performance: a case study of a private company in the financial industry. doctorate, dissertation, durban: durban university of technology. wiid, j., & diggines, c. (2011). marketing research. cape town: juta and company ltd. wushe, t., & shenje, j. (2019). the relationship between social media usage in the workplace and employee productivity in the public sector: case study of government departments in harare. south african journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 17(0), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1116 yeo, r.k., & marquardt, m.j. (2015). interpreting action, learning and experience: integrating action learning and experiential learning for hrd. quarterly journal of human resource development, 26(1), 81–107. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21199 yülek, m.a. (2018). industrialization as capacity building: skills, technical progress, and technical capabilities: in how nations succeed: manufacturing, trade, industrial policy, and economic development. london: palgrave macmillan. abstract introduction literature review research design results discussion limitations and recommendations conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) doret botha department of sociology, faculty of humanities, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa gerda van dijk school of public management and administration, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of pretoria, city of tshwane, south africa amori marais research pscyhologist, research consultant, utrecht, netherlands citation botha, d., van dijk, g., & marais, a. (2023). the covid-19 pandemic: perspectives on work engagement and work-from-home in a higher education institution. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2131. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2131 original research the covid-19 pandemic: perspectives on work engagement and work-from-home in a higher education institution doret botha, gerda van dijk, amori marais received: 04 oct. 2022; accepted: 07 feb. 2023; published: 14 apr. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: globally, the repercussions of the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic infiltrated many areas within societies. like all other institutions, higher education institutions (heis) had to migrate to online and blended activities, and work-from-home (wfh) became characteristic of the ‘new normal’. research purpose: the main purpose of the study was to determine the perspectives on work engagement and wfh among employees of an hei in south africa during the global covid-19 pandemic. motivation for the study: there is limited published research reporting on wfh and work engagement in heis. research approach/design and method: the study employed a quantitative-based cross-sectional design. the target population of this study included all employees an hei in south africa who worked from home during the covid-19 lockdown. a web-based survey was used to collect the data. in total, 399 respondents participated in the research. main results: the results of the study revealed that the employees were to a great extent engaged in their work because of the organisational support received from the institution. it was also evident that some employees experienced difficulties with establishing a work routine, a lack of sufficient equipment and resources to function at home, work–home interference, increased workload and working hours, isolation and work–life balance issues. practical/managerial implications: the results of the study are important to inform business decisions regarding the wfh model as an alternative working arrangement to be considered in heis. contribution/value-add: this study contributes to the body of knowledge regarding work engagement and wfh in heis in the context of the global covid-19 pandemic. keywords: covid-19 pandemic; employee engagement; higher education; south africa; work engagement; work-from-home. introduction orientation the year 2020 will always be associated with the outbreak of the global coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic. globally, the repercussions of the pandemic infiltrated many areas within societies. perhaps the most prominently affected were healthcare systems, which were forced to cater for patients beyond their usual capacity, and of course, the world of work. the pandemic forced institutions, including higher education institutions (heis), and society to rethink and restructure everyday operations and established systems. work-from-home (wfh) became an increasingly appealing alternative to in-person or office-based operations, and therefore characteristic of the ‘new normal’ during this time (wang et al., 2021, p. 17). the wfh arrangement was introduced in an attempt to minimise the spread of covid-19 (vyas & butakhieo, 2020, p. 6). while this may seem like the easy option, employees and managers had to adapt to and cope with rapid and radical changes (carnevale & hatak, 2020, p. 183). the covid-19 pandemic impacted universities at both operational and institutional level (paterson, 2021). like all other institutions during the global covid-19 pandemic, heis had to migrate to online and blended activities, which included teaching, learning and institutional planning (obadire et al., 2020, p. 16778; smith, 2020, p. 115). hedding et al. (2020, p. 1) point out that academic staff at contact universities in south africa had little experience or training in the pedagogy or delivery of online learning. furthermore, historically disadvantaged universities may have fewer resources to support staff and students in flexible work and teaching arrangements (hedding et al., 2020, p. 1). in addition, zoom or similar communications may encourage multitasking and distractions, which may make participation difficult and may leave workers feeling frustrated, fatigued and complaining of ‘zoom hangovers’ (schulman, 2020, p. 384). notwithstanding the possible adverse effects of wfh and online operations, it may build capacity in staff, as they are encouraged to try out new technology tools and systems (marinoni et al., 2020, p. 26). as a result, work engagement may be positively or negatively impacted. there is no single definition of work engagement; however, it can be broadly viewed as applying high levels of energy, intensity, interest and persistence in work effort (colquitt et al., 2013, p. 165). engagement is regarded as important, as it results in positive outcomes for both the individual and the organisation (admasachew & dawson, 2010, p. 71; werner, 2021, p. 423). engaged employees are believed to be more involved in, satisfied with and enthusiastic about their work (amos et al., 2016, p. 124; schaufeli & bakker, 2004, p. 4), they are more able to deal with the demands of their job (schaufeli & bakker, 2004, p. 4), they strongly identify with their jobs and the organisation where they are employed, they demonstrate commitment to the organisation (werner, 2021, p. 423) and they are more motivated and perform better (wärnich et al., 2018, p. 260). consequently, engaged employees benefit the organisation and result in more satisfied and loyal customers, increased profitability and enhanced quality of products and services (wärnich et al., 2018, p. 260; werner, 2021, p. 423). according to rothman and baumann (2014, p. 516), work–home and home–work interaction can influence levels of work engagement. therefore, it is expected that working from home may influence the engagement levels of employees. research purpose given the background provided here, the purpose of the study was, firstly, to determine the perspectives on work engagement and wfh among employees of an hei in south africa during the global covid-19 pandemic and, secondly, to ascertain the association between selected socio-demographic variables, work engagement and wfh. literature review a theoretical framework of work engagement scholars, organisations and countries differ in their definitions and conceptualisations of work engagement (bagraim, 2016, p. 125; sun & bunchapattanasakda, 2019, pp. 65–68). two main approaches are used to understand work engagement. the first approach views it as the opposite of burnout. the second approach sees it as a ‘positive, fulfilling state of mind, unrelated to burnout’ (bagraim, 2016, p. 125). in view of the latter approach, kahn’s (1990) and schaufeli et al.’s (2002) conceptualisations of engagement are discussed here. kahn (1990, 1992), who first developed the concept of personal engagement, highlights the importance of being present in one’s assigned role, as it allows for more effective role performance. khan’s thoughts on engagement were heavily influenced by the classic sociological book the presentation of self in everyday life, written by goffman (1961). in line with goffman’s theory, kahn suggests that ‘people act out momentary attachments and detachments in role performances’ (kahn, 1990, p. 694). kahn (1990) defines engagement as ‘the harnessing of organisation members’ selves to their work roles’ and disengagement as ‘the uncoupling of selves from work roles’ (p. 694). therefore, kahn’s definition focuses on ‘how people occupy and adjust to their work roles’ (schaufeli, 2017, p. 10). according to kahn (1990, p. 694), ‘engaged employees employ and express themselves physically, cognitively and emotionally during role performances’. relying on the works of goffman (1961), maslow (1970) and alderfer (1972), kahn (1990, cited by shuck & wollard, 2009, p. 135) suggests that the spheres of ‘meaningfulness, safety and availability’ are significant in ‘understanding why a person becomes engaged’. according to kahn (1990), meaningfulness is the ‘feeling that one is receiving a return on investments of one’s self in role performance’ (p. 705). meaningfulness is experienced when people feel useful and valuable and it is influenced by task characteristics (e.g. challenging, clearly demarcated, diverse, creative and somewhat autonomous), role characteristics (e.g. roles that carry status or influence) and work interactions (e.g. rewarding interactions promoting dignity and self-appreciation) (kahn, 1990, pp. 704–708). safety is experienced when ‘feeling able to show and employ one’s self without fear of negative consequences to self-image, status, or career’ (kahn, 1990, p. 705). safety is influenced by interpersonal relationships (e.g. supportive and trusting), group and intergroup dynamics, management style and process (e.g. supportive, resilient and clarifying) and role performances (consistent with organisational norms) (kahn, 1990, pp. 708–713). availability is regarded as the ‘sense of possessing the physical, emotional, and psychological resources necessary’ to complete one’s work (kahn, 1990, p. 705). availability is influenced by the depletion of physical energy and strength, the depletion of emotional energy (e.g. emotional labour is tiring), individual insecurity (e.g. about one’s work and status) and outside lives (e.g. work–family distractions). although kahn presented a comprehensive theoretical model of psychological presence and although the model was extensively cited, it was critiqued because it lacked an operationalisation of the construct (schaufeli et al., 2002, p. 74; weidert, 2011, pp. 10–11). schaufeli et al. (2002, p. 74) introduced another approach to work engagement, which focuses on the positive side of workers’ well-being (i.e. human strengths and optimal functioning) instead of the opposite, which is regarded as burnout. schaufeli et al. (2002) defined engagement as a ‘positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigour, dedication, and absorption’ (p. 74). vigour implies the application of high levels of energy while working, the willingness to put effort into one’s work, and mental resilience and persistence when encountering work-related challenges. dedication implies that one is strongly involved in work because work is regarded as important and is a source of ‘enthusiasm, inspiration, pride and challenge’ (p. 74). absorption refers to being focused on and happily occupied in one’s work, whereby one loses one’s sense of time and finds it difficult to detach (switch off) from one’s work. based on these definitions, schaufeli and bakker (2004) developed the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) that measures the three dimensions of work engagement, namely vigour, dedication and absorption. over the years, the scale has been widely cited and used to measure the engagement levels of employees, and it was also employed in this study. kahn (1990) and schaufeli et al. (2002) agree in their conceptualisations of engagement, as both comprise a ‘physical-energetic (vigour), an emotional (dedication), and a cognitive (absorption) component’ (schaufeli, 2017, p. 10). in addition to the aforementioned, the job demands-resources (jd-r) model explains the factors that may increase or decrease levels of work engagement. the jd-r model was initially developed by demerouti et al. (2001) to understand the antecedents of burnout (schaufeli & taris, 2014, p. 43). the model identified 8 job demands and 13 job resources that may contribute to burnout. according to demerouti et al. (2001, as cited in schaufeli & taris, 2014), job demands are seen as ‘those physical, social, or organizational aspects of the job that require sustained physical or mental effort’ (p. 45) and when high, may result in physical and psychological costs, for example, continual tiredness or weakness and irritability. job resources are ‘those physical, social, or organisational aspects of the job’ that may contribute to realising work goals, decreasing job demands and consequently, the physiological and psychological costs resulting from the demands and inspiring personal growth and development (demerouti et al., 2001, as cited in schaufeli & taris, 2014, p. 45). job resources include ‘feedback, job control and social support’ (schaufeli & taris, 2014, p. 43). in 2004, schaufeli and bakker introduced a revised version of the jd-r model, which not only provides explanations for burnout but also underlines the inherently motivational qualities gained from job resources that contribute to work engagement. therefore, job resources foster work engagement by providing ‘a positive work-related state of mind’ through the satisfaction of basic needs and the realising of work goals, resulting in organisational commitment and performance (schaufeli & taris, 2014, p. 47). to enhance the engagement levels of employees, crim and seijts (2006, as cited in amos et al., 2016, pp. 124–126) suggest that managers incorporate the 10 cs in working environments: connect (manage to engage employees), career (provide work that is meaningful, challenging and stimulating), clarity (clear communication regarding the vision, strategy and goals of the organisation or relevant division), convey (clarify expectations of employees and provide feedback), congratulate (provide recognition and praise immediately and often), contribute (create understanding of the contribution of employees’ jobs to the success of the organisation or relevant division), control (create opportunities for employees to exert control over their work, to participate in decision making and to take ownership of problems and the solutions thereof), collaborate (create opportunities to collaborate on individual, group and organisational goals), credibility (strive to maintain the reputation of the organisation and demonstrate high ethical standards), and confidence (encourage high ethical and performance standards to create confidence in the organisation). it is evident that work engagement is a multifaceted construct; it is expected that an abrupt change in a steady work environment brought about by a crisis such as the covid-19 pandemic may have drastic effects on the stability of an established working relationship and, consequently, the engagement levels of employees. work-from-home during the covid-19 pandemic, wfh was introduced as an alternative work arrangement to minimise the risk of covid-19 infection (vyas & butakhieo, 2020, p. 6). the international labour organization (ilo, 2020) refers to wfh as ‘a working arrangement in which a worker fulfils the essential responsibilities of his or her job while remaining at home, using information and communications technology (ict)’ (p. 5). according to edgell and granter (2020), homeworking involves ‘undertaking paid work at home, a workplace that is considered to be and still is an atypical spatial location in modern societies’ (p. 157). the term ‘work-from-home’ is often used interchangeably with the following terms: remote work, industrial homeworking, teleworking or telecommuting and virtual work (ilo, 2020; watson, 2017, pp. 218–219). although the definitions of the concepts differ slightly, they all refer to flexible working practices that enable employees to work remotely, for example, at home or any other place outside of the traditional corporate office building, using technology to communicate and execute work tasks (ilo, 2020, p. 5; vyas & butakhieo, 2020, p. 6). neo-fordist and post-fordist thoughts on work (industrial and service) agreed that there was a trend away from the standard fordist model (i.e. permanent full-time employment) of work towards non-standard forms of employment (i.e. impermanent, individually negotiated and spatially variable) (edgell & granter, 2020, p. 193). this trend was encouraged because of the demise of fordism as a production system (edgell & granter, 2020, p. 194), globalisation, technological change, being responsive and competitive in the marketplace (hutchinson, 2017, p. 195; watson, 2017, p. 215), managerial strategies to enhance functional (task flexibility) and numerical (i.e. adjusting the labour supply) flexibility and the increased use of icts (edgell & granter, 2020, p. 148), among other factors. flexible working, such as wfh, has positive and negative outcomes for employees and employers (hutchinson, 2017, p. 196). proponents of flexible working practices argue that employees tend to prefer flexibility, as it gives them control over how, when and where they work, gives them a sense of empowerment and contributes to a better work–life balance (hutchinson, 2017, p. 196). therefore, employees will be more satisfied, motivated and engaged, which will result in higher levels of productivity and performance (hutchinson, 2017, p. 196). however, authors such as felstead and jewson (as cited in edgell & granter, 2020) argue that homeworkers are engaged in a distinctive type of struggle, regularly, regarding ‘the management of the self’ (p. 158). this includes that homeworkers have to organise the space in which they work and their working time, establish social boundaries and supervise themselves to maintain the quantity and quality of their work and enhance their occupational credibility (edgell & granter, 2020, p. 159). this applies to low-discretion (i.e. workers who receive low pay and experience poor working conditions) and high-discretion (i.e. workers who receive better pay with superior working conditions and who have greater access to dedicated workspaces and technologies) homeworkers (edgell & granter, 2020, p. 159). felstead and jewson (as cited in watson, 2017, p. 219) found that homeworkers often find it challenging to establish a work routine; to manage quality, health and safety standards; and to maintain their relations with both people living in their household and people in the organisation to which they relate (watson, 2017, p. 219). they also tend to work intensively for long hours (edgell & granter, 2020, p. 159). although for employers, homeworking provides the advantage of numerical flexibility, it is not without challenges, as maintaining control over workers at a distance places a premium on trust and a manager’s skills to delegate and communicate. the technological potential of icts seems to be constrained by ideas of how work should be organised, through principles espoused by taylorism and the ideal bureaucracy (edgell & granter, 2020, p. 159). furthermore, it is more difficult to control and motivate workers at a distance than doing so in a face-to-face situation (edgell & granter, 2020, p. 160). workplace practices in higher education within the covid-19 context as a result of the strict lockdown regulations introduced by governments on a global scale in the early days of the pandemic, heis, as most other institutions, had to quickly migrate to online and blended activities (obadire et al., 2020, p. 16778; smith, 2020, p. 115). employees were forced to work from home regardless of their personal preferences, abilities, resources, and the nature and extent of their jobs (wang et al., 2021, p. 17). prior to the pandemic, individuals had not had much experience of working in a remote environment, nor were institutions prepared to support practices of this nature (wang et al., 2021, p. 17). primary activities, including teaching, research and community outreaches, were affected, and the shift to virtual operations left employees who were responsible for critical university operations ill-equipped (agasisti & soncin, 2021; piotrowski & king, 2020). support staff who were operating face-to-face in the physical university space were potentially considered irrelevant, leaving their job security in question (piotrowski & king, 2020). across sectors and organisations, challenges reported regarding the wfh structure include an increase in the experience of work–life conflict, frequent interruptions from family members, a lack of experience with the organisational climate, interruptions in concentration (chanana, 2020, p. 1), increased work hours and workload (employees reported that they were overworked) (pathak & majumdar, 2020), ‘zoom hangovers’ (schulman, 2020, p. 384), increased parental demands because of the closure of schools and childcare services, loneliness, a lack of purpose and belonging, and health and well-being issues (carnevale & hatak, 2020, p. 183). in highly heteronormative societies, it can be assumed that women’s productivity in particular may have suffered, based on the added strain of childcare and home-schooling, which fell predominantly on their shoulders (hedding et al., 2020, p. 1). given the wfh structure, the pandemic caused a so-called double-bind on specific mothers, which may have had definite implications for work engagement during this period (heggeness, 2020, p. 1053). similarly, people’s marital status and familial responsibility may have exacerbated issues of gender inequality, which forced women to adopt even more domestic labour in pandemic-related circumstances (fisher et al., 2020, p. 250). the opposite was also found to be true. in a traditional male–female (heteronormative) relationship, the fact that more men are working from home could also hold certain positive outcomes. the flexible work arrangements present them with a unique opportunity to share in childcare and domestic work (fisher et al., 2020, p. 250). the literature review provided a brief overview of work engagement, wfh and workplace practices in higher education within the covid-19 context and informed the instruments used in this study. research design research approach the study used a quantitative-based cross-sectional design. a cross-sectional design is a structured observation that collects data to make inferences from a sample of a population at a single point in time (bryman, 2012, p. 44). research method research participants the research setting was limited to one hei in south africa. the research was conducted in 2021. after president cyril ramaphosa announced of the lockdown in south africa on 23 march 2020, the institution employed a wfh model. the wfh model was kept in place until the end of 2021, with a few exceptions. the target population of this study comprised all employees of one selected hei who worked from home during the covid-19 lockdown. the entire target population was included in the survey, and therefore comprised professional (instruction and research, executive or management and support) and non-professional (technical, administrative, crafts or trades and service) staff. no one was excluded based on gender, age, ethnicity, and employment contract. to be able to complete the questionnaire, participants had to have english language proficiency skills of grade 12 or above, access to a computer and an internet connection. as not all employees participated in the research, it resulted in a non-probability sample, thus the respondents were selected using convenience sampling (also referred to as accidental or haphazard sampling). thus, the sample units consist of those people who are conveniently available to the researcher (creswell, 2014, p. 204; sarantakos, 2013, p. 177). measuring instruments data were collected through a web-based survey using a coded questionnaire. the questionnaire comprised three sections. section a contained biographical questions on location, gender, age, marital status, highest qualification, number of years working at the institution, nature of employment and employment contract. for section b, the 17-item uwes was used to measure employees’ levels of work engagement in the organisation. a seven-point likert-type scale ranging from never (0) to always (every day) (6) was used. the scale consists of six items that measure vigour, five that measure dedication and six that measure absorption (carnahan, 2013, p. 43). this measurement scale is said to be the most commonly used measure for work engagement (schaufeli & bakker, 2004, p. 5). confirmatory factor analyses showed that the three-factor structure of the uwes fits well to the data of various samples from different countries and that the internal consistency of the three scales is good; in all cases, the values of cronbach’s alpha coefficient were equal to or exceeded the critical value of 0.70 (schaufeli & bakker, 2004, p. 7). for section c, the questionnaire developed by botha and coetzee (2022) was adapted to enhance understanding of the individual items and to better fit the purpose and context of the study. the questionnaire consisted of 30 statements aimed to determine employees’ perspectives on wfh. a five-point likert-type scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5) was used. statistical analysis the statistical package for the social sciences (spss version 27) was used to process the data collected. a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to verify the factor structure of the work engagement construct and the reliability of the cronbach’s alphas. an exploratory factor analysis was conducted to explore the underlying theoretical structure of wfh. cronbach’s alpha coefficients were used to determine internal consistency and reliability. in addition, descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests, analysis of variance (anova) tests, spearman’s rank-order correlations, and effect sizes were used to analyse the data. descriptive statistics were used to summarise the data set and were interpreted and reported by mean and standard deviation. spearman’s rank-order correlation coefficient was used to measure the strength and direction (positive or negative) of the monotonic relationships between two variables, as suggested by field (2013, p. 276). according to cohen (1988), correlations of 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 can be interpreted as small, medium and large correlations, respectively. t-tests and anova tests were used to compare the mean scores of two independent groups and three or more independent groups on a continuous variable (pallant, 2016, pp. 109, 244). effect sizes were used to measure the ‘magnitude of the intervention’s effect’ (pallant, 2016, p. 252), thus how meaningful the difference between group means is and how important the difference is in practice. cohen’s d-values were used as effect size statistic and the strength was interpreted as follows: 0.2 = small effect, 0.5 = medium effect and 0.8 = large effect (cohen, 1988). ethical considerations the researchers adhered to the following ethical standards (see babbie & mouton, 2011, p. 520; ghauri & gronhaug, 2002, p. 18; sarantakos, 2013, p. 19) when conducting the research: voluntary participation, informed consent, privacy, anonymity, confidentiality, objectivity and integrity. approval to conduct the research was obtained from the basic and social sciences research ethics committee of the hei under investigation (ethics number: nwu-00648-21-a7). results biographical and demographical information the corporate relations and marketing division of the university under investigation distributed the web-based survey to the target population via all the relevant e-platforms of the university. in total, 399 responses were received. table 1 presents the biographical and demographical information of the respondents. table 1: biographical and demographical information. from table 1 it is evident that more women (72.9%) than men (25.8%) participated in the research. the most responses were received from campus a (75.7%), followed by campus b (15.3%) and campus c (8.3%). the majority of the respondents were between 30 and 59 (82.5%) years old and were married (67.4%). eighteen per cent of the respondents had a college or university degree, 32.8% a postgraduate degree and 27.6% a phd degree. in total, 70.7% of the respondents had worked for the university for 6 years and longer. the majority of the respondents were employed in support positions and 37.8% in academic positions. a large majority (90%) of the respondents were employed in full-time contracts. during the research period, most of the respondents (40.4%) had been working from home since the beginning of the lockdown, but came to the office when required and 24.6% who had been working from home had not returned to campus. work engagement confirmatory factor analyses showed that the three-factor structure of the uwes fit the sampled data adequately (see figure 1). the measurement of vigour was supported by six items, of dedication by five items and of absorption by six items. all factor loadings were statistically significant at the 0.05 level. the standardised regression coefficients were interpreted as factor loadings. the factor loadings for vigour ranged from 0.520 to 0.865, for dedication from 0.520 to 0.939 and for absorption from 0.494 to 0.879. according to field (2009, p. 644), in general, a factor loading with an absolute value of more than 0.3 is regarded meaningful and the significance of a factor loading will depend on the sample size. field (2009, p. 644) suggests that a factor loading for a sample of 100 should be greater than 0.512, for 200 it should be greater than 0.364, for 300 it should be greater than 0.298, for 600 it should be greater than 0.21 and for 1000 it should be greater than 0.162. the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for vigour, dedication and absorption were 0.8 (see figure 1), indicating excellent reliability and internal consistency according to field (2009, p. 675). figure 1: confirmatory factor analysis results for the work engagement measurement model with standardised regression weights and correlations. the goodness-of-model-fit indices (chi-square statistic divided by degrees of freedom cmin or df, the comparative fit index [cfi] and the root mean square error of approximation [rmsea]) for the work engagement measurement model are presented in table 2. from the results it is evident that the cmin or df (5.757) yielded a value that indicates a close fit between the measurement model and the sampled data. the value obtained for the cfi (0.885) indicates an acceptable model-data fit. however, the value obtained for rmsea (0.109; 0.101 [low]; 0.117 [high]) indicated not a good fit between the measurement model and the sampled data. table 2: goodness-of-model-fit indices for the work engagement measurement model. a seven-point likert scale was used to measure employees’ levels of engagement, ranging from 0 (never) to 6 (every day). the mean scores (see figure 1) for vigour (m = 4.63), dedication (m = 4.78) and absorption (m = 4.55) were above 4, leaning towards the positive side of the scale, although there is much room for improvement. work-from-home an exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the 30-item wfh scale measuring employees’ perceptions regarding working from home. the kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) test yielded a value of 0.879, thus the sample size was adequate for factor analysis. according to field (2005, p. 640), a kmo value between 0.7 and 0.8 is regarded as excellent. the p-value of bartlett’s test of sphericity was 0.000, showing sufficient correlation between the items (see field, 2005). five factors (wfh challenges, organisational support, conducive wfh environment, work–life balance and social alienation) were extracted through kaiser’s criteria (field, 2005) that explained 57.21 of the total variance (see table 3). table 3: validity, reliability and descriptive statistics of work-from-home. the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for all five factors were above 0.7 (wfh challenges: α = 0.748; organisational support: α = 0.762; conducive wfh environment: α = 0.885; work–life balance: α = 0.745; social alienation: α = 0.763), showing excellent reliability and internal consistency. eight items loaded on wfh challenges (ranging from -0.370 to -0.528), five items on organisational support (ranging from 0.591 to 0.848), eight items on conducive wfh environment (ranging from 0.449 to 0.823), four items on work–life balance (ranging from -0.655 to -0.785) and five items on social alienation (ranging from -0.374 to -0.801). the factors obtained the following mean scores: wfh challenges: m = 2.344, organisational support: m = 4.427, conducive wfh environment: m = 4.384, work–life balance: m = 3.231 and social alienation: m = 2.740. the wfh scale used a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). association of biographical and demographical variables with work engagement and work-from-home t-tests were conducted to determine the association of gender, nature of employment and employment contract with work engagement and wfh; the results of the t-tests are presented in table 4. table 4: association of gender, nature of employment and employment contract with work engagement and work-from-home. the results of the t-tests revealed the male (m = 4.43) and female (m = 4.69) respondents for vigour (p = 0.019); the effect size showed a small effect (d = 0.27). regarding nature of employment, statistically significant differences between the mean scores of academic and support staff were evident for vigour (p = 0.016; academic: m = 4.47; support: m = 4.71), wfh challenges (p = 0.000; academic: m = 2.55; support: m = 2.22), organisational support (p = 0.007; academic: m = 4.31; support: m = 4.50), conducive wfh environment (p = 0.016; academic: m = 4.27; support: m = 4.45), work–life balance (p = 0.002; academic: m = 3.42; support: m = 3.10) and social alienation (p = 0.018; academic: m = 2.88; support: m = 2.65). the effect sizes indicated small to medium effects (d ranging from 0.244 to 0.468). furthermore, the t-tests revealed statistically significant differences between the mean scores of respondents who were employed full-time (m = 4.59) and those who were employed on fixed-term or temporary contracts (m = 4.92) for vigour (p = 0.044); the effect size indicated a medium effect (d = 0.349). analysis of variance tests were conducted to determine the association of location, marital status and wfh scenario with work engagement and wfh. the results revealed no statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the different campuses of the university and the marital status categories; the p-values for all the work engagement and wfh factors were above 0.5. with regard to the wfh scenario, the results indicated statistically significant differences between the mean scores of the different categories for vigour (p = 0.008), absorption (p = 0.045), organisational support (p = 0.000), conducive wfh environment (p = 0.000), work–life balance (p = 0.002) and social alienation (p = 0.000). the results of the post hoc tests are elaborated on in the discussion section of the article. correlation of age, highest qualification, years working at the university and period working from home with work engagement and work-from-home spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was used to measure the linear association between ordinal biographical variables and work engagement and wfh. the results are reflected in table 5. table 5: correlation of age, highest qualification, duration of employment in the organisation and duration working from home with work engagement, organisational commitment and work-from-home. the results showed small to moderate positive correlations between age and vigour (p = 0.012, r = 0.126), dedication (p = 0.000, r = 0.182) and absorption (p = 0.000, r = 0.220). furthermore, small to moderate positive correlations were found between work–life balance and age (p = 0.002, r = 0.155), highest qualification (p = 0.031, r = 0.108) and duration of employment (p = 0.000, r = 0.181). the results revealed a small to moderate positive correlation between duration working from home and conducive wfh environment (p = 0.000, r = 0.260) and a small to moderate negative correlation with social alienation (p = 0.010, r = -0.130). correlation between work engagement and work-from-home spearman’s rank correlation coefficient was used to measure the linear association between work engagement and wfh; the results are displayed in table 6. table 6: correlation between work engagement and work-from-home. correlations between the engagement factors large positive correlations were found between the three engagement factors (r ranged from 0.671 to 0.710); therefore, the more the respondents displayed vigour, the more they were dedicated and absorbed in their work, and vice versa. correlations of engagement with work-from-home vigour showed small to medium positive correlations with organisational support (p = 0.000, r = 0.354) and conducive wfh environment (p = 0.000, r = 0.239) and small to medium negative correlations with wfh challenges (p = 0.000, r = –0.318), work–life balance (p = 0.000, r = –0.227) and social alienation (p = 0.000, r = –0.219). dedication showed a small to medium positive correlation with organisational support (p = 0.000, r = 0.246) and a small negative correlation with wfh challenges (p = 0.004, r = –0.144). absorption had small to medium positive correlations with organisational support (p = 0.000, r = 0.258) and conducive wfh environment (p = 0.002, r = 0.154), and a small negative correlation with wfh challenges (p = 0.034, r = –0.107). correlations between the work-from-home factors work-from-home challenges had medium to large positive correlations with work–life balance (p = 0.000, r = 0.390) and social alienation (p = 0.002, r = 0.523), and small to medium negative correlations with organisational support (p = 0.034, r = –0.256) and conducive wfh environment (p = 0.034, r = –0.395). organisational support showed a medium positive correlation with conducive wfh environment (p = 0.000, r = 0.385) and small to medium negative correlations with wfh challenges (p = 0.000, r = –0.256), work–life balance (p = 0.000, r = –0.206) and social alienation (p = 0.000, r = –0.194). conducive wfh environment showed small to large negative correlations with wfh challenges (p = 0.000, r = –0.395), work–life balance (p = 0.000, r = –0.328) and social alienation (p = 0.000, r = –0.566) and a medium positive correlation with organisational support (p = 0.000, r = 0.385). work–life balance had a medium to large positive correlation with wfh challenges (p = 0.000, r = 0.390) and social alienation (p = 0.000, r = 0.400), and small to medium negative correlations with organisational support (p = 0.000, r = –0.206) and conducive wfh environment (p = 0.000, r = –0.328). social alienation had medium to large positive correlations with wfh challenges (p = 0.000, r = 0.523) and work–life balance (p = 0.000, r = 0.400), and small to large negative correlations with organisational support (p = 0.000, r = –0.194) and conducive wfh environment (p = 0.000, r = –0.566). discussion the study aimed to determine the perspectives on work engagement and wfh among employees of an hei in south africa. the confirmatory factor analyses showed that the three-factor structure (vigour, dedication and absorption) of the uwes fit the sampled data adequately. the cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the three factors indicated excellent reliability and internal consistency. the cfi showed an acceptable fit and the cmin or df a close fit between the measurement model and the sampled data. dedication obtained the highest mean score, followed by vigour and absorption; all mean scores were above 4.5 (on a seven-point likert scale), indicating that the respondents were relatively engaged in their work, although there is room for improvement. the results support the view of the proponents of flexible working practices who suggest that flexible working practices might increase the engagement levels of employees (hutchinson, 2017, p. 196). the exploratory factor analysis conducted on wfh revealed five factors: wfh challenges, organisational support, conducive wfh environment, work–life balance and social alienation. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient yielded values above the required 0.7, indicating excellent reliability and internal consistency. the highest mean score was obtained by conducive wfh environment, followed by organisational support, work–life balance, social alienation and wfh challenges. the mean scores showed that a large majority of the respondents held the view that their conditions at home afforded a conducive work environment. they were also to a large extent satisfied with the support received from the institution while working from home. it was, however, evident that some of the respondents experienced difficulties with maintaining a good work–life balance and experienced social alienation and wfh challenges, although they were in the minority. the results support the view of felstead and jewson (as cited in watson, 2017, p. 219) that working from home is not without difficulties and that homeworkers are subjected to challenges such as work–life balance issues, work–home interferences and working for longer hours. in addition, various authors (carnevale & hatak, 2020, p. 183; chanana, 2020, p. 1; hedding et al., 2020, p. 1; pathak & majumdar, 2020) documented similar challenges experienced by homeworkers during the covid-19 pandemic. the t-tests revealed that the male respondents, those employed on fixed-term or temporary contracts and those in support positions displayed more vigour than the female respondents, those employed full time and those in academic positions, respectively. furthermore, the academic staff respondents were more subjected to wfh challenges, were less positive about the conduciveness of their wfh environments and organisational support received and experienced more difficulties with work–life balance and social alienation than the support staff respondents. hedding et al. (2020) state that the added strain of childcare and home-schooling, which fell predominantly on women’s shoulders during the covid-19 pandemic, might have implications for their productivity. similarly, heggeness (2020) argues that the ‘double-bind’ on mothers might have implications for their work engagement. the vigour of academic staff and those who were employed full time in permanent contracts might have been influenced by the move to an online and blended teaching and learning approach, as they grappled with the ‘unknowns’ of this approach and also suffered from increased working hours, workload, zoom fatigue and increased parental demands, among other factors (carnevale & hatak, 2020; chanana, 2020; schulman, 2020). regarding the respondents’ wfh scenario, the results revealed that those who had been working from home since the beginning of the lockdown and had not returned to campus were more absorbed in their work and were more positive about the organisational support received than the respondents who were required by their employer to divide their time between the office and working from home, but did not feel safe working in the office. furthermore, those who had been working from home only during the required covid-19 lockdown level and returned to the office once they could were less positive about the conduciveness of their wfh environments. the results further revealed that those respondents who had returned to the office once the covid-19 lockdown levels permitted and those who had divided their time between office and working at home were less affected by work–life balance issues (e.g. working more hours, feeling tied to their computers, not getting enough exercise) than respondents who had returned to the office once they could. it was also evident that the respondents who had been required by their employer to divide their time between the office and working from home, but did not feel safe working in the office, were less affected by social alienation than those respondents who had willingly returned to the office when required or when they could. the results revealed moderate positive correlations between age and work engagement; therefore, the older the respondents, the more they displayed vigour, dedication and absorption in their work. furthermore, the older the respondents, the higher their qualifications and the longer their tenure at the institution, the more they were affected by work–life balance issues. it was also evident that the longer the respondents worked at home, the more they indicated that their wfh environments were conducive and the less they experienced social alienation. the results showed that the more satisfied the respondents were with the support received from the institution, the higher their levels of vigour, dedication and absorption, and the less they indicated that they were subjected to wfh challenges. furthermore, the more the respondents regarded their wfh environments as conducive, the higher their levels of vigour and absorption. it was also evident that the less the respondents were affected by work–life balance issues and social alienation, the higher their levels of vigour. the results further showed that the more satisfied the respondents were with the support received from the organisation, the more they regarded their wfh environments as conducive, and the less they indicated that they experienced wfh challenges, work–life balance issues and social alienation. the results provide support for the jd-r model, as they revealed a positive correlation between work engagement and organisational support, which is regarded as a job resource, and which may contribute to increasing the engagement levels of employees (schaufeli & taris, 2014). limitations and recommendations a major limitation was that the study was conducted among employees of one hei in south africa and therefore the results cannot be generalised to all heis in the country. therefore, it is recommended that similar studies focusing on work engagement and flexible work practices such as wfh be conducted in heis, as it is expected that this might become an alternative working arrangement considered by institutions to a great extent in future. furthermore, a qualitative inquiry could provide new insights and a deeper understanding of the factors influencing work engagement in flexible work practices. leadership and human resource managers play an important role in ensuring engaged employees, as engaged employees result in positive outcomes for both the individual and the organisation. therefore, it is important to implement practices such as the 10 cs recommended by crim and seijts (2006, as cited in amos et al., 2016, pp. 124–126) to enhance employees’ levels of engagement. conclusion the primary purpose of this study was to determine the perspectives on work engagement and wfh among employees of an hei in south africa during the global covid-19 pandemic. the results of the study showed that the employees were to a great extent engaged in their work because of the organisational support received from the institution while working from home. most employees reported that their wfh environments afforded a conducive space to execute their work tasks effectively. however, the results showed that some of the employees were subjected to challenges such as difficulties in establishing a work routine, a lack of sufficient equipment and resources to function at home, work–home interference, increased workload and working hours, isolation and work–life balance issues, although they were in the minority. the results further showed that socio-demographic variables such as gender, employment contract, nature of employment (academic or support), age, tenure and highest qualification played a role in employees’ engagement levels. furthermore, organisational support as a job source plays a major role in increasing the engagement levels of employees. this study contributes to the body of knowledge regarding work engagement and wfh in the context of flexible work practices, in general, and specifically during the global covid-19 pandemic. acknowledgements the authors are grateful for the support received from the higher education institution and its employees who agreed to participate in the research study. they would also like to thank prof. suria ellis, who assisted with the processing of the empirical results and ms laetitia bedeker, who professionally edited the article. competing interests the author(s) declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions d.b. conducted the literature review as well as the empirical study and wrote up the article. g.v.d. assisted with the empirical study and reviewed the article. a.m. assisted with the literature review. funding information this research work received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the author, d.b. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references admasachew, l., & dawson, j. (2010). employee engagement: a brief review of definitions, theoretical perspectives and measures. aston business school, aston university. retrieved from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/215465/dh_129661.pdf agasisti, t., & soncin, m. (2021). higher education in troubled times: on the impact of covid-19 in italy. studies in higher education, 46(1), 86–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2020.1859689 alderfer, c.p. (1972). human needs in organizational settings. new york: the free press of giencoe. amos, t., pearse, n., ristow, l., & ristow, a. (2016). human resource management (4th ed.). juta. babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2011). the practice of social research. oxford university press. bagraim, j. (2016). motivation and engagement of the south african workforce. in a. werner, j. bagraim, p. cunninghum, t. potgieter, & c. viedge (eds.), organisational behaviour (4th ed., pp. 95–132). van schaik. blunch, n.j. (2008). introduction to structural equation modelling using spss and amos. sage. botha, d., & coetzee, r. (2022). covid-19 pandemic: perspectives on employee engagement, work from home and an employee wellness programme in a debt collection organisation in gauteng, south africa. african journal of employee relations, 46(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.25159/2664-3731/9235 brown, t.a., & moore, m.t. (2012). confirmatory factor analysis. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/michael-moore-75/publication/251573889_hoyle_cfa_chapter_-_final/links/0deec51f14d2070566000000/hoyle-cfa-chapter-final.pdf bryman, a. (2012). social research methods (4th ed.). oxford university press. carmines, e.g., & mciver, j.p. (1981). analyzing models with unobserved variables. in g.w. bohrnstedt & e.f. borgatta (eds.), social measurement: current issues (pp. 65–115). sage. carnahan, d. (2013). a study of employee engagement, job satisfaction and employee retention of michigan crnas. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of michigan-flint. carnevale, j.b., & hatak, i. (2020). employee adjustment and well-being in the era of covid-19: implications for human resource management. journal of business research, 116, 183–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.05.037 chanana, n. (2020). employee engagement practices during covid-19 lockdown. journal of public affairs, 21(4), e2508. https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2508 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). erlbaum. colquitt, j.a., lepine, j.a., & wesson, m.j. (2013). organisational behaviour: improving performance and commitment in the workplace. mcgraw-hill. creswell, j.w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.). sage. demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., nachreiner, f., & schaufeli, w.b. (2001). the job demands-resources model of burnout. journal of applied psychology, 86, 499–512. edgell, s., & granter, e. (2020). the sociology of work: continuity and change in paid and unpaid work. sage. field, a. (2005). discovering statistics using spss (2nd ed.). sage. field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss (3rd ed.). sage. field, a. (2013). discovering statistics using ibm spss statistics (4th ed.). sage. fisher, j., languilaire, j.c., lawthom, r., nieuwenhuis, r., petts, r.j., runswick-cole, k., & yerkes, m.a. (2020). community, work, and family in times of covid-19. community, work & family, 23(3), 247–252. https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2020.1756568 ghauri, p., & gronhaug, k. (2002). research methods in business studies: a practical guide (2nd ed.). prentice hall. goffman, e. (1961). the presentation of self in everyday life. new york: anchor-doubleday hair, j.r., anderson, r.e., tatham, r.l., & black, w.c. (2010). multivariate data analysis (7th ed.). prentice-hall. hedding, d.w., greve, m., breetzke, g.d., nel, w., & jansen van vuuren, b. (2020). covid-19 and the academe in south africa: not business as usual. south african journal of science, 116(7/8), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2020/8298 heggeness, m.l. (2020). estimating the immediate impact of the covid-19 shock on parental attachment to the labor market and the double bind of mothers. review of economics of the household, 18, 1053–1078. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-020-09514-x hu, l., & bentler, p.m. (1999). cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. structural equation modeling, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 hutchinson, s. (2017). flexible working. in g. rees & p.e. smith (eds.), strategic human resource management (2nd ed., pp. 193–229). sage. institute for digital research and education. (2021). a practical introduction to factor analysis: confirmatory factor analysis. retrieved from https://stats.idre.ucla.edu/spss/seminars/introduction-to-factor-analysis/a-practical-introduction-to-factor-analysis-confirmatory-factor-analysis/ international labour organization. (2020). an employers’ guide on working from home in response to the outbreak of covid-19. retrieved from https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_dialogue/---act_emp/documents/publication/wcms_745024.pdf kahn, w.a. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 33, 692–724. https://doi.org/10.2307/256287 kahn, w.a. (1992). to be fully there: psychological presence at work. human relations, 45, 321–349. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872679204500402 maslow, a.h. (1970). motivation and personality (2nd ed.). new york: harper & row. marinoni, g., van’t land, h., & jensen, t. (2020). the impact of covid-19 on higher education around the world. iau global survey report. iau. retrieved from https://www.iau-aiu.net/img/pdf/iau_covid19_and_he_survey_report_final_may_2020.pdf mueller, r.o. (1996). basic principles of structural equation modeling: an introduction to lisrel and eqs. springer. obadire, o.s., mashau, t.s., & misumi, c. (2020). understanding internationalisation of higher education in the era of covid-19. gender and behaviour, 18(4), 16777–16786. pallant, j. (2016). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using ibm statistics (6th ed.). open university press. paterson, m. (2021, february 11). covid-19 and higher education: damage done, lessons learnt. university world news. retrieved from https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20210211103422612 pathak, k., & majumdar, r. (2020, may 17). work from home: employee benefits set for overhaul as companies redraft rules. mint. retrieved from https://www.livemint.com/news/india/work-from-home-employee-benefits-set-for-overhaul-as-companies-redraft-rules-11589720024463.html piotrowski, c., & king, c. (2020). covid-19 pandemic: challenged and implications for higher education. education, 141(2), 61–66. rothman, s., & baumann, c. (2014). employee engagement: the effects of work-home/home-work interaction and psychological conditions. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 17(4), 515–530. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v17i4.419 sarantakos, s. (2013). social research (4th ed.). palgrave macmillan. schaufeli, w.b. (2017). general engagement: conceptualization and measurement with the utrecht general engagement scale (uges). journal of well-being assessment, 1, 9–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41543-017-0001-x schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a. (2004). uwes: utrecht work engagement scale. preliminary manual. retrieved from https://www.wilmarschaufeli.nl/publications/schaufeli/test%20manuals/test_manual_uwes_english.pdf schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., bakker, a.b., & gonzales-roma, v. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3, 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 schaufeli, w.b., & taris, t.w. (2014). a critical review of the job demands-resources model: implications for improving work and health. in g.f. bauer & o. hämmig (eds.), bridging occupational, organizational and public health: a transdisciplinary approach (pp. 43–68). springer science and business media. schulman, c. (2020, april). i used to shut my windows to new york’s noise. now i long for a honking horn. washington post. retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/04/09/new-york-silent-coronavirus/ shuck, m.b., & wollard, k.k. (2009). a historical perspective of employee engagement: an emerging definition. in m.s. plakhotnik, s.m. nielsen, & d.m. pane (eds.), proceedings of the eighth annual college of education & gsn research conference (pp. 133–139). florida international university. retrieved from https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1159&context=sferc smith, p.a. (2020). lessons from yalta: considerations for post-covid-19 higher education. international journal of multidisciplinary perspectives in higher education, 5(1), 113–117. https://doi.org/10.32674/jimphe.v5i1.2443 sun, l., & bunchapattanasakda, c. (2019). employee engagement: a literature review. international journal of human resource studies, 9(1), 63–80. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijhrs.v9i1.14167 vyas, l., & butakhieo, n. (2020). the impact of working from home during covid-19 on work and life domains: an exploratory study on hong kong. policy design and practice, 4(1), 59–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/25741292.2020.1863560 wang, b., liu, y., qian, j., & parker, s.k. (2021). achieving effective remote working during the covid-19 pandemic: a work design perspective. applied psychology: an international review, 70(1), 16–59. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12290 wärnich, s., carrell, m.r., elbert, n.f., & hatfield, r.d. (2018). human resource management. cengage learning, emea. watson, t. (2017). sociology, work and organisation (7th ed.). routledge. weidert, j.m. (2011). physiological measurement of employee engagement. ma dissertation. colorado state university. retrieved from https://mountainscholar.org/handle/10217/47421 werner, a. (2021). motivation and engagement. in p. nel & a. werner (eds.), human resource management (11th ed., pp. 403–428). oxford university press. article information authors: sonet van schalkwyk1 danie h. du toit2 adriaan s. bothma2 sebastiaan rothmann2 affiliations: 1human resource department, sasol, sasolburg, south africa 2school of behavioural sciences, north-west university, south africa correspondence to: sebastiaan rothmann email: ian@ianrothmann.com postal address: po box 8060, swakopmund, namibia keywords employee engagement; employee motivation; leadership; job insecurity; turnover intention dates: received: 07 july 2009 accepted: 28 jan. 2010 published: 06 july 2010 how to cite this article: van schalkwyk, s., du toit, d.h., bothma, a.s., & rothmann, s. (2010). job insecurity, leadership empowerment behaviour, employee engagement and intention to leave in a petrochemical laboratory. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #234, 7 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.234 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) job insecurity, leadership empowerment behaviour, employee engagement and intention to leave in a petrochemical laboratory in this original research article... open access • abstract • introduction    • job insecurity    • leadership empowerment behaviour    • employee engagement    • intention to leave • research design    • research approach    • research method       • participants       • measuring battery       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • descriptive statistics and correlations    • multiple regression analyses • discussion • references abstract (back to top) orientation: engaging individuals at work plays an important role in retaining them. job security and leadership empowerment behaviour are antecedents of employee engagement. research purpose: the objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between job insecurity, leadership empowerment behaviour (as perceived by the employees who report to leaders), employee engagement and intention to leave their jobs in a petrochemical laboratory. motivation for the study: knowledge of the effects of job insecurity and leadership on employee engagement and turnover intention will contribute to improved talent management. research design, approach and method: a correlational design was used. a total of 169 employees in a petrochemical laboratory were studied. the measuring instruments included the job insecurity index, the leadership empowerment behaviour questionnaire, and the utrecht work engagement scale. two questions were used to measure intention to leave. main findings: the results showed that job insecurity was not statistically significantly related to employee engagement and turnover intention. leadership empowerment behaviour contributed statistically significantly to employee engagement and low turnover intention. employee engagement partially mediated the relationship between leadership empowerment behaviour and turnover intention. practical implications: leaders should be developed to show empowerment behaviour, because it affects employee engagement, which in turn affects their turnover intention. contribution: this was the first study that demonstrated the effect of empowerment behaviour of leaders on the engagement and turnover intention of employees. introduction (back to top) despite south africa’s potential to compete globally, numerous challenges remain. skills shortages and the high unemployment rate have had a negative impact on the availability of competent people in the country. staff costs are rising because of the shortage of skilled individuals and the ‘brain drain’ characterised by the emigration of highly skilled people to europe, the united states of america and australia (peralta & stark, 2006). the chemical industry is faced with the challenge of retaining talented employees, especially among the previously disadvantaged groups (peralta & stark, 2006). engaging the individuals at work plays an important role in retaining them. employee engagement is influenced by work-related factors (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). two specific factors are relevant for the purposes of this study, namely the empowerment of employees by leaders and job security. according to randolph (1995, p. 5), the earlier view on management, that is to say ‘the manager in control and the employee being controlled’, has become obsolete. in traditional organisations, managers were regarded as the sole holders of authority, employees were expected to fulfil rule-bound tasks without questioning (cunningham, hyman & baldry, 1996); leaders influenced, rather than empowered, their subordinates (kark, shamir & chen, 2003). it is necessary to move from this traditional, hierarchical, position-based leadership found in many organisations and to propel it toward a leadership style that allows for the empowerment of employees (carson & king, 2005). furthermore, job insecurity increased as a result of economic recessions, new information technology, industrial restructuring and accelerated global competition (de witte, 2000; greenhalgh & rosenblatt, 1984; hartley, jacobson, klandermans & van vuuren, 1991; rothmann & cooper, 2008). job insecurity could threaten the satisfaction of extrinsic needs of employees because of the possible loss of steady income (siegrist et al., 2004). it could also threaten the satisfaction of intrinsic needs of employees, including autonomy, competence, and relatedness (ryan & deci, 2001). according to ryan and deci (2001), secure attachments foster the well-being of employees because they represent secure relationships within which a person satisfies needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. employee engagement is a specific type of well-being that is strongly influenced by the intrinsic motivation of individuals. bosman, buitendach and rothmann (2005) found job insecurity to be negatively related to employee engagement. furthermore, the social context in organisations has been consistently connected to individual well-being. other people at work, especially the leader (or supervisor), can affect the way individuals feel about themselves and their work. poor supervisor–subordinate relationships, poor communication, as well as a lack of feedback, impact negatively on the well-being of employees (may, gilson & harter, 2004). in a longitudinal study, van dierendonck, haynes, borrill and stride (2004) showed that leadership behaviour affects the well-being of employees; if leader behaviour is supportive and trustworthy in nature it is likely to produce feelings of safety at work (may et al., 2004), which will contribute to employee engagement. employee turnover could have a negative effect on organisational effectiveness (hom & griffeth, 1995; hom & kinichi, 2001). the importance of understanding staff turnover in the chemical industry is evident when the contest for talented employees between companies is considered. by identifying the determinants of employees’ intention to leave, turnover behaviours could be predicted more precisely and measures to prevent turnover could be taken in advance (hwang & kuo, 2006). low employee engagement results in intention to leave (firth, mellor, moore & loquet, 2004; harter, schmidt & hayes, 2002). therefore, research is necessary regarding the relationship between job insecurity, leadership empowerment behaviour, employee engagement and turnover intention. however, no studies were found that specifically examined the relationship between these factors. the objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between leadership empowerment behaviour (as perceived by the employees reporting to them), job insecurity, employee engagement and intention to leave in a petrochemical laboratory. job insecurity job insecurity can be conceptualised as the overall concern about the future of one’s job (hartley et al., 1991). it comprises two components, namely the recognition of threats to job security and the concern about these threats (van wyk, 2007). the likelihood of job loss refers to the cognitive aspect of job insecurity, while the fear of job loss is related to the affective aspect thereof (de witte, 2000). the cognitive appraisal of the future situation, whether certain or uncertain, triggers emotions based on the meaning connected to the potential job loss (de witte, 2000).job insecurity is a chronic job stressor (mauno, leskinen & kinnunen, 2001), which impacts on the well-being of employees (hellgren, sverke & isaksson, 1999). employee job insecurity has a detrimental effect on the organisation (holm & hovland, 1999). employees who experience job insecurity are less supportive of organisational goals and do not make an effort to deliver quality work (greenhalgh & rosenblatt, 1984; sparks, faragher & cooper, 2001). holm and hovland (1999) point out that job insecurity results in an increased employee turnover rate. leaving the organisation in search of more secure career opportunities is common among employees who feel insecure about their jobs (ashford, lee & bobko, 1989). this appears to be true, especially among high performers who typically have an easier time securing new employment. the result of increased turnover is an increased cost in terms of the recruitment and training of new employees. organisations may consequently lose their most valuable employees – the ones they most want to retain (ashford et al., 1989). the association between job insecurity and intention to leave has been well established in previous studies (burke, 1998; mauno et al., 2001). job insecurity probably affects turnover through a reduced engagement on the part of employees (mauno et al, 2001). leadership empowerment behaviour empowerment is characterised by the redistribution, or devolution, of decision-making power to those who do not currently have it, and gives employees the power to do the job their positions demand (carson & king, 2005; cunningham et al., 1996; johnson, 1994). empowered employees become active problem solvers who contribute to the planning and execution of tasks (cunningham et al., 1996). therefore, the types of behaviours that leaders utilise requires attention (arnold, arad, rhoades & drasgow, 2000). according to johnson (1994), leadership empowerment behaviour creates an environment that fosters success, because employees are empowered through greater responsibility, decision-making authority, information and feedback, as well as motivation, support and encouragement.according to konczak, stelly and trusty (2000), leadership empowerment behaviour includes six dimensions: delegation of authority, accountability for outcomes, self-directed decision-making, information sharing, skill development, and coaching for innovative performance. delegation of authority entails that the leader grant power to subordinates. delegation of authority should increase intrinsic task motivation by influencing task assessments related to psychological empowerment (thomas & velthouse, 1990). accountability for outcomes concerns the leader’s emphasis on the taking of responsibility for consequences. empowerment redistributes power and provides a mechanism by which responsibility for performance is transferred to individuals. self-directed decision-making entails that the leader encourages independent decision-making. information-sharing entails that leaders share information and knowledge that enables employees to contribute optimally to organisational performance. skills development concerns the leader’s facilitating (rather than directing and/or controlling) of skills development and securing the appropriate training of employees (wellins, byham & wilson, 1991). coaching for performance is related to behaviour that encourages calculated risk-taking and new ideas and that provides performance feedback to employees, treating their mistakes and setbacks as opportunities to learn (konczak et al., 2000). the relationship with one’s leader can have an effect on perceptions of the safety of the work environment. a supportive leader who displays concerns for employees’ needs and feelings, who provides positive feedback and encourages employees to voice their concerns, who develops employees’ skills and solves their work-related problems, will enhance the self-determination of employees and their interest in their work (may et al., 2004; ryan & deci, 2001). such individuals will feel safer in engaging in their work. employee engagement employee engagement is an important concept for organisations, because it predicts productivity, job satisfaction, motivation, commitment, and low turnover intention (bakker, demerouti & schaufeli, 2003; bakker, schaufeli, leiter & taris, 2008). employee engagement is defined as ‘a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterised by vigour, dedication, and absorption‘ (schaufeli, salanova, gonzález-romá & bakker, 2002, p. 74). high energy levels and mental resilience while working denote vigour. it entails willingness to invest effort in one’s work and to persevere when challenges arise. dedication refers to deriving a sense of significance from one’s work, as well as feeling enthusiastic, inspired and proud. absorption means to be happily immersed in one’s work. haudan and maclean (2002) describe engagement as a sustained connection and undivided concentration, where time seems unimportant and the hearts and minds of employees are involved. according to schaufeli et al. (2002), engagement is not a momentary and specific state, but rather a persistent and pervasive affective-cognitive state, not focused on any particular object, event, individual or behaviour.engagement is a positive experience in itself (schaufeli et al., 2002) and has positive consequences for the organisation, as it is generally believed that a relationship exists between employee engagement and business results (harter et al., 2002). the concept is therefore relevant for employee well-being and work behaviour and is beneficial to the organisation as it is a significant predictor of employees’ intention to leave their organisation (saks, 2006). intention to leave vandenberg and nelson (1999, p. 1315) define intention to leave as an ‘individual’s own estimated probability (subjective) that they are permanently leaving the organization at some point in the near future‘. the determinants of employee turnover have great relevance to the employee who is thinking about quitting, as well as for the manager who is faced with the lack of employee continuity, the high costs involved in the induction and training of new personnel and the issue of organisational productivity (firth et al., 2004; siong, mellor, moore & firth, 2006). according to mccarthy, tyrrell and lehane (2007), intentions are the most immediate determinants of actual behaviour. they are therefore accurate indicators of subsequent behaviour, however the reasons for these intentions are often unknown (firth et al., 2004). van dick et al. (2004) agree that the phenomenon is far from being fully understood, especially because some of the psychological processes underlying the withdrawal from the organisation are still unclear.intention to leave is related to actual turnover (firth et al., 2004; mccarthy et al., 2007). tjeku (2006) reported a relationship between leadership empowerment behaviour and job insecurity. maré (2007) established a correlation between leadership empowerment behaviour and intention to leave. mauno et al. (2001) found a relationship between job insecurity and engagement. burke (1998) and williams (2003) found a correlation between job insecurity and intention to leave. saks (2006) reported a relationship between engagement and intention to leave. because the work situation is an important context for generating engagement, and previous research has shown that job insecurity might threaten the satisfaction of the extrinsic and intrinsic needs of employees (ryan & deci, 2001; siegrist et al., 2004), it is expected that job insecurity will result in lower engagement. furthermore, low leadership empowerment behaviour might threaten the secure relationships (and consequently the psychological safety) of employees, which in turn could result in lower engagement (may et al., 2004; ryan & deci, 2001). based upon the above discussion, the following hypotheses were formulated: hypothesis 1: job security and leadership empowerment behaviour predict employee engagement. hypothesis 2: low employee engagement predicts turnover intention. hypothesis 3: employee engagement mediates the relationship between job insecurity and leadership empowerment behaviour on the one hand, and turnover intention, on the other hand. research design (back to top) research approach this study can be classified as quantitative, because it relies on measurements to compare and analyse different variables. a correlational design was used. data about job insecurity, the empowerment behaviour of leaders (as perceived by employees who report to them), employee engagement, and turnover intention was collected at a single point in time, with the primary aim of establishing relationships between variables. research method participants the participants constituted a convenient sample of employees working in a petrochemical laboratory. a total population of 240 employees was targeted. a response rate of 169 (70.42%) was achieved, and 168 responses (99%) could be utilised. descriptive information of the sample is given in table 1. the study population consisted mainly of male (62.5%) employees. a total of 44.6% of the participants were between the ages of 25 and 35. the majority of the participants held either a grade 12 certificate (52.4%), or a post-school diploma (32.14%). a total of 32.1% worked in the routine section of the laboratory. almost one third were on a non-management level, with 2–5 years working experience in the laboratory. table 1: characteristics of the participants measuring battery a biographical questionnaire was developed to gather information about the demographical characteristics of the participants. information gathered included age, gender, race, education, and number of years employed. the job insecurity inventory (jii) (de witte, 2000) was used to measure job insecurity. although the jii consists of 11 items, a factor analysis, which was conducted for the purposes of this study, showed that only 9 items loaded significantly on one factor. this factor was labelled ‘job insecurity’. the items are rated on a likert scale varying from 1 (‘strongly disagree‘) to 5 (‘strongly agree’). examples of items include: ‘i fear that i might get fired’ (reversed scored); ‘i feel uncertain about the future of my job’ (reverse scored); and ‘i am certain/sure of my job environment’. a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.92 was recorded by de witte (2000). reynders (2005) obtained an alpha coefficient of 0.82 for the scale. these results confirm the reliability of the jii. the leader empowering behaviour questionnaire (lebq) (konczak et al., 2000) was used to measure leadership empowerment behaviour. the scale is one-dimensional but measures six dimensions of leadership empowerment behaviour: the delegation of authority, the emphasis on accountability for outcomes, self-directed decision-making, information sharing, skills development, and coaching for innovative performance. it consists of 19 items that are arranged along a likert-type scale varying from 1 (‘strongly disagree’) to 7 (‘strongly agree’). maré (2007) found that the lebq consisted of one factor. the lebq has shown acceptable internal consistency (konczak et al., 2000). tjeku (2006) obtained an alpha coefficient of 0.92 in her study of a south african steel manufacturing organisation. the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) (schaufeli et al., 2002) was used to measure employee engagement. the scale consists of 17 items that measure vigour (six items), dedication (five items) and absorption (six items). high levels of these three scales indicate that a person experiences a high level of engagement. items are arranged along a likert scale varying from 0 (‘never’) to 6 (‘every day’). examples of items include ‘i am enthusiastic about my work’ and ‘my job inspires me’. for the purposes of this study, a principal factor analysis performed on the 17 items of the uwes resulted in one factor that explained 49.49% of the total variance. the one-factor structure is supported by rathbone (2006), who obtained a one-factor structure among employees in the south african mining industry. intention to leave was measured by two items, namely ‘how often do you think about leaving the job?’ and ‘how likely are you to look for a new job within the next year?’ items are arranged along a 5-point scale varying from 1 (‘very often’) to 5 (‘rarely or never’). one factor was extracted, explaining 78.68% of the total variance. items loading on this factor were related to intention to leave. firth et al. (2004) obtained a one-factor structure, which supports the findings of this analysis. firth et al. (2004) have shown that this measure has satisfactory internal reliability estimates (a = 0.75). research procedure the researchers obtained permission from the laboratory management to conduct the study. the researcher administered hard copies of the questionnaires. they were collected directly after they had been completed by the participants. the participants completed the questionnaires anonymously. the researchers explained to the participants that the questionnaires would be treated confidentially. statistical analysis the statistical analysis was carried out with the spss (2007) program. descriptive statistics (e.g. means, standard deviations, skewness and kurtosis) were used to analyse the data. cronbach alpha coefficients were used to determine the internal consistency of the measuring instruments (clark & watson, 1995). product–moment correlation coefficients were used to specify the relationships between the variables. in terms of statistical significance, it was decided to set the value at a 95% confidence interval level (p ≤ 0.05). effect sizes (cohen, 1988) were used to determine the practical significance of the findings. a cut-off point of 0.30 (medium effect, cohen, 1988) was set for the practical significance of correlation coefficients. a series of multiple regression analyses were performed to test whether job insecurity and leadership empowerment behaviour predict employee engagement and turnover intention and to test whether employee engagement mediates the relationship between job insecurity and leadership empowerment behaviour on the one hand, and turnover intention, on the other hand. baron and kenny (1986) recommend three steps to test for mediation. according to these authors, beta coefficients of different regression equations must be compared. firstly, the mediator should be predicted by the independent variable. secondly, the dependent variable should be predicted by the mediator and the independent variable and, lastly, the dependent variable should be regressed on the independent variable, controlling for the mediator. if all steps prove significant, perfect mediation holds when controlling for the mediator, the independent variable does not predict the dependent variable. results (back to top) descriptive statistics and correlations the descriptive statistics, alpha coefficients, and product–moment correlations of the scales are reported in table 2.table 2 indicates that cronbach alpha coefficients, varying from 0.73 to 0.96 were obtained. these alpha coefficients were acceptable compared to the guideline of α > 0.70 (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). job insecurity was statistically significantly and negatively related to leadership empowerment behaviour. leadership empowerment behaviour was statistically and practically significantly related to employee engagement (medium effect). leadership empowerment behaviour was statistically, practically significantly and negatively related to intention to leave (both medium effects). employee engagement was statistically, practically significantly and negatively related to intention to leave (large effect). table 2: descriptive statistics, alpha coefficients, and product-moment correlations of the scales multiple regression analyses multiple regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses of this study. the results of a multiple regression analysis, with employee engagement as dependent variable, and job insecurity and leadership empowerment behaviour as independent variables, are reported in table 3.table 3 shows that 15% of the variance in employee engagement is predicted by job insecurity and leadership empowerment (f = 13.39, p < 0.05). only leadership empowerment behaviour contributed statistically significantly to employee engagement (β = 0.37). this finding provides partial support for hypothesis 1. it also provides partial evidence for the first requirement when testing for mediation (baron & kenny, 1986), namely that the mediator (employee engagement) should be predicted by the independent variable (leadership empowerment behaviour). however, job insecurity did not statistically significantly predict employee engagement. the results of a multiple regression analysis with turnover intention as dependent variable, and employee engagement as independent variable, are reported in table 4. table 4 shows that 26% of the variance in turnover intention is predicted by employee engagement (f = 53.06, p < 0.05). employee engagement contributed statistically significantly to low turnover intention (β = -0.51). hypothesis 2 is supported by this finding. furthermore, it provides evidence for the second requirement for mediation (baron & kenny, 1986), namely that the dependent variable (turnover intention) should be predicted by the mediator (employee engagement). next, multiple regression analyses were carried out with turnover intention as dependent variable. in the first step, job insecurity and leadership empowerment behaviour were entered into the regression analysis. in the second step, employee engagement was added as an independent variable. the results are reported in table 5. table 5 shows that 12% of the variance in turnover intention is predicted by job insecurity and leadership empowerment behaviour (f = 9.67, p < 0.05). leadership empowerment behaviour contributed statistically significantly to low turnover intention (β = -0.32). this finding provides evidence for the third requirement for mediation (baron & kenny, 1986) – that the dependent variable (turnover intention) should be predicted by the independent variable (leadership empowerment behaviour). table 5 also shows that a statistically significant model (f = 19.20, p < 0.05) resulted when employee engagement was entered in the second step of the regression analysis. the increase in r2 was statistically significant when employee engagement was entered into the regression equation with job insecurity and leadership empowerment behaviour (dr2 = 0.16). the standardised regression coefficient for leadership empowerment behaviour in step 1 of the regression analysis (β = -0.32, p < 0.01) decreased to (β = -0.16, p < 0.05) in step 2. the standardised regression coefficient of employee engagement in step 2 was statistically significant (β = -0.44, p < 0.01). these results indicate that employee engagement partially mediates the relationship between leadership empowerment behaviour and turnover intention. these findings provide partial support for hypothesis 3. table 3: multiple regression analysis with leadership empowerment behaviour and job insecurity as independent variables and employee engagement as dependent variable table 4: multiple regression analysis with employee engagement as independent variable and turnover intention as dependent variable table 5: multiple regression analyses with turnover intention as dependent variable discussion (back to top) the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between job insecurity, leadership empowerment behaviour, employee engagement and intention to leave in a petrochemical laboratory. the results showed that job insecurity was not statistically significantly related to employee engagement and turnover intention. leadership empowerment behaviour predicted engagement of employees in the petrochemical laboratory, which in turn predicted low turnover intention of employees. employee engagement partially mediated the relationship between leadership behaviour and turnover intention. pearson correlations were computed to investigate the relationship between the variables. the results showed that leadership empowerment behaviour correlated negatively with job insecurity. this implies that when leadership empowerment behaviour increases, job insecurity decreases. the relationship between leadership empowerment behaviour and job security can be explained as follows: through leadership empowerment behaviour, employees’ responsibility and decision-making authority are increased (johnson, 1994). furthermore, employees receive information, feedback, motivation, support and encouragement, which results in psychological empowerment (johnson, 1994) and a reduction in the recognition and concern regarding these threats. leadership empowerment behaviour correlated negatively with intention to leave. this implies that when leadership empowerment behaviour increases, intention to leave decreases. leadership empowerment behaviour entails the delegation of authority, emphasis on accountability for outcomes, self-directed decision-making, information sharing, skill development, and coaching for innovative performance, which result in empowered employees (konczak et al., 2000). such a leadership style allows employees freedom to choose the way in which tasks are executed, encourages employees to care about the work they deliver, instils a sense of competence and ensures that their ideas are considered (appelbaum, hébert & leroux, 1999). this may result in a working environment in which employees feel disinclined to leave the organisation. leadership empowerment behaviour showed a positive relationship with employee engagement in this study. consequently, one may surmise that the empowering behaviour on the part of leaders will result in employees who are able to maintain high energy levels and mental resilience. employees should be willing to invest effort in their work and persevere when challenges arise; in return, they should derive a sense of significance and experience feelings of enthusiasm, inspiration and pride (schaufeli et al., 2002). the behaviour which leaders display, which includes sharing power with subordinates (burke, 1986), emphasising accountability for outcomes, encouraging independent decision-making (konczak et al., 2000), sharing information and knowledge (ford & fottler, 1995), facilitating skills development (wellins et al., 1991), encouraging calculated risk taking and new ideas, offering feedback with regard to performance, and treating mistakes and setbacks as opportunities to learn (konczak et al., 2000) all contribute to employee engagement. employee engagement is expected to be affected by increasing their self-determination (through satisfaction of their needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness) (ryan & deci, 2001) and establishing psychological safety (may et al., 2001). a negative relationship was found between engagement and intention to leave. employees who experience higher levels of engagement are expected to be less inclined to leave the organisation. schaufeli and bakker (2004) report that a lower tendency to leave exist among engaged employees (compared to disengaged employees). the results of the multiple regression analyses showed that 15% of the variance in employee engagement and 12% of the variance in turnover intention were predicted by job insecurity and leadership empowerment, but that only leadership empowerment behaviour contributed statistically significantly to employee engagement and turnover intention. employee engagement predicted 26% of the variance in turnover intention. it partially mediated the relationship between leadership empowerment behaviour and turnover intention. these findings confirm the effects of leadership empowerment behaviour on both work engagement and turnover intention. it was expected that supportive leader behaviour would contribute to work engagement (may et al., 2004). secure attachments foster the engagement of employees because they represent secure relationships within which a person satisfies needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness (ryan & deci, 2001). although job insecurity was statistically significantly and negatively related to leadership empowerment behaviour, it was not statistically significantly related to employee engagement and turnover intention in this study. leadership empowerment behaviour shared 5.24% of the variance with job insecurity. it is possible that a lack of leadership empowerment behaviour contributed to the experiences of job insecurity. research by may et al. (2004) has shown that the behaviour of leaders can have a negative impact on the psychological safety of employees. however, job insecurity did not affect either the engagement or turnover intention of employees. the finding – that job insecurity is not related to employee engagement – is contrary to the finding of bosman et al. (2005). the difference in the origin of the sample in this study, compared with the origin of the sample in bosman et al.’s study, might explain the contradictory findings. bosman et al. (2005) focused on government employees, while this study focused on employees in the private sector. leadership empowerment behaviour and engagement were found to be indicators of low intention to leave. this implies that leaders in the organisation should incorporate empowerment behaviours in their management style, and practise these consistently. attention should be given to the delegation of authority, emphasis on responsibility for outcomes, self-directed decision-making, skill development, and coaching for innovative performance (konczak et al., 2000). leaders who are not competent to demonstrate these behaviours should receive coaching. leadership empowerment behaviour should also result in decreased levels of job insecurity and increased levels of engagement among employees. it is recommended that the management team of the petrochemical laboratory gain thorough knowledge of the determinants of employees’ intention to leave, as outlined in this study. this should enable them to identify turnover behaviours and to implement interventions to retain employees in a proactive manner. this study had various limitations. firstly, a correlational design was used, which makes it impossible to assess the causality of relationships. secondly, self-reports were employed, which limit the responses of the participants to the items used in the scale, which do not capture the richness and variety of possible responses (sulsky & smith, 2005). lastly, the use of self-report measures is subject to response biases. participants might have responded to questions in socially appropriate ways. it is recommended that larger samples with a more powerful sampling method be utilised to enable generalisation of the findings to other similar groups in the petrochemical industry. also, longitudinal research is recommended to establish whether causal relationships exist among job insecurity, leadership empowerment behaviour, employee engagement and intention to leave. references (back to top) appelbaum, s.h., hébert, d., & leroux, s. (1999). empowerment: power, culture and leadership: a strategy or fad for the millennium? journal of workplace learning: employee counselling today, 11, 233–254. arnold, j.a., arad, s., rhoades, j.a., & drasgow, f. (2000). the empowering leadership questionnaire: the construction and validation of a new scale for measuring leader behaviors. journal of organizational behavior, 21, 249–269. ashford, s.j., lee, c., & bobko, p., (1989). content, causes, and consequences of job insecurity: a theory-based measure and substantive test. academy of management journal, 32, 803–829. bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2003). dual processes at work in a call centre: an application of the job demands-resources model. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 12, 393–417. bakker, a.b., schaufeli, w.b., leiter, m.p., & taris, t.w. (2008). work engagement: an emerging concept in occupational health psychology. work and stress, 22, 187–200. baron, r.m., & kenny, d.a. (1986). the moderator–mediator distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. journal of personality and social psychology, 51, 1173–1182. bosman, j., buitendach, j.h., & rothmann, s. (2005). job insecurity, burnout and work engagement: the impact of positive and negative affectivity. south african journal of industrial psychology, 31(4), 48–56. burke, r.j. (1998). correlates of job insecurity among recent business school graduates. employee relations, 20(1), 92–99. burke, w. (1986). leadership as empowering others. in s. srivastva (ed.), executive power (pp. 51–77). san francisco: jossey–bass. carson, c.m., & king jr., j.e. (2005). conceptual paper. leaving leadership: solving leadership problems through empowerment. management decision, 43, 1049–1053. clark, l.a., & watson, d. (1995). constructing validity: basic issues in objective scale development. psychological assessment, 7, 309–319. cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd edn.). hillsdale: lawrence erlbaum and associates. cunningham, i., hyman, j., & baldry, c. (1996). empowerment: the power to do what? industrial relations journal, 27(2), 143–154. de witte, h. (2000). arbeidsethos en jobonzekerheid: meting en gevolgen voor welzijn, tevredenheid en inzet op het werk [work ethic and job insecurity: assessment and consequences for well-being, satisfaction and performance at work]. in r. bouwen, k. de witte, h. de witte, & t. taillieu (eds.), van groep tot gemeenschap [from group to community] (pp. 325–350). leuven: garant. firth, l., mellor, d.j., moore, k.a., & loquet, c. (2004). how can managers reduce employee intention to quit? journal of managerial psychology, 19(2), 170–187. ford, r.c., & fottler, m.d. (1995). empowerment: a matter of degree. academy of management executive, 9, 21–28. greenhalgh, l., & rosenblatt, z. (1984). job insecurity: toward conceptual clarity. academy of management review, 3, 438–448. harter, j.k., schmidt, f.l., & hayes, t.l. (2002). business-unit level relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: a meta-analysis. journal of applied psychology, 87, 268–279. hartley, j., jacobson, d., klandermans, b., & van vuuren, t. (1991). job insecurity: coping with job at risk. london: sage publications. haudan, j.a., & maclean, d. (2002). ‘e’ is for engagement: transforming your business by transforming your people. journal of change management, 2(3), 1469–7017. hellgren, j., sverke, m., & isaksson, k. (1999). a two-dimensional approach to job insecurity: consequences for employee attitudes and well-being. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 8(2), 179–195. holm, s., & hovland, j. (1999). waiting for the other shoe to drop: help for the job-insecure employee. journal of employment counseling, 36(4), 156–166. hom, p.w., & griffeth, r.w. (1995). employee turnover. cincinnati: south western college publishing. hom, p.w., & kinichi, a.j. (2001). towards a greater understanding of how dissatisfaction drives employee turnover. academy of management journal, 44, 975–981. hwang, i., & kuo, j. (2006). effects of job satisfaction and perceived alternative employment opportunities on turnover intention: an examination of public sector organizations. the journal of american academy of business, 8, 254–259. johnson, p.r. (1994). brains, heart and courage: keys to empowerment and self-directed leadership. journal of managerial psychology, 9(2), 17–21. kark, r., shamir, b., & chen, g. (2003). the two faces of transformational leadership: empowerment and dependency. journal of applied psychology, 88, 246–255. konczak, l.j., stelly, d.j., & trusty, m.l. (2000). defining and measuring empowering leader behaviors: development of an upward feedback instrument. educational and psychological measurement, 60, 301–313. maré, z. (2007). leadership empowerment behaviour, organisational commitment and turnover intention in the gold mining industry. unpublished master’s thesis, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa. mauno, s., leskinen, e., & kinnunen, u. (2001). multi-wave, multi-variable models of job insecurity: applying different scales in studying the stability of job insecurity. journal of organizational behavior, 22, 919–937. may, d., gilson, r., & harter, l. (2004). the psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety and availability and the engagement of the human spirit at work. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 77, 11–37. mccarthy, g., tyrrell, m.p., & lehane, e. (2007). intention to ‘leave’ or ‘stay’ in nursing. journal of nursing management, 15, 248–255. nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. peralta, m., & stark, a. (2006). south africa: a crossover from inward thinking to a global outlook. chemical week, 168(35), 41–52. randolph, w.a. (1995). the leadership challenge of changing to a culture of empowerment. executive development, 8(1), 5–8. rathbone, a.d. (2006). work engagement of employees in the mining environment. unpublished master’s thesis, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa. reynders, e.f. (2005). job insecurity, psychological empowerment and engagement in a government organisation. unpublished master’s thesis, north-west university, vanderbijlpark, south africa. rothmann, s., & cooper, c.l. (2008). organizational and work psychology. london: hodder education. ryan, r.m., & deci, e.l. (2001). on happiness and human potentials: a review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. annual review of psychology, 52, 141–166. saks, a.m. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21, 600–619. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organizational behavior, 25, 293–315. schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gozáles-romá, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3, 71–92. siegrist, j., starke, d., chandola, t., godin, i., marmot, m., niedhammer, i. et al., (2004). the measurement of effort-reward imbalance at work: european comparisons. social science and medicine, 58, 1483–1499. siong, z.m.b., mellor, d., moore, k.a., & firth, l. (2006). predicting intention to quit in the call centre industry: does the retail model fit? journal of managerial psychology, 21, 231–243. sparks, k., faragher, b., & cooper, c.l. (2001). well-being and occupational health in the 21st century workplace. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 74, 489–509. spss. (2007). spss for windows version 15.0. [computer software] chicago: spss inc. sulsky, l., & smith, c. (2005). work stress. belmont: thomson wadsworth. thomas, k.w., & velthouse, b.a. (1990). cognitive elements of empowerment: an ‘interpretive’ model of intrinsic task motivation. academy of management review, 15, 666–681. tjeku, m.s. (2006). empowerment and job insecurity in a steel manufacturing organisation. unpublished master’s thesis, north-west university, vanderbijlpark, south africa. vandenberg, r.j., & nelson, j.b. (1999). disaggregating the motives underlying turnover intentions: when do intentions predict turnover behaviour? human relations, 52, 1313–1336. van dick, r., christ, o., stellmacher, j., wagner, u., ahlswede, o., grubba, c. et al.,(2004). should i stay or should i go? explaining turnover intentions with organizational identification and job satisfaction. british journal of management, 15, 351–360. van dierendonck, d., haynes, c., borrill, c., & stride, c. (2004). leadership behavior and subordinate well-being. journal of occupational health psychology, 9, 165–175. van wyk, m. (2007). setting a research agenda for job insecurity in south african organisations. unpublished master’s thesis, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa. wellins, r.s., byham, w.c., & wilson, j.m. (1991). empowered teams. san francisco: jossey–bass. williams, s.v. (2003). an empirical investigation of turnover intentions of internal auditors. dissertation abstract international section a: humanities and social sciences, 64(5-a), 1741. article information authors: huma van rensburg1 johan s. basson2 nasima m.h. carrim2 affiliations: 1chief executive officer, south african board for people practices, south africa 2department of human resource management, university of pretoria, south africa correspondence to: nasima carrim email: nasima.carrim@up.ac.za postal address: private bag x20, hatfield, 0028, south africa dates: received: 01 sept. 2010 accepted: 23 mar. 2011 published: 11 oct. 2011 how to cite this article: van rensburg, h., basson, j.s., & carrim, n.m.h. (2011). the establishment and early history of the south african board for people practices (sabpp) 1977–1991. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #322, 12 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.322 note: with the permission of the sabpp, the researchers used all relevant documents, like minutes, correspondence, newsletters, annual reports, files not in the public domain and newspaper clippings that the sabpp has, as sources in recording this history. copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) the establishment and early history of the south african board for people practices (sabpp), 1977–1991 in this original research... open access • abtract • introduction    • research objectives • research design    • research approach    • research strategy    • research method       • research setting       • entrée and establishing the role of the researchers       • sampling       • data collection       • data recording       • data analysis       • strategies to ensure the quality of the research • results    • establishing the south african board for people practices, 1977–1991    • an evolving profession, 1973–1976    • laying the foundations, 1977–1980       • establishing an ad hoc committee       • the research    • the establishment of the south african board for people practices, 1981    • appointment of the first board, 1982       • a registrar for the board       • the board establishes committees    • the work of the south african board for people practices commences, 1983–1984       • the first code of conduct       • heraldic device       • the institute of industrial psychology       • registration commences       • recognition of the institute of personnel management diploma    • furthering statutory recognition, 1985–1986       • the draft personnel practice bill    • voluntary professionalism, 1987       • first election of a south african board for people practices       • an human resource candidateship    • basics reviewed, 1988       • objectives for the 1988–1991 term of office       • proposed board examination       • personnel management vs. human resources in the board’s name    • a period of consolidation, 1989       • establishing an upgrade process       • appointment of first full-time registrar       • statutory recognition removed from the agenda       • south african board for people practices participation in world federation of personnel management associations survey       • register for training instructors       • the south african board for people practices report at the institute of personnel management convention    • accreditation and research, 1990       • accreditation of tertiary training institutions       • technikons (now universities of technology) and the institute of personnel management       • reporting on human resources in company annual reports       • first board examinations       • first position paper of the board — a generic competency model       • bio-demographic survey       • serving on the certification council for technikon education       • the end of an era • suggestions for further research • conclusion • references abstract (back to top) orientation: human resource (hr) management is recognised as a profession worldwide, especially in countries that are forerunners in the field. research purpose: the main purpose of this study is to record the historical development of hr management as a profession. this study will provide a platformfor evaluating the professional standing of hr management in south africa. motivation for the study: the motivation for the study is to record the historical development of hr management in south africa because this is long overdue. research design, approach and method: the researchers achieved triangulation by examining archived documents they obtained from the south african board for people practices (sabpp) and semi-structured interviews with five founding members of the sabpp who were involved during the whole period of the study.the founding members also verified the researchers’ interpretations of the information they obtained from the documents and the interviews. the researchers used content analysis and coding to analyse the data they obtained from the archived documents and the semi-structured interviews. main findings: the history of hr management in south africa shows that it meets the four founding pillars of professionalism. practical/managerial implications: the study also gives hr professionals confidence because hr management is achieving recognition as a profession. contribution/value-add: the main contribution of the study is that it has recorded the history of hr management as a profession in south africa properly for the first time. introduction (back to top) human resource (hr) management is an integral function in all south african organisations and human resource professionals play a supporting role in them. therefore, in order to highlight the profession’s credibility, it is vital to trace the history of hr management in south africa from its inception to where it hasprogressed to date. secondly, it is imperative to ascertain whether the struggle to achieve professionalism for human resource management in south africa has been successful. globalisation and a changing economy have put pressure on many organisations to see their employees as sources of competitive advantage. this has led many organisations to rethink their human resource functions (ungerer, herholdt & uys, 2009). countries, like the united kingdom (the chartered institute of personnel and development, or cipd), the united states of america (the human resource certification institute, or hrci) and canada (the canadian council of humanresource associations, or cchra) have recorded the history of professionalising hr management well and recognise hr management as a profession. there is a high regard for hr management in these countries. according to leonard (2004), the first steps to building a national certification programme for hr professionals in the united states of america (usa) began more than 50 years ago when personnel managers worked to create a national association for their profession. leonard (2004) continues to state that, during the organising meetings for the american society for personnel administration (aspa) in 1948, delegates emphasised the need for certifying personnel professionals. discussions began in 1967 on definitions of the hr profession in the usa at a three-day conference. aspa, the forerunner of the society of human resource management (shrm), and the school of industrial relations at cornell university attended (leonard, 2004). these discussions led to the establishment of theworld federation of personnel management associations (wfpma) in 1976 to assist the development and improve the effectiveness of professional people management all over the world. in 1973, the work of aspa culminated in the establishment of the hrci as the regulatory body for human resources. the organisation started certifying hr professionals in 1976 (leonard, 2004). this was when professionalising human resources became a topic of discussion in south africa at council meetings of the institute of personnel management (ipm). the number of professionals the hrci certified has almost doubled from 48000 in 2000 to 87000 in 2004. this indicates the escalating value of qualifying for professional status (hrci, 2004). certification, according to the hrci, occurs on three levels. the first category, the professional hr, is for people who have two to four years of general hr work experience. the second category, senior professional hr, is for people who have eight years of progressive experience and understand how businesses function.the third category, the global professional hr, is for those who have core knowledge of organisations’ international hr activities (hrci, 2004). as far as generalist and specialist categories are concerned, the hrci found that more than 80% of those who applied for certification were generalists. the hrci then decided to discontinue registering specialists in 1988. today it only certifies generalists (tracey, 1998). the ipm was established in britain in 1946. it had its origins in welfare and labour movements as early as 1913. in 1994, it merged with the institute for training and development (itd) to form the institute for professional development (ipd) and gained its royal charter in 2000. today it is the chartered institute ofpersonnel and development (cipd, 2007). it has two classes of membership: full or voting members and non-voting members. full or voting members fall into the chartered category. its lowest level is that of chartered member, followed by the chartered fellow, which requires an upgradefrom the previous level. members achieve the highest level, that of chartered companion, through invitation only. four levels of non-voting members (graduate, licentiate, associate and affiliate) form the second class of members (cipd, 2007). today it has more than 128,000members and dominates the hr landscape in the united kingdom (uk). the cipd acknowledges both generalists and specialists in human resources. it registers specialists in eleven categories. canada’s first national human resources association, the canadian council of human resource associations, was formally established in 1996. it has only one level of registration, that of certified human resource professional. the canadian hr profession requires professional capabilities in seven functional areas of practice and an additional cross-functional area called professional practice in human resources (cchra, 2007). the documents on professionalising hr management in the three examples mentioned above make it clear that four important pillars are the basis of professionalisation in the three countries. these are the ‘body of knowledge’ that professionals must have, ‘ethical conduct’, ‘self regulation’ and ‘duty to society’.these four aspects are the pillars of a profession. the founding history of the various professional bodies and the subsequent professionalisation of the hr profession are well recorded in the three countries. thesabpp, founded at the same time as the hrci in the united states, has never had its history recorded. the first author and other leading members of the sabpp are retiring from the organisation. they have first-hand knowledge of the history of the sabpp because oftheir lengthy tenure with the organisation. therefore, not capturing their thoughts, knowledge and ideas about the inception and development of the organisation will leave a gap in the south african hr literature. it may not be possible to capture the history of the sabpp as accurately in the future. huma van rensburg’s mcom dissertation (2009) is the source of this record of the establishment and early history of the south african board for people practices. research objectives the objectives of this study are to provide an overview of the events that led to the establishment of sabpp (1977–1981), a professional body, and to record the first years of its existence (1982–1991). from this evidence, we can ascertain whether hr management has grown as a profession and the extent of its growth. the research objective led to the formulation of the research question: ‘how did professionalism in hr management emerge in the south african context?’ research design (back to top) research approach babbie and mouton (2006, p. 28) postulate that all human beings ‘are engaged in the process of making sense of their (life) worlds’. one cannot separate reality from the people who observe it. using the ontological approach, the researchers examined the original documents of the sabpp because they contained reliableinformation about the establishment of hr management as a profession in south africa. in addition, the researchers interviewed five founding members of the sabpp for their expert knowledge of the establishment of the sabpp in south africa. the epistemological approach focuses on ‘how we as human beings know the world’ (georgia institute of technology, 2008). using an epistemological approachin the interpretivist paradigm, researchers should ignore pre-conceptions in their understanding of that world (bryman & bell, 2003). the researchers in the current study believed it was necessary to investigate and interpret the history of hr management in south africa from the information they found in original archived documents and from the points of view of the five founding members of the sabpp. research strategy the researchers followed a qualitative research strategy. they used original documents of the sabpp and semi-structured interviews with founding members of thesabpp for the current study. the researchers achieved triangulation in the following ways: • by using archived documents of the sabpp because they yielded historical information about the thinking at the time of the establishment of the hr profession in south africa • by conducting semi-structured interviews with five founding members of the sabpp who had helped to establish the professional body, some from the very beginning and some at a slightly later stage • by asking the five founding members to give their comments on how the researchers interpreted the information they gained from the archived documentsand the semi-structured interviews they conducted. research method research setting the researchers perused the original documents at the premises of the sabpp. most of the founding members of the sabpp are no longer with the board and the researchers contacted and conducted the interviews at their homes or workplaces. entrée and establishing the role of the researchers the first researcher is chief executive officer (ceo) of the sabpp. therefore, the researchers had access to the original documents that traced the history of hrmanagement in south africa. the researchers also knew which of the founding members would be able to contribute to the study. the researchers had access to the contact details of the founding members and had contacted them personally to explain the aim of the study and to obtain permission to interview them. one of the researchers is in a perfect position to do this study, having been the registrar and later chief executive officer of the regulatory body in south africa for 21 years of the 28 years of the board’s existence. therefore, someone who has lived through most of the board’s history conducted the research into the history of professional human resource management in south africa. however, the researchers made every effort to remain objective and allow for other perspectives throughinterviews with primary stakeholders in the sabpp. sampling the researchers used purposive sampling to identify the documents they would use to trace the history of hr management in south africa. they also used purposive sampling to select the research participants. they chose five founding members of the sabpp for their in-depth knowledge of the history of the sabpp and the beginnings of hr management in south africa. data collection the researchers collected data from various sources. these included minutes, filed correspondence, newsletters, annual reports, committee files and others not inthe public domain as well as newspaper clippings the sabpp had. this is the first recording of the history of the sabpp from documents not in the public domain. it is an opportunity to safeguard historic information, which may otherwise have been lost to the hr community, and to understand how the events that led to the establishment of the sabpp in 1982 unfolded. the researchers also conducted semi-structured interviews with founding members because they could provide in-depth information about the history of hr management in south africa. finally, the researchers provided the information, which they had collected from the archived documents, and the semi-structured interviews to the five founding members for their comments. data recording the researchers extracted relevant data from documents the sabpp had archived. they also made audio recordings of the interviews, and then transcribed andanalysed them. data analysis the researchers conducted content analysis to extract themes from the archived documents and to identify themes from the semi-structured interviews. their content analysis included coding and classifying data (hancock, 2002). according to trochim (2006), coding is a process of categorising qualitative data and describing the implications and details of the categories. open coding created new codes for the transcripts, the archived documents of the sabpp and the semi-structured interviews. the researchers identified a list of categories from the transcripts and initially used open coding to identify themes. strategies to ensure the quality of the research researchers have to ensure the credibility, transferability, confirmability and dependability of data when they conduct qualitative research.in order to show that their data was credible, dependable and confirmable, the researchers collected data from as many sources and situations as possible so that the picture they provided was as complete and rich as possible. the researchers perused the archived information and interviewed founding members to establish their understanding of the history of hr management in south africa. they asked the founding members to comment on the researchers’ interpretations of the information in the archived documents and that they obtained during the semi-structured interviews. the researchers improved transferability because they provided thorough descriptions of the development of the history ofhr management in south africa. for transferability, other researchers will have to look at the context in which hr management is practised and to provide a history of hr management within that context. results (back to top) establishing the south african board for people practices, 1977–1991 the researchers undertook an historic overview of the development of professionalism in human resources in south africa. they concentrated specifically on the establishment and early history of the sabpp. today, the sabpp is the professional registering body for human resource professionals and the statutory qualityassurance body in terms of the south african qualifications authority (saqa) act. an evolving profession, 1973–1976 in south africa, the professionalisation of human resource management became a topic of discussion at ipm council meetings between 1973 and 1976. at this time, the role of personnel managers was taking shape on the international stage. during the same period, there was a concomitant awakening to the fact that the role of the human resource practitioner would become increasingly important in south africa. according to wilhelm crous, ceo of the ipm at the time, the 1973strikes in the sugar industry showed that hr management was not professional enough to handle the crisis. there was also an awareness of the human resource practitioner’s obligation to society and the economy. laying the foundations, 1977–1980 extensive consultations with top hr managers and business people began in about 1977. recognised practitioners in the field, like dick sutton and piet rossouw, members of the first board of the sabpp, and piet van der merwe, the director general of labour at the time, lent their support to the drive to professionalise thepersonnel field. in giving some of the background to the period, cadre (dr) ray eberlein, another member of the first board of the sabpp, commented that south africa had isolated itself from the outside world. however, global imperatives and the need to develop parallel structures was a factor in establishing the board. garry whyte, the acknowledged founding father of the board and its first chairperson, saw the establishment of the sabpp as providing a ‘home’ for youngentrants to the hr field. in the researchers’ interview with wilhelm crous on background issues, he explained that the original idea was to develop legislation to establish a professionalregistering body for personnel practice and that the ipm and government would then launch the body together. government was not opposed to the idea of professionalisation but required that the profession established itself first. this meant the ipm established the sabpp without government buy-in. establishing an ad hoc committee the ipm council established the forerunner to the first board by appointing the ‘ad hoc committee on professional recognition for personnel practitioners’ in 1978. this ad hoc committee started work in 1978. the research langenhoven and daniels (langenhoven & daniels, 1980) initiated research to define a ‘profession’ at the university of the free state and nelson mandelauniversity (national institute of personnel research, or nipr). the langenhoven study, ‘an investigation on the professionalisation of expert personnel management’, appeared in 1980. langenhoven’s research on the importance of professionalising human resources was significant in the whole process. it was not possible to prohibit people like line managers from doing personnel work. therefore, the value of professional registration lay in the fact it would ‘identify people who meet certain qualification requirements and who submit to certain standards of conduct’. langenhoven’s study expressed the view that a regulatory body would be able to guide tertiary institutions on the type of training it required. furthermore, registration, and the status that it conferred, wouldmake it worthwhile for personnel people to acquire the necessary training. langenhoven’s research on the importance of professionalising human resource management was significant in the whole process. a summary of the majorfindings of langenhoven’s (1980) study follows: • personnel staff constituted a relatively small percentage of the total staff establishment (0.82% in 1975 and 0.92% in 1980), but it was clear that they wereincreasing more rapidly than the total staff complement • a relatively small percentage of the staff during the period was qualified to perform expert personnel work, but most (60.9%) had received no post-school training • clerical and semi-professional work took up too much time instead of professional work, which could make a more valuable contribution to organisations • respondents rated consultation with, and services to, managers as the function where personnel practitioners could make the greatest contribution; planning, implementing and evaluating personnel systems and developing objectives and policies on personnel matters followed • as far as the relative importance of various types of knowledge and experience for personnel practitioners was concerned, respondents rated knowledge of an applied behavioural science as most important, followed by practical training and experience in personnel work, knowledge of economic or administrative sciences, knowledge of relevant labour and industrial legislation and anthropology • the most desirable training course seemed to be industrial psychology iii, business economics or industrial sociology ii, labour law i, statistics i, public administration i, applied anthropology i and economics i. the establishment of the south african board for people practices, 1981 the ad hoc committee recommended establishing the sabpp to the council of the ipm in 1981. the committee decided on no discrimination a premise and members of previously disadvantaged groups have been elected to all sabpp boards since its inception. in fact, previously disadvantaged groups had the most electedmembers on the board in the early 2000s. the final meeting of the ad hoc committee, before the establishment of the sabpp, was held on 27 october 1981 and the board was appointed in september 1982under the chairmanship of garry whyte. a list of persons to be invited to serve on the first board was forwarded to the president of the ipm at the time, dr johan gouws. the draft charter and regulations were submitted to ipm members and put to the vote. forty-eight per cent of the members responded. of these, 92% voted in favour of establishing a separate regulatory body for registering hr practitioners and 8% voted against the proposal. the members agreed that, in the interim, the south african board for personnel practice would operate from the offices of the ipm. however, as soon as funds allowed, the sabpp would seek alternative accommodation. the members gave whyte and crous permission to begin the procedure of choosing a suitable heraldic device for the board. garry whyte announced the establishment of the board to government in letters to the director general of manpower, the chairman of the national manpower commission, the chairman of the national training board and in the ipm journal in 1981. the first interim board accepted its mission, philosophy and strategy: • mission: to establish, direct and sustain a high level of professionalism and ethical conduct in personnel practice. • philosophy: to enable those engaged in the personnel profession to make a significant contribution to the organisation, in terms of its management and utilisation of personnel; to the individual, in the realisation of his or her potential, in terms of his or her aspirations; and to the community at large, in terms ofan enhanced quality of life. • strategy: to promote, direct and influence the development of the personnel profession; to set competency standards for the education, training and conduct of those engaged in the profession; to advise involved parties on the development and attaining of those competencies and to evaluate such attainment. at a meeting at the university of stellenbosch in june 1981, the interim board discussed and proposed registration levels and categories and suggested that board should allow the following three specialist categories of registration: • personnel management’ (which later became the ‘generalist’ category) • labour relations’ (which later became ‘employment relations’) • training and development’ (which later became ‘learning and development’). appointment of the first board, 1982 the first board of the sabpp met on 29 november 1982. the appointed board members who attended were mr garry whyte (chairman), prof. h.p. (langie) langenhoven (vice chairman), dr peter berry, prof. johann coetzee, mr wilhelm crous (registrar), mr willem de villiers, cadre (dr) ray eberlein, dr johan gouws (then president of the ipm), mr cyril jantjies, ms. denise jordan, mr japs jacobs, mr ray kwatsha, mr david lamola, mr bulumko msengana, dr gordon nelson,mr wells ntuli, mr john poppleton, mr piet rossouw, prof. dick sutton, prof. blackie swart and ms. judy townsend. prof. i. v. w. raubenheimer was appointed to the first board to replace mr ray kwatsha, who had been transferred to america. a registrar for the board the first order of business was to appoint mr wilhelm crous as part-time registrar of the board, in his individual capacity and not as director of the pm, with theproviso that the appointment would be an interim one and that, as soon as funds allowed, the board would appoint a full time registrar. the board establishes committees te first committees the board established were the registration committee, with dr ray eberlein as its first chair, the education and training committee under the leadership of prof. h. langenhoven, the finance committee under the chairmanship of mr garry whyte and the disciplinary committee under the leadership of mr willem de villiers. the work of the south african board for people practices commences, 1983–1984 the board invited registration for the levels of practitioner, technician and candidate. the fees to register for these three levels were r15 for practitioner, r15 for technician and r10 for candidate. the first code of conduct the board accepted the code and ethics as laid down in its charter: registered members of the personnel profession are obliged to uphold certain standards in their practice, both in the interests of the public and of their calling. these include: • conducting themselves at all times in keeping with the dignity, standing and reputation of the profession • doing their work to the best of their ability and so discharging their duties to employers, employees and clients • not undertaking work for which they are inadequately trained or experienced • not canvassing or soliciting for work in an improper way • refraining from presenting themselves or advertising their services immodestly or in any way undermining to the profession • refraining from any conduct arising from malice or negligence that would harm, directly or indirectly, the business, reputation or prospects of any otherperson or organisation • refusing to disclose confidential information acquired in the course of their professional practice (in a court of law, professional confidence may be breached only under protest and at the direction of the presiding officer) • always obeying the rules and conventions, as prescribed by the board, in their professional life. figure 1: the heraldic device of the south african board for people practices. heraldic device the board assigned the design a heraldic device for the board to whyte and crous. they completed it and registered it with the bureau of state heraldry on 20 february 1984. a description of the coat of arms of the sabpp follows: • arms: per pale or and gules, a bar couped enhanced conjoined to three pallets couped and barbed to base, counter-changed. • crest: a dexter hand issuant holding a torch erect, or, handle sable, enflamed gules. • wreath and mantling: or and gules. • motto: pro facultate. an explanation of the coat of arms follows: • arms: the bar from which the arrows are pended represents the guarding of professional standards. the three arrows represent the principal specialist categories of personnel practice: training and development, industrial relations and personnel services. they also represent the three categories of registration: candidate, technician and practitioner. the arrows point downwards to show depth of professional knowledge. the colour divisions of the shield represent thetransfer from non-professional to professional standing. • crest: the hand symbolises ‘manpower’. the torch symbolises the board’s promotion of education and training in the field of personnel practice. • wreath and mantling: tincture has no special meaning in heraldry. however, the rule of tincture states that colour should not be placed on colour or metalon metal. the board chose red as the colour and gold as the metal. both are primary heraldic tinctures. • motto: ‘according to one’s ability’. the institute of industrial psychology the board discussed its relationship with the south african medical and dental council’s institute of industrial psychology at its meeting of 12 september 1983. the board agreed to establish a special committee to investigate an agreement between the sabpp and the institute of industrial psychology about a specialistcategory. it decided to establish a specialist category of ‘psychologiae’ under both the practitioner and technician levels for industrial psychologists and psychometricians respectively. prof. raubenheimer, who was the chairman of the institute of industrial psychology, conveyed the satisfaction of the institute with this decision. registration commences the registration process began in early 1983. the interim board approved the specialist categories that follow: training and development, industrial relations,recruitment and selection, personnel services, education and research as well as psychologiae. the interim board asked all members to submit their applications for registration. the interim board agreed to reserve the first 21 places for members of the board. recognition of the institute of personnel management diploma the board saw recognising the ipm diploma, so that ipm diplomats could register, as an important goal. the board agreed to submit the ipm diploma to the human sciences research council and to the sabpp’s education and training committee to evaluate its education level and relevancy. the ipm diploma should have been recognised as an m+3 level qualification. a higher diploma, which could have been acknowledged at m+4 level, should have been introduced. however, these developments never happened. universities of technology and other qualifying institutions should have offered a higher diploma at m+4 level. introducing a b tech degree in hr met this need. furthering statutory recognition, 1985–1986 the draft personnel practice bill from its inception, the sabpp saw official recognition for the hr profession as a major goal. after its inauguration in 1982, the board immediately began workingtowards statutory recognition. it addressed a memorandum to the director general of manpower. it outlined the implications of statutory recognition for human resource professionals. the board spent much of its time drawing up a charter and regulations in preparation for statutory status. government gazette no. 9957 vol. 244 of 4 october 1985 published the first charter of the board. at the september 1983 meeting of the board, garry whyte reported that a meeting had been held with dr piet van der merwe of the department of manpower in cape town on 18 june 1983. dr van der merwe had urged the sabpp to prepare draft legislation for statutory recognition for 1985. the board welcomed thisproposal and agreed to ask dr van der merwe to go through the legislation with the committee it had established to deal with the matter. garry whyte arranged a meeting with the minister of manpower, p. du plessis, to negotiate passing the personnel practice bill. some lobbied against the bill becauseit would make human resources exclusive and expensive. cabinet decided that, in the climate of deregulation at the time, it would not go ahead with statutory recognition. the minister of manpower officially declined to table the bill in parliament. by the end of 1986, the number of registered practitioners stood at 3491. voluntary professionalism, 1987 a letter from the board’s first registrar, dated 4 february 1987, read: as it now appears that statutory recognition will not be realised within the short or medium term, the executive committee recommends that the sabpp registers as a company not for gain. the draft legislation has therefore been converted back to the original charter of the sabpp. (crous, 1987) it had become clear that the board would have to rethink its entire position, which up to that point had revolved around statutory recognition. therefore, it investigated and discussed voluntary professionalism. it visited the national productivity institute (npi) and the national occupational safety association (nosa). the minutes of the february 1987 meeting reported that both these organisations had official recognition without statutory status. the board then investigated establishing the sabpp as a section 21 company. however, a board meeting of the sabpp did not recommend this step and it remained an association not for gain. the sabpp launched an intensive public relations campaign to inform employers of its work and aims. the board was restructured to make room for representatives from other bodies. the ipm appointed three institute representatives: • two members from the institute of personnel management (ipm) • one member from the institute of industrial psychology (iip). five employer organisations appointed representatives: • one member from the federated chamber of industries (fci) • one member from the afrikaanse handelsinstituut (ahi) • one member from the national african federated chamber of commerce (nafcoc) • one member from the commission for administration (coa) • one member from the associated chamber of commerce (acc). the ministry of manpower appointed two ministerial representatives. the sunday times of 20 november 1988 reported this change to the structure of the board: the most recent development is that representatives of the ministry of manpower and all five major employer organisations have joined the sa board for personnel practice. inclusion of these members has added to the board’s ability to influence the development of the personnel profession, of which it is the regulating body. (sunday times, 20 november 1988) first election of a south african board for people practices the sabpp posted the notice of the election of the second board to registered professionals on 20 february 1987. as the ipm had appointed the first board, this wasthe first election the sabpp would hold. the election proceeded smoothly and the following board members became the first elected members: mr m.b. burgess, mr w.s. de villiers, dr j.s. gouws, mr m.s.khumalo, prof. h.p. langenhoven, mr z.w. ntuli, prof. i. van w. raubenheimer, mr p.w.g. rossouw, mr m. thantsa, mr g. van der straaten and mr g.s. whyte (unanimously re-elected as chairman of the board). nominations for representatives from other bodies at that stage included: cdre. r. eberlein and prof. c.d. pottas (ipm), dr c. schilbach (iip), mr n.e. seaber (assocom) and mr t. van den bergh (fci). the first meeting of the board confirmed the following nominations: mr j.h.c. kastner (commission for administration), messers k.w. du toit and r.m. dilman (manpower), mr m. sebesho (nafcoc) and mr g.m. albertyn (ahi). the composition of the second board was only finalised in early 1989 when cdre ray eberlein replaced mr mike burgess after his resignation as an elected member. mr wilhelm crous resigned as registrar and became a member of the board as the representative of the ipm. a request was received for the sabpp to allow representation on the board for each specialist category so that their interests could be adequately monitored. the sabpp decided that this would make the board too large and rejected the suggestion. it rejected another suggestion, for representation of higher education institutions with hr programmes, for the same reason. an human resource candidateship a candidate programme, designed for the south african defence force (sadf) under the leadership of cadre (dr) ray eberlein, was formally submitted to theeducation and training committee for approval. the board accepted the sadf programme, which stretched over a two-year period. it communicated this decision to the sadf and the minutes reported that gen. s meyer (chief of staff personnel) wrote to thank the board. basics reviewed, 1988 at the first meeting of the fully constituted second board, the meeting elected the executive committee. it comprised the chairman, vice chairman and registrar. objectives for the 1988–1991 term of office the sabpp set objectives, which the board approved, for the 1988–1991 term of office. they were to: • identify, analyse and verify the acceptability of the formal qualifications that are available locally to applicants • specify the types of experience that are acceptable for registration • develop a formal examination for doubtful candidates • publish and market the benefits of registering • conduct a campaign to register candidates who are studying in the hr field. the board then attended to various aspects of professionalism. it investigated the issue of granting post-nominal designations and decided on three pre-conditions: • a well-established registration process • clearly defined, and tested in practise, standards of registration • registration of a significant number of people. the board decided that these conditions had been met and proceeded with official applications. it followed this by announcing officially that it had applied for legal protection of the names ‘registered personnel practitioner (rpp)’ and ‘registered personnel technician (rpt)’. proposed board examination the board held extensive discussions about the registration criteria for hr practitioners. on inception, the board had introduced a ‘grandfather’ clause to accommodate senior hr practitioners who did not have the necessary qualifications for the initial intake of registrations. with the termination of the grandfather clause, planned for the end of 1988, it became clear that some mechanism to deal with people practising in the personnel field without qualifications might always be necessary. registration based on experience only did not meet this need. the board tabled the introduction of a board examination for the first time and decided to study the process used for chartered accountants. the board would continue, through the years, to deal with applicants who did not have relevant academic qualifications. today, the board uses recognition of prior learning (rpl). personnel management vs. human resources in the board’s name it is clear from the minutes of the board that it had received requests, from as far back as 1978, to replace the term ‘personnel’ with the term ‘human resources’.cdre. ray eberlein, chairman of the registration committee, produced a paper on the subject. a brief summary of the board’s conclusions appeared in its 1988 newsletter: we believe that ‘human resource management’ is a general description of those activities carried out in an organisation, by any manager, designed to optimise the contribution of the human resource to the achievement of the organisation’s objectives. we believe that the term ‘personnel management’ is a specific description of those activities carried out by qualified specialists, designed to apply a defined body of knowledge (drawn from the social sciences) to the maintenance, utilisation and development of the human resource within the work environment.furthermore, your board is reluctant to use the term ‘management’ in the context of its name, since many of the specialists referred to above are not managers: in fact, the only person who should logically carry the title ‘personnel manager’ is a person who exercises line authority over others within the personnel function. (newsletter, 1988) the board announced its decision to continue using the name ‘south african board for personnel practice’ to the fraternity. it finally changed its name to the ‘south african board for people practices’ in 2009. during this time, the board reviewed its disciplinary procedures and ethical code. the board confirmed that its code covered all aspects of the american hr code and that of the south african psychological association. at the time, the board regarded these criteria as sufficient for a code for the hr profession. a survey of top executive salary increases and other benefits showed that personnel executives had soared from bottom place to top (percentage growth) in just four years, according to an article that stan kennedy published in the saturday star of 15 october 1988. the information came from a survey that pe corporateservices carried out and included chief, financial and marketing executives. it showed a growing emphasis on the ‘people side of business’. the article also quoted garry whyte, the chairman of the sabpp, as saying: the board will no longer register candidates unless they meet the registration requirements for a personnel practitioner which will comprise of a four-year academic qualification, recognised by the controlling board of sabpp, as well as a two-year supervised candidateship of practical training and experience in the field. (garry whyte, the chairman of the sabpp) in the interview, which the editor of the sabpp newsletter requested, whyte also said: the skills of personnel management are a critical issue in the private and public sectors. there is a new breed of personnel manager. the work is much more sophisticated and the issue of competence is vital. (garry whyte, the chairman of the sabpp) the board decided to promote liaison with tertiary education institutions that offer qualifications in human resource management, not in an attempt to dictate to the education institutions, but rather to keep them informed of the requirements in the marketplace where their students would work once they qualified. the board appointed prof. chris pottas to undertake a survey to establish exactly what educational qualifications the institutions were offering in the hr field. the board discussed registering the hr programmes of higher education institutions. a period of consolidation, 1989 the board expanded its executive committee to include the chairmen of each of its committees. establishing an upgrade process at its first meeting of 1989, the board considered establishing a bridging facility to allow a personnel technician to upgrade to personnel practitioner. it proposed and accepted: • recognition of the ipm diploma as an m+3 level qualification and to introduce a higher diploma that it could recognise at m+4 level • that technikons (now universities of technology) and other qualifying institutions should offer a higher diploma at m+4 level • that a person registered as a personnel technician, and who had obtained a recognised higher diploma that the board recognised, would be able to apply for an upgrade to practitioner level. in exceptional cases, the board might make a board examination available. it appointed an examination commission and set stringent entry criteria. these stipulated that the person had to be a graduate and had to have at least 10 years of relevant experience. the board announced these decisions by newsletter in the ipm journal and to the various tertiary institutions by letter. the board decided that it would automatically register the students of those universities that had submitted their programmes to the board for approval. theboard approached universities with an invitation to apply for accreditation. the first university to accept this invitation was the university of pretoria, through prof. leopold vermeulen. in november 1989, the board was able to report that six of south africa’s leading universities, as well as the ipm, had asked the board to accredit their personnel programmes. appointment of first full-time registra after an extended period of recruitment, the board appointed its first full-time registrar, huma van rensburg, on 1 may 1989. she took over from the part-timeregistrar, wilhelm crous. the board occupied a boardroom within the ipm suite of offices. statutory recognition removed from the agenda the minutes of 18 july 1989 recorded a decision to remove the matter of statutory recognition from the agenda of the board. however, the minutes noted that it might be raised again should a more positive climate develop. the board also approved a suggestion that it has an annual meeting with the minister of manpower. south african board for people practices participation in world federation of personnel management associations survey in 1989, the participation of the sabpp in the survey of the wfpma was another accomplishment. the survey rated south africa as the best in its approach to professionalism in personnel practice. it quoted whyte as saying that south africa’s input to the wfpma report was markedly different from the rest of theworld because of several factors that affected its thinking on personnel practice. the wfpma report highlighted that african representatives rated academic and professional training far higher, on a list of major concerns, than any other region. register for training instructors during the period of consolidation, the board discussed establishing a separate register for training instructors. the national training board supported this move, on condition that the sabpp maintained its independence. despite this promising start, the matter went no further and trainers remained on the general register.the board would review the matter when the numbers of trainers registering with the sabpp increased substantially. the south african board for people practices report at the institute of personnel management convention whyte gave an extensive report on the work and decisions of the board at the ipm convention of 1989. he mentioned four main accomplishments: firstly. we in the personnel fraternity now unambiguously regard ourselves as professional people; and concepts like ‘professionalism’ and ‘professionalstandards’ have assumed a central role in our thinking. this was not the case when the board was established in 1982. secondly. we now comprehend, very clearly, the difference between the term ‘personnel practice’ (which describes our unique role as functional specialists), and theterm ‘personnel management’ (which refers to the generic role of managing people at work – a task performed by almost every executive). this was also not the case in 1982. thirdly. and in similar vein, words like ‘practitioner’, and ‘technician’, and ‘generalist’, and ‘specialist’, have become common currency in the language of our profession and it was the board that formulated and propagated the concepts underlying these words. fourthly. and with increasing frequency, one finds in job descriptions, in selection specifications, and in job vacancy advertisements, reference to registration with the board as an expression of desired performance standards and the concomitant of this is that personnel people are increasingly making reference in their cvs to the fact of their professional registration. (garry whyte, the chairman of the sabpp) by 1991, the number of registered professionals had reached 3554. accreditation and research, 1990 accreditation of tertiary training institutions audit teams conducted the first audits of the curricula of tertiary training institutions. a senior academic from another institution led each audit. each audit team comprised the senior academic, the registrar of the board and at least two senior practitioners in the field. the board announced that it had accredited the curricula of some universities in august 1990: on recommendation of the education and training committee, the board accredited the curricula of the following universities for a period of three years, to the end of 1993: university of fort hare, university of the free state, university of port elizabeth, university of potchefstroom, university of pretoria, university of stellenbosch, university of south africa and university of the witwatersrand. (board announcement, august 1990) technikons (now universities of technology) and the institute of personnel management the board accepted the diplomas in personnel management that the technikons (universities of technology) and the ipm offered for registration to personnel technician. leading academics in the field, like prof. naas raubenheimer, prof. stephen bluen, prof. leopold vermeulen and others, attended a meeting in 1991.after this meeting, the board accepted the b.tech that technikons (universities of technology) offered for registering practitioners. reporting on human resources in company annual reports garry whyte became a strong proponent for the full disclosure of human resource data in the annual reports of companies. whyte stated, in early 1990, that an annual report would become a much more powerful tool if it provided information on issues like labour productivity, relationswith unions and workforce morale. he went on to say: some companies pay lip service to black advancement. but what are they really doing to address the problem? it is a core issue for the future viability of every southafrican organisation. (garry whyte, the chairman of the sabpp) the board published its first formal annual report (for the 1989 fiscal year) to express the board’s support for transparency in all its processes and finances. the board has published these reports annually ever since. first board examinations the board thought that a board examination to enable people who satisfy other stringent criteria to become personnel practitioners was essential. prof. chris pottas, chairman of the board’s education and training committee, said in a speech to the board: the decision in no way means a lowering of registration standards. in fact, the introduction of a board examination is designed to ensure the maintenance of the highest professional standards. (prof. chris pottas, speech to the board) the first candidates wrote the board examinations in 1990 as a way of entering the professional ranks of very experienced hr practitioners who lacked the necessary academic qualifications. the board applied admission requirements strictly and accepted only nine examinees for the first group. first position paper of the board — a generic competency model the sabpp, together with eskom, published a generic competency model for human resource practitioners in 1990. this work was fundamental to the later work ofthe standards generating body for hr management and practice for delineating the field and writing the first unit standards. bio-demographic survey a bio-demographic survey of registered practitioners began in 1990 and the board received 2065 returns. it published the results in a newsletter dated november 1991. the profile that emerged showed that a large majority of registered human resource professionals (76.24%) had formal qualifications. males still dominated the profession and afrikaans (50.6% and english (45%) were the languages most professionals used. it would be interesting to do a comparative study of today’s registered professionals. when the board conducted the survey, it seemed that south african hr practitioners, who were registering as professionals, compared very favourably with overseas colleagues and were, on the whole, better qualified. what is unique about this development has been the emergence of a large number of young and well-qualified black hr practitioners who presented themselves for professional registration. hr management is the one profession in south africa that is well on its way to becoming the most racially representative profession. serving on the certification council for technikon education because the sabpp accredited technikons (universities of technology) to train human resource practitioners, the certification council for technikon education(sertec) invited the sabpp to serve on its certification council. the board served on this body until the south african qualifications authority (saqa) and the higher education quality council (heqc) replaced it. the end of an era the first chairman of the board, garry slessor whyte, passed away on 27 february 1991. the essence of his last public speech, which he made at the end of 1990, was that business leaders and personnel practitioners should make a concerted effort to advance black people to director and managerial positions and not pay lipservice to black empowerment. the board elected wilhelm crous as its second chairman in 1991. this marks the end of the official record of the establishment and early history of the sabpp from 1977–1991. many of the founding members of the sabpp are no longer with us. the researchers distributed this history to five people, who were present at the beginning or joined in the work during the first years, for input. those who read the recorded history and established the veracity of the record were: • dr ray eberlein, member of the ad hoc committee established in 1978 to form the sabpp • prof. johann coetzee and judy norris, members of the first board of the sabpp • wilhelm crous, ceo of ipm at the time and the first part-time registrar of the sabpp • ivan lätti, who represented the ipm on the board of the sabpp in the early years. suggestions for further research (back to top) this is by no means a comprehensive history of the sabpp. however, it traces the history of the sabpp from the first discussions to the death of the founding father,garry whyte. the researchers recorded the history within the larger context of the dissertation on the professionalisation of hr management worldwide and the concurrentdevelopments in south africa. the major emphasis in the early history was the establishment and development under the guidance of the founding father of the sabpp, garry whyte. with his death in 1991, a new era dawned for the board. the researchers recorded the era until 1990 from fragmented documents. after 1990, the board compiledand published annual reports and they became the records of board happenings, decisions and events after 1991 (van rensburg, 2009). the researchers recommend that further research is done to cover the years 1991–2011. it should record how the socio-political changes of the nineties affected theboard, how the development of the national qualifications framework influenced the board to seek accreditation as a statutory quality assurance body and how research became a major thrust. figure 2: garry whyte. conclusion (back to top) if one considers that professions, like the legal and medical professions, took hundreds of years to develop to their current levels of sophistication, one needs reminding that hr management is a fledgling profession. professionalisation of hr management in south africa is growing apace. its role, in taking responsibilityfor good governance and ethics, continued professional development and research, has created an awareness of the benefits of professionalisation to the industry and to the country as a whole. hr management does not grow in isolation, but in conjunction with the management and decision sciences in the economy. industrial psychology is acknowledged as the mother science for hr management in the south african context. nevertheless, the conclusion that hr management is a profession in every sense of the word is inescapable. one of the aspects of the dissertation, which is the basis of this article, was an investigation into the nature of professionalism by looking at the origins and foundations of four major professions (engineering, medical, legaland accounting). the researchers identified the following fundamental principles in these professions: • mastery of a complex body of knowledge and skills • a commitment to integrity and morality through a code of conduct • autonomy in practice and self-regulation • acceptance of a duty to society. hr management measures up to every one of these criteria. there is every expectation that the hr profession will consolidate and build upon the work it has done over the past three decades. with ethics and registration criteria, standards and processes in place, the board has achieved statutory status as the accredited quality assurance body for hr management in south africa. it is currently concentrating on a seamless electronic continued professional development (cpd) system and has an impressive research agenda. it has either completed 16 opinion papers, best practice papers and case studies or they are in the pipeline. it also published a book, wisdom from hr mentors, in march 2011 (meyer, 2011). to meet the ideals of the founders of professional hr management in south africa, it is important for the board to become visible and to convince industry and government that supporting the continued professionalisation of hr management is in their best interests. hr management is a specialist profession. it has a pivotal role to play as caretaker of the most valued asset in business — people. fill this profession with practitioners who have scientific expertise and competence, as well as a deeply felt moral obligation to integrity and to society, and the board will have done the country an inestimable service. the sabpp has done valuable work to establish good governance and ethical principles, develop levels, categories and criteria, establish continued professional development and a strong research arm. this has led to a better understanding of acceptable standards of practice in hr management. the sabpp deserves commendation for its groundbreaking work. references (back to top) babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2006). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford university press. bryman, a., & bell, e. (2003). breaking down the quantitative/qualitative divide. in a. bryman & e. bell (eds.), business research methods, (pp. 465–478). oxford: oxford university press. cchra. (2007). official website of the canadian council of human resources associations. retrieved 22 april 2007, from www.cchra.ca cipd, (2007). official website of the chartered institute of personnel and development. retrieved 19 august 2007, from www.cipd.co.uk georgia institute of technology. (2008). qualitative methods reminder. retrieved 01 december 2008, from hcc.cc.gatech.edu/getdocument.php?doc=63 hancock, b. (2002). introduction to qualitative research. retrieved 02 december 2008, from www.trentrdsu.org.uk/cms/uploads/qualitative%20research.pdf hrci. (2004). official website of the human resource certification institute, an affiliate of the society for human resource management. retrieved december 22, 2007, from http://www.hrci.org heneman, h. (1948). qualifying the professional industrial relations worker. retrieved december 01, 2008, from http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_n11_v38/ai_14837381 langenhoven, h.p., & daniels h.f. (1980). investigation on the professionalisation of expert personnel management. department of industrial psychology personnel research division. bloemfontein: university of the free state. leonard, b. (2004). a brief history of hrci. retrieved december 01, 2008, from http://www.hrci.org/aboutus/history meyer, m. (ed). (2011). wisdom from hr mentors. johannesburg: sabpp/knowledge resources. mishoe, s.c. (2003). critical thinking in respiratory care practice. a qualitative research study. retrieved june 01, 2010, from http://www.rcjournal.com/abstracts/1996/?id=a00001283 rossman, g.b., & rallis, s.f. (1998). learning in the field: an introduction to qualitative research. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. strauss, a., & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques. newbury park: sage publications. tracey, w.r. (1998). the human resources glossary. washington, d.c: st. lucie press. trauth, e.m. (2001). qualitative research in is: issues and trends. hershey: idea group publishing. trochim, w.m.k. (2006). introduction to design. retrieved june 01, 2010, from http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/desintro.htm ungerer, m., herholdt, j., & uys, k. (2006). leveraging knowledge-based assets – the new value equation to create competitive advantage. johannesburg: knowres. van rensburg, a.h. (2009). human resource management as a profession in south africa. unpublished mphil dissertation, university of pretoria, pretoria. abstract introduction literature review methods results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) hamfrey sanhokwe graduate school of business leadership, faculty of commerce, midlands state university, gweru, zimbabwe citation sanhokwe, h. (2022). evaluating a desire to telework structural model: the role of perceived quality of life, workload, telework experience and organisational telework support. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1848. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1848 original research evaluating a desire to telework model: the role of perceived quality of life, workload, telework experience and organisational telework support hamfrey sanhokwe received: 10 dec. 2021; accepted: 12 apr. 2022; published: 21 dec. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: beyond the motivation paradigm that underpins most telework research, the meaning paradigm offers a complementary vantage point to appreciate employees’ desires in the face of emerging threats to the traditional workplace. research purpose: the research developed and tested a multilevel moderated mediation model to explain the desire to telework. motivation for the study: a high-performance culture based on leadership excellence dictates that organisations keep a pulse and act on desires of their employees, an urgent priority given the pandemic-induced structural changes to the traditional workplace. research design or approach and method: data were collected from a non-probability sample of 185 non-governmental sector employees. mplus v8 was used to test the multilevel moderated mediation model. main findings: the mediated relationship between quality of life and the desire to telework was significantly influenced by perceptions of workload and organisational support for telework. organisational telework support had a compensatory effect on workload. there were significant differences in the desire to telework by gender, level and location of work. practical and managerial implications: despite the intensification and extensification of work characterising teleworking environments, the results affirm a growing desire to utilise telework opportunities as circumstances permit. ensuring access to and availability of appropriate telework resources is paramount to satisfying this desire. contribution or value-add: insights on employee desires and the associated influence levers offer leadership teams an opportunity to translate them into dedicated actions that enhance the employee experience, and by extension, create thriving organisations. keywords: desire to telework; multilevel moderated mediation; desire fulfilment theory; cor theory; changing workplace. introduction the multiple-wave covid-19 pandemic disrupted the structure of the traditional workplace in developing countries (bennett, 2021). in rapidly evolving contexts, leadership excellence dictates that organisations keep a pulse and act on the realities and desires of their employees, a high-performance culture orientation (setiawan et al., 2021; suardhita, rafik, & siregar, 2020). the desire to telework is influenced by different mechanisms at multiple levels. satisfying that desire could be a source of fulfillment, allowing employees to flourish. anchored on the desire for fulfillment of well-being and conservation of resources (cor) theories, this study developed and tested a multilevel moderated mediation model to explain the desire to telework. the premise is that the quality of life of employees could indirectly effect their desire to telework. this mediated relationship is contingent on the perceived workload and organisational telework support. by seamlessly integrating the work and nonwork domains, the model places talent at the centre of organisational decisions regarding conditions of work, employee wellbeing and the future of the workplace. according to the world health organisation (who) (1995), quality of life is ‘an individual’s perception of his or her position in life in the context of the culture in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns’. pandemics such as covid-19, which affect the lives of employees, impact the social, physical, economic and psychological aspects of employees, as well as their well-being (algahtani, hassan, alsaif, & zrieq, 2021). there is limited empirical research on the quality of life of employees during the pandemic and whether this has an impact on the telework experience and their desire to telework. understanding the conditions under which quality of life predicts the experience of teleworking and the desire to telework could help organisational leaders reimagine the future of work. given the high risk of organisational inertia, this investigation is timely and could address some of the cognitive biases that threaten the very existence of the organisations. objectives of the study the study satisfied the following objectives: evaluate the moderating role of perceived workload in the relationship between employee quality of life and teleworking experience. evaluate the moderating role of perceived organisational telework support in the relationship between employee teleworking experience and the desire to telework. evaluate the conditional indirect effects of perceived workload and organisational telework support on the mediated relationship between employee quality of life and desire to telework. literature review theoretical underpinning of the study the study is anchored on the desire–fulfilment theory of well-being and the cor theory. desire is a state of mind which shapes how employees perceive, think and act (schroeder, 2020). the desire–fulfillment theory emphasises that employees desire what is good for them. fulfillment (or otherwise) of this desire may define survival and levels of employee engagement that could influence organisational performance (schroeder, 2020; veldsman & johnson, 2016). given that desiring is a paradigmatic way to find something compelling or attractive, the theory suggests a strong link between welfare and desire (fletcher, 2016). employees are viewed as subjects of welfare. in this vein, the theory posits that the stronger the desire, the more beneficial its satisfaction is (heathwood, 2016). furthermore, the theory recognises that desires are an experiential quantity (self-experience and/or the shared experience of others) that evolves, hence the need to mindfully monitor the changes. according to the cor theory, employees ‘strive to obtain, retain, foster and protect those things they centrally value’ (hobfoll et al., 2018, p. 105). acts of discomfort arise when central resources to satisfy a need or a desire (work-related or otherwise) are lost or threatened, or when there is limited opportunity to (re)gain them. the cor theory recognises the important role that work and nonwork resources play in enabling employees to attain their goals (hobfoll, 1989, 2001, 2011; hobfoll et al., 2018). a high workload can exhaust employee resources, cause stress and affect the teleworking experience. in contrast, mechanisms that generate or provide additional or complementary resources create a positive impetus for employees by satisfying their needs and desires. model and hypotheses the premise for the multilevel moderated mediation model presented in figure 1 is that the moderated effects (workload and perceived organisational support for telework) and the mediated effects (telework experience) on the desire to telework are influenced by different mechanisms at each of the two levels. the study hypothesises that employee quality of life influences the desire to telework. employee telework experience the study argues mediates this relationship. furthermore, the study argues that perceived workload and organisational telework support moderate the aforementioned mediated relation. figure 1: hypothesised moderated mediation model. quality of life, workload and experience of teleworking teleworking experiences manifest in the form of positive or negative emotions, the degree to which the employee is engaged in the telework situation, the sense of achievement and the general meaning under the circumstances (seligman, 2012). the myriad of preventive measures enacted by governments to mitigate the effects of the pandemic can affect employee quality of life, including general functioning and well-being (algahtani et al., 2021). the term ‘coronaphobia’ has been presented in recent literature depicting the anxiety and stress created by the covid-19 pandemic (asmundson & taylor, 2020; lee, jobe, mathis, & gibbons, 2020). on the other hand, research also acknowledges the benefits of teleworking on other dimensions of quality of life (chong, huang, & chang, 2020; loia & adinolfi, 2021). the quality of life could shape the experience of teleworking. furthermore, emerging data show that teleworkers worked longer hours (de filippis, impink, singell, polzer, & sadun, 2020). work intensification and extensification have become synonymous with teleworking (palumbo, 2020; thulin, vilhelmson, & johansson, 2019). perceived workload could affect the strength of the relationship between quality of life and teleworking experience, that is: hypothesis 1: perceived workload moderates the relationship between perceived quality of life and the experience of telework. teleworking experience, organisational support for telework and desire to telework a study by georgescu, gherghina, duca, postole and constantinescu (2021) reported that a bias towards telework depended on an individual’s evaluation of a previous teleworking experience. existing research affirms the role of organisational resources in expanding employees’ ability to meet their personal and organisational goals (li, zhang, yan, wen, & zhang, 2020). under a teleworking regime, organisational telework support can include information technology (it) support (including data availability, it gadgets, effective platforms for communication and troubleshooting support); availability and access to timely information and relevant work documents (or other material) as well as role clarity and decision-making processes (chong et al., 2020). the quality, including the sufficiency, of such support could magnify the extent to which telework experience influences the desire to telework, that is: hypothesis 2: perceived organisational telework support moderates the relationship between the employee’s experience with telework and the desire to telework. accounting for the two-stage moderated mediation according to the cor theory, ‘resource loss is not only more powerful than resource gain in magnitude but also tends to affect people more rapidly and at increasing speed over time’ (hobfoll et al., 2018, p. 105). this explains why perceived workload, a resource-depleting attribute, is placed as a first-level moderator whose influence, it is hypothesised, dilutes the teleworking experience, as it is a survival-threatening aspect of work. the second principle of cor theory emphasises the direct replacement of resources to compensate for real or perceived resource losses. mass teleworking pushed employees out of their traditional workspaces. therefore, the access to and availability of telework resources have a protective effect. as posited by the third principle of the cor theory, the infusion of resources through organisational support for telework can have a powerful impact on employees. it is argued that sufficient organisational telework resources offset the effect of high workload and inculcate a desire to telework. furthermore, it is argued that without sufficient organisational telework resources, employees resort to alternative survival strategies, including pushing for a return to the traditional workplace, as they would have failed to adapt. it is hypothesised that: hypothesis 3: the strength of the mediated relationship between quality of life and desire to telework is positive under high (viz. low) organisational telework support conditions regardless of the perceived workload. effect of control variables control variables such as gender, age, level and location of work have been shown to reliably differentiate employee preferences on a variety of work-related outcomes and choices. a study by lyttelton et al. (2020) suggested that teleworking had a greater impact on women’s time than men. despite this, brynjolfsson et al. (2020) found that women were more likely to transition to teleworking than men. a 2016 gallup report on the state of the american workforce showed that 47% of millennials and 31% of baby boomers would switch to jobs that gave them the opportunity to telework. study contexts influence these choices. in most organisations, senior staff enjoy better packages, and have access to better telework-related resources. further, national level staff are typically located in the capital cities that offer better services such as internet connectivity. this study argues that: hypothesis 4: control variables such as gender, age, level and location of work reliably differentiate employee preferences on teleworking. methods participants and setting a non-probability sample of 185 ngo employees in zimbabwe and eswatini informed the study. fifty-one per cent were men and about 97% of the overall sample reached higher (tertiary) education. sixty-five per cent of the sample were married. the average age was 35.6 years (standard deviation [sd] = 7.13). junior-level employees constituted 48% of the sample, with middle-level and senior-level employees making up 32% and 20% of the total sample, respectively. the average tenure was 6 years (sd = 5 years). measures five constructs were used in the study. these are described here. quality of life this construct was measured using the 26-item eight world health organization quality of life instrument, that is, whoqol-bref (whoqol, 1995). employees self-reported their physical health, psychological health, social relationships and environment, as well as their overall quality of life and general health, using a five-point likert-type scale. the sample items included ‘how satisfied are you with your ability to perform your daily living activities?’, ‘how would you rate your quality of life?’ and ‘how often do you have negative feelings such as blue mood, despair, anxiety and depression?’. employee teleworking experience four questions were used to describe the experience of teleworking employees. employees self-rated their responses using a five-point likert-type scale (‘1 = strongly disagree’; ‘5 = strongly agree’). the sample items included: ‘i exude positive emotions when teleworking’, ‘i am fully engaged with the teleworking situation’, ‘i feel a strong sense of accomplishment under the circumstances’. perceived workload three items were used to gauge the perceived workload under the teleworking regime. employees self-rated their responses using a three-item likert-type scale (‘1 = decreased’, ‘2 = continued the same’, ‘3 = increased’. sample items included ‘my working hours have …’, ‘the number of deliverables expected from me have …’ and ‘adhoc and planned meetings have …’. desire to telework the ‘desire to telework’ was derived from the question ‘would you like to telework in the future?’. participants self-rated their responses using a binary response code, that is, ‘1 = yes’; ‘0 = otherwise’. perceived organisational telework support seven items were used to measure this construct (e.g. ‘clear goals, objectives and activities were defined during the remote working period’; ‘we were organised into teams with clear tasks’; ‘an array of routine remote working support was available to us’). employees self-rated their responses using a 5-point likert-type scale (‘1 = strongly disagree’; ‘5 = strongly agree’). to calculate the variable ‘perceived organisational telework support’, the responses were recorded in a binary form where 1 denoted those who agreed or strongly agreed or ‘0 = otherwise’. the sum of the seven interactions determined the degree of perceived organisational support for telework. procedure similar to most of the research conducted during the covid-19 pandemic, the study utilised the online data collection platform surveymonkey (www.surveymonkey.com) to collect data using the snowball technique. the survey link was shared with a few preselected contacts who were encouraged to share it with their colleagues in the ngo sector. participants completed the online survey in their individual capacities. all participants gave their informed consent (opt-in approach). the purpose of the study was clearly explained on the survey landing page. participation in the study was strictly voluntary. no personally identifiable information was collected and the study adhered to strict confidentiality and anonymity rules. statistical analysis the hypothesised multilevel moderated-mediation model was tested using mplus v8 (muthén & muthén, 2017) using the five observed variables detailed earlier. simple slopes between quality of life and teleworking experience at different levels of perceived levels of work are presented in figure 1. similarly, simple slopes between employee telework experience and desire to telework at different levels of perceived organisational telework support are presented in figure 2. figure 2: simple slopes between the quality of life and teleworking experience at different levels of workload. to quantify the indirect effects at different levels of the two moderators (perceived workload and organisational telework support), the subgroup approach proposed by edwards and lambert (2007) was used. the hypothesised opposite effects of perceived workload and organisational telework support were used to facilitate subgroup comparison; that is, the indirect effects of perceivably ‘higher workload and lower organisational telework support’ subgroups were compared against the ‘lower workload and higher organisational support’ subgroup to determine the significance of moderated mediation. the results are presented in table 2. logistic regressions, using odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals, were used to test hypothesis 4. results the results of the moderated mediation analysis are detailed in tables 1 and 2, as well as figures 1, 2 and 3. quality of life was positively associated with the experience of telework (0.32; standard error [se] = 0.06; p = 0.00). perceived workload moderated the relationship between employee quality of life and teleworking experience (−0.16; se = 0.04, p = 0.01), thus supporting hypothesis 1. table 1: full hypothesised random slopes model with cross-level moderations. table 2: conditional indirect effects at different levels of perceived workload and organisational telework support. figure 3: simple slopes between employee teleworking experience and desire to telework at different levels of perceived organisational telework support. figure 2 shows the simple slopes between quality of life and telework experience at different levels of perceived levels of work. the positive relation between quality of life and the teleworking experience was subdued at high (vs. low) workload levels. telework experience was positively associated with the desire to telework (0.4; se = 0.1; p = 0.03). perceived organisational telework support significantly moderated the relationship between telework experience and desire to telework (0.38; se = 0.04; p = 0.000), thus supporting hypothesis 2. the simple slopes in figure 3 show that the strength of the relationship between the experience of teleworking and the desire to telework was greater in the presence of high (vs. low) organisational support for telework. table 2 presents the subgroup differences in indirect effects on the desire to telework. the mediated relationship between perceived quality of life and desire to telework was significant and higher amongst employees with perceivably lower workload and higher organisational support. the confidence interval does not include zero and hence the result supports hypothesis 5. the converse is true; that is, the mediated relationship between quality of life and desire to telework was significant and negative amongst employees who reported higher workload and low organisational support, see table 2. despite a perceived higher workload, the mediated relationship between quality of life and desire to telework was significant and positive amongst employees who reported higher organisational support, see table 2. this suggests that organisational teleworking resources play a critical role in offsetting negative job demands when teleworking; that is, organisational telework support has a compensatory effect on a high workload. these results support hypothesis 3. almost 7 out of 10 employees (65%) expressed a desire to telework in the future. men were significantly more likely to desire teleworking than women (69% vs. 60%; or [95% ci] = 1.419 [1.210–1.615]; p = 0.036). similarly, those working at national levels (or [95%] = 1.70 [1.219–2.41], p = 0.02) and senior-level employees (or [95% ci] = 3.10 [2.09–4.13]; p = 0.046) were more likely to prefer teleworking than those operating at subnational levels and junior staff, respectively. there was no significant difference by age. these results partially support hypothesis 4. discussion based on the desire fulfillment theory of well-being and the cor theory, the study evaluated multilevel mediation and moderation processes that explain the link between the quality of life and the desire of the employee to telework. the study proposed that the telework experience mediates the relationship between quality of life and the desire of employees to telework. in addition, it was proposed that the strength of the relation between quality of life and the telework experience and the relation between telework experience and the desire of employees to telework at a future time are moderated by employees’ perceptions of the workload and organisational support for telework, respectively. the model was based on the assumption that the moderated and mediated effects on the desire to telework are influenced by different mechanisms related to demands and resources at each of the two levels. all the hypotheses were supported. the results show how workload, as a first stage moderator, acts as a resource-depleting work attribute that diminishes the quality of the teleworking experience. as a second stage moderator, organisational telework support not only replenishes employees’ resource reservoirs, but also significantly offsets the effect of a high workload on employees and promotes the desire to telework. by unpacking the resource-depleting and replenishing mechanisms that influence the telework experience and the desire to telework, this research sheds light on mechanisms that leaders could use to positively influence employee behaviour in an evolving work context. this is more important now given the transition to hybrid models of work. by introducing quality of life and the telework experience of employees in the model, this study extends previous research on the aspects that establish meaning in the lives of employees. at the heart of the global decent work agenda are employee rights at work (rantanen, muchiri, & lehtinen, 2020). workload and organizational support influence the extent to which rights at work are protected and promoted. evolving work contexts offer an opportunity for organisations to undertake creative job redesigns that reduce employee workload and allow employees to disconnect at the appropriate times. employers must generate resources that allow employees to carry out their jobs effectively without causing undue stress. dedicated packages of telework support should be defined and offered without prejudice anyone, regardless of their level of work. harm reduction initiatives also involve mindfully promoting the work and nonwork quality of life dimensions that bring meaning to employees. organisational leaders will need to invest in understanding and supporting the quality of life dimensions that allow employees to bring to work, albeit remotely, their gifts of imagination and dedication. the covid-19 pandemic has created new values, habits and norms that demand the adequate understanding of teleworking-specific job resources, demands and desires. this suggests the need for organisational leaders to protect themselves against traditional false consensus effects on the future of their workplaces. the workplace is assuming a new face and thus warrants agility on the part of leadership. the study results further affirm a growing desire to telework. as postulated by the desire for fulfillment of wellbeing theory, satisfying this desire can positively influence employee behaviour and well-being. recognition that work can be performed outside the traditional workplace should drive organisational changes, including policies and budgets that promote the availability and access to the resources necessary to support the ‘new’ workplace. the increasing desire to telework may suggest that, in the future, organisations that offer teleworking options, including the necessary support, may better attract talent. the research further affirms that the desire to telework, and by extension teleworking, is a gendered phenomenon. therefore, this warrants the attention of organisational leadership to effectively design mechanisms and create conditions that recognise the different needs and circumstances of men and women. one-size-fits-all approaches may not yield the desired organisational outcomes in the emerging workplace. engaging different groups at work to appreciate what works for them and amplify targeted employee support whilst managing job demands will be necessary. limitations and directions for future research this study focused only on ngos. however, the government and the private sector employ the bulk of the workforce in the study setting, hence the need to understand the situation for employees in these sectors. future research should effectively comprehend emerging job demands and support needs in hybrid working contexts. this will aid organisations in planning, budgeting, implementing and monitoring processes. conclusion organisational and leadership contexts are fundamentally evolving, creating new desires and expectations. the study provided insights into the mechanisms and pathways that influence the employees’ desire to telework. perceived quality of life and the evolving work context with its associated demands and resources influenced the teleworking experience and the desire to telework. insights on employee desires and the associated influence levers offer leadership teams an opportunity to translate them into dedicated actions that enhance the employee experience, and by extension, create thriving organisations. creating a good fit between telework demands and resources in a manner that enriches the employee quality of life and work experiences should preoccupy leadership teams of today as part of a dedicated organisational excellence agenda. acknowledgements the author would like to acknowledge prof. willie chinyamurindi for his contribution as supervisor and his support in re-evaluating and updating the various aspects of this article. the author would like to acknowledge the contribution and support of all survey participants. their willingness to share information led to the success of this research. competing interests the author has neither competing interest nor financial interest that may have negatively affected the undertaking of this study. author’s contributions h.s. conceptualised the study and contributed in the overall write-up of this manuscript. ethical considerations the purpose of the study was clearly explained on the survey landing page. participation in the study was strictly voluntary (opt-in strategy). no personally identifiable or organizational information was collected, and the study adhered to strict rules of confidentiality and anonymity. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data will be availed upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of any affiliated agency of the author. references algahtani, f.d., hassan, s.u.n., alsaif, b., & zrieq, r. (2021). assessment of the quality of life during covid-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional survey from the kingdom of saudi arabia. international journal of environmental research and public health, 18(3), 847. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18030847 asmundson, g.j., & taylor, s. (2020). coronaphobia: fear and the 2019-ncov outbreak. journal of anxiety disorders, 70, 102196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102196 bennett, a.m. (2021). the impact of the covid-19 crisis on the future of human resource management. journal of human resource management, 9(3), 58–63. brynjolfsson, e., horton, j.j., ozimek, a., rock, d., sharma, g., & tuye, h.y. (2020). covid-19 and remote work: an early look at us data (no. w27344). cambridge, ma: national bureau of economic research. chong, s., huang, y., & chang, c.h.d. (2020). supporting interdependent telework employees: a moderated-mediation model linking daily covid-19 task setbacks to next-day work withdrawal. journal of applied psychology, 105(12), 1408–1422. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000843 de filippis, e., impink, s.m., singell, m., polzer, j.t., & sadun, r. (2020). collaborating during coronavirus: the impact of covid-19 on the nature of work (no. w27612). cambridge, ma: national bureau of economic research edwards, j.r., & lambert, l.s. (2007). methods for integrating moderation and mediation: a general analytical framework using moderated path analysis. psychological methods, 12(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989x.12.1.1 fletcher, g. (ed.). (2016). the routledge handbook of philosophy of well-being. london: routledge. georgescu, g.c., gherghina, r., duca, i., postole, m.a., & constantinescu, c.m. (2021). determinants of employees’ option for preserving telework after the covid-19 pandemic. amfiteatru economic, 23(58), 669–682. https://doi.org/10.24818/ea/2021/58/669 heathwood, c. (2016). desire-fulfillment theory. in the routledge handbook of philosophy of well-being (pp. 135–147). london: routledge. hobfoll, s.e. (1988). the conservation of resources: a new stress model. the ecology of stress, 24–57. hobfoll, s.e. (2001). the influence of culture, community, and the nested-self in the stress process: advancing conservation of resources theory. applied psychology, 50(3), 337–421. https://doi.org/10.1111/1464-0597.00062 hobfoll, s.e. (2011). conservation of resource caravans and engaged settings. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 84(1), 116–122. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.2010.02016.x hobfoll, s.e., halbesleben, j., neveu, j.p., & westman, m. (2018). conservation of resources in the organizational context: the reality of resources and their consequences. annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behavior, 5, 103–128. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032117-104640 lee, s.a., jobe, m.c., mathis, a.a., & gibbons, j.a. (2020). incremental validity of coronaphobia: coronavirus anxiety explains depression, generalized anxiety, and death anxiety. journal of anxiety disorders, 74, 102268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102268 li, x., zhang, y., yan, d., wen, f., & zhang, y. (2020). nurses’ intention to stay: the impact of perceived organizational support, job control and job satisfaction. journal of advanced nursing, 76(5), 1141–1150. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.14305 loia, f., & adinolfi, p. (2021). teleworking as an eco-innovation for sustainable development: assessing collective perceptions during covid-19. sustainability, 13(9), 4823. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13094823 lyttelton, t., zang, e., & musick, k. (2020). gender differences in telecommuting and implications for inequality at home and work, available at ssrn 3645561. muthén, b., & muthén, l. (2017). mplus (pp. 507–518). london: chapman and hall/crc. palumbo, r. (2020). let me go to the office! an investigation into the side effects of working from home on work-life balance. international journal of public sector management, 33(6/7), 771–790. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpsm-06-2020-0150 rantanen, j., muchiri, f., & lehtinen, s. (2020). decent work, ilo’s response to the globalization of working life: basic concepts and global implementation with special reference to occupational health. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(10), 3351. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17103351 schroeder, t. (2020). desire. in e.n. zalta (ed.), the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (summer 2020 edition). retreived from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2020/entries/desire/ setiawan, r., cavaliere, l.p.l., chowdhury, a.r., koti, k., mittal, p., subramaniam, t.s., … & singh, s. (2021). the impact of motivation on employees productivity in the retail sector: the mediating effect of compensation benefits. turkish online journal of qualitative inquiry (tojqi), 12(6), 8159–8190. seligman, m.e. (2012). flourish: a visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. simon and schuster, new york, ny: free press. suardhita, n., rafik, a., & siregar, o. (2020). analysis of the effect of motivation and job satisfaction on employee performance in pt gagas energi indonesia jakarta. journal of industrial engineering & management research, 1(3), 209–217. thulin, e., vilhelmson, b., & johansson, m. (2019). new telework, time pressure, and time use control in everyday life. sustainability, 11(11), 3067. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11113067 veldsman, t.h., & johnson, a.j. (2016). leadership: perspectives from the front line. randburg: kr publishing. who quality of life group. (1995). the world health organization quality of life assessment (who quality of life): position paper from the world health organization. social science & medicine, 41(10), 1403–1409. https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(95)00112-k abstract introduction literature review research design results discussion practical implications limitations of the research recommendations and suggestions for future research acknowledgements references about the author(s) mpho d. magau department of industrial psychology and people management, faculty of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa gerhard roodt department of industrial psychology and people management, faculty of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa gerhardus van zyl department of industrial psychology and people management, faculty of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation magau, m.d., roodt, g., & van zyl, g. (2021). monetary value of human capital disclosure for predicting future business earnings. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1398. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1398 original research monetary value of human capital disclosure for predicting future business earnings mpho d. magau, gerhard roodt, gerhardus van zyl received: 16 may 2020; accepted: 10 nov. 2020; published: 25 feb. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: human capital (hc) is a key dimension of intellectual capital (ic) that creates shareholder value when integrated with structural capital (sc) and relational capital (rc). the disclosure of hc reveals how the human resource (hr) practices support business growth. research purpose: the primary focus of this study was to investigate the extent of how human capital disclosure (hcd) could predict organisational performance (expected future earnings) of the johannesburg stock exchange (jse)-listed companies. motivation for the study: human capital disclosure reduces information asymmetry, predicts future business performance and improves the investors’ buy-sell-hold decisions. research approach/design and method: a causal, comparative design was applied quantitatively in a cross-sectional survey of 150 topand low-performing jse-listed companies sampled based on their market capitalisation. a self-constructed disclosure index with a seven-point scoring system was developed to examine the extent of disclosure across 81 items. subsequently, multiple regression analysis was computed to test the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. main findings: human capital disclosure was associated with both the market capitalisation and book value. overall, no mediation of human resource risk disclosure (hrrd) against organisational performance was found. lastly, information disclosed on gender diversity yielded the interaction effect with both structural capital disclosure (scd) and relational capital disclosure (rcd) but not with hcd. practical/managerial implications: human capital disclosure identifies key hr practices that drive organisational performance and create shareholder value. this information can potentially improve benchmarking and support investor decision-making. contribution/value-add: the study provides a novel contribution to ic theory by demonstrating how hcd can be used to identify hr practices that leverage the monetary value of hc for business improvement. keywords: human capital; human capital disclosure; human resource management; intellectual capital; organisational performance. introduction human capital (hc) theory indicates minimal research focused on the disclosure of information associated with human resource (hr) practices. whilst there is growing demand for human capital disclosure (hcd) in the financial markets, research evidence still reveals some fundamental gaps (moloi & adelowotan, 2019). in fact, the lack of hcd is associated with the quality and standardisation of hr information within the organisations. the collation of hr information relating to the value of hc is not standardised in many organisations (beattie & smith, 2010), which renders the disclosure efforts difficult, leading to information asymmetry and affecting the investor buy-sell-hold decision-making. human capital disclosure is value relevant in the analysts’ coverage reports used by investors to make their buy-sell-hold decisions (abhayawansa & guthrie, 2016; orens, aerts, & lybaert, 2009). however, non-standardised hc information normally scattered in different parts of the annual report makes it difficult to synthesise and use for decision-making. moloi and adelowotan (2019) reiterated that the preparers of annual reports do not provide adequate hc information, which can be attributed to non-standardisation. overall, hc information is non-standardised, and at times interwoven with human resource risk (hrr) information, which subsequently misrepresents, distorts and overor underestimates the actual monetary value of hc. from an intellectual capital disclosure (icd) point of view, information disclosed on hc together with structural capital disclosure (scd) and relational capital disclosure (rcd) is useful for predicting shareholder value (abhayawansa & guthrie, 2016). hence, the quality of hc information as part of icd signals how organisational design (sc) improves employees’ performance towards maintaining the much required stakeholder relationships (rc). in view of encouraging icd, the international financial reporting standards (ifrs), king iv and the international integrated reporting framework (iirf) provide the requirements as well as guidelines for disclosing non-financial information in the annual reports (dumay, la torre, & farneti, 2019; pawsey, 2017; rinaldi, unerman, & de villiers, 2018). as a result, organisations in the emerging economies have made significant strides to align their reporting practices in an effort to exhibit the value relevance of hc (melloni, 2015). despite this, hcd still leads to information asymmetry and is consequently problematic for investor decision-making (moloi & adelowotan, 2019). this controversy, and the contradictory state of affairs, sets the context for this study whose purpose is to critically examine how information disclosed in hc as a component of icd can be used to predict the expected future earnings (measured in terms of the market capitalisation and book value) of the johannesburg stock exchange (jse)-listed companies. literature review intellectual capital disclosure according to sullivan (1999), intellectual capital (ic) is ‘the sum of an organisation’s ideas, inventions, technologies, general knowledge, computer programs, designs, data skills, processes, creativity and publications’ (p. 133). dumay and guthrie (2017) noted that ic is: [t]he sum of everything everybody in a company knows that gives it a competitive edge and it is intellectual material, knowledge, experience, intellectual property, information that can be put to use to create value. (p. 20) intellectual capital encompasses sc, hc and relational capital (rc) disclosed in annual reports for communicating the organisation’s use of intangible assets to the investment community (abdolmohammadi, 2005; abhayawansa & guthrie, 2016; rimmel, nielsen, & yosano, 2009). this concept of icd emphasises the value relevance of intangibles in predicting the future earnings of the listed companies (abhayawansa & guthrie, 2016; dumay et al., 2019; melloni, 2015; rinaldi et al., 2018; whiting & miller, 2008). to reaffirm, the disclosure of ic predicts the expected financial returns and improves investor confidence (setia, abhayawansa, joshi, & vu huynh, 2015). chen and hwang (2005) found that disclosed ic relates positively to the company’s market value and predicts the company’s future performance. in another study, sang and dennis (2014) provided evidence of the positive significant relationship between ic and the share price. theory posits that icd is necessary to avoid the devaluation of shares and to enhance a company’s market value (oliveira, rodrigues, & craig, 2006). whilst this trend has gained traction, most ic information does not meet the criteria for mandatory disclosure in terms of ifrs or even the guidelines of integrated reporting; hence, disclosure of these intangibles is mostly voluntary (whiting & miller, 2008). voluntary disclosure support the value relevance that icd provides, in particular the monetary value of hcd. isolating the monetary information from qualitative and quantitative disclosed patterns in the annual reports improves the predictability of icd. therefore, the empirical research objective (ero) arising from this icd discussion is presented next. empirical research objective 1 to critically examine how the monetary disclosure of ic is significantly associated with organisational performance (market value and book value). structural capital disclosure according to matos, vairinhos, dameri and durst (2017), ‘structural capital (sc) consists of the infrastructures, processes, routines and systems that enable the functioning of organisations’ (p. 695). cleary (2009, p. 38) stated that sc refers to ‘the procedures, systems and routines that comprise the core of the firm’. from a resource-based view (rbv) perspective, sc enables the use of unique, inimitable and non-substitutable internal capabilities to derive business value (singh & rao, 2016). structural capital represents the intangible knowledge that reduces operational costs and risk, but improves employee productivity. investment in sc translates into high rates of tangible returns (cleary, 2009). structural capital allows organisations to capitalise on hc (singh & rao, 2016) which in turn improves key stakeholder relations (rc). when disclosed in annual reports, this information is useful for business valuation. rimmel et al. (2009) found that sc-related information in research and development (r&d) as well as corporate culture adds value to the organisation’s market capitalisation. in terms of integrated reporting, bini, dainelli and giunta (2016) supported the disclosure of business model and strategy information in annual reports, signifying the importance of non-financial information towards shareholder value creation. structural capital disclosures enable market participants to determine the market value of publicly listed companies (rimmel et al., 2009). despite this plethora of literature, there is a lack of empirical studies dedicated towards examining the monetary disclosure of sc, specifically in terms of intellectual property, organisational structure and management philosophy. against this backdrop, the ero emanating from this scd discussion is the following: empirical research objective 2 to critically examine how the monetary disclosure of sc is significantly associated with organisational performance (market value and book value). human capital disclosure human capital is about the allocation of people’s skills, knowledge, abilities and experience towards business contribution. lettau and ludvigson (2004, p. 279) defined hc as ‘the expected discounted value of future earnings measured just like the stock price captures the expected value of a future stream of dividends’. from a disclosure point of view, information on hc reflects the companies’ use of effective and efficient hr practices that leverage the contribution of employees within organisations. thus, for the purpose of this study, hcd means the extent to which the monetary information about the impact of hr practices on business growth is communicated in the annual reports. human resource practices, including hr planning, recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management and remuneration and benefits, play a critical role in improving hc. the interplay between hr practices and hc illustrates how the organisation’s configuration (of sc) can maximise employees’ motivation and commitment in order to maintain customer satisfaction (rc). literature survey indicate that hcd is positively related to market and book value, and return on assets when moderated by the company’s size and knowledge intensity (lin, huang, du, & lin, 2012). likewise, gamerschlag (2013) confirmed the disclosure of hc to be value relevant. milost (2007) supported the disclosure of hc in monetary values of opportunity, acquisition and training costs. moreover, the market price and efficiency of hc determine the ultimate market and book value of organisations (morris, 2015). information on hr practices is related to the business value of organisations and attracts investor confidence (kim, park, rosett, & shin, 2017). whilst the existing hcd literature confirm the significance of hr practices, efforts aimed at using this information from the annual reports to predict future earnings of the listed companies by integrating scd and rcd are scarce. this necessitated the investigation of the value relevance of hc monetary information specifically in terms of hr planning, recruitment, performance management, remuneration and benefits, as well as training and development. therefore, the ero derived from this hcd discussion is the following: empirical research objective 3 to critically examine how the monetary disclosure of hc is significantly associated with organisational performance (market value and book value). relational capital disclosure relational capital (rc), also referred to as customer capital (bontis, 2002), is intertwined with social capital and covers the organisation’s relationships with multiple stakeholders, including customers, suppliers, government, financial institutions, trade unions, investors, shareholders, the media, consultants, communities and capital market participants. according to kale, singh and perlmutter (2000, p. 218), rc refers to ‘the level of mutual trust, respect, and friendship that arises out of close interaction at the individual level between alliance partners’. this provided the context for investigating how information disclosed on rc could predict organisational performance by also considering the impact of disclosed sc and hc. relational capital disclosure is one of the determinants of organisational market value together with information about sc and hc (abdolmohammadi, 2005; abhayawansa & guthrie, 2016). relational capital disclosure has a statistically significant relationship with revenue, net operating cash flow, and capital expenditure (martini, corvino, doni, & rigolini, 2016). this information reflects the company’s continued efforts to align sc with the employees’ hc in order to maximise business returns (abdolmohammadi, 2005; abhayawansa & guthrie, 2016). disclosed information about customer value is associated with the company’s cost of capital (orens et al., 2009) and disclosed sales breakdown by customer and annual sales per segment or product yielded disclosure frequencies of 10.4% and 27.2%, respectively, in a study of companies listed in the spanish stock exchange (tejedo-romero, rodrigues, & craig, 2017). also, rc information, related to social responsibility and community involvement, was found to be key aspects of stakeholder engagement when disclosed in annual reports (tejedo-romero et al., 2017). in terms of investor relations, kim et al. (2017) established that information disclosed on labour costs (hcd) enables analysts to develop investment solutions. although most of the rcd literature outlined herein indicate the integrated value of hcd, there is a lack of research examining how information disclosed on customer service, distribution channels and strategic partnerships can be used to predict the monetary value of hc towards future earnings. the following ero emanated from this discussion: empirical research objective 4 to critically examine how the monetary disclosure of rc is significantly associated with organisational performance (market value and book value). human resource risk disclosure human resource risk (hrr) can be defined as those employee-related risks associated with (meyer, roodt & robbins, 2011): [c]ompany culture, talent shortages and retention, incompetence, performance, unethical behaviour, low morale, grievances and disputes, excessive absenteeism, wellness, sabotage, workplace violence, as well as noncompliance with industry and other regulations and laws. (p. 4) it is about predicting negative eventualities from hr management decisions. cascio and boudreau (2014, p. 82) defined hrr management as ‘exerting control to minimise the chance of bad outcomes’. negative outcomes emanating from hr management decisions have dire consequences for hc and rc. this hrr-related information is useful for improving investor decision-making. however, most often, hrr and hc information is interwoven when used to understand the impact of hr practices on organisational performance. to attest, ic literature incorporates human resource risk disclosure (hrrd) into hcd for annual reporting purposes. this renders hcd insignificant to investors and shareholders. yet when isolated, hrr information can generate more insights regarding the negative consequences of hc allocation towards business value. market participants consider information about employee turnover, health and safety, loyalty and retention valuable in their investment decision (gamerschlag, 2013; rimmel et al., 2012; tejedo-romero et al., 2017). most hrr information related to strikes, grievances, job dissatisfaction and dismissals is mostly not disclosed, perhaps because of its sensitivity in the financial markets, whilst yet valuable to investors. therefore, this current level of knowledge formed the basis for investigating the monetary value of hrrd as a mediator of the relationship between icd and organisational performance. mediators (intervening variables) are factors that affect the direction of the relationship between the dependent and independent variables (preacher, rucker, & hayes, 2007). based on this, the following ero is formulated: empirical research objective 5 to critically examine how information disclosed on hrr mediates the relationship between disclosure of ic (sc, hc and rc) and organisational performance (market value and book value). board effectiveness disclosure board effectiveness (be) is about examining how factors such as gender diversity, levels of education, roles and responsibilities, the number of board members and the frequency of meetings have effects on business performance and shareholder value (tejedo-romero et al., 2017). many organisations disclose information on the ethnic profile of the board of directors (abeysekera, 2010). willows and van der linde (2016) used information from the jse-listed companies to analyse gender representation and noted that female representatives provide both tangible and intangible benefits in corporate governance that translate into organisational performance. the frequency of board meetings can improve the quality of decision-making and improves accountability. in relation to the organisational performance, chou, chung and lin (2013) confirmed that the number of board meetings is positively associated with business profitability – thus confirming the significance of board effectiveness disclosure (bed), and paving the way to investigate its moderating effect on the relationship between icd and organisational performance. moderating effects are imposed by variables whose variation affects the strength of a relationship between an independent and a dependent variable (baron & kenny, 1986). this bed discussion resulted in the following ero: empirical research objective 6 to critically examine how information disclosed on be moderates the relationship between the monetary disclosure of ic (sc, hc and rc) and organisational performance (market value and book value). derived from this literature review (icd, scd, hcd, rcd, hrrd and bed) was the construction of the predictive model in figure 1 used to critically examine the monetary value of hcd as a dimension of ic with mediation and moderation effects. figure 1: a predictive model of human capital disclosure as a dimension of intellectual capital. according to the model, the interplay between scd, hcd and rcd is affected by hrrd, whilst bed influences these relationships, thereby predicting organisational performance (market capitalisation and book value). this is the premise on which the monetary value of hcd was examined in this study. research design research approach a causal comparative design was applied quantitatively in a cross-sectional survey to compare the topand low-performing companies listed on the jse for the year 2015. a causal comparative research design, also referred to as ex post facto research, was applied when collecting data retrospectively from different groups (busk, 2014). kerlinger (1964) defined ex post facto research as: [r]esearch in which the independent variable or variables have already occurred and in which the researcher starts with the observation of a dependent variable or variables and then studies the independent variables in retrospect for their possible relations to, and effects on, the dependent variable or variables. (p. 360) with regard to the ex post facto data collection, a disclosure index was used to quantify the information obtained from the annual reports (rimmel et al., 2009). urquiza, navarro and trombetta (2009) suggested the following regarding disclosure indexes: the use of disclosure indices must be based on well-defined research objectives and the specific purpose of the measure. disclosure indices overcome the challenges of self-selection bias and subjective ratings, which may influence the validity of findings. self-constructed disclosure indices should have a reliability score above 0.60. disclosure of quantitative information can be used as a proxy for the quality of disclosure in annual reports. research method in the present study, the research data were located in the corporate annual reports of 150 jse-listed companies sampled from a total population of 396. annual reports are arguably the most useful source of data used for measuring the disclosure of ic (kansal & joshi, 2015). the reports are publicly accessible and were retrieved directly from the companies’ websites. on average, the top-performing (based on market capitalisation) companies’ annual reports consisted of 159 pages, compared to the 102 pages of the low-performing companies. these contain the extent of icd by the jse-listed companies. the sampling criteria required companies to have published audited financial results (waworuntu, wantah, & rusmanto, 2014). participants and sampling a purposive sampling technique was applied to group the 150 companies according to their market capitalisation in order to determine the topand low-performing companies. this technique focuses on predefined criteria where participating companies are expected to comply with the annual reporting regulations (bowrin, 2013). as part of the criteria for inclusion, the jse-listed companies were required to have published audited financial results in 2015. this resulted in the sample of 75 top-performing companies and 75 low-performing companies based on market capitalisation. market capitalisation values were converted to logarithms. similarly, abdolmohammadi (2005) used a logarithm of the market capitalisation as a control variable for measuring icd. measurement instrument a disclosure index containing 81 items (reduced from the initial 129 items) was constructed to extract data from the annual reports. disclosure indices are measuring instruments designed to measure the frequency of items in annual reports by using a scoring system with a predefined response scale (diamantopoulos & winklhofer, 2001; ousama, fatima, & hafiz-majdi, 2012; rimmel et al., 2009; whiting & woodcock, 2011). two potential approaches were considered in the construction of the disclosure index: (1) a reflective measure of homogeneous latent construct and (2) a formative index created through summative measures. in this study, the former approach was adopted based on the factor analysis and high level of internal consistency (park, lee, & chae, 2017). disclosure indices incorporate ordinal measures, allowing specific items to be assessed qualitatively and quantitatively in annual reports (husin, hooper, & olesen, 2012). in this study, a seven-point scale was developed as shown in table 1. table 1: the seven-point intellectual capital disclosure measurement scale. this scale is comprehensive for assessing the quality of information disclosed and determining the transparency of companies’ annual reports (cheung, jiang, & tan, 2010). the original 129 items were reduced to 81 by determining the highest mean scores of information disclosed. this is conducted through scale development and item analysis which yields the expected mean values (pather & uys, 2008) for inclusion in the final index. accordingly, the instrument was structured as follows: intellectual capital disclosure dimension the icd dimension serves as the main construct of measurement comprising three sub-dimensions, namely, scd, hcd and rcd. a detailed outline of these sub-dimensions is provided in the next sections before a discussion of the mediating and moderating variables. the internal consistency of the icd construct must be above a cronbach’s alpha of 0.70 (biscotti & d’amico, 2016). structural capital disclosure dimension the scd dimension comprised the following three categories that contained a total of 32 items assessed by means of an ordinal response scale: intellectual property, which contained seven items representing information on goodwill, trademarks, r&d, innovation, brand, products and market share. organisational structure, which contained 10 items representing information on strategy, leadership, group structure, management structure, capital structure, capital investment, restructuring, ownership, subsidiaries and infrastructure development. management philosophy, which contained 15 items representing information on business growth, vision, values, culture, ethics, quality, sustainability, shareholder value, internal controls, processes, policies, procedures, systems, practices and information, communication and technology (ict). husin et al. (2012) advocated the inclusion of ordinal measures in a disclosure index. the cronbach’s alpha for measuring the disclosure of sc information is acceptable if it is above 0.70 (biscotti & d’amico, 2016). information on measuring the internal consistency of each category of sc using a disclosure index could not be obtained from the literature. the reliability statistics are mostly aggregated at the dimensional level and not per item. human capital disclosure dimension the hcd dimension comprised three categories with a total of 18 items measured by means of an ordinal scale and categorised as follows: human resource planning and recruitment, which contained seven items representing information on the headcount; acquisition of skills, knowledge, abilities and experience; as well as the importance of induction performance, remuneration and benefits, which contained six items representing information on salaries/wages, medical aid, retirement, individual performance and employee incentives training and development, which contained five items representing information on training, careers, qualifications, programmes and trainees. biscotti and d’amico (2016) determined that a cronbach’s alpha above 0.70 is appropriate for measuring the aggregate constructs of the disclosure index for hc. relational capital disclosure dimension the rcd dimension of this study consisted of three constructs and a total of 25 items measured by means of an ordinal response scale, as recommended by husin et al. (2012) and the main constructs of this dimension were as follows: customer service, which contained seven items representing information on customers, customer needs, customer loyalty, customer retention, customer experience and customer satisfaction. distribution channels, which contained nine items representing information on production, pricing, sales, purchasing, supply chain, stores, delivery, marketing and advertising. strategic partnerships, which contained nine items representing information on relationship with stakeholders, banks, suppliers, partnerships, consultants, government and media. previous literature on measuring the internal consistency of each construct separately could not be obtained. the reliability statistics are mostly aggregated at the dimensional level and not per item. mediating variable: human resource risk disclosure human resource risk disclosure contained six items related to trade union participation, safety, well-being, retention, termination and employment equity, which were assessed using an ordinal response scale. no information could be obtained from the literature on the internal consistency of the disclosure of hrr using a disclosure index. in the present study, the hrr dimension was used as a mediator of how hcd as a dimension of icd could affect business performance. mediation analysis examines the causal effect of the independent variable (x) on the dependent variable (y) by accounting for the mediator (m) (aguinis, 2004). baron and kenny (1986) assumed different causal paths feeding the dependent variable through a three-way variable system. this cause-and-effect process assumes a direct effect (x → y) and an indirect effect (x → y → m), as depicted in figure 2. figure 2: mediation analysis. in the present study, a step-by-step process was used to test the strength of the relationship between x and y, dependent on m, with c accounting for causality, in which x exerts an indirect effect through path a x b in the effect of m on y (frazier, tix, & barron, 2004). the main condition is that x should have a significant effect c on y, where c is closer to zero (nitzl, roldan, & cepeda, 2016). moderating variable: board effectiveness the current study investigated how information disclosed on directors’ race, gender as a categorical variable, number of board meetings and number of board members related to the organisational performance. hence, organisations disclosing the effectiveness of the board in their annual reports do so in order to demonstrate the effect of their boards on shareholder value (abeysekera, 2010). no information was found in the literature on the reliability of measures of board effectiveness in a disclosure index. this type of information is normally disclosed in frequency counts. outcome variable: organisation performance key financial measures of interest to investors include market capitalisation, book value, sales growth, profit, return on investment (roi), operational cash flow, economic value added, dividends per share, earnings per share and return on equity (abdolmohammadi, 2005; de wet, 2005). the present study used two performance measures, namely, market capitalisation and book value for investigating the impact of hcd on future business earnings. the two outcome variables were combined to obtain a composite variable used as a proxy for the overall business performance. a composite variable represents a sum of a total of two or more variables under investigation (walkey, 1997). logarithm values of the two main indicators were computed as follows before calculating a composite variable: market capitalisation converted into logarithms (logmarketcap) was measured as the total value of the company as represented by the available stock of shares. book value converted into logarithms (logbookvalue) representing the difference between the company’s assets and liabilities. research procedure a list of companies listed on the jse in 2015 was obtained from the investor relations department of the jse. this information was used to locate the companies’ annual reports from their respective websites through the jse portal. annual reports are available in the public domain (abhayawansa & guthrie, 2016; whiting & miller, 2008) and used by investors, shareholders, stakeholders, accountants, security analysts, financial directors and researchers. a dictionary of keywords and related synonyms was developed as a guide for searching specific information in the annual reports according to the disclosure index and to avoid omission. abed, al-najjar and roberts (2016) created a list of useful forward-looking keywords in a dictionary used to obtain data in the annual reports. keywords were typed into the adobe acrobat – portable document format (pdf) search engine inside the annual reports to electronically retrieve information on all 81 items in the disclosure index. the pdf advanced search engine was set to ‘search for whole words, including bookmarks and comments’. this function enables the electronic location of frequencies or word count, without missing important information (brüggen, vergauwen, & dao, 2009). next, searched words were captured in microsoft excel for all items using a score of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 to indicate the extent of disclosure. this process requires critical examination of the disclosure of information (oliveira et al., 2006; whiting & miller, 2008). statistical analysis the analysis of online textual data through quantitative techniques is a growing phenomenon in hr studies (platanou, mäkelä, beletskiy, & colicev, 2018). during the analysis, textual data are converted to a numeric value on a scoring scale ranging from 0 to 6. then, any technique of quantitative data analysis can be performed (indulska, hovorka, & recker, 2012). the data were analysed using statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 24.0 software. this was carried out in three phases. firstly, descriptive statistics were computed to summarise the characteristics of the research sample. secondly, inter-item correlations, factor analysis and inferential statistics were conducted. finally, multiple regression analysis was computed to test the relationship between the dependent and independent variables, taking into account the mediation and moderation effects. ethical considerations the annual reports are available in the public domain and there were no ethical concerns related to confidentiality, except that the data had to be reported accurately (thomas, 2012). in the present study, the researchers gave credit to the original authors of the literature to avoid data bias. data bias may occur if researchers retrieve literature from popular databases instead of considering several sources (suri, 2008). this enabled the researchers to cover a much wider literature base, including a variety of opposing views on the topic of hcd as a dimension of icd. also, the ethical requirements of the university were taken into consideration. results the first part of the results provides the descriptive statistics of the market capitalisation, book value, icd dimensions and hrrd derived from a total of 150 annual reports of participating companies with no missing value. all variables were factor analysed and cronbach’s alphas of icd (0.794), scd (0.829), hcd (0.806) and rcd (0.749) were obtained for the one-dimensional structures of each, with the hrrd reliable at 0.699. as shown in table 2, most companies disclosed their information in qualitative terms with more emphasis, signalling less disclosure in monetary values. it has been well established that the omission of ic information increases the gap between market and book value, and may affect the company’s corporate value. moreover, companies that disclose more ic information are not only transparent, but often have higher market values compared to their counterparts. this is further elaborated briefly in the next discussion of all the icd dimensions as well as hrrd. table 2: descriptive statistics. intellectual capital disclosure dimension in critically examining how the monetary disclosure of ic is significantly associated with organisational performance (market value and book value), the results indicate that hcd was slightly higher (mean [m] = 2.594, standard deviation [sd] = 0.720) than the other icd sub-dimensions, providing the market participants with information on how the hr practices create shareholder value. the low level of scd and rcd increases information asymmetry which negatively affects investor decision-making next, the specific items with the highest and lowest mean values are provided separately in accordance with the scd, hcd and rcd sub-dimensions. structural capital disclosure dimension in critically examining how the monetary disclosure of sc is significantly associated with organisational performance (market value and book value), the results show that most companies disclosed their growth plans (m = 4.84, sd = 1.459) in both monetary and qualitative terms by indicating the use of investments towards business expansion. this is justified by the highest information disclosed on subsidiaries (m = 5.125, sd = 1.209) also in both monetary and qualitative terms. information disclosure on market share (m = 1.235, sd = 1.319) and trademarks (m = 1.07, sd = 0.89) was the lowest on qualitative terms with less emphasis. based on the highest scd, it can be deduced that the jse-listed companies grow their businesses through investment in subsidiaries. human capital disclosure dimension in terms of the critical examination of how the monetary disclosure of hc is significantly associated with organisational performance (market value and book value), disclosed information about salaries/wages (m = 4.675, sd = 2.284) and pension benefits (m = 4.05, sd = 1.833) was the highest in monetary terms. this disclosure signals compliance with the jse listing requirements. also, information regarding education, training and development (m = 3.365, sd = 1.804) was mostly disclosed, although in less emphasised qualitative terms. similarly, most companies disclosed their information about the employees’ abilities (m = 0.47, sd = 0.537) with less emphasised qualitative terms. this can be attributed to the lack of hr information systems that can collect, collate and translate people’s intangible assets in quantitative and monetary terms. relational capital disclosure dimension in critically examining how the monetary disclosure of rcd is significantly associated with organisational performance (market value and book value), information about sales (m = 5.35, sd = 0.992), strategic partnerships with banking institutions (m = 4.97, sd = 1.447) together with customer service (m = 4.14, sd = 1.652) yielded a combination of monetary and qualitative disclosure, signalling how most companies are transparent about their stakeholder relationships. however, that was not the case with information disclosed on customer retention (m = 0.28, sd = 0.650) and advertising (m = 0.86, sd = 1.407). it should be noted that low information disclosed on customer retention is a disturbing phenomenon that may have a negative effect on organisations aiming to attract investment. human resource risk disclosure dimension lastly, in critically examining how information disclosed on hrr mediates the relationship between disclosure of ic (sc, hc and rc) and organisational performance (market value and book value), it was found that only employment equity (m = 2.595, sd = 1.405) information was mostly disclosed in qualitative terms, whereas trade union activity (m = 1.41, sd = 1.577) was the least disclosed, which can be attributed to the sensitivity of sharing certain labour relations information in the public domain. inter-correlation of the intellectual capital disclosure constructs as a prerequisite for mediation testing, the strength of the relationships between the constructs was assessed in order to determine the statistical significance of inter-correlations. when interpreting the effect sizes, cohen (1988, pp. 79–81) proposed the following: small effect (r = 0.10–0.29), medium effect (r = 0.30–0.49) and large effect (r = 0.50–1.0). table 3 presents the results of spearman’s rho. table 3: correlation matrix of the four constructs of organisational performance (n = 150). it is evident from table 3 that the results indicate statistically significant correlations with large effect size of the ic constructs on market capitalisation and the composite indicator. however, the effect size was small for book value, despite the statistically significant correlations in most cases. the results confirm the value relevance of icd in maximising future business earnings. regression analysis a hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed in accordance with the eros of the study. intellectual capital disclosure towards organisational performance firstly, and in critically examining how the monetary disclosure of ic is significantly associated with organisational performance (market value and book value), the results showed a statistically significant relationship of icd with market capitalisation (r(df = 150; p ≤ 0.001) = 0.70), with book value (r(df = 150; p ≤ 0.05) = 0.13) and with composite indicator (r(df = 150; p ≤ 0.001) = 0.56). thus, ero 1 is achieved. next the regression results of each icd dimension (scd, hcd and rcd) are presented separately. structural capital disclosure towards organisational performance table 4 presents the results of the relationship between scd and organisational performance in terms of ero 2. table 4: multiple regression of structural capital and organisational performance (n = 150). table 4 shows the statistically significant relationships on disclosed goodwill (p ≤ 0.001; β = 0.349), leadership (p ≤ 0.001; β = 0.344) and group structure (p ≤ 0.002; β = 0.237) with market capitalisation, except innovation (p = 0.497; β = −0.046). this model represented 54% of the total variance (r2 = 0.541). structural capital predictors were found to be statistically insignificant in predicting book value. a statistically significant relationship was found for goodwill (p ≤ 0.013; β = 0.223) and leadership (p ≤ 0.022; β = 0.203) with composite indicator. the composite indicator model explained 26% of the total variance (r2 = 0.256). surprisingly, information disclosed on innovation was statistically insignificant for all three dependent variables. based on these results, ero 2 was achieved, although no statistically significant relationship was found between the sc predictors and book value. human capital disclosure towards organisational performance table 5 presents the results of the relationship between hcd and organisational performance in terms of ero 3. table 5: multiple regression of human capital and organisational performance (n = 150). table 5 shows statistically significant association between disclosed number of employees (p ≤ 0.001; β = 0.406) and recruitment (p ≤ 0.004; β = 0.229) with market capitalisation in the first model. this regression model explained 34% the total variance (r2 = 0.338). in the second model, the disclosure of number of employees had a stronger positive statistically significant association with book value (p ≤ 0.002; β = 0.308) than knowledge, with a slightly weaker association (p ≤ 0.001; β = −0.297). this model explained 14% of the total variance (r2 = 0.137). in the last model, number of employees (p ≤ 0.001; β = 0.446) and recruitment (p ≤ 0.003; β = 0.239) were statistically significantly related to composite indicator. this model explained 31% of the total variance (r2 = 0.315). therefore, ero 3 was achieved. relational capital disclosure towards organisational performance table 6 presents the results of the relationship between rcd and organisational performance in terms of ero 4. table 6: multiple regression of relational capital and organisational performance (n = 150). table 6 shows statistically significant association of disclosed number of customers (p ≤ 0.001; β = 0.547), customer experience with slightly weaker association (p ≤ 0.009; β = −0.167), customer service (p ≤ 0.030; β = 0.139) and production (p ≤ 0.001; β = 0.242) with market capitalisation. this regression model explained 55% of the total variance (r2 = 0.546). in the second model, only customer loyalty (p ≤ 0.013; β = 0.219) and customer satisfaction (p ≤ 0.022; β = 0.201) had a positive statistically significant association with book value, with this model explaining 100% of the total variance (r2 = 0.100). in the third model, disclosed number of customers (p ≤ 0.001; β = 0.359), customer loyalty (p ≤ 0.008; β = 0.201) and production (p ≤ 0.017; β = 0.192) were statistically significantly related to composite indicator. this model explained 34% of the total variance (r2 = 0.338). mediating effect of human resource risk disclosure on intellectual capital disclosure towards organisational performance further tests were carried out for examining the effect of hrrd on the relationship between icd and organisational performance and table 7 presents the results in terms of ero 2. table 7: regression coefficients of mediation relationships between the intellectual capital dimensions and market capitalisation, controlling for human resource risk disclosure. table 7 indicates statistically significant indirect mediation between icd and market capitalisation with a sobel test (z = 3.186; p = 0.001). no other indirect mediation relationships were accounted for. as a result, the data only supported the mediation effect of hrr between ic and market capitalisation. moderating effect of board effectiveness on the relationship between intellectual capital disclosure and organisational performance in terms of the moderating effect of the board’s effectiveness on the relationship between icd and organisational performance, the findings revealed two cases of moderation: gender diversity moderated the relationship between scd and rcd with organisational performance. discussion this study critically examined how the disclosure of ic, including sc, hc and rc, can be used to predict the future earnings of the jse-listed companies by considering hrr as a mediator and board effectiveness as a moderator of the underlying relationships. no study investigating the interplay between these relationships could be located. the discussion section is presented according to the eros of the study. empirical research objective 1 to critically examine how the monetary disclosure of ic is significantly associated with organisational performance (market value and book value). intellectual capital was defined in the literature as the company’s knowledge that accumulates through the interface between people’s competencies with internal processes in creating customer value, and in order to maximise business returns (dumay & guthrie, 2017). most literature in developed countries account for icd in their annual reports for bridging the gap between market and book value (chen et al., 2005; dumay et al., 2019; rinaldi et al., 2018; sang & dennis, 2014), but no study could be found in the south african context where the disclosure of ic was investigated as a predictor of organisational performance using hrrd as a mediator and board effectiveness as a moderator. overall, this study addresses the current gap in the icd literature by examining how mediation and moderation influences scd, hcd and rcd towards organisational performance (market and book value). the voluntary disclosure of ic information was confirmed as value relevant in enhancing investor confidence (gamerschlag, 2013). therefore, ero 1 is achieved. empirical research objective 2 to critically examine how the monetary disclosure of sc is significantly associated with organisational performance (market value and book value). literature confirms the significance of scd pertaining to companies’ internal infrastructure, processes, routines and ict on shareholder value creation (cleary, 2009; matos et al., 2017; singh & rao, 2016). however, the theory does not provide evidence of how the information disclosed on scd could serve as a predictor of organisational performance in the south african context by considering mediation and moderation. instead, most research focused on the role of sc in the organisation, but not the effect of disclosed monetary information on predicting business earnings. the findings indicate that the disclosure of sc mostly affect the market capitalisation of the jse-listed companies with less effect on their book value. as previously determined, sc disclosure signifies pivotal business drivers that enhance organisational performance (rimmel et al., 2009). thus, ero 2 is achieved. empirical research objective 3 to critically examine how the monetary disclosure of hc is significantly associated with organisational performance (market value and book value). human capital theory emphasises the link between investments made in people development and business outcomes. human capital concerns the management and measurement of people’s competencies in line with business objectives in order to maximise future returns. thus, the lack of hcd (tejedo-romero et al., 2017) indicated a gap in hc theory, which the present study sought to address. the extent of hc disclosure found in the study in terms of the number of employees, recruitment processes and knowledge signals people’s contribution towards business performance. specifically when disclosed in monetary terms, hc disclosure tends to attract investor confidence and leverage business value (milost, 2007; morris, 2015). thus, ero 3 is achieved. empirical research objective 4 to critically examine how the monetary disclosure of rcd is significantly associated with organisational performance (market value and book value). relational capital is about determining the relationships of an organisation with partners in both its internal and external environment (kale et al., 2000). it is through such relationships that the company can improve customer service and effectively manage distribution channels. whilst the literature provides evidence of the importance of rc in business growth, no evidence was found on how the extent of rcd could predict organisational performance by considering the disclosed monetary value. thus, the current study found that rcd on the number of customers, customer service, production, customer loyalty and customer satisfaction indicates a general association with market capitalisation, book value and composite. relational capital illustrates the importance of stakeholder relations in maximising shareholder value (abdolmohammadi, 2005; abhayawansa & guthrie, 2016). therefore, ero 4 is achieved. empirical research objective 5 to critically examine how information disclosed on hrr mediates the relationship between disclosure of ic (sc, hc and rc) and organisational performance (market value and book value). existing research provides substantial evidence of the negative impact of hr risks on the business (cascio & boudreau, 2014; meyer et al., 2011). however, no evidence was found in the literature where hrrd was used as a mediator in the relationship between disclosure of ic and organisational performance. in the present study, hrr was found not to have an indirect relationship with scd, hcd and rcd. however, hrrd influenced the relationship between icd and market capitalisation. this result confirms the importance of disclosing more hrr information in order to reduce information asymmetry in the financial markets. thus, ero 5 is achieved. empirical research objective 6 to critically examine how information disclosed on be moderates the relationship between the monetary disclosure of ic (sc, hc and rc) and organisational performance (market value and book value). tejedo-romero et al. (2017) confirmed the importance of board effectiveness on business performance. there is a lack of evidence where race, gender diversity, number of board meetings and size of the board were used as moderators of the relationship between icd and organisational performance in south africa. the current study found a moderating effect of gender diversity on the relationship between scd, rcd and organisational performance, signalling the importance of equality in the board of directors. finally, this study confirms the importance of disclosing the voluntary information on ic, including scd, hcd and rcd in order to reduce information asymmetry in the financial market for enabling investors’ buy-sell-hold decision-making. thus, ero 6 is achieved. practical implications the findings of this study indicate how the disclosure index can be used for assessing the extent of voluntary disclosure in the annual reports. voluntary disclosure is receiving attention and encourages organisations to become more transparent with their non-financial information for reducing the cost of capital and enhancing investor confidence. when disclosed, hc information aids in diagnosing key hr practices that add business value. also, hr practitioners can use ic information in the annual reports to align the people strategy with the expected business outcomes in order to leverage future earnings. lastly, less information disclosed in ic presents the market participants with limitations to perform accurate business valuation. therefore, this study presented evidence on the key aspects of hc that predict market value of the jse-listed companies in south africa by considering sc, rc, hrr and be. limitations of the research this study showed that less information disclosed on hrr affects the mediation between icd and business performance. the pattern of changes in the disclosure of ic could not be examined because of the cross-sectional nature of the study. this could be achieved through a longitudinal study. also, the extent of disclosure was calculated by using the unweighted method, which only indicated the presence of items being disclosed in annual reports and not the quality of disclosure. no distinction was drawn between the type of mandatory and voluntary disclosure of ic. a methodological limitation may be that the author (researcher) completed the rating of annual reports (without cross-validation by other researchers or assessors). this is an area of further research. recommendations and suggestions for future research organisations can use ic information in annual reports to identify the key value drivers that grow the business. in particular, hcd is useful in integrating business and hr strategy. hence, hcd must be improved in order to reduce the gap between the market capitalisation and book value, as well as to avoid information symmetry between management and investors. furthermore, the findings provide the usefulness of hcd in integrated reporting. this information can subsequently be used by the financial analysts to generate investor coverage reports that incorporate employee-related information necessary for investment decisions. lastly, future research can be undertaken by using the measurement instrument (disclosure index) for examining the quality of integrated reporting towards shareholder value creation. conclusion the findings of this study demonstrate the significance of disclosing information on ic for improving organisational performance. literature surveyed revealed the multifaceted nature of scd, hcd and rcd, which culminated in the development of a disclosure index. the index containing a list of predefined items was used to collect data from the annual reports of 150 topand low-performing companies listed on the jse for examining the extent to which icd is associated with the market capitalisation and book value (predictors of the expected future earnings). the findings revealed some key underlying relationships, although the book value had the weakest association with most of the information disclosed. this gap was previously reported in the literature, and confirms the need for more voluntary disclosure in non-financial information. furthermore, the study tested the mediating effect of hrrd on the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. it was subsequently found that hrrd does not affect these relationships, except for the interaction between icd and market capitalisation. the moderating effect of race, gender diversity, the number of board meetings and board members on the interaction between icd and organisational performance was critically examined. two cases of moderation were detected: (1) gender diversity moderated the relationship between the disclosure of sc and organisational performance and (2) gender moderated the relationship between rcd and organisational performance. the study contributes to the ongoing research promoting the disclosure of non-financial information through integrated reporting for creating shareholder value. therefore, all the eros of the study were achieved. acknowledgements this article was generated from my phd thesis, which was completed in 2018 after having gone through the ethical clearance procedure of the university of johannesburg under the auspices of the senate of higher degrees. during that time there was no formal process of allocating ethical clearance numbers. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this research article. authors’ contribution m.d.m., g.r. and g.v.z. contributed equally to this research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability secondary data were extracted from the annual reports of the jse-listed companies. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abdolmohammadi, m.j. (2005). intellectual capital disclosure and market capitalisation. journal of intellectual capital, 6(3), 397–416. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930510611139 abed, s., al-najjar, b., & roberts, c. (2016). measuring annual report narratives disclosure: empirical evidence from forward-looking information in the uk prior the financial crisis. managerial auditing journal, 31(4/5), 338–361. https://doi.org/10.1108/maj-09-2014-1101 abeysekera, i. (2010). the influence of board size on intellectual capital disclosure by kenyan listed firms. journal of intellectual capital, 11(4), 504–518. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691931011085650 abhayawansa, s., & guthrie, j. (2016). drivers and semantic properties of intellectual capital information in sell-side analysts’ reports. journal of accounting & organisational change, 12(4), 434–471. https://doi.org/10.1108/jaoc-05-2014-0027 aguinis, h. (2004). regression analysis for categorical moderators. new york, ny: guilford. baron, r.m., & kenny, d.a. (1986). the moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. journal of personality and social psychology, 51(6), 1173–1182. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173 beattie, v., & smith, s.j. (2010). human capital, value creation and disclosure. journal of human resource costing & accounting, 14(4), 262–285. https://doi.org/10.1108/14013381011105957 bini, l., dainelli, f., & giunta, f. (2016). business model disclosure in the strategic report: entangling intellectual capital in value creation process. journal of intellectual capital, 17(1), 83–102. https://doi.org/10.1108/jic-09-2015-0076 biscotti, a.m., & d’amico, e. (2016). theoretical foundation of ic disclosure strategies in high-tech industries. international journal of disclosure and governance, 13(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1057/jdg.2015.8 bontis, n. (2002). world congress on intellectual capital readings. boston, ma: butterworth heinemann kmci press. bowrin, a. (2013). corporate social and environmental reporting in the caribbean. social responsibility journal, 9(2), 259–280. https://doi.org/10.1108/srj-08-2011-0074 brüggen, a., vergauwen, p., & dao, m. (2009). determinants of intellectual capital disclosure: evidence from australia. management decision, 47(2), 233–245. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740910938894 busk, p.l. (2014). correlation studies. wiley stats ref: statistics reference online. san francisco, ca: john wiley and sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118445112.stat06473.pub2 cascio, w., & boudreau, j. (2014). hr strategy: optimising risks, optimising rewards. journal of organizational effectiveness: people and performance, 1(1), 77–97. https://doi.org/10.1108/joepp-01-2014-0005 chen, m.c., cheng, s.j., & hwang, y. (2005). an empirical investigation of the relationship between intellectual capital and firms’ market value and financial performance. journal of intellectual capital, 6(2), 159–176. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930510592771 cheung, y.l., jiang, p., & tan, w. (2010). a transparency disclosure index measuring disclosures: chinese listed companies. journal of accounting and public policy, 29(3), 259–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2010.02.001 chou, h.i., chung, h., & yin, x. (2013). attendance of board meetings and company performance: evidence from taiwan. journal of banking & finance, 37(11), 4157–4171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2013.07.028 cleary, p. (2009). exploring the relationship between management accounting and structural capital in a knowledge-intensive sector. journal of intellectual capital, 10(1), 37–52. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930910922888 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioural sciences. new york, ny: routledge academic. de wet, j.h.v.h. (2005). eva versus traditional accounting measures of performance as drivers of shareholder value – a comparative analysis. meditari accountancy research, 13(2), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1108/10222529200500009 diamantopoulos, a., & winklhofer, h.m. (2001). index construction with formative indicators: an alternative to scale development. journal of marketing research, 38(2), 269–277. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.38.2.269.18845 dumay, j., & guthrie, j. (2017). involuntary disclosure of intellectual capital: is it relevant? journal of intellectual capital, 18(1), 29–44. https://doi.org/10.1108/jic-10-2016-0102 dumay, j., la torre, m., & farneti, f. (2019). developing trust through stewardship: implications for intellectual capital, integrated reporting, and the eu directive 2014/95/eu. journal of intellectual capital, 20(1), 11–39. https://doi.org/10.1108/jic-06-2018-0097 frazier, p.a., tix, a.p., & barron, k.e. (2004). testing moderator and mediator effect in counseling psychology research. journal of counseling psychology, 51(1), 115–134. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.51.1.115 gamerschlag, r. (2013). value relevance of human capital information. journal of intellectual capital, 14(2), 325–345. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691931311323913 husin, n.m., hooper, k., & olesen, k. (2012). analysis of intellectual capital disclosure – an illustrative example. journal of intellectual capital, 13(2), 196–220. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691931211225030 indulska, m., hovorka, d.s., & recker, j. (2012). quantitative approaches to content analysis: identifying conceptual drift across publication outlets. european journal of information systems, 21(1), 49–69. https://doi.org/10.1057/ejis.2011.37 kale, p., singh, h., & perlmutter, h. (2000). learning and protection of proprietary assets in strategic alliances: building relational capital. strategic management journal, 21, 217–237. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-0266(200003)21:3<217::aid-smj95>3.0.co;2-y kansal, m., & joshi, m. (2015). reporting human resources in annual reports: an empirical evidence from top indian companies. asian review of accounting, 23(3), 256–274. https://doi.org/10.1108/ara-04-2014-0051 kerlinger, f.n. (1964). foundations of behavioural research: educational and psychological inquiry. new york, ny: holt, rinehart and winston, inc. kim, s., park, k., rosett, j., & shin, y.s. (2017). the benefit of labour cost disclosure: evidence from analyst earnings forecast accuracy. managerial finance, 43(5), 510–527. https://doi.org/10.1108/mf-07-2016-0195 lettau, m., & ludvigson, s.c. (2004). understanding trend and cycle in asset values: reevaluating the wealth effect on consumption. american economic review, 94(1), 276–299. https://doi.org/10.1257/000282804322970805 lin, l.s., huang, i.c., du, p.l., & lin, t.f. (2012). human capital disclosure and organisational performance: the moderating effects of knowledge intensity and organizational size. management decision, 50(10), 1790–1799. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251741211279602 martini, s.b., corvino, a., doni, f., & rigolini, a. (2016). relational capital disclosure, corporate reporting and company performance: evidence from europe. journal of intellectual capital, 17(2), 186–217. https://doi.org/10.1108/jic-07-2015-0065 matos, f., vairinhos, v.m., dameri, r.p., & durst, s. (2017). increasing smart city competitiveness and sustainability through managing structural capital. journal of intellectual capital, 18(3), 693–707. https://doi.org/10.1108/jic-12-2016-0141 melloni, g. (2015). intellectual capital disclosure in integrated reporting: an impression management analysis. journal of intellectual capital, 16(3), 661–680. https://doi.org/10.1108/jic-11-2014-0121 meyer, m., roodt, g., & robbins, m. (2011). human resources risk management: governing people risks for improved performance. sa journal of human resource management, 9(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.366 milost, f. (2007). a dynamic monetary model for evaluating employees. journal of intellectual capital, 8(1), 124–138. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930710715097 moloi, t., & adelowotan, m. (2019). the disclosure of decision-useful information on human capital: the perspectives of preparers of corporate annual reports. african journal of business and economic research, 14(1), 157–176. https://doi.org/10.31920/1750-4562/2019/v14n1a8 morris, c. (2015). an industry analysis of the power of human capital for corporate performance: evidence from south africa. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 18(4), 486–499. https://doi.org/10.17159/2222-3436/2015/v18n4a4 nitzl, c., roldan, j.l., & cepeda, g. (2016). mediation analysis in partial least squares path modeling: helping researchers discuss more sophisticated models. industrial management & data systems, 116(9), 1849–1864. https://doi.org/10.1108/imds-07-2015-0302 oliveira, l., rodrigues, l., & craig, r. (2006). firm-specific determinants of intangibles reporting: evidence from the portuguese stock market. journal of human resource costing and accounting, 10(1), 11–33. https://doi.org/10.1108/14013380610672657 orens, r., aerts, w., & lybaert, n. (2009). intellectual capital disclosure, cost of finance and firm value. management decision, 47(10), 1536–1554. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740911004673 ousama, a.a., fatima, a.h., & hafiz-majdi, a.r. (2012). determinants of intellectual capital reporting: evidence from annual reports of malaysian listed companies. journal of accounting in emerging economies, 2(2), 119–139. https://doi.org/10.1108/20421161211229808 park, s., lee, h., & chae, s.w. (2017). rethinking balanced scorecard (bsc) measures: formative versus reflective measurement models. international journal of productivity and performance management, 66(1), 92–110. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-08-2015-0109 pather, s., & uys, c.s. (2008). using scale reduction techniques for improved quality of survey information. south african journal of information management, 10(3), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajim.v10i3.322 pawsey, n.l. (2017). ifrs adoption: a costly change that keeps on costing. accounting forum, 41(2), 116–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accfor.2017.02.002 platanou, k., mäkelä, k., beletskiy, a., & colicev, a. (2018). using online data and network-based text analysis in hrm research. journal of organisational effectiveness: people and performance, 5(1), 81–97. https://doi.org/10.1108/joepp-01-2017-0007 preacher, k.j., rucker, d.d., & hayes, a.f. (2007). addressing moderated mediation hypotheses: theory, methods, and prescriptions. multivariate behavioural research, 42(1), 185–227. https://doi.org/10.1080/00273170701341316 rimmel, g., dergård, j., & jonäll, k. (2012). human resources disclosure in danish intellectual capital statements: enhancing comparability of business models a decade ago. journal of human resource costing & accounting, 16(2), 112–141. https://doi.org/10.1108/14013381211284245 rimmel, g., nielsen, c., & yosano, t. (2009). intellectual capital disclosures in japanese ipo prospectuses. journal of human resource costing & accounting, 13(4), 316–337. https://doi.org/10.1108/14013381011010150 rinaldi, l., unerman, j., & de villiers, c. (2018). evaluating the integrated reporting journey: insights, gaps and agendas for future research. accounting, auditing & accountability journal, 31(5), 1294–1318. https://doi.org/10.1108/aaaj-04-2018-3446 sang, h.k., & dennis, t. (2014). intellectual capital vs. the book-value of assets: a value-relevance comparison based on productivity measures. journal of intellectual capital, 15(1), 65–82. https://doi.org/10.1108/jic-04-2013-0048 setia, n., abhayawansa, s., joshi, m., & vu huynh, a. (2015). integrated reporting in south africa: some initial evidence. sustainability accounting, management and policy journal, 6(3), 397–424. https://doi.org/10.1108/sampj-03-2014-0018 singh, b., & rao, m.k. (2016). effect of intellectual capital on dynamic capabilities. journal of organisational change management, 29(2), 129–149. https://doi.org/10.1108/jocm-12-2014-0225 sullivan, p.h. (1999). profiting from intellectual capital. journal of knowledge management, 3(2), 132–143. https://doi.org/10.1108/13673279910275585 suri, h. (2008). ethical considerations in synthesising research – whose representations? qualitative research journal, 8(1), 63–73. https://doi.org/10.3316/qrj0801062 tejedo-romero, f., rodrigues, l.l., & craig, r. (2017). women directors and disclosure of intellectual capital information. european research on management and business economics, 23(3), 123–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iedeen.2017.06.003 thomas, a. (2012). governance at south african state-owned enterprises: what do annual reports and the print media tell us? social responsibility journal, 8(4), 448–470. https://doi.org/10.1108/17471111211272057 urquiza, f.b., navarro, m.c.a., & trombetta, m. (2009). disclosure indices design: does it make a difference? revista de contabilidad, 12(2), 253–277. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1138-4891(09)70008-1 walkey, f.h. (1997). composite variable analysis: a simple and transparent alternative to factor analysis. personality and individual differences, 22(5), 757–767. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0191-8869(96)00238-3 waworuntu, s.r., wantah, m.d., & rusmanto, t. (2014). csr and financial performance analysis: evidence from top asean listed companies. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 164(31) 493–500. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.11.107 whiting, r.h., & miller, j.c. (2008). voluntary disclosure of intellectual capital in new zealand annual reports and the hidden value. journal of human resource costing & accounting, 12(1), 26–50. https://doi.org/10.1108/14013380810872725 whiting, r.h., & woodcock, j. (2011). firm characteristics and intellectual capital disclosure by australian companies. journal of human resource costing & accounting, 15(2), 102–126. https://doi.org/10.1108/14013381111157337 willows, g., & van der linde, m. (2016). women representation on boards: a south african perspective. meditari accountancy research, 24(2), 211–225. https://doi.org/10.1108/medar-01-2016-0001 article information authors: mark ramsey1 nicolene barkhuizen2 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa 2department of human resource management, university of pretoria, south africa correspondence to: nicolene barkhuizen email: nicolene.barkhuizen@up.ac.za postal address: economic and management sciences building, university of pretoria, lynnwood road, hillcrest, pretoria 0002 dates: received: 01 june 2010 accepted: 16 mar. 2011 published: 23 aug. 2011 how to cite this article: ramsey, m, & barkhuizen, n. (2011). organisational design elements and competencies for optimising the expertise of knowledge workers in a shared services centre. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #307, 15 pages. doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.307 copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) organisational design elements and competencies for optimising the expertise of knowledge workers in a shared services centre in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction • literature review    • organisational design elements to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers       • culture       • structure       • codification system    • supportive organisational competencies for optimising the expertise of knowledge workers       • knowledge       • managing knowledge       • creating knowledge       • transferring knowledge       • sharing knowledge       • communicating knowledge • research design    • research approach    • research strategy    • research method       • research setting       • entrée and establishing researcher roles       • sampling       • data collection       • data recording and storing       • data analysis and interpretation       • strategies used to ensure quality data       • reporting • findings    • theme 1: organisational design elements       • subtheme: structure       • subtheme: culture       • subtheme: codification    • theme 2: organisational competencies for optimising the expertise of knowledge workers       • subtheme: knowledge management       • subtheme: knowledge transfer       • subtheme: knowledge communication       • other subthemes: knowledge creation, knowledge sharing and knowledge • discussion    • research objective 1: to explore the organisational design elements for optimising the expertise of knowledge workers    • research objective 2: to determine which supportive organisational competencies are needed to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers    • implications and recommendations for managers    • limitations of the research    • suggestions for further research • references abstract (back to top) orientation: organisations are still structured according to the industrial age control model that restricts optimising the expertise of knowledge workers. research purpose: the general aim of the research was to explore the organisation design elements and competencies that contribute to optimising the expertise of knowledge workers in a shared services centre. motivation for the study: current organisational design methodologies do not emphasise optimising the expertise of knowledge workers. this research addresses the challenge of how an organisation design can improve the creation and availability of the expertise of knowledge workers. research design/approach method: the researcher followed a qualitative case study research design and collected data in six focus group sessions (n = 25). main findings: the findings showed that the shared services centre (ssc) is not designed to enable its structure, culture and codifying system to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers. in addition, the ssc does not share the knowledge generated with other knowledge workers. furthermore, it does not use the output of the knowledge workers to improve business processes. practical/managerial implications: the expertise of knowledge workers is the basis of competitive advantage. therefore, managers should create an organisational design that is conducive to optimising knowledge work expertise. contribution/value add: this research highlights the important organisational design elements and supportive organisational structures for optimising the expertise of knowledge workers. the research also proposes a framework for optimising the expertise of knowledge workers and helping an organisation to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. introduction (back to top) the success of an organisation depends on the mental capability of a comparatively small number of highly proficient knowledge workers who clarify the business processes others must act on (zemke, 2004). many organisations use the expertise of knowledge workers to create competitive advantage. however, they do not incorporate this expertise into their business processes and routine operations (barber & strack, 2005; hornstein & de guerre, 2006; seidler-de alwis & hartmann, 2008). therefore, when knowledge workers leave an organisation, the organisation loses the knowledge they generate and cannot sustain its competitive advantage (bryan & joyce, 2005). one of the foremost objectives of an organisation should be to optimise the expertise of its knowledge workers to produce new products, services or ways of working in order to sustain competitive advantage (gold, malhotra, & segards, 2001; grandori & soda, 2006; massey & montoya-weiss, 2006). however, it appears that current organisational designs do not emphasise optimising the expertise of knowledge workers. according to covey (2004), managers still apply the industrial age control model to knowledge workers. despite all the achievements in technology and improvements to products, knowledge workers are not thriving in the organisations where they work because the organisations are not clear about where knowledge workers fit and how to value their contributions (kenney & gudergan, 2006; wang-cowham, 2008). process technology describes the technical aspects of production and the kinds of specialised knowledge organisations need for their business processes. however, dividing responsibilities between knowledge workers and departments as well as specifying the interfaces between them falls within the sphere of organisational design (spira, 2005). therefore, the challenge for organisations in the new economy is to optimise, create, transfer, assemble, protect and exploit knowledge assets (boder, 2006; sharkey, 2006; stenmark, 2001). knowledge assets underpin organisational competencies that, in turn, underpin an organisation’s products and services (meilich, 2005). the more specific the knowledge an organisation uses, the greater is its potential as a basis for competitive advantage (johanson, martensson & skoog, 2001; marouf, 2007). however, knowledge workers actually hold the knowledge (laise, migliarese & verteramo, 2005). therefore, an organisation’s focus should be to optimise their expertise (meilich, 2005). knowledge workers are highly qualified and well-educated professionals whose work consists largely of using their expertise to convert information into knowledge (hammer, leonard & davenport, 2004). creating and exchanging knowledge and intangibles by interacting with their professional peers is central to what they do. knowledge workers make an organisation competitive. however, they find that the organisational design increasingly obstructs their work (drucker, 1999; seidler-de alwis & hartmann, 2008). they spend endless hours searching for the knowledge they need and coordinating their work with others in the organisation (bryan & joyce, 2005). an effective design option will allow an organisation to assemble and fine-tune its design in order to create and sustain its competitive advantage (botha, 2000; 2007; jarvenpaa & staples, 2001; russo & harrison, 2005). against this background, the main purpose of the research is to: • explore the organisational design elements that help an organisation to optimise the expertise of its knowledge workers • determine which supportive organisational competencies an organisation needs to optimise the expertise of its knowledge workers. the motivation for conducting this research is to address the challenge of how an organisation’s design can improve the creation and availability of knowledge for sustainable competitive advantage. the process of converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge has direct implications on how the structure of an organisation is designed. it also defines management roles as well as responsibilities. to be sustainable, an organisational design must allow an organisation to recognise, create, transform and distribute knowledge. therefore, the primary role of an organisation should be to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers, the focus of this research. the next section of the article discusses the available literature on organisational design elements and supportive organisational competencies as they relate to optimising the expertise of knowledge workers. the design components and supportive organisational competencies are not intended to be exhaustive lists. instead, they have been identified for their potential to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers, in accordance with drejer and sorensen (2002). literature review (back to top) organisational design elements to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers an organisation is an institution for applying knowledge (johanson et al., 2001). its primary role is to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers (wang & ahmed, 2003). as a knowledge-optimising institution, an organisation’s role is not to acquire or create organisational knowledge. those are the roles of knowledge workers (johanson et al., 2001). knowledge resides in knowledge workers (laduke, 2005) and an organisation must focus on visible organisational processes to support the structural arrangements that will optimise their expertise (johanson et al., 2001). this requires an organisational design where an organisation uses its culture, structure and business processes to improve the expertise of knowledge workers (ng, 2004). culture the culture of an organisation must contribute to a climate that facilitates the optimisation of the expertise of knowledge workers by encouraging creativity and innovation in the organisation. organisational culture is the deeply rooted values and beliefs that all in an organisation share (oliver & kandadi, 2006). a strong organisational culture is crucial for optimising the expertise of knowledge workers because it is an integral part of the general functioning of an organisation. it also brings about the innovation that is a requirement for sustaining competitive advantage. for the culture of an organisation to help to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers, it must have a strong set of core values and norms that encourage creating and sharing knowledge as well as the active participation of knowledge workers in the process (lucas & ogilvie, 2006). organisational culture embodies the expressive character of an organisation. symbolism, feelings and the meanings behind language, behaviours, space and artefacts communicate it. the elements of an organisational culture affect the optimisation of the expertise of knowledge workers through socialisation processes in an organisation that enable knowledge workers to learn what behaviour is acceptable and how they should perform their activities (martins & terblanche, 2003). in addition, knowledge workers act out the basic values, assumptions and beliefs in established forms of behaviours and activities that structures, policies, practices and procedures reflect. organisational culture affects the extent to which knowledge workers generate, share, transfer and reuse knowledge in an organisation. an organisation cannot use knowledge effectively if knowledge workers cannot locate or access it (hicks, dattero & galup, 2006). organisations must encourage and support the creative activities of knowledge workers to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers. organisations must not underestimate the challenge of building a supportive organisational culture to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers because culture exists in the deep structures of an organisation (lai & lee, 2007). structure in the new economy, knowledge assets are ingrained in the experience and expertise of the knowledge workers in an organisation. therefore, an organisation must provide the right structures if it is to optimise their expertise (smedlund, 2008). an ideal organisational design must focus on establishing the structure and climate to facilitate optimising the expertise of knowledge workers by encouraging knowledge workers, who have tacit knowledge, to share it in the organisation (koening, 1999). tacit knowledge is the expertise that guides action (rodriguez-lluesma & bailey 2005) and is difficult to use because there is no real need to make it explicit at the individual level. the problem of establishing which knowledge worker has the necessary knowledge grows with the size of an organisation (stenmark, 2001). this type of knowledge is personal (lebowitz, 2005) and resides only in the minds of knowledge workers (holste & fields, 2005). to create and sustain competitive advantage, the structure should facilitate the coordinated actions of its knowledge workers to transform an input into an organisational output (boder, 2006). coordination is a mechanism that regulates the interdependent objectives, tasks and responsibilities of different business units to achieve a business goal (danese & romano, 2004; jain, nagar & srivastava, 2006). the coordinating mechanism should try to redesign business processes by changing the organisational emphasis from functional to process orientation (lee & dale, 1998) in order to discourage functional boundaries from becoming barriers to achieving competitive advantage (zairi, 1997). an organisation uses its coordinating capabilities to promote the optimisation of the expertise of knowledge workers by using its increasing tacit knowledge. this results in greater scope, flexibility and increased efficiency in integrating knowledge types (alsene, 2007). coordination facilitates the integration of tacit knowledge through horizontal and vertical relationships as well as learning in an organisation (kenney & gudergan, 2006). the effectiveness of the coordinating structure determines the organisation’s ability to optimise the expertise of its knowledge workers (marouf, 2007). to be sustainable in the new economy, an organisation must optimise the expertise of its knowledge workers by accelerating organisational learning to outpace its competitors in building new competitive advantages (hamel & prahalad, 2005). an organisation converts its experiences into promises for future actions. the expertise of knowledge workers is a building block for organisational learning. consequently, an organisation successfully transfers the expertise of its knowledge workers to others who see it as useful (brachos, kostapoulos, soderquist & practacos, 2007). tacit knowledge is critical for optimising the expertise of knowledge workers. an organisation needs it to create competitive advantage but can only transfer it through social interactions and detailed discussions amongst knowledge workers from similar backgrounds and with common experiences. this social interaction leads to a high level of common knowledge, understanding, language and experience that support the efficient transfer of knowledge (koners & goffin, 2007). therefore, the organisational structure should be designed so that it maximises the interaction between knowledge workers to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers and improve learning (pham & swierczek, 2006). optimising the expertise of knowledge workers means that an organisation must allow knowledge workers to improve their skills through processes that require reflection and dialogue to allow personal and organisational learning and innovation (ballantine & mccourt larres, 2007). for an organisation to optimise the expertise of its knowledge workers, it must create and maintain a dynamic work environment (hasgall & shoham, 2008). in a work environment that is conducive to the generation, exchange and respect of knowledge, there would be an increase in morale, trust, collaboration and retention of knowledge workers (teerajetgul & chareonngam, 2008). perceptions of fairness link inextricably to knowledge workers’ views of the overall fairness of the work environment and affect the quality of the exchange (ansari, hung & aafaqi, 2007). a work environment is one manifestation of an organisational culture and a positive work environment that will improve the participation of knowledge workers in transferring knowledge. this will result in optimising their expertise (rowold & hochholdinger, 2008). a positive work environment, according to edvardsson, 2003, includes allowing knowledge workers: • to influence and control their own work situations • to develop security and meaning • to develop social relations at, and through, the job • to keep a social distance from the job • good health • to avoid negative stress • to work in safe physical surroundings. an organisation can improve its positive work environment further by including training, co-worker support, future prospects and organisational understanding (duignan, 2007). codification system an important requirement for optimising the expertise of knowledge workers in an organisation is to capture tacit knowledge and convert it into information that others can use later (prieto & revilla, 2006). the process organisations use to convert, transfer and distribute the acquired expertise of knowledge workers into a transferable form is important for optimising their expertise (jantunen, 2005). the usual reason for codifying knowledge is to ensure greater standardisation and to disperse it throughout an organisation (davies, subrahmanian & westerberg, 2005). therefore, codification is necessary whenever an organisation has to communicate knowledge. an organisation can use many ways to transfer knowledge. they include face-to-face communication, telephone and email (albina, garavelli & gorgoglione, 2004). codifying knowledge into information is the main method organisations use to transfer knowledge in an organisation. this view emphasises codifying knowledge as a way of transferring knowledge (hall, 2006). a codification strategy aims to collect knowledge, store it in databases and provide the available knowledge in an explicit and codified form. reusing explicit knowledge and solutions can save time and money. designing databases and managing documents as well as workflow is part of this strategy. a codification strategy will succeed in an organisation whose business strategy requires it to reuse existing knowledge (greiner, böhmann & krcmar, 2007). however, because an organisation can codify knowledge does not necessarily mean that it is available for use or that it automatically becomes available. knowledge workers may be reluctant to share this knowledge because it may be sensitive in some situations or it might reflect poorly on them. in addition, knowledge workers may feel that they own this knowledge because it is a result of their own unique experiences. the codification process is uncertain and not automatic (marouf, 2007). knowledge that resists codification remains captive to the knowledge worker in which it resides and the context that it is bound to (yakhlef, 2005). supportive organisational competencies for optimising the expertise of knowledge workers for an organisation to sustain competitive advantage in the knowledge economy, it is vital for an organisation to develop organisational competencies to optimise the expertise of its knowledge workers. knowledge workers are highly educated experts with vast amounts of practical experience (cooper, 2006) and give organisations the capacity to act (botha, 2000). therefore, knowledge workers provide focus and creativity by allowing all the organisation’s other investments to achieve their objectives (covey, 2004). knowledge workers cannot, and do not, seek life-long employment. they want life-long learning and career self-reliance. their level of expertise makes achieving them possible (bogdanowicz & bailey, 2002). the tacit knowledge that resides in their heads distinguishes knowledge workers from other employees. they are the agents of a knowledge organisation or its intellectual capital (laise et al., 2005). to optimise the expertise of its knowledge workers, an organisation must focus on knowledge as well as managing, creating, transferring, sharing and communicating it. knowledge knowledge comprises a knower and is difficult to transfer and absorb. it requires context and is one facet of a larger system of knowing (iverson & mcphee, 2002). there are many definitions of knowledge. for purposes of this research, it is: an organisation’s knowledge creation capability, incorporating the extent to which the top management team and knowledge workers have access to one another and other stakeholders, are capable of combining information and knowledge into new knowledge and perceive value from the exchange and combination process. (smith, collins & clark, 2005) this definition of knowledge is preferred because it links very strongly to organisational performance (peltonen & lamsa, 2004). therefore, the knowledge economy depends on optimising the expertise of knowledge workers and using knowledge resources within organisations to gain the most return from human capital (levy, 2005; janz & prasarnphanich, 2003). the only way an organisation can maintain competitive advantage is to innovate by optimising the expertise of knowledge workers in order to create new knowledge (pillania, 2005). therefore, knowledge is explicit or tacit, codified or personal and organisational or individual (alvesson, karreman & swan, 2002). an organisation evolves by adapting the knowledge of its knowledge workers (lee & cole, 2003) and much of this happens at a tacit level (spender, 1996). what organisations need now is not increased information, but an increased ability to deal with that information (thomas & hult, 2003; levy, 2005). managing knowledge knowledge management has grown as organisations realise how much they have lost by not optimising the expertise of knowledge workers (jackson, 2007). business processes have become complex and dynamic. knowledge work that requires high levels of skills and expertise is replacing manual labour (janz & prasarnphanich, 2003). an organisation should optimise the expertise of its knowledge workers by learning from their experiences to adapt to changes (kirkwood & pangarkar, 2003). managing knowledge effectively is critical to optimising the expertise of knowledge workers (holste & fields, 2005; poston & speier, 2005). knowledge and skills that are valuable to an organisation tend to be embodied in knowledge workers and are difficult to replace (keskin, 2005). the speed of transactions in the new economy means that an organisation must have the ability to interpret and respond to information about changes in the environment almost instantaneously (pillania, 2005). the amount of knowledge available on any subject is increasing to a level that is impossible to comprehend in its entirety (owen, 1999). finding and choosing knowledge that is appropriate to the organisation or the individual knowledge worker seems an almost impossible task (poston & speier, 2005). an organisation must use new technologies and innovate in time to anticipate changes in the marketplace (thomas & hult, 2003). knowing when, how and what to innovate is therefore key to optimising the expertise of knowledge workers (owen, 1999). to deal with these challenges, an organisation needs to evaluate the way it acquires, creates, manages and uses knowledge (poston & speier, 2005). creating knowledge successful and sustainable organisations continuously create new knowledge to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers (smith et al., 2005), then distribute it widely and embody it in new products, services or ways of working (robertson, scarbrough & swan, 2003). knowledge develops through inductive or deductive logic (akbar, 2003) whilst creating knowledge is an individual activity (mcfadyen & cannella, 2004; janz & prasarnphanich, 2003). however, new knowledge is created through a process of turning tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge, with less emphasis on work rules (akbar, 2003; muthusamy & white, 2005). greater flexibility in an organisation can accommodate better ways of doing things. therefore, greater flexibility in organisational structure can result in increased knowledge creation and help to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers (choi & lee, 2003). knowledge creation is the exclusive output of an organised individual human activity (lee & cole, 2003.) we cannot remove it from the information in the organisational database (laise et al., 2005). transferring knowledge many organisations are increasingly using knowledge workers, mainly because of the lack of in-house expertise, poor knowledge worker retention and difficulties with keeping up with changing technologies (adamson, 2005). however, for an organisation to optimise the expertise of its knowledge workers, it must transfer knowledge from one knowledge worker to another successfully (dong-gil, kirsh & king, 2005). creating and transferring knowledge is the basis for optimising their expertise (brachos et al., 2007) and involves the constant transfer from tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge and back again in an increasing spiral (sanders, 2005). transferring knowledge benefits an organisation more than knowledge itself because knowledge is primarily about context-specific features (choi & lee, 2003). the key to transferring knowledge is that it is relational because transfers often occur between knowledge workers in the same setting (nadler, thompson & van boven, 2003; williams, 2006). the ability to use existing knowledge internally in an organisation is vital to optimising the expertise of knowledge workers (janz & prasarnphanich, 2003; kodama, 2006; thomas & hult, 2003). an important method of using existing knowledge is through transferring existing knowledge amongst knowledge workers in the organisation (watson & hewett, 2006). knowledge transfers when learning happens and when the recipient understands its context, the implications associated with the knowledge and the knowledge worker can apply it effectively (watson & hewett, 2006). sharing knowledge for an organisation to be sustainable in today’s business environment, it must optimise the expertise of its knowledge workers. it must also share its knowledge if it is to use its core competencies (hicks et al., 2006). to be successful, an organisation must develop the ability to capture the knowledge it acquired in one part of an organisation and make it available to the rest of the organisation (arnulf, dreyer & grenness, 2005). the most important aspects of creating new knowledge are sharing it and reflective learning on the job. here workers may modify the original idea progressively until a shared perspective emerges and they share it effectively in face-to-face interactions (merx-chermin & nijhof, 2005). how well an organisation shares its knowledge has a direct effect on optimising the expertise of its knowledge workers. organisations can facilitate it through several strategies. they include using technology appropriately, introducing incentive schemes for sharing knowledge, as well as cultivating and establishing innovation incubators (coakes & smith, 2007). innovation incubators comprise knowledge workers whose high levels of knowledge and skills are a foundation for the work outcome (davison & blackman, 2005), where the knowledge workers active in the innovation process benefit from the collective effort (koster, stokman, hodson & sanders, 2007). effective innovation incubators encourage interaction and dialogue between knowledge workers and facilitate the creation of different points of view that may lead to new products, services and ways of working. communicating knowledge in the current competitive environment, knowledge is vital for the survival of an organisation. for knowledge to become an asset, the organisation must communicate and share it within the organisation (albina et al., 2004). communication plays a crucial role in the process of optimising the expertise of knowledge workers as it contributes to socialisation and assists in building and maintaining the social capital that is embedded in an organisation’s relationships (joshi, sarker & sarker, 2007). an organisation can transfer its knowledge in embedded relationships through a person-to-person approach to communication (greiner et al., 2007). when people exchange knowledge to help to create new knowledge, the communication process is more of a conversation as knowledge passes back and forth between knowledge workers (jackson, 2007). successful communication means that knowledge workers are informed about the progress of the activities they are directly involved in as it passes through an organisation. knowledge workers also need to know what is happening throughout the organisation to enable them to respond appropriately (barratt, 2004). communication plays a vital role in entrenching knowledge management as a strategic focus area in an organisation. therefore, the organisation needs a structured communication plan to ensure adequate communication about how it manages knowledge (du plessis, 2007). the structured communication plan must recognise the critical role of context and the interaction between the various stakeholders involved in the process of optimising the expertise of knowledge workers (joshi et al., 2007). the main research questions are: • what are the organisational design elements organisations need to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers? • what supportive organisational competencies do organisations need to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers? the next part of the article outlines the research design. the findings of the study follow. the article concludes with a discussion of the findings and recommendations for managers and future research. research design (back to top) research approach the researcher chose qualitative research because it focuses on human experiences from a holistic, in-depth perspective and is well suited to exploring complex problems (vishnevsky & beanlands, 2004). the researcher used an interpretivist method to conduct the research. this approach acknowledges that meaning becomes clear through interaction and emphasises the importance of understanding the overall text of a conversation (rubin & rubin, 1995). researchers use this methodology broadly in qualitative evaluative research because it is particularly suited to intensive, small-scale research (walker & dewar, 2000). the methodology reflects the beliefs about knowledge and existence that arise from the values in the philosophic framework that the researcher will use. this research method also contains the theoretical framework that guides how it will progress and how the researcher will construct a particular type of knowledge (caelli, ray & mill, 2003). the interpretivist approach offers possibilities for generating fresh insights because it can point out different facets of organisational phenomena and can produce markedly different and uniquely informative theoretical views of events (alvarez, 2003). the main researcher used an interpretivist framework to look for the frames that shape the meaning and anticipated that, working in this paradigm, the main researcher would be very sensitive to the role of context. research strategy the main researcher used a case study for this research. yin (2003) defines the case study research method as an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon in its real-life context. this is when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clear and where the researcher uses many sources of evidence. the main researcher integrated the themes derived from the focus groups and compared them with the literature. he generated a universal result for the case participants. it was consistent with the modernistic interpretivist strategy that the researcher followed (munsamy & venter, 2009). research method research setting the main researcher conducted the research in a shared services centre. the ssc was established to centralise the back office functions of human resources, procurement, finance, technology support and internal audit in a single provincial department. the ssc had been in existence for almost ten years. the main researcher was a manager at the organisation, was familiar with the culture of the company and could identify verification processes to establish the validity of comments the respondents made. peer scrutiny eliminated possible research bias. entrée and establishing researcher roles the main researcher made a submission to the chief executive officer of the shared service centre requesting permission to conduct the research at the organisation. once he received approval to proceed with the research, the researcher asked the human resources department of the ssc to generate a report to assist in selecting a sample. the report contained all personal information, including the highest qualification the employees had obtained. the researcher refined the report further and omitted employees without university degrees because a degree was a qualifying criterion for a knowledge worker in this research. the refined list contained the names of 157 knowledge workers. they became the employees at the ssc that the researcher invited to join the focus group sessions. once the researcher had identified the respondents, he obtained permission from the organisation’s gatekeepers. gatekeepers are people who control matters of interest (glesne, 1999). sometimes they may be personal assistants or people who can influence decisions about whether a respondent may participate in research or not. the researcher monitored the relationship with gatekeepers because they could shape the direction of the research (neuman, 2003). the main researcher compiled electronic mail messages to invite knowledge workers from the refined list to participate in the focus group sessions. whenever possible, the researcher invited knowledge workers from the same business unit to different focus group sessions. he did this to limit opportunities for the views of subordinate respondents to stifle those of senior employees (branigan, 2000). the researcher explained the research process to the participants. the researcher obtained the informed consent of participants and participation was voluntary. he kept information confidential. sampling the researcher used purposive sampling because it relies on the judgement of the researcher when selecting cases. the researcher selected cases with a specific purpose. this was to increase the understanding of selected respondents and to develop theories and concepts (babbie & mouton, 2001; neuman, 2003). instead of choosing a sample that represents a given population, the researcher included respondents with experience of the research proposals (neuman, 2003). in qualitative research, the sample size is rarely predetermined and the researcher included as many respondents as was necessary to gain a comprehensive understanding of the research questions (vishnevsky & beanlands, 2004). therefore, the researcher invited 157 knowledge workers to participate in the research. the researcher selected these respondents because they were qualified, had practical experience (cooper, 2006) and could provide the information the researcher needed. of these knowledge workers, 25 participated in the focus groups sessions. table 1 gives the demographic profile of the respondents. table 1 shows that the respondents were mostly male and held a degree. most of the respondents had more than five years of experience as knowledge workers. table 1: demographic information of participan. data collection the main researcher collected data during focus groups sessions. in these sessions, respondents participated in a guided discussion to enable the researcher to question several respondents systematically and simultaneously on a defined area of interest (neuman, 2003). the aim of the focus group sessions was to uncover a range of perceptions about the knowledge worker and to enable people to share experiences relevant to the research proposals (woodring, foley, rado, brown & hamner, 2006). in this research, the focus group sessions comprised three to five respondents to increase the quality of the data (twinn, 1998). the researcher ran six focus group sessions. data recording and storing the main researcher made a full record of the focus group sessions soon after they occurred to control bias and produce reliable data for analysis (saunders, lewis & thornhill, 2003). the researcher took notes and was able to record reactions to relevant information respondents gave to signal to them the importance of what they were saying or to pace the focus group sessions (rubin & rubin, 1995). notes the researcher took after the focus group notes allowed him to monitor the process of collecting data and to analyse the information. the researcher forwarded copies of the transcripts to the respondents to allow them to comment on the accuracy of the content. data analysis and interpretation interpretive research is not designed to gather ‘simple’ data or to ‘work with the data’ in elementary ways. therefore, the researcher started with a set of data, like a transcribed focus group session (lecompte, 1994). it was not feasible to transcribe entire tape recordings. nevertheless, the researcher made every effort to record the type of detailed information he needed to analyse conversation. the researcher began by tidying up the information he had collected and categorising the data. this allowed him to establish whether anything was missing and to justify the alterations to the original implementation scheme (lecompte, 1994). this process also allowed the researcher to alter themes and sub-themes or relationships in the rearranged data as he searched for meaning from the data set (rubin & rubin, 1995; saunders et al., 2003). the researcher then analysed the data to identify themes and sub-themes. this was a good way of creating an initial framework to attach an analysis of the research outcomes. the researcher compared the initial framework against a revised data matrix to determine where each cluster of data ultimately fitted (lecompte, 1994). he compared data within the themes and sub-themes to look for variations and nuances in meanings (rubin & rubin, 1995). this was also a good way of identifying the types of research outcomes he might have to produce after the evaluation (lecompte, 1994). the researcher was able to keep an up-to-date definition of each theme and sub-theme to maintain consistency when assigning units of data as the collection of data progressed (saunders et al., 2003). the researcher organised the data to enable the reader to identify themes and sub-themes easily (rubin & rubin, 1995). while analysing the data, the researcher counted how many times the respondents repeated an issue to establish trends (seidman, 1991). when gathering the data, the researcher provided access to information to allow him to work with the data in different ways, using different means of analysis (henning, 2004). strategies used to ensure quality data the credibility of the researcher is particularly important in qualitative research because the researcher is the main instrument of collecting and analysing data (shenton, 2004). the researcher ensured the quality and rigour of this research by adhering to the criteria that follow (see denzin & lincoln, 2003; yin, 2003): • reliability • internal validity • cultural familiarity • honesty of respondents • iterative questioning • peer scrutiny • the main researcher’s reflective commentary • transferability • dependability • conformability. in this research, reliability meant showing that other researchers could repeat the method of collecting data to yield the same results. it also addressed the accuracy of the research method the researcher used when collecting data. therefore, the researcher attempted to record the data fully and to explain the methods of collecting and analysing the data in detail. to achieve conformability, the main researcher showed that the findings that emerged from the data were not his own (shenton, 2004). he made every effort to capture the data as reliably as possible after the tape recordings had been transcribed. during iterative questioning, the researcher returned to matters that participants had raised earlier and extracted the relevant data by rephrasing questions. where contradictions appeared and the truth was questionable, the researcher discarded the data (shenton, 2004). to improve honesty, every respondent the researcher approached to participate in the research could refuse. this ensured that the data collection sessions included only those respondents who were genuinely willing to take part and were prepared to offer information freely. at the beginning of each session, the researcher encouraged respondents to be candid. reporting the main researcher reported the findings using the modernist qualitative research approach. therefore, the researcher looked for probabilities or support for arguments about the likelihood that a conclusion applies in a specific situation (denzin & lincoln, cited in munsamy & bosch venter, 2009). he compared his findings with the literature. findings (back to top) table 2 gives the responses that emerged from the focus group sessions. the table gives the frequency with which themes emerged. the researcher identified 12 themes from the combined responses of the participants. table 2: themes deduced from the respondents. table 2 shows that ‘structure’, ‘optimise expertise’ and ‘knowledge management’ were the themes that occurred most often and that ‘knowledge’ and ‘knowledge sharing’ occurred the least often. the article will discuss the themes according to the framework presented in the literature review. theme 1: organisational design elements the first theme includes ‘structure’, ‘culture’ and ‘codification system’. overall, the findings suggested that the shared services centre is not designed to enable the structure, culture and codification system to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers. respondents expressed the opinion that the service centre used them for their ability to resolve crises on a day-to-day basis and not for their applied expertise. respondents indicated that they are able to share knowledge only through personal relationships with other knowledge workers. furthermore, respondents seemed to recognise that they lose opportunities to improve performance because there were no processes to enable knowledge workers to identify specific expert knowledge that the centre could use to create new knowledge. subtheme: structure structure was the theme that emerged most often from the responses (47 times). some respondents asserted that the structure actually prevented the exchange of tacit knowledge. they expressed a high degree of frustration at the existence of silos and felt that they were unable to interact outside of their respective silos. another consequence of respondents operating within silos was that they had little understanding of the organisation around them: ‘in the ssc, there are 1,400 people working but only about 20 are able to share with others and mostly on an informal basis. there is no mechanism. we work in silos. the problem is that people don’t want to develop themselves and you can’t share with someone who doesn’t want to learn. the structure does not allow people to draw from each other.’ (respondent 16) another knowledge worker offered support: ‘there is nothing that helps the flow of knowledge to others; we have to force it by sharing with those we know well. the structure has a major role to play because the people are not managed. the structure is not able to solve a big problem, which is a loss of skilled experience employees.’ (respondent 4) subtheme: culture the culture of the ssc seems to discourage creativity because it values only narrowly defined functional output. respondents spoke of how managers ignore new ideas, thus sending a clear message that developing new ideas is not a feature of the culture at the ssc. the culture does not support the view that an organisation should value the ideas and knowledge that knowledge workers create: ‘we don’t have that kind of culture whereby you share with people, whether it’s an email or an attachment.’ (respondent 7) subtheme: codification the responses of the participants make it clear that the knowledge created in the ssc is not codified and that the organisation is unaware of the value of codifying the knowledge of knowledge workers as a way of eliminating recurring problems. the organisation does not convert the implicit experiences of its knowledge workers into explicit knowledge so that the new knowledge does not become available for others to use when dealing with similar problems: ‘… the only formal information sharing that i can speak about in our structure is the meetings.’ (respondent 11) and ‘there is no formal process where you write down what you’ve found and pass it on to other people.’ (respondent 6) theme 2: organisational competencies for optimising the expertise of knowledge workers the responses of the participants made it clear that knowledge created at the ssc is not shared with other knowledge workers and that it does not use the output of the knowledge workers to improve business processes. respondents noted that they had learnt much in dealing with the daily problems that keep arising. they also revealed that there are no mechanisms for sharing the knowledge they had created, nor are there any processes for integrating the knowledge into business processes as ways of eliminating the problems. subtheme: knowledge management knowledge management is the theme that occurred third most often. participants mentioned it 28 times. from the responses, the researcher gathered that the ssc does not make the most of its knowledge assets. respondents revealed that it was difficult for them to share their knowledge with other knowledge workers because the centre continually focused on organisational activities rather than on efforts to make the most of its knowledge assets. respondents revealed that this emphasis on activities and not on optimising knowledge assets resulted in real losses when a knowledge worker left the organisation without sharing or transferring specific knowledge: ‘… there is nothing formally that compels me to share my knowledge. even when you have a problem and you know who can assist you, you won’t get people to put in the effort to come and sit with you and help you. so in many instances it’s a crisis that will drive us to work together and share what we know. the driver of that process or document or programme – if that person leaves then the whole thing crashes.’ (respondent 2) subtheme: knowledge transfer from the responses of the participants, it seems that the ssc’s focus is not on the productive use of knowledge-based resources. respondents revealed that the organisation does not have a process that effectively moves knowledge from one knowledge worker to another. this weakness could be harmful to the organisation because respondents believed that, if key knowledge workers left the organisation, incomplete projects would fail because there was no transfer of knowledge: ‘it’s hard for me to actually share with my colleagues because in my situation i focus on problems that arise and i have to solve those problems in as short a time frame as possible. some other guys might have knowledge about the problems we might be experiencing and how to go about sharing that knowledge, i think that forum has not really been utilised to its fullest. you will find that there is no continuity because people who did the design leave and six months later no one is actually sure as to how implementation was supposed to happen.’ (respondent 1) subtheme: knowledge communication from the responses of the participants, it was clear that the ssc does not provide support functions that enable knowledge workers to exchange knowledge. therefore, there is duplication of effort and the ssc does not use its resources fully. respondents complained that they are not able to communicate the knowledge they have created. therefore, they are unable to benefit from the knowledge another knowledge worker has created: ‘everyone is so focused on business that i feel i cannot tell them what i know because i will be attacked. i do the job as i am supposed to do, as i know from my experience. but i don’t tell everyone. there is no need for me to talk to other employees about what i know.’ (respondent 5) other subthemes: knowledge creation, knowledge sharing and knowledge ‘knowledge creation’, ‘knowledge sharing’ and ‘knowledge’ were the themes the participants mentioned least often. however, this does not mean that these themes are unimportant organisational competencies. it seems that the ssc does not have a mechanism to enable the organisation to capitalise on the ability of knowledge workers to combine existing information, knowledge and ideas. respondents decided that other knowledge workers have the specific knowledge that can assist them to deal with a problem. however, this previously created knowledge is not available, as it is not embodied in the organisation. it seems that the ssc does little to determine what knowledge already exists about a problem. respondents revealed that they were aware of existing knowledge, but that this knowledge was not available to them. they also expressed a degree of frustration at policies and procedures that have not kept up with current knowledge: < p> ‘some other guys might have knowledge about the problems we might be experiencing and how to go about sharing that knowledge. i think that forum has not really been utilised to its fullest. you will find that there is no continuity because people who did the design leave and six months later no one is actually sure as to how implementation was supposed to happen.’ (respondent 2) it seems that the ssc does not make it easy for knowledge workers to share new knowledge by combining existing knowledge. this would enable the organisation to become better at using existing knowledge. respondents revealed that formal meetings were the only opportunities they had to share knowledge. however, the meetings are structured and restricted in terms of who is invited. therefore, they were not opportunities for reflective learning. based on the results, the researcher deduced that the ssc does not optimise the expertise of knowledge workers (respondents mentioned this 32 times). it does not share the knowledge they create with knowledge workers in other divisions and does not use their output to improve business processes. respondents noted that they had learnt much in dealing with the daily problems that keep arising, but that the centre did not give them the opportunity to integrate their knowledge into business processes. the centre recognises the knowledge workers’ tacit knowledge and its application to keep the ssc afloat by dealing effectively with the issues that keep cropping up. however, the organisation does not value the expertise the knowledge workers apply to solving the problems. knowledge workers develop novel ideas to deal with problems, but there is no process to develop these ideas into solutions. there are no mechanisms for sharing the knowledge they created nor are there any processes for integrating the knowledge into business processes as ways of eliminating the problems. consequently, in terms of competitive advantage (a theme the knowledge workers mentioned 24 times), the organisational design of the ssc does not contain the basics for optimising the expertise of knowledge workers, which is vital for creating competitive advantage. the organisation seems to focus more on using the knowledge workers than it is on gaining competitive advantage from applying their expertise. the ssc neglects to develop its personal, organisational and core capabilities. it seems that the role of managers is to assign a knowledge worker to deal with problems that recur and to resolve the problems as quickly as possible. discussion (back to top) the main objective of this research was twofold. firstly, the researcher aimed to explore the organisational design elements that help to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers. secondly, he aimed to determine what supportive organisational competencies the service centre needed to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers. this research makes an important contribution to identifying those organisational design elements and supportive organisational competencies that organisations need to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers. the researcher proposes an integrated framework to combine organisational design elements and supportive competencies if the organisation is to gain sustainable competitive advantage. the findings on the objectives of this research follow. research objective 1: to explore the organisational design elements for optimising the expertise of knowledge workers the findings showed that the ssc is not designed to enable the structure, culture and codification system to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers. in particular, the organisational structure of the ssc seemed problematic. knowledge workers mentioned this point 47 times. they were frustrated that they operate in silos and that the current structure prevents the exchange of tacit knowledge. consequently, knowledge workers were unable to locate relevant information and expertise outside their ‘silo’. this confirms the findings of sveiby and simons (2002). a consequence of working in silos is that knowledge workers do not know what is happening elsewhere in the ssc. therefore, efforts are duplicated and mistakes repeated. the silo mentality has developed into a climate of silence where knowledge workers are more inclined to handle problems in their own functional areas, ignoring the difficult interaction between the silos. as a result, knowledge workers tend to discuss these issues only in private, in ways that reinforce the climate of dissatisfaction. this guarantees that they remain confidential and, therefore, not discussed. the findings confirmed the research of hicks et al. (2006), who state that an organisation cannot use knowledge effectively if its knowledge workers cannot locate or access the knowledge they need. in addition, the findings showed that the current organisational culture and codification systems do not optimise the expertise of knowledge workers. the respondents mentioned, amongst others, that the culture does not support the view that the ideas and knowledge, which knowledge workers create, are valuable to the organisation. the findings contradict those of lucas and ogilvie (2006). they propose that an organisation should have a strong set of core values and norms that encourage creating and sharing knowledge and the active participation of knowledge workers in the process. with regard to codification, the findings showed that the service centre does not convert the implicit experiences of its knowledge workers into explicit knowledge so that the new knowledge becomes available for others to use when dealing with similar problems. the findings contradict davies et al. (2005). they suggest that the general purpose of codifying knowledge is to ensure greater standardisation and organisation-wide dispersal of knowledge. overall, the findings confirm kenney’s (2006) study on the relationship between the organisation’s ability to operate effectively and how well it optimises the expertise of knowledge workers. research objective 2: to determine which supportive organisational competencies are needed to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers the five supportive organisational competencies the respondents identified in this research were ‘knowledge’, ‘managing knowledge’, ‘creating knowledge’, ‘sharing knowledge’ and ‘communicating knowledge’. this is consistent with the literature. in general, the findings showed that managing knowledge remains a challenge for the ssc, because the organisation does not try to optimise its knowledge assets. consequently, there are no mechanisms for sharing the knowledge the knowledge workers create, nor are there any processes for integrating the knowledge into business processes as ways of eliminating problems. the findings contradict merx-chermin and nijhof (2005). they propose that the most important aspect of creating new knowledge is sharing it and reflective learning on the job. furthermore, the findings also contradict dong-gil et al. (2005), who stated that, for an organisation to optimise the expertise of its knowledge workers, it must transfer knowledge from one knowledge worker to another successfully. as part of an effort to optimise knowledge assets, the organisation must design a knowledge management system that enables it to use knowledge effectively and that allows knowledge workers to find high-quality content easily without feeling overwhelmed (holste & fields, 2005; poston & speier, 2005). in the light of these findings, the researcher proposes the framework that follows to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers in the shared services centre effectively. according to this proposed framework, two strata mobilise an organisation. the business systems stratum contains the design elements and the knowledge base stratum contains the supportive organisational competencies. the business system contains the organisational structure and its business processes. it is where the organisation carries out its routine operations. the business systems stratum enables an organisation to perform at an increasingly improved level of performance as it incorporates the expertise of knowledge workers into business processes and routine operations systematically. the optimised expertise of knowledge workers, when integrated into the business systems stratum, becomes the base, or platform, for creating further knowledge. the knowledge base stratum includes ‘knowledge’, ‘knowledge management’, ‘knowledge sharing’, ‘knowledge communication’ and ‘knowledge transfer’. the knowledge base stratum supports the business systems stratum, thereby enabling the organisation to optimise the expertise of its knowledge workers. for an organisation to optimise the expertise of its knowledge workers, it must develop supportive organisational competencies. they will help to create, share and embed the expertise of knowledge workers with the business processes and routine operations of the organisation. in this arrangement, the knowledge base stratum (software) acts on the business systems stratum (hardware) and enables the organisation to perform at an increasingly improved level as it optimises and integrates the expertise of the knowledge workers with business processes and routine operations. therefore, this framework introduces a mechanism that makes it possible for an unrelenting interaction between the expertise of knowledge workers, business processes and the routine operations of an organisation to improve performance continuously. an effective design will lead to a process of assembling and fine-tuning an organisation’s design to create and sustain competitive advantage (see botha, 2000; jarvenpaa & staples, 2001; russo & harrison, 2005). figure 1: a framework for optimising the expertise of knowledge workers. implications and recommendations for managers this research adds to the theoretical debate on the design and supportive organisational competencies to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers. it also contributes by providing a framework for examining organisational design and the supportive organisational competencies that organisations need. based on the findings of the research, the researcher recommends that managers introduce an unremitting interplay between the expertise of knowledge workers, business processes and the routine operations of an organisation to improve performance continuously. if they use innovation incubators effectively, managers will allow an increasing amount of knowledge worker tacit knowledge to fall under the control of the organisation. managers should also introduce processes that promote sharing knowledge and integrating new knowledge with business processes and routine operations in order to optimise the expertise of knowledge workers. finally, managers should introduce a system where improved business processes and routine operations become the impetus for further refinement in the innovation incubators. limitations of the research this research had some limitations. the researcher used a case study. this meant that he collected information from a small sample in a specific research setting. therefore, the findings cannot be generalised to other research settings. suggestions for further research research to determine which information technologies can provide access to other domains of knowledge and promote knowledge worker innovation is needed. research to determine how an organisation can provide a knowledge worker with a suitable career path will assist. the research should focus on how structural arrangements can satisfy the career aspirations of knowledge workers. it would be valuable to carry out extensive research to determine what motivates knowledge workers so that organisations can understand this key element of human capital better. the research should include their value systems. references (back to top) adamson, i. (2005). knowledge management – the next generation of tqm? total quality management, 16, 987−1000. doi:10.1080/14783360500163177 akbar, h. (2003). knowledge levels and their transformation: towards the integration of knowledge creation and individual learning. journal of management studies, 40, 1997−2021. doi:10.1046/j.1467–6486.2003.00409.x albina, v., garavelli, a., & gorgoglione, m. (2004). organization and technology in knowledge transfer. benchmarking: an international journal, 11, 584−600. alsene, e. (2007). erp systems and the coordination of the enterprise. business process management journal, 13, 417−432. doi:10.1108/14637150710752326 alvarez, s. (2003). towards an interpretative integrative framework to conceptualise social processes in large information systems implementations. information technology for development, 10, 233−247. doi:10.1002/itdj.1590100403 alvesson, m., karreman, d., & swan, j. (2002). departures form knowledge and/or management in knowledge management. management communication quarterly, 16, 282−291. doi:10.1177/089331802237242 ansari, m.a., hung, d.k.m., & aafaqi, r. (2007). leader-member exchange and attitudinal outcomes: role of procedural justice climate. leadership & organization development journal, 28, 690–709. arnulf, j., dreyer, h., & grenness, c. (2005). trust and knowledge creation: how the dynamics of trust and absorptive capacity may affect supply chain management development projects. international journal of logistics: research and applications, 8, 225−236. babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2001). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford university press. ballantine, j., & mccourt larres, j. (2007). cooperative learning: a pedagogy to improve students generic skills. education + training, 49, 126−137. barber, f., & strack, r. (2005). the surprising economics of a ‘people business’. harvard business review, 83, 80−90. barratt, m. (2004). understanding the meaning of collaboration in the supply chain. supply chain management: an international journal, 9, 30−42. doi:10.1108/13598540410517566 boder, a. (2006). collective intelligence: a keystone in knowledge management. journal of knowledge management, 10, 81−93. doi:10.1108/13673270610650120 bogdanowicz, m., & bailey, e. (2002). the value of knowledge and the values of the new knowledge worker: generation x in the new economy. journal of european industrial training, 26, 125−129. doi:10.1108/03090590210422003 botha, d.f. (2007). rethinking the knowledge bearing capacity of e-business systems. south african journal of business management, 38, 37−43. botha, d.f. (2000). a conceptional framework for the management of knowledge in a knowledge-based enterprise. south african journal of business management, 31, 141−152. brachos, d., kostopoulos, k., soderquist, k., & prastacos, g. (2007). knowledge effectiveness, social context and innovation. journal of knowledge management, 11, 31−44. doi:10.1108/13673270710819780 branigan, a. (2000). using focus groups to evaluate health promotion interventions. health education, 100, 261−268. doi:10.1108/09654280010354887 bryan, l., & joyce, c. (2005). the 21st-century organisation. mckinsey quarterly, 24−33. caelli, k., ray, l., & mill, j. (2003). ‘clear as mud’: toward greater clarity in generic qualitative research. international journal of qualitative methods, 2, 1−23. choi, b., & lee, h. (2003). knowledge management enablers, process, and organizational performance: an integrative view and empirical examination. journal of management information systems, 20, 179−228. coakes, e., & smith, p. (2007). developing communities of innovation by identifying innovation champions. the learning organization, 14, 74−85. doi:10.1108/09696470710718366 cooper, d. (2006). knowledge workers. canadian business, 79, 1−2. covey, s.r. (2004). the 8th habit from effectiveness to greatness. london: simon & schuster uk ltd. danese, p., & romano, p. (2004). improving inter-functional coordination to face high product variety and frequent modifications. international journal of operations & production management, 24, 863−885. doi:10.1108/01443570410552090 davies, j., subrahmanian, e., & westerberg, a. (2005). the global and the local in knowledge management. journal of knowledge management, 9, 101−112. doi:10.1108/13673270510582992 davison, g., & blackman, d. (2005). the role of mental models in innovative teams. european journal of innovation management, 8, 409–423. denzin, n.k., & lincoln, y.s. (2003). the landscape of qualitative research. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks: sage. dong-gil, k., kirsh, l.j., & king, w. (2005). antecedents of knowledge transfer from consultants to clients in enterprise system implementation. mis quarterly, 29, 59−85. drejer, a., & sorensen, s. (2002). succeeding with souring of competencies in technology-intensive industries. benchmarking: an international journal, 9, 388–408. drucker, p.f. (1999). management challenges for the 21st century. massachusetts: butterworth-heinemann. du plessis, m. (2007). knowledge management: what makes complex implementations successful? journal of knowledge management, 11, 91−101. doi:10.1108/13673270710738942 duignan, r. (2007). employee perceptions of recent work environment changes in japan. personnel review, 36, 440−456. doi:10.1108/00483480710731365 edvardsson, b. (2003). quality in the work environment: a prerequisite for success in new service development. managing service quality, 13, 148−163. doi:10.1108/09604520310466851 glesne, c. (1999). becoming qualitative researchers: an introduction. new york: addison wesley longman, inc. gold, a., malhotra, a., & segards, a. (2001). knowledge management: an organizational capabilities perspective. journal of management information systems, 18, 185−214. grandori, a., & soda, g. (2006). a relationship approach to organizational design. industry and innovation, 13, 151−172. doi:10.1080/13662710600684316 greiner, m., böhmann, t., & krcmar, h. (2007). a strategy for knowledge management. journal of knowledge management, 11(6), s. 3–15 hall, m. (2006). knowledge management and the limits of knowledge codification. journal of knowledge management, 10, 117−126. doi:10.1108/13673270610670894 hamel, g., & prahalad, c.k. (2005). strategic intent. harvard business review, 83, 61−76. hammer, m., leonard, d., & davenport, t. (2004). why don’t we know more about knowledge? mit sloan management review, 45, 14−18. hasgall, a., & shoham, s. (2008). knowledge processes: from managing people to managing processes. journal of knowledge management, 12, 51−62. doi:10.1108/13673270810852386 henning, e. (2004). finding your way in qualitative research. pretoria: van schaik publishers. hicks, r., dattero, r., & galup, s. (2006). the five-tier knowledge management hierarchy. journal of knowledge management, 10, 19−31. doi:10.1108/13673270610650076 holste, j.s., & fields, d. (2005). the relationship of affect and cognition based trust with sharing and use of tacit knowledge. academy of management, best conference paper, b1−b6. hornstein, h.a., & de guerre, d.w. (2006). bureaucratic organisations are bad for our health. ivey business journal, 1, 1−4. iverson, j., & mcphee, r. (2002). knowledge management in communities of practice. management communication quarterly, 16, 259−266. doi:10.1177/089331802237239 jackson, t. (2007). applying autopoiesis to knowledge management in organisations. journal of knowledge management, 11, 78−91. doi:10.1108/13673270710752126 jain, k., nagar, l., & srivastava, v. (2006). benefit sharing in inter-organizational coordination. supply chain management: an international journal, 11, 400−416. doi:10.1108/13598540610682417 jantunen, a. (2005). knowledge-processing capabilities and innovative performance: an empirical study. european journal of innovation management, 8, 336−349. doi:10.1108/14601060510610199 janz, b.d., & prasarnphanich, p. (2003). understanding the antecedents of effective knowledge management: the importance of a knowledge-centered culture. decision sciences, 34, 351−384. doi:10.1111/1540–5915.02328 jarvenpaa, s.l., & staples, d.s. (2001). exploring perceptions of organizational ownership of information and expertise. journal of management information systems, 18, 151−183. johanson, u., martensson, m., & skoog, m. (2001). measuring to understand intangible performance drivers. the european accounting review, 10, 407−437. doi:10.1080/09638180126791, doi:10.1080/09638180120081562 joshi, k., sarker, s., & sarker, s. (2007). knowledge transfer within information systems development teams: examining the role of knowledge source attributes. decision support systems, 43, 322−335. doi:10.1016/j.dss.2006.10.003 kenney, j.l., & gudergan, s.p. (2006). knowledge integration in organizations: an empirical assessment. journal of knowledge management, 10, 43−58. doi:10.1108/13673270610679354 keskin, h. (2005). the relationship between explicit and tacit oriented km strategy, and firm performance. the journal of american academy of business, cambridge, 7, 169−175. kirkwood, t., & pangarkar, a. (2003). workplace learning — beyond the classroom. cma management, 10−12. kodama, m. (2006). strategic community: foundation of knowledge creation. research – technology management, 49−58. koening, m. (1999). education for knowledge mangement. information services & use, 19, 17−31. koners, u., & goffin, k. (2007). manager’s perception of learning in new product development. international journal of operations & production management, 27, 49−68. doi:10.1108/01443570710714538 koster, f., stokman, f., hodson, r., & sanders, k. (2007). solidarity through networks: the effects of task and informal interdependence on cooperation within teams. employee relations, 29, 117–137. laduke, b. (2005). beyond polanyi. knowledge management, 10−11. lai, m., & lee, m. (2007). risk-avoiding cultures toward achievement of knowledge sharing. business process management journal, 13, 522−537. doi:10.1108/14637150710763559 laise, d., migliarese, p., & verteramo, s. (2005). knowledge organization design: a diagnostic tool. human systems management, 24, 121−131. lebowitz, m.a. (2005). the knowledge of a better world. monthly review, 62−69. lecompte, m. (1994). sensible matchmaking: qualitative research design and the program evaluation standards. journal of experimental education, 63, 117−129. doi:10.1080/00220973.1994.9943824 lee, g.k., & cole, r.e. (2003). from a firm-based to a community-based model of knowledge creation: the case of the linux kernel development. organization science, 14, 633−649. doi:10.1287/orsc.14.6.633.24866 lee, r.g., & dale, b.g. (1998). business process management: a review and evaluation. business process management, 4, 214−225. doi:10.1108/14637159810224322 levy, j. (2005). the fourth revolution. t+d, 59, 64−66. lucas, l.m., & ogilvie, d.t. (2006). things are not always what they seem: how reputations, culture, and incentives influence knowledge transfer. the learning organization, 13, 7−24. doi:10.1108/09696470610639103 marouf, l. (2007). social networks and knowledge sharing in organizations: a case study. journal of knowledge management, 11, 110−125. doi:10.1108/13673270710832208 martins, e.c., & terblanche, t. (2003). building organisational culture that stimulates creativity and innovation. european journal of innovation management, 6, 64−74. doi:10.1108/14601060310456337 massey, a.p., montoya-weiss, m.m. (2006). unraveling the temporal fabric of knowledge conversion: a model of media selection. mis quarterly, 30, 99–114. massey, a., montoya-weiss, m., & o’driscoll, t. (2002). performance-centered design of knowledge-intensive processes. journal of management information systems, 18, 37−58. mcfadyen, m.a., & cannella, a.a. (2004). social capital and knowledge creation: diminishing returns of the number and strength of exchange relationships. academy of management journal, 47, 735−746. doi:10.2307/20159615 meilich, o. (2005). are formalization and human asset specificity mutually exclusive? journal of american academy of business, 6, 161−169. merx-chermin, m., & nijhof, w.j. (2005). factors influencing knowledge creation and innovation in an organisation. journal of european industrial training, 29, 135−147. doi:10.1108/03090590510585091 munsamy, m., & bosch venter, a. (2009). retention factors of management staff in the maintenance phase of their careers in local government. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), 1–9. muthusamy, s.k., & white, m.a. (2005). learning and knowledge transfer in strategic alliances: a social exchange view. organizational studies, 26, 415−441. doi:10.1177/0170840605050874 nadler, j., thompson, l., & van boven, l. (2003). learning negotiation skills: four models of knowledge creation and transfer. management science, 49, 529−540. doi:10.1287/mnsc.49.4.529.14431 neuman, w.l. (2003). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. boston, ma: pearson education. ng, p.t. (2004). the learning organisation and the innovative organisation. human systems management, 23, 93−100. oliver, s., & kandadi, k. (2006). how to develop knowledge culture in organizations? a multiple case study of large distributed organizations. journal of knowledge management, 10, 6−24. doi:10.1108/13673270610679336 owen, j.m. (1999). knowledge management and information professional. information services & use, 19, 7–16. peltonen, t., & lamsa, t. (2004). ‘communities of practice’ and the social process of knowledge creation: towards a new vocabulary for making sense of organizational learning. problems and perspectives in management, 249−262. pham, n.t. (2006). facilitators of organizational learning in design. the learning organization, 13, 186−201. doi:10.1108/09696470610645502 pham, n., & swierczek, f. (2006). facilitators of organizational learning in design. the learning organization, 13, 186–201. pillania, r.k. (2005). new knowledge creation scenarion in indian industry. global journal of flexible systems management, 6, 49−57. poston, r., & speier, c. (2005). effective use of knowledge management systems: a process model of content ratings and credibility indicators. mis quarterly, 29, 221−245. prieto, i., & revilla, e. (2006). learning capability and business performance: a non-financial and financial assessment. the learning organization, 13, 166−185. doi:10.1108/09696470610645494 robertson, m., scarbrough, h., & swan, j. (2003). knowledge creation in professional service firms: institutional effects. organization studies, 24, 831−857. doi:10.1177/0170840603024006002 rodriguez-lluesma, c., & bailey, d.e. (2005). broadening the scope: exploring three knowledge distinctions. academy of management, best conference paper, h1−h6. rowold, j., & hochholdinger, s. (2008). effects of career-related continuous learning: a case study. the learning organization, 15, 45−57. doi:10.1108/09696470810842484 rubin, h., & rubin, i. (1995). qualitative interviewing; the art of hearing data. california: sage publications inc. russo, m., & harrison, n. (2005). organisational design and environmental performance: clues from the electronics industry. academy of management journal, 48, 582−593. sanders, d. (2005). creation of new knowledge. defence & security analysis, 21, 283−302. doi:10.1080/0743017052000344956 saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2003). research methods for business students. england: pearson education limited. seidler-de alwis, r., & evi hartmann, e. (2008). the use of tacit knowledge within innovative companies: knowledge management in innovative enterprises. journal of knowledge management, 12, 133−147. doi:10.1108/13673270810852449 seidman, i. (1991). interviewing as qualitative research; a guide for researchers in education and the social sciences. new york: teachers college press. sharkey, l. (2006). organization integration case study: a practical approach to drive faster results. organizational development journal, 24, 44−54. shenton, a. (2004). strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research projects. education for information, 22, 63−75. smedlund, a. (2008). the knowledge system of a firm: social capital for explicit, tacit and potential knowledge. journal of knowledge management, 12, 63−77. doi:10.1108/13673270810852395 smith, k., collins, c., & clark, k. (2005). existing knowledge, knowledge creation capability, and the rate of new product introduction in high-technology firms. academy of management journal, 48, 346−357. spender, j.c. (1996). making knowledge the basis of dynamic theory of the firm. strategic management journal, 17, 45−62. spira, j.b. (2005). in praise of knowledge workers. km world, 14, 25−27. stenmark, d. (2001). leveraging tacit organizational knowledge. journal of management information systems, 17, 9−24. sveiby, k., & simons, r. (2002). collaborative climate and effectiveness of knowledge work – an empirical study. journal of knowledge management, 6, 420–433. teerajetgul, w., & chareonngam, c. (2008). tacit knowledge utilization in thai construction projects. journal of knowledge management, 12, 64−174. doi:10.1108/13673270810852467 thomas, g., & hult, m. (2003). an integration of thoughts on knowledge management. decision sciences, 34, 189−195. doi:10.1111/1540–5915.02264 twinn, s. (1998). an analysis of the effectiveness of focus groups as a method of qualitative data collection with chinese populations in nursing research. journal of advanced nursing, 28, 121−132. doi:10.1046/j.1365–2648.1998.00708.x, pmid:9756235 vishnevsky, t., & beanlands, h. (2004). interpreting research in nephrology nursing. nephrology nursing journal, 31, 234−238. pmid:15114810 walker, e., & dewar, b. (2000). moving on from interpretivism : an argument for constructivist evaluation. journal of advanced nursing, 32, 1−12. doi:10.1046/j.1365–2648.2000.01532.x, pmid:11012816 wang, c., & ahmed, p. (2003). organisational learning: a critical review. the learning organisation, 10, 8−17. doi:10.1108/09696470310457469 wang-cowham, c. (2008). hr structure and hr knowledge transfer between subsidiaries in china. the learning organization, 15, 26−44. doi:10.1108/09696470810842501 watson, s., & hewett, k. (2006). a multi-theoretical model of knowledge transfer in organizations: determinants of knowledge contribution and knowledge reuse. journal of management studies, 43, 141−173. doi:10.1111/j.1467–6486.2006.00586.x williams, a.m. (2006). lost in translation? international migration, learning and knowledge. progress in human geography, 30, 588–607. woodring, j., foley, s., rado, g., brown, k., & hamner, d. (2006). focus groups and methodological reflections. journal of disability policy studies, 16, 248−258. doi:10.1177/10442073060160040601 yakhlef, a. (2005). immobility of tacit knowledge and the displacement of the locus of innovation. european journal of innovation management, 8, 227−239. doi:10.1108/14601060510594684 yin, r.k. (2003). case study research: design and methods.(3rd edn.). thousand oaks: sage publications. zairi, m. (1997). business process management: a boundaryless approach to modern competitiveness. business process management, 3, 64−80. doi:10.1108/14637159710161585 zemke, r. (2004). the gray zone. training, 41, 1−2. 206--12 nov 2009 [ final version].indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #206 (page number not for citation purposes) hiv/aids in the workplace and the impact on firm efficiency and firm competitiveness: the south african manufacturing industry as a case study authors: gerhardus van zyl1 carol lubisi1 affi liations: 1department of economics & econometrics, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: gerhardus van zyl e-mail: hardusvz@uj.ac.za postal address: po box 10152, aston manor, 1630, south africa keywords: hiv/aids; effi ciency; labour productivity; skills levels; econometric log-linear power functions dates: received: 18 mar. 2009 accepted: 21 aug. 2009 published: 23 oct. 2009 how to cite this article: van zyl, g., & lubisi, c. (2009). hiv/aids in the workplace and the impact on fi rm effi ciency and fi rm competitiveness: the south african manufacturing industry as a case study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), art. #206, 14 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.206 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. abstract the aim of the article was to determine the extent of the negative impact of hiv/aids in the workplace on fi rm effi ciency and fi rm competitiveness. the south african manufacturing sector was used as a case study. the above-mentioned research was deemed necessary, as very limited research has been published specifi cally on the technical measuring of the extent of the impact of hiv/aids on fi rm effi ciency and fi rm competitiveness in south africa. a survey questionnaire was designed for use in the research in order to capture the extent of the impact of hiv/aids on all levels of fi rm effi ciency and fi rm competitiveness. a detailed statistical analysis of the results of the survey questionnaire and the parameter estimates of impact log-linear econometric power functions indicated that the negative impact of hiv/aids on fi rm effi ciency and fi rm competitiveness was becoming more prevalent and serious, as it is underpinned by the statistical signifi cance of the results and the high elasticity coeffi cients of the estimated log-linear power functions. it is recommended that human resource managers implement and manage hiv/ aids programmes more effectively in order to counter the extent of the negative impact on fi rm effi ciency and fi rm competitiveness. 207vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 14 introduction the aim of this research was to determine the extent of the negative impact of hiv and aids on fi rm effi ciency and fi rm competitiveness. the south african manufacturing industry was used as a case study. for the purposes of this article the impact of hiv/aids on fi rm effi ciency is measured by changes in the quality and cost of labour (call & holahan, 1983), while the impact of hiv/aids on fi rm competitiveness is based on profi tability indicators (masuku, 2005). in order to measure the extent of the impact of hiv/aids on fi rm effi ciency and fi rm competitiveness, four hypotheses were tested and statistically validated, namely: the perceived wide existence of hiv/aids programmes in the manufacturing sector of the • economy (irrespective of the size of the fi rms in this sector) the perceived high level of negative impacts of hiv/aids on skills levels in the workplace and on • productivity-related components of fi rm effi ciency levels the perceived high level of negative impacts of hiv/aids on labour and production costs• the perceived high level of negative impacts of hiv/aids on fi rm competitiveness (as measured • by profi ts, prices and sales). in order to derive measurement categories that would effectively measure the extent of the negative impacts of hiv/aids on fi rm effi ciency and fi rm competitiveness in the manufacturing sector of the south african economy, a detailed literature study was undertaken. firstly, it was envisaged that the literature study would enhance an understanding of the magnitude of hiv/aids prevalence rates and the necessity for the private sector to implement hiv/aids programmes, and show how the extent of the implementation or non-implementation of hiv/aids programmes has impacted on fi rm effi ciency. secondly, the literature study would enable the researchers to determine the link between hiv/aids prevalence rates and skill levels, productivity levels, managerial effi ciency, operating costs and profi tability indicators. hiv/aids prevalence rates and the implementation of hiv/aids programmes in the private sector a study conducted by cleary, boulle, castillo-riquelme and mcintyre (2008) on the burden of hiv/ aids in the public health care system indicated that the hiv/aids pandemic in south africa infl uences all spheres of the economy and society as a whole, impacting on macroeconomic, microeconomic, social and psychological levels. the same study also concluded that the provision of public health care for hiv/aids patients is under severe pressure as a result of funding constraints, shortages of health care personnel and infrastructure defi ciencies, and that it is becoming more and more evident that the private health sector should contribute more towards addressing the hiv/aids problem. connelly and rosen (2005) are of the opinion that the implementation of hiv/aids programmes by employers could contribute signifi cantly to addressing and managing the negative impacts of hiv/aids in the workplace. the results of this particular study indicated that larger fi rms tend to implement hiv/aids programmes much faster than small and medium-sized fi rms, and that many hr departments at fi rms were not convinced of the potential effectiveness of hiv/aids programmes, and that especially small and medium sized fi rms lacked the urgency to invest scarce resources in order to address the potential negative impacts of hiv/aids. vass (2005) conducted a study of the relationship between labour market dynamics and hiv/ aids prevalence in south africa. the study indicated that the rate of labour force growth would decline when the hiv/aids prevalence rate increased. this would most certainly result in a smaller original research van zyl & lubisi sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 6 (page number not for citation purposes) 208 vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 14 labour force when compared to a no-hiv/aids scenario. this particular study also concluded that the hiv/aids prevalence ratios in the manufacturing and mining sectors of south africa were relatively high (between 20% and 25%). the link between hiv/aids prevalence rates and skill levels, productivity, managerial efficiency, operating costs and profitability indicators studies conducted by ouattek (2000), the bureau for economic research (2001) and shisana and simbayi (2002) explored the relationship between hiv/aids prevalence rates and skill levels. it was concluded in all three studies that the hiv/ aids prevalence rates were higher among unskilled and semiskilled labour when compared to highly skilled labour (semi and unskilled between 26% and 33%, skilled between 21% and 24%, and highly skilled between 11% and 17%). these results confirm the skills gradient (negative relationship between skills levels and hiv/aids prevalence rates). studies conducted by abt associates inc. (2000) and acott (2000) actually confirmed a constant hiv/aids risk profile across skill levels. vass (2005) indicated higher rates of hiv/aids prevalence among nonpermanent workers (who tend to be relatively low skilled and low paid) and that firms are increasingly resorting to employing non-permanent workers with reduced or no benefits in order to circumvent the impact of hiv/aids. studies done by fraser, grant, mwanza and naidoo (2002) also indicated that hiv/aids impacts on all skill levels in organisations. more importantly, these particular studies highlighted the positive link between skill levels and firm efficiency, suggesting that high levels of hiv/aids incidence would impact negatively on firm efficiency. an article by lisk (2002) further indicated that firm profitability would ultimately be impacted negatively. productivity sa (2008) indicated that labour productivity is closely linked to the level of efficiency of a firm and that any negative productivity shock will impact negatively on firm efficiency. their report further indicated that labour productivity is viewed as a measure of the efficiency with which labour input is utilised. in a report released by the department of labour (2007) it was emphasised that firms must initiate the measurement of labour productivity at some point. a systematic and analytical approach towards the measurement of productivity is needed for a focused level of improvement in labour productivity (or to identify exogenous shock impacts on labour productivity). the bureau for economic research (2004), deloitte and touche (2001) and kew (2002) concluded from their research findings that high hiv/aids prevalence rates have a strong negative impact on productivity levels, and ultimately on operating costs. limited research has been conducted on the actual technical measurement of the impact of hiv/aids on firm efficiency and firm competitiveness (see, e.g., ellis & terwin, 2003; connelly & rosen, 2005). this state of affairs necessitates sound technical measurement of the impact of hiv/aids on firm efficiency and firm competitiveness. in conclusion, it is clear from the above discussion that: the hiv/aids prevalence rates in the manufacturing sector • are relatively high the implementation or non-implementation of hiv/aids • programmes by businesses will have an effect on the quality and cost of the labour input hiv/aids impacts on all skill levels, and• there is a definite negative relationship between hiv/aids • and labour productivity, operating costs and profitability indicators. these findings were incorporated into the research approach and method. research design research approach the research design comprises two distinct sections. in the first section the four hypotheses were tested and statistically validated by means of the statistical package spss for windows version 11. in the second section, the extent of the negative impact of hiv/aids on firm efficiency and firm competitiveness was determined by means of estimated econometric log-linear power functions. research participants the methodology adopted in the compilation of the survey was aimed at extracting from the market the extent of the impact of hiv/aids on firm efficiency and firm competitiveness. before designing the survey, a thorough literature study and a great deal of interviews to obtain information and market analysis were done in order to target the correct questions at the respondents. these interviews included many role players in the field, namely hr managers, general managers, operations managers, and regional and sales managers. it was ultimately decided that the measurement of firm efficiency would encompass all aspects pertaining to skill levels, labour productivity, labour costs and production costs, and the measurement of firm competitiveness would encompass all aspects pertaining to sales, prices and profit levels. the aim of the survey was to reach a respondent base and generate a uniform distribution of usable, answered surveys from across the gauteng province. the manufacturer category was divided into sample areas. a list of all manufacturing companies in gauteng, with their contact details, was obtained from the manufacturing, engineering and related services seta (hereafter referred to as merset). it was also the aim of the survey to make sure that an acceptable spread of firms across the different sectors of the manufacturing industry was included in the survey. these sectors included basic iron and steel, basic chemicals, plastic products, leather products, wood products, paper products, machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, parts and accessories, and communication equipment. research procedure a questionnaire (appendix a) was developed to capture the required data. the questionnaire was designed for simplicity of response in order to capture the greatest level of accuracy in the shortest possible time. the answers were divided into both interval ranges and point estimators. this greatly simplified the interview process and reduced subjective interpretation to a bare minimum. the questionnaire focused independently on each of the dimensions that would determine the extent of the impact of hiv/aids on the efficiency and competitiveness of the respondent firms. each dimension was laid out in order to create a degree of continuity from question to question. the questionnaire contained ten questions that were divided into two different dimensions (a background information section and an hiv/aids perception section, covering aspects such as skill levels, work performance, absenteeism, workload, quality of output, work unit and overall productivity, service delivery and labour costs). the questions were based on the extensive literature study and interviews that were conducted on the medical aspects of hiv/aids and on the efficiency parameters. the validity of the questionnaire items and the sample size were tested and confirmed by the statistical package. the sample size based on this validation was 198 firms. measuring instruments the survey was further designed to facilitate the conversion of responses into data points in order to transfer them easily into a database and then interpret them with the assistance of spss for windows. version 11. regarding the spss package, the data results were tested by employing the kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy and establishing a covariance matrix in which a reliability analysis could be performed. s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #206 (page number not for citation purposes) hiv/aids in the workplace and the impact on firm efficiency and firm competitiveness 209vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 14 in order to quantify the magnitude of the impact of hiv/ aids on firm efficiency and firm competitiveness, econometric log-linear power functions were specified and estimated. a main advantage of an estimated log-linear power function is that the impact of the different efficiency and competitiveness components on firm efficiency and firm competitiveness can be deduced directly from the estimated parameter results. three power functions were specified and estimated. ų fe = a(wpb1)(asb2)(wlb3)(qob4)(afb5) (opb6)(wupb7)(olb8)(sdb9)(csb10) eqn 1 (where ų fe = productivity component of firm efficiency; wpb1 = work performance; asb2 = absenteeism due to sick leave; wlb3 = workload; qob4 = quality of output; afb5 = absenteeism due to sick leave; opb6 = overall productivity; wupb7 = work unit productivity; olb8 = output level of hiv-positive employees; sdb9 = service delivery; and csb10 = customer satisfaction). ų fco = a(olcc1)(roic2)(stc3)(crc4)(ptcc5)(itc6)(pcc7) eqn 2 (where ų fco = cost component of firm efficiency; olcc1 = overall labour costs; roic2 = return on investment; stc3 = staff turnover; crc4 = cost of recruitment; ptcc5 = pre-employment training cost; itc6 = in-service training cost; and pcc7 = production costs). ų fc = a(prd1)(pid2)(sd3) eqn 3 (where ų fc = firm competitiveness; prd1 = profit; pid2 = prices; and sd3 = sales). in order to estimate the parameters of the three equations they were first transformed into double log equations (which are linear in the logarithms), and then these regressions were run on the logarithm of the variable. lnų fe = lna+b1lnwp+b2lnas+b3lnwl+b4lnqo+b5 lnaf+b6lnop+b7lnwup+b8lnol+b9lnsd +b10lncs eqn 4 lnų fco = lna+c1lnolc+c2lnroi+c3lnst+c4lncr +c5lnptc+c 6lnit+c7lnpc eqn 5 lnų fc = lna+d1lnpr+d2lnpi+d3lns eqn 6 three log-linear regression analyses were performed, on the hiv/aids productivity component of firm efficiency; the hiv/ aids cost component of firm efficiency; and the hiv/aids impact on firm competitiveness. results hypotheses testing the response rate was very high. of the sample size of 198 questionnaires, 196 questionnaires were ultimately processed. the existence of an hiv/aids programme the first hypothesis is considered in this section. all the statistical results from the background information of the respondents and the hiv/aids aspects are listed in table 1. the spss results deal with questions 3, 4 and 5 of the questionnaire. it was interesting to note that the majority of the firms that participated in the survey employed more than 100 employees (59.3%), while an absolute minority of the firms employed fewer than 20 employees (3.1%). table 5 chi-square tests on the knowledge of hiv/aids status of staff chi-square tests value df asymp. sig. (2-sided) pearson’s chi-square 30.660a 2 0.000 likelihood ratio 30.9 2 0.000 linear-by-linear association 30.36 1 0.000 n of valid cases 193 a0 cells (.0%) have expected count less than 5. the minimum expected count is 13.99. source: spss results table 1 statistical results of section a of the survey questionnaire number of employees hiv/aids policy in place timeline of hiv/aids policy (years) knowledge of hiv status of employees % hiv positive employees 0–20 (3.1%) yes (81.5%) 0–1 (10.8%) yes (61.5%) 0–10 (50.8%) 21–40 (6.7%) no (18.5%) 1–2 (31.6%) no (38.5%) 11–20 (22.1%) 41–60 (8.8%) 3–5 (38.6%) 21–30 (14.8%) 61–80 (14.4%) 6–10 (16.5) 31–40 (9%) 81–100 (7.7%) > 10 (2.5%) 41–50 (2%) more than 100 (59.3%) source: survey questionnaire results table 2 chi-square test results for the existence of an hiv/aids policy chi-square test value df asymp. sig. (2-sided) pearson’s chi-square 88.103a 2 0.000 likelihood ratio 77.589 2 0.000 linear-by-linear association 78.565 1 0.000 n of valid cases 194 a0 cells (0.0%) have expected count less than 5. the minimum expected count is 6.68. source: spss results table 3 symmetric measures of the existence of an hiv/aids policy symmetric measures value approx. sig. nominal by nominal phi 0.67 0 cramer’s v 0.67 0 n of valid cases 194 anot assuming the null hypothesis busing the asymptotic standard error assuming the null hypothesis source: spss results table 4 chi-square tests for duration of an hiv/aids policy chi-square tests value df asymp. sig. (2-sided) pearson’s chi-square 5.767a 4 0.22 likelihood ratio 7.381 4 0.12 linear-by-linear association 4 1 0.05 n of valid cases 154 a3 cells (33.3%) have expected count less than 5. the minimum expected count is 1.75. source: spss results original research van zyl & lubisi sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 6 (page number not for citation purposes) 210 vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 14 in terms of the status of their hiv/aids policy, a total number of 159 firms indicated that they had hiv/aids policies in place (81.5%), while only 37 (18.5%) respondents indicated that they did not have hiv/aids policies in place. regarding the historical timeline of the hiv/aids policy, the majority of the respondents had these policies in place for a period of less than five years (81%). a total number of 120 (61.5%) respondents indicated that they knew the hiv/aids status of their employees, while 76 (38.5%) respondents indicated that they had no knowledge concerning the hiv/aids status of their employees. the discrepancy between the number of firms that had hiv/aids policies in place and the number of respondents who knew the hiv/ aids status of their employees (39 respondents) may probably be attributed to anxiety and reluctance among employees to disclose their hiv/aids status. the results relating to the percentage of employees who were hiv positive were interesting. a total number of 50.8% of the respondents who had knowledge of the hiv/aids status of their employees indicated that fewer than 10% of their employees were hiv positive. a further 22.1% of the respondents indicated that the hiv infection rate among their employees was between 11% and 20%. only 2% of the respondents indicated an hiv infection rate of more than 40%. these results are contradictory to the high hiv infection rates recorded by the health authorities. it was also clear from the results that the majority of the respondents (66.7%) were serious about making voluntary testing and counselling available for their employees and about encouraging them to know and disclose their hiv/aids status. in terms of the spss results, three important aspects were considered, namely: whether the organisation had an hiv/aids policy• the duration of the hiv/aids policy and • knowledge of the hiv/aids status of the staff. • regarding the existence of an hiv/aids policy, the pearson’s chi-square of 0.000 clearly indicated a high correlation (see table 2). symmetric measures in terms of the phi (0.000) and cramer’s (0.000) tests confirmed the clear acceptance of the hypothesis in this regard (see table 3). regarding the duration of an hiv/aids policy, the crosstabulation clearly indicated a positive relationship between the size of the firm (measured by the number of employees) and the duration of an hiv/aids policy: the greater the size of the firm, the longer the duration of the hiv/aids policy. the chi-square tests indicated no statistical significance (pearson’s chi-square of 0.217) in terms of the duration of an hiv/aids policy (see table 4). this was due to the fact that the expected count was less than five for organisations with fewer than 100 employees. the chi-square tests indicated statistical significance (pearson’s chi-square of 0.000) in terms of knowledge of the hiv/aids status of employees (see table 5). the cross-tabulation also indicated a high correlation between the size of the organisation and knowledge of the hiv/aids status of the employees. it is concluded that firms in the manufacturing sector of the economy in general have hiv/aids programmes in place, irrespective of their size. hiv/aids impact on skill levels and labour productivity components the second hypothesis is considered in this section. the respondents’ perceptions regarding the impact of hiv/aids on firm efficiency and firm competitiveness are of particular importance to this article. the first question in this section related to the extent to which hiv/aids impacted on skill levels in the organisation. six (low to higher) education and training levels were indicated as a proxy for skill levels. the statistical results of this particular aspect are listed in table 6. table 6 indicates that all skill levels were equally affected by hiv/aids (from a moderate to a large extent). this finding is in line with comments in the literature that hiv/aids impacts table 6 impact of hiv/aids on skills levels (% of respondents) skills level no extent moderate large very large no formal education 2.10% 48.70% 35.40% 2.60% pre-matric 9.20% 48.70% 28.20% 1.50% matric 14.90% 50% 28.40% 0.50% certificate 16.50% 54.10% 24.20% 0% diploma 16% 57.70% 21.10% 0% degree and higher 14.40% 58.80% 24.70% 0% source: survey questionnaire table 7 impact of hiv/aids on productivity levels (% of respondents) no extent smaller extent moderate extent large extent very large extent work performance 9.20% 58.50% 28.20% 4.10% 0% absenteeism due to sick leave 8.20% 57.90% 29.20% 3.60% 1% workload 23.60% 58.50% 15.90% 1.50% 0.50% quality of output 28.70% 60.50% 9.70% 1% 0% absenteeism due to funeral attendance 31.30% 52.30% 12.80% 3.60% 0% overall productivity 47.70% 39% 12.30% 1% 0% work unit productivity 42.10% 43.60% 12.80% 1.50% 0% output level of hiv-positive employees 23.60% 54.90% 17.40% 3.60% 0.50% service delivery 50.80% 34.90% 12.80% 1.50% 0% customer satisfaction 54.40% 35.40% 9.20% 1% 0% source: survey questionnaire s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #206 (page number not for citation purposes) hiv/aids in the workplace and the impact on firm efficiency and firm competitiveness 211vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 14 on all the different categories of educated and non-educated employees. the impact of hiv/aids on important components of labour productivity was measured in the survey. the results obtained from the survey questionnaire with regard to these components are listed in table 7. it can be deduced from table 7 that firms are already experiencing small to moderate negative impacts of hiv/ aids on productivity levels. it is important to link the results in this table to the results contained in table 1. the hiv/aids incidence rate for the majority of firms was relatively low (72% of the respondents had a known hiv/aids incidence rate of 20% and less). questions 7, 8 and 9 are closely linked and were combined for the purposes of the spss analysis. the cronbach’s alpha of 0.889 confirms the reliability of combining the three questions. an item-total statistical matrix (see appendix b) was compiled in order to determine the correlation between hiv/aids and the various components of productivity. all the correlations were positive and had a relatively high degree of correlation, except those with regard to the transfer of employees to lighter duties (0.249) and the increase in the size of the workforce to cater for employees who become ill because of hiv/aids (0.250). the percentages of employees with hiv/aids were divided into four intervals, namely total number interval, a 0%–10% interval, an 11%–20% interval and a greater than 20% interval (spss interval descriptive statistics are listed in appendix c). the statistics were parametric and it was expected that the underlying distributions would be normal. the kolmogorovsmirnov and the shapiro-wilk tests of normality were used to test for normality. the kolmogorov-smirnov and shapiro-wilk results clearly rejected normal distributions for the 11%–20% and the greater than 20% intervals (table 9). it was then decided to collapse the interval and proceed with an anova analysis. the anova statistic of 0.000 indicated a high level of correlation between employees with hiv/aids and the impact on the different productivity components (table 10). the brown-forsythe significance statistic of 0.000 confirmed the robustness of the anova result (table 11). the kruskal-wallis test was conducted in order to either reject or confirm the parametric results. the chi-square asymmetric significance of 0.000 was a further confirmation of the strong negative correlation between the number of hiv/aids employees and the different components of productivity (table 12). it therefore can be accepted that hiv/aids has a definite negative relationship with the different components of labour productivity. the impact of hiv/aids on labour and production costs the third hypothesis is considered in this section. table 13 lists the responses regarding the impact of hiv/aids on labour costs, training costs, staff turnover, cost of recruitment, pre-employment training costs, in-service training costs and production costs. it was clear from the results that a majority of the firms were experiencing cost pressures due to the impact of hiv/aids. a clearer picture emerged when the categories ‘smaller extent’, ‘moderate extent’ and ‘very large extent’ were aggregated. the average number of firms that were already experiencing cost pressures in all the categories listed in table 13 was approximately 85%. the hypothesis dealt with question 10 of the questionnaire. the percentages of employees with hiv/aids were again divided into four intervals, namely total number interval, a 0%–10% interval, an 11%–20% interval and a greater than 20% interval. table 8 reliability statistics (on the combination of questions 7–9) reliability statistics cronbach’s alpha cronbach’s alpha based on standardised items n of items 0.889 0.890 12 table 9 tests of normality (questions 7–9) tests of normality percentage of employees who are hiv positive kolmogorov-smirnova shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. statistic df sig. . q8_9 0.250 73 0.000 0.793 73 0.000 0–10% q8_9 0.179 62 0.000 0.891 62 0.000 11–20% q8_9 0.142 27 0.173 0.941 27 0.129 >20% q8_9 0.141 33 0.093 0.949 33 0.123 alilliefors significance correction source: spss results table 10 anova results (questions 7–9) anova q 7–9 sum of squares df mean square f sig. between groups 6.062 2 3.031 15.111 0.000 within groups 23.867 119 0.201 total 29.929 121 original research van zyl & lubisi sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 6 (page number not for citation purposes) 212 vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 14 the spss interval descriptive statistics are listed in appendix d. the statistics were parametric and it was expected that the underlying distributions would be normal. both the kolmogorov-smirnov and shapiro-wilk results clearly rejected normal distributions for the 11%–20% and the greater than 20% intervals (table 14). it was again decided to collapse the interval and proceed with the anova analysis. the anova statistic of 0.000 indicated a high level of correlation between employees with hiv/aids and the impact on labour and production costs (table 15). the brown-forsythe significance statistic of 0.000 confirmed the robustness of the anova result (table 16). the chi-square asymmetric significance of .000 was a further confirmation of the negative correlation between the number of employees with hiv/aids and production and labour costs (table 17). table 15 anova results (question 10) anova: impact on costs sum of squares df mean square f sig. between groups 15.327 2 7.664 12.957 0.000 within groups 70.382 119 0.591 total 85.709 121 source: spss results table 11 robust tests of equality of means (questions 7–9) robust tests of equality of means q7–9 statistica df1 df2 sig. brown-forsythe 13.37 2 79.48 0.000 aasymptotically f distributed source: spss results table 12 test statistics of the kruskal-wallis test (questions 7–9) test statisticsa. b impact of hiv/aids on work performance etc. q7–9 chi-square 22.77 22.59 df 2 2 asymp. sig. 0.000 0.000 akruskal-wallis test bgrouping variable: percentage of employees who are hiv positive source: spss results table 13 impact of hiv/aids on labour costs, training costs, staff turnover, cost of recruitment, pre-employment training costs, in-service training costs and production costs (% of respondents) no extent smaller extent moderate extent large extent very large extent labour costs 2.60% 55.90% 27.20% 12.30% 2.10% hiv-related costs 7.70% 49.70% 26.70% 12.80% 3.10% training costs 30.80% 31.80% 26.70% 10.30% 0.50% staff turnover 8.20% 48.70% 25.60% 14.90% 2.60% cost of recruitment 29.20% 31.80% 24.10% 17.40% 4.10% pre-employment training costs 6.20% 48.70% 25.10% 16.90% 3.10% in-service training costs 8.70% 22.10% 51.80% 14.40% 3.10% production costs 26.20% 28.20% 25.60% 14.40% 5.60% source: survey questionnaire table 14 tests of normality (question 10) tests of normality percentage of employees who are hiv positive kolmogorov-smirnova shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. statistic df sig. . impact on costs 0.31 73 0.000 0.747 73 0.000 0–10% impact on costs 0.19 62 0.000 0.914 62 0.000 11–20% impact on costs 0.14 27 0.190 0.932 27 0.076 >20% impact on costs 0.18 33 0.009 0.917 33 0.015 alilliefors significance correction source: spss results table 16 robust tests of equality of means robust tests of equality of means: impact on costs statistica df1 df2 sig. 11.946 2 82.583 0.000 aasymptotically f distributed source: spss results table 17 test statistics of the kruskal-wallis test (question 10) test statisticsa.b impact on costs chi-square 18.95 df 2 asymp. sig. 0 akruskal-wallis test bgrouping variable: percentage of employees who are hiv positive source: spss results s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #206 (page number not for citation purposes) hiv/aids in the workplace and the impact on firm efficiency and firm competitiveness 213vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 14 it can be accepted that hiv/aids has a negative impact on labour and production costs. the impact of hiv/aids on the level of firm competitiveness (profit margins, prices and sales) the fourth hypothesis is considered in this section. table 18 lists the responses with regard to the impact on profit margins, prices and sales. the results listed in table 18 are remarkable. despite the negative impact of hiv/aids on labour and production costs, it is interesting to note that the majority of the respondents indicated that it had no impact or only a small impact on profit margins, table 20 anova results (question 11) anova: impact on profit, prices and sales sum of squares df mean square f sig. between groups 3.66 2 1.828 5.405 0.006 within groups 39.909 118 0.338 total 43.565 120 source: spss results price policy and sales figures. a plausible explanation for this state of affairs is that the firms in the sample group operate in less competitive industries (such as oligopoly structures) and that cost pressures are simply passed on to the final customers. the hypothesis dealt with question 11 of the questionnaire. the percentage of employees with hiv/aids were again divided into four intervals, namely total number interval, a 0%–10% interval, an 11%–20% interval and a greater than 20% interval. the spss interval descriptive statistics are listed in appendix e. the kolmogorov-smirnov and the shapiro-wilk tests of normality were again used to test for normality. the kolmogorov-smirnov and shapiro-wilk results clearly rejected normal distributions for the greater than 20% interval (table 19). it was again decided to collapse the interval and proceed with the anova analysis. the anova statistic of 0.006 indicated a high level of correlation between employees with hiv/aids and the impact on profit, prices and sales (table 20). the brown-forsythe significance statistic of 0.010 confirmed the robustness of the anova result (table 21). it was also decided to test for the homogeneity of the variances. the levene statistic of 0.000 confirmed the high degree of homogeneity of the variances (table 22). table 18 the negative impact of hiv/aids on profit margins, prices and sales (% of respondents) no extent smaller extent moderate extent large extent profit margins 62.20% 31.10% 6.20% 0.50% prices 66.30% 29.50% 3.60% 0.50% sales 64.60% 32% 2.80% 0.60% source: survey questionnaire table 19 tests of normality (question 11) tests of normality percentage of employees who are hiv positive kolmogorov-smirnova shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. statistic df sig. . impact on profit, prices and sales 0.450 72 0.000 0.570 72 0.000 0–10% impact on profit, prices and sales 0.310 62 0.000 0.736 62 0.000 11–20% impact on profit, prices and sales 0.269 27 0.190 0.742 27 0.000 >20% impact on profit, prices and sales 0.189 32 0.009 0.861 32 0.001 alilliefors significance correction source: spss results table 21 robust tests of equality of means (question 11) robust tests of equality of means q11: impact on profit, prices and sales statistica df1 df2 sig. brown-forsythe 4.888 2 66.504 0.010 aasymptotically f distributed table 22 test of homogeneity of variances (question 11) test of homogeneity of variances: impact on profit, prices and sales levene statistic df1 df2 sig. 8.76 2 118 0.000 table 23 test statistics of the kruskal-wallis test test statisticsa,b impact on profit, prices and sales chi-square 6.637 df 2 asymp. sig. 0.036 akruskal-wallis test bgrouping variable: percentage of employees who are hiv positive source: spss results original research van zyl & lubisi sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 6 (page number not for citation purposes) 214 vol. 7 no. 1 page 8 of 14 the kruskal-wallis test was again conducted in order to either reject or confirm the parametric results. the chi-square asymmetric significance of 0.036 was a further confirmation of the negative correlation between the number of employees with hiv/aids and profits, prices and sales (table 23). it can therefore be accepted that hiv/aids will impact negatively on profit levels, prices and sales. the determination of the extent of the impact of hiv/aids on firm efficiency and firm competitiveness the estimated parameter coefficient results for the three loglinear power functions are listed in tables 24 to 26. the negative signs of the estimated parameter coefficients again confirmed the negative impact of all the different hiv/aids productivity-related efficiency components on firm efficiency. the magnitude of most of the negative impacts of the different hiv/aids-related productivity components on firm efficiency were very high (given by estimated coefficients greater than 1). the only exceptions were the quality of output, absenteeism due to funeral attendance and customer satisfaction. the negative signs of all the estimated hiv/aids cost-related component coefficients also confirmed the negative relationship between hiv/aids prevalence rates and firm efficiency. the absolute values of the estimated cost-related parameter coefficients were very high, thus indicating a very strong negative impact of hiv/aids prevalence rates on firm efficiency (all the estimated coefficients had an absolute value greater than 1). the negative signs of the estimated parameter coefficients are an indication of the negative impact that hiv/aids exerts on firm competitiveness. the magnitude of the impact on firm competitiveness is relatively weak, as two of the three categories have estimated coefficients of less than 1 (in absolute terms). this is a further confirmation of the spss result (as discussed earlier in the paper) regarding the relationship between hiv/ aids prevalence and firm competitiveness. notwithstanding this particular result it is important to note that the relationship is still a negative one and that the extent of the impact might increase over time. discussion the results of the research clearly indicate a rising trend in hiv/ aids incidence rates in the manufacturing sector of the economy. more and more firms are formulating and implementing hiv/ aids programmes (smaller to medium-sized firms to a lesser extent). firms cannot afford not to implement or manage hiv/ aids programmes. it has been proven in the research that hiv/ aids is starting to exert a serious negative impact on the level of firm efficiency (skills levels, labour productivity, labour costs and production costs), and ultimately on firm competitiveness (sales, prices and profitability). there are two very important aspects to consider. firstly, hiv/aids programmes and the human resource base of firms require a greater level of effective management in order to limit the extent of the negative impacts of hiv/aids. secondly, firms should also develop, implement and utilise more sophisticated firm-based impact models (measurements) that can quickly and effectively track negative hiv/aids effects so that corrective measures can be implemented speedily. it should be borne in mind that this research focused on one specific sector of the south african economy. further research on the impact of hiv/aids on all the different sectors of the economy is necessary in order to determine whether the differences in the labour dynamics of the different sectors play an important role when the negative efficiency and competitive impacts of hiv/aids are considered. it will most certainly give decision makers (at firm, industry and national levels) greater insight into the nature and extent of the negative impacts of hiv/aids on firm efficiency and firm competitiveness. further research on the development of sophisticated and sound econometric firm-based hiv/aids impact models is of paramount importance. conclusion the majority of firms in the sample group indicated that they had an hiv/aids policy in place, that they had knowledge of the hiv/aids status of their employees, and that they had had hiv/aids programmes in place for a period of longer than five years. a majority of the firms also indicated that the infection rate of their workforce was currently relatively moderate. it was interesting to note that all skills levels were equally affected by hiv/aids (albeit from a moderate to large extent) and that the extent of the negative impact of hiv/aids is on an upward trend. the majority of the firms indicated that they were already experiencing cost pressures due to the impact of hiv/aids. efficiency levels were also affected negatively by hiv/aids. it was concluded that, despite the negative impact of hiv/aids table 24 regression results for ųfe parameter estimated coefficients t-stat b1 -2.26 4.15 b2 -4.13 6.12 b3 -3.11 4.03 b4 -0.85 3.88 b5 -0.67 2.95 b6 -6.15 5.10 b7 -8.05 4.73 b8 -1.98 2.19 b9 -1.01 2.44 b10 -0.62 2.52 * dependent variable: ųfe ** dw-stat: 8.25 ***r2: 0.92 ****all t-values are statistically significant *****no autocorrelation detected table 25 regression results for ųfco parameter estimated coefficients t-stat c1 -9.11 3.12 c2 -7.23 4.91 c3 -8.10 3.77 c4 -10.22 4.15 c5 -4.72 2.81 c6 -2.92 4.55 c7 -6.78 3.64 * dependent variable: ųfco ** dw-stat: 9.12 ***r2: 0.86 ****all t-values are statistically significant *****no autocorrelation detected table 26 regression results for ųfc parameter estimated coefficients t-stat d1 -1.04 3.41 d2 -0.67 2.79 d3 -0.15 4.01 * dependent variable: ųfc ** dw-stat: 6.11 ***r2: 0.84 ****all t-values are statistically significant *****no autocorrelation detected s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #206 (page number not for citation purposes) hiv/aids in the workplace and the impact on firm efficiency and firm competitiveness 215vol. 7 no. 1 page 9 of 14 on production costs, the majority of firms experienced only a small impact on profit margins, pricing policy and sales figures. the only conclusion (assumption) that could be drawn from this state of affairs is that this particular sample group operated in less competitive industries (oligopoly structures) and that cost pressures (as a result of hiv/aids) were passed on to the final consumers. references abt associates inc. (2000). demographic impacts of hiv/aids in south africa. sandton: abt associates inc. acott, d. (2000). the impact of aids in south africa: a critique of demographic methods used in the ing barings report of april 2000, and their implications. unpublished honours thesis, university of cape town, cape town, south africa. bureau for economic research. (2001). the macro-economic impact of hiv/aids in south africa. economic research note no 10. stellenbosch: bureau for economic research. bureau for economic research. (2004). the economic impact of hiv/aids on business in south africa. stellenbosch: bureau for economic research. call, s.t., & holahan, w.l. (1983). microeconomics. san francisco: wadsworth. cleary, s., boulle, a., castillo-riquelme, m., & mcintyre, d. (2008). the burden of hiv/aids in the public healthcare system. south african journal of economics, 76(s1), 3–14. connelly, p., & rosen, s. (2005). will small and medium enterprises provide hiv/aids services to employees? an analysis of market demand. the south african journal of economics, 73, 613–625. deloitte and touche. (2002). evaluation of workplace responses to hiv/aids in south africa – a rapid situation analysis. johannesburg: deloitte and touche human capital corporation. department of labour. (2007). national skills development strategy: implementation report 1. pretoria: department of labour. ellis, l., & terwin, j. (2003). the economic impact of hiv/aids on business in south africa. stellenbosch: bureau for economic research. fraser, f., grant, w., mwanza, p., & naidoo, v. (2002). the impact of hiv/aids on small and medium enterprises in south africa. south african journal of economics 70(7), 1216–1234. kew, j. (2002, 12 september). old mutual launches staff aids plan. business day. lisk, d. (2002). labour market implications of hiv/aids in subsaharan africa (working paper 1). geneva: ilo. masuku, s.d. (2005). the importance of human capital in the manufacturing sector of the south african economy. unpublished master’s thesis, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa. ouattek, k. (2000). the economic impact of aids on south africa: a dark cloud on the horizon. johannesburg: ing barings. productivity sa. (2008). a study of the impact of skills development on productivity and competitiveness in south africa: a synthesis report. johannesburg: productivity sa. shisana, o., & simbayi, l. (2002). south african national hiv prevalence, behavioural risks and mass media household survey 2002. cape town: human science research council. vass, j. (2005). the relationship between labour market dynamics and hiv/aids prevalence in south africa – a literature review. the south african journal of economics, 73, 564–577. appendices appendix a survey questionnaire section a: background information this section of the questionnaire refers to background information. although we are aware of the sensitivity of the questions in this section, the information will allow us to compare groups of respondents. once again, we assure you that your response will remain anonymous. your cooperation is appreciated. 1. type of industry, mark one option only. basic iron & steel 1 basic chemicals 2 plastic products 3 leather products 4 wood products 5 paper products 6 machinery & equipment 7 motor vehicles, parts & accessories 8 tv, radio & communication equipment 9 other, please specify 10 2. please indicate the number of employees in your establishment. 0–20 21–40 41–60 61–80 81–100 101 and more 3. does your organisation have an hiv policy? yes no if your answer to question 3 is no, please skip question 4 and proceed to question 5. 4. if your organisation has an hiv policy, how long has the hiv/aids policy been in place? less than 1 year 1–2 years 3–5 years 6–10 years 10 years or more 5. do you know the hiv status of your staff establishment? yes no if yes, please answer the following question. if no, please proceed to question 6. a. approximately what percentage of your employees are hiv positive? 0%–10% 11%–20% 21%–30% 31%–40% 41%– 50% 51% and more if no: 6. how do you plan to measure hiv in your workplace? the organisation is conducting voluntary testing and counselling employees are encouraged to know and disclose their hiv status other, please specify section b this section explores your perceptions regarding the impact of hiv/aids on various aspects within your organisation. original research van zyl & lubisi sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 6 (page number not for citation purposes) to no extent to a smaller extent to moderate extent to a large extent to a very large extent overall labour costs 1 2 3 4 5 hiv-related issues 1 2 3 4 5 returns on investment in terms of training 1 2 3 4 5 staff turnover 1 2 3 4 5 costs of recruitment 1 2 3 4 5 pre-employment training cost 1 2 3 4 5 in-service training to bring new employees up to level of old ones 1 2 3 4 5 production costs 1 2 3 4 5 11.to what extent has hiv/aids impacted negatively on each of the following aspects of competitiveness in your organisation? to no extent to a smaller extent to a moderate extent to a large extent profit 1 2 3 4 prices 1 2 3 4 sales 1 2 3 4 7. to what extent has hiv/aids impacted on each of the following skill levels in your organisation? to no extent to a smaller extent to a moderate extent to a larger extent to a very large extent no formal education 1 2 3 4 5 pre-matric qualifications 1 2 3 4 5 matric 1 2 3 4 5 certificate 1 2 3 4 5 diploma 1 2 3 4 5 degree/higher qualification 1 2 3 4 5 8.to what extent has hiv/aids impacted negatively on/contributed negatively to each of the following in your organisation? to no extent to a smaller extent to a moderate extent to a larger extent to a very large extent work performance 1 2 3 4 5 absenteeism due to sick leave 1 2 3 4 5 workload 1 2 3 4 5 quality of output 1 2 3 4 5 absenteeism due to funeral attendance 1 2 3 4 5 overall productivity 1 2 3 4 5 work unit productivity 1 2 3 4 5 output level of hivpositive employees 1 2 3 4 5 service delivery 1 2 3 4 5 customer satisfaction 1 2 3 4 5 9. to what extent do you agree with each of the following statements regarding the impact of hiv/aids on efficiency levels in your organisation? strongly disagree disagree neutral agree strongly agree hiv-positive employees are transferred to lighter duties 1 2 3 4 5 employers increase the size of their workforce so that if employees become ill or die, others can step in and take their place 1 2 3 4 5 10. to what extent has hiv/aids impacted negatively on each of the following costs in your organisation? vol. 7 no. 1 page 10 of 14 216 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #206 (page number not for citation purposes) hiv/aids in the workplace and the impact on firm efficiency and firm competitiveness spss item-total correlation statistics (questions 7–9) item-total statistics scale mean if item deleted scale variance if item deleted corrected item-total correlation squared multiple correlation cronbach’s alpha if item deleted work performance 23.64 30.354 0.712 0.663 0.875 absenteeism due to sick leave 23.65 30.001 0.685 0.694 0.876 workload 24.01 30.482 0.590 0.530 0.881 quality of output 24.23 31.492 0.503 0.493 0.885 absenteeism due to funeral attendance 24.02 29.508 0.674 0.637 0.876 overall productivity 24.27 29.479 0.689 0.740 0.875 work unit productivity 24.18 29.221 0.756 0.818 0.871 output level of hiv positive employees 23.99 28.588 0.757 0.657 0.870 service delivery 24.31 29.077 0.707 0.663 0.874 customer satisfaction 24.35 30.159 0.621 0.623 0.879 hiv-positive employees are transferred to lighter duties 23.37 32.675 0.249 0.414 0.901 employers increase the size of their workforce so that if employees become ill or die, others can step in and take their place 23.79 33.465 0.250 0.398 0.897 source: spss results appendix c interval descriptive statistics (questions 7–9) descriptive statistics percentage of employees who are hiv positive statistic std. error total q7_9 mean 1.7409 0.0448 95% confidence interval for mean lower bound 1.6522 upper bound 1.8295 5% trimmed mean 1.7061 median 1.5833 variance 0.144 std. deviation 0.38000 minimum 1.08 maximum 3.33 range 2.25 interquartile range 0.29 skewness 1.895 0.281 kurtosis 4.679 0.555 0–10% q8_9 mean 1.9466 0.04889 95% confidence interval for mean lower bound 1.8488 upper bound 2.0444 5% trimmed mean 1.9195 median 1.8258 variance 0.148 std. deviation 0.38496 minimum 1.50 maximum 3.08 range 1.58 interquartile range 0.67 skewness 0.857 0.304 kurtosis 0.099 0.599 vol. 7 no. 1 page 11 of 14 217 appendix b original research van zyl & lubisi sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 6 (page number not for citation purposes) 11–20% q8_9 mean 2.2191 0.09182 95% confidence interval for mean lower bound 2.0304 upper bound 2.4079 5% trimmed mean 2.2135 median 2.2500 variance 0.228 std. deviation 0.47712 minimum 1.50 maximum 3.08 range 1.58 interquartile range 0.75 skewness -0.103 0.448 kurtosis -1.059 0.872 >20% q8_9 mean 2.4695 0.09185 95% confidence interval for mean lower bound 2.2824 upper bound 2.6566 5% trimmed mean 2.4484 median 2.4167 variance 0.278 std. deviation 0.52763 minimum 1.67 maximum 3.75 range 2.08 interquartile range 0.75 skewness 0.646 0.409 kurtosis -0.167 0.798 source: spss results spss interval descriptive statistics of the impact on labour and production costs (question 10) descriptive statistics percentage of employees who are hiv positive statistic std. error . impact on costs mean 2.0616 0.07746 95% confidence interval for mean lower bound 1.9072 upper bound 2.2161 5% trimmed mean 1.9971 median 1.7500 variance 0.438 std. deviation 0.66181 minimum 1.00 maximum 4.38 range 3.38 interquartile range 0.50 skewness 1.786 0.281 kurtosis 2.896 0.555 0–10% impact on costs mean 2.4899 0.08995 95% confidence interval for mean lower bound 2.3100 upper bound 2.6698 5% trimmed mean 2.4498 median 2.5625 variance 0.502 std. deviation 0.70830 minimum 1.50 maximum 4.50 range 3.00 interquartile range 1.13 skewness 0.586 0.304 kurtosis -0.197 0.599 vol. 7 no. 1 page 12 of 14 218 appendix c (cont.) appendix d s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #206 (page number not for citation purposes) hiv/aids in the workplace and the impact on firm efficiency and firm competitiveness 11–20% impact on costs mean 2.8009 0.16058 95% confidence interval for mean lower bound 2.4708 upper bound 3.1310 5% trimmed mean 2.7978 median 2.7500 variance 0.696 std. deviation 0.83440 minimum 1.50 maximum 4.13 range 2.63 interquartile range 1.50 skewness 0.019 0.448 kurtosis -1.350 0.872 >20% impact on costs mean 3.3333 0.14327 95% confidence interval for mean lower bound 3.0415 upper bound 3.6252 5% trimmed mean 3.3483 median 3.6250 variance 0.677 std. deviation 0.82305 minimum 1.63 maximum 4.63 range 3.00 interquartile range 1.50 skewness -0.385 0.409 kurtosis -1.147 0.798 source: spss results spss interval descriptive statistics of the impact on profit, prices and sales (question 11) descriptive statistics percentage of employees who are hiv positive statistic std. error . impact on profit, prices and sales mean 1.2083 0.04682 95% confidence interval for mean lower bound 1.1150 upper bound 1.3017 5% trimmed mean 1.1656 median 1.0000 variance 0.158 std. deviation 0.39732 minimum 1.00 maximum 2.33 range 1.33 interquartile range 0.25 skewness 1.645 0.283 kurtosis 1.158 0.559 0–10% impact on profit, prices and sales mean 1.4032 0.06234 95% confidence interval for mean lower bound 1.2786 upper bound 1.5279 5% trimmed mean 1.3746 median 1.0000 variance 0.241 std. deviation 0.49085 minimum 1.00 maximum 3.00 range 2.00 interquartile range 1.00 skewness 0.866 0.304 kurtosis -0.110 0.599 vol. 7 no. 1 page 13 of 14 219 appendix d (cont.) appendix e original research van zyl & lubisi sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 6 (page number not for citation purposes) 11–20% impact on profit, prices and sales mean 1.4198 0.08642 95% confidence interval for mean lower bound 1.2421 upper bound 1.5974 5% trimmed mean 1.4108 median 1.3333 variance 0.202 std. deviation 0.44905 minimum 1.00 maximum 2.00 range 1.00 interquartile range 1.00 skewness 0.405 0.448 kurtosis -1.715 0.872 >20% impact on profit, prices and sales mean 1.8021 0.14188 95% confidence interval for mean lower bound 1.5127 upper bound 2.0914 5% trimmed mean 1.7454 median 2.0000 variance 0.644 std. deviation 0.80259 minimum 1.00 maximum 4.00 range 3.00 interquartile range 1.33 skewness 0.803 0.414 kurtosis 0.145 0.809 source: spss results vol. 7 no. 1 page 14 of 14 220 appendix e (cont.) 3devilliers.qxd employees have an increased concern about balancing their work and personal lives (grant-vallone & donaldson, 2001). this is the result of a world of work characterised by change and increased demands on time, energy and work commitment (burke, 2000). furthermore, the concern is not limited to a specific group of employees as research in industrial countries has shown that employees across different organisational levels and with different family structures are concerned with achieving a better balance between working life, family obligations, leisure and socialising (papalexandris & kramar, 1997). an inability to create a balance between work and personal life could influence employees’ effectiveness and productivit y in the workplace (elloy & smith, 2003). consequently appropriate employer initiated responses to this issue are of great importance. a problem with the balance between work and personal life (hereafter being referred to as work-life balance) has been identified in employees in the southern african division of a multinational petroleum company, of whom 75% of staff are located at the head office in cape town. in its bi-annual employee opinion survey of 2002 only 45% of employees in this company responded favourably to questions in the work-life balance category, compared to the 56% of an external benchmark, the global high performance norm, which consists of international high performance companies with a reputation for excellence in people management practices. this difference was statistically significant. furthermore, work-life balance was the only category in which there was not a significant improvement in the 2002 results as compared to the 2000 survey. consequently it was important for the south african office to develop a deeper understanding of the problem of work-life balance and to identif y the antecedents to the problem. the present research is an attempt to assist the company in this regard. literature review and definition of core concepts traditionally, research in the area of work-life interaction was primarily concerned with the increased number of working mothers managing the conflict between their work and family roles and the consequent impacts on them and their families. this has resulted in a body of work-family interaction literature. however, because of the increased demands of jobs and changing social expectations (burke, 2000; aaron-corbin, 1999), it is recognised that balancing issues are important for all employees regardless of gender or parental status (duxbury & higgins, 2001; grant-vallone & donaldson, 2001) and the research area has subsequently expanded to incorporate the wider population and broader non-work life activities beyond the family (burke, 2000; duxbury & higgins, 2001; rayman, bailyn, dickert, carre, harvey, krim & read (1999); whitehead, 2002). studies in the area of work-life interaction have so far mainly concentrated on the conflict between people’s work and other life roles. it is generally accepted that there is a clear link between work-life conflict and work-life balance, as attaining work-life balance is dependent on managing or reducing the conflict between various roles. from the literature referring specifically to work-life balance, the concept could generally be described as successfully balancing the needs arising from work and other life roles (definition informed by aaron-corbin, 1999; whitehead, 2002). however, in order to understand work-life balance, it is important to first consider the possible underlying conflict between various life roles. the study of work-life conflict has been predominantly approached from the role theory perspective (perry-jenkins, repetti & crouter, 2000) and utilises the concepts of role conflict, role overload, and role interference. role conflict occurs when the collective demands of individuals’ various roles are in some sense incompatible so that participation in one role is made more difficult by participation in the other role (duxbury & higgins, 2001; grant-vallone & donaldson, 2001; greenhaus & beutell, 1985). role conflict could include role overload as well as role interference (duxbury & higgins, 2001). role overload occurs when multiple demands exceed resources (elloy & smith, 2003). role-interference could occur in either direction, that is, requirements from the work role could interfere with the other life roles; similarly, the requirements of non-work roles may, in turn, impact on individuals’ work responsibilities (duxbury & higgins, 2001; greenhaus & beutell, 1985; rotondo, carlson & kincaid, 2003). judy de villiers elize kotze programme: leadership in performance and change department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract a qualitative study was completed to discover how employees of a company in the petroleum industry define and experience the phenomenon of work-life balance, to identif y the workplace determinants of work-life imbalance and to elicit some solutions for the problem. it was found that work-life balance is a personal issue that varies across time and situations and the underlying conflict experienced pertains to role overload and role interference. the most significant work-life conflict arises from complex workplace issues, including managing change, supervisory and technical competences, leadership, roles and accountabilities, and culture. solutions to address the workplace issues, as well as the development of individual balance-enabling skills, are suggested. opsomming ’n kwalitatiewe studie is onderneem om vas te stel hoe die werknemers van ’n maatskappy in die petroleumnywerheid die fenomeen van die werk-lewe ewewig definieer en ervaar, om die werkpleksdeterminante van ’n werk-lewe onewewigtigheid te identifiseer en om sekere oplossings vir die probleem aan die hand te doen. dit is gevind dat werk-lewe ewewig ’n persoonlike saak is wat oor tyd en omstandighede varieer en die ervaarde onderliggende konflik na roloorladingsrolle en -inmenging verwys. die mees betekenisvolle werk-lewe konflik tree na vore vanuit komplekse werkplekaangeleenthede, insluitende die bestuur van veranderings, toesighoudende en tegniese vaardighede, leierskap, rolle en aanspreeklikheid, asook kultuur. oplossings om die werkpleksake aan te spreek, asook die ontwikkeling van individuele vaardighede om ’n ewewig teweeg te bring, word voorgestel. work-life balance: a study in the petroleum industry requests for copies should be addressed to: j de villiers, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 15 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (3), 15-23 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (3), 15-23 furthermore, role conflict could also be construed in terms of the objective and psychological impacts that are experienced (duxbury & higgins, 2001; greenhaus cited in grant-vallone & donaldson, 2001). individuals experience objective conflict when dealing with the everyday practicalities associated with limited time and conflicting schedules, while the psychological impacts refer to the perceptual aspect of feeling overloaded, highly stressed and overwhelmed by multiple commitments (duxbury & higgins, 2001). determinants of work-life conflict the origin of work-life conf lict is a legitimate issue. authors have various explanations for the determinants of this kind of conflict. greenhaus and beutell (1985) suggest that conf lict occurs when either time devoted to the requirements of one role, or strain from participating in a role or finally, specif ic behaviours required by a role, make it difficult to fulfil the requirements of another. moreover, conflict intensifies when roles are salient, central to the individual’s self-concept or when there are negat ive consequences for not meeting role demands. in a more recent study, carlson, kacmar and stepina (1995) propose that in addition to time-based conflict, social identity should be considered concurrently. they found that as time spent in the work role and the identity that an individual derives from the work role became incongruent, the conflict increased. furthermore, individuals who have strong identities with either role, or significant identities in both the work and non-work roles, experience more role conflict. fu and shaffer (2001) distinguish between two different directions of role interference, namely family–to-work and work-to-family interference. the determinants for the first type arise from the family domain whilst work-to-family interference arises from the work domain. they suggest that the determinants are unique to the six dimensions of workfamily conflict (namely, work-to-family time-, strainand behaviour-based conflict and family-to-work, time-, strainand behaviour-based conf lict). they found that determinants arising from the work domain have much stronger effects and are significant contributors to timeand strain-based work-tofamily conflict. supervisor social support was found to reduce strainand behaviour-based work-to-family conflict. the only significant determinants arising from the family domain are parental demands and hours spent on household work and these are correlated with time-based conflict solely. fu and shaffer’s (2001) models that reflect the bi-directional and multi-dimensional aspects of work-life conflict appear in figure 1 below. other international research on the determinants of work-life conflict includes an early study conducted by pleck, staines and lang (1989) who concluded that certain job characteristics were strongly correlated with work-family conflict. these included the number of hours worked, irregular starting times, frequent and uncontrollable overtime work, an inflexible work schedule and physically or psychologically demanding work. burke (1997), on the other hand, found that organisational values, associated with high performance and involvement, created an environment that may make it more difficult for employees to achieve or even wish to achieve balance in their work and life roles. apart from the job characteristics and organizational values mentioned above, papalexandris and kramar (1997) stated that individual variables could also influence work-life balance. these included age, sex, qualifications, pay, professional aspirations and family status as well as attitudes, expectations and priorities assigned to the various roles by both partners. finally, duxbury and higgins’ (2001) found that the greater number of roles that individuals have, the more likely that they will experience high role overload. amongst these, married individuals with children or eldercare experienced the highest conflict. in contrast to the rich source of international research, there are only a limited number of studies on work-life conflict or balance in the south african context. moreover, the majority of the research focuses on females’ experiences. there seems to be some contradiction regarding the amount of role conflict that females experience. on the one hand, brink and de la rey (2001) studied work-family conflict of successful employed women and found although respondents could describe strain and frustrations, the general measure of workfamily interaction strain was not high. these results supported those of redelinghuys, botes and de wet’s (1999) study on females in a commercial banking group. they also found that the respondents did not experience acute role conflict. it was further concluded that although most of the pressure experienced by the research group originated in the work role, the parental role had the greatest potential to create conflict. whereas the two studies mentioned above could create the impression that role conflict is not such a big issue, jano (2000) established that professional women in households where both spouses pursue careers did indeed experience worklife role conflict. their experienced conflict originated from their participation and value expectations being mainly concentrated in their work roles, whilst they felt more committed to some of their other life roles. whitehead’s study (2002, p.92) of life balance of professional women concurs in that the respondents did feel pressure because of the conflict (“role conflict was dynamic and a constant challenge”) but it occurred at different levels and the minimum level of comfort varied for individuals. furthermore, the study found that individuals perceived and defined balance differently and that life balance appeared to be cyclical and a process of ever changing experiences over time and life stages. such differences in perception and definition of the concept might offer some explanation for the discrepancy in the findings of brink and de la rey (2001) and redelinghuys (1999) versus jano (2000) and whitehead (2002). furthermore, the different subject groups under study might have contributed to the inconsistency of the results. the theoretical discussion above emphasises the importance of role conflict within the framework of work-life balance. consequently, research on employees’ experiences of work-life balance would inevitably necessitate an understanding of the underlying role conflicts experienced by them, as well as uncovering the organisational determinants that create imbalance. therefore, the aim of this study is to determine how employees define and experience the phenomenon of work-life balance, to identif y the workplace determinants of work-life imbalance for the specific company and, finally, to elicit some solutions for the problem. method a qualitative approach was decided upon, as this approach is specifically suitable when the research takes place in a natural setting such as was the case with the petroleum company. moreover, qualitative research attempts to make sense of and interpret constructs and phenomena in terms of the meanings that people ascribe to them; thus seeking to give meaning to social experience (denzin & lincoln, 1998). consequently this method will support the aim to tap the research participants’ subjective experiences of work-life balance. the study was exploratory in that the work-life balance dilemma in south africa is a relatively under-researched area and this research endeavours to gain new insights into the problem. however, the study can also be regarded descriptive, as it intended to describe the subjective experiences of employees of the petroleum company as accurately as possible in terms of separate variables and characteristics (mouton & marais, 1990). de villiers, kotze16 setting and participants the business area selected for research was the finance department of the south african division of a multinational petroleum company, consisting of 92 employees organised in 11 teams according to their functions. the reasons for selecting this business area include that in the 2002 employee opinion survey, only 40% of employees from the finance department responded favourably to the work-life balance category – a substantial decrease since the 2000 survey result of 59%. furthermore, during the company’s 2002 finance conference, work-life balance was singled out as one of the top priorities to tackle during 2003. purposeful sampling was used to select 20 employees as participants for the study. to control for individual variables, they were selected on the basis that they had an immediate family, that is, a spouse/partner and/or children, were within the age group of 35 to 45 years old and occupied a position in the c2 to d3 levels of the paterson grading. only seventeen employees were identified using these selection criteria, which was considered too small a sample. expanding the age range to 27 to 52 years identified another four participants. furthermore, the sample was checked to ensure that it included representatives from all teams within the finance department. eighteen of the participants had parental responsibilities and all but one participant had a spouse/partner. the sample was diverse in terms of ethnic group and gender, namely twelve coloured, one african and seven white persons. thirteen males and seven females were interviewed. procedure participants were sent an e-mail explaining the context and purpose of the study and requesting a one-hour interview. all but one employee agreed to participate. interviews were conducted over a four-week period to gather data on employees’ work-life balance 17 figure 1: models of the determinants of family interference with work (fiw) and work interference with family (wif) conflict subjective experiences of work-life balance. at the onset of each interview, participants were reminded of the context and purpose of the study and assured that their input would remain confidential. permission to tape the interviews was obtained from the participants, and the interviews were transcribed afterwards to facilitate analysis. an interview schedule was prepared to give structure and guidance to the interviewer (stroh, 2000). the schedule acted as a prompt and consisted of three broad topics outlined below. � what work-life balance means to the individual; is it viewed as problematic for them and if so, what are some of the issues with which they are dealing? (probes relating to stress, pressure, role overload and direction of role interference experienced were prepared.) � what are the workplace factors contributing to work-life conflict? � what are possible solutions to the problem as seen by the participants. data analysis this study followed an overall inductive approach, seeing it was without an explicit conceptual framework and did not embark on hypothesis testing (mouton & marais, 1990). however, prior research guided the research as the researcher probed the participants for constructs found in the literature, such as role overload, role interference and direction of role interference. in line with an inductive approach, a reiterative process of analysis was followed to gain insight and understanding into the work-life balance dilemma. informal strategies of analysis were employed as the data was classified and categorised according to similarities and differences found, as well as searching for underlying patterns and themes (schurink, 2002). the analysis involved identif ying units, segmenting the data and making the relevant connections (denzin & lincoln, 1998). the process followed was based on stroh’s procedure (2000), which included highlighting phrases and concepts that recurred in the text, comparing and linking the highlighted phrases and concepts in order to name them and begin a process of coding and finally, linking the codes together to determine the emerging themes. a continual reassessment took place to verif y the emerging themes and sub-themes. results several themes and a number of sub-themes emerged from the data analysis pertaining to the three broad research topics for this study. the themes and sub-themes are supported in the discussion below by extracts from the interviews. the subjects’ experience of work-life balance as the company survey indicated a problem with work-life balance amongst employees in the finance department, it was, in the first instance, important to determine the participants’ experience of the problem and how they defined work-life balance. seven themes emanated from the participants’ descriptions of their experiences of work-life balance. these themes could be labelled definition of work-life balance, uniqueness of the experience, significance of work-life balance, role overload, role interference, prioritisation of roles and finally, trade-offs and paybacks. � definition of work-life balance the concept “work-life balance” had different meanings for different individuals. however, there seems to be agreement that work-life balance entails three characteristics. in the first instance it creates the opportunity to control one’s own time (“work-life balance is about timing: the amount of time at work, versus amount of time at home versus the amount of time at home spent on work”). in the second instance the concept was described as an opportunity to spend time at work on non-work (and non-stress creating) activities such as using the company gym and building individual and team relationships (“i am getting time off for teambuilding at times when we are not so busy and if you look at it holistically – it takes away from that total stress all the time”). the third characteristic ascribed to such balance is that it gives equal importance to all life roles (“work-life balance means being able to achieve my optimal potential both in my work, family and with my friends whilst enjoying myself on each one of these interactions. i want to achieve in all areas”). � uniqueness of the experience when describing their experiences, participants spontaneously expressed opinions about individual ownership and individual experience relating to the work-life balance dilemma. typical responses were: “work life balance impacts on the individual – each individual will experience it and deal with it differently”; “work-life balance is really a personal choice – you have to make the decision of when to draw the line” and “it is a function of individual personality and individual response to the company environment”. aligned with the individual ownership, employees referred to individual coping techniques that they used with varying success. generally, successful techniques included refusing to accept additional work tasks (“sometimes i have to say: ‘enough is enough’), managing stress (“the gym really helps to let off all that stress”), gaining understanding and support from work and home by communication and being “more conscious of how one spends time at work.” other individual coping techniques that participants were aware of, but some had difficulty putting into practice, included being able to change roles effectively (“i have tried to leave work at a reasonable time and i find it increasingly hard to do so”), training staff, delegating more and effective prioritisation (“i find it problematic prioritising. if only i could walk in and do what i want to do”). � significance of work-life balance some participants experienced work-life balance as a serious problem, whilst for others it was of little concern (“personally in my life, it is a very big issue” versus “for myself – it is not a basic problem”). participants, who experienced their work-life balance as a concern, generally reported that, although they could cope reasonably well with it, there were times that became problematic (“there are certain times where there is going to be an imbalance between work and life balance and there will be times again when you will be able to cope”). it also happened that at some stage in the participants’ working lives, work-life balance had presented significant problems, however, they had now made a conscious effort to manage and control it (“two years ago, i suffered a lot of stress, i actually sought help – now i manage it better and am more relaxed about it.”). � role overload many employees experienced that their work roles were overloaded. they expressed this as feeling pressured with too many demands at the same time (“too many things on the go got me annoyed”), being too rushed, and not being able to complete all necessary work tasks, solve problems and train staff. in general interviewees did not feel that their roles outside of work were overloaded. however, employees with very young families found that their household and child rearing chores together with social events left little time for relaxing (“the family is important and takes up a large portion of the time. it is the time of our lives – we have very little time to sit down and read or for sports or hobbies”). � role interference the responses gave strong evidence of work-to-life interference. it was mainly described in terms of time-based conflict (greenhaus & beutell, 1985) in that research participants de villiers, kotze18 experienced a disproportionate amount of time spent at work or on work-tasks at home. additionally, there was also evidence of work-to-life strain-based conflict (greenhaus & beutell, 1985) in that at times, participants could not stop thinking of work due to unsolved problems (“my husband used to tell me that i talk in my sleep and he would be able to tell me things that i had said about my job”; “i can’t really switch off when i get home”). further evidence of strain was that some respondents felt tired or exhausted at home (“i am quite exhausted when i get home, then basically have got three hours for the kids – then i just conked out”) and experienced health problems (“i have problems sleeping”; “my eyes burn over quarter end”). no evidence of behaviour-based conflict could be identified during the interviews. strong evidence of work-to-life interference also emerged from the reaction of the participants’ families. one male reported: “there is always that feedback loop. my child actually said ‘i never see you except when it is dark, i never see you in the light’ and then more recently he said to me ‘you are always sleeping and working, there is no other time.” a female interviewee stated “i only became aware how much it impacted on my daughter when she did not want to go to school. she started not doing so well at school and i had to take her to a psychologist and you wonder if is it worth it?” evidence of significant life-to-work interference was not apparent, but rather scenarios of supportive home-lives and families were portrayed. a research participant declared, “my strongest support is the family; and here what is important is trust, understanding and communication”. � prioritisation of roles a male research interviewee who felt that “work-life balance was not a real problem” attributed this to “being able to change roles easily” and “getting the mixture right – got to know where the fundamental focus is.” another male participant with various interests outside of work and a balanced life stated “always, the key thing for me is that when you are at work, you focus on work and when you are at home, you focus on home and when you play sports, you focus on that.” a further male subject who described himself as ambitious and worked long hours declared “you have to satisf y yourself that the less important role was displaced – not the most important.” a female employee for whom work-life balance was not a concern and indicated that she would like to spend more time at work but had to leave work at 4:30 pm to fetch her children, placed prime importance on her parental role. the data suggest that research participants who were able to prioritise their roles and separate their various roles experienced a greater balance between their working and private lives regardless of their number of roles. furthermore, participants with significant roles or interests outside of work were able to separate roles more easily than those who did not have significant roles or interests outside of work. the ability to prioritise roles appears to be linked to individuals’ values and aspirations and the varying importance they attributed to the work and non-work roles. a research participant experiencing acute work-life conflict for a prolonged period of time explained that in terms of her career aspirations she “had something to prove to herself” but had started “to question her values and priorities”. another participant stated, “it is about aspirations and expectations.” � trade-offs and paybacks interviewees regarded work-life balance as a matter of trade-offs and paybacks. long hours and regular deadlines were regarded as normal for a financial department and “needed to be managed otherwise one should not be working in the financial environment.” the trade-offs of long hours and increased pressure around deadlines were tolerated in turn for being viewed as a responsible and valued member of the finance communit y (not “letting down” one’s team), career advancement and a sense of personal achievement. the subjects also mentioned several circumstances, which they regarded as unacceptable trade-offs, namely 1. high demands and high overtime sustained over a long period of time with no recovery time (“it becomes a problem when it becomes a norm to work overtime. i don’t have any leisure. even on weekends i log in to try to keep up with emails”). 2. exceptionally long hours required over a limited time scale (“normally i don’t mind overtime at quarter ends, but the one at year end was an exception. that was just horrible. i think i put in 100 hours overtime over a two week period”). 3. perceived lack of control over the long hours and no clear vision for improvement from management (“i constantly warned him that we were going to have problems at quarter end, but once again no-one listened. you don’t mind taking on certain things, but there was no clear indication that things were going to improve in the future”). 4. perceived lack of rewards in terms of career advancement, recognition and thanks (“it is also about reward – what people are expecting from work and that is going to influence how they see their work-life balance”). 5. perceived lack of support from their line managers (“it makes a difference – just want them to ask how it went or say something such as ‘did you have any problems?”) 6. visible impact on employees’ families (“and then it started impacting my family and i decided that it was not worth it”). 7. visible impact on employees in terms of health and wellbeing (“i noticed that the previous few quarter ends i was ill with bronchitis or tonsillitis”). 8. annual leave, sick leave or public holidays could not be taken (“there are times when it hits you more, and that is when you want to take annual leave”). in summary, the results for individuals’ experiences of worklife balance indicate that for the majority of the subjects, the direction of the largest impact is from work-to-life roles. work-life balance is viewed as manageable, however, the level of balance experienced is variable and is influenced by specific events and occurrences, such as tight deadlines. in this group, it was apparent that none of the varied responses could be attributed solely to gender, but were inf luenced by individuals’ prioritisation of roles, values and aspirations. the core message from interviewees was that they were managing to achieve a balance, however, it was not always ideal and there were limits as to how much role conflict they would tolerate. even though the themes described above emerged when research participants were discussing their experiences of work-life balance, they clearly overlap with the determinants of work-life balance. workplace determinants of work-life conflict from participants’ descriptions of their experiences, it became evident that they experienced a significant amount of work-tolife interference (fu & shaffer, 2001). they were then further probed regarding the possible organisational factors responsible for this interference. four themes emerged which seem to indicate workplace determinants. they could be labelled as the impact of change, inadequate human resources, lack of clear processes, roles and accountabilities, and the perceived finance department’s culture. � impact of change all employees could talk of a time when their work-life balance was significantly better or worse. generally, during times of change in the work domain, interviewees felt a significant imbalance in their lives owing to the increased work demands. almost every research participant commented on the current increased workload to be delivered in tighter time frames caused by a number of significant changes emerging from work-life balance 19 both the local company’s and the multinational’s environments. a sub-theme identified was the lack of effective change management, which amplified the increased work demand. participants related stories about insufficient planning and an under-estimation of the impact of the changes on finance processes. furthermore, employees felt a general lack of involvement and control in the decision-making process influencing the change. this resulted in individuals being reactive and operating in uncertain and pressured environments. participants stated: “decisions get handed down and the consequences are not thought through. this causes stress for staff and impacts on work-life balance” and “the management from the finance department accepted a lot of tasks and jobs from other departments which we were not equipped to do – it was a nightmare”. � inadequate human resources not having a sufficient number of employees and employees not having the required competences were viewed as key workplace contributors to work-life imbalance. in terms of sufficient numbers of employees, participants felt that certain teams within the finance department were underresourced, which resulted in consistent high work demands and long hours. this became especially problematic when a team member was absent from work as there was no cover or relief. this, in turn, lead to increased workloads for the team members present at work and an increased workload when the absent employee returned to work. one participant stated: “you take off two days and then the next four nights you stay here late – nobody does your work for you”. the view of the participants was that they could not influence the insufficient staff numbers situation. being under-resourced can impact on staff morale as explained by a participant: “i know that a lot of people feel that aspects of their job are not their core job. they have been told ‘sorry we are under cost constraints, so no extra staff. you have got to take it on.’ this has caused anxiety and dissent”. with reference to inadequate competences, it was stated that there was a deficiency of supervisory competences, financial analytical and interpretative skills and insufficient knowledge of processes. this resulted in inefficiencies, incorrect processing and a substantial amount of re-work to correct mistakes. an interviewee stated: “often i am given the wrong numbers; i have to resubmit the numbers and that is where i waste a lot of time. we work a lot of overtime. the bulk of the problem is caused by people who do not know what to do.” causes of inadequate competences were attributed to cost constraints, time constraints for training and learning, misplaced recruiting (“not putting the right person in the right job”) and inadequate handovers with a consequent loss of key knowledge. a participant explained: “people come into finance completely blind. their predecessors have left or are not interested and so people have taken over jobs with half the knowledge, and this shows, because we are always fixing messes from three to four years ago that people did not pick up then.” � lack of clear processes, roles and accountabilities research participants referred to a lack of clarity and the prevalence of complicated finance processes. the lack of clear roles and accountabilities relating to these complicated processes further compounded this problem. the result was confused responsibilities between the teams in the finance department, lack of ownership of problems, inefficiencies and re-work. participants felt that there was a disproportionate workload amongst teams and intra-team conflict was experienced. this contributed to increased work demands and longer hours as well as increased strain. a participant suggested: “clarif y roles and responsibilities. work is lying in the wrong areas and if we could streamline this, it might reduce some stresses and strains in some departments.” � perceived finance department’s culture a common belief amongst employees in the finance department was that working extra-ordinary hours (for example, working through the night) was viewed as a way of impressing managers and fellow colleagues (“… was a talking point in the department for months”). it created the impression of being ambitious and hardworking, and could thus facilitate career progression to leadership positions. a number of participants referred to the perception that employees who worked normal hours were viewed as less dedicated and hardworking. it was almost as if this particular department nurtured a sub-culture that interfered with work-life balance. “the culture that to get to the top you have to work 24 hours a day – that has got to go and it has not gone yet. we get some leaders from overseas that brag about how little time they have at home. they indicate that they work 24 hours a day and they brag about it like it is something special.” this, in turn, had the effect that many interviewees stated that they felt guilty when applying company policy to take time off in lieu of overtime worked. guilt was experienced because fellow colleagues watched the amount of time others worked and it was felt that managers did not actively encourage or support time off. the issue of taking time off also had a further ripple effect to employees’ annual leave. this related to not being able to take time off during periods when friends and family were on leave, for example, the december festive period, or public holidays. it was also difficult to take off a substantial period of time for recovery due to the monthly deadlines. a significant portion of employees had experienced their scheduled leave being cancelled or postponed and they related stories of when employees had been recalled from leave. apart from the practicalities (such as not having sufficient cover and finding an appropriate quiet time in the year for taking leave), there were emotional impacts that prevented the leave taking. for example, employees were hesitant in applying for leave because they felt that line managers did not support leave-taking: “your line manager looks shocked when you ask for leave” and “i always have to fight for my leave” were just two of the responses. throughout the interviews, the sub-theme of a lack of recognition and support for individuals and their needs emerged. the needs included effective leadership (clear direction, planning and proactive problem solving), recognition of time needed for rest, recovery and other life roles, and reward and recognition for their efforts and performance. illustrations include: “finance needs strong leadership with prioritisation and mentoring”, “last year was very busy and i did not have the finance manager’s support. i had no resources and realised that i was not going to cope. i was told ‘just see what you can do’ and that wasn’t the response that i wanted” and “most people are family people but more are taking work home – working late at night. they are upset about itbecause they want to be rewarded for it. let management come out with an occasional thank-you letter.” a key message to managers was that employees are coping with their workloads but that does not mean that they accept it or that the paybacks of recognition and support are sufficient. generally the workplace factors contributing to work-life conflict were viewed as beyond the individual’s realm of control and responsibility and that finance leaders needed to act to rectif y these issues. � interviewee suggested solutions research participants agreed that there would always be a degree of conflict between work and non-work roles and there was no clear way forward to fully resolve this issue. a participant declared: “work-life balance is a problem. on the one side, it is a function of individual responses to the company environment and on the other, it is not something that is inherently resolvable”. nevertheless, employees could suggest solutions to enable individuals to cope better, as well as interventions to curb the impact of determinants from the work domain. de villiers, kotze20 suggested solutions for individuals included learning balanceenabling skills such as effective planning and prioritisation, and improving technical financial and information technology competences to reduce inefficiencies. it was suggested that individuals should set individual work-life balance goals as part of their work targets, and should focus on attaining an acceptable balance by being self-aware (“you need to know what motivates you” and “be more conscious; try to understand where does the time go to”). finally, employees should create understanding at home and at work by communicating their role needs. the majority of the offered solutions involved a response to the workplace factors interfering with work-life balance. these included clarif ying processes, roles and accountabilities, advanced warning of changes impacting on the finance department, better planning, improving mentoring and support from line managers, and creating a leave-friendly and flexible environment. as part of this, employees suggested that the policy dealing with flexible working should be clarified. supervisors in the finance department should become more aware of the issue of work-life balance. line managers “should be observant and empathetic” regarding work-life balance and “not (to) give out negative messages to people when they need time out.” finally, they should recognise individuals for their efforts and personal life sacrifices. discussion the data gathered from individuals’ subjective experiences of work-life balance will subsequently be discussed in terms of the aims of this article, namely to clarif y how the participants described and experienced the concept work-life balance, what they perceived the workplace determinants contributing to imbalance were, and, in the last instance, their proposed solutions to the dilemma. in order to facilitate illumination of the social construction of the employees, experiences and views will also be related to existing empirical findings and relevant abstract theoretical concepts. work-life balance seems to be a very subjective concept, as it has different meanings for different individuals, and varies over time and situations. this agrees with whitehead’s (2002) findings that participants define life balance differently and that life balance is a personal experience. however, the majority of participants described work-life balance in terms of having available time to fulfil various roles, which suggested that, for those who had a problem with work-life balance, time-based role conflict (greenhaus & beutell, 1985) was the predominant underlying conflict. the literature study revealed that role conflict could include role overload, as well as role interference. for the financial department’s employees evidence existed that both role overload (duxbury & higgins, 2001; elloy & smith, 2003) as well as role interference (duxbury & higgins, 2001; fu & shaffer, 2001; greenhaus & beutell, 1985; rotondo et al, 2003) were present. the overload seemed to concentrate in the work role as the participants experienced that there was so much work that they always had to work overtime to get it done. this concurs with pleck et al’s (1989) conclusion that the number of hours, overtime and an inflexible work schedule are factors contributing to work-family conflict. regarding the direction of role interference there is no doubt that, in the case of this specific department, it was a work-to-life interference (fu & shaffer, 2001). participants had to spend so much time on the work role that it affected their family roles. consequently, those employees with young children experienced the overload more intensely. this is supported by previous research indicating that work-life balance issues are related to lifecycle stage and are more acute for parents of younger children (duxbury & higgins, 2001; greenhaus & beutell, 1985; redelinghuys et al, 1999). overall, this research thus supports fu and shaffer’s (2001) findings that pressures from the work role have the strongest effects on work-life balance. responses mainly supported an objective conflict (duxbury & higgins, 2001), as it was associated with the everyday practical challenges, such as deadlines and under-trained staff. however, indications of the psychological impact of the conflict were reflected in responses referring to the inability to switch off from work, exhaustion, and health problems. the psychological impacts appear to be related to the strain-based work interference with life conflict (fu & shaffer, 2001). other individual issues that influenced work-life balance were the salience placed on roles, and the individual’s ability to prioritise the roles. this concurs with role theory assumptions that role systems are inherently hierarchical and managing role conflict requires favouring one role over another (thoits, cited in perry-jenkins et al, 2000). the findings also support prior research that found that the inability to prioritise one role over another might impact on work-life conflict (carlson et al, 1995). however, the present research suggests the effect of a mediating factor, in that employees with significant outside of work roles found it easier to separate roles. this seems to contradict literature that suggests that the greater number of roles an individual has, the more likely they will experience high role overload (duxbury & higgins, 2001). further support for the uniqueness of the experience of work-life balance could be deduced from the responses stating that worklife balance varies for the individual over time and situations. the results suggest that a degree of work-life conflict is tolerated until the trade-offs outweigh the paybacks and that the participants became aware of this when their families or personal health had been impacted. these findings support whitehead’s (2002) conclusion that life balance is viewed as a process consisting of ever changing experiences. it further agrees with recommendations that work-family conflict should be studied as a stress episode since individuals do not perceive work-life conflict immediately when conflicting demands are experienced but that it depends on the frequency of the conflicting demands and on the significance of the sphere that has been disturbed (greenhaus & parasurman cited in cinamon & rich, 2002). in summary, one could conclude that work-life balance is a personal issue that varies across time and situations. however, the findings suggest that the most significant work-life conflict experienced (both timeand strain-based) arises from the workplace. therefore, it becomes important to look at the determinants in the workplace that might be responsible for this conflict and the concurrent experience of work-life imbalance. several workplace determinants leading to a feeling of work-life imbalance could be identified from the responses. these were labelled as impact of change, inadequate human resources, lack of clear processes, roles and accountabilities, and the perceived finance department’s culture. the findings suggest that employees experienced considerable work-life conflict during times of change. furthermore, significant changes, such as changed reporting processes, were common in both the local company’s and multinational’s environments. this concurs with literature that suggests the present-time difficulty in attaining work-life balance is caused in part by company responses to the heightened global competition, which results in restructurings and compacted work (duxbury & higgins, 2001) and high performance organisations with increased performance pressures on employees (burke, 2000). furthermore, the present research indicates that the lack of effective change management compounded the problem. this appears to be related to the workplace determinant theme of inadequate human resources and in particular, the lack of supervisory skills. in addition to the identified weakness of supervisory and technical finance skills, the findings indicate that the finance teams were under-resourced. this resulted in increased work-life balance 21 workloads and long hours, which impacted on staff morale. decreased employee morale can impact on commitment and productivit y and this concurs with elloy and smith’s (2003) suggest ion that employee product ivit y and effectiveness will be directly related to employees’ abilit y to achieve work-life balance. the results suggest that the work-life balance problem of the petroleum company is further compounded by the lack of clarity surrounding the complicated finance processes and the role ambiguit y created by the lack of clear roles and accountabilities. it was found that the role ambiguit y contributes to both timeand strain-based conflict. this agrees with fu and shaffer’s (2001) model of the determinants of work interference with family conflict and reflects recent findings that work design characteristics were strong predictors of individual’s sense of control and ability to maintain work-life balance (batt & valcour, 2003). the finance department was viewed as nurturing a culture that interfered with attaining work-life balance, as working long hours were perceived to facilitate career progression and taking time off for recovery was seen as unsupported by managers. these findings are supported by existing literature. burke (1997; 2001) highlights the importance of having organisational values that endorse balance at the workplace and rayman et al (1999) concluded that a canadian financial services firm – where the culture contributed to a competitive, deadline driven environment – allowed limited opportunities for the integration of personal and work roles. furthermore, the difficulty experienced by employees in taking leave reflects perry-jenkins et al’s (2000) findings that informal barriers can exist that make it difficult for employees to take leave or for the period that they would like. finally, the results suggest that leadership, supervisor/manager recognition and support for individuals and their needs, influence work-life balance. this finding reflects batt and valcour’s (2003) finding that support from supervisors for life balance is the most important component of work-life support. furthermore, coetzee and vermeulen (2003, p. 48) identified “concern for employees” as one of the crucial supervisor characteristics that could enhance the commitment of workers. this entails that supervisors have to treat employees as people and not as factors of production, “... and let employees have a life outside work.” in summary one could conclude that workplace determinants discussed above have significant influences on employees’ experiences of work-life balance and warrant attention from the finance department’s leaders. therefore, it was appropriate to question participants regarding possible solutions pertaining to the work-life balance dilemma. the fact that participants agreed that there would always be a degree of conflict between work and non-work roles reflects burkes’s finding (2001) that what may hinder progress to address work-life balance issues, is that work and personal life are viewed as being either-or concepts. however, participants were able to suggest solutions that could be utilised by individuals to enable them to operate more efficiently and to manage their work-life balance more effectively, as well as interventions for the finance department. a suggested solution for individuals was to create understanding by communicating role needs. this reflects fu & shaffer’s (2001) models of determinants, in that domestic and spouse social support mitigate the experience of family-to-work interference, whilst supervisor and co-worker social support impact on work-to -family interference. this is further supported in the findings as life-to-work interference was not apparent and scenarios of supportive home-lives and families were portrayed. overall, more solutions were offered on interventions for the finance department in response to the identified workplace determinants of work-life conflict, suggesting that this is where the greatest impact could be made. the desire was apparent for clear leadership and support from the managers to enable participants to cope with their roles more effectively. this suggests that coping with work-life conflict is not only related to an individual’s capabilities, but also to the individual’s control (or perception of control) over the situation. research suggests that a high level of control enables individuals to cope with occupational stressors such as workload (perry-jenkins et al, 2000). finally, it is clear from the current research that the dilemma of work-life balance is not easy to rectify. not only is it an individual concept that varies over time and situations, it is significantly impacted by complex workplace issues, such as managing change, supervisory skills, leadership and organisational values. conclusions in conclusion, this explorative study suggests that employees’ work-life balance should improve by nurturing individual balance-enabling skills as well as developing organisational balance-supportive capabilities. in line with this, the finance department should consider tackling the work-life dilemma on several fronts. firstly, opportunities for individuals to enhance their work-life management skills should be created. this could occur via mentoring and coaching, as well as formal courses on time-management, planning and prioritisation, and stress management. furthermore, the department should concentrate on developing effective and supportive managerial and leadership capabilities. desired outcomes associated with this include building strong relationships and increased communication with employees in order to be aware of and support their role priorities. thirdly, this research builds a case for the department to become operationally efficient as this significantly impacts on work-life balance. it should concentrate on the basic organisational building blocks, such as efficient processes, clear roles and responsibilities, effective resourcing, adequate employee development and change management capabilities. finally, the finance department needs to carefully examine its culture and values to ensure that they are balance enabling. the culture should be supportive and flexible, and it should reward results, not time at work. a limitation of this study is that it examines work-life balance at a particular point in time, despite indications that the phenomenon of work-life balance is a constantly changing social process. a further limitation is that the research was conducted in only one department of a specific organisation, and the results could thus not be generalised to other departments or organisations. therefore, it is recommended that future research using multi-methods, including quantitative methods replicate this study over different and larger subject groups in corporate south africa. longitudinal studies would add significant insight to understanding individual’s subjective experiences of work-life balance over time. references aaron-corbin, c. (1999). the multiple-role balancing act. management review, 88 (9), 62-65. batt, r. & valcour, p.m. (2003). human resources practises as predictors of work-family outcomes and employee turnover. industrial relations, 42 (2), 189-220. brink, b. & de la rey, c. (2001). work-family interaction strain: coping strategies used by successful women in the public, corporate and self-employed sectors of the economy. south african journal of psychology, 31 (4), 55-61. de villiers, kotze22 burke, r.j. (1997). culture’s consequences: organisational values, family-friendliness and a level playing field. women in management review, 12 (6), 222-227. burke, r.j. (2000). do managerial men benefit from organisational values supporting work-personal life balance? women in management review, 15 (2), 81-89. burke, r.j. (2001). organisational values, work experiences and satisfactions among managerial and professional women. the journal of management development, 20 (4), 346-354. carlson, d.s., kacmar, k.m. & stepina, l.p. (1995). an examination of two aspects of work-family conflict: time and identity. women in management review, 10 (2), 17-25. cinamon, r.g. & rich, y. (2002) gender differences in the importance of work and family roles: implications for workfamily conflict. sex roles: a journal of research, 11, 531-554. coetzee, m. & vermeulen, l. (2003). employee commitment: are supervisors running a puppet show? human resource future, june, 46-48. denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. (1998). strategies of qualitative inquiry. thousand oaks: sage publications. duxbury, l. & higgins, c. (2001). work-life balance in the new millennium: where are we? where do we need to go? ottawa: canadian policy research networks discussion paper. elloy, d.f. & smith, c.r. (2003). patterns of stress, work/family conflict, role conflict, role ambiguity and overload among dual-career and single-career couples: an australian study. cross cultural management, 10 (1), 55-66. fu, c.k. & shaffer, m. a. (2001). the tug of work and family. personnel review, 30 (5), 502-522. grant-vallone, e.j. & donaldson, s.i. (2001). consequences of work-family conflict on employee well-being over time. work and stress, 15 (3), 214-226. greenhaus, j.h. & beutell, n.j. (1985). sources of conflict between work and family roles. academy of management review, 10 (1), 76-88. jano, r. (2000). role and career salience of dual career professional women. unpublished masters thesis in psycholog y, university of the western cape, cape town. kossek, e.e. & ozeki, c. (1999). bridging the work-family policy and productivity gap: a literature review. community, work & family, 2 (1), 7-32. mouton, j. & marais, h.c. (1990). basic concepts in the methodology of the social sciences. pretoria: hsrc. papalexandris, n. & kramar, r. (1997). flexible working patterns: towards reconciliation of family and work. employee relations, 19 (6), 581-595. perry-jenkins, m, repetti, r.l. & crouter, a.c. (2000). work and family in the 1990s. journal of marriage and the family, 62, 981-998. pleck, j.h., staines, g.l. & lang, l. (1989). conflicts between work and family life. monthly labor review, march, 29-32. rayman, p., bailyn, l., dickert, j., carre, f., harvey, m., krim, r. & read, r. (1999). designing organizational solutions to integrate work and life. women in management review, 14 (5), 164-176. redelinghuys, n., botes, l.j.s. & de wet, m. (1999). role conflict among women employees: fact or fiction? society in transition, 30 (1), 54-68. rotondo, d.m., carlson, d.s. & kincaid, j.f. (2003). coping with multiple dimensions of work-family conflict. personnel review, 32 (3), 275-296. schurink, w.j. (2002). introducing qualitative research. paper presented at the “leadership in performance and change doctoral programme”. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. stroh, m. (2000). qualitative interviewing. in burton, d. (ed.). research training for social scientists. london: sage publications. whitehead, t. (2002). career and life balance of professional women in a south african context. unpublished doctoral thesis in leadership in performance and change, rand afrikaans university, johannesburg. work-life balance 23 201---11 nov 2009.indd final version].indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #201 (page number not for citation purposes) evaluating a methodology for assessing the strategic alignment of a mining company recruitment function authors: adelé janse van rensburg1 gerhard (gert) roodt1 affi liations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: gerhard (gert) roodt e-mail: groodt@uj.ac.za postal address: po box 524, auckland park 2006, south africa keywords: recruitment best practice; strategic alignment; hc bridge™; qualitative evaluation; mining industry dates: accepted: 03 mar. 2009 received: 26 june 2009 published: 21 aug. 2009 how to cite this article: janse van rensburg, a., & roodt, g. (2009). evaluating a methodology for assessing the strategic alignment of a mining company recruitment function. sa journal of human resource management/ sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), art. #201, 9 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.201 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. abstract in the human capital era, the strategic importance of measurement is unmistakable. therefore, the objective of this study was to qualitatively evaluate a methodology for assessing the strategic alignment of a recruitment function. persons working in the recruitment best practice community of a mining company were targeted as the case study for this research. individual (one-on-one) and focus group interviews were conducted to elicit the research data. thematic coding was used to identify the emerging themes from the research data. the fi ndings indicated that this methodology can be used effectively to determine the alignment of the recruitment function with the strategic objectives of the company. however, the bottom line contribution is still unclear. 110vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 9 introduction have you ever been asked to provide a strategic report on recruitment and you just did not know where to start or what to include? after all, what exactly is meant by ‘strategic’ and do your standard reports on number of advertisements and recruitment costs meet these strategic requirements? according to duggan (2004), strategic reports are easy. you just need to combine various recruitment metrics and you need to understand how the outcomes of these measures infl uence the overall objectives of the company. however, how do we determine what to measure out of the multitude of available metrics? the answer to this is quite simple: you need to ensure that the (recruitment) function is aligned with the strategic objectives of the company (boudreau & ramstad, 2007), then measure each specifi c strategic objective. if strategic reporting is this simple, why do we still struggle? apparently, it is because the recruitment function is not aligned with the objectives of the company (heraty & morley, 1998, p. 663) because we are not ‘appreciating the strategic imperative of effective recruitment and selection practices’. in addition, confusion also reigns for the reason that the majority of research focused mostly on what measures are available (armstrong, 2005; fitz-enz, 1987; millick, 2007) or why to measure (becker, huselid & ulrich, 2001; darien, 2005; hansen, 2004; yeung, 2005) and completely neglected the part that informs us how to determine what to measure based on the objectives of the company. research also proved that a limited number of the identifi ed 100 best companies in america are measuring strategic impact (davidson, 1998) because they do not know how to do it objectively (davidson, 1998; fitz-enz, 1987). different works on the ‘how’ aspect have been published since then (becker, huselid & beatty, 2009; becker et al., 2001; huselid, becker & beatty, 2005). the increasing demand for more strategic information underlines the need for research to provide more than just a list of measurements or reasons why to measure. we need to know how to determine what to measure and this study will therefore aim to qualitatively evaluate the methodology of the human capital bridge (hc bridge™) framework of boudreau and ramstad (2007). the main contribution of this study is to qualitatively evaluate the methodology of the hc bridge™ framework. this framework provides a methodology for establishing alignment between the operational objectives of the recruitment function (as an exemplary human resources (hr) function) and the strategic objectives of the company. the benefi ts of the study are twofold: it evaluates the hc bridge™ framework or tool to assist in identifying and developing strategic • measures (boudreau & ramstad, 2007). although the nature of a qualitative case study within the mining industry might hinder the • generalisation of the results, the cross-functionality of the hc bridge™ framework methodology has some relevance outside the mining industry. this article is divided into four parts. firstly, an overview of literature relating to a framework to determine strategic alignment, strategic measurements found in the literature as well as the importance of recruitment metrics will be provided. this is followed by a detailed description of the research design, including the approach and the research method used. the third section covers the fi ndings of the study. the article concludes with a discussion of the fi ndings, including possible limitations of the study and suggestions for future research. the literature review will be discussed in the next section. literature review the literature review consists of three sections. section one describes the hc bridge™ methodology (how to measure) that is used to determine the alignment of the objectives of the recruitment function with those of the company. in the second section (what to measure), the hc bridge™ framework is applied to categorise the various metrics available into different groupings and according to literature sources. the last section (why measure) provides an overview of the importance of measuring the impact of a function on the bottom line of the company. original research janse van rensburg & roodt sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 1 (page number not for citation purposes) 111 vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 9 the hc bridge™ framework as previously mentioned, nonalignment between the objectives of a function and the strategy of a company is a common problem (becker et al., 2001; heraty & morley, 1998; roberts, 1994). boudreau and ramstad believe that their decision science model will be able to solve this problem. in their model name, the hc bridge™, ‘hc’ stands for human capital and the capitalised ‘br’ indicates the authors’ last names, boudreau and ramstad (moore, 2007). the ‘bridge’ component relates to three anchor points, impact, effectiveness and efficiency, that according to the authors form the basis of all decision making and related strategic measures. this sophisticated toolset will assist companies to translate employees’ actions into financial value (boudreau & ramstad, 2007). in other words, the framework assists companies to measure the outcome of a function in terms of its contribution to the overall objectives of the company. figure 1 below shows an overview of the hc bridge™ framework (boudreau & ramstad, 2007, p. 68). it portrays a framework based on three anchor points, impact, effectiveness and efficiency, that are further described by several linking elements. through these linking elements, each anchor point represents some impact on the business: efficiency represents how investments impact policies and • procedures. effectiveness describes how policies and practices influence • the organisation. impact illustrates how the employees affect sustainable • strategic success. the reason for using this framework is to transform the hr (recruitment) field from merely being strategy implementers to a function that drives an organisation strategically and has major impacts (moore, 2007). for each linking element several diagnostic questions have been developed to stimulate creative thinking, to ‘defy conventional wisdom’ and to uncover ‘opportunities for significant and unique competitive advantage’ (boudreau & ramstad, 2007, p. 49). the model works on the premise that every function or organisation should include all three anchor points to ensure strategic alignment. in answering the diagnostic questions for each linking element, the function or organisation should be able to identify those elements that are most critical to the success of the organisation. in order to identify these critical success factors, it is necessary to create a clear distinction between what is important1 and what is pivotal2 (boudreau & ramstad, 2007), as pivotal elements are those that an organisation or function cannot do without. what to measure: selecting strategic relevant metrics the previous section provided an overview of the important role of the hc bridge™ framework in strategy alignment and the development of strategic measures. this section will summarise the recruitment measures found in the literature. millick (2007) identified the following top three recruitment measures: cost-to-hire• time-to-fill• number of requisitions filled• it is clear that the top three recruitment measures as identified by millick (2007) are looking at historical activities only. those measurements that deal with forward looking for planning and decision-making aspects to inform strategic support (flamholtz, 2005) were excluded. from the literature, it is clear that truly strategic measures include ‘cost control’ and ‘value creation’ (becker et al., 2001, p. 23). in the terminology of the 1.the free dictionary describes important as being ‘of great significance or value’ (www.thefreedictionary.com/important). 2.pivotal is described as ‘of crucial importance’ (www.thefreedictionary.com/pivotal). how do we intend to compete and defend? what must we build, execute and protect? what roles and structures must we improve? how do individuals need to behave and cooperate? what characteristics must employees have collectively and individually? what programs and activities must we implement? what resources must we acquire, and how should we allocate them? impact sustainable strategic success resources & processes organisation & talent interactions & actions culture & capacity policies & practices investments effectiveness efficiency anchor points anchor points linking elements linking elements diagnostic questions diagnostic questions employer branding pro active recruitment line management candidate relations delivery through excellence and care employee referral new era recruiters summary of answers summary of answers employer branding quality of recruiter retention strategy pro active recruitment talent pool on boarding young professionals employee referral culture and image talent management performance management succession planning speed of delivery line management candidate relations informed recruiter market trends selling, negotiating team work accountability technical experts pivotal points pivotal points recognition figure 1 overview of hc bridge™ framework s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #201 (page number not for citation purposes) the role of legislation and management standards 112vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 9 hc bridge™, it includes efficiency (cost, time and volume), effectiveness (quality) and impact (customer satisfaction and value) measurements (boudreau, dunford & ramstad, 2000). table 1 provides an overview of different measures found in the literature. it has been categorised into the three anchor points of boudreau and ramstad (2007) and from there further grouped into cost control, time control, volume control and value creation. from table 1, it is clear that strategic recruitment metrics do exist as the identified metrics cover all aspects from cost control to value creation as well as efficiency, effectiveness and impact. however, it is believed that due to the high complexity of the recruitment function, it is difficult to integrate the measures to indicate strategic impact (rowald & mönninghoff, 2005). it should then be no surprise to see that the use of these measures in isolation fail to portray the intelligence needed to understand, evaluate and make strategic decisions about the function. to conclude, the identified measures and their failure to prove strategic success verify the importance of utilising a decisionbased model to establish and prove strategic alignment. in the next section why strategic measures and alignment are important will be explained. why measure: assessing progress towards strategic goal achievement it is a well-known fact that the hr environment has undergone dramatic change over the last couple of years (becker et al., 2001; boudreau & ramstad, 2007; fitz-enz & davison, 2002; losey, meisinger & ulrich, 2005) and had to move from being anchored in the behavioural field to a field ‘rooted in measurement and analytical tools’ (flamholtz, 2005, p. 268). subsequently, the need for an integrated recruitment measurement system to inform business decisions has become a driving force in the strategic planning of leading companies. managers are expecting hard data but ‘both practice and research shows that [recruitment] measurement and evaluation is hindered by the absence of a decision-based approach’ (boudreau & ramstad, 2004, p. 5). table 1 summary of typical recruitment metrics description measure literature source hc bridge™ – three anchor points efficiency effectiveness impact cost control cost-to-hire advertising costs source cost per hire interview cost fitz-enz & davison, 2002; hansen, 2005; millick, 2007 smith & graves, 2002 fitz-enz & davison, 2002; smith & graves, 2002 fitz-enz & davison, 2002 x x x x time control time-to-fill fitz-enz & davison, 2002; hansen, 2005; millick, 2007 x volume control number of requisitions filled referral rate job posting response rate millick, 2007 fitz-enz & davison, 2002 fitz-enz & davison, 2002 x x x value creation talent management on-boarding turnover new employee productivity hire ratio offer acceptance rate quality of hire succession planning ratio retention rate yeung, 2005 yeung, 2005 fitz-enz & davison, 2002 smith & graves, 2002 fitz-enz & davison, 2002 fitz-enz & davison, 2002 fitz-enz & davison, 2002; hansen, 2005 hansen, 2005 hansen, 2005; rowald & mönninghoff, 2005 x x x x x x x x x figure 2 research design overview original research janse van rensburg & roodt sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 1 (page number not for citation purposes) 113 vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 9 this might be why we still measure ourselves using only the traditional measures that focus primarily on efficiency and in some rare instances also on effectiveness. based on the hc bridge™ framework, we need to identify the pivotal points in recruitment in order to prove strategy contribution. however, identifying the pivotal points might be problematic as becker et al. (2001) state that companies do not know how to determine what is important if you look at what they are measuring. it is believed that this might be happening as a result of the dramatic shift in the role of hr whereby managers are increasingly requested to prove how they create value for the company instead of how to improve decisions. in addition, ellig (2005, p.127) states, ‘the successful hr business partner is one who knows not only the cost of action but also the value added, for if there is no value added, why should there be a cost?’. therefore, ellig (2005) believes that the most important transition to make is the move from compliance to services and ultimately to decisions. furthermore, recruitment needs to move away from its focus on the day-to-day transactional activities as this is the reason why hr (and recruitment) missed its seat at the boardroom table (darien, 2005). the challenge therefore remains to determine whether the hc bridge™ framework can be used to evaluate whether an hr function (such as recruitment) is aligned with the strategic business objectives. consequently, in order for recruitment to be acknowledged as an asset and not a cost centre, the function needs to do a better job at quantifying its output. the quantified output is usually in the form of measurements. it is these measurements that provide proof of the performance of the function as well as guide strategy implementation (becker et al., 2001). research design terre blanche and durrheim (1999) describe the research design as a framework that directs the flow of the research from start to finish. details of the research design and reasons why the specific design was chosen will be explained based on the research design overview depicted in figure 2. firstly, information will be provided on the research design, approach and philosophy. thereafter, the research method will provide information on the chosen setting and sampling for the study whereafter the data collection methods used and how the data were analysed will be explained. the whole research design should be read within the parameters of a qualitative research design because the data consisted of words and observations and excluded the assigning of numerical codes as is typically seen with quantitative studies. strauss and corbin (as cited in neill, 2006, n.p.) define qualitative research as ‘any kind of research that produces findings not arrived at by means of statistical procedures or other means of quantification’. research approach true to a qualitative and interpretivist study, the qualitative approach used was inductive. saunders, lewis and thornhill (2003) explain that the purpose of the inductive approach is to gain insight into what is happening in order to understand the problem better. research philosophy amongst the qualitative research philosophies (also called paradigms), interpretivism seemed to be most appropriate for this study as it focuses on human experiences within a specific context (terre blanche & durrheim, 1999). through the utilisation of the diagnostic questions of the hc bridge™ framework, the opinions and understanding of individuals were used to evaluate the suitability of this methodology to assess the alignment between the recruitment strategy and the company strategy. interpretivism as the guiding research philosophy in this study is explicated below in terms of its underlying ontological and epistemological assumptions. ontology ‘ontology specifies the nature of reality that is to be studied’ (terre blanche & durrheim, 1999, p. 6): in other words, it is ‘the study of being’ (mayer, 2008, p. 24). ontology ask the questions ‘what is there to know?’ and ‘what assumptions can be made about the world’ (willig, 2003, p. 13). therefore, the interpretivism approach allowed us to study the recruitment alignment using the subjective experiences of the various participants. epistemology the unique opinions and experiences of the recruitment best practice community were critical to the study. terre blanche and durrheim (1999, p. 6) call this ‘epistemology’ because it reflects ‘the nature of the relationship between the researcher and what can be known’. the epistemological stance of the research was therefore interpretivism as it studies the ‘subjective meanings motivating people’s actions in order to be able to understand’ (saunders et al., 2003, p. 84). research strategy a case study was used as the research strategy in this study. bogdan and biklen (1998, p. 54) define a case study as ‘a detailed examination of one setting, or a single subject’ – in this study the recruitment best practice community (rbpc) of the company. the rbpc enabled us to ‘gain a rich understanding of the context of the research and the process being enacted’ (saunders et al., 2003, p. 93). research method the research method will be discussed in terms of the following headings: research setting and entrée, sampling, data collection and data analysis. research setting and entrée the case study was conducted on the rbpc in this large and successful mining and resources company in south africa where the first author and field researcher in this study was also employed. terre blanche and durrheim (1999) call this researcher role a participant-observer role. sampling for the purpose of this study, employees with the same type of experience and knowledge (terre blanche & durrheim, 1999) were chosen for the focus groups. in the company, these employees are part of the rbpc of which 15 members indicated a willingness to take part in the study. the rbpc consists of employees ranging from specialists to line managers, including specialist recruiters, hr managers, psychometrists, hr generalists and administrators. terre blanche and durrheim (1999) call this accessibility of the community and their related willingness to participate convenience or opportunistic sampling. in addition, purposive sampling (bogdan & biklen, 1998; willig, 2003) was utilised to collect data since participants for the interviews were selected based on their knowledge of recruitment as well as strategic alignment. furthermore, the participants for both the focus groups and interviews were well represented across the different managerial levels within the company. the members of the rbpc ‘have a stake’ in the outcome of the research as it will enable them to implement the research results at their respective workplaces (willig, 2003, p. 30). data collection interpretive researchers study situations in their natural setting (willig, 2003). in this case, the natural setting involved the rbpc. the focus groups with the rbpc were difficult to schedule due to the ever-changing diaries of the participants. however, since the focus groups were the main source of data, patience was the order of the day. in the focus groups, participants were encouraged to share their experiences and comment on s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #201 (page number not for citation purposes) the role of legislation and management standards 114vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 9 one another’s contributions, but most of all challenge each other’s statements (kitzinger, 1995). through the utilisation of the diagnostic questions of the hc bridge™ framework, the suitability of this methodology for assessing the strategic alignment of the recruitment function with the objectives of the company was evaluated. data that were used to evaluate the framework were obtained from company records and related to the objectives of the company and the recruitment function. table 2 provides an overview of these objectives. the diagnostic interview questions of the hc bridge™ framework elicited data on the experiences and opinions of the recruiters with regard to the potential of the framework to assess the strategic alignment of the recruitment function with the objectives of the company. the sharing of experiences was encouraged around the diagnostic questions of the hc bridge™ framework in order to determine the pivotal points in recruitment. the discussions resulted in the permutation of experiences (opinions and understanding) of individuals regarding the strategic input of the recruitment department. rich data were gathered that provided information on both subjective and intersubjective experiences as shared by the rbpc. the researchers’ secondary data source was individual interviews with key stakeholders. the purpose of the individual interviews was to confirm, verify and expand on the data gathered during the focus groups. brief overviews of the emerging themes as derived from the focus groups were discussed during the informal and semistructured interviews with the stakeholders. the semistructured interview format increased the need for more cross-checking of the emerging themes which posed more challenges during the coding process. it also ensured that enough information was verified to confirm the emerging themes. this highly successful mining company provided the perfect backdrop to evaluate the usefulness of the hc bridge™ framework as a methodology to assess the alignment of objectives between recruitment and the company. through the various focus group discussions and individual interviews, data were gathered and grouped into the three recruitment objectives. the members of the rbpc (and later the individual interviewees) further identified pivotal points for each objective from the data based on the answers to the diagnostic questions provided by the hc bridge™ framework. data analysis table 3 provides an overview of the data analysis process followed that is briefly explained below. field notes of the focus groups and interviews were studied. through the inductive research approach patterns (emerging themes) were identified by means of ‘thematic coding’ (bowen, 2005, p. 217). thematic coding is a process whereby the data is grouped into different themes or categories in order to reduce the data into ‘meaningful groupings’ (grbich, 2007, p. 32; willig, 2003). the initial themes were based on ‘certain words, phrases…and events’ that were repeated and stood out (bogdan & biklen, 1998, p. 171). this process, which took place throughout the whole data analysis process, can also be referred to as preliminary data analysis as it is a simple process of checking and tracking the data to see what is coming out of them, identifying areas which requires follow-up and actively questioning where the information collected is leading. (grbich, 2007, p. 25) from there, data were coded through the use of the additional information provided through the one-on-one interviews. coding is a process whereby data is subdivided into different clusters of information in relation to a specific theme. during the semistructured interviews, confirmation-type questions were asked related to the pivotal points as identified by the members of the focus groups. these questions sometimes functioned as ‘triggers’ that encouraged the participant to talk about their experiences and opinions (willig, 2003, p. 24). the interview agenda consisted of a number of open-ended questions about the identified pivotal points as well as the views of the interviewees on the strategic alignment (or lack thereof) of the recruitment function. in addition, the interviewees were prompted to provide answers in terms of how they think the pivotal points can be used to address the specific recruitment objective. in order to ensure that the comments and opinions of the interviewees were understood correctly, the interviewees were requested to provide specific examples. weston et al. (2001, p. 382) mention that the process of coding can be influenced by various factors: the researcher’s view of the data and the ‘meaning attributed • to it’ the researcher’s interpretation of the data.• in addition, it is also believed that the researcher’s work background in the recruitment function also may influence the coding process. through the inductive research approach, the following steps as identified by thomas (2003) were taken: establishing emerging themes• creating obvious links between the data gathered and the • research objectives developing a finding.• the preliminary data were continuously analysed throughout the process in order to find common patterns and themes (grbich, 2007; willig, 2003). as previously explained, each recruitment objective was critically explored using the diagnostic questions of the hc bridge™ framework. huselid and becker (2005, p. 280) define this process as ‘analytical literacy’. this implies that a new set of questions was asked about recruitment to facilitate the process whereby the participants of the rbpc identified the pivotal points through answering the diagnostic questions as described in the hc bridge™ framework. findings the hc bridge™ framework was evaluated as a methodology to assess whether alignment exists between the three objectives of recruitment and the seven objectives of the company. table 2 provides an overview of the objectives of the company and recruitment and at first glance no clear or obvious alignment is found. this unclear alignment might be the reason why the function finds it difficult to provide strategic recruitment reports. after all, if you do not see the big picture, how can you measure your progress towards reaching it? it is important to mention at this stage that the unclear alignment does not necessarily mean that there is no alignment. it merely highlights the problem towards nonstrategic reporting and decision making. tables 4 to 6 below provide an overview of the outcome of the various focus groups and individual interviews. the members of the rbpc identified pivotal points for each recruitment objective through several diagnostic questions from the hc bridge™ framework as depicted in figure 1. furthermore, the emerging evaluative themes and related exemplary quotes provide the qualitative evaluation of the applied methodology. an evaluative interpretation of each of the three recruitment objectives follows below: objective 1: increase attraction through the utilisation of a marketing and branding campaign to position the company as an employer of choice one of the emerging themes identified in table 4 indicates that the recruitment function needs to develop and market an employee value proposition in order to gain a competitive advantage. this theme is aligned with the first objective of the company: becoming the leading global mining company of choice. a original research janse van rensburg & roodt sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 1 (page number not for citation purposes) 115 vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 9 proper marketing and branding strategy presupposes a value creation through networking and related relationship building with both internal and external customers and stakeholders. the second emerging theme indicates that the value proposition will only be successful if line managers also buy into the process. the pivotal points identified relate to the overall image of the function through its creative use of processes and building of candidate relations. this theme also indicates that the recruitment function will not be able to fulfil this objective on its own as it relates to other departments such as remuneration and benefits, work conditions and talent management. this insight will contribute greatly towards better decision making as the interfaces and interdependencies with other departments are now clearly highlighted. in addition, the pivotal points pick up the importance of measuring the effectiveness of the function in delivering the employee value proposition. objective 2: increase engagement of employees through appropriate retention and on-boarding strategies table 5 highlights the third emerging theme that indicates the need for the development of postrecruitment procedures such as retention and on-boarding strategies. it is hoped that the implementation of these strategies will increase attraction and retention, which will ultimately enhance the company’s image as employer of choice. evidently, the second recruitment objective is also 100% aligned with the first objective of the company. objective 3: re-engineer the recruitment process to eliminate red tape the pivotal points for the third recruitment objective (in table 6) identified two key constraints: reactive recruiters and a reactive recruitment process. therefore, in order for the function to evolve into strategic alignment, this will need to be addressed. one possible solution (although definitely not the only one) identified the need for new role descriptions as the current role descriptions only highlight the standard day-to-day actions of recruiters and do not reflect the proactive components and the related link to the overall strategy. in addition, the pivotal points indicated that it is no longer acceptable for a recruiter to administer a job applicant from one stage to the next (reactive recruitment process). it is now of paramount importance to co-ordinate, integrate and facilitate the job applicant into the company culture throughout the whole recruitment process. in conclusion, the study found that all three pivotal points have been identified for two of the three recruitment objectives. according to the hc bridge™ framework, the implication is therefore that the correct measurements for each pivotal point will prove the impact of the function on the bottom line of the company. however, of great concern is the fact that the recruitment objectives are aligned with only two of the seven company objectives. it is clear that a gap exists between what recruitment is focusing on and what the company expects of the function. discussion the purpose of this study was to qualitatively evaluate the hc bridge™ framework (boudreau & ramstad, 2007) methodology to assess the degree of alignment between the objectives of the recruitment department and the company’s strategic objectives. the study indicates that this methodology can be effectively applied to determine the alignment between operational and company strategic objectives. table 3 overview of the data analysis data utilised participants data analysis process followed diagnostic questions from hc bridge™ framework• strategic objectives of the company• strategic objectives of the recruitment function• focus groups collected field notes• answered the diagnostic questions for each recruitment objective• answers were reduced into meaningful groupings for each recruitment • objective in relation to the three anchor points the definitions of important vs. pivotal were applied in order to • determine the pivotal points identified pivotal points for each anchor point• strategic objectives of the recruitment function• strategic objectives of the company• individual interviews participants were briefed on the objectives of the research and • requested to evaluate and validate the data (pivotal points) flowing from the focus groups once the data were validated, participants were prompted to provide • answers in terms of how they believe these pivotal points can be addressed the answers to these questions were also reduced into meaningful • groupings in order to establish the emerging themes. each emerging theme related to an action (how) to assist in reaching • that particular recruitment objective field notes• focus groups, individual interviews phrases from the participants were highlighted in the exemplary • quotes to indicate the individual contributions in terms of the pivotal points and related emerging themes table 2 overview of the company and recruitment objectives company objectives recruitment objectives become the leading global mining company of choice1. employ the best talent in the industry2. set the highest standards for safety in the industry3. deliver consistently superior value for our shareholders by outperforming our peers4. own and operate a world-class asset portfolio that is cost advantaged and in the most attractive market 5. segments capture the best growth opportunities in the world6. be considered the ‘preferred partner’ of governments and communities for ongoing operations and new 7. business development increase attraction through the utilisation of a 1. marketing and branding campaign to position the company as an employer of choice increase engagement of employees through 2. appropriate retention and on-boarding strategies re-engineer the recruitment process to eliminate 3. red tape s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #201 (page number not for citation purposes) the role of legislation and management standards 116vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 9 the findings of the study reveal that both the first and second recruitment objectives are 100% aligned with the first strategic objective of the company. however, the specific metrics to assess the degree of strategic support are absent. although the strategy alignment is limited (or rather focused on one area), the overall picture seems to incorporate all the recruitment strategy components as identified by van schalkwijk (2008): importance of a unique employee value proposition (first • recruitment objective). competitive reward systems inclusive of both hygiene and • motivation factors (second recruitment objective). opportunity for growth in skills (third recruitment objective) • whereby the reactive recruiters will be provided with the necessary training and exposure to acquire competencies related to the proactive side of recruitment. in addition, the findings indicate no direct alignment between the third recruitment objective and any other objective of the company. however, it does relate to the efficiency pivotal point as the elimination of red tape should ultimately decrease cost and time (boudreau et al., 2000). furthermore, boudreau and ramstad (2007) conclude that this type of strategy, although beneficial, does not have any strategic value. figure 3 indicates table 4 recruitment objective 1 recruitment objective pivotal points emerging themes exemplary quotes increase attraction through the utilisation of a marketing and branding campaign to position the company as an employer of choice impact anchor point attract scarce skills proactively before • other companies flexible practices• creative processes• require new programs, i.e. employee • referral communicate the employee value • proposition of the company candidate relations• expectation management• effectiveness anchor point acquire talented individuals• create value• best remuneration packages• efficiency anchor point no efficiency anchor points were • identified competitive advantage will be 1. obtained through marketing the company’s employee value proposition 2. line manager education and buyin will enable effective candidate relations ‘managers of the future are more employee focused’ ‘the goal of recruitment is to establish a large database of competent and talented individuals willing to work in our company’ ‘we need to work together to promote the joining of the different operations into one leading global company’ table 5 recruitment objective 2 recruitment objective pivotal points emerging themes exemplary quotes increase engagement of employees through appropriate retention and onboarding strategies impact anchor point employer branding• retain scarce skills through • addressing both hygiene and motivation factors effectiveness anchor point leadership engagement and buy-in• line management education• culture and image• alignment between supporting • policies and procedures on-boarding strategy• internal marketing and branding • campaign efficiency anchor point performance management• recognition• 1. importance of line management buyin to make the process a success 2. postrecruitment procedures needed ‘the first six months of employment determines whether or not employees will stay with the company’ ‘professional job-hoppers necessitate the implementation of recognition programmes’ ‘use the talent that you recruit to gain a competitive edge’ table 6 recruitment objective 3 recruitment objective pivotal points emerging themes exemplary quotes re-engineer the recruitment process to eliminate red tape impact anchor point candidate relations• reactive vs. proactive recruiters• effectiveness anchor point include selection criteria based on • the company’s values, i.e. safety best practices• reactive recruitment process• new era recruiters needed• efficiency anchor point speed of delivery• quality and quantity of recruiters• new role descriptions required for 1. proactive component of recruitment selection process to be broadened to 2. include safety criteria ‘inappropriate processes leads to inappropriate appointments which all contributes towards mediocrity’ original research janse van rensburg & roodt sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 1 (page number not for citation purposes) 117 vol. 7 no. 1 page 8 of 9 that although a process redesign will increase the performance, the strategic value remains static. the focus should rather be on a change in the process interaction as this will exponentially increase both the performance as well as the strategic value (boudreau & ramstad, 2007, p. 123). through the use of the hc bridge™ framework, it became quite evident that the solution to a problem is not necessarily just the opposite of the problem. during the discussion of objective three, the answer to the diagnostic question of ‘where would improvements in [recruitment] make the biggest difference…?’ (boudreau & ramstad, 2007, p. 53) led the focus groups in a different direction. the first response to the question was the appointment of proactive recruiters but it was found that proactive recruiters will not necessarily solve the process-related problems and that they will rather be solved by the buy-in and commitment of the line managers. christensen (2006) confirms this notion and states that the importance of line managers is often overlooked. they need to get involved in what they deem as people issues. this process of not identifying just the opposite of a problem but the true solution also relates to systemic theory of solving or dissolving problems (dostal, cloete & jaros, 2005). according to systems thinking, solving a problem means that the faulty part is fixed (i.e. appointment of proactive recruiters), whereas dissolving the problem implies ‘changing the functioning of a system in such a way that the problem is not reproduced, but falls away’, in other words, educating line managers (dostal et al., 2005, p. 425). furthermore, the literature also supports the need for new role descriptions as identified in one of the emerging themes. boudreau and ramstad (2007, p. 129) state that ‘measuring talent decision science will undoubtedly mean more pressure for flexibility in traditional job descriptions’. new role descriptions to incorporate the proactive recruitment component together with retention and on-boarding will definitely contribute towards strategic alignment. an unexpected finding was that the literature reveals that the current identified recruitment metrics are in fact strategic. it seems as if the problem with them relates more to the lack of integration (rowald & mönninghoff, 2005) and failure to use a decision based model (boudreau & ramstad, 2007). finally, in applying the hc bridge™ methodology the researchers were able to indicate some degree of strategic alignment, but definite gaps that were not previously evident were also highlighted. it is therefore important to note that these gaps should be filled in order to strategically contribute towards the bottom line of the company. the importance of strategic reports to ensure a seat at the board table (darien, 2005) was also highlighted. limitations the nature of qualitative research makes replication of • the study difficult. losey et al. (2005) conclude that other organisations cannot just copy this framework and hope for the same results. instead, they will have to differentiate. this implies that the same process might be followed but different answers will lead to different initiatives and obviously result in different measures and strategic alignment. it is also important to remember that the entire hr function • should be managed as an integrated whole. a one-sided view might have been created as a result of the compilation of the focus groups and interviews so that they included only recruiters or employees related to the recruitment function. another possible limitation of the focus groups may be • that participants filtered their answers according to what they believed the researcher wanted to hear (bowen, 2005). however, this was hopefully reduced through the verification process during the individual interviews. conclusion a possible avenue for future research is the development of actual strategic recruitment measures. this will close the loop and conceptualise the value of the recruitment function in the organisation. in conclusion, the hc bridge™ methodology could indicate that the recruitment function has evolved over the last couple of years to include some strategic alignment. however, a considerable effort is still required to ensure complete strategic alignment and to develop (integrate) related metrics to prove the true value added. the hc bridge™ framework and methodology can play a key role in achieving this goal. references armstrong, g. (2005). differentiation through people – how can hr move beyond business partner? in m. losey, s. meisinger & d. ulrich (eds.), the future of human resource management, (pp. 86–92). new jersey: john wiley & sons. becker, b.e., huselid, m.a., & beatty, r.w. (2009). the differentiated workforce: transforming talent into strategic impact. boston: harvard business school press. becker, b.e., huselid, m.a., & ulrich, d. (2001). the hr scorecard: linking people, strategy, and performance. boston: harvard business school press. bogdan, r.c., & biklen, s.k. (1998). qualitative research in education: an introduction to theory and methods. needham heights: allyn & bacon. boudreau, j.w., dunford, b.b., & ramstad, p.m. (2000). the human capital “impact” on e-business: the case of encyclopedia britannica online. cornell university: school of industrial and labour relations. retrieved may 15, 2006, from http:// www.ilr.cornell.edu.depts/cahrs/ boudreau, j.w., & ramstad, p.m. (2004). beyond cost-per-hire and time to fill: supply-chain measurement for staffing. retrieved may 15, 2006, from http://www.marshall.usc.edu/ceo boudreau, j.w, & ramstad, p.m. (2007). beyond hr: the new science of human capital. boston: harvard business school publishing corporation. bowen, g.a. (2005). preparing a qualitative research-based dissertation: lessons learned. the qualitative report, 10, 208–222. christensen, r. (2006). roadmap to strategic hr: turning a great idea into a business reality. new york: amacom. darien, s. (2005). not just any seat at the table. in m. losey, s. meisinger & d. ulrich (eds.), the future of human resource management (pp. 119–133). new jersey: john wiley & sons. davidson, l. (1998). measure what you bring to the bottom line. workforce, 77, 34–40 figure 3 yield curves for aligned actions and interactions best relationship building worst relationship building worst process best process s tr at eg ic v al ue performance process design process interaction s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #201 (page number not for citation purposes) the role of legislation and management standards 118vol. 7 no. 1 page 9 of 9 dostal, e., cloete, a., & jaros, g.g. (2005). biomatrix: a systems approach to organisational and societal change. (3rd edn.). cape town: imaging data solutions. duggan, b. (2004). strategic recruitment and retention: competitive advantage and return on investment. retrieved july 30, 2008, from www.marathonhrcg.com/pdfs/strategic%20 recruitment%20and%20%retention.pdf ellig, b. (2005). what distinguishes the outstanding hr executives from the others. in m. losey, s. meisinger & d ulrich (eds.), the future of human resource management, (pp. 126–133). new jersey: john wiley & sons. fitz-enz, j. (1987). how to measure human resources management. bukit batok: datagraphics. fitz-enz, j., & davison, b. (2002). how to measure human resource management. (3rd edn.). maidenhead: mcgraw-hill. flamholtz, e.g. (2005). human resource accounting, human capital management, and the bottom line. in m. losey, s. meisinger & d. ulrich (eds.), the future of human resource management, (pp. 268–277). new jersey: john wiley & sons. grbich, c. (2007). qualitative data analysis: an introduction. thousands oaks: sage publications. hansen, f. (2004). the move to meaningful metrics. retrieved march 16, 2006, from http://www.workforce.com/archive/ article/24/19/57.php?ht=recruitment%20measures heraty, n., & morley, m. (1998). in search of good fit: policy and practice in recruitment and selection in ireland. journal of management development, 17, 662–685. huselid, m.a., & becker, b.e. (2005). improving human resources’ analytical literacy: lessons from moneyball. in m. losey, s. meisinger & d. ulrich (eds.), the future of human resource management, (pp. 400–407). new jersey: john wiley & sons. huselid, m.a., becker, b.e., & beatty, r.w. (2005). the workforce scorecard: managing human capital to execute strategy. boston: harvard business school press. kitzinger, j. (1995). qualitative research: introducing focus groups. british medical journal, 311, 299–302. losey, m., meisinger, s., & ulrich, d. (eds.) (2005). the future of human resource management. new jersey: john wiley & sons. mayer, j. (2008). beat the fear, shift contexts to achieve organisational success. hr future, 5, 24–25. millick, s. (2007). sourcing and recruiting: trends, challenges and insights. retrieved january 9, 2008, from http://www. tngconsulting.com moore, m.l. (2007). beyond hr: the new science of human capital. retrieved august 18, 2008, from www.entrepreneur.com/ tradejournals/article/173925293.html neill, j. (2006). analysis of professional literature class 6: qualitative research. retrieved may 29, 2008, from http://wilderdom. com/oecourses/proflit/class6qualitative1.htm roberts, a. (1994). integrating strategy with performance measures. management development review, 7, 13–15. rowald, j., & mönninghoff, m. (2005). strategic human resource utility analysis. journal of human resource costing and accounting, 9, 10–25. saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a (2003). research methods for business students. (3rd edn.). new york: pearson education. smith, m., & graves, c. (2002). re-engineering recruitment to the accounting profession. managerial auditing journal, 17, 117–121. terre blanche, m., & durrheim, k. (1999). research in practice. cape town: university of cape town press. thomas, d.r. (2003). a general inductive approach for qualitative data analysis. auckland: school of population health. van schalkwijk, o. (2008). laws of attraction – magnetise your company. hr future, 3, 12–13. weston, c., gandell, t., beauchamp, j., mcalpine, c., wiseman, c., & beaucamp, c. (2001). analysing interview data: the development and evolution of a coding system. qualitative sociology, 24, 381–400. willig, c. (2003). introducing qualitative research in psychology. philadelphia: open university press. yeung, a. (2005). becoming business partners in chinese firms: challenges and opportunities. in m. losey, s. meisinger & d. ulrich, (eds.), the future of human resource management, (pp. 400–407). new jersey: johhn wiley & sons. abstract introduction literature review research gap objective of the study research methodology data analysis and interpretation hypotheses regression results recommendations and conclusion conceptual model recommendations for various stakeholders limitations and future directions acknowledgements references about the author(s) milind bhore symbiosis institute of business management, symbiosis international deemed university, pune, india poornima tapas symbiosis institute of business management, symbiosis international deemed university, pune, india citation bhore, m., & tapas, p. (2023). an exploratory study of factors influencing career decisions of generation z women in data science. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2168. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2168 original research an exploratory study of factors influencing career decisions of generation z women in data science milind bhore, poornima tapas received: 06 nov. 2022; accepted: 14 feb. 2023; published: 23 mar. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: since april 2022, there has been a 30% increase in data science job openings globally. the majority of these positions are filled by generation z talent (gen z). according to research, businesses that promote gender diversity have higher earnings and revenues. research purpose: the purpose of this study is to identify factors that will help organizations in designing policies and work environment to attract and foster gen z women employees in data science. motivation for the study: there is limited research focusing on gen z women professionals and factors influencing their career choices in the field of data science in the indian context. research approach/design and method: structured questionnaire was distributed online. purposive sampling technique was adopted and 216 responses from gen z women studying in technology institutes pan india and working in data science were collected. multiple linear regression statistical technique was leveraged for data analysis. main findings: technical education, job opportunities, compensation and conducive environment significantly and positively influence career decisions of gen z women in data science. practical implications: organizations will be able to define policies to encourage hiring of gen z women, break stereo types that prevent women from pursuing career in data science and create a conducive work environment that acknowledges and rewards the performance of gen z women. contribution/value-add: the findings of this study will encourage more women from gen z to pursue careers in data science, boosting gender diversity and inclusivity in data science. keywords: gen z women; career; data science; technology; science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem). introduction the field of data science as a career opportunity has seen exponential growth as compared with the other information technologies (its). data science technology, however, is proving to be highly critical and playing a pivotal role in creating path-breaking innovations. data science has evolved beyond a mere statistical problem-solving tool to help resolve real-life issues and create reliable predictions in various industries. information technology organizations are leveraging data science in various projects spanning different domains such as life sciences, banking and finance, healthcare, defence, automotive and engineering. the workforce engaged in data science is largely males. the scenario is however fast changing with more women taking up careers in data science, which is very encouraging. organizations have started realising the importance of hiring and engaging a diverse workforce in order to succeed in their endeavours. to succeed in this highly competitive environment, organizations are rapidly transforming and automating their process and systems and hiring talent with latest skills. organizations are rapidly transforming to latest and advanced technologies such as data science, artificial intelligence (ai), machine learning (ml), etc., are being leveraged (lu, 2017). human talent is the key for the business transformation. business managers are required to timely hire the right talent for the organizations (maloni et al., 2019). approximately 70% of job openings for the advanced and futuristic technologies exist at junior level and rest up the hierarchy (nasscom, 2020). organizations engage in maximum hiring at entry level, which comprises generation z talent (gen z). organizations feel the need to turn their attention towards the career of the future workforce, which is gen z (pandita, 2021). according to studies conducted, gen z is the generation of people born between the years 1996 and 2012 (berkup, 2014). brodie explained through his studies that research is carried out with the intent to innovate and discover new solutions. to discover and to answer to the why question in research, empirical science and other methods are used and to discover the answer to what question, predominantly data science is used (kelleher & tierney, 2018). data science extracts meaningful and useful knowledge after analysing vast data, which helps build important predictive models. it is concerned with the analysis of big data to extract correlations with projection of probabilities and flaws, which may occur (brodie, 2019). data science helps expedite the research work by rapidly reducing the search space from a large number of correlations or probable outcomes to a considerably smaller number. non-data science methods such as clinical trials or scientific experiments are then used to analyse these probable results, which are less in number to verify or reject the result, that is, to establish if a causal relationship exists in the automatically generated hypotheses. the field of data science has emerged as an important driving force of transformation across the industry. this emphasises the importance of upskilling of talent. it is an area of prime interest and relevance within stem (berman & bourne, 2015). considering the large span and scope, data science exhibits the capacity to enhance gender diversity and inclusiveness. for data science to emerge as a field that promotes gender diversity, two challenges need to be addressed: how to encourage women in obtaining education and gather skills that will help them pursue careers in data science? how to enable a conducive environment at work that will help attract, retain and progress women in data science? there is little literature on the subject matter and hence a proactive attempt is being made to identify factors that influence the careers of women in data science with a focus on gen z women. this will help to identify factors that influence the career decisions of gen z women in data science. this research will help to establish academicians and organizations establish curricula, policies and practices to help educate and encourage more women to build careers in data science. literature review generation z this exploratory research is based on herzberg’s two-factor theory consisting of hygiene and motivational factors. today the workplace comprises multigenerational workforce, which comprises employees belonging to the generation x, generation y and generation z (prawitasari, 2018). people born between the years 1996 and 2012 are known as belonging to gen z (strauss & howe, 1991). out of the multiple generational workforce, gen z are the latest generation to join the organizations for work (burton et al., 2019). according to a research, gen z are quick to learn and adapt to new technologies and organizations feel the need to conduct research about their career aspirations (ozkan & solmaz, 2015). gen z are now completing their education and taking up work with organizations. they will soon form a majority of the workforce population and organizations feel the need to understand their career aspirations and feel the need to create policies and a work environment (sidorcuka & chesnovicka, 2017). constant and accelerated quick changes in technology, social environment and culture is impacting the work conditions and the thought process of the gen z. it is important for organizations to understand this talent and create a work environment that is conducive for this workforce, which will attract this talent to the join the organizations. women in data science data science is used to expedite and curtail the search from a large number of probable results to a much smaller possible results. the newly budding field of data science is a driving force of innovation in almost all sectors thereby creating a big scope for workforce development and a field of importance within science, technology, engineering and mathematics (kelleher & tierney, 2018). data science involves analysis of large data to draw meaningful insights, which can help innovations. data science practices stem method; however, it involves much more in terms of managing large data sets, in-depth statistical analysis and drawing of inference to convey outcomes. there is a huge demand for data science skills world over. according to mckinsey report, the usa alone has a need for more than 1 million data science professionals (berman & bourne, 2015). there is great demand and need for creating a larger pool of data science professionals. it has become critical to have more data science professionals ready for the industry. this skill gap needs focused attention as it is critical to address this industry requirement and conscious efforts need to be taken. being a relevantly new field, data science offers opportunity for diverse workforce to build careers and thereby creating a scope to reduce the existing gender gap in stem, which is employing only 13% women engineers and only 25% women engineers who are computers and mathematical sciences qualified (national science board, 2014). encouraging gender parity and more women data science professionals is a need of the hour. research shows that organizations who have engaged workforce with diverse inherent traits and traits acquired through experience have 45% more possibility to grow their market share over the earlier year. organizations with such diversity have also shown 70% more possibility to report acquisition of new market (hewlett et al., 2013). organizations whose executive board consists of diverse leadership have earned returns on equity (barta et al., 2012). diversity in the private sectors has proven to give a competitive advantage and is an asset for the organizations. it is not just important for the organisations to have a diverse workforce in the data science or stem field, but it has become an important agenda for business and communities (education committee on stem & national science and technology council, 2013). according to the research findings, organisations are fast transforming to newer technologies such as data science and because gen z workforce is trained on stem they are most preferred by organisations (gregory, 2021). according to research, gen z are trained to work on latest technologies and find it is easy to adopt to new technologies and process the information much faster than the workforce of earlier generation (moore et al., 2017). gen z have an inherent ability to multitask between multiple tasks at work for which they leverage technology and devices efficiently (shatto & erwin, 2017). gen z are graduating out of institutes and taking up jobs at the workplace, which has made organisations realise that it is important to understand the needs of gen z workforce and provide them with a conducive environment at work in order to succeed (iorgulescu, 2016). to sustain the ever-increasing competition in the business environment and to succeed at business, organisations would need to encourage a career path for women and advance gender fairness in order to leverage their talent and contributions and not miss on them (fitong ketchiwou et al., 2022). this would give them a competitive advantage and they can reap the advantages of the contributions of the much more diversified workforce if they include more gender diversity in the workplace (chang & milkman, 2020). according to research conducted gender diversity and inclusiveness would increase company’s sales and not just give a commercial advantage or profits but also improve the engagement and efficiency among the workforce thereby leading to organisation success (cavero-rubio et al., 2019). according to research conducted by hammond and coetzee (2022), consistency in the application of human resource policies and procedures and work-life balance in workload and deadlines, as well as formalised consistency in the application of training and development programmes are key issues that must be addressed in a retention strategy. research gap data science is relevantly a new field in the information technology sector. as of date, few women are working in the data science field. gen z women have now started graduating from institutes and making decisions to build their careers in the technology world. research work is available regarding factors influencing the careers of women employees; however, not much literature on gen z women and their careers in data science is available. this is proactive research to study factors influencing career decisions of gen z women in data science as not much research is available regarding the careers of gen z women specific to careers in data science. this research will add to the literature that organisations and researchers can refer to, for designing processes to enable careers of gen z women in data science. objective of the study almost 70% of job opportunities for future skills such as data science, ml and ai are at the entry level, according to the nascom 2020 report. the next generation of workforce is gen z. science, technology, engineering, and mathematics-educated gen z talent would be taking up data science roles in the corporates in the present and near future. current hiring processes have been designed by organisations to attract the earlier generation of the workforce. corporations have to redesign the hiring strategy, which may need further customization to attract and onboard more women in the organisations for data science. despite the availability and presence of skilled women workforce in the labour market, they are clearly less in number in the field of data science than their male colleagues. the stem-educated gen z women employees are now graduating to take up jobs in the corporate, and there is an excellent opportunity to improve their participation in the emerging technology field of data science, thereby improving the gender diversity ratio. this study aims to identify factors influencing the career decisions of gen z women in data science. this article seeks to bring forth factors influencing gen z women to make a career in data science. the authors have carried out exploratory research and have attempted to highlight some of the prominent factors that influence gen z women to build their careers in a relatively new and highly technical field of data science. the authors have prescribed a model that the various stakeholders can leverage to enable the careers of gen z women in the field of data science, thereby helping create a diverse workforce in the organisations that may lead them to success. this research will help identify important factors that will help organisations to design processes, systems and work environments to attract and foster gen z women employees in data science. the findings will help to synthesise the organisation’s policies and processes to help grow gen z women in data science. this research will help us to identify critical factors and solutions to enable more women to get education and skills in data science. it will help organisations to create a conducive work environment that will allow more women to take up roles in data science. the improvement in gender diversity at work will help improve the organisation’s performance and thereby improve profitability. the research aims to help organisations and institutions understand the sensitivities involved in helping gen z women flourish in their careers in data science and bring a change in the existing education process and organisation culture. research methodology a multiple-choice questionnaire has been designed and survey conducted to collect primary data. while choosing the gen z women respondents, the purposive sampling technique has been adopted. this technique does not need grounding of theories. primary data have been collected from gen z women studying in technology institutes pan india and gen z women working in data science (emerson, 2021). respondents have been deliberately chosen to respond to the survey by applying their judgement. the authors have chosen the gen z women respondents because they all have education in technology and possess the required capabilities to respond to the questionnaire, that is, education in stem technology. responses from 216 respondents have been collected. proportionate stratified sampling method has been used to arrive at the number of respondents using the formula: where n is the sample size, z is the standard score with 92% accuracy, that is, 1.96 as defined and borrowed from the standard table, s is the variance in data computed as a ratio of range/6 = 0.66 and e is the tolerance of 9%. a buffer of 5% has been considered to accommodate corrections and discarding six incorrect responses we arrived at the final sample size of 210. size of the sample corresponds to the strata in the population. tests of reliability and validity any measurement that has zero or very little random measurement error is considered to be reliable. an arbitrary distortion in the measurement process can be brought about by a random measurement error. unreliable measurements could be the outcome of this. as given in table 1 cronbach’s alpha is used to evaluate the data’s validity and dependability. the data are reliable and genuine because the cronbach’s alpha score was discovered to be 0.826, which is above the 0.7 threshold limit. table 1: test of reliability. test of normality statistical tools such as normal pp plots and residual graphs have been used to examine the normality and the data are found to be normally distributed. in figure 1, the distribution of the responses collected for measuring the influence of technical education in choosing data science as a career are close to the line of normality, which shows that data are normally distributed. figure 1: normal pp plot of regression standardised residual: technical education. in figure 2, the distribution of the responses collected for measuring the influence of job opportunities in choosing data science as a career are close to the line of normality, which shows that data are normally distributed. figure 2: normal pp plot of regression standardised residual: technical education. in figure 3, the distribution of the responses collected for measuring the influence of compensation in choosing data science as a career, are close to the line of normality, which shows that data are normally distributed. figure 3: normal pp plot of regression standardised residual: compensation. in figure 4, the distribution of the responses collected for measuring the influence of work environment in choosing data science as a career are close to the line of normality, which shows that data are normally distributed. figure 4: normal pp plot of regression standardised residual: work environment. multicollinearity multicollinearity exists when independent variables are strongly correlated. if correlation exists, the problem of multicollinearity should be addressed as it is difficult to interpret the model and creates overfitting problem. as given in table 2 the vif of all the independent variables has been analysed using variance inflation factor (vif). the vif of all the independent variables was found below four, which indicates the absence of multicollinearity in the data. hence, multicollinearity was not a concern for running the multiple linear regression model. table 2: test of multicollinearity coefficients.† data analysis and interpretation descriptive statistics and correlation statistics as given in table 3 the mean value of all the independent variables has been found to be four or above, which indicates that the respondents agree to the fact that the explanatory variable considered for the study, such as technical education, job opportunities, compensation and a conducive work environment influence the career decisions among gen z women in data science. the standard deviation has been found to be less than the mean score suggesting that the data are distributed around the mean. when the standard deviation is less than the mean value, it indicates that the data are clustered around the mean. table 3: descriptive statistics. as given in table 4 the correlation between career decision and conducive work environment has been found to be strong with pearson correlation score of 0.717, whereas the correlation between technical education and the other independent factors, namely, job opportunities, compensation and conducive work environment, is found to be weak with pearson correlation score of less than 0.5. the relationship between compensation and career decision is also found to be strong, suggesting that compensation and recognition strongly influence career decisions. table 4: correlation of variables. responses of gen z women to the following statements have been analysed to understand the influence of technological education, job opportunities, compensation, conducive working environment on the career decision of gen z women in data science using 5-point likert scale: technological education helps you to take up career in data science. job opportunities for data science professionals influenced you to choose a career in data science. is better compensation a criterion for you to choose a career in data science. conducive work environment for gen z women in organizations helps you to make a career in data science. hypotheses the extant documented literature deals with various factors influencing career decisions. whereas, to the best of our knowledge, no study has attempted to understand the factors affecting the career decisions of gen z women in data science, as data science is an emerging field and only 20.4% of women are working in the data science field. in this study, we have attempted to examine if technical education, job opportunities, compensation and a conducive environment influence the career decisions of gen z women in data science. the hypotheses for the study are as follows: h0: technical education, job opportunities, compensation and conducive environment do not influence career decisions of gen z women in data science. h1: technical education influences career decisions of gen z women in data science. h2: job opportunities influence career decisions of gen z women in data science. h3: compensation influences career decisions of gen z women in data science. h4: conducive working environment influences career decisions of gen z women in data science. regression results regression analysis is the statistical technique that empirically establishes the relationship between the explanatory variables and predictor variables. the regression results demonstrated in table 5 are divided into two parts where part a depicts coefficient analysis and part b depicts model estimates to ascertain the models fit. the value of adjusted r2 is found to be 77.9%, which indicates that 77.9% of the variance in dependent variable is explained by the independent variables. table 5: regression coefficients. the statistical results suggest that 1% change in technical education will lead to 21.9% change in career decision, 1% change in job opportunities will lead to 17.8% change in career decision, 1% change in compensation will lead to a 28.5% change in career decision and 1% change in work environment will lead to 32.7% change in career decision. it is observed that the highest influence on career decision is made because of change in work environment. recommendations and conclusion technical education, job opportunities, compensation and conducive environment have been found to influence the career decisions of gen z women in data science. women have been predominantly discouraged from starting and maintaining their careers in data science because of the gender pay gap, poor career advancement, a culture that is dominated by men, a lack of mentorship opportunities and discriminatory hiring practices. however, technology occupations are appealing to women who are pursuing them. women work in the technology industry in a variety of roles, but there is room for improvement. educational institutions and organisations should work to foster an environment where gen z women can pursue stem degrees and start careers in the field of data science, which has a severe global shortage of skilled workers. a cultural shift in the business world and educational system can aid in developing a workforce with a variety of backgrounds. organisations can use the model the authors have suggested to enable gen z women in data science. the approach offers four recommendations for various stakeholders, such as educational institutions offering technology and stem education and for businesses. conceptual model the authors have suggested a four-step conceptual model given in figure 5. it will help various stakeholders such as organisations and educational institutions providing stem education to enable career decisions of gen z women in data science. figure 5: proposed model to enable careers decisions of gen z women in data science. recommendations for various stakeholders education and exposure science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education may be incorporated into the course content by institutions involved in technology education. encourage gen z female students to pursue stem degrees so that they would find it simple to transition into a profession in data science. gen z women will be helped to grasp data science jobs and build confidence if they are exposed to data science early on through real-world projects and live assignments with enterprises. they would be capable of handling the task and not be concerned about science or mathematics, which many pupils believe to be challenging to acquire. education institutions can set up a career counselling cell via which they can invite working data science practitioners to provide guest lectures. faculty members and business professionals can advise and direct gen z women to consider careers in stem fields such as data science. this will raise awareness of the field of data science as a possible career path and spark early enthusiasm in gen z women students to pursue stem degrees that will equip them for a future in data science. it has been found that students who enrol in reputable universities with solid infrastructure and instructors who are tech-aware are exposed to stem and technological subjects such as data science early on. when compared with other students who attend schools without the resources and staff needed to teach students about stem and emerging fields of technology such as data science, they are better able to take advantage of this chance to pursue a career in the industry. in order to counsel and educate gen z women and give them early exposure to stem education and practical exposure to data science, the career counselling cells and faculty members can create particular standards with a focus on gen z women. in the near future, gen z women will have a healthy representation in the workforce, and this will contribute to the development of a robust pipeline of data science professionals not just in india but globally. career opportunity companies need to be aware of the benefits and significance of hiring a diverse and inclusive workforce. the management should build a diverse and inclusive workforce by leveraging best practices in talent acquisition and resource deployment and workplace diversity initiatives. this will contribute to fostering a positive workplace culture in the organisations. organisations that have used a diverse workforce have shown greater financial performance and the potential to generate more business. the advantages of a competent and diverse workforce have already been established. organisations are advised to develop a clear hiring plan that calls for employing gen z women for data science positions. at present there is a lack of employees with data science skills and demand for these skills is rising. a talent pool of tech-savvy individuals who are also knowledgeable in data science performs the majority of technology work in general and data science tasks in particular. it is strongly advised that enterprises take advantage of this chance to also balance the makeup of the workforce working in technology roles by conducting hiring campaigns with a focus on diversity hiring in order to close the demand–supply imbalance for data science skills. to encourage more gen z women to apply for technology jobs with a focus on data science occupations, organisations should rethink their hiring approach and procedure. by supporting a focus on hiring gen z women talent, recruiting drives give businesses a wonderful platform and chance to demonstrate their beliefs and commitment to diversity and inclusivity. this will strengthen the organisation’s brand and help it draw top talent, particularly gen z women. large companies such as ibm, infosys, tcs, cognizant, accenture, cap gemini, and others have made it a point to hire a particular percentage of their annual employees from diverse backgrounds. they have established a procedure for hiring gen z women both directly from campus drives and indirectly from marketplaces. this also leads to creating a digital brand for the organisation, and as a result, organisations are able to attract more gen z, especially gen z women talent, to the organisation. compensation and recognition organisations are recommended to create a fair and equitable compensation structure and eliminate any discrimination towards gen z women taking up careers in data science. organisations should maintain compensation parity without any gender bias. it is recommended that special measures be taken to recognise gen z women who are taking up roles in data science. open recognition would help to motivate more gen z women to take up data science as a career. data science is a relevantly new field and there is a demand for data science skills globally. gen z women who already have data science skills should be encouraged to take up leadership roles. gen z women who are new or now aspiring to get into data science field should be encouraged by providing mentoring and coaching. organizations can make efforts to create role models among the gen z women working in data science by promoting them and offering key assignments and projects. they should be offered opportunities to showcase their talent. organisations should define policies to fast track their careers by offering timely and merit-based progressions and encouraging more gen z women to opt for careers in data science. work environment organisations need to create an inclusive and conducive work environment that encourages a diversified workforce. the development of skills and workplace support techniques are crucial for gen z women’s career advancement. as per the research findings of fitong ketchiwou et al. (2022), women’s skill development is influenced by workplace support strategies. the development of skills and workplace support techniques are crucial for gen z women’s career advancement. organisations need to take up measures that will help to create a conducive work environment for gen z women. there is need to break existing biases against women taking up careers in technology field and data science. organisations should make efforts to break these biases and help create a conducive work environment for gen z women to succeed in data science. in an academic batch there are about 1000 students pursuing engineering education under various specialisations. among a batch of engineering students, there is about 35% of women pursuing engineering. while choosing a career option during placements in the it industry, they prefer to take up roles such as business analyst and project management and few opt for hardcore technology roles that involve development and coding. hiring managers have delivery targets to achieve and believe that men are more suited to work late hours and stretch beyond regular working hours to ensure project delivery. they prefer to choose men over gen z women. they feel that gen z women would have limitations in working later or over weekends and may not stretch beyond regular working hours. the race to succeed in this cutthroat competition in the market has set in some practices and beliefs among organizations and hiring managers that now needs to be changed. organisations should develop hiring targets to ensure diversity among the workforce. most of the job opportunities in the organizations are at the entry-level, and there is good scope for managers to hire gen z women to build a career in an emerging field such as data science. to ensure that hiring managers do not carry any biases and also to encourage more gen z women to take up careers in data science, management should redefine work policies that will help create a healthy work environment for gen z women employees who are trying to build their careers as they graduate out of college. people managers following best practices should be recognised and their practices should be institutionalised to be followed across the organization. organisations should provide support in every possible form that may be required by gen z women if they are expected to work beyond normal hours, such as providing a secured pick-up and drop facility, which is also now mandated by statute. organisations have provisions such as restrooms for women employees, food provisions for employees working late and compensatory off should be provided for working on weekly offs or over the weekends. these practices should be followed in spirit, which will give a sense of security to gen z women and encourage them to take up roles that require them to stretch and work beyond normal working hours. a fair opportunity should be given to gen z women employees to demonstrate their capabilities and knowledge without stereotyping them. managers should hold awareness sessions to discuss the advantages of employing a diverse workforce. they should discuss the advantages each of the teams and organisations would derive by engaging a diverse workforce. a focused attempt to change mindsets should be taken up to create a healthy and conducive work environment by organisations. organisations should fund events to mentor gen z women to create awareness about the field of data science among them. they should promote campaigns and events to publicise the prospects of working in data science. limitations and future directions this section outlines some of the research’s limitations and offers suggestions for other researchers. firstly, the purposive sampling method may introduce biases, causing participants to report their emotions more correctly than they actually felt. secondly, a wider sample of gen z professionals in the technology sector from other regions and continents might be taken into consideration. a longitudinal strategy rather than a cross-sectional investigation may yield more reliable results. therefore, further longitudinal research must be carried out, which could produce more conclusive results. additionally, further research can replicate our findings by exploring other variables or factors that may influence the career decision-making of gen z women. the other population segments can also be studied and aspects influencing their career choice may also be examined. furthermore, certain demographic variables may have altered judgements on the career decisions of gen z women aspiring to work in data science and those already working in data science. acknowledgements the participants of the survey, who were selected from a variety of gen z women studying in technology institutes across india and from gen z women working in data science, are all thanked by the authors for devoting their significant time and effort in filling out the questionnaire. the authors are grateful to them for their insightful comments as well. the authors have expressed their gratitude towards the training and placement officers of the institutes for supporting them by familiarising the questionnaire among the gen z women students in the institutes. the authors have also acknowledged the efforts made by professionals and human resource (hr) managers whilst circulating the questionnaire among gen z women working in different organisations. the insights and experiences shared by both the training and placement officers and hr managers about gen z women talent have been adopted for the study. the authors have thanked them for sharing their valuable inputs. competing interests the author(s) declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the authors collaborated to obtain the information and wrote the article. in order to get feedback from gen z women who are studying or working in data science domain, they have leveraged their professional and personal network in corporate and academics. they have successfully collaborated with a wide range of technology institutions and organisations. dr poornima tapas oversaw the compilation of this work for publication and made significant contributions to arrange the content along with the primary author. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information there was no specific grant for this research from any funding organisation in the public, private or non-profit sectors. data availability data that support the findings of this study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author, m.b. disclaimer the views and opinions in this article are those of the writers and may not represent the official stance or policy of any organization to which the authors or the publisher are affiliated. references barta, t., kleiner, m., & neumann, t. (2012). is there a payoff from top-team diversity?. mckinsey quarterly, 2, 13–15. berkup, s.b. (2014). working with generations x and y in generation z period: management of different generations in business life. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(19), 218. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n19p218 berman, f.d., & bourne, p.e. (2015). let’s make gender diversity in data science a priority right from the start. plos biology, 13(7), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002206 brodie, m.l. (2019). what is data science? in m. braschler, t. stadelmann, & k. stockinger (eds.), applied data science: lessons learned for the data-driven business (pp. 101–130). springer international publishing. burton, c.m., mayhall, c., cross, j., & patterson, p. (2019). critical elements for multigenerational teams: a systematic review. team performance management, 25(7/8), 369–401. https://doi.org/10.1108/tpm-12-2018-0075 cavero-rubio, j.a., collazo-mazón, a., & amorós-martínez, a. (2019). public recognition of gender equality in the workplace and its influence on firms’ performance. women’s studies international forum, 76(june), 102273. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2019.102273 chang, e.h., & milkman, k.l. (2020). improving decisions that affect gender equality in the workplace. organizational dynamics, 49(1), 100709. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2019.03.002 education committee on stem, & national science and technology council. (2013). federal science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem) education 5-year strategic plan (p. 143). executive office of the president national science and technology council. retrieved from https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/stem_stratplan_2013.pdf emerson, r.w. (2021). convenience sampling reference paper, journal of visual impairment & blindness, 115(1), 76+. https://doi.org/10.1177/0145482x20987707 fitong ketchiwou, g., naong, m.n., van der walt, f., & dzansi, l.w. (2022). investigating the relationship between selected organizational factors and women’s skills development aspirations and career progression: a south african case study. sa journal of human resource management, 20, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1958 gregory, t. (2021). discussion. iza inst of labor economics report (p. 21). retrieved from https://ssrn.com/abstract=3900888 hammond, l.s., & coetzee, m. (2022). an exploration of factors influencing the retention of senior female employees in a financial services organization. sa journal of human resource management, 20, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1997 hewlett, s.a., marshall, m., & sherbin, l. (2013). how diversity can drive innovation. harvard business review, 91(12), 30. iorgulescu, m.c. (2016). generation z and its perception of work. cross-cultural management journal, 18(01), 47–54. kelleher, j. d., & tierney, b. (2018). data science. mit press. lu, y. (2017). industry 4.0: a survey on technologies, applications and open research issues. journal of industrial information integration, 6, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jii.2017.04.005 maloni, m., hiatt, m.s., & campbell, s. (2019). understanding the work values of gen z business students. international journal of management education, 17(3), 100320. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2019.100320 moore, k., jones, c., & frazier, r.s. (2017). engineering education for generation z. american journal of engineering education (ajee), 8(2), 111–126. https://doi.org/10.19030/ajee.v8i2.10067 nasscom. (2020). futureskills talent in india: demand-supply analysis (p. 42). retrieved from https://nasscom.in/system/files/secure-pdf/draup_nasscom_india-technology-skills-demand-supply-analysis-16-oct-2020-final.pdf national science board. (2014). science and engineering labor force (pp. 1–66). science and engineering indicators. ozkan, m., & solmaz, b. (2015). the changing face of the employees – generation z and their perceptions of work. procedia economics and finance, 26, 476–483. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00876-x pandita, d. (2021). innovation in talent management practices: creating an innovative employer branding strategy to attract generation z. international journal of innovation science, 14(3/4), 556–569. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijis-10-2020-0217 prawitasari, g. (2018). the influence of generations on career choice (social cognitive career theory perspective). konselor, 7(1), 15–20. https://doi.org/10.24036/02018718464-0-00 shatto, b., & erwin, k. (2017). teaching millennials and generation z: bridging the generational divide. creative nursing, 23(1), 24–28. https://doi.org/10.1891/1078-4535.23.1.24 sidorcuka, i., & chesnovicka, a. (2017, september). methods of attraction and retention of generation z staff. in cbu international conference proceedings retrieved march 16, 2022, (vol. 5, pp. 807–814). strauss, w., & howe, n. (1991). generations: the history of america’s future, 1584–2089. quill william morrow. article information authors: hendrik r. lloyd1 michelle r. meyp1 affiliation: 1faculty of business and economic sciences, nelson mandela metropolitan university, port elizabeth, south africa correspondence to: hendrik lloyd email: hendrik.lloyd@nmmu.ac.za postal address: po box 77000, nelson mandela metropolitan university, second avenue campus, port elizabeth 6031, south africa keywords automotive industry; ethics; ethical behaviour; human resources; ethical organisation dates: received: 12 may 2009 accepted: 05 aug. 2010 published: 05 aug. 2010 how to cite this article: lloyd, h.r., & mey, m.r. (2010). an ethics model to develop an ethical organisation. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #218, 12 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.218 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) an ethics model to develop an ethical organisation in this original research article... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study    • trends from research literature    • what will follow • developing an ethics interventions model      • reinterventions model      • top management commitment      • code of ethics      • ethics training      • reward structures      • ethics audit      • whistle-blower protection      • hotlines      • ethics committee • research design    • hypotheses      • hypotheses testing procedure    • research method      • sampling and data collection methods      • recording of data and analysis methods      • reporting • findings and discussions • conclusion    • limitations • recommendations • references abstract (back to the top) orientation: as background to the study it can be stated that the ethical conduct of employees in an organisation is of paramount importance to the successful operations of an organisation, both real and perceived. in recent times the ethical conduct of employees has received extensive publicity and, as such, has emphasised the impact of organisational ethics on the global competitiveness of organisations. research purpose: the main aim of the paper is to analyse the impact of business ethics in the eastern cape motor industry cluster (ecmic) and the different perceptions regarding such ethics. this is based on the main research question, namely, whether a business ethics model should be developed to assist in creating an ethical organisation. motivation of the study: the motivation for this study is based on the question of whether there is a dedicated drive within the motor industry to establish an ethical organisation and, if such is the case, what benefits would accrue to the organisations in ecmic. research design, approach and method: an empirical study was conducted within ecmic to test the proposed ethics intervention model. a questionnaire, as the main measuring instrument, was developed and 150 questionnaires were distributed. statistical hypothesis testing was used, with a significance level set at 5%. the aim of the hypothesis testing was to test whether the percentage responses in certain categories were significantly higher than a pre-determined test-value. main findings: the research results substantiate the fact that the majority of the surveyed organisations do not implement specific ethics interventions. nevertheless, the majority of respondents acknowledge the importance of ethical behaviour in the organisation, especially with regard to their financial positions. practical/managerial implications: from this study it became clear that the implementation of a code of ethics would create a platform for ethical behaviour in organisations. it is also concluded from this study that all organisations must strive towards creating an ethical organisation which would have long-term rewards for the organisation, especially from a financial perspective. contribution/value-add: this study highlights the fact that although ethics and ethical behaviour in organisations are emphasised and receive wide-spread media coverage, not enough action is linked to this task at hand. the results of this research clearly indicate where the shortcomings are, in the process of establishing ethical organisations and who should be seen as the custodians of such activities. introduction (back to the top) key focus of the study this article proposes a model for the establishment and support of ethical organisations. the model will ensure that ethical change in the organisation is managed effectively by ensuring that all the necessary interventions in order to improve on the ethical environment are implemented. the proposed model provides logical, practical and uncomplicated guidelines to organisations that intend to improve or establish an ethical organisation.the proposed model distinguishes between critical interventions and optional interventions. four critical interventions are identified that are required to institutionalise ethical behaviour within an organisation. all four interventions are essential if the behaviour of the employees is to be aligned to that of an ethical organisation. background to the study since the 1990s there have been daily reports of mismanagement and unethical actions by members of organisations. furthermore, the ethical conduct of employees in organisations has received extensive attention and publicity. mathis and jackson (2000, p. 30) provide feedback on a survey that resulted in 48% of respondents stating that they were unethical at work. examples of unethical behaviour are 'cheating on expense accounts, paying or accepting bribes and kickbacks, forging signatures and lying about sick leave'. esterhuyse (1999, p. 27) reports that south africa has lost significantly large amounts of money due to office or white-collar crime.organisations' attempts to become globally competitive will be hampered by employees who are unethical at work. ethics in the economic life of transitional economies is a 'delusion rather than the reality'; therefore ethical behaviour is becoming more important as communities begin to realise its significance (fülöp, hirsrich & szegedi, 2000, p. 1). fülöp et al. (2001, p. 1) believe that research on business ethics needs to begin with an understanding of the nature of business ethics. for the purpose of this study an ethical organisational environment can be described as the behaviour, norms, rules and values that are inherently honest and just and are shared by all employees within an organisation with the aim of continuously improving performance, achieving common goals and establishing relationships with all stakeholders. kay and popkin (1998, p. 337) believe that organisations that wish to improve their profitability need to enhance their decision-making strategies by incorporating ethics into their decisions. similarly in a comparable study conducted by the du paul university during 1999, it was found that organisations that make 'an explicit commitment to follow an ethical code provided more than twice the value to shareholders' than organisations that did not. it was also found that 47 organisations that had a more extensive commitment to ethics indicated that their market value added (mva) was larger by an average of $10.6 billion, or approximately three times the mva of organisations without similar commitments (salopek 2001, p. 1). according to charlesworth and sewry (2003, p. 113) it was found during a south african survey in the it sector that 65% of respondents believed that by being ethical an organisation can earn a profit in the long term. rossouw (2008, p. 77) suggests that preventing corporate moral failure requires a total transformation of the organisation's ethical environment. the above section highlights the need for creating an ethical organisation. trends from research literature the importance of an ethical organisation has been emphasised. the role played by all the stakeholders in the organisation in establishing an ethical organisation is critical to its success. ethics in the workplace can be managed through implementing an ethics code of conduct, obtaining top management commitment and support, the appointment of an ethics officer, ethics training, reward systems, a system to report unethical behaviour and the auditing of ethical performance (emiliani, 2000, p. 2; goosen & van vuuren, 2005, p. 61; mcnamara, 1999, p. 4; rossouw, 2002, p. 405; spangenberg & theron, 2005, p. 1; van vuuren, 2002, p. 22). however, this change cannot be achieved without using a practical model to attain organisational ethical goals. to develop a model that will assist in establishing an ethical organisation it is necessary to explore and discuss the inherent characteristics of such an organisation. trevino and nelson (1995, p. 202) and schein (1995), as quoted by gottlieb and sanzgiri (1996, p. 1277), believe that leadership is critical in creating, establishing and maintaining an ethical organisation. therefore ethical behaviour to establish an ethical environment will begin with the leaders within the organisation as integrity, or the lack of it, flows from the top down (emiliani, 2000, p. 261). according to the deloitte & touche survey (deloitte llp ethics & workplace survey, 2007, p. 1) leaders in the organisation play a pivotal role in setting the climate, whether ethical or unethical, in that organisation. from research conducted by kelly (1989) and reported by gottlieb and sanzgiri (1996, p. 1278), 75% of 8000 respondents agreed that the organisation's leader 'plays the most significant role in establishing ethical standards for the organisation'. gottlieb and sanzgiri (1996, p. 1278) suggest that the leader should contribute to and drive the formulation of the ethical policy, communicate the ethical code of conduct and lead by example with regard to ethical management. organisations attempting to implement ethics must adopt some form of ethical learning and training (costa, 1998, p. 93). mcdonald and pak (1996, p. 974) are convinced that the promotion of business ethics cannot be successful without the implementation of ethics training. the simple provision of ethics training to employees is not sufficient to change the organisational environment, but rather thought must be given to the type of training, the timing and the methodology that are required. therefore, trevino and nelson (1995, p. 208) as well as white, sharar and funk (2001, p. 40) take the standpoint that baseline training and continuing ethics education and training programmes should be provided for all individuals within the organisations. ethics training should commence with formal orientation training for all new employees and should be reinforced by continuous training interventions. participants in the training would also include part-time workers, contractors and contingency workers. this would ensure that all employees, regardless of their type of employment contract, are aware of the ethical standards and behaviour that is expected of them in an ethical organisation. an ethical survey conducted by kpmg, public service commission and transparency south africa, malan and smit (2001, p. 4) and nicolaides (2009, p. 490), found that the ethics training that organisations provide is too brief and does not include new employees and managers. only 27% of the respondents indicated that new employees were being trained to apply the organisation's code of ethics while 13% of new employees were being trained in ethical decision-making skills. it can thus be construed that south african organisations are not yet prepared to invest in changing the behaviour and competencies of their employees to conform to those of an ethical organisation. according to trevino and nelson (1995, p. 205), organisations attempt to guide employees' behaviour through formal organisational value statements, mission statements, credos, policies and formal codes of ethical conduct. organisations are becoming more cognizant of the consequences of violating legal or ethical standards and are therefore implementing codes of conduct or ethics that prescribe standards of behaviour for all employees (darley, messick & tyler, 2001, p. 40). therefore a written code of conduct formally acknowledges the organisation's intent to undertake business in an ethical manner (kreuze, luqmani & luqmani, 2001, p. 48; ebert & griffen, 2000, p. 82). a well-developed code of ethics can assist the organisation in fostering an ethical environment, discouraging unethical behaviour and coping with ethical problems and dilemmas. the code of ethics establishes the ground rules by which the organisation operates. in a recent study of fortune 500 companies in the united states of america, 90% of respondents indicated that a code of ethics existed (erasmus, 2002, p. 34). the du paul university study mentioned previously reinforces the theory that an ethics code and ethical organisational environment contribute to the financial viability of an organisation. the kpmg survey of 2003 reported that 77% of the respondents indicated that their organisation had adopted a code of ethics or corporate code of conduct. however, the mere existence of an ethics code of conduct does not guarantee ethical behaviour. it is imperative that the process of developing and communicating the code to all stakeholders be done in a transparent and consultative manner (rossouw and van vuuren, 2010, p. 241). it is also important to ensure that the code is enforced throughout the organisation. failure to enforce the code will ultimately result in it losing its legitimacy and being perceived as window dressing (trevino & nelson, 1995, p. 207). the ethics officer plays a pivotal role in driving the ethical environment within the organisation. according to dipiazza (2001, p. 717), the ethics officer needs to identify the ethical issues and mobilise resources and persons around these issues. allowing people to talk about ethical issues via meetings (or even in 'chat rooms') on the organisation's intranet, can achieve this. dipiazza (2001, p. 717) believes that the position of an ethics officer should be independent of management and of the business operations. however, the incumbent should possess an understanding of the business environment. dipiazza (2001, p. 718) believes that the ethics officer should not be seen as a member of the management team, but as an individual who is positioned across the organisation and who reports to the board of directors. the most effective indication that an organisation is committed to ethical conduct in all of its business operations is the appointment of an ethics officer. this appointment formalises the organisation's commitment to ethical practices and conduct. however, it is critical that the ethics officer has a clear and measurable mandate within which to operate. linked to the appointment of an ethics officer would be the installation of a centralised hotline where employees can obtain advice on ethical matters and lodge ethical complaints. when requesting advice or informing on an unethical action, the individual can remain anonymous. this anonymity is considered to be the immense advantage of a hotline. the hotline is considered a tool that assists in enforcing the ethical standards within the organisation and providing employees with answers to policy questions (koehn, 1998, p. 125). according to dessler (1997, p. 109), a growing number of modern organisations have fewer supervisory and management levels, with the result that fewer employees are being supervised. organisations rely on employees to report misconduct; the act of reporting misconduct is known as whistle-blowing. campbell, as quoted by richter, burke and doig (1990, p. 197), offers a definition of whistle-blowing: 'the disclosure of legal violations, mismanagement, a gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority or a danger to the public health or safety of individuals'. the said disclosure can be made within or outside of the chain of command. whistle-blowing is therefore the act of informing on organisations and individuals that commit illegal or unethical acts, provide poor value for money, or endanger the health and safety of employees or stakeholders. organisations can reduce these conflicts by affording protection to whistle-blowers in the organisation's code of ethics, perhaps by installing a hotline or appointing an ombudsman to ensure confidentiality and reduce the fear of retaliation. conversely, should the whistle-blower's allegations be false and the individual intentionally attempts to discredit an individual or the organisation, the whistle-blower must be penalised or dismissed. this should prevent frivolous action on the part of potential whistle-blowers. an organisation's reward system is a critical component of the ethical organisation and it contributes to the alignment or misalignment of systems (trevino & nelson, 1995, p. 207). an ethics-focused reward system is a formal reward system that will promote, measure and reward the ethical behaviour of employees (lindsay, lindsay & irvine, 1996, p. 394). trevino and nelson (1995, p. 207) believe that in order to comprehend the ethical conduct of individuals in the organisation, it is important to investigate the behaviours that are rewarded and punished. it is also important that management ensures that the concern with the financial bottom line does not conflict with the ethical goals of the organisation. reward systems in organisations are important as they provide guidance about what behaviour is expected and also reflect what is valued in the organisation. therefore it is critical that organisations reward the 'correct' behaviour, otherwise misalignment of the reward system with other aspects of ethics will occur. individuals are encouraged to behave ethically or unethically when they are incentivised to do so; therefore it is important that managers examine the current reward system to ensure that the preferred behaviour is reinforced (kreitner & kinicki, 2001, p. 93; navran, 1997, p. 122). an ethical organisation can only be created and sustained by establishing a reward system for those employees who contribute to the organisation's ethical objectives. organisations of different sizes and types have indicated and proved their commitment to ethical practices by: • implementing policies that integrate ethics into the organisation's values and mission, develop ethics codes • implement ethics training • establish an ethics hotline, audit ethical performance and link it with rewards and sanctions • create ethics committees and revise internal structures to achieve their ethical objectives (navran, 1997, p. 1). in order for the ethical environment to be significantly impacted on it is imperative that all stakeholders 'buy in' to the vision of the organisation becoming more ethical. what will follow the following section proposes a model for the development of an ethical organisation. the model can guide ethical change in the organisation by ensuring that all the interventions that are needed in order to improve on the ethical environment are implemented. the proposed model provides logical, practical and uncomplicated guidelines to organisations that intend to improve or establish an ethical organisation. developing an ethics interventions model (back to the top) reinterventions model the proposed model distinguishes between critical interventions and optional interventions. four interventions are identified as being critical to institutionalising ethical behaviour. all four interventions are essential if the behaviour of the employees is to be aligned to that of an ethical organisation. the choice to implement the optional interventions would depend on the organisation's size and resources available. the smaller the organisation and the fewer the resources, the higher the probability that the optional interventions will not be implemented. the critical interventions ethical model is presented in figure 1 and a comprehensive discussion will follow. robbins and judge (2007, p. 441) are of the opinion that top management establishes the 'moral tone' for the organisation by setting and demonstrating high ethical standards and encouraging and rewarding integrity in others. top management commitment stage 1: in the creation of an ethical organisation, the leadership is an essential component, seeing as leaders can create, maintain or change environment (trevino & nelson, 1995, p. 200). support for the ethics initiative must be elicited from senior management. they can indicate their commitment by participating in training sessions and including ethics as a regular element in speeches and presentations, as well as ensuring that their behaviour is an example to all employees. code of ethics stage 2: a code of ethics provides guidelines for ethical decision-making. hosmer (1987) as quoted by kitson and campbell (1996, p. 123) defines an ethical code as 'statements of the norms and beliefs of an organisation with the intention to encourage ways of thinking and patterns of attitude that will lead towards the wanted behaviour'. the code of ethics allows the organisation to define its position on being an ethical organisation, in order that all employees and stakeholders are clear as to what the organisation values (rossouw, 2002, p. 216). kitson and campbell (1996, p. 108) believe that the code of ethics provides advice and guidelines concerning expected employee behaviour. cassell, johnson and smith (1997, p. 1078) state that a code of ethics is an important method of institutionalising ethics in an organisation. the compiling of the code of ethics can be coordinated by the human resource manager or practitioner. it is imperative that a task team comprising of individuals representing a variety of functions and from different levels of the organisation be created in order to assist with the writing and implementing of the code. according to malan and smit (2001, p. 175), when a code of ethics is properly designed and 'managed with integrity as a living, dynamic, cultural guide and discipline there should be no doubt about the moral foundation of the organisation'. ethics training stage 3: rossouw (2002, p. 240) believes that ethics training should be provided to employees in order to expose them to the concept of ethics and to empower them with skills to make ethical decisions. a comprehensive programme of ethics training needs to be designed and implemented in order to create and maintain an ethical organisation. training can include lectures, videos, 'cascade' training which is presented by direct supervisors, webor computer training, games, quizzes, case studies, role plays and simulations. consideration must be given to designing specialised training for those individuals who may be confronted by special ethical dilemmas, for example, working in countries where bribery is commonplace. the training department will take responsibility for the coordinating and organising of the ethics training, as they are the specialists in this field. figure 1: proposed ethics interventions model reward structures stage 4: in order to ensure that ethical expectations are understood and followed by organisational members, ethical values and guidelines must be reinforced. reward systems for employees who contribute to the organisation's ethics goals and objectives must be established. trevino and nelson (1999, p. 151) and rossouw (2002, p. 239) state that reward systems are the 'single most important formal influence' on employees' behaviour at work. incentives must be integrated into the performance and compensation system. a percentage of bonuses can be linked to ethical performance. formal performance appraisals are used to determine and allocate these rewards and to reinforce behaviours consistent with expectations on a regular basis. the appraisals can also communicate and reinforce management's expectations as they relate to the performance of each employee (logsdon & yuthas, 1997, p. 1222). with the above interventions established as critical and compulsory interventions the following interventions are considered to be optional. the use of these optional interventions will be dependent on the organisation's size and the resources available to implement each option. ethics audit stage 1a: kitson and campbell (1996, p. 108) recommend that an ethics audit be conducted prior to implementing an ethics initiative as one can analyse the organisation's environment in order to determine the current behaviour and operations within the organisation. an alternative explanation of an ethics audit is provided by carroll and buchholtz (2003, p. 235), who believe that the ethics audit serves the purpose of assessing or evaluating the ethical status and ethical programmes offered by the organisation. an ethics audit will also highlight certain problem areas that may require special attention from the ethics coordinator. ethics audits are intended to review 'ethics initiatives such as codes of conduct, hotlines and ethics training programmes' (carroll & buchholtz, 2003, p. 235). after training, regular evaluations can be conducted to ensure that employees are retaining what they have learnt and transferring it to the workplace. regular audits of the ethics programme should be completed in order to determine the success of the ethics initiative. regular audits will also highlight the benefits of the ethics programme to management, thereby ensuring continued resources. whistle-blower protection stage 1: a whistle-blower will expose illegal, immoral or illegitimate practices that occur within the organisation. lindsay, lindsay and irvine (1996, p. 401) are of the opinion that organisations function in a complex and risky environment with legislation and regulatory standards rapidly changing, therefore it becomes difficult to determine what constitutes ethical behaviour. as a result it is important to implement processes that will encourage open discussion and resolve conflict. a whistle-blower system can achieve this. according to carroll and buchholtz (2003, p. 495), whistle-blowers are not rewarded for their perceived contributions to public interest. in order to avoid some of the different forms of retaliation, such as more severe criticism of work, less attractive work assignments, heavier workloads, lost privileges and exclusions from meetings previously attended, it is important that organisations implement some form of whistle-blower protection. protection would be included in the code of ethics. winstanley and woodall (2000, p. 7) state that, traditionally, human resource managers administer disciplinary and grievance procedures and they therefore propose that the human resource manager create and administer whistle-blowing procedures as well. hotlines stage 1c: a highly effective ethical environment is contingent on employees having a mechanism for reporting unethical acts (carroll & buchholtz, 2003, p. 233). as reported by various authors the most common whistle-blowing mechanism is a hotline (carroll & buchholtz, 2003, p. 233; malan & smit, 2001, p. 157; rossouw, 2002, p. 143; trevino & nelson, 1999, p. 71; wixley & everingham, 2002, p. 83). medium and large organisations can establish a hotline, so that employees can raise ethical concerns that they do not feel comfortable discussing with their supervisors. ethics committee stage 1d: the ethics committee can manage the ethics function in a large organisation. in smaller organisations an appointed ethics officer or the human resource practitioner can perform the role of the ethics committee. according to van vuuren and eiselen (2006, p. 22), few south african organisations have appointed ethics officers. when compiling the ethics committee, it is recommended that persons from diverse functions and representative of the organisation in terms of gender and race be included. it is advisable that a trade union representative be included on the committee. the ethics committee should be an advocate for effective ethics management and play an executive and leadership role. the committee will represent the organisation's and employees' interests by ensuring that the ethics initiatives of the organisation are effective and meet the requirements of applicable law and guidelines (carroll & buchholtz, 2003, p. 226). kile (1992, p. 1) outlines the possible roles of an ethics committee. ethics committees are responsible for: • contributing to the continuing definition of the organisation's standards and procedures • assuming responsibility for overall compliance with those standards and procedures • overseeing the use of due care in delegating discretionary responsibility • communicating the organisation's standards and procedures, ensuring the effectiveness of that communication • monitoring and auditing compliance • overseeing enforcement, including the assurance that discipline is uniformly applied. the ethics committee will implement steps and strategies to ensure that the organisation learns from its experiences. in summary, the ethics committee should examine issues, make decisions, formulate strategies and direct programme implementation through the programme director. research design (back to the top) the main research question for this study can be formulated as follows: can a business ethics model be developed to assist in creating an ethical organisation? hypotheses based on the above research question and using ecmic as the study platforms the following hypotheses were tested. hypothesis 1: ecmic is an ethical organisational structure. hypothesis 2: individuals within ecmic subscribe to the principles of an ethical organisation. hypothesis 3: there is a dedicated drive and initiative within ecmic to establish an ethical organisation. hypothesis 4: it is beneficial to establish an ethical organisation within ecmic. hypotheses testing procedure statistical hypothesis testing was used where the significance level was set at 5%. the aim was to test whether the percentage responses in certain categories were significantly higher than a value of 65% pre-determined by the researchers. the hypotheses were: ho : p = 0.65 hl : p > 0.65 where p indicates the population proportion. for each hypothesis where the sample proportion was greater than 65%, a test statistic was calculated and compared with the one-sided standard normal value at 5%, namely 1.645. values of the test that exceeded 1.645 indicated that the corresponding sample proportion was significantly greater than 65%. no tests were performed in cases where the sample proportions were less than 65%. research method sampling and data collection methods an empirical study was conducted within the automotive cluster of the eastern cape province to test the proposed ethics interventions model. a clustered, random convenience sampling method was used. a mailing list of the participants was compiled. each participant was allocated a number and as each completed questionnaire was received, the participant was checked off the list. a research assistant contacted non-respondents telephonically and via email to encourage them to return the completed questionnaire as speedily as possible. data collection was facilitated by means of a questionnaire. the questionnaire was designed and developed with the assistance of a research statistician at the university. the questionnaire consisted of two sections. section a was used to obtain biographical information on the respondent organisation, while section b provided data regarding the interventions and ethical strategies used by the respondent organisation. to ensure that the questionnaire would measure the concept or attribute it was supposed to measure, it was subjected to a pilot study. feedback from this pilot study was used to improve the questionnaire and consequently both face validity and construct validity was established. one hundred and fifty questionnaires were distributed amongst 75 organisations within ecmic. on average, two questionnaires were sent to each organisation, one to the ceo's office and one to the human resource manager or department. a total of 88 completed questionnaires were received which indicates a 58.6% response rate. section a of the questionnaire required respondents to provide general biographical information. these questions were included to highlight independent variables, in order to facilitate comparisons between the dependent variables obtained from responses to questions in other sections of the questionnaire. organisations of all sizes within the automotive cluster were represented in the responses obtained. the highest percentage of responses (43.7%) was from organisations exceeding 300 employees, followed by organisations with between 101 and 200 employees (18. 4% rate). the majority of organisations (54.8%) that responded are classified as functioning in manufacturing automotive components, followed by automobile manufacturers (19%) and other related industries such as the paint industry (16.7%), metal industries (7.1%) and tyre and rubber manufacturers (2.4%). recording of data and analysis methods an empirical study was conducted within the automotive cluster of the eastern cape province to test the proposed ethics interventions model. a clustered, random convenience sampling method was used. a mailing list of the participants was compiled. each participant was allocated a number and as each completed questionnaire was received, the participant was checked off the list. a research assistant contacted non-respondents telephonically and via email to encourage them to return the completed questionnaire as speedily as possible. data collection was facilitated by means of a questionnaire. the questionnaire was designed and developed with the assistance of a research statistician at the university. the questionnaire consisted of two sections. section a was used to obtain biographical information on the respondent organisation, while section b provided data regarding the interventions and ethical strategies used by the respondent organisation. to ensure that the questionnaire would measure the concept or attribute it was supposed to measure, it was subjected to a pilot study. feedback from this pilot study was used to improve the questionnaire and consequently both face validity and construct validity was established. one hundred and fifty questionnaires were distributed amongst 75 organisations within ecmic. on average, two questionnaires were sent to each organisation, one to the ceo's office and one to the human resource manager or department. a total of 88 completed questionnaires were received which indicates a 58.6% response rate. section a of the questionnaire required respondents to provide general biographical information. these questions were included to highlight independent variables, in order to facilitate comparisons between the dependent variables obtained from responses to questions in other sections of the questionnaire. organisations of all sizes within the automotive cluster were represented in the responses obtained. the highest percentage of responses (43.7%) was from organisations exceeding 300 employees, followed by organisations with between 101 and 200 employees (18. 4% rate). the majority of organisations (54.8%) that responded are classified as functioning in manufacturing automotive components, followed by automobile manufacturers (19%) and other related industries such as the paint industry (16.7%), metal industries (7.1%) and tyre and rubber manufacturers (2.4%). table 1: principal component analysis: ethics interventions and characteristics of ethical organisations table 2: principal component analysis: ethics interventions and characteristics of ethical organisations (low correlation variable removed) reporting the results of the above mentioned analyses are summarised in table 1. although the alpha values are all at an acceptable level (> 0.70), the two low correlations in the 'minimum correlation' column led to the inspection of the items of b6 and b10. the fourth item of b6 was the one that had a few low correlations and was also the minimum of 0.10. an item analysis also showed that this item had a much lower item-total correlation (0.38) than the other items (0.54 or higher). amongst the items of b10, it was the first item that had a number of low correlations, including the minimum of 0.01. the item-total correlation of this first item was also much lower (0.23) than that of the other items (0.48 or higher). table 2 gives the information for b6 and b10 when the two items that do not seem to strongly belong to the construct had been removed. it is clear from the above table that by removing the two items, the remaining items are much more coherent and will lead to the measuring of more consistent constructs. a principal component analysis on each of the four sets of items revealed that, in each case, the linear combination of items that contained the maximum information (variation) was a weighted sum of the items. seeing that the weights differed only slightly, it was decided to use as composite score the arithmetic mean of the items, which is easy to interpret and on a scale of 1-5. in testing the hypotheses and according to the pre-determined 65% value, the following results were obtained as expounded in tabular format. table 3 indicates that 91.1% of the survey sample indicated their organisation to be 'highly ethical', or at least 'ethical'. the resulting test statistics were calculated at 5.79 indicating the corresponding sample proportion to be significantly greater than 65%, therefore subscribing to the alternative hypothesis. from the responses it was further noted that: • in 76% of organisations it was reported that a code of ethics existed that provided details on standards for ethical behaviour. • only 30% of organisations provided staff with training in business ethics. in a similar survey performed by lindsay et al. (1996, p. 398) in canada, it was reported that 29.8% of organisations had implemented or were in the process of implementing ethics training. this reflects a possible international trend that organisations are not investing resources into activities, such as ethics interventions, that directly affect the bottom line in the short term. • it was reported that 39% of the respondents indicated that their organisations have an ethics officer to whom employees can report misconduct or obtain advice on ethical issues. • the study revealed that 68% of respondents were aware of protection for individuals who report misconduct in their organisation. • according to 74% of respondents, an ethics audit has not been conducted to determine the current ethical environment within their organisation. • a large percentage of respondents (80%) stated that rewarding ethical behaviour in the form of promotions or performance bonuses does not transpire. a similar survey conducted by lindsay et al. (1996, p. 401) reported that 12% of sampled organisations used an ethics focused reward system. this is of concern because it indicates that organisations are not using positive reinforcement to encourage ethical behaviour and therefore significant achievement of the organisations' ethical goals may not be realised. table 3: organisational environment table 4: services offered by the organisation that underpin ethics in the organisation table 5: commitment to ethics in the organisation it is interesting to note that the majority of respondents reported that their organisation does not offer the above interventions. as these interventions are identified as being essential when creating an ethical organisational environment, one would assume that it would be difficult to characterise one's organisation as highly ethical or ethical if the above interventions were deficient. in this analysis where the corresponding answer is 'yes', the sample percentage was calculated. only in two cases, namely questions b3.1 and b3.4, was a sample percentage of larger than 65% calculated (see table 4). from these two cases (table 4) only question b3.1 reflected a test statistic of larger than 1.645, namely 2.42, reflecting that from the proportion of organisations surveyed (75.9%) the majority of respondents were in agreement that a code of ethics was in operation. in table 5, five of the six questions revealed a sample percentage larger than 65%. of that total, four questions had a test statistic larger than 1.645. these were questions b4.1, b4.3, b4.4 and b4.5. these results indicated a strong level of commitment from the chief executive officer or the direct manager, colleagues and subordinates. the results with regard to the provision of ethics training are fairly consistent. the survey revealed that 30% of organisations have implemented ethics training or are in the process of implementing ethics training. this finding is consistent with the kpmg study that was conducted in 2001. in this study, malan and smit (2001, p. 4) found that south african organisations have not focused extensively on ethics training. according to 23% of respondents, reward structures that encourage ethical behaviour had been implemented or are in the process of being implemented. the study further shows that 20% of organisations had implemented a hotline for persons to report misconduct. the study also indicates that 21% of organisations had implemented or are planning on implementing an ethics committee, which constitutes a formally specified group of employees responsible for developing, updating and enforcing the code of ethics (lindsay et al., 1996, p. 394). finally, 37% of respondents stated that their leaders display ethical leadership. very small percentages of respondents indicated in this section of the questionnaire that their organisations were currently implementing the various ethical interventions. this is of concern as it may point toward a lack of seriousness being displayed by the automotive cluster in the eastern cape province towards governing ethically. malan and smit (2001, p. 9) are convinced that developing an ethical organisation and all that is required to achieve this objective is for many south african organisations purely an optional experience and not a core business activity. table 6 indicates the perception of the respondents concerning the impact of identified interventions on the establishment of an ethical organisation. the results are based on the responses where the intervention is implemented or planned to be implemented. none of these responses reflected a sample percentage of larger than 65%. this is indicative of the fact that the ethics intervention activities are not a major concern of surveyed organisations in ecmic. the respondents were also given the opportunity (refer to table 7) to provide an indication of their opinion of the importance of the interventions, using a 5-point likert scale that ranged from 'essential' to 'not essential'. the results are based on the responses that ranged from essential to important. three questions revealed a sample percentage of higher than 65%, with all three having a test statistic of larger than 1.645. in this regard although the percentage of organisations that plan to implement the various ethical interventions is insignificant, individuals within the organisations indicated that the ethics interventions are important. findings and discussions (back to the top) table 8 highlights certain characteristics of ethical organisations. respondents were asked to report on their perceptions concerning whether the stated attributes characterised an ethical organisation. a 5-point likert scale ranging from 'strongly agree' (1) to 'strongly disagree' (5) was used. three of the questions had a sample percentage of larger than 65% and all three revealed a test statistic of larger than 1.645, indicating their significance as characteristics of an ethical organisation. ethics training, a code of ethics and whistleblower protection were highlighted as important characteristics of an ethical organisation. in cross referencing tables 1-8, certain deductions can be made. in the majority of cases, issues such as: • a code of ethics • ethics training • whistleblower protection stood central in the analysis, whilst achieving significant relevance in considering: • the relative importance of ethical interventions • the characteristics linked to an ethical organisation. table 6: degree of ethical intervention adoption table 7: relative importance of ethical intervention table 8: characteristics of an ethical organisation in a further analysis through the cross-tabulation of data, the frequency was determined and is being presented in table 9. from this analysis it can be stated that the ceo is seen as the lead individual in implementing ethics in an organisation, followed by the hr department under the leadership of the hr manager. from table 9 it is clear that the hr department is responsible for organising ethics in the organisation, followed by the ceo. however, in terms of who should be responsible it is clear from table 9 that the ceo is the preferred individual, followed by the hr manager. the chi-square analysis also indicates a statistically significant relationship between these variables (p > 0. 05). table 10 reveals that the majority of respondents are not clear on the extent to which top management provides ethical leadership in the organisation. however, the majority of respondents do see the ceo as playing a leading role in exhibiting sufficient commitment to ethical business objectives. based on the chi-square analysis no statistically significant relationship could be determined between the variables (p > 0. 05). from table 11 it is evident that the majority of respondents are not clear on the extent to which top management provides ethical leadership in the organisation. however, the majority of respondents were of the opinion that senior management does display a sufficient commitment to ethical business objectives. with a p-value of 0.00088 there is also a clear, statistically significant relationship between the variables (p > 0.05). most of the respondents, as is reflected in table 12, are not clear on the extent to which top management provides ethical leadership in the organisation even though the king report iii (south african institute of chartered accounts, 2009) places great emphasis on the role of ethical and effective leaders. what is clear from the respondents is that the ceo is seen as the person who should be responsible, followed by the hr manager. there is a statistically significant relationship between the variables (p > 0.05). as far as the p-values are concerned, all the values are smaller than 0.05, indicating that there is a significant difference from the constant reference value. however, to make the table and the data more useful in terms of the objectives of the study, the 'effect size' column was introduced. the effect size is a useful measure of the size of the difference (practical significance). in the case of a single sample t-test, the effect size is calculated as the difference between the mean and the reference value divided by the standard deviation. the effect size is called cohen's d and guidelines for its interpretation are: • values in the region of 0.2 small effect size •values in the region of 0.5 medium effect size • values in the region of 0.8 large effect size. (cohen, 1969) the larger the effect size, the more practical the implementation is. from table 13 it is clear that only three from the 18 variables have a small effect size, hereby implying that the majority of interventions identified in this study as per table 13, will be practically implementable. table 9: summary frequency table qb2(4) × qb5(4): who is responsible versus who should be responsible for ethics in the organisation table 10: summary frequency table qb6.8(5) × qb4.1(3): top management’s ethical leadership and ceo commitment table 11: summary frequency table qb6.8(5) × qb4.1(3): top management ethical leadership and senior management commitment table 12: summary frequency qb6.8(5) × qb5(4): table top management’s ethical leadership and who should be responsible for ethics in the organisation table 13: test of means against constant reference value conclusion (back to the top) the concept of business ethics and corporate governance has dominated national and international news for the past decade and as a result organisations, their members and their operations are being scrutinised and criticised for unethical actions. the purpose of this article was to propose a model that could be used when attempting to establish and maintain an ethical organisation and to analyse and interpret the data obtained from the empirical study. the key findings from our empirical work can be summarised as follows. the majority of organisations included in the sample do not implement specifically recommended interventions, with the exception of a code of ethics, to create and sustain an ethical organisational environment. however, the majority of respondents believe that it is important that the organisation be seen as ethical and have identified that behaving ethically can result in benefits for the organisation. it is apparent from this study that ceos are seen as the lead individuals in implementing ethics in the organisation. the leadership role is also supported by the human resource manager in the organisation. however, it became clear that most respondents viewed the ceo's commitment as peripheral, with the perception that the ceo did not portray the expected dedication and commitment to establishing an ethical organisation. according to this study, the vast majority of respondents were left unclear about the extent to which top management should and would provide ethics leadership within the organisation. this issue is also addressed by the king report iii (south african institute of chartered accounts, 2009) principle 1.19, where it requires that the ceo should ensure that a positive and ethical work environment exists. the model can therefore be viewed as a map which would guide organisations with the appropriate steps when attempting to change or strengthen their ethical environment. implementing the critical interventions highlighted in the model would portray an organisation's commitment to ethics. limitations a possible limitation of the study is that it was confined only to the automotive cluster in the eastern cape. the study could have been extended across industries and this in turn would have resulted in a higher response rate. the findings of the empirical study reflect the state of the ethical environment and the adoption of interventions only at the time of the study. previous interventions that were unsuccessfully implemented and anticipated interventions were not investigated in the empirical study. an additional limitation but also an area for future research would be to assess the ethical environment of a selected organisation, implement the proposed model of this study and thereafter assess the impact of the model on the organisation's ethical environment. recommendations (back to the top) the ethical conduct of employees in an organisation is of critical importance to the sustained success of an organisation in the contemporary business environment. this is underpinned by the media coverage of the ethical conduct or lack thereof by numerous organisations worldwide. it is furthermore emphasised by the publication and adoption of the various king reports on corporate governance and ethics. the importance of this study is that it proposes a model that provides a logical, practical and uncomplicated set of guidelines to organisations in general, with the intention of establishing or improving the ethics in an organisation. furthermore, the strength of the model and an added factor of importance is the fact that the model distinguishes between critical and optional interventions, where the critical interventions will prove to be the foundation of the process to institutionalise the ethical behaviour of employees within organisation. lastly, this study set out to test this model and its practicality in evaluating and addressing the ethical nature of organisations, based on a sample organisation within a large sector of the south african economy, namely the automotive industry. based on this study it is recommended that organisations should: • evaluate the ethical climate and nature of their respective organisations • implement relevant ethics interventions as identified in this study • identify custodians of the organisational ethics processes • comply with the recommendations and process frameworks of the respective king reports on corporate governance and ethics and • change their business process in order to strengthen ethical structures and in so doing promote the long term sustainability of their organisation in the overall economy. it is recommended that south african organisations should attempt to position themselves by strengthening their ethical structures and processes in order to promote their organisation and increase their sustainability as a business entity. in addition it is recommended that future studies and interventions should be formulated around the following issues, namely: • the reasons for the lack of adoption of the proposed interventions of the model. • an analysis of the codes of ethics of individual organisations in order to ascertain the reasons for the failure of implementing or adopting an ethical organisational structure. • the appointment processes followed within ecmic when appointing executives into their positions. this is an issue specifically highlighted by the king report iii, principle 1.19. • an evaluation of the ethics process followed in ecmic based on the recommended principles of the king iii report. references (back to the top) carroll, a.b., & buchholtz, a.k. (2003). business and society:ethics and stakeholder management (5th edn.). cincinnati: thomson learning. cassell, c., johnson, p., & smith, k. (1997). opening the black box: corporate codes of ethics in their organisational context. journal of business ethics,16, 1077-1093. charlesworth, m., & sewry, d. (2003). preliminary results of a survey of south african it industry professionals into ethics. retrieved june 07, 2010, from http://homes.is.ru.ac.za/m.charlesworth/thesis/saicsit2003.pdfg1st2giui_2wpmk2aw costa, j.d. (1998). the ethical imperative: why moral leadership is good business. boston: addison-wesley. czernowalow, m. (2003). south african companies take up sustainability reporting challenge. engineering news. retrieved june 07, 2010, from http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/sa-companies-take-up-sustainability-reporting-challenge-2003-10-23 darley, j.m., messick, d.m., & tyler, t.r. (2001). social influences on ethical behaviour in organisations. new jersey: lawrence erlbaum. deloitte llp ethics & workplace survey (2007). retrieved june 07, 2010, from http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_us/us/press/press-releases/8aa3cb51ed812210vgnvcm100000ba42f00arcrd.htm dessler, g. (1997). human resource management (7th edn.). upper saddle river: prentice-hall. dipiazza, s.a. (2001). the value of the corporate ethics officer (speech). new york city: conference board retrieved july 20, 2002, from http://www.ethics.org ebert, r.j., & griffin, r.w. (2000). business essentials (3rd edn.). upper saddle river: prentice-hall. emiliani, m.l. (2000). the oath of management. management decision, 38(4), 261-262. erasmus, b. (2002). aspects of ethics in human resource management. management today, 18(1), 34-38. esterhuyse, w. (1999). are ethics our weak link? people dynamics, 17(10), 27-31. fülöp, g., hisrich, r.b., & szegedi, k. (2000). business ethics and social responsibility in transition economies. journal of management development, 19(1), 1-3. goosen, x., & van vuuren, l.j. (2005) institutionalising ethics in organizations. the role of mentoring, 3(3), 61-71. gottlieb, j.z., & sanzgiri, j. (1996). towards an ethical dimension of decision-making in organisations. journal of business ethics, 15, 1275-1285. kay, s., & popkin, s.j. (1998). integrating ethics into the strategic management process: doing well by doing good. management decision, 36(5), 331-338. kile, d.a. (1992). how to set up a steering committee for business conduct and ethics. albany law review, 56(2), 1-11. kitson, a., & campbell, r. (1996). the ethical organisation: ethical theory and corporate behaviour. london: macmillan. koehn, d. (1998). extolling the virtues of hot lines. online journal of ethics. retrieved june 19, 2002, from http://www.workforce.com/archive/article kpmg ethics survey. (2001). retrieved june 07, 2010, from http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:vyl1u1x9cagj:www.info.gov.za/ kreuze, j.g., luqmani, z., & luqmani, m. (2001). shades of gray. internal auditor, 58(2), 48. kreitner, r., & kinicki, a. (2001). organisational behaviour (5th edn.). boston: irwin. lindsay, r.m., lindsay, l.m., & irvine, v.b. (1996). instilling ethical behaviour in organisations: a survey of canadian companies. journal of business ethics, 15, 393-407. logsdon, j.m., & yuthas, k. (1997). corporate social performance, stakeholder orientation, and organisational moral development. journal of business ethics, 16, 1213-1226. malan, f., & smit, b. (2001). ethics and leadership in business and politics. lansdowne: juta. mathis, r.l., & jackson, j.h. (2000). human resource management (9th edn.). cincinnati: south-western thomson learning. mcdonald, g., & pak, c.p. (1996). it's all fair in love, war and business: cognitive philosophies in ethical decision-making. journal of business ethics, 15, 973-996. mcnamara, m.c. (1999). complete guide to ethics management: an ethics toolkit for managers. retrieved february 02, 2000, from http://www.mapnp.org/library/ethics.html navran, f. (1997). 12 steps to building a best-practices ethics program. workforce, 76(9), 117-122. nicolaides, a. (2009). business ethics in africa. journal of contemporary management, 6, 490-501. richter, l., burke, f., & doig, j.w. (1990). combating corruption. encouraging ethics. whistle blowing. american society for public administration, 195-201. rossouw, d. (2002). business ethics in africa (2nd edn.). cape town: oxford university press. rossouw, d., & van vuuren, l. (2010). business ethics (4th edn.). cape town: oxford university press. rossouw, g.j. (2002). business ethics and corporate governance in the second king report: farsighted or futile? koers 67(4) 405-419. rossouw, g.j. (2008). aristotle in the modern corporation: from codes of ethics to ethical culture. phronimon, 9(1) 77-84. robbins, s.p., & judge, t.a. (2007). organisational behaviour (12th edn.). upper saddle river: pearson-prentice hall. salopek, j.j. (2001). do the right thing. training and development, 55(7), 1-8. retrieved august 25, 2002, from http://www.emeraldlibrary.com south african institute of chartered accountants. (2009). summary of report on king committee on governance. governance for south africa (king iii). retrieved june 04, 2010, from http://www.saica.co.za spangebarg, h., & theron, c.c. (2005). promoting ethical behaviour through leadership of ethics. the development of the ethical leadership inventory, 36(2). trevino, l.k., & nelson, k.a. (1995). managing business ethics: straight talk about how to do it right. new york: wiley. trevino, l.k., & nelson, k.a. (1999). managing business ethics: straight talk about how to do it right (2nd edn.). new york: wiley. van vuuren, l.j. (2002). institutionalising business ethics: a multi-level ethics strategy. management dynamics, 2, 21-27. white, w.l., sharar, m.s., & funk, r. (2001). elevating the business ethics of employee assistance. behavioural health management, 21(4), 38-43. winstanley, d., & woodall, j. (2000). ethical issues in contemporary human resource management. suffolk: macmillan business. wixley, t., & everingham, g. (2002). corporate governance. cape town: siber. abstract introduction literature review research design research method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) ndivhudzannyi r. mukwevho faculty of management, southern business school, johannesburg, south africa mark h.r. bussin faculty of management, southern business school, johannesburg, south africa citation mukwevho, n.r., & bussin, m.h.r. (2021). exploring the role of a total rewards strategy in retaining south african police officers in limpopo province. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1391. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1391 original research exploring the role of a total rewards strategy in retaining south african police officers in limpopo province ndivhudzannyi r. mukwevho, mark h.r. bussin received: 30 apr. 2020; accepted: 12 mar. 2021; published: 21 apr. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the south african police service is facing significant challenges in retaining its staff. a total rewards strategy could help the south african police service to enhance staff retention. research purpose: this study explored the role of a total rewards strategy in retaining south african police officers in limpopo province. motivation of the study: the shortage of police officials has a negative effect on the south african police service’s endeavours to retain its employees. research approach, design and method: this was a qualitative research study where semi-structured interviews were conducted on the sample size of 14 police officers in limpopo. main findings: the outcomes revealed that performance management, career development and employees’ compensation were ineffectively applied to police stations. employees were firmly thinking about leaving the police because of poor rewards. the members were genuinely happy with their work benefits and work–life balance. practical/managerial implications: the south african police services should implement total reward strategy to improve staff retention. contribution/value-add: this study presented challenging areas in the reward framework of the south african police service employees and the subsequent impact thereof on their turnover intentions. keywords: benefits; compensation; retention; total rewards; performance management; remuneration. introduction orientation the south african police service (sap) in limpopo is tasked with the responsibility of creating a safe and secure environment for all people in limpopo province. this duty can be performed only if the police department retains determined and skilled police officers. the problem is that police officers are constantly leaving the department for better remuneration and rewards in other departments or for other occupations (mofokeng, 2015, p. 1). the success of any organisation lies within the competency of its employees. as a result, the organisation should place more emphasis on the acquisition and retention of quality employees (anku-tsede, 2013, p. 174). mabaso and dlamini (2018, p. 1) point out that global economy pressures organisations to attract and retain skilled employees. according to makhuzeni and barkhuizen (2015, p. 1), the best method for the organisation to attract and retain skilled employees is to have a good reward strategy. the sap’s human resource planning has always been a priority, but the retention of the police officers is becoming problematic (mofokeng, 2015, p. 34). hlengane and bayat (2013, p. 86) point out that factors contributing to the police officers’ turnover are lack of motivation by management, lack of personal career growth, inappropriate treatment by supervisors, lack of appreciation by management, lack of recognition, lack of promotion opportunities, job dissatisfaction and low salaries. low morale of police officers leads to high rates of absenteeism, resignations and poor performance. the sap’s task is to review the approaches and retention strategies to deal with recognition, career development, rewards and benefits, compensations and performance management (saps organisational climate survey report, 2017, p. 71). research purpose and objectives the purpose of the study was to explore the role of a total rewards strategy in retaining south african police officers in limpopo province. the general objective of this study was to determine the role of a total rewards strategy in retaining police officers in limpopo province. furthermore, specific objectives were to conceptualise total rewards from literature, to determine police officers’ view of the present condition of total rewards within the sap and to determine the extent to which rewards influence police officers’ decision to leave the sap. literature review retaining employees the retention of skilled employees is a critical strategic human resource management issue and is necessary for the success of the organisation (theron, barkhuizen, & du plessis, 2014, p. 2). potgieter, coetzee and ferreira (2018, p. 2) point out that an organisational retention strategy contributes to the employees’ intention to stay or leave an organisation. according to smit, stanz and bussin (2015, p. 3), the term retention is described as actions or plans executed by top management with the intention to keep employees from leaving the organisation. these actions include a total rewarding system, interrelations, individual career growth and conducive working conditions. it is essential that when the organisation recruits new employees, it implements a reward strategy to retain the employees. the retention of employees is vital to the enhancement of organisational performance and profitability. the failure of staff retention increases the organisational expenditure in the form of replacement costs ranging from recruitment, employee screening and hiring activities, orientation, induction and training costs (mayende & musenze, 2018, p. 1). therefore, for the organisation to attract and retain its employees, it must have an appropriate total reward strategy (mabaso & dlamini, 2018, p. 3). total rewards smit et al. (2015, p. 3) define total rewards as a term used to depict the compensation framework in the workplace. the reward can be cash as well as non-fiscal esteem, an immediate or circuitous reward or a natural or potentially outward reward that is offered to a worker in the trading of the work performed. the total rewards concept originates from its comprehensive methodology that contains both the financial and non-fiscal rewards that a department may provide for its workers (bwowe & marongwe, 2018, p. 2). in this research, the model of total rewards by the world at work association (2019, p. 1) was utilised as a structure to investigate the police’s impression of total rewards in the work environment. this model of total rewards comprises six elements: compensation, benefits, work–life effectiveness, recognition, performance management and talent development. these components represent the tool kit from which an organisation chooses to offer and align a value proposition that results in satisfied, engaged and productive employees who, in turn, create desired organisational performance. as indicated by this model, the department’s total rewards technique ought to have every one of six components (makhuzeni & barkhuizen, 2015, p. 2). the descriptions of these components are as follows: compensation compensation is regularly utilised conversely with pay or wage and reward; however, compensation does not allude only to rewards, pay and gains, but it additionally incorporates, for example, accomplishing individual objectives, self-governance and all the more challenging employments (warnich, carrell, elbert, & hartfield, 2015, p. 403). factors such as compensation, recognition and management support were found to encourage employees to stay in their public institution (theron et al., 2014, p. 7). according to shelton and renard (2015, p. 4), the financial compensation received by employees from their organisation plays a vital role in reward management, because employees view it as an indication of their value to the organisation. to gain competitive advantage, most organisations are designing specific individual compensation and reward systems, especially for talented employees, with the ultimate aim of attracting and retaining them (schlechter, faught, & bussin, 2014, p. 3). globalisation pressures organisations to develop customised compensation reward strategies in order to attract and retain skilled employees (makhuzeni & barkhuizen, 2015, p. 2). the available research conducted at kerensa police station in gauteng province points out that police officers receive poor salaries (faull, 2011, p. 17). benefits benefits are monetary or non-budgetary payments that workers receive from the employer. employers offer benefits such as retirement or unemployment, death, accident and sickness (makhuzeni & barkhuizen, 2015, p. 2). apart from pay or salary, the employer provides certain benefits such as sickness pay, a housing allowance, medical coverage, adaptable working hours and telecommuting (joshi, 2015, p. 77). work–life effectiveness work–life effectiveness refers to the extent to which the employee is satisfied with his or her work and family role. it also refers to the balance between the work and the rest of the employee’s life activities (munro, oosthuizen, & coetzee, 2016, p. 3). makhuzeni and barkhuizen (2015, p. 3) point out that flexibility in the workplace improves customer service and employee retention. performance management and recognition if the organisation recognises and rewards high performance, employees show high performance; but if the employees see no relationship between high performance and rewards, they do not excel in their job (warnich et al., 2015, p. 407). performance rewards or appraisals are essential instruments to improve employee performance. organisations with a performance management system can easily identify employee developmental areas and implement planning processes. performance recognition is crucial for the enhancement of worker spirit and subsequently lessens pressure, absenteeism and turnover (makhuzeni & barkhuizen, 2015, p. 3). if the organisation has a good performance management system, it can easily identify and address poor performance issues. a good performance management system helps the organisation to develop employees by stretching their capabilities. doing so will provide opportunities for them to grow (mcpheat, 2010, p. 9). research by faull (2011, p. 18) points out that recognition and motivation are required within the police environment for effective service delivery. talent development koekemoer (2014, p. 1) points out that south african organisations are encountering what is known as a ‘brain drain’, which refers to the loss of talented workers. in order to avert this crisis, organisations should set up great conditions and human resource practices that will cater to the distinctive vocational needs of different staffs. according to diedericks, rothmann and swart (2013, p. 1), south african human resource managers are experiencing challenges of talent retention, lack of staff recognition and performance management problems. employers can add to their workers’ vocation improvement by supporting professional advancement activities within the organisation (makhuzeni & barkhuizen, 2015, p. 3). makhuzeni and barkhuizen (2015, p. 9) applied a total rewards model to an example of teachers in north west. the discoveries demonstrated that a total rewards model of the world at work association is useful as a reason to benchmark specialist rewards. in the study, it was proved that the total rewards model can be applied within a public department including the police. research design research approach a subjective research approach utilising semi-structured interviews dependent on the world at work association’s system of the total rewards methodology was utilised. as indicated by bryman and bell (2014, p. 31), subjective research underscores the use of words, pictures and activities when gathering and breaking down information. makhuzeni and barkhuizen (2015, p. 4) posit that subjective research tries to comprehend a given research theme from the perspectives of the population it includes. research strategy a case study analysis technique was applied in this exploration. a case study investigation is portrayed as a top-to-bottom investigation of the present events in their current setting (bryman & bell, 2014, p. 42). themes were extracted from the semi-structured interviews and compared with the significant literature review to produce an all-inclusive outcome. in this study, the first participant interviewed was the senior manager (director) of human resource (career management) and the second participant was the manager (deputy director) of human resource (personnel management); both participants were working in the provincial head office at the time of this research. research method research setting the research was conducted at the sap in limpopo province. the targeted participants were 16 but 14 were interviewed, and the other 2 withdrew without giving reasons; and because of time strain, no replacement was made. the interview was conducted as follows: one senior human resource manager (director/brigadier) and one human resource manager (deputy director/colonel) from provincial human resource management. seven participants from three police stations, namely, morebeng, musina and bandelierkop police stations. five participants had resigned from the sap in limpopo. table 1 depicts the demographic profile of the respondents. table 1: demographic profile of respondents. entrée and establishing researcher roles permission to execute the research was obtained from the provincial commissioner in limpopo province. after approval was obtained, station commanders of the selected police stations were approached for consent to conduct the study. details of police officers who resigned from the police department were obtained from the provincial personnel management component. the purpose of the research was explained to all participants. the research was subjected to ethics approval prior to commencement. ethical endorsement was acquired from the southern business school before the execution of the study. research participants and sampling methods the unit of examination for this study were police officers from the selected police stations in limpopo province. fourteen individuals were picked through purposive sampling to participate in the investigation. data collection methods collection of data was performed through interviews using a semi-structured interview guide, with the interviewees answering the questions freely and the interviewer probing to obtain more answers (bryman & bell, 2014, p. 42). according to makhuzeni and barkhuizen (2015, p. 4), the advantage of qualitative interviewing is that the researcher has the opportunity to learn about other elements related to the topic; components of which the analyst would be otherwise uninformed. moreover, the researcher additionally gets an opportunity to hear the individuals’ view concerning the factors of significance in the study. this study depended on the total rewards model of the world at work association (2019). police officers were asked and requested to exhibit how they experience and had experienced the reward practices as determined in this model. the subjects were questioned as to whether these reward practices could affect or had influenced their choice to leave the police department. data recording the researcher accurately recorded the collected data in the following manner: audio recordings and transcriptions thereof and by taking rough notes amidst the interviews to give data concerning the members’ non-verbal correspondence. the information were deciphered verbatim. all information gathered was marked and safely stored on a computer and on flash drives. strategies employed to ensure quality data and integrity in this study, the issue of trustworthiness was ensured through adherence to lincoln and guba’s (1985) framework, as cited in bryman and bell (2014, p. 44). the framework on trustworthiness in qualitative studies consists of conformability, credibility, transferability and dependability. conformability is concerned with the research procedure, regardless of whether the ends rely upon the subjects and states of the request instead of on the inquirer (bryman & bell, 2014, p. 45). to guarantee this rule, all eye-to-eye interviews with members were audio recorded and translated verbatim. dependability refers to whether the process of study is consistent and reasonably stable over time and across researchers and methods (bryman & bell, 2014, p. 45). to guarantee this standard, the researcher, from the starting point of the investigation, maintained continuous contact with participants to guarantee that the final outcomes incorporated honest portrayals of what the subjects were encountering. the researcher maintained close contact and conducted continuous follow-ups with the supervisor for guidance. credibility refers to whether the findings of the study make sense and are credible to the people being studied and to readers (bryman & bell, 2014, p. 45). to guarantee this, the researcher contacted participants to countercheck whether their thoughts were well translated and exhibited without changing their core significance. data analysis in this study, thematic data analysis method was applied. the aim of thematic analysis is to distinguish, break down and depict themes in the gathered information. the researcher led a deductive topical examination which is guided by the themes identified in the past research on the topic. analysis was conducted in phases in adherence to braun and clarke’s (2006) six phases of thematic analysis, as cited in bryman and bell (2014, p. 351). the six phases of thematic analysis entail the process of transcribing data, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming themes and producing the report. according to makhuzeni and barkhuizen (2015, p. 4), the benefit of utilising thematic analysis is that it forestalls a particular view of the substance and guarantees unwavering quality and legitimacy in the qualitative research technique. reporting style the results are presented in the form of tables. themes are deduced from the interviews conducted with participants and guided by the themes identified from the past research on the same topic. themes and sub-themes extracted from the interviews are corroborated by direct quotes. only the findings related to police officers’ view of the condition of total rewards and the extent to which rewards influence their decision to resign are presented. results table 2 highlights the themes deduced from the interviews with the participants. it gives the frequency within which the themes rose. eleven themes were distinguished from the combined response of the subjects. themes that occurred most often are existence of leave opportunities, unfair promotional opportunities, absence of career advancement opportunities, lack of management support and poor performance management. table 2: themes deduced from the interviews conducted with participants. in this study, the model of total rewards by the world at work association was utilised as a structure to investigate the police’s view of the total rewards in the work environment. this model comprises six principle classifications, namely, compensation, benefits, work–life effectiveness, recognition, performance management and talent development. eleven themes that were deduced from the study were grouped into six principle classifications. table 3 highlights consolidated themes identified as sub-themes, and principled classifications are identified as main themes. table 3: main themes and sub-themes. theme: performance management and recognition performance management and recognition was the theme that arose most during the interviews, and it was mentioned 26 times. the sub-theme unfair promotion practices is the most cited theme in the study; it was mentioned 11 times. the high number illustrates the extent to which police officers are not satisfied with the performance recognition, particularly promotion practice. p3 mentioned: ‘i once made huge arrest of criminals but there was no rewards or incentives for the job well done from the station management or just to say thank you.’ (sergeant, 12/10/2019) p10 added: ‘i always worked but my efforts were never recognised by station management. if i was recognised i couldn’t have resigned.’ (warrant officer, 15/10/2019) the sub-theme performance management is the second most cited; it was mentioned eight times. it is an indication that police officers were dissatisfied with performance management system in the police. p11 mentioned: ‘while working in the south african police service i can say there was no clear explanation on how performance management system works and no means of verification of the scores allocated to the employees.’ (warrant officer, 20/10/2019) p9 added: ‘the supervisor gave me performance management rating document to rate myself. i don’t know the criteria used to rate us, there was no guidance.’ (constable, 13/10/2019) theme: benefits the theme, benefits, was the second most cited in the study; it was mentioned 19 times. the high number illustrates the view of police officers on the work benefits offered by the police. the sub-theme, existence of leave opportunities (i.e. sick, annual, family responsibility, study), is the most cited benefit; it was mentioned 14 times. the participants seemed to be satisfied with the benefits offered by the sap. p1 mentioned: ‘i can say all this benefits work for me especially family responsibility, sick leave, study leave and paid annual leave because with family responsibility leave i have an opportunity to look after my children or if there is death in the family i can arrange burial.’ (colonel, 04/10/2019) p2 added: ‘i would say the one that best suits me is the police medical aid scheme benefit because it is so much affordable when i compare it with other medical aid schemes.’ (brigadier, 04/10/2019) theme: work–life effectiveness the theme, work–life balance is the third most mentioned theme in the study. the participants seemed more satisfied with the support given by their families than by their management. p2 explained: ‘my family of course they are always there for me they encourage me to go on and on when i want to quit.’ (brigadier, 04/10/2019) p5 cited: ‘management does not support members with financial problems or marital problems, they leave members to drown.’ (constable, 12/10/2019) p6 added: ‘i needed management support during the time of my ill health condition and was operated but i never received any call or visit from management.’ (captain, 12/10/2019) theme: career development the theme, career development, was the fourth mentioned in the study. the sub-theme, absence of career advancement opportunities, was the most cited. the high number of mentioning illustrates the view of police officers on career advancement prospects in the sap. most of the members seemed dissatisfied with career development. p4 explained: ‘the contract i signed stipulates that there is a waiting period of seven years at constable rank and automatically moved to the next rank of a sergeant but it is not happening i am nine years now at constable rank.’ (constable, 12/10/2019) p7 mentioned: ‘i am serving eighteen years in the same level, there is no growth in south african police service. people are promoted through favouritism.’ (warrant officer, 13/10/2019) p14 added: ‘talking about advancement opportunities this one is a very painful thing in a sense that it is only those close to management who get promoted. my supervisor had told me that even if i apply for promotion he would never consider my application.’ (constable, 23/10/2019) according to participants, there is a lack of qualification recognition for career advancement opportunities in the sap. p5 mentioned: ‘i have been applying in the police to be placed within human resource management environment so that i can practice what i have learnt in school since i got a degree in human resource management and honours in management. my application is being turned down by station management saying that having the qualification does not mean anything. i have made several applications of promotions but i have never been considered or called for interviews in the police for the past fourteen years but other departments they call me for interviews.’ (constable, 12/10/2019) p13 added: ‘the south african police service does not consider qualifications. i applied for a post with a person having grade twelve only and the person got the post. when i enquire i was told that experience was considered despite the fact that i have a national diploma.’ (constable, 13/10/2019) theme: compensation the theme, compensation, was the least cited in the study when compared with other themes. however, participants mentioned that pay is poor and not adequate to take care of their expenses of living. p8 mentioned: ‘i have considered quitting this job because junior staff don’t get much recognition and reward in the police and our salary is as little as we cannot do anything with it.’ (constable, 13/10/2019) p10 mentioned: ‘the money in the police was not enough. it did not match with the standard of living. i encountered lot of debts through bond house, personal loans and to pay my debts i resigned.’ (warrant officer, 15/10/2019) discussion outline of the results the fundamental objective of the study was to determine the role of a total rewards strategy in retaining police officers in limpopo province. moreover, this study intended to explore police’ impression of the condition of total rewards in the sap. in addition, this exploration planned to examine how much rewards impact police choice to resign from the sap. the model of total rewards by the world at work association was utilised as a structure to investigate police members’ impression of total reward in the work environment. this model of total rewards comprises six elements: compensation, benefits, work–life effectiveness, recognition, performance management and talent development. the members indicated that a poor performance management in the sap, particularly performance recognition. rewards and appraisals are essential instruments to improve employee performance. performance recognition is crucial for the enhancement of worker spirit and subsequently lessens pressure, absenteeism and turnover (makhuzeni & barkhuizen, 2015, p. 3). if the organisation has a good performance management system, it can easily identify and address poor performance issues. a good performance management system helps the organisation to develop employees by stretching their capabilities. doing so will provide opportunities for them to grow (mcpheat, 2010, p. 9). research by faull (2011, p. 18) points out that recognition and motivation are required within the police environment for effective service delivery. the members in the study appeared to be fairly happy with the benefits offered by sap. most of the participants indicated that leave benefits (i.e. study, family, medical and yearly/excursion) are significant components that will keep them in the police. apart from pay/salary, the employer provides certain benefits such as sickness pay, yearly paid outings, a housing allowance, restorative or medical coverage, adaptable working hours, telecommuting or different areas. these benefits give security to workers and their families (joshi, 2015, p. 77). the results revealed that members were satisfied with their work–personal life effectiveness, especially support from families. they stated that families are always there for them, and they encourage them to go on and on until they want to quit. the balance between work and the rest of the employee’s life activities improves staff retention (munro et al., 2016, p. 3). makhuzeni and barkhuizen (2015, p. 3) point out that the flexibility in the workplace improves customer service and employee retention. the results of this research showed that participants were not satisfied with the performance management system in the sap in limpopo. the dissatisfaction has led to resignation by some participants; as a result, the police has lost talented staff. koekemoer (2014, p. 1) points out that south african organisations are encountering what is known as a brain drain, which refers to the loss of talented workers. in order to avert this crisis, organisations should set up great conditions and human resource practices that will cater to the distinctive vocational needs of a different staff. according to diedericks et al. (2013, p. 1), south african human resource managers are experiencing challenges of talent retention, lack of staff recognition and performance management problems. lastly, findings revealed that remuneration of police is poor. members in the study were in agreement that police pay rates are poor and hinder them from carrying on with a sensible personal satisfaction. the finding of the research conducted at kerensa police station in gauteng province postulates that police officers receive poor salaries (faull, 2011, p. 17). factors such as compensation, recognition and management support were found to be factors that encourage employees to stay in their public institution (theron et al., 2014, p. 7). according to shelton and renard (2015, p. 4), the financial compensation received by employees from their organisation plays a vital role in the reward management, because employees view it as an indication of their value to the organisation. to summarise, the findings displayed the elements that will contribute to police officers’ turnover, such as absence of performance recognition, lack of career advancement opportunities, lack of qualification recognition for career advancement, poor performance management and rewards, long after-hour work, lack of management support and unfair promotion practices. then again, the study additionally demonstrated that the variables that will draw in police officers to stay in the police incorporate work–life effectiveness, study leave, sick leave and family leave. subsequently, police management is urged to create proper rewards policies and practices to make a sound workplace that will enable it to retain its workforce. practical implications the discoveries of this investigation have noteworthy useful ramifications for the police department. police management should take note of the risky reward elements, for instance, salary, recognition of performance and career advancement opportunities and actualise remedial measures to retain staff. limitations and recommendations the study had few limitations. on account of the small sample size, the findings of this investigation are not generalisable to the entire police staff. the discoveries of this examination are only appropriate to chosen police stations and cannot be extended to the rest of the province or country. it is recommended that national police management should work closely together to develop clear performance management policies, systems and processes. the career development opportunities of police officers also need to be enhanced. future research should be expanded to other provinces to enable the comparison of findings. the findings of this research can be used to develop a reward and remuneration diagnostic tool for police officers, which can be used to more effectively detect the impact of rewards and remuneration on staff turnover. conclusion the main objective of the exploration was to determine the role of a total rewards strategy in the retention of police officers in limpopo province. even more expressly, this investigation intended to look into police view on the condition of total rewards in the sap. furthermore, this investigation intended to investigate how much rewards impact police choice to leave the sap. the objectives of the study were accomplished on the grounds that the discoveries of the exploration have featured the importance of total rewards for the retention of police officers in limpopo province. the total rewards model of world at work showed its utility as a framework to benchmark police rewards. the discoveries of this investigation should urge police management to look into its reward practices and take preventive exercises to lessen staff turnover. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions this article is based on the master’s study of n.r.m. where m.h.r.b. was the supervisor. n.r.m. compiled the article and m.h.r.b. provided editorial inputs. ethical consideration ethical clearance to conduct this research was obtained from stadio/southern business school on 25 august 2019. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for profit sector. data availability data sharing in not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references anku-tsede, o. (2013). total reward concept: a key motivational tool for corporate ghana. business and economic research, university of ghana business school, 3(2), 2162–4860. https://doi.org/10.5296/ber.v3i2.4291 bryman, a., & bell, a. (2014). research methodology: business and research context (6th ed.). cape town: oxford university press. bwowe, p.w., & marongwe, n. (2018). implementing a total reward strategy in selected south african municipal organisations. sa journal of human resource management / sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.927 diedericks, e., rothmann, s., & swart, j.p. (2013). manager relations, psychological need satisfaction and intention to leave in the agricultural sector. sa journal of industrial psychology / sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 39(2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1129 faull, a. (2011). police officials’ perceptions of corruption and integrity management at three gauteng saps stations. pretoria: institute for security studies. hlengane, n.a., & bayat, m.s. (2013). evaluation of employee poor work performance with specific focus on operational functions at cambridge police station in the eastern cape province. singaporean journal of business economics and management studies, 1(12), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.12816/0003826 joshi, m. (2015). human resource management. bookboon. retrieved from https://www.bookboon.com/15 koekemoer, e. (2014). an explorative study on factors influencing the career success of management employees. sa journal of industrial psychology / sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 40(2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i2.1204 mabaso, c.m., & dlamini, b.i. (2018). total rewards and its effects on organisational commitment in higher education institutions. sa journal of human resource management /sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.913 makhuzeni, p.b., & barkhuizen, e.n. (2015). the effect of a total rewards strategy on school teachers’ retention. sa journal of human resource management / sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.699 mayende, t.s., & musenze, i.a. (2018). ethical leadership and staff retention: the moderating role of job resources in uganda’s healthcare sector. sa journal of industrial psychology / sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 44, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v44i0.1531 mcpheat, s. (2010). performance management. mtd training. bookboon. retrieved from https://www.bookboon.com/ mofokeng, j. (2015). an examination of factors influencing investigating officers’ retention in the south african police service. acta criminologica: southern african journal of criminology, 2015(special edition 5), 34–51. munro, z., oosthuizen, r.m., & coetzee, m. (2016). work-life balance, job satisfaction and turnover intention amongst information technology employees. southern african business review, 20(1), 446–467. https://doi.org/10.25159/1998-8125/6059 potgieter, i.l., coetzee, m., & ferreira, n. (2018). the role of career concerns and workplace friendship in the job embeddedness–retention practices satisfaction link. sa journal of industrial psychology / sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 44(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v44i0.151916 saps. (2017). members’ morale: organizational climate survey. retrieved from https://www.saps.gov.za schlechter, a., faught, c., & bussin, m. (2014). total rewards: a study of artisan attraction and retention within a south african context. sa journal of human resource management / sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.648 shelton, s.a., & renard, m. (2015). correlating nurses’ levels of psychological capital with their reward preferences and reward satisfaction. sa journal of industrial psychology / sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 41(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v41i1.1271 smit, w., stanz, k., & bussin, m. (2015). retention preferences and the relationship between total rewards, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor support. sa journal of human resource management / sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.665 theron, m., barkhuizen, n., & du plessis, y. (2014). managing the academic talent void: investigating factors in academic turnover and retention in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology / sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 40(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1117 warnich, s., carrell, m.r., elbert, n.f., & hartfield, r.d. (2015). human resource management in south africa (5th edn.). boston, ma: cenage learning emea. world at work association. (2019). what is total rewards? washington, dc: world-wide headquarters world at work. retrieved from https://www.worldatwork.org/total-rewardsmodel 6geldenhuys.qxd macro-economic theory, as postulated in moving south africa (1999), suggests that productive infrastructure is one of several key preconditions for sustainable economic growth. the theory furthermore holds that by investing in transport infrastructure such as roads, railways, airports and ports, a country can struct ure development, thereby reducing transport costs, facilitating trade and creating wealth. providers of transport services and owners of transport infrastructure are well aware of the fact that transport as a derived demand is an industry in itself. this industry accounts for a substantial number of jobs in the national economy and has suppliers and customers of its own. the realisation of this macro-economic principle of productive infrastruct ure requires amongst other things the construction and maintenance of the transport infrastructure, as well as the existence of well-managed institutional structures to ensure sustainable transport service delivery to customers. the national land transport transition act (act 22 of 2000) was promulgated in august 2000. one of the provisions of this act is the establishment and operation of transport authorities. transport authorities are statutory bodies in the municipal sphere of government, which are established to provide transport infrastruct ure and services through grouping transport functions into a single, well-managed and focused institutional structure. problem statement the declaration of transport authorities in terms of the national land transport transition act is of strategic importance to the south african transport industry and economy as a whole. the formation of transport authorities requires the establishment of a new statutory body at the municipal government sphere, which is a fairly new concept in south africa. role players, therefore, will need to be empowered to perform new roles and hence there is a need to develop a total politically acceptable integrated strategic management model to navigate the establishment of transport authorities. currently a strategic management model, which integrates the core principles of change navigation, does not exist to steer the smooth establishment of transport authorities in south africa. research objective and approach the objective of this article was to develop an integrated strategic management model suitable for the effective navigation of the change journey in establishing transport authorities. such a model is based on swanepoel’s (2001) generic integrated strategic management model that guides the management of change in the public sector. furthermore, the integrated strategic management model developed in this article can be a generic guiding framework for municipalities, requiring only minor customisation when applying the model to the unique circumstances of a municipality. the research, firstly, covered a description of the strategic intent for the transport industry and, secondly, a literature overview of transport authorities. thirdly, representative sets of strategic management models and change navigation models were reviewed, followed by a critical assessment of swanepoel’s (2001) integrated strategic management model that is widely accepted and used in the management of change in the public sector. transport leaders in the public and private sectors reviewed the final draft of this article. strategic intent for the transport industry this section describes the vision for transport in south africa, followed by some prominent recent developments in the transport industry. additionally, some critical success factors are listed, the achievement thereof which will enable the successful realisation of the future intent set for the transport industry in south africa. chris a. geldenhuys louis naudé theo h. veldsman faculty: economics and management sciences human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract this research covered the strategic intent for the transport industry and an overview of transport authorities in the municipal sphere of government. representative sets of strategic management and change navigation models, as well as swanepoel’s (2001) model being used in the management of change in the public sector, were reviewed. an integrated strategic management model, which incorporates principles from strategic management and change navigation, is proposed for navigating the establishment of transport authorities. this model consists of six phases, namely: awareness and mobilisation; strategic synthesis and choice; strategy crafting; strategy implementation; performance monitoring and review; and stabilisation. recommendations follow regarding the validation of the model in a pilot project. opsomming hierdie navorsing het gefokus op die strategiese oogmerk vir die vervoerindustrie en ’n literatuuroorsig van vervoerowerhede op munisipale regeringsvlak. verteenwoordigende modelle vir strategiese bestuur en veranderingsbestuur, asook swanepoel (2001) se bestuursmodel wat aangewend word vir die bestuur van verandering in die openbare sektor, word bespreek. ’n geïntegreerde strategiese bestuursmodel, wat die grondslae van strategiese bestuur en veranderingsbestuur inkorporeer, word voorgestel om die stigting van vervoerowerhede te stuur. hierdie bestuursmodel bestaan uit ses fases, naamlik: bewuswording en mobilisering; strategiese analise en keuse; strategie formulering; strategie implementering; prestasiemonitering en hersiening; en stabilisering. aanbevelings word gemaak rakende die bekragtiging van die model in ’n proefprojek. an integrated strategic management model to navigate the establishment of transport authorities requests for copies should be addressed to: c geldenhuys, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 53 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (1), 53-64 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (1), 53-64 geldenhuys, naude, veldsman54 the white paper on national transport policy of 1996 indicates the vision for south africa’s transport as follows: “provide safe, reliable, effective, eff icient, and fully integrated transport operations and infrastructure which will best meet the needs of freight and passenger customers at improving levels of ser vice and cost in a fashion which supports government strategies for economic and social de velopment whilst being environmentally and economically sustainable.” (white paper on national transport policy, 1996, p.3) moving south africa (1999) is the 20-year strategic framework of the national department of transport to deliver on the vision set for the transport system in south africa. moving south africa thus provides the transition from the white paper on national transport policy of 1996 to delivery on the ground. according to moving south africa (1999), the key long term strategic challenges facing the transport sector in south africa are urban and rural passenger transport; tourist and long-distance customers; special needs customers; and freight transport. it is evident that government regards transport as an enabling industry, one that exists not only to meet goals inherent to transport, but also to meet other pressing national and social non-transport goals such as economic growth, growing trade and increased social integration. since 1994 the south african transport industry has been facing dramatic organisational restructuring. several state assets have been, or are currently being, fully or partially privatised. the national department of transport restructured several functions into fully or partially self-funding and statutory agencies in order to convert certain elements of the operational activities of government into commercial agencies. the new land transport legislation has far reaching impact on the instit utional structure for urban and rural transport planning, amongst other things creating transport authorities at the municipal sphere of government with substantial jurisdiction over transport aspects. provincial departments typically co-ordinate and integrate planning efforts between the national and municipal spheres of government. new national transport legislation requires inter alia an increased emphasis on the promotion of public transport and addressing user needs. different categories of municipalities have been established in accordance with the provisions contained in legislation such as the local government municipal structures act (act 177 of 1998). a radical redrawing of local government boundaries reduced the number of municipalities from 864 to 287. the municipal sphere of government is responsible for the execution and co-ordination of metropolitan transport and land-use planning; the provision, maintenance and management of facilities and infrastructure (excluding national and provincial roads); and the management of public transport facilities. transport authorities will need to deliver on the strategic intent set for the transport industry and therefore need to transform the vision for transport into reality. in order to meet this challenge, the critical success factors for realising the strategic intent set for the transport industry include amongst others the following: � alignment to support national and provincial transport goals. � ownership and buy-in from key role players regarding a vision for transport. � a set of appropriate values in order to enable and guide consistent decision-making, problem solving and conflict resolution. � a culture that promotes inter alia transparent and ongoing communication. � a learning culture including the empowerment of transport authorities to build human skills and capacity. � co-operative governance, co-ordination and co-operation between: (a) the different spheres of government; (b) transport and other government line-functions such as landuse development; (c) those within transport particularly with regard to infrastructure programmes and public passenger transport strategies; and (d) the transport authorit y, transport operators and transport customers. � a sustainable financing and funding framework. � transparency in allocating resources. � the ability of the transport authority staff members to deliver efficient and effective transport services to customers, including the preparation of relevant transport plans such as an integrated transport plan. � flexible and adaptive to external changes. an overview of transport authorities this section provides a brief overview of the key aspects relating to the establishment of transport authorities in south africa. on an international level there are numerous examples of hybrid transport authorities in existence, which separate the policy and regulatory role of government from the operation of transport services. the greater vancouver transport authority in canada is probably the closest match to the south african model. the key characteristics regarding the establishment and operation of transport authorities in south africa are summarised in table 1. the magnitude of change resulting from the establishment of transport authorities as discussed above, requires the implementation of a politically acceptable integrated strategic management model to steer the change process. overview of representative sets of strategic management and change navigation models this section constitutes an overview of representative sets of strategic management and change navigation models, followed by a description of swanepoel’s (2001) integrated strategic management model that guides the management of change in the public sector. strategic management models different models for strategic management have been proposed to strategise and navigate change in an organisation. some of the prominent models are summarised in table 2. given the mentioned research, it can be concluded that the main components of strategic management models are: � formulate the vision and mission of the organisation in order to develop the identity and positioning of the organisation. � conduct a thorough internal and external analysis of the organisation. the comprehensive external environmental analysis is carried out with a view to identif y threats and opportunities, and the internal analysis is to record the strong points and weak points of the organisation. � develop tactical and operational objectives and make strategic choices, followed by the formulation of strategies and action plans together with target dates and the allocation of responsibilities. the determination of strategic options and evaluating the feasibility thereof form part of this component of strategic management. � generate organisation capacity that will ensure strategy implementation. � exercise strategic control and continuous improvement (total quality management) to evaluate the implementation and the relevance of the chosen strategy, as well as making corrective actions if required. the abovementioned components are generally developed by means of a systems approach and communicated to all role players in a transparent and coordinated way. the analysis, formulation, implementation and evaluation of strategies are a continuous process that affects the strategic, tactical and operational levels of the organisation. integrated strategic mangement model 55 table 2 strategic management models contributor components of model rue & holland (1989) this model consists of five steps, namely: (1) status quo analysis; (2) investigate possible opportunities for the future; (3) identif y and map the future; (4) implement strategies; and (5) evaluate and manage strategies. thompson & this process comprises of five interrelated strickland (1992) components, namely: (1) defining the business and developing a mission; (2) setting objectives; (3) crafting a strategy to achieve the performance objectives; (4) implementing and executing the strategy; and (5) evaluating performance, reviewing the situation and making corrective adjustments. dobson & starkey this model consists of eight components, namely: (1993) (1) strategic history; (2) current strategy; (3) environmental analysis; (4) organisational analysis; (5) stakeholder analysis; (6) strategic vision; (7) chosen strategy; and (8) realised strategy. johnson & scholes this framework consists of three main elements that (1993) are integrated and inter-dependent, namely: (1) strategy analysis; (2) strategy choice; and (3) strategy implementation. hampden-turner this model is based on opposite elements that (1993) represent contrasting principles, which are reconciled through corporate strategy. the contrasting principles are: (1) designed strategy versus emergent strategy; (2) competitive positioning versus adaptive cooperation; (3) rational competence versus evolutionary increments; (4) deviance correction versus deviance amplification; and (5) opportunities/potentials versus standards/rewards. hill & jones (1995) this process consists of five steps, namely: (1) develop mission and objectives; (2) decide on a strategic choice based on an internal and external analysis; (3) formulate strategy on various levels within the organisation; (4) implement strategy; and (5) feedback. leidtka & rosenblum this model addresses factors internal and external to (1996) the organisation, namely: (1) organisational competencies (what can we do?); (2) values of key implementers (what do we want to do?); (3) industry threats and opportunities (what might we do?); and (4) societal responsibilities (what ought we to do?). pearce & robinson this model consists of eleven key components, (2000) namely: (1) company mission; (2) internal analysis; (3) external environment; (4) strategic analysis and choice; (5) long-term objectives; (6) generic and grand strategies; (7) action plans and short-term objectives; (8) functional tactics; (9) policies that empower action; (10) reengineering; and (11) strategic control and continuous improvement. sveiby (2002) and a company measures its performance through kaplan & norton indicators linked to the strategic objectives of the (1992) firm and covering four major focus perspectives, namely: (1) financial; (2) customer; (3) internal business processes; and (4) learning and growth. veldsman (2002b) the generic interdependent strategy actions consist of a strategic map of main elements linked to four interrelated actions, namely: (1) exploration and direction setting; (2) bonding and commitment; (3) steering and navigation; and (4) tracking and assessing. the seven main elements of the strategy map as outcome of the strategising process actions are: (1) business mission (or definition); (2) core competencies of the business; (3) competitive edge; (4) core philosophy; (5) critical business performance measures; (6) core strategy; and (7) business vision. this strategising process considers both the business and the operating environments. two processes occur simultaneously. the one process is bottom up and organic and consists of five elements, namely: (1) stakeholder experiences; (2) stakeholder response; (3) organisational actions; (4) organisational performance; and (5) wealth creation/destruction. the other process is top down and systematic and also consists of five elements, namely: (1) mission; (2) vision; (3) philosophy; (4) strategic initiatives; and (5) goals. table 1 key characteristics of transport authorities description of key characteristics reference institutional form a transport authority is a legal entity or statutory body that is separate from the participating municipality/ies. the governing body of the transport authority consists of appointed councillors from the participating municipality/ies. discussion document on ta areas in gauteng (2000). the professional, technical and administrative work necessary for the functioning of the transport authority may be performed either by the staff members of the municipality/ies concerned, or by a transport executive set up as a separate body under the control of the transport authority. discussion document on ta areas in gauteng (2000). a transport authority is obliged to: (1) prepare and implement transport plans; (2) develop land transport policy; (3) perform financial planning for land transport planning, infrastructure, operations, services, maintenance, monitoring and administration; (4) co-ordinate the movement of people and goods on land; (5) effect public consultation and participation; and (6) after a specified date, take responsibility for all aspects of government public transport service contracts. founding agreement the establishment of a transport authority requires the preparation of a written founding agreement between the mec (member of the executive committee responsible for transport in the province) and the municipality/ies whose area of jurisdiction falls in the transport authority area. the minister of transport must also be a party to the founding agreement in relation to any issues for which the minster provides financing. steps to form a transport authority the participating municipality/ies should prepare a business plan containing a full motivation for the establishment of the transport authority covering, but not limited to the geographical area, functions, institutional model, proposals with regard to a transport executive, budget and financing and a founding agreement. the municipality/ies should consult continuously with the relevant province, adjacent municipalities and the minister (if financing is to come from the national sphere of government) to obtain “in principle” agreement to the business plan. in the determination of the transport authority area, the mec must consult with the mecs responsible for local government affairs and finance in the province. the municipality should obtain “in principle” agreement from its council to proceed with the establishment of a transport authority. all parties should then sign the detailed founding agreement. the province should publish the completed founding agreement in the relevant provincial gazette and declare the area as a transport authority area. the transport authority should implement the provisions of the founding agreement. nltta: an introduction to tas (2001). nltta (2000). nltta: an introduction to tas (2001). nltta (2000). nltta: an introduction to tas (2001). nltta (2000). nltta: an introduction to tas (2001). nltta (2000). nltta: an introduction to tas (2001). geldenhuys, naude, veldsman56 change navigation models different authors have developed change navigation processes and models. table 3 summarises a representative set of such models. table 3 change navigation models contributor components of model lippitt (1982) the classic unfreezing-change-refreezing model of lewin, as quoted in robbins (1998), is customised to a seven-step model, namely: (1) develop a need for change; (2) establish a working relationship between the client and change agent; (3) diagnose systems problems of the client; (4) examine alternative routes and goals; (5) transform intentions into change efforts; (6) generalise and stabilise change; and (7) achieve an ongoing relationship. allaire & firsirotu six steps are required to ensure successful (1985) transformation within an organisation, namely: (1) conduct a comprehensive diagnosis of the company’s existing alignment with the environment, threats and opportunities; (2) formulate a meta strategy necessary for radical change; (3) evaluate the current structure and culture of the organisation; (4) define the objective/s of the structure and culture of the organisation; (5) develop a broad agenda for radical change taking cognisance of political support, the communication programme and change agents; and (6) stabilise the organisation through appropriate leadership. levy (1986) this model combines the forces, processes and content of transformation. this is seen as large-scale changes in the core processes, culture, mission and philosophy or paradigm of the organisation. the forces enabling change are seen as inputs into the model. nutt (1992) this planned change process consists of five stages, namely: (1) formulation; (2) concept development; (3) detailing; (4) evaluation; and (5) implementation. warrick, as quoted the six basics of managing change are: (1) clarif y in french, bell & reality and the need for change; (2) develop a zawacki (1994) results-orientated strategy for change; (3) plan and manage the change process; (4) involve the key role players in planning and managing the change process; (5) build in reliable feedback mechanisms to monitor and manage the change process; and (6) assure that the enabling structures are aligned to facilitate and reinforce the desired change. three main phases of change are distinguished, namely: (1) preparation for change; (2) implementation; and (3) transition. porras & silvers, this model consists of four components, namely: (1) as quoted in french change intervention; (2) organisational target et al. (1994) variables; (3) individual organisational member; and (4) organisational outcomes. bowers & franklin, as quoted in french et al. (1994) (#) a survey-guided approach is used for organisational development and change management. a survey is done as part of an iterative process to assess the current state of organisational functioning and the effectiveness of the activities introduced to adjust and correct discrepancies being diagnosed in the intragroup and/or systematic processes. berger, sikora & organisational change is defined as the continuous berger (1994) process of aligning the organisation with its environment focussing on strategy, operations, culture and reward. the classic unfreezing-changerefreezing model of lewin, as quoted in robbins (1998), is customised to provide for five phases, namely: (1) change triggers; (2) destabilise existing business situations; (3) reassess alignment with market; (4) change decision; and (5) stabilise change plan. kotter (1995) eight steps make up the transformation process, namely: (1) establish a sense of urgency; (2) form a powerful guiding coalition; (3) create a vision; (4) communicate the vision; (5) empower others to act on the vision; (6) plan for and create short-term wins; (7) consolidate improvements and produce more change; and (8) institutionalise new approaches. tichy (1996) organisational transformation implies large scale and total organisational change, which is known as a corporative revolution consisting of three elements, namely: (1) realising the need for change; (2) visualising a vision and mobilising people to achieve the desired vision; and (3) reengineering. bowman & jarett this input-transformation-output model, which is (1996) used to identif y key issues to be addressed in the change process, is based on the systems approach and consists of three components, namely: (1) inputs; (2) transformation; and (3) outputs. tushman & o’reilly managing change involves moving an organisation (1997) from its current state to its desired future state through a transition period. the present and future states of the organisation are described in terms of four organisational building blocks, namely: (1) critical tasks and workflows; (2) formal organisational arrangements; (3) people; and (4) culture. the key issues to focus on during the transition period are: (1) power and politics; (2) individual anxiety and resistance to change; and (3) losing control during the transition period. veldsman (2002a) this integrated change navigation approach is described in terms of a metaphor for change navigation, namely a play. the heart of the play is: (1) the inner pattern, which is the transforming four-dimensional organisational landscape with its change theme and plots; (2) an outer pattern containing the change acts of awakening, mobilisation, conversion and stabilisation, each with its specific scope and action learning; (3) an inbetween pattern consisting of the psycho-social dynamics, the stage upon which the change unfolds; and (4) an lateral pattern making up the change roles, which are the actors in the play. models for organisational change are usually distinguishable based on its methodology and approach, processes, focus areas for change, and the extent of change required. the systems approach requires that the essential properties of the organisation be taken as a whole assuming that each element in the system has an effect on the behaviour of the whole system. therefore, when a system is taken apart it looses its essential properties. the planned change process type of models are characterised by a thoroughly planned process and transparent communication strategy, which are managed by an authorised and empowered person/s within the organisation. problems within the organisation are jointly identified and solutions developed based on consensus during consultative working sessions. the focus of the unfreezing-change-refreezing approach is primarily on the preparation of the organisation for change, the implementation of change and, finally, the stabilisation and reinforcement of change. the survey guided approach requires surveys to be carried out to assess the current state of organisational functioning and the effectiveness of the activities used to adjust and correct processes. based on the abovementioned, it is concluded that change navigation models consist of phases dealing with: � preparation and awakening, which involves the establishment of a competent leadership team and an acknowledgement of the need for change. � mobilisation, which entails the gearing up for the change journey in terms of a more detailed intention, indicating the involvement of people and the required abilities and resources. � conversion, which deals with assessing alternative strategic choices, formulating change actions for implementation and evaluating support systems. strong emphasis is placed on the continuous management of the process, together with transparent and ongoing communication. integrated strategic mangement model 57 � stabilisation, which involves institutionalising change. an integrated strategic management model to manage change in the public sector swanepoel (2001) has developed an integrated strategic management model to manage change in the public sector. this non-specific model is depicted in figure 1 and comprises of five phases and sixteen steps, some of which can be executed simultaneously and others consecutively. furthermore, this model recognises the principles of strategic management in the public sector and it integrates different approaches towards the navigation of organisational change. a critical step in swanepoel’s (2001) model is that internal and external change agents must be appointed as members of a multi-disciplinary transformational leadership team to plan, facilitate and monitor the change process. leaders and change agents must consolidate management and organisational behavioural competencies in an iterative approach towards the management of change. they must also acquire and demonstrate the necessary knowledge and skills to provide direction, empower, communicate, validate, advise and inspire people on organisational, group and individual levels. furthermore, the change process requires a wellplanned and broadly consulted communicat ion plan, structures and channels. swanepoel’s (2001) research concludes that changes in the political, economic and socio-cultural environment in the south african public sector, the constitution, new legal and policy frameworks, directives for transparency and inclusivity, as well as the required social, political and figure 1: an integrated strategic management model to manage change in the public sector (swanepoel, 2001) geldenhuys, naude, veldsman58 administrative organisational cultures have a strong impact on the process and content of management of change in the public sector. an assessment of the integrated strategic management model to manage change in the public sector the extent to which swanepoel’s (2001) model complies with the key abilities making up the core competence of strategic change navigation as suggested by veldsman (2002a) is illustrated by crosses (8) in figure 2. from figure 2, it is evident that swanepoel’s (2001) model directly or indirectly compliments the elements of the five abilities of strategic change navigation suggested by veldsman (2002a), namely: � the ability to identif y the necessar y and essential organisation components, which must be changed as a result of the change need (the “what” of change): swanepoel (2001) focuses particularly on changing the existing organisational culture. � the ability to correctly def ine and position the change roles during the course of the change (the “who” of change): swanepoel’s (2001) model combines a top down and bottom up approach to implement change. the formation of a multi-disciplinary transformational leadership team is suggested. swanepoel (2001) is of the opinion that interventions occur in all three spheres of government. provision is also made for all role players to be actively involved in the change process. � the ability to fully understand and own the rationale for change (the “why” of change): swanepoel (2001) is of the opinion that change has a major impact on the organisation as a whole, and that change is triggered because of compelling changes in both the internal and external environments. � the ability to design, execute and track a sustainable and appropriate change process (the “how” of change): swanepoel (2001) comprehensively covers communication that is necessary to steer the change process. there is also a strong emphasis on the change process (or journey). � the ability to draw the requisite boundaries in space and time around an organisation (the “where” of change): swanepoel’s (2001) model follows a future-into-present and dynamic approach. figure 2: assessment of swanepoel’s (2001) integrated strategic management model against the key abilities making up the core competence of strategic change navigation suggested by veldsman (2002a) integrated strategic mangement model 59 the strengths of swanepoel’s (2001) integrated strategic management model are summarised below: � swanepoel (2001) considers both strategic management and organisational development and transformation as approaches towards the management of change. � the new south africa milieu demands that institutional reform and development must comply with government’s directives for change and transformation. swanepoel’s (2001) model clearly incorporates the directives and principles referred to in the white paper on transformation in the public sector, 1995. the batho pele principles of “putting people first” are applied by incorporating aspects such as consultation, openness and directives for transparency and inclusivit y. furthermore, swanepoel (2001) considers the impact of changes in the political, economic and socio-cultural environments of the new south african public sector, the constitution, legal and policy frameworks, as well as the required social, political and administrative organisational cultures when navigating change in the public sector. the concepts of organisational culture, leadership, power, authority, communication, ethics and the role of change agents were also considered during the development of this model. � the impact of change on, and required consultation with, role players and interest groups as a whole is comprehensively covered and the principles thereof are incorporated in swanepoel’s (2001) integrated strategic management model. � swanepoel (2001) consulted widely during the development of the integrated strategic management model and studied at least 1024 source documents. the weakness of swanepoel’s (2001) model with respect to the establishment of transport authorities is the fact that the model is too generic. it therefore requires customisation prior to applying it to a specific municipality in order to accommodate its own unique circumstances. there may thus be a need to combine some of the steps contained in swanepoel’s (2001) non-specific model or to add additional steps. the sequence of steps may change and steps to be addressed consecutively may need to be addressed simultaneously, and visa versa, to accommodate the strategic requirements of navigating the establishment of transport authorities. customisation of the integrated strategic management model the integrated strategic management model developed by swanepoel (2001) required customisation to navigate the establishment of transport authorities, namely: � an additional step was added to empower technical role players and political decision-makers on aspects associated with establishing transport authorities. this was necessary in order to create the ability in the municipality/ies to fully participate in the transformation process, as well as to enable the successful realisation of the future intent set for the transport industry in south africa. � the sequence of the step covering the “review of the vision, mission and strategic objectives” was changed in order for it to precede the “analysis of existing and previous performance results and strategies”. this modification strengthens the future-into-present approach. � the formation of transport authorities involves the establishment of a new institutional structure. a new vision (or strategic intent), mission and strategic objectives need therefore to be developed as opposed to reviewing the existing vision, mission and strategic objectives as suggested by swanepoel (2001). � the development of organisational values based on consultation with key role players received more emphasis, as values are the set of beliefs or operating principles that will guide organisational behaviour within the transport authority. � transport authorities will be tasked with rendering transport services to customers. the analysis of the external and internal environments, therefore, focused only on the provision of services and not services and products. � as culture will consciously and subconsciously shape the values, assumptions, perceptions and behaviour of groups and individuals within the transport authority, it was justified being addressed as a separate step. � the phase covering both evaluation and stabilisation was split up into two separate phases, namely performance monitoring and review, followed by a separate phase dealing with stabilisation. this was because of the fact that the focus areas of evaluating strategy support systems and results (total quality management) differ from that of stabilising and institutionalising change with respect to establishing transport authorities. the resulting integrated strategic management model is graphically summarised in figure 3. this model consists of six phases, namely: (1) awareness and mobilisation; (2) strategic synthesis and choice; (3) strategy crafting; (4) strategy implementation; (5) performance monitoring and review; and (6) stabilisation. the different phases comprise of eighteen steps, some of which can be executed simultaneously and others consecutively. application of the resulting integrated strategic management model the practical application of the integrated strategic management model, shown in figure 3, focuses on steering the smooth establishment of transport authorities. the transport industry in south africa is characterised by the fragmentation of the transport responsibilities of the different government spheres; inefficient co-ordination; and an unclear interpretation of national and provincial transport priorities. fragmentation was the key theme of the pre 1994 dispensation. furthermore, severe resource constraints exist such as insufficient funding, low levels of capacity; and a lack of relevant expertise. empowerment will, therefore, be high on the agenda towards the establishment of transport authorities being able to address transport aspects adequately. phase 1: awareness and mobilisation step 1 – establish a multi-disciplinary transformational leadership team the focus of this step is on the setting up of a representative multi-disciplinary transformational leadership team in order to objectively and transparently navigate the establishment of the transport authority, as well as improving human, technical and knowledge capacities within the transport authority. this team must include multi-disciplinary technical representation (transport, legal and financial experts) from the participating municipality/ies and selected representation from the province, or provinces if the transport authority area extends across provincial boundaries. it is important that members of the transformational leadership team must have sufficient status in order to empower action. the terms of reference of the team must be developed already at the outset of the change process. the process must provide for structured and ongoing strategic input and intervention from municipal political decisionmakers. the involvement of suitable external change agents for a specific time period must be considered. step 2 – empower key role players on aspects associated with establishing a transport authority the objective of this step is to build and empower human capacity (skills and knowledge) both at the level of the transformational leadership team and within the municipality/ies itself, to enable the implementation of improved transport services to customers (users of transport services). geldenhuys, naude, veldsman60 figure 3: an integrated strategic management model to navigate the establishment of transport authorities integrated strategic mangement model 61 capacity building also entails creating the ability in the municipality/ies to fully participate in the transformation process or journey, such as the development of the vision, mission and supporting business culture. aspects to be communicated to political decision-makers and technical role players during scheduled workshops must include inter alia the purpose of the transport authority, institutional form, roles and functions and the budgets and finances of the transport authority. competent and experienced external change agents must preferably facilitate the empowerment of staff members and political decision-makers. step 3 – establish the readiness for change and develop a desire to establish a transport authority the transformational leadership team must communicate with key technical role players and political decision-makers to assess the extent of their preparedness for change, assumptions, beliefs, the existing culture of the participating municipalit y/ies, as well as to evoke the need for establishing a transport authorit y. this awakening act thus pertains to a growing consciousness amongst staff members of the participating municipalit y/ies regarding the need for change. broad opportunities must be jointly identified, as well as highlighting the disadvantages and risks of accepting the stat us quo. new mindsets have to be discovered and adopted, which will acknowledge the radical transformation and renewal of the participating municipalit y/ies into a new age transport authorit y, able to ride out the waters of change in a world of hyperturbulence. key role players have to be convinced that future success looks different from past success; that the best way to predict the future is to invent it; and that the present and future are discontinuous and non-linear. the following advantages will result from establishing transport authorities and must be communicated to all role players: � the elimination of fragmentation regarding the provision of transport to customers; � integrated transport service delivery across functions such as planning, infrastructure delivery, operations, regulation, performance monitoring and marketing; and � the improved use of human resources and funding. a possible challenge that is foreseen and which requires attention is the perception – of especially political decisionmakers – that the transport function can be performed by the existing municipalit y/ies, thereby negating the need for establishing a transport authority. transport officials and political decision-makers must thus be provided with the necessary emotional support to enable them to make a success of the change journey. step 4 – develop vision, mission, values and strategic objectives and disseminate information the transformational leadership team must communicate a clear, concise and agreed-upon vision, mission and strategic objectives for the future transport authority to the rest of the key role players based on consultative workshops. values must be agreed upon to guide actions during the change. the vision, mission and strategic objectives must determine the focus of the external environment analysis (step 7) and internal environment analysis (step 8) regarding the type of management information to be collected for decision-making purposes. the implementation of step 4 is characterised by members of the transformational leadership team displaying strong leadership and communication skills to provide the necessary facilitation and navigation. the development and implementation of a transparent communication strategy forms an integral part of step 4. the communication strateg y must focus on all role players (including staff members of the participating municipality/ies) fostering a sense of commitment, sensitivit y, awareness, understanding, support and involvement. feedback and feedforward channels with wide frequency bandwidths must be set up to enable the continuous tracking of rapid changes during the rollout of the change. according to veldsman (2002a), the different parts of change should retain the coherence of the transport authorit y landscape, while simultaneously diverging from the “what is” state to the “what should/must be” state. phase 2: strategic synthesis and choice step 5 – analyse current and previous performance results of the participating municipality/ies the performance of the participating municipality/ies during the current and previous financial years must be assessed against the initial objectives set for financial matters, people, transport services delivery, information systems, municipal restructuring, communication, general leadership and management, culture and logistics and supply chain management. step 6 – analyse current and previous strategies of the participating municipality/ies the broad strategies developed by the participating municipality/ies with respect to the aspects listed in step 5 must be analysed. the strategies must be linked to the performance results obtained in step 5 in order to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of the various strategies. step 7 – analyse external macro and micro environments the analysis of the external environment serves to timeously identif y opportunities and threats, as well as strategic issues that may support or restrain the transport authority from achieving its vision, mission and strategic objectives. the external environment comprises of the macro and micro (or operating) environments. macro environment: there are five dimensions within the macro environment that have an impact on the establishment and functioning of the transport authority. these dimensions, which must be analysed within the framework of the new south africa milieu, are: (1) politics (policies and ideologies of various role players); (2) social or cultural (the diversity of values and cult ures of role players); (3) economy (reconstruction and development, growth, economic policies and priorities); (4) institutional or juristic (institutional requirements, and national and provincial legislation dealing with transport and transformation); and (5) technolog y (knowledge and innovation). micro (or operating) environment: there are four components of the micro environment that have a direct impact on the management and functioning of the transport authority. these four components that require analyses are: (1) customers (users of transport services); (2) regulatory (financial and human resources regulations); (3) services providers (labour market and the provision of transport services); and (4) competitors (private sector). step 8 – analyse internal environment internal environment components: there are four components of the internal environment that will influence the management and functioning of the transport authorit y. these four components that require analysis are: (1) organisational (objectives, strategies, organisational and institutional structures, administrative policies and procedures, administrative systems, reward system and ownership); (2) human or social (capabilities, attitudes and perceptions, organisational culture, processes, social patterns, networking, individual and group characteristics, organisational behaviour and management styles); (3) technological (equipment, posts design and description, workflow, technical policy and procedures, technical systems and logistics); and (4) physical (location and physical layout of offices). geldenhuys, naude, veldsman62 key performance areas: there are eight key performance areas that will have an integrated and holistic impact on the management, functioning and service delivery of the transport authority. these key performance areas that require consideration are: (1) financial resources (budgets, assets, utilisation and costs); (2) people capacity (provision and development/empowerment of human resources, performance and rewards); (3) services provision (transport services offered, provision of transport infrastructure and public transport facilities, and efficiency/ effectiveness of service delivery); (4) communication (political acceptance, public satisfaction and internal and external communication); (5) information management (information technology, knowledge management and management/ operational information); (6) organisational culture (political, social and administrative cultures and ideologies and paradigms); (7) organisational structure (delegation, relationship and linkages with national/provincial/municipal departments and committees); (8) leadership and general management (strategies, networking, competencies and management functions); (9) clients (markets); (10) design systems; (11) facilities; and (12) technology (knowledge and innovation). step 9 – determine strategic issues based on a type of swot analysis the strategic issues must be relevant to the vision, mission and strategic objectives of the transport authority identified in step 4, and must focus on management and organisational aspects that require change and/or analysis, particularly legal and ethical problems of strategic importance. strong and weak points must be identified based on the results of steps 5, 6 and 8. threats and opportunities must be listed based on the results of step 7. typical strategic issues regarding the challenges that transport authority staff members and political decision-makers will be faced with include: � new operating and management environments; � different priorities; � increased responsibilities; � cross-boundary transport authorities (municipal and provincial boundaries); � availability of financing and funding; and � an increased focus on service delivery. some risks include more direct accountability and increased exposure of transport authority staff members and political decision-makers to transport customers and role players. step 10 determine and analyse strategic options alternative and broad solutions must be developed to address the strategic issues identified in step 9, including the identification and employment of existing internal competencies with a view to optimise external opportunities and to steer clear of external threats. broad and overarching actions, programmes and projects must be identified in consultation with key role players in order to realise the integrated vision, mission and strategic objectives of the transport authority as identified in step 4. participation by key role players is extremely important and various consultative techniques can be employed such as participative workshops, brainstorming sessions, facilitating interviews, completing questionnaires and team building sessions. strategic options from the perspectives of both transport authority staff members and political decision-makers include: � the extent of responsibilities to be adopted; � the choice whether the functions of the transport authority should be performed by a department of the participating municipality/ies or a transport executive; and � the composition of the transport authority governing body. step 11 – determine feasibility of strategic options this step requires that the feasibility of the strategic options developed in step 10 be considered in view of the availability of financial and human resources. furthermore, the feasibility of the strategic options must be determined against: (1) economical considerations; (2) the efficiency and effectiveness of the strategic options; (3) affordability; (4) the implementation period; and (5) implementation risks. step 12 – make strategic choice and develop tactical and operational objectives there is a need to obtain maximum role player understanding of the new vision thereby securing alignment between the vision and the strategic choice to be made. once agreement has been reached on the preferred strategic choice for implementation, measurable tactical and operational objectives must be developed. this will guide the development of appropriate strategies in step 13, which in turn will enable the transport authority to achieve its tactical and operational objectives, as well as its vision, mission and strategic objectives identified in step 4. once role player agreement has been obtained on over-arching aspects such as the gains associated with establishing a transport authority, the extent of decreased autonomy and the funding and financing mechanisms, only then must a motivating memorandum be prepared followed by a founding agreement as required in terms of the national land transport transition act (act 22 of 2000). the founding agreement – signed by all relevant parties – must thereafter be published in the relevant provincial gazette, after which the transport authority area must be declared. the process of making the strategic choice and developing tactical and operational objectives is illustrated in figure 4. this figure supports the viewpoint of veldsman (2002a), which states that change as process encompasses the conversion of the “what is” state into the “what should/must be” state, where “state” refers to the mode of existence and functioning of the transport authority. figure 4: process of making strategic choice (leidtka & rosenblum, 1996) phase 3: strategic crafting step 13 – formulate detailed strategies and actions for establishing a transport authority this step focuses on the planning of actions necessary to achieve the strategic objectives developed in step 4, and tactical and operational objectives developed in step 12. detailed and flexible action plans, programmes and projects, together with time frames and the allocation of responsibilities, must be developed based on consultation with key role players. these detailed strategies and actions will assist in creating alignment between the various role players, thereby ensuring that the integrated strategic mangement model 63 vision can be implemented in a coherent, integrated fashion and the current level of fragmentation in the transport industry dramatically reduced. phase 4: strategy implementation step 14 – implement detailed strategies veldsman (2002a) describes this step as a conversion process whereby sets of specific interventions are being rolled out across the organisational landscape in order to bring about a different mode of existence and functioning within the landscape. in other words, making the “what should/must be” state a reality in order to provide the transport authority with a certain configuration and trajectory. implementation of change must be driven through a process of concerted collective efforts by the key role players in transport under the leadership of the transformational leadership team. appropriate financial and human resources, which are supportive of implementing the strategies, must be established such as the allocation of budget, appointment of key staff members and empowerment and development of competencies, as well as the allocation of resources and monitoring the effectiveness of resource utilisation. administrative support systems must be established such as appropriate policies, procedures and systems encouraging productivity. reward and recognition incentive schemes, which are related to performance measurement, must be developed such as the provision of incentives to support strategy implementation, reward supportive behaviour and the promotion of goalorientated performance. members of the transformational leadership team must consequently demonstrate strategic leadership such as to guide the process of strateg y implementation, consultative and joint decision-making, and transparent communication. step 15 – implement business culture one of the most significant challenges facing the transformational leadership team is the establishment of a new organisational culture. culture refers to the way a group of people sees things, thinks and does things. it is a way of life shared by members of a group that older members pass on to new members. culture will cause the staff members of the transport authority to see reality very differently from each other and will cause each individual to believe that his or her perception of reality is the only rational way of seeing, thinking and doing things. marquardt (2000) is of the opinion that the new business culture involves: (1) a new vision; (2) mind-set; (3) values; (4) activities; and (5) leaders (mentors): � vision: the vision, which has been developed in step 4, is the image and dream that is transmitted inside and outside the transport authority. it paints a picture of the direction for the future and represents the dreams that pull people forward. senior management must work hard to communicate the vision and to publicly declare their commitment to realisation of the vision. � mind-set: the creation and sharing of a mind-set amongst staff members throughout the transport authority at both the individual and collective levels is a predisposition that will direct people to see the world in a particular way. various programmes for building appropriate mind-set thinking and skills exist such as orientation programmes, seminars, conferences and cross-cultural and multicultural skills training. � values: values or ethical standards are what is meaningful and what provides purpose and reason for what one does. the shared values must guide the strategic thinking, processes and procedures of the transport authority. some examples of such values are: continuous learning that is highly valued and rewarded; a focus on total quality management and customer service; and a belief that people are important and should be respected and empowered through training. � activities: a culture contains a variety of activities and norms that externalise and reinforce the desired internal values, mind-sets and basic assumptions. the transport authority must simplif y procedures and processes by for example implementing duplication elimination and valueadding assessment. � leaders (mentors): the transport authority must identif y appropriate and competent leaders or mentors to build future leaders via mentoring, training and development. these leaders must be empowered and enabled to manage competitiveness, complexit y, adaptabilit y, teams, uncertainty and learning. phase 5: performance monitoring and review step 16 – evaluate the support systems with respect to navigating change the support basis and systems relevant to the individual, groups and transport authority as a whole must be measured and evaluated (total quality management) and corrective actions implemented, if required. continuous diagnosis of the staff members’ emotional response and possible resistance to the unfolding change in the participating municipality/ies must occur. the implementation of appropriate actions (feed-forward and feedback communication and skills and knowledge capacitation) will ensure the elimination of stumbling blocks and hence the successful and continuous navigation of change. step 17 – evaluate strategy results appropriate management information must be regularly gathered and used to monitor the implementation process. actual results must be compared with the expected results (the strategic objectives developed in step 4 and the tactical and operational objectives developed in step 12) and prearranged performance criteria with a view to highlight irregularities and to introduce corrective actions, if required. comparing actual results with expected results may require that steps 4, 9, 12, 13 and 14 be reviewed as part of the iterative and continuous planning process. phase 6: stabilisation step 18 – stabilise and institutionalise change according to veldsman (2002a), the goal of the stabilisation process is to embed the chosen configuration and trajectory relatively permanently, but from the point of ongoing “unfreezing”. change at different levels and in various areas of the transport authority, as well as for different staff members, carries different meanings. change as a process and outcome therefore has to be repeatedly localised and customised to fit a level, an area and persons. various techniques can be employed to stabilise the transport authority structure, systems and processes such as the presence of strong leadership; frequent information sessions and communication; rewards and recognition; and the enablement and empowerment of staff members. conclusion the complexity of the post 1994 democratic integration process requires change of considerable magnitude. fragmentation of policy in the pre 1994 dispensation, duplication of modes and resources and other inefficiencies are some of the key issues that transport authorities will have to deal with. empowerment will, therefore, need to be high on the agenda. an integrated strategic management model that acknowledges the principles of strategic management, and integrates different approaches towards change navigation, can lead to the successful and smooth establishment of transport authorities. this article therefore serves to develop an integrated strategic management model to navigate the establishment of new institutional structures in the municipal sphere of government. this model consists of six phases and eighteen steps, some of which can be executed simultaneously and others consecutively. geldenhuys, naude, veldsman64 implementation of the integrated strategic management model may create some challenges, including: � the limited availability of transport officials and political decision-makers to fully participate in the activities required by the comprehensive model may delay the implementation thereof; � urban and rural environments within the jurisdictional area of a single municipality may create difficulties with respect to integrating and coordinating transport and land use planning; and � cross-border transport authorities (municipal and provincial borders) may result in conflicting agendas and priorities. the continuous management of the process by a knowledgeable and experienced transformational leadership team – displaying the necessary insight and skills – is of critical importance. furthermore, transparent and frequent communication and consultation with key role players to deal with inter alia the new organisational culture, any possible resistance to change and the empowerment and capacitation of staff members and political decision-makers will enhance the probability of a successful transport authority in its endeavour to realise the strategic intent set for the transport industry in south africa. it is recommended that the integrated strategic management model developed in this article should be used to navigate the establishment of a transport authority in a pilot project for a specific municipality. the model can then be adapted in view of the lessons learnt and thereafter used by other municipalities when establishing a transport authority for their respective areas of jurisdiction. references allaire, y. & firsirotu, m. (1985). how to implement radical strategies in large organisations. sloan management review, autumn, pp. 26-32. berger, l.a., sikora, m.j. & berger, d.r. (1994). the change management handbook. new york: irwin, pp. 7-32. bowman, c. & jarett, m.g. (1996). management in practice. california: sage, p. 213. discussion document on transport authority areas in gauteng. tcc report: 1/2000. gauteng transport co-ordination committee. (2000), pp. a1-a3. dobson, p. & starkey, k. (1993). the strategic management blueprint. new york: harper & row, p. 4. french, w.c., bell, c. h. & zawacki, r. a. (1994), pp. 83, 267, 468. hampden-turner, c.m. (1993). dilemmas of strategic learning loops (chapter 14). strategic thinking: leadership and the management of change. edited by hendry, j., johnson, g. & newton, j. the strategic management society. john wiley & sons ltd, pp. 336-338. hill, c.w.l. & jones, g.r. (1995). strategic management: an integrated approach. boston: houghton mifflin, p. 8. johnson, g. & scholes, k. (1993). exploring corporate strategy, text and case. third edition. boston: prentice hall, p. 85. kaplan, r.s. & norton, d.p. (1992). the balanced scorecard measures that drive performance. har vard business review, january-february, pp. 71-79. kotter, j.p. (1995). leading change: why transformation efforts fail. har vard business review, 73 (2), pp. 35-158. leidtka, j.m. & rosenblum, j.w. (1996). shaping conversations: making strategy, managing change. california management review, (39) (1). autumn, pp. 141-157. levy, a. (1986). second order planned change. organisation dynamics. summer, p. 5-20. lippitt, g.l. (1982). organisational renewal: a holistic approach to organisation development. boston: prentice-hall, p. 108. marquardt, m.j. (2000). the global advantage – how world-class organisations improve performance through globalisation. gulf publishing company. houston. texas, pp. 62-89. national department of transport. moving south africa – the action agenda. a 20-year strategic framework for transport in south africa. (1999). issued by the minister of transport and the department of transport, p.3. national department of transport. white paper on national transport policy. (1996), p. 3. national land transport transition act, act 22 of 2000. (2000), pp. 16-17. national land transport transition act, act 22 of 2000: an introduction to transport authorities. (2001). national department of transport, pp. 2-4, 21-23, 31-32. nutt, p.c. (1992). managing planned change. new york: macmillan, p. 39. pearce, j.a. & robinson r.b. (2000). strategic management: formulation, implementation and control. business week. seventh edition. irwin mcgraw-hill, pp. 11-15. robbins, s.p. (1998). organisation behaviour. eight edition. new jersey: prentice-hall, p. 639. rue, l.w. & holland, p.g. (1989). strategic management. new york: mcgraw-hill, p. 31. sveiby, k. (2002). methods for measuring intangible assets. http://www.sveiby.com/articles/intangiblemethods.htm. swanepoel, d.v. (2001). die bestuur van verandering in die publieke sektor. (d. phil proefskrif). stellenbosch: university of stellenbosch. tichy, n. (1996). simultaneous transformation and ceo succession: key to global competitiveness. organisation dynamics. summer, pp. 49-55. thompson, a.a. & strickland, a.j. (1992). strategy formulation and implementation. fifth edition. boston: irwin, pp. 3-4. tushman, m.l. & o’reilly, c.a. (1997). winning through innovation. a practical guide to leading organizational change and renewal. harvard business school press. boston. massachusetts, pp. 181-211. veldsman, t.h. (2002a). into the people effectiveness arena. navigating between chaos and order. johannesburg: knowledge resources, pp. 47, 52-58, 61-62, 66. veldsman, t.h. (2002b). strategy crafting in a hyperturbulent world: a lost cause? presentation delivered at the 3rd annual best practices strategy symposium. 20 & 21 august 2002. midrand: south africa, iir. pp. 3-4, 7. acknowledged contributors: dr d.v. swanepoel (khuthele projects (pty) ltd) mr o.a.w. van zyl, preng (khuthele projects (pty) ltd) mr j.h. venter, preng (khuthele projects (pty) ltd) mr j.c. vorster, preng (bks (pty) ltd) mr a.s. geldenhuys (free state provincial government) mr m. krynauw, preng (tshwane metropolitan municipality, gauteng) mr l. swanepoel (ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality, gauteng) prof c. fouché (rand afrikaans university) abstract introduction research purpose literature review research design results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) tatiana page the da vinci institute for technology management, johannesburg, south africa john j. mgwenya the da vinci institute for technology management, johannesburg, south africa citation page, t., & mgwenya, j.j. (2023). conformer or colluder? the human resource professional’s contribution to toxic leadership. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2123. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2123 original research conformer or colluder? the human resource professional’s contribution to toxic leadership tatiana page, john j. mgwenya received: 22 sept. 2022; accepted: 07 feb. 2023; published: 28 mar. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: there is a growing body of knowledge on the role of human resource (hr) professionals in workplace bullying, but their role in perpetuating a toxic leadership culture in organisations remains unscrutinised. human resource professionals are uniquely positioned to influence toxic leadership styles as they are required to cultivate and sustain the organisational leadership culture. research purpose: the aim of this study was to identify gaps in hr practices that could contribute to toxic leadership in organisations. motivation of the study: the inherent role conflict of the hr professional and competing demands from organisational stakeholders are likely to create toxic outcomes. research approach/design and method: a phenomenological study was carried out at a south african organisation to gain insight into the practices of hr professionals. data were collected using semi-structured interviews and the key findings of the study were identified through a thematic analysis. main findings: three themes emerged that contribute to creating gaps in hr practices that support toxic leadership: toxic hr practices, challenges faced by hr professionals and business results at any cost. practical/managerial implications: the findings suggest a need to alleviate the inherent role conflict experienced by hr professionals, so that their contributions to toxic leadership are minimised. contribution/value-add: this study contributes to the literature on toxic leadership by expounding on the role of the human resources professionals (hrp) and gaps in their practices that contribute to toxic leadership. suggested guidelines and recommendations are offered to address the gaps in hr practices. keywords: toxic leadership; human resource professional; paradox; ethics; human resource practices. introduction there is a vast amount of research on positive leadership and its effects on organisational leadership. at the same time, research into negative leadership has increasingly received the attention of human capital development researchers in the last decade (neves & schyns, 2018). negative leadership may be described as abusive, destructive, dark, dysfunctional, bullying, derailed, tyrannical and toxic (nyberg 2016:62; roter, 2017:7). a synopsis of some prevailing definitions of negative leadership is worth noting: shufelt and longenecker (2017:2) refer to toxic leadership as ‘a combination of self-centred attitudes, motivations and behaviours that have adverse effects on subordinates, the organisation and mission performance’. toxic leaders ‘consistently use dysfunctional behaviours to deceive, intimidate, coerce or unfairly punish others to get what they want for themselves’. another pertinent definition of toxic leadership is espoused by lipman-blumen (2005:2) who refers to toxic leaders as destructive in their behaviours and notes that their ‘dysfunctional personal qualities or characteristics can inflict serious and enduring harm on the individuals, groups, organisations, communities and even the nations that they lead’. similarly, mehta and maheshwari (2014:20) describe toxic leadership as ‘a series of purposeful and deliberate behaviours and acts of a leader that disrupt the effective functioning of the organisation and are intended to manoeuvre, deceive, intimidate and humiliate others with the objective of personal gains’. from the above descriptions, most narratives of negative leadership explain the behaviours of the leaders and the consequences of such behaviours may be dire if no appropriate intervening measures are put in place. in this article, the term ‘toxic’ leadership is preferred as it is a poison that spreads slowly in the organisation and leaves enduring negative effects that are not immediately visible (singh et al., 2017). the primary focus of the study was to examine how human resources professionals (hrps) may contribute towards toxic leadership in organisations. many authors suggest that the hrp is well positioned to identify and address issues of toxicity in the organisation. ulrich et al. (2008:5–6) contend that hrps are specialists in people management processes and will provide advice to others on how to achieve results through effective people practices. according to reimer et al. (2017), the human resource (hr) function plays a central role in defining and developing the organisation’s leadership and has first-hand knowledge of leadership gaps. this viewpoint is further expanded by catley et al. (2012) who add that the hrp is responsible for several organisational practices and processes that are key to the prevention and management of toxic leadership. webster et al. (2016:189) highlight the employee wellness role of hrps, which includes identifying stressed employees attributable to abusive supervision. mokgolo (2017:133) argues further, in agreement with webster et al. (2016), that hrps perform multiple roles to address and manage workplace bullying, such as trustworthy listener, impartial investigator, management advisor and facilitator or enforcer of management decisions. additionally, hrps work as strategic business partners to assist in moulding and building future leaders who drive business strategy (ulrich & dulebohn, 2015). a leadership culture is created when hrps and business leaders continuously display and drive behaviours of developing other leaders (ulrich & dulebohn, 2015). over time, these repetitive behaviours form part of the culture, which encourages positive or toxic leadership in the organisation. implicit in this assertion is that hr practices in leadership development must be effectively managed, so that toxic behaviours are recognised and addressed before they have a significant impact on the organisation’s culture. it is worth noting that hrps can be placed in a paradoxical situation where they overextend themselves in one role at the expense of another (gerpott, 2015:222). for instance, the hrp may be required to represent management interests while promoting employee advocacy. in an effort to affirm the hr function as a valued contributor in the organisation, the hrp may avoid addressing the employee advocate role to appease the management agenda (fox & cowan, 2015; gerpott, 2015). these paradoxical situations could have the potential for toxic outcomes as the hrp is required to fulfil both roles that appear to conflict with each other. research purpose the available literature on organisational leadership provides extensive details on types of toxic leadership in the workplace. however, there are less data on the role of hrps in aiding toxic leadership. the research problem that the study attempts to address is the inadequate data on how hrps may contribute to toxic leadership in organisations. some research exists regarding the role of hrps and their attempts to address workplace bullying (fox & cowan, 2015; harrington et al., 2015; mokgolo, 2017), but, in general, the contributory role of hr in toxic leadership is under-researched in south africa. the study aims to offer a contribution to the existing body of knowledge on toxic leadership. more specifically, the study intended to develop an in-depth understanding of how hr practices can contribute to toxic leadership by examining the practices of hrps working at a south african-based petrochemical organisation. literature review the ‘toxic triangle’ developed by padilla et al. (2007) was used as a conceptual framework to guide this study. padilla et al. (2007) refer to a convergence of the leaders’ behaviours and traits, susceptible followers and favourable environments as parameters for toxic leadership to take effect. these elements and the role of hrps are discussed in more detail below. toxic leader behaviours toxic leaders are described based on their destructive behaviours and typology and outcomes that are inflicted on the people and organisations under their leadership. according to padilla et al. (2007:182), the characteristics of a destructive leader include, inter alia, ‘charisma, a personalised need for power, narcissism, negative life history and an ideology of hate’. these leaders have charismatic personalities and are ambitious in the pursuit of their goals. they tend to seek out positions of power and influence where their self-importance can be elevated. they justify the need for power by identifying a perceived or real external threat to influence others to follow them. charisma is associated with transformational leadership and has, thus, garnered a positive perception as one of the traits of effective leaders. however, padilla et al. (2007) argue that charismatic leaders who have a selfish orientation can articulate a vision that enhances their personal power, which in turn can lead to destructive outcomes if their behaviours are not properly managed. de vries (2018) further argues that a combination of ‘three nightmare personality traits’, namely dishonesty, disagreeableness and low conscientiousness, support a leader’s propensity for a toxic leadership style. consequently, a combination of these personality traits creates a fertile ground for toxic leadership to emerge. a typology perspective of toxic leaders the dark triad of personality refers to three traits, namely narcissism, machiavellianism and psychopathy, which are associated with toxic leadership. narcissistic leaders are characterised by a sense of entitlement, arrogance, self-absorption and a need to be the centre of attention (fascia, 2018). they create positive first impressions, especially in selection contexts (nevicka et al., 2018). over time, their exploitative side is revealed and people develop negative opinions of them (schmid et al., 2018). machiavellianism refers to a ‘socially malevolent’ and ‘insincere character’ aimed at self-promotion while ‘interacting with others in an aggressive way’ (kipfelsberger & kark, 2018:117). machiavellians use social manipulation tactics to control situations and will oscillate between counterproductive behaviours and pro-organisational behaviours, provided these support their self-serving goals (belschak et al., 2016). psychopaths differ from narcissists and machiavellians where these individuals lack a conscience (kipfelsberger & kark, 2018) and are devoid of feelings of shame, guilt or remorse (kets de vries, 2012). according to furtner et al. (2017), psychopathy is strongly associated with bullying behaviours in contrast to machiavellianism and narcissism. furthermore, mathieu and babiak (2016:105) confirmed that ‘leaders with psychopathic traits are inclined to abusive supervision’, which negatively influences employees’ job satisfaction and increases turnover intentions. a meta-analytic study by o’boyle et al. (2014) confirmed that the dark triad personalities were strongly associated with low agreeableness from the five-factor model. in support of this view, de vries (2018:13) argues that the most extreme leader profile is a combination of high extraversion, low emotionality and what he refers to as the ‘three nightmare traits’, amounting to a ‘narcissistic–psychopathic leadership’ profile (de vries, 2018:13). susceptible followers susceptible followers are described as either conformers or colluders who support the agenda of a toxic leader. conformers consent to the authority of toxic leaders and obey the instructions of the leader because they are vulnerable to the leader’s influence. according to thoroughgood et al. (2012:903), conformers are characterised by ‘harbouring unfulfilled basic needs, negative core self-evaluations and low psychological maturity’. as such, conformers will abide by the leader’s rules and passively follow them to preserve their organisational status and avoid the threat of unemployment. nevicka et al. (2018) agree that followers with low self-esteem and low self-evaluation are more vulnerable to abusive behaviours. they would tolerate the leader’s aggressive behaviour towards them and conform to the leader’s expectations. similarly, nyberg (2016) argues that conformers may not endorse the leader’s perspectives but would respond in a manner that reduces threats and increases rewards for themselves. the conformers’ actions are, thus, driven by a need to eliminate negative consequences for themselves (padilla et al., 2007). a slightly different perspective offered by mergen and ozbilgin (2020) is that followers with ‘a high personal uncertainty’ would favour toxic leaders as they provide a sense of belonging, direction and certainty. the followers are enticed by the toxic leader’s worldview, which creates a compelling vision that conditions followers to engage in unethical behaviours. in contrast, colluders are characterised by ambition, selfishness and tend to share similar perspectives and values as that of the toxic leaders whom they follow (thoroughgood et al., 2012). they will promote and contribute to the vision of toxic leaders to achieve their personal goals. these followers play a bystander role by either ignoring the bullying behaviours or withholding critical information that could save the victim from the bullying circumstances (nyberg, 2016). additionally, followers who possess machiavellian tendencies are synonymous with greed and a high need for status (laguda, 2020). they will exploit situations orchestrated by the toxic leaders and participate in unethical acts that can harm others as well as the organisation (belschak et al., 2016). these actions are driven by a self-serving need to strengthen their organisational power and positioning, with no regard for the negative consequences to others. based on this discussion, followers would, therefore, have different reasons for following a toxic leader. environmental context environmental factors such as ‘instability, cultural values, a lack of checks and balances and perceived threats’ can create a perfect context for toxic leadership to manifest, if left unchecked (padilla et al., 2007:185). organisational restructures are cited as periods of intense change that can threaten continued employment (otto et al., 2018). toxic leaders provide a sense of security during turbulent times, especially when followers are struggling to manage their own fears about the changes (nyberg, 2016). according to padilla et al. (2007), ineffective systems and weak internal control procedures facilitate a conducive environment where toxic leader behaviours can flourish. this is notably the case when leaders have a degree of freedom or discretion in their decision-making practices (laguda, 2020). furthermore, unlimited authority can result in the abuse of power, especially when there are no checks and balances to hold leaders accountable. another assertion by laguda (2020) is that organisational cultures underscore the importance of masculinity, collectivism, high power distance and uncertainty avoidance, which seem to support toxic leadership. the diamond situational characteristics of negativity, adversity and deception advocated by rauthmann et al. (2014) further reinforce the argument that environmental factors influence toxic leadership. leaders who engage in counterproductive behaviours have a negative influence on followers’ ability to create meaning in their work and derive a sense of fulfilment (kipfelsberger & kark, 2018). in addition, machiavellian leaders are especially drawn to circumstances where they can engage in deception to manipulate people or events to their advantage (belschak et al., 2016). lastly, followers experience adversity when they stand up to toxic leaders resulting in mundane job assignments or diminished work outputs because of deliberately reduced resources (wu et al., 2018). the paradoxical nature of the human resource role researchers have discussed how hrps can experience competing demands in the roles of strategic partner and employee advocate, which led to criticism of the profession and tension for the hrp (gerpott, 2015; marchington, 2015; o’brien & linehan, 2014). for example, hrps must support business objectives as strategic partners and promote the employee’s interests in another role (o’brien & linehan, 2014) while building trust among their stakeholders as credible activists (ulrich et al., 2017). admittedly, heizmann and fox (2017) believe that hrps have paid little attention to the employee advocate role, because their efforts were primarily directed at establishing themselves as credible business partners. scholars also note that hrps cannot diminish the employee advocate role, as the employee group remains a key stakeholder for the hrp (daniel, 2017; marchington, 2015). given these paradoxes, the hrp remains perplexed to mediate between advocating for the employees’ interests and managing the leaders’ expectations of performance standards that are required to achieve the organisational goals. the role of human resource in promoting an ethical culture ethics in the workplace requires hrps to distinguish between what is right and wrong and what is good and bad (erasmus, 2018:66). the hr function must manage ethical challenges pertaining to the relationship between the employer and employee, including discrimination issues, counterproductive work behaviours such as fraud and corruption and unfair employment policies and practices (erasmus, 2018). the hrp is also required to role model and uphold ethical behaviours in the organisation, so that employees know what ethical behaviour looks like (parkes & davis, 2013). in this context, the hrp can play different ethical roles in the organisation. simões et al. (2018) contend that ethical dilemmas arise because of the multiple roles expected of the hrp. in addition, the environmental context and how unethical behaviour is defined can influence the hrp’s judgement (simões et al., 2018). environments that place a strong emphasis on cost reduction and financial profitability tend to influence hr to marginalise employee issues (dundon & rafferty, 2018). in support of this view, simões et al. (2018) argue that hr is not acting unethically but rather following a different ethical agenda by prioritising the organisation’s financial objectives. parkes and davis (2013) observe that hrps are inclined to be ethically assertive in their work practices if they follow a strong hr ethical code. however, csillag (2019) argues that the hrp may lack knowledge or even doubt their ability to effectively deal with ethical breaches, preferring to remain silent. parkes and davis (2013) point out that blowing the whistle on unethical behaviour is stressful for individuals, which implies that the hrp would tend to overlook the unethical acts to protect themselves. consequently, the hrp may decide to be silent or conform to such circumstances to preserve their continued employment. this lack of inaction and doubt can create morally mute behaviour from the hrp (csillag, 2019). research design research approach the research paradigm for this study was based on social constructivism, which is concerned with ‘individuals seeking out knowledge about the world in which they live and work’ (creswell, 2007:20). this qualitative approach was preferred because the researcher wanted to elicit different perspectives of individuals who were exposed to toxic experiences and to ‘understand the subjective meaning of people’s experiences’ (creswell, 2007:24). this implies that researchers do not seek answers in a rigid manner (thanh & thanh, 2015), but rather through the varied perspectives of people affected by the social phenomenon in question. the constructivist researcher is, therefore, reliant on the participants’ opinions of a social phenomenon. a phenomenological design was used as perceptions of real-life experiences are important to assess how toxic leadership could emerge from hr practices. the researcher wanted to obtain information about the ‘lived experiences’ of hrps and ascertain how they have interpreted these experiences. furthermore, the researcher also wanted to understand their experiences in contributing to the phenomenon. as such, the study intended to examine the practices of hrps working at a south african-based petrochemical organisation. research methods research sample a stratified purposive sampling method is a non-probability sampling method used to select the research participants and to determine whether the participants had differing views on the research topic. this method is described as dividing the population into smaller groups or strata where each group is fairly homogenous (sharma, 2017). after informed consent was obtained from the participants, they were further screened based on a set of selection criteria for inclusion in the study. participants were eligible to be included if they satisfied the following criteria: (1) hrps who have a 3-year post-matric qualification in the domain of human resources or industrial/organisational psychology or a related field. (2) the hrp must have at least 7-year experience working as a human resource professional. (3) the hrp must have worked autonomously and co-ordinated or managed an end-to-end hr process without the need for constant supervision. a stratified sample of 10 hrps was emailed, comprising a selection of participants at the junior, middle and senior management levels of the organisation. a total of eight hrps consented to assist in the study from the organisation. through the process of snowballing and using the researcher’s professional network, an additional seven people, who were external to the organisation, were approached to participate in the research process. these participants occupied similar management levels but came from different industries. the rationale for interviewing these participants was to corroborate any findings from the initial data sources to illuminate a theme or opinion (creswell, 2013). this served as a validity check, known as data triangulation, where the researcher was able to review several data sources to confirm the research findings and ensure data saturation (fusch et al., 2018). a total of 15 participants, comprising six males and nine females, were interviewed as outlined in table 1. participants varied in their qualifications and years of experience working in the hr profession. table 1: profile of participants. data collection semi-structured interviews are a common data gathering method used for qualitative studies as it allows pre-determined questions to be answered to satisfy the research questions (ritchie & lewis, 2003). a semi-structured interview also promotes flexibility during the interview and allows for the participants to speak more openly about their lived experiences. an individual meeting request was sent to each participant with a link to attend the online interview. all the interviews were recorded using online meeting platforms and lasted between 45 and 60 min. the researcher prepared an interview guide with pre-determined questions, to facilitate the discussion with each participant, allowing the sequence and structure of the interviews to vary among the participants. the researcher made use of follow-up questions to clarify any points, and all the participants were provided an opportunity to ask for more details about the study and address any concerns pertaining to the information they shared. the interview recordings were then transcribed and saved in a secure cloud-based folder. data analysis a qualitative study requires data to be analysed in a manner that creates order and structure to the volume of data collected. a thematic analysis was conducted to make sense of the data and create structure from the interview responses. this method consists of preparing and organising the data for analysis, followed by interpreting the data into codes and themes ‘and finally representing the data in figures, tables or a discussion’ (creswell, 2013:180). before commencing with the analysis, the transcripts were reviewed based on the recordings to ensure correctness and anonymise any details referring to people or places. to ensure the confidentiality of the participants, their names were substituted with alphanumeric characters such as a1, a2, etc. for the participants of the researched organisation and b1, b2, etc. for the participants outside of the organisation. the coding of the data commenced towards the end of the data collection process, and this process was facilitated using the qualitative data analysis software, quirkos. coding assists the researcher to reduce the raw data to manageable sections as applicable to the research questions (vaismoradi et al., 2016). all the transcripts from the organisation were coded first to identify any similarities or uniqueness that had to be accounted for in the interpretation of the results. thereafter, the data collected from the external participants were coded. catalogues were created from the interpreted data by grouping repeated patterns or relationships into themes. the cataloguing process aims to reduce the volume of data into manageable sections, so that the researcher is able to develop higher-level insights and establish a theme (vaismoradi et al., 2016). it is important to note that the analysis of themes extends beyond reporting on the frequency of themes and verbatim reports on the participants’ feedback. instead, the researcher is required to interpret what the data mean or could mean and clarify these interpretations (javadi & zarea, 2016). where the themes were quite extensive, they were further divided into sub-themes to highlight specific aspects of the broader theme. ethical considerations permission was obtained from the head of hr to approach the individuals to participate in the research study. at the onset of each interview, the participants were reminded of informed consent and required to sign a letter acknowledging that their participation was voluntary, and they were aware of the intended purpose of the research. all participants received individual meeting requests with a link to attend the online interview. once the transcriptions were completed, the recordings were deleted to protect the anonymity of the participants, and any reference to individual names was replaced or deleted in the transcripts. lastly, the interview transcriptions were encrypted with a password and stored on a cloud-based server that only the researcher could access. results a total of three core themes emerged from the data analysis: toxic hr practices; challenges faced by the hr professionals and business results at any cost. the purpose of the themes was to address the question, ‘how do hr practices contribute to toxic leadership in organisations?’ the themes were supported by data from the transcripts and any existing literature that was reviewed. toxic human resource practices the toxic hr practices covered issues such as bias, unfairness and inconsistent hr practices where the hrp may be pressurised to engage in unethical actions or be inclined to abuse their authority. the discussions with the participants suggested that hrps are not always consistent in their practices to ensure organisational leaders are subjected to similar processes as compared to the rest of employees. this is evident in the participants’ statements below: ‘i would say the people pleasing the, wanting to be liked and able to put your foot down is causing these kinds of inconsistency, in how we address issues. if one person deviates, they get a written warning. if somebody else does the same deviation, they go to a disciplinary and are dismissed.’ (participant a3) another participant referred to bias that hrps would have because of relationships with the stakeholders: ‘our reluctance to say, no, in some instances, you know, our reluctance to say, that’s not going to happen. this is the rules and, probably sometimes, because of fear or because of relationships that you have with some of the managers, businesses, or employees, that you might lose your neutrality.’ (participant a4) these findings are indicative of the biased treatment and inconsistent practices that occur because the hrp wants to create a favourable impression with the organisational leaders and be recognised as a valued business partner (heizmann & fox, 2017). organisational leaders generally evaluate hr’s performance because they tend to be the primary users of hr services. the hrp would be inclined to align their hr activities to satisfy the organisational leader’s expectations (gerpott, 2015). notably, the findings of inconsistent hr practices mostly related to recruitment and remuneration matters. erasmus (2018) noted similar findings where recruitment and remuneration practices were ranked among the top hr practices that are most susceptible to unethical behaviours. participants who raised the issue of inconsistent recruitment and remuneration practices spoke at length about being pressurised by the line managers to circumvent the policy or enforce decisions that were taken without hr consultation. the excerpt from an interview with participant a3 provides evidence to demonstrate the inconsistent practices, despite employment equity targets that were a company imperative: ‘i think recruitment is the biggest one because we, would always basically fight, you know, even though we would have an employment equity plan when we do recruitment, most of the times we deviate from the plan and managers are sometimes not willing to look at people with potential. and they will always go for whoever they basically want irrespective of the impact that it would have on their employment equity figures.’ remuneration practices were a contentious discussion that evoked strong emotions amongst the participants who spoke about the inconsistencies they experienced. in one instance, participant b7 referred to the company’s poor financial performance, which meant that no salary increases were to be awarded, and yet some staff spoke openly about the increases they received: ‘and when you ask questions, you find out that out of three people, only one person was given a salary increase.’ these findings suggest that the hrp is not always included in the decision-making process. in addition, there seems to be no transparency and guiding principles for exceptional situations where staff may be eligible to receive increases. although it was not easy to attribute the inconsistencies to either the line manager or hrp, it can be inferred that both parties are accountable to demonstrate ethical behaviour in their hr practices. challenges faced by human resource professionals the challenges faced by the hrp was another theme that emerged from the data analyses and generated two sub-themes, namely personal and professional challenges. participants expressed a concern for the lack of appreciation of their efforts by organisational leaders and the emotional burden that was associated with the role. participant a8 explained that there is a perception among the organisational leaders that the hr department does not play a significant role in the organisation: ‘sometimes i feel as if they feel like hr is not doing anything, let me put it that way because obviously they are on the operation space, and we are on the support side. so sometimes i really feel that our work is not that important.’ these sentiments were shared by other participants who experienced role confusion and questioned whether the hr function created value for the organisation: ‘i believe that the role of hr within the organization need to be clarified and need to be well understood as that of a strategic business partner, rather than that of an afterthought, because most of the time this happens when the role or support provided, is not well understood.’ (participant b1) the criticisms of the hrps work resulted in role ambiguity, thereby leading to the hrps feeling devalued. such experiences are stressful for the hrp to contend with. this view is supported by wu et al. (2018) who cited that role stress is experienced when people are exposed to jobs of increased complexity while working with toxic leaders. consequently, working with a toxic leader is considered an environmental stressor, which is likely to induce toxic behaviours in the hrp. professional challenges emerged primarily from conflicting priorities within the hrp’s role. most participants referred to the inherent dichotomy of the role because the hrp should uphold the interests of both the organisation and the employees. participant a5 shared a practical experience of how this dichotomy plays out in reality: ‘we (hr) are expected to do employee engagement. we expected to do employee consultation, induction and tell them about the beautiful company that they’re supposed to be working for. two weeks later, we are expected to implement section 189 of the same employees. yeah. so, what that does is, it creates mistrust between hr and the employee.’ in this example, the hrp engaged with staff on the organisation’s attractive employee value proposition and subsequently had to implement a new organisational structure that would potentially result in job losses. these events appear contradictory to one another, and this situation illustrates the dual nature of the hr role where the hrp must fulfil the organisation’s goals as requested by the leadership team and, on the other hand, implement initiatives to promote employee well-being. these circumstances create a false sense of security for employees resulting in distrust of the hrp. a lack of trust can arise from the hrp’s working relationship with the leadership team and the extent to which employees perceive that the hrp would address their concerns fairly. this was emphasised by participant b1, whose close working relationship with management created the impression that the employee’s concerns would not be addressed objectively: ‘i happened to be perceived as a close person to the operations manager. so, the (employee) was bold enough to even tell me that i’m aware that you are close to this person. so, i do not have a confidence in you that you will resolve my issue amicably.’ (participant b1) any attempts made by the hrp to address unethical or unscrupulous practices displayed by managers usually come at a cost, as explained by participant b3, ‘with either the hr professional leaving the organisation or being frozen out of key leadership calls as they are seen as a constraint to “quick implementation”.’ consequently, the hrp would prefer the path of least resistance by adopting a follower approach to the leader’s agenda (thoroughgood et al., 2012), regardless of the potential impact to the employees. these experiences demonstrate that the hrp is conflicted between being a good business partner to management, doing what is right and representing the employees’ interests. business results at any cost the third theme refers to the behaviours and decisions of the organisational leaders that sometimes go unchallenged. such decisions are primarily taken to achieve the desired business outcomes. most of the hrps interviewed in the organisation were able to successfully challenge the leaders’ behaviours and decisions; however, the hrps interviewed outside of the organisation were not so fortunate. in some organisations, the hrps do not have the necessary support structures and require the executive team to ratify any hr decisions. in such situations, organisational leaders would exercise their positional influence to silence the hrp if they were not happy with the decision taken or advice offered. this was evidenced by participant b7: ‘once you challenge the line manager or somebody senior than you, it’s like, you’re challenging the powers and you get sidelined’. in some environments, the toxic leader’s behaviours go unchallenged, and unilateral decisions are made without considering the hr perspectives on the matter. this was observed by participant b2 whose ceo refused to take advice when consolidating the leave policies of three merged entities: ‘and he had decided that management, regardless of how high up or junior, management was entitled to 18 days, and that was it. and it needed to change and explaining to him that there’s a consultation process and they actually have a right to sort of question it. and i was told in no uncertain terms, of course there was particular language used as well, that he does not care.’ heizmann and fox (2017) state that a power differential exists between the organisational leaders and the hrp because the hr function is a cost centre that does not make a direct contribution to the organisation’s bottom line. as a result of the power difference, the hrp would feel vulnerable to challenge the executive decisions, fearing the repercussions would threaten their continued employment. organisational leaders demonstrating destructive behaviours are also perceived to not follow hr practices. this may be indicative of the leaders not wanting to expose their incompetence or favouritism of certain employees. participant b5 explained how one leader would delegate hr-related matters to his deputy manager to conceal his own inexperience in addressing such matters: ‘and when all these people then elevate or raise the complaint or the concerns to the manager, who’s actually got the authority. he shuts them down. you understand because he’s reliant [on the 2ic]. so that’s why i’m saying incompetence where a manager doesn’t have the skills to do the job.’ the leaders are likely to protect employees who perform work on their behalf to cover up their own incompetence, and such employees are perceived as being favoured. this was highlighted by milosevic et al. (2019) who described the toxic leaders’ attempts to conceal their incompetence in an effort to maintain control. the leaders would go to great lengths to cover up their incompetence, including protecting their employees from disciplinary action. other destructive behaviours can manifest as providing incongruent messages to the hrp. these actions paralyse the decision-making of hrps to the extent that they cannot conclude a matter without the leader’s involvement. this was evidenced in the discussion with participant b2 who could not finalise any employment offers because of the conflicting messages received: ‘he would then tell me, offer them this, and send them the letter of appointment. and they [applicants] would come back, and they’d be like, whoa, that’s not what we were promised. we were promised a lot more money. we were promised shares. we were promised a whole lot of things. and i just felt like i was constantly being set up.’ this manipulative behaviour is indicative of dark triad leaders who seek to control situations through incongruent messaging, resulting in frustration for the hrp. the participants acknowledged that business goals are oftentimes prioritised above hr goals that compel the hrp to compromise on the achievement of hr goals. participant b2 commented: ‘[a]t the end of the day, you unfortunately are balancing the people side of things with the profitability of a company, the first place that companies cut when they’re trying to save money, is people.’ in this instance, the hrp must support the business goals to be perceived as a strategic business partner by organisational leaders (marchington, 2015). these experiences further explicate the duality of the hrp’s role where hr practices to support the employee advocate role are marginalised in favour of other business priorities (o’brien & linehan, 2014; marchington, 2015). discussion the study concluded that toxic hr practices, challenges faced by hr professionals and business results at any cost contribute to gaps in hr practices that support toxic leadership. these themes appear to be reinforced by the inherent dichotomy of the hr role which causes confusion for the hrp. toxic practices such as inconsistencies across hr processes are indicative of ineffective systems and weak controls that contribute to environments where toxic leadership can flourish as explained by padilla et al. (2007). the biased treatment of certain leaders suggests that hrps would adopt a conformer role to maximise any potential rewards for themselves (nyberg, 2016) and avoid unwanted stress in reporting the leader’s unethical behaviour (parkes & davis, 2013). some of the challenges experienced by hrps include questioning their self-worth because of their organisational value being questioned, making them vulnerable to abusive leaders (nevicka et al., 2018). as a result, hrps concede to relationships with toxic leaders hoping to develop a renewed sense of purpose (mergen & ozbilgin, 2020). it was also noted that hrps are exposed to negative and adversarial work environments (rauthman et al., 2014), where hrps are distrusted by employees and also criticised by the leaders. these contextual factors influence the spread of toxic leadership in organisations. the adversarial conditions are further escalated when hrps do challenge the leaders, resulting in them being excluded from critical hr conversations (wu et al., 2018). where the hrp must administer hr decisions in organisational cultures dominated by patriarchy and high-power distance (laguda, 2020), the cycle of the leader’s power abuse is intensified. the hrp is likely to rationalise such decisions, to the extent that it supports the environmental norms and one of their dual roles (simões et al., 2018), thereby reducing the internalised conflict. consequently, the hrps’ decisions are not deliberately unethical but rather predicated by the competing demands inherent to their role. human resource professionals must manage divergent expectations from multiple stakeholders, which contributes to the manifestation of toxic leadership. the inherent dichotomy of the hr role creates internal conflict compelling the hrp to engage in toxic hr practices to eliminate or neutralise the tension. accordingly, the role tension creates personal and professional challenges for the hrp. being aware of their subordinate status and the power differential to challenge executive decisions, the hrp would ingratiate themselves with the organisational leaders, because the legitimacy of the hr function is influenced by the leaders’ perceptions of hr (heizmann & fox, 2017). the hrp would endeavour to uphold the obligations of the strategic business partner role, which prioritises the organisation’s financial goals above any social goals, reinforcing the stance that business goals should be achieved at all costs. consequently, the hrp would choose to remain silent or rationalise and overlook certain management actions that are deemed necessary to achieve the organisation’s objectives despite the negative impact to the employees. this behaviour promotes a follower approach and emphasises the morally mute behaviour of the hrp (csillag, 2019), which deviates from the requirements to role model ethical behaviour and enforce ethical values in the organisation. limitations and recommendations the study’s sample size was very small, and this would influence the generalisability of the results. although the findings were triangulated with data collected outside of the organisation, the findings are restricted to the selected organisation. the participants may have been reticent in sharing their experiences as the research question suggests that they could be involved in creating toxic environments. the participants may have withheld some critical experiences for the fear of being shamed for participating in collusive acts (webster et al., 2016). the researcher attempted to mitigate this by building rapport prior to the interviews and engaging the participants on issues of confidentiality and anonymity of responses. nonetheless, their candour cannot be guaranteed. the perspectives of organisational leaders who work with hrps and engage in hr activities themselves were not included in this study. these perspectives would have likely influenced the data findings and perhaps offered a different layer of interpretation to the results. future studies should investigate the perspectives of line managers and organisational leaders who apply hr practices and understand how they perceive themselves and the hrp contributing to toxic leadership outcomes. the hrp’s propensity to exercise power differs between organisations, and this should warrant further investigation to determine the extent of hr powers and how it can inflate or detract from toxic leadership practices. suggestions are offered to address the gaps in hr practices encountered by the hrp. the hrp’s right to exercise legitimate power should be re-examined and amended so that they are empowered to make decisions without it being nullified by management. this will strengthen the legitimacy of the hr business partner role and facilitate effective judgement by the hrp to challenge the leaders (harrington et al., 2015). the hr team should review the decision logic of their actions, especially in circumstances, which deviated from the prescribed practice. this will encourage hrps to be more critical of their decisions in the future and mitigate any weak controls in their practices. it will also reduce the threat of leaders, who may have a propensity to manipulate circumstances for personal gain and to monitor the frequency of these. furthermore, a risk register can be maintained of all the instances when the hrp intentionally deviated from prescribed hr practices and the team can reflect on the distinctive nature of the circumstances that led to the decision. these mechanisms can instil a community of practice where hrps are encouraged to review the moral aspects of their decisions and reach consensus on potentially toxic hr practices that should be eliminated. significance of the study research on the role of hrps in toxic leadership has primarily been examined from the perspective of workplace bullying (catley et al., 2017; mokgolo & barnard, 2019). this study contributes to the phenomenon of toxic leadership and offers a nuanced understanding of how the paradoxical role of hrps and their practices are likely to contribute to toxic leadership. it also contributes to the extant literature on dark behaviours among toxic leaders and their influence on the practices of hrps. conclusion the hrp is responsible for creating and driving an appropriate leadership culture in the organisation. it is assumed that hrps will hold themselves to a higher standard and be able to recognise their role in condoning or supporting toxic leadership before it severely impacts on business performance. this study highlights the dichotomous nature of the hr role and its influence on toxic leadership resulting in the hrp adopting a follower role to neutralise any intra-role conflict. acknowledgements competing interests the author(s) declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions t.p. wrote this manuscript based on her master’s dissertation, which was completed at the da vinci institute for technology management, modderfontein, south africa. j.m. was t.p.’s supervisor and assisted in the editing of the manuscript for publication. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the da vinci institute ethics committee (no. 003120). funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, t.p. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references belschak, f.d., muhammad, r.s., & den hartog, d.n. (2016). birds of a feather can butt heads: when machiavellian employees work with machiavellian leaders. journal of business ethics, 151(3), 613–626. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3251-2 catley, b., blackwood, k., forsyth, d., tappin, d., & bentley, t. (2017). workplace bullying complaints: lessons for ‘good hr practice’. personnel review, 46(1), 100–114. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-04-2015-0107 creswell, j. (2007). qualitative inquiry and research design. (2nd ed.). sage. creswell, j.w. (2013). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches (3rd ed.). sage. csillag, s. (2019). ethical dilemmas and moral muteness in the hrm profession. society and economy, 41(1), 125–144. https://doi.org/10.1556/204.2019.41.1.8 daniel, t.a. (2017). managing toxic emotions at work: hr’s unique role as the ‘organizational shock absorber’. employment relations today, 43(4), 13–19. https://doi.org/10.1002/ert.21599 de vries, r.e. (2018). three nightmare traits in leaders. frontiers in psychology, 9, 871. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00871 dundon, t., & rafferty, a. (2018). the (potential) demise of hrm?. human resource management journal, 28(3), 377–391. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12195 erasmus, b.j. (2018). unethical behaviour in human resource management practices in south africa: views of human resource practitioners. management (croatia), 23(2), 65–86. https://doi.org/10.30924/mjcmi/2018.23.1.65 fascia, s. (2018). the value of dark leadership. journal of strategy, operations & economics, 3(2), 1–6. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323264960 fox, s., & cowan, r.l. (2015). revision of the workplace bullying checklist: the importance of human resource management’s role in defining and addressing workplace bullying. human resource management journal, 25(1), 116–130. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12049 furtner, m.r., maran, t., & rauthmann, j.f. (2017). dark leadership: the role of leaders’ dark triad personality traits. in m.g. clark & c.w. gruber (eds.), leader development deconstructed (pp. 75–99). springer international publishing. fusch, p., fusch, g., & ness, l.r. (2018). denzin’s paradigm shift: revisiting triangulation in qualitative research. journal of social change, 10(1), 19–32. https://doi.org/10.5590/josc.2018.10.1.02 gerpott, f.h. (2015). the right strategy? examining the business partner model’s functionality for resolving human resource management tensions and discussing alternative directions. zeitschrift fur personalforschung, 29(3–4), 214–234. https://doi.org/10.1177/239700221502900304 harrington, s., warren, s., & rayner, c. (2015). human resource management practitioners’ responses to workplace bullying: cycles of symbolic violence, organization, 22(3), 368–389. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508413516175 heizmann, h., & fox, s. (2017). o partner, where art thou? a critical discursive analysis of hr managers’ struggle for legitimacy. international journal of human resource management, 30(13), 2026–2048. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1314974 javadi, m., & zarea, k. (2016). understanding thematic analysis and its pitfall. journal of client care, 1(1), 34–40. https://doi.org/10.15412/j.jcc.02010107 kipfelsberger, p., & kark, r. (2018). ‘killing me softly with his/her song’: how leaders dismantle followers’ sense of work meaningfulness. frontiers in psychology, 9, 654. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00654 laguda, e. (2020). toxic leadership: managing its poisonous effects on employees and organizational outcomes, in s. dhiman (ed.), the palgrave handbook of workplace well-being (p. 31). springer. lipman-blumen, j. (2005). the allure of toxic leaders: why followers rarely escape their clutches. ivey business journal, 69(3), 1–40. retrieved from https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/the-allure-of-toxic-leaders-why-followers-rarely-escape-their-clutches/ marchington, m. (2015). human resource management (hrm): too busy looking up to see where it is going longer term? human resource management review, 25(2), 176–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.01.007 mathieu, c., & babiak, p. (2016). corporate psychopathy and abusive supervision: their influence on employees’ job satisfaction and turnover intentions. personality and individual differences, 91, 102–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.12.002 mehta, s., & maheshwari, g.c. (2014). toxic leadership: tracing the destructive trail. international journal of management, 5(10), 18–24. retrieved from www.jifactor.com mergen, a. & ozbilgin, m. (2020). understanding the followers of toxic leaders: toxic illusio and personal uncertainty. international journal of management reviews, 23(1), 45–63. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12240 milosevic, i., maric, s., & loncar, d. (2019). defeating the toxic boss: the nature of toxic leadership and the role of followers. journal of leadership and organizational studies, 27(2), 117–137. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051819833374 mokgolo, m. (2017). workplace bullying: a human resource practitioner perspective. unpublished phd thesis. university of south africa. retrieved from http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/23848/thesis_mokgolo_mm.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y mokgolo, m., & barnard, a. (2019). buridan’s ass syndrome: dilemma of the human resources practitioner in workplace bullying. sa journal of human resource management, 17(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1124 neves, p., & schyns, b. (2018). with the bad comes what change? the interplay between destructive leadership and organizational change. journal of change management, 18(2), 91–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697017.2018.1446699 nevicka, b., de hoogh a., den hartog, d.n., & belschak, f. (2018). narcissistic leaders and their victims: followers low on self-esteem and low on core self-evaluations suffer most. frontiers in psychology, 9, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00422 o’boyle, e.h., forsyth, d.r., banks, g.c., story, p.a., & white, c.d. (2014). a meta-analytic test of redundancy and relative importance of the dark triad and five factor model of personality. jepson school of leadership studies articles, book chapters and other publications, p. 158. retrieved from http://scholarship.richmond.edu/jepson-faculty-publications/158 o’brien, e., & linehan, c. (2014). a balancing act: emotional challenges in the hr role. journal of management studies, 51(8), 1257–1285. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12098 otto, k., thomson, b., & rigotti, t. (2018). when dark leadership exacerbates the effects of restructuring. journal of change management, 18(2), 96–115. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697017.2018.1446691 padilla, a., hogan, r., & kaiser, r.b. (2007). the toxic triangle: destructive leaders, susceptible followers, and conducive environments. leadership quarterly, 18(3), 176–194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2007.03.001 parkes, c., & davis, a.j. (2013). ethics and social responsibility – do hr professionals have the ‘courage to challenge’ or are they set to be permanent ‘bystanders?’. international journal of human resource management, 24(12), 2411–2434. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.781437 rauthmann, j.f., gallardo-pujol, d., guillaume, e.m., todd, e., nave, c.s., sherman, r.a., ziegler, m., jones, a.b., & funder, d.c. (2014). the situational eight diamonds: a taxonomy of major dimensions of situation characteristics. journal of personality and social psychology, 107(4), 677–718. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037250 reimer, d., feuerstein, h., meighan, s., & kelly, s. (2017). it’s time for a second playbook: hr’s leadership role in transformation. people and strategy, 40(3), 14–18. retrieved october 26, 2018, from http://www.merryck.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/it%e2%80%99s-time-for-a-second-playbook.pdf nyberg, a. (2016). destructive leadership – processes and consequences. in j. romanowska, a. nyberg, & t. theorell (eds.), developing leadership and employee health through the arts (pp. 55–97). springer international publishing. ritchie, j., & lewis, j. (eds.) (2003). qualitative research practice: a guide for social science students and researchers. sage. retrieved from https://epdf.tips/qualitative-research-practice-a-guide-for-social-science-students-and-researcher.html roter, a.b. (2017). understanding and recognising dysfunctional leadership. routledge. schmid, e.a., verdorfer, a.p., & peus, c.v. (2018). different shades – different effects? consequences of different types of destructive leadership. frontiers in psychology, 9, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01289 sharma, g. (2017). pros and cons of different sampling techniques. international journal of applied research, 3(7), 749–752. retrieved from https://www.allresearchjournal.com/archives/?year=2017&vol=3&issue=7&part=k shufelt, j.w., & longenecker, c.o. (2017). practical lessons learned for dealing with toxic leaders and bad bosses. military review, 2, 2–10. retrieved from https://www.armyupress.army.mil/journals/military-review/online-exclusive/2017-online-exclusive-articles/practical-lessons/ simões, e., duarte, a.p., neves, j., & silva, v.h. (2018). contextual determinants of hr professionals’ self-perceptions of unethical hrm practices. european journal of management and business economics, 28(1), 90–108. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejmbe-12-2017-0062 singh, n., dev, s., & sengupta, s. (2017). perceived toxicity in leaders: through the demographic lens of subordinates, in procedia computer science (pp. 114–121). elsevier b.v. thanh, n., & thanh, t. (2015). the interconnection between interpretivist paradigm and qualitative methods in education. american journal of educational science, 1(2), 24–27. retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/79e6/888e672cf2acf8afe2ec21fd42a29b2cbd90.pdf thoroughgood, c.n., padilla, a., hunter, s.t., & tate, b. (2012). the susceptible circle: a taxonomy of followers associated with destructive leadership. the leadership quarterly, 23(5), 897–917. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2012.05.007 ulrich, d., brockbank, w., johnson, d., sandholtz, k., & younger, j. (2008). hr competencies. the society for human resource management. ulrich, d., & dulebohn, j.h. (2015). are we there yet? what’s next for hr. human resource management review, 25(2), 188–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.01.004 ulrich, d., kryscynski, d., ulrich, m. & brockbank, w. (2017). competencies for hr professionals who deliver outcomes. employment relations today, 44(2), 37–44. https://doi.org/10.1002/ert.21623 vaismoradi, m. jones, j. turunen, h., & snelgrove, s. (2016). theme development in qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis. journal of nursing education and practice, 6(5), 100–110. https://doi.org/10.5430/jnep.v6n5p100 webster, v., brough, p., & daly, k. (2016). fight, flight or freeze: common responses for followers coping with toxic leadership. stress and health, 32(4), 346–354. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2626 wu, m., peng, z., & estay, c. (2018). how role stress mediates the relationship between destructive leadership and employee silence: the moderating role of job complexity. journal of pacific rim psychology, 12, e19. https://doi.org/10.1017/prp.2018.7 abstract introduction talent management job satisfaction research methodology results of the study discussion recommendations implication for theory implication for policy and practice limitations and suggestions for future research contribution of the study acknowledgements references about the author(s) george l. dzimbiri department of business management, school of business and economic sciences, malawi university of business and applied sciences, blantyre, malawi alex molefi department of industrial psychology, faculty of industrial psychology and human resource management, north-west university, mafikeng, south africa citation dzimbiri, g.l., & molefi, a. (2021). the impact of talent management on job satisfaction of registered nurses in malawian public hospitals. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1513. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1513 original research the impact of talent management on job satisfaction of registered nurses in malawian public hospitals george l. dzimbiri, alex molefi received: 11 nov. 2020; accepted: 01 june 2021; published: 23 aug. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: job satisfaction is the paramount tool to gauge whether employees are willing to stay or leave an organisation. talent management as a key aspect of human resources management has a fundamental role to play in ensuring that employees are satisfied with their work so that they can stay within the organisation. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to establish the impact of talent management on job satisfaction of registered nurses in public hospitals of malawi. motivation for study: there is a need for scientific knowledge concerning the connection between talent management and job satisfaction of registered nurses in public hospitals of malawi as limited studies have been conducted in the malawian context despite the nursing profession witnessing a dire voluntary attrition of nurses leading to severe shortages of nurses. research approach/design and method: the study uses a quantitative design by way of a cross sectional survey method to determine the impact of talent management practices on job satisfaction of registered nurses. data were collected from a sample of 834 registered nurses from the four main public hospitals of malawi that were purposively selected. an adapted version of minnesota job satisfaction questionnaire (msq) combined with human capital index questionnaire was administered to 834 nurses. finally, 580 responses were found to be acceptable for analysis. main findings: the findings of the study demonstrate that talent management practices do not contribute towards job satisfaction of registered nurses in malawian public hospitals. regression analysis indicated that amongst nine elements of talent management practices, the predictors that are most effective in predicting the job satisfaction of registered nurses include, staffing, talent development and talent deployment. practical/managerial implication: the results of this study underscore the problematic nature of implementing talent management practices in public hospitals of malawi. management of public hospitals should appreciate these results as poor talent management practices can reduce job satisfaction among employees. contribution/value add: the findings, therefore, add to the body of knowledge on how talent management practices can contribute to job satisfaction. keywords: talent management; job satisfaction; nursing; public; hospitals; registered nurses; malawi. introduction job satisfaction has been of great importance to both individuals and organisations for many years, and this holds true also for healthcare organisations. it can, therefore, be observed that job satisfaction can be conceived as one of the imperative considerations concerning nurses working in hospitals (anlesinya, amponsah-tawiah, & dartey-baah, 2019). most importantly, talent management is one of the fundamental tools that human resources personnel use to hone employees’ satisfaction in the 21st century (skinner, madison, & humphries, 2017). employees are a more pivotal resource than any other resources such as capital and physical resources for organisations to survive in a globally competitive and technologically advanced environment (dzimbiri, 2016). the literature suggests that talent management is one of the pivotal factors in job satisfaction (khatun, akter, muhammad, & chowdhury, 2018). an upsurge in employees’ satisfaction leads to a large value and benefits for organisations and their workforces. talent management that encourages employee satisfaction prevents competent employees from leaving the organisation as this could have adverse effects on performance and service delivery (hafez, abouelneel, & elsaid, 2017; ozuem, lancaster, & sharma, 2016). this is inconsonant with the international nursing literature that views job satisfaction as a major contributory factor for employees’ intent to stay (crowley-henry, benson, & al ariss, 2018; mousa & ayoubi, 2019). the malawian government has been committed to providing support to the healthcare system for the attainment of universal health coverage and quality life for malawians. thus, the government not only effected the emergency human resource programme (ehrp), which augmented the number of health workers in 11 priority cadres from 5453 to 8369 between 2004 and 2009, but also implemented a variety of talent management strategies to improve availability, retention and performance of human resources for health (hrh, 2016). accordingly, initiatives such as career schemes, improvement of professional opportunities, free post-graduate training, free hot meals for night duty staff in hospitals and over-time pay were implemented in the healthcare system (hrh, 2016). however, the malawian nursing profession continues to face various challenges, most crucially, a shortage of registered nurses because of voluntary attrition amidst perhaps insufficient talent management practices (hrh, 2018). some estimates indicate that malawi’s nursing profession suffers a significant attrition rate of 3% per annum (hrh, 2018). yet, it is evident in studies of other countries that the application of talent management practices may contribute towards employee satisfaction, and satisfied workforces tend to stay in an organisation (ingram, 2016; othman & sumardi, 2014). this reality clearly demonstrates that the job satisfaction of registered nurses is of paramount importance, because of its direct impact on the quality of nursing care and because it is evident that inadequate number of nurses affect patient care (khatun et al., 2018; lindfors, meretoj, kaunonen, & paavilainen, 2017). this is indicative of the fact that hospital management in conjunction with the government needs to consider carefully implemented strategies such as talent management practices to increase the job satisfaction levels of nurses in public hospitals. it is therefore imperative to determine the impact of talent management on job satisfaction amongst registered nurses in malawi’s public hospitals to determine how talent management has a bearing on job satisfaction of these nurses in the malawian context. talent management and job satisfaction have been extensively studied in the global context (awan & muhammad, 2016; hamidi, saberi & safari, 2014; kamal & lukman, 2017; tash, ali, & ahmadzedeh, 2016). results suggest that talent management considerably affects job satisfaction whilst correlation analysis reveals that talent management is positively correlated with job satisfaction of employees in various contexts. however, very little academic research has been conducted on the impact of talent management on job satisfaction, particularly within the malawian context. this study establishes the impact of talent management on the job satisfaction levels of registered nurses in public hospitals of malawi. the study makes numerous insights. firstly, the context is an important contribution of this study in the sense that the relationship between talent management and job satisfaction was tested within the malawian context and this has not been performed before; hence more information was obtained to validate the adapted instruments. secondly, the study is imperative for accountability as it helps the in-depth understanding of nurses about the talent management practices being implemented and be able to hold their authorities accountable regarding how they should be implemented. thirdly, the study is also necessary for advocacy as it helps to advance and promote how talent management practices should be implemented to support best practices in public hospitals. apart from this introduction, the article provides a theoretical review of talent management and job satisfaction, respectively, and an analysis of their relationship. subsequently, it presents a research approach and methods before presenting results and discussion. thereafter, it presents the conclusion and, finally, the recommendations. talent management the talent management concept has been defined differently by both academics and practitioners. what emerges, therefore, is that different disciplines have defined talent management differently, so that a common definition and meaning is not agreed upon. according to ramli, isa, baharin and ibrahim (2018), talent management is deemed as the systematic attraction, identification, development, engagement, retention and deployment of those employees who are of particular value to an organisation, either given their high potentials for the future or because they are fulfilling business or operation-critical roles. this implies that talent management comprises deliberately set management activities and practices established by the organisation to retain, maintain, sustain and attract an exceptional workforce for high organisational productivity. obinna (2015) considered talent management as a process that encompasses four variables, namely talent identification, talent development, talent utilisation and talent retention. in a similar vein, salvador, fernandez and maria (2017) viewed talent management as the process of recruiting, involving, enhancing, retaining and deploying talents. according to tyskbo (2019), talent management is a process that includes a complete and interrelated set of organisational activities such as identifying, selecting, developing and retaining the best employees, as well as building their potential for the most strategic positions and assisting them in applying their strengths to gain their engagement and contribution, which ultimately contribute towards organisational benefits (devi, 2017). a conclusion from the definitions can be made, therefore, that talent management involves a range of systematic interrelated activities, and their effective application within the organisation with the purpose of yielding a competitive advantage. literature has widely highlighted the benefits of talent management at different levels. most importantly, talent management helps an organisation to retain potential talent in an organisation. similarly, talent management practices can serve as important instruments to facilitate the achievement of employee outcomes such as retention, commitment, organisational citizenship behaviour, performance, motivation, job satisfaction and work engagement (king, 2015; ramli, isa, baharin, & ibrahim, 2018; wahba, 2015). it can also create various organisational outcomes such as employer attractiveness, quality service delivery, creation of appealing employer brand, competitive advantage and financial performance, as well as macro-level outcomes like industry and national competitiveness and the achievement of sustainable development goals (almeida, fernando, & munoz, 2019; stoffers & van der heijden, 2014; whysall, owtram, & brittain, 2019). according to mohamed (2017), talent management has positive effects on talented employees’ performance and negative effect on counterproductive behaviours in the ghanaian banking industry. similarly, mensah and bawole (2017) suggested that talent management does not only have a direct effect, but also an indirect effect on talented employees’ affective commitment and decreased quit intentions via person–job fit working in selected parastatal institutions in ghana. furthermore, studies performed in south africa found that talent management practices are used to retain talents in the parastatal institution in the aviation sector (ngozwana & rugimbana, 2011). this finding also supports the findings of a study by plessis, barkhuizen, stanz and schutte (2015), which showed that talent management practices are negatively related to intention to quit in the south african recruitment industry. in previous studies conducted in other continents on the impact of talent management on job satisfaction, results show that talent management significantly affects job satisfaction whilst correlation analysis showed that talent management is positively correlated with job satisfaction of employees in various contexts (awan & muhammad, 2016; hamidi, saberi, & safari, 2014; kamal & lukman, 2017; tasha, ali, & ahmadzadeh, 2016). similarly, a study in south africa reveals that employees included in the organisational talent pool reported higher relational and transactional psychological contract, organisational commitment, organisational citizenship behaviour, trust and the intention to stay with organisations compared to non-talent pool members. furthermore, studies performed in south africa found that talent management practices are used to retain talents in parastatal institutions in the aviation sector (ngozwana & rugimbana, 2011). this finding also supports du plessis et al.’s (2015) finding that shows that talent management practices are negatively related to intention to quit in the south african recruitment industry. additionally, plessis et al. (2015) conducted a study on the management side of talent management, exploring causal implications for the retention of generation y employees. the findings indicate that perceived organisational support is significantly related to talent management practices, perceived supervisor support and intention to quit. furthermore, barkhuizen (2014) performed a study on the relevance of talent management in south african local government institutions, and found that talent management practices are poorly applied in local government institutions. at the organisational level, maheshwari et al. (2017) indicated that in the banking sector in mauritius, effective talent management can attract the best talent which will, in turn, help to create a distinct competitive advantage for the firm and enhance their employer branding and employer attractiveness. mousa and ayoubi (2019) found that exclusive talent management has a significant effect on organisational downsizing, whereas inclusive talent management has an insignificant effect. relatedly, with a study on the egyptian architecture, engineering and construction (aec) industry, othman and khalil (2018a) revealed that talent management reduces demotivation, but does not significantly influence the creativity of architectural firms. in another context, nafei (2015) indicateed that talent management positively affects a firm’s service quality performance. thus, it is obvious that talent management can improve various firm-level outcomes. in addition, there have been empirical studies on the concept and practice of talent management in kenya. one of the informative studies was carried out by mukweyi (2016) on the influence of talent management practices at kijabe mission hospital. the results show that talent management practices had a positive impact on the retention of health workers. similarly, mwanzi, wamitu and kiama (2017) conducted a study on the influence of talent management on organisational growth of a private hospital. the findings show that talent identification is important for organisational growth, because in order to effectively nurture and manage talent, organisations need to be able to identify the right talent and provide a suitable environment for talent utilisation. drawn from the empirical studies highlighted in the global contexts, the researcher has observed that there has been much progress on talent management studies in the african context; however, there is still a need for more research in various african contexts because talent management practices are applied differently in different contexts and consequently impact employees differently. according to the researcher’s best knowledge, there is no similar research study that was conducted in the context of a malawian nursing profession regarding talent management and its impact on job satisfaction of professional nurses in the public hospitals of malawi. therefore, this academic research seeks to bridge that gap in the literature with the aim of advancing knowledge of talent management and its impact on job satisfaction, especially in the malawian context. job satisfaction job satisfaction is a complex and multifaceted concept that has multiple meanings to different scholars. according to kumar and manisha (2018), job satisfaction is viewed as a worker’s emotional state of accomplishment and achievement on the work. generally, it is argued that job satisfaction is associated with production as well as the health of individuals at work. in other words, job satisfaction involves what employees enjoy doing, doing it perfectly and being rewarded for one’s efforts. it could also mean enthusiasm and being happy with one’s work. this implies that job satisfaction is a key factor leading to income, recognition, promotion and attainment of other goals that lead to a sense of fulfilment. according to thanh and nguyen (2016), job satisfaction is the sum total of emotions, feelings, views and beliefs that people hold of their present jobs. the levels of people’s job satisfaction can range from extreme satisfaction to extreme dissatisfaction. besides having perceptions and attitudes about one’s job as a whole, employees can also have attitudes about various aspects of their jobs, such as the kind of jobs they do, their fellow employees, their managers or subordinates and their salaries. in addition to these, other aspects related to attitudes include the kind of work they do, their co-workers, supervisors or subordinates and their pay (nguyen, 2016). therefore, job satisfaction involves the state of mind and attitude that employees have at their workplace. when employees have an affirmative and good attitude towards their jobs, it is a sign of job satisfaction (ariana, soleimanib, & oghazianc, 2018). on the other hand, when employees develop an unfavourable attitude towards their jobs, it is an indication of job dissatisfaction (ariana et al., 2018). kahiga (2018) pointed out that job satisfaction is crucial within an organisation, because there are many consequences associated with job dissatisfaction. these, amongst others, include a lack of loyalty, an increased number of accidents and increased absenteeism. to achieve the benefits of job satisfaction within an organisation, kahiga (2018) listed three important features of job satisfaction that organisations need to take into consideration. firstly, organisations should make sure that they are guided by human values, in the sense that they should prioritise treating employees equally and with respect. thus, an analysis of job satisfaction can serve as a good indication of worker effectiveness. when levels of job satisfaction are high, this may also indicate a good emotional and mental state of workers. secondly, the behaviour of workers, depending on the level of job satisfaction, tends to influence the activities and the functioning of the organisation. given this, job satisfaction tends to cause positive behaviour whilst job dissatisfaction causes negative behaviour amongst workers. thirdly, job satisfaction is a sign of organisational activities in the sense that with job satisfaction assessments, various levels of satisfaction in various company units can be explained, but in return can serve as a good indication of which organisational unit should be changed with the aim of increasing productivity (kahiga, 2018). from the foregoing literature review, the following hypothesis is derived: h1: there is a positive relationship between talent management and job satisfaction. research methodology the study employed quantitative research design using a cross-sectional survey strategy. according to cooper and schindler (2013), a cross-sectional survey design is well-suited to the descriptive and predictive functions associated with correlational research, whereby relationships between variables are examined. population and sample the target population of the study was registered nurses in the four central hospitals of malawi, namely, queen elizabeth central hospital, zomba central hospital, kamuzu central hospital and mzuzu central hospital. a purposive sampling technique was used to select the four central hospitals because they constitute a larger number of registered nurses than other public hospitals in malawi (moh, 2018). the respondents for each hospital were selected by way of a simple random sampling where every subject had every chance of being selected. using the cochran formula (1963), a sample of 834 nurses were drawn from a population of 8334 registered nurses, at 95% confidence level and a marginal error of 3%. data collection the study relied on primary data. the primary data were collected using self-administered questionnaires. an adapted version of short form of the minnesota job satisfaction (msq) was utilised to measure the impact of talent management on job satisfaction of registered nurses in public hospitals of malawi and talent management was measured by using the human capital index questionnaire. an adapted questionnaire of short form of the minnesota job satisfaction (msq) was utilised in order to include all items that were considered relevant to public hospitals of malawi. the questionnaire had two sections. the first part was the ‘introduction’, a section showing demographic information of the participants. the second part was the ‘research design section’, the section which dealt with registered nurses’ perception regarding the nine elements of talent management impacting job satisfaction. these were strategy, talent review process, staffing, talent acquisition, talent engagement, talent development, talent deployment, performance management and talent retention. the reliability of this tool was already confirmed in many studies in south africa (barkhuizen & veldsman, 2012). the short form of msq comprised of 20 items (1 item per aspect) partitioned into intrinsic and extrinsic job contexts. the items were adapted to reflect the impact of talent management on job satisfaction of professional nurses in a way that the original items were not distorted. nine hundred and forty-seven questionnaires were administered to respondents for a period of 3 months and 598 questionnaires were returned. out of these responses, only 580 responses representing a response rate of 61.2% were useful for analysis. ethical considerations permission to carry out research was sought from the north-west university and directors of selected public hospitals in malawi through their research ethics committees for their approval before carrying out the research process. questionnaires were distributed randomly and manually by giving them to the participants in the hand after a comprehensive explanation of the purpose of the research. the participants took part in the study voluntarily and the confidentiality and anonymity of the subjects were respected. data management the data were manually coded, cleaned and captured in excel sheet before imported into stata version-16.1 statistical software for analysis. the data summaries were generated in order to produce frequencies tables, bar graphs and percentages. the reliability of the measuring instruments was determined by using cronbach alpha coefficients. the validity was confirmed using confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) through structural equation modelling (sem). the adequacy of the sample was confirmed using the kaiser mayer olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy as a prerequisite for conducting cfa. factorability of the correlation matrix was checked using bartlett’s test of sphericity. results of the study demographic information the study participants were mostly female, over half (66.6%), and 33.4% of them were males. less than half of the respondents (42.2%) were in the age group of between 25 and 30 years of age. in terms of their marital statuses, it was observed that 53.8% of the respondents were married. most participants were educated up to diploma (55.6%) and it was also observed that 44.8% of them were in middle management whilst 30.5% of the respondents were in the lower management. furthermore, about half of the respondents (55.2%) had less than 6 years of work experience whilst 16.9% of the respondents had less more than 11 years of work experience. reliability analysis the cronbach alpha coefficients were used to determine the reliability of the measuring instrument. when the alpha is 0.70 or higher, it is considered acceptable in most social research situations (cheng, 2013; perrin, 2014; phomnuisuk & omar, 2016). results indicated that the overall cronbach’s alpha was greater than 0.9 (table 1), implying that the items of the short form of the minnesota job satisfaction questionnaire (msq) were excellently reliable and hence there was no need to drop items to improve reliability. besides, all the corrected item-total correlation values were above 0.3. according to gliner, morgan and leech (2011), such values are good and pointed out that none of the items should be dropped from analysis. table 1: item-total statistics for minnesota job satisfaction questionnaire. the factorability of the 20 items of msq was also examined and the kmo was found to be greater than 0.7 indicating sampling adequacy, and factor analysis was, therefore, useful with msq (gliner et al., 2011; scott & nahamin, 2017). bartlett’s test of sphericity was also significant (χ2 [190] = 6720.306, p < 0.01), hence the items were factorable (elmi et al., 2017; gliner et al., 2011). likewise, cfa was also conducted and based on kaiser’s rule of eigenvalues greater than 1, three factors from msq were retained and were further explored to establish construct for job satisfaction. firstly, three factors together account for 61.065% of the total. the study adopted benchmarks for interpreting fit indices from hooper, coughlan and mullen (2008). results indicate that the standardised root mean squared residual (srmr = 6.598) was above the cut-off of 0.08 (table 2). the comparative fit index was low (cfi = 0.678). cfi values of 0.90 or above are considered evidence of acceptable fit (hooper, coughlan & mullen, 2008). the root mean squared error of approximation (rmsea) value (0.14) was large (> 0.08). all indices indicated a poor model fit to the data. table 2: confirmatory factor analysis for job satisfaction. results that indicated coefficient estimates were statistically significant (p < 0.001) as shown (table 3). all individual items (job satisfaction 1 to job satisfaction 20) were positive and important to explain the relationship between talent management and job satisfaction through the components; work itself, salary and welfare and interpersonal relationship, hence none of the paths were dropped from the model as the proposed components were valid (yung, 2010). table 3: path coefficients. results show that overall, 47% of participants were neutral about talent management contribution on job satisfaction (figure 1). a total of 32.5% and 6% of participants were dissatisfied and very dissatisfied, respectively. and, 13.8% of them indicated being satisfied with the contribution of talent management to job satisfaction and less than 1% of the participants were very satisfied. figure 1: overall participant’s responses regarding the impact of talent management on job satisfaction. discussion the aim of the study was to determine the impact of talent management on job satisfaction of registered nurses in public hospitals of malawi. the results are discussed according to the hypothesis set for the study: h1: there is a positive relationship between talent management and job satisfaction. the results of the study were not consistent with the hypothesis and literature as a significant percentage of respondents, however, felt dissatisfied with the contribution of talent management to job satisfaction. it is worth noting that various studies in literature have demonstrated positive relationship between talent management and job satisfaction (bhatnagar, 2007; ingram, 2016; schreuder & noorman, 2019; shalonda, 2019; sinclair-maragh, jacobs-gray, & brown-roomes, 2017). in view of the findings of the study, the hypothesis set for the study was rejected. recommendations based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations are made to public hospitals. it is recommended that management should be committed to talent management by making sure that talent management systems of public hospitals are embedded in their strategic plans at the same time, and there is a need to commit adequate resources towards the talent management system. management should also foster effective talent management practices for health workers, particularly registered nurses in order to advance their job satisfaction. management of public hospitals, therefore, needs to recognise the critical role that effective talent management has towards job satisfaction and affect them accordingly in public hospitals of malawi. implication for theory this study contributes to the impact of talent management practices on job satisfaction in public hospitals of malawi. limited studies have been performed in this area, therefore the research provides additional awareness about this occurrence. the results of the study contribute to talent management and job satisfaction. the study advances an understanding of how registered nurses are satisfied with the existing talent management practices within the public hospitals of malawi. implication for policy and practice the study has revealed the problematic nature of talent management practices such as poor talent strategy, staffing levels, retention strategies and performance management. management of public hospitals can utilise these results to manage talented nurses in order to enhance their job satisfaction. furthermore, the study has highlighted the need for talent management practices such as strategy, talent review process, staffing, talent deployment, talent development, performance management and talent retention in public hospitals as they impact positively on job satisfaction. for hospitals to advance job satisfaction of their health workers, particularly, registered nurses, they must abandon the traditional way of handling talented nurses. the study assisted in fostering systematic talent management practices implementation by making sure that talent management systems of public hospitals are embedded in their strategic plans as well as committing adequate resources towards the talent management system. limitations and suggestions for future research the study employed a cross-sectional survey design which bounds the study in terms of producing cause and effect inferences over the long period of time. furthermore, the study was conducted in public hospitals particularly central hospitals of malawi only, as such the findings cannot be generalised to other public and private hospitals. the other limitation was to do with the unit of study that focused on registered nurses only. this deprived study provides the opportunity of obtaining different views from other health workers such as doctors, hospital administrators, clinicians and dentists. future research might consider a comparative study on talent management and its impact on job satisfaction for private nurses and public hospital nurses. future studies should consider incorporating all health workers. contribution of the study there have been few studies performed on the relationship between talent management and job satisfaction. the findings of this study therefore add significantly to the body of knowledge on talent management and job satisfaction. the results of this study also add to the understanding of the nature of nurses’ talent management practices which could assist public hospitals in managing it. it further provides a better understanding of the nurses’ talent management practices and their impact on job satisfaction. this could benefit the health sector as a whole. conclusion the purpose of this study was to determine talent management and its impact on job satisfaction of registered nurses. a review of literature showed a gap within the body of knowledge with regard to the nurses’ job satisfaction. the finding of the study was that talent management practices did not contribute to job satisfaction of registered nurses. the results further revealed the problematic nature of implementing talent management practices in public hospitals. hence, management of public hospitals should pay particular attention to effective talent management of nurses as it advances job satisfaction. acknowledgements the author would like to acknowledge the north-west university ems-research committee and committee on social science and humanities of malawi for issuing ethical clearance certificates and the management of central hospitals for granting permission, and the research assistants for their dedication. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions g.l.d. was involved in the conceptualisation, methodology, data collection, analysis of the study, writing, review and editing. a.m. was involved in supervision and review. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data are put in such a way that names of the respondents are not disclosed, hence the use of accession codes, and about two figures have included the raw data and there is no any restriction to data availability. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references almeida, b., shamika, n., fernando, k., mario, f., & munoz, a. (2019). retaining health carers: the role of personal and organisation job resources. journal of organizational effectiveness: people and performance, 16(2), 98–113. https://doi.org/10.1108/joepp-06-2018-0036 ariana, m., soleimanib, m., & oghazianc, m. (2018). job satisfaction and the factors affecting satisfaction in nurse educators: a systematic review. journal of professional nursing, 13(5), 102–122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2018.07.004 awan, a., & muhammad, h. (2016). talent management practices and their impact on job satisfaction of employees: a case study of banking sector in pakistan. science international (lahore), 28(4), 39–43. barkhuizen, n. (2014). how relevant is talent management in south africa local government institutions? mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(20), 2223. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p2223 barkhuizen, n., & verdsman, s. (2012). work engagement of academic staff in south african higher education institutions: management dynamics. journal of southern africa institute for management scientists, 15(1), 38. bhatnagar, j. (2007). talent management strategy employee engagement in india ites employees: key to retention. employee relations, 29(6), 640–663. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425450710826122 cheng, y. (2013). statistical analysis of human growth and development (1st ed.). new york, ny: chapman and hall/crc press. cooper, j., & schindler, w. (2013). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4 ed.). los angeles, ca: sage. crowley-henry, a., benson, m., & al ariss, a. (2018). linking talent management to traditional and boundaryless career orientations: research propositions and future directions. european management review, 16(1), 5–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12304 devi, a. (2017). the influence of human resource management on knowledge sharing and innovation in spain: the mediating role of affective commitment. the international journal of human resources management, 22(7), 1442–1463. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.561960 dzimbiri, l.b. (2016). organisation and management theories: an african focus (2nd ed.) zomba: academic book publishers. elm, s., hassankhan, h., abdollahzadeth, f., abadi, m.a.j., scott, j., & nahamin, m. (2017). validity and reliability of the persian practice environment scale of nursing work index. iranian journal of nursing and midwifery research, 22(2), 106. https://doi.org/10.4103/1735-9066.205953 gliner, j.a., morgan, g.a., & leech, n.l. (2011). research methods in applied settings: an integrated approach to design and analysis. routledge: oxford university press. hafez, e., abouellneel, r., & elsaid, e. (2017). an exploratory study on how talent management affects employee retentions and job satisfaction for personnel administration in ain shams university. journal of management and strategy, 8(4), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.5430/jms.v8n4p1 hamidi, n., saberi, h., & safari, m. (2014). the effect of implementation of talent management on job satisfaction governmental organizations * (case study: ministry of roads and urban). journal of novel applied sciences, 3(1), 100–113. hooper, d., coughlan, j., & mullen, m. (2008). structural equation modelling: guidelines for determining model fit. electronic journal of business research methods, 6(1), 53–60. hrh. (2016). national healthcare quality and disparities report (report no. 18-0033-ef). malawi department of health and human services, lilongwe: government press. hrh. (2018). national healthcare quality and disparities report (report no. 23-0043-ef). malawi department of health and human services, lilongwe: government press. ingram, t. (2016). relationships between talent management and organizational performance: the role of climate for creativity. journal of entrepreneurial business and economics review, 4(3), 195–205. https://doi.org/10.15678/eber.2016.040315 kahinga, k. (2018). factors influencing the job satisfaction of nurses working in obstetric units in public hospitals in kenya. journal of nursing education and practice, 8(2), 132–146. https://doi.org/10.5430/jnep.v8n2p132 kamal, m.y., & lukman, z.m. (2017). the relationship between attracting talent and job satisfaction in selected public higher learning institutions. international journal of management research & review, 7(4), 444–449. https://doi.org/10.5958/2249-7307.2017.00087.1 khatun, r., akter, n., muhammad, f., & chowdhury, a. (2018). job satisfaction among nurses in public and private sector in dhaka city of bangladesh: a comparative study. international journal of community medicine and public health, 5(6), 2177–2181. https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20182141 king, a. (2015). global talent management. journal of global mobility, 3(3), 273–288. https://doi.org/10.1108/jgm-02-2015-0002 kumar, m., & manisha, a. (2018). organisational talent management and perceived employer branding. international journal of organizational analysis, 26(2), 312–330. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoa-04-2017-1147 maheshwari, v., gunesh, p., lodorfos, g., & konstantopoulou, a. (2017). exploring hr practitioners’ perspective on employer branding and its role in organisational attractiveness and talent management. international journal of organizational analysis, 25(5), 742–761. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoa-03-2017-1136 mensah, j.k., & bawole, j.n. (2017). person–job fit matters in parastatal institutions: testing the mediating effect of person–job fit in the relationship between talent management and employee outcomes. international review of administrative sciences, 86(3), 479–495. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852317704501 mohamed, a. (2019). the effect of talent management processes on knowledge creation: a case of australian higher education. an international business journal, 17(4), 248–260. moh. (2018). ministry of health draft health policy. lilongwe: government press. mousa, m., & ayoubi, r.m. (2019). talent management practices: perceptions of academics in egyptian public business schools. journal of management development, 38(10), 833–846. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd-01-2019-0030 mukweyi. (2016). an investigation of the influence of talent management practices on healthcare professionals at kijabe mission hospital in kenya. journal of management development, 24(9), 807–818. mwanzi, k., wamitu, n., & kiama, b. (2017). multiple commitments: a conceptual framework and empirical investigation in a community health service trust. british journal of management, 13(4), 337–357. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00250 nafei, w. (2015). the effects of talent management on service quality: a study on commercial banks in egypt. international business research, 8(4), 41–58. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v8n4p41 ngozwana, k., & rugimbana, r. (2011). assessment of talent retention strategies: the case of a large south african company (csa). african journal of business management, 5(5), 1524–1527. obinna, b. (2015). the task of attraction and retention of academic staff in nigeria universities. journal of management and strategy, 7(2), 27–43. https://doi.org/10.5430/jms.v7n2p9 othman, a.e., & khalil, m.h. (2018). lean talent management: a novel approach for increasing creativity in architectural design firms. journal of engineering, construction and architectural management, 25(10), 1355–1375. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-07-2017-0139 othman, a.e., & sumardi, w.a. (2014). talent management at steel case manufacturing, malaysia: managing high performance. journal of emerald emerging markets case studies, 4(6), 1–10. ozuem, w., lancaster, g., & sharma, h. (2016). in search of the balance between talent management and employee engagement in human resource management. journal of labour relations management, 6(2), 49–62. plessis, l.d., barkhuizen, n., stanz, k., & schutte, n. (2015). the management side of talent: causal implications for the retention of generation y employees. the journal of applied business research, 31(5), 1767–1780. https://doi.org/10.19030/jabr.v31i5.9390 perri, k.m. (2014). principles of evaluation and research for health care programs. london: jones & bartlett publisher. phomnuisuk, s., & omar, s. (2016). computational intelligence in information system. proceeding of the computational intelligence in information systems conference, 3(5), 58–63. ramli, a.a., isa, a., baharin, n.l., & ibrahim, h.i. (2018). the role of talent management in the relationships between employee engagement: a study of glcs. matec web of conferences, 150, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201815005060 salvador, c.a., fernandez, f., & maria, g. (2017). job satisfaction of nurses working in hospital units of northern portugal. revista de enfermagem referência, 4(15), 109–118. https://doi.org/10.12707/riv17043 schreuder, r., & noorman, s. (2019). strategic talent management: creating strategic value by placing top talents in key positions. development and learning in organizations: an international journal, 33(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1108/dlo-09-2018-0120 scott, f., & nahamin, b. (2017). talentship, talent segmentation, and sustainability: a new hr decision science paradigm for a new strategy definition. human resource management, 44(2), 129–136. shalonda, s. (2019). factors influencing job satisfaction of registered nurses working in public hospitals in windhoek, namibia. academy of management journal, 54(4), 779–796. sinclair-maragh, g., jacobs-gray, n., & brown-roomes, n. (2018). a case of talent management practices in motivating fast food service employees. journal of emerald emerging markets case studies, 7(3), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1108/eemcs-07-2016-0153 skinner, v., madison, j., & humphries, j. (2017). job satisfaction of australian nurses and midwives: a descriptive research study. australian journal of advanced nursing, 29(4), 19–27. stoffers, j., & van der heijden, b. (2014). an innovative work behaviour enhancing employability model moderated by age. european journal of training and development, 42(4), 43–163. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejtd-10-2016-0074 tasha, s., ali, m., & ahmadzadeh, m. (2016). the effects of talent management on employees performance in oil jam petrochemical complex (oil jpc): the mediating role of job satisfaction. international journal of economics and finance, 8(6), 226–238. thanh, t., & nguyeh, h. (2016). factors related to job satisfaction of professional nurses, hanoi, vietnam. european scientific journal, 12(23), 401–411. https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2016.v12n23p401 tyskbo, d. (2019). talent management in a swedish public hospital. personnel review, 48(6), 1611–1633. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-05-2018-0158 wahba, m. (2015). talent management practices effect on employee engagement: applied in logistics sector in egypt. in proceedings of annual paris business research conference, 13–14 august 2015, crowne plaza hotel republique, paris. whysall, z., owtram, m., & brittain, s. (2019). the new talent management challenges of industry. journal of management development, 38(2), 118–129. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd-06-2018-0181 yung, z. (2010). talent management of western mncs in china: balancing global integration and local responsiveness. journal of world business, 45(2), 160–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2009.09.013 http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access page 1 of 1 reviewer acknowledgement acknowledgement to reviewers in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for the sa journal of human resource management, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on https:// sajhrm.co.za for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a reviewer. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at https://sajhrm. co.za 2. in your ‘user home’ [https://sajhrm.co.za/ index.php/sajhrm/user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest(s). 3. it is good practice as a reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to the sa journal of human resource management. please do not hesitate to contact us if you require assistance in performing this task. publisher: publishing@aosis.co.za tel: +27 21 975 2602 tel: 086 1000 381 sa journal of human resource management recognises the value and importance of peer reviewers in the overall publication process – not only in shaping individual manuscripts, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank the following reviewers who participated in shaping this volume of the sa journal of human resource management. we appreciate the time taken to perform your review(s) successfully. adi barnard aftab a. memon aisyah p. asrunputri amanda werner andrew jeremiah anita bosch anita j. de bruyn anna-marie pelser anne crafford annelize van niekerk annette j. venter aretha williams arien strasheim ashika maharaj aşkın keser bejoy j. thomas blessing chabaya bouwer jonker bridget m. de villiers calvin m. mabaso catharina e. van hoek cecilia m. schultz chantal olckers chantel harris chris van tonder chris schachtebeck christel marais chux g. iwu cinderella dube colleen j. rigby danie h. du toit desere kokt doret botha elizabeth c. rudolph elrie botha emelda m. petersen eugene p. hontiveros felicity asiedu-appiah frans maloa george mavunga gerda van dijk gerhard h. rabie gerhard bezuidenhout ghada a. el-kot guinevere m. lourens hamza kasim heidi m. le sueur herbert kanengoni ilze swarts jaco van der westhuizen jacques c. myburgh jan c. visagie jannie rossouw jeanine k. pires-putter jenika gobind jennifer c. nzonzo jeremias (mias) de klerk johanna c. diedericks john walsh jolly k. byarugaba joseph e. agolla kakoli sen karen luyt krishna k. govender leigh-anne p. dachapalli lia m. hewitt liezl diedericks liiza gie lizelle rossouw lusanda sekaja lutete c. ayikwa lynette louw magda l. bezuidenhout marissa brouwers marita m. heyns mark h.r. bussin martina kotze masase mokhethi melinde coetzee melissa jacobs molefe maleka mpho d. magau musawenkosi saurombe nadeem malik nadia ferreira nasima m.h. carrim natasha winkler-titus nelesh dhanpat nicky h.d. terblanche nicola wakelin-theron ninad s. jhala nirmal k. betchoo noel j. pearse nontsikelelo d. mtshelwane obianuju e. okeke-uzodike olabanji oni olawale fatoki olorunjuwon m. samuel paul smit petrus nel pfungwa dhliwayo pharny chrysler-fox pierre a. joubert piet c. bester renier steyn rhodrick n. musakuro rob venter roslyn t. de braine shalini srivastav shaun ruggunan shikha vyas-doorgapersad sisinyana h. khunou sonja grobler sumei van antwerpen suneel kumar suvera boodhoo syden mishi tawaziwa wushe thapelo chaacha tinashe t. harry tonja blom verona e. mathews vinessa naidoo vishaal l. lutchman wesley r. pieters willem schurink wiseman ndlovu yvonne du plessis zamokuhle w. shabane http://www.sajhrm.co.za� https://sajhrm.co.za� https://sajhrm.co.za� https://sajhrm.co.za� https://sajhrm.co.za� https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/user https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/user mailto:publishing@aosis.co.za abstract introduction literature review research methodology results discussions practical implications limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) mohammad r. saadatmand department of industrial engineering, k. n. toosi university of technology, tehran, iran nasser safaie department of industrial engineering, k. n. toosi university of technology, tehran, iran mahdieh dastjerdi department of industrial engineering, faculty of engineering, university of tehran, tehran, iran citation saadatmand, m.r., safaie, n., & dastjerdi, m. (2022). presenting a structural model of digitalised talent management in a new age: a case study on the mobile telecommunication industry in iran. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1894. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1894 original research presenting a structural model of digitalised talent management in a new age: a case study on the mobile telecommunication industry in iran mohammad r. saadatmand, nasser safaie, mahdieh dastjerdi received: 01 feb. 2022; accepted: 12 apr. 2022; published: 21 oct. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: digital transformation has changed the process of talent management. traditional models embraced activities and processes that guided the right employee towards the right positions or a broad view of talent management. research purpose: this study aimed to investigate the mediating impact of digitalised process management on relationship between talent management (tm) and organisational performance. motivation for the study: digitalisation in enhanced industries such as mobile telecommunications emphasises agility required to attract talent in a dynamic environment in terms of marketing, competition, et cetera. research approach, design and method: research data were collected through a quantitative approach. the statistical population of participants in this research included 298 managers and specialists in the field of the mobile iranian telecommunications industry. data were collected using a standard questionnaire, the validity of which was assessed based on the validity of content and structure and its reliability through cronbach’s alpha. obtained model was analysed using spss version 26 and smart pls version 3.3.3 software. practical or managerial implications: impact of tm on organisational performance through the mediation of digitalised process management is identified. results show that investments are required to correlate the digitalised process into tm processes to take organisational performance into the digitalisation era. contribution or value-add: this study extends the knowledge about future of the tm process, which is enhanced by digitalisation aspects to support company and organisational performance for achieving and adopting in the digital era. the study also extends digitalisation process by using a structural model to investigate the future of process in mobile telecommunication industry in iran. keywords: digital transformation; tm; industry 4.0 and 5.0; organisational performance; mobile telecommunication industry. introduction today, more than ever, enterprises and factories are faced with changes in technologies. digitalisation, the gig economy, digital transformation and industry 4.0 and 5.0 are popular concepts now. such terms evoke a kind of shift in all aspects of work. changes at work require new skills and competencies, so talent management (tm) must be considered to manage expertise and proficiency. talent management means strategic and end-to-end processes of identifying, getting the right talent onboard and helping them grow to their optimal capabilities while keeping organisational objectives in mind. digital transformation is less about technology and more about people and culture. the technology can be bought, but the ability to acquire a digital future depends on developing a new set of skills, covering the gap between talent supply and demand and preparing the proper potential of talents (frankiewicz & chamorro-premuzic, 2020). it is hard to begin any discussion on the future of tm without considering the impact of the digital economy and paradigm shift in technologies. digitalisation is a kind of disruptive technological achievement that affects business models and operating processes. organisations seek to reshape their processes in line with on-premise technologies such as digital twins (annunziata & biller, 2015), the internet of things (iot) (gallardo-gallardo & collings, 2021), 5g and connected devices (wang, 2020), artificial intelligence and big data (holwerda, 2021), cyber-physical systems, integration (kagermann, helbig, hellinger, & wahlster, 2013), social media and platforms, the blockchain (swan, 2015), everything as a service (xaas), robots and drones, machine learning algorithms (sibgatullina, merzon, & seibgll, 2019), data analytics (gökalp, 2021) and 3d printing. as these technologies have social, technical and managerial impacts on the organisation, they should be managed by a holistic approach. evidently, ongoing technological innovation means that the nature and meaning of work will continue to evolve (connelly, fieseler, cerne, giessner, & wong, 2020; gökalp, kayabay, & gökalp, 2021; li, 2020; verhoef et al., 2021). on the other hand, the global pandemic of coronavirus 2019 (covid-19) impacts work, employees and employment; it has, in general, been unprecedented in modern times (caligiuri, de cieri, minbaeva, verbeke, & zimmermann, 2020; (collings, anthony, nyberg, & wright, 2021). there is no doubt that many of the given changes impacting tm will be major as well, and human resource (hr) professionals need to learn how to manage the human–technology interface (wiblen & marler, 2021). this study aimed to investigate the impact of mediating digitalised process management on the relationship between tm and organisational performance. the article structure consists of the following sections: the literature of the research is reviewed and presented hypotheses in the second section. in the third section, the research model is shown. the fourth section provides the research method and results, and the fifth section discusses findings and conclusions. in the final section, the limitations of the research and suggestions for future research are presented. literature review talent management in the digital age and knowledge-based economy, organisations are looking for the proper resources to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage, and the theory of the firm based on tm hypothesises that talent is the only asset of firms that may provide a basis for sustainable competitive advantage. therefore, organisations should focus on talent and the capabilities derived from talent (rabbi, ahad, kousar, & ali, 2015). the tm process is a new approach to hr that allows organisations to focus seriously on hiring, engaging and developing employees who can contribute to the company’s growth. in essence, this means that the company’s needs are assessed and experts are found who can help with organisational goals to maintain and develop the organisation to meet current and future business requirements. talent management ensures that the right people with the right skills are located at the right organisational functions (baba, 2018). in recent years, with the advent of cloud-based information technology and the tm concept, more terms have emerged, including references to digitalised talent management (dtm), human capital technology, e-talent management and, more broadly, electronic human resource management (hrm), while there is no significant difference between the concepts (wiblen & marler, 2021). what has been proven in studies (table 1) is that the use of technology in tm improves the performance of the organisation. other studies have also confirmed the impact of using technology in tm through talent analysis, which improves strategic hrm and the development of high-performance talent (sivathanu & pillai, 2020). table 1: conclusions of related past articles. attracting in talent management organisations in the digital era change the traditional way of recruiting, selecting and developing skillsets to acquire a new generation of employees (mihalcea, 2017). the cipd report for 2020 shows that organisations are increasingly using technology to attract candidates. the top methods they find useful are using corporate website and professional networking sites such as linkedin. about 68% of organisations use technology to conduct interviews, and more organisations are applying online tests and assessments (35%, up from 23% in 2017). a significant minority (43%) uses applicant tracking systems but are less absorbed by other technologies. based on respondents’ claims, using technology in the recruitment process brought many benefits for them, including increased accessibility for candidates, an agile recruitment process and improved candidate experience (cipd, 2020a). this study hypothesised that: h1: attracting talent has a positive and significant effect on tm. developing in talent management most organisations apply at least one form of technology to support learning; however, uptake of more emergent technologies remains low, even in larger organisations. a variety of communication and information technologies called learning technologies can be applied to support learning (such as online or mobile learning). based on the cipd report, 79% of organisations apply some form of technology to help with learning and collaboration, the most commonly reported including webinars or virtual classrooms (36%), learning management systems (27%) and open education sources (23%). uptake remains low for more emergent forms of technology to support learning, such as virtual and augmented reality, mobile apps, chatbots, games and animations (cipd, 2020a). the new technologies have created an impact on developing hrs. this study hypothesised that: h2: developing talent has a positive and significant effect on tm. retaining in talent management retention of high-performing employees is a challenging task for hr managers. staff should participate in decision-making and be encouraged to execute their duties. the hr managers deploy ideas to retain their employees such as defining competitive pay structures, providing challenging work, preparing future skills training and giving on-time feedback, rewards and recognition. increasing learning and development opportunities is the most popular step to improve employee retention. increasing pay and improving benefits also remain among the most common approaches used, although public sector organisations (cipd, 2020b) were far less likely to adopt either of these tactics (only 19% of the public sector increased pay and 16% improved benefits). the survey of all sectors has seen a significant increase in the proportion of organisations taking steps to promote retention through revising the way employees are rewarded so their efforts are better recognised (2019: 50%; 2016: 25%). (cipd, 2020b). fewer organisations take steps to improve retention through improving their recruitment and selection processes to ensure the suitability of the candidates they recruit, although 42% took steps to improve their induction and onboarding process (beluchi & nwanisobi, 2020). this study hypothesised that: h3: retaining talent has a positive and significant effect on the tm. transition in talent management talent management is done with the aim of changing the overall staff to achieve the organisational vision. it can be through applying technology to identify and meet the needs of retirees and retirement benefits for employees, conducting exit interviews to identify the causes and analyse the results of organisational exit and staff experience and, finally, applying attention to replacement programmes and internal promotions (legner et al., 2017). this study hypothesised that: h4: transitioning talent has a positive and significant effect on the tm. digitalisation and digital transformation digitalisation is entirely distinct from digital transformation. an organisation might engage in digitalisation activities and projects, including automating processes over it solutions, but digitisation describes the transformation of information into a digital representation (gökalp & veronica, 2020). digital transformation, in fact, is not something that an organisation can implement as a project. instead, this term addresses the special business strategic transformation that requires organisational changes in all aspects through the implementation of digital technologies. in practice, digital transformation depends on the way the organisation copes with change. the organisation should consider change as a core competency because the company evolves towards end-to-end management of its operational processes. the tm forum’s digital maturity model and rabbi et al. (2015) offer a practical approach to transformation. it has been designed over the course of many months by industries as follows: strategy: concentrates on the way the business changes or performs to grow its competitive advantages by using digital initiatives; it has been implanted within the whole business strategy. technology: assures the successful implementation of digital strategy through assistance to produce, process, preserve, protect and exchange data to satisfy customers’ needs at minimum expense and low overhead. operations: apply digital technologies to perform and improve processes and tasks to motivate strategic management and increase business efficiency and effectiveness. culture, people and organisation: determine and promote an organisational culture by governance and talent processes to advocate progressing according to the digital maturity curve and being flexible enough to grow and reach its innovation goals. the main objective of every organisational strategy is to achieve the effectiveness and efficiency of the operation, which could lead the organisation to its mission (dzimbiri & molefi, 2021). in culture, people and organisational approach, tm is one of the pivotal aspects that mainly focuses on how digital transformation views tm and what actions should be undertaken to cover strategy planning, workforce planning, talent acquisition, talent development, digital learning and employee engagement to improve organisational performance. the issue is that digital technology may be the enabler, but it is people and their inherent need to connect that really speed things up. industry 4.0 and 5.0 industry 4.0 is a gradual set of traditional products and industrial practices within the growing world of information technology. this includes using m2m and the iot to help manufacturers and buyers alike to increase automation and improve communication and monitoring, along with self-diagnosis and new levels of analysis for future supply of production loads. service providers and factories are typically increasingly automated and self-monitoring. the fifth generation of mobile infrastructure is a gateway to the digital era, which introduces a new capability to manage everything over the mobile network. the rapid change caused by industry 4.0 resulted in a considerable gap between the existing ability of staff and the evolving necessities of their roles, so the need to find a more innovative approach to tm has become vital (maisiri & van dyk, 2021; schultz, 2021). are machines able to analyse and communicate with their human and colleagues? simultaneously, industry 5.0 predicts the potential of quantum computing that brings humans and machines closer together in the workplace. the fifth industrial revolution is about the use of unique features of artificial intelligence (xun, yuqian, birgit, & lihui, 2020) by employers and employees, who will have more equipment for sensible and well-informed decisions. the fourth and fifth industrial revolutions release hr teams from the bulk of day-to-day management as well. this freedom gives them enough time to adapt to the needs of talent identification and also allows them to focus on the growth and productivity of their organisation. the study hypothesised that: h5: 5g has a positive and significant effect on digitalised process management. h6: artificial intelligence has a positive and significant effect on digitalised process management. h7: iot has a positive and significant effect on digitalised process management. h8: machine learning has a positive and significant effect on digitalised process management. performance of organisation different definitions of organisational performance have been proposed in the previous studies, which applied the construct. through a meta-analysis, it has been suggested that organisational performance should be assessed in financial and operational terms (luo, ying, & stephanie, 2012). organisational performance is sophisticated, empowering the organisation to execute strategies to meet institutional objectives (frank & kweku, 2018). economic performance primarily has financial and market outcomes that assess the profits, sales, return on investment (roi) for shareholders, earning per share (eps) and other financial metrics. operational performance, on the other hand, focuses on customer satisfaction (gong & yi, 2018) and the firm’s hr indexes like retention (maake, harmse, & schultz, 2021), productivity and roi of hr. as can be investigated in the given studies (table 1), most articles address the issues of tm processes with organisational performance in a fragmented manner or assess digitalisation’s impact on tm without a conceptual model. on the other hand, because of the digital evolution in the present age, it is possible to examine new variables that play a key role in the discussion of process management that influence the administration of tm processes. thus, to fill the existing gap, the relationship between tm and organisational performance through digitalisation mediation can be highlighted with several dimensions. therefore, the hypotheses are as follows: h9: organisational performance has a positive and significant effect on decreasing hr leaving. h10: organisational performance has a positive and significant effect on increasing eps. h11: organisational performance has a positive and significant effect on increasing roi. h12: organisational performance has a positive and significant effect on improving customer experience. h13: organisational performance has a positive and significant effect on increasing revenue. h14: tm has a positive and significant effect on organisational performance. h15: tm has a positive and significant effect on digitalised process management. h16: digitalised process management has a positive and significant effect on organisational performance. h17: tm has a positive and significant effect on the overall performance of the organisation by considering the mediating role of digitalised process management strategy. structural model based on the preceding hypothesises, a conceptual model is proposed (figure 1). figure 1: structural model of the research. research methodology research method in this research, in the design stage of the initial conceptual model, a quantitative research strategy has been used. in later stages, by using the method of quantitative content analysis, the conceptual model of the impact of intellectual capital on organisational performance has been determined. the field method has been used to collect data related to the confirmation or refutation of research hypotheses. in the first stage, data collection was performed by tools including books, scientific journals and articles published in this field, and in the second stage, the data were collected through a questionnaire. research design using a quantitative design, this research investigated the mediating impact of digitalised process management on the relationship between tm and organisational performance. research participants the statistical population of the study comprises managers and experts of mobile telecommunication companies. as this article examines the impact of tm on organisational performance with the mediating role of digital process management with a quantitative approach, samples of experts and managers of mobile phone companies in iran (tehran offices) were randomly selected. the demographic information of the research participants is summarised in table 2. table 2: demography of the research. measuring instruments in the questionnaire, the first seven questions were about demographic information, and the rest of the questions were associated with model constructs. the questionnaires were designed in the farsi language, and data were collected in the summer of 2021. the respondents were asked to indicate their opinions on a five-point likert scale ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ (1) to ‘strongly agree’ (5). with respect to the validity of the questionnaire, the researchers relied on previous research (phillips & roper, 2009) conducted in the same field of study to confirm its validity. concerning the reliability of the questionnaire, cronbach’s alpha was applied. research procedure and ethical considerations before starting the research, the authorities of the companies allowed the study to be conducted. the questionnaires were distributed electronically and the confidentiality of the respondents was maintained at all times. sampling to determine a suitable sample size, the cochran formula was helpful: where n is sample size, n is statistical population, z is percentage error of acceptable reliability coefficient, p is the proportion of population with a certain trait, q = (1–p) is the proportion of population without a certain trai and d is optimal degree of certainty or accuracy. according to the formula, to estimate the sample size from a statistical population of 1330 with a population gap of 0.5 (i.e. half of the population has a certain trait and the other half do not have it), instead of p and q, it is considered 0.5 and for z at the level 90% confidence is replaced by the number 1.645. the value of d is a number between 0.01 and 0.1, which is assumed to be 0.05 in this study. therefore, according to the assumptions, the minimum required statistical sample size can be estimated at 298 people (cronbach, 1951). results out of the 338 distributed questionnaires, 298 were fully completed and reviewed by researchers. the analysis involves a measurement model (outer model) and structural model (inner model) to examine the quality of the constructs for evaluating validity and reliability and to investigate the relationships between different model constructs for hypothesis analysis (hair, sarstedt, & hopkins, 2014). measurement model analysis (outer model) reliability and validity must be considered for outer model evaluation. in exploratory researches, all factor loadings are higher than 0.5, which are acceptable, and the value of the alpha coefficient should be 0.7 or more (moazenzadeha & hamidi, 2018). the alpha coefficient values for all variables are above 0.7. similarly, the composite reliability (cr) should be more than 0.7 to be acceptable (mohammadi, 2018). all constructs have a cr of 0.7 or more, which means this condition is satisfied in this study. to check average variance extracted (ave), if each construct has an ave value greater than 0.5, this condition will pass (fornell & larcker, 1981). it has been suggested that the cr value should be greater than the ave to corroborate convergent validity (chavoshi & hamidi, 2019). the ave values for all constructs are greater than 0.5, and for all of them, the cr value is greater than the ave value. based on the results, the convergent validity and reliability of the questionnaire constructs have been concluded. in the next step, discriminant validity was tested through the heterotrait–monotrait (htmt) ratio of correlation and the fornell–larcker criterion by smart pls by using the fornell–larcker method; the square root of the ave compares with the correlation of latent variables. based on this method, the square root of each construct’s ave needed to be greater than the correlations with other latent variables (ab hamid, sami, & sidek, 2017). it has been shown that this condition is met in this research. to confirm the discriminant validity of the model, all ratios inside the htmt matrix should be less than 0.9, and if htmt has a value near 1, there will be a lack of discriminant validity. all ratios in the htmt matrix had a value of less than 0.9. structural model analysis (inner model) it has been suggested that β (path coefficient), r2 (determination coefficient), f2 (effect size) and q2 (predictive relevance) should be assessed to evaluate the structural model. the path coefficients (β) between the constructs, calculated by smart pls, are summarised in table 3. the existence of a relationship, intensity and the direction of the relationship between two latent constructs is determined through the path coefficient. the bootstrapping method was performed using smart pls 3.2.6 to analyse the path correlations, and based on table 3, all t-statistics range from ±1.96 and p-values are less than 0.05, which means all research hypotheses are confirmed. table 3: structural model’s hypotheses. in the literature review, the r2 value application is to make a connection between the measurement and structural components of structural equation modelling, which demonstrates the effect of an independent variable on a dependent variable. the r2 should have a value between 0 and 1, and the higher r2 value indicates the more accurate prediction of the independent variable for the dependent one. if r2 has the value of 0.75, 0.5 and 0.25, the model, respectively, is called substantial, moderate and weak. the r2 values greater than 0.35 indicate a substantial model as well (hair, 2011). figure 2 demonstrates values of β and r2, which imply that the proposed model is substantial. the next step after assessing the hypothesis is to calculate the influence of every independent variable on the dependent ones. the effect of an independent variable on a dependent variable can be computed through the f2 criterion. if f2 takes the values of 0.02, 0.15 and 0.35, the effect size is, respectively, small, medium and large. the q2 criterion, which evaluates the predictiveness power of model relationships, is computed through the blindfolding process of smart pls. the values of 0.02, 0.15 and 0.35 for q2 reveal that the predictive relevance is, respectively, low, medium and high. the value of q2 larger than zero implies the dependent variable has predictive relevance (hair et al., 2014). based on table 4, all predictive relationships are higher than zero. figure 2: values of β and r2 through smartpls estimation. table 4: indicator of model’s predictive relevance. mediating effect analysis the sobel test is used to test the effect of a mediating variable. in the sobel test, a z-value is obtained through the following formula: if this value is greater than 1.96, it can be confirmed at a 95% confidence level that the mediating effect of a variable is significant (sobel, 1982). the results are summarised in table 5: a= the value of the path coefficient between the independent variable and the mediator. b = the value of the path coefficient between the mediator and the dependent variable. s_a = standard error for the path between the independent and mediator variables. s_b = the standard error for the path between the mediator and the dependent variable. table 5: analysis of the mediator estimation. discussions this study showed the effectiveness of digitalised process management as a mediator between tm and organisational performance. the new technologies such as 5g, ai, iot, ml, etc., play a significant role in the digital era to manage hr by changing the traditional way of talent management. the sampled managers and staff in this study were accurate in their agreement about the importance of digitalisation in tm. in addition, with the digitalisation of processes, the performance indicators of the organisation, both financial and non-financial, including increasing eps, roi, revenue and customer experience and decreasing hr attrition, have improved, which indicates the impact of digitalisation in tm processes. mobile companies are affected by new technologies, especially digitalisation. relevant companies in iran are no exception. therefore, this article discussed the positive impact of new technologies on process management, tm and organisational performance. practical implications in this research, the authors examined the effectiveness of dtm in organisational performance. managers and the employees who engage in talent processes that explain digital tm helped them to hire the right people in a more quantified, timely and precise manner. in fact, digitalisation removed the communication gap between various departments such as technical, financial, etc., and the hr department, and they understood each other’s processes clearly. digitalised talent management may be used to run customised offerings, including learning and job opportunities, personalised information intelligence and artificial intelligence that predict what an individual needs: performance monitoring, training, development, etc. besides this, in practice, dtm integrated with mobile telecommunication organisation to understand the related data, which make up a competitive advantage for the organisation. this shows the relationship between tm and organisational performance with mediating digitalised process management. limitations and recommendations the first limitation of this research is the companies under study. the concentration of this research was on managers and staff of offices in tehran. in terms of cultural point of view, attitude, etc., of the people who participated in this research, conducting a comparative study on other mobile companies in other countries or other cities could achieve different results. thus, future research could explore this topic in other companies and other areas and industry sectors. the second limitation was about the complected questionnaire, which could not show the results from reality. furthermore, respondents may answer questions according to their concerns. so, applying up-to-date methods of data collection such as data mining in future research can result in more accurate outputs. moreover, the number of distributed questionnaires was 338 copies, out of which 298 were analysed. logically, a greater number of questionnaires and consequently the collected data can increase the consistency and validity of the output. in future research, the newer and more effective variables can be considered in the suggested conceptual model and their impact can be examined on other variables. for example, other dimensions of digitalisation can be added to the model as new variables. moreover, it is better to study this structural model in different industries. conclusion the relationship between tm structures and organisational performance is confirmed by the output of the articles listed in table 1. also, the relationship between digitalised process management and organisational performance was proved. it is also mentioned in martínez-morán, urgoiti, díez, and solabarrieta (2021), and the outcome of this study confirms the impact of digitalised process management as a mediator between tm and organisational performance. in the present century and in recent years, digital transformation has caused a great change in working processes, employee competencies and these issues in the mobile telecommunications industry; given these factors and considering how the new generations of telecommunications are opening the door to digitalisation, these companies need to take action to adapt to rapid changes in the ratio of review and digitalisation of tm processes. therefore, considering the approval of digitalised process management as a mediator in the relationship between tm and organisational performance, it can be seen that companies operating in this industry in iran can update the relevant processes. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.r.s. developed the idea, methodology, formal analysis, investigation, original draft, visualisation, data curation, theoretical formalism, analytic calculations and numerical simulations. m.d. reviewed and edited the article and dr safaie checked the final draft. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are openly available as reference and within the article. disclaimer that the views expressed in the submitted article are those of the authors and not an official position of the institution or funder. references ab hamid, m.r., sami, w., & sidek, m.m. (2017). discriminant validity assessment: use of fornell & larcker criterion versus htmt criterion. journal of physics: conference series, iop publishing, 890(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/890/1/01216364 aljbour, a., french, e., & ali, m. (2021). an evidence-based multilevel framework of talent management: a systematic review. international journal of productivity and performance management. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-02-2020-0065 annunziata, m., & biller, s. (2015). the industrial internet and the future of work. mechanical engineering, 137(9), 30–35. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.2015-sep-1 baba, m.m. (2018). examining the impact of talent management on organizational trust and employee retention. asian journal of managerial science, 7(1), 46–52. https://doi.org/10.51983/ajms-2018.7.1.1289 beluchi, c., & nwanisobi, i.c.c. (2020). talent management: a conceptual framework with practical approach. international journal of recent research in commerce economics and management (ijrrcem), 7(4), 1–10. caligiuri, p., de cieri, h., minbaeva, d., verbeke, a., & zimmermann, a. (2020). international hrm insights for navigating the covid-19 pandemic: implications for future research and practice. journal of international business studies, 51(5), 697–713. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-020-00335-9 chavoshi, a., & hamidi, h. (2019). social, individual, technological and pedagogical factors influencing mobile learning acceptance in higher education: a case from iran. telematics and informatics, 38, 133–165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2018.09.007 cipd. (2020a). learning and skills at work. cipd. (2020b). resourcing and talent planning survey (p. 6). collings, d.g., nyberg, a.j., wright, p.m., & mcmackin, j. (2021). leading through paradox in a covid-19 world: human resources comes of age. human resource management journal, 31(4), 819–833. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12343. connelly, c., fieseler, c., cerne, m., giessner, s., & wong, s. (2020). working in the digitized economy: hrm theory & practice. human resource management review, 31(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2020.100762 cronbach, l.j. (1951). coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. psychometrika, 16(3), 297–334. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02310555 dzimbiri, g., & molefi, a. (2021). the impact of talent management on job satisfaction of registered nurses in malawian public hospitals. industry 4.0 skills: a perspective of the south african manufacturing industry. sa journal of human resource management, 19, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1513 fornell, c., & larcker, d.f. (1981). evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. journal of marketing research, 18(1), 39–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378101800104 frank, n., & kweku, o. (2018). human resource management (hrm) practices and organizational performance the mediating role of employee competencies. employee relations: the international journal, 41(5), 949–970. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-02-2018-0053 frankiewicz, b., & chamorro-premuzic, t. (2020). digital transformation is about talent, not technology. hbr. retrieved from https://hbr.org/2020/05/digital-transformation-is-about-talent-not-technology gallardo-gallardo, e., & collings, d.g. (2021). talent management for the future of work. in m. santana, & r. valle-cabrera (eds.), new directions in the future of work (pp. 35–54). emerald publishing limited. gökalp, e., arpaci, i., al-emran, m., & al-sharafi, m.a. (2021). leveraging digital transformation technologies to tackle covid-19: proposing a privacy-first holistic framework. emerging technologies during the era of covid-19 pandemic, 348, 149–166. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67716-9_10 gökalp, e., kayabay, k., & gökalp, m.o. (2021). leveraging digital transformation technologies to tackle covid-19: proposing a privacy-first holistic framework. in i. arpaci, m. al-emran, m.a. al-sharafi, & g. marques (eds.), emerging technologies during the era of covid-19 pandemic. studies in systems, decision and control (vol. 348). springer. gökalp, e., & veronica, m. (2020). digital transformation capability maturity model enabling the assessment of industrial manufacturers. computers in industry, 132(4), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2021.103522 gong, t., & yi, y. (2018). the effect of service quality on customer satisfaction, loyalty, and happiness in five asian countries. psychology & marketing, 35(6), 427–442. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21096 hair, j.f. (2011). pls-sem: indeed a silver bullet. journal of marketing theory and practice, 19(2), 139–152. https://doi.org/10.2753/mtp1069-6679190202 hair, jr., j., sarstedt, m., & hopkins, l.k. (2014). partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem). european business review, 26(2), 106–121. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr-10-2013-0128 holwerda, j.a. (2021). big data? big deal: searching for big data’s performance effects in hr. business horizons, 64(4), 391–399. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2021.02.006 kagermann, h., helbig, j., hellinger, a., & wahlster, w. (2013). recommendations for implementing the strategic initiative industrie 4.0: securing the future of german manufacturing industry. final report of the industrie 4.0 working group forschungsunion. münchen: national academy of science and engineering. retrieved from http://forschungsunion.de/pdf/industrie_4_0_final_report.pdf katou, a.a. (2008). measuring the impact of hrm on organizational performance. journal of industrial engineering and management, 1(2), 119–142. https://doi.rg/10.3926/jiem.2008.v1n2.p119-142 kehinde, j.s. (2012). talent management: effect on organizational performance. journal of management research, 4(2), 178–186. https://doi.org/10.5296/jmr.v4i2.937 kweku otoo, f. (2018). human resource management (hrm) practices and organizational performance the mediating role of employee competencies. employee relations: the international journal, 41(5), 949–970. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-02-2018-0053 legner, c., eymann, t., hess, t., matt, c., böhmann, t., drews, p., mädche, a., urbach, n., & ahlemann, f. (2017). digitalization: opportunity and challenge for the business and information systems engineering community. business & information systems engineering, 59(4), 301–308. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-017-0484-2 li, f. (2020). the digital transformation of business models in the creative industries: a holistic framework and emerging trends. technovation, 92, 1–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2017.12.004 liu, y., combs, j.g., ketchen, jr., d.j., & duane ireland, r. (2007). the value of human resource management for organizational performance. business horizons, 50(6), 503–511. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2007.07.002 luo, y., ying, h., & stephanie, l.w. (2012). guanxi and organizational performance: a meta-analysis. management and organization review, 8(1), 139–172. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8784.2011.00273.x maake, g., harmse, c.p., & schultz, c.m. (2021). performance management as a mediator for work engagement and employment relationships in the public sector in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1507 maisiri, w., & van dyk, l. (2021). industry 4.0 skills: a perspective of the south african manufacturing industry. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1416 martínez-morán, p.c., urgoiti, j.m.-r., díez, f., & solabarrieta, j. (2021). the digital transformation of the talent management process: a spanish business case. sustainability, 13(4), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042264 mensah, j. (2015). a coalesced framework of talent management and employee performance: for further research and practice. international journal of productivity and performance management, 64(4), 544–566. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-07-2014-0100 mihalcea, a.d. (2017). employer branding and talent management in the digital age. management dynamics in the knowledge economy, 5(2), 289–306. https://doi.org/10.25019/mdke/5.2.07 moazenzadeha, d., & hamidi, h. (2018). analysis and development of technology acceptance model in mobile bank field. international journal of engineering, transactions c: aspects, 31(9), 1521–1528. https://doi.org/10.5829/ije.2018.31.09c.07 mohammadi, a. (2018). analyzing tools and algorithms for privacy protection and data security in social networks. international journal of engineering, transaction b: applications, 31(8), 1267–1273. https://doi.org/10.5829/ije.2018.31.08b.15 phillips, r., & roper, o. (2009). a framework for talent management in real estate. journal of corporate real estate, 11(1), 7–16. https://doi.org/10.1108/14630010910940525 rabbi, f., ahad, n., kousar, t., & ali, t. (2015). talent management as a source of competitive advantage. journal of asian business strategy, 5(9), 208–214. https://doi.org/10.18488/journal.1006/2015.5.9/1006.9.208.214 ratten, v., & ferreira, j. (2016). global talent management and corporate entrepreneurship strategy. in global talent management and staffing in mnes (international business and management, vol. 32, pp. 151–165). emerald group publishing limited. saling, k., & do, m. (2020). leveraging people analytics for an adaptive complex talent management system. procedia computer science, 168, 105–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2020.02.269 schultz, c. (2021). the relationship between self-leadership, the future of human resource management, and work engagement. sa journal of human resource management, 19, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i sibgatullina, i.f., merzon, e.e., & seibgll, a., (2019). talent management under conditions of digital transformation in education. psychology in education, 1(2), 169–175. https://doi.org/10.33910/2686-9527-2019-1-2-169-175 sivathanu, b., & pillai, r. (2019). technology and talent analytics for talent management – a game changer for organizational performance. international journal of organizational analysis, 28(2), 457–473. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoa-01-2019-1634 sobel, m.e. (1982). asymptotic intervals for indirect effects in structural equations models. in s. leinhart (ed.), sociological methodology (pp. 290–312). jossey-bass. swan, m. (2015). blockchain: blueprint for a new economy. o’reilly media, inc. verhoef, p.c., broekhuizen, t., bart, y., bhattacharya, a., dong, j.q., fabian, n., & haenlein, m. (2021). digital transformation: a multidisciplinary reflection and research agenda. journal of business research, 122, 889–901. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.09.022 wang, y. (2020). enterprise human resource management system based on 5g network and internet of things system. microprocessors and microsystems, 80, 103427. wiblen, s., & marler, j.h. (2021). digitalized talent management and automated talent decisions: the implications for hr professionals. the international journal of human resource management, 32(12), 2592–2621. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2021.1886149 xun, x., yuqian, l., birgit, v.-h., & lihui, w. (2020). industry 4.0 and industry 5.0 – inception, conception and perception. journal of manufacturing systems, 6, 530–535. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmsy.2021.10.006 abstract introduction literature review research approach main findings practical implications conclusion recommendations for practice recommendations for policy acknowledgements references about the author(s) tetu m. mutegi department of business studies, faculty of business and economics, university of embu, nairobi, kenya paul m. joshua department of business studies, faculty of business and economics, university of embu, nairobi, kenya jesse k. maina department of business studies, faculty of business and economics, university of embu, nairobi, kenya citation mutegi, t.m., joshua, p.m., & maina, j.k. (2023). workplace safety, employee safety attitudes and employee productivity of manufacturing firms. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a1989. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.1989 original research workplace safety, employee safety attitudes and employee productivity of manufacturing firms tetu m. mutegi, paul m. joshua, jesse k. maina received: 16 may 2022; accepted: 16 aug. 2022; published: 28 feb. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the manufacturing sector in kenya has been experiencing employee safety and productivity issues despite adopting safety programmes and laws regulating employee safety. employee safety attitudes significantly worsen workplace safety and productivity problems. research purpose: the study determined the intervening effect of workplace safety attitudes on the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity in manufacturing firms in kenya. motivation for the study: manufacturing firms adopt new technologies that expose employees to new safety risks, while globalisation has led to a diverse workforce with diverse safety attitudes. research approach/design and method: this study is grounded on the risk homeostasis theory; it adopted a cross-sectional survey research design guided by a positivist research philosophy. the target population comprised 853 manufacturing firms registered with the kenya association of manufacturers. a sample of 124 firms distributed across the 14 sub-sectors in the manufacturing sector was obtained using a statistical formula to ensure all sectors were represented. regression analysis was carried out in four steps to assess the intervening effect of workplace safety attitude on the relationship between workplace safety attitude and employee productivity. main findings: the coefficients were significant in each step, therefore leading to the conclusion that employee safety attitude significantly intervened in the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity. practical/managerial implications: the study offers managerial insights into the situational position of workplace safety, employee safety attitudes and employee productivity. contribution/value-add: the study provides epistemological insights on the impact of employee safety attitudes on workplace safety and employee productivity. keywords: workplace safety; employee safety attitudes; employee productivity, manufacturing firms, productive time. introduction orientation organisations rely on employees to function and meet the set objectives. organisations use significant resources to sustain and maintain a productive workforce. safety challenges may inhibit employee productivity (european employee productivity institute, 2019). globalisation and technological revolution have significant implications for human resource management; changing nature of work, workforce and workplaces, safety concerns, and consequently greater workforce expectations from the changes. new technologies expose employees to new safety risks while globalisation has led to a diverse workforce with diverse safety attitudes. furthermore, organisations face new regulations on safety and quality of work life. the human resource practitioner now deals with a more complex and safety-prone workplace (byarset, 2014). these changes may affect the productivity of the employees. manufacturing firms worldwide have increasingly mechanised their production processes; this mechanisation has increased workplace safety risks (laura, 2019). the firms therefore have adopted workplace safety programmes meant to protect workers effectively from workplace job hazards (li et al., 2020). rosa (2019) observed that an organisation may have safety programmes but they may fail to guarantee workplace safety and productivity if employees have undesirable attitudes towards safety. for instance, aswathappa (2015) noted that employees are not involved in the design and execution of workplace safety programmes and hence exhibit no investment in them, take unnecessary risks and ignore the safety procedures. schultz (2017) further added that the programmes are not adequate and are only commissioned when there is a major safety incident. lencioni (2019) suggested that inadequate safety ergonomics, safety training and safety transfer to insurance and consultants lead to undesirable safety attitudes such as phobias and overconfidence that lead to employees taking unnecessary risks or avoiding work that is perceived to be risky. all firms face safety challenges, which could have adverse productivity effects on their workforce (society for human resource management report, 2017). the workplace safety problem is so severe that the international labour organization (ilo) adopted a new mission that indicates that reducing the risk of occupational injuries is its top priority (ilo, 2018). employees require optimal safety to be optimally productive; therefore, organisations require appropriate programmes to cover all possible contingencies without interrupting regular work operations. goetzel (2018) noted that when cicna insurance company and acco corp in the united states of america offered safety programmes, their employees became more productive. when norwegian business schools in europe offered accident compensation package, protective clothing, working postures training, safety consulting and onsite medical attention, their employees became more productive; there were no lost workday cases, no cases of restricted work only and employees depicted desirable risk attitudes. in september 2017, volvo manufacturing stopped production after 20 employees were injured because of a lack of safety equipment. in february 2018, toyota closed down 18 plants for 2 weeks because of a fire that led to a loss of us $195 million (goetzel, 2018). these incidents in toyota and volvo led to increased absenteeism, decreased bids for more work, and workers were less motivated. therefore, these workplace safety incidents reduced work productivity, which could have been prevented by a good employee safety programme. african companies are no exception to significant safety problems. osha africans report (2019) indicated that the worst recorded workplace disasters have occurred in african firms: a raptured heat exchanger in tedoro refining company in 2014 killed seven workers, fire explosion and defective fire extinguishers in amtech corporation in 2017 killed 13 workers, in 2019 seven workers in top cleaners llc died of carbon monoxide poisoning, and inadequate ventilation contributed to the deaths. these incidents would have been prevented by proper safety interventions. world economic forum report (2018) on global manufacturing competitiveness noted that some manufacturing companies in south africa (sasol chemicals), egypt (air cairo), ethiopia (ethio telcom), morocco (acio), rwanda (terracom) and nigeria (dangote cement) have outperformed developed countries firms in terms of workplace safety. these companies have recorded a positive effect on employee productivity. world economic forum report (2018) on global manufacturing competitiveness further noted that most companies in the african continent have recently adopted policies to boost workplace safety and enable employee productivity. in kenya, workplace safety and employee productivity are significant issues. a report by government of kenya – gok (2017) indicated that back pain resulting from work activity afflicts 6 out of 10 kenyan workers and 9 out of 10 workers in the manufacturing sector. additionally, the report indicated that kenyan workplaces are unsafe because of poor lighting, vibrations, ventilation, hazardous working equipment, noise, repetitive motions, extreme temperatures and lack of employee safety training. these issues may be affecting the productivity of kenyan workers (warner, 2016). however, the gok report (2018) revealed that kenyan institutions have come up with various safety management programmes to protect their workers from workplace injuries and boost their work productivity. adopting workplace safety devices such as heat regulators, dust regulators, protective clothing, safety warnings and proper lighting is on the rise in kenyan manufacturing firms. these programmes aim to ensure that employees are safe and hence optimally productive in their work (motorola, 2016). several safety management systems guide firms towards standards for successful workplace safety. these guidelines are the national occupational safety association – nosa (2017), the international loss control institute (ilci) guidelines (2015), international safety rating institute (2016). other guidelines include the international labor organization’s (ilo) guidelines on occupational safety (2018), iso (2009). safety risk management standard and the three es of safety (engineering, education and enforcement) advocated by heinrich (2017). all these international guidelines posit that effective workplace safety should address areas of ergonomics, emergency planning, safety training, safety transfer and enforcement through safety policy and programmes to create positive safety attitudes. if these six areas are addressed, a safe workplace, and consequently better employee productivity, will be accomplished (heinrich, 2017). the present study aimed to evaluate the relationship between these safety areas, employee safety attitudes and the productivity of employees in manufacturing firms in kenya. previous studies and theoretical frameworks have not adequately addressed the intervening effect of employee safety attitudes on the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity. the problem of workplace safety and employee productivity persists despite manufacturing firms having promulgated the safety programmes. previous literature (baicker, 2018; li et al., 2020; pitts et al., 2011; prinsloo & hofmeyr, 2022; rosa, 2019) suggest that the problem could be because of employee safety attitudes. therefore, the research objective was to evaluate the intervening effect of employee safety attitudes on the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity in manufacturing firms in kenya. in kenya, the manufacturing sector comprises 14 sub-sectors mainly oriented towards producing consumer goods. over 80% of the firms are based in nairobi, while the rest are located in other major towns in kenya (kenya association of manufacturers [kam], 2018). the united nations industrial development organization (unido) report (2019) ranks kenya’s manufacturing sector’s competitiveness at 112 out of 150 economies globally. despite the kenyan manufacturing sector being the largest among the east african countries, growth in the sector has been slow at 4.6% in 2018, 3.1% in 2019 and an average growth of 3.4% in the last 5 years. the sector contributes an average of 10.3% to gross domestic product (gdp) and is considered a critical sector in attaining the country’s economic development goals (knbs, 2019). the sector’s employee safety and productivity problem could inhibit the gok’s big four agenda blueprint that seeks to increase the gdp contribution of the sector to 15% by 2022. research purpose and objectives although employee safety programmes have been on the rise, employee productivity remains a problem in manufacturing companies in kenya. the bureau of labour statistics report (2019) established that kenyan manufacturing firm workers produce less than workers in other industries, at an average of 130 000 work hours per year compared to an average of 168 000 work hours per year by other industries. furthermore, employee productivity in the sector is less than 150 000 work hours in an average african manufacturing firm and the internationally accepted standard of 200 000 work hours per year (bureau of labour statistics report, 2019). osha african report (2019) notes that this low worker productivity can be attributed to undesirable employee safety behaviours and attitudes. therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the intervening effect of employee safety attitude on the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity in manufacturing firms in kenya. the hypothesis of the study therefore stated that employee safety attitude has no intervening effect on the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity in manufacturing firms in kenya. literature review theoretical review this study was grounded on the risk homeostasis theory that explains how employee safety attitudes may intervene in the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity. risk homeostasis theory this theory was developed by wilde (1994). this theory maintains that, in any activity, people accept a certain level of subjectively estimated risk (body injury and property loss) in exchange for the benefits they hope to receive from that activity. if, however, the level of subjectively experienced risk is higher, people adjust their work behaviour, affecting workplace safety and employee productivity. the theory opines that employees adjust their work risk behaviour based on four factors: (1) the expected benefits of risky behaviour, for instance, gaining work time by speeding; (2) the anticipated costs of risky behaviour, for instance, insurance surcharges for increased risk; (3) the anticipated benefits of safe behaviour, such as insurance discounts; and (4) the anticipated expenses of safe behaviour, such as time loss. these four factors took prominence in this study because employee risk behaviours in terms of attitudes and productivity are influenced by the level of workplace protection (bontis, 2014). this supports the contribution of the independent variable to the dependent variable in the study and explains that safety attitudes intervene in this relationship. risk homeostasis theory was significant to this study because it pointed out that a lack of safety programmes such as workplace safety ergonomics, safety training, emergency management and transfer to insurance firms and consultants may limit workers’ full potential, making them unable to perform their duties appropriately. furthermore, employees develop undesirable behaviour towards safety and work productivity when their safety at work is not guaranteed. in the context of the manufacturing industry, employees will only do the bare minimum when they feel that they are not protected from workplace incidents. reese (2018) critiqued the homeostasis theory for not fully explaining the effect of safety mechanisms on employee productivity and for not indicating how employee productivity behaviour is boosted in cases where there are enough safety protections. this research is expected to contribute to the development of this theory by filling this theoretical gap. empirical literature this section reviews relevant literature on workplace safety, employee safety attitude and employee productivity. employee safety attitude, workplace safety and employee productivity existing human resource management (hrm) literature identifies dimensions of employee safety attitudes and also attempts to link employee safety attitudes to workplace safety and employee productivity. the literature has, however, not empirically determined the intervening effect of workplace safety attitudes on the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity. for instance, aswathappa (2015) noted that employees with positive safety attitudes pay attention to safety training, know and urge their co-workers to follow safety procedures. li et al. (2020) observed that employees with negative safety attitudes take unnecessary risks and ignore safety procedures. laura (2019) added that despite the commitment of employers to create safe workplaces and boost employee productivity, accidents and employee productivity problems may persist because of negative employee safety attitudes. kundu (2016) opined that negative safety attitudes can be addressed by developing safety programmes, such as safety training and safety control. lencioni (2019) suggested that inadequate safety ergonomics, safety training and safety transfer to insurance and consultants lead to undesirable safety attitudes such as phobias and overconfidence that lead to employees taking unnecessary risks or avoiding work that is perceived to be risky. this may lead to increased accidents and less productivity time and may affect employees’ degree of accomplishment of tasks. huang et al. (2022) opined that safety training programmes such as training audits, safety drills, safety rules, talks and seminars among others may eliminate negative safety attitudes, reduce chances of accidents and influence the productivity of employees. dessler and varrkey (2015) asserted that employees’ safety attitude determines whether employees follow existing safety procedures and rules; this determines their safety and productivity. therefore, previous hrm literature suggests that positive safety attitudes may reduce work interruptions, increase employees’ degree of accomplishment of tasks and value added. despite hrm literature pointing out to the potential intervening effect of employee safety attitudes on the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity, previous empirical evidence is not conclusive on these assertions. for instance, kao (2019) investigated the link between safety knowledge, safety attitudes and safety behaviour. the study collected data from supervisors and workers in construction firms in the united states of america. the study did not show how it conceptualised its constructs. the study found that safety knowledge mediated the relationship between safety attitudes and safety behaviours. the study failed to link workplace safety in terms of safety ergonomics, emergency management, safety training and safety transfer to workplace safety attitudes and employee productivity outcomes as conceptualised in the current study. laura (2019) studied the mediation effect of safety climate and safety motivation on the relationship between organisational climate and safety performance. the study used questionnaires to collect data from nurses in two hospitals in italy. the study conceptualised safety in terms of managerial values and participation in safety training which are partial measures of workplace safety, while the current study measured workplace safety in terms of programmes put in place for safety. the study hypothesis which was evaluated using regression models found that safety climate (attitudes) did not mediate the relationship between organisational climate (work performance) and safety participation (training attendance). the study was conceptualised in a sector different from the current study. the current study however adopted the measure of workplace safety attitude (safety behaviour in terms of response to safety programmes) as applied by the study of laura (2019) and as suggested by wilde (1994), fine (2017), lencioni (2019), gao et al. (2019) and nosa safety management system (2017). a study by rosa (2019) investigated safety attitude and its relationship with safety training and generalised work efficacy. the study conceptualised work efficacy as the belief in one’s ability to perform a given task, while the current study measures work productivity using three measures (value-added, degree of accomplishment of tasks and productive time). safety attitudes were conceptualised in terms of perceptions of safety climate, while the current study conceptualised safety attitudes in terms of response to safety programmes. the study failed to show how safety training was conceptualised. the sample was made up of 140 workers from three tile manufacturing firms and one in the public sector in spain. the regression results found that safety training was positively associated with safety attitude and work efficacy. the study was faulted for collecting data from employees who might have been biased when asked to rank their work efficacy and attitude, while the current study collected data from supervisors and focused on the intervening effect of safety attitude on the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity. a similar study by rahiman and kodikal (2017) investigated the relationship between employee work-related attitudes (safety attitudes, work commitment and job involvement) and job performance (commitment and involvement). the independent and dependent variables for the study seemed to be related and therefore the study suffered from a multicollinearity problem. the study sampled 110 respondents in some selected hospitals in kerala state, india. data analysis conducted using correlation and regression methods showed a significant relationship between employees’ attitudes and performances. furthermore, the study found that the levels of productivity in hospitals that posted better work attitudes were better than in those industries where employees had poor employee attitudes. the study was not clear on how employee productivity and job-related attitudes were measured and failed to assess the intervening effect of employee safety attitudes on the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity. a study by saleh (2015) investigated employees’ attitudes and behaviour towards safety in manufacturing industries in malaysia. the study purposely selected one large manufacturing firm and issued 99 questionnaires to the employees. the study found a significant relationship between employee safety attitudes, employee performance and employee safety. the study investigated the influence of employee attitudes on safety management in the manufacturing sector in malaysia. the study however was based in a different country and conceptualised employee safety attitudes in terms of personal involvement, communication and physical work environment, while the current study used conceptualised employee safety attitudes in terms of response to safety practices as posited by fine (2017), gao et al. (2019) and nosa safety management system (2017). the current study is an attempt to fill those research gaps. lastly, the methodological rigour used in other related studies resulted in inconclusive findings. for instance, a study conducted by schultz (2017) opined that safety training, workplace safety analysis and safety transfer to insurance companies and consultants affect the behaviour of the employees by influencing their response to safety programmes positively. a study by cox and cox (2018) found that safety programmes demonstrate organisational commitment to safety and therefore lead to the safety of the work environment which enhances positive safety culture and attitudes among employees. jahangiri et al. (2017) who did a critical literature review on attitudes that affect employee productivity of construction workers identified safety perception and attitudes of employees as major factors influencing employee productivity. these three studies were critical literature reviews but failed to generate original findings on the subject. to bridge these gaps, this study aimed at investigating the intervening effect of workplace safety attitudes on the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity in the manufacturing sector in kenya. conceptual framework the conceptual framework represents diagrammatically and explains the relationship among independent, intervening and dependent variables. workplace safety comprising interventions for workplace safety (safety ergonomics, emergency management, safety training and safety transfer) is the independent variable that affects employee productivity, which is the dependent variable. employee safety attitude is the intervening variable. based on the reviewed literature, it is postulated that workplace safety would affect employee productivity. employee safety attitude will intervene in the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity. figure 1 depicts the relationships between the pertinent variables. figure 1: conceptual framework. operationalisation of variables the study variables which arose from the concepts discussed in the reviewed literature were operationalised and measured as shown in table 1. table 1: operationalisation of variables. research approach research philosophy and design this study adopted a positivist research paradigm because the entire research was based on objectivity and therefore the study only collected and interpreted the data as they were, thereby ensuring that the findings were quantifiable and observable. the study adopted a cross-sectional survey design because of the fact that existing data among the manufacturing companies were collected retrospectively. in other words, data on the research variables were collected at a single point in time from sample units to examine relationships among the variables. target population the target population comprised the 853 manufacturing firms in kenya that are registered with kam and that have been in operation for the last 3 years. data collection and analysis were carried out at firm level with target respondents being the heads of human resource. the firms were classified into 14 key sectors of manufacturing as classified by kam based on the products they manufacture. sampling procedure and sample size out of a population of 853 manufacturing firms in kenya, a representative sample of 124 was obtained using a statistical formula suggested by nasiuma (2010) as depicted in equation 1: where the coefficient of variation was fixed at 17% and standard error was fixed at 5%. the firms were selected randomly. this sampling formula was selected because it involved probabilistic sampling using a fixed coefficient of variation and standard error at each level, ensuring that all sectors were represented. data processing and analysis the relationship between variables was tested using pearson’s product-moment correlation. regression analysis was used to estimate the regression coefficients. the analytical models and their interpretation are as follows. the first step was to show there is a relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable which may be intervened: where y is the dependent variable (employee productivity), α0 is the y intercept, β1 is the regression (beta) coefficient, x1 is the independent variable (workplace safety) and ɛ0 is the regression error term. the second step was to show that the independent variable is related to the potential intervenor: where m is the intervening variable (employee safety attitudes), α1 is the y intercept, β2 is the regression (beta) coefficient, x1 is the independent variable (workplace safety) and ɛ1 is the regression error term. the third step was to show that the potential intervener was related to the dependent variable: where y is the dependent variable, α2 is the y intercept, β3 is the regression (beta) coefficient, m is the intervening variable and ɛ2 is the regression error term. in the fourth and final step, the dependent variable was regressed on the independent variable and the potential intervener in blocks: where y is the dependent variable (employee productivity), α3 is the y intercept, β4 and β5 are regression (beta) coefficients, x1 is the independent variable (workplace safety), m is the intervening variable (employee safety attitudes) and ɛ3 is the regression error term. main findings correlation of employee safety attitude, workplace safety and employee productivity of manufacturing firms in kenya the pearson’s product moment correlation technique was used to determine the direction and strength of the association between the independent variable, intervening variable and dependent variable. the findings are presented in table 2. table 2: correlation of employee safety attitude, workplace safety and employee productivity of manufacturing firms in kenya. the correlation results in table 2 show that employee safety attitude, workplace safety and employee productivity are positively and significantly correlated. the correlation between employee safety attitude and workplace safety was 0.180, implying that there existed a strong positive relationship between the two variables. the p-value of 0.03 was less than 0.05; hence, the correlation of workplace safety attitude was significant at a 5% significance level. this finding implies that a positive increase in workplace safety leads to a significant increase in employee safety attitude. therefore, firms that have better workplace safety are expected to have employees with positive safety attitudes. further, the results revealed that the correlation between employee safety attitude and employee productivity was strong and there existed a positive relationship. the p-value of 0.036 was less than 0.05; therefore, the relationship between the employee safety attitude and employee productivity was significant at a 5% significance level. these results imply that a positive increase in workplace safety attitude leads to a significant increase in employee productivity in terms of productive time, the accomplishment of tasks and value-added. regression analysis evaluating the intervening effect of employee safety attitude on the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity to determine the intervening effect of the employee safety attitude on the relationship between work place safety and employee productivity, a linear regression analysis was carried out in four steps. this is presented in the subsequent sections. in table 3, y is the dependent variable (employee productivity), α0 – α3 are the y intercepts, β1–β5 are the regression (beta) coefficients, x1 is the independent variable (workplace safety), m is the intervening variable (employee safety attitudes) and ɛ0–ɛ3 are the regression error terms. table 3: summary of the objective three models. based on the findings presented in table 3, the r-square for model l (regression of employee productivity and work safety) was 0.794. this signified that 79.4% of the variation in employee productivity is explained by work safety. regarding model 2 (regression of employee safety attitude against work safety), r-square = 0.032 signified that the employee safety attitude explains 3.2% of the variation in workplace safety. concerning model 3 (regression of employee productivity against employee safety attitude), r-square = 0.037, implying that 3.7% of the variation in the employee productivity is explained by employee safety attitude. lastly, regarding model 4 (regression of employee productivity against workplace safety and employee safety attitude), r-square = 0.762, signifying that 76.2% of the variation in employee productivity is explained by work safety and employee safety attitude holding other factors constant. to further investigate the intervening effect of the employee safety attitude on the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity in manufacturing firms in kenya, an analysis of variance (anova) was carried out to ascertain the significance of the estimation model. the results are presented in table 4. table 4: analysis of variance findings for objective three models. the findings presented in table 4 show the anova results of the four regression models estimating the intervening effect of the employee safety attitude on the relationship between the work place safety and employee productivity in manufacturing firms in kenya. in model 1, the study obtained f(1, 106) = 407.638 and p = 0.000 < 0.05, implying that the model used to link the predictor and the outcome is statistically significant (f = 407.638, p < 0.05) at a 5% level. regarding model 2, the study obtained f(1, 106) = 3.537, p = 0.016 < 0.05, implying that the model used to link the independent variable and the potential intervenor is statistically significant. thus, the null hypothesis that work safety has no statistically significant effect on employee safety attitude is rejected. the conclusion is drawn that work safety affects employee safety attitude significantly. the results for model 3 obtained f(1, 106) = 4.074, p = 0.046 < 0.05, implying that the model used to link the dependent variable and the potential intervenor is statistically significant. lastly, the results for model 4 obtained f(1, 105) = 168.223, p = 0.000 < 0.05, implying that the model used to link the dependent variable, independent variable and the potential intervenor is statistically significant; thus, the null hypothesis which stated that work safety and employee safety attitude have no statistically significant effect in employee productivity is rejected, and a conclusion is drawn that work safety and employee safety attitude affect employee productivity significantly. furthermore, the results determined the coefficient estimates that pointed out the magnitude of each interaction terms on each other. the regression coefficients for each of the models are presented in table 5. table 5: coefficient estimates for the objective three models. the findings presented in table 5 show the coefficient estimates of the models 1, 2, 3 and 4 applied in estimating the intervening effect of employee safety attitude on the relationship between work safety and employee productivity. model 1 tested the relationship between the independent variable (workplace safety) and dependent variable (employee productivity) which may be intervened. the results for model 1 obtained a coefficient estimate of β1 = 1.889 and p = 0.000 < 0.05, signifying that an increase in work safety by 1 unit results in an increase in employee productivity by 1.889 units, holding all other factors constant. therefore, from the findings, the coefficient estimates for model 1 in step 1 for estimating the intervening effect of employee safety attitude on the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity can be presented in the regression equation below: where y is the dependent variable (employee productivity), α0 is the y intercept, β1 is the regression (beta) coefficient, x1 is the independent variable (workplace safety) and ɛ0 is the regression error term. the interpretation drawn from these results therefore is that workplace safety predicts employee productivity in manufacturing firms as β1 is statistically significant. the second step for testing the intervening effect of employee safety attitudes on the relationship between employee safety and employee productivity involved regressing employee safety attitude against the workplace safety to show that the independent variable is related to the potential intervenor. the results for model 2 obtained a coefficient estimate of β2 = 0.137, p = 0.016 < 0.05, which implied that an increase in work safety by 1 unit leads to an increase in employee safety attitude by 0.137 units, holding all other factors constant. therefore, from the findings, the coefficient estimates for model 2 in step 2 for estimating the intervening effect of employee safety attitude on the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity can be presented in the regression equation below: where m is the intervening variable (employee safety attitudes), α1 is the y intercept, β2 is the regression (beta) coefficient, x1 is the independent variable (workplace safety) and ɛ1 is the regression error term. the interpretation drawn from these results is that workplace safety predicts employee safety attitude in manufacturing firms as β2 is statistically significant. therefore, as the firm invests more on workplace safety, employees’ safety attitudes improve positively. this finding is in agreement with the postulates of schultz (2017) that workplace safety programmes such as safety training, workplace safety analysis, safety transfer to insurance companies and consultants affect the behaviour of the employees by influencing their response to safety programmes positively. similarly, cox and cox (2018) studied the structure of employee attitudes to safety in selected firms in europe and found that safety programmes demonstrate organisational commitment to safety and therefore lead to safeness of the work environment which enhances positive safety culture and attitudes among employees. the third step for testing the intervening effect of employee safety attitudes on the relationship between employee safety and employee productivity involved regressing potential intervener against the dependent variable. the results for model 3 obtained a coefficient estimate of β1 = 0.535, p = 0.046 < 0.05, signifying that an increase in employee safety attitude by 1 unit leads to an increase of employee productivity by 0.535 units, holding all other factors constant. therefore, from these findings, the coefficient estimates for model 3 in step 3 for estimating the intervening effect of employee safety attitude on the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity can be presented in the regression equation below: where y is the dependent variable, α2 is the y intercept, β3 is the regression (beta) coefficient, m is the intervening variable and ɛ2 is the regression error term. the interpretation drawn from these results is that employee safety attitude predicts employee productivity in manufacturing firms because β3 is statistically significant. therefore, as the employees’ safety attitudes improve, employee productivity improves, holding other factors constant. these results are similar to the findings of rahiman and kodikal (2017) who studied the relationship between employee work-related attitudes (safety attitudes, work commitment and job involvement) and job performance. the study found that the level of productivity in industries that posted better work-related attitudes was better than those industries where employees had poor employee attitudes. these findings also support the findings of jahangiri et al. (2017) who conducted a critical literature review on attitudes that affect employee productivity of construction workers and identified safety perception and attitudes of employees as major factors influencing employee productivity. these results can also be explained by the postulates of the tip of the iceberg theory developed by mcclelland (2000) that some factors which allowed employees to excel in their work were not appearing on the surface and lead to huge employee productivity losses in terms of error rates, worktime and unaccomplished tasks. this has been confirmed by the findings of the current study that workplace safety attitudes influence employee productivity in terms of productive time, accomplishment of tasks and value added. the fourth step for testing the intervening effect of employee safety attitudes on the relationship between employee safety and employee productivity involved regressing employee productivity on workplace safety and employee safety attitudes in blocks to check whether workplace safety still predicts employee productivity in manufacturing firms when employee safety attitude is in the model. the results for model 4 obtained a coefficient estimate of work safety, β4 = 0.678, p = 0.000 < 0.05, implying that an increase in work safety by 1 unit leads to an increase in employee productivity by 0.678 units, holding employee safety attitude and other factors constant in model 4. furthermore, the coefficient estimate of employee safety attitude obtained was β5 = 0.070, p = 0.004 < 0.05, implying that an increase in employee safety attitude by 1 unit leads to an increase in employee productivity by 0.070 units, holding work safety and other factors constant in model 4. therefore, from these findings, the coefficient estimates for model 4 in step 4 can be presented in the regression equation below: where y is the dependent variable (employee productivity), α3 is the y intercept, β4 and β5 are regression (beta) coefficients, x1 is the independent variable (workplace safety), m is the intervening variable (employee safety attitudes) and ɛ3 is the regression error term. the interpretation drawn from these results is that workplace safety predicts employee productivity in manufacturing firms when employee safety attitude is in the model as β4 is statistically significant. the results further indicate that the coefficient of workplace safety on employee productivity reduces from 1.89 in model 1 without employee safety attitudes to 0.678 in model 4 when employee safety attitudes are included in the model. therefore, inclusion of employee safety attitudes reduces the effect of workplace safety on employee productivity. furthermore, the results indicate that the coefficient of employee safety attitude when regressed against employee productivity was 0.535, but when workplace safety is included in the model, employee safety attitude coefficient increases to 0.768. these results therefore reveal that employee safety attitude significantly intervenes on the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity. therefore, the null hypothesis h03 that employee safety attitude has no intervening effect on the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity in manufacturing firms in kenya is not supported and therefore rejected. this means that employee safety attitude has an intervening effect on the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity in manufacturing firms in kenya. the interpretations drawn can be explained on several grounds. firstly, from the descriptive statistics of the current study, workplace safety attitudes obtained an aggregate score of mean = 2.3472 and standard deviation = 1.1736. these results implied that employees in manufacturing companies in kenya had bad safety attitudes towards safety in the manufacturing firms. the standard deviation obtained (1.1736) showed that respondents varied on their views. this shows that despite the importance of workplace safety attitudes on workplace safety and employee productivity as demonstrated by the findings of the current study, manufacturing firms still needed to launch programmes to improve workplace safety attitudes of their employees. this will boost workplace safety and employee productivity as demonstrated by the findings of this study. secondly, previous literature suggest that workplace safety attitudes are essential for influencing work behaviour. lencioni (2019) suggested that employee safety attitudes such as overconfidence or phobias affect their judgement and reaction towards safety programmes, which may lead to more or less safety incidents and which may affect their work productivity. aswathappa (2015) opined that bad work habits, poor work attitudes and poor working conditions lead to carelessness and mistakes. this leads to employee productivity and safety problems. dessler and varrkey (2015) asserted that regardless of the type of the organisation, workplace attitudes can have a significant influence on the employee’s productivity and safety in the job. the findings of the current study contribute to extant behavioural human resource literature by empirically pointing out that workplace safety attitudes have a significant intervening effect on the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity. thirdly, these findings are similar to the results of saleh (2015) which found a significant relationship between employee safety attitudes, employee performance and employee safety. the study investigated the influence of employee attitudes on safety management in the manufacturing sector in malaysia. the study however was based in a different country and conceptualised employee safety attitudes in terms of personal involvement, communication and physical work environment, while the current study used conceptualised employee safety attitudes in terms of; response to safety practices and employee perception of safety risk programmes as posited by fine (2017), gao et al. (2019) and nosa safety management system (2017). furthermore, the current study finding clarifies the contradictory results of kao (2019) and laura (2019) on the role of workplace safety attitude on the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity. cox and cox (2018) studied safety investment optimisation in process industry and found that investments in workplace safety improved risk heuristics in employees and this in turn boosted employee productivity. the study did not test for the empirical relationships between the variables. these research gaps have been addressed by the findings of the current study. lastly, from the theoretical literature, the study used the postulates of the domino theory developed by heinrich (1931) which posited that combining factors that lead to unsafe workplaces; faults of the person (personal and ancestry) and the environment or work-related factors. the theory identified that these causes of accidents can be eliminated using a safety management system. the current study results add that employee safety attitudes not only affect workplace safety but also affect the productivity of employees. to address employee productivity problems therefore, the organisation should have a safety management system that also addresses the safety attitudes of employees. furthermore, the current study used the postulates of the risk homeostasis theory developed by wilde (1994) which posited that employees adjust their work risk behaviour based on four factors: (1) the expected benefits of risky behaviour, (2) the expected costs of risky behaviour, (3) the expected benefits of safe behaviour and (4) the expected costs of safe behaviour. all of these factors (work behaviours) were empirically tested by the current study and found to influence safety and productivity issues in the manufacturing sector. practical implications the implication of these study findings is that negative employee attitudes and employee productivity problems persisted because of inadequate workplace safety interventions. therefore, organisations that wish to eliminate employee negative safety attitudes and boost employee productivity should launch safety interventions, such as safety ergonomics, emergency management, safety training and transfer to consultants and insurance firms that guarantee employees of their work safety. conclusion this study concluded that workplace safety is essential for influencing employee safety attitudes and employee productivity. therefore, a manufacturing firm that invests more in workplace safety improves employee productivity and employees’ safety attitudes positively. recommendations for practice the study recommends that employees should be involved in designing safety programmes and policies to ensure that they feel invested and have a responsibility towards safety. involvement in such a way that employees are encouraged to offer their contributions would enhance positive attitudes towards safety and, therefore, would reduce workplace safety and employee productivity problems in the manufacturing sector in kenya. further, employees’ ideas and contributions should be taken seriously as this will ensure better safety culture and better productivity of employees. recommendations for policy the study established that employee safety attitudes significantly intervened in the relationship between workplace safety and employee productivity. therefore, the study recommends that policymakers should consider giving policy directions requiring safety training, safety ergonomics and safety transfer for employees, thus eliminating negative safety attitudes by employees. acknowledgements competing interests the author would like to thank dr paul mugambi and dr jesse kinyua for shaping the study’s conceptualization and modeling. the management of the manufacturing firms in kenya for granting permission to collect data in their firms. authors’ contributions t.m.m. prepared the manuscript, while j.m.k. and p.m.j. supervised the research and co-wrote the article and prepared it for submission. ethical considerations this research was approved by the board of postgraduate studies, university of embu, kenya. further research clearance was granted by the national commission for science, technology and innovation (research license no. 505433) on 23 october 2020. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references aswathappa, k. (2015). human resource management: text and cases. tata mcgraw-hill education. baicker, y.m. (2018). the impact of workplace safety on labor market: evidence from united states. american economic review, 104(5), 322–328. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.104.5.322 bontis, g.t. (2014). intellectual capital and business performance in malaysian industries. journal of intellectual capital, 1(1), 85–100. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930010324188 bureau of labour statistics report. (2019). world employment and social outlook: trends, kenya national bureau of statistics. retrieved n.d., from https://www.knbs.or.ke/ byarset, j.t. (2014). on becoming a strategic partner: the role of human resources in gaining competitive advantage. human resource management, 37(1), 31–46. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-050x(199821)37:1<31::aid-hrm4>3.0.co;2-w cox, s., & cox, t. (2018). the structure of employee attitudes to safety: a european manufacturing center example. work & stress, 5(2), 93–106. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678379108257007 dessler, g., & varrkey, b. (2015). human resource management (15th edn.). pearson education mumbai. european employee productivity institute. (2019). extended employee productivity crisis and national goals. alliance manchester business school. retrieved april, 2022 from https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/economy-finance/pop_2019_ang.pdf fine, w.t. (2017). a management approach in accident prevention. (no. nswc/wol/tr 75-104 final reportpt). gao, y., fan, y., wang, j., & pei, j. (2019). procedural management of safety regulations and rules for the chemical industry. process safety progress, 38(2), e11999. https://doi.org/10.1002/prs.11999 goetzel, u.f. (2018). examining the value of integrating occupational health and safety and health promotion programs in the workplace. us department of health and human services. government of kenya. (2017). occupational accidents in kenya. state department of labour. retrieved from https://www.hse.co.ke/articles/occupational-health-safety/reporting-ofoccupational-accidents-in-kenya/ government of kenya. (2018). occupational safety and health profiles in kenya. state department of labour. gupta, a.k. (2016). assessing human resources for health: what can be learned from labour force surveys?. human resources for health, 1(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.1186/1478-4491-1-5 heinrich, t. (2017). a simulation of the risk problem: the problem of risk model homogeneity (no. 2019-12). institute for new economic thinking at the oxford martin school, university of oxford. heinrich, k. (1931). heinrich domino theory. international journal of advances in engineering & technology, 4(2), 53. huang, y.h., robertson, m.m., lee, j., rineer, j., murphy, l.a., garabet, a., & dainoff, m.j. (2022). supervisory interpretation of safety climate versus employee safety climate perception: association with safety behavior and outcomes for lone workers. transportation research part f: traffic psychology and behaviour, 26, 348–360. international labour organization (ilo). (2018). ilo declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work and its follow-up. international labour organization. international loss control institute (ilci). (2015). cause, effect, and control of accidental loss guidelines for manufacturing companies. crc press. international safety rating institute. (2016). the international safety rating system (isrs). journal of occupational accidents, 10, 141–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/0376-6349(88)90028-4 iso. (2009). risk management – principles and guidelines. international organization for standardization. jahangiri, m., zadeh, k.s., bashar, o., & zadeh, h.s. (2017). investigating effective factors on risk perception, safety attitude and safety performance of construction workers of shiraz city. journal of ergonomics, 1(2), 10–18. kao, k.y. (2019). linking safety knowledge to safety behaviours: a moderated mediation of supervisor and worker safety attitudes. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 28(2), 206–220. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2019.1567492 kenya association of manufacturers (kam). (2018). effeciency and operational performance of manufacturing firms in kenya report. kenya association of manufacturers, 2(3), 15–24. knbs, m.i. (2019). kenya demographic and health survey 2018. kenya national bureau of statistics. kundu, s.c. (2016). effects of safety climate, safety attitude, and safety performance on firm performance: a study of an automobile firm. international journal of business and management, 11(12), 135. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v11n12p135 laura, d.c. (2019). mediation effects of safety climate and safety motivation on the relation between organizational climate and safety performance in the workplace. testing, psychometrics, methodology in applied psychology, 15(2), 77–90. lencioni, p. (2019). the five dysfunctions of a team. john wiley & sons. li, m., zhai, h., zhang, j., & meng, x. (2020). research on the relationship between safety leadership, safety attitude and safety citizenship behavior of railway employees. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(6), 1864. mcclelland, g.m. (2000). the tip of the iceberg safety theory. quality progress, 34(5), 29–37. motorola, t.m. (2016). measuring human resources: an overview of practice and a prescription for results. green human resource management practices, 36(3), 303–320. nassiuma, d.k. (2010). survey sampling: theory and methods. ebenergy enterprises limited. national occupational safety association. (2017). prevention of work-related accidents: a national strategy proposed by the national occupational safety association (nosa). american psychologist, 45(10), 1146. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.45.10.1146 osha african report. (2019). occupational safety and health in africa: country profiles, improving and maintaining a safe and healthy working environment for all. oshafrica. retrieved april, 2022 from https://oshafrica.africa/publications/ pitts, d., marvel, j., & fernandez, s. (2011). so hard to say goodbye? turnover intention among us federal employees. public administration review, 71(5), 751–760. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2011.02414.x prinsloo, h., & hofmeyr, k.b. (2022). organisational culture, frontline supervisory engagement and accountability, as drivers of safety behaviour in a platinum mining organisation. sa journal of human resource management, 20(12), 13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1705 rahiman, m.h.u., & kodikal, r. (2017). impact of employee work related attitudes on job performance. british journal of economics, finance and management sciences, 13(2), 93–105. reese, c.d. (2018). occupational health and safety management: a practical approach. crc press. rosa, g.r. (2019). safety attitudes and their relationship to safety training and generalised self-efficacy. international journal of occupational safety and ergonomics, 8(1), 23–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2002.11076512 saleh, n. (2015). employee attitudes towards safety management in manufacturing sector in malaysia. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2697892 schultz, d. (2017). employee attitudes – a must have. occupational health & safety, 73(6), 66–72. society for human resource management. (2017). the voice of all things work. academy of management journal, 38, 635–672. united nations industrial development organization (unido) report. (2019). demand for manufacturing: driving inclusive and sustainable industrial development (vol. 19, pp. 49–54). unido. warner, c. (2016). new generation organisations, safety management and productivity china. asia pacific business review, 24(4), 437–458. wilde, g.j. (1994). risk homeostasis theory: an overview. injury prevention, 4(2), 89–91. https://doi.org/10.1136/ip.4.2.89 world economic forum report. (2018). the global competitiveness report 2018 (vol. 671). world economic forum. retrieved september 8, 2022 from https://www.weforum.org/reports?year=2018#filter article information authors: penny abbott¹ xenia goosen¹ jos coetzee¹ affiliations: ¹department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: penny abbott email: pennyabbott@mweb.co.za postal address: 4a birnam road, forest town, johannesburg 2193, south africa keywords mentoring; mentoring scheme coordinator; functions of mentoring scheme coordinators; people development; south african context dates: received: 16 nov. 2009 accepted: 29 july 2010 published: 22 oct. 2010 how to cite this article: abbott, p., goosen, x., & coetzee, j. (2010). developing and supporting coordinators of structured mentoring schemes in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #268, 10 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.268 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) developing and supporting coordinators of structured mentoring schemes in south africa in this original research article... open access • abstract • introduction    • the context of the work of the mentoring scheme coordinator    • the role, functions and profile of the coordinator    • research problem and objectives • research design    • research approach    • research strategy    • research method       • research setting       • entrée and establishing researcher role       • sampling       • data collection methods       • recording of data       • data analyses       • strategies employed to ensure data quality       • reporting • findings    • contextual variables    • functions and profiles of coordinators    • how the coordinators experienced their role • discussion    • the role of the coordinator    • the coordinators and their experiences    • recommendations for development and support of coordinators    • conclusions and recommendations    • limitations of the study    • suggestions for further research • references abstract (back to top) orientation: mentoring is considered to be such an important contributor to accelerated people development in south africa that structured mentoring schemes are often used by organisations. there are at present few sources of development and support for coordinators of such schemes. research purpose: the aim of this research is to discover what the characteristics of coordinators of structured mentoring schemes in south africa are, what is required of such coordinators and how they feel about their role, with a view to improving development and support for them. motivation for the study: the limited amount of information about role requirements for coordinators which is available in the literature is not based on empirical research. this study aims to supply the empirical basis for improved development and support for coordinators. research design and method: a purposive sample of 25 schemes was identified and both quantitative and qualitative data, obtained through questionnaires and interviews, were analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. main findings: functions of coordinators tend to be similar across different types of mentoring schemes. a passion for mentoring is important, as the role involves many frustrations. there is little formalised development and support for coordinators. practical/managerial implications: the study clarifies the functions of the coordinator, offers a job description and profile and makes suggestions on how to improve the development of the coordinator’s skills. contribution/value-add: an understanding of what is required from a coordinator, how the necessary knowledge and skills can be developed and how the coordinator can be supported, adds value to an organisation setting up or reviewing its structured mentoring schemes. introduction (back to top) mentoring is an accepted and popular process, in use in many diverse settings internationally and across south africa – for example, in education, community development, health, small business development, broad-based black economic empowerment and formal organisations. almost every day the term ‘mentor’ is heard in the media – often where a successful person is giving recognition to someone who helped them along the way. many of these mentoring relationships occur informally, driven by mentees looking for a role model or someone to help them. in addition, though more formal, mentoring relationships are established through structured mentoring schemes, which are managed by coordinators. mentoring is seen as a potentially powerful source of people development and many examples of significant transitions and growth are given in both academic and popular sources (for example, in clutterbuck, 2001; evans, 2003; freedman, 1999; gilmore, coetzee & schreuder, 2005; kochan & pascarelli, 2003; stewart & parr, 2008). hence there is a high degree of interest in mentoring in south africa, where there is great need for accelerated individual development as well as for various types of societal and community development. research has shown that if mentoring is chosen as a process with a specific objective in mind (for example, growth of a small business, or to help someone with the transition to a new management level), it is more likely to be successful if it takes place within a structured scheme (klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). this structured scheme has to be run by someone. however, little attention is paid to the role this person plays, even though this role is acknowledged to be a critical success factor for the mentoring scheme (clutterbuck, 2001; forret, 1996; freedman, 1999; murray, 2001). the job of mentoring scheme coordinator is not particularly easy – far from it.it demands a deep understanding of the nature and dynamics of mentoring, and a remarkable store of patience, tenacity and political skill. yet we have never encountered a scheme coordinator who did not enjoy the role and feel motivated to do more of it. (klasen & clutterbuck, 2002, p. xiii) the context of the work of the mentoring scheme coordinator the context of the work of mentoring scheme coordinators could impact them in various ways, for example, the functions the coordinator may be asked to perform and the difficulties the coordinator might be likely to face could be influenced by the type of organisation running the mentoring scheme, the scope and purpose of the scheme and other factors such as the size of the scheme. gibb and megginson (1993) argue that the context within which a mentoring scheme operates influences the scheme tremendously and therefore the adaptation of the scheme framework to suit its context is one of the critical success factors for the scheme.it is also important, when considering the support of coordinators, to consider the size and diversity of the population of mentoring schemes in south africa. if there is a large number of mentoring schemes, there is a commensurately large number of coordinators and it would be viable to put together some sort of development network or support initiatives. the degree of similarity or difference between mentoring schemes would influence the degree to which coordinators could find common experiences in their networking and therefore the degree to which such networks would be of practical use. mentoring, as a developmental relationship, is likely to be a key component of employment equity plans and any diversity management programmes that an organisation may have in place. in addition, newspapers, magazines and the internet over the period 2006–2008 have often mentioned a variety of mentoring schemes aimed at, for example, first-year undergraduates, candidate and junior female accountants, women in the it industry, municipality managers, microenterprise owners, youth entrepreneurs, children at risk and women in business and government. it can be inferred from this and from the public policy support, that there are many mentoring schemes operating in south africa. however, there is no directory or other form of systematic knowledge of these and it is difficult to trace and make contact with coordinators of these schemes. lack of integration of good practice and experience across schemes, which is seen as a problem overseas (clutterbuck, 2001), is even more of an issue in south africa because of the lack of easily-accessible information in terms of mentoring schemes. this can impact significantly on the ability of the designer and implementer of a mentoring scheme (usually also the coordinator of the scheme) to access good practice from similar schemes and would probably result in many unnecessarily repeated mistakes. in the uk, an organisation called mentfor was set up to try to remedy this lack and bring together knowledge on mentoring schemes (mentfor, 2009), while in north america, the international mentoring association peer resources network has similar aims (ima, 2009; peer resources network, 2009). the possibility of creating such a resource in south africa is explored in the discussion section of this article. the coordinator must structure his or her scheme around the needs that the scheme seeks to meet. in the study carried out by meyer and steinmann (2008), reasons for the introduction of coaching and mentoring schemes in formal organisations include management development, talent management, enhancing competency, sustainability, employee retention, succession planning, skills shortages, graduate development, employment equity, workplace skills plans, learnerships and professional requirements. the various aims of mentoring schemes in other types of organisations have been described earlier. increasing emphasis is being placed on the evaluation of mentoring schemes, which has a big impact on the work of the coordinator. clutterbuck (2003, p. 262) states that ‘a high proportion of all mentoring programmes fade away. surprisingly, there has been very little research into the reasons why some flourish and others do not’. garvey and carter (2004) note that care must be taken when measuring outcomes because ‘measurement can become a controlling device that may distort social and work-based activities’, implying that managing a scheme strictly towards measurable results may distort the spirit of what is intended. in the 2008 meyer and steinmann study, 58% of respondents said that the programme was evaluated through performance management, 43% through competence assessment and 20% through business impact. however, the value of this finding is limited by the lack of differentiation between mentoring and coaching in the study. conway (1998) mentions that, in change management processes, failure is easier to measure than success and he believes this could be true of mentoring as well. colley (2003) argues that some mentoring outcomes have not necessarily been intended originally, but these unintended outcomes should not be undervalued – if the mentee perceives value in the relationship it is a success. she sees the frequent emphasis on ‘hard’ outcomes as undermining the benefits of ‘soft’ outcomes and quotes egan (1994), who argues that helping must have goals that are consistent with the client’s own values, and the client must feel ownership of those goals. this would seem to support the notion that success is a complex issue in mentoring schemes, which could make it difficult for the coordinator to demonstrate the success of his or her scheme. the role, functions and profile of the coordinator the literature reviewed does not have extensive reference to the role and function of the scheme coordinator. freedman (1999, p. 92) devotes a chapter to ‘making the most of mentoring’, in which he refers to ‘fervor without infrastructure’. he describes how champions of mentoring tend to take an inspirational approach to setting up a scheme rather than putting in place the organisational infrastructure to ensure success. shiner, young, newburn and groben (2004, p. 71) refer to ‘a significant body of research that shows that implementation failure – or at least inadequate implementation – often lies at the heart of the inability to deliver better outcomes’. there is little consensus on the best structure, process flow or elements of a structured mentoring scheme (gibb & megginson, 1993; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; murray, 2001; philips & stromei, 2001). hattingh, coetzee and schreuder (2005) describe a set of six best practices derived from other literature. these are: 1. preparing the implementation proposal and conducting the necessary research 2. identifying key stakeholders and gaining organisational commitment 3. marketing 4. design and development 5. maintenance, concluding and further development 6. evaluation and review. in an effort to contribute to good practice in this area, the european mentoring and coaching council has endorsed a set of international standards for mentoring programmes in employment (ismpe) built around the following six standards (ismpe, 2009): 1. clarity of purpose 2. stakeholder training and briefing 3. processes for selection and matching 4. processes for measurement and review 5. high standards of ethics 6. administration and support. the functions of the coordinator or coordination team are reviewed by clutterbuck (2001), kochan (2002) and murray (2001). although a range of tasks are proposed the topic is treated in a few sentences in each source rather than being covered extensively. the south african company anglo platinum is clear on its expectations regarding the coordinator’s functions: coordinators at all operations are trained on the mentorship programme and are accountable for identifying mentors; identifying mentees according to the mentorship policy; training mentors and mentees; matching mentors to mentees; and monitoring progress of the relationships. (angloplat, 2009) there is little literature on how many people are required to manage a mentoring scheme and what their specific tasks should be. in the study by hattingh et al. (2005), the authors refer to the number of people assigned to the scheme, but do not discuss the scale of the scheme, so it is difficult to determine whether the level of resourcing is high or not. as mentioned previously, the issue of what results the coordinator is expected to deliver is somewhat complex. even the nature of reporting on progress and results can be problematic. colley (2003, p. 172) refers to the ‘atomising effects of individual mentoring’, meaning that simply reporting on outcomes for the mentoring pairs can miss significant lessons for the organisation if feedback and themes coming out of the mentoring discussions can somehow be consolidated without compromising the confidentiality of the discussions. other influences on the functions and scope of the coordinator’s role can include, (1) ethics (including the issue of sexual harassment, the degree to which other interested parties are kept informed about the mentoring, unintentional exclusion of groups of employees and confidentiality within the mentoring discussions) as covered by klasen and clutterbuck (2002), (2) the ease or difficulty of obtaining funding (unpublished evaluation report by r. white, according to t. martin, tend to support the anecdotal evidence that people become coordinators either by chance or by being passionate about mentoring and volunteering to take on the role. klasen and clutterbuck (2002) mention that a background in training or as an experienced human resources facilitator is helpful for the coordinator. in community-based or education-based mentoring schemes, a professional background as a social worker or educator is common (colley, 2003; freedman, 1999). development activities referred to in the literature are mainly confined to support methods such as conferences and networks (freedman, 1999; mentfor, 2009; peer resources network, 2009). there is a unit standard in the south african national qualifications framework referring to managing mentoring programmes but this is limited to a school setting and the programme manager has to be a school manager (saqa, 2009). research problem and objectives the literature review shows that, while the coordinator is a key factor in the success of a mentoring scheme, there is no empirical research into the role of the mentoring scheme coordinator. a research study was therefore conducted on several aspects of the role and development of the mentoring scheme coordinator to contribute to better knowledge in this field and thereby to improving the probability of success in delivering the desired mentoring outcomes.the question can be posed as to what are the characteristics and experiences of the coordinators of mentoring schemes. relevent to this study, the research objectives were to: • collect information on the characteristics of the coordinators of structured mentoring schemes in a wide range of societal institutions. • collect information on what is required of the coordinators. • discover how coordinators experience their role. • identify and explore themes which can lead to an understanding of how best to support and develop the coordinators. for the purpose of this research study, the following definition of mentoring has been adopted, based on clutterbuck (2001). mentoring occurs in a relationship and consists of off-line help by one person to another in making significant transitions in knowledge, work, thinking or coping with life challenges. the discussion agenda within the relationship is determined by the mentee and the mentor can play various roles and adopt a broad range of approaches in helping the mentee. research design (back to top) research approach research in the social sciences can adopt either a positivist or an interpretive approach (bryman & bell, 2003; cresswell, 2003; denzin & lincoln, 2005). the positivist approach derives from the natural sciences and takes place in a paradigm that reality is objectively determinable and therefore firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect in social sciences. this approach adopts quantitative methodologies. the interpretive approach evolved as researchers recognised that reality is different for different people and reality derives meaning through human experiences and perceptions. qualitative methodologies are used in the interpretive approach. cresswell (2003) recorded the development of mixed method research from about 1959 onwards and recommends the use of research methods drawing on both paradigms in order to overcome the limitations of each.this research study was informed by cresswell (2003) and adopted both quantitative and qualitative methodologies because the nature of the research objectives included both objectively verifiable variables such as the age or education level of the coordinator and highly subjective topics such as the personal experience and perceptions of the coordinators. it is proposed that some of the quantitatively analysed variables together describe a context within which each coordinator experiences his or her role. colley (2003, p. 161) argues that mentoring is a topic which is not clearly conceptualised with no clear theory base and therefore researching the mentoring process should not use quantitative methods – she views responsible research as ‘an engaged social science that grounds itself in the experiences of the field […] to do justice to the meanings they make in practice’. this research study was interested in the meanings that coordinators make in relation to their experiences in running mentoring schemes. data on various mentoring schemes was obtained through a research questionnaire, to enable cross-sectional and comparative analyses from which commonalities and differences could be derived. it was hoped that these could then inform some good practice models or descriptions. in addition to the quantitative part of this research study, a basic qualitative design was used, as described by merriam (1998) in that it ‘includes description, interpretation and understanding; it identifies recurrent patterns in the form of themes or categories; and it may describe a process’. data for the qualitative study was obtained from open-ended questions in the questionnaire as well as from follow-up interviews with selected coordinators. research strategy the research strategy adopted in this study was to identify coordinators of mentoring schemes through references from various media sources, personal contacts and networking. an electronic questionnaire was then distributed, followed by interviews with coordinators. themes for analysis in the qualitative part of the study were derived initially from the literature; these themes were confirmed and expanded based on responses to open questions in the questionnaire and from the interviews. research method research setting the setting for the research study was varied, as the coordinators work in organisations as diverse as corporate, government agencies, non-profit organisations and universities. each of the study participants was approached in their normal work setting. entrée and establishing researcher role the researcher personally contacted each of the prospective respondents and explained the context and purpose of the study before asking for their agreement to participate. the role of the researcher was that of an ‘informed outsider’ – that is, someone who was knowledgeable about the topic but not about each coordinator’s particular setting. sampling the unit of analysis in this study is the coordinator of the mentoring scheme. in order to access these coordinators, the population of mentoring schemes in south africa, which is currently unknown, had to be explored from accessible sources of information such as newspapers, magazines and the internet. the decision on inclusion or exclusion of a mentoring scheme on the basis of whether it met the criteria for a structured mentoring scheme was made largely by self-selection on the part of prospective respondents, based on whether they could meaningfully answer the questionnaire items. the identification of respondents was carried out on the basis of asking who had the main responsibility for the mentoring scheme – that person then completed the research questionnaire. a purposeful sample of mentoring schemes, aimed at choosing a sample from which the most can be learned (merriam, 1998), was drawn from schemes identified in the manner described above to complete the research questionnaire. the sample was representative of corporate, public sector and voluntary sector schemes, as well as both large and small schemes. the sample was obtained by approaching coordinators and inviting participation through telephonic discussion. the sample of coordinators for the interviews was chosen from the pool of questionnaire respondents on the basis of a theoretical sample – described by merriam (1998, pp. 63–64) as ‘an evolving process, guided by the emerging theory, yielding reasonable coverage [...] given the purpose of the study’ – and also following the approach of maximum variation sampling. a reasonable cross-section of corporate and voluntary sector schemes, as well as large and small schemes, was pursued. within this cross-section, questionnaire respondents who seemed to represent the richest sources of data were approached – for example, the scheme had been running for some time, was a large scheme, was in an unusual setting or the coordinator had an unusual background. this yielded a sample of seven interviewees, which fitted the scope and timescale of the research study. a total of 177 potential respondents were identified but many of these could not be traced and contacted, so 67 research questionnaires were sent out. only 25 useable responses were obtained, giving a response rate of 37%. a satisfactory spread of demographic variables of the schemes was obtained, as shown in table 1. a total of seven interviews were held with coordinators. table 1: demographics of mentoring schemes data collection methods data was collected through an electronic questionnaire and also through individual interviews. the questionnaire was designed by means of the tool provided by the web survey provider survey monkey and was designed for a more extensive research study, only part of which has been reported in this article. the questionnaire was structured into sections and contained both tick-box questions and questions allowing free-text responses. the relevant sections of the questionnaire covered: • information on the organisation running the mentoring scheme type of organisation and, in cases where the organisation is a business, the economic sector • demographic information on the coordinator (the respondent) variables such as age, gender and educational standard • information on the mentoring scheme itself variables relevant to this article included the scale and scope of the scheme plus scheme longevity • information on management and resourcing of the mentoring scheme how many people was involved in running the scheme, job title of the coordinator, the use of it, who performed which functions, the existence of a steering committee • information on the coordinator the full-time or part-time nature of the role, length of time in the role, reporting relationship, how the person took on the role, clarity of role, previous experience, satisfiers and dissatisfiers in the role, important skills and developmental experiences. respondents were given three alternative ways of completing the questionnaire, (1) via the web site, (2) using a pdf file, or (3) by telephone interview. this was to ensure participation even from respondents with limited internet access. six of the 25 respondents chose one of the two latter alternatives. the interviews were conducted face to face (four interviews) or by telephone (three interviews). the interviews were approximately 30 min – 45 min long; this was considered sufficient for a qualitative interview in view of the limited focus of the study and also because the interviewees had already completed a questionnaire. for the first three interviews, a largely unstructured format was followed. even though the interviewees had completed a questionnaire already, the purpose of the interviews was to obtain much more personal insights, so these interviews were exploratory and non-directive. the later interviews were semi-structured and designed to follow up and validate themes arising in the earlier interviews. shank (2002) describes the value of the use of metaphors to access the meanings that people make in their roles, so all interviewees were asked to give a metaphor for their experiences as a coordinator – this helped to gain an understanding of what meanings the interviewees were making for themselves in their role. reliability of the data collected was addressed by ensuring a good sample size, by ensuring that respondents had substantive experience as a coordinator and by ensuring that a cross-section of scheme types was covered in the interview sample. consistency of responses was examined: this proved to be high between the interviewees, so it can be inferred that the data is valid. recording of data all responses to the questionnaire were captured onto the web server data base. in the case of the questionnaires completed and sent in via email or through telephonic interviews, the researcher herself captured the responses onto the web server. where typing errors had been made in the questionnaire’s free-text responses, these were corrected on the web server. no other manipulation of the data was carried out. all the data was then downloaded into an excel file, from where they were analysed. the interviews were recorded on a digital recorder with the consent of the interviewee. the researcher then transcribed the interviews. data analyses basic descriptive statistical analyses were carried out on the quantitative data. in a few cases, further analysis was carried out to investigate some relationships and trends in the data. the qualitative data from the questionnaires and the interviews was analysed through iterative reviews – emerging issues were identified and checked with the later interviewees. themes were then identified and constant cross-comparison of the transcripts was carried out manually on index cards to refine the relevant concepts and categories of the coordinators’ experiences. strategies employed to ensure data quality care was taken in the initial approach to participants to ensure that they were indeed fulfilling the role of coordinator and could supply meaningful responses. once questionnaires were received, the researcher checked them and phoned the respondent to clarify any apparent discrepancies. reporting the findings are reported using two different styles to suit the two different types of data. the quantitative data is reported in descriptive statistics while the qualitative data is presented largely under the various themes extracted from the survey, using verbatim quotations as appropriate and paraphrases of responses which have been grouped together. findings (back to top) the findings regarding contextual variables relating to the mentoring schemes such as type of organisation, scope and size of the mentoring scheme, how long the scheme has been running, types of mentors and how the scheme is evaluated are dealt with first, in order to describe the context within which coordinators work in this country. as discussed earlier, the context can influence the nature and scope of the work of coordinators and can have a big impact on their experiences. contextual variables as indicated in table 1, the coordinators are working in a variety of organisation types. the sample included mentoring schemes in many different settings including companies, educational and health institutions, foundations, youth organisations and the public sector. over half (52%) of the sampled schemes had been running for less than 2 years, while the modal group (36%) had been running for between 2 and 5 years. thirty-two per cent had been running for more than 5 years. the size of schemes in the sample ranged from less than five mentoring pairs to more than a hundred pairs. table 2 shows the distribution of schemes with reference to the variables of size, degree of structure and geographical closeness of mentoring pairs. the sample showed examples of both volunteer and paid mentors, although only the external schemes (that is, those which employ external mentors for mentees who are also external to the organisation) pay their mentors anything more than a token amount. in addition, not all the external schemes use professional mentors; some use volunteers. in terms of measurability of outcomes, most mentoring schemes state their purpose in fairly general terms, for example, ‘to provide mentoring support to youth owned businesses’, ‘mentor employees who show potential’, ‘to transfer skills through mentoring relationship’. not one scheme had a measurable, outcome-related purpose statement, although a few could be converted to measurable, outcome-related terms, for example, ‘to increase at a faster pace the number of black people into the senior management levels of the organisation’. possibly related to this lack of measurability of outcomes is the finding that 52% of the coordinators sampled reported that they have not formally evaluated their scheme. respondents were asked to rate the reactions of the various stakeholders involved in the mentoring scheme as to whether they viewed the schemes as successful and whether they supported it. respondents felt that the mentors and the mentees were more positive than other stakeholders and rated success in meeting the scheme's stated objectives fairly low (see figure 1). table 2: attributes of mentoring schemes functions and profiles of coordinators it was found that the tasks of coordinators tend to be similar across schemes and most coordinators perform the full scope of duties, including planning and designing the scheme, recruiting the mentors and mentees, supporting the mentoring pairs and evaluating and improving the scheme. other people, such as human resources staff, other internal people, external consultants and trainers, also contribute in many of the functions. thirty-six per cent of schemes have a steering committee. in the interviews with coordinators it emerged that most coordinators who have a steering committee consider them invaluable to the success of the scheme; however, in one case the existence of a steering committee did not prevent the failure of the scheme. the research questionnaire attempted to gather information on the number of people who were involved in running the scheme. this question was not always answered in an informative way. however, from the answers obtained, schemes could be ranked in order according to the number of people allocated to them and then compared to the size of the scheme in terms of numbers of mentoring pairs currently active. this analysis seems to indicate that there is little direct relationship between the size of the scheme and the number of people allocated to run the scheme: for example, one scheme had a person spending 10% of his or her time managing less than five pairs, where another scheme had a person spending 15% of his or her time managing over 50 pairs. similarly, schemes with over a 100 pairs had resources ranging from 1.4 full-time equivalent people up to 70 people involved in managing the scheme. in internal schemes, the responsibility for the mentoring scheme falls mainly within the human resources department, with two schemes placing it within employment equity and two within its leadership development function. most of the coordinators (56%) did not use information technology tools to help them manage the scheme. only 12% used a website or intranet, while a further 36% used excel spreadsheets. findings related to who the coordinators are included the following: most (64%) of the sample coordinators were female. the age distribution shows that 4% (1 person) was under 25, 44% were aged between 25 and 35, a further 28% between 35 and 45, 20% between 45 and 55 and the remaining 4% between 55 and 65. the respondents were highly educated – none of them had a qualification of less than a post-matric certificate and 56% had a postgraduate degree or equivalent. most (56%) coordinators had been in this role for between 1 and 3 years, 20% for less than 1 year, 12% for 3–5 years and the remaining 12% for 5 years or more. only 16% of respondents (75% of these in the external schemes) held the coordinator role as a full-time position although 76% of them were in formal employment. twenty-four per cent of respondents were volunteers with student or community programmes. eighty-four per cent of respondents combined the role of mentoring scheme coordinator with other roles, for example, employment equity management, operations management of a consultancy, other human resources development activities and small business development projects. most coordinators (70%), whether of external or internal schemes, had never managed a mentoring scheme before and 50% of the coordinators initiated their own role (that is, they started up the project). seventy-two per cent of respondents said they had been a mentor prior to becoming a coordinator, while 60% had been a mentee. twenty-five per cent of coordinators have never been either a mentor or a mentee. sixty per cent of respondents had received no formal training in the role, but 76% of them were very clear on what was required of them. sixty-four per cent had no job description for this role. coordinators of external schemes most typically came from a background in the field in which the mentoring scheme offered its services (for example, small business development), while coordinators of internal schemes tended to come from a human resources background, although there were also examples of coordinators from other functions such as quality assurance and information technology project management. respondents mentioned a wide range of previous experiences as being useful to their present role – these included ‘project management and a passion for people’, ‘counselling and coordinating relationships in a school setting’ and ‘working as an entrepreneurship trainer – moving into mentoring’. skills considered to be important for coordinators included interpersonal skills (‘good skills and insights into human behaviour [...] able to engage people’), knowledge of the organisation (‘understanding in an organisational context what is expected’) and project management skills. respondents felt that the required skills were obtained generally through self-study and learning by doing, in the absence of formal training. how the coordinators experienced their role qualitative data obtained from the study indicated that coordinators raise issues that can be grouped according to various themes – these relate to satisfactions and dissatisfactions in the role, how one develops as a coordinator and advice that could be given to a new coordinator.in general, it seems that coordinators enjoy their role. of the seven interviewees, four were mainly positive about their experiences as a coordinator, whilst the other three had either a very negative experience or experienced significant frustrations. the four coordinators who reported mainly positive experiences were all involved with running well-established schemes, or, in one case, a scheme which has been running for a short while and is facing a major expansion drive. two of the coordinators who had had rather negative experiences had been involved in trying to get a scheme off the ground but failed, while the other negative coordinator was in the early stages of implementing a scheme. most of the coordinators who responded to the questionnaire find some or much satisfaction in their role. however, three of the coordinators reported no satisfying factors in their role and one reported little satisfaction. all the other respondents cited one or more satisfiers, which can be grouped into three types, namely: 1. satisfaction at seeing learning and growth among the participants of the scheme ‘to see people grow, develop and achieve their dreams and aspirations.’ ‘seeing transitions in knowledge, seeing mentees gaining independence and wanting to go on to be mentors.’ 2. satisfaction at seeing performance or career improvements ‘seeing businesses thrive’. ‘when a young person seizes the opportunity provided by the programme, learns from it, applies it for personal development and growth in own business.’ 3. personal satisfaction (for example, sharing experiences and receiving positive feedback) ‘seeing and engaging with the delegates, sharing experiences.’ the degree of satisfaction obtained (if it is obtained) seems to be high, with interviewees describing the experience very positively: [quotation 1:] ‘i love what i’m doing – i think i’m an enabler – enable for potential to come forth, enable to access resources, enable to grow. it’s a very, very inspiring role where i’m sitting.’ [quotation 2:] ‘[...] you just see fantastic things happening and it just feels brilliant. it’s quite a varied experience between frustration and great joy.’ [quotation 3:] ‘i’ve discovered the inspiration of these young people – they have very little resources, they have very little skills, but then you come across someone who believes that they can – i am telling you, these young people have been my greatest inspiration in the job.’ [quotation 4:] ‘after it’s been done for them, people who say i want to be part of this thing and become a mentor, that’s one of the things that gives me the motivation to say we’re on the right track and this is working.’ the coordinator’s role can be extremely frustrating – only three of the coordinators reported no frustrating factors in their role, while many frustrations were reported by the other respondents. these frustrations can be grouped under six main themes, namely: 1. management support ‘lack of management support’ 2. mentor/mentee motivation ‘lack of commitment by some mentors’ 3. communication ‘unrealistic expectations arising from lack of understanding of what mentoring is’ 4. scheme management / resources ‘how much effort it takes’ 6. problems with relationships ‘conflict between mentor and mentee.’ ‘if a mentoring relationship doesn’t work and i can see that it’s just people issues, it’s so frustrating, i wish i could fix this.’ ‘it’s [...] frustrating, the mentors who come to do this for themselves – it’s like they come in to craft people to become what they think they should be [...] that’s not mentoring [...] it frustrates me because [...] if the mentor is coming there for their own glory it inhibits learning and that defeats the objective of the programme.’ metaphoric descriptions around frustrations included the following: [quotation 1:] ‘i felt like a fish out of water, because everybody talks about the mentoring, but it’s just spoken about [...] and nobody really relates to it.’ [quotation 2:] ‘swimming upstream – a lot of people don’t understand the concept behind mentoring.’ respondents felt that development as a coordinator was largely a self-learning activity or experience passed on from other people. conducting research was often mentioned as a developmental activity. one mention was made of ‘being mentored myself’. other comments included: [quotation 1:] ‘you need to read as widely as possible and stay abreast of what the developments are [...] attending presentations and discussing with other people how their programmes are going.’ [quotation 2:] ‘networking with a specific purpose – each session would be almost like a professional upskiller – it’s supervision with very specific sessions.’ advice for new coordinators included very practical organisational issues: [quotation 1:] ‘make sure you’ve got the support and backing from the funders or the people who are providing you with the budget and that they understand that your time, how it’s divided [...] it’s time management [...] make sure you have your time issues sorted out, but the biggest thing is support.’ [quotation 2:] ‘it’s quite a difficult role and i think you’re competing with a lot of other organisational activities [...] and you’ve also got to appreciate that people are just sometimes fatigued so i set quite a lot of store by the timing being right.’ [quotation 3:] ‘understanding priorities, understanding the key elements of the project over the life of the project and planning for those – stakeholder management, that’s very important.’ discussion (back to top) as stated, this research study set out to gather information on the characteristics and experiences of mentoring scheme coordinators in south africa. this had the ultimate objective of being able to make recommendations on how best to support and develop coordinators. mentoring has great potential in developing human capital in all spheres of life in south africa and improving the effectiveness of coordinators can make a significant contribution towards realising that potential. the role of the coordinator the findings of this study support the concept that a mentoring scheme coordinator has an identifiable role which is similar across a variety of different mentoring schemes. the study tested whether various tasks, as identified in the literature, were in fact considered to be part of the role of a coordinator. this was found to be true for all schemes, regardless of the variables explored in the study. mentoring schemes appear on the surface to be diverse (for example mothers with hiv/aids mentoring each other on the one hand and promotion candidates for top executive positions in a corporate environment on the other hand) but this study has shown that, provided that the coordinator has knowledge of the core business of the organisation, coordinators could move between organisations if they wished to become ‘professional’ mentoring scheme coordinators. this commonality of function also makes it possible to develop standardised training and development materials for coordinators. one of the tasks that is considered very important, both in the literature and in the findings of the study, is monitoring and supporting mentoring pairs. however, this aspect is considered as highly problematic by many coordinators, mainly due to lack of time and other priorities.in contrast to the commonality around function, is the lack of size or resource relationship. there is little relationship between the size of the scheme and the number of people running it. the reasons for this have not been explored. lack of resources was frequently mentioned by respondents as a problem in their scheme. most of these respondents experience significant difficulties in prioritising their tasks and devoting what they see as sufficient time to supporting the mentoring pairs. another difference between schemes is the use of a steering committee. it is significant to note that only 36% of the schemes sampled has a steering committee to guide and/or support the coordinator. in view of the fact that those coordinators who do have a committee believe that this is extremely important to the smooth running and success of the scheme, it would seem that more coordinators could benefit from this type of stakeholder involvement. despite one of the common functions of a coordinator being to measure and evaluate the scheme, according to the survey respondents, the study found that most mentoring schemes fail to state the purpose of the scheme in measurable, outcome-related terms and also that most schemes have not been formally evaluated. this is potentially problematic for coordinators, who would be unable to demonstrate success in achieving their objectives, which may jeopardise the sustainability of the scheme. the research findings identify differences between reactions of various stakeholders to the mentoring scheme (see figure 1). this supports the proposal by klasen and clutterbuck (2002) that success of a mentoring scheme should be evaluated according to various dimensions. they propose a four-outcome model, as shown in table 3. the finding that the most positive reactions to the scheme came from the mentors and mentees (see figure 1) confirms conclusions in literature and seems to indicate that the human relationships created through mentoring are valued and produce positive outcomes for the mentors and mentees, at least in personal terms. this result has a powerful impact on the experience of the coordinator, as will be discussed below. table 3: outcomes model for mentoring schemes figure 1: range of success measures in internal schemes the coordinators and their experiences from the findings in terms of the demographics of coordinators, it might be inferred that the role is taken on in early to mid-career, when the person is already at a fairly senior level and the role is held for a fairly short space of time. the role is often self-initiated which, together with the findings regarding the mixed results of schemes discussed earlier, might indicate a problem in terms of gaining organisational support – the finding of the relative infrequency of steering committees could support this inference. the relative seniority of the coordinators, although probably useful in gaining credibility for the mentoring scheme, can cause problems in terms of time available and competing priorities – many respondents made comments about the difficulties of being able to devote enough time to running the scheme. in one case, the amount of time devoted to the scheme is as little as 2% and there were four other cases in which 15% or less of a person’s time was allocated. although the background of the coordinators varied and few had run a mentoring scheme before, it would seem that most coordinators had had a previous interest in mentoring – this is important for their success as it enhances their passion for the scheme, which is put under pressure when frustrations are encountered.appelbaum, ritchie and shapiro (1994), cited in hattingh et al. (2005) emphasised the importance of maintaining the scheme, including having regular contact with the pairs, troubleshooting and problem solving. interviewees in this study all mentioned this aspect as being important and also as being the source of sometimes satisfying and sometimes frustrating experiences. positive feedback was experienced as intensely satisfying, while the difficulties of ‘nagging’ mentoring pairs were reported to be very frustrating – for example, sometimes mentors simply do not make the necessary time available to their mentee, or there is a lack of motivation within the mentoring pair to continue. literature sources reviewed in the study mentioned a range of skills considered important for the coordinator. the study confirmed the importance of these in the eyes of practising coordinators. they considered interpersonal and communication skills as critical – it seems that a good ‘people’s person’ is required, who should p. 27) believes that ‘culture and values are critical factors in success’ of a mentoring scheme, the respondents in this study did not highlight this aspect, with the single exception of one interviewee who described the difficulties that can be experienced if the coordinator tries to operate unaware of the organisation’s culture. another skill, only mentioned by one interviewee, is that of volunteer management. this skill is not mentioned in the literature as being important, but when it is considered that mentors are most often volunteers, it is clear that proper management of them is important in keeping mentors involved in the scheme. the interviewee who mentioned this skill had actually been on a specialist course in this aspect. the findings of this study confirm the statement by klasen and clutterbuck (2002) quoted at the beginning of this article, namely that coordinators enjoy the role and feel motivated to do more of it, although this is not a universal experience. the negative experiences referred to in this study arose because of identifiable omissions in ensuring that key success factors are present in the design and implementation of the scheme, which indicates that the negative experiences could be avoided. the role seems to have a significant emotional component arising out of both the positive and the negative aspects of the role. coordinators can experience the role as lonely – they tend to operate as one-man bands, struggling to prioritise and multi-task. the main satisfiers are removed in nature – obtained through seeing the success of the mentoring pairs. it would seem that someone who seeks a more direct personal satisfaction would be disappointed in the role. whether is it worth the frustrations and disappointments was explored – nearly all the coordinators found some satisfaction and one interviewee summed it up by saying ‘i’m glad i did it [...] i was quite disillusioned [...] but i’m a lot wiser now’, while another said that ‘it’s inspiring [...] it’s brilliant [...] a great joy’. these findings could be used to inform the recruitment and selection process of coordinators – the role should be given to someone who has an interest in the subject and is passionate about the benefits mentoring can bring people. the role is often combined with other roles and therefore people may be promoted or recruited into the role, but if those people do not have the passion, it is unlikely that they will bring the tenacity and drive that is required for success of the mentoring scheme. recommendations for development and support of coordinators one conclusion drawn from the literature review is that little attention is paid to the development and support of coordinators. this research study confirmed this conclusion. the finding that 68% of schemes have been running for more than 2 years (of which about half have been running for more than 5 years) confirms the finding of meyer and steinman (2008) that 52% of their sample had been running for more than 3 years and also confirms the conclusions of the literature study that the prevalence of mentoring schemes has increased in the last few years. this can indicate that there are an increasing number of coordinators in the country and therefore an increasing demand for development and support opportunities for them.development should be based on a clear role definition and profile – a pro-forma job description is offered here (see figure 2), compiled based on literature and this research study. based on this, a coordinator can assess their own knowledge and skills gaps and begin to establish development priorities. little formal training exists in south africa for this role and there is little content in the national qualifications framework relating to mentoring. the findings of this research study regarding important knowledge and skills for coordinators could form the basis for formalised training and qualifications. one possible source of development could be launching of the some accepted standards for mentoring schemes in south africa, examples of which were outlined earlier. another possible source, given the frequency of human resources as a background for coordinators, could be to incorporate the topic into academic and professional programmes in the human resources field, including continuous professional development programmes. development activities suggested by interviewees in this research study included case studies and presentations to stay up to date with the latest knowledge in a fast developing field, networking and some form of mentoring or supervision for practising coordinators. the lack of accessible information on schemes in this country and how they work (or do not work), encountered as an obstacle during this research study, hinders sharing of good practices across schemes – few coordinators reported that they network and learn from other schemes. it would seem therefore that there is a need for some institution to provide such activities and here the role of coaches and mentors of south africa (comensa) could be important, probably with the support of tertiary level academic institutions. support for the coordinators in their role would be appreciated, it would seem, since they experience the role as a lonely one. this can be supplied through networking as discussed above and could also be supplied through some form of recognition scheme – organisations could be encouraged to recognise their mentoring scheme coordinator in their internal recognition systems, or a body such as comensa could set up some scheme. figure 2: proposed pro-forma job description conclusions and recommendations this research study has shown that the function of mentoring schemes in terms of the coordinator as a unit of research is a new field of study in south africa. the population of mentoring schemes at this point is impossible to estimate and locate, but the research study has shown that even though there is a great diversity of identified schemes, the function and profile of coordinators is common across schemes to a large extent. from the study, it has been possible to make recommendations as to the profiling, development and support of mentoring scheme coordinators.it might be argued that implementing and maintaining a mentoring scheme is no different than implementing and maintaining any other organisational process such as business planning, performance management or innovation management. this study has shown some of the complexity of mentoring schemes and their management and has been able to offer some suggestions for ways to improve the clarity of the role of the coordinator and suggestions on how to improve the development of the coordinator’s skills. competent coordination is central to the success of facilitated mentoring. (murray, 2001, p. 151) the most important start point is there needs to be buy-in and commitment from the most senior level in the organisation as to what is going to happen and how it’s going to work and who’s going to playing which role. if that’s not clear, then the coordinator is on a hiding to nothing. (interviewee 2) limitations of the study the lack of information sources to draw from in designing this study and specifically the fact that the coordinator has not been focused on as the unit of analysis in previous research studies, has possibly limited this study in terms of depth and coverage.the small size of the sample in relation to the likely size of the population limits the validity of the study findings; however, the diversity of the respondents and the high degree of internal consistency in the findings allow preliminary conclusions to be drawn. suggestions for further research further research aimed at formulating, testing and implementing a model for a formal training programme for mentoring scheme coordinators could help to ensure that structured mentoring schemes are well designed and implemented, thereby delivering on the benefits that mentoring can achieve. references (back to top) anglo plat (2009). sustainable development report. retrieved march 13, 2009, from www.angloplat.com/def_main.asp?id=sustainable_development/sd_social_impacts/sd_si_hr/s_i_hr_main.asp bryman, a., & bell, e. (2003). business research methods. oxford: oxford university press. clutterbuck, d. (2001). everyone needs a mentor. (3rd edn.). london: cipd. clutterbuck, d. (2003). diversity issues in the mentoring relationship. in m.j. davidson & comensa (2009). coaches and mentors of south africa. retrieved march 13, 2009, from www.comensa.org.za colley, h. (2003). mentoring for social inclusion – a critical approach to nurturing mentor relationships. london: routledge. conway, c. (1998). strategies for mentoring – a blueprint for successful organisational development. new jersey: wiley. cresswell, j.w. (2003). research design – qualitative,quantitative and mixed methods approaches. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks: sage. denzin, n.k., & lincoln, y.s. (2005). the sage handbook of qualitative research. (3rdedn.). thousand oaks: sage. dme (2009). social and labour plan guidelines. retrieved march 13, 2009, from www.dme.gov.za/pdfs/minerals/social%2and%20labour%20plan%20 egan, g. (1994). the skilled helper: a problem management approach to helping. (5th edn.). pacific grove: brooks/cole. evans, a. (2003). the national mentoring pilot project. in f.k. kochan & j.t. pascarelli (eds.), global perspectives on mentoring: transforming contexts, communities and cultures. greewich, conn.: information age. epwp (2009). expanded public works programme. retrieved march13, 2009, from www.epwp.gov.za forret, m.l. (1996). issues facing organisations when implementing formal mentoring programmes. leadership and organisation development journal, 17(3), 27. freedman, m. (1999). the kindness of strangers. cambridge: cambridge university press. garvey, b., & carter, a. (2004). editorial. international journal of mentoring and coaching, 2(2). gibb, s., & megginson, d. (1993). inside corporate mentoring schemes: a new agenda of concerns. personnel review, 22(1), 40−54. gilmore, n., coetzee, m., & schreuder, d. (2005). experiences of the mentoring relationship in a mining company. sa journal of human resource management /sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 3(3), 27−32. hattingh, m., coetzee, m., & schreuder, d. (2005). implementing and sustaining mentoring programmes: a review of the application of best practices in the south african organisational context. sa journal of human resource management, 3(3), 40−48. ima (2009). international mentoring association. retrieved may 15, 2009, from http://www.mentoring-association.org ismpe (2009). international standards for mentoring programmes in employment. retrieved march 12, 2009, from http://www.ismpe.com/ismpe_home.php jobs summit (1998). summary of jobs summit declaration. 30 october 1998. retrieved march 13, 2009, from www.labour.gov.za/doc/policy/summit.html klasen, n., & clutterbuck, d. (2002). implementing mentoring schemes. oxford: butterworth heinemann. kochan, f.k. (2002). the organisational and human dimensions of successful mentoring programs and relationships. connecticut: information age. kochan, f.k., & pascarelli, j.t. (2003). global perspectives on mentoring: transforming contexts, communities and cultures. connecticut: information age. mentfor (2009). programme search. retrieved may 07, 2008, from http://www.mentfor.co.uk/programmesearch.asp merriam, s.b. (1998). qualitative research and case study applications in education. san francisco: josey bass. meyer, m., & steinman, n. (2008). first national coaching and mentoring benchmarking study, phase 1 results. paper presented at the knowledge resources coaching and mentoring conference, march 13 2008, johannesburg, south africa. murray, m. (2001). beyond the myths and magic of mentoring. san francisco: josey bass. peer resources network (2009). peer resources network. retrieved march 13, 2009, from www.mentors.ca philips, j.j., & stromei, l.k. (2001). creating mentoring and coaching programs. alexandria: astd press. saqa (2009). south african qualifications authority unit standard 115432. retrieved march 13, 2009, from http://regqs.saqa.org.za/viewunitstandard.php?id=115432 shank, g.d. (2002). qualitative research – a personal skills approach. new jersey: merrill prentice hall. shiner, m., young, t., newburn, t., & groben, s. (2004).mentoring disaffected young people – an evaluation of mentoring plus. joseph rowntree foundation. retrieved march 12, 2009, from http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/mentoringdisaffected-young-people-evaluation-mentoring-plus stewart, m., & parr, n. (2008). bridging the gap through mentorship. people dynamics, 26(8), 9–10. 2burden.indd context of the present study the researcher joined a jse-listed company in the information technology sector (itc) during 1995 as group executive: human resources. in the course of 1997 this company merged with another south african itc company. at the time of the merger, the new entity had approximately 6 500 employees. as part of the integration process, the company had to rationalise its operations by eliminating duplication that arose. the rationalisation necessitated a large-scale retrenchment. hence the researcher was tasked by the executive committee to design a downsizing process that would minimise economic and legal risks. at the time the international social science literature provided no guidance on the issue. this resulted in the company depending on its own expertise to design the process. during 2002 the company decided to revise its restructuring process and accompanying policies by aligning these with the labour relations act 1995, as amended in 2002. however, it was not possible at the time to base the restructuring on sound social science research. to consolidate the company’s apparently successful inter vention, it was necessary to subject it to social science scrutiny and to construct a scientific process that could also be used by other local companies, given that downsizing was a recurring but poorly understood phenomenon. donald (1995) was the only local scholar who had developed a retrenchment process, but it was not aligned with the amended labour relations act 1995. this scenario led the researcher towards the end of 2004 to undertake empirical research and a doctoral study to create a model for organisational redesign. the researcher decided to develop a roadmap of how he needed to apply grounded theory in this study. this roadmap will now be discussed in this article. according to schurink (2004b, p. 14) qualitative research stems from a largely anti-positivistic, interpretive approach that is ideographic, holistic, and typically aiming at understanding social life and the meanings people attach to it. this research style resulted from social science scholars questioning the legitimacy of the “scientific method” (see ritchie & lewis, 2004, p. 8). these authors further concluded that practitioners of qualitative research came to emphasise and value the human interpretive aspects of exploring the social world and the significance of one’s own interpretation and understanding of the phenomenon under study (richie & lewis, 2004). denzin and lincoln (2003, pp. 4-5) provide the following workable definition of qualitative research: “a situated activity that locates the obser ver in the world, consisting of a set of interpretive, material practices making the world visible and then turning it into a series of representations, including field notes, inter views, conversations, photographs, recordings and memos to the self”. “as such qualitative research is an interpretive, naturalistic approach to the world” (guba & lincoln, 1994, p.108). this implies that qualitative researchers study phenomena in their natural settings so as to make sense of or interpret them in terms of the meanings people bring to them. in doing this, qualitative researchers typically use a variety of empirical tools. these include case studies, personal experiences, introspections, life stories, interviews, artefacts, cultural texts and productions, observational, historical, interactional and visual texts, all of them describing routine and problematic moments and meanings in individuals’ lives. for them each of these practices makes the world visible in a different way. hence they use more than one interpretive practice in any study (schurink, 2004c, p. 5). one practice that has become very important in qualitative research, generally and organisational studies particularly, is grounded theory. grounded theory schurink (2004d, p. 2) believes that grounded theory is a particular inductive approach consisting of a systematically developed set of procedures and techniques to devise a theoretical concept about the life world of some selected group of people who form part of a particular social reality. as such this approach is primarily based on the subjective experiences of humans and comes about while one gathers data. strauss and corbin (1990, p. 23) define grounded theory as one that is inductively derived from the study of the phenomenon it represents. in other words, it is discovered, developed and provisionally verified through systematic collection and analysis of data on a particular phenomenon. therefore, data collection, analysis and theory are in a reciprocal relationship with one another. one does not begin with some theory and then prove it. rather, one begins with an area of study and allows whatever is relevant to that area to emerge. potter (1996, pp. 151-152) refers to grounded theory as an analytical technique that directs researchers to look for patterns in data so that they can develop general statements about the phenomenon examined. the process follows inductive reasoning, looking for patterns across individual observations and then arguing for those patterns that have the status of general explanatory statements. according to goulding (2002, pp. 38-43) grounded theory can be traced to symbolic interactionism, the origins of which lie in the work of charles cooley (1864-1929) and george johann burden gert roodt groodt@uj.ac.za programme in leadership in performance and change department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract in this article an overview of qualitative research, the origin of grounded theory, its different schools and relationship with substantive theory are provided. the researcher also considers whether “grounded theory” implies theory only or includes other building blocks of science, how grounded theory is applied in management and leadership studies abroad and in the republic of south africa. he describes how his interest in organisational downsizing led to the study. finally, he introduces a “roadmap” for grounded theory in a south african information technology company and offer some suggestions for future studies. key word: grounded theory, downsizing, redesign, south african it company grounded theory and its application in a recent study on organisational redesign: some reflections and guidelines 11 sa journal of human resource management, 2007, 5 (3), 11-18 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2007, 5 (3), 11-18 herbert mead (1863-1931). the concern of these scholars was to avoid the polarities of psychologism and sociologism, the former assuming that social behaviour is explicable in genetic terms and by logical or neurological processes and the latter assuming that personal conduct is in some way programmed by societal norms. bryman and bell (2007) are of the opinion that symbolic interactionism individuals engage in reflective interaction rather than respond intuitively to the environment. people are purposive in their actions, and act and react to environmental cues and objects according to the meaning these hold for them. these meanings evolve from social interaction, which itself is symbolic because of the interpretations attached to the various forms of communication, such as gestures, facial expression and the significance of objects. bryman and bell (2007) believe that symbolic interactionism is both a theory of human behaviour and an approach to inquiry into human conduct and group behaviour. a principal tenet is that humans come to understand collective social definitions through socialisation. hence the notion of symbols is intrinsic to this perspective. social life is expressed through symbols, which include language, the most powerful of all. classic symbolic interactionism is a micro theory, as it does not deal with the larger questions of the shape of society. further, this classic tradition utilises participant observation to identif y power imbalances. the research itself usually takes the form of field studies in which the researcher observes, records and analyses data obtained in a natural setting. based on the principles of symbolic interactionism, two american scholars, glaser and strauss (1967), developed a pretty defined and systematic procedure for collecting and analysing qualitative data. they labelled it ‘grounded theory’ to reflect the source of the developed theory, which is ultimately the behaviour, words and actions of those under study. they both believed in (1) the need to get out in the field if one wishes to understand what is going on; (2) the importance of grounded theory in studying reality; (3) the continually evolving nature of experience in the field for the subjects and the researcher; (4) the active role of persons in shaping the worlds they live in through the process of symbolic interaction; (5) continuous change and process and the variability and complexity of life; and (6) the interrelationship between subjects’ meanings and their actions (glaser, 1992, p. 16). grounded theory, in contrast to theory obtained by logicodeductive methods, is grounded in data that have been systematically obtained through social research. the main thrust of this is to bridge the gap between theoretically uninformed empirical research and empirically uninformed theory (goulding, 2002, p. 41). it may also be argued that, like many qualitative methodologies, grounded theory carefully and systematically studies the relationship between individuals’ experience, society and history (goulding, 2002). locke (2001, p. 37) believes that in the grounded theory approach, the line of investigative action concerns the development of concepts by composing categories and delineating ways in which the categories relate to each other. it is through this inductive process that meaning in the social world is invested through the process of conceptualisation (schurink, 2004b). utilising the grounded theory tradition, the process of analysing data, is an inductive process using coding. the implicit constant comparison process is continued until theoretical saturation is reached, where no further data fits into the concepts and categories. when this is achieved, a theoretical framework is generated with the help of interpretive procedures, and well developed systematically related categories are derived through statements of relationship, prior to being described in the narrative (locke, 2001). it is important to note that the process of data collection and analysis is a continuous one that will stop only when this iterative process has reached saturation. at this point additional data collected does not add any new information to the study findings (locke, 2001). the characteristics of a dependable grounded theory analysis, that yields in-depth understanding and knowledge, according to haig (1995) is firstly inductively derived from the data. secondly, it is subjected to theoretical elaboration and finally, that it is judged as adequate within the research field with respect to a number of evaluative criteria. according to haig (1995), these evaluation criteria, all mentioned by glaser and strauss (1967), include clarity, consistency, parsimony, density, scope, integration, explanatory power, predictiveness, and most importantly, application. most authors divide data analysis into two main activities in the analytical process. the first activity, ritchie and lewis (2003, p. 219) refer to as data management1, which involves making sense of data through descriptive or explanatory accounts. similarly mason (2002) and bogdan and biklen (2007) refer to this more specifically as organising and indexing the outputs of the ‘products’ of data collection. the second activity, referred to by bogdan and biklen (2007) and also by mason (2002), is interpretation, which is the task of making generalisations about the wider reality. all three authors agree that the differentiation is however not clear-cut. it is practical to differentiate the activities that are associated with each in order to gain understanding in terms of how they might be applied. without data organisation and management, it will be difficult to make sense of, or to interpret the data. data management should therefore precede explanatory accounts and argument building. grounded theory clearly evolves during the research process and is a product of continuous interplay between analysis and data collection. it requires the recognition that inquiry is always context-bound and that facts should be viewed as both theory laden and value laden. knowledge is seen as actively constructed, with meanings of existence being informed by the experiential world. the approach is most commonly used to generate theory where little is known, or to provide a fresh slant on existing knowledge. the researcher typically works in the situation in which the action takes place, thus natural situations, in order to analytically relate informants’ perspectives to the environments in which the perspectives emerged (baszanger, 1998, p. 354). the ultimate goal of the grounded theory researcher is to develop theory that goes beyond “thick description”2 (geertz, 1973). strauss and corbin (1998, p. 22) are of the opinion that, however illuminating or even ‘revolutionary’ the idea of theorising is, developing an idea into theory still necessitates that it be explored fully and be considered from many different angles or perspectives. it is also important to follow through with the implications of a theory. those formulations and implications lead to “research activity” that entails making decisions about and acting in relation to various questions throughout the research process – what, when, where, how, who and so on. also, any hypotheses and propositions derived from the data must be continuously “checked” against incoming data, and then modified, extended or deleted as required. according to glaser and strauss (1968, p. 3) the developed theory should (1) enable prediction and explanation of behaviour; (2) advance sociology theory; (3) apply to practice; (4) provide a perspective on behaviour; (5) guide research on particular areas of behaviour; and (6) provide clear categories and hypotheses so that crucial ones can be verified by research. burden, roodt12 1 data management involves generating a set of themes and concepts according to which the data are labeled, sorted and synthesized. initially these themes and concepts should remain close to participants’ own language and understandings, though later these may be replaced by more abstract analytical constructions (ritchie et al, 2003, p. 214). 2 the term was devised by geertz “to refer to detailed accounts of a social setting that can form the basis for the creation of general statements about a culture and its significance in people’s social lives” (bryman, 2004, pp. 544-545). different grounded theory schools grounded theory split into two camps, each subtly distinguished by its own ideographic procedures. whereas glaser (1978) stresses the interpretive, contextual and emergent nature of theory development, the late strauss appears to have emphasised highly complex and systematic coding techniques. strauss and corbin (1990) exemplif y this rupture with their presentation of multiple coding procedures such as open, axial and selective coding, and techniques of comparison that are now used to advance analysis by intentional manipulation of data in a number of ways. glaser (1978) only speaks of open and selective coding. whereas strauss (1987) believes that clarification of the process is achieved by distinguishing three stages of naming and comparing activity as mentioned above. glaser (1990) argues against this, insisting that thinking about and executing these processes at two levels is sufficient. furthermore, we see a concern with structural conditions not only at the micro level, but also at much broader social levels. this is clearly articulated in more recent methodological works (corbin and strauss, 1990, strauss and corbin, 1990, 1998) advocating that the analyst’s composed grounded theories include macro structural conditions that impinge on studied phenomena. to this end they also offer a macro coding paradigm, a ‘conditional matrix’ that directs the analyst to inquire into and specif y the social, historical and economic conditions that may have a bearing on and influence the phenomenon. this will link micro and macro elements which represent a further clarification of what a sociological theory should look like. the researcher decided to employ the techniques used by strauss and corbin (1990) because he needed the strict systematic coding as well as the ‘conditional matrix’ that their technique suggests in order to develop a model for organisational redesign. grounded theory and substantive theory glaser and strauss (1967, p. 32) make much of the difference between substantive and formal theory: “by substantive theory we mean that theory developed for a substantive, or empirical, area of sociological inquiry, such as patient care, race relations, professional education, delinquency, or research organizations. by formal theory, we mean that theory developed for a formal, or conceptual, area of sociological inquiry, such as stigma, deviant behaviour, formal organization, socialization …” they view formal theory as the sociologist’s (scientist’s) goal. however, they insist that to be valid, formal theory must be developed from a substantive grounding in concrete social situations. in organisation studies many theories are substantive, decisionmaking and leadership being two instances. substantive theories may even be developed for issues associated with working in virtual organisations or managing contingent workers. when we speak of formal theory we usually refer to those areas of inquiry that operate at a high level of generality, such as systems theory, agency theory and contingency theory (locke, 2003). grounded theory: “theory” or “theoretical concepts”? the meaning of the term “theory” in grounded theory seems to be taken for granted to such an extent that many criticisms of grounded theories revolve around concerns of their not being properly developed theories (locke, 2003, p. 35). researchers generalise their empirical observations by applying some linguistic device that is conceptual categories and/or frameworks (see mouton & marais, 1990). a conceptual category has analytic generalisability when it can plausibly account for a large number and range of empirical observations. glaser and strauss (1967) speak of this when they describe a theory as being generally applicable (locke, 2003, p. 39). although glaser and strauss (1967) argue that the grounded theory style of research is especially suited to generating theories of social process, they also hold that the method can be used to generate static models, for example, a typology (locke, 2003, p. 42). locke (2003) refers to various organisational studies using grounded theory in order to develop substantive models. the researcher is therefore of the opinion that “theory” in “grounded theory” does not (and should not) refer to a rigid application of one theoretical concept, “theory”, but does (and should) also refer at least to typologies and models, (see mouton, 2002). “the term ‘model’ is probably the most ambiguous in vocabulary of the social scientists. it is generally accepted that theories and models bear a number of important similarities” (mouton, 2002, p.196). he is of the opinion that both achinstein (1968) and gorrell (1981) maintain that the differences between models and theories are largely differences of degree. although a rigid distinction need not always be drawn between model and theory, the difference between the two can be explained as follows: l it is argued that the heuristic function is the most common characteristic of models, while the explanatory function is usually attributed to theories. the organisational redesign model is based on the explanatory function of the sor theory and explains heuristically how this redesign model can be used within a specific organisational setting. in other words this model attempts to represent the dynamic aspects of organisational redesign by illustrating the relationships between its elements in a simplified form. kaplan (1964), mentions that a model agrees only in a broad sense with the phenomenon to which it is related. certain characteristics of the phenomenon, which are irrelevant to the model such as de-layering, closing of departments, process re-engineering are not directly incorporated into the model, while the most obvious aspects are emphasised for example the consequences of the aforementioned aspects, namely the redesign of the organisation. that is why the researcher defines the product of his research as a model (and not a substantive theory). grounded theory and management studies partington (2000) contends that the grounded theory approach is well suited to contemporary mode 2 management research3, which points to a break with academic circles through its focus on the practice domain. according to him, this mode of management research is trans-disciplinary and as such is less likely to bring with it mature theoretical frameworks developed within the boundaries of particular academic disciplines. it underscores the importance of accessing the tacit knowledge of organisational actors. partington (2000) uses the approach to develop a grounded normative model that accounts for the actions of managers seeking to implement planned organisational change initiatives. according to locke (2003, p. 93) by the 1970s the grounded theory approach had been taken up in studies of management and organisational behaviour, and these were being published in prominent journals. grounded theory has been one, if not the most important approaches cited in qualitative studies published in this discipline. in south africa grounded theory is also increasingly applied, the studies of nell (2005) and smith (2004) being two recent ones.4 rationale of the roadmap given the differences in grounded theory that exist between the original authors and relatively little formal training in this approach, newcomers to qualitative research6 wishing to use grounded theory are often at a loss (see, for example, nell grounded theory and its application 13 1 mode 2 management researchers show concern for the gap between academe and practice, advocating for research aimed at advancing the interests of the latter. it is trans-disciplinary, and as such less likely to bring with it mature theoretical frameworks developed within the boundaries of particular academic disciplines. it underscores the importance of accessing the tacit knowledge of organisational actors (locke, 2003, p. 96). 2 nell (2005) developed an organisational development change model within a financial institution and smith explored knowledge management in modernday organisations and the role of the human resources function in facilitating access to knowledge via knowledge holders (employees). 5 as a matter of fact schurink (2005) indicates that qualitative research training courses both abroad and in south africa receive far too little attention because of curriculum and logistical realities. (2005) strauss and corbin’s (1990) basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques is also too detailed for a newcomer. thus the researcher decided to create a roadmap for himself on how to apply grounded theory. roadmap for or process of applying grounded theory in developing this roadmap he followed the main decision taking steps normally found in qualitative research. figure 1 depicts the grounded theory process he applied. figure1: implementing the grounded theory process research design when the predominant research approach is qualitative, a case study strategy tends to take an inductive approach to the relationship between theory and research. the case study as a research strategy comprises an all-encompassing method, covering the logic of design, data collection techniques, as well as data analysis approaches (yin, 2003, p. 12). yin (2003) explains that case studies are not only used to formulate theory, but also to test theory. casing6 is a typical research strategy of the modernist qualitative research tradition7 (schurink, 2004a, p. 2). babbie and mouton (2004, p. 640) define case study research as an intensive investigation of a single unit. this unit ranges from individual people,9 families, communities,10 social groups,11 organisations and institutions,11 to events, roles and relationships12 and countries and nations.13 casing is particularly popular in organisational research (gummesson, 1991), and is well suited to capture the social world of people and reaching an understanding of a real-life situation. harrison (2002, p. 158) contends that case studies are the most satisfactory or enjoyable way to carry out management research. according to eisenhardt (2002, p. 12) case study research may involve a single case or multiple cases and may be exploratory, descriptive or explanatory. punch (1998, p. 153) identifies four characteristics of case studies: (1) they facilitate the clear identification and description of boundaries; (2) they represent something that is obviously important to analyse; (3) they ensure a specific focus through posing research questions; and (4) they are likely to use multiple sources of data. as these features matched the requirements for conducting an explorative-descriptive study,14 the researcher opted for a case study. more specifically he opted for a single exploratory case study on employees’ social construction of a company’s recently downsizing to create a social science basis for this process. because of the study’s qualitative nature, he primarily applied grounded theory. sampling sampling in grounded theory is directed by the evolving research and an ongoing part of data collection and analysis, both of which in turn direct the researcher in further sampling. goulding (2002, p. 66) puts this as follows: “theoretical sampling entails purposefully selecting a sample according to developing categories and emerging theory.” he based his sampling on his experience of a particular company and his close acquaintance with its employees (i.e. “tacit theory” and “insider perspective”), (taylor & bogdan, 1984, p.5). he selected two top executives, four senior managers who had applied downsizing in the company and one regional human resource consultant who was a custodian of the downsizing. their selection was based on their involvement in the planning and execution of the original process and their different positions in the company. data collection qualitative researchers study spoken and written representations and records of human experience, using multiple methods and sources of data (punch, 1998, p. 174). these are collected through in-depth discussions with individuals or focus groups, direct observation, the analysis of artefacts, documents and cultural records, and the use of visual materials or personal experience (denzin & lincoln, 2003, p. 37). the researcher first resorted to document analysis, which is the study of existing documents, such as public documents like annual reports, minutes of meetings, articles in the internal publications of an organisation, media reports and formal letters, and personal documents like diaries and photographs (ritchie & lewis, 2004, p. 35). he analysed two e-mail essays on the company’s policy on organisational downsizing. he also conducted personal interviews. according to de vos, strydom, fouché and delport (2005, p. 292) interviewing is the predominant mode of data collection in social science research, and according to seidman (1998, p. 1) one interviews people because one is interested in their stories,15 which are a means of knowing. kvale (1996, p. 2) adds an interesting dimension to interviewing by pointing out that an interview is literally an “inter view”, an “inter change” of views between two persons conversing about a theme of mutual interest. burden, roodt14 6 the term “casing” has recently come to be used in the united states for “case studies”. 7 modernist qualitative research is one of the so-called moments of qualitative research but builds on canonical works of the traditional period. hence social realism, naturalism and slice-of-life ethnographies are still valued. 8 an individual case study provides a detailed account of one person (babbie & mouton, 2004, p. 281). 9 community studies focus on one or more communities and describe and analyse the patterns of and relations between the main aspects of community life (babbie & mouton, 2004, p. 281). 10 social group studies are studies of both small direct contact groups (e.g. families) and larger more diffuse groups (e.g. occupational groups) (babbie & mouton, 2004, p. 281). 11 studies of organisations and institutions entail in-depth analysis of a firm, company, corporation, trade union, etc. however, there are many foci, including best practices, policy implementation and evaluation, human resource practices, management and organisational issues, organisational culture, processes of change and re-engineering (babbie & mouton, 2004, p. 281). 12 case studies of events, roles and relationships focus on specific events, such as police-citizen encounters, doctor-patient interactions, specific crimes and studies of role conflict (babbie & mouton, 2004, p. 281). 13 case studies of countries and nations focus on international and comparative politics and foreign policy, and the object may be a country or bloc of countries (e.g. sadec) (babbie & mouton, 2004, p. 281). 14 see burden ( 2006). 15 one who tells a “story” (or in greek a “history”) is taken to be wise and learned. finally, he applied focus group discussions. schurink (2004c, p. 2) defines “group” as a number of individuals with the same background, interests, values and norms, who interact with one another in such a way that each person influences and is influenced by the other persons. “focus” means that the discussion in the group is limited to the specific theme under investigation. a focus group interview can thus be described as a purposive discussion of a specific topic or related topics by eight to ten individuals with a similar background and common interests. focus groups are typically used where the group process itself can illuminate the research issue. focus group discussions provide a social context for research and thus an opportunity to explore how people think and talk about a topic; how their ideas are shaped, generated or moderated through conversations with others (ritchie & lewis, 2004, p. 37). capturing, storing and securing data all the interviews were audio-taped and transcribed by a company that specialised in transcriptions. the transcriptions were e-mailed to the researcher and their hard copy versions were couriered to his office, where he locked them away after each was properly indexed. this enabled him to easily refer back to them as and when required. in the light of the important role field notes play in qualitative research, he tried to be as detailed as possible. he also ensured that he would have about two hours between each interview to write an account of what he had heard or observed during the interviews. the field notes were descriptive and reflective and included a short synopsis of the career history of each participant, their current roles in the company, marital status and language. he reflected on his methodology and his observations of the participants, that is whether they were relaxed about or inhibited by his seniority in the company, and how his interview style affected them. he also reflected on whether their experiences and perspectives were related to any abstract theoretical concept of redesign. in addition he noted their recommendations regarding the company’s current downsizing.16 he compiled a project diary to capture the deployment of the study, auto-ethnographical sketches describing his experiences and thoughts on downsizing, and memos in which he noted his ideas and insights on the meaning of the data. data analysis data was analysed with the aid of the atlas.ti 5.0. according to muhr (2004, pp. 1-3) atlas ti 5.0 it is a powerful workbench for the qualitative analysis of large bodies of textual, graphical, audio and video data. it offers a variety of tools for accomplishing the tasks associated with any systematic approach to understand data, e.g. data that cannot be meaningfully analysed by formal statistical approaches. atlas offers tools to manage, extract, compare, explore and reassemble meaningful pieces from large amounts of data in a creative and flexible yet systematic way. as there was nobody readily available to give the researcher an overview of atlas, he studied the examples throughout the manual and concluded that coding would be easy. however, it turned out that the logic he had to follow in the actual coding was very complex. trusting that the theoretical constructs would assist him, he completed the literature review. however, this created more confusion and exposed him to accusations of engaging in analytic induction17. thus the theoretical concepts were set aside and a pure grounded theory approach was followed, that is, coding was used as the only means of establishing what the interviews revealed about the phenomenon. so, as not to lose touch with the richness of the data he complemented atlas coding with manual coding. from the codes he selected, he started developing themes. he also revised the coding approach on the basis of insights he had gained from the first exercise. after this the coding started all over again. a picture of the new downsizing process was slowly emerging. now he developed more descriptive codes. after he had defined core categories the new downsizing process took on more precise features. he then detected a problem with the coding in that he felt that he was not certain whether atlas assisted him to identif y all the relevant codes. this led to his decision to transfer all the codes with their associated quotations to a word document. this was subjected to manual coding, which brought new insights. he transferred the outcome of the manual coding to a new word document and used the new document to update the code file in atlas. he proceeded with the manual extraction of core categories and updated all documents again. this resulted in yet another new picture of downsizing. when atlas stopped yielding new information, we realised he had exhausted the data. open coding strauss and corbin (1998, p. 101) define open coding as the analytic process through which concepts are identified and their properties and dimensions discovered in the data. according to de vos et al. (2005, p. 346) open coding pertains specifically to the naming and categorising of phenomena through close examination of the data. without this first, basic analytical step the remainder of any analysis is difficult, if not impossible. during open coding the data are broken down into discreet parts. these are then closely compared for similarities and differences, after which questions are asked about the phenomenon embedded in the data. in fact, grounded theory is often referred to in the literature as the constant comparative method of analysis (glaser & strauss, 1967). the researcher analysed the e-mail texts and the transcripts of the personal interviews by breaking them into distinct units of meaning per line of text and then identified key words or phrases in the participants’ accounts of the phenomenon under investigation. he tried to establish a link between a passage of text of any length and some general phenomenon. axial coding axial coding is the process of relating categories to their subcategories (strauss & corbin, 1998, p. 123) to create code families. the term “axial” derives from the fact that coding occurs around the axis of a category, linking categories at the level of properties and dimensions. de vos et al. (2005, p. 348 ) define axial coding as a set of procedures whereby data are put back together in new ways after open coding, by making connections between categories. this is done on the basis of a coding paradigm that involves conditions, context, action/interactional strategies and consequences. though open and axial coding are distinct analytic procedures, the researcher alternates between the two when he or she engages in analysis. he continued using atlas for axial coding as it expedited and eased abstraction. he was also acutely aware of researchers’ concern with computer-assisted qualitative data analysis, and therefore took care to avoid the fragmentation of the textual material and the de-contextualisation of the data. selective coding selective coding is not very different from axial coding, but takes place at a higher, more abstract level of analysis. de vos et al. (2005, p. 349) mention that selective coding entails the process of selecting the core categories, systematically relating them to other categories, validating those relationships, and filling in categories that need further refinement and development. these grounded theory and its application 15 16 this information was invaluable during the coding process. 17 “…ai and analogous theory-building approaches ostensibly seek to capture aspects of the social world from the perspective of actors and allow the revision of hypotheses and conceptual structures through the analysis and elimination of negative cases. in doing so it attempts to maintain faithfulness to empirical data gathered from a relatively small number of cases” (gill & johnson, 2002: 157). steps are not necessarily taken in linear sequence, nor are they distinct in actual practice (strauss & corbin, 1998). the researcher performed selective coding and defined the core categories (super codes) electronically by means of atlas, and transferred the codes and the associated quotations to a word document to determine whether the correct codes had indeed been allocated to the quotations. the results were afterwards verified by means of manual coding, which led him to re-allocate certain codes and re-phrase some categories. these changes were transferred to the atlas file. hereafter he reviewed both the categories and the core categories. where appropriate, their definitions were amended. the selective coding was the most important step towards defining a model for organisational redesign. the next step was the first focus group discussion. first focus group discussion: evaluation of the codes the first focus group discussion was conducted at the company’s headquarters. the purpose was to clarif y the codes, categories and core categories. to this effect the researcher developed a schedule containing the concepts, categories and core categories to guide the discussion. he used brainstorming and the nominal group technique to identif y new codes, categories and core categories. brainstorming is meant to overcome the pressures of conformity through the interaction of creative alternatives. the technique generates ideas by specifically encouraging any and all alternatives, while withholding any criticism of these (bergh & theron, 2003, p. 249). the nominal group technique restricts discussion during the decision-making process, hence the qualifier “nominal”. although group members share the same physical space, as in common meetings, they operate independently. more specifically, a problem is presented to the group and then the following steps take place (bergh & theron, 2003, p. 249): l the members meet as a group, but before any discussion takes place, each member independently writes down his or her ideas on the problem. l this silent period is followed by each member presenting one idea to the group. each member takes a turn, going around the table, presenting a single idea until all ideas have been presented and recorded (usually on a flip chart). no discussion takes place until all ideas have been recorded. l the group then discusses the ideas for clarity and evaluates them. l each group member silently and independently puts the ideas in rank order. the final order is determined by the aggregate ranking of the ideas. brainstorming and the nominal group technique facilitated the critical review of the categories and core categories, and placing the latter in sequence, which was simultaneously the first step towards defining the model. the focus group discussion was tape-recorded and later transcribed by a company that specialises in the transcription of interviews. the transcriptions were emailed to the researcher, and the hard copies were couriered to his office. he analysed the transcriptions of the focus group discussion by means of open, axial and selective coding to determine whether the current codes needed updating. as new concepts, categories and core categories emerged, he updated all the codes and added the new ones. dimensional analysis18 and conditional matrix19 according to goulding (2002, p. 79), schatzman (1991) developed a method called dimensional analysis, which moves interpretation from a descriptive to an explanatory level in order to identif y the relationship between and across emerging phenomena. dimensional analysis uses as its foundation conditions, process, context and consequences that can be shown to have an effect on the story of the informant. the purpose of this method is to provide a structure for analysis and explanation. it assists the researcher in moving a particular observation of a situation towards a more abstract presentation. applying dimensional analysis the researcher scrutinised all the data until a critical mass of dimensions was assembled that represented emerging pathways with explanatory power. (grounded theory employs similar strategies for describing process and developing theoretical frameworks). he then placed the data in a framework of (1) causal conditions, (2) the phenomenon, (3) intervening conditions and (4) interactional strategies. the next step was the creation of a conditional matrix. the researcher scanned management studies for an example of the use of a conditional matrix and found it in partington (2000). partington used it in mode 2 management research, but applied a structured approach to grounded theory building. this adaptation proved to him that theories of management action that satisf y the demands of mode 2 management research can differ from the integrated sociological theory for which grounded theory was originally developed. partington (2000, p. 95) indicates that s-o-r theory is concerned with how people’s understanding of their environment leads to action. in management research this features in the mediating role of the manager between environmental stimulus and behavioural response. on the face of it the assumptions behind grounded theory’s symbolic interactionist underpinnings match the s-o-r orientation because it is concerned with understanding social processes and interactions from the social actor’s point of view. according to symbolic interactionists a stimulus to act undergoes a process of interpretation before a response (an act) is forthcoming (bryman, 1988, p. 54). this view is broadly in line with the premises of s-o-r theory. however, when applying grounded theory, the difference between s-o-r and symbolic interactionist theory regarding the conception of causality must be taken into consideration. whereas s-o-r theory attributes a central role to causality, symbolic interactionist theory links causal conditions to action not through cognition but more indirectly via “phenomenon”, “context” and “intervening conditions”, each of which may include elements of cognition. (the complexity of the symbolic interactionist view of the role of causality in theory, is reflected in strauss and corbin’s (1990) model.) another consideration when applying grounded theory is the eight-layered conditional matrix, which covers all components of the paradigm model, not only in the responses of individuals to stimulus information in organisations, but also in the full kaleidoscope of sociological contexts. the researcher’s task is to grasp the process of interpretation by which actors assign meaning to their actions. a problem for grounded theorists using interview data in management cognition studies is that such data are not based on observed events, but on research participants’ second-hand accounts of these events. the issue here is not whether research participants are deliberately or unwittingly more “logical” or “socially desirable” but that the “reality” sought by the interviewer entails a causal s-o-r mechanism removed from his or her intermediate reality and from what he or she is supposed to observe (partington, 2000). taking these issues into account, the researcher believe it is possible to develop an improved grounded theory framework that matches the requirements of s-o-r research. this can be done by simplif ying strauss and corbin’s (1990) model, and by aligning it more closely with causal aims (partington, burden, roodt16 18 dimensionalisation entails the naming of data bits and the expansion of these into various attributes (goulding, 2002). 19 a graphical device for mapping and analysing data (goulding, 2002). 2000). this adaptation should produce a framework that embraces the study of the interpreted behaviour of people in all social science disciplines and social contexts. the framework’s structuring of the social context of organisations and its central focus on management action significantly simplifies the model. the adaptation should also reduce the eight concentric circles of the conditional matrix to the following four circles: (1) external organisational context, (2) internal organisational context, (3) individual and collective managerial cognition and (4) action. this will align the paradigm model (s-o-r model of causal tendency) with the conditional matrix. finally, an ontology is needed that will accommodate the development of causal theory while acknowledging the lack of absolute causal certainty inherent in social processes. interview-based causal-theory-building research has to be anchored in a theory of reality that allows the specification and refinement of explanations of cause and effect (partington, 2000). the simplified conditional matrix enabled the researcher to grasp the interrelationships between the various core categories, and this assisted him in constructing the substantive model. towards a model a model provides a systematic representation of phenomena by identif ying patterns and relations among variables. it explains the relationships between core categories heuristically (mouton & marais, 1996, p. 195). based on this view the researcher constructed a model for organisational redesign consisting of 23 steps. in terms of s-o-r theory, step 1 refers to the external organisational context, step 2 to the internal organisational context, steps 3 to 11 to individual and collective managerial cognition, and steps 12 to 23 to action. he contextualised the model within the existing literature by means of a second focus group discussion. second focus group discussion the researcher requested the group to study the amended model and then discuss each of the steps in terms of its meaning and relation to organisational downsizing. all categories and core categories per step were discussed and verified. minor amendments were made, that is the names of core categories were changed. the sequence of the downsizing process was also considered, but no change was required. however, the participants felt that the model’s name (“organisational downsizing”) had to be reviewed. to this effect the researcher used the nominal group technique. the participants finally came up with “organisational redesign”. as no new information emerged after this, he concluded that the process had reached saturation. integrating the constructed model with the s-o-r theory the researcher integrated the four labels of the conditional matrix with the newly formulated model for organisational redesign. the model was perfectly in line with s-o-r theory. substantiation20 the researcher substantiated the model by means of triangulation, ie, using more than one data collection method or data source, which yields more convincing results than a single method or a single source of data (potter, 1996, p. 153). he used e-mails, face-to-face interviews, memos, field notes and focus group discussions to gather the data for the study. this variety ensured multiple substantiation of his arguments. key implications the researcher’s application of grounded theory has various implications, and he now turn to the most apparent ones. methodologically, he feels he made the following contributions: l he applied grounded theory in quite a pure manner, consulting existing theoretical concepts only at the end to consolidate his insights. although he brings his personal experiences and biases into his studies, he did not include any existing theoretical concepts prior to undertaking the study and also did not apply analytical induction. he found grounded theory to be sufficiently systematic to produce quality findings. l the ‘roadmap’ he developed to implement grounded theory is invaluable. in the light of clear guiding steps, he believes that such a ‘roadmap’ is essential at least in local research. he would like to believe that the one he constructed paved the way to improve the application of the approach in the south african business research. l applying a conditional matrix in particular represented an important step forward in the application of grounded theory, as conditional matrixes are generally absent from local and international grounded theory studies (locke, 2003). l his application of both electronic and manual coding was an advantage. manual coding enabled him not only to crosscheck the electronic process but also to remain immersed in the data. it also enabled him to add codes to those originally identified by the atlas software. conclusion in conclusion he would like to emphasise the following: 1. while he feels the present study and its resultant model is important, substantial work is clearly still required. 2. although strauss and corbin (1990) give clear, but complicated guidelines on how to execute grounded theory, he struggled to use them for his study. he therefore created a ‘roadmap’ for himself at the outset of the study to apply grounded theory. there is just too much evidence of research novices who find the application of grounded theory so complex that they are tempted to give up. 3. all of us have different perspectives on research work including its contributions and shortcomings. his view will most certainly differ from those of many readers, which he does respect. he believes that while this piece of research also reflects shortcomings as all social science research studies, that he has to the best of his ability eliminated the well-known ones by applying appropriate techniques and that those that slipped through do not affect validity of his organisational redesign model. 4. his study produced a blueprint for the application of grounded theory by local research novices wishing to explore and explain social phenomena in the qualitative tradition. it also has wider application in that his formalisation of the qualitative approach offers a means to counter the criticism of positivist researchers that qualitative studies lack rigour (see partington, 2000). 5. he would like to advise future local doctoral students of leadership and change wishing to utilise grounded theory in their research, to take the following at heart: l create a roadmap based on a reading of the literature before beginning with the study. this will help them to understand what grounded theory is, how to execute it and what methods can be used for gathering information. although grounded theory is extensively discussed, how to execute it is seldom, if ever, spelt out.21 l use the atlas.ti 5.0 software. it is well suited to grounded theory studies. grounded theory and its application 17 20 in addition to triangulation we also applied a number of other strategies to secure soundness. these are described fully in burden (2006). 21 see chapters 3-5 in burden (2006) of how grounded theory was practically applied. l combine manual coding with electronic coding, especially during axial and selective coding. this will facilitate verification of the codes and exposure of additional codes. l test the process and see whether it will assist future students who wish to use grounded theory. acknowledgements the first author would like to thank: l mrs ina stahmer for editing the thesis. l prof. willem schurink for assisting as promoter during his research. references babbie, e. & mouton, j. (2004). the practice of social research. oxford university press. baszanger, i. (1998). the work sites of an american interactionist: anselm, l. strauss 1917-1996. symbolic interaction, 21 (4), 353-378. bergh, z.c. & theron, a.l. (2003). psychology in the work context ( 2nd ed). cape town: oxford university press. bryman, a. (1988). quantity and quality in social research. london: unwin hyman. bryman, a. (2004). social research methods. 2nd ed. new york: oxford university press inc. bryman, a. & bell, e. (2007). business research methods. 2nd ed. new york: oxford university press inc. burden, f.j. (2006). the development of an organisational redesign model: a south african case study. unpublished doctoral thesis, university of johannesburg: johannesburg. denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. (2003). the landscape of qualitative research: theories and issues. 2nd ed. london: sage publications. de vos, a.s., strydom, h., fouché, c.b. & delport, c.s.l. (2005). research at grass roots: for the social sciences and human ser vice professions (2nd ed). pretoria: van schaik publishers. donald, c.h.m. (1995). the experience of managers responsible for retrenchment – the development of a dynamic process model and analysis of role stress. unpublished doctoral thesis, university of cape town, cape town. eisenhardt, k.m. (2002). building theories from case study research. in a.m. geertz, c. (1973). the interpretation of cultures. new york: basic. gill, j. & johnson, p. 2002. research methods for managers (3rd ed). thousand oaks, ca: sage glaser, b.g. (1978). theoretical sensitivity: advances in the methodology of grounded theory. mill valley, c.a.: sociology press glaser, b.g. (1992). basics of grounded theory analysis. emergence versus forcing. mill valley, c.a.: sociology press. glaser, b.g. & strauss, a.l. (1967). the discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. chicago: aldine. glaser, b.g. & strauss, a.l. (1968). the discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. london: weidenfeld & nicolson. goulding, c. (2002). grounded theory: a practical guide for management, business and market researchers. london: sage publications. guba, e. & lincoln, y. (1994). competing paradigms in qualitative research. in denzin, n.k. & lincoln, t.s. (eds), handbook of qualitative research. thousand oaks, c.a.: sage. gummesson, e. (1991). qualitative methods in management research. revised ed. london: sage publications. harrison, a. (2002). case study research. in d. partington (ed.), essential skills for management research. london: sage publications. kvale, s. (1996). inter views: an introduction to qualitative research inter viewing. thousand oaks: sage. locke, k. (2003). grounded theory in management research. thousand oaks, c.a.: sage publications. lowenberg, j.s. (1993). interpretive research methodology: broadening the dialogue. advances in nursing science, 16 (2), 57-69. mouton, j. (2002). understanding social research (3rd impression). pretoria: van schaik publishers. mouton, j. & marais, h.c. (1996). basic concepts in the methodology of the social sciences. revised ed. pretoria: hsrc printers. nell, t.l. (2005). a case study on the development of an organizational development model for a south african financial institution. unpublished doctoral thesis, university of johannesburg: johannesburg. partington, d. (2000). building grounded theories of management action. british journal of management, 11, 91-102. potter, w.j. (1996). an analysis of thinking and research about qualitative methods. new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates publishers. punch, f. (1998). introduction to social research: quantitative and qualitative approaches. london: sage publications. ritchie, j. & lewis, j. (2004). qualitative research practice: a guide for social science students and researchers. london: sage publishers. schatzman, l. (1991). ‘dimensional analysis: notes on an alternative approach to the grounding of theory in qualitative research’, in d.r. maines (ed.), social organization and social process. new york: aldine de gruyter. schurink, w.j. (2004a). lecture two: qualitative research and its utilization in management studies. qualitative research: introducing key features of an interpretive approach to social science research, university of johannesburg, 19 january 2005. waterkloof glen, pretoria. schurink, w.j. (2004b). lecture three: considerations when choosing a qualitative style of research. introducing key features of an interpretive approach to social science research, university of johannesburg, 27-28 february 2004. waterkloof glen, pretoria. schurink, w.j. (2004c). lecture seven: data collection methods: focus groups. university of johannesburg, 27-28 february 2004. waterkloof glen, pretoria. schurink, w.j. (2004d). lecture nine: qualitative evaluation research. university of johannesburg, 27-28 february 2004. waterkloof glen, pretoria. schurink, w.j. (2005). qualitative research design: part 1. lecture notes to doctoral and masters students for the leadership in performance and change programme at the university of johannesburg, johannesburg. seidman, i. (1998). inter viewing as qualitative research (2nd ed). new york: teachers college press. smith, h. (2004). south african knowledge managers’ social construction of knowledge management and human resources: a grounded theory approach. unpublished dissertation, rand afrikaans university: johannesburg. strauss, a. & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research: grounded theory and procedures and techniques. london: sage publications. strauss, a. & corbin, j. (1998). basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed). thousand oaks, c.a.: sage publications. taylor, s.j. & bogdan, r. (1984). introduction to qualitative research methods: the search for meanings (2nd ed). new york, john wiley & sons. burden, roodt18 abstract introduction theoretical framework literature review research purpose and objectives methods findings and discussion limitations and suggestions for further research acknowledgements references about the author(s) nkosana tshisa department of business management, faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, welkom, south africa freda van der walt department of business management, faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, welkom, south africa citation tshisa, n., & van der walt, f. (2022). emotional well-being of black african queer employees in the workplace. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a2043. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.2043 original research emotional well-being of black african queer employees in the workplace nkosana tshisa, freda van der walt received: 11 july 2022; accepted: 12 oct. 2022; published: 06 dec. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: despite continuous sexual-orientation discrimination against sexual minorities in the workplace, many queer individuals have managed to create meaningful and happy lives inside and outside the organisation. research purpose: to explore the work experiences of african queer employees and establish how their work experiences as sexual minorities have affected their emotional well-being within the work context. motivation for the study: most previous research studies focusing on the queer population have been conducted in western countries. there is, therefore, scant empirical research focusing on african queer individuals. in addition, most previous studies explored queer individuals in general society from a pathological perspective. because of the increased focus on the mental health crises in africa and the detrimental impact, it may have on organisations; the current study explored the well-being of a marginalised group within the african work context. research approach/design and method: this qualitative study included nine black queer participants working in africa. data were collected using snowball sampling. main findings: the findings of the study show that the participants experienced both positive and negative affects. although some reported to be satisfied with their work, others reported a neutral or a negative stance. practical/managerial implications: more needs to be done to ensure that queer employees’ feel included and accepted in the workplace. hostile working environments affect queer employees’ work experiences and well-being, and as such, management plays an indispensable role in creating a welcoming and supportive working environment. contribution/value-add: the findings of the study contribute to the limited body of knowledge on the work experiences of black african queers. the findings should be of value to human resource practitioners and leaders who seek to create harmonious working environments in which all employees can excel and flourish. keywords: emotional well-being; black african queers; workplace experiences; sexual-orientation discrimination; queer. introduction worldwide, great strides have been made to recognise queer (i.e. lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender [lgbt]) rights. however, there are still numerous cases of continuous sexual-orientation discrimination at work which is associated with lower physical and emotional well-being and negative work results (de souza et al., 2017). in contrast to the negative experiences that queer employees are often exposed to at work, and in everyday life; however, riggle et al. (2014) assert that many queer individuals are living happy and meaningful lives despite incidents of persecution that they are exposed to. this sentiment is shared by rumens et al. (2019), who assert that research confirmed that it is possible for queers to live meaningful lives outside and within the work context. riggle et al. (2014) and feinstein et al. (2019) emphasise the importance of sharing positive experiences, to encourage other queer individuals to form positive identities, and greater well-being and inner strength. therefore, it is important not only to focus on challenges that queer employees face, but also to investigate their positive experiences and how they create meaning and happiness within the work context despite being marginalised. although queer employees have been the focus of previous empirical studies, very few research studies have included black queer employees, and specifically within an afrocentric context. previous studies have almost exclusively focused on the work experiences of white queer individuals (badgett et al., 2009; johnson & otto, 2019). furthermore, most previous studies focusing on queer individuals have been conducted in western societies, such as the uk and the us. in one of the few studies focusing on the african queer community, dhatemwa (2014) found that social dynamics in south africa make it impossible for queer employees to enjoy workplace benefits and freedoms, as they experience social and workplace exclusion throughout their working lives. several african countries still have laws in place that are designed to ostracise queer persons and preclude them from living their ‘truth’. these countries not only propagate the notion that queer identity is ‘un-african’, but also deepen the lack of acceptance that many black communities have displayed towards non-heterosexual individuals which have infiltrated workplaces. although this is greatly influenced by africa’s hegemonic colonialist background, many sexual minority groups continue to experience patriarchy and misogyny within society and the work context. as such, it is necessary to investigate whether african queer individuals have managed to create happy and meaningful working lives despite their heteronormative social and work environments. for this study, two african countries were selected, namely, malawi and south africa. the reason being that these african countries are not only ‘hot spots’ of the homosexual debate in africa, but also are examples of recent developments that offer interesting insights as far as queer rights and acceptance are concerned. theoretical framework according to islam (2014), social identity theory (sit) is a classic social psychological theory that attempts to explain intergroup conflict as a function of group-based self-definitions. proposed by tajfel (1972), sit states that the group that a person belongs to is an important source of pride and self-esteem, and that this group gives the person a sense of belonging, or an identity (harwood, 2020). social identity theory defines social identity as ‘the individual’s knowledge that they belong to certain social groups, together with some emotional value significant to them of group membership’ (tajfel, 1972, p. 31). the dissimilarity between these groups is often the reason why there is prejudice, bias, discrimination and conflict. this is usually because members of the in-group have harmonious, favourable interactions with one another, while there appears to be hostility towards members of the out-group. one may be a member of a myriad of social groups, and they form an important part of how one perceives, feels and behaves in social interactions (tajfel & turner, 1979). in the case of sexuality, members of society who are heterosexual are perceived to be ‘normal’ and part of the in-group, while those who identify as queer are perceived to be ‘different’, and thus part of the out-group. literature review sexual orientation ‘queer’ is an umbrella term that individuals may use to describe a sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression that does not conform to dominant societal norms (american psychological association, 2015). traditionally a negative term, queer has been reclaimed by some people and is considered inclusive of a wide range of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions (international organisation for migration, 2021). it may be used as an overarching locution for people with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics, or as an alternative to the acronym lgbt. queer challenges the binary way of thinking about sexualities (i.e. heterosexuality or homosexuality) in favour of a more complex project, of capturing the enormous diversity of sexualities, from gender ambiguity, transsexualities, or intersex to cross-dressing and more (calafell & nakayama, 2017). finally, queer embraces whatever is non-normative. in this sense, it is anti-essentialist, as it does not claim any essential underlying character to the various categories of sexual identity. in a heterosexist society, most individuals (i.e. heterosexuals) are granted benefits and opportunities that make it possible for them to enjoy a harmonious work environment, fruitful job experiences and high levels of occupational satisfaction (brickell, 2001; morison et al., 2016). unfortunately, the same cannot always be argued for their homosexual counterparts. this implies that a homosexual person may sometimes be tolerated in a heterosexist society, but not always accepted, possibly because of perceptions and attitudes that derive from the limited social liberties that queer persons enjoy. furthermore, it is possible that the burden of unacceptability is often experienced by those who openly identify as either gay, bisexual, transgender or any other sexual orientation, because they are ‘different’ from the norm. the hegemonic nature of preferred heterosexuality gives rise to social constructs that most believe are the ‘right’ way to exist within society. these heteronormative social constructs are thus adhered to in routinised economic participations, and they influence most organisational cultures, which are typically devoid of queer experiences. a robust body of research indicates that experiences of heterosexist discrimination (e.g. being shunned or rejected for being a sexual minority, being the victim of a hate crime) and internalised heterosexism (negative attitudes towards homosexuality and/or bisexuality and towards oneself as a sexual minority person) are associated with poorer mental health outcomes among sexual minorities (velez et al., 2019). furthermore, non-affirming environments are associated with higher rates of internalised heterosexism (barnes & meyer, 2012; chow & cheg, 2010; szymanski & sung, 2013), and in turn, increased internalised heterosexism is associated with psychological distress (velez et al., 2019) and negative mental health outcomes, such as depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation for lgb individuals (mclaren, 2016). thus, because of the antagonistic attitudes and negative perceptions of society in general, individuals with a sexual orientation that deviates from the societal norm (i.e. heterosexual) are likely to be discriminated against, not only in society generally, but also in the workplace. ensher et al. (as cited in bhana, 2013) argue that when employees perceive mistreatment because of their group membership, they experience emotions of alienation and anger, which may result in negative work-related behaviours, as well as negative physical and psychological effects on the individual’s well-being. thus, one should consider the work experiences of sexual minority groups to understand how they affect their emotional well-being, and consequently their behaviour within the work context. emotional well-being according to choi (2018), emotional well-being, often referred to as ‘hedonic well-being’, refers to the quality of an individual’s emotions and experiences, that is, sadness, anxiety, worry, happiness, stress, depression, anger, joy or affection, which leads to either unpleasant or pleasant feelings. emotional well-being is also regarded as one’s general interests, satisfaction and feelings about life (keyes et al., 2012). lamers et al. (2011) assert that emotional well-being includes a cognitive appraisal of satisfaction with life in general. life satisfaction may be a sense of overall contentment, or satisfaction, with past or present life, or with life domains, such as work and marriage (keyes, 2003). fredrickson and joiner (as cited in langeland, 2014) state that positive emotions trigger upward spirals towards emotional well-being. as such, emotional well-being may be seen as a component of positive mental health (ruggeri et al., 2020). keyes and lopez (2002) state that the symptoms of emotional well-being include scales of positive affect, negative affect and satisfaction with life overall. studies reveal that measures of acknowledgement of emotional well-being in terms of satisfaction and happiness are related but distinct dimensions (e.g. andrews & withey, 1976; badri et al., 2022; ruggeri et al., 2020). measures of expression of emotional well-being in terms of positive and negative affects are also regarded as related but distinct dimensions (e.g. bradburn, 1969; watson &tellegen, 1985; weinstein, 2018). fredrickson (as cited in langeland, 2014) suggests that positive emotions broaden people’s attention and thinking and thought–action repertoires, undo lingering negative emotional arousal, and promote psychological resilience, thus building personal resources and promoting psychological and physical well-being. these factors will, in turn, trigger upward spirals of emotional well-being, resulting in human flourishing (langeland, 2014). applied to the work context, emotional well-being includes three dimensions, which are operationalised by rothmann (2013) as employee perceptions of job satisfaction, positive affect (i.e. pleasant reactions towards things happening at work) and negative affect (i.e. unpleasant reactions towards things happening at work). research purpose and objectives the study seeks to explore the work experiences of black african queers, and how their work experiences as sexual minorities have affected their emotional well-being within the work context. the goal of the study is, therefore, to expand the current limited body of knowledge of the lived experiences of black african queer individuals within the work context. this insight and new knowledge created could help organisations to promote gender equality, inclusiveness, acceptance and transformation, which all reflect african values (e.g. ubuntu) and democratic societies. methods research approach and design the study was approached from an interpretivist paradigm, where participants become actively involved in all phases of the research process, by giving meaning to their interpretation and understanding of a social phenomenon (de vos et al., 2011). a qualitative approach was followed, which means that the researchers sought to understand the meaning participants ascribed to their experiences of emotional well-being within the work context. participants and procedure participants were sampled by means of snowball sampling. the sample consisted of nine black african queer individuals from two african countries – south africa and malawi. included in the sample were four homosexual males (participants 1, 3, 6 and 8) and one homosexual female (participant 5), one bisexual male (participant 9) and one bisexual female (participant 7), and two heterosexual females (participants 2 and 4) who identified as transgender. eight of the participants were single and one participant is involved in a life partnership. eight of the participants were 24 years and older, while one was 23 years and/or younger. seven of the participants work in the education sector, one participant is in the chemical sector, and one participant is in the food and beverage sector. ethical considerations ethical clearance was obtained from a higher education institution to undertake the study. to ensure that the participants gave informed consent to participate in the study, an introduction was given outlining the purpose of the study and the research procedure that would be followed, as well as ethical considerations that would be observed, such as confidentiality and the protection of identities. the participants were also made aware that participation in the study was voluntary, and that, as such, they were free to withdraw from the study at any time. data generation prior to collecting the data, an explanatory letter was emailed to the participants a week before the scheduled interviews, explaining the nature and the objectives of the study. data were collected by means of in-depth interviewing, where semi-structured interview schedules were used. the semi-structured interview data allowed the researcher to obtain a deep understanding of the black queer employees’ perceptions, feelings and experiences. the rationale for the use of this data collection method was to allow for the collection of sufficient data, without missing any significant information. the interviews were conducted at a venue that was agreed upon before the interviews commenced, and the interview took approximately 30 min. participants were given sufficient opportunity to tell their stories, as they had experienced them. it was requested that the interviews be conducted at the workplace, which was the natural setting in which the black queer employees were working. however, not all participants felt comfortable with this request, and therefore, some participants were interviewed at a venue that they identified as convenient. interviews were recorded with the permission of the participants. with qualitative studies, the researcher becomes the research instrument, and therefore, it is important to consider the trustworthiness of the study (marshall & rossman, 2016). to ensure trustworthiness, credibility, dependability, confirmability and transferability were considered. credibility was advanced through developing a research procedure that generated sufficient, multi-faceted and credible data from participants. rapport was established with participants and the interviews were conducted by one of the authors, who is a queer individual, to promote transparency and prolonged engagement. transferability and dependability were ensured by clearly defining the research sample, using an interview schedule, and documenting the research methodology used. interview recordings were transcribed verbatim, and data were coded according to themes that emerged from the literature review and participants’ responses. confirmability was ensured by linking the findings and conclusions reached in a logical manner. this was achieved by developing interview questions from the purpose of the study and the literature review. data analysis all data collected from the recorded interviews were transcribed, and the transcripts were inspected and analysed. the cleaning process and preparation of the interviews for coding included a thorough review of the transcripts. thereafter, both the researcher and the coders discarded the typographical errors and missing words. the qualitative data were gathered, summarised, coded, and reorganised and sorted according to themes (categories), after which it was interpreted and given meaning, in accordance with the steps suggested by flick (2014). this was done using inductive reasoning, since meaning was created from patterns in the observed data. findings and discussion three key themes emerged from the data analysis process: (1) positive affect; (2) negative affect; and (3) job satisfaction. we present the evidence for the three themes and a discussion of each theme. positive affect one of the sub-dimensions of emotional well-being is positive affect. the participants emphasised positive affect, which may be associated with feelings of happiness. participant 1, for example, stated: ‘i am always happy, and you will never ever see me angry at all, because i am an open and talkative person. so whenever you do wrong to me, i tell you. therefore, i am happy, and the work make it more enjoyable for me.’ (homosexual, m) participant 5 shared these sentiments: ‘i forced myself to be this happy person every day when i go to work. i don’t let the problems or the circumstances at work get me down, just to have a happy environment at work.’ (homosexual, f) some of the other participants mentioned that they are happy at work, because they are treated with respect and are understood (participant 8, homosexual, m), they work with people who share the same values and ideas (participant 7, bisexual, f). and they can be themselves (participant 7, bisexual, f). participant 7 also mentioned that she feels ‘peaceful’ at work and participant 6 (homosexual, m) mentioned positive emotions, such as ‘ease, comfort and calm’. in the study, most participants reported feelings of positive affect, which are mostly related to the work they do. some participants reported to be in good spirits, a feeling they attributed to their ability to not allow themselves to engage with negative situations at work, thus ensuring that they are always happy at work. the findings in terms of positive affect show that many participants respond positively to their work and things happening at work. in this regard, riggle et al. (2014) argued that many queer individuals are living happy and meaningful lives despite incidents of persecution that they are exposed to. although the participants did not necessarily refer to being persecuted and discriminated against, they have managed to create happy and meaningful work experiences. williamson (2020) argues that work experiences are connected to wider societal dynamics, and therefore, the one cannot be isolated from the other. negative affect while some participants experienced positive affect at work, others mentioned negative affect. participants reported that they experience feelings of dejection, which include sadness, depression, criticism and being undermined by peers. some participants mentioned that they feel sad when they cannot engage in conversations with their colleagues because of their perception of having a different sexual orientation. for example, participant 4 explained: ‘pretty much. you know, at work people may be talking about topics. so i hear them talking about queer people or gay people. obviously, i would not want to engage in those kinds of topics, because i do not want them to find out about me. so that is when i come across sadness at work.’ (transgender, f) participant 2, an openly transgender woman, mentioned that she experienced feelings of sadness at work when other women colleagues make oblique homophobic comments. she described how she felt: ‘i’m a transgender woman, a transgender heterosexual, [and] i would say the things that made me feel sad: some of my female colleagues were being weird around me in a sense that i kind of felt like i was being discriminated against. they would just throw kind of indirect homophobic comments, whereby they would say, “oh, you’re doing things more than us.” that would just make me feel sad afterward, because basically what they are saying is that there’s “us,” which is them, and then there’s me.’ (transgender, f) it seems that transgender individuals are particularly vulnerable to discrimination and prejudice inside and outside the workplace. clements et al. (2021) allude to research, indicating that transgender and non-binary individuals often experience rejection and job discrimination, which negatively impacts on their identity formation. other participants experienced feelings that arguably transcend sadness. they reported feeling depressed at work to a point, where they feel demotivated and withdrawn. for instance, participant 3 stated: ‘emotionally, i think sometimes i feel depressed at work, ’cause i know sometimes when it affects me that i don’t want to participate anymore in whatever. so i would say that sometimes there is a feeling of depression that comes from the whole situation.’ (homosexual, m) participant 9 (bisexual, m) perceived being affected by criticism because of his sexual orientation. the participant highlighted: ‘when i am being criticised because of who i am in terms of sexuality, it is not easy’. some participants lamented being undermined by colleagues because of their sexual orientation. for instance, participant 5 asserted: ‘so sometimes these two [managers] are being on their own side. they do not involve me in a few things. yes. so i also do believe sometimes it is because of my sexuality.’ (bisexual, m) similarly, participant 8 maintained that colleagues disregard her opinions, because they believe that she is not intellectually sound. she stated: ‘people tend to think that my opinions are clouded by my sexuality. nothing is professional when it comes from me because of my sexuality. they feel as though i am rebellious to a point where i am negative, and which is not true. i am very professional.’ (homosexual, m) participant 7, who has not disclosed her sexuality in the workplace, also experiences that her intellectual capability is undermined by colleagues. she bemoaned: ‘i feel mostly rejected at work when people intentionally step on your toes because you are young or because you are different, and they identify you differently because of your sexuality. i feel like people ignore me on purpose. a lot of people just … you would be with colleagues, and they are talking about a certain subject. you are with them. you raise a point, and they just ignore it. small things like that, especially when you think you are making sense. that really pressures me.’ (bisexual, f) a few participants revealed that emotionally, they felt numb, anxious and fatigued. participant 2, for example, stated: ‘i think lately it’s just been [i don’t know if fatigue is an emotion], but monotone, just ok. i haven’t been excited, i haven’t been sad. i just … i don’t feel. i feel numb.’ (transgender, f) from participant 7’s perspective, the feeling of anxiety when going to work is never absent, because she is unsure of what to expect from colleagues, including how they are going to receive her. the participant explained: ‘i am mostly anxious. will i be able to complete that even if you know you are going to be able to complete that? from the moment you start in the work environment. morning briefings, you’re 2 minutes late. you start thinking, “what they think of me?” when i am walking into that room. when they look at me, “what are they going to think?” you never know what people are thinking from that moment on till you prepare to go to your class. i am mostly anxious.’ (bisexual, f) participant 6, however, reveals feeling more tired (fatigued) than sad, because the work that he does requires a lot of energy: ‘i have been in many positions where i feel exhausted or fatigued, which is a completely different feeling from [being] sad. so yes, i do not think i have felt sad yet. it might come, it might not, but i think fatigue is what would be best positioned for me in relation to the work that i do.’ (homosexual, m) these findings concur with those of everett (2015), where some participants indicated that they often experience feelings of dejection, which are usually triggered by an inability to engage in conversations related to their sexuality with their co-workers. it was also indicated by some participants that the feelings of dejection are at times evoked by the homophobia that they experience at work. one participant explained that ‘they would just throw kind of indirect homophobic comments, whereby they would say, “oh, you’re doing things more than us.” that would just make me feel sad afterward’. this confirms choi’s (2018) assertion that emotional well-being often pertains to the quality of an individual’s emotions and experiences, that is, sadness, anxiety and worry, which leads to either unpleasant or pleasant feelings. becker et al. (2014) emphasise that the stress that sexual minority individuals experience is largely dependent on ‘input’ factors, such as society’s or co-workers’ negative, and at times even hostile, attitudes. job satisfaction while participants shared different views regarding the overall feelings that they experience at the workplace, they also gave insights on their level of job satisfaction. job satisfaction is the third sub-dimension of emotional well-being within the work context, as operationalised by rothmann (2013). most participants mentioned that they are satisfied with their work. for example, participant 2 asserted: ‘i love my work. it’s very character-building, and it has made me the person that i am today. and my experience with it, it’s been incredible’. (transgender, f) similar to the above perspective, participant 6 stated that he enjoys his work, because he is given a chance to impact his field of study: ‘i think i enjoy what i do. i enjoy it from a standpoint of being able to create’. (homosexual, m) participant 8 shared similar perceptions: ‘where i work right now people treat me way better. management offers ways in which, if i work on myself from where i am, and i want to be who i want to be, […] they promote me to be myself, rather than me always holding back. and that will eventually leave me stagnant, because i will be someone i’m not, and i will never be the person i can be.’ (homosexual, m) although most participants showed feelings of satisfaction with their work, a few participants reported to be neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. participant 3 explained the reason for this attitude: ‘my workplace doesn’t give the opportunity for creativity in terms of research or other activities that you would want to engage with the institution that you attach your activities to. so i would say that i don’t explore all my creativity at the workplace, ‘cause of the restrictions that are there.’ (homosexual, m) one of the participants highlighted being dissatisfied with the work he does, and as a result, he cannot wait to be outside the work premises. participant 7 asserted: ‘at work, when you mostly help, it is when everybody is happy too. otherwise i cannot wait till i knock off. then i become happy’. (bisexual, f) most participants indicated that they are satisfied with their work. some even mentioned how supportive supervisors allow for autonomy and offer opportunities for advancement, which, in turn, fosters loyalty towards the organisation. the findings confirm hur’s (2020) assertion that inclusive work environments have a positive effect on queer employees’ job satisfaction and affective commitment. for employees who identify as queer, cooperative, supportive and empowering work environments have significantly positive effects on job satisfaction (hur, 2020). some participants did bemoan, however, that they feel unfulfilled and limited in their job positions. it should also be noted that some of these participants have not disclosed their sexual identity at work. in a study examining factors that promote job satisfaction among sexual minority employees, tatum (2018) found that there is a positive relationship between sexual identity disclosure and job satisfaction in affirming work environments, but there is no relationship between disclosure and job satisfaction in non-affirming work environments. carpenter (2008) found that queer women were less satisfied with their jobs than heterosexual women. drydakis (2015) also reported that queer men and women were less satisfied than heterosexuals with dimensions of job satisfaction, such as pay, promotion and respect from their supervisor. they were also less satisfied with work in general. limitations and suggestions for further research the study had several limitations. although it was difficult to recruit study participants, saturation was reached after interviewing nine participants. the sample was quite diverse, consisting of transgender, gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals. in addition, there is limited academic literature on black queer managers and employees, particularly in africa. therefore, it is important that the body of academic literature related to this selected sample be expanded. more research is needed to confirm the findings of the current study. it would also be interesting to understand this dynamic through a black and a white transgender employee lens, as this kind of research is often avoided. finally, despite africa’s history of lack of acceptance of queer individuals, it can be concluded from this study that some black african queer individuals celebrate their identity and thus have purpose and direction, which contributes immensely to their communities, and they are valued by the organisation. however, the problem of sexual-orientation discrimination in the workplace still needs more attention, which implies that employers should facilitate open discussion on issues related to harassment, bullying, transphobia and transformation to create equal and inclusive workplaces. conclusion the purpose of this research study was to investigate the work experiences of black african queers, and how they affect their emotional well-being within the work context. although the participants did not report being discriminated against, many forms of discrimination were mentioned. thus, it seems that sexual-orientation discrimination has not been eradicated, and that many queers are still expected to ‘de-queer’ (rumens et al., 2019) to be accepted and have positive and meaningful experiences at work. nevertheless, it is commendable that some employers are supportive of queer employees and do not treat them any differently from the norm or make the workplace hostile and uncomfortable for these employees. creating such favourable workplaces seems necessary for queer employees to experience a sense of belonging, which could encourage their emotional well-being or optimal functioning in the work context. despite efforts made by organisations, it is suggested that more effort should be made to mitigate the hostility of african societies generally towards queers for them to experience emotional well-being inside and outside the workplace. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability identifiers were used to protect the identity of the participants. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references american psychological association. (2015). definitions related to sexual orientation and gender diversity in apa documents. in g.r. van den bos (ed.), apa dictionary of psychology (2nd ed., pp. 1–7). author. andrews, f.m., & withey, s.b. (1976). social indicators of well-being: americans’ perceptions of life quality. plenum. badgett, m.v.l., sears, b., lau, h., & ho, d. (2009). bias in the workplace: consistent evidence of sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination 1998–2008. chicago-kent law review, 84(2), 559–595. badri, m.a., alkhaili, m., aldhaheri, h., yang, g., albahar, m., & alrashdi, a. (2022). exploring the reciprocal relationships between happiness and life satisfaction of working adults – evidence from abu dhabi. international journal of environmental research and public health, 19(6), 3575. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063575 barnes, d.m., & meyer, i.h. (2012). religious affiliation, internalized homophobia, and mental health in lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals. american journal of orthopsychiatry, 82(4), 505–515. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-0025.2012.01185.x becker, m., cortina, k.s., tsai, y.-m., & eccles, j.s. (2014). sexual orientation, psychological well-being, and mental health: a longitudinal analysis from adolescence to young adulthood. psychology of sexual orientation and gender diversity, 1(2), 132–145. https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000038 bhana, s. (2013). the relationship between perceived discrimination, organisation-based self-esteem (obse) and job satisfaction among women at work. master’s research report, university of the witwatersrand. bradburn, n.m. (1969). the structure of psychological well-being. aldine. brickell, c. (2001). whose ‘special treatment’? heterosexism and the problems with liberalism. sexualities, 4(2), 211–235. https://doi.org/10.1177/136346001004002006 calafell, b.m., & nakayama, t.k. (2017). queer theory. in k.b. jensen, r.t. craig, j.d. pooley, & e.w. rothenbuhler (eds.), the international encyclopedia of communication theory and philosophy (pp. 1–5). john wiley & sons. carpenter, c. (2008). sexual orientation, income, and non-pecuniary economic outcomes: new evidence from young lesbians in australia. review of economics of the household, 6(4), 391–408. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-008-9034-5 choi, a. (2018). emotional well-being of children and adolescents: recent trends and relevant factors. oecd education working papers no. 169. oecd publishing. chow, p.k.y., & cheg, s.t. (2010). shame, internalized heterosexism, lesbian identity, and coming out to others: a comparative study of lesbians in mainland china and hong kong. journal of counselling psychology, 57(1), 92–104. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017930 clements, z.a., rostosky, s.s., mccurry, s., & riggle, e.d.b. (2021). piloting a brief intervention to increase positive identity and well-being in transgender and nonbinary individuals. professional psychology: research and practice, 52(4), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1037/pro0000390 de souza, e.r., wesselmann, e.d., & ispas, d. (2017). workplace discrimination against sexual minorities: subtle and not-so-subtle. canadian journal of administrative sciences. revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration, 34(2), 121–132. https://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1438 de vos, a.s., strydom, h., fouché, c.b., & delport, c.s.l. (2011). research at grass roots: for the social sciences and human service professions (4th ed.). van schaik. dhatemwa, m.m. (2014). unveiling a paradox: the persisting discrimination against black lgbt workers amidst progressive policies in south africa. master’s research paper, erasmus university. retrieved from https://thesis.eur.nl/pub/17478 drydakis, n. (2015). effect of sexual orientation on job satisfaction: evidence from greece. industrial relations: a journal of economy and society, 54(1), 162–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/irel.12080 everett, b. (2015). sexual orientation identity change and depressive symptoms: a longitudinal analysis. journal of health and social behavior, 56(1), 37–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022146514568349 feinstein, b.a., petruzzella, a., davila, j., lavner, j.a., & hershenberg, r. (2019). sharing positive experiences related to one’s sexual orientation: examining the capitalization process in a sample of gay men. psychology of sexual orientation and gender diversity, 7(1), 40–45. https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000350 flick, u. (ed.). (2014). the sage handbook of qualitative data analysis. sage. harwood, j. (2020). social identity theory. in j. van den bulck, d. ewoldsen, m.l. mares, & e. scharrer (eds.), the international encyclopedia of media psychology (pp. 1–7). john wiley & sons. hur, h. (2020). the role of inclusive work environment practices in promoting lgbt employee job satisfaction and commitment. public money & management, 40(6), 426–436. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2019.1681640 international organisation for migration. (2021). glossary of terms. retrieved from https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5367af22e4b0915380a1eb0a/t/5fcfc9c6a3f9e430eb9406d4/1607453160297/iom_sogiesc_full_glossary_2020.pdf islam, g. (2014). social identity theory. in t. teo (ed.), encyclopedia of critical psychology (pp. 1781–1783). springer-verlag. johnson, c.p.g., & otto, k. (2019). better together: a model for women and lgbtq equality in the workplace. frontiers on psychology, 10, 272. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00272 keyes, c.l.m. (2003). complete mental health: an agenda for the 21st century. in c.l.m. keyes & j. haidt (eds.), flourishing: positive psychology and the life well-lived (pp. 293–312). american psychological association. keyes, c.l.m., eisenberg, d., perry, g.s., dube, s.r., kroenke, k., & dhingra, s.s. (2012). the relationship of level of positive mental health with current mental disorders in predicting suicidal behavior and academic impairment in college students. journal of american college health, 60(2), 126–133. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2011.608393 keyes, c.l.m., & lopez, s.j. (2002). toward a science of mental health: positive directions in diagnosis and interventions. in c.r. snyder & s.j. lopez (eds.), handbook of positive psychology (pp. 45–59). oxford university press. lamers, s.m.a., westerhof, g.j., bohlmeijer, e.t., ten klooster, p.m., & keyes, c.l.m. (2011). evaluating the psychometric properties of the mental health continuum–short form (mhc–sf). journal of clinical psychology, 67(1), 99–110. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20741 langeland, e. (2014). emotional well-being. in a.c. michlos (ed.), encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research (pp. 1874–1876). springer. marshall, c., & rossman, g. (2016). designing qualitative research, 6th ed. sage. mclaren, s. (2016). the interrelations between internalized homophobia, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation among australian gay men, lesbians, and bisexual women. journal of homosexuality, 63(2), 156–168. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2015.1083779 morison, t., mtshengu, a., sandfort, t., & reddy, v. (2016). ‘as long as they behave themselves’: heterosexual recuperation in south africans’ talk about homosexuality. psychology in society, 51, 28–54. https://doi.org/10.17159/2309-8708/2016/n51a2 riggle, e.d.b., mohr, j.j., rostosky, s.s., fingerhut, a.w., & balsam, k.f. (2014). a multifactor lesbian, gay, and bisexual positive identity measure (lgb-pim). psychology of sexual orientation and gender diversity, 1(4), 398–411. https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000057 rothmann, s. (2013). from happiness to flourishing at work: a southern african perspective. in m.p. wissing (ed.), well-being research in south africa (pp. 123–151). springer. ruggeri, k., garcia-garzon, e., & maguire, á. (2020). well-being is more than happiness and life satisfaction: a multidimensional analysis of 21 countries. health and quality of life outcomes, 18, 192. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12955-020-01423-y rumens, n., de souza, e.m., & brewis, j. (2019). queering queer theory in management and organization studies: notes toward queering heterosexuality. organization studies, 40(4), 593–612. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840617748904 szymanski, d.m., & sung, m.r. (2013). asian cultural values, internalized heterosexism, and sexual orientation disclosure among asian american sexual minority persons. journal of lgbt issues in counseling, 7(3), 257–273. https://doi.org/10.1080/15538605.2013.812930 tajfel, h. (1972). experiments in a vacuum. in j. israel & h. tajfel (eds.), the context of social psychology: a critical assessment (pp. 69–119). academic press. tajfel, h., & turner, j.c. (1979). an integrative theory of intergroup conflict. in w.g. austin & s. worchel (eds.), the social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 33–37). brooks-cole. tatum, a.k. (2018). workplace climate and satisfaction in sexual minority populations: an application of social cognitive career theory. journal of counseling psychology, 65(5), 618–628. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000292 velez, b.l., polihronakis, c.j., watson, l.b., & cox, r. (2019). heterosexism, racism, and the mental health of sexual minority people of color. the counselling psychologist, 47(1), 129–159. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000019828309 watson, d., & tellegen, a. (1985). toward a consensual structure of mood. psychological bulletin, 98(2), 219–235. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.98.2.219 weinstein, e. (2018). the social-media see-saw: positive and negative influences on adolescent’s affective well-being. new media & society, 20(10), 3597–3623. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818755634 williamson, t. (2020). queer workers and workspaces: stories about emotions and embodied experiences of lgbtqia people in work-related spaces. masters thesis, lund university. 5-blaauwbothma.qxd literature on unemployment in south africa is unanimous in its message. unemployment is one of the major macroeconomic problems facing this country. employment in the formal sector has shown a steady decline during the last decade in spite of an increase of 2,6 per cent in measured formal sector employment in the non-agricultural sector of the economy during the second quarter of 2002 (south african reserve bank, 2002, p. 13). this was the first time since early 1999 that measured formal sector employment actually increased in any calendar quarter (south african reserve bank, 2002, p. 2). this follows declines of 3,5 per cent in 1998; 2,0 per cent in 1999; 2,7 per cent in 2000 and 1,6 per cent in 2001 respectively (south african reserve bank, 2002, p. 13). the increase in employment in the second quarter of 2002 however had little impact on the overall excess supply of labour in the economy (south african reserve bank, 2002, p. 2). the amount of new jobs being created in high-skilled sectors like trade and private services is marginal compared to the employment opportunities lost in the low and semi-skilled sectors of the economy (loots, 1998, p. 332). unemployment is expected to increase because the number of new entrants into the labour market far outweighs the employment opportunities that can be created in the formal sector, given the current economic conditions in south africa (klasen & woolard, 1999, p. 4). dri-wefa, assuming an average economic growth rate of 2,5 per cent per annum, estimated formal employment to increase by 0,1 per cent or 11 000 jobs per annum up to 2007. an increase in informal and selfemployment of 5,9 per cent per year up to 2007 was estimated at the same time (barker, 2003, pp. 215-216). the informal sector is defined as follows: “unorganised, unregulated and mostly legal but unregistered economic activities that are individually or family owned and use simple, labour intensive technolog y” (barker, 2003, p. xix). this coincides with statistics south africa’s definition of informal sector employment, namely: “…unregistered business, run from homes, street pavements or other informal arrangements” (reinhardt, 2001, p. 2). many workers who are not able to find employment in the formal sector of the economy can expect to find an income from work in the informal sector (schlemmer & levitz, 1998, p. 7). the car guard industry in south africa evolved out of the plight of the unemployed, coupled with the increasing levels of crime, especially motor theft in south africa. the industry therefore started of as an alternative source of income for people who were not able to secure employment in the formal sector of the economy. except for the occasional article in the daily press, very little research has been done on the car guard industry in south africa. kitching conducted the only known study in this field in 1999 in bloemfontein. since february 2002 statistics south africa uses a twice-yearly household survey to calculate employment and unemployment levels in the country. this survey, known as the labour force survey (lfs), covers both the formal and the informal sectors of the economy. according to this the official rate of unemployment was 30,5 per cent in september 2002 (statistics south africa, 2003, p 8). using the expanded definition of unemployment i.e. dropping the requirement that a person had to be engaged in job seeking activities in the four weeks prior to the interview, the rate of unemployment was calculated at 42,8 per cent (statistics south africa, 2003, p. 19). although these figures are highly valued, it merely provides a snapshot picture of the labour market at a particular point in time. focusing on this static picture only masks the highly dynamic nature of labour markets (ehrenberg & smith, 1988, p. 587). unemployment figures does not distinguish between people who are experiencing short, less serious, spells of unemployment and those who are going through long periods where they are unable to find employment. over time alternative models of the labour market were developed, taking this characteristic into account. the stock-flow model is an example of this evolvement (mcconnell & brue, 1999, pp. 569-570). every p f bla auw department of economics rand afrikaans university l j bothma economic advisor abstract the car guard industry in south africa evolved out of the plight of the unemployed. very little research has been done on the industry in south africa. the first objective of this article is to address the lack of research and the second is to determine whether the car guard industry can provide a solution to the problem of unemployment. car guards involved in this study were found to be generally low skilled, earning low income and working under harsh conditions for long hours. the majority of them held formal sector employment before becoming unemployed. car guarding is not a solution to the plight of the unemployed. training and skill development supplemented by accelerated economic growth are vital to bridge the gap between the formal and informal sectors. opsomming die motorwag-industrie in suid afrika het onstaan uit die lot van die massa werkloses in die land. weinig navorsing is al oor die industrie gedoen. die doelwit van die artikel is eerstens om die gebrek aan navorsing aan te vul en tweedens om te bepaal of die motorwagindustrie ’n oplossing vir die probleem van werkloosheid kan bied. motorwagte in die studie is oor die algemeen laag geskoold, swak besoldig en werksaam vir lang ure onder moeilike omstandighede. die meeste het ’n werk in die formele sektor van die ekonomie gehad voordat hulle werkloos geword het. om ’n motorwag te wees kan nooit ’n oplossing vir werkloosheid wees nie. opleiding en die ontwikkeling van noodsaaklike vaardighede teen ’n agtergrond van versnelde ekonomiese groei, is uiters noodsaaklik om die gaping tussen die informele en formele sektor te oorbrug. informal labour markets as a solution for unemployment in south africa – a case study of car guards in bloemfontein requests for copies should be addressed to: pf blaauw, department of economics, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 40 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (2), 40-44 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (2), 40-44 person in the non-institutional population is in one of three categories: employed, unemployed, or not in the labour force. these stocks are continuously depleted and replenished by numerous flows into and out of each category (kaufman & hotchkiss, 2000, p. 670). some people are stuck in the unemployed category for a long period of time. eventually they do not have any other choice than to venture into the informal sector of the economy to raise income. the car guard industry developed as a result of this movement to the informal sector of the economy. studying this industry could provide us with valuable insight into the problem of unemployment, instead of merely calculating a rate of unemployment. against this background, the following research problem can be postulated. the informal sector of the economy is providing a source of income for more and more people who cannot find employment in the formal sector of the economy. can an informal labour market like car guarding be regarded as a solution to the plight of the unemployed? aim of the research the aim of this article is to answer the following research questions stemming from the research problem: 1. is it possible to obtain more scientific information about the car guard industry? 2. can the car guard industry provide a solution for the problem of unemployment? the research questions are answered by applying the stock-flow model of the labour market to the car guard industry. in order to achieve this, a follow-up on kitching’s study on the guard industry in bloemfontein, was undertaken. the article is deployed as follows. the first section provides a brief background of the car guard industry. the research method is explained, followed by the results of the survey and an analysis of the insight it offers on the issue of unemployment. background and evolvement of the car guard industry according to kitching (1999, p. 7), the car guard industry started as a very informal activity. unemployed people started offering their services on an ad hoc basis in exchange for a donation, to motorists at municipal parking spaces in the central business districts (cbd’s) of cities. the last couple of years saw the evolvement of a new group of car guards. this group guards cars at sporting events, schools, hospitals, churches, restaurants and especially shopping centres. they are organised and are easily recognised by shirts or jackets, displaying the name of one or other car guard organisation. the first of these, car watch, was established in durban in december 1995. the concept spread very quickly and similar organisations shot up all over south africa. these organisations maintain that they are not employing the car guards. the guards are merely hiring the equipment and jackets from the organisation. car guards are therefore entirely responsible for their own daily income (kitching, 1999, p. 1-3). recent developments have seen a greater degree of formalisation in the car guard industry. according to section six of the security officers act (act no. 92 of 1987), people rendering a security service, is required to register as security officials with the security officers board of south africa. this is important as it goes a long way to formalise the activities of car guards. it does indeed raise the question whether car guards, attached to formal car guard organisations, can still be regarded as part of the informal sector of the economy? for the purpose of this article they are assumed to be part of the informal sector. this coincides with the two definitions of the informal sector provided in the second paragraph of the article. the guards in the cbd are without doubt still very much informal. these are people that are not attached at all to any formal organisation and are well and truly self-employed. method the following definitions were accepted for the purpose of this research. a car guard was regarded as someone who, in exchange for a donation, offers to guard vehicles in a public or private parking area. the amount of the donation is at the discretion of the motorist. stemming form this definition, two populations were identified. one group was the informal car guards in the municipal parking areas of the central business district (cbd) in bloemfontein. the second group was the so-called formal car guards, active mainly at the private parking areas of shopping centres in the city. an effort was made to incorporate all car guards in the survey. this was not a problem as far as the informal ones were concerned. with regard to the formal car guards however, one car guard organisation did not want their guards to be part of the survey. since it was expected that some car guards might be illiterate, the survey took the form of scheduled and structured interviews. this method ensures that there are no misunderstandings and misinterpretations of questions (bless & higson-smith, 1995, p. 111). a questionnaire consisting of two parts was used for this purpose. the first section contained questions pertaining to the demographic features and working conditions of car guards. the second part included questions necessary to apply the stock-flow model of unemployment to the car guard industry. the interviews were conducted in march 2001. questionnaires were completed for 88 formal and 61 informal car guards respectively. results table 1 provides a summary of the results of the survey in bloemfontein. it describes the demographic features and working conditions of formal and informal car guards and provides the scientifically obtained information required by the first research question. the formal car guards are mainly white, all of which are afrikaans speaking. the informal ones are mostly black and coloured people, speaking sotho and afrikaans respectively. amongst the 88 formal car guards involved in the survey, were 60 (68,2 per cent) males and 28 (31,8 per cent) females. there were no women among the informal car guards. the average age of the informal car guards is 30,5 years, as opposed to 38,7 years of their formal counterparts. however, formal car guards have on average fewer dependants (1,7) than the informal ones (2,3). all respondents in the formal group indicated that they did attend school, while five (6,7 per cent) informal car guards said that they never received any formal schooling. ten formal car guards passed grade 12 (matric), as opposed to only two informal ones. four formal car guards achieved a qualification at a tertiary institution, but none of the informal ones did. twenty (22,7 per cent) formal car guards received formal training in the form of an apprenticeship or acquired other labour market skills, while only four (6,7 per cent) informal car guards testified to that. income earned by car guards was defined as net or take home income. this is especially relevant for formal car guards. they must pay a daily amount of between twenty and twenty-five rand to their car guard organisations, from which they hire jackets or shirts. average income per day was calculated by dividing the summation of the average daily net income of each car guard, by the number of respondents (n). in this way it was determined that average income informal labour markets 41 per day is r52,40 and r32,00 for formal and informal car guards respectively. average income per hour was calculated as follows: each car guard’s average daily income was divided by the average number of hours that he/she works per day. these values were added together and divided by the number of respondents (n). the average income per hour for formal car guards is r5,70 while informal car guards earn on average r3,70 per hour. table 1 a profile of car guards in bloemfontein formal informal number (n) 88 61 racial group 72 whites (all afrikaans) 34 blacks 14 blacks 27 coloured 2 coloured gender 60 males 61 males 28 females age average: 38,7 years average: 30,5 years dependents average: 1,7 average: 2,3 school education all 88 attended school 5 never attended school 10 passed grade 12 2 passed grade 12 46 passed grade 10 23 only passed grade 1-7 tertiary education 4 had education at a none university, college, etc. other formal after 12 had apprenticeship4 acquired some skills training school training 8 acquired some skills days per week average: 6,5 average: 5,5 working as car guard working hours average: 9,2 average: 8,6 per day income per day average: r 52,40 average: r 32,00 income per hour average: r 5,70 average: r 3,70 with regard to working conditions, 79 (89,8 per cent) formal car guards indicated that they are on duty for at least six days per week. in fact, 54 (61,4 per cent) of these people work seven days per week. fifty-five informal car guards (93,2 per cent) work at least five days per week. on average formal and informal car guards work 6,5 and 5,5 days per week respectively. the difference is most likely explained by the fact that informal car guards work at municipal parking areas, where there are virtually no motorists on saturday afternoons and sundays. as a result, there is no incentive for them to be on duty. more than half of formal car guards (53,4 per cent) work between nine and ten hours per day. the average hours worked per day are 9,2. informal car guards work 8,6 hours per day on average. the difference is probably due to the fact that most businesses in the cbd where the informal car guards are working – close at 17:00, reducing the number of motorists in the area. in order to answer the second research question the flow of car guards through the respective categories of the stock-flow model of the labour market was determined. figure 1 provides a graphical representation of the flows encountered by formal car guards. seventy-three (83 per cent) formal car guards indicated that they held positions in the formal sector of the economy, prior to becoming unemployed. in response to the question in which sector they were employed, 46 of the 73 (63 per cent) said they were engaged in the service sector of the formal economy. next formal car guards were asked how long their previous employer employed them in the formal sector. forty-eight of the 73 (68 per cent) were employed for a period of up to five years. the rest (32 per cent) worked for longer than five years for their previous employer. respondents were also asked to state the reasons for leaving their previous employer. one of the seventy three retired and left the labour force. of the remaining 72, 39 were laid off, 31 quitted and two were discharged. the 72 respondents, who left the formal sector, were joined in the unemployed category by nine others, who entered the labour force for the first time, but were not able to secure a job immediately. these 81 people were asked how long they were unemployed. forty-four (54 per cent) were jobless for less than a year. of the rest – who were unemployed for more than a year – seven searched more than five years for a job. bla auw, bothma42 figure 1: the stock-flow model – formal car guards eventually all 81 unemployed people ended up being car guards. seven people, who entered the labour force for the first time, joined them. they were not unemployed for some time, but started working as car guards immediately. the vast majority of formal car guards are involved with this activity for between 1 and 3 years. yet most of them would like to find alternative employment. sixty-nine (78 per cent) indicated that they would like to find other employment. figure 2 tracks the flows encountered by the informal car guards. although numbers and percentages differ, the same trends emerge when the stock-flow model is applied to informal car guards. figure 2 shows that the majority (40) of the 61 informal car guards was at some stage employed in the formal sector of the economy. most of them lost their jobs due to layoffs and quits, although there were some discharges as well. no less than 15 informal car guards indicated that they never had any job in the formal sector of the economy. unlike the 46 car guards who were unemployed for some time, this 15 flowed straight from not being part of the labour force, to the informal sector of the economy. in terms of the time being unemployed, informal car guards were less fortunate than their formal counterparts. thirtyfive (88 per cent) of the 40, who were employed in the formal sector, was unemployed for up to 3 years. almost a third of all informal car guards have been engaged in this activity for more than five years. many of them have never done anything else. like their formal counterparts, the overwhelming majority (98,3 per cent) indicated that they would accept other employment if available. discussion it is evident from table 1 that the vast majority of the respondents are low and semi skilled people. the availability and level of skills of the labour force are playing an increasingly role in attracting foreign direct investment which creates future employment opportunities (chetty, 2002, p. 10). the prospects for a speedy return to the formal sector are therefore not positive at all. the average income per hour, calculated from the results of the survey, for formal car guards is r5,70 while informal car guards earn on average r3,70 per hour. to put the income of car guards into perspective, it was compared with the remuneration of waiters and domestic workers – two other low-paid occupations – in bloemfontein. table 2 provides a summary of the hourly compensation of these three occupations. table 2 hourly income of car guards, waiters and domestic workers in bloemfontein car guards (2001) domestic workers (2001)1 waiters (2000)2 formal: r5,70 r6,19 r14,52 informal: r3,70 source: 1 bothma & campher, 2002, p. 7. 2 bothma & thomas, 2001, p. 269. table 2 shows that car guards earn the lowest hourly income of the three occupations. on average, an informal car guard’s hourly income is 60 per cent of that of a domestic worker and a mere 25 per cent of that of a waiter. although being a car guard provides a marginal means of survival, it cannot support an individual or a whole family. it does not provide skills or increase productivity levels and therefore contributes very little towards uplifting the poor. in comparison, formal sector jobs are relatively secured and well paid, providing incumbents with a certain level of skills (reinhardt, 2001, p. 2). the following conclusions were drawn from this case study. this study confirms that one cannot focus solely on unemployment statistics, as it disguises the complexity of the unemployment problem. even though car guards are not officially regarded as unemployed, their flow through the labour market provides insight into the unemployment problem. the study revealed that the majority of car guards previously held formal sector jobs. this corresponds with the continuous decline in formal sector employment throughout the south african economy. as the study showed, there are also those who enter the labour market for the first time, but cannot secure jobs. this adds to the ever-increasing number of unemployed people. informal labour markets 43 figure 2: the stock-flow model – informal car guards layoffs and quits were cited by respondents as the main reasons for unemployment. layoffs mainly relate to cyclical and structural changes in the economy, while not all quits were voluntarily. many female car guards indicated that they had to quit because of their husbands being transferred to other locations. this emphasizes that unemployment is not merely an issue involving individuals. it should be analysed within the context of families. although discharges were found to be a minor reason for job losses amongst respondents, it accentuates that lack of discipline, work ethics, and misconduct, also contribute towards unemployment. car guards involved in this study were found to be generally low skilled, earning low income and working under harsh conditions for long hours. on average, using the official definition of unemployment, statistics south africa (2003, p. 88) indicates that 26,3 per cent of the unemployed passed grade 12. only 8,05 per cent of the car guards in this survey can testif y to that. at least half of all those who once held formal employment, indicated that they were unemployed for more than a year, before becoming car guards. the unsuccessful search for formal sector employment by the car guards in this case study is a direct consequence of the low level of education and skills among them. long spells of unemployment and low skill levels, make it extremely difficult for car guards to get back into the formal sector. the longer they are unemployed, the more redundant their skills – which are in any case low in demand – become. the availability and level of skills are playing an increasingly role in attracting the foreign direct investment south africa needs to ensure higher levels of economic growth. economic growth on its own does not significantly contribute towards the creation of new job opportunities. the amount of new jobs being created in high-skilled sectors like trade and private services is marginal compared to the employment opportunities lost in the low and semi-skilled sectors of the economy. the development of existing and the acquiring of new skills that is in demand in the labour market are vital for these people. the solution to car guards’ plight lies in training and or the acquisition of new skills coupled with accelerated economic growth. to what extent then does car guarding provide a solution to the plight of the unemployed? are car guarding not merely disguised unemployment and an example of the discouraged worker phenomenon? the study revealed that this activity at least provides some means of survival but nothing more than that. the overwhelming majority of the respondents said that they would accept other employment if available. informal activities like these are no alternative to formal sector employment. the low level of income earned by car guards bore testimony to this. the aim should always be to bridge the gap bet ween formal and informal employment. it must be remembered that the very existence of this activity, depends on the public’s fear of crime. without this fear less car guards will be needed and where will they go then? references barker, f. (2003). the south african labour market, 4th edition. pretoria; van schaik. bless, c. & higson-smith, c. (1995). fundamentals of social research methods – an african perspective, 2nd edition. cape town: juta. bothma, l.j. & campher, c.s. (2002). minimum wages for domestic workers: a comparative analysis. unpublished research paper, university of the free state. bothma, l.j. & thomas, k. (2001). the enforcement of the beca and waiters. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 4 (2), 263-73. chetty, s. (2002). creating a sustainable climate for fixed capital formation in the south african development community (sadc). research paper no 0205, department of economics, r au. ehrenberg, r.g. & smith, r.s. (1988). modern labor economics: theory and public policy, 3rd edition. glenview, illinois: scott, foresman and company. kaufman, b.e. & hotchkiss, j.l. (2000). the economics of labour markets, 5th edition. philadelphia: the dryden press. kitching, k. (1999). die ekonomie van die motor wagbedryf: bloemfontein as ge vallestudie. unpublished honours dissertation, university of the free state, bloemfontein. klasen, s. & woolard, i. (1999). levels, trends and consistency of employment and unemployment figures in south africa. development southern africa, 16 (1), 3-35. loots, a.e. (1998). job creation and economic growth. the south african journal of economics, 66 (3), 319-336. mcconnell, c.r. & brue, s.l. (1999). contemporary labor economics, 5th edition. new york: mcgraw-hill. reinhardt, a.m. (2001). ohs’98 – is news really positive on the unemployment front? http://www.econometrix.co.za/00hot/ prew0700.htm schlemmer, l. & levitz, c. (1998). unemployment in south africa – the facts, the prospects and an exploration of solutions. johannesburg: south african institute of race relations. security officers act. (1987). pretoria: government printer. south african reserve bank. (2002). quarterly bulletin, december 2002. pretoria. statistics south africa. (2003). labour force sur vey, september 2002. pretoria. bla auw, bothma44 vol. 6 no. 1 pp. 22 28sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za original research gender and age differences in conflict management within small businesses werner havenga department of human resource management university of johannesburg south africa corespondence to: werner havenga e-mail: whavenga@uj.ac.za abstract the objective of this exploratory study was to establish, through the application of the rahim organisational inventory (roc ii) instrument, how the gender and age status of owners/managers of small businesses relate to the application of different conflict-handling styles. the sample of 68 participants was taken using a convenience sampling technique to ensure representation from the strata of the 102 small businesses. analysis of variances was used to determine if differences exist in conflict-handling styles within the gender and age status groups. the results of the statistical analysis done revealed that slight to significant variances were found, which are discussed accordingly. keywords: conflict-handling styles, interpersonal conflict, age, gender, small business there is no shortage of definitions for the term conflict. ting-toomey (1985, p.72) defines conflict as a form of intense interpersonal and/or intrapersonal dissonance between two or more interdependent parties based on incompatible goals, needs, desires, values, beliefs, and/or attitudes. rahim and magner (1995, p.722) regard conflict as an interactive process manifested in incompatibility, disagreement or dissonance within or between social entities. through the years different schools of thought on conflict have been developed and applied. according to rahim (1992, p.4) the traditional approach follows the belief that all conflict is considered to be negative and destructive, and as such should be avoided. the avoidance of conflict thus leads to the focus being shifted from managing it to trying to prevent it from occurring. the studies of elton mayo during the 1920s gave rise to the human relations approach, which states that conflict is considered to be a natural phenomenon and can thus not be eliminated, but should be viewed as making a contribution to increasing the performance within a group or organisation (robbins, 1998, p.434-435). the inter-actionist approach developed the philosophy among modern theorists that ”healthy” organisations seek to increase intra-organisational conflict, thus actively encouraging conflict in the workplace. the rationale behind this is that groups that are too harmonious and peacefully static, are nonresponsive and inadaptable, and that moderate levels of conflict optimise productivity (rahim, 1992, p.5). in order to counteract the negative or positive effects of conflict, appropriate conflict-handling styles have to be implemented. conflict management is what people who experience conflict intend to do, as well as what they actually do (van de vliert, 1997). it refers to the strategies implemented by members aimed at reducing or solving conflict. it is contended that conflict is an important theme to study in both business organisations and in close working relationships. conflict, if perceived negatively as with the traditional approach, may impact on productivity, work performance and on job satisfaction. in close working relationships it can also be a threat to satisfaction and the endurance of interpersonal relationships. such negative outcomes necessitate that conflict be studied empirically by gathering data on its appearance, causes, and on its emotional, cognitive motivational and behavioural aspects (nauta & kluwer, 2004) during the past few decades researchers have taken a keen interest in conflict in the workplace and its impact on organisations. amongst others, studies were conducted on interpersonal conflict-handling styles (jehn 1997; fillbeck & smith, 1997; neale & northcraft, 1999), conflict resolution strategies (van de vliert & euwema, 1994), conflict and justice (ohbuchi, suzuki & hayashi, 2001), theories of managing conflict (rahim, 2002), conflict of interests and objectives (vilaseca, 2002) and managing constructive (functional) and destructive (dysfunctional) conflict (jehn, 1995; pelled, eisenhardt & xin, 1999). it seems from literature that conflict management strategies or techniques have been studied systematically (havenga, 2005). rahim (2002) suggested that conflict management strategies should involve recognition of the different types of conflict which may have a positive or negative impact on individual and group performance. dimensions of conflict which are useful for conflict management include: task and emotional conflict (ross & ross, 1989); cognitive and affective conflict (amason, 1996) and task and relationship conflicts (john, 1997). affective and substantive conflict account for differential effects in organisations and also affect the management of interpersonal conflict within the work environment (jehn, 1995; pearson, ensley & amason, 2002) according to rahim (2002) the two dimensions of conflict, substantive and affective, are positively correlated which means that in the process of enchaining substantive conflicts, affective conflict may also be increased. one of the problems of managing conflict, as suggested by applebaum, abadallah & shapiro (1999) is that managers spend 20% of their time resolving conflict. recognition of the different types, as well as the dimensions of conflict in the workplace is valuable in managing conflict. however, being aware of the extent of conflict at various levels of an organisation and of the various conflict-handling styles is crucial for understanding the management of organisational conflict (rahim 1986). what became evident from the literature survey is that almost all studies concentrate on conflict, whether generic or in a work environment, in organisations and groups not linked to small businesses. very few conflict studies have been conducted in smalland mediumsized enterprise environments. these environments, according to havenga (2005) are closely knit and have an impact on the behaviour of individuals that may differ from that in larger organisations. recent research has focused on conflict of interests and objectives (vilaseca, 2002); team building and conflict management techniques (filbeck & smith, 1997); influences of work/family conflict on job satisfaction and quitting intentions among business owners (boles, 1996); the phenomenon of substantive conflict in small family firms (davis 22 conflict management original research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 1 pp. 32 41 23 & harveston, 2001); and conflict management strategies in small family businesses (sorenson, 1999). personality characteristics, interpersonal needs, individual behaviour (lotriet, crafford & visser, 2001), organisational status (brewer et al., 2002), emotions (bodtker & jameson, 2001), power, rewards, beliefs and basic values (weider-hatfield & hatfield, 1995; slabbert 2002) also influence the choice of conflict-handling styles applied. apart from this brenner, tomkiewics and schein (1989) also bring into the equation the possibility that the sexes differ in their ability to manage conflict. gender role, organisational status and conflict-management styles are also addressed by brewer, mitchell & weber (2002). they focused more broadly on the differences between sexes in dealing with conflict, and consider two theoretical perspectives which provide a more clear and effective way of explaining individual differences in conflict handling styles. the one perspective highlights the influence of gender role orientation and the other organisational status. some older studies suggest that females have a more cooperative attitude to conflict handling than males (rahim, 1983), whilst beddell and sistrunk (1973) suggested that females are more competitive. the gender role perspective, according to brewer et al. (2002) conceptualises masculinity and femininity as independent dimensions. following this role perspective the competitive or dominating behaviour appears to be consistent with the male role. obliging and avoiding behaviour on the other hand is more consistent with females. gender differences in conflict-handling styles it appears that while few researchers have studied the relationship between conflicthandling styles and gender roles, those who have reported masculine individuals adopting a dominating style (portello & long, 1994; brewer et al., 2002) and females an avoiding conflict-handling style (brewer et al., 2002). in a study conducted by antonioni (1998) it was revealed that gender in general had little relationship with the variance of the conflict-management style. gender was non-significant in all models after controlling for the personality variables. korabik et al (1993) came to the same conclusion a few years earlier when they stated in their study that women managers do not differ from their male counterparts in preferred conflict-handling style. other studies such as that of dean (1992) verified that in small family businesses most of the owners made use of the authority (dominating) style to resolve disputes. the compromising style was used to a lesser extent. sutschek (2001) in turn found in her study that females did not use the integrating and obliging conflict-handling styles more often than males when confronted with the same conflict scenario. male managers did not use the competitive conflict-handling style more often than female managers. males prefer to use the dominating conflict-handling style before utilising the avoiding strategy. females, on the other hand, prefer the avoiding instead of the dominating conflicthandling style. research done by sorenson and hawkin (1995) also found more similarities between preferred conflicthandling styles for managers of both sexes when dealing with the same conflict situation. it is evident that studies done on conflict-handling styles between male and female participants in the business environment has provided inconsistent results when compared to other studies done in the same field. therefore, it is firstly the purpose of this study to establish if and how gender influences the implicit or explicit choice of conflict-management styles of owners/managers of small businesses. in light of this the first hypothesis will be tested: hypothesis 1 there is a statistically significant gender difference in conflictmanagement styles used by owners (managers) when dealing with subordinates in small businesses. age differences in conflict handling-styles within the unique environment of small businesses, which, in most cases, are small family firms, interpersonal conflict could be detrimental to the success of the business. although many of these businesses find ways to manage such conflict in the workplace, very little is known about how it is managed or the impact of conflict-management strategies on the business (lee & rogoff, 1996). it is believed that shifting the focus from the elimination of conflict to the management of conflict requires a better understanding of the conflict phenomenon (thomas, 1992). it could be assumed that age, as part of the interpersonal conflict phenomenon in the workplace, also influences the style of handling conflict. it became evident from the literature survey that in contrast to gender issues, almost no specific studies have been conducted on age and its effect on the application of different conflict-handling styles. antonioni (1998) came to the conclusion that age in general had little relationship to the variance of the conflict-management style. it was found that age was significantly associated with only the integrating and avoiding conflict handling styles. therefore it is secondly the purpose of the study to establish how age influences the implicit or explicit choice of conflicthandling styles of owners/managers of small businesses, and additionally whether age is significantly associated with only the integrating and avoiding conflict management styles, as claimed in the study of antonioni (1998). with this in mind the second hypothesis will be tested: hypothesis 2 there is a statistically significant difference in the conflictmanagement style used by owners of different ages in small businesses. research design research approach a quantitative approach was followed in this exploratory study. the primary data was generated using a standardised instrument in a field survey design. results were presented by means of descriptive group statistics and correlations. research method participants and sampling strategy the participants used for the study consisted of 68 caucasian owners/managers of small businesses. this sample was taken using a convenience sampling technique to ensure representation from the strata of the 102 small businesses owners/managers, which was identified in a demarcated geographical area in south africa. the participants were solicited to complete the conflict survey questionnaire. the resultant response rate of useable questionnaires was 82.4%. this rate can be considered acceptable, taking into account that low response rates are common in small business research (sorenson, 1999). sorenson (1999) had a usable sample of 59 in his study. characteristics of the sample are detailed in table 1. biographical data indicate that 73.2% of the respondents were males. participants who had been in business less than 11 years totalled 48.2% and those more than 11 years 51.8%. respondents came from different age groups with 30.4% being younger than 36 years, those between 36 and 45 totalling 28.6% and 41.0% were older than 46 years. data further revealed that 57.2% of the businesses employed 1–10 people and 42.8% employed more than 10. the industries with the largest representation in the sample were the retail (39.3%), automobile (19.6%) and restaurant industries (7.1%). as can be seen from the statistics the gender composition of the sample was strongly biased toward males. there is also a skewed trend towards older participants with 69.6% above 36 years. vinger & cilliers (2006) state in their original research havenga vol. 6 no. 1 pp. 22 28sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sahrm.co.za study that the age group 31 to 65 years can be considered characteristic of leadership levels in organisations. measuring instruments measuring instruments considered for this study include blake and mouton’s (1964) two-dimensional grid, hall’s (1969) conflict management survey model, the thomas-kilmann (1974) conflict mode, the dutch test for conflict handling (euwema & van de vliert, 1990), and the rahim organisational conflict inventory – ii (rahim, 1983). hall’s model proved to have disappointing psychometric qualities (thomas-kilmann, 1978). nauta and kluwer (2004) also questioned whether the dutch test for conflict handling model really measured behaviour under all circumstances. while rahim’s roc-ii instrument has also been criticised for the perception that the scale still lacks optimal psychometric properties. ben-yoav & bonai (1992) claimed that the rahim instrument has a higher internal consistency coefficient than models such as the thomas-kilmann instrument. the five-factor roc-ii model also has a better fit with data than models of two, three and four conflict-handling style orientations. in recent studies, for instance, meyer (2004) used four conflict-handling styles and euwema, van der vliert & bodtker (2003) seven. after carefully considering the high reliability coefficients of the roc-ii instrument it was decided that it would suffice for reaching the objectives of this study. this instrument measures how organisational members manage their interpersonal conflict with superiors, subordinates and peers in a work environment. five styles of handling interpersonal conflict are measured with 28 items in a standardised questionnaire. this is done on a 5-point likert-scale. greater use of a conflicthandling style is presented by a higher score. the five different areas of conflict-management which are incorporated into the roc-ii instrument include: integrating (high concern for self and high concern for others), dominating (high concern for self and low concern for others), obliging (low concern for self and high concern for others), avoiding (low concern for self and low concern for others), and compromising (intermediate levels of concern for both self and others) (rahim, 2002; rahim & magner, 1995). research procedure with the assistance of an academic colleague in the strategic management field, the roc-ii questionnaires were personally distributed to the respondents. at the onset of distribution the owners/managers of the small businesses were briefed individually on the purpose, nature and expected duration for completing the questionnaire. confidentiality and anonymity were also assured to participants. a period of two weeks was allowed for completion of the questionnaires. collection of the questionnaires took place at the premises of the various businesses. participants were then also given the opportunity to clarify any problems experienced with the questionnaire. a follow-up was done after an additional week to collect outstanding questionnaires not completed within the set time limit. statistical analysis statistical analysis was carried out with the spss programme (spss inc., 2003). firstly, factor analysis was done on the data regarding the influence of gender on the usage of one or more of the conflict-management styles. secondly data was analysed statistically to determine how different age groups use one or more of the five conflict management styles in their interpersonal conflict situations in the workplace. cronbach’s alpha coefficients were computed to assess the validity and reliability of the constructs that were measured in this study. the construct validity was determined by applying factor analysis to the items in question. the face value of the instrument was assured through testing it with specialists in the field. results validity of the roc-ii instrument in past studies (gross & guerrero, 2000), cronbach’s alpha coefficient for each of the roc-ii subscales has ranged from 0.77-0.83 (integrating); 0.68–0.72 (obliging); 0.75–0.79 (dominating); 0.72–0.86 (avoiding) and 0.67–0.76 (compromising). the analysis in this study yielded an acceptable five-factor solution with all items loading 0.65–0.83. the lowest reliability value was 0.65 (compromising) and the highest 0.84 (integrating). the lowest value can still be considered to be in the middle order of acceptability. nunnally & bernstein (1994) consider values that vary around 0.50 as being the lower limit of acceptability. general findings from the study findings revealed that owners/managers in small businesses tend to be more integrating/collaborative (m = 1.87, sd = 0,87) and less dominating/competitive (m = 2.93, sd = 0,94). a study done by sorenson (1999) with almost the same number of small business owner participants (59 caucasians), recorded m’s and sd’s of 4.08 and 0.84 for integrating and 2.3 and 0.94 for dominating. comparison of descriptive statistics regarding the other three conflict-handling styles showed a reasonably similar trend. avoiding were m = 3.20, sd = 0.99 compared to sorenson’s results of m=3.030 and sd=0.89. obliging were m = 2.71, sd = 0.71 compared to m = 3.85 and sd=0.81. in the case of the compromising style the m was = 2.25 and sd was = 0.67. soreson recorded m = 3.65 and sd = 0.80. no distinction was made between gender or age. gender differences in conflict-handling by comparing the different conflict-handling styles against the background of variable gender in a small business, the findings were as presented in table 2. no significant difference could be found with regard to the different genders. a small effect size of 0.118 was experienced with the integrating variable. all the others, taking into account table 1 demographics of participants n % n % gender academic qualification male 41 73.2 grade 12 or lower 14 25.0 female 15 26.8 certificate/diploma 17 30.4 graduate/postgraduate 25 44.6 ethnicity home language caucasian (white) 56 100.0 english 12 27.3 afrikaans 44 72.7 years in business number of employees 1-4 years 11 19.6 1-5 employees 16 28.6 5-10 years 16 28.6 6-10 employees 16 28.6 11-15 years 11 19.6 11+ employees 24 42.8 15 + 18 32.2 industry age group steel 3 5.4 younger than 36 17 30.4 furniture 2 3.5 36-45 16 28.6 paint 2 3.5 older than 45 23 41.0 automobile 11 19.6 restaurant 4 7.1 retail 22 39.3 financial 1 1.8 hotel 1 1.8 tourism 0 agriculture 0 health 2 3.5 other 8 14.4 24 conflict management original research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 1 pp. 32 41 25 0 – 0.1 has no effect and 0.5 has a large effect size, were less than 0.1. thus, although the variable integrating conflict-handling style proved not to have a significant difference, it did have a small effect-size. the females make use of the integrating style on a more frequent basis than males in order to manage conflict situations in business. the mean for females was 1.724 and for males 1.900 considering that 1 has the highest and 5 the lowest meaning. both males and females, when measured in terms of significant difference, use all five of the conflict-handling styles to the same extent. in table 3 the parametric (pearson) and non-parametric (spearman) inter-correlations with normal data distribution were carried out for both gender groups. from this table it is evident that a consistency exists with regard to the intercorrelations, except for the obliging conflict-handling style where a significant negative correlation (-0.583) is registered with the pearson correlation against the dominating factor at p < 0.05. no correlation is recorded in the spearman case. through closer examination of the inter-correlations it was determined that females registered a significant negative correlation (-0.699) between the avoiding conflict-handling style and the integrating style. a significant positive relationship (0.584) is found between the compromising and obliging conflicthandling styles. the negative correlation is due to the fact that in the case of the integrating style a high concern for oneself and for others is dominant. with the avoiding style a low concern for oneself as well as the other party in the interpersonal conflict situation exists. on the other hand the obliging and compromising styles are closely related in the sense that these styles both have a low to moderate concern for self and the other party. both are also accommodating with a give-and-take attitude. the males registered a strong negative correlation (-0.630) between the dominating, integrating and compromising conflicthandling styles. the dominating style projects a high concern for oneself and a low concern for others. it is compatible with autocratic authority and forces solutions. a significant positive correlation was found between integrating and obliging (0.480), and compromising (0.650) at the p < 0.01. the compromising and obliging (0.404) at the p < 0.05 level also reflected a significant positive correlation. by demonstrating supportiveness and acknowledging the concerns of others, the obliging style should contribute to good relationships and cohesiveness (seymour, 1993). age differences in conflict handling comparison of the styles used to manage interpersonal conflict in the workplace against the age-status background variable recorded the statistical results as shown in tables 4, 5 and 6. age groupings used were 36 years and less, 36 to 45 years, and older than 45 years. a significant statistical difference of p = 0.023 could be found for the factor dominating within the different age groups. a medium effect size of 0.364 was recorded with the dominating independent (table 5). integrating, avoiding and obliging had very small effect sizes ranging between 0.102 and 0.116, with the compromising dependent (0.187) lying between small and medium effect sizes. all the dependants excluding dominating had effect sizes smaller than < 0.2 but slightly bigger than > 0.1. thus, although the variable dominating conflict–handling style proved to have a significant difference, it was contributed with only a medium effect size. it is also evident that the younger participants, 36 years or less, tend to make more use of the dominating conflict-handling style (m = 2.623) than the 36-45 years (m = 2.662) and the 45 years and older (m = 3.330) group. table 2 descriptive group statistics and directional measures – gender (n=56) factor gender m sd t df sig (2-tailed) value integrating m f 1.900 1.724 0.731 0.377 0.855 52 0.259 0.118 avoiding m f 3.166 3.256 1.054 0.851 -0.278 50 0.782 0.039 dominating m f 2.917 3.014 0.896 1.091 -0.331 53 0.742 0.045 obliging m f 2.707 2.654 0.689 0.769 0.239 53 0.812 0.033 compromising m f 2.179 2.285 0.633 0.535 -0.559 51 0.579 0.078 table 3 parametric and non-parametric inter-correlations of chs’s according to gender in small businesses (n=56) females males integrating avoiding dominating obliging compromising integrating r srho -0.699 ** -0.641** -0.320 -0.288 0.303 0.441 0.242 0.174 avoiding r srho -0.193 -0.171 0.085 0.226 0.283 0.031 0.025 0.079 dominating r srho -0.630** -0.652** 0.150 0.165 -0.583* -0.508 -0.376 -0.388 obliging r srho 0.480** 0.473** 0.282 0.296 -0.167 -0.196 0.584* 0.594* compromising r srho 0.650** 0.646** -0.080 -0.074 -0.345* -0.330* 0.404* 0.377* r = pearson parametric correlation. srho = spearman nonparametric correlation. (**) correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed) (*) correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (two-tailed). table 4 descriptive statistics – age status (n=56) factor age m sd std. error integrating -36yr 36-45 45+ 1.932 1.993 1.795 0.567 0.699 0.740 0.137 0.180 0.154 avoiding -36yr 36-45 45+ 3.274 3.023 3.265 0.805 1.302 0.940 0.195 0.348 0.201 dominating -36yr 36-45 +45 2.623 2.662 3.330 1.041 0.775 0.847 0.252 0.193 0.176 obliging -36yr 36-45 45+ 2.775 2.585 2.753 0.768 0.742 0.660 0.186 0.185 0.137 compromising -36yr 36-45 45+ 2.117 2.183 2.397 0.679 0.820 0.559 0.164 0.211 0.119 original research havenga vol. 6 no. 1 pp. 22 28sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sahrm.co.za evaluation of the descriptive statistics, application of the analysis of variance (anova) and the directional measures revealed that except for the dominating conflict-handling style the remaining styles of managing interpersonal conflict are used to the same extent by the different age groups. table 7 contains the parametric (pearson) and non-parametric (spearman) inter-correlations for the different age groups. comparison of the pearson and spearman inter-correlations reveal that a consistency exists, except for the age group 45 years and older (dominating) with correlation differences of r = -0.572 at p <0.01 and srho = -0.382 at p <0.05. the same is registered for obliging where r = -0.446 at p<0.01 and srho = -0.389. analysing the pearson correlation reveals that a significant negative correlation exists between the dominating and integrating conflict-handling styles (-0.740; 36-45 years and -0.572; 45+ years). moderate negative relations are experienced between obliging, compromising and dominating variables with r = 0.511, r = 0.446 and r = 0.606, r = 0.496 at p < 0.01 respectively. strong positive correlations exist between integrating, obliging and compromising. closer scrutiny of the correlations and age groups reveals that in the age group 36 years and younger strong correlations are only recorded between compromising and obliging. it thus seems as if the younger owners/managers of small businesses are more inclined to focus on problem solving in a collaborative fashion, with a moderate to high concern for self and others. there can, however, also be a low concern for self as well as the other party where inaction, withdrawal or ignoring may occur with a correlation between compromising and obliging factors. discussion the combined objective of this exploratory study was to determine how gender and age variables affect the type of conflict-handling styles that are used during interpersonal conflict situations in the workplace. the results did not support the first hypothesis which stated that males and females do not use the various conflict-handling styles to the same extent. it became clear that owners/managers of small businesses, whether male or female, use all the different conflict-handling styles to the same extent. however, the integrating style did have a small effect-size, which indicated that females tended to be more integrating than males, although no statistical significant difference could be proven. these findings support the results of rahim (1983) that females have a more cooperative (integrating/collaborating) orientation to conflict handling than males. however, bedell & sistrunk (1973) concluded that females are more competitive (dominating). brewer et al. (2002) found in their study that obliging (accommodating) and avoiding are more consistent with females. with regard to males the use of the dominant (competitive) conflict-handling style was verified by this study and the others mentioned above. portello & long’s study (1994) also reported masculine individuals adopting a dominating style. in the present study the dominating behaviour appears consistent with a masculine gender role, whilst use of the obliging and avoiding conflict-handling styles appears consistent with a female gender role. it should be noted again that it was found that a significant positive correlation exists between compromising and obliging (r = 0.584, p<0.05) for females. in the case of males a strong negative correlation exists between the dominating and integrating style (r = -0.630, p<0.01), and compromising (r = -0.345, p<0.05). considering the age groups and the types of conflict-handling styles they used in interpersonal conflict situations, the pearson and spearman inter-correlations were applied. both methods were used to verify the ranked data. the results supported the second hypothesis which stated that conflict-handling styles were used to a different extent among various age groups. evaluation of the statistics as portrayed in the different tables revealed that apart from the dominating conflict-handling style the table 5 anova – age status (n = 56) factor groups sum of squares df ms f sig integrating between within 0.255 24.074 2 52 0.127 0.463 0.275 0.760 avoiding between within 0.621 51.025 2 50 0.311 1.021 0.304 0.739 dominating between within 6.428 42.177 2 53 3.214 0.796 4.039 0.023 obliging between within 0.371 27.323 2 53 0.186 0.516 0.360 0.699 compromising between within 0.845 23.405 2 51 0.422 0.459 0.920 0.405 table 6 directional measures: age-status (n=56) factor eta value integrating 0.102 * avoiding 0.110 * dominating 0.364 obliging 0.116 * compromising 0.187 * table 7 correlations of chs’s according to age group in small businesses a g e g r o u p s in t e g r a t in g a v o id in g d o m in a t in g o b l ig in g c o m p. r -36 srho r 36-45 srho r 45+ srho r -36 -0.253 srho -0.073 r 36-45 0.038 srho -0.031 r 45+ -0.341 srho -0.268 r -36 -0.460 0.295 srho -0.367 0.307 r 36-45 0.740** 0.265 srho -0.710** 0.167 r 45+ -0.572** -0.158 srho -0.382 -0.204 r -36 0.373 0.314 -0.167 srho 0.467 0.418 -0.268 r 36-45 0.785** 0.161 -0.511* srho 0.849** 0.171 -0.544* r 45+ 0.328 0.397 -0.446* srho 0.201 0.379 -0.389 r -36 0.885** -0.025 -0.340 0.563* srho 0.931** 0.087 -0.347 0.593* r 36-45 0.731** 0.165 -0.606* 0.722** srho 0.846** 0.006 -0.740** 0.767** r 45+ 0.420 -0.191 -0.496* 0.146 srho 0.256 -0.145 -0.463* 0.125 r = pearson parametric correlation. srho = spearman nonparametric correlation. (**) correlation is significant the 0.01 level (twotailed). (*) correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (twotailed). 26 conflict management original research s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuurvol. 6 no. 1 pp. 32 41 27 remaining styles are used to the same extent by the different groups. the older the participants are, the less dominating or competitive the style used. comparison of the inter-correlations of the gender and age groups’ conflict-handling styles reveal that the integrating variable for males had a significant negative correlation with the dominating factor and significant positive correlation with the obliging and compromising factors. the correlations of the compromising factor for the male gender also had negative and positive correlations with integrating, dominating and obliging. this also corresponds with that of the age groups. females only recorded a negative correlation between the dominating and obliging factors and a positive correlation between the compromising and obliging factors. this corresponds with the findings of the age groups. it thus seems that a relationship exists between conflict-handling styles and gender and age. a contradiction, however, does exist with regard to the fact that females have a more integrating or collaborating approach to conflict handling. when their age is taken into consideration, it appears that the younger they are, the more they tend to make use of the dominating conflict-handling style to manage conflict situations. a clear answer to this difference could not be found. a study conducted by antonioni (1998) revealed that in general age and gender had little relationship with the variance in conflict-handling styles. his manager sample coefficients for both age and gender were non-significant as was the case for a student sample. age was significantly associated with only two of the five styles, namely the use of integrating (beta = 0.12 < 0.05) and avoiding (beta = 0.15 < 0.01) styles. in the present study integrating, avoiding and obliging all had small effect sizes. limitations the generalisability of the results is limited by the relative small sample size and the demarcation of the study to a restricted geographic area. furthermore findings were based on a purely caucasian (white) group of participants. amongst the group of 56 respondents no asians, black africans or coloureds were to be found. as such no cultural influences could be included in the evaluation of the conflict-styles used by the participants. other race groups may have had different outcomes with regard to age and gender. another limitation is that a convenience sample was used. the absence of randomisation for control could affect the data. a further limitation could be the fact that only owners/managers’ conflict-handling styles toward subordinates were studied. no attempt was made to explore and distinguish behavioural characteristics that may have been applicable to academic qualifications or industry groupings. conclusion this study provides insights into conflict-handling styles and their application by owners/managers of small firms based on gender and age variables. in some instances the results are compelling and consistent with other studies and in other cases, as shown in this study, the findings differ. what has become evident is that although the variance in styles in which conflict is managed by gender role and age respectively was not particularly large, it was established that females made use of the integrating styles on a more frequent basis than males. the other conflict-handling styles showed no significant difference in usage between the two genders. negative and positive inter-correlations with regard to the conflict-handling styles were registered for both genders with more significant relations existing in the styles used by males. with regard to age it was determined that except for the dominating style other conflict-handling styles were used to the same extent by different age groups. it has also become clear that with the younger age group a strong correlation exists between compromising and obliging. the fact that the integrating and dominating styles have been prominent amongst the five conflict-handling styles calls for some further remarks. it should be noted that the dominating style of managing conflict is considered to be the worst style. it increases frustration and leaves residual frustration which is likely to cause further conflict (rahim, 1992). superiors who use the dominating style are also, according to van der vliert, euwema & huismans (1995), less effective with their subordinates. utley, richardson & pilkington (1989) have found that a relationship exists between the need for aggression and a dominating or forcing style. individuals using the latter style may not be open to new experiences. with the integrating style, information needs and interests are shared openly, whilst the dominating style may be a demonstration of power. high levels of emotional stability may also be required when using the dominating style (antonioni, 1998). it appears from discussions earlier in this study as well as the results given, that owners/ managers of small businesses should preferably use a conflict strategy with low levels of dominance and even avoidance. the most frequently used conflict-management style should be collaboration. sorenson’s 1994 study suggests that businesses that produce the highest outcomes have developed a norm of collaborating. in conclusion it can be stated that relatively few studies have been done to evaluate different aspects of conflict dynamics in small businesses. it is believed that this study, though exploratory in nature, has given a more usable picture of interpersonal conflict with regard to gender and age and the application of different conflict-handling styles. future research on a much larger scale and with more participants is deemed necessary. applying such a study to different cultures and races may also divulge valuable information if also applied to conflict-handling styles used by employees of small businesses in interpersonal workplace conflict situations. integration of such knowledge into training programmes would not only enhance the quality of working relationships, but would also help to decrease conflict and enhance work performance and productivity. references antonioni, d. (1998). relationship between the big five personality factors and conflict management styles. international journal of conflict management, 9(4), 336-354. amason, a.c. (1996). distinguishing the effects of functional and dysfunctional conflict on strategic decision making. academy of management journal, 39, 123-148. applebaum, h., abadallah, c.s. & shapiro, b. (1999). the selfdirected team: a conflict management analysis. team performance management, 5(2), 60-77. bedell, j. & sistrunk, f. (1973). power, opportunity costs and sex in a mixed-motive game. journal of personality and social psychology, 25, 219-226. ben-yoav, d. & banai, m. (1992). measuring conflict management styles: a comparison between the mode and rocinstruments using self and peer ratings. international journal of conflict management, 3, 237-247. blake, r.r. & mouton, j.s. (1964). the managerial grid. houston, texas: gulf. bodtker, a.m. & jameson, j.k. (2001). emotion in conflict formation and its transformation: application to organizational conflict management. international journal of conflict management, 12(3), 259-276. boles, j. (1996). influences of work-family on job satisfaction and quitting intentions among business owners. the case of family-operated business. family business review, 9(2), 61-74. brenner, d.c., tomkiewicz, j. & schein, v n. (1989). the relationship between sex role stereotypes and requisite management characteristics revisited. academy of management journal, 32, 662-669. original research havenga vol. 6 no. 1 pp. 22 28sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sahrm.co.za brewer, n., mitchell, p. & weber, n. (2002). gender role organizational status, and conflict management styles. the international journal of conflict management, 13 (1), 78-94. churchill, n.c. (1983). entrepreneurs and their enterprises: a stage model. in g. a. hornaday, g. timmons & k.h. vesper (eds.). frontiers of entrepreneurship research. wellesley, m. a. babson. davis, p.s. & harveston, p.d. (2001). the phenomenon of substantive conflict in the family firm: a cross-organizational study. journal of small business management, 39(1), 13-40. euwema, m.c. & van de vliert, e. (1990). gedrag en escalatie bij hiërarchisch conflicte. (behaviour and the escalation in hierarchical conflicts). toegepaste sociale psychologie, 4, 28-41. filbeck, g. & smith, l. l. (1997). team building and conflict management strategies for family business. family business review, 10(4), 339-352. gross, m.a. & guerrero, l.k. (2000). managing conflict appropriately and effectively: an application of the competence model to rahim’s organizational conflict styles. the international journal of conflict management, 11(3), 200-226. grote, j. (2003). conflicting generations: a new theory of family business rivalry. family business review, 16(2), 113-127. hall, j. (1969). conflict management survey. conroe, texas: telometrics international. havenga, w. (2005). a comparative analysis of conflict dynamics within public and private sector organisations. phd dissertation. north-west university, south africa. huey-wen chou, & ying-jung yeh. (2007). conflict, conflict management, and performance in erp teams. social behaviour and personality, 35(8), 1035-1048. welsh, j.a. & white, g.f. (1981). converging on characteristics of entrepreneurship research. wellesley, m. a. babson. jehn, k.a. (1997). a qualitative analysis of conflict types and dimensions in organization groups. administrative science quarterly, 42, 530-557. jehn, k.a. (1995). a multimethod examination of the benefits and detriments of intragroup conflict. administrative science quarterly, 40, 256-282. jehn, k.a., northcraft, g. & neale, m. (1999). why differences make a difference: a field study of diversity, conflict, and performance in work groups. administrative science quarterly, 44, 741-763. lotriet, w., crafford, a., & visser, d. (2001). die verband tussen interpersoolike behoefles en konflikhantering style. journal of industrial psychology, 27(2), 42-50. meyer, s. (2004). organizational response to conflict: future conflict and work outcomes. social work research, 28(3), 183-190. nauta, a & kluwer, e. (2004). the use of questionnaires in conflict research. international negotiation, 9, 457-470. nunnally, j.c. & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory. new york. mcgraw-hill. pearson, a.w., ensley, m.d. & amason, a.c. (2002). an assessment and refinement of john’s intergroup conflict scale. journal of conflict management, 13, 110-126. pelled, l.h., eisenhardt, k.m. & xin, k.r. (1999). exploring the black box: an analysis of work group diversity, conflict and performance. administrative science quarterly, 44, 1-28. portello, j.y. & long, b.c. (1994). gender orientation, ethical and interpersonal conflicts and conflict handling styles of female managers. sex roles, 31, 683-701. powell, g. n. & butterfield, d. a. (1979). the good manager: masculine or androgynous? academy of management journal, 22, 395-403. rahim, m.a. (1983). a measure of styles of handling interpersonal conflict. academy of management journal, 26, 368-376. rahim, m.a. (1986). managing conflict in organizations. new york: preager. rahim, m. a. (1992). managing conflict in organizations. new york: praeger. rahim, m.a. & magner, n.r. (1995). confirmatory factor analysis of the styles of handling interpersonal conflict: first-order factor model and its intervariance across groups. journal of applied psychology, 80, 122-132. rahim, m.a. (2002). toward a theory of managing organizational conflict. the international journal of conflict management, 13(3), 206-235. rahim, m.a. (2001). managing conflict in organizations. westpart, ct. usa: quorum books. robbins s.p. (1998). organizational behaviour. new jersey: simon and schuster. ross, r.s. & ross, j.r. (1989). small groups in organizational settings. englewood cliff, n.j: prentice hall. slabbert, a.d. (2002). managerial modes of conflict resolution in the banking industry. south african journal of economics and management sciences, 5(1), 258-270. sorenson, r.l. (1999). conflict management strategies used in successful family business. family business review x11, (2), 133-146. sorenson, p. & hawkins, k. (1995). gender, psychological type and conflict style preference. management communication quarterly, 9, 115-127. sutschek, l.b. (2001). conflict resolution style and experience in management: moderating the effects of gender. journal of conflict management, 11, 110-122. suzuki, m. & hayashi, y. (2001). conflict management and organizational attitudes among japanese: individual and group goals and justice. asian journal of social psychology, 4, 93-101. thomas, k.w & kilmann, h.r. (1974). thomas-kilman conflict mode instrument. new york: xicom. thomas, k.w. & kilmann, r.h. (1978). comparison of four instruments measuring conflict behavior. psychological reports, 42, 139-145. ting-toomey, s. (1985). toward a theory of conflict and culture. in w.b. gudykunst, l.p. stewart & s. ting-toomey (eds.). communication culture and organization processes, 71-85. beverly hills, ca: sage. utley, m., richardson, d., & pilkington, c. (1989). personality and interpersonal conflict management. personality and individual differences, 10, 287-293. van de vliert, e. (1994) agreeableness and activeness as components of conflict behaviors. journal of personality and social psychology, 66, 674-687. van de vliert, e. (1996). interventions in conflicts. in m. g. schabruco, g.a.m. winnbust & c.l. cooper (eds.). handbook of work and health psychology. new york: wiley & son, 405-425. vilaseca, a. (2002). stakeholder role in family business: conflict of interests and objectives between non-employed shareholders and top management team. family business review xy, (4), 299-320. vinger, g. & cilliers, f. (2006). effective transformational leadership behaviours for managing change. s.a. journal of human resource management, 4(2), 1-9. weider-hatfield, d. & hatfield, g.d. (1995). relationships among conflict management styles, levels of conflict and reactions to work. the journal of social psychology, 135(6), 687-698. 28 8chawane.qxd south africa (sa) faces the challenge of becoming a global economic player. it is a challenge because of the unimpressive south african rankings reported in the world competitiveness yearbook (wcy) surveys (wcy, 2001; 2002). several authors have stressed the country’s obligation to become economically competitive among the world economies (manning, 1997; mbigi & mandela, 1998; tonkin & alfred, 1994). competitiveness and productivity are intertwined yardsticks of a nation’s standard of living and are a result of the capacit y of a country’s organisations to achieve sustained economic productivity (wcy, 2001; yadavalli, 1998). in cognisance of this need, the country has set herself the primary challenge to increase wealth creation (wcy, 2001). the productivit y of a country’s workforce is a crucial component of the competitiveness factors forming the criteria in terms of which countries are evaluated (wcy, 2001). accordingly, organisational transformation programs are pursued inter alia with the aim of improving the productivity levels of organisations, which is a logical precedent of national competitiveness. veldsman (1998) and yadavalli (1998) report that sa’s competitiveness rankings have been consistently poor. the offered explanations generally attribute sa’s organisational underperformance to a lack of insight and commitment to change programs; organisations which are not capable of learning and inflexible management thinking; neglect of the development of an organisation’s people; and a lack of trust in workplace relationships that do not reflect the principles of fairness and organisational integrity, resulting in incongruent personal and organisational goals (birkin, 1997; erwin, 1998; hall & maritz, 1997; mbigi, 1997; veldsman, 1996). cooper and markus (1995), bartlett and ghoshal (1995), ghoshal and bartlett (1996), and veldsman (2002) have noted the growing insight that the engine of organisational transformation lies in the people who do the work, through their attitudes, assumptions and behaviours as they fulfil their work-roles. the premise of this study is that organisational change approaches that have a primary emphasis on the dimension of personal change could result in individual excellence that in turn would lead to organisational productivity, wealth creation and national competitiveness. daft and lengel (1998) and veldsman (2002) explain personal change as a blending together of the inner world of the individual, consisting of the individual’s thoughts and attitudes, feelings and spirit, with the outer world of the organisation, consisting of the trends, crises and competition. nadler and tushman’s (1980) contention that organisational change programs are strategic efforts toward the creation of compatible organisational systems that would enhance effective organisational functioning displays a similar line of thought. thus, the competitiveness levels referred to earlier and the cited factors for sa’s economic underperformance compel a need for personal change in sa organisational members. this could influence the required organisational transformation and help south africa to meet its challenges, while also improving national competitiveness levels. obholzer (1994) endorses that the need for change is selfevident and generally acknowledged, and argues that meaningful change is difficult to achieve. erfat (1998), human (1996), manning (1996) and werth (1994) also report that sa organisational change efforts have yielded minimal success. the authors ascribe this to the regrettable disregard of the significant dimension of personal change in organisational transformation approaches employed. the ineffectiveness of change interventions czander (1993) and diamond (1986) cite several conceptual foundations which affirm that individual employees have a basic, ongoing need to maximise their potential. hersey and thabile chawane lj van vuuren g roodt programme in industrial psychology department of human resource management rau university abstract the purpose of this study was to investigate the critical role of personal change, and its inherent elements, in determining the outcomes of organisational transformation interventions. the purposeful sampling method was used to involve expert organisational transformation consultants as participants (n=10). a qualitative content analysis technique was applied to infer meaningful explanations to the research problem. it was found that although personal change formed an integral part of transformation interventions, it was not adequately explored and utilised as a crucial and consequential dimension in influencing the results of organisational transformation interventions. the implications of the findings are discussed. opsomming die doel met hierdie studie was om die kernrol wat persoonlike verandering, en die elemente inherent daaraan, ten opsigte van die uitkomste van intervensies gerig op organisasietransformasie vertolk, te ondersoek. doelmatigheidsteek-proefneming is aangewend om kundige organisasie-transformasie konsultante (n=10), wat moontlik die rol van persoonlike verandering tydens transformasie-intervensies verreken, as navorsingsdeelnemers te betrek. ’n kwalitatiewe inhouds-ontledingstegniek is benut om betekenisvolle verklarings vir die navorsingsprobleem daar te stel. daar is bevind dat hoewel persoonlike verandering ’n integrale komponent is van intervensies gerig op transformasie, dit nie genoegsaam as ’n deurslaggewende en vooruitspruitende dimensie van transformasie verreken en benut word nie. die implikasies van die bevindinge word bespreek. personal change as a key determinant of the outcomes of organisational transformation interventions requests for copies should be addressed to: t chawane, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 62 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (3), 62-76 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (3), 62-76 personal change as a key determinant 63 blanchard (1993) refer to abraham maslow’s hierarchy of needs, of which self-actualisation as a particular need explains man’s ultimate life goal. this need pertains to individuals’ desire to fulfil themselves as creative people according to their potentialities within the prevailing limitations of their reality. self-actualisation implies personal mastery (senge, 1990) and self-empowerment (manning, 1997). the emphasis is on an individual’s compelling urge to achieve through continuous psychological growth. an acknowledgement of this need with regard to personal change processes is critical if the interdependence of individuals’ and organisational needs is accepted (daft & lengel, 1998). organisational environments are expected to serve as the source of the required energies to fulfil individuals’ needs. halton (1994), however, asserts that organisations respond to challenges much like individuals. they develop defensive routines against difficult emotions which are too threatening or painful to acknowledge, while also inhibiting learning in the process (argyris, 1985; 1990). the organisational strategies employed to diffuse the defensive routines result in structures which frustrate rather than satisf y individuals’ needs (coulsonthomas, 1992; czander, 1993; mbigi & maree, 1995). since individuals’ needs are dominant, they often compel employees to undermine the organisation’s tasks to obtain selfgratification. management frequently responds by increasing control, making threats and/or introducing reward schemes which are designed to force and/or entice employees to keep on working (czander, 1993). czander’s (1993) contention, and that of this study, is that organisational transformation programs are intended to restore a balance between the organisational needs of competitiveness and the individual’s needs of personal goal satisfaction. as a result of that, and because of the dominant nat ure of individuals’ needs over those of organisations, sa organisational change interventions should endeavour to realign organisational and individuals’ needs (coulson-thomas, 1992; czander, 1993; diamond, 1986). the objective of this study is, therefore, to explore the phenomenon of personal change, its elements and their psycho-dynamic nature, as well as their hypothesised critical role in influencing effective organisational transformation programs. this objective seems justifiable in view of stokes’ (1994) reference to reed and palmer’s (1972) assertion, that individuals’ goal satisfaction comes not necessarily from changing the organisation. it also stems from individuals finding, making and taking a role in relation to the task and the organisational structures available to support those goals. a review of five general organisational change models according to nadler and tushman (1980), organisational transformation models are aimed at depicting the interdependent factors that continuously interact to reflect organisational behavioural patterns. burke and litwin (1992) emphasise that models are not intended to prescribe, but rather to serve as frameworks for organisational diagnosis, planning and managing change. the five general models were selected on the consideration that between them, they cover a) a diagnostic approach (nadler & tushman, 1980); b) organisational performance and change (burke & litwin, 1992); c) the dynamics of planned change (robertson, roberts & porras, 1993); d) an approach that focuses on individuals’ tasks, roles, relationships and responsibilities; as well as on the significant role of organisational leadership (beer, eisenstat & spector, 1990) and; e) the imperative of the fairness perspective in enhancing individuals’ adaptation to organisational change (novelli, kirkman & shapiro, 1995). these approaches represent a comprehensive overview of the different aspects of organisational change rather than a focus on the subprocesses contained in change approaches. reviewing the models will serve five distinct purposes for this study. firstly, the process will make known the generic components of theoretical change models. secondly, it will allow an assessment of the extent to which personal change elements are considered and/or emphasised in the identified components. thirdly, it will facilitate the development of an objective framework by which the components of the researched sa change intervention models can be categorised. fourthly, it will enable a process by which the various components can be synthesised into four broad dimensions. lastly, it will provide the means by which the data to be gathered can be analysed, classified and tabulated. a congruence model of organisational behaviour the congruence model of organisational behaviour (nadler & tushman, 1980) describes organisations as dynamic and complex total systems that can achieve effectiveness providing the subparts approach a state of congruence. it emphasises input factors, amongst which are the human resource. according to this framework, organisational transformation initiatives should acknowledge employees’ needs, preferences and expectations, since these factors influence behaviour, especially with regard to task performance. the imperative is for organisational components to produce effectiveness through their alignment with the larger organisational environment and yield a state of congruence (nadler & tushman, 1980). figure 1: a congruence model of organisational behaviour (nadler & tushman, 1980, p. 24) chawane, van vuuren, roodt64 the nadler and tushman (1980) organisational framework neither applies particular emphasis on personal change elements, nor does it explain them as crucial components of organisational change initiatives. instead, the authors explain that their model is general, diagnostic and descriptive of those factors that should be regarded as forming part of organisational systems. they recommend the development of specific sub-models that could be explored to deal with incongruit y within particular organisational subsystems. also, the authors cite the expectancy theory of motivation as a sub-model that could explain the fit bet ween the component of ‘individuals’ and the other components of their model. a model of organisational performance and change the model of organisat ional performance and change (burke & lit win, 1992) is founded on a functional cause and effect framework. it explains linkages that hypothesise how performance is affected as well as how deliberate and effective change can be influenced. the authors contend that the external environment affects transformat ional factors, which are ident ified as the organisat ional mission and strateg y, leadership, and culture. these, in t urn, affect transactional factors which are identified as the organisat ional struct ure, systems, management practices and climate. both t ypes of factors reciprocate and event ually impact on individuals’ and organisational performance. the model purports to integrate both organisational development and organisational change process theories to serve as a guide for diagnosis and planned, managed change. this integration is reported to clearly show cause and effect relationships between the organisation’s internal and external environments in order to explain their link to organisational effectiveness (burke & litwin, 1992). the authors mention that the identified transformational factors are the ones more weighty in bringing about fundamental organisational change, whereas the climate or transactional factors consisting of the employees’ impressions, expectations and feelings, impact on organisational relationships. the reciprocity of the model components considered, the present study’s assumptions question the ‘more weight y’ and ‘more fundamental’ explanation attributed to the transformational factors over the transactional factors. a theoretical model of the dynamics of planned organisational change according to robertson, et al. (1993) the theoretical foundation of their model is that organisations are contexts within which individuals behave. the model explains how a climate of organisational alignment can be created to produce optimal productivity and performance. the model premises that an individual’s behaviour is a primary determinant of both organisational performance and the level of an individual’s development. based on social cognitive models of behaviour, behaviour change is explained as the supposedly primary variable of focus (though not ultimate) for organisational change intervention. the model centres around four interdependent subsystems of work settings. these subsystems are regarded as variables that can be altered to induce change in an individual’s behaviour with an intention to trigger organisational change. figure 2: a causal model of organisational performance and change source: burke & litwin, 1992, p. 7) personal change as a key determinant 65 figure 3: a theoretical model of the dynamics of planned organisational change (robertson, roberts & porras, 1993, p. 621) the explanation of the model focuses on demonstrating the significance of planned change in as far as it can facilitate systematic monitoring of a guided and effective organisational change process (robertson, et al. 1993). importantly, the model acknowledges personal change elements by recognising that individuals’ work behaviours are also driven by factors outside an organisation. these factors are said to be crucial because they mediate the relationship between changes in the work setting, as well as organisational performance and individual development. the authors recommend a more explicit focus on a common set of behaviours which would provide a common denominator for a finer-grained analysis of the relationship among changes in work setting, individual behaviour and organisational outcome variables. a six-steps-to-effective-change framework the beer, et al. (1990) framework is based on the rationale that organisational change, referred to as revitalisation, is a process that should be led by general managers within their respective organisational work units or divisions. the informal organisational arrangements, encompassing employee roles, responsibilities and relationships need to be aligned to the organisation’s competitive task. task alignment is attained through a sequential process of six basic managerial interventions, and referred to as the critical path. the critical path is based on the belief that a change figure 4: a six-steps-to-effective-change framework adapted from beer, eisenstat & spector (1990, p. 219) chawane, van vuuren, roodt66 process that focuses on task alignment, which begins at the organisation’s periphery, and progresses steadily toward the corporate centre, is the most effective way to achieve lasting organisational change (beer, eisenstat & spector, 1990). according to beer, et al. (1990) the success of the six steps to effective change program hinges on three interrelated factors. they are co-ordination, commitment and competencies. although the discussed change program approaches change from the perspective of informal organising arrangements within organisational units, the authors maintain that top management has a responsibility to support such initiatives. highlighted as part of the required support is the creation of a market for change, the promotion of revitalised units as models for the whole organisation, and the importance of developing career paths that encourage leadership development at the unit level and across the organisation. the success of the six-steps-to-effective-change framework is substantiated by the results of the field research conducted by beer, et al. (1990). however, their approach contrasts with the assumptions of this study. the authors view change intervention programs as effective if implemented at the work units/divisions level, thereby influencing individuals’ desired attitudes and behaviours. contrarily, this study’s rationale regards change as effectual if approached in terms of the individual’s internal cognitive and affective domains. these are regarded as areas within which internal learning processes take place, have an influence on decision making, and therefore shape behaviour. a six-step-framework of organisational justice for organisational change novelli, et al. (1995) incorporated a justice perspective into beer, et al. (1990) six-step-model in order to develop a six-stepframework-of-organisational-justice-for-organisational-change. their approach emphasises the importance of organisational justice in enhancing the understanding and design of effective organisational change processes. novelli, et al. (1995) support the beer, et al. approach because of the perceived difficulty that goes with implementing successful and effective organisational change. the redesigned approach is still based on six steps but incorporates the justice perspective on the change requirements made to employees. both planning and correct sequencing of the steps are emphasised as crucial. novelli, et al. (1995) indicate two primary implications of their model: a) the need to change organisations so that they are fundamentally more just; and b) the need for managers to change themselves so that they are more sensitive to justice issues. the distributive, procedural and interactional justice issues are dealt with and resolved singly and jointly throughout the six steps to ensure effective implementation (novelli, et al. 1995). overall, the authors highlight the need for organisational leadership to achieve appropriate levels of self-awareness. this may assist in narrowing the gap bet ween possible inconsistencies in organisational transformation endeavours. they strongly emphasise a deep level of personal transformation to create shifts in large behavioural patterns. the model descriptors solidif y the argument for change approaches that recognise the depth required to explore the dimension of personal change. personal change elements detectable in the reviewed theoretical models common across the preceding organisational transformation frameworks is the use of purposeful, systematic yet dynamic, detectable and interdependent organisational components (beer, et al., 1990; burke & lit win, 1992; nadler & tushman, 1980; novelli, et al. 1995; robertson, et al. 1993). each model focuses on a preferred approach rather than to compare the varying degree of importance of each component. personal change elements are acknowledged as forming part of the model components because other organisational factors impact directly or indirectly on organisational members. however, none of the models give particular focus or table 1 a six-step-framework of organisational change type of justice change-model step distributive procedural interactional jointly diagnose the business problem will employees perceive that the will employees perceive that they have will employees perceive that diagnosis is fair, or that it is biased? input into the diagnostic process? management listens to their expressed views? develop shared vision of how to will employees perceive that the newly will employees perceive that they have will employees perceive that organize for competitiveness developed shared vision provide them input into how the company will managers listen to and respect employee with fair outcomes? organize for competitiveness? questions and concerns regarding the shared vision? create consensus, competence, and will employees perceive that the support will employees perceive the criteria will employees perceive that the cohesion needed for change mechanisms (i.e. training, outplacement by which some of them are retained managers act with empathy and assistance) generate fair outcomes? and others are terminated as fair? sensitivity regarding those who remain and those who do not remain in the organization? don’t push the changes from the top will employees perceive that new roles, will employees perceive that they will employees perceive that sincere responsibilities, and authority are fair have a voice in determining changes and adequate explanations are provided outcomes? in departmental roles and about their changing roles and responsibilities that must accompany responsibilities as a result of the change? the overall change process? institutionalize the change will employees perceive that their will employees perceive that they will employees perceive that sincere outcomes resulting from the have a voice in determining what and adequate explanations are institutionalized policies, systems, changes are made permanent and provided regarding which changes are and structures are fair? what changes are not? institutionalized and which are not? monitor and adjust the change process will employees perceive that the will employees perceive that the will employees perceive that outcomes generated by the monitoring monitoring and adjusting of the managers listen to and respect the and adjustment phases are fair? change process is fair and that they results of the employees’ monitoring get to express voice in these matters? and adjusting activities? (taken from novelli, kirkman & shapiro, 1995, p. 29) personal change as a key determinant 67 emphasise the critical role of the dimension of personal change in inf luencing effective organisat ional change. consequently the phenomenon and its elements still remain unexplored as key source of the required energ y to propel individual task performance toward excellent organisational productivit y. the conceptual foundations of the concept “personal change” according to cutcliffe (2000), the literature review methid is a legitimate initial process in a qualitative study in that it enhances conceptual clarity. it also increases the conceptual density and the richness of concept development. according to backman and kyngas (1999) literature analysis also facilitates the narrowing down of the research problem. personal change is a concept that belongs to the spheres of the subconscious and intuitive (senge, 1990). its impact is however, acknowledged by several authors, including covey (1991), daft and lengel (1998), manning (1997), quinn (1996) and veldsman (1998). personal change factors are described as key elements in individuals’ relationship formation with their co-workers and their workrole identification. they are divided into the cognitive and affective domains. czander (1993), diamond (1986) and herzberg (1971) describe these factors as the psychodynamic elements of an individual’s behaviour. the authors explain them as powerful unconscious motives which have an influence on work performance. block (1996) contends that personal change factors cannot be dealt with at a concrete level to deliberately yield the desired organisational transformation. however, the author’s contention, in line with that of senge (1990), is that a focus limited to the concrete is a traditional organisational practice which would never result in competitive and adaptable organisations. a large part of organisational concerns can only be satisfied through a conscious seeing and a re-evaluation of the people’s intangible needs, wants, longings and expectations. all subtle phenomena which, according to diamond (1986), will obstruct learning and change if ignored. czander (1993) insists, however, that it is important to understand personal change factors. the author furthermore contends that psychoanalytic theories should be considered to enrich organisational theorising in order to understand the key elements that contribute in making work a meaningful experience that can increase individual excellence and organisational productivity. this opinion is strongly supported by mosse (1994), who suggests that the organisational theories and psychoanalytic perspectives on change must be used together if real change is to be effected. czander (1993) and mosse (1994) conclude that if one of the perspectives is to be used without the other, the change effort will fail. personal change elements should therefore be incorporated into and drawn from, to develop comprehensive organisational transformation models. table 2 provides a broad framework to identif y the personal change dimension, components and elements as well as the domains they occupy (covey, 1991; daft & lengel, 1998; forsha, 1992a; hey & moore, 1998; veldsman, 2002). the included questions provide guidelines that an individual may use to evaluate one’s personal change requirements. the approaches to change marshak (1993) distinguishes bet ween developmental, transitional and transformational change. in the same vein, swart and van vuuren (1998) refer to spicer’s (1989) change strategies, which explain the difference between incremental and quantum change. the former is explained as referring to organisational efforts to change present mechanisms by doing more of the same, whereas the latter refers to a paradigm shift, incorporating new values and behaviours. since the intangible personal change elements are centred at the cognitive and affective levels of an individual’s psycho-dynamic system (czander, 1993; long & newton, 1997), they are, therefore, suggestive of transformational and/or quantum change. ivancevich and matteson (1993) have a similar contention. they identif y ten levels of change targets which vary according to the depth of intended change required from the individual and organisation. level one represents the shallowest change and level ten represents the deepest depth of required change. personal change as the subject of the present study falls within level nine (individual behaviour) and level ten (individual/group behaviour). these levels target the deepest level of individual’s behavioural change. novelli, et al. (1995) state that personal change is not only about changing a few behaviours but rather that it is about a deep level of personal work that creates shifts in large behavioural patterns. the emphasis is on appropriate attempts to adequately address individuals’ deeply embedded behavioural patterns without dismissing them as resistance to change (argyris, 1985; 1991; czander, 1993; halton, 1994; long & newton, 1997; mosse, 1994). table 2 the dimension of personal change component element domain types of questions to prompt individuals to change mindfulness independent thinking, creativity mind how competent am i in my task performance? how open am i to learning? assumptions, open-mindedness how creative am i in my task performance? am i satisfied with my performance? vision striving for higher purpose in task mind how do i foresee myself bringing about a change in my work? how can i do performance my work to the best of my abilities heart caring and compassionate attitudes, emotion how passionate am i about my work? am i enthusiastic about my work? do nurturing relationships with i care about how my work affects team members, the customers and the colleagues organisation? does my work fulfill me? communication expresses the vision, values, beliefs, emotion am i meeting quality expectations which support the vision and mission? is emotions and commitment my performance supportive and shows a commitment to the vision and mission? courage risk taking, non-conformity, spirit can i risk bringing about innovation and improvement to my work? do i have a willingness to take initiative the scope to explore and implement what i think my task requires? what will leading to learning and growth it take for me to act on my desire to improve? do i want to do that? what is in it for me as a person? integrity honesty, trustworthiness, being of spirit am i sincere in my task performance? am i doing it to the best of my abilities? service to others, the team and the am i proud and satisfied with the contribution i am making in meeting my organisation, acknowledging stated needs and those of the organisation? can i be relied upon to deliver the best and unstated norms work through my work roles/tasks? chawane, van vuuren, roodt68 according to czander (1993) personal change requires a method of engagement that can bring about any learning or creativity toward personal renewal. this point of view is supported by obholzer (1994) who identifies three layers of anxieties. these are primitive anxieties, anxieties arising out of the nature of the work, and personal anxieties. the author stresses the need for organisations to understand and contain these layers of anxieties within individuals before change can be managed. such an approach would curtail the futility of attempting to solve irrational organisational problems, which stem from individuals’ irrational dynamics and motives, with rational methods. the latter approaches only result in dysfunctional organisational systems which perpetuate a simplistic notion of the requirements of organisational transformation challenges (czander, 1993). the process of personal change in tracing personal change processes, bretherton, (1993), bridges (1996), forsha (1992b) and hey and moore (1998), agree that the individual’s awareness of the need to commence self-change is the first most important occurrence because it influences further all required change phases and activities. it requires a disciplined commitment to self-reflection and contemplation about the values and purposes of one’s life, which will result in the desire and willingness to change oneself (edwards & sen, 2000). both czander (1993) and long and newton (1997) strongly suggest that the psycho-dynamic approach should be explored as a possible means by which the individual’s creative energies can be unlocked. through such efforts an individual’s internal thought processes can be brought to a conscious state of awareness. it could provide a base from which a general understanding about the relationship between an individual and his environment can be formulated. a different paradigm of thinking would also result in constructive interpretations of which change path to pursue (forsha, 1992a). the continuous personal renewal path further creates a loss of control and leads to fearfulness, anxiety, denial, numbness, confusion, anger, depression and finally, acceptance of the implications and goals of the change requirements (bretherton, 1993; buckham, 1996; forsha, 1992a; hey & moore, 1998; quinn, 1996). these responses are associated with czander’s (1993) and diamond’s (1986) explanations of affective and cognitive processes of change which are based on psycho-dynamic interventions to personal change. george (2000) relates these processes to forgas’ affective infusion model which states that feelings and emotions have an influence on thinking processes, judgement and on decision-making. these complex affective responses are internal learning experiences through which extensive reflection, accurate judgement, constructive learning and evaluation occur which shape required behaviours (long & newton,1997). the contextual requirements for personal change long and newton (1997) assert that organisations are required to be reliable, safe learning environments which would provide psychological conditions for self-management of one’s tasks, decisions and accountability. such environments make provision for the inherent individual differences which are continuously at play in work-places. the effects and counter-effects between peers, subordinates and super-ordinates, and the restrictive organisational contexts within which they take place, are determinants of an individual’s readiness to accept the imperative of personal change processes (long & newton, 1997). covey (1993), daft and lengel (1998), as well as manning (1996), infer that only when both the organisational and individual dimensions are acknowledged and aligned, can individuals succeed in developing ways of understanding their organisational systems, and be able to determine their own roles in steering the organisation toward a state of productivity and competitiveness. both organisational leadership and organisational culture should succeed in triggering the desire, and influence a need for personal change. accordingly, productivity cannot be pursued as an end in itself. it should, instead, be a by-product of an individual’s identification with organisational goals which result from the achievement of the individual’s goal of self-worth through self-discovery processes (long & newton, 1997). when the environment is conducive, organisational members would individually and collectively experience less anxiety about their work and their relationships (daft & lengel, 1998). they would take collective responsibility towards problemsolving in a manner that would optimise the organisation’s efficiency and effectiveness. they would also gain improved senses of self by acquiring a clearer understanding of the boundaries between themselves and the environment. this would enhance self reliance and engender mental freedom to take risks (argyris, 1991). the research question in the present study seeks to investigate the extent to which personal change and its elements are emphasised in sa organisational transformation intervention programs. the goal is to explain personal change as a catalytic organisational dimension requiring prominent and significant prevalence in organisational transformation intervention programs. the findings of the study may, therefore, provide explanations regarding its role as a critical determinant on the success-failure continuum of organisational transformation interventions. method according to kerlinger and lee (2000), the main criterion of a research design is that it should adequately answer the research question. annels (1996) supports this assertion by stating that the research question(s) serve to sensitise the research problem to the field of investigation from which hypotheses are developed to be tested against the data to be collected. the research question to be investigated therefore suggests that the incorporation of personal change is expected to vary within and bet ween the intervention programs to be evaluated. furthermore, the word ‘extent’ in the research question implies that the depth of meaning attributed to the concept, as would be derived from the responses, will also vary. the first assumption, therefore, is that a research method that can allow a varying degree of explanation of the researched concept and depth of inferred meaning from the collected data has to be employed. the second assumption is that the study qualifies as qualitative in that the meaning to be attached or inferred to the concept will be derived from an analysis of words, phrases and themes as they emerge from the responses. the qualification of the study as qualitative is supported by silverman (2000) who asserts that such studies are commonly believed to provide a deeper understanding of the phenomenon being investigated. silverman’s (2000) assertion is pertinent in that personal change as a hypothesised catalytic dimension necessitates clarity of meaning before its influence in organisational transformation interventions can be ascertained. the third assumption is that, because the resulting communication between the researcher and the respondents is to be in a text format, content analysis (babbie & mouton, 2001) seems a suitable method. this method allows for the tapping of the latent and underlying meaning as may be deduced from the collected data. content analysis is also found suitable because it can assist in identif ying the distinctive elements of a text from which an inference can be made (hicks, rush & strong, 1977). thereby, unearthing the essence of expressions as a whole, while also reconstructing the substantive meaning by interpreting it (roller, mathes & eckert, 1995). personal change as a key determinant 69 babbie and mouton (2001), berg (2001) and roller, et al. (1995) highlight that content analysis can also be successfully applied to quantitative studies. the differentiating factor is that in a quantitative application, the procedure of analysis is of concern, whereas in a qualitative application the concern is the character of the available data (berg, 2001). in quantitative approaches, a complexity of whole messages are reduced to single elements whose frequency can be counted, whereas qualitative approaches seek to identif y the meaning of a message as a whole from which interpretations can be made (roller, et al., 1995). this means that quantitative content analysis can be applied to large quantities of messages whereas the qualitative approach is confined to smaller quantities. the fourth and last proposition is that because qualitative content analysis is suited to smaller quantities of messages, it becomes an ideal approach for the present study, given that the data sources were deliberately narrowed. although content analysis has a subjective leaning, hicks, et al. (1977) maintain that the meanings to be determined have to be an accurate inference of the intention of the message sources. this view is upheld by berg (2001) who identifies a sequential set of analytic activities which can be employed to ensure a rounded application of content analysis techniques. accordingly the author points out that an objective coding system has to be applied to the data so that categorical labels or themes can be formulated to exhaustively account for each variation of the content of messages. the theoretical model components will hence form the basis of the coding method to be used in developing categories for classification and data analysis for this study. it should be noted that focus group interviews or interview schedules (berg, 2001) with the identified participants would have been equally suited for the present study. however, limitations pertaining to the nature of the work performed by consultants within consulting firms (accessibility, irregular hours and costs of consulting fees) meant that time constraints and financial resources (of the researcher) necessitated a method that impacted minimally on these resources. content analysis, therefore, became a preferred method that provided a feasible approach within the constraints of the study. participants a purposive sample (huysamen, 1994) comprising 15 reputable organisational development and transformation management consultants, within their consulting firms, were approached for the present study. their selection was based on the level of their knowledge and expertise in organisational change and transformation management. one respondent, however, described the scope of their firm’s operation as in competitive strategy development rather than in organisational transformation management. the sample size represented a significant proportion of sa consulting firms ranging in size from small (about 10 members) to very large international consulting firms of about 14000 professionals, some of whom serve more than a third of the companies in the global fortune 500. ten consultants representing their respective firms responded. five consultants did not respond by the time of results’ analysis. eight of the respondents presented their organisational transformation intervention programs as comprehensive tools within their firms’ approaches rather than individuals’ approaches to change interventions. the other two described their programs as their own individualised approaches to change intervention and management. nevertheless, all the contributions are regarded as sufficient because they are representative of very large and well-established management consulting firms. measuring instrument the following t wo open-ended questions were carefully formulated and put to the respondents: � “please identif y and briefly explain the key components of the generic model(s) and/or approach(es) that you prefer to use as a consultant in organisational transformation interventions in south africa. please feel free to attach or fax any relevant material (e.g. model or process) which may enhance our understanding of your approach.” � “please explain the extent to which your firm’s organisational transformation interventions make provision for personal change of individuals in the client organisations. also indicate whether personal change is a critical determinant of the interventions’ success or failure.” � the first question was asked to establish whether sa organisational transformation intervention processes incorporated and focused on personal change as a component in their models. the second question was asked to determine the impact personal change had on the outcome of organisational transformation interventions. procedure the consultants identified were contacted at the consulting firms they worked for and could be reached with minimal effort. initial contact was conducted telephonically to establish their availability and willingness to participate in the research study. they confirmed these by making available (upon request) their electronic-mail addresses. the latter medium of contact was used to send the research questions. a covering letter was attached, the purpose of which was to assure the participants of their anonymit y and to convey the respect with which their confidentiality and their contributions will be treated. a solicited document in the form of an essay was received from the respondents via e-mail. data analysis table 3 was formulated by integrating and using the reviewed theoretical models’ components as sources/derivation for the various categories. the first column categorises the various components according to how the theoretical models commonly refer to them. the second column categorises the broadly formulated phases/dimensions according to the seeming linkages among all the theoretical models’ components. these broad dimensions will provide means by which the researched models’ components can be analysed and tabulated. the last column identifies the theoretical models’ components as they are given in the table/figure they derive from. tables 4 to 7 were designed to illustrate and structure the analysis of the data received in response to the first research question. the targeted unit of analysis for the study were the consulting firms although individual consultants responded on behalf of their firms. the first column of each table is coded ‘respondent’ and each row is arbitrarily but consistently labelled with a number from 1 to 10 to represent each responding firm. other columns are each prominently coded with a theoretical component. the statements and phrases given as responses and which seemed to describe a process associated with each theoretical component, were classified accordingly. table 8 illustrates and structures the analysis of the data received in response to the second research question. the foregoing procedure used to formulate the tables is explained to ensure the reliabilit y of the data analysis process. importantly, the statements and phrases recorded in the tables are quoted verbatim from the responses to meet the internal validit y requirements for the present study. the coding, categorising and classification of the data from the responses were strictly done according to the procedure described above in order to facilitate any future replication of the study. from the descriptions given in the responses, meaningful inferences were established and discussed as findings of the present study. chawane, van vuuren, roodt70 results eight of the responses were in plain text format and t wo incorporated both plain text and some graphic illustrations. the entire data source(s) were utilised and exhausted to maximise total coverage of the pertinent aspects of the research problem. in response to the request to identif y their firms’ generic model(s) and/or approaches, t wo respondents identified their firms’ intervention programs as ‘approaches’. three consultants identified their firms’ intervention programs as ‘models’ with one of these named ‘organisational transformation model’. one identified their firm’s intervention program as a ‘competitive organisational strategy’; one identified their firm’s intervention program as a ‘change navigation strategy’; one identified their firm’s approach as an ‘intervention’; one identified their firm’s intervention approach as ‘principles’; and the last one identified their firm’s intervention program as ‘main steps’. six of the ten respondents stated that their firms’ models/approaches were based on practical experience which was customised to meet the client organisations’ needs. three stated that their firms’ approaches were based on theoretical change models. the response to the first question of one of the ten respondents could not be evaluated, as the consultant’s model was not received for analysis. all the models/approaches were explained as based on world-wide leading expertise and proven best practices in the field of organisational transformation management. since the formulation of categories was derived from the reviewed general models’ key components, the resulting columns enabled the classification of the consulting firms’ key components. recorded thereunder are verbatim statements given in response to a request for brief explanation(s) of each model/approaches’ key components. they are classified according to the degree of similarity in meaning bet ween the theoretical and respondents’ key models’ components. one of the responses was not accompanied by the model’s content, and, therefore could not form part of the analysis of results to the first question. the resulting data was, therefore, formatted and presented as tables 4 to 7. accordingly, table 4 shows the scanning and diagnosis phase of the theoretical models. the first column reflects the range of statements used to explain the readiness assessment process at the onset of the change intervent ion process. seven respondents alluded to that this process formed a key component of their intervention programs, whereas four of the theoretical models explicitly stated that ‘diagnosis’ formed a component of their frameworks. the second column reflects that four respondents had ‘vision’ as a key component of their change programs, whereas t wo theoret ical frameworks had it as a dist inguishable component. the third column reflects that six respondents stated that ‘mission and/or strateg y’ formed a key component of their change programs, whereas three of the theoretical frameworks visibly identified the component. it should be noted that within this phase, the ‘external environment’ component formed part of three theoretical frameworks, whereas, none of the respondents explicitly identified it as a component in their model. table 5 capt ures the organisational infrastructure dimension of the theoretical models. the first column indicates that six respondents explicitly stated that the ‘formal organising arrangements and the physical setting’ was a key component of their change programs, whereas all five of the theoretical frameworks explicitly identified the component. the second column reflects that three respondents had ‘organisational culture, informal organisation, work unit climate and other social factors’ as a key component of their change intervention programs, whereas all five of the theoretical frameworks identified it as a visible component. the third column indicates that six of the respondents stated that ‘leadership philosophy, role and st yle’ formed a key component of their change intervention programs, while all five of the theoretical frameworks identified it as a component. table 3 formulation of categories, phases/dimensions for data analysis derived category derived phase/dimension theoretical components diagnosis scanning and diagnosis phase jointly diagnose business process, environment, resources, history, mobilising energy vision scanning and diagnosis phase develop shared vision of how to organise for competitiveness mission and strategy scanning and diagnosis phase strategy and mission task requirements, training and competencies, performance and rewads requirements dimension create consensus, competence and cohesion needed for skills and abilities change. don’t push change from the top, individual abilities systems, policies, management practices performance and rewads requirements dimension management practices, systems, policies and procedures, consolidating systems structure, formal organising arrangements, organisational infrastructure dimension institutionalise the change, structure, physical setting, physical setting, technology technology, formal organisation oganisational culture, informal organisation, organisational infrastructure dimension informal organisation, organisational culture, work unit work unit climate, social factors climate leadership philosophy, role and style, organisational infrastructure dimension leadership resources for revitalisation individual motivation, behaviour, needs and desired targeted output phase individual/group, organisation, motivation, individual values needs, values and behaviour, human resources attributes individual and organisational performance desired targeted output phase monitor and adjust the change process, desired business outcomes outcomes personal change as a key determinant 71 table 6 shows the performance and rewards requirements dimension of the theoretical models. the first column indicates that eight of the respondents stated that ‘task requirements, training and competencies, skills development and abilities’ formed key components of their change intervention programs, whereas four of the theoretical frameworks identified it as a component. the second column indicates that five of the respondents stated that ‘systems, policies and management practices’ formed a key component of their change intervention programs, whereas, all five of the theoretical models identified it as a component. the third column indicates that eight of the respondents stated that ‘implementation’ formed a key component in their change intervention programs, while only one of the theoretical frameworks identified it as a component. table 7 depicts the desired targeted outputs phase of the theoretical models. the first column indicates that nine of the respondents stated that ‘individuals, their motivation, behaviour, needs and values’ formed a key component of their change intervention programs, while all five of the theoretical frameworks identified it as a component. the second column table 4 scanning and diagnosis phase respondents diagnosis vision mission & strategy 1 “problem identification, need for change, “project plan” business case in terms of costs and benefits” – 2 “ring-fencing areas of uncertainty, “common goal creates realistic vision” – measurement of uncertainty” 3 – – – 4 “change readiness risk management”; “change “clear picture of future state, vision clarity”; “building realistic expectations through change is a journey between the current state and the “interventions fail because of poor direction” navigation strategy”; “strategic positioning”; future, resulting in a powerful business case “comprehensive management strategy” for change”; “business costs for not changing” 5 “measurement, diagnosis, identif y inconsistencies – “organisational strategy in enabling between espoused and actual theories of action, competitive strategy” identif ying individual and group defences which create organisation’s problems” 6 “business case for change, uses accelerating – “strategic management processes” change approach to assess individual readiness” 7 “thorough change readiness assessment “leadership to imbed the vision for the future” – upfront in all projects” 8 – – “define strategy” 9 “ assessment of implementation risks”; “depth “value proposition – purpose” “collective action”; “a differentiated approach of required commitment graded” grounded by practical thinking, employing leading edge tools”; “clear leadership strategy” 10 – – – table 5 organisational infrastructure dimension respondent structure, formal organising arrangements, organisational culture, informal organisation, leadership philosophy, role and style technology work unit climate, social factors 1 – – – 2 “speed of change” – – 3 – – – 4 “organisational alignment”; “supportive “organisational culture review” “leadership and sponsorship, accountability, work settings, job redesign, develop required credible and visible, legitimises the process” infrastructure” 5 “align strategy and organisation, and – “decision rights allocation” employees and the organisation” 6 “structure design”; “technical aspects of “appropriate interventions are designed to “change leadership provides insights, attitudes business procedures” take account of prevailing soft aspects such and behaviours” as culture” 7 “ organisational infrastructure”; “technology “culture change and its assimilation by “management and leadership style” application” individuals through behaviour” 8 – – “leadership systems should ensure skills development” 9 “aligning hr infrastructure” – “mobilising and align leaders” 10 – – – chawane, van vuuren, roodt72 table 6 performance and rewards requirements dimension respondent task requirements, training and systems, policies and management practices implementation competencies, skills and abilities 1 “project teams”; “delivery vehicles”; – “project implementation”; “perfecting “learning is action based” process implementation” 2 “creating competence”; “personal ability – “worst first” to deal with change” 3 “work differs at different levels in – – organisations in terms of complexity and time” 4 “develop skills and knowledge, change “systems replacement/renewal”; “integration “visible, sustainable, successful implementation”; capability of people” of people, process, technology and “choices and tradeoffs navigated and steered as measurement aspects”; “aligning processes the change unfolds”; “guided by change and systems to reinforce required behaviours” navigation principles” 5 “acquiring required skills” “determining additional mechanisms and “implementation”; “choices and tradeoffs are systems”; “performance management system”; clearly articulated, implemented and managed” “rewards and punishment systems” 6 – “systems and processes addressed”; “information “accelerating change transferred to clients for systems”; “remuneration and rewards etc” them to take ownership for implementing change, process is monitored” 7 “skills development”; “training individuals”; “aligning people’s processes with implemented “implementation teams (clients and consultants)” “formal capability transfer”; “different work solutions, focusing on organisational systems”; processes and technology application” “working under new performance and rewards requirements” 8 “leadership development…impart skills etc.” “reset incentives to align with share-owner “set detailed metrics”; “make it happen very value creation” quickly” 9 “equiping workforce, training, task and – “implementation deliverables organised” competency requirements”; “support programs”; “deployment plans” 10 – – – table 7 desired targeted outputs phase respondent individual motivation, inspiration, behaviour, needs and values individual and organisational performance outcomes 1 “continuous improvement”; “review and confirmation”; “buy-in”; “intended versus actual outcomes”; “corrective action ensures that people “a high level of involvement”; “participation of people” learn from the process and that needs and objectives of people are met” 2 “group therapy to share and cope with change”; “communication, “creating the perception that a career is bigger than the organisation and trust, transparency, ability to deal with change”; “program current change in the organisation”; “limit expectations and deliver” ‘ownership’ by individuals” 3 “people differ in their abilities to deal with work at different levels”; “successful results come from the interventions in the work or people “abilities change over time” area, or from a match between these” 4 “communication plan”; “identif y commited stakeholders”; “enhanced capacity to deal with ongoing future change”; “people side “supportive and accountable individuals”; “resistance is minimised of the change is successfully addressed”; “building more realistic throughout the process”; “people take ownership” expectations”; “individuals able and willing to perform” 5 “acquire the skills of productive reasoning and feedback”; “people “maximise shareholder value”; “change both personal and to design and implement their actions”; “individuals unconsciously organisational is key”; “execute competitive strategy”; “develop a more design and implement actions they do not intend” flexible and responsive organisation” 6 “desired behaviours and attitudes using accelerating change “human aspects of transformation are explicitly desired outputs”; approach, dynamics are managed” “change management… a key internal competence” 7 “project teams and individuals – communication and motivation”; “focusing at ensuring a sound solution”; “individuals become change “skills development”; “transitioning people to new roles and agents in their new roles”; “aligning organisation with the required behaviours”; “understanding of business case”; “becoming change transformed environment, aligning these with individuals”; “ability to agents” function in new roles” 8 “create the change team”; “celebrate wins” “build organisational capability” 9 “engaging, alignment and mobilisation of key stakeholders”; “team “business mobilisation”; “merger integration”; “supply chain training”; “commitment events” transformation”; “shared services implementation”; “customer management transformation”; “integrate program management office”; “erp implementation” 10 – – personal change as a key determinant 73 indicates that nine of the respondents stated that ‘individual and organisational performance and/or outcome’ formed a key component in their change intervention programs, while all five of the theoretical frameworks identified it as a component. table 8 gives the key measures of implementation success dimension of the theoretical models. the first column shows that the dimension of personal change was not regarded as a key focal area of the intervention programs by t wo respondents, three respondents implied it as a negligible area, and four respondents regarded it as a key focal area of their intervention programs. the second column of table 8 explains whether the respondents regarded personal change as a critical measure of their change intervention programs. two respondents neglected the impact of personal change, two other respondents positively stated that personal change was not a critical measure of their intervention program, and five respondents stated that personal change was a critical determinant of their interventions’ outcomes. discussion according to beer (1980), a model provides a taxonomy of key organisational dimensions that guide data collection and diagnosis. it can also be useful in providing some understanding of the complex nature of organisational components and would reflect the circularity of causes and effects. the author further states that organisational models are arbitrary, convenient shorthand methods of explaining organisational challenges which can facilitate the process of planning how such challenges can be efficiently dealt with. accordingly, the respondents’ various ‘models’, ‘approaches’, ‘frameworks’, ‘principles’ and ‘main steps’ demonstrate that regardless of how they are referred to, some form of expression is used to explain a method by which organisational phenomena may be understood and, therefore, managed. this explanation concurs with burke and litwin’s (1992) explanation that change models are not meant to be prescriptive but rather provide a means to diagnose, plan and manage change. in the context of the present study, the foregoing explanation suggests a systems thinking approach (beer, 1980) about organisations, in that the change programs are described as complex, interactive, dynamic and interdependent in their application. this explanation suggests that none of the theoretical or respondents’ models can be reported as more efficient than the other in dealing with organisational transformation challenges. the tabled results also show that the evaluated intervention programs do not all account for all the components of the dimensions. the results are also consistent with shirom and harrison’s (1995) emphasis that no single model can fit all diagnostic situations for all client organisations. caution should therefore be taken not to interpret this to mean that some components are unimportant for some intervention programs. it could, however, be surmised that a particular model is designed for intervention in specific targeted areas, both in theory and in practice. the results in tables 4 to 6 reflect that personal change is a subtle component, which emerges in reaction to intervention in other organisational areas. this observation is reinforced by beer’s (1980) assertion that organisations are formed to achieve purposes which individuals alone cannot achieve, and individuals join organisations to achieve personal goals they cannot achieve by themselves. an intervention into any other organisational area will eventually have a direct or indirect impact on organisational members. argyris’ (1985, p.3) attests that organisational members “are the carriers of defensive routines, and organisations are the hosts”. it can be inferred therefore that personal change is not a distinct dimension which organisational transformation programs can deliberately focus on as an intervention area. this inference supports both the premised and the theoretical reasons for ineffectual change intervention programs (erfat, 1998; human, 1996; manning, 1996; werth (1994). the first column of table 7 reports on the ‘individual motivation, behaviour, needs and values’ component. the results show that personal change elements are implied as integral to all five of the theoretical models, and in nine of the table 8 key measures of implementation success dimension respondent personal change as a key focal area of an organisational change personal change as as critical determinant of the success or failure intervention of an organisational change intervention 1 personal change is not stated as a focal area “sustained personal change is a requirement for success in change management” 2 identified principles “impact on change at the individual level” personal change is not explained as impacting or not impacting on the intervention 3 “personal change is accomodated if the people component is “personal change is not a requirement for the success of the intervention” addressed”; “if intervention is on the work component, no personal change is likely to occur”; it “may occur even where interventions fail” 4 personal change is “an integral part of the intervention” personal change is explained as “a critical determinant of the intervention’s success” 5 personal change is not stated as a focal area of the intervention “personal change is a critical determinant that impacts the effectiveness but “change – both personal and organisational is key” of both competitive and organisational strategy” 6 “ personal change is a very critical component of our transformation “human aspects of transformation are explicitly defined as key measures approach” to define implementation success” 7 the “personal change component is most relevant in the individual “personal change has an impact on the outcome of the intervention” alignment” 8 “ relying on individual change is a dangerous thing to do in a major “personal change is not a key driver” change program” 9 personal change “is considered at task requirements level, but it is not personal change is not explained as impacting or not impacting on the a focal area due to size of the intervention” intervention 10 consultant does “not consult at a personal level” consultant does “not consult at a personal level” chawane, van vuuren, roodt74 respondents’ intervention programs. again, the second column of table 7 shows that all five of the frameworks and nine of the respondents’ regard ‘individual and organisational performance’ as a desirable outcome of an organisational intervention program. this observation emphasises and strongly supports this study’s rationale that personal change elements, though not forming the primary focus of intervention programs, are integral to those programs. they deserve to be explored and developed or emphasised as distinguishable focus areas in organisational change interventions. the observation also concurs with the ‘high performance model’ (pickering & matson, 1992) which asserts that individuals have an inherent need to make a meaningful contribution to organisational performance, because, the ‘individual’ represents the ‘people’ component of organisational key dimensions. this is especially relevant if individuals’ performance weighs as an equal measure of organisational performance outcomes. this explanation further strengthens the theoretical importance of the personal change dimension as consisting of catalytic organisational success factors (daft & lengel, 1998; manning, 1997; quinn, 1996; veldsman, 1998). the first column of table 8 shows that three of the respondents indicated that personal change is not a key focal area of an intervention, but gets indirectly impacted on by the change intervention processes taking place in any of the organisational areas. two of the respondents indicate that personal change is not a key focal area of their intervention programs. this implies that, overall, five respondents regard personal change as a negligible area of their intervention programs as against four respondents who positively indicated that personal change is an ‘integral’ part, though not a ‘key focal area’ of their organisational change processes. one respondent indicated that he does ‘not consult on a personal level’. this response suggests that the question may have been misinterpreted. this finding also supports the theoretical explanations of why change interventions are ineffective, as argued by erfat, (1998), human, (1996), manning, (1996) and werth, (1994). the second column of table 8 shows that t wo of the respondents indicated that the impact of personal change on the performance outcome of their intervention programs is negligible. two respondents positively stated that personal change is not a critical measure of their intervention programs. the overall implication is that personal change is not used to measure the performance outcome of four change intervention programs, as opposed to five who do. the one respondent who does not consult on a personal level, may have, once again, misinterpreted the research question. the inference therefore is that only half of the intervention programs emphasise personal change as a crit ical performance measure of their interventions’ implementation outcome. in summary, it is noteworthy that only one of the researched model’s components corresponded with all of the theoretical models’ components used in the formulation of the categories and dimensions. even more striking is that this model is one of the five intervention programs that regarded personal change as a key performance measure of an intervention’s success. a generalised interpretation is that a comprehensive intervention program is likely to impact strongly on personal change elements. the 2002 world competitiveness rankings show a slight improvement in south africa’s economic performance compared to that of 2001 (47 in 2001 and 46 in 2002) (wcy, 2002). the persistent imperative for sustainable organisational productivity and national competitiveness reinforces the need for congruent personal and organisational goals to effect a significant improvement in the country’s economic performance. it is thus recommended that organisational change intervention programs must incorporate a deliberate emphasis on personal change and its elements in order to explore the organisational members’ latent potentialities in leading organisations to economic excellence. argyris (1985; 1990; 1991) emphasises that organisational and individuals’ goal incongruence requires a move away from defensive ways of reasoning. this could be achieved by teaching people how to recognise the reasoning they use when they design and implement their actions, from which they can identif y inconsistencies between their intended and actual theories of action, which eventually contribute to organisations’ problems. productive reasoning strategies must be employed to reshape individuals’ ‘master programs’ at their cognitive levels to achieve continuous improvement which would result in personal change (forsha, 1992a, 1992b). it is also imperative for academic tertiary institutions to design and structure their change management curricula such that they focus on theories and extensive practices which emphasise the significance of personal change in organisational change efforts. this would result in a heightened awareness of the importance of personal change among scholars, should they endeavour to focus their careers on organisational development and transformation management. practising professionals should also increase their emphasis on personal change, and integrate it as a critical measure of their change intervention programs’ outcomes. it could serve as catalytic in breaking down resistance to change which seems prevalent in south african organisations (birkin, 1997; erwin, 1998; hall & maritz, 1997; mbigi, 1997; veldsman, 1996). neglecting it could imply a continuous undermining of the efforts expended in organisational change interventions. the findings of this study further confirm that personal change elements are intangible (block, 1996; czander, 1993; diamond, 1986; novelli, et al.1995; senge, 1990), and cannot be manipulated and measured in visible conventional organisational methods. this verification emerges as a deficiency of the study in that, even though these elements have been argued as critical organisational concerns, the lack of their concrete presence may discourage initiatives towards developing them into determinant organisational factors. the difficult y that accompanied isolating them from the identified general and reported organisational frameworks could further undermine their importance in impacting on organisational success factors. further research could therefore focus on exploring czander’s (1993) recommendation to apply psychoanalytic theories to organisational theories. the use of focus group interviews as a different research design could provide a platform for debate, and perhaps yield increased clarity on the phenomenon. the aim would be to investigate means by which personal change elements can be explored to assist the development of the idealised change intervention programs. other qualitative methods, like in-dept face-to-face interviews, life histories (autobiographies, biographies and particularly diaries) and participant observation would be also very helpful in future research of the phenomenon. additionally, quantitative methods, e.g. surveys and questionnaire based on qualitative findings and insights produced by the present study could also be utilised. finally, george (2000) cautions that a growing body of literature suggests that feelings are intricately bound up in the ways in which people think and subsequently behave. there is therefore a need for sa organisations to refocus and concede that the individuals’ cognitive and affective domains have a significant inf luence in organisational members’ decision-making processes to support or not to support, organisational goals. personal change as a key determinant 75 references annels, m. (1996). grounded theory method, part1: within the five moments of qualitative research. nursing inquiry, 4, 120-129. argyris, c. (1985). strategy, change and defensive routines. london: harvard university. argyris, c. (1990). overcoming organisational defences: facilitating organisational learning. boston: allyn and bacon. argyris, c. (1991). teaching smart people how to learn. har vard business review, may-june, 99-109. babbie, e & mouton, j. (eds) (2001). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford. backman, k. & kyngas, h.a. (1999). challenges of the grounded theory approach to a novice researcher. nursing and health sciences, 1, 147-153. bartlett, c.a. & ghoshal, s. (1995). rebuilding behavioural context: turn process reengineering into people rejuvenation. sloan management review, fall, 11-23. beer, m. (1980). a social systems model for organisation development. in t.g. cummings. systems theor y for organisation development. new york: wiley beer, m., eisenstat, r.a. & spector, b. (1990). the critical path to corporate renewal. boston, ma: harvard business school. berg, b.l. (2001). qualitative research methods for the social sciences (4th ed.). boston: allyn & bacon. birkin, m. (1997). how to build the unlimited company in south africa. management today, 13 (6), 20-26. block, p. (1996). stewardship: choosing ser vice over self interest. san francisco: berrett-koehler. bretherton, d. (1993). personal change. emergency librarian, 20(3), 30-34. bridges, w. (1996). transitions: making sense of life’s changes. london: nicholas brealey. buckman, j.m. (1996). resistance to change. fire engineering, 149 (5), 10-12. burke, w.w. & lit win, g.h. (1992). a causal model of organisational performance and change. journal of management, 8 (3), 523-546. cooper, r. & markus, m.l. (1995). human reengineering. sloan management review, summer, 39-50. coulson-thomas, c. (1992). corporate transformation: the people requirement. journal of european industrial training, 16 (5). 11-15. covey s.r. (1991). principle-centred leadership. new york: simon & schuster. covey, s.r. (1993). transforming a swamp. training & development, may, 43-46. cutcliffe, j.r. (2000). methodological issues in grounded theory. journal of advanced nursing, 31 (6). 1476-1484. czander, w.m. (1993). the psycho-dynamics of work and organisations: theory and application. new york: guilford. daft, r.l. & lengel, r.h. (1998). fusion leadership: unlocking the subtle forces that change people and organisations. san francisco: berrett-koehler. diamond, m.a. (1986). resistance to change: a psychoanalytic critique of arg yris and schon’s contributions to organisational theory and intervention. journal of management studies, 23 (5), 543-562. edwards, m. & sen, g. (2000). ngo’s, social change and the transformation of human relationships: a 21st century civic agenda. third world quarterly, 21 (4), 605-616. efrat, z. (1998). personal productivity: beat office politics. productivity sa, july/august, 11-13. erwin, a. (1998). competitiveness and wealth creation: a government perspective. management today, august, 14-18. forsha, h.i. (1992a). the pursuit of quality through personal change. part1. quality progress, january, 57-61. forsha, h.i. (1992b). the pursuit of quality through personal change. part 2. quality progress, february, 61-64. george, m.j. (2000). emotions and leadership: the role of emotional intelligence. human relations, 53 (8), 1027-1055. ghoshal, s. & bartlett, c.a. (1996). rebuilding behavioural context: a blueprint for corporate renewal. sloan management review, winter, 23-36. hall, j. & maritz, f. (1997). leadership: turning potential into productivity. management today, 13 (6), 27-31. halton, w. (1994). some unconscious aspects of organizational life: contributions from psychoanalysis. in a. obholzer & v.z. roberts (eds), the unconscious at work: individual and organisational stress in the human ser vices by the members of the tavistock clinic consulting to institutions workshop (pp.11-18). london: routledge. hey, k.r. & moore, p.d. (1998). the caterpillar doesn’t know: how personal change is creating organisational change. new york: free press. hersey, p. & blanchard, k.h. (1993). management of organizational behaviour: utilizing human resources (6th ed.) new york: prentice hall. herzberg, f. (1971). work and the nature of man. london: staples. hicks, c.e., rush, j.e. & strong, s.m. (1977). content analysis. in e. d. dym (ed.) subject and information analysis. new york: marcel dekker. human, l. (1996). diversity during transformation. hrm, 12 (2), 4-12. huysamen, g.k. (1994). methodology for the social and behavioural sciences. halfwayhouse: southern. ivancevich, j.m. & matteson, m.t. (1993). organizational behavior and management: instructor’s edition (3rd ed.). boston: irwin. kerlinger, f.n. & lee, h.b. (2000). foundations of behavioural research (4th ed.). new york: harcourt college. long, s. & newton, j. (1997). educating the gut: socio-emotional aspects of the learning organisation. journal of management development, 16 (4), 284-301. manning, t. (1996). three steps to the future. hrm, 12 (8), 8-9. manning, t. (1997). radical strategy: how south african companies can win against global competition. sandton: zebra. marshak, r.j. (1993). managing the metaphors of change. organizational dynamics, 22 (1), 44-46. mbigi, l. (1997). ubuntu: the african dream in management. randburg: knowledge resources. mbigi, l. & mandela, m. (1998). collective learning: skill democratisation. people dynamics, november/december, 38-44. mbigi, l. & maree, j. (1995). ubuntu: the spirit of african transformation management. randburg: knowledge resources. mosse, j. (1994). introduction: the institutional roots to institutions. in a. obholzer & v.z. roberts (eds), the unconscious at work: individual and organizational stress in the human services by the members of the tavistock clinic consulting to institutions workshop (pp.1-8). london: routledge. nadler, d.a. & tushman, m.l. (1980). a model for diagnosing organisational behaviour. organisational dynamics, 9, autumn, 11-28. novelli, l., kirkman, b.l. & shapiro, d.l. (1995). effective implementation of organisational change: an organisational justice perspective. in c.l. cooper & d.m. rousseau (eds), trends in organisational behaviour, volume 2, (pp.15-36). new york: wiley. obholzer, a. (1994). afterword. in a. obholzer & v.z. roberts (eds), the unconscious at work: individual and organizational stress in the human ser vices by the members of the tavistock clinic consulting to institutions workshop (pp.206-210). london: routledge. pickering, j.w. & matson, j.e. (1992). why executive development programs (alone) don’t work. training & development, 46 (5), 91-95. quinn, r.e. (1996). deep change: discovering the leader within. san francisco: jossey-bass. robertson, p.j., roberts, d.r. & porras, j.i. (1993). dynamics of planned organisational change: assessing empirical support for a theoretical model. academy of management journal, 36 (3), 619-634. chawane, van vuuren, roodt76 roller, e., mathes, r. & eckert, t. (1995). hermeneuticclassificatory content analysis: a technique combining principles of quantitative and qualitative research. in u. kelle, g. prein & k. bird (eds), computer-aided qualitative data analysis: theory, methods and practice (pp.167-176). london: sage. senge, p.m. (1990). the fifth discipline: the art and practice of learning organisations. new york: doubleday. shirom, a. & harrison, m.i. (1995). diagnostic models for organisations: toward an integrative perspective. in c.l. cooper & d.m. rousseau (eds), trends in organisational behaviour, volume 2 (pp.85-107). new york: wiley. silverman, d. (2000). doing qualitative research: a practical handbook. london: sage. stokes, j. (1994). institutional chaos and personal stress. in a. obholzer & v.z. roberts (eds), the unconscious at work: individual and organizational stress in the human ser vices by the members of the tavistock clinic consulting to institutions workshop (pp.121-128). london: routledge. swart, j. & van vuuren, l.j. (1998). cognitive style and the interpretation of organisational change. journal of industrial psychology, 24 (3), 22-31. the world competitiveness yearbook (wcy). (2000). lausanne: imd international. the world competitiveness yearbook (wcy). (2001). lausanne: imd international. the world competitiveness yearbook (wcy). (2002). lausanne: imd international. tonkin, a. & alfred, m. (1994). competitiveness in perspective. people dynamics, 12 (12), 25-35. veldsman, t.h. (1996). managing large scale change management successfully: why does large scale organisational change fail so frequently? hrm, 12 (3), 23. veldsman, t.h. (1998). the making of a people miracle. management today, 14 (2), 35. veldsman, t.h.(2002). into the people effectiveness arena: navigating between chaos and order. johannesburg: knowledge resources. werth, r. (1994). is there life after change? hrm, may, 12-13. yadavalli, l. (1998). international competitiveness: where we stand. productivity sa, january/february, 13-15. http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access page 1 of 1 reviewer acknowledgement acknowledgement to reviewers in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for the sa journal of human resource management, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on https:// sajhrm.co.za for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a reviewer. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at https://sajhrm. co.za 2. in your ‘user home’ [https://sajhrm.co.za/ index.php/sajhrm/user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest(s). 3. it is good practice as a reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to the sa journal of human resource management. please do not hesitate to contact us if you require assistance in performing this task. publisher: publishing@aosis.co.za tel: +27 21 975 2602 tel: 086 1000 381 sa journal of human resource management recognises the value and importance of peer reviewers in the overall publication process – not only in shaping individual manuscripts, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank the following reviewers who participated in shaping this volume of the sa journal of human resource management. we appreciate the time taken to perform your review(s) successfully. abimbola o. windapo ajay m. jivan aleksandra m. furtak amanda werner andrew jeremiah anita j. de bruyn anne crafford bejoy j. thomas blessing chabaya bright mahembe calvin m. mabaso cecilia m. schultz chipo mukonza chris w. callaghan claude-helene mayer coen j. geldenhuys colleen j. rigby cookie m. govender crystal hoole danie h. du toit daphne pillay debrah n.p. mtshelwane desere kokt doret botha eileen f. koekemoer elizabeth c. rudolph emelda m. petersen fidelis tsvangirai frances de klerk frans maloa freda van der walt friederike baasner-weihs gerhard h. rabie ghada a. el-kot golda a.v. crisostomo hannah v. osei heidi m. le sueur herbert kanengoni hester nienaber hima gupta ingrid l. potgieter jacques myburgh jan c. visagie jeanine k. pires-putter jenika gobind jennifer c. nzonzo johann f. burden johanna c. diedericks john walsh jolly k. byarugaba karl b. hofmeyr krishna k. govender letitia van der merwe liezl diedericks lutete c. ayikwa luyando m. katiyatiya magda l. bezuidenhout maggie m.e. holtzhausen maria sachane marieta du plessis mariette coetzee marissa brouwers mark h.r. bussin melanie j. bushney mookgo s. kgatle nadeem malik nadia ferreira nasima m.h. carrim nhamo mashavira nicola vermooten nicola wakelin-theron nirmal k. betchoo noel j. pearse norizan azizan ntsako i. makamu obianuju e. okeke-uzodike petcharat lovichakorntikul pierre a. joubert piet c. bester pieter schaap rachele paver renjini m. joseph richard g. chazuza robert w.d. zondo ronel n.a. kleynhans rozilah a. aziz rudolf m. oosthuizen ruwayda petrus sameer m. dandan samuel mafabi samuel o. olutuase sanet van der westhuizen shaun ruggunan shiksha gallow solomon omonona sonal agarwal sonia swanepoel sridevi nair sumei van antwerpen suvera boodhoo tawaziwa wushe thapelo chaacha tinashe t. harry tonja blom waliu m. adegbite wellington b. zondi wesley r. pieters willie t. chinyamurindi wiseman ndlovu http://www.sajhrm.co.za� https://sajhrm.co.za� https://sajhrm.co.za� https://sajhrm.co.za� https://sajhrm.co.za� https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/user https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/user mailto:publishing@aosis.co.za 181---6 nov 2009.indd [final version].indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #181 (page number not for citation purposes) the development of a hassle-based diagnostic scale for predicting burnout in call centres authors: willie a. visser1 sebastiaan rothmann1, 2 affi liations: 1school of behavioural sciences, north-west university, south africa 2department of human sciences, university of namibia, namibia correspondence to: sebastiaan rothmann e-mail: ian@ianrothmann.com postal address: po box 8060, swakopmund, namibia 9000 keywords: daily hassles; job demands; family demands; exhaustion; burnout dates: received: 16 jan. 2009 accepted: 02 june 2009 published: 14 aug. 2009 how to cite this article: visser, w., & rothmann, s. (2009). the development of a hassle-based diagnostic scale for predicting burnout in call centres. sa journal of human resource mangement/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), art. #181, 8 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.181 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. abstract the aim of this study was to develop a brief daily hassle diagnostic questionnaire that could be used to identify daily hassles for customer service representatives within a call centre environment, and to investigate the relationship between daily hassles and burnout. a crosssectional survey was used with an accidental sample (n = 394) taken from a service and sales call centre. an exploratory factor analysis of the data resulted in a six-factor model of daily hassles consisting of daily demands, continuous change, co-worker hassles, demotivating work environment, transportation hassles and personal concerns. the internal consistency of one factor, namely personal concerns, was low. exhaustion was best predicted by four categories of daily hassles, namely daily demands, continuous change, a demotivating work environment, and transportation hassles. introduction a worldwide economic shift from the traditional industrial economy to the service economy has taken place with the boom in the employment of service workers (mccammon & griffi n, 2000). one popular method that companies use for the delivery of service – specifi cally companies within the fi nancial sector, travel industry and the telecommunications industry – involves the use of call centres. call centres were mostly created as an alternative, more cost-effective service model to replace the high cost of branch infrastructure where face-to-face client interaction was the order of the day (taylor & bain, 1999). with the growth of the service economy and with call centres becoming one of the preferred ways of delivering service, the call centre industry experienced unprecedented growth, becoming one of the fastest growing employment sectors in the world. it is estimated that 2.3% of the united kingdom population is working in call centres and that two-thirds of all customer interaction takes place through call centres. the same trends can be seen in the united states of america and europe (malhotra & mukherjee, 2004; taylor & bain, 1999). similar trends can be observed in south africa (briggs, 1998). in call centres, service is rendered by customer service representatives. they are the frontline employees whose primary task is to interact with customers by means of the telephone, hence the name call centre. a customer service representative is described as someone sitting at a table in front of his/ her computer, wearing a headset, talking to customers while simultaneously entering data into the computer, if needed (zapf, isic, bechtoldt & blau, 2003). customer service representatives are often referred to as boundary-spanning employees, for they represent the company to the customers – they represent ‘… the personality of the fi rm to the customer over the telephone …’ and the customers to the company (deery, iverson & walsh, 2004, p. 8). they are often placed in a diffi cult position when their clients want something of the company, but they cannot provide it to the customers (singh & goolsby, 1994). while nothing seems to stop the growth of call centres and the increase of employment opportunities within them, working in call centres is not always experienced as pleasant. in fact, call centres have often been referred to in derogatory terms such as ‘dark satanic mills’, ‘electronic sweatshops’ or ‘assembly lines in the head’ (deery & kinnie, 2004; taylor & bain, 1999). for example, one study conducted in german call centres found that call centre agents had poorer working conditions and experienced more psychosomatic complaints than employees in comparable but more traditional workplaces, e.g. bank and administrative clerks (grebner et al., 2003). building on the idea that working in call centres is not always pleasant, it has been found that call centres are frequently seen as stressful workplaces and that working in them can foster burnout. in their review on job burnout, cordes and dougherty (1993) identifi ed the nature of employee-client relationships as a critical factor contributing to burnout, specifi cally with regard to the frequency and intensity of client contact. employees such as service representatives, who fulfi l boundary spanning roles, have frequent and intense interpersonal contact with clients and will be more prone to the development of burnout than other employees who have less frequent and intense client contact. the stressful nature of call centre work and its contribution to burnout has been corroborated by other research. the service job in call centres is seen as one of the ten most stressful jobs in today’s economy (malhotra & mukherjee, 2004). deery et al. (2004) found that the levels of job stress among call centre staff were high, with two-thirds of the sample reporting a degree of stress. a high level of stress and emotional exhaustion was also reported for call centre staff in australia (deery, iverson & walsh, 2002). deery et al. (2002) found high levels of stress in call centres, with 80% of the employees requesting training in stress management. they quote an aca research study which claims that call centre agents have a stress profi le higher than that of coal miners (wallace, eagleson & waldersee, 2000). research by holdsworth and cartwright (2003) has shown that customer service representatives vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 8 92 original research visser & rothmann sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 18 1 (page number not for citation purposes) 93 found all aspects of their job more stressful than the general working population. examining the effect of emotional labour on emotional exhaustion in call centres revealed that call centre workers experienced a moderate level of emotional exhaustion (lewig & dollard, 2003). in a similar vein, singh and goolsby (1994) also noted that employees working in call centres are highly prone to burnout, more so than in any other work environment. burnout has been linked to negative organisational outcomes such as low job satisfaction, low morale, and high levels of absenteeism and turnover. on the individual level, the emotional consequences of burnout are even more serious. it leads to a decline in mental health, which is characterised by a lowering of self-esteem, increased depression, irritability, helplessness, anxiety and sleep disturbances (maslach & leiter, 1997; singh, 2000; singh & goolsby, 1994). many different factors have been associated with the development of burnout in call centres. some of the key factors noted by researchers in this terrain are work overload; pressure from management to maximise client throughput which is linked to contradictory demands from management; tenure; repetitive nature of the work; lack of task variety; lack of supervisor and co-worker support; lack of training to deal with job requirements; customer service representatives who perceive that customers are becoming more difficult to satisfy; tightly scripted telephone conversations; emotionally exhausting labour; continuous monitoring of performance; perceived lack of job and promotion opportunities; number of calls taken per day; pressure from management to shorten wrap-up time; role conflict; role ambiguity; and lack of job control (bakker, demerouti & schaufeli, 2003; deery et al., 2004; frenkel, tam, korczynski & shire, 1998; holman, 2004; singh, 2000; singh & goolsby, 1994; taylor & bain, 1999; wallace et al., 2000). daily hassles and burnout from the above, it is clear that there is an extensive list of factors within the work environment of call centres that can result in burnout. burnout can be seen as a kind of a stress that develops over time in response to stressful work conditions (cordes & dougherty, 1993). it develops as a result of many and everpresent role stressors, which cumulatively overwhelm the coping resources of the individual (singh, 2000). conceptually, burnout consists of three separate but interrelated constructs, namely emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, and reduced personal accomplishment. the first construct, emotional exhaustion, is thought to be the most important factor in burnout and is usually the first reaction to set in. it refers to feelings of emotional depletion and extreme tiredness in which the individual does not have the resources to cope with the emotional demands of the work (cordes & dougherty, 1993; maslach, schaufeli & leiter, 2001; schutte, toppinen, kalimo & schaufeli, 2000). schaufeli and enzmann (1998) identified exhaustion as a core indicator of burnout. chronic exhaustion can lead people to distance themselves emotionally and cognitively from their work, so that they are less involved with or responsive to the needs of other people or the demands of the task (maslach, 1998). one of the factors often associated with burnout is daily hassles, which have not been listed as a cause of burnout in call centres. daily hassles can be defined as minor everyday events (little things), experiences, encounters, conditions and/or thoughts that occur in daily living and are harmful to the well-being of the people that experience them – in the sense that they irritate and distress people (lazarus, 1999; lu, 1991; maybery & graham, 2001). daily hassles are chronic, that is, constantly recurring, role-related stressors. they are obstacles that disrupt goaldirected behaviour, since they act as a barrier between a person and his/her goals (zohar, 1999). steward and barling (1996) and zohar (1999) aptly describe the hypothesised link to burnout. daily hassles function as a source of stress and require the use of additional energy. the additional consumption of energy results in cognitive fatigue, lowered performance and a decrease in helping behaviour (steward & barling, 1996). the disruption of goal-directed behaviour is the mechanism by which daily hassles lead to the depletion of energy. people invest energy in the achievement of their goals. daily hassles are disruptions or obstacles that stand in the way of goal achievement. to cope with the disruption, people need to invest additional energy to find a solution through the development of action plans, problem solving and decision making. coping consumes energy, a limited resource, which reduces the available energy for the achievement of the original goal. this process results in fatigue and negative mood, which will deteriorate even further without successful coping and energy replenishment (steward & barling, 1996; zohar, 1999). hassles are thus seen as ‘annoying episodes’ – regulation obstacles – that prevent the achievement of goals and increase the demand on personal energy, as they make daily tasks more difficult to complete. if people cannot reach their goals because of obstacles that stand in their way, they become stressed and need to invest additional energy to overcome such obstacles, which can lead to the depletion of energy resources (grebner et al., 2003). thus daily hassles can be regarded as an additional demand stressor (zohar, 1999). daily hassles are considered harmful. their harmful effect has been demonstrated in many research settings. such daily hassles, and especially their accumulated effect, are associated with symptoms related to physical health, well-being, mood, illness, functioning of the immune system, job performance, absenteeism, mental health, psychological distress and stress (barling & kryl, 1990; chamberlain & zika, 1990; de longis, folkman & lazarus, 1988; eckenrode, 1994; greene & nowack, 1995; lu, 1991; steward & barling, 1996; zohar, 1999). in summary, it is evident that the call centre industry is growing, with more and more people employed in call centres. they are seen as stressful environments to work in and are conducive to the development of burnout. one of the factors that contributes to burnout is daily hassles. while they are considered to be a good predictor of burnout, they are not mentioned as a cause of burnout in call centres. the effect of daily hassles on the development of burnout in call centres has not been studied yet. the aim of this study was to develop a daily hassle diagnostic questionnaire that can be used to identify the most common daily hassles that customer service representatives experience, and to investigate the relationship between daily hassles and burnout in call centres. research design research approach a cross-sectional survey research design was used to accomplish the objectives set out for this research. such a research design is appropriate for exploratory and descriptive research with the aim of developing and validating new questionnaires (mouton, 2001). research design participants an accidental sample of call centre workers was obtained. participants in the study were taken from a service and sales call centre situated in the western cape and durban. a total of 500 questionnaires were distributed and 394 were returned, giving a response rate of 78.8%. to ensure a good response rate, participants were allowed time off to complete the questionnaire during their working day. vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 8 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #181 (page number not for citation purposes) burnout in call centres 94 slightly more participants were located in cape town (52.8%) than in durban (47.2%). the majority worked in a serviceoriented call centre (64.7%), on a consultant organisational level (84%), taking inbound calls (53.6%). women constituted 61.8% of the participants. furthermore, 51% and 38% of the participants were black and coloured respectively. a total of 55.1% of the participants was temporarily employed. most participants (74.2%) were between 21 and 30 years of age, while 74% of all participants had between one and two years of employment. most had attained an educational level of grade 12 (55.1%). english (35%) and zulu (21.3%) were the most frequently used home languages (see table 1). measuring instruments two measuring instruments were used in this study: the call centre daily hassle scale, which was specifically developed for the purpose of this study, and the exhaustion subscale of the maslach burnout inventory – general survey (maslach, jackson & leiter, 1996). the call centre daily hassle scale (ccdhs) was developed in two phases. the first was a qualitative phase in which call centre agents were asked to identify the daily hassles that they encountered regularly, both within the call centre and in their personal lives. in the second phase, the qualitative information was used to develop the ccdhs. as part of an organisational diagnostic process, data was gathered from customer service representatives receiving client queries on the phone within a large south african financial services company. each customer service representative was given a brief structured questionnaire to complete. the questionnaire supplied a definition of daily hassles, as well as some examples of what would be regarded as daily hassles. they were then asked to think of daily hassles that they encountered regularly during the previous six months, both in the work environment and in their personal lives. the content of the returned questionnaires was analysed. daily hassles were grouped together according to themes, based on the frequency of such hassles being mentioned. the content analysis resulted in 30 themes involving daily hassles occurring in the work environment and 13 themes involving daily hassles occurring in their personal life. the identified themes were then used to develop a measurement instrument for daily hassles in call centres. each identified theme was phrased in a short descriptive statement covering a broad range of daily stressors that a person working in a call centre might experience. the ccdhs consisted of 43 items, 30 of which measured daily hassles in the call centre work environment and 13 items measuring daily hassles as experienced in the personal lives of table 1 characteristics of participants (n = 394) item category frequency percentage call centre location cape town durban 208 186 52.8 47.2 type of work in cc customer service sales mv 255 128 11 64.7 33.4 2.8 organisational level consultant supervisor leadership mv 331 32 2 29 84.0 8.1 0.5 7.4 type of call centre inbound outbound combination mv 211 120 52 11 53.6 30.5 13.3 2.8 employment status permanent temp assignment mv 155 217 22 39.3 55.1 5.6 race group white black coloured indian mv 8 201 150 23 12 2.0 51.0 38.1 5.8 3.1 gender male female mv 144 243 7 36.5 61.8 1.8 language afrikaans english xhosa zulu sotho other combinations mv 23 138 59 84 14 65 11 5.8 35 15 21.3 3.6 16.5 2.8 age 18–20 years 21–30 years 31–40 years 41–50 years mv 25 292 45 13 19 6.4 74.2 11.4 3.6 4.8 educational level grade 10, 11, 12 technikon degree university degree postgraduate mv 217 120 28 16 13 55.1 30.5 7.1 4.1 3.3 years of employment 1–2 years 3–4 years 5 years and more mv 291 32 5 66 74 8.2 1.5 16.8 table 2 descriptive statistics for the densest daily hassles rank order densest daily hassles mean sd 1 system problems (e.g. slow response times, system errors and computer downtime) 7.63 1.99 2* my general financial situation 7.30 2.51 3 pressure to meet daily production target 6.45 2.56 4 continuous changes in work procedures and work environment 6.43 2.74 5 noisy co-workers people that talk too loudly 6.34 2.81 6* traffic jams 6.34 3.01 7 ineffective business processes/work procedures 6.19 2.56 8 continuous changes in work processes and procedures 6.17 2.59 9 time pressure 6.15 2.78 10 the quality evaluation system that we use 6.08 2.52 11* time pressure – too many things to do – not enough time to do the things that i need to do 6.08 2.69 12 difficult customers (e.g. rude, unreasonable or dissatisfied customers) 6.07 2.20 13 co-workers not doing their work properly 5.90 2.66 14 high production targets – targets set too high 5.85 2.74 15 complaining co-workers 5.82 2.68 16* transportation to and from work 5.81 3.02 17 lack of cooperation, assistance and support from other departments 5.77 2.86 18 cannot get hold of customers 5.5 2.88 19 mistakes made by colleagues 5.50 2.50 20 managerial behaviour 5.48 2.80 21 continuous interruptions 5.46 2.61 22 adhering to strict work schedule 5.39 2.55 23* day-to-day household responsibilities like washing, preparing meals (cooking) and cleaning 5.29 2.79 24 unchallenging and boring work 5.22 2.74 25 insufficient training 5.13 2.73 26 unnecessary e-mails 5.10 3.09 27 continuous changes in products 5.09 2.62 28* unemployed close family member 5.07 2.89 * refers to daily hassles in (p) personal life vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 8 original research visser & rothmann sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 18 1 (page number not for citation purposes) 95 call centre agents. the participants were asked to indicate how frequently they had encountered the identified hassles over the previous six months, on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (‘never’) to 5 (‘fairly often’). then they had to indicate how stressful they found the specific hassle on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (‘not at all stressful’) to 5 (‘extremely stressful’). the reasons for using this way of measuring were the following: asking participants to focus on the shorter recall period of six months presumably enables a more reliable estimate of the frequency with which the hassles occur. the frequency and stressfulness scores were combined to provide a hassle density score. the hassle density score provides a better prediction of burnout than the frequency and/or stressfulness scores on their own (zohar, 1997). exhaustion was measured by using five items from the exhaustion subscale of the maslach burnout indicator – general survey (mbi-gs). the response format that was used ranged from 0 (‘never’) to 6 (‘daily’). respondents were asked to indicate how often, if ever, they experienced each of the situations described in the statements. sample items were: ‘i feel emotionally drained by my work’, ‘i feel used up at the end of the workday’ and ‘working all day is really a strain for me.’ the reliability of the scale was calculated, using the cronbach alpha coefficient (α = 0.87). research procedure the participants gave informed consent to indicate their willingness to participate in the study by signing a return slip. the first author asked coordinators monthly to remind respondents to submit completed questionnaires. the researcher administered hard copies of the questionnaires to participants in the different organisations. the questionnaires were completed anonymously by participants and collected by the researcher after completion. all ethical guidelines in the treatment of human subjects in research were observed in all steps of the study. statistical analysis all statistical analyses were carried out with spss version 14 (spss, 2007). basic descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) were used to determine the densest daily hassles. various multivariate data analysis techniques were used: to determine the underlying factor structure, an exploratory factor analysis was undertaken, using the principal component method with a varimax rotation. eigenvalues of one and higher, as well as the scree plot, were used to determine which factors to retain. this was followed with principal axis factor analysis, the results of which are reported. to determine the internal consistency of the measurement scales, cronbach alpha coefficients were calculated for each scale. product-moment correlation coefficients were used to determine the relationships between the different variables and multiple regression analysis was used to determine the predictive value of daily hassles on emotional exhaustion. in terms of statistical significance, it was decided to set the value at a 99% confidence interval level (p ≤ 0.01). effect sizes (steyn, 1999) were used in addition to statistical significance to determine the practical significance of correlation coefficients. a cut-off point of 0.30 (medium effect, cohen, 1988) was set for the practical significance of correlation coefficients. results one of the outcomes of this study was to develop a short diagnostic scale of daily hassles occurring in the lives of call centre agents. to achieve this outcome, the data was analysed and screened to determine which daily hassles occurred most frequently, as well as which hassles were seen as the most stressful. these two indicators were combined to give a density score (the sum of frequency and stressfulness). only those hassles with a density score of 5 or more out of a possible 10 were used for further analysis as they represent the more meaningful hassles (see table 2). according to table 2, the top five daily hassles experienced by call centre employees in their work environment related to system problems, pressure to meet production targets, continuous changes in work procedures, noisy co-workers and ineffective business processes/work procedures. the top five hassles in their personal life related to their general financial situation, traffic jams, time pressures (having too many things to do in limited time available), transportation to and from work and day-to-day household responsibilities like washing, preparing meals and cleaning. the 28 densest hassles were subjected to a principal components exploratory factor analysis with a varimax rotation to determine the underlying factor structure, which was followed by a principle axis factor analysis. the kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy was 0.87, which indicates a sufficient sample size in relation to the number of variables (n = 394) to yield distinct and reliable factors (field, 2000). based on the kaiser-guttman rule of eigenvalues of one and more, as well as a visual interpretation of the scree plot, six factors were retained. the six-factor solution accounted for 39% of the variance. from the initial 28 items used in the factor analysis, 11 items were discarded on the basis of significant cross-loadings and individual kmo values of below 0.50 on the anti-image matrix (field, 2000). factor 1, labelled ‘daily demands’, consisted of three items, had an eigenvalue of 6.90 and contributed 24.64% of the variance. this factor included hassles that could be seen as demands that were made on call centre agents and included items like: ‘high production targets – targets set too high’, ‘pressure to meet daily production targets’, and ‘time pressure’. factor 2 was labelled ‘continuous change’ and consisted of three items. it had an eigenvalue of 7.92 and contributed 7.92% of the cumulative variance. this factor relates to the fast-changing nature of the work and products in call centres. examples included: ‘continuous changes in the work processes and procedures’ and ‘continuous changes in products’. factor 3 was labelled ‘co-worker hassles’. it consisted of three items, had an eigenvalue of 1.7 and contributed 6.22% of the variance. example items included: ‘co-workers not doing their work properly’, ‘mistakes made by colleagues’ and ‘continuous interruptions’. factor 4 was described as ‘demotivating work environment’ and consisted of three items. this factor had an eigenvalue of 1.34 and contributed 4.84% of the variance. sample items included: ‘managerial behaviour’, ‘lack of cooperation, assistance and support from other departments’ and ‘unchallenging and boring work’. this factor was difficult to label because of the seemingly disparate items grouped together. factor 5 was labelled ‘transportation hassles’ and consisted of two items. this factor had an eigenvalue of 1.30 and explained 4.66% of the variance. it reflects the transportation difficulties that employees experience every day. the two items that made up this factor were ‘traffic jams’ and ‘transportation to and from work’. factor 6, labelled ‘personal concerns’, consisted of three items. it had an eigenvalue of 1.16 and explained 4.14% of the variance. the factor reflected the personal concerns that people have during their working day. all of these personal concerns come from the agent’s personal life and are outside of the working domain. example items were: ‘day-to-day household responsibilities like washing, preparing meals and cleaning’, ‘my general financial position’ and ‘unemployed close family member’. vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 8 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #181 (page number not for citation purposes) burnout in call centres 96 the six subscales of the ccdhs were subjected to a secondorder factor analysis, using the subscale totals as raw data to determine the relationships among the subscales. the principal factor analysis with a varimax rotation yielded two factors with eigenvalues of 2.50 and 1 respectively. the factors explained 59% of the variance. the first factor had to do with daily hassles in the work environment and explained 42% of the variance. the component loadings for this factor were ‘continuous change’ (0.82), ‘co-worker hassles’ (0.77), ‘demotivating work environment’ (0.73) and ‘daily demands’ (0.53). the second factor had to do with daily hassles in the personal life of the agents and explained 17% of the variance. the component loadings for this factor were ‘transportation hassles’ (0.83) and ‘personal concerns’ (0.78). descriptive statistics and correlations the descriptive statistics, number of items used in each scale, cronbach alpha coefficients and correlation coefficients of the scales are displayed in table 3. in table 3 it is clear that the scale reliabilities vary between 0.56 and 0.87. the cronbach alpha coefficient for personal concerns (α = 0.56) was low compared to the guideline of 0.70 (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). acceptable reliability coefficients were obtained for emotional exhaustion (0.87), daily demands (0.75) and continuous change (0.75). the reliability coefficients for coworker hassles (0.69), demotivating work environment (0.64) and transportation hassles (0.68) can be considered acceptable if it is taken into consideration that the scales consist of only three, three and two items respectively. a reliability coefficient of 0.82 was calculated for the total daily hassle scale, which consisted of 17 items. a statistically significant correlation was found between the full (all 17 items) daily hassle scale (r = 0.44) and exhaustion. this correlation can be interpreted as a medium effect (steyn, 1999). all the subscales of the daily hassle scale are significantly (p < 0.01) related to emotional exhaustion. in descending order, the correlations are daily demands (0.35, medium effect), continuous change (0.32, medium effect), demotivating work environment (0.32, medium effect), co-worker hassles (0.27, small effect), and transportation hassles (0.23, small effect). other interesting correlations are daily demands, which are significantly related with continuous change (0.38, medium effect), whereas continuous change is significantly correlated with co-worker hassles (0.48, medium effect) and demotivating work environment (0.44, medium effect). co-worker hassles and demotivating work environment are significantly related to each other (0.49, medium effect). multiple regression analysis the influence of the daily hassle subscales on exhaustion was examined through multiple regression analysis. based on the alpha values of the subscales (α > 0.60), it was decided to include five of the subscales in the regression model. these variables were entered simultaneously into the regression model to determine the most significant predictors of exhaustion. on the basis of the multiple regression procedure, four of the daily hassle subscales contributed significantly to the variance in emotional exhaustion (see table 4). the results in table 4 show that approximately 21% of the variance in exhaustion (as measured by the exhaustion subscale of the maslach burnout inventory – general survey) is predicted by four of the daily hassle subscales. all four of the subscales made a significant contribution to the regression model, as can be seen by the t values: daily demands (t = 4.64 p < 0.05), demotivating work environment (t = 3.40 p < 0.05), continuous change (t = 1.97 p < 0.50) and transportation hassles (t = 2.19 p < 0.50). the standardised regression coefficients for each of the predictors were: daily demands (t = 0.23), demotivating work environment (β = 0.18), continuous change (β = 0.11) and transportation hassles (β = 0.10). based on both the t and β values, it was concluded that daily demands is the strongest predictor of exhaustion, followed by demotivating work environment, with continuous change as the third strongest predictor, and transportation hassles the fourth. discussion the purpose of this research was twofold. the first goal was to develop a short diagnostic questionnaire that could be used to measure the occurrence of the most common and stressful daily hassles in call centres. the second goal was to investigate table 3 descriptive statistics and product-moment correlations scale items (n) mean sd α 1 2 3 4 5 6 exhaustion1. 5 8.46 6.72 0.87 – – – – – – daily demands2. 3 18.45 6.61 0.75 0.35*† – – – – – continuous change3. 3 17.71 6.49 0.75 0.32*† 0.38*† – – – – co-worker hassles4. 3 16.87 6.11 0.69 0.27* 0.28* 0.48*† – – – demotivating work 5. environment 3 16.48 6.39 0.64 0.32*† 0.22* 0.44*† 0.49*† – – transportation hassles6. 2 12.15 5.26 0.68 0.23* 0.25* 0.19* 0.24* 0.21* – personal concerns7. 3 17.67 6.00 0.56 – – – – – – * correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (1-tailed) † r > 0.30 – practically significant medium effect) model unstandardised coefficients standardised coefficients t p f r r2 ∆r2 b se beta 1 summary 20.92* 0.46 0.21* 0.21* (constant) -3.54 1.24 -2.87 0.004 daily demands 0.24 0.05 0.23 4.64 0.000* continuous change 0.11 0.06 0.11 1.97 0.049* co-worker hassles 0.05 0.06 0.05 0.09 0.386 demotivating work environment 0.19 0.06 0.18 3.40 0.001* transportation hassles 0.13 0.06 0.10 2.19 0.029* * p < 0.05 – statistically significant table 4 regression analysis with daily hassles as independent variables and exhaustion as dependent variable vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 8 original research visser & rothmann sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 18 1 (page number not for citation purposes) 97 whether the instrument could measure the relative influence of daily hassles on emotional exhaustion, which is seen as the most important aspect of burnout (cordes & dougherty, 1993; maslach, 2001; schutte et al., 2000). in qualitative interviews with customer service representatives, heavy work pressure was attributed to a lack of capacity (not enough customer service representatives to do all the work), constantly having to take calls without a break, and taking calls at a fast tempo. they attributed high levels of production targets to high target levels set by management, high quality standards that need to be met and that are enforced by quality checkers, and targets that are set on the basis of performance levels (standards) of top performers. to achieve the first objective, a principle axis factor analysis based on the 28 densest hassles was conducted, which resulted in a factor structure of six factors. the six factors which constitute daily hassles in call centres are daily demands, continuous change, co-worker hassles, a demotivating environment, transportation hassles, and personal concerns. however, the last factor was removed from the analysis because it obtained a low alpha coefficient. the first factor, namely daily demands, refers to high levels of production targets, continuous pressure to meet targets, and time pressure in call centres. the second factor, namely continuous change, refers to changes in the work environment, work processes and procedures, and changes regarding products that the call centre agents need to sell or for which they have to provide after-sales service. the third factor, namely co-worker hassles, refers to co-workers not doing their work properly, mistakes made by colleagues, and continuous interruptions. the fourth factor, namely demotivating work environment, refers to managerial behaviour, lack of cooperation, assistance and support from other departments, and unchallenging and boring work. the fifth factor, namely transportation hassles, reflected the transportation problems that employees had in this call centre. transportation hassles either referred to getting stuck in traffic or having difficulty in getting transport to and from work. daily demands were the most significant predictor of exhaustion. the contribution of this hassle to exhaustion is not surprising, as previous research has consistently found the following work demands to predict burnout: work pressure, heavy workload and time pressure, which lead individuals to feel that they cannot do all the work that they need to do in the allocated time (cordes & dougherty, 1993; deery et al., 2002; maslach et al., 2001; schaufeli & bakker, 2004; zapf et al., 2003). high level of production targets in call centres can refer to a heavy client load with high levels of client contact and interaction, with no or little time out. perceptions of too much work, experienced as too many demands made on the individual, can exhaust the energy levels of an individual (maslach et al., 2001). a demotivating work environment was found to be the second strongest predictor of exhaustion. no doubt this view could be true, but more enlightened management processes (supportive styles) have been reported in call centres, with a reduced effect on emotional exhaustion. in such cases team leaders were seen as managers who listened to and helped employees solve problems and who helped them to ease the tensions of call centre work (deery et al., 2002). from previous research, it is known that call centre agents often see their work as boring and unchallenging; lacking in variety as far as skills are concerned and being monotonous (holman, 2004). a significant positive relationship was found between routinisation of work – defined as a job which involves repetitive tasks – and emotional exhaustion (deery et al., 2002). several researchers note the influence of managerial behaviour on burnout. maslach and leiter refer to it as ‘the burden of micromanagement’ in which every move of employees is managed by detailed policies (maslach & leiter, 1997, p. 42). it is well known in call centres that management espouses micromanagement techniques in which every move of the employees are controlled and evaluated. management’s focus on production and customer service also leads to a form of role conflict within employees who feel that these demands are incompatible with each other, which results in frustration and emotional distress (deery et al., 2002). a multiple case study of four call centres conducted by wallace et al. (2000) supported this view in finding that the primary management priority was productivity, which was constantly monitored by it systems producing productivity statistics. the statistics were used to ‘drag the customer service representative[s] over the coals’ if they did not meet their targets (wallace et al., 2000, p. 177). this type of management behaviour can be seen as very demotivating, as described by some customer service representatives in qualitative interviews. they saw managers and team leaders as people who did not care for their staff, who did not support them, who did not include them in any form of participative management practices, and who focused too much on statistics to manage them. the customer service representatives felt as if they were treated like machines and not like humans, or like numbers, not like people. continuous change was shown to be the third strongest predictor of exhaustion in the regression model. previous research indicated that organisational change, like going through a downsizing process or merger, could be linked to the development of burnout (maslach et al., 2001). although these are more macro, organisation-wide changes, it would seem that small day-to-day changes in work requirements and processes are also linked to the development of exhaustion. this is not unlikely, as the assimilation of such changes requires individual effort. although co-worker hassles correlated significantly with exhaustion, it failed to be classed as a significant contributor to exhaustion in the regression model. lack of cooperation, assistance and support from other departments was also seen as something that contributed to reduced motivation. in qualitative interviews, the customer service representatives spoke about the frustration resulting from the lack of cooperation between different departments within the call centre. they pointed fingers at the ‘back-office’ and blamed them for not ‘going the extra mile’ for the clients. they referred to ‘accountabilities’ within processes that were not clear, as well as a ‘lack of ownership’ within the other departments. no previous research could be found that linked this with the development of emotional exhaustion. it is difficult to determine which of the three items on this subscale contribute most to exhaustion. from the factor loadings of the items it seems that ‘managerial behaviour’, with the highest factor loading of 0.61, might play a more significant role in this factor. as far as the relationship between transportation hassles and exhaustion is concerned, the connection between commuting and the development of stress reactions has already been identified. graig (1993) showed that commuters are routinely exposed to traffic congestion and that this is experienced as goal blocking (by the same mechanism as daily hassles). they also found that users of public transport are subject to stress occurring from crowding, delays in travelling and threats of victimisation. in summary, a significant proportion of the variance of emotional exhaustion, as evident in the foregoing discussion, can be explained by a newly developed instrument called the call centre daily hassle scale, which measures the presence and occurrence of daily hassles in call centres. limitations this study had various limitations, specifically because of the cross-sectional design that was used (sulsky & smith, 2005). vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 8 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #181 (page number not for citation purposes) burnout in call centres 98 firstly, a cross-sectional design does not have the powerful control techniques that experimental research designs have and it often cannot control for confounding variables or alternative explanations. secondly, this type of design does not establish causality, and it is difficult to make causal inferences about the effect of the independent variable(s) on the dependent variable. thirdly, self-reports were used, which limit the responses of the participants to the items used in the scale and which do not capture the richness and variety of the responses that are possible (sulsky & smith, 2005). finally, the use of self-report measures is subject to response biases. participants might have responded to questions in socially appropriate ways. possible solutions for the problems inherent in cross-sectional studies have been suggested by sulsky and smith (2005). one of them is to use negative affectivity – a relatively stable personality trait – as a controlling variable. a second solution is to use longitudinal research designs, which would lead to a richer understanding of the variables and their relationships. conclusion with this research, an attempt was made to develop a daily hassle diagnostic scale for use in call centres. the final version of the ccdhs – a short scale – consists of 17 items. such a short scale, which is easy and quick to complete, will fit in with the fast and unrelenting pace of a call centre, where time is always of the essence. it is a useful tool for management to use for quick diagnostic purposes – to feel the pulse of what is going on in the areas of influence. because of the scale’s brevity and easy application, it could be used on a more frequent basis and the data could form part of the balance scorecard of the call centre. the information gained from the instrument could be used to drive organisational development and change interventions by means of a cycle of measuring (getting the data), giving feedback to the participants, organising focus groups to generate solutions, implementing the solutions, and re-measuring down the line to assess the impact of changes, with regard to the occurrence of hassles as well as their impact on burnout. the scale is in its infancy and several recommendations for further research can be made. the scale needs to be refined by eliminating weak items and items with ambiguous meanings. more qualitative research needs to be done to determine whether there are other significant hassles that have not been captured yet. it needs to be tested in different call centres to determine its test-retest reliability and its convergent validity. references bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2003). dual processes at work in a call centre: an application of the job demands-resources model. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 12, 393–417. barling, j., & kryl, p. (1990). moderators of the relationship between daily work stressors and mood. work & stress, 4, 319-329. briggs, a. (1998). the 1998 south african call centre benchmarking report. cape town: the merchants group. chamberlain, k., & zika, s. (1990). the minor events approach to stress: support for the use of daily hassles. british journal of psychology, 81, 469–482. cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd edn.). hillsdale: lawrence erlbaum. cordes, c.l., & dougherty, t.w. (1993). a review and an integration of research on job burnout. academy of management review, 18, 621–656. deery, s., iverson, r., & walsh, j. (2002). work relationships in telephone call centres: understanding emotional exhaustion and employee withdrawal. journal of management studies, 39, 471-496. deery, s., iverson, r., & walsh, j. (2004). the effect of customer service encounters on job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion. in s. deery & n. kinnie (eds.), call centres and human resource management: a cross-national perspective (pp. 201–221). new york: palgrave macmillan. deery, s., & kinnie, n. (2004). introduction: the nature and management of call centre work. in s. deery & n. kinnie (eds.), call centres and human resource management: a cross-national perspective (pp. 1-21). new york: palgrave macmillan. de longis, a., folkman, s., & lazarus, r.s. (1988). the impact of daily stress on health and mood: psychological and social resources as mediators. journal of personality and social psychology, 54, 485–495. eckenrode, j. (1984). impact of chronic and acute stressors on daily reports of mood. journal of personality and social psychology, 46, 907–918. field, a. (2000). discovering statistics using spss for windows. london: sage. frenkel, s.j., tam, m., korczynski, m., & shire, k. (1998) beyond bureaucracy? work organization in call centres. the international journal of human resource management, 9, 957–979. graig, e. (1993). stress as a consequence of the urban physical environment. in l. goldberger & s. breznitz (eds.), handbook of stress: theoretical and clinical aspects (pp. 316–332). new york: the free press. greene, r.l., & nowack, k.m. (1995). hassles, hardiness and absenteeism: results of a 3-year longitudinal study. work & stress, 9, 448–462. grebner, s., semmer, n.k., faso, l.l., gut, s., kälin, w., & elfering, a. (2003). working conditions, well-being, and jobrelated attitudes among call centre agents. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 12, 341–365. holdsworth, l., & cartwright, s. (2003). empowerment, stress and satisfaction: an exploratory study of a call centre. leadership and organization development journal, 24(3), 131– 140. holman, d. (2004). employee well-being in call centres. in s. deery & n. kinnie (eds.), call centres and human resource management: a cross-national perspective (pp. 223–245). new york: palgrave macmillan. lazarus, r.s. (1999). stress and emotion: a new synthesis. new york: springer. lu, l. (1991). daily hassles and mental health: a longitudinal study. british journal of psychology, 82, 441–449. lewig, k.a., & dollard, m.f. (2003). emotional dissonance, emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction in call centre workers. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 12, 366–392. malhotra, n., & mukherjee, a. (2004). the relative influence of organisational commitment and job satisfaction on service quality of customer-contact employees in banking call centres. journal of services marketing, 18, 162–174. maslach, c. (1998). a multidimensional view of burnout. in c.l. cooper (ed.), theories of organizational stress (pp. 68–85). oxford: oxford university press. maslach, c., jackson, s.e., & leiter, m.p. (1996). maslach burnout inventory: manual (3rd edn.). palo alto: consulting psychologists press. maslach, c., & leiter, m.p. (1997). the truth about burnout: how organizations cause personal stress and what to do about it. san francisco: jossey-bass. maslach, c., schaufeli, w.b., & leiter, m.p. (2001). job burnout. annual review of psychology, 52, 397–422. maybery, d.j., & graham, d. (2001). hassles and uplifts: including interpersonal events. stress and health, 17, 91–104. mccammon, h.j., & griffin, l.j. (2000). workers and their customers and clients. work and occupations, 27, 278–294. mouton, j. (2001). how to succeed in your master’s and doctoral studies. pretoria: van schaik. nunnally, j., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organizational behavior, 25, 293–315. vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 8 original research visser & rothmann sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 18 1 (page number not for citation purposes) 99 schutte, n., toppinen, s., kalimo, r., & schaufeli, w.b. (2000). the factorial validity of the maslach burnout inventory – general survey (mbi-gs) across occupational groups and nations. journal of occupational & organizational psychology, 73, 53–67. singh, j. (2000). performance productivity and quality of frontline employees in service organizations. journal of marketing research, 64(2), 15–35. singh, j., & goolsby, j.r. (1994). behavioral and psychological consequences of boundary spanning burnout for customer service representatives. journal of marketing research, 94, 558–570. spss (2007). spss 14.0 for windows. chicago: spss. steyn, h.s. (1999). praktiese betekenisvolheid: die gebruik van effekgroottes. wetenskaplike bydraes – reeks b: natuurwetenskappe nr. 117. potchefstroom: pu vir cho. steward, w., & barling, j. (1996). daily work stress, mood and interpersonal job performance: a mediational model. work & stress, 10, 336–351. sulsky, l., & smith, c. (2005). work stress. belmont: thomson wadsworth. taylor, p., & bain, p. (1999). an assembly line in the head: work and employee relations in the call centre. industrial relations journal, 30(2), 101–117. wallace, c.m., eagleson, g., & waldersee, r. (2000). the sacrificial hr strategy in call centres. international journal of service industry management, 11(2), 174–184. zapf, p.f., isic, a., bechtoldt, m., & blau, p. (2003). what is typical for call centre jobs? job characteristics, and service interactions in different call centres. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 12, 311–340. zohar, d. (1997). predicting burnout with a hassle-base measure of role demands. journal of organizational behaviour, 18, 101– 115. zohar, d. (1999). when things go wrong: the effect of daily work hassles on effort, exertion and negative mood. journal of occupational & organizational psychology, 72, 265–284. vol. 7 no. 1 page 8 of 8 abstract introduction aim of the study literature review methods results and findings discussion recommendation future research limitation acknowledgements references about the author(s) dimitri a. rockman department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa john k. aderibigbe department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa charles o. allen-ile department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa bright mahembe department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa desiree a. hamman-fisher department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa citation rockman, d.a., aderibigbe, j.k., allen-ile, c.o., mahembe, b., & hamman-fisher, d.a., (2022). working-class postgraduates’ perceptions of studying while working at a selected university. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1962. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1962 original research working-class postgraduates’ perceptions of studying while working at a selected university dimitri a. rockman, john k. aderibigbe, charles o. allen-ile, bright mahembe, desiree a. hamman-fisher received: 06 apr. 2022; accepted: 28 oct. 2022; published: 15 nov. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the life of working-class postgraduates can be exhilarating and daunting, juggling the commitments of full-time employment and postgraduate studies. insofar as can be established, little, if any, research has been conducted on exploring the experiences of such students in the western cape province of south africa. an in-depth investigation is necessary to assist management and academic institutions to support such students. research purpose: the purpose of the study was to understand the selected working-class postgraduate students’ perceptions of studying while working simultaneously, as well as explore the experiences, challenges and coping mechanisms of the cohort of students. motivation for the study: the severe financial challenges, psychological burnout and other obstacles that working-class postgraduates face, which often impair their ability to perform optimally in both their career and studies, motivated the research. therefore, recommendations can be made to management and institutions of higher learning to assist such students. research approach/design and methods: the study was positioned in the qualitative research paradigm and used explorative single case study research design and semi-structured interview approach to collect data from the research participants. four-stage content analysis method was used to analyse the interview transcripts, because the focus was on understanding the content and contextual meaning derived from the transcribed texts. seven themes were identified, namely, development and growth, applicability of knowledge across school and work, time management and planning, drive and ambition, struggles and sacrifices, support systems/services and work–study balance. main findings: the results indicate that time management skills and planning, drive and ambition, work–study balance and support from employers and family are significant coping factors that promote working-class postgraduates’ success in their careers and studies. practical/managerial implications: given the positive role that time management skills and support play in ensuring professional and academic success, the researchers advocate for professional and institutional interventions. such interventions could be in the education, training and development domain that can ameliorate the effects of conflicting demands of work and postgraduate studies. contribution/value-add: initiating the conceptualisation of a coping mechanism model that combines effective management with high motivation and goal setting can stimulate additional empirical-related research towards validating the conceptual model. keywords: coping mechanisms; psychological well-being; self-motivation; time management; working-class postgraduates; work–study balance. introduction employees’ aspiration for growth comes with inherent demands. these demands may comprise full-time employment, postgraduate studies, parenting commitments, and social and religious responsibilities (pace & sciotto, 2022; sharma et al., 2021). if these demands are not adequately managed, they can create an imbalance in the lives of working-class postgraduates (jeske & o’mahony, 2019). according to johnson et al. (2009), a major consequence of this imbalance is stress and possible burnout, as a result of students studying and working simultaneously. globally, several individuals are combining work and education because of the rising cost of living and tuition fees (ang, 2008; sharma et al., 2021). ang (2008) explained that many students are obliged to financially support themselves while studying, because working while studying enriches the working postgraduates’ learning experience, as they acquire relevant and meaningful industry experience while learning the theory. this resonates with the views of hamman-fisher and mcghie (2021) who regard the workplace as an integral part of the students’ learning. in other words, the workplace facilitates for the application of the theory to resolve real-world problems. working postgraduates also bring many advantages to their organisations. according to beqiri and mazreku (2020), employees who pursue postgraduate studies optimise their workplace performance and productivity by transferring the knowledge and skill they acquire in the classroom to their jobs. globally and locally, the very purpose of education, training and development is to enhance the performance of employees and organisations (beqiri & mazreku, 2020; meyer, 2016). moreover, chaitra et al. (2016) asserted that employers in the 21st century have high-performance benchmarks and expectations of their employees. given this, it is imperative that employees pursue formal education, such as postgraduate studies, so they can add value to their organisations. however, despite the personal and organisational advantages, many companies encounter challenges when implementing policies geared at better school and work–life balance for working-class postgraduates (ojo et al., 2014; sharma et al., 2021). as a result of the difficulties encountered in implementing appropriate work–school policies, many working-class postgraduates experience tremendous challenges during their tuition period (evans & donnelly, 2018). thamrin et al. (2019) in their study found that working-class postgraduates have not necessarily developed healthy coping strategies. they often ‘go with the flow’, focusing on whatever is most urgent. according to baca (2017), working-class postgraduates find it very challenging to balance multiple tasks, prioritise tasks and manage their time effectively. thus, this study explored the experiences, coping strategies and perceptions of working-class postgraduates about the challenges of studying while working. therefore, the overarching research question is: what are the working-class postgraduates’ perceptions of studying while working simultaneously? aim of the study the aim of the study was to understand the selected working-class postgraduate students’ perceptions of studying while working simultaneously, as well as to explore the experiences and challenges of working-class postgraduates and their coping mechanisms to meet work and academic demands at a selected university in the western cape. the study therefore investigated the following specific objectives: to explore the selected working-class postgraduates’ perceptions on studying and working simultaneously. to examine the challenges faced by working-class postgraduates at the selected university and how they overcome these problems. to identify the positive and negative effects of studying while working. to introduce a positive coping mechanism model for work–study balance. literature review working-class postgraduates’ perceptions of working while studying according to tumin et al. (2020), working-class postgraduates tend to spend less time on academic activities and more time on their jobs. the researchers explained that the work experiences and practical knowledge from the cohort of students trigger their motivation to complete their academic qualification. the students accomplished this while concurrently enhancing their career possibilities (tumin et al., 2020). likewise, a study undertaken by abenoja et al. (2019) revealed that working-class postgraduates are inspired by self-development, financial support, intrinsic drive and motivation. adult students are motivated by learning theory and its application simultaneously in the workplace. this resonates with the economic theory that advocates that working and studying simultaneously produces a smoother school–work transition, which positively benefits the student (nilsson, 2019). according to sanchez-gelabert et al. (2017), adults who work and study concurrently gain industry-related skills at their respective workplaces, which cannot be solely obtained at university. the skills range from hard skills to soft skills. hard skills may entail writing a business report, and soft skills may comprise team working skills and displaying empathy, among other skills (barbanchon et al., 2019). challenges faced by working-class postgraduates and how they overcome them numerous studies examined the reasons why individuals are working and studying concurrently (evans et al., 2014; sanchez-gelabert et al., 2017). according to evans et al. (2014), many working students are compelled into the arrangement to fund their studies (evans et al., 2014). one of the reasons is that tuition discounts offered at universities are marginal as most cover only around 12% – 20% of tuition fees (tumin et al., 2020). as a result, nonworking students cannot afford to pay their tuition fees. in addition to the difficulties encountered in the search for tuition fees, these students often struggle to balance the pressures from their studies and work leading to poor health and lack of concentration on their studies (abenoja et al., 2019). the students are likely to fail completing their degrees on time because of stress, fatigue and the inability to meet deadlines for the submission of assignments (chinyakata et al., 2019). effects of working while studying various scholars have identified both the positive and negative consequences that working postgraduates face. according to tumin and faizuddin (2017), financial stress is a significant contributor to the poor mental health among working students. mounsey et al. (2013) emphasised that often the students suffer from depression, burnout and acute anxiety. in a study conducted in australia, it was found that as a result of work demands, many working postgraduates fail to attend classes regularly and are disengaged from the university resources and activities that could enhance their academic success (devlin et al., 2008). hovdhaugen (2015) believed that the aforementioned negative stressors in turn have a negative impact on working postgraduate students’ academic performance and contribute to their ultimate dropout of formal education. contrary to the above, as already mentioned, working while pursuing postgraduate studies also has many positive results. tymon (2013) suggested that the study–work arrangement enables students to experience the real world while undertaking formal studies. the study–work framework compels students to work more strategically and efficiently to achieve work and study success. perna (2010) argued that despite the numerous challenges that working-class students have to endure, they are motivated to improve the quality and standard of their lives through education. the aforementioned negative and positive influences on working-class postgraduates resonate with the findings of a study conducted as far back as 2007. lowe and gayle (2007) explored the factors that influence both full-time and part-time students who work at the same time as reading for a degree. what was significant is the finding that students working full-time and part-time have different learning experiences and needs. in line with the views of sanchez-gelabert et al. (2017), they too identified that it is critical for working-class students to have support from others to succeed. lowe and gayle (2007) noted that students’ academic success is mostly attributed to the support they receive from family, fellow students and employers. on the contrary, sanchez-gelabert et al. (2017) recommended that support from the academic institution should be provided. this can take the form of hybrid face-to-face or distance learning and the provision of assistance using the institution’s virtual platforms, reconstructing the timetable, revitalising the curricula and making available academic personnel. given this, support structures are critical ranging from family, employers and the institution to advance the success of this group of students. coping with the effects of working while studying baca (2017) proposed two coping mechanisms to assist working-class students with time management. the author recommends that the working-class postgraduates cultivate competencies related to self-control and boundaries. duckworth and seligman (2006) suggested that an individual with self-control can restrain their impulses to realise a longer-term goal. according to bulger et al. (2007), establishing flexible boundaries was found to help with the creation of structure in students’ lives. kuhnle et al. (2010) believed that students who understand and appreciate the happiness that accrues from a healthy work-study balance should exercise self-control and implement the necessary restrictions and boundaries in their lives. methods the study was located within the qualitative research paradigm because its aim, objectives and questions were explorative in nature (creswell & creswell, 2018). the qualitative research approach was appropriate to explore and understand the meaning individuals or groups assign to a social, human phenomenon or problematic situation. this was the case in this study because the researchers sought to explore the feelings, experiences and challenges of working-class postgraduates (seeley, 2015). research design the study applied explorative single case study research design and used semi-structured interview approach to collect data from the research participants. the primary reason for applying explorative case study research design was because there is a paucity of literature on the phenomena under investigation. hence, the researchers were interested in gaining insight into working-class postgraduate students’ perceptions, experiences and coping strategies while studying and working simultaneously (fouché & schurink, 2011; saunders et al., 2009). the researchers envisioned that such an understanding would contribute towards constructing a work–study coping mechanism model and could also possibly trigger further research interest in the variables that would emerge from the data analysis (saunders et al., 2009). moreover, semi-structured interviews enabled the researchers to become aware of the relevant theories and variables applicable to the study in a statistical way (saunders et al., 2009). research participants and sampling techniques the study employed a non-probability convenience sampling method. as such, the researchers targeted the employee population undergoing postgraduate studies while executing official work duties and responsibilities at the time of the investigation. following the views of both saunders et al. (2009) and nieuwenhuis (2016), the study’s researchers adopted a non-probability convenience sampling technique because the study conformed to an exploratory research design with a small sample variation in the population. the study reached saturation when the participants provided similar responses to interview questions and offered no new insights into the phenomenon. the researchers upheld nieuwenhuis’ (2016) view for explorative investigations that data should be collected until the saturation point in the data is reached from the participants’ responses. fusch et al. (2015) explained that data saturation is reached when further coding does not occur. specifically, a sample of five postgraduate students (two males in the age range of 30 – 39 years and three females in the age range of 18 – 29 years) participated in the study (see table 1). according to zainal (2007) and nieuwenhuis (2016), a small sample is appropriate for exploratory case study research designs because the emerging data will provide interest and possibly pave the way to further research on the phenomenon. table 1: biographical information of participants. the data were collected from february 2020 to 20 march 2020, which was before the covid-19 lockdown period. the researchers reviewed the university postgraduates’ class timetable and ascertained that nearly all postgraduate classes were conducted in the evenings. as a result, the researchers approached working postgraduate students visiting the library for their interest to participate in the study. the students who were willing to participate in the study were selected. hereafter, interviews were arranged, and working postgraduate students’ consent was documented to participate in the study. one participant (participant 5) was working part-time, and the remaining four participants were full-time employees. three participants were completing their studies part-time, and two participants were completing their studies full-time. table 1 presents a concise biographical makeup of the participants. data collection method the interview questions were guided by 13 open-ended questions derived from the study’s primary and sub-research questions that were observed in the literature. the researchers formulated questions to capture the perceptions of working-class postgraduates about studying while working simultaneously, their experiences, challenges and coping mechanisms to meet work and academic demands, and their recommendations to others. rather than presenting the research questions to the participants linearly, the semi-structured interview method permitted the researchers to navigate between questions when necessary and explore new matters that emerged (saunders et al., 2009). while an inductive approach was employed, constructing the 13 interview questions from the literature ultimately linked the study to the existing body of knowledge. additional probing questions were asked during the interview to find answers to the research questions and objectives of the study (saunders et al., 2009). according to leedy and ormrod (2010) and saunders et al. (2009), this method of collecting data assists with formulating a proposed model. given the above, the researchers asked the research participants the following questions: (1) what motivates you to continue studying, while working? (2) what are your personal views on studying and working simultaneously? (3) can you explain if you started studying first and then took up employment or vice versa? (4) what are the reasons for working while you are studying? (5) can you describe what challenges you experienced with working and studying simultaneously? (6) what effect does your job have on your academic performance? can you provide me with some examples? (7) what effect does your studies have on your job? can you provide me with some examples? (8) how do you overcome challenges? (9) how do you feel about working while studying? (10) are there any advantages for you to study while you are working? (11) how do you manage your time? (12) what suggestions would you like to give working postgraduates? (13) do you have any recommendations to improve student’s academic performance while working? the researchers started the fieldwork after obtaining ethical approval from the university research ethics committee. combined with assurances about anonymity, the interview questions were given to the participants before the scheduled interview to prepare their responses in advance (saunders et al., 2009). the interviews were for one and a half hours and took place face-to-face in one of the faculty offices at the research site. although the researchers documented the participants’ responses, each interview was recorded to capture the participants’ responses accurately. as saunders et al. (2009) recommended, the researchers transcribed the interview notes and recordings before the following scheduled interview meeting. this approach was taken to avoid confusion about the data of the research participants. data analysis and coding bengtsson’s (2016) content analysis method was used to organise and elicit meaning from the data collected. from this, inferences were made from interview texts to make sense of the phenomena. according to berg (2001), this method of qualitative analysis was appropriate because the focus was on the content and the contextual meaning derived from the transcribed interview texts. bengtsson’s (2016) content analysis process comprises of four stages, namely, the decontextualisation stage, the recontextualisation stage, the categorisation stage and the compilation stages. the first stage adhered to the processes of open coding (berg, 2001). it comprised of reading through the transcribed texts to gain a general understanding of the data. thereafter, the text was divided into smaller meaning units. bengtsson (2016) described meaning units as the smallest unit that provides some understanding that the researcher requires. it may represent a group of sentences or paragraphs containing a part related to each other that answers the question(s) highlighted in the aim of this study, which was to understand the selected working-class postgraduate students’ perceptions of studying while working simultaneously, as well as to explore the experiences and challenges of working-class postgraduates and their coping mechanisms to meet work and academic demands at a selected university in the western cape. each identified meaning unit was labelled with a code. although this was an inductive study, the codes as labelled on the theory are found in the literature (berg, 2001). it is this specific procedure that berg (2001) described as the ‘open coding process’. the codes enabled the identification of concepts around which the data could be assembled into blocks and patterns (bengtsson, 2016). a coding list, with the meaning of the codes, was constructed to simplify the analysis process (bengtsson, 2016). in this study, the codes were determined from the theory found in the literature. it required the researcher and the supervisor to perform the coding process repetitively, starting on different pages of the text each time to increase the stability and reliability (bengtsson, 2016; berg, 2001). the second stage, titled the recontextualisation phase, required a review to ascertain whether all aspects of the content were covered in relation to the aim. to accomplish this, the original responses were read alongside the final list of meaningful units to establish commonalities. coloured pencils were used to distinguish between each meaning unit in the original transcript. as bryman et al. (2014) suggested, unmarked texts were examined at the analysis stage to determine whether they provided some answers to the research question. the researchers then proceeded to record the responses to each question. the third stage, which is the categorisation stage, required assigning the data to created categories and condensing extended meaning units (patton, 2002). the data were coded by assigning it to the 13 categories, based on the 13 interview questions (see table 2a–d). responses that were similar in different questions were coded, and a new unified heading (theme) was created. in the final stage, the compilation stage, seven themes emerged because of the coding process (see table 3). these themes were determined from an objective standing. as bengtsson (2016) suggested, the researchers immersed themselves into the data to identify the hidden meanings in the texts. for each category or theme, the researcher used appropriate meaning units presented in the text as quotations. as a result, the researcher was able to present coded responses in categories (see table 2) and seven themes (see table 3). to finalise the themes, the researcher reviewed the literature to determine if the findings were reasonable and logical. table 2a: interviewees’ coded responses. table 2b: interviewees’ coded responses. table 2c: interviewees’ coded responses. table 2d: interviewees’ coded responses. table 3: seven themes that emerged from the coding of the data. the theme development and growth emerged by combining professional development categories identified in question 1 and professional growth identified in question 4 (see table 3). six other themes emerged because of the coding process. these are (1) applicability of knowledge across school and work, (2) time management and planning, (3) drive and ambition, (4) struggles and sacrifices, (5) support systems/services and (6) work–study balance (see table 3). establishing trustworthiness of data and themes the study applied the following four criteria for ensuring trustworthiness of data and themes as suggested by guba and lincoln (1985): credibility (truth value of findings), transferability (application of findings), dependability (consistency of findings) and conformability (neutrality of findings). the criterion of credibility is concerned with whether the data obtained from participants and the data analysis process are trustworthy and believable (guba & lincoln, 1985). the researchers recruited unknown postgraduate students of different faculties from the university library as research participants. the researchers further established the credibility of the research data by the length of the interview (one and one-quarter hours), limited contact with research participants before the interview (during recruitment at the library) and after the interview (students contacted the researchers for the results), and the interviewees eligibility to pose questions during the interview and about the investigation. furthermore, each interview was recorded and transcribed. the engagements and transparency with the interviewees enhanced mutual trust and improved the credibility of the data collected. the criterion of transferability refers to the replication of the results and findings in different settings. as many students at the research site are working-class postgraduates, the data obtained from the sample are applicable to them (nowell et al., 2017). concerning the criterion of dependability, the researchers’ methodological steps and decisions over data collection were guided by scientific procedures to promote the trustworthiness of the study’s findings. the criterion of dependability represents adherence to a logical research process, decisions and methodology. the study was reviewed and approved by the host department – the department of industry psychology, the faculty higher degrees and research committee and the university’s ethics department (ethics clearance no: hs19/9/25). the panels aforementioned examined the study for suitability in terms of the research strategies chosen and ethical considerations for an inductive study that would yield rich information from research participants (nowell et al., 2017). finally, according to guba and lincoln (1985), confirmability describes the researcher’s analyses, interpretations and findings. bias in this study was minimised by the researcher’s awareness that his current working and studying arrangement could flaw this analysis. as a result, the supervisor also analysed the data, and cross-checks were administered. as recommended by bengtsson (2016), bias was minimised by triangulating the findings with the literature. bengtsson (2016) informed that the criterion of conformability is achieved when credibility, transferability and dependability are upheld. it can be implied that because the researcher was able to achieve this, the study can be deemed to aspire to the principle of conformability. ethical considerations ethical clearance was granted by the humanities and social science research ethics committee, office of the director, research and innovation division, university of the western cape (hs19/9/25). in addition to obtaining ethical approval of the study from the university, the following ethical principles, namely, debriefing, informed consent, voluntary participation and confidentiality, were upheld in this study. firstly, in applying the principle of informed consent, the researchers discussed the study with the participants and then requested their consent by signing a consent form to show their willingness to participate in the study. secondly, the principle of voluntary participation helped the researchers to assure the participants of their freedom to express themselves without any coercion and the liberty to withdraw at any point they wanted to. thirdly, the researchers managed the anonymity and confidentiality of participants’ personal information and research data by instructing the participants to hide any means of personal identification such as names and identity numbers and by keeping the data collected strictly for research and education purposes only. concerning debriefing, at the end of the fieldwork, the researchers reiterated the intention of the research to the participants to debunk any misconceptions and anxieties they might have about the study and its findings. results and findings the overview of interviewees’ coded responses is provided in table 2. specifically, the table presents the relationship of each research question to each variable and theme. moreover, table 3 shows the final and original coding frameworks that emerged during the data analysis and coding processes. table 3 further shows the research participants’ detailed explanations of their coping mechanisms and experiences concerning working and studying, as presented next to the themes derived from the final coding framework. development and growth the theme ‘development and growth’ was derived from question 1that uncovered working postgraduate students’ perceptions of working while studying and question 4 that elicited suggestions and recommendations from students who are working while studying. of the five participants, four participants reported that their motivation to study while working was because they perceived that it would lead to personal and professional development. they stated the following: ‘i suppose it’s just professional development and more about me developing my career or developing myself from an educational perspective …’ (participant 1). ‘so, the praise motivates me, you know, and also, i want to better myself …’ (participant 2). ‘… a future where your family benefits … and then that’s part of your personal development as well …’ (participant 3). ‘… personal development and knowing how i can grow … the positive impact it can have on the life of me and my family …’ (participant 4). the participants’ responses resonate with mclennan and keating’s (2008) belief that working while studying enables working postgraduates to advance their careers, in addition to govender and wait’s (2017) perspective that personal growth is an outcome of studying while working. the commonality in responses of four of the participants reiterated their belief that working while studying leads to growth. more particularly, both professional growth and personal growth are consequences of studying while working. applicability of knowledge across school and work the theme of applicability of knowledge emerged as a result of participants’ responses to questions 2, 3, 9 and 10. these four questions aimed to understand the challenges, coping mechanisms, and positive and negative perceptions that would emerge from working postgraduate students. four of the participant’s responses were aligned with the theory and practice dilemma in the industrial and organisational psychology literature (hamman-fisher, 2021). it was vital for them to learn the theory in the classroom and then be able to apply it in the workplace. this was emphasised as beneficial because it enhanced their learning. four participants report the following: ‘… you can sort of deem and see applicability in that environment more so than someone that’s not in a working environment who has never been before …’ (participant 1). ‘… yeah, so obviously working and studying i mean i’m getting the practical experience and learning the theory behind it. so, it obviously broadens my thinking box or helps me to think better …’ (participant 2). ‘… i’m able to link the practical and the workplace with my actual studies …’ (participant 3). ‘… it is a bit overwhelming. it’s very overwhelming. but i think it’s more because of the type of person i am because i am an overachiever. so, i not only want to achieve in my academics and my master’s but in the workplace as well …’ (participant 4). however, participant 4 also stated that the effort to excel at school and work is ‘overwhelming’. time management and planning according to baca (2017), many working-class students experience psychological problems and academic challenges because they have not developed time management and planning skills. from question 2, which probed personal views; question 5, which explored the challenges; question 6, which drew academic performance; question 11, which investigated time management; and question 12, which asked for suggestions from working postgraduates about the tie management and planning theme, the five participants responded to the questions as follows: ‘… look, it’s juggling time, hey … it obviously will impact all other aspects of my life, so, personal life, my family …’ (participant 1). ‘i live by a diary. that’s it (laughs). i stick strictly to a diary. everything goes in my diary, because if it’s not in there, i’m going to forget about it …’ (participant 2). ‘… i really just have to set aside time so i normally, you know, use my diary and i kind of just set aside time to say, this is the time that i need to study, and these are the times that i need to do work …’ (participant 3). ‘… i wouldn’t say that i had an extremely negative impact, but it’s more an accumulation of small things. so, there is a stress component, so i didn’t, for example … have a breakdown or i never encountered that, but there’s a lot of little things, like stress, fatigue, time management, pressure from both angles …’ (participant 4). ‘… the biggest one is time management. because you know you’re at work from half past eight to half past four, go home, then you have to start working on your thesis, you have to do a lot of research, data collection …’ (participant 5). drive and ambition the theme of drive and ambition emerged from questions 2 and 8. question 2 explored why students work and study simultaneously, and the purpose of question 8 was to gauge which constructs would emerge to describe how working-class postgraduates overcame challenges. three participants explained as follows: ‘… it depends on which mode i am in, if it’s like hectic stuff going on at work, and i have assignments due here at campus, if i have a test, obviously at that point i would feel tired and a bit stressed or whatever. but normally when i get over the peak, i feel good about myself. i mean, i’ve accomplished something …’ (participant 2). ‘… i felt like quitting in that time, point in time, i felt like just not handing in this assignment, but my father-in-law told me that “you might feel like quitting. just don’t quit.” so, you push through, you, this, you go through, you break through, because you need to break through barriers …’ ‘… so, i started an it degree or diploma, in my first year of my studies i dropped out and was always, i always had the desire for the technical software … i always wanted to upscale myself technically …’ (participant 3). ‘… my education has always been important to me. and i knew from the beginning from my undergrad that i wanted to do my phd …’ (participant 5). struggles and sacrifices curambao et al. (2015) stressed the mental, emotional and physical toll of working while studying. hence, question 8 was constructed to understand the underlying challenges that working postgraduates face. the responses to question 8 were similar to those received for question 6. students narrated their struggles and sacrifices as follows: ‘… working late, working weekends, studying weekends, studying late, it just is what it is, just sacrificing and then also sacrificing personal time …’ (participant 1). ‘… it really affects my academic performance, because i don’t have enough time to do a proper job …’ (participant 3). ‘… sometimes i have put my academic, my thesis at the back end and put my family first. but i’ve seen the consequences of that …’ (participant 5). support system/services the theme support system/service was derived from questions 7 and 8. three participants’ responses to questions 7 and 8 correspond with the views of lowe and gayle (2007), which argue that students’ success depends on the support they receive from the organisations they work for and their families. two participants expound as follows: ‘… no effect, actually, my work, it’s actually really lenient. they support my studies …’ (participant 2). ‘… i think that having that support system around you much earlier, i think that helps and also just promote for me …’ (participant 3). ‘… my family understands at the moment that this is important to me. and they might not be okay with that fact. but we try to balance it out as well as we can …’ (participant 5). work–study balance lastly, the work–study theme was drawn from questions 2, 5 and 8: ‘… i think it’s just you’ve got to prioritise, and you’ve got to plan and don’t wait for the last minute …’ (participant 1). ‘… time management and make sure you set aside time for certain things, you need to share, you need to share your time between social life, work life, study life, but it all needs to be balanced …’ (participant 2). ‘… that is challenging, being able to integrate everything, i did time management training once …’ (participant 3). ‘… my family understands at the moment that this is important to me. and they might not be okay with that fact. but we try to balance it out as well as we can …’ (participant 5). discussion the research findings are discussed about the research objectives and questions aligned to the literature of specific constructs on the working postgraduate student phenomenon. the use of the qualitative research method was twofold. firstly, it was to understand the selected working-class postgraduate students’ perceptions of studying while working simultaneously. secondly, it explored working-class postgraduate students’ negative and positive experiences and their coping mechanisms to meet work and academic demands. it was essential to understand how the participants perceived studying and working simultaneously, what they considered the challenge and their coping mechanisms employed to study and work simultaneously. table 2 shows the summary findings for questions 1 to 13 related to the study’s primary and sub-research questions. objective 1: to explore the selected working-class postgraduates’ perceptions on studying and working simultaneously understanding the selected working-class postgraduates’ perceptions of studying and working was essential. as chinyakata et al. (2019) reported this as a common phenomenon that has arisen because of the high cost of living and tuition fees, exploring this cohort of students would provide insight into their situation. the theme that has emerged in this regard is development and growth. development and growth participants reported that they developed personally, and in their careers, because of studying and working concurrently. the finding correlates with the views of perna (2010) that working students are motivated to improve the quality and the standard of their lives through education (perna, 2010). govender and waite (2017) argued that students enrol in the work and study arrangement for two reasons, namely, to improve the quality of their personal lives and to enhance their career opportunities. according to maslow’s (1954) motivation theory, learning provides the opportunity for growth and development to achieve personal fulfilment. the implication that studying and working concurrently improves students’ chances of career success and their personal lives is essential. in the south african context, it means that because students are working and studying, they are employable and promotable and can improve their living standards. hamman-fisher (2021) and govender and waite (2017) found that learning theory and practice simultaneously allows students to develop the knowledge and skills for the workplace, thereby making them employable. this arrangement of working and studying simultaneously could contribute to lessening the high unemployment rate in south africa (graham et al., 2019; pauw et al., 2008). it, therefore, implies that by working and studying simultaneously, students could improve their employment and career prospects and realise their aspirations. objective 2: to examine the challenges faced by working-class postgraduates at the selected university and how they overcome these problems there is substantial evidence from the research study data to support a relationship between the challenges of working postgraduate students and their academic and career success. the study data were further supported by the indication that coping strategies such as time management, support systems/service, work–study balance, and drive and ambition are employed to overcome the challenges that working-class postgraduates experience. hence, the following four constructs, namely, time management, support system/services, work–study balance, and drive and ambition, are discussed below in working postgraduates’ challenges. time management the participants specifically proposed efficient planning as a strategy to overcome their limited time challenges. nasrullah and khan (2015) emphasised that good time management contributes to students’ academic success. according to mohamed et al. (2018), students with good time management skills also benefit from reduced stress. this theme encapsulates the working-class postgraduates’ need to develop and maintain good time management skills, as evidenced in the participants’ responses. in addition, the participants also noted how challenging it is to cope with an extremely busy schedule. hence, they suggested that balancing family time, socialising and prioritising studies are critical. martinez et al. (2013) likewise found that doctoral students are not only forced to balance their school, work and life commitments but also find the situation extremely challenging. in other words, the study’s findings and the literature suggest that there is a link between time management and work–life balance to achieve academic success. support system/services participants 2, 3 and 5 recognised the value of having a support system or network. there is consensus among the participants that support from employers and family can diminish the stress associated with studying and working simultaneously. their views concur with defauw et al. (2018), who found that students perform well when they perceive they are surrounded by caring and empathetic peers or groups. they argued that a support group can be beneficial in providing emotional strength and keeping working students motivated and accountable for their goals (defauw et al., 2018). similarly, tang et al. (2013) affirmed that family support is often a strong motivating factor in students’ pursuit of higher education. according to lowe and gayle (2007), student’s success is dependent on the nature and quality of the support they receive from both their families and the organisations they work for. the theme highlights that the study has key implications for the work–family field theoretically (i.e. increasing the understanding of the nomological social support and work–family conflict) and practically (recognising the types of support policies and structures that employers should develop and implement). drive and ambition the participants revealed that they were driven to achieve their goals. one participant reported that from the outset they aimed to have a phd qualification while working. according to stinebrickner and stinebrickner (2003), it is not unusual to observe that individuals who perform well academically are motivated to achieve higher levels in their studies. jewel (2014) also reported that working-class students’ ambition is apparent in their workplace. moreover, individuals’ ambition is inherent in their core beliefs about their ability. as a result, ambitious individuals will shape their life’s main events and performances to deliver their desired outcomes. almomani and theeb (2016) suggested that a commitment to goals can stimulate investment in an individual’s future. it is now forcing working-class postgraduates to grapple with inevitable challenges that require a resolution. objective 3: to identify the positive and negative effects of studying while working the literature identified both positive and negative implications for studying and working simultaneously. while agyapong and owusu-ansah (2012) reported that pursuing studies while working full-time can be overwhelming, watts and pickering (2000) argued that there are benefits that can be derived from such an arrangement. in this regard, two themes are presented under this objective: struggles and sacrifices and the applicability of knowledge across school and work. struggles and sacrifices many students in developing countries, like south africa, are under enormous stress to acquire a university education (matheuws, 2018). however, this study stresses that university education is accomplished when students work while studying and are responsible for their tuition. participants in the study expounded on the long work hours and personal sacrifices they must make to work while studying. one participant explains that they experienced severe negative consequences when prioritising family responsibilities above studies. the current findings resonate with evans et al. (2014), who also found that working students make enormous personal sacrifices to study and work concurrently. the authors explained that working students must engage in their studies on weekends and give up precious time with their families. the findings suggest that failure to make studies a priority could have detrimental consequences. it implies that working-class postgraduates have to sacrifice the time they ought to spend with their families to be able to cope with their studies. curambao et al. (2015) highlighted working students’ mental, emotional and physical anguish in their study and found sleep deprivation a common problem among working students. working-class postgraduates feel that they do not have enough time to attend to all their commitments. likewise, baca (2017) cautioned that the responsibility of academic demands’ family commitments and work commitments can lead to burnout, extreme exhaustion, depression and a lack of motivation. as a result, baca (2017) reported that students become more assertive and communicate that additional time is required to complete academic and work demands and time management skills. applicability of knowledge across school and work most participants in the study shared that working and studying simultaneously is advantageous because they acquire knowledge in their studies and apply it in their workplaces. in other words, they overcome the challenge of first learning theory and later transport the understanding and application of it, after graduation, to the workplace (govender & wait, 2017; hamman-fisher, 2021). this study’s findings corroborate frean’s (2007) finding that motivation for combining work and studies is the acquisition of transferable skills. the infusion of learning theory and applying it simultaneously is one way of responding to the criticism levelled against university graduates (augustyn & cillié, 2008; schreuder, 2001). participant 3 believes that the study–work arrangement can link theory and application, which may not have been accomplished with the traditional style of education. this finding correlates with another study that posits that learning is enhanced when connections are made between theory and practice (hamman-fisher, 2021). what is also significant about this theme is that the data reflect that working-class postgraduates developed skills, such as time management, when engaging in theory and practice at the same time. this echoes the view of lave (1996) who reasoned that applying theory to a real-life situation is more effective than abstract formal classroom learning because knowledge is learnt and skill is cultivated. moreover, hamman-fisher and mcghie (2021) reported that the working class find jobs more easily because employers use work experience and educational level as recruitment criteria. in addition, watts and pickering (2000) argued that the skill students cultivate in the workplace is fundamental to their academic journey and career progression. hence, this study’s findings suggest that working and studying provide more than financial assistance. it is an education, training and development experience that opens doors for employment and promotion. introducing a positive coping mechanism model for work–study balance the research participants were all in agreement that time management and planning are the antidotes to procrastination. moreover, the research participants acknowledged the importance of time management and how effective it is when juggling postgraduate studies and work commitments alongside personal life matters. in line with nasrullah and khan (2015), they affirmed that time management is strongly related to academic success. nasrullah and khan (2015) provided a useful framework for time management. they proposed that the three dimensions of time management are long-range planning, short-range planning and time attitude. long-range planning is concerned with the efficient execution of routine tasks over a long period of time, for example, knowing how long it would take to complete certain daily tasks at work or at home. most individuals have mastered this type of time management. on the other hand, short-range planning is concerned with carrying out specialised tasks with precision. furthermore, time attitude refers to how individuals must place emphasis on tasks that yield the best results. in addition, this study discovered that working-class postgraduates’ motivation is linked to development, growth and employability. the research participants shared that, despite the burden that working and studying in tandem yields, the ability to apply new knowledge across both school and work contexts is highly beneficial. the research participants’ responses also highlighted the pivotal role of clear goals and strong motivation. they suggested that, in order to cope, their motivation levels should be greater than the challenges they face. it was found that motivation can be more easily sustained if support is readily available across all the relevant domains (school, work, life). the participants placed great emphasis on the support that they receive from both their institutions and their families and peers. they also mentioned that setting expectations with family members and employers is essential for minimising disappointment and frustration on both sides. kember’s (1999) early coping mechanism model supports the above findings. kember’s (1999) early coping mechanism model for students consists of the following three elements: sacrifice, negotiation and support. the model was later elaborated on to include four main variables: work, family, social and self with each interacting with the three elements (kember & leung, 2004; kember et al., 2005). this model is highly relevant to the findings of this investigation. for example, participant 5’s report on sacrificing family time in lieu of service of her academic commitments would be classified as ‘family/sacrifice’ in the model. meanwhile, the ‘social/sacrifice’ interaction, wherein social relationships or activities are neglected to accommodate classes and tests, was evident in participant 2’s response. participant 5 also experienced the ‘family/negotiation’ interaction, which involves reaching an agreement with one’s family members about one’s new academic responsibilities. in terms of understanding the coping mechanisms adopted by the five participants, it can be said that their coping mechanisms are strongly linked to their motivation and ambition and their final goal(s). all of the participants were highly motivated and extremely clear on their reasons for working and studying simultaneously. moreover, they all utilised whatever coping mechanisms or resources were available to achieve their individual goals. they moved adaptably between accessing support, negotiating terms with employers or family members, and making sacrifices in their personal lives, depending on which options were available to them. this was always done in service of their broader goals and ambitions. in this regard, participant 3’s statement is noteworthy: ‘it’s short-term sacrifices for longer-term things’. these findings imply that, ultimately, the participants’ ambition and drive outweigh the difficulties they encounter as working students. working and studying concurrently is not mandatory, nor is it imposed on anyone. the decision to pursue this path lies entirely with the participants and, as such, is a reflection of the strength of their desires and convictions. in view of the previous findings, the researchers devised the coping mechanism model to assist the participants in finding success in their combined academic and professional pursuits. this model was developed with close reference to kember et al.’s (2005) coping mechanism strategies and nasrullah and khan’s (2015) work on time management and motivation. figure 1 shows a work–life demands coping mechanism model as postulated in this study. figure 1: proposed work–study–life demands coping mechanism model. implication this proposed model of coping mechanisms for working-class postgraduates is designed to bring about an optimum balance between work and study demands. the model flows in both directions: firstly, working-class postgraduates need to comprehend the key dimensions of time management, as mentioned by nasrullah and khan (2015) and discussed earlier: short-term range, long-term range and time attitude. understanding how to organise time according to these dimensions will enable the smooth application of the three coping mechanism strategies proposed by kember et al. (2005), namely, sacrifice, support and negotiate. applying these strategies can facilitate the attainment of the specific goals that working-class postgraduates have, without their personal lives, family lives, social lives and work responsibilities being adversely affected. motivation lies at the top of the diagram, because it drives goal setting and provides the impetus or need for effective time management in the first place. on the contrary, if working-class postgraduates dismiss or fail to apply the dimensions of time management, the entire flow of the model is disrupted. in such cases, working-class postgraduates rely solely on their motivation when pursuing their goals, which, in the absence of good time management, can have a negative impact on well-being, relationships and responsibilities. despite the same results being achieved, the costs in the case of poor time management can be high. therefore, the balancing of effective time management with strong motivation and goal setting, as proposed by this model, is the ideal coping strategy for working-class postgraduates. recommendation the following five recommendations are intended to address the issues raised by the working-class postgraduates: working-class postgraduates should prioritise tasks from most important to least important. this will help them determine how much time, energy and attention should be allocated to each task that needs to be completed. setting more realistic expectations can enable peace of mind for working-class postgraduates. if employers and family are aware of the expectations that working-class postgraduates have set, then cohesion can be fostered with family, friends and employers. familiarising themselves with the course they have enrolled in – including its specific requirements and contents – is a crucial exercise that working-class postgraduates often overlook or undervalue. adequate pre-reading and content familiarisation can provide working-class postgraduates with an advantage, reducing the time spent on trying to understand the course material. working-class postgraduates should form alliances with their classmates. the literature stresses that individuals who belong to support groups typically cope much better than those who do not. a support group should be established at the beginning of the semester, in the form of a collective study group, for example, wherein group members share information with each other if one or more members are unable to attend a particular lecture. where possible, working-class postgraduates should link up or network with their counterparts who have successfully completed the journey of simultaneous working and studying, to gain insights and possible mentorship. future research future research could undertake a quantitative investigation of the phenomenon and statistically test certain relationships among variables involved. moreover, given the high adoption rate of blended learning/e-learning in south africa, future research could also explore whether blended learning is better suited to working-class postgraduates than the face-to-face lectures. limitation the researchers acknowledge challenges of a small sampling size. therefore, caution should be exercised when transferring the findings to other settings. the transferability principle applies when the participants in the setting share inherent characteristics with research participants, such as other working postgraduates. concerning the generalisability of the study’s findings, as the study was qualitative, the principle of generalisability is not applicable because the researchers only sought to understand phenomena involved. conclusion given the study’s findings, the researchers conclude that working and studying simultaneously is highly demanding and challenging. nevertheless, time management skills and planning, drive and ambition, work–study balance and support from employers and family are significant coping factors that promote working-class postgraduates’ success in their careers and studies. hence, the study reiterates that effective time management and planning are the most critical skills to possess when working and studying simultaneously. acknowledgements the authors of this study would like to acknowledge all the research participants and appreciate the invaluable information provided in the course of the field work. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions d.a. rockman designed and developed the research concepts, writing and compilation of reports, data collection, analysis and presentation of results. c.o.k. allen-ile and j.k. aderibigbe supervised all the activities mentioned earlier. b. mahembe edited the manuscript while d. hamman-fisher contributed partly to the research methods and discussion sections of the manuscript. funding information this research project received no funding from any public, private and non-profit organisations. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agencies of the authors. references abenoja, r., accion, n., aguila, j., alcasid, m., amoguis, d., mama, a., & pame, j. (2019). the experiences of working while studying: a phenomenological study of senior high school students. davao city. agyapong, v., & owusu-ansah, w. (2012). worklife balance among part-time mba students of the kwame nkrumah university of science and technology school of business in ghana. international journal of business and social science, 3(13), 14–21. almomani, f., & theeb, a. (2016). the ambition level and its relation with perceived self-efficacy in light of certain variables among a sample of jordanian universities students. international journal of asian social science, 6(12), 683–697. https://doi.org/10.18488/journal.1/2016.6.12/1.12.683.697 ang, t. (2008). balancing work and life among students. master’s thesis, auckland university of technology. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10292/535 augustyn, j.c.d., & cillié, g. (2008). theory and practice in industrial psychology: quo vadis? sa journal of industrial psychology, 34(1), 70–75. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v34i1.419 baca, v. (2017). exploring the interrelationships between school-work-life balance among college students. student research. california state polytechnic university. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/184926 barbanchon, t., ubfal, d., & araya, f. (2019). the effects of working while in school. vox eu cepr. retrieved from https://voxeu.org/article/effects-working-while-school bengtsson, m. (2016). how to plan and perform a qualitative study using content analysis. nursingplus open, 2, 8–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.npls.2016.01.001 beqiri, t., & mazreku, i. (2020). lifelong learning, training and development employee’s perspective. journal of educational and social research, 10(2), 94. https://doi.org/10.36941/jesr-2020-0029 berg, b. (2001). qualitative research methods for the social sciences. allyn and bacon. bryman, a., bell, e., hirschsohn, p., dos santos, a., du toit, j., masenge, a., van aardt, i., & wagner, c. (2014). research methodology. business and management context. oxford university press. bulger, c., matthews, r., & hoffman, m. (2007). work and personal life boundary management: boundary strength, work/personal life balance, and the segmentation-integration continuum. journal of occupational health psychology, 12(4), 365–375. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.12.4.365 chaitra, r., ashok-kumar, r., & murthy, t. (2016). a study of work life balance of the employees at bosch ltd, bangalore. bims international journal of social science research, 1(2), 2–8. chinyakata, r., raselekoane, n.r., & regaugetswe consolia mphahlele, r. (2019). factors contributing to postgraduate students working and studying simultaneously and its effects on their academic performance. african renaissance, 16(1), 65–81. https://doi.org/10.31920/2516-5305/2019/v16n1a4 creswell, j.w., & creswell, j.d. (2018). research design. sage. curambao, l., yapching, i., casinillo, j., lungayan, m., tolentino, n., castillo, m., & enojardo, l. (2015). problems encountered by working students and its effect on their academic performance: proposed action plan. a thesis, universiti teknologi mara. defauw, c., levering, k., msipa, r.t., & abraham, s. (2018). families’ support and influence on college students’ educational performance. journal of education and development, 2(1), 11–19. https://doi.org/10.20849/jed.v2i1.312 devlin, m., james, r., & grigg, g. (2008). studying and working: a national study of student finances and student engagement. tertiary education and management, 14(2), 111–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/13583880802053044 duckworth, a., & seligman, m.e. (2006). self-discipline gives girls the edge: gender in self-discipline, grades, and achievement test scores. journal of educational psychology, 98(1), 198–208. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.98.1.198 evans, c., & donnelly, m. (2018). deterred by debt? young people, schools and the escalating cost of uk higher education. journal of youth studies, 21(3), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2018.1461815 evans, c., richardson, m., & gbadamosi, g. (2014). the work – study nexus: the challenges of balancing full time business degree study with a part-time job. research in post-compulsory education, 13(3), 302–309. https://doi.org/10.1080/13596748.2014.920582 fouché, c.b., & schurink, w. (2011). qualitative research designs. in a.s. de vos, h. strydom, c.b. fouché, & c.s.l. delport (eds.), research at grassroots: for the social sciences and human service professions (4th ed., pp. 433–448). van schaik publishers. frean, a. (2007, january 12). three college leavers for every graduate. time. retrieved from https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/three-college-leavers-for-every-graduate-vacancy-msvn657tdtb fusch, p.i., lawrence, r., & ness, l.r. (2015). are we there yet? data saturation in qualitative research. the qualitative report, 20(9), 1408–1416. retrieved from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/qr/qr20/9/fusch1.pdf govender, c., & wait, m. (2017). work integrated learning benefits for student career prospects – mixed mode analysis. south african journal of higher education, 31(5), 49–64. https://doi.org/10.28535/31-5-60 graham, l., williams, l., & chisoro, c. (2019). barriers to the labour market for unemployed graduates in south africa. journal of education and work, 32(4), 360–376. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2019.1620924 guba, e., & lincoln, y. (1985). naturalistic inquiry. sage. hamman-fisher, d.a. (2021). closing the theory and practice divide in an undergraduate industrial psychology module. doctoral dissertation, university of the western cape. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11394/8157 hamman-fisher, d.a., & mcghie, v.f. (2021). a situated learning approach to build relationships between universities and industry to develop a competent workforce. in proceedings of the 14th annual international conference of education, research and innovation conference (pp. 6360–6369), 8–9 november 2021. https://doi.org/10.21125/iceri.2021.1442 hovdhaugen, e. (2015). working while studying: the impact of term-time employment on dropout rates. journal of education and work, 28(6), 631–651. jeske, d., & o’mahony, m. (2019). study-work-life balance of international students in the context of temporal boundaries. journal of interdisciplinary studies in education, 7(2), 63–79. https://doi.org/10.32674/jise.v7i2.269 jewel, s. (2014). the impact of working while studying on educational and labour market. business and economics journal, 5(110), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4172/2151-6219.1000110 johnson, j., rochkind, j., ott, a.n., & dupont, s. (2009). with their whole life ahead of them: myths and realities about why so many students fail to finish college. public agenda. retrieved from http://www.publicagenda.org/theirwholelivesaheadofthem kember, d. (1999). integrating part-time study with family, work and social obligations. studies in higher education, 24(1), 109–124. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079912331380178 kember, d., & leung, d. (2004). relationship between the employment of coping mechanisms and a sense of belonging for part-time students. educational psychology, 24(3), 345–357. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144341042000211689 kember, d., ying, c.k., wan, c.s., yung, c.s., wai, c.t., mui, c.y., wing, c.k., heung, l.k., sam, l.l., chi, l.w., wanze, l.w.s., chuen, t.k., anne, t.o.y., chu, t.l., & jason, t. (2005). how students cope with part-time studies: an analysis of coping mechanism through an on-line forum. active learning in higher education, 6(3), 230–242. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787405057662 kuhnle, c., hofer, m., & kilian, b. (2010). the relationship of value orientations, self-control, frequency of school-leisure conflicts, and life balance in adolescence. learning and individual differences, 20(3), 251–255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2010.02.003 lave, j. (1996). teaching, as learning, in practice. mind, culture and activity, 3(3), 149–164. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327884mca0303_2 leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2010). practical research. pearson. lowe, j., & gayle, v. (2007). exploring the work/life/study balance: the experience of higher education students in a scottish further education college. journal of further and higher education, 31(3), 225–238. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098770701424942 martinez, e., ordu, c., della sala, m., & mcfarlane, a. (2013). striving to obtain a school-work-life balance: the full-time doctoral student. international journal of doctoral studies, 8, 39–59. https://doi.org/10.28945/1765 maslow, a.h. (1954). motivation and personality. harper & row. matheuws, k. (2018). the working time-poor: time poverty implications for working students’ involvement. thesis and dissertation services. ohio university. mclennan, b., & keating, s. (2008, june). work-integrated learning (wil) in australian universities: the challenges of mainstreaming wil. paper presented at the altc nagcas national symposium. meyer, m. (2016). introduction to human resource development. in m. meyer, m. bushney, m. katz, g. knoke, j. ludike, b. nel, h. schenk, s. smith, j. van niekerk, & r. wolfson (eds.), managing human resource development: a strategic learning approach (5th ed., pp. 1–24). lexisnexis. mohamed, o., hamal, r., & mohamed, k. (2018). a study on time management: case of northeast normal university’s international students. europoean journal of alternative education studies, 3(1), 17–30. mounsey, r., vandehey, m., & diekhoff, g. (2013). working and non-working university students: anxiety, depression, and grade point average. college student journal, 47(2), 379–389. nasrullah, s., & khan, m. (2015). the impact of time management on the students’ academic achievement. journal of literature, languages and linguistics, 11, 66–71. nieuwenhuis, j. (2016). qualitative research designs and data-gatheing techniques. in j.w. creswell, l. ebersöhn, i. eloff, r. ferreira, n.v. ivankova, j.d. jansen, j. nieuwenhuis, j. pietersen, & v.l. plano clark (eds.), first steps in research (2nd ed., pp. 71–102). van schaik publishers. nilsson, b. (2019). the school-to-work transition in developing countries. the journal of development studies, 55(5), 745–764. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2018.1475649 nowell, l., norris, j., white, d., & moules, n. (2017). thematic analysis: striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria. international journal of qualitative methods, 16, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406917733847 ojo, i.s., falola, h.o., & mordi, c. (2014). work-life balance policies and practices: a case study of nigerian female university students. european journal of business and management, 6(12), 184–193. pace, f., & sciotto, g. (2022). gender differences in the relationship between work–life balance, career opportunities and general health perception. sustainability, 14, 357. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14010357 patton, m.q. (2002). qualitative research & evaluation methods (3rd ed.). sage. pauw, k., oosthuizen, m., & van der westhuizen, c. (2008). graduate unemployment in the face of skills shortages: a labour market paradox. south african journal of economics, 76(1), 45–57. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2008.00152.x perna, l. (2010). understanding the working college student: new research and its implications for policy and practice. stylus. sanchez-gelabert, a., figueroa, m., & elias, m. (2017). working whilst studying in higher education: the impact of the economic crisis on academic and labour market success. european journal of education, 52, 231–244. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12212 saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2009). research methods for business students (5th ed.). pearson prentice hall. schreuder, d. (2001). the development of industrial psychology at south african universities: a historical overview and future perspective. journal of industrial psychology, 27(4), 2–7. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v27i4.792 seeley, a.c. (2015). work-family balance: an interpretive approach to understanding perceptions and strategies of dual-earner couples in cape town, south africa. university of south africa. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10500/18793 sharma, a., mor, s., garg, r., chhikara, r., pal, a., & narula, s. (2021). work-life-study balance and executive education: case of india. millennial asia, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/09763996211020537 stinebrickner, r., & stinebrickner, t.r. (2003). working during school and academic performance. journal of labor economics, 21(2), 473–491. https://doi.org/10.1086/345565 tang, j., kim, s., & haviland, d. (2013). role of family, culture, and peers in the success of first-generation cambodian american college students. journal of southeast asian american education and advancement, 8(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.7771/2153-8999.1057 thamrin, y., pisaniello, d., guerin, c., & rothmore, p. (2019). correlates of work-study conflict among international students in australia: a multivariate analysis. international journal of environmental research and public health, 16(15), 2695. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16152695 tumin, t., & faizuddin, a. (2017). the experiences of working while studying: a case study of postgraduate students at international islamic university malaysia. a paper preseented at the 6th aceh development international conference, 24–26 march. kuala lumpur. tumin, t., faizuddin, a., purnomo, h., aisyah, n., & mansir, f. (2020). working students in higher education: challenges and solutions. al-hayat: journal of islamic education (ajie), 4(1), 79. https://doi.org/10.35723/ajie.v4i1.108 tymon, a. (2013). the student perspective on employability. studies in higher education, 38(6), 841–856. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2011.604408 watts, c., & pickering, a. (2000). pay as you learn: student employment and academic progress. education and training, 42(3), 129–134. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400910010372670 zainal, z. (2017). case study as a research method. jurnal kemanusiaan, 5(1). retrieved from https://jurnalkemanusiaan.utm.my/index.php/kemanusiaan/article/view/165 4smith.qxd the south african government has visibly demonstrated its intention to deal with the problem of inequalit y and discrimination in the workplace, bringing about a diverse workforce representative of south africa’s demographics. the employment equity act, 1998 (act no. 55 of 1998), together with the labour relations act, 1995 (act no. 66 of 1995), the basic conditions of employment act, 1997 (act no. 75 of 1997), and the skills development act, 1998 (act no. 97 of 1998) are but a few of the regulations put in place to achieve these objectives. the employment equity act was promulgated in 1998 and the purpose of this act is “to achieve equity in the workplace by – a) promoting equal opportunity and fair treatment in employment through the elimination of unfair discrimination, and b) implementing aff irmative action measures to redress the disadvantaged in employment experienced by designated groups, in order to ensure their equitable representation in all occupational categories and levels in the workforce”. in terms of the act, designated groups mean black people, women and people with disabilities” (1998, p. iv). four years have passed since the promulgation of the act, given ample time for the introduction and implementation of the principles and requirements within the working environment. adherence to and the implementation of the requirements were however received with mixed feelings by industry. employers identified various factors; legacy issues, business processes, corporate culture, skills scarcity and financial constraints as restrictive factors hindering optimal realization/attainment of the objectives (commission for employment equity annual report, 2001). the annual employment equity report for the period may 1999 to june 2001 revealed that many employers responded positively to the initiatives, seeing it as part of the overall strategic positioning of the business. on the other hand, the report has shown that workplace segregation along race and gender lines still exists, with a huge under representation of black people and women in top and senior management. it thus seems as if the process of implementation didn’t occur at the same pace in all industries nor perceived by all in a similar fashion. in this regard human (2000) pointed out that the employment equity act (1998) requires a fundamental change in the way we think about and perceive people and if this doesn’t take place, the implementation of an employment equity strategy will remain problematic. swanepoel, erasmus, van wyk and schenk (2000, p. 157) agreed, pointing to the fact that “laws can require organisations to hire and promote historically disadvantaged individuals, the law howe ver cannot remove societal bar riers arising from people’s attitudes”. in this instance, competing views of the relationship bet ween individuals and broad society can have profound implications on each other’s view of equity and equality. strict adherence to the regulations alone is thus not sufficient if a company wants to attain success in this area. according to human, good employment equit y is part and parcel of good people management and “good people management leads to increased productivity” (http://www.csls.org.za/dw/art3c.html). the employment equity questionnaire in accordance with the act, the compilation of an employment equity audit is required to determine the current status quo, to identif y disparities and it also forms part of the annual employment equity report. against this backdrop, companies are confronted with the dilemma of effective and reliable measurement of their progress up to date in order to determine the extent of adherence to the regulations. attempts have been made to develop measurement instruments, ranging from simple checklists, interviews, rapid audits to comprehensive and structured questionnaires (sacht, 2001). the results of such an audit will enable companies to assess whether the required policies, practices and procedures exist and to what extent it is being enforced. such a questionnaire to appraise employment equity practices in a company, named the employment equity questionnaire, was compiled by organisational diagnostics in association with ernest & young and was presented to different companies to complete. this instrument focussed on determining the degree of compliance and can be considered as being context specific. the conducting of an audit by means of a questionnaire is a widely used and acceptable practice, given that the questionnaire complies to requirements of sound construct helena smith gert roodt department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract the primary objective of the study was to determine whether the employment equity questionnaire detects significant differences between employment equity practices of companies from different industries in order to assess the discriminant validity of the scale. samples of convenience from nine different companies representing different industries, constituted a larger sample of 4729. first and second level factor analyses on 41 common items across all nine companies yielded a single scale with an acceptable alpha coefficient of 0,959. analysis of variance, followed by post hoc contrast tests, indicated significant differences between some organisations. the discriminant validity of the scale could be established and recommendations for further improvement of the scale were made. opsomming die doel van die studie was om te bepaal of die “employment equity questionnaire” betekenisvolle verskille kan uitwys tussen die werkgelykheidspraktyke van maatskappye vanuit verskeie industrieë ten einde die diskriminante geldigheid van die instrument te bepaal. gerieflikheidsteekproewe van nege verskillende maatskappye, verteenwoordigend van verskillende industrieë, het ’n totale steekproef van 4729 daargestel. eerste en tweede vlak faktorontledings is op 41 gemeenskaplike items oor al nege maatksappye gedoen en dit het ’n aanvaarbare alfa koëffisiënt van 0,959 opgelewer. ’n variansie-ontleding, gevolg deur post hoc kontrastoetse, het op betekenisvolle verskille tussen die onderskeie organisasies gedui. die diskriminante geldigheid van die instrument kon vasgestel word en aanbevelings ter verbetering daarvan is aan die hand gedoen. are industries responding differently to the employment equity challenge? requests for copies should be addressed to: h smith, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 32 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (1), 32-41 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (1), 32-41 compilation to ensure optimal validity and reliability. it is therefore essential to take cognisance of the principles and criteria underpinning questionnaire construction, as it will impact on the quality of the measuring instrument that will be used and the data obtained. in this regard, the criteria and work method identified by schepers (1992) will be used as guideline in assessing the employment equity questionnaire. bailey (1982, p. 113) stated that the key word in questionnaire construction is “relevance”, paying particular attention to “(the) relevance of the study’s goals, (the) relevance of the questions to the goals of the study and (the) relevance of the questions to the individual respondent”. schepers (1992) agreed, stating that at the outset the construct (employment equit y) should be theoretically founded. in this respect, equality in the workplace entails “the systematic identification and removal of underlying causes of discrimination in order to give persons, or categories of persons, equal opportunities” (watkins, 2002, p. 18). care should therefore to be taken to ensure that the questions posted, adequately measure the theoretical concept, and that the sample of respondents answer the questions adequately. this statement presumes that the questionnaire as measuring instrument will be valid. bailey (1982, p. 68) quoted selltiz, who defined the validity of a measuring instrument as the “extent to which differences in scores on it reflect true differences among individual on the characteristics we seek to measure”. this implies that the questionnaire measures the concept in question and that the concept is being measured accurately. reliability of an instrument in turn points to the consistency of measurements. as stated by bailey (1982, p. 73) “a measure is reliable if the measurement doesn’t change when the concept being measured remains constant in value” and “if the concept being measured does change in value, a reliable measure will indicate that change”. according to schepers (1992), the second issue in questionnaire construction encompasses the domain upon which the construct applies. in this respect, the domain is that of employment equity practices, as demonstrated in the overall focus of the act being the removal of barriers for those previously denied access to jobs, appointments and developmental opportunities in the workplace. this requires ascertaining fairness and equitability in employment practices in order to ensure equality for all employees through the implementation of non-discriminatory policies and practices (sacht, 2001). in relation to this, human and dentin (1997, p.1) noted “affirmative action imperatives are often not supported by organisational structures such as policies and procedures”. from this it is clear that the implementation of employment equity practices would touch on all human resource (hr) functions/areas as well as policies and procedures in organisations. in order to measure compliance with legislation, as well as the progress of implementation, each of these areas, with its associated policies and principles, need to be covered in an audit. the scope of a thorough and comprehensive employment equity audit thus goes beyond a mere ticking of a list, it has to cover an array of hr areas. this is in agreement with de beer and clow (2001, p.32), who have advised that an employment equity questionnaire should include the following categories; “personal information, equality, performance and pay, recruitment and development, policies and procedures, employee welfare and participation and affirmative action”. according to human (2002, p.2), research, and the auditing of many large organisations with respect to people management, have indeed revealed that the “development and promotion opportunities, performance management, managerial attitudes towards race, gender diversity and human dignity, the eradication of discrimination and the development of potential” are areas of dissatisfaction amongst employees. the various hr areas that have to be covered in an audit can collectively be grouped under three major functions; provision, maintenance and training and development (carrell, elbert, hatfield, grobler, marx, & van der schyf (1998), gerber, nel and van dyk (1995), and sacht (2001)). each of these three functions consists of various sub-functions, with policies and principles underpinning all as demonstrated in figure 1. employment equity practices within all of these three functions, as well as the sub-functions, need to reflect fairness and equity both in the compilation of and addressing of practices, resulting in equitable participation of designated groups. this ties in with the third aspect described by schepers (1992), where the sub-domains need to be identified, being the various hr sub-functions. provision maintenance training & development policies and procedures figure 1: human resource function in organisations fourthly, schepers (1992) indicated that these identified subdomains need to be operationalised and described in observable terms or behavioural indicators. these behavioural indicators are used to merge the theoretical concepts and the empirical variables with each other. for illustrative purposes, a few questions from the employment equity questionnaire will be added to illuminate the sub-domain of concern. within a formal questionnaire, four to five questions will be designed to comprehensively assess each sub-domain ensuring that both the construct as well as the domain is covered. provision: this is the first phase in the hr process and consists of paving the way for the organisation to equip itself with employees. affirmative action measures should be in place, visibly demonstrating the company’s intention to redress disadvantages in employment and ensuring equitable representation in all occupational categories and levels in the workplace. in the analysis of the job, the compilation of job descriptions, recruitment advertisements, selection procedures and induction, practices or factors should be followed that positively promote employment equity and diversity in the workplace. in these procedures there should be no practices that could be seen as biased, inappropriate or unsupportive of employment equity. all of the hr functions pertaining to provision may not in any way discriminate against any employee on any grounds identified by the relevant legislation. � job analysis being the “process by which management systematically investigates the tasks, duties and responsibilities of the jobs within an organisation. the process includes investigating the level of decision-making by employees within a job category, the skills employees need to do a job adequately, the autonomy of the job in question and the mental effort required to perform the job” (carrell et al., 1998, p. 78). machines operated, working conditions and other specific responsibilities must be included in the analysis of the job. the end result of the job analysis is a job description, which is used in the recruitment process as well as in job evaluation upon which remuneration decision are taken. � a job specification contains the “minimum qualifications a person must have to be considered for the job” (carrell et al., 1998, p. 97). this would include skills, knowledge and abilities. in saqa terms, this would refer to unit standards against which competencies are assessed. � job design; defined by carrell et al. (1998, p. 109) as “the manipulation of the content, functions and relationships of jobs in a way that both accomplishes organisational purposes and satisfies the personal needs of individual job holders”. � hr planning defined by carrell et al. (1998, p. 142) as “the process of systematically reviewing human resource requirements to ensure that the required number of employees, with the employment equity challenge 33 required skills are available when they are needed”. � recruitment is the process of “acquiring applicants who are available and qualified to fill positions in the organisation” (carrell et al., 1998, p. 138). � selection described by (carrell et al., 1998, p. 17) as the process where “the best suited individual for a particular position is chosen from a group of applicants”. it is evident that the criteria used should reflect employment equit y principles. � pre-employment assessment is the process where applicants might be assessed on a variety of interviews and tests, ranging from psychological, knowledge, performance, aptitude and medical tests. � appointment is the follow up of the recruitment and selection process and is described as the process where “an individual is placed in a position in the organisation” (gerber et. al 1995, p. 152). � induction being the “process of introducing new employees to the goals of the organisation, its policies and procedures, its values, the co-workers as well as the activities of the tasks to be performed and the equipment to be used” (carrell et al., 1998, p. 204). in terms of recruitment, question 17 is presented as example: “in the company, recruitment takes place without discrimination in terms of gender, language group or religion”. maintenance: this process entails strategies to retain and motivate employees to achieve both personal and organisational goals. equitable practices in all of the hr functions pertaining to maintenance should be enforced in accordance to relevant legislation to ensure that there is no discrimination against employees and that designated employees are managed in an equitable fashion and not excluded from opportunities. � performance appraisal and evaluation systems are associated with assessing an employee’s job performance as well as providing feedback on the effectiveness of duty performance. it is important that this process should involve “the systematic and equitable collection of performance information” (ivancevich et al. 1996, p. 203). � remuneration/compensation management refers to the complete spectrum of “both extrinsic rewards such as monetary reward (salary, bonuses, incentives) as well as intrinsic rewards such as achieving personal goals, autonomy and more challenging job opportunities” (carrell et al., 1998, p. 370). inclusive of extrinsic rewards are the employee benefits (insurance, retirement, medical, leave, recreational) and -services available to employees. � terms and conditions of employment, this outlines the specific circumstances of employment and include the psychological contract as defined by rousseau (1989) “as the individually held beliefs about the terms of the exchange between employer and employee”. in the allocation of job assignments, the work environment and access to facilities, no unfair distinctions should be made between employees and work conditions should accommodate cultural or religious differences. � promotions occur where an employee is reassigned to a higher-level job and is normally seen as the “recognition of the person’s past performance” (carrell et al., 1998, p. 237). promotion can include a transfers or relocation to another area or town. once again this process should not be to the disadvantage of any employee group. � terminations of employment e.g. retrenchment, disciplinary practices, demotions and dismissals should be justified and carried out fairly and in accordance with applicable legislation. the nature of dismissals, voluntary terminations and retrenchments of employees from designated groups should be free from internal or external equity related factors contributing to such terminations. in terms of promotion, question 58 is posed as an example: “the best people irrespective of language group, gender or religion are promoted”. training and development: this area covers employee skills and management development as well as training opportunities emphasising the fact that it should be accessible to designated employees and based on the identification of individual training needs and not on assumed group training needs. in addition to the employment equity act, the south african qualification authorities act, 1995 (act no. 58 of 1995) and the skills development act, 1998 (act no. 97 of 1998) introduced a new regulatory framework for devising and implementing strategies and plans for improving occupational skills and qualifications of south africans. hr functions pertaining to training and development may not in any way discriminate against any employee on any grounds identified by the relevant legislations. � health education programmes informing all employees on standards of living and not discriminating against people with diseases. this includes practices relating to the management of e.g. hiv/aids in the workplace to ensure that people living with diseases are not discriminated against. � career management being the process of “designing and implementing goals, plans and strategies that enable hr professional and managers to satisf y workforce needs and allow individual to achie ve their career objectives” (carrell et al., 1998, p. 347). individual career planning is seen as the process where each employee plans his/her career goals and these decisions should be based on individual strengths and weaknesses. equit y should be reflected in both succession planning for important positions and career management. � skills training centres around exposing and preparing adults for the performance of tasks relating to specific types of work (ernst, 2000). this requires a review of training and development methodologies and strategies, including access to training for designated groups, to establish that there are no barriers excluding people to training interventions. initiatives could include structured training, development programmes such as learnerships and internships, on the job mentoring and coaching, and accelerated training for new inductions. in terms of training and development, question 46 is posed as example: “employees of all race groups are assisted by super visors/managers to develop their full potential”. once the construct, domain, sub-domains, and behavioural indicators have been described, the fifth aspect of questionnaire design needs to be dealt with. this entails the item and response scale format, linked to and in support of the behavioural indicators (schepers, 1992). the items of the employment equity questionnaire are posed as individual statements. research (kruger & roodt, 2003; swart, roodt & schepers, 1999) indicated that statements tend to generate response distributions that are closely bimodal. schepers (1992) argued that respondents tend to respond in extreme ways to statements. questions on the other hand, are inclined to generate response distributions that are closer to a normal curve. response scales also play a role in the obtained response patterns. in cases where all the response categories are anchored, the scales are categorical (ordinal/nominal) in nature and lack equal interval properties (schepers, 1992). likert type intensity scales on the other hand are only anchored at the extreme poles and do possess equal interval properties. the level of sophistication of the target population normally dictates the choice between a more limited (five-point) or elaborate (sevenpoint) response scale, where the latter tends to enhance the variance explained. a seven-point scale is of value when statistical analysis is to be conducted and in particular when factor analyses are performed. if less than seven intervals are used, the coarse grouping will considerably reduce the correlation between items (pemberton, 1993; schepers, 1992; symonds, 1924). smith, roodt34 a four-point likert scale was used as the response scale format for the employment equity questionnaire. all response categories were anchored. an example of the response scale used is displayed in figure 2. strongly disagree disagree agree strongly agree 1 2 3 4 figure 2: an example of the response scale used in the employment equity questionnaire distinctive industry characteristics as employment equity is being implemented in the south african (sa) industry, this will be the focus of the study. as with any other labour market in the world, the south african labour market also consists of different industries; each with its distinctive characteristics and communities of practice. stewart described communities of practice as “groups that emerge around a discipline or problem” and are being “defined by the subject that engages them” (2001, p. 2). according to christensen (1999, p. 1), research indicated that organisations within an industry share “distinct values”. these communal values “guide and shape perception and behaviour, impacting on how employees will view its surrounding and how it will react and succeed in the world” (marquardt, 1998, p. 62). irani, sharp and kagioglou agreed, stating that “employees within a similar industry have a frame of reference within which they pattern their responses” (1997, p. 206). these shared commonalities include observed behavioural regularities, noticeable interaction patterns, shared standards, the use of common language and terminology. these communities of practices evolve over a period of time, providing continuity and stability in an industry and can be described as “a certain style, a character, a way of doing things” (hellriegel et al., 1998, p. 546). a priori differences between companies’ employment equity practises could therefore be postulated on the afore-mentioned grounds. the assumption can therefore be made that companies from the banking, chemical, education, electronic media, information technology, motorvehicle manufacturing and retail industries would respond significantly different to this questionnaire. the primary objective of the research is to determine if the employment equit y questionnaire can detect statistical significant differences on employment equity practices of responding companies from the different industries. this will provide an indication if the measurement can discriminate between the various industries. this will substantiate the discriminant validity of the employment equity questionnaire and indirectly reveal if specific industries were more receptive to equity initiatives than others and have made more progress with the implementation of employment equity. method respondents/participants the unit of analysis is organisations from different industry sectors. over a short period of time, employees from various organisations from different industries took part in the completion of the questionnaire on their experience of employment equity in their respective organisations. in the selection of employees, samples of convenience were drawn from the different organisation populations. participation was voluntarily and the identity of the respondents was kept anonymous to ensure confidentiality. in order to guarantee authenticity, responsible personnel in each industry distributed and collected the questionnaires. the questionnaire formed part of the organisation’s employment equity audit and was requested by the organisation. a total number of 4729 respondents, representative of nine organisations or business divisions, took part in the completion of the questionnaire. the biographical compositions of the groups are according to industries, age, race, language, and gender as depicted in table 1. table 1 biographical data of the sample biographical variable frequency % company valid electronic media 549 32.8 banking 1055 22.3 banking 914 19.3 vehicle manufacturing 166 3.5 retail 70 1.5 chemical 52 1.1 information technology 526 11.1 education 138 2.8 information technology 258 5.5 total 4728 missing system 1 total 4729 100 age valid 24 years and younger 665 14.1 25 to 30 years 699 19.0 31 to 35 years 649 13.7 36 to 40 years 680 14.4 41 to 45 years 724 15.3 46 to 50 years 614 10.9 51 years and older 644 11.5 total 4675 98.9 missing system 84 1.1 total 4729 100 race valid black 1100 23.3 coloured 341 7.2 indian/asian 125 2.6 white 1713 36.2 total 3279 69.3 missing system 1450 30.7 total 4729 100.0 language valid afrikaans 2451 51.8 english 957 20.2 ndebele 41 0.9 north sotho 195 4.1 south sotho 110 2.3 swezi 33 0.7 tsongo 115 2.4 tswana 435 9.2 venda 32 0.7 zulu 161 3.8 other 30 0.6 total 4580 96.8 missing system 149 3.2 total 4729 100 gender valid male 2296 48.5 female 2349 49.7 total 4645 98.2 missing system 84 1.8 total 4729 100 employment equity challenge 35 the age of respondents ranged from 24 years and younger and then from 25 years in five year intervals up to 51 years and older. the highest percentage of respondents can be found in the age group 25 to 30 years. in terms of the race distribution, the highest percentage of participants can be found in the white race group. an analysis of the language distribution, the highest percentage of respondents is amongst the afrikaans speaking group, with secondly that of the english group and thirdly the tswana group. a more or less equal distribution can be found when the male and female respondents are compared with each other. measuring instrument the measuring instrument (employment equity questionsnaire) consists of two parts. the first part consists of the different items that the respondents had to react upon and the second part contains the biographic information of the respondent. the questions in the instrument requires from respondents to indicate their feelings regarding the employment equity process within their organisation. the questionnaire, excluding biographical questions, consists of 146 questions. in some instances, the questionnaires were tailored to suit company specific requirements and/or included additional information. in order to ensure homogeneity, the different questionnaires were compared with each other and the non-generic items removed. only the 41 generic questions that were posed to all the participating companies were used in the comparison. this is a new instrument, of which the validity and reliability has not been tested. on face value, the instrument covers the domain of employment equity practices as indicated in the act. the results of this study will furthermore assist in the identification of those industries being more conducive to the implementation of the employment equity act. procedure in order to guarantee authenticity, the questionnaires have been handed over to pre-identified responsible personnel in each industry to be distributed amongst participants. instructions on the completion of the questionnaire were given to address any uncertainties. the identified person, adhering to principles of confidentiality and anonymity, collected the completed question-naires and handed it over to the compilers of the questionnaire. results the analysis of the data was constructed in two different phases. in the first phase factor analyses were conducted, followed by an iterative item analysis. first phase of the data analysis a first and second level factor analysis, followed by an iterative item analysis was conducted to ‘purif y’ the construct “employment equity practices”. first level factor analysis a kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy (msa) was executed in order to assess the suitability of the inter-correlation matrix for factor analysis. these results are portrayed in table 2. it is clear from the obtained msa and the chi-square value that a factor analysis could be conducted. in order to negate the possible effects of differential item skewness that could result in the creation of artefactors, a factor analysis as proposed by schepers (1992), was performed. during the first level analysis, the 41 generic items were intercorrelated (41 x 41 matrix), upon which eigenvalues were calculated. in accordance with kaiser’s (1961) criterion, five eigenvalues larger than unity were postulated. these five factors explain about 53% of the variance in the factor space. the eigenvalues of the unreduced item inter-correlation matrix are reflected in table 3. table 2 kmo and bartlett’s test for the first level factor analysis kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy 0,976 bartlett’s test of approx. chi-square 100624,4 sphericity df 820 sig. 0,000 table 3 eigenvalues of the unreduced item inter-correlation matrix initial eigenvalues root eigenvalues % of variance cumulative % 1 16,125 39,329 39,329 2 2,145 5,232 44,561 3 1,485 3,623 48,184 4 1,162 2,809 50,993 5 1,133 2,763 53,766 6 0,994 2,425 56,181 7 0,916 2,234 58,415 8 0,902 2,199 60,613 9 0,827 2,018 62,632 10 0,819 1,997 64,829 11 0,783 1,910 66,539 12 0,706 1,723 68,262 13 0,697 1,701 69,963 14 0,667 1,626 71,591 15 0,636 1,551 73,142 16 0,627 1,529 74,671 17 0,591 1,442 76,113 18 0,585 1,428 77,541 19 0,551 1,344 78,884 20 0,549 1,340 80,225 21 0,539 1,316 81,540 22 0,487 1,189 82,729 23 0,476 1,161 83,890 24 0,461 1,125 85,015 25 0,452 1,101 86,117 26 0,447 1,091 87,208 27 0,435 1,061 88,269 28 0,417 1,016 89,285 29 0,411 1,002 90,287 30 0,402 0,980 91,267 31 0,393 0,958 92,225 32 0,378 0,922 93,147 33 0,372 0,907 94,053 34 0,363 0,885 94,938 35 0,339 0,826 95,764 36 0,337 0,821 96,585 37 0,318 0,775 97,360 38 0,304 0,742 98,102 39 0,276 0,673 98,775 40 0,265 0,646 99,421 41 0,237 0,579 100,000 trace 41,00 smith, roodt36 an inter-correlation of the five subscores (ss) were performed, utilising pearson’s correlation coefficient. according to healey (1990, p. 319) pearson’s correlation coefficient “is an index of the strength of the linear relationship between two variables”, where a value of 0,00 is indicative of no linear relationship and a value of 1,00 indicates a perfect linear relationship. coefficients approaching 0,00 can therefore we described as “weak” compared to those approaching 1,00 as “strong”. it is thus of interest to note that the coefficients of the different factors manifest in descending order. from this table there is a statistical significant correlation between all five factors at the 0,01 level. the highest correlations have been reported between the first three factors, ranging from factor 1 and factor 2 (r = 0,812), factor 1 and factor 3 (r = 0,783), and between factor 2 and factor 3 (r = 0,707). the results are reflected in table 4. table 4 inter-correlation matrix of subscores (ss) ss 1 ss 2 ss 3 ss 4 ss 5 ss 1 1 0,812 0,783 0,564 0,381 ss 2 0,812 1 0,707 0,522 0,326 ss 3 0,783 0,707 1 0,471 0,329 ss 4 0,564 0,522 0,471 1 0,473 ss 5 0,381 0,326 0,329 0,473 1 all correlations are significant at the 0,01 level (2-tailed) second level factor analysis for purposes of the second level factor analysis, the kaisermeyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy and the bartlett’s test of sphericity was performed on the inter-correlation matrix of the subscores. the results are reflected in table 5. this matrix was also deemed suitable for further factor analysis. table 5 kmo and bartlett’s test for the second level factor analysis kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy 0,813 bartlett’s test of approx. chi-square 12985,91 sphericity df 10 sig. 000 once again, eigenvalues were calculated and only one factor with an eigenvalue larger than unity was postulated as displayed in table 6. a single factor was extracted (see table 7) that explained 64% of the variance in the factor space. the results are displayed in table 6 and 7. table 6 eigenvalues of the unreduced inter-correlation matrix of subscores initial eigenvalues root eigenvalues % of variance cumulative % 1 3,202 64,048 64,048 2 0,658 17,162 81,210 3 0,4 9,662 90,871 4 0,290 5,803 96,674 5 0,166 3,326 100,000 trace = 5,00 table 7 factor loadings of subscores factor 1 h²j ss1 0,934 0,872 ss 2 0,847 0,717 ss 3 0,808 0,653 ss 4 0,639 0,408 ss 5 0,453 0,205 iterative item analyses yielded a cronbach alpha of 0,959. it needs to be noted that the cronbach alpha slightly increased to 0,963 with the exclusion of 12 items from the iterative item analysis. this however resulted in only 29 items being retained. for the purpose of this study, all 41 items were retained in the scale as displayed in table 8. table 8 item statistics of the employment equity questionnaire item mean score standard reliability index item – test deviation correlation q6 2,630 0,807 0,382 0,474 q84 2,901 0,806 0,289 0,359 q12 2,882 0,791 0,534 0,674 q11 2,847 0,743 0,418 0,562 q4 3,113 0,797 0,520 0,651 q1 2,875 0,875 0,003 0,689 q7 2,524 0,893 0,630 0,705 q8 2,641 0,862 0,546 0,634 q10 2,563 0,838 0,644 0,768 q14 2,825 0,808 0,595 0736 q15 2,285 0,905 0,605 0,668 q16 2,950 0,666 0,303 0,455 q17 2,547 0,889 0,620 0,698 q19 2,608 0,856 0,629 0,734 q20 3,279 0,726 0,238 0,329 q26 2,671 0,844 0,613 0,726 q27 3,069 0,738 0,259 0,351 q30 2,836 0,754 0,528 0,700 q32 2,810 0,738 0,486 0,659 q34 2,833 0,729 0,499 0,658 q37 2,850 0,783 0,512 0,653 q38 2,797 0,787 0,295 0,374 q76 2,720 0,802 0,499 0,623 q41 3,012 0,715 0,348 0,486 q45 2,662 0,806 0,578 0,717 q46 2,703 0,782 0,588 0,751 q94 2786 0,734 0,391 0,532 q48 2,786 0,782 0,529 0,676 q54 2,561 0,870 0,638 0,733 q55 2,653 0,819 0,616 0,752 q56 2,785 0,794 0,561 0,707 q57 2,761 0,756 0,383 0,506 q58 2,561 0,843 0,616 0,731 q59 3,050 0,695 0,308 0,444 q60 2,745 0,833 0,613 0,736 q63 2,645 0,806 0,590 0,732 q65 2,274 0,871 0,472 0,542 q71 2,822 0,826 0,571 0,691 q81 2,959 0,637 0,265 0,416 q82 2,933 0,657 0,278 0,423 q9 2,622 0,815 0,520 0,637 cronbach alpha = 0,959 employment equity challenge 37 it can thus be stated that this employment equit y questionnaire measured employment equit y practices consistently and reliably. second phase analysis of the data during the second phase, inferential statistics were conducted. mean scores on employment equity practices are presented in table 9. table 9 comparison of company mean scores on employment equity practices company mean standard deviation n electonic media 2,9679 0,31496 1549 banking 2,6276 0,49855 1970 vehicle manufacturing 2,9113 0,37440 166 retails 2,7968 0,37356 70 chemical 3,1035 0,38467 52 education 2,9037 0,31423 138 information technology 2,9450 0,45142 783 total 2,8174 0,45573 4728 an univariate analysis of variance (anova) was conducted to assess whether different companies from various industries responded differently to the employment equity questionnaire. this yielded an f-ratio (� = 0,05, df = 6;4721) = 115,428 as depicted in table 10. table 10 anova: test for significance of mean score differences source type iii df mean f-ratio p(f) partial sum of square eta squares squared corrected model 125,5977 6 20,933 115,428 0,000 0,128 intercept 8336,353 1 8336,35 45969 0,000 0,907 comp 125,597 6 20,933 115,428 0,000 0,128 error 856,147 4721 0,181 total 38511,20 4728 corrected total 981,744 4727 the results of the levene test showed that error variances were significantly different bet ween companies, therefore the dunnett statistics were interpreted in the post hoc comparisons. in order to eliminate the effect of the difference in sampling size, the range was squared and yielded a partial eta squared of 0,128. at least 12,8% of the variance in differences between companies can thus be explained by means of employment equity practices. this is shown in table 10. during the post hoc tests, multiple comparisons were executed. each company’s (i) mean score was compared with of the other companies’ (j) means scores to determine the mean difference (i minus j). the mean differences are regarded as significant at the 0,05 level. an analysis of the results indicates that the banking industry, with the exclusion of the retail industry, differs significantly when compared to the rest of the industries. the vehicle manufacturing industry in comparison with the education and it industries are the only industry that yielded a significant score of 1,000. the results are shown in table 11. table 11 multiple comparison according to the dunnett t3 post hoc tests company (i) company (j) mean difference standard error p (i-j) electronic banking 0,3403* 0,1379 0,000 media vehicle 0,0566 0,3014 0,727 retail 0,1711* 0,4536 0,007 chemical -0,1356 0,5394 0,257 education 0,0642 0,2792 0,377 it 0,0229 0,1801 0,991 banking electronic media -0,3403* 0,01379 0,000 vehicle -0,2837* 0,03115 0,000 retail -0,1692 0,04604 0,009 chemical -0,4759* 0,05451 0,000 education -02762* 0,02901 0,000 it -0,3174* 0,01966 0,000 vehicle electronic media -0,0566 0,03014 0,727 manufacturing banking 0,2837* 0,03115 0,000 retail 0,1145 0,05327 0,498 chemical -0,1922 0,06075 0,044 education 0,0075 0,03950 1,000 it -0,0337 0,03324 1,000 retail electronic media -0,1711* 0,04536 0,007 banking 0,1692* 0,04604 0,009 vehicle -0,1145 0,05327 0,498 chemical -0,3067* 0,06956 0,001 education -0,1070 0,05205 0,578 it -0,1482* 0,04747 0,049 chemical electronic media 0,1356 0,05394 0,257 banking 0,4759* 0,05451 0,000 vehicle 0,1922* 0,06075 0,044 retail 0,3067* 0,06956 0,001 education 0,1998* 0,05968 0,026 it 0,1585 0,05573 0,115 education electronic media -0,0642 0,02792 0,377 banking 0,2762* 0,02901 0,000 vehicle -0,0075 0,03950 1,000 retail 0,1070 0,05205 0,578 chemical -0,1998* 0,05968 0,026 it -0,0412 0,03124 0,986 it electronic media -0,0229 0,01801 0,991 banking 0,3174* 0,01966 0,000 vehicle 0,0337 0,03324 1,000 retail 0,1482* 0,04747 0,049 chemical -0,1585 0,05573 0,115 education 0,0412 0,03124 0,986 * the mean difference is significant at the 0,05 level from these results the estimated marginal means for groups in homogenous subsets, based on type iii sum of squares and an alpha of 0,05, for each of the five factors were calculated. the results obtained, showed that the banking industry is the only one of the industries that stands independently within the first subset. the education and vehicle manufacturing industries share positions within the second subset. the chemical industry is once again the only one independently in the third subset. the retail, it and electronic industries overlap into both of the subsets. the results point to the fact that the banking industry has yielded the least positive results on the employment equity questionnaire and the chemical industry the most positive. the smith, roodt38 employment equity challenge 39 retail industry’s position is significantly closer to that of the banking industry than to that of the education, vehicle manufacturing, it and the electronic media. this industry can therefore also be regarded as not yielding positive results when measured on the employment equity questionnaire. the it and electronic media share their position in the second subset with that of the third subset and can be regarded as having more positive perceptions of the employment equity practices within their respective industries. table 12 displays the estimated marginal means homogenous subsets. table 12 estimated marginal means homogenous subsets company n subset 1 2 3 banking 1970 2,6276 retail 70 2,7968 2,7968 education 138 2,9037 vehicle manufacturing 166 2,9113 it 783 2,9450 2,9450 electronic media 1549 2,9679 2,9679 chemical 52 3,1035 sig. 0,082 0,075 0,131 shaded values are unique in the subset discussion the population that was used in the study was not selected randomly. the results can therefore not be generalised to include all industries in south africa, nor to similar companies within a specific industry. this aspect represents the most important limitation of the study. the analysis of the data was conducted in two phases. during the first phase, first and second level factor analyses, followed by iterative item analyses were conducted to ‘purif y’ the construct “employment equit y practices”. iterative item analyses on the obtained scale yielded a cronbach alpha of 0,959. it could therefore be stated that the employment equity questionnaire measured employment equit y practices consistently and reliably. during the second phase of the data analysis, inferential statistics were conducted. a univariate analysis of variance (anova) was conducted and yielded a f-ratio (� = 0,05,df = 6;4721) = 53,907. during the post hoc tests, multiple comparisons were executed, indicating which of the industries differs significantly from the others. the statistical results that were performed indicate that the employment equit y questionnaire indeed discriminates between the marginal means of the various companies. there are thus statistical significant differences bet ween the various industries’ employment equity practices as perceived by the respondents. these findings support the discriminant validit y of the employment equity questionnaire. in the three subsets that were produced, four of the companies differ significantly from the rest of the companies. the most significant discrepancy is however bet ween the banking and chemical companies. the company from the chemical industry scored the highest marginal mean (most positively) on the employment equit y questionnaire. the results from the company from the banking industry reflect the least positive response on the employment equit y questionnaire. companies from the education and vehicle manufact uring industries share a centre position. the companies from the retail, information technolog y and electronic media industries could be linked to more than one of the subsets. in the light of the obtained results, the discriminant validit y of the employment equit y questionnaire can be confirmed. a lthough this st udy succeeded in establishing the discriminant validit y of the employment equit y questionnaire, there are areas of improvement that need to be considered to increase the content and face validity of the instrument. the limitations of the employment equit y questionnaire centre first and foremost around the item and response scale construction. by addressing the problem of double-barrelled, leading and ambiguous questions, the quality of responses and eventually the statistical data can be improved. by utilising a response scale format that is more conducive towards providing reliable responses, a more normal distribution curve will be attained. against this backdrop, the following suggestions are put forward. evaluated against the guidelines of schepers (1992) previously referred to, both the item format and response scale format of the questions can be improved. to pose questions and not statements as suggested by schepers, will provide normal response distributions. in this instance, items were posed as statements, resulting in nearly bimodal distributions. the four-point response scale that was used is considered to be restrictive and not conducive for the explanation of variance and consequently also not for factor analyses. all response categories used in this study were anchored as illustrated in figure 3. strongly disagree neutral agree strongly agree disagree 1 2 3 4 5 figure 3: example of a likert response scale where all categories are anchored this response format however poses a few problems. according to torgenson (1958) and schepers (1992), the quality of an equal interval scale (“ordered categories for which the inter vals between all ranks are equal” – bailey, 1982, p.128) fades away when more than two points on the scale are anchored. swart et al. (1999) argued that an intensity scale could be used as an alternative to this item format, where only the two extreme points are anchored. swart et al. (1999) indicated that the problem with the use of the likert scale is the tendency of participants to choose the two most extreme statements, generally known as the tendency to agree, without proper consideration of the content of the statement. a solution to the problem would be to translate the positive and negative statements in the form of questions. it is therefore suggested that questions, combined with equal interval response scales are used. an example is indicated in figure 4. never always 1 2 3 4 5 figure 4 : suggested response scale to be used in an employment equity questionnaire it is furthermore suggested that the formulation of some of the items are adapted in order to improve the quality of the response on the specific item. statistical results have indeed proved that certain of the items were problematic. lower item-test correlations were reported on these items. it would have been beneficial if pilot studies were conducted first, before the final compilation of the questionnaire. this step would have highlighted the “problem” statements where difficulty in answering is experienced. such questions could have been rephrased, eradicating the problems experienced in item construction. in this regard bailey indicated: “pretesting is the final stage in questionnaire construction – and one of the most important” (1982, p.150). examples of such questions are subsequently discussed. double-barrelled questions a number of “double-barrelled questions”, where t wo or more questions are posed as one, were identified. stating questions in this format poses a problem in providing an answer. bailey (1982, p.115) stated that such questions “lead to hesitation and indecision on the part of the respondent (and) frustration builds up particularly if there is more than one such a question”. the following example is highlighted to illustrate this point: question 45 “i am happy with the amount of time, money and energy the company is spending on employee development”. the aforementioned statement can be posed as three separate questions, giving rise to more worthy and valid responses. leading questions examples of leading questions were found. bailey (1982, p.121) stated that items should be carefully structured in order to “minimize the probability of biasing the respondent’s answer by leading him or her and thus artificially increasing the probability of a particular response”. the following statement is an example of a leading item that might influence the answer. question 27. “i am sure that all language, gender and cultural groups can perform equally well in super visory and management positions, provided that they are given the right training”. ambiguous questions bailey warned against ambiguous questions as “different respondents interpret a question in different ways” (1982, p.116). an example of an ambiguous question is listed below: question 7 “management takes action to train suitable employees to become super visors and managers”. given the fact that the employment equity questionnaire was presented to various companies and biographically different respondents, it can be expected that different interpretations of the term “suitable” will arise. as the focus is on employment equity practices the term “designated groups” could have been substituted for the word “suitable”. suggestions for employers, who consider using a questionnaire to measure employment equity within their companies, would be to have a profound look at the construction of the questionnaire. questions should be asked if the construction of the items and responses are in accordance with the principles and criteria underpinning questionnaire construction. careful scrutiny of both the item and response scale format being used in the questionnaire is essential, as this will ultimately impact the quality of the data generated. enquiries on the processes that were followed in the questionnaire construction should be made (e.g. were pilot studies conducted?) additional development of the existing questionnaire is suggested in order to refine it and align it with the steps as proposed by schepers (1992). suggestions for further research could include the use of an experimental design where the effect of response distribution on different question formats is examined. references bailey, k.d. (1982). methods of social research (2nd edition). new york: the free press. carrell, m.r., elbert, n.f., hatfield, r.d., grobler, p.a., marx, m. & van der schyf, s. (1998). human resource management in south africa. south africa: prentice hall. christensen, e.w. (1999). an exploration of industry, culture and revenue growth. available from: http://www.findarticels.com/ (accessed 08 august 2002) commission for employment equity: annual report. (2001). available from: http://www.labour.gov.za/docs/legioslation/ eea/index.html (accessed 08 november 2001) de beer, h. & clow, l. (2001). creativity, a new culture. hr focus, 19 (8), 32. debating employment equity. (2002). available from: http://www. csls.org.za/dw/art3c.html (accessed 29 august 2002). ernst, e. (2000). skills development. pretoria: kitskopié. gerber, p.d., nel, p.s. & van dyk,, p.s. (1995). menslike hulpbronbestuur (3e uitgawe). halfwayhouse: southern publishers. healy, j.f. (1990). statistics, a tool for social research (2nd edition). california: wadsworth publishing company. hellriegel, d., slocum, j.w. & woodman, r.w. (1998). organizational behavior (8th edition). ohio: south-western college publishing. horwitz, l. & ferleger, l. (1980). statistics for social change. boston: south end press. human, l. (2000). equity and efficacy: the business case for employment equity. talk delivered at the ipm eastern cape regional conference – 21 june 2000. human, l. (2002). diversity management. upside workshops. available from: http://www.ancordynamics.co.za/diversity.html (accessed 29 august 2002). human, l. & dentin, m. (1997). the management of people. available from: http://www.sabpp.co.za/news/199710_ managepeople.htm (accessed 29 august 2002). irani, z., sharp, j.m. & kagioglou, m. (1997). improving business performance through developing a corporate culture. the tqm magazine, 9 (3), pp. 206-216. ivancevich, j.m. & matteson, m.t. (1996). organizational behavior and management (4th edition). chicago: irwin. kaiser, h.f. (1961). a note on guttman’s lower bound for the number of common factors. british journal of statistical psychology, 14 (1), p.1. kruger, t. & roodt, g. (2003-in the press). hofstede’s vsm-94 revisited: is it reliable and valid? sa journal of industrial psychology, 29 (2), pp. 75-82. marquardt, m.j. (1998). the global advantage. texas: gulf publishing company. pemberton, e. (1933). a technique for measuring the optimum rating scale for opinion measures. sociology and social research, (17), pp. 470-472. republic of south africa (1997). basic conditions of employment act no. 75 of 1997, government gazette, volume 390, no. 18491. republic of south africa (1998). employment equity act no. 55 of 1998, government gazette, volume 450, no. 22209. republic of south africa (1995). labour relations act no. 66 of 1995, government gazette, volume 366, no. 16861. republic of south africa (1995). south african qualifications authority act no. 58 of 1995, government gazette, volume 364, no. 16725. republic of south africa (1988). south african skills development act no. 97 of 1998, government gazette, volume 401, no. 19420. smith, roodt40 rousseau, d.m., (1989). psychological and implied contracts in organisations. employee responsibilities and rights journal, 2 (2), pp. 121-139. sacht, j. (2001). human resource systems health check. equityskills development news, 2 (4), pp. 1-6. schepers, j.m. (1992). toetskonstruksie: teorie en praktyk. johannesburg: randse afrikaanse universiteit. swart, c., roodt, g. & schepers, j.m. (1999). itemformaat, differensiële itemskeefheid en die faktorstruktuur van ’n selfvoltooiingsvraelys. sa journal of industrial psychology, 25 (1), pp. 33-34. stewart, t.a. (2001). intellectual capital: ten years later, how far we’ve come. fortune, may 28, pp. 1-3. strümpfer, d. (2001) available from: http://www.edulink.rau.ac.za (accessed 29 august 2001). swanepoel, b.j., erasmus, b.j., van wyk, m.w. & schenk, h.w. (2000). south african human resource management: theory and practice (2nd edition). south africa: juta & co ltd. symonds, p.m. (1924). on the loss of reliability in rating due to coarseness of the scale. journal of experimental psychology, 7, pp. 456-460. torgenson, w.s. (1958). theory and methods of scaling. new york: wiley. watkins, g. (2002). gender equality – the forgotten component in employment equity initiatives. equity-skills news & views newsletter, 1 (2), pp. 17-25. employment equity challenge 41 abstract introduction purpose literature review research design study findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) whisper maisiri school of industrial engineering, faculty of engineering, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa liezl van dyk school of industrial engineering, faculty of engineering, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa citation maisiri, w., & van dyk, l. (2021). industry 4.0 skills: a perspective of the south african manufacturing industry. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1416. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1416 original research industry 4.0 skills: a perspective of the south african manufacturing industry whisper maisiri, liezl van dyk received: 20 june 2020; accepted: 25 nov. 2020; published: 26 jan. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: industry 4.0 (i4.0) is causing significant changes in the manufacturing industry, and its adoption is unavoidable for competitiveness and productivity. research purpose: this study investigated i4.0 skills using the views of professionals in the manufacturing industry and experts in digital transformation practising in south africa. motivation for the study: i4.0 was coined originally for the manufacturing industry, and skills availability significantly influences its successful adoption. furthermore, i4.0 is relatively new in the south african manufacturing industry, and there is still limited empirical research on the subject. research approach/design and method: a qualitative descriptive research design was used, and participants were enrolled using purposeful sampling via email, telephone and linkedin. twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted face-to-face or telephonically, and thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. main findings: this study found that i4.0 demands higher skills than in conventional manufacturing, and companies should take the lead in facilitating upskilling and reskilling of their employees to preserve jobs. experiential training could enhance i4.0 skills development in the manufacturing industry. practical/managerial implications: agile changes in i4.0 require constant re-alignment of employees’ skills in the manufacturing industry. this requires companies to make the human resource (hr) management function an integral part of business strategy. contribution/value-add: the study can help hr practitioners and manufacturing professionals in strategising and innovate technology to manage the evolving i4.0 skills requirements and preserve jobs. the study also asserts a foundation for further investigation of i4.0 skills competencies’ development in the south african manufacturing industry. keywords: industry 4.0; industrial revolution; manufacturing industry; skills sets; competencies; experiential training; human resource management; south africa. introduction the progression in industrial revolution has resulted in an incremental change in job complexity and skills requirements (selamat, alias, hikmi, puteh, & tapsi, 2017). industry 4.0 (i4.0), a fourth industrial revolution initiative, is transforming the manufacturing industry into a more competitive environment in various ways that include the skills mix, attitudes and experiences required in the workforce (baker, 2016; gehrke et al., 2015; world economic forum, 2016). skills requirements and skills development are amongst the factors that significantly influence successful adoption of i4.0 (hartmann & bovenschulte, 2013; maisiri & van dyk, 2019). thus, human resources (hr) and its management become vital in manufacturing companies (paine, 2009). the south african manufacturing industry makes a noticeable contribution to the country’s economy (republic of south africa, 2018a, 2018b), and the adoption of i4.0 principles and technologies is unavoidable for survival and competitiveness. the south african manufacturing industry is currently characterised by significant numbers of unskilled and semi-skilled workers (merseta, 2018). thus, the impact of i4.0 on skills requirements cannot be ignored and calls for an investigation. in a recent study, dhanpat, buthelezi, joe, maphela and shongwe (2020) considered hr professionals’ roles in i4.0. their study presented the skills required by hr professionals in i4.0 using the views of practising hr professionals (dhanpat et al., 2020). this study complements the work of dhanpat et al. (2020) by focusing on i4.0 skills requirements in the manufacturing industry using the views of manufacturing professionals and digital experts. the findings of this study could enhance the role of hr professionals in i4.0. purpose a systematic literature review aimed at exploring i4.0 skills requirements (maisiri, darwish, & van dyk, 2019) revealed a lack of empirical studies on this subject in the south african manufacturing industry, and thus the issue is poorly understood. dhanpat et al. (2020) emphasised the lack of scientific empirical research on i4.0 in south africa ‘although there are workshops and seminars in the field’ (dhanpat et al., 2020, p. 1). therefore, this article seeks empirical evidence of i4.0 skills requirements in the manufacturing industry using the views of professionals and experts practising in south africa. guided by the work of kim et al. (2017), as well as sandelowski (2000), the following research questions are set: what is the impact of i4.0 on jobs and skills requirements in the manufacturing industry in south africa? which skills are regarded as critical for i4.0 in the south african manufacturing industry? what are the strategies organisations are implementing to mitigate the impact of i4.0 on jobs and skills requirements? literature review industry 4.0: a manufacturing industry initiative i4.0 was coined in 2011 in germany in a context in which ways were sought to maintain the competitiveness of germany’s manufacturing industry and its leadership in technology innovation (kang et al., 2016; lu, 2017; müller, buliga, & voigt, 2018; ślusarczyk, 2018). today, the impact of i4.0 on the manufacturing industry is being experienced all over the globe. although there are variations in the definitions of i4.0 used by various authors, as presented by müller et al. (2018), it is evident that it is an initiative that focuses on improving competitiveness in the manufacturing industry. manufacturers consulted by ślusarczyk (2018) emphasised that i4.0 will apply significantly to the manufacturing industry. the global community has responded by developing initiatives that support the manufacturing industry in line with i4.0, for example, eu initiative factories of the future to maintain sustainability and boost production (müller et al., 2018), made in china 2025 (internet plus) to enable state-of-the-art manufacturing (bartodziej, 2016) and manufacturing innovation 3.0 in south korea (kang et al., 2016). these initiatives support the concept that i4.0 is a manufacturing initiative that is driving the fourth industrial revolution. in response to the global adoption of i4.0, the south african department of trade and industry has launched the new intsimbi future production technologies initiative to build capacity to meet i4.0 requirements (instimbi, 2019; republic of south africa, 2018c). the manufacturing industry in south africa the manufacturing industry is the fourth largest industry in south africa. it comprises 10 sectors (republic of south africa, 2018b), including the metals sector, the automotive sector and the plastic manufacturing sector (merseta, 2018). the manufacturing industry contributes approximately 14% to the south african gross domestic product (republic of south africa, 2018a): a significant input to the countries’ economy. the manufacturing industry further provides a considerable number of jobs (merseta, 2018) and contributes approximately 1 in every 10 employees to the country’s workforce (republic of south africa, 2018b). a general decline in the total number of employees has been noticed as follows: 1.44, 1.19 and 1.1 million in the years 2005, 2014 and 2019, respectively (plastic & chemical trading, 2019). the manufacturing industry is identified as an employment generator (kleynhans & sekhobela, 2008). it has the potential of employing 1.7 million people (republic of south africa, 2018a) if the country’s installed capacity is fully utilised as opposed to the current 81% capacity utilisation (plastic & chemical trading, 2019). the partial capacity utilisation has been attributed to a lack of skills, amongst other factors (plastic & chemical trading, 2019). i4.0 adoption has the potential of worsening the skills challenge in the manufacturing industry. this emphasises the need to investigate i4.0 skills requirements in the south african manufacturing industry. industry 4.0 and the workforce ‘people are the true authors of the digital story’ (accenture consulting, 2017, p. 2). talent and skills are identified as the drivers of successful adoption of i4.0. the vision of advanced manufacturing can be realised through a skilled and prepared workforce. i4.0 success not only depends on technology but also on people (accenture consulting, 2017). according to selamat et al. (2017), an upward trend of increasing job complexity has been observed during the progression of industrial revolution. a significant change in the competencies’ requirements, employee motivation and unemployment rates will be noted in the manufacturing industry with the adoption of i4.0 (accenture consulting, 2017; calitz, poisat, & cullen, 2017; maisiri et al., 2019). however, none of the studies cited ventured into examining the subject of i4.0 skills in the south african manufacturing industry. the changes in the job requirements because of the increased complexity of the workplace has the potential of threatening semi-skilled and unskilled jobs (maisiri et al., 2019) in the manufacturing industry because of the replacement of manual and standard repetitive tasks with automation. workforce digital capability and skillset is at the core of successful adoption of i4.0 in manufacturing industries and other hybrid industries (accenture consulting, 2017). further to this, accenture consulting (2017, p. 10) highlighted that ‘people are at the centre of technological change, and their willingness and readiness to support digital transformation is key to success’. this is supported by selamat et al. (2017) when stating that the best talent is achieved through the collaboration of machines and humans. hence, an investigation of the i4.0 skills requirements in the south african manufacturing industry is essential. research design the purpose of this article is to scrutinise the subject of i4.0 skills in the manufacturing industry, using the views of manufacturing industry professionals and digital transformation experts practising in south africa. qualitative descriptive research has been ‘identified as important and appropriate for research questions focused on discovering the who, what, and where of events or experiences’ (kim, sefcik, & bradway, 2017, p. 23), and in collecting data from participants ‘regarding a poorly understood phenomenon’ (kim et al., 2017, p. 23). research approach this study followed a qualitative descriptive research approach in investigating the issue of i4.0 skills in the south african manufacturing industry. the descriptive research approach was used instead of other qualitative research approaches because it seeks to explore and provide comprehension and guidance for future studies (magilvy & thomas, 2009). ‘straight description and comprehensive summary’ (kim et al., 2017, p. 27) and maintained low-inference interpretation during data analysis (sandelowski, 2010). research method the research method section discusses the following: research setting, entrée and establishing researcher roles, research participants and sampling methods, data collection methods, data recording, strategies employed to ensure data quality and integrity, data analysis and reporting style. research setting this study was undertaken in south africa through semi-structured interviews with manufacturing industry professionals and digital transformation experts practising in the country. the participants in the semi-structured interviews were mainly from the manufacturing industry. entrée and establishing researcher roles a request for an appointment with prospective participants was communicated via email, telephone and linkedin. the invitation was accompanied by a one-page introduction to the study and an informed consent document. potential participants were not coerced or persuaded to take part in the study, and participation was solely voluntary. the researcher, as the instrument of the study (magilvy & thomas, 2009), facilitated the study by arranging, conducting and recording the semi-structured interviews, transcribing the recorded interviews and conducting the data analysis. research participants and sampling methods manufacturing industry professionals and digital transformation experts were picked to participate in this study using purposeful sampling (etikan, musa, & alkassim, 2016; neergaard, olesen, andersen, & sondergaard, 2009). thirty-nine potential participants were contacted to take part in the study, but only 20 participants (kim et al., 2017; magilvy & thomas, 2009) participated in the semistructured interviews, giving a total response rate of 51%. most participants were from the manufacturing sector (table 1). table 1: participants’ industry and responsibilities. data collection methods semi-structured interviews, commonly used in a qualitative descriptive research approach (magilvy & thomas, 2009), were used as the data collection instrument. the semi-structured interviews were conducted by the researcher using face-to-face or telephonic interaction. semi-structured interviews were chosen because they allow for flexibility by both the researcher and the participant (miguel, 2011) whilst providing a guide to the issue being investigated. data recording with consent from the participants, the semi-structured interviews were audio-recorded, and the researcher took field notes during participant observation. only one participant (p5) did not permit the interview to be recorded, and field notes were used to represent this participant’s views. strategies used to ensure data quality and integrity measures were taken to ensure credibility and integrity of the study findings during the data collection, data analysis and reporting (golafshani, 2003; neergaard et al., 2009). the semi-structured interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim to avoid distortion of the participants’ views (braun & clarke, 2006). transcription accuracy was enhanced by reading the transcription and comparing it with the audio recording. any detected discrepancy was immediately corrected. a systematic method of data analysis was used to ensure that the rigour of the study findings was upheld (braun & clarke, 2006). this was enhanced by using atlas.ti to minimise the chances of bias in the analysis. in line with the nature of a qualitative descriptive study, the researcher maintained low-inference interpretation during data analysis (neergaard et al., 2009; sandelowski, 2000, 2010). the integrity of the study was further ensured by minimising the researcher’s subjectivity and by maintaining neutrality in the data analysis (neergaard et al., 2009). the participants’ opinions were emphasised by the researcher maintaining a passive voice. data analysis in a qualitative descriptive study, the researcher must stick close to the data and provide a comprehensive summary of the issue under study (sandelowski, 2000, 2010). therefore, thematic analysis, as commonly used in the descriptive research approach (sandelowski, 2010), was adopted in this study instead of other data analysis approaches because it provides the researcher with an opportunity to stay close to the data, ‘with minimal transformation during analysis’ (kim et al., 2017, p. 24) and with minimum inference (sandelowski, 2000). a data analysis process was followed of listening to audio recordings, transcribing, reading and re-reading the transcriptions and field notes, identifying codes and classifying them into categories and themes (magilvy & thomas, 2009). braun and clarke’s (2006) six-step data analysis framework, as applied by maguire and delahunt (2017) and coetzee, jonker, van der merwe, and van dyk (2019), was used in this study (coetzee et al., 2019; maguire & delahunt, 2017). the analysis followed the process of data familiarisation, initial codes’ generation, reviewing the codes, searching for categories, reviewing of categories and themes’ generation. the researcher familiarised himself with the data by listening to the audio transcription and generating preliminary concepts and ideas. interesting quotations were noted, and patterns of meaning identified at a semantic level. semi-structured interview transcripts were imported into atlas.ti, and the researcher read through the transcripts, and an initial code list was generated. the researcher used both open coding and in vivo coding to maintain the views of the participants. the codes were reviewed by renaming, merging and splitting, where necessary, until patterns in the data could be identified. the relationship between codes was established by using the function links and networks in atlas.ti (friese, 2019). patterns and similarities were identified, and categories were formulated. the categories were reviewed, and themes established from the identified patterns. the themes’ relevance to the research questions was ascertained at this stage. reporting style in line with the objective of this study, and the research approach followed, straight descriptions of the participants’ views (sandelowski, 2000) on i4.0 skills will be presented. a table summarising the themes, sub-themes and related codes is presented followed by comprehensive description summaries (kim et al., 2017; neergaard et al., 2009; sandelowski, 2000) of the themes and their related sub-themes and codes. the participants’ exact words were quoted so that the researcher could stay as close to the data as possible. study findings three themes emerged from the data analysis: i4.0 impact, skills requirements and skills development (table 2). the themes are further described using the participants’ views. table 2: emerging themes, categories and associated codes. industry 4.0 impact the theme of i4.0 impact comprised three categories: working practices, employees’ opportunities, and jobs and skills. rapid changes in i4.0 technologies require companies, teams and individuals ‘to adopt agile methodologies which entail agile business models, agile teams and agile decision-making’ (p3). this requires that employees have the ‘ability to work in an agile way’ (p8). i4.0 requires a new working practice of establishing an ecosystem of skills and working in networks. some companies are viewing i4.0 as an ‘enabler to take on more work content and volume without reducing or increasing headcount’ (p18). this is achieved through localising certain components and bringing some of the previously outsourced jobs on board. the augmentation of humans and technology enhances employees’ experience by ‘taking away the safety issue of a job, or the risk of a job’ (p1), ‘taking more thinking away from operators but ensuring more consistency and quality’ (p18) and increases their ‘productivity and efficiency’ (p7, p9). participants pointed out that i4.0 makes jobs more meaningful and interesting by enabling ‘lower-skilled people to do higher-skilled jobs’ (p6) using technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality. i4.0 technologies enable employees ‘who have been stuck in low paying jobs and menial labour’ (p7) to be more relevant and perform higher functions in their companies. employees become more visible: ‘[a]s decision-makers and not just as somebody who presses the button but [somebody who is] actually in charge of a machine, ensuring that the machine provides the correct kind of data.’ (p7) a significant number of participants emphasised that technology could ‘create more opportunities for us’ (p9) by ‘not taking away jobs’ (p1) and companies will ‘still need more people, but it will be more on a different skill level’ (p18). some companies are automating routine functions ‘not in order to reduce the workforce and take away peoples’ work, but to [enable employees] … to innovate and come up with new ideas to solve problems.’ (p3). it was noticed that: ‘[y]oungsters or the new people that are coming to the new workplace are expected to be on a higher level in terms of the information technology (it) understanding, [and] understanding how [the] internet of things (iot) is going to affect them.’ (pp17) there will be significant job transitioning and task replacement with the adoption of i4.0 technologies, but this does ‘not mean replacing the person doing the job’ (p1). other participants pointed out that ‘i4.0 does not have [a] negative impact on employee headcount’ (p18) in their companies. however, ‘if they’re gonna be no change in the skills development system, in the next 3 to 4 years, we gonna have massive retrenchment coming up for south africa, massive retrenchments’ (p17). skills requirements participants emphasised that ‘soft skills alongside technical skills are even more important than technical skills alone in i4.0’ (p20) and ‘those soft skills we find lacking’ (p3); ‘those softer skills are missing’ (p13) in the employees. the soft skills were grouped into thinking skills, social skills and personal skills. thinking skills such as ‘problem-solving’ (p2–p4, p9, p12–p14, p17, p18, p20), ‘critical thinking’ (p3, p4, p9, p11, p13, p20), ‘creativity and innovation’ (p1, p3, p8, p9, p11, p14), ‘application of knowledge’ (p4) and ‘agile decision-making and accountability’ (p3, p7–p9, p13, p18) were indicated to be critical in i4.0. social skills such as ‘collaboration’ (p1–p3, p7–p9, p12, p14), ‘communication’ (p3, p4, p7, p9, p20), ‘cross-cultural ability’ (p20) and teamwork (p1, p7, p8, p20) were seen as essential to participate in i4.0 meaningfully. participants emphasised the importance of personal skills such as ‘ability to quickly adjust to change and act’ (p1, p3, p4, p8, p13, p18), ‘emotional intelligence’ (p9, p17), ‘lifelong learning’ (p2–p4, p6–p7, p13, p17–p18, p20), ‘multi-skilling’ (p1–p2, p6, p8–p9, p18) ‘prioritisation’ (p3), ‘self-directedness and less taking [of] orders’ (p8, p18) and ‘personal evaluation’ (p3–p4) in i4.0. other companies are ‘trying to implement that every day you have to teach something new to someone else or every day you have to learn something new’ (p3) so that employees become aware of the ongoing trends and ‘continuously keep up to skills’ (p3). advanced digital skills related to big data analytics, advanced robotics, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and machine learning, amongst others, were pointed out to be vital in i4.0 (p1–p4, p7–p8, p11–p12, p14, p17). ‘so skills in big data analytics, augmented reality, more use of the cloud, better use of the industrial internet of things, … and robotics as well; if we are able to implement those things in the manufacturing industry, then it will, of course, benefit the country in all sort[s] of way[s] because those companies will reduce their cost’ (p14). digitals skills such as coding skills, data analytics, human–machine interaction and understanding information technology were regarded as basic skills in the sense that they will be commonly required in the manufacturing industry by employees (p1–p2, p7–p8, p12–p13, p17, p19). these skills will be needed as ‘part and parcel of the adjustment, and people with these transitional skills are those you need basically’ (p2). regarding information, communication and technology (ict), it was pointed out that ‘any formal skilling needs to, in one way or the other, have ict at the centre’ (p2). the question will be ‘whether or not you are properly skilled in digitalisation and ict’ (p2). there will be a difference between an ‘artisan versus a skilled i4.0 artisan, a technician versus a skilled i4.0 technician, a technologist versus a skilled i4.0 technologist and an engineer versus an i4.0 engineer’ (p4) regardless of the engineering focus, be it mechanical, industrial, electrical or electronic. employers need to ‘start a lot more of entrepreneurship skilling’ (p20) to strengthen their employees’ entrepreneurial skills, which will empower them to deal with possible unemployment that can arise from the impact of i4.0. skills development participants emphasised that the possible negative impact of i4.0 on jobs and skills requires a significant implementation of skills development both in the workplace and skills development institutions. workplace training, which includes ‘reskilling’ (p1–p3, p6, p17–p19), ‘upskilling’ (p1–p4, p17–p19) and ‘on job training’ (p2, p4, p19), was identified as critical in developing relevant i4.0 skills. companies should take the lead in facilitating the upskilling and reskilling of their employees: ‘so, what we have found as an organisation as well is, we need now to upskill our own people now. we have embarked on creating small programs where we introduce these new technologies to our workforce, and we are creating a lot of training programs so that our workforce understands what’s coming and how i4.0 will also impact them.’ (p17) participants observed that ‘generally people themselves are not keen or eager to spend out of their own time and money to upskill themselves for the future’ (pp19) and this attitude varied with ‘older age group, let’s say above 35 years … [who] don’t want change to take place in the workplace because their normal working day is gonna be upset.’ (p17). participants emphasised that i4.0 skills will be a significant requirement and hence educational institutions must promote experiential training (p1, p4) in the form of ‘practical training’ (p8, p13, p17–p18), ‘internships, apprenticeships’ (p1–p2) and ‘work-integrated learning’ (p5–p7). skills will be recognised more than abstract knowledge because ‘that is the only way we can create more jobs, and [it is an] economic enabler for us to move ahead’ (p17). companies should ‘create opportunities for people to learn’ (p19) and ‘give people access whether it can be free internet access and free access to information because accessibility is a challenge’ (p3). ‘innovation centres, technology stations’ (p7), ‘d labs’ (p6) and ‘learning factories’ (p1) were regarded as instruments for making information available. both workplace training and institutional training should adopt i4.0 technologies such as ‘augmented reality and virtual reality’ (p6–p7, p9) to ‘accelerate training’ (p6) and skills development. conducting such training could considerably improve skills development turnaround in terms of time and quality: ‘and in some cases what we have seen as well, which can be a good example again, on the other hand, is with the manufacturing of spare parts for equipment, … we have seen that … augmented reality glasses and virtual reality glasses have been effectively used in accelerating training.’ (p7) micro-credentialling (p3–p4, p6, p13, p17), short courses (p2, p4, p17–p18) and mentorships (p4, p19) were identified as other essential strategies that can be used to enhance the development of i4.0 skills in the south african manufacturing industry. shortage of i4.0 skills in the south african manufacturing industry was attributed to a significant lack of alignment between skills requirements and skills development (p2–p3, p7–p8, p11, p13–p14, p17). p9 stated that ‘we are preparing our students and our people for the first, second and third industrial revolution’. participants emphasised that ‘the quality of teaching and learning is not great and is intensified by organised labour in the education sector that is largely resistant to change’ (p6) and that this lack of quality widens the skills challenge in the country. curricular alignment to i4.0 skills requirements, from early childhood training to tertiary education, was recommended as an urgent action in the country (p1–p3, p11–p14, p17, p20). the curriculum must be ‘industry skills demand-driven’ (p11) and must offer broad assessment criteria (p9): ‘so, if you look at automotive manufacturers how they predict the cars and how the cars get introduced, i mean they work on a plus or minus 12-year cycle. so, in a 12-year cycle, they know exactly what technology they need 12 years from now. so, if industry get much closer to education and they say guys in 12 years.’ (p17) ‘time, this is what we think that gonna come in order for these youngsters to be able to work at a certain level they need.’ (p17) discussion outline of the findings the findings of this study accentuate that the adoption of i4.0 in the south african manufacturing industry is essential, thus confirming findings in other studies (calitz et al., 2017). some south african manufacturing companies are adopting i4.0 without affecting their workforce headcount, and learning from this experience is paramount. these companies are innovating technology in such a way that jobs are saved. this is achieved by implementing various strategies, such as automating routine functions to provide employees with opportunity and time for innovation and problem-solving; absorbing more content and bringing in previously outsourced functions by leveraging the capability of i4.0 technologies; focusing on technologies that simultaneously augment humans and enhance competitiveness and productivity; and in-house reskilling and upskilling. this study points out that the impact of i4.0 on jobs and skills depends significantly on the individual company’s innovativeness and its strategy towards employees’ well-being. technology innovation to save jobs requires joint efforts from manufacturing professionals, digital experts and hr practitioners who are change agents and strategic partners (paine, 2009). incremental learning, where employees are encouraged to learn something small and new every day or teach someone something new every day, is being adopted by other manufacturing companies in south africa. employees are given sufficient time to learn through experimentation and are given opportunities to make mistakes and rectify them promptly. this shortens employees’ learning cycle, thus increasing their relevance to the organisation. in the process, jobs are preserved, and this is of significance to south africa, which faces notable unemployment challenges (rambe, 2018). the findings of this study intimate that i4.0 demands higher skills levels in the workforce than conventional manufacturing. the south african manufacturing industry is characterised by a significant percentage of the low-skilled workforce (merseta, 2018). workplace training has the potential of achieving higher workforce productivity levels (van zyl, 2017) and could assist in mitigating i4.0 skills challenges in the south african manufacturing industry. to this end, hr practitioners need to align their training strategies towards the facilitation and promotion of reskilling and upskilling of the workforce in meeting i4.0 skills requirements (dhanpat et al., 2020). the education system has a notable contribution to minimising i4.0 skills challenges in the manufacturing industry. the potential lies in aligning skills development with industry requirements. such alignment was pointed out to be missing in the south african education system. the alignment can be achieved when the education system and other skills development institutions are industry-driven. in the same respect, there was an emphasis on strengthening the development of workplace employability skills. this supports the relevance of work-integrated learning (rambe, 2018) and other practical models that are relevant in developing i4.0 skills for the manufacturing industry. the study confirms the importance of soft skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, cross-cultural ability, teamwork, emotional intelligence, lifelong learning and multi-skilling in i4.0 (carter, 2017; kazancoglu & ozkan-ozen, 2018; krot, mazgajczyk, rusińska, & woźna, 2018; maisiri et al., 2019). soft skills such as agile decision-making and accountability, ability to quickly adjust to change and act, self-directedness and a reduced taking of orders, which were identified in this study, are rarely found in the literature. mindset change in the workforce was identified to significantly contribute to the successful adoption of i4.0 in the manufacturing industry. to manage the change process, the workforce requires transitional skills, such as coding skills, data analytics, human–machine interaction and understanding of information technology. the strategic role of hr practitioners (davis, 2017; rimanoczy & pearson, 2010) in collaborating with manufacturing professionals becomes important in ensuring that employees acquire the needed transitional skills. practical implications the quick changes in the use of technologies in the manufacturing industry require constant alignment of employees’ skills and demand that companies make the hr management function an integral part of their business strategy. this study provides information on i4.0 skills that can be used by both manufacturing professionals and hr practitioners in strategising on future employment practices in their companies. the study further provides practical solutions to ensuring the competitiveness of the manufacturing industry through the successful adoption of i4.0, facilitated by skills availability and skills development. the findings of this study could enhance strategies to develop i4.0 skills for both workplace training and institutional training. limitations and recommendations the study focused on the broad subject of i4.0 skills in the south african manufacturing industry and did not venture into distinguishing between disrupted environment-specific skills and generic permanent skills. further to this, the study only focused on skills and not on the whole subject of competencies (skills, knowledge and personal attitudes) of employees in i4.0 (rambe, 2018). thus, the study lays a foundation for further investigation into the subject of i4.0 competencies’ requirements and development. a comprehensive study on an i4.0 competency maturity model is suggested. a sample size of 20 participants may be identified as a limitation towards getting broader views on the subject investigated. however, the study design minimised the possible effect of small sample size by purposefully selecting participants regarded as experts in this subject. although there might be variations in how i4.0 impact on various sectors in the manufacturing industry, the study did not focus on a particular manufacturing industry sector in south africa. although this could be sufficient for this study, future studies should consider looking at how i4.0 is impacting on skills in different manufacturing industry sectors in south africa. conclusion the study investigated the subject of i4.0 skills in the south african manufacturing industry, and the findings reveal that i4.0 has a potential to have a negative impact on jobs if no action is taken to align workforce skills with industry skills requirements. however, a notable number of south african manufacturing companies are innovating the technologies they use and implementing strategies that minimise or even eliminate workforce headcount reduction. it can be concluded that the role of hr practitioners in collaborating with manufacturing professionals becomes increasingly relevant in managing the evolving i4.0 skills’ requirements and preservation of jobs. acknowledgements the authors express their gratitude to dr arie verburgh for his language editing services. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interest that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions w.m. was responsible for data collection, data analysis and preparing the manuscript – the work is based on his phd studies. l.v.d. supervised the study. all authors discussed the findings and contributed to the final manuscript. ethical consideration in compliance with north-west university’s ethical clearance process, participants were enrolled voluntarily, and no participants were persuaded or coerced to participate. this was achieved by providing the prospective participants with an informed consent document, which they had to sign before participating in the research. the research overview, expectations from the participants, risks involved and how the risks would be minimised, as well as the handling and use of the data collected, were stated in the informed consent document. participants were offered the liberty to withdraw from the study during or after the interview. the researcher adhered to the statements contained in the informed consent document at all stages of the study. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing does not apply to this article, as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references accenture consulting. (2017). manning the mission for advanced manufacturing. retrieved from https://www.accenture.com/il-en/_acnmedia/pdf-50/accenture-manning-mission-advanced-manfacturing.pdf baker, k. (2016). the digital revolution: the impact of the fourth industrial revolution on employment and education. retrieved from https://www.edge.co.uk/sites/default/files/documents/digital_revolution_web_version.pdf bartodziej, c.j. (2016). the concept industry 4.0: an empirical analysis of technologies and applications in production logistics. springer, wiesbaden, germany. braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa calitz, a.p., poisat, p., & cullen, m. (2017). the future african workplace: the use of collaborative robots in manufacturing. sa journal of human resource management, 15(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.901 carter, d. (2017). creativity in action–the information professional is poised to exploit the fourth industrial revolution: the business information survey 2017. business information review, 34(3), 122–137. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266382117722440 coetzee, r., jonker, c., van der merwe, k., & van dyk, l. (2019). the south african perspective on the lean manufacturing respect for people principles. sa journal of industrial psychology, 45(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v45i0.1613 davis, p.j. (2017). how hr can create competitive advantage for the firm. human resource management international digest, 25(2), 4–6. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid-09-2016-0122 dhanpat, n., buthelezi, z.p., joe, m.r., maphela, t.v., & shongwe, n. (2020). industry 4.0: the role of human resource professionals. sa journal of human resource management, 18, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1302 etikan, i., musa, s.a., & alkassim, r.s. (2016). comparison of convenience sampling and purposive sampling. american journal of theoretical and applied statistics, 5(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajtas.20160501.11 friese, s. (2019). atlas ti 8 widows user manaual. retrieved from http://downloads.atlasti.com/docs/manual/atlasti_v8_manual_en.pdf gehrke, l., kühn, a., rule, d., moore, p., bellmann, c., siemes, s., … standley, m. (2015). a discussion of qualifications and skills in the factory of the future: a german and american perspective. 4. retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/26953030/a_discussion_of_qualifications_and_skills_in_the_factory_of_the_future_a_german_and_american_perspective golafshani, n. (2003). understanding reliability and validity in qualitative research. the qualitative report, 8(4), 597–606. http://www.nova.edu/ssss/qr/qr8-4/golafshani.pdf hartmann, e.a., & bovenschulte, m. (2013). skills needs analysis for “industry 4.0” based on roadmaps for smart systems. international expert workshop on ‘using technology foresights for identifying future skills needs’ 24–36. retrieved from https://www.iit-berlin.de/en/publications/skills-needs-analysis-for-201cindustry-4-0201d-based-on-roadmaps-for-smart-systems instimbi. (2019). about instimbi. instimbi. retrieved from http://www.intsimbi.co.za/international.html kang, h.s., lee, j.y., choi, s., kim, h., park, j. h., son, j.y., … do noh, s. (2016). smart manufacturing: past research, present findings, and future directions. international journal of precision engineering manufacturing-green technology, 3(1), 111–128. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40684-016-0015-5 kazancoglu, y., & ozkan-ozen, y. d. (2018). analyzing workforce 4.0 in the fourth industrial revolution and proposing a road map from operations management perspective with fuzzy dematel [article]. journal of enterprise information management, 31(6), 891–907. https://doi.org/10.1108/jeim-01-2017-0015 kim, h., sefcik, j.s., & bradway, c. (2017). characteristics of qualitative descriptive studies: a systematic review. research in nursing health, 40(1), 23–42. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.21768 kleynhans, e.p., & sekhobela, m.j. (2008). shift-share analysis of manufacturing as a measuring instrument for human resource management: empirical research. sa journal of human resource management, 6(3), 14–21. https://doi.org/10.4102/jef.v4i1.332 krot, k., mazgajczyk, e., rusińska, m., & woźna, a. (2018). strategy of improving skills of nnovation managers in the area of advanced manufacturing technologies. international conference on intelligent systems in production engineering and maintenance. 17–18 september. wroclaw, poland. lu, y. (2017). industry 4.0: a survey on technologies, applications and open research issues. journal of industrial information integration, 6, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jii.2017.04.005 magilvy, j.k., & thomas, e. (2009). a first qualitative project: qualitative descriptive design for novice researchers. journal for specialists in pediatric nursing, 14(4), 298–300. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6155.2009.00212.x maguire, m., & delahunt, b. (2017). doing a thematic analysis: a practical, step-by-step guide for learning and teaching scholars. the all ireland journal of teaching and learning in higher education, 9(3). http://ojs.aishe.org/index.php/aishe-j/article/view/335 maisiri, w., darwish, h., & van dyk, l. (2019). an investigation of industry 4.0 skills requirements. the south african journal of industrial engineering, 30(3), 90–105. https://doi.org/10.7166/30-3-2230 maisiri, w., & van dyk, l. (2019). industry 4.0 readiness assessment for south african industries. the south african journal of industrial engineering, 30(3), 134–148. https://doi.org/10.7166/30-3-2231 merseta. (2018). sector skills plan update 2019/2020. retrieved from http://www.merseta.org.za/announcements%20docs/merseta%20sector%20skills%20plan%202019-2020.pdf miguel, p.a.c. (2011). qualitative research approach in production engineering-an assessment of a research project and a sample of master of science dissertations. exacta, 9(2), 197–206. https://doi.org/10.5585/exacta.v9i2.2503 müller, j. m., buliga, o., & voigt, k.-i. (2018). fortune favors the prepared: how smes approach business model innovations in industry 4.0. technological forecasting and social change, 132, 2–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2017.12.019 neergaard, m.a., olesen, f., andersen, r.s., & sondergaard, j. (2009). qualitative description–the poor cousin of health research? bmc medical research methodology, 9(1), 52. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-9-52 paine, s. (2009). the emerging role of hr practitioners: expectations, challenges and trends. unitec new zealand. plastic & chemical trading. (2019). manufacturing south africa: a look at the industry. digital cloud. retrieved from https://plastrading.com/2019/09/24/manufacturing-south-africa-a-look-at-the-industry/ rambe, p. (2018). using work integrated learning programmes as a strategy to broaden academic and workplace competencies. sa journal of human resource management, 16(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.999 republic of south africa. (2018a). gross domestic product: 3rd quarter 2018. statistics south africa. retrieved from http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/p0441/gdp_2018_q3_media_presentation.pdf#page=14 republic of south africa. (2018b). manufacturing: winners and losers of 2018. statistics south africa. retrieved from http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=11890 republic of south africa. (2018c). minister davies launches new intsimbi future production technologies initiative. depertment of trade and industry. retrieved from http://www.dti.gov.za/industrial_development/fipt.jsp rimanoczy, i., & pearson, t. (2010). role of hr in the new world of sustainability. industrial and commercial training, 42(1), 11–17. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197851011013661 sandelowski, m. (2000). whatever happened to qualitative description? research in nursing health, 23(4), 334–340. https://doi.org/10.1002/1098-240x(200008)23:4<334::aid-nur9>3.0.co;2-g sandelowski, m. (2010). what’s in a name? qualitative description revisited. research in nursing health, 33(1), 77–84. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.20362 selamat, a., alias, r., hikmi, s., puteh, m., & tapsi, s. (2017). higher education 4.0: current status and readiness in meeting the fourth industrial revolution challenges. redesigning higher education towards industry, 4, 23–24. retrieved file:///c:/users/25753223/downloads/highereducation4.0currentstatusandreadinessinmeetingthefourthindustrialrevolutionchallenges1.pdf ślusarczyk, b. (2018). industry 4.0: are we ready? polish journal of management studies, 17(2), 232–248. https://doi.org/10.17512/pjms.2018.17.1.19 van zyl, g. (2017). the impact of in-house training on diversity dimensions of employee productivity in the south african workplace. journal of economic and financial sciences, 10(1), 160–175. https://doi.org/10.4102/jef.v10i1.11 world economic forum. (2016). the future of jobs: employment, skills and workforce strategy for the fourth industrial revolution. global challenge insight report, world economic forum, geneva. retrieved from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/wef_future_of_jobs.pdf sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za reviewer acknowledgement 243 sajhrm sa journal of human resource management sa journal of human resource management recognises the value and importance of the peer reviewer in the overall publication process – not only in shaping the individual manuscript, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank all reviewers who participated in shaping this volume of sa journal of human resource management: alwyn moerdyk amos engelbrecht anton pelser antoni barnard brandon paschal cara jonker chris jordaan chris lombard chris van tonder christopher m. tshilongamulenzhe deon de bruin diederick stoel dirk geldenhuys ebben van zyl elaine saunders elrie botha errol sundelowitz estelle boshoff francois de kock frans cilliers grant sieff herman pietersen jan visagie jeff bagraim johan basson johanna buitendach karel lessing we appreciate the time taken to perform your review successfully. leon jackson letitia van der merwe maloma akinnusi marissa de klerk martina kotzé martyn sloman melanie bushney melinde coetzee michelle mey miemsie de jager nico martins paul smit richard chazuza roslyn de braine rudi oosthuizen salome vosloo sanet coetzee sebastiaan rothmann shirley zinn sonia swanepoel suki goodman susan wolmarans vimala balasubramanian werner havenga wikus van der merwe willie du toit willem schurink in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer rievewers for sa journal of human resource management, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on www.sajhrm.co.za for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a reviewer. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at http://www. sajhrm.co.za 2. in your ‘user home’ [http://www.sajhrm. co.za/index.php/sajhrm/ user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest. 3. it is good practice as reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to sa journal of human resource management. please do not hesitate to contact me if you require assistance in performing this task. liezel grunewald submissions@sajhrm.co.za tel: +27 (0)21 914 5100 fax: +27 (0)21 914 5105 abstract introduction literature review teachers’ working conditions research methodology findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) victor c. ngwenya department of educational management and leadership, faculty of education and arts, zimbabwe open university, bulawayo, zimbabwe college of economic and management sciences, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa citation ngwenya, v.c. (2021). job performance: working conditions of urban teachers in zimbabwean schools. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1454. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1454 original research job performance: working conditions of urban teachers in zimbabwean schools victor c. ngwenya received: 14 aug. 2020; accepted: 19 jan. 2021; published: 16 mar. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: for zimbabwean schools to deliver quality education in this competitive and hyperinflationary environment, teachers must be paid a living wage, which is commensurate with their noble profession to spruce up their public image and retain the best. research purpose: the research established the zimbabwean urban teachers’ working conditions, which affected their job performance and proffered remedies. motivation for the study: schools with favourable working conditions attracted, developed and retained highly qualified, experienced and effective teachers. the opposite resulted in low productivity, high turnover, absenteeism, moonlighting, job hopping and attrition. research approach/design and method: a qualitative approach informed by a constructivist grounded theory was used. sixteen experienced teachers and four education managers had their lived experiences on the phenomenon under investigation interrogated as experienced in bulawayo metropolitan province (bmp). main findings: the findings suggested that the improvement of the teachers’ working conditions enhanced their job performance. teachers bemoaned the low remunerations that could not meet their basic physiological needs, which were fundamental in enhancing their job performance. they also claimed that the teacher to learner ratio and curriculum demands overworked them amid the scarcity of resources. sponsored career development opportunities were unavailable. practical/managerial implications: improving the working conditions of teachers would not only enhance their job performance but also reduce high turnover, attrition rate and moonlighting, which has become a malaise in zimbabwean schools. contributions/value-add: the study revealed that improving the remuneration for teachers has a domino effect on their poor working conditions. keywords: job performance; teacher burnout; teachers’ working conditions; motivational factors; turnover. introduction the tradition in zimbabwe is that after teachers have completed their initial professional training, they are deployed to all parts of the country by the ministry of primary and secondary education (mopse) with equity in mind so that quality teachers are equally distributed nationwide in pursuit of universal primary education (upe), which was declared at independence (government of zimbabwe [goz], 2020). however, those who are usually deployed to remote schools, which are sometimes inaccessible, encounter challenges. the low remuneration that teachers receive in sub-saharan africa as compensation for a day’s work has made them lose the respect, which was associated with the nobility of the profession as they fail to satisfy their basic physiological needs compared with their counterparts in the private sector (marinette, 2018; ohide & mbogo, 2017). it is this challenging environment that they operate in, made worse by the workload, decision-making, lack of support for professional development and disrespect from government, parents and community at large, which seems to affect the job performance of urban teachers in zimbabwean schools (adedeji & olaniyan, 2011). consequently, many teachers, usually those deployed away from their home, try by all means to move closer with the hope of lessening budgetary expenses (choy, 1996). whilst those who fail to do so either leave the noble profession totally or pursue other endeavours locally, in neighbouring countries and in the diaspora in search of greener pastures, thus causing a high rate of teacher attrition (adebayo & gombakomba, 2013; marinette, 2018). zimbabwean schools have lost dedicated, talented, experienced teachers with degrees particularly in mathematics and science out of such frustrations (adebayo & gombakomba, 2013). it is against this backdrop of poor remuneration and working conditions such as those highlighted here that the study sought to investigate the impact of working conditions of zimbabwean teachers on their job performance. orientation the study is anchored on the management and motivation theories of taylor, grant, elton mayo, maslow and herzberg (alonge, onnoh, olusesean, ojo, & nahaniel, 2020). taylor and grant in their works opined that workers’ job performance is motivated by salaries and incentives (alonge et al., 2020; stoner, freeman, & gilbert, 2008). however, during the human relations era, elton mayo and fritz roethlishberger’s hawthorne experiment refuted that money and working conditions were motivators (deckers, 2010). instead, the experiment revealed that workers were motivated by the accomplishment of individual needs. however, maslow’s hierarchy of needs and herzberg’s two-factor theory established that at the lowest level, the teachers’ needs which would stabilise the working environment are the attainment of physiological needs, good salaries or wages, working conditions such as pensions, medical insurance, physical workplace, job security, safety needs, social needs, tenure, company policy, work ethics, organisational politics, quality of leadership, relationships amongst teachers and supervisors (everard & morris, 1996; ngwenya, 2015; owens, 1995). the acquisition of the basic needs of physiological, safety and love lays a firm foundation for the attainment of higher order ones (govender & bussin, 2020). little wonder that, herzberg referred to them as maintenance or hygienic factors, which must be present in the working environment for job performance to take place (stoner et al., 2008). therefore, the teachers’ working conditions are essential to customer satisfaction and job performance in a competitive environment (eluka & okafor, 2015). in corroboration, the nigerian study revealed that dynamic and progressive schools would endeavour to attract and retain the right teachers for the job at the right time by creating and sustaining their motivation in the changing circumstances (eluka & okafor, 2015). likewise, a cameroonian study concurred with maslow’s and herzberg’s findings by revealing that the job performance of teachers came from wages, work environment factors, mentoring, promotional opportunities, cooperation and membership of working groups (amin, 2015). herzberg goes further to aver that if physical conditions are negative it can negatively impact the job performance of teachers (deckers, 2010). maslow and herzberg’s observation is noteworthy which asserts that if the basic needs are not met that lay a firm foundation for the attainment of higher order needs such as responsibilities, opportunities for growth, achievement, recognition and advancement, it would be difficult for education managers to enhance the job performance of teachers in a school (ngwenya, 2015). hygiene or maintenance factors are extrinsic whilst motivators are intrinsic (alonge et al., 2020). both scholars further assert that to enhance the job performance of teachers, the prerequisite factors which constitute the working conditions and are extrinsic in nature must exist first if motivators/higher-order needs are to be attained. in a similar fashion, heathfield (2019, para. 2) opined that ‘in order for employers to create an environment for employee satisfaction that can aid performance in a workplace, it is vitally important to know which key factors affect employee satisfaction’. based on this assumption, 21st-century employers are advised to take a keen interest in the improvement of the working conditions of teachers to enhance their productivity and performance levels (amin, 2015). although such an endeavour must not be taken for granted, expenditures on improving the working conditions of teachers are investments and these investments have to be financed (eluka & okafor, 2015). generally, teachers value working conditions as essential ingredients to their satisfaction requiring regular maintenance and replacement of facilities (eluka & okafor, 2015). routine hardships faced by teachers in the working environment make them go job-hopping or moonlighting searching for conveniences, which may later on lead to work abandonment so as to avoid stress (eluka & okafor, 2015). it is circumstances such as these that led the nigerian study to postulate that the quality of the working environment in a school is a critical factor and may simply determine the level of teachers’ motivation, subsequent performance and productivity (eluka & okafor, 2015). hence, in this study, teachers are regarded as the most valuable resource and asset needed in the school environment (amin, 2015). motivation of the study the socio-politico-economic hardships experienced by the zimbabwean government in the past three decades have resulted in education being underfunded, with dire consequences on the teachers’ poor working conditions (mabhoyi, 2020). hardest hit are the rural schools that were grossly affected by the 2000 violent land redistribution and the heavily contested 2008 elections, which resulted in the government of national unity (mthiyane & chiororo, 2019). many teachers during this era were abducted, tortured or beaten to death (hove & chenzi, 2020) leading to an exodus of approximately 1.2 million people (teachers included) to neighbouring countries in search of greener pastures (crush, 2012). some fled from poverty, disease and economic suppression. the migration benefited south africa the most. it received more than 10 000 teachers of which 400 were mathematics and science teachers (mlambo & adetibu, 2020). however, the unfortunate ones ended up doing menial jobs for survival, which is a disinvestment in human capital to the zimbabwean government. likewise, teachers who remained behind were forced by circumstances to develop survival strategies. to cushion themselves from the effects of the prevailing hyper inflationary environment, some teachers either went moonlighting in the informal market or commercialised education. commercialisation of education is when teachers engage learners for private gains other than their normal salary or allowance (tarisayi, munyaradzi, & chidarikire, 2020). these extra lessons are usually charged in us$, not the local currency (munikwa & mutungwe, 2011). although the practice is akin to the ugandan experience as it boosts the pass rate of learners, zimbabwean teachers seemed to abuse it (munikwa & mutungwe, 2011). new concepts were being introduced at such platforms to market extra lessons and those who could not afford them missed out (tarisayi et al., 2020). the practice had become more of a business activity resulting in government banning it (tarisayi et al., 2020). such unprofessionalism, including selling of snacks and sweets by some teachers during business hours, makes the profession unattractive to most recruits who usually settle for it as a profession of last resort (evans & yuan, 2018). however, the teachers’ union argued that teachers engaged in second jobs for financial freedom from a life of drudgery and servitude, which was being worsened by their poor salaries and working conditions (macleod, 2016). similar sentiments are echoed by hunger, morosini and stobaus (2016) who postulated that teachers as human beings too are not immune to the pressures of a consumer society needing other sources of income or jobs. for that reason, improving the working conditions of zimbabwean teachers is inevitable if their productivity and performance levels are to be enhanced at their workplaces. the assumption of this study is that salaries and working conditions of teachers have a motivating effect on their job performance, both intrinsic and extrinsic (mabhoyi, 2020). teachers, according to hanke (2019), seem to have been earning worthless salaries that have been eroded as a result of harsh inflation episodes of the past. officially, zimbabwean teachers are supposed to be paid in us$ but their salaries are only paid in bond notes (surrogate currency) and real-time gross settlements (mabhoyi, 2020). in the financial market, the bond note is vulnerable to hyperinflation against the us$. confronted with such an economic crisis, teachers argue that their salaries have further shrunk because of the prices of basic commodities, which are officially quoted in us$ but treble when the buyer uses bond notes, thus reducing one’s buying power (mabhoyi, 2020). it is not surprising that mcmahon (2018) argued that zimbabwean salaries are not inflation risk protected, hence the appalling teachers’ working conditions. zimbabwean teachers, in turn, perceive taking up teaching as akin to taking some vow of poverty (mabhoyi, 2020). in corroboration, ferreira (in mabhoyi, 2020) goes further to argue that the liberation of the educational sector in 1992 deregulated the employment of teacher recruitment as many qualified teachers from colleges were not guaranteed of jobs leading to unemployment and underemployment. poverty is manifested in teachers’ failure to access medical treatment in zimbabwe where doctors and pharmacies either demand payment in us$ or cash up front (mabhoyi, 2020), making the livelihoods of the terminally ill and those suffering from chronic diseases unbearable. it becomes worse when the small clique of the ruling elite can afford international medical care sponsored by the reserve bank of zimbabwe whilst the majority of teachers languish in poorly resourced public hospitals and clinics as observed by moyo (in mabhoyi, 2020). kakande’s (2015) study further painted a gloomy picture of what teachers experience as a result of induced poverty when he points out that their families were on a brink of eviction for non-payment of rent and struggled over the usual basics including paying school fees for their children. what this means is that the salaries of teachers have stagnated over years, yet prices of basic commodities escalate on a daily basis (kennedy, 2012). the failure by government to compensate teachers adequately has degraded the profession into an underground subgroup of financially stressed workers who are genuinely driven into debt to make ends meet (macleod, 2016). the collective bargaining negotiations are noteworthy, which characterise the beginning of every school term. government in its attempt to avert a teachers’ strike usually makes offers, which it fails to fulfil timeously. on the contrary, teachers feel that government does not want to pay them a decent salary so as to keep them neutralised by poverty and alienated as an intelligentsia class (mabhoyi, 2020). mandel’s (2017) study confirmed this sentiment when he opines that the zimbabwean government probably borrowing from the russian government’s hatred of intelligentsia such as teachers could be doing so deliberately to dissuade them from democratic and socialist debates, which paint rulers as dictators. shonk (2019) in reiteration asserted that such negotiations are usually in bad faith and government never establishes a rapport with teachers but only does so to confirm that it wields power and control over their careers and work environments. such behaviour by government could probably be one of the reasons frustrating zimbabwean teachers because each time they raise genuine complaints on working conditions, which affect their job performance, their concerns are disregarded, instead they are lectured on patriotism and the liberation war against the imaginary threat of imperialist america and britain (mabhoyi, 2020). what the government seems to be forgetting is that patriotism is not a currency and does not pay the teacher’s bills. as a result, salary negotiations have become a perennial labour issue leading to clashes and failure of negotiations between the zimbabwean government and the teachers’ union (hunger et al., 2016). teachers, in turn, basing their argument on adam’s equity theory, further argue that whatever salary adjustments government awards them are comparatively lower than other jobs, which demand the same training and qualifications as theirs (ohide & mbogo, 2017). without doubt, the researcher is convinced that a well-compensated teaching force will enable government to attract, retain and motivate high-quality teachers who will deliver education effectively (hutton, 2011). in agreement, eluka and okafor (2015) posited that schools must know how to manage a diverse group of workers such as teachers because this aids in recruitment and retention of talented teachers and ensures a high level of job performance. objectives of the study the specific objectives of this study were: to identify and describe the working conditions, which affect the job performance of teachers in zimbabwean schools. to suggest remedies that may be adopted by the zimbabwean schools and government in improving the working conditions of teachers and their job performance. literature review in order for schools to deliver high-quality education, they must attract, develop and retain effective teachers by improving the working conditions (choy, 1996). it has been proven in the united kingdom that schools that offer their teachers a safe, pleasant and supportive working environment and adequate compensation are better able to attract and retain good teachers and motivate them to do their best (choy, 1996). therefore, the working conditions of teachers do not only affect their production levels but also the performance of the learners as well (amin, 2015). the large classes and disruptive learners that teachers attend to, the geographical location of the school coupled with the low salaries they receive are some of the working conditions that affect their motivation and job performance in sub-saharan african schools (amin, 2015; mabhoyi, 2020). before looking at the working conditions of teachers as they impact their job performance, the terms ‘working conditions’ and ‘job performance’ need elucidation. working conditions according to gerber, nel and van dyk (in eluka & okafor, 2015, p. 2), working conditions ‘are created by the interactions of employees with their organisational climate’ including the psychological working environment and the physical layout of the job. on the contrary, eluka and okafor (2015, p. 2) go further to view these as ‘seen in the light of facilities that aid employees whilst at work for their convenience and comfort on their job performance’. these definitions seem to focus on work-related and workplace issues. work-related and workplace issues work-related issues amongst many entail a fair salary and benefits, professional development of young employees, brain drain caused by retirement leading to a talent gap and job-hopping (portland community college, 2015). these issues need addressing in order to recruit the best teachers or retain them. on the contrary, a workplace is ‘a location at which an employer provides work for the employee, a place of employment’ (heathfield, 2019, para. 1). kahn (in eluka & okafor, 2015) further views it as a complex teaching environment with different challenges such as work overload and underutilisation, being subjected to conflicting demands by school authorities, which may destruct teachers from executing their core business of teaching. in short, a school’s workplace is the physical, social, technological and psychological environment in which teachers in their different capacities interact all the time with their learners, peers, superordinates and teaching and learning resources for the purposes of attaining common goals. this feat is achievable when the working environment is favourable. in turn, their remuneration must be commensurate with their efforts (ohide & mbogo, 2017). in other words, the type of compensation they get at the end of the day will either enhance their job performance or not. it is not surprising that greenslade and paddock (in eluka & okafor, 2015, p. 2) view working conditions as ‘encompassing a wide range of issues from work itself to sanitary facilities and other conveniences that aid employees in the discharge of their responsibilities’. that is why working conditions are believed to lay the foundation for job performance to take off. they are also crucial in averting teachers’ burnout, absenteeism, high turnover and stress (steyn, 1996). job performance motowidlo and kell (2012, ch. 5) perceived it ‘as the total expected value to the organisation of the discrete behaviour over a standard time’. similarly, wisegeek (2020, para. 1) views it as: ‘the sum total of workers’ execution of assigned tasks’. therefore, job performance is how effective and efficient teachers execute a given task within an allocated timeframe against benchmarks set by the school. those who meet or exceed the targets set will be performing according to expectation, below that they will be underperforming. teachers’ working conditions as education by any standards is a bedrock of any developing nation and teachers play a critical role in nurturing the minds and hearts of the youth who are regarded as the leaders of tomorrow (adebayo & gombakomba, 2013), there is need, therefore, to improve the working conditions, which affect their job performance so as to retain them. studies conducted in europe and sub-saharan africa established that the teachers’ working conditions discussed here affect their job performance (adebayo & gombakomba, 2013; adedeji & olaniyan, 2011; choy, 1996; evans & yuan, 2018). workload workload which is the official teacher/learner ratio versus the real one on the ground is also of significance. although the official teacher to learner ratio in the sub-saharan africa stands at 1:40 according to the world bank report (adedeji & olaniyan, 2011), many countries, including zimbabwe, exceeded it by far because of the upe policy, which was introduced at independence (evans & yuan, 2018). ngwenya’s (2020) study revealed that zimbabwean classes at early childhood development level (0–4 years) had an average size of 1:48 instead of 1:20 and grades 1–2 (5–6 years) had 1:56 instead of 1:40. it is the upe policy that led to large classes that had dire consequences on resources (evans & yuan, 2018; shirrell & reininger, 2017). it also led to overcrowded classrooms, more teaching periods and more non-teaching activities such as extra-curricular activities. in addition to that, teachers are made to spend more hours at work, prepare lessons after school, carry work to mark at home and conduct remedial lessons, which they find straining (alonge et al., 2020; evans & yuan, 2018). in some extreme cases, teachers must contend with teaching multigrades (i.e. composite classes) or double shifting (i.e. hot-sitting) (evans & yuan, 2018). compensation generally, worldwide, salaries are paid according to qualification and experience but not what teachers are able to do (choy, 1996; evans & yuan, 2018). although in countries such as indonesia, teaching has been found to be an attractive profession because of the salaries offered (world development bank, 2013) and a fairly remunerated job in lesotho, zambia and sierra leone (evans & yuan, 2018), in zimbabwe it is a different case. adebayo and gombakomba (2013) claimed that zimbabwean teachers ever since 2008 when the country experienced high inflation rates, which eroded the purchasing power of their salaries, have failed to earn a living salary. a living salary in this respect must enable teachers to provide for essential needs, establish dignified living conditions for them and their families (drussilla, brown, deardorff, & stern, 2004). essential needs which should constitute their working conditions comprise housing, energy, nutrition, clothing, healthcare, education, potable water, childcare, transportation and savings (alonge et al., 2020; drusilla et al., 2004; nhundu, 1999). such working conditions if conducive enhance the teacher’s productivity and job commitment (alonge et al., 2020; chireshe & shumba, 2011). support for teachers’ professional development generally, studies conducted in the sub-saharan africa have revealed that teachers yearn for self-actualisation, which is not only associated with realising their full professional potentials, but positioning themselves for future promotions as well (drusilla et al., 2004; harris, davies, christensen, hanks, & bowles, 2019). further to that they have been found to pursue these opportunities for growth with vigour if they are supported by organisations that hire them (alonge et al., 2020), a situation which obtains in developed countries as well (choy, 1996). on capacity building programmes, the mopse in zimbabwe demands that teachers with diplomas upgrade themselves to degree status for the effective implementation of the new curriculum framework (goz, 2015). attempts to upgrade the professional status of teachers that were government sponsored before the launch of the new curriculum were initiated in 2014 (goz, 2015). however, with time the exercise was abandoned because of lack of funds although with negative consequences on the implementation of the new curriculum in terms of professional pedagogy, teacher morale and attrition. the latter is confirmed by a study conducted in south sudan which revealed that high attrition caused by lack of growth opportunities is prevalent in many african schools (ohide & mbogo, 2017). school decision-making according to studies conducted in developing countries, teachers in smaller schools were found to be more engaged in the formulation of school policies and school affairs than their counterparts in larger ones (adedeji & olaniyan, 2011). where they were excluded, they felt ignored and powerless in their efforts to improve the learning experiences of learners, despite their desire and enthusiasm (adedeji & olaniyan, 2011). participation in the decision-making process enhanced their commitment and job performance (harris et al., 2019; shirrell & reinenger, 2017). furthermore, a study conducted in sub-saharan africa revealed that the majority of teachers investigated wanted autonomy in the classroom and control over setting of a disciplinary policy, curriculum issues and determining the content of in-service programmes (adebayo & gombakomba, 2013; alonge et al., 2019; shirrell & reininger, 2017). however, very few claimed to have control over the disciplining of learners, deciding what was taught and selecting instructional materials (ohide & mbogo, 2017). despite that, they claimed to have control over evaluating and grading of learners, selecting teaching techniques and determining the amount of homework assigned (adebayo & gombakomba, 2013; shirrell & reininger, 2017). school safety and working environment teachers deployed in crime-ridden areas felt unsafe as their security was not guaranteed (evans & yuan, 2018). they even feared that learners’ behaviour which could be wayward at any given time, a situation if worsened by drug and alcohol abuse, has the potential to disrupt their working environments (adebayo & gombakomba, 2013). however, on the positive note, studies in developing countries have revealed that positive working environments play a very crucial role for teachers’ physical, mental and emotional health (evans & yuan, 2018). to enhance the job performance of teachers, such workplaces must be closer home, comfortable, clean, have adequate teaching and learning materials, good infrastructure with adequate working space in well-ventilated classrooms, high-quality furniture and subsidised food (alonge et al., 2020; evans & yuan, 2018). evans and yuan’s (2018) study even goes further to note that many teachers in mozambique, delhi, south africa and angola could not give their best because their learners sat on floors, classrooms were either in corridors or under the trees, respectively. equally frustrating was the situation in uganda and zimbabwe where the shortage of textbooks affected the effective and efficient implementation of the national curriculum. in uganda, the textbook/learner ratio was 1:14 whilst in zimbabwe because of the introduction of the new learning areas, which never existed before, it was 1:40 (ngwenya, 2020). it is working conditions such as these which have been found to impact the job performance of teachers which this study intends to investigate. learners’ readiness to learn several studies in african countries have revealed that the acquisition of knowledge and skills is affected by the use of the coloniser’s language as an official medium of instruction. along that school of thought, zimbabwe introduced 16 official languages, including sign language to facilitate the provision of inclusive, equitable and equal education (goz, 2013, 2015), particularly in mathematics and science where many learners are faced with challenges (adebayo & gombakomba, 2013; goz, 2020). despite the adoption of indigenous languages that many scholars thought aided learners’ readiness to learn, teachers’ job performances were still hindered by learners who came to school without exercise books, completed homework, pens and pencils (adebayo & gombakomba, 2013). this, in turn, affected the efficient and effective attainment of organisational goals. relationships with superiors and colleagues generally, the leadership style and supervisory practice used by education managers in their interactions with subordinates have been found to affect the job performance of teachers (harris et al., 2019; shirrell & reininger, 2017). in such situations, education managers are advised to be both task and human related if they are to get the best out of their teachers (alonge et al., 2020). partnership engagements between the two parties are also encouraged if organisational goals are to be achieved as expected. however, goal incompatibility between education managers and teachers and the criteria used for evaluating and rewarding teachers if not checked may be stressful and conflicting (alonge et al., 2020). on the contrary, the structure of the school set up itself with its subdivisions into smaller units; isolates teachers from their colleagues with little opportunity for interaction (world bank, 2016). in such circumstances, peer supervision is non-existent and teachers have limited cooperation amongst themselves because of the nature of their job, which affects their job performance in the long run (alonge et al., 2020). public respect for teachers in the past, teaching has been highly revered and considered a noble profession (marinette, 2018). however, in recent decades the status of teachers across the world seems to have declined in terms of pay, respect and working conditions (evans & yuan, 2018). moorj (in evans & yuan, 2018, p. 21) confirms this observation in ‘teaching as a profession no longer enjoys the high social prestige as it did 30 years ago’. it is not surprising that in most african countries, the teacher’s status is similar to social workers or librarians, except in china where it is equivalent to doctors (evans & yuan, 2018). foreign teachers teaching in international schools in china enjoy numerous perks such as flight allowance, furnished apartments, paid holiday and health insurance (mlambo & adetibu, 2020). in zimbabwe, the status of teachers was seriously eroded during the high inflation experienced in the past such that some teachers abandoned the noble profession in order to do menial jobs as highlighted before (adebayo & gombakomba, 2013). previous solutions by policy-makers in the past have been to recruit more teachers to replace those who will have left, which has never been a viable solution (harris et al., 2019). it is this lack of public respect which has made teaching, a profession of last resort as alluded to before as many would-be graduates disrespect it and many parents would not even encourage their children to take it up as a career (evans & yuan, 2018). such a state of affair does not only affect the job performance of zimbabwean teachers, but engenders high turnover and attrition rate, hence this investigation. research methodology the epistemological methodology used was informed by constructivism. the ontological position was anchored on relativism which assumes that knowledge is a product of human interaction as opposed to realism (denscombe, 2014). resultantly, the researcher attempted to socially and culturally construct knowledge based on the lived experiences of the participants and interactions with others in a given context (creswell, 2018). as the study sought to have a deeper understanding and interpretation of the subjective world of human experience, its complexity and multiple realities (charmaz, 2014), a constructivist paradigm was used. the assumption was based on the belief that there is no objective knowledge which is independent of thinking and reasoning by humans, so knowledge and meaning are acts of interpretation between the participants and the researcher (creswell, 2018). research approach a qualitative approach was utilised in an attempt to explore and understand the central phenomenon better (denscombe, 2014). it was also used to observe and interpret reality with the aim of developing an explanation and a theory on what was being experienced by teachers in their workplaces (creswell, 2018). this further helped in the understanding of the teachers’ working conditions within their social and cultural context from their voices and perceptions better (charmaz, 2014). the adoption of this approach was based on the assumption that it is humanistic, naturalistic, holistic and is concerned with how the social world is interpreted, understood, experienced, produced and constituted by the participants and the interaction of the researcher (creswell, 2018). research method a constructivist grounded theory which is rooted in pragmatism and is inductive in nature was used to generate data (charmaz, 2014). the intention was to generate theory grounded in pragmatic observations and the participants’ experiences (charmaz, 2014). data derived from experiential engagements and direct contacts with the participants were reported using thick descriptions based on the emergent themes (denscombe, 2014). research setting the study was conducted in the bulawayo metropolitan province (bmp) which is the second largest city in zimbabwe and is subdivided into five operational districts. the province is home to about 128 primary schools, 48 secondary schools and numerous higher institutes of learning. historically, bulawayo has been the industrial centre and the hub of the national railways network. however, the economic meltdown that has led to the closure of many industries has had a negative bearing on the working conditions of teachers. parents in partnership with government play a major role in the provision of education in zimbabwean schools (goz, 1998). they construct schools, provide teaching and learning materials, equip specialised classrooms, fund sporting activities and depending on their financial capabilities, provide incentives for teachers amongst many of their responsibilities. it is the lack of financial power by some parents coupled with the hyperinflation rate of the economy that has grossly affected the working conditions of teachers in the bmp (wikipedia, 2020). entry and establishing research roles permission to conduct the study was sought from the mopse. the approval letter was used to seek permission from the provincial education director of the bmp. further permission was sought from the district inspector and education managers of the cluster schools, which were investigated. before any fieldwork was undertaken, ethics clearance was sought from the zimbabwe open university. ethical issues observed entailed human dignity, privacy, confidentiality and anonymity. thereafter, participants were briefed about the potential benefits of the research and the physical, psychological, social, economic or legal harm that they would experience by participating in this research. they were assured that, in the event adverse effects were experienced, peer debriefing and counselling would be employed. all these efforts were meant to solicit their voluntary consent. consenting participants were made to sign consent forms. then, appointments for interviews were made. during the interview, the researcher’s prejudices and biases were minimised by focusing on the research questions. research participants and sampling method a non-probability sampling method was utilised involving a combination of purposive and snowball sampling techniques in selecting 16 consenting teachers. initially, five senior teachers who had served the longest in each district schools were deliberately selected. in a snowball fashion, the interviewee was requested to nominate another senior teacher with similar lived experiences of his or her working conditions within the jurisdiction of the bmp because the intention was to delve in-depth on exploring the specifics of the phenomenon (best & khan, 2014). this made it easier, economic and quicker to generate volumes of data within a short space of time (mccombes, 2020). the views of the teachers were cross-checked with those of four education managers who were equally selected purposively giving a sample of 20. the sample size was determined by theoretical saturation and was considered adequate (silverman, 2016). here is the demographic data of the participants. table 1 reveals that the composition of the major participants comprised five males and 11 females portraying how the urban deployment of teachers is gender biased. all participants were degree holders with 10 of them having studied management. amongst these was participant 2 with a phd degree. their teaching experiences ranged from 14 to 32 years with half of them having taught for more than 20 years. the data generated from the teachers on the same phenomenon were triangulated with that from the four education managers of the same schools who were equal in gender. two of these had a master’s degree whilst the other two had first degrees. all of them had been in that post for more than 10 years. judging by the qualifications and experiences of the 20 participants, the researcher was convinced that their responses would yield credible, dependable, transferable and confirmable data (korstjens & moser, 2018). table 1: biographic data of participants. data gathering methods a semi-structured interview protocol with open-ended questions comprising three key questions was used: (1) what does the term ‘working conditions of teachers’ mean? (2) how do the working conditions of teachers affect their job performance in zimbabwean schools? (3) how can the identified working conditions of teachers be improved? to augment interview data, an observation checklist was utilised to elicit emotions, experiences and opinions from participants in a face-to-face interaction. the thematic questions encouraged the participants to give elaborated responses, which in some instances were triggered by probing. the researcher also used these to obtain a description of the teachers’ life world in situ in a conversational manner with respect to interpreting the described phenomenon and in turn participants sought clarification on ambiguities (best & khan, 2014). in the process, the physical expressions, tone of the voice and reactions to the questions were observed for interpretation as well. the interview and empirical observation data generated were triangulated and authenticated by the four engaged education managers. data recording interview data were tape recorded and observations were captured as they occurred. a field notebook was also used to supplement the recorded data. all generated data were transcribed, de-identified in such a way that it was not traceable to the source, coded, encrypted and was archived in the hard drive of the laptop for a minimum period of 5 years. thereafter it would be deleted permanently and hard copies containing such data would be shredded (creswell, 2018). strategies to ensure data quality and integrity credibility of data gathered was enhanced by reporting it using thick, rich descriptions in the participants’ voices using representative verbatim citations transcribed from the interviews conducted to demonstrate the connection of the data and the findings within the context. this enabled the researcher to have a shared experience with the reader and enhanced transferability (korstjens & moser, 2018). data analysis raw data from the audiotape were transcribed, whereas data from field notes and the observation protocol were assembled under a framework of analysis determined by the research sub-questions (charmaz, 2014). data analysis occurred simultaneously with data generation through a process of constant comparison analysis and theoretical sampling (creswell, 2018). in the process of emergent data, the researcher was sensitive to the voices of the participants. generated data were subjected to open coding that involved reading it several times to create summaries using preliminary labels, axial coding to create conceptual families from the summaries and selective coding which turned the families into a formal framework with a variable that included all the generated data (charmaz, 2014). initially, a single case was investigated using a semi-structured interview protocol and participant observation to create a conceptual category, and then 19 more cases to confirm the indication followed until theoretical saturation was achieved (glaser & straus, 1998). it is from this empirical encounter that the subject matter was reported under different themes from which the theory was unearthed (denscombe, 2014). findings the data analysis process yielded the following thematic areas, namely, the definition of the working conditions of teachers and job performance, demotivators, leadership, teaching and learning resources, physical and technological environment. awareness of the working conditions of teachers and job performance according to the participants, the working conditions of teachers are: ‘[t]he physical, safe and friendly working environment experienced by a teacher in relation to others as provided by the employer with clear laid down regulatory procedures on how duties should be executed based on one’s job description within a given timeframe … remuneration, benefits and availability of resources included.’ in summary, participants 4 and 10 perceived these as ‘codified terms of employment based on the contract and labour laws of the country.’ on job performance, they reported that: ‘[i]t entails how well a teacher executes his or her duties based on the job description and is usually measured by outcomes such as one’s pass rate, learner discipline and class attendance.’ in concurrence, participants 7 and 9 viewed it as ‘an effective and efficient accomplishment of an assigned task based on stipulated guidelines with quality as a measure of success.’ convinced that they had a conceptual understanding of the terms, the researcher then interrogated them on the teachers’ working conditions, which affect their job performance and the findings are summarised in table 2 under the emergent themes. table 2: research question and generated main and subthemes. teachers’ working conditions that affect their job performance demotivators all participants bemoaned their salaries, which they claimed to be ‘below the poverty datum line’ and were therefore incapacitated in one way or another in these prevailing harsh socio-economic conditions as ‘prices were escalating daily’. the ‘bunching of their salaries regardless of qualifications and experience’ and the ‘lack of rewards and incentives to motivate them both intrinsically and extrinsically’ worsened their plight. their desperate state is collectively expressed in the following words: ‘teaching is a noble profession yet we have become a laughing stock. government must give us house loans to spruce up our image. instead our learners are our landlords. rentals are charged in us$s yet my salary is in this surrogate currency. to pay …, i rely on the black market whose exchange rate is unbearable. then i am left with nothing to survive on and hunger rages on. i wonder why we are not paid in us$s.’ their circumstances have been worsened by their failure to access their preferred medical facilities when they fall sick as service providers either demanded ‘cash upfront or us$ payment’ despite belonging to the giant medical society, which caters for all civil servants. teachers suspected that the society may be failing to meet its financial obligations. resultantly, they found themselves hospitalised ‘in public hospitals which are poorly resourced … many a time have no drugs or medical personnel are either on strike or go-slow.’ likewise, participants quipped that ‘the new curriculum demands imposed on us on a daily basis by management or the parent ministry, amid the scarcity of resources are frustrating’. they even queried why they were supposed to upgrade their qualifications in line with the new curriculum’s demands at their own expense. instead, they suggested that ‘government must fund our in-service courses and take a front seat in mobilising the much needed resources for efficient and effective implementation of the new curriculum.’ similarly, participant 9 felt that government’s emphasis on ‘children’s rights’ without putting measures to safeguard teachers has turned learners into unruly brutes. in concurrence, participant 5 remarked that ‘these disrupt lessons willy-nilly and teachers are insecure.’ workload all participants felt that the current teacher to learner ratio of 1:40 was being violated by government as teachers found themselves teaching classes of up to 60 learners at the most because of the upe policy, which compels public schools to admit learners beyond the official ratio. this scenario: ‘[d]oes not only crowd classrooms, but overworks us as well when it comes to the marking load, classroom management, the provision of teaching and learning resources and individual attention … in the end the hallmark of the child-centred pedagogy is compromised in the process.’ evidence on the ground testified to this phenomenon. the extra furniture in the classrooms meant to accommodate extra learners limited movement/ventilation and learners in some cases were observed sharing textbooks in the ratio of 1:5. in severe situations, it was only the teacher who had the official textbook. when education managers of investigated schools were quizzed on this experience, their collective response was: ‘government’s non-exclusion policy of learners for non-payment of fees is financially crippling the operations of our schools.’ furthermore, participants acknowledged that the advent of the new curriculum, though noble, had brought with it new subjects, which deskilled them such as: ‘information communication technology, art displays and agriculture’. resultantly, most participants felt that the ‘timetable was congested and overloaded’. they even suggested that ‘specialist teachers must be hired to teach specialist subjects such as physical education to lessen our burden’. others further intimated that teachers should be allocated one afternoon activity over and above their teaching load to reduce the working hours, which spilled into their home time as they carried exercise books to mark, let alone with the ‘suspension of vacation leave’. furthermore, they complained about the numerous records, which were demanded by the district school inspectors (dsis) on their routine visits. these varied from 8 to 12 according to schools. in their view, ‘some records are a duplication of the other’. when probed further, teachers intimated that at the most five records: ‘scheme cum plan, individual progress record, class register, class inventory and remedial record’ would suffice. they further claimed that some records such as ‘the progress record can be combined with the reading record’. participant 7, with 28 years of teaching experience, lamented the precious time teachers wasted in trying to update the records in preparation for inspection by the dsis at the expense of teaching. when education managers were interrogated on this phenomenon, they claimed that ‘these numerous records are imposed by dsis and resisting them would result in victimisation or intimidation’. likewise, participant 9 did not see the wisdom of completing performance appraisal forms annually as ever since the tradition started, no feedback has been received from the employer. to her, ‘it has become a tick box exercise which does not add value to teaching’. leadership most participants claimed that some education managers ‘are not adequately qualified for the posts or do not have a management degree … those appointed on seniority are worse’. participants 6 and 12 further observed that such education managers because of ‘inferiority complex become unprofessional in dealing with their subordinates whom they constantly harass and undermine because they possess superior qualifications’. participants 5, 7 and 16 also weighed in by claiming that they also ‘have poor communication skills’, ‘lack appropriate entrepreneurial skills needed for self-sustenance in schools … are incapable of mobilising parents to be engaged in the education of their children’. such education managers, in participants 2, 1 and 4’s perceptions, preferred ‘inspection as opposed to supervision to exert their authority’. in some cases, teachers pointed out that the same education managers have ‘favourite teachers who always attended non-governmental oganisations’ workshops with better benefits as opposed to government organised ones. teaching and learning resources all participants concurred that teaching and learning resources in schools were inadequate and where they were available were unfairly distributed. cases of vulnerable learners who could not afford stationery were also reported. physical and technological environment participant 3 claimed that some school buildings were ‘anachronistic’ and ‘an eyesore to the public’. he could not even remember when his school was last painted for the 17 years he has been teaching there. on scrutiny, some paint and tiles were even peeling off and ceiling boards falling off in some classrooms. participant 10 weighed in: ‘school grounds are deserts because of water shedding … we go for a week without this precious liquid’. all participants agreed that their situation was compounded by mainstreaming of the early childhood development entity to the regular school leading to some ‘libraries’ being converted into classrooms and ‘hot-sitting’ being introduced. surprisingly although, some urban schools lacked ‘internet connectivity’ in this time and age. discussion generally, zimbabwean urban teachers and education managers who were investigated seem to be professionally qualified and experienced with one teacher being a phd holder in educational management. their definitions of working conditions and job performance revealed that they are conscious of the factors, which motivate their productivity levels and performances in their workplaces. the findings of the study revealed that the poor working conditions in which the majority of zimbabwean urban teachers operate in border on low remuneration as observed by the literature reviewed. based on the equity theory, they argued that their remuneration neither enhanced their job performance nor enabled them to improve their standard of life in comparison to their counterparts in the private sector in the competitive environment they found themselves in as opined by ohide and mbogo (2017). resultantly, their low earnings could not afford the basic physiological needs they needed for human survival, let alone basic commodities whose prices are pegged at black market rates. it is not surprising that some teachers professed hunger. disturbing, though, was the failure by schools to reward or incentivise excelling teachers in recognition of their good performance and the bunching of salaries regardless of their qualifications or experience, thus defeating the purpose of professional development as demanded by the new curriculum (goz, 2015), which is undertaken at their own expense. the schools’ failure to provide favourable conditions that would enable teachers to acquire the basic physiological and safety needs, which are supposed to lay a firm foundation for the higher order ones, could be one of the reasons schools fail to retain the best teachers for the job, (alonge et al., 2020; portland community college, 2015) more so that the quality of working environment is a critical factor, which determines the level of an employee’s motivation, subsequent performance and productivity (eluka & okafor, 2015). the study also revealed that zimbabwean teachers are overworked because of the unofficial teacher/learner ratio, which is compounded by the admission policy, congested timetable with new learning areas wherein they do not have the expertise and the allocation of various co-curricular areas that prolong job engagement. the numerous routine demands of the new curriculum which are either imposed by management or the mopse without due process or adequate resources as the old one undergoes metamorphosis are of significance. likewise, are dsis who have turned teachers into scribes by demanding numerous and conflicting ‘school records’ without their professional engagement. supervision of teachers has also become nightmarish in the hands of incompetent education managers. it is characterised by ‘inspection’, ‘victimisation’, ‘intimidation’ ‘unprofessionalism’ and ‘favouritism’. some of them have been found to lack ‘entrepreneurial skills’ meant to propel schools to greater heights in this technologically advanced society. capital projects and mobilisation of resources in zimbabwean schools are funded by parents in partnership with government (goz, 1998). the economic meltdown coupled with high unemployment and drought has led to the dearth of teaching and learning resources, dilapidated and inadequate infrastructure, ‘hot-sitting’ and unattractive school grounds. limitations of the study the results of this study need to be interpreted with great care as the investigation was confined to the bmp utilising a small sample compatible with qualitative studies as the purpose was to explore the phenomenon within a given context not to generalise. the transferability of these findings is left to the reader to make judgements about their applicability to other comparable instances (denscombe, 2014). practical implications and recommendations based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are made: appointed education managers must have a degree in educational management, not subject ones, if they are to be equipped with the appropriate management software relevant to the post. those without should be encouraged to upgrade their professional qualifications so as to match most of the professionally qualified teachers practising in zimbabwean urban schools in order to avert the uncalled for conflicts or stresses influenced by inferiority complex. in addition, some operational areas where they are found wanting may be remedied by in-servicing them as highlighted by participant 6 and 11. teachers should be paid a living wage, pegged above the poverty datum line, to enable them to survive in the zimbabwean hyperinflationary environment they operate in to avert job withdrawals, abandonment or attrition. funds permitting, teachers could be paid in the us$ not the surrogate currency that only serves to fuel inflation, which stood at above 785% as of may 2020. salaries of teachers must be de-bunched forthwith, as bunching defeats qualifications and experience differentials. in a small way, schools through parent bodies must reward and incentivise high fliers so as to motivate their job performance. in addition, they should be provided with teas and snacks to prolong their engagement at school and avert hunger. some related subjects, such as art displays and physical education, brought about by the new curriculum, need amalgamation to decongest the timetable. specialist subjects must be taught by specialists to reduce the classroom practitioner’s teaching load. above all, vacation leave must be reinstated unconditionally and record books must result from a professional engagement between dsis and teachers, not unilateral decisions, which only cause tension. flourishing companies must be encouraged to adopt or twin with disadvantaged schools within the communities they operate in. these will partner schools in resource mobilisation. schools too, whilst exploiting the various entrepreneurial skills introduced by the new curriculum, must engage in various income-generating projects. however, the non-exclusion policy for non-payment of fees and levies, which appears to be politically motivated needs revision. government, in partnership with banks, must negotiate for soft loans to assist teachers to buy their own houses or cars to improve their public image in the society. at the worst, public transport subsidised by government could be organised for the transportation of teachers. furthermore, cars usually allocated to government officials during their first tenure of office, if appointed for the second term since they would be entitled to another one, could be made available to teachers at affordable rates. conclusion employers of educators must know that teachers are the most valuable asset any school may have. therefore, they must provide a safe, pleasant and supportive working environment and adequate compensation if they are to attract and retain good teachers and motivate them. in turn, teachers regard working conditions as essential ingredients towards their job satisfaction requiring regular maintenance and replacement if their job performance is to be enhanced. in conclusion, collective bargaining negotiations between the zimbabwean government and teachers must be conducted in good faith free of political patronage if the poor working conditions are to be improved in zimbabwe as the net beneficiaries are learners. acknowledgements the author would like to acknowledge the teachers who were the participants, education managers who are the gatekeepers of the institution, the ethics committee, the permanent secretary of education and provincial education director who allowed that the research be conducted in zimbabwean schools, and finally the professional editor. competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. authors’ contribution i declare that i am the sole author of this research article. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for carrying out research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this research article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author. references adebayo, a.s., & gombokomba, t. (2013). dimensions of teachers’ job satisfaction in primary schools in gweru district, zimbabwe: a factor analysis. european scientific journal, 9(5), 309–317. adedeji, s.o., & olaniyan, o. (2011). fundamentals of teacher education: improving the conditions of teachers and teaching in rural schools across african countries. addis ababa: united nations-international institute for capacity building-africa. alonge, b.d., onnoh, o.g., oluseseun, o.j., ojo, o.a., & nathaniel, o.o. (2020). working conditions and salary as correlates of teacher’s productivity in government-owned secondary schools in emure local government area of ekiti state, nigeria. journal of educational issues, 6(1), 89–97. https://doi.org/10.5296/jei.v6i1.16400 amin, m. (2015). relationship between job satisfaction, conditions, motivation of teachers to teach and job performance of teachers in mts, survey, banten. journal of management and sustainability, 5(3), 141–154. https://doi.org/10.5539/jms.v5n3p141 best, j.w., & khan, j.v. (2014). research in education (11th edn.). london: alyn and beacon. charmaz, k. (2014). constructing grounded theory (introducing qualitative method series) (4th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. chireshe, r., & shumba, a. (2011). teaching as a profession in zimbabwe: are teachers facing a motivation crisis? journal of social science, 28(2), 113–118. https://doi.org/10.1080/09718923.2011.11892935 choy, s.p. (1996). the condition of education: teachers’ working conditions. nces 97-371. washington, dc. retrieved from www.allafrica.com creswell, j. (2018). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches (4th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. crush, j. (2012). zimbabweans see a future in south africa. retrieved from http://www.thenewage.co.za deckers, l. (2010). motivation, biological, psychological and environmental (3rd edn.). boston, ma: pearson. denscombe, m. (2014). a good research guide: for small-scale social research projects (5th edn.). berkshire: mcgraw hill house. drussilla, k., brown, a., deardorff, v., & stern, r.m. (2004). the effects of multinational production on wages and working conditions in developing countries. chicago, il: university of chicago. eluka, j.c., & okafor, n.c. (2015). a critical review of the effects of working conditions on employee performance: evidence from nigeria. lagos: university of nigeria. evans, d.k., & yuan, f. (2018). the working conditions of teachers in low-and middle-income countries. world bank, world development report. retrieved from https://scholar.harvard.edu/feiyuan/publications/ everard, k.b., & morris, g. (1996). effective school management (3rd edn.). london: pcp ltd. glaser, b., & strauss, a. (1998). the discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. chicago, il: aldine. govender, m., & bussin, m.h.r. (2020). performance management and employee engagement: a south african perspective. sa journal of human resource management, 18, a1215. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1215 government of zimbabwe (goz). (1998). statutory instrument 378 (amended). harare: author. government of zimbabwe (goz). (2013). constitution of the republic of zimbabwe. harare: author. government of zimbabwe (goz). (2015). curriculum framework of primary and secondary education. harare: author. government of zimbabwe (goz). (2020). education amendment act. harare: author. hanke, s.h. (2019). zimbabwe’s monetary death spiral. retrieved from https://www.cato.org/ harris, s.p., christensen, s., hanks, j., & bowles, b. (2019). teacher attrition: differences in stakeholders’ perceptions of teacher work conditions. education sciences, 300(9), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci9040300 heathfield, s.m. (2019). what you need to know about workplaces for employees? retrieved from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/what-is-a-workplace-1918295 hove, m., & chenzi, v. (2020). social media, civil unrest and government responses: the zimbabwean experience. journal of contemporary africa, 38(1), 121–137. https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2020.1746750 hunger, m.b., morosini, m.c., & stobäus, c.d. (2016). teacher quality of life: perspectives about their welfare. creative education, 7(16), 2363–2379. https://doi.org/10.4236/ce.2016.716228 hutton, w. (2011). hutton review of fair pay in the public sector: final report. london: retrieved from http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ kakande, y. (2015). slave states: the practice of kafala in the gulf arab region. new alresford: john hunt publishers ltd. kennedy, g. (2012). economics. retrieved from https://www.adamsmith.org korstjens, i., & moser, a. (2018). series: practical guidance to qualitative research. part 4: trustworthiness and publishing. european journal of general practice, 24(1), 120–124. https://doi.org/10.1080/13814788.2017.1375092 mabhoyi, l.c. (2020). labour relations among zimbabwean teachers: wellbeing and the challenges of professionals. international journal of teaching and education, 8(2), 53–76. https://doi.org/10.20472/te.2020.8.2.004 macleod, a. (2016). the impoverishment of the masses. retrieved from https://www.goldmoney.com mandel, d. (2017). the intelligentsia and the october revolution. retrieved from http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/ marinette, b. (2018). the impact of working conditions on teacher attrition in secondary schools in the south west region of cameroon. international journal of construction education and research, 5(6), 59–78. mccombes, s. (2020). understanding different sampling methods. retrieved from https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/sampling-methods/ mcmahon, t. (2018). inflation risk. retrieved from https://inflationdata.com/articles/2018/05/22/inflation-risk/ mlambo, v.h., & adetibu, t.c. (2020). the brain drain of teachers in sa: identifying the dynamics of its push factors. journal of social sciences and humanities, 17(1), 152–164. motowidlo, s.j., & kell, h.r. (2012). chapter 5 job performance. retrieved from https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=definition+of+job+performance&btng.x=51&btng.y=11&hl=en mthiyane, s., & chiororo, f. (2019). chronicling the causes of school decline: the case of two zimbabwean schools. african education review, 17(2), 73–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/18146627.2018.1514266 munikwa, s., & mutungwe, e. (2011). exploring the practice of extra lessons as offered in chinhoyi urban secondary schools, mashonaland west province, zimbabwe. journal of innovative research in management and humanities, 2(1), 26–35. https://doi.org/10.4314/zjts.v1i1.65220 ngwenya, v.c. (2015). the factors which motivate zimbabwean teachers amid the economic challenges the country is confronted with. journal of social science studies, 2(2), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.5296/jsss.v2i2.7016 ngwenya, v.c. (2020). curriculum implementation challenges encountered by primary school teachers in bulawayo metropolitan province, zimbabwe. africa education review, 17(2), 158–176. https://doi.org/10.1080/18146627.2018.1549953 nhundu, t.j. (1999). stress in the teaching profession: a comparative study of sources, incidence and severity of occupational stress of teachers and head teachers in zimbabwe. zimbabwe journal of educational research, 11(2), 1–29. ohide, a.d.f., & mbogo, r.w. (2017). impact of working conditions on teacher’s job satisfaction and performance in the private primary schools in yei town, south sudan. international journal of education and multidisciplinary studies, 8(1), 122–129. https://doi.org/10.21013/jems.v8.n1.p12 owens, r.g. (1995). organizational behavior in education. new york, ny: allyn and bacon. portland community college. (2015). top 4 workplace issues that businesses are facing today: continuous learning workplace issues for individuals, management and businesses. retrieved from https://climb.pcc.edu/blog/top-4-workforce-issues-that-businesses-are-facing-today shirrell, m., & reininger, m. (2017). school working conditions and changes in student teachers’ planned in teaching. teacher education quarterly, 44(2), 49–78. retrieved from http://www.matthewshirrell.com/publications.htm shonk, k. (2019). negotiation strategies: bernie sanders’ pragmatic approach to negotiating in the senate. retrieved from https://www.pon.harvard.edu/ silverman, d. (2016). qualitative research. london: sage. steyn, g.m. (1996). personnel management: managing the quality of working life. pretoria: university of south africa. stoner, j.a., freeman, r.e., & gilbert, jr. d.r. (2008). management. englewood cliff, nj: prentice hall. tarisayi, k.s., munyaradzi, e., & chidarikire, m. (2020). micro commercialisation the new threat to teacher collegiality in masvingo district. the independent journal of teaching and learning, 15(1), 91–100. wikipedia. (2020). bulawayo. retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bulawayo wisegeek. (2020). what is job performance? retrieved from https://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-job-performance.htm world bank. (2016). building quality school infrastructure for chadian students and teachers. retrieved from http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2016/06/16/building-quality-school-infrastructure-for-chadian-students-and-teachers world development bank. (2013). malawi – public expenditure review (english). washington, dc: world bank group. 1-stimie.qxd background a study was conducted in order to understand the full impact of the current lack of emotional wellness and poor management efficiency within public hospitals. because of the enormity of the health system, it was decided to conduct this within the parameters of only one public hospital. for this purpose a johannesburg public hospital was chosen. the implementation of this project as well as the results thereof will be addressed in this article. the department of health in south africa in 1999 the national department of health published the “health sector strategic framework 1999–2004” document (hssf, 2000). according to this document up to 40 per cent of all south africans live in poverty and 75 per cent of these live in rural areas where they are deprived of access to health services. the aim of the department of health in south africa is therefore to promote healthcare that is affordable and accessible to all south africans through a caring and effective national health system based on the primary health-care approach (health sector strategic framework, 2000). state and privately subsidised permanent and mobile clinics form the backbone of primary and preventative health care in south africa. in addition to clinics, provincial hospitals play a vital role in providing secondary and tertiary care as well as the training of physicians, nurses and supplementary health personnel. the health sector strategic framework 2000 (hssf, 2000) document claims that the public health sector is responsible for treating almost 80% of all south african citizens. state hospitals are often handicapped by money, equipment and personnel shortages, which again have a direct impact on the level of service to patients as well as to the academic support for the practice of medicine. the health sector strategic framework (hssf, 2000) document further includes a ten-point plan to accelerate quality health service delivery. according to this document the key message that constitutes the essence of what needs to be done in the following years is: � the consolidation of achievements in improving access to care and advancing equity; � to deal decisively with the hiv/aids epidemic and its ramifications which threatens to undo our developmental gains; and � to stabilise the hospital sector, including the need to promote greater efficiency and consider additional sources of funding for this sector; and adopt a multidimensional approach to ensure steady improvement in quality of care. sections 3.5 of the strategic plan deals specifically with the “revitalisation of public hospitals”. in section 3.5.3 specific reference is made to: “decentralising hospital management for improved efficiency and quality of care”: the following is a direct quote from this document: “numerous investigations of our hospital sector reveal significant levels of inefficiencies. a fundamental contributor to this is the archaic management structures, systems and culture. this often causes management paralysis. a compounding, related, element is the per vasive lack of appropriate management competencies and capacity among our management teams. we need to accelerate the implementation of our decision to decentralise management authority, which should be completed during this 5-year term.” from the above it is clear that the department of health places huge emphasis on management effectiveness and competencies and they realise the need for dynamic management structures, systems and cultures. in an attempt to even further enhance employee’s competencies, the department of health wants to implement an employee assistance programme (eap) in order to help employees deal with the emotional trauma that is experienced on a daily basis. management effectiveness and employee wellness is thus embedded in the department of health’s transformation plans. gerrit stimie department of human resource management rand afrikaans university christa fouché school of social and cultural studies massey university, auckland abstract this article reports on a study undertaken to assess the state of emotional wellness of employees as well as management effectiveness within the public healthcare sector. for this purpose a johannesburg public hospital was used as a case study. a qualitative approach was utilized, but it was decided to include triangulation of methodology to increase the reliability of the data. both a self-administered questionnaire and focus group interviews were used as data gathering instruments. forty-six focus group interviews were conducted and a total of 850 employees participated in these interviews. a total of 388 employees returned their questionnaires (response rate = 32%). a number of key issues relating to management effectiveness and employee wellness were identified. the findings and their implications will be explored further. opsomming hierdie artikel rapporteer ’n studie wat onderneem is om werknemers se stand van emosionele welsyn sowel as bestuursdoeltreffendheid binne die openbare gesondheidsdienssektor te ondersoek. vir hierdie doel is ’n johannesburgse openbare hospitaal as ’n gevalstudie gebruik. ’n kwalitatiewe benadering is gebruik, maar daar is besluit om van intermetodiese kruisvalidasie gebruik te maak, sodat die betroubaarheid van die data verhoog kan word. beide ’n self-voltooiingsvraelys en fokusgroeponderhoude is gebruik as data-insamelingsinstrumente. ses-enveertig fokusgroeponderhoude is gevoer wat ’n totale groep van 850 werknemers betrek het. ’n totaal van 388 werknemers het die vraelyste voltooi (responskoers = 32%). ’n aantal kernvraagstukke wat met bestuursdoeltreffenheid en werknemerwelstand verband hou, is geïdentifiseer. die bevindinge en hul implikasies sal verder ontgin word. emotional wellness and management effectiveness within the public healthcare sector requests for copies should be addressed to: g stimie, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 1 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (1), 1-8 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (1), 1-8 brief over view of the recent history of a johannesburg public hospital in an interview with the current ceo of a johannesburg public hospital, it was stated that during the apartheid era, the this hospital used to be a white academic hospital where predominantly white managers and staff members were responsible for white patients. apart from the fact that the hospital’s name was changed to a johannesburg public hospital, he also stated a number of other occurrences in this time of transition at the hospital after 1994. � the racial composition of patients, staff members and management changed. � no concerted effort was made to create a new value system or ethos within the hospital. � in 1999 a new top management team were appointed. the “us and them” culture was very well entrenched at that stage and relationships between members of staff in general were not very healthy. � a particularly poor relationship between management and the labour union nehawu existed. � strict budget control in government hospitals was enforced and no overspending was allowed. � hospital management had no authority to discipline any staff members. � the bed occupancy rate in the hospital increased dramatically as a result of the fact that more and more people were infected with hiv/aids. � many well skilled staff members took severance packages or resigned to join private hospitals. this, and the fact that most positions were frozen, meant that these staff members could not be replaced, and a huge middle management void was thus created. this article is presented against the above background of a johannesburg public hospital and with a full understanding of the challenges faced by the department of health. definition of the problem organisations everywhere are undergoing rapid and significant changes, driven by external as well as internal factors such as: higher customer expectations, new technologies, increased marketing dynamics, rapidly growing competition at the international level, strategic changes and new legislation (laudon and laudon, 1998). the worldwide healthcare industry is also in a process of rapid transformation and the public healthcare sector in south africa has not escaped the demands of a global economy that is forever asking more for less (pricewaterhousecoopers, 1999). these changes have ultimately impacted on the characteristics associated with organisational effectiveness. however, despite more and more innovative solutions for business processes reengineering (bpr) and total quality management (tqm), the human resistance to change continues to be one of the biggest obstacles in any transformation (bashein, 1994). the authors of this article believe that management efficiency or the lack thereof, and emotional wellness or disease amongst employees are closely related and largely influence one another. any change in the status of either will therefore have a direct positive or negative impact on the other. given this to be the case the medical slogan of “a doctor prescribing without diagnosing is guilty of malpractice” was used as point of departure. it was thus the aim of this study to firstly determine the general state of emotional wellness (human factor) and management efficiency (organisational performance) within the public health sector before making any change recommendations. emotional wellness historically, emotion has been a difficult topic for researchers. in the 1960s the cognitive era emerged and the human being was under the siege of very rational and logical decision-making, where emotion could only be some kind of imperfection in this well-rounded mechanism. since the 1980s, emotion has gained some popularity again and today most will agree that the knowledge and emotions of employees are two of the most important assets for organisations to posses if they want to maintain a competitive advantage (thomson, 1998). however, one of the major obstacles to progress in this area has been the problem of arriving at a definition and a concept of emotion acceptable to most. thomson (1998) refers to the hidden resources of feelings, beliefs, perceptions and values that make up an organisation’s “emotional capital” and sums it up as “the hearts of the people in the business”. rumford (1996) states that when change occurs or trauma is experienced that is too sudden or too overwhelming, the emotional disease can become a deadly carcinogen, killing not only the individual but also the organisation. it becomes increasingly obvious that an emotional climate pervades every level of human interaction inside any organisation. steward (2000) states that we can think of emotion as a covert resource, like money, or knowledge, or physical labour, where companies need to get the job done. real-time emotions are a large part of what managers manage and emotional labour is no small part of what trainers train and supervisors supervise. it is a big part of white-collar “work”. this is true for manufacturing firms, but even more so in the rapidly expanding service sector – in department stores, airports, hotels, leisure worlds, hospitals, welfare offices and schools. for our definition, emotional wellness would refer to the perceived, real or imagined ability to change, handle or better your circumstances (thomson, 1998). emotional disease as counterpart, would refer to the human emotion of being overwhelmed by a new culture, position or situation. management effectiveness generically, organisational or management effectiveness is not a term readily agreed upon and a quick scan of the literature by miles (1980) shows a variety of definitions ranging from the acquisition of goals, to the attainment of highly efficient processes. furthermore, assessing management effectiveness is a complex endeavour given the multiplicity and diversity of criteria, which have been, and need to be, examined. these criteria would include for example, scientific management, human relations theory, systems and contingency theory, the excellence/culture movement, and organisational learning/the learning organisation, to name the more wellknown approaches (robbins, 1987). it has been said, “effectiveness remains an enduring concern for both academics and managers and lies at the heart of all organisational theories” (laudon & laudon, 1998). however, it has often been an implicit assumption in different management approaches. a relevant concept is one developed by mckinsey and company (peters & waterman, 1982) who in 1997 revisited previous work on organisational effectiveness. more specifically, they examined the relationship between strategy, structure, and management effectiveness and found that management excellence is associated with: keeping things simple in a complex world; paying attention to the informal mechanisms within the organisation; and ascribing to the concept of innovation. ulrich (1999) refers to management efficiency as the structured process of planning, organising, leading and controlling a system in such a manner that the required results can be achieved and states that effectiveness is all about achieving some purpose, result, or set of goals deemed to be necessary in an organisation. however, in the public sector this may be problematic, it has been noted, “the essential problem may be obtaining agreement about the primary purpose, intention or function of the organisation and its key objectives” (miles, 1980). while the concept of stimie, fouche2 effectiveness is highly complex, there has been a tendency to view it in simplistic terms, and to disregard the cultural differences within, and between, organisations (steward, 1996). this study suggests that the meaning of management effectiveness is best understood as a subjective, socially constructed concept rather than an objective or rational fact. project goals this study had the following goals: � to determine the general state of emotional wellness and management efficiency within the public healthcare sector by means of a case study whereby the results of a selfadministered questionnaire and focus group interviews, were analysed. � to identif y the most critical problem areas and possible causes within this context. � to make specific recommendations on addressing these issues research methodology with a mandate to analyse the emotional wellness and management efficiency within hospital, it was decided to use a qualitative approach, but to include triangulation of methodology to increase the reliability of the data. the decision to use a predominantly qualitative research approach was based on the very nature of qualitative research, best described in terms of its antipositivistic, interpretive and holistic approach. the main aim of qualitative research is to understand the social reality of the respondents and the meaning that people attach to it (babbie, 1992). the following features of qualitative research were noted: � qualitative researchers discard the notion of an external, objective realit y. they aim to understand realit y by discovering the meanings that people in a specific setting attach to it. to them behaviour is intentional and creative, and it can be explained but not predicted. � the qualitative researcher is subjective, interacts with the subject and accepts that s/he cannot be detached and valuefree. � qualitative methodology is dialectical and interpretive. during the process of interaction between the researcher and the subject, the subject’s world is discovered and interpreted by means of qualitative methods. the interpretive paradigm was selected as the dominant theoretical framework for this study. this framework was seen as most suitable for the purpose of the st udy, as the interpretive social researcher examines meanings that have been socially constructed. the interpretive approach recognises that meaning emerges through interaction and is not standardised from place to place and person-to-person. the interpretive approach emphasises the importance of understanding the overall text of a conversation and, more broadly, the importance of seeing meaning in context (rubin & rubin, 1995). the researcher consequently accepts that values and views differ from place to place and group to group. this framework postulates that there is not one reality out there to be measured; objects and events are understood by different people differently, and those perceptions are the reality – or realities – that the researcher focuses on: “interpretive researchers try to elicit inter viewees’ views of their worlds, their work, and the events they have experienced or obser ved. to reconstruct and understand the inter viewees’ experiences and interpretations, interpretive researchers seek thick and rich descriptions of the cultural and topical arenas they are studying and try to develop an empathetic understanding of the world of others” (rubin & rubin, 1995 p. 35). in summary, according to the interpretative paradigm: � reality can be understood and interpreted but not predicted and controlled; � knowledge arises from observation and interpretation; and � data is collected and analysed through observation and interviewing. parameters of the research as the researcher gained more insight, the data sources were redefined on an ongoing basis. the process of referral was systematically repeated until all focus group interviews were conducted. the following generic themes were addressed during all the interviews: � strategy of the hospital and respondents understanding thereof; � the availability of materials and equipment; � the functioning of teams; � communication; � workload; � the role of unions in the hospital; � the general culture or ethos within the hospital; � the relationship between different departments in the hospital; � staff shortage and rotation; � patient profiles; � training and development of staff; � performance management; and � burnout and emotional wellness of employees; as the research proceeded, the questions asked by the researchers were adapted because of the inductive model of thinking used in the study. methods of data collection focus group inter views forty-six focus group interviews were conducted. a total of 850 employees participated in these interviews. the following criteria were considered during the formation of the focus groups: � professional responsibility � organisational level � based on these criteria the following categories were formed: � top management � consultants � doctors and interns � area managers � nursing � allied workers � administration and clerical workers a number of themes relating to management effectiveness, emotional wellness of staff members, the organisational environment and general culture within a johannesburg public hospital emerged during the focus group interviews. some of these themes were generic while other themes were specific and only identified by participants in some of the above-mentioned categories. self administered questionnaire although the research design in this study was predominantly qualitative in nature, it was decided to also use a selfadministered questionnaire. the questions in section one of the questionnaire was of a demographic nature. the questions in section two were related to everyday work experiences. the gallup workplace audit (gwa) instrument that was used has evolved over 25 years of research by buckingham and coffman (1999) in various studies regarding organisational and management effectiveness. it consists of an overall organisational satisfaction item and 12 items that measure the respondent’s perception of his/ her work characteristics. as a composite measure the gwa has high convergent validities with overall job satisfaction measures and relates well to the business outcomes of profitability, productivity, employee wellness and customer satisfaction (buckingham & coffman, 1999). emotional wellness and management 3 responses to each statement were made on a five point scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. data gathered by the focus group interviews and the distribution of the questionnaires must be seen as a simultaneous process. the one process was not leading nor flowing from the other. as the research was predominantly qualitative in nature, the questionnaires were included only to cross verif y the results obtained from the facilitated interviews and the data were only analysed after completion of all interviews. data analysis inductive reasoning was followed in the analysis of the collected qualitative data. the researcher attempted to discover key issues, recurrent issues, patterns and relationships through close scrutiny of the data. the data was analysed and interpreted by means of inductive abstraction and generalisation. the constant comparative method of lincoln and guba (1985) was used. in this regard the information from the questionnaires and the information gathered during the focus group interviews were constantly tested against one another to see if the same recurring themes emerged. frequency distributions were used in the analysis of the questionnaires. results of the qualitative study as indicated in the introduction to this article, the healthcare industry in south africa is in a process of transformation, much of which is a reflection of the changing south african environment. the hospital is of no exception and it is essential to keep the recent hospital history in mind in order to put the qualitative findings in perspective. during numerous interviews with executive management it became clear that the hospital is faced by a number of transformation challenges. some of these surfaced as generic themes, while other themes were specific and only identified by participants in some of the above-mentioned categories. these challenges include amongst other things very strict budget control, inexperienced and incompetent middle management, unhealthy management/union relationships, an ill-defined hospital culture, and general staff shortages. these and other issues will now be discussed in more detail. themes relating to emotional wellness of employees and management effectiveness an ill-defined hospital mission, vision and culture talwar (1993) states that the success or failure of any institution ultimately relies on its strategies – how appropriate they are given internal and external forces, and how they are implemented. the intended strategy is however affected by the behaviours of people who are expected to carry them out. organisational culture or ethos serves as a rudder to keep the institution’s strategy on course. although the executive management at the hospital seems to have a relatively clearly defined strategy, the author came to the conclusion after discussion with executive management as well as members of staff that a new inclusive and representative value system and culture still need to be defined within hospital. the absence of a clearly defined value system thus complicates the implementation of the overall strategy significantly. management’s perception of the gauteng health department (ghd) the executive management were of the opinion that that the gauteng health department does not understand the harsh reality of the conditions within public hospitals or that the government is not prepared to listen to their concerns and recommendations. management was also frustrated by the small, and in their opinion, inadequate budgets as well as the fact that many positions were frozen. new staff members are inexperienced and because of the middle management void that was created since 1999 no proper mentorship system is currently in place in the hospital. management secondly indicated that they are frustrated by the fact that they cannot effectively discipline staff or recommend staff dismissal. in this regard management had the perception that ghd officials were always available to talk to members of nehawu, but this was not the case when management tried to make appointments. management’s relationship with the unions management’s relationship with hospersa seems to be generally healthy and will not be discussed in detail. in the light of the above mentioned reference to the june 2000 strike it should be clear that management’s relationship with nehawu is however not particularly healthy. management perceives nehawu members to be extremely aggressive and rude during management/union interaction. management also referred to instances were union representatives harassed supervisors who attempt to discipline subordinates. supervisors in the hospital have thus become reluctant to take any disciplinary action against union members. staff shortages the overall opinion of the participants was that the general shortage of staff has a detrimental effect on the levels of service delivery within the hospital. the management team indicated that the following factors, (in addition to the fact that all vacant positions were frozen after 1999), contributed to the severe staff shortage experienced in the hospital: absenteeism: staff absenteeism seems to be an ever-growing problem. the high levels of absenteeism are related to the following: � student and recently qualified nurses do not get the opportunity to work in optimal conditions and to apply their theoretical knowledge, thus leaving them in a state of disillusionment; � nursing staff experience trauma on a day to day basis and no or very little support systems are in place to help them deal with this trauma; and � junior staff members are often exposed to verbal abuse by more senior staff members, doctors and service staff; the rotation system: because of the already existing staff shortage, nursing staff often has to be moved around in order to be available in those wards where they are most needed. nurses are frustrated by the fact that they can’t focus on a specific discipline, and either do not come to work or resign. the consultants and doctors indicated that staff shortages contributed to the fact that doctors often have to work for up to 80 hours per week although they were only employed to work for 40 hours. they were of the opinion that these working hours did not only have a negative impact on the wellness of doctors but that it also had a very negative impact on the quality of patient care. doctors were furthermore frustrated by the fact that they were unable to attend training courses, as they could not get time off work and of apparent financial and budgetary constraints. non-established lines of authority a number of factors contribute to the fact that no clear lines of authority seem to be established within the hospital. the first of these is the fact that vacant positions were frozen after 1999. middle management is not equipped to deal with the issues on their tables. executive management indicated that upward delegation takes place and top management often has to deal with lower level managerial issues. patient administration system management indicated that they are extremely frustrated by the fact that no computerised patient administration system is in place. according to management, pilot studies are currently being done at other government hospitals and that it would be stimie, fouche4 impossible for them to buy any system at this stage. numerous other participants also highlighted the absence of a computerised system as a huge source of frustration. expectations and job descriptions area managers indicated that they are often uncertain what management expects from them. they largely contribute this to the lack of formal job descriptions for area managers, no orientation prior to starting their duties and little or no training afterwards. they are furthermore of the opinion that there is very little role clarification within the hospital. the perception is that they are held accountable for results without having any formal authority and without receiving all the relevant communication and information necessary to make decisions. changing nature of the patient profile employees indicated that the huge inflow of patients after political changes in 1994 without corresponding investment in material and equipment complicated their work tremendously. another major concern was the impact that, amongst other health conditions, hiv/aids had on the emotional well-being of medical staff members. senior staff members do not have time to help interns and junior doctors to cope with their working realities. it was suggested that the effect hiv/aids has on medical staff members should be evaluated in more detail in order to develop appropriate action plans to equip staff members to deal with this issue. this is but one health condition to be explored as a separate issue outside the scope of this study. materials and equipment the participants indicated that the shortage or lack of equipment and material is especially critical. according to the nursing staff, the shortage of these and other vital equipment have a very negative impact on their ability to care for patients. patient conditions are often aggravated by this state of affairs and claims have been made that the insufficient supply of critical material have led to the death of patients whose lives could have been saved if the necessary equipment was available. nursing staff were also very sceptical about the quality of equipment. the nurses indicated that they have to wait for months before broken equipment is repaired. during the waiting period nursing staff have to borrow equipment from other wards. unit managers with equipment in working condition are however reluctant to borrow equipment for fear that they might need the equipment or that the equipment will not be returned in working condition. this often leads to arguments between wards. disillusionment, burnout and staff counselling the above-mentioned structural issues have a direct impact on the emotional wellness of employees. apart from the normal trauma experienced by all medical personnel, the growing number of hiv/aids patients and hiv/aids related deaths seem to contribute to this sense of disillusionment. participants indicated that they often feel very stressed and in many instances feel completely burnt out. it is in this regard disturbing to note that 54 percent of participants were younger than 35. management however confessed that more should presumably be done to help staff members deal with everyday trauma. performance management, recognition and feedback no evidence of an effective performance management and feedback system could be found. employees were of the opinion that they received very little recognition for work done, and that management often took their efforts for granted. related to this is the issue of unclear and often nonexistent job descriptions. administrative staff in general were of the opinion that their direct managers lack adequate management skills. amongst other things they referred to the unsatisfactory way in which managers communicate with them, handle conflict and not really being open to listen to any of their suggestions. lack of teamwork and group cohesion little or no teamwork is currently possible within the hospital since there seems to a lack of work ethic and group cohesion. although the relationship between members of the nursing staff seems to be generally healthy, general assistants, cleaners and porters apparently do not see themselves as part of ward teams. area managers are of the opinion that these workers very seldom adhere to the rules of the hospital or nursing staff. they were also very frustrated by the role of nehawu in this regard. area managers were of the opinion that management has lost control and that they are scared to take strong action against the union. customer satisfaction the nurses were of the opinion that all the above issues have a very negative impact on customer satisfaction and on the general perception that the community have of the hospital. as they are hardly able to care for patients, they have little motivation to deal with potential patients and/or families of patients. bureaucratic policies and procedures nursing staff indicated that they are often frustrated by the (to them) unnecessary policies and procedures they have to adhere to for doing almost everything that they have to do. it is clear that policies and procedures are either not aligned with reality or not adequately communicated to people responsible for implementation. the “us and them” culture although evidence of a strong ‘us and them’ culture with very distinct racial and cultural undertones was found within the ranks of non-medical staff members, racial tension is less evident within the ranks of nursing staff members. this culture also manifest on various levels within the ranks of clerical and administrative staff. black participants were of the opinion that appointments and more specifically supervisory appointments are still made along racial lines, with whites being favoured. there is also very noticeable tension between members of the two unions in the hospital. this tension is also characterised by racial undertones where nehawu represent predominantly black workers and hospersa represents predominantly white workers. safety and working conditions participants were concerned about their physical safety within the work environment and indicated that they are often sexually harassed by doctors, porters, patients and ambulance men and that no effective procedures are in place to protect them against this. participants referred to instances where they were ‘on call’ and had to come to the hospital late at night. they indicated that they often have to work alone in a ward at night while the external doors are not closed. in addition to this nursing staff members are expected to carry drugs from the pharmacy to the wards and are afraid of being mugged on the way. participants indicated that they are also afraid of aggressive community members who threaten to ‘get them outside’. the dirty wards and consulting rooms they had to work in also created unease. allied workers were of the opinion that cleaning staff members were specifically to blame for this state of affairs. participants indicated that the majority of cleaners were members of nehawu and that management has lost control over union members. this state of affairs had a very negative effect on patient hygiene and employees indicated emotional wellness and management 5 that it was particularly unpleasant to give therapy to patients in these conditions. training and development the nurses were of the opinion that the criteria used to select nurses for further training and development was not very clear. they were also critical about the long procedure that had to be followed even if they were prepared to pay for their own st udies. supervisors are apparently not very supportive in this regard and nursing staff struggle to get study leave communication communication seems to be a major problem with various dimensions. in the first instance the medium of communication seems to be problematic. participants indicated that feedback is often given in afrikaans. nonafrikaans speaking workers then often loose out on the full meaning of the message. secondly the vertical as well as horizontal communication channels seem to be ineffective. in this regard allied workers indicated that they are not informed about changes in hospital policies and procedures that directly affect them. regarding horizontal communication allied workers indicated that their patients are often discharged without them being notified. participants were also of the opinion that modern communication media such as e-mail and the intranet is largely under utilised as a result of the poor computer infrastructure in the hospital. quantitative results as indicated earlier in the article, the research design was predominantly qualitative in nat ure, but it was decided to also use a self-administered questionnaire. section one of this questionnaire explored the demographic nat ure of the sample and will be reported on in the next discussion. the quest ions in sect ion t wo related to everyday work experiences and will be reported on by item. frequency distributions were used in the analysis of these items, and the average score for all the respondents will be reported and discussed. section 1: demographic information a total of 388 employees returned their questionnaires and this equates to a response rate of 32 percent. the relatively low response rate can in itself be a reflection of management effectiveness as well as the general state of emotional well-being of employees. this notion was confirmed with the results of the focus group interviews. the majority of employees that returned the questionnaires are between the ages of 26 and 40. a total of 52 percent of the respondents fall within this age group. as was expected, the majority (68%) of participants were female. the completion of the “race” question was optional and no specific conclusions can therefore be drawn from this. the returned questionnaires adequately represent all the different hospital departments and organisational levels. section 2: organisational and management effectiveness table 1 describes the t welve items of the gallup workplace audit (gwa). each item was rated on a five point scale where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. in the following discussion, in each case the average hospital score of all the respondents are stated. the last column indicates the specific relation of the item to one of four critical management outcomes to be achieved (buckingham & coffman 1999) table 1 average hospital score on items of the ‘gallup workplace audit’ no core item average relation to specific hospital score business outcome 1 i know what is expected of me 4.3 employee turnover at work customer satisfaction 2 i have the right materials and 3.07 employee turnover equipment to do my work customer satisfaction 3 i have the opportunity to do 3.27 profitability/cost what i do best everyday effectiveness 4 i have received recognition and 2.23 profitability/cost praise in the last seven days effectiveness 5 someone cares about me 3.14 profitability/cost effectiveness 6 someone encourages my 2.89 profitability/cost development effectiveness 7 my opinion seems to count 2.87 customer satisfaction 8 the mission of the hospital 3.07 customer satisfaction makes me feel important 9 my fellow workers are 3.44 customer satisfaction committed to quality work productivity 10 i have a best friend at work 2.94 customer satisfaction 11 in the last six months someone 3.02 customer satisfaction has talked to me about my progress profitability productivity 12 i have the opportunity to learn 3.02 customer satisfaction and grow productivity from the information in table 1 it can be deduced that employees are generally aware of what is expected of them at work (item 1). this finding also correlates with findings made during the focus group interviews and findings made in other studies within the hospital industry (petros 2001). responses to item 2 seem to be generally neutral, but it became evident during focus group interviews that employees are not very satisfied with the materials and equipment they have available to do their job everyday. this state of affair indeed does have a negative effect on staff morale and ultimately employee turnover as well as customer satisfaction. during the interviews, employees indicated that although they do their level best to make patients as comfortable as possible they are often handicapped by the lack of material and equipment. it is disturbing to note that questions related to the focus area “what to i give?” (item 3) and ultimately to the overall profitability (or cost effectiveness in the case of a governmentsubsidised hospital) had a very low score. within the hospital industry it was found that item 3 could be related to the rotation system. the relative positive response to item 3 however does not correlate fully with the general unhappiness that was expressed during focus group interviews on the issue of rotation. the issue of staff recognition and employee development (item 4) is particularly problematic (with an average score of 2.23) and can be the result of management inexperience and incompetence as well as the absence of a proper performance management system. a general comment during basically all focus group interviews were that staff members do not feel valued. although responses to item 5 (some cares about me) were slightly more positive, responses to item 6 (encourages my development) were again very negative. responses to item 7 are related to management accessibility as well as the fact that employees are of the opinion that they make a valuable contribution and that they are trusted. the low score (2.87 on average) of this item is thus a reflection of the fact that management is not perceived to be very accessible. this draws a parallel with the general perception that employees do not feel stimie, fouche6 valued and confirms the findings of the focus group interviews. participants were generally neutral about the mission and purpose of the hospital (item 8) and there was a relatively positive response to item 9 (my co-workers are committed to quality work), despite the fact that participants from medical disciplines indicated very strongly during focus group interviews that they were not satisfied by the service of support staff and cleaning personal in particular. item 10 can be related to teamwork and the fact that the support system within the hospital is seemingly inadequate. this very low score (2.94 on average) to this item can be inf luenced by among other things the rotation system, management and management support and the us and them culture that was discussed in more detail in the previous section and carried through to the next discussion on recommendations. the low responses to item 11 and rather neutral response to item 12 again relates to the fact that a functional and welladministered performance management, feedback system and staff development system seem to be absent within public hospitals. this low response links well with the view of participants during focus group interviews that there are very little promotion and development opportunities within the hospital. this perception has a negative impact on employee productivity and ultimately customer satisfaction and is thus very problematic. recommendations in line with the above findings, the following general recommendations are made in order to enhance management effectiveness and employee wellness in public hospitals. feedback it is recommended that feedback regarding all findings and processes within a hospital should be given to all employees as soon as possible. this will create a climate of mutual understanding and trust. from the study it became apparent that the “lack of knowing what is going on” is one of the biggest reasons for emotional disease amongst employees. management/union relationship the importance of mutual commitment and cooperation of all parties cannot be overstated if a hospital wants to be successful. it is suggested that a code of conduct between management and unions should be established as a matter of urgency before any attempt is made to bring about change. this process should preferably be started during a relationship building and conflict resolution workshop. the use of an outside facilitator to conduct this workshop must be strongly recommended. strategic planning no organisation can effectively function without clearly defined borders and a well-set sense of direction. although it will be necessary to deviate from time to time in order to overcome obstacles, it is imperative that a future destination must be identified. the direction and precise location of this destination must then be clearly communicated in order to make it possible to reach the destination. a formal strategic planning session for public hospitals is therefore recommended. during such a workshop the overall aims of the hospital must be established and specific action plans to reach the goals must be agreed upon. team building teambuilding refers to all those activities aimed at improving the problem solving ability of group members by resolving task and interpersonal issues that impede the team’s functioning. a teambuilding program is usually not initiated unless someone (the leader, a higher level manager, a team member or consultant) recognises that the group is having problems working productively as a team. it is therefore recommended that team-building sessions should take place with regularity. during such sessions specific attention should be given to addressing the interpersonal conflict between members of the team as well as defining and clarif ying the strategic road ahead. diversity management – the creation of a new ethos based on the rapid change in the health care industry and in public health as well as the findings on the “us and them” culture within the hospital, the authors very strongly recommended that a program during which a new hospital ethos can be created should be rolled out at public hospitals. during the program the various aspects of diversity and the “us and them” culture should also be addressed. performance management a performance management system for public hospitals should be developed that extends throughout the year. the system should however make provision for at least two checking systems that will identif y performance gaps and suggest corrective action. these two checking systems are performance assessment and development assessment. a balanced scorecard approach can be used for this purpose. management training professional nurses with excellent technical ability and years of experience seem to have been promoted into managerial positions without the necessary management and supervisory training, development and coaching. areaas well as unit managers indicated that they are aware and often frustrated by their inability and lack of general management knowledge and skill. it is strongly recommended that this group should be exposed to a management development program. communication it is recommended that the internal communication system in public hospitals per se should be analysed and that a very specific communication strategy should be developed to ensure that the transformation process is not sabotaged. the rotation system it is recommended that a well representative task team should be formed to develop a rotation system that is acceptable to all parties involved. the new system should take into account organisational as well as individual requirements and should specifically create an environment that is conducive to teamwork. counselling service due to the extreme amount of emotional distress and trauma that employees in public hospitals experience every day, it is suggested that a professional be appointed from outside the various hospitals to give employees the opportunity to debrief their feelings and emotions. evaluation of the impact of hiv/aids on medical personnel it is strongly recommended that the impact of hiv/aids (and the resulting high mortalit y rate in the hospital), has on medical personnel should be investigated. based on the results of this investigation, action plans should be developed to help exist ing personnel cope with this realit y. recommendations should however also be made to tertiary institutions to prepare current students for the realit y that they will be faced with once entering the medical discipline on a full time basis. emotional wellness and management 7 conclusion this article reported on a study which valiantly attempted the difficult task of determining whether organisational effectiveness of public hospitals is the result of management processes, people wellness or a combination of both. given the complexity of the study and variety of problem areas found, progress towards the overall aim was achieved. for instance, vital characteristics associated with organisational effectiveness of public hospitals were found to include visible leadership and a commitment towards training and development, teamwork, stakeholder involvement and innovation. moreover, the use of self-assessment models was also felt to have positively impacted on organisational effectiveness. if the findings outlined in this article are taken seriously and the subsequent recommendations made considered enthusiastically, the benefits for individual hospitals, the healthcare industry at large and eventually the care for patients in south africa, can be phenomenal. however, due to time constraints, the value of the findings are limited, thereby suggesting that further work in this area would be of benefit. references babbie, e. (1992). the practice of social research. 6th edition, wadsworth publishing company: belmont. bashein, b., markus, m, and ripley p. (1994). “precondition for bpr success and how to prevent failures”, information systems management, springs, pp. 7-13. bateson, j.e.g. (1992). managing ser vices marketing: text and readings, 2nd edition, dryden: orlando. buckingham, m. coffman, c. (1999). first break all the rules: what the worlds greatest managers do differently. simon and schuster: new york. editor (1999). health sector strategic framework 1999 – 2004. http://www.doh.gov.za/docs/policy-f.html laudon, k.c.; laudon, j.p. (1998), management information systems: new approaches to organization and technology, 4th edition, prentice hall, international: new jersey. lincoln, y.s. & guba, e.g. naturalistic inquiry. beverly hills, ca: sage. in denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. (eds). (1985) handbook of qualitative research. thousand oaks: sage. marguardt, m.j. (1999). the global advantage. how world-class organisations improve performance through globalisation. gulf publishing company: houston texas. miles, r.h. (1980). macro organisational behaviour. scott foresman: london. peters, t.j., waterman, r.h., (1982). in search of excellence: lessons from america’s best-run companies. harper & row: new york. pricewaterhousecoopers, (1999), “healthcast 2010smaller world, bigger expectations” http://www.pwc/ health.com robbins, s.p. (1987). organization theory: structure, design, and applications. prentice-hall: englewood cliffs, nj. rubin, h.j.; rubin, i.s. (1995). qualitative inter viewing. the art of hearing data. thousand oaks: sage. rumford, d. (1996), soulshaping. tyndale house publishers, inc: wheaton, illinois. south african yearbook. (1999). http://www.gov.za/yearbook/ health.htm. stewart, r., (1996). leading in the nhs. a practical guide. 2nd ed., macmillan business: basingstoke. steward, t. (2001), the wealth of knowledge. nicholas brealy publishing: london. talwar, r. (1993). “business re-engineering – a strategy driven approach”, long range planning, vol. 26, no.6 pp.22-40. thomson, k. (1998), emotional capital. capstone publishing limited: oxford united kingdom. ulrich, d. (1999). results based leadership. harvard business school press: boston, massachusetts stimie, fouche8 abstract introduction research problem and aim literature review research design presentation of findings discussion of findings limitations and recommendations conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) zain d. reddiar business school, da vinci business school, modderfontein, south africa cecilia m. schultz department of people management and development, faculty of management sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria, south africa citation reddiar, z.d., & schultz, c.m. (2023). constraining and contributing factors of an expatriate assignment life cycle. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2138. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2138 original research constraining and contributing factors of an expatriate assignment life cycle zain d. reddiar, cecilia m. schultz received: 13 oct. 2022; accepted: 06 dec. 2022; published: 31 mar. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: globalisation necessitated the physical movement of talented employees, leading to expatriate assignments to foreign countries. investigative studies and strategy development were needed to moderate the high failure rate of such assignments. research purpose: to explore the constraining and contributing factors of an expatriate assignment lifecycle. motivation for the study: with only 40% of assignments being successful, there is an urgent need to find and rectify the reasons for the failure in order to mitigate the associated financial losses and threatened sustainability of businesses. research approach, design and method: a qualitative research methodology within an exploratory research design was used. the opinions of the expatriates were compared using subjective, interpretivist and phenomenological dimensions. main findings: based on the lived experience of the expatriates, the constraining factors were a lack of training and mentoring, inadequate cultural acclimatisation, ambiguous policies, unsupportive host organisation, low-quality logistics support and ineffective re-induction of the expatriates into the home country. the expatriates strongly consider career path planning, effective ongoing training and mentoring, a caring organisational culture, clear assignment policies and social relations to be decisive contributing factors. practical and managerial implications: the international human resource management process can use the findings to reduce the global assignment failure rates. it provides clear directions for driving relevant strategies and processes for successful expatriation operations. contribution: the study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on the constraining and contributing factors of the expatriate assignment. it sets a course to initiate further studies to evolve a sustainable framework for an efficient global mobility programme. keywords: constraining factors; contributing factors; expat life cycle; multinational enterprise; qualitative research. introduction increasing globalisation in today’s business environment has significantly impacted the internationalisation of companies (hooi, 2022). cascio and aguinis (2018) explain expatriation as the process where while being on the payroll of a multinational enterprise (mne), people move or are moved from one country to another and are known as corporate-assigned expatriates (caes) in the host countries. the current study focuses on caes. however, many expatriate assignments are susceptible to failure or premature terminations (maurer, 2013). unsuccessful assignments are a huge financial drain on the expatriate and the mnes (mcnulty & brewster, 2017). the financials per contract can work out between us $250 000 to us $1 000 000 or even more, subject to the variabilities of the company, job role, country of repatriation and assignment period (nowak & linder, 2016). development and initiation of any international human resource management (ihrm) strategy focused on improving the success of international assignments must consider the contributing and constraining factors during an assignment life cycle framework in a multinational enterprise. this included a focus on the ‘lived experience’ of the participants. identification and discussions of the contributing and constraining factors will clarify the challenge and help lead to a sustainable and effective global mobility solution. to understand expatriate performance management (epm) in more depth, future research could consider the whole cycle of expatriation, considering items such as goal setting and training prior to the expatriate assignment and/or feedback and career development after the expatriation assignment (bader et al., 2021). research problem and aim various studies have been conducted on the three-phase expatriate cycle of developing global human resources (hooi, 2022), but limited research on the contributing and constraining factors of each phase is available. this study aims to address this research gap by uncovering the expatriate’s perceptions of contributing and constraining factors based on their lived experience during various global assignments. this study will contribute to developing a robust ihrm policy aimed at mitigating assignment failure rates. literature review multinational enterprises that operate in multiple institutional contexts have an expansive organisational structure and source and sell products and services in diverse markets (george & schillebeeckx, 2022). the international expatriate assignment is one of the significant operations of the ihrm, wherein the assignee has to substantially adapt both physically and emotionally to confront the stiff challenges they face in a new culture, work and social environment and changed family settings to deliver to the expectations of the task and organisation (bader et al., 2019). furthermore, the caes are also obliged to share their expertise and train local talent during the assignment (javidan et al., 2010). a series of challenges are encountered well before the expatriation commences and continue beyond the expatriation process (collings et al., 2011). they necessitates an appropriate focus on all stages of expatriation. the global assignment life cycle according to mossmann (2016), the global assignment life cycle has some steps that can be essentially built into the following three phases: the pre-assignment phase includes recruitment, selection and preparation for the career and physical relocation of the assignee. the across-assignment phase is the actual work period in the host company until completing the job or assignment. the repatriation or postassignment phase involves the timely preparation and support of assignees on returning home after successfully completing the assignment. postassignment settlement is also a part of this stage. pre-assignment phase the selection, recruitment and preparation of assignees before their departure to the host country mark the pre-assignment phase. specific personal characteristics, such as adaptability to diverse conditions, behaviour and cultures; ability to work under stress; high tolerance for ambiguity; open-mindedness; patience; work ethic; independence; flexibility; creativity; self-confidence; attitude; and self-motivation seem compulsory to have for the proposed assignee (abdullah & jin, 2015). in addition, extraversion, amicability, emotional stability, openness, conscientiousness and intellect are also crucial features to look for in the assignee. guðmundsdóttir and eðvarðsdóttir (2017) argue that neglect of leadership skills and organisational sensitivity and overstress on professional expertise might lead to failure of the assignment. the external recruitment process may involve the scrutiny of the biographical and other personal details, along with proof of expertise and experience and a thorough background check (guðmundsdóttir & eðvarðsdóttir, 2017). the major constraining factors in the pre-assignment stage of global assignments are inadequate training and development and low-quality logistics support (koleša, 2021). an exploratory visit to the host country with the family helps the assignee assess compatibility and builds confidence for the transition. once appointed, the assignee may need technical and logistical assistance in immigration paperwork, the international relocation process and the sale of their home, furniture storage in the home country, tax advice and settlement preparations in the foreign country (o’byrne, 2018). other issues that need support and attention before settling in the host country are long-stay accommodation; transportation in the host country; children’s schooling; banking, rates and taxes; social security issues; and health insurance (mcnulty & brewster, 2017). o’byrne (2018) also observes that it helps the family interact with host-country nationals, overcome language barriers and navigate social, political and religious differences. the various organisations may judge the person’s suitability for the assignment differently. in conclusion, the literature suggests effective and ongoing training to enhance relevant work skills and adaptation to the new culture, as well as personalised mentoring to navigate through sociocultural challenges, to resolve the impediments of the pre-assignment stage successfully (wortland, 2018). across-assignment phase the across-assignment phase refers to the period that includes the assignee’s arrival in the foreign country and lasts until the completion of the contract before departure. it has been observed that during the assignment phase, ambiguous policies and an indifferent or unsupportive organisation can severely demotivate the expatriate and lead to the undesirable termination of the assignment (morris, 2020). the support and encouragement received by the assignee during the assignment greatly influence his or her efficiency and adaptability to the new work environment. job performance and satisfaction relate strongly to perceived organisational support (pos), social and professional networks and a caring organisation culture (chen & shaffer, 2017). perceived organisational support includes a combination of motivators called financial pos, career pos and adjustment pos. financial pos concerns monetary rewards and compensation and employment benefits like home leave, assignment bonuses, stipends, the cost of living and financial support for schooling, accommodation and other utilities (kraimer et al., 2016). repatriation breitenmoser and bader (2016) explain repatriation as returning home after successfully completing the assignment, and it signifies the last phase of the assignment life cycle. it involves all the preparations and processes initiated by the expatriate and the ihrm for the journey back home (baruch et al., 2016). with offshore experience and newly acquired skills, repatriates anticipate a secure, lucrative and appropriate position in their home country. the repatriation process is also stressful for the employee, and the family and information and education campaigns are therefore essential (komakech & orach, 2022). the assignee and family must be retrained for postrepatriation. it is the responsibility of the hrm to resettle the expatriate back into the home country on completion of the assignment, if he or she is not re-assigned to other international projects (breitenmoser & bader, 2016). the high turnover within a year of repatriation is significant because of the gap between the repatriates and the company’s expectations and offers (chen & shaffer, 2017; naude & vögel, 2018). it can be deduced from the literature that progressive career path planning, which includes postassignment engagement, can significantly reduce career anxiety and retain experienced talent in the organisation for a longer duration (molinsky & hahn, 2016). research design implementing appropriate methods and processes and accurate data collection and analysis establishes an efficient research design and strategy (flick, 2011). the research methodology employed for this study aligns with the research problem, aim and objectives, ontology and epistemology. the subjective research approach is based on the belief that multiple realities exist in the world of knowledge. hence, an interpretivist epistemology was the most suitable in the context. some of the most relevant social research designs adopted are descriptive, explanatory and exploratory, of which an exploratory research design was used in this study (bless et al., 2013). exploratory qualitative research aids effective cognition regarding unexplored areas of experiences (cavana et al., 2001; marshall & rossman, 2006). exploratory research necessitates an in-depth examination of the research problem to determine the scope, outcome and application. typically, inductive research is applied to explore and discover data about specific aspects of the topic. therefore, the exploratory research design was accepted to be the most appropriate for the current study. research approach the approach revolves around a qualitative research philosophy in which words and descriptions describe crucial global mobility aspects. the text was further coded and classified to direct the interpretation and construction of a new theory on the research topic, as employed by bryman and bell (2015). research strategy the research strategy starts with the relevant literature review. further information will be disseminated about the research population, sample and sampling methods. it is followed by clarifying data collection techniques and tools (o’gorman & macintosh, 2015). the discussion will also follow on the limitations of the research and data integrity. finally, the ethical approach will conclude this section. the qualitative study at hand used inductive inquiry and reasoning to discover and build on current research about contributing and constraining factors of global assignment. inductive inquiry continuously compares the collected data with the existing theories to deduce new meanings and perspectives. an iterative data collection, comparison and interpretation process determined the research findings (bryman & bell, 2015; neale, 2016). research methodology the research methodology consists of the research setting, sampling, data collection methods, data analysis and authenticity of data. research setting the research environment for this study is the 22 affiliates of a mne across africa and the middle east. the target population comprises all units that meet the inclusion criteria in the research project (burns & grove, 2016). the target population included all expatriates across the 22 ecosystems of the multinational company for which the researcher worked. however, the large population size, as stated by babbie (2013), prohibits including all of them in the research. research participants and sampling methods a mixed sample of 50 expatriates from finance, administration, technical and human resources (hr) domains represented the target population. to ensure systematic global coverage, employees who had served in the past as expatriates were also included. the researchers adopted a nonprobability sampling technique, namely purposive sampling, to select the most suitable participants for collecting data. purposeful sampling is widely used in qualitative research for the identification and selection of information-rich cases related to the phenomenon of interest (staller, 2021). belonging to different origins, ages and genders, the participants were from south africa, nigeria, benin, afghanistan, ghana, cameroon, guinea bissau, south sudan and uganda. furthermore, the participants were unaware that some of their fellow expatriates were invited to the e-mail interviews. this way, they could not influence each other before or during the 3-month data collection period. no prediscussion of invitations and the e-mail interview content could be detected. data collection methods e-mail interviews were employed to collect relevant data. through an e-mail interview, online information is collected by the researcher within a specified timeframe (ratislavová & ratislav, 2014). a semistructured e-mail interview where the questions started at a specific point, following the structure of the assignment life cycle, gave the participants a choice to either alter or add to their answers before returning the e-mail, as suggested by bryman and bell (2015) and babbie (2013). open-ended questions to obtain information about the contributing and constraining factors of the pre-assignment, across-assignment and repatriation phases were posed. data saturation was reached after the 24th e-mail interview when no more e-mails were returned, and no new data could radically change the research outcome. this measure helped prevent irrational data from affecting the results. strategies employed to ensure data quality and integrity the trustworthiness of the data was ensured by taking the following steps. credibility: purposive selection of participants who have the experience and insights in providing valid data iterative questioning in data collection member checks of data collected and interpretations. confirmability: memoing during data analysis, particularly in coding reflective journalling during the research process use of evidence to demonstrate ‘audit trail’. dependability: reflexive journal focusing on an expatriate life cycle e-mail-style interviews with purposively selected participants. transferability: reporting thick description of the context transferability is limited in this qualitative study because of contextual aspects. data analysis data analysis gives order, structure and meaning to the body of raw data. it further provides perspective to the research design and develops an organised, detailed, plausible and transparent account of the meaning of data (groenewald, 2019). thematic analysis, a qualitative method of analysing qualitative data, such as text and interview scripts, was employed. it identifies, analyses and interprets patterns of meaning or themes and can be used to analyse large qualitative sets of data by research teams (nowell et al. 2017). the inductive inquiry approach was used to articulate the collected data in the form of opinions and recommendations from different research sources. the different data sets were subjected to continuous comparison and analysis of the content to either create a new theory or reject data that did not contribute to the content. hand-coding was used to analyse the data. inductive (new codes) and deductive (codes derived from the literature review) were used to code the data. the process of coding continued until themes emerged from the data. the six data analysis phases discussed by braun and clarke (2006) were adopted to analyse the data: becoming accustomed to the raw data generating initial codes searching for themes against the codes reviewing the themes identifying and naming themes interpreting the meaning of themes. presentation of findings the participants’ responses and their opinions about the contributing and constraining factors in global assignments are presented here. for better comprehension and analysis, the participants have been thematically categorised into constraining and contributing factors, which are further subdivided into pre-assignment, across-assignment and postassignment stages. based on the phases and the themes therein, the findings will lead to a better and more detailed understanding of the constraining and contributing factors experienced by the expatriates during their respective assignments. constraining factors of an expatriate life cycle one of the interview questions was: ‘in your opinion, what are the constraining factors to completing an assignment successfully?’ the reply to this question was categorised into various themes, as described below, relevant to different stages of the global assignment project. pre-assignment the participants’ experience also indicates that the significant constraining factors during the pre-assignment phase are insufficient training, inadequate mentoring, deficient cultural acclimatisation when outside their regional frame of reference and substandard logistics and relocation assistance. the analysis and interpretation of data presented were in response to the question included in the pre-assignment phase – ‘tell me more about your problems experienced before starting your job in the new country (if any), and your experience of the company’s human resources support’. the received responses can be categorised into the following five themes. theme: a lack of training and mentoring several expatriates felt that the pre-assignment was a rushed affair for them. either the exploratory opportunity was not offered to them, or it was focused purely on the acquaintance of company matters rather than addressing any personal needs. the training was very elementary and nominal, devoid of any mentoring, preor postdeparture. for participant p18, the first expatriation assignment was satisfactory, but for the second case the comments were: ‘the second assignment i received no assistance from either group hr or the receiving subsidiary’. the need for training and mentoring was evident, as many participants indicated that they needed more assistance. there was also a lack of attending to the personal matters of the participants. many questions, uncertainties and fears led to the participants wanting personal guidance to better prepare themselves for the assignment. participant p6 commented on personal matters not being the key focus of the visit: ‘the look-and-see more focused on company matters than personal matters’. theme: a lack of technical support the issuance of work permits and visas, essential to the expatriation process, was not handled well and was a reason for stress to some expatriates. frustrations and demotivation were results of this lack of technical support. the personal experience of participant p1 was expressed as: ‘the main problem we faced was the issuing visa and work permit which caused a long delay and made it very difficult for myself and my family as we were waiting for 7 months without a clear reason for that delay.’ (p1, male, 42, cameroon, assignment tenure, 19 months) relationships with relevant stakeholders are of the essence in order to produce proper support in the pre-assignment phase. it seems like governments need to step up in order to assist expatriates to successfully prepare for their assignments and not rely on third parties to obtain the work permits. participant p7’s exasperation on the issue was obvious when expressed as: ‘the work permit issuance process is a nightmare. we are at the mercy of the government, and unlike other opcos, where … has good and deep relations with the government … does not have such relationships and depends on third party agencies whose capabilities are limited in delivering the experience and expediting the work permit process.’ (p7, male, 38, south sudan, assignment tenure, 20 months) theme: a lack of logistics support to successfully adjust, the expatriates felt that they were not properly assisted. housing and schooling were major concerns for the expatriates during the assignment, and these aspects were not up to their expectations. participant p10 was direct in his reply: ‘we have faced challenges related to schooling, housing and relocation sequencing. initially it was required that i had to relocate first whilst my family would join later. this caused unnecessary stress to my family as it created uncertainty and an additional burden for my wife to live and travel alone with the kids. hr would have to play an important part but unfortunately there was no support provided in finding housing, school and arranging the most suitable logistics. every step was in relocation was like a battle with hr.’ (p10, female, 45, south africa, assignment tenure, 12 months) human resources must play an important role in assisting expatriates in the pre-assignment phase. the lack of hr support during this phase led to the expatriates being demoralised and stressed. expatriates indicated that this is not acceptable. specific hr support is needed in terms of accommodation, finding schools for the children and other logistics. theme: a lack of caring organisation structure the general impression that prevailed based on the e-mailed responses was of an unempathetic and uncaring organisation when it came to onboarding, induction and adequate resources. the expatriates indicated that they were uncertain about settling in a new country and that they thought that hr was going to assist them. unfortunately, there was a lack in how the organisation was structured, and even worse was the fact that hr did not have empathy: ‘the initial onboarding process is not very friendly and the hr support team sometimes don’t understand that things which are normal for them may not be normal for someone who is joining in a new country.’ (p3, male, 44, uganda, assignment tenure, 6 months) many of the expatriates had to seek help elsewhere, as the hr team did not assist them with induction and the necessary advice. as part of the pre-assignment phase, it is important to note that it is the responsibility of the organisation to properly assist expatriates. colleagues can be used for advice, but it remains hr’s obligation to prepare and assist the expatriates. ‘there was no induction process or opportunity to walk me through settling into a new country and had to seek advice from colleagues who had previously moved’ was participant p11’s observation. across-assignment while working or just beginning to work in the host country, the major stressors experienced by the expatriates were ambiguous assignment policy, a lack of continued training and associated support and an unaccommodating and disconfirming organisation. addressing these sore points can help the ihrm reduce the failure rates of global assignments. the participants were asked to reply to the question, ‘during your assignment phase – what have you found contributed to success or unhappiness?’ the factors contributing to the success have been discussed under the heading of contributing factors at the end of this section. theme: a lack of mentoring and training even during the assignment, there was a need for continuous training and mentoring for the expatriate and the family. it helps manage the expectations of both the organisation and the family. brief information sessions are not helpful. rigorous information sessions, training, development and mentoring should be offered to the expatriates and their families to ensure a successful transition to the other country. feedback and open discussion between the assignee and expatriate management must be ensured. the spouses of the expatriates also need specific attention and guidance. participant p5 had a relevant comment on this: ‘i think the once off family briefing did not help the family much. in hindsight, i think spouses need bit more counselling sessions to manage expectations’. job and work environment factors, family factors, organisational support and contextual factors in the host country must be attended to during the assignment phase. support and unambiguous communication are essential during the assignment phase. on a personal level, there needs to be an understanding from the organisation. diversity training is another element that needs to be properly addressed. training and mentoring strategies seem to be an important part to assist the expatriates with adapting in the new country. participant p16 felt that being an expatriate seemed like a liability for the nation and communication was a real challenge and observed that: ‘the difficulties always emerged when there was no support from the group and the conflicting messages about events. understanding the psyche of the nationals had its influence on one’s survival. the diversity was real and needed to be understood in order to progress. i got to understand that being an expatriate was a liability to the nationals and strategies were required to ease the discomfort.’ (p16, male, 39, south sudan, assignment tenure, 11 months) theme: a lack of assignment policy the lack of an assignment policy was one of the serious stressors experienced during the course of the assignment. ambiguous, unfriendly and vague assignment policies were found to be a severe stressor for a good number of expatriates. participant p3 commented: ‘also on an assignment with … you never fully understand what are your benefits and these things always you understand as you spend time and discuss things with other expats then you get to find out that you are actually entitled to some benefit so basically it is not well documented for an expat what are his overall benefits both from the group or local opco [operating company].’ (p3, male, 44, uganda, assignment tenure, 6 months) clear communication about the salary and employment benefits is therefore essential. the employment contract therefore needs to be updated and comprehensive and not a generic version to all expatriates. contract negotiations and consultations are also important or else the expatriates may feel that they are left in the dark and treated unfairly. this may lead to a high turnover rate and a huge loss for the organisation. human resources therefore needs to ensure that all the relevant policies, contracts and documents are in place in order to ensure expatriate success and retention. fair and objective treatment regarding contract renewal and other relevant documents is of utmost importance. participant p2’s displeasure was very evident from his reply: ‘latest expat policy changes came into effect without proper consultation. although the opco motivated for the need of my extension, the hcc [head of corporate communications] rejected their motivation and no extension was granted. i feel i was unfairly treated and will most probably have to leave …employment.’ (p2, male, 43, south africa, assignment tenure, 23 months) repatriation the participants shared their concerns and stress when asked: ‘what are or were your greatest concerns when having to return to your home office and country?’ the corresponding e-mail replies confirmed the findings of the literature, wherein the major dissatisfaction was concerning the uncertainty of career postassignment and poor re-induction of the expatriates in the home country. theme: uncertainty during the course of expatriation, a sense of uncertainty bothered the assignees, who were unsure about the renewal of their contracts. the unfair treatment and bias during the repatriation phase caused stress and anxiety among the expatriates and their families. open and transparent conversations between the expatriates, hr and management are needed in order to ensure successful a repatriation phase. participant p11 found the renewals to be biased: ‘renewal of contracts was also subjective and biased’. meanwhile, participant p13 was clearly stressed out because of the uncertainty, as seen from his reply: ‘sources of unhappiness are always the stress and anxiety that happen before you need to move again and after establishing roots in a country’. (p11, male, 39, uganda, assignment tenure, 11 months) theme: job availability the limited job opportunity and uncertainty of finding a suitable job back home was a serious concern shared by most expatriates, reflecting poorly on their performance: ‘it’s finding a vacant role wherein you can commence work on your return. since in … you lose your role when you go on an assignment that means you lose job security when you take up an assignment. that’s the biggest concern. i have seen people wandering around in the office not knowing what to do.’ (p5, male, 41, nigeria, assignment tenure, 8 months) stress and strain were caused because of finding work in the country after repatriation. a lack of social networks because of the overseas assignment may lead to difficulty in finding work again. the pool in which expatriates are placed also causes considerable stress. going back into the expatriate pool knowing that only 3 months are allocated to secure a job within the organisation was one of the most dreaded experiences every assignee went through. job availability should therefore have already been discussed towards the end of the assignment and not only when the expatriate manager arrived in the country: ‘the main concern is the ability to find a job within … and because you have been out of the country you have lost your social networks and it is not easy to job hunt. the 3 months in the pool puts a lot of stress and strain.’ (p18, male, 50, cameroon, assignment tenure, 20 months) theme: career planning and development although finding a job immediately in the home country was the primary concern, career planning utilising the new experience and skills acquired during expatriation was equally challenging. many participants experience a low probability of maintaining or having a better position after repatriation: ‘a return to my home country will mean an end in my tenure and my greatest concern therein would be to join a role that has given me the exposure and ability to apply myself as much as my current assignment has given me.’ (p2, male, 43, south africa, assignment tenure, 23 months) career planning and development seem to be lacking in the repatriation phase. the expatriates obtained new skills and experiences during the assignment and therefore need to rethink their career and job prospects. many of them indicated that they will not necessarily want to be reappointed in their previous jobs: ‘to find an appropriate role, as during assignment the expat gathers new experiences and develops further, hence expat is unlikely willing to do the old job.’ (p10, female, 45, south africa, assignment tenure, 12 months) theme: readjustment readjustment in the home country was also seen by many as a challenge once back from the assignment. the change in schooling, culture and lifestyles seemed challenging to handle. for the family, adjustment to their home country environment and culture needs special assistance: ‘adapting to a new environment and new style of working may be a learning curve.’ (p19, female, 35, ghana, assignment tenure, 9 months) all the participants mentioned that they needed to start over again during repatriation. readjustment for them and their families is not easy, and interventions need to be put in place to assist them with this transition and uncertainty: ‘nothing is certain. starting all over again. getting a home, a school for the children and generally settling down.’ (p22, male, 31, guinea bissau, assignment tenure, 9 months) theme: remuneration the concern that returning to their home country will see a drop in their remuneration unsettled many expatriates. this lowering of income causes them to obtain financial planning assistance so that the repatriation phase is undertaken in an effective manner. then also they need to be informed about their remuneration package, with specific reference to their bonus and taxation: ‘what happens to my bonus for the period i was on the assignment during the year? will i receive any documents related to in-country salary and taxation?’ (p12, female, 35, cameroon, assignment tenure, 7 months) contributing factors of an expatriate life cycle based on the survey of expatriates about their experience of the global assignment cycle, generally, it can be deduced that the contributing factors were career-path planning, effective and ongoing training and mentoring, a caring organisational culture, clear assignment policy and social relations. these factors are relevant and effective in different assignment stages, and the findings have been categorised accordingly to make the analysis more credible and precise. one of the interview questions was, ‘in your opinion, what are the contributing factors to completing an assignment successfully?’, and the reply to this question was categorised into five themes as described below, relevant to different stages of the global assignment project. pre-assignment stage theme: mentoring and training for the new role including a continuous mentoring and training process across the assignment life cycle is highly desirable. mentors appointed during pre-assignment should serve as intermediaries between company management and the assignee, enabling effective communication for successful job completion. participants desired a dedicated mentor for feedback and communication between all people concerned. a mentor can be a precious asset for the family as well: ‘constant communication and feedback to both group and local hr as well as to my supervisor have also contributed to the effectiveness.’ (p24, male, 46, benin, assignment tenure, 33 months) various participants mentioned that training for the new role is of utmost importance in the pre-assignment phase. this contributing factor will set the expatriate up for success: ‘clear objective setting; training for a new role; career discussion prior and during an assignment for preparation for repatriation mentoring.’ (p10, female, 45, south africa, assignment tenure, 12 months) assignment stage theme: career-path planning and development the participants strongly felt the need for a clear and crisp career-path planning and development. the objectives and action plan should be spelt out unambiguously, and no adjustment or learning should happen along the way. everything needs to be accounted for in the plan. adequate job authority was accepted as a vital element for a successful expatriate operation. the participants also expressed the need for regular follow-up and feedback sessions with open discussions between the assignee and expatriate management: ‘from my point of view, it needs to be considered as a journey and have a clear action plan and clarification for every step to ensure the expats will be clear on the new environment and can address the issues on time rather than expect them to learn it on their own during long-time.’ (p1, male, 42, cameroon, assignment tenure, 19 months) as part of career development, expatriates need to obtain regular feedback and open discussions. a performance management system should therefore be put in place. stressing the communication and feedback, participant p12 replied, ‘a quarterly/half yearly feedback or open discussion with the assignee and expatriate management. the assignee should also get feedback about the assignment’. theme: caring organisational culture an enabling, healthy and conducive organisational culture and excellent organisational performance contributes to the expatriate’s future growth opportunities, success and career development. it requires a group effort to familiarise the assignee with the job and foreign work culture: ‘an enabling and conducive organisational climate … good organisational performance, healthy organisational brand and one that is growing – further growth opportunities.’ (p7, male, 38, south sudan, assignment tenure, 20 months) an expatriate should be open to learning from colleagues. this mindset and openness will assist the expatriate in successfully completing the assignment phase. the expatriate must also share his or her experiences during this phase in order to enhance a learning culture: ‘allowing your new work colleagues to teach you about their environment but also being equally prepared to share with them your own experiences, from which they can learn also.’ (p5, male, 41, nigeria, assignment tenure, 8 months) theme: clear assignment policy and implementation the lack of an assignment policy is a significant stressor throughout the assignment life cycle. a well-defined assignment policy and proper implementation of the process were professed as contributing to the persistence and successful completion of current and future assignments. ‘expatriate policy must be communicated and shared so that the assignee can fully understand the policy and know what to expect before making the final decision.’ (p8, male, 41, south africa, assignment tenure, 17 months) policy changes must be communicated regularly for the successful completion of the assignment phase and the preparation for repatriation. this will assist the expatriate in constantly being informed in order to make the right decisions: ‘equally important, expats being kept informed about any policy changes.’ (p16, male, 39, south sudan, assignment tenure, 11 months) theme: social relations social relations turned out to be significant for the adjustment and successful completion of an assignment. building a friendship with local employees and existing expatriates was regarded as a way for expatriates and their families to immerse themselves in the culture and fabric of the country. building strong social relations supported the family in adapting to the unfamiliar environment and simultaneously supported the expatriate in successful job performance: ‘fully embrace the culture of the country you are in. if you become too entrenched in expat communities, you never fully understand the country’s dynamics. connecting with local staff.’ (p6, male, 53, guinea bissau, assignment tenure, 38 months) repatriation stage out of the 24 repatriates surveyed, 16 assignees did not find the repatriation process effective for different reasons. five of the 16 expatriates were on their first assignment. ten of the 16 assignees had not experienced a repatriation process because they were moved between offices in the mne to complete their assignments. three participants shared their discontent with the preparation process and repatriation because of no communication, the lack of assignment policy and unfair treatment. the interpretation is that there is little clarity or expatriate awareness of what reintegration planning and repatriation procedures entail. a lack of assignment policy caused unawareness and feelings of anxiety or unfair treatment during repatriation. there was also no easy way to tap into the reintegration planning process information. however, based on the survey of stressors during repatriation, it had been communicated and deduced that re-induction in the home country and finding a suitable career post–global assignment was stressful for the participants, and based on this, it can be concluded that a mutually acceptable and beneficial re-induction of the expatriates in the home country could reduce a great deal of stress and result in a positive and more engaging experience for the employer and the employee. discussion of findings deliberation on the findings led to better insights and a grasp of the constraining and contributing factors. all three phases of the assignment life cycle depend on trust, engagement and communication, as framed by the psychological contract theory of seminal author argyris (1957) and pos theory as discussed in kurtessis et al. (2017). constraining factors pre-assignment most expatriates perceived pre-assignment support as disappointing before commencing their assignment abroad. contract negotiations and policies seemed vague, while a lack of hrm support caused insecurity and discontent in the early stages of the assignment period. the general agreement was that training and mentoring are crucial in the pre-assignment phase. mentoring and support delivered through a caring organisation were perceived as major factors in overall job performance and adjustments. koleša (2021) concurs with the findings of this study in the sense that inadequate training, development and mentoring of global assignments are constraints during the pre-assignment phase. o’byrne (2018) agrees that once appointed, the assignee may need technical assistance to properly settle in the foreign country. in many cases, expatriates perceived hr logistical support for relocation, accommodation and schooling as either unavailable or inadequate at some foreign affiliates. during their e-mail interviews, expatriates recommended several improvements to ihrm support and procedures in the pre-assignment phase. a good process ensures satisfied and experienced expatriates and the retention of experts by the company (naude & vögel, 2018). koleša (2021) concurs with the findings of this study in the sense that low-quality logistics support is a constraint during the pre-assignment phase. guðmundsdóttir and eðvarðsdóttir (2017) also found that the organisation must be sensitive and caring towards expatriates, and this finding concurs with the finding in the current study. morris (2020) concurs that an indifferent or unsupportive organisation can lead to the undesirable termination of the assignment. across-assignment in the current study, it was clear that a lack of mentoring and training seems to be a constraint during the assignment phase. morris (2020) found that ambiguity can severely demotivate the expatriate (morris, 2020). the lack of an assignment policy and procedures to cover career planning and development prompted the failure of the company to retain expatriates after the completion of their assignments (chen & schaffer, 2017). this concurs with the finding of a lack of assignment policy as a constraining factor in the current study. repatriation various participants indicated that being uncertain was a constraining factor. komakech and orach (2022) also found that the repatriation process is stressful for the expatriates and their families, and information and education campaigns are therefore essential to alleviate uncertainty. in the current study, job availability was a constraining factor. the awareness of not finding another job caused an urgent need for a vacant position within the same multinational enterprise (baruch et al., 2016; breitenmoser & bader, 2016). career planning and development were prominent constraining factors in the current study. concern and unease about communication and career path planning peaked just before repatriation (baruch et al., 2016; breitenmoser & bader, 2016). molinsky and hahn (2016) also found that career path planning is essential or else career anxiety may occur among the expatriates. readjustment of expatriates can be a constraining factor if hr does not give proper assistance and guidance. breitenmoser and bader (2016) also found that it is the responsibility of the hrm to resettle the expatriate back into the home country on completion of the assignment if not re-assigned to other international projects or else it will constrain the expatriates. remuneration can be a constraining factor if expatriates are not rewarded to fulfil their needs. kraimer et al. (2016) also found that monetary rewards, compensation and employment benefits like home leave, assignment bonuses, stipends, the cost of living and financial support for schooling, accommodation and other utilities for expatriates are essential in this phase. the high turnover within a year of repatriation is significant because of the gap between the repatriates and the company’s expectations and offers (chen & shaffer, 2017; naude & vögel, 2018), and this concurs with the constraints found in the current study. contributing factors pre-assignment stage in the current study, it was found that mentoring and training for the new role of expatriates can contribute to successful preparation. kurtessis et al. (2017) are in agreement that training and mentoring contribute to the successful preparation of expatriates. assignment stage according to the finding of the current study, career path planning and development are essential contributing factors in the pre-assignment phase. expatriates regard performance appraisal as imperative for job satisfaction, work performance and a successful managerial outcome (mcnulty & vance, 2017). in this current study, a caring organisational culture is of utmost importance, and chen and shaffer (2017) also found that a caring organisation culture and organisational support are essential in this phase. a clear assignment policy and implementation, as well as social relations, are also important contributors found in this current study. o’byrne (2018) found that it helps the expatriate family to interact with host-country nationals, overcome language barriers and navigate social, political and religious differences. wortland (2018) agrees that the expatriates should be guided through sociocultural challenges (wortland, 2018). repatriation stage there is little clarity or expatriate awareness of what reintegration planning and repatriation procedures comprise. a lack of an assignment policy caused unawareness and feelings of anxiety or unfair treatment during repatriation. there was also no easy way to tap into the reintegration planning process information. practical implications the findings and the discussion from this study can be an impetus for further research in the field of global mobility. this research study can also form the basis to formulate or design a framework to suitably accommodate all the concerns and constraining factors. the study is a great insight for hr managers into the various reasons that derail international assignments at multiple stages. appropriate corrective actions can be formulated by the group and local officials to ensure better return on investment (roi) on international assignment projects. the contributing factors chart an optimistic roadmap for the hr strategists and planners to lead the initiative towards a successful international assignment life cycle. limitations and recommendations despite deploying the most suitable design and quality parameters, the specific limitation of conducting face-to-face interviews and group discussions could not be avoided, given that the research covered multiple geographies. the data analysis and interpretation relied on the researcher’s subjective philosophical approach to the research. subjectivity may reduce the reliability of the data, as the information may be interpreted differently and draw different answers to the research questions. one of the researchers was an hr practitioner as well as an expatriate. bias may influence data collection, analysis and interpretation of the e-mail interview. as a solution, this researcher used the company’s internal satisfaction survey outcomes to confirm his research findings. not all expatriates were well versed in english and might have understood the questions from their background, culture and reality. the researcher tried to set the interview questions as clearly and modestly as possible – after the input from a group of expatriates in a pilot test of the interview guide. some expatriates were assigned to war-torn countries or foreign offices with different attitudes, cultures and work ethics. therefore, participants did not similarly experience their global assignment life cycle and hr support. these issues could have affected the overall perceptions of the expatriates if drawn from a different sample. research in a global company with a different footprint might also render different results. for future research, it is recommended that a quantitative study be conducted to investigate the demographic differences regarding the contributing and constraining factors during an assignment life cycle framework in a multinational enterprise. ethical considerations the researcher needed to ensure that the research design was methodologically sound and morally defendable. the law protects people’s rights to privacy and their right to refuse to participate in a research study (banks, 2013). for this reason, the researcher requested permission from each participant before conducting the interviews. participants gave their consent by replying to the e-mails. ethical approval to conduct this study was obtained from the ethics committee of the da vinci business school (ref. no. 8663). the researchers had to show respect for the participants’ views, beliefs and attitudes during the execution of the e-mail interviews. confidentiality of their records and anonymity of their accounts were essential. the participants’ names were replaced with codes, for example, pi, p2. for 5 years, all the documents will be stored safely on secure private cloud technology software. after that, data will be destroyed by deleting the records from the software. furthermore, the researcher guaranteed that no information would be used for nonresearch purposes, except where improvements could be encouraged to the global mobility process. the research findings were reported so that neither the individuals nor the mne could be identified. the researchers also ensured no conflict of interest when the participants were invited for the e-mail interviews, as suggested by zikmund et al. (2013). permission was granted from the mne as well as from the university where the study was conducted. conclusion using qualitative research and adopting interpretivism, the researcher analysed the e-mail data to deduce the contributing and constraining factors associated with the various stages of the expatriation life cycle. the major constraining factors revealed were a lack of training and mentoring, inadequate cultural acclimatisation, ambiguous policies, a less empathetic and caring organisation, low-quality logistics support and ineffective re-induction of the expatriates into the home country. the findings converge with the literature review and the independent internal satisfaction survey document of the mne, leading to successful triangulation and lending due credibility to the research. the respective factors, categorised into various themes, can be used with great advantage to reduce the financially painful failure rate of international assignments. the considerable cost and subsequent losses, monetary and otherwise, warrant immediate and efficacious remedy of the international assignments. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge mr willie botha, who assisted with the language editing. competing interests the author(s) declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions z.d.r. conducted this research and c.m.s. was the supervisor. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data were kept electronically. the original completed e-mail interviews were also stored. disclaimer the views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abdullah, d., & jin, c. (2015). determining the selection criteria for expatriates: through the eyes of malaysian h.r. practitioners. in proceedings of the colloquium on administrative science & technology (pp. 325–334). springer. argyris, c. (1957). personality and organisation. harper. babbie, e. (2013). the practice of social research. wadsworth cengage learning. bader, a.k., bader, b., froese, f.j., & sekiguchi, t. (2021). one way or another? an international comparison of expatriate performance management in multinational companies. human resource management, 60(5), 737–752. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.22065 bader, b., schuster, t., bader, a., & shaffer, m. (2019). the dark side of expatriation dysfunctional relationships, expatriate crises, prejudice & a v.u.c.a. world. journal of global mobility, 7(2), 126–136. https://doi.org/10.1108/jgm-06-2019-070 banks, s. (2013). everyday ethics in community-based participatory research. contemporary social science, 8(3), 263–277. https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2013.769618 baruch, y., altman, y., & tung, r. (2016). career mobility in a global era: advances in managing expatriation and repatriation. the academy of management annals, 10(1), 841–889. https://doi.org/10.5465/19416520.2016.1162013 bless, c., higson-smith, c., & sithole, s. (201). fundamentals of social research methods: an african perspective. juta and company ltd. braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa breitenmoser, a., & bader, b. (2016). repatriation outcomes affecting corporate r.o.i.: a critical review and future agenda. management review quarterly, 66(3), 195–234. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11301-016-0119-6 bryman, a., & bell, e. (2015). business research methods. oxford university press. burns, n., & grove, s. (2016). research design and methodology. wb saunders company. cascio, w., & aguinis, h. (2018). applied psychology in talent management. sage. cavana, r., delahaye, b., & sekaran, u. (2001). applied business research: qualitative and quantitative methods (1st ed.). john wiley and sons. chen, y., & shaffer, m. (2017). the influences of perceived organizational support & motivation on self-initiated expatriates’ organizational & community embeddedness. journal of world business, 52(2), 197–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2016.12.001 collings, d.g., scullion, h., & vaiman, v. (2011). european perspectives on talent management. european journal of international management, 5(5), 453–462. https://doi.org/10.1504/ejim.2011.042173 flick, u. (2011). mixing methods, triangulation, and integrated research. in qualitative inquiry and global crises. left coast press. george, g., & schillebeeckx, s.j.d. (2022). digital transformation, sustainability, and purpose in the multinational enterprise. journal of world business, 57(3), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2022.101326 groenewald, j. (2019). turnover of women audit managers in audit firms. master of philosophy dissertation. university of south africa. guðmundsdóttir, s., & eðvarðsdóttir, s. (2017). recruiting for international assignments: looking beyond technical knowledge. international journal of human resources development and management, 17(3/4), 220–229. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijhrdm.2017.10007435 hooi, l.w. (2022). the three-phase expatriate cycle of developing global human resources in the banking industry in taiwan. international journal of organizational analysis. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoa-04-2022-3223 javidan, m., teagarden, m., & bowen, d. (2010). managing yourself: making it overseas. harvard business review, 88(4), 1–23. koleša, i. (2021). international staffing approaches to international assignment challenges by emerging market multinationals. in becoming an international manager. contributions to management science (pp. 1–16). springer. komakech, h., & orach, c.g. (2022). repatriation of south sudanese refugees from the west nile districts, uganda. what do we learn from the process? african health sciences, 22(2), 114–123. https://doi.org/10.4314/ahs.v22i2.17s kraimer, m., bolino, m., & mead, b. (2016). themes in expatriate and repatriate research over four decades: what do we know and what do we still need to learn? annual review of organizational psychology & organizational behavior, 3(1), 83–109. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-041015-062437 kurtessis, j., eisenberger, r., ford, m., buffardi, l., stewart, k., & adis, c. (2017). perceived organizational support: a meta-analytic evaluation of organizational support theory. journal of management, 43(6), 1854–1884. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206315575554 marshall, c., & rossman, g. (2006). designing qualitative research (5th ed.). sage. maurer, r. (2013). survey: companies fail to train managers for overseas assignments. retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/global-hr/pages/fail-train-managers-overseas-assignments.aspx mcnulty, y., & brewster, c. (2017). theorizing the meaning (s) of ‘expatriate’: establishing boundary conditions for business expatriates. the international journal of human resource management, 28(1), 27–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1243567 mcnulty, y., & vance, c. (2017). dynamic global careers: a new conceptualization of expatriate career paths. personnel review, 46(2), 205–221. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-06-2015-0175 molinsky, a., & hahn, m. (2016). 5 tips for managing successful overseas assignments: cross-cultural management. harvard business review. retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/03/5-tips-for-managing-successful-overseas-assignments morris, a. (2020). expatriate failure reasons (how to avoid!). retrieved from https://www.davidsonmorris.com/expatriate-failure/ mossmann, a. (2016). kpmg: global assignments practices and surveys. kpmg international. naude, c., & vögel, a. (2018). repatriation turnover revisited: a focus on south african multinational enterprises. south african journal of economic & management sciences, 21(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v21i1.1680 neale, j. (2016). iterative categorization (ic): a systematic technique for analysing qualitative data. addiction, 111(6), 1096–1106. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v21i1.1680 nowak, c., & linder, c. (2016). do you know how much your expatriate costs? an activity-based cost analysis of expatriation. academy of management proceedings, 1(1), 16069–16069. https://doi.org/10.1108/jgm-10-2015-0043 nowell, l., norris, j., white, d., & moules, n. (2017). thematic analysis: striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria. international journal of qualitative methods, 16(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406917733847 o’byrne, a. (2018). nurture connections to enhance expatriate success. retrieved from https://www.td.org/magazines/td-magazine/nurture-connections-to-enhance-expatriate-success o’gorman, k., & macintosh, r. (2015). research methods for business and management. goodfellow publications. ratislavová, k., & ratislav, j. (2014). asynchronous email interview as a qualitative research method in the humanities. human affairs, 24(4), 452–460. https://doi.org/10.2478/s13374-014-0240-y staller, k.m. (2021). big enough? sampling in qualitative inquiry. qualitative social work, 20(4), 897–904. https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250211024516 wortland. (2018). why expatriate training is important for your business. retrieved from https://www.wortland.com/en/expatriate-training/ zikmund, w., carr, j., & griffin, m. (2013). business research methods. cengage learning. article information authors: nadia ferreira¹ johan basson¹ melinde coetzee² affiliations: ¹department of human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of pretoria, south africa ²department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: nadia ferreira email: ferren@unisa.ac.za postal address: po box 5555, the reeds 0158, south africa keywords affective commitment; career drivers; career enablers; career harmonisers; career preferences; continuance commitment; normative commitment dates: received: 04 mar. 2010 accepted: 26 may 2010 published: 14 oct. 2010 how to cite this article: ferreira, n., basson, j., & coetzee, m. (2010). psychological career resources in relation to organisational commitment: an exploratory study. sa journal of human resource management/ sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #284, 10 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.284 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) psychological career resources in relation to organisational commitment: an exploratory study in this original research article... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study    • trends from the literature       • psychological career resources       • organisational commitment    • research objectives • research design    • research approach    • research method       • participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • hypothesis testing    • correlational statistics    • stepwise multiple regression analysis: pcri and ocs • discussion • conclusion    • implications for practice    • methodological limitations and future directions in research • references abstract (back to top) orientation: the impact of the current skills shortage and demands for retaining talented and skilled staff in a rapidly changing careers context and the consequences for employee loyalty, morale and commitment have led to a renewed interest in the motives, values and career meta-competencies that determine individuals’ psychological attachment to their organisations and occupations. research purpose: the aim of the study was to determine the relationship between the psychological career resources (as measured by the psychological career resources inventory) and organisational commitment (as measured by the organisational commitment scale). motivation for study: there appears to be a need for research on the psychological career resources that enhance individuals’ career agency in proactively managing their career and the way in which these attributes influence their psychological attachment to the organisation in order to guide human resource and career-development support practices in retaining valuable staff. research design, approach and method: a quantitative survey was conducted on a convenience sample of 358 employed adults at managerial and staff levels in the field of economic and management services. main findings/results: correlational and stepwise regression analyses revealed a number of significant relationships between the two variables. practical implications: managers and human resource practitioners need to recognise how people’s career preferences and career meta-competencies influence their sense of psychological attachment to the organisation. contribution: the findings add to existing career literature on the psychological factors that affect the retention of staff and provide valuable information that can be used to inform career-development support practices in the contemporary world of work. introduction (back to top) key focus of the study managers and human resource practitioners have long been concerned with employees’ psychological attachment to the organisation in the light of economic events such as mergers, acquisitions and layoffs, all of which change the nature of the relationship between employees and the organisation (baruch, 2004; bentein, vandenberghe, vandenberg & stinglhamber, 2005). coutinho, dam and blustein (2008) posit that given the demands of free-market capitalism, the infusion of technology and the global skills scarcity, which are on the one hand reducing the need for many types of workers and, on the other hand, increasing the concerns about retaining valuable skilled staff as a scarce resource, it is likely that there are not enough intrinsically motivating jobs and meaningful work options available to the majority of people. these changes are reflected in the changing definitions of work, careers and job structure, all of which mirror widespread downsizing, subsequent losses in job security, highly divergent and diverse career paths, shifts in organisational loyalties and an emphasis on career agency (baruch, 2004; marshall & bonner, 2003; sinclair, 2009; suutari & taka, 2004). the present study focused on the psychological career resources that promote individuals’ career agency in proactively managing their career and the way in which these attributes influence their psychological attachment or commitment to the organisation. by identifying the relationship between these variables, recommendations can be made to enhance human resource practices, such as organisational career-development support, as a critical element in the retention of key talent. organisational career-development support is increasingly being recognised as a critical aspect of quality human resource management (baruch & quick, 2007). an investment in best human resource practices, such as career-development support, has been shown to solidify organisational commitment to employers (spiegel & schultz, 2003) and employees’ overall job and career satisfaction (barnett & bradley, 2007; kuijpers & scheerens, 2006). organisations that offer employees personal growth and development opportunities by way of career-development support practices will possibly gain more benefits by ensuring that employees truly recognise how to proactively manage their own career (coetzee, bergh & schreuder, 2010; holbeche, 1997; kidd, 2008. ironically, the fear of losing valuable employees repeatedly comes to the fore as one of the key reasons why career-development support processes are not made accessible to employees (baruch, 2006). a lack of organisational support generally has long-term negative effects on an organisation’s financial status, because a lack of organisational commitment is associated with lower job satisfaction (blegen, 1993; mcneese-smith & van servellen, 2000). background to the study career changes nowadays cause people to have different goals and expectations with regard to job and career satisfaction and what they look for in their jobs. faithfulness or commitment to organisations seems to be directly associated with how well people observe their psychological needs are being met, respected employability (baruch, 2004; coetzee, 2008; fugate, kinicki & ashforth, 2004; sinclair, 2009). mcquaid and linsay (2005) believe that the responsibility for employability has now shifted from the organisation to the employee. this means that the main responsibility for growth and continued professional development lies with the individual. fugate et al. (2004) contend that employees are responsible for career information, expertise and capabilities, as well as other abilities required by present and potential employers to sustain employability in both existing and future situations. employability refers not only to people’s ability to gain entrance to the place of work, adjust to the place of work and be dynamic in the place of work, but also to their constant ability to perform, obtain or create work through the best possible use of both occupation-related and career meta-competencies (coetzee & roythorne-jacobs, 2007; hall & chandler, 2005; herr, cramer & niles, 2004; van der heijde & van der heijden, 2006). career meta-competencies are regarded as a set of psychological career resources critical to the career-development process. these psychological career resources include attributes and abilities such as behavioural adaptability, self-knowledge, career-orientation awareness, sense of purpose, self-esteem and emotional literacy, and allow individuals to be self-sufficient learners in the management of their own career (briscoe & hall, 1999; coetzee, 2008; coetzee & roythorne-jacobs, 2007; hall & chandler, 2005; herr et al., 2004). living a proactive life and successfully managing one’s career, for instance through a strong sense of purpose, commitment to individual goals and focused psychological resources and attempts, predict how psychologically balanced and fulfilled individuals would feel in three years’ time (gottfredson & duffy, 2008). individuals’ repertoire of psychological career resources has the function of organising their experiences, identifying their long-term contributions and establishing criteria for success by which they can measure themselves. in addition to helping them to understand the motives for choosing an occupation, the notion of career preferences, values and career-related skills and behavioural attributes (or career meta-competencies) provide a useful framework for examining how individuals’ psychological career resources relate to their organisational commitment levels (ferreira, 2009). research indicates that individuals’ career motives, values and psychological resources have an impact on their career decision making and their psychological attachment to an occupation (feldman & bolino, 2000; kniveton, 2004; schein, 1996). career preferences and values are key determinants of an individual’s career choice. individuals often become aware of their career preferences and values when their self-image is boosted or damaged by compulsory career moves such as promotion or discharge (schein, 1996). trends from the literature psychological career resources resources are defined as those entities that either are centrally appreciated in their own right (e.g. self-esteem, close attachments, wellbeing and internal tranquility) or operate as a means to gain centrally appreciated ends (hobfoll, 2002). this broad definition forms part of a number of major theoretical perspectives that focus on psychological resources (hobfoll, 1998). in the context of this study, the psychological career resources model developed by coetzee (2008) is used as a theoretical framework. career meta-compentencies consist of an assortment of psychological career resources, which include attributes and abilities such as behavioural flexibility, self-knowledge, career-orientation consciousness, sense of reason, self-esteem and affective literacy, which enable individuals to be independent learners and hands-on agents in the administration of their career (coetzee, 2008; hall & chandler, 2005). ‘a person’s psychological career resources profile reflects the career awareness of an individual’ (coetzee, 2008, p. 10). this notion of individuals’ career awareness is based on adler’s (1956) explanation of the idea of consciousness. career consciousness is described by coetzee (2008) as individuals’ awareness; career-related cognitions, which include perceptions, attentiveness and self-evaluations of their calling preferences; attitudes; ideals; skills and behaviours that are understood and identified by individuals as a vital factor in actualising their objectives and experiencing career/job satisfaction. coetzee (2008) presents a valuable theoretical framework to help individuals recognise the significance of developing their inner career resources and drawing on these psychological resources to improve their universal employability characteristics and abilities. figure 1 illustrates how the different psychological career resources connect with each other. as indicated in figure 1, people’s career preferences and career values (individuals’ personal view about their career) steer their career moves, values or ideals on the basis of their enthusiasm for a particular career preference (brousseau, 1990). the career drivers (career purpose, career directedness and career venturing) refer to a person’s sense of clarity on future career guidelines and targets or finding fresh career opportunities (coetzee, 2008). the enablers (practical or creative skills and self or other skills) refer to individuals’ concious skills, such as their practical or artistic skills and self-management and association/relations skills, in other words those abilities that may help individuals to create successful careers (coetzee, 2008). the harmonisers (self-esteem, behavioural adaptability, emotional literacy and social connectivity) encourage flexibility, and moreover act as a control measure to ensure that the career drivers are in balance so that individuals do not go overboard in the development or reinvention of their profession (coetzee, 2008). career preferences and career values: people’s career preferences and career values refer to their exceptional visions about the direction their career should take that steer their career choices. people’s career preferences and career values are also considered as the continuing cognitive or theoretical structures forming the basis of their thoughts about their career that provide the significance of a career to them (coetzee & schreuder, 2009). career preferences and career values therefore become the leading basis for individuals’ long-term career choices. whereas individuals’ career preferences direct their career moves, career values indicate the inspiration for a specific career preference (brousseau, 1990; coetzee, 2008). this means that individuals’ long-term career goals can be influenced by the way they value their career. career drivers: in terms of career drivers, the concept of career purpose can be explained as people’s sense of having a career passion (coetzee, 2008). a sense of purpose is based on individuals’ self-belief and personal convictions, which they are able to fulfil through their career goals. the concept of career directedness can be defined as a person’s sense of clarity on future career guidance and targets, as well as the precision in terms of where and how support will be found for achieving his or her career targets or finding fresh career opportunities (coetzee, 2008). in essence, this means that individuals show career directedness once clear goals or targets have been set, and then strive to achieve these goals or reach these targets by using their strengths and abilities. the concept of career venturing can be seen as an individual’s willingness to take risks by exploring new and fresh career opportunities. when individuals seem to be satisfied with their career, they need to be helped to uphold their feeling of satisfaction. this can be done by developing new skills to help them do the job to the best of their ability. career enablers: coetzee (2008) identifies two constructs associated with the idea of career enablers, namely practical/creative and self/other skills. this includes skills such as applying existing theoretical constructs in a practical and innovative manner in order to concentrate on new ways of doing things. career enablers can be defined as individuals’ convenience skills, such as their practical or artistic skills, and self-management and association/relationship skills, in other words those abilities that may help individuals create a successful career (coetzee, 2008). once individuals have developed the skills and knowledge to sustain the feeling of satisfaction, they need to develop emotional intelligence to harmonise their career. career harmonisers: career harmonisers are embedded in individuals’ emotional intelligence and social connectivity (coetzee, 2008). according to emmerling and cherniss (2003), individuals who are emotionally intelligent are probably in a better situation to make use of the motivational characteristics of their emotions. they may be capable of focusing on exact emotions throughout the development of decisions about their career. this will have a motivational effect on adaptive behaviour by encouraging individuals to consider numerous affective components when making occupational choices. social connectivity, on the other hand, can be explained as an individual’s ability to interact with others and create and uphold fulfilling and sustaining relationships (coetzee, 2008). the feelings experienced throughout the career decision-making process and with regard to social relationships in the job probably influence the awareness of the risks related to accurate career alternatives, the quantity and type of self-exploration individuals engage in and how they process information linked to career selection (emmerling & cherniss, 2003). behavioural adaptability can be seen as individuals’ ability to recognise those traits that are figure 1: a theoretical framework of the construct psychological career resources figure 2: a three-component model of organisational commitment organisational commitment the concept of organisational commitment has attracted considerable interest in an attempt to understand and clarify the intensity and stability of an employee’s dedication to the organisation (mester, visser, roodt & kellerman, 2003). researchers have distinguished between three approaches to study commitment, namely attitudinal, behavioural and motivational. there is a considerable body of literature relating to the concept of organisational commitment. although a number of different definitions have been offered (becker, 1960; buchannan, 1974; grusky, 1966; meyer & allen, 1991; porter & lawler, 1968; pretorius & roodt, 2004; salancik, 1977; sheldon, 1971), a common thread that can be found is the notion that commitment is the psychological bond of the employee to the organisation (humphreys, weyant & sprague, 2003). according to gbadamosi (2003), the more favourable individuals’ attitudes towards the organisation are, the greater their acceptance of the goals of the organisation, as well as their willingness to exert more effort on behalf of the organisation. mathieu and zajac (1990, p. 171) believe that ‘developing a better perception of the progression associated with organisational commitment has an effect on employees, organisations and the world in general’. the level of employees’ organisational commitment will possibly ensure that they are better suited to receive both extrinsic (which include remuneration and benefits) and psychological (which include essentially job satisfaction and associations with fellow employees) rewards related to associations. organisations appreciate commitment on the part of their staff. organisational commitment is generally assumed to reduce abandonment behaviours, which include tardiness and turnover. in addition, employees who are committed to their organisation may possibly be more willing to participate in ‘extra-role’ activities, such as being creative or innovative, which frequently guarantee an organisation’s competitiveness in the market (katz & kahn, 1978). in the context of this study, organisational commitment is defined as a psychological connection individuals have with their organisation, characterised by strong regognition with the organisation and a yearning to contribute towards the accomplishment of organisational goals (meyer & allen, 1997). meyer and allen’s (1991) three-component model of organisational commitment is therefore relevant to this study. meyer and allen (1991) define organisational commitment as reflecting three extensive aspects, namely affective, continuance and normative. commitment can therefore be seen as reflecting an affective point of reference towards the organisation, acknowledgement of the consequences related to leaving the organisation, and an ethical responsibility to stay with the organisations (meyer & allen, 1991). the main distinction between the three components is in the state of mind. the three componentsdifferentiate between affective connection to the organisation (identified as affective commitment); supposed price of leaving (identified as continuance commitment); and the responsibility to stay with the organisation (identified as normative commitment) (allen & meyer, 1990). affective commitment: affective commitment is the individual’s affective connection to, recognition with and participation in the organisation (meyer & allen, 1997). employees who are affectively committed to the organisation will probably carry on working for it because they want to (meyer & allen, 1991). individuals who are dedicated at an emotional level usually remain with the organisation because they see their individual employment relationship as harmonious with the goals and values of the organisation for which they are currently working. affective commitment development involves recognition of the organisation and internalisation of organisational principles and standards (beck & wilson, 2000). continuance commitment: the second component of allen and meyer’s model of organisational commitment is continuance commitment, referring to ‘awareness of the costs associated with leaving the organisation’ (meyer & allen, 1997, p. 11). this definition is maintained by kanter (1968, p. 504), who states that it is the ‘profit associated with continued participation and a cost associated with leaving the organisation’. because of the individual’s awareness or consideration of expenses and threats linked to leaving the organisation, this state of mind is considered to be calculative (meyer & allen, 1997). meyer and allen (1991) also indicate that individuals whose most important connection to the organisation is based on continuance commitment stay because they need to. individuals remain with a specific organisation because of the money they add as a result of the time spent in the organisation, not because they want to. this differs from affective commitment, where individuals remain with an organisation because they want to and because they are familiar with it and its principles. normative commitment: normative commitment can be explained as a sense of responsibility to continue employment with a specific organisation (meyer & allen, 1997). the internalised normative idea of responsibility and commitment allows employees’ appreciated continued membership of a specific organisation (allen & meyer, 1990). the normative element is seen as the commitment individuals think about morally regarding their right to remain with a specific organisation, in spite of how much status improvement or fulfilment the organisation provides to the individual over the years (march & mannari, 1977). psychological career resources and organisational commitment: several studies suggest that job satisfaction encourages the highest level of organisational commitment (lok & crawford, 1999). findings of a study conducted by valentine, godkin and lucero (2002) show that organisational commitment is positively related to person–organisation fit. research has also demonstrated that a conflict between the personal characteristics of employees and the attributes of their organisations is related to job dissatisfaction, low organisational commitment, substandard job performance, job stress and turnover (judge & ferris, 1992; peterson, 2003; schneider, goldstein & smith, 1995). research conducted by coetzee, schreuder and tladinyane (2007) revealed that people’s career orientations and career motives are significantly related to their level of organisational commitment. coetzee and schreuder (2009) found people’s psychological career resources to be significantly influenced by their career orientations and career motives, and coetzee and bergh (2009) showed psychological career resources to be a significant predictor of subjective work experiences such as perceived life and job/career satisfaction. based on the above research findings, the following hypothesis was formulated: h1: psychological career resources are significantly related to people’s level of organisational commitment. research objectives the present study aimed at empirically assessing whether psychological career resources positively relate to organisational commitment. this article adds to research on the psychological attributes that influence people’s psychological attachment to their organisations. the assessment of whether psychological career resources are related to organisational commitment may provide valuable information for human resource managers and practitioners concerned with career-development support practices for the retention of valuable staff.the next section of the article elaborates on the research design, which covers the research approach and method, followed by the presentation of the results and a discussion of the findings. the article concludes with a brief synopsis of main conclusions, implications for practice and recommendations for potential future research. research design (back to top) research approach for this exploratory pilot study, a quantitative survey design was used to achieve the research objective (shaughnessy & zechmeister, 2003). participants the participants were a convenience sample of 358 employed adults at managerial and staff levels in the field of economic and management services who were enrolled for a human resource management programme at a higher distance education institution and who attended a one-week study school. the sample was predominantly represented by african people (84%). the rest of the sample consisted of white people (8%), coloured people (6%) and indian people (2%) in the early adulthood life/career stage (26–40 years). overall, the black (92%) and female (76%) participants dominated the sample. participants were employed full-time and occupied relatively high-level positions at senior and middle management level (47%) and staff level (44%) in the economic and management services. the following economic sectors were represented: 40% human resource management, 7% education, 3% administration, 1% accounting and finance, and 0.6% nursing, public administration and social work. measuring instruments the psychological career resources inventory (pcri) (coetzee, 2008) and the organisational commitment scale (ocs) (meyer & allen, 1997) was used to measure the variables of concern to this study. psychological career resources inventory: the pcri (coetzee, 2007) is a self-rated, multi-factorial measure that contains 64 items and five subscales (career preferences, career values, career enablers, career drivers, career harmonisers). the pcri measures 15 constructs in total. a six-point likert-type scale was used for subject responses to each of the 64 items. cronbach’s alpha coefficients for each subscale range from 0.71 to 0.88. in terms of validity, interconstruct correlations range from 0.14 to 0.58, indicating small to large practical effect size. studies conducted by coetzee (2008) and coetzee and esterhuizen (2010) confirmed the reliability and validity of the pcri in the south african context. organisational commitment scale: organisational commitment was measured using the three-dimensional instrument of meyer, allen and smith (1993), which was originally developed by allen and meyer (1990). the affective, continuance and normative organisational commitment scales each comprise six items, a modification of the original questionnaire. meyer et al. (1993) reported internal consistency reliability estimates (cronbach’s alphas) for affective commitment (0.82), continuance commitment (0.74) and normative commitment (0.83). responses were made on a seven-point scale and were averaged to yield composite commitment scores for each respondent. the instrument was considered to be psychometrically acceptable. studies by coetzee et al. (2007), ferreira (2009) and lumley (2010) confirmed the reliability and validity of the ocs in the south african context. as the purpose of this study was not to make individual predictions based on the pcri and ocs, but rather to investigate broad trends and certain relationships between variables, the instruments were considered psychometrically acceptable. research procedure information regarding the aim of the study, the confidentiality of the responses and instructions for completing the questionnaire was given to the respondents on the first day of the study school. the pcri and ocs were distributed among all respondents who attended the study school. the questionnaires were administered in the group session and collected as soon as they were completed. each questionnaire included a covering letter inviting subjects to voluntarily participate in the study, assuring them that their individual responses would remain confidential. in terms of ethics, permission from the institution’s research ethics committee was obtained. a covering letter stated that by completing the questionnaires and returning them, agreement to use the results for research purposes only was assumed. a sample of 358 usable questionnaires was returned. statistical analysis the data-analysis procedures chosen for this research were based on their applicability to the exploratory nature of the research design. descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. pearson’s product-moment correlations and stepwise multiple regression analysis were performed to test the research hypothesis. although a cut-off point of p < 0.05 was set, a practical effect size of r > 0.30 (medium effect, cohen, 1992) was also considered for the correlational analyses to be able to interpret the practical significance of the findings. in terms of the multiple regression analyses, the value of adjusted r² was used to determine the proportion of the total variance of the dependent variable (ocs) that is explained by the independent variable (pcri). the f-test was used to test whether there was a significant regression (p ≤ 0.05) between the independent and dependent variables. results (back to top) means, standard deviations and internal reliability for the variables of interest are shown in table 1. table 1: descriptive statisctics: pcri and ocs hypothesis testing the primary aim of this study was to empirically assess whether psychological career resources relate to organisational commitment. h1 was analysed by, firstly, performing pearson’s product-moment correlations and, secondly, by conducting standard stepwise multiple regression. h1 proposed that psychological career resources (pcri variables) would be significantly related to organisational commitment (ocs variables). correlational statistics the relationship between the variables was calculated by means of pearson’s product-moment correlations. pearson’s product-moment correlations allowed the researcher to identify the direction and strength of the relationship between each of the variables. as shown in table 2, only a few significantly positive relationships were observed between the pcri and ocs variables. the significant correlations range from r = 0.10 to 0.17 (p ≤ 0.05; r ≤ 0.30, small practical effect size).table 2 shows a significant positive relationship between only the two career preference variables managerial (r = 0.10; small effect; p ≤ 0.05) and freedom/autonomy (r = 0.17; small effect; p ≤ 0.05) and affective commitment. in terms of the career enablers, only practical/creative skills (r = 0.12; small effect; p ≤ 0.05) relates significantly and positively with affective commitment. the career driver career directedness (r = 0.11; small effect; p ≤ 0.05) and the career harmoniser emotional literacy (r = 0.12; small effect; p ≤ 0.05) show a significant positive relationship with affective commitment. as shown in table 2, except for the freedom/autonomy career preference variable (r = 0.13; small effect; p ≤ 0.05), which shows a significant positive relationship with continuance commitment, no other significant associations between the pcri and the ocs variables can be observed. table 2 shows that significant positive associations exist between only the career preference freedom/autonomy (r = 0.15; small effect; p ≤ 0.05), the career value authority/influence (r = 0.15; small effect; p ≤ 0.05), and the career driver career directedness (r = 0.17; small effect; p ≤ 0.05) and the normative commitment variable. table 2: pearson’s product-moment correlations: pcri and ocs stepwise multiple regression analysis: pcri and ocs table 3 shows that the regression of the pcri variables on the ocs affective commitment variable produced a highly statistically significant model (f (p) ≤ 0.000). although only a small percentage of variance (r² = 6%; small practical effect size) (cohen, 1992) is explained by the models, useful pointers are provided regarding the influence of the participants’ psychological career resources on their affective commitment. table 3 shows that the regression of the pcri variables (career directedness, career venturing, emotional literacy and social connectivity) on the affective commitment variable produced a statistically significant model (f (15, 342) = 2.56; p ≤ 0.001), accounting for 6% of the variance. the career harmoniser variable social connectivity obtained the largest beta weight (ß = 0.19; p ≤ 0.00), followed by the career harmoniser emotional literacy (ß = 0.13; p ≤ 0.05), indicating a significantly larger, potentially positive, influence on the affective commitment variable. the career driver variable career venturing (ß = -0.12; p ≤ 0.04) negatively influenced the variance in the affective commitment variable. the negative regression coefficient observed for career venturing could be attributed to a probable net suppression effect, in which case the variable career venturing may be seen to suppress the unwanted variance in the variable emotional literacy. as such, the variable career venturing appears to contribute to the magnitude of the relationship between the emotional literacy and the affective commitment variable. based on the statistical results, h1 (psychological career resources are significantly related to people’s level of organisational commitment) is only partially accepted. table 3: multiple regression analyses: pcri and ocs discussion (back to top) the study explored the relationship between psychological career resources and their organisational commitment. there seems to be a need for research on the psychological career resources that enhance individuals’ career agency in proactively managing their career and the way in which these attributes influence their psychological attachment to the organisation in order to guide human resource and career-development support practices in retaining valuable staff. although the research hypothesis was only partially accepted, the correlational and stepwise multiple regression analyses indicated a number of significant relationships between the variables that provide valuable pointers about the relationship between the variables of concern to the present study. in interpreting the results, the following socio-demographic characteristics of the sample were kept in mind: the participants were predominantly full-time employed black people and women in their early adulthood (entry and establishment) life/career stages, and they occupied mostly managerial and staff level positions in the economic and who are dedicated at an emotional level usually remain with the organisation because they see their individual employment relationship as harmonious with the goals and values of the organisation for which they are currently working. moreover, as observed by meyer and allen (1997), having the authority to influence the goals of the organisation seems to increase participants’ sense of responsibility to continue their employment with the organisation. it appears that the feelings of responsibility engendered by having authority and influence over others tend to increase a sense of accountability to stay in the occupation and organisation, and include an enhanced awareness of the costs associated with leaving the organisation. similarly, the significant relationship observed between the career enabler practical/creative skills and affective commitment suggests that participants, who perceive themselves as having the skills to plan, implement and manage their career goals in innovative ways tend to feel emotionally attached to the organisation. moreover, the findings also suggest that having career-directedness (having clarity regarding future career options and goals) and a low need for venturing out into new career and organisational contexts (and by implication, preferring steady, stable employment) may lead to high levels of affective and normative commitment. these findings are in agreement with those of meyer et al. (1993), who suggest that affective commitment develops when involvement in the occupation proved to be a satisfying experience (for example being given the opportunity to do satisfying work or to develop valued skills). the significant relationship between emotional literacy and social connectivity and affective commitment further suggests that participants who have the skill to interact at an emotional and social level feel psychologically more connected to the organisation. meyer and allen (1997) further state that affective commitment is also influenced by factors such as work challenge, role clearness, clarity about objectives and the difficulty of the objectives, openness on the part of management, peer unity, equity, individual significance, feedback, contributions and steadiness. kidd (2008) found that having positive thoughts and clarity about the future relates to positive career experiences or feelings. coetzee and esterhuizen (2010) found that having clarity about one’s career goals stimulates health-promoting behaviours that lead to an increase in one’s physical and emotional wellbeing as well as an optimistic attitude towards oneself and one’s life in general. moreover, people who are emotionally literate are able to form supportive social networks, which increase their sense of belonging to the organisation (sinclair, 2009). considering that the participants were predominantly in the entry and establishment phases of their career, the findings seem to be in agreement with super’s (1990) view that these stages represent the time period during which the life structure of young adults heralds a more stable period as they begin to settle down, become committed to contributing towards an occupation, a company or a person, and start to establish socially supportive networks. the contention that the young adult’s need for developing expertise by means of further growth and learning opportunities rather than through venturing out towards new and different organisational contexts seems to be higher during these particular life stages may offer an explanation for the participants’ strong sense of affective commitment. as individuals in the early adulthood phase (entry and establishment life/career stages) become more oriented to the importance of work in their lives and learn how to balance job demands with their own needs, they generally find the work role becoming increasingly important (savickas, 2007). in addition, as shown by the results of the present study, their emotional attachment to the organisation also seems to be stronger. conclusion (back to top) implications for practice the findings of this study have implications for managers and human resource practitioners who are responsible for providing career-development support, especially within a context of talent retention. the findings confirm the need to assess the psychological career resources of employees, as these provide valuable information regarding the motives and values and psychological attributes that drive individuals’ career decisions and that significantly influence their job and career satisfaction. coetzee and bergh (2009) note that the education, guidance and coaching for self-empowering career behaviours and career meta-skills that clearly underpin individuals’ inner career orientations and psychological career resources may lead to higher levels of life and job/career satisfaction and, as indicated by the results of the present study, people’s emotional attachment to the organisation.considering the importance of the apparent influence of individuals’ psychological career resources on their organisational commitment, it is suggested that organisations and managers consider the importance and need for more effective career matching, which can be accomplished by offering multiple rewards and career paths that address the diverse needs of a multi-cultural workforce. according to coetzee et al. (2010), favourable organisational conditions and career-development support practices that foster an expression of self-concordant goals that relate to employees’ core self-evaluations and inner career needs, values and interests (as reflected in their repertoire of career orientations and psychological career resources) may invoke higher levels of job/career satisfaction and commitment. while kuijpers and scheerens (2006) indicate that career-support practices affect career-development ability, behaviour and motivation of employees, bhatnagar (2007) suggests that career-development support in the form of nurturing relationships and processes that ensure that job roles are closely aligned with career aspirations generally enhance employee engagement, organisational citizenship behaviour and commitment. barnett and bradley (2007) found that individual career behaviours are significantly related to career satisfaction. they further suggest that organisations that implement initiatives that promote the individual benefits associated with individual career-management behaviours and encourage employees to engage in these behaviours may experience most success in facilitating employee career satisfaction and commitment. the findings also highlight the need for further research to explore the relationship between working adults’ psychological career resources and their organisational commitment, as the percentage variance explained by the prediction model is relatively small in terms of practical effect. however, the practical value of the findings lies in the new knowledge gained regarding the relationship between these variables and the factors highlighted as contributing to employees’ psychological attachment to the organisation. methodological limitations and future directions in research as the present study was limited to participants predominantly employed in the economic and management service industry in the south african organisational context, the findings cannot be generalised to other occupational contexts. furthermore, given the exploratory nature of the research design, this study cannot yield any statements about causation. associations between the variables have therefore been interpreted rather than established. these findings therefore need to be replicated with broader samples across different occupational groups and economic sectors before more comprehensive conclusions can be drawn about the relationship between employees’ psychological career resources and their organisational commitment. references (back to top) adler, a. (1956). the individual psychology of alfred adler: a systematic presentation in selections of his writtings. new york: basic books. allen, n., & meyer, j. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organisation. journal of occupational psychology, 63, 1–18. barnett, b.r., & bradley, l. (2007). the impact of organisational support for career development on career satisfaction. career development international, 12(7), 617–636. baruch, y. (2004). transforming careers: from linear to multi-directional career paths. career development international, 9(1), 58–73. baruch, y. (2006). career development in organizations and beyond: balancing traditional and contemporary viewpoints. human resource management review, 16, 125–138. baruch, y., & quick, j.c. (2007). understanding second careers: lessons from a study of us navy admirals. human resource management, 46(4), 471–491. beck, n., & wilson, j. (2000). development of affective organizational commitment: a cross-sequental examination of change with tenure. journal of vocational behaviour, 56, 114‑136. becker, h.s. (1960). notes on the concept of commitment. american journal of sociology, 66, 32‑40. bentein, k., vandenberghe, c., vandenberg, r., & stinglhamber, f. (2005). the role of change in the relationship between commitment and turnover: a latent growth modelling approach. journal of applied psychology, 90(3), 468–482. bhatnagar, j. (2007). talent management strategy of employee engagement in indian ites employees: key to retention. employee relations, 29(6), 640–663. blegen, m. (1993). nurses’ job satisfaction: a meta-analysis of related variables. nursing research, 42(1), 36–41. briscoe, j., & hall, d. (1999). grooming and picking leaders using competency frameworks: do they work? an alternative approach and new guidelines for practice. organisational dynamics, autumn, 37–52. brousseau, k. (1990). career dynamics in the baby boom and baby bust era. journal of organisational change management, 3(3), 46–58. buchannan, b. (1974). building organizational commitment: the socialization of managers in work organizations. journal of business and psychology, 9 coetzee, m. (2008). psychological career resources of working adults: a south african survey. sa journal of industrial psychology, 34(2), 32–41. coetzee, m., & bergh, z.c. (2009). psychological career resources and subjective work experiences of working adults: an exploratory study. sa business review, 13(2), 1–31. coetzee, m., bergh, z.c., & schreuder, a.m.g. (2010). subjective work experiences: exploring the influence of career orientations, psychological career resources and factors of job/career satisfaction/dissatisfaction. unpublished research report, department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria. coetzee, m., & esterhuizen, k. (2010). psychological career resources as predictors of african graduates’ coping resources: an exploratory study. manuscript submitted for publication. coetzee, m., & roythorne-jacobs, h. (2007). career counselling and guidance in the wokrplace: a manual for career practitioners. cape town: juta. coetzee, m., & schreuder, a.m.g. (2009). psychological career resources as predictors of working adults’ career anchors: an exploratory study. sa journal of industrial psychology, 35(1), 1–11. coetzee, m., schreuder, a.m.g., & tladinyane, r. (2007). career anchors and its relation to organisational commitment. southern african business review, 11(1), 65–86. cohen, j. (1992). quantitative methods in psychology: a power primer. psychological bulletin, 112(1), 153–159. coutinho, m.t., dam, u.c., & blustein, d.l. (2008). the psychology of working and globalisation: a new perspective for a new era. international journal of educational and vocational guidance, 8, 5–18. emmerling, r., & cherniss, c. (2003). emotional intelligence and the career process. journal of career assessment, 11(2), 153–167. feldman, d.c., & bolino, m.c. (1996). careers within careers: reconceptualising the nature of career anchors and their consequences. human resource management review, 6(2), 89–112. feldman, d.c. & bolino, m.c. (2000). career patterns of the self-employed: career motivations and career outcomes. journal of small business management, 38, 53–67. ferreira, n. (2009). the relationship between psychological career resources and organisational commitment. unpublished master’s thesis, university of pretoria, pretoria. fugate, m., kinicki, a., & ashforth, b. (2004). employability: a psycho-social construct, its dimensions and applications. journal of vocational behaviour, 65, 14–38. gbadamosi, g. (2003). hrm and the commitment rhetoric: challenges for africa. management decision, 41(3), 274–280. gottfredson, g.d., & duffy, r.d. (2008). using a theory of vocational personalities and work environments to explore subjective well-being. journal of career assessment, 16(1), 44‑59. greenhaus, j.h., callanan, g.a., & godshalk, v.m. (2000). career management. (3rd edn.). fort worth: dryden. grusky, o. (1966). career mobility and organizational commitment. administrative science quarterly, 10, 488–503. hall, d., & chandler, d. (2005). psychological succes: when the career is a calling. journal of organizational behaviour, 26(2), 155–176. herr, e., cramer, s., & niles, s. (2004). career guidance and counselling through the lifespan. london: prentice-hall. hobfoll, s. (1998). stress, culture and community: the psychologu and philisophy of stress. new york: plenum. hobfoll, s. (2002). social and pscyhological resources and adaptation. review of general psychology, 6(4), 307–324. holbeche, l. (1997). career development: the impact of flatter structures on careers. london butterworth-heinemann. hughes, l., & half, r. (2009). the war for talent. retrieved may 14, 2009, from http://www.globalexpertbase.com/wp-8-212.html humphreys, j.h., weyant, l.e., & sprague, r.d. (2003). organizational commitment: the roles of emotional and practical intellect within the leader/follower dyad. journal of business and management, 9(2), 189–209. judge, t.a., & ferris, g.r. (1992). the elusive criterion of fit in human resource staffing decisions. journal of business ethics, 15, 47–67. kanter, r. (1968). commitment and social organisation: a study of commitment mechanisms in utopian communities. american sociological review, 33, 499–517. katz, d., & kahn, r. (1978). the social pscyhology of organizations. (2nd edn.). new york: wiley. kidd, j.m. (2008). exploring components of career well-being and the emotions associated with significant career experiences. journal of career development, 35(2), 166–186. kniveton, b.h. (2004). managerial career anchors in a changing business environment. journal of european industrial training, 28(7), 564–573. kuijpers, m.a.c.t., & scheerens, j. (2006). career competencies for the modern career. journal of career development, 32(4), 303–319. lok, p., & crawford, j. (1999). the relationship between commitment and organizational culture, subculture, leadership style and job satisfaction in organizational change and development. leadership & organization development journal, 20(7), 365–373. lumley, e. (2010). the relationship between career anchors, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. unpublished master’s thesis, university of south africa, pretoria. march, r., & mannari, h. (1977). organisational commitment and turnover: a prediction study. administrative science quarterly, 22, 57–67. marshall, v., & bonner, d. (2003). career anchors and the effects of downsizing: implications for generations and cultures at work – a preliminary investigation. journal of european industrial training, 27(6), 281–291. mathieu, j., & zajac, d. (1990). a review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates and consequences of organisational commitment. psychological bulletin, 108(2), 171–194. mcneese-smith, d., & van servellen, g. (2000). age, development and job stages: impact on nurse outcomes. outcomes management for nursing practice, 4(2), 97–104. mcquaid, r., & lindsay, c. (2005). the concept employability. urban studies, 42(2), 197–219. mester, c., visser, d., roodt, g., & kellerman, r. (2003). leadership style and its relation to employee attitudes and behaviour. sa journal of industrial psychology, 29(2), 72–82. meyer, j.p., & allen, n. (1991). a three component conceptualization of organisational commitment. human resource management review, 1, 61–89. meyer, j.p., & allen, n. (1997). commitment in the workplace, theory, reseach and application. california: sage. meyer, j.p., allen, n.j., & smith, c.a. (1993). commitment to organisations and occupations: extension and test of a three-component conceptualization. journal of applied psychology, 78(4), 538–551. peterson, d.k. (2003). the relationship between ethical pressure, relativistic moral beliefs and organisational commitment. journal of managerial psychology, 18(6), 557–572. porter, l.w., & lawler, e.e. (1968). managerial attitudes and performance. homewood, il: irwin. pretorius, a.a.s., & roodt, g. (2004). die verband tussen werknemertevredenheid en organisasieverbondenheid. sa journal of industrial psychology, 30(3), 65–74. salancik, g.r. (1977). commitment and the control of organizational behaviour and belief. in b.m. staw & g. salancik (eds.), new directions in organizational behavior (pp. 1–54). chicago: st clair press. savickas, m.l. (2007). occupational choice. in h. gunz & m. peiperl (eds.), handbook of career studies (pp. 79–96). london: sage. schein, e.h. (1996). career anchors revisited: implications for career development in the 21st century. academy of management executive, 1, 80–88. schneider, b., goldstein, h.w., & smith, d.b. (1995). the asa framework: an update. personnel psychology, 48, 747–773. shaughnessy, j., & zechmeister, e. (2003). research methods in psychology. new york: mcgraw-hill. sheldon, m.e. (1971). investments and involvements as mechanisms producing commitment to the organization. administrative science quarterly, 16, 142–150. sinclair, v. (2009). experiencing career satisfaction and career success over the life span. retrieved february 2, 2010, from http://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/counselloradvice98889.html spiegel, p.e., & schultz, k.s. (2003). the influence of preretirement planning and transferability of skills on naval officers’ retirement satisfaction and adjustment. military psychology, 15, 285–307. super, d.e. (1990). a life-span, life-space approach to career development. journal of vocational behavior, 16(30), 282–298. suutari, v., & taka, m. (2004). career anchors of managers with global careers. journal of management development, 23(9), 833–847. valentine, s., godkin, l., & lucero, m. (2002). ethical context, organizational commitment and person-organization fit. journal of business ethics, 41, 349–360. van der heijde, c., & van der heijden, b. (2006). a competence-based and multidimensional operationalisation of employability. abstract introduction literature review methodology results and discussion discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) felix k. opoku department of human resource management, school of business, university of cape coast, cape coast, ghana isaac t. kwao department of human resource management, school of business, university of cape coast, cape coast, ghana agyemang-prempeh johnson department of human resource management, school of business, university of cape coast, cape coast, ghana citation opoku, f.k., kwao, i.t., & johnson, a-p. (2023). human resource policies and work–life balance in higher education: employee engagement as mediator. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a1939. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.1939 original research human resource policies and work–life balance in higher education: employee engagement as mediator felix k. opoku, isaac t. kwao, agyemang-prempeh johnson received: 18 mar. 2022; accepted: 23 aug. 2022; published: 15 mar. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: this article focuses on workplace policies, employee engagement and work–life balance in higher education. research purpose: this study examined the mediation of employee engagement on the relationship between human resource (hr) policies and work–life balance among employees in the college of distance education (code) in ghana. motivation for the study: although there is a plethora of research linking hr policies and employees’ work–life balance, the same cannot be said of the variables that mediate this relationship, as there are only few studies in that perspective. research approach/design and method: the study adopted a purely quantitative approach, using the descriptive survey design. data were collected from 232 staff of the code in ghana. the structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data. main findings: the results indicated that employee engagement is a complementary partial mediator of the nexus between hr policies and work–life balance. it was also found that hr policies had a statistically significant effect on work–life balance. practical/managerial implications: in order to effectively improve their staff’s work–life balance, management of the college must formulate policies that support employee engagement. specifically, they can use flexible work arrangements, leave policy, and caretaking policies to positively influence their employees’ work engagement. contribution/value-add: the results from this study offer a remarkable new knowledge that can be applied in promoting the work–life balance of employees in higher education. keywords: higher education; employee engagement; work–life balance; human resource policies; college of distance education. introduction both theoretical and empirical research (iqbal et al., 2017; wood et al., 2020) have shown that there is a significant relationship between work–life balance and organisational outcomes. for instance, wood et al. (2020) conducted a study about the correlation between work–life balance and employee engagement and found that the two constructs or variables had bidirectional relationship. thevanes and mangaleswaran (2018) also investigated the effect of work–life balance on job performance of employees in selected private banks of sri lanka. the authors found that work–life balance had both positive and significant effect on job performance. again, mas-machuca, jasmina and ines (2016) investigated the effect of work–life balance on organisational pride and job satisfaction among the staff of a spanish pharmaceutical organisation. the authors found that work–life balance was a positive effect on both organisational pride and job satisfaction. other studies also found similar correlations between work–life balance and variables such as employee loyalty (kabir & rahman, 2019) and turnover intention (taghrid et al., 2016). the significant effect of work–life balance on several organisational outcomes signals the need for employers to increasingly formulate policies for assisting employees to balance their work and non-work life responsibilities (iqbal et al., 2017). the development of life-friendly human resource (hr) policies to leverage a well-balanced work and non-work life responsibilities is necessary because work–life balance provides benefits such as better employee morale, increased productivity, enhanced employee retention and lower levels of stress, absenteeism and sickness (kabir & rahman, 2019). several studies (feeney & stritch, 2019; mengistu, 2020; uddin et al., 2020) have confirmed the significant positive association between hr policies and work–life balance. for instance, skinner and chapman (2013) investigated the relationship between family-friendly policies and work–life balance in the public sector of australia and found that life-friendly hr policies such as paid leave, childcare, shorter working hours and flextime had significant influence on an individuals’ work–life balance. feeney and stritch (2019) also conducted a study on how employee take-up of leave policies, access to dependent childcare, alternative work arrangements and family support affected state government employees’ work–life balance. the authors found a significant positive connection between work–life balance and all the workplace policies. notwithstanding the plethora of studies that examined the direct association between life-friendly hr policies and employee work–life balance, there is no study in the literature that examined the mechanisms by which hr policies translate into work–life balance. however, previous studies have shown that employee engagement is positively related to both workplace policies (yuile et al., 2012) and work–life balance (aveline & kumar, 2017; iqbal et al., 2017; wood et al., 2020). thus, the current study is conducted to test the mediation of employee engagement for the first time, between hr policies and employee work–life balance in a higher education in ghana. this study was conducted in the college of distance education (code), university of cape coast, ghana. the study contributes to both theory and practice by not only documenting the current level of understanding between life-friendly hr policies and work–life balance but also analysing the indirect relationship between the two constructs. the code is one of the five colleges in the university of cape coast whose work is very challenging owing to the large number of students they admit each year (john et al., 2020). to deliver active services to their distance students, staff of the college are engaged in their work throughout the week. the staff of the college perform their official duties from mondays to thursdays in their offices and travel on fridays to the study centres during weekends to supervise tutors on a 12-week face-to-face programme, 4-weeks continuous assessment invigilation and a 4-week invigilation at the end of semester examination (segbenya et al., 2018). the staff also prepare all relevant documents for use during the weekends. some staff members work overnight while the female staff who nurse their children have to travel with their wards to far away distance centres throughout the day or night, and this makes life very uncomfortable (akuamoah-boateng, 2020; segbenya et al., 2018). thus, in a study conducted by akuamoah-boateng (2020), it was suggested that a further study will be required to examine how staff of the college can balance their work and non-work activities. the current study fills this gap. literature review the review of literature in this study is organised into three sections: (1) theoretical review, (2) conceptual review and (3) empirical review. the theoretical foundation of the study the current study is underpinned by work/family border theory, which was proposed by clark (2000). the work/family border theory was developed to address the issues of crossing borders between spheres of life, particularly the spheres of work and family life (kossek & lautsch, 2018). on the basis of the work/family border theory, individuals are viewed as border-crossers as they continuously manage and negotiate work and family spheres or the borders between them in order to create and maintain a desired work–family balance. according to clark (2000), a desired work–family balance is one that provides satisfaction and good functioning at both work and home with the least degree of role conflict (karassvidou & glaveli, 2015). according to clark (2000), each person’s role in society is within a specific sphere of life, and these spheres may be separated by physical or psychological boundaries. physical boundaries are artificially occurring barriers between the workplace and the family. psychological boundaries are procedures established by employees that can determine when to think and when behaviour and emotional patterns are suitable for a particular domain and vice versa. according to clark (2000), the level of integration, the ease with which transitions are made and the level of conflict that exist between these borders are all affected by the flexibility and permeability of the borders. clark (2000) maintained that work and family spheres are not separated but are connected with flexible and permeable boundaries. clark’s (2000) work/family border theory is based on the assumption that work and non-work domains are two separate spheres of life that affect each other. the relationship between these spheres forms a continuum that ranges from segmentation to integration (karassvidou & glaveli, 2015). at the pole end of segmentation, the two spheres are mutually exclusive, whereas at the pole end of integration, they are conceived as identical spheres. according to karassvidou and glaveli (2015), the more flexible and permeable the line between the two spheres (weak borderline), the higher the integration between them. here, the individual hardly sees a distinction between what belongs to work and what belongs to home. this blurring condition usually creates work–family balance conflict. as noted by karassvidou and glaveli (2015), ‘if the two domains are closely integrated, it is easier for transmission to occur but this has the tendency of creating work-family conflict’ (p. 86). alternatively, where the line between the two spheres is impermeable and inflexible (strong borderline), segmentation usually results, deterring physical and behavioural elements from passing from one sphere into another (kossek & lautsch, 2018). flexibility and permeability of work and non-work borders can increase a person’s work–life balance (kossek & lautsch, 2018). they may also lead to a conflict when people become confused about the role they should be playing at any given time. the work–family border theory applies to a variety of policies such as job sharing, flexible working hours and home-working that are often used in organisations to assist workers to balance competing demands from work and personal life (itzkovich et al., 2020). these arrangements may improve the employees’ sense of control over the extent of segmentation or integration they desire (kossek & lautsch, 2018). the theory has been criticized for being too simplistic as it exclusively focuses on work and family borders without giving much attention to the borders of the other important non-work roles such as leisure, social, religious and recreational works that happen within a person’s life. electronic gadgets were not also included in the theory as a component that can affect work–life balance. electronic gadgets can create permeability by acting as a link between different aspects of life. the use of technological gadgets produces an environment that is neither work nor non-work (kossek & lee, 2017). the work–life border theory is relevant for this study because it applies to a variety of policies such as job sharing, flexible working hours and home-working that are often used by management to assist workers to balance competing demands from work and home. conceptual literature three concepts were relevant for this study: (1) life-friendly hr policies, (2) work–life balance and (3) employee engagement. life-friendly human resource policies life-friendly hr policies are policies that allow employees to balance their work and non-work life roles (yuile et al., 2012). life-friendly hr policies are usually grouped into three: (1) flexible work arrangements, (2) leave policy options and (3) caretaking benefits (yuile et al., 2012). flexible work arrangements are human resource policies that provide employees with an option to make choices influencing when, where, and for how long they should engage in a work-related task. maxwell et al. (2007) defined flexible work arrangements as ‘any policy, practice, formal or informal, which permits people to vary when and where work is carried out’ (p. 138). with flexible work arrangements, employees are better able to work outside the traditional confines of the organisation. there are several forms of flexible work arrangements, such as compressed workweek, telecommuting, part-time work, job sharing and shift work (austin-egole et al., 2020). the second broad life-friendly hr policy that helps the employee to ensure an appropriate balance between work and non-work obligations is the leave policy option. naithani (2010) defined a leave policy as the sum of rules and guidelines that are designed by management to provide regular break periods for their staff. these rules or guidelines include parental leave, paid annual leave, sick leave, sabbatical leave and maternity leave. organisations that provide leave to employees are committed perceived as being committed to helping their staff to achieve a good work-life balance (austin-egole et al., 2020; maxwell et al., 2007). caretaking benefits are the third type of life-friendly hr policy, which can help employees to achieve desirable work and family life balance. carers’ arrangement, as they are often called, include onsite/offsite childcare, eldercare initiatives, family support programmes, counselling services and health programmes (austin-egole et al., 2020). conceptualising work–life balance work–life balance defies any universally accepted definition. scholars have defined the concept in diverse ways. for instance, kirchmeyer (2000) defined the concept of work–life balance as having rewarding experiences both at work and at home. clark (2000) also defined work–life balance as the enjoyment and satisfaction received from work and home with the least amount of disagreement. again, greenhaus and powell (2003) defined work–life balance as a process by which a person is equally interested in and content with his work–family roles. greenhaus et al. (2006) further provided a revised definition of work–life balance in 2006. according to the authors, work–life balance is the process by which a person’s efficiency and fulfilment in work–family duties are congruent with their life roles at any given moment. mengistu (2020) defined work–life balance as the accomplishment of role-related expectations that are negotiated and shared between a person and his or her role-related partners in the office and in the family. according to lakshmi and gopinath (2013), although the presence of numerous definitions may provide an adequate understanding of the concept, the plethora of definitions may also be a source of misunderstanding among scholars. previous studies (john et al., 2020; mengistu, 2020; nathani, 2010; omar et al., 2015) have acknowledged the main factors that influence employees’ work–life balance. nathani (2010) grouped the factors into three, namely work-related factors, family and personal related factors and other factors. nathani defined work-related factors as any activity that affect work either positively or negatively. examples include supervisor support, good workplace policies and good working conditions. family and personal related factors are the factors that affect family and personal life either positively or negatively (omar et al., 2015). examples include family support, parental support and spousal support. mengistu (2020) also grouped the determinants of work–life balance into two – demand predictors and resource predictors. demand predictors are those factors that affect work–life balance negatively. examples include work and non-work role overloads. according to mengistu (2020), work overload arises when the entire job demands on time and energy connected with numerous positions are too great to fulfil efficiently and comfortably. omar et al. (2015) opined that demand predictors such as work overload and role conflict are the dominant issues affecting work–life balance. the resource predictors, on the other hand, are defined by mengistu (2020) as the factors influencing work–life balance positively, including social support, family support and flexible policies. resource predictors are those organizational resources or conditions that support employees in accomplishing their task. concept of employee engagement schaufeli and bakker (2010) defined employee engagement as the active and positive work-related state that is characterised by three main factors: vigor, dedication and absorption. vigor measures the levels of energy and resilience that employees put in their work while dedication refers to employee’s involvement in the work itself. the concentration and enthusiasm manifested by employees at the workplace is known as absorption. saks (2006) identified two forms of employee engagement: (1) job engagement and (2) organizational engagement. job engagement consists of the psychological state of fulfillment with one’s task while organizational engagement consists of employee’s physical, cognitive and emotional investment in the work. fully engaged workers are physically energised, emotionally connected, mentally focused and feel aligned with the purpose of the organisation (schaufeli & bakker, 2010). as noted by motyka (2018), engaged employees have a sense of personal attachment to their work and the organisation; they are motivated and able to give off their best to help the organisation succeed and from that flows a series of tangible benefits for the organisation and employees alike. there are four major determinants of employee engagement: (1) perceived organisational support, (1) positive organisational politics, (3) job fit and (4) psychological climate (motyka, 2018; saks, 2006). perceived organisational support is described by eisenberger et al. (1986) as the employees’ ‘beliefs concerning the extent to which the organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being’ (p. 501). a study by shaw et al. (2013) has shown that employees who demonstrate high level of perceived organisational support do not usually become stress at work. another determinant of employee engagement is positive organisational politics. donald et al. (2016) defined organisational politics as the means by which employees influence their colleagues, subordinates and even superiors in order to obtain personal benefits and or satisfy organisational goals. this definition is based on the traditional view of organisational politics whose research concentrated mostly on examining the attempts made by employees to influence the behaviour of others or the organisation as a whole (donald et al., 2016). recent studies (donald et al., 2016; motyka, 2018), however, focus more on how people perceive political manoeuvres arguing that the notion of politics rests on the perceptions employees hold about the concept rather than the actual influence tactics. person-job-fit is another determinant of employee engagement. according to hoffman and woehr (2006), person-job-fit relates to the congruence between employee characteristics such as knowledge, skills, abilities, needs and the demands or attributes of the job. in the opinion of the authors, good job-fit helps employees to be involved in a meaningful work, which in turn affects the development of work-related employee attitudes, such as job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational commitment. it also provides the cognitive stimulus that employees require to engage in positive organisational outcomes, such as improved performance, intention to stay and affective commitment. thus, by implication, employees with good job fit are more likely to perform their jobs with enthusiasm and energy. alternatively, low job-fit usually results in decreased productivity, decreased job satisfaction and employee engagement and increased levels of turnover (hoffman & woehr, 2006). the fourth determinant of employee engagement is psychological climate. kataria et al. (2013) defined psychological climate as an individual attribute, measured in terms of employees’ perception and interpretation of their organisational environments or the policies and practices adopted by management of the organisation. employees feel safe and available when there is a good psychological climate, and this allows them to invest in their work roles without fear of any adverse criticism or career sabotage. when employees perceive favourable psychological climate, they are likely to be motivated, with the results that they will be prepared to invest their personal energies into their respective work roles. thus, employees with improved psychological climate are more likely to engage in extra in-role discretionary effort, mediated by engagement in work. there are three levels of employee engagement in the literature – highly engaged, not-engaged and the actively disengaged (gallup, 2006). highly engaged employees perform their work with passion. they perform their task with great enthusiasm and pleasure. they are naturally curious about their organisation and would indulge in productive and innovative ways to direct the organisation in the path of development and success. not-engaged employees just concentrate only on their tasks and its outcomes without heeding to the organisation and its present position in the market. according to gallup (2006), actively disengaged employees simply walk through their workday, putting time – but not energy or passion – into their work. employees who are actively disengaged are not only unhappy at the workplace but can also undermine what their engaged co-workers accomplish. empirical review and development of hypotheses this section reviews the association between (1) life-friendly hr policies and work–life balance, (2) life-friendly hr policies and employee engagement as well as (3) employee engagement and work–life balance. after each review, a corresponding hypothesis is provided. life-friendly human resource policies and work–life balance several studies have examined the positive nexus between hr policies and work–life balance (feeney & stritch, 2019; gudep, 2019; mengistu, 2020; uddin et al., 2020). mengistu (2020) investigated the factors that determine employee work–life balance in selected nongovernmental organisations (ngos) in ethiopia and found that among the relevant predictors, work–life balance policies predicted work–life balance more than work overload, family/life role overload and social support. oludayo and omonijo (2020) also examined the effect of social support initiatives on work–life balance in nigeria. the authors found that social support initiatives reduce stress, strengthen workplace/personal relationships and facilitate workplace performance on multiple levels. much like oludayo and omonijo (2020) and uddin et al. (2020) examined the effect of perceived family and workplace supports and work–life balance policies on work–life balance among female staff in the banking industry in bangladesh. the authors found that workplace support, superior support and work–life balance policies significantly influence the attainment of better work–life balance among female bankers in bangladesh. in another study, uddin et al. (2021) found that emotional support from co-workers and instrumental support from supervisors have significant impact on the work–life balance of employees in developing countries. on the basis of this review, it is hypothesised that: h1: life-friendly hr policies have a significant influence on work–life balance life-friendly human resource policies and employee engagement previous studies (eek & axmon, 2013; kaewthaworn, 2019; kangure, 2014; yuile et al., 2012) have shown that life-friendly hr policies have significant positive association with employee engagement. eek and axmon (2013) examined the effect of attitude and flexibility on working parents’ mental wellbeing, stress and employee engagement in the swedish southern healthcare region. the authors found that workplace flexibility and attitude to parenthood have the strongest effect on working parents’ subjective stress, wellbeing and employee engagement. kaewthaworn (2019) also investigated the influence of hr policies on employee engagement in the hotel industry. the study was conducted in the hatyai district, songkhla province and kathu district, phuket province. three family-friendly policies were identified in the study: (1) work flexible policy, (2) leave policy and (3) dependent care policy. it was found that all the three policies have significant positive influence on employee engagement. out of the three, flexible policy was the strongest. similarly, yuile et al. (2012) examined the role of contemporary life-friendly hr management policies on employees’ work–life balance in the queensland public sector agency. the authors found that flexibility is positively related to greater work–life balance and vice versa. kangure (2014) also found that work place policy, supervisor support and co-worker support contribute positively to employee engagement. based on these reviews, it is hypothesised that: h2: life-friendly human resource policies have a significant influence on employee engagement employee engagement and work–life balance previous studies (aveline & kumar, 2017; iqbal et al., 2017; jasmina & miha, 2021; kangure, 2014) have also shown that employee engagement has a significant positive relationship with work–life balance. jasmina and miha (2021) investigated the association between work–life balance and job engagement among lecturers in austria, croatia, czech republic, germany, serbia and slovenia. the results of their study show that life satisfaction is an important moderator between work–life balance and job engagement. iqbal et al. (2017) also examined the impact of employee engagement on work–life balance in faisalabad and found that employee engagement was highly correlated with work–life balance among the banking employees in faisalabad. the nexus between employee engagement and work–life balance was also investigated by aveline and kumar (2017). data for the study were gathered from respondents in the software industries in chennai. it was found that engaged employees had better work–life balance than highly disengaged employees. kangure (2014) also investigated the relationship between employee engagement and work–life balance. in this study, data were gathered from 434 participants in 197 state-owned corporations in kenya. it was found from this study that work–life balance has a positive significant effect on employee engagement and vice versa. given these findings, it was hypothesised that: h3: employee engagement has a significant influence on work–life balance life-friendly human resource policies, employee engagement and work–life balance previous studies (kaewthaworn, 2019; kangure, 2014) have shown that life-friendly hr policies have significant positive association with employee engagement. moreover, other studies (iqbal et al., 2017; jasmina & miha, 2021) have shown that there is a significant positive association between employee engagement and work–life balance. according to the work–life border theory, engaged workers manage work and family responsibilities by controlling the boundaries among the two competing domains. thus, in this study, employee engagement was expected to play a mediating role in the relationship between life-friendly hr policies and work–life balance. given this logic, the following hypothesis has been formulated: h4: employee engagement mediates the relationship between life-friendly hr policies and work–life balance the conceptual framework of this study is presented in figure 1. figure 1: conceptual model for the study. methodology the study organisation, target population and sampling the current study was carried out in the code, university of cape coast, ghana. the population for this study comprised all the 269 employees in the college. the entire population was used for the study because, given its size, it was realistic and feasible to reach out to all the staff in the college (kim, 2016). data collection instruments and procedures data were gathered for this study using the survey questionnaire. the survey method was preferred because according to kim (2016), it is most appropriate for explanatory research. the instrument was divided into three parts. part one comprised the items used for collecting data about the sex, age, years of work experience, academic qualification and marital status of respondents. the second part comprised the items for measuring work–life balance, while part three comprised items for measuring life-friendly hr policies. the final part comprised items for measuring employee engagement. each item was measured on a 7-likert-scale with 1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree. the questionnaires were self-administered during week days from july 2021 to september 2021. out of the total 269 respondents, 232 successfully completed and returned. this gave a response rate of 86.25%. data processing and analysis data collected for this study were processed using the ibm statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 25.0 software and analysed using the partial least squares (pls) structural equation modelling, which allows for simultaneous estimation of co-variation for all variables in a model (sarstedt et al., 2014). the preparation of the data gathered was in two phasis. firstly, the raw data were edited, coded and converted into actual variables. each questionnaire was carefully checked for incompleteness and inconsistencies. the variables were assigned codes to facilitate computer data input. once entered into the datasheets, the data were carefully screened to minimise entry errors. frequencies for each variable were checked to detect the out-of-range values. secondly, the processed data were analysed using smart pls 3.2.8. the prepared data file was then converted into ‘comma-delimited’ format ‘csv’ before the final file was imported into the smart pls application for the model configuration (browne et al., 2019; kumar et al., 2019; lew et al., 2019). the set-up of the pls tool for the formulation of the model was as follows: consistent pls algorithm and consistent bootstrapping were dully marshaled for the analysis with 5000 maximum iterations. casewise deletion was configured for missing values although there were no missing values in the data (ringle et al., 2015). a 95% confidence interval with a corresponding 5% level of significance was set for the reflective model. the one-tailed test hypotheses were formulated because of the non-directional nature of the objectives of the study. as a decision rule, indicators that had outer loadings less than 0.7 (not statistically significant) were deleted in order to improve the measurement model. the evaluation of the models began with the measurement model and then the structural model (fami et al., 2019; hair et al., 2017; tabet et al., 2019). cronbach’s alpha (≥ 0.7) and composite reliability (≥ 0.7) were also computed. cronbach’s alpha value for all the items exceeded the minimum 0.7 cut-off point (sarstedt & ringle, 2019). cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability are the most common internal consistency measurements (fami et al., 2019). the scale’s reliability was measured with the rho_a (≥ 0.7), which is currently the only consistent reliability measure of pls construct scores (dijkstra & henseler, 2015; henseler, 2017). convergent validity was measured with the average variance extracted (ave). average variance extracted values must be greater than or equal to 0.5 before they can adequately measure convergent validity (ringle et al., 2015). discriminant validity was measured with fornell–larcker criteria (should follow in descending order). discriminant validity represents the uniqueness and distinctiveness of each construct relative to other constructs in the model (afum et al., 2019). as reflective models are susceptible to biases and errors, the authors of the current study thought that it was wise to examine the test of collinearity statistics (hair et al., 2016). common method bias was measured with the collinearity statistics (variance inflation factor (vif) ≤ 5). this was measured with the vif value, as its usage in this context has been confirmed in reflective models in structural modeling (kock, 2015). generally, when collinearity statistics are above 3.3 thresholds, it implies that the model is likely to be affected by common method bias. alternatively, when the vif is less than 3.3, the model is deemed to be without common method bias (afum et al., 2019). factor loadings for the relevant indicators were measured accordingly, given cognisance to top-values and t-statistics (ringle et al., 2015). path coefficients (unstandardised beta) were used to assess the contributions of both direct and indirect predictors to the variance in the dependent variable (schberth et al., 2018) while effect size (f2) was used to quantify their contributions to the changes in the dependent variable (ahrholdt et al., 2019). effect size values above 0.35, 0.15 and 0.02 were regarded as strong, moderate and weak (cohen, 2016). this was assessed by the r-square, regarded as the most common effect size measure in path models (garson, 2016). to this effect, tentative cut-off points have been recommended (garson, 2016; hock & ringle, 2006). results above 0.67 are described as being ‘substantial’, those above 0.33 are ‘moderate’ and those above 0.19 are ‘weak’. the findings were presented in tables and figures for easy understanding and reporting. finally, the q2 was analysed using the blindfolding procedure. q-square is predictive relevance that measures whether a model has predictive relevance or otherwise (> 0 is good). a q2 above 0 shows that the model has predictive relevance. measurement of constructs three constructs were measured in this study. work–life balance was measured by using the eight-item scale developed by valcour (2007). life-friendly hr policies were measured using the 15-item scale developed by yuile et al.’s (2012) while employee engagement was measured using the 15-item scale developed by schaufeli and bakker (2003). ethical considerations the university of cape coast institutional review board (uccirb) has granted provisional approval for the implementation of your research titled workplace policies, work engagement and work-life balance among the staff of college of distance education. this approval is valid from 02 february 2022 to 15 february 2023 (uccirb/chls/2021/72). results and discussion measurement model evaluation the measurement model evaluation involved confirmatory factor analysis, indicator loadings, reliability and validity. the model was assessed in order to determine the suitability of the indicators used to measure hr policies, employee engagement and work–life balance. according to kim (2016), an indicator is suitable if its outer loading is more than 0.7. assessing the indicator loadings the indicator variables were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis. this was done in order to identify the indicators that clearly explained the constructs even though the scales used were developed and modified from existing literature with theoretical support (sarstedt et al., 2014). to increase the overall model ‘reliability, any indicator that loaded below 0.70 was removed. the indicators in table 1 met the reliability criterion. table 1: indicator loadings. assessing reliability and validity the reliability and validity of the variables were both assessed. reliability was assessed using composite reliability. validity was categorised into convergent and discriminant validity. convergent validity was measured using the ave, while discriminant validity was measured using the fornell–lacker criteria (see table 2). table 2: validity and reliability. as shown in table 2, the composite reliability of all reflectively assessed constructs ranged from 0.854 to 0.884, which is above the minimum threshold of 0.7 (sarstedt et al., 2014). as a result, all the latent variables were credible. work–life balance had the highest composite reliability (0.884) followed by employee engagement (0.873) and life-friendly hr policies (0.854). the results indicate that the model has internal consistency and reliability. the ave was used to assess convergent validity. the ave in table 2 for life-friendly hr policies (0.662), employee engagement (0.698) and work–life balance (0.655) met the minimal threshold of 0.50 (hair et al., 2017). according to hair et al. (2016), an ave above 0.50 implies that the construct explains more than half of the variation in its indicators. the fornell–lacker criteria were used to assess discriminant validity. the results are provided in table 3. table 3: fornell–lacker criterion. the values in table 3: life-friendly hr policies (0.814), employee engagement (0.835) and work–life balance (0.810) indicate that the square root of each construct’s ave is larger than the correlations among them (hair et al., 2016). as all the indicator loadings were higher than the cross-loadings, the model meets the requirements of discriminant validity. assessing the structural model collinearity among constructs such as the coefficient of determination, predictive relevance, effect size, path coefficient and its significance were evaluated in this study. the direct and indirect models were run together (nitzl et al., 2016). the collinearity test indicated that the vif of work–life balance was 3.198 (below the threshold of 10) and the tolerance level 0.619 (below the threshold of 1.00). these results mean that no multicollinearity affected the results negatively. the results are presented in table 4. table 4: collinearitv among constructs. the absence of common bias was further confirmed by the variance inflator factor result, which was equal to 3.198. having a vif value greater than 3.3 means that the results are tainted by common method bias (hair et al., 2016). as all the vif values in the collinearity test were 3.3 or below (3.198), this signifies that the model is devoid of collinearity and common method bias. the endogenous variable’s predictive power was also evaluated, and the coefficient of determination (r2) for the work–life balance (the endogenous latent variable) was 0.835. this means that the two latent constructs accounted for 83.5% variation in staff’s work–life balance as indicated in table 5 and figure 2. workplace policies, on the other hand, explained 22.4% of the variation in employee engagement, as indicated in figure 2. figure 2: outer and inner model results. table 5: coefficient of determination. the predictive relevance of the model was also checked, using the stone-q2 geisser’s statistic (stone, 1974). the results are presented in table 6 and figure 3. figure 3: structural model with blindfolding. table 6: predictive relevance of the model. after performing the blindfolding procedure, the values of the q2 in table 6 and figure 3 were greater than zero (work–life balance = 0.590, employee engagement 0.142), indicating predictive significance (hair et al., 2016). finally, the internal path co-efficient and significance were assessed by running bootstrapping procedure. the results (p = 0.00) indicated that the hypothesised structural paths were significant as presented in table 7. table 7: path coefficients and hypothesis testing. discussion the main objective of this study was to examine the mediation of employee engagement between hr policies and employee work–life balance in the code in the university of cape coast, ghana. the discussion of results is organised into four sections based on the four hypotheses formulated for the study: h1: life-friendly hr policies have a significant influence on work–life balance this hypothesis sought to evaluate the influence of life-friendly hr policies on the work–life balance of staff of code. the results revealed that life-friendly hr policies significantly influence work–life balance (β = 0.645, p = 0.000, r2 = 0.835) as shown in table 7. the results imply that a change in life-friendly hr policies will have a positive effect on employees’ work–life balance. as the p-value is less than 0.05, it is considered significant, meaning that life-friendly hr policies have a substantial beneficial influence on work–life balance of staff of code. the coefficient of determination (r2) was = 0.835, showing that life-friendly hr policies account for 83.5% of the variation in work–life balance. thus, if employees are allowed to utilise life-friendly hr policies such as flexible work hours, flexitime, childcare, etc., their work–life balance will be improved in the college. these findings are consistent with those of mengistu (2020) that flexible workplace practices influence work–life balance. the findings are also in line with the submissions by oludayo and omonijo (2020) that flexible work options help employees achieve a better work–life balance, which leads to higher levels of performance and commitment. the results also supported the recent empirical survey carried out by gudep (2019) that flexible work systems promote and enhance staff’ work–life balance, which may benefit the organization by improving their productivity. again, the findings corroborate the current findings of feeney and stritch (2019) that flexible scheduling and work–life balance have a significant positive relationship. given the positive association between workplace policies and work–life balance as revealed by prior research (mengistu, 2020; oludayo & omonijo, 2020; uddin et al., 2020) and the findings in the current research, the hypothesis that life-friendly hr policies have a significant influence on work–life balance is supported in this study. this implies that management of the code can help improve the work–life balance of their employees by instituting life-friendly hr policies such as flexible work arrangements, leave policies and dependent policies. management must, however, ensure that the use of the policies is mandatory for every staff in the college: h2: life-friendly hr policies have a significant influence on employee engagement the second hypothesis sought to examine the influence of life-friendly hr policies on staff work–life balance in code. the results in table 7 and figure 2 revealed that life-friendly hr policies significantly influenced employee engagement (β = 0.474, p = 0.000). the result of the coefficient of determination (r2) indicated that 22.4% of the variation in employee engagement was explained by life-friendly hr policies. the results imply that a positive and significant change in the organisations’ life-friendly hr policies may lead to an improvement in the employee engagement of staff even though a substantial variation (77.6%) is explained by other factors (r2 = 22.4%). as the p-value (0.000) is less than 0.05, it is declared significant, meaning that workplace policies have a significant positive effect on staff employee engagement. the results are consistent with the findings of kangure (2014) that job resources promote and enhance individuals’ employee engagement. the findings also confirm the assertion by kaewthaworn (2019) that life-friendly hr policies such as flexible working conditions positively relate to employees’ employee engagement. the results again confirm the conclusion by yuile et al. (2012) that friendly policies and supervisor support positively influence employee engagement. furthermore, the results corroborate the findings of oludayo and omonijo (2020) that work leave arrangement, flexible work arrangement, employee time out, social support and dependent care initiative are predictors of employee behavioural outcomes such as job satisfaction and employee engagement. moreover, the findings validate the findings of eek and axmon (2013) that workplace factors that are related to flexibility have a strong positive effect on stress, well-being and employee engagement. given the findings of previous studies (eek & axmon, 2013; kaewthaworn, 2019), and those of the current study, the hypothesis that life-friendly hr policies have a significant influence on employee engagement is supported in this study. the results of this study imply that management of the code can enhance the employee engagement of their staff by instituting life-friendly hr policies such as flexible work arrangements, leave policies and dependent policies and making sure that these policies are consistently adhered to: h3: employee engagement has a significant influence on work–life balance. the third hypothesis sought to assess the influence of employee engagement on the work–life balance of employees in the code. the aim was to assess whether employees who are truly engaged and dedicated to their work have a better work–life balance as indicated in previous studies (aveline & kumar, 2017; iqbal et al., 2017; jasmina & miha, 2021). the result in table 7 and figure 2 revealed that employee engagement had a significant influence on the work–life balance in the college (β = 0.411, p = 0.000). hence, the alternative hypothesis is accepted. the result of the coefficient of determination (r2) was 0.835, which implies that 83.5% of the variance in work–life balance of staff is predicted by changes in employee engagement. in light of this, an increase in employee engagement will result in an improvement in staff’s work–life balance. in order words, employee engagement has a significant positive influence on staff’s work–life balance. the results corroborate the findings of aveline and kumar (2017) that employees who are greatly engaged in their work have better family lives. the findings also confirm the submission by iqbal et al. (2017) that employee engagement and work–life balance are strongly correlated. furthermore, the results from this study are consistent with the findings of jasmina and miha (2021) who maintained that people who are highly engaged at work are better able to successfully integrate their job and family obligations. the results also corroborate the findings of aveline and kumar (2017) that employee engagement is the most proximal predictor of work–family facilitation. the preceding results imply that management of the code can improve the work–life balance of their employees by ensuring that appropriate measures are put in place to help them engage in their work. this can be achieved by providing challenging work, career development programmes and ensuring effective and supportive leadership at all times. management of the college can also implement employee engagement strategies and interventions that are necessary to meet the needs and aspirations of the staff: h4: employee engagement mediates the relationship between life-friendly hr policies and work–life balance the fourth hypothesis sought to examine the mediation of employee engagement between life-friendly hr policies and work–life balance. in the partial least square path model, mediator variables absorb some of the links between an exogenous and endogenous component. mediator reveals the true nexus between the exogenous and endogenous construct. the role of the mediator (employee engagement) is tested on the association between workplace policies (exogenous) and work–life balance (endogenous). the approach devised by nitzl et al. (2016) to examine the mediation effect was used to test the mediation effect employee engagement between life-friendly hr policies and work–life balance. according to nitzl et al. (2016), the sole requirement for assessing a mediation effect is a significant indirect effect. the authors proposed that when using partial least squares-structural equation modelling (pls-sem), it is not essential to run separate tests for direct and indirect pathways. the sole criterion for demonstrating a mediation effect is that the indirect effect must be substantial. there are two forms of mediation – full mediation and partial mediation (hair et al., 2017). according to carrión et al. (2017), when the direct effect is not significant, but the indirect effect is, full mediation occurs, but in partial mediation, the direct and indirect effects are all significant. there is no mediation when the direct effect is significant and the indirect effect is not. there are two forms of partial mediation: complementary and competing partial mediation. as indicated in figure 2, life-friendly hr policies have a stronger direct influence on work–life balance (0.645) as compared to employee engagement (0.411). nonetheless, when the indirect effect through the mediator (employee engagement), was taken into consideration, the path coefficient was found to be 0.840 as in table 7. according to de sivatte et al. (2015), for a mediation to work, the relationship between the exogenous and endogenous variables must be direct. the influence of the exogenous variable on the mediating variable revealed that life-friendly hr policies and work–life balance had a significant association with employee engagement (β = 0.840, p = 0.000). the beta coefficient was in the same direction as hypothesised; hence the hypothesis that employee engagement mediates the relationship between life-friendly hr policies and work–life balance is supported. the results for the total and indirect effect are given by the following equation (sarstedt et al., 2014): the outcome of the computation indicates that total effect is significantly greater than the direct effect, highlighting the significance of employee engagement in mediating the association between life-friendly hr policies and work–life balance. however, to determine whether the mediation was full or partial, sarstedt et al.’s (2014) variance accounted for approach was adopted. this was computed using the formula: vaf = indirect effect/direct effect = 0.195/0.840 = 0.232 the vaf value was 0.232, indicating that, when the rule of thumb is applied, employee engagement partially mediated life-friendly hr policies and work–life balance by 23.2% (sarstedt et al., 2014), and the type of partial mediation was complementary partial mediation (baron & kenny, 1986). this implies that a change in employee engagement can lead to a change in the relationship between life-friendly hr policies and work–life balance. in other words, life-friendly hr policies influence work–life balance properly if staff are engaged in their work. thus, employee engagement enriches life-friendly hr policies and work–life balance relationships. the results imply that the management of the code can effectively improve staff’s work–life balance by putting in place engagement strategies that support life-friendly hr policies. in light of this, the management of code can rely on measures such as providing meaningful work, helping staff to manage stress, providing job security and giving appropriate counselling on work-related issues in order to strengthen the direct relationship between life-friendly hr policies and work–life balance. theoretical implication the theoretical contribution of this study rests on its extension of the knowledge and application of work–family border theory as reviewed in the literature. by reviewing the original theory as proposed by clark (2000), and applying the assumptions to an empirical situation in ghana, this study is expected to increase student’s understanding of the theory and how it is applied in real-life situations. secondly, by exploring the association between life-friendly hr policies and work–life balance, based on the work–family border theory, this study has succeeded in contributing to the existing body of knowledge on both variables and how they link to enhance the work of the hr department. finally, the study contributes to theory by investigating the mediation of employee engagement between life-friendly hr policies and work–life balance. practical implication in addition to its theoretical implication, the current study has some important practical implications. firstly, the application of work–family border theory to explain the relationships among life-friendly hr policies, employee engagement and work–life balance can guide management of the code to incorporate appropriate interventions and policies on how the boundaries between work and family responsibilities are controlled to achieve a balance for their employees. this conclusion is based on an aspect of the theory that holds that work and family spheres are not separated but are connected with flexible and permeable boundaries. secondly, as the synthesised correlation between employee engagement and work–life balance suggests reciprocal relations (clark, 2000; kangure, 2014), managers of the code would be required to implement hr practices that improve the two variables from a holistic viewpoint rather than as separate variables. in this way, they will be mindful as to when to change and develop their culture, systems and policies to successfully facilitate higher levels of employee engagement and work–life balance. finally, management of the code could address the issue of work–life conflict by offering employees, tools, practices and learning opportunities that both reduce work–life conflict and improve employee engagement. furthermore, management could provide support by developing and implementing hr policies and practices such as employee voice and effective communication to reduce work–life conflict in the college. conclusion and suggestions for future research this study explored the relationship among life-friendly hr policies, employee engagement and work–life balance in a higher institution. the main objective of the study was to examine the mediation of employee engagement between life-friendly hr policies and work–life balance. in this study, it was found that life-friendly hr policies have a positive effect on work–life balance. more importantly, the authors found that employee engagement had a complementary partial mediation between life-friendly hr policies and work–life balance. as the study was restricted to the code in the university of cape coast, the research framework and hypothesis could be expanded and modified to include other colleges to confirm whether the results of this study can be generalised across other colleges and universities. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions f.k.o. contributed in the conceptualisation of the study. the methodology was handled by the author, and the original draft was also done by the first author. i.t.k. contributed in the writing, reviewing and editing. a.-p.j. contributed in the investigation and visualisation. the author also contributed in supervision and served as a project administration. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references ahrholdt, d.c., gudergan, s.p., & ringle, c.m. (2019). enhancing loyalty: when improving consumer satisfaction and delight matters. journal of business research, 94(c), 18–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.08.040 akuamoah-boateng, c. (2020). balancing work, family and personal life: perspectives of female staff at the college of distance education, university of cape coast, ghana. international journal of educational administration and policy studies, 12(1), 43–51. https://doi.org/10.5897/ijeaps2019.0643 austin-egole, i.s., iheriohanma, e.b.j., & nwokorie, c. (2020). flexible working arrangements and organizational performance: an overview. iosr journal of humanities and social science (iosr-jhss), 25(5 series 6), 50–59. aveline, s., & kumar, m. (2017). employee engagement and effects of work life balance in software industries in chennai. international journal of pure and applied mathematics, 116(20), 459–466. browne, o., o’reilly, p., hutchinson, m., & krdzavac, n.b. (2019). distributed data and ontologies: an integrated semantic web architecture enabling more efficient data management. journal of the association for information science and technology, 70(6), 575–586. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24144 carrión, g.c., nitzl, c., & roldán, j.l. (2017). mediation analyses in partial least squares structural equation modeling: guidelines and empirical examples. in partial least squares path modelling (pp. 173–195). springer, cham. chambel, m.j., carvalho, v.s., cesário, f., & lopes, s. (2017). the work-to-life conflict mediation between job characteristics and well-being at work: part-time vs full-time employees. career development international, 22(2), 142–164. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi-06-2016-0096 clark, s.c. (2000). work/family border theory: a new theory of work/family balance. journal of human relations, 53(6), 747–770. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726700536001 de sivatte, i., gordon, j.r., rojo, p., & olmos, r. (2015). the impact of work-life culture on organizational productivity. personnel review, 44(6), 14–27. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-12-2013-0226 dijkstra, t.k., & henseler, j. (2015). consistent and asymptotically normal pls estimators for linear structural equations. computational statistics & data analysis, 81(1), 10–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csda.2014.07.008 donald, m.f., bertha, l., & lucia, m.e. (2016). perceived organisational politics influences on organisational commitment among supporting staff members at a selected higher education institution. the 2016 wei international academic conference proceedings, 16(2), 29–37. eek, f., & axmon, a. (2013). attitude and flexibility are the most important work place factors for working parents’ mental wellbeing, stress, and employee engagement. scandinavian journal of public health, 41(7), 692–705. https://doi.org/10.1177/1403494813491167 eisenberger, r., huntington, r., hutchison, s., & sowa, d. (1986). perceived organizational support. journal of applied psychology, 71(3), 500–507. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.71.3.500 fami, h.s., aramyan, l.h., sijtsema, s.j., & alambaigi, a. (2019). determinants of household food waste behavior in tehran city: a structural model. resources, conservation and recycling, 143, 154–166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.12.033 feeney, m.k., & stritch, j.m. (2019). family-friendly policies, gender, and work–life balance in the public sector. review of public personnel administration, 39(3), 422–448. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x17733789 gallup. (2006). engaged employees inspire company innovation: national survey finds that passionate workers are most likely to drive organizations forward. the gallup management journal, 8(5), 33–54. garson, j. (2016). a critical overview of biological functions. springer international publishing. greenhaus, j.h., & powell, g.n. (2003). when work and family collide: deciding between competing role demands. organizational behaviour and human resource journal, 90(2), 291–303. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0749-5978(02)00519-8 greenhaus, j.h., allen, t.d., & spector, p.e. (2006). health consequences of work–family conflict: the dark side of the work–family interface. in p.l. perrewé & d.c. ganster (eds.), employee health, coping and methodologies (pp. 61–98). emerald group publishing limited. gudep, v.k. (2019). an empirical study of the relationships between the flexible work systems organizational commitment, work life balance and job satisfaction for the teaching staff in the united arab emirates (uae). international journal of management, 10(5), 15–25. https://doi.org/10.34218/ijm.10.5.2019.002 hair, j.f., jr., hult, g.t.m., ringle, c., & sarstedt, m. (2016). a primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem). sage publications. hair, j.f., jr., matthews, l.m., matthews, r.l., & sarstedt, m. (2017). pls-sem or cb-sem: updated guidelines on which method to use. international journal of multivariate data analysis, 1(2), 107–123. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijmda.2017.087624 henseler, j. (2017). partial least squares path modeling. in advanced methods for modeling markets (pp. 361–381). springer. höck, m., & ringle, c.m. (2006, september). strategic networks in the software industry: an empirical analysis of the value continuum. in ifsam viiith world congress. hoffman, b.j., & woehr, d.j. (2006). a quantitative review of the relationship between person–organization fit and behavioural outcomes. journal of vocational behaviour, 68(3), 389–399. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2005.08.003 iqbal, i., zia-ud-din, m., arif, a., raza, m., & ishtiaq, z. (2017). impact of employee engagement on work-life balance with the moderating role of employee cynicism. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 7(6), 1088–1101. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v7-i6/3068 itzkovich, y., dolev, n., & shnapper-cohen, m. (2020). does incivility impact the quality of work-life and ethical climate of nurses?. international journal of workplace health management, 4(7), 22–45. jasmina, z., & miha, m. (2021). relationships between work-family balance, job satisfaction, life satisfaction and employee engagement among higher education lecturers. organizacija, 54(3), 277–237. https://doi.org/10.2478/orga-2021-0015 john, i., anthony, n.k., & bakari, d.y. (2020). impact of work life balance on the psychological wellbeing of employees in the university of cape coast. journal of psychology, 8(1), 8–19. https://doi.org/10.15640/jpbs.v8n1a2 kabir, a., & rahman, m. (2019). effects of work life balance on employee loyalty in private commercial banks of bangladesh. journal of economics and sustainable development, 10(14), 178–191. kaewthaworn, a. (2019). the influence of family-friendly policies on employee engagement: a case study of the hotel industry in hatyai district, songkhla province and kathu district, phuket province. master’s thesis. prince of sonkla university. kangure, f.m. (2014). relationship between work life balance and employee engagement in state corporations in kenya. doctoral thesis. jomo kenyatta university of agriculture and technology. karassvidou, e., & glaveli, n. (2015). work-family balance through border theory lens: the case of a company “driving in the fast lane”. equality, diversity and inclusion: an international journal, 34(1), 84–97. https://doi.org/10.1108/edi-05-2014-0038 kataria, a., garg, p., & rastogi, r. (2013). organizational effectiveness as a function of employee engagement. south asian journal of management, 20(57), 56–73. kim, g. (2016). partial least squares structural equation modelling: an application in customer satisfaction research. international journal of u – and e-service, science and technology, 9(4), 61–68. https://doi.org/10.14257/ijunesst.2016.9.4.07 kirchmeyer, c. (2000). work–life initiatives: greed or benevolence regarding workers’ time. organisational behaviour journal, 7(4), 79–93. kock, n. (2015). common method bias in pls-sem: a full collinearity assessment approach. international journal of e-collaboration, 11(4), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijec.2015100101 kossek, e.e., & lautsch, b.a. (2018). work–life flexibility for whom? occupational status and work–life inequality in upper, middle, and lower-level jobs. academy of management annals, 12(1), 5–36. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2016.0059 kumar, p., & kumar baradiya, v. (2019). construction risk assessment through partial least square technique. in proceedings of recent advances in interdisciplinary trends in engineering & applications (raitea). kusi, l.y., opoku-danso, a., & afum, e. (2020). improving performance of public universities in ghana through talent management: does leadership support matter. global journal of management and business research. https://doi.org/10.34257/gjmbravol20is10pg41 lakshmi, k.s., & gopinath, s.s. (2013). work-life balance of women employees with reference to teaching faculties. abhinav journals, 2(3), 53–62. lew, s.l., lau, s.h., & leow, m.c. (2019). usability factors predicting continuance of intention to use cloud e-learning application. heliyon, 5(6), e01788. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e01788 mas-machuca, m., jasmina, b., & ines, a. (2016). work-life balance and its relationship with organizational pride and job satisfaction. journal of managerial psychology, 31(2), 586–602. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmp-09-2014-0272 maxwell, g., rankine, l., bell, s., & macvicar, a. (2007). the incidence and impact of flexible working arrangements in smaller businesses. employee relations, 29(2), 138–161. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425450710719987 mengistu, a.b. (2020). predictors of work life balance in selected non-government organization in ethiopia. journal of research in management, 3(1), 33–44. https://doi.org/10.32424/jorim.v3i1.101 motyka, b. (2018). employee engagement and performance: a systematic literature review. international journal of management and economics, 54(3), 227–244. https://doi.org/10.2478/ijme-2018-0018 naithani, d. (2010). recession and work-life balance initiatives. romanian economic journal, 37, 55–68. nitzl, c., roldan, j.l., & cepeda, g. (2016). mediation analysis in partial least squares path modelling: helping researchers discuss more sophisticated models. industrial management and data systems, 116(9), 1849–1864. oludayo, a.o., & omonijo, d.o. (2020). work-life balance: the relevance of social support. academy of strategic management journal, 19(3), 1–10. omar, m.k., mohd, i.h., & ariffin, m.s. (2015). workload, role conflict and work-life balance among employees of an enforcement agency in malaysia. international journal of business, economics and law, 8(2), 52–57. rhoades, l., & eisenberger, r. (2002). perceived organizational support: a review of the literature. journal of applied psychology, 87(4), 698–714. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.698 saks, a. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169 sarstedt, m., ringle, c.m., smith, d., reams, r., & hair, jr., j.f. (2014). partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem): a useful tool for family business researchers. journal of family business strategy, 5(1), 105–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfbs.2014.01.002 schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2003). utrecht employee engagement scale: test manual. unpublished manuscript, department of psychology. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2010). defining and measuring employee engagement: bringing clarity to the concept: employee engagement. journal of research, 12(2), 10–24. schuberth, f., henseler, j., & dijkstra, t.k. (2018). partial least squares path modeling using ordinal categorical indicators. quality & quantity, 52(1), 9–35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-016-0401-7 segbenya, m., peniana, f., & aggrey, e. (2018). effect of work conflict on employee’s job satisfaction: the case of college of distance education, university of cape coast. journal of business and enterprise development, 21(3), 214. shaw, w.s., reme, s.e., pransky, g., woiszwillo, m.j., steenstra, i.a., & linton, s.j. (2013). the pain recovery inventory of concerns and expectations: a psychosocial screening instrument to identify intervention needs among patients at elevated risk of back disability. journal of occupational and environmental medicine/american college of occupational and environmental medicine, 55(8), 885–894. https://doi.org/10.1097/jom.0b013e318289ee6c skinner, n., & chapman, j. (2013). work-life balance and family friendly policies. the australia and new zealand school of government. stone, m. (1974). cross-validation and multinomial prediction. biometrika, 61(3), 509–515. https://doi.org/10.1093/biomet/61.3.509 tabet, s.m., lambie, g.w., jahani, s., & rasoolimanesh, s.m. (2020). the factor structure of outcome questionnaire–45.2 scores using confirmatory tetrad analysis–partial least squares. journal of psychoeducational assessment, 38(3), 350–368. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282919842035 taghrid, s., ayman, b., & hannah, d. (2016). the influence of work life balance on turnover intention in private hospitals: the mediating role of work life conflict. european journal of business and management, 8(20), 126–139. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.6.1512 thevanes, n., & mangaleswaran, t. (2018). relationship between work-life balance and job performance of employees. iosr journal of business and management (iosr-jbm), 20(5), 11–16. uddin, m., ali, k., & khan, m.a. (2020). impact of perceived family support, workplace support, and work-life balance policies on work-life balance among female bankers in bangladesh. international journal of economics, management and accounting, 28(1), 97–122. valcour, m. (2007). work-based resources as moderators of the relationship between work hours and satisfaction with work-family balance. journal of applied psychology, 92(6), 1512–1523. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.6.1512 wood, j., oh, j., park, j., & kim, w. (2020). the relationship between employee engagement and work–life balance in organizations: a review of the empirical research. human resource development review, 19(3), 240–262. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484320917560 yuile, c., chang, a., gudmundsson, a., & sawang, s. (2012). the role of life friendly policies on employees’ work-life balance. journal of management & organization, 18(1), 53–63. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1833367200001061 abstract introduction literature review voluntary turnover towards a hypothesised model for this study research approach sampling measuring instruments procedure data analyses results testing of hypotheses discussion value-add and management implications limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) emmerentia n. barkhuizen department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa refilwe l. masale department of industrial psychology and human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, mmabatho, south africa citation barkhuizen, e.n., & masale, r.l. (2022). leadership talent mindset as a catalyst for talent management and talent retention: the case of a botswana local government institution. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1914. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1914 original research leadership talent mindset as a catalyst for talent management and talent retention: the case of a botswana local government institution emmerentia n. barkhuizen, refilwe l. masale received: 18 feb. 2022; accepted: 24 may 2022; published: 30 aug. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: talented employees play an essential role in the service performance of local government institutions. unfortunately, talent management remains a neglected practice within the local government, mainly because of the absence of leadership talent mindsets. research purpose: the main focus of this research study was to determine how leadership talent mindset influences talent management and voluntary turnover intentions of employees in a botswana local government institution. motivation for the study: research on the predictive relationships between leadership talent mindset, talent management and voluntary turnover intentions is yet forthcoming in the botswana context. research approach/design and method: the researchers followed a quantitative research approach. data were collected from a stratified random sample of employees (n = 405) from a botswana local government institution. a leadership talent mindset scale, talent management measurements and voluntary turnover intentions questionnaire were administered. main findings: the results showed a weak leadership talent mindset towards talent management. a leadership talent mindset significantly predicted poor talent management practices and voluntary turnover intentions. talent development moderated the relationship between the leadership talent mindset and voluntary turnover intentions. practical/managerial implications: leaders need to adopt the appropriate talent mindsets to implement those talent management practices that will retain key and competent talent in local government institutions. contribution/value-add: this research study advances empirical knowledge on the importance of leadership in facilitating effective talent management in local government. keywords: developing countries; leadership talent mindset; local government; talent management; voluntary turnover intentions. introduction the importance of talented employees in the service performance of public sector institutions is well documented (kravariti, tasoulis, scullion, & alali, 2022). according to keller and meaney (2017), superior talent is up to eight times more productive than average employees. as such, an investment in talent is imperative to achieve the strategic aims and purpose of the public sector: improved goods and services for the community (izard-carroll, 2016; lee, 2021). al rina and atan (2020) maintain that institutions are more likely to achieve sustainable organisational performance when managing their human capital effectively and efficiently. public sector leaders should arguably support those employees who can provide effective and efficient performance (thomas, 2015; thunissen & buttiens, 2017). therefore, leadership should commit to talent management and align talent imperatives with institutional goals (karthikvel & samydoss, 2019). public sector institutions, however, seem to adopt more reactive approaches toward talent management (mello & makamu, 2021) and could face drastic talent shortages as the competition for scarce skills increases (thunnissen & buttiens, 2017). mey, poisat and stindt (2021) postulate that enabling leadership behaviours and practices are essential to engage and retain workplace talent. the main focus of this research study was to determine how the leadership talent mindset influences talent management and the voluntary turnover intentions of employees in a botswana local government institution. more specifically, we explored the following: what is the current leadership talent mindset in a botswana local government institution? to what extent does the current leadership talent mindset influence talent management in a botswana local government institution? to what extent does the current leadership talent mindset influence the voluntary turnover intentions of employees in a botswana local government institution? to what extent does talent management influence the voluntary turnover intentions of employees in a botswana local government institution? does talent management moderate or mediate the relationship between the leadership talent mindset and voluntary turnover intentions of employees in a botswana local government institution? according to muyia, welkullo and fredrick (2018), talent management is essential for emerging markets such as botswana, where countries rely on scarce and critical skills for economic sustainability and competitiveness. currently, there is no consensus on talent management practices or models that can guide the effective implementation of talent management in local government institutions, albeit the strategic importance thereof (luna-arocas & lara, 2020). this leaves policymakers with few options and guidelines for optimising and managing talented employees for local government sustainability and service performance (mabope, 2018). therefore, it is not surprising that the global competitiveness report ranks sub-saharan african countries poorly in human capital development (schwab & zahidi, 2020). moreover, the need exists for more leadership prominence and competence in african enterprises that can drive the sustainable goals and vision for the continent through talent (cheteni & shindika, 2017; lerutla & steyn, 2021). shingenge and saurombe (2022) mentioned that limited empirical information exists on leadership viewpoints and perceptions regarding local government institutions in sub-saharan africa. according to marobela (2020), the general leadership crises in africa and botswana limit organisations from achieving their goals and employees from realising their full potential. this research study contributes to closing the knowledge gap on talent management research in public sector institutions, especially in emerging markets (jawali et al., 2021). most research favours talent management in private sector institutions where talent and its management can be quantified through profits (kravariti et al., 2022). however, public sector institutions operate in a unique environment and are more rigidly regulated through government regulations than private companies (kravariti & johnson, 2020). as a result, many public sector leaders have the daunting task of navigating talent in a third-world workplace environment characterised by bureaucracy, poor infrastructure, budget cuts and corruption (fillipus & schultz, 2019; mello & makamu, 2021). therefore, this research also advances contextual knowledge on talent management by considering the work environment in which local government on the african continent, specifically botswana, operates (cheteni & shindika, 2017; marobela, 2020). an extensive literature review showed limited research on talent management in the botswana context and its antecedents and outcomes. this research further emphasises the strategic importance of leadership in facilitating effective talent management practice in local government and curbing voluntary turnover because of inadequate talent management. next, the literature review is presented on the leadership talent mindset, relevant talent management practices and voluntary turnover within local government institutions. thereafter, the research design adopted for this study is explained, followed by the results of the study. finally, this study concludes with a discussion of the results and recommendations for research and practice. literature review leaders’ talent mindset towards talent management talent management starts with leadership believing that talented employees are the organisation’s most essential and valuable assets and worth investing in (chandrasekar & zhao, 2015). the talent mindset is grounded in the positive psychology paradigm and refers to ‘the attitudes, beliefs, values and expectations that leaders hold that serve as the foundation of who they are, how they lead and how they interact with a team’ (hussain, 2016, p. 1). welby-cooke (2010) validated a talent mindset measure and found that leaders should drive aspects such as talent management strategies, talent acquisition and talent retention practices. luna-arocas and morley (2015) classified talent mindset competence in terms of organisational value and goal alignment, management talent mindset, talent application through daily behaviours, talent autonomy and talent development. mahfoozi et al. (2018) developed and confirmed a four-dimensional model for talent mindset within the public sector, consisting of talent attraction, identification and talent development of positive relationships. combined, the authors of this study can conclude that a leadership talent mindset is deeply rooted in a person’s personality, values and behaviours, which translates into the ability to effectively implement talent management practices. talented employees perform best when leaders empower them through continuous career development, succession, inclusivity, participative decision-making and autonomy (see damer, 2020; mey et al., 2021; sadeli, 2012). in addition, talented employees flourish in environments where they can relate to their workplace’s leadership vision, mission and strategy (mokgojwa, 2019). the success of the entire talent management process is thus dependent on the leadership mentality and commitment to the talent management philosophy, policy and practice (du plessis, barkhuizen, stanz, & schutte, 2015). therefore, government leaders should adopt the appropriate talent mindset and create a sound talent management architecture to achieve institutional and organisational outcomes (shingenge & saurombe, 2022). applied within the public sector and local government context, the available research shows that the leadership talent mindset still needs to mature (see mahfoozi, salajegheh, ghorbani, sheikhi, 2018; mahlahla, 2018; shingenge & saurombe, 2022). public sector leaders appear to have varying perspectives and comprehension of workplace talent management (shabane, 2017). leadership talent mindsets should focus on desirable public sector performance and retention (mahfoozi et al., 2018). matobako and barkhuizen (2017) found that a poor leadership talent mindset enhanced the voluntary turnover intentions of junior correctional officials in the south african public sector. a study by shingenge and saurombe (2022) showed that leaders who lacked the mindset and commitment towards talented employees adversely impacted the talent management of local government institutions in the namibian context. talent management practices in local government institutions an extensive review of the literature on talent management within the public sector and local government sector contexts mainly revealed the following six talent management practices: workforce planning, talent acquisition, talent development, talent performance management, talent compensation and talent retention strategies. the following section presents an overview of these practices and their relevance to the public sector and local government institutions. workforce planning according to the resource-based view of talent management, a workplace’s direct source of competitive advantage lies in its intangible internal assets, namely talent (davis & simpson, 2017). talented individuals in this context are characterised by value, rareness and inimitability (tetik, 2016). the ongoing ‘war’ for scarce talent requires local government institutions to be more proactive in anticipating and planning their future workforce resource needs (stuss, 2020). workforce planning ensures that well-resourced employees are recruited to perform the required community duties for local municipalities (2018). al-qudah, obeidat, shrouf and abusweilem (2020) found that strategic human resource planning enhances public sector productivity, employee satisfaction and reputation, whilst also reducing operating costs. in contrast, neglected human resource planning contributes to a lack of expertise and subsequently poor performance in local government institutions (moyo, 2015). organisations should forecast future talent demand and workforce supply to ensure sustainable performance (moheb-alizadeh & handfield, 2017). according to theys and schultz (2020), workforce planning interventions in public sector institutions are hampered by shrinking talent pools, isolated emphasis on recruitment and selection and geographical mobility. applied within the botswana context, a study by seitio-kgokgwe, gauld, hill and barnett (2016) revealed that the public health sector in botswana experienced inadequate planning, poor deployment and underutilisation of staff. molokwane (2019) observed a gradual improvement in workforce planning to ensure that the demand and supply of human resources are met in the designated public sector institutions in order to achieve the national development goals of botswana. talent acquisition talent acquisition is a strategic initiative that identifies, attracts and hires talent to meet organisational needs effectively and efficiently (parthasarathy & pingle, 2014). the ability of public sector institutions to attract talent depends on a solid employment brand reputation underpinned by a compelling talent value proposition (saurombe & barkhuizen, 2020). the extent to which employees can identify themselves with local government institutions in particular is a powerful indicator of their brand strength (ramgoolam, 2016). according to leijerholt (2019), employment branding is a neglected practice for local government institutions and requires a more distinctive approach to differentiate themselves as an employer of choice. mabope’s (2018) study revealed that local government institutions’ recruitment and selection functions are merely focused on filling vacancies and not on acquiring the necessary skills and competencies. tetik (2016) advises that organisations should instead follow the appropriate channels to acquire talent. according to kalav-idrisoglu (2014), failure by public institutions to recruit the appropriate quantity and quality of human resources results in negative consequences such as poor service delivery and reputational risk. as a result, local government institutions should implement integrated and optimised talent acquisition practices to employ those talents that can strategically contribute to the organisation (erickson, lamoureux, & moulton, 2014). talent development rapid societal changes and transformations emphasise the importance of local government employees to be equipped with the skills to meet the changing demands of communities (cloete, 2016). talent development refers to targeted employee training to prepare them for future organisational activities (marchington, 2015). dalayga and baskaran (2019) view talent development as a method to create solid succession planning instead of talent replacement. in short, talent development involves activities to nurture talent (bolander, werr, & asplund, 2017). according to acar and yener (2016), institutions’ learning capabilities and strengths are pivotal to creating a high-performance and innovative culture that optimises workplace talent. mohammed, hafeez-baig and gururajan (2019) assert that talent development contributes to the retention of highly qualified employees, increases brand reputation and improves public sector institutions’ cash flow. two principles guide talent development in local government (qhibi, 2017). firstly, the provincial government should continue developing talented and experienced individuals to keep them up to date with changes in their respective fields. secondly, the local government should pay special attention to new and inexperienced employees to instil pride in their work. mashala and kisumbe (2020) showed that training and development interventions are pivotal to enhancing leadership competence and quality in tanzanian local government authorities. talent performance management local government institutions in sub-saharan africa are constantly criticised for their inability to meet the service requirements of the broader public (masiya, davids & mangai, 2019). ndevu and muller (2018) opine that performance management can be a valuable tool to improve local government service delivery. although performance management is mandated through various legislative frameworks, local government institutions lack the institutional culture to implement and support performance management systems and practices (parkies, 2015). seabi (2020) found various gaps in local government talent management practice, such as poor performance planning and budgeting, incomplete and inaccurate performance reporting and misalignment between strategic and operational performance management activities. mpabanga (2016) found that a lack of performance monitoring and evaluation skills in botswana local government institutions and poor supervision, poor conditions of service and a weak work ethic contributed to the ineffective use of performance management systems and tools. according to smit (2015), effective system, policy and process implementation are critical for improved performance management in local government institutions. abana and brenya (2021) further state that performance management in local government can only be effective with leadership support at all levels. a lack of performance recognition is a critical factor contributing to employee turnover (mngomezulu, challenor, munapo, mashau, & chikandiwa, 2015). talent compensation according to makridis (2021), a common perception prevails that government institutions face a severe shortage of skilled workers driven by uncompetitive salaries. although government jobs in botswana are considered to provide lucrative and stable employment, they face stiff competition from private for-profit companies in attracting early-career talent who prefer extrinsic rewards (ng, gossett, chinyoka, & obasi, 2016). ogony and majola (2018) found that unsatisfactory salaries are one of the primary reasons employees leave public service departments in south africa for the private sector. the compensation of employees should therefore become a strategic priority for government institutions if they are to retain scarce skills and remain sustainable (larkin, 2019). more specifically, mumbauer et al. (2021) showed that benefit packages (i.e. medical aid, pension and housing allowances) had a more significant effect on job preferences within the south african public health sector compared with salary increases. salisu (2016) found that employee benefits such as gratuity and benefits greatly influenced employee turnover intentions in the public sector, whereas salaries, combined with gratuity and pension, positively impacted employee attraction. namweda (2017) revealed that public sector employees opted for better remuneration packages elsewhere with performance-related incentives and market-related remuneration. performance-based pay and monetary incentives should therefore be considered the cornerstone of public sector managerial reforms (spano & monfardini, 2017) talent retention strategies talent retention has been receiving more attention in recent years because of the costs associated with turnover and the significant loss of productivity (amushila & bussin, 2021). according to traveler (2019), an investment in talent retention, especially talent pipeline development, is imperative in times of economic uncertainty. however, the available research studies show that talent retention strategies are generally neglected in the southern african public sector institutions and instead dealt with in a reactive manner (lesenyeho, 2017; mokgojwa, 2019; shipena, 2019). a research report by mzezewa (2019) showed that most municipalities in south africa lack talent retention policies and cannot retain scarce skills. bwowe (2015) found that the absence of clearly articulated and integrated talent strategies results in a higher retention rate among municipal employees. research by theron (2015) highlighted the importance of having proactive talent retention conversations as a strategy to prevent voluntary turnover intentions. likewise, boonbumroongsuk and rungruang (2022) recommend more effective talent management strategies for better institutional investments in its people. voluntary turnover voluntary turnover refers to an employee’s decision to leave a job of choice (an, 2019). globally, voluntary turnover intentions amongst public sector employees are escalating at an alarming rate (gan, lin, & wang, 2020; tran, nguyen, nguyen, & ton, 2020; wynen, boon, & verlinden, 2022). moreover, work environments are currently characterised by the ‘great resignation’ trend. an extensive study by sull, sull and zweig (2022) showed that toxic workplace cultures cause high voluntary turnover rates, job insecurity and re-organisation, high levels of innovation resulting in overwork, failure to recognise performance and poor response to covid-19. employee perceptions of talent management practices and their effectiveness play an essential role in their decision to remain within an organisation (boonbumroongsuk & rungruang, 2022; johennesse & chou, 2017). leadership, furthermore, plays an important facilitating role between perceived talent management practice and voluntary turnover in government institutions (kravariti et al., 2022; mangisa, schultz, & van hoek, 2020). in addition, talent management practice plays a causal role between organisational talent management culture and the voluntary turnover intentions of local government staff (masale, 2021). towards a hypothesised model for this study the researchers propose the following hypothesised model for this study, based on the preceding discussion (see figure 1). the model starts from the premise that the extent to which government leaders adopt a talent mindset can either promote or reduce the perceived effectiveness of talent management practices in the botswana local government institution (see damer, 2020; mey et al., 2021; sadeli, 2012). likewise, the leadership talent mindset can either prevent or enhance the voluntary turnover intentions of local government employees (matobako and barkhuizen, 2017; mahfoozi et al., 2018; shingenge & saurombe, 2022). furthermore, talent management practices play a significant role in the decision of employees to remain with a specific organisation (boonbumroongsuk & rungruang, 2022; johennesse & chou, 2017). talent management practices (i.e. workforce planning, acquisition, development, performance management, compensation and strategies) can play an intervening role (i.e. mediating or moderating role) between leadership talent mindset and voluntary turnover of local government employees (kravariti et al., 2022; mangisa, schultz, & van hoek, 2020). it is worth mentioning that research on the moderating or mediating role of talent management is inconclusive as far as the inter-relationships between leadership talent mindset, talent management and voluntary turnover are considered. therefore, the researchers will test both the moderating and mediating capacity of talent management in the relationship between leadership talent mindset and voluntary turnover intentions of local government employees. figure 1: hypothesised model for the study. the following hypotheses are formulated for this study: h1: leadership talent mindset is a significant positive predictor of talent management practices (i.e. workforce planning, talent acquisition, talent development, performance management, compensation and retention strategies). h2: leadership talent mindset is a significant negative predictor of voluntary turnover intentions. h3: talent management is a significant negative predictor of voluntary turnover intentions. h04: talent management does not moderate the relationship between the leadership talent mindset and voluntary turnover. ha4: talent management moderates the relationship between the leadership talent mindset and voluntary turnover intentions. h05: talent management does not mediate the relationship between the leadership talent mindset and voluntary turnover intentions. ha5: talent management mediates the relationship between the leadership talent mindset and voluntary turnover intentions. research approach the researchers followed a quantitative research approach, using surveys to collect the data. quantitative research was deemed the most suitable method to answer the research problem posed for this study and test the hypothesised relationships between the identified variables (sanders, cogin & bainbridge, 2014). a cross-sectional research design was used, which is ideal for testing relationships between variables based on data collected at a single point (field, 2019). this study adheres to the positivist research paradigm. positivist enquiry generates explanatory associations or causal relationships between phenomena, such as the talent mindset, talent management practices and voluntary turnover intentions in this study (see bonache & festing, 2020). the positivist paradigm is therefore well suited to achieve the study’s objectives. sampling this study’s target population of interest included all employees of a specific town council located within a botswana local government institution. a total of 650 questionnaires were distributed, of which 405 completed and returned, with a response rate of 62.30%. from the sample descriptions, it was evident that most of them were female respondents (55.3%), with setswana as their mother tongue (99.8%) and aged between 40 and 49 years (66.4%). the majority of the participants had a certificate or diploma (48.63%) and were employed as operational staff (39.76%). the participants had work experience of 14–29 years (39.76%) and worked between 31 and 40 h per workweek (90.6%). about 71.6% did not have a chance for promotion in the last 5 years. measuring instruments the following measuring instruments were used in this study: leadership talent mindset: the researchers developed and adapted a leadership talent mindset scale based on the available literature. the scale is one-dimensional and consists of eight items, such as, ‘[m]y leader supports my individual career development’ and ‘i can communicate easily with my leader’. responses were collected on a six-point likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 6 = strongly agree. the scale was distributed to subject matter experts to confirm the content validity. the reliability of the leadership talent mindset measure will be confirmed in this study. talent management measure: the researchers adapted a talent management questionnaire based on the human capital measure (human capital institute, 2008) and a general job characteristics measure (barkhuizen, 2005) to assess the most frequently cited talent management practices for local government institutions in the literature. the questionnaire measured six talent management practices with 27 items. responses were collected on a six-point likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 6 = strongly agree. the talent management practices included talent development (five items, such as, ‘[m]y job offers me opportunities for personal growth and development’), compensation and benefits (four items, such as, ‘i am fairly compensated for the work that i do’), talent acquisition (four items, such as, ‘[m]y organisation can attract top talented employees’), talent performance management (six items, such as, ‘i receive sufficient information on the results of my work’), talent workforce planning (four items, such as, ‘[m]y organisation has forecasted the talent supply and demand for the next two years for my department’) and talent retention strategies (four items, such as, ‘[m]y manager holds frequent retention conversations with staff’). the adapted questionnaire was subjected to a panel of subject experts before distribution in order to ensure face and content validity. the reliability of the adapted talent management questionnaire will be confirmed in this study. voluntary turnover intentions: the researchers used the employee retention questionnaire by cohen (1993) to determine the voluntary turnover intentions of local government employees. the questionnaire measures three items relating to voluntary turnover (e.g. ‘i think a lot about leaving the organisation’). responses were collected on a six-point likert scale ranging from ‘strongly disagree (1)’ to ‘strongly agree (6)’. theron (2015) found an excellent reliability of α = 0.914 in a study amongst public sector academics. procedure the accounting officer of the relevant local government institution provided permission to carry out the study. the research was explained to the council management of the local government institution to ensure that all formal procedures were adhered to during data collection. the questionnaire was distributed in hard copy by supervisors and departmental heads to a stratified random set of participants. the questionnaire included an informed consent form to explain the purpose of the study and the safeguarding of participant privacy. completed questionnaires were returned in a sealed envelope to protect the identity of the participants. ethical clearance was obtained from north-west university before the commencement of the study. all ethical requirements for scientific research were adhered to during the entire research process. data analyses the data analyses were carried out using spss (2022). the spss programme used descriptive statistics (i.e. frequencies, means, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis), exploratory factor analyses, reliability analyses and linear regression analyses. the researchers used the guidelines of cohen (1988) of α ≥ 0.70 to establish the reliability of the underlying factors of the measuring instruments. the guidelines of baron and kenny (1986) were applied to determine the moderation and mediation effects between leadership talent mindset, talent management and retention. according to baron and kenny (1986), moderation analyses consist of four steps: testing the predictive relationships between (1) the predictor and dependent variable; (2) the moderator and dependent variable; (3) the predictor, moderator and dependent variable; and (4) the predictor, moderator, interaction variable (predictor × moderator variable) and dependent variable. all variables are centred on preventing or reducing multicollinearity (cohen, 2008). moderation occurs when the interaction variable is significant. mediation analyses are followed when the moderation analyses are nonsignificant (baron & kenny, 1986). the first three steps of the moderation analyses are repeated, with the predictor and dependent variable centred. complete mediation occurs when the predictive relationship between the independent and dependent variable is nonsignificant after controlling for the mediating variable. partial mediation occurs when the influence of the independent variable on the dependent variable is reduced after the mediator is controlled (baron & kenny, 1986). although there are many guidelines for the interpretation of effect sizes, the cut-off points of cohen (1988) were deemed to be most appropriate for the interpretation of correlation coefficients, r < 0.1 – very small; 0.1 ≤ r < 0.3 – small; 0.3 ≤ r < 0.5 – moderate and r ≥ 0.5 – large. ethical considerations research ethics clearance was obtained from north-west university (ref. no. nwu00565-19-a4). results factor and reliability analyses the measurements used in this study obtained acceptable sample adequacy of above 0.60 as per hair, black, babin and anderson (2010): leadership talent mindset, 0.874; talent management, 0.951; and turnover intentions, 0.761. the results of the exploratory analyses are reported below. leadership talent mindset: the exploratory factor analyses for the leadership talent mindset scale resulted in one factor, with all items showing acceptable loadings. the factor explained 58.272% of the total variance and was labelled leadership talent mindset. talent management: the initial theoretical model and measure included talent acquisition as a potential talent management factor. however, the analyses showed various cross-loadings of the four items of talent acquisition with other factors. as a result, the items associated with talent acquisition were omitted from further analyses. a follow-up exploratory factor analysis using varimax rotation resulted in five factors explaining 80.775%. all items showed acceptable loadings. the five factors were labelled as talent retention strategies (factor 1), talent development (factor 2), compensation (factor 3), performance management (factor 4) and workforce planning (factor 5). voluntary turnover intentions: the exploratory factor analyses result in one factor for the employee retention measure, labelled as voluntary turnover intentions. the factor explained 85.944% of the total variance, with all items showing acceptable loadings. the descriptive statistics and reliabilities of the measurements are reported in table 1. table 1: descriptive statistics of the measurements. the results in table 1 revealed very good to excellent reliabilities for all the factors of α ≥ 0.70 (see cohen, 1988). from the mean scores, it was evident that leadership displayed a weak talent mindset towards talent management, that talent management practices in general are poorly applied and that more than 70% of employees considered quitting their jobs. the mean scores were further explored using item analyses. concerning the leadership talent mindset, the results showed that the respondents experienced a lack of support from their direct leadership for their career development (mean = 2.62) and believed that their leader did not have their best interest at heart (mean = 2.87). in addition, the participants felt that their leaders did not appreciate them (mean = 2.91). the results showed a poor to mediocre application for all the talent management practices. more specifically, the results showed that talent retention strategies are virtually lacking (mean = 2.1053), followed by poor talent compensation (2.1364) and talent workforce planning (2.5154). from the item analyses, it was evident that the institution neglects the practice of exit interviews when talented employees are leaving (mean = 2.00) and that leadership does not hold frequent retention conversations with staff (mean = 2.05). from the results, it emerged that the institution does not address why talent is leaving (mean = 2.11) and cannot keep its top performers (mean = 2.27). regarding talent compensation, the results revealed that employees believe that their basic salary (mean = 2.20), medical aid benefits (mean = 2.16) and pension benefits (mean = 2.12) are inadequate. moreover, the participants indicated that they are not fairly compensated for the work they are doing (mean = 2.15). the results indicated that talent workforce planning is also not prioritised at the government institution. the participants indicated that the institution is unable to forecast the demand and supply of future required talent (mean = 2.54), identify the skills necessary for the most valuable jobs (mean = 2.41) or focus on hiring quality staff members (mean = 2.54). the results for performance management showed that employees believed that they did not receive sufficient information about the purpose (mean = 2.62) and results of their work (mean = 2.56). in addition, participants indicated that their direct leader did not inform them about how well they were performing at their job (mean = 2.40). the results for talent development suggested that the participants experienced a lack of opportunities for training courses (mean = 2.50), promotion (2.64) and personal growth and development (2.70). furthermore, the participants felt that they could not achieve something in their careers at the institution (mean = 2.47). finally, the results showed that about 73% of the respondents voluntarily considered quitting their jobs. the participants indicated that they thought a lot about leaving the institution (mean = 4.30), were currently searching for another job (mean = 4.43) and would leave their institution whenever they got the opportunity (4.57). testing of hypotheses the results of the hypotheses are reported next (table 2). a series of linear regression analyses were carried out to determine the predictive relationships between leadership talent mindset, talent management practices and voluntary turnover intentions. table 2: results of linear regression analyses. the results showed that leadership talent mindset is a significant positive predictor of talent development f [(1, 404) = 364.060, p = 0.000, adjusted r2 = 0.562 – large effect], talent compensation f [(1, 404) = 115.332, p = 0.000, adjusted r2 = 0.291 – small effect], talent workforce planning f [(1, 404) = 144.824, p = 0.000, adjusted r2 = 0.291 – medium effect], talent performance management f [(1, 404) = 242.282, p = 0.000, adjusted r2 = 0.466 – medium effect] and talent retention strategies f [(1, 404) = 79.171, p = 0.000, adjusted r2 = 0.466 – medium effect]. leadership talent mindset is a significant negative predictor of voluntary turnover intentions f [(1, 404) = 79.171, p = 0.000, adjusted r2 = 0.251 – small effect]. talent development f [(1, 404) = 100.851, p = 0.000, adjusted r2 = 0.257 – small effect], talent compensation f [(1, 404) = 69.416, p = 0.000, adjusted r2 = 0.194 – small effect], talent workforce planning f [(1, 404) = 37.564, p = 0.000, adjusted r2 = 0.112 – small effect], talent performance management f [(1, 404) = 83.939, p = 0.000, adjusted r2 = 0.223 – small effect] and talent retention strategies f [(1, 404) = 83.939, p = 0.000, adjusted r2 = 0.110 – small effect] are significant negative predictors of voluntary turnover intentions. the above results confirm hypotheses 1 and 2 that a leadership talent mindset significantly predicts talent management practices and voluntary turnover intentions. in addition, the results confirm hypothesis 3 that talent management practices are a significant negative predictor of voluntary turnover intentions next, the results of the moderation analyses between the leadership talent mindset, talent management, talent management dimensions and voluntary turnover intentions are reported. the independent and moderator variables were centred. the results of the final step in the moderation analyses are reported in table 3. table 3: results of moderation analyses. the final step of the moderation analyses between leadership talent mindset, talent management, talent compensation, talent workforce planning, talent performance management, talent retention strategies and voluntary turnover intention yielded a nonsignificant result for the interaction variables. therefore, the above variables do not moderate the relationship between the leadership talent mindset and voluntary turnover intentions. the final step (4), with the adding of the interaction variable (leadership talent mindset × talent development), yielded a significant result (β = –0.0111, p = 0.053), the total variance explained (r2 = 0.331, p = 0.000, = 33.10%). talent development therefore moderates the relationship between leadership talent mindset and voluntary turnover intentions. based on the above results, the alternative hypothesis 4 was partially confirmed because talent development moderated the relationship between the leadership talent mindset and voluntary turnover intentions. follow-up mediation analyses were carried out as per the guidelines of baron and kenny (1986) to determine whether talent management in general, talent compensation, talent workforce planning, talent performance management and talent retention strategies mediate the relationship between the leadership talent mindset and voluntary turnover intentions. the results of step 3 are reported in table 4. table 4: results of mediation analyses. the results from table 4 show that adding the mediation variables did not yield a nonsignificant result for the predictive relationship between the leadership talent mindset and voluntary turnover. the results further showed a significant increase from the variance explained in step 2 when including the mediator variable with the predictor variable in step 3 (talent management – r2 = 0.271 to r2 = 0.316; talent compensation – r2 = 0.197 to r2 = 0.292; talent workforce planning – r2 = 0.115 to r2 = 0.260; talent performance management – r2 = 0.226 to r2 = 0.313; talent retention strategies – r2 = 0.113 to r2 = 0.269). based on the above results, hypothesis 5 was rejected as no evidence was found for a mediation effect between the leadership talent mindset and voluntary turnover. discussion the main objective of this research study was to determine the influence of leadership talent mindset on talent management practices and voluntary turnover intentions of employees in a botswana local government institution. in addition, this research study explored whether talent management moderated or mediated the relationship between the leadership talent mindset and voluntary turnover intentions. this research was motivated by the fact that local government institutions are indispensable for public service delivery through talented people. yet a significant research gap exists on how talent management can be facilitated through leadership mindsets in a developing market such as botswana, hence curbing high voluntary turnover intentions in local government institutions. in what follows next, the study results are discussed and interpreted. the results showed that the leadership talent mindset of the local government institution is weak. the participants, in particular, highlighted a lack of appreciation from their leaders and interest in their career development. the talent mindset of leaders is essential in establishing an empowering work environment where talented employees can get access to ongoing career development opportunities (see damer, 2020; mey et al., 2021; sadeli, 2012). these study results contradict those of the previous research study, which found that talent development and maintaining positive relationships are essential leadership talent mindset competencies for public sector institutions (see luna-arocas & morley, 2015; mahfoozi et al., 2018). from the regression analyses, it was evident that the weak leadership talent mindset reduced the perceived effectiveness of the talent management practices. according to shingenge and saurombe (2022), the absence of a sound leadership talent mindset limits the implementation of a proper talent management architecture for local government institutions. furthermore, a lack of leadership mindset towards the talent management practice undermines the entire talent management process (du plessis et al., 2015). mahfoozi et al. (2018) maintain that leadership talent mindsets are concerned with desirable public sector outcomes. consequently, a leadership crisis relating to a lack of talent mindset prevents employees from realising their full potential, as evidenced in this study (marobela, 2020). as with previous research, it is not surprising that the leadership talent mindset was significantly related to the voluntary turnover intentions of the local government employees (see matobako and barkhuizen, 2017; shingenge & saurombe, 2022). according to kravariti et al. (2022) and mangisa et al. (2020), leadership is an essential catalyst for preventing voluntary turnover intentions in poor talent management practice in government institutions. therefore, leadership prominence and competence are paramount for botswana local government institutions to curb adverse outcomes on talented employees and remain sustainable (cheteni & shindika, 2017; lerutla & steyn, 2021; marobela, 2020). from the analyses, talent management practices are largely neglected in the local government institution. the participants indicated poor talent retention strategies, such as the inability of the institution to keep top performers, addressing the reasons why talent are leaving and the lack of leadership to hold frequent retention conversations with staff. this research study confirms the continuous absence of talent retention strategies in local government institutions (mzezewa, 2019). this study shows that investments in talent retention strategies are essential to building a talent pipeline (traveler, 2019) and preventing high turnover amongst local government employees (bwowe, 2015). theron (2015) furthermore emphasised the importance of proactive talent conversations to prevent high voluntary turnover amongst public sector employees. the participants in this study also expressed their dissatisfaction with benefits (i.e. medical aid and pension) and basic salary. they believed that their compensation was not aligned with the magnitude of the work that they were doing. poor talent compensation in this study also predicted higher voluntary turnover intentions amongst government employees. the study results confirm that uncompetitive salaries and poor benefits are likely to increase high employee turnover (see ng et al., 2016; ogony & majola, 2018; salisu, 2016) and a further skills shortage in the government sectors (makridis, 2021). therefore, public sector compensation needs to be reformed (see spano & monfardini, 2017) and become a strategic priority to retain scarce skills (larkin, 2019). workforce planning emerged as another problematic area and predicted voluntary turnover amongst employees. the results, in particular, revealed the lack of future projections for the demand and supply of scarce talent and skillsets for the most valuable jobs. the participants also highlighted that the institution does not focus on hiring quality employees. this study results align with those by theys and schultz (2020) and seitio-kgokgwe et al. (2016), who highlight the decline of good workforce planning in public sector institutions. khumalo (2018) further advocates that workforce planning is essential to ensure that competent employees are recruited to meet the service needs of the broader public. poor demand and forecasting of future talent skills can result in subsequent poor performance and reputational damage to local government institutions (see al-qudah et al., 2020; moheb-alizadeh & handfield, 2017). as far as performance management is concerned, the participants indicated that they do not receive sufficient information about the purpose and results of their job. leaders also appear to provide inadequate performance feedback. the results of this study align with those of parkies (2015) and mpabanga (2016), who found that local government institutions lack the institutional culture to support effective performance management practices. kalonda and governder (2021) further maintain that a lack of leadership limits the optimisation of individual performance abilities to drive service efficiency in local government institutions. therefore, performance management can only be effective in local government with the support of leadership (abana & brenya, 2021). as with previous research, poor performance management resulted in high voluntary turnover intentions (mngomezulu et al., 2015). the participants in this study indicated that talent development practices are weakly applied in terms of training and promotion opportunities. as a result, participants thought that the institution did not enable them to grow and develop personally and could not advance in their careers. talent development is essential to ensure that employees remain employable and relevant for future task requirements (bolander et al., 2017; marchington, 2015; qhibi, 2017). in this study, talent development played a moderating role in the relationship between the leadership talent mindset and voluntary turnover. in line with mohamed et al. (2019), talent development can facilitate the retention of high-quality employees. furthermore, institutional learning capabilities can create the workplace environment required for talent optimisation (acar & yener, 2016). the final results did not support a moderating or mediating effect of talent management between the leadership talent mindset and voluntary turnover intentions. the results contradict masale’s (2021) previous findings, which found support for a mediating effect of talent management in the predictive relationship between organisational talent culture and voluntary turnover. yet the results showed that talent development moderated the relationship between the leadership talent mindset and voluntary turnover intentions. a question of interest is whether talent management combined should be used as a moderator or a mediator between antecedent and outcome variables or rather the underlying dimensions of talent management itself – in this instance, talent development. more research is required to determine the intervening role of talent management between predictor and outcome variables. value-add and management implications the study’s results emphasised various areas that local government institutions should focus on to improve talent management and prevent high voluntary turnover intentions. effective talent management starts with leadership having the talent mindset to invest in talented employees. leadership from the botswana local government institution is encouraged to adopt the appropriate mindset to support employees in their careers and also recognise the value and contribution that they are making. a proper leadership talent mindset can also support the effective implementation of talent management practices, such as talent retention strategies, compensation, workforce planning, performance management and talent development. the study results also encourage leaders to engage in proactive retention discussions with talented employees to prevent voluntary turnover. in essence, leadership should have the mindset to create a conducive work environment that will retain essential and scarce talent. the great resignation movement should also encourage leadership to improve the demand and forecasting of future requirements in order to ensure that quality skillsets are acquired to sustain the delivery of local government services. talent development emerged as an essential talent management practice to prevent voluntary turnover without a talent leadership mindset. therefore, talent investment is essential to facilitate an empowering environment where employees can experience purpose in their work and progress in their careers. finally, the institution’s performance management system and process need to be revised to ensure that employees have clarity on their performance expectations and actual performance outputs. as mentioned earlier in this article, talented employees require a clear line of sight between individual and institutional performance expectations in order to ensure that the service expectations of the broader society are met. limitations and recommendations this research study had some limitations. firstly, this was a cross-sectional study, with data collected at one time. consequently, cause and effect inferences cannot be made between the variables. longitudinal research can assist in predicting trends between the variables (i.e. leadership talent mindset, talent management and voluntary turnover) over a more extended period. secondly, the sample was limited to a town council in botswana. the results can therefore not be generalised to other local government institutions. future researchers can expand to other african and international countries to allow cross-cultural research and contextual comparison. thirdly, the objective nature of the quantitative analysis limited the researchers in exploring the study’s results in more depth. future research can benefit from a mixed methods research approach where researchers can explore the rationale for the weak leadership mindset in more detail. finally, this research study tested the predictive relationship between leadership talent mindset, talent management and voluntary turnover intentions. future research can explore the impact of different leadership styles on talent management and voluntary turnover. in addition, research can be expanded to investigate the influence of external contextual factors such as government regulations, economic downturns and labour law regulations on the ability of the government leaders to implement talent in local government institutions. future research can also include other outcome variables such as individual and organisational service performance to determine the impact of leadership talent mindset and talent management thereof. conclusion this research study highlighted the importance of a leadership talent mindset in advancing talent management practice and preventing voluntary turnover intentions in a botswana local government institution. talented individuals are imperative for effective and sustained delivery of services for local government institutions. government sector leaders are therefore responsible for developing the mindset and cultivating a work environment that values the contribution of talent. this research advances the limited knowledge of talent management within the public sector. leaders and practitioners are encouraged to take note of results and take proactive talent management measures to prevent unnecessarily high talent turnover in local government institutions. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions e.n.b. visualised and compiled the article and carried out the data analyses. r.l.m. provided editorial inputs and assisted with data collection. funding information this research study received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data is available on request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abana, j.a., & brenya, e. (2021). the relationship between organisational environment antecedents and performance management in local government: evidence from ghana. future business journal, 7(3), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43093-020-00049-2 acar, p., & yener, m. (2016). theoretical journey of talent management: egalitarian and elitist approach. journal of management marketing and logistics, 3(3), 284–290. https://doi.org/10.17261/pressacademia.2016321984 al-qudah, s., obeidat, a.m., shrouf, h., & abusweilem, m.a. (2020). the impact of strategic human resources planning on the organisational performance of public shareholding companies in jordan. problems and perspectives in management, 18(1), 219–230. https://doi.org/10.21511/ppm.18(1).2020.19 al rina, r., & atan, t. (2020). the impact of implementing talent management practices on sustainable organisational performance. sustainability, 12(1), 1–21. amushila, j., & bussin, m.h.r. (2021). the effect of talent management practices on employee retention at the namibia university of science and technology: middle-level administration staff. sa journal of human resource management, 19, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1485 an, s. (2019). employee voluntary and involuntary turnover and organisational performance: revisiting the hypothesis from classical public administration. international public management journal, 1(1), 1–26. barkhuizen, e.n. (2005). work wellness of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. unpublished doctoral thesis. potchefstroom: north-west university. baron, r.m., & kenny, d.a. (1986). the moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. journal of personality and social psychology, 51(6), 1173–1182. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173 bolander, p., werr, a., & asplund, k. (2017). the practice of talent management: a framework and typology. personnel review, 46(8), 1523–1551. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-02-2016-0037 bonache, j., & festing, m. (2020). research paradigms in international human resource management: an epistemological systematisation of the field. german journal of human resource management, 34(2), 99–123. https://doi.org/10.1177/2397002220909780 boonbumroongsuk, b., & rungruang, p. (2022). employee perception of talent management practices and turnover intentions: a multiple mediator model. employee relations: the international journal, 44(2), 461–476. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-04-2021-0163 bwowe, p.w. (2015). crafting strategies to improve talent management in selected south african municipalities. unpublished master’s dissertation. mmabatho: north-west university chandrasekar, a., & zhao, s. (2015). creating a dynamic and sustainable talent ecosystem. unpublished white paper. greensboro, nc: centre for creative leadership. cheteni, p., & shindika, e.s. (2017). ethical leadership in south africa and botswana. bar, rio de janeiro, 14(2), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1590/1807-7692bar2017160077 cloete, h.c.a. (2016). human resource development in local government: a management perspective. unpublished doctoral thesis. stellenbosch: stellenbosch university. cohen, a. (1993). work commitment in relation to withdrawal intentions and union effectiveness. journal of business research, 26(1), 75–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/0148-2963(93)90044-p cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioural sciences (2nd ed.). lawrence: erlbaum associates publishers. dalayga, b., & baskaran, s. (2019). talent development practices: does it really matters. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 9(6), 896–906. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v9-i6/6050 damer, l. (2020). successful talent management strategies business leaders use to improve succession planning. unpublished doctoral thesis. minnesota: walden university. davis, p.j., & simpson, e. (2015). resource-based theory, competition and staff differentiation in africa: leveraging employees as a source of sustained competitive advantage. american journal of management, 17(1), 19–33. du plessis, l., barkhuizen, e.n., stanz, k.j., & schutte, n.e. (2015). the management side of talent: causal implications for the retention of generation y employees. the journal of applied business research, 31(5), 1767–1780. https://doi.org/10.19030/jabr.v31i5.9390 erickson, r, lamoureux, k., & moulton, d. (2014). high impact talent acquisition: key findings and maturity model. retrieved from http://www.bersin.com/library field, a. (2019). discovering statistics using spss (4th ed.), london: sage. filippus, k., & schultz, c.m. (2019). exploring talent management execution in the ministry of justice in the namibian public sector. sa journal of human resource management, 17, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1162 gan, k., lin, y., & wang, q. (2020). public service motivation and turnover intention: testing the mediating effects of job attitudes. frontiers in psychology, 11(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01289 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2010). multivariate data analysis: a global perspective (7th ed.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson education. human capital institute. (2008). human capital index for assessment of talent management practices. ny new york: human capital institute. hussain, s. (2016, january). leadership: it’s all about creating mindset. paper presented at the global leadership research conference. new delhi. izard-carroll, m.d. (2016). public sector leaders’ strategies to improve employee retention. unpublished doctoral thesis. minneapolis: walden university. jawali, h., darwish, t.k., scullion, h., & haak-saheem, w. (2021). talent management in the public sector: empirical evidence from the emerging economy of dubai. the international journal of human resource management, 33(11), 2256–2284. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2021.2001764 johennesse, l.a.c., & chou, t.k. (2017). employee perceptions of talent management effectiveness on retention. global business and management research: an international journal, 9(3), 46–58. kalav-idrisoglu, f. (2014). staffing norms practice in turkish public administration: a critical evaluation. unpublished master’s thesis. ankara: middle east technical university. kalonda, j.k., & govender, k. (2021). factors affecting municipal service delivery: a case study of katima mulilo town council, namibia. african journal of public affairs, 12(2), 1–26. karthikvel, s., & samydoss, c. (2019). talent management: a tactic to develop organisational performance for business sustainable. international journal of scientific research and review, 8(1), 420–426. keller, s., & meaney, m. (2017). leading organisation: ten timeless truths. new york, ny: bloomsbury publishing plc. khumalo, n. (2018). the role of human resource planning in producing well resourced employees to public. problems and perspectives in management, 16(4), 117–125. https://doi.org/10.21511/ppm.16(4).2018.11 kouzes, t., & posner, b. (2019). influence of managers’ mindset on leadership behavior. leadership & organization development journal, 40(1), 829–844. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-03-2019-0142 kravarati, f., & johnston, k. (2020). talent management: a critical literature review and research agenda for public sector human resource management. public management review, 22(1), 75–95. kravarati, f., tasoulis, k., scullion, h., & aladi, m.k. (2022). talent management and performance in the public sector: the role of organisational and line managerial support for development. the international journal of human resource management. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2022.2032265 larkin, i. (2019). strategic compensation: a critique and research agenda. in a.j. nyberg & t. moliterno (eds.), handbook of research on strategic human capital resources. cheltenham: edward elgar publishing, 403–424. lee, c. (2021). talent strategies and leadership development of the public sector: insights from southeast asia. new york, ny: routledge. leijerholt, u. (2019). public sector branding. an internal brand management perspective. unpubished doctoral dissertation. umeå, sweden: umeå university. lerutla, m., & steyn, r. (2021). african business leadership: perspectives from aspiring young leaders. sa journal of human resource management, 19, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1467 lesenyeho, d.l. (2017). talent management of early career academics in south african higher education institutions. unpublished doctoral thesis. mmabatho: north-west university. luna-arocas, r., & lara, f.j. (2020). talent management, affective organizational commitment and service performance in local government. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17134827 luna-arocas, r., & morley, m.j. (2015). talent management, talent mindset competency and job performance: the mediating role of job satisfaction. european journal of international management 9(1), 28–51. mabope, n.c. (2018). strategies and practices for effective talent management in the mangaung metropolitan municipality. unpublished master’s dissertation. free state: central university of technology. mahfoozi, a., salajegheh, s., ghorbani, m., & sheikhi, a. (2018). developing a talent management model using government evidence from a large-sized city, iran. cogent business & management, 5(1), 1–15. mahlahla, l.t. (2018). the impact of talent management on employee performance and retention strategies: a case study of masvingo city council in zimbab we. unpublished masters dissertation. durban: durban university of technology. makridis, c.a. (2021). (why) is there a public/private pay gap? journal of government and economics, 1(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jge.2021.100002 mangisa, c.a., schultz, c.m., & van hoek, l. (2020). an analysis of transformational leadership, talent acquisition and talent retention of engineers at an energy provider in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 18, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1356 marchington, m. (2015). human resource management (hrm): too busy looking up to see where it is going longer term? human resource management review, 25(1), 176–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.01.007 marobela, m.d. (2020). reflections and insights on leadership competencies in botswana: lessons and experiences for african managers. journal of corporate governance research, 4(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.5296/jcgr.v4i1.16905 masale, r.l. (2021). the development of an integrated talent management model for a botswana local gove rnment institution. unpublished doctoral thesis. mmabatho: north-west university. mashala, y.l., & kisumbe, l.a. (2020). talent development practices and its implications on leadership quality in local government authorities in tanzania. journal of public administration and governance, 10(3), 243–261. masiya, t., davids, y.d., & mangai, m.s. (2019). assessing service delivery: public perception of municipal service delivery in south africa. theoretical and empirical researches in urban management, 14(2), 20–40. matobako, m., & barkhuizen, e.n. (2017). leadership talent mindset as a predictor of the motivation and retention of junior correctional officials. in proceedings of the 34th international academic conference, florence, italy (pp. 17–33). mello, d.m., & makamu, n.i. (2021). using performance management to unearth talent in the south african public service. journal of public administration, 56(1), 647–661. mey, m.r., poisat, p., & stindt, c. (2021). the influence of leadership behaviours on talent retention: an empirical study. sa journal of human resource management, 19, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1504 mngomezulu, n., challenor, m., munapo, e., mashau, p., & chikandiwa, c.t. (2015). the impact of recognition on retention of good talent in the workforce. journal of governance and regulation, 4(4), 372–379. https://doi.org/10.22495/jgr_v4_i4_c3_p2 mnukwa, n. (2008). employee turnover and retention in south african municipalities: the case of sisonke district municipality. unpublished master’s dissertation. durban: graduate school of business. mohammed, a.a., hafeez-baig, a., & gururajan, r. (2019). a qualitative research to explore practices that are utilised for managing talent development in the higher education environment: a case study in six australian universities. journal of industry-university collaboration, 1(1), 24–37. https://doi.org/10.1108/jiuc-02-2019-003 moheb-alizadeh, h., & handfield, r.b. (2017). developing talent from a supply–demand perspective: an optimisation model for managers. logistics, 5(1), 1–30. mokgojwa, d.m. (2019). the development of a talent risk management tool for academic staff in south african higher education institutions. unpublished doctoral thesis. mmabatho: north-west university. molokwane, t. (2019). new public management in botswana: new public management in botswana. african journal of public affairs, 11(1), 48–63. moyo, n.j. (2015). the contribution of human resources planning in public institutions performance: a case study of mlele district council. unpublished master’s dissertation. dar es salaam: university of tanzania. mpabanga, d. (2016). performance monitoring and evaluation in botswana’s public service: achievements and challenges. africa’s public service delivery & performance review, 4(1), 50–92. https://doi.org/10.4102/apsdpr.v4i1.106 mumbauer, a., strauss, m., george, g., ngwepe, p., bezuidenthout, c., de vos, l., & medina-marino, a. (2021). employment preferences of healthcare workers in south africa: findings from a discrete choice experiment. plos one, 16(4), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250652 muyia, m.h., wekullo, c.s., & nafukho, f.m. (2018). talent development in emerging economies through learning and development capacity building. advances in developing human resources, 20(4), 498–516. mzezewa, t. (2019). state of staff turnover and retention in municipalities south africa. unpublished research report. johannesburg: lgseta. namweda, i.d. (2017). retention of employees in the department of transport in the ministry of works and transport in namibia. unpublished master’s dissertation. pretoria: university of south africa. ndevu, z.j., & muller, k. (2018). operationalising performance management in local government: the use of the balanced scorecard. sa journal of human resource management, 16, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.977 ng, e.s.w., gossett, c.w., chinyoka, s., & obasi, i. (2016). public vs private sector employment. an exploratory study of career choice among graduate management students in botswana. personnel review, 45(6), 1367–1385. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-10-2014-0241 ogony, s.m., & majola, b.k. (2018). factors causing employee turnover in the public service, south africa. journal of management & administration, 1(1), 77–100. parkies, m.m. (2015). effectiveness of performance management system at mangaung metropolitan municipality. unpublished master’s dissertation. bloemfontein: university of the free state. parthasarathy, m., & pingle, s. (2014). study of talent acquisition practices – a review on global perspective. international journal of emerging research in management & technology, 3(11), 80–85. qhibi, t. (2017). leadership and talent development at the mbombela local municipality. unpublished master’s dissertation. johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. ramgoolam, s. (2016). perceived organisational reputation in south africa’s public sector: employees’ narrative accounts. unpublished doctoral thesis. durban: university of kwazulu-natal. sadeli, j. (2012). the influence of leadership, talent management, organizational culture and organizational support on employee engagement. international research journal of business studies, 5(3), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.21632/irjbs.5.3.30-50 salisu, j.b. (2016). the impact of compensation on public sector construction workers in jigawa state of nigeria. unpublished doctoral thesis. wolverhampton: university of wolverhampton. sanders, k., cogin, j.a., & bainbridge, h.t.j. (eds.). (2014). research methods for human resource management. london: routledge/taylor & francis group. saurombe, m., & barkhuizen, e.n. (2020). a talent value proposition framework for academic staff in south african heis. journal of global business and technology, xvi(1), 85–102. schwab, k., & zahidi, s. (2020). global competitiveness report special edition 2020: how countries are performing on the road to recovery. geneva, switzerland: world economic forum. seabi, m.s.f. (2020). an analyses of a performance management system of the city of tswane metropolitan municipality. unpublished masters dissertation. pretoria: university of pretoria. seitio-kgokgwe, o., gauld, r.d.c., hill, p.c., & barnett, p. (2016). analysing the stewardship function in botswana’s health system: reflecting on the past, looking to the future. international journal of health, policy and management, 5(12), 705–713. https://doi.org/10.15171/ijhpm.2016.67 shabane, t.s. (2017). the integration of talent management and knowledge management in the south african public service. unpublished master’s dissertation. pretoria: university of south africa. shingenge, s.n., & saurombe, m.d. (2022). leadership mindset regarding talent management practices: a case study of the city of windhoek council. sa journal of human resource management, 20, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1730 shipena, d. (2019). a study of talent managment practices in the namibian police force. unpublished master’s dissertation. krugersdorp: southern business school. smit, e. (2015). factors impeding performance management of municipalities in the western cape, south africa. unpublished master’s dissertation. cape town: cape peninsula university of technology. spano, a., & monfardini, p. (2017). performance-related payments in local governments: do they improve performance or only increase salary? international journal of public administration, 41(4), 321–334. https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2016.1265982 stuss, m.m. (2020). talent management – war for talents. proceedings of the 11th business & management conference, dubai, pp. 198–212. sull, d., sull, c., & zweig, b. (2022). toxic culture is driving the great resignation. mit sloan management review. retrieved august 15 2021, from https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/toxic-culture-is-driving-the-great-resignation tetik, s. (2016). talent management: a review of theoretical perspectives and a guideline for practitioners. nile journal of business and economics, 4(1), 40–56. https://doi.org/10.20321/nilejbe.v2i4.77 theron, m. (2015). the development of a scale for talent retention. unpublished doctoral thesis. pretoria: university of pretoria. theys, n.a., & schultz, c.m. (2020). a qualitative perspective of talent management. a qualitative perspective of talent management, 17(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.35683/jcm19111.56 thomas, r. (2015). employee performance: the challenge for managers in the free state public service. unpublished doctoral thesis. bloemfontein: university of the free state. thunnissen, m., & buttiens, d. (2017). talent management in public sector organizations: a study on the impact of contextual factors on the tm approach in flemish and dutch public sector organizations. public personnel management, 46(4), 391–418. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026017721570 tran, k.t., nguyen, p.v., nguyen, t.d., & ton, u.n.h. (2020). the impact of organisational commitment on the relationship between motivation and turnover intention in the public sector. international journal of innovation, creativity and change, 11(12), 1–25. traveler, s.m. (2019). retention strategies to prepare and maintain talent for future leadership roles. unpublished doctoral thesis. minnesota: walden university. welby-cooke, g. (2010). the psychometric properties of a talent mindset index. unpublished master’s dissertation. pretoria: university of pretoria. wynen, j., boon, j., & verlinden, s. (2022). reform stress in the public sector? linking change diversity to turnover intentions and presenteeism among civil servants using a matching approach. public performance & management review, 5(3), 605–637. article information authors: phillip f. blaauw1 louis j. bothma1 affiliations: 1department of economics & econometrics, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondance to: phillip f. blaauw email: pfblaauw@uj.ac.za postal address: department of economics & econometrics, university of johannesburg, po box 524, auckland park 2006, south africa keywords regulation; employment conditions; structural changes; compliance; employment effects dates: recieved: 11 may 2009 accepted: 08 sept. 2009 published: 12 mar. 2010 how to cite this article: blaauw, p.f., & bothma, l.j. (2010). the impact of minimum wages for domestic workers in bloemfontein, south africa. sa journal of human resource management/ sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #216, 7 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.216 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) the impact of minimum wages for domestic workers in bloemfontein, south africa in this original research article... open access • article information • abstract • introduction    • background to the study    • literature review    • research objectives • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instrument       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • demographic features of domestic workers and their employers       • domestic workers       • employers    • terms of employment       • hiring patterns       • working hours       • tasks performed by domestic workers       • service contract       • wages    • regression analysis    • possible employment effects of 2007 minimum wage levels • discussion    • conclusion • acknowledgements • references abstract (back to top) orientation: the number of domestic workers in south africa has decreased in the last decade, seemingly corresponding with efforts by government to increase regulation. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to investigate possible structural changes in this labour market over the last decade, as well as the possible employment effects of the latest minimum wage provisions. motivation for the study: previous studies on the topic were carried out either prior to, or just after, the implementation of the minimum wage legislation for domestic workers. now, five years after implementation, the conclusions and predictions of these studies need to be evaluated. research design, approach and method: the study utilised a repeat survey in the suburb of langenhoven park in bloemfontein, where two previous microstudies had been conducted. structural interviews were conducted with a sample of 132 respondents and the data analysed. main findings: there are now fewer domestic workers working for more employers, than there were ten years ago. in contrast to predictions from the literature, these changes mostly occurred before the implementation of the legislation. real wages and legislative compliance improved for those who remained employed. practical implications: the task of balancing the improvement of the lives of domestic workers and the possible adverse consequences of the legislation, in the form of job losses, remains as daunting as it was ten years ago. contribution: literature predicts changes in the market for domestic workers to be long term. this study shows that most changes took place before the implementation of the legislation as employers decided on their course of action. introduction (back to top) statistics show that domestic workers, the vast majority of whom are women, remain a crucial part of the south african economy. the number of domestic workers in south africa has decreased in the last decade since september 2000 (wilson, 2006). in march 2006, domestic work accounted for 850 000 jobs (6.8%). this represents a decrease of 3.9 per cent from the level of march 2003, when there were 884 000 domestic workers (statistics south africa, 2006a). these declining numbers seem to correspond with efforts by government to increase regulation in this sector through the introduction of minimum wages for domestic workers and compulsory unemployment insurance fund (uif) deductions. background to the study in may 1999, the minister of labour announced his intention to legislate minimum wages for domestic workers in south africa. an investigation by the department of labour followed the announcement in 1999 of proposed minimum wage legislation for domestic workers in south africa. as a result, a report entitled investigation into minimum wages and conditions of employment of domestic workers was released july 2001. it revealed significant wage differentials between urban and rural domestic workers. the wages of domestic workers in rural areas were consistently lower than those of their urban counterparts, with median monthly wages of r409.00 and r588.00 respectively in 2000. differences also occurred at a provincial level. domestic workers earned the highest wages in gauteng and the lowest in the free state in 2000. as a result, three minimum hourly wages were recommended in accordance with the size of the specific municipal council areas. the suggested wages were r3.07 in area a (where the urban population comprised 61 per cent or more of the total population), r2.65 in area b (where the urban population represents 41 to 60 per cent of the total), and r2.05 in area c, where the urban population is less than 40 per cent (van den berg, 2001, p. 2). in august 2002, the minister announced the sectoral determination 7: domestic worker sector, following the recommendations of the above report (department of labour, 2002). however, the determination deviated in several respects from the recommendations of the original investigation report, which stipulated that differentiated hourly minimum wages were to be paid, depending not only on the municipal council area in which the domestic worker is employed, but also on the number of hours worked per week. only two areas, a and b (instead of three as suggested in the original report), were identified in the determination. area a included all cities and certain towns. the minimum hourly wage for domestic workers who worked more than 27 hours per week was r4.10. the corresponding figure for those working 27 hours or less was r4.51 (department of labour, 2002). area b was loosely described as ‘the rest of south africa’ (bothma & campher, 2003, p. 191). lower minimum hourly wages were prescribed here. domestic workers who work for 27 or fewer ordinary hours per week had to be paid r3.66; those who work more than 27 ordinary hours per week the minimum hourly rate was r3.33 (department of labour, 2002). in addition, the minister prescribed annual wage increases of eight per cent instead of the six per cent that had been recommended in the report (bothma & campher, 2003, p. 191). the above minima were set above the median hourly wages that were prevalent at that time. this implied that the intervention by government was a significant one (hertz, 2004, p. 1). what needed to be established, however, was how these wage levels and proposed increases affected the employment and non-wage conditions of service for domestic workers. literature review where minimum wages are under discussion, the impact on employment levels is always a key issue (van den berg, 2001, p. 2). in spite of this, academic literature on the topic is fairly limited (department of labour, 1996, p. 65). research which summarises the current state of knowledge in this field includes studies by davidson and grossett (1995), hertz (2004), bothma and jordaan (1998), van den berg (2001) and bothma and campher (2003). in a microstudy conducted in bloemfontein before the implementation of the minimum wages, bothma and jordaan (1998) predicted that a minimum wage of more than r600.00 per month would lead to a decrease in the demand for full-time domestic workers and that further increases in minimum wages could aggravate the situation. they cautioned that the effect of the legislation would possibly only become clear in the long run (bothma & jordaan, 1998, p. 496). hertz (2004) suggests that the real wages of domestic workers increased and the non-wage terms of employment improved as a result of the implemented regulations. furthermore, hertz (2004) found that, on a macro-level, regulations did appear to have raised the wages of domestic workers in south africa, but the decrease in employment of domestic workers could not significantly be linked to these regulations. average nominal hourly wages in september 2003 were 23 per cent higher than those of september 2002. the nominal wage increase for workers in other occupations with similar demographics was less than five per cent. this finding was supported by econometric evidence that the wage increases for domestic workers were the result of the regulations, because the largest wage increases were seen in places where the greatest number of workers initially earned less than the minimum wage (ibid., 2004, p. 1). the minimum hourly wage for bloemfontein at the time of the study was r5.11 for domestic workers working more than 27 hours per week and r6.04 for those working less than that. this wage was the same as for other urban areas in south africa (department of labour, 2006a, p.1). the regulations also seemed to affect some of the non-wage conditions of employment, such as having a written service contract and being registered for uif. these are legal requirements as per the sectoral determination 7: domestic worker sector (department of labour, 2002). according to hertz (2004), the proportion of domestic workers who reported having a written contract of employment rose from a mere seven per cent in february 2002 to 25 per cent in september 2003. the number of domestic workers who reported uif deductions rose from three to 25 per cent over the same period. domestic worker employment levels also appeared to have fallen by about three per cent, but this decrease was not statistically significant. hertz did not find econometric support for the proposition that it was causally connected to the wage changes (ibid., 2004, p. 1). he further reported a statistically significant reduction in the hours of work among the employed, which fell by about four per cent for domestic workers. for workers in other occupations the figure remained constant. bothma and jordaan (1998) and bothma and campher (2003) conducted successive microstudies in the same suburb (langenhoven park) in bloemfontein. in their 1997 study, bothma and jordaan (1998, p. 493) postulated that an increase in the number of part-time domestic workers would be a distinct possibility should a minimum wage for domestic workers of r600.00 per month be put in place. as many as 23.2 per cent of the respondents indicated that they would dismiss their full-time domestic worker should this increase be implemented. bothma and jordaan (1998, pp. 495−496) recommended that minimum wages for domestic workers should be regressive, with higher wages instituted for part-time workers, rather than for those who are employed full-time. van den berg (2001), as well as bothma and campher (2003), found that the demand for domestic workers was decreasing and that minimum wages could further suppress the demand. importantly, bothma and campher’s microstudy of langenhoven park indicated that the wages of domestic workers varied not only between areas, but also within areas. domestic workers who worked in houses earned more than those who worked in townhouses. this may be attributed partly to the scope of the tasks performed and partly to the income differentials of employers. the fact that the workload in houses seems to be higher than in townhouses and that houses generally have more occupants than townhouses, cause a reciprocal influence. as a result, domestic workers work longer average hours in the former (bothma & campher, 2003, p. 204). bothma and campher (2003, p. 204) state that should job losses occur, rural and full-time domestic workers will be those most affected. their finding seems to give merit to cosatu’s 2001 proposal that minimum wages should be set not according to geographical differentials, but according to work performed (cosatu, 2001, p. 4). overall, the literature shows that both the nominal and the real wages of domestic workers increased after the implementation of minimum wage legislation in 2002. the microand macrostudies show that there was also an improvement in some of the non-wage conditions of employment in this labour market. the various studies all conclude that there was a decrease in the employment levels of domestic workers; however, no consensus has been reached on the reasons for this. hertz (2004) did not find evidence on a macro-level that the minimum wage legislation was the main contributing factor. bothma and jordaan (1998), as well as bothma and campher (2003), indicated that minimum wages could aggravate the situation. these two studies provided important groundwork for a third quantitative microstudy in the same suburb. research objectives the above-mentioned studies were performed either prior to, or just after, the implementation of the minimum wage legislation for domestic workers. their conclusions and predictions now need to be evaluated, five years after implementation. a survey was conducted in the same area of bloemfontein where the previous studies of bothma and jordaan (1998) and bothma and campher (2003) had been conducted. the purpose of this article is to investigate possible structural changes in this labour market over the last decade that warrant attention from policy makers, as well as the possible employment effects of the latest minimum wage provisions that were announced by the department of labour at the time of the study (department of labour, 2006a, pp. 1−2). research design (back to top) research approach bothma and campher (2003, p. 194) postulated that conducting structured interviews with employers in various residential areas could provide a reliable and simple way of establishing potential job losses among domestic workers as a result of an increase in the level of minimum wages. this premise formed the basis of their 2001 survey of langenhoven park in bloemfontein. bothma and jordaan (1998) used the same methodology in their 1997 study. a similar approach was followed in this study. a survey that consisted of structured interviews with employers of domestic servants was followed, in order to obtain the necessary data. research method research participants langenhoven park, a traditionally white suburb, is fairly young and fast-growing. it can be regarded as a middle-income area with a balanced mix of free-standing houses and townhouses, a characteristic of many urban suburbs (van den berg, 2001, p. 4). the labour force surveys of statistics south africa do not focus on the type of dwelling where domestic workers are employed. this is therefore one of the areas where a microstudy of this nature adds value to the information obtained in a macrostudy. not all households employ domestic workers, but given the increase in the number of households since 1996, it was determined that at least a 130 respondents were necessary in order to make reliable inferences. this represented approximately five per cent of the number of households in the suburb in terms of the available information at the time. this figure further corresponds with the sample sizes employed in the previous two microstudies in the same suburb, rendering the results of the studies comparable. measuring instrument the questionnaire designed by van den berg (2001) for the 2001 survey was used as the basis for the 2006 survey of the same area. this questionnaire consisted of two sections. the first part of the questionnaire focused on a demographic profile of the domestic workers in the area. questions referring to age, education and the number of dependants were included in this section. additionally, they had to state their tasks, as well as the number of people they worked for, because, as bothma and campher (2003, p. 196) pointed out, many worked for more than one employer. in the second section of the questionnaire, employers were interviewed with regard to the size of their households, how many days per week they employed their domestic workers, for how many hours per day the workers were employed and whether a service contract had been drawn up. to establish the level of remuneration, employers had to state whether their workers were paid on a weekly or monthly basis, how much they were paid in cash and if they were provided money for transport. research procedure the research procedure echoed the one that was used by van den berg (2001). langenhoven park was divided into fivegeographical blocks that would ensure a more or less equal distribution of areas with houses and townhouses present in them. within these blocks, houses and townhouses were randomly selected for possible interviews. in cases where the occupants of a selected house or townhouse did not employ a domestic worker, the adjacent dwelling was approached. the interviews were conducted at the home of the employers. the authors acted as fieldworkers and thus ensured the best possible quality control in the collection of the data. each interview lasted approximately half an hour. the data were collected between september and november 2006, before the implementation of the latest round of wage increases in that year (department of labour, 2006a, pp. 1−2). in total, 132 (two more than the required minimum of 130) valid questionnaires were completed, accounting for 67 houses and 65 townhouses. statistical analysis the descriptive results were compiled and compared with previous trends. regression analysis was used to further decompose the structural relationships present in the data. the results are presented in the following section. results (back to top) demographic features of domestic workers and their employers domestic workers the average age of the 132 domestic workers involved in this study was 43.3. this represented a marked increase from the average age of 39.2 (bothma & jordaan, 1998, p. 487) in 1997 and was marginally higher than the 42.6 recorded in the 2001 survey of bothma and campher (2003, p. 197). these figures suggested that domestic work as an employment opportunity is continuously becoming a profession of older women. various explanations can be offered for this trend. given the fact that school attendance is compulsory, young people are often overqualified for domestic work and therefore may not want to take it up. the relatively low income levels and job uncertainty further discourage them from entering this job market. in addition, it can be argued that as a result of the limited employment opportunities, ‘incumbents’ hold on to their positions for much longer. this tendency is further encouraged by employers, who may feel that the older generation of domestic workers is more reliable. the number of dependants remained fairly constant over the past 10 years. in 1997 and 2001 respectively, each domestic worker had an average of 2.9 and 2.5 dependants to support (bothma & jordaan, 1998, p. 487; bothma & campher, 2003, p. 197). in this study each domestic worker had an average of 2.39 children who depended on their income. the conclusion reached in previous studies, namely that any retrenchments in this occupation would influence a significant number of people, had therefore remained unchanged over the last decade. the educational levels of domestic workers showed marginal improvements in the last 10 years. in 1997 and 2001, around a quarter of the domestic workers in langenhoven park indicated that they had not received any formal schooling (bothma & jordaan, 1998, p. 487; bothma & campher, 2003, pp. 197−198). the corresponding figure in the 2006 survey was 19.7 per cent. in the 2006 survey, 71 (53.8%) of the respondents indicated that they had attended high school, as opposed to the 2001 survey when only 32.7 per cent of the respondents indicated that they had received secondary schooling (bothma & campher, 2003, p. 198). this can perhaps be ascribed, in part, to the effect of the government’s adult basic education initiatives. employers of the 132 employers interviewed, in the 2006 study, 67 (50.76%) lived in free-standing houses and the rest (49.24%) lived in townhouses. this is roughly the same as the results of the 2001 survey by bothma and campher (2003, p. 198), when the figures were 52.7 per cent for houses and 47.3 per cent for townhouses respectively. table 1 presents the average occupancy in the dwellings serviced by domestic workers in langenhoven park, bloemfontein from 1997 to 2006. the number of occupants in these two types of dwellings has remained virtually constant since 1997. any changes in wages therefore cannot reasonably be ascribed to a possible increase in the number of people that are served by domestic workers. these and other aspects regarding the terms of employment are explained in the following section. table 1: doctors’ need for ethics in continuing professional development (cpd), perceptions of medicine as a unique profession and of colleagues’ ethical conduct terms of employment hiring patterns the vast majority of employers (54, representing 41%) indicated that they hire a domestic worker once a week, 26 (19.7%) indicated they would hire one for two days, 13 (9.8%) for three days and 35 (26.5%) for four or more days. the number of employers who hire a domestic worker once a week has shown a substantial increase since 1997. the corresponding figure then was 29.4 per cent and in 2001 it was 33.6 per cent (bothma & jordaan, 1998, p. 488; bothma & campher, 2003, p. 198). this suggests that the increased regulation in this sector could be an important factor contributing to this trend, as was stated by bothma and jordaan (1998). employers who live in townhouses seem to prefer to hire part-time domestic workers; whereas, in most cases, their counterparts in houses hire their workers on a full-time basis. the fact that, in 2006, 33 of the employers living in houses (49.3%) hired their domestic workers for four days or more per week is evidence of this trend. the corresponding figure for employers living in townhouses is only three per cent. part-time domestic workers may be employed by more than one employer in a week. figure 1 illustrates the changes in the number of employers for whom domestic workers in langenhoven park have worked since 1997. figure 1: trends in the number of employers of domestic workers in langenhoven park, 1997–2006 of the 132 domestic workers, 46 (34.9%) worked for one employer, 38 (28.7%) for two, 24 (18.2%) for three, and the same number worked for four or more employers. these figures differ marginally from those gathered in the 2001 survey conducted by bothma and campher (2003). at that time, 36.1 per cent worked for one employer, 24.5 per cent for two, 19.1 per cent for three and 20.3 per cent for four or more (bothma & campher, 2003, p. 198). the fact that the number who worked for three or four and more employers showed a slight decrease after initially increasing may indicate that working for more than two employers might not be sustainable for domestic workers over the longer term. however, between 1997 and 2001 there were a number of wholesale changes in terms of this aspect. in 1997, as many as 67.7 per cent of the domestic workers who were interviewed at that time were employed by one household. this represents a decrease of no less than 47 per cent in five years. in terms of the other categories, the figures for 1997 were as follows: 17 per cent worked for two households, 8.5 per cent for three, and only 6.8 per cent for four or more (bothma & jordaan, 1998, p. 488). this complete turnaround was indeed a significant one, which came about before the actual regulation had been promulgated. this indicated that the employers, after hearing of the possible advent of minimum wages for domestic workers, adjusted their hiring patterns beforehand. by the time the regulation of the market for domestic workers and their minimum wages came into effect the situation had already begun to stabilise. this contradicted the earlier view of bothma and jordaan (1998) that minimum wages in this sector will have a more profound effect in the long run. the data also showed that a number of domestic workers were trying to increase their income by taking up more than one part-time position in the wake of a limited and shrinking number of full-time positions available to them. yet this did not have a significant impact on the non-wage terms of employment, such as the working hours and tasks expected of domestic workers. working hours the average number of working hours in langenhoven park has remained roughly the same over the last 10 years. in 2001, the average number of working hours per day was 6.9 (bothma & campher, 2003, p. 198) compared to the average of 6.65 hours in 2006. the data further revealed that, in 2006, domestic workers in townhouses worked an average of 6.12 hours per day and those in houses 7.16 hours per day. the same consistency was evident in the combination of tasks performed in langenhoven park over the last 10 years. tasks performed by domestic workers the various tasks of domestic workers are summarised in table 2. the most common task in which these workers engage was cleaning. ironing then followed cleaning as the second most common task, which, in turn, was followed by washing. cooking and childcare were less prevalent tasks. it was interesting to note that the percentage of domestic workers that perform childcare duties had almost doubled in the last five years. this was probably an indication that more mothers have entered into employment in the last five years. table 2: domestic workers’ task composition in langenhoven park, bloemfontein, south africa, 2001–2006 although many of the above-mentioned aspects of the non-wage terms of employment of domestic workers remained virtually the same, one of features that had undergone a radical change over the last decade was the existence of a written service contract between employer and domestic worker. < service contract figure 2 tracks the changes in the percentage of domestic workers with a written service contract in langenhoven park from 1997 to 2006. bothma and jordaan (1998) found that in 1997 only 17.5 per cent of employers indicated that they had entered into a written service contract with their domestic worker. by 2001, this figure had almost doubled to 30.3 per cent (bothma & campher, 2003, p. 199). the situation has since continued to improve. in 2006, only 32 (24.2%) of the employers who hired a domestic worker for more than 24 hours per month had not entered into a formal service contract with their workers. these figures for langenhoven park over the last 10 years were consistently higher than for the rest of south africa (hertz, 2004). the trend corresponded with the finding of hertz (2004) that employers’ compliance in terms of the regulations had been accelerating since the date of implementation. almost the same percentage (22%) of employers who had a domestic worker in their service for more than 24 hours per month did not register them with the unemployment insurance fund (uif) as is required by the department of labour (department of labour, 2006b, p. 1). figure 2: domestic workers with written service contract in langenhoven park, 1997–2006 wages table 3 provides the average daily wage of domestic workers per category of number of days employed. domestic workers in houses earned more than their counterparts in townhouses. table 3: the average daily wage of domestic workers per category of number of days employed in langenhoven park, bloemfontein, south africa, 2006 the income differentials of the employers as well as the scope of the tasks to be performed may explain this trend. the workload in a house seems to be higher than in a smaller townhouse, as houses have more occupants on average and therefore domestic workers generally work longer hours there. this feature of langenhoven park remained largely unchanged and the support given by bothma and campher (2003 , p. 204) to cosatu’ s 2001 proposal that minimum wages in this sector must be set not according to geographical differences but according to the work carried out, may still be in order.the wages also varied according to the number of days worked for an employer per week. the highest daily wage was earned by those who were employed by a specific employer for one day per week. the average wage decreased as the number of days increased. this trend was also evident in 2001 (bothma & campher, 2003). table 4 provides the details of changes in the nominal wages of domestic workers since 2001 in langenhoven park, bloemfontein. this table shows that the annual increases in the daily cash wages were far higher than the average rate of inflation for the same period. the average annual increase in the consumer price index (cpi) for south africa from 2001 to 2006 was 4.9 per cent (statistics south africa, 2006b, p. 1). this implied that the wages did not merely increase in nominal terms but in real terms as well, which corresponded with the findings of hertz (2004) for the whole country and is a continuation of a trend that had become apparent since 1997. table 4: changes in the average daily wage of domestic workers per category of number of days employed in langenhoven park, bloemfontein, south africa, 2001–2006 the average daily cash wage, in all categories, increased by 37.3 per cent between 1997 and 2001. this represented an average increase of 8.3 per cent per annum, in comparison with an average increase in the cpi of 5.6 per cent per annum for the same period (bothma & campher, 2003, p. 201).the average hourly cash wage of all domestic servants was r9.73. the corresponding amount in 2001 was r6.19. this was a marked increase of 57. 19 per cent over the period in question. like the average daily wages, average hourly wages also displayed a negative correlation with the number of days worked for a specific employer. only eight (6%) of the employers involved in this survey were paying their domestic workers less than the minimum wage of 2006 as prescribed by the department of labour. in 2001, 7.9 per cent of the employers were paying an hourly wage less than the minimum wage at the time of r3.07 per hour. all those employees hired their domestic workers on a full-time basis at the time (bothma & campher, 2003, p. 200). in order to supplement the comparisons described above, the data obtained in the 2006 survey of domestic workers in langenhoven park were used in a cross-section regression analysis to investigate the determining factors of the hourly and daily wages of domestic workers. this showed that other structural factors, apart from minimum wages, were also influencing the wage levels of domestic workers. the results of this analysis are presented below. regression analysis a number of variables were considered for the langenhoven park analysis. these are summarised in table 5. table 5: variables used in the langenhoven park regression analysis table 6: cross-sectional regression results: hourly and daily wage of domestic workers the level of schooling seemed to have some positive influence on the level of wages but was not statistically significant at 10 per cent or lower. the coefficients for the variable of working hours were positive and negative for daily and hourly wages respectively as expected, but these were only marginally significant.there was, however, a statistically significant negative relationship between both the hourly and the daily cash wage and the number of days worked at the home of any one employer. in practice, this implied that as domestic workers were working for fewer days per week at an individual employer, they earned higher wages. the econometric evidence supported the observed structural changes in the hiring patterns of domestic workers. this warranted a question regarding the possible employment effects of the latest increases in the minimum wage of domestic workers in this area, an aspect which is addressed in the next section. possible employment effects of 2007 minimum wage levels the new level of minimum wages for domestic workers applicable to langenhoven park was set at r5.47 per hour for workers working more than 27 ordinary hours per week and r6.46 for those working 27 hours or less. this became applicable from 1 december 2006 to 30 november 2007 (department of labour, 2006a, p. 1).in order to assess the possible job losses that resulted from these new wage requirements, it was necessary to compare current wage levels with the prescribed minima for 2007. the data showed that only 13 (9.84%) of the 132 employers were currently paying wages that were lower than the prescribed r5.47 for workers working more than 27 ordinary hours per week in 2007. when the higher level of r6.46 for those working 27 ordinary hours or less was considered, the figure doubled to 26 (17.4%). these employers had three options: they could pay the new minimum wage, discharge their workers, or reduce the working hours of their domestic workers by hiring a domestic worker on a part-time basis, thereby reducing the monthly expenditure on this service. the last option seemed to be the most likely one. the continued increase in the number of domestic workers who worked for more than one employer seemed to support this view. this had the potential to simultaneously increase the demand for part-time domestic workers and to reduce the demand for full-time domestic workers. this structural change indicated that regulating this labour market remained a complex and delicate task in spite of the evidence, suggesting that employers had discounted the initial effect of the advent of minimum wages for domestic workers. discussion (back to top) the above comparisons show that a number of the trends identified by previous studies are still evident. there were minor changes in the level of education attained by domestic workers in langenhoven park and the workers are, on average, gradually becoming older. the number of dependants of domestic workers over the last 10 years remained steady. the same consistency is evident in the number of occupants living in the households where domestic workers are employed. certain non-wage terms of employment have also remained virtually the same over the last decade. these include the working hours and the tasks performed by domestic workers. however, the existence of written service contracts with domestic workers showed a significant increase over the same period. the biggest changes in this labour market came in terms of the wages earned and the shift from full-time to part-time work. the most significant decrease in the number of full-time domestic workers was from 1997 to 2001. the 2006 survey showed that this trend has started to stabilise since then. this indicates that employers adjusted their hiring patterns well in advance of the advent of minimum wages. nominal and real wages have increased significantly during the last 10 years and have shown a negative relationship with the number of days worked for a particular employer. research has shown that the real wages of domestic workers have increased as a result of the implementation of minimum wage legislation in this sector. evidence exists that the non-wage terms of employment have also improved with the vast majority of domestic workers who now enjoy the benefit of a written service contract. many of the trends observed in previous studies have not shown any real changes in the last decade. the educational levels, hours worked, tasks performed and the number of dependants of domestic workers remained fairly stable. the average age of domestic workers in langenhoven park is slowly increasing, with an increase in average age of four years over the last decade. there have been some important structural changes over the last decade as well. it is of great importance that domestic work is increasingly becoming a part-time profession. the percentage of workers who worked for a single employer decreased sharply by 46.7 per cent between 1997 and 2001 before it started to stabilise. the greatest change was in the five years before the advent of the minimum wage legislation. the employers of domestic workers adjusted their hiring patterns in anticipation of this. by the time the regulation of the market for domestic workers and their minimum wages came into effect, this adjustment was in place. this contradicts the earlier prediction of bothma and jordaan (1998) that minimum wages in this sector will have a greater long-term impact. the cross-sectional regression analysis confirms the important role played by the number of days worked per week for any one employer in explaining the level of hourly and daily wages in langenhoven park in 2006. it is encouraging to see that employers are continuing to comply with the provisions of the department of labour with regard to written service contract and the uif registration of their domestic workers. from 1997 to 2006, the percentage of employers who had service contracts with their domestic workers increased by 333 per cent. the number of employers who registered their domestic workers for uif deductions also increased noticeably over the same period. the comparison of the results of three microstudies in the same suburb makes a unique contribution to the existing research. it tracks the structural changes in the labour market for domestic workers both before and after the promulgation of minimum wage legislation. these results highlight the behavioural changes of employers of domestic workers in the wake of minimum wage legislation. it supplements the inferences that can be made from using national statistics from the various labour force surveys of statistics south africa. conclusion these structural changes rendered the labour market for domestic workers complex and dynamic, a situation that could complicate the setting of appropriate levels of minimum wages for workers in this industry. the intention of the minister of labour over the last 10 years to lay down lower minima for full-time domestic workers than for part-timers has definite merit. all three surveys conducted in langenhoven park during the last decade showed that part-time domestic workers did indeed earn higher wages than their full-time counterparts. this was in line with the recommendation of bothma and jordaan (1998) that minimum wages for domestic workers should be regressive, with higher wages for part-time than for full-time workers.the wage increase of cpix plus two per cent prescribed by the minister in november 2006 seemed quite reasonable. the cpi for 2006 was on average only 4.7 per cent (statistics south africa, 2006b, p. 1). the lowest average annual increase (8.7%) granted by employers in langenhoven park between 2001 and 2006 was for workers who worked only one day per week. all other categories yielded higher increases. the effect of the latest wage increase will probably be seen in a continued increase in the number of part-time domestic workers. a limiting factor in the analysis was the unavailability of successive waves of data from the same respondents. this would have enabled researchers to conduct panel data analysis to further investigate these aspects. the minister’s task of balancing the improvement of the lives of domestic workers and the possible adverse consequences of the legislation, in the form of job losses, remains as daunting as it was ten years ago. further microstudies like these can contribute to an improved understanding of the impact of these policies on the lives of those who are the intended beneficiaries. acknowledgments (back to top) a previous version of this paper was presented at the scottish economic society conference, 2–4 april 2007 in perth, scotland. the authors wish to thank ms anmar pretorius, mr krige siebrits, prof. ronald mears, and an anonymous referee for valuable comments on earlier drafts. the usual disclaimer applies. references (back to top) bothma, l.j., & jordaan, c.j. (1998). ‘n minimum loon vir huishulpe: antwoorde vir beleidmakers. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 1(3), 483−497. bothma, l.j., & campher, c. (2003). minimum wages for domestic workers: a comprehensive analysis. acta academica, 35(1), 190−205. cosatu (2001). submission on the domestic workers sectoral determination report. retrieved march 17, 2006, from http://www.cosatu.org.za/docs/2001/domestic.htm#set davidson, s., & grossett, m. (1995). the economic consequences of legislation governing working conditions of domestic workers. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 15 (autumn), 91−103. department of labour. (1996). restructuring the south african labour market. pretoria: government printer. department of labour. (2002). sectoral determination 7: domestic worker sector. pretoria: government printer. department of labour. (2006a). wage tables for the domestic worker sector. retrieved april 26, 2007, from http://www.labour.gov.za/download/11485/useful%20document%20%20domestic%20worker%20wage%20increase%202006.doc department of labour. (2006b). amendment unemployment insurance (uif) act. retrieved march 28, 2007, from http://www.labour.gov.za/legislation/ amendments.jsp?legislationid=5621&actid=7932&doc_id=8485 hertz, t. (2004). have minimum wages benefited south africa’s domestic service workers? forum on african development and poverty reduction: the macro-micro linkage, 13–15 october 2004, somerset west, south africa: lord charles hotel. statistics south africa. (2006a). labour force survey, march 2006. pretoria: government printer. statistics south africa. (2006b). annual inflation on a monthly basis, consumer price index (p0141.1). retrieved february 20, 2007, from http://www.statssa.gov.za/keyindicators/cpi/cpihistory.pdf van den berg, e. (2001). huiswerkers en die vasstelling van minimum lone: ‘n vergelykende perspektief. unpublished honours mini-dissertation, department of economics, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa. wilson, g.l. (2006). one of 850 000 domestic workers. retrieved march 20, 2008, from http://www.mywage.co.za/main/sfricaworks/domesticworker abstract introduction impact of recruitment and selection on organisation’s performance impact of training and development on organisations’ performance effect of values and norms on organisations’ performance workers’ attitude and organisations’ performance employee behaviour, attitude and organisations’ performance methodology results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) muhammad irfan department of economics, faculty of business administration, comsats university islamabad, islamabad, pakistan nabila khurshid department of economics, faculty of business administration, comsats university islamabad, islamabad, pakistan jamila khurshid department of economics, faculty of business administration, university of the poonch, rawalakot, pakistan arif masih khokhar department of economics, faculty of business administration, iqra university, islamabad, pakistan citation irfan, m., khurshid, n., khurshid, j., & khokhar, a.m. (2023). human resource development and organisational performance: evidence from pakistan. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2020. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2020 original research human resource development and organisational performance: evidence from pakistan muhammad irfan, nabila khurshid, jamila khurshid, arif masih khokhar received: 16 june 2022; accepted: 12 july 2022; published: 22 mar. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract purpose: this study is an endeavour to find the effect of human resource development on organisational performance. human resource development is essential for better organisational productivity and effectiveness. research purpose: this study specifically investigates the impact of organisational context, resourcing, training and development, skills, attitude and behaviour on organisational performance. design/methodology/approach: this research study focuses on manufacturing companies in islamabad and rawalpindi, pakistan. a standardised questionnaire with a response rate of 85% was used to gather data from a random sample of 50 manufacturing companies. the structural equation modelling technique was used for data analysis. findings: organisational performance has a positive association with all the independent factors studied in this article: resourcing, training and development, employees’ abilities, employee attitudes, employee behaviour and the organisational context. in addition, the outcomes of this research support the idea that human resource development methods might have a favourable influence on manufacturing business performance. there is no direct correlation between resourcing and organisational performance, although training and development activities are favourably connected with it. contribution: for the first time, this research aims to evaluate how human resource management (hrm) influences organisational performance in pakistan by examining theoretically created pathways between key exogenous and endogenous factors. keywords: human resource development; organisational performance; manufacturing companies; pakistan; structural equation modelling. introduction using human resource (hr) practices as vital strategic tools, companies may enhance employee morale and productivity by fostering positive behaviour and maximising workers’ existing knowledge, skills and attitudes and talents (bartlett, 2001; bates & chen, 2004; katou, 2009). a consequence of this effect is that human resource development (hrd) is now seen as the most basic and essential function in the human resources system (dhamodharan, daniel, & ambuli, 2010; gubbins, garavan, hogan, & woodlock 2006). according to lopez-cabrales and valle-cabrera (2020) and evans and davis (2015), hrd programmes have an impact on company performance by creating an effective and productive staff that is able to meet the company’s aims and objectives. every business must invest in employee development and training if it is to achieve greater results (barton & delbridge, 2004; degraft-otoo, 2012). the hrd system has become crucial and necessary for the survival of any company in today’s competitive globalisation and liberalisation environment. when the capacity for organisational learning is greater, high-performing work environments have a favourable impact on corporate performance (zhu, liu, & chen, 2018). because of this consequence, companies must build their hrd system to meet their objectives and aims for hrd to be an effective mediator in helping firms expand and develop their workers’ capacities to improve performance and profitability (dhar, 2019). furthermore, dhar et al. (2017a) concluded that the components of hr accounting practice are important variables in the success of any organisation. human resource development trends in developing nations seem to be moving slowly and steadily; enterprises in these countries are unable to devote sufficient time and resources to staff training and development. in comparison to the organisations in rich nations, the performance of developing-country organisations is quite poor. human resource development concepts in pakistan remain ambiguous, and firms are unsure how to train and develop their staff for current tasks and future challenges. as a result, the organisation confronts major financial difficulties because the cost of training and growth is extremely high. as a result, to survive, organisations only spend on their most pressing demands, and they are unable to focus on the training and development of their staff in accordance with global hrd trends. however, global companies spent us$358 billion on training and development in 2020 (statista, 2021). consequently, pakistani corporations’ performance is much worse than that of businesses in the united states of america and the united kingdom. the most important question is whether or not hrd has a major influence on organisational performance in pakistani industrial companies. human resource development’s effect on pakistani manufacturing production and performance may be better understood if this subject can be satisfactorily addressed. as a result, this research aims to provide an integrated framework for analysing the influence of human resource management (hrm) performance on pakistani manufacturing company. instead of using the traditional regression equation technique, structural equation modelling (sem) was used to include and empirically test the fundamental components of the hrm-performance linkage perspective. in addition to the analytical techniques employed in this research, a variety of contextual factors are taken into consideration, such as management style, organisational culture, the translation of hrm strategy into a clear set of work programmes and deadlines and hrm’s capacity to be proactive in strategy formation. for the first time, this research aims to evaluate how hrm influences organisational performance in pakistan by examining theoretically created pathways between key exogenous and endogenous factors. operational model and hypothesis the becker and huselid (1998) hrm performance linkage model has been characterised as the ‘most logical and detailed description of the mechanisms via which hr practices effect corporate performance’ (wright, gardner, & moynihan, 2003). according to this concept, hrm approaches have a direct effect on employee skills and motivation, which in turn have a direct impact on the operational success and financial performance of a firm. impact of recruitment and selection on organisation’s performance according to onyango (2015), a company’s long-term success depends on its ability to properly resource its personnel. recruitment and selection practices have a direct impact on an organisation’s effectiveness (khan, 2010). when abomeh (2013) looked at the influence of abuja’s resourcing tactics on the organisation’s performance, she came to the conclusion that the efficiency of the recruiting and selection process had a major impact. furthermore, ogonyomi and ojikutu (2014) found that lagos-based recruiting and selection procedures should be outsourced to improve organisational performance. personnel resourcing and development, according to appelbaum and reichart (1998), form the foundation of the examination-based viewpoint on which the group of employee assets and talents of an organisation is established. dhar et al. (2017b) explored the impact of islamic hr practices on organisational performance though organisational commitment. they conclude that islamic hr practices have a significant impact on organisational performance through organisational commitment. impact of training and development on organisations’ performance kidombo, k’obonyo and gakuu (2012) said that one of the primary goals of employee training and development is to help them become more effective in their work. according to kalu and akinyokun’s (2005) case study research, training and development of personnel have a substantial influence on the success of organisations. in addition, according to kalu and akinyokun (2005), ombui et al. (2014) and abogsesa and kaushik (2017), for a company to succeed, it is important to encourage employees who are more driven than their colleagues. workers’ performance and training and development were clearly linked. according to a research conducted by ahmed (2014) on kenyan employee performance, training and development have a considerable impact on an organisation’s productivity. according to raghuram (1994), employees’ fundamental competencies are the most critical aspect in retaining competitive advantage and organisational success. human resources are the source of competitive advantages and not the policies of any firm for recruiting, using and keeping personnel. recruitment and selection may also be seen as a significant and wonderful starting point for assembling common human resources and talents. recruitment and selection productivity is tied to an employee’s talents morale, expertise, work knowledge, potential and productivity (khan & abdullah, 2019). expanding the talents and capabilities of workers is only expected to provide future returns via increased profitability and performance of the company (shih, chiang, & hsu, 2006). effect of values and norms on organisations’ performance according to cultural variables, such as values and norms, the personality and performance of the company are intimately linked to the values and beliefs of its employees (søndergaard, 1994). schwartz (1994) stated that employees’ conduct and the organisation’s long-term viability are influenced by cultural and psychological variables. dhar, mutalib and sobhani (2019) explored the moderating effect of motivation between human capital and organisational performance through innovation capability among dhaka stock exchang’s (dse) listed islamic banks of bangladesh. the study’s findings specified that human capital has positive effects on organisational performance through innovation capability and among the dimensions of human capital, learning and education has the most significant effect on organisational performance. moreover, motivation, being a moderator, diminishes the positive relationship between human capital and performance. blau (1964) and eisenberger, cummings, armeli and lynch (1997) opined that social trade theory and ideal standards of delayed correspondence trade have a significant influence on the organisation’s performance and output. for understanding the apparent organisational support, shore, tetrick, lynch and barksdale (2006) proposed that the type of employment be considered. through improved working conditions, a helpful and cheerful workplace, a reward system and an overhaul of the surroundings, the company has given its employees a better open door with the purpose of increasing their competitive advantages over their rivals (bartlett, 2001). employee motivation, sense of responsibility and job satisfaction are all influenced by the process of resourcing and progression, which aims to provide workers with new capabilities (fey, björkman, & pavlovskaya, 2000; wright et al., 2003). experts generally agree that one of the most important influences on performance is one’s level of motivation (hardré, 2003). workers’ attitude and organisations’ performance according to eisenberger, huntington, hutchison and sowa (1986), the perceived organisational support for the growth and profitability of the organisation speaks to the wishes and impressions of the company’s personnel. to paraphrase gouldner’s (1960) theory, workers who have a good attitude and behave well contribute to the company’s overall productivity and performance, which in turn boosts their own performance. a 1995 study by shore and shore found that employees anticipate moral and genuine support, money-related assistance, promotion, various sorts of aid and help from the company. as george and brief (1992) pointed out, it is crucial to keep the final aim of increasing occupation effectiveness and organisational performance in mind. when resources are distributed fairly and equally, according to shore and shore (1995), workers are more likely to show genuine loyalty to their organisations. the bulk of the company’s rules and practices have a significant impact on employee attitudes and behaviour. employee training and development may provide a clear message to employees that the company’s best interests are served by keeping them for a longer duration (katou & budhwar, 2007). employee behaviour, attitude and organisations’ performance moreover, in yoon and lim (1999) found that in order to boost performance and productivity and organisational support, it was considered that good conduct from the organisation towards its workers may lead to these outcomes; on the other hand, negative behaviour from the organisation towards its employees could lead to these outcomes. according to the research of rhoades and eisenberger (2002), pleasant treatment of workers, organisational awards, decency and the flow of resources are all directly linked to the appearance of organisational support. saks (2006) found that workers who felt supported by their bosses were more likely to carry out their responsibilities to the best of their abilities. mullen et al. (2006) said that trainings, obligation and exchange of information may also have a negative influence on organisational support’s perceived quality. according to campbell’s occupation performance theory (campbell, 1990), workers’ attitudes influence the behaviour of their colleagues, which in turn affects the performance of the organisation (wright et al., 2003). there is evidence to support the idea that employee satisfaction, inspiration and a sense of civic responsibility all play a role in reducing employee attrition. representatives who are dissatisfied with their jobs and who have lost their sense of purpose and accountability to their employers are more likely to leave the company (chiu & francesco, 2003; elangovan, 2001). organisational inspiration and obligation are often seen as being intimately linked to a company’s ability to meet its workers’ needs, although this is not always the case (bartlett, 2001). kuchinke (2003) said that an organisation’s competitive position is strongly influenced by its impalpable characteristics. according to robbins and sanghi (2007), the attraction of organisational traits, norms and beliefs has a significant influence on the organisation’s ability to perform. according to stewart (2010), workers’ standards have a direct impact on the success of the organisation’s culture and performance management. it has been shown by brooks (2009) that the trustworthiness of workers is dependent on their capacity to learn and get acquainted with the company culture in order to improve their performance at work. lee and chuang (2009) stated that ‘superior’ leaders raise the potential of subordinates and satisfy their needs in terms of achieving corporate objectives via various methods. the idea that initiative may be used to provide inspiring expectations for employees and to improve their capacity for acceleration and growth is stated by sears and rowe (2003). as per davidmann (1995), the effectiveness of any organisation is for the most part made steadfast by the methodology of work co-appointment, duty level of workers and the level to which workers participate with each other, with management and group. organisational setting is relied upon to emphatically (budhwar & sparrow, 1997) or adversely (miles & snow, 1984; trompenaars, 1993) be associated with hrm policies and outcomes, contingent upon the particular methodology used. numerous scientists additionally see that behaviour may not influence profitability (pritchard, 1992). fey et al. (2000) may likewise give some backing to the utilisation of staff skills, attitudes, motivation, retention and development as interceding variables between hrm policies and organisation performance. hypothesis for research h1: organisational context positively influences (1) sourcing, (2) employees’ skills and (3) employees’ behaviour. h2: organisational context positively influences (1) training and development and (2) organisational performance. h4: training and development positively influence (1) employee skills, (2) employee attitude, (3) employee behaviour and (4) organisational performance. h5: employees’ skills positively influence (1) employees’ attitude and (2) organisational performance. h6: employee’s attitude positively influences (1) employees’ behaviour and (2) organisational performance. h7: employees’ behaviour positively influences organisational performance. a model’s fundamental linking route may be traced back to this discussion: organisational context → resourcing → development → skills àattitude → behaviour → organisational performance. taking into consideration the causal pathway model, the overall structure of intervening models refers to an ‘aberrant connection’ and a ‘advance[ed] linkage’ (black, 2001) that link the development of skills, attitudes and behaviour and the success of the organisation. the ‘immediate link’ between a company’s resourcing and development strategies and its employees’ abilities and mindsets and behaviour, as well as between organisational performance, is stated by schuler and jackson (2008). methodology sampling technique, sample size and data collection this research study focused on manufacturing companies in islamabad and rawalpindi, pakistan. islamabad is the capital of pakistan, while rawalpindi is close by; both cities are regarded as twin cities. there are a total of 269 manufacturing companies, which serve as the population of this study. a simple random selection approach was used to choose a sample of 50 manufacturing companies for further investigation. the data for this inquiry were gathered via the use of a standardised research questionnaire. katou and budhwar (2006) developed the instrument that was used to measure the seven variables of the model. a total of 300 respondents were selected via chance sampling, however only 256 were able to complete a useable questionnaire, resulting in a response rate of about 85% overall. organisational performance was constructed using six factors selected by the researcher: effectiveness, efficiency, development, innovations and the overall quality of organisational performance, in addition to stakeholder satisfaction and satisfaction with the study’s findings. it is hrd’s role to affect the fundamental issue of organisational performance, which is assessed by the dependent variable of organisational performance (wang, dou and li, 2002). respondents were asked to rate their organisation’s performance in the preceding year on a scale of 1–5, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best, in order to reduce the number of errant deviations and anomalies. statistical techniques structural equation modelling and descriptive statistics were used to examine the data in this research. using sem and the amos 20 (ibm, armonk, new york, united states) software, this study was able to deconstruct its data. to examine microscopic structures in detail, amos, spss @ ibm module is used to do structural equation modeling (sem), route analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (cfa). analysis of covariance or causal modelling also exceuted by using this software. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards of research and no human subject and animal object is used for study analysis. results descriptive statistics study results as reported in table 1 show that the respondents’ answer direction is more towards agreement for particular variable items with higher mean values. a greater proportion of respondents’ responses were in disagreement, as shown by the lower mean values. table 1: descriptive statistics. measurement development reliability for assessing the unidimensionality, cronbach’s alpha was used. according to nunnally and bernstein (1994) the adequate value of cronbach’s alpha is 0.70. table 2 illustrates the cronbach’s values for all constructs. nunnally’s cronbach’s alphas were used to verify the internal consistency of the building (1978). a value of more than 0.70 was considered acceptable, with an acceptable alpha of 0.60–0.65. there was a significant increase in reliability while comparing the review instrument with the causal model, as seen in cronbach’s alphas in table 2, which increased from 0.70 to 0.86. component loadings of 0.71 indicate enough individual reliability on its individual construct, which suggests that more than half of the variance in the business-like variable is imparted to the construct. table 2: cronbach’s alpha. measurement development there are several statistical approaches that may be used to examine the data as a single stream to better understand the model fit. component analysis-based construct measurements are examined in this section to see how reliable they are. to determine whether each monitored variable should be maintained or avoided, reliability analysis tests examine the gage’s internal consistency. a generic measurement model and a particular measurement model for each construct gauge are used to verify that all measurements are legitimate and consistent with the construct’s dimensionality. figure 1: the operational human resource management–performance linkage casual model. fit indices the use of sem has grown over time, with three forms of sem now recognised: primary models (type 1), followed by sequential structural model (type 2) and a combination of both (type 3) are all that are included in the third structure (mcquitty, 2004). for the purpose of conducting a comprehensive parameter test, this assessment research employs type 3 techniques, which integrate measurements with structural parameters. quantitative data analysis approach sem is used to establish and evaluate theoretical links between endogenous and exogenous variables (byrne, 2001). this method integrates regression and component analysis into a single set of measurements, rather than using a single factual methodology. it starts with a model definition that partners factors acknowledged as influences on various variables and methods in which these effects are accompanied by the sem methodology (kline, 2005). for all the work that goes into developing a measurement strategy and specifying the theories that will be used to support it, the data that are collected is the final product (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). figure 2: estimated model using structural equation modelling. figure 3: individual results. throughout the estimation process, fit statistics should be examined to check whether the proposed model is a fit for the data and if it is not, any required revisions should be made to enhance the model’s fit. fit statistics may be broken down into three main categories according to holmes-smith et al. (2004): absolute fit indices. incremental fit or comparative fit indices. measures of model simplicity. different types of indices are used to measure fit, and there are a few rules of thumb for determining a satisfactory match (byrne, 2001). researchers and academics from across the world provide their preferred fit indices in a variety of works. according to knight and cavusgil (2004), the comparative fit index (cfi), non-normed fit index (nnfi) or tuker–lewis indix (tli), delta2 (or incremental fit index, ifi), relative noncentrality index (rni) and root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) in lisrel 8 (scientific software international, inc., chapel hill, north caroline, united states) were fit metrics. goodness-of-fit statistics, developed by mcquitty (2004), are less sensitive to the sample size. among these indices are tli, proposed by marsh et al. (1988); ifi, suggested by bentler (1990); and rmsea, cfi and tli recommended by fan et al. (2003). fit indicators cmin/df (chi-square divided by degree of freedom), ifi, tli, cfi and rmsea are evaluated in this research because these fit indices have been used in the past to evaluate model sensitivity and model complexity. in addition, the following subset is cited as a fit measure in the subsequent sections. this measure of absolute discrepancy between indirect variances and variances to trial sample variances and covariance is known as cmin/df. the ifi, tli, normed fit index (nfi) and comparative fit index are often-used indices in sem to quantify the relative improvement in model fit at the baseline level of comparison, respectively. between 0 and 1 is the ideal range of values for each of the nfi, ifi, tli or cfi metrics, although the quality near to one, such as 90–95, indicates an acceptable fit, and more than 95 indicates an extraordinary fit model. (hulland, chow, & lam, 1996). because of its single relative strength of combination qualities, rmsea has been given much more attention than other fit indices. it was also said that the fit of the rmsea ranged from 0.06 to 0.10, and that any number over 0.10 was regarded to be abnormal. some researchers have suggested that rmsea values between 0.05 and 0.10 may be regarded as a sufficient fit, as hulland et al. (1996) have suggested. initial measurement model fit and modification in this part, all of the data relating to initial model fit and cfa have been covered. on the basis of a hypothetical ground, cfa tests the one-dimensionality of a data set by validating the underlying structure (mueller, 1996). in addition, the hypothesis testing model should be extended, if necessary, and the degree of fit should be examined. overall measurement of model fit all of the aforementioned measurements of all of the independent and dependent variables in the proposed and competing models have been checked for model fit. for the models to fit the data correctly, one item was deleted from each of them. currently, an overall measurement model test is being conducted in this part to assess if the measurement model is adequate. all independent and dependent variables’ covariance structures are computed. this measurement model was put through its paces using both independent and dependent variables in combination. the overall model is tested using overall construct variables, and then measurement is performed with some construct items. excluded. the total model’s initial fit indices were cmin/df 2.695, rmsea 0.072, cfi 0.853, tli 0.833, ifi 0.855 and nfi 0.787, as indicated in table 4. the fit indices results are not promising, and several modifications in the construct variables through correlation, as well as the elimination of specific constructs, are advised. table 3: fit indices reported in this study. table 4: achieved fit indices. hypothesis testing is a very important part of any research study for giving the answer to the research questions presented in table 5, and a planned framework and a set of hypotheses were designed, which are now tested in the hypothesis testing part of the research study by using the output of sem. furthermore, this section reports on the model’s hypotheses route findings in order to evaluate those hypotheses. the regression weights are as below in table 5. table 5: hypothesis testing through estimated β value. the significant arrows connecting the model’s different variables imply the following connections, when looking at the sem findings: organisational context positively influencing the resourcing (β = 0.280), employees’ skills (β = 0.154), employees’ attitude (β = 0.171), employees’ behaviour (β = 0.201), training and development (β = 0.194), organisational performance (β = 0.112) and supporting h1a to h1c and h2a to h2b, respectively. results further confirm that resourcing positively influence employees’ skills (β = 0.274), training and development (β = 0.742) and organisational performance (β = 0.029), thus supporting hypotheses h3a to h3c, respectively. it was observed that training and development positively influence employees’ skills (β = 0.447), employees’ attitude (β = 0.231), employee’s behaviour (β = 0.126) and organisational performance (β = 0.162), thus proving the hypotheses h4a to h4d. employees’ skills positively influence the employees’ attitude (β = 0.381) and organisational performance (β = 0.143), thus proving hypotheses h5a and h5b. employees’ attitude positively influences the employee’s behaviour (β = 0.265) and organisational performance (β = 0.179), thus proving hypotheses h6a and h6b. the hypothesised relationship (h7) between employees’ behaviour and organisational performance (β = 0.480) is also confirmed by results. discussion through the use of hrd initiatives, an organisation’s culture is strongly linked to better organisational performance (deal & kennedy, 1982). organisational setting (organisational culture and management style), workers’ attitudes, organisational resources, employees’ behaviour, training and development and organisational performance are all linked to each other in this research study. organisational context and resourcing have been demonstrated to be closely linked in prior studies, and it has been shown that supporting the merit system while increasing organisational resources improves performance. cultural values and beliefs, as well as programmes for the development of human resources, are in line with the strategies used by the company to achieve successful outcomes. according to schein (1990), organisational culture is defined as the total business of a company, such as hrd strategies, resourcing methods and performance management tactics. according to klein (1996), the culture of an organisation has a considerable influence on its overall efficacy and quality of performance. managerial styles have a considerable influence on organisational effectiveness and performance, according to pathack (2005). as stated by ogilvie (2000) and pathack (2005), a company’s productivity, efficiency and overall success are all affected by the management styles it has chosen. an organisation’s context has been shown to be strongly linked to other basic activities and business of firms such as resourcing, staff training and development and overall organisational performance, according to the results of this study and past research. dhar et al. (2018) proposed that employee resourcing is an essential part of every company’s long-term success. resources are favourably linked to employee skills and training and development, but adversely linked to organisational performance, based on the results of this research. every company that wants to enhance its performance must prioritise employee education and development, along with adequate funding (barton & delbridge, 2004). following resourcing, employee training and development programmes may boost team learning, reduce employee turnover, and equip staff with additional skills, making them more efficient, which may result in improved organisational performance (thang, quang, & buyens, 2010; vikram & sayeeduzzafar, 2014). according to prior research, if an organisation’s resourcing strategy is more effective and reliable, it may contribute positively to organisational performance; otherwise, it may be negatively associated with organisational performance. according to stone (2002), training is essential to the achievement of organisational goals and objectives because it brings together the interests of the corporation and its personnel. in this study’s research findings, there was a favourable association between employee skills, attitude and conduct and organisational performance. rama devi and shaik (2012) argued that organisations may train and develop their employees to gain a competitive edge by enhancing their abilities and job effectiveness, which in turn improves the organisation’s overall performance. according to rama devi and shaik (2012), in order for an individual and a company to be successful, training and development are essential. training and development have been shown to have a positive effect on employees’ abilities, attitudes and behaviours and an improved company performance. american society for training and development recommended that every employee in a company should get 40 h of training each year (kinicki & kreitner, 2006). employee abilities have a significant impact on employee mood and organisational success. according to bartlett (2001), fey et al. (2000) and wright et al. (2003), organisational performance may be enhanced through systems of resourcing and development planning aimed at improving the capacities of workers’ attitudes such as motivation, commitment and contentment. prior research has shown that employees’ skills can be increased through training and development. it may lead to an improvement in organisational performance by contributing to a shift in their attitude and conduct towards their work. according to shih et al. (2006), employees’ productivity and efficiency may be improved by spending money on their education and training. campbell’s work performance theory states that an employee’s attitude and behaviour may have a beneficial influence on the performance of the organisation (campbell, 1990; wright et al., 2003). this research shows that an employee’s attitude has a significant influence on his or her behaviour and the success of the company. employees’ attitudes may be changed via education, which has a beneficial effect on their behaviour and the success of the firm. policies and procedures that a company adheres to have an impact on employees’ attitude and conduct. there was a strong correlation between employees’ attitude and behaviour and organisational success. this research found a link between a company’s ability to operate well and the behaviour of its employees. employee retention is a fundamental objective of training and development, which aims to instil in them the idea that the company’s success depends on their staying on board for as long as possible (katou & budhwar, 2007). an employee’s actions, such as staying in the company, being present at work and making a good impact on the company’s success, may convey a positive message among other workers (guest, 2001). conclusion this study is an endeavour to find the effect of hrd on organisational performance. in addition, it specifically investigates the impact of organisational context, resources, training and development, skills, attitude and behaviour on organisational performance. the study’s independent elements, such as resourcing and training and development, employee skills, employee attitude and behaviour and the organisational setting, all had a positive link with organisational performance. according to the results of the study, hrd techniques have a favourable influence on the organisational performance of manufacturing organisations. however, training and development activities are favourably related with resource allocation, even when there is no clear link between resourcing and organisational success. this study’s results show that if a company improves its resourcing strategy, training and development may also have a favourable impact on the organisation’s success in attaining its targeted objectives. acknowledgements competing interests the author(s) declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.i. constructed the manuscript and gathered the data. n.k. managed the data analysis. lastly, j.k. and a.m.k. supervised consolidating this article for publication. funding information this research did not receive any specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data that support the findings of this study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author, n.k. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors and the publisher. references abogsesa, a.s., & kaushik, g. (2017). impact of training and development on employee performance: a study of libyan bank. international journal of civic engagement and social change (ijcesc), 4(3), 53–68. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijcesc.2017070104 ahmed, s., ahmad, f.b., & joarder, m.h.r. (2014). hrm practices-nonperformance relationships: a conceptual framework for rmg sector in developing economy. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 7(4), 87. abomeh, o.s. (2013). assessment of recruitment practice on organization performance: empirical study of hospitality businesses in abuja. european scientific journal, 9(29), 43–57. https://doi.org/10.12816/0002287 alcázar, f.m., fernández, p.m.r., & gardey, g.s. (2005). researching on shrm: an analysis of the debate over the role played by human resources in firm success. management revue, 16(2), 213–241. https://doi.org/10.5771/0935-9915-2005-2-213 appelbaum, s.h., & reichart, w. (1998). how to measure an organization’s learning ability: the facilitating factors-part ii. journal of workplace learning, 10(1), 5–28. https://doi.org/10.1108/13665629810370012 bentler, p.m. (1990). comparative fit indexes in structural models. psychological bulletin, 207, 238–246. bartlett, k.r. (2001). the relationship between training and organizational commitment: a study in the health care field. human resource development quarterly, 12(4), 335–352. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.1001 barton, h., & delbridge, r. (2004). hrm in support of the learning factory: evidence from the us and uk automotive components industries. the international journal of human resource management, 15(2), 331–345. https://doi.org/10.1080/0958519032000158545 bates, r., & chen, h.c. (2004). human resource development value orientations: a construct validation study. human resource development international, 7(3), 351–370. https://doi.org/10.1080/1367886042000218031 becker, b.e., & huselid, m.a. (1998). high performance work systems and firm performance: a synthesis of research and managerial implications. in research in personnel and human resource management. stamford, ct: jai press. black, w.c. (2001). invited reaction: the influence of individual characteristics and the work environment on varying levels of training outcomes. human resource development quarterly, 12(1), 25–31. https://doi.org/10.1002/1532-1096(200101/02)12:1%3c25::aid-hrdq3%3e3.0.co;2-t blau, p.m. (1964). justice in social exchange. sociological inquiry, 34(2), 193–206. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682x.1964.tb00583.x bollen, k.a. (1989). structural equations with latent variables (vol. 210). john wiley & sons. brooks, i. (2009). organizational behavior: individuals, groups and organization. pearson education. budhwar, p.s., & sparrow, p.r. (1997). evaluating levels of strategic integration and devolvement of human resource management in india. international journal of human resource management, 8(4), 476–494. https://doi.org/10.1080/095851997341568 byrne, b.m. (2001). structural equation modeling with amos: basic concepts. applications, and programming, 20(01). campbell, j.p. (1990). modeling the performance prediction problem in industrial and organizational psychology. in handbook of industrial and organizational psychology. palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. chiu, r.k., & francesco, a.m. (2003). dispositional traits and turnover intention: examining the mediating role of job satisfaction and affective commitment. international journal of manpower, 24(3), 284–299. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720310479741 cosh, a., duncan, j., hughes, a., & britain, g. (1998). investment in training and small firm growth and survival: an empirical analysis for the uk 1987-95. london: department for education and employment. deal, t.e., & kennedy, a.a. (1983). corporate cultures: the rites and rituals of corporate life: addison-wesley. business horizons, 26(2), 82–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/0007-6813(83)90092-7 davidmann, m. (1995). style of management and leadership (2nd ed). retrieved september 09, 2022 from http://www.solbaram.org/articles/clm2.html dhar, b.k. (2019). the impact of intellectual capital on organizational performance in the banking sector of bangladesh. doctoral dissertation. universiti sains islam malaysia. dhar, b.k., masruki, r., mutalib, m., rahouma, h.m., sobhani, f.a., & absar, m.m. (2018). mediating effect of organizational commitment between islamic human resource practices and organizational performance among islamic banks of bangladesh. the journal of muamalat and islamic finance research, 15(2), 54–65. https://doi.org/10.33102/jmifr.v15i2.177 dhar, b.k., mutalib, m., & sobhani, f.a. (2019). effect of innovation capability on human capital and organizational performance. international journal of advanced science and technology, 29(4), 7074–7087. dhar, b.k., mutalib, m., & sobhani, f.a. (2017a). investigating the impact of human resource accounting practice on organizational performance. international islamic social economic conference, universiti sains islam malaysia, malaysia, december 12–13, 2017. dhar, b.k., mutalib, m., & sobhani, f.a. (2019). effect of innovation capability on human capital and organizational performance. international journal of advanced science and technology, 29(4), 7074–7087. dhar, b.k., rahouma, h.m., masruki, r., & absar, m.m. (2017b). impact of islamic human resource practices on organizational performance through organizational commitment in the banking sector of bangladesh. in 7th islamic economic system conference (iecons), muscat, oman, december 12–13, 2017. degraft-otoo, e. (2012). the effect of training and development on employee performance at accra polytechnic. unpublished mba project accra polytechnic. dhamodharan, v., daniel, b.j.c., & ambuli, t.v. (2010). an empirical study on assessing trainees’ expectations and their perceptions. international business research, 3(2), 174. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v3n2p174 diamantopoulos, a., & siguaw, j.a. (2000). introducing lisrel: a guide for the uninitiated. sage. eisenberger, r., cummings, j., armeli, s., & lynch, p. (1997). perceived organizational support, discretionary treatment, and job satisfaction. journal of applied psychology, 82(5), 812–820. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.82.5.812 eisenberger, r., huntington, r., hutchison, s., & sowa, d. (1986). perceived organizational support. journal of applied psychology, 71(3), 500–507. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.71.3.500 elangovan, a.r. (2001). causal ordering of stress, satisfaction and commitment, and intention to quit: a structural equations analysis. leadership & organization development journal, 22(4), 159–166. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730110395051 evans, w.r., & davis, w.d. (2015). high-performance work systems and organizational performance: the mediating role of internal social structure. journal of management, 31(5), 758–775. fan, h.r., zhai, m.g., xie, y.h., & yang, j.h. (2003). ore-forming fluids associated with granite-hosted gold mineralization at the sanshandao deposit, jiaodong gold province, china. mineralium deposita, 38(6), 739–750. fey, c.f., björkman, i., & pavlovskaya, a. (2000). the effect of human resource management practices on firm performance in russia. international journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/095851900339963 george, j.m., & brief, a.p. (1992). feeling good-doing good: a conceptual analysis of the mood at work-organizational spontaneity relationship. psychological bulletin, 112(2), 310–329. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.2.310 getakena, j.n. (2017). an assessment of the effects of management styles in private enterprises on customer satisfaction: a case of scooby enterprises kisii county. gouldner, h.p. (1960). dimensions of organizational commitment. administrative science quarterly, 4(4), 468–490. https://doi.org/10.2307/2390769 gubbins, c., garavan, t.n., hogan, c., & woodlock, m. (2006). enhancing the role of the hrd function: the case of a health services organization. irish journal of management, 27(1), 171–206. guest, d.e. (2001). human resource management: when research confronts theory. international journal of human resource management, 12(7), 1092–1106. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190110067837 hardré, p.l. (2003). beyond two decades of motivation: a review of the research and practice in instructional design and human performance technology. human resource development review, 2(1), 54–81. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484303251661 holmes-smith, p., coote, l., & cunningham, e. (2004). structural equation modeling: from the fundamentals to advanced topics. melbourne: sreams. hulland, j., chow, y.h., & lam, s. (1996). use of causal models in marketing research: a review. international journal of research in marketing, 13(2), 181–197. https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-8116(96)00002-x jeet, v., & sayeeduzzafar, d. (2014). a study of hrm practices and its impact on employee’s job satisfaction in private sector banks: a case study of hdfc bank. international journal of advance research in computer science and management studies, 2(1), 70–75. kalu, n.i., & akinyokun, v.o.c. (2005). effects of employee development on organizational performance: a case study of nigerian bottling company. retrieved from www.daryweb.com/thesis katou, a.a. (2009). the impact of human resource development on organizational performance: test of a causal model. journal of behavioral and applied management, 10(3), 335–356. https://doi.org/10.21818/001c.17264 katou, a.a. (2013). justice, trust, and employee reactions: an empirical examination of the hrm system. management research review, 36(7), 674–699. https://doi.org/10.1108/mrr-07-2012-0160 katou, a.a., & budhwar, p.s. (2006). human resource management systems and organizational performance: a test of a mediating model in the greek manufacturing context. the international journal of human resource management, 17(7), 1223–1253. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190600756525 katou, a.a., & budhwar, p.s. (2007). the effect of human resource management policies on organizational performance in greek manufacturing firms. thunderbird international business review, 49(1), 1–35. https://doi.org/10.1002/tie.20129 kepha, o., kagiri, a.w., & amoke, d.o. (2014). the influence of training and development on performance of employees in research institutions in kenya. international journal of science and research, 3(5), 139–136. khan, m.a. (2010). effects of human resource management practices on organizational performance – an empirical study of oil and gas industry in pakistan. european journal of economics, finance and administrative sciences, 24(157–174), 158–175. khan, s., & abdullah, n.n. (2019). the impact of staff training and development on teachers’ productivity. economics, management and sustainability, 4(1), 37–45. https://doi.org/10.14254/jems.2019.4-1.4 kidombo, h.j., k’obonyo, p., & gakuu, c.m. (2012). human resource strategic orientation and organizational commitment in kenyan manufacturing firms. international journal of arts and commerce, 1(7), 7–28. kinicki, a., & kreitner, r. (2006). organizational behavior: concepts, skills and practices (2nd ed.). new delhi: mcgraw-hill. klein, s.m. (1996). a management communication strategy for change. journal of organizational change management, 9(2), 32–46. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534819610113720 kline, r.b. (2005). principles and practice of structural equation modeling. new york, ny: guildford. knight, g.a., & cavusgil, s.t. (2004). innovation, organizational capabilities, and the born-global firm. journal of international business studies, 35(2), 124–141. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400071 kuchinke, k.p. (2003). contingent hrd: toward a theory of variation and differentiation in formal human resource development. human resource development review, 2(3), 294–309. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484303256885 lee, h.c., & chuang, t.h. (2009). the impact of leadership styles on job stress and turnover intention: taiwan insurance industry as an example. effects of leadership style on organizational performance: a survey of selected small-scale enterprises in ikosi-ketu council development area of lagos state, nigeria. australian journal of business and management research, 1(7), 100–111. lopez-cabrales, a., & valle-cabrera, r. (2020). sustainable hrm strategies and employment relationships as drivers of the triple bottom line. human resource management review, 30(3), 100689. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2019.100689 maccallum, r.c., browne, m.w., & sugawara, h.m. (1996). power analysis and determination of sample size for covariance structure modeling. psychological methods, 1(2), 130–149. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989x.1.2.130 mcquitty, s. (2004). statistical power and structural equation models in business research. journal of business research, 57(2), 175–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0148-2963(01)00301-0 miles, r.e., & snow, c.c. (1984). organizational strategy, structure, and process. tokyo: mcgraw-hill kogahusha. mohamud, a.m. (2014). the effect of training on employee performance in public sector organizations in kenya. the case of nhif machakos county. doctoral dissertation. university of nairobi. mueller, f. (1996). human resources as strategic assets: an evolutionary resource-based theory. journal of management studies, 33(6), 757–785. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.1996.tb00171.x mullen, p.e., mackenzie, r., ogloff, j.r., pathé, m., mcewan, t., & purcell, r. (2006). assessing and managing the risks in the stalking situation. journal of the american academy of psychiatry and the law online, 34(4), 439–450. nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory (3rd ed.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. ogilvie, j. (2000). the role of human resources management practices in predicting organizational commitment. group and organizational strides, 11(4), 335–339. https://doi.org/10.1177/0364108286114003 ogonyomi, p.o., & ojikutu, r.k. (2014). employee resourcing and organizational performance of small and medium enterprises in lagos state, nigeria. ombui, k., elegwa, m., & gichuhi, a.w. (2014). the influence of recruitment and selection on the performance of employees research institutes in kenya. ijsr, 3(5). 132–138. onyango, w.p. (2015). effects of transformational leadership styles on talent management: a case of micro, small and medium size enterprises in migori county, kenya. journal of poverty, investment and development, 10, 51–60. pathack, s.h. (2005). management style: impact on subordinates’ job satisfaction. leadership quarterly, 11(2), 198–204. pritchard, r.d. (1992). organizational productivity. in m.d. dunnette & l.m. hough (eds.), handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (2nd ed.). palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. raghuram, s. (1994). linking staffing and training practices with business strategy: a theoretical perspective. human resource development quarterly, 5(3), 237–251. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.3920050304 rama devi, v., & shaik, n. (2012). evaluating training & development effectiveness-a measurement model. asian journal of management research, 2(1), 722–735. rhoades, l., & eisenberger, r. (2002). perceived organizational support: a review of the literature. journal of applied psychology, 87(4), 698–714. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.698 robbins, s.p., & sanghi, s. (2007). organizational behavior. new delhi: pearson education. saks, a.m. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 2(7), 600–619. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169 schein, e.h. (1990). organizational culture (vol. 45, no. 2, p. 109). american psychological association. schuler, r.s., & jackson, s.e. (2008). strategic human resource management. european journal of business and management, 4(3), 42–55. schwartz, s.h. (1994). beyond individualism/collectivism: new cultural dimensions of values. thousand oaks, ca: sage. shih, h.a., chiang, y.h., & hsu, c.c. (2006). can high performance work systems really lead to better performance? international journal of manpower, 27(8), 741–763. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720610713530 shore, l.m., & shore, t.h. (1995). perceived organizational support and organizational justice. in organizational politics, justice, and support: managing the social climate of the workplace (pp. 149–164). london: westport, connecticut. shore, l.m., tetrick, l.e., lynch, p., & barksdale, k. (2006). social and economic exchange: construct development and validation. journal of applied social psychology, 36(4), 837–867. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0021-9029.2006.00046.x søndergaard, m. (1994). research note: hofstede’s consequences: a study of reviews, citations and replications. organization studies, 15(3), 447–456. https://doi.org/10.1177/017084069401500307 statista. (2021). global workplace training: market size by region 2008–2020. statista. retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1232500/size-of-the-workplace-training-market-north-america-and-rest-of-the-world/ stewart, d. (2010). growing the corporate culture. retrieved from https://www.wachovia.com/foundation/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=ab411f07760aa110vgnvcm1000004b0d1872 sears, g.j., & rowe, p.m. (2003). a personality-based similar-to-me effect in the employment interview: conscientiousness, affect-versus competencemediated interpretations, and the role of job relevance. canadian journal of behavioural science/revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, 35(1), 13. stone, r.j. (2002). human resource management (4th ed.). milton, qld: john wiley & sons. thang, n.n., quang, t., & buyens, d. (2010). the relationship between training and firm performance: a literature review. research and practice in human resource management, 18(1), 28–45. trompenaars, f. (1993). riding the waves of culture. chicago, il: irwin. tucker, l.r., & lewis, c. (1973). a reliability coefficient for maximum likelihood factor analysis. psychometrika, 38(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02291170 vikram, j., & sayeeduzzafar, d. (2014). a study of hrm practices and its impact on employees job satisfaction in private sector banks: a case study of hdfc bank. international journal of adv ance research in computer science and management studies, 7(3), 344–353. wang, g.g., dou, z., & li, n. (2002). a systems approach to measuring return on investment for hrd interventions. human resource development quarterly, 13(2), 203–224. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.1024 wright, p.m., gardner, t.m., & moynihan, l.m. (2003). the impact of hr practices on the performance of business units. human resource management journal, 13(3), 21–36. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2003.tb00096.x yoon, j., & lim, j.c. (1999). organizational support in the workplace: the case of korean hospital employees. human relations, 52(7), 923–945. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872679905200704 zhu, c., liu, a., & chen, g. (2018). high performance work systems and corporate performance: the influence of entrepreneurial orientation and organizational learning. frontiers of business research in china, 12(4), 123–135. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11782-018-0025-y abstract introduction literature review research design findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) mavela t. gumede department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa cookie m. govender department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation gumede, m.t., & govender, c.m. (2022). human capital development as a line manager responsibility in the south african education sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a2079. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.2079 original research human capital development as a line manager responsibility in the south african education sector mavela t. gumede, cookie m. govender received: 17 aug. 2022; accepted: 11 oct. 2022; published: 24 nov. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: human capital development (hcd) initiatives are crucial in the education sector to improve the delivery of quality education. at the centre of quality teaching and learning are educators and lecturers who are competent and well-equipped to adapt to the changing environment. research purpose: to explore whether hcd was the key responsibility of line managers in the south african (sa) education sector. motivation of the study: line managers are expected to continuously develop the competencies of educators and lecturers by implementing hcd interventions. there is limited empirical evidence that explored hcd responsibilities performed by line managers in the sa education sector. research approach/design and method: this study adopted a qualitative research method underpinned by the interpretivist paradigm. semistructured interviews were conducted with n = 12 purposively selected participants. the data collected were analysed using thematic analysis. main findings: the findings of this article indicated that line managers are responsible for identifying training gaps, implementing hcd interventions and monitoring performance. the study also found that support from key stakeholders is imperative for line managers to effectively implement hcd activities. furthermore, the study revealed that line managers do not utilise evaluation models to determine the effectiveness of hcd interventions. practical/managerial implications: the study proposed reciprocal support for hcd stakeholders’ model that can assist policymakers, line managers and hcd professionals within the education sector. the model provides for the division and allocation of hcd tasks. contributions/value-add: this study contributes to the body of knowledge in hcd within the sa education sector. in the practical context, this article proposed a reciprocal support for hcd stakeholders’ model to improve the effectiveness of hcd initiatives implemented by line managers. keywords: human capital development; line managers; human resource development; key performance or responsibility areas; interventions; education institutions. introduction in the south african (sa) context, skills shortages have continued unabatedly to hinder and negatively affect the participation of the majority of people in the economy of the country. this can be associated with the past discriminatory laws that targeted black people, who are the majority population, as well as the slow pace of transformation and opportunities for the previously disadvantaged groups. this is despite the legislation and policy reforms introduced to enhance skills and ultimately reduce inequality, poverty and unemployment. the skills development act, no. 97 of 1998, aims to develop the skills of the sa workforce, encourage employers to utilise the workplace as an active learning environment and provide employees with an opportunity to acquire new skills (south africa, 1998). according to le grange et al. (2006), while it is crucially important to put in place measures that will correct the ills of the past sa regime, it is equally important to also focus attention on the constant changes in the global world in order to remain economically competitive, and as such, higher education institutions (heis), as a knowledge production subsector within the education system, should be ready to respond to such changes. human capital development (hcd) in the sa education sector formed the basis of this article. the research question for this current study was: what are the hcd key performance areas (kpas) of line managers in the sa education sector? previous studies have claimed that the involvement of line managers in human resource management (hrm) decisions, hrm activities and processes and hrm budgeting processes enhances organisational performance (waseem et al., 2020). the research objective of this article is to explore whether hcd is a kpa in line manager performance contracts in the sa education sector. line managers from basic education (i.e. primary and secondary schools), public technical and vocational education and training (tvet) colleges and private heis within the sa education environment participated in this current study and provided their insights and experience on the phenomenon under investigation. various organisations have used human resource development (hrd) interchangeably with terms such as education, training and development; employee training; and/or learning and development, among others in the literature (meyer et al., 2016). furthermore, mara (2020) indicated that hcd is the term used to refer to training and development in organisations. human capital development is the main terminology used in this study. human capital can be defined as the knowledge, skills, abilities and experience that an individual employee possesses and the sharing of such competencies with the entire organisation towards the creation of value (baron, 2011). considering this definition, hcd can be summarised as the development of the workforce’s skills, knowledge, abilities and experience, which is ultimately disseminated throughout the organisation. noe (2020) asserts that hcd in an organisation includes the formation of knowledge and the sharing of such knowledge. an organisation has at its disposal a variety of hcd initiatives that range from continuous learning and development programmes to informal and formal workplace programmes that induce creativity and advance skills and acquiring of knowledge that results in enhanced performance by employees (erasmus et al., 2016; noe, 2020). le grange et al. (2006) indicated that for the education institutions to become learning organisations with a culture of lifelong learning for lecturers as well as educators, hcd programmes should be strengthened and prioritised. sthapit (2017) asserts that performance management and various other hcd activities are independently effective. moreover, adequate integration between them can yield positive results and improve employee competencies for any organisation. kareem and hussein (2019) indicated that to achieve organisational effectiveness, managers, especially at the top echelons of the organisations, should strive to develop well-specified and focused hrd practices that are aimed at improving the skills, knowledge, abilities and experience of individual employees. literature review the hcd trends are presented under the following subheadings: hcd in the sa education sector; line managers’ role in hcd; hcd as a kpa of line managers; and line managers’ effectiveness with hcd. human capital development in the south african education sector the sa hrd status report indicated that 20% of the total national budget is spent on the education sector. in comparison, this percentage is the highest budget allocation of any other sector (human resource development council, 2016). the report further stated that the sa developmental agenda acknowledges the need to enhance the quality of education which will ultimately result in developing a competitive national workforce, improved quality of life and feasible economic growth which actively involves the citizens. the strategic investments in hcd at both national and organisational levels have the potential of enhancing the competitiveness and productivity of the nation and organisation’s workforce, respectively (swanson, 2021). the achievement of this goal can be hindered by the lack of investment in hcd interventions by education institutions such as universities, colleges and schools (musakuro & de klerk, 2021). the constant enhancement of quality in the sa education sector and the attainment of strategic objectives for each education institution can be achieved by strategically implementing hcd interventions for lecturers and educators, such as continuous professional development (cpd) and the cultivation of lifelong learners (le grange et al., 2006). the education sector in sa has undergone tremendous transformation since 1994. the education, training and development practices sector education and training authority (etdp seta), which is an institution established in terms of the skills development act, 1998, is mandated to, among others, compile a sector skills plan for the sa education, training and development sector. the etdp seta has indicated that it is still struggling to adjust to the transformation that has inundated the sa education sector (education, training and development practices sector education and training authority, 2017a). the issues included the provision of quality learning programmes that are in line with the current changing needs, the utilisation of technology and the professionalisation of the educational workforce. a collaboration from various stakeholders, including etdp seta, participated in the introduction of a system that permits lecturers to be placed in relevant industries on a regular basis (van der bijl & taylor, 2016). the sector skills plan acknowledges that inadequate teacher training renders the quality of education in the sector ineffective (education, training and development practices sector education and training authority, 2017b; maddock & maroun, 2018). kareem and hussein (2019) described heis as organisations that are responsible for the delivery of education as their principal focus. this assertion may be extended to public schools and colleges that provide similar education services. they further indicated that these institutions, to deliver their services successfully, would largely be affected by the quality of their workforce. jasson and govender (2017) indicated that managers are tasked with the promotion of employee learning and the transfer of acquired skills which enhance productivity and overall organisational performance. developmental needs of educators and lecturers in the education sector le grange et al. (2006) pointed out that the needs of the education sector and learners at large must be considered in proportional to the needs of the education institutions and individual educators or lecturers. since 2016, qualifications required for tvet college lecturers are different from those of the school educators (van der bijl & taylor, 2016). to effectively develop teachers at schools, hcd interventions such as coaching, mentoring, peer observation and lesson study should be developed and implemented (macheng, 2016). van der bijl and taylor (2016) stated that the first qualification of the tvet college lecturers must embed a work-based learning component that serves to prepare the lecturer to be effective with teaching and learning. le grange et al. (2006) argued that the attitude of educators or lecturers should be on answering the question of what more should be learned rather than to immerse themselves in what they already comprehend. professional development programmes should be developed on the basis of thorough analysis of the needs to ensure that they respond to cultural, political and institutional contexts, respectively (jeannin & hallinger, 2018). czerniawski et al. (2017) assert that lecturers are motivated and encouraged if appropriate time is made for adequate induction and continuous development programmes. macheng (2016) argued that the crucial aspect that hinders the effectiveness of cpd is the absence of a take-in-charge approach by educators for their own development. self-development implies that employees continuously improve their skills, knowledge and abilities out of their own will and initiatives (podsakoff et al., 2000). the adult learning theory postulates that adults have an intuitive need for self-development (macheng, 2016). lecturers are willing to participate in continuous development programmes that occur regularly and focus on experiential learning (czerniawski et al., 2017). to accelerate and provide a cpd programme within the college education system, an approach was developed to research and implement an in-service industry-based workplace (van der bijl & taylor, 2016). every educator or lecturer should have a mentor appointed to provide guidance on administrative issues or processes, updating of record-keeping forms, curriculum application and acclimatisation with relevant departmental trends and needs (le grange et al., 2006). line managers’ role in human capital development line managers assist employees to enhance and improve their work-related knowledge and skills by making training and development opportunities available to them (fu et al., 2018). when performing the delegated hr functions, line managers – including supervisors, managers and departmental heads – liaise and report to their hr departments (yusliza et al., 2019). a good relationship between the hr department, line managers and employees plays an important role in the successful implementation of hrm practices (bos-nehles & meijerink, 2018). this relationship is premised on the social exchange between hrm stakeholders. support and capacity development provided by the hrm department to line managers will engender line managers who are motivated to engage in hrm matters and, ultimately, encourage cooperation by employees towards the success and achievement of the organisational objectives (bos-nehles & meijerink, 2018; mahmood et al., 2017). line managers must be aware of their roles, responsibilities and accountability for the hrm and hrd function of their immediate employees (rupcic, 2017). in heis, it was found that immediate managers play a crucial role during the needs assessment for training and development for academic staff (sušanj et al., 2020). employee performance appraisals and performance feedback are regarded as key hr line management practices that can be integrated with other processes to obtain optimal performance and constant improvement by employees. the performance management function should be a tool used by line managers to achieve the strategic objectives of the institutions. line managers can effectively implement a performance management system by successfully performing both their operational and performance appraisals functions (van waeyenberg & decramer, 2018). pulakos et al. (2019) argued that effective managers regularly meet employees, assist them to solve problems, coach and develop their employees. supervisors who support hcd interventions ultimately influence motivation to participate in learning (park et al., 2018). according to noe (2020), manager support can be described as a range of activities, from the importance of training programmes for employees, to the transfer of learning into the job and the organisation. table 1 outlines the level of support that the manager can provide for hcd activities. the transfer of learning is possible and effective when the support for hcd interventions is high. the success of training is also high when the manager is actively involved, and this includes participation in mentoring and coaching programmes if the manager is a mentor himor herself. line managers with the coaching leadership style demonstrate a high level of support for their subordinate and ensure that the employees’ contribution and improvement is acknowledged (redeker et al., 2014). at the lowest level of support, the manager budgets and approves the training and ensures that selected employees attend identified training programmes (table 1). table 1: levels of management support for training. human capital development as key performance area of line managers for line managers to undertake hr-related responsibilities with exceptional diligence, they need to be competent and motivated (op de beeck et al., 2017). yusliza et al. (2019) assert that, notwithstanding the fact that organisations differ in various aspects, it is feasible to develop and implement clear and precise job specifications that consist of hr functions for line managers. for line managers to be successful with their hcd responsibilities, good relationships with hr should exist (mcguire et al., 2011). this suggests that the success of line managers with the execution of hcd tasks depends largely on various stakeholders across the institution, that is, colleagues, hcd professionals and other managers at the middle and senior levels. the point of emphasis is that of classifying hr activities, which should culminate from a joint decision taken by all stakeholders specifying which hcd tasks should be performed by line managers (blayney et al., 2020). when conducting a needs assessment, it is important that all stakeholders are involved in the process (noe, 2020). furthermore, stakeholders in this context are the people in the organisation who have a keen interest in the hrd interventions and for whom support is needed for these interventions to be effective (noe, 2020). collin et al. (2020) found that clearly articulated supervisory roles and well-described structures are fundamental to hcd practices that lead to more employee creativity in the workplace. if the relationship between the key role players in hcd (i.e. line managers, employees and hcd professionals) is good, line managers are motivated to implement hcd practices effectively (bos-nehles & meijerink, 2018). moreover, employees with motivated managers tend to be more committed and productive in their work. line manager effectiveness with human capital development noe (2020) describes training effectiveness as the benefit obtained by the organisation and its employees after implementing training. the evaluation of training is referred to as a process of gathering information required to determine whether the training implemented was effective. there are several reasons that make it important to conduct an evaluation of the training or hrd interventions. these include the assessment of learning and actions undertaken during the implementation of the hrd intervention to determine its success or failure (oguntimehin & bukki, 2020). training or hcd evaluations also help managers to receive feedback which is necessary for their functionary hcd processes (oguntimehin & bukki, 2020). taking hcd evaluation steps regularly tends to inform future action and improvements. govaerts et al. (2017) emphasise that the integration of hcd in departments should begin before the training of employees, during the training and after the training. supervisors do not commonly offer pretraining support and only supported their subordinates after the training programme. the more stakeholders are involved in hcd decision-making, hcd practices and hcd policies, the more participation in hcd at an organisational level improves as well. it is in that context that hcd is perceived to be a strategic intervention for management in an organisation. literature trends indicate that line managers associate the improvement of work as one of the long-established and supported goals for hrd in an organisation (poell & van der krogt, 2017). moreover, mehale et al. (2021) indicated that hcd or training evaluation tools are convenient in determining the effectiveness of hcd interventions. research design research approach this article is exploratory in nature in that the researchers discovered and interpreted the views, beliefs, thoughts, knowledge and perceptions about the hcd phenomena from the perspectives of the participants. the research engaged in a qualitative approach to explore how hcd is the responsibility of line managers in the sa education sector. this research is underpinned by the interpretivist paradigm. interpretivism assumes that the discovery of facts occurs in a subjective manner through the social construction between participants and researchers (makombe, 2017; saunders & tosey, 2015). interpretivism holds that individuals possess distinct views; thus, the responsibility lies with the researchers to get as close as possible to the actual setting of the participants to elicit these multiple views (creswell, 2016). research strategy the research followed an exploratory strategy, as it is relevant and suitable to address the research question. the exploratory study can produce data that are robust and reliable (baxter & jack, 2008). although the multicase study imposes intriguing difficulties, it can also provide an ample view of what is being researched through the process of comparisons of differences and similarities (remenyi, 2012). research method this article adopted a qualitative research method to explore whether hcd is a kpa of line managers in the sa education sector. the research process began by identifying the problem, followed by the development of research questions which were structured in anticipation of answers to that problem through the use of a qualitative data collection method. the data gathered from participants were thereafter analysed in order to answer the research question (creswell, 2016). the semistructured interviews were utilised to collect data with the purpose of achieving the research objective. the transcribed data were coded and categorised to develop themes that relate to the research objective of this study. the following subheadings are discussed to elucidate further the research method adopted in this article. research setting several educational institutions, as per table 2, were identified within the gauteng province, wherein line managers who met the set criteria were invited to participate in the study. the participants from these educational institutions were regarded as appropriate, as they can provide insights that will enable the study to answer its research question. table 2: research participants’ job titles and relevant education subsectors. entrée and establishing researcher roles the researchers obtained permission from gatekeepers at the identified educational institutions prior to the interviews with the participants. the researchers ensured that participants were well informed about the purpose of the study. this approach allowed the participants to seek more information about the study and their roles. moreover, the participants were made to feel at ease and to share openly their perspectives, experiences and views about the implementation of hcd within their scope of practice. research participants and sampling method the participants of this study were line managers in the sa education sector. a total of n = 12 participants was selected to participate in the study using purposive sampling method (see table 2). purposive sampling is also referred to as judgemental sampling (gray, 2014; saunders et al., 2009). purposive sampling allowed the researchers to select participants based on the preliminary criteria, and it is also suitable for a qualitative study with a small sample size. the participants had to meet the set key criteria of 5 years’ or more experience in a supervisory or managerial position within the education sector to be included in the present study. data collection method semistructured interviews were conducted with the participants in their working environment. an interview guide was developed and utilised to direct the interview sessions. semistructured interviews were beneficial because probes and clarity-seeking questions were posed to participants if the answers were vague and ambiguous. interviews were recorded and transcribed for analysis. strategies employed to ensure data quality and integrity in a qualitative study, researchers are expected to ensure credibility, transferability, confirmability and dependability of their research study and findings (eriksson & kovalainen, 2011). the findings of this study were validated using the above-mentioned criteria by the researchers. in brief, credibility was obtained through prolonged engagement with participants as well as recapping some of the important notes for participants to comment on and validate as their actual views. transferability entails the provision of all processes that the researchers undertook during the study, including the full details of participants. moreover, the quotations by participants determine the extent to which the findings can be transferred to other similar environments. the researchers used an audit trail to ensure that all engagements with the participants and other steps taken throughout the study are recorded and incorporated into the final report of the study. an audit trail attests that every aspect of the research process (from conceptualisation to execution) has been properly documented for access by anyone with an interest of such a trail of the research (gray, 2014). a research journal was used for audit trail purposes, and it was updated as the research progressed and notes taken were included in the analysis and, subsequently, in the research findings. finally, the findings of the study were premised on the data collected rather than the values and views of the researchers. findings and conclusions of the study were supported by quotations of the participants to demonstrate that they are value-neutral and unbiased. data analysis the qualitative data collected were analysed using thematic analysis. thematic analysis involves the identification of codes and categories. the researchers read the transcripts and label codes in each sentence that represents a specific view or idea. patterns and themes emerged from the data coded. in addition, atlas.ti software (scientific software development gmbh, berlin, germany) was used to sort, store and retrieve data more quickly and easily. the analysis of the collected qualitative data was conducted using an inductive approach, which moved from raw data into codes and, subsequently, themes (creswell, 2016). ethical considerations this article considered and adhered to the general ethical issues of research. the clearance certificate was issued to the researchers by the industrial psychology and people management. research ethics committee on 16 october 2018, with clearance code ippm-2019-275-(m). the certificate was also provided to the gatekeepers during the request for permission to conduct research at various targeted educational institutions. participants in this study were provided with sufficient information about the purpose of the study, and their informed consent was requested in writing before the interviews. furthermore, participation in this study was voluntary and the identities of participants and their contributions will remain anonymous and confidential. the transcripts and recordings of semistructured interviews were kept secured and only accessible to researchers through passwords. permission to record the interview sessions was requested from the participants prior to the beginning of each interview. findings the themes and subthemes that emerged during the data analysis were aligned with the research objective for this article. this subsection discusses the three themes and six subthemes as findings of this article. theme one: key responsibilities the participants provided three contrasting opinions in response to the question about whether they are responsible for hcd implementation in their area of work. firstly, the notion was that line managers are responsible for the hcd activities. secondly, the participants indicated that line managers are not responsible for hcd. the last sentiment from participants constituted both yes and no in their answers. the last group of participants felt that some responsibilities should be performed by line managers, while others argued that hcd should not be the function of line managers but for the hrd departments or hcd professionals. below are two quotes from the participants in their own words: ‘within our institution, yes, it is my responsibility to make sure that the people that i am working with, they are trained, they are highly trained appropriately so that they can be able to, you know, execute their duties.’ (participant 3b, male, hod) ‘i will say yes and no, it is my responsibility to train and develop my subordinates, but i was supporting department which does the administration part.’ (participant 1b, male, hod) moreover, the participants were asked about their hcd kpas and the relevant key performance indicators (kpis). while it was easy for the participants to indicate their kpas as far as hrd are concerned, they struggled to provide the kpis associated with such kpas. in this study, it was revealed that the line managers do not understand the kpis in relation to the hrd kpas. these are some of the quotes recorded from participants: ‘no, maybe i am not getting it, no.’ (participant 3b, male, hod) ‘i am not quite sure what you want for, what is the key, the indicators, like the criteria?’ (participant 5a, female, hod) ‘my personal ones? okay, i think, what … basically if i understand you correctly, is what is my strong points what is that thing that i contribute best in the school?’ (participant 4a, male, deputy principal) ‘there’s a couple of things that we do make use of, for example, i like to use the lecture module survey it gives you a lot of feedback with regards to lecturers conducted in class and things like that and they have a couple of questions that otherwise we can gauge whether the lecture is informed or not.’ (participant 1c, female, academic coordinator) ‘i don’t know the learners, can you also put it there?’ (participant 1c, female, academic coordinator) subtheme one: needs analysis most participants indicated that they identify performance gaps and problems experienced by their subordinates. line managers within the education sector use performance management or appraisal as a tool to identify problems and also observed their subordinates when performing their tasks. poor learner results were also used by other line managers as a measure to determine performance problems. this is what some of these participants said: ‘so, for me is to develop the training needs.’ (participant 1b, male, hod) ‘i need to identify them, and i need to either send that person on departmental courses of development or i need to do in-service training.’ (participant 7a, female, hod) other participants expanded further to state that there is a constant discussion between them and the employee about the performance gaps or performance problems during the performance appraisals meeting. in both the schools and tvet colleges, a performance appraisal used by line managers is called an integrated quality management system, also known as iqms. this is a quotation from the participant: ‘find the need first, does those people really need to be at those courses, do they really and i through iqms, the teachers and sit, we can find out, okay this is a need, this person needs training in here and send them there.’ (participant 2a, male, deputy principal) subtheme two: performance improvement participants were of the view that they are responsible for the improvement of their subordinates’ performance in general and most importantly when there is a performance deficiency. this was revealed and justified by their understanding as well as the main purposes of hcd, which were subsequently complemented by the cause of action taken by these line managers when there is a performance gap or performance problem. below are some of the participants’ words in this respect: ‘when they say what they want to improve in themselves, they also at the end of the year, they have to say what did we do to improve ourselves.’ (participant 5a, female, hod) ‘lecturers, we believe you can always improve your skills, there’s always something you can do, you know to better yourself at teaching.’ (participant 3c, female, hod) the study found a commonality among the participants that in an attempt to improve the work performance of their subordinates, line managers implement appropriate hcd interventions. the belief held by most line managers was that the hcd interventions facilitated by them are more effective. the responsibility is to both identify and direct employee development as well as implementing the hcd interventions directly. this is what the participants said about implementing the hcd interventions: ‘so, there’s a lot of mentoring and supporting here, so we coach, we mentor, we support, we do everything to develop a person.’ (participant 2b, female, hod) ‘you will also you know check out how they are doing, do the coaching part as well.’ (participant 2c, female, hod) ‘we normally request teachers who are more experienced to mentor the new teacher if it’s a new teacher, that you mentor, and say guide him or guide her.’ (participant 6a, male, deputy principal) theme two: guidance and support the participants in the study indicated that they need constant support and guidance when performing hcd interventions. line managers, in these educational institutions, have gained more experience as teachers and lecturers and consequently lack hcd knowledge, skills and technical experience. other participants indicated that they were overwhelmed by other work that is expected of them. this is a quote from one participant in this regard: ‘hr department needs to have policies and processes in place to assist line managers in empowering their people.’ (participant 2c, female, hod) subtheme one: barriers participants mentioned several challenges that they encounter when implementing hcd activities, hence requiring assistance and support from relevant stakeholders. this is what the participants said about the assistance and support from stakeholders: ‘there should be that one on one, which is time consuming and if you look at our set up, we do not really have a time to sit with one person.’ (participant 7a, female, hod) ‘we don’t have any power to make sure that happens however, if funding is not given or allocated.’ (participant 2c, female, hod) subtheme two: key stakeholders the participants explained what kind of support and guidance they expect from the hrd department, senior managers and employees to ensure the effectiveness of their hcd activities. line managers rely on hrd specialists with outsourcing of training providers and provide necessary guidance, where line managers are not experts. moreover, line managers ensured that their senior managers are included and informed about the plans for their approval and support of hcd interventions. the participants said the following about the support from stakeholders: ‘above all to make this to be effective it must be a teamwork, my seniors also they need to be informed on time and the plan must be given to them, take it to them, they must see it, they must question it because sometimes our seniors when they question this, our planning, you find that maybe they don’t want to support us.’ (participant 4b, male, senior lecturer) ‘i can then submit to hrd to say please assist me in sourcing out this particular skill i am short of this and that and that.’ (participant 1b, male, hod) ‘yes, your line manager should be there, but your line manager should have support if there are certain areas where the line managers is not the expert.’ (participant 1c, female, academic coordinator) theme three: evaluation of human capital development interventions the participants indicated that the hcd tasks and interventions implemented within their scope were effective. in order to determine the effectiveness, participants were asked how they measured the effectiveness and were requested to mention hcd activities that were mostly effective. it was revealed that line managers who participated in this study utilise a performance management system to measure the change or improvement of the educators or lecturers. they also relied on predetermined evaluation criteria, namely observation during the class visits and, finally, the learner results. it was evident during the interaction with the participants that they did not use any of the evaluation models to measure the effectiveness of their interventions. this is what one of the participants said about the evaluation of hcd interventions: ‘assisting them to reach their potential cause in that way you can try and make sure that they are effective and efficient and that they are engaged and happy with their work.’ (participant 2c, female, hod) subtheme one: impact analysis the participants provided some insight on the extent to which they can measure hcd interventions to determine the impact. this is a quote from the participant: ‘we don’t have any formal return on investment measurements that we put in place, from you know, in terms of the different levels that you can measure an intervention, so yeah, we don’t specifically us kirkpatrick or phillips, it’s really tracking on a more subjective manner.’ (participant 2c, female, hod) ‘when this person is taken to a training, he does the training when he comes back this person is going to be measured, measured in the way that we check from where he was as far as the results analysis are concerned.’ (participant 3b, male, hod) subtheme two: feedback and monitoring of performance participants indicated that they require feedback after the implementation of the hrd intervention, and they also monitor the performance of their employees. observation through class visit was one way of monitoring the performance of employees. these are quotations from participants under this subtheme: ‘we get feedback from the mentors and the mentees, to say, is it working, do you feel that it’s valuable.’ (participant 3c, female, hod) ‘hod will make a class visit to check on the effectiveness of the teacher in the topic that he was mentored in.’ (participant 6a, male, deputy principal) discussion the research objective of this article was to explore whether hcd is a kpa for line managers in the sa education sector. considering the above findings, the current study discovered that line managers are responsible for some of the hcd responsibilities. firstly, line managers identify the performance gap and training needs of their employees. sušanj et al. (2020) indicated that line managers at heis play a vital role in the assessment of training needs. secondly, line managers are better placed to identify appropriate hcd interventions to address the identified skills gap. this finding is supported by noe (2020), who indicated that the needs assessment should be rigorous and conducted in such a manner that the hcd interventions implemented will address the performance gap and improve the performance. this study found that line managers believe that hcd interventions can address the performance deficiency if the needs analysis and the appropriate hcd intervention were identified by them. ellstrom and ellstrom (2013) asserted that the performance gaps identified by both the employee and the line manager are effective, because the new knowledge and skills can be transferred easily to the working environment. this study further found that stakeholders such as hrd departments or hcd professionals and senior managers are not providing the support and guidance expected by line managers; as a result, this hinders the effective performance of hcd functions by these managers. bos-nehles and meijerink (2018) concurred with this finding by asserting that the line managers will be effective with the hcd implementation if they are given sufficient support by hrd departments. human resource development departments support the implementation of cpd for educators and lecturers (kapp & cilliers, 1998). moreover, line managers are overwhelmed by other operational functions and lack hcd technical skills and funds for hcd interventions. line managers’ success with the hcd functions relies on the level of support that they are likely to receive from relevant key stakeholders to address many of these challenges. macheng (2016) indicated that school managers should support and promote the development of educators which will ultimately lead to improved quality education. in addition, senior managers who ensure and capacitate those who support educators or lecturers through the implementation of appropriate and effective hcd policies and procedures will subsequently enable and improve teaching and learning in education institutions (le grange et al., 2006). the study further uncovered that line managers use performance appraisals to monitor the performance of the employees after the hcd intervention has been implemented. it should be noted that the iqms is the performance appraisal system implemented within the education sector, especially in public schools and tvet colleges. in this study, it was further found that this tool is effective in identifying the skills gaps. the national education, evaluation and development unit (2017) indicated in their report that schools with high performance place a higher emphasis on learning and development that addresses training needs identified with the iqms processes. contrary to this, pulakos et al. (2019) suggest that more attention should be on informal processes and actions that enhance performance on a daily basis rather than the overuse of formal performance management systems that are external to daily activities. these actions include setting goals, providing regular feedback that assists in achievement of results and continuous learning as well as eradicating any impediments that hinder the accomplishment of set targets and objectives. moreover, this study found that line managers were not familiar with evaluation models commonly used to determine the impact of the effectiveness of training interventions. none of the participants indicated that they utilise any of these models. only one participant explicitly indicated that they neither use kirkpatrick’s model nor phillips’ return on investment. this finding is supported by mara (2020), who found that managers are not aware of such models. roberts (2017) argued that the measurement of roi for hcd programmes can be conducted using a variety of methods, and organisations that invest in professional development are likely to reap the benefits of having employees with enormous morale. in addition, powerful tools such as brogden–cronbach–gleser model can be modified to evaluate hcd programmes (cascio et al., 2019). while line managers in this study were of the view that their hcd interventions are effective, it was apparent from their responses that they relied on feedback and reports from employees, observations during class visits and online sessions and the improvement in learner results. baron (2011) indicated that there is no one way to measure hcd. the most important element in measurement is how the information gathered is used to improve hcd processes. the effectiveness of hcd interventions as outlined by these line managers is supported by noe (2020), who indicated that training evaluation refers to the method of collecting the outcomes needed to ascertain whether the training was effective. the study further revealed that the performance of hcd responsibilities by line managers is automatic. this means that line managers naturally execute these hcd responsibilities rather than as their kpas, as encapsulated in their job descriptions or job profiles. the main goal or concern for these line managers is the delivery of teaching and learning by competent educators and teachers, which will ultimately improve learner results. this finding is in stark contrast with the assertion by bainbridge (2015), who claimed that managers are responsible for hcd, and this should be documented in their job description. the study also found that the hcd tasks performed by line managers have no clearly defined indicators or standards of measure. this finding suggests that participants at the education institutions included in this present study are neither assessed when performing these hcd activities nor rewarded if their hcd interventions are implemented effectively. practical and managerial implications it is the conclusion of this article that a clear allocation of hcd responsibility is a prerequisite for line managers to be effective and succeed with their hcd work. the division of tasks should be supplemented by constant support from all key stakeholders which is based on mutual trust. the proposed reciprocal support for the hcd stakeholders’ model in the education sector will ensure that hcd tasks are clearly allocated to each stakeholder to improve effectiveness of hcd interventions. the proposed model in figure 1 illustrates the division and roles of key hcd stakeholders. figure 1: proposed reciprocal support for human capital development stakeholders’ model. in figure 1, the division of responsibilities between the key stakeholders, particularly line managers and hrd departments or hcd specialists and other role players, is shown. blayney et al. (2020) indicated that there should be an agreement between key stakeholders in respect of hcd responsibilities. the proposed model emphasises the importance of mutual support, which requires that each party performs their respective tasks and engages in meaningful and valuable discussions about hcd matters. moreover, some degree of autonomy for line managers to determine hcd needs and interventions should be guaranteed. the division of hcd tasks and any associated decisions must be mutually taken and agreed upon by all relevant key stakeholders. op de beeck et al. (2018) found that line managers are motivated to perform hcd responsibilities when they clearly understand why these tasks must be performed within their area of work. most importantly, these tasks should be captured in the job descriptions of the line managers. the standards, indicators and outputs should also be specified together with the details on how these are to be assessed. according to the proposed model, it is the responsibility of the hrd departments or hcd specialists to induct new line managers and/or train all line managers on a continuous basis on hcd functions to be performed. furthermore, hcd specialists are accountable for the development of hcd strategies and policies for the entire institution. on the other hand, line managers are expected to implement these strategies and policies and ensure that employees within their supervision are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge through hcd interventions, such as inductions, on-the-job training, mentorship and coaching. senior managers must ensure that the environment is conducive for line managers to be effective with their hcd responsibilities and should support hcd interventions by providing a sufficient skills budget. moreover, senior managers must assess the hcd functions performed by line managers and reward outstanding performance as a motivation for continuous optimal performance. human capital development responsibilities undertaken by motivated line managers tend to be more effective (op de beeck et al., 2017). employees as targets and actual beneficiaries of hcd interventions implemented by their line managers are required to be receptive and participate willingly in these hcd initiatives. moreover, podsakoff et al. (2000) asserted that employees who engage in self-development through participation in advanced hcd interventions have a potential of contributing meaningfully to the organisation and enhancing its effectiveness. limitations of the study the scope of the study was limited to public and private schools, tvet colleges and private heis located in the gauteng province, where the authors reside, and as a result, it was not feasible to include all institutions in the education sector across south africa. furthermore, the study excluded hcd professionals, who are the key stakeholders who would have provided other critical insights, and as a result, their views and perspectives are not part of the research findings and conclusions of the current study. recommendations for future research the present study employed a qualitative research method. it is recommended that future research should consider the use of other research methods (quantitative or mixed methods) to determine or analyse the cost–benefit of hcd initiatives implemented in the sa education sector. conclusion while line managers in the education sector perform some of the hcd kpas, it is crucial that the decisions about the division of hcd responsibilities among the key stakeholders are mutual and should be accompanied by continuous support. the hcd responsibilities performed by line managers are not part of their job descriptions. furthermore, line managers demonstrated a lack of understanding of kpis associated with hcd responsibilities. this postulates that line managers are not assessed or rewarded for performing the hcd responsibilities. in this study, line managers are effectively capable of identifying performance gaps and subsequently implementing appropriate hcd interventions to address such performance deficiencies. induction, in-service training, mentorship and coaching are effective hcd interventions implemented by line managers within their area of responsibility. the evaluation of hcd interventions using the most common evaluation models is not the responsibility of line managers. this is predicated on the fact that hrd departments or hcd specialists are regarded as experts with evaluations of hcd as a means to report on the financial benefits of hcd interventions. line managers in the education sector measure the impact of their interventions through feedback and reports from their employees, observations during class visits and/or online sessions and learner results. the reciprocal support for the hcd stakeholders’ model is proposed for the policymakers, line managers and hcd professionals in the education sector. the model will serve as a guide during the allocation of hcd tasks. it also encourages mutual support between all stakeholders in the hcd implementation processes to ensure the effectiveness of hcd interventions. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank dr c.c. mara for her guidance on the use of atlas.ti software for data analysis purposes. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exist. authors’ contributions m.t.g. and c.m.g. contributed to the completion of this study. ethical considerations ethical approval to conduct this study was obtained from the industrial psychology and people management (ippm) research ethics committee of the university of johannesburg (ref. no. ippm 2019 275 [m]). funding information the researchers received no specific funding for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not for profit organisations. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article, as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references bainbridge, h. (2015). devolving people management to the line: how different rationale influence people management effectiveness. personnel review, 44(6), 847–865. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-10-2013-0193 baron, a. (2011). measuring human capital. strategic hr review, 10(2), 30–35. https://doi.org/10.1108/14754391111108338 baxter, p., & jack, s. (2008). qualitative case study methodology: study design and implementation for novice researchers. the qualitative report, 13(4), 544–559. retrieved from https://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol13/iss4/2 blayney, c., cormier-macburnie, p., & young, j.d. (2020). the devolution of human resource management to line managers: a preliminary examination of the hotel industry in halifax, canada. journal of human resources in hospitality & tourism 19(4), 443–472. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332845.2020.1763760 bos-nehles, a.c., & meijerink, j.g. (2018). hrm implementation by multiple hrm actors: a social exchange perspective. the international journal of human resource management, 29(22), 3068–3092. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2018.1443958 cascio, w.f., boudreau, j.w., & fink, a.a. (2019). investing in people: financial impact of human resource initiatives. chicago: society for human resource management. collin, k., lemmetty, s., & riivari, e. (2020). hrd practices supporting creativity in finnish growth organisation. international journal of training and development, 24(4), 321–336. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijtd.12199 creswell, j.w. (2016). 30 essential skills for the qualitative researcher. thousand oaks: sage. czerniawski, g., guberman, a., & macphail, a. (2017). the professional developmental needs of higher education-based teacher educators: an international comparative needs analysis. european journal of teacher education, 40(1), 127–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2016.1246528 education, training and development practices sector education training and authority (etdp seta). (2017a). annual report 2016/17 financial year. retrieved from http://www.etdpseta.org.za/education/sites/default/files/2017-10/2016-2017-etdp-seta-annual-report.pdf education, training and development practices sector education training and authority (etdp seta). (2017b). sector skills plan update 2018–2019. retrieved from http://www.etdpseta.org.za ellstrom, e., & ellstrom, p. (2013). learning outcomes of a work-based training programme: the significance of managerial support. european journal of training and development, 38(3), 180–197. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejtd-09-2013-0103 eriksson, p., & kovalainen, a. (eds.). (2011). case study research. in qualitative methods in business research (pp. 115–136), los angeles: sage publications ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857028044 erasmus, b.j., loedolff, p.v.z., mda, p.v., & nel, p.s. (2016). managing training and development. oxford university press. fu, n., flood, p.c., rousseau, d.m., & morris, t. (2018). line managers as paradox navigators in hrm implementation: balancing consistency and individual responsiveness. journal of management, 46(2), 203–233. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206318785241 govaerts, n., kyndt, e., vreye, s., & doch, f. (2017). a supervisor’s perspectives on their role in transfer of learning. human resource development quarterly, 28(4), 515–552. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21286 gray, d.e. (2014). doing research in the real world. sage. human resource development council. (2016). report on the status of human resource development in south africa 2016. retrieved from https://hrdcsa.org.za jasson, c.c., & govender, c.m. (2017). measuring return on investment and risk in traininga business training evaluation model for managers and leaders. acta commercii, 17(1), a401. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v17i1.401 jeannin, l., & hallinger, p. (2018). exploring the need to contextualise professional development programmes for university lecturers: a case study in thailand. the independent journal of teaching and learning, 13(2). retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-1222586e9e kapp, c.a., & cilliers, c.d. (1998). continuing personal professional development of university lecturers: a case study. south african journal of higher education, 12(1), 117–121. retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10520/aja10113487_773 kareem, m.a., & hussein, i.j. (2019). the impact of human resource development on employee performance and organisational effectiveness. management dynamics in the knowledge economy. 7(3), 307–322. https://doi.org/10.25019/mdke/7.3.02 le grange, m.j., greyling, e.s.g., & kok, j.c. (2006). the training and development of lecturers within the framework of the relevant acts on higher education. south african journal of higher education, 20(1), 1011–3487. https://doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v20i1.25559 macheng, p. (2016). continuing professional development of teachers in junior secondary schools in botswana. journal of emerging trends in educational research and policy studies, 7(4), 283–291. retrieved from https://journals.co.za/doi/epdf/10.10520/ejc196821 maddock, l., & maroun, w. (2018). exploring the present state of south african education: challenges and recommendations. south african journal of higher education, 32(2), 192–214. https://doi.org/10.20853/32-2-1641 mahmood, s., qadeer, f., sheeraz, m., & khan, k.i. (2017). line manager’s hr implementation level and work performance: estimating the mediating role employee outcomes. pakistan journal of commerce and social sciences, 11(3), 959–976. retrieved from http://www.jespk.net makombe, g. (2017). an expose of the relationship between paradigm, method and design in research. the qualitative report, 22(12), 3363–3382. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2017.3054 mara, c.c. (2020). manager perceptions of risk and return in human capital development. (phd). business management [published]. university of johannesburg. retrieved from https://ujcontent.uj.ac.za/vital/access/manager/index?site_name=research%20output mcguire, f., mcguire, d., & sanderson, m. (2011). between a rock and a hard place: an exploration of line manager partnership working with trade unions and the hr function. university forum of human resource development. retrieved from https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2c5&q=+between+a+rock+and+a+hard+place%3a+an+exploration+of+line+manager+partnership+working+with+trade+unions+and+the+hr+function.&btng= mclean, g.n. (2009). organisational development: principles, processes, performance. berrett-koehler publishers. retrieved from https://www.bkconnection.com/static/organisation_development_excerpt.pdf mehale, k.d., govender, c.m., & mabaso, c.m. (2021). maximising training evaluation for employee performance improvement. sa journal of human resource management, 19, a1473. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1473 meyer, m. (ed.), bushney, m., katz, m., knoke, g., ludike, j., meyer, m. et al. (2016). managing human resource development: a strategic learning approach. durban: lexisnexis (pty) ltd. musakuro, r.n., & de klerk, f. (2021). academic talent: perceived challenges to talent management in the south african higher education sector. sa journal of human resource management, 19, a1394. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1394 national education, evaluation and development unit. (2017). school that work ii, lesson from the ground. retrieved from https://www.education.gov.za/portals/0/documents/reports/needu%20school%20that%20work%20ii%202018.pdf?ver=2018-02-27-135155-300 noe, r.a. (2020). employee training & development. new york: mcgraw-hill education. oguntimehin, y.a., & bukki, a.o. (2020). basic issues in evaluation of training programmes. bulgarian journal of science and education policy, 14(2) 356–370. op de beeck, s., wynen, j., & hondeghem, a. (2017). effective hrm implementation by line managers: relying on various sources of support. international journal of public administration, 40(2), 192–204. https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2015.1075553 op de beeck, s., wynen, j., & hondeghem, a. (2018). explaining effective hrm implementation: a middle versus first-line management perspectives. public personnel management, 47(2), 144–174. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026018760931 park, s., kang, h.t., & kim, e. (2018). the role of supervisor support on employee’s training and job performance: an empirical study. european journal of training and development, 42(1/2), 57–74. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejtd-06-2017-0054 podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., paine, j.b., & bachrach, d.g. (2000). organizational citizenship behaviors: a critical review of the theoretical and empirical literature and suggestions for future research. journal of management, 26(3), 513–563. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630002600307 poell, r.f., & van der krogt, f. (2017). why is organizing human resource development so problematic? perspectives from the learning network theory part ii). the learning organisation, 24(4), 215–225. https://doi.org/10.1108/tlo-12-2016-0094 pulakos, e.d., mueller-hanson, r., & arad, s. (2019). the evolution of performance management: searching for value. annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behavior, 6, 249–271. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-012218-015009 redeker, m., de vries, r.e., rouckhout, d., vermeren, p., & de fruyt, f. (2014). integrating leadership: the leadership circumplex. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 23(3), 435–455. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2012.738671 remenyi, d. (2012). case study research: the quick guide series. reading: academic publishing international. roberts, j. (2017). key leadership behaviors that skyrocket roi on training programs. retrieved from https://www.td.org rupcic, n. (2017). managing people and learning – major challenge for modern managers. the learning organisation, 24(4), 257–261. https://doi.org/10.1108/tlo-02-2017-0014 saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2009). research methods for business students. harlow: pearson education limited. saunders, m.n.k., & tosey, p. (eds.). (2015). handbook of research methods on human resource development. cheltenham: edward elgar publishing. south africa. (1998). skills development act 97 of 1998. retrieved from https://www.gov.za/documents/skills-development-act sthapit, a. (2017). preferability and perceived effectiveness of hrd interventions programs: a survey of nepali bank supervisors. sons global management review, 11(2), 50–63. retrieved from https://www.sonamgmt.org sušanj, z., jakopec, a., & đorić, a. (2020). academics’ effectiveness and professional development in croatia: challenges for human resource management in higher education institutions. european journal of education, 55(4), 476–488. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12422 swanson, r.a. (2021). foundations of human resource development. oakland: berret-koehler publishers, inc. van der bijl, a., & taylor, v. (2016). nature and dynamics of industry-based workplace learning for south african tvet lecturers. industry & higher education, 30(2), 98–108. https://doi.org/10.5367/ihe.2016.0297 van waeyenberg, t., & decramer, a. (2018). line managers’ amo to manage employees’ performance: the route to effective and satisfying performance management. the international journal of human resource management, 29(22), 3093–3114. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2018.1445656 waseem, m., bilal, h., farooq, n., & raza, w. (2020). improving organisational performance through hrm-line partnership: a case of higher education sector of pakistan. journal of business and social review in emerging economies, 6(1), 321–330. https://doi.org/10.26710/jbsee.v6i1.1067 yusliza, m.y., choo, p.w., jayaraman, k., rimi, n.n., & muhammad, z. (2019). hr line manager’s reflections on hrm effectiveness through hr roles and role stressors. south east european journal of economics and business, 14(1), 34–48. https://doi.org/10.2478/jeb-2019-0002 article information authors: andrew matjeke1 jacoba m. viljoen2 phillip f. blaauw2 affiliations: 1department of science and technology, south african government, pretoria, south africa 2department of economics & econometrics, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: phillip blaauw postal address: po box 524, auckland park, 2006 dates: received: 06 oct. 2010 accepted: 22 sept. 2011 published: 17 jan. 2012 how to cite this article: matjeke, a., viljoen, j.m., & blaauw, p.f. (2012). the effect of labour market regulation on domestic workers in orchards and soshanguve, pretoria. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(1), art. #330, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i1.330 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the effect of labour market regulation on domestic workers in orchards and soshanguve, pretoria in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • background to the study    • research objectives    • trends from the research literature • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instrument       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • demographic characteristics of the domestic workers       • age profile of the domestic workers       • level of education    • employment characteristics       • duties that domestic workers perform       • working hours per day       • working days per week       • number of households for which domestic workers work       • wages and salaries    • compliance with other legislative requirements       • unemployment insurance fund requirements and service contracts • discussion    • limitations of the study    • conclusions • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references • footnote abstract top ↑ orientation: domestic work provides employment to many women. the wages or salaries and employment conditions of domestic workers have raised worldwide concern. domestic work is an unstable, lowly paid, insecure and unprotected form of employment. abuse and exploitation are common. the regulation of this sector is the result. research purpose: the purpose of this article was to analyse and compare the effects of, and level of compliance with, the regulation of the domestic worker sector in two very different residential areas in pretoria. motivation for the study: researchers have conducted all previous micro-study investigations of the topic in langenhoven park, bloemfontein. we need more micro-level studies to investigate the effects of regulating this labour market because areas with different socioeconomic conditions may yield different results. research design, approach and method: the researchers followed a quantitative micro-research design using structured questionnaires. they used the research methodology applied in similar micro-studies as the basis of the survey to make the results comparable. they used the criterion sampling technique. respondentscompleted 87 questionnaires in orchards and 89 in soshanguve. main findings: evidence suggests that areas in close proximity to one another in the same metropolis yield significant differences in the wages or salaries and non-wage working conditions of domestic workers. a blanket approach to identifying and monitoring the effects of the legislation for this sector is not an appropriate one. practical/managerial implications: the sector needs micro-studies over an extended period and in different areas to form a more nuanced picture of this multifaceted labour market. this study emphasised the necessity for improved monitoring of the existing legislation. contribution/value-add: this is the first micro-study to compare the effects of regulating the domestic workers sector of two residential areas with different socioeconomic characteristics. the results will give authorities a better understanding of the level of compliance with, and effects of, the regulation of domestic workers. it will also guide the monitoring of, and enforcement decisions for, this labour market. introduction top ↑ in september 2000, there were roughly 1.025 million employees in the domestic worker sector in south africa. this figure dropped to 977 000 employees in september 2003. this seems to correlate well with the enactment of minimum wage legislation in september 2002. however, there has been a slight improvement in the figures. in 2007 just over a million (1.003 million) employees worked in this sector (statistics south africa, 2009, p. 15). the figure remained at about one million in 2010 (department of labour, 2010). data from the international labour organisation (2010a, p. 6) show that domestic work in developing countries makes up between 4% and 10% of total employment. in industrialised countries, this figure is much lower and ranges between 1% and 2.5%.1 domestic work is one of the oldest occupations for women in south africa and provides work for a large number of them. in many countries, domestic workers were’particularly devoid of legal and social protection‘ and ’singularly subject to exploitation‘ (international labour organisation, 2010c, p. 12). international studies on attempts to protect domestic workers include studies in brazil, india and namibia (international labour organisation, 2010c, p. 14). south africa is no exception. in september 2002, the ’sectoral determination 7: domestic worker sector‘ came into effect and granted formal labour market protection to south african domestic workers in the form of minimum wages, working hours and other conditions of employment (department of labour, 2002a). despite these regulations, employers in the south african labour market generally ignore minimum wages. the biggest losers, because authorities do not enforce the regulations effectively, are security guards, farm workers, domestic helpers and some retail workers (bhorat, kanbur & mayet, 2010). this calls for better monitoring of the compliance to, and effects of, these regulations. however, a lack of micro-level research in this field inhibits our understanding of the dynamics and behaviour in this labour market. background to the stud previous research on the effects of the legislation includes a macro-study by hertz (2004) and micro-studies by bothma and campher (2003) as well as blaauw and bothma (2010). the researchers conducted all of these micro-studies in langenhoven park, bloemfontein, at different intervals. the results of these micro-studies give a broad picture of the changes that occurred in that specific area because the lawmakers had regulated the market. the study of bothma and campher (2003) predicted a decrease in the already declining demand for domestic workers. hertz’s macro-study showed that the minimum wage legislation benefited domestic workers in terms of real wage increases and improved non-wage terms of employment (hertz, 2004). the macro-study by hertz (2004) uses labour force surveys from september 2001 to september 2003. the data from these surveys include two waves before the effective date of the regulations and two thereafter. the surveys cover between 2400 and 3100 domestic workers per wave (hertz, 2004, p. 2). this study also reported a significant reduction in the hours of work. the micro study of 2006, by blaauw and bothma (2010), confirmed this. they reported that employers are employing domestic workers on a part-time basis. blaauw and bothma (2010, p. 9) attributed this increase to the increased regulation of the sector. all studies reported a decrease in the employment levels of domestic workers. although the results of these studies are valuable for monitoring the compliance with, and effects of, these regulations, it leaves significant gaps in our understanding of the micro-economic effect of these regulations at a cross-regional level. because of prevailing socioeconomic conditions, different areas may yield different results because of this legislation. we need cross-regional micro-studies to fill the gap in the current knowledge on this topic. research objectives the purpose of this study is to analyse and compare the effects of the labour market regulation of the domestic workers sector in two distinctly different suburbs in pretoria, namely orchards and soshanguve. the specific research objectives are to: • analyse the demographic characteristics, employment structure and characteristics, wage or salary levels and working conditions of domestic workers in orchards and soshanguve • assess the levels of compliance with the minimum wage and other legislative requirements • compare the results of this study with the results of similar micro-studies in langenhoven park, bloemfontein, and, where applicable, to existing macro-study results. the results from this study will improve the authorities’ understanding of the level of compliance of employers with the regulations and the effects of the regulations on domestic workers. it will also guide monitoring and enforcement decisions in this labour market. the structure of the rest of this article follows. firstly, the researchers reviewed the literature on the regulation of the domestic workers sector. a description of the research methodology the researchers used in the study follows. the researchers then present the results of the study in terms of the stated research objectives. the article concludes with a discussion of the main findings, conclusions and recommendations as well as the limitations of the study and suggestions for future research. trends from the research literature the ’sectoral determination 7: domestic worker sector‘ defines a domestic worker as any worker or independent contractor who performs domestic work in a private household and who receives, or is entitled to receive, pay. this definition includes a gardener, a person a household employs as a driver of a motor vehicle, a person who takes care of children, the aged, the sick, the frail or the disabled, as well as domestic workers that employment services, who act as brokers, employ or supply. however, the regulations do not regard workers involved in household or domestic work on farms as domestic workers in terms of the basic conditions of employment act, no. 75 of 1997 (department of labour, 2002b, p. 6). most domestic workers work in the informal and unregulated sectors. most of them are unskilled workers (matjeke, 2008, p. 18). barker (2003, p. xix) defines the informal sector as the unorganised and unregulated sector with mostly legal but unregistered economic activities. the wages and employment conditions of domestic workers have raised worldwide concern for many decades. as far back as 1965, the international labour conference adopted a resolution on the conditions of employment of domestic workers. this resolution recognised the ’urgent need‘ to establish minimum living standards that are ’compatible with the self-respect and human dignity which are essential to social justice‘ for domestic workers in developed as well as developing countries (international labour organisation, 2010a, p. 1). in various parts of the world, domestic workers engaged in collective action trying to seek their rights. in brazil, the first domestic workers’ organisation formedin 1936 in são paulo. after 1988, article 7 of the brazilian constitution protected their right to do so (brazil constitution, 1993). in india, its supreme court decided in 1977 that it would not recognise domestic workers as ‘organised labour’ and attempts at legislative reform failed. in namibia, the namibian domestic workers’ union (ndwu) had recruited about one-third of the 12 000 domestic workers in the country (international labour organisation, 2010c, p. 14). in 2009, the government of cambodia convened a national consultation on decent work for domestic workers. the government, workers’ and employers’ organisations in the country agreed that they needed new international labour standards that extended social protection to domestic workers (international labour organisation, 2010b, p. 7). in 1999, the minister of labour of south africa announced his intention to introduce minimum wages for domestic workers. an investigation by the department of labour into the minimum wages and conditions of employment of domestic workers followed (mdladlana, 2001, p. 2). in 2002, the government promulgated the ’sectoral determination 7: domestic worker sector‘. in 2003, it amended the unemployment insurance act to include domestic workers (hertz, 2005, p. 1). the legislation provides benefits for unemployment, illness, dependants, maternity and adoptions. the ’sectoral determination 7: domestic worker sector‘ sets, amongst other things, minimum wages, maximum working hours and deductions for accommodation (department of labour, 2002a). the minimum wage regulation applies to all domestic workers, whereas the other conditions of employment apply only to domestic workers who work more than 24 hours a month for an employer (department of labour, 2002b, p. 6). it set minimum wages according to two criteria. these were the area of work and the number of hours worked a week. it divides areas of work into metropolitan and rural according to municipal boundaries (department of labour, 2002a, p. 8). the number of hours worked per week criteria distinguish between domestic workers who work for more than 27 ordinary hours a week and those who work for 27or fewer ordinary hours a week. the wage or salary for domestic workers in metropolitan areas, who work more than 27 hours a week (for the period from 01 december 2006 to 30 november 2007), amounted to r5.57 per hour, r246.21 per week and r1066.83 per month (department of labour, 2006, p. 1). this timeframe is important as it coincides with the timeframe of the fieldwork for this study. the minimum hourly wages for domestic workers who work fewer than 27 hours a week are slightly higher than for those who work more than 27 hours a week to compensate the worker for not having a full-time job. for the same period, these wages and salaries were r6.46 per hour, r174.50 per week and r756.09 per month(department of labour, 2006, p. 1). therefore, the ’sectoral determination 7: domestic worker sector‘ regards workers who work for 27 hours or fewer as part-time workers. the minimum wages for domestic workers in rural areas are also generally lower than the prescribed minimum wages in metropolitan areas. these prescribed minimum wages are to increase annually at the inflation rate, as the consumer price index (cpi) measures it, plus 2%. the government gazette must publish any subsequent wage increase, which exceeds 8%, as an amendment to the ’sectoral determination 7: domestic worker sector‘ (department of labour, 2002a, p. 7). if the annual increase in the cpi is 10% or higher, domestic workers are entitled to receive a wage increase equivalent to the increase in the cpi (department of labour, 2002a, p. 7). however, some economists argue strongly against setting minimum wages and suggest that minimum wage policies impede job creation and employment in the sectors where they are implemented (mcconnell, brue & macpherson, 2010, p. 398). high minimum wage levels can discourage employers from engaging new workers because it increases the relative cost of labour to capital. employers will shift their choice of production methods to relative cheaper capital. this argument holds specifically for sectors where the minimum wage is above the existing wage bands, especially for unskilled labourers. however, one expects governments to create enabling environments, in terms of labour legislation, to encourage employers of unskilled workers to employ more of them (mcconnell et al., 2010, p. 398). domestic workers may work a maximum of 45 ordinary hours a week, or nine hours a day if they work five days a week and a maximum of eight hours a day if they work for more than five days a week. when domestic workers work for longer hours, they are eligible for overtime pay (department of labour, 2002a, p. 15).overtime payment amounts to oneand-a-half times the hourly wage (department of labour, 2002a, p. 16). deductions for accommodation should not exceed 10% of the total wage or salary. paid accommodation should also meet conditions. rooms should be weatherproof and in good condition. they should have at least one window, a door that one can lock as well as a toilet and a bath or shower. alternatively, tenants should have access to a bathroom (department of labour, 2002a, p. 36). in april 2003, the government also amended the unemployment insurance fund (uif) and employers had to register their domestic workers with the uif for the first time. domestic workers and their employers had to contribute 1% of the domestic workers’ wages or salaries to the fund. the fund excluded domestic workers who worked fewer than 24 hours a month from this provision. after april 2003, domestic workers were able to claim unemployment benefits (hertz, 2005, p. 1). the researchers will now analyse the effects of, and compliance with, the regulations in orchards and soshanguve. research design top ↑ research approach the researchers used a quantitative micro-research approach. they conducted structured interviews with domestic workers and their employers in the two areas. research method research participants the researchers used two very different residential areas in pretoria for a case study. they were orchards, a traditionally white suburb, and soshanguve, a traditional township area. they selected the two suburbs because they are close to each other. both suburbs are in the north-west area of pretoria and have completely different demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. orchards is a middle-class, multi-racial suburb. mostly african (black) and white afrikaans-speaking households live there. soshanguve is a lowerto middle-class african township. the researchers traced domestic workers in the two areas through observing and interviewing people informally in these areas. the observation showed that most households in orchards employ a domestic worker. although soshanguve is a very large residential area compared to orchards (roughly three to four times the size of orchards), the number of households that employ domestic workers is very limited. the researchers interviewed residents from blocks c, g, f, l, k, cc and ww in soshanguve. the number of observations in each suburb corresponds to the number of observations researchers used in the micro-studies in langenhoven park, bloemfontein. measuring instrument the researchers adopted the domestic worker questionnaire that blaauw and bothma (2010) used in their 2007 study in langenhoven park as an appropriate tool for the current survey. they adjusted the questionnaire, where appropriate, to use in this survey. the respondents completed the questionnaire in structured interviews rather than by themselves. according to bless and higson-smith (1995, p. 111), ‘… this method can help to prevent misunderstandings and misinterpretations of questions‘ because researchers can explain exactly what information they need from the respondents and can immediately clarify uncertainties about the questions. it is also valuable for overcoming language barriers, especially when dealing with illiterate and uneducated samples. kingdon and knight (2001, p. 2) also stated that investigating unemployment in south africa requires reliable micro-economic data that comes directly from people or about the people from their households. an investigation of the dynamics in any labour market relies on reliable micro-economic data (blaauw & viljoen, 2009, p. 51; burger & von fintel, 2009, p. 1). research procedure the researchers used criterion sampling as their sampling technique because not all households employed a domestic worker. they had to choose cases that met the criterion for quality assurance (jacob, 2007, p. 35). only households with domestic workers met the criterion. the researchers used purposeful sampling to complement criterion sampling. the main advantage of this method is that it allows researchers to target those places where there is abundant information to ensure that the investigation is comprehensive (jacob, 2007, p. 34). furthermore, the sampling process also involved some degree of convenience sampling. in cases where domestic workers or employers were not present at the time of the visit to that household, the researchers would substitute that household with another one in the same geographical block. adherence to accepted ethical standards was also an integral part of the research procedure. in order to comply with the ’doing no harm‘ principle in research, the researchers trained fieldworkers to identify themselves clearly, explain that the research was for academic purposes only and that it was not linked to any government department (bless & higson-smith, 1995, p. 102; rubin & babbie, 1997, p. 59–63). at all times, respondents had the right to refuse an interview. therefore, the study adhered to the principle of voluntary participation. confidentiality and anonymity is another important ethical principle and can become a weakness in any survey research (bless & higson-smith, 1995, p. 103). therefore, the researchers protected the identities of the respondents and did not disclose their names. the researchers are confident that they have complied with all the ethical requirements. the researchers recruited and trained two final-year students enrolled for a national diploma in accounting and auditing at the tshwane university of technology (tut) as fieldworkers to help with conducting the interviews. the study benefitted from the close proximity of tut to the areas the researchers chose for the interviews. the fieldworkers speak several of the official languages prevalent in the two areas of the field study. they have extensive experience in structured oral and written student awareness, attitude and prevalence survey projects. the researchers trained both fieldworkers before the start of the fieldwork. the training included theoretical coaching as well as simulation exercises. earlier research in other geographical areas had field-tested the core sections of the questionnaire. therefore, the researchers decided that a fit-for-purpose pilot study was not necessary. the fieldworkers conducted the interviews during june and july 2007. they distributed the questionnaires in person to the chosen respondents. the fieldworkers always informed respondents that their participation was voluntary and that they could suspend the interview at any time. furthermore, they assured the respondents of anonymity and that the research was for academic purposes only. the fieldworkers conducted structured interviews with domestic workers and their employers in the two residential areas to complete the questionnaires, to achieve the objectives of the study and to compare its results with other micro-studies. respondents completed 87 questionnaires in orchards and 89 questionnaires in soshanguve. the first author held regular debriefings with the fieldworkers to check on their progress. he compared the data in the completed questionnaires to his own informal interviews with employers and domestic workers. the training that the fieldworkers received also focused on the importance of reliable research results. the researchers cleaned the data and eliminated all the questionnaires that contained possible misinterpreted responses. in cases where domestic workers were not present (especially during weekends), they asked employers to respond to the questions about the demographics of their employees. when an employer gave a suspicious response, the researchers regarded the questionnaire as spoiled and excluded it from the survey. as a result, one questionnaire from orchards and four from soshanguve were spoiled and the researchers eliminated them. this brought the total number of completed questionnaires in orchards to 86 and to 85 in soshanguve. statistical analysis the statistical consultation service (statkon) at the university of johannesburg captured and analysed the questionnaires of acceptable quality. statkon analysed the data in terms of percentages and frequencies for earnings (per hour, per day and per month) and employment (hours of work per day and days of work per week). statkon conducted standard tests for the descriptive statistics to determine standard deviations, skewness and kurtosis. results top ↑ demographic characteristics of the domestic workers age profile of the domestic workers the average age of the respondents in orchards was 34.8 years. this is higher than that of the respondents in soshanguve, who had an average age of 32.8. earlier surveys in langenhoven park in bloemfontein in 2001 by bothma and campher (2003, p. 197), and by blaauw and bothma (2010, p. 7) in 2007, reported significantly higher average ages of 42.6 and 43.3 years, respectively. level of education table 1 gives a breakdown of the education level of the respondents. the level of education of the domestic workers in orchards and soshanguve in 2007 was relatively low. most of the respondents (63.3% in orchards and 67.1% in soshanguve) reported having no formal education. the percentage of respondents with some primary education was almost the same in orchards as it was in soshanguve – 8% and 10.6% respectively. the figures for secondary education differ somewhat in the two areas – 28.7% in orchards compared to only 22.3% in soshanguve. one can attribute the slight differences between the education levels in orchards and soshanguve to the differences in the social status of the two areas. orchards is a more elite area and one expects its residents to employ more workers than will those in soshanguve, which is a residential area with larger variances in the socialstatus of its residents. however, the number of domestic workers without formal education was much lower in langenhoven park and declined from 25% in 2001 to 19.7% in 2006 (blaauw& bothma, 2010, p. 3). the total percentage of domestic workers with some secondary education was much higher in langenhoven park and increased from 32% in 2001 to 46.2% in 2006 (blaauw & bothma, 2010, p. 3; bothma & campher, 2003, p. 198). table 1: education level of domestic workers – comparison between orchards (n = 87), soshanguve (n = 85) and langenhoven park. education level orchards soshanguve langenhoven employment characteristics duties that domestic workers perform the duties that domestic workers in orchards and soshanguve perform differ significantly from those reported in the findings from langenhoven park, bloemfontein, in 2001 and 2006. table 2 illustrates these differences. laundry, which includes washing and ironing, is the duty that most domestic workers in both orchards and soshanguve performed. washing occurs far more frequently in orchards and soshanguve than it does in langenhoven park, but ironing has about the same incidence in all three areas. cleaning was part of the job descriptions of a significant number of domestic workers (91.9%) in orchards compared to the 61.9% in soshanguve. cleaning was the most important duty for domestic workers in langenhoven park as well (blaauw & bothma, 2010, p. 4; bothma & campher, 2003, p. 198). cooking was more common in the job descriptions of domestic workers in orchards. cooking was part of the responsibility of 25 respondents (31.6%) in orchards compared to only seven respondents (9.1%) in soshanguve. in langenhoven park, the importance of cooking changed over the five-year period. it decreased from20.7% in 2001 to 15% in 2006. this possibly reflects the part-time nature of domestic worker employment in langenhoven park. the demand for childand elder-care, at 61 respondents (70.9%), is highest in orchards. this is far higher than that of the 17 respondents (20.7%) in soshanguve. although the figure in langenhoven park doubled between 2001 and 2006, it was still lower than it was in soshanguve. one can attribute this to the fact that orchards is a new and relatively more youthful area compared to the others. table 2: duties that domestic workers performed in orchards (n = 86), soshanguve (n = 84) and langenhoven park in bloemfontein. working hours per day orchards recorded the highest average number of hours worked per day. the average number of hours that domestic workers worked per day in orchards and soshanguve (2007) was 7.13 and 6.03 hours per day respectively, as table 3 shows. the average for soshanguve was lower than that in orchards, lower than the 6.9 hours a day recorded in 2001 and lower than the 6.65 hours recorded in langenhoven park (blaauw & bothma, 2010, p. 4; bothma & campher, 2003, p. 198) in 2006. most employers in orchards (40%) employ domestic workers for eight hours a day. only 17.4% employ them for seven hours a day and another 17.2% employ them for nine hours a day. in soshanguve, the percentages of domestic workers employed for seven, eight and nine hours per day are 26.6%, 21.5% and 26.6% respectively. table 3: average hours that domestic workers worked per day in orchards and soshanguve in 2007. working days per week table 4 presents the number of days a week employers employed their domestic workers in orchards and soshanguve in 2007. the minimum number of days a week employers in orchards employed domestic workers is two days, whilst the maximum is seven days. most (83.9%) employers used their domestic workers for five or more days a week. in soshanguve, the minimum number of days a week employers used domestic workers is one day and the maximum is six days. only 39% of the employers in soshanguve employed their domestic workers for five or more days a week. in langenhoven park, most (41%) employers employed domestic workers for only one day a week in 2006. this is much higher than the figure of 33.6% in 1998 (blaauw & bothma, 2010, p. 5). table 4: number of days per week employed in orchards and soshanguve in 2007. number of households for which domestic workers work most (93%) of the domestic workers in orchards had only one employer, compared to the 50.6% in soshanguve. the findings from the studies in langenhoven park show a decreasing trend in the number of domestic workers with only one employer. the study of bothma and campher (2003, p. 198) in 2001 showed that only 36.1% of domestic workers had only one employer. in 2006, this figured dropped to 34.9% (blaauw & bothma, 2010, p. 4). the data in table 5 show that some domestic workers in soshanguve work for up to three employers. in soshanguve, 51.2% of the respondents, who work for more than one employer, work for two employers, whilst 43.9% work for three employers. table 5: domestic workers who worked for more than one employer in 2007 – orchards (n = 6); soshanguve (n = 48). wages and salaries figure 1 presents the distribution of the monthly salaries of domestic workers in orchards and soshanguve in 2007. most employers in orchards and soshanguve pay their domestic workers monthly. one could possibly explain this because most employers of domestic workers are also employees in other sectors of the economy and earn monthly salaries. in orchards, the incomes of domestic workers varied between r300 and r1899 a month in 2007. in soshanguve, the lowest-paid earners earned r60 and the highest-paid domestic workers earned r1500 a month during the same period. the average income in orchards was r833.68 a month and in soshanguve it was r555.29 a month. the largest percentage of domestic workers in soshanguve (70.6%) earned an income below r700 a month. most domestic workers in orchards (81.43%) earned more than r700 in 2007. table 6 shows the average wage per day or week a domestic worker earned in orchards and soshanguve in 2007. the average daily wage of domestic workers, who work for only one day a week, amounted to r98.21 in 2007 compared to the r35 average for domestic workers who work for seven days. therefore, it may be more beneficial to work for many employers. however, working for more than one employer demands more effort and is not sustainable in the long run. daily wages show significant variations between different regions. the average daily wage of r98.21 in 2007 for working only one day is considerably higher than that recorded in 2001 and 2006 in langenhoven park in bloemfontein. in 2001, it amounted to r45.68 (bothma & campher, 2003, p. 199). in 2006, it was r65.47 (blaauw & bothma, 2010, p. 5). some employers also contribute towards their domestic workers’ travelling costs. these contributions increase their earnings. in orchards, only 21% of the employers supplemented their employees’ income with travelling allowances. in soshanguve, this percentage is much higher at 32.5%. at first glance, this is surprising. however, the tendency for most domestic workers in orchards to sleep at their place of work may explain this. several employers in orchards provide accommodation at the place of work, negating the need to pay transport allowances. only 24.4% of domestic workers have to travel, and 21% of these do receive compensation for travelling (see table 7). in soshanguve, on the other hand, 89.4% of the domestic workers have to travel and only 32.5% receive additional compensation for travelling. therefore, domestic workers in orchards are better off than those in soshanguve are. table 8 presents the monthly average salaries, adjusted for transport, which employers in orchards and soshanguve paid in 2007. the ‘sectoral determination 7: domestic sector’ does not regulate these. therefore, they are open to negotiation between the parties (department of labour, 2002a, p. 33). on average, domestic workers’ salaries (adjusted for transport) in orchards are still 35.63% higher than those in soshanguve are, although the percentage of employers who contributed to their employees’ transport costs is lower in orchards compared to those in soshanguve. figure 1: domestic workers’ monthly salaries in orchards and soshanguve (2007). table 6: domestic workers’ average wage per day in soshanguve and orchards in 2007. table 7: domestic workers’ travelling status – orchards (n = 86), soshanguve (n = 85). table 8: monthly average salaries adjusted for transport in orchards and soshanguve in 2007. compliance with other legislative requirements unemployment insurance fund requirements and service contracts in orchards, only 28 (32.2%) of employers have registered their domestic workers with the uif. this figure is low given that most workers in orchards are full-time employees. the figure for soshanguve is even lower, with only eight (9.4%) employers contributing towards the uif. for both these areas, the results are significantly lower than the 78% of employers in langenhoven park who registered their domestic workers (who worked for more than 24 hours a month in 2006) with the uif (blaauw & bothma, 2010, p. 6). slightly more than 47% of employers in orchards signed service contracts with their domestic workers in 2007. this figure stood at only 10.6% for soshanguve. in langenhoven park, this figure improved from 30.3% in 2001 to 75.8% in 2006 (blaauw & bothma, 2010, p. 5; bothma & campher, 2003, p. 199). discussion top ↑ the purpose of this study was to provide a microanalysis of the effects of, and levels of compliance with, the regulations for domestic workers in two distinctly different residential areas in pretoria. this fills an important gap in the current literature on the topic and is, to the best of the researchers’ knowledge, the first comparative study of its kind in south africa. this study shows that areas in close proximity to each other show significant differences in wages and the non-wage working conditions of domestic workers in south africa. this is a manifestation of the differences, for different areas in the same metropolitan region, in complying with the legal requirements of the department of labour in south africa. the analysis of the demographic characteristics, employment structure and characteristics, wage or salary levels and working conditions of domestic workers in orchards and soshanguve reaffirms the results of the previous research of blaauw and bothma (2010) as well as that of bothma and campher (2003). domestic work tends to be an occupation for middle-aged women in south africa. one may attribute this to the fact that young people are becoming more skilled because of compulsory school attendance. in addition, domestic work has always been an employment opportunity for the unskilled, as the data on the educational level of domestic workers suggests. the large number of domestic workers in orchards and soshanguve without any formal education confirms this. a pleasing aspect of the analysis of the employment characteristics of domestic workers in the two areas is that most employers adhere to the legislation that specifies the maximum number of working hours a day. most domestic workers in orchards and soshanguve work for seven or more hours a day. they work a maximum of nine hours a day if they work for five days a week and a maximum of eight hours a day if they work more than five days a week. in langenhoven park, the number of hours worked per day did not change significantly between 2002 and 2006. almost all employers in orchards employed their domestic workers for five or more days a week, with an average number of 7.13 hours worked per day. this suggests that domestic workers in orchards work full-time. on the other hand, soshanguve shows a greater demand for part-time domestic services. this corresponds well with the findings in other areas of the country. in langenhoven park, bloemfontein, there has also been a significant shift from full-time to part-time domestic work since 2001 (blaauw & bothma, 2010). a significant difference between orchards and soshanguve is that most domestic workers in orchards worked for only one employer in 2007. the figure in soshanguve is almost half that in orchards, while in langenhoven park it is almost a third. the reason for this might be that the affordability of domestic workers differs between the areas. if households cannot afford to employ domestic workers full-time, domestic workers try to supplement their income by working for more than one employer. on the other hand, domestic workers might prefer to work part-time because the minimum prescribed hourly wages for part-time workers are higher than that for full-time workers. this finding is also consistent with that of blaauw and bothma for langenhoven park (2010). the average monthly salary in orchards was much higher than that in soshanguve. if one compares this with the prescribed minimum salary for 2007, it is clear that the average monthly salary in orchards (of r833.68) falls somewhere between the minimum prescribed salaries for part-time and full-time workers of r756.09and r1066.83 respectively. given that 83.9% of workers in orchards are full-time employees, one would expect that they would receive incomes of at least r1066.83 per month. the results show that only 64.4% of employees received an income higher than r756.09 and only 9% received r1066.83 or more. most workers earned salaries of r900 a month. in soshanguve, where most workers are part-time, only 15.3% received an income above the minimum prescribed monthly salary of r756.09 for part-time workers. therefore, most employers in these areas did not comply with the minimum wage legislation at the time of the study. it is also clear that the average daily wage and the number of days that a domestic employee worked for a particular employer correlate negatively. the minimum wage prescribed for domestic workers, who work fewer than 27 hours a month, is higher than for those who work more than 27 hours a month. this may explain the tendency. in soshanguve, most workers have to travel to and from work. however, only a few of them received additional compensation for travelling. domestic workers’ salaries, adjusted for transport costs and accommodation deductions in orchards, were still higher than those in soshanguve. according to these adjusted salaries, a maximum of 15.1% of the domestic workers in orchards received a monthly income of r1066.83 and higher a month. a maximum of 14.1% of workers in soshanguve earned more than r756.09 a month in 2007. if one compares the prescribed minimum salaries for 2007 with these adjusted average monthly salaries, the differences are not that large. the overall conclusion is that very few employers in orchards and soshanguve complied with the minimum income regulations at the time of the study. these results contrast starkly with the situations in other areas like langenhoven park (blaauw & bothma, 2010). compliance levels here are significantly higher than in the areas surveyed in this study. furthermore, this study shows a lack of compliance with the uif registration requirements. the results of this study have several important implications for policy makers. most important is the realisation that distinguishing between rural and urban areas in the sectoral determination of minimum wages for domestic workers may very well camouflage significant differences, even in the same urban area. the results suggest that there are important drivers, like socioeconomic characteristics and the income levels of the employers in different suburbs in the same metropolis, which influence the levels of compliance with legislation. therefore, policy makers must carefully consider these factors when determining the levels of minimum incomes for domestic workers. added to this is the recognition that any blanket approach to assessing the effects and outcomes of minimum income legislation for domestic workers will not be the most appropriate monitoring strategy. limitations of the study as with all micro-studies, this study has several limitations that one must always note when evaluating results. there is always the possibility that some of the sampling blocks in the two areas may have been slightly overor under surveyed when the fieldworkers conducted the interviews. furthermore, the results do not apply outside of the geographical areas the study covered. one cannot generalise the results to other geographical areas. this limitation is common to all micro–studies. in fact, it suggests that studies should state that their aims are to investigate the differences in the effects of the legislation in areas that are close each another. the practical consequence of this limitation is the realisation that researchers should conduct more micro-studies in different areas over a longer period. this will help policy makers to form a more complete picture of the changes occurring in this labour market because of the government’s legislative efforts. this is an important area for further and ongoing research on this topic. future research of this nature can provide the data for important panel data analysis in order to test the robustness of observed changes in this labour market over time. in fact, previous studies on this topic have identified the unavailability of successive waves of data from the same respondents as limiting factors in microanalyses of this labour market. the results of this study also open the door to qualitative research in this field. focus group research amongst domestic workers and their employers can provide valuable insight into the decision-making behaviour of the economic agents in this important labour market. this data is necessary for investigating aspects like the well-being of those people who are the intended beneficiaries of the minimum wages the government has imposed. conclusions this study shows that the effect of minimum wage legislation for domestic workers differs from region to region, and even in areas close to one another in the same region. this makes the labour market for domestic workers a multifaceted and dynamic one. the concern in the literature about the plight of domestic workers in south africa is indeed a valid one. the results underline the difficulties, which emerged from the existing literature, in setting suitable levels of minimum incomes for workers in this industry. one cannot over emphasise that a blanket approach to setting and assessing the effects of minimum incomes in this important labour market will be inappropriate. the differences in the employment characteristics, wages or salaries, non-wage working conditions and the compliance levels the researchers observed in this study emphasised the necessity and importance of conducting further micro-studies of this nature in the various metropolitan and rural areas of south africa. further micro-studies like this one can provide a better perspective on the effects of these policies on the lives of those who are their intended beneficiaries. acknowledgements top ↑ the authors wish to thank prof. gert roodt for his valuable comments on an earlier draft. the authors also acknowledge the valuable comments of two anonymous referees on an earlier draft. all remaining errors remain the sole responsibility of the authors. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this paper. authors’ contributions p.f.b. (university of johannesburg) was the project leader and supervised a.m. (south african government). both were responsible for the research design and for the development of the measuring instrument. a.m. (south african government) managed the fieldwork for the research. j.m.v. (university of johannesburg) made further conceptual contributions to the analysis. all authors contributed to writing the manuscript. references top ↑ barker, f. (2003). the south african labour market. (4th edn.). pretoria: van schaik. bhorat, h., kanbur, r., & mayet, n. (2010). a note on measuring the depth of minimum wage violation. working paper number 10-141, development policy research unit (dpru): university of cape town. blaauw, p.f., & bothma, l.j. (2010). the impact of minimum wages for domestic workers in bloemfontein south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), 1–7. blaauw, d., & viljoen, k. (2009). do waiters get their fair share? a case study on the working conditions of waiters. journal of economic and financial sciences, 3(1), 49–68. bless, c., & higson-smith, c. (1995). fundamentals of social research methods – an african perspective. (2nd edn.). cape town: juta. bothma, l.j., & campher, c. (2003). minimum wages for domestic workers: a comprehensive analysis. acta academica, 35(1), 190–205. brazil constitution. (1993). retrieved november 26, 2011, from http://www.servat.unibe.ch/icl/br00000_.html burger, r., & von fintel, d. (2009). determining the causes of the rising south african unemployment rate: an age, period and generational analysis. working paper number 158, economic research southern africa (ersa). department of labour. (2002a). sectoral determination 7: domestic worker sector. pretoria: government printer. department of labour. (2002b). basic conditions of employment act, no 75 of 1997 – sectoral determination 7: domestic worker sector, south africa. government gazette. (no. 23732). pretoria: government printer. department of labour. (2006). domestic worker wage increase 2006. retrieved september 14, 2010, from http://www.labour.gov.za/legislation/sectoral-determinations/sectoraldetermination-7-domestic-workers department of labour. (2010). job opportunities and unemployment in the south african labour market. retrieved september 14, 2011, from http://www.labour.gov.za/downloads/documents/annual-reports/job-opportunities-and-unemployment-in-the-south-african-labour-market/2010/job%20opportunities%20report%202010%20-%20part%201.pdf hertz, t. (2004). have minimum wages benefited south africa’s domestic service workers? paper presented at the forum on african development and poverty reduction: the macro-micro linkage, lord charles hotel, somerset west, south africa. hertz, t. (2005). the effect of minimum wages on the employment and earnings of south africa’s domestic service workers. paper presented at the annual forum on trade and uneven development: opportunities and challenges, american university, department of economics, usa. international labour organisation. (2010a). decent work for domestic workers. paper prepared for international labour conference, 99th session, international labour organization, geneva, switzerland. international labour organisation. (2010b). domestic work is not for children. world of work, 68, 7–8. international labour organisation. (2010c). us domestic workers find their voice. world of work, 68, 11–14. jacob, c. (2007). an introduction course on monitoring, evaluation and reporting: for organisations and government departments involved in development projects and programmes. south africa: cj development research consulting. kingdon, g., & knight, j. (2001). what have we learnt about unemployment from micro datasets in south africa? centre for the study of african economies, department of economics, university of oxford. matjeke, a. (2008). the impact of minimum wages on the market for domestic workers in south africa. unpublished m-com mini-dissertation, department of economics & econometrics, university of johannesburg, south africa. mcconnell, c.r., brue, s., & macpherson, d.a. (2010). contemporary labor economics. (9th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill/irwin. mdladlana, m. (2001). media statement on the release of a report about wages and conditions of employment for domestic workers, 10 july, pretoria. retrieved october 01, 2007, from http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2001/010710410p1001.htm mohr, p., fourie, l., & associates. (2008). economics for south african students. (4th edn.). pretoria: van schaik. rubin, a., & babbie, e. (1997). research methods for social work. (3rd edn.). pacific grove: brooks cole. statistics south africa. (2009). labour force survey: historical revision. retrieved september 14, 2010 from http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/p0210/p0210september2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007.pdf footnote top ↑ 1.all countries in the world fall into two broad categories. these are industrial countries (also referred to as developed countries in the literature) and developing countries. industrial countries are high-income countries and are mostly located in europe and north america. developing countries are heavily concentrated in africa, asia and south america. south africa is a middle-income developing country (mohr, fourie & associates, 2008, p. 50). article information authors: celita begbie1 mark bussin1 willem schurink1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: mark bussin email: drbussin@mweb.co.za postal address: po box 973, saxonwold 2132, south africa dates: received: 02 sept. 2010 accepted: 03 feb. 2011 published: 07 june 2011 how to cite this article: begbie, c., bussin, m., & schurink, w. (2011). a food-manufacturing manager’s experiences and perceptions of the implementation of an incentive scheme. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #323, 13 pages. doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.323 copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) a food-manufacturing manager’s experiences and perceptions of the implementation of an incentive scheme in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study       • the company’s incentive scheme    • research purpose • trends from the literature    • incentive schemes    • incentive schemes as a way of motivating staff    • theories of motivation    • the potential value of the study    • entrée and establishing the researcher’s roles • research design    • research approach    • research strategy    • research method       • research setting       • sampling       • data collection       • recording the data       • data analysis       • reporting       • strategies to ensure quality       • research ethics • findings    • the researcher’s own experience    • emerging themes • discussion    • lack of communication: ’what objectives?’    • there was no link between achievement and monetary value: ’rather give me my christmas bonus!’    • the reward and objective do not correspond: ’it’s an insult!’    • there was no influence on achieving an objective: ’would be nice if i had control.’    • the incentive scheme provided a challenging opportunity for learning and growth: ’my objectives are so exciting i would do them for nothing.’    • possible limitations of the study    • recommendations to management    • conclusion • references abstract (back to top) orientation: the field researcher, under the supervision of the co-authors bussin and schurink, sought to explore the experiences, views and perceptions of 10 managers about the incentive scheme that a south african food manufacturing company introduced. research purpose: identifying the contributors to negative feelings and demotivation, or conversely, excitement and motivation, will ultimately assist managers to implement an incentive scheme to motivate staff and improve performance. motivation for the study: there is little research on how participants perceive incentive schemes and whether or not they motivate employees and improve overall performance. research design, approach and method: the researcher used a modernistic qualitative research approach and, more specifically, a case study. main findings: the participants in the research were unaware of the performance goals they needed to achieve. they felt that there was no link between their performance and their earnings. they felt that some objectives were demeaning and insulting, as was the payment they received. they felt that achieving their goals was outside their control and influence. practical/managerial implications: participants felt excited and motivated to perform when their managers presented the department’s overall goals to them and asked the participants to set their own goals based on the department’s objectives. contribution/value-add: although this study is explorative and descriptive, it suggests that it is how departments implement an incentive scheme, rather than merely having one, that will motivate or demotivate employees to perform. introduction (back to top) key focus of the study motivation theorists attempt to explain what motivates employees (bowey, 2005; gordon-rouse, 2004; herzberg, 1968; maslow, 1943; mcclelland, 1987; mcgregor, 1960; vroom, 1964). researchers make recommendations on how to use these theories to motivate employees (brudney & condrey, 1993; forsyth, 2006; kellaway, 2005; mccroskey, mccroskey & richmond, 2005; ramlall, 2004; van herpen, van praag & cools, 2005). furthermore, many researchers have linked incentive schemes to performance (hansen, 2005; lawler, 1990; nelson, 2004; nottage, 2006; wagner, 2006). therefore, it seems that researchers assume that incentive schemes motivate employees. it is generally accepted that employees may achieve objectives and/or meet targets in return for monetary reward. nevertheless, it appears that there is not much research on whether or not incentive schemes motivate employees and improve overall performance. employees may achieve set objectives and receive incentive bonuses, but have the incentive schemes motivated them? are they willing to perform beyond expectations? ‘as south africa is now an international player, organizations will need to utilise performance management effectively in order to build sustainable competitive advantage through the performance of their people’ (whitford & coetsee, 2006, p. 63). the top managers of a south african food manufacturer introduced an incentive scheme in order to motivate all levels of managers to perform well. they expected the managers to feel elated, energised, euphoric and excited about achieving objectives and that they would work together to grow the company. in this study, the researcher tried to explore the experiences, views and perceptions of 10 junior, middle and senior managers who were participants in the company’s incentive scheme. the researcher gathered information using qualitative methods. when asked how they felt about the incentive scheme, all except two participants in the research felt insulted, angry, despondent, irate and agitated. the researcher identified five themes that emerged during conversations with the participants. they explained the reasons for the negative feelings and lack of motivation of these participants and the positive feelings and motivation of the others after the implementation of the incentive scheme. background to the study a british settler and his family established the company, where the researcher did the study, more than 150 years ago. its focus on old family values, of caring for and nurturing its employees, eventually changed to one of making profit. changes in the south african economic and political environments after 1994 caused this change. they led to increased pressure to compete with new international entrants to the food industry. in 2003, its top managers introduced an incentive scheme to motivate all levels of manager to perform in order to meet these new challenges and make profit. this study focused on the junior, middle and senior managers of the operations unit that is responsible for manufacturing the company’s products. the company’s incentive scheme all managers were entitled to a performance bonus that the company paid out bi-annually. the managers received their performance bonuses if they achieved their objectives. if the managers achieved their objectives, they received a bonus of 12% of their annual all-inclusive remuneration package. the incentive is part of variable income (see figure 1). figure 1: remuneration structure. research purpose this study aims to give some insight into the perceptions, views and experiences of the managers who receive incentive bonuses. more specifically, the researcher explored and described how the managers felt about the incentive scheme. therefore, this study will assist managers and directors to implement incentive schemes to motivate staff better and improve performance. trends from the literature (back to top) the literature shows that companies introduce various incentive schemes to motivate staff and improve performance. they include: • variable pay • gain sharing • profit sharing • merit pay • group incentive schemes • pay-for-quality • skills-based pay • short-term reward options. carter (2005) points out that, in order to implement incentive schemes that encourage employees to perform, managers must understand the key principles of human motivation. it is also clear that there is a link between motivation theories and performance. it is remarkable that there seems to be very little research on whether introducing an incentive scheme leads to motivation and improved performance. incentive schemes according to jurgens (2005), there should be different reward options that meet the emotional needs of employees. in addition to basic pay, employees can gain, or risk losing, performance-related pay (lawler, 1990). organisations use various incentive schemes, including variable pay, gain sharing, profit sharing and non-cash rewards (lawler, 1990). variable pay, in addition to basic pay, depends on individual, team and/or company performance (cairncross, 1999). variable pay includes bonuses based on team or individual performance, stock options, vouchers or merchandise (silverman, 2005). in profit sharing, employees receive a prescribed share of company profits (wilkerson, 1995). gross and duncan (1998) compared gain sharing with profit sharing. they found that gain sharing provides employees with an immediate incentive, based on operational results, where employees have a direct influence. this, coupled with frequent payouts, results in increased motivation. gain sharing is easier to measure and understand than profit sharing. gain sharing enables companies to reduce costs whilst employees receive bonus payments and experience improved job satisfaction (lawler, 1990). garver (2006) found that straight cash-for-performance incentives are not as effective as programmes that offer several ways to earn cash and material rewards as well as vouchers. derrick (2005) found that rewards in the form of vouchers, rather than tangible ones, motivated staff to achieve goals because employees can make decisions about the rewards that have meaning in their lives. hawk (1997) did a study amongst non-represented rockwell vickers hardness tester team members across north america. they found that a ‘group incentive’ plan, as a replacement for existing gain sharing programmes, requires clear goals that are established and communicated up front through extensive education programmes so that participants know what their rewards will be if they succeed in meeting those goals. wilkerson (1995) describes merit pay as an annual pay increase that a manager’s evaluation of general individual performance during the past year determines. pay-for-quality programmes reward performance based on specified quality indicators (doran et al., 2006). according to a study by murray and gerhart (1998), skill-based pay had a positive effect on organisational performance. employees increased their efforts to acquire skills whilst productivity and the quality of work improved (murray & gerhart, 1998). cox and tippet (2003) found that united states army engineering personnel prefer team incentives based on individual performance in achieving team goals. incentive schemes as a way of motivating staff incentive schemes aim at creating a pleasurable and motivating experience for employees (wagner, 2006). according to lawler (1990), performance-based bonus payments improve organisational performance. hansen (2005), in a study of current trends in compensation and benefits, found that most organisations emphasise the importance of performance-based programmes and variable compensation as ways of aligning employee behaviour to organisational goals. case studies have shown how incentive schemes contribute to improved staff motivation (nottage, 2006). a financial reward programme rejuvenates employees and improves employee commitment (nelson, 2004). a survey, which van herpen, van praag and cools (2005) conducted, verified that there is a positive relationship between the characteristics of a complete compensation system and extrinsic motivation. in a study by brudney and condrey (1993), inclusion in a performance-based compensation scheme motivated a small percentage (15%) of managers. the reasons they gave were the perceived link between performance and pay and that the performance was evaluated accurately and fairly (brudney & condrey, 1993). theories of motivation carter (2005) found that paying people a high starting salary and generous bonuses does not necessarily make them more productive. employees need to be motivated to achieve goals and improve performance. therefore, it is important to understand motivation theory in order to ensure the success of incentive schemes (bowey, 2005). a synopsis of popular motivation theories, and how companies can implement them to improve performance, follows. maslow’s hierarchy of needs model of motivation consists of five needs in order of importance to people. they are physiological, safety, love, esteem and self-actualisation. staff must feel they have achieved one level before moving on to the next (maslow, 1943). as an alternative to maslow’s hierarchy of needs, gordon-rouse (2004) presented a systemic approach to understanding the relationship between goals, emotions and the personal beliefs of people. according to bowey (2005), motivation depends on achieving goals rather than on the needs of employees. therefore, setting goals, targets or objectives that are consistent with company strategy will result in improved performance. according to herzberg (1968), hygiene factors will not motivate employees. however, these must be in place before motivating factors can take effect. factors that are motivating and lead to job satisfaction are: • achievement • recognition • possibilities for growth • advancement • responsibility • the work itself. basset-jones and lloyd (2005) tested herzberg’s theory and found that intrinsic satisfaction factors are primary sources of motivation rather than money and recognition. companies should implement and customise maslow’s hierarchy of needs and herzberg’s hygiene theory in order to improve performance (forsyth, 2006). mcgregor (1960) emphasised people’s needs for achievement and satisfaction from a job done well in theory y, as opposed to theory x, which views employees as people that companies have to persuade to work in exchange for money. kellaway (2005) believes that companies should apply both mcgregor’s theory x and theory y to motivate employees. employees fall into two groups. there are those who dislike work and companies have to coerce them into doing it and those who enjoy work as well as responsibility and will look for more of both. according to mcclelland (1987), employees will be motivated by the need to achieve, power and/or affiliation, whilst vroom’s (1964) expectancy theory states that employees will be motivated to achieve an objective if they value the reward. a study on the factors that affect the retention of managerial and specialist staff mentions that there is ‘a strong positive correlation between commitment and higher-order needs, or intrinsic factors as per maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory and herzberg’s theory of motivation’ (lok & crawford, [1999], as cited in kotze & roodt, [2005]). according to ramlall (2004), employee retention practices become more effective if companies identify, analyse and critique employee motivation theories and show the relationship between employee motivation and employee retention. mccroskey, mccroskey and richmond (2005) applied organisational orientations theory to a wide variety of organisations and found that the upward mobile, ambivalent and indifferent employee traits influence job satisfaction and motivation. the potential value of the study although the literature shows that incentives motivate employees to perform, this study explores the experiences, views and perceptions of managers who receive incentive bonuses in order to determine what will ensure that incentive schemes rejuvenate employees as well as increase their commitment and motivation to improve performance. the researcher describes the qualitative research design, presents the findings and analyses the data below. the researcher records emerging themes and compares them to those that arose from the literature. entrée and establishing the researcher’s roles the marketing department of the food manufacturer initially employed the researcher in 1997 and appointed her as training and development manager in 2001. during this time, she established sound relationships with most employees, particularly with the managers she worked with directly, and gained their trust. staff and managers often expressed their views of company practices and shared events that occurred in their lives with her. despite the company’s reluctance to employ a human resources manager, the researcher was passionate about achieving the goal of best practice in managing human resources and took on this role unofficially. the researcher acted as an advisor to managers and employees. therefore, they often told her how they felt about work-related issues. during informal discussions, it became clear that most managers did not share her sentiments about the company’s incentive scheme. the researcher researched the company’s incentive scheme in partial fulfilment for her master’s degree and decided to embark on a formal study of the scheme, hoping to help with managing performance. the researcher explained the study to the operations director of the operations business unit, her immediate manager. he gave the researcher permission to embark on the study using participants who worked in his business unit. research design (back to top) research approach potter (1996) holds that a researcher could investigate, analyse and interpret a particular social reality depending on the researcher’s belief of what social reality is (ontology) and how one can know social phenomena best (epistemology). the first question one should therefore ask when designing a study is ‘how do i see social reality?’ here there are two general assumptions (schurink, 2009): • one can explain people’s behaviour from the outside through observation and from general scientific laws [erklaren] • humans are different from things and one can only understand human behaviour from an insider’s point of view [emic] and by gaining insight into the meaning [verstehen] that research participants give to their life world. how researchers gain insight into people’s worlds depends on their views of the way one answers their research questions most truthfully, that is ‘to generate truthful, and in the case of qualitative research, trustworthy descriptions and explanations of the world’ (schurink, 2009, p. 807). therefore, the position this study takes is that the researcher should see social reality objectively, as an external reality ‘out there’, and that the researcher should remain objective when studying it (schurink, 2009). in summary, the perspective of study is that managers at the food manufacturer regard its incentive scheme and its implementation as meaningful. the researcher will unravel this perception and generate knowledge using qualitative methods. this modernist position contradicts the belief that there is no real world or truth other than a narrative one. therefore, only those who experience reality personally can know it (schurink, 2009). the researcher acknowledges the problem, for modernist qualitative research, about objectivity because it contradicts qualitative enquiry. research strategy ‘your choice of approach and methodology determines your research strategy’ (schurink, 2009, p. 21). schurink, (2009) points out that the research strategy researchers use should flow from their research approaches. schwandt (2007) believes that this includes the logic of the approach or the reasoning process researchers use to link the research question(s), method(s) and evidence. creswell (2007) differentiates between the following strategies, or combinations of them, which researchers use mostly in qualitative research: • biography • ethnography • phenomenology • grounded theory • case study. in line with the scientific beliefs of the study and its aims, the researcher chose a case study. whilst there are many views about this strategy, the following will suffice. a case study is an exploration, or in-depth analysis, of a ‘bounded system’ (in time and/or place), or a study of a single or multiple case over a period of time (creswell, 2007). the researcher may study a process, activity, event, programme, a person or several people. it might even refer to a period of time rather than to a particular group of people. exploring and describing the case happens through detailed, in-depth data collection methods. they involve several rich sources of information and may include interviews, documents, observations or archives. therefore, the researcher needs access to, and the confidence of, participants. the product of this research is an in-depth study of a case. the researcher places the system or case within its larger context, but the focus remains on either the case or an issue that illustrates it (creswell, 2007; schurink, 2009, p. 814). the particular type of case this study used includes a combination of the types schram (2006) distinguished. these follow. the case study focuses on getting a better understanding of a particular case. the case study gives an insight into, or elaborates on, a theory to gain a better understanding of a social issue through studying the case. this case study merely assists the researcher to learn about a social issue. the collective case study is an instrumental study extended to a number of cases. the focus is on increasing the understanding, or theorising, of the researcher about a general phenomenon or condition. researchers choose cases so that they can make comparisons between cases and concepts to extend and validate theories (schurink, 2009, p. 814). research method the researcher discusses the research methodology under the subheadings that follow. research setting the researcher conducted the study in a south african food manufacturer (the company), with a staff complement of approximately 400 employees. of these, 325 are in johannesburg, 65 at the cape town factory and 15 at distribution centres around the country. the operations business unit is responsible for manufacturing. a british family established the company and owned it until 2006, when they sold it to an international company. the owners treasured the traditional family values of caring for and nurturing its employees as concerned parents. the company was the sole producer of its product in south africa and had little competition. as was the case with all local businesses, the company experienced changes in the south african social, political and economic environments after 1994. it was under pressure to comply with new labour legislation it has had to deal with new competition and engage in the global war for raw materials. the company remained reluctant to employ a human resources manager and its managers generally resisted the new labour legislation and performance management. sampling in qualitative research, it is crucial that researchers get information from people who are the subjects of the research. since the ideal in qualitative research is to study people’s experiences and views in depth, the researcher needed to select the research participants carefully. because of practical difficulties, the researcher needed to be careful that she selected a manageable group of research participants in order to complete the study. after discussions, it was felt that 10 participants, out of 42 managers, would represent the company’s organisational structure and were manageable. because of her position and years spent at the company at the time of the study, the researcher was an insider. this was very helpful when she selected her subjects for the research. more particularly, her knowledge of the subject and intimate knowledge of the participants, on both professional and personal levels, enabled her, with the supervision of bussin and schurink, to select the participants for the study. they had all received the performance bonus, had established a relationship of trust with her, knew her well and were willing and able to share their experiences and views with her. taking advantage of her knowledge of the company’s organisational structure and levels, the researcher ensured that the research participants represented junior, middle and senior managers who had received the performance bonus. these participants comprised both genders, four race groups and various departments in the operations business unit. the researcher interviewed 10 junior, middle and senior managers. table 1: participants grouped according to management level, gender and race. data collection as is typical of modernist qualitative research, researchers should use more than one method to collect data. in the present study, the researcher used the following methods: • observation of participants • formal qualitative in-depth interviews. observation of participants,or ethnography, means that the researcher must become intensely involved in the life of a group, community, or organisation in order to discern people’s habits and thoughts, as well as decipher the social structure that binds them (henning, van rensburg & smit, 2005): the process of gathering data in the field therefore requires time, a deep personal involvement and commitment, the ability to withstand tedious situations of prolonged drudgery and discomfort, skills to resolve conflict situations on the spot, and courage to face and deal with uncomfortable if not dangerous situations. (schurink, 2009, p. 23) the researcher followed a traditional ethnographic approach, which mirrors positivism, for the current study. the researcher tried to stay detached and compile an objective account of what she observed and of what the participants shared with her during the course of the study, a period of three months. qualitative interviewing refers to social interaction between people. according to schurink (2004a), the interviewers, unlike people who are involved in ordinary interaction, do not participate in order to voice their feelings and/or thoughts. instead, the interviewees share their feelings, experiences and beliefs with the interviewer. schurink (2004a) suggests that one may define these interviews as one or more face-to-face interactions between an interviewer and interviewees. the interviewer tries to grasp and understand the interviewees’ life experiences or situations as they express them in their own words. researchers often conduct these interviews using a research schedule. this is a guide for the interviewer and contains questions and themes that are important for the research. although researchers do not usually have to ask the questions in a particular order, the questions ensure that researchers cover all the relevant topics during an interview. the researcher used qualitative interviews to explore the experiences of employees, their views about the incentive system and how it influenced their ability and/or willingness to perform. the researcher used this as a research guide: • ‘how do you feel about the incentive scheme?’ • ‘what would be your ideal incentive scheme?’ as the interviews progressed, the researcher asked probing questions. at the beginning of each interview, the researcher explained the purpose of the study to the participants. the researcher and participants understood and agreed that the researcher would keep all the information the participants offered confidential and that the interviewees could decide to discontinue their participation at any time. the researcher did not record the interviews electronically and did not ask the participants to sign consent forms. the researcher assumed that the interviewees would be apprehensive and less likely to express their true feelings and thoughts about the incentive scheme if the researcher recorded the interviews and the participants signed consent forms. the researcher anticipated that the interviews would take approximately 20 minutes each. however, none of the interviews lasted for less than an hour. the longest interview lasted approximately two-and-a-half hours. the researcher conducted all the interviews at the company’s premises. the researcher interviewed each employee in a secluded office or boardroom, behind closed doors, and on a one-on-one basis. the researcher interviewed one of the participants telephonically during a night shift. he was in his office, behind closed doors, and secluded. all interviews were uninterrupted. the researcher interviewed each participant once. it is usual for qualitative researchers to use available data, like minutes of meetings, memoranda or policy documents. however, these were not available. there was no company policy or procedure describing how the company would implement the incentive scheme. recording the data the researcher collected the data by writing down what the interviewees said and capturing words and phrases verbatim. the researcher is especially skilled at speedwriting and used her own symbols for words and phrases. this allowed her to capture what the participants said. if the participants spoke too quickly, the researcher asked them to pause and/or speak more slowly to allow her to complete her notes. the fact that most participants spoke in a calm, relaxed manner, pausing on their own from time to time, made it easier for the researcher to capture their words. once the interviews were over, the researcher typed detailed field notes. according to schurink (2004b), these are written accounts of what qualitative researchers hear, see, experience and think during the course of collecting and reflecting on their data. the researcher referred to the field notes and added what she had observed about the interviewees’ body language, particular their mannerisms and facial expressions. finally, the researcher added detailed descriptions of each participant from her observations and personal knowledge of the participants. data analysis coffey and atkinson (1996) noted in making sense of qualitative data that: it is abundantly clear not only that there are many ways to undertake the analysis of qualitative data but also that analysis in general means different things to different people … there is not … consensus about what the term analysis, means in this context, let alone about the specifics and precise formulation of strategies and techniques. (coffey & atkinson, 1996, p. 6) schurink (2004a), points out that: • qualitative data analysis generally means different things to different people • whilst there are many ways to undertake qualitative data analysis, it mainly involves reducing and displaying data, drawing conclusions and verifying data • qualitative data analysis involves working with data, organising it, breaking it into manageable units, synthesising it, searching for patterns, discovering what is important and what one can learn and deciding what to tell others. the researcher used the field notes to analyse the data informally, focusing on similarities and differences in the views of the research participants. once the researcher identified patterns and themes, she compared them with the principles of incentive schemes, motivation theory and performance she had extracted from the literature. the researcher did the analysis manually. reporting in line with the study’s modernistic approach, the researcher used two general reporting styles: scientific and realist. the realist style is similar to the scientific one in some ways because the researcher is almost completely absent from most parts of the text: ‘… they construct authority and objectivity through the use of a passive voice so as to obscure and apparently distance the disembodied author from the data’ (sparkes, 2002, p. 44). in the realist style, the researchers vanish into the background and let the subject(s) tell the tale. the subjects only hear their voices when they are giving details about the study’s research methodology and the fieldwork in particular (sparkes, 2002). van maanen (1988), cited in sparkes (2002), points out that realist tales entail extensive, closely edited quotations to tell the audience that the views expressed are those of the research participants and not those of the researcher. the researcher kept a research diary, or natural history, that presented an audit to assist the reader to assess the research. here she used the confessional tale: … [t]he confessional (tale) … foregrounds the voice and concerns of the researcher in a way that take us behind the scenes for the ‘cleaned up’ methodological discussions so often provided in realistic tales. (sparkes, 2002, p. 57) according to van maanen (1988), cited in sparkes (2002), confessional tales are highly personalised styles and have self-absorbed mandates. they include what went wrong in the research as well as what went right (sparkes, 2002). strategies to ensure quality schurink (2009) points out that, despite the many attempts qualitative researchers have made over decades, there is still a lack of consensus amongst researchers about what criteria are acceptable to measure the value of qualitative research. in this study, the researcher followed several procedures in an attempt to ensure its ‘goodness’. these are: • the conventional criteria for good research, like internal validity, external validity (or representativeness), reliability and objectivity • alternative criteria, as lincoln and guba (1985) propose. with regard to the ‘conventional measures’, the researcher used a modernistic qualitative approach. in order to obtain rich and credible data, she reflected on the participants’ experiences and views. the researcher is a former employee of the company. therefore, she is familiar with the participants’ situations and had the advantage of knowing the organisational culture. the researcher was an insider and, whilst this role had various advantages, it had the drawback that she had consciously to guard against influencing the research participants. the researcher did her best to minimise this and other factors that may have affected the quality of the data (mouton & marais, 1990). lincoln and guba (1985) propose credibility (or authenticity), transferability, dependability and confirmability as alternative constructs they believe reflect the assumptions of the qualitative paradigm more accurately. the central question here is ‘is there a match between research participants’ views and the researchers’ reconstruction and representation of them?’ lincoln & guba (1985) outline five strategies to increase the credibility of qualitative research: • prolonged engagement and persistent observation in the field • triangulation of different methods • peer debriefing • member checks • formalised qualitative methods, like grounded theory and analytic induction. in this study, the researcher used these as follows: peer debriefing: the researcher discussed various decisions made during the research process intermittently with co-authors, schurink and bussin, including analysing the findings. prolonged engagement and persistent observation in the field: the researcher had worked for the company for 11 years at the time of the study. during this time, she had observed social interaction amongst employees and had them confide in her during informal chats. triangulation: bester (2007) points out that, by using several and different sources, methods and theoretical constructs, one can provide corroborating evidence about the aims of the study. by obtaining collateral information, the researcher was able to verify the findings and strengthen her arguments. member checks: the researcher used what gould et al. (1974), as cited in schurink (2001), refer to as ‘member validation’ or ‘respondent validation’ (silverman, 2005). the researcher reviewed and discussed field notes, observations of body language and detailed descriptive information she recorded with the co-authors (bussin and schurink). formalised qualitative methods: the researcher used ethnography, qualitative interviewing and general modernistic guidelines in the study. transferability: the findings presented in this study can be transferred to similar organisations. the chances are that the findings will be similar. the employees’ perceptions of the incentive scheme are likely to be similar in other organisations that have implemented incentive schemes poorly (schwandt, 2007). dependability: the researcher was careful to ensure that the research process in the study was logical, well documented and audited by the participants and the co-authors. confirmability: at the end of the interview process, the researcher presented the findings to the participants in order to validate the recordings of their views. research ethics it was imperative to assure the participants that the researcher would keep the information they gave completely confidential, especially because she would ask them to express their feelings. the participants used strong words and/or language, which could have tarnished their professional images, to express their feelings. the researcher did not reveal the names of the participants she interviewed in order to protect their identities. furthermore, the researcher was careful not to include examples that could have identified participants. the researcher explained the purpose of the study to all participants at the beginning of each interview. she received permission from the operations director to embark on the study involving participants who worked in his business unit. the researcher also obtained verbal permission from the participants. the researcher did not ask them to sign written permission as she felt that this would make them reluctant to reveal their true feelings and views. during the interviews, the participants used strong and sometimes vulgar language. the language gave the researcher a deep understanding of their views and perceptions. however, the researcher has omitted this language from this article. the researcher first presented the findings to the participants before releasing them to the business unit director and the executive committee in an effort to ensure transparency and openness. findings (back to top) the researcher recorded and analysed the narratives of the 10 participants. although computer-aided software for analysis is available, the researcher analysed the transcriptions manually. the researcher’s own experience employed as training and development manager, the researcher reported directly to the operations director. the operations director was a chemical engineer and had very little knowledge or interest in the finer details of human resources management. therefore, he struggled to decide which areas of human resources management the researcher should focus on. he therefore expected the researcher to set her own objectives for the training and development department. in the week preceding the objectives review date, the researcher drew up a set of four objectives for the training and development department that she believed should be the focus areas for the following six months. these objectives were based on the company strategy at the time – the researcher’s best guess – and/or specific projects that she thought she could contribute towards. the researcher’s second motive for setting objectives was to ensure that the objectives she chose would allow her to gain experience in an aspect of human resources management that she needed in order to reach her goal of becoming a human resources manager. when setting her own objectives for the training and development department, the researcher made sure that they followed the specific, measureable, achievable, realistic and time-bound (smart) principles of being very specific and detailed, measurable, achievable within the six-month period, realistic and with specific deadlines. the researcher presented her department’s objectives to the operations director. they discussed them at length until they agreed on the specific wording of each objective and the percentage of annual salary the company should allocate to each. throughout the six-month period, the researcher initiated discussions and meetings with the operations director. the researcher informed him of any possible obstacles or assistance she required to achieve her department’s objectives. the researcher did this because achieving the objectives was very important to her and gave her a sense of achievement. at the end of the six-month period, on the date of objectives review, the researcher placed a file of documents on the operations director’s desk. it contained four file dividers, labelled one to four. each cover page contained a statement of the objectives, a summary of what the researcher had achieved and how she had achieved them. supporting documents proved that the researcher had achieved her objectives. the operations director was unable to justify allocating less than the full 4% of her annual salary as an incentive for achieving the objectives successfully. the researcher felt a sense of triumph as she explained the contents of the file to him. emerging themes five themes emerged from the narratives of the participants. the researcher grouped excerpts from the narratives according to the five themes. the boxes that follow show these themes. the company had told the managers what their objectives were at the time of the review, rather than at the beginning of the review period. the company had not told them how it would measure performance or how it would calculate the percentage reward. the company’s objectives were unknown, as were how the company would measure the individual contributions towards achieving them. the managers did not know when the appraisal would take place nor did they know the performance criteria against which the company would measure their performance. the managers preferred a fixed annual bonus, a ‘christmas bonus’ or thirteenth cheque because they knew exactly what to expect. the monetary value of the incentive bonus was not worth the effort required to achieve the objectives. the managers did not know how the company would measure achieving the objectives or what percentage of annual salary the company would allocate. the size and complexity of the objectives did not correspond to the payouts. the company could allocate a large percentage to an objective. however, if the objective was too easy or the project too small, like ‘personal hygiene’ or ‘time keeping’, the participants felt insulted as educated professionals. conversely, for objectives that were more complex and demanded extra time, the percentage the company paid was disappointingly inadequate. the money was inadequate for the work the participants did. the managers had no power, influence or control over the performance of other team members in achieving team objectives. even though some team members worked hard at achieving their goals, the company did not pay them for achieving the goals if others did not play their parts. the company penalised managers if others in their teams did not perform. the managers would prefer the company to allocate objectives that they could achieve on their own. they found it demotivating when the company wrongfully held them responsible for unsuccessful projects. when managers created their own objectives, based on company or departmental strategic objectives, they felt that the incentive scheme encouraged self-improvement and provided opportunities for learning and ‘multi-skilling’. achieving the objectives resulted in a sense of achievement. discussion (back to top) the main objective of the study was to explore the feelings, perceptions and experience of managers about the implementation of an incentive scheme. whilst the study is explorative and descriptive, it suggests that how companies implement incentive schemes is more important than merely to have them. the implementation either motivates or demotivates employees to perform. five themes emerged from the analysis of the narratives: • there was a lack of communication: ‘what objectives?’ • there was no link between achievement and payouts: ‘rather give me my christmas bonus!’ • the reward and objective do not correspond: ‘it’s an insult!’ • there was no influence on achievement of an objective: ‘would be nice if i had control’ • the incentive scheme provided a challenging opportunity for learning and growth: ‘my objectives are so exciting i would do them for nothing’. box 1: lack of communication – ‘what objectives?’ box 2: no link between achievement and monetary value – ‘rather give me my christmas bonus.’ box 3: the reward and objective do not correspond – ‘it’s an insult!’ box 4: no influence on achievement of an objective – ‘would be nice if i had control.’ box 5: a challenging opportunity for learning and growth – ‘my objectives are so exciting i would do them for nothing.’ lack of communication: ‘what objectives?’ either there was a lack of communication about the objectives or managers never set or issued them before the six-month review period. the managers could not work towards achieving objectives because they did not know what they were. the company did not consider the actual performance of managers when determining the incentive payout. the managers indicated that they would prefer the company to define objectives clearly, in consultation with them, at the beginning of the six-month review period and that the company should evaluate the achievement of these objectives and performance standards during discussions. the company should identify areas for improvement and create action plans in order to improve performance. the company should measure performance accurately and give continuous feedback throughout the six-month period so there was time to improve before the evaluation date. reward systems must create motivation to perform (lawler & worley, 2006). according to grensing-pophal (2005), the elements of a successfully implemented incentive scheme are: • frequent incentives • clear links with the organisation’s vision, mission and strategic plan • high frequency of communication • measuring and monitoring member satisfaction levels. roy and dugal (2005) give a general model of factors that determine the effectiveness of incentives. they should: • involve all stakeholders in developing the plan • develop an easy-to-understand formula for sharing profits • maintain transparency • ensure that the plan’s goals are consistent with the organisation’s goals. in most of the interviews, employees said they received their objectives at the time of the review. they did not know how the company would evaluate them. ‘without adequate information, an employer may not be able to distinguish between productive and non-productive employees’ (kotze & roodt, 2005, p 50). poor communication leads to a situation where employers cannot identify and reward improved performance (kotze & roodt, 2005). there was no link between achievement and monetary value: ‘rather give me my christmas bonus!’ managers did not see the connection between their own standards of performance and receiving bonuses. when they received their year-end ‘christmas bonus’, they knew the exact amount they would receive. it did not depend on how well they performed. because they did not know what their objectives were at the beginning of the cycle, they could not anticipate what their incentive bonus would be if they achieved their objectives. according to smith (2005), rewarding a job well done brings undeniable satisfaction. however, keeping accurate records of that process is cumbersome and can result in demotivation. companies should structure rewards to achieve effective outcomes, rather than short-term goals, in order to achieve both employee and customer satisfaction (calabro & krause, 2005). the reward and objective do not correspond: ‘it’s an insult!’ employees, who felt that the reward did not correspond with the objective, expressed strong emotions. either the value of the incentive bonus was not worth the amount of work they had to do in order to achieve the objective or the wording of the objective was demeaning. according to bussin and gildenhuys (2002), incentive payouts range from 15% for supervisors to 30% for senior managers. this company paid a maximum of 8% for supervisors (junior managers) and 12% for middle and senior managers. this was far below market averages at the time of the study. as a result, managers felt insulted when the rand-value incentive payout was not worth the time and effort required to meet the set objectives: the organisations’ compensation strategy should drive the size of the award in that it should state how much of the total compensation is derived from the short-term incentive and what level of the short term incentive is desired in comparison to competitive levels. (bussin, 2002, p. 15) there was no influence on achieving an objective: ‘would be nice if i had control.’ employees felt frustrated when the company set and evaluated team objectives. they did not have any control over the levels of performance of the other team members. as a result, they were not able to achieve objectives on time or at their own standards of performance. others felt that they had worked harder than other team members had. however, the other team members often received better payouts because their salaries were higher. thorpe and gillman (2000) used a combination of motivation theories to recommend five key principles to incorporate in reward systems: • involvement • removal of demotivators • equity • reinforcement • relevance of the rewards and goals. figure 2: incentive payouts – market averages. the incentive scheme provided a challenging opportunity for learning and growth: ‘my objectives are so exciting i would do them for nothing.’ the researcher’s own experience, as well as that of some of the participants, indicated that managers felt enthusiastic and excited about achieving their objectives if the objectives were challenging, gave them a sense of achievement and provided them with an opportunity for learning and career growth. this was a company incentive scheme. however, managers could set their own objectives within guidelines at the beginning of the review period. they were also free to determine their own objectives and as how the company would measure the achievement of these objectives. they discussed achieving objectives informally during regular meetings with their respective seniors intermittently throughout the six-month review period. at the end of the review period, they presented evidence that they had achieved their objectives and received the percentage of their annual salary that they had allocated to the objectives. this is consistent with cottringer and kirby (2005). they proposed the following motivating factors to consider when implementing incentive schemes: • set achievable objectives • use employees’ skills wisely • understand the factors behind poor performance • be consistent • provide rewards • break bad behaviour patterns • lead by example • communicate effectively • build a team • say ‘thank you’ for a job well done. simmonds, iles and yolles (2005) developed a model to manage performance that includes all stakeholders in decision-making to improve effectiveness. a study by kock, roodt and veldsman (2002) focused on the financial sector. however, one can apply the following statement to the concept of participation in setting objectives that align with company strategy: ‘companies in this sector need to improve the level of participation of all employees in their strategy formulation and to develop commitment and ownership to the business objectives’ (kock, roodt & veldsman, 2002 p. 90). possible limitations of the study a possible limitation to replicating this study is that researchers need to have worked at a company long enough to establish trust with the participants in order to get the necessary data. recommendations to management understanding how implementing incentive schemes could cause anger, demotivation and despondency will assist managers to eliminate poor methods of implementation. managers should develop a plan for implementing an incentive scheme that focuses on building feelings of excitement, motivation and commitment. once developed, they should conduct a qualitative study to identify feelings about the plan in order to ensure that opinions are positive about the proposed method. they should conduct another qualitative study after implementing the new method in order to determine the most effective way of ensuring motivation and improved performance. conclusion the purpose of the study was to explore the experiences, views and perceptions of managers about an incentive scheme. research shows that incentives motivate employees to perform. however, this study shows that just implementing an incentive scheme will not automatically lead to rejuvenation, employee commitment and motivation for better performance. however, should the methods of implementation be inadequate, the incentive scheme could lead to feelings of anger, resentment, despondency and demotivation. five themes emerged from the findings: • ‘what objectives?’ the company did not communicate to managers the objectives or how they link to incentive payouts before the performance review. • ‘rather give me my christmas bonus.’ managers did not see the link between achieving objectives and their value. • ‘it is an insult!’ managers felt that some objectives were demeaning and the time and effort required for achieving them were not worth the payouts. • ‘would be nice if i had control.’ managers preferred the company to allocate objectives to them as individuals rather than to groups of employees over whom they had no control and influence. ‘my objectives are so exciting i would achieve them for nothing.’ where the objectives and their links to company objectives were clear, managers felt excited about being involved in achieving goals that aligned with achieving personal goals for career development. therefore, companies are able to avoid negative feelings and experiences that particular methods of implementation, that decrease levels of performance, cause. on the other hand, companies can create positive feelings and motivation when: • the method of implementation includes adequate communication, links between achieving objectives and the payouts employees receive • employees have sufficient influence and control over achieving their objectives. references (back to top) basset-jones, n., & lloyd, g. (2005). does herzberg’s motivation theory have staying power? the journal of management development, 24(10), 929–943. doi:10.1108/02621710510627064 bester, p.c. (2007). a south african woman’s experience of expatriate adjustment. unpublished thesis. university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa. bowey, a.m. (2005). motivation: the art of putting theory into practice. european business forum, 20, 17–20. brudney, j.l., & condrey, s.e. (1993). pay for performance: explaining the differences in managerial motivation. public productivity & management review, 17(2), 129–144. bussin, m. (2002). choosing the right incentive scheme. randburg, republic of south africa: knowledge resources (pty) ltd. bussin, m., & gildenhuys, h. (2002). total packages. randburg, republic of south africa: knowledge resources (pty) ltd. cairncross, f. (1999). survey: pay: a fair day’s pay. the economist, 351(8118), 12–15. calabro, s., & krause, j. (2005). measuring up. sales and marketing management, 157(3), 22–28. carter, s. (2005). are you more serious than playful, or more conforming than rebellious? management services, 49(1), 42–45. coffey, a.j., & atkinson, p.a. (1996). making sense of qualitative data: complementary research strategies. thousand oaks, ca: sage. cottringer, w., & kirby, j. (2005). security for buyers of products. systems and services, 41(7), 60–66. cox, j.m., & tippett, d.d. (2003). an analysis of team rewards at the u.s. army corps of engineers huntsville center. engineering management journal, 15(4), 11–18. creswell, j. (2007). qualitative inquiry & research design: choosing among five approaches. thousand oaks: sage. derrick, s. (2005). reward tactics. promotions & incentives, jul/aug, 44–48. doran, t., fullwood, c., gravelle, h., reeves, d., kontopantelis, e., hiroeh, u. et al. (2006). pay-for-performance programs in family practices in the united kingdom. the new england journal of medicine, 355(4), 375–384. doi:10.1056/nejmsa055505, pmid:16870916 forsyth, p. (2006). motivating your staff. iee engineering management, 16(1), 22–23. doi:10.1049/em:20060104 garver, r. (2006). employee incentive programmes reap big rewards. american banker, 171(73), 12. gordon-rouse, k. (2004). beyond maslow’s hierarchy of needs: what do people strive for? performance improvement, 43(10), 27–32. doi:10.1002/pfi.4140431008 grensing-pophal, l. (2005). incentives drive results. credit union management, 28(12), 44–47. gross, s.e., & duncan, d. (1998). case study: gainsharing plan spurs record productivity and payouts at ameristeel. compensation and benefits review, saranac lake, 30(6), 46. hansen, f. (2005). currents in compensation and benefits. compensation and benefits review, 37, 7–17. doi:10.1177/088636870503700303 hawk, e.j. (1997). aligning stakeholder interests: the power of group incentives. compensation & benefits management, new york, 13(3), 8–18. henning, e., van rensburg, w., & smit, b. (2005). finding your way in qualitative research. third impression. south africa: van schaik publishers. herzberg, f. (1968). one more time: how do you motivate employees? harvard business review, 46(1), 5–16. jurgens, j. (2005). recognise, reward and retain: the three r’s of performance management. pharmaceutical executive, may, 45–49. kellaway, l. (2005, september). the infinite potential to get out of bed in the morning. financial times, p. 10. kock, r., roodt, g., & veldsman, t.h. (2002). the alignment between effective people management, business strategy and organisational performance in the banking and insurance sector. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 28(3), 81–91. kotze, k., & roodt, g. (2005). factors that affect the retention of managerial and specialist staff: an exploratory study of an employee commitment model. sa journal of human resources management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 3(2), 48–55. lawler, e. (1990). strategic pay aligning organisational strategies and pay systems. (1st edn.). london: jossey-bass inc. publishers. lawler, e., & worley, c. (2006). winning support for organisational change: designing employee reward systems that keep on working. ivey business journal, 70(4), 1–5. lincoln, y.s., & guba, e. (1985). naturalistic enquiry. beverly hills, ca: sage. lok, p., & crawford, j. (1999). the relationship between commitment and organistional culture, subculture, leadership style and job satisfaction in organisational change and development. leadership and organisational development journal, 20(1), 365–374. doi:10.1108/01437739910302524 maslow, a.h. (1943). a theory of motivation. psychological review, 50, 370–396. doi:10.1037/h0054346 maxwell, j.a. (2005). qualitative research design: an interactive approach. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca, london: sage publications, inc. mcclelland, d.c. (1987). human motivation. new york: cambridge university press. mccroskey, l., mccroskey, j., & richmond, v. (2005). applying organisational orientations theory to employees of profit and non-profit organisations. communications quarterly, 53(1), 21–40. doi:10.1080/01463370500055889 mcgregor, d. (1960). the human side of enterprise. new york: mcgraw-hill. mouton, j., & marais, h.c. (1990). basic concepts and methodology of the social sciences. pretoria: hsrc. murray, b., & gerhart, b. (1998). an empirical analysis of a skill-based pay program and plant performance outcomes. the academy of management journal, 41(1), 68–78. doi:10.2307/256898 nelson, t. (2004). high impact for low wages workers. workforce management, august, 47–48. nottage, a. (2006). motivation in action. promotions and incentives, april, 33–39. potter, j. (1996). representing reality: discourse, rhetoric and social construction. london: sage. ramlall, s. (2004). a review of employee motivation theories and their implications for employee retention within organisations. journal of american academy of business, cambridge, 5, 52–53. roy, m., & dugal, s. (2005). using employee gainsharing plans to improve organisational effectiveness. benchmarking, 12(3), 250–259. doi:10.1108/14635770510600366 schram, t.h. (2006) conceptualizing and proposing qualitative research. upper saddle river, new jersey: columbus, ohio. schurink, e. (2009). qualitative research design as tool for trustworthy research. journal of public administration, 44(4.2), 803–823. schurink, w.j. (2001). lecture 8: criteria for evaluating qualitative studies. in w.j. schurink & e.m. schurink (eds.), models of qualitative research, (pp. 1–11). unpublished training course. schurink, w.j. (2009). qualitative research design. doctoral research training programme (drtp). university of stellenbosch business school, stellenbosch, south africa. schurink, w.j. (2004a). lecture six: unstructured individual: interviews. doctoral programme: leadership in performance and change. department of human resources, rand afrikaans university, johannesburg, south africa, 27–28 february. schurink, w.j. (2004b). lecture ten: data analysis. doctoral programme: leadership in performance and change. department of human resources, rand afrikaans university, johannesburg, south africa, 27–28 february. schwandt, t.a. (2007). the sage dictionary of qualitative inquiry. thousand oaks: sage. silverman, d. (2005). doing qualitative research: a practical handbook. (2nd edn.). london: sage. silverman, r. (2005, 31 august). personal finance: white-collar raises for 2006 projected at 3.6%. wall street journal, p. 2–5. simmonds, j., iles, p., & yolles, m. (2005). identifying those on board the moving train: towards a stakeholder-focused methodology for organisational decision making. systems research and behavioural science, 22, 41–53. smith, a. (2005). incenting in the automated age. potentials, 38, 6–7. sparkes, s.c. (2002). telling tales in sport and physical activity: a qualitative journey. champaign: human kinetics. thorpe, r., & gillman, g. (2000). strategic reward systems. (1st edn.). london: prentice hall publishers. van herpen, m., van praag, m., & cools, k. (2005). the effects of performance measurement and compensation on motivation: an empirical study. de economist, september, 303–328. doi:10.1007/s10645-005-1990-z van maanen, j. (1988). tales of the field. chicago: university of chicago press. vroom, v. (1964). work and motivation. new york: wiley and sons. wagner, r. (2006). dopamine quickfix. new york: gallup press. whitford, c.m., & coetsee, w.j. (2006). a model of the underlying philosophy and criteria for effective implementation of performance management. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 4(1), 63–73. wilkerson, j.l. (1995). merit pay-performance reviews: they just don’t work! management accounting, montvale, 76(12), 40–46. 7aswegen.qxd as south africa moves from the industrial age into the information age, all aspects of the socio-cultural, technoeconomic and political environment are changing. therefore it is not surprising that the extensive legislative, societal and cultural changes that have characterised the educational environment since the late 1980s have significantly affected both the operational and developmental activities of previously disadvantaged schools in south africa. since the historic advent of a full democratic government in south africa in 1994 education policies have been drastically restructured. the south africa schools act 84 of 1996 brought changes in the school environment especially in as far as funding and school governance are concerned. the aim of this act was to eradicate all disparities of the apartheid years. prior to 1994 the country’s educational policy consisted of two main streams: white education and bantu education. the budget allocation ratio for white to bantu education was 4:1. this coupled with other racial policies led to the provision of inadequate resources and infrastructure and poorly qualified teachers, and resulted in a mass of disadvantaged and poorly educated south africans. previously disadvantaged schools, mostly situated in townships and on farms in south africa, not only have to catch up technologically but also have to become centres of excellence where learners prepare for the global village and conform to the standards set internationally by employers (see the european irdac report (1993) and the usa scans report (1992)). according to gray and wilcox (1995, p. 6), education internationally and in south africa is driven by common concerns: the spiraling costs of mass education and the consequent emphasis on value for money, the belief that education is an essential condition for achieving a competitive edge in the global economy, the need to meet the greater educational expectations of parents, and the growing awareness that the school remains the only institution for moral socialisation. over $100 million is estimated to have been spent on school improvement initiatives in south africa since 1994. despite this substantial investment, little is known about the impact or effectiveness of such initiatives on changing teaching practices and ultimately improving student achievement (fleisch 2002). the transformation of schools in most parts of the world generally focuses on preparing children to live productive lives in the 21st century (murphy & louis 1994). schools are increasingly being held accountable for every aspect of the education they provide. they are obliged to submit themselves to public scrutiny through the publication of test and examination results (brown & rutherford 1999). in south africa the matric examination is still the yardstick for excellence and schools strive for a 100% pass rate on the higher grade. this study focuses on the transformational changes that occurred over a ten-month period (november 2001 to september 2002) at a dysfunctional township school in south africa’s gauteng province. qualitative methods were used to generate data, from which insights were gained about different aspects of school life that changed, the “how” and “why” of these changes, and their sustainability. valuable information was also gathered on some important aspects of the school environment that still require attention. the research setting the school that was analysed for the purpose of this study was a previously disadvantaged black secondary school situated in a township in south africa’s gauteng province. the economic circumstances in the feeding area of the school range from desperately poor people to relatively affluent. the school was established in 1988 and during the time of political unrest until 1994 had excellent matric (currently grade 12) results. after the 1994 democratic election the situation deteriorated due to school management changes and the uncertainties caused by the political and organisational transformation of the education department. aim and objectives against the backdrop of the research setting given above, the aim of this article is to describe an initiative embarked upon when a new principal was appointed in november 2001 to effect berendien van aswegen willem schurink programme in leadership in performance and change department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract the primary aim of the study is to describe an initiative to effect organisational change at a previously disadvantaged school in south africa’s gauteng province. qualitative methods were used to collect and analyse data on the social process of change in the school. essays of role players in the change process on their experiences led to important insights. this exploratory study points to a process that was effective in bringing about change at a school and holds promise for constructing a theoretical model of how change could be effected in ineffective schools. opsomming die primêre doel van die studie is die beskrywing van ’n organisatoriese verandering by ’n voorheen benadeelde skool in suid-afrika se gauteng provinsie. kwalitatiewe metodes is gebruik om data oor die sosiale proses te genereer en te analiseer. opstelle van betrokkenes by die veranderingsproses oor hulle ervarings het tot belangrike insigte gelei. hierdie verkennende studie dui op ’n proses wat suksesvol gewerk het om verandering te weeg te bring en hou belofte in vir die ontwikkeling van ’n teoretiese model van hoe verandering in oneffektiewe skole bewerkstellig kan word. “from the worst to the best”: an exploratory qualitative study of the process of social change at a south african secondary school requests for copies should be addressed to: b van aswegen, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 54 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (3), 54-61 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (3), 54-61 social change at a secondary school 55 organisational change at the school. more specifically, this article has the following four objectives: � to describe the endeavour to implement changes at the school over the ten-month period; � to establish whether the process actually resulted in changes at the school; � to describe the most important of these changes, if any; and � to deduce the key implications of the findings for future local studies in this field. social change in education and management during the past two decades, international trends in school improvement have been towards bottom-up strategies that incorporate concepts such as “learning organisation”, “wholeschool development”, “school-based reform”, “site-based management” and “total quality management”. improvement programmes that rely on these concepts are coming in for increasing criticism. for example, a number of researchers believe that only systemic policies could drive large-scale reform (cf. fleisch 2002 & fuhrman 1995). the south african literature on school improvement is thin, but in recent years a few important studies were undertaken. for example, the effectiveness of mandated or bureaucratic improvement strategies was explored by grobler (2001); christie (1999) provided a theoretical framework for thinking about state-directed tight-control intervention; and the education action zone intervention designed by the gauteng province legislature was reported to have been effective although more research was needed to verif y if the improvements would be sustainable (fleisch 2002). as very little scientific information is available in this area, primary educational research should be undertaken to explore and illuminate the dynamics and management of social change in local schools. this will require empirical research that produces the basics for generating theory, rather than research that provides information to verif y some speculative ideas. “as pressure mounts on the public education system to improve the quality of its products so, too, is the need to deliver robust research on school improvement models that work” (fleisch 2002). differently put, a research methodology should be implemented that will provide some contextual insight and consequently an understanding or appreciation of the various forces effecting social change in the school context, through highlighting the “how” and “why” of organisational and individual action. more specifically, research on change management at schools should � lead to the process of social change being examined within its social context; � lead to this process being examined holistically or contextually, i.e. explaining the various aspects or dimensions thereof comprehensively; and � enable research that is done in close collaboration with research participants. these requisites can be met through the adoption of what has become known as “qualitative research” (cf. denzin & lincoln 1994, schurink 1986, 1997). this research essentially follows an inductive approach to theory generation. the focus tends to be on dynamic processes with the aim of explaining rather than predicting phenomena. towards qualitative research in management and educational studies “qualitative research” is described by van maanen (1988) as an umbrella term covering an array of interpretative techniques that seek to describe, decode, translate and otherwise come to terms with the meaning (and not the frequency) of certain more or less naturally occurring social phenomena. qualitative researchers assert that the social world can only be understood if its social context is taken into consideration (cf. bogdan & biklen 1998, p. 5). therefore the main objective of such research is to understand the dynamics of human meaning in its habitat or natural setting, with minimal interference from the researcher. in order to unravel the details of social life, qualitative researchers typically gather data in the form of interview transcripts, field notes, photographs, videotapes, personal documents, memoranda and other official records (schurink 2002, p. 20). they take special care to unravel the details of social life and are concerned with social process and sequence. “qualitative researchers look at the sequence of events and pay attention to what happens first, second, and so on. because qualitative researchers examine the same case or set of cases over time, they can see an issue evolve, a conflict emerge, or a social relationship develop” (neuman 1997, p. 335). finally, as indicated implicitly in the above exposition, “meaning” is of crucial importance to qualitative researchers (schurink 2002, p. 24). this results in exponents of this research style being concerned with the ways people make sense of their circumstances and daily experiences. qualitative research methods in general and case studies in particular have a long and distinguished history in the social sciences and beyond. qualitative analysis was the primary means by which virtually all social research was conducted up to the middle of the twentieth century. this is certainly true for management research, which until the early 1960s was tightly linked to a case study approach. qualitative studies have led to a good deal of empirical and theoretical advancement as well as critical and useful interventions into organisational functioning. statistical analysis and the prominence (if not dominance) of quantitative research developed later. at the beginning of the twenty-first century, qualitative work is resurging across disciplines and applied domains, as many of the promises associated with quantitative research have come up empty. counting and classif ying can take one up to a certain point. meaning and interpretation are required to attach significance to counts and classif ications and these are fundamentally qualitative matters. the two approaches are then bound together, neither capturing truth alone nor trumping the other (van maanen 1988, pp. ix-x). this view is inter alias supported by schurink and schurink (2001). in the field of education, qualitative research has become quite popular since the late 1970s and mid-1980s, although it has not attained the same status as quantitative research. an important proponent of qualitative research in the field of education has been robert burgess of the united kingdom, who has used essays for data collection much as this study does. with regard to local empirical educational studies, a brief computer scan revealed that qualitative research has not been widely used in the educational field in south africa. theoretical perspectives underpinning qualitative research various scholars (cf. schurink, 1997; bogdan & biklen, 1998) discuss theoretical perspectives, which are associated with qualitative research, and are used by its exponents. one such perspective is phenomenology. the “phenomenological tradition“ within social science holds that social reality is a perceptual construct, in other words a generally agreed-upon consensus amongst ordinary people in particular situations as to what events and interactions mean. qualitative researchers using phenomenology as a research framework attend to unravelling and understanding the meaning of events and interactions of ordinary people in specific everyday situations. another theoretical perspective that is often used in qualitative research is symbolic interactionism. this perspective holds that van aswegen, schurink56 the social world is not intrinsically meaningful (cf. burton 2000). meaning is created as human beings relate to each other, taking into account past and anticipated future experience. “in constructing or defining self, people attempt to see themselves as others see them by interpreting gestures and actions directed toward them and by placing themselves in the role of the other person” (bogdan & biklen 1998, p. 37). when symbolic interactionism is applied to qualitative research the theory that emerges is “grounded” in the data. through inductive processes, conceptualisation and operationalisation occur t ypically simultaneously with data collection and preliminary analysis. a widely used form of this inductive process, called “grounded theory”, enables flexibility and facilitates interaction between data and theory. the main purpose of grounded theory studies is to generate new theory and conceptual propositions, while its techniques have been mainly applied in the exploration and description of phenomena or aspects of social reality for which little if any scientific knowledge exists. the methodology and its analytic process in this study were guided by certain assumptions of phenomenology, symbolic interactionism and grounded theory. collecting and analysing data on changes occurring at the school in line with this study’s aim and objectives, qualitative methods were used to collect and analyse data on the social process of change at this south african school. the data, which provided a “sea” of rich information, consisted of the following: � field notes, particularly during participant observation; � unsolicited documents such as minutes of meetings, workshop flipchart notes, and letters of learners and parents; and � essays solicited from different role players. berendien van aswegen, one of the authors of this article and the principal of the school, was an active participant in the research and as such had the opportunity to closely observe her own as well as the other role players’ experiences of the process and its outcomes. the essays that the respective participants in the change process were requested to compile are what is known as “narratives” (denzin 1989). the narratives or essays in this study relate events in a temporal, causal sequence. every narrative describes a sequence of events, and all the participants tried to reconstruct meaning through their essays. data were also collected through two focus group interviews. kritzinger (1994) defines a focus group as “a group discussion organized to explore a specific set of issues”. the first focus group involved teachers only for the strategic reason that they were regarded as the most important change agents in the school. at this workshop the culture of learning and teaching that had to be re-established was the key focus. the second focus group consisted of representatives of all role players: teachers, school management team, clerks, parents, sgb and learners. the reflections emerging from this workshop gave evidence of the successful re-establishment of discipline at all levels in the school. as should be clear by now, the data collected in the study were analysed inductively. first, the most salient categories that emerged from the data were identified, and then the concepts and categories were developed. the themes centred mainly around the environment, physical improvements, teaching and learning, management, involvement of the school governing body (sgb), attitudes of the different role players, the future of the school, the sustainability of the changes and the aspects that still had to change. second, further analysis was done to identif y additional patterns and meanings. third, grounded theory (cf. strauss & corbin 1990) was used to discover, develop and provisionally verif y patterns and concepts by means of systematic data collection and data analysis. the social construction of the school the field notes, solicited essays and focus group interviews generated extensive “soft” data. the detailed descriptions of the experiences, attitudes, beliefs and thoughts of the teachers and other role players were broken down into manageable units and classified according to concepts and interpretations they themselves used. in what follows the data are mainly presented in terms of these “indigenous” or concrete constructions. excerpts from the essays, field notes and transcriptions of the focus group interviews are used as illustrative material and the status of the role players is acknowledged. only the clearest and most representative excerpts are presented. in certain cases, however, the excerpts were edited or paraphrased for the sake of brevity. material and insights obtained from participant observation during the first days of the research at the school berendien and the school management team (smt) identified problems in the following key areas: management, the environment, human relations, financial management, learning and teaching, and governance. change at organisational level can only be effected, sustained and managed through individuals and organisational teams (clarke 1994; mclagen 2001). organisational development models are founded upon the principle of achieving consensus and participation between individuals in an organisation (appelbaum, st-pierre & glavas 1998). thus teachers were identified as the most important change agents at the research site. they had to own the change process through democratic decision making in order for the organisation to start moving in the right direction. to create a shared vision, ensure participation and sustain momentum in the change process the smt decided to hold a strategic development workshop. it was a strategic management decision not to involve all the role players in this workshop as the relationships among some of them were strained. according to stevenson (2001), organisations tend to resist change unless the change is critical to the organization’s future existence. some change management authors have suggested that senior management needs to articulate a crisis situation in order to lessen the resistance to organisational change (cf. elrod & tippett 2002). this school was in a crisis and berendien did not have to shout fire to start the change process. the staff as a whole expressed very little resistance to change processes. after years of being part of a chaotic situation they were willing to participate in effecting change. the first workshop followed three basic steps, which are considered the bedrock of organisational change (see clarke 1994): � determining where the school was; � deciding where to go; and � mapping out key steps to get to the envisioned future. during the ten months of research berendien consciously used change management theory and practices to sustain the momentum of change. more particularly, she took stock daily of where the school was, and how much more the teachers could take. from this stocktaking it was clear that the teachers reconciled themselves with the stages of change to a greater or lesser degree. as the stages through which people go in reacting to a significant organisational or personal change can be predicted, it was possible to guide them through the change. lewin’s (1951) influential “unfreezing, moving and refreezing model”, which has been the framework of change management theory for most of the second half of the twentieth century, was playing itself out at the school. teachers went through the expected fear, loss, discomfort and stress stages associated with social change at a secondary school 57 change, and the principal helped management and the teachers by sensitising them to the fact that the emotions they were experiencing were “normal”. the new assumption in change literature is that resistance and emotional responses to change are not bad. “they are a signal to pay attention” (mclagan 2001, p. 11). being in daily contact with the teachers and learners and going through the emotions with them were valuable scientific experiences. after ten months a development workshop was held with all the role players to determine the successes and failures of the past ten months, the results of which are also part of the data used for this study. this workshop shed light on the role played by berendien in particular. material and insights obtained from the solicited essays and workshops the solicited essays, which were carefully analysed and of which the results are presented in the next section, give a clear account of what the situation was and how the initial situation changed. overall changes: all the research subjects had to identif y the most important overall change at the school. the biggest change areas identified were effective teaching, cleaning of the environment, and change in the school atmosphere. effective teaching: all the subjects felt that the biggest change was that the culture of learning and teaching was re-established. from the excerpts it is clear that the teachers effected the change and the learners followed, emphasising the importance of the change agent roles of the teachers. the following excerpts capture the views reasonably well: � educators are attending to their classes. (clerk.) � teaching takes place on a more regular and more consistent basis. (parent.) � teachers show an interest in their work. (smt member.) � the key area: learning and teaching has changed. (district official.) � teaching is good because there is lots of work every day. (learner.) the chairperson of the sgb formulated the most important change differently and stated bluntly: the biggest change is educator and learner discipline. clean environment: the cleaning of the school premises (classrooms, toilets and passages) and the painting and renovations at the school were listed as major improvements. the learner component in particular placed great emphasis on the improved conditions of the toilets and the cleanliness of the classrooms. however, in the same breath they mentioned the persistent problem of littering. the following excerpts demonstrate the widely held views on changes in the environment: � the school premises are clean and the factotums are working. (clerk.) � the toilets of our school were disgusting … but are now clean. (learner.) � walls used to be dirty and full of vulgar words but now they are clean and toilets are also clean. (learner.) � the changed school is evident on entering due to the newly painted staff room and other areas. (district official.) two of the subjects mentioned the problem of persistent littering: � cleanliness can come under control if ownership is developed. (smt member.) � after lunch the littering is bad. (learner.) change in school atmosphere: the third most important change was seen to be the atmosphere that was conducive to teaching and learning (smt member) or the peace and harmony (teacher) that was reigning in the school. performance change among the teachers all the subjects testified to the dramatic change in teachers as far as their primary teaching duties were concerned, but the resistance of a number of teachers to certain changes was also mentioned. mindset of teachers: most of the subjects compared the present behaviour of the teachers directly with their previous unacceptable behaviour. � teachers have changed, especially those who were often absent without an excuse and bunked periods. (teacher.) � educators are now ready to teach and they prepare their lessons on time. (clerk.) � our teachers are now showing the way. (learner.) change in attitude: one school management team member noted that all the teachers were not happy with the changes and that certain aspects were resisted (e.g. the locking of the gates, which is a provincial directive). � some teachers’ attitudes towards the changes need to be changed. not every teacher has the safety of learners at heart. (smt member.) � they have to change their attitude towards the learners as they blame learners for almost each and everything. (clerk.) � there are still negative teachers who don’t work together. (teacher.) training workshops and support systems: half the subjects mentioned the need for training workshops and support systems so that they could understand and negotiate meaning in the new changed education system. the following quotes are relevant: � teachers need support systems to cope with a lot of the changes that are introduced. (teacher.) � most teachers are having a problem with obe – they need workshops. (clerk.) performance of school management team the smt was previously regarded as ineffective and incapable of managing the school due to professional jealousy and incapacity. some of the subjects regarded the smt as effective, whereas one subject believed the new principal was not supported by the deputy principals. trying to pull together: the clerk felt that the management team is trying to pull together and are holding meetings regularly. this sentiment was shared by two teachers. involvement in management: members of the smt believed that they were all involved in the management of the school. there is consultation and discussions on various issues. however, one teacher added that all management team members were not exemplary and that some management team members misused their positions. direction: two teachers asserted that the new positive direction of the school emanated from the smt. it used to be chaotic. there used to be no direction and systematic planning in the running of the school. hell breaks loose: one teacher observed the following: the principal works alone, e.g. if the principal is absent, hell gets loose; there is nobody in charge. changes among the learners the learners followed where teachers led and reacted positively to the changes by attending classes and being disciplined. however, there was a lack of ownership, and this led to the continuation of vandalism and littering. learner commitment: a substantial number of the subjects felt that the learners were more committed to the education process: � learners show their commitment and respect to their school. (learner.) van aswegen, schurink58 � learners are more respectful. (teacher.) � learners are doing homework the first time in years. (teacher.) � we are writing cycle tests and have to study regularly. (learner.) � learners are proud of being learners at this institution and they are fired-up to perform better at the end of the year. (parent.) ownership: a number of learners did not have a sense of ownership in the school. they do not consider school property as their own (smt member.) two learners emphasised this: � some learners want to vandalise and take the school back to what it was. (learner.) � as soon as something is fixed, others want to break it again. (learner.) punctuality: the majority of the subjects regarded late coming and non-punctuality under learners and teachers as persistent problems. � punctuality is generally a problem, albeit affecting a small, but unacceptable percentage of both learners and educators. (parent.) � learners should respect teachers and come to school on time. (learner.) school governing body according to the south africa schools act 84 of 1996, school governance is placed in the hands of the sgb. the two main responsibilities of this body are recommending the appointment of personnel and financial management. this school’s governing body was non-functional and the basic responsibilities were not executed. the subjects responded in a mixed way to this issue. about half the subjects felt there was an improvement, while others saw no change. operational situation: some subjects felt the sgb was at least operational: � at least there is one in existence and it is operational. (teacher.) � at least there is a core that really does its best. (parent.) � we can at least see that the finances of the school are in good hands. (teacher.) a school management member did not want to comment much as there was not any noticeable thing that has been done by them. others believed the sgb members represent themselves and not their constituents. fundraising: all the subjects regarded the sgb’s inability to raise funds as a major problem and area for improvement. � they (sgb) must be involved in the activities of the school, e.g. fundraising functions. (teacher.) � encourage other parents to be active participants. (teachers.) empowerment: a parent felt strongly that the parent and learner component of the sgb had to be empowered so that they could perform their duties. according to the sgb chairperson (a parent), some parent and learner members need to be provided with more skills that will enable them to participate more effectively, informed, robustly and regularly in meetings. physical changes all the subjects commented on the physical improvements at the school and the changed image these reflected to the community. � absence of offensive and eye-sore graffiti on outside and inside walls. (parent.) � we have nice flower beds and we must plant more flowers. (learner.) � the school has become a home from home. (smt member.) a teacher made the most important comment: a lot of people are noticing the changes and are discussing it on taxis (teacher.) future of the school all the subjects wanted to see the school as the best in the district: � one would be thrilled to see the school as an icon or one of the best in the district. (parent.) � we want the best school in the township. (learner.) the following improvements still had to be effected: � team work amongst teachers, late coming improved, electricity everywhere. (teachers.) � a computer centre, more sport, more opportunities. (learners.) why did the school change? this question was answered at the second strategic workshop and the subjects wrote about it in their essays. some of the subjects regarded the teachers as important change agents; others saw organisational planning and structure as the important aspects; and still others emphasised the role of the principal and smt in the change process. the following comments summarise the main themes: the principal is very strict: a teacher commented: � the new principal just wanted one thing: work and she was very strict. all the learners regarded the strict principal as a factor and also commented on the changed attitude of most of the teachers. the following comment sums up this sentiment accurately: � the principal allows no nonsense, but she has changed many things, e.g. she bought us new chairs. (learner.) our vision worked: at the initial change management workshop the teachers designed a new vision. ten months later the teachers said: � the new vision gave clear direction to us. � it was “our vision” because we designed it together. (deputy principal.) learners, teachers, managers and the governing body all testified to the focused sense of direction of the school during the past ten months. � we know what quality education is and our vision was driving us towards constant improvement. (teacher.) it was hard work: the teachers felt that they worked very hard, driven by the vision. all the subjects, i.e. management, clerks and parents, agreed that the hard work made the difference. we are now a team with values: the majority of teachers believed that the new team spirit helped them through the change process. � gone are the days when teachers didn’t talk to one another. we share our ideas. � there is mutual trust. a small number of teachers believed that human relations still had to improve. � there are still teachers teaching the same subject in the same grade that do not share. we only needed the right environment: at the second workshop, teachers, learners, cleaners, clerks and parents testified to the following: � we changed because there was direction. (teacher.) � the changes are an affirmation of the confidence that the parents and the broader community have always had in their (the teachers’) potential. (sgb chairperson.) new threshold: the sgb chairperson believed that the school was …on the threshold of becoming the best school in the township. the community is watching the school and wondering if the improvements will last and grow. the other role players shared this idea as can be seen from their responses: � we can be the best. (learner.) � we will again be the best. (teacher.) (this is a reference to twelve years ago when the school had the best results in the township.) social change at a secondary school 59 discussion the change process in retrospect the change process can be summarized by means of the following diagram. the steps involved in the process step 1: acknowledging that the environment demands effective schools with good results step 2: developing a shared vision and strategy step 3: implementing organizational change initiatives step 4: the change process step 5: giving feedback on organizational performance and new goal setting the steps that guided the school’s actions during the ten months show a fluid process, with constant environmental input and system analysis (steps 1 and 5) feeding information back into the process, thus keeping the model alive and adaptable. change is messy (cf. clarke 1994), and although a step-by-step approach is sensible it pays to remember that the envisaged change process is modified as you go along and also that there are many feedback loops in the process. the execution and follow-through of the steps demanded discipline from all role players and commitment from management. this discipline was translated into specific actions to internalize the new school image. management followed a back-to-basics approach in their control functions. it was illustrated by management being responsible for certain sections of the school and seeing to it that learners go to class on time after breaks, checking on teachers attending to classes, controlling teachers’ preparation files and checking learners’ work books. the change process at this school reflects the present dialogue in the school improvement debate. bringing all role players on board calls for a bottom-up approach. management stepping up their control functions testifies to a top-down approach. figure 1: determinants of change van aswegen, schurink60 fleisch (2002) reports that the binary relation between topdown and bottom-up is problematic, and that strategies for change require both. a number of new concepts have contributed to an emerging theory of action in school improvement. barber and phillips (2000), for example, argue that much of the existing school improvement literature contains a fallacy, namely that changes in beliefs are required before changes can occur. he argues that it is often necessary to mandate (impose from the outside) the change, implement it thoroughly, and in the process transform the prevailing culture of institutions. fullan (2001) suggests that for low-performing systems there may be a need to move from more control-orientated approaches for dysfunctional schools to more open approaches as these schools begin to improve. the implementation of this approach in south african schools needs to be researched. in south africa, democratic decision-making has become very much a “buzz” concept. the key to the successful change at the school in this study was consensus building and participation of all the role players. strong, conscious leadership steered the process, without the principal dictating from above. the need for change in schools throughout south africa is getting more critical as the environment demands that they become more accountable. although this study can at best be regarded as exploratory and preliminary, it illuminated various dimensions of the multifaceted process that changed a particular south african school from an ineffective to an effective school. conclusions and recommendations the research process was transparent as the subjects were not only willing participants but saw their participation as an opportunity to share their experiences of the year of change at the school. although logistical realities such as time did not allow the generation of “thick descriptions” of all dimensions of the social change process and/or constructions of everyone involved in it, the authors believe that everything reasonable was done to ensure that the outcome of the research could be regarded as valid and credible. the involvement and consensus building of all the role players contributed in large measure to the changes. parents and clerks who were asked to participate in this study were from previously marginalised groups. their opinions were not considered to be important in the past. teachers have always occupied centre stage. the qualitative methodolog y utilised provided contextual insight and some initial understanding of a number of aspects affecting social change in a school context, such as that team building, consistent rule application, ownership and a shared vision are crucial to bring about change. in the light of its role in unpacking people’s perceptions and everyday experiences, qualitative methodolog y deserves a more prominent place in both organisational studies and educational research, next to the mainstream methodological approach, quantitative methodolog y. the symbolic interactionist perspective used in this study illustrated that change management centres primarily around the meanings and everyday experiences of the various role players. therefore participant observation, human documents (particularly solicited essays) and focus group interviews are all appropriate means of revealing personal perspectives and experiences of the changes brought about at the school. this exploratory study points to a successful process of change at a school and holds promise for building a theoretical model of how change should be effected in previously disadvantaged schools in south africa. from the present study it appears that the principal played a crucial leadership role and that robust leadership is required during change in educational institutions. the study also emphasises the importance of consensus building. the effectiveness of a change process is measured by its sustainability. only time will tell if the changes effected at this school will become internalised. the process is less prescriptive than the school improvement model described by the gauteng department of education, but the back-to-basics approach is similar. where strong management and leadership are present the five-step process described in this study could apply. the school improvement model of the gauteng department of education does not rely on internal motivation but on external pressure and control (fleisch 2002). in conclusion, the following recommendations must be noted: � more qualitative research is required to better illuminate the social construction of educational change processes. � quantitative research (e.g. social surveys) should be launched to measure the magnitude of the key perceptions of the role players. � participatory action research and evaluation research need to be executed in local studies of educational change processes. � change management principles are well entrenched in the corporate world. the application of these principles in the education sector, specifically schools, need to be investigated on a continuous bases. � the link between continuous change management principles in education and “quality education” need to be established. gurus like juran and deming introduced the concept of the spiral of continuous improvement into the industrial world. the application of the spiral of continuous improvement in education needs to be researched. � while valuable insight was obtained from the present study of one school, it must be noted that the basic principles should be tested in the different kind of schools in south africa. � the education scenario in south africa is complex and research has to take cognizance of the fact that rural schools, township schools, farm schools, former model c schools and private schools function differently. disparities will only disappear if we face the realities of the different kinds of schools in this country and how change management principles can be applied. � this present study only looks at the change over a one-year period at one school. research in the ongoing process of change to entrench quality education in this school could make a valuable contribution to the body of knowledge on the topic. references appelbaum, s.h., st-pierre, n. & glavas, w. (1998) strategic organizational change: the role of leadership, learning, motivation and productivity. management decision, 36 (5), pp. 289-301. barber, m. & phillps, v. (2000) the fusion of pressure and support. journal of educational change, 1 (3), pp. 277-281. blasé, j. & blasé, j. (1999) implementation of shared governance for instructional improvement: principal’s perspectives. journal of educational administration, 37 (5), pp. 476-500. bogdan, r. & biklen, s.k. (1998) qualitative research for education: an introduction to theory and methods. boston: allyn & bacon. brown, m. & rutherford, d. (1999) a re-appraisal of the role of the head of department in uk secondary schools. journal of educational administration, 37 (3), pp. 229-242. (available from: http://www.mcb.co.uk.) burgess, r.g. (1984) in the field: an introduction to field research. london: george allen & unwin. burnes, b. (1996) no such thing as … “one best way” to manage organizational change. management decision, 34 (10), pp. 1118. social change at a secondary school 61 burton, d. (2000) research training for social scientists. london: sage christie, p. (1999) schools as (dis) organisations: the breakdown of the culture of learning and teaching in south african schools. cambridge journal of education, 28 (3), pp. 283-300. cicmil, s. & kekale, t. (1997) implications of organizational and individual learning for effective change management in education an exploratory study of management practices in elementary schools in england and finland. journal of workplace learning, 9 (5), pp. 169-176. clarke, l. (1994) the essence of change. new york: prentice hall. denzin, n.k. (1989) interpretative biography. newbury park ca: sage. denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. (1994) handbook of qualitative research. thousand oaks ca: sage. elrod, d.p. & tippett, d.d. (2002) the “death” valley of change. journal of organisational change management, 15 (3), pp. 273291. european irdac report (1993) available from: http://frl.auth.grl (accessed 10 july 2002) fleisch, b. (2002) tight control models for improvement. a case study of the education action zones. paper delivered at the third educationally speaking conference. fuhrman, s. (ed.) (1995) coherent education reform. san francisco: jossey bass. fullen, m. (2001) new meaning of educational change. 3rd edition. teachers college press. glaser, b.g. & strauss, a.l. (1967) the discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. chicago: aldine. goulding, c. (1998) grounded theory: the missing methodology on the interpretivist agenda. qualitative market research: an international journal, 1 (1), pp. 50-57. gray, j. & wilcox, b. (1995) “good school, bad school”. evaluating performance and encouraging improvement. buckingham: open university press. kritzinger, j. (1994) the methodology of focus groups: the importance of interaction between research participants. sociology of health and illness, 16 (1), pp. 103-121. lewin, k. (1951) field theory in social science. new york: harper locke, k.d. (2001) grounded theory in management research. london: sage. malen, b. & ogawa, r. (1998) professional-patron influence on site-based governance councils: a confounding case study. educational evaluation and policy analysis, (10) 4, pp. 251270 maykut, p. & morehouse, r. (1999) beginning qualitative research: a philosophical and practical guide. london: the falmer press. mclagen, p. (2001) change is everybody’s business. usa: rite stuff. murphy, j. & louis, k.s. (1994) reshaping the principalship: insights from transformational reform efforts. thousand oaks: corwin press. neuman, w.l. (1997) social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. boston ma: allyn & bacon. schurink, w.j. (1986) reconstructing social reality. in: ferreira, m. et al. introduction to qualitative research methods. pretoria: hsrc. schurink, w.j. (1997) analyzing qualitative data. in: schurink, w.j. et al. towards a gender sensitive crime prevention strategy. workshop on report writing and analysis of qualitative data. schurink, w.j. (2002) core features of qualitative research. workshop on qualitative research. rand afrikaans university: johannesburg. south african schools act 84 of 1996. pretoria: government printer. stevenson, r.b. (2001) shared decision making and core school values: a case study of organizational learning. the international journal of educational management, 15 (2), pp. 103-121. strauss, a.l. & corbin, j. (1990) basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques. newbury park: sage. usa scans report (1992). available from: http://www.usa.today.com (accessed 1 september 2002) van maanen, j. (1988) qualitative methodology. beverley hills: sage. abstract introduction research purpose and objectives literature review strategic human resource management human resource policies the use of human resource policies research design strategies employed to ensure quality data and integrity results discussion practical implications limitations recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) lonwabo makapela school of industrial psychology and human resource management, faculty of economic management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa nontsikelelo d.p. mtshelwane school of industrial psychology and human resource management, faculty of economic management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa citation makapela, l., & mtshelwane, n.d.p. (2021). exploring the use and influence of human resource policies within south african municipalities. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1534. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1534 original research exploring the use and influence of human resource policies within south african municipalities lonwabo makapela, nontsikelelo d.p. mtshelwane received: 01 dec. 2020; accepted: 08 mar. 2021; published: 30 apr. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: there is a gap between the administrative expertise held by the human resource (hr) function and the delivery of services. research purpose: the purpose of this article was to explore the perceptions of both the hr managers and employees, on how hr policies are communicated and experienced, respectively, within south african municipalities. motivation for the study: to help policy users within the south african municipalities gain deeper awareness and understanding of the influence their use of hr policies has on employees’ morale and performance within the workplace. research approach/design and method: this qualitative study utilised an interpretivist paradigm and a qualitative descriptive strategy. a convenience, quota, purposive and inclusion criteria sample comprising three hr managers (n = 3) and 12 employees (n = 12) was used. semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were conducted and analysed by employing thematic analysis. main findings: the findings of the study indicated that hr managers experience a lack of clear guidance from draft recruitment-and-selection policy and draft learning-and-development policy, and employees experience challenges with regards to the lack of communication on performance management. practical/managerial implications: this study promotes fairness and equality during the use of the three mentioned hr policies in order to provide all employees with the necessary developmental opportunities within municipalities. contribution/value-add: this study contributes to the body of knowledge concerning the establishment of a municipal culture that values human capital, prioritises the growth and well-being of employees and understands the valuable link between human resource management and service delivery. keywords: human resource policies; south african municipalities; recruitment and selection; learning and development; performance management; amo theory. introduction municipalities are a sphere of the government body situated closest to the people (schwella, botha, brand, engelbrecht, & eijbergen, 2015). swift transformations within south african municipalities over the past 25 years have placed strong emphasis on employees within these organisations to be capacitated with the necessary skills and competencies that help them meet the vast demands of south african citizens (cloete, eigelaar-meets, fortuin, & sewell, 2016). however, in order for this intention to realise, human resources (hr) within municipalities have to be managed efficiently (cloete et al., 2016). human resources are a complex and important resource within organisations. therefore, hr should be managed in close relationship with the organisation’s strategy to gain a clear and structured competitive advantage (rees & smith, 2017). effective human resource management (hrm) and development can help improve the municipality’s organisational performance, thereby ensuring quality service delivery to its communities (cloete et al., 2016). human resource policies coordinate knowledge in the interplay of the employee, job and the organisation (legge, 1995). in a well-managed organisation, the performance management system holds managers accountable for applying the principles of the organisation (meyer, 2016). tinti, venelli-costa, vieira and cappelloza (2017) argued that hr policies are necessary to manage people at work, specifically in functions such as hiring, training, evaluation, remuneration and the provision of a sound and secure environment for company employees. investments in hr policies such as recruitment and selection, training and development (td) and performance management have clear gains. such policies boost the pro-environmental behaviour within the organisation, thereby benefiting the reputation and financial performance of the firm (pham, tuckova, & jabbour, 2018). however, there are administrative dysfunctions and deficiencies within the municipalities, which have resulted in protest marches and damage to property within communities (thornhill & cloete, 2014). consequently, municipalities, as nodal points of service delivery, find it challenging to manage the growing demands by communities for improved services. public servants are tasked to make and implement public policy, which would deliver sufficient services to the public; however, current management research appears far removed from the world of practice, being overly theoretical and abstract (cloete et al., 2016). therefore, the present study aims to gain an understanding of hr policy implementation through the views of both managers and employees, in hopes of promoting commitment, accountability and effective use of hr policies within south african municipalities. research purpose and objectives the purpose of this article was to explore the use and influence of hr policies within municipalities. the objectives of the study were to (1) ascertain how hr policies (recruitment and selection, learning and development [l&d], and performance management) are communicated to employees by the hr department within the municipalities, (2) determine the challenges experienced during the implementation of these hr policies, (3) determine how employees are informed about these implemented hr policies, (4) ascertain the experience of employees on the ways these hr policies are implemented within municipalities and (5) determine what challenges employees experience as a result of management’s implementation of these hr policies. literature review south african local government south africa is regarded as a developmental and democratic state that builds its legitimacy on its capacity to encourage concurrent production and economic activities as well as economic growth. the aim is to reduce poverty and improve the living conditions of its people (national capacity-building framework, 2008). in order to achieve this, local government is given the critical role by the constitution to develop south african citizens’ living conditions through quality service delivery (constitution of the republic of south africa, 1996). however, despite immense responsibility placed on south african local government, in many respects, municipalities are failing to fulfil this responsibility (siddle & koelble, 2012). the performance of numerous municipalities across the country has demonstrated huge deficiencies in fulfilling both their constitutional and legislative obligations (koma, 2010). khambule (2018) concurred by stating that weakening institutional ability and arrangements within municipalities take place through political interference, lack of efficient bureaucracy and gross corruption. the consequences of inefficient service delivery are profound. therefore, it is important that the causes of such deficiency should be understood (siddle & koelble, 2012). a prominent issue faced by local government is the lack of capacity. the main issue that is a concern for municipalities is appointing unqualified staff, particularly at a senior level. the associated problems are cadre deployment, staff retention and incompetent staff. local government is unable to meet citizens’ demands because of inherent incapacities to plan for development with major inabilities attributed to the lack of capacity within municipalities. moreover, insufficiencies in the skills of practitioners, lack of understanding of local economies and a lack of integration between local authorities, communities and the business community further perpetuate the administrative dysfunctions within municipalities (mashamaite & lethoko, 2018). strategic human resource management human resource management is described as the management of work and people to attain desired outcomes. as a consequence of their drive to act more strategically, organisations have focused on strategic hrm (rees & smith, 2017). although the definition for strategic hrm is more complex, hr strategies aim to align the organisation’s objectives, hr policies and programmes with strategic business unit plans (rees & smith, 2017). according to greer (1995), strategic hrm can be perceived as the endeavour to link hr policies and practices to an explicit strategy, which subsequently connects to the organisational strategy. strategic hrm, consequently, entails long-term, top-level management decisions and actions about the organisation’s hr architecture. the latter is constructed and executed in a way that is integrated fully with the organisation’s overall general strategic management (swanepoel, erusmus, van wyk, & schenk, 2003). it can therefore be surmised that strategic hr is an approach that centres on longer-term resourcing of organisational goals as well as progressive essence of work, whilst integrating other hr strategies into the overall business strategy (cipd, 2019a). human resource policies according to the makhuduthamaga municipality (2008), municipalities have over 30 hr policies, which are grouped in terms of several hr functions. these policies regulate aspects such as employment equity, leave, recruitment, selection and retention as well as employment benefits and conditions. the policies also focus on issues such as education, training and development (etd), health and welfare as well as labour relations. however, the cipd (2019b) encourages organisations to focus more on an adapted policy mixture, in order to create sustainable and successful relationships between employees and the particular organisation, instead of what has worked for other organisations. the present study focused particularly on three hr policies, namely recruitment and selection, l&d and performance management. recruitment and selection recruitment and selection can be defined as the process of encouraging people to apply for jobs in an organisation in order to establish a pool of suitably qualified and experienced applicants from whom one or more employees can be selected (hunter, 2012). demo, neiva, nunes and rozzett (2012) view such policies as organisational propositions to seek out employees, stimulate them to apply and select them and then harmonise the person’s competencies with the characteristics and demands of the organisation. a number of factors affect the manner in which the recruitment and selection policy is applied within and outside the organisation. the actual content and statement of intent of such a policy dictate the recruitment efforts within the organisation (nel et al., 2011). legislation affects the implementation of these policies. for example, the south african labour acts prohibit discriminating against applicants on the basis of factors such as race, religion or age. therefore, organisations should consider these regulations closely when drawing up job advertisements (hunter, 2012). a company with a favourable reputation for practising fairness and equality, and providing a supportive working environment, attracts a higher quality pool of employees (kleynhans, markham, meyer, van aswegen, & pilbeam, 2009). learning and development learning and development is an organisational strategy that communicates the organisation’s mandatory workforce capabilities, skills or competencies, and how these components can be developed to ensure a sustainable and successful organisation (hunter, 2012). the term etd (or td) is used to describe the practices that directly and indirectly promote and support learning, whilst human resource development (hrd) refers to the various processes, systems, methods, procedures and programmes an organisation employs to develop its human resources, thereby equipping its employees and helping them contribute to the organisation’s performance (meyer, 2016). the link between these concepts is that etd provides shortand medium-term interventions to ensure that the long-term goals of hrd are achieved (meyer, 2016). several governments prefer the term etd for their hrd practices. however, consistent with international trends, the south african private sector has embraced the term l&d to denote the work of their training department. skills development through education and training interventions is a robust lever that increases both individuals’ opportunity and the institution’s prosperity (nel et al., 2011). the objective of hrd is to strengthen south africa’s hr base to deliver skilled and capable employees who can support south africa’s socioeconomic development and growth (dhet, 2010). despite the previously mentioned benefits, organisational actors (line managers, hr department and employees) continue to work in silos instead of collaborating, thereby preventing municipalities from meeting their defined development objectives (cloete et al., 2016). this results in low employee empowerment and inadequate incentive structures. to rectify these deficiencies seems to be a significant point within the hrd agenda for policy implementation (umashev & willett, 2008). performance management performance management has a strong component focusing on training and developing employees. general performance management allows managers to focus on the key tasks and goals. such management provides a systematic basis for identifying and solving related problems and encourages the development of people in the organisation (hunter, 2012). performance management policies aim to implement strategy within the organisation. such a strategy is a vehicle for cultural change and provides input to other hr systems such as development and remuneration (nel et al., 2011). literature on hr policy and development highlights the need for an integrated approach to manage performance as a critical factor in the successful improvement of any service delivery (harris, 2005). it is crucial to establish integrative and well-understood performance processes that encourage a ‘whole-system’ approach. such an approach identifies organisational priorities, and provides clarity about required actions and the meaning for individuals at different levels of the organisation (white, 2000). therefore, it is important to understand how performance management policies are used within organisations (bhuyan, jorgensen, & sharma, 2010; mthethwa, 2012). the use of human resource policies policy implementation refers to the mechanisms, resources and relationships that link policies to programme action (mthethwa, 2012). implementation, more specifically, means the carrying out, accomplishing, fulfilling, producing and completing of a given task (mthethwa, 2012). it is often assumed that once a policy has been formulated, it will be implemented readily. such an assumption may be valid for first world nations, but not for policies formulated in many third world nations. in the latter countries, governments tend to formulate broad, sweeping policies where governmental bureaucracies often lack the capacity for implementation (smith, 1973). implementing agents often fail to notice that the policies are inconsistent with their own organisation’s interests and agendas (firestone, 1989). studies demonstrate similar trends in which misunderstanding about implementation can be attributed to lack of effort, incomplete buy-in or employees’ explicit rejection of the reform ideas (spillane, reiser, & reimer, 2002). this means that planned learning structures are critical, allowing stakeholders to interpret the policy and its implications for the organisation’s specific behaviours (spillane et al., 2002). consequently, it is important to understand the nature of policy implementation. such resources can help ensure that employees are capacitated by policies that guide exhaustive recruitment and selection, as well as training activities, and provide employees the opportunity to participate within the organisation (beltran-martin & bou-llusar, 2018). human resource policies shape individual and aggregate characteristics of employees. these policies enhance employees’ ‘ability to perform’, ‘motivation to perform’ and ‘opportunity to perform’ (purcell, kinnie, hutchinson, rayton, & swart, 2003). the ability-motivation-and-opportunity (amo) framework is discussed in the following section. ability, motivation and opportunity as theoretical framework the model describing abilities (a), motivation (m) and opportunities (o) provides a comprehensive theoretical framework that integrates complex relationships (cummings & schwab, 1973). the amo theory influences performance in employees’ ability, motivation and opportunity to participate within the organisation (appelbaum, bailey, berg, & kallegerg, 2000). the theory emphasises the importance of considering the competencies of individuals, their motivation as well as their opportunity to participate and apply their skills, knowledge and ideas in the workplace through various defined roles (cloete et al., 2016). it advocates that the management system within any organisation should be designed to meet employees’ needs for developing skills and motivation. katou and budhwar (2010) found that ability is linked to skills, motivation to attitudes and opportunity to behaviour. the amo theory offers a base from which to build a functional hrm system within an organisation (hall, pilbeam, & corbridge, 2013; paauwe, 2009). as mentioned in the methods section, the objective of the present study was to explore the extent to which the use of hr policies influences employees’ abilities, motivation and opportunities to participate and contribute to their performance at work. the further objective was to operationalise the amo theory in order to explain how effective line managers implement hr policies within their organisations (bos-nehles, van riemsdijk, & looise, 2013). cheema and javed (2017) supported the use of the amo model, noting that it could be used in helping decide the concerns of management in green hrm. the amo theory is common in conceptualising how hr management practices influence performance (rayner & morgan, 2018). sterling and boxall (2013) used the amo framework to analyse variations in what knowledge workers acquired and how they acquired it, within the context of workplace learning. in their study, mccarthy and milner (2020) found that the amo framework could be used in examining managers’ coaching ability, their motivation to coach and whether or not they had the opportunity to coach. research design research approach the research study followed an interpretivist paradigm and qualitative approach. interpretivism helps explore every-day practical concerns to determine how people develop and construct their own interpretations based on their experience of certain phenomena (cammarata, 2012; liamputtong, 2013; silverman, 1994; van manen, 1990). the mentioned method moves beyond merely describing data. instead, the aim is to interpret the findings without deviating too widely from the literal description as such (bradshaw, atkinson, & doody, 2017). the qualitative approach is used to describe, understand and capture the essence of a specific complex phenomenon from the participants’ viewpoint (edmonds & kennedy, 2013; leedy & ormrod, 2014; merriam, 2009). the reason is that the researcher sought an in-depth understanding about the use of hr policies from the managers’ perspectives and the influence of these policies as experienced by the employees of south african municipalities (burns & grove, 2009; malagon-maldonado, 2014). through this, the researcher sought an in-depth understanding of individuals’ experiences. the focus was on the literal descriptions and understanding of the use and influence of hr policies as phenomenon. research strategy the research strategy utilised in this study is a qualitative descriptive strategy. the use of a qualitative descriptive strategy is particularly relevant where information is required directly from those experiencing the phenomenon under investigation, where time and resources are limited (neergaard, oleson, anderson, & sondergaard, 2009). through this approach, the researcher sought an in-depth understanding of individuals’ experiences. the focus was on the literal descriptions and understanding of the use and influence of hr policies as phenomenon. this understanding was reached by analysing and interpreting meaning of events as ascribed to by the participants (bradshaw et al., 2017). research method research setting permission was granted by three south african municpalities situated in north west, guateng and eastern cape provinces. the study was conducted amongst emplpoyees from the abovementioned provinces to provide an overview of the use of hr policies from multiple provinces instead of only one. the provinces were chosen through convenience sampling, providing the researcher easy access to municipal offices. interviews were conducted with full-time municipal employees comprising hr managers and employees from a cross-section of occupational office levels within south african municipalities. interviews were conducted in the boardroom facilities and private offices of the respective municipalities for a duration of 45 min per interview. entrée and establishing research roles the researcher’s roles included planning the research project, serving as an instrument for data collection, transcribing and analysing the data as well as report writing. access to the research setting was undertaken by obtaining permission from the municipal managers of the respective municipalities. once permission was obtained and interview dates scheduled, participants were reassured of confidentiality and interviews were conducted in english. in addition, participants were issued with a consent form, which made it clear that participation in the study was voluntary. the data collected by the researcher were transcribed and analysed. the data were analysed through thematic analysis. thematic analysis provides a structure of themes that serve as groups of codes that are repeated through similarities and connections to one another in terms of patterns (buetow, 2010). finally, the researcher remained objective throughout the study and therefore did not become biased or emotionally involved (ritchie & lewis, 2003). research participants and sampling methods the methods used for the present study were convenience, quota and purposive sampling techniques. in convenience sampling, participants are chosen based on availability, and easy accessibility and willingness to cooperate (foxcroft & roodt, 2013). although the present study adopted a convenience sampling method, participants still had to comply with certain criteria (struwig & stead, 2001) – for example, full-time employment, a municipal manager at a municipality within the eastern cape, north west and gauteng provinces. according to corbin and strauss (2008), qualitative research allows the researcher to understand the points of view of participants in a way that the responses are unbiased by extant research. the researcher reported the data as provided by the research participants, with the aim to stay neutral throughout the study and still capture the unique viewpoints of the individual participants. the participants’ unbiased viewpoints were important for the present research as they allowed for plausibility. quota sampling selects according to the characteristics of candidates, where the researcher decides how the quotas are assigned (struwig & stead, 2001). the reason for choosing quota sampling in the present study was that participants were selected in proportion with the organisational structure, comprising three hr managers (n = 3) and 12 employees from a cross-section of occupational office levels (n = 12). this included one hr manager and four employees from each of the respective municipalities. in purposive sampling, participants are chosen for a specific purpose according to the researcher’s own judgements (leedy & ormrod, 2014). the inclusion criteria were further used during the sampling process. inclusion criteria are predefined characteristics used in identifying subjects who will be included within a research study (salkind, 2010). the reason for choosing purposive sampling and the inclusion criteria was primarily that the participants (municipal hr managers and employees) had most of the characteristics that best represented the purpose of the study (gerrish & lacey, 2010; grinnell & unrau, 2008). data collection methods the interviews were semi-structured and one-on-one. according to dicicco-bloom and crabtree (2006), semi-structured interviews are often used in qualitative research and are organised generally around a set of predetermined open-ended questions, with additional questions emerging from the dialogue between interviewer and interviewee. the open-ended questions are posed in a systematic way and interviewees are encouraged to provide their own views (struwig, struwig, & stead, 2013). the present study made use of these types of interviews, which helped the researcher explore and describe the participants’ experiences about past and present events with a view of reaching the goals of the study (de vos, strydom, fouché, & delport, 2011). the interview questions that follow were divided into two sets. the first set of questions focused on hr managers, and the second set on employees from a cross-section of occupational office levels within south african municipalities. the questions were few and open-ended, which allowed the researcher to probe, follow up and clear up any leads that occurred during the allocated interview period (bryman, 2016). the questions posed during the interviews are represented in figure 1. figure 1: interview questions. prior to posing these questions, a broad example of hr policies was given to the participants only when they indicated they did not understand the question. this helped ensure that the questions were answered to the best of their ability. recording of data a recording device was used to collect, analyse and transcribe the data. the data on the tape recorder were transferred to a usb drive and secure cloud storage, and subsequently the inteviews were transcribed and imported into an excel sheet. to comply with the ethical requirements of confidentiality, all the interview data (tape recorded and transcribed sheets) were placed in a secure location, in the office of the researcher’s supervisor. data analysis thematic analysis is used to analyse qualitative descriptions. through the thematic analysis, the researcher can identify, analyse and report patterns, ensuring the results are as accurate as possible (braun & clarke, 2006). the researcher reflected on the relationships, categories, themes and concepts from the data, as part of a continuous process (henning, van rensburg, & smith, 2004). the successive phases of thematic analysis are discussed in the following subsections. phase 1: get acquainted with the data the researcher familiarised herself with the collected data by reading through the interview questions and the written notes. acquaintance involved ‘repeated reading’ of the data as well as searching for meaning and patterns within the data (braun & clarke, 2006). phase 2: generating initial codes in this phase, the researcher produced initial codes from the data (braun & clarke, 2006) by compiling general and overarching ideas that would lead to specific categories (codes). codes were determined by the interview questions posed to the participants. for the present study, the researcher utilised microsoft excel to analyse, reduce and interpret the data. phase 3: searching for themes once the data were coded and collated, the overarching themes were developed for each code. this was done by separating meaningful items into categories of central themes. this technique allows researchers to review themes and classify these into smaller sub-themes with the assistance of co-coders. phase 4: reviewing themes this phase began once a set of possible themes had been devised and thereafter refined (braun & clarke, 2006). during this phase, it became evident that certain identified contents were not true themes; other themes had to be broken down into separate units, whilst others collapsed into each other (braun & clarke, 2006). furthermore, the researcher read through the themes again to confirm the correct coding and that the themes represented the entire dataset. phase 5: defining and naming themes in this phase, the themes captured from the analysis were defined and refined. it was important that, at the end of this phase, the researcher distinguished clearly between the relevant themes for the study (braun & clarke, 2006). the researcher then allocated names to the themes, which reflected the true content of the data. phase 6: producing the report this phase began once the researcher had a set of fully worked-out themes and involved the final analysis and write-up of the report (braun & clarke, 2006). each of these descriptions was provided its own table, with relevant themes and characteristics. finally, the researcher analysed the data to extract themes, used different approaches to examine the information and followed the guidelines for reflecting on these themes. in this regard, the data yielded an explicit structure of the meaning from the lived experiences of the participants regarding the usage and influence of hr policies. strategies employed to ensure quality data and integrity the qualitative research approach adheres to four criteria for trustworthy data, namely credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability (lincoln & guba, 1999). credibility (internal validity) is a procedure according to which participants of the study identify with the research findings (de vos et al., 2011). a strategy of prolonged engagement was done by ensuring that both the researcher and the co-coder analysed and coded the data (schurink, fouche, & de vos, 2011). transferability (external validity) refers to whether individuals from different settings can relate to the particular research findings. the data of the present study could be transferred only to employees working within municipalities; therefore, transferability was achieved through rich descriptions of the data. dependability (reliability) refers to the consistency, structure and documentation of the research findings. consistency is preserved by describing the data sufficiently, triangulation and audit trails (de vos et al., 2011). the researcher documented the research process in a logical and well-structured manner to achieve dependability (schurink et al., 2011). conformability (objectivity) is the level of objectivity the researcher reaches in the research findings (de vos et al., 2011). it is therefore the researcher’s responsibility to uncover reality in a manner that is objective, unbiased, unprejudiced and impartial. this ensured the researcher adhered to quality processes of evaluating the data. furthermore, the researcher remained neutral throughout the study and did not manipulate the findings. ethical considerations approval from both the industrial psychology and human resource management school’s scientific research committee and the ems-rec (economic and management sciences research ethics committee) (nwu-01400-19-a4) was granted for this study. the considerations for the research study were based on ethical principles. ethics can be defined as ‘the morality of human conduct’ that is followed in social research. thus, ethics ‘refers to moral deliberation, choice and accountability on the part of researchers throughout the research process’ (mauthner et al., 2005). according to creswell (2013), when planning and designing a qualitative study, the researcher must consider the ethical issues that may surface during the process and plan how to address these matters. for the present study, the researcher was mindful of culture and individual differences amongst people. she also avoided discrimination against any person based on factors such as race, gender, age or status. results the present study’s research findings consisted of different categories, themes and responses, with direct quotations to support the results. the categories were divided according to the five questions that were posed during the interviews. the first two questions were directed specifically towards hr managers within municipalities. the last three questions focused on permanent employees from a cross-section of occupational office levels within south african municipalities. category 1: how human resource policies are being communicated to employees within municipalities category 1 provides the six broad themes indicating how the three mentioned hr policies are being communicated to employees within municipalities, from the hr managers’ perspectives, as well as based on the verbatim original responses that were analysed. the different meanings of the themes are discussed in the following subsections. partial communication participants reported that, most times, employees tend to be overlooked. there is a lack of communication with them about these hr policies; especially the performance-management policy is not communicated well within their municipalities: ‘the one that is not well communicated and not a lot of people are asking about is the performance-management policy.’ (manager 1, 48, male, manager: training and development; manager 2, 55, manager: skills development; manager 3, 53, male, acting manager: human resource management) workshops participants pointed out that the mentioned three hr policies are communicated through organised workshops in which these policies are highlighted and applicable questions are answered: ‘ok, the … we normally organise workshops; ja … and that is where we take our employees through to whatever hr policies that we have.’ (manager 2, manager: skills development, 12 dec 19; manager 3, acting manager: human resource management, 21 jan 20) induction a participant explained that the communication of these hr policies takes place during the induction of newly appointed employees who receive a collection of relevant policies (bundle) for the particular municipality (manager 3). website one participant reported that the mentioned three hr policies are communicated through the municipality’s website, where they also are available to the public (manager 3). management-level discussions and consultations according to a participant, the performance-management policy is discussed and consulted at the management level (manager 3): ‘we are having intense discussions and consultations at management level regarding the performance-management policy.’ (manager 3, acting, manager: human resource management, 21 jan 2020) local labour forum a participant mentioned that hr policies are communicated through the local labour forum within the municipality (manager 1). category 2: challenges in implementing human resource policies within municipalities category 2 presents the 13 broad themes describing the challenges hr managers experience when implementing the mentioned three hr policies within the municipalities. the themes include the verbatim original responses that were analysed. the different meanings of the themes are discussed in the following subsections. low employee morale one participant identified that low morale amongst employees poses a challenge to implementing these hr policies (manager 1). lack of participation a participant pointed out that employees are currently not participating in the implementation of the skills audits for the learning-and-development policy, which is a challenge (manager 1). lack of trust one participant acknowledged that employees do no trust management, particularly after the amalgamation of the municipality with another. the distrust poses a challenge to the implementation of these hr policies (manager 1). lack of communication participants pointed out that their municipalities currently find it a challenge to organise the entire institution in order to communicate the hr policies: ‘currently it’s a challenge to organise the whole institution when we communicate the hr policies.’ (manager 1, 48, male, manager: training and development; manager 2, 55, manager: skills development) no clear guidance participants explained that for the draft recruitment-and-selection policy as well as the draft learning-and-development policy, managers follow their instincts and interpret issues differently. this lack of clear guidance is currently a challenge within their municipalities: ‘recruitment-and-selection area and learning and development, because of the absence of these policies because everyone wants to interpret issues the way they want to, ja, because there is no clear guidelines that are approved by the municipality.’ (manager 1, manager: training and development, 6 dec ’19; manager 2, manager: skills development, 12 dec ‘19) employee dissatisfaction a participant mentioned that employees are unhappy and therefore the municipality is receiving numerous grievances that present challenges to implement the recruitment-and-selection policy (manager 2). implementation regarding section 56 and 57 managers participants pointed out that the performance-management policy, implemented only for directors, poses a weakness, and its implementation for other occupational levels within their municipalities is a challenge: ‘performance-management policy is the most challenging, like i said it’s only … focuses on employees who are … the directors, let me say. section 57 in terms of the municipal systems act, those who report directly to the municipal manager.’ (manager 2, manager: skills development, 12 dec ‘19; manager 3, acting manager: human resource management, 21 jan ‘20) paying performance bonus one participant reported that financial constraints within the municipality make it difficult to pay senior managers their performance bonuses in accordance with the performance-management policy (manager 3). political interference certain participants reported that politicians’ interference makes it difficult to implement policies, especially the recruitment-and-selection policy: ‘with the recruitment-and-selection policy, the difficulty in implementing that one is the old elephant in the room, political interference, because we always have to fight them off.’ (manager 1, manager: training and development, 6 dec ’19; manager 3, acting manager: human resource management, 21 jan ‘20) training drop-out rate a participant mentioned that candidates who drop out from training interventions before completing the course pose a challenge to implementing the learning-and-development policy (manager 2). earmarked comrades according to a participant, political comrades who have been earmarked for vacant positions pose a challenge for the recruitment-and-selection policy (manager 3). downsizing of budget a participant mentioned the downsizing of the budget for training interventions, which would result in rearranging of the annual training plans, as a challenge when implementing the learning-and-development policy (manager 3). union resistance one participant reported that resistance from trade unions is the reason why the performance-management policy is not cascaded to occupational levels other than senior managers. this is a challenge when implementing the performance-management policy (manager 3). category 3: how has the human resources department informed employees about human resource policies that are implemented within municipalities? category 3 presents the 11 broad themes explaining how employees have been informed about the mentioned three hr policies implemented within municipalities. this includes the original responses that were analysed. the applications of the themes are discussed in the following subsections. training participants mentioned that they normally are taken to training, where they are informed of the mentioned hr policies implemented within their municipalities: ‘we were taken to training and we were told there, then we came back and worked here at the offices. i went once to this training in 2016 and we were told about these policies.’ (employee 1, receptionist, 6 dec ’19; employee 7, it practitioner, 12 dec ’19) not informed participants reported that the hr department has not informed them about these policies: ‘actually no, from my side, hr has not informed me of these hr policies since i have been employed, no.’ (employee 2, community services clerk, 6 dec ’19; employee 4, labour relations practitioner, 6 dec ’19; employee 9, finance administrator, 21 jan ‘20; employee 10, finance senior clerk, 21 jan ’20; employee 12, led senior clerk, 21 jan ‘20) induction the participant explained that the hr department provided information on the mentioned policies during the induction process, after they were appointed to the municipality (employee 1). union participation a participant confirmed that information on the hr policies was communicated through the trade unions (employee 6). meetings participants reported that they were informed about the implementation of hr policies through meetings held at the library and the municipalities (employees 5 and 7). emails participants pointed out that, normally, the implementation of hr policies is communicated to them through individual and group emails (employees 5 and 6). road show a participant mentioned that the implementation of the learning-and-development policy was communicated during a road show (employee 9). newsletter or memo a participant reported that the training department sends memos or newsletters through email whenever training is needed in their municipality (employee 10). uncertainty certain participants mentioned they are uncertain of the ways the hr department informs them about the implementation of the performance-management policy (employees 9 and 10): ‘you know the performance policy, i cannot dwell too much on that because it’s for senior management, which is section 56, so, i don’t have to say much about performance policy, i’m not sure.’ (employee 9, finance administrator, 21 jan ‘20; employee 10, finance senior clerk, 21 jan ’20) workshop participants indicated that they are informed of the recruitment-and-selection policy as well as training-and-development policy by attending workshops, which focus specifically on communicating hr policies (employees 8 and 11). website a participant reported that information on hr policies is posted on their municipality’s website and made available to the public (employee 11). category 4: experience of how human resource policies are being implemented within municipalities category 4 provides 11 broad themes indicating employees’ experiences of the way the three mentioned hr policies are being implemented within municipalities. these themes are confirmed by the verbatim original responses that were analysed. the different meanings of the themes are discussed in the following subsections. no experience participants reported that they have had no experience of the performance-management policy being implemented: ‘on performance policies, no … at the moment we don’t have any experience of that.’ (employee 2, community services clerk, 6 dec ’19; employee 4, labour relations practitioner, 6 dec ’19; employee 9, finance administrator, 21 jan ‘20; employee 12, local economic development senior clerk, 21 jan ‘20) positive experience certain participants mentioned that they had a pleasant and positive experience regarding the implementation of the recruitment-and-selection policy as well as the learning-and-development policy: ‘my experience? well, my recruitment was a good experience, i thought it was fair. so, that’s how i feel about the recruitment-and-selection policies.’ (employee 1, receptionist, 6 dec ’19; employee 11, hr practitioner, 21 jan ’20) compliance checklist one participant pointed out that the mentioned hr policies were used as a check-list for those implementing the policies on which to comply (employee 12). corruption one participant mentioned that they experience corruption during appointments, when implementing the recruitment-and-selection policy (employee 9). no training opportunities participants reported that they are not afforded the chance to attend training interventions at the expense of the municipalities: ‘i haven’t been included by that. i have not gone to a training.’ (employee 2, community services clerk, 6 dec ’19; employee 4, labour relations practitioner, 6 dec ’19; employee 7, it practitioner, 12 dec ’19; employee 8, legal services practitioner, 12 dec ‘19) attended training certain participants pointed out the learning-and-development policy, which provides training programmes and learnerships: ‘for training and development, i did experience it because i was once in training whereby i developed so many skills, neh.’ (employee 3, directorate secretary, 6 dec ’19; employee 4, labour relations practitioner, 6 dec’19; employee 5, clerk, 12 dec ‘19) lack of supervision regarding the performance-management policy, participants explained that they experienced the absence of managers and supervisors, who should be monitoring their performance within the municipalities: ‘we don’t see the managers because they are in the other town most of the time, so there’s never staff meetings … there’s nothing. you just come to work and you do whatever you find to do.’ (employee 2, community services clerk, 6 dec ’19; employee 3, directorate secretary, 6 dec ’19; employee 12, local economic development senior clerk, 21) implementation bias one participant mentioned that during the implementation of the recruitment-and-selection policy, they had a disagreement with an hr official. as a result, employees were excluded unfairly from the process to fill a vacancy (employee 9). selective implementation participants reported selective and inconsistent implementation of the recruitment-and-selection policy, particularly during placement: ‘when they do this placement you sometimes find that there are inconsistencies.’ (employee 2, community services clerk, 6 dec ’19; employee 6, procurement clerk, 12 dec ’19; employee 12, led senior clerk, 21 jan ‘20) unpleasant experience one participant found the implementation of the three mentioned hr policies to be an unpleasant experience (employee 6). no job description a participant singled out the implementation of the recruitment-and-selection policy, indicating employees do not know their job description or who they currently report to within the municipality (employee 2). category 5: challenges experienced in the way management implements human resource policies category 5 presents the broad 11 themes that indicate the challenges employees experience in the way the three mentioned hr policies are implemented within municipalities. this includes the verbatim original responses that were analysed. the different meanings of the themes are discussed in the following subsections. no challenges certain participants reported that they did not experience any challenges in the way these hr policies are implemented within municipalities (employees 1 and 11): ‘i did not have any challenges in recruitment and selection implementation. with training and development, i was taught to do my work and also to answer the phone, there were not challenges with that policy. it helped me.’ (employee 1, receptionist, 6 dec ’19; employee 11, hr practitioner, 21 jan ‘20 lacking contract of employment a participant mentioned that working for 3 years in the municipality without an employment contract was a challenge regarding the recruitment-and-selection policy (employee 2). application inconsistencies a participant indicated further challenges that employees experience, namely inconsistencies in applying the mentioned hr policies (employee 6). incomplete training one participant reported that they were unable to complete a training programme because the municipality discontinued the course. this challenge concerned the implementation of the learning-and-development policy (employee 3). no performance evaluation participants found that the lack of performance monitoring and evaluation is a challenge regarding the performance-management policy: ‘there is a challenge again with performance management because i don’t know what i am doing, is it right or wrong.’ (employee 7, it practitioner, 12 dec ’19; employee 9, finance administrator, 21 jan ‘20; employee 10, finance senior clerk, 21 jan ’20; employee 12, led senior clerk, 21 jan ‘20) no training a challenge the participants pointed out regarding the learning-and-development policy is that they have not been taken to any training programmes: ‘my challenge with the training policy implementation is that i complete a skills questionnaire every year and still i don’t see myself taken to any training.’ (employee 2, community services clerk, 6 dec ’19; employee 9, finance administrator, 21 jan‘20) irrelevant training one participant identified a challenge with the implementation of the learning-and-development policy. whenever they are taken to a training initiative, employees find that the training is irrelevant to the work they do (employee 12). no upward mobility a participant identified a challenge in the implementation of the mentioned hr policies, that is, being employed in the same job position for years without upward movement within the municipality (employee 12). lacking human resource policy knowledge for another participant, the challenge is a lack of knowledge about these mentioned hr policies (employee 10). management investment a participant reported a challenge regarding the learning-and-development policy, where training is provided only to politicians and managers within the municipality (employee 2). micro-management one participant mentioned a challenge in implementing the performance-management policy, namely being micro-managed by the supervisor (employee 12). discussion outline of the findings the results indicated that most participants reported partial communication with employees about the mentioned hr policies. the responses indicate that specifically the performance-management policy is not communicated well within the municipalities as it is discussed and consulted at the management level. according to literature, organisational communication often has two goals: firstly, to inform employees about policies and their tasks; and secondly, to create community within the organisation (elving, 2005). communication is vital for the effective implementation of any potential change to the organisation, brought about by hr policies (bos-nehles et al., 2013; elving, 2005). one participant reported that communication of the three mentioned hr policies takes place during the induction period of newly appointed employees. during that period, employees receive bundles of the municipality’s relevant policies. literature encourages this practice, as the most successful organisations of the future will be distinguished for their ability to encourage inclusion of all employees and make decisions to gain new knowledge on the organisation’s policies (brynard, 2009; dragomiroiu, hurloiu, & mihai, 2014). the findings of this study indicated that the most reported challenges by participants are: (1) no clear guidance, (2) political interference and (3) implementation regarding section 56 and 57 managers. regarding the lack of clear guidance, certain participants reported that recruitment and selection as well as l&d are still draft policies; managers follow their instincts and interpret issues differently. according to literature, the absence of coordination and clear definition of policy objectives and responsibility amongst policy implementers may lead to challenges in implementation (ahmed & dantata, 2016). regarding political input, participants mentioned interference from politicians in terms of appointments, which leads to challenges when implementing the recruitment-and-selection policy. previous literature confirms this tendency, as politicians do influence hr policy outputs and outcomes at local organisational level (may & winter, 2007). furthermore, political interferences have no doubt a far-reaching influence on the effective implementation of hr policies (ahmed & dantata, 2016). certain participants reported that the performance-management policy is only implemented with regards to directors, which poses a challenge in its implementation for other occupational levels within the municipalities. however, literature states that numerous managers have recognised that differences in the application of hr policies may bring different outcomes, which may be negative for the organisation (bos-nehles et al., 2013). the present research findings indicate that most participants reported they have not been informed by the hr department about the implementation of these hr policies: ‘actually no, from my side, hr has not informed me of these hr policies since i have been employed, no’. according to postmes, tanis and de wit (2001), employees become more committed when they obtain adequate information. furthermore, the communication of information influences feelings of community and belonging within the organisation (elving, 2005). therefore, according to literature, it is important that management knows how to communicate policies and procedures to staff effectively (clear hr consulting, 2019). in terms of their experiences, the most common finding from participants was that they have no experience of the performance-management policy being implemented. on the other hand, the responses show that participants had a pleasant and positive experience regarding the implementation of the recruitment-and-selection policy as well as the learning-and-development policy. literature encourages this trend, as training and staffing policies and practices help foster an organisation’s human capital (beltran-martin & bou-llusar, 2018). participants also reported challenges where the mentioned three hr policies are applied inconsistently. it is therefore necessary to avoid individual judgement and potential bias within the hr policies and its interpretation by clearly defining the way hr activities are performed in practice (bos-nehles et al., 2013). a specific challenge was highlighted regarding the implementation of the learning-and-development policy. whenever employees are taken to a training initiative, they find that the content is irrelevant to their work. this finding is in line with literature, as there is evidence that few organisations provide formal and systematic training (brewster, 2000; harris, doughty, & kirk, 2002). bos-nehles et al. (2013) found in previous research that numerous managers have recognised that differences in applying hr policies may result in different outcomes, a factor that may be negative for the organisation. in conclusion, as reported by all hr managers, it is clear that all three hr policies (recruitment and selection, l&d and performance management) are currently communicated within municipalities. however, in certain instances, the challenges experienced by employees are that the policies are partially communicated. in other instances, employees experienced a lack in the communication of the performance management policy. furthermore, employees reported both positive and negative experiences of these three hr policies. practical implications as a consequence of their participation in this study, local government realises the importance of annually training the hr managers and evaluating their performance, as custodians and implementers of hr policies, on their effective communication and implementation of the three investigated policies. this communication and implementation of the policies should benefit employees across occupational levels within the municipality. municipalities, in collaboration with their hr managers, should communicate all learning-and-development interventions to the relevant occupational levels, on a quarterly basis, through the municipalities’ intranet, emails and the noticeboard. the aim must be to inform as many employees as possible regularly and make them aware of the available training opportunities. limitations the sample was restricted to hr managers and office-based employees within south african municipalities. the study did not include the municipalities’ water and sanitation plant-based workers and roads workers. therefore, the study may be limited in the generalisation of its results to all municipal employees. from a methodological point of view, a small sample was used. this sample size cannot be extended to a wider population with the same degree of certainty as a larger sample. the present study was conducted in the eastern cape, north west and gauteng provinces; therefore, the results cannot be generalised to other parts of the country. however, the study was applied in only three of the nine provinces in south africa. recommendations for future research, the study can be extended to include municipal employees holding positions within the water and sanitation plant as well as the roads department. a larger sampling population can be used, which incorporates participants from all nine south african provinces. following up the present study with quantitative research would allow for the generalisation of the research (bryman, 2016). such an expanded study will enable accurate generalisations on the use and influence of hr policies within south african municipalities. municipalities, in collaboration with the directorate and political councillors, should prioritise the renewal and timeous adoption of the three mentioned hr polices. such measures will help avoid ambiguity and uncertainties in the interpretation and implementation of these policies. management should implement motions to cascade the performance-management policy. municipalities should plan biannual hr policy roadshows catering to all municipal employees. during such contact sessions, the three mentioned hr policies can be communicated effectively to employees, and questions posed and answered. the hr department should lay out stricter guidelines around the recruitment-and-selection policies. such guidelines should mitigate interferences in the staffing and appointing processes from external bodies outside the assigned recruitment-and-selection panel. it is recommended that hr managers attend a variety of courses in hr policy implementation. this will help keep them abreast of changes in such implementation. human resource managers should establish a database that captures the relevant skills-audit information from employees. such a database will ensure employees are afforded training opportunities relevant to the work that the municipalities have appointed them to do. in conclusion, the performance of municipalities in south africa is under the spotlight, and consequently local government needs to understand that employee performance is critical to the overall success of the organisation. the hr department and its policies hold the administrative expertise to effect real change within the workplace and should, on that account, be extensively used and implemented. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions l.m. collected, captured and analysed the data and wrote the manuscript. n.d.p.m. supervised the study, and assisted with the data analysis and provided feedback on the manuscript. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability raw data sets are available upon request from the corresponding author. disclaimer l.m. and n.d.p.m. hereby declare that ‘exploring the use and influence of human resource policies within south african municipalities’ is their own work. the views and opinions expressed in this work are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references ahmed, i.k., & danatata, b.s. (2016). problems and challenges of policy implementation for nation development. research on humanities & social sciences, 6(15), 60–65. appelbaum, e., bailey, t., berg, p., & kallegerg, a.l. (2000). manufacturing advantage: why high-performance work systems pay off. new york, ny: cornell university press. beltran-martin, i., & bou-llusar, j.c. (2018). examining the intermediate role of employee abilities, motivation and opportunities to participate in the relationship between hr bundles and employee performance. business research quarterly, 21(2), 99–110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brq.2018.02.001 bhuyan, a., jorgensen, a., & sharma, s. (2010). taking the pulse of policy: the policy implementation assessment tool. washington, dc: futures group, health policy initiative, task order 1. bos-nehles, a.c., van riemsdijk, m.j., & looise, j.k. (2013). employee perceptions of line management performance: applying the amo theory to explain the effectiveness of line managers’ hrm implementation. human resource management, 52(6), 861–877. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21578 bradshaw, c., atkinson, s., & doody, o. (2017). employing a qualitative description approach in health care research. global qualitative nursing research, 4, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1177/2333393617742282 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 1–27. brewster, c., & larsen, h.h. (2000). responsibility in human resources management: the role of the line. in c. brewster, & h.h. larsen (eds.), human resource management in northern europe (pp. 195–218). oxford: blackwell. bryman, a. (2016). social research methods (5th edn.). oxford: oxford university press. brynard, p.a. (2009). mapping the factors that influence policy implementation. journal of public administration, 44(3), 557–577. buetow, s. (2010). thematic analysis and its reconceptualization as ‘saliency analysis’. journal of health services research & policy, 15, 123–125. https://doi.org/10.1258/jhsrp.2009.009081 burns, n., & grove, s.k. (2009). the practice of nursing research: appraisal, synthesis and generation of evidence. maryland heights, mo: saunders elsevier. cammarata, l. (2012). phenomenology and hermeneutics. in c.a. chapelle. (ed.), the encyclopaedia of applied linguistics. hoboken, nj: wiley-blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0905 cheema, s., & javed, f. (2017). the effects of corporate social responsibility toward green human resource management: the mediating role of sustainable environment. cogent business & management, 4(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2017.1310012 clear hr consulting (2019). re: performance management cycle how to effectively manage performance [blog comment]. retrieved january 10, 2019, from https://clearhrconsulting.com/blog/ cipd. (2019a). strategic human resource management. retrieved from https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/strategy/hr/strategic-hrm-factsheet cipd. (2019b). what are hr policies? retrieved from https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/people/hr/policies-factsheet#7702 cloete, h.c.a., eigelaar-meets, i., fortuin, a.j., & sewell, w.j. (2016). the challenges faced by the municipal skills development facilitator in the planning and implementation of skills development interventions. retrieved from https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=2ahukewjrmfv3l4zhahxuqxuihdqabuwqfjaaegqichac&url=http%3a%2f%2fcdn.lgseta.co.za%2fresources%2fperformance_monitoring_and_reporting_documents%2fsdf%2520research%2520project.pdf&usg=aovvaw0htiraezypoer1n1fxncgy cooperative governance traditional affairs. (2018). 2018 annual report. retrieved from http://www.cogta.gov.za/?p=352 corbin, j., & strauss, a. (2008). basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. london: sage. creswell, j.w. (2013). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches (3rd ed.). london: sage. cummings, l.l., & schwab, d.p. (1973). performance in organizations. glenview, il: scott, foresman and company. demo, g., neiva, e.r., nunes, i., & rozzett, k. (2012). human resources management policies and practices scale (hrmpps): exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. brazilian administration review, 9(4), 396–420. https://doi.org/10.1590/s1807-76922012005000006 denzin, n.k., & lincoln, y.s. (1994). handbook of qualitative research. riverside county, ca: sage. de vos, a.s., strydom, h., fouché, c.b., & delport, c.s.l. (2011). research at grassroots: for the social sciences and human service professions (4th edn.). pretoria: van schaik. dicicco-bloom, b., & crabtree, b. (2006). the qualitative research interview. wiley online library. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2929.2006.02418.x dragomiroiu, r., hurloiu, i., & mihai, g. (2014). induction staff training. procedia economics and finance, 16, 368–373. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(14)00815-6 edmonds, w.a., & kennedy, t.d. (2013). an applied reference guide to research design: quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. riverside county, ca: sage. elving, w.j.l. (2005). the role of communication in organisational change. corporate communications: an international journal, 10(2), 129–138. https://doi.org/10.1108/13563280510596943 firestone, w.a. (1989). using reform: conceptualizing district initiative. educational evaluation & policy analysis, 11(2), 151–164. https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737011002151 foxcroft, c., & roodt, g. (2013). introduction to psychological assessment in the south african context (4th edn.). cape town: oxford university press. gerrish, k., & lacey, a. (2010). the research process in nursing (6th edn.). chichester: wiley-blackwell. grinnel, r.m., & unrau, y.a. (2008). social work research and evaluation: foundations of evidence-based practice. new york, ny: oxford university press. guba, e. & linclon, y. (1999). establishing trustworthiness. in a. bryman & r.g burgess (eds.), qualitative research, vol. 3 (pp. 397–444). thousand oaks california: sage publications. guest, d.e. (1997). human resource management and performance: a review and research and research agenda. international journal of human resource management, 8(3), 263–276. https://doi.org/10.1080/095851997341630 hamlin, b., & stewart, j. (2011). what is hrd? a definitional review and synthesis of the hrd domain. journal of european industrial training, 35(3), 199–216. harris, l. (2005). uk public sector reform and the ‘performance agenda’ in uk local government. personnel review, 34(6), 681–696. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480510623466 harris, l., doughty, d., & kirk, s. (2002). the devolution of hr responsibilities – perspectives from the uk’s public sector. journal of european industrial training, 26(5), 218–229. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090590210424894 hall, d., pilbeam, s., & corbridge, m. (2013). contemporary themes in strategic people management. a case-based approach. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. henning, e., van rensburg, w., & smith, b. (2004). finding your way in qualitative research. pretoria: van schaik publishers. hill, a. (1987). the strategic approach to human resources management. ipm journal, 5(9), 6–9. howlett, m. (2009). government communication as a policy tool: a framework for analysis. the canadian political science review, 3(2), 23–37. hugh, j. (2007). paper presented at the 40th hawaiian international conference on systems sciences, university of texas, pan-american, tx. hunter, c. (2012). managing people in south africa: human resource management as competitive advantage. durban: sherwood books. katou, a.a., & budhwar, p.s. (2010). causal relationship between hrm policies and organisational performance: evidence for the greek manufacturing sector. european management journal, 28(1), 25–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2009.06.001 khambule, i. (2018). the role of local economic development agencies in south africa’s development state ambitions. local economy, 33(3), 287–306. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269094218766459 kleynhans, r., markham, l., meyer, w., van aswegen, n., & pilbeam, e. (2009). human resource management: fresh perspectives. cape town: pearson prentice hall. koma, s.b. (2010). the state of local government in south africa. journal of public administration, 45(1), 111–120. leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2014). practical research: planning and design (10th edn.). boston, ma: pearson education. legge, k. (1995). human resource management: rhetorics and realities. houndmills: macmillan press. liamputtong, p. (2013). research methods in health. south melbourne: oxford university press. malagon-maldonaldo, g. (2014). qualitative research in health design. health environments research & design journal, 7(4), 120–134. https://doi.org/10.1177/193758671400700411 mashamaite, k. (2014). public service delivery protests in a democratic south africa: a dilemma for local municipalities. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(25), 231–237. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n25p231 mashamaite, k., & lethoko, m. (2018). role of the south african local government in local economic development. international journal of ebusiness and e government studies, 10(1), 114–128. may, p.j., & winter, s.c. (2007). politicians, managers, and street-level bureaucrats: influences on policy implementation. journal of public administration research, 19, 453–476. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mum030 mauthner, m. l., mauthner, m., birch, m., jessop, j., & miller, t. (2005). ethics in qualitative research. london: sage. merriam, s.b. (2009). qualitative research: a guide to design and implementation. san francisco, ca: john wiley & sons. merriam, s.b., & tisdell, e.j. (2016). qualitative research: a guide to design and implementation. san francisco, ca: wiley. meyer, m. (2016). managing human resource development: a strategic learning approach (5th edn.). durban: lexis nexis. mthethwa, r.m. (2012). critical dimensions for policy implementation. african journal of public affairs, 5(2), 37–47. retrieved from https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/20618/mthethwa_critical%282012%29.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y national capacity-building framework (2008). the department of cooperative governance in the ministry of cogta. national capacity building framework (ncbf): 2008 to 2011. pretoria: cogta. retrieved from https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/28874427/national-capacity-building-framework-parliamentary-monitoringnel, p., werner, a., du plessis, a., ngalo, o., poisat, p., & sono, t. (2011). human resource management (8th edn.). cape town: oxford university press southern africa. paauwe, j. (2009) hrm and performance: achievements, methodological issues and prospects. journal of management, 46(1), 129–142. pham, n.t., tuckova, z., & jabbour, c.j.c. (2018). greening the hospitality industry: how do green human resource management practices influence organizational citizenship behaviour in hotels? a mixedmethods study. journal of tourism management, 72, 386–399. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2018.12.008 postmes, t., tanis, m., & de wit, b. (2001). communication and commitment in organisations: a social identity approach. group process & intergroup relations, 4(3), 207–226. purcell, j., kinnie, n., hutchinson, s., rayton, b., & swart, j. (2003). unlocking the black box: understanding the hr performance link. london: chartered institute of personnel and development. rayner, j., & morgan, d. (2018). an empirical study of ‘green’ workplace behaviours: ability, motivation and opportunity. asia pacific journal of human resources, 56(1), 56–78. https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7941.12151 rees, g., & smith, p.e. (2017). strategic human resource management. los angeles, ca: sage. ritchie, j., & lewis, j. (2003). qualitative research practice: a guide for social science researchers and students. london: sage. roux, n.l. (2005). unrest at the local sphere of government in south africa: unrealistic expectations or the inability to implement policies? strategic review of south africa, 55–84. retrieved from http://goliath.ecnext.com salkind, n.j. (2010). encyclopedia of research design (vols. 1–0). thousand oaks, ca: sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412961288 schurink, w., fouché, c.b., & de vos, a.s. (2011). qualitative data analysis and interpretation. in a.s. de vos, h. strydom, c.b. fouché, & c.s.l. delport (eds.), research at grass root: for the social sciences and human service professions (4th edn., pp. 397–423). pretoria: van schaik. schwella, e., botha, c., brand, d., engelbrecht, m., & eijbergen, r. (2015). south african governance. cape town: oxford university press. siddle, a., & koelble, t. (2012). the failure of decentralization in south african local government. cape town: uct press. silverman, h.j. (1994). textualities: between hermeneutics and deconstruction. new york, ny: routledge. smith, t.b. (1973). the policy implementation process. policy sciences, 4(2), 197–209. retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/4531525 south africa. (1996). constitution of the republic of south africa act 108 of 1996. pretoria: government printer. south africa. (1998). local government: municipal demarcation act 27 of 1998. pretoria: government printer. south africa. (2000a). municipal systems act, no. 32 of 2000. pretoria: government printer. south africa. (2000b). white paper on human resource management in the public service. retrieved from http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/white_papers/servicedec.html spillane, j.p., reiser, b.j., & reimer, t. (2002). policy implementation and cognition: reframing and refocusing implementation research. review of education research, 72(3), 387–431. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543072003387 sterling, a., & boxall, p. (2013). lean production, employee learning and workplace outcomes: a case analysis through the ability-motivation-opportunity framework. human resource management journal, 23(3), 227–240. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12010 struwig, f.w., & stead, g.b. (2001). planning, designing and reporting research. cape town: pearson education south africa. struwig, m., struwig, f., & stead, g. (2013). data collection methods. in m. struwig, f. struwig, & g. stead (eds.), planning, reporting and designing research (pp. 82–108). cape town: pearson. swanepoel, b., erusmus, b., van wyk, m., & schenk, h. (2003). south african human resource management theory and practice (3rd edn.). cape town: juta & co ltd. thornhill, c., & cloete, j.j.n. (2014). south african municipal government and administration. pretoria: van schaik. tinti, j.a., venelli-costa, l., vieira, a.m., & cappellozza, a. (2017). the impact of human resources policies and practices on organisational citizenship behaviours. brazilian business review, 14(6), 636–653. https://doi.org/10.15728/bbr.2017.14.6.6 umashev, c., & willett, r. (2008). challenges to implementing strategic performance measurement systems in multi-objective organizations: the case of a large local government authority. a journal of accounting, finance & business studies, 44(4), 377–398. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6281.2008.00268.x van manen, m. (1990). researching lived experience: human science for an action sensitive pedagogy. albany, ny: state university of new york press. white, l. (2000). changing the whole system in the public sector. journal of organizational change, 13(2), 162–177. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810010321481 208-----12 nov 2009 [final verson].indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #208 (page number not for citation purposes) development of a holistic wellness model for managers in tertiary institutions authors: petrus a. botha1 hein brand2 affi liations: 1department of public management, tshwane university of technology, polokwane campus 2department of human resources management, university of pretoria, south africa correspondence to: petrus a. botha e-mail: bothapa@tut.ac.za postal address: magasyn 94, polokwane, limpopo, 0700, south africa keywords: wellness dimensions; health; wellness behaviour; lifestyle; health risks dates: received: 26 mar. 2009 accepted: 08 july 2009 published: 25 sept. 2009 how to cite this article: botha, p.a., & brand, h. (2009). development of a holistic wellness model for managers in tertiary institutions. sa journal of human resource management/tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur 7(1), art. #208, 10 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.208 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. abstract individuals struggle to attain optimal wellness and health levels due to unhealthy lifestyle behaviour. a holistic wellness model was developed in this study to provide a framework for a cross-sectional survey to assess the wellness behaviour and health risk levels of managers in two south african universities. a census was done on the total population of 324 and responses were received from 89 managers. the study employed descriptive and inferential statistical procedures to analyse the quantitative data. the fi ndings suggested that the managers had high levels of wellness behaviour and low levels of health risks. physical fi tness and nutrition as well as medical self-care wellness behaviour levels were identifi ed as weaknesses among managers, for which urgent interventions are required. 166vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 10 introduction in november 2002, cabinet approved proposals for the restructuring of south african higher education institutions through mergers and incorporations. this reduced the number of higher education institutions from 36 to 21. any major change has an impact on employee wellbeing, since it is associated with increased uncertainty, resulting in increased perceptions of occupational stress, lower job satisfaction, high levels of absenteeism, a lack of trust and high mental and physical illhealth symptoms (chunda & cooper, 2002; gibson, ivancevich & donnelly, 2000). the survival and longevity of the new higher education institutions will depend largely on the wellbeing of managers. since managers, as change agents, need to provide strategic direction and leadership to the new institutions, their wellness is of crucial importance for the continued survival of higher education institutions. when managers are not healthy, the perception may be that the organisation they serve may not be healthy either (grant & mack, 2004). to promote wellness and the health of managers, higher education institutions should continuously assess the wellness behaviour and health risk levels of managers. in the 21st century, leading causes of illness and death are not ascribed to infectious diseases, but to lifestyle diseases. the top ten global risk factors identifi ed by the world health organization are low birth and childhood weight, unsafe sex, high blood pressure, tobacco smoke, alcohol abuse, unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and hygiene, high cholesterol levels, indoor smoke from solid fuels, iron defi ciency and obesity (houlton, 2003; murray & lopez, 1997). research done by the american government on the impact of various factors of current living conditions on mortality rates revealed the following: unhealthy lifestyle (51%), polluted environment (20%), genetic factors (9%) and medical intervention (10%) (serfontein, 2003). unhealthy lifestyle and negative environmental factors are the most important causes of death. however, managers are able to control these factors. genetic factors as well as medical intervention play a relatively insignifi cant role in life expectancy. these and other scientifi c studies should convince managers that a signifi cant improvement in health is possible if behaviours are changed, thereby avoiding ill health and promoting wellness. managers cannot control their heredity and age, but they can make sound lifestyle choices. by reducing risk factors, managers are able to improve their state of wellness. the study on which this article reports comprised an empirical investigation of the six dimensions that infl uence the level of wellness among managers and an examination of the relationship between wellness behaviour levels and the scales of the probable risk involved in terms of current and future wellness problems experienced by managers. the fi ndings of the study will add value as they can be used to identify specifi c wellness interventions to remedy poor wellness behaviour and health risk problems. the holistic wellness model that was developed for managers in higher education institutions can be used to assess the wellness behaviour and health risk levels of managers by focusing on physical, emotional, intellectual, social, occupational and spiritual wellness dimensions. health and wellness to be responsible for one’s own wellbeing, one needs to understand the meaning of health, wellness and health risk. health implies a state of complete physical and mental wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infi rmity (world health organization, 1948). health is an integrated method of functioning that is oriented toward maximising the potential of the individual. it requires the individual to maintain a continuum of balance and purposeful direction within the environment in which he or she has to function. wellness can be defi ned as an approach to personal health that emphasises individual responsibility for wellbeing through the practice of health-promoting lifestyle behaviours (hurley & schlaadt, 1992). wellness refers to a holistic approach in which mind, body and spirit are integrated. it is a way of life oriented toward optimal health and wellbeing in which body, mind and spirit are meaningfully integrated in a purposeful manner with the goal of living more fully within the human and natural community (myers, sweeney & witmer, 2000). wellness is a process that involves striving for balance and integration in one’s life, adding and refi ning skills and rethinking the appropriateness of previous beliefs and stances towards issues (hatfi eld & hatfi eld, 1992). the concept of health risk is generally ascribed to robbins, whose work on the prevention of original research botha & brand sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 8 (page number not for citation purposes) 167 vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 10 cervical cancer and heart disease during the late 1940s led him to the belief that a medical doctor should record a patient’s health hazards to use as a guide when initiating preventive efforts. this in turn led to the creation of a simple health hazard chart that could give the medical examination a more prospective orientation (beery, schoenbach & wagner, 1986). a health risk appraisal is a systematic approach to collecting information on individuals that identifies risk factors and provides individualised feedback, thereby linking the person to at least one intervention to promote health, sustain functions and/or prevent diseases. a variety of theoretical wellness models were developed that can be used to assess the wellness behaviour levels of employees and that can also serve as a foundation for wellness interventions in organisations. hettler (1980) developed a hexagon wellness model comprising six dimensions, namely emotional, intellectual, physical, social, occupational and spiritual wellness. two paper-and-pencil assessment instruments, the lifestyle assessment questionnaire and the testwell wellness inventory, designed by the national wellness institute, are based on the wellness model of hettler (hattie, myers and sweeney, 2004). adams, bezner, drabbs, zambarano and steinhardt (2000) presented a wellness model to conceptualise and measure the spiritual and psychological dimensions in a college population. their model is founded on three principles common to all conceptualisations of wellness, namely multidimensionality, balance among dimensions and salutogenesis (defined as promoting health rather than illness). the model and measurements include the physical, social, emotional, intellectual, spiritual and psychological dimensions of health and are dynamically bi-directional. this model serves as the theoretical basis for the perceived wellness survey, which was conducted in a college population and was salutogenically rather than pathogenically focused (adams et al., 2000). witmer and sweeney (1992) incorporated the wellness theory and research concepts from psychology, anthropology, sociology, religion and education into a holistic model of wellness and illness prevention over the lifespan of an individual to be used as a basis for counselling interventions. the results of research and theoretical perspectives from personality, social and clinical health, stress management, behavioural medicine, psychoneuroimmunology, ecology, contextualism and development psychology are foundations for the revised model (hattie et al., 2004). the revised model proposes five life tasks, depicted in a wheel that are interrelated and interconnected. these five tasks are (1) spirituality, (2) work and leisure, (3) friendship, (4) love, and (5) self-direction (meyers et al., 2000). according to hattie et al. (2004), the life task of self-direction can be subdivided into 12 tasks, namely: a sense of worth1. a sense of control2. realistic beliefs3. emotional awareness and coping4. problem solving and creativity5. a sense of humour6. nutrition7. exercise8. self-care9. stress management10. gender identity11. cultural identity. 12. these life tasks interact dynamically with a variety of life forces, including one’s family, community, religion, education, government, the media and business/industry. the wellness evaluation of lifestyle aimed to assess each of the individual characteristics in the wheel of wellness model. to conceptualise, explain and understand the complexity of wellness, a preliminary wellness model for managers, adapted from the models developed by adams et al. (2000), edlin, golanty and mccormack-brown (1998), hettler (1980), witmer and sweeney (1992) and myers et al. (2000) was developed (see figure 1). this model forms the theoretical foundation for this article. the preliminary wellness model for managers defines health in terms of the whole person and encompasses the emotional, intellectual, spiritual, occupational, social and physical dimensions of individuals (davies, davies & heacock, 2003; edlin et al., 1998; hettler, 1980; sapp, 2004). the wellness model places considerable emphasis on health promotion and environmental protection to maintain healthy communities and also stresses the importance of health education and disease prevention for individuals (dobson & lepnurm, 2000). the model focuses on optimal health, the prevention of disease and positive mental and emotional states, and proposes that health is a state of optimum wellness (edlin et al., 1998). the wellness continuum allows one to visualise the difference between wellness and medical definitions of health. individuals move on this continuum toward disability or optimal wellness. the top of the model represents wellness while the bottom represents disability. disability, in this model, may be a state of poor physical health, poor self-esteem, pessimism, existential frustration, a lack of intellectual stimulation, a negative sense of meaning and purpose in life, unhappiness at work, unhealthy and conflicting relationships, an unsafe and unhealthy work environment, or any combination of these factors (adams et al., 2000). any of these conditions could lead to physical illness or disease. there is also a relationship between the various dimensions of wellness. ideally, these should be in a state of equilibrium. wellness is a dynamic process that takes into account the decisions taken on a daily basis regarding lifestyle and risk behaviour. these could include the food one chooses to eat, the amount of exercise one gets, whether one chooses to wear a safety belt, smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol or abuse drugs or whether one resides in a polluted environment. to move towards a state of optimal wellness, individuals should make radical changes in their lifestyle choices and reduce risk behaviour. these changes will equip individuals to live full, intellectual socialoccupational spiritual physical emotional disability symptoms signs neutral point awareness education growth premature death figure 1 a preliminary wellness model for managers growth education awareness neutral point signs symptoms disability s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #208 (page number not for citation purposes) development of a holistic wellness model for managers in tertiary institutions 168vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 10 responsible, rewarding lives in an extremely complex world. the study focuses on the theoretical foundation of the six selected variables or dimensions of wellness, namely physical, social, emotional, intellectual, occupational and spiritual. physical wellness is divided into three sub-dimensions, namely physical fitness and nutrition, medical self-care, and safety and lifestyle. social wellness is divided into two sub-dimensions, namely environmental wellness and social awareness, while emotional wellness is divided into emotional awareness and sexuality, and emotional management. these dimensions will be discussed in the following paragraphs. physical wellness the physical dimension involves cardiovascular flexibility and strength, regular physical activity, knowledge about food and nutrition and medical self-care and discourages the use of drugs and excessive alcohol consumption (botha, 2007). there is a relationship between a sedentary lifestyle and both morbidity and mortality. low levels of physical fitness are associated with increasing mortality (blair et al., 1996). a sedentary lifestyle may lead to chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure, bone loss and osteoporosis. obesity is related to physical inactivity and being overweight is a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure, higher cholesterol, degenerative arthritis, hypertension, osteoarthritis, sleep apnoea and some types of cancers such as breast, colorectal, endometrial, prostate, kidney and gall bladder (crespo & arbesman, 2003; fontaine, heo & allison, 2005; proper, hildebrandt, van der beek, twisk & van mechelen, 2003; seefeldt, malina & clark, 2002). medical self-care implies maintaining a healthy lifestyle and minimising wellness behaviour risks. individual medical selfcare focuses on updating one’s immunisation record, regular self-examination of testes for men and breasts for women, giving up smoking, considering the use of complementary and alternative medicines for chronic diseases, adequate water intake, practising oral hygiene, protecting one’s skin from sun damage, maintaining blood pressure at normal levels and keeping one’s blood cholesterol levels within an acceptable range (botha, 2007). safety and lifestyle focus on alcohol abuse and drug-impaired driving. alcohol involvement in crashes has been clearly demonstrated by a number of studies that show substantial increases in crash risks when the blood alcohol concentration (bac) exceeds 0.10 g per 100 ml (%) (drummer et al., 2003). for a given cause of injury, the risk of fatality increases with the bac level (chen, baker & li, 2005). harrison and fillmore (2005) and ogden and moskowitz (2004) provide evidence that alcohol adversely affects reaction time, impairs tracking (car control), interferes with learning and adoption to unfamiliar tasks and increases error rates. the combination of alcohol, drugs and prescription medicines such as pain relievers, sleeping pills or anti-anxiety medication affects a driver’s ability to operate a motor vehicle (national highway traffic safety administration, 2004). social wellness social wellness is comprised of two sub-dimensions, namely environmental wellness and social awareness. environmental wellness focuses on pollution, specifically solid waste, air and water pollution and global warming (botha, 2007). according to bai, khazaei, van eeden and laher (2007); curtis, rea, smithwillis, fenyves and pan (2006); evans and smith (2005); hattingh (2006); nel (2005) and zhang, song and cai (2007), the general diseases associated with air pollution include chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, which include obstructive airway diseases such as emphysema and bronchitis, asthma, acute respiratory infections, cardiovascular diseases and cancers. haines, kovats, campbell-lendrum and corvalan (2006); kovats, campbell-lendrum and matthies (2005) and mcmichael, woodruff and hales (2006) identified the following adverse effects of climate change on human health. extreme temperatures such as heat waves may lead to an increase in mortality rate due to cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and respiratory causes, while extreme colds may lead to increased infectious agents such as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus and seasonal haematological changes. the effects of floods, droughts and storms range from immediate effects of physical injury and morbidity and mortality to effects on mental health. floods can lead to an increase in diarrhoeal and respiratory diseases. droughts are associated with an increased risk of disease and malnutrition. higher temperatures also lead to an increase in aero-allergen production that can lead to an increase in allergic disorders such as hay fever and asthma due to a longer pollen season. higher temperatures shorten the development time of pathogen in vectors and increase the potential transmission to humans, thus leading to an increase in vector-borne diseases such as malaria tick-borne infections and dengue fevers and yellow fever, as well as salmonella. water warming and flooding may also lead to an increase in water-borne infections such as cholera. if global warming is not curbed, malaria, dengue fever and encephalitis could become common threats, not only in tropical areas, but everywhere in the world. as temperatures rise, disease-carrying mosquitoes and rodents increase in number, infecting people in their wake. social awareness is the appraisal of one’s circumstances and functioning in society. the dimensions of social wellness include social integration, social acceptance, social contribution, social actualisation and social coherence (keys, 1998). people who have close friends, friendly neighbours and supportive colleagues are less likely to experience sadness, loneliness, low self-esteem and problems with eating and sleeping (helliwell & putman, 2004). agneessens, waege and lievens (2006) echo these views by stating that social support correlates to lower stress levels, emotional and psychological wellbeing, physical wellbeing, health and the longevity of individuals. research done by cattel (2001) revealed that people with more restricted networks were more likely to express feelings associated with negative health outcomes such as anxiety, depression, suffering from headaches and stomach complaints, as well as a variety of other physical complaints. in addition, socially excluded groups shared certain attributes such as feelings of fatalism and hopelessness. emotional wellness emotional wellness is the degree to which one feels positive about oneself and life, the capacity to manage one’s feelings and related behaviours, including the ability to realistically assess one’s limitations and the ability to cope effectively with stress (leafgren & elsenrath,, 1986). emotional wellness is divided into emotional awareness and sexuality, and emotional management. the world health organization (2002, cited by sandfort & ehrhardt, 2004) states that sexual health is a state of physical, emotional, mental and social wellbeing related to sexuality. research has shown that there is a strong positive relationship between relationship satisfaction and sexual satisfaction while experiences of unresolved conflicts and not feeling loved as well as emotional distance have been shown to be associated with lower sexual satisfaction (byers, 2005). the lack of an intimate relationship may lead to anger, depression and anxiety that adversely affect physical health as well as emotions and feelings (edlin et al., 1998). offman and matheson (2005) are of the opinion that sexual depression involves feeling distressed or disappointed about the quality of one’s sex life, or disheartened about a lack of sexual relations with the intimate partner, while sexual anxiety entails feelings of worry, uneasiness or nervousness related to sexual behaviour and is reflected in feelings of discomfort or tension about one’s sexual life. the emotional management dimension refers specifically to stress management, burnout, anxiety and depression original research botha & brand sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 8 (page number not for citation purposes) 169 vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 10 (botha, 2007). stress can produce a number of psychological consequences such as anxiety, frustration, apathy, lowered selfesteem, tension, irritability, job dissatisfaction, aggression and depression (gibson et al., 2003). all these detract from feelings of wellbeing, contribute to poor concentration, indecision and decreased attention spans. if these stressors cannot be altered, people may resort to psychological substitutes such as negativism, anger, feelings of persecution, criticism, displacement, denial, apathy, fantasy, hopelessness, withdrawal, forgetfulness or procrastination (bloisi, cook, & hunsaker, 2003). intellectual wellness intellectual wellness encourages continued learning, problem solving and creativity and involves improving writing and verbal skills, showing an interest in scientific discoveries, keeping abreast of social and political issues, and reading books, magazines and newspapers (griffin, 2005). according to myers et al. (2000), intellectual stimulation, including problem solving and creativity, is necessary for healthy brain functioning, hence quality of life across the life span. paavola and hakkarainen (2005) state that knowledge-intensive work requires of individuals to surpass themselves continuously, to develop new competencies, to advance their knowledge and understanding as well as to produce innovations and to create new knowledge. a lack of employee development can contribute to a skill depletion that may lead to employee dissatisfaction, poor motivation, little commitment and a loss of productivity due to a non-optimal utilisation of knowledge, skills and abilities (bhattacharya & wright, 2005). skills underutilisation results in lowered selfesteem, discouragement, futility and feelings of failure and inferiority, depression, a decrease in organisational commitment, increased stress and lowered self-efficacy (morrison, cordery, girardi & payne, 2005). occupational wellness occupational wellness is the preparation for work from which an individual will gain personal satisfaction and in which one finds enrichment in one’s life (leafgren & elsenrath, 1986). this study focuses on two themes related to occupational wellness, namely job satisfaction and work-life balance. job satisfaction has been found to have a significant, beneficial relationship with factors such as hardiness, commitment, challenge, change, less stress, less anxiety, fewer physical symptoms, finding meaning in life, longevity and greater productivity (witmer & sweeney, 1992). work-life balance is the maintenance of a balance between responsibilities at work and at home (de cieri, holmes, abbott & pettit, 2005). conflict between an individual’s work responsibilities and family responsibilities can significantly affect all aspects of the individual’s life. as the amount of workfamily conflict that an individual is experiencing increases, his or her job satisfaction and life satisfaction drop and these individuals report lower levels of general happiness and subjective wellbeing, increased psychological distress levels, higher levels of depression and alcohol abuse, less commitment and decreased levels of attachment, higher intentions to leave their current place of work, increased reports of actual turnover, lower levels of marital satisfaction, increased instances of divorce, parental problems such as juvenile delinquency and violence and increased stress and tension (grant-vallone & ensher, 2001; quick, henley & quick, 2004). spiritual wellness although there are different conceptualisations of the spiritual dimension of wellness among theorists, there are some common dimensions such as a sense of meaning and purpose in life; connectedness to self, the environment or a higher power; a belief in a unifying life force; hope; honesty; compassion; forgiveness; rituals and recognition of what is held to be sacred (adams et al., 2000; ingersoll & bauer, 2004). the behaviours of a spiritually well person manifest as positive energy or optimism, the tendency to pursue the truth (honesty), ethical conduct, belief in god or a higher power, respect, understanding, openness, self-motivation, creativity, giving to others, trust, kindness, team orientation, few organisational barriers, a sense of peace and harmony, an aesthetically pleasing workplace, interconnectedness, encouragement of diversity and acceptance (ingersoll & bauer, 2004; marques, dhiman & king, 2005). spirituality and religion are overlapping but distinctive concepts. religion involves beliefs, doctrines and rituals that distinguish one group from another and it recognises the involvement in a faith community and responsibility for one another within that community, while spirituality entails individual and personal beliefs (koenig, 2004). this view is supported by king and crowther (2004), who define religion as an organised system of beliefs, practices, rituals and symbols designed to facilitate closeness to the sacred or transcendent (god, a higher power or ultimate truth/reality) and to foster an understanding of one’s relation and responsibility towards others living together in a community, while spirituality is the personal quest for understanding questions about life, meaning and relationships with the sacred or transcendent, which may (or may not) lead to the development of religious rituals and the formation of a community. one of the suggestions for the existence of a public interest in spirituality is a symptom of increasing levels of isolation, disconnection and existential frustration in current society (adams et al., 2000). there is among some people a low-grade chronic anxiety and depression based on a sense of helplessness and hopelessness that the world is somehow out of control (white, 2000). values are an important dimension of spirituality. values are defined as principles, standards or qualities considered to be worthwhile (banhegyi, 2002). when people’s personal values are congruent with their organisational values, their personal lives are more fulfilled and they feel more optimistic about their jobs (digh, 1998). a lack of values is the ultimate disease of our time and leads to value illnesses such as apathy, hopelessness and cynicism. these conditions can progress to become physical, psychological and social illnesses (witmer & sweeney, 1992). the main objective of this study was to explain the development of a holistic wellness model for managers in higher education institutions, and the way in which the model serves as the theoretical foundation for a wellness behaviour and health risk assessment. the secondary objectives were to measure the wellness behaviour levels of managers by focusing on the various wellness sub-dimensions, to identify health risk factors of managers, to calculate the health risk and wellness behaviour scores and to propose wellness interventions. to accomplish these research objectives, the study investigated the correlation between the health risk scores and the wellness behaviour levels of managers, established whether there is a difference between the mean wellness behaviour levels and mean health risk scores of managers of the selected managerial groups, and investigated whether a wellness prediction model can be used, as a holistic dependent variable, to measure the level of wellness against all possible independent variables, the combined wellness behaviour levels and health risks and which wellness behaviour dimensions and health risk levels of managers need interventions. research design research approach the research reported on here was conducted within the quantitative paradigm by utilising a cross-sectional survey to assess the wellness behaviour and health risk levels of managers at two south african tertiary education institutions. the differences in the wellness behaviour and health risk scores can be interpreted in terms of a continuum ranging from low to high levels of risk. the scores were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. a holistic wellness behaviour assessment questionnaire consisting of closed-ended questions was used as the measuring instrument. s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #208 (page number not for citation purposes) development of a holistic wellness model for managers in tertiary institutions 170vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 10 data collection participants the sample frame was the list of names of managers provided by the respective human resource departments of the two institutions, an academic university and a university of technology. the total population of managers at the academic university was 164 and at the university of technology 160. in view of the relatively small number of managers, a census was done on the entire population. the list of managers provided by the respective human resource departments included their e-mail addresses. the researcher created a separate e-mail address list for each participating university. the self-administered questionnaires were sent via e-mail to all managers on the list. a total of 324 questionnaires were sent out to the two institutions. the number of returned questionnaires from the academic university was 42 (26%) and from the university of technology 57 (36%). this brought the average response rate to 28% (n = 89). of the 89 respondents, 36 (40.45%) were employed by the academic university while 53 (59.55%) were working at the university of technology. in terms of faculty or division, the distribution of respondents was: academic 65, support services 22 and the rectorate 2. the majority of the respondents were male, representing 61 (68.5%), while females made up 28 (31.5%) of the 89 respondents. the respondents’ ages varied between a minimum age of 35 and a maximum of 64 years. in terms of age groups, 65 were in the age group 35 to 45, 36 in the age group 46 to 55 and 32 in the age group 56 to 65. the race composition was 15 black, 2 indian, 2 coloured and 70 white. the highest qualifications ranged from one matric, seven bachelors degrees, 41 postgraduate degrees and 40 doctoral degrees. the average years of service for heads of academic departments was 14.72 years, directors 12.14 years and members of the rectorate 9.25 years. measuring instrument the testwell wellness inventory for adults (twi-a) was used in a survey to measure the extent to which wellness behaviours reflect wellness risks and problems. this instrument, which was designed by the national wellness institute in the united states of america, is based on the six-dimensional wellness model of hettler (national wellness institute, 2005). the twi-a reportedly measures the extent to which lifestyle behaviours reflect potential risks and hazards (national wellness institute, 1992). the twi-a is a 100-item inventory divided into 10 subscales of 10 items each (national wellness institute, 2005). the self-administered questionnaire includes biographical information and a health risk assessment and also focuses on the perceived wellness of managers covering physical, emotional, intellectual, social, occupational and spiritual dimensions. the physical, social and emotional dimensions are divided into subcategories. the subscales physical fitness and nutrition, medical self-care and safety and lifestyle fall under the physical dimension. the social dimension is subdivided into the subscales of environmental wellness and social awareness. the subscales emotional awareness and sexuality and emotional management are classified under the emotional dimension, while intellectual, occupational and spiritual wellness are not subdivided. the 10 subscales are: physical fitness and nutrition1. medical self-care2. safety and lifestyle3. environmental wellness4. social awareness5. emotional awareness and sexuality6. emotional management7. intellectual wellness8. occupational wellness9. spirituality and values (stewart, rowe & lalance, 2000). 10. each item in the questionnaire is a statement to which the participant responds using the five-point likert. the totals for each subscale can range from a minimum of 10 to a maximum of 50. the total scores for the questionnaire can therefore range from 100 to 500. according to wright (personal communication, september 28, 2006), testwell for adults was designed primarily as an educational and awareness tool. the cut-off points are: 0% to 59% (a need for improvement), 60% to 79% (good) and 80% to 100% (excellent) (wright, personal communication, september 28, 2006). the wellness group results provide an overview of the strengths and weaknesses, while scores lower than 60% may need careful attention in the design and implementation of interventions through an organisational wellness programme (national wellness institute, 2005). nine health risk indicators added to the questionnaire by the researcher are body mass index (bmi); smoking status; number of doctor or health professional visits; total hours of sleep per night; reported health status; elevated blood pressure; family history of medical conditions (such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack or angina, stroke and high blood cholesterol); selfreported (diagnosed with) medical conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease or angina, stroke and high blood cholesterol, and alcoholic drinks consumed per day. these identified health risk factors are based on the behavioural risks surveillance system and the national health interview survey that have been designed to assess health risk behaviours (thompson, nelson, caldwell & harris, 1998). of the nine health risk factors, only six were used to determine the health risk score of the respondents (bmi in view of unreliable self-reported values and high blood pressure and number of alcoholic drinks consumed per day both in view of too many missing values were excluded). to determine the high health risk category among the respondents the following health risk indicators were included: all current and ex-smokers, those who have paid more than five visits to a doctor or health professional per year, those who sleep less than seven hours a night, those who report fair or poor physical health status, those with a family history of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease or angina, stroke and high blood cholesterol, and those diagnosed with medical conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease or angina, stroke and high blood cholesterol. the statistician and researcher decided that for each condition indicated by the respondent, a score of one was to be allocated. a maximum score of 14 was attainable. statistical analysis the returned questionnaires were coded and the raw data processed into the statistical package for the social sciences (spss version 14). a descriptive statistical analysis was done to describe the biographical and health risk data while a cronbach’s alpha coefficient test was done to establish the reliability of the questionnaire. the pearson product moment correlation coefficient was used to determine whether any correlation existed between the 10 sub-dimensions of wellness levels and the health risk scores. t-tests were carried out to compare the mean wellness behaviour levels and mean health risk scores of the managerial groups. a one-way analysis of variance (anova) was conducted to determine the differences between the mean wellness behaviour levels and the mean health risk scores of the three age groups used in this study. results the researcher used an instrument that had been developed and validated with samples outside the south african context. a reliability test (cronbach’s alpha coefficient) was carried out to ensure the internal consistency of the questionnaire. aiken (1982, cited by finchilescu, 2006) argues that, if this scale is to be used to compare groups of people, then a reliability of 0.65 is sufficient. the cronbach’s alpha of each wellness sub-dimension is shown in table 1. the pearson product moment correlation coefficient was used to determine the relationship between the wellness behaviour levels and the health risk scores of managers. the results original research botha & brand sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 8 (page number not for citation purposes) 171 vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 10 suggested that there were no significant correlations between the mean physical fitness and nutrition, medical self-care, safety, environmental wellness, social awareness, intellectual wellness and spirituality and values sub-dimensions and the health risk scores of managers. however, there was a significant negative relationship between sexuality and emotional awareness (-0.401), a small negative relationship between emotional management (-0.297), and a negative relationship between occupational wellness (-0.323) and the health risk score (see table 2). the negative correlations suggested that, with an increase in sexuality and emotional awareness, emotional management and occupational wellness levels, there would be a decreasing health risk. t-tests were used to compare the mean wellness behaviour levels and mean health risk scores of the different managerial groups and an anova was conducted to compare the mean scores of the three age groups (see tables 3 and 4). the mean scores on the wellness behaviour levels and health risk between managers at the academic university and university of technology were very similar, with the exception of emotional management. the average score on emotional management for the university of technology managers was 40.4 out of a possible 50 (80.8%), while the average score for managers at the academic university was 38.28 out of a possible 50 (76.56%). on average, the emotional management score of the university of technology managers was 4.24% higher than that of their counterparts at the academic university. since all the p values are greater than 0.05, the mean scores of the two groups of managers are not statistically significantly different. the p values of mean scores of the wellness behaviour levels and health risk scores between heads of academic departments and directors of support services were also greater than 0.05, which suggests that there is no statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the two groups. a comparison of the mean wellness behaviour levels and mean health risk scores between male and female respondents showed that only one wellness behaviour sub-dimension, namely sexuality and emotional awareness, with a p value of 0.048, was below 0.05. since there were no significant differences between the mean scores of nine of the ten wellness behaviour levels and the mean health risk scores, it is concluded that differences between the mean scores of the two groups (male and female) are not statistically significant. a comparison of the mean wellness behaviour levels and health risk scores between postgraduate and phd graduate managers indicated no differences between the mean physical fitness and nutrition, medical self-care, safety, environmental wellness, social awareness, sexuality and emotional awareness, occupational wellness, spirituality and values and the health risk scores. however, the exceptions were the emotional management (p value of 0.032) and intellectual wellness (p value of 0.004) sub-dimensions. since the results showed no significant differences in the means of eight of the ten behaviour levels and the health risk scores, it is suggested that there is no statistically significant difference between the means of the two groups. the mean wellness behaviour levels and mean health risk scores of managers according to their age groups indicated no differences in the mean physical fitness and nutrition, medical self-care, safety, social awareness, sexuality and emotional awareness, emotional management, intellectual wellness, occupational wellness, spirituality and values and the health risk scores. although an anova indicated that the mean environmental wellness scores of the three age groups were different, the post hoc tests did not indicate how the age groups differed. it was not possible to establish whether a wellness prediction model could be used as a holistic dependent variable to measure the level of wellness against independent variables such as physical fitness and nutrition, medical self-care, safety, environmental wellness, social awareness, sexuality and emotional awareness, emotional management, intellectual wellness, occupational wellness, spirituality and values and the health risk scores. the data were of such a nature that a linear regression model could not be used, as the variables were not distributed normally. a logistical regression could only be done if a comparison was made between two groups of managers, namely one group with high wellness behaviour levels and low health risk scores and another group with low wellness behaviour levels and high health risk scores. all the managers fell into one group characterised by high wellness behaviour levels and low health risk scores and as a result a comparison was not an option. although a wellness prediction model cannot be used as a holistic dependent variable to measure the level of wellness against all possible variables, the model can be used to assess the wellness behaviour and health risks levels of managers. discussion the primary objective of this research article was to explain the development of a holistic wellness model for managers in higher education institutions and the way in which the model serves as the theoretical foundation for a wellness behaviour and health risk assessment. the results of the data analysis indicated that there was no significant difference between the health risk scores and wellness behaviour levels of the relevant managerial groups. as such, the wellness behaviour levels and table 1 cronbach’s alpha for the wellness sub-dimensions wellness sub-dimension cronbach’s alpha no. of items physical fitness and nutrition 0.69 10 medical self-care 0.67 10 safety 0.76 10 environmental wellness 0.71 10 social awareness 0.77 10 sexuality and emotional awareness 0.81 10 emotional management 0.84 10 intellectual wellness 0.82 10 occupational wellness 0.87 10 spirituality and values 0.85 10 full testwell score 0.93 100 table 2 correlation between the wellness behaviour levels and health risk scores of managers wellness sub-dimension health risk scores pearson product moment correlation coefficient value of (r) p values physical fitness and nutrition -0.140 0.189 medical self-care 0.068 0.528 safety -0.042 0.697 environmental wellness -0.026 0.808 social awareness -0.162 0.130 sexuality and emotional awareness -0.401** 0.000 emotional management -0.297** 0.005 intellectual wellness -0.073 0.497 occupational wellness -0.323** 0.002 spirituality and values -0.195 0.067 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #208 (page number not for citation purposes) development of a holistic wellness model for managers in tertiary institutions 172vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 10 health risk scores of managers at the two sample universities were combined to determine the overall wellness status. the combined health risk scores came to an average of 2.73 out of a possible 14 (19.50%), while the combined average wellness behaviour level of managers at the two sample universities was 76.80%. the combined wellness behaviour levels are shown in table 5. the physical fitness and nutrition wellness dimension (56% – less than the 60th percentile) was identified as a weakness among managers. this necessitates physical and nutritional interventions. the borderline score for medical self-care (61%) that includes aspects such as updating one’s immunisation record, regular self-examination of testes for men and breasts for women, stopping smoking, using complementary and alternative medicines for chronic diseases, adequate water intake, practising oral hygiene, protecting one’s skin from sun damage, maintaining blood pressure at normal levels and maintaining one’s blood cholesterol levels within an acceptable range also necessitate a pro-active intervention strategy. the table 3 t-tests of mean scores of the wellness behaviour levels and health risk scores between the four selected managerial groups mean sd mean sd academic university university of technology physical fitness and nutrition 28.06 7.034 27.85 6.998 0.892 medical self-care 30.89 6.907 29.98 7.752 0.573 safety 45.78 5.504 44.11 5.780 0.178 environmental wellness 32.97 6.217 33.87 7.144 0.543 social awareness 41.31 5.047 41.53 4.734 0.833 sexuality and emotional awareness 43.44 5.289 42.74 5.460 0.544 emotional management 38.28 5.844 40.40 6.017 0.103 intellectual wellness 42.25 4.819 42.15 5.859 0.933 occupational wellness 38.86 6.634 39.43 6.999 0.700 spirituality and values 42.06 7.059 42.04 5.244 0.989 health risk scores 2.56 1.796 2.85 2.397 0.534 heads of academic departments directors of support services physical fitness and nutrition 27.54 6.892 29.18 7.513 0.347 medical self-care 29.95 6.967 31.68 8.632 0.347 safety 44.82 5.769 44.86 5.784 0.973 environmental wellness 32.74 6.389 35.64 7.719 0.085 social awareness 41.05 4.728 42.41 5.234 0.259 sexuality and emotional awareness 42.75 5.417 43.59 5.509 0.534 emotional management 38.95 5.991 40.82 6.037 0.211 intellectual wellness 42.32 5.403 41.64 5.835 0.615 occupational wellness 38.98 6.639 39.77 7.445 0.642 spirituality and values 42.11 6.011 41.45 6.224 0.663 health risk scores 2.88 2.240 2.23 1.998 0.231 female male physical fitness and nutrition 28.89 7.593 27.49 6.690 0.382 medical self-care 30.04 7.162 30.49 7.553 0.789 safety 45.43 6.691 44.49 5.214 0.475 environmental wellness 32.36 7.689 34.03 6.290 0.280 social awareness 40.79 5.209 41.74 4.669 0.392 sexuality and emotional awareness 44.68 5.651 42.26 5.108 0.048 emotional management 38.29 5.792 40.11 6.061 0.184 intellectual wellness 42.68 4.603 41.97 5.796 0.569 occupational wellness 39.07 6.733 39.26 6.916 0.903 spirituality and values 42.75 5.739 41.72 6.143 0.456 health risk scores 2.50 2.152 2.84 2.185 0.500 postgraduate phd graduate physical fitness and nutrition 27.17 7.307 28.65 6.875 0.351 medical self-care 29.12 8.880 31.30 6.153 0.203 safety 44.73 5.119 44.75 6.547 0.989 environmental wellness 33.80 7.260 33.20 6.014 0.685 social awareness 42.17 4.324 40.70 5.244 0.172 sexuality and emotional awareness 43.05 5.468 43.23 5.250 0.883 emotional management 40.85 6.540 37.93 5.446 0.032 intellectual wellness 43.85 4.942 40.48 5.164 0.004 occupational wellness 39.78 6.962 38.33 6.498 0.334 spirituality and values 42.90 4.989 41.05 6.835 0.167 health risk scores 2.80 2.261 2.55 1.921 0.586 original research botha & brand sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 8 (page number not for citation purposes) 173 vol. 7 no. 1 page 8 of 10 combined health risk scores of managers were very low with an average of 2.73 out of a possible score of 14 (19.50%), which indicates low health risk levels. the instrument, the testwell wellness inventory, was used in a number of earlier studies to measure the mean wellness behaviour levels of high school and college students (dimonda, 2005; owen, 1999; stewart et al., 2000). however, the results of the current study cannot be compared with the above-mentioned studies as the contexts as well as the populations differed. this research contributed to the development of a holistic model for managers at south african tertiary institutions. the wellness behaviour of managers was measured on 10 wellness sub-dimensions. the questionnaire included nine health risks assessment questions to determine the health risk score. of these nine, only six were used to measure the health risk scores of managers. therefore, the health risk score is the 11th independent variable influencing wellness as a dependent variable. a diagram of this model appears in figure 2. the model is comprised of 11 independent variables, namely physical fitness and nutrition, medical self-care, safety, environmental wellness, social awareness, sexuality and emotional awareness, emotional management, intellectual wellness, occupational wellness, spirituality and values and the health risk score. the 10 sub-dimensions are divided into 10 categories in the questionnaire, while a health risk category is added as the 11th dimension of the model. the study reported on here contributed to the growing body of literature on wellness and healthy lifestyle behaviour. the holistic wellness behaviour assessment provided managers at the two sample universities with an indication of their wellness behaviour levels and the areas that need improvement. the results of the study showed that the measuring instrument used was valid and reliable for assessing the wellness status of managers. the holistic wellness model proposed in this article could serve as a theoretical framework for future scientific wellness behaviour and health risk assessments that will enable tertiary institutions to devise appropriate interventions. limitations the respondents had to report on their own wellness behaviour and health risk status. the probability exists that the self-reported values were based on the respondents’ own perceptions of their wellness behaviour and health risk status and not on factual information. in view of the unreliability of self-reported values, only six of the nine health risk factors were used to calculate the health risk scores. the sampling bias was strengthened by the fact that there was an over-representation of respondents from the university of technology, white males and heads of academic departments. these findings cannot be generically applied to the higher education institutions included in the sample or to the other 19 south african higher education institutions. in view of the relatively small number of respondents, a factor analysis on the twi-a instrument could not be done. the low response rate created a response and representative bias problem that made it difficult to apply the results obtained to the entire managerial population of the two sample universities. although the results may not be deemed as representative of the entire tertiary population, it is a useful first step in creating an awareness of wellness and healthy lifestyle behaviour. suggestions for future research in future, longitudinal studies should be conducted to measure table 4 anova to compare the mean scores of the wellness behaviour levels and health risk scores between the three age groups age (years) 35–45 46–55 56–65 wellness sub-dimension mean sd mean sd mean sd p value physical fitness and nutrition 27.95 9.552 27.19 6.476 28.75 5.524 0.661 medical self-care 31.57 8.750 29.08 6.185 30.97 7.706 0.400 safety 43.81 6.030 44.42 6.299 45.84 4.684 0.397 environmental wellness 32.10 7.341 32.17 6.092 35.94 6.604 0.038 social awareness 42.38 5.035 41.22 5.249 41.06 4.257 0.593 sexuality and emotional awareness 45.10 5.019 42.44 5.521 42.31 5.239 0.128 emotional management 41.00 5.683 38.33 6.113 39.94 6.005 0.245 intellectual wellness 43.71 4.233 41.31 6.122 42.19 5.239 0.274 occupational wellness 40.57 5.372 37.83 7.755 39.84 6.456 0.278 spirituality and values 42.81 3.970 41.28 6.755 42.41 6.283 0.599 health risk scores 2.52 2.228 2.58 2.285 3.03 2.024 0.620 table 5 combined average wellness behaviour levels of managers at the two sample universities wellness sub-dimension no. minimum maximum mean std. deviation physical fitness and nutrition 89 12 46 27.93 6.974 medical self-care 89 11 49 30.35 7.395 safety 89 26 50 44.79 5.698 environmental wellness 89 20 50 33.51 6.762 social awareness 89 28 50 41.44 4.836 sexuality and emotional awareness 89 27 50 43.02 5.372 emotional management 89 22 50 39.54 6.006 intellectual wellness 89 26 50 42.19 5.433 occupational wellness 89 17 49 39.20 6.821 spirituality and values 89 22 50 42.04 6.006 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #208 (page number not for citation purposes) development of a holistic wellness model for managers in tertiary institutions 174vol. 7 no. 1 page 9 of 10 the impact of physical fitness and nutrition and medical selfcare interventions on stress, health care costs, satisfaction and motivation, performance, turnover, absenteeism, morale, productivity, retention, loyalty and quality of life. in order to gain top management’s support for investing in wellness and health promotion, research should be done on the return on investment of the proposed interventions. to change the wellness and lifestyle behaviour of managers, further research on behavioural modification theories or models such as the cognitive learning theory, transtheoretical model and health belief model should be done. future research should cover a representative sample of many tertiary institutions in order to enhance external validity of this research. future research is also necessary to identify other possible independent variables that may influence and determine wellness as a dependent variable. finally, future researchers, with samples from other universities, should conduct a factorial analysis to enhance the psychometric properties of the twi-a instrument. references adams, t.b., bezner, j.r., drabbs, m.e., zambarano, r.j., & steinhardt, m.a. (2000). conceptualization and measurement of the spiritual and psychological dimensions of wellness in a college population. journal of american college health, 48, 165–173. agneessens, f., waege, h., & lievens, j. (2006). diversity in social support by roles: a typology. social networks, 28, 427–441. bai, n., khazaei, m., van eeden, s.f., & laher, i. (2007). the pharmacology of particulate matter air pollution-induced cardiovascular dysfunction. pharmacology & therapeutics, 113, 16–29. banhegyi, s. (2002). why value statements don’t work. hr future, 2(6), 42–43. beery, w.l., schoenbach, v.j., & wagner, e.h. (1986). health risk appraisal: methods and programs. hyattsville: national center for health services research and health care technology. bhattacharya, m., & wright, p.m. (2005). managing human assets in an uncertain world: applying real options theory to hrm. international journal of human resource management, 16, 929–948. blair, s.n., kampert, j.b., kohl, h.w., barlow, c.e., macera, c.a., paffenbarger. r.s., et al. (1996). influences of cardiorespiratory fitness and other precursors on cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality in men and women. journal of the american medical association, 275, 205–210. bloisi, w., cook, c.w., & hunsaker, p.l. (2003). management and organisational behaviour. berkshire: mcgraw-hill education. botha, p.a. (2007). development of a holistic wellness model for managers in tertiary institutions. unpublished doctoral thesis. university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. byers, e.s. (2005). relationship satisfaction and sexual satisfaction: a longitudinal study of individuals in longterm relationships. the journal of sex research, 42(2), 113– 118. cattel, v. (2001). poor people, poor places, and poor health: the mediating role of social networks and social capital. social sciences and medicine, 52, 1501–1516. chen, l.h., baker, s.p., & li, g. (2005). drinking history and risk of fatal injury: comparison among specific injury causes. accident analysis and prevention, 37, 245–251. chunda, r.c., & cooper, c.l. (2002). does privatization affect corporate culture and employee well-being? journal of managerial psychology, 17(3), 21–49. crespo, c.j., & arbesman, j. (2003). obesity in the united states. physician and sportsmedicine, 31(11), 23–28. curtis, l., rea, w., smith-willis, p., fenyves, e., & pan, y. (2006). adverse health effects of outdoor air pollutants. environment international, 32, 815–830. davies, j., davies, r., & heacock, s. (2003). a wellness program for faculty. educational leadership, may, 68–70. de cieri, h., holmes, b., abbott, j., & pettit, t. (2005). achievements and challenges for work/life balance strategies in australian organizations. the international journal of human resource management, 16(1), 90–103. digh, p. (1998). the “i” in ethics. association management, 50(8), 105–106. dimonda, s. (2005). a comparison of undergraduate student behaviors in six dimensions of wellness and their grade points. unpublished master’s thesis, dowling college, oakdale, usa. dobson, r., & lepnurm, r. (2000). wellness activities address inequities. social science and medicine, 50, 107–121. drummer, o.h., gerostamoulos, j., batziris, h., chu, m., caplehorn, j., robertson, m.d., et al. (2003). the involvement of drugs in drivers of motor vehicles killed in australian road traffic crashes. accident analysis and prevention, 943, 1–10. edlin, g., golanty, e., & mccormack-brown, k.m. (1998). health and wellness. sudbury, ma: jones and bartlett publishers. evans, m.f., & smith, v.k. (2005). do new health conditions support mortality-air pollution effects? journal of environmental economics and management, 50, 496–518. finchilescu, g. (2006). measurements. in c. tredoux & k. durrheim (eds.), numbers, hypotheses and conclusions: a course in statistics for the social sciences, (pp. 201–229). cape town: university of cape town press. fontaine, k.r., heo, m., & allison, d.b. (2005). obesity and prostate cancer screenings in the usa. public health, 119, 694–695. gibson, j.l., ivancevich, j.m., & donnelly, j.h. (2000). organizations: behavior, structure, processes. new york: mcgraw-hill. grant, j.m., & mack, d.a. (2004). preparing for battle: healthy leadership during organisational crisis. organisational dynamics, 33(4), 409–425. grant-vallone, e.j., & ensher, e.a. (2001). an examination of work and personal life conflict, organizational support, and employee health among international expatriates. international journal of intercultural relations, 25, 261–278. griffin, t. (2005). wellness: a journey for life. benefits and wellness. central michigan university: united states of america. haines, a., kovats, r.s., campbell-lendrum, d., & corvalan, c. (2006). climate change and human health: impacts, vulnerability and public health. public health, 120, 585–596. harrison, e.l.r., & fillmore, m.t. (2005). are bad drivers more impaired by alcohol? sober driving precision predicts impairment from alcohol in a simulated driving task. accident analysis and prevention, 37, 882–889. figure 2 a holistic wellness model for managers in south african tertiary institutions original research botha & brand sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 8 (page number not for citation purposes) national wellness institute. testwell: wellness inventory – standard edition instructions. retrieved april 19, 2005, from http://www.testwell.org nel, a. (2005). air pollution-related illness: effects of particles. science, 308, 804–806. offman, a., & matheson, k. (2005). sexual compatibility and sexual functioning in intimate relationships. the canadian journal of human sexuality, 14(1–2), 31–39. ogden, e.j.d., & moskowitz, h. (2004). effects of alcohol and other drugs on driver performance. traffic injury prevention, 5, 185–198. owen, t.r. (1999). the reliability and validity of a wellness inventory. american journal of health promotion, 13(3), 180– 182. paavola, s., & hakkarainen, k. (2005). the knowledge creation metaphor – an emergent epistemological approach to learning. science and education, 14, 535–557. proper, k.i., hildebrandt, v.h., van der beek, a.j., twisk, j.w.r., & van mechelen, w. (2003). effect of individual counseling on physical activity fitness and health: a randomized controlled trail in a workplace setting. american journal of preventive medicine, 24(3), 218–226. quick, j.d., henley, a.b., & quick, j.c. (2004). the balancing act – at work and at home. organizational dynamics, 33(4), 426–438. sandfort, t.g.m., & ehrhardt, a.a. (2004). sexual health: a useful public paradigm or a moral imperative. archives of sexual behavior, 33(3), 181–187. sapp, a. (2004). promoting wellness in employees. retrieved may 15, 2004, from http:/www.bsu/web/amsapp/ employeewellness.htm seefeldt, v., malina, r.m., & clark, m.a. (2002). factors affecting levels of physical activity in adults. sports medicine, 32(3), 143–168. serfontein, w. (2003). leef lank en gesond: voorkom en oorkom die grootste gesondheidsgevare. cape town: tafelberg. stewart, j.l., rowe, d.a., & lalance, r.e. (2000). reliability and validity evidence for the testwell: wellness inventory – high school edition (twi [hs]). measurement in physical education and exercise science, 4(3), 1157–1173. thompson, b.l., nelson, d.e., caldwell, b., & harris, j.r. (1998). assessment of health risks behaviors: a tool to inform consumers, providers, health care organizations and purchasers. american journal of preventive medicine, 16(1), 48–59. white, j. (2000). soul at work. benefits canada, 24(1), 17. witmer, j.m., & sweeney, t.j. (1992). a holistic model for wellness and prevention over the life span. journal of counseling and development, 71, 140–148. world health organization. (1948). preamble of the constitution of the world health organization as adapted by the international health conference, new york, june, 1946; signed on 22 july 1946 by the representatives of 61 states (official records of the world health organization, no. 2, p. 100) and entered into force on 7 april 1948. zhang, m., song, y., & cai, x. (2007). a health-based assessment of particulate air pollution in urban areas of beijing in 2000– 2004. science of the total environment, 376, 100–108. hatfield, t., & hatfield, s.r. (1992). as if your life depended on it: promoting cognitive development to promote wellness. journal of counseling and development, 71, 164–167. hattie, j.a., myers, j.e., & sweeney, j. (2004). a factor structure of wellness: theory, assessment, analysis, and practice. journal of counseling and development, 82, 354–364. hattingh, s.p. (2006). environmental health. in j. acutt & s.p. hattingh (eds.), occupational health: management and practice for health practitioners, pp. 464-514). lansdowne: juta. helliwell, j.f., & putman, r.d. (2004). the social context of wellbeing. the royal society, 359, 1435–1446. hettler, b. (1980). wellness promotion on a university campus. family and community health, 3(1), 77–95. houlton, s. (2003). who identifies top ten health risks. pharmaceutical executive, february 30. retrieved october 12, 2005, from http://web22.epnet:pnetcom/citation. asp?tb=l&_ug=dbs+0%2cl%2c2%2c6%2c8%2c10% hurley j.s., & schlaadt, r.g. (1992). the wellness life style. guildford: the dushkin publishing group. ingersoll, r.e., & bauer, a.l. (2004). an integral approach to spiritual wellness in school counseling. professional school counseling, 7(3), 301–309. keys, c.l.m. (1998). social well-being. social psychology quarterly, 61(2), 121–140. king, j.e., & crowther, m.r. (2004). the measurement of religiosity and spirituality: examples and issues from psychology. journal of organizational change, 17(1), 83–101. koenig, h.g. (2004). spirituality, wellness, and quality of life. sexuality, reproduction and menopause, 2(2), 76–82. kovats, r.s., campbell-lendrum, d., & matthies, f. (2005). climate change and human health: estimating avoidable deaths and disease. risks analyses, 25(6), 1409–1418. leafgren, f., & elsenrath, d. e. (1986). the role of campus recreation programs in institutions of higher education. in f. leafgren (ed.), developing campus recreation and wellness programs , pp. 1–95. san francisco: jossey-bass. marques j., dhiman, s., & king, r. (2005). spirituality in the workplace: developing an integral model and a comprehensive definition. the journal of american academy of business, 7(1), 81–91. mcmichael, a., woodruff, r.e., & hales, s. (2006). climate change and human health: present and future risks. the lancet, 367, 859–869. morrison, d., cordery, j., girardi, a., & payne, r. (2005). job design, opportunities for skills utilization, and intrinsic job satisfaction. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 14(1), 59–79. murray, c.j., & lopez, a.d. (1997). global mortality, disability, and the contribution of risk factors: global burden of disease study. the lancet, 349, 1436–1442. myers, j.e., sweeney, t., & witmer, j.m. (2000). the wheel of wellness counseling for wellness: a holistic model for treatment planning. journal of counsel development, 78, 251– 266. national highway traffic safety administration. (2004). connecticut driving under influence screening. traffic safety digest, 1, 1–2. national wellness institute. (1992). testwell, a wellness inventory. stevens point: national wellness institute. vol. 7 no. 1 page 10 of 10 175 abstract introduction conceptual-theoretical framework research design and methodology findings discussion recommendations practical implications limitations and directions for future research conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) renier c. els school of industrial psychology and human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa workwell research unit for economic and management sciences, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa helen w. meyer school of industrial psychology and human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa workwell research unit for economic and management sciences, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa citation els, r.c., & meyer, h.w. (2023). the role of career development in ensuring effective quality management of training. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2126. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2126 original research the role of career development in ensuring effective quality management of training renier c. els, helen w. meyer received: 28 sept. 2022; accepted: 06 dec. 2022; published: 27 jan. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: it is widely acknowledged that career development needs to be viewed as a critical element by organisations to capacitate employees and contribute to organisational success. the role of career development in capacitating leaders to ensure effective quality management (qm) of training is not well known. research purpose: this research aimed to investigate officers in corps training units’ perceptions regarding the role of career development in managing the quality of training in the south african (sa) army. motivation for the study: limited research exists concerning the career development of leaders responsible for the qm of training internationally and nationally. this study intended to fill the gap. research design and method: qualitative focus group interviews were conducted using a sample comprising 49 officers at six sa army corps training units. main findings: the appointment of unqualified and incompetent leaders in critical positions, lack of continuity in the staffing of personnel, the appointment of incompetent personnel in training positions and the lack of mentors and opportunities for mentoring of officers adversely affected the qm of training in the sa army. practical/managerial implications: there is a need for leaders in the sa army to ensure that career development strategies are adequately planned and managed in the training context. this will ensure that leaders with adequate potential are appointed and developed to guarantee high-quality training. contribution/value-add: this research provided an empirical description of the role that career development plays in the organisational system to ensure adequate qm of training. keywords: career development; quality management; training; systems theory framework; officers. introduction career development (cd) has become a critical element for organisations and individual employees alike around the globe (coetzee & schreuder, 2015). changes within the global environment, such as technology and economic and political transformation, influence the blend of knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics (ksaos) required from personnel to achieve organisational objectives (zacher et al., 2019). coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) has transformed how trainers and leaders prepare individuals and organisations. it has also influenced how individuals respond to these changes (i.e. a shift from contact workplaces to online technology–based workplaces) required to ensure effective cd (yarberry & sims, 2021). apart from training and development, cd is essential for organisations to be able to invest in their human resources (hughes & byrd, 2015). career development ensures that organisations have an adequate supply of people with the right qualifications and experience (osibanjo et al., 2014). career development also contributes to employee and organisational effectiveness (coetzee & schreuder, 2015). career development is essential for leadership development to ensure that the training is aligned with job requirements. this will safeguard the achievement of organisational objectives. erasmus et al. (2019) add that cd is most important for improving employees’ competencies and attitudes toward their jobs. equally so, a lack of cd strategies may affect employee performance and commitment to their jobs. employers should provide opportunities for skills development, training and education and assistance with career management, such as coaching and mentoring (werner, 2022). bucar (2014) indicates that a leader’s cd and training are essential for effective leadership development. career development should be the employee’s responsibility, facilitated by the manager and supported by the organisation (werner, 2022). therefore, apart from the employee and organisation, leaders play an essential role in the cd of their subordinates. adequately trained and staffed (placed) leaders (officers) may ensure the effective implementation of cd strategies for soldiers and competent soldiers to protect the country’s (south africa [sa]) borders. background and orientation the sa army is part of the south african national defence force (sandf). the sa army comprises the land forces that protect society against insurgencies from outside the borders of sa. the sa army consists of different training units, called corps training units, responsible for soldiers’ training and development. the word corps refers to an area of specialisation assigned to an individual soldier, for example, infantry, artillery, logistics, et cetera. the sa army has six corps schools spread throughout sa, and the research was undertaken in these six corps training units. the sa army consists of leader personnel grouped into three main categories: noncommissioned, warrant and commissioned officers. the investigation was concentrated on officers (which included warrant officers) who manage the quality of training provided to soldiers in these various corps training units responsible for training. officers who participated in this research project include all junior (ranks of the second lieutenant to captain), senior (ranks of major to colonel) and warrant officers (ranks of warrant officer class 2 to master warrant officer) who manage their corps training units toward achieving quality training objectives set by the sa army. ‘officers’ also refers to top management (formation and sa army level). these officers were included in the research as they drive their own and facilitate their subordinates’ (trainers, soldiers) cd. leaders with adequate ksaos should manage quality management (qm) to ensure that organisations achieve quality objectives (chen, 2012). quality management of training in the sa army ensures that highly trained soldiers protect the country on land. mosadeghrad (2015) indicates that leaders (officers) are core to drive qm in organisations (sa army). if leaders (officers) do not adequately manage training, it may result in the ineffective implementation of qm of training, leading to poor-quality training (mosadeghrad, 2015). similarly, if the qm of training is not implemented effectively, it may result in the sa army being unable to provide high-quality soldiers to conduct landward defence. an environmental analysis conducted in the training environment (including the sa army corps training units) revealed that leaders (including officers in corps training units) were unable to meet the set aims and improve the quality management system. the latter analysis concluded that the development paths (leadership development) of all officers require urgent attention (south african department of defence, 2016). this furthermore points to a cd problem. a lack of cd in these officers may result in them not managing the quality of training as they should. those soldiers who receive substandard training will not be able to perform their jobs effectively, thereby yielding a poor return on training investment. although previous international research exists, limited research has been conducted on cd within a qm of training context. previously, bertoliono et al. (2011) (italy), anthony and weide (2015) (united states), charity (2015) (kenya) and semwal and dhyani (2017) (india) conducted research on cd within a training context. thangavelu and kanagasabapathi (2019) (india) investigated the effect of cd and training on employee motivation and performance. only one study (shokri, 2019) (united kingdom) linked cd with qm but not to qm of training. authors such as bacolod and koenigsmark (2011) (germany), ghosh et al. (2019) (united states of america) and mazari-abdessameud et al. (2020) (belgium) investigated career pathing and military veterans’ readiness to make a career switch, that is, within a military context. locally (in sa), pillay et al. (2015), chinyamurindi (2016) and samuel et al. (2019) conducted research on cd. mukwakungu et al. (2019) investigated leadership practices required to ensure adequate qm. similar to the international research, no other local studies investigating cd related to qm of training within a military context could be located. additionally, only two of the above studies (anthony & weide, 2015; chinyamurindi, 2016) qualitatively explored cd within a training context internationally and locally. consequently, these gaps in the international and national literature are addressed in this research. research purpose and objectives the purpose of this research was to investigate officers’ perceptions regarding the role of cd in ensuring effective qm of training in corps training units within the sa army. the intention was to determine how officers perceive the role of cd and how they interpret and organise the role of cd to present meaningful experiences concerning adequate qm of training. the latter perceptions will assist the sa army in selecting adequate cd practices that are conducive to ensuring that the management of quality in training contributes to high-quality soldiers. the research aimed to expand on the systems theory framework (stf) by focusing on leaders in the sa army. the aim was to explore the importance of viewing the framework from an intrapersonal system of the individual, the social system and the environmental-societal system concerning cd to ensure effective qm of training in the sa army. the research objective was to investigate officers at corps training units’ perceptions of the role of cd in ensuring effective qm of training in the sa army. conceptual-theoretical framework systems theory framework for career development the stf is used as the underpinning framework to understand cd in qm of training better. the stf was the first attempt to present a comprehensive metatheoretical framework of cd using systems theory (patton & mcmahon, 2015). systems theory is the basis for a metatheoretical framework that incorporates all cd concepts for theoretical and practical purposes. the stf is a holistic theory of everything (within cd), thereby accepting a wide range of approaches. the stf consists of interrelated systems, including the intrapersonal system of the individual, the social system and the environmental-societal system. the individual system includes various intrapersonal content influences such as personality, abilities and skills, gender and age, which intrinsically influence the individual. the social system includes contextual influences that may affect the individual extrinsically, such as family, friends, peers, the workplace and educational institutions. the last interrelated system, the environmental-societal system, includes influences such as geographic location, environment, political decisions, globalisation and employment market. these critical interrelated systems (individual, social and environment) in the stf do not stand in isolation and influence each other. consequently, cd refers to the processes between these systems which are explained via the dynamic nature of interaction within and between them, taking into consideration change over time and chance (mcmahon & patton, 2018). accordingly, officers (individual system) in corps training units (social system) within the sa army’s (environmental or societal influence) cd may be influenced by the individual and social forces that also form part of the environment or society (sa army) within which they find themselves. in addition, inadequate cd practices may also influence the qm of training that includes part of the elements within this system (environmental-sa army). officers’ perceptions concerning cd and qm of training may reflect aspects from the individual officers, social (corps training unit) and their environment. they may also influence officers’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to ensure that the qm of training is implemented effectively. quality management quality management entails all activities of the overall management function that determine the quality policy, objectives, strategies, responsibilities and implementation using a combination of managerial processes (coetzee & truman, 2019). quality management provides an improvement tool to transform an organisation continuously to the deepest roots of its culture and values for enhanced competitiveness (lagrosen & travis, 2015). therefore, a dynamically driven qm system is a competitive advantage for an organisation, which other organisations cannot imitate. in this research, qm should provide a management system for officers to direct and control the quality of training to ensure that high-quality, trained soldiers are developed with the required skills to protect the country and its people. training training aims to improve employees’ attributes, competencies and performance in line with their jobs or tasks (erasmus et al., 2019). training is therefore linked to qm, as both involve continuous improvement. shabbir et al. (2016) argue that training is a powerful tool to promote a quality culture. training embeds the values in employees necessary to maintain high qm standards. quality management of training may be closely related to the successful management of cd and the effective implementation of qm of training in corps training units in the sa army. if the skills of personnel (soldiers or trainees or leaders of training) are not developed adequately, it may result in a lack of knowledge, skills and attitudes (regarding military training) (erasmus et al., 2019), which may lead to a lack of capacity to protect the country. career development career development is a process through which individuals and organisations manage various tasks, behaviours and experiences within and across jobs over time (zacher et al., 2019). from a training perspective, cd allows personnel to grow through occupational training (mcdonald & hite, 2014). therefore, cd is core to ensure that individuals and organisations form a partnership to enhance personnel’s knowledge, skills, competencies and attitudes required for their current and future work. although individuals are responsible for their career, organisations must be involved (support) with individuals’ careers to affect career satisfaction (rehman, 2017) positively. career development should be managed effectively through, for example, job matching (career pathing, skills inventory), the organisation’s potential assessment processes (promotability ratings, succession planning) and developmental programmes (mentoring) (werner, 2022) to support employees in their cd endeavours. through cd, individuals can be aligned to the correct positions and developed for future roles that may become available in organisations. leadership development focuses on leaders developing themselves to fill future positions that may become vacant (kirchner, 2018). as many organisations realise the importance of gaining competent leaders, leadership development is embedded within most training routines to ensure leaders’ continuous development. career paths refer to information the organisation provides regarding job opportunities for the internal labour market (werner, 2022). additionally, in conjunction with job profiles and job descriptions, career paths may be useful to communicate to personnel the possibilities for job movement. for example, to be appointed as an officer in command of a corps training unit in the sa army, you should have progressed through a career path (in training) starting from an officer facilitator (junior officer). promotability ratings may also be used to measure various dimensions (e.g. leadership attributes within the context of this study) and consist of an overall rating of an individual’s (potential leader’s) potential for progression (werner, 2022). in this research, the sa army may use promotability ratings to select appropriate leaders to fill key training positions, such as the officer in command of a corps training unit. promotability ratings may also indicate when personnel are high-potential leaders, and then they may be developed for possible vital positions in the future. additionally, developmental programmes could provide personnel with the opportunity to obtain new ideas and skills that may prepare them for future positions, such as leadership development and mentoring. after personnel with potential have been identified for future key positions, they should be included in training programmes that embed leadership development. in addition, mentoring should be integrated to develop leaders. mentoring refers to a relationship between junior and senior personnel in an organisation that contributes to the cd of both (banerjee-batist et al., 2019; scrine et al., 2012). both younger and older personnel seek different prospects – one wants to establish themself (junior), whereas the other wants to remain productive at work (senior). consequently, a mentoring relationship could serve younger and senior needs, leading to job satisfaction and organisational commitment. research design and methodology research design a qualitative research design was used in the study. according to creswell and creswell (2018), qualitative research refers to investigating and understanding the significance of a social issue among the participants. the rationale for using qualitative research was to obtain rich and thick data on leaders’ perceptions regarding the role of cd in qm of training in corps training units within the sa army. research strategy a case study research strategy was used. this strategy allowed for a detailed understanding of officers’ perceptions of the role of cd in ensuring effective qm of training within corps training units in the sa army, as suggested by nieuwenhuis (2016). research method an interview schedule was used that focused on factors that may have created an awareness of perceptions of the role of cd to ensure effective qm of training in corps training units. as suggested by nieuwenhuis (2016), focus group interviews were used to generate rich and detailed data that were difficult to generate using other research methods (such as surveys). corps training units are geographically dispersed throughout sa. the researcher had to travel to each of these corps training units and could spend up to 1 day at each corps training unit collecting data. therefore, focus group interviews were the most viable option for data generation. a group of participants (five to nine) was interviewed immediately within 1 day of moving to the following corps training unit. study population the study population consisted of 401 officers (senior, junior and warrant) in six corps training units based on their specialised duties related to training and qm within the sa army. the other corps training units in the sa army were excluded based on their tasks, which were more support services and preparation for career responsibilities (officer training and sa army promotional training programmes). therefore, they offered different types of training and were excluded from this study. sampling the researcher invited all participants (officers) to participate in the qualitative study. a purposive sample of 49 officers was selected from all willing participants for the focus group interviews. purposive sampling is choosing cases that best aid the researcher in understanding the highlighted issue (creswell & creswell, 2018, p. 185). the best candidates should be selected depending on the researcher’s perspective and background (nieuwenhuis, 2016). focus groups are interviews that a researcher conducts with participants (5–12) (nieuwenhuis, 2016). the researcher held a focus group interview at each of the six corps training units. to ensure diversity, the researcher selected, for each focus group interview (from the willing participants), three senior officers (major to colonel), three junior officers (second lieutenants to captain) and three warrant officers. senior officers manage training at the corps training unit level; junior officers plan and administer training at the subunit level (section). warrant officers provide coaching to trainers on technical aspects of training. the following criteria were used to select participants for the study: participants employed in corps training units and with adequate knowledge and experience (minimum 2 years) regarding qm of training. the reason is that officers (leaders) play a critical role in implementing and maintaining the qm of training. each focus group contained between seven and nine participants. table 1 shows the profile of the participants. table 1 shows that a large qualitative sample (n = 49), as suggested by creswell and creswell (2018), was selected to minimise validity threats. the qualitative sample was diverse and consisted of three levels of officers (leaders) in corps training units in the sa army, with different race groups, and represented by both men and women. table 1: profile of participants’ demographic information. ethical considerations the researcher obtained ethical clearance from the university under whose auspices the study was conducted. the department of defence intelligence and the chief of the sa army provided permission to conduct the research. each participant provided informed consent before the study. participants were assured of their responses’ confidentiality and that their names would not be mentioned in the final report or ensuing publications. trustworthiness the trustworthiness and credibility of this research were established through peer scrutiny (agreement of coders with one another), as nieuwenhuis (2016) suggested. data collection, analyses and interpretation of findings were discussed and scrutinised with peers (the study leader and examiners) to ensure credibility. field notes were kept to ensure an audit trail concerning each step of the research process. therefore, an outsider can audit the entire research process if requested. data generation the researcher utilised focus group interviews to generate data. focus groups allow participants to provide rich data to answer the research question, as suggested by nieuwenhuis (2016). the researcher contacted each corps training unit beforehand and verbally invited participants upon arrival. the interviews were conducted between september 2017 and october 2017. the researcher posed three open-ended questions to participants about their understanding, their perception and the role of cd in qm of training. all focus group interviews were recorded (with participants’ permission). video or digital recordings lasted between 45 min and 60 min each and were password protected according to the university’s ethical policy. as anderson et al. (2020) suggested, observations were expected to reinforce the explanations provided by the participants and produce a clearer understanding of the phenomenon being studied. during interviews, in all corps training unit sessions (a, b, c, d, e, f), if a participant explained something in good faith (which was mostly the case), their powerlessness appeared, resulting in frustration. as a result, participants (corps training unit officers) may have found that they could do nothing to address the issues they identified, leading to a lack of trust in their superiors. therefore, this was reflected in the frustration participants had to face daily. also, some participants were frustrated by the ignorance of upper management and exhibited nonverbal language (head shakes, frowns) that indicated that they felt that the top management made it challenging to implement qm effectively. during interviews, most participants in the corps training units agreed that the personnel (officers) involved in qm of training did not have sufficient qualifications (competence) to fill the positions (key training positions). data analysis a constant comparative method to analyse the data was used. a five-step qualitative data analysis process was applied to analyse the focus group interview data, as suggested by creswell and creswell (2018). the coding of data followed a three-stage process. the first stage was open coding, which involved going through the data, examining and comparing all the different parts to start generating categories, as suggested by thomas (2016). coloured highlighters were used to mark these temporary categories. the second stage, axial coding, is where one starts to make sense of open coding, fitting ideas with each other, determining how they are connected and then labelling these codes. during the final stage of the analysis, selective coding was used to determine where the main themes were drawn, to select the core categories and systematically relate them to other categories (nieuwenhuis, 2016). then, the relationships between these themes and categories were validated, refined and developed. later, data belonging to these different categories were assembled for preliminary analysis, and if necessary, the existing data were recoded. the findings from the empirical investigation are presented in the next section. findings this section presents the perceptions of officers in corps training units. four themes emerged from the data analysis: (1) unqualified and incompetent leaders appointed in critical positions, (2) a lack of continuity in the staffing of personnel in corps training units, (3) appointment of adequate personnel in training positions and (4) lack of mentors and opportunities for mentoring. table 2 summarises these themes identified with coding frequencies to identify which occurred to a more or lesser extent. table 2: perceptions of officers regarding the role of leaders’ career development in quality management of training. unqualified and incompetent leaders appointed in critical positions eight participants explained that officers at corps training units must have the necessary competencies to manage the quality of training. two participants from corps training unit b reported that their organisational structure (organigram) lacked equipped leaders capable of managing qm. this was expressed by a warrant officer as follows: ‘[…] you must have a properly structured organisation that is staffed with relevant people able to manage qm of training, and this is not the case.’ (lwo1b/warrant officer/04 october 2017 @ 08:45) in corps training unit f, one participant (a senior officer) explained that officers responsible for qm of training are not qualified or equipped and lack knowledge and commitment concerning qm: ‘i have seen that they send people to come and supervise and conduct quality management, then the person is not equipped with what is happening there.’ (lso1f/senior officer/19 october 2017 @ 09:30) a lack of continuity in the staffing of personnel in corps training units nine participants felt that the lack of consistency in the staffing of personnel resulted in a high personnel turnover rate. additionally, this may have caused gaps (knowledge and expertise) within training, which may also have contributed to the ineffectiveness of qm of training. this was articulated by a senior officer from corps training unit b as follows: ‘[…] there needs to be continuity so that in the long run, we will have well-equipped members [personnel] who will know their job in and out. because of the chop and change and lack of members [personnel] on the ground because of consistency. there are some things that are out of our control that as the very high turnover of staff [personnel].’ (lso1b/senior officer/ 04 october 2017 @ 08:45) participants felt that the lack of continuity in the staffing of personnel working within the corps training units resulted in the ineffectiveness of qm of training. one participant (senior officer) in corps training unit a verbalised this as follows: ‘with the next placement he is out, they get someone else in …that is also a big problem, the consistency and continuity of personnel.’ (lso2a/senior officer/27 october 2017 @ 09:30) appointment of inadequate personnel in training positions adequate personnel to conduct training are essential to maintaining the qm of training. seven participants felt that training personnel appointed by leaders at higher headquarters and corps training units were inadequate. therefore, one participant (junior officer) from corps training unit b verbalised it as follows: ‘to my opinion, many of the trainers here do not want to be here, i can use myself as an example, i am qualified as a technical person, but that was not my career choice, and that also influence the quality of training.’ (ljo1b/junior officer/04 october 2017 @ 08:45) three participants, furthermore, felt that leaders did the staffing of training personnel at a higher level, which resulted in inadequate job fit. another participant (junior officer) from the same corps training unit (b) indicated: ‘the issue of job fit because he says he is technically orientated. he was taken and put in a training environment, so i think job fit and people placement comes from top management [leaders at a higher level] who place the people.’ (ljo2b/junior officer/04 october 2017 @ 08:45) one participant (warrant officer) in corps training unit f felt that individuals who are required to conduct qm activities because of, for example, age constraints result in evaluation and monitoring of training not being performed properly; therefore, the right people were not staffed in positions: ‘the other thing that i would like to highlight is the age group. currently, i am presenting training on tracking, we are trackers, and so when we track, we are in the field, and we walk every day, so you find that the major brings two sergeant majors, and the only thing he must ask me is a battle jacket with water, and he must check if we are doing the right thing, but they say no, i will see you when you are back, and then i will mark you, but they must evaluate you because they can’t take your pace because of the type of training, bringing me back to the right people in that position.’ (lwo3f/warrant officer/19 october 2017 @ 09:30) a lack of mentors and opportunities for mentoring eleven participants in corps training units perceived that inadequate mentoring of leaders harmed quality improvement, resulting in ineffective qm. participants felt that inexperienced officers should be mentored to ensure effective qm of training. in corps training unit a, one participant (junior officer) felt that the number of mentors available was insufficient, negatively impacting quality improvement: ‘it comes back to mentoring, having more mentors to have quality facilitators, does not matter which rank you are, whether you are a c.o. (candidate officer), a captain, a lieutenant or whatever, so i believe more mentors will ensure more quality for quality improvement of training to take place.’ (ljo3a/junior officer/27 september 2017 @ 09:30) two participants (junior officers) from corps training unit b indicated the importance of providing proper mentoring to ensure training quality assurance. this was expressed as follows: ‘this all comes down to training your instructors properly and mentoring to ensure quality assurance, and if you do that properly then the information will get through.’ in corps training unit d, three participants (a senior, junior and warrant officer) felt that people required to mentor instructors (trainers) concerning training could not do so because of other commitments. furthermore, time to provide adequate mentoring to new personnel is limited, thereby placing tension on training personnel to uphold the required standard as stipulated within the policies a junior officer verbalised this as follows: ‘sometimes you also have to ensure that new members [personnel] are up to date for presenting courses on equipment pieces; however, the time is also limited, and this makes cadre training very difficult. there is no training taking place, the policies and everything are in place. nobody sits with you and explains and shows you there is no mentoring taking place.’ (ljo2d/junior officer/12 october 2017 @ 08:45) in the next section, the findings will be discussed. discussion this research investigated how officers perceived the role of cd in ensuring effective qm of training in corps training units within the sa army. in this section, the key findings are discussed in terms of the conceptual and theoretical framework concerning officers’ perceptions regarding cd’s role in qm of training. the outcomes of this research are also discussed to extend existing literature and offer implications for practice. the perceived role of inadequate career development the findings revealed that leaders are not knowledgeable and adequately equipped to manage the quality of training. the appointment of incompetent leaders in critical positions has resulted in the ineffective implementation of qm training in corps training units. this perception corresponds with previous research conducted by mosadeghrad (2015) (in the health sector) that leaders unable to direct an organisation may be a barrier to effective qm implementation. conversely, this research also indicated that leaders found it problematic to maintain consistency and continuity with personnel placement in corps training units. consequently, appointed personnel lacked the necessary knowledge and expertise concerning qm of training, which may explain officers’ perceptions of incompetent leaders in critical positions. therefore, through inadequate appointments, the organisation (support and organisation or management-environmental/social system) contributed to problems in the individual system because of leaders who lack knowledge and skills. consequently, leaders’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation may be adversely affected in driving qm in training effectively, resulting in poor quality training. sharif (2005) similarly found, in a study conducted in the manufacturing sector, that personnel wrongfully placed in qm positions adversely affected the success of qm implementation. this research also revealed that other personnel (leaders at higher headquarters) with an inadequate training profile also adversely affected qm of training. similar to previous research (mumford et al. 2015) conducted in the education sector, training officers also experienced that the quality of leaders (inadequate profile) impacted personnel initiatives, activity and cooperation. the findings in this research also confirmed that both the individual and environmental or social systems influence each other. when the environment or social system (organisation, workplace) appoints leaders with an inadequate training profile, personnel (individual system) may be affected adversely, including leaders’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to drive qm of training effectively. officers’ perceptions regarding the placement of personnel (leaders and training personnel) with an inadequate profile may point toward ineffective cd practices in the sa army. perceived effect of a lack of mentoring as a career-development practice officers perceived a lack of suitable mentors to mentor younger, inexperienced leaders. a lack of mentors created difficulty in ensuring good practice and operational efficiency concerning qm of training. previous research also revealed the importance of mentoring young people to ensure good practice and efficiency (scrine et al., 2012). in the workplace, more youthful, inexperienced employees expect a mentor to help them strengthen their abilities and complete their job tasks successfully. these findings point toward cd’s vital role in ensuring effective qm implementation of training. in line with the system theory framework, leaders should consider organisations (environment) and personnel (individual leaders) to provide effective qm of training (within corps training units). recommendations this research makes the following recommendations to ensure that leaders in the corps training units within the sa army are prepared to provide effective qm of training: involve training directors to scrutinise and provide inputs regarding employment practices to ensure that cd practices do not create organisational barriers. career development practices should support the development of individuals and the organisation’s requirements. the career paths of officers and training personnel should be reviewed to ensure they are related to tasks, responsibilities and training experiences. the latter may address officers’ perceptions of leaders appointed with inadequate profiles. involving training directors in career pathing may assist leaders in providing more inputs and reaching logical job movements in organisations (werner, 2022). the sa army could implement promotability ratings to ensure qualified personnel with the necessary competencies are selected and appointed to key training positions. the sa army should also evaluate the promotability of leaders, specifically leaders at higher levels (formation and corps training unit headquarters). in addition, higher-level leaders in the sa army should conduct succession planning to identify lower-level personnel to develop leaders before appointment in key positions. for example, a corps training unit’s commanding officer identifies an appropriate individual (commander) from one of the training wings as a possible successor. scrine et al. (2012) alluded that a mentoring programme should be adequately resourced, with good ‘practice’ structures and support in place. mentoring should be integrated with leadership development, regarding on-the-job-related aspects. the sa army should also maintain these relationships over a suitable time that involves regular contact to create operational efficiency. the sa army should also integrate mentoring to strengthen and support succession planning and leadership development. the sa army’s human resource policies should include mentoring to obtain and create awareness that requires possible participants and senior leaders to accept and actively support mentoring. practical implications from a practical standpoint, the suggested recommendations could assist corps training units within the sa army to improve their cd practices, particularly leaders, to ensure effective qm of training. leaders at all levels may better understand the needed cd practices to adopt. rather than focusing on inadequate training and development programmes, the sa army may ensure that leaders with adequate potential are appointed and developed to ensure their success using appropriate cd practices. globally, there is research available on cd, but limited knowledge about the role of cd to capacitate leaders to ensure effective qm of training. as this world becomes increasingly global, dynamic, complex, interrelated and competitive, one must understand the importance of cd practices to advance qm of training internationally. limitations and directions for future research the study used a qualitative approach; therefore, findings cannot be generalised to all training units within the sa army. this study extends the literature on the role of leaders’ cd to ensure effective qm of training. the findings also aid in understanding the effect of inadequate cd practices from a leader’s perspective on qm of training. future research in other training units with larger samples would allow for the generalisation of findings to the rest of the sa army. studies including leaders at higher levels (formation, sa army headquarters) may also provide an exciting understanding of the role of cd in the qm of training. conclusion this qualitative research investigated officers’ perceptions regarding the role of cd in ensuring effective qm of training. in conclusion, officers perceived that inadequate cd practices harm qm of training. career development played a pivotal role in ensuring effective qm of training. the extrinsic motivation of officers was adversely affected because of the perception of an inadequate social contextual influence (inadequate placement of leaders in critical positions by higher headquarters). leaders with inadequate knowledge and experience (individual or content variables) also adversely affected the social system (sa army and corps training unit). the role of cd in ensuring effective implementation of qm in training has reflected aspects from particularly the individual (leaders) system, social (corps training unit) system and environment. consequently, this research revealed that leaders’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to ensure effective qm of training was adversely influenced. therefore, further research into the role of cd in ensuring effective qm of training within other contexts should also be conducted. acknowledgements the research was conducted while dr renier els was a phd student at the faculty of economic and management sciences at the north-west university, south africa. dr renier els thanks prof. helen meyer for her excellent guidance and support during his phd study. the authors are grateful to all interviewees who participated in this study. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions both authors designed the study; r.c.e. conducted the focus group interviews and r.c.e. analysed the results with assistance from h.w.m. h.w.m. was the main study leader of r.c.e. during the phd and contributed to the writing of the manuscript. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data that support the findings of this study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author, r.c.e. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references anderson, v., fontinha, r., & robson, f. (2020). research methods in human resource management (4th ed.). cipd. anthony, p.j., & weide, j. (2015). motivation and career development training programs: use of regulatory focus to determine program effectiveness. higher learning research community, 5(2), 24–33. https://doi.org/10.18870/hlrc.v5i2.214 bacolod, m., & koenigsmark, s. (2017). when germany ended conscription, and an era: effects on composition and quality of its military. journal of defense management, 7(2), 165. https://doi.org/10.4172/2167-0374.1000165 banerjee-batist, r., reio, t.g., & rocco, t.s. (2019). mentoring functions and outcomes: an integrative literature review of sociocultural factors and individual differences. human resource development review, 18(1), 114–162. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f1534484318810267 bertoliono, m., truxillo, d.m., & fraccaroli, f. (2011). age as moderator of the relationship of proactive personality with training motivation, perceived career development from training, and training behavioral intentions. journal of organisational behaviour, 32(2), 248–263. http://doi.org/10.1002/job.670 bucar, c.l. (2014). the effect of personality and development on career success: an explanatory mixed methods study, phd dissertation. university of phoenix. retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/openview/7cea199ea96d097fe8dcb35018e2ba87/1.pdf?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y charity, b.c. (2015). effect of training and career development on employee performance: a case of kcb branches in the north rift region, kenya. international journal of advances research in management and social sciences, 4(5), 38–49. retrieved from https://garph.co.uk/ijarmss/may2015/3.pdf chen, s.-h. (2012). the establishment of a quality management system for the higher education industry. quality & quantity: international journal of methodology, 46, 1279–1296. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-011-9441-1 chinyamurindi, w.t. (2016). using narrative analysis to understand factors influencing career choice in a sample of distance learning students in south africa. south african journal of psychology, 46(3), 390–400. http://doi.org/10.1177/0081246315623662 coetzee, m., & schreuder, a.m.g. (2015). careers: an organisational perspective (5th ed.). juta. coetzee, m., & truman, k. (2019). the south african learning and development landscape. in m. coetzee & j.a. botha (eds.), practicing education, training and development: in south african organisations (pp. 1–98). juta. creswell, j.w., & creswell, j.d. (2018). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). sage. els, r.c. & meyer, h.w. (2022). leaders’ attitudes towards, and commitment to quality management of training within the military. the tqm journal, 34(7), 1–17. https://doi:10.1108/tqm-09-2021-0259 erasmus, b.j., du plessis, m., loedolff, p.v.z., mda, t.v., & nel, p.s. (2019). managing training and development (8th ed.). oxford university press. ghosh, a., kessler, m., heyrman, k., opelt, b., carbonelli, m., & fouad, n. (2019). student veteran career transition readiness, career adaptability, and academic and life satisfaction. the career development quarterly, 67(4), 365–371. https://doi.org/10.1002/cdq.12205 hughes, c., & byrd, m.y. (2015). managing human resource development programs (1st ed.). palgrave macmillan. kirchner, m.j. (2018). veteran as leader: the lived experience with u.s. army leader development. human resource development quarterly, 29(1), 67–85. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21302 lagrosen, y., & travis, f.t. (2015). exploring the connection between quality management and brain functioning. the tqm journal, 27(5), 565–575. https://doi.org/10.1108/tqm-08-2013-0093 mazari-abdessameud, o., van utterbeeck, f., van acker, g., & guerry, m. (2020). multidimensional military manpower planning based on a career path approach. operations management research, 13, 249–263. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12063-020-00165-w mcdonald, k.s., & hite, l.m. (2014). contemporary career literature and hrd. in n.f. chalofsky, t.s. rocco, & m.l. morris (eds.), handbook of human resource development (1st ed., pp. 402–418). john wiley & sons. mcmahon, m., & patton, w. (2018). systemic thinking in career development theory: contributions of the systems theory framework. british journal of guidance and counselling, 46(2), 229–240. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2018.1428941 mosadeghrad, a.m. (2015). developing and validating a total quality management model for healthcare organisations. the tqm journal, 27(5), 544–564. https://doi.org/10.1108/tqm-04-2013-0051 mukwakungu, s.c., lumbwe, a.k., niati, d., & mbohwa, c. (2019, october 23–25). the importance of quality management system and leadership in the south african restaurant, fast food and catering sector – case of gauteng region [conference session]. international conference on industrial engineering and operations management, toronto, canada. retrieved from http://ieomsociety.org/toronto2019/papers/105.pdf mumford, m.d., watts, l.l., & partlow, p.j. (2015). leader cognition: approaches and findings. the leadership quarterly, 26(3), 301–306. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2015.03.005 nieuwenhuis, j. (2016). introducing qualitative research. in k. maree (ed.), first steps in research (2nd ed., pp. 49–70). van schaik publishers. osibanjo, o.a., adeniji, a.a., falola, h.o., & heirsmac, p.t. (2014). compensation packages: a strategic tool for employees’ performance and retention. leonardo journal of sciences, 25, 65–84. retrieved from http://ljs.academicdirect.org/a25/065_084.pdf patton, w., & mcmahon, m. (2015). the systems theory framework of career development: 20 years of contribution to theory and practice. australian journal of career development, 24(3), 141–147. https://doi.org/10.1177/1038416215579944 pillay, n., dawood, q., & karodia, a.m. (2015). the relationship between career development and staff motivation in the south african petroleum sector: a case study of a durban refinery. arabian journal of business and management review, 3(2), 1–51. https://doi.org/10.12816/0011643 rehman, s. (2017). impact of career development on organizational commitment. international journal of business and administration studies, 3(3), 100–111. https://doi.org/10.20469/ijbas.3.10003-3 samuel, o.m., magwagwa, s., & mazingi, a. (2019). strategic career development of black engineering graduates in south africa: the workplace experiential approach. higher education, skills and work-based learning, 10(1), 32–48. http://doi.org/10.1108/heswbl-02-2019-0030 scrine, c., reibel, t., & walker, r. (2012). key findings of the literature on effective mentoring programs for young people. telethon institute for child health research. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260184156 semwal, m., & dhyani, a. (2017). impact of employees training and career development on their engagement: a study using ocm and uwes measurement scales. nice journal of business, 12(1), 85–101. retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/36937163 shabbir, m., khalid, m.i., bakhsh, k., mohsin, m.n., rasool, s., & mohsin, m.s. (2016). improving professional development system through quality assurance practices in the universities of pakistan. international education studies, 9(1), 141–147. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v9n1p141 sharif, i.m. (2005). the barriers affecting the implementation of quality management system – iso 9000 in libyan manufacturing public sector organisations. phd thesis. university of salford. retrieved from http://usir.salford.ac.uk/view/etheses_schools/ shokri, a. (2019). investigating the view of quality management success factors amongst future early career operations leaders. international journal of quality and service sciences, 11(4), 487–503. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijqss-02-2019-0027 south african department of defence. (2016). human resource development strategy 2016–2025: renewal and modernisation (in preparation). thangavelu, c., & kanagasabapathi, j.r. (2019). career development practices through training, continuing education, and e-learning and its impact on quality of work-life of executives at automobile industries in chennai city. the online journal of distance education and e-learning, 7(1), 7–14. retrieved from http://www.tojdel.net/journals/tojdel/articles/v07i01/v07i01-02.pdf thomas, g. (2016). how to do your case study (2nd ed.). sage. werner, j.m. (2022). human resource development: talent development (8th ed.). cengage. yarberry, s., & sims, c. (2021). the impact of covid-19-prompted virtual/remote work environments on employees’ career development: social learning theory, belongingness, and self-empowerment. advances in developing human resources, 23(3), 237–252. https://doi.org/10.1177/15234223211017850 zacher, h., rudolph, c.w., todorovic, t., & ammann, d. (2019). academic career development: a review and research agenda. journal of vocational behavior, 110(part b), 357–373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2018.08.006 1vanderwesthuizen.qxd it was over a decade ago that several management visionaries began promoting a new direction for the human resource management (hrm) function. they argued that, as business made the transition from an industrial to an information age, the knowledge, know-how and experience of employees would become the core assets of the organisation. the real foundation of competitive success would no longer be proprietary processes or even distinctive products, but rather outstanding people. the custodian of the workforce, the hrm department, would in turn need to undergo fundamental changes, moving beyond its traditional responsibilities of personnel administration and employee advocacy, to play a central role in assisting organisations to fulfil their highest-level business goals. if hrm does not become more tightly linked with the strategic and economic objectives of the organisation, its ability to make an adequate contribution to the bottom line would be undermined. unfortunately, the path from idea to reality has not been an easy one (connolly, mardis & down, 1997, p. 11). questions therefore arise as to the real value of the hrm function. what led the bank of america, bp amoco and others to transfer all human resource (hr) activities to an outside vendor? what is the future of hrm and what role should it play in business? these questions are in the minds of hr practitioners and executives alike. the consequence of these types of questions are that hrm frequently finds itself struggling to gain credibility among executives and line managers, and as a result, it could easily find itself outsourced. in fact, the very survival of hrm hinges on the ability to achieve increased credibility (ulrich, 1997, p. 250). during the continuous attempt to gain credibility and to instil pride, hrm faces many obstacles, one of which according to ulrich (1997, p. 251) is the need for improved professional status. since hrm may enhance its credibility by actively pursuing sustained professional status, it is necessary to explore and evaluate this status on a fairly regular basis. the current professional status of hrm as seen from the south african practitioners’ perspective is therefore evaluated. however, before this is attempted, it is necessary to define hrm and to describe its role within the organisation. hrm and its role within organisations it is evident from its name that the hrm function has to do with the management of the human factor within the organisation. despite the magnitude of descriptions and definitions of hrm, most definitions are in line with the one by cascio (1998, p. 30), who describes hrm as attracting, selecting, retaining, developing and utilising human resources in order to achieve both employee and organisational goals. singer (1990, p. 3) defines hrm as a specialised field that focuses on development programmes, procedures and activities which aims to satisf y the needs and goals of both the individual and the organisation. the definition of hall and goodale (1986, p. 6) is in line with that of cascio and singer, as they define hrm as the process of optimal alignment between employees, positions, organisations and the environment, to the extent that the employee can obtain certain levels of achievement and work satisfaction, whilst the organisation achieves its goals in return. it is clear from these definitions that hrm has two foci, the employee and the organisation. when studying the field of hrm, it is therefore necessary to evaluate the importance of both the employee and the management of the employee within the organisation. it is alleged that with the constant focus on reengineering of hrm processes, measuring hrm value and aligning hrm practices with business strategies, hr practitioners often ignore the human aspects of business (dutton, frost, worline, lilius & kanov, 2001). the human part deals with understanding and meeting the needs of employees. some of these needs are business related, e.g. the need to have impact, to acquire technical knowledge, to be competent and respected. other needs are more personal in nature e.g. the need to be valued, appreciated and to be part of a team. when these needs go chantel van der westhuizen lj van vuuren deléne visser programme in industrial psychology department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract many organisations are downsizing their human resource (hr) operations due to the perceived lack of credibility of the function as a whole. this study investigates possible reasons for this perceived lack of credibility, and suggests ways in which the human resource management (hrm) function can overcome this challenge. one of these suggestions implies the need to advance the professional status of hrm. the current professional status of hrm, as perceived by south african hr practitioners (n = 398) was evaluated by means of the trait approach to assessing the professional status of an occupation. the results reveal that practitioners do consider hrm to be a profession. however, hrm is still very much in the early stages of achieving true professional status. other findings and their implications are also discussed. opsomming die menslike hulpbronbestuursfunksie (mhb-funksie) word deur verskeie organisasies gerasionaliseer as gevolg van ’n oënskynlike gebrek aan geloofwaardigheid van die funksie as ’n geheel. in hierdie studie is moontlike redes vir die geloofwaardigheidsprobleem ondersoek en aanbevelings gemaak ten opsigte van wyses waarop die mhb-funksie hierdie uitdaging kan oorkom. een voorstel impliseer die behoefte om die professionele status van die mhb-funksie te bevorder. die huidige professionele status van mhb soos gesien vanuit die perspektief van suid-afrikaanse mhbpraktisyns (n = 398) is aan die hand van die eienskapgebaseerde metode om die professionele status van ’n beroep te bepaal, geëvalueer. die bevindinge dui daarop dat ofskoon praktisyns mhb as ’n professie beskou, die mhbfunksie steeds in die vroeë fase van die strewe na ware professionele status is. ander bevindinge en implikasies word ook bespreek. human resource management as a profession in south africa: practitioners’ perspectives requests for copies should be addressed to: lj van vuuren, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 1 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (2), 1-12 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (2), 1-12 unmet, employees become less committed, which may lead to lower performance and reduced business results (ulrich, losey & lake, 1997, p. 259). brockbank (1997, p. 66) is of the opinion that hr practitioners should ensure that senior management has grasped the idea that employees are the critical and ultimate source of competitive advantage. according to miller and catt (1989, p. 10), it is an organisation’s employees who individually and collectively use their skills and abilities to perform their jobs that make it tick. “those who fail to appreciate the vital role people play in managerial and organisational success are destined to finish behind those who do” (kreitner & kinicki, 1992, p. 9). over and above understanding the importance of employees within the organisation, it is important to focus on the management of employees, through understanding the role that hrm plays in empowering and enabling managers to manage people. the role of hrm as a management tool according to ulrich (1997, p. 226) includes the following: strategic people planning which involves identif ying organisational capabilities and gaps, assessing external and internal work climate and formulating and implementing people strategy. people acquisition and development, which is aimed at defining competencies and strategy development, strategic staffing education and training, individual performance management, coaching and succession planning. administration of people, policies and practices, which relates to personnel administration, staffing support, compensation and benefits administration and hr information services. finally, organisation design and de velopment is concerned with change processes, shaping of the work environment, design and management of remuneration benefits and policies. regardless of the important role that hrm performs in supporting management to manage an organisation’s most valuable asset, its value is often questioned, and the question still exists whether organisations should do away with it. the following section focuses on the credibility of hrm, which poses a major threat to the survival of the function. confronting the issue of credibility ulrich (1998, p. 29) states that there is good reason for hrm’s beleaguered reputation, based on the perception that hrm is often perceived as being ineffective, incompetent, costly and value sapping. there are serious and widespread doubts about hrm’s contribution to organisational performance, and therefore the credibility of the function as a whole. according to knicely (1997, p. 118), the best way for hr practitioners to be successful in future is to focus on credibility, competence and courage. firstly, credibility involves doing what one says one will do, maintaining a level of integrity beyond reproach and keeping confidences. secondly, competence includes constantly upgrading business and hrm skills, broadening the professional toolkit in order to address changing organisational needs, being aware of shortcomings and using good judgement to search out best practices. finally, courage refers to the process of how things are done, pushing for continuous improvement and demonstrating the willingness to take risks. the challenge on the other hand, is to overcome the fact that many hr executives are not confident that current hr practitioners with traditional administrative and clerical skills possess the capabilities to make the transition that these new changes demand. a number of hr executives interviewed during a study conducted by connolly et al. (1997, p. 16), indicated that they expressed a high degree of concern about the abilities of the hr practitioners within their organisations, to cope with the present and future pace of change. ulrich (1997, p. 18) states that there are certain myths around hrm which impact negatively on hrm as well as the credibility of the hr practitioner as a professional. these include myths such as: people go into hr because they like people, anyone can do hr, hr deals with the soft side of a business and is therefore not accountable, hr focuses on costs which must be controlled, hr’s job is to be the policy police and the health-and-happiness patrol, hr is full of fads, hr is staffed by nice people etc. according to beer (1997, p. 54), the capability of most hr practitioners impacts greatly on the credibility of the function. in order to play a strategic role, hr practitioners require analytical and interpersonal skills, which will have to be equal to the best consulting organisations that are often used to assist hrm with organisational effectiveness and change management. it is clear from the above that a lack of credibility does not revolve around the hrm function only, but also around the people who perform the function. considering that a lack of credibility is such a critical obstacle for hr practitioners to overcome, it becomes imperative to firstly understand the reasons for the lack thereof, and secondly to investigate and propose possible solutions in order to address and overcome this challenge. van vuuren (2001, pp. 298-303) found that the obstacle of credibility might be ascribed to the following factors: � a lack of clarity in many organisations as to who is responsible for hrm; � hrm is often criticised for its lack of business understanding and therefore its inability to act as a strategic business partner; � as per the change from personnel management to hrm and due to the uncertainty of where hrm should be positioned within the organisation, the self-worth of both the function as well as the people who perform it, are negatively impacted upon; � through the years hrm has been exposed to a variety of names to describe the function e.g. personnel administration, personnel management, labour management, hr capital, employee management, people management, etc. although the name changes might indicate progression, it still causes insecurity concerning the true identity and perceived stability of the profession; � the extent to which hrm actually adds value to the success of the organisation is constantly in question; and � the hr practitioner is often described as being passive or subservient and therefore not able to make a difference in improving the credibility of the function. one of the ways in which the credibility of hrm can be entrenched, is through achieving professional status (ulrich, 1997, p. 17). mohrman and lawler (1997, p. 157) are of the opinion that one of the most important challenges that hrm faces, is the aim to professionally reinvent its structure. this will make it possible to deliver the kind of business partnerships that will enable the organisation to become more effective. in agreement to this, is mckee (1997, p. 156) who states that “the hrm function cannot resurrect itself if it is burdened by the weight of those who cannot or will not move to a professional, strategic partnership”. it is therefore necessary to define and understand what constitutes a profession. the following section will therefore firstly focus on defining the professions, and secondly identif y the characteristics of a profession. “profession” – a conceptual point of departure there does not seem to be a universally agreed upon definition of what constitutes a “profession”. in many ways, the professions are classified as being the elite occupations (sokoloff, 1992, p. 7). everett hughes, a pioneer of the sociological study of the professions since the early 1950’s, placed the social recognition and status of the professions at the centre of his theory (louw, 1990, p. 9). according to hughes (1988, p. 31), a profession refers to the act or fact of professing. in other words, an occupation that one “professes” to be skilled in and to follow, thereby possessing certain attributes in order to van der westhuizen, van vuuren, visser2 provide beneficial services to clients under strictly specified conditions (barcus & wilkinson, 1986, p. 15). according to inkeles (1964, p. 106) a profession could be classified according to the following criteria: � the use or application of a body of knowledge; � the context in which the discipline is used (public or privately), within large groups or face to face with one individual; � the way in which those concerned make their living, how they relate to their clients, to one another and to the larger society; � how much freedom and autonomy they enjoy; and � how well or poorly organised they are. after defining the professions, it is necessary to explore the characteristics thereof in order to determine what sets professional occupations apart from non-professional occupations. there are various approaches to studying the professions, some of which makes it possible to understand the characteristics of a true profession. approaches to studying the professions despite numerous approaches to studying the professions, sokoloff (1992, p. 7) distinguishes between the american and the british approaches. the american approach has been dominated by a structural-functional concept, which attempts to define the characteristics of the professions. this includes identif ying attributes that assist in defining the degree of professional status of a particular occupation. the british approach involves using a more theoretical approach to understand the “place” of the professions. it calls upon both marxian and weberian theory in doing so (macdonald & ritzer, 1988, p. 260). those who follow the british approach, analyse the theoretical aspects of interand intra-professional conflict, the relationship between the professions and the state, as well as the place of the professions in the social stratification system. within this perspective, there are those who view professionals as part of a new middle managerial class. louw (1990, p. 5), in turn, identified three approaches used to study the professions, namely the trait approach, the functionalist approach and critical studies. the first of these, namely the trait approach, suggests identif ying the “traits” of a profession, thereby making it possible to distinguish between professional and non-professional occupations. the trait approach is similar to the american approach due to the structured way in which the characteristics of professions are classified. despite criticism against the trait approach, it is difficult to escape thinking in terms of characteristics in some way or the other if one wants to define a profession (louw, 1990, p. 8). larson (1977, p. 8) concluded that although the list of special attributes of the idealtype profession may vary, substantive agreement does exist about its general dimensions. secondly, there is the functionalist approach with the primary assumption that professions fulfil certain fundamental needs in society. the more fundamental the need, the higher the value that society place on the services rendered by that particular profession (louw, 1990, p. 8). according to rueschemeyer (1964, p. 20), this approach can be characterised in terms of the emphasis that the professions themselves place on being serviceor communit y-orientated, and applying their specialised knowledge to problems which are relevant to society. according to louw (1990, p. 9), the approach implies social unity by making use of professional expertise and knowledge. it is therefore possible that a profession’s clientele perceive certain aspects of professional behaviour as central, whilst the professionals themselves emphasise different aspects. finally, the more recent critical studies that is similar to the british approach, focuses on the economic and political dimensions of the professions. work done by researchers in this area, reflect the political influence of the professions, its relation to political and economic elite and the state, and its relation to the market and class system (louw, 1990, p. 10). authors working in a more critical tradition, view professionalism as a peculiar type of occupational control, rather than an expression of the inherent nature of particular occupations (johnson, 1972, p. 45). in summary, both the american and trait approaches focus on the characteristics of a profession, which makes it possible to answer questions such as “what sets a profession apart from other occupations?” on the other hand, the functional approach focuses on the impact of the professions on society, whereas both the british approach and critical studies focus on the economic and political dimensions of the professions. in order to measure the current professional status of hrm as a strategy to increase credibility, it was therefore decided to utilise the trait approach due to the structured and quantifiable context in which hrm can be evaluated in terms of its professional status. characteristics of a profession there is almost universal agreement to categorically reject the notion that a profession is any principal calling, vocation or employment, and on the proposition that no single characteristic will adequately convey the idea of a profession. the disagreement amongst critics is based on what the characteristics of a profession should be, and there is perhaps even more disagreement regarding the extent to which an occupation should possess the specified characteristics. there is, however, wider agreement among authors as to the core characteristics of what constitutes a profession. various research conducted over several years has resulted in the following criteria that could be used to differentiate between a profession and a non-profession. full-time employment the first criterion that separates professionals from amateurs and from ancillary members of a field, is that professions are fulltime occupations and the principal source of their members’ incomes. professions are neither subordinate to other professions, nor stepping-stones to them (moore, 1970, p. 6). a calling members of a profession make lifelong commitments to its activities, values and principles. the profession represents a primary and enduring identification. “the bond established by shared mysteries, exemplified in technical language and common styles of work and often even common attire, bespeaks a consciousness of being set apart, and insisting on” (moore, 1970, p. 7). a commitment to a code of ethics a code of ethics is a set of moral guidelines designed to protect the professional, the profession and the public served by the group (brown & srebalus, 1996, p. 210). professionals abide by a code of ethics that includes practice standards in the delivery of services to clients, in relation to competitors and the public. the code of ethics defines what is proper and improper behaviour and forms the embodiment of the moral standards of a professional service (kubr, 1996, p. 115). whilst the general aim of a code is to provide practitioners with a guide to make ethical decisions, brown and srebalus (1996, p. 210) state that a code of ethics serves several other purposes such as: � providing a basis for regulating the behaviour of members of the professional group; � providing standards of practice regarding activities ranging from fee setting to deciding on which clients to serve; � providing guidelines for action when certain types of difficult decisions arise; � clarif ying the responsibilities of professionals to clients, employers, society at large and to the professional group; � enhances internal professional harmony as it establishes guidelines for professional practices and regulates intermember interactions; and hr management as a profession 3 � protecting the profession by establishing standards of practice that are often used in the adjudication of liability suits. mandatory education preparation and training there should be a defined body of knowledge proper to the profession that can be acquired through a system of professional education and training. the necessary level of professional expertise is attained after a certain number of years of practical experience, preferably under the guidance of senior members of the profession (kubr, 1996, p. 116). professions also possess esoteric but useful knowledge and skills, based on specialised training or education of exceptional duration and difficulty (moore, 1970, p. 6). continuous research according to altbach and finkelstein (1997, p. 35), the professions have to adapt to a competitive research climate. altbach (1995, p. 30) is of the opinion that the “golden age” of the professoriate is at an end, and that although great emphasis is placed on training within the professions, continuous research will remain the “gold standard”. it is thus fair to state that the practising professional continuously keeps abreast of relevant developments in theory and practice (kubr, 1996, p. 116). independence or autonomy the ultimate achievement of a profession is the attainment of autonomy, freedom from evaluation and control (kubr, 1996, p. 116). autonomous professions are entrusted to receive and protect privileged information. they determine their standards of education and training and assist in shaping the legislation that regulates their practices (gallessich, 1982, p. 367). the autonomy of professionals and the respect they elicit can largely be attributed to their very high levels of education. “professionals are thought to derive a great deal of fulfilment from their work and to enjoy a high degree of respect, autonomy, control and status” (sokoloff, 1992, p. 7). a formal association or society/regulating body the formal professional association or societ y has an important role to fulfil, namely to set ethical standards, establish a code of behaviour and provide continuous education programmes and publications for its members or alumni (davis, 1998, p. 112). in addition to this, the “professional associations, through their activities and reward systems, could strengthen their members” (gallessich, 1982, p. 386). according to henry, sims and spray (1971, p. 6), referring to a group of people as a profession is unjustified unless they have a common professional association. ser vice and social interest professionals put their knowledge and experience at the disposal of clients as a service against appropriate remuneration. true professionals are characterised by the “service ethos” which indicates that they serve client needs and interests, to which they subordinate their own self-interests. furthermore, true professionals view individual client interests from a wider social perspective, and keep broader social needs and interests in mind when serving individual clients (kubr, 1996, p. 117). public and peer recognition as a profession every profession strives to persuade the community to sanction its authority within certain spheres by introducing a series of powers and privileges. the society in which the profession operates and the clientele that it serves should recognise the social role, status and behavioural norms of the profession. there may also be explicit recognition e.g. a legal text governing and protecting the professional practice. this could include setting educational standards and behaviour that are considered unprofessional and illegal (kubr, 1996, p. 117). carr-saunders (1928, p. 8) stressed that it is the character of the work itself that distinguished the professions from other occupations. he defined professions in terms of specialised skills and training, minimum fees or salaries, formation of professional associations and codes of ethics to govern practice. greenwood (1957, p. 45) identified the following as being the essential elements of the ideal profession: a basis of systematic theory, authorit y recognised by the clientele, broader community sanction and approval of this authority, a code of ethics and a professional culture sustained by formal professional associations. it should be clear from the above discussion what constitutes a profession. the following section will become more specific, where these characteristics will be utilised to evaluate hrm in terms of its professional status, as suggested by the trait approach. hrm as a profession when evaluating hrm as a profession, lätti (in van vuuren, 2001, p. 217), states that hrm in south africa can indeed be considered a profession, and provides the following reasons which could be linked to the characteristics of a profession as discussed previously: characteristics of a profession hrm as a profession (lätti in van vuuren, 2001, p. 217) a formal association or society/ � the profession has a body of body of knowledge knowledge � the existence of a licensing authority – the south african board for personnel practice (sabpp) (however, registration the board is voluntary which poses a risk to the credibility of hrm) � the existence of a professional society (ipm – institute of people management) a commitment to a code of ethics � the existence of an ethical code for the profession � the possibility of disciplinary action should the ethical code not be adhered to mandatory education preparation � tertiary qualification standards that and training prepare potential hr practitioners for entrance to the profession furthermore, losey (1997, p. 147) states “the suggestion that anyone can do hrm work is simply not true, as hrm is a profession”. ulrich (1997, p. viii) is in agreement that hrm is indeed a profession, as there is an established body of knowledge, standards and distinct competencies, and hr practitioners are competency driven experts who draw on a body of knowledge to make informed business decisions. in order to further evaluate hrm in terms of the characteristics of a profession, it is necessary to investigate and understand the mission, objectives, code of conduct and professional commitment of its regulating board, namely the south african board for personnel practice. the board’s mission is to establish, direct and sustain a high level of professionalism and ethical conduct in personnel practice. by enabling hr practitioners to make significant contributions to their profession, the board assists organisations to manage and utilise the practitioners more effectively (http://www.sabpp.co.za/intro.htm). the objectives of the board are to promote, direct and influence the development of the personnel profession, to set competency standards for education, training and conduct for those engaged in the profession, to advise involved parties on the development and attainment of those competencies and the evaluation thereof. in addition to these objectives, the board also exercises authority in respect of all matters affecting the standard of professional conduct of the personnel practitioners who are voluntarily registered in terms of its charter. as guardian of the van der westhuizen, van vuuren, visser4 profession, the board does have a disciplinary function and it does de-register members for various reasons (http://www. sabpp.co.za/intro.htm). in terms of the code of conduct, registered members of the hrm profession are obliged to uphold certain standards in their practice, both in their interests of the public and of their calling. these include the following which could also be linked to the calling as a characteristic of a professions http://www.sabpp. co.za/code.htm): � conducting themselves at all times in keeping with the dignity, standing and reputation of the profession; � doing their work to the best of their ability and so discharging their duties to employers, employees and clients; � not undertaking work for which they are inadequately trained or experienced; � not canvassing or soliciting work in an improper way; � refraining from presenting themselves or advertising their services immodestly or in any way undermining to the profession; � refusing to disclose confidential information acquired in the course of their professional practice; and � at all times obeying the rules and conventions as prescribed by the board in their professional lives. finally, upon registering with the sabpp, hr practitioners are required to sign a personal commitment, which should be displayed in an appropriate place in the work environment. these include the following (http://www.sabpp.co.za/ commitment.htm): � commitment to the people and the organisation which the professional serves – by striving for effective results, serving impartially, developing people and building relationships; � commitment to the profession – by pursuing its enhancement with loyalty, performing duties according to the best practice, in the public interest; � commitment to ethical standards – by maintaining the highest standard of ethical behaviour, discretion and nondiscriminatory practice; and � commitment to excellence – by striving for continual professional development and in keeping abreast of new knowledge and practice. it appears as if hrm can indeed be considered a profession, however, it might still not have achieved true professional status compared to the traditions of the medical, accounting and engineering fields. lätti (in van vuuren, 2001, p. 218) mentions the following obstacles that prevent hrm from becoming a true profession in south africa. � registration is optional/voluntary; � the sabpp is not a statutory entity who can, based on government regulation, find members guilty of misconduct and can therefore not assign disciplinary actions accordingly; � not all employees who perform hrm functions within the organisation are members of the sabpp; � no professional competency model exists for the hrm profession as yet (unit standards have been developed for hrm since the interview with lätti, which are based on outcomes that are required to function within the hrm arena. these unit standards could be considered as input to a competency model. (http://www.hrsgb.org.za/procedure_ stella_carthy.htm) � it seems as if the sabpp does not possess the same power and prestigious stat us which other traditional professions’ representative bodies possess; and � there are thousands of people performing the hrm function that have no formal hr qualifications, training or professional affiliation. given these obstacles that hrm has to overcome in order to achieve true professional status, the future becomes uncertain. kochan (1997, p. 121) believes that the hrm profession will either undergo dramatic shifts in the years ahead, or will lose even more influence both within the managerial community and in the broader society that it is expected to serve. the underlying challenge facing hr practitioners lies in finding the right balance between building coalitions with other professionals who share responsibility and influence over employment relations, and deepening efforts to make hrm a strategic asset to their organisations (kochan, 1997, p. 127). on the other hand, losey (1997, p. 147) is of the opinion that the future of hrm as a profession does not necessarily imply the continuous growth in the number of hr practitioners, but rather more competent hr people. “simply stated, those who do not stay current and maintain respect as legitimate business partners are at great risk. this is the way it is and should be for a demanding profession” (losey, 1997, p. 147). there are few, if any, professions who comply with all the criteria of a profession. the question then still remains, can hrm be considered a profession, and if so, to what extent? this question could be evaluated from various perspectives such as the perspectives of the general public, other professions, other business units within the organisation, line management, staff members as well as members of the hrm profession. for the purpose of this study, and as an initial and exploratory first step in analysing and evaluating the perceived professional status of hrm in south africa, it was decided to solicit the opinions of hr practitioners in this regard. the hr practitioner is obviously at the core of hrm, and may therefore be able to provide, not necessarily a more objective, but indeed an informed perspective on the extent of hr’s professional status. should hrm be perceived to be a profession by its members, this perception may serve as a basis for member’s to increasingly pursue in a confident manner, the entrenchment of the profession as a true profession in the eyes of peer professions and disciplines, as well as other relevant opinion groups. in utilising the trait approach to ascribe an estimate of hrm’s professional status, and applying it in a quantitative and structured manner, hr practitioners’ perspectives can be established with a view to future professionalisation attempts. method participants the population consisted of 1969 hr practitioners registered at all levels of registration categories with the south african board for personnel practice (sabpp). questionnaires were mailed to the practitioners who were requested to complete and return the questionnaires to the researcher. a total of 398 (20.21%) practitioners responded. the responding group consisted of 331 males (83.20%) and 67 females (16.80%), with ages varying between 25 and 76 years. they had between 3 and 40 years of experience in the hr field. in particular, 11.10% had less than 10 years experience, 52.60% had bet ween 10 and 20 years experience, 27.70% had between 21 and 29 years experience and only 4.50% had more than 30 years experience. there were 305 (76.60%) respondents who occupied permanent positions within their respective organisations, with 65 (16.30%) self-employed as consultants. the majority of the respondents were in senior hr manager positions (33.90%), with 20.40% in hr director positions. only 10.60% were junior hr managers, and 11.60% were hr practitioners. this explains the fact that most of the respondents had more than 10 years experience. in terms of tertiary qualifications, 88 respondents (22.10%) had a bachelor’s degree, 94 (23.60%) an honours degree, 91 (22.90%) a master’s degree and 31 (7.80%) a doctoral degree. a number of industries were included in this study, with the top five being manufacturing (11.30%), education (5.80%), mining (5.50%), government (3.0%), financial services (2.30%) and information technology (it) (2.30%). hr management as a profession 5 measuring instrument the mail survey data collection method was utilised for the purpose of this study, which entailed distributing a questionnaire to the selected population for completion. the questionnaire consisted of two categories. section a focused on biographical information, and section b focused on hrm as a profession. section a consisted of 15 questions providing biographical information about the hr practitioner, whereas section b consisted of 28 items requiring responses on a sixpoint scale. responses ranged from “does not adhere at all” to “adheres totally”, “totally inadequate” to “totally adequate”, or “not at all” to “to a very large extent”. a low score consistently indicated a negative perception. based on the trait approach, hrm was evaluated against the characteristics of a profession as discussed earlier. these characteristics were transformed into 28 items on a 6-point scale. examples of how these characteristics were transformed are listed below: characteristics of a profession item on questionnaire a formal association or society � substantive theoretical principles (a body of knowledge) � a typical professional group solidarity and the cohesion among members of the profession mandatory education preparation � specific skills and the and training application thereof � extensive academic tuition in preparation for a formal qualification in hr � practical training and preparation for the profession continuous research � hr practice has a strong research basis a calling � personal commitment and responsibility of members to the profession independence/autonomy � a feeling of occupational pride � control over the quality of tuition/training public and peer recognition as � a perception amongst other a profession professions that hr is indeed a profession a commitment to a code of ethics � an applicable code of ethics procedure as per the guidelines of alreck and settle (1995, pp. 183-209) concerning the survey research method, a covering letter accompanied the questionnaire. the covering letter explained the purpose and importance of the study and ensured the anonymity of respondents. the questionnaire was mailed to the selected population and included a pre-paid envelope. participants were requested to complete the questionnaire and to return it by the date stipulated in the cover letter. in an attempt to increase the response rates, a follow-up email was sent to the selected population as a reminder of the request to participate in the survey. results it was decided to perform an exploratory factor analysis on the data obtained for the hrm as profession questionnaire to establish whether a single or several constructs were measured by the questionnaire. it was firstly determined whether the sample was adequate and whether it was justified to perform a factor analysis on this questionnaire. the kaisermeyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy was 0.92, thereby indicating that the sample was appropriate for conducting further analyses. the bartlett test of sphericit y indicated that the variables yielded a statistically significant approximate chi-square [�2 (378) = 6144.4, p<0.001]. the above tests provided the necessary justification to continue with the factor analysis. scores on the 28 items of the hrm as profession questionnaire were subjected to a principal axis factor analysis, which resulted in six factors being extracted. the factor matrix was rotated by means of a varimax rotation. the factor matrix is reported in table 1. the intercorrelations between the six hrm factors are reported in table 2. table 1 rotated factor matrix of the hrm as a profession questionnaire factor 1 2 3 4 5 6 h2 item b8 0.65 0.10 0.10 0.13 0.18 0.20 0.54 10b 0.63 0.31 0.23 0.26 0.11 0.02 0.63 b9 0.62 0.11 0.16 0.28 0.18 0.10 0.55 b11 0.61 0.33 0.23 0.18 0.04 0.10 0.58 b7 0.60 0.13 0.20 0.12 0.15 0.13 0.47 b6 0.50 0.21 0.21 0.27 0.02 0.05 0.42 b12 0.45 0.21 0.25 0.16 0.05 0.12 0.36 b23 0.23 0.78 0.11 0.17 0.20 0.13 0.76 b22 0.13 0.73 0.17 0.18 0.11 0.07 0.63 b21 0.13 0.73 0.11 0.06 0.06 0.04 0.57 b20 0.28 0.70 0.23 0.08 0.14 0.10 0.65 b28 0.22 0.33 0.18 0.24 0.00 0.05 0.25 b17 0.13 0.11 0.71 0.15 0.14 0.06 0.58 b13 0.26 0.19 0.54 0.09 0.09 0.19 0.45 b18 0.27 0.15 0.54 0.23 0.17 0.08 0.48 b25 0.20 0.19 0.52 0.04 0.46 0.22 0.60 b19 0.33 0.20 0.52 0.05 0.30 0.24 0.57 b16 0.16 0.17 0.47 0.02 0.20 0.25 0.38 b24 0.23 0.29 0.41 0.19 0.30 0.09 0.45 b2 0.19 0.10 0.05 0.69 0.02 0.06 0.53 b1 0.12 0.15 0.10 0.69 0.04 0.00 0.52 b3 0.13 0.11 0.11 0.54 0.08 0.22 0.39 b5 0.33 0.10 0.10 0.46 0.17 0.07 0.38 b4 0.31 0.06 0.09 0.45 0.13 0.23 0.38 b26 0.20 0.28 0.35 0.14 0.83 0.12 0.92 b27 0.20 0.19 0.30 0.19 0.81 0.16 0.89 b15 0.27 0.15 0.30 0.21 0.16 0.73 0.78 b14 0.20 0.07 0.09 0.24 0.16 0.72 0.72 table 2 intercorrelation matrix of the six hrm factors factors factors 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 1.00 2 0.56 (0.000) 1.00 3 0.62 (0.000) 0.52 (0.000) 1.00 4 0.56 (0.000) 0.40 (0.000) 0.42 (0.000) 1.00 5 0.49 (0.000) 0.43 (0.000) 0.68 (0.000) 0.39 (0.000) 1.00 6 0.51 (0.000) 0.35 (0.000) 0.59 (0.000) 0.45 (0.000) 0.47 (0.000) 1.00 (p values in brackets) van der westhuizen, van vuuren, visser6 most of the factors correlated relatively strongly with one another, which indicated the possibility that a second order factor analysis would yield one factor only. since the purpose of the study was to measure the extent to which hr practitioners considered hrm to be a profession, such a procedure was considered. however, the questionnaire was designed to measure various traits/characteristics of a profession, and opinions had to be measured against these. the decision was taken to work with multiple factors instead. only two items loaded on factors 5 and 6 respectively, indicating that these t wo factors were not adequately determined. according to the intercorrelation matrix in table 2, factor 5 correlated strongly with factor 3 (r = 0.68) and factor 6 also correlated strongly with factor 3 (r = 0.59). it was therefore decided to combine factors 5 and 6 with factor 3, rather than omitting the four items comprising factors 5 and 6. the intercorrelation matrix consisting of the four revised hr factors is reported in table 3. again it was clear from the substantial intercorrelations that a single factor would emerge as a result of a second order factor analysis. nevertheless, the four obtained factors were utilised, because they corresponded to the characteristics or traits of a profession. table 3 intercorrelation matrix of the four revised hr factors factors formal recognition regulating education association as profession board and training formal association 1.00 recognition as a 0.56 (0.000) 1.00 profession regulating board 0.65 (0.000) 0.53 (0.000) 1.00 education and 0.56 (0.000) 0.40 (0.000) 0.48 (0.000) 1.00 training (p values in brackets) the items comprising each factor were analysed and compared to the characteristics of a typical profession. subsequently the factors were named formal association (factor 1), recognition as a profession (factor 2), regulating board (factor 3) and education and training (factor 4). descriptive statistics of the four factors are reported in table 4. cronbach alpha coefficients were calculated to determine the internal consistency reliabilities of each factor. satisfactory reliability coefficients ranging between 0.77 and 0.90 were obtained. table 4 descriptive statistics of the four hrm factors (n=398) factor m sd number cronbach of items alpha formal association 3.51 0.81 7 0.86 recognition as a profession 3.50 0.93 5 0.84 regulating board 3.16 0.86 11 0.90 education and training 4.05 0.77 5 0.77 total 3.42 0.90 28 0.96 a secondary analysis was conducted to determine whether perceptions regarding hrm as a profession differed between groups defined by specific biographical indicators. in order to conduct this analysis, manova tests were performed. four hotelling t2 tests were conducted to determine whether there were significant differences between (a) gender groups, (b) registered and non-registered psychologists, (c) registered and non-registered psychometrists and (d) employment status, with regards to the four hrm factors as dependent variables. three wilks’ lambda tests were conducted to determine whether there were significant differences between the groups formed on the basis of (a) years experience, (b) organisational size, and (c) age with respect to the four hrm factors. these results are reported in table 5. table 5 summary of results of overall manova tests regarding group differences on the four hrm factors variable hotelling wilks’ f df p effect size observed t2 lambda �2 power 1 0.19 1.90 4 & 393 0.110 0.19 0.57 2 0.00 0.47 4 & 391 0.760 0.00 0.16 3 0.12 1.10 4 & 380 0.360 0.11 0.35 4 0.21 1.93 4 & 365 0.105 0.21 0.58 5 0.80 0.70 12 & 1024 0.800 0.00 0.36 6 0.95 1.38 16 & 1189 0.144 0.14 0.72 7 0.96 1.30 12 & 965 0.210 0.14 0.68 1. gender : male/female 2. registered as psychologist with : yes/no the health professions council of south africa 3. registered as psychometrist with : yes/no the health professions council of south africa 4. employment status : permanent employment/self employed 5. age groups : 0-35/36-45/46-55/�56 6. years experience : 0-10/11-15/16-20/21-25/�26 7. organisational size : 0-250/251-1000/1001-4000/�4001 based on the results of the manova tests, no significant differences were obtained between any of these groups. to further explore these results, the effect sizes and observed power of the manova tests were determined for each test, and these results are also reported in table 5. however, the moderate power of the tests does not allow one to conclude that null hypotheses of no differences are in fact true. cohen (1988) stated that a study should have at least 80% power to be worth conducting. if the power is less than 0.80 statistical tests will not detect differences, unless the expected effect is large. because multivariate tests usually have lower power than univariate tests, it was decided to proceed with oneway anovas to determine whether there were indeed significant differences between the means of the various biographical groups. “multivariate f is often not as powerful as univariate f, and significance can be lost. if this happens, the best one can do is to report the nonsignificant f and offer significant univariate results as a guide to future research” (tabachnick & fidell, 2001, p. 329). the results of the statistically significant univariate anovas are reported in table 6. the observed power was in fact higher than was the case for the multivariate manovas. only statistically significant differences are reported in table 6. there were statistically significant differences between the means of the male and female groups on factor 2 (formal recognition as a profession) (p = 0.028). the male respondents (m = 3.55, sd = 0.93) showed a higher recognition for hrm as a profession than female respondents (m = 3.28, sd = 0.90). there were also differences between the opinions of individuals who had permanent positions within the organisation versus selfemployed consultants. results varied on both factors 3regulating board (p = 0.036), and factor 4-education and training (p = 0.011). respondents in permanent positions perceived hrm to have a more prominent regulating board (m = 3.23, sd = 0.89), than contractors (m = 2.97, sd = 0.77). in hr management as a profession 7 terms of education and training, permanent employees perceived this as a more important part of hrm as a profession (m = 4.13, sd = 0.75) compared to contractors (m = 3.86, sd = 0.77). there was a difference bet ween groups within organisations of different sizes (p = 0.021) in terms of factor 4 (education and training). the mean score was larger for organisations with more employees than for organisations with fewer employees, which indicates that education and training is an important factor of hrm as a profession within larger organisations. a final exploration of the data consisted of analysing the individual items in terms of response endorsement. the purpose of this exercise was to establish which response options per item were selected by the majority of the respondents, and to further understand and position practitioners’ opinions in terms of hrm as a profession. these results would further assist in suggesting ways in which the hrm function could increase its credibility, and thereby its professional status. the item response options were categorised according to low, average and high scores. low scores (1 and 2) represented a negative opinion, whereas high scores (5 and 6) represented a positive opinion. the percentages of respondents that endorsed the categories are reported in table 7. the middle category of the response scale of an attitude questionnaire typically draws the largest proportion of the responses (following an approximately normal distribution), unless the respondents favour or dislike the particular item (strong positive or negative attitude). several of the items in the hrm as profession questionnaire were strongly endorsed at the extreme ends of the response scale. it was decided that if one third (33.33%) of the respondents selected either low (1+2) or high (5+6), this could be regarded as a particularly strong endorsement at one of the scale extremes. chi-square tests were performed on each item to establish whether the extreme proportions (1+2 or 5+6) differed statistically significantly from 0.33. statistically significant results of these tests are also reported in table 7. in terms of positive endorsements, close to half of the sample (49.90%) responded positively in terms of the existence of a body of knowledge and theoretical principles, academic qualifications (49.10%), as well as specific skills and the application thereof (44.60%). finally, 65.50% of the sample responded positively to the overall question on the extent to which hrm may be regarded as a profession. this indicates that more than half of south africa’s hr practitioners consider hrm to be a profession. despite this strong positive response to the classification of hrm as a profession, the following step was to analyse the negative item responses in order to make the necessary recommendations to overcome and improve the obstacles that prevent hrm from achieving professional status. strong negative endorsements included the following: education and training – close to half of the sample indicated that there is limited training that is relevant to knowledge of ethical awareness (48.10%), and limited training that is relevant to knowledge of ethical issues (46.50%). regulating board – close to half of the sample (45.0%) indicated that there is limited exclusion of non-qualified individuals, whereas more than half of the sample (52.0%) were of the opinion that there is limited disciplinary function for members who are found guilty of unprofessional conduct. recognition as a profession – low scores were obtained concerning the perception of hrm as a profession as viewed by other professions (41.40%). the following section will focus on discussing these results in more detail, specifically focusing on the negative item endorsements. the aim will be to make recommendations which the profession could utilise to improve negative perceptions, thereby striving towards improving the perception of hrm as a profession as a whole. van der westhuizen, van vuuren, visser8 table 6 statistically significant oneway analysis of variance tests factors levene’s test between subjects effects effect size observed power levels of the independent variables f p ss ms f p �2 recognition as a profession 0.33 0.568 4.19 4.19 4.87 0.028 0.01 0.60 male (n = 331) m = 3.55 sd = 0.93 female (n=67) m = 3.28 sd = 0.90 regulating board 1.35 0.25 3.36 3.36 4.42 0.036 0.12 0.60 permanent employment (n = 305) m = 3.23 sd = 0.89 self employed (n = 65) m = 2.97 sd = 0.77 education and training 0.38 0.54 3.76 3.76 6.58 0.011 0.18 0.73 permanent employment (n = 305) m = 4.13 sd = 0.75 self employed (n = 65) m = 3.86 sd = 0.77 education and training 0.61 0.612 5.56 1.85 3.27 0.021 0.02 0.75 ��250 (n=104) m = 3.88 sd = 0.75 251-1000 (n = 87) m = 4.13 sd = 0.71 1001-4000 (n = 84) m = 4.08 sd = 0.78 � 4001 (n = 97) m = 4.20 sd = 0.76 discussion the purpose of this study was to investigate possible reasons for the perceived lack of credibility of the hrm function, and to suggest ways to overcome this challenge. one of these suggestions implied the need to advance the professional status of hrm. although the current professional status of hrm could be measured against the perception of various population groups, it was decided to focus on the perception of the south african hr practitioner, with the aim of achieving a more informed opinion. the population consisted of 1969 hr practitioners who are registered at all levels of registration categories with the sabpp. the mail survey data collection method was utilised for the purpose of this study, which entailed distributing a questionnaire to the selected population for completion. the questionnaire consisted of two categories. section a included biographical information of the population, and section b focused on hrm as a profession. section b consisted of 28 items requiring responses on a 6–point scale. based on the trait approach, hrm as a profession was measured against the characteristics of a typical profession. an exploratory factor analysis was performed on the data and a four-factor solution was obtained. using the four factors, formal association (factor 1), recognition as a profession (factor 2), regulating board (factor 3) and education and training (factor 4), an analysis was conducted to determine whether perceptions regarding hrm as a profession differed between groups defined by specific biographical indicators. there were statistically significant differences between the means of the male and female groups in terms of formal recognition as a profession. furthermore, there were differences between the opinions of individuals who had permanent positions within the organisation versus self-employed consultants in terms of regulating board and education and training. finally, there were differences between groups from organisations of different sizes in terms of education and training. the purpose of the individual items in terms of response endorsement was to establish which response options per item were selected by the majority of the respondents, and to understand and position practitioners’ opinions in terms of hrm as a profession. both positive/high and negative/low item endorsements are of interest in gaining more insight into the way hrm is viewed. hr management as a profession 9 table 7 detailed item response analysis item item description score 1 + 2 (low) score 3 + 4 (average) score 5 + 6 (high) ��2 p factor 1: formal association b8 professional socialisation 20.40% 65.70% 13.80% b10 feeling of occupational pride 16.50% 58.10% 25.40% b9 shared values & norms 16.90% 61.60% 21.50% b11 power & status due to membership 26.50% 60.30% 13.20% b7 professional group solidarity & cohesion 21.90% 63.50% 14.60% b6 commitment & responsibility of members 10.20% 59.0% 30.70% b12 exclusive rights to categories of knowledge and techniques 23.20% 61.40% 15.40% factor 2: recognition as profession b23 general respect for the profession & it’s members 23.10% 64.90% 12.0% b22 perception amongst the general public that hr is a profession 26.70% 56.90% 16.40% b21 perception amongst other divisions/line managers that 30.60% 52.80% 16.60% hr is a profession b20 perception amongst other professions that hr is a profession 41.40%* 47.40% 11.20% 9.19 0.002 b28 the extent to which hr can be regarded as a profession 5.0% 29.40% 65.60%* 195.64 0.000 factor 3: regulating board b17 adequate controlling & licensing authority for the 19.50% 47.70% 32.80% profession (sabpp) b13 regulation of admission requirements & selection of members 23.60% 57.70% 18.80% b18 adequate professional association (ipm) 23.60% 48.80% 27.60% b25 disciplinary function for members who are found guilty 52.0%* 35.20% 12.80% 61.12 0.000 of unprofessional conduct b19 protection for the recipients of hr services 35.50% 54.20% 10.30% b16 exclusion of non-qualified individuals 45.0%* 45.20% 9.80% 21.41 0.000 b24 relevant & useful professional code of ethics 20.10% 53.60% 26.30% b26 training which is relevant to knowledge of ethical awareness 48.10%* 42.70% 9.20% 36.12 0.000 b27 training which is relevant to knowledge of ethical issues 46.50%* 44.10% 9.40% 27.72 0.000 b15 control over quality of tuition/training 30.40% 58.80% 10.80% b14 control over curriculum content 26.60% 59.20% 14.20% factor 4: education and training b2 specific skills and application thereof 2.80% 52.70% 44.60%* 20.44 0.000 b1 body of knowledge – theoretical principles 4.10% 46.0% 49.90%* 45.62 0.000 b3 academic tuition/formal qualification 7.0% 43.90% 49.10%* 40.05 0.000 b5 research basis 14.40% 57.0% 28.60% b4 training 21.50% 59.10% 19.40% * extreme proportion significantly larger than 0.33 in terms of the results, it is clear that hr practitioners do consider hrm to be a profession. a high score was obtained from more than half of the sample (65.5%) on the overall item of hrm as a profession. this indicates that hrm has indeed come a long way in its attempt to achieve professional status. practitioners were also positive about the education and training criteria of the field. these endorsements indicated that there is a body of knowledge that stipulates the specific skills and academic tuition/formal qualifications required in order to enter the hrm field, as well as the application thereof. in addition to these positive item endorsements, it is further essential to focus on the negative item endorsements, as it is these items that impact on the credibility of hrm, and ultimately the professional status of the function as a whole. the two factors that had the lowest item endorsements were recognition as a profession and regulating board. recommendations to improve the perceptions in terms of these two factors will be discussed individually. recognition as a profession every profession strives to persuade the community to sanction its authority within certain spheres by introducing a series of powers and privileges. the society in which the profession operates and the clientele that it serves, should recognise the social role, status and behavioural norms of the profession. in terms of recognising hrm as a profession, statistically significant low scores were obtained concerning the perception of hrm as a profession as viewed by other professions. in support of this finding, 30.06% of the sample indicated that other divisions and line managers held negative perceptions of the professional status of hrm. based on the perceptions of other professions, other divisions and line managers, it is apparent that the underlying question remains as to whether hrm is considered a value adding and essential function within the organisation. if hrm fails to add value to the business or impedes organisational performance, organisations might consider doing away with it, hence the need to improve its recognition as a true profession. the question then arises as to how hrm can create value and deliver tangible results in the ever-changing business world? within the dynamic business environment, hrm faces the challenge of transforming itself from the “service and support” paradigm of the past, to becoming a professional, specialist and valued partner with line management. this entails a transformation of the hrm function, which as previously discussed, includes the following: � new roles and strategic focus areas for hrm; � a shift from hrm activities to hrm deliverables; � new areas of competence; � new ways of positioning and articulating the role and value created by hrm in business language; and � new ways of measuring success (business measures versus hrm indicators). in order to achieve these goals, the hrm function needs to strategically re-position itself through understanding the evolution of hrm. this transition has evolved from a typical personnel function with a focus on salary and benefits administration, to head office centred hrm that included a rise of specialised functions e.g. training, recruitment etc. during this stage, hrm policies were outputs determined and controlled by an hrm head office. thereafter, hrm made a transition into the consulting arena, where decentralised hr generalists mainly focussed on transactional, day-to-day hrm activities. currently hrm involves becoming a business partner, where it plays an integral role in defining business strategy. as suggested by ulrich (1998), hrm should be structured around the achievement of business goals and policies, and deliverables should be flexible and determined by the organisational or divisional strategy. what this transformation means for the business, is that the hrm function will focus on becoming proactive, future focused versus a traditional day to day support role, more focussed on value creation via strategic business partners and on delivering an efficient transactional hrm service. the rationale for achieving improved credibility and professional status through the business partner approach, is as follows: � the business partner model creates a robust hrm structure that can be flexible enough to change along with the organisation e.g. through future mergers, and structural changes; � it provides control of hrm services to the business; � it eliminates duplication – cuts the cost of service provision; � it creates a simple operating system; and � it allows flexibility to respond to the changing needs of the business within hrm project teams. in striving towards utilising the above model as a possible solution to overcoming the lack of recognising hrm as a profession, hr practitioners have some tough decisions to make given the many roles that the function fulfils. according to lawler (1998, p. 73) the hr practitioner has to realise that “what’s good for the business isn’t always good for employees, and vice versa”. this leads to the biggest role conflict for hrm, being the attempt to try and be both business partner and employee advocate. this dichotomy has surfaced some difficult situations for hr practitioners in terms of clashes between employee-related issues and ethical problems. unfortunately, managers do not always appreciate the difficulty that hr practitioners face in trying to serve both the organisation and employee interests. this is evident from the low scores obtained in terms of line management and other division’s perception of hrm as a profession. lawler (1998, p. 75) further states that if hr practitioners are truly going to become business partners, they have to partially abandon the employee advocate role in order to first gain credibility as a business partner. once credibility as a business partner has been established, hrm can revert to the employee advocacy role in addition to its strategic role, as it is very difficult to be seen as a business partner, whilst having the employee advocate role as the only raison d’etre. the business partnership model presents hrm as a supplier of necessary expertise that assists the core business to be successful. as such, hrm continuously provides answers to real business problems thereby maintaining a reason to exist within the organisation. hrm and other staff support departments that are committed to having an impact on the core business, can establish themselves as market-valued departments that are indispensable to the success of any organisation. should these objectives be achieved, the hrm function has indeed gone a long way to increase its credibility, thereby ensuring the first step in the journey towards improving its recognition as a profession. regulating board the regulating board or formal professional association of a profession, has an important role to fulfil, namely to set ethical standards, establish a code of behaviour and provide continuous education programmes and publications for its members or alumni. regardless of the objectives, mission, and code of conduct of the sabpp, and the fact that the sabpp governs most aspects of what the literat ure describes as professional behaviour, negative perceptions around the regulating board do exist amongst hr practitioners. statistically significant low scores were obtained from close to half of the sample indicating that there is limited exclusion of non-qualified individuals, as well as the opinion that there is no disciplinary function for members who are found guilty of unprofessional conduct. the following aspects should therefore be considered as contributing factors to creating negative perceptions: � registration is optional/voluntary; � the sabpp is not a statutory entity that can, based on government regulation, find members guilty of misconduct and can therefore not assign disciplinary actions accordingly; van der westhuizen, van vuuren, visser10 � not all employees that perform hrm functions within the organisation are members of the sabpp; and � it appears that the sabpp does not have as much power and prestige as other traditional professions’ representative bodies. it is clear that it becomes a challenging task to address these factors. one could further question as to whom ultimately becomes responsible for taking on this challenge, the organisation, the sabpp, or both? on the side of the sabpp, one alternative would be to initiate steps towards formal legislation whereby only registered practitioners are recognised and considered as credible and professional members of an hrm team. this could possibly assist in overcoming the lack of credibility in the long run, however, it does not address the current state of affairs. this poses a major challenge, especially if current hr practitioners do perform and add value. organisations could nevertheless play a role by motivating staff to register through introducing incentives, e.g. increased remuneration, insisting on registration as a prerequisite for future promotions, etc. a further suggestion would be for organisations to make registration to the sabpp a pre-requisite for applying for any hrm related positions. organisations could further assist by instilling the honour and privilege of registration amongst hr practitioners, whereby registration is not considered a compulsory and bureaucratic approach, but rather a value to the organisation as a whole. over and above the role that the sabpp and organisations play in improving negative perceptions concerning limited exclusion of non-qualified individuals and the non-existence of a disciplinary function for members who are found guilty of unprofessional conduct, training institutions could also play a significant role. the main role would be one of education and awareness creation amongst current and future hr practitioners concerning the sabpp, it’s mission, objectives, benefits, registration criteria etc., thereby encouraging registration and membership of the board. in addition, training institutions could encourage participation in professional activities by establishing, in conjunction with the sabpp, student forums or syndicate groups which will in turn increase awareness on latest trends and developments. training institutions should further aim to structure curricula and activities in alignment with sabpp requirements. this will not only create greater awareness and motivate practitioners to register, but will also emphasise the importance of adhering to the professional conduct. finally, taking into account the characteristics of a typical profession, there should be a defined body of knowledge typical to the profession that can be acquired through a system of professional education and training. the necessary level of professional expertise is attained after a certain number of years of practical experience, preferably under the guidance of senior members of the profession. professions also possess esoteric albeit useful knowledge and skills, based on specialised training or education of exceptional duration and difficulty. statistically significant low scores were obtained from close to half of the sample indicating that there is limited education and training in terms of ethical awareness and ethical issues. it must be emphasised that the sabpp, organisations and training institutions have a role to play in improving education and training in order to create greater awareness concerning ethical issues of the hrm profession. it should continuously be emphasised that a code of ethics is a set of moral guidelines designed to protect the professional, the profession and the public served by the group. professionals abide by a code of ethics that includes practice standards in the delivery of services to clients, in relation to competitors and the public. the code of ethics defines what is proper and improper behaviour and forms the embodiment of the moral standards of a professional service. these and other benefits of a code of ethics as discussed previously, should be conveyed through creative and innovative ideas in order to improve the general awareness of ethical issues concerning the hrm profession. in conclusion, it is evident from the research results that hr practitioners do indeed consider hrm to be a profession. however, there are still some negative perceptions that need to be addressed based on the above recommendations. the assumption is made that once these negative perceptions are addressed and overcome, hr practitioners will have more confidence in their field. this might have a positive impact on the perception of hrm as a whole. further studies could be conducted to determine the perception of other professions, the public and other divisions/line managers in terms of hrm as a profession. such studies should elicit even further suggestions and recommendations to improve the positioning of hrm in the modern organisation. references alreck, p.l. & settle, r.b. (1995). the sur vey research handbook. chicago: irwin. altbach, p.g. (1995). problems and possibilities – the u.s. academic profession. studies in higher education, 20 (1), 2744. altbach, p.g. & finkelstein, m.j. (1997). the academic profession. new york: garland. barcus, s.w. & wilkinson, j.w. (1986). handbook of management consulting ser vices. new york: mcgraw-hill. beer, m. (1997). the transformation of the hr function: resolving the tension between a traditional administrative and a new strategic role. human resource management, 36 (1), 49-56. brockbank, w. (1997). hr’s future on the way to a presence. human resource management, 36 (1), 65-70. brown, d. & srebalus, d.j. (1996). introduction to the counselling profession (2nd ed.). boston: allyn and bacon. carr-saunders, a.m. (1928). professions: their organisation and place in society. oxford: clarendon. cascio, w.f. (1998). applied psychology in human resource management (5th ed.). englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum. connolly, t.r., mardis, w. & down, j.w. (1997). transforming human resources. management review, 6 (1), 11-16. davis, m. (1998). thinking like an engineer. new york: oxford. dutton, j.e., frost, p.j., worline, m.c., lilius, j.m. & kanov, j.m. (2002). leading in times of trauma. har vard business review, january, 54-61. gallessich, j. (1982). the profession and practice of consultation. california: jossey-bass. greenwood, e. (1957). attributes of a profession. social work, 2 (1), 44-45. hall, d.t. & goodale, j.g. (1986). human resource management: strategy, design and implementation. glenview, il: scottforesman. henry, w.e., sims, j.h. & spray, s.l. (1971). the fifth profession. san francisco: jossey-bass. hughes, e.c. (1988). professions. in j.c. callahan (ed.). ethical issues in professional life. new york: oxford. inkeles, a. (1964). what is sociology? an introduction to the discipline and profession. new jersey: prentice-hall. johnson, t. (1972). professions and power. london: macmillan. knicely, h.v. (1997). the future of human resources: superhuman resource leadership in the twenty-first century. human resource management, 36 (1), 111-118. kochan, t.a. (1997). re-balancing the role of human resources. human resource management, 36 (1), 121-127. kreitner, r. & kinicki, a. (1992). organisational behaviour (2nd ed.). homewood, il: irwin. hr management as a profession 11 kubr, m. (1996). management consulting: a guide to the profession (3rd ed.). geneva: ilo. larson, m.s. (1977). the rise of professionalism: a sociological analysis. berkeley: university of california press. lawler, e.e. (1998). today’s hr role: various and dichotomous. workforce, 77 (5), 62-74. losey, m. (1997). the future hr professional: competency buttressed by advocacy and ethics. human resource management, 36 (1), 147-150. louw, j. (1990). professionalizing psychology. pretoria: gutenberg. macdonald, k. & ritzer, g. (1988). the sociology of the professions: dead or alive? work and occupations, 15 (8), 251-272. mckee, d. (1997). the human resource profession: insurrection or resurrection? human resource management, 36 (1),151-156. miller, d.s. & catt, s.e. (1989). human relations: a contemporary approach. homewood, il: irwin. mohrman, s.a. & lawler, e.e. (1997). transforming the human resource function. human resource management, 36 (1), 157162. moore, w.e. (1970). the professions: roles and rules. new york: russell sage. rueschemeyer, d. (1964). doctors and lawyers: a comment on the theory of the professions. canadian review of sociology and anthropology, 1, 17-30. singer, m.g. (1990). human resource management. boston: pwskent. sokoloff, n.j. (1992). black women and white woman in the professions. new york: routledge. sabpp (2002). introduction, objectives and activities. http://www.sabpp.co.za/intro.htm. south african board for personnel practice. (25 may 2002 – 10:15 am.). sabpp (2002). code of professional conduct. hyperlink http://www.sabpp.co.za/code.htm. south african board for personnel practice (25 may 2002 – 10:45 am.). sabpp (2002). personal professional commitment. http://www.sabpp.co.za/commitment.htm. south african board for personnel practice (25 may 2002 – 11:25 am.). sgb: hrmp (2000). an approach to the generation of unit standards. ht t p://www.hrsgb.org.za/procedure_stella_carthy.html. standards generating body: human resource management and practices (3 june 2002 – 09:15am.). tabachnick, b.g. & fidell, l.s. (2001). using multivariate statistics (4th ed.). northridge: harper collins. ulrich, d., losey, m.r. & lake, g. (1997). tomorrow’s hr management. new york: wiley. ulrich, d. (1997). human resource champions. boston massachusetts: harvard business school. ulrich, d. (1998). delivering results: a new mandate for human resource professionals. boston: harvard business school. van vuuren, l.j. (2001). die menslike hulpbronbestuurspraktisyn as fasiliteerder van etiese gedrag in organisasies. unpublished doctoral thesis. johannesburg: rau. van der westhuizen, van vuuren, visser12 article information authors: marius pretorius1 ingrid le roux1 affiliations: 1department of business management, university of pretoria, south africa correspondence to: marius pretorius email: marius.pretorius@up.ac.za postal address: department of business management, university of pretoria 0002, south africa dates: received: 17 july 2009 accepted: 11 may 2011 published: 14 oct. 2011 how to cite this article: pretorius, m., & le roux, i. (2011). successive failure, repeat entrepreneurship and no learning: a case study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #236, 13 pages. doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.236 copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) successive failure, repeat entrepreneurship and no learning: a case study in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study    • trends from the research literature    • research objectives and questions    • the potential value-add of the study    • causes and preconditions underlying failure    • preconditions for failure    • reflecting on failure and learning from the experience    • grief and learning from the failure experience • research design    • research approach       • key scientific beliefs       • ontological positions       • epistemological positions       • case study as a research strategy    • research method       • research setting       • case background and setting – in the language of the entrepreneur       • entrée and establishing researcher roles       • sampling       • data collection methods       • data analysis       • strategies employed to ensure quality data       • reporting the findings • findings    • findings linked to proposition 1: the preconditions and causes of successive failures were the same    • findings linked to proposition 2: failure in one venture triggers the entrepreneurial process leading to starting the next venture       • identifying opportunity       • evaluating opportunity       • exploiting opportunity    • findings linked to proposition 3: if the same causes occur in consecutive failures, the entrepreneur did not learn • discussion    • limitations and future research • acknowledgements • references abstract (back to top) orientation: current theories of repeat entrepreneurship provide little explanation for the effect of failure as a ‘trigger’ for creating successive ventures or learning from repeated failures. research purpose: this study attempts to establish the role of previous failures on the ventures that follow them and to determine the process of learning from successive failures. motivation for the study: successive failures offer potentially valuable insights into the relationship between failures on the ventures that follow and the process of learning from failure. research design, approach and method: the researchers investigated a single case study of one entrepreneur’s successive failures over 20 years. main findings: although the causes varied, all the failures had fundamental similarities. this suggested that the entrepreneur had not learnt from them. the previous failures did not trigger the subsequent ventures. instead, they played a role in causing the failures. learning from failure does not happen immediately but requires deliberate reflection. deliberate reflection is a prerequisite for learning from failure as the entrepreneur repeated similar mistakes time after time until he reflected on each failure. practical/managerial implications: it confirms that failure is a part of entrepreneurial endeavours. however, learning from it requires deliberate reflection. failure does not ‘trigger’ the next venture and educators should note this. contribution/value-add: knowing the effect of failure on consecutive ventures may help us to understand the development of prototypes (mental frameworks) and expand the theory about entrepreneurial prototype categories. introduction (back to top) key focus of the study this study attempts to answer three questions. these are: • do failures trigger new start-ups? • do consecutive failures by the same entrepreneur have the same causes and preconditions? • if so, what was the role of learning from failure if the entrepreneur repeatedly made the same mistakes? background to the study failure is part of business but many see that it negatively affects people and firms. many reasons for failure have been suggested. they include diminishing resources, poor leadership, strategic and operational issues. what is undeniable is that failure is complex (pretorius, 2009) and many variables that determine how it occurs influence it. generally, most people suggest that failure is good – as long as one learns from the mistakes. trends from the research literature the causes of failure are largely a matter of definition. fredland and morris, as early as 1976, stated that one cannot isolate the ‘causes’ of failure. indeed, they say, any attempt to do so is a futile exercise that boils down to ascribing blame and nothing else. however, charitou, neophytou and charalambous (2004) contend that the factors leading to business failure vary but one can identify them. the researchers designed the present study to explore the effect of successive failures on the ventures that follow them and to determine whether those who experience the failures learn from their experiences. they investigated a situation where one entrepreneur experienced several failures and looked for similarities and differences between the failed ventures. research objectives and questions the literature does not make it clear whether failure can trigger new entrepreneurial processes or whether failure is the result of pursuing new ventures. the latter suggests repeat entrepreneurship. if failure leads to exploiting new opportunities, we would benefit if we understood the process it follows. learning from failure can add to what we know about entrepreneurial learning (huovinen & tihula, 2007). alternatively, if exploiting new opportunities causes failure, then understanding how it happens can help to prevent failure. in addition, it is not clear how one learns from failure and whether it requires some specific mechanism, like deliberate reflection, to do so. the research question of this study follows. what are the relationships between successive failures, the preconditions for failure, the causes of failure, the entrepreneurial process and learning from failure? therefore, the research objectives are: • to describe the relationships between the preconditions for failure, its causes, the entrepreneurial process and learning from failure • to describe the process and prerequisites for learning from failure. the potential value-add of the study it is important to investigate learning from failure to find out whether it can trigger new opportunity exploitation. do repeat entrepreneurs use previous failures as triggers for new opportunity exploitation? what do they learn from their failures that they take to the next venture? knowing the effect of failure on subsequent ventures may help us to understand the development of prototypes (mental frameworks) and expand the theory of entrepreneurial prototype categories by adding a failure prototype to those of novice, experienced and repeat entrepreneurs. explaining the relationship between successive failures and learning from failure also has important practical value for training entrepreneurs. sensitising prospective entrepreneurs and learners about these relationships can be critical for their own endeavours. the article starts by describing the core causes and preconditions of failure briefly because of the underlying determinism of the failure event. secondly, it explains the process of entrepreneurial learning and emphasises the role of reflection in learning from the failed ventures. thirdly, it explains the research design. fourthly, the study describes a case of successive failures and an analysis of the case, the entrepreneur’s experiences and his responses to each. thereafter, the researchers discuss the findings whilst looking for substantiation and insights from the literature. finally, the researchers draw conclusions about: • the role of failure on subsequent ventures • what one needs to learn from failure to make the learning meaningful. causes and preconditions underlying failure it is doubtful whether there is a single cause for the failure of a venture. however, there is a combination of factors. an example is the ‘liability of newness’. this is when a venture is undercapitalised initially, has an ineffective team, an unclear business definition, as well as selling and distribution problems. whilst the literature suggests causes, they vary depending on the researcher’s focus. longenecker, simonetti and sharkey (1999, p. 503) state that there are four main schools of thought about the causes of failure. the first school of thought is that failure at the top (like poor leadership in vision, strategy, positioning and making decisions) is the cause of failure. this school believes that failure originates from human factors, mainly associated with leadership. the second school believes that customer and marketing failures (like an inability to understand customer needs, markets, competition, ineffective strategies and expansions) are the cause. this school believes failure originates from internal factors, mainly the inability of managers to respond to external changes. the third school feels that failures in financial management (like the lack of working capital, excessive debt, cash-flow problems, eroded profit margins and excessive overheads) cause failure. this school believes failure has financial causes, mainly through incorrect financing and financial management. the last school holds that system and structural failures (like internal operating issues including technology problems, ineffective management information systems and ineffective operating processes) cause ventures to fail. this school believes failure originates from both internal and structural causes. human causes that relate to leadership, management, individual skills and behaviour (which includes attitude, beliefs and motives) are important contributors to entrepreneurial intention (urban, van vuuren & owen, 2008, p. 3). they are particularly interesting to this study. lorange and nelson (1987, p. 42) introduce specific categories of the causes of failure. these are: • decline, entrapment and self-deception • hierarchy orientation • cultural rigidity • a desire for acceptance and conformity • too much consensus and compromise. their perspective focuses on the leadership and management of large businesses. in a comparative study of decliners and non-decliners, d’aveni (1989) defines ‘organisational decline’ as a pattern of decrease over time in a firm’s internal resources, which an index of internal resource munificence measures. the index combines two main aspects of decline. these are declining human (managerial) and monetary resources. he reports four important findings about the timing and nature of the strategic and managerial consequences of organisational decline. the consequences of decline include managerial imbalances, inefficient actions, the effects of centralisation and strategic paralysis. however, firms may delay or even avoid bankruptcy if their environments are sufficiently buoyant to support deficiencies in resources. d’aveni (1989, p. 581) concludes that managerial and strategic problems cause decline, whilst decline causes managerial and strategic problems in a ‘vicious circle pattern’. he describes this as ‘strategic paralysis’ that prevents the firm from finding and pursuing new directions. he suggests that managerial imbalances are a cause of this paralysis. failure is not an event that happens in a vacuum. weitzel and jonsson (1991) see failure as a downward spiral of decline. they report five stages associated with decline and describe problems that are harder to reverse if the venture slides further towards failure. briefly, they describe the stages as the blinded, inaction, faulty action, implementation crises and, finally, the dissolution stage. they identify the inability of leaders to recognise change or to react properly and in time to reverse decline as crucial. boyle and desai (1991) support this with a list of the causes of failure in small firms. they suggest four categories based on the environmental (internal or external) origin of the failure and on whether it is administrative or strategic in nature. it seems that, contrary to conventional wisdom, most businesses fail because of internal factors that managerial action (or inaction) and discipline affect. theng and boon (1996) confirm that endogenous factors are significantly more important than exogenous factors when one ranks the causes of failure. the structural causes associated with decline are diverse. they include increased centralisation, lack of long-term planning, curtailed innovation, loss of competent staff, loss of resources, fragmented pluralism (special-interest groups that become more vocal) and non-prioritised cutbacks (cameron, whetten & kim, 1987). other elements in this category include age, size and life cycle stage of the venture. from the resource-based view, thornhill and amit (2003) suggest that young firms are more likely to suffer from resource and capability deficiencies than older firms are. this is the essence of the ‘liability of newness’ (shepherd, 2005; zacharakis, meyer & de castro, 1999). ‘liability of newness’ has a lot to do with firms seeking legitimacy with their suppliers, clients, creditors and other organisations in the industry. this legitimacy increases as firms learn to cope with the challenges of the industry. this liability of newness is dissimilar, although closely related, to the ‘liability of smallness’. this refers to size that may prevent firms from competing in an industry. kale and arditi (1998) connect the liability of smallness with the firms’ inability to create processes like learning and inventing roles as well as developing trust and cooperation between members in the organisations. ‘newness’ therefore implies a lack of organisational learning and legitimacy coupled with smallness. it appears to be the primary factor underlying the high probability of failure. however, newly established firms have initial stocks of assets, goodwill, trust and financial resources that provide buffers for the initial period of establishing relations with clients, creditors and other organisations to channel resources to them (kale & arditi, 1998). the initial resources and endowments reduce the risk of failure even if performance is not entirely satisfactory. after this period, when the buffers are depleted, the ‘liability of adolescence’ faces firms (henderson, 1999, p. 281). the probability of failure during this period rises sharply. henderson (1999) confirms the existence of the ‘liability of newness’ (where selection favours older and more reliable firms with social legitimacy) and suggests a liability of obsolescence (where firms become highly inert and their ‘founding imprints’ become increasingly more misaligned with their changing environments). he adds the liability of adolescence (firms that have used their founding assets but that have not yet accumulated sufficient skills and expertise). henderson (1999) suggests that, contrary to general thinking, failure rates increase in adolescent firms as the effect of their original resource endowments decreases. however, the associated failure rates differ depending on the long-term strategies firms choose. entrepreneurial failure, start-up failure and different liabilities confirm that life-cycle stages do moderate the signs and causes of failure. these liabilities, one can argue, each describe a set of configurations that exist for the causal factors of decline and failure. in the same way the cause configurations vary with age (young vs. old), size (small vs. big) and life-cycle stage (infant, growth, mature or decline) (pretorius, 2010). each set of configurations is associated with a different level of risk for the venture. preconditions for failure therefore, decline does not stem from a single factor. it results from an ‘accumulation of decisions, actions, and commitments that become entangled in self-perpetuating workplace dynamics’ (moss kanter, 2003, p. 61). a ‘precondition’ is a ‘condition (or set of configurations) that must exist or be established before something can occur’. therefore, it is a prerequisite (pretorius, 2008, p. 414). francis and desai (2005) call it a contextual factor. there must be some preconditions for decline or failure. richardson, nwankwo and richardson (1994) describe a range of environmental configurations that lead to different types of business failure crises. they use four frog analogies as metaphors to describe the specific preconditions that would lead to each type of failure. they also differentiate between how these would appear for small and large ventures. each metaphor describes a configuration that would require a different intervention to change each business into a financial performer. in their metaphors, they also equate organisations to leader type, personality and style to explain the configurations. to richardson et al. (1994), arrogance and success seem to lie at the heart of much of business failure. however, whereas the ‘boiled frog’ managers may be arrogant because of their long-standing position as major marketplace participants, the ‘drowned frog’ managers may be arrogant because they believe that they can reproduce their often-remarkable early success time after time despite the new and increasingly different and bigger contexts in which they look for success. the ‘bullfrogs’ show arrogance of a different kind. they think they are untouchable and indestructible and do not acknowledge the wrong actions that hurt their businesses financially. finally, ‘tadpoles’ are entrepreneurs who are experiencing start-up failures. bollen, merthens, meuwissen, van roak and schelleman (2005) use similar metaphors as a classification system for evaluating failures in european firms. they refer to unhealthy firms as ‘tadpoles’ and to firms that are over-ambitious and show extreme growth as ‘drowned frogs’. ‘boiled frogs’ are firms that are unable to adapt to environmental change, whilst ‘bullfrogs’ are managers involved in unethical and fraudulent behaviour. they conclude that no single factor dominates when explaining most business failures. the frog metaphors are helpful. however, they focus strongly on the leadership of the decision-makers (supporting the human factor perspective). however, they are not conclusive as determinants of the preconditions. other authors (like stead & smallman, 1999) describe alternative configurations of variables that may determine the specific preconditions. understanding venture failure requires one to consider four issues (sheppard & chowdhury, 2005, p. 240). the first is that failure is not typically the imperfection of the environment (external preconditions) or of the ventures (internal preconditions). one should rather attribute it to the interaction of both forces. to be more exact, failure is the misalignment of organisations with the realities of their environments. secondly, because failure involves aligning (or misaligning) ventures with their environment, it is, by definition, about strategy. thirdly, because failure deals with strategy, we can make choices to accelerate it or avoid falling into its clutches. lastly, because organisations can avoid failure even after a decline – rapid or prolonged – the ultimate failure of organisations really stems from failures to effect turnarounds successfully. therefore, it is critical to our understanding of organisational decline and failure to recognise that three linked factors – the firms’ leadership (or management), their environment and the way firms interact with their environment – contribute to the specific configuration of variables that face them at a particular time. preconditions are like ‘snapshots’ of circumstances during decline or failure and many underlying factors govern them. this study attempts to identify the factors that are associated with the successive failures of one entrepreneur and the entrepreneurial learning associated with an irregular event like failure. reflecting on failure and learning from the experience henry ford went bankrupt five times before becoming successful in the car industry. he had this to say about failure: ‘i strongly believe that there is often more to be learned from failure than there is from success if we but take the time to do so‘. research suggests that much of the ‘learning within the entrepreneurial context is experiential in nature’ (politis, 2005, p. 399). cope (2003) reinforces the belief that entrepreneurial learning is experiential by quoting others who argue that entrepreneurs are action-orientated. therefore, they learn from experience through activities like trial and error, explicit problem solving and discovery. according to kolb (1984, p. 41), experiential learning is the ‘process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience’. therefore, entrepreneurial knowledge can result from grasping an experience and transforming it (politis, 2005). she further suggests that, in the process of transforming experience, entrepreneurs may use two possible strategies: exploitation and exploration. ‘exploitation’ refers to using pre-existing knowledge, whereas ‘exploration’ suggests choosing new actions that are different from those one has already taken. according to politis (2005, p. 408), ‘neither of these methods of transforming experience is necessarily better than the other’. she quotes march, who argues that both ways of transforming experience into knowledge are essential for sustaining learning. however, entrepreneurs’ experiences may originate from prior successes and failures. many successful entrepreneurs credit their learning from past failures as an important aspect of their experience base (politis, 2005). the literature mentions a number of causes of failure. perhaps the most common is insufficient experience. it appears that entrepreneurs with more experience process their knowledge to perform the roles and tasks necessary for success more effectively and that the ‘feedback obtained from the experience’ (shepherd, 2003, p. 318) increases their knowledge. according to politis (2005, p. 411), failures that are most effective at fostering learning are ‘intelligent failures’. these are failures that ‘provide a basis for altering future behaviour through new information from which to learn’. politis (2005) also quotes sitkin, who suggests that a prerequisite for seeing a failure as intelligent is that the outcome of action must be uncertain (not highly predictable) in order to provide new information from which to learn. negative emotions usually accompany failure. shepherd (2003, p. 318) quotes organisational learning theorists like lant, milliken and batra. they postulate that negative emotions stimulate search processes, learning and adaptation. for the self-employed, learning from business failure occurs when they can use the information they have about why the business failed (feedback information) in order to revise their existing knowledge of how to manage the business effectively. according to cope (2003, p. 431), this learning will help to ‘revise assumptions about the consequences of previous assessment decisions, action and inaction’. he also quotes others who emphasise that some kind of crisis (like failure) is a prerequisite for a fundamental form of learning and for re-adaptation to happen so that learning can challenge or redefine the entrepreneur’s mental models or frames of reference. in essence, a mental model simplifies entrepreneurs’ views of the world. these views include their knowledge, beliefs and experiences as well as their implicit and explicit understanding. krueger (2007) states that deep beliefs determine and moderate the mental structures that drive the intentions and actions of entrepreneurs. reflection on these deep beliefs leads to a better understanding and, therefore, improved learning. one can divide learning into planned and unplanned learning. much entrepreneurial learning is unplanned and experiential. the key to this type of learning is reflection, which turns experience into learning (boud, keogh & walker, 1985; bourner, 2003). developing the capacity of entrepreneurs and business owners for reflective learning is part of developing their capacity to learn how to learn. bourner (2003, p. 268) points out that ‘reflective learning plays a key role’ in kolb’s idea of the experiential learning cycle and in schon’s theory of the reflective practitioner (bourner, france & atkinson, 2000). reflective thinking shares a two-stage structure with critical thinking. this brings ‘the experience into conscious awareness and asking/responding to searching questions’ (bourner, 2003, p. 271). although the content of reflective learning may be subjective, the process is not. this is partly because the core of the reflective learning process is a searching interrogative experience because of the new knowledge that results from the process and the action one takes in response to the knowledge. grief and learning from the failure experience there are two views about learning from negative emotions like those associated with failure. on the one hand, barker and moné (1998) suggest that organisational decline inhibits cognitive processes, restricts decision-making and limits the number of options available. this inhibits organisational change and/or adaptation and results in threat-rigidity theory. shepherd (2003, p. 318), on the other hand, postulates that ‘negative emotions stimulate search processes, learning, and adaptation’. shepherd (2003, p. 319) used the literature on grief and emotions to explore and gain a deeper understanding of the ability of the self-employed to learn from business failure. he describes the ‘process of grief recovery’ to explain that people learn by using the outcomes of action (feedback) to revise their belief systems. for the self-employed, learning from business failure occurs when they can use the available information about why the business failed (feedback information) in order to revise their knowledge about how to manage the business effectively. this learning will help to revise assumptions about the consequences of previous decisions, action and inaction. there seems to be an emotional relationship between entrepreneurs and their businesses. the loss of a business is likely to generate a negative emotion – grief. people experience grief on the death of loved ones, when close relationships end because of separation or when they have to give up some aspect of life they think is important. these ‘negative emotions’, according to shepherd (2003, p. 324), reduce a person’s ability to learn from the events. shepherd proposes a dual process of recovering from grief. it involves oscillating between two processes: a loss orientation and a restoration orientation. ‘loss orientation’ involves a confrontation and asking questions to understand the reasons for the outcome better. those who suffer a loss may talk to friends, family and perhaps a psychologist, work through the grief process and come to terms with their loss. however, it is also important to move on to a ‘restoration orientation’ and to search proactively for a new opportunity. for self-employed people, founding a new business might accelerate recovery from grief. however, learning from their mistakes will be possible only if they have already been through a loss-orientation process. without that first step, they might repeat mistakes because they have not ‘sufficiently reflected on the loss’ (shepherd, 2003, p. 322) and may mean they do not learn from failure. the research in this study focuses on this aspect. research design (back to top) this section covers three aspects of the research design. these are the research approach, the case study as the research strategy and the research methodology. this is similar to the design that serfontein, basson and burden (2009) describe. research approach the research approach was explanatory and qualitative in nature. it explains the embedded experiences of one entrepreneur and successive failed ventures across 20 years at a micro level rather than at a macro level. in the case study, that covers the successive failures, several unanswered questions arise. three are particularly interesting for this study. firstly, the researchers needed to identify whether there were similar preconditions and causes for the failed ventures. four of the ventures were classified as business ‘failures’ by definition (pretorius, 2009). two others were forced closures or exits for reasons associated with start-up failure. secondly, this study was interested in whether the failures triggered the subsequent ventures or whether the failures were the result of the involvement with new opportunities. finally, the researchers wanted to know whether the failures triggered any learning and, if they did, at what level the learning occurred. repeating the same mistakes suggests that there was no learning from the failures. the researchers investigated the reasons for this. table 1 summarises the research design. table 1: research design components based on the design description of yin†. key scientific beliefs to answer these questions, the researchers were aware of their own methodological values, beliefs and philosophical assumptions. these assumptions could influence how they conducted the research and stated them in order to understand the ‘intellectual climate’ in which they conducted the research. ontological positions these state the researchers’ views and the very nature and essence of research reality. researcher a is an objective realist who believes that knowledge comes from facts associated with the case and the context. if the researcher found repeated preconditions, causes and responses, he could generalise them. his interest was mainly business failure. researcher b is a constructionist idealist who believes that people cannot understand failure unless they have experienced it themselves. people’s views, actions, reactions, interactions, social relations, social and cultural practices, rules and values reflect their experiences. therefore, understanding the subjective experiences and interpretations may uncover unknown relationships and lead to improved insights of the experienced reality. her interest was mainly on the cognitive aspects of the failures. the personal experiences of the entrepreneur and his interpretations of the different contexts of each failure were interesting. the entrepreneur shared his experiences willingly and responded openly to all the questions the researchers asked during the interviews. epistemological positions the theory of knowledge (epistemology) of the researchers diverged to some extent. it allowed for interplay on how one can discover decisions about social phenomena and how one can demonstrate knowledge. researcher a worked primarily from a scientific paradigm, particularly in the primary stages. however, he changed during the process to a consultant paradigm. he had experienced a business failure himself and had worked as a strategy and turnaround consultant. this influenced his search for factual directives, patterns and answers to correct future situations of a similar nature. researcher b worked from an academic learning paradigm and looked for what one can learn and how one learns to use it to train entrepreneurs. therefore, the authors chose several unstructured data-gathering methods to capture the activities and experiences of the case. case study as a research strategy the researchers used a single case study to explain the phenomena in a real world context where the boundaries between phenomena and context are not clear. yin (2003) suggests that the uniqueness of a situation is a sufficient rationale for using a single case. the specific case the researchers investigated is unique because entrepreneurs do not readily talk about failure. it was an important breakthrough to identify one entrepreneur, with successive failures, who was willing to participate in the research. a single subject eliminated the variation that originates from the entrepreneur compared to investigating the failures of several entrepreneurs. the reasoning the researchers used was mostly inductive to explore the subject’s experiences during the different events. the researchers gave a shortened version of the specific and salient circumstances and key issues of the different failed ventures because the detailed version is too long. research method research setting the researchers investigated six previous and one current venture (the seventh and current venture is experiencing distress). one entrepreneur experienced the successive failures (four failures, one forced exit and one failed harvest) over 20 years. the researchers identified these successive failures for research. initially the entrepreneur recounted the four failures as case studies and highlighted the relevant issues from a skills perspective. the entrepreneur was an entrepreneurship postgraduate at the time and wrote his own interpretation of the failures. he related them to the entrepreneurial processes he pursued and focused on skills for operating the different ventures. in addition, 20 years is a long time and one should consider possible memory lapses about some details relevant to the different ventures. case background and setting – in the language of the entrepreneur whilst working in a full-time job, mr x (the entrepreneur) bought the distribution rights to a product as his first business venture (abc company). a third party and legal owner of the rights sued him because he had no legal licence or agreement to sell the product! investigation showed that the ‘original seller’ of the business rights was a ‘fraud’ and mr x lost his whole investment shortly after start-up. whilst his start-up appeared successful, he had to terminate the venture immediately. this forced him (by his own account) to leave his full-time job and he turned to insurance broking to recover the debt from the lost investment. he soon became solvent and a new opportunity ‘pursued’ him in the low-cost housing industry. figure 1 shows a sequence map of the failure events and ventures the entrepreneur pursued. figure 1: sequence map of events and ventures pursued during the successive failures of one entrepreneur. he started a venture with two other people (‘building company’) to build houses on contract for large developers. he operated mainly as financier (investor) whilst the other partners did most of the work as their ‘contributions’. soon the venture entered a rapid growth phase and the immediate future appeared positive. verbal agreements concluded all the operations. every time he asked about progress, on his weekly site visits, he received figures and saw houses that showed progress. however, news soon reached him about his partners’ sudden wealth and alternative building projects. this seemed odd because he was the sole guarantor of supplier accounts. investigation revealed serious pilfering of stock and movements of raw materials to the partners’ private ventures, which their wives owned. he immediately withdrew all his cash and guarantees and chose to liquidate ‘building company’. together with the construction venture (building company), mr x had already started and operated a small butchery (butchery 1) ‘on the side’. it was doing well but, because of the associated insolvency, the butchery was ‘trapped’ in the liquidation process and liquidated at the same time as ‘building company’. therefore, butchery 1 failed indirectly because of its association with the previous venture. fortunately, mr x was still involved with the brokerage and could survive financially. mr x’s next venture was to convert a second butchery (butchery 2) into a one-stop food retailing shop. the butchery was merely the entry point that he expanded. he operated the shop for several years and sold it to an employee with a payment plan that would give him a consistent income for the next few years. mr x went on forced leave (because of illness) and, after recovering, he opened a high-class restaurant. the restaurant started well but turnover declined (because interest apparently diminished) and he supported it financially with the income from the food retailing shop he had sold previously. unfortunately, the new owner of that venture stripped it of cash and overextended it with loans within a short period. it soon failed, causing the income to mr x to dry up. he had to sell the restaurant because he was liable for the new debts of the food-retailing venture – he had never cancelled his guarantees! he returned to insurance broking. soon afterwards, he responded to an advertisement for a free butchery business if he took over the debt. however, he suggested a joint venture (butchery 3) to the previous owner of the insolvent butchery. they formed a partnership and quickly turned it around after quadrupling growth within a year. before long, they started a small meat-processing plant as an extension. however, relations soured and the partners split up. it left mr x with the start-up processing plant and a secondary small outlet (a satellite shop) that he had established in the meantime, whilst the partner walked away with the turned around ‘butchery 3’. yet again, there were no formal agreements in place to protect mr x. during his last ventures, personal illness (cancer) also confronted mr x. it was an external factor to some of the contexts relevant to this study. he sold the retail outlet mainly because of this illness and took time off to recover. entrée and establishing researcher roles the researchers approached the subject (respondent) after he entered university for further studies and he willingly agreed to participate in the research process. the two researchers, each with their own ways of investigating and questioning, participated in the process. both researchers gathered their own field notes during the interviews. the notes led to some interaction between the two researchers’ paradigms. this interaction of paradigms emphasised the value of the supplementary and complementary character of the two ontological positions. they investigated each failed venture separately and in sequence to explore the inter-relationships between consecutive ventures. the case studies that mr x wrote focused on what and how things happened (descriptive), whilst the researchers focused on how and why things happened as they did (explanatory). sampling the researchers approached one entrepreneur, who had failed six times in 20 years and who was experiencing distress in his current business, to participate in the research. the unique circumstances of the case played an important role in selecting him to participate. they could eliminate differences in entrepreneur contribution, because of variation, by using only one subject. the successive failures over 20 years make the study rich in information and allow in-depth analysis. data collection methods the phenomena the researchers investigated involved the entrepreneur, his thinking, experiences and decision-making on the one hand and the failures of the ventures, with their specific contexts, on the other (see table 1). therefore, the boundaries between the entrepreneur and the venture contexts were not clear. this meant that the researchers had to pursue several sources of evidence to find convergence. however, because the failures happened over 20 years, there was no access to documents, direct observation, archival records or participant observation (yin, 2003) to access the evidence. therefore, the researchers explored the main source of evidence (the entrepreneur). firstly, the narratives the entrepreneur wrote were important to understanding the factual aspects of the ventures and the sequences of moving from one venture to the next. they also contained the entrepreneur’s own interpretations of the preconditions of each case and the causes associated with each failure. secondly, after the researchers held the in-depth interviews, they used the interview notes and interpretations to make sense of them. the interview protocols for each venture failure included: 1. tell the story of this specific venture. 2. what was your role? 3. who else was involved? 4. when did you realise there was something wrong? 5. how did you confirm it? 6. what did you do once you realised what was going on? 7. were you involved in other ‘things’ (projects or ventures) at the time? 8. what were you thinking at the time? 9. what were the contextual factors you considered? 10. did you experience any grief for the failed venture? 11. what was the nature of your reflection on the case? 12. what learning did you take from the case? 13. when did you realise this learning? the researchers could probe for explanations about the answers the respondent gave throughout the interviews. finally, the researchers tape-recorded the in-depth interviews and produced full transcripts. the authors individually and separately used these by searching for key issues, insights, similarities and anomalies together with their own field notes. once they had identified the issues, they coded them. see table 2. table 2: salient issues identified during the successive failures of ventures. data analysis though there was only one source of evidence (the entrepreneur), the researchers used ‘investigator triangulation’ (yin, 2003, p. 98) to extract as much richness as possible. through the many views of the evidence, specifically those of the entrepreneur’s own version of his experiences, each failed case evaluation, in-depth interview notes, the transcripts of the interviews and checking the interpretations, the researchers identified and recorded aspects relevant to the research propositions. they mapped the processes of start-ups and failures to understand sequences, events, effects, relations, causation, outcomes and timelines. figure 1 shows the sequence of events in a directional map. it shows the ventures, how they failed and their consequences. strategies employed to ensure quality data as there was only one source of evidence, the researchers firstly used investigator triangulation. they checked during the second-round and third-round interviews. here they asked the entrepreneur, as the key informant, to judge the researchers’ interpretations of the different issues. as this was an explanatory study, these interviews focused on why things happened as the entrepreneur described them, thus using ‘explanation building’ to improve internal validity (yin, 2003, p. 34). reporting the findings the researchers reported the findings by stating the key observations and responding to the research propositions individually. the style was explanatory, aiming to describe the relationships and finding support (or its lack) for the propositions (see table 1). the case findings show that consecutive venture failures had similar preconditions and causes that failure does not trigger the entrepreneurial process and that learning from failure is not automatic. the next section reports the findings under the proposition headings that the researchers set. findings (back to top) the first research objective was to describe the relationships between the failure preconditions, the causes of failure, the entrepreneurial process and learning from failure. the second research objective was to describe the process and prerequisites for learning from failure. findings linked to proposition 1: the preconditions and causes of successive failures were the same the detailed analysis of preconditions and causes yielded some interesting but salient similarities pertaining to the preconditions associated with each failure. firstly, the entrepreneur made several verbal agreements without formalising any of them. during interviews, he would say ‘my word is my word’ and ‘i expect other people to do or be the same’. he formed partnerships easily without drawing up any proper legal contracts and acknowledged that he did so despite the warnings of friends and advisors. on three of the occasions, he was ‘ripped off’ by people (partners or employees) he trusted, and who were supposed to be accountable for different roles in terms of their verbal agreements. in the construction venture, he willingly delegated all the purchasing responsibilities to the partners. in the retail outlet, he gave the bookkeeper and his son full control over financial reporting and purchasing respectively. in the turned-around butchery, the same situation prevailed (verbal agreement and partner not keeping to it). after reflection, he suggested that he had a trusting personality because of his upbringing, religious nature and deep ethical beliefs. table 2 shows the key elements that emerged during the analysis to support these points. there are clear patterns – especially those of trust, control and formal evaluation. secondly, the entrepreneur exercised no control. this is consistent with his trusting nature. in all the cases, the entrepreneur showed a low propensity for control (especially financial), keeping records and measuring performance. after selling the retail outlet to his employee, he attempted to protect himself with an extensive legal contract. however, he did not follow this up and did not control the financial status of the venture he sold, for which he had signed guarantees and which he never cancelled. when he realised his mistakes and reacted, it was too late to recover his financial losses. whilst he appeared creative and good at pleasing clients, he was poor at budgeting and measuring performance. he made no apparent attempt to ensure that he knew the operational details and key controls of the ventures. looking back, the entrepreneur himself suggested that, because he did not measure the performance of partners and employees, he tolerated incompetence and destructive behaviour. on occasions when he acted in these situations and controlled the operations himself, there were often significant improvements, as was the case with the turnaround of the butchery when he first entered it. however, these did not last for long, as his natural tendency was toward laissez-faire management. a third important observation was that, in all of the ventures that failed, the entrepreneur had no previous experience or knowledge of the industry. there were many cases of paying dearly (in what he called ‘school fees’) for making elementary mistakes before succeeding because of this shortcoming. when he started the restaurant, the entrepreneur had several misconceptions about the requirements of this industry because he referred to his ‘believed knowledge’ of demand that he based on his regular patronage of restaurants during the previous months (because of his affluent life style). core to the failure of the restaurant was establishing an up-market restaurant in a low-income neighbourhood. this led to him committing overestimation bias, which le roux, pretorius and millard (2006) identified as a typical entrepreneurial misconception. finally, the entrepreneur showed some of the ‘bullfrog’ attitude, suggesting arrogance and a high illusion of control bias. during interviews mr x said, ‘i could make it work despite …’ this revealed the perception that he was in charge. the effect of the income from his insurance broking on the apparent financial munificence of the entrepreneur contributed to his illusion that he was in control of everything he touched. both the high-trust and low-control aspects suggested preconditions ideal for the unethical behaviour of his associates. in retrospect, they contributed to the eventual failures. in two cases, the effects of pilfering were visible only after external factors forced the businesses into negative cash flow. this made the entrepreneur feel what he termed the ‘cash pinch’ and forced him to investigate. therefore, the researchers found enough support for the proposition that there were similar causes and preconditions for the successive failures (see table 2). findings linked to proposition 2: failure in one venture triggers the entrepreneurial process leading to starting the next venture to judge the ‘repeat entrepreneurship’ proposition meaningfully, the researchers used the entrepreneurial process to ensure that they covered identifying, evaluating and exploiting new opportunities. the entrepreneurial process consists of identifying opportunities, evaluating their attractiveness and exploiting opportunities that are enticing enough (krueger, 2005). in the case study, the entrepreneur recalled a mixture of himself looking for opportunities and having opportunities seek him. it seems that his personal resource munificence made him a sought-after capital provider of opportunities for others. however, once or twice (by his own admission) he had no choice. ‘i had to do it, there were no other options at the time,’ he stated. identifying opportunity all the entrepreneur’s new venture ideas originated whilst he was involved in an existing one, except for the restaurant that he started after recovering from illness. ‘i always thought i could start again’, he often repeated in the interviews. this suggested that he considered many opportunities and that he saw risk as unimportant. it had become clear that the failures were not the triggers for identifying opportunities for the ventures that followed. in five cases (with the exception of the first venture and the restaurant), the entrepreneur was already considering or pursuing new opportunities before the current ventures failed. therefore, the researchers found little support for proposition 2 that failure in one venture triggers starting the next. it also became clear that the opportunities the entrepreneur pursued were only some of a multitude of opportunities he considered along the way. evaluating opportunity the researchers could find no evidence that the entrepreneur had evaluated the new (and existing) opportunities properly. he had never developed business plans and budgeting was almost nonexistent. ‘i knew it could work’ and ‘the idea was good’ were his common expressions. the entrepreneur made all his decisions without any formal planning or business plans. this also suggests that he depended largely on intuition (‘gut feel’, in his words) when making decisions. baron and ensley (2006, p. 1339) suggest that novice entrepreneurs ‘use different prototypes’ compared to experienced entrepreneurs. they rely on intuition rather than factors like the revenue, cash and risk projections associated with the prototypes of expert entrepreneurs. mr x appeared to use novice prototypes mainly to evaluate opportunities. exploiting opportunity the entrepreneur exploited most opportunities shortly after identifying them and without evaluating them properly. he often based his decisions on intuition. common expressions he used during the interviews included ‘i decided, and just did it’ or ‘it felt right at the time so i did it’. some financial pressure moderated these decisions where he felt forced to pursue a specific opportunity (like leaving his first job to pursue insurance broking or selling the restaurant). however, the entrepreneur also showed an interesting ability to overcome the liability of newness because he was always able to muster resources and support from external people (private investors) and institutions, like banks and suppliers, for the next start-up. the researchers could not explain how this was possible without proper business plans. however, it may be because he always repaid everyone to whom he was indebted. findings linked to proposition 3: if the same causes occur in consecutive failures, the entrepreneur did not learn if repeat entrepreneurs are to learn from their mistakes, there needs to be a soul-searching experience, a conscious reflection about what has happened and why it happened. in the case analysis it was clear that mr x (by own admission) did not use the dual processes (shepherd, 2003, p. 318) of loss and restoration orientation to learn from the experience. during each failure, he was already busy with the next opportunity. he did not take time to do deliberate soul-searching, ask questions and reflect on the events. the entrepreneur confirmed that, on most occasions, he just pursued new directions and opportunities without really reflecting on past failures whilst they were happening or after they had happened. when asked whether he experienced any of the emotions associated with the grieving process, he thought he did not, except for one venture when he experienced some grief. this was the butchery he started and lost because of the repercussions of the construction company failure. he could not give any specific reason for singling out this venture. the grief process or coming to terms (grief recovery) with the failed ventures did not precede going into new ventures (restoration orientation). the entrepreneur reported that, when he wrote the case studies, it was the first time that he intentionally and deeply reflected on the failures to gain some understanding of them. this confirms shepherd’s (2003, p. 319) argument that ‘learning from failure is not automatic or instantaneous’ but requires a deliberate process of reflection. during the interviews, and whilst being prompted by the questions, he reported alternative insights on matters that he had originally not considered. discussion (back to top) there was support for the propositions that there were similar causes and preconditions for the successive failures and that the failures were not the triggers for identifying opportunities for ensuing ventures. finally, it appeared that the entrepreneur only learned once he undertook deliberate reflection. this section expands on these findings. it reveals some key observations about the entrepreneur, the preconditions and causes associated with his successive failures. firstly, he trusted partners and employees blindly. it meant that he used virtually no control mechanisms and eventually led to huge losses. secondly, the entrepreneur often entered industries without any experience of them. he usually did so without any formal evaluation of the feasibility of the opportunities and without business plans. he depended largely on intuition for his evaluations. thirdly, he showed illusions of control bias. he believed that ‘he could make it work’ and had control over all factors. fourthly, he tolerated incompetence. fifthly, he confirmed the risk of interweaving venture resources (mainly finance). other ventures highlighted their ‘domino effect’ once one of them experienced distress. finally, the entrepreneur displayed the prototype associated with novice entrepreneurs repeatedly. this section explores each of these. the specific preconditions and causes of failures appeared to differ superficially from venture to venture. nevertheless, some salient similarities might be common contributing antecedents for the failures. compared with causes and preconditions from the literature, these related mainly to the entrepreneur’s human qualities. krueger’s (2007, p. 124) suggestion that ‘anchoring beliefs drive cognitive structures’ of entrepreneurs and lead to the actions they take could explain his blind trust in partners. this influenced his decisions repeatedly. mr x also acknowledged his over-trusting nature but hoped to overcome it by introducing control systems and expanding his advisor network. entering industries without proper knowledge, weak evaluations of the opportunities and over-trusting one’s intuition only are actions typically associated with novice entrepreneurs (baron & ensley, 2006). however, the entrepreneur started to specialise in the meat retail and processing industries in his later ventures. this suggests that he had gained some relevant experience. nevertheless, he continued to ignore proper evaluation and sufficient control, continued to trust his intuition and to use novice prototypes. it is interesting that mr x suffered less from the liability of newness because he was always able to find resources from other sources. the researchers could find no indication that any of the failures triggered the next opportunity because, in every case, the entrepreneur was already busy with the next venture whilst the preceding venture was failing. this suggests that the entrepreneur knew that failure was imminent, triggering an urge to pursue new opportunities. in addition, the involvement with the next venture did not seem to cause the failures, although there must have been some indirect effects like focus, management and time allocated to the new venture at that stage of the process. his report that he never really reflected on the underlying causes of the failures is important. the entrepreneur only reported learning from failure through reflection when he wrote up the detailed cases for his dissertation and when the researchers confronted him during the interviews. he reported going back to his current business and specifically introducing new control systems because he thought this had been the main cause of his past failures. ‘not grieving for his losses and immediately pursuing new opportunities’ confirms shepherd’s (2003, p. 320) postulation that repeating the same mistakes may occur. there is some doubt about whether one can regard some of the ventures (the first butchery and the meat retailer shop) as genuine failures or as closures because of external factors and as the repercussions of other failures. the entrepreneur attributed those failures to external causes. however, final attribution was not the main concern. this case confirms that using the resources of one venture for setting up the next is risky, despite it being an avenue for obtaining resources for business growth. the study begins to pave the way for exploring the prototypes (mental frameworks) of entrepreneurs who experience successive failures because it challenges the role of failure in the repeat entrepreneurial process. failure is beneficial only if learning from it is possible. however, ‘learning is not automatic’ (shepherd, 2003, p. 322) and ‘requires reflection’ (cope, 2003, p. 430) at a personal level. secondly, it confirms the principle that every failure has unique preconditions that one should consider for learning. finally, transforming the experiences into entrepreneurial knowledge occurred mainly because of exploration rather than exploitation in the transformation process (politis, 2005). the dominant logic of reasoning, which moderated the transformation process, appeared to be effectuation rather than causation, but further investigation into these relationships is required. the managerial implications of this study are twofold. firstly, it confirms that failure is a part of entrepreneurial endeavours. one should acknowledge this and that learning from it requires deliberate reflection. secondly, failure does not necessarily ‘trigger’ the next venture. however, failure could help entrepreneurs to gain experience and to learn from it. therefore, deliberate reflection is an important step in learning from failure. the researchers found this absent from the behaviour of the entrepreneur. business educators should realise the opportunity for learning from failures. failure case studies lend themselves to this purpose (forbes & pavone, 2006). finally, an additional observation from the researchers is noteworthy. this is that they presented the provisional findings of this research to several (and different) entrepreneurship conference audiences and entrepreneur groups over a period of three years. the responses ranged from utter disbelief at one end of the continuum to acknowledgement and confirmation of similar experiences from some at the other. the findings resonated well with both entrepreneurs and academics during these presentations. it seemed that, if they had not failed themselves, they knew someone who had. the effect of these responses was almost as if the research had received face validity as a truthful description of the reality. limitations and future research to generalise using the results of one repeat entrepreneur is inappropriate. however, the case study spans 20 years. its richness confirms the complexity of the entrepreneurial process, the context in which entrepreneurs operate (gartner, davidsson & zahra, 2006) and the context of failure. future research should attempt to replicate the study with more subjects to generalise and confirm these findings. secondly, the qualitative nature of the data is subject to the perceptions and interpretations of the researchers and their research interests, despite all their attempts to be objective. further research should focus on ensuring the quality of data collection by expanding the research strategy to include several cases. thirdly, the absence of documents, artefacts, observation and other participants meant that the interpretation depended on one source only. over a period of 20 years, lapses in memory and recall as well as the tendency to rationalise past decisions may have been significant. one should see the findings in this context. although the researchers could not generalise from the failures of one entrepreneur, they did identify some interesting directives for further research. although they could find no relationship between failures as a trigger (or cause) for pursuing the next opportunity, the possibility that a new opportunity might cause or contribute to the failure of the preceding venture deserves more attention. it is possible that the entrepreneur’s tacit knowledge intuitively warned him about pending failure at a very early stage and he acted accordingly (by pursuing the next venture). future researchers should attempt to confirm this proposition. acknowledgements (back to top) the authors are indebted to the entrepreneur who participated at extensive personal risk. they presented the first results at the babson bkerc conference in madrid in 2007. references (back to top) barker iii, v.l., & moné, m.a. (1998). the mechanistic structure shift and strategic reorientation in declining firms attempting turnarounds. human relations, 51(10), 1227–1258. doi:10.1177/001872679805101002, doi:10.1023/a:1016985913909 baron, r.a., & ensley, m.d. (2006). opportunity recognition as the detection of meaningful patterns: evidence from comparisons of novice and experienced entrepreneurs. management science, 52(9), 1331–1344. doi:10.1287/mnsc.1060.0538 bollen, l.h.h., merthens, g.m.h., meuwissen, r.h.g., van roak, j.j.f., & schelleman, c. (2005). classification and analysis of major european business failures. maastricht accounting, auditing and information management research center (marc) and rsm erasmus university. research project commissioned by the european contact group. boud, d., keogh, r., & walker, d. (1985). what is reflection in learning? in d. boud, r. keogh & d. walker (eds.), reflection: turning experience into learning (pp. 7–17). london: kogan page. bourner, t. (2003). assessing reflective learning. education and training, 45(5), 267–272. doi:10.1108/00400910310484321 bourner, t., france, l., & atkinson, a. (2000). preparing and developing university teachers: an empirical study. education research centre occasional paper. brighton: university of brighton. boyle, r.d., & desai, h.b. (1991). turnaround strategies for small firms. journal of small business management, 29(3), 33–42. cameron, k.s., whetten, d.a., & kim, m.u. (1987). organisational dysfunctions of decline. academy of management journal, 30(1), 126–138. doi:10.2307/255899 charitou, a., neophytou, e., & charalambous, c. (2004). predicting corporate failure: empirical evidence for the uk. european accounting review, 13(3), 465–497. doi:10.1080/0963818042000216811 cope, j. (2003). entrepreneurial learning and critical reflection: discontinuous events as triggers for ‘higher level’ learning. management learning, 34(4), 429–450. doi:10.1177/1350507603039067 d’aveni, r.a. (1989). the aftermath of organisational decline: a longitudinal study of the strategic and managerial characteristics of declining firms. academy of management journal, 32(3), 577–608. doi:10.2307/256435 forbes, d.p., & pavone, c. (2006). razorfish. entrepreneurship theory and practice, july, 561–578. francis, j.d., & desai, a.b. (2005). situational and organisational determinants of turnaround. management decision, 9, 1203–1224. doi:10.1108/00251740510626272 fredland, j.e., & morris, c.e. (1976). a cross section analysis of small business failure. american journal of small business, 1(1), 7–18. gartner, w.b., davidsson, p., & zahra, s.a. (2006). are you talking to me? the nature of community in entrepreneurship scholarship. entrepreneurship theory and practice, may, 321–331. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6520.2006.00123.x henderson, a.d. (1999). firm strategy and age dependence: a contingent view of the liabilities of newness, adolescence and obsolescence. administrative science quarterly, 44, 281–314. doi:10.2307/2666997 huovinen, j., & tihula, s. (2007). entrepreneurial learning in the context of portfolio entrepreneurship. international journal of entrepreneurial behaviour and research, 14(3), 152–171. doi:10.1108/13552550810874673 kale, s., & arditi, d. (1998). business failures: liabilities of newness, adolescence, and smallness. journal of construction engineering and management, november/december, 458–464. doi:10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1998)124:6(458) kolb, d.a. (1984). experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. krueger, n.f. (2005). sustainable entrepreneurship: broadening the definition of opportunity. paper presented at the usasbe conference, las vegas, ne. krueger, n.f. (2007). what lies beneath? the experiential essence of entrepreneurial thinking. entrepreneurship theory and practice, january, 123–138. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6520.2007.00166.x le roux, i., pretorius, m., & millard, s. (2006). the influence of risk perception, misconception, illusion of control and self-efficacy on the decision to exploit a venture opportunity. southern african business review, 10(1), 51–69. longenecker, c.o., simonetti, j.l., & sharkey, t.w. (1999). why organisations fail: the view from the frontline. management decision, 37(6), 503–513. doi:10.1108/00251749910278023 lorange, p., & nelson, r.t. (1987). how to reorganize – and avoid – organisational decline. sloan management review, 28(3), 41–46. moss kanter, r. (2003). leadership and the psychology of turnarounds. harvard business review, june, 58–67. politis, d. (2005). the process of entrepreneurial learning: a conceptual framework. entrepreneurship theory and practice, july, 399–424. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6520.2005.00091.x pretorius, m. (2008). when porter’s generic strategies are not enough: complementary strategies for turnaround situations. journal of business strategy, 29(6), 19–28. doi:10.1108/02756660810917200 pretorius, m. (2009). defining business decline, failure and turnaround: a content analysis. south african journal of entrepreneurship and small business management, 2(10), 1–16. pretorius, m. (2010). drivers and moderators of business decline. acta commerci, 10, 218–233. richardson, b., nwankwo, s., & richardson, s. (1994). understanding the causes of business failure crisis: generic failure types: boiled frogs, drowned frogs, bullfrogs and tadpoles. management decision, 32(4), 9–22. doi:10.1108/00251749410058635 serfontein, s., basson, j.s., & burden, j. (2009). mapping the transformation from a traditional to an entrepreneurial organisation: a south african case. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), 49–62. shepherd, d.a. (2003). learning from business failure: propositions of grief recovery for the self-employed. academy of management review, 28(2), 318–328. doi:10.5465/amr.2003.9416377, doi:10.2307/30040715 shepherd, d.a. (2005). the theoretical basis for my plenary speech about our successes and failures at research on business failure. in regional frontiers of entrepreneurial research. 12–14 february 2005 (pp. 123–134). australia: brisbane. sheppard, j.p., & chowdhury, s.d. (2005). riding the wrong wave: organisational failure as a failed turnaround. long range planning, 38, 239–260. doi:10.1016/j.lrp.2005.03.009 stead, e., & smallman, c. (1999). understanding business failure: learning and un-learning lessons from industrial crises. journal of contingencies and crisis management, 7(1), 1–18. doi:10.1111/1468-5973.00094 theng, l.g., & boon, l.w. (1996). an exploratory study of factors affecting the failure of local small and medium enterprises. asia pacific journal of management, 13(2), 47–61. doi:10.1007/bf01733816 thornhill, s., & amit, r. (2003). learning about failure: bankruptcy, firm age, and the resource-based view. organisational science, 14(5), 497–509. doi:10.1287/orsc.14.5.497.16761 weitzel, w.f., & jonsson, e. (1991). decline in organisations: a literature integration and extension. administrative science quarterly, march, 91–109. urban, b., van vuuren, j.j., & owen, r. (2008). antecedents to entrepreneurial intentions: testing for measurement invariance for cultural values, attitudes and self-efficacy beliefs across ethnic groups. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 6(1), 1–9. yin, r.k. (2003). case study research. designs and methods: applied social research methods. (3rd edn.). series volume 5. london: sage publications. zacharakis, a.l., meyer, g.d., & de castro, j. (1999). differing perceptions of new venture failure: a matched exploratory study of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. journal of small business management, 37(3), 1–14. abstract introduction literature review research design results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) sumari o’neil department of human resource management, faculty of economic and management science, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa nadia j. davel department of human resource management, faculty of economic and management science, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa natasja holtzhausen school of public management and administration, faculty of economic and management science, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa citation o’neil, s., davel, n.j., & holtzhausen, n. (2023). a short report of the value of learnerships from an organisational stakeholder point of view. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2006. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2006 original research a short report of the value of learnerships from an organisational stakeholder point of view sumari o’neil, nadia j. davel, natasja holtzhausen received: 27 may 2022; accepted: 07 oct. 2022; published: 12 jan. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: learnerships has been operationalised in south africa as part of the national skills development strategy (nsds). the success of a learnership programme is influenced by stakeholder involvement. research purpose: this study set out to explore the value of learnerships from an organisational stakeholder point of view. motivation for the study: the stakeholder theory perspective posits the importance of stakeholders buy-in and involvement in learnership implementation. research approach/design and method: semi-structured interviews with three key stakeholders in a specific learnership programme were conducted in 2020. data were analysed by means of thematic analysis using atlas.ti 8.1. main findings: although the primary objective of learnerships is to develop vocational skills, the organisation and even larger community also reap benefits from hosting a learnership. these benefits include lower recruitment costs, capacity building with employees that understands the culture of the organisation, simplified onboarding, and community involvement. practical/managerial implications: skills development in the learnerships is largely facilitated by means of social and informal learning. although formal training opportunities are an important part of learnership, it should be designed to include interaction and collaboration with employees in the organisation. contribution/value added: skills development as operationalised in the nsds is part of the learner benefit of the learnership programme in south africa. this article highlights how external stakeholders can reap greater benefits in terms of capacity building if the learners are engaged in meaningful organisational contribution. keywords: employability; learnerships; training and development; vocational training; work-based learning. introduction orientation the learnership system was operationalised in south africa in 2001 as a vital segment of the national skills development strategy (nsds) (akbar et al., 2016). a learnership is a learning programme teaching both theory and learning practical skills in a workplace, which in the end leads to a qualification registered on the national qualifications framework (nqf) (south african qualifications authority [saqa], 2015). learnerships fall within the larger category of work-based learning (wbl) programmes (trede, 2012). however, the learnership is a systematised form of wbl that will lead to a nationally acknowledged qualification (davies & farquharson, 2004; potgieter, 2003; visser & kruss, 2009), and it exists in a highly legislated context (skills development act, [republic of south africa, 1998]; learnership regulations of april, [department of higher education and training, 2011]). a typical learnership comprises 1200 h of learning on one level of the nqf and can usually be achieved within 6–12 months (potgieter, 2003). although similar wbl programmes are implemented in organisations globally, the learnership per se is unique to south africa (lockstone, 2021). learnerships have value to both the learner and the organisation. for the learner, it will promote skills expansion in the formal marketplace and further support inexperienced learners who are entering employment (visser & kruss, 2009). for the organisation, learnerships provide the opportunity for developing candidates who are skilled for the specific workspace, while receiving significant tax rebates as well as achieving employment equity targets (goldberg & hamel, 2018; lockstone, 2021). despite these organisational benefits, there is a lack of organisational participation (mummenthey & du preez, 2010). in this study, the focus is on the benefits of the learnership to the organisation from a stakeholder point of view. from a stakeholder theory perspective, stakeholders are important in the successful implementation of an organisational learning programme. by definition, a stakeholder is a group or an individual who can impact or is affected by the outcome of the organisation or project objective (freeman, 1984). for learnership programmes, key stakeholders are those who are involved in the decision-making and coordination of the learnership programme and include the learnership coordinator, the lead agency, the employer host and the training institution. their roles are set out by davies and farquharson (2004), which can be viewed in table 1a and b. table 1a: responsibilities of different stakeholders in the learnership process. table 1b: responsibilities of different stakeholders in the learnership process. this article focuses specifically on the stakeholder’s perceived value of the learnership programme. this focus is based on the stakeholder theory, which regards the diversity and value of stakeholder input on the success of a project (al-sharafi & al-rubai’ey, 2020). while stakeholder input and buy-in of a project are instrumental to its success, stakeholders’ perceptions of success itself are also important (davies & farquharson, 2004; davis, 2017). furthermore, from an instrumental stakeholder view, consideration should be given to the input and buy-in of key stakeholders in the process (bailur, 2007). the input and buy-in of key stakeholders in the learnership process will allow for alignment between industry demand, programme content and delivery through stakeholder engagement (kruss et al., 2012). this is especially important if one considers that despite the benefits of learnerships for organisations, there are still reluctance at an institutional level to include learnership programmes (kruss et al., 2012). furthermore, where learnerships are implemented, they may not always be successful. aigbavboa and twhala (2014) indicated that confusion and ignorance among learnership stakeholders led to poor programme outcomes. research purpose and objectives the specific question that this study aims to answer is how the learnership holds value for the organisation from a key stakeholder perspective. with learnerships being a key strategy in the skills development plan of south africa, knowledge regarding the success and processes involved in these programmes is essential. in 2004, davies and farquharson (2004) noted the lack of research on learnerships. over the past two decades, several studies have been conducted to better understand the success of learnership programmes (or the lack thereof) (aigbavboa & thwala, 2014; mummenthey & du preez, 2010; rankin et al., 2014). some studies specifically focused on the skills development and employability of learners (visser & kruss, 2009; wildschut, 2012). several studies have focused on the learner in the learnership programme. for example, beukes (2013) and blandin de chalain (2015) investigated factors that impact learner performance, while akbar et al. (2016), naidu (2019) and de louw (2009) investigated the learner perceptions of the learnership programmes. davies and farquharson (2004) focused on the effective management of learnership programmes and did not focus on stakeholder perceptions per se. the findings do, however, highlight the importance of stakeholder contribution to the success of the programmes. this study will contribute to shedding light on the stakeholder point of view of learnerships, with specific reference to their perception of the value of the learnership. the major organisational benefit from learnerships noted from previous studies is the incentives that organisations receive (ebrahim & pirttilä, 2019). this incentive is, however, on an organisational level and may not directly impact the key stakeholders who are responsible for the implementation of the learnership. from a key stakeholder perspective, the value of the programme should be recognised on a stakeholder level, especially if one considers the importance of the stakeholder in the successful implementation of a learnership programme at an organisation, since learnerships have been found to be an enormous task operationally as they are time consuming and difficult to implement (kraak, 2008). learnerships rely on complex institutional and structural arrangements that require an agreement among the sector education and training authority (seta), the training provider and the employer to ensure that both the workplace and theoretical components of the learnership are actualised (kruss et al., 2012). naidu (2019) argues that agreement between stakeholders is necessary, but we argue from a stakeholder theory perspective that stakeholders should also see value in the learnership. value may impact the overall buy-in of the stakeholders, which is an important success factor in learnership roll-out (gibb, 2014). literature review all stakeholders are important to the overall success of an organisation. success is, however, defined by how well the aims of a project or programme have been realised. therefore, it is important to understand the aims of learnerships in general. the aim of learnerships geminiani and van wyk (2002) explored the learnership system specific to the construction industry and listed three aims of the system as follows: (1) learnerships were intended to serve broader social and economic objectives; (2) they are deemed central to the implementation of the skills development act; and (3) they were set out to be the conduit for achieving a set of transformations by aligning education and training to market needs and equipping learners with the confidence required in the labour market. davies and farquharson (2004) expanded the second objective by adding that due to the shift in the south african economy from mainly mining and agriculture to more knowledge-based industries and activities, a considerable amount of the population lacked the essential skills necessary to meet emerging challenges. potgieter (2003) noted that the aim also includes reversing the declining apprenticeship system and redressing past discrimination. visser and kruss (2009) echoed this, arguing that it is a redress function to develop foundational competence at lower nqf levels and not simply a training system for those in the formal sector. a learnership should therefore aim to provide workplace training to create skills that would get youth into jobs more quickly and ensure a link between structured and unstructured work experience (ebrahim & pirttilä, 2019). training should accrue to a nationally recognised qualification and should target both the employed and the unemployed in south africa to combat unemployment (smith et al., 2005; groener, 2014, rankin et al., 2014). the aim of learnership programmes was clarified in the nsds and saqa (2015–2020) with the objective and mission to equip south africa with the skills necessary to succeed in the global market by addressing the gap between education, training and market needs and also to offer opportunities to individuals for advancement to assist them in playing a productive role in society (republic of south africa, 2001). the strengths of learnerships the importance of workplace training is acknowledged globally, as confirmed by the widespread research and publications of the organisation for economic co-operation and development (oecd) and the national centre for vocational education research (ncver). the learnership programmes hold strengths and provide benefits to both the learners and the organisation that offers the programme. on an individual level, after the successful completion of the programme, the learner will have an acknowledged qualification that is registered at the nqf, signalling their occupational competence (de jager et al., 2002; potgieter, 2003) and increasing their chances of employment (davies & farquharson, 2004). in addition, young (2018) argued that wbl programmes, coupled with reflecting on professional and classroom learning experiences, can help students to engage in deep learning and convert hands-on experiential learning to abstract conceptualisation. smith et al. (2005) conceded that learnerships seem to meet the intended purpose and determined that prior learning played a significant role, as did using private service providers rather than the learnership programme itself for the acquisition of technical skills. learnerships afford less advantaged aspirant learners, who cannot necessarily afford higher education studies, an opportunity to come into the profession (karlsson & berger, 2006). recent research also shows that learnerships contribute to learners’ entrepreneurial success because of the practical outcome and flexibility of the programme (koyana & mason, 2017). the benefits of the learnership programme are not one-sided, as the organisation also benefits in terms of an increased talent pool and increased productivity through upskilling. organisations also receive a contribution towards broad-based black economic empowerment (b-bbee) points as per skills development priority. moreover, accommodating a learnership programme also provides a direct financial benefit to the hosting organisation. according to the notice in terms of section 14(1) of the broad-based black economic empowerment act, 2003 (act no 53. of 2003), as amended by the broad-based black economic empowerment amendment act, 2013 (act 46, of 2013), an organisation in south africa receives b-bbee points for skills development such as the learnership programme. according to saqa, companies that contribute to the country’s skills development fund (sdf) through paying the mandatory skills development levy will find several important benefits if they include a learnership in their annual workplace skills plan (wsp). these include contributing to the organisation’s talent pool and positively impacting education. employers who can submit their wsp and conduct the training receive from the state up to 70% of the money they invested in training the learners (grewe et al., 2012). fuller and govender (2020) noted that a rebate of r30 000 per learner can be claimed upon registration and another r30 000 upon successful completion, an amount that can increase to r50 000 for disabled learners. employability as a learnership outcome mayombe (2020) noted that the strength of vocational training programmes, such as learnerships, is that they are used as tools to reduce youth unemployment due to lack of employability skills in south africa. therefore, as the overarching goal of learnerships in south africa is to enhance the employability of the learners, and literature calls for a holistic view on employability (donald et al., 2019), the unpacking of the conceptualisation of employability in this study is important. according to jackson (2015), employability differs from employment in that a person might be capable of assuming a job but not be currently employed. rothwell and arnold (2007) defined employability as an individual’s ability to obtain a desired job or to maintain a current job. here, one should bear in mind that the organisation hosting the learnership programme does not guarantee employment after its completion (groener, 2013; wildschut, 2012). research design research approach and strategy this article reports on the analysis of qualitative interview data with three stakeholders that were involved in a specific learnership programme in 2020. the use of a specific learnership programme constitutes a case study. research method the setting the organisation at which the learnership is hosted is situated in the financial services industry. it employs more than 500 people in 30 offices country-wide, with its head office in gauteng. the learners were appointed as 18.2 learners, indicating that they were contracted specifically to join this learnership and were unemployed prior to the contract. the learners worked in a call-centre environment in the debt-collection department at the organisation’s head office at the time of the data collection. the organisation has been offering learnerships for more than 12 years, but this was the first time they are offering one in this specific department. entrée and establishing researcher roles approval for the study was obtained from the institutional ethics board (reference number ems032/20) of the university of pretoria. the human resources (hr) executive of the organisation where the research took place signed a permission letter for the organisation to be used as the research site for the duration of a year. each respondent was invited by the learning manager of the organisation to attend an information session about the research. research participants and sampling methods the three stakeholders (the manager of the learners, the learning coordinator at the organisation and the external training provider) worked closely with the learners, and they were responsible in some way in overseeing the programme. the manager of the learners is responsible for the output of the learners in terms of daily operational practices. the learning coordinator in the organisation oversees the learnership programme, and the training and development manager at the external organisation is contracted to provide and oversee the classroom training component of the learnership programme in the study. all stakeholders are equally important for the learners to reach success in the learnership programme, although they are not equally visible to the learners during the journey. the learners work closely with the manager and training provider and look to them for guidance, and it was found that they interact far less with the learning coordinator of the organisation. since the organisation is one of the few providing this learnership, and only three stakeholders are involved, their personal particulars are not revealed here to protect their identities and that of the company. a profile using a pseudonym is used here to give a short description of each stakeholder. manager of the learners: nasira nasira has been working in the organisation for 19 years, but this is her first year working with learners in a learnership programme. currently, she is a team leader in the secured lending collections, pre-legal division. she has a certificate in credit management and described herself as passionate about her work and her work environment. her responsibilities in the learnership programme included overseeing on-the-job learning for the workplace component of the learnership programme. learning coordinator at the organisation: zola zola holds an honours degree in ba information science, an advanced diploma in project management and human resource management and a postgraduate diploma in development finance. she started her career as a computer trainer and says that although she did not intend to be a teacher, she found herself in roles that make her one, whether as trainer, facilitator, consultant, coach or hr manager. her responsibilities in the learnership programme included the oversight of the selection process, the induction of the learners and the coordination of the learning programme. she assisted with the learners’ schedule and coordinated the process among the organisation, setas and the external training provider. external training provider manager: omari omari is the education, training and development manager (etd manager) at the organisation, providing and overseeing the classroom training for the learners enrolled in the learnership. the organisation she works for is responsible for the content of all the learning modules in the learnership. she has been working in this organisation since september 2018 but previously worked with learnerships from march 2015 in another organisation. she has completed her bcom degree in human resource management and a postgraduate diploma in human resource development. in addition to that, she is also a skills development facilitator (sdf) and a registered assessor. data collection methods semistructured electronic interviews were conducted between 04 september 2020 and 20 december 2020. during the interviews, participants had the opportunity to comment on what factors contributed to the success of the learnership programme in terms of learner performance and employability. the interviews were conducted in the middle of the learnership programme to enable the stakeholders to get to know the learners before they commented or reflected on the learners’ performance and their intention to hire. the focus of the semistructured interviews differed slightly per stakeholder, as shown in table 2, to accommodate their different roles in the learnership programme. table 2: interview focus per stakeholder. the key questions used during the interviews focused on the key role and responsibilities of the stakeholder in the learnership programme, their engagement with the learners during the programme, the content and structure of the learnership programme, the learners’ performance in the programme, skills development as an outcome of the programme and the influence of the programme on learner employability. data recording data from the interviews were digitally recorded with the permission of the participants using microsoft teams (microsoft corporation, redmond, washington, united states) or zoom’s (zoom video communications, inc., san jose, california, united states) recording capability as well as using apple’s voice memo voice recorder (apple inc., cupertino, california, united states) for backup and sent for transcription after the transcriber had signed the nondisclosure agreement. the transcriptions were checked for accuracy before the analysis. data analysis the narrative data were coded in atlas.ti™ 8.1 (scientific software development gmbh, berlin, germany) and analysed through thematic analysis (braun & clarke, 2016, 2020; clarke & braun, 2018). because of its clearly structured nature, braun and clarke (2013) favoured using thematic analysis for presenting and clustering themes. this process is illustrated in figure 1. figure 1: the data analysis process. the transcriptions documented the conversations of the interviews verbatim. the transcripts were read multiple times to explore the text for themes before the initial codes were ascribed in atlas.ti™. braun and clarke (2006, p. 88) explained that ‘codes identify a feature of the data (semantic content or latent) that appears interesting’. in this study, codes represent the initial idea tagged in the transcribed interviews as seeming relevant to the topic at hand. coding aided in organising the data as it served as a platform to assign a label to a phrase or sentence related to the research question. after the initial groups were finalised and the codes grouped and regrouped into similar categories, it was re-labelled. from this point onwards, the codes and attached data excerpts were saved and organised in microsoft excel (microsoft corporation, redmond, washington, united states). reporting style based on the data, the themes identified were grouped into one of the three categories of benefits: benefits to the individual learner, the organisation and the larger community. each category is introduced with its description, followed by support in the form of verbatim quotations from the semistructured interviews. finally, literature is included to re-contextualise the findings in existing scholarship to demonstrate the usefulness and implications of the findings from a stakeholder point of view. ethical considerations the research ethics committee of the faculty of economic and management sciences at the university of pretoria has given ethical approval for the study from which this article was written (ref. no. ems032/20). results from the interview data, several aspects emerged that show value of the learnership, which were grouped under the following themes: individual-level benefits, organisational-level benefits and benefits to the larger community. most of the data revolved around the individual-level benefits, specifically skills development of the learners. individual-level benefits the individual-level benefits were applicable to the individual learner. the benefits to the learner as perceived by the stakeholders included increased learning and development and increased performance levels. according to the nsds, skills development is the driving force of learnership programmes. the focus on technical skills in the curriculum was clear from the interviews. omari noted: ‘for the sake of the learnership i would say they are covering more functional aspects. so the more technical things. there are no soft skills that are really covered if you look at this qualification over here [referring to the curriculum]. we are not covering things like communication and things like that. there is a workplace literacy module, which speaks to communication and things like that, but … that module you would compare to languages that you did at school.’ (omari, external training provider, semistructured interview). all the stakeholders agreed that by the end of the learnership, the learners had gained a variety of skills which included not only the skills gained through formal training, but also those gained through informal learning in the workplace. informal learning refers to learning in the workplace which is implicit, unintended and unstructured (eraut, 2004). skills that were noted by the participants included technical skills, basic workplace skills, workplace ethics, basic computer skills and communication and decision-making skills. although the development of technical skills is expected in such a programme (swartz & soudien, 2015), all the three stakeholders agreed that unintended skills, soft skills, that allow one to effectively perform in the workplace are visibly developed during the learnership and are of great value to the learner: ‘[… i]t is basically children from school that you have to coach in terms of being on time for work, what is work ethics, you know, and all that type of things; what works, what doesn’t work in a work environment. so yes, it wasn’t only teaching people how to do a credit control job … [it also included] how to properly use a telephone, what do you say and what don’t you say when it comes to members in general … how to talk to other people in a work environment.’ (nasira, manager, semistructured interview) especially for the 18.2 learner who was previously unemployed, the development of basic workplace skills is crucial. this was pointed out by the stakeholders. for example, omari noted: ‘when you have 18.2 learners join the workforce it’s not easy because they come straight out of school most of the time. they don’t really have a work ethic; it’s something that they’re still developing. so they test their boundaries like anybody does and at the same time they are working, and they are doing this qualification – it’s not easy.’ (omari, external training provider, semistructured interview) the development of basic workplace skills as an unintended consequence of the programme is an important observation. swartz and soudien (2015) noted that the fostering of meaningful change in unemployed youth is a complex and layered problem that can only be solved when skills other than work-related technical skills are also addressed. a learnership in which there is a synergy between workplace exposure and theoretical training creates an effective platform for the development of a professional identity, which includes proper workplace communication and interpersonal skills (plack, 2006). through the engagement in a realistic work environment, people grow to fully understand what professional conduct, such as workplace communication, looks like. grewe et al. (2012) recommended that an organisation which offers a learnership to an 18.2 learner should also conduct additional training programmes at the onset of the learnership programme to address important intrapersonal skills such as self-awareness and resilience in addition to interpersonal skills such as communication and conflict resolution. from our results showing that these skills were acquired when the learners engaged with peers, managers and training providers, this recommendation is not supported. additional training may overburden learners who are already struggling to cope with the work and study demands of the learnership (davel, 2022). the learnership programme, according to the stakeholders, allows learners to learn from each other as well as from the experienced workers in the workplace. nasira mentioned: ‘yes, they [the learners] do [learn] from their groups, you can see when they ask questions, and when they go and then the other one will stand by close as well and hear what they are saying.’ (nasira, manager, semistructured interview) for learnerships specifically, the participants recognised the importance of workplace inclusion as prerequisite for effective learning and development. nasira noted that the learners were not to be called learners at work and should be treated as full employees, with the implication that they could put questions to other employees in the organisation. in addition to that, open communication and an ‘open-door policy at the end of the day’ (nasira, manager, semistructured interview) guided the interactions between the manager and the learners in this particular learnership. omari focused on the systems they had put in place to offer the learners a platform where they could interact with each other and with the provider. nasira commented on the importance of coworkers and managers who are willing to share their experience and knowledge: ‘[… w]hatever i did share really made a difference. yes, they will always be people who come back with questions, because it is a total new thing – so i just believe that – when i learn something new i give it to the team and i say, listen here, this is what you do, did you know about this. because it doesn’t help keeping information for yourself. the more [information] they have got, the more empowered they are’. (nasira, manager, semistructured interview) since the learners were in a call-centre environment where they could not take calls throughout the working day, the provider made use of whatsapp as a platform where questions could be addressed in a group setting: ‘[the provider] has a whatsapp group with them and on the whatsapp group it’s her and the learners and it’s [name of facilitator] who is their facilitator and assessor. so, the learners ask any questions they have. he touches base with them on whatsapp because they can’t take phone calls in the workplace and she touches base and she says they are very responsive.’ (omari, external training provider, semistructured interview) organisational-level benefits on an organisational level, the learnership holds several benefits, including capacity building, the benefit of b-bbee in employing a cheaper workforce, reduced recruitment costs and simplified onboarding and training. the stakeholders agree with the benefit of b-bbee: the fact that learnerships provide aspirant learners who are less advantaged and cannot necessarily afford higher education studies with an opportunity to enter the profession (karlsson & berger, 2006; mayombe, 2020) is recognised and affirmed by the stakeholders in this study. capacity building includes a robust recruitment pipeline that understands the culture of the organisation. the benefits of capacity building and bbbee are clear in zola’s interview: ‘i think for six months paying someone, i would say an allowance rather than a salary, there is a benefit in having those extra hands … taking unemployed learners for a year, and then after that we tried to place them on permanent employment which is a recruitment pipeline for us.’ (zola, learnership coordinator, semistructured interview) ‘[… o]ther benefits as well, like any other employer in terms of bbbee and in terms of the reduced costs and recruitment, and also in terms of – really the reduced costs in terms of – if you are already a learner of 12 months, when you get permanent employment all the costs that you would have incurred in say the first three months.’ (zola, learnership coordinator, semistructured interview) capacity building is not only the appointment of new staff, but also having a short-term ‘back-up plan’ for employees who go on extended leave (i.e. sick leave or maternity leave) in that the learner is a person experienced in the organisation who can be utilised, even it is in a different department. organisational performance hinges on individual performance, and therefore learner performance is added here to the organisational benefits. the organisation in this case study did not include formal performance management measures in the learnership programme, and the interviews focused on the subjective perception of the learners’ performance. all three stakeholders noted learner performance in their observations, albeit from different perspectives. the direct manager of the learners, nasira, focused on determining increases in an individual’s performance level in terms of confidence and added value. what stood out in nasira’s observations on learner performance is the way she measured it, which is not against an hr performance scorecard or metric but by the contribution and value the learners are adding to the teams they are assigned to: ‘when you take into consideration what they knew a few months ago and what they know now in a short period of time, i really do think it is a great benefit. and then they get a little compensation for it as well, but they have their full value and they mean something where they are now. you can see that definitely – you can see every month there is really progress in terms of their contribution towards the bigger team, yes.’ (nasira, manager, semistructured interview) the external training provider, omari, had a systems-focused response centred on the formal structure of how the assessments are rolled out and marked. she observed that from the onset, the learners knew exactly what criteria they would be measured against and how to make uploads of the evidence of their work. a learner was granted three submissions in total to be rated competent in an area. the assessments were designed to be practical and to speak to the ‘live environment’ in which the learners found themselves in the workplace. in this case, the assessment criteria were built around practical content questions about the specific module covered. most of the learners were found competent with the first submission. the learning coordinator (zola) offered an outsider’s perspective on how she would define progress and performance in the individuals, saying that it took time for the learners to find their feet, usually by looking at what others did, and that she measured performance by the amount of responsibility a learner took: ‘at the beginning there is a lot of shadowing other employees, but usually by month three or four we find that they have found this space, or managers have found a space where the learner can actually take full responsibility for. so for the rest of the year, they just work in those environments.’ (zola, learnership coordinator, semistructured interview) rankin et al. (2014) reasoned that learner performance is of the utmost importance and that the success of a learnership programme hinges on providing a higher skills level and improving learner performance in the workplace. the data in this study showed that although all external stakeholders had some measures of performance in place, only the external training provider measured performance objectively. the objective measures are related to the theoretical learning, and feedback in this regard also gives the learners an indication of their own performance (mathenjwa, 2011). from an organisational point of view, the value added to the work teams and the practical performance is crucial to the organisation’s performance. an interesting observation by the stakeholders was that a learner’s attitude had an impact on their performance. the manager of the learners (nasira) commented that those who took responsibility for their learning were set apart from others: ‘i would say the best performers – it is just people that are actually standing out in a bigger team. that’s taking responsibility, that’s going with [taking initiative] the thing that you give them … others will wait for commands … [those who take initiative] will ask you more frequent questions, you can see they are more interested …’ (nasira, manager, semistructured interview) zola acknowledged that she was receiving positive feedback, and she added that the criterion for differentiation was how seriously the learners took the programme and that the reasons for attrition in the programme are learner attitude and willingness to take responsibility and commit to the learnership. benefits to the larger community in their interviews, the participants also recognised the value that the learnership has for the larger community context. for the organisation involved in this study, the aim was to get the immediate community involved: ‘our intention like – … to recruit within the communities we work in.’ (zola, learnership coordinator, semistructured interview) the benefit of learnerships to the larger community was also found by koyana and mason (2017), who noted that learnerships can foster social transformation in rural communities. the possibility of employing members of the community through the learnerships was also recognised. zola noticed that ‘[w]e always aim for 60% employment after the project’. even if employment cannot be offered after the learnership, it provides exposure to the formal work environment, which may impact future employability of the community members. notwithstanding that coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) had an impact on the employment of new labour in any organisation, nasira and zola agreed that the original intention when the learners were recruited was to employ them if a vacancy allowed: ‘yes, that was the intention … if there are positions available, we will definitely consider if they apply for those positions.’ (nasira, manager, semistructured interview) zola added that if a permanent position was not available, the learners would be considered for temporary positions, for example when someone went on maternity leave: ‘so you see that is sometimes our limitation when learners finish, then maybe there is no actual vacancy … often if they can’t get into permanent employment, because there is no vacancy, then they can help out sometimes on a contract basis … often the first point of call is to look for learners.’ (zola, learnership coordinator, semistructured interview) even if learnerships offer employment only for the duration of the programme (potgieter, 2003), a key ambition for individuals is to improve their appeal in the labour market (rothwell & arnold, 2007). wildschut (2012), however, noted that even if a significant majority of learners remained employed after the completion of a learnership programme, the skills development qualification has not intervened sufficiently to promote greater equality in south africa. the data from our study showed that even if the external economic and social climate of the country might upset the organisation’s intention to hire, the intention to hire does exist. discussion the greatest selling point for learnership programmes in south africa is the fact that it leads to skills development and employment opportunities (grewe et al., 2012; smith et al., 2005; visser & kruss, 2009). literature on skills development suggests that the south african experience exemplifies how difficult it is to develop robust and coherent skills development in the context of inadequate social security, high levels of job insecurity and high levels of inequalities. allais (2012) held that the dominant view in south african media and policy circles is that a skills shortage coupled with an inflexible labour market is the leading cause of unemployment. the skills of a workforce are a critical determinant of global competitiveness (kruss et al., 2012). therefore, the aim of learnership programmes in south africa cannot be discussed without referring to the avenue they create for skills development. the aim of the learnership system is to serve the implementation of the skills development act (geminiani & van wyk, 2002). this includes providing workplace training to create skills, getting youth into jobs more quickly, ensuring a link between structured and unstructured work experience, accumulating training in a nationally recognised qualification, targeting the employed and unemployed in south africa and combating unemployment (groener, 2014; smith et al., 2005; rankin et al., 2014). from our results, it was evident that from the stakeholder perspective, the skills development of the individual learner was the main benefit of the learnership. this is in line with the main intention of the nsds. the nsds (department of labour, 1997) was the implementation of a: [d]emand-led skills development system, which is flexible and responsive to the economic and social needs of the country at the same time as it promotes development of new skills demands. (p. 4.2) although the focus of any learnership is on the development of technical skills (swartz & soudien, 2015), which according to the stakeholders in this study was met, the learnership has greater value than the development of these specific skills. it was evident from this study that in the case of this learnership, informal learning led to learners acquiring many other skills such as basic work skills. it was evident, therefore, that the participation in the learnership contributed not only to developing the technical and vocational skills but also several essential employability skills that were developed informally during the programme. instead of additional formal training, these informal learning opportunities should be viewed and used as part of the comprehensive development opportunities included in the programme. as noted by cross (2007), 70% – 80% of workplace learning is highly integrated into every work activity. one should therefore rather focus on optimising the learnership so that it deliberately includes informal learning opportunities. these may include, for example, aspects such as collaborative projects, involvement in new tasks, job shadowing, job rotation, active reflection on action, creating an environment that is open to questions and new ideas (clarke, 2004; crouse et al., 2011; lohman, 2006). in the south african context, where the unemployment rate indicates that almost one in every two young people does not have a job (statistics south africa, 2021), there is a drive towards employability and skills development (pitan & muller, 2020). therefore, the development of these employability skills adds to the value of learnerships, albeit as a product of informal learning during the programme. work-based learning and employability literature suggests that employability skills, such as communication, problem-solving, planning and organising, self-management and learning technology, most mentioned by the learners, are imperative in thriving in business (huq & gilbert, 2013). konstantinou and miller (2021) added that the covid-19 pandemic added resilience to the list of employability skills needed. however, what is evident is that teamwork (komariah, 2015), critical reflection (helyer, 2015) and interpersonal skills are essential in the development of employability skills. it is therefore our ability to respond to suggestions and criticism from others that add to the meaning-making of the theory, showcasing the inter-relationship between teamwork and the development of employability skills (komariah, 2015; subekti, 2019). it is precisely the work community and interaction with this community that develop these employability skills in a wbl programme, as one tends to create meaning and makes sense of theory through interaction with others. the learnership creates a community of practice (cop). accordingly, knowledge is generated as people in the cop interact with one another and share information, experience, advice and insight (wenger-trayner & wenger-trayner, 2014). nasira’s comments about how the learners ask questions and answer them collectively show how these learners engage in the cop and participate in learning as a social process. smith et al. (2005) noted that over time, the combination of action and discourse represents communal approaches to understanding and solving problems. this process transforms shared knowledge into the tools that embody cop’s regime of competence and therefore the enacted knowledge of the organisation (marais et al., 2021). furthermore, the learnership can be managed as to include many rich informal learning opportunities that can enhance the skills development and learning of the individual learner. skills development is not only important to the individual learner, but also it is directly related to team success as well as the larger organisation’s bottom-line. practical implications social learning through interaction with the cop during the learnership programme aided in the development of employability skills. as one tends to create meaning and make sense of theory through interaction with others, other skills are developed in the repertoire of a young professional. therefore, wbl, such as learnerships, at the heart of the nsds, can be leveraged not only to develop critical basic workplace readiness skills but also to aid stakeholders in minimising recruitment cost and hiring employees who fit the culture of the organisation. furthermore, instead of adding more theoretical training to the programme, organisations implementing learnerships should focus on creating learning contexts in which interaction with other employees is facilitated. limitations and recommendations the findings cannot be generalised to other wbl or learnership programmes. although wbl is a global concept and a well-researched field, the conceptualisation and definition of learnerships are unique to south africa, limiting the body of knowledge relating to it to the context and the setting. furthermore, the learnership included in this study was from a specific seta and included the views of stakeholders involved in only one specific learnership programme. the goal was not to generalise the findings, however, but rather to provide an explorative and descriptive investigation of stakeholder views on the value of learnerships in south africa. more research should be conducted with different learnership programmes from different provinces and in different setas. conclusion the stakeholders in this study viewed the learnership valuable to the learners, the organisation as well as the larger community. learnerships holds potential to equip learners with skills to enter the global market and in that, to offer opportunities to individuals and communities for self-advancement and to enable them to play a productive role in their community. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions n.j.d. conducted her phd on learnerships in the south african context. this article is derived from her phd data. s.o. was the main supervisor and n.h. the co-supervisor for the phd. for the article, n.j.d analysed the data and wrote up the results. s.o. conceptualised and drafted the article. n.h. contributed to the literature review section, reviewed and edited the article. all the authors reviewed the content before submission and agreed on the content. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability de-identified data used for the analysis of this specific article will be made available via the university of pretoria data repository on figshare. disclaimer the views and opinions are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references aigbavboa, c.o., & thwala, w.d. (2014). assessment of the effectiveness of learnerships programmes in the south african construction industry. in applied research conference in africa, arca, 7–9 august 2014 (pp. 141–147). university of johannesburg, accra, ghana. al-sharafi, a.g., & al-rubai’ey, f. (2020). managing stakeholder conflicting expectations in higher education: a hybrid approach. journal of educational and psychological studies, 14(4), 627–641. https://doi.org/10.53543/jeps.vol14iss4pp627-641 akbar, k., vajeth, t., & wissink, h. (2016). the relevance and effectiveness of learnership programs in south africa: a survey of trainees from within a seta. international journal of educational sciences, 14(1–2), 110–120. https://doi.org/10.1080/09751122.2016.11890484 allais, s. (2012). will skills save us? rethinking the relationships between vocational education, skills development policies, and social policy in south africa. international journal of educational development, 32(5), 632–642. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2012.01.001 bailur, s. (2007). using stakeholder theory to analyze telecenter projects. information technologies and international development, 3(3), 61–80. https://doi.org/10.1162/itid.2007.3.3.61 beukes, l. (2013). an investigation into the antecedents of intention and learnership performance in the agricultural sector of south africa. doctoral dissertation. stellenbosch university, stellenbosch. retrieved from http://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/85603 blandin de chalain, m.m. (2015). learnerships in south africa: the role of workplace adjustment as a mediator between social support and learner performance and satisfaction. master’s dissertation. university of cape town. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13648 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa braun, v., & clarke, v. (2013). successful qualitative research: a practical guide for beginners. sage. retrieved from https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/934201 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2016). (mis)conceptualising themes, thematic analysis, and other problems with fugard and potts’ (2015) sample-size tool for thematic analysis. international journal of social research methodology, 19(6), 739–743. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2016.1195588 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2020). one size fits all? what counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis? qualitative research in psychology, 18(3), 328–335. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2020.1769238 clarke, n. (2004). hrd and the challenges of assessing learning in the workplace. international journal of training and development, 8(2), 140–156. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2419.2004.00203.x clarke, v., & braun, v. (2018). using thematic analysis in counselling and psychotherapy research: a critical reflection. counselling and psychotherapy research, 18(2), 107–110. https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12165 cross, j. (2007). informal learning: rediscovering the natural pathways that inspire innovation and performance. pfeiffer: san francisco, ca. crouse, p., doyle, w., & young, j.d. (2011). workplace learning strategies, barriers, facilitators and outcomes: a qualitative study among human resource management practitioners. human resource development international, 14(1), 39–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2011.542897 davel, n.j. (2022). the impact of learnerships on human capital development in south africa. unpublished doctoral thesis. university of pretoria. davis, k. (2017). an empirical investigation into different stakeholder groups perception of project success. international journal of project management, 35(4), 604–617. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.02.004 davies, t.a., & farquharson, f. (2004). the learnership model of workplace training and its effective management: lessons learnt from a southern african case study. journal of vocational education and training, 56(2), 181–203. https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820400200253 de jager, s., hattingh, s., & hüster, e. (2002). how to implement a learnership: a guide for employers and training providers. german technical co-operation. de louw, l.a. (2009). efficacy of learnership programmes: an exploratory investigation of learner perceptions in the cape peninsula. master’s dissertation. cape peninsula university of technology. http://dk.cput.ac.za/td_cput/150 department of higher education and training. (2011). learnership regulations of april 2011. pretoria: government printers. department of labour (dol), republic of south africa. (2001). the national skills development strategy. pretoria: author. departement of labour. (1997). national skills development strategy (nsds). pretoria: government printers. donald, w.e., baruch, y., & ashleigh, m. (2019). the undergraduate self-perception of employability: human capital, careers advice, and career ownership. studies in higher education, 44(4), 599–614. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2017.1387107 ebrahim, a., & pirttilä, j. (2019). can a wage subsidy system help reduce 50 per cent youth unemployment? evidence from south africa (no. 2019/28). wider working paper. retrieved from https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/publications/working-paper/pdf/wp-2019-28.pdf eraut, m. (2004). informal learning in the workplace. studies on continuing education, 26(2), 247–273. freeman, r.e. (1984). strategic management: a stakeholder approach. pitman. fuller, l., & govender, k. (2020). regulatory compliance and private education provision in south africa: boon or a bane? asian journal of interdisciplinary research, 3(2), 30–35. https://doi.org/10.34256/ajir2033 geminiani, f., & van wyk, k.v. (2002). skills training in the construction industry. where to from here? civil engineering, 10(5), 8–11. gibb, v. (2014). grow skills and productivity through learnerships – feature. hr future, 2014(10), 17. http://doi.org/10.10520/ejc158970 grewe, m., ukpere, w., & rust, a. (2012). the performance of employed and unemployed learners on learnership programmes. african journal of business management, 6(44), 11128–11144. http://doi.org/10.5897/ajbm12.1327 groener, z. (2014). skills development and structural change: possibilities for and limitations of redressing structural racial inequalities in south africa. international review of education, 59(6), 723–749. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-014-9399-z helyer, r. (2015). learning through reflection: the critical role of reflection in work-based learning (wbl). journal of work-applied management, 7(1), 15–27. https://doi.org/10.1108/jwam-10-2015-003 huq, a., & gilbert, d.h. (2013). enhancing graduate employability through work-based learning in social entrepreneurship: a case study. education and training, 55(6), 550–572. https://doi.org/10.1108/et-04-2012-0047 jackson, d. (2015). employability skill development in work-integrated learning: barriers and best practice. studies in higher education, 40(2), 350–367. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2013.842221 karlsson, j., & berger, m. (2006). well-grounded and prepared new teachers: reflecting on the promise of learnerships. perspectives in education, 24(1), 53–64. komariah, k. (2015). the role of work-based learning in building employability skills of vocational education students. in the 3rd upi international conference on technical and vocational education and training, 13th-14th november 2014 (pp. 110–113). bandung, indonesia. konstantinou, i., & miller, e. (2021). self-managed and work-based learning: problematising the workplace–classroom skills gap. journal of work-applied management, 13(1), 6–18. https://doi.org/10.1108/jwam-11-2020-0048 koyana, s., & mason, r.b. (2017). rural entrepreneurship and transformation: the role of learnerships. international journal of entrepreneurial behavior & research, 23(50), 734–751. http://doi.org/10.1108/ijebr-07-2016-0207 kraak, a. (2008). a critical review of the national skills development strategy in south africa. journal of vocational education and training, 60(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820701828762 kruss, g., wildschut, a., janse van rensburg, d., visser, m., haupt, g., & roodt, j. (2012). developing skills and capabilities through the learnership and apprenticeship pathway systems. human science research council. lohman, m.c. (2006). factors influencing teachers’ engagement in informal learning activities. journal of workplace learning, 18(3), 141–156. https://doi.org/10.1108/13665620610654577 marais, d.l., petersen, i., & quayle, m. (2021). policymaking through a knowledge lens: using the embodied-enacted-inscribed knowledge framework to illuminate the transfer of knowledge in a mental health policy consultation process – a south african case study. plos one, 16, e0244940. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244940 mathenjwa, i.l. (2011). an evaluation of the implementation of the learnership programme within the public service commission. doctoral dissertation. university of stellenbosch, stellenbosch. mayombe, c. (2020). needs assessment for vocational skills training for unemployed youth in ethekwini municipality, south africa. higher education, skills and work-based learning, 11(1), 18–33. http://doi.org/10.1108/heswbl-09-2019-0126 mummenthey, c., & du preez, r. (2010). implementing efficient and effective learnerships in the construction industry. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 1–11. http://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.766 naidu, k. (2019). learners’ experiences of learnership programmes in an information technology organisation. unpublished master’s dissertation. unisa. national qualifications framework 2015–2020 | saqa. retrieved from https://www.saqa.org.za/documents/guidelines/nqf-implementation-framework-2015-2020 pitan, o.s., & muller, c. (2020). student perspectives on employability development in higher education in south africa. education + training journal, 63(3), 453–471. http://doi.org/10.1108/et-02-2018-0039 plack, m.m. (2006). the development of communication skills, interpersonal skills, and a professional identity within a community of practice. journal of physical therapy education, 20(1), 37–46. potgieter, f. (2003). phantom ship or ferryboat? understanding the mystery of learnerships and assessing the realities: conversations. perspectives in education, 21(1), 167–187. rankin, n., roberts, g., & schöer, v. (2014). the success of learnerships? lessons from south africa’s training and education programme. wider working paper no. 2014/068. unu-wider, helinski. republic of south africa. (1998). skills development levies act 9 of 1999. pretoria: government printers. rothwell, a., & arnold, j. (2007). self-perceived employability: development and validation of a scale. personnel review, 36(1), 23–41. http://doi.org/10.1108/00483480710716704 smith, m.j., jennings, r., & solanki, g. (2005). perspectives on learnerships: a critique of south africa’s transformation of apprenticeships. journal of vocational education and training, 57(4), 537–561. https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820500200301 statistics south africa (2021). annual report 2021/2022 – book 1. http://www.statssa.gov.za/ subekti, s. (2019). the implementation of work-based learning for the development of employability skills of vocational secondary school students through teamwork activity. invotec, 15(1), 35–42. http://doi.org/10.17509/invotec.v15i1.16058 swartz, s., & soudien, c. (2015). developing young people’s capacities to navigate adversity. in a. de lannoy, s. swartz, l. lake, & c. smith (eds.), south african child gauge (pp. 92–97). children’s institute, university of cape town. trede, f. (2012). role of work-integrated learning in developing professionalism and professional identity. international journal of work-integrated learning, 13(3), 159. visser, m., & kruss, g. (2009). learnerships and skills development in south africa: a shift to prioritise the young unemployed. journal of vocational education and training, 61(3), 357–374. http://doi.org/10.1080/13636820903180384 wenger-trayner, e., & wenger-trayner, b. (2014). learning in a landscape of practice: a framework. in e. wenger-trayner, m. fenton-o’creevy, s. hutchinson, c. kubiak, & b. wenger-trayner (eds.), learning in landscapes of practice (pp. 13–29). routledge. wildschut, a. (2012). an assessment of skills development interventions in south africa: skills development through structured qualifications: learnerships and apprenticeships: journey through the learnership system mired by past. hsrc review, 10(1), 20–21. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/3412 young, m.r. (2018). reflection fosters deep learning: the ‘reflection page and relevant to you’ intervention. journal of instructional pedagogies, 20, 1–17. abstract introduction research methodology results discussion limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) michelle r. mey department of human resource management, faculty of business and economic sciences, nelson mandela university, port elizabeth, south africa paul poisat graduate school, faculty of business and economic sciences, nelson mandela university, port elizabeth, south africa carmen stindt unit of statistical consultation, nelson mandela university, port elizabeth, south africa citation mey, m.r., poisat, p., & stindt, c. (2021). the influence of leadership behaviours on talent retention: an empirical study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1504. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1504 original research the influence of leadership behaviours on talent retention: an empirical study michelle r. mey, paul poisat, carmen stindt received: 26 oct. 2020; accepted: 09 mar. 2021; published: 28 apr. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: top talent remains the main source of organisational competitive advantage. the ability to attract, motivate and develop talent management and retention of high performing employees is imperative for organisations to survive and thrive in today’s dynamic and volatile complex world of work. studies reveal that employees’ intentions to stay or quit are influenced by the leadership behaviours of managers. research purpose: the focus of this study was to identify the leadership behaviours that influence talent retention. motivation for the study: to determine the leadership behaviour preferences of south african employees, as well as the extent to which these behaviours influence talent retention. research approach/design and method: a quantitative research approach was adopted utilising a non-experimental comparative research design. exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine the nature of the underlying factor structure that emerged from the leadership behaviour importance and leadership behaviour experience scales respectively. snowball convenience sampling was used, attracting 711 useable responses. main findings: this study revealed that the retention of skilled, engaged employees requires leaders who can provide them with a sense of belonging, respect, empowerment, support their personal growth and development, and provide them with flexibility and freedom in executing their duties. practical/managerial implications: leaders need to demonstrate certain behaviours which include providing a sense of belonging, respect, empowerment, support for personal growth, flexibility and connecting at the human interface. this is important in an increasingly technology-driven world, and more recently, under the working conditions created by the covid-19 pandemic. it is believed that the ability of leaders to connect at the human interface will continue to significantly influence talent retention, in the future. contributions: this study will benefit future organisational leaders in better understanding the specific leadership behaviours that enhance talent retention and talent retention strategies. keywords: leadership, leadership behaviour, talent retention, talent management strategy, south african organisations introduction when human resource (hr) talent management processes and practices are evaluated, leadership frequently emerges as a key impact factor for employee talent retention (meyer, 2016). talent retention is simply defined as the organisation’s ability to retain its skilled staff. this definition can be expanded to encompass all methods and systems created to attract, develop, retain and make use of skilled people to increase workplace productivity (sinha & sinha, 2012). leadership is defined as the ability to influence people towards the achievement of organisational objectives (grobler et al., 2017). a google search on the role of leaders in ensuring organisational success reveals in excess of 21 million results and shows that this is undoubtedly one of the most prevalent topics of research, publications, conferences, training programmes and general academic and non-academic dialogue. according to veldsman and johnson (2016), current debates concerning leadership and leadership excellence is a critical issue of the present time. the call for effective leadership based on current realities is clear. old recipes and conventional ways of leading no longer suffice and the future is based on the quality of current leadership, as they will either be the architects or dismantlers of the future (veldsman & johnson, 2016). this is true of leaders at all levels, from high profile global leader to front-line leaders in the workplace. with the growing trend of shorter organisational tenure fuelled by global and national scarcities of certain critical skills, organisations are investing in strategies to enhance employee retention (allen, bryant, & vardaman, 2017). talent retention forms a key component of most talent management strategies and frameworks (bluen, 2013; meyer, 2016, 2018). bluen (2013) identified key role players in talent management, ranking leaders at the top of this list. meyer (2018) highlighted leading talent as one of the key components of his talent management framework and stated that effective hr talent management processes and practices will never replace high-quality leadership. leaders are the catalysts who bring any talent initiative to life. without strong leaders taking ownership of the talent agenda, talent practices are reduced to hr driven, form-filling exercises, which do little to drive retention and certainly do not drive organisations results (pandy, 2017). however, negligible research has been conducted to identify the specific leadership behaviours that influence talent retention. porath (2015) found that the only leadership behaviour that had a significant influence on the career commitment of employees was the level of respect respondents had for their leaders. the purpose of this study was to add to the body of research by establishing whether specific leadership behaviours influence talent retention and to determine this more specifically within the south african context. research purpose and objectives rodriguez-sanchez, gonzalez-torres, montero-navarro and gallego-losada (2020) stated that effectively managing human talent in organisations provides competitive edge and therefore strategies directed at attracting and retaining talent must be an hr imperative. this is problematic for south african organisations as the global talent competitiveness index (2020) ranks south africa at 106 out of 132 positions in its ability to retain talent (insead business school, 2020). south african businesses that wish to enhance their competitiveness must make talent retention a key priority. failure to address talent retention issues may place businesses at the risk of having a shortage of qualified and high performing employees, which will negatively affect the productivity of these organisations (knowledge resources, 2017). research indicates that leaders have an important role to play in talent retention (bluen, 2013; tian, shuja iqbal, qalati, anwar, & khan, 2020). therefore, understanding the leadership behaviours that south african employees prefer is key to developing leadership skills that match the needs of the south african workforce and, in this way, enhance talent retention. the main purpose of this study was to determine the leadership behaviour preferences of south african employees, as well as the extent to which these behaviours influence talent retention. this article is based on a broader study that was conducted to investigate the expectations and experiences of talent management across south africa and the effect on retention (du randt, 2019; poisat, mey, & sharp, 2018). following the statistical analysis conducted in that study it was decided to determine whether talent retention was influenced by certain leadership behaviours. the research objectives of this study were: (1) to understand the influence of leadership behaviours on talent retention, (2) to identify specific leadership behaviours that enhance talent retention and (3) to determine the extent to which the expectations of employees with regard to leadership behaviours, which influence talent retention were being met by their employers. literature review human resource practitioners need to create a compelling business case for talent retention, an argument that is gathering increasing support through the notion of talent value management (pandy, 2017). mckinsey calls on organisations to link talent to value (barriere, owens, & pobereskin, 2018) and ulrich argues that market value can be significantly impacted by demonstrating the value of an organisation’s talent, particularly its leadership (ulrich, 2016). talent retention retaining high performing talent is a critical business imperative. makhubela and ngoepe (2018) stated that the departure of highly skilled and fully trained employees is the most significant cost associated with employee turnover. al mamun and hasan (2017) further observed visible and invisible costs related to turnover that is sometimes underestimated. these include the costs associated with recruitment and other costs that the organisation incurs in ensuring that a replacement employee is fully settled and developed in the organisation. there are also costs linked to the departure of a high calibre employee. these include the costs associated with finding temporary or replacement staff, reduced morale as employees work overtime, failure to satisfy the customers because of loss of productivity and insufficient production capacity. a degree of organisational turnover is inevitable. however, a high rate of turnover as indicated is damaging (mccandless & sauer, 2010). for this reason, it is important to instil a culture of retention through the implementation of an effective talent management system (nadeem, 2009; paul & berry, 2013; pyszka & pilat, 2011). leadership plays a very important role in this regard, as the leadership behaviours and type of values promoted by leaders will determine their actions and priorities. it is these specific leadership behaviours that may have an impact on the talent retention of an organisation that this article has focused upon. the study aims to distil the critical leadership behaviours with the largest impact on retention by empirically controlling for significant differences between the perceived importance ratings and the currently experienced ratings of employees. leadership behaviour and talent retention research into leadership behaviours emanated at ohio state university in the 1950s and identified two leadership dimensions including consideration and initiating structure (dubrin, 2016). items of the consideration dimension are significant to this study and comprise emotional support, concern for the group, making personal connections and treating everyone as equals (dubrin, 2016). the ohio state university study provided the foundation for research into leadership behaviours including blake and moutons (1978) leadership grid that juxtaposed concern for production with concern for people. current research into leadership dimensions and behaviour has evolved to incorporate core values, beliefs and moral standards into leaders’ self-identities and influence on consistency of their moral and ethical behaviour (veldsman & johnson, 2016). emiliani (1998) pioneered the exploration of management behaviours in lean manufacturing, which provided the foundation for later studies (camuffo & gerli, 2018). emiliani (2003) took his study further and linked a leader’s belief to a behaviour and a competency. he found that the beliefs, behaviours and competencies of experienced lean leaders were significantly different from conventional managers. denison, an expert of the toyota production system (cited in orr, 2005), identified nine leadership behaviours significant to the lean manufacturing process and asserted that behaviours are universal and proved to be accurate in various organisations (trenkner, 2016). a south african study by munyaka, boshoff, pietersen and snelgar (2017), revealed that authentic leadership has a significant influence on psychological capital and climate and that this has a positive influence on organisational commitment and talent retention. a further south african study (shabane, schultz, & van hoek, 2017) found that although participants were generally dissatisfied with their remuneration, transformational leadership played a mediating role in the relationship between satisfaction with remuneration and their intention to stay at the organisation. poisat and grewan (2019) in a study on lean leadership behaviours, distinguished specific leadership behaviours required in lean manufacturing that promote employee engagement. in the same study, poisat and grewan (2019) cited various leadership behaviour studies that result in higher employee well-being and lower stress (bester, stander, & van zyl, 2015), improved employee satisfaction levels (mendes & stander, 2011), enhanced organisational support (rothman & stander, 2010) and a higher level of decision-making, innovation and problem-solving (bester, stander, & van zyl, 2015). according to tian et al. (2020), leadership behaviour influences talent retention. organisational and employee outcomes, such as work engagement and turnover intentions, are significantly influenced by leadership behaviour (paul & berry, 2013). this finding was strongly endorsed by van den berg, bakker and ten cate (2013) and yeh (2013) who identified that less engaged employees are more likely to leave the organisation and vice versa. steele and fullagar (2009) also alluded to the role played by leaders in talent retention by highlighting the importance of role clarity in the talent management process. a lack of work engagement and role clarity will increase the chance that an employee will leave the organisation, and it is thus the role of the leader to promote engagement, as well as clearly define the employees’ roles (steele & fullagar, 2009). work engagement refers to an employee being positively energised and attached to the organisation in a constructive and fulfilling manner (schaufeli, salanova, gonzálezromá, & bakker, 2002). role clarity is achieved when the leader clearly defines the roles associated with employees’ work. deiser (2012) contended that transformational leaders clarify employee roles more explicitly, as they themselves seek clarity regarding what they contribute to the organisation (parry & urwin, 2009). evidence also suggests that certain behaviours of transformational leaders, such as being respectful and empowering, encouraging participation in decision-making play a role in embracing and retaining talent (alatawi, 2017; parry & urwin, 2009). porath (2015) found that leaders’ respectful behaviour towards their followers led to high levels of engagement and commitment and that this ultimately influenced employee retention. northouse (2013) asserted that transformational leaders are engaging when assessing their followers in order to understand their expectations, intentions and what motivates them. they also put concerted effort into their endeavours to meet the needs of their followers. these findings suggest that the leadership behaviours associated with the transformational leadership style are relevant in retaining talented employees. rayton and yalabik (2014) postulated that leaders who have empowering behaviours are highly likely to have the ability to influence talent retention positively. mendes and stander (2011) found a significant relationship between leader-empowering behaviour and talent retention. van dierendonck and dijkstra (2012), basford, offerman and wirtz (2012) and kontoghiorghes (2014) pointed out that supportive and empowering leadership behaviours significantly assist in reducing staff turnover. these empowering behaviours include leadership practises of accountability, delegation, decentralised decision-making, coaching, information-sharing and skill development. research methodology research approach this article is based on a quantitative research approach using a non-experimental comparative research design. rationale for conducting an exploratory factor analysis (efa) in the absence of hypotheses is provided together with the significance of leadership behaviour importance and leadership behaviour experience scales. research participants and data collection the target population for this study comprised of employees working in south african private and public organisations across a range of racial, gender and generational cohorts and employed at all organisational levels, including managerial, non-managerial, support and administrative employees. by means of snowball convenience sampling an online questionnaire was emailed to potential respondents. a total of 711 useable responses were received. table 1 reveals the demographic profile of the respondents. table 1: demographic profile of respondents. from table 1, it can be deduced that the sample comprised of both genders of predominately african race. most of the respondents were employed on a full-time basis and were employed in the private sector. data collection methods survey instrument the survey instrument comprised a questionnaire consisting of three separate sections, namely biographical data, leadership behaviour and talent retention. the leadership behaviour scale was developed based on a literature review conducted by parry and urwin (2009) and studies conducted by northouse (2013), porath (2015) and alatawi (2017). these studies were specifically consulted as they identified specific behaviours that had emerged from the literature review conducted in fulfilment of this study as having an influence on talent retention. the talent retention section of the questionnaire was based on a survey instrument developed by kyndt, dochy, michielsen and moeyaert (2009) and used in a study conducted by poisat et al. (2018) in assessing talent retention. it comprised of 11 items specifically designed to measure both intention to stay and intention to quit. both the leadership behaviour and the talent retention scales consisted of two separate five-point likert-type response scales, ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree and required respondents to (1) rate the importance of each item to them and (2) rate their experience at their place of employment at the time of the study for each item. providing two rating scales for each statement allowed for an analysis of the differences received between the rated importance and the actual experiences of the employees. statistical analysis performed various statistical methods were used to analyse the collected data. descriptive statistical measures are used to describe both the importance of leadership behaviours to the respondents and how they were experienced by the respondents. the mann–whitney u test was used to test whether there was a statistically significant difference between these two sets of ratings. exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the factor structure of the leadership behaviour importance, leadership behaviour experience and talent retention, as this study was exploratory in nature and the factor structure had not been previously confirmed. exploratory factor analysis was also used to determine whether the factor structures for leadership behaviour importance and leadership behaviour experience were equivalent. correlation analysis and multiple linear regression were used to explore the relationships between the two variables. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for a research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. results description of leadership behaviours importance and experience the leadership behaviours items were rated by respondents to determine both the importance and the experience of these concepts as encountered in the workplace. the importance ratings for the leadership behaviours had medians ranging from 4 to 5, which indicated that the general theme of the respondents’ ratings ranged from ‘favour’ to ‛strongly favour’. the experience ratings for the leadership behaviours had medians ranging from 3 to 4, revealing a general theme of ‘average’ to ‘above average’. the most notable differences between the medians for importance and experience were received for items b4.5 (‘recognises my accomplishments at work’) and b4.15 (‘supports my personal growth and development’). each of these behaviours had a median importance rating of strongly favourable with an experience median of average. two leadership behaviours showed no difference in median for importance and experience ratings. these items were b4.1 (‘acknowledges my background and experience’) and b4.14 (‘provides me with freedom and flexibility’). both items had a median rating of favourable (above average) for both importance and experience. exploratory factor analysis the keiser–meyer–olkin measure of sampling adequacy (kmo-msa) and bartlett’s test of sphericity were used to determine if the data pertaining to leadership behaviour importance, leadership behaviour experience and talent retention were suitable for efa. the kmo index ranges from 0 to 1, with an index of 0.5 rendering the data suitable for factor analysis, as it indicates that the data are sufficiently related. as all the efa prerequisite measures were satisfied, efas were performed for leadership behaviour importance, leadership behaviour experience and talent retention. the summary of results is shown in table 2, along with the number of factors extracted and the corresponding variance percentage extracted. table 2: exploratory factor analysis results. based on the efa results, the cronbach’s alpha values were obtained for each factor extracted and are included in parentheses after the corresponding factor label. three factors were extracted for the leadership behaviours importance ratings, these being inclusivity/respect (0.888), engagement and empowerment (0.813) and social connectedness (0.750). a single factor was extracted for the leadership behaviour experience ratings, which was labelled experience (0.949). for the talent retention items, a single factor was extracted and was labelled as talent retention (0.887). therefore, all the factors were deemed reliable. convergent validity was assessed by using the variance extracted (ve) for each factor. a ve of 0.50 or higher indicates adequate evidence of convergence and each factor in this study satisfied this validity requirement (hair, ringle, & sarstedt, 2011). discriminant validity was assessed by comparing the square of the correlation estimates between any two factors with the ve of the two factors. if the ve value was found to be greater, then it indicates that the discriminant validity is adequate (hair et al., 2011). all ves in this study were found to be greater than the square of the correlation estimates therefore discriminant validity was deemed adequate. as all the factors extracted were deemed reliable, the factor scores were calculated. inclusivity/respect obtained a mean value of 4.381 (min. = 1.4, max. = 5, standard deviation [sd] = 0.61), engagement and empowerment a mean of 4.349 (min. = 1.67, max. = 5, sd = 0.669), and a mean of 3.823 (min. = 1, max. = 5, sd = 0.821) was obtained for social connectedness. for the experience factor, a mean of 3.249 (min. = 1, max. = 5, sd = 0.979) was revealed. finally, talent retention attracted a mean value of 3.286 (min. = 1, max. = 5, sd = 0.887). as the factor structures determined for leadership behaviour importance and leadership behaviour experience were not equivalent, with three factors extracted for the behaviour leadership importance ratings and only one factor extracted for the leadership behaviour experience ratings. theoretically, it would be expected that the factors extracted for both leadership behaviour importance and experience would be equivalent, however, the results did not support this. this result led to the investigation of the difference in ratings of each question for importance and experience to determine whether there was a significant difference between these ratings. this was important to the study as if there was a significant discrepancy between the ratings of importance and experience, it may affect the talent retention of the participants. mann–whitney u test upon review of the items and the factor structures extracted, it was determined that this was not going to provide adequate information on the objective of this study. the authors felt that the differences identified between the importance and experience ratings of the leadership behaviours held important information relative to talent retention. for this reason, the responses in relation to the importance and experience ratings were tested to determine whether the differences observed were statistically significant. to this end, a mann–whitney u test was performed to determine whether there was a significant difference and whether this difference was related to the ordinal nature of the ratings. the results of the test are provided in table 3. as discussed in the description of the leadership behaviours importance and experience section, the general trend in terms of the difference between the two ratings is that the importance of the behaviours was ranked higher than the experience thereof. table 3: mann–whitney u test for difference between the importance and experience of leadership behaviours. importance-experience difference variable the aim of the study was to determine the leadership behaviours that affect talent retention, with emphasis on how the difference between importance and experience ratings affected talent retention. therefore, new variables were created that reflected the difference between the importance and experience ratings. the differenced variables ranged from negative four (–4) to positive four (+4), where –4 indicated that the importance rating of that leadership behaviour was 1 (strongly oppose) and the experience rating was 5 (excellent). a +4 indicated that the importance rating of that leadership behaviour was 5 (strongly favour) and the experience rating was 1 (poor). a score of zero indicated that there was no difference between the importance and experience rating. the mean values for the leadership behaviours was found to range from 0.7187 for item b4.6 (‘gets to know me personally’) to 1.3727 for item b4.3 (‘finds out and understands the things that motivate me as an employee’). the result that every mean value is positive and above zero indicates that, on average, none of the leadership behaviours importance ratings were met in experience. correlation and regression analysis to determine whether the difference between the importance and experience ratings of leadership behaviours affected the level of talent retention correlations were calculated and a multiple regression analysis was performed. the correlation coefficients were used to indicate whether there is a significant relationship between the differenced variables and talent retention. all the differenced variables for each leadership behaviour were found to be negatively correlated with talent retention. this indicates that as the difference between the importance and experience ratings increases, the level of talent retention decreases. the correlation coefficients range from –0.312 for item b4.6 (‘gets to know me personally’) to –0.463 for item b4.16 (‘provides me with stimulation to maintain my interest at work’). to determine whether any of the leadership behaviours differenced variables were significant predictors of talent retention, a multiple regression analysis was performed. the following regression results were obtained (table 4): six leadership behaviour differenced variables were shown to be statistically significant predictors of talent retention. these items include b4.1 (‘acknowledges my background and experience’), b4.3 (‘finds out and understands the things that motivate me as an employee’), b4.4 (‘respects his or her employees’), b4.12 (‘takes responsibility’), b4.13 (‘treats me as an individual’) and b4.16 (‘provides me with stimulation to maintain my interest at work’). table 4: employee importance and employee current experience model on talent retention (f = 17.278 [16, 694], p-value < 0.001). the three statistically significant items that had the smallest effect on talent retention included b4.1 (b = −0.085, standard error [se] = 0.035, t = −2.404, p = 0.016), b4.3 (b = −0.085, se = 0.035, t = −2.106, p = 0.016) and b4.4 (b = −0.086, se = 0.041, t = −2.425, p = 0.036). therefore, these leadership behaviours regarding acknowledging the employee’s background, understanding the employees’ motivations and respecting the employees were significant predictors of talent retention, however, the effect on talent retention is not large. the leadership behaviours that were shown to be statistically significant predictors of talent retention and had a larger effect on talent retention in comparison to the variables b4.3 and b4.4 were leadership behaviour b4.13 (b = −0.138, se = 0.04, t = −3.46, p = 0.001) and b4.16 (b = −0.134, se = 0.038, t = −3.478, p = 0.001). it is important to note that the leadership behaviour item b4.12 (b = 0.103, se = 0.036, t = 2.88, p = 0.004) that relates to the leader taking responsibility was found to be a unique predictor of talent retention. for this item, the beta coefficient indicated that as the difference between importance and experience ratings increases by one unit, talent retention increases by 0.103. the results of the regression analysis, thus reveal that the difference between the importance an employee places on certain leadership behaviours and their experience of those behaviours in the workplace does have a significant influence on talent retention. discussion outline of results the positive, significant correlation between certain leadership behaviours and talent retention found in this article supports munyaka et al.’s (2017) findings in their south african study. this study indicated that leadership has a significant influence on psychological capital and climate, resulting in a positive impact on organisational commitment and talent retention. in addition, paul and berry (2013) found organisational and employee outcomes such as work engagement and turnover intention to be significantly influenced by leadership behaviours (yeh, 2013). in this article, correlations of the leadership behavioural traits with talent retention showed that the talent retention factor correlated mostly with employee’s current experiences of leadership behaviours. these behaviours were identified through factor analysis as comprising inclusivity/respect, empowerment and engagement (r = 0.529). with an r-value exceeding 0.5, this correlation is considered large (hair, black, babin, & anderson, 2014) and indicative of a relatively strong positive relationship, these behaviours are seen to embody the transformational leadership style (r = 0.529). six leadership behaviours were found to be statistically significant predictors of talent retention. these leadership behaviours are ‘acknowledges my background and experience’, ‘finds out and understands the things that motivate me as an employee’, ‘respects his or her employees’, ‘takes responsibility’, ‘treats me as an individual’ and ‘provides me with stimulation to maintain my interest at work’. in examining the specific leadership behaviours that employees considered to be important in contributing to increasing talent retention, it was not surprising to note that engagement (‘finds out and understands the things that motivate me as an employee and respects his or her employees’) and empowerment behaviours (provides me with stimulation to maintain my interest at work) were found to be highly rated in driving talent retention. these leadership behaviours are aligned to leaders’ good practices in creating a positive psychosocial environment for employees as originally identified by the ohio state university study, structuring an attractive career management system, practicing empowering behaviour and putting in place mechanisms that promote employee engagement (dubrin, 2016). rayton and yalabik (2014) suggested that leaders who demonstrate empowering behaviours have a positive influence on talent retention. furthermore, plummeting engagement levels increase the decision to quit, whereas positive employee engagement levels drive positive talent retention. kontoghiorghes (2014) and van dierendonck and dijkstra (2012) identified leadership empowering behaviours as accountability, delegation, decentralised decision-making, coaching, information sharing and skills development. in this article, engagement and empowerment, which are characteristic of the transformational leadership style, were noted as being significant in influencing talent retention. deiser (2012) contended that managers who adopt a transformational leadership style ensure role clarity, and alatawi (2017) regarded transformational leaders as supportive and empowering. results of this study with predictive validity on retention (what motivates me, respect employees, treats me as an individual and what stimulates me at work) align with these studies and validate the conclusions of northouse (2013), who found a strong correlation between transformational leaders’ engagement behaviours and talent retention. the importance of leadership behaviours to employees and employees’ experiences thereof were compared, and the importance ratings for all items was found to be higher than the experience ratings. these differences were seen to indicate that employees’ expectations (importance rating) were not being met by their current employers (experience rating). snelgar, renard and venter (2013) observed that it is concerning when employees’ expectations of their leaders are not met by the employers. it is, therefore, important that organisations implement strategies to build leaders who can demonstrate the behaviours sought by their followers as this is important in enhancing the retention of top talent. some recommendations in this regard are presented in the following section. practical implications the study found significant differences between the ratings that employees provided on the leadership behaviours deemed important in promoting talent retention and their ratings of their current experiences of these leadership behaviours. this demonstrated that their experiences fell short of their expectations, which could suggest that whilst employers may have talent retention strategies in place, they are not aligning their actions with these strategies. this holds negative implications for the organisations, as staff turnover is likely to increase. the results of this study demonstrate that employees who have leaders who (1) provide them with a sense of belonging, respect, empowerment and engagement, (2) provide support for their personal growth and development and (3) grant them flexibility and freedom in executing their duties are effective in driving a talent retention strategy. the behaviour of these leaders is seen to align with that of the transformational leadership style. these leaders influence their employees in a positive way and they are less likely to be enticed away by another organisation. from this discussion it seems apparent that leaders need to connect at the human interface with their employees as this study found this to be an important talent retention factor. in a technology-driven world this is particularly important and more so at a time when the workplace has experienced, and will continue to experience, a move to remote work. for hr managers and practitioners, the results of this study point to the importance of a good talent management strategy, as the long-term sustainability of organisations is reliant on the retention of high performing human capital. the retention of skilled and engaged employees requires leaders to behave in a manner that effectively drives high performance in an ever-changing environment. one way of ensuring this is for leaders to use appropriate assessment tools to diagnose their leadership behaviours to determine whether they promote the behaviours that promote retention. furthermore, organisations could develop an organisation-specific profile of the current leadership behaviour skill set sought by their employees through seeking the input of these employees. this profile could then be used, as in the context of this study, as a measure against which employees rate their current experiences versus these expectations. this profile should not be regarded as a static measure and amended over time as employee needs and expectations evolve in response to an ever-changing workplace. the use of diagnostic tools as described here could form part of an effective talent management strategy in assisting leadership to develop the behavioural skills that drive talent retention and promote a sustainable organisation. understanding that the workplace is becoming more technologically advanced is important as this becomes a critical consideration as human beings will continue to seek leaders who promote human and social connectedness, engagement and empowerment in enhancing the positive nature of their working experience. limitations and recommendations unlike other studies (bussin & toerien, 2015; snelgar et al., 2013) which directly asked respondents to rate the influence of different leadership behaviours in terms of their ability to retain employees, this study correlated the indirect responses of the respondents to retention. it did not investigate other factors that influence talent retention, such as the role played by the work environment and reward. although the demographics of the respondents to the study were relatively well balanced, the sample was not proportionally representative of the south african working population. a more proportional sample would have allowed more meaningful inferences to be made from the results achieved from the study. in terms of recommendations, managers should consider aligning their leadership behaviours with a transformational leadership style. as part of this, leaders should work diligently to improve employee engagement as a driver of talent retention. employers should also seek to align their leadership actions with the expectations of their employees. finally, leaders should play an active role in guiding, supporting and empowering employees and designing an effective career management system. human resource management should provide interventions to train and develop leadership in the behaviours that promote talent retention and, in so doing, contribute to a positive, empowering and engaging work experience for employees. conclusion this study underlines the significant role played by managers in any talent retention strategy and the need for managers to engage in practices and actions supportive of employee expectations in relation to engagement, personal growth and development, respect and freedom and flexibility in performing their duties. these leadership behaviours, when supported by an enabling culture are central to effective talent management practices and a critical element in building and retaining a strong talent pipeline. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank kim alexander for her technical expertise. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references alatawi, m.a. (2017). can transformational managers control turnover intention? sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a873. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.873 allen, d.g., bryant, p.c., & vardaman, j.m. (2017). retaining talent: replacing misconceptions with evidence-based strategies. academy of management perspectives, 24(2), 48–64. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2010.51827775 al mamun, c.a., & hasan, n. (2017). factors affecting employee turnover and sound retention strategies in business organization: a conceptual view. problems and perspectives in management, 15(1), 63–71. https://doi.org/10.21511/ppm.15(1).2017.06 barriere, m., owens, m., & pobereskin, s. (2018). linking talent to value. mckinsey quarterly, 2. retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/linking-talent-to-value basford, t.e., offermann, l.r., & wirtz, p.w. (2012). considering the source: the impact of leadership level on follower motivation and internet to stay. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 19(2), 202–214. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051811436279 bester, j., stander, m.w., & van zyl, l.e. (2015). leadership empowering behaviour, psychological empowerment, organisational citizenship behaviours and turnover intention in a manufacturing division. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 41(1), art. #1215, 14 pages. blake, r.r., & mouton, j.s. (1978). the managerial grid. houston, tx: gulf. bluen, s. (2013). talent management in emerging markets (1st edn.). randburg: knowres publishing. borg, v., guzman, j., nielsen, k., & skakon, j. (2010). are leaders’ well-being, behaviours and style associated with the affective well-being of their employees? a systematic review of three decades of research. work & stress, 24, 107–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2010.495262 bussin, m., & toerien, w. (2015). influence of reward preferences in attracting, retaining, and motivating knowledge workers in south african information technology companies. acta commercii, 15(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v15i1.290 camuffo, a., & gerli, f. (2018). modeling management behaviors in lean production environments. international journal of operations & production management, 38(20), 403–423. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijopm-12-2015-0760 deiser, r. (2012). building the towers of babel? developing leaders: executive education in practice, 9. retrieved from https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/fileadmin/user_upload/faculty/downloads/trevor-jon-developing-transformational-leadership.pdf dubrin, a.j. (2016). leadership. research findings, practice, and skill (8th edn.). boston, ma: cengage learning. du randt, j. (2019). expectations and experiences of talent management across south africa and the effect on retention. masters dissertation. gqeberha: nelson mandela university. emiliani, m.l. (1998). lean behaviors. management decision, 36(9), 615–631. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251749810239504 emiliani, m.l. (2003). linking leaders’ beliefs to their behaviors and competencies. management decision, 41(9), 893–910. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740310497430 grobler, p., bothma, r., brewster, c., carey, l., holland, p., & warnich, s. (2012). contemporary issues in human resource management. cape town: oxford university press southern africa. hair, j., black, w., babin, b., & anderson, r. (2014). multivariate data analysis (7th edn.). new york, ny: pearson education limited. hair, j.f., ringle, c.m., & sarstedt, m. (2011). plssem: indeed a silver bullet. journal of marketing theory and practice, 19(2), 139–152. https://doi.org/10.2753/mtp1069-6679190202 knowledge resources. (2017). human capital and labour report: south africa. randburg: kr publishing. kontoghiorghes, c. (2014). transfer of learning in organizations. new york, ny: springer. kyndt, e., dochy, f., michielsen, m., & moeyaert, b. (2009). employee retention: organisational and personal perspectives. vocations and learning, 2(3), 195–215. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-009-9024-7 lanvin, b., & monteivo, f. (2020). global talent competitiveness index 2020: global talent in the age of artificial intelligence (report prepared on behalf of insead, google & adecco). makhubela, s., & ngoepe, m. (2018). knowledge retention in a platinum mine in the north west province of south africa. south african journal of information management, 20(1), a905. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajim.v20i1.905 mccandless, d & sauer, a. (2010). retention of construction teachers engaged in missouri’s secondary. journal of career and technical education, 25(2), 63–77. https://doi.org/10.21061/jcte.v25i2.480 mendes, f., & stander, m.w. (2011). positive organisation: the role of leader behaviour in work engagement and retention. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 37(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i1.900 meyer, m. (2018). the south african talent management standard: raising the bar for talent. retrieved from https://hrtoday.me/2016/07/05/the-south-african-talent-management-standard-raising-the-bar-for-talent/ meyer, t. (2016). shaping africa’s talent (1st edn.). randburg: kr resources. munyaka, s., boshoff, a., pietersen, j., & snelgar, r. (2017). the relationships between authentic leadership, psychological capital, psychological climate, team commitment and intention to quit. sa journal of industrial psychology, 43(0), a1430. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v43i0.1430 nadeem, m.s. (2009). the impact of work life conflict on job satisfaction of employees in pakistan. international journal of business and management, 4(5), 63–83. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v4n5p63 northouse, p.g. (2013). leadership theory and practice (6th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. orr, c. (2005). lean leadership in construction, management of people and teams. proceedings iglc, 13(7), 345–351. pandy, a. (2017). talent value management: liberating organisation growth (1st edn.). randburg: k r publishing. parry, e., & urwin, p. (2009). tapping into talent: the age factor and generation issues. london: chartered institute of personnel and development. paul, g.w., & berry, d.m. (2013). the importance of executive leadership in creating a post merged organisational culture conducive to effective performance management. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.446 poisat, p., & grewan, s. (2019). lean leadership behaviours required for employee engagement. gqeberha: nelson mandela university. poisat, p., mey, m., & sharp, g. (2018). do talent management strategies influence the psychological contract within a diverse environment? sa journal of human resource management, 16, a1044. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.1044 porath, c. (2015). the leadership behavior that’s most important to employees. harvard business review, 9(3), 54–64. pyszka, a., & pilat, m. (2011). applying trompenaar’s typology of organizational culture to the implementation of csr strategy. journal of intercultural management, 3(2), 113–125. rayton, b.a., & yalabik, z.y. (2014). work engagement, psychological contract breach and job satisfaction. the international journal of human resource management, 25(17), 2382–2400. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.876440 rodriguez-sánchez, j.l., gonzález-torres, t., montero-navarro, a., & gallego-losada, r. (2020). investing time and resources for work–life balance: the effect on talent retention. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(6), 1920. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17061920 rothmann, s., & stander, m.w. (2010). psychological empowerment, job insecurity and employee engagement. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 1–8. schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzález-romá, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two-sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3, 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 shabane, z., schultz, c., & van hoek, c. (2017). transformational leadership as a mediator in the relationship between satisfaction with remuneration and the retention of artisans in the military. sa journal of human resource management, 15, a923. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.923 sinha, c., & sinha, r. (2012). factors affecting employee retention: a comparative analysis of two organizations from heavy engineering industry. european journal of business and management, 4(3), 145–162. snelgar, r., renard, m., & venter, d. (2013). an empirical study of the reward preferences of south african employees. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.351 steele, j.p., & fullagar, c. (2009). facilitators and outcomes of student engagement in a college setting. journal of psychology: interdisciplinary and applied, 143(1), 5–27. https://doi.org/10.3200/jrlp.143.1.5-27 tian, h., shuja iqbal, s.a., qalati, s.a., anwar, f., & khan, m.a.s. (2020). the impact of transformational leadership on employee retention: mediation and moderation through organizational citizenship behavior and communication. frontiers in psychology, 11, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00314 trenkner, m. (2016). implementation of lean leadership. management, 20(2), 129–142. https://doi.org/10.1515/manment-2015-0055 ulrich, d. (2016). taking stock of your talent. workforce, 2. retrieved from http://www.workforce.com/2016/01/27/taking-stock-of-your-talent/ van den berg, b.a.m., bakker, a.b., & ten cate, t.j. (2013). key factors in work engagement and job motivation of teaching faculty at a university medical centre. perspectives on medical education, 2(5–6): 264–275. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40037-013-0080-1 van dierendonck, d., & dijkstra, m. (2012). the role of follower in the relationship between empowering leadership and empowerment: a longitudinal investigation. journal of applied social psychology, 42(s1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2012.01022.x veldsman, t., & johnson, a. (2016). leadership as strategic organisational capability and intervention. in t. veldsman & a. johnson (eds.), leadership: perspectives from the front line (1st edn., pp. 169–188). randburg: kr publishing. yeh, c.m. (2013). tourism involvement, work engagement and job satisfaction among frontline hotel employees. annals of tourism research, 42, 214–239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2013.02.002 abstract introduction research purpose and objectives literature review research design results discussion practical implications limitation and recommendations for future studies acknowledgements references about the author(s) lebohang ntlhanngoe department of business management, faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, bloemfontein, south africa crispen chipunza department of business management, faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, bloemfontein, south africa citation ntlhanngoe, l., & chipunza, c. (2021). owner-managers’ transformational leadership behaviours and human resource strategies: a case of small fast-food restaurants in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1482. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1482 original research owner-managers’ transformational leadership behaviours and human resource strategies: a case of small fast-food restaurants in south africa lebohang ntlhanngoe, crispen chipunza received: 15 sept. 2020; accepted: 20 nov. 2020; published: 28 june 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the proliferation of fast-food restaurants in south africa calls for transformational leadership (tl) to keep the businesses afloat, through the application of competitive strategic human resource (hr) practices. however, there is shortage of evidence on how tl behaviours of owner-managers in this sector are related to their choice of hr strategies. research purpose: the purpose of the study was, therefore, to determine the relationship between owner-managers’ tl behaviours and hr strategies relevant to small fast-food restaurants in a district in the free state province, south africa. motivation of the study: known studies emphasise that hr strategies can be linked to specific tl behaviours for business growth and survival. nonetheless, no known study has been conducted within the south african context to establish the link between tl and hr strategies, particularly amongst the small fast food restaurants. design and method: a positivist research paradigm approach to test the relationships between the study variables. quantitative data were collected through was used a self-administered questionnaire from (n = 102) small fast-food restaurants’ owner-managers following a cross-sectional study design. descriptive and logistics regression data analyses techniques were used to make meaning out of data. main findings: the majority dimensions of tl behaviours and hr strategies are related and few not related. practical/managerial implications: the study offers insights into small fast-food restaurants’ owner-managers’ need to adapt leadership qualities depending on the hr strategy applied. contribution/value-add: the study adds to the body of knowledge on how tl precepts are applied in different strategic hr management contexts. keywords: owner-manager; transformational leadership; fast-food restaurant; human resource strategy; south africa. introduction in south africa, fast-food restaurants are an ever-growing industry and its presence is visible in various parts of the country. this study is limited to local-owned fast-food restaurants categorised as small, macro and medium enterprises (smmes). thus, international franchises were excluded from this study. small fast-food restaurants that are smaller in size, with little or no seating capacity fast-food outlets where a range of ready-to-eat meals are provided (mhlanga, 2018) are referred to in this study. despite this contribution, the south africa hotel restaurant institutional sector report (2016) highlighted that a huge proportion of the country’s small fast-food restaurants have been plagued by failure since 2014. some of the reasons behind this failure are increased competition from supermarkets, retail chains, convenience stores, food caterers and informal traders (insight survey, 2016). in addition, finding talented, competent and skilled workforce, retaining them and turnover remain a challenge amongst these small businesses (zwane et al., 2014, cited in mupani & chipunza, 2019). these challenges adversely affect the small restaurants’ bottom line (nzonzo & matashu, 2014). this study assumes that leadership and management of human resources (hrs) are some of the critical challenges that small fast-food restaurants are facing in south africa. it is against this backdrop that this study investigates the relationship between the facets of transformational leadership (tl), which are (1) idealised influence, (2) inspirational motivation, (3) individualised consideration and (4) intellectual stimulation (bass & riggio, 2006) and hr strategies (1) high-performance management (hpm), (2) high-commitment management (hcm) and (3) high-involvement management (him) strategy called (hpm, hcm or him strategy as proposed by armstrong & taylor, 2014). the justification for investigating the leadership construct is given impetus by literature, which shows that leadership behaviours, especially tl in small businesses, play a huge role in the creation of an organisation’s competitive advantage and sustainability (mckinnon-russell, 2015). studies also show that hr strategic practices in hpm strategy are commonly used amongst smmes. evidently, practices attached to this strategy enhance employee performance and facilitate their engagement, motivation and skill development (armstrong & taylor, 2014). with evidence that tl and hr strategies are necessary, it is possible to argue that strong focus on how the behaviour of a leader influences hr actions might assist in dealing with some of the people-related challenges bedeviling the small fast-food restaurant sector in south africa. research purpose and objectives the aim of this research study is to determine the relationship between tl behaviours and hr strategies within small fast-food restaurants in a district in the free state province of south africa. the study is conducted against a background that, until recently, leadership and management of hr are some of the critical challenges faced by small fast-food restaurants in south africa, yet they are seldom subjects of empirical investigation (nyandiko & ongeri, 2015). given the above, the objective of the study is to determine the extent to which owner-managers’ tl behaviours and hr strategies are correlated. specifically, the study sought to answer the question ‘to what extent are owner-managers’ tl behaviours and hr strategies correlated within small fast-food restaurants?’ literature review transformational leadership according to korejan and shahbazi (2016), tl refers to leaders who seek to create ideas and new perspectives to create a new path of growth and prosperity in front of the organisation. unlike, transactional leadership, a transformational leader is a person who stimulates and inspires followers to achieve extraordinary outcomes (odumeru & ifeanyi, 2013). transformational leadership has four constructs, namely idealised influence, inspirational motivation, individualised consideration and intellectual stimulation as stated here and each of these attributes are individually discussed in the following sections. idealised influence idealised influence is described by hamidianpour, esmaeilpour and mashayekh (2016) as a dimension of a tl where followers demonstrate respect and loyalty towards a leader who conveys an ideal sense and makes followers consider the leader as a perfect sense model of behaviour. this component makes the transformational leaders be admired and respected (hamidianpour et al., 2016). in relation to respect, gumusluoglu and ilsev (2009) have suggested that tl through idealised influence can activate the trust and respect of their subordinates, thereby giving integrity to product innovation performance. this extends alahmad (2016)’s conclusion that idealised influence plays a vital role in helping employees reach and exceed performance expectations, assisting them in both personal and organisational changes. in the context of this study, one can argue that, when restaurant followers and employees notice the leader displaying idealised influence behaviours, they are likely to attribute certain positive characteristics to him or her, which might result in increased performance. inspirational motivation inspirational motivation is defined by steinmann, klug and maier (2018) as the method in which a transformational leader inspirationally motivates followers to achieve more than expected by sharing his or her vision in order to inspire them towards a more effective and efficient performance of their duties. from the performance point of view, ngaithe, george, lewa and ndwiga (2016) concurred that inspirational motivation is positively and significantly related with staff performance. researchers further emphasise that motivation not only increases the level of performances of employees but also increases their commitment in the workplace (ukandu & ukpere, 2011). therefore, considering the volatile environment that the restaurant industry is operating in, inspirational motivation is still important because workers experiencing a sense of purpose could express higher levels of commitment to the company and maybe less likely to contemplate leaving (smith, 2018). intellectual stimulation intellectual stimulation refers to the leader’s ability to instill innovative and creative capabilities into followers as a way of building their critical thinking and problem-solving skills (atiku & anane-simon, 2020). researchers claim that innovation and creativity are the decisive factors in any economic activity and thus, restaurant managers who encourage employees to be creative might be able to solve customer problems carefully (elgelal & noermijati, 2015). for example, within the hospitality sector in taiwan, chou, horng, liu, huang and chung (2016) found that innovation and creativity play an important role in helping chefs to quickly prepare meals and serve customers on time. individualised consideration individualised consideration is a dimension of tl whereby a leader pays special attention to individual differences, followers’ personal growth and needs for achievement by acting as a mentor or coach for them (gonfa, 2019). in other words, transformational leaders may serve as mentors and coaches, and take into account individual needs and desires. this is arguably supported by hautamaki (2016) that leaders who are effective in individual consideration behaviour are better seen to be friendly, supportive and encouraging towards self-development, which has a positive and significant effect on employee performance. logically this corresponds to ogola, sikalieh and linge (2017)’s view that when employees are provided with the opportunities where they are encouraged to grow and progress intellectually, their performance is likely to improve. besides performance improvement, the society for hr management (2016) asserted that growing and progressing intellectually can also lead to higher levels of engagement. taking into consideration that fast-food workers are unique and have their individual needs, potentials, values and goals, it is important that restaurant managers leading through individualised consideration give employees opportunity to grow and progress intellectually. the consequence of this is increased performance for the organisation. human resource strategies in an endeavour to sustain competition in the market, most organisations craft and implement relevant strategies and look for excellence in what they invest in. amongst such strategies, mtshokotshe (2018) refer hr – regarded as critical as some organisations tend to devote less time on hr issues and, hence, lose in the market. altuntas, semercioz, mert and pehlivan (2014) refer to hr strategies as key components that assist an organisation to reach its competitive goals by recruiting, training and retaining the employees who have essential abilities and motivation consistent with the organisation’s strategy. in addition, rice (2018) found that, hr strategies are not only important in retaining employees who have abilities but current employees are also given opportunities for enhancing the capabilities of operations through expression and creativity. despite such critical importance of hr strategy, there is a dearth of literature in the south african context on the use of hr strategies in small business, especially in small fast-food restaurants. it is important for restaurant managers to make hr a priority in their organisations in order to address unsatisfactory organisational performance, which can only be addressed by implementing sound hr strategies, amongst others (mtshokotshe, 2018). in an endeavour to improve organisational performance, general hr strategies rather than specific hr strategies were studied. armstrong and taylor (2014) have described hpm, him and hcm strategies as an overall system or bundle of complementary hr practices that any organisation can adopt or put into effect in order to improve organisational performance. high-performance management strategy high-performance management strategy refers to a set of hrm practices designed to improve the effectiveness and productivity of employees (mahdi, jianqiao, muhammad, & nader, 2014). high-performance management strategy is inclusive of hr practices such as rigorous recruitment and selection procedures, extensive and relevant training and management development activities, incentive pay systems and performance management system. the hospitality industry is saturated with competition and part-time employment practices, coupled with low salaries based on commissions. in relation to competition, hpm strategy is appropriate in this industry as indicated by yazid et al. (2016) as highly important source of competitive advantage in today’s business environment. it is argued that in fast-food restaurants, the recruitment practices are usually ad hoc and training and incentive pay systems are offered (durrani, 2013; mtshokotshe, 2018). these hr practices constitute hpm strategy as proposed by armstrong and taylor (2014). therefore, it could be in the best interest for small fast-food restaurants to adopt this strategy. in addition, there is evidence that hpm strategy is not only associated with positive employee-centered outcomes, like higher individual performance, but, amongst others, lower turnover (e.g. zhang, akhtar, bal, zhang, & talat, 2018). high-involvement management strategy high-involvement management strategy refers to policies and procedures that seek to increase employee involvement in management decision-making and to equip employees with the skills and autonomy to identify improvements in organisation processes (ahmad, 2014). although there is a good deal of debate as to what set of practices collectively constitute him strategy, wood and bryson (2009) and bockerman, bryson and iiimakunnas (2013) maintained that core components should include teams, problem-solving groups, information-sharing, incentive and pay, as well as supportive practices, such as training and associated recruitment methods. the hospitality industry has introduced a variety of management practices for spawning high involvement and high performance amongst employees. the range of practices starts from hiring the right people for the organisation. the selected employees are offered, in some instances, basic training, with the hope that the daily practical involvement in the job they get themselves into will provide more skills training and, eventually employee commitment (e.g. abukhalifeh, som, & albattat, 2013). high-involvement management strategy promotes, at organisational and team level, information sharing and incentive-based compensation (ahmad, 2014; bockerman, bryson, & iiimakunnas, 2012). these are the attributes that are encouraged in most restaurant businesses, where, for example servers work in teams, and sometimes their incentives are also team-based. the working in teams is corroborated by ahmad (2014), who believed that in him strategy, workers are more active in teams to achieve the organisational objectives. this corresponds to dang’s (2012) claim that the question of how to gain the highest profits possible (behind the word profits) lays on the hands of the work team. high-commitment management strategy researchers define hcm strategy as a particular type of high-performance work system that aims to create a psychological bond between the employee and the organisation to ensure that employees are committed to organisational goals (boon & kalshoven, 2014). rubel, rimi, yusliza and kee (2018) referred to hcm strategy as high-commitment hrm (hchrm) that includes career management, training, information-sharing, appraisals and teamwork. in a case study of symposium restaurant, dang (2012) discovered that employees offer help to each other so as to be able to complete the teamwork effectively, especially in rush hours. from the teamwork point of view, researchers concur that teamwork is another dimension of hcm strategy requiring information-sharing and collaboration between employees and is critical to building necessary connections that will improve the social capital of a business (kroll, dehart-davis, & vogel, 2019; youndt & snell, 2004). transformational leadership behaviours and human resource strategies whilst studies suggesting a relationship between tl behaviours and hr strategies exist, literature on this subject is scant. for instance, hetland, hetland, andreassen, pallesen and notelaers (2011) and kovjanic, schuh, jonas, van quaquebeke and van dick (2012) showed that transformational leaders, with their behaviours seem to adopt hr strategies such as him strategy and that address the three central follower needs: the need for competence (i.e. a sense of mastery and effectiveness), relatedness (i.e. feeling connected and significant to others) and autonomy (i.e. experiencing of volition and choice). in one study, schopman, kalshoven and boon (2015) showed that if transformational leaders care for their workers’ feelings and needs, facilitate their skills development, their philosophy of hr is based on individualised consideration. these studies, however, lack contextual generalisability because they were not conducted in developing countries’ context. some studies (halle, 2016) have found that a leader can encourage employee involvement by stimulating followers to think and try new ways in completing tasks, asking followers’ opinions when making decisions and motivating them to use their capabilities when doing challenging works. this indicates that transformational leaders, through intellectual-stimulating behaviour can adopt hr strategies that acknowledge employees’ contributions. similar other studies show that the idealised behaviour of a leader is manifested in collective values and actions taken throughout the organisation, including the type of hr strategies. a study that investigated high commitment hr strategy found that empowerment enhances commitment (baumgartner, 2014). thus, it can be argued that leader who uses inspirational motivation behaviour empowers employees because they emphasise on empowering the employees with the vision. duong (2015) supported this relationship through a study in the service food industry, which showed that owner-managers empowered their staff to be responsible for the daily running of the restaurant. moreover, wanjiku (2017) postulated that transformational leaders act as catalysts for career management and as such, support the implementation of an integrated framework for career management (hallmark of hcm strategy). this indicates that tl relates to hcm strategy, a reality that is justified by a researcher who found that transformational leaders are more likely to empower employees’ career growth by involving them in decision-making and delegating power to them (men, 2010). research design the study adopted quantitative approach within the positivist paradigm, through the development of hypotheses and use of statistical analyses, as that allowed the researcher to identify the relationship between tl and hr strategies. the study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional design. this allowed the collection of data across several small fast-food restaurants owner-managers at one time. demographic information for owner-managers of small fast-food restaurants varied on parameters such as gender, number of years in operation, age, race and position. research participants and data collection ninety-two formally registered local small fast-food restaurants owner-managers participated in the study. they were drawn from mangaung metropolitan municipality, free state province in south africa. in total, there are 102 owner-managers of small fast-food restaurants within the municipality. given this small number of small fast-food restaurants, census sampling technique was utilised mainly because census eliminates sampling error and provides data on all the individuals in the population (baffour, king, & valente, 2013). after obtaining ethical clearance and consent from restaurants. a survey questionnaire was distributed over a period of 2 weeks to all the restaurant’s owner-managers. the questionnaire was divided into section a: demographic information, section b: tl and c: hr strategies. to reach respondents, hand-delivery strategy was followed. this required more travelling time to and from the small fast-food restaurants. slow response period, meant more reminders through calls and direct visits were needed to ensure timeously completion of the questionnaires. resultantly, 92 respondents successfully completed the survey questionnaire indicating 90% response rate. a multifactor leadership questionnaire (mlq) adopted from bass (1985) was used to measure tl. this is a questionnaire that measures tl and is scored on a 5-point likert scale ranging from 0 (not at all) to 4 (frequently, if not always). it has subscale under tl that is idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration. quintana, park and cabrera (2015) used these questionnaire items with hospitality managers and found reliability cronbach’s alpha coefficient ranging between 0.66 and 0.84 for tl subscales. the instruments have been used previously and it has been proved applicable and valid (shehu & mohamad, 2016; whitelaw, 2013). on the other hand, standard questionnaire was used to determine the extent owner-managers employ hr strategies. subsequent studies have used questionnaire items measuring hpm, him and hcm strategy and cronbach’s alphas were well above the acceptable cut off (e.g. kooij, jansen, dikkers, & de lange, 2010; zhang & morris, 2014). wadhwa (2012) used the same questionnaire items within hospitality and found cronbach’s alphas of 0.83 for high involvement management strategy; hence, the researcher’s decision to use them in this study. statistical analysis data were cleaned and captured into microsoft excel prior to importation into statistical package for social science (spss) version 20. statistical package for social science provided statistical packages for descriptive statistics to draw a clear picture of the logistics regression analysis. in this study, the pearson’s correlational analysis was used to check the relationship between the perceived tl behaviours and hr strategies. ethical considerations the faculty research and innovation committee (fric) of the faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, free state, ethically approved the study (approval number fmsec0018). results descriptive statistics the descriptive statistical results for the sample and the response rates are shown in table 1. table 1: demographical information. table 1 shows that 34.8% of the participants were in the 35–40 years age group, 26.1% of the participants in the 30–35 years age group and 20.7% of the participants in the 40 years and above age group, 17.4% of the participants in the 25–30 years age group and only 1.1% of the participants in the 20 years or underage group. in terms of race, most of the participants (47.8%) were black people, 22.8% were white people, 14.1% being mixed race with only 4.3% being indian and 10.9% other races. there were slightly more female participants (52.2%) than male (47.8%). most of the participants (78.3%) were managers whilst 21.7% of the participants were owners. as shown in table 1, 32.6% of the participants had been in the business for 1–2 years, 25.0% for 3–4 years, 18.5% for 5–6 years, 13% for less than 1 year and 10.9% for 7 years or more. hypothesis testing to evaluate if tl behaviours are correlated with hr strategies, five correlation analyses were used to test the following hypothesis: h1: owner-managers’ inspirational motivation behaviour do correlate with hcm strategy relevant to small fast-food restaurants. h2: owner-managers’ individualised consideration behaviour do correlate with hpm strategy relevant to small fast-food restaurants. h3: owner-managers’ idealised influence behaviour do correlate with hpm strategy relevant to small fast-food restaurants. h4: owner-managers’ intellectual stimulation behaviour do correlate with him strategy relevant to small fast-food restaurants. h5: owner-managers’ individualised consideration behaviour do correlate with him strategy relevant to small fast-food restaurants. table 2 shows that the dimensions of hcm strategy that were significantly correlated with inspirational motivation behaviour were information-sharing (correlation = 0.293, p = 0.005), appraisals (correlation = 0.281 p = 0.007) and training (correlation = 0.262, p = 0.012). the dimensions of career management (correlation = 0.179, p = 0.087) and teamwork (correlation = 0.172, p = 0.101) were not significantly correlated with hcm strategy. in this regard, inspirational motivation behaviour is significantly correlated with hcm strategy. however, the effect size was small (significant correlations ranging from 0.262 to 0.293) because not all facets of hcm strategy were significantly correlated with inspirational motivation behaviour. table 2: correlations of transformational leadership behaviour – inspirational motivation and high-commitment management strategy. the results in table 3 show that the hpm strategy dimension of training and development is significantly correlated with tl behaviour dimension of individualised consideration (correlation = 0.259, p = 0.013). the hpm strategy dimensions of recruitment and selection (correlation = 0.228, p = 0.029) and participation (correlation = 0.282, p = 0.006) were also significantly correlated with tl behaviour dimension of individualised consideration. the other two hpm strategy dimensions of performance appraisals (correlation = 0.097, p = 0.359) and rewards (correlation = 0.171, p = 0.104) were not significantly correlated with the tl behaviour dimension of individualised consideration. therefore, these results indicate that individualised consideration behaviour significantly correlate with hpm strategy although the effect size is small (significant correlations ranging from 0.228 to 0.282) because only three out of five facets of hpm strategy are significantly correlated with individualised behaviour. table 3: correlations of transformational leadership behaviour – individualised consideration and high-performance management strategy. the correlation results presented in table 4 show that none of the five dimensions of hpm strategy are significantly correlated with idealised influence behaviour. table 4: correlations of transformational leadership behaviour – idealised influence and high-performance management strategy. the results in table 5 show that the him strategy dimension of recruitment is significantly correlated with tl behaviour dimension of intellectual stimulation behaviour (correlation = 0.285, p = 0.006). the results also show that the him strategy dimensions of training (correlation = 0.252, p = 0.015), participation (correlation = 0.330, p = 0.001) and rewards (correlation = 0.356, p = 0.001), are also significantly correlated with tl behaviour dimension of intellectual stimulation behaviour. briefly, four out of four him strategy dimensions are significantly correlated with tl behaviour dimension of intellectual stimulation. thus, him strategy is significantly correlated with tl behaviour dimension of intellectual stimulation, even though effect is slightly small ranging from correlation = 0.252 to correlation = 0.356. table 5: correlations of transformational leadership behaviour – intellectual stimulation and high-involvement management strategy. the results in table 6 show that the him strategy dimensions of recruitment (correlation = 0.280, p = 0.007) and participation (correlation = 0.223, p = 0.033), are significantly correlated with the tl behaviour dimension of individualised consideration whilst training (correlation = 0.066, p = 0.532) and rewards (correlation = 0.125, p = 0.234) significantly do not correlate with tl behaviour dimension of individualised consideration. in short, out of four dimensions of him strategy, only recruitment and participation significantly correlate with tl behaviour dimension of individualised consideration with small effect size ranging from correlation = 0.223 to correlation = 0.280. table 6: correlations of transformational leadership behaviour – individualised consideration and high-involvement management strategy. discussion the objective of the study was to determine the extent to which owner-managers’ tl behaviours and hr strategies correlate. table 2 shows that from the three out of five hcm strategy constructs, only information-sharing, appraisals and training were significantly correlated with tl inspirational motivation dimension. this means that hcm strategy is significantly correlated with tl behaviour dimension of inspirational motivation even though the effect sizewas small. despite this, and, considering that inspirational motivation symbolises the charismatic aspect of tl (bass & avolio, 1994), these results are consistent with the results of horn, mathis, robinson and randle (2013). these researchers found that there is a positive relationship between perceived leader charisma and commitment (consequence of hcm strategy). this also extends vermeeren (2014)’s findings that tl is associated with commitment-oriented hrm. the results in table 3 indicate that from the three out of five hpm strategy dimensions, only training and development, recruitment and selection and participation were significantly correlated with tl behaviour dimension of individualised consideration. this means that hpm strategy significantly correlate with tl behaviour-individualised consideration, even though the effect size was also small. these results confirm earlier research by vekeman, devos and valcke (2016) that tl can be linked to a high hr orientation as transformational leaders are characterised by individualised consideration of the needs of their employees. this means owner-managers who display individualised consideration are able to configure hr practices according to the specific needs of their employees. the results in table 4 revealed that none of hpm strategy dimensions correlate with tl behaviour-idealised influence. considering that, idealised influence behaviour may be referred to as behaviourally based charismatic leadership (harms & crede, 2010), these results are in concurrence with jacquart and antonakis (2015)’s declaration that when performance signals are clear, the charisma of leader does not matter. this might have been the case in this study, hence, none of the high-performance hr practices significantly correlated with tl behaviour-idealised influence behaviour. the results are, however, nullified by de vries, pathak and paquin (2011) who found that charismatic leadership is generally related to positive team outcomes and performance (hpm strategy outcome). in support, wilderom, van den berg and wiersma (2012) further found a positive relationship between perceived leader charisma and performance (hpm strategy outcome). the significant correlation between tl behaviour-intellectual stimulation and him strategy is supported by the results of a previous study by shin, jeong and bae (2018). these researchers found that a bundle of high-involvement hr practices (hihrps) was positively related to individual worker creativity (hallmark of intellectual stimulation). considering that a leader’s intellectual stimulation can motivate individual creative behaviours (cekmecelioglu & ozbag, 2016), this means that hihrps is an antecedent to intellectual stimulation behaviour. therefore, owner-managers can implement him strategy not only to promote high-involvement culture but also to sharpen intellectual stimulation behaviour within their employees. lastly, the results indicated that out of four dimensions of him strategy, only recruitment and participation seem to be significantly correlated with tl behaviour dimension of individualised consideration. whilst the other two him strategy-dimensions (training and rewards) measured did not significantly correlate with tl behaviour-individualised consideration, from participation (dimension of him strategy) point of view, one can argue that individualised consideration is central to participative leadership, which focuses on followers’ personal growth and needs and is concerned with decisions affecting their work (hautamaki, 2016). this means that participative leadership and individualised consideration are two sides of the same coin. in this case, according to miao, newman, schwarz and xu (2013), participative leaders facilitate subordinate involvement (sign of him strategy) in the decision-making process through encouragement, resource provision, support and influence. this implies that him strategy and tl behaviour-individualised consideration do correlate, although not all paths are statistically significant. practical implications considering the importance of tl behaviours, specifically inspirational motivation, individualised consideration and intellectual stimulation, this style of leadership should not be disregarded completely when considering hrm issues in smmes, especially small fast-food restaurants. in this regard, hr agents involved in smme hr development work could benefit from this study by designing workshops to train owner-managers on the importance of tl and hr strategies. limitation and recommendations for future studies the results obtained are based on small fast-food restaurants in one area. therefore, the results might not hold true for other fast-food restaurants in other areas, indicating the lack of substance for generalisation. for this study, the sample was chosen on the basis of convenience sampling, therefore, the research study was deprived of its probability of representativeness. it is recommended that future researchers extend the results by requesting restaurant employees to answer questionnaires to rate their owner-managers. the results can, therefore, indicate whether owner-managers have given out honest responses regarding their tl behaviours. lastly, expanding the study could be extended to other business within the hospitality sector and the results can be compared. conclusion the study contributes to the debate on hrs management amongst small businesses, an area often neglected because of its smallness. the study, therefore, demonstrated how the precepts of transformational leadership behaviours and hr strategies can be critical to be developed amongst owner-managers of small businesses in the hospitality sector. acknowledgements the authors acknowledge central university of technology, free state and the national research foundation for providing the grant for the study, as well as all small-restaurant businesses that voluntarily participated in the study. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions both authors contributed equally to this work. funding information funding for this research was provided for by the central university of technology free state and the national research foundation (nrf south africa). data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author (c.c.) upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abukhalifeh, a.n., som, a.p., & albattat, a.r. (2013). human resource management practices on food and beverage performance a conceptual framework for the jordan hotel industry. journal of tourism and hospitality, 2(1), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.4172/2167-0269.1000111 ahmad, m. (2014). high involvement management and employees performance mediating role of job satisfaction. european journal of business and management, 6(31), 230–243. alahmad, y.y. (2016). understanding the relationship between idealized influence, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, individualized consideration and product innovation among manufacturing and services firms: the role of open system. doctoral dissertation, (pp. 1–173). ohio: university of toledo. altuntas, g., semercioz, f., mert, a., & pehlivan, c. (2014). industry forces and functional strategies and organisational performance: evidence from restaurants in istanbul, turkey. procedia – social and behavioural sciences, 150(1), 300–309. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.09.066 armstrong, m. & taylor, s. (2014). armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. london: kogan page. atiku, s.o., & anane-simon, r. (2020). leadership and innovative approaches in higher education. in n. baporikar, & m. sony (eds.), quality management principles and policies in higher education,(pp. 83–100). hershey, pa: igi global. baffour, b., king, t., & valente, p. (2013). the modern census: evolution, examples and evaluation. international statistical review, 81(3), 407–425. https://doi.org/10.1111/insr.12036 bass, b. (1985). leadership and performance beyond expectations. new york: free press. bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1994). improving organisational effectiveness through transformational leadership. london: sage publications india pvt. ltd. bass, b.m., & riggio, r. e. (2006). transformational leadership. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. baumgartner, j. (2014). benefits of employee empowerment for service quality and job satisfaction in the hospitality industry. bachelor thesis, (pp. 1–87). austria: modul vienna university. bockerman, p., bryson, a., & iimakunnas, p. (2012). does high involvement management improve worker wellbeing? journal of economic behaviour and organisations, 84(2), 660–680. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2012.09.005 bockerman, p., bryson, a., & iimakunnas, p. (2013). does high involvement management lead to higher pay? journal of the royal statistical society, 176(4), 861–885. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-985x.2012.01075.x boon, c., & kalshoven, k. (2014). how high-commitment hrm relates to engagement and commitment: the moderating role of task proficiency. human resource management, 53(3), 403–420. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21569 cekmecelioglu, h.g., & ozbag, k.g. (2016). leadership and creativity. the impact of transformational leadership on individual creativity. procedia-social and behavioural sciences, 235, 243–249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.11.020. chou, s.f., horng, j.s., liu, c.h., huang, y.c., & chung, y.c. (2016). expert concepts of sustainable service innovation in restaurants in taiwan. sustainability, 8(8), 739–758. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8080739 dang, h.t. (2012). communication gaps at seasonal restaurants case study: symposium restaurant, crete island, greece. masters dissertation. crete island, greece: university of applied sciences. de vries, r.e., pathak, r.d., & paquin, a.r. (2011). the paradox of power sharing: participative charismatic leaders have subordinates with more instead of less need for leadership. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 20(6), 779–804. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2010.509923 durrani, a.s. (2013). current hiring practices in the restaurant industry: an example of california restaurants. doctoral dissertation, (pp. 1–130). california: iowa state university. duong, h.a. (2015). the effect of employee empowerment on service quality in foodservice firms. bachelor thesis. jyvaskyla: jamk university of applied sciences. elgelal, k.s.k., & noermijati, n. (2014). the influences of transformational leadership on employees performance. asia pacific management and business application, 3(1), 48–66. https://doi.org/10.21776/ub.apmba.2014.003.01.4 gonfa, b.d. (2019). review on components of transformational leadership. arabian journal of business and management review, 9(3), 1–5. gumusluoğlu, l., & ilsev, a. (2009). transformational leadership and organizational innovation: the roles of internal and external support for innovation. journal of product innovation management, 26(3), 264–277. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5885.2009.00657.x halle, a.y. (2016). influence of leader and follower behaviour on employee voice, team task responsibility, and team effectiveness. master thesis. enschede: university of twente. hamidianpour, f., esmaeilpour, m., & mashayekh, s. (2016). studying the effect of transformational leadership style on organizational culture change. journal of academy of business and economics, 16(2), 7–24. https://doi.org/10.18374/jabe-16-2.1 harms, p.d., & crede, m. (2010). emotional intelligence and transformational and transactional leadership: a meta-analysis. journal of leadership and organisational studies, 17(5), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051809350894 hautamaki, p. (2016). leading with individual consideration – forming value with customers in business interactions. doctoral dissertation. university of vaasa. hetland, h., hetland, c., andreassen, c.s., pallesen, s., & notelaers, g. (2011). leadership and fulfilment of the three basic psychological needs at work. the career development international, 16(5), 507–523. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620431111168903 horn, d., mathis, c.j., robinson, s.l., & randle, n. (2013). is charismatic leadership effective when workers are pressured to be good citizens? journal of psychology, 149(8), 751–774. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2014.978253 insight survey. (2016). is sa’s love for fast food still growing? retrieved from https://www.bizcommunity.com/article/196/19/151362.html jacquart, p., & antonakis, j. (2015). when does charisma matter for top-level leaders? effect of attribution ambiguity. academy of management journal, 58(4), 1051–1074. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2012.0831 kooij, d.t., jansen, p.g., dikkers, j.s., & de lange, a.h. (2010). the influence of age on the associations between hr practices and both affective commitment and job satisfaction: a meta-analysis. journal of organisational behaviour, 31(8), 1111–1136. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.666 korejan, m.m., & shahbazi, h. (2016). an analysis of the transformational leadership theory. journal of fundamental and applied sciences, 8(3s), 452–461. https://doi.org/10.4314/jfas.v8i3s.192 kovjanic, s., schuh, s.c., jonas, k., van quaquebeke, n., & van dick, r. (2012), how do transformational leaders foster positive employee outcomes? a self-determination based analysis of employees needs as mediating links. journal of organisational behaviour, 33(8), 1031–1052. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1771 kroll, a., dehart-davis, l., & vogel, d. (2019). mechanisms of social capital in organizations: how team cognition influences employee commitment and engagement. the american review of public administration, 49(7), 777–791. https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074019851894 mahdi, s.m., jianqiao, l., muhammad, s., & nader, h.m. (2014). the impact of high performance work system (hpws) on employee productivity as related to organizational identity and job engagement. european journal of business and management, 6(39), 1–24. mckinnon-russell, t. (2015). transformational leadership principles within small businesses. doctoral dissertation, minneapolis: walden university. mhlanga, o. (2018). the fast food industry in south africa: the microenvironment and its influence. african journal of hospitality, tourism and leisure, 7(4), 1–16. miao, q., newman, a., schwarz, g., & xu, l. (2013). participative leadership and the organisational commitment of civil servants in china: the mediating effects of trust in supervisor. british journal of management, 24(1), 76–92. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12025 mtshokotshe, z. (2018). the implementation of human resources management strategy within restaurants in east london, south africa. african journal of hospitality, tourism and leisure, 7(3), 1–15. mupani, h., & chipunza, c. (2019). environmental influences, employee resourcing strategies and small and medium-sized enterprises performance: case of south african small restaurants. sa journal of human resource management, 17, a1104. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1104 ngaithe, l., george, k.g., lewa, p., & ndwiga, m. (2016). effect of idealized influence and inspirational motivation on staff performance in state owned enterprises in kenya. european journal of business and management, 8(30), 6–13. nyandiko, j.a., & ongeri, l. (2015). effectiveness of strategic human resource management on organisational performance at kenya seed company. journal of emerging trends in economics and management sciences, 6(1), 1–5. nzonzo, j.c., & matashu, m. (2014). an insight into the human resource management practices adopted by entrepreneurs in south africa. journal of small business and entrepreneurship development, 2(3–4), 73–87. https://doi.org/10.15640/jsbed.v2n3-4a5 odumeru, j.a., & ifeanyi, g.o. (2013). transformational vs. transactional leadership theories: evidence in literature. international review of management and business research, 2(2), 355–361. ogola, m.g.o., sikalieh, d., & linge, t.k. (2017). the influence of individualised consideration leadership behaviour on employee performance in small and medium enterprises in kenya. international journal of business and social science, 8(2), 163–173. quintana, t.a., park, s., & cabrena, y.a. (2015). assessing the effects of leadership styles on employees’ outcomes in international luxury hotels. journal of business ethics, 129(2), 469–489. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2170-3 rice, d. (2018). human resources: strategic, predictive and cost effective. retrieved from https://https://www.hrexchangenetwork.com/hr-talent-management/articles/human-resources-strategic-predictive-and-cost-effective rubel, m.r.b., rimi, n.n., yusliza, m.y., & kee, d.m.h. (2018). high commitment human resource management practices and employee service behaviour: trust in management as mediator. iimb management review, 30(4), 316–329. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iimb.2018.05.006 schopman, l.m., kalshoven, k., & boon, c. (2015). when health care workers perceive high-commitment hrm will they be motivated to continue working in health care? it may depend on their supervisor and intrinsic motivation. the international journal of human resource management, 28(5), 657–677. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1109534 shehu, a., & mohamad, w. (2016). leadership style and the adoption of electronic commerce among malaysian fast-food restaurant managers. international journal of accounting and business management, 4(2), 302–313. shin, s.j., jeong, i., & bae, j. (2018). do high-involvement hrm practices matter for worker creativity? a cross-level approach. international journal of human resource management, 29(2), 260–285. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1137612 smith, j.d. 2018. successful strategies for reducing employee turnover in the restaurant industry. doctoral dissertation. minneapolis: walden university. south africa hotel & restaurant institutional sector report. (2016). assessments of commodity and trade issues made by usda staff and not necessarily statements of official u.s. government policy. pretoria: global agricultural information network. steinmann, b., klug, h.j.p., & maier, g.w. (2018). the path is the goal: how transformational leaders enhance followers’ job attitudes and proactive behaviour. frontiers in psychology, 9, a2338. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02338 ukandu, n.e., & ukpere, w.i. (2011). strategies to improve the level of employee motivation in the fast food outlets in cape town, south africa. african journal of business management, 5(28), 11521–11531. https://doi.org/10.5897/ajbm11.1476 vekeman, e., devos, g., & valcke, m. (2016). linking educational leadership styles to the hr architecture for new teachers in primary education. springerplus, 5(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40064-016-3378-8 vermeeren, b. (2014). variability in hrm implementation among line managers and its effect on performance: a 2-1-2 mediational multilevel approach. international journal of human resources management, 25(22), 3039–3059. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2014.934891 wadhwa, p. (2012). the relationship between high involvement work systems, supervisory support, and organisational effectiveness: the role of employee experiences at work. doctoral dissertation. university of kansas. wanjiku, n.s. (2017). factors affecting implementation of career management programs in the public sector in kenya: a case study of kenya tourism fund. bachelor dissertation. nairobi: management university of africa. whitelaw, p.a. (2013). leadership up the ladder: the construction of leadership styles in the hospitality industry. journal of contemporary issues in business and government, 19(1), 65–79. https://doi.org/10.7790/cibg.v19i1.9 wilderom, c.p., van den berg, p.t., & wiersma, u.j. (2012). a longitudinal study of the effects of charismatic leadership and organisational culture on objective and perceived corporate performance. the leadership quarterly, 23(5), 835–848. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2012.04.002 wood, s., & bryson, a. (2009). high involvement management. in w. brown, a. bryson, j. forth, & k. whitfield (eds.), the evolution of the modern workplace, (pp. 151–175). cambridge and new york: cambridge university press. yazid, z.n.a., yahya, w.k., ishak, m., & achim, n. (2016). high performance work system (hpws) and organizational performance: the mediating role of employee attitude. world journal of management and behavioural studies, 20(10), 1–8. https://www.researchgate.net/project/ youndt, m., & snell, s. (2004). human resource configurations, intellectual capital, and organizational performance. journal of managerial issues, 16(3), 337–360. https://doi.org/10.1037/t68746-000 zhang, j., akhtar, m.n., bal, p.m., zhang, y., & talat, u. (2018). how do high-performance work systems affect individual outcomes: a multilevel perspective. journal of frontiers in psychology, 9(586), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00586 zhang, b., & morris, j.l. (2014). high-performance work systems and organisational performance: testing the mediation role of employee outcomes using evidence from pr china. the international journal of human resource management, 25(1), 68–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.781524 zwane, f.n., du plessis, l., & slabbert, e. (2014). analysing the skills expectations of employers in the south african tourism industry. sa journal of human resource management, 12, 550–559. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.550 198---10 nov 2009 [final version].indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #198 (page number not for citation purposes) retention factors of management staff in the maintenance phase of their careers in local government authors: mervin munsamy1 anita bosch venter1 affi liations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: anita bosch venter e-mail: anitav@uj.ac.za postal address: po box 524, auckland park, 2006, south africa keywords: employer value proposition; evp; retention factors; local government; maintenance career phase dates: received: 03 mar. 2009 accepted: 14 aug. 2009 published: 20 oct. 2009 how to cite this article: munsamy, m., & bosch venter, a. (2009). retention factors of management staff in the maintenance phase of their careers in local government. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), art. #198, 9 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.198 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. abstract organisations require an employer value proposition (evp) to attract and retain people in management. this study was undertaken to understand the key retention factors that infl uence experienced management employees, in the maintenance phase of their careers, to remain employed at a local government organisation. retention factors inform the organisation’s evp. a qualitative, empirical-analytical research paradigm with a modernist approach was adopted. data were obtained through purposive sampling (n = 10) by way of semi-structured interviews. a theoretical framework was used against which data could be deducted and compared. sixteen key factors were identifi ed, of which job aligned with personal meaning or passion emerged as the strongest retention factor among the study’s participants. 187vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 9 introduction this article is intended to address retention issues in local government, and is therefore aimed at human resource practitioners and managers in this sector. the importance of employee commitment and loyalty has never been more signifi cant than in today’s context, where the ‘war for talent’ is rife, and skilled employees have a greater choice of employment, both locally and globally (de villiers, 2006). this trend has had a particularly negative effect on the retention of professional and management employees within the public sector at local government level, since fi nancial rewards are generally lower than in the private sector (saratoga institute, 2005). employee retention rates show a direct, positive correlation with sales growth (batt, 2002) and customer retention rates (shaw, duffy, johnson & lockhart, 2005). the retention of talented and skilled employees has proved to strengthen an organisation, which is why specifi c attention should be given to the trend of managers who leave within their fi rst two to three years of employment in the public sector. only after approximately two years is it most likely that these employees will be in a position to add value to an organisation by playing to their strengths and being innovative (buckingham & clifton, 2001). it is crucial that local government organisations retain these individuals to ensure that the transfer of skills takes place, thereby ensuring continuity and sustainability of ongoing initiatives. what are the key factors that infl uence professional and management employees to remain employed in local government? this is the salient question that this study aimed to address. marriot (2001) advocates that a key challenge facing organisations today is employee retention. organisations face intense competition with almost all strategies being easily replicable by competitors. they are increasingly realising that people are perhaps the only real differentiator that can gain the organisation competitive advantage (bell, 2005). moreover, byham, smith and paese (2002) cite rapid growth, a dramatic rise in retirements, poaching of key people by competitors and the diffi culty of retaining talented people as critical challenges facing organisations at both executive and management levels. a lack of opportunities regarding both personal growth and job challenge are reasons why people voluntarily leave companies (axel, 1998 and shrm, 1997, cited in byham et al., 2002). the national skills shortage leads to an abundance of vacant positions, which results in the increased mobility of skilled individuals. these employees require compelling reasons to remain with an organisation, which makes it essential for companies to have an understanding of what employees expect from employment (britton, chadwick & walker, 1999). ingham (2006) suggests that many surveys show effective management of an organisation’s talent as one of business leaders’ most critical challenges, since ‘the acquisition, allocation, development and succession of the most important value adding people … best create competitive advantage’ (p. 20). in building competitive advantage by leveraging talent or skilled employees, managers face a job market in which employees constantly reassess their fi rm’s employer value proposition (evp). an evp is described as the value or benefi t an employee perceives to gain or experience by serving as a member of the organisation, or from their employer (heger, 2007; zingheim & schuster, 2006). an evp is also defi ned as the measurement of the balance between an employee’s performance and what he or she receives from the employer in return. it is an employee’s perception whether what he or she ‘receives’ equals or exceeds what he or she ‘gives’, which is in line with equity theory (noe, hollenbeck, gerhart & wright, 2008; peterson, 2007). organisations face potential for turnover when employees perceive their organisation’s evp to be less competitive than that of other organisations, or to what these others ‘give’. from an employee’s perspective, the fundamental evp is a job and a working environment that meets his or her expectations (lowe & schellenberg, 2002). therefore, in answering the salient question, ‘what are the key factors that infl uence professional and management employees to remain employed in local government?’, the organisation will be able to use the fi ndings to inform its evp. applying these views to local government as an employer, it is equally important to have a competitive evp, as the right calibre of human resources enables service delivery to communities. the mandate of a developmental local government is the provision of democratic and accountable governance to local communities, ensuring the provision of services in a sustainable manner, the promotion of social and economic development, the provision of a safe and healthy environment, and the encouragement of the involvement of communities and community organisations in matters of local government (south original research munsamy & bosch venter sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 19 8 (page number not for citation purposes) 188 vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 9 africa, 1996, pp. 151–164). these constitutional stipulations suggest a shift in focus from the importance of service delivery towards measurement of the impact of service delivery in relation to community needs. this suggests severe implications for the human resources required to capacitate a public service organisation to deliver on its mandate. moreover, the retention of the skilled professionals and management grouping of employees becomes critical to ensure sustainability of longterm initiatives within such an organisation. retention can be facilitated by determining and utilising an evp, as it then becomes the basis for ‘the deal’ with the employee (ingham, 2006). there has been significant change in the public sector towards being more performance-driven and providing challenging positions in terms of work content. the psychological contract associated with traditional public employment has been fundamentally challenged by the implementation of the ‘new public management’ and its associated change in the status of personnel (horton, hondeghem & farnham, 2002). the employment conditions offered by the public employer, as well as expectations in terms of behaviour and performance, are beginning to mirror those of private organisations. ‘out of concern to be a competitive, choice employer, public employment is threatened by appearing to be losing the advantages that for a long time characterised its specific attractiveness including job security, less stressful pace of work, advancement possibilities and so on’ (horton et al., pp. 25–26). it therefore becomes a business imperative for the public organisation to have a well-informed evp to retain targeted groups of employees. in answering the main question of the study, namely what the key factors are that influence professional and management employees to remain employed in local government, the factors found will inform the understanding of an evp in the south african local government context. in an attempt to deal with this challenge it is of importance for a public service organisation to determine what the factors are that contribute to both the attraction and retention of skilled and professional employees. a case in point is the research conducted by the hay group, which has shown that 30% of the variability in non-public business performance is due to work climate; in other words, the way individuals feel at work affects their discretionary effort (robbins, odendaal & roodt, 2001; saratoga institute, 2005). fifty to seventy per cent of the work climate is a function of leadership and management style (saratoga institute, 2005). organisations must create a compelling place to work for their employees, i.e. a working environment that is supportive of ideas, innovation and personal growth and development (ulrich, 1998). an important distinction in evp attributes is those things of value to employees that an organisation is perceived to offer, which serves to attract potential employees, while a completely different set serves to retain employees (fairhurst, 2007). fairhurst (2007) suggests that potential employees tend to judge employers on evp attributes such as remuneration, location, perceived career opportunities and stability of the organisation. he maintains that existing employees tend to look at much deeper attributes, such as how respectfully they are treated, how well the jobs match their own particular interests and the quality of their managers. the research findings indicate that organisations that are perceived to be delivering on the evp promises enjoy substantially higher levels of employee commitment. this results in improved performance and retention, where the probability of an individual leaving could be reduced by as much as 87% (fairhurst, 2007). as indicated above, there is a clear distinction between the factors that attract employees and those that retain them. however, these factors are generally combined in studies on retention. studies combining these factors will be discussed first, followed by those that focus on retention individually. attraction and retention factors important attractors and retainers of high-end skills include effective management of performance and diversity, learning pathways, management style, stretch assignments, work/ life balance, recognition, non-monetary rewards, high job involvement, job security and stability, physical working conditions, flexible pay and employment practices, autonomy, personal development, award schemes, and a caring workplace (arden, 2006; bell, 2005; horwitz, 2007; marriott, 2001; robbins et al., 2001; saratoga institute, 2005). compensation plays a key role in the attraction, retention and motivation of employees (swanepoel, erasmus, van wyk & schenk, 2003). when focusing on the retention of scarce and highly marketable specialist skills of knowledge workers, the following can be identified as priority needs: • opportunities for development in an employees’ field of expertise • freedom to plan and execute work independently • growth potential of the industry • progressive leadership that allows initiative and sharing in the profits of the organisation. in terms of attracting and retaining high-end skills, four categories of issues were found by the corporate leadership council to constitute a compelling job offer for scarce skills. the four attractors and retainers are indicated in table 1. the four factors cover many of the indicators discussed in the text thus far. furthermore, work/life balance factors are also cited as retention factors by demarco (2007) and gillis (2007). in a study on the value proposition of employment, britton et al. (1999) constructed a model of the rewards of work that lead to attraction and retention. the model contains the following five groupings of factors: table 1 four attractors and retainers (corporate leadership council, 2002) compensation and benefits work environment compensation and benefits must be market-related, and mechanisms should also be in place to reward and retain top performers. the work environment must be challenging and offer real learning and growth. job profiles should be flexible to make positions more attractive, for example by removing bureaucratic work from these jobs. catering for internal mobility, vertically and horizontally, together with recognition, role clarity and relevant responsibility, are key to the attraction and retention of high-value employees. work-life balance organisational environment the focus here is on the notion of a flexible and stress-free work environment by making provision for childcare facilities and access to families. location is therefore important, as is the amount of travel away from home, recreational facilities in distant locations and hours of work, leave time, overtime and flexitime. issues here include the prestige and reputation of the organisation and the work. creating an attractive image and place to work requires a more proactive marketing and communication strategy, the publication of success stories, and an emphasis on learning and innovation and on the importance of the work. access to leading-edge technology is an important pull factor for high-end, ambitious employees. s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #198 (page number not for citation purposes) retention factors of management staff in the maintenance phase of their careers in local government 189vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 9 • affiliation • direct financial • indirect financial • career • work content. the britton et al. model was used as a framework by means of which all the previously stated literature was integrated, and is presented in figure 1. retention factors research conducted on the state of the south african training industry, in which respondents were human resources managers and training managers in all nine south african provinces covering 23 of the 25 sector education and training authorities (setas), indicated that management style is the most prominent employee retention factor in south africa (meyer, 2005). effectively, 65% of those surveyed indicated this to be true. this is echoed by isabel (2007), who found the same. while training can play a positive role in empowering staff with the necessary knowledge and skills, the consequent challenge would be to retain the employees (meyer, 2005). for the purposes of this study, leadership is seen as management style, as probed by the meyer (2005) study. retention factors concluded in a study by sutherland (2004) include job satisfaction, organisational commitment, intention to leave, organisation culture, health benefits, communication of strategy, independent work, relationship with immediate boss, honesty of management, individualising of the job, encouragement of social ties and perceived employability. flexible work arrangements have been used for more than a decade as a way of retaining valued employees. however, this is a short-term fix (maitland, 2007). instead, employees should be encouraged to choose from a menu of options in the following four areas: • pace of career progress (ranging from accelerated to decelerated) • workload (from full to reduced) • location and schedule (from not restricted to restricted) • role (from leader to individual contributor) (maitland, 2007). the use of these four options formalises what some organisations already practise (hamel, 2007). employees have continual conversations with supervisors and team members regarding their specific needs, and many executives accelerate or decelerate their careers accordingly (maitland, 2007). the re-emergence during the last two decades of performancerelated pay as a means of retaining employees is grounded in the notion that individuals in the 21st century are driven predominantly by money (frederick, 2001). however, the 2007 executive intelligence unit (eiu) corporate network survey indicated that raising pay to above-market rates was only the fourth most effective strategy to retain key staff (horwitz, 2007). while remuneration is important, though sometimes overemphasised compared to other factors, it is more effective to focus on non-financial factors (bell, 2005). employers should offer value captured in an evp, which is the same strategy used to attract and retain customers. ‘just as our customers know that value transcends price, now we must offer our employees value beyond just compensation’ (marriott, 2001, p. 18). three retention strategies are suggested to effectively deal with the generation x work group, i.e. those born between 1964 and 1977 (demarco, 2007). firstly, communication is vital. this includes feedback, group communication, corporate communication and employee surveys. secondly, employers should consider issues such as supervision in terms of the manager building the team, performance management and the development of individuals; and thirdly, attention should be paid to the matter of generational interest. employees want to know that they are valued and important. employees also cite a work/life balance as crucial (demarco, 2007; gillis, 2007). generational applicability was not probed in this study. although the myriad of literature reviewed in the text was derived from a combination of corporate sources, south african as well as international, there is still an absence of south african local government frameworks. figure 1 retention factors framework for existing employees (adapted from britton et al., 1999) * perquisites: non-wage benefits p r t f s original research munsamy & bosch venter sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 19 8 (page number not for citation purposes) 190 vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 9 retention factors framework for existing employees the retention factors framework for existing employees (figure 1) includes all the literature referred to in this article. in this section, the meaning and interpretation of each of the factor groupings is given. the direct financial grouping constitutes tangible pay-related factors, for example bonus payment as part of incentive pay. the indirect financial grouping consists of factors such as benefits related to security and saving, medical aid funding, pension or provident fund benefit, and other noncash recognition or benefits by way of employee award schemes. the work/life balance grouping contains factors related to the amount of flexibility allowed with work arrangements, the convenience associated with the location of work and access to family and childcare facilities. the career grouping relates to an individual’s future position, and is associated with factors such as personal growth, career advancement, opportunity for and access to training, as well as employment security. additional factors included are the availability of interaction with experts, receiving stretch assignments and the quality of management. the work content grouping relates to an individual’s current position, and includes factors such as variety of work, the degree to which the individual is challenged, and the degree to which the individual can work autonomously and perform meaningful work. affiliation as a grouping is largely about being part of a supportive organisation, with a good working environment and/or working conditions that include leading edge technology and a progressive management style that recognises employee contributions. the purpose of conducting this study was to understand what the key factors are that influence professional and management employees to remain employed in a local government organisation. from these factors a well-informed evp for the existing employees can be designed. the evp serves as a criterion against which the organisation can benchmark all human resource retention interventions and outcomes. the question posed to participants was therefore: ‘why did you choose to remain employed at your organisation?’ the question was framed so that the positive retention factors could be determined, instead of those factors that negatively contributed to staff turnover. the semi-structured interview questionnaire was aligned to the retention factors framework for existing employees. the questionnaire therefore prompted responses from the participants in terms of how the direct financial, indirect financial, work content, career, work-life balance and affiliation factors contributed to them being influenced to remain employed in the local government organisation. research design research approach a qualitative, empirical, analytical research paradigm was adopted, as the study aimed to provide an in-depth description of a group of people through analysing responses received from semi-structured interviews (mouton, 2001). this paradigm was adopted in order to understand the retention factors important to the research participants in their natural setting, which aided in establishing a rapport with the participants. the participatory nature of the design minimises suspicion and distrust of the study with a concomitant increase in trust and credibility (mouton, 2001). a limitation could be that, due to the emphasis being on naturalistic forms of inquiry, it is difficult to evaluate the outcomes perhaps as systematically and rigorously (mouton, 2001). the study was exploratory, and was aimed at expanding on existing baseline literature, in an attempt to integrate existing knowledge into a framework without limiting the framework to the existing literature alone. although a number of studies on attraction and retention factors existed, there was no framework that integrated their findings for local government. it was the researchers’ opinion that such an integrated framework would contribute to understanding factors that retained employees in an organisation. the framework would, however, need to be expanded without limiting it to the pre-identified categories found in the literature. such expansion of knowledge was only possible through qualitative means (denzin & lincoln, 2008). since an intensive literature study was conducted before data collection commenced, a modernist approach was followed, which relied on a framework representing the integrated literature. the researchers assumed an observer role although they realised that they could not be fully removed from the interaction with participants. furthermore, the analysis of data was both objective through comparison against the framework and subjective by thematic analysis. the interpretation of the interview data was done inductively (braun & clark, 2006). research strategy a case study strategy was followed after completion of the literature study. other empirical research strategies, for example participatory research, action research, surveys, experimental designs, evaluation research, secondary data analysis, content analysis and so on were found not to be appropriate for this research approach. the focus was on the professional and management grouping of employees at a public service organisation (welman & kruger, 1999). the themes derived from each individual participant (unit of analysis) were integrated into the group’s findings. these findings were compared with and integrated into the literature framework. this strategy was in line with the modernist approach that was followed where a universal result was generated for the case participants. research method a theoretical framework was used to deduct and compare data (welman & kruger, 1999). this framework was referred to as the retention factors framework for existing employees, as explained in the literature review, which served as what we know to be true of retention factors. semi-structured interviews were conducted. interview data were compared against the framework, resulting in comparisons against predetermined and precisely defined factors, as well as an indication of the frequency of factors found – all of which are characteristic of thematic analysis (braun & clark, 2006). results were derived through thematic analysis, which involved the identification and analysis of themes and patterns of similarity (braun & clark, 2006). qualitative data sources included semi-structured interviews – an interview guide based on the literature framework – as well as the researcher’s impressions and reactions, contained in interview notes (myers, 1997). the motivation for undertaking qualitative research was that richness of data could be obtained by asking additional questions to further probe answers, and to accommodate the exploratory nature of the study (denzin & lincoln, 2008). participants were also requested to rate the importance of the themes, as the researcher was interested in determining whether certain themes were more important than others, as those themes would be of greater importance in informing the organisation’s evp. research setting the organisation chosen for the research study was a local government organisation in south africa. data collection took place in december 2007, a period when local government managers were employed on a non-permanent contract basis. the collection, analysis and verification of data were completed within six months. entrée and establishing researcher roles the main researcher was employed by the local government organisation at the time when the study was undertaken. although this was the case, the researchers did not personally s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #198 (page number not for citation purposes) retention factors of management staff in the maintenance phase of their careers in local government 191vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 9 know any of the participants. permission was sought from the director of human resources to carry out the study. permission was granted, as the results of the study would be beneficial to the management tasked with the attraction and retention of professional and management employees. information was kept confidential, and participants remained anonymous. sampling potential research participants were identified on the basis of the length of time they were employed within the organisation, their level of seniority, a spread of functions and their job performance rating. as there were various participants who met the performance and tenure criteria, purposive sampling was used in terms of distribution of departments or function, race, gender, age and performance (punch, 2005). this involved sampling in a deliberate manner in order to be inclusive, with a specific purpose in mind, namely to understand what the targeted grouping of employees deemed important as retention factors. the research participants were management and professional employees from a local government organisation, specifically those who had remained with the organisation for longer than six years. a six-year period appeared to be a reasonable benchmark for tenure, based on the p-e corporate services survey conducted in 2001 (sutherland, 2004). of the 700 south african companies surveyed, 67% of the sample of senior management leavers had fewer than six years of service. for middle management and skilled staff, 40% of leavers had fewer than six years of service. therefore, six and more years of service serves as a benchmark for solid tenure in the south african context. the participants included a span of seniority level such as executive directors, directors, deputy directors, managers and other professional employees who had at least a national diploma or degree. marketable participants were selected in order to pre-empt the possibility that they were unemployable in other contexts, and therefore not able to move to other organisations. the ages of the research participants varied with two participants under 45 years, one participant between 45 and 49 years of age, and seven participants older than 50 years. the use of the participants’ performance-management scores as part of the selection criteria ensured that value-adding employees were targeted. for each of the participants a minimum overall performance rating of 80% for at least the past two financial years was required. this approach also assisted in countering potential bias in the case of the seven participants older than 50 years, as it could be argued that this group of individuals may choose not to seek alternative employment, irrespective of adverse conditions at work. semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 10 research participants. at this point data saturation occurred, where responses with similar themes were being identified. data-collection method the research method enabled the development of a framework through an in-depth literature review. the framework also informed a set of questions that were asked during semistructured interviews. the semi-structured interview as a datacollection tool was considered a good way of probing people’s perceptions and the meaning they attached to reality (punch, 2005). during the interview the process was explained, and the interviewee was informed that the researcher would make notes, and told that the interview would also be audio-recorded. interviews commenced with interviewees being asked two open-ended questions, which were ‘why did you choose to join the organisation?’ and ‘what factors have caused you to remain with the organisation for more than six years?’ information was clarified and refined by asking further probing questions such as ‘was remuneration a key factor in your joining the organisation, or was it a factor that influenced you to remain with the organisation?’ the interviewee was also asked whether the factors that he or she mentioned were possibly push or pull factors. push factors refer to factors that would make the interviewee consider leaving the organisation, and pull factors are those factors that contribute to retaining the employee. the participants were also requested to rate the 25 retention factors, as identified in the literature framework, with regard to their importance, on a scale from one to five, where one was not important and five was very important. ten interviews were concluded before transcription and analysis took place. results were verified with interviewees to ensure alignment with what they had actually meant. data analysis data analysis is the process of bringing order, structure and meaning to a mass of collected data (marshall & rossman, 1995). the analysis involved searching for statements that supported the factors indicated in the retention factors framework for existing employees. common themes and patterns were identified, tracked and rated for importance among the participants. research participants were requested to rate the 25 factors that were identified in the above framework, in order of their importance to them personally. the rated data were summated, and the overall top factors were identified. data reduction occurred continually throughout the analysis. in the early stages it occurred through the editing, segmenting and summarising of data by linking the data to the retention factors. in the middle stages it was done through coding and memoing, for example direct financial, indirect financial, affiliation, work content, career and work/life balance. the coding was done by hand; no computer-aided system was used. this stage also involved finding themes, clusters and patterns. in the later stages reduction occurred through conceptualising and explaining, since developing abstract concepts is a way of reducing data without significant loss of information (punch, 2005). the themes were ranked and tested against the existing literature and the retention factors framework for existing employees. strategies used to ensure quality research the manner in which rigour was maintained was by allowing participants to guide the inquiry process, as suggested by chiovitti and piran (2003). this was done through initially using open-ended questions, checking the research participants’ responses against the theory, using the research participants’ actual words in findings, where appropriate, articulating the researcher’s personal views and insight about the problem being explored specifically at the onset of the interview, specifying the criteria built into the researcher’s thinking such as the literature framework and research design, specifying how and why participants were chosen, delineating the scope of the research, and describing how the literature related to each category that emerged through the research findings. the guidelines provided by chiovitti and piran (2003) were adhered to so as to ensure that rigour in terms of credibility, auditability and fit was maintained throughout the research process. the participants were unknown to the researchers. this aided in avoiding researcher bias. furthermore, a second researcher reviewed and adjusted the coding, which also assisted in limiting bias. reporting a modernist approach was adopted for the purposes of reporting the findings of this research study. this suggests that the researchers looked for probabilities or support for arguments concerning the likelihood that a conclusion in fact applies in the specific situation (denzin & lincoln, 2008). therefore, reporting occurs through scientific as well as realist tales (sparks, 2002). to comply with realist tales, the results of this study contain quotations from participants that describe and substantiate the findings. the findings were then compared to the literature framework. original research munsamy & bosch venter sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 19 8 (page number not for citation purposes) 192 vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 9 findings the responses obtained through the semi-structured interviews are illustrated in table 2 in order of groundedness (frequency at which the theme was indicated). in a final step these themes were compared against the theoretical framework (table 3). sixteen themes were identified from the consolidated responses received from the research participants. these themes were the reasons for remaining in the employ of the organisation. groundedness therefore indicated theme frequency, i.e. the number of quotations to which a theme was applied, or the number of quotations linked to a specific theme (muhr & friese, 2004). groundedness in this instance serves to clearly distinguish the key themes highlighted by the research participants. it is evident from table 2 that a key retention driver for this grouping of employees was the theme of job aligned with personal meaning or passion. this driver was mentioned 90 times. an example of the job being aligned to personal meaning is illustrated by the following participants’ statements: ‘i believe that working for local government would place me closer to communities in addressing their service delivery issues’ (r8) as well as ‘i realised that my passion was more focussed at community health as opposed to health-rendering in a hospital setting’ (r1) the participants indicated that they remained with the organisation due to the alignment between the job that they were performing and that which was meaningful to them personally, or what they were passionate about. another example cited in the interviews is the following: ‘... the fact of being a health worker ensures my commitment – i will exercise the same level of commitment as a health practitioner, irrespective of where i practice’ (r6) the second most grounded theme was direct financial, which appeared only 39 times compared to 90 times for job aligned with personal meaning or passion. the themes direct financial and opportunities for development appeared 39 and 38 times respectively. this seems to indicate that the salary component and the development opportunities were important reasons to remain employed with this organisation. an example of direct financial being an important factor is where a participant stated the following: ‘financial reward is certainly one of the factors that contribute to my remaining with the organisation’ (r9) when asked how career development opportunities had influenced their decision to remain with the organisation, a participant stated: ‘substantially, i would say at least 60% of my decision to remain was the training and development opportunities available’ (r2) compared to the themes that followed, the first three themes of table 2 were the most emphasised. while this did not necessarily indicate greater importance, it did highlight key areas of common retention factors among the participants. the themes promotion, recognition and close proximity to work were mentioned 15 times, while flexibility, trust and work/life balance were mentioned 12 times in the participants’ responses. this indicated that these were also factors that influenced this grouping of employees to remain with the organisation. while these factors were not mentioned as frequently, they were clearly important, as almost all ten participants mentioned that a good balance was required, for example in terms of work/life balance. the themes teamwork and sense of security appeared 14 and 7 times respectively, in comparison with the 90 times of job aligned with personal meaning or passion. in terms of the number of times mentioned, the lowest scoring theme is sense of security. it was mentioned only seven times. this could be as a result of many of the research participants being on fixed-term contracts, and knowing that their contracts were dependent on their performance. where an individual’s performance was in line with what was expected of him or her, there was a greater probability of his or her contract being renewed. these were high-performing employees, which could be the reason why sense of security was not mentioned as often as some other themes. table 3 provides a comparison between the themes derived from the data and the theoretical framework. the common themes that were identified through the interviews conducted with the research participants were juxtaposed with the retention factors framework for existing employees. it is clear from table 3 above that the majority of themes that were identified related to the work content grouping, which is consistent with the analysis highlighted in table 2. there are four themes related to affiliation and work/life balance, which is second to that of the work content grouping, which has five associated themes. the career grouping has three associated themes, namely opportunities for development, promotion and sense of security. there are themes that relate to more than one retention factor, for example recognition, which is derived through affiliation with the organisation, as well as through the actual work content. the research participants also indicated direct financial and indirect financial rewards as factors that had caused them table 2 themes as deduced from the responses of research participant themes groundedness 1. job aligned with personal meaning/passion 2. direct financial 3. opportunities for development 4. indirect financial 5. work environment/content 6. sense of achievement 7. autonomy 8. promotion 9. recognition 10. close proximity to work 11. teamwork 12. flexibility 13. trust 14. work/life balance 15. supportive of balance 16. sense of security 90 39 38 23 22 19 18 15 15 15 14 12 12 12 11 7 table 3 comparison between the identified themes and theoretical framework themes df if a wc c wlb 1. job aligned with personal x meaning/passion 2. direct financial x 3. opportunities for development x 4. indirect financial x 5. work environment/content x x 6. sense of achievement x 7. autonomy x 8. promotion x 9. recognition x x 10. close proximity to work x 11. teamwork x 12. flexibility x 13. trust x 14. work/life balance x 15. supportive of balance x 16. sense of security x wc – work content wlb – work/life balance c – career a – affiliation df – direct financial if – indirect financial y s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #198 (page number not for citation purposes) retention factors of management staff in the maintenance phase of their careers in local government 193vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 9 to remain with the organisation. examples of these were the following: ‘being attracted through receiving a higher salary’ as well as ‘... with the introduction of the performance-management system my salary increases have increased my remuneration quite high [sic], which sort of forces you to go the extra mile’ (r6) ‘and i receive the normal increases as any permanent employee and through these increases my benefits portion also increase [sic]’ (r7) push and pull factors could not be clearly defined, due to the fact that some participants viewed certain factors as push factors, while other participants viewed them as pull factors. salary could be a push factor to employees who are not on the performance-linked bonus scheme, while salary was a pull factor to those who were indeed on the performance-linked bonus scheme. participants also indicated that they might leave if offered a better salary (push). however, the job would have to be challenging, and something that they were passionate about (pull), and they would therefore not be prepared to leave purely for more money, hence there were no clear push or pull factors identified. each participant’s rating of the individual factors was consolidated, and the scores were then ranked in order of their importance to the particular participant (refer to table 4). challenging and meaningful work that related to the theme job aligned to personal meaning or passion was ranked the most important factor. the majority of the factors scored high, around 40, with only flexible working arrangements, performance bonus pay, employee benefits, non-cash recognition and access to childcare facilities scoring below 40. there were no statements that contradicted the framework. discussion the objective of the study was to answer the main question, namely what the key factors were that influenced professional and management employees to remain employed in the local government organisation. the findings, as stated above, have largely answered the question of what the key factors were for the professional and management grouping of employees that are in the maintenance phase of their careers. the findings also suggested implications for the organisation. these implications are discussed in this section. the theme job aligned with personal meaning or passion was expressed in various ways by the research participants – from being able to influence policy and making a difference in terms of service delivery to being able to serve the ruling political party. the researchers realised that there was a myriad of interpretations of personal meaning as expressed by the research participants, but that in essence they were expressing their passion. the fact that seven of the ten respondents were over 50 years of age might account for the very high support for the theme job aligned with personal meaning or passion. this is in line with the kaleidoscope career theory of mainiero and sullivan (2006), which states that men and women seek authenticity, including passion, in the middle to late stages of their careers. this finding has implications for people in management who are tasked with the recruitment and retention of professional and management employees in the organisation, as suggested by ingham (2006). over and above the competency-based interviews when hiring new employees, the interviewing process for future management and professional employees should consider the employee’s interests, and whether a position will be aligned with that individual’s personal meaning or passion. specific questions must be asked to determine the candidate’s ability to fit into the position being offered. the working environment needs table 4 retention factors rating no. factor r 1 r 2 r 3 r 4 r 5 r 6 r 7 r 8 r 9 r 10 total 1. challenging and meaningful work (wc) 5 4 4 4 5 4 5 5 5 5 46 2. work variety (wc) 5 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 4 5 46 3. employability (c) 5 4 4 4 5 4 5 5 4 5 45 4. access to family (wlb) 5 5 5 5 5 5 3 5 2 5 45 5. working autonomously (wc) 5 5 4 3 5 5 4 5 3 5 44 6. interaction with experts (c) 5 4 4 3 4 5 5 5 4 5 44 7. quality of managers (c) 5 5 4 3 5 5 4 5 3 5 44 8. sense of belonging in organisation (a) 5 4 4 3 5 5 5 5 3 5 44 9. values congruency (a) 5 3 4 3 4 5 5 5 5 5 44 10. career development – personal growth (c) 5 3 4 4 5 4 5 5 5 3 43 11. stretch assignments (c) 5 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 3 5 43 12. leading edge technology (a) 5 4 4 3 5 5 4 5 3 5 43 13. management style (a) 5 4 4 2 5 5 5 5 3 5 43 14. basic pay (df) 5 5 5 4 5 4 3 5 3 3 42 15. job security (c) 5 5 4 4 5 4 3 5 4 3 42 16. work environment/ conditions (a) 5 4 3 2 5 4 5 5 4 5 42 17. training opportunity (c) 5 3 5 3 4 4 5 5 4 3 41 18. location of organisation (wlb) 5 2 5 4 5 5 4 5 3 3 41 19. balance between personal and family life (wlb) 3 5 5 3 4 4 4 5 3 5 41 20. feedback (wc) 5 3 3 2 4 5 5 5 5 3 40 21. flexible working arrangements (wlb) 5 2 3 3 5 5 5 5 2 3 38 22. performance bonus pay (df) 5 5 5 1 3 4 5 5 3 1 37 23. employee benefits (if) 4 1 5 4 5 4 3 4 4 3 37 24. non-cash recognition (if) 4 1 5 2 1 4 3 4 1 3 28 25. access to childcare facilities (wlb) 1 4 1 1 3 3 2 3 2 3 23 wc – work content wlb – work/life balance c – career a – affiliation df – direct financial if – indirect financial original research munsamy & bosch venter sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 19 8 (page number not for citation purposes) 194 vol. 7 no. 1 page 8 of 9 to be conducive to allowing employees to become involved in matters they are passionate about. employees can, for example, be allowed and encouraged to volunteer for projects where their interests lie, so as to feed their interests and matters they are passionate about, thereby retaining them. this will assist in creating a compelling place to work – a working environment that is supportive of employees’ ideas, innovation and personal growth and development (ulrich, 1998). this, however, must then be linked to the organisation’s remuneration and performancemanagement system, as a holistic approach must be adopted. part of the findings highlighted direct financial reward as being important to respondents, indicating that the cash component is an important factor. employees want to be recognised for their efforts, as there appears to be a desire for balance between what they give and what they receive, as described by fairhurst (2007). rewarding individual performance will therefore further enhance the organisation’s evp (swanepoel et al., 2003). the themes direct financial and opportunities for development appeared 39 and 38 times respectively. these responses suggest that this grouping of employees has had increases in salaries over time, and has had opportunities to develop. it furthermore appears that the career progression was matched with salary increases. career development and progression are retention factors for this grouping of employees. this indicates that career and succession planning must form part of the organisation’s evp and retention strategy (isabel, 2007; meyer, 2005). this again should be linked to the organisation’s reward and performancemanagement systems. when moving down the list of groundedness of themes, the themes indirect financial and work environment/content appeared 23 and 22 times respectively during the 10 interviews. the aspect of work content is also closely linked to the highest scoring theme (job aligned with personal meaning or passion), as personal meaning largely relates to the individual’s work content. this suggests that the work performed by the groupings of employees who were targeted must be linked to what they are passionate about. it is also important that the fact that the organisation does offer its employees a value proposition, and that there is a retention strategy being put in place to keep their valued employees, must be effectively communicated to employees. this suggests that employers need to brand their value proposition to employees, which would serve to remind employees of the benefit they derive from being associated with the organisation. existing employees are likely to consider more insightful attributes such as how respectfully they are treated, how well the jobs on offer match their own particular interests and the quality of their managers. the theme access to childcare facilities was ranked the lowest by the research participants. this could be due to the fact that the majority of the participants were older than 50 years of age, and access to childcare facilities therefore was no longer an area of need to them. this area should, however, always be probed when developing an evp to cater for the overall needs of the targeted employees. conclusion a systematic approach was adopted in undertaking this study – from identifying the problem, understanding the subject matter by way of a literature review, planning the approach and methodology to executing the study and writing up the findings. the article consolidates much of the literature on retention factors, and serves to add to the existing body of knowledge by way of the research findings. there is a clear link between the research study and the literature reviewed, highlighting what the targeted grouping of employees deems important. this in turn would inform the organisation’s evp and any other retention initiative that the organisation would want to embark on. the factor job aligned with personal meaning or passion is clearly important to this grouping of employees, and should form part of the attraction and retention strategy for the organisation. the other factors such as direct financial, indirect financial, opportunities for development and work variety also seem to be important to this grouping of employees. part of the organisation’s evp should be to empower employees to influence service delivery and make a meaningful contribution to the local communities while being challenged through a wellstructured performance-management system. by understanding what the targeted grouping of employees deems key retention factors, the organisation will be in a much better position to devise responsive retention strategies based on their evp, as well as to implement practices that are likely to be more successful at retaining the targeted group of employees. employees also need to be made aware of initiatives that the organisation has in place, or is currently implementing, so that they may feel valued, and will want to remain with the organisation. in some instances it is the communication to employees regarding the organisation’s offerings that must be improved, and not necessarily the provision of specific attributes (birt, wallis & winternitz, 2004). another workplace implication is that managers should have an understanding of what their employees attach personal meaning or passion to. this can be achieved by managers engaging with their employees through structured employee-engagement sessions that should be facilitated by human resources practitioners. the information gained from employees through these sessions will enable managers to create the environment and flexibility within the organisation for employees to have their jobs aligned with what they attach personal meaning or passion to. future research possible future research could entail comparing this framework with studies investigating employer attractiveness in terms of value propositions. research on standardising retention factors that could inform the evp of local government in south africa would be useful in the struggle to retain managerial skills. limitations this study was conducted in a local government setting in which the unit of analysis was limited to professional and management employees in the maintenance phase of their careers. while the literature framework assists in the development of theory, the results can only be generalised to this grouping of employees. furthermore, the identification of push and pull factors could not be achieved. this indicates that, although a framework to inform the universal application of retention factors is helpful, the unique needs of individuals ensure that it should not be interpreted without qualitative input. the external influence of politics, as local government selects candidates that show allegiance to the ruling party, was not probed in the study. political stance may have a bearing on retention factors but does not negate the usefulness of this study’s findings. although global private sector studies have been referenced, this study has particular relevance to the local government organisations that also benchmark themselves internationally against private sector surveys, such as that of the saratoga institute (2005). references arden, c. (2006). how to get your employment brand to work. management, july 4. retrieved august 27, 2007, from http:// findarticles.com batt, r. (2002). managing customer services: human resource practices, quit rates and sales growth. academy of management journal, 45, 587–597. bell, a. (2005). the employee value proposition redefined. strategic hr review, 4(4), 3. birt, m., wallis, t., & winternitz, g. (2004). talent retention in a changing workplace: an investigation of variables considered important to south african talent. south african journal of business management, 35(2), 25–31. braun, v., & clark, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3, 77–101. britton, p.b., chadwick, s.j., & walker, t. (1999). rewards of work. ivey business journal, 63(4), 46–53. s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #198 (page number not for citation purposes) retention factors of management staff in the maintenance phase of their careers in local government 195vol. 7 no. 1 page 9 of 9 buckingham, m., & clifton, d.o. (2001). now discover your strengths. croydon: bookmarque. byham, w.c., smith, a.b., & paese, m.j. (2002). grow your own leaders, develop and retain leadership talent. upper saddle river: prentice-hall. chiovitti, r.f., & piran, n. (2003). methodological issues in nursing research: rigour and grounded theory research. journal of advanced nursing, 44(4), 427–435. corporate leadership council (2002). the ageing workforce: retention and knowledge management. retrieved october 14, 2008, from www.corporateleadershipcouncil.com demarco, d. (2007). csi: the employee retention mystery. supervision, 68(6), 8–11. denzin, n.k., & lincoln, y.s. (2008). the landscape of qualitative research. (3rd edn.). thousand oaks: sage. de villiers, r. (2006). alumni talent: how losing the retention battle can help win the talent war. civil engineering, 14(1), 15. fairhurst, d. (2007). don’t lose them, schmooze them. human resources, january 10, 10. frederick, d. (2001). motivating staff. credit management, february, 34–36. gillis, t.l. (2007). employee communication is no small wonder. communication world, 24(5), 28–30. hamel, g. (2007). the future of management. boston: harvard business school. heger, b.k. (2007). linking the employment value proposition (evp) to employee engagement and business outcomes: preliminary findings from a linkage research pilot study. organisational development journal, 25(2), 121–134. horton, s., hondeghem, a., & farnham, d. (2002). competency management in the public sector. amsterdam: ios press. horwitz, f. (2007). retention strategies critical in a global market shortage of skilled workers. cape town: uct. ingham, j. (2006). closing the talent management gap. strategic hr review, 5(3), 20–24. isabel, o. (2007). classic management style not engaging. canadian hr reporter, 20(15), 18–20. lowe, g.s., & schellenberg, g. (2002). employees’ basic value proposition: strong hr strategies must address work values. canadian hr reporter, 15(13), 18–20. mainiero, l.a., & sullivan, s.e. (2006). the opt-out revolt: why people are leaving companies to create kaleidoscope careers. mountain view: davies-black. maitland, a. (2007, 27 september). tailored careers can be just the job. financial times, p. 16. marriot, j.w. (2001). our competitive strength: human capital. executive speeches, 15(5), 18–21. marshall, c., & rossman, g.b. (1995). designing qualitative research. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks: sage. meyer, m. (2005). astd state of the industry hr and training in south africa report 2005. johannesburg: astd global network sa. mouton, j. (2001). how to succeed in your master’s and doctoral studies: a south african guide and resource book. pretoria: van schaik. muhr, t., & friese, s. (2004) user’s manual for atlas.ti. (2nd edn.). berlin: atlas.ti. myers, m.d. (1997). qualitative research in information systems. retrieved august 26, 2007, from http://www.qual.auckland. ac.nz noe, r.a., hollenbeck, j.r., gerhart, b., & wright, p.m. (2008). human resource management: gaining a competitive advantage. (6th edn.). boston: mcgraw-hill irwin. peterson, b. (2007). the employee value proposition: six things you need to know. retrieved june 20, 2007, from http://www.nettemps.com punch, k.f. (2005). introduction to social research: qualitative and quantitative approaches. london: sage. robbins, s.p., odendaal, a., & roodt, g. (2001). organisational behaviour: global and southern african perspectives. johannesburg: maskew miller longman. saratoga institute. (2005). human capital benchmarking study. resolve workplace solutions. report presented to city of johannesburg, south africa. shaw, j.d., duffy, m.k., johnson, j.l., & lockhart, d.e. (2005). turnover, social capital losses, and performance. academy of management journal, 48, 594–606. south africa. 1996. constitution of the republic of south africa. retrieved august 27, 2007, from http://www. constitutionalcourt.org.za sparks, a.c. (2002). telling tales in sport and physical activity: a qualitative journey. leeds: human kinetics. sutherland, m.m (2004). factors affecting the retention of knowledge workers. retrieved november 15, 2007, from http://0etd.uj.ac. zaujlink.uj.ac.za/theses/available/etd-11172004-131718/ swanepoel, b., erasmus, b., van wyk, m., & schenk, h. (2003). south african human resource management. johannesburg: juta. ulrich, d. (1998). delivering results: a new mandate for human resource professionals. boston: harvard business school. welman, j.c., & kruger, s.j (1999). research methodology for the business and administrative sciences. cape town: oxford university press. zingheim, p.k., & schuster, j.r. (2006). career directions for total rewards professionals. compensation and benefits review, 38(3), 18–25. abstract introduction literature review research methodology findings discussion of results conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) obrain murire department of information systems, faculty of management and commerce, university of fort hare, east london, south africa liezel cilliers department of information systems, faculty of management and commerce, university of fort hare, east london, south africa willie t. chinyamurindi department of business management, faculty of management and commerce, university of fort hare, east london, south africa citation murire, o., cilliers, l. & chinyamurindi, w.t., (2023). social media role in addressing employability challenges of graduates: an expert opinion analysis. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2047. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2047 original research social media role in addressing employability challenges of graduates: an expert opinion analysis obrain murire, liezel cilliers, willie t. chinyamurindi received: 14 july 2022; accepted: 01 dec. 2022; published: 28 apr. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: south africa is currently going through a graduate unemployment challenge. calls exist for research that addresses this challenge. research purpose: this research study aimed to establish social media tools’ role in addressing employability challenges faced by graduates after completing their tertiary education. motivation for the study: calls exist in the literature for nuanced ways of addressing challenges youths face after completing their studies. the role of social media in this remains an area of inquiry with noted importance. research approach/design and method: the study utilised an interpretivist philosophy relying on a qualitative research approach using interview data with a sample of 15 experts within the human resources field. thematic analysis was used as a means of data analysis. main findings: two primary outcomes emerged from the research study. firstly, a need exists for unemployed graduates to use social media as a marketing utility for their skills and abilities. secondly, social media can also be used as an information utility to enhance awareness about labour market issues. practical/managerial implications: the findings offer insights into addressing the employability challenges faced by graduates when seeking employment opportunities. the role of social media in mitigating graduate challenges is proposed. through the findings, graduates have the potential to enhance their portfolios to improve their integration into the labour market. contribution/value add: the study proffers insights into how social media helps increase the employability prospects of graduates entering the job market. keywords: social media; graduates; youth; human resource management; higher education; youth unemployment. introduction the global youth unemployment rate is 14.9%, whereas in africa, the rate is 12.7% (statistics south africa, 2022). south africa is currently facing a challenge, especially youth unemployment. despite a drop of 34.5% in the first quarter of 2022 from 35.3%, challenges still exist (statistics south africa, 2021b). statistics reveal that 31% of graduates under the age of 24 are not working in south africa (statistics south africa, 2021a). the majority of these are graduates (bangani, 2019). studies reveal some reasons for this high state of unemployment. saliently, these can be reduced to (1) a lack of skills that enhance employability; (2) the qualification type attained, including the field of study; (3) the superiority of the tertiary education acquired based on the institution; (4) higher prospects from graduates; (5) a lack of knowledge about the employment hunt and limited work experience (chiwara et al., 2017; harry et al., 2018; mseleku, 2019). proviso graduate joblessness rates continue growing, resulting in continued idleness, poverty and frustration among the graduates (graham & de lannoy, 2016). this is exacerbated by the growing number of graduates exiting the tertiary sector (harry & chinyamurindi, 2020; rogan & reynolds, 2016). there is a need for strategies that enhance the integration of the unemployed, especially graduates, into the labour market (harry & chinyamurindi, 2019). this can be in the form of tools such as technology that remain popular, especially among young people in countries like south africa. there is a noted growing popularity of smartphone usage amongst students (shava et al., 2016). popular sites amongst students include facebook, linkedin and twitter, all for communication purposes (cilliers et al., 2017; shava et al., 2016). changqing et al. (2016) pointed out that graduates are the most active mobile phone operators as they utilise text messaging and the internet. robinson (2011) proclaimed that with the receipt of mobile communication among young adults, there is a perception of social media use to increase youth employability in south africa. technology is a practical tool to help youth to search for employment and thereby increase the employability of graduates from tertiary education in south africa (albal, 2018; benson et al., 2014). technology plays a pivotal role in displaying skills required by employers and thus has the potential to increase graduate transition into the labour markets (benson et al., 2014; tanser, 2017). social media has been identified as a solution to employment challenges faced by graduates. students actively use social media for personal reasons (beavon, 2019; garcia, 2011). joosten (2012, p. 4) defined social media as ‘different methods of electronic communication employed by (employers; recruitment companies as well as graduates) to build online communities so that information, ideas as well as other content can be shared’. changqing et al. (2016, p. 3) described social media as ‘websites and applications that allow end-users (graduates, managers and people) to make a profile, facilitating collaboration and sharing of information in the virtual social world’. tess (2013) added that social media transforms how youth converse and cooperate. conversely, there are concerns associated with social media use by graduates. these take in online security concerns, the cost of data and the social media experience. therefore, graduates have scant knowledge necessary to effectively use social media as an employability tool (albal, 2018). this study aimed to establish the role of social media in addressing the employability challenges graduates face. the article discusses the literature review and is then followed by a discussion of the methodology applied in the study. this is followed by a section which presents the study results and after that, a discussion of the findings. lastly, the paper presents the study’s limitations and the conclusion. the following section presents the underpinning literature. literature review theoretical lens the study has employed two theoretical frameworks. firstly, the careeredge framework defines the concepts that influence the employability of the youth cohort. the power of careeredge rests on its effortlessness because it can be explained to graduates with ease (dacre pool & qualter, 2013). on the other hand, this strength could also be observed as a flaw in that it does not help in clarifying to nonexperts in the field, mainly the youth themselves and their parents, precisely what employability means. the careeredge model offers information on what should be considered when developing programmes and interventions on employability. moreover, the careeredge model is critical in knowledge transfer activities among the youth cohort (dacre pool, 2020). the careeredge model has been used in several articles on employability within a south african context (coetzee & esterhuizen, 2010; harry et al., 2018). a second theoretical model is the social media integration model (smim). garcia (2011) alluded that social media integration is an interactive process. it facilitates information exchange among employees and graduates. it creates long-lasting communication and enhances graduate–employer interaction. the smim has been used in various studies (roučkova, 2015; valos et al., 2016; webb & roberts, 2016). the smim was used in the business setting to examine how small organisations are communicating externally with their customers and clients, using social media to connect with their stakeholders and updating their social media platforms to ensure connectivity, sharing and exchange, exposure and feedback through activities such as blogging, social networking, social bookmarking and social recommendations and reviews. the following section discusses the empirical literature. empirical literature graduate challenges today’s graduates lack job-search skills. this lack of knowledge about the job search among graduates may hinder employment opportunities (nassiriyar et al., 2015). molek (2010, p. 93) defines job search as a ‘normal occurrence which job seekers use as a form of investment to enhance their position in the labour market’. the job search needs time and determination to achieve an objective, which in this case is being successful in attaining employment. the advent of technology has affected every sector of society, together with the process of looking for employment (piveca & maček, 2019). graduates can now use social media and job sites to look for job opportunities (becton et al., 2019). social media has also made it easier for youth seeking jobs to put themselves out there, displaying their curriculum vitae and skills. with internet connectivity and a mobile device, youths can look for employment wherever in the world, from anywhere in the world (ibrahim et al., 2016). new graduates seeking employment opportunities need to gain the competence in skills, capabilities and experience needed to find job opportunities and settle themselves in the workplace (lord et al., 2019). in most cases, graduates still need to make it past the interview stage. many graduates need to gain interview and technical skills necessary to get employment (krishnan et al., 2017). steyn et al. (2014) add that communication skill is critical for a graduate to pass the interview stage. similarly, krishnan et al. (2017) found that many youths lack a good command of english and find it challenging to converse effectually with potential employers in interviews. graduates could use webinars to help them prepare for the interviews, increasing their chances of being hired (abdu & siudikiene, 2016; albal, 2018). graduates today also find it challenging to be employed; they need to gain knowledge of applying principles of what they have learned at tertiary institutions. hooley (2017) stated that university youth find it challenging to convert the theoretical knowledge they have learnt into practical ones while in the workplace. another factor is unrealistic expectations from graduates. graduates think obtaining the top qualifications will guarantee high incomes and management positions (shyju & chandra, 2018). in the same way, kalufya and mwakajinga (2016) stated that graduates assume they begin with high incomes; conversely, some do not have any experience and are never exposed to experiential learning by their programmes. graduates find it challenging to commence from a lower position with such expectations. consequently, some decide to stay unemployed, awaiting their dream occupation (krishnan et al., 2017). if unrealistic expectations among youth persevere, it will additionally escalate youth joblessness. graduates must have an employability aptitude and must cope with emerging challenges arising every time to endure their work environment after attaining their employment opportunities (ismail, 2017). kalufya and mwakajinga (2016) pointed out that the youth should show their graduate employability capacities, including combining personal qualities, understanding and practices and applying these skills at their workplaces. social media and employment emerging technologies for employment are novel in south africa (maltby, 2011). social media started being used around early 2000. initially, it was used to carry out a background check of employees. a growing number of independent companies are emerging to assist graduates in connecting to employers (maltby, 2011). through such connections, young people are often trained in how they can acquire the necessary employability skills. this can also include using emerging technologies to increase employability (careerbuilder, 2011). the labour market is evolving, demanding that graduates be technologically literate in industry environments (abdu & siudikiene, 2016). the learning and teaching methodologies at tertiary institutions should evolve and adapt to offer learners technical and social media skills. social media is evolving how individuals, as well as firms, collaborate and function. graduates must know how to use social media to find employment opportunities and shape their online presence (koch et al., 2018). through social media, graduates can express the skills they have mastered in tertiary education with ease. social media has progressively changed from a tool for individual activities to a tool for professional activities. benson and morgan (2013) stated that emerging technologies are part of daily life for everyone. further, social media provides a plinth for self-presentation and self-disclosure (kaplan & haenlein, 2010). research studies by benson et al. (2013) and albal (2018) found that young graduates use social media for employability. additionally, albal (2018) stated that social media tools provide a platform for graduates to effectively access extensive information about organisations of their interest. social media allows graduates to find helpful information about their potential employers (benson et al., 2014). social media (for example, a blog) permits graduates to contribute to an online discussion (kaplan & haenlein, 2010). graduates could display their critical thinking and decision-making skills by participating in the debate. employers could use social media to respond to graduate students who have displayed their skills and talents in the company and discussion forums (ibrahim et al., 2016). for that reason, social media offers structures that stimulate graduate–employer interaction. fletcher (2016) stated that social media has to become prominent, with employers utilising social media to carry out background checks of potential personnel and conduct talent searches. suen (2018) stated that graduates must behave well when using social media, as it could affect their online presence. in developed states, more than 75% of employers do background checks on the social profiles of potential employees during the recruitment process. however, graduates’ profanity and poor selling on social media decrease their probability of being hired (salm, 2017). krishnan et al. (2017) revealed similar results. therefore, graduates should make use of social media to sell their talents. koch et al. (2018) look at the present state of the hiring processes in south africa. the study established that employment agencies in south africa are following their global counterparts. linkedin was found to be the primary platform for their recruitment processes. some higher education institutions have started designing special modules and training to assist learners in developing a professional online identity (rienties et al., 2012). the university of central lancashire in the united kingdom developed a social media initiative called ‘twitter critters’, used by the learner to engage with employers by sharing their work sketches and receiving expert feedback and advice (swan, 2012). emerging technologies such as linkedin and facebook have been recognised for their valuable role in assisting graduates in obtaining employment. nevertheless, the youth residing in parts of the country with low internet access rates and those from rural backgrounds sometimes need to be aware of these priceless resources. thus, it becomes an obligation for policymakers in the education sector to spread awareness about these resources. awareness could be achieved by including enough information about social media in their curriculum and teaching to educate students on the best practices to successfully use social media to acquire the skills needed to get their first job (mashigo, 2014). research methodology this article adopted an interpretivist research philosophy. a qualitative research method was employed (brynard & hanekom, 2006) to establish social media tools’ role in addressing employability challenges faced by graduates. this technique was selected because it allows gathering data directly linked to subjective experiences; thus, it is investigative in its application (flick, 2011). a qualitative method was considered suitable as it provides valuable insights into gaining an in-depth understanding of employability challenges faced by graduates. the study employed online interviews that fall under interviews. the study was conducted during the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) period when the authors needed to practise social distancing. sampling and research participants the article used a nonprobability sample method and a purposive sampling procedure. the research respondents were considered ‘information-rich’ and could offer helpful information regarding the problem under investigation. the objective was to select participants with characteristics required in the sample, that is, professionals within the human resources (hr) field. participants were identified through known contacts and the following roles in the organisation: (1) deputy director of human resources, (2) hr officer or administrator and (3) hr practitioner. fifteen hr practitioners participated in this study. these hr practitioners were from the eastern cape region of south africa. the justification for selecting the populace in the eastern cape was to reduce the study cost. seven were male, and six participants had more than 8 years of experience in the hr field. the data were collected over 2 months. the study applied inclusion criteria to select its participants: a participant should have at least 3 years of practice in their discipline area to take part in the study and also had to be an expert in any field of hr. this ensured dependability in the information collected from well-experienced participants. data collection and data recording the study was conducted during the covid-19 pandemic; the authors used any convenient method to gather the data. the researchers were required to observe social distancing and could not see participants in person. therefore, the researchers contacted participants via telephone and e-mail with a link to a qualitative survey on google forms (alphabet, inc., mountain view, california, united states). the study objectives and research question made using a qualitative research approach possible. the study used structured interviews, which require that all the research participants answer predetermined questions in the same order. table 1: demographic characteristics of participants. strategies to ensure data integrity the researchers paid attention to confirmability, transferability, credibility and dependability to ensure the quality of qualitative data (korstjens & moser, 2018). research participants participated online; their responses were recorded over google forms and enabled each participant’s recording (with permission). human resource practitioners who participated in the study were involved to ensure the study’s credibility. credibility was achieved as the data were collected through the actual hr practitioners. the trust was built based on the professionalism between the parties. the study focused on understanding labour market behaviours and ascertaining the role that social media plays, which allowed the researchers to gather opinions of the hr practitioners concerning the study. data analysis the data were analysed through a thematic narrative analysis (long, 2014). thematic narrative analysis was employed to understand hr practitioners’ opinions on the social media role in addressing employability challenges graduates face. the thematic analysis allowed the researchers to identify and examine shared patterns within the data. the researchers extracted themes and subthemes from the collected data. gibbs (2007) pointed out that extracting themes and subthemes from the participant’s responses is essential as it refines interpretations of the interviews and then encapsulates and integrates the gathered data. through thematic analysis, the scholars understood participants’ understandings through individual analysis, followed by evaluations of the participants’ experiences to generate themes (neuendorf, 2019). the themes were generated using the six steps advocated by braun et al. (2019), as illustrated in table 2, by returning to the original data and comparing individual journeys. table 2: phases of thematic analysis. ethical considerations this study guaranteed participants’ confidentiality, anonymity and privacy (ferreira, 2018). the researchers observed all ethical considerations, including informed consent (saunders & lewis, 2018). in this study, participants had the right to pull out from participating at any time (neuman, 2014). the study observed ethical guidelines. ethical clearance was obtained from the participating university (ref. no. cil021smur01). findings this study aimed to establish a social media role in addressing employability challenges graduates face after completing their tertiary education. two primary outcomes emerged from the research study. firstly, a need exists for unemployed graduates to use social media as a marketing utility for their skills and abilities. secondly, social media tool usefulness as an information utility to enhance awareness about labour market issues. table 3 illustrates themes and subthemes. these results are presented next. table 3: social media playing a utility role of marketing the prospective candidate: illustrating quotes. theme 1: social media playing a utility role in marketing the prospective candidate the participating hr practitioners expressed that social media plays a utility role in marketing the prospective candidate. two subthemes emerged: firstly, social media is helpful in applicant screening, and secondly, it increases and broadens the number of applicants. emerging technologies and media have transformed the way companies connect with graduates. companies investigate prospective employees’ social media accounts before they hire them. a participant pointed out that social media can be used to identify ‘red flags’ as they disclose the nature and personality of potential personnel. youth seeking job opportunities must behave in this digital industry when using social media, as it influences their online profile and employability. participant 3 noted the following: ‘social networks should not be a qualifying factor. they should be handy in picking out possible red flags (such as racism and extremist behaviour).’ (male) additionally, participant 11 also noted that: ‘information on social media is not always accurate; some graduates forget to update their profile. therefore, employers do not need to depend on the information found on a graduate’s profile. graduates must be careful about what they post and comment on social media as it affects their employability.’ (female) participant 14 cautions especially the younger generation regarding the content they post on facebook and twitter, as this can affect their probabilities in a competitive labour market: ‘some people can lie about their information, and some do not update it. hr cannot rely on that information. people need to be careful of what they post and comment on.’ (female) social media helps spread information between youth concerning job opportunities or internships available. consequently, subtheme 2 (social media usefulness as an information utility to enhance awareness about labour market issues) is convenient for attracting new talents through sharing information about employment opportunities available transversely over geographic borders and broadening the pool of applicants. participant 1 had this to say: ‘social media platforms are only relevant for attraction purposes only. however, other administrative requirements of the recruitment and selection must always be undertaken once applications have been received from a potential candidate.’ (male) when using social media, individuals can associate universally in the world if they have access to the internet. through social media, information reaches the graduates promptly and at a very inexpensive cost. participant 5 narrated as follows: ‘information can reach the globe on time as there will be no geographical boundaries.’ (male) table 4 illustrates additional quotes from the interviews supporting theme 1 of the study. table 4: social media’s role in enhancing graduate employability through enhancing information awareness: illustrating quotes. this leads to the study’s second finding, and social media was noted (in addition to the marketing utility identified) as playing a related information utility role in enhancing awareness about labour market issues. these results are presented next. theme 2: social media’s information role in enhancing graduate employability through enhancing information awareness a finding of the study reviewed that social media helps increase youth employability through enhancing information awareness. the subthemes that emerged were that social media imparts youth with employment opportunity information, inspires social connectedness on matters of mutual interest and helps with graduate skills development. participant 4 pointed out: ‘it would be important for the graduate to learn how to use social media for their benefit in their employability journey – how to search for job opportunities, advertise their skills and profiles on social media for prospective employers to view etc. social media allows for several technological innovations to help graduates get their “name” out in the world to a larger scope of prospective employers and to help showcase their portfolio if they have developed something like this.’ (male) emerging technologies, for instance, social media, could assist youth in creating relations with companies and others with whom they share a related interest. youth ought to use linkedin, to generate strong networks with employers. participant 15 had to say the following: ‘very useful to highlight relevant skills and network to possible employers. makes young applicants more accountable for what is posted, if possible employers are watching.’ (male) social media provides an opportunity for graduates to learn. graduate skills may be established if graduates go through stories posted on social media related to their line of interest. these stories might elucidate how an individual develops his or her skills and becomes prosperous in obtaining a job opportunity. participant 9 said the following: ‘we all need social media for relevance; we need to learn online. the employability may improve with social media, especially if you read the stories on links related to your field of interest.’ (female) furthermore, social media assists in creating social communities for graduates that enhance information access and provide an opportunity for youth to create networks with employers. participant 6 had to say: ‘it can be a good platform for good networks, and others become entrepreneurs and open businesses through experiences shared via social media.’ (female) a social media platform allows an individual to post employment opportunities and share them with youth seeking employment. corporations may utilise emerging technologies to broadcast employment prospects available. additionally, participant 2 expressed the following: ‘the best use is to ensure that jobs are posted and shared on the platform to potential graduates to search and apply for them. with that, a campaign to educate and advise graduates on the skills that are lacking both in graduates and in the job market could mitigate some unemployment and possibly drive graduates to further skills themselves on what is highlighted by the campaign.’ (male) social media is a communication medium used by numerous businesses to share information regarding their prospects from potential employees. as a result, graduates must follow businesses’ social media platforms to receive updates from future employers concerning employment. participant 3 noted this view: ‘the industry can use social media to give information about their expectation for the consumption of willing graduates.’ (male) table 5 presents additional quotes from the interviews to the supporting theme 2 of the study. table 5: social media’s role in enhancing graduate employability through enhancing information awareness: illustrating quotes. discussion of results this research study intended to establish social media’s role in addressing employability challenges graduates face after completing their tertiary education. social media transformed the way companies connect with potential employees. the study revealed that social media has become prominent, and hr departments within organisations utilise social media to carry out personnel background checks before they invite the individual for an interview and to conduct talent searches. graduates must behave well when using social media because it could influence their online identity. graduates’ profanity on social media decreases their employment probability (salm, 2017). krishnan et al. (2017) revealed similar results. therefore, graduates must utilise social media for their benefit, such as selling skills and talents, because employers are searching for them online. the results replicate comparable findings from the studies carried out by hussain et al. (2017). their findings pointed out the need to educate graduates on how to behave in the digital world. furthermore, the results pointed out that policies ought to be available and govern how recruitment companies may integrate social media into recruitment as well as the selection of potential employees (wirthman, 2016). through social media, job information is available to graduates. these findings are comparable to the current study from becton et al. (2019), who point out that organisations’ hr departments use social media tools to attract or lure new talents because job opportunity information can reach the audience (graduates) in no time. therefore, this study proposes that youth ought to acquire employment-hunting skills when using social media and market their graduate skills on social media (sangeeta & ahlawat, 2018). the use of social media enhances social connectedness among individuals with a common interest. the study’s results support emerging technologies; for instance, social media could assist youth in creating relations with companies and others with whom they share a related interest. youths should use available technologies to generate good networks with prospective employers (albal, 2018). social media enables graduates to create a social community that youth may use for sharing available employment opportunities (benson et al., 2013). the study’s findings corroborate previous studies that presented ways social media could help increase youth’s employability (albal, 2018; piveca & maček, 2019; shyju & chandra, 2018). in addition, the study’s results reveal similar findings from several researchers (abdu & siudikiene, 2016; garcia, 2011; hussain et al., 2017). emerging technologies are a critical tool that could project individuals’ positive, more constructive side. graduates should use social media to develop employer–employee relations, construct their online identities and display their skills. implications some implications can be drawn from this study. the findings offer insights into social media roles in addressing graduates’ employability challenges. this study adds to the discussion of social media’s role in employability in modern societies. the study has revealed social media’s potential to enhance the employability of graduates. further, the study adds to existing knowledge on social media for employability enhancement. higher education institutions have to present knowledge regarding the prominence of social media to graduates. this could be through sharing stories on how youth must shape their online identity, as most employers conduct a background check on the applicant on social media sites. from a law-making perspective, policymakers (legislators) in the department of education must find ways to implant social media in higher education programmes and teaching to teach graduates best practices to employ social media for employment purposes effectively. the finding that social media aids the employability of graduates has significant implications for hr practitioner practices. from a hr perspective, policies that underline hr practitioners’ restrictions when selecting new talent should be in place. finally, this study sheds more light on the role social media plays towards the employability of exiting students. overall, graduates must utilise social media for their professional development. limitations of the study and directions for future research the purpose of the study was to establish social media’s role in addressing employability challenges graduates face. human resource practitioners in the eastern cape province of south africa were used as a sample; therefore, the results generally relate to this setting. nevertheless, research may use a quantitative approach and examine all the hr practitioners in south africa. moreover, the study should be extended to southern african development community (sadc) universities in the future. conclusion the receipt of smartphones among the youth has led to the use of social media, such as twitter and facebook, to gain access to job opportunity information on these platforms in south africa. the study’s purpose was to examine the social media tools’ role in addressing employability challenges graduates face after completing their tertiary education in south africa. two primary outcomes emerged from the research study informed by the thematic analysis conducted where a need exists for unemployed graduates to use social media as a marketing utility of their skills and abilities. social media can also be used as an information utility to enhance awareness about labour market issues. the contribution of the study is a framework with theory-practitioner and policy ramifications. the study establishes an insight into youth employability challenges and provides reasons for what causes them. acknowledgements o.m. was a phd student supervised by l.c. and w.c. the article is based on the phd work of o.m. competing interests the author(s) declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions o.m. was a phd student supervised by l.c. and w.c. the article is based on the phd work of o.m. funding information the research received funding from the research niche area of the faculty of management and commerce at the university of fort hare. this funding assisted in paying for language editing services. data availability the data used were obtained via interviews; the data are represented in the manuscript in the presented tables. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abdu, m., & siudikiene, d. (2016). an empirical study of searching for scholarships and jobs through using social networks’ features and education research. international journal of social sciences and education research, 2(1), 14–23. https://doi.org/10.24289/ijsser.279080 albal, k. (2018, january 18). social media should be viewed with an eye for employability: students’ social media usage affects their chances of finding a job after graduation. retrieved from www.statepress.com: http://www.statepress.com/article/2018/01/spopinion-social-media-should-be-viewed-with-an-eye-for-employability almeshal, t. (2015). social media adoption in learning and teaching by higher education faculty. in 9th international technology, education and development conference (pp. 1–10). higher education faculty. altman, m., mokomane, z., & wright, g. (2014). social security for young people amidst high poverty and unemployment: some policy options for south africa. development southern africa, 31(2), 347–362. https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835x.2013.873346 arnedillo-sánchez, i., de aldama, c., & tseloudi, c. (2017). mapping employability attributes onto facebook:ressume: employability skills social media survey (pp. 523–527). springer international publishing. artess, j., hooley, t., & mellors-bourne, r. (2017). employability: a review of the literature 2012–2016. higher education academy. bangani, z. (2019, august 07). graduates and their unemployment dilemma. retrieved from mg.co.za: https://mg.co.za/article/2019-08-07-graduates-and-their-unemployment-dilemma/#:~:text=statistics%20south%20africa’s%20results%20for,those%20with%20other%20educational%20levels beavon, e. (2019, august 14). infographic: 2019 south african social media stats. retrieved from media update: https://www.mediaupdate.co.za/social/146925/infographic-2019-south-african-social-media-stats becton, j., walker, h., gilstrap, j., & schwager, p. (2019). social media are snooping on job applicants. personnel review, 48(5), 1261–1280. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-09-2017-0278 benson, v., & morgan, s. (2013). student employability: can i get a job through social networking? in international higher education teaching and learning association (hetl) conference: exploring spaces for learning, 13–15 january 2013. benson, v., morgan, s., & filippaios, f. (2014). social career management: social media and employability skills gap. computer-human behaviour, 30, 519–525. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.06.015 borah, d., malik, k., & massini, s. (2021). teaching-focused university-industry collaborations: determinants and impact on graduates’ employability competencies. research policy, 50(3), 104172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2020.104172 braun, v., clarke, v., hayfield, n., & terry, g. (2019). thematic analysis. springer, new york. brynard p., & hanekom s.x. (2006). introduction to research in management-related fields (2nd ed.). van schaik. chadha, d., & toner, j. (2017). focusing on employability: using content analysis to explore the employability discourse in uk and usa universities. toner international journal of educational technology in higher education, 14, 33. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-017-0071-0 changqing, h., jibao, g., wei, w., xuesong, z., & jun, s. (2016). social media use in the career development of graduate students: the mediating role of internship effectiveness and the moderating role of zhongyong. high education, 74, 1033–1051. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-016-0107-8 chiwara, j., chinyamurindi, w., & mjoli, t. (2017). factors that influence internet use for job-seeking purposes amongst a sample of final-year students in the eastern cape province of south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 15, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.790 cilliers, l., chinyamurindi, w., & viljoen, k. (2017). factors influencing the intention to use social media for work-related purposes at a south african higher education institution. sa journal of human resource management, 15, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.859 coetzee, m. (2014). measuring student graduateness: reliability and construct validity of the graduate skills and attributes scale. higher education research & development, 33(5), 887–902. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2014.890572 coetzee, m., & esterhuizen, k. (2010). an exploratory study is an psychological career and coping resources of the young unemployed african graduate. south african journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.868 dacre, l. (2016). developing graduate employability: the careeredge model and the importance of emotional intelligence. in m. tomlinson & l. holmes (eds.), graduate employability in context (pp. 317–338). palgrave mcmillan. dacre-pool, l. (2020). revisiting the careeredge model of graduate employability. journal of the national institute for career education and counselling, 44(1), 51–56. https://doi.org/10.20856/jnicec.4408 dacre pool, l & qualter, p. (2013). emotional self-efficacy, graduate employability, and career satisfaction: testing the associations. australian journal of psychology, 65(4), 214–223. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12023 edayi, j. (2015). constraints to graduate employment in the city of johannesburg south africa. masters dissertation. university of the witwatersrand. ferreira, r. (2018). writing a research proposal. in k. maree (ed.), complete your thesis or dissertation successfully: practical guidelines. juta. fletcher, k. (2016). sagepeople. retrieved from using social media to improve your employability: https://www.sagepeople.com/about-us/news-hub/using-social-media-to-improve-your-employability/# flick, u. (2009). an introduction to qualitative research. sage. garcia, i. (2011). social media-integration-theory-model. retrieved from www.socialmediatoday.com: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/social-media-integration-theory-model gibbs, g. (2007). 4 thematic coding and categorizing. analyzing qualitative data. sage. graham, l., & de lannoy, a. (2016). youth unemployment: what can we do in the short run? retrieved from http://www.econ3x3.org/sites/default/files/articles/graham%20%26%20de%20lannoy%202016%20youth%20unemployment%20final.pdf harry, t., & chinyamurindi, w. (2019). labour market transition and experiences of unemployed graduates: an exploratory study. african journal of employee relations, 43(1), 1–31. https://doi.org/10.25159/2520-3223/6705 harry, t., & chinyamurindi, w. (2020). illustrating school-to-work transition through drawings: an exploratory study with a sample of south african students. south african journal of human resource management, 18(5), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1272 harry, t., chinyamurindi, w., & mjoli, t. (2018). perceptions of factors that affect employability amongst a sample of final-year students at a rural south african university. sa journal of industrial psychology, 44(6), 101. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v44i0.1510 hooley, t. (2017). climbing the employability mountain. graduate market trends, spring, 10–11. hussain, m., loan, f., & yaseen, g. (2017). the use of social networking sites (sns) by post-graduate students. international journal of digital library services, 7(1), 72–84. ibrahim, n., rosidah, m., & ainul, a. (2016). social media intelligence quotient (smiq) among graduates: knowledge gathering from focus group with graduates. procedia economics and finance, 37, 304–308. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(16)30129-0 ismail, s. (2017). graduate employability capacities, self-esteem and career adaptability among south african young adults. south african journal of industrial psychology, 43(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v43i0.1396 jackson, d. (2013). student perceptions of the importance of employability skill provision in business undergraduate programs. journal of education for business, 88(5), 271–279. https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2012.697928 joosten, t. (2012). social media for educators: strategies and best practices. wiley. kalufya, n., & mwakajinga, l. (2016). employability of graduates from higher education institutions in tanzania. institute of social work journal, 1(2), 51–68. kasper, k. (2014, october 16). the 2014 social recruiting survey. jobvite research. retrieved from www.jobvite.com: http://www.jobvite.com/blog/2014-social-recruiting-survey-infographic/ khumalo, g. (2015, june 29). education: sa’s education system in transition. retrieved from southafrica.info: http://www.southafrica.info/about/education/oecdedu-081008.htm#.vzg9prtvikq kirstein, m. (2016). differences in accounting students’ perceptions of their development of generic skills and emotional intelligence in a heterogeneous classroom. university of pretoria. koch, t., gerber, c., & de klerk, j. (2018). the impact of social media on recruitment: are you linkedin? sa journal of human resource management, 16(1), a861. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.861 korstjens, i. & moser, a. (2018) series: practical guidance to qualitative research. part 4: trustworthiness and publishing. european journal of general practice, 24(1), 120–124. https://doi.org/10.1080/13814788.2017.1375092 krishnan, i., ramalingam, s., ching, h., & maruthai, e. (2017). the selection practices and recruitments of fresh graduates in local organisation’s job interview. journal of language and communication, 4(2), 153–167. lancaster, t. (2013). using professional online presence to enhance computing students employability. in proceedings of the hea stem learning and teaching conference (pp. 134–138). hea journals. long, h. (2014). an empirical review of research methodologies and methods in creativity studies (2003–2012). creativity research journal, 26(4), 427–438. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2014.961781 lord, r., lorimer, r., babraj, j., & richardson, a. (2019). the role of mock job interviews in enhancing sport students’ employability skills: an example from the uk. journal of hospitality, leisure, sport & tourism education, 25, 100195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhlste.2019.04.001 maltby, t. (2011). extending working lives? employability, work ability and better quality working lives. social policy & society, 10(3), 299–308. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1474746411000030 mashigo, a. (2014). factors influencing work readiness of graduates: an exploratory study. masters dissertation. university of stellenbosch. mokoena, s. (2019, june 26). critical thinking will save us. retrieved from city-press.news24.com: https://city-press.news24.com/voices/critical-thinking-will-save-us-20190626 mseleku, z. (2019). graduate internship and employment opportunities: a case study of ethekwini municipality, kwazulu-natal, south africa (pp. 1–233). university of kwazulu natal. nassiriyar, m., sadeghzadeh, a., haghshenas, m., & shahbazi, r. (2015). social networks application for human resources. international journal of management science, 1(3), 45–51. neuendorf, k.a. (2019). content analysis and thematic analysis. in p. brough (ed.), research methods for applied psychologists: design, analysis and reporting (pp. 211–223). routledge. neuman, l.w. (2014). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches (8th ed.). pearson. piveca, m., & maček, a. (2019). employment background influence on social media usage in the field of european project management and communication. journal of business research, 94, 280–289. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.03.021 quinn, s. (2013, may 29). facebook costing 16–34s jobs in tough economic climate. on-device research. retrieved from ondeviceresearch.com: https://ondeviceresearch.com/blog/facebook-costing-16-34s-jobs-in-tough-economic-climate?utm_source=on+device+research+newsletter&utm_campaign=060ae12252-ypcc_index_may_20135_22_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9d4e76bb4b-060ae12252-330128889#sthash.f2xfg rienties, b., tempelaar, d., pinckaers, m., giesbers, b., & lichel, l. (2012). the diverging effects of social network sites on receiving job information for students and professionals. in technological change and societal growth: analysing the future (p. 202). robinson, e. (2011, june 12). generation mobile: cell-phone use overwhelming in college students. retrieved from http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/generation-mobile-cellphone-use-overwhelming-in-college-students rogan, m., & reynolds, j. (2016). schooling inequality, higher education and the labour market: evidence from a graduate tracer study in the eastern cape, south africa. development southern africa, 33(3) 343–360. https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835x.2016.1153454 roučkova, v. (2015). social media in customer decision-making process – the role of reviews. masters thesis. copenhagen business school, pp. 1–60. salm, l. (2017, june 15). 70% of employers are snooping candidates’ social media profiles. retrieved from www.careerbuilder.com: https://www.careerbuilder.com/advice/social-media-survey-2017 sangeeta, a., & ahlawat, r. (2018). e-recruitment via social networking sites: a comparative study with traditional recruitment methods. international journal of scientific research in science, engineering and technology, 4(4), 605–615. saunders, m.n.k. & lewis, p. (2018). doing research in business and management: an essential guide to planning your project (2nd edn.). pearson. retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&an=1594065 shava, h., chinyamurindi, w., & somdyala, a. (2016). an investigation into the usage of mobile phones among technical and vocational educational and training students in south africa. south african journal of information management, 18(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajim.v18i1.716 shyju, p., & chandra, s. (2018). employability of tourism graduates: an empirical study of the experience of tourism service providers. international journal of tourism and travel, 11(1 & 2), 36–44. statistics south africa. (2022, june 1). south africa’s youth continues to bear the burden of unemployment. retrieved from www.statssa.gov.za: https://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=15407 statistics south africa. (2021a). sa unemployment reaches 34.4% in 2021 q2. retrieved from www.statssa.gov.za: http://www.statssa.gov.za/?page_id51856&ppn5p0277&sch572993 statistics south africa. (2021b). south african labour market is more favourable to men than women. retrieved from http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p514606 steyn, m., harris, t., & hartell, c. (2014). institutional factors affect black south african students’ perceptions of early childhood teacher education. south african journal of education, 34(3), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.15700/201409161107 suen, h. (2018). how passive job candidates respond to social networking site screening. computer human behaviour, 85, 396–404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.04.018 swan, g. (2012). the guardian. retrieved from higher education network: using social media to boost student employability: https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2012/jun/18/social-media-to-boost-student-employability tanser, n. (2017, january 9). the darker side of social media: effects on employability. retrieved from www.wessexscene.co.uk: https://www.wessexscene.co.uk/features/2017/01/09/the-darker-side-of-social-media-effects-on-employability/ tess, p. (2013). the role of social media in higher education classes (real and virtual) – a literature review. computer human behaviour, 29(5), a60–a68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.12.032 tomlinson, m. (2012). graduate employability: a review of conceptual and empirical themes. higher education policy, 25(4), 407–431. https://doi.org/10.1057/hep.2011.26 tymon, a. (2013). the student perspective on employability. studies in higher education, 38(6), 841–856. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2011.604408 valos, m., habibi, f., casidy, r., driesener, c., & maplestone, v. (2016). exploring the integration of social media within integrated marketing communication frameworks: perspectives of services marketers. marketing intelligence and planning, 34(1), 19–40. https://doi.org/10.1108/mip-09-2014-0169 wirthman, l. (2016, october 24). how to (legally) use social media to recruit. forbes. retrieved from www.forbes.com: https://www.forbes.com/sites/adp/2016/10/24/how-to-legally-use-social-media-to-recruit article information authors: nnditsheni j. muofhe1 willem f. du toit1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: willem du toit email: willie.dutoit@transnet.net postal address: po box 524, auckland park 2006, south africa dates: received: 10 jan. 2011 accepted: 10 aug. 2011 published: 08 nov. 2011 how to cite this article: muofhe, n.j., & du toit, w.f. (2011). entrepreneurial education’s and entrepreneurial role models’ influence on career choice. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #345, 15 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.345 copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) entrepreneurial education’s and entrepreneurial role models’ influence on career choice in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study    • trends from the research literature       • entrepreneurial career choice       • the influence of entrepreneurial education on entrepreneurial career choice       • the influence of role models on entrepreneurial career choice       • ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour       • an integrative intentions model    • research objectives • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instrument       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • descriptive statistics    • factor analysis    • analysis of variance    • correlation coefficients • discussion    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references • footnotes abstract (back to top) orientation: little research has been done into the impact of entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial role models on entrepreneurship as a career choice, especially in developing countries.research purpose: the purpose of the study is to firstly explore the differences in entrepreneurial intentions between entrepreneurship students and non-entrepreneurship students, and secondly to investigate the relationship between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial intentions as well as between role models and entrepreneurial intentions. motivation for the study: there is a need for stakeholders, such as training authorities and training providers, to understand the influence of entrepreneurship education and role models on entrepreneurial career choice. knowing this could assist in developing and implementing more effective entrepreneurial education programmes. research design, approach and method: the study was conducted amongst a convenience sample of 269 final-year students, of which 162 (60.2%) were entrepreneurship and 107 (39.8%) non-entrepreneurship students from a higher education institution in johannesburg. the entrepreneurial intentions of entrepreneurship students were compared with those of non-entrepreneurship students. main findings: the findings of the study suggest that entrepreneurship students have stronger entrepreneurial intentions than non-entrepreneurship students, and that there is a positive relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intentions and between role models and entrepreneurial intentions respectively. practical/managerial implications: entrepreneurship stakeholders can use the findings of the study to improve curriculum design, delivery methods and assessment strategies in their efforts to advance entrepreneurship. contribution/value-add: the findings of the study suggest that entrepreneurship education and role models can influence students’ entrepreneurial intentions in a developing country. introduction (back to top) key focus of the study poverty and unemployment are two of the biggest challenges south africa (sa) is currently grappling with. a study conducted by the university of stellenbosch’s department of economics in 2009 showed that 47.1% of the sa population consumes less than the lower-bound poverty line proposed by statistics sa in 2007 (armstrong, lekezwa & siebrits, 2009). the latest unemployment figures released by statistics sa alarmingly showed that unemployment in sa continued to rise. the unemployment rate for the first quarter of 2011 is 25% (statistics sa, 2011). entrepreneurship is a way of alleviating the challenges of poverty and unemployment; furthermore, it creates new, competitive markets and businesses which lead to job creation and have a multiplying effect on the economy (fal et al., 2010).sa’s entrepreneurial activity lags behind. the most widely used measure of entrepreneurship is the total early-stage entrepreneurial activity (tea) index. it measures entrepreneurial activity by looking at the percentage of the active population, people between 25 and 64, who are entrepreneurs in any given country. sa’s tea in 2008 stood at 7.8%, which is greater than it was in 2006 (5%) but still lower than india-brazil (11.5% – 12%), colombia (24.5%), mexico (13.1%) and the united states of america (usa) (10.8%). however, in 2009, following the economic crisis, the tea level in sa dropped again to just over 5% (fal et al., 2010). global interest in developing business and entrepreneurship education and initiatives has been rapidly growing because entrepreneurship has been considered as a generator of national prosperity and competitiveness (beugelsdijk & noorderhaven, 2004; martinez, levie, kelley, saemundsson & schott, 2010). in most developed countries1 and developing countries2 there is a tendency to view entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education as the panacea for stagnation or declining economic activity (matlay, 2005). it is not surprising that this topic has moved to the top of the political agenda and entrepreneurship education has become a high-priority item in public policy and throughout the industrially developed world (matlay, 2005). the level of interest in entrepreneurship amongst higher education institutions and business school students has intensified to such an extent that most of these institutions are introducing courses on how to start and finance businesses (matlay, 2005). however, a great deal of disparity continues to exist in the content and quality of entrepreneurship education programmes on offer, particularly curriculum design, delivery methods and assessment strategies (matlay, 2005). in this context, charney and libecap (2003) pointed out that approaches to entrepreneurship education have varied from offering single courses in new business development or business plans preparation to integrated curricula that include marketing, finance, competitive analysis and business plan development. the mere exposure to a course in entrepreneurship might not necessarily ensure an entrepreneurial orientation nor create more positive expectations about entrepreneurial abilities and careers (mitchell & co, 2006). a course usually forms part of a programme in either formal or informal training. it may include unaccredited evening courses at a higher education institution, local business organisation or a government agency, whereas a programme can lead to the awarding of a certificate, diploma or a degree (martinez et al., 2010). as far as the adequacy of entrepreneurship education and training is concerned, in a global entrepreneurship monitor (gem) survey in 2008, experts in only six (out of 30) countries (i.e. germany, finland, republic of korea, ireland, spain and the united states) believe that public and/or private agencies provide adequate entrepreneurship education and training outside the formal education system. finland recorded the highest level of entrepreneurship training. for the other countries, perceptions about the adequacy of training offered do not match the perceived need for assistance. the unusually positive result for finland is noteworthy (martinez et al., 2010). as kyro (2006) reported, finland’s government had committed to entrepreneurship education throughout its school system. in this same survey 30% of the mentions of constraints (negative aspects of the environment for entrepreneurship) included the state of entrepreneurship education and training. this was the third most frequently mentioned constraint, after financial support and government policies. it constituted over half of constraints mentioned in egypt and sa, compared with only 15% in finland, 8% in argentina and none in iran. experts were also asked to make recommendations to improve the environment for entrepreneurship in their country. on average, 49% of the recommendations across the 30 countries were about entrepreneurship education and training –more than any other entrepreneurial framework condition (efc). the exception was iran, where only 5% of recommendations related to this efc. by contrast, 71% of turkish recommendations and 68% of sa’s recommendations were in this area. hence, it is clear that in most countries, entrepreneurship experts regard the provision of entrepreneurship education and training as inadequate (martinez et al., 2010). entrepreneurship education in sa is in its developmental stage and has done little to develop the skills and competencies for, and positive attitudes towards, entrepreneurship (mitchell & co, 2006). sa’s higher education system is not suitable to enhance entrepreneurial skills. it has a legacy of being too theory-based and non-respondent to the skills in demand in the business world. some believe that the problem starts as early as primary and secondary school (fal, daniels & williams, 2010). the relative lack of entrepreneurial activity in this country has been recognised as a cause of concern to the extent that the sa government has acknowledged its role and introduced several initiatives to stimulate new venture creation (south african yearbook 2004/2005, 2005). the higher education sector has an important role to play in the enterprise economy. galloway, anderson, brown and wilson (2005) believe that higher education institutions can have a greater impact because they provide access to a spectrum of knowledge-based resources that support the development of the technologically sophisticated enterprises needed to compete in the international marketplace. however, it is not at all clear from the literature whether people on average experience a gain from training in terms of their awareness of or attitudes toward entrepreneurship, their entrepreneurial intentions or indeed their entrepreneurial activity (martinez et al., 2010). against this background, the aim of this article is to firstly determine if there are differences in entrepreneurial intentions between students undergoing entrepreneurial education vis-à-vis students not exposed to such a programme and secondly to investigate the relationship between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial intentions as well as between role models and entrepreneurial intentions. the main question to be addressed is: are students’ intentions to choose entrepreneurship as a career option in sa likely to be higher as a result of being exposed to an entrepreneurship-specific education programme and being exposed to entrepreneurial role models? the study makes a theoretical, practical as well as a methodological contribution. it contributes to the body of knowledge by providing a better understanding of the differences in entrepreneurial intentions between entrepreneurship students and non-entrepreneurship students, and of the relationship between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial career choice as well as of the relationship between role models and entrepreneurial career choice in the context of a developing country. the study has methodological value in the sense that it delivered a questionnaire for collecting data on entrepreneurial intentions. its practical value lies in the fact that its findings can assist stakeholders such as academics, policy developers, the education training and development practices (etdp) sector education and training authority (seta) and learned societies to develop more effective delivery strategies that could stimulate the intentions of students to start businesses. the rest of the article is structured as follows: firstly, the extant literature relevant to entrepreneurship, the influence of entrepreneurial education on career choice, and the influence of entrepreneurial role models on career choice is reviewed. secondly, entrepreneurial intentions models are discussed. this is followed by a description of the research methods and procedures used in the study. next, the results of the enquiry are discussed. finally, implications, limitations, and directions for future research are offered. background to the study there is no consensus in the literature concerning the definition of an entrepreneur. nieman and nieuwenhuizen (2009, p. 9) defined an entrepreneur as a person who sees an opportunity in the market, gathers resources, and creates and grows a business venture to meet these needs. an entrepreneur bears the risk of the venture and is rewarded with profit if it succeeds. stokes and wilson (2010, p. 34) defined an entrepreneur as an individual (or group of individuals) who act(s) as principal mediator of the process of change described through undertaking a specific project based on an opportunity that requires the implementation of a new idea (or ideas).despite the interest in entrepreneurship, there remains considerable confusion over exactly what is involved in entrepreneurship (stokes, wilson & mador, 2010). entrepreneurship is defined by nieman and nieuwenhuizen (2009, p. 9) as the process of creating or seizing an opportunity and pursuing it regardless of the resources currently controlled. entrepreneurship is regarded as the emergence and growth of new businesses. melicher (2009, p. 7) defined entrepreneurship as the process of changing ideas into commercial opportunities and creating value. hisrich and peters (2002, p. 10) defined entrepreneurship as the process of creating something new of value by devoting the necessary time and effort, assuming the accompanying financial, psychic and social risks, and receiving the resulting rewards of monetary and personal satisfaction and independence. the similarity in the given definitions is that authors largely agreed on defining entrepreneurship as a process aimed at the pursuit of opportunities. entrepreneurship education can be defined in numerous ways. jones and english (2004) defined entrepreneurship education as: the process of providing individuals with the concepts and skills to recognise opportunities that others have overlooked and to have the insight, self-esteem and knowledge to act where others have hesitated. (jones & english, 2004, p. 416) it includes instruction in opportunity recognition, obtaining resources, and initiating a business venture in the face of risk. it also includes instruction in business management processes such as business planning, capital development and marketing. another definition of entrepreneurship education is by politis (2005, p. 401), who defined it as ‘a continuous process that facilitates the development of necessary knowledge for being effective in starting up and managing new ventures’. martinez et al. (2010, p. 8) defined entrepreneurship education ‘as the building of knowledge and skills “about” or for “the purpose of” entrepreneurship generally, as part of recognised education programmes at a primary, secondary or tertiary-level educational institution’. according to lockwood (2006, p. 36), role models are defined as ‘individuals who provide an example of the kind of success that one may achieve, and often also provide a template of the behaviours that are needed to achieve success’. these are people who others look up to as examples to be imitated. trends from the research literature entrepreneurial career choice several major career development theorists have contributed to the literature on careers. dyer’s (1994) model of entrepreneurial careers and the social cognitive career theory (scct) developed by lent, brown and hackett (1994) are two of the most accepted and validated models in the career literature. dyer’s model of entrepreneurial careers explores four components of the theory of entrepreneurial careers, such as career selection, career socialisation, career orientation, and career development (dyer, 1994). according to this model, entrepreneurial career choice can be influenced by individual factors such as entrepreneurial attitudes, social factors such as role models, and economic factors such as availability of a resource network and economic resources. education is one of the factors that prepare an individual for an entrepreneurial career (dyer, 1994). according to the scct, the career development process is affected by a variety of personal, environmental and situational factors that interrelate and change over the course of time. there are three interrelated variables that affect the choice of careers. the core variables are perceived self-efficacy, outcome expectation and future performance or goals. self-efficacy affects individuals’ expectations about outcomes as well as their intentions towards performance. outcome expectations affect individuals’ future performance or goals and, ultimately, their actual career goals. individuals are motivated to choose a career based on their intentions towards performance and outcome expectations (lent et al., 1994). the influence of entrepreneurial education on entrepreneurial career choice there are various studies that examine the link between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial career choice. these studies have been conducted from within both quantitative and qualitative paradigms and cover a whole range of approaches, from the trait approach to the intentions-based approach. dickson, george, solomon and weaver (2008) conducted a qualitative study in the usa to explore the relationship between general education, specific forms of entrepreneurial education and a range of entrepreneurial activities. the relationships were investigated through an analysis of peer-reviewed research published in a wide range of journals and proceedings between 1995 and 2006. the findings suggested a positive link between entrepreneurship education and both the choice to become an entrepreneur and subsequent entrepreneurial success. matlay (2008) also conducted a qualitative study in which the impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial outcomes was explored. the main aim was to investigate the perceived influence that various entrepreneurship education courses had on a cohort of 64 graduate entrepreneurs from eight higher education institutions in the uk. semistructured, in-depth telephone interviews conducted annually over a 10-year period (1997–2006) were used. matlay documented, measured and analysed respondents’ progression from graduation into entrepreneurship. results indicated that graduate needs for entrepreneurship education did not match actual outcomes in terms of entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and attitudes. this mismatch influenced an entrepreneur’s perception of actual and future educational needs. however, most of the graduate entrepreneurs seemed to be satisfied with the outcomes (in terms of skills, knowledge and attitudes) of their entrepreneurship education, both in relative and in absolute terms. however, this study did not clearly indicate whether the graduate entrepreneurs would be interested in creating businesses. another qualitative study was conducted by albert, fournier and marion (1991) in france. they found that the proportion of higher education students, who, having completed a support programme for new business development, went on to start businesses was approximately 25%. a study conducted in india by saini and bhatia (2007) adopted a comparative approach. the study suggested that entrepreneurs who had in fact received training in entrepreneurship presented significantly higher levels of performance in terms of sales development and job creation, as compared to entrepreneurs without training. their entrepreneurial visions along with their ability to anticipate and plan for the future also seemed to be of higher quality. stokes et al. (2010) contend that early findings have shown that participation in enterprise programmes can positively influence people’s enterprise potential and attitudes to entrepreneurship. a good example is the young enterprise programme in the uk, which aims to inspire and equip young people to learn and succeed through enterprise. bandura (1986) conducted an empirical study to test the link between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. the study generally concluded that entrepreneurial education positively affects individuals’ perceptions of their ability to start new businesses. the line of research into entrepreneurial intentions began with boyd and vozikis (1994), who theorised that self-efficacy in performing tasks associated with venture creation was instrumental in motivating an individual to engage in entrepreneurial activities (dickson et al., 2008). noel (2002) conducted a quantitative study in the usa and specifically concentrated on the impact of entrepreneurship training on the development of entrepreneurial intentions and the perceptions of self-efficacy. different groups of students were involved in that research. the sample of 84 included final-year students in entrepreneurship, management and those in other disciplines. all the students had attended an entrepreneurship-training programme (etp). the results showed that the propensity to act as an entrepreneur, entrepreneurial intentions and entrepreneurial ‘self-efficacy’ all scored highest amongst the final-year students in entrepreneurship. fayolle, gailly and lassas-clerc (2006) conducted a quantitative study in france on the impact of an entrepreneurial education programme in which 20 students were involved. they found that the programme had a strong measurable impact on the entrepreneurial intention of the students, whilst it had a positive, but not very significant, impact on their perceived behavioural control. peterman and kennedy (2003) conducted a quantitative study in australia and examined the effect of participation in an entrepreneurship education programme on perceptions of the desirability and feasibility of starting a business. they did this by analysing changes in perceptions of a sample of 236 secondary school students enrolled in the young achievement australia (yaa) enterprise programme. the analysis was done using a pre-test post-test control group research design. after completing the entrepreneurship programme, respondents reported significantly higher perceptions of both desirability and feasibility. the degree of change in perceptions is related to the positiveness of prior experience and to the positiveness of the experience in the etp. self-efficacy theory was used to explain the impact of the programme. gird and bagraim (2008) conducted a quantitative study in sa to test the theory of planned behaviour (tpb) as a predictor of entrepreneurial intent amongst 247 final-year commerce students at two higher education institutions. they examined the theoretical adequacy of the theory by considering four additional factors that are believed to influence entrepreneurial intentions: that is, personality traits, demographic factors, situational factors and prior exposure to entrepreneurship. the results of the multivariate data analysis indicated that the tpb significantly explained 27% of the variance in students’ entrepreneurial intentions. they also found that, of all the other purported predictors of entrepreneurial intent examined in the study, only prior exposure to entrepreneurship was found to add significantly to the predictive power of the tpb in explaining entrepreneurship intention. personality traits, demographic factors and situational factors did not add significantly to the variance explained by the tpb. the findings therefore suggest that the tpb is a valuable tool for predicting entrepreneurial intent. in conclusion, it was evident that studies using a variety of approaches were conducted to examine the link between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial activities. the general findings were that there is a positive link between entrepreneurial education and venture creation. a huge interest seems to have come from uk and other european countries. very few researchers in this field are from sa, implying that this topic is under-researched in the sa context. the influence of role models on entrepreneurial career choice by identifying with an outstanding role model, individuals can become inspired to pursue similar achievements. the implication here is that by identifying with successful role models who own or run their own businesses, students studying entrepreneurship may be inspired to start and run their businesses successfully. fayolle et al. (2006) stated that intentions of creation of businesses are stronger when the degree of self-efficacy grows due to the presence of entrepreneurial role models and when the influences come from several close relatives. parental role models can also play a role in influencing children in the family to become entrepreneurs. children of entrepreneurial mothers who perceive their role models as both positive and successful are likely to imitate those role models (brennan, morris & schindehutte, 2003). according to social learning theory (bandura, 1977), which emphasises the importance of observing and modelling the behaviours, attitudes, and emotional reactions of others, individuals who perceive that an entrepreneurial parent has been successful express a greater preference for an entrepreneurial career than those who have not had this kind of role model performance effect (brennan et al., 2003). van auken, fry and stephens (2006) examined the impact of role model activities on potential entrepreneurs’ desire to own businesses. in their study, they asked students whose role models owned businesses to rank the influence on career intentions of twenty specific activities in which role models and potential entrepreneurs might engage. the study looked at the relationship between those activities and the desire to own businesses. role models’ activities related to involving the respondent in professional activities, employment in the business, and discussions about the business were found to be significantly related with interest in starting businesses. quimby and desantis (2006) conducted an online survey at towson university in maryland (usa) in which 368 female undergraduate students responded. the study examined self-efficacy and role models’ influence as predictors of career choice across holland’s (1997) six riasec (realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional) types. findings revealed that levels of self-efficacy and role model influence differed across holland’s types. multiple regression analyses indicated that self-efficacy and role model influence accounted for significant variance in the career choice for all six riasec types. role model influence added to the prediction of career choice over and above the contribution of self-efficacy in all but one (investigative) of the riasec types. on the influence of role models, other authors on organisational emergence seemed to express different views from what has been explained above. in their quantitative study, krueger and carsrud (1993) applied the tpb, which posits that exogenous influences on entrepreneurial intentions and behaviour happen by influencing attitudes indirectly. scott and twomey (1988) found that the existence of entrepreneurial role models only weakly predicts future entrepreneurial activity, and that its impact is subjective. krueger (1996) and scherer, adams, carley and wiebe (1989) argued that role models affect entrepreneurial intentions, but only if they affect attitudes such as self-efficacy. ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour the theory of planned behaviour (tpb) is one of the most influential and popular conceptual frameworks for the study of human action (ajzen, 2002). according to this theory, human action is guided by three kinds of considerations: behavioural, normative and control beliefs. these are beliefs about the likely outcome of the behaviour, the normative expectations of others, and the presence of factors that may facilitate or impede performance of the behaviour. figure 1 is a schematic representation of the tpb (ajzen, 1991). figure 1: theory of planned behaviour. ajzen (1991) contended that, in their respective aggregates, behavioural beliefs produce a favourable or unfavourable attitude toward the behaviour; normative beliefs result in perceived social pressure or subjective norm; and control beliefs give rise to perceived behavioural control. in combination, attitudes toward the behaviour, subjective norm, and perception of behavioural control lead to the formation of a behavioural intention. the general rule is that the more favourable the attitude and subjective norm, and the greater the perceived control, the stronger should be the person’s intention to perform the behaviour in question. finally, given a sufficient degree of actual control over the behaviour, people are expected to carry out their intentions when the opportunity arises (ajzen, 2002; 2006). intention is therefore assumed to be the immediate antecedent of behaviour. they are indications of how hard people are willing to try, and of how much of an effort they are planning to exert in order to perform the behaviour. to the extent that perceived behavioural control is veridical, it can serve as a proxy for actual control and contribute to the prediction of the behaviour in question. as indicated before, the intention becomes the fundamental element in explaining behaviour. in this case it indicates the effort that a person will make to carry out that entrepreneurial behaviour. linan and chen (2006) contend that intention is the cognitive representation of a person’s readiness to perform a given behaviour, and is considered the immediate antecedent of behaviour. the first claim is that intention is the result of three conceptual determinants: 1. attitude toward behaviour: it refers to the degree to which the individual holds a positive or negative personal valuation about being an entrepreneur (ajzen, 2006). it would include not only affective (e.g. ‘i like it’; ‘it makes me feel good’; ‘it is pleasant’), but also evaluative considerations (e.g. ‘it is more profitable’; ‘it has more advantages’). 2. perceived social norms: this measures the perceived social pressure to carry out or not to carry out entrepreneurial behaviour. in particular, it would refer to the perceptions that ‘reference people’ would approve of the decision to become an entrepreneur, or not. from a social-capital point of view, matthews and moser (1995) argue that values transmitted by ‘reference people’ or ‘important others’ would cause more favourable intentions regarding personal attraction and self-efficacy. 3. perceived behavioural control: this is defined as the perception of the easiness or difficulty in fulfilling the behaviour of interest (becoming an entrepreneur). it is a concept quite similar to perceived self-efficacy and perceived feasibility. in all three instances, the important thing is the sense of capacity regarding the fulfilment of business creation behaviours. nevertheless, recent work has emphasised the difference between perceived behavioural control and self-efficacy (ajzen, 2002). the tpb is part of the larger family of intentional models that have been used to explain the emergence of entrepreneurial behaviour. in those approaches, career intentions depend on the attitude related to the behaviour considered, social standards and the level of perceived control. in view of many authors, such as autio, keely, klofsten, parker and hay (2001), venture creation is a planned and hence an intentional behaviour. an integrative intentions model the researchers developed an integrative model for this study, which formed the base for the measuring instrument. the model is based on ajzen’s (1991) model but also integrates aspects of other intentions and career choice models. dyer’s (1994) model of entrepreneurial careers reveals that role models can be classified as a social factor that influences people’s intentions to choose an entrepreneurial career. the model also indicates that education is one of the factors which affect career socialisation. this means that, according to dyer’s model, education and role models are factors that have a bearing on influencing entrepreneurial intentions. similarly, scct (lent et al., 1994) illustrated the main variables, that is, self-efficacy (self-beliefs) and outcome expectation (perceived feasibility), which affect the individuals’ goals (intentions) to start businesses. since all the aforementioned models deal with entrepreneurial career choice they are related. figure 2 integrates the variables that are described in the models discussed earlier. figure 2 depicts entrepreneurial education as the independent variable and the antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions, that is, attitude towards entrepreneurship, social norms, role models, perceived behavioural control, self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intentions, as the dependent variables. the integrative model makes a clear distinction between role models and social norms, and between self-efficacy and perceived behavioural control. measuring role models and self-efficacy as separate variables is where the integrative model differs from ajzen’s (1991) model. figure 2: integrative model for assessing entrepreneurial intentions. figure 2 suggests that there is both a direct and an indirect link between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial intentions. the indirect link is through the antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions, that is, attitude towards entrepreneurship, social norms, role models, self-efficacy and perceived behavioural control. figure 2 also depicts that external factors such as economic, political and social may have an influence on an individual’s decision to start a business. these are the factors over which individuals have no control. research objectives based on the research objectives, that is, to explore the differences in entrepreneurial intentions between entrepreneurship students and non-entrepreneurship students and secondly to investigate the relationship between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial intentions as well as between role models and entrepreneurial intentions, eight hypotheses were set for this study. the first six hypotheses deal with the differences in entrepreneurial intentions between the entrepreneurship group and the non-entrepreneurship group. the last two dimensions deal with the relationship between education and entrepreneurial intentions and between role models and entrepreneurial intentions respectively:hypothesis 1: there are no significant differences in attitude towards entrepreneurship between entrepreneurship students and non-entrepreneurship students. hypothesis 2: there are no significant differences in social norms between entrepreneurship students and non-entrepreneurship students. hypothesis 3: there are no significant differences in entrepreneurial role models between entrepreneurship students and non-entrepreneurship students. hypothesis 4: there are no significant differences in self-efficacy between entrepreneurship students and non-entrepreneurship students. hypothesis 5: there are no significant differences in perceived behavioural control between entrepreneurship students and non-entrepreneurship students. hypothesis 6: there are no significant differences in entrepreneurial intentions between entrepreneurship students and non-entrepreneurship students. hypothesis 7: there is no significant relationship between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial intentions. hypothesis 8: there is no significant relationship between entrepreneurial role models and entrepreneurial intentions. research design (back to top) research approach this study falls within the quantitative research paradigm and used primary data. a questionnaire was used to collect data in a cross-sectional field survey. the main reason for using this approach was its cost-effectiveness. it was quick and easy, saving time and money as all respondents were available in a classroom situation. a data set was constructed from the data collected with the questionnaire. the data set was factor analysed, where after analyses of variances and correlation analyses were carried out on it. research method the various elements of the research method, that is, the research participants, the measuring instrument, research procedure and statistical analysis, are discussed next. research participants this study made use of convenience sampling. a convenience sample is when the more convenient elementary units are chosen from a population for observation (coldwell & herbst, 2004). compared to random sampling or stratified sampling, where the larger population is divided into subgroups, and a random sample taken from each subgroup, convenience sampling is the least reliable, but is normally the cheapest and easiest to conduct. the study was done amongst a sample of final-year students from the faculty of management of a higher education institution in johannesburg. the respondents were not randomly selected, but all who met the criteria, that is, were final-year entrepreneurship or non-entrepreneurship students from the faculty and were available and willing to participate, were included. such an approach is regarded as unscientific (de la rey, 1978). however, kerlinger (1973) defends the use of non-probability samples by noting that whilst they may lack the virtues of random sampling, they are often necessary and unavoidable. their weaknesses can to some extent be mitigated by using knowledge, expertise and care in selecting samples. the sample consisted of two main groups, namely entrepreneurship students and non-entrepreneurship students. the entrepreneurship group was subdivided into two groups: (1) students who have entrepreneurship as a major subject, and (2) students who have entrepreneurship as a minor subject. the non-entrepreneurship group consisted of students who do not have entrepreneurship as a subject. these groups were labelled entrepreneur major, entrepreneur minor and non-entrepreneur respectively. table 1 illustrates the size of these groups. table 1: sample of final-year students. a closer look at table 1 indicates that of a total of 269 respondents, 162 (60.2%) respondents have entrepreneurship as a subject, either as a major or a minor, whereas 107 (39.8%) respondents do not have entrepreneurship as a subject. eighty-seven (32.3%) respondents have entrepreneurship as a major subject, whilst 75 (27.9%) respondents have it as a minor subject. seeing that there were differences in sample size between the groups and sample size affects levels of significance, due consideration was given to it during the analysis phase. table 2 shows a breakdown of gender per group. from table 2 it is evident that the proportion of females is high in all groups, and the highest (88%) is in the entrepreneur minor group. table 2: gender per student group. the mean age of the three groups is basically the same, that is, 22 years, with a minimum age of 19 and a maximum age of 31 years. measuring instrument the researchers developed a measuring instrument called the entrepreneurship intentions questionnaire, as a review of the literature did not yield a measuring instrument that includes the variables the researchers wanted to study. the objective of the questionnaire was to measure a respondent’s intention to become an entrepreneur. in an attempt to ensure the validity of the measuring instrument, the researchers carefully selected the items for inclusion in the instrument. items for inclusion were based on the specifications drawn up after a thorough examination of the subject domain. the questionnaire is of the self-report type. it consisted of 87 items grouped into four sections. the instrument measured the following variables: attitude, subjective norms, role models, self-efficacy, perceived behavioural control, entrepreneurial intentions and education.attitude (environment): five items seek to ascertain the perceptions of respondents regarding the external business environment in sa. the aim is to find out to what extent the business environment is perceived as conducive to entrepreneurial activities; for example, ‘sa is an entrepreneur-friendly country’. attitude (entrepreneur): five items measure the respondents’ attitude towards becoming entrepreneurs themselves; for example, ‘i would love to own a business’. attitude (entrepreneurship): entrepreneurship attitude is measured by 17 items. each item consists of a pair of opposites and the respondents have to reflect their perceptions of an entrepreneurial career on a 5-point scale; for example, ‘thinking of entrepreneurship as a career option, i perceive it as: uninteresting – interesting’. the difference between entrepreneurship attitude and entrepreneur attitude is that entrepreneurship attitude has an impersonal nature, whilst entrepreneur attitude has a more personal nature. in the case of entrepreneurship attitude, the respondents could have very positive attitudes towards entrepreneurship as a career, but this does not mean that they want to pursue an entrepreneurial career. an entrepreneur attitude puts them personally in the role of an entrepreneur. subjective norms: five items measure perceived social norms. this refers to the perceptions that ‘important others’ would approve of the decision to become an entrepreneur or not; for example, ‘an entrepreneur is a respected person in a society’. role models: seven items assess the respondent’s entrepreneurial role model(s). these are individuals the respondent would aspire to be like in terms of career choice. for the purposes of this study a role model is regarded as a type of a subjective norm; for example, ‘several of my role models are entrepreneurs’. self-efficacy: eight items determine the confidence level of the respondent in starting a business; for example, ‘i am confident that i would succeed if i started my business’ and ‘my entrepreneurial knowledge and skills are well developed’. perceived behavioural control: this construct is measured by 15 items. it deals with the respondent’s perceived ability to perform the work of an entrepreneur. the respondents have to assess their current level of proficiency regarding each of the given functions of entrepreneurial work and indicate how easy or difficult it would be for them to execute that function; for example, ‘how difficult or easy would it be for you to develop business plans?’ intention: this construct is measured by five items. the aim is to determine the respondents’ intentions to start businesses after the completion of their studies; for example, ‘i intend to become an entrepreneur’. education: this construct is measured by seven items. the main aim here is to find out if respondents perceive their education as adding value to becoming an entrepreneur and if they have been influenced by their studies to decide to become entrepreneurs in future; for example, ‘my current studies prepare me well for a career in entrepreneurship’. the questionnaire also collected biographical data, such as gender, age, citizenship, relationships with entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial experience. research procedure as research is a form of human conduct, it follows that such conduct has to conform to generally accepted norms and values (mouton, 2006). based on this concern, reasonable measures were taken to adhere to all ethical considerations. ethical clearance for the research project was obtained from the higher education institution. the ethics protocol for the research was approved by the institution’s management faculty ethics in research committee. final-year (third-year) entrepreneurship and non-entrepreneurship students were approached to complete the survey questionnaire. a pilot study was first conducted on a sample of the students to test the measuring instrument and identify and rectify possible problems. a group of 20 students, male and female, volunteered to participate in the pilot study. questions asked were found to be clear. the questionnaires in the form of hard copies were distributed and administered by lecturers during their lecture periods. respondents were informed about the confidentiality, anonymity and objectives of the study. they were also informed that participation was voluntary and that they had the right to withdraw at any stage during the process. the researcher personally collected the questionnaires immediately after they were completed. a data set was then developed from the survey information collected with the measuring instrument. the data set was analysed and interpreted. the results were discussed in relation to the findings of the literature review. finally, recommendations for future research in the area of entrepreneurship education and role models were made. statistical analysis various statistical analyses were carried out on the data set. these included both descriptive and inferential statistics, such as reliability coefficients, factor analysis, analysis of variance and correlation coefficients. all calculations were done by means of the statistical package for the social sciences (spss). results (back to top) what follows is a discussion of the descriptive statistics, the reliability analysis, factor analysis, analyses of variance, correlation analysis and the testing of the hypotheses based on the various statistical analyses. descriptive statistics the respondents’ expected employment status two years after completion of their studies is reflected in table 3. table 3: employment status after two years. from table 3 it is clear that the largest proportion of students in the entrepreneur group would like to be self-employed two years after they have completed their studies. the proportion for the entrepreneur major group is 39.1% and for the entrepreneur minor group 35.1%. the largest proportion of students in the non-entrepreneur group (35.5%) would like to be employed in the private sector. a fairly high proportion of students in all three groups indicated that they would like to be employed either in the private sector or would like to be both self-employed and employed by an organisation. only a small proportion of students in all groups (entrepreneur major: 4.6%, entrepreneur minor: 6.8% and non-entrepreneurs: 2.8%) did not know where they saw themselves in the two years after graduation. similarly, very few students see a family business as an option in their future careers. a summary of the descriptive statistics for the various parts of the questionnaire is reflected in table 4. table 4: descriptive statistics (summary). from table 4 it is clear that the means for part a (attitude towards business environment; attitude towards becoming an entrepreneur; subjective norms; role models; self-efficacy; education; intention) (m = 3.8, sd = 0.461) and part b (attitude towards entrepreneurship) (m = 3.96, sd = 0.654) are high, whilst the distributions for these parts are slightly negatively skewed (skewness for part a is -0.834 and for part b is -1.410) and leptokurtic (kurtosis for part a is 1.728 and for part b is 3.376). the distribution for part c (perceived behavioural control) falls within the parameters of a normal distribution, with a mean of 3.12, skewness of -0.246, and kurtosis of 0.142. the internal consistency of the various factors (the degree of homogeneity amongst the items) was computed using cronbach’s coefficient alpha. table 5 reflects that, with the exception of attitude (environment) (α = 0.44) and social norms (α = 0.57), all cronbach’s alphas are higher than 0.7, reflecting acceptable reliabilities. table 5: reliability statistics for the variables. overall, the descriptive statistics pointed to the suitability of the data set for factor analysis. what follows is an exposition of the results of the factor analysis. factor analysis the item scores for parts b and c of the questionnaire were factor analysed in order to determine their underlying factor structure. all calculations were done by means of the spss-windows program. the factor matrix for part b (attitude towards entrepreneurship) was rotated to simple structure by means of varimax rotation. varimax rotation is used to see how groupings of items measure the same concept. table 6 depicts the three factors extracted. table 6: rotated factor matrix for part b of the questionnaire (attitude towards entrepreneurship). based on the similarities between the items grouped together, these factors were labelled as follows: ‘attractiveness’, ‘viability’ and ‘demanding’. attractiveness refers to how appealing an entrepreneurship career is. viability refers to the possibility of becoming an entrepreneur and demanding refers to how challenging an entrepreneurial career is. the factor matrix for part c was rotated to simple structure by means of varimax rotation. from table 7 it can be seen that four factors were extracted. it can also be seen from table 7 that factors 3 and 4 have only two and one items loadings respectively. that makes them non-determined, as a factor should consist of at least three items for it to be determined. table 7: rotated factor matrix for part c of the questionnaire (perceived behavioural control). based on the similarities between the items grouped together, the first two perceived behavioural control factors were labelled ‘managing’ and ‘developing’. the last two factors were non-determined and were dropped as a result. managing refers to the perceived ease or difficulty of managing or operating one’s own business. developing refers to the perceived ease or difficulty of starting up and growing one’s own business. following the factor analysis, an analysis of variance was conducted to test hypotheses 1–6. analysis of variance the results of the one-way analysis of variance (anova) are depicted in table 8. table 8: one way analysis of variance (anova). from table 8 it can be seen that the anova is significant (p < 0 .05) for the following factors: • attitude: f(2, 264) = 4.173, p = 0.017 • role model: f(2, 264) = 3.286, p = 0.039 • self-efficacy: f(2, 266) = 5.550, p = 0.004 • intention: f(2, 266) = 6.663, p = 0.002 if more than two groups are analysed, the one-way anova does not specifically indicate which pairs of groups are significantly different. post-hoc tests are applied to determine such pairs. the tamhane’s test was selected, as it is suitable in cases where group sizes and observed variances are unequal. the following is an interpretation of the mean differences between the entrepreneur major group and the non-entrepreneur group on the respective variables at the 0.05 level. as far as attitude is concerned, it is clear from table 9 that the mean difference (0.239) between the entrepreneur major group and the non-entrepreneur group is significant (p = 0.036). the entrepreneur major group has a more positive attitude towards becoming entrepreneurs than the non-entrepreneur group. hence, hypothesis 1, which states that there are no significant differences in attitude towards being an entrepreneur between entrepreneurship students and non-entrepreneurship students, is rejected. table 9: tamhane post hoc test for multiple comparisons. from table 8 it can be seen that there are no significant differences in the mean scores for the three general attitude factors, that is, attractiveness (p = 0.601), viability (p = 0.591) and demanding (p = 0.952) the results for attitude towards the environment are not interpreted because of the low reliability (α = 0.44) of this variable (see table 5). in respect of social norms, it is clear from table 8 that the differences in social norms mean scores between the entrepreneur and the non-entrepreneur groups are non-significant (p = 0.191). therefore, hypothesis 2, which states that there are no significance differences in subjective norms between entrepreneurship students and non-entrepreneurship students, is accepted. concerning entrepreneurial role models, table 9 shows that the mean difference (0.259) between the entrepreneur minor group and the non-entrepreneur group is significant (p = 0.022). the entrepreneur minor group has a higher mean score on role models than the non-entrepreneur group. hence, hypothesis 3, which states that there are no significant differences in entrepreneurial role models between entrepreneurship students and non-entrepreneurship students, is rejected. regarding self-efficacy, it is clear from table 9 that the mean difference (0.271) between the entrepreneur major group and the non-entrepreneur group is significant (p = 0.004). the self-efficacy of the entrepreneur major group is higher than that of the non-entrepreneur group. hence, hypothesis 4, which states that there are no significant differences in self-efficacy between entrepreneurship students and non-entrepreneurship students, is rejected. with regard to perceived behavioural control it is clear from table 8 that there are no significant differences in the mean scores for the two perceived behavioural control factors, that is, managing (p = 0.274) and developing (p = 0.882). hence, hypothesis 5, which states that there are no statistically significant differences in perceived behavioural control between entrepreneurship and non-entrepreneurship students, is accepted. as far as entrepreneurial intentions are concerned, table 9 shows that the mean difference (0.418) between the entrepreneur major group and the non-entrepreneur group is significant (p = 0.001). the entrepreneur major group has higher intentions of becoming entrepreneurs than the non-entrepreneur group. hence, hypothesis 6, which states that there are no significant differences in entrepreneurial intentions between entrepreneurship students and non-entrepreneurship students, is rejected. correlation coefficients the spearman correlation was conducted to test hypothesis 7 and hypothesis 8 regarding the relationship between entrepreneurial education and the dimensions of entrepreneurial intentions and between role models and the dimensions of entrepreneurial intentions. the correlations between entrepreneurial education and the dimensions of entrepreneurial intentions are depicted in table 10. table 10: the spearman correlations between education and the dimensions of entrepreneurial intentions (n = 269). from table 10 it can be seen that there are moderately positive correlations, ranging from 0.228 to 0.430 (p < 0.01) between entrepreneurial education and the dimensions of intention. hence, hypothesis 7, which states that there is no significant relationship between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial intention, is rejected. the correlations between role model and the dimensions of entrepreneurial intentions are depicted in table 11. table 11: the spearman correlations between role model and the dimensions of entrepreneurial intentions (n = 267). table 11 reflects moderately positive correlations, ranging from 0.222 to 0.465 (p < 0.01, 2-tailed) between role model and the dimensions of intention. hence, hypothesis 8, which states that there is no significant relationship between role models and entrepreneurial intentions, is rejected. discussion (back to top) this study explored the differences in entrepreneurial intentions between entrepreneurship students and non-entrepreneurship students, and also investigated the relationship between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial intentions as well as between role models and entrepreneurial intentions. insight into these areas will assist relevant stakeholders to enhance their initiatives aimed at promoting entrepreneurship in sa.the study makes a theoretical, practical as well as methodological contribution. it contributes to the body of knowledge by providing a better understanding of the differences in entrepreneurial intentions between entrepreneurship students and non-entrepreneurship students, and of the relationship between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial career choice as well as of the relationship between role models and entrepreneurial career choice in the context of a developing country. the study has methodological value in the sense that it delivered a questionnaire for collecting data on entrepreneurial intentions. its practical value lies in the fact that its findings can assist stakeholders such as academics, policy developers, the etdp seta and learned societies to develop more effective delivery strategies that could stimulate the intentions of students to start businesses. the empirical findings of the study are generally in line with the findings of various studies from both the quantitative and qualitative paradigms covering a wide range of approaches, from the trait approach to the intentions-based approach, which was the approach followed in this study. the following is a discussion of the findings of the study in relation to the findings of other researchers. firstly, differences in intentions between entrepreneurship students and nonentrepreneurship students will be discussed where after the links between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intentions and also between role models and entrepreneurial intentions will be discussed. as far as attitude is concerned, the results of the study indicate that entrepreneurship students have a more positive attitude towards becoming entrepreneurs than non-entrepreneurship students. although both the entrepreneurship and the non-entrepreneurship groups agree that an entrepreneurial career is an attractive, viable and somewhat demanding career, the entrepreneurship group is more positive than the non-entrepreneurship group towards becoming an entrepreneur. this finding is in line with the contention of stokes et al. (2010) that participation in enterprise programmes can positively influence peoples’ attitudes to entrepreneurship. regarding subjective norms, the findings of the study reveal that there are no differences in subjective norms between entrepreneurship students and non-entrepreneurship students. in other words entrepreneurship students do not perceive more social pressure than non-entrepreneurship students to become entrepreneurs. this finding is contrary to the tpb of ajzen (1991) which postulates that there is a link between subjective norms and intentions to carry out behaviour. a possible explanation for the finding of this study is that the objectives of the education programme were not really focused on enhancing the subjective norms of the students and the programme may not have much direct control over it. a further possible explanation is that the questionnaire did not accurately assess this variable as reflected by its low reliability. regarding role models, the findings of the study suggest that entrepreneurship students perceive a stronger influence of entrepreneurial role models on their choice of a career than non-entrepreneurship students. this finding is in line with the findings of previous empirical research that role models influence potential entrepreneurs’ desire to own businesses (brennan et al., 2003; fayolle et al., 2006; van auken, fry & stephens, 2006). concerning self-efficacy, the findings of the study indicate that entrepreneurship students have higher entrepreneurial self-efficacy than non-entrepreneurship students. this finding is consistent with the findings of bandura (1986) and boyd and vozikis (1994) that there is a positive link between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. this means that entrepreneurship students have stronger beliefs in their capabilities to become entrepreneurs, will be more prepared to expend effort on entrepreneurial activities and will persist longer in the face of obstacles and aversive experiences than non-entrepreneurship students. with regard to perceived behavioural, the results of the study indicate no significant differences in perceived behavioural control between entrepreneurship and non-entrepreneurship students. this means that for both entrepreneurship and non-entrepreneurship students it will be equally easy or difficult to develop and manage their own businesses. this finding is contrary to the findings of previous empirical research that entrepreneurship training programmes had a positive impact on the perceived behavioural control of the respondents in their studies (fayolle et al., 2006; peterman & kennedy, 2003). a possible explanation for the finding of this study is that the insight the entrepreneurship education programme gave entrepreneurship students into what entrepreneurship entails made them realise that entrepreneurship is not an easy activity. as krueger and carsrud (1993, p. 327) put it: ‘teaching people about the realities of entrepreneurship may increase their entrepreneurial self-efficacy, but simultaneously decrease the perceived desirability of starting a business’. concerning entrepreneurial intentions, the results of the study suggest that entrepreneurship students have stronger intentions of becoming entrepreneurs than non-entrepreneurship students. this finding is in line with the findings of gird and bagraim (2008) that the entrepreneurial intentions of entrepreneurship students have grown after attending an entrepreneurship course. the findings of the study further indicate that there is a positive relationship, though not very strong, between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial intentions. this finding supports the findings of previous studies. dickson et al. (2008), albert et al. (1991) and saini and bhatia (2007) also found a positive link between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial career choice. finally, the results of the study indicate a slightly positive relationship between the presence of entrepreneurial role models in students’ lives and their intentions to start businesses. this finding is in line with previous studies. krueger (1996), krueger and carsrud (1993), scott and twomey (1988), and scherer et al. (1989) argued that the existence of entrepreneurial role models only indirectly and weakly affects entrepreneurial intentions. the overall findings of the study are in line with the findings from the literature, in which entrepreneurial education and the presence of role models are found to be effective in influencing entrepreneurial career choice. the managerial implications of the study are that stakeholders should target the areas of entrepreneurial intentions identified as ‘no differences areas’, that is, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control in their developmental efforts. increased perceived behavioural control will mean that students will perceive entrepreneurship as an ‘easy’ and ‘feasible’ career and they will be more willing to pursue an entrepreneurial career. in this regard the utilisation of role models could be very effective as research has indicated that role models influence entrepreneurial intentions. although the study has provided relevant and interesting insights into entrepreneurial education at a higher educational institution in a developing country, it is important to recognise the limitations of this study. a limited sample of students from one higher education institution in sa was used. the convenience sampling approach was used and the measuring instrument somewhat lacked internal consistency. hence, caution should be exercised in making generalisations to other higher education institutions. the study is based on measuring intentions. clearly this is not the same as measuring the action of starting a business itself. in the light of the limitations of the study it is recommended that a longitudinal study be undertaken to follow up on these students and find out if indeed they have established businesses within two years after their graduation. it is further recommended that the measuring instrument be improved and that qualitative approaches, including interviews and focus groups, are employed to get a deeper understanding of the influence of entrepreneurial education and role models on entrepreneurial intentions. conclusion entrepreneurship education is a relatively new field of study in most sa higher education institutions. entrepreneurship education at higher education institutions is of the utmost importance in sa and africa at large as the unemployment rate is generally high. education that is specifically intended to stimulate interest in starting businesses is becoming increasingly important. this study assessed the link between entrepreneurial education and role models and students’ intentions to choose entrepreneurship as a career option. the empirical findings of the study support the findings of previous research that there is a positive relationship between entrepreneurial education and the intention to start businesses by students at a higher education level. the study revealed that entrepreneurship students have a more positive attitude towards becoming entrepreneurs and have higher entrepreneurial self-efficacy and intentions of becoming an entrepreneur than non-entrepreneurship students. the study found no significant differences in perceived behavioural control between entrepreneurship and non-entrepreneurship students, whilst the findings regarding the influence of subjective norms are inconclusive due to a lack of reliability. the findings also indicate a positive relationship between the presence of entrepreneurial role models in students’ lives and their intentions to start businesses. this implies that exposing students to entrepreneurial role models during their studies can aid in increasing entrepreneurial intentions and eventually venture creation. acknowledgements (back to top) competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this paper. authors’ contributions n.j.m. and w.f.d.t. jointly designed the project and the measuring instrument. n.j.m. did the literature study, collected the research data and wrote the article. w.f.d.t. did the research design, interpreted the statistical analyses, and made conceptual contributions. references (back to top) ajzen, i. (1991). theory of planned behaviour. organizational behaviour and human decision processes, 50, 179–211. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-tajzen, i. (2002). perceived behavioural control, self-efficacy, locus of control, and the theory of planned behaviour. journal of applied psychology, 32, 1–20. ajzen, i. (2006). constructing a tpb questionnaire: conceptual and methodological considerations. retrieved june 01, 2009, from http://www.people.umass.edu/aizen/pdf/tpb.measurement.pdf albert, p., fournier, r., & marion, s. (1991). developing entrepreneurial attitudes and management competence among scientists: the group esc lyon’s experience. journal of entrepreneurship and regional development, 3(40), 344–362. armstrong, p., lekezwa, b., & siebrits, k. (2009). poverty remains the priority for sa. retrieved april 29, 2011, from< a href=" http://www.ngopulse.org/article/poverty-remains-priority-sa">http://www.ngopulse.org/article/poverty-remains-priority-sa autio, e., keely, r.h., klofsten, m., parker, g.c., & hay, m. (2001). entrepreneurial intent among students in scandinavia and in the usa. enterprise and innovation management studies, 2, 145–160. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14632440110094632 bandura, a. (1977). self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioural change. psychological review, 84, 191–215. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.84.2.191, pmid:847061 bandura, a. (1986). social foundations of thought and action. englewood cliffs: prentice hall. beugelsdijk, s., & noorderhaven, n. (2004). entrepreneurial attitude and economic growth. the annals of regional science, 38, 199–218. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00168-004-0192-y boyd, n.g., & vozikis, g.s. (1994). the influence of self-efficacy on the development of entrepreneurial intentions and actions. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 18(4), 63–77. brennan, c., morris, m., & schindehutte, m. (2003). entrepreneurs and motherhood: impacts on their children in south africa and united states. journal of small business management, 41, 1. charney, a.h., & libecap, g.d. (2003). the contribution of entrepreneurship education: an analysis of the berger program. international journal of entrepreneurship education, 1(3), 385–418. coldwell, d., & herbst, f. (2004). business research. cape town: juta. de la rey, r.p. (1978). statistical methods in psychological research. pretoria: university of pretoria. dickson, p.h., george, t., solomon, k., & weaver, m. (2008). entrepreneurial selection and success: does education matter? journal of small business and enterprise development, 15(2), 239–258. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14626000810871655 dyer, w.g. (1994). toward a theory of entrepreneurial careers. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 19(2), 7–22. fal, m., daniels, r., & williams, a. (2010). the state of entrepreneurship in south africa. retrieved april 29, 2011, from https://www.fnb.co.za/downloads/commercial/state-of-entrepreneurship-in-south-africa.pdf fal, m., sefolo, t., williams, a., herrington, m., goldberg, j., & klaasen, m. (2010). the entrepreneurial dialogues: state of entrepreneurship in south africa. retrieved april 29, 2011, from http://www.endeavor.co.za/portals/74/docs/white%20paper/final_gew_whitepaper_18march.pdf fayolle, a., gailly, b., & lassas-clerc, n. (2006). assessing the impact of entrepreneurship education programmes: a new methodology. journal of industrial training, 30(9), 701–720. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090590610715022 galloway, l., anderson, m., brown, w., & wilson, l. (2005). enterprise skills for the economy. education and training journal, 479(1), 7–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00400910510580593 gird, a., & bagraim, j. (2008). the theory of planned behaviour as predictor of entrepreneurial intent amongst final-year university students. south african journal of psychology, 38(4), 711–724. hisrich, r., & peters, m. (2002). entrepreneurship. boston: mcgraw-hill. holland, j.l. (1997). making vocational choices. (3rd edn.). odessa, fl: psychological assessment resources. jones, c.d., & english, j. (2004). a contemporary approach to entrepreneurship education. education and training journal, 46(8/9), 416–423. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00400910410569533 kerlinger, f.n. (1973). an index of factorial simplicity. psychometrika, 39, 1–6. krueger, n.f. (1996). the cognitive infrastructure of opportunity emergence. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 24(3), 5–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08985629300000020 krueger, n.f., & carsrud, a. (1993). entrepreneurial intentions: applying the theory of planned behavior. entrepreneurship and regional development, 5, 316–330. kyro, p. (2006). entrepreneurship education and finish society. working papers in economics from school of economics and business administration, tallinn university of technology, 63–80. lent, r.w., brown, s., & hackett, g. (1994). toward a unifying social cognitive theory of career and academic interest, choice, and performance. journal of vocational behaviour, 45(1), 79–122. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1994.1027 linan, f., & chen, y. (2006). testing the entrepreneurial intention model on a two-country sample. barcelona: department of business economics, universitat autonoma de barcelona. http://selene.uab.es/dep-economia-empresa/documents/06-7.pdf lockwood, p. (2006). ‘someone like me can be successful’: do college students need same-gender role models? psychology of women quarterly, 30, 36–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2006.00260.x martinez, a.c., levie, j., kelley, d.j., saemundsson, r.j., & schott, t. (2010). global entrepreneurship monitor special report. a global perspective on entrepreneurship and training. babson park, ma: babson college. matlay, h. (2005). researching entrepreneurship and education: part 1: what is entrepreneurship and does it matter? education and training journal, 47(8/9), 665–678. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00400910510633198 matlay, h. (2008). the impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial outcomes. journal of small business development, 15(2), 382–396. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14626000810871745 matthews, c.h., & moser, s.b. (1995). family background and gender: implications for interest in small firm ownership. entrepreneurship and regional development, 7(4), 365–377. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08985629500000023 melicher, l. (2009). entrepreneurial finance. (4th edn.). london: south-western cengage learning. mitchell, b.c., & co, m.j. (2006). entrepreneurship education in south africa: a nationwide survey. education and training journal, 48(5), 348–359. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00400910610677054 mouton, j. (2006). how to succeed in your master’s and doctoral studies. a south african guide and resource book. pretoria: van schaik publishers. nieman, g., & nieuwenhuizen, c. (2009). entrepreneurship: a south african perspective. pretoria: van schaik publishers. noel, t.w. (2002). effects of entrepreneurial education on intent to open a business: an explanatory study. journal of entrepreneurship education, 5, 3–13. peterman, n.e., & kennedy, j. (2003). enterprise education: influencing students’ perceptions of entrepreneurship. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 28, 129–144. http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1540-6520.2003.00035.x politis, d. (2005). the process of entrepreneurial learning: a conceptual framework. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 399–424. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2005.00091.x quimby, j., & desantis, a. (2006). the influence of role models on women’s career choices. the career development quarterly journal, 54(4), 297–306. saini, j.s., & bhatia, b.s. (2007). impact of entrepreneurship development programmes. journal of entrepreneurship, 16(1), 53–76. scherer, r., adams, j., carley, s., & wiebe, f. (1989). role model performance effects on development of entrepreneurial career preferences. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 13(3), 53–71. scott, m., & twomey, d. (1988). the long-term supply of entrepreneurs: students’ career aspirations in relation to entrepreneurship. journal of small business management, 26(4), 5–13. south africa yearbook 2004/2005. (2005). pretoria: government printer. statistics south africa. (2011). quarterly labour force survey, quarter 1. retrieved may 13, 2011, from http://www.statssa.gov.za/keyindicators/keyindicators.asp stokes, d., & wilson, n. (2010). small business management and entrepreneurship. (6th edn.). london: south-western cengage learning. stokes, d., wilson, n., & mador, m. (2010). entrepreneurship. london: south-western cengage learning. van auken, h., fry, f.l., & stephens, p. (2006). the influence of role models on entrepreneurial intentions. journal of developmental entrepreneurship, 11(2), 157–167. http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/s1084946706000349 footnotes (back to top) 1.developed countries are industrialised countries with a high per capita income, such as the united kingdom (uk) and european countries.2.developing countries are countries with a low level of material well-being such as south africa. abstract introduction theoretical development and hypotheses method the results discussion practical implications acknowledgements references appendix a: items used to measure variables as measured from strong disagree to strongly agree about the author(s) patient rambe department of business support studies, faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, bloemfontein, south africa nosiphiwe mpiti department of business support studies, faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, bloemfontein, south africa peter khaola department of human resource management, faculty of social studies, national university of lesotho, maseru, lesotho citation rambe, p., mpiti, n., & khaola, p. (2022). technology acquisition and the hair salon performance: the explanatory roles of human resources practices. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1822. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1822 original research technology acquisition and the hair salon performance: the explanatory roles of human resources practices patient rambe, nosiphiwe mpiti, peter khaola received: 17 nov. 2021; accepted: 15 feb. 2021; published: 14 july 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the prominence of technology acquisition and transfer amongst small firms in entrepreneurial literature does not provide a compelling explanation for the processes and mechanisms through which such variables impact the performance of these firms. research purpose: the study investigates the extent to which specific human resource practices mediate the interaction between technology acquisition and performance of small cosmetology firms in the central region of south africa. motivation for the study: the extensive examination of technology acquisition and human resource practices fails to provide significant insights into the interaction of these factors in shaping the performance of small firms. research approach/design/method: from a population estimate of 500 hair salons situated in the central region of south africa, a survey was administered on randomly selected 150 hair salons. statistical package for social sciences (spss, version 20) and partial least squares structural equation modelling (pls-sem) were used to analyse the 110 returned questionnaires that were complete and usable. main findings: the findings demonstrated a direct, positive and significant effect of technology acquisition on small, micro and medium enterprise (smme) performance and confirmed the partial mediation of employee technical skills training on the interaction between technology acquisition and hair salon performance. surprisingly, general business skills training partially but negatively mediated technology acquisition’s interaction with hair salon performance. practical/managerial implications: it is recommended that policymakers and entrepreneurs emphasise training technical skills development and acquisition of technology to improve the performance of their businesses. contribution/value-add: the main contribution of this study lies in its provision of mechanisms through which the acquisition of technology impacts small firms, business entities that are under theorised and less robustly studied in developing countries’ contexts. keywords: technology acquisition; hr practices; skills training; performance; smme. introduction there is a wide agreement amongst researchers that small, micro and medium enterprises (smmes) are critical to the creation of employment and economic growth (blackburn, hart, & wainwright, 2013; krishnan & scullion, 2017). they account for over 90% of businesses in many countries around the world and contribute to the gross domestic product (gdp) of these countries (blackburn et al., 2013; krishnan & scullion, 2017). there is no universally accepted definition of the term smme. notwithstanding that, many international organisations have recommended a definition based on the size of the workforce employed (krishnan & scullion, 2017). in this context, the upper limit of the size of employment of an smme often ranges from 250 to 500 employees (krishnan & scullion, 2017). in south africa, a small business is defined as a separate business entity (including cooperative enterprises and non-governmental organisations), which is managed by one person (owner or manager) (madichie, mpiti, & rambe, 2019; south african president’s office 2003). this places hair salons, the subject of our study, within a range of smmes in south africa. even though many studies aptly focus on a wide range of smmes, only few studies have focused on hair salons (madichie et al., 2019). the focus on hair salon firms is explained by the reality that these firms are neglected in the literature as they are perceived to be non-professional domains. for instance, a study conducted by onsongo and muturi (2015) suggests that hair salons are often viewed as a last resort of individuals looking for alternative strategies of generating an income. they elaborate that school dropouts and those labelled as social failures often create hair salons and make lucrative businesses out of them. this is despite hair salons playing a significant role in providing employment opportunities and generating income for owners and managers. furthermore, despite the importance of technology acquisition and effective human resources management (hrm) practices for the success of large organisations, the research on the effectiveness of these resources in smmes is only beginning to emerge (madichie et al., 2019; mallinguh, wasike, & zoltan, 2020). it is therefore not clear whether and how technology acquisition and hr practices influence the effectiveness of smmes, particularly hair salons. technology acquisition refers to the set of activities that involve finding, evaluating, acquiring and utilising technological knowledge from external sources (charmjuree, badir, & safdar, 2021). related to technology acquisition is the concept of technology transfer, which kooli-chaabane, boly and yannou (2014, p. 76) define as the ‘exchange of ideas, practices, objects, know-how, technical knowledge, intellectual property, discovery or invention resulting from scientific research conducted from universities or industry’. whereas hr policies refer to the organisation’s stated intentions about the utilisation of its hr resources, hr practices represent the actual hr practices that the organisation implements (boon, hartog, & lepak, 2019). we operationalise smme performance as growth and profitability of such firms. as indicated by mallinguh et al. (2020, p. 2), ‘a technology transfer project is not useful unless it results in firm profitability and growth’. the main purpose of the present article is to examine the impact of technology acquisition and selected human resource practices on the performance of hair salons in the mangaung metropolitan municipality in the free state province of south africa. we use technology transfer, innovation and strategic human resource management (shrm) theories to build on and examine the relationships amongst the variables. we seek to make two main contributions to the literature in small businesses and entrepreneurship. firstly, our study focuses on hair salons, the group of small businesses that are often neglected in the small business management literature (madichie et al., 2019). whilst there is evidence that some hair salons adopt the state-of-the-art grooming apparatus, including electric clippers, chemicals and sanitisers (drucker, white, & stanworth, 2005), it is not clear if the acquisition of these technologies makes a difference to such small businesses. this is fascinating because in emerging economy firms tend not to have knowledge and capabilities to operate new technologies (charmjuree et al., 2021; hanclova, rozehnal, ministr, & tvrdikova, 2015; madichie et al., 2019). secondly, we explore if the relationship between technology acquisition and performance of hair salons is not mediated by hr practices that enhance the ability and motivation of their employees. even though existing literature in large businesses show that bundles of hr practices can have a positive influence on performance, little is known about the extent to which those results extend to small businesses (mpiti, 2017; sels et al., 2006). too often, the hr concepts and theories developed within large organisations are applied uncritically in small businesses (krishnan & scullion, 2017) leading to disappointing results. relatedly, researchers tend to assume that business concepts originating from developed economies can be transposed to the environments of emerging economies such as south africa without proper contextualisation and reconfiguration, leading to suboptimal outcomes. for instance, it has been established that, compared to large firms, small firms adopt an informal approach to hrm, especially in emerging economies such as south africa (potgieter & mokomane, 2020). the results of our study will add to an increasing number of studies that explore the effectiveness of hrm in smmes (hung, cant, & wiid, 2016; machado & melo, 2014; mutumba et al., 2021). furthermore, whilst the effects of technology acquisition on various proxies of smme performance are sufficiently discussed in the literature, the mechanisms through which technology acquisition influences such performance are only beginning to emerge (charmjuree et al., 2021). we hypothesise and empirically examine the mediating effects of hr practices on the relationship between technology acquisition and performance of hair salons in the mangaung metropolitan municipality in the free state province of south africa. the explanation of how and why technology acquisition affects smme performance has implications for theory and practice in entrepreneurship and small business management studies. after this introduction, the hypotheses section briefly reviews the literature and presents testable hypotheses. the method’s section focuses on the study method, and the study results are provided in the results section. the discussion section presents the results and their implications. the last section provides the conclusions of the study. theoretical development and hypotheses technology acquisition and performance a compelling body of research intimates that technology acquisition and transfer are important for all businesses, particularly small businesses (charmjuree et al., 2021; kooli-chabane et al., 2014; madichie et al., 2019; mallinguh et al., 2020). technology acquisition and transfer help smmes to acquire technical knowledge, skills and abilities (ksa) (rambe & khaola, 2021), improve their process innovation (mallinguh et al., 2020) and plausibly increase their performance. empirically, studies provide evidence that technology acquisition and transfer tend to increase the innovation performance of smmes (charmjuree et al., 2021; kooli-chabane et al., 2014), productivity and competitiveness of small-scale agricultural businesses (rambe & khaola, 2021) and satisfaction of clients in beauty salons (mudzingwa & kabote, 2014), to name a few studies. mallinguh et al. (2020) established that the proportion of capital budget allocated for technology acquisition positively and significantly influence innovation and sales of smmes. despite this plethora of studies that examined the effects of technology acquisition on smme variables, few studies have paid particular attention to hair salons. the literature indicates that different measures and proxies of performance have been used. whilst large firms often use profitability measures as metrics of success, small firms often use growth as a performance indicator (krishnan & scullion, 2017). this is because growth is at the centre of inquiry in entrepreneurship and small business management studies (blackburn et al., 2013). in this study, we combine both measures as proxies of performance of hair salons as we believe there is no growth strategy of smme that ignores profitability. we therefore hypothesise that: hypothesis 1: there is a positive relationship between technology acquisition and performance of hair salons. human resource practices as mediating factors in the relationship between technology acquisition and performance of hair salons even though many studies tend to confirm the overarching prominence of technology acquisition on the performance of smmes, little is known about various mechanisms through which the relationship unfolds. the recent study by charmjuree et al. (2021) found that external technology exploitation fully mediated the relationship between external technology acquisition and the process innovation performance of smmes in the emerging market. as technology exploitation requires human resource skills (madichie et al., 2019; sugasawa & liyanage, 1991), we submit that hr practices are a potent mechanism through which technology acquisition can affect the performance of smmes. the shrm literature posits that human resources practices or policies function as a system of internally consistent and reinforcing elements to achieve some results (boon et al., 2019). based on the ability-motivation-opportunity (amo) model, jiang, lepak, ju and baer (2012) have suggested three bundles of hr practices: ability-enhancing practices (e.g. selection and training), motivation-enhancing practices (e.g. performance management and rewards contingent on performance) and opportunity-enhancing practices (e.g. employee involvement and job design). we propose that the ability-enhancing and motivation-enhancing practices are impacted by technology acquisition and in turn facilitate the interaction of technology acquisition with the performance of smmes. sugasawa and liyanage (1999) found out that capital and human resources are the main obstacles to smme’s efforts in technology development. this suggests that smmes cannot ignore the importance of human resources if they want to acquire and exploit technology sufficiently. madichie et al. (2019) suggest that, in addition to economic and technological factors, organisational factors such as knowledge and skills are required to acquire and exploit technology. in the context of hair salons, madichie and colleagues indicate that lack of technological skills and financial constraints perhaps explain the limited use of recent technological resources in hair salons. there are mainly two ways of getting skills in organisations. the organisation can either buy them (i.e. through recruitment) or make them (i.e. through training). we therefore submit that the ability-enhancing practices (e.g. hiring and training) explain (mediate) the relationship between technology acquisition and smme performance. training is the most rigorously studied hr practice in smmes (sels et al., 2006), and the selection decision process is an important factor in determining talent in small businesses (krishnan & scullion, 2017). overall, the hr literature suggests that hr practices have a direct impact on employee ksa, motivation and empowerment (boon et al., 2019; jiang et al., 2012; sels et al., 2006), all of which are required to increase the performance of smmes. as external technology exploitation fully mediated the relationship between external technology acquisition and the process innovation performance of smmes (charmjuree et al., 2021), we posit that hr practices explain the relationship between technology acquisition and smme performance. besides the ability-enhancing practices (e.g. selection and training), employees need the motivation to exploit the acquired technology to guarantee the increased performance of firms. we there submit that motivation-enhancing practices such as compensation and rewards facilitate and mediate the relationship between technology acquisition and smme performance. in summary, we posit that technology acquisition facilitates the performance of certain hr practices such as recruitment, training and compensation, which in turn influence the performance of the smme by enhancing skills and motivation of employees. taken together, we submit that the relationship between technology acquisition and smme performance is partially explained by the ability-enhancing and that motivation-enhancing hr practices. the existing theory and evidence bring us to the following hypothesis: hypothesis 2: the relationship between technology acquisition and performance of hair salons is mediated by (a) ability-enhancing practices and (b) motivation-enhancing practices in parallel. the conceptual model is shown in figure 1. figure 1: the conceptual model. method research design and approach a quantitative, deductive research design was used to address the hypotheses. we adopted this positivist approach because the study sought to relate one variable to another (cooper & schindler, 2014). target population, sample size and procedures the setting of the study was the mangaung metropolitan municipality in the free state province, the hub of economic activity in the central region of south africa. the free state development corporation (fdc) estimated that there were about 500 hair salons in the mangaung metrolipolitan manucipality at the time of study. research assistants distributed self-administered questionnaires to a random sample of 150 hair salons selected from the targeted population. according to the guide provided by sekaran and bougie’s (2016) statistical tables for determining the sample, this sample size was higher than the one required (s = 80) for the target population (n = 500). the response rate was 73% (n = 110). there may be concerns that, by selecting one industry, the generalisability of the results may be limited. however, as suggested by charmjuree et al. (2021), focusing on one industry ensures sufficient homogeneity because levels of technology acquisition, skills acquisition, compensation and recruitment traditions and practices may differ from one industry to another. ethical considerations the purpose of the study was communicated to all participants. they were requested to fill the questionnaires anonymously, and confidentiality was guaranteed to all. they were further informed that they were free to participate in the study, and that non-participation would not affect their businesses. the data collected from the participants has been analysed in aggregated form and is not identifiable with any one particular business. ethical clearance has been provided by central university of technology, free state, fmsec05/15. measures we used data that were originally collected from a larger survey of hair salons using a self-developed questionnaire that was tested for content validity (madichie et al., 2019). the questionnaire items were derived from the extensive review of literature in technology acquisition, hrm and organisational performance to achieve content validity (bryman & bell, 2011). technology acquisition this construct was measured with seven items. on a scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), participants were asked to indicate the extent to which they agree with certain statements. sample items included ‘the business acquires the latest technology to keep up to date’ and ‘external funding enables the purchase of needed equipment’. the cronbach’s alpha of the scale was 0.92. motivation-enhancing human resource practices compensation was used to represent this construct. even though nine items were used to measure compensation, only three items loaded significantly on the latent construct. participants were requested to rate the extent to which they agreed with certain statements. three items that loaded well on the scale were ‘salaries are in accordance with labour markets standards’, ‘employee pay rates are kept confidential’ and ‘salary ranges are used to determine salary rates’. the cronbach’s alpha of the scale was 0.75. ability-enhancing human resource practices this construct was represented by recruitment and selection and skills training and acquisition. skills acquisition and training were further categorised into business skills training, entrepreneurial skills training and technical skills training. for recruitment and selection, the items included ‘the business emphasises qualifications in its recruitment and selection process’; for business and entrepreneurial skills training, they included ‘the business provides training on communication’, ‘employees have problem solving skills’ and for technical skills training, they included ‘the business gives training on computers’. the cronbach’s alphas of the scales were 0.89, 0.76 and 0.93 for recruitment and selection, business and entrepreneurial training and technical skills training, respectively. performance we assessed the performance of hair salons by requesting the participants to answer questions tapping into the profitability and growth of their business. we decided to use this subjective approach because most smmes do not keep formal records of their financial transactions. participants were requested to rate the financial profitability and growth of their businesses on a scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). a sample item for measurement of profitability was ‘public funding has led to the growth of profit margin’, and the one reflecting growth was ‘public finding has led to an increase in the number of employees’. note that we dropped the items that related to private funding so that the scale can correspond with public funding ‘wording’ used in the acquisition of technology concept. when we factor analysed the items assessing profitability and growth, the items coalesced under one factor, which prompted us into combining all items into one measure of performance. the cronbach’s alpha of the scale was 0.98. controls as characteristics such as age and size of the business have influence on smme performance (blackburn et al., 2013), we examined if these factors would not influence the results. we specifically included the form of business, age of business and the number of employees in this article. the full set of items used to measure variables is shown in the appendix. data analysis we used statistical package for social sciences (spss, v. 20) and smart pls 3 to analyse data. specifically, we examined the convergent and discriminant validity of the model, zero-order correlations and multiple regression analysis and direct and indirect relationships amongst the latent constructs. compared to covariance-based sem (cb-sem), partial least squares structural equation modelling (pls-sem) (variance-based sem) is appropriate where the focus of research is on prediction of key constructs; the sample size is small; the model consists of reflective and formative constructs; available data is non-normal and the model is exploratory in nature (hair, risher, sarstedt, & ringle, 2019; hair, ringle, & sarstedt, 2011). we used pls-sem in this study because the sample size was small, and the model we tested was relatively new and our dataset was not normal. as indicated by henseler, ringle and sinkovics (2009, p. 296), pls-sem is ‘primarily intended for causal predictive analysis in situations of high complexity but low theoretical information’. because of the small sample size, we initially used sub-scales of skills acquisition (business skills acquisition, entrepreneurial skills acquisition and technical skills acquisitions) as indicators of the construct. item parcelling into sub-scales is often used to reduce the number of indicators in a model (baer, oldham, & cummings, 2003), especially when the sample size is small (wang, demerouti, & blanc, 2017). as technical skills acquisition did not load on one latent construct with general business skills, we analysed them separately. overall, indicators that did not load well on their intended constructs were dropped from analysis. partial least squares path modelling follows a two-step process involving the assessment of the outer (measurement) model and the assessment of the inner (structural) model (henseler et al., 2009). the assessment of the outer model involves the assessment of the reliability and validity of the latent constructs. we evaluated the adequacy of the measurement model by assessing the convergent and discriminant validity (hair et al., 2011; hair, matthews, matthews, & sarstedt, 2017). amongst other indicators, convergent validity is confirmed when all outer loadings are at least 0.7 and statistically significant; the average variance extracted (ave, average amount of variation that a latent variable explains in the observed variable) is 0.50 or higher; and the composite reliability (cr) is 0.70 or higher (hair et al., 2011; khaola & rambe, 2020; rambe & khaola, 2021). to assess discriminant validity, either fornell–larker criterion or heterotrait-monotrait (htmt) ratio of correlations can be used. as the fornell–larker criterion performs poorly in the assessment of discriminant validity when construct indicator loadings vary marginally (hair et al., 2017); we relied on more reliable htmt ratios of correlations to assess the discriminant validity (hair et al., 2011, 2019; musiiwa, khaola, rambe, & chipunza, 2020). discriminant validity is also indicated where htmt is less than 0.85. the assessment of the structural (inner) model, which shows the relationships (paths) between latent constructs (hair et al., 2011), provides information on standardised betas, coefficient of determination (r2) and significant levels (henseler et al., 2009). the following section focuses on results. the results assessment of the measurement model to assess the measurement model, we assessed the convergent and discriminant validity. the results of convergent validity are summarised in table 1. table 1: results of model’s convergent validity. as shown in table 1, all item loadings were 0.70 or higher, and they were all significant. furthermore, each latent construct had the ave and the cr figures that were higher than 0.50 and 0.70, respectively (hair et al., 2019). based on these results, we can conclude that there was convergent validity of constructs under study. to assess the discriminant validity, we used the htmt ratios of correlations. the results are shown in table 2. table 2: heterotrait-monotrait ratios of construct correlations. table 2 shows that all the htmt ratios of correlations were below the threshold of 0.85, suggesting that the constructs used in the study demonstrated sufficient discriminant validity. based on the reasonable adequacy of the measurement model, we proceeded to examine the hypothesised relationships. however, to have an overview of the basic relationships, we first examined the intercorrelations amongst the study variables. the correlations are shown in table 3. table 3: intercorrelations amongst study variable. the zero-order correlations in table 3 indicate that technology acquisition correlated positively with general business skills training (r = 0.28, p < 0.01), entrepreneurial skills training (r = 0.54, p < 0.01), technical skills training (r = 0.54, p < 0.01), compensation and rewards (r = 0.56, p < 0.01), recruitment and selection (r = 0.61, p < 0.01) and smme performance (r = 0.54, p < 0.01). in turn, all motivation – and ability-enhancing hr practices correlated positively and significantly to smme performance. specifically, smme performance correlated positively to general business skills training (r = 0.56, p < 0.01), entrepreneurial skills training (r = 0.52, p < 0.01), technical skills training (r = 0.69, p < 0.01), compensation and rewards (r = 0.38, p < 0.01) and recruitment and selection (r = 0.56, p < 0.01). as could be expected, table 3 shows strong correlations amongst skills training concepts, with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.68 to 0.91. similarly, the correlations amongst hr concepts ranged from moderate to very high. whilst the form of business did not have any relationships with the smme performance (r = 0.07, p > 0.05), the number of employees (r = 0.27, p < 0.01) and the number of years in operation (r = 0.29, p < 0.01) had positive and significant correlations with smme performance. these results intimate that smmes with many employees or greater number of years in operations were more likely to perform better. to examine whether the relationships between these control variables and the criterion variable were spurious or real, we conducted multiple regression analysis. the results of multiple regression analysis are shown in table 4. table 4: regression analysis results. after controlling for other variables, none of the control variables related significantly with the criterion (dependent) variable. following the recommendations of becker et al. (2016), we dropped control variables in the assessment of the structural model. these authorities warn against the inclusion of control variables where they are not related to the criterion variable, arguing that their use can produce uninterpretable parameter estimates, erroneous inferences and nonreplicable results. assessment of the structural model we used pls-sem to assess the structural model. the structural (inner) model shows the relationships (paths) between the latent constructs (hair et al., 2011). the results of the structural model are shown in figure 2. figure 2: the results of the structural model. the study examined the influence of technology on the performance of hair salons because of the critical role of adopting the latest technologies and innovations in the success of hairdressing and beauty sectors. hanclova et al. (2015) contend that the acquisition of modern technologies increases the hair salons’ access global and new markets, opens communication channels with other hair salons and allows them to retain their competitive market position in the economy. despite the overwhelming evidence on the capacity of the latest technologies to increase the sales, profitability and return on investments of hair salons (duan, han, & yang, 2009; labonte, 2015; madichie et al., 2019), most hair salons often rely on outdated and inefficient technologies (mpiti & rambe, 2016). the results indicate that technology acquisition significantly predicted recruitment and selection (β = 0.631, p < 0.01), compensation and rewards (β = 0.587, p < 0.01), skills acquisition or training (β = 0.509, p < 0.01) and smme performance (β = 0.192, p < 0.05). overall, the results suggest that higher levels of technology acquisition were associated with effectiveness in hiring, compensation, technical skills training and smme performance (growth and profitability). the relations between technology acquisition and skills acquisition are counterintuitive and hence were not expected. the results show further that compensation and rewards did not have any significant impact on smme performance (β = 0.122, p > 0.05). similarly, recruitment and selection failed to predict performance (β = 0.026, p > 0.05). technical skills acquisition or training positively predicted performance (β = 0.557, p < 0.01). interestingly, when we replaced technical skills training with general business skills training (figure 3), the results became counterintuitive in that technology acquisition lowered general business skills acquisition (β = −0.283, p < 0.01), and in turn, general business skill training negatively affected smme performance (β = −0.275, p < 0.01). in this latter model, recruitment and selection positively and significantly predicted smme performance (β = 0.307, p < 0.01). we provide possible reasons for these counterintuitive results in the discussion section. figure 3: the results of the structural model when technical skills are replaced by general business skills. assessment of mediated effects the examination of mediation in pls-sem requires at least three steps, namely the assessment of total effects, the assessment of total indirect effects and the assessment of specific indirect effects. the summary of relevant results from the pls-sem bootstrapping analysis results is shown in table 5. table 5: summary of the total, total indirect and specific indirect effects. as shown in table 5, apart from the relationship between compensation and smme performance and recruitment and smme performance, the total effects of all relationships were significant, including the one between technology acquisition and smme performance (t-values with p-values less than 0.01, and confidence intervals that did not cross zero). the significant total effect of technology acquisition-smme performance relationship confirms that technology acquisition was an important factor in facilitating increased smme performance. furthermore, the unpacking of total effects revealed that the total indirect effects of technology acquisition on smme performance were also significant, suggesting the presence of one or more mediating factors. as indicated by the specific indirect effects, the relationship between technology acquisition and smme performance was mediated by technical skills acquisition (effect = 0.283, t = 4.769, p < 0.01) but not recruitment and selection (effect = 0.0016, t = 0.254, p = 0.800) or compensation (effect = 0.072, t = 1.097, p = 0.273). as technology acquisition also had some significant direct effects on smme performance (effect = 0.192, p < 0.05), the relationship between technology acquisition and smme performance was partially mediated by technical skills acquisition. when we replaced technical skills acquisition with general business skills acquisition, we found that the latter negatively mediated the relationship between technology acquisition and smme performance (effect = 0.078, t = 2.557, p = 0.011), intimating that general business skills training reduces the effects of technology acquisition on performance. in summary, the results support the proposition that the relationship between technology acquisition and smme performance was mediated by some elements of the ability-enhancing hr practices (skills acquisition), but reject the proposition that such relationship is mediated by motivation-enhancing hr practices (compensation and rewards). it also emerges that technical skills training is more important than general business skills training in hair salons. these results provide partial support to hypothesis 2. discussion the studies based on hair salons are scanty in the literature (madichie et al., 2019), and those on hrm in smmes are only beginning to emerge strongly in the literature (krishnan & scullion, 2017; potgieter & mokomane, 2020). the purpose of the current study was to explore the mechanism through which technology acquisition affects the performance of hair salons in the mangaung metropolitan municipality in the free state province of south africa. the combination of technology and hr practices in the study of hair salons is, to our knowledge, novel and has the potential to contribute immensely to existing literature. the results confirm the positive relationship between technology acquisition and the performance of hair salons. this not only supports several prior studies within the context of smmes (charmjuree et al., 2021; kooli-chabane et al., 2014; madichie et al., 2019; mallinguh et al., 2020; rambe & khaola, 2021) but also shows that even the neglected sections of smmes such as hair salons can benefit from acquisition and exploitation of technology. through technology acquisition and exploitation, smmes can improve the knowledge of their workforce and process innovation performance, which would plausibly improve the productivity and competitiveness of smmes (charmjuree et al., 2021; rambe & khaola, 2021). we hypothesised and tested the capacity of hr practices to mediate the relationship between technology acquisition and the performance of hair salons. our results show that the motivation-enhancing practice (i.e. compensation) did not explain the relationship between technology acquisition and performance. this does not, however, imply that either compensation or motivation is not important for the performance of smmes. two reasons may explain why compensation did not affect performance in this study. firstly, it may be that salaries in hair salons are not high enough to motivate employees. as suggested by gehart and rynes (2003), paying employees above the industry average may motivate employees and vice versa. secondly, our measure of compensation was based on traditional measures that focus on salaries and issues of equity. yet, the hr literature suggests that compensation must be contingent on performance to have the incentive effects we predicted in this study (boon et al., 2019). it may be that the non-significant effects related more to how we measured compensation rather than the ineffectiveness of compensation or motivation in bolstering of performance per se. the mediating effects of the ability-enhancing practices (i.e. recruitment and training) were fascinating. when technical skills training was included in the model, it mediated the relationship between technology acquisition and performance positively, but once we replaced technical skills training with business skills training, the latter mediated the relationship negatively. we provide the following possible explanations for these results. it is possible that in certain smmes like hair salons, training to acquire general business skills such as communication, planning and leadership is not as important as training to acquire technical skills such as the use of electric clippers, sanitisers and computers. krishnan and scullion (2017) submit that technical skills and work ethic play a greater role in the selection process of small businesses. it may be that investing in general business skill acquisition at the expense of technical skills acquisition negatively affects performance because it reduces cash flows and liquidity, all of which are critical to the success of hair salons (madichie et al., 2019). whilst both technical skills training and general business training are important for smmes, the payback period for investment in the former is arguably shorter than in the latter. the results of our study therefore reject the ‘best-practices’ approach to hrm and, in this case, training. they support the contingency approach because, on the face of it, training and talent management in large businesses may be different from the same practices in small businesses. future studies can benefit from evaluating why technical skills training was more useful in hair salons than general business skills training. practical implications this study provides some implications for policymakers and practitioners of hair salons. first, as shown by our results, owner-managers may be advised that acquiring new technology in their hair salons could improve their performance, particularly their profitability and growth outcomes. it is true that acquiring new technology may be costly, but the results of our study show that such investment is worthwhile. as indicated by madichie et al. (2019), public funding may make it possible for hair salons to acquire new technologies. in this regard, institutions responsible for the growth of smmes could finance hair salons to acquire and utilise new technologies. secondly, hair salons should continually give training to their employees to acquire technical skills. as suggested by our results, technical skills training mediates (explains) the positive relationship between technology acquisition and the performance of hair salons. thus, in addition to acquisition of technology, policymakers can set aside some funds to finance targeted technical training of employees in hair salons. because employees in smmes may not have time to attend formal training sessions (hanclova et al., 2015; madichie et al., 2019), we recommend informal on-the-job training in their business premises. we hope that these recommendations can improve the performance of hair salons and finally contribute to the economy of south africa. acknowledgements the hair salon business owners and managers who were the respondents of the study. competing interests authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions the main author contributed on the write-up of the article, one of the co-author contributed with data collection for the article. the last co-author contributed with the data analysis of the article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data is based on a larger study that formed part of the second author’s dissertation. this dataset can be provided upon request. disclaimer the views and opinions in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references baer, m., oldham, g.r., & cummings, a. (2003). rewarding creativity: when does it really matter? the leadership quarterly, 14(4–5), 569–586. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(03)00052-3 becker, t.e., atinc, g., breaugh, j.a., carlson, k.d., edwards, j.r., & spector, p.e. (2016). statistical control in correlational studies: 10 essential recommendations for organizational researchers. journal of organizational behavior, 37(2), 157–167. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2053 blackburn, r.a., hart, m., & wainwright, t. (2013). small business performance: business, strategy and owner-manager characteristics. journal of small business and enterprise development, 20(1), 8–27. https://doi.org/10.1108/14626001311298394 boon, c., den hartog, d.n., & lepak, d.p. (2019). a systematic review of human resource management systems and their measurement. journal of management, 45(6), 2498–2537. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206318818718 bryman, a., & bell, e. (2011). business research methods. 3rd ed. oxford: oxford university press. charmjuree, t., badir, y.f., & safdar, u. (2021). external technology acquisition, exploitation and process innovation performance in emerging market small and medium sized enterprises: the moderating role of organizational slack. european journal of innovation management, 25(2), 545–566. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejim-07-2020-0263 cooper, d.r., & schindler, p.s. (2014). business research methods. new york, ny: the mcgraw–hill companies. duan, h., han, x., & yang, h. (2009). an analysis of causes for smes financing difficulty. international journal of business management, 4(6), 73–75. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v4n6p73 druker, j., white, g., & stanworth, c. (2005). coping with wage regulation implementing the national minimum wage in hairdressing businesses. international small business journal, 23(1), 5–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266242605048869 gerhart, b., & rynes, s. l. (2003). compensation: theory, evidence, and strategic implications. thousand oaks, ca: sage hair, jr. j.f., matthews, l.m., matthews, r.l., & sarstedt, m. (2017). pls-sem or cb-sem: updated guidelines on which method to use. international journal of multivariate data analysis, 1(2), 107–123. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijmda.2017.10008574 hair, j.f., ringle, c.m., & sarstedt, m. (2011). pls-sem: indeed a silver bullet. journal of marketing theory and practice, 19(2), 139–152. https://doi.org/10.2753/mtp1069-6679190202 hair, j.f., risher, j.j., sarstedt, m., & ringle, c.m. (2019). when to use and how to report the results of pls-sem. european business review, 31(1), 2–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr-11-2018-0203 hanclova, j., rozehnal, p., ministr, j., & tvrdikova, m. (2015). the determinants of it adoption in smes in the czech-polish border areas. information technology for development, 21(3), 426–444. https://doi.org/10.1080/02681102.2014.916249 henseler, j., ringle, c.m., & sinkovics, r.r. (2009). the use of partial least squares path modeling in international marketing. in r.r. sinkovics & p.n. ghauri (eds.). new challenges to international marketing (advances in international marketing), (vol. 20, pp. 277–319). bingley: emerald group publishing limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/s1474-7979(2009)0000020014 hung, y.-t., cant, m.-c., & wiid, j.a. (2016). the importance of human resources management for small businesses in south africa. problems and perspectives in management, 14(3–1), 232–238. https://doi.org/10.21511/ppm.14(3-1).2016.09 jiang, k., lepak, d.p., hu, j., & baer, j.c. (2012). how does human resource management influence organizational outcomes? a meta-analytic investigation of mediating mechanisms. academy of management journal, 55(6), 1264–1294. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2011.0088 khaola, p., & rambe, p. (2020). the effects of transformational leadership on organisational citizenship behaviour: the role of organisational justice and affective commitment. management research review, 44(3), 381–398. https://doi.org/10.1108/mrr-07-2019-0323 kooli-chaabane, h., boly, v., & yannou, b. (2014). monitoring of technology transfer projects in industrial clusters. journal of innovation economics management, 1, 73–91. https://doi.org/10.3917/jie.013.0073 krishnan, t.n., & scullion, h. (2017). talent management and dynamic view of talent in small and medium enterprises. human resource management review, 27(3), 431–441. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2016.10.003 labonte, m. (2015). systemically important or big to fail financial institutions. congressional research service report. retrieved from https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/r42150.pdf machado, c., & melo, p.n. (2014). effective human resources management in small and medium enterprises: global perspectives, hershey, usa: igi global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-4731-2 madichie, n.o., mpiti, n., & rambe, p. (2019). impact assessment of funding on technology acquisition by small businesses: a case study of hair salons in a south african municipality. journal of enterprising communities: people and places in the global economy, 13(1/2), 145–166. mallinguh, e., wasike, c., & zoltan, z. (2020). technology acquisition and smes performance, the role of innovation, export and the perception of owner-managers. journal of risk and financial management, 13(11), 258. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm13110258 mpiti, n. (2017). the influence of private and public finance on the performance of smmes in the free state: a case of afro hair salons in mangaung metropolitan area. unpublished masters dissertation, central university of technology, free state. mpiti, n., & rambe, p. (2016). the influence of public finance on the performance of smmes in the free state: a case of afro hair salons in mangaung metropolitan municipality. in proceedings of the 28th annual conference of the southern african institute of management scientists (pp. 436–449). 4–7 september 2016. pretoria: university of pretoria. mudzingwa, p., & kabote, f. (2014). exploring modern technology adoption in zimbabwe’s beauty therapy industry. iosr journal of humanities and social science, 19(5), 44–48. https://doi.org/10.9790/0837-19544448 musiiwa, d., khaola, p., rambe, p., & chipunza, c. (2020). the impact of perceived justice on behavioural intentions in retail banking: an investigation of explanatory roles of service recovery and overall satisfaction. the retail and marketing review, 16(2), 80–96. mutumba, r., basika, e., menya, j., kabenge, i., kiggundu, n., & oshaba, b. (2021). a review of the human resource management dilemma for smes: case of central uganda. art human open access journal, 5(1), 1–7. onsongo, s., & muturi, w. (2015). factors influencing the growth of hair salon enterprises in kenya: a survey of hair salon enterprises in kisii town. iosr journal of business and management, 17(3), 1–15. potgieter, i.l., & mokomane, s.e. (2020). implementation of hrm functions in selected small manufacturing companies in ga-rankuwa industrial area, gauteng, south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 18, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1282 rambe, p., & khaola, p. (2021). the impact of innovation on agribusiness competitiveness: the mediating role of technology transfer and productivity. european journal of innovation management. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejim-05-2020-0180 sekaran, u., & bougie, r. (2016). research methods for business: a skill building approach, sussex, uk: john wiley & sons. sels, l., de winne, s., delmotte, j., maes, j., faems, d., & forrier, a. (2006). linking hrm and small business performance: an examination of the impact of hrm intensity on the productivity and financial performance of small businesses. small business economics, 26(1), 83–101. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-004-6488-6 south african president’s office. (1996) (amended 2003). national small business act number 102 of 1996. pretoria. government printer. wang, h.j., demerouti, e., & le blanc, p. (2017). transformational leadership, adaptability, and job crafting: the moderating role of organisational identification. journal of vocational behaviour, 100, 185–195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2017.03.009 appendix a: items used to measure variables as measured from strong disagree to strongly agree technology acquisition technology helps to do daily activities in the company. acquire the latest technology to keep up to date. use new technology to adapt daily routines. technology makes one’s job easier. public funding helps to acquire latest technology. public funding enables purchase of needed equipment. public funding helps to keep up to date with latest technology. recruitment and selection someone is responsible for human resources in the business. we recruit, select, appoint, train and develop human resources. business emphasizes qualification on its recruitment and selection. business emphasizes relevant experience when recruiting and appointing. business emphasizes knowledge of hair salon. reference checks are part of recruitment. possess overall knowledge of hr recruitment process. compensation salaries are in accordance to labour market standards. employee pay rates are kept confidential. salary ranges are used to determine salary rates. general business skills’ acquisition and entrepreneurial skills training business gives training on communication skill. business gives training on leadership skill. business gives training on management skill. business gives training on organisational skill. business gives training on interpersonal skill. employees have good listening and speaking skill. employees are able to make good business decision. employees are able to adapt to change. employees are able to plan their goals and reach the. employees are able to interact with other people. employees undergo training in business skill. employees undergo training on business planning skill. employees undergo training on business communication skill. employees undergo training on customer service. employees are able to use effective cross-cultural communication skill. employees have problem solving skills. employees ensure effective delivery of products and services to customers. technical skills training business gives training on computer as well as computer language. business gives training on data analysis. employees have technical knowledge. hair salon performance – growth and profit public funding has led to growth of business. public funding helped the business to meets its financial target. public funding has led to the increase in gross profit margin. public funding has led to the generation of profit income. public funding has helped business to grow. employee numbers has increased in the past 5 years because of public funding. public funding has led to the increase in return on investment. public funding has led to increase in profit. article information author: gerhardus van zyl¹ affiliations: ¹department of economics and econometrics, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: gerhardus van zyl email: hardusvz@uj.ac.za postal address: department of economics and econometrics, university of johannesburg, po box 10152, aston manor 1630, south africa keywords employee-remuneration gap; labour productivity; employee remuneration gap-labour productivity (erglp) indicator coefficient; skill levels; employee characteristics; business or economic uncertainty dates: received: 09 mar 2010 accepted: 30 jul 2010 published: 11 nov. 2010 how to cite this article: van zyl, g. (2010). does employee remuneration dispersion in the south african economy enhances labour productivity? the gauteng manufacturing industry as a case study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #286, 5 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.286 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) does employee remuneration dispersion in the south african economy enhance labour productivity? the gauteng manufacturing industry as a case study in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction • research design    • research approach    • research method       • measuring instrument (econometric model)       • research procedure       • research sample • results • references abstract (back to top) orientation: the paper dealt with the application of a suitable econometric estimation model or procedure to measure the relation between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity in the gauteng manufacturing industry. research purpose: the aim of the article was to estimate the sign and magnitude of the relation between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity econometrically. the gauteng manufacturing sector was used as a case study. motivation for the study: the empirical research was deemed necessary given the current important debate on the perceived impact and fairness of expanding employee-remuneration gaps in the south african workplace. international studies have been conducted on this particular topic but very limited empirical research has been published regarding the south african situation. research design, approach and method: a log-linear two-step ols estimation was used to estimate the sign and magnitude of the relation between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity. employee remuneration gap-labour productivity (erglp) indicator coefficients were estimated, taking into consideration employee characteristics, skill levels and business or economic uncertainty. main findings: the signs of the erglp indicator coefficients were positive in terms of all the categories, indicating a positive relation between employment-remuneration gaps and labour productivity (at varying magnitudes). the squared erglp indicator coefficients confirmed the existence of diminishing marginal productivity characteristics after an optimal employee-remuneration gap level. practical/managerial implications: it is recommended that, given the unionised nature of the lower-skilled employee segment in south africa, greater labour-productivity gains for organisations would stem from a more dispersed employee-remuneration regime for the higher-skilled employee segment (albeit in a less uncertain business or economic environment). contribution/value-add: an econometric estimation procedure that can be applied to the measurement of the productivity gains of employee-remuneration gaps for different industries in the south african economy was established. introduction (back to top) the aim of the article was to apply a south african industry characteristic-focused econometric model (procedure) (1) to estimate the sign and magnitude of the link between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity and (2) to determine possible productivity gains generated by employee-remuneration gaps. there is currently an important general debate in south africa (among employer organisations, labour unions, politicians etc.) on the size and fairness of perceived employee-remuneration gaps among the different employment levels in organisations. labour unions, in particular, are of the opinion that these remuneration gaps are expanding and that the situation constitutes a major threat to job creation and the fair distribution of income in the workplace and the economy as a whole. employer organisations, however, argue that employee-remuneration gaps are, in the main, the result of the shortages of higher-skilled employees in the workplace and differences in labour-productivity levels between the different employee segments. the aim of the literature study was purely the identification of all the important variables that drive the employee remuneration gap-labour productivity (erglp) relation to specify the econometric model and estimation procedure efficiently and correctly. research results on the relation between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity vary. one school of thought (benito, 2000; mahy, rycx & volral, 2009; turner & jackson, 2009) argues for the existence of a positive link between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity, in that the greater the employee-remuneration gap, the higher the level of labour productivity. reasons in support of this argument are that (1) human effort is enhanced if a more differentiated remuneration structure is adopted (turner & jackson, 2009) and (2) high levels of labour productivity are normally rewarded with higher remuneration structures (benito, 2000). martins (2008) and mahy, rycx and volral (2009) were of the opinion that this positive relation between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity is not infinite but that it does adhere to some form of increasing and diminishing marginal productivity characteristics: the positive relation reaches an optimal level but, with further increases in employee-remuneration gaps, the relation becomes negative. a study by winter-ebner and zweimuller (1999) indicated that the positive relation between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity is more prevalent for production workers (so-called blue-collar employees) than for managerial or administrative employees (so-called white-collar employees). the second school of thought (brown & medoff, 1989; erdill & yetkiner, 2001; hibbs & locking, 2000; lopez-bazo & motellon, 2009) argues that there is a negative relation between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity. the following reasons are given for this negative relation: • smaller remuneration gaps result in a greater level of employee cohesion and therefore an improved level of labour productivity (brown & medoff, 1989; erdill & yetkiner, 2001) • if employees feel that their real remuneration is less than what they define as a fair remuneration package, labour productivity decreases (genre, momferatou & mourre, 2005) • variation in labour productivity necessitates a less-dispersed employee-remuneration distribution (hibbs & locking, 2000; ho & yap, 2001) irrespective of whether the relation between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity is positive or negative, however, all the research findings clearly indicate three important aspects that need to be considered, namely (1) employee characteristics, (2) the difference in the skill levels of employee segments and (3) the level of uncertainty in the business or economic environment in which a particular employer operates. erdill and yetkiner (2001) indicated that employee characteristics had to be taken into consideration and that the link between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity depends on an employee’s position in the remuneration structure. jirjahn and kraft (2007) reported that the labour-relations regime and the type of incentive schemes play an important role in determining the sign and magnitude of the link between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity. it has furthermore been argued that differences in (1) the size and kind of ownership of organisations (beaumont & harris, 2003) and (2) the kind of management regime (belfield & marsden, 2003) also impact on the relation between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity. lazear (1995) came to a very interesting conclusion: he argued that (1) the remuneration regimes of employers should be tailored to take the characteristics of their workforce into account and (2) less-dispersed employee-remuneration gaps were preferable at management level. in terms of skill levels, genre et al. (2005) and lallermond (2007) indicated that smaller remuneration gaps are required for higher-skilled employees if labour productivity is to be enhanced. heyman (2005), prendergast (2002) and turner and jackson (2009), however, concluded that the relationship between remuneration gaps and labour productivity is stronger when employees are more skilled. according to them, the reason is that the remuneration regime for higher-skilled employees is linked to firm performance and that more dispersed employee-remuneration gaps induce these employees to act in an optimal manner (with higher levels of productivity). foss and laursen (2005) and mahy et al. (2009) indicated that employee-remuneration gaps for less-skilled workers should be smaller, as limited performance-linked regimes are needed to enhance labour productivity. uncertainty in the business or economic environment impacts on the sign and magnitude of the link between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity. brown and medoff (1989), prendergast (2002) and mahy et al. (2009) confirmed the existence of a positive relation between uncertainty and the dispersion of employee-remuneration gaps. the basic argument is that performance-linked remuneration regimes (which entail more dispersed remuneration gaps) are more prominent when business or economic uncertainty is high. fagio, salvaness and van reenen (2007), however, argued that, in a highly uncertain business or economic environment, the link between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity should be weaker simply because employees regard performance-linked remuneration regimes as unfair (since they have less control over their own labour-output relation). from the literature study, it was concluded that the specification of the econometric model should include (1) employee characteristics (such as age, sex, job description, union affiliation and employee category), (2) different skill levels and (3) the level of business or economic uncertainty. the econometric-estimation procedure or model can be applied for the measurement of the productivity gains of employee-remuneration gaps for different industries in the south african economy. more specifically, this econometric-estimation procedure or model captures all the important industry-specific characteristics from which the erglp coefficients can be derived for different industries in the south african economy. in the rest of the article, (1) detailed attention is given to the research design, in which a suitable econometric model is applied to the applicable data (sourced from organisations in the gauteng manufacturing industry) and (2) the results and practical implications of the estimated erglp coefficients are analysed and discussed. research design (back to top) research approach the research approach comprised three distinct steps. firstly, a suitable econometric model needed to be specified to capture all the variables that have an impact on the sign and magnitude of the link between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity. secondly, the correct sample of organisations in the south african manufacturing industry needed to be determined and the required data needed to be collected from this sample (after which the data needed to be statistically and econometrically calibrated). the last step entailed the econometric estimation of the relation between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity.the suitable econometric model was specifically designed for the derivation of the erglp coefficients that estimate the sign and magnitude of the relation between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity, taking the impact of employee characteristics, skill levels and the level of business or economic uncertainty into consideration. research method measuring instrument (econometric model) in a study on the impact of wage dispersion on productivity in belgian firms, mahy et al. (2009) used the winter-ebner and zweimuller (1999) model. the major contribution of the mahy et al. study is the empirical estimation of the effect of firm uncertainty on wage dispersion. in order to facilitate an international comparison of the results of this particular study with a similar international study, the mahy et al. (2009) estimation procedure of the winter-ebner and zweimuller model was applied in this particular study. the model and the required data-collection procedure were adapted to meet south african conditions and then used to estimate the sign and magnitude of the relation between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity. the model was specified in such a manner that the south african characteristics of the employees (such as age, sex, job description, labour-union affiliation and employee job category), the different skill levels and business or economic uncertainty (the net operating surplus of organisations taken as the estimator) were taken into consideration. the relation between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity was therefore a conditional one. in technical terms, the model estimated a conditional employee erglp indicator coefficient. the specification of the model allowed for the estimation of the erglp indicator coefficient between similar and different employee categories (characteristics and skill levels) and for the different business or economic-uncertainty levels. the model was basically a two-step ordinary least square (ols) estimation. the first step pertained to the estimation of the relation between employee characteristics and the average monthly remuneration per employee. a log-linear estimation of the average monthly remuneration based on employee characteristics was therefore done for each organisation in the sample group. ln r-nm= β-0+ c-nm-β-1-+ε-nm -[eqn 1] in equation 1, r-nmdenotes the average monthly remuneration of employee n in organisation m, c-nmrepresents the vector that concerns employee and skills characteristics and ε-nmis simply the error term. the second step involved the specification of the labour-productivity equation. to estimate this productivity equation, the standard deviations of the estimated residuals of all the regressions done in step 1 were used as a measure of the employee-remuneration gap dispersion. ln prod-m= α-0-+α-1-σ-m-(+α-2-σ-2m-)+x-m-α-3-+z-m-α-4-+v-m [eqn 2] in equation 2, prod-mrepresents the average labour productivity of organisation m (ln of the value added per employee is used as a proxy for ln prod-m-), σ-mis the erglp indicator coefficient (it is also specified in quadratic format simply to test for increasing and diminishing marginal productivity characteristics), x-mis the aggregated employee characteristics of firm m, z-mcontains information on business or economic uncertainty (variations in net operating surplus were used as the proxy) and v-mis simply the error term. equation 2 was run separately for each organisation. to cater for simultaneity, equation 2 was estimated with the log of the value added per employee (defined as operating surplus divided by the number of employees) for n-years instead of n-1 years. it was assumed that the value added of year n does not influence the remuneration structure of year n-1. the results of three final estimations were reported. the first estimation concerned the general specification in which the erglp indicator coefficient was estimated on the basis that all the employee characteristics were, in an econometric sense of the word, controlled. in the second estimation, the erglp indicator coefficients were specifically estimated for the magnitude of the different skill levels (higher-skilled and lower-skilled employees). in the third estimation, the erglp indicator coefficient was specifically estimated for the level of business or economic uncertainty. research procedure the data collection process was executed in three stages. in the first stage, the data required by the model specification were identified (the results of the literature study were of the utmost importance in this regard). in the second stage, the sample group of organisations needed to collect the data from was established and statistically validated (more specifically, the required size of the sample group). in the third stage, the standard deviations of the data collected from the sample group were calculated for use in the estimation process. normality tests were performed for estimation purposes. as was the case with the mahy et al. study (2009), the international standard classification of occupations (isco-88) was used to identify the employee categories. the category a classification consisted of senior officials and managers, professionals and associate professionals, technicians, clerks, service workers and shop and market-sales workers. for the purposes of this study, this category was referred to as the more-skilled employee segment. the category b classification consisted of craft and related-trade workers, plant and machine operators and assemblers and elementary occupations. for the purposes of this study, this category was referred to as the less-skilled employee segment. the data that were collected included the size of the workforce per organisation and the percentage size of each category (both a and b) per organisation. in terms of employee characteristics, skill levels and employee remuneration, data for two financial years were collected on: • age • sex (% male and % female) • training or educational levels • labour-union affiliation • tenure and gross monthly employee remuneration. with regard to training or educational levels, the following three categories were identified, (1) lower-secondary education (grade 9 and lower), (2) upper-secondary education (grades 10–12) and (3) tertiary education. it is also important to note that the gross remuneration of hourly-paid employees was converted into a gross monthly-remuneration equivalent. data on the operating surplus (and the variation thereof) of each organisation in the sample group for both 2007 and 2008 needed to be collected (1) as an indicator of business or economic uncertainty (greater variation of the operating surplus reflects greater uncertainty) and (2) to calculate annual value added per employee. research sample given the significant size of the manufacturing industry in gauteng (relative to the manufacturing sectors of the other provinces in south africa), it was decided to sample a representative number of all kinds of manufacturing firms located in gauteng. a list of all the manufacturing companies in gauteng, with their contact details, was obtained from the manufacturing, engineering and related services seta. it was also the aim of the data-collection process to ensure that a spread of firms throughout the different segments of the manufacturing industry was included. it is important to note that, because of the large number of required data observations, it was decided to include only firms with more than 150 employees. the sample size based on the aforementioned constraint and the statistical validation was 209 firms. the response rate was excellent and all the 192 firms responded and supplied the required data. the mean values (the standard deviations, s-d-, are indicated in brackets) of the data collected on the estimation variables were: • size of the firm: 225.71 (s-d182.93) employees • category a employees: 40.88% (s-d19.87) • category b employees: 59.12% (s-d39.12) • age: 31.12 (s-d3.25) years • percentage male: 63.78% (s-d28.22) and percentage female: 36.22% (s-d31.15) • lower-secondary educated employees: 42.25% (s-d36.21), upper-secondary educated employees: 40.65% (s-d32.58) and tertiary education: 17.10% (s-d14.11) • gross monthly wage: r7424 (s-d893) • annual value added per employee: r758 385 (s-d243567). tables results (back to top) in terms of the general specification, the erglp indicator coefficient was 2923.80 (0.82) and the squared erglp indicator coefficient -3317.11 (2.1). (the standard errors are shown in brackets, the results were significant at a 5% confidence level and the adjusted r-2was 0.61.) the positive sign and the magnitude of the erglp indicator coefficient clearly proved a significant positive relation between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity for the sample group. the negative sign of the squared erglp indicator coefficient confirmed the existence of diminishing marginal labour productivity beyond an optimal level of employee-remuneration gaps. this simply means that excessive employee-remuneration gaps are harmful to labour-productivity gains. to cater for the possibility of simultaneity in the general specification, a one-period lead was introduced into the ols estimation. the resultant erglp indicator coefficient of 2743.56 (1.03) and the squared erglp indicator coefficient of -2987.11 (2.42) again confirmed the significant positive relation between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity as well as the existence of diminishing labour-productivity characteristics beyond an optimal level of employee-remuneration gap dispersion. in the second estimation, the erglp indicator coefficient was estimated for the different skill levels. as indicated previously, category a was assumed to be the more-skilled employee segment and category b the less-skilled employee segment. these two skill categories were further subdivided into large and small subcategories. the aim was simply to determine whether the erglp indicator coefficient differed for (1) organisations that have a large component of lower-skilled employees versus organisations that have a small component of lower-skilled employees and (2) organisations that have a large component of higher-skilled employees versus organisations that have a small component of higher-skilled employees. to differentiate between the large and small components, the mean values were used. the small component was defined as less than the mean and the large component as greater than the mean. the estimated erglp indicator coefficients are listed in table 1. the negative-squared erglp indicator coefficient estimates of all the different categories suggested strong diminishing marginal labour-productivity characteristics. excessive employee-remuneration gaps (after an optimal employee-remuneration gap level) would have a strong negative effect on labour productivity should the remuneration-gap dispersion go beyond that optimal level. this applied to both lower-skilled and higher-skilled employees. it is interesting to note that the magnitude of the positive relation between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity was higher for higher-skilled employees than for lower-skilled employees. it was especially very high in the higher-skilled or large-employee segment. this result was a plausible confirmation that performance-linked remuneration regimes for the higher-skilled employee segment had a strong positive impact on labour productivity. it was also interesting to note that the positive erglp indicator coefficient estimates for the lower-skilled or large and lower-skilled or small components were very similar, meaning that the relative magnitude of the positive link between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity was the same irrespective of the size of the lower-skilled employee component. lastly, erglp indicator coefficients were estimated for the impact of business or economic uncertainty (measured as variations in operating surplus). it was decided to differentiate between high levels of uncertainty and low levels of uncertainty. the differentiation between these two subcategories was based on the mean value of the variation in operating surplus. low risk was defined as variation in operating surplus falling below the mean value and high risk was defined as variation in operating surplus falling above the mean value. the estimated erglp and squared erglp indicator coefficients are listed in table 2. the results were interesting in the sense that the erglp indicator coefficient was greater in a low uncertain environment than in a highly uncertain environment. this indicated a stronger positive link between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity in a more certain business or economic environment. a plausible reason for this is that performance-linked regimes seem to impact less on employee effort in a highly uncertain business or economic environment because employees might feel that they have less control over their effort-output relation. irrespective of the level of business or economic uncertainty, the negative sign and the magnitude of both the squared erglp indicator coefficients showed a strong diminishing marginal labour-productivity characteristic beyond an optimal employee-remuneration gap level. discussion (back to top) the aim of the article was to estimate the sign and magnitude of the link between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity econometrically. the results of the study confirm the existence of a positive relation between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity but with the provision that this positive relation is not infinite. after an optimal employee-remuneration gap level, diminishing marginal labour-productivity characteristics kick in and the relation becomes negative. these findings apply to all the various differentiations in employee characteristics, different skill levels and the nature of business or economic uncertainty levels. the results indicate that employee effort could be enhanced if a more differentiated remuneration regime (performance-linked) were adopted. this is especially true for the higher-skilled employee component. it is interesting to note that the employee-remuneration gap dispersion impact on labour productivity is less in the lower-skilled employee segment than in the higher-skilled employee segment. a plausible reason for this might be that the lower-skilled segment is much more unionised than the higher-skilled segment. this is also underpinned by the fact that (1) the magnitude of the erglp indicator coefficients is very similar for the two subsections (both large and small) of the lower-skilled employee segment and (2) the magnitude of the erglp indicator coefficients is much stronger for the higher-skilled employee segment than for the lower-skilled employee segment. in terms of the impact of business or economic uncertainty, the results of this study indicate that the positive relation between employee-remuneration gaps and labour productivity is weaker in a highly uncertain business or economic environment (underpinned by the fact that the erglp indicator coefficient is smaller in a more uncertain business or economic environment). the results of this study support the point of view that, given the unionised nature of the lower-skilled employee segment, greater labour-productivity gains for organisations would stem from a more dispersed employee-remuneration gap regime for the higher-skilled employee segment (albeit in a less uncertain business or economic environment). further possible extensions of this study are twofold. firstly, it would be valuable to develop an econometric instrument or technique that could determine the actual optimal employee-remuneration gaps for the different employee categories before diminishing marginal productivity characteristics kick in. secondly, it would be worthwhile conducting the same study for different industries to determine whether there are industry differences in erglp indicator coefficients. references (back to top) beaumont, p.b., & harris, r.i.d. (2003). internal wage structure and organisational performance. british journal of industrial relations, 41(1), 53–70. belfield, r., & marsden, d. (2003). performance pay, monitoring environments and establishment performance. international journal of manpower, 24(4), 452–471. benito, a. (2000). inter-industry wage differentials in great britain. oxford bulletin of economics and statistics, 62, 727–746. brown, c., & medoff, j. (1989). the employer size-wage effect. journal of political economy, 97, 1027–1059. erdill, a., & yetkiner, h. (2001). a comparative analysis of inter-industry wage differentials: industrialized versus developing countries. applied economics, 33, 1639–1648. faggio, g., salvaness, k.g., & van reenen, j. (2007). understanding wage and productivity dispersion in the united kingdom. vox occational paper series, (742). foss, n.j., & laursen, k. (2005). performance pay, delegation and multi-tasking under uncertainty and innovativeness: an empirical investigation. journal of economic behavior & organization, 58(2), 246–276. genre, v., momferatou, d., & mourre, g. (2005). wage diversity in the euro area: an overview of labour cost differentials across industries. occasional paper series, (24), european central bank. heyman, f. (2005). pay inequality and firm performance: evidence from matched employer-employee data. applied economics, 37(11), 1313–1327. hibbs, d.a., & locking, h. (2000). wage dispersion and productive efficiency: evidence for sweden. journal of labor economics, 18(4), 755–782. ho, l., & yap, s. (2001). link between wages and labour productivity: an analysis of the malaysian journal of economics. the malaysian journal of economic studies, 38, 1–22. jirjahn, u., & kraft, k. (2007). intra-firm wage dispersion and firm performance – is there a uniform relationship? kyklos, 60(2), 231–253. lallermond, t. (2007). wage structure and firm productivity in belgium. working paper 12978, national bureau of economic research, cambridge. lazear, e.p. (1995). personnel economics. cambridge (mass): mit press. lopez-bazo, e., & motellon, e. (2009). human capital and regional wage gaps. working paper no. 24, research institute of applied economics, university of barcelona, barcelona. mahy, b., rycx, f., & volral, m. (2009). wage dispersion and firm productivity in different working environments. iza working paper no. 4044, social science research network, new york. martins, p.s. (2008). dispersion in wage premiums and firm performance. economics letters, 101(1), 63–65. prendergast, c. (2002). the tenuous trade-off between risk and incentives. journal of political economy, 110(5), 1071–1102. turner, h.a., & jackson, d.a. (2009). on the stability of wage differences and productivity-based wage policies: an international analysis. british journal of industrial relations, 7(1), 1–18. winter-ebner, r., & zweimuller, j. (1999). intra-firm wage dispersion and firm performance. kyklos, 52(4), 555–572. sajhrm 20_2022_contents.indd http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access table of contentspage i of iv original research occupational segregation and gender pay gap dynamics in the formal sector of south africa adeboye adeleken, mark h.r. bussin sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1660 | 25 march 2022 original research the influence of follower orientation on follower behaviour in the leadership process avesh inderjeet, caren b. scheepers sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1718 | 30 march 2022 original research the influence of training and career development opportunities on affective commitment: a south african higher education perspective dasy muleya, hlanganipai ngirande, sharon r. terera sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1620 | 31 march 2022 original research a quantitative study on salient work-life balance challenge(s) influencing female information and communication technology professionals in a south african telecommunications organisation wiza munyeka, ashika maharaj sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1874 | 31 march 2022 original research a framework development for talent management in the higher education sector rhodrick n. musakuro sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1671 | 13 april 2022 original research is the leadership performance of public service executive managers related to their emotional intelligence? shanil j. haricharan sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1773 | 19 april 2022 original research exploring the socialisation experiences of female board members shela mohatla, mark bussin sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1710 | 22 april 2022 original research the link between perceived human resource practices, perceived organisational support and employee engagement: a mediation model for turnover intention alex winarno, arif p. prasetio, buchruddin s. luturlean, shinta k. wardhani sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1802 | 28 april 2022 original research human resource factors affecting enterprise resource planning acceptance thobile p. mthupha, estelle bruhns sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1746 | 31 may 2022 87 97 111 119 130 142 153 165 172 table of contents editorial 2022: an editorial reflection karel j. stanz sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a2089 | 22 december 2022 original research crafting employee engagement through talent management practices in telecom sector habiba akter, waqas ahmed, ilham sentosa, sheikh m. hizam sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1775 | 31 january 2022 original research organisational culture, frontline supervisory engagement and accountability, as drivers of safety behaviour in a platinum mining organisation hayley prinsloo, karl b. hofmeyr sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1705 | 09 february 2022 original research determinants of chief executive officers remuneration for johannesburg stock exchange listed financial service organisations wayne ramgath, mark h. bussin sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1774 | 10 february 2022 original research emotional labour: the effects of genuine acting on employee performance in the service industry nomonde f. ngcobo, nyashadzashe chiwawa, henry wissink sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1583 | 24 february 2022 original research leadership mindset regarding talent management practices: a case study of the city of windhoek council selma n. shingenge, musawenkosi d. saurombe sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1730 | 25 february 2022 original research the role of emotional intelligence and work engagement on nurses’ resilience in public hospitals pardon chikobvu, martha harunavamwe sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1690 | 28 february 2022 original research factors affecting lecturers’ decision to stay or leave academia, namibia wesley r. pieters, ebben van zyl, petrus nel sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1691 | 28 february 2022 original research assessing scope and nature of human capital management practised by zimbabwe’s gold mining sector loveness nyikahadzoi, ronnie lotriet, anet smit sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1699 | 09 march 2022 1 3 14 27 38 46 56 65 75 vol 20 (2022) issn: 1683-7584 (print) | issn: 2071-078x (online)sa journal of human resource management http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access table of contentspage ii of iv original research uttar pradesh academics’ occupational stress, organisational work environment and work-life balance: a quantitative study jyoti bhadana, neelam saxena, archana bhatia sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1639 | 03 june 2022 original research the validity of five broad generic dimensions of performance in south africa xander van lill, nicola taylor sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1844 | 15 june 2022 original research examining the impact of the various dimensions of employees’ engagement on commitment: evidence from small and medium enterprises in egypt mohamed mostafa saad, hazem r. abdelwakeel, ashraf a. labib sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1799 | 22 june 2022 original research innovative behaviour in religious-based theory of planned behaviour perspective noor arifin, eko n. fuad, ali muhson sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1809 | 23 june 2022 original research supervisors’ perspectives on the contribution of coaching supervision to the development of ethical organisational coaching practice puleng ratlabala, nicky terblanche sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1930 | 29 june 2022 original research the impact of human resource practices on employee retention: a study of three private higher educational institutions in the united arab emirates sami alajlani, lawal o. yesufu sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1823 | 11 july 2022 original research technology acquisition and the hair salon performance: the explanatory roles of human resources practices patient rambe, nosiphiwe mpiti, peter khaola sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1822 | 14 july 2022 original research exploring the talent retention strategies of cape coast technical university in ghana magdalene bartrop-sackey, augustine o. boakye, patricia muah, nana y. oppong sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1865 | 15 july 2022 original research millennials hold different cultural values to those of other generations: an empirical analysis carolyn easton, renier steyn sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1901 | 28 july 2022 original research flexible work options in higher educational institutions in times of crisis sulaiman o. atiku, idris o. ganiyu sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1693 | 03 august 2022 183 191 206 217 228 237 247 259 269 278 original research workplace bullying in a south african higher education institution: academic and support staff experiences marius badenhorst, doret botha sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1909 | 10 august 2022 original research pre-conditions for employee motivation to curb zimbabwe’s academic brain drain tsitsi t. kanonge, mark h.r. bussin sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1819 | 19 august 2022 original research leadership talent mindset as a catalyst for talent management and talent retention: the case of a botswana local government institution emmerentia n. barkhuizen, refilwe l. masale sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1914 | 30 august 2022 original research the influence of performance management systems on employee job satisfaction levels at a telecommunications company in south africa lloyd mphahlele, leigh-anne p. dachapalli sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1804 | 31 august 2022 original research distinct leadership styles and differential effectiveness across culture: an analysis of south african business leaders matete lerutla, renier steyn sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1957 | 31 august 2022 original research linking work engagement of emergency physicians to patient centricity in underdeveloped regions andy andy, ferdi antonio sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1971 | 15 september 2022 original research adoption of digital strategies across the human resource value chain munodani chapano, michelle r. mey, amanda werner sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1992 | 22 september 2022 original research the relationship between transformational leadership, perceived organisational effectiveness and organisational culture in a selected multinational corporation in africa yvonne t. muzondiwa, ilze swarts, cecile m. schultz sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1888 | 27 september 2022 original research exploring the job demands experienced by employees with hearing impairment in south africa strauss chelius, bouwer e. jonker, marissa brouwers sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1998 | 27 september 2022 original researchv professional personas and capabilities of the future people practitioner: a thematic review dieter veldsman, melinde coetzee sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a2017 | 30 september 2022 288 301 313 326 335 346 360 372 383 394 http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access table of contentspage iii of iv original research an exploration of factors influencing the retention of senior female employees in a financial services organisation lucy-skye hammond, melinde coetzee sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1997 | 30 september 2022 original research investigating the relationship between selected organisational factors and women’s skills development aspirations and career progression: a south african case study gaelle fitong ketchiwou, matsidiso n. naong, freda van der walt, lineo w. dzansi sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1958 | 10 october 2022 original research employment equity and employee morale at a selected public service organisation in cape town, south africa faraaz omar, jerome d. kiley sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1917 | 10 october 2022 original research talent development as a source of sustainable competitive advantage for higher education institutions during the covid-19 pandemic lawrence abiwu, isabel martins sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1777 | 18 october 2022 original research a talent management, organisational commitment and employee turnover intention framework for a government department in south africa wasnaar mokoena, cecilia m. schultz, leigh-anne paul dachapalli sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1920 | 19 october 2022 original research presenting a structural model of digitalised talent management in a new age: a case study on the mobile telecommunication industry in iran mohammad r. saadatmand, nasser safaie, mahdieh dastjerdi sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1894 | 21 october 2022 original research artificial intelligence and public sector human resource management in south africa: opportunities, challenges and prospects alouis chilunjika, kudakwashe intauno, sharon r. chilunjika sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1972 | 21 october 2022 original research exploring academic staff retention strategies: the case of ghanaian technical universities esmond n. kuuyelleh, mohammed alqahtani, emmanuel akanpaadgi sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1975 | 25 october 2022 original research the development of an employee value proposition framework for the south african water board sector ndoyisile a. theys, emmerentia n. barkhuizen sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1944 | 31 october 2022 original research working-class postgraduates’ perceptions of studying while working at a selected university dimitri a. rockman, john k. aderibigbe, charles o. allen-ile, bright mahembe, desiree a. hamman-fisher sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1962 | 15 november 2022 404 414 424 436 446 456 466 478 489 503 original research the effect of creativity and innovative behavior on competitive advantage in womenpreneur retno p. setyaningrum, muafi muafi sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a2069 | 18 november 2022 original research the perceived influence of remote working on specific human resource management outcomes during the covid-19 pandemic musawenkosi d. saurombe, simone s. rayners, kedibone a. mokgobu, keketso manka sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a2033 | 21 november 2022 original research human capital development as a line manager responsibility in the south african education sector mavela t. gumede, cookie m. govender sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a2079 | 24 november 2022 original research social workers’ job satisfaction in public institutions salah gad, tatyana nazarova, svetlana rzanova, svetlana makar sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a2127 | 25 november 2022 original research human capital investment selection criteria: who is worth the investment? malebo motshwane, annelize van niekerk sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a2086 | 25 november 2022 original research industry 4.0: emerging job categories and associated competencies in the automotive industry in south africa wayne macpherson, amanda werner, michelle r. mey sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1916 | 28 november 2022 original research transformational leadership influences on work engagement and turnover intention in an engineering organisation thabisile ntseke, jeremy mitonga-monga, crystal hoole sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a2013 | 02 december 2022 original research academic leadership and decision-making in institutions of higher learning in zimbabwe: trends and tribulations victor c. ngwenya, nduduzo phuthi sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1982 | 02 december 2022 original research emotional well-being of black african queer employees in the workplace nkosana tshisa, freda van der walt sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a2043 | 06 december 2022 original research a study of conflict resolution mechanisms and employment relations in multinational corporations in africa: empirical evidence from nigeria and south africa olaniyi j. olabiyi sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1900 | 13 december 2022 517 526 538 549 556 567 577 588 599 606 http://www.sajhrm.co.za open access table of contents original research the role of decent work in the zimbabwean retail sector: testing a job engagement and turnover intention model lister chada, nhamo mashavira, motshedisi s. mathibe sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a2029 | 15 december 2022 original research evaluating a desire to telework model: the role of perceived quality of life, workload, telework experience and organisational telework support hamfrey sanhokwe sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1848 | 21 december 2022 614 623 correction erratum: workers’ awareness of alcohol breathalyser test in the workplace and their alcohol consumption patterns vusi mthimkhulu, hugo d. van der walt sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1745 | 20 may 2022 correction erratum: the moderating role of career adaptability on the relationship between workplace spirituality and employee mental and physical health herring shava, willie t. chinyamurindi sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a1835 | 25 july 2022 reviewer acknowledgement sa journal of human resource management | vol 20 | a2140 | 20 december 2022 630 631 632 page iv of iv abstract introduction literature review and development of hypotheses research design discussion and conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) peter p. khaola department of business administration, faculty social sciences, the national university of lesotho, roma, lesotho francis a. oni department of business administration, faculty social sciences, the national university of lesotho, roma, lesotho citation khaola, p.p., & oni, f.a. (2020). the influence of school principals’ leadership behaviour and act of fairness on innovative work behaviours amongst teachers. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1417. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1417 original research the influence of school principals’ leadership behaviour and act of fairness on innovative work behaviours amongst teachers peter p. khaola, francis a. oni received: 13 june 2020; accepted: 27 oct. 2020; published: 08 dec. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: although innovative work behaviours (iwbs) of teachers are important for individual school’s effectiveness and national economic sustainability, only fewer studies on leader-related behaviours drive iwbs of teachers in public schools in lesotho. research purpose: drawing from the theories of leadership, affective commitment, social exchange and justice, the study examined the influence of school principals’ leadership styles and fairness on achieving iwbs amongst teachers. motivation for the study: the teachers’ iwb amongst schools plays a key role in endorsing and producing innovative and adaptable future-oriented human capital. however, only scant research is available on the role of school leadership behaviour on teachers’ iwb in public schools. this happens despite the agreement amongst scholars and practitioners that critical thinking imparted by innovative teachers is a valuable source of creative labour force, a critical component for sustained national economic growth. research approach/design and method: data collected from 210 teachers in lesotho (response rate = 71%) were analysed by means of correlation and multiple regression analyses to examine the hypothesised relationships. research findings: the results indicated that the general supervisor-support factor (consisting of the perception of leadership and fairness of a principal) had a positive and significant effect on iwbs of teachers. contrary to expectations, the affective commitment of teachers to their schools did not relate significantly to their iwbs. practical/managerial implications: the article discusses these findings, suggests their theoretical and practical implications and outlines the prospects for future research on factors that may influence iwbs of teachers in schools. in order to improve teachers’ iwbs, this paper recommends that school principals be provided with training on how to articulate a compelling vision; coach, mentor and develop their subordinates; challenge them to think creatively; treat them with honesty and respect; and follow school policies, procedures and regulations all the time. contribution/value add: this study adds to the scant literature regarding the role of school principals in nurturing iwbs of teachers in public schools. keywords: affective commitment; creativity; fairness; innovative work behaviour; leadership. introduction literature shows that, as primary centres and suppliers of knowledge and skills, schools depend largely on leadership to provide strategic direction, a professional community, self-renewal and innovation in learning and teaching (berkovich & bogler, 2019; blase & blase, 2000; ismail, don, husin, & khalid, 2018). even though many streams of research continue to enrich our knowledge of sources of affiliative extra-role behaviours in schools (burns & dipaola, 2013; srivastava, 2017; srivastava & dhar, 2019), little is known about the drivers of change-oriented extra-role behaviours such as innovative work behaviours (iwbs). thus, compared to non-school organisations, research on iwbs in schools is still emerging and is yet to reach its full potential. this is surprising because innovative teachers play a critical role in building innovative labour force for national economic growth competitiveness (henning et al., 2018; huang, lee, & yang, 2019; reilly, lilly, bramwell, & kronish, 2011). drawing from literatures on leadership and iwbs in the private sector, the current study hypothesises that teachers’ affective commitment and perceptions of their school principal leadership and fairness will significantly influence their iwbs. affective commitment refers to emotional attachment of employees to their organisation and is an attitudinal variable (meyer & allen, 1991). leadership is the process by which leaders influence their followers to achieve shared goals (berkovich & bogler, 2019), and fairness broadly captures employee perceptions about the fairness with which outcomes are distributed; processes and procedures are followed, and the treatment they obtain from their supervisors and organisations. leadership and fairness are closely related because they centre on the acts of the leaders (khaola & rambe, 2020). the terms ‘fairness’ and ‘justice’ are often used interchangeably in the literature. iwbs are change-oriented behaviours that are predominantly extra-role and intentional in nature and involve the creation and implementation of novel and useful ideas (khaola & coldwell, 2017b). as indicated by bramwell, reilly, lilly, kronish and chennabathni (2011) and reiterated by daly, mosyjowski and seifert (2019), it bears a remarking that, unless teachers are creative and innovative, it is difficult to ‘imagine’ innovative teaching in schools. it hampers skills development base, especially for the youth, which is needed for the fast-changing world and on the edge of the fourth industrial revolution. thus, more research studies on teachers’ iwbs are necessary because the aftermath of critical thinking imparted by innovative teachers is treasured in schools as a potential source of innovative labour force for sustainable national economic growth (henning et al., 2018; reilly et al., 2011). consequently, iwbs amongst teachers will help in driving the strategic goal of a country’s national development. the third strategic goal of the national strategic development plan (nsdp) in lesotho is to enhance the skill base, technology adoption and foundation for innovation. even though the nsdp was launched in 2012, the recent global competitiveness report (gcr, 2018) still ranks lesotho at 110 of 140 countries on pillar 6: skills. the ranking on one component that builds this pillar, ‘critical thinking in teaching’, places the country lower at 117 of 140 countries. even more disturbing, the report ranks the country at 132 of 140 countries on pillar 12: innovation capacity. in general, recent gcrs imply that concerted efforts are needed to improve the skill base of young people in lesotho, especially in information technology and communication (ict), innovation and technical and vocation education and training (tvet) sectors. as shown in figure 1, on a scale of 0–7, lesotho has been under-performing on innovation-related scores for the past 11 years. figure 1: global competitiveness report on lesotho. research purpose and objectives the purpose of this article is to examine whether affective commitment, leadership and acts of fairness influence iwbs of teachers in schools. specifically, the article examines the influence of the school principal’s leadership and fairness and teachers’ affective commitment on iwbs. significance of the study to achieve the main purpose, four overlapping contributions to the iwb literature in schools are made. firstly, even though researchers have started to heed calls of improving the innovation literature in the public sector (lubienski & perry, 2019; torfing, 2019), little is known about the factors that influence creative practices of teachers in public schools (henning et al., 2018; reilly et al., 2011). more specifically, there has been a plea to further research into the influence of the leader’s demeanours on teacher’s behaviour (blase & blase, 2000; dash & vohra, 2019; ismail & mydin, 2019). secondly, the article attempts to clarify the relative importance of attitudes such as affective commitment against the leader-related situational factors such as leadership and fairness on creativity and innovation. such attention is warranted in studying a multi-stage and complex concept such as iwb (de jong & hartog, 2010; liu, 2019; liu, chow, zhang, & huang, 2019; stojcic, hashi, & orlic, 2018). thirdly, the article examines the impact of transformational leadership on iwbs. the question of how and whether leaders influence iwbs of employees, particularly creative practices of teachers, has to date not received the attention it deserves. past studies have demonstrated inconsistent relationships between transformational leadership and innovative behaviour in non-school settings (ismail & mydin, 2019). fourthly, the focus on teachers and teaching in the developing countries, particularly in the sub-saharan africa, provides an opportunity to examine the role of leaders’ behaviours on iwbs for generalisability to under-researched settings. in this case, lesotho is used as an example. it is important to state that this study is particularly important in lesotho where the ministry of education and training (moet, 2014) has introduced a new integrated school curriculum which aims at developing the ‘thinking skills’ and flexibility of learners. mixed reactions have trailed this development to warrant further interrogations of its viability and sustainability. in light of the foregoing, raselimo and mahao (2015) have identified paradoxes and contradictions in the new curriculum. this article argues that effective school principal leadership and their acts of fairness are essential for motivating teachers, which will in turn result in teachers’ creativity and innovation. the rest of this article is organised as follows: the next section focuses on the development of hypotheses, followed by the presentation of research methodology and results in the third and fourth sections, respectively. the discussion of the results and conclusions are presented in the final section of the article. literature review and development of hypotheses leadership and innovative work behaviours there has been a growing interest on the leadership and of those in charge of schools (principals), especially on how their leadership behaviours influence the creativity and innovation of the teachers under their respective tutelages (bednall, rafferty, shipton, sanders, & jackson, 2018; gil, rodrigo-moya, & morcillo-bellido, 2018; marks & printy, 2003). leadership has generally been defined as a process by which one influences others to achieve shared goals (berkovich & bogler, 2019). many cited definitions of iwb have the strong influence of the seminal work of janssen (2000, 2004). the author defined iwb as ‘the intentional creation, introduction and application of new ideas within a work role, group or organisation, in order to benefit role performance, the group, or the organisation’ (janssen, 2000, p. 288, 2004, p. 202). from an individual’s perspective, iwb can be seen as the creation, introduction and application of new ideas in the organisation to support organisational performance (ghani, hussin, & jusoff, 2009). teachers with iwb display creativity and are innovative at work, generate new ideas and are able to provide constructive outcomes for their schools. these definitions and associated measurement scales have been used successfully amongst teachers. for instance, bakker and xanthopoulou (2013) used the multifactor leadership questionnaire (mlq) and janssen’s (2000) scale to measure leadership and creativity, respectively. the iwbs of teachers comprise their creativity (production of novel and useful ideas) and innovation (championing and implementation of ideas; janssen, 2000; lu, bartol, venkataramani, zheng, & liu, 2019; scott & bruce, 1994; stojcic et al., 2018). the demands in our knowledge society are indeed increasing both for students and for their teachers (klaeijsen, vermeulen, & martens, 2017); thus, iwb is vital in order to keep abreast of society’s development. likewise, new advancements and new knowledge require iwb because the teaching styles adopted by teachers have a bearing on students’ self-determination towards learning and motivation (awang-hashim, thaliah, & kaur, 2017). moreover, schools ought to serve as a starting point and showcase more iwb to influence society at large and improve its competitiveness. after all, education promotes students’ creative and innovative thinking (usma & frodden, 2003). thus, a creative and innovative teacher is the one who (1) introduces novel and useful ideas into curriculum, pedagogy and assessment; (2) supports and sponsor new developments in curriculum, pedagogy and assessment; and (3) seek new ways of implementing developments in curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. bass and avolio (1995) argue that transformational leadership is a multidimensional concept with the following dimensions: charismatic role modelling (the leader’s ability to inspire respect, admiration, loyalty and collective sense of mission); individualised consideration (the leader’s ability to consider and understand individual follower’s needs and aspirations); inspirational motivation (the leader’s ability to articulate a compelling vision for the future); and intellectual stimulation (the leader’s ability to challenge and stimulate followers to think about old problems in new ways). in this regard, a transformational school principal is likely to transform personal values and self-concepts of teachers to transcend their own self-interest for the greater good of those they serve and elevate them to higher needs and aspirations. this is because transformational school principals may influence the intrinsic motivation of teachers, thereby increasing their creativity and innovation in teaching (gumusluoglu & ilsev, 2009; jensen et al., 2019; marks & printy, 2003; saboe, taing, way, & johnson, 2015). furthermore, the social cognitive theory predicts that transformational principals would build self-efficacy and empowerment of teachers, which would in turn affect their creativity (gumusluoglu & ilsev, 2009; ninković, & knežević florić, 2018). consistent with extant theories, past studies have suggested that leadership innovation is a strong correlate of school innovation (chou, shen, hsiao, & shen, 2019; hughes, lee, tian, newman, & legood, 2018). saboe et al. (2015) found that principal transformational leadership influenced school performance through principal instructional leadership (the ability to supervise classroom instruction, coordinate school curriculum and monitor students’ progress through assessment). thus, integrated leadership consisting of transformational leadership (emphasising change, ideas and innovation) and instructional leadership (emphasising direct elements involved in teaching and learning) provides good basis for performance of students and schools. khaola and coldwell (2017a) found that constructive leadership (the combination of transformational and contingent reward forms of leadership) was positively related to iwbs of teachers in lesotho. despite the existing compelling theoretical and practical evidence, sometimes the effects of transformational leadership on creativity and innovation, including that of teachers, have not been consistent (jensen et al., 2019; khaola & coldwell, 2017b, 2019a, 2019b; marks & printy, 2003; mumford & lucuanan, 2004), suggesting the need for further investigation in other settings and contexts. the weight of evidence suggests, however, that there is a positive relationship between transformational leadership and iwb (khaola & coldwell, 2017a, 2019a, 2019b). the following directional hypothesis can, therefore, be examined: h1: there is a positive relationship between principal’s transformational leadership and teachers’ iwb. fairness and innovative work behaviours perception of fairness is one of the situational factors that should conceptually influence iwbs. it refers to one’s perceptions of fairness in (1) outcome distributions, (2) processes and procedures that regulate the outcome decisions and (3) interpersonal treatment and interactions related to how the supervisor treats employees (colquitt et al., 2013). consistent with fairness literature, school principals are likely to be perceived as fair if they distribute school resources equitably to teachers, allow teachers a voice in decision-making, apply rules and regulations consistently across teachers, take responsibility for mistakes and correct them and take actions based on the evidence rather than innuendo (burns & dipaola, 2013; khaola & coldwell, 2017b). social exchange theory predicts that teachers who perceive fair treatment from agents of schools (principals) are likely to reciprocate by engaging in iwbs. furthermore, fairness is closely linked with employee voice; and consistent with cognitive evaluation theory (deci & ryan, 1985; kaufman, 2015), treating employees with respect and providing them with information is also likely to signal a supportive and psychologically safe environment necessary for risk-taking and intrinsic motivation, both are critical for creative performance (anderson, potoňik, & zhou, 2014). whilst these theories make sense, limited research are available on the relationship between employee perception of fairness and iwbs (khazanchi & masterson, 2011), especially in schools (burns & dipaola, 2013). even though emerging evidence indicates that the direct effects of fairness on iwb are equivocal (zhou & hoever, 2014), some studies have found significant relationships between these constructs. khaola and coldwell (2017b) found the positive relationship between the teachers’ organisational justice and iwb. similarly, khazanchi and masterson (2011) found the positive relationship between interactional justice and creativity. along similar lines, burns and dipaola (2013) found the significant relationship between the teachers’ perception of fairness and the concept closely related to iwb – organisational citizenship behaviour. even though more work needs to be performed on examining the relationship between fairness and iwbs, existing literature (albeit limited) takes us to the following directional hypothesis: h2: there is a positive relationship between the teachers’ perception of fairness and their iwbs. affective commitment and innovative work behaviours affective commitment has been described as one’s emotional attachment to one’s organisation (jiang & johnson, 2018; mercurio, 2015; meyer & allen, 1991). teachers generally possess a strong attachment to their jobs and professions (dipaola & tschannen-moran, 2001; somech, 2016). according to some scholars, teachers are personally and emotionally involved in their jobs because their work involves nurturance, warmth, love and caring for others (o’connor, 2008; walker & gleaves, 2016). following this view, it was expected that the teachers’ affective commitment would be positively related to their iwbs, principally because social exchange theory holds that affective commitment is an attitudinal indicator of the extent to which employees perceive themselves to be in high-quality social exchange relationships with their organisations (colquitt et al., 2013). thus, teachers may express their affective commitment through engagement in iwbs. this notwithstanding, the relationship between affective commitment and iwb may sometimes be tenuous, the reason being that the traditional attitudes such as affective commitment may have weak impact on change-oriented behaviours such as iwb as employees feel strong attachment to the status quo and less motivation to change (marinova, peng, lorinkova, van dyne, & chiaburu, 2015). furthermore, because teachers are committed to their professions (o’connor, 2008; walker & gleaves, 2016), there may be little differences between their levels of commitment, thus producing little impact on iwb (the problem of ceiling effect). there is also evidence that teachers may possess multiple commitment mindsets, which may produce complex pattern of outcomes (meyer, morin, stanley, & maltin, 2019). however, because affective commitment is the social exchange indicator of reciprocity in the form of proactivity (colquitt et al., 2013), it can be hypothesised as follows: h3: the teachers’ affective commitment is positively related to their iwbs. research design sample and procedures the sample consisted of 110 teachers who attended part-time classes for their bachelor of education (primary) degree at the public university in lesotho, and a further 100 additional teachers recruited from eight different high schools around the capital city of lesotho. participants were requested to fill self-administered questionnaires and return them to the researcher in their natural setting. even though a total of 149 questionnaires (71%) were returned, only 143 questionnaires were usable. six teachers who held positions of the school principals during the time of study were eliminated from the sample. of the respondent sample, 73% were females and 27% males. thirteen per cent of the respondents were in the age group 20–30, 58% in the age group 31–40, 23% in the age group 41–50 and 6% above 50 years of age. the participants had an average tenure of 11.28 years (sd = 6.23). in terms of supervisory responsibilities, 74% did not have any responsibility, 22% was head of the department and only 4% held the position of the school principal. ethical consideration the participants were asked to fill the questionnaires anonymously, and confidentiality was guaranteed to all participants. the purpose of the study was communicated to all participants. furthermore, the participants were made aware that they are free to participate in the research and non-participation would not have any negative consequences. similarly, the questions asked were all handled with sensitivity but not compromising the quality of the study, and the information given by the participants was not in any way used to jeopardise their jobs. measures to collect data, the existing scales were modified slightly to reflect the organisational environment of teachers. leadership: the mlq (bass & avolio, 1995) was adapted to assess the transformational leadership behaviour of supervisors (principals). eight items were used to assess the construct. the participants were asked to assess the extent to which the listed statements described the behaviour of their supervisors (principals) on a scale ranging from 0 (not at all) to 4 (frequently if not always). a sample item was ‘my school principal articulates a compelling vision for the future’. the internal reliability (cronbach’s α) of the scale was 0.92. fairness: five items from the scale developed by niehoff and moorman (1993) were adapted to assess this construct. on a scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), the participants were asked to assess the extent to which they agreed with the listed statements. sample items were ‘to make job decisions, the principal collects accurate and complete information’ and ‘i think that my level of pay is quite fair’. the internal reliability of the scale was 0.81. because the factor analysis of items measuring leadership and fairness constructs produced non-interpretable factors with multiple cross-loadings, and the correlations between the constructs were high (r = 0.75, variance inflation factor [vif] = 2), the items of the two constructs were averaged to create a supervisor-related factor (α = 0.95) to avoid collinearity problem when conducting the regression analysis. given that the sample size was small, the correlation and vif figures were a point of concern. the addition of leadership and fairness into one common variable is supported by literature. as suggested by van knippenberg and cremer (2008), even leader fairness is not typically studied in relationship to leadership, and there is an increasing recognition that leader fairness is an integral part of leadership. affective commitment: five items adapted from the scale of cook and wall (1980) were used to measure affective commitment. on a scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), the participants were asked to assess the extent to which they agreed with the listed statements. a sample item was ‘i feel a strong sense of belonging to my school’. the internal reliability of the scale was 0.91. innovative work behaviour: nine items from the scale of janssen (2000) were adapted to measure teacher iwb. the participants were asked to rate how often they performed the innovative activities on the scale ranging from 0 (never) to 4 (always). sample items were ‘creating original solutions for problems’ and ‘making important school members enthusiastic for innovative ideas’. control variables because prior research has demonstrated that iwb can be influenced by individual differences (e.g. janssen, 2000), gender (0 = females and 1 = males), age (20–30 years = 1; 31–40 = 2; 41–50 = 3 and above 50 years = 4) and tenure (in years) were included as control variables to reduce the possibility of spurious relationships based on these individual differences. analyses pearson correlation and hierarchical regression analyses based on the statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 20 were used to analyse data. independent variables (leadership, fairness and affective commitment) were related to iwbs using both correlation and regression analyses. results the inter-correlations of variables are shown in table 1. table 1: inter-correlations of the main variables. inter-correlations in table 1 show that transformational leadership was positively and significantly related to iwb (r = 0.29, p ≤ 0.01), implying that higher levels of transformational leadership were accompanied by higher levels of reported iwb. similarly, organisational justice correlated significantly with iwb (r = 0.29, p ≤ 0.01). contrary to the literature, affective commitment was not significantly related to iwb (r = 0.15, p ≥ 0.01). although not hypothesised in this study, there were positive and significant relationships between transformational leadership and fairness (r = 0.75, p ≤ 0.01), transformational leadership and affective commitment (r = 0.52, p ≤ 0.01) and organisational justice and affective commitment (r = 0.48, p ≤ 0.01). based on cohen’s (1992) effect sizes, these correlations ranged from medium to high. according to cohen (1992), there is no effect size if the value of ‘r’ is below 0.1, the effect size is low if the value of r is between 0.1 and 0.3, medium if r is between 0.3 and 0.5 and high if r is above 0.5. the limitation of correlation analysis is that it does not control for the spurious relationships that may be caused by other variables when examining the relationship between constructs of interest, and this may result in inflated or subdued relationships. regression analysis was used to control for the possibility of spurious relationships that may be caused by the lack of control of related predictor variables in the correlation analysis. as indicated earlier, transformational leadership and fairness items were averaged into one overall leadership-related factor to mitigate the problems of multi-collinearity. the results of regression analyses are shown in table 2. table 2: hierarchical regression analyses of predictors of iwb. the results suggest that the leadership-related factor (consisting of transformational and organisational justice) was positively and significantly related to iwb (β = 0.34, p ≤ 0.01), but affective commitment was not at all related to iwb (β = 0.02, p ≥ 0.05). thus, hypotheses 1 and 2 were confirmed, but hypothesis 3 was not confirmed. discussion and conclusion conceptually, school principal leadership should have influence on teachers’ intrinsic motivation and their teaching (ismail et al., 2018; marks & printy, 2003), and consequently the quality of teaching should be reflected in the quality of learning and success for students (nava et al., 2019). despite the fact that creativity of teachers is considered vital for students’ creative learning, only few studies focused on how the leadership behaviours of those in charge of schools influence iwbs of teachers. in the era of knowledge economy, one expects more research studies to have been carried out, mainly because creative knowledge is vital for sustainable path to economic growth (dima, begu, vasilescu, & maassen, 2018). as centres of creation and delivery of basic knowledge, schools in lesotho need to find ways of improving the creativity and innovation of teachers if the country is to be projected into a new growth trajectory by the future knowledgeable workforce. the results of the current study suggest that leadership and fairness had direct effects on iwb. whilst prior results have been mixed, or have included various mediating and moderating factors, the current findings are generally in line with some prior results (gupta & singh, 2015; oh, 2019; rank, nelson, allen, & xu, 2009). bednall et al. (2018) found that when transformational leadership and instructional leadership coexist in the form of integrated leadership, there is significant influence on quality of pedagogy and achievement of students. the current study suggests that a supervisor-related variable (school principal transformational leadership and fairness) has significant effects on teachers’ iwbs. the two studies complement each other in the sense that they show how leadership-reference factors can motivate the (innovative) performance of teachers. contrary to the expectations that affective commitment would significantly influence teachers’ iwbs, this study did not find significant effects of affective commitment on iwb. the reason for this is not clear, but it may have to do with the nature of affective commitment and commitment profiles of teachers. firstly, teachers with strong affective commitment may feel strongly attached to their present situation and hence, fail to challenge the status quo (marinova et al., 2015). secondly, teachers have autonomy and professional focus; and according to mumford and lucuanan (2004), employees with this attribute do not need organisational commitment as a way of directing their creative or innovative performance. thirdly, teachers may also be committed differentially to their schools and profession, thus creating a complex pattern of outcomes (meyer et al., 2019). future studies, especially qualitative ones, can examine why the commitment of teachers may not influence their creative or innovative behaviours. managerial implications the results of this study have several important managerial implications. firstly, they intimate that school principals can influence iwbs of teachers by amongst other things, by practicing positive leadership behaviours, that is, a set of actions undertaken by individuals in a position of authority and influence to motivate and develop others through mechanisms of engagement, empowerment and collaborative assignment to meaningful work (chiok foong loke, 2001). this can be effected by amongst other things; leadership training that focuses on developing transformational leadership behaviour skills. secondly, school leaders can be trained to be fair to teachers to influence the iwb of the latter. specifically, school principals may be trained on how to treat teachers consistently, distribute resources equitably and interact with teacher in a respectful manner. overall the results suggest that teachers’ iwbs can be improved by schools’ principals who actively generate a positive social context or climate for teachers. limitations and directions for future research like many studies of this nature, the results should be interpreted with caution. firstly, data were collected from one source using the same instrument, and the same-source and common method biases might have inflated the results. whilst self-reports are useful for reporting perceptions and mitigating the problem of halo error (bolino, turnley, & anderson, 2016; janssen, 2004; kabasheva, rudaleva, bulnina, & askhatova, 2015), future studies can benefit by using different sources of data to mitigate the possible impact of these biases. secondly, the cross-sectional research design used herein does not permit the examination of causality of variables. whilst the hypotheses were based on sound theories, future studies can use experimental or longitudinal research design to determine the causality of variables. lastly, the model may have left out some important dispositional factors. it may be that the association between predictors and iwb was being obfuscated by some underlying, unmeasured variables. in addition to the control variables included in the present study, future studies can control for variables such as one’s personality, intelligence, knowledge, experience, skills and abilities. conclusion the purpose of the current study was to examine whether school principal leaders, perceived acts of fairness and teachers’ own affective commitment have significant effects on teachers’ iwbs. the results revealed that the combination of school principal leadership and perceived acts of fairness had influence on teachers’ iwbs. against theoretical predictions, affective commitment did not have significant effects on the criterion variable. to improve iwbs of teachers, the study recommends that school principals be trained on how to acquire transformational and fairness skills. the authors of the current study hope that the results will provoke debates on the role of leadership and fairness in shaping creative teachers in public schools. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. author’s contributions all authors contributed equally to this work. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data are available from the authors at the instance of request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references anderson, n., potoňik, k., & zhou, j. (2014). innovation and creativity in organisations: a state-of-the-science review, prospective commentary, and guiding framework. journal of management, 40(5), 1297–1333. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314527128 awang-hashim, r., thaliah, r., & kaur, a. (2017). a cultural insight into the development of teacher autonomy support scale: a self-determination theory perspective. journal for multicultural education, 11(4), 36–50. https://doi.org/10.1108/jme-09-2016-0050 bakker, a.b., & xanthopoulou, d. (2013). creativity and charisma among female leaders: the role of resources and work engagement. the international journal of human resource management, 24(14), 2760–2779. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.751438 bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1995). multifactor leadership questionnaire. redwood city, ca: mind garden. bednall, t.c., rafferty, a.e., shipton, h., sanders, k., & jackson, c. (2018). innovative behaviour: how much transformational leadership do you need? british journal of management, 29(4), 796–816. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12275 berkovich, i., & bogler, r. (2019). the relationship between school leadership standards and school administration imperatives: an international perspective. school leadership & management, 40(4), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2019.1682538 blase, j., & blase, j. (2000). effective instructional leadership: teachers’ perspectives on how principals promote teaching and learning in schools. journal of educational administration, 38(2), 130–141. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578230010320082 bolino, m.c., turnley, w.h., & anderson, h.j. (2016). the dark side of proactive behaviour: when being proactive may hurt oneself, others, or the organization. in proactivity at work (pp. 517–547). abingdon: routledge. bramwell, g., reilly, r.c., lilly, f.r., kronish, n., & chennabathni, r. (2011). creative teachers. roeper review, 33(4), 228–238. https://doi.org/10.1080/02783193.2011.603111 burns, w.r.t., & dipaola, m.f. (2013). a study of organisational justice, organisational citizenship behaviour, and student achievement in high schools. american secondary education, 42(1), 4–23. chiok foong loke, j. (2001). leadership behaviours: effects on job satisfaction, productivity and organizational commitment. journal of nursing management, 9(4), 191–204. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2834.2001.00231.x chou, c.m., shen, c.h., hsiao, h.c., & shen, t.c. (2019). factors influencing teachers’ innovative teaching behaviour with information and communication technology (ict): the mediator role of organisational innovation climate. educational psychology, 39(1), 65–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2018.1520201 cohen, j. (1992). a power primer. psychological bulletin, 112(1), 155–159. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155 colquitt, j.a., scott, b.a., roddell, j.b., long, d.m., zapata, c.p., conlon, d.e., & wesson, m.j. (2013). justice at the millennium, a decade later: a meta-analytic test of social exchange and affect-based perspectives. journal of applied psychology, 98(2), 199–236. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031757 cook, j., & wall, t. (1980). new work attitude measures of trust, organisational commitment and personal need non-fulfilment. journal of occupational psychology, 53(1), 39–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1980.tb00005.x daly, s.r., mosyjowski, e.a., & seifert, c.m. (2019). teaching creative process across disciplines. the journal of creative behavior, 53(1), 5–17. https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.158 dash, s.s., & vohra, n. (2019). the leadership of the school principal: impact on teachers’ job crafting, alienation and commitment. management research review, 42(3), 352–369. https://doi.org/10.1108/mrr-11-2017-0384 de jong, j., & hartog, d. (2010). measuring innovative work behaviour. creativity and innovation management, 19(1), 23–36. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8691.2010.00547.x deci, e.l., & ryan, r.m. (1985). intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behaviour. new york, ny: plenum. dima, a., begu, l., vasilescu, m., & maassen, m. (2018). the relationship between the knowledge economy and global competitiveness in the european union. sustainability, 10(6), 1706. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10061706 dipaola, m.f., & tschannen-moran, m. (2001). organizational citizenship behavior in schools and its relationship to school climate. journal of school leadership, 11, 424–447. https://doi.org/10.1177/105268460101100503 ghani, n.a.a., hussin, t.a.b.s.r., & jusoff, k. (2009). the impact of psychological empowerment on lecturers’ innovative behaviour in malaysian private higher education institutions. canadian social science, 5(4), 54–62. https://doi.org/10.3968/j.css.1923669720090504.007 gil, a.j., rodrigo-moya, b., & morcillo-bellido, j. (2018). the effect of leadership in the development of innovation capacity: a learning organization perspective. leadership & organization development journal, 39(6), 694–711. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-12-2017-0399 global competitiveness report. (2018). the global competitiveness report 2018: a project of world economic forum. in k. schwab (ed.). geneva: world economic forum. retrieved from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/gcr2018/05fullreport/theglobalcompetitivenessreport2018.pdf gumusluoglu, l., & ilsev, a. (2009). transformational leadership, creativity, and organizational innovation. journal of business research, 62(4), 461–473. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2007.07.032 gupta, v., & singh, s. (2015). leadership and creative performance behaviors in r&d laboratories: examining the mediating role of justice perceptions. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 22(1), 21–36. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f1548051813517002 henning, j.e., mckeny, t., weade, g., dani, d.e., rice, l.j., & xenos, a.j. (2018). designing teaching practice: a case study of pro-creativity. teacher education and practice, 31(1), 81101. huang, x., lee, j.c.k., & yang, x. (2019). what really counts? investigating the effects of creative role identity and self-efficacy on teachers’ attitudes towards the implementation of teaching for creativity. teaching and teacher education, 84, 57–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.04.017 hughes, d.j., lee, a., tian, a.w., newman, a., & legood, a. (2018). leadership, creativity, and innovation: a critical review and practical recommendations. the leadership quarterly, 29(5), 549–569. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2018.03.001 ismail, a., & mydin, a.a. (2019, march). the impact of transformational leadership and commitment on teachers’ innovative behaviour. in 4th asean conference on psychology, counselling, and humanities (acpch 2018) (pp. 426–430). amsterdam: atlantis press. ismail, s.n., don, y., husin, f., & khalid, r. (2018). instructional leadership and teachers’ functional competency across the 21st century learning. international journal of instruction, 11(3), 135–152. https://doi.org/10.12973/iji.2018.11310a janssen, o. (2000). job demands, perceptions of effort-reward fairness and innovative work behaviour. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 73(3), 287–302. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317900167038 janssen, o. (2004). how fairness perceptions make innovative behaviour more or less stressful. organisational behaviour journal, 25(2), 201–215. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.238 jensen, u.t., andersen, l.b., bro, l.l., bøllingtoft, a., eriksen, t.l.m., holten, a.l., … westergård-nielsen, n. (2019). conceptualizing and measuring transformational and transactional leadership. administration & society, 51(1), 3–33. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f0095399716667157 jiang, l., & johnson, m.j. (2018). meaningful work and affective commitment: a moderated mediation model of positive work reflection and work centrality. journal of business and psychology, 33(4), 545–558. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-017-9509-6 kabasheva, i.a., rudaleva, i.a., bulnina, i.s., & askhatova, l.i. (2015). organizational factors affecting employee innovative behavior. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 6(1 suppl 3), 435. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n1s3p435 kaufman, b.e. (2015). theorizing determinants of employee voice: an integrative model across disciplines and levels of analysis. human resource management journal, 25(1), 19–40. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12056 khaola, p., & coldwell, d. (2017a). striking a balance between organisational citizenship behaviour types. southern african business review, 21(1), 222–242. khaola, p., & coldwell, d. (2017b, march 16–17). the effects of leadership, organisational justice and commitment on employee innovative behaviours. in proceedings of the 5th international conference on management, leadership and governance (pp. 222–229). johannesburg: wits business school. khaola, p., & coldwell, d. (2019a). explaining how leadership and justice influence innovative behaviours. european journal of innovation management, 22(1), 193–212. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejim-08-2017-0103 khaola, p., & coldwell, d. (2019b). please lead me, my commitment is low’: interactive effects of leadership and commitment on innovative behaviour. international journal of innovation management, 23(2), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1142/s1363919619500154 khaola, p., & rambe, p. (2020). the effects of transformational leadership on organisational citizenship behaviour: the role of organisational justice and affective commitment. management research review. https://doi.org/10.1108/mrr-07-2019-0323 khazanchi, s., & masterson, s. (2011). who and what is fair matters: a multi-foci social exchange model of creativity. journal of organisational behaviour, 32(1), 86–106. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.682 klaeijsen, a., vermeulen, m., & martens, r. (2017). teachers’ innovative behaviour: the importance of basic psychological need satisfaction, intrinsic motivation, and occupational self-efficacy. scandinavian journal of educational research, 62(5), 19–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/00313831.2017.1306803 liu, f., chow, i.h.s., zhang, j.c., & huang, m. (2019). organizational innovation climate and individual innovative behavior: exploring the moderating effects of psychological ownership and psychological empowerment. review of managerial science, 13(4), 771–789. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-017-0263-y liu, y., (2019). from the viewpoint of organizational support to discuss the effect of psychological capital on innovative behavior. argos, 36(73), 128–139. lu, s., bartol, k.m., venkataramani, v., zheng, x., & liu, x. (2019). pitching novel ideas to the boss: the interactive effects of employees’ idea enactment and influence tactics on creativity assessment and implementation. academy of management journal, 62(2), 579–606. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2016.0942 lubienski, c., & perry, l. (2019). the third sector and innovation: competitive strategies, incentives, and impediments to change. journal of educational administration, 57(4), 329–344. https://doi.org/10.1108/jea-10-2018-0193 marinova, s.v., peng, c., lorinkova, n., van dyne, l., & chiaburu, d. (2015). change-oriented behaviour: a meta-analysis of individual and job design predictors. journal of vocational behaviour, 88, 104–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2015.02.006 marks, h.m., & printy, s.m. (2003). principal leadership and school performance: an integration of transformational and instructional leadership. educational administration quarterly, 39(3), 370–397. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161x03253412 mercurio, z.a. (2015). affective commitment as a core essence of organizational commitment: an integrative literature review. human resource development review, 14(4), 389–414. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f1534484315603612 meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1991). a three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment. human resource management review, 1(1), 61–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/1053-4822(91)90011-z meyer, j.p., morin, a.j.s., stanley, l.j., & maltin, e.r. (2019). teachers’ dual commitment to the organisation and occupation: a person-centred investigation. teaching and teacher education, 77, 100–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2018.09.009 ministry of education and training (moet). (2014). curriculum and assessment policy: education for individual and social development. maseru: author. mumford, m.d., & licuanan, b. (2004). leading for innovation: conclusions, issues, and directions. the leadership quarterly, 15(1), 163–171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2003.12.010 nava, i., park, j., dockterman, d., kawasaki, j., schweig, j., quartz, k.h., & martinez, j.f. (2019). measuring teaching quality of secondary mathematics and science residents: a classroom observation framework. journal of teacher education, 70(2), 139–154. https://doi.org/10.1177/2f0022487118755699 niehoff, b.p., & moorman, r.h. (1993). justice as a mediator of the relationship between methods of monitoring and organizational citizenship behavior. academy of management journal, 36(3), 527–556. https://doi.org/10.2307/256591 ninković, s.r., & knežević florić, o.č. (2018). transformational school leadership and teacher self-efficacy as predictors of perceived collective teacher efficacy. educational management administration & leadership, 46(1), 49–64. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143216665842 o’connor, k.e. (2008). ‘you choose to care’: teachers, emotions and professional identity. teaching and teacher education, 24(1), 117–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2006.11.008 oh, s.y. (2019). effects of organizational learning on performance: the moderating roles of trust in leaders and organizational justice. journal of knowledge management, 23(2), 313–331. https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-02-2018-0087 rank, j., nelson, n.e., allen, t.d., & xu, x. (2009). leadership predictors of innovation and task performance: subordinates’ self-esteem and self-presentation as moderators. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 82(3), 465–489. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317908x371547 raselimo, m., & mahao, m. (2015). the lesotho curriculum and assessment policy: opportunities and threats. south african journal of education, 35(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.15700/201503070025 reilly, r.c., lilly, f., bramwell, g., & kronish, n. (2011). a synthesis of research concerning creative teachers in a canadian context. teaching and teacher education, 27(3), 533–542. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2010.10.007 saboe, k.n., taing, m.u., way, j.d., & johnson, r.e. (2015). examining the unique mediators that underlie the effects of different dimensions of transformational leadership. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 22(2), 175–186. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051814561028 scott, s.g., & bruce, r.a. (1994). determinants of innovative work behaviour: a path model of individual innovation in the workplace. academy of management journal, 37(3), 580–607. https://doi.org/10.2307/256701 somech, a. (2016). the cost of going the extra mile: the relationship between teachers’ organizational citizenship behaviour, role stressors, and strain with the buffering effect of job autonomy. teachers and teaching, 22(4), 426–447. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2015.1082734 srivastava, a.p. (2017). teachers’ extra role behaviour: relation with self-efficacy, procedural justice, organisational commitment and support for training. international journal of management in education, 11(2), 140–162. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijmie.2017.10002822 srivastava, a.p., & dhar, r.l. (2019). authentic leadership and extra role behavior: a school based integrated model. current psychology, 38(3), 684–697. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-017-9634-4 stojcic, n., hashi, i., & orlic, e. (2018). creativity, innovation effectiveness and productive efficiency in the uk. european journal of innovation management, 21(4), 564–580. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejim-11-2017-0166 torfing, j. (2019). collaborative innovation in the public sector: the argument. public management review, 21(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2018.1430248 usma, j., & frodden, c. (2003). promoting teachers’ autonomy through educational innovation. ikala, revista de lenguaje y cultura, 8(14), 101–132. van knippenberg, d., & de cremer, d. (2008). leadership and fairness: taking stock and looking ahead. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 17(2), 173–179. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320801912137 walker, c., & gleaves, a. (2016). constructing the caring higher education teacher: a theoretical framework. teaching and teacher education, 54, 65–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2015.11.013 zhou, j., & hoever, i. (2014). research on workplace creativity: a review and redirection. organisational psychology and organisational behaviour, 1, 333–359. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091226 5tloupart2.qxd it is certainly no exaggeration to state that there has been changes in the rights of gays and lesbians in south africa since 1990, when the liberation movements in the country was unbanned and the journey of the country’s transit ion to democracy took off, that is almost inconceivable. within at least gay circles, there has always been the belief that justice and true liberation in this country had to include a commitment to lesbian and gay equalit y. it is part of history that after much lobbing local gay act ivists managed to convinced the african national council and that south africa event ually become the first country to include sexual orientation as a protected class in its constitution in 1996 (cf. klawitter, 2002; gevisser & cameron, 1994). while gay liberation movements attended to many important issues there could be little doubt that t wo concerns that have been particularly important for gay activists are the right to samesex marriage or registered partnership (cf. bell & binnie, 2002), and the right to fight for their country, or what has been referred to, as the gays in the military debate (bell & binnie, 2002). this debate is upheld by some as having a destabilizing, radical function: opening up one of the most heteronormative state institutions to homosexuals begins the task of undermining heteronormativity itself (bell & binne. 2002, p. 455). particularly striking is the fact that while south african gays’ rights in its military institution are today constitutionally protected, this is not the case in t wo prominent western democracies, namely the usa and the uk (cf. bell & binnie, 2002). the determination to keep gays out of the armed forces, and/or to reinforce a system of official denial through sustained discharge of gay and lesbian military people (richardson & seidman, 2002, p. 11), reveals the pervasiveness of national homophobia (scott & stanley, 1994). it goes without saying that discrimination against gays in the military and its various departments sections, and regiments may have an affect on both gay employees and heterosexual staff. quite interesting is research findings concerning the “coming out” of gays and their abilit y to socialize with co-workers and to participate in the workplace communit y. ellis and riggle (1995), found that gays and lesbians who were “out” were more happy with their relationships with co-workers while those working for companies with anti-discrimination policies were more contented with their jobs. schneider (1987) found that being “out” had not any direct effect on the chances of socializing with co-workers outside the office. perhaps, the answer really lies, as (klawitter, 2002, p. 332), proposes, in that the choice of strateg y for ‘managing” sexual orientation determine the level of social integration: “(t)hese strategies might minimize possible discrimination, but would also exact a toll by limiting social interaction at work” (klawitter, 2002, p. 332). of paramount importance from human resource management and organizational perspectives, are, of course, managers’ approaches, relationships, and interests in their gay employees and the extent they will engage them in the organizat ion’s strategic goals, and provide them with opport unities for skills training, and the effect of gay employees on the organizat ion’s cult ure, employee wellbeing, and organizational effectiveness, to mention but some important areas. anyone undertaking a literature study of lesbianism generally and female homosexuality in the military particularly, is bound to find that while the former has been studied for many decades by scholars from various disciplines and has resulted in a body of research and theorizing that has become extensive and specialized, much less scientific work, has been undertaken on the latter. regarding south africa, as far as could be established a limited number of studies on lesbianism are available (cf. liddicoat, 1961; muntingh, 1967; redelinghuys, 1978; schurink, 1979; schurink, 1981, and gevisser & cameron, 1994). except for discussions of male homosexuality in the military (cf. gevisser & cameron, 1994, and particularly toms (1994), no local scientific work dealing with female homosexuality and the south african defense force could be found. benedictor leah tlou willem schurink programme in leadership in performance and change department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract this article is a follow-up on the autobiographical sketch, of a lesbian entitled: fleet of hope and offers social science comments on this “insider” account. after the south african department of defense’s policy on the prevention and elimination of unfair discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation have been outlined, and key theoretical concepts and views of scholars have been described briefly, an attempt is made to illuminate the gay woman’s experiences including her former experiences of her career in the south african department of defense with the aid of these constructs. the article is concluded with some recommendations. opsomming hierdie artikel volg op die autobiografiese skets van ’n lesbiër, getiteld: fleet of hope, en bied sosiaal-wetenskaplike kommentaar op die ‘binnestaander” dokument. nadat die suid-afrikaanse departement van verdediging se konsepbeleid oor die voorkoming en ïlluminering van onregverdige diskriminasie op grond van seksuele oriëntasie en belangrike teoretiese konsepte en opvattings van kundiges kortliks uiteengesit word, word gepoog om met hierdie konsepte die gay vrou se ervarings insluitende haar ervarings van haar eertydse loopbaan in die suid-afrikaanse weermag te verklaar. die artikel word met enkele aanbevelings afgesluit. a gay woman's experiences during her career in the department of defence: fleet of hope: a social science commentary – part 2 requests for copies should be addressed to: bl tlou, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 35 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (3), 35-44 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (3), 35-44 aim in the light of the scarcity of local knowledge on lesbianism in the military and its possible effect on its functioning, this article strives to make a modest contribution in providing a basis for building knowledge on being both female and gay in the south african defense force. we already pointed out, since the new south african government came to power in 1994, the rights of gay people in the defense force have been protected by the country’s constitution. at this juncture, it is important that we get a clearer picture of what this really implies. in order to do this, we now review the south african department of defense’s policy on the prevention and elimination of unfair discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. the draft policy on the prevention and elimination of unfair discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation according to the constitution of south africa act 108 of 1996, section 9(3) states that the state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth. in the white paper on defense, the department of defense declared that it would operate within the parameters of the constitution with respect to human rights and non-discrimination against personnel on the grounds of their sexual orientation. the department of defense has since the formation of the new south african national department of defense (dod) in 1994, ventured into a new dispensation where equality between persons and respect for the human dignity of all its employees are core values. equality can be effected in various ways including constructing and implementing a charter of fundamental rights, subscribing to international conventions or by introducing specific legislation. equality guarantees persons the right that they will not be discriminate against on the following grounds, including but not limited to one’s race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language, birth and social responsibility. according to the dod’s draft policy on non-discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, it does not judge sexual orientation in terms of right or wrong, nor does it make any value judgement in this regard, but accepts differences in sexual orientation as a given. the policy is necessary to combat discrimination in the organisation based on people’s sexual orientation and the draft policy document stipulates that discrimination on the grounds of homophobia4 and or heterosexism, whether overt or covert is prohibited as well as its condoning by any person. harassment on the grounds of sexual orientation will not be tolerated and mechanisms are to be established to deal with such incidences. special policy with regard to sexual orientation is deemed necessary since discrimination, specifically on the grounds of sexual orientation has been occurring quite extensively in the dod. changing the status quo calls for nothing less than a paradigm shift. dod leaders are obliged not to ignore or condone unfair discrimination in any form, and need to take whatever action is required to ensure that a recipient of discrimination will not subsequently become a victim of reprisal or retaliation. these obligations are part of the broader responsibilit y of the commanding officer. in addition, managers have to foster a positive climate and have to take appropriate corrective action when conduct is disruptive, provocative, discriminatory, or otherwise unprofessional. the respective norms and role prescriptions contained in the dod’s policy on unfair discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation are: � the dod must comprise an optimally integrated group of men and women who must be able to work together to accomplish the department’s mission. � all dod personnel, military and civilian are entitled to be treated fairly with dignity and respect, and must be allowed to work in an environment free of unfair discrimination and other inappropriate behaviour. � unfair discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation is prohibited. � since leadership is key to eliminate unfair discrimination it should be the cornerstone of any effort to eliminate such discrimination. � upon accession and annually, all dod personnel will be educated/trained in the identification, prevention, resolution and elimination of unfair discrimination including sexual orientation. � individuals who believe they have been unfairly discriminated against on the grounds of sexual orientation will be afforded multiple avenues to seek resolution and redress; all personnel will be made aware of these avenues. counseling support or referral services will be made available to all involved in incidents of unfair discrimination. � the officer commanding and those in supervisory positions should ensure that complaints of unfair discrimination are made in a confidential climate that does not tolerate acts of reprisal, intimidation, or further acts of covert discrimination. � all reported incidents of unfair discrimination based on sexual orientation would be promptly investigated and resolved at the lowest appropriate level in a dignified and sensitive way. confidentialit y will be maintained and appropriate feedback will be provided to the members or employees involved. before relating some social science concepts to thando’s views, rationalizations and everyday experiences of her life and her career in the south african defence force, as recorded in her sketch, we first need to apprehend these abstract theoretical concepts and scholarly views regarding homosexuality and the military. key theoretical constructs and scholarly views regarding homosexuality and the military according to heinecken (1999) the term sexual orientation refers to the innate disposition of human beings to express their sexuality. heterosexuality, homosexuality (lesbian women and gay men) and bisexuality are included in this definition. within the military a distinction is made bet ween homosexual orientation and homosexual conduct. according to plummer (in heinecken, 1999, p. 45) homosexual conduct can be classified according to the following four categories: i) casual homosexuality is a passing homosexual encounter that does not substantially structure the overall (sexual) life of the individual. ii) situational homosexuality refers to circumstances in which homosexual activities regularly occur, but where these do not become an individual’s overriding preference once removed from the environment. this can be seen in settings such as prisons and military camps, where this type of sexual activity is seen as a mere substitute for heterosexual behaviour. iii)personalised homosexuality refers to individuals who have a preference for homosexual activities, but who keep their sexual preference a secret – hidden from friends and colleagues. iv) homosexuality as a way of life refers to individuals who openly acknowledge their sexual preference and for whom homosexual activity is integrated into a distinct lifestyle. tlou, schurink36 heinecken (1999) indicates that in the african context, situational same sex activities have been the more prevalent form of homosexuality whereas in europe the tendency towards homosexuality as a lifestyle is greater. in the past the former sa df personnel code clearly discriminated against the homosexuals. former arguments were based on the impact of homosexual behaviour on military effect iveness. the sa df personnel code, sect ion e/v/xvi, classified homosexualit y as sexually deviant and immoral behaviour. this meant that persons would not be selected as permanent force members if they indicated that they were gay. if there were any reasonable doubt about a person’s sexual orientat ion, especially if the person was destined to be in the officer corp or an instructor, this would automatically lead to non-appointment (heinecken, 1998). where a force member was found guilt y of a homosexual act the person concerned was subject to disciplinary action and, pending the nat ure of or the gravit y of the misconduct, the person would be discharged if found guilt y during a court martial. at present, in south africa, as already been indicated, current legislation does not discriminate against anyone based on sexual orientation and therefore a person’s sexual preference is not questioned during recruiting. positions are supposed to be allocated to those who can best do the job and to those who meet the requirements; sexual orientation is not considered to measure a person’s capabilit y in career opportunities. homosexuals and the military according to heinecken (1998) even though homosexual men and women are in principle fit for military service, many people still consider persons with a homosexual orientation to be less suited for duty in the military than heterosexuals. these arguments are based primarily on the effect of homosexual behaviour; such as that conduct may hamper the soldiers’ discipline, morale and cohesion. these are similar to the concerns that led to the restrictions and sanctions applied to homosexuals in the then sadf. a major concern is that homosexuals can be easily intimidated, blackmailed or manipulated by those who wish to expose their sexual identit y. consequently, homosexuals have been considered to be ‘a national security risk’ because of their susceptibility to blackmail or threat of exposure (heinecken, 1998). it is said that because homosexuals are forced to conceal their sexual identit y, they are more likely to manifest psychological disorders. heinecken (1999) stated that homosexuality is considered to be a mental disorder that renders a person unstable. not only do homosexuals battle to cope with their sexual identity, but as a stigmatized group, they are placed under considerable pressure to manage potentially damaging information about themselves if they want to pursue a military career or avoid adverse reaction from the heterosexual majority. there is however, no scientific proof that homosexuals are mentally unstable than heterosexuals. according to the u.s. news (1989) in classical greece, homosexual bonds between soldiers were encouraged and considered an asset to a fighting army. this of course does not happen in modern times. for years the united states of america has maintained one of the toughest policies in the world, banning homosexuals from the military service. according to their department of defense records, about 1,700 officers and enlisted men and women are discharged each year for homosexuality, and many suffer because of such action. according to this policy, the presence of such members adversely affects the ability of the armed forces to maintain discipline, good order and morale. homosexuality and military effectiveness as has already been indicated homosexuals are seen as unsuitable for military service because they pose a security risk and because their presence in the military disrupts group cohesion, morale and discipline. heinecken (1999) stated that because of homophobic sentiments, gay soldiers are unable to function effectively in the military because the heterosexual majority does not want to socialize with them, and when in position of command, they often fail to demand the respect of their subordinates. all these negative situations evolve around one central assumption namely: acceptance of homosexuals in the military will undermine military effectiveness. most of the preceding arguments are based on prejudice against homosexuals of which there has not been any poof that their integration into the military has undermined operational effectiveness. there is also no scientific evidence indicating that homosexual people are inherently less capable of military service than heterosexual men and women. furthermore, no explanation as to why discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is necessary to preserve the good order, discipline and morale has been offered. heinecken (1999) stated that the few studies that exist indicate that both gays and lesbians are loyal; they accept the surrounding heterosexual culture, comply with the physical and emotional demands of their job, are not security risks and conduct themselves in a professional manner. she further contends that, gays’ exclusion is based on the professional military judgment of the “possible” effect same gender people may have on military effectiveness and not on scientific evidence. according to the washington post (1991) greg greely, the air force captain whose discharge was held up after he carried a banner in the lesbian and gay pride parade in washington has been released with an honorable discharge. greely worked with computer systems in the pentagon, he had not previously announced that he is gay and was questioned, because he had a security clearance for classified information and because they thought someone could use knowledge of him being gay against him. in response to greely’s discharge rep. joseph p. kennedy, said in a speech that the pentagon was using “stone age” thinking, because there has never been any evidence that capt. greely was ever less than courageous or served his country less than admirably. he further stated that the fact that he is gay does not change that. bell and binnie (2002) point out that the gays in the military debate in the usa can be seen to promote passing as the only possible strategy for homosexuals serving in the military, since any form of homosexual conduct including coming out as an “admitted homosexual” contravenes the defense department’s policy. in fact, “(e)ven withholding homosexual identity – by passing – can, however, be used as grounds for dismissal …” (bell & binnie, 2002, p. 453). stychin, 1995, p. 94) provides the following example: “steffan was under a positive duty as a member of the military to come out because his gay identity was otherwise undetectable but contrary to regulations. the result of his coming out, though, was his expulsion as unfit for the service. paradoxically, however, in going public he revealed that his sexuality had not rendered him capable of service. he demonstrated, instead, that absent a public declaration, he remained completely undetectable on the inside of what is, in the end, an instit ution forged with same-sex bonds. as bell and binnie (2002) point out steffan’s presence in the nav y threatened to destabilize the distinction bet ween sanctioned “homosociality” and an outlawed homosexuality, a distinction in reality dangerously supported in institutions like the military. “the navy’s fear, put simply, is of contagion (backed a gay woman’s experiences – part 2 37 up arguments upholding steffan’s expulsion centred on the ‘thread’ of hiv and aids impacting on the ‘healthy’ military’s ability to defend the nation) (bell and binnie (2002, p. 454). stychin (1995, p. 99) describes this state of affairs: “joseph steffan was defined as an outsider because of his ability to pass – to reveal, through the articulation of a gay identity, that he was an insider all along. however, in assimilating the military with the nation, steffan is further constructed, not as being an insider but as performing the role of the insider – as an espionage agent might perform a role to undermine national security. the underlying concern, then, is not simply that steffan had successfully performed the role until his own revelation, but that his success had revealed the performativity of the military subject.’ the issue of privacy from the literature available on gays in the military it is clear that a “complex intertwining of privacy, equality and expression central to current forms of sexual citizenship agitation (and to its regulation)” exists (bell & binnie, 2002, p. 453). hunter (1995, p. 139) puts this as follows: “the ban on military service by lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals…renders identical conduct such as kissing permissible or punishable based on the sexual orientation of the actor. moreover, the ban restricts self-identif ying speech with the justification that homosexual ‘conduct’ is antithetical to morale, good order and discipline.” the prejudices with regard to the issue of privacy have also been explained by the fact that heterosexuals do not want to share mess facilities or living quarters with those of the same sex, who may find them sexually attractive. according to heinecken (1999) this is based on the notion that homosexuals will not be able to control their sexual impulses and will therefore harass and invade the privacy of fellow soldiers. the military’s concern over privacy rests on the stereotype that homosexuals are superficials who will exploit their positions of authority to sexually harass their subordinates. there is however, no evidence to support the notion that lesbians and gay men are more likely than heterosexuals to engage in sexual harassment or are less able to control their sexual impulses than their “straight” counterparts (heinecken, 1999). this brief discussion of some key views found in the literature on homosexuality and homosexuality will suffice. a social science commentary in the remainder of the article, concepts and views from scientists briefly referred to in the preceding paragraphs as well as other key existing theoretical constructs will be compared and in a sense “tested” by establishing to what degree such second order constructs accommodates thando’s views, rationalizations and everyday experiences as recorded in her sketch. the approach used by lowney, and the winslows (1981) and schurink (1979, 1981, 1989 & 2002) will generally be followed here. the relevancy of general theoretical constructs of homosexuality and lesbianism thando comes from a normal well-adjusted home life, filled with love and humour, hope and expectations; playing cowboys and indians, going on holidays with her family and enjoying the benefits of a strong family unit. this is contrary to what simon and gagnon (1973) found in their study namely that their respondents generally came from broken homes and that the majority preferred one parent to the other. thando is from a stable family except that her elder sister grace – who also acted as her surrogate mother – was gay and she was shunned by the family and always made to feel unwelcome. in schurink (1981) less than half of the cases come from broken homes. in relation to another study by schurink (1979), it appears that the respondent comes from a home where the parents were divorced, and although this was traumatic for her she indicated that it did not contribute to her homosexuality. according to simon and gagnon (1973), lesbians are unable to enter into conventional heterosexual relationships even during their school years. thando did not experience this because she had her first boyfriend at the age of 14 years and more boyfriends followed: at the age of 19, i entered into my first serious relationship with a man. we were both students and thought we had the world at our feet. it lasted 2 years. in schurink (1981) the majority of the lesbians became aware of their homosexuality only in late adolescence or early adulthood. according to schurink (1979) wendy did not experience the problem because she had a normal amount of boyfriends as a girl. plummer (1992) indicates that coming out is a central feature of the experience of lesbians and gay men in the western world, but that there remains much disagreements about what coming out means, how it happens and what drives the process forward. there is however a general agreement that coming out begins with an individual who is either unaware of her/his sexual orientation or shares the general view that to be homosexual is to be degraded, denounced, devalued or treated as different, and ends with a person relatively happy with her/his sexuality, acknowledging this to the self and to others. in relation to thando’s experience of coming out the following excerpt is relevant: i actively participated in anti – homosexual discussion and debates. voicing my opinion to anyone who cared to listen. i was the typical ‘verbal gay basher’. it was a time of constant questioning of my new lifestyle and myself and trying to justify why i had made the move. i believe today that the reason i was so radically anti-gay was my way of trying to convince myself that i was not ‘made up of the same stuff’ as grace. it was also a time of great anxiety that someone would find out about me and inform my parents. it was a long road of self discovery sometimes filled with self doubt, guilt and anxiety but it was a road that led to my current lifestyle. cain (1991) confirms this type of behaviour where he states that gay men and lesbian women engage in a lifelong process of information management concerning their sexual preferences and identity. according to him this happens because gays are already aware of the potential for stigmatisation by the time they begin to define themselves as homosexual or at least potentially homosexual. in contrast to the popular belief that, lesbianism originates as a result of the seduction by an older woman thando was never seduced by any woman and never had any sexual relation with another woman until she met a girl who worked with her and was openly gay. the unthinkable happened at 22. i met a girl working with me. openly gay, she stood for everything i abhorred. i verbally attacked her and took any opportunity to insult her lover and friends. despite the insults, she became a friend. the irony of the situation was that i wanted to be in her company all the time. she resigned (from the defence force) and left for durban. i followed because i was starting to realise that perhaps i wanted to be more than just a friend. i believed she had to be aware of my growing feelings for her yet she never made any advances and i was becoming increasingly frustrated and confused. i was terrified but finally i made the bold move to tell her i was sexually attracted to her”. this is also denied in schurink’s (1981) study where it is indicated that in general entry into homosexual way of life was not a result of seduction by an older woman. according to wendy (schurink, 1979) she was not seduced and had no sexual relations with another woman before she met her lover, marie. tlou, schurink38 although the butch and femme roles are generally accepted by both the homosexual and heterosexual culture, thando and her partner do not admit to these roles as part of their homosexual way of life: traditional gay roles were ne ver established. we were equal partners drawing strengths from each other. both worked in the garden, both did the cooking and both cleaned the house amongst other shared duties. in schurink (1981) st udy, although the butch-femme dichotomy was significant for some of the lesbians at one time or another, it appears that they prefer the women with whom they enter into affairs with, to act in a feminine and not masculine way towards them. in schurink (1979) wendy in her sketch refers to the butch and femme dichotomy in the lesbian way of life at intervals. according to simon and gagnon (1973) attendance and/or membership of homosexual clubs or bars predominantly frequented by lesbians can contribute to homosexuality. it seems that this is not the case with thando because such places were for support and served to strengthen a sense of belonging to the gay culture. as she indicated: cape town was a hive of active lesbianism with lesbian gatherings at pre-arranged clubs where everybody brought their own alcohol and eats, also known as “gatparties”, strong bonds and many relationships formed and broken within the group. just being in the company of other swans made the idea of “being different” so much easier to accept. the strangest part of the whole subculture we lived in was that very few relationships were pursued with straight swans. it was an unwritten rule that the gay swans would not actively seek out and try and convert straight swans. perhaps this was due, in part, to fear of military ‘justice’. according to schurink (1979) wendy also indicated that such meeting places are of importance to lesbians since they are places where they can relax and enjoy themselves without getting into trouble with heterosexual people. like the majority of simon and gagnon’s (1973) subjects, it appears as if thando has maintained contact with all her family members. this is also confirmed in schurink’s study (1981) where he indicated that lesbians, with one single exception, maintain contact with their family members and there is usually at least one in the family who accepts their sexual orientation. this can also be seen in schurink (1979) where wendy maintained contact with her mother and the fact that she was homosexual did not bother her. thando writes: in the 90’s we settled down as a married couple would. we both felt very comfortable with the fact that we were lesbians, that we had made a commitment to each other and we both found that everybody around us seemed more relaxed and accepting of our lifestyle. my parents were invited and they became regular visitors. i had always had a close relationship with them but had just kept my own private life very much apart from my family life. they never mentioned the fact that i was gay but it was evident that they were aware that i was happy. they had a good relationship with sarah (my lover) and they had softened their stance considerably towards my sister grace. after the death of both my parents and four years down the line i still have not discussed the matter with my other siblings even though they are all aware of my sexual orientation. my sister daisy is totally homophobic and if the subject is brought up she either ignores the issue or derides it. that is the way she feels and i respect her opinion on it. my brother john is more relaxed and even though we have never openly spoken about my being gay, we will discuss homosexual issues and my homosexual friends in a very open manner. they all have their own married lives and families to contend with as well, so it is not as though my sexual orientation is a ‘top of mind’ issue with them. it can be stated that simon and gagnon’s (1973) hypothesis that lesbians are largely dependent does not seem to be valid in thando’s case. this is because thando has always been independent and she started working part-time at the age of 21. she had a career of more than 10 years in the department of defence and she is currently in a stable and fulfilling job in a media marketing company: i am happy, i have a great partner, i own a beautiful home and have a circle of friends and a family who love me for who i am. what more do i need? in schurink (1981) the overwhelming majority of the homosexual women attaches a great deal of importance to their work and generally enjoy it. this is also reflected in schurink (1979) where it is indicated that work is important for wendy, even if her work record cannot be regarded to be stable, she however, finds work to be rewarding and attractive as she hates being idle. in contrast to what simon and gagnon (1973) have hypothesised, thando does not seem to use “a great love” to neutralize any feelings of guilt her lesbian way of life may have caused her: it was a long road of self discovery sometimes filled with self doubt, guilt and anxiety but it was a road that led to my current lifestyle. i am involved with a great woman who loves and cares for me as a person of the world capable of leading nations, if perhaps not naval troops. looking back at my life, i suppose, as with all people, there are things i would have wanted to be different, things i would have done differently. perhaps i should have joined the army or sams? perhaps i should have taken the officer selection issue further. i didn’t and that is that. however, the most important thing i have learnt, is that we have so much to be thankful for and so much that we can still do that there is no time to be wasted on regrets. this is also reflected in schurink’s study (1981) where it is indicated that love plays a very important role in the lives of the women and seems that all of them have to a greater or lesser extent established love relationships with other women. simon and gagnon’s (1973) hypothesis is also not applicable in wendy’s autobiography (schurink, 1979). although there was a time in thando’s life where she seemed confused and doubtful about being gay, she seems to have come to terms with her condition and adjusted quite well: it was a time of constant questioning of myself and my new lifestyle and trying to justify why i had made the move. i believe today that the reason i was so radically anti-gay was my way of trying to convince myself that i was not ‘made up of the same stuff’ as grace. i couldn’t come to terms with the idea that i was gay and on various occasions set out to prove to myself and anybody who cared to listen that i was attractive to men as well as attracted to them. according to plummer (1975) some scholars have commented that homosexuality is increasingly becoming a life style rather than an individual condition, that is, individuals experiencing this form of homosexualit y have defined themselves as homosexuals; have made it a central part of their lifestyle; have developed fairly stable patterns of interactions with other self-defined homosexuals; and have fostered their own series of beliefs, values and perspectives on homosexuality. in many ways, this could be called a homosexual subculture. according to schurink (1981) it is mentioned that although the women did experience up to a certain extent some problems with respect to aspects of this lifestyle, as a group they appear to have made reasonably good adjustments to this way of life as a whole. according to diamant (1993) several studies of prejudice against gay, lesbian and bisexual people suggest that intergroup contact may reduce prejudice based on sexual orientation. exposure to information about gay, lesbian and bisexual people often leads to a reduction in anti-gay prejudice. similarly, people who know someone who is openly gay have more favourable attitudes towards gay people than people who do a gay woman’s experiences – part 2 39 not. another study suggests that contact not only lessens heterosexual’s negative attit udes towards gay men and lesbians, but also significantly improves the abilit y of heterosexuals to work effectively with gays. this is evident in the following part of thando’s sketch: i was offered a job at a media marketing company and suddenly found myself being faced with a life where i didn’t have to hide my sexual orientation, lie about my partner or fear reprisals from my superiors. i did at first, because i didn’t feel comfortable speaking about it. i wasn’t sure what the response would be and i definitely didn’t know what would happen if they discovered my secret. to my great astonishment, when i finally made the disclosure it was met with blank stares of “so what?” it was almost more difficult to disclose it to people who didn’t find it scary, compromising or even threatening. how could they be so okay with it when i had been led to believe for more than a decade that it was not acceptable? what made people in the navy so narrow minded compared to civilians? the obvious deduction is that they are exposed to so much more, but i also believe it has to do with the environments we find ourselves in. diamant (1993) indicates that one important factor that influences the effect of contact or attitudes is “institutional support”, or the attitudes of those in authority towards the stigmatized group and discrimination against them. if the military chooses to oppose prejudice, prejudice will recede; if the military continues to endorse prejudice through the exclusionary policy, prejudice will continue. this clearly confirms what thando had to endure, that is, being refused in the officer corp just on the basis that an admiral had asked a colleague if she would be able to work with someone who is a lesbian and she responded negatively. it highlighted the predicament many straight people have been confronted with, in the defense force, if not the entire world. thando recalled: once they knew you, they could deal with the sexual direction you took but they were never completely at ease with it and found it easier to look the other way when backing was required. this has nothing to do with the fact that you are a lesbian. it is a human phenomenon that people are not that eager to stand up and fight or in this case, stand up and defend. when they have to defend something that is not totally familiar to them it is easier to back off and let you face your problems alone. the relevancy of scholarly views on homosexuality and lesbianism in the armed forces according to heinecken (1999) in south africa, the situation exists where homosexuality is permitted by the law, rather than accepted. a decrease in hostile attitudes is not the same as an increase in social acceptance. what may at first glance appear, as an increase in liberal attitudes is actually a mere growth in indifference. this is true in relation to thando’s experiences: (t)he feeling of insecurity within the military felt by all gay members wascalways present. the introduction of young lesbian swans changed the mood somewhat. they never felt the force of homophobia within the defense force and were quite happy and proud to show their sexual orientation. that seeped through the system and by the time i left, the overall mood was not fear, even though the older guard was still cautious. anderson and smith (1993) provide research findings on the actual experience of serving in the military in their study with interviewees who are veterans and active duty personnel in the us military. most of the interviewees indicated that their military experience was very positive, except for the homophobia they encountered and their own fear of being identified and punished by the military. some indicated they grew a lot personally through their military experience, gained self-respect, and some even indicated that they grew from the negative experiences. others indicated that being in the military helped them to form positive image of themselves – an image of gay and lesbian people doing well even in a homophobic system. on the other hand other interviewees indicated that the military experience is not positive for many gay people because of the direct experience of homophobia, isolation, keeping separate, not being able to share, and lying. retief (1993), a south african commentator, states that one prejudiced myth about lesbian and gay people is that since sexual contact does not produce offspring, they must reproduce themselves by corrupting the young into their gay sexual ways. thando denies the existence of this prejudiced myth: the strangest part of the whole subculture we lived in was that very few relationships were pursued with straight swans. it was an unwritten rule that the gay swans would not actively seek out and try and convert straight swans. perhaps this was due, in part, to fear of military “justice”. and further: i applied for and was accepted as a navy recruit and went to basics feeling more secure than i had in a long time. i felt part of a community and i immediately made friends with a fellow recruit who was gay and who knew many of the, then, current gay females in the navy called swans. entering a new world where drills, shining of boots, also known as ‘boning’ and sunset had new meaning. it also brought new meaning to the word homosexuality, discrimination and frustration. i was once again placed in a world where the mere mention of the word homosexuality was frowned on. however, this time it was not on an emotional footing as with my parents and siblings. this time it was deemed dirty, portrayed as evil and definitely not correct. for the first time in my life, i was mixing, not with just a partner but a whole group of lesbians, yet, i was feeling e ven more isolated because of the bar riers, reser vations and limitations from a homophobic militar y discipline. we were forced to be careful, forced to be underhand and forced to be heterosexual. and finally: back home, i was pressurized into making appropriate career decisions and found myself looking at a picture of a female in uniform, graced with beauty, intelligence and style. this coupled to the general perception that many women in uniform were believed to be gay convinced me that i wanted to join the defense force. still not sure of my sexuality i was not interested in joining the army, perceiving the women to be ‘butch’ and ‘undesirable’ in the social context. whatever i was and whatever i was going to be, ‘butch’ was not an option. i had no intention of loosing my femininity, dressing up in check shirts, big buckles, men’s boots and men’s pants. i still wanted to believe that i could be desirable to men and even if i was boyish and lived in jeans, that did not mean looking like a man. i believed a ‘butch’ to be the stereotype with no make-up, shortcropped hair, large and masculine. according to diamant (1993), the study undertaken by anderson and smith reflects that gay, lesbian and bisexual people join the military because they are highly supportive of it and hold strong patriotic beliefs, notwithstanding their opposition to its policy on homosexuality. anderson and smith (1993) point out that the effects of being identified investigated and discharged is clearly negative. an allegation of being homosexual, regardless of any proof can result in revocation of a security clearance or the end of a career. thando reveals: security clearances were forever bandied about as the ‘gateway to heaven’. if you had a confidential clearance you qualified for promotion. the first question was always ‘are you a lesbian and do you have lesbian friends’ – non committal answers were always sought, even to the point were you would rehearse the question with friends over and over again to answer in the tlou, schurink40 appropriate manner when the dreaded question was flung your way. this was common practice. if you didn’t get your clearance you were placed in a dead end job with no chance of promotion. this happened to many lesbians in the navy. i was fortunate. i was granted a confidential clearance, valid for ten years, first time around. being young and ambitious i was pretty sure at the time that i would not even last ten years in the navy and would therefore never have to undergo another inquisition. i felt that there might be better opportunities in the civilian world but i didn’t want to enter that world at that time. according to heinecken (1999) one of the main arguments against the admittance of homosexuals in the military is that they pose a security risk, because they are forced to conceal their sexual identity, and therefore homosexual are likely to manifest psychological disorders, are more susceptible to blackmail, are less trustworthy and respectful of rules and laws. this is evident in thando’s sketch where she and the others had to keep their sexual orientation a secret for fear of victimization, but there is no indication that reflects that thando had manifested psychological disorders as a result of concealing her sexual identity. thando writes: i was once again placed in a world where the mere mention of the word homosexuality was frowned on. however, this time it was not on an emotional footing as with my parents and siblings. this time it was deemed dirty, portrayed as evil and definitely not correct. for the first time in my life, i was mixing, not with just a partner but a whole group of lesbians, yet, i was feeling even more isolated because of the barriers, reser vations and limitations from a homophobic military discipline. although many homosexuals have served honourably in the military, and still do, few reveal their sexual identity because to succeed in the military environment, most feel pressured to hide their sexual orientation and this is precisely the predicament that places homosexuals in the armed forces in a double bind (heinecken, 1999). this is clearly portrayed by thando where she states: the majority of these ‘bad element swans’ were junior ratings, even though some had been in the navy for many years, but for some or other reason had always been overlooked for promotion. a small number of swans were promoted to senior rating ranks but were placed in posts that didn’t have much future. even though the draft policy on prevention and elimination of unfair discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation explicitly forbid discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, gays and lesbians in the dod have remained in the closet and the issue of homosexuality within the ranks remains mute. this is because of fear of victimization and career stagnation. since thando had concealed her sexual orientation and was in the closet at some stage in her career, she mentions: accelerated promotions followed, due to the belief of my immediate superiors that i was a good candidate for future success. the draft policy on the prevention and elimination of unfair discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation stipulates that leadership has a crucial role to play in eliminating all forms of unfair discrimination, fostering a positive climate and disseminating clear command policy, as well as creating and nurturing the processes to implement and maintain it. that is, leadership is a key to eliminating unfair discrimination and must be the cornerstone of the effort to eliminate such. in relation to thando’s sketch this aspect was contravened, in the sense that a person in higher authority who was supposed to protect her against unfair discrimination was the perpetrator in this case. the dod lost an asset as a result of lack of commitment to legislation. the policy also stipulates that every member in the dod is entitled to work in an environment free from all forms of unfair discrimination. thando and her gay colleagues were forced by the circumstances and fear of victimization to conceal their sexual orientation. thando relates: the personal life of a lesbian swan was far removed from the military day-to-day activities. veiled threats, verbal cautions and of course the endless psychological battering of those who were different were apparent right from the start. the irony of the whole situation was that many of these women throwing stones, were themselves deemed ‘possible undesirables’ but due to a fear of the system, a fear of victimisation and a fear of ending up in a dead end job, they attacked with everything they had. according to anderson and smith (1993) the great majority of gay, lesbian and bisexual people adjust to the stigma, prejudice, and discrimination associated with their sexual orientation. studies demonstrate that these people are psychologically well adjusted, and that only a small group who fails to do so is troubled and dysfunctional. in respect of thando’s case she seems to have been capable of rising up and believing in herself more especially after leaving the defense force: by this time, my self-esteem had taken a battering and i was questioning my qualities as a leader. how could i be a good leader if i am gay? my self-image had been dented more than i had thought. i was not this female/male freak who corrupted girls. i was a wholly desirable female, educated, passionate about my country and the peoples within it and with every right to hold my head up high in society. i was very fortunate that the company i worked for believed in ‘humankind’, specializing in cultural diversity. this placed me in a unique situation, where the colleagues i worked with were open and unbiased to all races, sexual orientation and religions. heinecken (1999) indicates that the few studies that exist indicate that both gays and lesbians are loyal; they accept the surrounding heterosexual culture, comply with the physical and emotional demands of their job, are not a security risk and conduct themselves in a professional manner. this can clearly be depicted in thando’s story where she points out that: selection was on and once again i came out with top honours. requirements for passing were standard psychological testing, f itness tests; work related situational exams and panel discussions as well as teamwork and general obser vations. after discussions with my candidate assessment superior (the divisional off icer of the candidates), instructors as well as discussions with the psychologists i was told that i was doing far better than what was required and acceptance was but a formality. heinecken (1999) states that because of homophobic sentiments, gay soldiers are unable to function effectively in the military because the heterosexual majority does not want to socialize with them, and when in position of command, they will fail to demand the respect of their subordinates. all these evolve around one central issue namely: acceptance of homosexuals in the military will undermine military effectiveness. this clearly confirms thando’s experiences. where she was victimized, she was not allowed to be an officer just from merely questioning one of the candidates. this is how she puts it: during this time, an admiral received the written signal and decided to do a bit of impromptu investigation. approaching a colleague, she was asked in a vague manner whether she would respond to a gay officer giving her orders. she replied in the negative. need i say more? i was at no time questioned by this man yet he decided on the basis of one reply that i was not officer material. the signal that was officially released had my name inserted one line lower than the original. one line lower meant – not accepted. at no time was any mention made as to the reasons for the non-acceptance. in fact at no stage was a letter of refusal even forwarded to me. when i questioned the officer in a gay woman’s experiences – part 2 41 charge of selection he made a vague reference to the fact that no posts were available, but shortly after that 2 appointments were made in exactly the posts that i had requested. after confronting the female colleague she confirmed the question but also commented that she would have had no problem receiving orders from a lesbian especially if she had known it was i. it is a fact that people base their perceptions on stereotypes and only after getting past the wall of bias can you start showing who you truly are and what you are capable of. in the case of lesbians you have not only the disadvantage of being a woman in a male dominated environment but also the added disadvantage of being a lesbian. the military’s concern over privacy rests on the stereotype that homosexuals are “superficials” who will exploit their positions of authority to sexually harass their subordinates. there is however, no evidence to support the notion that lesbians and gay men are more likely than heterosexuals to engage in sexual harassment or are less able to control their sexual impulses than their “straight” counterparts (heinecken, 1999). this is reflected in thando’s account, where she made mention of the fact: even though by far the majority of lesbians in the defense force had stable, mature and long relationships, this did not matter. the feeling was that you could flirt, seduce, fraternize and break marriages, as long as you were ’normal’. a straight woman could sleep around as much as she liked, but still be more highly regarded than a lesbian. as i mentioned earlier, we were judged by our sexual orientation more than by our capabilities and that was infuriating. to this day i still cannot understand the double standards. according to gevisser and cameron (1994) the overbearing emphasis on heterosexual familial relations had great influence on social attitudes in the barracks, and this is compounded by the official censure of homosexual activity. homophobia is encouraged in the barracks. this is clearly reflected by thando where she writes: i was once again placed in a world where the mere mention of the word homosexuality was frowned on. upon arriving in this brave new world of sailors, we were introduced to the ‘rights’ and the ‘wrongs’ of military life. this included, much to my surprise, an immediate and serious discussion regarding the bad elements in the sa nav y. they were described as dangerous and manipulative – living unhealthy lifestyles – also described as only wanting to corrupt new recruits. this is also emphasized in the study conducted by retief (1993) on police actions towards gay and bisexual men in south africa. he indicated that historically, government policy in south africa has been aimed at curbing homosexuality so as to preserve the “moral fiber” of the south african nation. although not every gay person in the military is arrested, tried, insulted and assaulted, there is an ever-present threat that is constructed by the rank. it is an open discouragement of any form of queer behaviour, and since mere discouragement is never enough to do away with normal impulses, a form of hidden terrorism against gays prevails which permeates every echelon of the military environment (gevisser & cameron, 1994). this relates to thando’s story where she was victimised and sidelined for officership irrespective of her excellent performance and the fact that she was way above the test requirements for her to qualif y to be an officer. this situation still prevails today where homosexuality is permitted by the law, rather than socially accepted. although there is a decrease in visible hostile attitudes in the military, there is however no indication in an increase in social acceptance (heinecken, 1999). this relates to thando’s experience: however, the feeling of insecurity within the military felt by all gay members was always present. the introduction of young lesbian swans changed the mood somewhat. they never felt the force of homophobia within the defense force and were quite happy and proud to show their sexual orientation. that seeped through the system and by the time i left, the overall mood was not fear, even though the older guard was still cautious. today the word is much less threatening and acceptable but in the 80’s it conjured up images of ‘total social outcast’. conclusion and recommendations as is evident in thando’s sketch, valuable and rich information were obtained on south african female homosexuality in general and lesbianism in the south african military context specifically. it is also clear that while a number of views of scholars and local policy makers are in accordance with thando’s views others don’t seem to be useful. it is important to note that even though in the national legislation, discrimination based on sexual orientation is prohibited; as reflected in both the white paper on defense and the draft policy on the prevention and elimination of unfair discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, negative attitudes towards homosexuals in the local military context are still prevalent. while visible hostile actions and attitudes against homosexuals may have decreased, there is clearly a lack of social acceptance in both the military and south african society at large. this requires first and foremost a more reinforced awareness campaign in the form of training so as to sensitize members of the dod on the issue of homosexuality in the military and also about the general guidelines of the draft policy. it is clear from an electronic literature search that the scientific studies undertaken in respect of homosexuality issues in the military and especially in the south african defense force is scarce. this absence of local knowledge points to a need to expand information regarding to gays and lesbians in the local military context, with a view of inculcating positive perceptions by enlightening the general public about the lesbianism issue in south africa and specifically in the local military context. it is a well-recognized fact amongst scholars that lesbians to a certain extent share the position of all women in society: their social stat us is globally, not withstanding culturally and geographically differences, generally inferior to that of men. wilton (1995, p. 184) writes aptly: “there are important local differences in the symbolic, material, organizational and political structures of patriarchal power, but such structures weigh on women around the planet. relative to men, women are kept poor, unhealthy, uneducated and powerless, and lesbians share in that general disadvantages. although sexuality and sexual identity are differently shaped and differently experienced within disparate (and sometimes incomparable) cultural, social and geographical locations, homosexuality exists worldwide and is subject to a variety of social, legal and physical restraints and punishments… lesbians share in some sense the social position ‘homosexual’ with gay men, though their positioning is modulated by the interventions of gender and, in particular, of male power and male economic advantage”. she (wilson, 1995, p. 189-190) continues: “(lesbians) share with non-lesbian women the problematic relationship to the labour market which has grown out of assumptions about women’s domestic role. the end result is a chronic lack of educational and training opportunities, a lower average wage than men, poorer working conditions, an increased likelihood of ending up in part-time, low-status and insecure work, confinement to stereotypically ‘feminine’ sectors of the labour market and restricted promotion prospects”. tlou, schurink42 while one might argue that the many recent “gender” orientated initiatives taken to improve the position of women in societ y generally, and in the work sector specifically, have improved present-day women’s social stat us, one cannot deny that in many cult ures and geographical areas around the world the fairer sex’s position at present still left much to be desired. regarding lesbians, while we have little information at our disposal, many scholars working in the field of “lesbian sociolog y” would agree that those living a female homosexual lifest yle, have been, exploited and stigmatized in all key areas of social living. with regard to lesbians and the military, wilton’s (1995) remarks that citizenship is assumed to be male and a soldier, whose dut y it is to fight and die for his nation when requested would probably and effectively excluding females from the military would be still be supported by many people around the globe today. from organizational and human resource perspectives it is important to undertake systematic research on areas of human living generally, and the working sphere including the armed forces specifically. such research is urgently required to study the perceived gravity of the situation faced by homosexually oriented workers, to examine the evolution of attitudes towards homosexualit y and to make recommendations regarding present-day career implications. gevisser and cameron (1994) indicating that local homosexual experience is unique because of the history of division and resistance in south africa, implicitly suggest further gay and male homosexual research in the country. it seems that a research agenda for local lesbian studies should enlighten us on the multifaceted world of south african lesbians and should at least for the immediate future provide guidelines to at least address the following: (i) discrimination against lesbians in employment and dismissal, (ii) homophobia as it affects both lesbians and south african societ y, (iii) the effects of exploitation, discrimination, and victimization on lesbian workers, and (iv) the role of social services and counseling in coping with these problems. although the present study provided some initial insights into the world of one concrete white lesbian who served her country for some years, in the light of the scarcity of scientific knowledge about homosexual issues in the south african military context, more research needs to be launched into the lives and experiences of both gay women and men in the dod. more particularly, more knowledge is necessary in order to establish a scientific basis for the “examination” of the current draft policy on the prevention and elimination of unfair discrimination based on sexual orientation. since homosexualit y in occupational contexts including the defense force has obvious implications for the optimal organizational functioning of such governmental institutions and for developing effective human resources within them, it is equally important that more local research (qualitative and quantitative) should be conducted on homosexuality and organizational dimensions specifically. such research should inter alia promote and sensitize the general public about gay and lesbian issues in an occupational context, and indicate the importance of non-discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. in short, issues related to lesbianism and male homosexuality needs to be highlighted as much as issues of race and gender in the workplace. there seems to be a strong local feeling that steps need to be taken that would ensure as far as possible the prohibition of discriminatory actions against homosexual people in the south african defense force. even though the draft policy stipulates that the dod is committed to eliminate all forms of unfair discrimination to any of its employees/members on the grounds of sexual orientation, there is an urgent need to practically enforce this policy based on solid social science research. here a participatory research design seems to be particularly relevant, i.e. a project should be designed, executed and evaluated by scholars and everyone involved and concerned with the dod. references anderson, c.w. & smith, h.r. 1993. stigma and honour: gay, lesbian and bisexual people in the us military. in: diamant, l. (ed.). homosexual issues in the workplace. usa: taylor & francis. cain, r. 1991. stigma management and gay identit y development. journal of the national association of social workers. 36 (1): 67-73. constitution of the republic of south africa act 108. 1996. pretoria. government printers. diamant, l. 1993. homosexual issues in the workplace. usa: taylor & francis. draft policy on non-discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in the department of defence. 2001. halley, j. 1999. don’t: a reader’s guide to the military’s anti-gay policy. london: duke university press. herek, g. et al. (eds.). 1996. out in the force: sexual orientation and the military. chicago: university of chicago press. gevisser, m. & cameron, e. (eds.). 1994. defiant desire: gay and lesbian lives in south africa. braamfontein: ravan press. guba, e.g. & lincoln, y.s. 1989. fourth generation evaluation. newbury park, ca: sage. goode, e.1984. deviant behaviour. 2nd ed. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. heinecken, l. 1998. social equality versus combat effectiveness: an institutional challenge for the military. african security review. 7 (6): 3-15. heinecken, l. 1999. the silent right: homosexuality and the military. african security review. 8 (5): 43-55. hunter, n.d. 1995. identity, speech and equality. in: duggan, l. & hunter, d. (eds.). sex wars: sexual dissent and political culture. new york, routledge. pp. 123-141. klawitter, m.m. 2002. gays and lesbians as workers and consumers in the economy. in: richardson, d. & seidman, s. (eds.). handbook of lesbian and gay studies. thousand oaks, ca: sage. pp. 329-338. kritzinger, c. 1987. the social construction of lesbianism. london: sage publications. liddicoat, r. 1961. a study of non-institutionalised homosexuals. journal of national institute of personnel research. nipr 8: 217-249. lowney, j. winslow, r.w. & winslow, v. 1981. deviant reality. alternative world views. second edition. boston: allyn & bacon, inc. mcghee, d. 1998. looking and acting the part: gays in the armed forces—a case of passing masculinity. feminist legal studies, 4: 205-244. muntingh, d.c. 1967. lesbinisme: ’n sosiologiese studie. pretoria: university of pretoria (unpublished m.a. thesis). patton, m.c. 1978. utilization-focused evaluation. beverly hills, ca: sage. patton, m.c. 1986. utilization-focused evaluation. 2nd ed. beverly hills, ca: sage. patton, m.c. 1990. qualitative evaluation and research methods. 2nd ed. newbury park, ca: sage. patton, m.c. 1997. utilization-focused evaluation. the new century text. 3rd ed. thousand oaks, ca: sage. plummer, k. 1975. sexual stigma: an interactionist account. london: routledge & kegan paul ltd. plummer, k. 1981. the making of the modern homosexual. london: hutchinson & co. (publishers) ltd. plummer, k. 1992. modern homosexualities: fragments of lesbian and gay experience. london: routledge. redelinghuys, j.l. 1978. ’n psigodinamiese ondersoek na die verskynsel van lesbinisme binne n gesinstruktuur. pretoria: university of pretoria (unpublished m.a. thesis). a gay woman’s experiences – part 2 43 retief, g. 1993. policing the perverts: an exploratory investigation of the nature and social impact of police action towards gay and bisexual men in south africa. a research report submitted to the institute of criminology at the university of cape town and to the centre for science development of the human sciences research council, pretoria. research report 1-93:1-52. retief, g. 1994. keeping sodom out of the laager: state repression of homosexuality in apartheid south africa. in: gevisser, m. & cameron, e. (eds.). defiant desire: gay and lesbian lives in south africa. braamfontein: ravan press. pp. 99-111. richardson, d. & seidman, s. (eds.). handbook of lesbian and gay studies. thousand oaks, ca: sage. schneider, b.e. 1987. coming out at work: bridging the private/public gap. work and occupations, 13 (4): 463-487. rimmerman, c. (ed.). 1996. gay rights, military wrongs: political perspectives on lesbians and gays in the military. new york: garland publishing. schurink, w.j. 1981. gay vroue: ’n sosiologiese verkenning van die leefwyse van n aantal lesbiers aan die hand van outobiografiese sketse. pretoria: human sciences research council. schurink, w.j. 1986. illustration: autobiographical sketch of a lesbian (lecture 2). in: ferreira, m. et al. module 3: introduction to qualitative research methods. (lectures presented during the first hsrc school in research methodology, pretoria, 30 june-10 july.) schurink, w.j. 1989. die realiteit van homoseksualisme: ’n sociologies-kwalitatiewe ontleding. (the realit y of homosexualism: a sociological-qualitative analysis.) potchefstroom: potchefstroomse universiteit vir christelike hoër onderwys. (unpublished doctoral thesis). schurink, w.j. 1999. programme evaluation: views and practices from the field and general guidelines for the crime prevention iniatives at the wynberg, berea and marabastad/belle ombre modal interchanges. (draft discussion document for the project entitled: crime prevention on public transport). pretoria: hsrc. scott, w. & stanley, s. 1994. gays and lesbians in the military. hawthorne, new york: aldine de gruyter. simon, w. & gagnon, j.h. 1973. a conformity greater than deviance: the lesbian. in: gagnon, j.h and simon, w. (eds.). sexual conduct: the social sources of human sexuality. london: hutchinson. stychin, c. 1996. to take him at his word: theorizing law, sexuality and the us military exclusion policy. social and legal studies, 5: 179-200. tessina, t.b. 1989. gay relationships for men and women. los angeles: jeremy p. tarcher, inc. toms, i.1994. ivan toms is a fairy? the south african defence force, the end conscription campaign, and me. in: gevisser, m. & cameron, e. (eds.). defiant desire: gay and lesbian lives in south africa. braamfontein: ravan press. pp. 258-263. weinberg, g. 1973. society and the healthy homosexual. new york: anchor books. whisman, v. 1996. queer by choice: lesbians, gay men and the politics of identity. new york: routledge. wilton, t. 1995. lesbian studies: setting an agenda. london: routledge. tlou, schurink44 19613 nov 2009 [final version.indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #196 (page number not for citation purposes) work-readiness skills in the fasset sector authors: melandi raftopoulos1 sanet coetzee1 deléne visser1 affi liations: 1department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: sanet coetzee e-mail: coetzsc@unisa.ac.za postal address: department of industrial and organisational psychology, po box 392, unisa, 0003, south africa keywords: employability skills; graduates; transferable skills; generic skills; career skills dates: received: 20 feb. 2009 accepted: 16 july 2009 published: 04 sept. 2009 how to cite this article: raftopoulos, m., coetzee, s. & visser, d. (2009). work-readiness skills in the fasset sector. sa journal of human resource management/ sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), art. #196, 8 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.196 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. abstract the objective of the study was to determine the work-readiness skills that are regarded as important by employers and graduates in the fasset sector of south africa. a cross-sectional survey design was used to achieve this objective. two convenience samples, namely 24 employers and 333 graduates, completed the work readiness skills scale. this scale was validated as a one-factor model with an alpha coeffi cient of 0.88. oral and written communication, self-discipline, time management, interpersonal skills and teamwork, problem-solving skills and positive work ethic were rated as important skills for securing employment in this sector by employers and graduates alike. in addition, employers valued numeracy skills and motivation, whereas graduates regarded confi dence and leadership skills as important. the results have implications for the curriculum design of the fasset work readiness programme presented to graduates in this industry. 119vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 8 introduction there is general consensus that the fundamental nature and structure of work, of the economy, of family life and of society are changing globally and will continue to change at an ever-increasing rate (rojewski & lasonen, 2004). this change is being sparked by increased competition due to factors such as globalisation, higher demands for fi nancial performance, technology, speed, changing customer needs and a focus on people as a competitive advantage (nabi, 2003). fewer employees are therefore expected to have more skills in the turbulent economic environment in which organisations are fi nding themselves (dlamini, 2001; lee, 1994; nabi, 2003). globalisation is further urging the workforce to make rapid adjustments in fl exibility, to exhibit multi-tasking and even to manifest risk-taking (coutinho, dam & blustein, 2008). skills development has taken on a new signifi cance across the globe as nations and companies compete to attract, develop and retain the best and most highly skilled workers. oosthuizen and kara (2008) confi rmed that employees are critical in creating a competitive advantage and found skills development to be one of the most prominent factors in this regard. this war for talent is also cascading down to the employment of graduates in organisations. in this regard, nabi (2003) argued that the optimum use of graduate skills enhances the competitiveness of organisations. it is also evident, however, that ‘graduates are entering a more fl exible, insecure and technology-dependent workplace than ever before’ (smith & kruger, 2008, p. 123) and therefore need very specifi c skills required by the workplace in the 21st century. since moving from an industrial to an information era in the world of work, for example, workers are now required to be able to use logical-abstract thinking to diagnose problems, to research and apply knowledge, to propose solutions and to design and implement those solutions, often as a member of a team (maclean & ordonez, 2007). smith and kruger (2008) proposed that, apart from being skilled, from having the required knowledge in a specifi c discipline and from having the up-to-date technical skills required in a profession, graduates also need generic skills. smith and kruger (2008) adopted the defi nition of the national centre for vocational education research for this, which states that generic skills are skills that apply across a variety of job and life contexts. in this regard, davies (2000) defi ned transferable skills as the ability to use skills learned in one situation in other situations. munby, versnel, hutchinson, chin and berg (2003) suggested a different approach to transferable or generalisable skills. according to them, workplace knowledge and learning are highly contextual and they emphasised that more research should explore which aspects of work are generalisable. they further argued that routines are central to all workplaces and acknowledged that routines are different in different contexts, but emphasised the fact that these remain routines. raybould and sheedy (2005) suggested that there are transferable skills or employability skills that refer to the personal abilities of individuals that can be transferred from one position to another and used within any profession in any stage of their careers. maclean and ordonez (2007) also argued that the required skills set for jobs is changing so rapidly that employers are looking more for trainable recruits with generic employability skills sets, such as fl exibility, a quickness of learning and persuasive communication and teamwork, rather than recruits trained for specifi c employment. workforce readiness, work-readiness skills, employability skills, workplace know-how, transferable skills and career skills are some of the terms used to describe these generic skills needed by job entrants to be successful in the world of work (o’neil, allred & baker, 1997; smith & kruger, 2008; zinser, 2003). for the purposes of this research, these skills are referred to as ‘work-readiness skills’. work-readiness skills in the past two decades, several studies have been undertaken to determine the set of work-readiness skills required of graduates. some of the studies that may be useful in identifying a set of workreadiness skills appropriate to graduates in the fasset sector in south africa are given in historical order in the following paragraphs. between 1984 and 1991, at least fi ve major studies were conducted in the united states in order to to identify and defi ne the basic skills required by job entrants for work readiness across all jobs (o’neil et original research raftopoulous, coetzee & visser sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 19 6 (page number not for citation purposes) 120 vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 8 al., 1997). the key underlying concern was to address economic difficulties and the challenge of competing in world markets (o’neil et al., 1997). in the late 1980s, greenwood, edge and hodgetts (1987) undertook research over 13 years to identify the skills that managers expect from graduates. across three studies, the following skills were commonly identified by managers: the ability to communicate; the ability to analyse data, to propose solutions and to make decisions; the ability to plan, to organise and to coordinate; and the ability to work effectively with others. in australia, the mayer committee of 1992 defined a set key of competencies that were essential in the new workplace (smith & comyn, 2004). the national center for research on evaluation, standards, and student testing identified and categorised workforce skills in five major studies (o’neil et al., 1997). in these studies, experts (who consisted mainly of educators, business people, scholars and policy-makers) were asked to identify the skills necessary in the world of work. o’neil listed the four categories of skills that were identified by these five studies, which can be summarised as follows: basic academic skills: basic listening and speaking skills.• high-order thinking skills: reasoning, problem-solving, • creativity and decision-making skills and the ability to learn. interpersonal and teamwork skills: negotiation and conflict-• resolution skills, leadership skills and the ability to work with others from diverse backgrounds. personal characteristics and attitudes: self-esteem, • motivation and the taking of responsibility for personal actions and growth. hughey and mussnug (1997) pointed out that knowledge-matter experts argue that it is important to teach people how to think, rather than teaching them specific skills. doncaster (2000, p. 350) agreed with this view because ‘learning how to learn rather than simply applying known solutions to problems is becoming an ever-more important ability’. better decision-making and problem-solving skills help employees to remain employable (hughey & mussnug, 1997). in south africa, van schoor (2000) surveyed 322 organisations and found that they regarded willingness and ability to learn, business skills, interpersonal relations, leadership skills, initiative, integrity and enthusiasm to be the most sought-after skills, values and attitudes of graduates. more recently, the business council of australia and the australian chamber of commerce and industry (2002) issued a report aimed at clearly defining the concept of employability and at providing a more widely acceptable list of employability skills (smith & comyn, 2004). nabi (2003) maintained that graduate employability skills are not universally defined when he considered research conducted in the british context. he regarded graduate employability skills as including traditional academic skills (such as the critical evaluation of evidence, analysis, logical argumentation and problem-solving) as well as the core or key skills that are required by higher institutions (such as communication, numeracy and teamwork). basic skills required are associated with personal development and with occupational and information-technology skills and are an element of competitiveness (addis, 2003). basic skills, such as reading skills for the understanding of safety instructions, are required in the workplace to function effectively. basic writing skills have become more important as a result of globalisation (addis, 2003). falconer and pettigrew (2003) listed self-reliance, self-discipline, the ability to work harmoniously with others and the ability to apply knowledge to solve practical problems as transferable skills. they argued that these transferable skills should be incorporated into the curricula of university programmes. they furthermore conducted a survey in the financial-services profession in the uk on the range of skills considered important by both graduates and professionals. the list of skills generated from the study (teamwork, oral and written communication, problem-solving, information-handling, negotiation, listening, planning, resourcefulness and innovation) can also be grouped according to the four groups of skills suggested by greenwood et al. (1987). zinser (2003) maintained that employability skills include the effective management of resources, communication and interpersonal skills, teamwork and problem-solving skills, and the acquisition and retention of a job. birt, wallis and winternitz (2004), commenting on the variables considered important to south african talent, emphasised the importance of knowledge workers who are able to solve complex problems with a good understanding of cause-andeffect relationships and who are adaptable to changes within an organisation and environment. horn (2006) viewed proficiency in mathematics, computation, reading, writing, the effective use of resources and information, interpersonal skills, the understanding of systems and mastering of technology and flexibility in coping with change in the workplace as the new competencies required in the current knowledge era. smith and kruger (2008) extensively reviewed lists of generic skills and identified seven categories. these categories are basic skills (such as literacy and numeracy), communication skills (such as negotiation and conflict management), management skills (such as planning, organising and decision-making), environmental-awareness skills (such as business awareness), intellectual skills (such as analysis, critical and creative thinking, and problem-solving), self and career-management skills (such as personal drive, resilience and self-awareness) and interpersonal skills (such as teamwork and networking). clarke (2008) also reviewed the skills set making up the employability of individuals and commented that it is unrealistic to expect everyone to possess all these generic skills. this does, however, highlight the importance of a broad range of personal and transferable skills that facilitates the employment of individuals in the 21st century (clarke, 2008). it is clear from the above that there are different views regarding the skills required by graduates. graduates, however, are challenged to prepare themselves for the world of work and for taking ownership of their careers without having a clear picture of which skills are required in the work environment. this seems like an unfair challenge. of particular interest is the argument by munby et al. (2003) that it is easy enough to compile lists of employability and essential skills but that it is quite a different matter to conduct the research needed to determine whether these skills are the actual competencies sought by employers and used in the workplace. it is therefore important that not only is a list of work-readiness skills identified but also that research is conducted to determine the applicability of these skills to the workplace. although the south african government is committed to taking concrete steps to raise the skills profile in the labour market (department of labour, 2003), there appears to be a lack of academic research in the domain of employability skills to support the much-needed skills-development agenda required for the youth of this country and a lack of research relating to issues of globalisation, knowledge, skills and development (mcgrath, 2006). du toit (2005) pointed to the lack of research and the application of research evidence to inform policy decisions s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #196 (page number not for citation purposes) work-readiness skills in the fasset sector 121vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 8 in developing countries. she called for more research aimed at identifying the needs of clients in the different sectors that can unearth problems experienced in the transition to employment. she furthermore emphasised the need to determine the major factors that either support or hinder the implementation of successful transition or access to employment (du toit, 2005). addressing work-readiness skills development in the fasset sector in south africa, sector education and training authorities (setas) were established in terms of the skills development act 97 of 1998 (republic of south africa, 1998). they are responsible for the development of skills in the various sectors. fasset is the seta for finance, accounting, management-consulting and other related financial services. this includes organisations that perform financial-service activities, such as the management of investment entities and trusts, the rendering of companysecretary services, the administration of financial markets, security-dealing, stock-broking, the management of asset portfolios, the management of development organisations, tax, accounting, bookkeeping and auditing services, cost and management accounting, and business and managementconsulting services (fasset, n.d.). by means of its sector-skills plan, fasset analyses the demand for and supply of skills to the sector and determines the skills needs and skills-development priorities for the sector. it identified the training of unemployed youth and their absorption into the formal sector as a priority. the aim is to ensure that these people are equipped with the necessary academic and practical skills required in the workplace (fasset, 2004).as a result, the fasset work readiness programme was introduced to improve the preparation of graduates, especially of previously disadvantaged graduates, for the world of work. a consortium was awarded the contract to design and execute this work readiness programme. the 12-week work readiness programme consists of both classroom-based (structured) training and skills-based, on-thejob training. various modules were designed to equip graduates with the skills required in the workplace. apart from aspects such as career development, networking and job-seeking strategies, the generic employability skills covered during this course include the following: essential individual skills (such as time management, • conflict management and effective oral communication) a positive work ethic (such as dress and grooming)• business knowledge and skills (such as office practice, • effective meeting skills, written business communication, project-management skills and presentation skills) team effectiveness (such as one’s role and impact in a team • and getting along with others to achieve a common goal) information technology (it) (such as basic it skills).• although work-readiness programmes may benefit graduates in many ways, they are valuable only if they address needs in the workplace. maclean and ordonez (2007) substantiated this and argued that, as the world of work changes, education and skills development should change accordingly. in their view, a first step in this process is for a thorough needs analysis to be conducted. it is often more difficult, however, to measure or articulate the mental and social skills that are needed in employment, even though skills such as soundness of analysis, teamwork and the ability to learn are more of a determinant to productivity. maclean and ordonez therefore suggested that education or training systems for employability should be demand-driven rather than supply-driven. the question addressed in this study was therefore whether the fasset work readiness programme addresses the basic skills that employers require from graduates when they recruit staff for entry-level positions. because graduates often assume that they have the skills required for the world of work but are subsequently disillusioned when not appointed, it was also deemed important to investigate the perceptions of graduates regarding the skills that they believe as important for the world of work compared to what employers believe as important. the objectives of this study were therefore threefold, namely 1) to conceptualise the skills and competencies required from graduates for entry-level positions in the fasset sector, 2) to develop a valid and reliable measure to evaluate the perceptions of the importance of work-readiness skills (the work readiness skills scale) and 3) to determine whether the skills and competencies advanced by means of the fasset work readiness programme and those regarded as important by graduates are in accordance with the skills and competencies sought by employers in the fasset sector. research design research approach a cross-sectional survey design was used. this design is relevant where groups of subjects at various stages of development are studied simultaneously (shaughnessy & zechmeister, 1997). in this study, data were collected from the target population by means of questionnaires. research method research participants this study required two samples: a sample of companies registered with the fasset seta interested in employing graduates, and a sample of unemployed graduates. in terms of the populations from which the samples were drawn and in accordance with the fasset sector profile (fasset, n.d.), it was estimated that the fasset sector consisted of 7 200 organisations, which employed an estimated 92 000 employees (approximately 1% of employment in the formal sector of the south african economy). almost two thirds of the member organisations in the fasset sector employed five or fewer employees and another 30% of the member organisations employed between six and 20 employees (fasset, n.d.). it was important to first establish whether employers in the fasset sector employed graduates because the study could not take place if this were not the case. purposeful sampling was therefore used because only employers interested in recruiting graduates from the fasset work readiness programme would be contacted to participate in the study. questionnaires were distributed to employers in the fasset sector at the beginning of the fasset work readiness programme. a total of 68 organisations registered with fasset indicated interest in recruiting graduates from the fasset work readiness programme. these 68 employers were therefore targeted for the purpose of determining their skills requirements for graduates. among the 26 organisations that responded, 24 of the responses were valid because two of the organisations indicated registration with a seta other than fasset. the majority of the 24 organisations (56% or 14 out of the 24) represented the accounting, bookkeeping, auditing and tax services subsector of fasset. 16% of the organisations were registered as investment entities and trusts and as company-secretary services. none of the organisations were registered with fasset under the subsector of development organisations or sars and government organisations. altogether 45.8% of the 24 organisations had more than 150 employees. 10 of the organisations recruited one to five graduates annually. six of the organisations recruited more than 51 graduates annually. a further 3 out of the 24 organisations recruited between 21 and 50 graduates annually. the 24 organisations formed the first sample in this study. the second population studied was that of unemployed graduates who had tertiary qualifications relevant to the fasset sector. this original research raftopoulous, coetzee & visser sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 19 6 (page number not for citation purposes) 122 vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 8 population consisted of the pool of unemployed graduates that was recruited for the purpose of the 2006 fasset work readiness programme. from this population, a purposeful sample of 333 graduates was drawn. these 333 candidates, who had been successful in the first screening phase and had been invited to attend interviews, were all asked to complete questionnaires. the mean age of the graduates was 24.13, with the youngest respondent being 20 and the oldest respondent being 34. a substantial percentage of the graduates (48.9% or 163 of the 333) indicated work experience due to part-time work, whereas 43% of the graduates indicated no work experience at all. only 5.4% of the graduates (18 of the 333) had been employed in a full-time position in the past. the majority of the graduates (66.6% or 222 of the 333) had obtained their qualifications the previous year. informed consent was obtained from all the participants by means of their signature on a letter that explained the purpose of the study. participation was voluntary and the respondents had the right to withdraw at any stage. measuring instrument two questionnaires were designed to obtain the information necessary for the research: one questionnaire targeted organisations that had registered • with fasset and that had indicated that they employ graduates. the goal of the questionnaire was to determine the work-readiness skills that these organisations regarded as important. a parallel questionnaire targeted the unemployed graduates • who had participated in the 2006 fasset work readiness programme and aimed to determine the work-readiness skills that these graduates regarded as important. the questionnaires were developed with the assistance of subject-matter experts. opinions were obtained from a statistician, from experts in the field of academic development and from the developers of the work readiness programme. the steps followed in the construction of the questionnaires were a combination of the steps proposed by de vos, strydom, fouché and delport (2002), terre blanche and durrheim (2004) and fink (2006). a list of work-readiness skills was drafted from the literature. three groups of work-readiness skills were identified based on a qualitative analysis of available literature, namely academic/ technical skills, basic/generic/transferable skills and work experience. the questions in the questionnaires were structured around these three categories of skills. the first section of this work readiness skills scale requested the respondents to provide biographical information. the questionnaire was accompanied by a covering letter that included the following information: the purpose of the research (motivating the respondent to participate); a guarantee of confidentiality; the contact details of the researcher; instructions for completing the questionnaire; and an offer to send the respondent a summary of the research findings as suggested by fink (2006). the second section of the work readiness skills scale consisted of 35 questions and statements related to work readiness. the contents of the items addressed to the organisations and to the graduates were identical, except that, in the case of the organisations, the items referred to the organisation involved. the respondents were asked to indicate their answers by marking crosses in the appropriate boxes. for the first 10 questions, the respondents had to choose between the following six options: ‘totally disagree’; ‘disagree to a large extent’; ‘slightly disagree’; ‘slightly agree’; ‘agree to a large extent’; and ‘totally agree’. for questions 11 to 35, the respondents had to choose between the following five options: ‘not at all’; ‘to a slight extent’; ‘to a moderate extent’; ‘to a large extent’; and ‘completely’. the third section of the work readiness skills scale requested the respondents to rank the three categories of skills or competencies – ‘academic/technical skills’, ‘basic/generic/transferable skills’ and ‘work experience’ – on a three-point scale by indicating ‘1’ next to the most important category of skill or competency, ‘2’ next to the second-most important and ‘3’ next to the thirdmost important. for the final set of items, the respondents were instructed to select the 10 most important skills or competencies from a list of 22. the list containing these work-readiness skills had originally been drafted from the literature. the respondents then had to rank their own selection of 10 skills on a scale from 1 to 10, where 10 indicated the most important and 1 the least important. the internal validity of the scale was ensured through face validity and content validity. to enhance internal validity, the questionnaires were also pilot-tested. this was done to ensure that the questions reflected the theoretical content of the domain, that the questions were clear and concise and that errors were rectified (de vos et al., 2002). the questionnaires were finalised after feedback had been received from the respondents of the pilot study. construct validity and the reliability of the scale were determined through exploratory factor analysis and cronbach alpha coefficients. research procedure the questionnaire for the unemployed graduates was administered in groups, which saved cost and time. all the respondents were exposed to the same conditions while completing the questionnaire. the questionnaire for the organisations was selfadministered because it was emailed. each organisation’s hr consultant responsible for graduate recruitment and selection was telephoned before the questionnaire was emailed to explain the importance of the research and to encourage participation. email reminders were sent to the respondents to encourage them to complete the questionnaire. results work readiness skills scale the first step of the analyses entailed examining the psychometric properties of the work readiness skills scale. this step involved determining the dimensionality of the questionnaire by means of exploratory factor analysis and by estimating its internal consistency reliability. the item results of the 35-item scale administered to the 333 graduates were used for this purpose. to determine the suitability of the data for exploratory factor analysis, several initial diagnostic procedures were carried out. firstly, the skewness and kurtosis of the individual items were examined with the purpose of eliminating items with high skewness and kurtosis. items 4, 8 and 18 were eliminated from the subsequent factor analysis because their skewness and kurtosis values exceeded the absolute values of 2 and 5, respectively. secondly, diagnostic tests were performed to ascertain whether the intercorrelation matrix contained an adequate number of substantial pairwise correlations and low partial correlations to justify the factor analysis. three of the items, namely items 1, 2 and 3, yielded measures of sampling adequacy (msas) smaller than 0.60. these items were therefore dropped from subsequent analyses. thirdly, a principal-axis factor analysis was conducted on the intercorrelations of the remaining items and the communalities obtained were examined. only item 6 yielded a communality smaller than 0.20. after dropping item 6, the kaiser meyer-olkin msa was equal to 0.88. the above results provided sufficient justification to proceed with a factor analysis on the remaining 28 items. eight factors accounting for 57.09% of the variance were extracted by means of the principal-axis factoring technique. the resulting factor s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #196 (page number not for citation purposes) work-readiness skills in the fasset sector 123vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 8 matrix was rotated to a simple structure using the direct oblimin rotation procedure. the rotated factor-pattern matrix, which includes the communalities associated with the scales, is presented in table 1. the variables were ordered and grouped by size of loading to facilitate interpretation. a second factor analysis to further reduce the number of latent variables was prompted by the multitude of factors, the small number of items per factor, the fact that some factors were not adequately determined and the intercorrelations of the factors. the input for this factor analysis was the individuals’ scores on scales formed by combining the items into scales according to the magnitude of the factor loadings. the process entailed allocating every item to a single subscale, namely the subscale for which it had its largest factor loading. eight scores per individual were thus intercorrelated and served as the input for the second factor analysis. a single factor explaining 45.05% of the variance was extracted. the factor loadings and communalities are reported in table 2. the authors decided to proceed with the single-factor solution for the work readiness skills scale. the cronbach alpha computed for the 28-item scale was equal to 0.88 (see table 3). in order to compare the perceptions regarding the importance of work-readiness skills between the graduate and organisational groups, the difference between the means of the two groups was tested for statistical significance by means of an independent samples t-test. table 3 presents the descriptive statistics for the groups. the graduate group regarded the skills described in the work readiness skills scale as significantly more important than the group of hr consultants representing the 24 organisations (t(357) = 4.80, p < 0.001). the difference was associated with a large effect size (d = 0.806). ranking of the categories of skills in the second section of the questionnaire, the graduates and organisations were asked to rank the three categories of skills or competencies from 1 to 3, according to what they perceived to be the first, second and third-most important skill or competency for graduates. the means and standard deviations of the ratings by the graduates and organisations are presented in table 4. a lower mean indicates higher importance. table 1 factor-pattern matrix for the 28-item work readiness skills scale item factor h2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 31 0.73 0.62 30 0.72 -0.16 -0.10 0.13 0.65 35 0.65 0.10 -0.11 0.53 21 0.22 0.17 0.16 0.17 0.25 23 0.94 -0.13 -0.11 0.76 22 0.57 0.37 24 0.47 0.31 19 0.16 0.36 0.22 -0.13 0.36 16 0.58 0.39 34 0.24 0.35 0.12 0.24 10 0.56 0.33 9 0.20 0.24 0.50 0.12 -0.15 -0.30 0.53 7 0.19 -0.12 0.33 0.12 0.21 27 0.18 -0.14 -0.58 0.21 0.58 26 0.10 0.11 -0.52 0.23 0.50 17 0.12 -0.46 -0.20 0.43 14 0.10 -0.38 -0.33 -0.13 0.42 20 0.23 0.18 0.26 -0.26 0.40 15 -0.13 0.13 0.22 -0.26 0.14 0.25 11 -0.76 0.53 12 0.10 -0.52 0.36 13 0.16 -0.14 -0.45 0.24 -0.14 0.49 5 0.18 -0.13 -0.24 -0.16 0.22 33 0.46 0.24 28 0.29 -0.13 0.38 0.44 32 0.20 -0.11 0.37 0.26 25 0.12 -0.14 -0.12 0.16 0.31 0.28 29 0.18 0.12 0.15 -0.11 0.19 0.22 0.32 factor loadings smaller than 0.10 were omitted and factor loadings larger than 0.30 are in bold typeset table 3 scale descriptives for the 28-item work readiness skills scale and comparison between means of graduates and organisations n m sd se (mean) skewness kurtosis cronbach alpha graduates 333 120.52 11.26 0.62 -0.48 0.38 0.88 organisations 24 108.88 14.43 2.95 levene’s test for equality of variances t-test for equality of means f p t df p (2-tailed) 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper 0.35 0.55 4.80 357 0.000 6.87 16.42 table 2 factor matrix of the second factor analysis scales defined by factors of initial factor analysis factor loadings h2 scale 5 (items 26, 27, 17, 14, 20, 15) 0.78 0.62 scale 1 (items 30, 31, 35, 21) 0.70 0.48 scale 3 (items 16, 34) 0.63 0.40 scale 6 (items 11, 12, 13, 5) 0.62 0.38 scale 8 (items 32, 25, 29) 0.62 0.38 scale 7 (items 33, 28) 0.52 0.27 scale 2 (items 22, 23, 24, 19) 0.50 0.25 scale 4 (items 7, 9, 10) 0.48 0.23 original research raftopoulous, coetzee & visser sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 19 6 (page number not for citation purposes) 124 vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 8 the results indicate that both groups rated the categories of skills or competencies in the following order of importance: academic/technical skills• basic/generic/transferable skills• work experience• the employers of graduates in the fasset sector and the graduates themselves therefore regarded their academic and technical skills as the most important category of skills required of graduates in the world of work. both groups viewed generic skills to be more important than work experience. ranking of 22 skills or competencies in the final section of the questionnaire, the respondents were requested to rank the 10 most important skills in order of importance from a list of 22 specific skills. they were requested to select the 10 most important skills from the list and thereafter to rank these so that a score of 10 indicated the most important skill and a score of 1 the least important skill among the 10 skills. in order to obtain a measure of how important each of the 22 skills was regarded by the respondents, the mean ranking per skill was multiplied by the number of individuals who rated that particular skill (nxm). the highest nxm score was therefore table 4 rating of categories of skills/competencies category of skills/competency graduates organisations n m sd n m sd academic and technical skills (i.e. skills obtained during studies) 294 1.72 0.76 20 1.30 0.57 basic/generic/transferable skills (communication skills, personality characteristics, interpersonal skills and teamwork, occupational skills, it skills, effective management of resources, time-management skills, world and local awareness) 294 1.83 0.77 20 1.80 0.52 work experience 293 2.45 0.73 20 2.90 0.31 table 5 descriptive statistics and ranking of skills/competencies by graduates skill/competency n m sd nxm rank *oral communication 228 5.80 3.03 1322.40 1 *self-discipline 222 5.80 2.72 1287.60 2 confidence 200 5.48 2.63 1096.00 3 *time management 221 4.32 2.70 954.72 4 *interpersonal skills and teamwork 199 4.38 2.78 871.62 5 *written communication 162 5.19 2.68 840.78 6 *problem-solving skills 190 3.76 2.69 714.40 7 *positive work ethic 153 4.37 2.81 668.61 8 leadership 138 4.68 2.76 645.84 9 decision-making skills 160 3.94 2.67 630.40 10 motivation 131 4.54 2.65 594.74 11 adaptability 121 4.37 2.65 528.77 12 innovation 74 3.78 2.96 479.72 13 it skills 122 3.83 2.93 467.26 14 negotiation skills 102 4.31 2.81 439.62 15 mature attitude 92 4.67 2.88 429.64 16 numeracy skills 109 3.31 2.79 360.79 17 self-development 92 3.89 2.44 357.88 18 self-reliance 66 4.76 2.54 314.16 19 awareness of how changes in the world impact on the organisation 86 2.67 2.92 229.62 20 occupation skills (job-search strategies) 50 4.54 3.25 227.00 21 effective management of resources 59 2.63 2.41 155.17 22 * skill/competency overlaps with those among top 10 listed in table 6 table 6 descriptive statistics and ranking of skills/competencies by organisations skill/competency n m sd nxm rank *oral communication 13 6.62 2.76 86.06 1 numeracy skills 12 7.00 2.80 84.00 2 *positive work ethic 13 5.54 2.44 72.02 3 *interpersonal skills and teamwork 15 4.73 2.28 70.95 4 *self-discipline 11 5.18 2.68 56.98 5 *problem-solving skills 9 5.33 2.96 47.97 6 motivation 9 5.22 2.49 46.98 7 *time management 13 3.54 2.70 46.02 8 *written communication 12 3.17 2.33 38.04 9 mature attitude 5 7.60 0.89 38.00 10 it skills 11 2.82 2.27 31.02 11 confidence 7 4.00 3.51 28.00 12 adaptability 8 2.87 2.42 22.96 13 self-development 5 4.40 1.82 22.00 14 leadership 5 3.40 3.51 17.00 15 effective management of resources 7 1.86 2.11 13.02 16 occupation skills (job-search strategies) 2 6.50 3.54 13.00 17 decision-making skills 4 3.25 1.71 13.00 18 self-reliance 4 2.75 2.75 11.00 19 innovation 1 7.00 7.00 20 negotiation skills 1 4.00 4.00 21 awareness of how changes in the world impact on the organisation 2 0.50 0.71 1.00 22 * skill/competency overlaps with those among top 10 listed in table 5 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #196 (page number not for citation purposes) work-readiness skills in the fasset sector 125vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 8 the highest ranking skill (indicated by a rank of 1), the secondhighest nxm score indicated the second-highest ranking skill and so forth. the results of the rankings by the graduates are presented in table 5 and the results for the organisations are presented in table 6. the nxm scores of skills not among the final top 10 skills are also included in the tables. both the graduates and organisations regarded oral communication as the most important work-readiness skill for new employees. altogether seven of the 10 top ranking skills was shared by the graduates and organisations alike, indicating a fair degree of consensus between the two groups. apart from oral communication, these skills were self-discipline, interpersonal skills and teamwork, positive work ethic, time management, problem-solving skills and written communication. numeracy skills were rated second-most important by the organisations, whereas these skills were placed in the seventeenth position by the graduates. seven of the 22 work-readiness skills that were originally drafted from literature were directly addressed by the fasset work readiness programme and five of these were included among the top 10 rankings by the graduates and organisations. these were oral communication, interpersonal skills and teamwork, positive work ethic, time management and written communication. discussion the objectives of this study were threefold: to conceptualise the skills and competencies required from graduates for entrylevel positions in the fasset sector; to develop a valid and reliable measure to evaluate the perceptions of the importance of work-readiness skills; and to determine whether the skills and competencies advanced by means of the fasset work readiness programme and those regarded as important by the graduates are in accordance with the skills and competencies sought by employers in the fasset sector. the work readiness skills scale developed for the purposes of this research was validated as a one-factor model with an acceptable internal reliability of 0.88. according to the guidelines of nunnally and bernstein (1994), this can be seen as acceptable internal reliability. it was therefore a valid and reliable indicator of the work-readiness skills regarded as important by both employers and graduates in the fasset sector in south africa. taylor (2005) surveyed 128 youths and 33 employers in the building and construction industry in australia employing these youths regarding the most important skills for employability. she found that it was generally attitudinal attributes rather than skills proficiency that employers looked for. maclean and ordonez (2007) also stated that trainable recruits with generic employability skills are more sought after than trained recruits with specific employment skills. contrary to these findings, however, both the employers and the graduates in the current study regarded academic and technical skills as more important than generic or transferable skills in graduate applications. this result is in contrast with the recent practice of leading firms, such as goldman and sachs, where flexibility, trainability, persuasive communication and teamwork are regarded as more important than accounting or mathematics skills (maclean & ordonez, 2007). a significant difference was also found in terms of the statement ‘only graduates with a degree will be employed in entry level positions’. the organisations valued this statement more than the graduates. it thus appears that the organisations are more inclined to recruit people who have completed a degree. this suggests that the type of academic qualifications and degree of field-specific technical skills may still be a key determining factor for employment in the fasset sector in south africa, despite the international trend of emphasising generic skills in selection and providing in-house training programmes to address technical skills once a person is employed. this result is in line with research conducted in south africa by moleke (2005) and morrow, panday and richter (2005), which indicated that having a degree secures work more successfully than not having a degree and that more education results in securing employment sooner. both the employers and the graduates nevertheless still regarded transferable skills as more important than work experience. a practically significant difference of large effect was found between the overall ratings of the employers and the graduates regarding the work-readiness skills presented to them in the scale. the graduates rated the various skills as more important than the employers did. it appears that the graduates were less able to discriminate among the 22 skills presented to them and rated more of them as important skills than the employers did. this confirms the expectation that graduates are not always aware of what is expected from them by potential employers. it also confirms the research by smith and kruger (2008), which indicated a clear discrepancy between the expectations of graduates and those of employers regarding the skills needed for employment. when comparing the work-readiness skills identified in earlier studies and the prominent skills identified by this research, it is clear that some of the common work-readiness skills as identified by addis (2003), such as personal development (which includes mature attitude and motivation), were confirmed by this research. some of the work-readiness skills (such as effective communication and working effectively with others) identified by greenwood et al. (1987), were also highlighted by this research. not only was self-discipline rated by the organisations and graduates as one of the 10 most important work-readiness skills but falconer and pettigrew (2003) also identified this skill as an important basic or transferable skill. some of the top 10 workreadiness skills rated by the organisations and graduates that are in line with the research by zinser (2003) on employability skills include effective communication skills, interpersonal skills and effective teamwork. teamwork and effective oral and written communication are also two of the work-readiness skills identified by falconer and pettigrew with specific reference to the financial-services profession. it appears from the results of the research that workplace knowledge and learning are not highly contextual, as argued by munby et al. (2003), and that there are common work-readiness skills that are relevant across different jobs. the research also shows that adaptability, which is an important skill for south african talent according to birt et al. (2004), was not identified by the organisations or graduates as one of the 10 most important work-readiness skills. since a sample of convenience was used in this research, findings cannot be generalised to all organisations within the fasset sector. based on the results of this study, however, it appears that both employers and graduates may value the following skills as part of a work-readiness programme: self-discipline; confidence; leadership; numeracy skills; and problem-solving skills. it may therefore increase credibility and success in terms of the placement of learners for the fasset work readiness programme if more emphasis is placed on the above-mentioned skills and competencies. it is also recommended, in line with the recommendation by maclean and ordonez (2007), that the developers of the fasset work readiness programme determine need and demand from a broader sample of employers in the industry to inform their curriculum. if graduates are better informed regarding the skills that employers in the fasset sector value, they will be better able to develop their own workreadiness skills and be more prepared for employment in this particular industry. work-readiness programmes can be successful only if they meet the needs of the industry and it is therefore essential that continued research be conducted to determine the needs of the industry. follow-up research could also be conducted to original research raftopoulous, coetzee & visser sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 19 6 (page number not for citation purposes) 126 vol. 7 no. 1 page 8 of 8 determine the effectiveness of the work readiness programme. in this regard, the employment rate of graduates from this programme could be compared to that of other graduates who are also employed in the fasset sector but who did not attend the programme. once employed, the job performance of graduates from the work readiness programme could also be monitored and compared to other recently employed graduates. acknowledgement the authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of riëtte eiselen from the university of johannesburg with the spss analyses. references addis, m. (2003). basic skills and small business competitiveness: some conceptual considerations. education and training, 45(3), 152–161. birt, m., wallis, t., & winternitz, g. (2004). talent retention in a changing workplace: an investigation of variables considered important to south african talent. south african journal of business management, 35(2), 25–31. clarke, m. (2008). understanding and managing employability in changing career contexts. journal of european industrial training, 32(4), 258–284. coutinho, m.t., dam, u.c., & blustein, d.l. (2008). the psychology of working and globalisation: a new perspective for a new era. international journal for educational and vocational guidance, 8(1), 5–18. davies, l. (2000). why kick the “l” out of “learning”? the development of students’ employability skills through parttime working. education and training, 42(8), 436–445. de vos, a.s., strydom, h., fouché, c.b., & delport, c.s.l. (2002). quantitative data collection methods. in a.s. de vos (ed.), research at grass roots: for the social sciences and human service professions, (pp. 165–196). pretoria: van schaik. dlamini, n. (2001). organising south african industryuniversity partnership programmes for viability. south african journal of higher education, 15(3), 24–31. doncaster, k. (2000). learning-agreements: their function in work-based programmes at middlesex university. education and training, 42(6), 349–355. du toit, r. (2005). review of labour markets in south africa. career guidance and employment services. cape town: hsrc press. falconer, s., & pettigrew, m. (2003). developing added value skills within an academic programme through work-based learning. international journal of manpower, 24(1), 48–59. fasset. sector profile. (n.d.). retrieved december 5, 2008, from http://www.fasset.org.za fasset. sector skills plan 2005 to 2009. (2004). retrieved december 5, 2008, from http://www.fasset.org.za fink, a. (2006). how to conduct surveys. basic step-by-step guide. (3rd edn.). london: sage publications. greenwood, r.g., edge, a.g., & hodgetts, r.m. (1987). how managers rank the characteristics expected of business graduates. business education, 8(3), 30–34. horn, g. (2006). educational solutions to improve the employability of senior high school learners. south african journal of education, 26(1), 113–128. hughey, a.w., & mussnug, k.j. (1997). designing effective employee training programmes. training for quality, 5(2), 52–57. lee, r. (1994). recruitment in context. librarian career development, 2(2), 3–7. maclean, r., & ordonez, v. (2007). work, skills development for employability and education for sustainable development. educational research for policy and practice, 6(2), 123–140. mcgrath, s. (2006). globalization, knowledge, skills and development: possible new directions for international and comparative education research in southern africa. southern african review of education with education with production, 12(2), 61–79. moleke, p. (2005). finding work: employment experiences of south african graduates. cape town: hsrc press. morrow, s., panday, s., & richter, l. (2005). where we’re at and where we’re going: young people in south africa in 2005. johannesburg: umsobomvu youth fund. munby, h., versnel, j., hutchinson, n.l., chin, p., & berg, d.h. (2003). workplace learning and the metacognitive functions of routines. journal of workplace learning, 15(3), 94–104. nabi, g.r. (2003). graduate employment and underemployment: opportunity for skills use and career experiences amongst recent business graduates. education and training, 45(7), 371–382. nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory. (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. o’neil, h.f, allred, k., & baker, e.l. (1997). review of workforce readiness theoretical frameworks. in h.f. o’neil (ed.), workforce readiness competencies and assessment, (pp. 3–25). new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates, inc. o’neil, h.f. jr. (1997). workforce readiness. competencies and assessment. london: lawrence erlbaum associates. oosthuizen, t.f.j., & kara, m. (2008). people in the workplace: a tool to create a competitive advantage? fact or fallacy. journal of contemporary management, 5, 39–57. raybould, j., & sheedy, v. (2005). are graduates equipped with the right skills in the employability stakes? industrial and commercial training, 37(5), 259–263. republic of south africa. (1998). skills development act, act 97 of 1998. government gazette. (no. 29113). rojewski, j.w., & lasonen, j. (2004).the role of globalization and context on workforce education and development. in j.w. rojewski (ed.), international perspectives on workforce education and development, (pp. 1–16). connecticut: information age publishing. shaughnessy, j.j., & zechmeister, e.b. (1997). research methods in psychology. new york: mcgraw-hill. smith, e., & comyn, p. (2004). the development of employability skills in novice workers through employment. in j. gibb (ed.), generic skills in vocational education and training: research readings, (pp. 95–108). leabrook: national centre for vocational education research. smith, e.e., & kruger, j. (2008). a critical assessment of the perceptions of potential graduates regarding their generic skills level: an exploratory study. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 11(2), 121–138. department of labour. (2003). state of skills in south africa. cape town: formeset. taylor, a. (2005). what employers look for: the skills debate and the fit with youth perceptions. journal of education and work, 18(2), 201–218. terre blanche, m., & durrheim, k. (2004). research in practice. applied methods for the behavioural sciences. cape town: university of cape town press. van schoor, w.a. (2000). what they don’t teach you at university: skills, values, and attitudes for the south african workplace. south african journal of education, 20(1), 41–46. zinser, r. (2003). developing career and employability skills: a us case study. education and training, 45(7), 402–410. abstract introduction literature review global leading practices in talent attraction and retention through brand building research questions research design results discussion of themes local leading practices practical implications limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) michelle b. wolfswinkel department online learning, faculty executive development, stellenbosch university, business school, cape town, south africa carla enslin department head of strategy, faculty vega school, independent institute of education, vega school, cape town, south africa citation wolfswinkel, m.b., & enslin, c. (2020). talent attraction and retention through brand building: an exploration of practices in companies that are top south african brands. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1443. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1443 original research talent attraction and retention through brand building: an exploration of practices in companies that are top south african brands michelle b. wolfswinkel, carla enslin received: 13 july 2020; accepted: 13 oct. 2020; published: 08 dec. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: companies leverage employer, internal and corporate brand building practices as they compete to attract and retain the rare talent required for organisational success. research purpose: to explore, in the context of global leading practice, the talent attraction and retention practices pertaining to employer, internal and corporate brand building in companies that are top south african brands. motivation for the study: there is a shortage of south african studies providing relevant current insights into talent attraction and retention through brand building within the local context. research approach/design and method: semi-structured interviews were conducted with strategic-level leaders in human resources and brand and line management across five companies that are top south african brands. thematic content analysis yielded six themes that provided insight into local leading practices in talent attraction and retention through brand building. main findings: corporate brand building dominated talent attraction and retention, with talent lured by the commercial success of the brand and drawn to purpose-driven brands. rigorous assessments confirmed whether talent met clearly articulated requirements and offered optimal brand fit. the employer and internal brands were currently under development, with learning and development as a central theme to both. practical/managerial implications: this research provided insights from strategic-level leaders across human resources and brand and line management, providing current and practically applicable insights for all cross-functional leaders involved in talent attraction and retention. contribution/value-add: south african companies and their leaders gained insight into leading practices in talent attraction and retention from an unprecedented sample of companies that are top south african brands. keywords: talent; talent attraction; talent retention; employer brand; internal brand; talent management; brand management; corporate brand; south africa; qualitative research. introduction the war for talent the war for talent sees employers competing against each other to attract and retain talent (chambers, foulon, handfield-jones, hankin, & michaels, 1998), the term used to describe prospective and current employees that are top performers and show ample potential for further career development (gallardo-gallardo & thunnissen, 2016). talent is often defined in terms of the rare or critical skill sets they offer (barriere, owens, & pobereskin, 2018) and their brand fit, evident in high levels of alignment between their personal purpose, vision, values and behaviour and that of the organisational brand (eds. cappelli & keller, 2017; keller & meaney, 2017). talent has a direct positive impact on organisational performance and success (andrianova, maor, & schaninger, 2018; keller & meaney, 2017) and provides an enduring competitive advantage in a global marketplace where products and services are rapidly copied and even improved upon by competitors (bafaro, ellsworth, & ghandi, 2017; keller & meaney, 2017). talent is valuable, but scarce: global surveys suggest all-time high talent shortages (deloitte, 2019; manpower group, 2018), with more than half of the global companies reportedly unable to attract the talent they are looking for (manpower group, 2020) and less than 10% of companies able to retain the services of top talent (deloitte, 2019; keller & meaney, 2017). talent attraction refers to the set of practices that employers use to appeal to prospective talent (eds. cappelli & keller, 2017; keller & meaney, 2017; mosley, 2016) and attract them to the employer (bali & dixit, 2016; charan, barton, & carey, 2018), whilst talent retention practices aim to ensure that current talented employees continue to experience the value and benefits of employment (eds. cappelli & keller, 2017; charan et al., 2018) and are optimally engaged and their services retained (barriere et al., 2018; eds. cappelli & keller, 2017). in a high demand, low supply talent marketplace, the attraction and retention of talented employees is a critical business priority (bersin, 2019; keller & meaney, 2017). two current trends exacerbate the war for talent. the future of work is likely to see exponential leaps in skilled workers amidst increasing disruptive technological advances that drive automation, remote work, connectivity, innovation and change (deloitte, 2019; parekh, 2020). the coronavirus pandemic’s devastating economic impact has necessitated widespread retrenchments and job cuts. however, the pandemic has also intensified the global demand for talent, particularly talent that offers essential or medical skills, high levels of technological competence and the ability to contribute optimally across job roles and business functions (bravery & tomar, 2020; fine et al., 2020). with a raging war for talent that is likely to intensify, talent attraction and retention is front of mind for companies and their leaders (deloitte, 2019; keller & meaney, 2017). now, more than ever, companies need to utilise every possible talent attraction and retention tool at their disposal. brand and talent a brand is identified and differentiated in the marketplace by a unique and compelling identity expressed and delivered internally and externally at all contact or touchpoints with stakeholder groups. the aim is to sustain positive, trustworthy and coherent experiences with the brand across multiple brand touchpoints (aaker & joachimsthaler, 2012; balmer, 2017; kapferer, 2012; kotler & armstrong, 2018; li, littleton, & akhtar, 2017; merrilees, 2017). the use of brand building practices to differentiate the employer and provide a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining talent has enjoyed widespread support in the literature for over two decades (ambler & barrow, 1996; chambers et al., 1998). to attract the right talent, companies should leverage a differentiated employer brand to convey the sum total of qualities the employer wishes to be known for (mosley, 2016; russell & brannan, 2016) along with a unique value proposition and benefits (eds. cappelli & keller, 2017; mosley, 2016). once employed, internal brand building practices such as internal brand communication should be used to engage talent and build an enduring employment relationship that retains their services (erkmen, hancer, & leong, 2017; kaplan, 2017; russell & brannan, 2016; sharif & islam, 2017). there appears to be complexity at this intersection between talent and brand. the current literature suggests that employers are not using brand building practices to their full advantage to attract and retain talent (banta & watras, 2019; eds. cappelli & keller, 2017; theurer, tumasjan, welpe, & lievens, 2018). however, the study of talent attraction and retention through brand building is frustrated by the disparity thereof in the literature (behrends, baur, & zierke, 2020; moroko & uncles, 2016) as it spans theoretical domains ranging from human resource management to internal marketing and brand management (eds. cappelli & keller, 2017; theurer et al., 2018). this complexity and fragmentation seem to be reflected in organisations, where the functional business areas dealing with talent, brand and line management collaborate on matters pertaining to talent and brand, but there is a lack of clarity around the ownership of talent and talent-related management practices (mölk & auer, 2018; theurer et al., 2018) as well as the creation and implementation of brand building practices related to talent attraction and retention (allas, chambers, & welchman, 2019; banta & watras, 2019). gaining insights into talent attraction and retention through brand building would require an approach that incorporates multiple theoretical domains in the literature and spans a range of different functional areas within organisations. for companies that are struggling to use brand building practices optimally in fighting the war for talent, it would be valuable to gain insights into companies that are doing it right – and what can be learnt from them. focus of this research study this study explored leading practices in talent attraction and retention through brand building. in the literature review to follow, a synthesis of global literature pertaining to talent and brand building allows the articulation of global leading practices in this regard. south african context whilst global leading practices provide south african companies and their leaders with rich insights, south african literature outlines several unique socio-economic factors that are likely to impact talent attraction and retention through brand building locally. a talent paradox sees critical skills shortages in south africa (deloitte, 2019; tshilongamulenzhe, 2017) amidst high levels of unemployment (stats sa, 2019; subban, 2016). south africa’s volatile economic climate has led to a lack of job security and financial stability, fuelling emigration of educated south africans abroad in the so-called brain drain (mlambo & adetiba, 2019; subban, 2016). labour legislation promoting the advancement of previously disadvantaged groups and broad-based black empowerment introduces race or gender qualifiers to talent identification (benjamin & cooper, 2016). leadership and organisational culture seem to be grappling to respond to the rapid diversification of the workplace brought about by the birth of political democracy (mazibuko & govender, 2017; tladinyane, 2016). it cannot be assumed that global or universal branding practices could be seamlessly applied into a local context with a one-size-fits-all approach. instead, the literature recommends that the context in which brand building is carried out must be explored and understood, and brand building practices should be adapted to meet the requirements and needs of the local talented customer (aaker & joachimsthaler, 2012; vaiman, sparrow, schuler, & collings, 2018). brand and talent scholars urge further exploratory research into the south african landscape in order to tailor branding practices to the unique needs and context of local talent (enslin & klopper, 2011; ferreira, 2016; subban, 2016; vaiman et al., 2018). research purpose in response to the call for insights into leading practices in talent attraction and retention through brand building with due consideration of the local context, the research purpose of this study wasto explore, in the context of global leading practice, talent attraction and retention practices pertaining to employer and internal and corporate brand building in companies that are top south african brands. this research purpose required a review of literature that would firstly enable a theoretical foundation of key constructs in talent and brand building and secondly allow for the formulation of global leading practice in talent attraction and retention through brand building. literature review theoretical framework a literature review allowed key constructs pertaining to talent attraction and retention through brand building to be presented in a theoretical framework. these constructs and the relationship between them will be discussed in figure 1, the theoretical framework that follows. figure 1: theoretical framework – key constructs and relationships between them. talent attraction and retention through employer and internal brand building at the top of the theoretical framework, the defined constructs of talent attraction and talent retention in relation to brand building are revisited visually, showing brand building as central to the deployment of talent attraction and retention. similarly, the aforementioned relationship between talent attraction and the employer brand, as well as talent retention and the internal brand, is visually depicted with dotted, arrowed lines. talent attraction and retention and the corporate brand figure 1 introduces the construct of the corporate brand and reveals a relationship between the corporate brand and both talent attraction and retention. corporate brands have a brand orientation that sees the company’s brand speak on behalf of the company as a whole (balmer, 2017; punjaisri & wilson, 2017). corporate brands are built from the inside with the purpose, vision, mission and values providing strategic directions to all people who are living the brand outwards (balmer, 2017; merrilees, 2017). the stakeholder focus of corporate brands sees the identification of all possible internal and external brand stakeholders – those who come into contact with the brand, are influenced by the brand and help to build the brand (balmer, 2017; merrilees, 2017). prospective and current talent is an important corporate brand stakeholder and as such, corporate brands hold relevance in both talent attraction and retention (balmer, 2017; kaplan, 2017; punjaisri & wilson, 2017). consistent branding builds strong brands figure 1 features a bracket symbol that indicates alignment between the employer, internal and corporate brand. the alignment between these three brand building platforms holds particular relevance to talent, as employees experience the dynamic interplay of these three platforms throughout the employee life cycle (balmer, 2017; sharif & islam, 2017). talent attraction promises made by the employer brand must come to realisation in the internal branding efforts during the working experience (andrianova et al., 2018; erkmen et al., 2017). talent needs to support the corporate brand and bring it to life as they engage with external stakeholders, a task much easily executed if there is alignment between the corporate brand and the internal brand work experience (bafaro et al., 2017; merrilees, 2017). the consistent portrayal of the brand’s purpose and values to different brand stakeholders as they engage with the brand through contact points, communication and experiences across different brand building platforms will positively impact both talent attraction and retention and customer experience (balmer, 2017; li et al., 2017). consistent branding requires cross-functional collaboration and the strategic alignment of leadership (bafaro et al., 2017; schaefer, 2016; sharif & islam, 2017). in particular, achieving consistency between the employer, internal and corporate brand requires a high measure of strategic alignment and collaboration between talent and brand leaders as they create and drive talent and brand building initiatives (eds. cappelli & keller, 2017; deloitte, 2019; mosley, 2016). top, strong brands have managed to align their employer, internal and corporate brands consistently, arguably because of strategic leadership alignment across talent, brand and line management. the selection of the research sample for this study was steered by the literature that holds that strong, top brands have managed to align their employer, internal and corporate brands consistently, arguably because of the strategic leadership alignment across talent, brand and line management and these brands would be able to provide valuable insights into brand building for talent attraction and retention (foster, punjaisri, & cheng, 2010; kaplan, 2017). coherent, strong brand figure 1 culminates in construct-labelled coherent, strong brands. coherent brands are most simply described as brands that have achieved the pinnacle of brand strength, with brand stakeholders who perceive the brand to be trustworthy and coherent, thanks to consistent positive experiences with the brand across multiple brand touchpoints (li et al., 2017; merrilees, 2017). there is a mutually beneficial relationship between talent and coherent brands. through consistent positive experiences with the brand, talent builds trust in the coherent brand, which attracts and retains the services of talented employees (balmer, 2017; russell & brannan, 2016; schaefer, 2016). in return, talent is key to living the brand in their daily work, consistently providing external stakeholders with positive experiences that build trust and strengthen brand coherence (balmer, 2017; charan et al., 2018; kotler & armstrong, 2018). to this end, figure 1 shows the consistent alignment of brand building platforms as a precursor to brand coherence, which, in turn, is shown to have a direct positive relationship to talent attraction and retention. global leading practices in talent attraction and retention through brand building whilst the theoretical framework provides the key constructs and the relationships between them, the application thereof in practice required further insight from the literature. the research purpose of this study was to explore local practices in talent attraction and retention through brand building in the context of global leading practice. to support the theoretical framework and provide context to this research study, a synthesis of literature yielded the nine global leading practices in talent attraction and retention through employer, internal and corporate brand building, as presented in table 1. table 1: global leading practices in talent attraction and retention through brand building. research questions the literature review allowed the formulation of a theoretical framework and nine global leading practices in talent attraction and retention that would provide context to this research study. primary research would have to provide insight into the practical perception of what literature held to be a strong relationship between the constructs in the theoretical framework. primary research would also be required to shed light on the brand building practices used by companies that are top south african brands to attract and retain talent, as global leading practices simply provided context to the local study. the following two research questions were thus articulated to guide the research: research question 1: what is the perceived relationship between talent attraction and retention and a company’s employer, internal and corporate brand? research question 2: in which ways are companies that are top south african brands attracting and retaining talent through employer, internal and corporate brand building? research design research approach the best research approach to enable the research purpose and address the research questions would be an exploratory study conducted from the interpretive paradigm, allowing the discovery of illuminating insights that were not conclusive, but could shed light on this underexplored research area and open up opportunities for further empirical enquiry (rahi, 2017). qualitative research methods would ensure rich exploration and a deep understanding of the subjective reality of research participants, as they share their real-world experiences, personal opinions and views (flick, 2018; rahi, 2017). research sampling purposive, non-probability sampling was used to identify a sample of companies that are top south african brands. the sunday times top brands survey 2017 presented 20 corporate brands that held the number one brand position per industry or brand category (sunday times, 2017). of the 20 top brands, five were willing to participate in primary research, with the clear ethical commitment that they would remain anonymous and that all research data would remain confidential. these top south african brands spanned the telecommunications, healthcare, insurance, banking and motor vehicle industries. within each of these participating companies, purposive, non-probability sampling was used to identify research participants that are seen to be experts in talent attraction and retention through brand building and would thus provide the most valuable insights (sharma, 2017). the literature indicated that there were three central role players in talent attraction and retention through brand building: a strategic-level brand leader, strategic-level human resources or talent leader and a strategic-level line manager (andrianova et al., 2018; bafaro et al., 2017). as such, clear inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to a purposive sampling approach in order to identify these expert participants. as this was a brand study, the first point of contact was the head or most strategic-level leader in brand or marketing, who was instrumental in recommending the appropriate strategic-level human resources or talent management and line management leaders to interview. leaders who were directly involved in and responsible for annual strategic planning and review sessions for either talent or brand were deemed strategic-level. to ensure that the participants could offer the level of expertise required, the tenure of recommended research participants was also considered. this saw the exclusion of two proposed participants, one of which was a new recruit, whilst the other was newly promoted. research participants who had a proven track record in leadership positions in the company were favoured – in fact, eight of the 15 participants held the most senior position obtainable in their field of expertise in their company. research participants were promised that their identity, demographic profile and job roles would not be disclosed to anyone aside from the researcher and her supervisory support. research instrument a semi-structured interview guide provided a structured, consistent approach to interviewing research participants (flick, 2018; stuckey, 2013). the interview guide comprised seven questions, created in context of the research purpose, questions and literature review insights and probed participants’ subjective views around talent identification criteria, strategic leadership alignment in talent and brand building, employer, internal and corporate brand building practices used to attract and retain talent and challenges experienced in this regard. participants were encouraged to provide their own insights, experiences and opinions and enrich their responses with examples (rahi, 2017; stuckey, 2013). data collection semi-structured interviews were conducted with three strategic-level leaders across five companies that are top south african brands. interviews were conducted face-to-face where possible, or telephonically if the geographical distance was a factor, or if expert participants requested it. the average interview duration was 43 mins. interviews were recorded with the permission of participants and transcribed thereafter. it must be noted that the initial decision to conduct 15 interviews had been informed by the literature that recommended a manageable sample size of between six and 16 for qualitative interviews with experts (guetterman, 2015; robinson, 2014). a sixth company was identified, but kept as an optional additional sample, pending primary research data saturation (babin & zikmund, 2015). the researcher started experiencing data saturation between interview eight and 10. it initially manifested as the realisation that the responses were starting to sound similar (robinson, 2014). by interview 11, the researcher felt comfortable to declare that data saturation was imminent and the sample of 15 was sufficient. data analysis data were collected and analysed during the period may 2018 to october 2019. content from transcribed interviews provided data, which were analysed through thematic analysis with inductive reasoning. data were manually coded by assigning notes with meaning or summary statements to large chunks of text (nowell, norris, white, & moules, 2017; percy et al., 2015). a further abstraction of the meaning of these notes and the grouping of the notes together on colour-coded excel spreadsheets allowed categories to emerge, into which notes were sorted (nowell et al., 2017; rahi, 2017). finally, the categories were reviewed in order to establish patterns, link constructs and create themes and subthemes (rahi, 2017; vaismoradi et al., 2016). measures to ensure quality and rigour to ensure a high level of trustworthiness in the inductive thematic analysis of data, the researcher implemented a rigorously documented data analysis process, transparently showing the motivation and literature review support for every step and decision made (elo et al., 2014; nowell et al., 2017; vaismoradi et al., 2016). member checks saw the sharing of themes and subthemes with participants (nowell et al., 2017), inviting comment and feedback. three of the five brands provided feedback, which indicated support for the findings as well as some additional insights. feedback firstly revealed an affirmation of key themes and specifically the extent to which they ‘reflect the reality’. one of the top brands accordingly reasoned that the development of an employer and internal brand strategy was now ‘more important than ever’, adding that ‘we really need to get this right in south africa and top brands should be leading the way’. one of the three brands found it ‘interesting’ that the research did not show a ‘greater disjoint between the talent and marketing functions’. a research recommendation from this study is deeper exploration into the collaboration between talent and brand leadership. this particular brand requested to be ‘kept in the loop’ in this regard as the business aims to ‘charter a new working relationship between the marketing and brand team’. a line manager from another brand furthermore reasoned that it is ‘heartening to see that all the top brands are taking talent assessments seriously’, adding that her leadership team had been concerned that they may be ‘too hard’ on talent with ‘impossibly difficult’ assessments. in response to the research results, the leadership team have accordingly decided to formalise their assessment approach and agree on minimum standards without the ‘normal debate about whether we’re assessing ourselves out of the talent marketplace’. in response to the research purpose and related research questions, 10 practices employed by companies that are top south african brands were abstracted from critical reflection on the themes, the feedback from participants and the review of literature. ethical consideration the independent institute of education, research and postgraduate committee. ethical clearance number: 14011704. results during the thematic analysis process, the frequency with which certain topics or points were made was reflected in the amount of notes allocated to it. as such, some categories were more robust than others and the themes extracted from these categories were seen to be more dominant or important. it is interesting to note that the first theme presented hereafter comprised approximately half of all the coded data and emerged as the dominant theme common to all companies and participants. thematic content analysis allowed six themes with underpinning subthemes to emerge. the findings are presented in order of importance, ranked according to the strength of each theme’s data, as informed by the frequency with which it occurred. the themes and subthemes are presented in table 2, followed by a discussion of research results. table 2: themes and subthemes. discussion of themes theme 1: the value of the corporate brand in talent attraction and retention theme 1, the most dominant theme across companies and participants, suggests that companies that are top south african brands are primarily leveraging their corporate brand to attract and retain talent. whilst the literature holds that corporate branding is important to build relationships of trust with all stakeholders, including talent (balmer, 2017; merrilees, 2017), employer branding and internal branding are considered equally important, aligning into a triangle of strength (balmer, 2017; charan et al., 2018). in south africa, corporate branding however appears to overshadow other branding platforms. south african talent seems to be attracted to strong corporate brands that could potentially provide stability and financial security in an otherwise economically volatile employment marketplace. a brand manager summarised this well when he said: ‘the corporate brand does very well and has a very good reputation of being stable’, offering people what he terms a ‘safe haven in a world where things are quite chaotic’. local talent resonates with purposeful corporate brands that provide the opportunity for talent to contribute to a larger purpose (rosethorn, 2018). a human resource leader stated that ‘people are attracted by the fact that we’re a purpose-driven brand’, a sentiment echoed by another human resource leader who stressed that working for their corporate brand allows a talented employee to become ‘a citizen of the society in which you live and a contributor to the economy that you enjoy’. a line manager articulated this well when she said that ‘people want to be part of something that gives them purpose, that’s bigger than them, that they contribute to’. theme 2: brand-aligned practices to articulate and assess aspirational talent companies that are top south african brands articulate their talent requirements clearly and these requirements are informed by the leadership team, the brand and the values of the organisation. all participants across all five brands spoke about a ‘brand person’ that displays the ‘brand dna’, which comprises desirable values and behaviours. prospective and current talent undergo rigorous assessments that ascertain their capability and suitability. only the best talent makes it through this assessment process, lending an aspirational element to talent. as one line manager puts it: ‘if you have to spend … on a psychometric prognosis to understand the potential of an individual, we don’t think that’s a high investment to make for the return you’re going to get’. not only do talent aspire to work for top brands, but also top brands only select the best of the best. whilst this theme echoed the global literature in so far as talent identification is concerned (bali & dixit, 2016; keller & meaney, 2017), there was no evidence of an anticipated lowering of talent requirements in context of the acute shortage of local skilled talent (subban, 2016; tshilongamulenzhe, 2017). a participating brand manager said: ‘we want the best and we don’t settle for anything less than the best’. theme 3: the employer brand, employee value proposition and internal brand – relevant but still a work in progress a significant insight from this study was this: most companies that are top south african brands admit that their employer and internal branding platforms have taken a back seat to corporate branding and are still being developed. a brand manager offered this sobering comment: ‘the honest truth is that the business puts greater emphasis on the retail brand because that’s what attracts customers, which ultimately attracts profit’. he adds that they have come to realise that they can’t ‘just build a good brand externally and not build a good employee proposition’. companies that are top south african brands agree that employer, internal and corporate brand building is relevant to talent attraction and retention, but it seems that, as one brand manager stated, ‘we are spending 80–90% of our time on establishing the corporate brand’ and added that they are using the corporate brand to attract and retain talent. perhaps the most revealing quote around the employer and internal brand is this one from a talent leader: ‘if you have to ask everybody what our employer brand is, you’re going to get a thousand different responses because it’s not well defined’. there does seem to be agreement amongst participants that the employer and internal brand is focused on learning and development opportunities and career development and growth, as these are key value propositions for south african talent. theme 4: strategic leadership alignment for talent and brand whilst this theme was not as strong as the three preceding themes in terms of frequency of comments, there appears to be an emerging pattern of leadership up to chief executive officer (ceo) level that is owning and driving talent in companies that are top south african brands. this is heartening, especially given the local literature suggesting that a lack of leadership commitment to talent and a poor leadership style may be negatively affecting talent retention (mazibuko & govender, 2017; tladinyane, 2016). one brand manager referred to talent as a ‘battleground’ for their ceo and shows their ceo and board’s commitment to talent when she says that ‘the ceo takes talent management and people very seriously and it would be very silly for any leader in our business to take a superficial approach to how they manage their people’. theme 5: talent retention through engagement and meaningful work and theme 6: talented brand ambassadors contribute to brand coherence the themes are presented in order of importance, with theme 1 emerging as the overall dominant theme, theme 2 the second strongest, followed by themes 3 and 4. whilst themes 5 and 6 did not match the strength of other themes, a pattern of interesting insights emerged to underpin these themes. it seems that leadership support of talent has enabled high levels of employee engagement in companies that are top south african brands. brand love and commitment are pivotal to engaging and thus retaining south african talent, who also appreciate meaningful work that allows them to live the brand. these findings align with global leading practices that advocate leadership support and employee engagement in talent retention (balmer, 2017; punjaisri & wilson, 2017). in companies that are top south african brands, engaged, talented employees are likely to reinforce the brand message through word of mouth testimonies and co-creation of brand purpose through their work. it would seem that this brand ambassadorship strengthens the corporate brand of top south african brands even further, as talented employees present the brand consistently and coherently to all stakeholders (li et al., 2017; merrilees, 2017). the discussion around the themes and subthemes is wrapped up and presented visually in figure 2, which shows the themes in relation to each other. figure 2: themes and subthemes in relation to each other. local leading practices to address the research purpose and related research questions, the interrelated themes and the feedback from top brands were critically reflected upon in the context of the review of literature. it was thus possible to uncover, in the context of global leading practice, the talent attraction and retention practices pertaining to employer, internal and corporate brand building in companies that are top south african brands and specifically, to bring to light the practices being used to attract and retain talent through brand building. in companies that are top south african brands, the following 10 local leading practices in talent attraction and retention through brand building emerged, as presented in table 3. table 3: local leading practices in talent attraction and retention through brand building. practical implications to follow in the footsteps of companies that are top south african brands, it seems vital that the corporate brand celebrates its commercial success widely. most of the top brands boldly position their corporate brand as the best, or as market leaders, reinforcing achievements and growth wherever possible. the top south africa brands interviewed furthermore position their corporate brands as purpose-driven, aiming to add value to all stakeholders. all companies included in this study could clearly articulate the company’s purpose and values and mention ways in which the corporate brand mobilised the purpose and vision tangibly. talent requirements should be informed by leaders across functional departments. it is key that talent and brand collaborate in order to create a persona of the ideal talented employee. most participants interviewed in companies that are top south african brands referred to the ‘(brand name) person’ as the ideal brand-aligned talented person. once talent requirements in terms of performance, potential and brand alignment are agreed upon, it is essential to invest in psychometric, numeracy and/or literacy assessments to evaluate the skill set and behavioural attributes of talent. one of the companies amongst the top south african brands applies talent screening tests uniformly and consistently across the organisation as a ‘gate’ to entry and stresses the importance of upskilling all line management in the importance of these assessments and the application thereof during the recruitment process. practical implications for employer branding would be driving learning and development opportunities in a unique and compelling way in the employee value proposition. internal brand-building strategies should integrate brand communications with leadership and human resource behaviours and outputs. employee engagement surveys are a vital tool to ensure that companies keep a finger on the pulse of the internal brand building efforts – another helpful practical suggestion. given the role of employee engagement in talent retention, companies should review the job profiles and performance indicators for all leaders and ensure that employee engagement becomes a central part of their role and deliverables and that leaders are held accountable for results. opportunities for employees to engage in word-of-mouth testimony or represent the brand also rise to the fore, with some participants who outlined how their brand selects an employee ‘spokesperson’ for a particular business area, or a particular benefit or aspect of the work experience, and then allows them to share their authentic views. this allows, as one brand manager stated, ‘thousands of brand ambassadors’ as multiple employees lend their support publicly and contribute to brand coherence. findings underline the prominence and importance of talent discussions in leadership meetings. two of the top brands stated that people discussions are around talent and not on what one leader referred to as ‘people administration’. as much as financials, operations and marketing are key to all board meetings and leadership sessions, talent should feature too. focus the people aspect of leadership discussions on talent and not on administrative human resources matters. limitations and recommendations limitations the limited current literature in the field of talent and brand building in south africa presented a limitation to the discussion of findings in the context of local literature. furthermore, it is regrettable that the participating brands cannot be disclosed, as the five participating brands are top brands that have clearly built a strong reputation with the south african public and mentioning these brand names could motivate the importance or significance of research insights. this study was also limited to the experience and views of five of 20 corporate brands that held the number one brand position per industry or brand category in the sunday times top brands survey 2017. it is worth noting that all five of the brands still feature as top brands in the latest the sunday times top brands survey 2019/2020. a broad-based study encompassing a larger sample of top brands in south africa can hone in to validate exploratory insights presented in this article. recommendations the collaboration between south african brand and human resources/talent leaders in employer and internal branding was not the focus of this study, but insights emerged that suggest a measure of cross-functional alignment yet low levels of brand engagement in employer and internal branding. further research is recommended into this brand/talent collaboration and alignment. a second research recommendation stems from the revelation that attracting and retaining of millennial talent is a major challenge for south african leaders. research is recommended into the integration of millennials into company culture, the tailoring of employer brand building to appeal to millennials and the popularly held opinion that the relationship between millennials and corporate brand purpose and values is especially significant and strong. research is recommended into global brands in the local context, sparked by two of the companies included in this study that are multinationals, but expressed frustration in adopting or executing the global brand’s way of work locally. further research could examine the impact of the global/local disjoint on brand building for talent. research is also recommended into how compensation and/or benefits should be featured in the south african employer brand and employee value proposition. most participants admitted that salary and benefits are not disclosed or even mentioned in brand building to attract talent – most surprisingly, considering that south african talent wants financial stability and job security. a final recommendation for research is what is labelled talent gaps in the middle layers. participants indicated focus and activity at the most junior talent entry level and at the most senior leadership level, where talent is groomed for succession. further research would shed light on talent practices in the middle layers, accounting for the bulk of employees, supervisors, leaders and specialists. conclusion it is encouraging that companies that are top south african brands are managing to attract and retain the talent required to achieve success in the organisation, despite the critical shortages of talent and the socio-economic challenges at play in south africa. the insights gained from these brands could provide south african companies and their top management with valuable local leading practices towards the attraction and retention of talent, through brand building. a key insight from this study, underscored by the literature, is the leading practice of clear articulation and the consequent assessment of talent. even in a talent marketplace markedly short of skills, south african companies do not have to settle for second best or have to recruit talent at face value. the approach is to be very clear about the talent profile, set firm requirements and expectations and invest in the confirming assessments. at a time of deep socio-economic challenges, these investments not only are worthwhile but could also forestall the hiring of talent not adding value or performing according to brand or business expectations. this research study also reveals the primary significance that the top south african brand companies predominantly attract and retain talent through their corporate brands, by positioning their corporate brands as purpose-driven and by being commercially successful. south african companies and their top management could do well to explore and pursue these leading practices and optimally leverage their corporate brands. in respect of noticeable development and positioning of the employer and internal brand, south african companies still lagging behind in this strategic practice seem to be amongst many others. even those companies that are positioned as top south african brands admit that their employer and internal brands are still under construction. however, the leadership of these top brands do recognise the critical role of attracting and retaining talent through brand building and are in the process of engaging their teams in the development and positioning of the employer and internal brand. the theoretical framework of this study, the research themes, and the practical and applicable insights into the leading practices of top south african brands collectively aim to guide and serve all cross-functional business leaders – human resources and brand and line management – in the vital function of attracting and retaining talent through brand building. acknowledgements although the companies that are top south african brands and their participating leaders may not be mentioned in order to protect their anonymity and ensure confidentiality, the researchers would like to thank these brands and their leaders for their valuable contributions and willingness to participate. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.b.w. and c.e. collaborated in the research design that informed this jointly written article. this article derives from the ma dissertation of m.b.w. and c.e. was the supervisor of this study. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references aaker, d.a., & joachimsthaler, e. (2012). brand leadership (pp. 10–57). london: simon and schuster. allas, t., chambers, l., & welchman, t. (2019, june). confronting overconfidence in talent strategy, management and development. mckinsey quarterly. retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/featured%20insights/future%20of%20organizations/confronting%20overconfidence%20in%20talent%20strategy%20management%20and%20development/confronting-overconfidence-in-talent-strategy-management-and-development.ashx ambler, t., & barrow, s. (1996). the employer brand. journal of brand management, 4(3), 185–206. https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.1996.42 andrianova, s., maor, d., & schaninger, b. (2018). winning with your talent-management strategy. mckinsey & company. retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/winning-with-your-talent-management-strategy babin, b.j. & zikmund, w.g. (2015). exploring marketing research. boston: cengage learning. bafaro, f., ellsworth, d., & ghandi, m. (2017, july 10). the ceo’s guide to competing through hr. mckinsey quarterly (pp. 1–10). retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/the-ceos-guide-to-competing-through-hr bali, m., & dixit, s. (2016). employer brand building for effective talent management. international journal of applied sciences and management, 2(1), 183–191. balmer, j.m. (2017). corporate brand orientation: what is it? what of it? in advances in corporate branding (pp. 175–202). london: macmillan publishers. banta, k., & watras, m. (2019, june 7). why we need to rethink ‘employer brand’. harvard business review. retrieved from https://hbr.org/2019/06/why-we-need-to-rethink-employer-brand barriere, m., owens, m., & pobereskin, s. (2018, april). linking talent to value. mckinsey quarterly. retrieved from www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/linking-talent-to-value behrends, t., baur, m., & zierke, l. (2020). much ado about little: a critical review of the employer branding concept. mrev management revue, 31(1), 1–30. https://doi.org/10.5771/0935-9915-2020-1-1 benjamin, p., & cooper, c. (2016). south african labour law: a twenty year assessment. r4d working paper 2016/6. berne: world trade institute, swiss programme on global issues for development, university of berne. retrieved from https://www.wti.org/research/publications/1118/south-african-labour-law-a-twenty-year-assessment/ bersin, j. (2019). from talent management to talent experience. why the hr tech market is in disruption. retrieved from https://joshbersin.com/2019/04/is-integrated-talent-management-over-yes-let-talent-experience-reign/ bravery, k., & tomar, a. (2020). how companies and employees can make their best coronavirus comeback. world economic forum report. retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-covid-business-resilience-preparedness-skills/ cappelli, p., & keller, j.r. (eds.). (2017). the historical context of talent management. in d.g. collings, k. mellahi & w.f. cascio (eds.). the oxford handbook of talent management (pp. 23–42). oxford: oxford university press. chambers, e.g., foulon, m., handfield-jones, h., hankin, s.m., & michaels, e.g. (1998). the war for talent. mckinsey quarterly, 1, 44–57. charan, r., barton, d., & carey, d. (2018). talent wins: the new playbook for putting people first. mckinsey quarterly. retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/an-agenda-for-the-talent-first-ceo deloitte. (2019). leading the social enterprise: reinvent with a human focus. 2019 deloitte human capital trends report for south africa. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/za/en/pages/human-capital/articles/2019-deloitte-global-human-capital-trends-.html elo, s., kääriäinen, m., kanste, o., pölkki, t., utriainen, k., & kyngäs, h. (2014). qualitative content analysis: a focus on trustworthiness. sage open, 4(1), https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014522633 enslin, c., & klopper, h.b. (2011). a balanced perspective on brands. pinelands, cape town: brand management. erkmen, e., hancer, m., & leong, j.k. (2017). how internal branding process really pays off through brand trust. tourism analysis, 22(3), 309–322. https://doi.org/10.3727/108354217x14955605216050 ferreira, e. h. (2016). the role of employee value propositions and corporate brand preferences in talent attraction (doctoral dissertation). university of cape town. fine, d., klier, j., mahajan, d., raabe, n., shubert, j., singh, n., & ungur, s. (2020). how to rebuild and reimagine jobs amid the coronavirus crisis. mckinsey & company insights article. retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-sector/our-insights/how-to-rebuild-and-reimagine-jobs-amid-the-coronavirus-crisis flick, u. (2018). an introduction to qualitative research (pp. 18–64). berlin: sage. foster, c., punjaisri, k., & cheng, r. (2010). exploring the relationship between corporate, internal and employer branding. journal of product & brand management, 19(6), 401–409. https://doi.org/10.1108/10610421011085712 gallardo-gallardo, e., & thunnissen, m. (2016). standing on the shoulders of giants? a critical review of empirical talent management research. employee relations, 38(1), 29–36. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-10-2015-0194 guetterman, t.c. (2015). descriptions of sampling practices within five approaches to qualitative research in education and the health sciences. forum qualitative social research, 16(2), 18–22. kapferer, j.n. (2012). the new strategic brand management: advanced insights and strategic thinking (pp. 11–20). london: kogan page. kaplan, r.s.w. (2017). internal marketing and internal branding in the 21st century organisation. iup journal of brand management, 14(2), 7–22. keller, s., & meaney, m. (2017, november). attracting and retaining the right talent. mckinsey. retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/attracting-and-retaining-the-right-talent kotler, p.t., & armstrong, g. (2018). principles of marketing (17th edn., pp. 11–88). harlow: pearson education. li, c., littleton, a., & akhtar, o. (2017). experience strategy: connecting customer experience to business strategy (vol. 2). altimer, prophet online. retrieved from http://library.meetliquid.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/experience_strategy_cx.pdf manpower group. (2018). solving the talent shortage. build, buy, borrow and bridge. retrieved from www.manpowergroup.com manpower group. (2020). closing the skills gap: what workers want. talent shortage 2020 report. retrieved from https://go.manpowergroup.com/hubfs/mpg_whatworkerswant_2020.pdf?hslang=en mazibuko, j.v., & govender, k.k. (2017). exploring workplace diversity and organisational effectiveness: a south african exploratory case study. sa journal of human resource management, 15(2017), 10–16. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.865 merrilees, b. (2017). experience-centric branding: challenges and advancing a new mantra for corporate brand governance. journal of brand management, 24(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41262-017-0027-7 mlambo, v.h., & adetiba, t.c. (2019). brain drain and south africa’s socioeconomic development: the waves and its effects. journal of public affairs, 19(4), e1942. https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1942 mölk, a., & auer, m. (2018). designing brands and managing organizational politics: a qualitative case study of employer brand creation. european management journal, 36(4), 485–496. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2017.07.005 moroko, l., & uncles, m.d. (2016). strategic employer brands: current domain, future directions. in f. dall’olmo riley, j. singh, & c. blankson (eds.), the routledge companion to contemporary brand management (pp. 309–323). london: routledge, taylor and francis group. mosley, r. (2016). universum: measuring employer brand performance. employer brand management, 11, 235–246. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-06938-4_11 nowell, l.s., norris, j.m., white, d.e., & moules, n.j. (2017). thematic analysis: striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria. international journal of qualitative methods, 16(1), 160–177. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406917733847 parekh, s.s. (2020). conquer the skills gap – and win the future – by rethinking talent. world economic forum future of work report. retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/reskilling-skills-gap-talent-hiring-diversity/ percy, w.h., kostere, k. & kostere, s. (2015). generic qualitative research in psychology. qualitative report, 20(2). punjaisri, k., & wilson, a. (2017). the role of internal branding in the delivery of employee brand promise. in j.m.t. balmer, s.m. powell & j kernstock (eds.). advances in corporate branding (pp. 91–108). london: macmillan publishers. rahi, s. (2017). research design and methods: a systematic review of research paradigms, sampling issues and instruments development. international journal of economics & management sciences, 6(2), 1–5. robinson, o.c. (2014). sampling in interview-based qualitative research: a theoretical and practical guide. qualitative research in psychology, 11(1), 25–41. rosethorn, h. (2018). becoming purposeful. a prophet report in collaboration with hr grapevine. retrieved from https://www.prophet.com/2018/04/becoming-purposeful/ russell, s., & brannan, m.j. (2016). getting the right people on the bus: recruitment, selection and integration for the branded organization. european management journal, 34(2), 114–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2016.01.001 saleem, f.z., & iglesias, o. (2016). mapping the domain of the fragmented field of internal branding. journal of product & brand management, 25(1), 43–57. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpbm-11-2014-0751 schaefer, m.w. (2016). why (and how) hr needs to act more like marketing. harvard business review. retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-and-how-hr-needs-to-act-more-like-marketing sharif, a.m., & islam, m.t. (2017). branding for successful employment: a practical approach. global journal of management and business research, 16, 11–26. sharma, g. (2017). pros and cons of different sampling techniques. international journal of applied research, 3(7), 749–752. statistics south africa. (2019). quarterly labour force survey. retrieved from https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/p0211/p02113rdquarter2019.pdf stuckey, h.l. (2013). three types of interviews: qualitative research methods in social health. journal of social health and diabetes, 1(2), 50–56. subban, l. (2016). talent management: past, present and future (vol. 2016/03). sa board for people practices. retrieved from https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.sabpp.co.za/resource/resmgr/website_files_1/publications/fact_sheets/fact_sheet_2016/sabpp-fact-sheet-april-2016.pdf sunday times. (2017). sunday times top brands survey 2017. retrieved from www.sundaytimes.co.za / www.tnsglobal.com/topbrands2017/ theurer, c.p., tumasjan, a., welpe, i.m., & lievens, f. (2018). employer branding: a brand equity-based literature review and research agenda. international journal of management reviews, 20(1), 155–179. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12121 tladinyane, r. (2016). the psychological career resources and organizational commitment foci of south african workforce. problems and perspectives in management, 14(1–1), 168–175. https://doi.org/10.21511/ppm.14(1-1).2016.04 tshilongamulenzhe, m.c. (2017). enunciating the skills development challenge facing south africa. gstf journal of law and social sciences, 1(1), 16–28. vaiman, v., sparrow, p., schuler, r., & collings, d.g. (2018). macro talent management: a global perspective on managing talent in developed markets (pp. 26–80). london: routledge. vaismoradi, m., & snelgrove, s. (2019, september). theme in qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis. in forum qualitative sozialforschung/forum: qualitative social research, 20(3), 23. https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-20.3.3376 article information authors: lariska van rooyen¹ danie h. du toit¹ elrie botha¹ sebastiaan rothmann¹ affiliations: ¹school of behavioural sciences, north-west university, south africa correspondence to: sebastiaan rothmann email: ian@ianrothmann.com postal address: po box 2972, vanderbijlpark 1900, south africa keywords artisan retention; remuneration; development opportunities; qualitative research, south africa dates: received: 04 may 2010 accepted: 12 aug. 2010 published: 04 nov. 2010 how to cite this article: van rooyen, l., du toit, d.h., botha, e., & rothmann, s. (2010). artisan retention in an organisation in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/ sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #300, 8 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.300 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) artisan retention in an organisation in south africa in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction • retention • research design    • research approach    • research method       • participants       • data gathering       • research procedure       • data analysis • results • discussion    • limitations of the study    • recommendations • references abstract (back to top) orientation: south africa is facing a critical shortage of artisans. therefore it is important to investigate which factors contribute to the retention of artisans by organisations. research purpose: the objective of this study was to investigate the factors that are important for artisan retention at a south african organisation. motivation for the study: organisations that employ artisans need to understand what the main reasons are for keeping or losing artisans from the perspective of the artisans themselves. this information can be used to plan and implement interventions to deal with artisan retention in organisations. research design, approach and method: a qualitative design was used and a purposive sample was taken (n = 14). a biographical questionnaire was administered and semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather data from artisans. main findings: remuneration had the highest rank of all the factors for the retention of artisans, closely followed by development opportunities. other factors that were perceived as important for artisan retention included equality, recognition, management and the working environment, and working relationships. practical implications: organisations that employ artisans should especially attend to their remuneration and development opportunities. contribution: the results of this study add to the knowledge of why artisans remain with a specific organisation. introduction (back to top) artisan retention in south africa is important because the country is facing a critical shortage of artisans. it is crucial to have sufficient artisans in south africa to enable infrastructure development, economic growth and wealth creation. according to the centre for development and enterprise (cde) (2007), an artisan is any employee who works as millwright, electrician, plumber, boilermaker, mechanic, fitter and turner, pattern maker or injection moulder. according to jordaan and barry (2009), 12 500 artisans are needed per year, while recent statistics showed that approximately 3000 are passing the trade test per year. artisan retention is particularly important, not only because the country is facing a critical shortage of artisans but also because the average age of an artisan is 54 years (cde, 2007). this means that 70% of the artisans who are currently employed will exit the labour force within the next 5–6 years, which will only aggravate the current shortage of artisans and intensify the competition for talent. organisations will have to implement strategies to keep artisans in their service. kleynhans (2007) states that many artisans are being recruited so intensively by canada and australia that local organisations have tried to counter this by offering more competitive salaries and retention bonuses. reasons for international organisations’ recruiting south african artisans are that past learnership programmes were recognised as world class and that many skilled artisans were eager to leave south africa because of the high crime rate in the country (jordaan & barry, 2009). according to kleynhans (2007), some companies are now paying fitters and millwrights salaries of up to r30 000 per month just to retain them. these skills are rapidly becoming so scarce that organisations will go to extraordinary lengths to keep them. according to grobler, wärnich, carrell, elbert and hatfield (2006), employee turnover can be seen as the movement of employees out of the organisation. it is important to note that there are two types of employee turnover: the unpreventable and the preventable. the unpreventable refers to employee turnover that is beyond the control of both the organisation and the employee, for example, retirement or death. the preventable refers to employee turnover over which both the organisation and the employee have control, for example turnover related to resignations (mengel, 2001). retention of artisans is necessary for various reasons. the decision of an employee to stay or leave is potentially costly, often between 1.5 and 2.5 times the annual salary of the incumbent (wright, 2010). losing employees has a significant economic impact on an organisation because of the concomitant loss of knowledge when they depart. toracco (2000) states that although knowledge is recognised as one of an organisation’s most important assets, most organisations lack the necessary support systems to retain knowledge. while organisations in south africa might find it difficult to replace skilled artisans, ramlall (2004) points out that employee retention is necessary to realise a full return on investment of an organisation in its employees. preventable artisan turnover has been a cause for serious concern in organisations for some time now, but few organisations have made an active effort to investigate why artisans are leaving. more importantly, organisations fail to recognise that artisans are leaving because not enough attention is given to retaining them by satisfying their needs. although recruitment by international companies is a concern, the south african institute of race relations (sairr) stated in 2007 that it was anticipated that local organisations would also recruit more aggressively from each other. the occurrence of aggressive local recruitment has been fuelled by higher rates of economic growth and the government’s massive infrastructure spending. in addition, companies such as eskom, transnet and the airports company of south africa are also implementing major infrastructural projects (sairr, 2007). if one looks at the scale of these projects, it becomes clear that it is essential for local organisations to explore alternative retention strategies to keep their artisans. eskom, for instance, is planning capital expenditure expansions of r150bn up until 2011 and transnet is expected to spend nearly r80bn on infrastructure between 2008 and 2012; thus one can imagine how many artisans will be needed for such large projects (sairr, 2007). even though some local organisations have been trying to retain their artisans by offering more competitive salaries or sign-on and retention bonuses, these strategies are often unsuccessful. according to de lange (2007), some organisations began to offer artisans sign-on bonuses on condition that they stay with the organisation for at least two years. some organisations have even implemented an allowance strategy, which means that they pay artisans a 33% allowance on top of their salaries just to retain them. if incentives such as these are not enough to retain artisans, the question arises, ’what do they really want?’ before strategies can be implemented to retain artisans, it is necessary to establish what it is that artisans want from an employer. according to levin, mor barack and nissly (2001), organisations must know which factors motivate their employees to stay and which factors cause them to resign if they are to retain them. many managers refer to artisans as ‘blue-collar’ or ‘semi-skilled’ workers, as if they are always dirty, semi-literate and unable to express themselves intelligently. in addition, organisations shun artisans when it comes to recognising their efforts through profit-sharing schemes. kleynhans (2007) argues that should organisations want to make an active effort to retain their artisans, they will have to consider improving their human resource practices by reviewing the opportunities that are available to artisans. opportunities regarding career paths, promotions and scope for training and development should be critically investigated. it seems that artisans want opportunities to develop as people, not only to be better workers (kleynhans, 2007). artisans report that their salaries are too low, but it also seems that development opportunities for them are not taken seriously (jordaan & barry, 2009). therefore, it seems logical to look at the problem from a motivational perspective. to retain employees, employers must know what factors motivate their employees to stay and what factors cause them to leave (levin et al., 2001). therefore, organisations will have to make an active effort to find out exactly what it is that artisans want in order for them to be retained. according to kaye and jordan-evans (2002), organisations simply have to ask employees what they want, but managers are often reluctant to ask employees this question because they fear that they might create expectations that the organisation might not be able to satisfy. although this might be a real concern for managers, kaye and jordan-evans (2002) also state that asking employees what they want is a very important part of communication between the organisation and the employee because it has positive side effects. the employee who is asked what he or she wants will feel cared for, valued and important and this will often lead to stronger loyalty and commitment to the organisation. thus, merely asking this question is in itself a retention strategy. based on the above-mentioned discussion, the research problem could be summarised as follows: a shortage of artisans exists in south africa. therefore, organisations that employ artisans need to understand what the main reasons are for keeping or losing artisans, from the perspective of the artisans themselves. this information can be used to plan and implement research projects as well as human resource programmes to investigate and deal with the issue of artisan retention in organisations. the objective of this study was to investigate the factors that are important for artisan retention in an organisation in south africa. retention (back to top) according to mengel (2001), retention refers to an organisation’s efforts to keep in employment those employees of whom the organisation has a positive evaluation and who would normally only leave the organisation through voluntary resignation. ramlell (2004) analysed motivation theories to offer an explanation of how employee motivation affects employee retention within an organisation. the following critical factors that affect the retention of employees were identified (ramlell, 2004): • satisfaction of the needs of the employee: an individual has multiple needs based on individual, family and cultural values. • work environment: employees want to work in a productive, respectful and friendly environment. • responsibilities: given that an employee feels competent to perform, he or she might seek additional responsibilities and want to be rewarded in a fair and equitable manner. • supervision: some individuals might feel a need to coach and develop others and to influence the organisation’s goals and objectives. • fairness and equity: employees want to be treated in a fair and equitable manner and do not want to be discriminated against. • effort: employees want the task to be challenging and satisfying. • employee development: employees want to work in an environment that provides a challenge, offers new learning opportunities and offers opportunities for advancement and development. • feedback: employees want to receive timely and open feedback from their supervisors. from the perspective of self-determination theory (ryan & deci, 2002), two types of motivation can be distinguished: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. intrinsic motivation is displayed when an activity is undertaken out of interest, enjoyment or inherent satisfaction. intrinsic motivation can be divided into three parts, namely intrinsic motivation to know, intrinsic motivation towards accomplishment and intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation. three needs of individuals need to be satisfied to stimulate intrinsic motivation, the needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness (gagné & deci, 2005). the proposition of self-determination theory is that extrinsic motivation can vary in the degree to which it is autonomous versus controlled. activities that are not intrinsically motivating require extrinsic motivation. extrinsic motivation relates to activities undertaken for other reasons than interest in the activity and can be classified as integration, identification, introjections and external regulation (ryan & deci, 2002). integrated regulation occurs when an activity is recognised as worthwhile because it is seen as a means to an end. identification occurs when individuals identify that an activity is worthwhile for a specific reason. introjected regulation is governed by rewards and restrictions implemented by individuals themselves. external regulation is governed by rewards and restrictions implemented by others. the latter type of motivation is the lowest type of motivation on the self-determination continuum. according to gagné and deci (2005), work climates that promote satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs will enhance employees’ intrinsic motivation, promote internalisation of extrinsic motivation and lead to organisational commitment, which will contribute to retention of staff. in this regard, autonomy-supportive interpersonal environments play the most significant role. three specific factors, namely a meaningful rationale for doing a task, acknowledgement that people might not find an activity interesting and an emphasis on choice rather than control facilitate internalisation of extrinsic motivation. employees’ intrinsic motivation and internalisation of extrinsic motivation contribute to two components of organisational commitment, namely identification with an organisation and internalisation of its values. according to harris and brannick (1999), there are many factors that can influence an individual’s motivation for staying with an organisation, but just as every employee has a unique background, these factors, too, are unique to each individual. an important factor to remember, according to buhler (2003), is that employees need change over time. therefore, buhler adds that it does not mean that once an employee’s position in the hierarchy is identified, it will continue to hold true. the ideal would be for managers to take responsibility for reassessing the needs of employees regularly in order to establish which factors are important for them at that moment in time. kaye and jordan-evans (2002) completed an international research project with 8000 participants in 35 different industries to establish the most common reasons why people stay with an organisation. the most important factors for employee retention (in order of importance) include exciting work and challenge, career growth, learning and development, fair pay, relationships and working with agreeable people, supportive management, pride in the organisation, its mission and its products, congenial work environment or culture, being recognised, meaningful work and autonomy. in a study that focused on artisans in south africa, jordaan and barry (2009) found that insufficient remuneration, lack of training opportunities and unpleasant working conditions were the main reasons for the current shortage of artisans in south africa. organisational factors that affect artisan retention include working conditions, management style and approach, and fair treatment. research design (back to top) research approach this study was exploratory in nature and a qualitative design was used. according to sarantakos (1998), research that is exploratory in nature is usually carried out when there is not sufficient information about the subject under investigation or when the formulation of hypotheses is difficult or impossible. semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data. the researchers collected data from participants until data saturation was reached, in other words, until no more new information manifested. data saturation was reached by interview number 11, but it was decided to complete all 14 interviews to honour the commitment to the participants. research method participants the total population of artisans working in the same department of a chemical organisation (n = 32) was targeted in this research. only participants who hold a formal qualification as an artisan as prescribed by sector education and training authority (seta) standards participated in the study. a purposive sample of artisans was taken based on two additional criteria, namely that they were willing to participate in the study and that they were able to talk about their experiences. although all the participants could have participated, it was decided to continue with the interviews until data saturation was reached. the final sample consisted of 14 artisans. descriptive information of the sample is given in table 1. table 1 shows that the sample consisted entirely of male participants (100%) who were mainly afrikaans-speaking (64%). a majority total of 43% of the sample were between the ages of 30 and 39 years. most of the participants reported that they were married (79%). half of the sample (50%) reported that they had two dependants. the entire sample (100%) was permanently employed and most (64%) of the participants had been working for the organisation for a period of one to 10 years. most of the participants held a grade 12 certificate (64%) and 29% reported that they received an hourly rate of r100 or more. generally, participants (43%) followed an instrumental trade. the majority of participants (71%) did not belong to a labour union. data gathering a self-constructed questionnaire was used to obtain the biographical characteristics of the participants, which included age, gender, language, race, marital status, number of dependants, years of service and level of educational qualification. the biographical questionnaire allowed the participants to remain anonymous. a qualitative data-gathering technique (an interview) was used in this study. the researcher studies the phenomenon without predetermined expectations or categories and tries to understand the data from the perspective of the participant (moustakas, 1994). possible interview questions for the purpose of the semi-structured interviews were constructed and identified beforehand by using the literature study, problem statement and research objectives as guide. two questions were asked, namely, ‘what are the main reasons why you think this company is losing artisans?’ and ‘what will make you stay at this company?’ the researcher's attitude was one of unconditional positive regard. nondirective conversation techniques, for example minimal encouragement, attentive listening, clarification, paraphrasing, reflecting and summarising, were used to gather information. enough time was allowed and a relaxed atmosphere was created to help the participants to feel at ease. research procedure the researcher selected the sample to consist only of participants in possession of a formal qualification as an artisan as prescribed by seta standards. letters were sent to the participants in order to explain the nature of and reasons for the research. it is important to note that participation in the research was completely voluntary and that no direct or subtle coercion occurred in the recruitment process. participants did not receive any benefits or compensation for taking part in the study and feedback on the results was given only to individuals who requested it. participants were ensured that their responses were confidential. each participant was afforded the opportunity to remain anonymous during the interview process as well as when completing the questionnaires. research collection sessions were scheduled at a time that was convenient for the participants and occurred chiefly during the participants’ lunch hour. data analysis content analysis was used to analyse, quantify and interpret research data systematically and objectively. the universe of the content to be analysed was defined and categorised. the units of analysis, words and themes were determined by reading through the written transcriptions of the data. dominant themes and subthemes were determined. the themes were coded. coding can be seen as the process of grouping evidence and labelling ideas so that they reflect increasingly broader perspectives (creswell & clark, 2007). the reliability of the qualitative data was checked by completing the procedure of inter-coder agreement. this method uses several individuals to code a transcript and then compare their findings to establish whether they have arrived at the same codes and themes or at different ones (miles & huberman, 1994). furthermore, the researcher made use of peer validation to optimise the validity of the qualitative data (creswell, 1998). themes were checked and verified by two industrial psychologists for confirmation and/or criticism. after both inter-coder agreement and peer validation were achieved, the qualitative data were transformed into quantitative data in order to compare the data and to analyse the data set as a whole. the concrete language used by the participants was translated to scientific language and concepts. the exact words of the participants were used as proof and themes were confirmed by literature references. results (back to top) the answers to the questions applicable to the retention of artisans were combined. if a response occurred more than once for a single participant, it was counted only once. table 2 below shows an overview of themes from the participants’ descriptions regarding the factors that are important for artisan retention. the following deductions can be made on the basis of the results in table 2 regarding factors that are important for artisan retention. • theme 1: remuneration (rank = 1) this theme was mentioned by all 14 participants and can therefore be seen as the most important factor for artisan retention. remuneration refers to the reward that an employee receives for working for the organisation. remuneration includes pay, salary or wages, including allowances, benefits (such as company car, medical plan or pension plan), bonuses and other cash incentives. the importance of remuneration as a retention factor is confirmed by the following remarks from the participants, ‘the money here isn’t very good’, ‘there are different issues at every company, but with this one it is money’, ‘…benchmark our salaries …’, ‘the money overseas is much better than here’, ‘they should critically look at our salary scale …’ and ‘… pay us what we’re worth’. kaye and jordan-evans (2002) state that if employees see remuneration as being noncompetitive, unfair or insufficient to sustain life, they will be largely dissatisfied. • theme 2: development opportunities (rank = 2) this theme was mentioned by 13 participants, who regarded development opportunities as an important factor for artisan retention. employee development can be seen as a joint, ongoing effort on the part of an employee and the organisation for which the individual works to upgrade the employee’s knowledge, skills and abilities. successful employee development requires a balance between an individual’s career needs and goals and the organisation’s need to get the work done. according to the participants of this study, development opportunities are almost as important for artisan retention as remuneration. the importance of development opportunity as a retention factor can be confirmed by the following remarks of the participants: ‘if they want to keep us, they need to look at development practices more often’, ‘… as long as they keep on providing me with opportunities for development and growth i will stay’, ‘… training and development should be done on a more personal level than on corporate level’, ‘we are told that we can study anything related to our field, but they do not take the time to tell us what careers are available in our field’ and ‘i will only stay with a company if i believe they want to develop my skills further’. • theme 3: equality (rank = 3) this theme was mentioned by five participants, who reported that they viewed equality as an important factor for artisan retention. the participants expressed their views on equality as follows, ‘we do not get the same opportunities …’, ‘the employment equity guys are fast-tracked …’, ‘i want all the privileges and opportunities that everyone else is getting …’ and ‘everyone should be treated equal’. in this light, it seems that equality is an important factor for artisans. this might be due to the fact that organisations are implementing employment equity more rigorously than before in order to ensure that black employees and minorities are well represented in the artisan field and, as a result, the other employees are viewing it as inequality. this statement can be supported by the following remarks by the participants, ‘employment equity should not be implemented so rigidly’, ‘employment equity is a big problem’ and ‘employment equity is hampering my success at the company’. • theme 4: recognition (rank = 4) this theme was mentioned by four participants, who reported that they viewed recognition as an important factor for artisan retention. the remarks of the participants regarding recognition are as follows, ‘give me more recognition …’, ‘they should really make us feel more important, because at this stage i am only feeling like a number’ and ‘if you work hard they should notice it’. • theme 5: management (rank = 5) this theme was mentioned by three participants, who reported that they viewed management as an important factor in artisan retention. the participants expressed their views about management as follows, ‘management is a problem …’ and ‘certain managers aren’t correct for the group, and that causes conflict’. • theme 6: working environment (rank = 5) this theme was mentioned by three participants, who reported that they viewed the working environment as an important factor for artisan retention. in the context of this research, working environment can be viewed as the place where the artisans work. the participants expressed their views about the working environment as follows, ‘the guys of today want to work in a clean environment’ and ‘we have a nice environment’. • theme 7: working relationships (rank = 6) this theme was mentioned by two participants, who reported that they viewed working relationships as an important factor for artisan retention. working relationships in the context of this study can be seen as the relationship between employees and management and the relationship between employees and their co-workers. the following comment from one of the participants supports the view that working relationships are an important factor for artisan retention, ‘… foster better working relationships between management, line management and the artisans’. • theme 8: merit system (rank = 7) this theme was mentioned by one participant, who reported that he viewed the company’s merit system as an important factor for artisan retention. the merit system in the context of this study can be seen as the organisation’s official performance management system. the participant shared his view on the merit system as follows, ‘the merit system is useless; it does not matter what grade they give us, we still get the same raise’. although only one participant mentioned the merit system as a factor for artisan retention, when asked what they would change about the organisation, five participants mentioned that they would change the merit system. the comments regarding the merit system included the following, ‘i do not see the use of having a merit system if the unions negotiate your raise in any case’, ‘i am a group leader and when we do merits i get a hybrid point; they need to change the merit system because it is demoralising’ and ‘they should not compare the different trades with each other when doing the merits’. • theme 9: job satisfaction (rank = 7) this theme was mentioned by one participant, who reported that he viewed job satisfaction as an important factor for artisan retention. this participant shared his view on job satisfaction as follows, ‘… the guys do not have job satisfaction’. • theme 10: change management (rank = 7) this theme was mentioned by one participant, who reported that he viewed change management as an important factor for artisan retention. this participant shared his view on change management by remarking, ‘… if they want to implement change, they need to manage it well’. • theme 11: belongingness (rank = 7) this theme was mentioned by one participant, who reported that he viewed belongingness as an important factor for artisan retention. in the context of this research, belongingness can be viewed as the participant’s need to be and feel part of a cohesive team and organisation. the participant voiced his view regarding belongingness as follows, ‘i want to feel at home and i want to feel part of a team, because at this stage i only feel like a number’. • theme 12: employee wellness (rank = 7) this theme was mentioned by one participant, who reported that he viewed employee wellness as an important factor for artisan retention. the participant shared his view on employee wellness as follows, ‘employee wellness is a big thing and they need to give more attention to it’. although only one participant mentioned employee wellness as a factor for artisan retention, when asked if they would be interested in wellness in the workplace, 12 of the participants answered ‘yes’ and only two answered ‘no’. the statements regarding employee wellness were as follows, ‘regular health check-ups would be really nice’, ‘we could do with something like stress management or something like that’ and ‘i am sure the guys would like it if we could play something like table tennis during breaks’. • theme 13: job security (rank = 7) this theme was mentioned by one participant who reported that he viewed job security as an important factor for artisan retention. he shared his view on job security as follows, ‘i want security regarding my job.’ although only one participant stated that he perceived job security as an important factor for artisan retention, when asked to what extent they had job security, all of the participants stated that they believed their jobs to be secure. tables discussion (back to top) the objective of this study was to establish the factors that are important for artisan retention in an organisation. the results indicate that remuneration is perceived as the most important factor for artisan retention, followed by development opportunities. other factors that were also perceived as important for artisan retention by the participants included equality, recognition, management and the working environment and working relationships. factors that were mentioned by only one participant each include change management, job security, belongingness, the merit system, job satisfaction and employee wellness. various factors that are important for employee retention, as identified by ramlall (2004), were also reported in this study, namely needs of artisans (e.g. which might be satisfied through fair remuneration), the work environment, recognition and feedback by supervisors, equitable treatment and development. however, it seems that remuneration and development opportunities were most frequently noted as factors that are important to retain artisans. remuneration can be regarded as the most important factor for artisan retention. this finding is in line with the findings of parker and wright (2000). jordaan and barry (2009) conducted a similar study on employment factors that could contribute to artisan retention and they found that 40% of 79 participants reported that remuneration was the dominant employment factor for artisan retention. in addition, fair pay was listed third on the list of retention factors as researched by kaye and jordan-evans (2002), which supports the findings of this study that remuneration is a major role player in artisan retention. according to jordaan and barry (2009), salary levels of artisans should be critically evaluated because they are perceived as low. they point out that salary level is perceived to be the main employment factor that is important for the retention of artisans. companies are paying vast amounts in remuneration in order to retain their artisans (kleynhans, 2007). this means that artisans are in a favourable position and might be able to use this position to negotiate with organisations in order to be retained and to gain the most from the current situation. willis-shattuck et al. (2008) analysed various studies regarding motives of health workers and found that remuneration was regarded as important by employees in almost all studies. in addition, they pointed out that remuneration should be integrated with other incentives, particularly if the aim is to retain employees. employees who were paid low salaries felt that their skills were not valued. due to the artisan shortage in the country, organisations have no choice but to negotiate with their employees about their remuneration. the only other option is to allow them to leave, but for organisations to recruit new employees in the present circumstances is out of the question. however, remuneration should not be relied upon as the sole strategy for retention. kaye and jordan-evans (2002) support this notion by stating that an above-market-related wage alone will not keep employees; organisation have to create challenges and growth opportunities for employees and care about their well-being in order to retain them. according to chew (2005), traditional approaches that rely heavily on competitive remuneration often have limited success in staff retention in the long run. thirteen participants reported that they viewed development opportunities as an important factor for artisan retention. the opportunity to develop was second on the list of important retention factors, according to kaye and jordan-evans (2002). in addition, jordaan and barry (2009) found that better development opportunities accounted for 14% of the answers of the participants in their study when asked what they perceived to be the most important employment factors for artisan retention. however, it seems that artisans are not preparing themselves for higher positions by formal qualifications and training. education and training opportunities have strong motivating effects (willis-shattuck et al., 2008). training enables artisans to take on more demanding duties and to achieve personal goals of advancement and ultimately allows them to cope better with the requirements of their job. ryan and deci (2002) regard competence as an important need of people. development opportunities are therefore necessary to satisfy artisans’ needs for competence. the harvard business school (2006) states that best-practice companies have already recognised the value of development as a retention factor and that they are focused on encouraging employees not to chase remuneration but instead to chase responsibilities and learning opportunities. simpson (2002) supports this assertion, stating that talented individuals seek opportunities for development and that they look for organisations that will be able to provide them with the necessary opportunities to allow them to develop competencies that can be useful to them in future. in summary, the harvard business school (2006) holds that development is one of the most effective ways of retaining and rewarding talented staff. chew (2005) found that organisations regard it as too costly to train employees beyond the required basic skills. organisations are often reluctant to provide developmental training because it is seen as a threat to staff retention. this reluctance may also be due to the need to offer better pay packages given that training enhances job mobility. bassi and van buren (1999) state that when the training and development needs of employees and employers are met, the chances are greater that employees will stay in their organisations. therefore, one can assume that the opposite also holds true and that if the needs of employees regarding development opportunities are not met, they will leave the organisation. bearing in mind that the factor of development opportunity was ranked second and was therefore perceived as being of high importance, one can conclude that organisations, in addition to the current remuneration packages that they offer, will have to place more emphasis on making more development opportunities available to artisans if they want to retain their artisan talent. the third factor that the artisans reported as being important for retention was equality. five participants mentioned this factor. according to newell (2002), equality can be viewed as a conscious effort by the organisation to create equal opportunities for all and eliminate unfair discrimination. totta and burke (1995) add that real equality fosters an environment where all employees have equal access to career development and advancement opportunities and all employees are actively encouraged to reach their full career potential. equality does not feature as a retention factor on the list of factors of kaye and jordan-evans (2002), but it does feature on the list of organisational retention factors as researched by jordaan and barry (2009). in their study, jordaan and barry found that fair treatment was mentioned by 41% of 79 participants as an important factor for retention. newell (2002) holds that if employers want to bring about real change regarding equal opportunities, passive support is not an option; they need to be truly committed to promoting holistic equality before they will be successful. perceptions of equality might affect artisans’ perceptions of fairness of processes, procedures and outcomes of human resource management decisions (see jordaan & barry, 2009). recognition was mentioned by four participants, which resulted in the factor having a ranking of fourth place. recognition features eighth on the list of important retention factors of kaye and jordan-evans (2002) and fourth on the employment retention factors list of jordaan and barry (2009). this might be an indication that recognition is more of a general retention factor than a retention factor specifically for artisans. dibble (1999) states that if organisations want to retain employees, they need to build connections with them by recognising their efforts and telling them that they are valuable to the organisation. this will create a reason for them to stay with the organisation. the artisans reported management and the working environment as the fifth most important factor for retention. this could be due to the fact that employees want to foster a good working relationship with management, one that does not involve frequent conflict. abraham (2007) states that a poor relationship with a manager is one of the primary reasons people become dissatisfied. the harvard business school (2006) supports this, stating that people do not leave companies; they usually leave their managers. management features more prominently as a retention factor in the study of jordaan and barry (2009) in that it accounts for 44% of the organisational factors that can retain artisans. management also features as number five on kaye and jordan-evans’ (2002) list of retention factors. mccarter and schreyer (2000) state that employees want to work in clean, comfortable surroundings; whether employees work in an office or an auto repair shop, they are much happier and more satisfied if their surroundings are neat, orderly and clean. with reference to the factor of working relationships, two participants mentioned this factor, which gave it a ranking of sixth place. the factor of working relationships features fourth on the list of kaye and jordan-evans (2002) but does not feature on the list of jordaan and barry (2009), indicating that this might be more of a general need than one that is specific to the artisan environment. jordaan and barry found that a better working environment (organisational retention factors) accounted for 53% of their sample’s answers. in addition, according to the study by kaye and jordan-evans (2002), the working environment featured at number seven on their list of retention factors, indicating that although it did not feature prominently on this study’s list, it is a factor worthy of investigation. the merit system, job satisfaction, change management, belongingness, employee wellness and job security were mentioned by one participant as an important factor for the retention of artisans. the merit system could be referring to an esteem need because, in essence, the merit system is nothing more than a method that is used to determine how well individuals are performing at their vocation in order to give recognition to excellence and implement corrective measures for underperformance. weak employee organisational linkages are often displayed as the phenomenon of turnover. indeed, artisans are likely to resign to obtain better monetary rewards and development opportunities. although nonfinancial factors are also important for artisan retention, satisfaction with salary level may be a prerequisite for artisan retention. herzberg, mausner and snyderman (1959) classified salary as a hygiene factor (which might prevent motivation). development opportunities are classified as a motivator (which might lead to motivation). therefore, salary requirements might need to be satisfied before artisans can be motivated by other factors (e.g. development opportunities). if employees receive salaries that are lower than what others in similar jobs get, they become dissatisfied and their intention to leave increases (afolabi, 2002). from the perspective of self-determination theory (gagné & deci, 2005), identification with an organisation and internalisation of its values are affected by work climates that promote satisfaction of the needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness. in this regard, remuneration and development opportunities should be structured in such a way that they enhance artisans’ intrinsic motivation and promote their internalisation of extrinsic motivation by focusing on their needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness. table 3 provides a summary of the results regarding factors that are important for artisan retention and whether they appear on the lists of retention factors as reported by kaye and jordan-evans (2002) and jordaan and barry (2009). of the 13 factors that were identified in this study, six factors were confirmed in a previous study (see kaye & jordan-evans, 2002). these included remuneration, the working environment, working relationships and management. at a national level, seven factors were confirmed by the research of jordaan and barry (2009), namely remuneration, the working environment, job security, equality, management, recognition and development opportunity. the factors that were not confirmed by either one of the studies mentioned above may be inherent to the specific organisation where the research was conducted. these factors included change management, belongingness, the merit system and employee wellness. the importance of remuneration as a retention factor was confirmed by all three studies. from the additional factors that were identified by the participants, it is clear that organisations should not rely purely on remuneration as a retention strategy. according to the conservation of resources theory of hobfoll (1998), individuals seek and acquire resources that they value or that serve as a means for attaining their objectives. salary and development opportunities are important resources because they help individuals cope with challenges and capitalise on opportunities. when these resources are threatened, artisans may experience diminished well-being, which may lead to their voluntarily leaving their jobs (wright, 2010). according to the participants’ remarks, only two factors were perceived as being fully utilised by the organisation for retention: the working environment and job security. both of these factors were perceived by the participants as being of low importance and were ranked fifth and seventh respectively. factors that were of high importance to the participants, such as remuneration, development opportunity, recognition and management, were perceived as being only partially utilised for the retention of artisans. although equality is also perceived to be a factor of high importance (ranked third), participants did not view this factor as being utilised at all for artisan retention. working relationships received a ranking of sixth place, and, according to participants, this factor was also only partially utilised. factors that were perceived to be of low importance, such as the merit system, job satisfaction, change management, belongingness and employee wellness, were also not being utilised at all by the organisation, according to the participants. keeping the above in mind, it can be concluded that artisan retention should be managed from an employee perspective. therefore, communication between management and the employee is of the utmost importance when it comes to identifying the factors for retention and satisfying the needs of artisans. kaye and jordan-evans (2002) support this, stating that when management asks employees about their needs, it allows the employee to feel cared for, valued and important, and this will often lead to stronger loyalty and commitment to the organisation. limitations of the study the findings of this study are limited because it was mainly a qualitative study; therefore, the findings cannot be applied to other contexts. with regard to the sample, employees from only one department of the organisation and not the organisation as a whole were interviewed. moreover, the entire sample consisted of male participants, which means that these findings cannot necessarily be applied to female employees. another limitation is that the research was done from an artisan’s perspective. there are other opinions, such as those of management and the human resources department, that were not solicited in this research. recommendations based on the results of this study, the followingrecommendations can be made to retain artisans. first, organisations should provide equitable and fair (competitive) remuneration. remuneration packages should also be benchmarked more often and remuneration reviews should be done from an employee perspective and not from a managerial perspective. second, the organisation should encourage succession planning and identify roles for which employees may be suited. it can also invest in cross-training, job shadowing, coaching, mentoring and cross-experience. it might also be beneficial for the organisation to run a mentoring and coaching programme for new employees in which only the top performers are allowed to become involved. being a coach or mentor in this programme should be viewed as a status symbol, something to aspire to. techniques to enhance employee attachment to the organisation (i.e. person-organisation fit selection approach and performance-based incentives) should be implemented. in terms of future research, it is recommended that artisans from various organisations and in different industries be studied in order to obtain a more representative sample. future research should focus on the views of female artisans regarding the perceived importance of these factors for artisan retention. references (back to top) abraham, s. (2007). employee retention requires person-centered plan. construction news, 74(14), 12–13. afolabi, a.c. (2002). influence of organisational climate and locus of control on job satisfaction and turnover intentions. nigerian journal of psychology, 19(1), 102–113. bassi, l.j., & van buren, m.e. (1999). sharpening the leading edge. training & development, 53, 23–32. buhler, p.m. (2003). managing in the new millennium: understanding the manager’s motivational tool bag. supervision, 64(12), 20–22. centre for development and enterprise. (2007, october 6). the skills revolution: are we making progress? in cde in-depth report. retrieved march 20, 2008, from http://www.cde.org.za/attachment_view.php?aa_id=196 chew, y.t. (2005). achieving organisational prosperity through employee motivation and retention: a comparative study of strategic hrm practices in malaysian institutions. research and practice in human resource management, 13(2), 87–104. creswell, j.w. (1998). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five traditions. thousand oaks, ca: sage. creswell, j.w., & clark, v.p. (2007). designing and conducting mixed methods research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. de lange, j. (2007, november 22). anglo platinum skaal sy verwagte produksie vir die jaar verder af [anglo platinum further decreases its production for the year]. beeld. retrieved march 20, 2008, from http://152.111.1.251/argief/berigte/beeld/2007/11/22/b1/3/jlplatarbeid.html dibble, s. (1999). keeping your valuable employees. new york: wiley. gagné, m., & deci, e.l. (2005). self-determination theory and work motivation. journal of organizational behavior, 26, 331–362. grobler, p., wärnich, s., carrell, m.r., elbert, n.f., & hatfield, r.d. (2006). human resource management in south africa (3rd edn.). london: thomson learning. harris, j., & brannick, j. (1999). finding and keeping great employees. new york: american management association. harvard business school. (2006). the results-driven manager: retaining your best people. boston, ma: harvard business school publishing. herzberg, f., mausner, b., & snyderman, b. (1959). the motivation to work. new york: wiley. hobfoll, s.e. (2001). the influence of culture, community and the nested-self in the stress process: advancing conservation of resources theory. applied psychology: an international review, 50, 337–369. jordaan, n., & barry, m.l. (2009). investigating the reasons for lack of skilled artisans in south africa: the perspective of artisans. south african journal of engineering, 20(1), 173–184. kaye, b., & jordan-evans, s. (2002). retention in tough times. training and development, 56(1), 32–37. kleynhans, j. (2007, august). memorandum to the chamber of mines. retrieved march 20, 2008, from http://www.solidaritysa.co.za/home/wmview.php?artid=387 levin, a., mor barak, m.e., & nissly, j.a.m. (2001). antecedents to retention and turnover among child welfare, social work and other human services employees: what can we learn from past research? social service review, 75, 626–661. mccarter, j., & schreyer, r. (2000). recruit and retain the best. manassas park, va: impact publications. mengel, d. (2001). top ten ways to retain high performance. people dynamics, 19(9), 23–33. miles, m.b., & huberman, a.m. (1994). qualitative data analysis: an expanded sourcebook (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. moustakas c. (1994). phenomenological research methods. london: sage. newell, s. (2002). creating the healthy organization. well-being, diversity & ethics at work. london: thomson learning. parker, o., & wright, l. (2000). pay and employee commitment: the missing link. ivey business journal, 65, 70–79. ramlall, s. (2004). a review of employee motivation theories and their implications for employee retention within organizations. journal of american academy of business, 5(1/2), 52–63. ryan, r.m., & deci, e.l. (2002). overview of self-determination theory: an organismic-dialectical perspective. in e.l. deci & r.m. ryan (eds.), handbook of self-determination research (pp. 3–33). rochester, ny: the university of rochester press. sarantakos, s. (1998). social research. basingstoke: macmillan. simpson, l. (2002). war for talent. global hr, 54, 58–59. south african institute of race relations. (2007, december 12). the skills shortage: urban legend or fatal constraint? in fast facts. retrieved march 20, 2008, from http://www.sairr.org.za/research-and-publications/fast-stats-online/fast-facts-2007/fast-facts-no-12-december-2007.html toracco, r.j. (2000). a theory of knowledge management. advances in developing human resources, 2(1), 38–62. totta, j.m., & burke, r.j. (1995). integrating diversity and equality into the fabric of the organization. women in management, 10(7), 32–39. willis-shattuck, m., bidwell, p., thomas, s., wyness, l., blaauw, d., & ditlopo, p. (2008). motivation and retention of health workers in developing countries: a systematic review. bmc health services research, 8, 47. wright, t.a. (2010). the role of psychological well-being in job performance, employee retention and cardiovascular health. organizational dynamics, 38(1), 13–23. abstract introduction research design findings and discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) nina barnes department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa marieta du plessis department of industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa josé frantz department of physiotherapy, dvc research and innovation, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa citation barnes, n., du plessis, m., & frantz, j. (2021). perceived career management challenges of academics at a south african university. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1515. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1515 original research perceived career management challenges of academics at a south african university nina barnes, marieta du plessis, josé frantz received: 16 nov. 2020; accepted: 19 jan. 2021; published: 22 apr. 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: understanding academic career challenges is important at a national and global level, to support academic career progression. whilst challenges are identified in academic career literature, higher education institutions are identified as complex interdependent structures and, therefore, encouraged to be studied from a perspective of interdependency and complexity. research purpose: to explore and describe the perceived career management challenges of academics at a south african university. motivation for the study: to address the need for an integrated approach, from an individual and organisational perspective, through a systems-thinking framework (stf), which acknowledges academic career progression as an interdependent and complex system. research approach/design and method: a qualitative, phenomenological approach, through individual semi-structured interviews with 17 academics, across all career phases. main findings: the study confirmed typical challenges captured in literature, and identified a number of additional challenges, through a systems thinking approach, as perceived by academics in all career phases. challenges were identified at individual, departmental, organisational and societal levels. personality; holistic well-being; team dynamic; institutional culture; role transition; institutional strategies, policies, systems and support, interpersonal/peer support; social culture in which university is located; regulatory bodies; and external stakeholders are new contributions to the existing literature/knowledge. contribution/value-add: an understanding of career management challenges, as perceived by academics, for the purpose of strategy development. in addition, to provide leaders and talent management practitioners in the higher education sector with the components to consider, through a systems thinking approach, when reproducing contextually sensitive maps and negotiating the landscape for academic career success. keywords: career management; academic career challenges; higher education; systems-thinking framework; career development. introduction understanding the challenges associated with the academic profession is globally acknowledged by universities as critical for the strategic management of academic careers, as well as for institutional success (szelągowska-rudzka, 2018). in addition, the description of career challenges in south africa is essential to inform and direct the career management and progression of academics and to address national priorities, as set against the national development plan 2030 (republic of south africa [rsa], national planning commission [npc], 2013, p. 319). therefore, it is important to study the academic career path in its own right, because academia is a large, influential sector in any society, whilst it enjoys a continued expansion (zacher, rudolph, todorovic, & ammann, 2019). the academic career includes a unique career path. the roots of the academic career can be traced back to socrates and plato, and their ideas of academia, as a source of wisdom (baruch & hall, 2004). caplow and mcgee (2001), conceivably, were the first to examine the academic career, focussing on academia as a social phenomenon. however, the term, academic career, opens a diverse and complex world that defies easy definition or categorisation (strike & taylor, 2009). pithouse-morgan, naiker, pillay, masinga and hlao (2016) argue that being an academic as well as what constitutes academic work and the meanings associated with becoming an academic are contested and constantly changing. literature indicates that there is an agreed view that academia, undoubtedly, has changed over time (callaghan, 2015). a national review, conducted by the council on higher education (che, 2016, p. 10), reports on such changes, whilst highlighting their impact on institutional structures, as well as the size and shape of systems, in the curriculum, in pedagogy, in modes of delivery, in research and in the relationship of institutions with external communities. however, academic career progression is still dependent on key milestones, challenges and tensions, which need to be managed successfully, to progress along the academic career path (zacher et al., 2019). with the given context in mind, challenges associated with academic career management are identified, in academic career literature (pienaar & bester, 2007). studies distinctly highlight work overload (monnapula-mapesela, 2002), role conflict (miller, 2003), poor remuneration (koen, 2006), inadequate performance management (miller, 2003), insufficient support for teaching and research (nelson & burke, 2000), discrimination in terms of race and gender (tytherleigh, rothmann, & barkhuizen, 2008), lack of transparency (tytherleigh et al., 2008) and poor communication (ball, 2004), as the typical career management challenges of academics. however, a recent review confirms the lack of an integrated career management approach from an individual and organisational perspective (zacher et al., 2019). maguad (2018) argues that the effectiveness of an improvement initiative should not be addressed in isolation, as the elements of the higher education system, like any other organisation, are interrelated and interdependent. this argument emphasises the importance of managing careers in an organisation as an actual system, which requires key consideration for contextual factors (baruch & peiperl, 2000). therefore, understanding the challenges in the higher education system, as well as the context in which it operates, is important to ensure the effective management of academic careers (szelągowska-rudzka, 2018). in addition, higher education institutions are complex interdependent structures and consequently should be studied from the perspective of complexity, and methods that consider this complexity should be applied (korsakova, 2019). ragin (2000) referred to this complexity as multiple conjuncture causation. this implies that, most often, it is a combination of conditions that produces a phenomenon; specifically, several different combinations of conditions may produce the same outcome, and depending on the context a given condition may very well have a different impact on the outcome. a systems thinking approach to career development, therefore, recognises career management as a ‘complex of elements standing in interaction’ (von bertalanffy, 1967, p. 133), and ‘single parts and processes cannot provide a complete picture of the vital phenomena’ (von bertalanffy, 1967, p. 133). the approach further provides a systems-thinking framework (stf), as adopted in this study, which is underpinned by a meta-theoretical perspective of influences, relevant to an individual’s career development, by showing the many complex and interrelated systems, in which career development occurs (mcmahon & patton, 2018). research purpose the systems-thinking approach is in line with the argument that not all higher educational institutions can respond in an identical way; therefore, institutions should design their own future, as well as the best manner in which to adjust and adapt to their individual context (waller, lemoine, mense, garretson, & richardson, 2019). although literature on the typical career obstacles that academics in higher education institutions experience distinctly exists (pienaar & bester, 2007), institutions are encouraged to consider an integrated approach, from an organisational perspective of complexity, whilst considering institutional context (de vos & cambré, 2017). this current research, therefore, was aimed at exploring and describing the perceived career management challenges of academics at a south african university. the contextual challenges of the academics are acknowledged and could further inform the career management strategies of academics. literature review career management to understand the concept of career management and its associated challenges, it is necessary to consider the term, career. there are two approaches to viewing a career (greenhaus, callanan, & godshalk, 2010). in the one approach, a career is viewed as a structural property of an occupation or an organisation, whilst in the other approach it is viewed as a property of an individual, rather than an occupation or an organisation. therefore, a career is viewed as more than work performance and includes a pattern of work-related experiences that span the course of a person’s life (greenhaus et al., 2010). amongst the classic descriptions, super’s definition, in 1976, describes career as the course of events that constitute a person’s life, the sequence of occupations and other life roles, which combine to express an individual’s commitment to work in his or her total pattern of self-development (patton & mcmahon, 2014, p. 4). these definitions proclaim that careers are dynamic and unfold throughout life, whilst it is unique to each person and dependent on individual choices. in addition, career management is defined through an individual perspective and an organisational perspective. from an organisational perspective, career management is concerned with the intervention, namely strategies and practices that plan and shape the development and progression of employees, in accordance with the organisation’s talent management needs, ensuring a talent flow to create and maintain the required talent pool (guan, zhou, ye, jiang, & zhou, 2015). from an individual perspective, career management is defined as a process by which individuals develop, implement and monitor their career goals and strategies (greenhaus et al., 2010). whilst career management and career development are generally incorporated as interchangeable constructs, career development, which is more commonly referred to as career progression, in the higher education context is an on-going process, through which an individual progresses through a series of stages, each characterised by a relatively unique set of issues, themes and challenges (schreuder & coetzee, 2016). although career literature helps to substantiate the responsibilities, benefits and implications for the organisation, as well as the individual, respectively (segers & inceoglu, 2012), limited research exists, from an organisational perspective, to include a broader consideration and approach, namely the individual, as well as the organisation, within the broader societal context in which it operates (de vos & cambré, 2017). literature, therefore, supports the view that an integrated career management approach should be considered, from an individual and organisational perspective of complexity, whilst considering organisational context. career management is underpinned by career development theory that indicates a relatively short, yet significant history (baruch, szűcs, & gunz, 2015). the major career development theories could be categorised broadly to include person–environment fit theories, life-span theories, cognitive–behavioural theories, psychodynamic approaches, situational or sociological and social cognitive theories (gothard, mignot, offer, & ruff, 2001). career development theories have to be viewed within the context of the time in which they were developed and that the theories were in response to the prevalent social concerns at the time (watts, hawthorn, law, killeen, & kidd, 1996). whilst research on career development theories has led to refined career propositions and strategies, the field seems to remain subject to much criticism. the criticism includes inadequate as well as incomplete theory that lacks comprehensiveness and coherence (patton & mcmahon, 2014). more specifically, career development theory is critiqued for its failure to account for diverse populations and social justice (blustein, 2013), with a key focus on individual issues, to the detriment of contextual issues (leong & hartung, 2000). in addition, career theory has been criticised for being segmented within the individual theoretical models (patton & mcmahon, 2014). however, career development theory in the 21st century continues to respond to challenges in three main areas, namely the need for integration or convergence of theories, the importance of integrating related disciplines into the field and the increasing influence of constructivism and social constructivism (mcmahon & patton, 2018). it is against this background that the researchers in this study adopted an stf, to provide a meta-theoretical framework for the integration of career development theories, by using systems theory. a systems-thinking framework (stf) the stf is a holistic meta-theoretical framework that accommodates the content influences as well as the process influences on individual career development (mcmahon & watson, 2008). it identifies several key interrelated systems, including the intrapersonal system of the individual, the social system and the environmental–societal system, as illustrated in figure 1. figure 1: a systems-thinking framework that includes several interrelated systems to consider for individual career development. the individual system is composed of several intrapersonal content influences, which include demographics, individual characteristics, interests and abilities. influences that represent the content of the social system include the immediate environment and community, whilst environmental–societal system influences include broader structural and systemic context. whilst the influences in the environmental–societal system may seem less directly related to the individual, the impact is profound on career development (patton & mcmahon, 1999). the process of influence is acknowledged within, as well as between, these systems. patton and mcmahon (1999) used the term recursiveness to describe this process of influence, which refers to the interaction, the multi-directionality of influence, as well as the relationship between all the systems, bearing in mind that the individual system, along with the contextual subsystems, are open systems and consequently permeable to influence. recursiveness is a central construct of the stf and emphasises the inseparability of the parts from the whole; therefore, it is essential to think of career management as an integrated and dynamic process (vondracek, ford, & porfeli, 2014). in addition, career management challenges are set within the context of past, present and future (patton & mcmahon, 1999). based on the literature reviewed here, the researchers in this study aimed to address the following research question, ‘what are the career management challenges of academics at individual and organisational levels’? research design research approach the study was underpinned by a constructivist worldview, which holds knowledge as multiple or relative truths, as individuals seek understanding of the world in which they live (creswell, 2014). the approach embodied a qualitative, phenomenological study that included in-depth, rich, detailed and heavily contextualised descriptions of academic experiences, which further allowed the researchers to identify and extract themes, as well as integrate these themes into meaningful descriptions (munhall, 2001). research method research setting the study was conducted at a public university in the (location masked for blind review), south africa. historically, the institution has been classified as a previously disadvantaged institution, and has been the vanguard of south africa’s historic change, with a distinctive academic role in helping to build an equitable and dynamic nation. the university is challenged to demonstrate that it is capable of competing with the best, as well as play a prominent role in the intellectual, social and economic life of the nation. seven academic faculties are hosted by the institution, including faculties of arts and humanities, community and health sciences, dentistry, education, economic and management sciences and law (2013). entrée and establishing researcher roles following the permission granted by the university to conduct this research, the researchers discussed the planning and preparation of the data collection process. the first author took on the role of interviewer, whilst the remaining authors were consulted as experienced researchers throughout the collection, analyses and interpretation of the data, to ensure that the data were presented in an accurate and truthful manner. consultation amongst the researchers further prevented personal beliefs, values and experiences from influencing the interpretations formed and the findings derived from the study (creswell, 2014). finally, the first author took on the role of report writer, by writing up the findings, in consultation with the experienced research team. research participants and sampling methods the target population of the study included full-time academics on a permanent employment contract, in various career stages, together with academic leaders employed at the university, during the 2020 academic year. research identifies three main successive stages of an academic career trajectory (christophersen, 2017), namely an early career stage, a mid-career stage and an advanced career stage. in addition to the core academic activities of research, teaching and community engagement, academics are also encouraged to take on leadership roles, especially in their midand established career stages. whilst formal academic leadership roles such as a head of department, chairperson or deputy dean positions are regarded as added responsibilities to the core academic activities, academic leadership roles could also take on the form of a detached position that primarily forms part of the senior institutional management team, with a distinct strategic set of key performance areas and deliverables ([location masked for blind review], 2009). such academic leader roles include the positions of deans, which formed part of the study population, and were included in the sampling of the study. academics from the dentistry faculty were not included, as they hold a dual employment contract with the respective university, and the national department of health, which implied that additional employment processes and career progression practices had to be considered. the study population further excluded academics employed on a fixed term contract. a purposive sampling technique was used to recruit the participants for this study. sandelowski (1995) proposed that an adequate sample size in qualitative research is one that permits the deep, case-oriented analysis, which is a hallmark of all qualitative inquiry, and results in a new and richly textured understanding of the experience. a total of 17 academics, across five of the faculties, in various academic career stages, participated in this study (table 1). table 1: participants’ demographic and career stages. data collection methods semi-structured interviews were identified as an appropriate data collection method for the qualitative research design of this study, to address the research question. the semi-structured interview method is suitable for the studying of the participants’ perceptions, experiences and opinions, regarding a particular context (barriball & while, 1994). the exploratory nature of the research study allowed the use of an open-ended interview guide, to conduct the semi-structured interviews with the participants. this allowed the same open-ended questions to be posed to all the participants, whilst still allowing them to expand and elaborate on their responses. it further allowed probing for further understanding and clarity, whilst remaining on track to investigate the objectives of the study. all the interviews were conducted virtually, through an online platform, and audio-recorded. this method of data collection was used because of the challenges of the covid-19 pandemic, at the time. the challenges of such an instrument were that it was time-consuming, in the time required to conduct each individual interview as well as in the transcribing and coding of the data. data recording the audio-tape-recorded data were transcribed verbatim, soon after the interviews were conducted. subsequently, the full data set was analysed, by using thematic analysis, with the focus on the content of the text, and not the manner in which the participants responded to the questions. the aim of this was to identify, analyse and report on the patterns (themes) in the data set (braun & clarke, 2006). a deductive modality was adopted in an attempt to categorise the themes within the theoretical framework of the stf. strategies employed to ensure data quality and integrity the trustworthiness criteria of credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability were considered to ensure the quality and integrity for the qualitative nature of the research study (guba & lincoln, 1982). credibility refers to the confidence that could be placed in the truth of the research findings and whether the research findings represent plausible information and interpretation drawn from the participants’ original data (macnee & mccabe, 2008). the first author established credibility through the consultation and scholarly guidance of the two experienced researchers, as a means of peer debriefing. peer debriefing is described as an opportunity for researchers to test their growing insights, whilst being exposed to searching questions (guba & lincoln, 1982). for this reason, an overview of background information, data collection methods and process, data management and transcriptions, together with the data analysis procedure, as well as the research findings, were discussed (pitney & parker, 2009). in addition, the first author kept a journal throughout the research process to create an opportunity for reflexivity, thereby minimising researcher bias (malterud, 2001). transferability refers to the degree to which the research methods and findings could be transferred to another research setting (bitsch, 2005). the researchers, therefore, provided a comprehensive description of the research methodology and context, whilst purposively selecting the participants. dependability refers to the stability of the findings over time (bitsch, 2005), which could be achieved through an available audit trail for future researchers, including the raw data and interview notes (guba & lincoln, 1982). confirmability is described as the degree to which the results of an inquiry could be confirmed or corroborated by other researchers (baxter & eyles, 1997). the audit trail also established the confirmability of the study (tobin & begley, 2004). finally, this study received ethical clearance from the human and social sciences ethics committee at the research university (ref: hs19/6/41). data analysis following the complete transcriptions of the interviews, the researchers engaged the data set for in-depth knowledge, as part of the first critical step of the thematic approach, followed during the data analysis phase (clarke, braun, & hayfield, 2015). meaningful chunks of the data were identified as the units of analysis and added into a microsoft excel worksheet per question. the units of analysis included phrases, words or whole paragraphs, which were each assigned a code. an important step in analysing and organising qualitative data is the ability to systematically identify and assign codes, or labels, to express or infer information gathered during the study (basit, 2003). subsequently, these codes were ordered into potential themes, to generate a plausible thematic map, in line with the stf. all the themes were reviewed next by the researchers, by checking them in relation to the coded extracts of the entire data set (clarke et al., 2015). a few changes were made, by splitting or combining certain themes, whilst refining the boundaries of each theme. a final check was completed by the researchers to conclude the reviewing of the themes. as a follow-up step, the four categories and 21 themes were defined, and names were assigned to ensure the conceptual clarity of each theme as well as to provide a road map for the final step, namely the writing-up of the results to report on this study. during the writing up of the report, the first author weaved the analytical narrative together with data extracts to contextualise the results and strengthen the validity of the interpretations (clarke et al., 2015). reporting style the stf was used as a guide for the thematic map of the results and therefore populated and presented in a diagram. in addition, a narrative was provided to describe the themes within the various categories to enhance understanding and clarity of the data for the reader. findings and discussion the findings emerged from the purpose of the study, namely to explore and describe the perceived career management challenges of academics, at individual and organisational levels of the respective university. the stf was used to structure the findings into four categories: (1) the individual level category, representing the intrapersonal system of the stf; (2) the departmental category; (3) the institutional category, representing the organisational level and social system of the sdf; and (4) the external category that represents the environmental–societal system of the sdf. these categories include several themes as derived from the identified codes (table 2). table 2: codes adopted to inform the themes. the following themes emerged within the four categories (see figure 2). figure 2: findings structured into four themes as aligned to the systems-thinking framework. category 1: individual level five themes were recognised within category 1, namely demographics, personality, work–life balance, holistic well-being and skills and competencies. demographics: women, in particular, perceived personal characteristics and social constructs, mainly their gender, race and age, as obstacles for the progression and management of their careers. participant m4 shared ‘it is challenging if you’re a woman and you’re an academic, a single mom, and you’re trying to kind of make things happen’. this finding is aligned with extensive research, to address the challenges for women in academia (zacher et al., 2019). simultaneously, the participants also highlighted the impact of their racial identities on their career, as participant al4 expressed, ‘the fact that i’m a woman and black influences my personal experiences and challenges’, whilst another participant, e1, shared, ‘as a white female, i am aware that all opportunities are not always available to me’. this finding reflects a key proposition of the social cognitive career theory in that individual identities contribute to the lived experiences, as they negotiate contextual influences (lent, brown, & hackett, 1994), and the experiences of women academics, with different racial identities, are not the same. in addition, this finding is further aligned with the negative association of age on career development opportunities (van der heijden, schalk, van veldhoven, van veldhoven, & dorenbosch, 2008), as participant al3 shared, ‘at my age, people make assumptions and therefore it influences how they respond to me’, whilst participant m3 said, ‘i’m a late bloomer, in my 50s, there’s nothing that you can apply for at this stage that will give you status as an established researcher’. personality: the participants identified characteristic sets of their thinking, feeling and behavioural patterns, which evolved from their biological and environmental factors, as a challenge from a personal perspective. they highlighted the need for the individual and the work environment to be mutually responsive (schreuder & coetzee, 2016), as participant al3 expressed, ‘i have certain expectations of others and can become frustrated with others if i feel there’s no cooperation’. participant e3 added, ‘you must be development hungry to make a success’. this highlights a leading career development theory, the person–environment theory, which identifies personality as a fundamental construct for successful career management (patton, mcmahon, & watson, 2006). however, research on the role of individual characteristics, other than gender, as well as personal resources for academic career development, is still relatively rare (zacher et al., 2019). work–life balance: the participants experienced problems with the ability to maintain a reasonable balance between the time allocated for work and other aspects of their lives, especially their family responsibilities. participant m2 shared, ‘juggling between family and a demanding workload, there’s always a push for publication, but you can only do that after hours’. simultaneously, they acknowledged that the nature of an academic career was not restricted to traditional working hours. participants e4 expressed: ‘i know academia is not the standard nine-to-five job, and there are many other professions that require working after hours; i would never finish with everything if i didn’t work weekends.’ (early career, female) this finding confirms that people, increasingly, do not compartmentalise their lives and personal activities, but instead seek balance and integration throughout the lifespan (schreuder & coetzee, 2016). holistic well-being: emotional strain, because of a pressured environment, was identified as a challenge to the managing of their careers. participant al4 shared, ‘it can be very lonely building an academic career; there’s lot of pressure and my emotional well-being is very important’. another, participant a3, raised concern about overall physical health as, ‘i am afraid of the adverse impact on my health’, as he believes ‘many people who are prolific, well, they don’t sleep’. this finding confirms the correlation between holistic employee well-being, and individual output and performance, with a subsequent impact on individual career development (warr & nielsen, 2018). skills and competencies: the lack of administrator and management experience, knowledge and skills was identified by participants as a difficulty in the management of their academic careers. participant m4 said, ‘recognising that as an academic, i have not been taught to manage anything’, whilst participant a4 expressed: [t]here is a mistaken view all over the world that because you are a professor, a senior academic, you should automatically be able to manage a department or a faculty. (advanced career, female) it is evident that the career development and trajectory of an individual is highly dependent on mastering a set of skills, knowledge and the competencies required for a respective role (greenhaus et al., 2010). category 2: departmental level in category 2, five themes related to experiences in their immediate work environment were identified, namely workload and allocation; team culture, dynamic and support; career management and support; role transitioning; and resources: staffing. workload allocation: participants across all career phases experienced the amount of committee work and administrative duties, together with the marking of scripts, as an obstacle for the efficient management of their careers. an early career academic, participant e3, was concerned about, ‘when will i find time to get my research going with my teaching load and all the administrative responsibilities that go with it?’. in addition, they were of the opinion that the work allocation had an adverse effect on their career progression, as participant m1, in a mid-career phase, indicated: ‘[w]ork is divided to create “fairness” – the same teaching and community service is allocated across, and not according to career stage, or skill and expertise, and therefore puts my progress at a disadvantage.’ (mid-career, male) participant a3, in an advanced career phase, raised that: ‘[y]ou need to look at opportunity costs when senior academics are bombarded with mundane admin – what are you losing by having them do something they were not equipped to do?’ (advanced career, male) whilst the participants focussed on the potential implications of workload allocations, this finding is observed to be a typical challenge in academic career literature (gregory & lodge, 2015). team dynamic, culture and support: the participants experienced the level of support they receive from colleagues in departments, together with the unconscious and underlying psychological forces that influenced the way they interacted and communicated with each other, to have an impact on their career management and progression. participant al5 shared: ‘[t]he circumstances or conditions in the faculty – the support that you either get to stand or maybe continue your leadership role; or it could be that you are not popular enough.’ (academic leader, female) participant m3 added that, ‘an open and flexible culture is needed in the department’. this finding is aligned to the situational or sociological career theory that argues the proximal contextual environment – in this case, the team support and context-influenced individual career behaviours and outcomes (lent et al., 1994). career management and support: the participants experienced a disparity between their career trajectory and the expectations of their performance objectives or deliverables, in relation to their individual strengths and competencies, at departmental level. in their view, their performance objectives and deliverables did not allow for their individual strengths and career competencies. participant m1 indicated: ‘[p]erformance objectives and career goals are not structured around individual needs or strengths. individual strengths are also not used to the benefit of others – e.g. as a more experienced researcher, i could support an emerging researcher.’ (mid-career, male) this finding is aligned with the view that active career decision-making is facilitated by an individual’s reflection on his or her strengths, passions and values, in relation to his or her work (lieff, 2009). in addition, academics are required to define clear goals, carefully negotiate their employment terms and use time management strategies to optimise their chances of success (applegate & williams, 1990), as expressed by participant al5 that, ‘there is a sense of investment in your leadership role, but no guarantee that you will be able to further pursue it’. role transition: the move into, and back, from leadership roles were identified by more senior academics, as a challenge for career development, as it required an adjustment to a different set of competencies, expectations, responsibilities and positional power. participant al4 mentioned, ‘transitioning into a leader or committee role and back can be difficult – to be part of decision-making and go back to not being part of decision-making’. this finding demonstrates that whilst challenges and typical support mechanisms, such as orientation programmes, are identified for new employees, during their transition into the organisation, challenges around intra-role transitioning (when an individual changes orientation to a role across all phases) should be considered (greenhaus et al., 2010) as a key proposition of the life-span theory. resources and staffing: the participants viewed insufficient staff resources in departments as an obstacle for their careers. in their view, an inadequate number of staff members, in relation to the departmental objectives and deliverables, added pressure on them, and in turn, their career goals and objectives. participant a4 said, ‘our load has increased, but not the number of people that we employ’, whilst participant e3 concurred with: ‘i was not supposed to teach one semester according to my development plan, but my hod came to me and asked me to help out. so the department’s goals and staffing pressures put pressure on me.’ (early career, female) whilst research on the role of work resources in academic career development is limited, zacher et al. (2019) argue that there are several factors, including institutional resources and support, which could serve as contextual affordances, to either promote or hinder academic career development. category 3: institutional level in category 3, eight themes were identified that relate to their broader experiences at institutional level, including career management strategy; policies, systems and support; performance review and feedback; resourcing – funding; networks and interpersonal/peer support; role conflict; culture; and goals and strategies. career management strategy: the participants raised concern about various challenges related to a career management strategy. whilst they acknowledged the broad guidelines available for academic promotions, they considered the absence of a policy and clear criteria for promotion of each career phase, as an obstacle in the managing of their careers. participant m1 stated that, ‘there are broad guidelines for promotion available, but not details or clear criteria; and it can be demotivating if you are not sure how to move forward’. an early career academic, participant e4, further disclosed, ‘i need to understand the “mechanics” of developing as an academic’. this challenge is supported by the argument that a failure to apply promotion policies in higher education institutions, consistently, could lead to the deterioration of the professoriate (bitzer, 2008). in addition, the matter of sabbatical leave was raised as a related policy concern, with participant a1 stating that, ‘it is problematic and slows down my progress if i can’t apply for sabbatical in the first five years of employment’. participant a4 added that, ‘i haven’t had a sabbatical in ten years, and i don’t think i will be able to get one before i retire’. this finding is aligned with literature that regard sabbatical leave as an important process in the production and exchange of scientific knowledge, as well as the subsequent positive impact on the academic career (zahir & fakhri, 2011). a further challenge, identified by the participants, was the lack of integrated support in all career phases, with formal coordination of collaboration and partnerships. participant m3, in a mid-career stage, shared that, ‘there’s no formal coordination of collaboration and partnerships; there’s a need for integrated support that is sensitive to the rhythms of the academic year’. however, participant a1, in an advanced career stage, expressed the opinion that, ‘when you are a senior academic, everyone expects you to know what you do, so all the interventions are targeted at early career academics’. this finding is aligned with academic career literature that indicates a limited development focus on the midand late-career stages of academics, with career development strategies predominantly focussed on early career academics (zacher et al., 2019). the overall finding is supported by literature that advocate a strategic career management approach, which requires the systemic consideration, alignment and integration of career management practices, tools and interventions, with the overall strategy, policy and practices of an organisation (schreuder & coetzee, 2016). policies, systems and support: institutional policies, systems and support, with a specific focus on procurement and human resources, were identified by the participants as an obstacle in the development of their careers. participant al3 disclosed that, ‘support from all partners are needed and there should be clarity around hr and finance processes’. this statement was echoed by others, particularly those who were part of the established and leadership cohort. participant a1 elaborated by providing an example of the impact on research projects by sharing: ‘i understand that we must account and there must be procurement and hr structures in place, but it can also delay a big project. example, a project was delayed for six months because someone did not sign – now at the end i also need to account at nrf.’ (advanced career, male) participant a2 added: ‘[t]here are so many administrative burdens and demands that actually put pressure on projects and research to continue. example, appointing field workers for my projects can be very challenging because of the admin/hr/finance requirements.’ (advanced career, female) literature highlights the importance of considering employees’ perceptions of policies and practices, as well as the influence thereof on employee behaviours and outcomes (mey, werner, & theron, 2014). whilst the findings of this study represent challenges across all career phases, it is important to note that this respective finding was only identified by academics in an advanced and academic leader phase. performance review and feedback: a need for the review and feedback of clear performance expectations and indicators, as aligned to individual, departmental, as well as institutional strategies and goals, were highlighted by the participants as a challenge in managing their careers. participant e3 shared, ‘not knowing what is expected can be challenging; performance outcomes are not structured with clear goals’. participant a3 added: ‘[w]hen you are being assessed, it’s not how many committee meetings you attended or if you represented your hod, but it’s how many papers or how many books have you published.’ (advanced career, male) whilst this finding is supported by the view that inadequate performance management is a typical career management obstacle in higher education (miller, 2003), it also highlights the importance of general performance feedback as the preceding step and prerequisite for a development plan or career management process (bussin, 2013). although performance review and feedback forms part of a broader performance management system, known for its controversial views in higher education (parsons & slabbert, 2001), it is essentially described as a management tool to ensure that the organisation meets its overall objectives (bussin, 2013). resourcing and funding: the participants perceived their access to funds, especially the applied formulas and the time involved to establish an author’s fund, as an obstacle for the efficient management of their careers. participant e1 mentioned, ‘if we look at the amount of time it takes to get published and to build up an author’s fund’, whilst participant e1 added, ‘the formula used for supporting funds might be bit unfair’. the ability to acquire funding sources is found to be a prerequisite to a successful academic career (gail neely, smith, graboyes, paniello, & paul gubbels, 2016). networks and interpersonal/peer support: the opportunity to build authentic collaborative relationships with peers that could also provide a level of interpersonal support was perceived as a career management challenge by the participants. participant m1 shared, ‘the career can be very lonely and trying to build a reputation can be very lonely’, whilst participant m3 said, ‘we need time and space in our working calendar to build authentic collaborative relationships’. literature confirms that supportive peer relationships could be instrumental in the support of career advancement, as well as personal growth (kram & isabella, 1985). role conflict: the participants highlighted the competing demands of their role as researchers, with the management and administrative expectations, particularly their leadership roles. they experienced the balancing of their roles and responsibilities as a challenge to the management of their careers, as participant a1 indicated, ‘wearing two hats at the same time is a challenge’. participant al5 feared, ‘losing my academic profile when juggling between it with my administrator role’, whilst participant al4 added that, ‘the dynamic between academic leader and reporting lines can be challenging’. participant al1 elaborated that: ‘[h]aving to give 100% to both roles, established researcher and academic, while my performance is measured on me giving 100% to both, but i can’t give 100%; you have to find that balance.’ (academic leader, male) role conflict is regarded as another typical career obstacle that was identified in academic career literature (miller, 2003). culture: various aspects within the institutional culture were identified by the participants as obstacles to the managing of their academic careers. these include transitioning into their roles in academia, together with the pressures and politics thereof, as expressed by participant e2 as, ‘i need to understand how i fit in, and also the academic pressures and the politics’. communication and decision-making approaches, across the institution, was further identified as an obstacle. participant e2 said, ‘there are different discussions at different levels, and it is important that younger academics take part in these conversations to understand the bigger picture’. participants further experienced the culture as individualistic and competitive, which they deemed similar to being under a microscope, with a lack of collaboration that is underpinned by values of care. participant m3 said: ‘[a] collaborative culture underpinned by values and care is hard in academia, because there’s a lot of competition; people are not prepared to co-supervise if people are not departmental colleagues, it’s kind of territorial.’ (mid-career, female) participant m3 added, ‘it feels like you’re under the microscope and academic work and thinking isn’t’. inclusion and trust from all partners, and in particular their reporting lines, were viewed as an obstacle in the managing of their careers, as participant al4 shared, ‘in my experience the voices of my white male peers are heard even if we are talking the same thing, while my voice is not’. the participants further highlighted that the gender dynamic was not only experienced between male and female identities, but a power dynamic existed, particularly amongst women. participant al3 said, ‘prejudices exist between women too and not only just between men and women’. the overall finding regarding culture is supported by the view that a conducive culture for career development, as well as the growth of new and experienced academics, should be cultivated (pithouse-morgan et al., 2016). goals and strategies: the participants perceived that some institutional decisions of senior management were supposedly taken in the best interest of the students, without considering the operationalisation of such decisions or their impact on academic career development. participant e3 shared: ‘[a]s a student-centred institution, i feel top management make decisions in the best interest of the student, not taking into consideration how it will affect the rest of the institution or how we need to implement and make it happen.’ (early career, female) the participants further experienced some institutional goals and strategies as challenges with a potential limiting impact on their research, as participant m4 said: ‘[s]ometimes you feel like you put in a box, because of institutional systems and processes; you obligated to respond in a particular way; although we need to align ourselves with the institutional vision, we shouldn’t be limited to it.’ (mid-career, female) this finding is aligned to the social cognitive theory that organisational goals may either promote, or hinder, academic career development (zacher et al., 2019). category 4: external level finally, category 4 revealed three themes, namely massification, regulatory bodies and stakeholders, as well as social culture. massification: this is described as the massive increase of enrolment in higher education as the social and economic demand for qualifications increases (che, 2016). participants identified the need for faculty and overall institutional objectives to ‘increase the student numbers’ (participant a4), as a direct impact on their workload and career management. globally, massification has resulted in significant pressure on academic staff members (che, 2016). regulatory bodies and stakeholders: the expectations and reporting requirements of external regulatory bodies, including the national department of higher education and training (dhet), were identified as a challenge for the career development of academics. participant al2 said, ‘we have to consider external requirements and expectations beyond the university, such as the health professions council of south africa (hpcsa) and reporting to dhet; having to navigate through that can be challenging’. maguad (2018) confirms the need for higher education institutions to consider the interdependency, as well as impact of systems and structures that are external to the university. social culture: adapting to the social culture in which the institution is located has been identified by transnational scholars as a challenge for their career management, as participant m4 said, ‘adapting to the culture outside the university, as a transnational scholar, is not easy, especially without a support structure’. whilst the difficulties of cross-cultural adjustment have been studied, little research has considered the process of academic career development, from a cross-national perspective (zacher et al., 2019). in addition to the given themes that emerged in each of the four categories, it is also important to note a central construct of the stf, namely recursiveness, which acknowledges the inseparability of parts from the whole; therefore, it is essential to think of these categories as integrated and dynamic (vondracek et al., 2014). this was captured by participant a3 who stated the following: ‘i don’t think it’s easy to compartmentalise my personal challenges from my environmental obstacles. there is a dynamic interface between personal and systemic challenges. my personnel challenges or opportunities and successes are a function of the environment in which i find myself professionally. can’t divorce my personal challenges from the framework or conditions i have at my workplace.’ (advanced career, male) the overall findings are aligned to career development literature in two ways. firstly, it aligns with the typical academic career challenges identified, with the exception of one challenge. poor remuneration (koen, 2006) was not perceived as a career challenge by the participants of this study. secondly, in this study, the authors identified several additional perceived career challenges for academics, which are supported by general career literature and theory. practical implications whilst literature identifies typical career management challenges of academics, a number of additional challenges were identified in this study, through an integrated approach, as experienced by academics, in all career phases, at the respective university. the findings provide an unambiguous understanding of the career management challenges, as perceived by the academics in all career phases, for the purpose of strategy and intervention development. this research contributes to the existing knowledge of the career obstacles of academics, together with the current scholarly debate of higher education, as a critical juncture of integrated complexity and context (waller et al., 2019). in addition, the findings of this study provide leaders and talent management practitioners in the higher education sector with the components to consider, through a systems-thinking approach, when negotiating the landscape for academic career success. limitations and recommendations whilst the main disadvantage of a qualitative approach is that the findings cannot be extended to the broader research population (creswell, 1994), in this study the researchers explored the perceived challenges of academics, whilst acknowledging the complexity and context of the respective university. the findings, however, could provide leaders and talent management practitioners in the higher education sector with the components to consider, through a systems-thinking approach, when reproducing contextually sensitive maps and negotiating the landscape for academic career success. conclusion the findings of this study identified typical career management challenges in academic career literature and additionally confirmed a number of additional obstacles for academics in a systems framework. consequently, the findings of this study allow leaders and talent management practitioners in the higher education sector to consider the components, through a systems-thinking approach, when negotiating the landscape for academic career success. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions all authors made substantial contribution to the conception and design of the study, together with the analysis and interpretation of the data. whilst n.b. drafted the manuscript, m.d.p. and j.f. critically revised it for important content. all authors approved the final version for submission of the manuscript. funding information the research was financially supported by the academic doctorate advancement programme towards transformation (adaptt). ethical considerations the study received ethical clearance from the human and social sciences ethics committee at the university of the western cape. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references applegate, w.b., & williams, m.e. (1990). career development in academic medicine. the american journal of medicine, 88(3), 263–267. https://doi.org/10.1016/0002-9343(90)90152-4 ball, d. (2004, october 18). attracting the right staff is a mission. sunday business times, johannesburg, p. 22. barriball, k.l., & while, a. (1994). collecting da.ta using a semi-structured interview: a discussion paper. journal of advanced nursing-institutional subscription, 19(2), 328–335. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.1994.tb01088.x baruch, y., & hall, d.t. (2004). the academic career: a model for future careers in other sectors. journal of vocational behavior, 64(2), 241–262. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2002.11.002 baruch, y., & peiperl, m. (2000). career management practices: an empirical survey and implications. human resource management, 39(4), 347–366. https://doi.org/10.1002/1099-050x(200024)39:4%3c347::aid-hrm6%3e3.0.co;2-c baruch, y., szűcs, n., & gunz, h. (2015). career studies in search of theory: the rise and rise of concepts. career development international, 20(1), 3–20. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi-11-2013-0137 basit, t. (2003). manual or electronic? the role of coding in qualitative data analysis. educational research, 45(2), 143–154. baxter, j., & eyles, j. (1997). evaluating qualitative research in social geography: establishing ‘rigour’ in interview analysis. transactions of the institute of british geographers, 22(4), 505–525. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0020-2754.1997.00505.x bitsch, v. (2005). qualitative research: a grounded theory example and evaluation criteria. journal of agribusiness, 23(1), 75–91. bitzer, e.m. (2008). the professoriate in south africa: potentially risking status inflation. south african journal of higher education, 22(2), 265–281. https://doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v22i2.25785 blustein, d. (2013). the psychology of working: a new perspective for career development, counseling, and public policy. london: routledge. braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa bussin, m. (2013). performance management for government, universities, schools and ngos: a practical and informative textbook for managing performance in service delivery-orientated organisations. gauteng: knowres publishing, randburg. callaghan, c.w. (2015). designation differences and academic career progression. acta commercii, 15(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v15i1.267 caplow, t., & mcgee, r.j. (2001). the academic marketplace (rev. edn.). new brunswick, nj: transaction publishers. christophersen, e.r. (2017). career development and promotion in an academic health center. journal of clinical psychology in medical settings, 24(1), 41–46. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-017-9488-9 clarke, v., braun, v., & hayfield, n. (2015). thematic analysis. in j.a. smith (ed.), qualitative psychology: a practical guide to research methods (pp. 222–248). london: sage. council on higher education [che]. (2016). south african higher education reviewed: two decades of democracy. pretoria: che. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312889357_south_african_higher_education_reviewed_two_decades_of_democracy_including_chapter_on_governance creswell, j.w. (1994). research design: qualitative & quantitative approaches. thousand oaks, ca: sage. creswell, j.w. (2014). a concise introduction to mixed methods research. los angeles, ca: sage. de vos, a., & cambré, b. (2017). career management in high-performing organizations: a set-theoretic approach. human resource management, 56(3), 501–518. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21786 gail neely, j., smith, r.j., graboyes, e.m., paniello, r.c., & paul gubbels, s. (2016). guide to academic research career development. laryngoscope investigative otolaryngology, 1(1), 19–24. https://doi.org/10.1002/lio2.5 gothard, b., mignot, p., offer, m., & ruff, m. (2001). careers guidance in context. london: sage. greenhaus, j.h., callanan, g.a., & godshalk, v.m. (2010). career management. thousand oaks, ca: sage. gregory, m.s.j., & lodge, j.m. (2015). academic workload: the silent barrier to the implementation of technology-enhanced learning strategies in higher education. distance education, 36(2), 210–230. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2015.1055056 guan, y., zhou, w., ye, l., jiang, p., & zhou, y. (2015). perceived organizational career management and career adaptability as predictors of success and turnover intention among chinese employees. journal of vocational behavior, 88(x), 230–237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2015.04.002 guba, e.g., & lincoln, y.s. (1982). epistemological and methodological bases of naturalistic inquiry. educational communications and technology journal, 30(4), 233–252. koen, c. (2006). higher education and work: setting a new research agenda. cape town: human sciences research council (hsrc) press. korsakova, t.v. (2019). higher education in vuca world: new metaphor of university. european journal of interdisciplinary studies, 5(2), 31–35. https://doi.org/10.26417/ejis.v5i2.p31-35 kram, k.e., & isabella, l.a. (1985). mentoring alternatives: the role of peer relationships in career development. academy of management journal, 28(1), 110–132. https://doi.org/10.5465/256064 lent, r.w., brown, s.d., & hackett, g. (1994). toward a unifying social cognitive theory of career and academic interest, choice, and performance. journal of vocational behavior, 45(1), 79–122. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1994.1027 leong, f.t., & hartung, p.j. (2000). cross-cultural career assessment: review and prospects for the new millennium. journal of career assessment, 8(4), 391–401. https://doi.org/10.1177/106907270000800408 lieff, s.j. (2009). perspective: the missing link in academic career planning and development: pursuit of meaningful and aligned work. academic medicine, 84(10), 1383–1388. https://doi.org/10.1097/acm.0b013e3181b6bd54 macnee, c.l., & mccabe, s. (2008). understanding nursing research: using research in evidence-based practice. philadelphia, pa: lippincott williams & wilkins. maguad, b.a. (2018). managing the system of higher education: competition or collaboration? education, 138(3), 229–238. malterud, k. (2001). qualitative research: standards, challenges, and guidelines. the lancet, 358(9280), 483–488. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(01)05627-6 mcmahon, m., & patton, w. (2018). systemic thinking in career development theory: contributions of the systems theory framework. british journal of guidance & counselling, 46(2), 229–240. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2018.1428941 mcmahon, m.l., & watson, m.b. (2008). systemic influences on career development: assisting clients to tell their career stories. the career development quarterly, 56(3), 280–288. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2008.tb00043.x mey, m., werner, a., & theron, a. (2014). the influence of perceptions of organizational trust and fairness on employee citizenship. problems and perspectives in management, 12(3), 99–105. miller, k. (2003). values, attitudes, and job satisfaction. in s.p. robbins, a. odendaal, & g. roodt (eds.), organisational behaviour – global and south african perspectives (pp. 65–82). cape town: pearson education. monnapula-mapesela, l. (2002). staff satisfaction in a south african university undergoing transformation. unpublished doctoral dissertation. bloemfontein: university of the free state. retrieved from https://scholar.ufs.ac.za/xmlui/handle/11660/6307 munhall, p.l. (2001). ethical considerations in qualitative research. in p. munhall (ed.), nursing research: a qualitative perspective (pp. 537–549). sudbury, ma: jones & bartlett nelson, d.l., & burke, r.j. (2000). women executives: health, stress, and success. academy of management executive, 14(2), 107–121. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2000.3819310 parsons, p.g., & slabbert, a.d. (2001). performance management and academic workload in higher education. south african journal of higher education, 15(3), 74–81. https://doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v15i3.25328 patton, w., & mcmahon, m. (1999). career development and systems theory: a new relationship. washington, dc: thomson brooks/cole publishing co. patton, w., & mcmahon, m. (2014). career development and systems theory: connecting theory and practice (3rd edn.). rotterdam: sense. patton, w., mcmahon, m., & watson, m.b. (2006). career development and systems theory: enhancing our understanding of career. in g. stead, & m.b. watson (eds.), career psychology in the south african context (pp. 65–78). pretoria: van schaik publishers. pienaar, c., & bester, c. (2007). mid-career problems of academics in higher education. acta academica, 39(3), 224–237. pithouse-morgan, k., naicker, i., pillay, d., masinga, l., & hlao, t. (2016). ‘sink or swim?’: learning from stories of becoming academics within a transforming university terrain. south african journal of higher education, 30(1), 224–244. https://doi.org/10.20853/30-1-561 pitney, w.a., & parker, j. (2009). qualitative research in physical activity and the health professions. retrieved from http://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/handle/123456789/42900 ragin, c.c. (2000). fuzzy-set social science. chicago, il: chicago university press. republic of south africa [rsa], & national planning commission [npc]. (2013). national development plan – 2030 our-future-make-it-work. retrieved from https://www.nationalplanningcommission.org.za/national_development_plan sandelowski, m. (1995). sample size in qualitative research. research in nursing and health, 18(2), 179–183. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.4770180211 schreuder, a.m.g., & coetzee, m. (2016). careers: an organisational perspective (5th edn.). cape town: juta. segers, j., & inceoglu, i. (2012). exploring supportive and developmental career management through business strategies and coaching. human resource management, 51(1), 99–120. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20432 strike, t., & taylor, j. (2009). the career perceptions of academic staff and human resource discourses in english higher education. higher education quarterly, 63(2), 177–195. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2273.2008.00404.x szelągowska-rudzka, k. (2018). human resources management in higher education institutions in poland. management, 22(1), 208–225. https://doi.org/10.2478/manment-2018-0015 tobin, g.a., & begley, c.m. (2004). methodological rigour within a qualitative framework. journal of advanced nursing, 48(4), 388–396. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2004.03207.x tytherleigh, m.y., rothmann, s., & barkhuizen, n. (2008). model of work-related ill health of academic staff in a south african higher education institution. south african journal of higher education, 22(2), 404–422. https://doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v22i2.25794 university of the western cape. (2009). standing order: academic role clarity. the researchers only have access to a hard copy, as the institution recently launched intranet; therefore, an electronic copy will be made available soon. university of the western cape. (2013). university of the western cape history. retrieved from https://www.uwc.ac.za/pages/history.aspx van der heijden, b., schalk, r., van veldhoven, m.j., van veldhoven, m., & dorenbosch, l. (2008). age, proactivity and career development. career development international, 13(2), 112–131. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430810860530 von bertalanffy, l. (1967). general theory of systems: application to psychology. social science information, 6(6), 125–136. https://doi.org/10.1177/053901846700600610 vondracek, f.w., ford, d.h., & porfeli, e.j. (2014). a living systems theory of vocational behavior and development. rotterdam: sense. waller, r.e., lemoine, p.a., mense, e.g., garretson, c.j., & richardson, m.d. (2019). global higher education in a vuca world: concerns and projections. journal of education and development, 3(2), 73. https://doi.org/10.20849/jed.v3i2.613 warr, p., & nielsen, k. (2018). wellbeing and work performance. in e. diener, s. oishi, & l. tay (eds.), handbook of well-being (pp. 1–22). salt lake city, ut: def publishers. watts, a.g., hawthorn, r., law, b., killeen, j., & kidd, j.m. (1996). rethinking careers education and guidance: theory, policy and practice. london: routledge. zacher, h., rudolph, c.w., todorovic, t., & ammann, d. (2019). academic career development: a review and research agenda. journal of vocational behavior, 110(part b), 357–373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2018.08.006 zahir, a.t.p., & fakhri, l.s. (2011). improve faculty effectiveness by sabbatical leave. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 29, 917–926. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.11.322 article information authors: pierre joubert1 christo van wyk2 sebastiaan rothmann2 affiliations: 1department human resource management, vaal university of technology, south africa 2school of behavioural sciences, north-west university, south africa correspondence to: pierre joubert email: pierrej@vut.ac.za postal address: private bag x021, vanderbijlpark 1900, south africa dates: received: 28 june 2010 accepted: 19 oct. 2010 published: 25 feb. 2011 how to cite this article: joubert, p., van wyk, c., & rothmann s. (2011). the effectiveness of sexual harassment policies and procedures at higher education institutions in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/ sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #310, 10 pages. doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.310 copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) the effectiveness of sexual harassment policies and procedures at higher education institutions in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • sexual harassment    • implementation of a sexual harassment policy • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instrument       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results • discussion    • limitations of the study    • recommendations • references abstract (back to top) orientation: sexual harassment policies are generally in place in higher education institutions without any indication of its effectiveness as determined by the awareness of the policy. research purpose: the aim of this study was to investigate the awareness levels of academic staff members at higher education institutions in south africa of sexual harassment policies and procedures in their institutions. motivation for the study: a number of high profile court cases emphasised the need for effective policies to reduce the incidence of sexual harassment complaints. research design, approach and method: a cross-sectional survey design was conducted amongst 161 academic staff members, representing 10 higher education institutions in south africa. the measuring instrument that was used is the sexual harassment questionnaire (shq) that was developed specifically for this study. main findings: the results showed that despite indications that sexual harassment policies do exist and that they are regarded as effective tools in addressing sexual harassment, the implementation of such policies is not effective and few academic staff members received training and/or guidance on the utilisation of the policy. significant correlation coefficients were found between the elements of an effective policy and between population group and some of the elements. practical/managerial implications: employers across the board should regularly conduct an audit to determine the level of awareness of sexual harassment policies and procedures and plan interventions. contribution/value-add: no other study in south africa attempted to measure the awareness levels of academics and its impact on the management of sexual harassment. introduction (back to top) employers have much to lose if they fail to create and maintain a work environment that is free of sexual harassment (pearce & dilullo, 2001). failure to guarantee such an environment will have adverse consequences for organisations and will manifest in personal harm to victims and negatively affect their productivity, as well as in cost and possible legal implications for employers (bennet, 2002; grobler, erasmus & kölkenbeck-ruh, 2003). the statement by pearce and dilullo (2001) holds a serious warning for employers and refers to the issue of vicarious liability. this liability is rooted in the generally accepted principle that an employer has a duty of care to ensure that the workplace is an environment free from sexual harassment. to achieve this, an employer is expected to appropriately communicate to employees that sexual harassment is not tolerated, to educate and counsel employees regarding workplace policies on sexual harassment and to take decisive steps when incidents of sexual harassment are brought to employees’ attention (rycroft, le roux & orleyn, 2005). failure on the part of an employer to meet these expectations may result in the employer being found vicariously liable for the sexual harassment of an employee. the case of media 24 limited and samuels v grobler (2005) 16(4) sallr (sca) is a case in point where the employer had to pay substantial damages to its former employee as a result of the failure to adequately address her complaints of sexual harassment. the employment equity act no. 55 of 1998 (south africa, 1998) states that an employer is not liable for the conduct of an employee if the employer is able to prove that everything reasonably practicable was done to ensure that its employees do not contravene the act by committing sexual harassment. what is regarded as reasonable steps by an employer to prevent an employee from being sexually harassed is provided in the guiding principles of the 2005 amended code of good practice on the handling of sexual harassment cases in the workplace (labour relations act no 66 of 1995; south africa, 1995). for the purpose of this study, the definition provided by the 2005 amended code of good practice on the handling of sexual harassment cases, which was issued in terms of the labour relations act no. 66 of 1995 (south africa, 1995) is used as the definition of sexual harassment. according to this code, sexual harassment is defined as follows: sexual harassment is unwanted conduct of a sexual nature that violates the rights of an employee and constitutes a barrier to equity in the workplace, taking into account all of the following factors: a) whether the harassment is on the prohibited grounds of sex and/or gender and/or sexual orientation; b) whether the sexual conduct was unwelcome; c) the nature and extent of the sexual conduct, and d) the impact of the sexual conduct on the employee. (2005 amended code of good practice on the handling of sexual harassment cases) in all probability, this definition will be used by courts and councils when a case of sexual harassment is arbitrated and this will aid employers in providing an objective and ‘legal’ definition of sexual harassment. it is accepted that most organisations and especially most institutions of higher education in south africa have sexual harassment policies in place. a study conducted by wilken and badenhorst (2003) confirms this but also points out serious deficiencies in the content and especially the implementation of these policies. no research has been done in south africa regarding the effectiveness of sexual harassment policies in higher education institutions that the researcher is aware of. according to gouws and kritzinger (2007) and wilken and badenhorst (2003), most higher education institutions in south africa have introduced sexual harassment policies. however, little evidence exists on the effectiveness of these policies in terms of the requirements for an effective policy. this study will contribute to the body of knowledge regarding the effectiveness of sexual harassment policies and the success of their implementation. the objectives of this study were to: • determine the level of awareness of sexual harassment policies • determine the perception of the effectiveness of sexual harassment policies amongst academic staff at higher education institutions in south africa. sexual harassment an important aspect of vicarious liability is the reasoning that an employer can be held responsible for failing to prevent one of its employees from creating an intolerable situation for another employee. employers are thus held liable not for what they did but rather for what they did not do in terms of prevention (pro-active) and investigation (reactive) of sexual harassment. this emphasises the need for an effective sexual harassment policy (shp). in order to balance the relationship between employer and employee, a duty rests in the first instance on the employee to inform the employer immediately after the harassment occurs as an employer cannot be held liable under the employment equity act no. 55 of 1998 (south africa, 1998) for incidents of which it was ignorant. whilst cognisance needs to be taken of the reasons why employees do not report all incidents of sexual harassment, it is most unfair to expect from an employer to take action against a harasser if the incident of harassment is not reported to the employer. it seems as if the best strategy to prevent claims of vicarious liability against an employer is to discourage employees from indulging in sexual harassment and to put procedures in place for the resolution of incidents that may yet occur (anon, 2004; grogan, 2004). an employer may also be relieved of liability if it can prove that it took reasonable steps to prohibit and remedy sexual harassment and if it can show that the employee unreasonably failed to use the corrective opportunities made available by the employer (laabs, 1998). consensus exists in the literature that the best form of defence for an employer is the implementation and maintenance of an effective policy on sexual harassment (aalberts & seidman, 1996; bennet, 2002; caudron, 1995; hayter, 1996; kastl & kleiner, 2001; laabs, 1998; moore, gatlin-watts & cangelosi, 1998; owens, gomes & morgan, 2004; peirce, rosen & hiller, 1997). the mere existence of a comprehensive policy will not necessarily succeed in managing sexual harassment successfully. a policy needs to be effective and effectiveness is determined by a number of factors. according to wilken and badenhorst (2003), the policy should be clearly worded, readily displayed at strategic points and regularly evaluated to ensure that it remains effective. they are supported by aalberts and seideman (1996) who stress that the workplace is a changing environment and because the expectations of employees and the nature of their work may change, the policy must be monitored by management. to ensure the effectiveness of sexual harassment policies and training programmes, grobler, erasmus and kölkenbeck-ruh (2003) recommended that an organisation develop programmes as a preventative measure and not just as a means of crisis management. the dimensions of realism and appropriateness are added to by timmerman and bajema (2000), who stress the need for sexual harassment policies to address the organisational culture of the organisation. the sexual harassment policy statement should be clear, emphatic and easily understood. it should be free of confusing legal terminology that may seem impressive but does not inform employees of their expected behaviour (pearce & dilullo, 2001). caudron (1995) reports on some of the negative effects of programmes designed to prevent sexual harassment. for example, in some companies the workforce were polarised, making men feel defensive and women victimised by the programmes that were supposed to raise awareness of sexual behaviour that is inappropriate in the workplace. in addition, these programmes raised fear and anxiety, inhibiting spontaneity and communication, and increased the distance between men and women. after analysing these problems, it was possible to conclude that the way in which these programmes were implemented may have caused these problems, especially when the approach to sexual harassment was only one of men who harass women. a unilateral single-gender biased approach will lead to conflict, which stresses the importance of having an objective policy applied with sensitivity by sufficiently qualified and trained people. according to stockdale (1996), there is no perfect policy or procedure for dealing with sexual harassment. three reasons are provided for this statement. firstly, it is nearly impossible to design a system that will satisfy all its users. some complainants may feel more injured or unfairly treated, especially if the only evidence is one person’s word against another. secondly, the differences between organisations in terms of their missions, rules, traditions and location make it very difficult to have a perfect policy. the third reason refers to the differences between people regarding what constitutes a good policy. stockdale (1996) distinguished between two groups, namely those who believe in an interest-based approach and those who prefer a rights-based approach. the first group will accept a direct approach, mediation or avoidance as a means of handling the incident whilst the second group will only accept an investigation, adjudication and severe disciplinary action. a similar argument can be raised regarding the specific or general nature of sexual harassment policies and procedures. arguments for a policy solely about sexual harassment are based on the differences in the origin, manifestation and effect of each kind of harassment, the sense of urgency that it conveys about one particular kind of harassment and the improvement in understanding if it (type of harassment) is narrowly defined. general policies may also be described as too vague. on the other hand, general policies may be preferred because they: • are used by more complainants and are more widely understood • may be seen as fairer as they protect everybody and not just a specific group • provide for more choices for individuals • may avoid certain semantic disagreements (sexual and/or racial harassment). these arguments are provided by rowe (1996) who also stressed that whatever type of policy is used all policies should define harassment, provide examples of discrimination, describe management responsibilities and list the options available for dealing with harassment. implementation of a sexual harassment policy a number of authors concur that the mere presence of a policy does not ensure its effectiveness (laabs, 1998; orlov & roumell, 1999; owens, gomes & morgan, 2004; paludi, 1996). a policy has to be effectively implemented in order to have value and to avoid becoming another well-formulated, impressive sounding document compiled by consultants and filed by the human resource department. the following guidelines are suggested for the effective implementation of a sexual harassment policy (finnemore & van rensburg, 2002; laabs, 1998; orlov & roumell, 1999; owens, gomes & morgan, 2004; paludi, 1996; retief, 2000):• create awareness by including the policy in as many programmes as possible, such as in orientation, education, training and diversity awareness programmes. this will contribute to the creation of a culture where sexual harassment is not tolerated. trade unions should be involved in every step of the implementation process. • communicate the policy to all employees at every level of the organisation by providing each one with a copy of the policy and keep signatures on file that employees received the policy. this signature may prove vital in an organisation’s defence against claims of vicarious liability. • conduct regular training sessions or workshops where the content of the policy and the complaints procedure are explained. ’these training sessions should continuously reinforce the conditions that contribute to a harassment-free working environment, and should familiarise or reacquaint each employee with their rights and responsibilities’ (owens, gomes & morgan, 2004). • ensure that managers and supervisors are aware of their responsibility for implementing the policy and ensuring compliance. • provide specialised training for individuals who were assigned an official role in administering the organisation’s complaint procedure. the following hypothesis is formulated: hypothesis: academic staff members at higher education institutions in south africa are generally not aware of sexual harassment policies. research design (back to top) research approach a quantitative approach was followed in this study. more specifically, a survey design was used. this design is suitable to explore the opinions of respondents regarding the effectiveness of the sexual harassment policy at their institutions (bless & higson-smith, 2004). research method research participants all 23 higher education institutions in south africa were invited to participate in the study. based on their responses, a purposive sample (maree, 2007) of 10 institutions was used. academic staff at the following south african higher education institutions participated in the study: central university of technology, fort hare university, free state university, nelson mandela metropolitan university, north-west university, rhodes university, university of johannesburg, university of kwazulu-natal, vaal university of technology and walter sisulu university of technology. the sample represents 10 of the 23 higher education institutions in south africa. in their analysis of sexual harassment policies at selected higher education institutions in south africa, wilken and badenhorst (2003) regarded eight universities as sufficiently representative of the current higher education sector in south africa. this sample contains five traditional universities, two comprehensive universities and three universities of technology. as such, the sample is regarded as representative of the changed landscape of higher education in south africa. the biographical characteristics of the study population are presented in table 1. table 1 indicates that 64% women and 36% men participated in this study. the majority of participants (33.5%) fell in the 31–39 age groups and 52.8% had a master’s degree level of education. the majority of the study population (20.5%) had been employed by their institutions for periods of between five and seven years. measuring instrument the sexual harassment questionnaire (shq) was developed following the literature review, which was conducted in order to ensure the correct identification of the dimensions of the study and to ensure that the items in the questionnaire were relevant. the questionnaire was circulated amongst colleagues in the field of expertise to obtain feedback on its suitability. this ensured face and content validity. a pilot test was conducted on 22 subjects. a few minor changes were made to the original questionnaire, based on feedback from the respondents. the questionnaire consists of four sections. section a was designed to obtain biographical information from the respondents. owing to the sensitive nature of the topic, the questionnaire was completed anonymously and institutions are not identified. section c is made up of 15 items designed to determine the level of awareness respondents have regarding the existence and effectiveness of sexual harassment policies, as well as their knowledge of these policies in their respective institutions. these items are part of the constructs of awareness, existence and effectiveness that were identified from the literature study as determinants of an effective policy (aalberts & seidman, 1996; bennet, 2002; caudron, 1995; hayter, 1996; kastl & kleiner, 2001; laabs, 1998; moore, gatlin-watts & cangelosi, 1998; owens, gomes & morgan, 2004; peirce, rosen & hiller, 1997). the specific items are reported in table 2. a 5-point likert scale was used to assess the level of awareness. respondents had to indicate if they ‘strongly agree with’ (1), ‘agree with’ (2), ‘disagree with’ (3), ‘strongly disagree with’ (4) or ‘are not sure of’ (5) the statements relating to the status of the sexual harassment policy at their institutions. research procedure the names of the academic staff members were obtained from the official internet websites of the institutions and a random systematic sample of 10% of all participating institutions was drawn. the length of the interval was calculated by the ratio k = n/n, where k = the length, n = size of the population and n = size of the sample (bless & higson-smith, 2004). questionnaires were sent to 710 participants. a response rate of 22.7% (n = 161) was achieved. the participants represent academic staff on different job levels and range from junior lecturers to professors and deans of faculties. owing to confidentiality and the sensitivity of the research topic, no individual responses for the participating institutions are reported. the participants are representative of the population because they are in academic positions and are in interaction with the various role players at their respective institutions. this places them in a position to provide information on the perceived incidence of sexual harassment as well as on the awareness and effectiveness of policies and procedures. statistical analysis the statistical analysis was carried out with the help of the spss-program, version 15 (spss, 2007). cronbach alpha coefficients were used to assess the reliability of the constructs that were measured in this study (dillon, madden & firtle, 1990). descriptive statistics (e.g. means and standard deviations) were used. pearson’s product moment correlation coefficients were used to specify the relationship between the variables. in terms of statistical significance, the value was set at a 95% confidence interval level (p ≤ 0.05) (neuendorf, 2002). one-way analysis of variance (anova) was used to analyse the variance between independent and dependent variables or factors (sarantakos, 2006). table 1: characteristics of the participants. results (back to top) a summary of the frequencies reported by respondents is provided in table 2. a frequency analysis of the responses indicates that the overall majority (97.4%) of respondents agree that a sexual harassment policy exists in their institution. the implementation of the policy however seems to be problematic as very few (31%) academic staff members are in possession of a copy of the policy, only 24.3% received training or guidance in the use of the policy and the policy has been explained to an even smaller number of respondents (7.9%). this explains the low frequency of respondents who are aware of the contents of the policy (32.2%) and who are familiar with the steps to follow when reporting complaints of sexual harassment (35.5%). notwithstanding these indications of ineffective implementation, 81.2% of respondents believe that a sexual harassment policy is an effective tool to reduce the incidence of sexual harassment. this is supported by the 62.7% of respondents who believe that complaints of sexual harassment are investigated and the 57.4% of respondents who are aware of their rights when lodging a complaint. the effectiveness of a sexual harassment policy is illustrated by the 71.5% of respondents who agreed that the policy protects them against retaliation. descriptive statistics of the existence, knowledge and effectiveness of an shp, as well as the incidence of sexual harassment at higher education institutions in south africa are reported in table 3. the overall cronbach alpha value obtained for the items in this section is 0.88, which is higher than the guideline of α > 0.70. this is an indication of internal consistency and it reflects that the dimensions reliably determine the existence, awareness and effectiveness of sexual harassment policies. the information reflected in table 4 also indicates that the scores on all of the variables have a normal distribution, with a normal (mesokurtic) peak (doane & seward, 2007). practically significant correlation coefficients (p < 0.01) of medium effect (r > 0.30) exist between population group and knowledge of the policy and existence and effectiveness of sexual harassment policies. the correlation coefficient between population group and the effectiveness of policies is practically significant (p < 0.05), with a medium effect (r > 0.30) whilst practically significant correlation coefficients (p < 0.05) of a large effect (r > 0.50) exist between knowledge and existence of the policy, and knowledge and effectiveness of the policy. table 5 shows a practically significant correlation coefficient (p < 0.01) of a medium to large effect (r > 0.50) between the possession and explanation of a shp and the awareness of the contents, the provision of training or guidance and knowledge of the steps to report an incident of sexual harassment. the coefficients in table 6 show a practically significant correlation (p < 0.01) of a large effect (r > 0.50) between the awareness of rights and the perception that complaints of sexual harassment are investigated. this correlation also exists between the perception that a shp is an effective tool to reduce the incidence of sexual harassment and that it protects complainants from retaliation by alleged harassers. the perceived incidence level of sexual harassment at higher education institutions was also measured in this section by asking respondents to indicate whether the incidence was high or low at their institutions. a practically significant correlation coefficient of -0.61 (p < 0.01) was established. analyses of variance were performed on various variables with the different demographic groups and the anovas are given below with their interpretations. table 7 illustrates the effect of gender on the requirements for an effective sexual harassment policy. table 7 shows that there is no practically significant effect of gender on the existence, knowledge of and effectiveness of a shp (p > 0.05). table 8 reflects the effect of population group on the requirements for an effective sexual harassment policy. table 8 shows that there is no practically significant effect of population group on the existence and effectiveness of a shp (p > 0.05). however, it does show a practically significant effect (f = 7.10; p > 0.05) on knowledge of the shp. neither age nor years of service were found to have any significant effect on the existence, knowledge of and the effectiveness of a shp. table 2: summary of frequencies shown in percentages. table 3: descriptive statistics of the measuring instruments. table 4: correlation coefficients between gender, population group, age, years of service, existence, knowledge and effectiveness of the policy. table 5: correlation coefficients between possession, explanation, awareness, training and steps to report. table 6: correlation coefficients between investigation, awareness of rights, effective tool and protection. table 7: analysis of variance between the existence, knowledge of and effectiveness of a sexual harassment policy and gender. table 8: analysis of variance between the existence, knowledge of and effectiveness of a sexual harassment policy and population group. discussion (back to top) the objective of this study was to determine the awareness level academic staff members working at higher education institutions in south africa have regarding the sexual harassment policies at their institutions. an evaluation of the perceived effectiveness of the policies was also done. results indicate that despite the indication that sexual harassment policies do exist and are regarded as effective tools to address sexual harassment, the implementation of these policies is not effective and few academic staff receives training or guidance on the utilisation of these policies. significant correlation coefficients were found between the elements of an effective policy and between population group and some of the elements. the cronbach alpha value obtained for the items intended to measure the existence, knowledge of and effectiveness of shp’s was 0.88, which is higher than the guideline of α > 0.70. owing to the lack of similar research on this topic or the non-reporting of alpha values (peirce, rosen, & hiller, 1997), it is not possible to benchmark the cronbach alpha. this study indicates that the implementation of a sexual harassment policy at higher education institutions in south africa is problematic. only 32% of the respondents in this study indicated that they are aware of the contents of their institution’s sexual harassment policy. a relatively small number of respondents (24.3%) have received training or guidance on the policy and this contributed to the low levels of knowledge of the policy. this raises serious questions about the ability of staff to recognise and report harassing behaviour and of line management to effectively deal with complaints of sexual harassment. because a clear definition of sexual harassment is regarded as a prerequisite for an effective shp, it is important for the management of higher education institutions to understand what types of behaviour may be perceived by employees as offensive. this study adds to the body of knowledge on perceived sexual harassment and should contribute to the formulation and implementation of effective shps. this finding is concomitant with those of gouws and kritzinger (2007) who found that only 56% of heads of academic departments and even less members of the women’s forum (36%) at the university of stellenbosch were informed about the sexual harassment policy. peirce, rosen, & hiller (1997) found that more than 40% of the respondents in their study indicated that they were not aware of the sexual harassment policies or the procedures for reporting complaints of sexual harassment in their organisations. wilken and badenhorst (2003) also rated the policies of eight universities in south africa as failing in terms of education, training and implementation. although their study did not include any comprehensive university or university of technology (previously referred to as technikons), it is doubtful whether the results would have been different. consensus seems to exist on the ineffective implementation of sexual harassment policies in higher education institutions and this severely affects the effectiveness of the policies and the protection that the policy is supposed to give to harassers and the harassed. a comment needs to be made about the 74.6% of respondents who indicated that they know exactly which behaviour constitutes sexual harassment. this is in contrast to the low number of respondents who are informed about the policy and is an indication that despite the lack of information and training, academic staff members feel that they will be able to recognise offensive behaviour. questions need to be raised about the basis of this recognition, as respondents represent different cultures, value systems and levels of experience. their definitions of sexual harassment will therefore be different and subjective and this will complicate the implementation of a uniform policy applicable to all academic staff members, unless institutions subscribe to the definition and guidelines provided in the 2005 amended code of good practice on the handling of sexual harassment cases in the workplace (labour relations act no 66 of 1995; south africa, 1995). the need for the effective implementation of a generally acceptable policy is once again stressed. on a positive note, 87% of respondents disagreed with the statement ’the sexual harassment policy only applies to female workers who are harassed by male workers’ (questionnaire item). this item was included to determine if any large-scale misconception about the recipients of unwelcome sexual attention exists (corr & jackson, 2001). the rejection of this statement is an indication of the maturity of the population and the development of a non-sexist society in general. respondents were also requested to indicate the perceived level of incidence of harassment on their campuses. of the respondents, 92.6% rejected the statement that there is a high incidence of harassment by members of staff on their campuses. this correlates significantly with the 85.1% who indicated that the incidence is low. the apparent absence of sexual harassment amongst academic staff on south african higher education campuses may be ascribed to the low reporting rate of incidents and the confidential nature of complaints (timmerman & bajema, 2000; whatley & wasieleski, 2001). if a staff member is not directly involved in an incident, it will be difficult to have knowledge thereof and to express an opinion on the incidence rate. this study attempted to measure the perceived incidence and the conclusion can be made that it is low. a significant correlation and effect (f = 7.10; p > 0.05) was found between population group and knowledge of the shp, with respondents from the white population group having a higher level of knowledge of the policy. this may be explained by the fact that academic staff members of higher education institutions in south africa were predominantly white and have longer years of service, which would have enabled them to gain knowledge of the policy. the difference in knowledge may also be ascribed to cultural differences and the slow rate of transformation at some institutions of higher learning. the significant correlation between the possession, explanation, awareness of the contents, training or guidance of a shp and knowledge of the steps to follow when reporting incidents of sexual harassment is an indication of the importance of providing all staff members with a copy of the shp. the correlation also suggests that staff members who are in possession of the policy have studied the policy and are, therefore, familiar with the contents and its application. concerted efforts by management and/or the parties responsible for the implementation of the shp to increase the possession rate and training interventions drastically contributes to the overall effectiveness of the policy (ramsaroop & brijball parumasur, 2007; retief, 2000). this contributes to the reduction of the incidence of harassment amongst staff, students or clients on campuses (whatley & wasieleski, 2001). regular evaluation of the effectiveness of the policy is required to ensure that complacency does not erode its value. in this regard it is crucial that higher education institutions collect and maintain statistics on the prevalence of sexual harassment on their campuses. gouws and kritzinger (2007) found a lack of serious involvement with the shp and its implementation by line managers who had also never received training and, subsequently, did not have the necessary skills to deal with complaints of sexual harassment. the low frequency of respondents who were in possession of and who had received training on the shp suggests that their findings are valid. academic staff members who are aware of their rights when reporting an incident of sexual harassment also feel that the policy protects them against retaliation from alleged harassers and, therefore, regard the policy as an effective tool for reducing the incidence of sexual harassment at their workplaces, as indicated by the significant correlations between these criteria for effectiveness. the relatively high number of staff members who are aware of their rights in relation to the absence of training suggests that academic staff members are generally well informed of their human and labour rights. this is understandable in the light of the characteristics of this group and their high level of academic qualifications. limitations of the study the results of this study may be limited by the low response rate of 22.8%. other studies also reported relatively low rates of 32% – 39% (green & retief, 2001; pryor, giedd & willeams, 1995; timmerman & bajema, 2000). the sensitive and personal nature of the information that respondents were required to provide may explain their reluctance to participate in the study. it is also possible that the questionnaire reminded certain potential participants of specific incidents of sexual harassment and the negative experience may have prevented them from completing it. the possibility that those employees who are really threatened by sexual harassment did not complete the questionnaires cannot be excluded. their contributions could have influenced the findings of this study. the study is also limited in its comparability, as no other study that the researcher is aware of has attempted to determine the awareness of sexual harassment policies amongst academic staff at higher education institutions in south africa. existing research focused on the public service (brand & silberman, 2002; du plessis, 2001; van der berg, 2002) and the south african police service (retief, 2000). numerous studies have investigated the incidence of sexual harassment on campuses, including harassment of students by students and by academic and other staff (barak, fisher, & houston, 2006; gouws & kritzinger, 2007; larocca & kromrey, 1999; o’hare & o’donohue, 1998; ramsaroop & brijball parumasur, 2007; richman, rospenda, nawyn, flaherty, fendrich, drum, & johnson, 1999). students were excluded from this study, as they are not involved in an employment relationship. a further limitation of the study is the isolation within which the results were interpreted. limited research exists on academic staff members’ awareness of sexual harassment policies and their perceptions of the effectiveness of these policies. this makes it difficult to place the data on the awareness of sexual harassment policies in perspective. the possibility that respondents applied different subjective definitions of sexual harassment when they completed the questionnaire cannot be ignored. providing no definition was a deliberate action undertaken in an effort not to guide or lead respondents. interviews with respondents might have provided the researcher with insight into the possible reasons why academic staff is generally not aware of sexual harassment policies at their institutions. interviews with role-players at higher education institutions responsible for the implementation of policies such as women’s forums, human resource practitioners and deans of faculties could have supplemented the quantitative study. this would have increased the validity of this study. the study also did not accommodate cultural variables. in a multi-cultural society like south africa, this may be regarded as a limitation and it is recommended that research be conducted into the effect of different cultural backgrounds on the perception of sexual harassment. the results of this study indicate that policies do exist but that the implementation thereof is not effective. this has serious implications for the management of human resources at higher education institutions specifically and all employers in general. recommendations it is recommended that management of higher education institutions and human resource managers in general take cognisance of this and implement measures to correct the situation and to protect themselves against expensive claims for vicarious liability. more specifically, it is recommended that higher education institutions:• conduct an organisational audit or climate survey to determine the prevalence of sexual harassment in their institutions. • actively disseminate and promote their policy on sexual harassment in order to increase its visibility and the awareness levels amongst academic staff. an awareness campaign, similar to campaigns that aim to educate about the spreading and prevention of hiv/aids, should be launched on campuses to act as a deterrent to cases of sexual harassment. • appoint senior managers, representing both sexes, to take responsibility for the implementation of sexual harassment policies. • provide regular training sessions for staff on the contents of the policy, examples of sexual harassment, procedures for lodging complaints and the rights of both harassers and the harassed. • issue a clear ‘no tolerance’ statement and stress the protection of complainants against retaliation and victimisation. this statement must be supported by clearly stating the range of disciplinary sanctions applicable to employees found guilty of sexual harassment. organisations are advised to clearly communicate that it is a disciplinary offence to victimise or retaliate against an employee who lodges a sexual harassment grievance in good faith. • regularly update their policies through consultation with employees, their representatives and consultants. benchmarking of policies with other higher education institutions is also recommended. • preventing sexual harassment is the most effective way of dealing with the problem. assertiveness and diversity training, together with an effective employment equity programme and a positive corporate culture in which management leads by example will add to the efforts to prevent and successfully manage the prevalence of sexual harassment. training should also focus on the promotion of professional conduct in the workplace, especially by supervisors. this can be achieved by clearly stating what is regarded as acceptable and unacceptable social behaviour. sexist attitudes and beliefs are difficult to change as they are formed by an individual’s belief and value system. these beliefs should be respected but management should make it clear that acting on these beliefs is not acceptable and contrary to the laws of the country and the policies of the institution. a similar policy statement needs to be made about different cultural roles of males and females which might lead to harassing behaviour. this study is the first attempt at evaluating the effectiveness of shp in south africa and can be regarded as a benchmark study. the results can be improved by a larger sample and a higher response rate. it is recommended that research is conducted to shed more light on the effectiveness of measures to combat sexual harassment in the workplace in general. research is required to explain the effect of culture, organisational climate and personality factors on the incidence of sexual harassment and on the effectiveness of shp. new methods to determine the incidence and effective management of sexual harassment need to be explored by future research. references (back to top) aalberts, r.j., & seideman, l.h. (1996). sexual harassment policies for the workplace. cornell hotel and restaurant administration quarterly, 37(5), 78−85. doi:10.1016/0010-8804(96)88978-6, doi:10.1177/001088049603700527 anon (2004). damages for sexual harassment: when employers are liable. employment law, 20(1), 3−6. barak, a., fisher, w.a., & houston, s. (2006). individual difference correlates of the experience of sexual harassment among female university students. journal of applied social psychology, 22, 17−37. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1992.tb01519.x bennett, j. (2002). southern african higher educational institutions challenging sexual violence, sexual harassment: a handbook of resources. cape town: african gender institute, university of cape town. bless, c., & higson-smith, c. (2004). fundamentals of social research methods: an african perspective (3rd ed.). lansdowne: juta. brand, h.e., & silberman, m.t. (2002). perceptions of sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and job satisfaction among female employees in the public sector. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 5, 607−624. caudron, s. (1995). sexual politics. personnel journal, 17(5), 50−61. corr, p.j., & jackson, c.j. (2001). dimensions of perceived sexual harassment: effects of gender and status/liking of protagonist. personality and individual differences, 30, 525−539. doi:10.1016/s0191-8869(00)00052-0 dillon, w.r., madden, t.j., & firtle, n.h. (1990). marketing research in a marketing environment (2nd ed.). homewood, il: irwin. doane, d.p., & seward, l.e. (2007) applied statistics for business and economics (2nd ed.). new york: mcgraw-hill. du plessis, j.a. (2001). die voorkoms van seksuele teistering in die staatsdiens. unpublished master’s thesis, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch. finnemore, m., & van rensburg, r. (2002). contemporary labour relations (2nd ed.). durban: lexisnexis butterworths. gouws, a., & kritzinger, a. (2007). dealing with sexual harassment at institutions of higher learning: policy implementation at a south african university. south african journal of higher education, 21(1), 68−84. green. s., & retief, r. (2001). sexual harassment in the saps. servamus, 94(11), 44−50. grobler, p.a., erasmus, b.j., & kölkenbeck-ruh, r.k. (2003). a model for the management of sexual harassment in south african companies. management dynamics, 12(1), 36−46. grogan, j. (2004). vicarious harassment: employers become reluctant insurers. employment law, 20(4), 3−10. hayter, s. (1996). workplace harassment: a conflict management systems approach. south african labour bulletin, 20(5), 55−57. kastl, m.a., & kleiner, b.h. (2001). new developments concerning discrimination and harassment in universities. international journal of sociology and social policy, 21(8), 156−164. doi:10.1108/01443330110789916 laabs, j.j. (1998). what you’re liable for now. workforce, 77(10), 34−40. larocca, m.a., & kromrey, j.d. (1999). the perception of sexual harassment in higher education: impact of gender and attractiveness. sex roles, 40, 921−940. doi:10.1023/a:1018829222894 licata, b.j., & popovich, p.m. (1987). preventing sexual harassment: a proactive approach. training and development journal, 41(5), 34−38. maree, k. (2007). first steps in research. pretoria: van schaik. moore, h.l., gatlin-watts, r.w., & cangelosi, j. (1998). eight steps to a sexual harassment-free workplace. training and development, 52(4), 12−14. mouton, j. (1996). understanding social research. pretoria: van schaik. o’hare, e.a., & o’donohue, w. (1998). sexual harassment: identifying risk factors. archives of sexual behaviour, 27, 561−580. doi:10.1023/a:1018769016832, pmid:9883305 orlov, d., & roumell, m. t. 1999. what every manager needs to know about sexual harassment. new york: mcgraw-hill. owens, m.g., gomes, g.m., & morgan, j.f. (2004). sexual harassment in the european union: the dawning of a new era. sam advanced management journal, 69(1), 4−11. paludi, m.a. (1996). sexual harassment on college campuses: abusing the ivory tower. albany: state university of new york press. pearce, j.a., & dilullo, s.a. (2001). a business policy statement model for eliminating sexual harassment and related employer liability. sam advanced management journal, 66(2), 12−21. peirce, e.r., rosen, b., & hiller, t.b. (1997). breaking the silence: creating user-friendly sexual harassment policies. employee responsibilities and rights journal, 10, 225−242. doi:10.1023/a:1025643318386 pryor, j.b., giedd, j.l., & willeams, k.b. (1995). a social psychological model for predicting sexual harassment. journal of social issues, 51, 69−84. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1995.tb01309.x ramsaroop, a., & brijball parumasur, s. (2007). the prevalence and nature of sexual harassment in the workplace: a model for early identification and effective management thereof. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 33(2), 25−33. retief, r.t. (2000). guidelines for the handling of sexual harassment in the south african police service. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of stellenbosch, stellenbosch. richman, j. a., rospenda, k.m., nawyn, s.i., flaherty, j.a., fendrich, m., drum, m.l., & johnson, t.p. (1999). sexual harassment and generalized workplace abuse among university employees: prevalence and mental health correlates. american journal of public health 89: 358-363. doi:10.2105/ajph.89.3.358, pmid:10076485, pmid:1508597 rowe, m. (1996). dealing with harassment: a systems approach. in m. s. stockdale (ed). sexual harassment in the workplace: perspectives, frontiers, and response strategies. thousand oaks, ca: sage. rycroft, a., le roux, r., & orleyn, t. (2005). sexual harassment in the workplace: law, policies and processes. durban: lexisnexis butterworths. sarantakos, s. (2006). social research. hampshire: palgrave. south africa. (1995). labour relations act (no. 66 of 1995). 2005 amended code of good practice on the handling of sexual harassment cases in the workplace. pretoria: government printers. south africa. (1998). employment equity act (no. 55 of 1998). pretoria: government printers. spss inc. (2007). spss 15.0 for windows. chicago, il: spss incorporated. stockdale, m.s. (1996). sexual harassment in the workplace: perspectives, frontiers and response strategies. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. timmerman, g., & bajema, c. (2000). the impact of organisational culture on perceptions and experiences of sexual harassment. journal of vocational behaviour, 57, 188−205. doi:10.1006/jvbe.1999.1741 van der berg, j.p. (2002). the perceptions of employees regarding sexual harassment at a busuness unit of a public utility. unpublished master’s dissertation, rand afrikaans university, johannesburg. whatley, m. a., & wasieleski, d. t. (2001). the incidence of sexual harassment in academia: a pilot study. radical pedagogy. retrieved march 12, 2010 from http://radicalpedagogy.icaap.org/content/issue wilken, e.c., & badenhorst, j.w. (2003). a comparative analysis of sexual harassment policies at selected higher education institutions in south africa. south african journal of higher education, 17, 197−205. abstract background research purpose and objectives literature review study findings and discussion limitations and recommendations conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) wayne macpherson department of human resource management, faculty of business and economic sciences, nelson mandela university, gqeberha, south africa amanda werner department of human resource management, faculty of business and economic sciences, nelson mandela university, gqeberha, south africa michelle r. mey department of human resource management, faculty of business and economic sciences, nelson mandela university, gqeberha, south africa citation macpherson, w., werner, a., & mey, m.r. (2022). industry 4.0: emerging job categories and associated competencies in the automotive industry in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1916. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1916 original research industry 4.0: emerging job categories and associated competencies in the automotive industry in south africa wayne macpherson, amanda werner, michelle r. mey received: 19 feb. 2022; accepted: 03 aug. 2022; published: 28 nov. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: industry 4.0 is causing significant technological and operational changes in the south african automotive industry and adapting human resources to these changes is essential for enhancing organisational productivity and competitiveness. research purpose: this study investigated emerging job categories in the south african automotive industry and the competencies associated with these job categories. motivation for the study: the automotive industry is the largest contributor to south african gross domestic product (gdp), and the evolution of industry 4.0 in the automotive industry influences the competencies required from employees. research approach/design and method: a qualitative descriptive research design was used. purposive and convenience sampling were used and 30 semi-structured interviews were conducted with hr managers, engineers and production managers working in south african automotive organisations. main findings: organisations in the automotive industry in south africa were making strides in adopting automation in operational processes, yet experienced challenges related to human resources. new job categories were emerging requiring a hybrid competency set. practical/managerial implications: the constant changes associated with industry 4.0 in the automotive industry requires the continuous re-alignment of employees’ competencies with emerging job categories which, in turn, requires organisations to reconfigure their talent management strategies. existing employees should be upskilled and reskilled, new recruits should meet future needs of the organisation. contribution/value-adding: the study guides hr practitioners and automotive professionals in terms of emerging job categories and skills sets required. knowledge of these changes will assist them in developing an effective talent management strategy. keywords: industry 4.0; robotics; human–robot collaboration; emerging job categories; emerging competencies; knowledge; skills; attitude; industry 4.0 talent; industry 4.0 talent management. background industry 4.0 has become a buzzword worldwide, with this industrial evolution being characterised by the rapid advancement of technology and adoption of the internet of things (iot), robotics, three-dimensional (3d) printing and artificial intelligence which, in turn, result in the creation of smart factories. industry 4.0 is a worldwide phenomenon, and organisations in south africa (marwala, 2018) must adapt to these changes to stay competitive. the increasing adoption of industry 4.0 technologies in south africa and specifically in the automotive industry poses a threat to one-third of jobs (5.7 million) (accenture consulting, 2018) in the country. this is because of greater automation and the creation of human–robot collaboration (hrc) environments, which are currently still in infancy in south africa (calitz, 2019; marwala, 2018) and therefore more drastic changes can be expected in the near future. an hrc environment requires highly skilled employees who add value to their organisations (spiesshofer, 2017) by being flexible, innovative and performing tasks accurately and in synergy with complex technical systems. changing to this environment creates tension between employees’ world experiences and the world of collaborative robots (cobots). to adjust and deal with the tension specialised competencies in line with industry 4.0 job requirements (li, 2017) should be developed. south africa is known for having an oversupply of young people who lack work experience and education to fill key roles in automotive organisations. this leads to large mismatches between the actual supply and demand of key work-related competencies, with 38% of employers reporting difficulties in filling jobs (li, 2017) while it is believed that only 16% of the competencies needed to meet the requirements of industry 4.0 are available (phillips, 2018). therefore, managers in south africa’s automotive industry need to identify, retain and develop talent to match the demands of industry 4.0 through effective talent management strategies. schwab (2018) reported that organisations worldwide were grappling with developing talent management strategies suitable for industry 4.0. it had therefore become essential to identify emerging job categories and competencies required in industry 4.0 automotive organisations, which motivated this study. research purpose and objectives a study by maisiri, darwish and van dyk (2021) revealed a lack of empirical studies on emerging jobs and competencies in the south african automotive industry. this article, therefore, reports on a qualitative study that formed part of a larger mixed-method study in the south african automotive industry to determine emerging job categories and competencies, to inform talent strategies. the research objectives of this study were to: explore the views and experiences of human resource (hr) managers, operational managers and engineers working in the south african automotive industry of the extent to which the emergence of industry 4.0 has affected the automotive industry in south africa in terms of automation explore the views and experiences of the research participants in terms of emerging job categories and associated competency requirements in their organisations explore talent strategies that could be adopted by automotive organisations in south africa to meet industry 4.0 talent demands. literature review industry 4.0 industry 4.0 is a trending buzzword that originated in the german manufacturing industry during 2011 (schwab, 2018). industry 4.0 refers to an evolving industry characterised by synchronising technological breakthroughs and sophisticated human technical capabilities to create real-time value streams that produce quality products and services aimed at satisfying changing customer preferences and demands. industry 4.0 is taking the world by storm as organisations seem to increase their global competitiveness through technological innovation (keywell, 2017). these innovations include artificial intelligence, the iot, robotics, 3d printing and nanotechnologies (schwab, 2016). the impact of industry 4.0 is explicitly connected to the vuca – volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity world as its complexity results in ambiguous decision-making while leaders craft the best future for their organisation. to effectively respond to industry 4.0, organisations are moving away from traditional methods of operating to augmented reality (keywell, 2017). an augmented reality involves the integration of all work processes to effectively respond to individual customer demands through a collaborative process (laugsand, 2017). in the manufacturing industry, global organisations have added collaborative robots to traditional industrial robots on their production lines (calitz, poisat, & cullen, 2017). robotics refers to automated machines that can be reprogrammed to perform multifunctional and complex tasks, which relieve employees of repetitive, boring, stressful, labour-intensive and potentially dangerous tasks and release them to utilise their competencies elsewhere in the organisation (acemoglu & restrepo, 2017). these repetitive and labour-intensive tasks include painting, welding, material removing, assembly and parts transferring and machine tending (universal robots, 2018). the adoption of robotics increases quality, volume and safety, which leads to increased productivity and reduced operational costs, thereby increasing organisational competitiveness (schwab, 2016). emerging job categories the vision of transforming the workplace in line with industry 4.0 can only be realised through the availability of a skilled and prepared workforce that is able to increase organisational effectiveness and performance. the transformation of the working environment leads to the emergence of ‘new’ or emerging job categories (keywell, 2017). emerging job categories refer to the classification of jobs according to responsibilities, duties and competencies on different levels as required by organisations to effectively operate, collaborate and compete in relation to the design demands of industry 4.0 (heathfield, 2018). job categories indicate the tasks associated with a job, the competency requirements, the level of education needed as well as the experience required to effectively perform the job (world economic forum, 2017). as with the previous industrial revolutions, industry 4.0 brings about an increase in job complexity and is said to make one in every three jobs absolute (gray, 2016). as such, many of these job losses are linked to lower-skilled job categories while job creation is linked to higher-skilled job categories. calitz (2019) calculated that, between 01 april 2018 and 31 march 2019, more than 300 new job categories emerged in south africa (calitz, 2019). however, the study of calitz (2019) did not specifically focus on the automotive industry where interconnected and intelligent manufacturing systems are adopted. for purposes of this study, a review of job advertisements specifically in the automotive industry in south africa revealed that the most frequently advertised jobs between 01 april 2018 and 31 march 2019 included jobs for technicians, robotics programmers, engineers, robotics controllers and production managers. the emergence of these new job categories gives an indication to organisational leaders of the types of competencies required by employees in the automotive sector in industry 4.0 (hammer, 2018). emerging competencies new job categories also imply new job competencies. it is evident that the success of organisations in industry 4.0 does not solely depend on the introduction of advanced technology but also on the level of employee competence. it was reported (accenture consulting, 2018) that only 81% of jobs in the automotive industry were filled, which alluded to the lack of applicants with the required industry 4.0 competencies. emerging competencies refer to a new set of personal skills, knowledge and behavioural traits, obtained either through experience or training interventions, which enable employees to meet the demands of industry 4.0 effectively and habitually (noyce, 2016). employees working on a production line where robots are used need a positive mindset, understand operational processes, think strategically and know how to manage the interpersonal aspects of the job (calitz et al., 2017). the skill set of employees plays a vital role in the success of organisations leapfrogging industry 4.0 (marwala, 2018). in industry 4.0, employees must be multi-skilled and possess a set of hybrid skills consisting of technical, human, personal and conceptual skills (noyce, 2016). furthermore, employees need to combine and leverage their individual attitudes, knowledge and skills to ensure a greater competitive advantage for organisations (schwab, 2017). the above is reiterated by goldin (2014) who indicated that the concept of ‘talent’ refers to employees who are able to use their competencies to adapt to change and, in turn, provide organisations with a competitive advantage. high-potential or high-performance employees are creative, have a diverse set of competencies, exceptional expertise, different intelligences, the ability to make moral judgements, a positive attitude and self-motivation and use these competencies to drive organisational success (tansley & tietze, 2013). talent strategies schwab (2019) stated that south africa was rich in talent, but that the talent strategies utilised in south africa were not as effective as they should be. in addition, the ‘war’ for talent was continuing, which required organisations to creatively adopt an integrated approach to nurture existing talent or produce required industry 4.0 talent (keywell, 2017). talent management is the cornerstone of any organisation, and in industry 4.0 the ability to effectively manage talent is vital to remain competitive (mclean-conner, 2015). talent management is referred to as an integrated approach to attracting, developing and retaining high-potential employees through anticipating the challenges posed by the ever-changing labour market (bussin, 2014). in industry 4.0, organisations have moved away from the traditional methods of managing human resources to the management of talent relevant to the ever-changing business environment (korn ferry, 2017). talent management is associated with a set of integrated activities to ensure that the right person is in the right position at the right time. the successful implementation of talent activities is the responsibility of key people (leaders, line managers and mentors) at different levels in the organisation, and not only that of the human resource management unit (phillips, 2018). key functions in talent management include talent planning, talent acquisition, creating talent pools, succession and career management, talent development, performance management and talent retention. organisations need to collaborate horizontally and vertically with other organisations, academia and government to meet industry 4.0 talent demands (babshet, 2017). research design the purpose of this article was to uncover emerging job categories and related competencies required in automotive organisations to inform talent management strategies by adopting interpretivism as the research paradigm. to achieve this purpose, the perceptions, views and experiences of experts in human resource management, engineering and production in the automotive industry were sought. the study was interpretive, qualitative and exploratory in nature, using interviews to uncover the knowledge, experiences and perceptions of knowledgeable and experienced individuals by asking the who, what and where of events and/or their experiences (cassim, 2011; hammond & wellington, 2013, p. 132). ethical clearance was obtained to ensure the integrity of data collection methods used in the study, analysis of data as well as reporting. research participants the study was focused on the south african automotive industry. thirty semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives from the automotive sector employed in human resource management, engineering and production management. table 1 presents the biographical information collected from the study participants. table 1: biographical information of participants. in order to be included in the study, participants had to be employed in either human resource management, operations or production, or engineering. the participants represented organisations assembling motor vehicles (6) and organisations supplying parts to motor vehicle assemblers (24). fifteen participants were employed at the middle management level, and 15 at either the senior management level (11) or as a professional employee (4). data collection method semi-structured interviews were conducted face-to-face and on-site (pre-coronavirus disease 2019 [covid-19]). an interview schedule was used, focusing on the extent and nature of automation (robot adoption), challenges experienced with the introduction of robots, the influence of adoption on job loss, types of new jobs emerging, competencies and skills required and talent management strategies suitable for ensuring a supply of competent skill. the interviews were conducted to a point of data saturation when no new meaningful information was being shared. quality and integrity of data to ensure the credibility and integrity of the data, and avoid bias, all interviews were recorded and transcribed with the consent of participants (hammond & wellington, 2013). in addition, field notes were taken and consulted. to ensure the trustworthiness of the responses and analysis, participants were carefully selected to ensure that they were experts in their fields, the interviews took place face-to-face in a quiet environment allowing enough time and were recorded, codes were extracted from the responses based on similarities found and these were cross-checked by academic peers to ensure accuracy. data analysis the six-step thematic data analysis approach suggested by saunders, lewis and thornhill (2011) was used to manually analyse the collected data. deductive open coding was used by identifying patterns and similarities in the responses and formulating categories to identify themes. reporting style the overall trend in responses is indicated, followed with a table presenting the themes that emerged with response frequencies and thereafter descriptive summaries with verbatim responses as illustration. study findings and discussion the first question focused on the extent of automation based on the adoption of robots in the operational process and the functions of these robots. theme 1: extent of robot adoption and main functions of robots drawing from the participants’ responses, it was found that organisations in the automotive industry in south africa were not fully automated but were making strides in achieving automation. of the total participants, 60% (18) stated that their organisation was extensively automated, while the rest 40% (12) indicated that their organisation was automated to some extent (table 2). in terms of the main functions of the robots, consensus among the participants was that parts transferring (18), packaging (18), material handling (18), welding (15) and inspection (15) were the main functions performed by robotics (table 2). table 2: extent of robot adoption and main functions of robots. notably, organisations in the automotive sector embraced and adopted technologies associated with industry 4.0. one participant explained that: ‘i think robots are the future and we are phasing in robots at a rapid pace, so we have a lot, actually we are a world class organisation competing with world class organisations across the world and 85% of the section where i work is made up of robots, with only 15% needing human intervention.’ the above finding is in line with the discussion in the literature review that suggests that the automotive industry had exerted extensive efforts to stay up to date and relevant with technological advancements, specifically robotics to advance productivity and competitiveness (acemoglu & restrepo, 2017; kearney, 2018; magruk, 2016; marwala, 2018). although most of the participants agreed that automation was the future, this study found that the adoption of robotics depended greatly on the kind of service provided by the organisation. one participant explained: ‘i think that it really depends on the industry because some industries just cannot have robots, e.g. i do not know how you cut a seat cover of many variants with a robot.’ robotics was predominantly adopted to perform labour-intensive tasks. this finding supports the literature that suggests that organisations move to automation to maintain competitiveness through creating precision and dependability in labour-intensive tasks (acemoglu & restrepo, 2017; calitz et al., 2017; schwab, 2016). the findings are also similar to that of calitz et al. (2017) who in their study found that in the automotive industry robotics was predominantly adopted for the purpose of welding, assembling, packaging, material handling and painting. theme 2: impact of industry 4.0 the theme ‘impact of industry 4.0’ comprises four categories: challenges with the adoption of robots, job losses, job creation and employee experiences. major challenges for the south african automotive industry with the adoption of industry 4.0 technology were to keep up with rapid changing technology, slow fault detection, losses because of breakdowns of robots and an ageing engineering workforce (table 3). table 3: challenges faced by automotive organisations with the introduction of robots. one participant explained: ‘all the robots we have are imported and need an electrician on all of them but in-house training is not done because there are no training facilities in south africa that provide training on these specific robots and we rely on new guys coming from the university but even with their qualification they are struggling, so if there is a stoppage or breakdown the company needs either to correspond globally or fly someone in from europe to solve the problem which is costing the company a lot of money.’ in addition, other significant challenges indicated by the respondents included the unwillingness of employees to update skills, lack of robotic training, and health and safety issues. in support, one participant further explained that: ‘what we also find is that when we arrange training for employees, they are just not willing to attend and come up with a lot of excuses but if you do not send them on training, they blame the company.’ these findings are consistent with the literature review that suggests that organisations often struggle to keep abreast of technological advancements, that some employees are unwilling to update their skills and that health and safety issues are of huge concern in workplaces where robots are adopted (kearney, 2018; keywell, 2017; laugsand, 2017). in terms of job loss, 18 participants (60%) indicated that the adoption of robotics in their organisation had no major impact on job losses. previous studies have found that the emergence of industry 4.0 will lead to major job loss environments where repetitive jobs are performed (keywell, 2017; schwab, 2016). the reasons given for the low job losses experienced in their specific organisations included the relocation of employees to other workstations or other plants. one participant explained that: ‘from a managing perspective, it has not really impacted us because we did not have to retrench anybody. although we moved from three to two people performing a job, we basically just relocate people.’ job loss was a reality for some of the respondents. one participant stated that in their organisation, the introduction of robotics led to a reduction in the workforce by 33%. the participant explained why job reduction was a reality: ‘the introduction of robots into any business i think will probably have an effect on reducing the numbers. let us say in a cell you had twelve employees but with robots there you can probably cut a quarter of that cell and have like eight people in that specific cell. so, it has a big impact on manual labour and the amount of people in a cell.’ the above-mentioned findings allude to the importance of talent management in industry 4.0 as many job losses are as a result of competency redundancy, which could be rectified by upskilling and reskilling rather than replacing employees. in support, responses such as ‘in two years’ time you are going to need another type of skill’ and ‘allocate employees to a different workstation’ reiterate the urge for organisations in the automotive industry to engage in talent strategies that are future focused and continuously updated. in terms of the type of jobs loss, it was found that in organisations where the introduction of robotics led to job losses, artisans, material handlers, spray painters and welders were mostly affected (table 4). artisans (30) and material handlers (21) were indicated as the most at-risk jobs in organisations where robots were adopted. the literature (caruso, 2018; marwala, 2018; schwab, 2016) reiterated that robots were introduced to relieve employees from performing repetitive tasks and new methods of work result in new job categories while some job categories become redundant as the skills required change. table 4: types of jobs lost as a result of the introduction of robotics. the results showed that lower-level employees were most at risk in terms of job loss with the introduction of robots and requiring a new set of skills. one participant explained: ‘at this point in time the biggest job losses will unfortunately be at the lowest level in your organisation, your operators, because one robot performs the job of three, four, five people depending on where you utilise it.’ this important finding made in this study was that lower-level employees seemed to become redundant with the introduction of robots, which reflects the need to repurpose existing talent, especially within the automotive industry as being one of the largest job creators in the country. in terms of job creation, there was consensus among participants that the introduction of robots led to minor or no job creation in their organisation. eighteen participants indicated that the introduction of robots did not lead to any major job creation in their organisations, while another 12 participants stated that in their organisation the introduction of robots led to minor job creation. one participant stated that: ‘like i said, we are a world class organisation competing with other organisations across the world. the current product that we are making, which is a 4.8-billion-rand project, if it created 200 jobs it is a lot. our organisation believes in lean manufacturing, so they bring in a lot of robots to make more profits.’ the introduction of robots required specialised skills, and impacted job losses in the automotive industry in south africa rather than job creation. notably, this finding differs from the discussion in the literature review where it was noted that the emergence of industry 4.0 will lead to major job creation (keywell, 2017; marwala, 2018; schwab, 2016). however, another interesting finding from this study which is in line with the literature is that more hrc will be required and that labour brokers will be used to source the required skills (calitz et al., 2017; schwab, 2016). therefore, in this context, the responses allude to a need for continuous improvement in talent strategies, for example, ‘strive is for our current people to be correctly skilled’ and ‘need the human eye to evaluate if the thing is right’. participants generally indicated that the introduction of robots in the automotive industry led mostly to the development of engineering jobs (24) (table 5). participants emphasised the importance of engineers in organisations where robots were introduced: ‘in certain areas of our organisation we have the best what there is to offer in terms of automation, however, you need double the amount of engineers because it is no more just an operation, but it is about speaking the language of the robot.’ table 5: types of jobs created as a result of the use of robotics. in support, another participant added that: ‘the advantage of robots is now we have more technicians because in the past you did not need technicians in a factory but now all of a sudden with robots here you need them to look after the robots. you also need engineers such as process engineers, production engineers and also quality engineers which we are looking for in our business.’ in addition to the above, other significant job categories that emerged in the automotive industry included technicians (22), production managers (21) and robot setters (21) ‘to manage a volatile product’ and ‘to interpret results’. furthermore, the introduction of robots created openings for more health and safety representatives. these findings are in line with observations made by calitz (2019) who claimed that more than 300 new job categories emerged in south africa during the 2018–2019 financial year and of specific interest was the types of jobs created in the automotive industry as a result of the introduction of robots. participants stated that the introduction of robots in the automotive industry had the following positive experiences for employees (table 6): increased productivity (27), improved quality of work (25) and better developed employees (21). participants emphasised the following: ‘[t]hese new robots run at [a] higher speed, so production volumes and outputs are beneficial and make it easier for employees to reach their targets’, ‘our quality directly affects the safety of the end user, so to improve quality we had to automate’, and ‘in our case employees have a positive experience because now you have more developed workers’. table 6: positive and negative experiences for employees with the introduction of robots. a reduction of down time was also mentioned, ‘on the positive side one can see as we upgrade the robots the downtime reduces because if i am able to go online, trouble-shooting becomes a lot quicker’. other participants indicated expansion of professional prospects: ‘one of the more positive things for employees is if they want to grow, they can educate themselves and expand their knowledge and even shift into the department of their interests and avoid being replaced by these robots.’ the negative experiences of employees as a result of the introduction of robots were mainly fear and anxiety (16) and a lack of motivation (13) (table 6). participants highlighted ‘fear and anxiety that comes with the introduction of new technologies due to upgrades’. regarding lack of motivation, the participants highlighted that ‘some of them are just happy to be an artisan who can nowadays sit back and who do not have to stress when the robot stops’. reluctance to attend training was also mentioned: ‘there is a reluctance among employees to go for training’. these findings emphasise the need to identify characteristics required by employees to be successful in the industry 4.0 environment and to consider these in the talent management strategy. these findings are also in line with the literature review that indicates that the technological advancements associated with industry 4.0 lead to a slow speed of or reluctance in adopting technological breakthroughs and great effort is required for preparing training data necessary for supervised learning (vaidya, ambad, & bhosle, 2018). theme 3: industry 4.0 competencies participants were asked to indicate the competencies required by employees in an automated system in the automotive industry where they were working. participants highlighted that a hybrid skill set was required to effectively operate in industry 4.0 automotive organisations where robots were introduced: ‘in production specifically you need to know how to work with people and how to manage people, you need to know how to handle difficult situations, take the negative feedback’, ‘look, for us communication, problem solving skills, collaboration, driving for results, time management, and depending on the field that you are in we add the technical skills’, and ‘so yes, technical skills will be important but also skills such as communication, collaboration, good decision making, quick thinking and good time management’. the hybrid skill set is divided into technical, conceptual, human and personal skills (marwala, 2018; schwab, 2018). the top 10 industry 4.0 competencies required to effectively operate and collaborate on a production line shared with robots that emerged from the interviews were the following: engineering skills, collaborative skills, computer literacy, troubleshooting skills, effective communication, swift decision-making, reliability, critical thinking, adaptability and effective time management (table 7). these findings are in line with research that indicates that in industry 4.0 employees need a hybrid skill set to effectively collaborate with emerging technologies (berger, 2016; marwala, 2018; schwab, 2018). table 7: ten main competencies needed for collaboration with robots on a production system. apart from the main competencies required, other skills mentioned (table 8) that are important to effectively operate on a production line with robots include ethical behaviour and creativity: ‘from a point of view, i can always teach you the technical stuff, but i cannot teach you how to behave and that is imperative’ and: ‘with the new robots comes a lot of problems so you need a lot of people to brainstorm, especially people with knowledge of how the system works to find a common solution and make it more perfect for everyone’s benefit.’ table 8: additional competencies vital in industry 4.0. in addition, the following were mentioned: knowledge of the production system, diversity management, coding, flexibility and emotional intelligence, as well as quality controlling skills, logical reasoning, negotiation skills, moral judgement and empathy. contrary to the previous three industrial revolutions where most emphasis was placed on technical skills, with industry 4.0 the gap between hard and soft skills is bridged with a hybrid skill set required by employees to remain employable (calitz et al., 2017; kearney, 2017; schwab, 2018). theme 4: industry 4.0 talent strategies the overall observation about responses to talent management (table 9) is that organisations must adopt a variety of strategies to ensure that they do not only repurpose their existing talent but also attract and retain the desired industry 4.0 talent. the participants mentioned apprenticeships (30), an effective orientation programme (24) and succession planning (22) as the most effective means to effectively manage industry 4.0 talent. one participant explained: ‘this is why i want to sit with our training manager to suggest a new curriculum for our apprenticeships where we start them in this technological mindset’. table 9: strategies used to repurpose talent in industry 4.0 robotic organisations. another participant added: ‘when we recruit employees into the business, we have a full orientation programme running to take and identify critical skills and integrate it into the business’. notably, it emerged that organisations in the automotive sector had adopted an integrated approach to talent management to manage talent effectively. components of an integrated talent management approach as highlighted in the interviews include training centres, effective performance management processes, on-the-job training and behavioural incentives for employees. bursaries, collaboration with educational institutions, purposeful employment, the development of a talent pipeline and specialist remuneration were also mentioned. the literature study also indicated that in contemporary times with the continuing ‘war for talent’, organisations need to adopt an integrated and flexible approach to effectively manage talent (bersin, lamoureux, mallon, laurano, & harris, 2010; bussin, 2014). in this study, it was found that organisations in the automotive industry needed resources to provide broad-based training to both low-level and specialised employees. it was also revealed that collaboration between organisations, industries and educational institutions was vital to nurture the existing and future talent. in industry 4.0, talent management should focus on recruiting suitable people, orientating them into organisational process and retaining them through proper acknowledgement of their efforts, which will require an effective performance management intervention. table 9 presents the main themes identified with regard to talent strategies and the number of responses related to each. it became evident that a total talent strategy supported by a formal policy on employee development from entry-level specialist level was required, based on a thorough needs analysis and one that enables employees to adapt to a fast-paced environment. practical implications the rapid adoption of industry 4.0 technologies such as robots in the automotive industry leads to the emergence of new job categories that requires an endless alignment of employees’ competencies to organisational needs. the purposeful and effective management of human resources is therefore vital to the attainment of organisational strategy, effectiveness and efficiency. these results from the current study suggest that organisations in the automotive industry should develop and implement an integrated and well-structured talent management system. human resources practitioners, operational managers and engineers should work together to identify the specific needs and challenges related to the supply of human resources. the upskilling and reskilling, especially of employees performing manual labour, such as artisans and material handlers, should continuously be done and are the responsibilities of operational leaders as well as hr departments. employees need to understand the impact of industry 4.0 on their jobs and should be provided with a suitable alternative career path to increase their motivation for training and personal development. it is evident that new job categories emerge and organisations should not only focus on technical skills but also on conceptual, human and personal skills to equip employees to adopt a systemic perspective and enable them to work effectively in a collaborative environment, trouble shoot and solve problems. the results are relevant to the automotive sector as a whole and specifically to human resource management units, engineers and operational leaders, who collectively are responsible for the recruitment and development of talent that will meet the future needs of south african organisations. to ensure a future pipeline of adequate talent for the automotive industry, organisations should collaborate with educational institutions and other organisations both nationally and internationally to develop and nurture industry 4.0 talent. the preceding recommendations have an impact on the attraction, engaging and retention of industry 4.0 talent. a talent strategy should attract, engage and retain talent. if this does not happen, the strategy is not effective. an effective industry 4.0 talent strategy should be underpinned by fundamental talent management practices that support the idea of retaining valuable employees within automotive organisations. limitations and recommendations a sample size of 30 participants may be identified as a limitation towards getting broader views on the subject investigated. however, the study design minimised the possible effect of small sample size by purposefully selecting participants regarded as experts in the field and focus of the study. although there might be variations in how industry 4.0 impacts various sub-sectors in the automotive industry, the study did not focus on a specific automotive industry sub-sector in south africa. many new job categories, competencies and talent strategies may be considered generic in the new world of work. it would be useful to conduct a similar study in international organisations and compare the results with those found in this study that was focused on the south african automotive industry. conclusion industry 4.0 is impacting the world on various levels and affecting the emergence of various job categories. this requires organisations to possess talented employees with the correct set of hybrid skills to meet industry 4.0 demands. talented employees with the required skills or the potential to develop certain competencies can add value to the organisation and contribute to overall organisational competitiveness. with the worldwide war for talent in industry 4.0, a collaborative approach is needed, encompassing an integrated approach to attract, develop and retain these employees. however, the results of this study revealed that the automotive industry, as the largest contributor to the country’s gross domestic product, has not fully adopted industry 4.0 technologies. therefore, to effectively leapfrog into industry 4.0, the automotive industry needs to proactively implement the technologies associated with industry 4.0. of further importance is the fact that the automotive industry needs to develop an industry 4.0 talent pipeline through collaboration. the results of this study indicated that in a predominant labour market, automotive organisations cannot ignore the importance of competency management through effective talent management that strategically incorporates talent attraction, development and retention. acknowledgements the authors express their gratitude to the participants of the study who generously shared their views and experiences. they also express their gratitude to ms samantha greeff for professional language editing. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. authors’ contributions w.m. was responsible for data collection, data analysis and preparing the manuscript – the work is based on his phd studies. a.w and m.r.m. supervised the study. all authors discussed the findings and contributed to the final manuscript. ethical considerations in compliance with nelson mandela university’s ethical clearance process, participation was voluntary, and no participants were persuaded or paid to participate (clearance no. h19-bes-hrm-010.). this was achieved by providing the prospective participants with an informed consent document, which they had to complete and sign before participating in the interview. the research overview, expectations from the participants as well as the handling and use of the data collected were stated in the informed consent document. participants were offered the opportunity to withdraw from the study at any given stage during the interview should they wish so. the researcher adhered to the statements contained in the informed consent document at all stages of the study. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article because no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references accenture consulting. (2018). creating south africa’s future workforce: digital puts one in three jobs at risk. retrieved from https://www.accenture.com/t20180201t173907z_w_/za-en/_acnmedia/pdf-70/accenture-creating-south-africa-future-workforce.pdfla=en acemoglu, d., & restrepo, p. (2017). robots and jobs: evidence from us labour markets. working paper no. 23285. cambridge, ma: national bureau of economics research (nber). retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w23285 babshet, s. (2017). huge demand for skills in sa car industry – miwa. retrieved from https://m.wheels24.co.za/news/industry_news/huge-demand-for-skills-in-sa-car-industry-miwa-20170828 berger, g. (2016). soft skills are increasingly crucial to getting your dream job. retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/soft-skills-increasingly-crucial-getting-your-dream-guy-berger-ph-d-/ bersin, j., lamoureux, k., mallon, d., laurano, m., & harris, s. (2010). bersin by deloitte. retrieved from http://www.bersin.com/blog/post/2010/05/a-new-talent-management-framework.aspx bussin, m. (2014). remuneration and talent management. knowles. calitz, a. (2019). verbal communication. 08 may 2019. port elizabeth: nelson mandela university. calitz, a.p., poisat, p., & cullen, m. (2017). the future african workplace: the use of collaborative robots in manufacturing. sa journal of human resource management, 15(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.901 caruso, l. (2018). digital innovation and the fourth industrial revolution: epochal social changes? retrieved from https://philpapers.org/asearch.pl?pub=23 cassim, l. (2011). an overview of research design and methodology. postgraduate toolkit [cd]. renaissance network. goldin, c. (2014). a pollution theory of discrimination: male and female differences in occupations and earnings. master’s thesis at university of chicago press. retrieved from http://www.nber.org/chapters/c12904 gray, a. (2016). the 10 skills you need to thrive in the fourth industrial revolution. retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-10-skills-you-need-to-thrive-in-the-fourth-industrial-revolution/ hammer, m. (2018). mckinsey & company. ops 4.0: the human factor – recognizing the capability challenge. retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/operations-blog hammond, m., & wellington, j. (2013). research methods, the key concepts. new york, ny: routledge. heathfield, s.m. (2018). how to make a career path plan. retrieved from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/career-pathing-1918080 keywell, b. (2017). the fourth industrial revolution is about empowering people, not the rise of the machines. retrieved from http://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/06/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-is-about-people-not-just-machines/ korn ferry. (2017). driving an integrated talent management strategy. korn ferry institute. laugsand, e. (2017). industry 4.0: new technologies and potential for increased value creation. master’s thesis. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2491330 li, r. (2017). industry 4.0 – is africa ready for the march of the robots? retrieved from https://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/industry-4-0-africa-ready-march-robots/60366/ magruk, a. (2016). uncertainty in the sphere of industry 4.0 – potential areas to research. business, management and education, 14(2), 275–291. https://doi.org/10.3846/bme.2016.332 maisiri, w., darwish, h., & van dyk, l. (2019). an investigation of industry 4.0 skills requirements. the south african journal of industrial engineering, 30(3), 90–105. https://doi.org/10.7166/30-3-2230 marwala, a. (2018). auto production in south africa and components manufacturing in gauteng province. retrieved from https://www.global-labour-university.org mclean-conner, p. (2015). employee value propositions: a foundation in building a competitive workforce. retrieved from http://0-web.a.ebscohost.com.wam.seals.ac.za noyce, m. (2016). what advances in robotics and artificial intelligence could impact on youth employment in south africa? retrieved from http://www.royalsocietysa.org.za/micheal-noyce/2016pdf phillips, r. (2018). sa will lose 5.7 million jobs if not digitally ready in 7 years. usb news. retrieved from https://www.usb.ac.za/usb_news/sa-will-lose-five-million-jobs/ saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2011). research methods for business students (5th ed.). harlow: pearson education. schwab, k. (2016). the fourth industrial revolution: what it means, how to respond. retrieved from http://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond schwab, k. (2018). the fourth industrial revolution. retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-2119734 spiesshofer, u. (2017). ceo of automation company abb says we shouldn’t fear automation. retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/01/felicis-aydin-senkut-and-guildelines-kevin-busque-will-look-back-on-the-series-b-deal-that-brought-them-together/ tansley, c., & tietze, s. (2013). rites of passage through talent management progression stages: an identity work perspective. international journal of human resource management, 24(9), 1799–1815. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.777542 universal robots. (2018). ifr releases its annual world robotics report 2018. retrieved from https://www.universal-robots.com/about-universal-robots/news-centre/ifr-releases-world-robotics-report-for-2018/ vaidya, s., ambad, p., & bhosle, s. (2018). industry 4.0. a glimpse. procedia manufacturing, 20, 233–238. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2018.02.034 world economic forum. (2017). technology will disrupt labour. global risks report 2017. geneva: world economic forum. article information authors: ilse e. plattner1 diana s. mberengwa1 affiliations: 1department of psychology, faculty of social sciences, university of botswana, botswana correspondence to: ilse plattner email: plattner@mopipi.ub.bw postal address: department of psychology, faculty of social sciences, university of botswana, private bag 00705, gaborone, botswana keywords human resource management; organisational psychology; psycho-physiological wellbeing; secretarial profession; stress management dates: received: 01 may 2009 accepted: 15 july 2010 published: 26 oct. 2010 how to cite this article: plattner, i.e., & mberengwa, d.s. (2010). 'we are the forgotten ones': occupational stress among university secretaries in botswana. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #213, 8 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.213 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) 'we are the forgotten ones': occupational stress among niversity secretaries in botswana in this original research article... open access • abstract • introduction    • conceptual framework • research design    • research approach    • data collection      • research participants      • measuring instrument      • statistical analysis • results • discussion    • limitations and recommendations • conclusion • references abstract (back to top) orientation: secretaries play an essential role in any work organisation, but their contributions and support in the daily management activities are not always recognised. research purpose: there is little research on occupational stress among secretaries. therefore, this study aimed to investigate work-related stressors in the secretarial profession and their association with psychosomatic complaints. motivations for study: considering the lack of research on secretaries, it was the objective of this study to investigate occupational stressors in the secretarial profession and their association with psycho-physiological wellbeing. research design, approach and method: sixty-four secretaries at the university of botswana participated in the study (response rate: 43.8%). data were gathered through a self-administered questionnaire. correlational analyses were performed using spearman's rho. main findings: seventeen potential stressors were identified, referring to lack of job clarity, performing work outside one's job description, reduced competencies, supervisors who perform secretarial work, sharing resources such as an office or a telephone, lack of recognition and limited opportunities for promotion. most stressors correlated significantly with one or more psychosomatic complaints. practical/managerial implications: additional research would be necessary to compare various work contexts and organisation-specific work environments and to investigate their relevance to occupational stress and health among secretaries. contribution/value-add: the results of the study could be of use for human resource managers, as well as for supervisors of secretaries, in order to minimise potential stressors that could negatively affect the health of secretaries. introduction (back to top) work-related stress was once thought of as occurring only in those who work in senior positions; it is now acknowledged that occupational stress can be experienced by employees at every level (williams, 2003). in fact, stress is much more common in employees at lower levels of workplace hierarchies (williams, 2003), where they have less control over their work situation. more recently, studies have targeted occupational stress in various professions, such as nurses, doctors, police officers, teachers, managers and academics (e.g. barkhuizen & rothmann, 2008; cottrell, 2001; hendel & horn, 2008; lindorff, 2000; oginska-bulik, 2005; ortega, brenner & leather, 2007; peltzer, mashego & mabeba, 2003; tytherleigh, jacobs, webb, ricketts & cooper, 2007; williams, 2003; zurlo, pes & cooper, 2007), but little research has been conducted on occupational stress among secretaries. while secretaries may have been included in some studies that investigated occupational stress among 'support staff' (e.g. jacobs, tytherleigh, webb & cooper, 2007), not much literature focuses on the secretarial profession. secretaries play an essential role in any work organisation, but their contributions and support in the daily management activities are not always recognised (demongeot, 1986; flam, 2002). often, secretaries perform highly demanding tasks but have minimal control over job conditions, which makes them prone to occupational stress (snow, swan, raghavan, connell & klein, 2003). it has been documented that the degree of control that employees have determines whether they experience stress and how they cope with it (clarke & cooper, 2000; peeters, buunk & schaufeli, 1995; spector, 2003). the few studies that investigated secretaries identified lack of control, increasing demands, lack of recognition and interpersonal frustration caused by colleagues and supervisors as typical stressors for secretaries (herrting, nilsson, theorell & larsson, 2003; michailidis & asimenos, 2001; peeters et al., 1995; snow et al., 2003). generally, work-related stress affects employees negatively in their fulfilment and functioning at work (farmer, clancy, oyefeso & rassool, 2002), which often results in feelings of dissatisfaction with their achievements and in unhappiness (e.g. hardy, woods & wall, 2003; michailidis & asimenos, 2001). various studies have also identified occupational stress as a predictor of the burnout syndrome (e.g. dickinson & wright, 2008; malach-pines, 2005; peltzer et al., 2003; van dierendonck, garssen & visser, 2005). occupational stress lowers productivity (adams & cowen, 2004; stein, 2001) and has a negative effect on job satisfaction and organisational commitment (ortega et al., 2007; stacciarini & troccoli, 2004). often, stress and its various effects are intertwined. snow et al. (2003) observed that secretaries who reported work pressure were more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and somatic symptoms. garrison and eaton (1992) established that work-related stress among secretaries, combined with job dissatisfaction, led to higher levels of absenteeism. absenteeism can result from stressful conditions and related illnesses (adams & cowen, 2004; hardy et al., 2003), but absenteeism can also be a way of coping with stressful working conditions, as absence from work was found to relieve stress (furnham, 2005). snow et al. (2003) found that high levels of stress among secretaries were associated with avoidant-style coping behaviour rather than with active coping strategies. in the same study, avoidance coping was also related more significantly to negative psychological outcomes. herrting et al. (2003) found that secretaries used professional pride as a way of coping with stressors, such as lack of recognition. although occupational stress is regarded as 'normal' and inevitable in working life (harkness et al., 2005), job stress can interfere with physiological wellbeing. occupational stress is known to contribute to physical illness (e.g. coronary heart disease) and somatic symptoms, such as headaches, back pain, high blood pressure, fatigue and insomnia (akerstedt et al., 2002; sadeh, keinan & daon, 2004; stein, 2001); it negatively affects the immune system and even increases the occurrence of the common cold (boscolo, youinou, theoharides, cerulli & conti, 2008; halpern, 2005; segerstrom & miller, 2004). subsequently, occupational stress leads to health and economic costs that make stress management at the workplace important (murta, sanderson & oldenburg, 2008; noblet & lamontagne, 2006). over the years, work organisations have introduced health promotion and wellness programmes as part of stress management interventions (noblet & lamontagne, 2006). however, the effectiveness of such programmes has been questioned as they mainly target the individual employees and their ways of coping with stressful conditions, rather than the causes of stress that are inherent to the workplace or the kind of work that people do (murta et al., 2008). considering the lack of research on secretaries, it was the objective of this study to investigate occupational stressors in the secretarial profession and their association with psycho-physiological wellbeing. more specifically, the study aimed to explore work-related stressors that might be typical of the secretarial profession, whether the presence of such stressors is associated with the psychosomatic complaints of secretaries and whether the subjective stress experience compared to the mere exposure to potential stressors makes a difference in the psychosomatic complaints. the target group was secretaries at the university of botswana, which is one of the biggest employers in botswana and has about 150 positions for secretaries. as far as the authors of this study could ascertain, no study on occupational stress has been conducted with secretaries in the botswana work context. the results of the study could be of use for human resource managers, as well as for supervisors of secretaries, in order to minimise potential stressors that could negatively affect the health of secretaries. conceptual framework (back to top) the conceptual framework for the study was lazarus's transactional stress theory (lazarus, 1999; lazarus & folkman, 1984), which is one of the most influential theories in the context of psychological stress research (folkman & moskowitz, 2000). this theory appeared suitable for the study, as it is generally believed that the experience of occupational stress at individual level depends on whether a person perceives and interprets workplace conditions as stressful or not (conard & matthews, 2008; oginska-bulik, 2005; snelgrove, 1998; stacciarini & troccoli, 2004). lazarus's theory conceptualises stress as an outcome of a process of cognitive appraisals and coping mechanisms. according to lazarus, people constantly appraise and evaluate what is happening to them and whether or not they are in a position to handle such a situation. lazarus differentiates between 'primary appraisal', in which a person assesses a situation as harmful, threatening or benign and 'secondary appraisal', in which a person assesses the usefulness of the resources available to manage this situation. when there is a discrepancy between the primary and secondary appraisals, the person experiences stress. during the process of appraising, certain coping attempts contribute to 're-appraisals' of the same situation, which can reduce or increase the experience of stress and, as a result, affect psychological wellbeing. based on cognitive appraisals, the same situation may cause stress for one person but not for another person. for example, sharing an office with a colleague can be a potential stressor for secretaries. however, not every secretary who has to share an office, that is, who is exposed to this potential stressor, will perceive sharing an office as stressful. while one secretary might assess sharing an office as a threat to her way of office organisation, and therefore feel stressed about it, another secretary might assess sharing an office as a welcome opportunity for social support in the workplace and will therefore not experience stress. the way in which a person responds to a potentially stressful situation depends on how they evaluate the situation and what coping strategies they apply. lazarus differentiates between problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies. problem-focused coping strategies include proactive behaviours that target the problem directly with the intention of changing or modifying the cause of stress, while emotion-focused coping strategies attempt to restore psychological balance and wellbeing without rectifying the problem as such. in the example above, a secretary who is stressed about sharing an office might suggest to her supervisor that she have an office to herself and/or present valid reasons that could justify why she should not have to share an office (problem-focused coping). in contrast, another secretary who finds sharing an office stressful might engage in evasive behaviour (emotion-focused coping) and, for instance, try to avoid being in her office by looking for tasks that require her to be out of the office most of the time. in an attempt to restore her emotional wellbeing, she might engage in denial and try to pretend that she has no problem with sharing an office. if problem-focused coping strategies are prone to fail (e.g. in the example of sharing an office, because of a shortage of offices), the person might switch to emotion-focused coping strategies. according to lazarus, emotion-focused coping strategies dominate in situations wherein a person feels that nothing can be done to eliminate the causes of stress. emotion-focused coping strategies are known to be less effective in completely eliminating the experience of stress, and, as a result, stress negatively affects psychological and physiological wellbeing. in line with lazarus's theory, this study regarded it as important to differentiate between exposure to potential stressors and subjective stress experience. it was expected that mere exposure to potential stressors would not affect psycho-physical wellbeing, but that the subjective stress experience would negatively affect wellbeing. research design (back to top) research approach the nature of the study was exploratory and descriptive within the quantitative research paradigm, using a cross-sectional survey method and correlational analysis. prior to the study, and considering the lack of research on stress experienced by secretaries, a non-directive focus group discussion was held with a small group of five selected secretaries from different employment levels and divisions within the university of botswana. the aim of the discussion was to gain insight into what secretaries might perceive as common work-related stressors. the information obtained from the discussion was used for the formulation of statements for a questionnaire that was developed for the purpose of this study. the questionnaire was distributed among all secretaries within the university of botswana. data collection research participants the self-administered questionnaire, together with a return envelope addressed to one of the researchers, was sent via mail to all the secretaries listed in the university's internal telephone directory. participation in the study was voluntary and anonymous. of the 146 secretaries who were approached, 64 returned their questionnaires, giving a response rate of 43.8%. the age of the respondents ranged from 21 to 50 years, with an average of 37 years (median). the respondents had worked at the university for between 3 months and 23 years; on average, the respondents had worked at the university for 11 years and 8 months (median). most of them (70.3%) had worked elsewhere before joining the university. the majority of the respondents (77.4%) were placed in an academic department or faculty office, 8.1% in a support centre and 14.5% in administration. in terms of rank, 46.0% held the position of 'secretary', 39.7% of 'personal secretary' and 14.3% of 'personal assistant' measuring instrument the main variables contained in the questionnaire and analysed for the purpose of this study were occupational stress and psychosomatic complaints. occupational stress was operationalised through 17 statements resulting from the focus group discussion and referring to the extent to which a given aspect of work bothered the respondent. the aspects of work that were specified included ambiguity in job expectation, reduced competencies, working overtime, sharing resources, lack of recognition and limited opportunity for promotion. each statement started with the phrase 'it bothers me that ...' (e.g. 'it bothers me that i have to do work that is not part of my job description', '... that i have to share a telephone with a colleague', '... that my supervisor does the work that i am supposed to do' and '... that secretaries cannot be promoted to the level of administrative officer'). all statements were presented with a likert-type rating scale (i.e. 'very much', 'much', 'not sure', 'not much', 'not at all') as well as with the answer category 'not applicable'. the latter was presented for respondents who were not exposed to the potential stressors. as mentioned above and considering that potential stressors are not necessarily perceived as stressful at the subjective level, in this study it was regarded as important to differentiate between 'exposure to potential stressors' and 'subjective stress experience'. responses within the categories 'very much' to 'not at all' were interpreted as 'exposure to potential stressor', but only responses within the categories 'very much' or 'much' were interpreted as indicators of 'subjective stress experience'. nine questions probed psychosomatic complaints (e.g. headaches, digestive problems, insomnia, exhaustion or fatigue) and the frequency of their occurrence, based on self-reported assessment. to obtain work-related information about the respondents, the questionnaire also contained the variables workload, job satisfaction, career expectations and personal background. workload was operationalised through four statements referring to the amount of work from the respondents' point of view (e.g. 'the amount of work i have to do is just too much' and 'there are times when i have nothing to do'). three answer categories were provided: 'often', 'sometimes' and 'never'. job satisfaction was operationalised through five statements referring to satisfaction with secretarial work, productiveness, salary, chances of promotion and relationship with supervisor; answer categories provided were 'true', 'not sure' and 'false'. four statements targeted career expectations (e.g. 'when i joined the university i expected to be sent for staff development'). personal background variables explored age, employment position (i.e. 'secretary', 'personal secretary' or 'personal assistant'), division of employment (i.e. academic faculty or department, academic service centre, university administration) and length of employment at the university of botswana. gender was not considered because it was known to the researchers that all but one of the university's secretaries were female. statistical analysis data obtained from the questionnaires were analysed with spss (version 16.0), using descriptive statistics and correlational analysis. spearman's rho was used to identify significant associations between the stress variables and psychosomatic complaints. for descriptive purposes, possible associations with psychosomatic complaints were also explored for the remaining variables of workload, job satisfaction, career expectations and personal background. to determine whether these associations were statistically significant, the 5% significance level (p = 0.05) was used. table 1: potential stressors and subjective stress experience results (back to top) the results revealed that, overall, the respondents were satisfied with their job; 68.9% liked the kind of work they did, 89.1% felt productive at work and 89.1% reported having a good relationship with their supervisor. however, 65.6% felt that they were not paid a fair salary and 62.9% were not satisfied with their chances for promotion. in terms of workload, only 15.6% of the respondents felt that the amount of work was too much, while 54.7% reported that 'sometimes' they had nothing to do. a relatively high number of 67.2% respondents reported that 'sometimes' they felt quite bored at work and 68.3% 'sometimes' wished that they had more work to do. table 1 shows the exposure to and subjective experience of the stressors investigated. most of the respondents were exposed to the various potential stressors; however, not all of them experienced these stressors as being stressful. in total, 89.1% of the respondents reported that they performed work that was not part of their job description, but only 38.6% of them were bothered 'much' or 'very much' by this situation. some 68.8% of the respondents reported that they lacked job clarity, which was stressful to 54.6% of them. more information on this matter revealed that many of the respondents felt that they were doing the work of a messenger (70.3%), an office assistant (57.8%), or a 'tea lady' (39.1%). as is further evident from table 1, 71.9% of the respondents had acted in higher positions (i.e. as 'personal secretary' or 'personal assistant') without receiving an acting allowance, which was stressful to 63.0%. some 59.4% of the respondents reported that they had to supervise junior colleagues who did not want to be supervised by them, which was stressful to 23.8% of the respondents. most of the respondents felt that their competencies had been reduced over the years. more specifically, 85.9% of the respondents reported that their supervisors performed work that secretaries were supposed to do, which was stressful to 61.8%. similarly, 82.8% of the respondents indicated that faculty administrators had absorbed their work, which was experienced as stressful by 52.8%. not being permitted to take minutes during meetings applied to 93.8% and was stressful to 55.0%. at the university of botswana, minutes are usually taken by faculty administrators or academic staff members, who may then ask secretaries to type the minutes. during the focus group discussion it was revealed that the secretaries felt that the university did not want them to hear what was discussed in meetings, '... but ...' the discussants added with resentment '... we are expected to type the minutes'. working overtime apparently applied to 79.7% of the respondents, but only 11.8% of them experienced this as stressful. most of the respondents had to share an office (81.2%), a telephone (78.1%) and a computer (73.4%). sharing a computer was perceived as stressful by 55.3%, sharing an office was stressful to 40.4% and sharing a telephone was stressful to 34.0% of the respondents. the stressor categories referring to recognition and promotion resulted in the highest percentages of subjective stress (table 1). most of the respondents experienced stress because they felt that their capabilities were not recognised (81.8%), that their experience was not acknowledged (87.5%), that people in higher positions received more respect than secretaries (62.8%), and that secretaries were excluded from public functions at the university (66.7%). during the focus group discussion, one of the secretaries narrated with emphasis: 'we are the forgotten ones'. it was stressful to even more respondents that secretaries could not be promoted to the level of administrative officer (88.8%) and that administrative assistants were apparently promoted faster than secretaries (88.7%). in addition to what is presented in table 1 and also of interest in the stressor 'promotion', 63.5% of the respondents reported that their hopes for promotion had faded away. regarding the respondents' career expectations, it was found that, at the time when they joined the university, a substantive number of them had expected to become an administration officer (48.4%), to be sent for staff development (54.7%) and/or to study for a degree (40.6%). the great majority of respondents (84.4%) would have liked to receive more training in secretarial skills. table 2 shows the frequency of psychosomatic complaints as reported by the respondents. few respondents reported experiencing the psychosomatic symptoms 'often', except for headaches (22.6%). however, a high proportion of the respondents experienced the various psychosomatic problems 'sometimes', with exhaustion and fatigue leading the list of complaints (75.0%), followed by headaches (62.9%), digestive problems (62.5%) and stomach aches (62.5%). most stressors were associated with various psychosomatic complaints, although only at a modest to moderate level (table 3). the following stressors did not correlate with any of the psychosomatic complaints at the 0.05 significance level and are therefore not listed in table 3: 'supervisor does secretarial work', 'faculty administrators absorbed secretarial work', 'capability is not recognised', 'experience is not acknowledged' and 'administrative assistants get promoted faster'. surprisingly, in some cases the mere exposure to certain potential stressors (i.e. lack of job clarity, supervising junior colleagues, sharing a telephone and sharing a computer) was associated with psychosomatic problems, regardless of whether these stressors were subjectively perceived as stressful or not (table 3). compared to respondents who were not exposed to a lack of job clarity, the respondents who were exposed to it were significantly more likely to report headaches, throat problems or tonsillitis, insomnia, exhaustion or fatigue and nervousness. respondents who reported that they had junior colleagues who did not want to be supervised by them were more likely to report insomnia and digestive problems. sharing a telephone as well as sharing a computer was associated with headaches (table 3). the remaining stressors correlated with psychosomatic complaints only once the respondents perceived these stressors as stressful (table 3). most of the stressors were associated with more than one psychosomatic complaint at the 0.05 significance level. headaches were associated with most of the stressors. more specifically, respondents who perceived doing work that was not part of their job description as stressful were more likely to report headaches and throat problems or tonsillitis. respondents who perceived acting in a higher position without receiving an acting allowance as stressful were also more likely to report headaches as well as cardiac problems. at the subjective level, (1) not being allowed to take minutes during meetings was also associated with headaches, (2) working overtime was associated with headaches and exhaustion or fatigue, (3) sharing an office was associated with headaches, cardiac problems, throat problems and nervousness, (4) sharing a telephone was associated with headaches and (5) sharing a computer was associated with throat problems or tonsillitis and digestive problems. digestive problems were also associated with perceptions regarding respect, public functions and promotion (table 3). none of the stressors was associated with high blood pressure and stomach problems at the 0.05 significance level. further analysis with regard to career expectations revealed that respondents who had expected to be sent for staff development were more likely to report headaches (r = 0.289, p = 0.042). respondents who had expected to become administration officers were more likely to report high blood pressure (r = 0.338, p=0.007), insomnia (r =0.322, p = 0.010) and nervousness (r = 0.310, p =0.013). none of the variables measuring job satisfaction and workload correlated significantly with any of the psychosomatic complaints, except for boredom: respondents who felt bored at work were more likely to report exhaustion or fatigue (r =0.255, p = 0.042). age as a potential predictor of health problems did not correlate with any of the psychosomatic complaints, except for high blood pressure; that is, the age group 41-50 years was significantly more likely to report problems with high blood pressure (r = -0.414, p = 0.001). none of the other personal background variables was significantly associated with psychosomatic complaints. table 2: self-reported frequency of psychosomatic complaints table 3: exposure to potential stressors, subjective experience of potential stressors as stressful, and psychosomatic complaints discussion (back to top) the study aimed to explore occupational stressors in the secretarial profession and to investigate whether these stressors were associated with psycho-physiological wellbeing. the study identified 17 potential stressors pertaining to ambiguity in job expectation, reduced competencies, working overtime, sharing resources, lack of recognition and limited opportunities for promotion. the various stressors applied to most of the secretaries, but not all of them perceived the stressors as stressful. unlike what was found in other research on secretaries, in this study promotion was identified as a major stressor. at the university of botswana, the career path for secretaries foresees promotion from 'secretary' to 'personal secretary' to 'personal assistant'; many secretaries remain 'stuck' at secretary and personal secretary levels. in spite of this career path, almost half of the sample had expected to join the administrative sector and to be promoted to administrative officers when they joined the university and, interestingly, they had maintained these expectations for many years. the discrepancy between the secretaries' career expectations and their career outcome helps to explain why promotion was found in this study to be a major stressor. the findings also indicate that there might be a need for human resources managers at the university of botswana who are involved in the process of recruitment and appointment of secretaries to clarify career opportunities before an employment agreement is signed; in this way, ongoing stress caused by incorrect expectations regarding promotion could have been avoided. as also found in previous studies (herrting et al., 2003; michailidis & asimenos, 2001; snow et al., 2003), lack of recognition was a major stressor for the secretaries in this study. perceived lack of recognition can cause employees to believe that their contributions are not valued or appreciated, that they are not respected, or that they are disposable (harkness et al., 2005) and therefore cause stress. such beliefs were confirmed in this study. in the context of recognition, another stressor identified in this study (but not mentioned in other studies) that requires attention is that of acting in higher positions (i.e. as a personal secretary or personal assistant) without receiving an acting allowance. being asked to act in a higher position could be perceived as a form of recognition of one's experience and capabilities. however, not being rewarded for performing work at a higher level can undermine the effects of recognition and therefore produce stress. although employees do not always expect rewards of a financial nature (cascio, 2003), this study found that the lack of an acting allowance probably reinforced the secretaries' perceptions that their work was not appreciated by the university. interestingly, the respondents who felt stressed as a result of not being paid an acting allowance were significantly more likely to report headaches and cardiac problems, which could be interpreted as indicators of suppressed anger (byrne & espnes, 2008; haynes & feinleib, 1980). acting in a higher position also means performing work that is not part of one's job description, which turned out to be another important stressor in this study. most of the respondents reported that they performed tasks that were not part of their job description. at the same time, the respondents felt that the university had reduced their competencies, such as, for example, taking minutes in meetings. these findings are connected to a lack of job clarity. while there might have been misconceptions among the secretaries as to why they were, for instance, not permitted to take minutes, stress could probably have been avoided if the university had clarified to them through its human resources section why it preferred administrators and academics to take minutes instead of secretaries. while some studies have identified the secretary-supervisor relationship as a stressor (michailidis & asimenos, 2001; peeters et al., 1995), this study found that most of the secretaries assessed the relationship with their supervisor as good. however, almost two thirds of the respondents were stressed by the feeling that their supervisors apparently performed tasks that secretaries were supposed to do. this is an important finding with implications for human resource management and the job portfolios of secretaries. over the past three decades, computerisation and office automation have changed the workplace of secretaries drastically. with the advent of the personal computer, managers started performing increasingly more of the tasks and routines that were earlier done by secretaries (dolan & tziner, 1988; seppala, 2001). as a result, secretaries may feel 'pruned' in their importance and value to their supervisors. although work organisations usually embrace rapid developments in communication and information technology, human resource managers might sometimes overlook the need to adjust job descriptions to new developments on a regular basis. the job descriptions of secretaries, in particular, might need to be revisited in order to assign meaningful tasks to them. such need might apply in the case of the secretaries in this study. the findings of this study show that a substantive number of secretaries reported boredom and wished that they had more work to do, which indicates that their services were underutilised. interestingly, secretaries who experienced boredom were significantly more likely to report exhaustion or fatigue than secretaries who did not experience boredom. such finding can be explained by the fact that spending many hours at work without having much to do is tiresome and stressful in itself (plattner, 1993). while boredom can cause stress, long working hours can also cause stress (dickinson & wright, 2008). surprisingly, only a few respondents felt stressed about working overtime. perhaps the secretaries in this study felt that being asked to work overtime gave them a sense of being needed, which could have served as compensation for the perceived lack of recognition. but, in line with other studies (e.g. tucker & rutherford, 2005), those respondents who felt stressed about working overtime were significantly more likely to report headaches and exhaustion or fatigue. based on lazarus's stress theory (lazarus, 1999), it was expected that only those respondents who perceived potential stressors as stressful would have been affected negatively in their psychosomatic wellbeing. this expectation was confirmed for most stressors, but, unexpectedly, some stressors were associated with psychosomatic complaints regardless of whether or not the respondents perceived them as stressful. one of these stressors was sharing a telephone. the importance a telephone holds for secretaries could be worth further investigation. it is possible that the telephone enables secretaries to maintain social contacts with colleagues, friends or family members who can provide them with social support during working hours. as confirmed in other studies, social support and the opportunity to talk to others can have stress-relieving effects (fenlason & beehr, 1994; snow et al., 2003). therefore, having to share a telephone, even if not perceived as stressful, could affect psychological wellbeing negatively as it restricts access to one's social support system. the mere exposure to a lack of job clarity was associated with more psychosomatic complaints than any other stressor, regardless of feelings of stress. in addition, secretaries who reported that they had junior colleagues who did not want to be supervised by them were significantly more likely to suffer from digestive problems and insomnia, regardless of whether or not they perceived this situation as stressful. as revealed by cross-tabulations, several respondents at the lowest rank of 'secretary' reported that they had to supervise junior colleagues, although there was no lower level than 'secretary'. it appears that, possibly based on age or length of employment at the university, they perceived certain colleagues as junior and simply assumed that they would have to supervise them, whereas the 'junior' colleagues might rightfully not have accepted their colleagues as their supervisors. such findings indicate a need for human resource management to produce clearly outlined and unambiguous job descriptions and allocations of tasks and duties that do not leave space for misinterpretation. well-designed job descriptions are known to foster beneficial teamwork and cooperation (furnham, 2005), while lack of job clarity and the related role ambiguity affect collaboration negatively and lead to tension and therefore stress at the workplace (spector, 2003). considering that this study found that mere exposure to the stressors 'lack of job clarity' and 'supervision of junior colleagues' was associated with psychosomatic complaints, regardless of whether or not the respondents perceived these stressors as stressful, it is possible that these respondents used emotion-focused coping strategies. as mentioned above, emotion-focused coping strategies dominate in situations where a person feels that nothing can be done to eliminate the causes of stress (lazarus, 1999). considering that job clarity among colleagues depends on clearly defined job descriptions provided by human resource management, secretaries have little or no control over this stressor. in the attempt to restore their emotional balance, several of the respondents might have engaged in denial and tried to convince themselves that the lack of job clarity and working with junior colleagues was not stressful to them, although this was not effective enough to stop the stressors from 'nagging' at their psychosomatic wellbeing (see also akerstedt et al., 2002). limitations and recommendations this study has several limitations. firstly, the findings might only apply to the specific work context of the university of botswana. secondly, the response rate of 43.8% could have resulted in an unrepresentative sample, which would limit the extent to which the findings of this study could be generalised. thirdly, although the study revealed that most stressors were associated with psychosomatic complaints, the statistical analysis used in this study does not allow conclusions about causal relationships between these variables to be drawn. the data analysis did not control for intervening and moderating variables that could have contributed to the psychosomatic complaints; the modest to moderate correlations obtained suggest that other variables that were not controlled for must have contributed to the complaints. fourthly, the results are based on self-reporting, which reduces the reliability of the findings with regard to exposure to potential stressors and the prevalence and severity of the psychosomatic complaints. fifthly, the study only explored potential stressors and subjective stress experience and did not investigate what coping strategies the secretaries used to deal with their stress. more in-depth research would be necessary to address these limitations. in addition, considering that the secretaries in this study worked in an academic institution, the results might not necessarily apply to work organisations that differ from the work context of a university. additional research would be necessary to compare various work contexts and organisation-specific work environments and to investigate their relevance to occupational stress and health among secretaries. conclusion (back to top) in spite of the limitations of this study and the need for further research, the results provide some insight into occupational stress among secretaries and demonstrate that job stress can interfere with their psycho-physiological wellbeing. the stressors identified in this study might appear to be simple daily hassles of secretaries, but daily hassles are known to contribute more to psycho-physiological problems than major life events (sanderson, 2004). the findings of this study show that even when employees perceive certain stressors as not being stressful, mere exposure to a potential stressor can still affect a person's wellbeing. in other words, if a potential stressor exists in the work environment, it can contribute to psychosomatic ailments. it is important to note that, for most of the stressors identified in this study, proactive coping at the secretaries' level would not have been possible. stressors such as lack of job clarity, lack of recognition, underutilising employees' capabilities and competencies and limited opportunities for promotion are managerial matters and require solutions at the organisational level, and more specifically, at the level of human resource management. considering that the stressors identified in this study are beyond the control of secretaries, the health promotion and wellness programmes often suggested for stress management interventions (e.g. noblet & lamontagne, 2006) might not be sufficient in the case of secretaries. while, for example, relaxation exercises to relieve stress might have positive effects on some secretaries, these effects might disappear rapidly once they return to their work environment. as long as there is no change in the work environment, stressors continue to work on peoples' minds (lazarus, 1999). therefore, in the case of the stressors identified in this study, effective stress management would have to be tied to successful human resource management. references (back to top) adams, t.b., & cowen, v.s. (2004). health risk factors and absenteeism among university employees. american journal of health studies, 19, 129-137. akerstedt, t., knutsson, a., westerholm, p., theorell, t., alfredsson, l., & kecklund, g. (2002). sleep disturbances, work stress and work hours. a cross-sectional study. journal of psychosomatic research, 53, 741-748. barkhuizen, n., & rothmann, s. (2008). occupational stress of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. south african journal of psychology, 38, 321-336. boscolo, p., youinou, p., theoharides, t., cerulli, g., & conti, p. (2008). environmental and occupational stress and autoimmunity. autoimmunity reviews, 7, 340-343. byrne, d.g., & espnes, g.a. (2008). occupational stress and cardiovascular disease. stress and health, 24, 231-238. cascio, w.f. (2003). managing human resources. productivity, quality of work life, profits. boston: mcgraw hill. clarke, s.g., & cooper, c.l. (2000). the risk management of occupational stress. health, risk & society, 2, 173-187. conard, m.a., & matthews, r.a. (2008). modelling the stress process: personality eclipses, dysfunctional cognitions and workload in predicting stress. personality & individual differences, 44, 171-181. cottrell, s. (2001). occupational stress and job satisfaction in mental health nursing: focused interventions through evidence-based assessment. journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing, 8, 157-164. demongeot, c. (1986). secretaries: the unrecognized members of the management team. training & development journal, 40, 28-29. dickinson, t., & wright, k.m. (2008). stress and burnout in forensic mental health nursing: a literature review. british journal of nursing, 17, 82-87. dolan, s., & tziner, a. (1988). implementing computer-based automation in the office: a study of experienced stress. journal of organizational behavior, 9, 183-187. farmer, r., clancy, c., oyefeso, a., & rassool, h.g. (2002). stress and work with substance misusers: the development and cross-validation of a new instrument to measure staff stress. drugs: education, prevention and policy, 9, 377-388. fenlason, k.j., & beehr, t.a. (1994). social support and occupational stress: effects of talking to others. journal of organizational behavior, 15, 157-175. flam, h. (2002). corporate emotions and emotions in corporations. in j. barbalet (ed.), emotions and sociology, (pp. 90-112). malden, us: blackwell publishing. folkman, s., & moskowitz, j.t. (2000). stress, positive emotion, and coping. current directions in psychological science, 9, 115-118. furnham, a. (2005). the psychology of behavior at work. hove: psychology press. garrison, r., & eaton, w.w. (1992). secretaries, depression and absenteeism. women & health, 18, 53-76. halpern, d.f. (2005). psychology at the intersection of work and family: recommendations for employers, working families, and policymakers. american psychologist, 60, 397-409. hardy, g.e., woods, d., & wall, t.d. (2003). the impact of psychological distress on absence from work. journal of applied psychology, 88, 306-314. harkness, a.m., long, b.c., bermbach, n., patterson, k., jordan, s., & kahn, h. (2005). talking about work stress: discourse analysis and implications for stress interventions. work stress, 19, 121-136. haynes, s.g., & feinleib, m. (1980). women, work and coronary heart disease: prospective findings from the framingham heart study. american journal of public health, 70, 133-141. hendel, d.d., & horn, a.s. (2008). the relationship between academic life conditions and perceived sources of faculty stress over time. journal of human behavior in the social environment, 17, 61-88. herrting, a., nilsson, k., theorell, t., & larsson, u.s. (2003). personnel reductions and structural changes in health care. work-life experiences of medical secretaries. journal of psychosomatic research, 54, 161-170. jacobs, p.a., tytherleigh, m.y., webb, c., & cooper, c.l. (2007). predictors of work performance among higher education employees: an examination using the asset model of stress. international journal of stress management, 14, 199-210. lazarus, r.s. (1999). stress and emotion: a new synthesis. london: free association books. lazarus, r.s., & folkman, s. (1984). stress, appraisal and coping. new york: springer. lindorff, m. (2000). is it better to perceive than to receive? social support, stress and strain for managers. health & medicine, 5, 271-286. malach-pines, a. (2002). the burnout measure, short version. international journal of stress management, 12(1), 78-88. michailidis, m.p., & asimenos, a. (2001). occupational stress as it relates to higher education, individuals and organizations. work, 19, 137-147. murta, s.g., sanderson, k., & oldenburg, b. (2008). process evaluation in occupational stress management programs: a systematic approach. american journal of health promotion, 21, 248-254. noblet, a., & lamontagne, a.d. (2006). the role of workplace health promotion in addressing job stress. health promotion international, 21, 346-353. oginska-bulik, n. (2005). emotional intelligence in the workplace: exploring its effects on occupational stress and health outcomes in human service workers. international journal of occupational medicine and environmental health, 18, 167-175. ortega, a., brenner, s.-o., & leather, p. (2007). occupational stress, coping and personality in the police: an sem study. international journal of police science & management, 9, 36-50. peeters, m.c., buunk, b.p., & schaufeli, w.b. (1995). a micro-analysis exploration of the cognitive appraisal of daily stressful events at work: the role of controllability. anxiety, stress & coping: an international journal, 8, 127-139. peltzer, k., mashego, t.a., & mabeba, m. (2003). short communication: occupational stress and burnout among south african medical practitioners. stress and health, 19, 275-280. plattner, i.e. (1993). zeitstress [time stress]. munich: koesel. sadeh, a., keinan, g., & daon, k. (2004). effects of stress on sleep: the moderating role of coping style. health psychology, 23, 542-545. sanderson, c.a. (2004). health psychology. hoboken: wiley. segerstrom, s.c., & miller, g.e. (2004). psychological stress and the human immune system: a meta-analytic study of 30 years of inquiry. psychological bulletin, 130, 601-630. seppala, p. (2001). experience of stress, musculoskeletal discomfort, and eyestrain in computer-based office work: a study on municipal workers. international journal of human computer interaction, 13, 279-304. snelgrove, s.r. (1998). occupational stress and job satisfaction: a comparative study of health visitors, district nurses and community psychiatric nurses. journal of nursing management, 6, 97-104. snow, d.l., swan, s.c., raghavan, c., connell, c.m., & klein, i. (2003). the relationship of work stressors, coping and social support to psychological symptoms among female secretarial employees. work & stress, 17, 241-263. spector, p.e. (2003). industrial and organizational psychology: research practice. hoboken: wiley. stacciarini, j.r., & troccoli, b.t. (2004). occupational stress and constructive thinking: health and job satisfaction. journal of advanced nursing, 46, 480-487. stein, f. (2001). occupational stress, relaxation therapies, exercise and biofeedback. work, 17, 235-245. tucker, p., & rutherford, c. (2005). moderators of the relationship between long work hours and health. journal of occupational health psychology, 10, 465-476. tytherleigh, m.y., jacobs, p.a., webb, c., ricketts, c., & cooper, c. (2007). gender, health and stress in english university staff exposure or vulnerability? applied psychology: an international review, 56, 267-287. van dierendonck, d., garssen, b., & visser, a. (2005). burnout prevention through personal growth. international journal of stress management, 12, 62-77. williams, n. (2003). occupational stress. practice nurse, 26, 21-26. zurlo, m.c., pes, d., & cooper, c.l. (2007). stress in teaching: a study of occupational stress and its determinants among italian schoolteachers. stress & health: journal of the international society for the investigation of stress, 23, 231-241. article information authors: annetjie moore1 mark bussin1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: mark bussin postal address: po box 524, auckland park 2006, south africa dates: received: 20 sept. 2010 accepted: 18 apr. 2012 published: 25 sept. 2012 how to cite this article: moore, a., & bussin, m. (2012). reward preferences for generations in selected information and communication technology companies. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(1), art. #325, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i1.325 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. reward preferences for generations in selected information and communication technology companies in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • problem statement       • background to the study       • trends from research literature       • research objectives       • value add of this research    • synthesis and critical evaluation of the literature       • conceptual definitions of key concepts    • literature review       • reward preference research       • generations       • reward systems       • research on generations and rewards       • employee disposition • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results • ethical considerations    • potential benefits and hazards    • recruitment procedures    • data protection • trustworthiness    • reliability    • validity • discussion    • outline of the results    • limitations of this research    • future research    • recommendations and implications    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: previous research suggests that different generations have different reward preferences based on differences in values, frames of reference and life goals. research purpose: the focus of this study was to determine whether different generations prefer different rewards in the information and communication technology (ict) industry in south africa. motivation for the study: the rationale for this study was to obtain a better understanding of the reward preferences of veterans, baby boomers, generation x and generation y in the ict industry. research design, approach and method: the research was a quantitative, cross-sectional, correlational design. participants from two ict companies completed a structured electronic survey. one hundred and sixty four valid responses were received. a cronbach’s alpha of 0.821 indicates that the survey was reliable. main findings: contrary to previous research, the results show that generations do not display different reward preferences. practical/managerial implications: it would be more beneficial to use individual inter-relationship factors to develop a reward strategy than generations. contribution/value-add: the research has added insight and value to reward preferences for generations in the ict sector. introduction top ↑ problem statement the rationale of this study was to determine whether generations such as veterans, baby boomers, generation x and generation y, prefer specific reward schemes, in line with their beliefs, values, needs, drivers and world views. generations refer to categories of people, who are grouped together as a result of certain events, which had a major impact on their lives, such as world war ll or 9/11 in new york or the first democratic election in south africa in 1994. the aforementioned generations form the bulk of the south african and other world economies at the moment. theory states that generations will differ in their reward preferences.recent research (giancola, 2008), reports no correlation between reward preference and generations in the usa. however, van rooy (2010) found that in the south african financial sector different generations valued rewards differently. it would appear that an inconsistency exists between generation theory and research. background to the study giving employees choices regarding their remuneration packages has become a topical issue in south african organisations (bussin, 2003). this is in terms of rewards to ensure performance, job satisfaction and retention of the best people with critical skills to make the company successful. companies want high performing individuals and employees want to be rewarded in line with performance, value add and personal choices. in an ever-changing, fast moving world, where the only real differentiator in business lies in people’s competence, it is of the utmost importance to win the talent war to attract, develop, motivate and retain the best people in the industry (chiang & birtch, 2005; mohlala, 2011). one way of doing this is to design reward strategies to suit individual choice. this research was exploratory and the primary research objective was to determine whether there are any reward preferences amongst generations in the information and communication technology (ict) sector. research by chiang and birtch (2005) suggests that reward systems in a high technology environment may be different to other sectors. mohlala (2011) points out that the information technology (it) skills talent pool is shrinking as a result of increasing demands for it professionals, and rapidly developing technology across industries. this is especially true in a competitive environment where products are quickly copied, and a difficult business climate, fierce rivalry and globalisation prevail (chiang & birtch, 2005). trends from research literature the concept of personal differences and personal choice is not new in the remuneration and reward sphere. for example macgrain herkenhoff (2002) investigated the role of culture in reward preferences; and nienaber and bussin (2009) analysed reward preferences from a personality perspective. research objectives there are conflicting views as to whether employees in the various generations would prefer different rewards. articles and non-academic books generally go to great lengths explaining the differences between the generations and emphasising that they want different things. very little empirical research has been carried out to show whether or not this is the case. the objective of this research was to determine whether generations within the ict sector have different reward preferences. the results are intended to assist companies with their remuneration designs and offerings. value add of this research this research has added insight and value to the area of reward preferences for generations in the ict sector. it has become clear that money matters to all generations, as it was ranked either first or second by all four generations. should this reward cocktail be mixed in line with the likes and dislikes of individuals, ict companies may experience a higher retention rate of knowledge workers, which could result in better customer services and increased profits. as mentioned above, the ict sector faces challenges of scarce skills. staff mobility between companies occurs when better career prospects and higher salaries are offered. continuous up-skilling of staff and the provision of career trajectories are critical to retain staff members. being able to match the reward structure to the preferences of staff is a key talent retention strategy (mohlala, 2011). staff turnover becomes a recurring, costly cycle and the root problem is often not determined. it is not unusual in organisations, according to a p-e corporate survey (september, 2010), to have an average annual staff turnover for 22% of ict staff and 8.5% for general staff. this research argues that a meaningful way to determine staff members’ aspirations is to talk to the individuals’ on a regular basis and to build solid and credible relationships. the next sections set out a review of the literature, research design, findings and discussion including recommendations and implications of the study. synthesis and critical evaluation of the literature conceptual definitions of key concepts this research uses the definition of reward as including pay, benefits, learning and development and the work environment (bussin, 2002a). generations are defined as categories of people who are grouped in line with major events in their lifetime as per table 1 for south africa. table 1: generation timelines in different countries. table 1 indicates how generations are categorised by identifying different dates as periods. these periods are linked to key events, which had a major impact on the generations. these dates or periods are similar, but not exactly the same in all countries, as different events influenced different countries’ generations (codrington & grant-marshall, 2004). literature review reward preference research macgrain herkenhoff (2000) argues that national cultural differences should be considered when improving the effectiveness of reward systems. previous international studies have indicated that reward preferences are influenced by culture (macgrain herkenhoff, 2000) and demographic variables (corporate leadership council, 2002). further, significant gaps have been found between what employees report as their top reasons for joining and leaving organisations and what employers think these reasons are (ellis, 2009). it is for this reason that research into the characteristics and preferences of employees is essential when developing a reward strategy.nienaber and bussin (2009) found that total rewards models structured according to individual preferences, positively influence efforts to attract, retain and motivate key employees. yet, this is seldom carried out. structuring total rewards models according to the preferences of employee segments is a viable alternative to accommodating individual preferences. nienaber and bussin’s (2009) study focussed on the relationship between personality types, personality preferences, temperaments, demographic variables and reward preferences to enhance understanding of reward preferences for different segments. their main findings indicated statistically significant differences in respect of the reward preferences of people in different segments and they concluded that management can more effectively structure reward models according to these preferences without increasing overall costs (nienaber & bussin, 2009). typically, generic reward schemes are implemented in companies according to job grading systems to pay employees in the workplace (bussin, 2002b). reward preferences in line with specific generation requirements have not been widely considered. according to karp, fuller and sirias (2002) policies are often created by baby boomers and the needs of generation x and generation y are not always catered for. this in return generates a gap between the reward system and the expectations of employees. the rationale behind the present study was to obtain a better understanding of the reward preferences of veterans, baby boomers, generation x and generation y in the ict sector. this is useful for the way rewards are structured and implemented. to date, research has mostly focused on remuneration and rewards per job categories and levels within the organisation and has not taken into account factors such as generation. generations the generations identified for the twentieth century are the gi or hero generation, veterans, baby boomers, generation x and generation y. shelton and shelton (2005), lammiman and syrett (2004) and codrington and grant-marshall (2004), classified the differences amongst the generations. the generation gaps are resultant of cohorts or defining moments in people’s lives and history. some defining moments for each generation, are highlighted in table 2. table 2: differences in the generations. this table illustrates the differences amongst the generations and how views and attitudes have changed between the veterans and the generation y in most aspects of life. technology, for example, enabled the generations to communicate globally at the push of a button, whereas in the 1920s it took weeks to send a letter to another country.if reward preference is based on some combination of values, motivations and preferences (chiang & birtch, 2005), and generational theory states that generations differ in their attitudes, then it may be the case that generational differences will affect reward preferences. reward systems people work to be rewarded and to obtain work satisfaction. different people will require different ‘formulas’ in which they want to be rewarded for work completed. this research uses the model by bussin (2002a) as it is holistic and appropriate to south africa. bussin (2002a) adapted a remuneration model called total reward mix. the reward mix is structured in four categories namely pay, benefits, learning and development and the work environment. figure 1 sets out the total reward mix. figure 1: total reward mix. the pay component of the model includes a base salary, variable pay such as incentives, commissions and bonuses. recognition could include dinners and award clubs, whilst shares or share options are linked to a long-term incentive.the second aspect of this reward model is benefits. it consists of access to a medical aid, employee assistance programmes (eap), health care such as clinics and help lines. retirement is often only considered in a serious light when employees are aging. the world and the work environment change at a rapid pace. employees want to learn and improve themselves. companies that support learning and development are ranked high amongst the top companies to work for in south africa (corporate research foundation, 2005). the work environment is not always considered as part of the reward strategy of a company. technology and work relations are important aspects of the work environment. wilson (1999) discussed the importance of the company culture, leadership, strategy and the impact thereof on the reward strategy. it is imperative for the company to provide performance support and constructive feedback to employees in order to adjust and grow, resulting in increased productivity and profitability (milkovich & newman, 2005). all companies have access to the four categories of rewards, but success lies in how these aspects are mixed and matched to address the employees’ preferences. milkovich and newman (2005) developed a reward system model where the components are clearly stipulated as shown in figure 2. figure 2: components of total reward system. this model echoes the model that is used by bussin (2002a). it is indicative of the fact that reward systems are multi-faceted and that no simple, single solution exists. from a practical viewpoint, the challenge is to manage the model in line with the requirements and expectations of the generations and to maintain a fair and equitable reward system, aligned to the company’s strategic objectives.although reward models have broad strokes of similarity at a strategic level, an indicator of a successful reward system is the way in which it is deployed. for the purpose of this study, the total reward mix model was used to facilitate the research as it was based on a south african context. research on generations and rewards very little research has been carried out on the relationship between generations and rewards. the research that has been performed has not found clear-cut results. for instance, giancola (2008) found that there is a greater importance of life stage over generation profiles in understanding employee needs. he also emphasised that all people are primarily concerned about their job, career and compensation, no matter what the generation and therefore concludes that reward preferences are determined by lifecycle rather than by generations.giancola (2006) has expressed his concern that the generation gap has been overstated by theorists and that the generation theory has major gaps. his research found that in terms of rewards, baby boomers are more interested in retirement planning and generation y prefers career development. he contends that these differences are linked to life stage rather than to generation preferences. employee disposition different people have different reward preferences based on their personal disposition. the research of cable and judge (1994) suggests that this has more to do with individual personality traits than with generation theory. in a study conducted by chiu, luk and tang (2002), it was suggested that reward preferences are more a function of economics, and are related to geography and culture. it was further contended that: the meaning of money is ‘in the eye of the beholder’ and can be perceived as their ‘frame of reference’ in which they examine their everyday lives. on the one hand, it is possible to simply pay higher wages and lower benefits to satisfy employees’ needs. on the other hand, some benefits are quite important to employees. the same benefit does not suit every worker. workers do differ in their valuation of various benefits. thus, a cafeteria plan, for example, which gives a worker more flexibility in benefit choices, can provide the most value to the worker for a given amount of expenditure. researchers and managers of human resources and compensation need to identify the most important compensation components and satisfy employees’ needs. (p. 403) a framework of reward preferences and different generations has been established. the next sections set out the research design, results and discussion. research design top ↑ research approach this research made use of a quantitative, cross-sectional, correlational design. a new questionnaire was developed and was forwarded via electronic mail to the human resources divisions of two ict companies, based in johannesburg. the contact people in the human resources divisions were asked to distribute the questionnaire to a stratified sample of staff. thus primary data was used for the analysis. research method research participants the staff complement for both companies combined is 4450. the strata were proportionate by job level with every third person receiving a questionnaire. a total of 165 responses were received from the participants. this represents a response rate of 11%. the respondents representing the various companies in the survey are reflected in table 3. table 3: biographical details. the level of the participants’ current positions is captured in table 5. the participants were mainly general staff and supervisors, white and male. generation x and baby boomers were the two largest groups. the valid percentage calculated took the dropout rate into account (gourard, 2004). after cleaning the data, there were 164 usable responses. measuring instruments a structured questionnaire was designed to gather the data on the reward preferences of the participants. the questionnaire consisted of closed-ended and ranking questions to gather the information. a combination of questions was used. firstly, a 5-point likert scale was used, ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree and secondly to correlate the views, it was combined with ranking questions.generations: the generations were categorised as follows: • veterans (1920–1940) • boomers (1941–1960) • generation x (1961–1980) • generation y (1981–2000). the limitation of this theoretical categorisation is acknowledged. it is, however, based on current literature, and needs to be validated in the south african context. reward: the questionnaire was divided into four categories of rewards. pay: • base salary • variable pay (commissions, incentives, bonuses, profit share, overtime, special assignment pay, standby allowance) • recognition (status, prominence as a result of work status, work valued in society, awards, letters, complements, trophies, personalised items, hobbies) • long-term incentives (deferred pay, shares schemes). benefits: • health (medical aid, life insurance, on-site health care, hiv and/or aids awareness and training, eap, wellness programme, 24 hour hotline) • retirement (provident fund, financial advice) • savings (company contributions to provident fund) • time-off (leave such as annual, sick, maternity or paternity, compassionate, family responsibility, community and charity, in lieu of overtime) • perks (uniform allowance, travel, company arrangements with financial institutes, concierge services, crèches, canteens, security, petrol cards, cell phone allowances). learning and development: • career development (experience different things, challenges, promotion) • performance management (feedback, right amount and complexity of work) • succession plan (change to get ahead) • training (knowledge, skills improvement, projects, experiential learning, formal development plans). work environment: • organisational climate (friendly, secure, flexi-time, flexi-place, part-time, fun, peer and management relations, technology, 24/7 lifestyle, email, internet, shopping, global community, travel) • leadership (ability to influence and inspire, values, participation) • performance support (create a learning environment to support and enhance performance) • work or life balance (work, personal, family, friends, hobbies and community). once completed, the human resources departments forwarded the electronic submissions to the researcher. the completed questionnaires were then forwarded to the statistical consultation service at the university of johannesburg for data capture and analysis. research procedure the questionnaire was developed from the literature review and then piloted with 12 work colleagues and remuneration experts. appropriate suggestions were taken into account and the questionnaire was amended accordingly. human resources representatives from two organisations were approached and asked if they would distribute the electronic questionnaire to a stratified sample of 1500 employees in their organisations. the questionnaire was then emailed to the selected employees, with a return date and address of the human resources representative. the completed questionnaires could be delivered anonymously, faxed or emailed to the human resources representative, who collated the responses for the researcher. once the cut-off date had passed, the researcher collected the completed questionnaires from the human resources representatives. statistical analysis in the research, the relationship between the independent variable (generations) and the dependent variable (rewards) was clarified. to determine the reward preferences of the generations, the kruskal-wallis test was applied to determine the mean descriptives of each category related to the different generations. results top ↑ the specific aspects explored in this study were to determine if generations prefer different rewards or not. a synopsis of the biographical data is reflected in table 3 in the previous section.the item inter-correlation was subjected to a kmo and a bartlett’s test and was 0.761, which is higher than 0.7, making the matrix suitable for being factor analysed. two factor analytic methods were used to determine the four factors, which are used in the research. firstly, the extraction method was the principal axis factoring and secondly, varimax with kaizer normalisation was used as a rotation method. it was determined that the cronbach alpha was 0.821 and therefore the scale was reliable. table 4 reflects the outcome of the responses on a 5-point scale, which has been reduced to a 3-point scale for ease of reference. the categories of ‘not important at all’ and ‘unimportant’ were combined and were named ‘unimportant’ in table 6. the ‘important’ category is a combination of ‘important’ and ‘extremely important’ categories. table 4: mean descriptives of categories aligned with generations. during the analysis, five eigen values (5.239; 2.148; 1.520; 1.333 and 1.055) were identified, which accounted for 66.4% of the variance. to compare the empirical research with the theory, a four factor analysis was forced. the outcome is reflected in table 5. the communalities of the variables are determined for the first number of factors. this procedure is repeated until the sum does not change (gorsuch, 1983). the rotated factor matrix is displayed in table 5, which displays the different item loadings on the four postulated factors. table 5: results of the rotated factor matrix. the categories as per the literature research, versus the outcome of the empirical research, are reflected in table 6. the literature research has four categories, namely pay, benefits, learning and development and work environment. during the empirical research, the sub-elements did not correlate completely to the literature research. the four categories in the empirical research were labelled total cost to company (tctc), over and above tctc, career and work atmosphere. table 6: categories according to the literature versus research. although the two clusters of categories are different, the outcome of the research still provides natural groupings of different categories or rewards, specific to the ict industry. to determine the reward preferences of the generations the mean descriptive for each category is ranked per generations in table 7. table 7: mean descriptive of categories aligned with generations. in this section, statistical analyses were completed on the data to determine whether a relationship exists between the theory and the findings of the research. the kruskal wallis test was used to test normality. none of the four categories was normally distributed. the kruskal-wallis test identified a significant difference between generation x and baby boomers with their views around the category of career, h(2, n = 93) = 11.816, p < 0.008. no significant differences were found based on tctc package, over and above package or the company’s working atmosphere amongst the generations. the mann-whitney u-test revealed that generation x (n = 43) will focus more on career than baby boomers (n = 50), z = -3.364, p = 0.05/6 = 0.0083. from the summary in table 7, it is clear from the research that the generations prefer tctc to the over and above tctc rewards. ethical considerations top ↑ potential benefits and hazards this research study posed no material hazard to any of the respondents. although participants may benefit from an enriched theoretical understanding of the relationship between generations and reward strategies, there were no direct benefits associated with participation in the study. recruitment procedures the stratified sample was randomly selected and no participants were singled-out or pre-selected. participation was voluntary and there was no obligation to complete the questionnaires. data protection all questionnaires were anonymous and no information can be linked back to individual participants. the confidentiality of the data was maintained throughout the study. trustworthiness top ↑ reliability the internal reliability of the questionnaire was measured and a cronbach’s alpha of 0.821 indicates that the research instrument was reliable. validity the reward labels assigned to the factor analysis are substantially similar to the reward models currently in use by the market today. this allowed some stability in the reward model relative to the literature and allowed the present research to focus on generation preferences. discussion top ↑ outline of the results the findings of the research indicate that there is no direct relationship between reward preferences and generations in the ict industry. this finding supports the research of giancola (2008), who states that different generations do not prefer different rewards. all the generations rated tctc (salary, health care, retirement benefits and share options) as the most important aspect of rewards, except for the baby boomers, who rated it in the second position. this finding supports work carried out by medcof and rumpel (2007) who found that pay and then benefits were preferred rewards. the lowest rated aspect of rewards for all the generations that participated was over and above tctc (perks, savings and variable pay). it is clear from the research that the older the participant, the lower the rating of the career (career development, performance management, performance support, recognition, succession planning, time off, training) aspect of rewards. both generations x and y ranked career as second on their list of reward importance, whereas it slipped into third position for the baby boomers and in last position for the veterans. the career aspect of reward is the only category that shows a significant difference (of 0.008 kruskal-wallis non para metric, and 0.0083 as per the mann-whitney u-test, which are both smaller than 0.05). this significant difference may be subscribed to the lifecycle element as discussed by giancola (2008). the rating of company atmosphere (leadership style, organisational climate and work and life integration) seems to vary amongst the generations. interestingly, the baby boomers ranked the company’s working atmosphere higher than tctc. it seems that the only way to determine staff members’ aspirations is to talk to the individuals on a regular basis and to build solid and credible relationships. this is supported by research by towers perrin (2007), which resulted in the label ‘my-pay-my-way’. this concept refers to employers asking employees specifically what their reward preferences are. this needs to be carried out within certain parameters and the benefit should outweigh the cost. limitations of this research the following aspects are considered limitations to this study:• only two ict companies participated in the survey, which may not be representative of the industry as a result of the core business focuses. • surveys were self-administered, and relied on a volunteer sample. • the research design was cross-sectional, and is not able to follow participants over time. • the generation categories used come from global events and may not be 100% applicable to south africa. future research as a result of this study, the following research is suggested in this field:• this study could be completed in a different industry to determine whether generations in different industries prefer different rewards. • it is recommended that research is completed focusing on gender and race, to develop an even better reward model in the south african context. • to measure the impact of a generation’s customised reward strategy on staff retention and customer satisfaction, as well as the impact on the bottom line. • to determine whether rewards are linked to the individual’s career life cycle. • to determine the reason(s) why baby boomers ranked company’s work atmosphere as the most important aspect of rewards. recommendations and implications the findings have resolved the speculation that different generations prefer different rewards. organisations have spent many hours researching and debating whether or not to tailor make their reward preferences by generation. the main recommendation is that organisations need not spend those hours or money in debate, but rather take the unit of analysis one level down to the individual employee.the implication for management is that generation theory does not have a bearing on reward preferences, at least not in the ict industry. dissecting and tailor-making the reward strategy should not necessarily be performed according to generation theory, but should rather to be in touch with individual preferences. the trade-off from an organisation’s point of view is whether the administrative burden associated with this flexibility is worth it. the implication for organisations is that they need to do their own cost-benefit analysis to determine how much reward flexibility they need to offer. conclusion rewards for generations in the ict industry is a relatively new concept. this is the first known empirical study of its kind in south africa. the primary purpose of this study was to determine whether reward preferences exist by generation in the ict industry. the research was completed through a quantitative, structured survey by means of an electronic survey in two ict companies. one hundred and sixty four valid responses were received. the trends reflected in this research mirror the research in the usa, where it is claimed that reward preferences are linked to lifecycle rather than generations. the final conclusion is that although rewards are not linked to generations in the ict industry, it is clear that one size does not fit all and companies need to be sensitive and provide employees with flexible rewards options. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this paper. authors’ contributions a.m. (university of johannesburg) conceptualised the research topic, and conducted all field work and data analysis. m.b. (university of johannesburg) supervised the conceptualisation, research, and analysis of this study and wrote the article for publication. references top ↑ bussin, m. (2002a). choosing the right incentive scheme. randburg: knowledge resources publishing.bussin, m. (2002b). retention strategies. randburg: knowledge resources publishing. bussin, m. (2003). factors driving changes to remuneration policy and outcomes. doctoral thesis, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa. cable, d.m., & judge, t.a. (1994). pay preferences and job search decisions: a person-organization fir perspective. personnel psychology, 47, 317–348. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1994.tb01727.x chiang, f.f.t., & birtch, t.a. (2005). a taxonomy of reward preference: examining country differences. journal of international management, 11, 357–375. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2005.06.004 chiu, r.k., luk, v.w., & tang, t.l. (2002). retaining and motivating employees. personal review, 31(4), 404–431. corporate leadership council. (2002). the compelling offer revisited: changes in employee preferences over time. washington dc: corporate executive board. codrington, g., & grant-marshall, s. (2004). mind the gap! johannesburg: penguin books (pty) ltd. corporate research foundation. (2005). the best companies to work for in south africa. (6th edn.). paarl: corporate research foundation publishing. ellis, m. (2009). win the race for talent. retrieved may 29, 2009, from http://www.sbnonline.com/classes giancola, f. (2006). the generation gap: more myth than reality. hr. human resource planning, 29(4), 32–37. giancola, f. (2008). should generation profiles influence rewards strategy? employee relations law journal, 34(1), 56–68. gourard, s. (2004). quantitative methods in social science. norfolk: biddles ltd. gorsuch, r. (1983). factor analysis. new jersey: lawrence erlebaum associates. karp, h., fuller, c., & sirias, d. (2002). bridging the boomer xer gap creating authentic teams for high performance work. california: davis-black publishing. lammiman, j., & syrett, m. (2004). cool search. cornwall: tj international ltd. macgrain herkenhoff, l.m. (2000). motivational remuneration (pay) preferences: cultural analysis within the hofstede model. usa: dissertation.com. macgrain herkenhoff, l.m. (2002). national remuneration (pay) preferences: cultural analysis within the hofstede model using cultural values to untangle the web of global pay. university of western australia, perth: universal publishers. medcof, j.w., & rumpel, s. (2007). high technology workers and total rewards. journal of high technology management research, 18, 59–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hitech.2007.03.004 milkovich, g.t., & newman, m.n. (2005). compensation. (8th edn.). united states: irwin/mcgraw-hill. mohlala, j.g. (2011). employee retention within standard bank group it. mba thesis, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa. p-e corporate services sa (pty) ltd. (2010). human resources practitioner’s handbook. johannesburg: p-e corporate services. nienaber, n., & bussin, m. (2009). the relationship between personality types and reward preferences. doctoral thesis, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa. shelton, c., & shelton, l. (2005). the next revolution. california: davis-black publishing. towers perrin. (2007). using total rewards to build an effective employee value proposition. retrieved may 15, 2008, from http://www.towersperrin.com van rooy, d. (2010). total rewards strategy for a multi-generational workforce. unpublished mba thesis, gordan institute of business science, johannesburg, south africa. wilson, t. (1999). rewards that drive high performance. new york: amacom. abstract introduction research purpose and objective literature review research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) clement bell department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa lia m. hewitt department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation bell, c., & hewitt, l.m. (2021). personal leadership as an antecedent of servant leadership amongst bank managers in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19(0), a1459. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1459 original research personal leadership as an antecedent of servant leadership amongst bank managers in south africa clement bell, lia m. hewitt received: 18 aug. 2020; accepted: 17 dec. 2020; published: 03 may 2021 copyright: © 2021. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: many organisations have abandoned their bureaucratic leadership approaches to follow contemporary leadership models such as servant leadership (sl) with the aim to inspire their people to give their best. personal leadership (pl) is perceived as the fundamental domain of leadership that influences all other facets of leadership. research purpose: to explore pl as an antecedent of sl amongst bank managers in south africa. motivation for the study: previous researchers called for research on the antecedents of sl, and on the concept of pl to be extended to organisational leaders leading themselves. research approach/design and methods: a quantitative research approach was adopted. primary data was collected from 230 south african bank managers. exploratory factor analysis, pearson product-moment correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were employed to test the relationship between pl and sl and its associated dimensions. main findings: the results indicated that pl has a significant positive effect on sl and four of its associated dimensions, namely emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping and organisational stewardship. thus, it is concluded that sl behaviours can be cultivated by investing in pl behaviours of organisational leaders. practical/managerial implications: leadership training and development interventions focusing on strengthening sl behaviour must take into consideration personal and professional behaviours and their influence on sl behaviours. contribution/value-add: the study provides a local validation of pl and sl measures within the banking sector in south africa. keywords: servant leader; personal; professional; leadership; development. introduction orientation the nature of leadership is evolving in today’s highly flexible organisations. the top-down, bureaucratic leadership strategies of the industrial epoch are no longer useful in the current environment characterised by complexity, instability, economic uncertainty and fierce competition. many different organisations have abandoned their old bureaucratic leadership approaches to follow contemporary leadership models that emphasise the empowerment of individuals as well as for them to take accountability for their behaviours and actions (nel & van zyl, 2015). it is therefore not surprising that the concept of personal leadership (pl), which entails the process of leading a person’s behaviour to work highly effectively and efficiently, has motivated a considerable level of interest during the past two decades from both scholars and practitioners (houghton, dawley, & diliello, 2012). personal leadership with its emphasis on becoming a highly effective person could address problems encountered by organisations (malmir & azizzadeh, 2013). it is perceived as the fundamental domain of leadership that influences all other facets of leadership. it, therefore, operates as a basis for working with other human beings. scholars argue that lasting and positive interpersonal and professional relationships and influences are embedded and contingent at the level of personal excellence achieved (verrier & smith, 2005). service, caring and altruism also define servant leadership (sl) (hewitt & la grange, 2017), make indispensable attributes required of personal leaders in the current social reality (verrier & smith, 2005). scholars argue that servant leaders are people of character and they continuously perform personal introspection pondering on the ways to manage themselves to achieve consistent service excellence (hewitt & la grange, 2017). these attributes are also found in personal leaders. as such, reinforcing the same notion, cunha, pacheco, castanheira and rego (2017) argue that personal leaders take part in deep personal reflection about their leadership behaviours. these extant arguments, therefore, posit that there is a critical connection between pl and sl. south african organisations are plagued with corrupt and self-serving leaders with no interest in others, and people are experiencing the realities of these leadership challenges instead of economic ones (leonard & grobler, 2006). this has negatively affected organisational performances and it is suggested by manala (2014) that south africa needs servant leaders to help address these leadership challenges to stimulate performance amongst employees. scholars argue that a servant leader values the positioning of a person or self in association with the subordinates and a commitment to a sustainable relationship with those being led (ruwhiu & elkin, 2016). some scholars argue that until today, different theoretical paradigms of sl have been developed that include factors linked to the concept of person or self of the leader. shek, ma, liu and siu (2015) argue that pl enables leaders to develop abilities that are critical for effectively leading and serving others. however, the concept of pl is a relatively new and seldom empirically studied in the south african environment (van zyl, 2015). most of the leadership interventions are externally oriented instead of introspective strategies embedded in personal values and beliefs (de braine & verrier, 2007; verrier & smith, 2005). there is a significant general deficit of studies throughout the world, including south africa that has studied pl as an antecedent of sl. establishing such a relationship between these two variables is therefore significant because it could contribute towards closing this current research gap (beck, 2014; flynn, smither, & walker, 2016; liu, hu, & cheng, 2015). moreover, scholars argue that although the concept of pl was usually established to focus on employees influencing their behaviours, yet, it has relatively not been extended to organisational leaders leading themselves (cunha et al., 2017; dierendonck, 2011). thus, these extant arguments further highlight the significant value of this study. research purpose and objective the primary purpose of this research was to explore the predictive role of pl (higher-order construct) as an antecedent of sl and its associated dimensions amongst bank managers in south africa. it was argued by the authors that pl as a higher-order construct is an antecedent of sl and its associated dimensions. the secondary purpose of this study was to validate a pl measuring instrument. literature review personal leadership personal leadership is defined as the process by which a person is able to regulate his or her own behaviour in order to direct and motivate himself or herself to behave and work in a proper manner (houghton & neck, 2002). this concept was considered as a synonym of self-leadership in the present study because they both focus on a genuine or true expression and regulation of self that produces value (cashman, 2008). these two concepts also focus on the person, and are embedded in the belief that self is the only entity that a person has full control of or can exercise control on (verrier & smith, 2005). personal leadership is further embedded in the beliefs that people can manage and lead themselves and that their behaviours are controlled by their internal motives, regardless of them being subjected to external forces (houghton & neck, 2002). conceptually, pl was explained by the sub-factors of visualising successful performance, self-goal setting, self-talk, self-reward, evaluating beliefs and assumptions, self-punishment, self-observation, focusing on natural rewards and self-cueing (houghton & neck, 2002). however, empirically, pl is delineated by personal behaviour regulation, personal dialogue, personal motivation, personal cueing and focusing of intrinsic rewards that were derived from self-leadership using a factor analysis method (houghton & neck, 2002; reio & shuck, 2015). servant leadership the term ‘servant leader’ explains a leader who is able to model service by humbly and ethically serving his or her subordinates instead of expecting them to serve him or her. this leadership behaviour is mainly about the development and well-being of subordinates. scholars argue that a servant leader is characterised by moral character, wisdom to predict the future needs and the capability to meet the people’s needs (waal & sivro, 2012). it is also embedded in ethics. thus, strong internalised moral standards direct servant leaders as they work as role models for their subordinates and to express deep interest for their personal and career growth and development (bakar & mccann, 2016). it is further regarded as one of the most positive types of leadership styles that value service over personal interest, the developmental needs of subordinates, ethical moral behaviour and a caring principle. it is therefore understood as a positive style of leadership because of its power to enhance positive behaviour in the subordinates (searle & barbuto, 2011). in the present study, sl is delineated by the sub-factors of altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping and organisational stewardship (barbuto & wheeler, 2006). this conceptualisation was adopted because it was the first which was developed based on empirical methodology (hayden, 2011). conceptualisations from different scholars were also considered (sendjaya, sarros, & santora, 2008). however, it was found that the one developed by barbuto and wheeler (2006) seems to be more suitable for this study. personal leadership as an antecedent of servant leadership personal leadership is perceived as the process by which a person can regulate his or her behaviours to direct and motivate himself or herself to behave and work in a proper manner (houghton & neck, 2002). it is embedded in the belief that people can manage and lead themselves and that their behaviours are controlled by their internal motives, regardless of them being subjected to external forces. this concept also implies a genuine expression of a person that produces value in different facets of life (cashman, 2008). the concept of sl on the other hand implies a leader who can model service excellence by behaving humbly and ethically whilst supporting his or her subordinates instead of requiring them to serve him or her. this type of leader is characterised by moral character, wisdom to predict future needs and the capability to meet subordinates’ needs (waal & sivro, 2012). scholars argue that the behavioural choices of leaders should be controlled more by personal values and beliefs instead of the forces outside of the leaders themselves (stewart, courtright, & manz, 2011). this argument suggests that sl could be influenced by pl. thus, they argue that internal factors at the pl level could affect the processes at the sl level. leadership behaviour is a way of giving service that is directed ethically at achieving personal, interpersonal and organisational needs. personal serving leadership efforts should be directed towards ethically improving all the competencies of the leader (knowledge and skills, character strengths), capability potential which includes their emotional, physical, mental and spiritual dimensions (shek et al., 2015). moreover, it includes their interpersonal connections, capital resources and motivation to enable the leader to satisfy the values of subordinates. these postulations suggest that a servant leader should be a personal leader first so that this person could be able to meet the needs of subordinates (shek et al., 2015). it is also argued by the researchers that pl enables the leader to develop strengths that are critical for effectively leading and serving subordinates. in the process of pl, the attainment of personal goals is achieved cognitively and behaviourally. personal leadership processes such as personal awareness and personal regulation are associated with the development of empathy and morality (gunnarsdottir, 2014; shek et al., 2015). leaders therefore could develop attributes that enable themselves to exhibit sl behaviours by committing to control themselves towards the attainment of interpersonal goals. personal leadership behaviours could develop role-model effects on subordinates which could also promote their growth. servant leaders should meet the needs of their subordinates and take care of their development. scholars, therefore, argue that pl is a critical part of effective sl and a requirement for sustainably serving subordinates (shek et al., 2015). the ability of leaders to effectively lead themselves using personal strategies could be a critical first step towards leading other people (furtner, baldegger, & rauthmann, 2013). this notion is congruent with personal, interpersonal and professional leadership theory which suggests that pl is the foundation for interpersonal leadership (verrier & smith, 2005). scholars also argue that pl could be better integrated into future leadership theories. contemporary theories use pl to understand the interpersonal issues of leaders. they contend that if personal regulation behaviours have effects on relationship behaviours, leadership behaviours should be controlled by pl processes (furtner et al., 2013). the spiritual dimension of the leader makes the basis for the core values and beliefs that influence the vision and behaviours of the leader. it is postulated that these values and beliefs could be visible and instrumental in pl strategies. spirituality is the centre of pl. beliefs and assumptions that emanate from the spiritual base of the leader could promote pl. spirituality influences the development of the leaders’ values and vision (godwin, neck, & d’intino, 2016; verrier & smith, 2005). it could, therefore, influence positively on the regulatory processes of personal leaders. it is further argued that spirituality is critical to provide values and promote leaders’ inner life when the leaders are performing important work in their business environment. the same spiritual dimension guides leaders’ cognition in such a manner that they see their work through the glasses of interrelatedness. thus, it creates effective values and beliefs for sustainable interpersonal relationships for leaders (godwin et al., 2016). other scholars suggest that servanthood is motivated by a person’s humility and spiritual values (burton & peachey, 2013). these postulations, therefore, suggest that pl through its spiritual arm could be an antecedent of sl which focuses on enhancing positive interpersonal relationships with subordinates. extant literature arguments lead to the following hypothesis: hypothesis 1: personal leadership is an antecedent of servant leadership personal leadership as an antecedent of altruistic calling melchar and bosco (2010) postulated that altruistic calling is perceived as the internal willingness of the person to provide a significant contribution to other people’s needs. because this attribute makes up the facets of sl, individuals who are strong in this attribute will focus on other people’s needs ahead of their own and strongly work on them to attain the subordinate’s values. there is a significant deficit of empirical studies that have studied pl as an antecedent of altruistic calling to date (flynn et al., 2016; liu et al., 2015). however, stewart et al. (2011) argue that the choices that leaders take when making decisions are controlled more by their standards rather than the forces emanating outside of themselves. this argument, therefore, posits that their genuine interest to change other people’s lives positively could be controlled by the personal standards of the leader. the leader’s motivation should start with a personal sense of being mindful of the desire to give service to other people. personal leaders perform duties that are directed at others and involve denying themselves in organisations so that they could be respected by their subordinates (barbuto & wheeler, 2006). furthermore, because personal leaders can regulate their behaviours through their internal value system (politis, 2006), they could be able to guide and direct the orientation of their goals and interest towards the needs of other people, thus engaging in altruistic tendencies towards other people (melchar & bosco, 2010). these literature postulations, therefore, yield the following hypothesis: hypothesis 2: personal leadership is an antecedent of altruistic calling behaviours. personal leadership as an antecedent of emotional healing melchar and bosco (2010) further stated that emotional healing is perceived as the willingness and ability of leaders to promote emotional strength in difficult situational experiences. such leaders are very empathetic and effective listeners. they develop a climate that enables subordinates to release their personal and professional problems. scholars argue that emotional healing is one of the critical skills that is required for effective leadership (barbuto & wheeler, 2006). as such, the main aim of leaders should be controlling the feelings and emotions of subordinates to develop a positive emotional climate in the organisation (jit, sharma, & kawatra, 2017). there is a significant dearth of scholarly work on pl as an antecedent of emotional healing (flynn et al., 2016; liu et al., 2015). however, it could be suggested that because personal leaders can regulate themselves and their behaviours are controlled by their internal motives even if they are subjected to external forces (houghton & neck, 2002), they could be able to provide emotional recovery to themselves and their subordinates. personal leadership is a strategy used by leaders to intrinsically motivate themselves to develop a positive climate within the organisational environment. the positive emotional environment helps to stimulate work behaviours that produce high performances. leaders model positive emotional work behaviours and suppress negative emotional ones by personally choosing to focus only on the positive contents of work. this helps them to develop a sense of emotional healing amongst subordinates (marques-quinteiro & curral, 2012). personal leaders use their thought pattern strategies as personal cognitive regulatory methods to promote a balance between their thoughts and what they do. and this eliminates negative cognition and enables good and developmental cognitive behaviours. such leaders also employ their dialogue as a tool to increase their understanding of themselves and to help to regulate emotions during difficult times (marques-quinteiro & curral, 2012). thus, because personal leaders can regulate their emotions and create positive emotional climates, it is possible to argue that they could be able to provide emotional healing amongst themselves and their subordinates. as such, the following hypothesis has been suggested: hypothesis 3: personal leadership is an antecedent of emotional healing. personal leadership as an antecedent of wisdom barbuto and millard (2014) suggested that wisdom is perceived as the accumulation of deep personal knowledge, methods for pl, the power to achieve a state of equilibrium between the needs of other people with those that are personally kept and the management of challenges of life. there is a significant paucity of empirical studies on pl as an antecedent of wisdom (flynn et al., 2016; liu et al., 2015). however, it could be postulated that because personal leaders regulate their behaviours to guide and inspire themselves to act and work in an effective manner (houghton & neck, 2002), they could be able to use such wisdom to understand their internal personal environment and its implications behaviourally because their behaviours are controlled by their internal motives (melchar & bosco, 2010). according to smith and louw (2007), the spiritual sphere of life is viewed as the foundation of the total life of the individual. they contend that people have life because the spiritual meaning within them is connected to the material aspects of life. human beings have internal life that is regulated by their spiritual values which also motivate them to engage in the material type of life. thus, a spiritual component could help to explain the wisdom of the personal leader. they contend that the spiritual dimension of personal leaders is the core dimension of leaders (smith & louw, 2007). as such, because personal leaders’ behaviours are regulated by their spirituality, which controls inner wisdom (neck & milliman, 1994), it is plausible to postulate that pl could be an antecedent of wisdom. the following hypothesis is therefore proposed: hypothesis 4: personal leadership is an antecedent of wisdom. personal leadership as an antecedent of persuasive mapping melchar and bosco (2010) argue that persuasive mapping is defined as the extent to which the leader can make strong cognitive decisions. such an individual can provide powerful reasons to motivate subordinates to perform certain tasks. effective persuasive mapping influences subordinates to envision an organisation’s future in such a way that is very appealing to them, and therefore giving compelling values for them to engage (barbuto & gifford, 2010). there is a significant dearth of scholarly work on pl as an antecedent of persuasive mapping (flynn et al., 2016; liu et al., 2015). however, because personal leaders can regulate their cognitive behaviours by directing and motivating themselves to act and work in an appropriate manner (houghton & neck, 2002), they could be able to perform persuasive mapping behaviours effectively. the power of cognition is used by personal leaders to create and mentally experience perceived outcomes of their behaviours before their actual performances (godwin et al., 2016). the same scholars argue that spirituality could positively control the cognitive behaviour of personal leaders which is also critical for persuasive mapping behaviours. this further posits that pl via its spiritual wing could be an antecedent of persuasive mapping. as such, the following hypothesis is drawn from the literature arguments: hypothesis 5: personal leadership is an antecedent of persuasive mapping behaviours. personal leadership as an antecedent of organisational stewardship organisational stewardship is perceived as the process by which leaders assume accountability for the critical values of their society and its stakeholders with a clear understanding of the boundaries as leaders not the owners of organisations (coetzer, bussin, & geldenhuys, 2017). there is a critical deficit of empirical studies that have studied pl as an antecedent of organisational stewardship (flynn et al., 2016; liu et al., 2015). however, it is argued that pl is a type of service offered to ethically attain the needs of the person, others and the organisation. and pl processes such as personal awareness and regulation are linked with the development of empathy and morality (gunnarsdóttir, 2014; shek et al., 2015). it is therefore sensible to postulate that because of such attributes of empathy and morality, pl could be an antecedent of organisational stewardship. such attributes promote interpersonal and organisational trust and motivate subordinates to operate with moral strength in giving quality service to society (hernandez, 2008). scholars further argue that spirituality makes the bases for critical values and beliefs that regulate the behaviour of the leader. such values, beliefs and assumptions are employed by personal leaders when they develop their strategies. spirituality serves to guide and promote leaders inner life in the context of leaders performing meaningful work within their social community life (godwin et al., 2016). collaboratively, researchers argue that the spiritual dimension is explicated by authenticity, being ethical and serving others (anderson & sun, 2017). they also argue that an altruistic caring facet motivates spiritual leaders to exhibit genuine love, appreciation and understanding of others and to understand and guide their behaviours (anderson & sun, 2017). moreover, other scholars argue that ethical leadership is regulated by pl (van zyl, 2014). they argue that pl via the personal influence processes could influence moral and ethical behaviours in their organisations. in such contexts, personal leaders may influence top-level management decisions and strategic processes of their organisations (van zyl, 2014), thus, enabling their organisations to behave ethically towards their communities (gunnarsdottir, 2014; shek et al., 2015). these extant literature arguments yield the following hypothesis: hypothesis 6: personal leadership is an antecedent of organisational stewardship. based on the hypotheses given above, the following diagrammatical representation of the conceptual model of pl (higher-order construct) as an antecedent of sl and its associated dimensions (sl) is given in figure 1. figure 1: conceptual model of personal leadership as an antecedent of servant leadership and its associated dimensions. research design research approach a quantitative deductive approach was followed. research data for this study were collected from nine different south african banks located in johannesburg, pretoria and polokwane central business districts using a self-administered survey questionnaire. research method a quantitative research method consisting of a field survey research technique was adopted in the current research. quantitative research strategies adopt empirical evaluations to reach final decisions, and these allow the researcher to measure the hypotheses (hair, wolfinbarger, ortinau, & bush, 2008). quantitative research strategy was chosen for the current study because the researcher’s objective was to examine if the predictive nature of pl holds true for sl and if the outcome can be generalised for a greater population. research participants a convenience sampling technique was employed to obtain a sample of 230 (n = 230) bank managers from various banks who fully participated in this study. amongst the sample group, 54.3% were females and 42.2% were males. however, 3.9% of sample respondents had missing data on gender. most of the respondents were between the age groups 30 and 39 (52.2%), and the least respondents were between the age groups of 50 and 59 (6.5%). however, 3.0% of respondents had missing data on age. most of the respondents held a degree (42.6%) and a few held a master’s degree and above (3.9%). however, 1.7% of respondents had missing data on the level of education. most of the respondents were black people (53.5%), indians (2.6%) and white people (17.8%). however, 2.6% of respondents had missing data on race. the largest number of respondents (38.7%) had 6–10 years of tenure whilst the lowest number of respondents (0.9%) had 26 and above years of tenure. however, 6.9% of respondents had missing data on tenure. finally, most of the respondents were in the middle management position (41.3%) whilst a few were in the other category level (0.4%). junior managers were (23.0%) whilst senior managers were (33.9%) of the respondents. however, 1.7% of the respondents had missing data on position level. the demographic attributes of respondents are depicted in table 1. table 1: demographic attributes of bank managers respondents (n = 230). measurement instruments a composite questionnaire composed of a biographical data questionnaire, pl questionnaire and a sl questionnaire was employed in this study. servant leadership questionnaire to assess sl data, the subscales developed by barbuto and wheeler (2006) were adopted. this is a 23 items and five dimensions questionnaire. previous scholars found the five dimensions to be having acceptable levels of cronbach’s alpha coefficients. this measure was used because it was the initial instrument which was developed using empirical methods (hayden, 2011). du plessis, wakelin and nel (2015) also found this measure to be valid within the south african population. a five-point likert type rating scale, which ranges from ‘never’ (1) to ‘always’ (5) was used in this study. personal leadership questionnaire to assess pl data, the subscales of the revised self-leadership questionnaire adopted from houghton and neck (2002) were employed. this is a 35 items questionnaire with nine distinct sub-scales of self-leadership. these sub-scales are visualising successful performance, self-goal setting, self-talk, self-reward, evaluating beliefs and assumptions, self-punishment, self-observation, focusing on natural rewards and self-cueing. houghton and neck (2002) found the nine sub-scales to be having acceptable levels of cronbach’s alpha coefficients. different scholars found this measure to be valid within the south african context (mahembe, engelbrecht, & de kock, 2013; nel & van zyl, 2015; van zyl, 2014). a five-point likert type rating scale, which ranges from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5) was used in this study. statistical analysis a quantitative research strategy was adopted to conduct an empirical analysis to reach final decisions, and to allow the researchers to test their hypotheses (hair et al., 2008). as such, in analysing the research data, the statistical package for social sciences (spss), version 22, was used. because our research was exploratory in nature, exploratory factor analysis (efa) was used to assess the validity of the constructs as shown in table 1. exploratory factor analysis was performed on the servant and pl scales to determine the similar factors that define the order and structure of the factors that are being evaluated (watkins, 2018). exploratory factor analysis helped to refine a large group of factors into small controllable ones, establishing and refining the scales of the measures and examining associations of the factors (reio & shuck, 2015). iterative reliability analyses were used to determine the reliability (cronbach’s alpha coefficient) of items. previous scholars suggest that cronbach’s alpha coefficients higher than 0.70 may be regarded as an acceptable measure to support internal stability (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). however, the other scholars argued that alpha coefficients thresholds between 0.60 and 0.70 could be acceptable in research (hulin, netemeyer, & cudeck, 2001). the primary interest of this study was to test the set hypotheses. as such, inferential statistics were employed to evaluate the relationships amongst the constructs and sub-constructs. a standard multiple regression analysis was adopted to establish the predictive nature of pl on sl and its associated dimensions (altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping and organisational stewardship). hypotheses were therefore supported or rejected based on the multiple regression analysis values. pearson’s product-movement correlation coefficient analysis was also employed to determine the strength of the relationships between pl and sl and its associated dimensions. significant associations were examined to establish if the associations were significant enough to be considered important (steyn, 2002). ethical considerations the study obtained ethical clearance from a research proposal panel in the department of industrial psychology at the university of johannesburg. the clearance code issued is ippm-2018-257 (m). the research procedure was evaluated and accepted by the university of johannesburg research ethics board. permission to gather research data was solicited from the authorities of all the banks. all the respondents were requested by the researchers to participate in this study voluntarily. questionnaires were personally delivered by the researchers directly to the respondents. completed survey questionnaires were collected back by the researchers from the respondents, and some were emailed back by respondents to the researchers. results exploratory factor analysis was conducted to explore the servant-leadership construct and its theoretical dimensions, and the pl-construct and its theoretical dimensions using data, collected from south african bank managers as presented in table 2. a principal axis factoring was conducted on 23 elements of the sl measure which showed that six variables came from the data set. however, the original measure had five factors. the keizer-meyer-olkin value was 0.82 which is above the recommended threshold value of 0.6, and bartlett’s measure of sphericity revealed a statistical significance. the six-factor strategy described a total of 74.9% of the variance. five original factors remained with their original names. the present study found these five factors to be having an acceptable level of cronbach’s alpha coefficients: altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping and organisational stewardship as indicated in table 2. however, the sixth factor had only one item with a weak loading on it. it was therefore eliminated from the list of factors to remain with five original factors. table 2: initial eigenvalues for the total variances explained. a principal axis factoring was also performed on 35 elements of pl measure which showed that six new different variables came from the sample data set. the original measurement variables were nine: visualising successful performance, self-goal setting, self-talk, self-reward, evaluating beliefs and assumptions, self-punishment, self-observation, focusing on natural rewards and self-cueing (houghton & neck, 2002). however, only 32 items remained from the original 35 items which loaded strongly (>0.4) on six new different factors. the items with weak loadings were eliminated from the list. the keizer-meyer-olkin value was 0.73, which is higher than the threshold value of 0.6, and bartlett’s measure of sphericity revealed a statistical significance. the six-factor strategy described a total of 56.9% of the variance. the new factors were named accordingly based on theoretical guidelines suggested by scholars. they posited that a factor should be named in a way that embraces the conceptual meaning of each variable defining a certain latent facet (reio & shuck, 2015). as such, the naming should be informed by its theoretical underpinnings. researchers drew from the theoretical literature to make decisions supporting the naming of the new factors. as such, six new factors of personal goal setting, personal behaviour regulation, personal dialogue, personal motivation, personal cueing and focusing on intrinsic rewards all loaded strongly on six factors, which explained a total variance of 56.9%. this study found five factors having an acceptable level of cronbach’s alpha coefficients: personal goal setting (α = 0.88), personal behaviour regulation (α = 0.83), personal dialogue (α = 0.81), personal motivation (α = 0.79) and personal cueing (α = 0.66). however, the sixth factor named focusing on intrinsic rewards has only one item which loaded strongly on it. weak loading items were dropped from the factor. because of being constituted by a single item, no alpha reliability value was able to be calculated for it as the calculation requires more than one item loading. however, it was not eliminated from the list of factors that constitutes an empirical pl concept because the single item loaded strongly, and the study was exploratory in nature. scholars argue that a single item is effective in exploratory research where typically weaker effect sizes are possible and smaller samples are used (diamantopoulos, sarstedt, fuchs, wilczynski, & kaiser, 2012). exploratory factor analysis helped to refine pl measure and assess its construct validity (conway & huffcutt, 2003). the means, standard deviations and correlation results are presented in table 3. this study found that pl as a higher-order construct has significant correlations with the higher-order construct of sl and its dimensions (emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping and organisational stewardship). however, pl as a higher-order factor also exhibited an insignificant correlation with altruistic calling. this study, therefore, found that pl has a significant correlation with sl and its dimensions (emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping and organisational stewardship). table 3: means, standard deviations, alpha and correlations. the results of the regression analysis are presented in table 4. this study found that pl as a higher-order construct has significant positive effects on sl as a higher-order construct and its facets (emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping and organisational stewardship). as such, the results of this study show that pl has significant positive effects on sl as a higher-order factor (β = 0.56, p < 0.00), emotional calling (β = 0.44, p < 0.00), wisdom (β = 0.36, p < 0.00), persuasive mapping (β = 0.48, p < 0.00) and organisational stewardship (β = 0.57, p < 0.00) dimensions. hypotheses 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are accepted. this implies that pl is an antecedent of sl and its four dimensions (emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping and organisational stewardship). however, this study also shows that pl has no significant effect on altruistic calling, and thus hypothesis 2 is rejected. this also suggests that pl is not an antecedent of altruistic calling. table 4: results of regression analysis with personal leadership predicting servant leadership. discussion outline of the results previous scholars posited a dearth of empirical studies on the antecedents of sl (beck, 2014; flynn et al., 2016; liu et al., 2015). other scholars further suggested that the concept of pl has not yet been extended to leaders leading themselves (cunha et al., 2017; dierendonck, 2011). the purpose of this study was, therefore, to explore pl as an antecedent of sl amongst south african bank managers. regression and correlation analysis results were employed to ascertain the interaction of the study variables. no previous empirical studies have investigated the interaction of the study variables in their current order given by our study. our findings, therefore, add value to the current research gaps highlighted by the scholars. this study found that pl as a higher construct is an antecedent of sl as a higher-order construct and its four dimensions (emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping and organisational stewardship). these empirical results are congruent with stewart et al. (2011) who generally argued that the behaviours of leaders should be controlled more by personal values and beliefs instead of the forces exogenous of the leaders themselves. also, the current results are in keeping with verrier and smith (2005). these scholars argued that pl is a foundation for sl behaviours. such results also validate personal, interpersonal and professional leadership theory which is relatively still new. this theory recognises the integrated nature and growth from personal to interpersonal, and ultimately professional leadership growth (verrier & smith, 2005). specifically, concerning emotional healing, marques-quinteiro and curral (2012) argued that personal leaders can model positive emotional behaviours by personally choosing to focus only on the positive emotional dimensions of work situations. this positive emotional climate helps to stimulate work behaviours that produce high performances within organisations. these arguments support this study’s results that pl is an antecedent of emotional healing. furthermore, our results are also supported by smith and louw (2007) who argued that the spiritual dimension of a personal leader is the core dimension that regulates interpersonal behaviours which include sl behaviours. the same scholars also noted that this spiritual facet is an antecedent of wisdom. their argument was also supported by neck and milliman (1994). collaboratively, this notion implies that pl is an antecedent of wisdom. furthermore, concerning organisational stewardship, scholars posited that pl via its influence processes could be capable of promoting moral and ethical behaviours in organisations. in such contexts, personal leaders could be able to influence corporate and socially responsible decisions of their organisations (van zyl, 2014). such influences could, therefore, empower organisations to function ethically towards their communities (gunnarsdottir, 2014; shek et al., 2015). the findings of this study as they are consistent with those of the previous scholars suggest that pl promotes and sustains sl behaviours. however, the regression analysis results of this study also showed that pl does not affect the altruistic calling facet of sl. such findings were also corroborated by the correlation results of these variables which exhibited an insignificant association. but based on the postulations of the previous scholars, such results are seldom obtained, and therefore, make this study a significant one. it was postulated that because personal leaders can regulate their behaviours through their internal value system (politis, 2006), they could be able to guide and direct their goals and interest towards helping other people, hence, engaging in altruistic calling behaviours towards other people (melchar & bosco, 2010). the results of this study further suggest that pl has no value in enhancing and sustaining the altruistic calling behaviours of the servant leader. thus, pl is not an antecedent of altruistic calling. furthermore, although not the primary objective of this study, the efa results of this study showed that the construct of sl has five sub-constructs. these empirical results of this study are therefore congruent with the previous scholars’ theories (barbuto & wheeler, 2006; du plessis et al., 2015). moreover, such results also support an invitation by scholars that empirical studies should contribute towards the validation of sl construct for different contexts and populations (parris & peachey, 2013). also, the empirical results of this study showed that the pl construct has six sub-constructs. such findings are contrary to the theory of the previous scholars which suggested nine sub-constructs (houghton & neck, 2002). however, these results support a call from mahembe et al. (2013) that a local validation of the pl construct measure should precede its use in a south african context. this study therefore also contributed significantly towards refining the sub-constructs into relatively new ones representing a south african banking population (conway & huffcutt, 2003). based on these study findings given above, the following diagrammatical representation of the empirical model of pl as an antecedent of sl is given in figure 2. figure 2: an empirical model of personal leadership as an antecedent of servant leadership and its associated dimensions. practical implications this study has some valuable implications for practice. the results indicate that sl behaviours can be enhanced and sustained by increasing pl behaviours. such empirical findings are congruent with the previous scholars’ notion that such a study can elicit more interest from leadership development practitioners (liu et al., 2015). this is good news for hr managers because it shows that pl behaviours can be employed to enhance and sustain sl behaviours within organisations. managers of organisations can help promote a climate of servanthood within their organisations by strengthening pl behaviours of their leaders. as such, contemporary leadership development interventions can be designed based on the principles of pl construct to help boost sl behaviours within organisations. furthermore, the findings of this study may also assist hr managers with selection criteria when selecting managers based on their pl attributes. organisational leaders may also gain a better understanding of the reasons why some leaders can engage in sl behaviours whilst others cannot. limitations and recommendations this study is not without its limitations which also provide opportunities for future researchers. the first limitation that should be noted concerns the generalisability of this study results because the sample was obtained using a convenience sampling method, and a small sample size was used. this makes it difficult for this study to be applied to any organisations other than the very same banks where the sample data were collected. future research studies should, therefore, replicate this study using probability sampling methods and larger samples from different types of organisations. the second limitation of this study concerns its reliance on a cross-sectional research design when gathering data. this implies that data collected from the respondents represent a single period. this can affect the utility of this study results in other different timeframes. consequently, future studies should adopt longitudinal research designs when gathering data for similar studies. the third limitation of this study concerns the adoption of the self-report strategy when gathering data that may be contaminated by the problems of common methods bias. there are common challenges of self-assessment, but there are also merits of this method. scholars argue that individuals can observe their behaviours continuously in an effective manner as compared to raters (lance, teachout, & donnely, 1992). external raters fall into the trap of general impression when assessing behaviours, and the hallo effect reveals itself. as such, individual ratings help to eliminate this problem (lance, lapointe, & fisicaro, 1994). finally, no other past studies have been conducted so far on the interaction of our study variables in this fashion as our study has done. moreover, the sub-scales of the pl construct developed in this study have not yet been applied in other different studies. we, therefore, suggest that future studies should conduct more studies of this nature, and employ the new sub-scales of pl to ascertain the validity of this construct. nevertheless, we believe that we have provided useful management insights about pl as an antecedent of sl which organisations should take advantage of. conclusion the present study found that pl has a predictive role as an antecedent of sl and its dimensions. this study fulfilled a call by previous scholars to determine the antecedents of sl (beck, 2014; flynn et al., 2016; liu et al., 2015), and to focus on pl of leaders leading themselves as compared to employees leading themselves as it was commonly done (cunha et al., 2017; dierendonck, 2011). personal leadership variable could therefore be used by organisations in their leadership training and development interventions in order to enhance organisational effectiveness, and to help organisations achieve a competitive advantage. the study results also validated the utility of personal and professional leadership (ppl) theory that supports the link between pl and sl. the findings suggest that success at the personal sphere (pl) could lead to success at the interpersonal sphere (sl), and ultimately at the professional sphere. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions c.b. was the principal author and researcher. l.m.h. assisted with the conceptual design and supervision and writing of the article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references anderson, m.h., & sun, p.y.t. (2017). reviewing leadership styles: overlaps and the need for a new ‘full-range’ theory. international journal of management reviews, 19(1), 76–96. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12082 bakar, h.a., & mccann, r.m. (2016). the mediating effect of leader-member dyadic communication style agreement on the relationship between servant leadership and group-level organisational citisenship behaviour. management communication quarterly, 30(1), 32–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/0893318915601162 barbuto, j.e., & gifford, g.t. (2010). examining gender differences of servant leadership: an analysis of the agentic and communal properties of the servant leadership questionnaire. journal of leadership education, 9(2), 4–22. https://doi.org/10.12806/v9/i2/rf1 barbuto, j.e., & millard, m.l. (2014). developing wisdom and reducing emotional labour in the workplace: testing the impact of servant leadership. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228608842 barbuto, j.e., & wheeler, d.w. (2006). scale development and construct clarification of servant leadership. group & organization management, 31(3), 300–326. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601106287091 beck, c.d. (2014). antecedents of servant leadership: a mixed methods study. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 21(3), 299–314. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051814529993 burton, l., & peachey, j.w. (2013). the call for servant leadership in intercollegiate athletics. quest, 65(3), 354–371. https://doi.org/10.1080/00336297.2013.791870 cashman, k. (2008). leadership from the inside out. san francisco, ca: berrett-koehler publishers inc. coetzer, m.f., bussin, m., & geldenhuys, m. (2017). the functions of a servant leader. administrative science review, 7(5), 1–32. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci7010005 conway, j.m., & huffcutt, a.i. (2003). a review and evaluation of exploratory factor analysis practices in organizational research. organizational research methods, 6(2), 147–168. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428103251541 cunha, m.p.e., pacheco, m., castanheira, f., & rego, a.n. (2017). reflexive work and the duality of self-leadership. leadership, 13(4), 472–495. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715015606511 de braine, r., & verrier, d. (2007). leadership, character and its development: a qualitative exploration. sa journal of human resources management, 5(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v5i1.102 diamantopoulos, a., sarstedt, m., fuchs, c., wilczynski, p., & kaiser, s. (2012). guidelines for choosing between multi-item and single-item scales for construct measurement: a predictive validity perspective. journal of the academic marketing science, 40, 434–449. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-011-0300-3 dierendonck, d.v. (2011). servant leadership: a review and synthesis. journal of management, 37(4), 1228–1261. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310380462 du plessis, m., makelin, z., & nel, p. (2015). the influence of emotional intelligence and trust on servant leadership. sa journal of industrial psychology, 41(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v41i1.1133 flynn, c.b., smither, j.w., & walker, a.g. (2016). exploring the relationship between leaders’ core self-evaluations and subordinates’ perceptions of servant leadership: a field study. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 23(3), 260–271. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051815621257 furtner, m.r., baldegger, u., & rauthmann, j.f. (2013). leading yourself and leading others: linking self-leadership to transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 22(4), 436–449. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2012.665605 godwin, j.l., neck, c.p., & d’intino, r.s. (2016). self-leadership, spirituality, and entrepreneur performance: a conceptual model. journal of management, spirituality & religion, 13(1), 64–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/14766086.2015.1122546 gunnarsdottir, s. (2014). is servant leadership useful for sustainable nordic health care? vård or norden publication, 112(34), 53–55. https://doi.org/10.1177/010740831403400211 hair, jr. j.f., wolfinbarger, m., ortinau, d.j., & bush, r.p. (2008). essentials of marketing research. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill companies, inc. hayden, r.w. (2011). greenleaf’s ‘best test’ of servant leadership: a multilevel analysis. thesis, dissertations & student scholarship: agricultural leadership, education & communication department. paper 30. retrieved from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/aglecdiss/30 hernandez, m. (2008). promoting stewardship behaviour in organizations: a leadership model. journal of business ethics, 80, 121–128. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9440-2 hewitt, l.m.m., & la grange, f. (2017). servant as leader: critical requirements for the appointment and training of retirement fund trustees. sa journal of human resource management, 15, a879, 01–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.879 houghton, j.d., dawley, d., & diliello, t.c. (2012). the abbreviated self-leadership questionnaire: a more concise measure of self-leadership. international journal of leadership studies, 7(2), 216–231. houghton, j.d., & neck, c.p. (2002). the revised self-leadership questionnaire testing a hierarchical factor structure for self-leadership. journal of managerial psychology, 17(8), 672–691. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940210450484 hulin, c., netemeyer, r., & cudeck, r. (2001). can a reliability coefficient be too high? journal of consumer psychology, 10(1), 55–58. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327663jcp1001&2_05 jit, r., sharma, c.s., & mona kawatra, m. (2017). healing a broken spirit: role of servant leadership. the journal for decision makers, 42(2) 80–94. https://doi.org/10.1177/0256090917703754 lance, c.e., lapointe, j.a., & fisicaro, s.a. (1994). tests of three causal models of halo rater error. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 57(1), 83–96. https://doi.org/10.1006/obhd.1994.1005 lance, c.e., teachout, m.s., & donnelly, t.m. (1992). specification of the criterion construct space: an application of hierarchical confirmatory factor analysis. journal of applied psychology, 77(4), 437. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.77.4.437 leonard, a., & grobler, a.f. (2006). exploring challenges to transformational leadership communication about employment equity: managing organizational change in south africa. journal of communication management, 10(4), 390–406. https://doi.org/10.1108/13632540610714827 liu, b., hu, w., & cheng, y. (2015). from the west to the east: validating servant leadership in the chinese public sector. public personnel management, 44(1), 25–45. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026014555995 mahembe, b., engelbrecht, a.s., & de kock, f.s. (2013). a confirmatory factor analytic study of a self-leadership measure in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.520 malmir, a., & azizzadeh, f. (2013). evaluation of self-leadership statue and providing solutions to improve the self-leadership statue (payam noor universitykermanshah branch case study). international journal of managing public sector information and communication technologies, 4(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.5121/ijmpict.2013.4101 manala, m.j. (2014). servant leadership: a required leadership model for efficient and effective service delivery in a democratic south africa. studia historiae ecclesiasticae, 40, 249–266. marques-quinteiro, p., & curral, l.a. (2012). goal orientation and work role performance: predicting adaptive and proactive work role performance through self-leadership strategies. the journal of psychology, 146(6), 559–577. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2012.656157 melchar, d.e., & bosco, s.m. (2010). achieving high organization performance through servant leadership. the journal of business inquiry, 9(1), 74–88. neck, c.p., & milliman, j.f. (1994). thought self-leadership: finding spiritual fulfillment in organizational life. journal of managerial psychology, 9(6), 9–16. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683949410070151 nel, p., & van zyl, e. (2015). assessing the psychometric properties of the revised and abbreviated self-leadership questionnaires. sa journal of human resource management, 13(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.661 nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, j. (1994). psychometric theory. new york, ny: mcgraw hill. parris, d.l., & peachey, j.w. (2013). a systematic literature review of servant leadership theory in organizational contexts. journal of business ethics, 113, 377. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1322-6 politis, d.j. (2006). self-leadership behavioural-focused strategies and team performance: the mediating influence of job satisfaction. journal of leadership & organization development, 27(3), 203–216. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730610657721 reio, jr. t.g., & shuck, b. (2015). exploratory factor analysis: implications for theory, research, and practice. advances in developing human resources, 17(1), 12–25. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422314559804 ruwhiu, d., & elkin, g. (2016). converging pathways of contemporary leadership: in the footsteps of maori and servant leadership. leadership, 12(3), 308–323. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715015626326 searle, t.p., & barbuto, jr. j.e. (2011). servant leadership, hope, and organisational virtuousness: a framework exploring positive micro and macro behaviours and performance impact. journal of leadership & organisational studies, 18(1), 107–117. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051810383863 sendjaya, s., sarros, j.c., & santora, j.c. (2008). defining and measuring servant leadership behaviour in organisations. journal of management studies, 45(2), 402–424. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2007.00761.x shek, d.t.l., ma, c.m.s., liu, t.t., & siu, a.m.h. (2015). the role of self-leadership in service leadership. international journal on disability and human development, 14(4), 343–350. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijdhd-2015-0455 smith, d.p.j., & louw, m. (2007). conceptualisation of the spiritual life dimension: a personal and professional leadership perspective. sa journal of human resource management, 5(1), 19–27. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v5i1.104 stewart, g.l., courtright, s.h., & manz, c.c. (2011). self-leadership: a multilevel review. journal of management, 37(1), 185–222. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310383911 steyn, h.s. (2002). practically significant relationships between two variables. sa journal of industrial psychology, 28(3), 10–15. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v28i3.63 van zyl, e. (2014). the role of self-leadership in becoming an ethical leader in the south african work context. african journal of business ethics, 8(2), 5–14. https://doi.org/10.15249/8-2-82 verrier, d., & smith, d. (2005). a personal, interpersonal and professional leadership (ppl) model of executive facilitation. sa journal of human resource management, 3(1), 51–60. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v3i1.53 waal, a.d., & sivro, m. (2012). the relation between servant leadership, organisational performance, and the high-performance organization framework. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 19(2), 173–190. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051812439892 watkins, m.w. (2018). exploratory factor analysis: a guide to best practice. journal of black psychology, 44(3), 219–246. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798418771807 article information authors: andre j. parker¹ theo h. veldsman¹ affiliations: ¹department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: theo veldsman email: theov@uj.ac.za postal address: department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, po box 524, auckland park 2006, south africa keywords business; developed countries; developing countries; world class criteria; world class practices dates: received: 15 sept. 2009 accepted: 29 apr. 2010 published: 11 nov. 2010 how to cite this article: parker, a.j., & veldsman, t.h. (2010). the validity of world class business criteria across developed and developing countries. sa journal of human resource management/ sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #255, 17 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.255 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) the validity of world class business criteria across developed and developing countries in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction • objectives of study • trends from the research literature    • world class business criteria and practices    • criterion 1: ongoing stretch and future-driven strategising    • criterion 2: transformational, distributed leadership    • criterion 3: all-round ownership and partnering amongst all stakeholders    • criterion 4: customer-centric, process-based, teaming architecture    • criterion 5: continuous improvement and relentless innovation    • criterion 6: enabling and empowering people philosophy and practices    • criterion 7: powerful internal and external branding to build and support a strong organisational identity • research design    • research approach    • research variables    • propositions tested       • criterion 1: ongoing stretch and future-driven strategising       • criterion 2: transformational, distributed leadership       • criterion 3: all-round ownership and partnering amongst all stakeholders       • criterion 4: customer-centric, process-based, teaming organisation architecture       • criterion 5: continuous improvement and relentless innovation       • criterion 6: an enabling and empowering people philosophy and practices       • criterion 7: powerful internal and external branding to build and support strong organisation identity    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instrument       • research procedure       • data analysis • results    • questionnaire of the psychometric properties    • testing propositions       • individuals as unit of analysis       • organisations as unit of analysis       • practices in the success of the organisation       • statistically based grouping of organisations • discussion    • literature review       • literature criterion 1: ongoing stretch and futuredriven strategising       • literature criterion 2: transformational, distributed leadership       • literature criterion 3: all-round ownership and partnering amongst all stakeholders       • literature criterion 4: customer centric, processbased, teaming organisation architecture       • literature criterion 5: continuous improvement and relentless innovation       • literature criterion 6: an enabling and empowering people philosophy and practices are discussed, whereby the empirical       • literature criterion 7: powerful internal and external branding to build and support a strong organisation identity       • the validity of world class criteria across developed and developing countries       • gaps closed in the existing knowledge regarding world class organisation       • proposed reconstituted model of world class organisations • conclusion • references abstract (back to top) orientation: world class implies being able to respond effectively to the prevailing business challenges in a manner that surpasses competitors and to compete effectively in the global economy. research purpose: to assess the validity of the general assumption in the literature that world class criteria are equally applicable worldwide. motivation for research: the possibility exists that developing countries require an adjusted mix of world class criteria and practices to become globally competitive. research design, approach and method: a quantitative field survey research approach was adopted. a web-enabled questionnaire was designed, covering 35 world class practices grouped under 7 world class criteria. a cross-section of the senior management from 14 developing and 20 developed country’s organisations partook in the study. main findings: it was empirically confirmed that the majority of world class practices posited in the literature are used by participating organisations; that world class criteria do not apply equally across developed and developing countries; and that more important than country location, is the deliberate choice by an organisation’s leadership to become world class. an empirically based model of ascending to world class was proposed. practical/managerial implications: regardless of country location, the leadership of an organisation can make their organisation world class by applying the proposed world class model. contribution/value add: a reliable web enabled instrument was designed that can be used to assess an organisation’s world class standing; the assumption that world class criteria are equally valid across developing and developed countries was proven partially incorrect; since becoming or being world class is also a leadership choice regardless of location. introduction (back to top) becoming world class implies becoming and being competitive with other similar businesses in the global arena. it means being able to respond effectively to prevailing business challenges in a manner that surpasses that of competitors, and to compete effectively in the global economy (de kock & slabbert, 2003; drennan & pennington, 1999; nel, 1994). inherent in studies of world class businesses is the assumption that the criteria which typify world class organisations are universal around the world without any distinction being made between developed and developing countries. this assumption implies that if these criteria were to be adopted in the same way anywhere in the world then an organisation would become world class. yet the pursuit of becoming world class has not been universal or consistently successful across the globe. developed countries show a modern infrastructure (both physical and institutional) and a move away from low-value-added sectors such as agriculture and natural resource extraction to more intellectual and capital based economic activities. developing countries in the context of this study have relatively low standards of living, undeveloped industrial bases and moderate to low human development indices (hdi) scores. developing countries experience low per capita income, widespread poverty and low capital formation. they are, in general, countries that have not achieved a significant degree of industrialisation relative to their populations, which have a low standard of living. there is also a strong correlation between low income and high population growth in developing countries. by comparison developed countries have economic systems based on continuous, self-sustaining economic growth in their tertiary and quarternary sectors and high standards of living (budwar & debrah, 2001). freely acknowledging that notable differences between cultures (and by implication countries) do exist, collins and porras (2002) encourage future research into the question of across country differences. the fact that globalisation creates compelling pressure to cross-integrate world class criteria, as well as the fact that contextual factors may be impacting across different cultures on the viability and effectiveness of ascendency to world class, is being acknowledged and questioned in what appears to be only confined circles (budwar & debrah, 2001). objectives of study (back to top) the assumption that world class criteria are the same the world over, irrespective of developed or developing country status, ignores the possibility that developing countries require an adjusted formula of criteria and practices to become globally competitive. this research was intended to assess the validity of world class criteria across developed and developing countries. more specifically, the objectives of the study were to provide answers to the following two questions, namely (1) do world class criteria, which lead in outstanding organisational performance in developed countries, differ from the criteria applicable to developing countries? and (2) what can organisations in developing countries learn from possible differences in criteria between developed and developing countries in order to embrace best practices that will work and be sustainable in their contexts? the study aimed at closing the gap in knowledge of world class criteria or practices between developed and developing countries and to provide developing country organisations with a proposed model of world class together with recommended areas to ascend to world class. trends from the research literature (back to top) world class business criteria and practices a review of the literature reveals commonly effective practices that can be grouped into a number of world class criteria, all of which are ascribed to world class organisations. for the purposes of this research, ‘activities’ are what an organisation does, whilst ‘practices’ are how the organisation does it. criteria in this context means a set of common practices related to a world class theme, for example ongoing stretch and future-driven strategising. a review of the literature reported here revealed the following world class business criteria and practices, which can be grouped under seven criteria: 1. ongoing stretch and future-driven strategising. 2. transformational, distributed leadership. 3. all-round ownership and partnering amongst all stakeholders. 4. customer-centric, process-based, teaming architecture. 5. continuous improvement and relentless innovation. 6. an enabling and empowering people philosophy and practices. 7. powerful internal and external branding to build and support a strong organisational identity. each of these criteria with their commensurate criteria is discussed next. criterion 1: ongoing stretch and future-driven strategising world class organisations in a global economy continually strive to meet customer needs and expectations. these businesses create and live innovative stretch strategies which aspire to recreate the future as a way of life (collins & porras, 2002; joyce, 2005; nel & beudeker, 2009). continual future creation and improvement renders conventional, linearly extrapolated strategic plans prematurely obsolete. strategising in world class organisations becomes an organic, continual process to stay ahead of ever-moving goal posts and beacons, which is expressed in the strategic intent for the organisation in contrast to the conventional strategic plans (beer, 2009; browne, 2003; hamel & prahalad, 1989; hamel & prahalad, 1994; tichy, 2002; veldsman, 2002). this desire for progress lies deeply rooted in the organization’s core ideology, which works hand in hand with its envisioned future (veldsman, 2002). leading companies have strategies ‘that focus the organisation on a clear, engaging set of shared goals’ which means that strategy is ‘… shared and meaningful to those within the company’ (joyce, 2005, pp. 120–121, italics original). as the accompanying authors support, everyone partners in continually improving processes as guided by a close alignment of strategic thinking with all of the other interdependent practices and systems in the organisation (collins, 2001; simon, 2000; telleria, little & macbryde, 2002). the drive is for the best synergistic alignment of overarching and interdependent strategies to create balance and harmony that would eliminate waste and would drive high performance (collins & porras, 2002; o’reilly & pfeffer, 2000). criterion 2: transformational, distributed leadership organisations in the 21st century global village are under pressure to continuously transform themselves. those who fail to make the changes do not stay around to tell their tale (stewart, 2006). this ‘ability to adapt – and quickly’ is brought about by transformational leaders instead of ordinary transactional leaders and even less by traditional managers (simon, 2000, p. 217, italics original). world class organisations place an emphasis on and encourage, transformational leadership which is well spread across all organisational levels. conventional organisations suffer from lack of leadership as a result of an undue emphasis on management (collins, 2001; joyce, 2005; kotter, cited in pfau & kay, 2002; krames, 2005). transformational leadership is about bringing the new into being and transforming what exists into something new. ‘without transformational leadership, business organisations aspiring to attain world class are trying to “fire a canon from a canoe”’ (de kock & slabbert, 2003, p. 6, italics original). criterion 3: all-round ownership and partnering amongst all stakeholders sharing of the organisation’s long term plans with people and their extensive involvement go hand in hand (flannery, hofrichter & platten, 1996; veldsman, 2002). care is therefore taken in world class organisations to ensure that employees are treated as an integral part of the business with the intention to identify, realise and apply their full potential (krames, 2005). people partnering creates co-responsibility for success where everyone is mobilised around a commonly understood and internalised strategic intent (beer, 2009; o’reilly & pfeffer, 2000; slater, 1999; veldsman, 2002). line management takes ownership of managing relationships with their people which imply incorporating people management into line. under these conditions human resources professionals become strategic business partners as opposed to being merely a dedicated support function (beatty & schneier, 1997). this partnering approach also transcends the traditional boundaries of the organisation into networking and partnering with suppliers and customers (beer, 2009; nel & beudeker, 2009; simon, 2000). ongoing innovation occurs as a result of continued, joint problem solving with external stakeholders to the point of becoming a case of ‘... managing an ecosystem of relationships’ (stewart, 2006, p. 15, italics original). common ownership of the strategic intent and continually evolving strategies are essential seeds for ensuring high performance and competitiveness (nel, cited in slabbert, prinsloo, swanepoel & backer, 1998). dedicated business partnering with customers, where happy people partner with happy customers, builds relationships in which customers are seen as an extension of the culture (de toni & tonchia, 1996; grulke & sibler, 2002; thorne & smith, 2000; van dyk & heroldt, 2003). criterion 4: customer-centric, process-based, teaming architecture driven by transformational, distributed leadership, the organisation architecture (or design) starts with the customer as an outside perspective. using the customer’s opinion as a point of reference, core business processes are arranged in such a way so as to seamlessly transcend functional and organisation boundaries to deliver ‘one stop’ moments of truth to customers (boxall & macky, 2009; joyce, 2005; nel & beudeker, 2009; zairi, 1994). efforts to build critical competencies around these integrated core business processes, the use of teaming, continuous learning and ongoing improvement inform a customer-centric architecture. process improvements, often resulting from co-development with customers as partners, drive changes in the organisation architecture in order to maintain a customer-responsive value chain where every employee understands the bigger picture from a customer perspective (de toni & tonchia, 1994; hunt, 2000; jones, 1994; simon, 2000; thorne & smith, 2000).cross functional teams find natural homes in world class organisations where core business processes are designed in such a way that decisions are made at the point of service delivery to the customer. this encourages ‘boundaryless’ behaviour which, in turn, gives people a greater sense of involvement in and ownership across the organisation. (magee, 2003; peters, 2003). all of the above is supported and enabled by an uncompromising technical excellence that ensures competitive advantage and market leadership in a context in which customers make the rules (calloway, 2003; thorne & smith, 2000). criterion 5: continuous improvement and relentless innovation fueled by ongoing stretch and future-driven strategising, continuous improvement and relentless innovation form a way of life in world class organisations. this delights customers and in some instances may even transform an industry. innovation becomes an essential part of the core ideology of the organisation (joyce, 2005; collins & porras, 2002) which translates into customer-driven innovations ahead of competitors and the market. suppliers as strategic alliance partners are integrated into the business processes impacted on by continuous improvement and innovation and in this way are closely aligned to customer needs (japanese standards association, 2003; simon, 2000; thorne & smith, 2000). in the search for continued improvement, world class organisations benchmark their own levels of optimum performance against best-in-class in comparable businesses (zairi, 1992). although benchmarking in itself cannot be hailed as a panacea to attain world class performance, the process correctly applied enables world class organisations to reference and adjust their beacons by continuously raising the bar. criterion 6: enabling and empowering people philosophy and practices the strategic intent in world class organisations draws them forward. an critical enabler in this future recreation drive is the alignment of people management to the chosen strategic intent in order to build proactively overall sustainable people capacity ahead of demand (nel & beudeker, 2009; veldsman, 2002). an increase in knowledge creation and the need for people to increase their skills repertoires have created the era of the knowledge worker (veldsman, 2002). continuous improvement and innovation are dependent on the rate of teaching and learning being faster than the rate of change, necessitating the creation of learning spaces for talent in the organisation and allowing them to move rapidly across boundaries as their careers unfold (beer, 2009). in addition, an integrated view of performance exists which is measured in real time and focuses on inter-functional effectiveness which brings the core ideology and business strategy to life (amaratunga & baldry, 2002). high participation partnerships, where goals are jointly established, create a sense of community which is performance-driven as opposed to goals being imposed on organisational members through coercion (beer, 2009). reward as the outcome of performance management is seen as a holistic concept which is far wider than pay and requires a delicate, synergistic balance between extrinsic and intrinsic rewards. it drives continuous learning, develops a sense of ownership and encourages innovation and risk-taking. to achieve this, the components of performance and rewards are seamlessly integrated, seen as interdependent and systemic, and dealt with in real time and on-line (gross & nalbatian, 2002; nel & beudeker, 2009; o’neal, 1998; veldsman, 2002). criterion 7: powerful internal and external branding to build and support a strong organisational identity branding pertains to what world class organisations stand for and what they promise to their customers. their brand promise resides in the hearts and minds of their customers and all their stakeholders (calloway, 2003; swart, 2005). the sum total of vision, values and culture in the form of a strong brand proposition is more compelling than its individual components. one of the cornerstones of a strong partnership is ascribed to a compelling brand. when someone asks any of our employees who they work for, we want them to be able to say ‘e-bank’ with pride and conviction – even in a pub. we want to build a business that we are proud of. we want our family and friends to know we work for the best on line bank in the world – the best because our customers say so. (grulke & sibler, 2002, p. 99) the question as to whether these interwoven world class criteria are equally applicable in developed and developing countries remains unanswered at the end of the literature review, because researchers do not address the issue. it is readily assumed in the literature reviewed that the seven criteria discussed apply equally irrespective of country context. the core issue that still remains at the end of the review is the contextual validity of world class criteria across developed and developing countries. are these criteria equally applicable across these two types of countries? this is what the research reported here sets out to investigate. research design (back to top) research approach the source and nature of the data to be collected called for a quantitative field survey research approach to gather primary data. this decision was based on the pragmatic need of the study having to reach a variety of organisations in different countries around the world and not on any particular personal belief in, or bias by, the researchers towards a particular research approach. research variables the independent, dependent and moderating variables of the study and their inter-relationships are presented in figure 1. a limitation of the study was that no common measurement of the dependent variable as given in figure 1 could be obtained across the globally participating organisations. the independent and moderating variables, however, could be measured. figure 1 propositions tested in weighing up whether the research was dealing with ‘research hypotheses’ or ‘propositions’, it was concluded that the study was investigating propositions and not hypotheses since a theory of world class criteria and practices across developed and developing countries has not been explicitly formulated. propositions were therefore formulated to operationalise the world class criteria discussed in the above literature review. these propositions were used to test the validity of world class criteria across developed and developing countries. the propositions to be tested were as follows: criterion 1: ongoing stretch and future-driven strategising proposition: world-class organisations create and live innovative transformational strategies with a continual stretch and future creation mind-set as a way of life. criterion 2: transformational, distributed leadership proposition: transformational leadership in world class organisations is about bringing the new into being and/or transforming what exists into something new. it is about being continually discontent, relentlessly pursuing possible desirable futures whilst mobilising followers towards an envisioned future. criterion 3: all-round ownership and partnering amongst all stakeholders proposition: ownership and partnering in world class organisations extends across both internal and external functional boundaries where an action community of stakeholders is mobilised around seamless business processes to deliver on peak-to-peak levels of customer service. criterion 4: customer-centric, process-based, teaming organisation architecture proposition: world class organisations design their core business process to exceed their customer’s expectations. processes flow seamlessly across functional boundaries, end-to-end, and incorporate suppliers, key stakeholders and internal customers along the process value stream. criterion 5: continuous improvement and relentless innovation proposition: the acceleration of continuous improvement coupled with quantum leaps in innovation is a way of life for world class organisations. living this mind-set, continuous improvement and relentless innovation act as a source of energy. criterion 6: an enabling and empowering people philosophy and practices proposition: people practices in world class organisations are consistently aligned with one another and the organisation’s core ideology. criterion 7: powerful internal and external branding to build and support strong organisation identity proposition: branding is who and what world class organisations stand for and what they promise to their customers. their brand promise is lived by everyone and resides in the hearts and minds of their customers and all their stakeholders. research method research participants organisations in both developed and developing countries earmarked to participate in the study were recognised as operating at high performance levels in their respective countries. whilst no common organisational success measurements could be applied, which was a limitation of the research, each of the participating companies had posted year-on-year growth on their web site reports. the sample was made up of 34 organisations, 14 from developing countries (south africa, namibia) and 20 from developed countries (belgium, canada, france, germany, ireland, italy, netherlands, the russian federation, spain, sweden, switzerland, united kingdom, usa). while the study sought to research the validity of world class criteria between developed and developing countries, the only countries where responses could be obtained were in the southern african region. the findings of the study therefore are empirically more directly applicable to the southern african region than the rest of the developed countries around the world. participants within these organisations consisted of a cross-section of the top three to four senior management levels of participating organisations (427 questionnaires were completed out of 560 invitations to participate, a response rate of 76.3%). the ratio of respondents at organisational level, the one unit of analysis, of developed to developing countries was 59% to 41%. organisations from the primary and secondary sector were closely balanced within developed and developing countries respectively. it was suspected that differences in practices could occur between primary and secondary sector organisations due to the former being mostly industrial orientated whilst the latter is more commercially orientated, living closer to the ‘final’ customer. participants came predominantly from the sales (18.3%), finance (11.0%) and manufacturing functions (10.8%). nearly 70% of the participants were in senior to executive management positions with close on 65% having more than 3 years experience in their current positions, 62% being with their present organisations for more than 6 years. just short of 80% of participants had tertiary qualifications. the respondents were thus well informed and experienced to participate in this study. measuring instrument a new web-enabled questionnaire was developed for the purpose of this study. the world class practice statements used in the questionnaire with respect to each world class criterion as derived from the propositions to be tested as well as their number and contents are given in table 1. five practices were identified associated with each of the seven world class criteria. using a 5-point likert scale, the instrument required respondents to first rate the ‘extent to which a practice was being observed in their respective organisations’ and then, secondly, to rate the ‘relative importance of a practice to organisation success’ by distributing 100 points over the practices. the last screen of the survey required respondents to rate the overall relative importance of all seven world class criteria by distributing 100 points across the seven criteria. respondents were also required to provide biographical information about themselves. research procedure given the geographic expanse and complexities to survey world class organisations over developed and developing countries, the simplicity and effectiveness of an e-questionnaire and e-data-capturing on a dedicated server was used to provide guarantees of data completeness and integrity. the e-based process ensured that a respondent could not move to a next screen unless all the responses were completed and that rating scales added up to 100. respondents were able to log onto the world class research web site anywhere in the world at any time, allowing data to be captured in real time. the rate of response was constantly monitored. the first two screens of the survey instrument captured essential individual and organisation biographical data. an independent survey technology company was contracted for the conversion of the questionnaire for on-line web-based application, the hosting, the monitoring of response rates and the capturing of the data. respondents were nominees from participating organisations whose email addresses were forwarded to the researcher. each respondent received an e-mail containing the log-on website and a user password to access the survey. ethical considerations took into account the opinion that participants would not be comfortable to have their particulars published. data analysis the psychometric properties of the instrument: the factorial structure and reliability of the survey instrument were determined. factors were extracted using principal axis factoring. a varimax rotation with kaiser normalisation was applied for the first-level factor analysis whilst an oblimin rotation method with kaiser normalisation was used for the second-level factor analysis. the recommended procedure suggested by scheepers (1992; 2004) to do both first and second level factor analyses was followed to reduce the probability of extracting artificial factors during the first order factor analysis. the number of factors extracted during the first and second level factor analyses was based on kaiser’s criterion of eigenvalues larger than unity. for the reliability analyses, cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated on the extracted firstand second-order factors. two sets of factor and reliability analyses – one exploratory (the factors to be given by what is present in the data) and the other confirmatory (to see whether the factors built into the questionnaire as derived from the literature review were present in the data) – were conducted. this was followed by a visual, logical comparison of the degree of overlap of the factors extracted through the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses respectively. the extracted factors were seen to represent the world class criteria. testing the propositions: to accept or reject the research propositions survey responses were grouped into two analysis categories, a first category using individual respondents as the unit of analysis and a second category using organisations as the unit of analysis. each category was sub-divided in respect of primary versus secondary sector (or industry) organisations, as well as developing versus developed countries respectively. in the case of individuals as unit of analysis, t-tests were used to test for the acceptance or not of propositions. in the case of the organisations as unit of analysis it was deemed necessary to combine the responses of all of the responses of participants of an organisation into a single response per practice. to ensure that respondents were applying the same frame of reference to the practices and to arrive at a stable summated response, interrater reliabilties were calculated for the participating companies (n = 32) with more than five respondents. companies of interrater relaibilities of greater than 0.65 were included in testing the propositions. this resulted in 22 and 17 companies included for the exploratory and confirmatory criteria respectively. the mann–whitney u-test and wilcoxon w-test were applied to test for statistical significance instead of a t-test because of the small sample sizes perhaps violating the assumption of a normal distribution. statistical tests, as indicated above, were used to assess the extent to which means were statistically different on the factorially extracted world class criteria. practical significance was arrived at by determining the effect size which is a measure of the strength of the relationship between two variables. the following effect categorisation was applied, 0.0–0.1 (no practical effect), 0.1–0.3 (small effect), 0.3–0.5 (medium effect) and 0.5 –0.1 (large practical effect) (rosenthal, rosnow & rubin, 2000). a conservative decision rule position was selected to reject (or inversely accept) a proposition based on a combination of statistical significance and practical significance. a proposition was rejected if statistically significant with p < 0.05 and practical significance of a small effect or greater, or if statistically insignificant with p > 0.05 but with practical significance of medium effect or greater. a proposition was accepted if it was statistically insignificant with a p > 0.05 and practical significance of no or small effect. the above statistical tests were performed on organisations as per their given physical location in a developed or a developing country. cluster analyses were conducted to determine statistically the appropriate grouping of the organisations surveyed. that is not to assume that world class equates to a physical location, namely developed or developing country. a hierarchical cluster analysis, using the ward clustering method was conducted, using both the exploratory and confirmatory world class criteria with organisations as unit of analysis. the resultant clusters were used categories as to test the acceptance or rejection of the propositions, again using the above described statistical tests. results (back to top) questionnaire of the psychometric properties on account of limited space the detailed statistical results of the factor and reliability analyses are not reported here, but are available upon request. the first order exploratory factor analysis produced five reliable exploratory world class criteria and related practices which explained 46.9% of the total variance, which were entitled as follows, (1) innovative, learning based partnering, (2) powerful branding, (3) performance, reward-driven people, (4) customer-centric, shared vision-driven leadership and (5) customer-centric business design. reliability coefficients for the first order, exploratory factors ranged between 0.74 and 0.87. these were regarded as acceptable in the case of a newly constructed survey instrument. the second order exploratory factor and reliability analysis constituted a single world class factor and hence, one world class theme (or criterion). an overall, acceptable reliability of 0.93 was attained across all 27 practices for this single factor. this single second order exploratory world class criterion was described as follows, brand-driven, transformational leadership where performance and reward driven people are continuously learning and improving business designs which are centered around their customers. the confirmatory factor analysis sought to determine whether the extent to which the seven world class criteria and their related practices, as distilled from the literature review and built into the survey instrument, actually existed. the confirmatory factor analysis resulted in three world class criteria being removed from further statistical analysis since they did not meet minimum factorial requirements, for example eigenvalues less than 1 and less than 3 items loading per theoretically-determined factor. the rejected criteria were, transformational, distributed leadership (criterion 2), all-round ownership and partnering amongst all stakeholders (criterion 3), and continuous improvement and relentless innovation (criterion 5). this left four confirmatory world class criteria for further analysis. the acceptable criteria were, ongoing stretch and future-driven strategising (criterion 1), customer-centric, process-based, teaming organisation architecture (criterion 4), an enabling and empowering people philosophy and practices (criterion 6) and powerful internal and external branding to build and support a strong organisation identity (criterion 7). an overall, acceptable reliability of 0.74 was attained across all of the practices as contained in the four factors. correspondence of the factors extracted respectively by the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses was evaluated through visual inspection. plotted on a matrix – the factors extracted by each type of factor analysis, namely exploratory and confirmatory, forming each a side of the matrix – the overall sum of corresponding practices between the confirmatory and exploratory criteria equated to a 76.6% overlap. in effect, it can be argued that the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses produced what now constituted empirically determined world class criteria. testing propositions the results of the statistical and effect testing of the propositions are reported respectively in terms of individuals and organisations as units of analysis, comparing developed versus developing countries followed by comparing primary and secondary sectors. the decision rule decided on above was applied in accepting or rejecting propositions. individuals as unit of analysis the presence of a world class criterion in the organisation using individuals as unit of analysis: comparing developed vs developing countries as well as primary vs secondary sectors results are depicted in table 2 and 3. according to tables 2 and 3 the testing of the propositions using individuals as unit of analysis produced the following results: rejected propositions: world class criteria differed between countries and/or sectors: • performanceand reward-driven people (exploratory criterion: developed countries higher than developing countries, secondary sector higher than primary sector) • ongoing stretch and future-driven strategising (confirmatory criterion: developed countries higher than developing countries) • enabling and empowering people philosophy and practices (confirmatory criterion: developed countries higher than developing countries, secondary sector higher than primary sector). the effect size that is the practical significance, in all cases was small. accepted propositions: world class criteria are the same across countries and/or sectors: • ongoing stretch and future-driven strategising (confirmatory criterion: sectors similar) • innovative, learning based partnering (exploratory criterion: countries and sectors are similar) • powerful branding (exploratory or confirmatory criteria: countries and sectors are similar) • customer-centric, vision-driven leadership (exploratory or confirmatory criteria: countries and sectors are similar) • customer-centric business design (exploratory criterion: countries and sectors are similar) • overall world class criterion (exploratory criterion: countries and sectors are similar). organisations as unit of analysis the presence of a world class criterion in the organisation using organisations as unit of analysis: comparing developed vs developing countries as well a primary vs secondary sectors are given in table 4 and table 5. according to tables 4 and 5 the testing of the propositions using organisations as unit of analysis produced the following results: rejected propositions: world class criteria differed between countries and/or sectors: • performance-and reward-driven people (exploratory criterion: developed countries higher than developing countries) • ongoing stretch and future-driven strategising (confirmatory criterion: developed countries higher than developing countries) • enabling and empowering people philosophy and practices (confirmatory criterion: developed countries higher than developing countries) • customer-centric, shared vision-driven leadership (exploratory criterion: developed countries higher than developing countries). the effect size that is the practical significance, in all cases was medium. accepted propositions: world class criteria are the same across countries and/or sectors: • innovative, learning based partnering (exploratory criterion: countries are similar) • powerful branding (exploratory or confirmatory criteria: countries are similar) • customer-centric business design (exploratory or confirmatory criteria: countries are similar) • overall world class criterion (exploratory criterion: countries are similar). in all instances the industries were the same on all of the criteria. from the above, the following trends appear to hold with respect to the above results, (1) both in the case of individuals and organisations as units of analysis, a number of world criteria (between 3 and 4 criteria) are seen as more present in organisations from developed than from developing countries. it appears as if these differentiating criteria are more people-related criteria (e.g. rewards, people philosophy and practices), (2) the effect size of these significant differences are greater when organisations are the unit of analysis, (3) the criteria that are similar across developing and developed countries (also between 3 and 4) appear to relate more to the organisation as a whole (e.g. branding, design) and (4) criteria across sector (i.e. primary vs secondary) appear to be the same. (i.e. criteria do not apply differentially to sectors). practices in the success of the organisation a scatter plot was created where the x-axis measured the importance of a practice in the success of the organisation and where the y-axis measured the extent of practice. four quadrants were created on the scatter plot as given in the example in figure 2. as illustrated in figure 2, a cut-off point of 20 was chosen as the norm since 20 out of a maximum of 100 points would represent equal weight to each of the practice in the five practice sets related to a criterion. more than 20 points therefore indicates a higher level of importance of a practice to perceived business success in the organisation and vice versa. each quadrant was numbered with a corresponding description. bullets with no fill represent organisations in developed countries whilst filled bullets represented organisations in developing countries. the practices associated with the exploratory criteria, firstly, were plotted individually on histograms and secondly were grouped in tables by exploratory world class criteria. this enabled the researchers to analyse each practice individually and subsequently the world class criterion as a whole as it related to the research propositions of the study. the outcomes of the analyses of practices plotted on histograms were as follows as summarised in the right hand column of table 7 (the balance of this table will be dealt with in the discussion section below). as can been seen from table 7 there were significant differences between developed and developing countries in a number of practices applied. the majority of differences in practices occurred with respect to customer-centric, shared vision-driven leadership and ongoing stretch and future driven strategising. statistically based grouping of organisations the grouping of organisations into developed and developing countries which guided the foregoing analyses were done on the basis of the physical location of the participating organisations. the guiding assumption of this categorisation is that the actual physical country location of an organisation determines whether an organisation is world class or not. the validity of this assumption was investigated by using cluster analysis to determine the statistical grouping of the organisations surveyed (i.e. not to assume world class equates to a physical location, namely developed or developing country). the resultant clusters were used to test the acceptance or rejection of the propositions. the results, where a country name anonymously represented an organisation, are portrayed in figures 3 and 4 respectively for the exploratory and confirmatory criteria. the cluster analysis for the exploratory criteria yielded a more definitive trend in terms of differences between developed and developing countries than in the case of the confirmatory criteria. two distinct new categories of world class organisations emerged: category a (from cluster a) which contained 75% of organisations from developing countries and 25% from developed countries. category a was labeled as ‘trailing world class organisations’ implying a less advanced or mature level of being world class. category b (from cluster b) contained 70% of organisations from developed countries and 30% from developing countries. category b was labeled as ‘leading world class organisations’ implying a more advanced mature level of being world class. the strength of using the clustering based on the exploratory criteria is that these criteria were determined empirically, which corresponds with the empirical grouping of organisations into world class or not. a retest of the propositions using category a versus category b using organisations as unit of analysis are depicted in the fourth column of results give in table 6. evident from table 6 is the need to qualify the previous results based on using physical location as a means of categorisation with organisations as unit of analysis. whereas only two propositions from the original exploratory criteria were rejected, all five exploratory criteria were rejected with notable differences in both statistical significance and practical effect size, the latter moving from a medium to a large effect size. all five exploratory criteria, as well as the overall world class criterion, significantly differentiated in the presence of the criteria between developing and developed countries with the former significantly higher than the latter. the implication of this finding is that the cluster analysis removed the overriding ‘noise’ of using physical location as pre-set category determinate. two new categories of organisations emerged from the cluster analysis: ‘leading’ and ‘trailing’ world class organisations: • thirty per cent of developing-country, world class companies have already made the transition to becoming world class organisations. • twenty-five per cent of developed country companies have yet to become ‘developed’ world class organisations. this result thus demonstrated that physical location does play the dominant role in being world class. but this has to be qualified since there also are world class organisations in developing countries, although in the minority. inversely, non-world class organisations exist in developed countries, although in the minority. table 1 table 2 table 3 table 4 figure 2 discussion (back to top) prior to proceeding with discussing the results reported above, answers to the following questions are required in order to focus the discussion appropriately, firstly, should individual respondents or organisations as unit of analysis be used in the discussion and interpretation below or are both eligible?, secondly, should the differences in world class criteria in respect of primary versus secondary sectors where individuals are the unit of analysis be taken into account in the discussion and interpretation?, thirdly, should the outcomes of the proposition tested given in table 6, based on the cluster analysis where organisations were grouped as leading and trailing world class organisations be taken into account? the reported results are summarised in table 7 to provide answers to the above questions. the horizontal blocks in bold in table 7 highlight where propositions in respect of the extent of use a practice (i.e. the presence of a criterion) were accepted or rejected as well as where differences in extent of practice by importance between developed and developing countries appear within the same criterion. the two vertical pointed block arrows in bold in table 7 encapsulate the majority of propositions rejected (√ = proposition accepted, x = proposition rejected). as shown in table 7, the majority of rejected propositions are in respect of the exploratory and confirmatory criteria where organisations were the unit of analysis (indicated by the vertical green block arrow in table 7). in the literature the discussion also focuses on how organisations collectively think and act and not so much the individual. the reported empirical results of this study confirm the appropriateness of the organisation as unit of analysis and that the interpretation and discussion should proceed where organisations, instead of individuals, are the unit of analysis. with respect to primary and secondary sector organisations, all of the propositions were accepted where these were the unit of analysis. this confirmed that exploratory and confirmatory world class criteria are the same, irrespective of whether organisations are in the primary or secondary sector. since it was decided to proceed where organisations are the unit of analysis the significant differences found in primary versus secondary sectors where individuals are the unit of analysis were therefore put aside for the purposes of the discussion and interpretation below. the emphasis would be on developed versus developing countries. the results of the cluster analysis demonstrated that physical location is of secondary concern since leading world class organisations are present in both developed and developing countries whereas trailing world class organisations are also to be found across these countries. the ‘lesser’ impact of physical location on being world class hence has to be taken into account.therefore the regrouping of organisations resulting from the cluster analysis will be included in the discussion below. the discussion and interpretation of the results centre around the following topics, firstly, a confirmation through this study of what is already known in the existing literature, secondly, the validity of world class criteria across developed and developing countries, thirdly, gaps in the existing knowledge closed by the study, and lastly, a proposed reconstituted model of world class criteria or practices in developed and developing countries respectively. table 5 table 6 table 7 table 8 literature review a confirmation of what is already known in the existing literature regarding world class organisationstable 8 provides a summarised list of empirically confirmed and unconfirmed practices by criterion as reported in the literature review section. this summary enables a comparison to be made with the practices identified through the literature review. a high level of empirical confirmation means that a practice was confirmed both as an exploratory and confirmatory criterion, a medium level that a practice was confirmed empirically either being part of an exploratory or confirmatory criterion, and low or non-significant that there was insufficient statistical evidence to confirm this practice as part of a criterion – whilst it does occur, its incidence was found to be very low. according to table 8, 85.7% of the world class practices as seen in use and important in the literature reviewed, could empirically be confirmed in the study, leaving 14.3% of the practices empirically unconfirmed. the implications of this finding may be that not all world class practices are applied consistently all the time by all organisations purported to be world class or which are ascending to becoming world class. in terms of table 8 empirical confirmation through this study of what exists in literature is discussed next. literature criterion 1: ongoing stretch and future-driven strategising the empirical confirmation of practices 1.1 to 1.5 associated with criterion 1 (e.g. beer, 2009; browne, 2003; collins & porras, 2002; joyce, 2005; nel & beudeker, 2009: veldsman, 2002) was high (see table 8). it can be argued that this confirmation can be found in the competition for front line positions by world class organisations that know that they have to continually change and improve to meet changing customer needs and expectations as a way of life. literature criterion 2: transformational, distributed leadership the empirical confirmation of practices 2.1–2.4 of criterion 2 (e.g. collins, 2001; joyce, 2005; krames, 2005; nel & beudeker, 2009; veldsman, 2002) was rated as medium (see table 8). these practices, as they are reported on in the literature review, describe how leadership drives change, how they always create something new and how they think out of the box, ensuring that all their people share the same future. although confirmation in the literature review was rated medium, these practices align with the race for ‘front line positions’ as in the literature criterion 1. to stay ahead in the race, transformational leadership in world class organisations has to continually bring the ‘new’ into being and/or transform what exists into something new. leadership that is continually driving for stretch goals is continually mobilising its followers in pursuance of possible desirable futures. the empirical confirmation of practice 2.5: everyone is expected to show leadership was rated as low or not at all. according to the literature review, though transformational leadership is pervasive in world class organisations, creating transformational thinking which drives innovation and change. whilst the aim of the researchers was to test this practice with the statement everyone is expected to show leadership, it is the contention of the researchers that this statement was poorly formulated in the questionnaire and therefore may that have been not understood by the respondents as it was intended. it would be fallacious, therefore, to conclude that transformational leadership which is well spread through world class organisations, was not confirmed empirically as posited in the literature. the practice of transformational leadership being well spread throughout the organisation, according to literature, is so fundamental to the success of world class organisations that it cannot be judged as not being confirmed empirically on account of a poorly formulated statement. literature criterion 3: all-round ownership and partnering amongst all stakeholders the empirical confirmation of practices 3.1, 3.3 and 3.5 of criterion 3 (e.g. beer, 2009; flannery, hofrichter & platten, 1996; simon, 2000; stewart, 2006; van dyk & herholdt, 2003) was rated as medium (see table 8). these three practices refer to stakeholder partnering, which drives continuous improvement where people are seen as key stakeholders in the business. the empirical confirmations of the following practices were rated as low/not at all, practice 3.2: our people build close relationships with our customers. a high standard deviation of 11.00 with respect to relative importance of the practice to the success of the organisation indicated that the practice of building close relationships with customers was perceived to be inconsistently practised within the world class organisations surveyed. it makes sense for an organisation to build close relationships with customers and to create the impression that they do. the result questions whether this is actually made standard practice by world class organisations. another possible explanation is that because not all respondents have direct contact with the end customers of their organisation, they may not view relationship building with internal customers as important as with external customers. concerning practice 3.4 (we both compete and collaborate with our competitors), the reasons for this practice not being confirmed empirically as posited in the literature review are possibly twofold. firstly, is that competing and collaborating with competitors is easier said than done. whilst a progressive practice, it may still be perceived to be relatively foreign and perhaps threatening to the respondent organisations in this study. secondly, it may be that this practice may not be familiar to all respondents at all levels in the organisations surveyed since not all of the respondents may necessarily be connected with directly competing organisations or be involved with projects where benchmarking is done. literature criterion 4: customer centric, process-based, teaming organisation architecture the empirical confirmation of practices 4.1 to 4.4 of criterion 4 (e.g. boxall & macky, 2009; beer, 2009; de toni & tonchia, 1994; hunt, 2000; joyce, 2005; simon, 2000) was rated as high (see table 8). these first four practices all relate to how a focus on the customer determines how the organisation thinks about and designs its business processes which constitutes the backbone of the organisation. confirmation of practice 4.5 which relates to how and whether teams are built around business processes is rated as medium (see table 8), suggesting that although confirmed empirically, this practice may not be as widely practised as the literature ventures to suggest. literature criterion 5: continuous improvement and relentless innovation the empirical confirmation of practices 5.1, 5.2 and 5.4 of criterion 5 (e.g. collins & porras, 2002; joyce, 2005; thorne & smith, 2002) is rated as medium (see table 8), which suggests that although confirmed, the practices of innovative ideas evolving from working close to the customer and leaps of innovation being the norm rather than the exception may not be as extensively practiced as is put forward in the literature. the empirical confirmations of the following practices are rated as low/not at all (see table 8): 1. practice 5.1: good is never good enough. a relatively high standard deviation of 10.53 reported regarding this practice reveals that agreement on the criticality of this practice in business success is considerably varied. the disparity of responses to this practice suggests that although the literature reports that the practice of never being satisfied with the status quo is a world class practice, a wide divergence on the use of this practice exists in the study organisations. the reasons for this phenomenon may lie possibly with the way in which leadership questions the status quo, which results in spreading discontent and insecurity amongst their people for all the wrong reasons. 2. practice 5.2: competitive standards are achieved through benchmarking against other organisations. a likely reason for this practice not being confirmed empirically in this study is that benchmarking against competitors is easier said than done. benchmarking against generally known industry measures is not uncommon but gaining access to and/or observing a competitor’s practices by literally ‘walking around with a clipboard’ is another matter altogether. besides this difficulty, benchmarking also requires that the organisation first undertakes a benchmarking study to do its internal homework as is outlined in the literature review. it may be that not all organisations are prepared to first do this ‘homework’ before setting off on a benchmarking excursion. 3. practice 5.4: an inner urge for continuous improvement flows from what the organisation stands for. the reasons for this practice not being confirmed in the literature may be found in many of the respondents not being clear on the core ideology of their respective organisations. it would seem that whilst the literature reports that an inner urge for progress flows from what the organisation stands for, it assumes that all people in all world class organisations understand and have bought into the core ideology of their respective organisations. this is not always the case as can be seen from the results of this study. literature criterion 6: an enabling and empowering people philosophy and practices are discussed, whereby the empirical confirmation of practices 6.1, 6.2, 6.4 and 6.5 of criterion 6 (e.g. amaratunga & baldry, 2002; beer, 2009; gross & nalbatia, 2002; nel & beudeker, 2009; veldsman, 2002) which relate to how people learn, are given feedback and are rewarded is rated as high (see table 8). the empirical confirmation of practice 6.3 which relates to how multiskilled and multitasked people are flexibly deployed is rated as medium (see table 8), suggesting that this practice is perhaps not as widely practised in the organisations surveyed as the literature would suggest. literature criterion 7: powerful internal and external branding to build and support a strong organisation identity the empirical confirmation of practices 1.1 to 1.5 of criterion 7 (e.g. calloway, 2003; grulke & sibler, 2002; swart, 2005) is rated as high (see table 8). this is to be expected as branding is universally important. in sum, whereas 85.7% of the practices in the study could be confirmed empirically relative to the literature reviewed as summarised in table 8, there remains an implied assumption that all world class practices are applied consistently all the time by all organisations purported to be world class or which are ascending to becoming world class. this assumption has to be discussed next. the validity of world class criteria across developed and developing countries the untested assumption in the literature, ‘one size of world class criteria fits all, irrespective of developed or developing country context’ has to be rejected when physical location is used to classify organisations by country. it was found in the results reported in this study that there were combinations of criteria with their associated practices that are exclusive to developed and developing countries, four exploratory or confirmatory criteria (performance and reward driven people, ongoing stretch future driven strategizing, customer-centric, shared vision-driven leadership and enabling and empowering people philosophy and practices) significantly differed between developed and developing countries. three exploratory or confirmatory criteria (innovative, learning based partner-shipping, powerful branding and customer-centric business design) did not differentiate across countries. in all instances of difference, the extent of practice with respect to each criterion favoured developed country organisations. it appears that the criteria that are more people related are that ones that differentiate across countries. the more organisation related criteria do not differentiate. the implication of this finding is twofold, firstly, combinations of criteria and their associated practices are country specific to developed or developing countries and secondly, that developed country organisations embrace world class criteria to a greater extent than their developing country counterparts. this finding provides an explanation why businesses in developed countries on the whole outperform their counterparts in developing countries. the practical significance of this implication has been built into the proposed empirically reconstituted world class model to be discussed later. in terms of extent of practice by importance, the results revealed that the practices, leadership driving continual change, core capabilities that enable business processes are built through ongoing learning and innovative ideas born by working close to customers and suppliers are more important for developing countries. it can be argued that at a practice level, these three practices are more important in developing countries as a matter of necessity in a developing country context, rather than as ground breaking ways of doing business. when physical location as a means of categorising organisations was excluded using cluster analysis, the participating organisations clustered into two groups, ‘leading’ world class organisations (the majority being in developed countries but also some in developing countries), where all of the exploratory criteria were favoured more and more extensively practiced in a developed than developing country context and ‘trailing’ organisations (the majority being developing country based, but some in developed countries). this finding implies that world class is not only an exclusive function of country context, although world class criteria were more closely associated with developed countries. in addition to physical location determining an organisation’s world class status, world class must also be seen as an organic growth process that is governed by the choices made by the leadership to make their organisations world class or not regardless of location. hence, the presence of world class organisations in developing countries and vice versa non-world class organisations in developed countries. gaps closed in the existing knowledge regarding world class organisation the study closed three gaps in the existing knowledge regarding world class organisations. firstly, it closed the gap in the understanding and application of world class criteria or practices between developed and developing countries. it was shown that the validity as indicated by the extent of use of these criteria vary across developing and developed countries. the implication of this finding is that world class criteria or practices have been contextually validated across developed and developing countries through a scientifically based study for the first time. these criteria cannot merely be assumed to be equally applicable across country types (see beer, 2009 and joyce, 2005 as good exemplars of this assumption). secondly, along side physical location, the choice of an organisation’s leadership to make their organisation world class or not, regardless of physical location is an important variable to consider. thirdly, the study closed the gap in knowledge for organisations in developing countries, like south africa, as to where its practices fall short of what is practised by leading world class organisations in developing countries. the implication of this finding is that it provides organisations in developing countries with a proposed empirically constituted model (see below) of world class together with recommended priority areas to ascend to world class. proposed reconstituted model of world class organisations the literature review produced seven world class criteria with associated practices for each criterion. factor analyses statistically regrouped the data, forcing a recreation of the original theoretical seven world class criteria into a reconstituted set of five exploratory and four confirmatory world class criteria with their respective practices as reported and discussed above. although the exploratory and confirmatory world class criteria did not apply equally to developed and developing countries, as it was shown, all these criteria and their associated practices are nevertheless performance-enhancing criteria. it is therefore proposed that all these criteria should be embraced across developed and developing countries from the perspective of leading and trailing organisations world class wise. it is for this reason that practices which are likely to enhance the performance of world class organisations in developing countries have also been highlighted in the empirically reconstituted, proposed world class model. a mind-map, encapsulating a proposed reconstituted world class model applicable to developed and developing countries, is graphically displayed in figure 5. the first level from the centre of the mind map portrays the reconstituted world class criteria, starting with customer-centric, shared vision-driven leadership, as found in this study. although the exploratory world class criteria are interdependent, the order in the mind map seeks to impose some sequence flowing in a clockwise direction, starting with the criterion customer-centric leadership, sharing their vision with all their stakeholders. practices which are shaded are common to both developed and developing countries both in respect of extent of practice and importance to success. criteria where significant differences were found are introduced by way of xx (favouring developed countries) and ++ (favouring developing countries). the second level from the centre of the mind map contains descriptions which serve as subclassifications of some practices into subcriteria. second level and where applicable third level, branches contain the original survey items (practices) from the literature review. each practice carries its original numbering from the quantitative survey questionnaire as developed from the literature review. the profile of world class organisations as per the seven literature-based world class criteria was constructed from a literature review. the key difference between the proposed empirically reconstituted world class model and the conceptual view from the literature is that the former provides for a practical sequential logic for how the world class ‘story’ unfolds. the latter provides for a theoretical model founded on a review of the literature. what follows is the profile of world class organisations empirically constructed from reconstituted world class criteria as mapped in figure 5. transformational leadership which is centered on its customers, drives future-stretch strategies which rapidly change to meet the changing needs of their customers (beer, 2009; browne, 2003; collins, 2001; collins & porras, 2002; joyce, 2005; krames, 2005; nel & beudeker, 2009, veldsman, 2002). this ‘future’ is shared and owned by the majority in the organisation, and is also extended to all its stakeholders. world class leaders know that to win and keep the hearts and minds of their vacillating customers. they have to drive continual innovation and change to stay ahead of their competition (beer, 2009; flannery, hofrichter & platten, 1996; simon, 2000; stewart, 2006; van dyk & herholdt, 2003). driven by customer-centric leadership, powerful branding is established to make it clear what world class is, what it stands for and what it promises to its customers. the brand promise resides in the hearts and minds of all its stakeholders. what the brand stands for is also experienced the same way by all their internal and external customers and stakeholders (calloway, 2003; grulke & sibler, 2002; swart, 2005). thinking like their customers and fuelled by their brand promise, interconnected business processes are designed to service their customers. the organisation is designed around continually improving business processes in such a way that it can adapt to vacillating customer needs. innovative ideas are born by working closely with customers and suppliers. this partnering cuts across functional boundaries to create a seamless organisation. continual improvement is therefore a way of life (boxall & macky, 2009; beer, 2009; de toni & tonchia, 1994; hunt, 2000; joyce, 2005; simon, 2000). ongoing process improvement and the change that it brings fuels the need for ongoing learning ahead of change to continuously challenge the status quo. people development is determined by a world class organisation’s desired future. real time performance feedback is ongoing with readily accessible performance information where performance, rewards and recognition are closely linked (amaratunga & baldry, 2002; beer, 2009; gross & nalbatia, 2002; nel & beudeker, 2009; veldsman, 2002). the question is whether there is any order in which the evolution to becoming world class should unfold? three approaches are plausible, firstly, that there is the sequence to be followed to becoming world class. the sequential order in which the exploratory criteria in the reconstituted world class model in figure 5 have been described, starting clockwise with customer centric leadership sharing their vision with all their stakeholders, suggests a sequence to follow to ascend to world class. secondly, that continuous incremental improvement over all world class criteria will systemically raise performance over time. thirdly, is that there is a combination of both the first and second approach which embraces the japanese yin and yang approach which rejects an ‘either/or’ in favour of an ‘and’ philosophy figure 3 & 4 figure 5 conclusion (back to top) the implications of the reconstituted model of world class criteria and practices reveal that although the criteria and related practices in the model are sound, the extent to which the practices are applied on the ground are likely to differ between developed and developing country contexts because of empirically demonstrated differences in national cultures (hofstede, 1980; hofstede, 1991). nevertheless, the study did reveal that there are practices which, if embraced to a much greater extent by organisations in developing countries, will positively impact their business performance. adoption of a proposed empirically reconstituted world class model implies support for the view that becoming leading world class requires a deliberate leadership and organisation choice regardless of physical location. thus physical location does play a role in being world class or not. but location has to be qualified by the choice exercised by leadership to be world class or not. the study undertaken has the following strengths, firstly, a comprehensive literature review identified common views held by authors on world class practices whilst at the same time highlighting and bringing in some unique views that are not commonly reported on, secondly, opting for a quantitative approach, using a web-based on-line survey instrument enabled the researchers to reach targeted participants around the world within a tight time frame in order to compare organisations across developing and developed countries. the study has the following weaknesses, firstly, the objective was to identify and then invite participating organisations which are considered world class in developed and developing country context. whilst the initial objective was to survey an equal number of developing countries to that of developed countries, lack of cooperation from developing countries hampered this objective, relegating the research to southern africa where sufficient participants could be found. consequently, whilst reference is made to developed countries in the findings of the study, these findings are empirically more directly applicable to the southern africa region than the rest of developed countries round the world. a more extensive sample involving other developing countries would have given more weight to the findings of the study. secondly, the survey instrument was in english only and the researchers had to assume that respondents in non-english speaking countries would understand the content of the survey the same way. although this could not be guaranteed, most senior executives across the world are assumed to have a reasonable command of english which would have negated much of the impact of language on the outcomes of the study. triangulation of data by way of supplementing the quantitative data with qualitative data would have cast more light on why organisations in developing countries responded in the way they did. however, this would have required extensive resources and would have extended the time to complete the study to an unrealistic extent. it is believed that future research in the area could entail the following, firstly, making comparisons between developing countries. whilst the study sought to research the validity of world class criteria between developed and developing countries, the only countries where responses could be obtained were in the southern africa region. further research opportunities exist in establishing whether the empirically arrived at formula and those world class criteria applicable to a developing country like south africa are equally applicable to developing countries in the rest of the world. secondly, the reasons for phenomena arising from the results of this study are based on insights of and consequential suppositions by the researchers and have not been empirically researched for validity. for example, the reasons why organisations in developing countries like south africa do not sufficiently share their strategies with their people are not clearly understood. a contextual supposition is the lower overall levels of work force education in south africa. further empirical research will uncover the real reasons whilst at the same time recommend appropriate interventions to close the gap. thirdly, closing the gap between developed and developing countries caused by ever accelerating globalization. it is postulated that as globalisation shrinks the world even further, the differences in world class practices found between organisations in developed and developing countries will diminish rapidly. it is not known to what extent this gap has already closed or is progressing to close since this study only captures the differences between developed and developing countries at the time of this study. fourthly, the practise of practices on-the-ground. whilst some identified world class criteria differ and some are complementary between developed and developing country context, the on-the-ground practise of these practices (the way things are done) may reveal even greater differences. this will require on-site observation which may require triangulation of both qualitative and quantitative research. fifthly, using organisation performance measures to validate criteria or practices and determining which criteria or practices are best predictors of success. hard measures from one or more organisations in developed and developing countries respectively will validate the findings of this study and will also show which criteria are the best predictors of success and finally the determination of an evolutionary path to ascend to world class. sixthly, the suggested evolutionary path to ascend to world class by way of the empirically reconstituted world class model requires validation in practice. ascending to world class is more than an imperative for survival in a rapidly consolidating global economy where only the fittest and the best will enjoy a place in the sun and thrive. those which have proved themselves as the ‘best in class’ are showing the way to get to the top, irrespective of their country. it is now up to transformational thinking leadership to make the choice and take the necessary decisions to address the empirically researched opportunities provided in this study to become truly world class. country context can no longer be used as a valid excuse for not getting to the top of the world class ladder. this involves an informed and deliberate leadership and organisation choice regardless of physical location. references (back to top) amaratunga, d., & baldry, d. (2002). moving from performance measurement to performance management. facilities, 20 (5/6), 217–223. beatty, r.w., & schneier, c.e. (1997). new hr roles to impact organisational performance: from ‘partners’ to ‘players’. human resources management journal (n.n), 29–37. beer, m. (2009). high commitment, high performance. how to build a resilient organisation for sustained advantage. san franciso: jossey-bass. boxall, p., & macky, k. (2009). research and theory on high-performance work systems: progressing the high-involvement stream. human resource management journal, 19(1), 3-23. browne, r.f. (2003). ceo’s personal revelation. oklahoma city: the great plains coca-cola company. budwar, p.s., & debrah, y.a. (2001). ‘introduction’. in: p.s. budwar & y.a. debrah (eds.), human resource management in developing countries (pp. 1–16), london: routledge. calloway, j. (2003). becoming a category of one. how extraordinary companies transcend commodity and defy comparison. new jersey: john wiley and sons. collins, j. (2001). good to great. new york: harper collins publishers. collins, j.c., & porras, j.i. (2002). built to last. successful habits of visionary companies. new york: harper collins. de kock, p.m., & slabbert, j.a. (2003). transformational leadership in business organisations ascending to world-class status: a case study in the petrochemical industry. sa journal for industrial psychology /sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 29(1), 1–7. de toni, a., & tonchia, s. (1996). lean organisation, management by process and performance measurement. international journal of operations & production management, 16(2), 279. drennan, d., & pennington, s. (1999). ladders to world class performance. london: kogan page limited. flannery, p., hofrichter, a., & platten, e. (1996). people, performance & pay. new york: the free press. gross, s.e., & nalbatian, h.r. (2002). looking at rewards holistically. world at work journal. (2)52–55. grulke, w., & sibler, g. (2002). lessons in radical innovation. london: prentice hall. hamel, g., & prahalad, c.k. (1989). strategic intent. harvard business review, 4, 63–67. hamel, g., & prahalad, c.k. (1994). competing for the future. harvard business school, 8, 21–22. hofstede, g. (1980). culture’s consequences. international differences in work-related values. beverly hills: sage. hofstede, g. (1991). cultures and organizations. software of the mind. london: mcgraw-hill. hunt, d.v. (2000). process mapping. how to reengineer your business processes. new york: wiley. japanese standards association (2003). tr q 0005. quality management system – guidelines for sustainable growth, 5(e), 1. jones, c.r. (1994). improving your key business processes. the tqm magazine, 6(2), 25–29. joyce, w.f. (2005). what really works: building the 4+2 organisation. organisational dynamics, 34(2), 118–129. krames, j.a. (2005). jack welch and the 4 e’s of leadership. how to put ge’s leadership formula to work in your organisation. new york: mcgraw-hill. magee, d. (2003). turn around. how carlos ghosn rescued nissan. new york: harper collins press. nel, j. (1994). presentation to coca-cola bottlers. johannesburg: abi. nel, c., & beudeker, n. (2009). (r)evolution. how to create a high performance organisation. cape town: village of leaders. o’neal, s. (1998). the phenomenon of total rewards. aca journal, 7(3), 6–22. o’reilly, c.a., & pfeffer, j. (2000). hidden value. how great companies achieve extraordinary results with ordinary people. boston: harvard business school press. peters, t. (2003). re-imagine. london: dorling kindersley limited. pfau, b.n., & kay, i.t. (2002). the human capital edge: 21 people management practices your company must implement (or avoid) to maximize shareholder value. new jersey: mcgraw-hill. rosenthal, r., rosnow, r.l., & rubin, d.b. (2000).  contrasts and effect sizes in behavioural research: a correlational approach. cambridge: cambridge university press. scheepers, j.m. (1992). toetskonstruksie: teorie en praktyk [test construction: theory and practice]. johannesburg: rau-drukpers. simon, h. (1996). hidden champions. lessons from 500 of the world’s best unknown companies. boston: harvard business school press. slabbert, j.a., prinsloo, j.j., swanepoel, b.j., & backer, w. (1998). managing industrial relations in south africa. durban: butterworth. slater, r. (1999). the ge way fieldbook. jack welch’s battle plan for corporate revolution. new york: mcgraw-hill. stewart, t. (2006). adapt or die in today’s market. business it africa, 6(3), 14–15. swart, a. (2005). is your brand setting the trend? business day management review, 4, 1–3. telleria, k.m., little, d., & macbryde, j. (2002). managing process through teamwork. business process management journal, 8(4) 338–350. thorne, k., & smith, m. (2000). competitive advantage in world class organisations. management accounting journal, 6(4), 21–22. tichy, n. (2002). the leadership engine. how winning companies build leaders at every level. new york: harper collins. van dyk, l., & heroldt, j. (2003). transforming your employment brand. the absa experience. johannesburg: knowledge resources. veldsman, t.h. (2002). into the people effectiveness arena. navigating between chaos and order. randburg: knowledge resources. zairi, m. (1994). benchmarking: the best tool for measuring competitiveness. benchmarking for quality management and technology, 1(1), 11–24. abstract introduction materials and methods results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) salah gad department of sociology and social work, ajman university, ajman, united arab emirates department of community organization, helwan university, helwan, egypt tatyana nazarova department of social work, transbaikal state university, chita, russian federation svetlana rzanova department of journalism, national research mordovia state university, saransk, russian federation svetlana makar institute of regional economics and inter-budgetary relations, financial university under the government of the russian federation, moscow, russian federation department of physical and socio-economic geography, national research mordovia state university, saransk, russian federation citation gad, s., nazarova, t., rzanova, s., & makar, s. (2022). social workers’ job satisfaction in public institutions. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a2127. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.2127 original research social workers’ job satisfaction in public institutions salah gad, tatyana nazarova, svetlana rzanova, svetlana makar received: 28 sept. 2022; accepted: 19 oct. 2022; published: 25 nov. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the effectiveness of social service delivery depends on the motivation of social workers to perform their work well. motivation is directly related to social workers’ job satisfaction. research purpose: the study aimed to determine the factors of job dissatisfaction among social workers and identify ways to address them. motivation for the study: the research tries to solve the existing problem of low job satisfaction among social workers, given the low wages in this area, the great complexity of the work (associated with emotional tension) and difficult working conditions. research approach/design and method: the study relies on a qualitative approach – a subjective approach to the research from the social worker’s point of view. main findings: the research found that social workers, being a rather specific category of employees, consider the issue of job satisfaction in a rather complex symbiosis. factors such as relatively low pay or paper records and documentation keeping are of little importance. instead, the irrational fear of losing a job influences social workers’ perceptions of work and their job satisfaction the most. practical/managerial implications: social workers value and are satisfied not with the job in the sense of their performance or the result obtained but with the actual availability of the job (the workplace). contribution/value-add: compared with other international studies, the study opens a new vector of scientific inquiry – the elimination of the fear factor from the model of job satisfaction assessment for social workers. keywords: fear of job loss; personnel management; social work; work efficiency; work motivation. introduction labour efficiency depends to a large extent on employee satisfaction. this is especially relevant for social workers in public institutions whose work results are not a specific physical product but a social service. dissatisfaction with working conditions affects the reduction in the number of social workers. the department of social development report states that the shortage of social workers further exacerbates the lack of capacity to implement policies and programmes related to social problems such as substance abuse, human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (aids), chronic poverty, food insecurity and other related social problems (department of social development, 2009). farmer (2011) argues that since the seventies, the question of job satisfaction and motivation of public sector social workers has been asked countless times, sparking much controversy in the social work profession. the results of studies on job satisfaction have proven that the more satisfied an employee is with their job, the less likely he or she is to leave their position (gleasonwynn & mindel, 1999). there is a direct link between the quality of services provided and the degree of satisfaction of a social worker. butler (1990) argues that institutions that strive to provide quality social services will also strive to increase the job satisfaction of their employees in the long run. many studies prove the importance and relevance of social workers’ job satisfaction. social services are a noncommercial activity (parvanova & kriviradeva, 2019). therefore, market incentives to increase labour efficiency cannot always be applied here. the main factor of quality social services provision is the personal motivation of social workers (akesson et al., 2016; gasw, 2016), which directly depends on their job satisfaction. this study aims to identify ways and means to increase job satisfaction of social workers in state institutions. the study is also relevant because job satisfaction and employees’ motivation of state social workers in russia are not as commonly explored as in other countries. literature review there are many studies on the job satisfaction of social workers. most of these studies aim to identify why social workers quit, which leads to a shortage of employees in public social institutions. whitaker et al. (2006) concluded that social workers’ job satisfaction is negatively affected by increased paperwork, the severity of client problems, workload, lists of people waiting for social services, distribution of non–social work tasks, level of supervision, coordination with community agencies and availability of professional training. for the most part, increased workload leads to reduced job performance. van wyk (2011) states that job-related stress can be caused by internal and external factors or the nature of work. high staff turnover in social work institutions is a severe obstacle to quality social service delivery. earle (2008) also considers staff turnover concerning job dissatisfaction. he argues that job attrition exacerbates the adverse effects of a decline in social workers’ numbers since there is a growing need for their services. however, the authors do not look at the causes of job dissatisfaction among social workers. the main emphasis is on identifying the negative consequences of job dissatisfaction. weaver et al. (2006) note that retention of social workers is an urgent professional and practical task that must be addressed by improving their job satisfaction. again, the main emphasis is on the consequences, not causes of dissatisfaction. thus, earle and weaver miss the fundamental component of the problem, which is why social workers are dissatisfied with their jobs. strolin et al. (2006) classify the causes of turnover in social work agencies into three categories: individual, supervisory and organisational factors. individual causes result from personal characteristics such as education or professional commitment. organisational factors are the size of the workforce, job satisfaction, organisational climate and culture, salary, benefits, promotion opportunities and administrative burdens. the authors view job satisfaction as an essential factor in social services provision. eborall and garmeson (2001) argue that the stressful and demanding nature of the job’s time constraints burden social workers’ personal and professional survival strategies and lead to staff turnover. ultimately, job dissatisfaction leads to the resignations of social workers. cole et al. (2004) studied how to increase job satisfaction among social workers. salary, job autonomy, opportunities for promotion, quality of supervision, good working conditions, peer support, encouragement and social support all contribute to increased job satisfaction among social workers. elpers and westhuis (2008) surveyed social workers to determine which factors improve job satisfaction. these factors included salary and benefits; career advancement opportunities; a supportive and inspiring work environment; clarity of job responsibilities; recognition; shared decision-making and adequate resources that allow employees to create positive outcomes for clients. a group of researchers also investigated the role of leadership in increasing social work employee satisfaction. stoesz (1997) concluded that most social workers who move into leadership positions often have less adequate training and mentoring, making them prone to changing jobs. rank and hutchison (2000) found that 75 people at leadership positions at the national association of social workers (nasw) said that the education and training they received did not meet their expectations. the level of training is another factor that affects the job satisfaction of social service workers. thus, one can summarise that burnout, stress, work engagement, turnover and job satisfaction are five aspects that are mentioned most often in studies about retaining social workers in the profession. it is important to note that the studies mentioned above were primarily conducted in countries with developed state institutions that allocate significant budget funds to the social sphere (ravalier et al., 2021). at the same time, the issue of social workers’ job satisfaction in less affluent countries is not considered at all (jorgoni & ymeri, 2016; kerimi, 2016; matkovic, 2016; miluka, 2016). nevertheless, in less wealthy countries, such as russia, the quality provision of social services is critical since many citizens use these services. problem statement a literature review showed that the causes of social workers’ dissatisfaction in nonaffluent countries are rarely considered, although these are the countries where many citizens use social services. one of the main ways to improve the quality of social services is to increase the satisfaction of social workers with their job. this study explores the issue of social workers’ job satisfaction in public institutions in russia, a country where social services are in high demand (nita, 2017; partsakhaladze, 2017; rama, 2016). the country was chosen because it has a large population, and many people use social services, which makes the issue of job satisfaction among social workers very important. this study aims to identify the causes of job dissatisfaction among social workers and ways to overcome them. to answer this question, firstly, the authors examine the job conditions of social workers and ask them about how they perceive their work. secondly, the study looks at what functions and what kinds of activities social workers have and do to determine their list of responsibilities. thirdly, the authors determine what interventions can eliminate the mismatch between the functional responsibilities of social workers and the work they do. the primary research method is interviews with social workers in public institutions. the interviews are then analysed, and conclusions are formed. the research hypothesis is that social workers’ job satisfaction depends on working conditions and level of remuneration. finally, the authors provide recommendations on increasing social workers’ job satisfaction at public institutions. the results can solve the current problem of low job satisfaction among social workers, which is caused by low wages, difficulties, emotional tension and challenging working conditions. materials and methods the study was conducted in several stages. the first stage used a qualitative approach based on extensive research and a phenomenological paradigm. the approach was chosen because it allows one to identify the state of the study rather than measure frequency or establish correlations between variables. the qualitative method is also appropriate because the desired outcome of the study is to create a narrative and examine the perceived factors and barriers to social workers’ job satisfaction. a subjective approach highlights the social workers’ perspective and which factors they consider to be the main contributors to job satisfaction. a social worker is thus the main subject of research. the second stage of the research included developing the study’s design, identifying dependent and independent variables or regressors. an exploratory, descriptive design was chosen because the dependent variables were qualitative. such variables included functional responsibilities, working experience in a state institution, nature of duties performed, team atmosphere, relations with the management and the absence or presence of duties not directly related to social worker duties. these factors help determine the degree of social workers’ satisfaction with their job. the third stage of the study was devoted to finding solutions to the problem of low job satisfaction. a problem-solving method was applied to determine possible ways to increase employees’ satisfaction at public institutions. improved work satisfaction depends on the solution of problems employees face during their professional duties. this study follows a nonprobabilistic, purposive sampling methodology. purposive sampling is based entirely on the judgement of the researcher. the sample is collected to represent the most distinctive or typical attributes of the population that best serve the purpose of the study. this study’s sample consisted of 206 social workers who agreed to participate in the study. respondents were selected through e-mails sent to the addresses of state institutions providing social services with a request to fill out a respondent questionnaire. those workers who agreed to take the survey filled out the questionnaire in the google form (alphabet, inc., mountain view, california, united states) at the provided link. the determining factor for becoming a respondent was the desire of a social worker to take the survey. thus, the authors were limited in their ability to form the sample. overall, 80% of respondents work in medical social services, and 20% provide educational, social services. the questionnaires contained questions to identify a respondent’s attitude to their work. the obtained data were analysed by statistical data processing methods, such as moving average and central tendency methods. if a particular answer was found in more than 50% of cases, it was significant. the study considered all answers that occurred in more than 50% of answers to be important, because this factor is essential for half of the respondents. based on the data obtained, the results of the study were formulated. results the results achieved by people in the work process depend on more than just their knowledge, skills or abilities (fofanova & mamedova, 2018). effective performance is achieved only when employees are properly motivated, that is, willing to work. positive motivation activates a person’s abilities to realise his or her potential, while negative motivation inhibits the manifestation of abilities and prevents the achievement of one’s goals. in the course of the study (using the method of moving average and coefficient estimates), four groups of factors determining the social workers’ attitudes towards the performance of their duties were identified: (1) content and organisation of work; (2) working conditions and remuneration; (3) work and rest mode; and (4) relationships in the team (see table 1). table 1: factor loadings matrix of work satisfaction. in the first group of factors (18.1%), the most significant scores were given to the indicators of labour intensity, labour content, labour organisation and the amount of work performed. thus, in this category, the respondents highlighted the importance of what they do rather than the environment in which they do it. in other words, respondents have an unsatisfied need for personal fulfilment and recognition from others. it is essential for them that their work is of value to others. overall, 75% of representatives of the educational sphere and 60% of representatives of the medical sphere gave such answers. in the second category (16.2%), the most significant factors were digitalisation, sanitary and hygienic working conditions, general working conditions, basic needs satisfaction and remuneration. it is worth noting that the remuneration issue concerns 100% of respondents of both medical and educational services. sanitary and hygienic working conditions were mentioned as important by 100% of respondents from medical services. thus, this indicator is primarily determined by the nature of one’s work. in this group, the respondents’ emphasis is shifted to working conditions, which they perceive as the attitude of the management and society as a whole. the need for comfortable working conditions can be traced in all answers. in the third group of factors (15.1%), the most significant scores were given to the number of days off, the length of the workweek and the start and end time of the shift. these factors were mentioned by 75% of respondents from both medical and educational service institutions. at the same time, the most significant factor for employees of medical institutions was the beginning and the end of the work shift (60%), while for employees of the educational sphere, it was the number of days off (50%). one can assume that medical and educational sphere employees perceive working time duration differently. for medical workers, it is crucial to have a clear start and end time of the shift, which, for specific reasons, is ‘floating’, which leads to overtime. at the same time, educators need to have certain days off. apparently, on their days off, teachers are engaged either in preparation for lessons or checking pupils’ works, which they perceive as a working day. the responses show the value for social workers of their time and the possibility to spend it at their discretion. respondents feel the need for rest and rationing of working time. in the fourth group of factors (9.2%), the relationship with coworkers and management was the most significant. the highlighted factors account for 58.6% of the total variance of evaluations. thus, in the first group of factors, which described the content and organisation of work, the most popular indicators were the organisation of work, labour content, labour intensity and amount of work performed. however, this group also included satisfaction by relations with the management. the second group of factors was related to working conditions. the third group of factors concerned salary and work–rest regime satisfaction. the fourth group of factors was about relations in the team. the analysis of the average shows that the most informative factors are those related to the content and conditions of work. salary is not decisive for social workers’ job satisfaction (if that were the case, it would be separated into a factor on its own). in the factor matrix, the importance of remuneration is even reduced (the assessment in the second matrix moved from the second to the third factor). on the other hand, the importance of such indicators as work–rest regime and relationships inside the team has increased. social workers’ job satisfaction is also significantly influenced by the fear of losing a job, which has become an integral part of everyday life for most citizens, along with other social fears (criminalisation, drop in living standards, impoverishment, etc.). it increases the general state of anxiety and alarm among people. this fear plays a vital role in the job satisfaction of social workers. the fear of losing one’s job is reflected in exaggerated assessments of satisfaction with some aspects of work and environment and decreased criticism and insistence on improving working conditions. this problem was relevant for 54% of respondents who were afraid of losing their job (slightly higher among those with lower wages) and 72% of participants who said they were not afraid to lose their jobs. thus, the value of the job itself ‘suppresses’ claims for higher wages and better working conditions. the study results show that social workers, being a rather specific category of employees, consider the issue of job satisfaction in a rather complex symbiosis. along with relatively low wages, keeping all records and documentation in paper format, these factors are surprisingly insignificant, although they should be the ones that have the most impact on the satisfaction indicator. instead, the irrational fear of losing one’s job strongly influences social workers’ perceptions of work and job satisfaction. the mere fact of having a job and the presence of fear of losing it distorts workers’ perceptions of work. consequently, having a job as such is already perceived positively and is mixed with feelings of perceiving the job in a positive aspect, despite the presence of many unfavourable factors. thus, creating a sense of social security should help overcome the fear of job loss and positively impact social workers’ perceptions of job satisfaction. it is necessary to increase social workers’ sense of value to feel their importance to the institution they work in and society. at the same time, it is important to digitise work processes (so that social workers spend less time filling out documents manually) and ensure that the salaries are increased (ponomareva & nikitina, 2019). the identified factors of social workers’ job satisfaction differ significantly from similar studies in more affluent countries. social workers in russia emphasise the societal significance and importance of their job among job satisfaction factors. this feeling outweighs even the wages and working conditions, which are in second place. according to the respondents, working time rationing and the need for rest were in third place. discussion in general, the obtained results confirm the findings by other scientists. similarities pertain to the dependence of employee satisfaction on the results of their work (gsswa, 2017; marmo & berkman, 2020; mrhálek & kajanová, 2018; zegarac, 2016). at the same time, this study outlines a new cross-section of social workers’ job satisfaction research, namely the fear of job loss. the fear of losing a job makes social workers appreciate it more (if not overestimate it) and perceive it more positively in the context of the possibility of losing it. this new aspect brings scientific and practical novelty to job satisfaction research and finding solutions to the problem of low work satisfaction. considering the obtained result and the fact that studies considered in the literature review do not mention the fear of job loss as a significant factor of job satisfaction, it is necessary to revise the study approaches (although the fear factor was mentioned by several studies) (bureyeva et al., 2017; kaveshnikova & agafonova, 2016; kibanov et al., 2016). if the fear of losing a job were present but statistically insignificant, it would not affect the results obtained. however, if this factor were not identified or not part of the hypothesis, then there is a possibility that the presence of this factor could significantly distort the outcome. in this research, the fear of job loss significantly influenced the evaluation of the other factors. in particular, it significantly reduced the importance of salary (which is a fundamental factor in job satisfaction) and social communication factors. people are ready to tolerate bad relations with their colleagues and insufficient wages if only they get to keep their job (krasinskaya, 2017; podolyan, 2019; sokolov, 2016). the reviewed studies highlight the stress factor. in economically developed countries, social workers note that their work is associated with much stress, leading to emotional tension and burnout. the stress factor is actively discussed in the research, and scientists are looking for every way to reduce it to improve social workers’ working conditions. in this study, the stress factor was not detected. respondents did not indicate stress as a factor that influences their job satisfaction. this suggests that in russia, stress at work is not considered a form of dissatisfaction with working conditions. most likely, it can be explained that people constantly live under stress and do not distinguish it as an independent factor that affects satisfaction. this conclusion is also confirmed by the general tension in society generating the fear of losing one’s job. essential factors of social workers’ job dissatisfaction in developed countries are related to personal motives – job involvement or staff turnover. this study found that in the conditions of a constant budget deficit of the social sphere and low salaries, the main factor of dissatisfaction with social workers’ jobs is the nonrecognition of their work as meaningful (even though the importance of social work has been repeatedly argued in united nations children’s fund [unicef] reports) (unicef, 2017a, 2017b, 2018; unicef ecaro, 2016, 2018; unicef ecaro ecd section, 2018). the second most important factors were the wage sizes and working conditions, partially discussed in other studies (mlsd and moes of kyrgyzstan, 2018; rogers, 2018; rogers & sammon, 2018). it can be concluded that a country’s economic development directly affects social workers’ job satisfaction. in fact, in economically developed rich countries, wage size, irregular working hours or insufficient free time were not among the dissatisfaction factors. these differences in factors are of scientific value and are a subject for further research in this area. the studies highlight promotion (career advancement), less management oversight and more autonomy for social workers, higher wages and increased social security by providing a better package of social guarantees, among the factors that increase job satisfaction. in this context, this study strongly contrasts with the other findings (cole et al., 2004; elpers & westhuis, 2008). focusing on the problem-solving approach to increase social workers’ job satisfaction, one can conclude that the fundamental problem – the fear of losing a job – should be solved first. even the presence of a social package, a decent salary level and social guarantees do not adequately affect the perception of a social worker’s job satisfaction (as argued by rodionova & dominyak, 2019) because there is always the possibility of losing the job. moreover, the more these kinds of benefits are available to the worker, the greater the fear of losing it all. the study has shown that social workers are satisfied not with their work in the sense of their activity and outcomes but with the availability of work (the workplace). these are entirely different things that need to be evaluated differently. in the context of the obtained results and comparison with the results of other studies, the relevant issue for future research remains the elimination of the fear factor from the model of assessment of job satisfaction by social workers. the complexity and relevance of this question are how to eliminate the fear factor when interviewing respondents, as they give their answers under the influence of this fear. the conclusion confirms the value of the study results, opening new aspects of the unsolved problem of social workers’ job satisfaction. another critical area for future research is the influence of the socio-economic development of the country on social workers’ job satisfaction. the overall standard of living in the country affects the number of people in need of social services and the level of material well-being of social workers. as the economic well-being of the country and social workers in particular increases, the factors affecting their job satisfaction will also change. conclusion social workers’ job satisfaction is the most important factor of workforce stability, but it is an ambiguous characteristic. decreased satisfaction harms the effectiveness of the employee, leading to negative consequences in the staffing of the institution: an increase in staff turnover, deterioration of labour and production discipline, absenteeism, the facts of unfair attitude to the property. at the same time, the obtained results contrast with this view of the consequences of job dissatisfaction. the prevailing fear of losing one’s job suppresses the will of social workers to improve working conditions. they agree to work under any conditions as long as they keep their jobs. there is another side to the issue of employee job satisfaction. a fully satisfied worker is a bad worker since he or she has a weak desire to improve (both professionally and personally). the tension of motivational energy decreases, and the interest in the work effectiveness deteriorates. thus, labour satisfaction should not be maximum but optimal. in order to increase labour efficiency, a certain level of employees’ dissatisfaction (especially in the sense of work) must be present. this study indicates the presence of the third option, in which the dissatisfied employee is so afraid of losing the job that he or she perceives it in a positive aspect, which improves their perception of satisfaction with such work. at the same time, latent dissatisfaction prevents and does not contribute to awakening the motives to improve the quality of work or demand improved conditions because of the fear of losing the job, which overwhelms the perception. thus, a social worker is afraid of losing his or her job and therefore holds onto it, but he or she does not show dissatisfaction with the working conditions and the level of pay because he or she is afraid of losing the job. at the same time, increasing wages and improving working conditions will not significantly increase social workers’ job satisfaction because they will be even more afraid of losing it. in the end, it may have the opposite effect. the root cause of this situation is the fear of losing one’s job. this fear should be eliminated, and only then it will be possible to solve other problems of increasing job satisfaction of social workers in state institutions. the study has several limitations. firstly, the sample size of respondents and their stratification depends on the region, which can change job satisfaction factors. secondly, the study was built primarily on a subjective approach. if another approach is chosen (for example, objective economic indicators of living standards of social workers or quantitative indicators of their working conditions), the results may also change. the practical value of the article lies in the possibility of using the results obtained to directly improve the level of satisfaction of social workers in public institutions of developing countries, for which low wages and insufficient funding are common factors. further research could focus on exploring ways to eliminate the fear factor in the surveys (since it affects the answers) and studying the impacts of a country’s socio-economic development on job satisfaction of social workers. acknowledgements competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interest exists. authors’ contributions s.g. was responsible for the conceptualisation, methodology, writing of the original draft, supervision and project administration; t.n. contributed to the methodology, formal analysis, writing of the original draft and visualisation; s.r. contributed to the software, data curation, review and editing of the manuscript, supervision and project administration; s.m. contributed to the validation, investigation, resources and the review and editing of the manuscript. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability the data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references akesson, b., dhembo, e., muratbegovic, e., & mihaylov, s. (2016). the social service workforce as related to child protection in south-east europe: a regional overview. terre des hommes, child protection hub for south-east europe. bureyeva, n.n., kozlova, m.s., petrova, i.e., & tukhvatullina, m.a. (2017). labor motivation and labor satisfaction of university employees (based on sociological research). bulletin of nizhny novgorod university. n.i. lobachevsky. series: social sciences, 3(47), 79–87. butler, b. (1990). job satisfaction: management’s continuing challenge. social work, 35(2), 112–117. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/35.2.112 cole, d., panchanadeswaran, s., & daining, c. (2004). predictors of job satisfaction of licensed social workers: perceived efficacy as a mediator of the relationship between workload and job satisfaction. journal of social service research, 31(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1300/j079v31n01_01 department of social development. (2009). recruitment and retention strategy for social workers. author. retrieved from https://www.westerncape.gov.za/assets/departments/social-development/recruitment_and_retentention_strategy_for_social_workers_2007.pdf earle, n. (2008). social work as a scarce and critical profession. retrieved from https://www.socialserviceworkforce.org/system/files/resource/files/social%20work%20as%20a%20scarce%20and%20critical%20profession.pdf eborall, c., & garmeson, k. (2001). desk research on recruitment and retention in social care and social work. business and industrial market research. elpers, k., & westhuis, d. (2008). organizational leadership and its impact on social workers job satisfaction: a national study. administration in social work, 32(3), 26–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/03643100801922399 farmer, d. (2011). increasing job satisfaction among social workers. international journal of humanities and social science, 1(18), 1–8. retrieved from http://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/vol_1_no_18_special_issue/1.pdf fofanova, g.a., & mamedova, a.s. (2018). satisfaction with the work of employees of socioeconomic professions. sofia, 2, 13–19. retrieved from https://elib.bsu.by/bitstream/123456789/208633/1/13-19.pdf gasw. (2016). social work service evaluation with people with disabilities. author. gleasonwynn, p., & mindel, c.h. (1999). a proposed model for predicting job satisfaction among nursing home social workers. journal of gerontological social work, 32(3), 65–79. https://doi.org/10.1300/j083v32n03_05 gsswa. (2017). the state of the social service workforce 2017 report. author. jorgoni, s., & ymeri, e. (2016). supporting planning of social care services: policy brief on roles and functions for the institutions involved with social care services. institute of contemporary studies/unicef albania. kaveshnikova, l.a., & agafonova, m.s. (2016). motivation of teachers as the basis for the quality of higher education. scientific review. economic sciences, 2, 78–81. kerimi, n. (2016). social protection of children in turkmenistan: a concept for the development of integrated services for the social support of families and children. unicef turkmenistan. kibanov, a.y., batkaeva, i.a., mitrofanova, e.a., & lovcheva, m.v. (2016). motivation and stimulation of labor activity. ifra-m. krasinskaya, l.f. (2017). labor motivation of teachers in the conditions of optimization of higher education system: research results. actual problems of humanitarian and socioeconomic sciences, 8(11), 112–114. marmo, s., & berkman, c. (2020). hospice social workers’ perception of being valued by the interdisciplinary team and the association with job satisfaction. social work in health care, 59(4), 219–235. https://doi.org/10.1080/00981389.2020.1737306 matkovic, g. (2016). supporting planning of social care services: proposal on establishing a package of services in albania and financing mechanisms. institute of contemporary studies/unicef albania. miluka, j. (2016). supporting planning of social care services: vulnerability mapping. institute of contemporary studies/unicef albania. mlsd and moes of kyrgyzstan. (2018). sectoral qualification framework of workers in the social sphere. unpublished. author. mrhálek, t., & kajanová, a. (2018). work satisfaction and mental pressure of social workers and workers in social services. kontakt, 20(2), 166–170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.kontakt.2017.10.001 nita, d. (2017). reviewing existing quality mechanisms in child protection: romania national report. terre des hommes, child protection hub for south-east europe. partsakhaladze, n. (2017). child protection social work workforce in georgia and countries of the cee/cis region. journal of young researchers, 5, 1–7. parvanova, y., & kriviradeva, b. (2019). job satisfaction in social organizations-assessment of employees. in g. wudarzewsk (ed.), człowiek w środowisku edukacyjnym (рр. 105–113). zintegrowana platforma edukacyjna. podolyan, e.a. (2019). study of staff satisfaction with working conditions: factors, methods and results. bulletin of the samara municipal institute of management, 2, 7–13. ponomareva, o.y., & nikitina, o.y. (2019). satisfaction with work as an indicator of the quality of human capital of the organization in the conditions of digitalization. in the 2nd international conference on digitalization of (dseme-2019), yekaterinburg, 05–06 december, 2019 (pp. 67–74). retrieved from https://elar.urfu.ru/bitstream/10995/82470/1/978-80-88327-04-2_014.pdf rama, r. (2016). situation analysis on services for children with disabilities in albania. save the children. rank, m.g., & hutchison, w.s. (2000). an analysis of leadership within the social work profession. journal of social work education, 36(3), 487–502. https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2000.10779024 ravalier, j., wainwright, e., clabburn, o., loon, m., & smyth, n. (2021). working conditions and wellbeing in uk social workers. journal of social work, 21(5), 1105–1123. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468017320949361 rodionova, e.a., & dominyak, v.i. (2019). motivation and job satisfaction as factors in the effectiveness of employees of the organization. economics and management, 1, 70–77. rogers, j. (2018). inception report. international consultancy for preparation of social service standards and curriculum for teaching social work professionals. partnership for every child (p4ec) consultancy group for unicef turkmenistan. rogers, j., & sammon, e. (2018). we all matter: situation analysis of children with disabilities in albania. unicef albania. sokolov, d.n. (2016). analysis of obligations of parties of labor relations as a direction of research of personnel motivation in the sphere of higher education. vestnik vgu. series ‘economics and management’, 2, 101–104. stoesz, b. (1997). the end of social work. in m. reisch & e. gambrill (eds.), social work in the 21st century (pp. 368–375). sage. strolin, j.s., mccarthy, m., & caringi, j. (2006). causes and effects of child welfare workforce turnover: current state of knowledge and future directions. journal of public child welfare, 1(2), 29–52. https://doi.org/10.1300/j479v01n02_03 unicef. (2017a). improving education participation. policy and practice pointers for enrolling all children and adolescents in school and preventing dropout. unicef series on education participation and dropout prevention (vol. 2). author. unicef. (2017b). review and improvement of existing policies and standards in support of social work for children. an executive summary. author. unicef. (2018). the consultancy to support the ministry of health, the ministry of labour and social protection, the ministry of education in review and improvement of existing policies and standards in support of social work for children with the focus on quality assurance components. author. unicef ecaro. (2016). social work development regional workplan 2015–2018 (draft, mimeo). author. unicef ecaro. (2018). proposal of the models for the sustainable institutionalization of health mediators, provided by unicef ecaro (mimeo). author. unicef ecaro ecd section. (2018). briefing note for child protection network meeting, mimeo. author. van wyk, c. (2011). beroepstres en streshantering by maatskaplike werkers wat betrokke is by intervensie met seksueel misbruikte kinders. phd thesis. universiteit van stellenbosch, stellenbosch. weaver, d., chang, j., & gil de gibaja, m. (2006). the retention of public child welfare workers. university of california, california social work education center. whitaker, t., weismiller, t., & clark, e. (2006). assuring the sufficiency of a frontline workforce: a national study of licensed social workers: executive summary. national association of social workers. zegarac, n. (2016). social service workforce mapping in serbia. child protection hub. article information authors: khanyile c.c. nzukuma1 mark bussin1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: mark bussin email: drbussin@mweb.co.za postal address: po box 973, saxonwold 2132, south africa dates: received: 08 feb. 2011 accepted: 24 aug. 2011 published: 09 nov. 2011 how to cite this article: nzukuma, k.c.c., & bussin, m. (2011). job-hopping amongst african black senior management in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #360, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.360 copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) job-hopping amongst african black senior management in south africa in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study    • research objectives    • trends from the research literature    • the potential value-add of the study    • synthesis and critical evaluation of the literature       • conceptual definitions of key concepts    • literature review       • transformation in the united states of america and india       • analysis of the demographic landscape of senior management in south african corporates       • push and pull factors that cause african black senior managers to leave their organisations    • environmental factors (pull factors)    • organisational and individual factors (push factors) • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results • discussion    • results are discussed in relation to research objectives       • factors that push and pull african black senior managers to explore outside opportunities       • the demographic composition of senior management and top management       • international literature: similarities and differences in transformation challenges and solutions    • literature review integration with the findings    • recommendations and implications       • to management       • to african black senior managers    • conclusion    • limitations of this research    • future research • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract (back to top) orientation: the study focuses on understanding labour turnover trends amongst african black senior managers in south africa. there is a perception that turnover amongst african black senior managers is higher than average. there is also a perception that african black senior managers are only motivated by financial rewards when considering job change. research purpose: the study focused on understanding why african black senior managers have a propensity to change jobs and how organisations can resolve the trend. motivation for the study: to develop a better understanding of the push and pull factors for african black senior managers in organisations. research design, approach and method: the research was conducted in two phases, namely as part of a qualitative study and a quantitative study: creswell (2003) refers to this approach as triangulation. the target population was african black senior managers on the database of a large human resources consultancy, the south african rewards association and the association of black actuaries and investment professionals (absip) (n = 2600). a total of 208 usable responses were received. main findings: the main findings and contribution to the field of study was that african black senior managers do not trust organisations with their career development. they would rather take control of their own career development by moving from organisation to organisation to build their repertoire of skills and competence. they want to be in charge of their careers. this finding has profound implications for organisations employing african black managers in the senior cadre. practical/managerial implications: managers of african black senior managers need to create attractive employee value propositions that address the main findings. contribution/value-add: the research shows that african black senior managers generally seek corporate environments that encourage a sense of belonging and with a clear career growth plan. introduction (back to top) key focus of the study the broad based black economic empowerment (bbbee) act of 2003 and the employment equity act of 1998 have disrupted the labour market in south africa by accelerating the legislative need to appoint african black senior managers in organisations. there is at the same time an undersupply of candidates meeting the requirements because of the education system and job reservation policies under the apartheid government. one of the outcomes of the operating environment is a perception that there is an abnormally high job mobility rate amongst african black senior managers. the south african employment equity act of 1998 defines black people as people of coloured, indian and african descent. african black senior managers are the unit of study because of the unique position they occupy, as part of the small group of skilled black management talent in a country where the population consists of 79% black people. background to the study the injustice suffered by victims of racial discrimination and related intolerance are well documented, namely limited employment opportunities, segregation and endemic poverty (hay, 2001). the development of a black middle market has led to a high demand for african black senior management, with their intrinsic understanding of and established relationships within the black middle market. the limited number of qualified and experienced black professionals has created a number of perceptions around the mobility of top black talent. fourteen years into the new democratic dispensation, many companies are positioning themselves as being the employer of choice, and there is a distinct shift towards workplace equality, both gender-wise and in line with affirmative action (czakan, 2006). research objectives the main research aim is to understand why african black senior managers have a propensity to leave organisations. the main objective of this research is to understand factors that will push and pull them to explore opportunities outside their organisations. the first secondary objective is to evaluate statistics on demographic composition of senior management and top management. the secondary objective is to evaluate international literature to identify similarities in transformation challenges and solutions applied in international case studies. the secondary objectives were selected to reflect on demographic representation of african black senior managers in south africa to determine the extent of african black senior management skill. another reason for selecting the secondary objectives is to evaluate how this challenge has been addressed in societies with similar challenges in the world. trends from the research literature international literature from the united states of america (usa) and india indicates that after 40 years america has not achieved demographic transformation as was planned. affirmative action programmes in the united states have been effective in reducing, but not eliminating, discriminating practices (alleyne, 2005); for example, in 1963 a black male worker earned 50% of the equivalent of a white male worker and by 1993 this was raised to 75% (berger & berger, 2004). despite the limited success of affirmative action programmes in the usa, discrimination remains in existence, with education and work experience differences accounting for 50% of the wage gap between black and white male workers. whilst some may claim that affirmative action has meant reverse discrimination in terms of white people, white privilege remains intact (berger & berger, 2004). south african literature is minimal on african black senior managers but extensive on knowledge worker literature. sutherland (2003) maintains that knowledge workers market their skills and evaluate the value of return. the literature evaluates push factors such as discrimination, lack of development and lack of mentorship. pull factors such as entrepreneurship and remuneration are also evaluated. the role of line management in being an enabler for an attractive employment environment is emphasised. the potential value-add of the study demographic transformation of the south african economy as the next phase after the political transformation into the new democratic political order in 1994 is of major significance. from a business operation view, a demographic representative organisation will satisfy the diverse needs of their targeted customer base more effectively. a demographic representative labour force will ensure they bring culturally relevant products to the market (ngambi, 2002). labour turnover has been a challenge in the south african economy and more critical in the african black senior management labour segment, because of a small talent pool. the study will contribute in constructing tools which will enable line management to establish an environment that creates a sense of belonging. this research will add value to the current debate about causes of labour turnover within the african black senior management labour segment. the next sections cover a synthesis and critical evaluation of the literature, research design, findings and a discussion outlining recommendations and implications of the study. synthesis and critical evaluation of the literature conceptual definitions of key concepts for the purposes of this research, definitions will be linked to the two main subjects for discussion, namely african black senior managers and labour turnover. in 1998, the south african government passed the employment equity act no 55 of 1998. the purpose of this legislative act was to ensure that designated population groups in south africa are fully represented at all levels of the south african private and public sector. designated groups are black people (i.e. african, asian and coloured people), all women and people with disabilities. these groups are the population groups that have been deprived of opportunities in the era of the national party rule in south africa (1948–1994). labour turnover is referred to as an individual’s estimated probability that they will stay in an employing organisation. meanwhile, hamori (2010) defined labour turnover intentions as conscious wilfulness to seek for opportunities in other organisations. literature review the main objective of the study and the literature review was to develop a deep understanding of reasons why african black senior managers leave organisations. the literature review, divided into three parts, was based on main and secondary research objectives. an international literature review on countries that have had similar transformation challenges as south africa was conducted, and secondly an analysis of the demographic landscape of senior management in south african corporate was conducted. lastly, a review of push and pull factors, that cause african black senior managers to leave their organisations, was established. transformation in the united states of america and india affirmative action in the usa is about 40 years old, however, it is not constitutionally guaranteed and there are no formal quotas required as in the south african affirmative action policy (johnson, 2000). more than 30 years of social and political pressure to diversify corporate personnel and management teams have resulted in more african-american managers but a negligible gain for african-american men in powerful decision-making jobs in corporate america (allen & griffith, 1999). despite gains in entry, african-american managers stumble on their way up the corporate ladder in corporate america thereby failing to make key inroads in decision-making positions and in the racial distribution of power. neoclassical economic theories and social structural explanations of race-based inequality in labour markets often are argued as oppositional insights. human capital theory in economic literature and status attainment theory in sociology presume that economic achievement amongst black people is a colour blind function of supply side characteristics, such as education, ability and individual preferences, and not race-conscious social policies and preferences (johnson, 2000). lamb (2007) disagreed with this view and stated that lack of marketable skills, a dependent mentality, inferior education, and even relatively lower intelligence quotients (iqs), are reasons for black people to struggle to gain parity with white people. allen and griffith (1999) countered that people’s economic attainments are determined by structural elements of the labour market. opportunity structure and human capital are linked. differences in education and work experience account for 50% of black and white men. the united states image of a meritocracy has contributed to a slow pace of transformation. believing in merit in terms of who gets a job and the use of psychometric tests is seen as standard criteria, whilst the fallacy with these instruments is that they have emerged out of the experiences, cultures and viewpoints of the dominant group which is white. the important deviation from south africa’s application of affirmative action is that in the usa, affirmative action programmes must be limited in time and periodically reviewed to assess if they remain necessary. affirmative action programmes in the usa have been effective in reducing, but not eliminating, discriminating practices (alleyne, 2005). whilst some may claim that affirmative action has meant reverse discrimination on white people, white privilege remains intact (berger & berger, 2004). the trend of continued enhancement of white privilege is also evident in south africa, as illustrated in the commission of employment equity reports (2000–2006). in india discrimination is cultural based. the caste system is a race-based classification that is 2500 years old and divided the population into five groups, namely brahmins, kshatriyas, vaisyas, sudras and ati-sudras (yukondi & benson, 2005). the affirmative action programme in india is meant to compensate the lower caste indians for centuries of discrimination and bring them to the mainstream economy. unlike the usa, there is no formal mechanism in india to redress noncompliance. the strength of the indian programme is that it is constitutionally guaranteed and is practically irreversible. analysis of the demographic landscape of senior management in south african corporates since democracy in 1994, the south african government has introduced a plethora of legislation and regulation aimed at transformation, enabling previously disadvantaged south africans full access to all aspects of the economy, including company ownership, share capital and top management positions (sutherland, 2003). the commission of employment equity was formed by the department of labour to monitor implementation of the employment equity act no 55 of 1998. the purpose of this act is to evaluate compliance based on the mandatory submission by companies who fall under the criteria to submit reports annually. a broad objective of the employment equity act is to achieve employment for people from designated groups to mirror the economically active population (eap) numbers. eap includes all individuals between 15 and 65 who are employed or not employed and seeking employment (employment equity report, 2006). due to south africa’s historically skewed labour patterns, africans have the highest population numbers (79%), but they are the only group whose eap lags behind their national figures (74%). this is illustrated in table 1 from the commission of employment equity report of 2006. table 1: profile of the national population by race and gender and profile of the economically active population by race and gender. to illustrate the challenge that faces south africa in its attempt to normalise employment patterns in the labour market, table 2 illustrates demographics of black executive and senior managers, as reported by the employment equity report of 2006. black executive managers are defined as managers who occupy executive directorships in corporate. black senior managers are defined as managers who are executives and who manage divisions within corporate. currently, white males occupy 60 (2%) of executive management positions and 51 (9%) of senior management positions, whilst white women occupy 14 (7%) of executive management positions and 19% of senior management positions. table 2: total number of employees by occupational level, race and gender at executive and senior management level. table 3 shows the employment equity report of 2006 and illustrates workplace movement, promotions and recruitment that occurred from the last report of 2004 to the 2006 report. in both senior and executive management, the most significant recruitments have been of white males (42 [9%] and 44 [9%], respectively) and white female employees (10 [6%] and 18 [5%], respectively). table 3: total number of people recruited, including people with disabilities, by occupational level, race and gender at executive and senior management level. table 4 illustrates a trend from the 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006 commission of employment equity reports, only at executive management level. white people have made significant gains in the period between 2000 and 2006 (12 [6%]), although from 2004, their migration to executive management level has declined. from 2004, african people have also shown a decline in executive management growth (-4%). table 4: comparative changes at the top management level from 2000 to 2006. in evaluating the employment equity reports of 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006, it is clear that true empowerment of african black senior managers has remained elusive within the south african corporate environment. the status of the implementation of affirmative action programmes does not yet offer black managers sufficient career paths or succession plans, or even give them enough responsibilities or power over resources (naidoo, 2005). push and pull factors that cause african black senior managers to leave their organisations literature on factors that cause african black senior managers to leave organisations is segmented into environmental, organisational and individual factors (clark & kleyn, 2007). environmental factors are those that exist outside the boundaries of the organisation, including political factors, culture and behaviour, technological changes and economic and legal factors over which the organisation does not have direct control (cook & hunsaker, 2001). organisational and individual factors are those that are a source of discomfort and push the individual to desire to leave the organisation (clark & kleyn, 2007). environmental factors (pull factors) the scarcity of top talent in south africa, especially black talent, has led to talent retention becoming a major headache for many south african organisations. the changing demographics of the labour market, enduring skills shortages and employee demand for work–life balance have created a so-called war for talent (alleyne, 2005). drucker (1994) feels that employees have an upper hand in the workplace as they are seen to hold the tool of trade through their knowledge. as the south african economy has become more service orientated, with the financial services sector contributing 29% to the gross domestic product (gdp), human skill is pivotal (booysen, 2005). it thus becomes imperative to have core leadership that has the sound emotional intelligence needed to retain this fluid workforce. van as (2001) believes that the high mobility of talented workers in south africa is caused by factors like emigration of skilled workers and equity legislation that cause companies to chase numbers, forcing highly qualified black talent to be mobile. employers must do everything they can to cultivate a powerful, persuasive reputation for talent management if they are to safeguard their long-term talent resources. large organisations face three challenges. firstly, a more complex economy requires more sophisticated talent with global acumen, multicultural fluency, technological literacy, entrepreneurial skills and the ability to manage dis-aggregated organisations (van as, 2001). secondly, the efficiency of capital markets such as the united states has led to an emergence of a number of small and medium sized companies that are increasingly targeting the same people targeted by large companies. thirdly, because of the aforementioned two reasons, job mobility is increasing. corporate south africa is desperate for highly skilled black south africans to meet their enterprise development and procurement needs. this opportunity has led to a noticeable shift towards having more black professionals running their own businesses; this requires an appetite for risk, drive, luck and passion. the equity element of black economic empowerment (bee) is an attraction for talented black professionals to enter the ranks of entrepreneurs. entrepreneurs are individuals who recognise opportunities where others see chaos or confusion (bennett, 2001). the establishment of diversity as a core societal value in post-apartheid south africa is being implemented by the introduction of laws that enforce corporate transformation. there are legislated requirements for organisations to act as catalysts for developing designated employees who were under-developed during the apartheid era (mazola, 2001). the employment equity act no. 55 of 1998 and other legislation like the skills development act and broad based black employment equity (bbbee) have legislated that employers need to achieve set targets in terms of their different levels of management to employ, train and develop black senior managers. these laws are also supported by the national constitution, which affords equal status to all racial and cultural groupings, languages and religious groupings (thomas & ely, 1996).when employment equity is managed from the perspective of diversity management, it is less divisive than when managed from the affirmative action perspective (derrick, 2005). organisational and individual factors (push factors) scarcity of mentorship in organisations is an acknowledged driver of voluntary turnover (campbell & alleyne, 2002; payne & huffman, 2005). rentilla (2006) found that when colleagues in cross-race mentoring relationships shared complementary racial perspectives (common attitudes about race and race related issues), their relationship evolves into rewarding mentor–protégé relationships. a problem that may exist for black managers is the lack of mentors. companies that employ formal mentorship and coaching programmes can assist people in becoming a part of the in-group, thus encouraging their retention (woolnough & davidson, 2007). experienced managers are at times reluctant to take on mentoring, either because they are insecure or because they are unwilling to train and develop young talent without an economic incentive for them to do so. employers have to be aware of the psychological contract between the employer and the employee. the psychological contract essentially refers to the mutual expectations people have of one another in a relationship, and how these expectations change and influence our behaviour over time (rousseau, 2004). a significant consequence of the change in the psychological contract is the increased mobility of knowledge workers (sutherland, 2003). globally, employment relations have changed dramatically over the last decade, with harris and brannick (1999) indicating that the turbulent business environment has changed the relationship between employer and employee from a strong long-term connectivity type relationship to one of short-term instability and disconnection. african black senior managers manage their careers and will commit to an organisation as long as their career goals are met. booysen (2007) states that inter-group anxieties and tensions exist because they have built up over time due to apartheid’s discriminatory legislation and the transformation efforts to redress this. booysen (2005) claims that these tensions have given rise to three social identities in the south african workplace, namely african black people, white men and a ‘middle group’ consisting of white women, coloured people and indian people. often african black people are frustrated by the perceived slow pace of transformation. sutherland (2003) states that black employees want clarity on the psychological contract with their employers and for their loyalty, they will expect continuous professional development as well as exposure to higher decision-making roles. job satisfaction has an impact on african black senior managers’ decision making process to stay or leave organisations. herman and gioia (2000) states that job satisfaction can be described as a global feeling about the job or a related constellation of attitudes about various facets or aspects of the job. job satisfaction and organisational commitment have been found to be both inversely related to such withdrawal behaviours, such as tardiness, absenteeism and turnover (hay, 2001). trevor (2001) found that if employees are satisfied with their work, they would show greater commitment. conversely, dissatisfied workers with negative attitudes will leave the organisation. the nature of work performed by employees has a significant impact on their level of satisfaction (light, 2005). kaliprasad (2006) found financial rewards to have a significant effect to job satisfaction. a corporate culture is the cement that binds a corporation together; however, it also excludes others (thomas & ely, 1996). in south africa, the economy is still controlled by english-speaking conglomerates although the workforce remains predominantly african black (thomas & bendixen, 2000). the structure of the south african economy’s management has led to a euro-centric culture that advocates individualism, competition and an afro-centric culture that advocates inclusiveness and solidarity. according to prime (1999), positive traits are attached to the ‘in-group’ and negative traits to the ‘out-group’. according to prime, the style of management in south africa is still autocratic (man-in-charge), authoritarian and hierarchical (disciplinary procedures), and individualistic (competitive). the traditional western culture of competing limits a sharing of knowledge and ideas. gillis, gomes, valliere and doyne (2001) argue that black employees are generally still seen as: • lacking assertiveness • lacking initiative • having no work ethic (‘africa time’) • an unproductive culture • prone to communism • having lower standards and higher fault tolerance • having unrealistic expectations and chaotic education. the majority of south african businesses are based on western cultural norms and black people traditionally have been excluded in the majority of economic life. historically black people have been deprived of decision making in any part of the production process, hence they have been indifferent to productivity (maharaj, 2003). horwitz, jain and mbabane (2002) argue that transformation has left some white managers and employees with emotions of stress, denial, mistrust and resistance to new ideas. a potential negative outcome of this concern is that government’s transformation agenda may not be a top priority for many organisations, this law may be reduced to a matter of legal compliance driven by senior corporate leadership of the employment equity office. reaction to employment equity legislation differs amongst the different race groups. some beneficiaries (i.e. black africans, coloured and indian people) share concerns, including being sell-outs, being sold out and being victims of white manipulation, victimisation tokenism and marginalisation when appointed as employment equity (ee) candidates (atkinson, coffey & delamont, 2003). many employment equity beneficiaries dislike being labelled as tokenism beneficiaries; they believe in career advancement because of individual merit. conversely, many white people fear retribution and/or revenge from non-white people, loss of standards, punitive taxation and nationalisation and they tend to question the ethical and political legitimacy of this policy (derrick, 2005). there is solid evidence that compensation decisions affect business performance (bussin, 2003; gerhart, 2000). remuneration has become one of the most important levers in attracting and retaining tale summed up by the question: ‘how does an employer motivate employees?’ (hertzberg, mausner & snyderman, 1957). pay remains the most powerful motivator of results. human capital theory states that, other things being equal, a worker will have a greater probability of leaving a low paying job than a higher paying one (huang, lin & chuang, 2006). a failure to build social networks has also been associated with increased voluntary turnover because of exclusion (pini, brown & ryan, 2004; simpson, 2000). poor managerial quality is also associated with an employee’s decision to leave (campbell & alleyne, 2002). although managerial quality manifests as an organisational factor, the individual’s ability to deal with this is also important. research design (back to top) research approach the research was conducted in two phases, a qualitative study and a quantitative study. creswell (2003) refers to this approach as triangulation. this approach is a sequential and less-dominant design. for the qualitative study, a particular social reality could be investigated, analysed and interpreted differently depending on the researcher’s belief of what social reality is (ontology) and how social phenomena can best be known (epistemology) (potter, 1996). a primary purpose of the qualitative part of this research was to verify constructs identified in literature review and fine tune the questionnaire. for the quantitative study, which was phase two, deductive reasoning was used as explained by creswell (1994). the quantitative research was done utilising primary data of a numerical nature. a wide range of descriptive bivariates and multivariates statistical analysis were performed on the data. terre blanche, durrheim and painter (2007) define research design as a strategic framework that guides the researcher into causing the research questions to be operational. research method research participants for the qualitative study, the research was conducted in gauteng utilising five financial services companies. these companies’ head offices are based in johannesburg and pretoria and they include banks as well as life insurance companies. five participants out of a pool of 40 african black senior managers per organisation were selected, which was representative, and the inputs saturated. the questionnaire was developed from the literature review and then piloted with five human resources experts. appropriate suggestions were taken into account and the questionnaire was amended accordingly. the questionnaire was then sent to the human resources corporate member representatives in the south african rewards association, 21st century business and pay solutions, one of the largest reward consultancies in south africa and members of the association of black actuaries and investment professionals (absip). the representatives forwarded the survey to a stratified sample of 2600 employees to complete the questionnaire on an anonymous basis. a total of 208 responses were received from the participants. this represents a response rate of 8%. the respondents are reflected in table 5, categorised into five categories. table 5: characteristic one: gender of respondents. male and female respondents were relatively evenly distributed with male respondents forming 60.9% of the sample. the majority of respondents were between 31 and 40 years of age which ties in with most respondents being in senior management. the executive and senior management category was 71.1% of the sample. the producer services sector was 30.8% of the sample reflecting a slight dominance from the financial services sector. respondents who earned more than r545 000.00 per annum constituted 66.3% of the sample. measuring instruments questionnaires are typically used to collect perceptions (denscombe, 2007).the questionnaire was designed from two sources. firstly, information was gathered through the literature review. secondly, the qualitative interviews from phase one provided further input by validating the variables. statkon, the university of johannesburg’s statistics department provided further guidelines to ensure an effective factor analysis could be performed. statkon recommended that the questionnaire have 30 constructs in order to have an effective factor analysis. the questionnaire had three sections. section a contains demographic questions that are the stated demographic variable in the study. the demographic data collected through the questionnaire was used as it covered all the demographic variables identified. section b evaluated the length of service in the previous organisation and the level of satisfaction. the objective was to determine whether tenure of service has any correlation with the level of satisfaction. the respondents were asked to complete schriesheim and tsui’s (1980) job satisfaction index on a 7-point adapted likert-type scale, completing a questionnaire with 30 items. section c lists the 30 items that were derived from a thorough literature review and the qualitative interview. the respondents had to indicate how they had experienced various aspects of their work in their immediate previous company in relation to the 30 items. the likert-scale used ranged from 1 (‘never’) to 7 (‘always’). research procedure the electronic link was included in the mail sent to the potential respondents. the link was uniquely encoded to ensure that the respondents could be identified for purposes of this study. ten days after the closing date, statkon, through the head of department, university of johannesburg, provided excel spreadsheets with detailed information on all the categories that were in the questionnaire. the data was analysed utilising the spss statistical package and converting it into an excel format. statistical analysis for the qualitative study, i analysed the data using the field notes, focusing on similarities and differences in the views of the research participants. once patterns and themes were derived, i compared these with concepts of incentive schemes, motivation theory and performance extracted from the literature. statistical analysis was applied to the questionnaire, which comprised three sections as described earlier. statistical inference generalises about the sample from which it was taken by using descriptive statistics (steyn, smit, du toit & strasheim, 2000). the relationships between the variables were assessed by the following statistical methods. descriptive statistics were used on section a results to analyse the demographic data and to understand the characteristics of the sample group. percent and frequencies were used for analysis. the five job satisfaction work elements of satisfaction were recorded utilising the 7-point likert scale, from ‘very dissatisfied’ to ‘very satisfied’ for section b. a principle component factor analysis was done on the results obtained from the questionnaire. kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy indicated whether the items used in the questionnaire could be grouped into categories for purposes of populating the retention model. bartlett’s test of sphericity assesses the assumption of sphericity of the data. the test tends to be sensitive in detecting the correlations amongst the dependent variables (morgan, reichert & harrison, 2002). results on bartlett’s test of sphericity should be significant (p < 0.05) to be considered appropriate (pallant, 2007). results (back to top) the specific aspects explored in this survey were the reasons why african black senior managers leave their organisations. a synopsis of the biographical data is reflected in table 5 to table 9 in the previous section. the main finding and contribution to this field of study was that african black senior managers do not trust organisations with their career development. they would rather take control of their own career development by moving from organisation to organisation to build their repertoire of skills and competence. they want to be in charge of their careers. this finding has profound implications for organisations employing african black managers in the senior cadre. this finding is consistent with the findings of the qualitative interviews. table 6: characteristic two: age of respondents. table 7: characteristic three: management level of respondents. table 8: characteristic four: industry sector type affiliation of respondents. table 9: characteristic five: income categories of respondents. the following secondary findings were discovered, with actual comments from respondents: • respondents were happy with their peers and the nature of their work: ‘the most wonderful part of my job was the support i received from my team and practising my passion of analysing financial markets.’ • they were, however, dissatisfied with their immediate line manager, pay and advancement opportunities: ‘remuneration was not market related.’ ‘the most frustrating part was that i could not see where my career was going.’ ‘i left my job because of my line manager; he did not support advancement of blacks.’ • career management, quality leadership from immediate manager, the desire to be an entrepreneur and ethical behaviour of the company were important: ‘i partnered with a friend of mine to be a bee partner in a mining transaction.’ ‘i could not morally reconcile with the effects of our product, alcoholic beverages, within the townships, i could not sleep well because of that and i decided to leave.’ ‘my manager was reactive in supporting my career.’ ‘i am the ceo of my career and when i could not achieve my goals within my company, i decided to seek other pastures.’ • mentorship, discrimination, being sabotaged and a culture of diversity were not of utmost importance: ‘white colleagues that were junior to me, had better privileges like better desks, computers.’ ‘i did not trust my colleagues and felt i was being set up for failure all the time.’ ‘there was no mentorship.’ in the analysis of the qualitative interview responses, the main desire around career was being presented with career advancement opportunities, although a few respondents also highlighted external push factors of starting their own business. on the work theme, excessive travelling which impacted on work–life balance was also an issue. with regard to management, lack of vision and unsupportive managers were a challenge. dissatisfaction with pay ranged from lack of variable pay to pay not being market related. there was also a strong perception that line managers were not supportive of transformation. some respondents stated incidents of white colleagues being treated better than black colleagues are. in table 10 is a ranking of the 10 most important variables that create propensity to leave, arranged by mean. table 10: the most important variables that drive mobility. table 10 shows the most important variables that contribute to the mobility of african black senior managers, ranked by mean. the top 10 variables reveal a number of interesting themes. the first theme focuses on taking ownership of one’s own career and the possibility of pursuing entrepreneurship opportunities, as revealed by variables ranked one and three. it appears that there is a strong need for a strong locus of control. these pull factors could be influenced by the bbbee legislation and associated codes, which have disrupted the labour market. table 11 shows a ranking of the 10 least important variables that create propensity to leave when arranged by mean. table 11: the least important variables that drive mobility. table 11 illustrate the least important variables that contribute to the mobility of african black senior managers. the bottom 10 variables also reveal a number of interesting themes. there are two themes, with the first theme revealing that the respondents did not leave the employer because they were feeling sabotaged in the workplace, shocking events, or experiencing discrimination as revealed by variables one, six and seven. this creates hope that in spite of white employees feeling threatened by bbbee employment equity practices in their workplace, their behaviour is now normalised and there is little overt discrimination at management level. the two race issues in theme three are about very subtle aspects to diversity management and not the overt aspects reported in this theme. the second theme reveals that the senior black managers were not bothered with the fact that they were not getting the enabling corporate support they expected in their psychological contract with the organisation. the item inter-correlation was subjected to a kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) test and a bartlett’s test, and was 0.764 which is higher than 0.7 making the matrix suitable for being factor analysed. two factor analytic methods were used to determine the four factors, which are used in the research. firstly, the extraction method was the principal axis factoring and secondly, with varimax techniques of rotation. normalisation was used as a rotation method. it was determined that the cronbach alpha was 0.721 and therefore the scale was not reliable. during the analysis, five eigen-values (5.716; 2.659; 2.179; 1.703 and 1.519) were identified, which accounted for 45.9% of the variance. to compare the empirical research with the theory, a 5-factor analysis was forced. the outcome is reflected in table 12. the communalities of the variables are determined for the first number of factors. this procedure is repeated until the sum does not change (giorgi, 1985). table 12: first-order factor analysis: factor matrix. a cluster analysis was conducted in order to explore the data set for subgroups of homogeneous individuals (atkinson et al., 2003). after a visual inspection of the 30 items, the three clusters that were derived were identified and labelled as ‘content’, ‘downtrodden’ and ‘silent soldier’. the content subgroup included individuals who were generally very satisfied and were in executive management. the downtrodden subgroup included individuals who were generally very dissatisfied and were mainly in senior management and middle management. the silent soldier subgroup included individuals who were generally satisfied but the organisation did not realise and utilise the commitment these individuals showed. in the quantitative questionnaire there was an open-ended question that requested the respondents to list any other factors that might have influenced their decision to leave their last employer. this question elicited rich data from 122 respondents. tables 13, 14 and 15 depict an analysis of the responses from phase two participants across the three clusters. content analysis was applied similar to the phase one qualitative data analysis. the five themes utilised in phase one were also utilised in analysis of phase two open-ended questions. the themes were utilised on feedback received by the three subgroups identified in cluster analysis. the themes were career, discrimination, management, pay and work. table 13: content cluster of individuals. table 14: downtrodden cluster of individuals. table 15: silent soldier cluster of individuals. table> discussion (back to top) the main objective of this research is to understand factors that will push and pull african black senior managers to explore opportunities outside their organisations. the main contribution of the study is that it will assist executive managers to create a corporate environment that will promote a sense of belonging amongst african black senior managers, leading to lower labour turnover. further contribution of this research is to improve retention of african black senior managers, which will have a greater positive effect in the organisation in that retention is improved, a better understanding of diversified employee segments is achieved, social transformation imperatives in the country are addressed and a diversified voice in corporate boardrooms bringing different perspectives is present. results are discussed in relation to research objectives factors that push and pull african black senior managers to explore outside opportunities content analysis of phase one interviews shows that a number of african black senior managers who mentioned perceptions of discrimination from their immediate manager, also mentioned lack of support from the immediate manager. some went further to highlight a lack of values and lack of leadership skills on the part of. the other group of african black senior managers is the one that leaves because of inadequate career opportunities. a deficiency of advancement opportunities often propels executives to leave the organisation as mainiero and sullivan (2005) found. the findings of this research concur with drucker’s (1994) research, which showed that independence, individualism and personal achievement are the fundamental needs of african black senior managers and other workers in general. drucker stated that retention strategies should be based on the freedom to act, financial rewards and recognition, development opportunities and access to leading technologies. african black senior managers want to be able to trust management – harpur (2002) is the only other author who has mentioned this critical component of african black senior managers – and to have a good relationship with their immediate manager. in south africa entrepreneurship often starts at the back of government’s policies designed to support its growth, with opportunities in the procurement of goods for government projects and consumption. african black senior managers take control of their own career development by moving from organisation to organisation to build their repertoire of skills and competence. they want to be in charge of their careers. the demographic composition of senior management and top management the racial composition of senior and top management as reported by the employment equity report of 2006 is a challenge that has to be reversed. the challenges of senior and top management being composed mainly of one gender and one race, can limit diversity, increase animosity as indicated in the results of the study, where african black senior managers perceive senior management positions to be inaccessible to them. international literature: similarities and differences in transformation challenges and solutions international comparison is more relevant between south africa and the usa. whilst employment equity is legislated in south africa, it is not legislated in the usa. the usa has been managing a paradox between maintaining meritocracy and achieving equity in its workforce. after 40 years of employment equity measures implementation, the results are not positive with the workforce being mainly white male. the usa case study affords south africa an opportunity to proactively realise pitfalls in the usa employment equity legislation. literature review integration with the findings the participants state that they are expected to fit in. this phenomenon was identified by rigdon and hymowitz (1992) who argue that black executives who have acquired master of business administration degrees (mbas), corporate titles and comfortable incomes appear to have it made but in reality, they walk a very tight rope in the corporate world where they are expected to blend in with a culture that never fully accepts them. sutherland (2003) argues that remuneration is not linked to either job satisfaction or to organisational commitment, and that share options tend to have a greater impact on retention than pay. results confirmed this view with respondents stating that there was no variable pay or they felt that there was no parity in pay with the market. the findings of this research concur with drucker’s (1994) research, which showed that independence, individualism and personal achievement are the fundamental needs of african black senior managers and other workers in general. african black senior managers want to be able to trust management – harpur (2002) is the only other author who has mentioned this critical component of african black senior managers – and to have a good relationship with their immediate manager. this is in agreement with mainiero and sullivan (2005) who asserted that an employee’s stay in an organisation is determined by their relationship with the immediate manager. recommendations and implications to management line managers and senior human resources managers in particular need to understand that: • realistic and transparent discussions with each employee on perceived potential within an organisation. • retention means that organisations must develop competency in attracting and selecting highly competent african black senior managers and ensure continual transfer and encoding of knowledge so that empowerment of the individual is achieved. organisations need to understand who their best employees are, what their employees want and need, ensure that they get it and make sure they know they are getting it. an aligned employee value proposition will ensure an employee is afforded challenging work, there are development opportunities and rewards are based on individual performance. to african black senior managers they need to consider that: • this is the age of self-determination. they need to continuously create their own future by developing themselves and focused on labour market related competencies. • awareness of their own retention cognitions will assist them to achieve a better match with organisations when they seek employment. • they have to conduct enough research on the job market realities and their potential new function; evaluate their new employer’s financial stability and the job description that accurately reflects the job title; ensure that there is a cultural fit between themselves and the new organisation; and they should not change jobs purely based on a financially attractive package offer. • they have to plan their next career move and should not be pre-occupied with trying to get away from a current employer because they are dissatisfied. african black senior managers must search and wait for the right offer. • groysberg and abrahams (2010) state that people at times believe that they contribute more than they actually do and as such, undervalue the strength of their organisation in helping them to achieve their objectives. african black senior managers should realistic about their personal strengths and weaknesses and should not have an overly optimistic view of themselves. • the best protection against career management mistakes is a sense of self-awareness. this entails being aware of one’s career relevant strengths and weaknesses, as well as how to correct these mistakes. it is a good idea to have a mentor, who can be a reflection on how others perceive one, and discusses and exchange ideas on what elements of a job are satisfying to one and what constitutes a healthy work–life balance. look for industries where your skills represent a genuine asset. • it is strategic to join an eminent company early in one’s career. there is an inclination to equate brand names with skills and knowledge. conclusion the most profound findings were that career development is the focus of african black senior managers. wealth creation through entrepreneurship is also important. as a conclusion, if organisations are to retain african black senior managers, they will need to create an environment that enables an african black senior manager to advance their career and have transparent discussions with them relating to their cognitive abilities, whilst also creating opportunities for them to build equity. recommendations to african black senior managers in particular are that they need self-awareness to be aware of their limitations and strengths and manage their career aspirations accordingly. the researcher believes that the main research and secondary objectives have been achieved. limitations of this research there was limited literature focusing on the mobility of african black senior managers. the available literature mainly concentrates on the usa. the usa was one of the first countries to implement affirmative action more than 40 years ago. the questionnaires were distributed to employees working in mainly large corporate companies and therefore the results could be skewed towards the views of employees working within large corporate companies as opposed to, for example, the government sector. generalisation of results should therefore be done with the required caution. the results of the factor analysis were not adequate. based on this cluster analysis was performed. future research other researchers may want to research the following topics: • in south africa, a country where the employment equity act has disrupted the labour market positively or negatively, further research could be done in terms of the impact on other levels of management and general employment, which has not been the focus of this study. • studies will have to be done on companies that have been successful in retaining african black senior managers, so that their employee value propositions can be understood and shared. • research on white management’s perception of the employment equity act will have to be undertaken. this is critical in understanding how white managers view and treat black employees who report to them. acknowledgements (back to top) competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this paper. authors’ contributions k.n. was responsible for experimental and project design. m.b. made intellectual and conceptual contributions. k.n. and m.b. wrote the manuscript. references (back to top) allen, d.g., & griffith, r.w. (1999). job performance and turnover: a review and integrative multi-route model. human resource management review, 9(4), 525–548. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(99)00032-7 alleyne, s. (2005). is being the best good enough? new york city: earl g. graves publishing co., inc. atkinson, p., coffey, a., & delamont, s. (2003). key themes in qualitative research. california: altamira press. bennett, j. (2001). employers have their work cut out. johannesburg: johnnic publications company. berger, l.a., & berger, d.r. (2004). the talent management handbook. united states of america: the mcgraw hill companies. booysen, l. (2005). social identity changes in south africa: challenges facing leadership. lecture at the gordon institute of business leadership, university of pretoria, illovo. booysen, l. (2007). societal power shifts and changing social identities in south africa: workplace implications, submitted for publication. southern african journal for economic and management sciences, 10(1), 1–20. bussin, m. (2003). factors driving changes to remuneration policy and outcomes. unpublished doctoral thesis, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa. campbell, b., & alleyne, s. (2002). the high cost of turnover. black enterprise, 33(5), 61. census. (2001). primary tables south africa. report no. 03-02-04 (2001). south africa: statistics south africa. clark, d., & kleyn, n. (2007). why they leave? unpublished master’s thesis, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. cook, c.w., & hunsaker, p.l. (2001). management and organisational behaviour. (3rd edn.). international edition. boston: mcgraw-hill irwin. creswell, j.w. (1994). research design: qualitative & quantitative approaches. london: sage publications inc. creswell, j.w. (2003). research design. london: sage publications inc. czakan, p. (2006). retention of workers in telecommunications. unpublished mba thesis, university of cape town, cape town, south africa. denscombe, m. (2007). the good research guide for small-scale social research projects. england: open university press. derrick, s. (2005). reward tactics. promotions & incentives, jul/aug, 44–48. drucker, p.f. (1994). they’re not employees, they’re people. harvard business review, february, 70–77. employment equity report. (2006).   annual report, 7th commission of employment equity report. pretoria, south africa: department of labour. gerhart, b. (2000). compensation strategy and organisational performance. in s. rynes & b. gerhart (eds.), compensation in organisations (pp. 151–194). san francisco: jossey-bass. gillis, r.e., gomes, r., valliere, p., & doyne, j. (2001). the politics of affirmative action, university of rhodes island, office of affirmative action, equal opportunity and diversity, united states of america. giorgi, a. (1985). phenomenology and psychological research. pittsburgh: duquesne university press. groysberg, b., & abrahams, r. (2010). five ways to bungle a job change. harvard business review, january–february, 137–140. hamori, m. (2010). job hopping to the top and other career fallacies. harvard business review, july–august, 154–157. harpur, a. (2002). retention factors affecting knowledge workers in the financial services sector. unpublished mba project report, university of the witwatersrand, johannesburg, south africa. harris, j., & brannick, j. (1999). finding and keeping great employees. new york: american management association. hay, m. (2001). strategies for survival in the war of talent. career development international, 7(1), 52– 59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430210414883 herman, r.e., & gioia, j.l. (2000). how to become an employer of choice. united states of america: oakhill press. hertzberg, f., mausner, b., & snyderman, b. (1957). the motivation to work. new york: wiley. horwitz, f.m., jain, h., & mbabane, l. (2002). trade union consultation by employers under employment equity legislation. south african journal of labour relations, 29(2–4), 4–32. huang, i., lin, h.c., & chuang, c.h. (2006). constructing factors related to worker retention. international journal of manpower, 27(5), 491–508. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437720610683976 johnson, m. (2000). winning the people wars: talent & the battle for human capital. london: prentice-hall. kaliprasad, m. (2006). attracting, retaining and motivating capable people. cost engineering, 48(6), 20–26. labour force survey. (2006). handbook for census management for population and housing censuses, series f, no. 83. south africa: statistics south africa. lamb, m. (2007). the components of career capital for knowledge workers in a global economy. unpublished mba thesis, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. lehohla, p. (2005). census 2001: stages in the life cycle of south africans. report no. 03-02-46. south africa: statistics south africa. light, a. (2005). job mobility and wage growth: evidence from the nlsy79. monthly labour review, 128(2), 33–39. maharaj, k. (2003). a comparative study of the psychological contract of white and black managers, unpublished research report, university of the johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa. mainiero, l.a., & sullivan, s. (2005). kaleidoscope careers: an alternate explanation for the ‘opt-out’ revolution. academy of management executive, 19(1), 106–123. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/ame.2005.15841962 mazola, s. (2001). the effect of apartheid on development of africans. unpublished ma report, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. morgan, s.e., reichert, t., & harrison, t.r. (2002). from numbers to words. united states of america: pearson education. naidoo, a. (2005). the current importance of affirmative action in the automotive industry. unpublished ma thesis, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. ngambi, h.c. (2002). the role of emotional intelligence in transforming south african organisations. international economic and management sciences conferences, (pp. 221–231). vaal triangle technikon, vanderbijlpark, south africa. pallant, j. (2007). spss survival manual. (3rd edn.). glasgow: bell & bain ltd. payne, s., & huffman, a.h. (2005). a longitudinal examination of the influence of mentoring on organisational commitment and turnover. academy of management journal 48(1), 158–168. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2005.15993166 pini, b., brown, k., & ryan, c. (2004). women-only networks as a strategy for change? a case from local government. women in management review, 19(5/6), 286–292. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09649420410555051 potter, j. (1996). representing reality: discourse, rhetoric and social construction. london: sage publications inc. prime, n. (1999). cross cultural management in south africa. pretoria: van schaik publishers. rentilla, c. (2006). me, myself and i. entrepreneur, 34(12), 102–103. rigdon, s., & hymowitz, y. (1992). race in the workplace: for black men success resolves a few problems. the wall street journal, 234–245. rousseau, d.m. (2004). assessing organisational culture: the case for multiple methods. in b. schneider (eds.), organisational climate and culture (pp. 153–192). san francisco: jossey-bass. schriescheim, c., & tsui, a.n. (1980). development and validation of a short satisfaction instrument for use in survey feedback interventions. paper represented at the western academy of management meeting. simpson, r. (2000). gender mix and organisational fit – how gender imbalance at different levels of the organisation impacts on women managers. women in management review, 5(1), 5–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09649420010310173 steyn, a.g.w., smit, c.f., du toit, s.c.h., & strasheim, c. (2000). modern statistics in practice. pretoria: van schaik publishers. sutherland, m. (2003). retention of knowledge workers. unpublished doctoral thesis, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa. terre blanche, m., durrheim, k., & painter, d. (2007). research in practise. (4th edn.). cape town: university of cape town press. thomas, d.a., & ely, r.j. (1996). making differences matter: a new paradigm for managing diversity. harvard business review, september-october, 79–90 thomas, p., & bendixen, s. (2000). labour relations in the new south africa. johannesburg: macmillan. trevor, c.o. (2001). interactions among actual ease-of-movement determinants and job satisfaction in the prediction of voluntary turnover. academy of management journal, 44(4), 621–638. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3069407 van as, d.s. (2001). executive mobility in a manufacturing environment. unpublished mba project report, university of the witwatersrand, johannesburg, south africa. woolnough, h.m., & davidson, m.j. (2007). mentoring as a career development tool: gender, race and ethnicity implications. in d. bilimoria & s.k. piderit (eds.), handbook on women in business and management. cheltenham: edward elgar publishing ltd. yukondi, v., & benson, j. (2005). women in asian management: cracking the glass ceiling? asia pacific business review, 11(2), 39–148. abstract introduction literature review discussion a framework for the implementation of an employee value proposition for water boards practical implications limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) ndoyisile a. theys north-west university graduate school of business and governance, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa emmerentia n. barkhuizen department of industrial psychology and people management, college of business and economics, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa citation theys, n.a., & barkhuizen, e.n. (2022). the development of an employee value proposition framework for the south african water board sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1944. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1944 original research the development of an employee value proposition framework for the south african water board sector ndoyisile a. theys, emmerentia n. barkhuizen received: 22 mar. 2022; accepted: 08 june 2022; published: 31 oct. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the south african water board sector plays an essential role in providing water and basic sanitary needs to the country. yet the sector faces drastic talent shortages required to deliver its service mandate. research purpose: the primary purpose of this study was to develop an employee value proposition (evp) framework for the south african water board sector. motivation for the study: research on evps within the public sector is scarce. employee value propositions are essential to attract, engage and retain scarce skills. research approach, design and method: a qualitative research approach was followed. semistructured interviews were used to collect the data from talent management stakeholders from nine water boards (n = 9). a constructive grounded theory method was applied to analyse the data. main findings: the findings showed that evps received limited priority within the water board sector. the water board sector offered various financial awards, benefits, training and development opportunities to employees. in addition, the participants perceived a positive institutional culture and employment brand. the water boards thus already had fundamental building blocks available to integrate into a compelling evp. practical/managerial implications: the findings of this research emphasise the importance of management commitment towards creating a compelling evp that will attract and retain those talented individuals who are of value to the strategy implementation of the south african water boards sector. contributions/value-add: this research presents an original evp framework that can be used as a guideline to manage workplace talent more effectively to achieve strategic government objectives. keywords: employee value proposition; training and development; talent attraction; talent retention; water board sector. introduction talent management in the south african public sector continues to be an area of great concern (lee, 2020; mabope, 2018). koketso and rust (2012) summarised the talent management dilemma in the south african public sector as being: [f]aced with a serious challenge of service delivery. research points to a plethora of problems in the public service that lead to failure to deliver services to the local population. one of the problems emanating from research is poor talent management strategies that fail to retain key public service talent. (p. 1) follow-up studies support this assertation by revealing that public sector talent management practices receive low priority and lack of leadership commitment; they are haphazard, scattered and reactive, marked by inferior workforce planning and talent retention strategies (lee, 2020; lesenyeho, 2017; mshengu, 2015; shabane, 2017). the public service commission (2021) acknowledged that poor people management skills and practices, budgetary constraints, a lack of training and development and the inability to attract and retain scarce skills limit public sector institutions from effectively delivering their various service mandates. consequently, the need exists to implement effective talent management practices to attract, engage and retain those talented individuals who can be of value to public sector service performance (onwugbolu & mutambara, 2021). the main objective of this research was to develop an employee value proposition (evp) (hereafter referred to as evp) framework for the south african water board sector to support the attraction and retention of key talent. the following main question guides our research: what can be regarded as a framework for formulating and implementing an employee value proposition to successfully attract, engage and retain current and future employees with critical scare skills in the statutory water board sector in south africa? more specifically, this research addresses the following specific research questions: to what extent do water boards adopt and implement an evp? what are the attributes of a compelling evp for the water board sector? how can an evp support the employment brand of the water board sector? apart from the challenges created by an ageing infrastructure and a lack of adequate funding for maintenance (wall & rust, 2017), the water services sector in south africa appears to have ineffective talent management procedures. more than a decade ago, karar and pietersen (2009) found that south africa lacked the human ability to absorb the breakthroughs in science and technology required to deal with the complex linkages between the hydrological cycle and societal requirements. in 2008, an estimated 1000 engineers, 300 technicians and 15 000 artisans were required to reduce the national skills shortage (karar & pietersen, 2009, p. 6). since then, this situation has not improved. the government sector’s engineering abilities have reached a new low with barely 1800 engineers across government and over 1000 engineering positions unfilled (landelahni business leaders amrop sa, 2012). similarly, frankson (2016) states that south africa has a persistent deficit of municipal engineers. according to the municipal benchmarking initiative report, south africa lacked 10% of the required number of engineers to adequately run its municipal water networks (frankson, 2016). meyer (2009) warned that the water sector’s continued scarce skills shortfall poses a threat to meeting water and sanitation delivery and compliance targets (service delivery) and implementing sustainable water resource management. even though skills and capacity are essential for the government’s national water resource strategy implementation, any efforts to alleviate the skills gap appear to have had little impact (wall & rust, 2017). therefore, the skills scarcity is likely to worsen (department of higher education and training, 2019). despite the prominence given to the strategic importance of evps and talent value propositions (hereafter referred to as tvps’ see paadi, barkhuizen, & swanepoel, 2019; saurombe, 2017), most statutory water boards appear to lack an evp framework to guide the effective talent management of employees (molobye, 2021). this study intends to fill the knowledge and empirical gap about the utility of an evp in the water board sector and its implementation. this article is structured as follows. firstly, a literature review is presented on the concept of evps, their attributes and their role in fostering an attractive workplace. thereafter, the research design adopted for the study is described, followed by a presentation of the findings. finally, this article concludes with a discussion of the findings, their limitations and recommendations for future research and practice. literature review defining an employee value proposition the literature review reveals that the concept ‘evp’ still escapes a standard definition. authors often have a preconceived idea of what the construct should encompass, which leads to conflicting conceptualisations and poor talent management practice (wiblen & mcdonnel, 2020). the following is a summary from the existing literature (varying in complexity and depth) indicating that the term evp could be used to describe: the rewards and benefits that an employee receives in return for their performance in the workplace (dhamija, 2015) what prospective or existing employees value and will persuade them to join or remain with the business (armstrong & taylor, 2014) the degree or extent of restitution and gains that staff members enjoy in return for their effort at their workplace (castaneda, 2014) what an organisation has to offer, what prospective or existing employees would value and which would help to persuade them to join or remain with the business (armstrong, 2012) the sum of all the rewards offered by the organisation, both monetary and nonmonetary, in exchange for membership in the organisation and employee effort and performance (ledford, 2013) an orderly system through which talent, internal brand, engagement, work, leadership, recognition, rewards and behaviours are interweaved together with other components to attract, retain and engage employees (zinger, 2013) the unique array of reward features, benefits and advantages of employment that the organisation has to offer to employees and applicants, which are reflected in an organisation’s evp that is compiled by systematically equating and incorporating the aspects that initially draw and maintain the current workforce, emphasising the uniqueness of each organisation’s evp and the opportunity to differentiate the organisation from its competitors (ferreira, 2016) the value a company offers to employees in return for the value they bring to the organisation is the benefits and rewards provided to employees in return for their commitment and the skills and capabilities they bring to the organisation (bates, 2019) the extent to which an organisation can associate itself with an employee and the ‘give and get’ that result from the employment contract (pawar, 2018). based on recurring ideas and themes in the above descriptions, the current researchers propose the following working definition of evp for the present study: a differentiating, integrated and valued set of monetary and nonmonetary rewards, benefits and experiences that an organisation offers to attract, engage and retain existing and prospective employees in return for their effort and performance in the workplace. according to de la haye (2019), the objectives of an evp include: attracting more applications from the best candidates persuading those candidates to join a particular employer rather than take an offer from a competitor retaining such talent for more extended time periods and reduce staff turnover reducing recruitment costs. it is worth mentioning that evps are often confused with the concept of tvp. according to reilly and williams (2012), evp is an articulation or reflection of what is offered to the workforce. stephenson (2010) views a tvp as a combination of social capital (i.e. knowledge transfer) and human capital (i.e. skills, talents and experience) required to enhance talent performance. as a result, a tvp focuses on employees’ specific, vital and scarce skill sets. in addition, the tvp strengthens an evp by successfully engaging and maintaining a high-performing, world-class staff base to deliver excellent customer services (conklyn & robles, 2010). abbott (2019) concludes that an evp is rooted in the reality of an organisation’s daily work activities to successfully attract and retain people with the future skills essential for strategy implementation. finally, arasanmi and krishna (2019) found that the evp is an essential catalyst for organisational commitment and organisational citizenship amongst employees. one can therefore conclude that an evp has multilevel benefits for organisations. attributes of an employee value proposition according to mosley (2014), an evp reflects employees’ attributes necessary to link themselves with a company. therefore, the workplace qualities that talented employees value should be included in an organisation’s evp to encourage them to join or stay with that organisation (armstrong & taylor, 2014). conversely, inadequate or improper evp traits will result in organisations failing to separate themselves from their competition; therefore, it is critical to identify those evp attributes (abbott, 2019). saurombe (2017) found that organisational and employment brand components are essential in promoting a compelling tvp for the public sector. organisational brand components included work and surrounding environment, reputation and image, organisational culture and identity and strategic vision. employment brand components include compensation and benefits, leadership and managerial support, occupational health and safety, performance management and development, job security and work–life balance. a follow-up study by mokgojwa (2019) confirmed that public sector organisations face significant talent culture and occupational talent risks because of inadequate implementation or the absence of organisational and employment brand characteristics. paadi et al. (2019) found that public sector graduate interns regard functional, financial and psychological workplace aspects as essential to attract them to an employer of choice. functional aspects included training and development, mentorship guidance, leave and insurance. financial aspects included a stipend, travel allowance and pay for overtime work. the psychological components included interpersonal relationships with mentors and wellness. all combined, properly assembled evps are multifaceted and include tangible and nontangible elements. an exhaustive analysis of the available literature revealed that at least four criteria underpin an evp: compensation, benefits, corporate culture and career development (see abbott, 2019; de la haye, 2019; dinnen & alder, 2013; tribulkina, 2018). these traits are also known as attractiveness dimensions (elving, westhoff, meeusen, & schoonderbeek, 2013), key drivers (lawler, 2017), basic aspects (bates, 2019) or evp building blocks (abbott, 2019). below is a brief discussion of each of these components in the context of an evp. compensation compensation remains one of the most important factors for attracting and retaining talented employees (al rina & atan, 2020). patnaik and padhi (2012) view compensation as a systematic process that provides monetary value to employees in exchange for work performed. a study by van der merwe (2012) showed that remuneration is critical in aligning the evp with the organisation’s strategy. styśko-kunkowska and kwinta (2020) found that prospective employees would choose a weak employment brand with an attractive salary rather than a compelling employer brand with a poor salary. schlecther, hung and bussin (2014) revealed that high remuneration and variable pay were significant job attraction factors. according to reddy (2021), a well-assembled compensation system complemented by an effective reward system is a critical determinant for retaining talented employees. luna-arocas and lara (2020) found that pay satisfaction contributes to employees’ loyalty. benefits employee benefits aim to provide holistic well-being and security for the workforce and their employees by including aspects such as health and welfare, income protection, financial preparedness, retirement and time off, including leaves of absence (world at work total rewards association, 2020). schlechter, thompson and bussin (2015) showed that nonfinancial rewards such as work–life balance, learning and career advancement contributed significantly to employees’ perceived job attractiveness. mabaso (2015) discovered that leave (i.e. vacation, sick and study leave), medical aid and provident or pension funds are essential to attracting and retaining a public higher education institution. similarly, makhuzeni and barkhuizen (2015) found that benefits such as sick leave, study leave and paid public holidays contributed to teachers’ willingness to remain within their jobs. more importantly, nthebe, barkhuizen and schutte (2016) showed that a total rewards system, including benefits, reduces leadership burnout and enhances service performance. yamamoto (2011) found that introducing many employee benefits practices (i.e. housing, medical care, childcare support, monetary aid for celebrations and condolences, leisure) and improved job satisfaction improved the retention of employees. talent development talent development and opportunities for career development are frequently cited as important considerations for prospective employees to seek employment at an organisation (mohammed, 2018; mohammed, hafeez-baig, & gururajan, 2019). according to hedge and rineer (2017), career pathway systems can assist organisations in developing employees strategically by equipping them with the employability skills required to retain them. amushila and bussin (2021) found that a lack of career development opportunities is one of the main reasons employees leave their jobs in a public higher education institution. lesenyeho, barkhuizen and schutte (2018) revealed that intellectual stimulation and opportunities to apply acquired skills are key talent attrition factors for early-career public sector academics. in particular, the competence development of generation y employees enhances their organisational commitment and their intention to remain in their jobs (naim & lenka, 2018). a recent study by molobye (2021) amongst south african water boards highlighted the need for talent stakeholders and decision-makers to apply talent metrics, analytics and return on investment methodologies to obtain the maximum benefits from talent management initiatives such as talent development interventions that are implemented. corporate culture the relationship between organisational culture and employee brand value is well established (keino, gachunga, & ogollah, 2017). according to barbados (2020), a compelling evp involves a holistic approach between employer branding, organisational attractiveness and company culture. masale, barkhuizen and schutte (2021, p. 3) define organisational talent culture as a ‘workplace underpinned by the values that talented employees can relate to, enabling them to flourish and make a valuable contribution through optimal performance to achieve strategic institutional objectives’. according to stříteská and sein (2021), successful public sector institutions are characterised by a culture of effectively implemented measurement and management systems, strong performance-driven leadership, constructive performance management reviews, discussions and feedback and reward systems. a study by kontoghiorghes (2016) showed that high-performance cultures that are strategically aligned have a significant impact on talent attraction and retention. kontoghiorghes (2016) further emphasised that a culture driven by change, quality and technology and supported by core values such as respect and integrity will likely result in higher talent attraction and retention. although there will be similarities between the attributes in the evps of different organisations, zoe (2018) insists that every organisation’s evp should be characterised by a unique combination of attributes and a uniquely conceptualised version or presentation of each attribute. therefore, every organisation should develop and implement its evp with attributes reflecting its distinctive circumstances and articulating its attractiveness to existing and prospective employees. the four key attributes mentioned above are regarded as generic because it is assumed that many organisations could, to a greater or lesser extent, use them as points of departure in the development of an evp. the role of employee value proposition in employer branding employer branding is focused on building the employer’s brand name in the job market (parmar, 2014). harris and short (2014) observe that whilst organisations have long used marketing and branding practices to engender customer loyalty, they are increasingly expanding this activity to differentiate organisations and make them attractive from an employee perspective. therefore, the employer brand experience also represents a relationship with existing and prospective employees (morgan, 2017). the extent to which both management and employees are ‘living’ the organisation’s brand directly impacts how prospective employees perceive the organisation’s attractiveness as a prospective employer (collings, scullion, & caligiuri, 2019). according to elving et al. (2013), target audiences are more likely to join prospective employers when they positively experience their corporate and employment brand. likewise, wolfswinkel and enslin (2020) found that corporate brands can dominate talent attraction and retention as potential talented employees are lured to be purpose-driven and commercially successful brands. the development of an employer brand is driven by each organisation’s unique and distinctive strategy and the type of talent required (lawler, 2017). consequently, there is no common classification of employer brand attributes (kucherov & zavyalova, 2012). however, yates and sejen (2011) and bach and edwards (2013) argue that an organisation’s employer brand must be aligned with its corporate brand to attract and retain talent. an employer brand supports the organisation’s strategy by attracting and retaining the key employees required to implement the business strategy (lawler, 2017). therefore, the evp should form the basis for an organisation’s employer brand (bates, 2019). yates and sejen (2011) maintain that an organisation’s evp should underpin its employer brand and that an employer brand should be positioned on a preceding evp. tribulkina (2018) also claims that two essential elements create a strong employer brand: evp and employment experience. therefore, offering a unique, differentiating, credible, enticing and engaging employment experience to current and potential employees is also a decisive success factor in successful employer branding (parmar, 2014). research design research approach and philosophy in this study, the researchers selected a qualitative research method as it is well suited to comprehending a phenomenon with little information accessible (cresswell & cresswell, 2018). qualitative research is based on constructivist theory in that reality is a multilayer, interactive, shared social experience that individuals interpret (macmillan & schumacher, 2006). people build structures to make sense of their surroundings, and these structures are organised as views, perceptions and belief systems. therefore, constructivism is a philosophical school or paradigm that underpins the targeted research in this study. the constructivist paradigm is defined by bryman and bell (2014) as the belief that neither reality nor knowledge exist objectively or externally to the researcher but rather are subjective. individual and social viewpoints, perceptions, experiences and interactions are used to develop reality and knowledge inductively and continually. as a result, reality constantly changes, and different subjective realities coexist. a constructivist grounded theory research design was applied in this study. according to charmaz (2014), constructivist grounded theorists have a broad research design definition which is not viewed as a single, predefined blueprint that directs the execution of a study from beginning to end. the researcher does not entirely predetermine it at the beginning of a study. instead, researchers are urged to start with a rudimentary and indefinite research design, which is subsequently improved and polished as the study advances (charmaz, 2014). bryant and chamaz (2019) caution that a researcher’s openness and flexibility and the execution of imaginative interpretivism and constructivist approaches to theory creation could be hampered by tight adherence to a predefined and inflexible design. against this background, it is assumed that there is no single, universally accepted and rigid reality or body of knowledge when implementing talent management and evps in water boards. the researchers further argue that the subjective reality and knowledge of senior managers responsible for talent management and evps in water boards (who will eventually be used as research participants) will differ significantly. such differences are based on the varying and fluctuating individual perspectives, interpretations, experiences and interactions of the managers concerned. research setting according to given (2008), a research setting is a physical, social, cultural or historical context, place or environment in which a researcher conducts a study. the current study’s research setting included the nine statutory water boards’ administrative and operational environments in south africa. sample the sample for this study included individuals representative of nine water boards in south africa. the participants were purposively selected based on their experience in human resource management and talent management. as shown in table 1, female participants made up most of the research participants (five out of the nine). the average age of the nine participants was 54.5 years. although their job descriptions differ, all participants were responsible for human resources and talent management at a senior level in their respective water boards’ organisational hierarchies. using such key informants is a critical requirement when a relatively small sample is used in a study following a constructivist grounded theory design. the demographic characteristics of the participants are presented in table 1. table 1: biographical overview of the research participants. data analyses and coding data coding is the key process in grounded theory, and data is collected and analysed almost concurrently (halaweh, 2012). corbin and strauss (2015) describe coding as classifying and categorising data segments into codes, categories and relationships. evans (2013) observes that the process and methods for coding have created a high level of debate amongst grounded theory users. each core model of grounded theory incorporates and advocates its coding techniques. classical grounded theory’s coding process uses two coding levels (substantive and theoretical). in contrast, three types of coding are proposed in straussian grounded theory (open, axial and selective) and constructivist grounded theory (initial, focused and theoretical). the present study also followed the above approach. entreé and establishing research roles the principal researcher received authorisation from the nine south african statutory water boards’ top managers in human resources and talent management. the research participants were given an official letter describing the study’s goal. in addition, the study participants completed an informed consent statement stating their desire to take part in the research. north-west university granted ethical approval before the start of the research. the researchers followed all study ethics guidelines for qualitative research, such as data collecting confidentiality and transparency. ensuring the quality and rigour of the research according to cohen, manion and morisson (2018), the standard criteria for assessing the quality and rigour of qualitative research include the following: credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. the term ‘credibility’ refers to the study participants’ perception of the study’s findings as true or believable. transferability is achieved if the findings of a qualitative study are transferable to other similar settings. dependability refers to whether the process of selecting, justifying and applying research strategies, procedures and methods is clearly explained, and its effectiveness is evaluated by the researcher and confirmed by an auditor. finally, a study enjoys confirmability when its findings are based on the analysis of the collected data and grounded in the data and inferences based on the data (see bryman & bell, 2014; cohen et al., 2018; yilmaz, 2013). findings the key findings of the research are presented in the section that follows. the findings demonstrate a focused coding grid, supported by direct quotes from the participants. three main themes emerged from the data, which are supported by subthemes. theme one: prevailing employee value proposition this theme focused on whether an evp has been developed for the respective water boards. most respondents indicated that they had not developed an evp from the participant responses. however, the minority of the participants indicated that they are either planning to develop an evp or currently developing an evp or have developed an evp. the findings are reported in table 2. table 2: focused coding for employee value proposition. some examples of verbatim responses supporting the constructed subcategories: ‘no, we do not have an evp guide. however, we have a staff attraction and retention policy that provides a framework for attracting and retaining talent within the organisation.’ (p8, male, 53 years old, human resources executive, 27 years work experience, postgraduate diploma). ‘this is work in progress, as a retention policy is in approval stages and will give rise to the relevant strategy and plans. the organisation has not formally developed an evp. the organisation is currently under a turnaround strategic period, and an evp is planned to be developed in the growth phase of the turnaround plan.’ (p5, male, 60 years old, general manager, 20 years work experience in human resource management [hrm], master’s) theme 2: practices relating to the attributes of an employee value proposition this theme indicates the practices that should form part of a compelling evp within the water boards. four subthemes were identified: compensation practices, benefits, career development opportunities, work satisfaction and positive corporate culture. the findings are reported below. subtheme 1: compensation practices the findings in table 3 show that the water boards apply various compensation practices (i.e. financial reward practices). all the water board companies pay competitive, market-related and flexible salaries and contribute to medical aid and retirement, provident and pension funds. the water board companies furthermore pay performance bonuses and overtime. other financial rewards included membership fees of professional bodies paid by employers and a group insurance scheme for death and disability financial benefits. table 3: focused coding for prevailing compensation practices. some examples of verbatim responses supporting the constructed subcategories: ‘above market-related salaries; scarce skills allowance; performance bonus, medical aid, retirement fund and group life as well as housing allowance, 13th cheque.’ (p5, male, 60 years old, general manager, 20 years work experience in hrm, master’s) ‘basic salary, annual and performance bonuses, housing allowance, travel allowance, medical aid subsidy, long service rewards, group insurance, retirement benefits.’ (p1, female, 50 years old, executive manager, 26 years work experience in hrm, pg diploma) ‘accommodation to operations employees; transport for employees and their dependents; performance bonus; housing allowance; high employer contribution towards provident fund; generous medical aid employer contribution.’ (p9, male, 61 years old, senior hr manager, 20 years work experience in hrm, master’s) ‘salary, annual and performance bonuses, vehicle allowance, cell phone allowance, medical aid subsidy, bursary and study loan scheme, death and disability benefits, retirement benefits and post-retirement medical aid, housing at some remote plants and transport to some remote plants, funeral scheme.’ (p3, female, 65 years old, manager, 18 years work experience in hrm, bachelor’s) subtheme 2: benefits (nonfinancial rewards) the findings in table 4 show that the water board companies consider various benefits to attract and retain employees. the benefits that were primarily applied across the water boards included: leave options (i.e. annual, sick, compassionate, special, study, long service, maternity and paternity leave), networking opportunities (i.e. conferences, seminars, workshops), opportunities to register with professional bodies, employee assistance and health promotion programmes. table 4: focused coding for prevailing benefit practices. some examples of verbatim responses supporting the constructed subcategories: ‘employee wellness programme, long service leave, long service awards.’ (p6, male, 53 years old, general manager, 14 years work experience in hrm, master’s) ‘leave benefits (annual, sick, compassionate, special, study, maternity and paternity leave); long service leave; long service recognition awards.’ (p3, female, 65 years old, manager, 18 years work experience in hrm, bachelor’s) in support, participants 2 and 5 also highlighted leave benefits. ‘leave (annual, sick, compassionate, special, study), employee wellness programme (psychosocial and physical counselling). it is worth mentioning that these benefits accrue to all employees at all levels.’ (p2, female, 50 years old, executive manager, 18 years work experience in hrm, master’s) ‘benefits include: generous leave; an integrated health and wellness programme that supports and promotes a healthy lifestyle and work–life balance (including an on-site clinic, as well as sporting and recreational facilities); peer-to-peer recognition and excellence awards; opportunity to attend conferences [or] symposiums and present papers, opportunities to register with a professional body linked to the employee’s specialisation – yearly membership paid by the organisation.’ (p7, female, 50 years old, consultant, 15 years work experience in hrm, master’s) subtheme 3: career development practices table 5 shows that all the water board companies are implementing organisational training and development programmes, including workplace plans and annual training plans, strategies and policies. the training programmes are primarily focused on the employability skills required to attract and retain employees. other development opportunities also focused on investing in early career staff through bursaries, learnerships, graduate internship programmes and work-integrated learning. finally, the respective water board companies also participate in the career empowerment of communities by participating in career projects that encourage school learners to study towards qualifications that enable employment in the water services sector. table 5: focused coding for career development practices. some examples of verbatim responses supporting the constructed subcategories: ‘we do have a staff attraction and retention policy which provides a framework for attracting and retaining talent within the organisation.’ (p8, male, 53 years old, hr executive, 27 years work experience, postgraduate diploma) ‘there is a comprehensive training and development policy, and needs are prioritised based on succession plans and critical skills retention. the organisation makes use of the personal development plans wherein the employee and supervisor discuss training and skills needs as well as career development aspirations.’ (p5, male, 60 years old, general manager, 20 years work experience in human resource management, masters degree) ‘all employees in the organisation are trained on their current positions and provided with development opportunities to be equipped with requisite skills to succeed in higher graded posts that become vacant in the organisation. skilled people are recruited, and retention strategies and programs to improve necessary skills are implemented. also, internship programmes and apprenticeship programmes are also put in place to provide the required skills for the organisation. succession plans are developed for all critical posts in the organisation to ensure that skills pools are created at various levels. employees are offered bursaries or study loans to further their studies at tertiary level. bursaries that are allocated are informed by the organisation’s succession plan.’ (p3, female, 65 years old, manager, 18 years work experience in hrm, bachelor’s) ‘a personal development plan completed yearly allows employees the opportunity to plan their growth and development aligned to their specific needs whilst also adding and creating value for the organisation through roi; opportunities to study further are fully funded; opportunities for mobility are created through our technical career path progression, which is aimed at core roles within the operations portfolio; accelerated leadership development programmes are presented through identified and specific leadership interventions that support the organisation’s succession management process to drive talent mobility for those critical roles.’ (p7, female, 50 years old, consultant, 15 years work experience in hrm, master’s) subtheme 4: factors contributing towards a positive corporate culture table 6 reports on the factors contributing to a positive corporate culture. the factors identified by the research participants which contribute most towards a positive corporate culture in the water board sector are related to transparency when it comes to management and board decisions. other aspects included that opportunities for open and two-way communication between executive management and employees must be created and sustained; managers and employees working and planning together to enhance operational efficiency and joint problem-solving; deliberate and continuous efforts to enhance employee engagement are necessary; and a sense of belonging. the participants also highlighted the importance of being able to identify personally with and embrace shared work ethics, values and constructive attitudes. further emphasis was placed on appropriate management and leadership styles to promote a positive and constructive corporate culture. table 6: factors contributing towards a positive corporate culture. some examples of verbatim responses supporting the constructed subcategories: ‘management style and board commitment (meeting with employees annually at least).’ (p4, female, 41 years old, manager, 10 years work experience in hrm, honours degree) ‘there must be open communication and that is encouraged, as well as numerous platforms of engagement between management and employees.’ (p5, male, 60 years old, general manager, 20 years work experience in hrm, master’s) participant 2 mentioned: ‘a two-way relationship creates a healthy corporate culture. this means managers and employees should inculcate the culture of planning together and working with one another (joint problem-solving) for the good of the organisation.’ (p2, female, 50 years old, executive manager, 18 years work experience in hrm, master’s) ‘a sense of belonging is required, which will retain employees, and if found by employees, they will see the water board as a good organisation to work for.’ (p6, male, 53 years old, general manager, 14 years work experience in hrm, master’s) ‘it is all about a shared belief system, values and attitude, and this is a differentiator from one organisation to another. a company can create a strong culture and employees who believe in its products, customers, systems and processes through its deeply held assumptions and beliefs. by subscribing to its philosophy, the organisation becomes part of the employees’ own identity.’ (p7, female, 50 years old, consultant, 15 years work experience in hrm, master’s) theme 3: reputation as an employer in the talent marketplace the findings of the waterboard’s reputation as an employer in the talent marketplace are reported in table 7. the third and final theme evolves around the water boards’ reputation as an employer of choice. the researchers were interested in how the water board company’s image is being observed and whether individuals will consider the water board as a prospective employer based on its brand perspective. table 7: reputation as an employer in the talent marketplace. from the comments provided by the research participants, the following could also be established as reasons why some of the research participants think their water boards have positive reputations as employers: ‘[water board a] … as brand stands out high because of how we treat employees, integrity and corporate governance being held in high esteem.’ (p1, female, 50 years old, executive manager, 26 years work experience in hrm, pg diploma) ‘the water board has a good reputation for consistent delivery on its core mandate and is regarded by experts in the sector as leading in the water space; it has a long history and wealth of skills.’ (p5, male, 60 years old, general manager, 20 years work experience in hrm, master’s) ‘this year we were awarded an unqualified audit opinion by agsa. we are known for our expertise in bulk water supply and effluent disposal. our brand is also enhanced by us acquiring broadcast slots on various radio stations to update the public about our business activities in our area of supply, as well as regular stakeholder engagements, etc.’ (p8, male, 53 years old, hr executive, 27 years work experience, postgraduate diploma). ‘… [a]s a brand provides the following that attracts those scarce critical skills including those elements mentioned in your earlier questions. these are: caring for our employees and ensuring that they feel valued, appreciated and trusted; honesty and fairness in the way we treat our employees; organisational culture that espouses a healthy and productive environment; performance – employees productively contribute in meeting organisational objectives; mentoring and coaching to create an environment and organisation that is consistently learning and developing to meet the challenges of the globalised world; ethics and integrity is being practised … is doing and has been practising these principles for a long time and these inform our values and belief as an organisation.’ (p7, female, 50 years old, consultant, 15 years work experience in hrm, master’s) discussion the main objective of this research was to develop a framework that could guide the implementation of an evp within the south african water boards. more specifically, the study explores whether the water boards have developed and implemented an evp, the determinants of such an evp and the role of evps in enhancing the organisation’s employment brand. according to the findings of this study, the vast majority of water boards lack an evp. these findings support the global shortage of well-defined and visible evps. employee value propositions are also necessary for talent plan implementation (see abbott, 2019) and attracting and retaining the vital skills required for long-term water board service delivery (see frankson, 2016; wall & rust, 2017). some respondents cited the existence of talent attraction and retention policies and tactics that could help create a compelling evp at work (see de la haye, 2019). compensation was seen as an essential aspect of the evp by the participants. based on the participants’ reactions, the water boards had a well-assembled compensation system with various incentive techniques to attract and retain key personnel (see reddy, 2021). competitive and market-related pay, 13th cheques and performance bonuses were amongst the prevalent practices cited. regardless of brand strength (stysko-kunkowska & kwinta, 2020), high salary levels and other variable pay possibilities are vital to attracting people (schlecther et al., 2014). according to van der merwe (2012), remuneration is essential in decision-making when putting up a compelling evp. the studies revealed that the water boards provide a variety of advantages to the participants. various types of leave (annual, sick, compassionate, special, study, long service, maternity and paternity leave) and opportunities to attend multiple career-related networking opportunities and assistance in registering with various professional associations were consistently applied across all of the water boards. our findings support previous research that shows employees value paid time off as a factor in deciding whether or not to work for a company (see mabaso, 2015; makhuzeni & barkhuizen, 2015). in addition, various personal counselling services (i.e. financial and legal support, mental health, family difficulties), physical health assistance (i.e. testing for hypertension, diabetes) and roadshows to promote general well-being were also highlighted in this study. personal benefits are critical in promoting employees’ well-being and job satisfaction who are compelled to undertake service work (see nthebe et al., 2016; yamamoto, 2011). finding career-related possibilities is critical as skilled people value rapid progression and advancement in their careers schlechter et al. (2015). the findings revealed that the water boards have organisational training and development strategies in place and the ability for staff to enrol in various professional development programs. according to the participants, the training programs aim to provide them with the skills they need for current and future professions. additionally, the water boards invest in staff training at various stages of their employment, such as internships and technical career path growth, to assure important position succession. hedge and rineer (2017) believe that targeted training is crucial for ensuring that staff have the skills needed to contribute to the water boards. according to the findings, participants consider training interventions as a return on investment for water boards as they receive the benefits of high-performing personnel whilst also attracting and retaining them (see molobye, 2021; naim & lenka, 2018). the participants stated that the water boards have a favourable workplace talent culture that they can associate themselves with. this is a significant conclusion because individuals thrive in organisations where they can relate to the values and, as a result, perform better (masale et al., 2021). a strong (high-performance) culture is generated by individuals’ deep-seated assumptions and beliefs favouring their goods, customers, systems and procedures. according to kontoghiorghes (2016), high-performing organisations with a robust value system are more effective at attracting and retaining people. in addition, the participants emphasised the necessity of leadership in creating an enabling talent culture that connects people via open communication to work together to achieve the water boards’ strategic goals. these findings support stříteská and sein (2021), who stressed the relevance of a leadership talent mentality in facilitating government institutions’ strategic direction and dynamic operations. the majority of participants indicated that the water board has a positive reputation as desirable employment. according to the participants, water boards attract talent by ensuring that workers are valued, respected, appreciated and trusted. additionally, participants stated that a healthy and caring water board culture allows staff to be productive and accomplish the company’s operational goals. collings et al. (2019) argue that employees are drawn to a prospective employer who lives up to its brand, in this case, being a caring organisation with a reputation for ethics, integrity and solid governance. in accordance with parmar (2014), the water board has a positive employer brand identity. other participants praised the water board’s experience and brand recognition for providing high-quality service. according to wolfswinkel and enslin (2020), the brand effectiveness of water boards influences the company’s ability to attract and retain personnel to a great extent. furthermore, as barbados (2020) points out, the interplay between employer branding, organisational attractiveness and company culture contributes to the organisation’s evp. similarly, as bates (2019) points out, the evp should serve as the foundation for the water board’s employment brand. a framework for the implementation of an employee value proposition for water boards the researchers propose the following framework to guide the implementation of an evp framework for water boards, based on the above findings and debate. the diagrammatical presentation in figure 1 shows that the proposed evp framework’s interconnected essential components and operating dynamics can follow. a water board’s branding strategy and talent management strategy should originate its business strategy (see abbott, 2019). the business strategy is a deliberate, planned and systematic process of enhancing the reputation of an entity (see kontoghiorghes, 2016). the talent management strategy involves the conscious and intentional implementation of integrated human resource strategies to attract, engage and retain employees (see armstrong & taylor, 2014). these strategies must enhance and support the successful execution of the water board’s business strategy (lawler, 2017). figure 1: an employee value proposition framework. as shown in the diagrammatical illustration, a water board’s corporate brand (focusing on communicating differentiating associations and perceptions about an organisation’s reputation as a whole) must evolve from its overall brand strategy. such a corporate brand is also aligned with the water board’s strategic intent. the marketing and communication of favourable associations with and positive perceptions about the water board should likewise enhance and support its successful business strategy (see elving et al., 2013; lawler, 2017; morgan, 2017). a water board’s developed corporate brand must serve as a point of departure in communicating the selected value proposition qualities, as it could be a crucial factor in attracting and keeping people (financial compensation, nonfinancial benefits, career development and corporate culture). these characteristics are first used in constructing a water board’s evp, which focuses on solving generic employment needs (theoretical core concept) and then developing its tvp, which focuses exclusively on addressing critical scarcity employment needs (see saurombe, 2017; stephenson, 2010). the employer brand of a water board (which focuses on gaining awareness and reputation as a preferred employer on the employment market) must evolve from its corporate brand (theoretical core concept). furthermore, the identified and selected value proposition features of both the water board’s evp should establish such an employer brand (see bates, 2019; collings et al., 2019). employer brand marketing based on a tvp’s ultimate goal is to successfully identify, attract, engage and retain individuals with necessary scarce talents. therefore, a water board must also regularly measure and review its employer brand message’s results. the water board’s intended tvp and declared employer brand might be amended or adapted if unsatisfactory outcomes. continuous measurement and review also include determining how much the articulated tvp and employer brand contribute to enhancing and supporting the water board’s business strategy execution (see conklyn & robles, 2010) practical implications this study’s findings highlighted the need for water boards investing in creating an evp to ensure the acquisition and retention of the qualified staff needed to maintain service quality. the water boards use a wide range of strategies that are essentially the same when it comes to career development in all of its forms. however, only five of the nine water boards have implemented a formal and comprehensive personnel management plan, strategy, policy or program. without such a comprehensive talent management strategy, policy or program, there may be a lack of integration across the various talent management processes, such as career path development, succession planning and retention tactics. the talent management stakeholders of the water boards should adopt the mindset to invest in talented people to fulfil the service mandate to the general public. the water boards’ perceived service performance can enhance the brand value of an employer of choice. finally, the statutory water board sector should consider putting more emphasis on developing evps to address generic employment needs. the proposed evp framework can guide the implementation of a tvp to improve success in attracting, engaging and retaining current and future talent. limitations and recommendations there were some limitations to this study. firstly, there is a scarcity of empirical studies on evps in general. future research could benefit from developing a solid theoretical foundation for evps that serves as a framework for their practical deployment in the workplace. secondly, the scope of this research was confined to water boards in specific locations. as a result, the findings cannot be applied to other situations. third, hr practitioners from the various water boards made up most of the sample. as a result, the findings are limited to one occupational group’s perspectives and cannot be applied to other water boards or professional groups. future research should involve diverse talent stakeholders (i.e. employees, leaders) to have a more comprehensive perspective on the extent of evp in water boards. finally, this research focused on the determinants of an evp for the water boards. in the future, researchers should also explore the antecedents and outcomes of evps to build a talent value pipeline that can manage the careers of talented individuals from start to finish. conclusion the application of evps within the talent management space is still in its infancy shoes. more research is required to explore how evps can be developed to complement talent attraction and retention in various public sector contexts. employee value propositions are viable enablers of sustainable success in meeting critical current and future employment needs. therefore, water boards are encouraged to invest in the implementation of compelling evps to attract and retain those talents that can deliver the required services in support of the strategic objectives of water boards. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions n.a.t. visualised and compiled the article and did the data analyses. e.n.b. assisted with editorial inputs and finalised the article. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the north-west university economic and management sciences research ethics committee (ems-rec) (ref. no. nwu-01300-21-a4). funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abbott, p. (2019). employer value proposition. fact sheet 2019/1. retrieved from https://cct.mycpd.co.za/sabpp/factsheets/2019/fact-sheet_february-2019_wit.pdf al rina, r., & atan, t. (2020). the impact of implementing talent management practices on sustainable organizational performance. sustainability, 12(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12208372 amushila, j., & bussin, m.h.r. (2021). the effect of talent management practices on employee retention at the namibia university of science and technology: middle-level administration staff. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 19, a1485. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1485 arasanmi, c.n., & krishna, a. (2019). linking the employee value proposition (evp) to employee behavioural outcomes. industrial and commercial training, 51(7/8), 387–395. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict-05-2019-0043 armstrong, m. (2012). armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. kogan page. armstrong, m., & taylor, s. (2014). armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. michael armstrong. bach, s., & edwards, m. (2013). managing human resources. john wiley. bates, h. (2019). eleven best employee value proposition examples to inspire you in 2020. retrieved from https://www.harver.com/blog/employee-value-proposition-examples/ bryant, a., & charmaz, k. (2019). the sage handbook of current developments in grounded theory. sage. bryman, b., & bell, e. (2014). business research methods. oxford university press. castaneda, b. (2014). value proposition: 97 success secrets. emereo publishing. charmaz, k. (2014). constructing grounded theory. sage. cohen, l., manion, l., & morrison, k. (2018). research methods in education. routledge. collings, d.g., scullion, h., & caligiuri, p.m. (2019). global talent management. routledge. conklyn, l., & robles, j. (2010). the talent value proposition at usaa. in executive summaries of the 12th annual shrm foundation thought leaders retreat: rebuilding the talent value proposition for what’s next (pp. 20–22). san antonia, tx: society for human resource management, society for human resource management. corbin, j., & strauss, a. (2015). basics of qualitative research. sage. cresswell, j.w., & cresswell, j.d. (2018). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). sage. de la haye, s. (2019). how to create an employee value proposition. retrieved from https://www.pinpointhq.com/insights/create-employee-value-proposition/#what-is-an-employee-value-proposition department of higher education and training. (2019). skills supply and demand in south africa. unpublished research report. author dhamija, a. (2015, january, 10–11). linkage between employee value proposition and manpower planning. paper presented at asm’s international conference on ongoing research in management and it, pune. dinnen, m., & alder, m. (2013). exceptional talent: how to attract, acquire and retain the very best employees. kogan page. elving, w.j.l., westhoff, j.j.c., meeusen, k., & schoonderbeek, j.w. (2013). the war for talent? the relevance of employer branding in job advertisements for becoming an employer of choice. journal of brand management, 20(5), 355–373. https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2012.21 evans, g.l. (2013). a novice researcher’s first walk through the maze of grounded theory: rationalization for classical grounded theory. the grounded theory review, 12(1), 37–55. ferreira, e.h. (2016). the role of employee value propositions and corporate brand preferences in talent attraction. unpublished master of commerce in organisational psychology dissertation, university of cape town. frankson, l. (2016). skills dry up in sa water sector. retrieved from www.infrastructurene.ws/2016/03/07/skills_dry_up_in_sa_water_sector given, m. (2008). purposive sampling: the sage encyclopaedia of qualitative research methods. sage. halaweh, m. (2012). integration of grounded theory and case study: an exemplary application from e-commerce security perception research. journal of information technology theory and application, 13(1), 32–50. harris, r., & short, t. (2014). workforce development. springer. hedge, j.w., & rineer, j.r. (2017). improving career development opportunities through rigorous career pathways research. rti press publication no. op-0037-1703. rti press. https://doi.org/10.3768/rtipress.2017.op.0037.1703 karar, e., & pietersen, k. (2009). challenges for human capital development and technological innovations in the south african water sector. development planning division: working paper series no. 13. development bank of southern africa. keino, d.c., gachunga, h., & ogollah, k. (2017). influence of organizational culture on employer branding in the mobile telecommunication sector in kenya. human resource and leadership journal, 2(1), 27–46. https://doi.org/10.47941/hrlj.73 koketso, l.p., & rust, a.a.b. (2012). perceived challenges to talent management in the south african public service: an exploratory study of the city of cape town municipality. african journal of business management, 6(6), 2221–2233. https://doi.org/10.5897/ajbm11.2169 kontoghiorghes, c. (2016). linking high performance organizational culture and talent management: satisfaction/motivation and organizational commitment as mediators. the international journal of human resource management, 27(16), 1833–1853. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1075572 kucherov, d., & zavyalova, e. (2012). hrd practices and talent management in the companies with the employer brand. european journal of training and development, 36(1), 86–104. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090591211192647 landelahni business leaders amrop sa. (2012). results of the landelahni 2012 infrastructure sector research survey. civil engineering, 20(8), 44–47. retrieved from https://saice.org.za/downloads/monthly_publications/2012/2012-civil-engineering-september.pdf lawler, e.e. (2017). reinventing talent management: principles and practices for the new world of work. barret-koehler. ledford, g.e. (2013). attracting, retaining, and motivating higher education employees: the rewards of work framework. cupa-hr journal, 54(2), 22–26. lee, j.c. (2020). an integrated talent management model for the public service: the cas e of the western cape provincial government. unpublished doctoral dissertation, north-west university. lesenyeho, d. (2017). talent management of early career academics at south african higher education institutions. unpublished doctoral thesis, north-west university. lesenyeho, d.l., barkhuizen, n.e., & schutte, n.e. (2018). factors relating to the attraction of talented early career academics in south african higher education institutions. sa journal resource management, 16(5), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.910 luna-arocas, r., & lara, f.j. (2020). talent management, affective organizational commitment and service performance in local government. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17134827 mabaso, c. (2015). the influence of rewards on talent attraction and retention at a further education and training college in gauteng. unpublished masters dissertation, vaal university of technology. mabope, n.c. (2018). strategies and practices for effective talent manageme nt in the mangaung metropolitan municipality. unpublished masters dissertation, central university of technology. macmillan, j.h., & schumacher, s. (2006). research in education. pearson. makhuzeni, b., & barkhuizen, e.n. (2015). the effect of a total rewards strategy on school teachers’ retention. sa journal of human resource management, 13(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.699 masale, l.m., barkhuizen, e.n., & schutte, n.e. (2021). exploring the determinants of an organisational talent culture for a botswanan local government institution. acta commercii, 21(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v21i1.892 meyer, d.l. (2009). the poverty of constructivism. educational philosophy and theory, 41(3), 332–341. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2008.00457.x mohammed, a.a. (2018). an investigation into the relationship between talent management processes and knowledge management processes: a case of the higher education sector in queensland, australia. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of southern queensland. mohammed, a.a., hafeez-baig, a., & gururajan, r. (2019). a qualitative research to explore practices that are utilised for managing talent development in the higher education environment: a case study in six australian universities. journal of industry-university collaboration, 1(1), 24–37. https://doi.org/10.1108/jiuc-02-2019-003 mokgojwa, d.m. (2019). the development of a talent risk management tool for academics in a selected south african higher ed ucation institution. unpublished doctoral thesis, north-west university. molobye, n.t. (2021). exploring the application of talent return on investment at sedibeng water. unpublished masters dissertation, stadio. morgan, j. (2017). the employee experience advantage. wiley. mosley, r. (2014). employer brand management – practical lessons from the world’s leading employers. wiley. mshengu, p.n. (2015). an evaluation of talent management with the department of arts and culture in kzn. unpublished doctoral thesis, university of kwazulu natal. naim, m.f., & lenka, u. (2018). development and retention of generation y employees: a conceptual framework. employee relations, 40(2), 433–455. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-09-2016-0172 nthebe, k., barkhuizen, n., & schutte, n. (2016). rewards: a predictor of well-being and service quality of school principals in the north-west province. sa journal of human resource management, 14(1), a711. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.711 onwugbolu, m.c.n., & mutambara, e. (2021). talent management strategies and employees’ job performance in the retail sector of kwazulu-natal, south africa: a structural model. african journal of business and economic research, 16(3). retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-aa_ajber_v16_n3_a11 paadi, k., barkhuizen, n., & swamepoel, s. (2019). exploring the building blocks of an employee value proposition for graduate interns. international journal of social sciences and humanity studies, 11(1), 51–67. parmar, a. (2014). the role of an hr department in employer branding in public and private sector. journal of human resources management and labour studies, 2(2), 201–225. patnaik, b.c.m., & padhi, p.c. (2012). compensation management: a theoretical preview. trans asian journal of marketing & management research, 1(1), 39–48. pawar, a. (2018, september 8–9). analyzing organizational elements of employee value proposition: the employees perspective. in proceedings of asia conference on business and economic studies (acbes) (pp. 94–103). university of economics, ho chi minh city. reddy, a.v. (2021). compensation system: influence on employee retention. in a.k. goel, s. popova, & l. popova (eds.), emerging trends in accounting, finance, marketing and human resource management(pp. 46–51). vandana publications. reilly, p., & williams, t. (2012). global hr: challenges facing the function. gower. saurombe, m.d. (2017). management perspective on a talent value proposition for academic staff in a south african higher education institution. unpublished doctoral dissertation, north-west university. schlechter, a., hung, a., & bussin, m. (2014). understanding talent attraction: the influence of financial rewards elements on perceived job attractiveness. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), art. #647, 13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.647 schlechter, a., thompson, n.c., & bussin, m. (2015). attractiveness of non-financial rewards for prospective knowledge workers. employee relations, 37(3), 274–295. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-06-2014-0077 shabane, t.s. (2017). the integration of talent management and knowledge management in the south african public service. unpublished masters dissertation, university of south africa. stephenson, k. (2010). social capital: the missing link in the value proposition for talent. in executive summaries of the 12th annual shrm foundation thought leaders retreat: rebuilding the talent value proposition for what’s next (pp. 9–11). san antonia, tx: society for human resource management. stříteská, m.k., & sein, y.y. (2021). performance driven culture in the public sector: the case of nordic countries. administrative sciences, 11(4), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci11010004 styśko-kunkowska, m.a., & kwinta, z. (2020). choice between salary and employer brand: the roles of materialism and inclination to develop an identity-motives-based relationship with an employer brand. frontiers in psychology, 27(11), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00555 tribulkina, m. (2018). employer branding: innovative ways of collaboration between the case company and engineering students. unpublished masters dissertation, seinäjoki university of applied sciences. van der merwe, s.j.m. (2012). remuneration’s role in the evp decision-making process. unpublished masters dissertation, university of pretoria. wall, k., & rust, c. (2017, july 24–28). reporting the condition of south africa’s water sector infrastructure. in 40th wedc international conference: local action with international cooperation to improve and sustain water, sanitation and hygiene services, loughborough. wiblen, s., & mcdonnel, a. (2020). connecting ‘talent’ meanings and multi-level context: a discursive approach. international journal of human resource management, 31(4), 474–510. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2019.1629988 wolfswinkel, m.b., & enslin, c. (2020). talent attraction and retention through brand building: an exploration of practices in companies that are top south african brands. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18, a1443. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1443 world at work total rewards association. (2020). total rewards model. retrieved from worldatwork.org yamamoto, h. (2011). the relationship between employee benefit management and employee retention. the international journal of human resource management, 22(17), 3550–3564. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.560871 yates, k., & sejen, l. (2011). employee value propositions: creating alignment, engagement and stronger business results. unpublished research report. towers watson. yilmaz, k. (2013). comparison of quantitative and qualitative research traditions: epistemological, theoretical, and methodological differences. european journal of education, 48(20), 311–325. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12014 zinger, d. (2013). a design conundrum: employee engagement and a 2-day employee value proposition workshop. retrieved from https://www.davidzinger.com/employee-engagement-and-a-2-day-employee-alueproposition-workshop-14160/ zoe, e. (2018). 4 ways to write a winning employee value proposition. retrieved from https://www.efrontlearning.com/blog/2018/11/how-create-employee-value-proposition.html article information authors: kenrick hendricks1 joha louw-potgieter1 affiliations: 1section of organisational psychology, university of cape town, south africa correspondence to: joha louw-potgieter postal address: section of organisational psychology, university of cape town, rondebosch 7701, south africa dates: received: 05 oct. 2011 accepted: 30 jan. 2012 published: 13 july 2012 how to cite this article: hendricks, k., & louw-potgieter, j. (2012). a theory evaluation of an induction programme. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(3), art. #421, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i3.421 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. a theory evaluation of an induction programme in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • content    • process    • support    • follow-up    • evaluation objectives • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • ethical considerations    • potential benefits and hazards    • recruitment procedures    • informed consent    • data protection • trustworthiness    • reliability    • validity • results • discussion    • evaluation question 1: did the human resource manager’s programme theory work for therecipients?    • evaluation question 2: would the original induction programme lead, by default, to identification with the employer and staff retention?    • evaluation question 3: if the original programme theory were changed (based on existing literature regarding induction programmes) would it lead to an improved design and, in the end, to a more effective programme?    • content    • process    • support    • follow-up    • conclusions    • suggestions for future research • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: an induction programme is commonly used to help new employees understand their job within the organisation. research purpose: the main aim of this study was to examine whether or not the programme theory of an induction programme was plausible and would lead to the intended outcomes as described by the programme manager. motivation for the study: induction training is one of the most common training programmes in an organisation. however, there is little research to evaluate whether or not the activities of an induction programme will lead to the intended outcomes of such a programme. research design, approach and method: this theory evaluation used a descriptive design. one hundred and thirteen employees of a media company completed a ten-item, five-point likert scale which measured their perceptions of the programme’s outcome, identification with the organisation and intentions to stay with the organisation. main findings: from this theory evaluation it was apparent that an induction programme based on an implausible programme theory could be problematic. an implausible programme theory affects the design of the programme activities and unsuitable activities may not deliver the desired outcomes. practical/managerial implications: the intention of the evaluation is to guide human resource managers through a process of replacing an implausible programme theory with one that is plausible, and which ensures better alignment of programme activities and outcomes. contribution/value-add: the evaluators showed how a plausible programme theory could improve programme design. this redesigned induction programme may lead to benefits, such as staff retention and company identification, rather than the vague assumption that it has been conforming to a legal obligation. introduction top ↑ this study aimed to evaluate whether or not an induction programme, designed for a media company, was based on a plausible programme theory and whether the programme activities were aligned with this theory or not. induction training is one of the most common types of organisational training programmes (klein & weaver, 2000). prior research suggests that most organisations implement some form of induction to help new employees familiarise themselves with their jobs (wesson & gogus, 2005). when reviewing the literature on induction programmes, one is struck by the fact that most of the literature appears in popular publications and that the benefits of such programmes are asserted but not empirically proven. induction (or on-boarding, as it is known in the united states of america [usa]), refers to the process of combining the people, processes and technology needed to optimise the effect that a new hire has on business outcomes (snell, 2006). induction programmes can either occur as formal training programmes, informal induction carried out by co-workers and supervisors or a combination of both (klein & weaver, 2000). these programmes can also vary depending on the job level of the new employee and the variety of programme activities (wesson & gogus, 2005). according to mestre, stainer and stainer (1997), the main aim of induction is to lessen the fear or anxiety experienced by new employees regarding settling into a job or performance. several researchers have indicated the benefits of induction programmes. according to butler (2008), wells (2005) and wesson and gogus (2005) new employees are most vulnerable during the first few weeks of employment and poor induction significantly raises the risk of turnover in this group. therefore, it is important that an organisation has a mechanism in place to capitalise on early optimism and imprint the employer’s brand of how the organisation functions (derven, 2008). often the first one hundred days of a new employee’s career are critical in determining whether he or she will assimilate into the organisation and thrive, or fail to do so (fritz & vonderfecht, 2007). according to snell (2006), induction presents significant benefits to organisations such as a reduction in the amount of time it takes for new employees to adjust in an organisation (ragsdale & mueller, 2005) and to reach full working capacity (brodie, 2006; derven, 2008). successful induction programmes can also lead to cost savings (cooper-thomas & anderson, 2006). the indirect costs of early departure of a newly hired executive (wells, 2005) or labour turnover (derven, 2008; friedman, 2006) could be reduced by a good induction programme. on the other hand, the direct cost of an induction programme could be reduced by automating the process (butler, 2008). induction programmes not only benefit organisations, they also offer significant benefits to employees. according to derven (2008), induction reinforces a new employee’s decision to join the organisation and fosters a feeling of belonging. a well-organised induction programme will aid staff in dealing with anxiety by providing them with coping strategies like goal setting and planning during one of the most stressful times in their organisational life (wanous & reichers, 2000). by reducing insecurity and anxiety, induction programmes are able to help employees settle in faster and feel more at home in the organisation (dodds & verest, 2002; ragsdale & mueller, 2005). these positive emotions may lead to improved levels of satisfaction amongst new employees (sussman, 2005), which in turn could translate into more productive workers who feel part of the organisation (d’aurizio, 2007). customer satisfaction can be improved by sending new employees on an induction programme that is tailored to provide the necessary support to avoid demoralisation during the initial working period (d’aurizio, 2007). pollitt (2007) showed that customer-satisfaction ratings for new employees at a major uk energy provider doubled to 80% after introducing such an induction programme. induction programmes provide both tangible and cost-related benefits for an organisation as well as emotional benefits for its employees. companies that can reduce the time taken to integrate new employees will gain a competitive advantage as employees will reach their full productivity sooner, have higher morale and will be more likely to remain in the same job (moscato, 2005). one could ask whether these benefits mentioned in the literature derive from specific programme activities or not. the literature on induction programme activities indicates that benefits can be categorised into content, process, support and follow-up (d’aurizio, 2007; wanous & reichers, 2000). content two kinds of information are required in an induction programme: firstly, general information about employees’ work routines and secondly, a review of the organisation’s history and mission and the way new employees would be expected to contribute to the latter (mestre et al., 1997). this is supported by snell (2006) and wanous and reichers (2000), who view the covering of health and safety procedures, a brief history of the new organisation, a tour of the building and introduction to co-workers as some of the essential aspects for creating an ideal induction programme. it is also recommended that induction programmes include elements that communicate benefits to new employees (e.g. employee assistance programmes [eap], health plan options and discount programmes) (butler, 2008).according to snell, (2006) an induction programme should contain an element relating to the organisation’s information technology. this will typically involve the allotment of computer hardware and software along with basic guidelines for acceptable use of these resources (hacker, 2004; pudhan, 2002; snell, 2006). new employees need to be introduced to the organisational structure, culture, work standards and organisational expectations (ragsdale & mueller, 2005). it is recommended that new employees meet all the individuals who will aid them in performing their job adequately (d’azurizio, 2007) and are informed of their role and its contribution within the department (hamilton, 2007). manager-facilitated training, in which the organisational culture, values and the employee’s job expectations are communicated, was suggested by sussman (2005). a reception, in the form of a lunch or outing attended by direct managers and executive leadership, is often included as a social event in the programme (hamilton, 2007). process according to wanous and reichers (2000), 54% of induction programmes are presented within the first month of employment. it is recommended that induction programmes have phased implementation (derven, 2008), instead of the traditional one-off approach to programme implementation (friedman, 2006). ideally, these programmes take place after the first day of work and before the end of the first week, with activities spread over two to three hours each morning (penzer, 1973). the length of an induction programme should vary between one and two weeks (d’aurizio, 2007). the amount of time spent on induction-related procedures decreases with the passing of each month in the new job (sussman, 2005). butler (2008) recommends that an induction programme, containing information about direct reports, conditions of employment and required paperwork, should be delivered to new employees before their actual starting date. ideally, no forms are handed out during the induction programme (hamilton, 2007; wanous & reichers, 2000) as such administrative tasks should be completed beforehand. it is recommended that all services, including work stations, email accounts and access to the relevant networks, should be set up before the new employee’s start date (butler, 2008). following this, information related to the organisation’s key markets, competitors, products and services could be communicated electronically to the new employee (derven, 2008). it is recommended that induction programmes consist of a blended learning curriculum that makes use of classroom instruction, frequent discussions with direct managers as well as self-guided e-learning (sussman, 2005). information that requires interpersonal interaction can be delivered in the classroom, whilst individualised job-related information is best presented electronically (derven, 2008; moscato, 2005; ragsdale & mueller, 2005; schneider, 2008). managers should deliver information, regarding support and organisational resources available to the new employee, in person and as part of a process to create a good working relationship (derven, 2008). penzer (1973) recommends that induction groups should be heterogeneous in job function but homogeneous in job level. this is because combining individuals of high and low job authority levels makes both groups uncomfortable. it is also recommended that new managers receive their own personalised form of induction training because the managers’ performance in their jobs affects employees throughout the entire organisation (brodie, 2006). however, this approach may not be practical in all organisations. finally it is recommended that the tone of the induction process should be celebratory rather than propagandistic (hacker, 2004). when films or videos are used to sell the organisation, this should be kept in mind. support as part of the induction process, it is recommended that a competent mentor is selected to support the new employee (d’aurizio, 2007) and to provide information regarding the key challenges of the job, the performance expectations associated with it, the history of how the job was created and the possible political dynamics associated with the job role. in addition, it is recommended that new employees are provided with information regarding nearby housing, schools and social services (butler, 2008; d’aurizio, 2007). ideal induction programmes provide contact details to the new employee’s direct manager and department, and also inform co-workers of the date of the new employees’ arrival, in order for them to create a positive and welcoming environment on this day (d’aurizio, 2007). there are some novel methods of ensuring that induction programmes provide adequate support. according to hartley (2004), some organisations refer to pre-loaded personal digital assistants (pdas) to promote new employee integration. these pdas contain key tasks to be undertaken by the new employee, key contact information and in some cases digital images of relevant co-workers. such guides may also contain professional and personal information of co-workers, their length of tenure at the organisation, their previous job roles, communication preferences and outside interests (johnson, 2006). a less costly method of providing key information could be to refer to compact disks with read-only-memory (cd-roms) containing important website links, digital images of co-workers and online quick-reference guides containing policies, procedures and company ethics principles (hartley, 2004). these support methods should be supplemented by personal meetings with the new employee’s direct manager, in order to develop action plans for delivering results during the initial period of employment and to clarify any outstanding queries (johnson, 2006). it is suggested that induction programmes foster employee integration through the establishment of employee social networks (derven, 2008). this can be accomplished by using social networking software that enables employees to create profiles of their professional and personal lives as a means of engaging with fellow employees and their employer (hr-focus, 2007). when new employees discover that they share common interests with existing employees, they are often able to collaborate more effectively on professional, work-related tasks (johnson, 2005). follow-up it is recommended that induction programmes contain sessions for follow-up and assess new employee progress beyond the first day of employment (fritz & vonderfecht, 2007; hamilton, 2007). meetings could be held with the new employees at key milestones early in their organisational careers (d’aurizio, 2007). it is advised that these meetings also take place informally in a social setting, as this encourages networking and constructive feedback in a non-threatening environment.the follow-up process allows managers to ascertain whether or not there are enough resources to allow for employee integration, whether or not there are any political obstacles to professional socialisation, whether or not mentor support is adequate and, lastly, what the new employee’s training needs are (friedman, 2006). information gathered during such a follow-up process will enable programme improvement. evaluation objectives according to rossi, lipsey and freeman (2004) programme theory refers to the assumptions of how a programme achieves its desired outcomes. bickman (1987, p. 5) describes programme theory as ‘… the construction of a plausible and sensible model of how a programme is supposed to work’. according to weiss (1998) a programme theory helps the client to understand the programme design and to improve it.in the current study, the evaluators examined whether or not the programme theory of the induction under evaluation is plausible. in order to ascertain this, a comprehensive programme description was required. this description contains the programme activities (what happens on the programme) which were then presented as a modest programme theory. this programme theory (as supplied by the client) was then tested for its plausibility against the social science literature presented earlier. the one-day (09h00–15h00) induction programme described here is set in a media and magazine production environment that is fast-paced and deadline-driven. the human resource (hr) manager provided the following programme description. it is intended that all new employees attend the induction programme. however, because of the specific demands of this workplace, this is not always possible and longer-serving employees and new employees sometimes attend the same programme. the programme, presented by an hr officer, starts with an ice-breaking exercise which requires all new employees to give a brief description of themselves, some of their interests and the department in which they work. this is followed by a presentation covering the company history and some aspects of the organisation’s culture. then a series of presentations on the organisation’s core divisions (administration, hr, travel, operations, information technology [it] and despatch) is delivered. the it presentation is intended to inform new employees of policies regarding internet and e-mail use. a break from presentations is provided at midday with a lunch function in the company bar. direct managers, of the programme recipients, along with the managing director (md) are invited to attend. the hr manager described this as an important activity within the programme as it aims to provide an opportunity for wider socialisation across the organisation. furthermore, the presence of the md signals that new employees are regarded as important and that they are welcomed personally into the organisation. after lunch all attendees are taken on a tour of the organisation’s building, which includes a visit to despatch where employees are provided with guidelines for sending and receiving post. the induction day ends with a photographing session. the programme activities and outcomes are presented in figure 1. figure 1: the media company’s action plan containing induction activities and their related outcomes. according to the media company’s hr manager, the induction programme, as described (see figure 1), results in the company fulfilling its legal obligation as prescribed by ‘south african labour law’. in figure 2, this programme theory is presented in a diagram. figure 2: media company’s programme theory. whilst induction programmes are generally recognised as good practice, there is no obligation in south african labour law to induct employees. moreover, in the literature review, it was indicated how recipients of an induction programme benefit from it and it was indicated that the two most important outcomes of an induction programme are identification with the employer and staff retention. a more plausible programme theory, based on the outcomes of induction programmes as specified in the literature, is presented in figure 3. figure 3: programme theory based on social science literature. based on this information, the following evaluation questions will be explored: evaluation question 1: did the human resource manager’s programme theory work for the recipients? in other words, were they aware that the outcome of the induction programme was the fulfilment of a legal obligation? evaluation question 2: would the original induction programme lead, by default, to identification with the employer and staff retention? this evaluation question was included, as it was assumed that merely taking part in the programme activities might have unintended consequences, like identification and retention. evaluation question 3: if the original programme theory were changed (based on existing literature regarding induction programmes) would it lead to an improved design and, in the end, to a more effective programme? the value of the current study lies in the causal links that are made explicit between the programme activities and the programme theory. these links answer the question: will this programme deliver the intended outcomes or not? research design top ↑ research approach this theory evaluation used a descriptive design. research method research participants at the time of the evaluation, there were 197 permanent and 14 fixed term contract employees in the company. a total of 113 employees attended the induction programme and completed the questionnaire. these participants to the programme included:• 49 new employees who attended within their first month of employment • 42 new employees who attended after one month • 22 longer-serving employees who attended after two months or more of employment. measuring instruments a ten-item, five-point likert-type questionnaire was used to gather information from the programme participants. the questionnaire focused on the programme’s outcome as specified by the programme manager (legal obligation) and other outcomes specified in the literature (organisational identification and staff retention). the questionnaire contained:• three questions regarding perceptions that a legal obligation was fulfilled by the programme (these were devised by the evaluators) • four questions on identification (adapted from doosje, ellemers & spears’ [1995] organisational integration scale) • two questions on intention to stay (adapted from cohen’s [1993] intention to quit measure) • a final question on the perceived usefulness of the induction programme for the participants. the question items are presented in table 1. table 1: induction programme questionnaire. research procedure all 113 recipients of the induction programme completed the questionnaire electronically. statistical analysis an exploratory factor analysis (efa) was used to reduce the number of items in the questionnaire. thereafter the number of factors was extracted using a principal components analysis. a one-way, between groups, analysis of variance was used to explore the impact of the length of tenure and the timing of induction attendance on the factors extracted. ethical considerations top ↑ the ethics in research committee of the faculty of commerce, university of cape town, approved the evaluation. potential benefits and hazards there were no benefits or hazards for participants who took part in the evaluation. the evaluators did not require that participants identify themselves and indicated that only number codes would be used for the questionnaire data. recruitment procedures the primary evaluator sent the questionnaire electronically to all participants who had attended the induction programme. informed consent on the first page of the questionnaire the purpose, confidentiality of the data and the time it would take to complete the questionnaire were described in detail. data protection the webmaster, at the university of cape town, stripped each completed questionnaire of all identifiers and stored the data on a secure server. the primary evaluator was the only person who could access the data. trustworthiness top ↑ reliability the reliability of the questionnaire is described in the results section. validity the evaluation focused on a specific programme and did not seek to generalise the results to other, similar programmes. results top ↑ cronbach’s alpha (α = .837) indicated that the ten-item questionnaire had high internal reliability. an exploratory factor analysis (efa) was used to reduce the number of items in the questionnaire to those that best measure the constructs of legal obligation, retention and identification. in addition the efa was used to detect the structure in relationships between these items (pallant, 2007). all ten items of the questionnaire were included in the efa. the suitability of the data set for conducting an efa was assessed. an initial inspection of the correlation matrix revealed the presence of several coefficients of .3 and above. this served as an early indicator of data suitability for factor analysis (pallant, 2007). the kaiser-meyer-oklin value was .74, which exceeded the recommended value of .6 (pallant, 2007), and bartlett’s test of sphericity reached statistical significance (p = < .00), supporting the factorability of this specific correlation matrix. the ten items in the questionnaire were then subjected to principal components analysis (pca) with direct oblimin extraction. principal components analysis revealed the presence of three factors with eigen values exceeding 1, which explained 41.9%, 15.9% and 12.3% of the 70.1% total variance respectively. an inspection of the pattern matrix revealed that two items were loading on more than one factor ‘i see myself as a member of (the company); in general i found the induction programme useful‘. in order to ensure that all of the items only load on one factor, the difference between the cross-loading items was examined. according to pallant (2007), cross-loading items with a difference of less than .25 between them should be removed from an efa. using this guideline, the item, ‘in general i found the induction programme useful’, was removed from the efa and three factors with no cross-loading items emerged (see table 2). table 2: pattern matrix after removing cross-loading item. in table 2, the first three items (9, 8 and 5) loaded on a single factor, named retention. retention explained 42.3% of the variance. the second factor was named identification and consisted of three items (4, 6 and 7). identification explained 17.5% of the variance. the final factor consisted of three items (3, 2 and 1) and was named legal obligation. this last factor explained 13.1% of the variance. the total variance explained by these three factors had increased to 73.0%. in order to answer evaluation question one, ‘does the hrm’s programme theory work for the recipients?’, and two, ‘would the original induction programme lead, by default, to identification with the employer and staff retention?’, a one-way between groups analysis of variance (anova) was conducted. this anova explored the impact of the length of tenure and the timing of induction attendance on the levels of retention, identification and legal obligation. programme participants were divided into three groups, according to their length of tenure and the timing of their induction programme attendance. these groups were: • group 1: new employees with first-month induction attendance. • group 2: new employees with induction attendance after one month of employment. • group 3: long-serving employees with later induction attendance. no statistically significant difference was found in the mean scores for the three groups at the p < .05 level in the questionnaire’s legal obligation (f = .289, p = .833), retention (f = 1.234, p = .301) and identification (f = 2.261, p = .085). discussion top ↑ the results will be discussed in terms of the main objectives of the study, namely the evaluation questions based on the programme theory. the discussion will highlight the importance of the causal links between programme activities and a plausible programme theory. evaluation question 1: did the human resource manager’s programme theory work for the recipients? from the results, it is clear that recipients of the induction programme did not experience it as a fulfilment of a legal obligation. if the company is ever challenged on whether or not it has fulfilled its legal obligation and programme recipients were asked to supply evidence of this, the recipients would most probably answer in the negative. evaluation question 2: would the original induction programme lead, by default, to identification with the employer and staff retention? it was expected that the induction programme would not lead to company identification or employee retention, but questionnaire items were included to test that this did not happen simply because new employees spent time together on an induction programme. therefore, the non-significant results pertaining to this evaluation question were not surprising. evaluation question 3: if the original programme theory were changed (based on existing literature regarding induction programmes) would it lead to an improved design and, in the end, to a more effective programme? from the results of evaluation questions 1 and 2, it was clear that the induction programme was not delivering the outcomes of ‘legal obligation’ or ‘identification’. in the literature review the authors presented a number of studies detailing the typical programme activities of effective induction programmes implemented in other companies. in order to increase the usefulness of this evaluation report, an ideal induction programme was outlined, with company identification and staff retention as intended outcomes. it is suggested that the media company redesign its induction programme, based on these sound social science assumptions and empirical results. these ideal programme activities are presented in figure 4. figure 4: ideal programme activities for induction programme. these suggestions, for an improved induction programme, will be presented according to the four typical components that constitute an effective programme, namely content, support, follow-up and process (d’aurizio, 2007). content it is suggested that the programme starts with a welcoming element, followed by a review of the organisation’s history and mission (mestre et al., 1997), its organisational structure, culture and work standards (ragsdale & mueller, 2005). thereafter, employees could be made aware of the following:• the organisation’s expectations of them • their work routines • their contribution to the company’s goals • the people they should meet who would assist them to perform their jobs adequately (d’aurizio, 2007). two other programme activities, relating to the employee’s obligations regarding safety and it use, could be included. it is recommended that the programme covers the organisation’s unique health and safety procedures (snell, 2006; wanous & reichers, 2000) and acceptable use of computer hardware and software (hacker, 2004; snell, 2006). both of these activities will address the legal obligation of the company to make employees aware of its safety and it policies. after all this information input, it is recommended that a reception be hosted for new employees with direct managers and executive leadership present (hamilton, 2007). this social event may indicate that the organisation’s leadership takes induction of new employees seriously. process unlike the current induction programme, where longer-serving employees are required to attend, wanous and reichers (2000) suggest that an induction programme takes place within the first month of employment. the evaluators would like to suggest that the first induction meeting takes place within the first week rather than the first month of employment, as most employees in a fast-paced work environment might have acquired, by trial and error, relevant information about their jobs after the first month of work. it is also suggested that implementation of the programme be phased instead of being structured according to the current one-off presentation (derven, 2008; friedman, 2006). programme activities can be spread over two to three hours each morning during the first week of employment (penzer, 1973). this will allow the new employees to receive critical information in smaller and more manageable sessions, thus, making it easier for them to internalise and apply this information.as employees are able to learn twice as fast through self-guided e-learning (sussman, 2005), it is suggested that programme activities, which lend themselves to this medium (e.g. policies and procedures, company structure, personal education and training programmes, etc.), should be housed on the web for convenient all-day access (schneider, 2008). care should be exercised that these web-based interventions are supported by frequent discussions between new employees and their managers (johnson, 2006) in order to determine integration progress and possible obstacles. support before the new employees start work, the contact details of their direct manager and co-workers and all relevant paperwork for completion could be supplied (butler, 2008; d’aurizio, 2007). these details, plus information about policies, procedures and company ethics (hartley, 2004) could be presented to the new person on a compact disc. co-workers and managers could be alerted to the employees’ starting date in order to welcome them.it is suggested that a competent, positive mentor (d’aurizio, 2007) is selected to assist the new employees to gain job-related information from co-workers, clients and their manager (johnson, 2006). the mentor could also play an important role in providing the new person with information regarding the cultural aspects of the organisation, namely what is regarded as important, which behaviours are rewarded or discouraged and inform them about the unspoken politics of the organisation. employee integration could be fostered by means of a social network tool which enables new employees to meet and interact with other employees with similar interests or jobs (derven, 2008). new employees could, thus, create their personal profiles by means of this tool and communicate information regarding their professional and personal lives to other co-workers with the intention of further social interaction (hr-focus, 2007). research indicates that when new employees discover shared interests with existing employees they find it easier to collaborate on professional work-related tasks (johnson, 2005). follow-up it is suggested that managers meet with new employees at key milestones early in their organisational careers in order to follow up and assess the progress of integration (d’aurizio, 2007; hamilton, 2007). these milestones may be time-bound (e.g. after one month, after three months, etc.) or they could be related to early performance (e.g. after the first deliverable is completed, and after the first client contact, etc.). these meetings should be informal, off site, in a social setting, as this encourages networking and constructive feedback in a non-threatening environment (d’aurizio, 2007). for programme improvement, it is suggested that the follow-up component should be structured in order to determine: • whether or not there are enough resources available to allow for full employee integration • whether or not mentor support is adequate • whether or not there are any obstacles to professional socialisation • and, most importantly, what the new employee’s training and development needs are (friedman, 2006). conclusions from this theory evaluation it is apparent that an induction programme, based on an implausible programme theory, could be problematic. an implausible programme theory affects the design of the programme activities, and unsuitable activities may not deliver the desired outcomes. in this evaluation it has been shown how a plausible programme theory, based on sound social science principles, can improve programme design. this redesigned induction programme will ensure that the company reaps the benefits of staff retention and company identification rather than the vague assumption that it has been conforming to a ‘legal obligation’ as stated in this case. suggestions for future research should the media company implement the redesigned induction programme, it is suggested that an outcome evaluation is undertaken by it, in order to determine whether or not the new programme has, in fact, led to staff retention and company identification. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this paper. authors’ contributions k.h. (university of cape town) completed this evaluation as a requirement for his master’s degree in programme evaluation. j.l.-p. (university of cape town) supervised the evaluation. references top ↑ bickman, l. (1987). the functions of program theory. new directions for program evaluation, 33, 5–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ev.1443brodie, j.m. (2006). getting managers on board. human resources magazine, november, 105–108. butler, k.m. (2008). getting employees to stay onboard instead of jumping ship. employee benefit news, january, 13–14. cohen, a. (1993). work commitment in relation to withdrawal intentions and union effectiveness. journal of business research, 26, 75–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0148-2963%2893%2990044-p cooper-thomas, h.d., & anderson, n. (2006). organizational socialization. journal of managerial psychology, 21, 492–516. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940610673997 d’aurizio, p. (2007). onboarding: delivering on the promise. journal of nursing economics, 25, 228–229. derven, m. (2008). management onboarding. journal of training and development, april, 49–52. dodds, b., & verest, m. (2002). e-learning in support of induction training at de lage landen. journal of industrial and commercial training, 34, 70–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00197850210417564 doosje, b., ellemers, n., & spears, r. (1995). perceived intragroup variability as a function of group status and identification. journal of experimental social psychology, 31, 410–436. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jesp.1995.1018 friedman, l. (2006). are you losing potential new hires at hello? journal of training and development, november, 25–27. fritz, l.r., & vonderfecht, d. (2007). the first 100 days. journal of healthcare executive, november, 8–14. hacker, c.a. (2004). new employee orientation: make it pay dividends for years to come. journal of information systems management, 89–92. hamilton, h. (2007). onboarding secures talent for the long run. journal of workforce management, 86, 1. hartley, d.e. (2004). digital beat: technology kicks up leadership development. journal of training and development, march, 22–24. hr-focus. (2007). social networks: the newest employee engagement tool. hr focus news briefs, november, 1. johnson, l.k. (2005). get your new managers moving. harvard management update, june, 3–5. johnson, l.k. (2006). rapid onboarding at capital one. harvard management update, september, 3–4. klein, h.j., & weaver, n.a. (2000). the effectiveness of an organizational level orientation training program in the socialization of new hires. journal of personnel psychology, 53, 47–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2000.tb00193.x mestre, m., stainer, a., & stainer, l. (1997). employee orientation the japanese approach. journal of employee relations, 19, 443–456. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01425459710186322 moscato, d. (2005). using technology to get employees onboard. human resources magazine, april, 107–109. pallant, j. (2007). spss: survival manual. (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw hill. penzer, w. (1973). employee orientation: does it relieve pain or create it? management review, 17–24. pollitt, d. (2007). scottish and southern energy slashes staff attrition. human resource management international digest, 15, 17. pudhan, s. (2002). secure networks begin at staff induction day. computer weekly, september, 1. ragsdale, m.a., & mueller, j. (2005). plan, do, study, act model to improve an orientation programme. journal of nursing care quality, 20, 268–272. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00001786-200507000-00013, pmid:15965393 rossi, p., lipsey, m.w., & freeman, h.e. (2004). evaluation. a systematic approach. (7th edn.). thousand oaks: sage. schneider, j.w. (2008). building people, not just buildings. journal of building and construction, march, 47–49. snell, a. (2006). researching onboarding best practice. strategic hr review, 5, 32–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14754390680000925 sussman, d. (2005). getting up to speed. journal of training and development, december, 49–51. wanous, j.p., & reichers, a.e. (2000). new employee orientation programs. journal of human resource management review, 10, 435–451. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822%2800%2900035-8 weiss, c.h. (1998). evaluation: methods for studying programs and policies. upper saddle river: prentice hall. wells, s.j. (2005). diving in. human resources magazine, march, 55–59. wesson, m.j., & gogus, c.i. (2005). shaking hands with a computer: an examination of two methods of organizational newcomer orientation. journal of applied psychology, 90(5), 1018–1026. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.90.5.1018, pmid:16162074 abstract introduction research purpose, objectives and hypotheses literature review research methodology discussion limitations and future research acknowledgements references about the author(s) moehammad reza arfiansyah department of management, sekolah tinggi ilmu ekonomi ganesha, jakarta selatan, indonesia achmad ushuluddin department of islamic guidance and counseling, faculty of psychology and education, universitas al azhar, jakarta selatan, indonesia mohammad affan department of language and literature, faculty of language and literature, sekolah tinggi agama islam darul ulum banyuanyar, pamekasan, indonesia waryani fajar riyant department of theology and islamic philosophy, faculty of ushuluddin and islamic thought, universitas islam negeri sunan kalijaga yogyakarta, indonesia citation arfiansyah, m.r., ushuluddin, a., affan, m., & riyanto, w.f. (2023). intention as a determinant of islamic work culture in indonesia based on the modified theory of planned behavior. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 21(0), a2022. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v21i0.2022 original research intention as a determinant of islamic work culture in indonesia based on the modified theory of planned behavior moehammad reza arfiansyah, achmad ushuluddin, mohammad affan, waryani fajar riyant received: 21 june 2022; accepted: 20 oct. 2022; published: 10 feb. 2023 copyright: © 2023. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: this article describes the new work culture values in indonesia using the modified theory of planned behaviour (tpb). research purpose: the researcher modifies the tpb by replacing the variables of perceived behavioural control with organisational culture, subjective norms with peer references and attitude with spirituality. the modification is then used to predict the work behaviour of religious organisations based on work culture values in the ministry of religious affairs of the republic of indonesia. motivation for the study: the tpb has been considerably modified and expanded to predict various types of organizational behaviour in different fields. however, the modifications did not reduce or change the substance and have not yet been applied to religious organizations. in contrast to previous studies, this article modifies the tpb from its original form and applies it to religious organizations in indonesia. research approach/design and method: this article employs a quantitative method. primary data include samples collected from all regional offices of the ministry of religious affairs in 34 provinces in indonesia, while data analysis uses structural equation modelling and structural models. main findings: this article finds that the most decisive work culture value in the organisation of the ministry of religious affairs of the republic of indonesia is spirituality (intention). implications: results of this study have extended the implementation of the tpb by modifying perceived behaviour control (pbc) with organisational culture, subjective norm with peer reference and attitude with spirituality to predict organisational values (nilai budaya kerja – nbk)-based work behaviour at the regional offices of the ministry of religious affairs with compliance intention as a mediating/intervening variable, which acquired positive and significant results. contribution: theoretically speaking, the findings in this study provide empirical evidence that modifying tpb reinforces tpb’s applicability to predict compliance intention and work behaviour. practically speaking, this research provides recommendations for improving the implementation of the five organisational values to the ministry of religious affairs in three aspects. first, enhance civil servants’ (pegawai negeri sipil – pns) spirituality by providing substantial understanding of religious values. second, intensify the role and support of structural leaders, particularly echelon 1, 2 and 3 officials so they provide good examples in the implementation of nbk. third, strengthen organisational culture at the ministry of religious affairs by creating result/impact-oriented programme planning (result/impact oriented government). keywords: intention; organisational culture; peer reference; spirituality; compliance intention; work behaviour. introduction the theory of planned behaviour (tpb) had initially been applied in various studies to provide better understanding on various behaviours in the field of social psychology. the tpb had subsequently been used in the field of marketing to predict consumer behaviours relating to product purchase. in its current development, tpb continues to be developed to predict various types of behaviour within organisations (armitage & conner, 2001), behaviours in the use of information technology (ozer & yilmaz, 2011), health-related behaviours (conner & sparks, 1996), behaviours in transportation (bamberg et al., 2003; kerr et al., 2009) and others. the advantage of tbp is that it maintains a greater prediction power compared with most other behavioural change models (taylor et al., 2006). previous researchers have developed the three main variables of tpb, namely attitude towards behaviour, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control (pbc), and intention by way of extending or modifying them with other variables (guerin et al., 2018; mustapha et al., 2016; sardžoska & tang, 2012; urumsah et al., 2016). meng et al. (2014) modified the attitude variable with ethical ideology. trisna (2019) modified the subjective norm variable with peer reference. peredaryenko (2019) modified the pbc variable with subjective product knowledge. modifications are acceptable as tpb has an extensive definition allowing it to be continuously developed further so that it could provide even more accurate elaborations concerning variables that influence behavioural intention in accordance with the observed phenomenon. several prior studies have also extended the variable of intentions into compliance intentions to predict certain behaviour. for instance, ajzen (1991) used tpb to predict compliance intentions of taxpayers in turkey, which indicates that the normative expectation of compliance and the intensity of penalty have a significant effect on compliance intentions. appah and wosowei (2016) found a significant relation between compliance intention and equity attitude of taxpayers in nigeria. in research by sarrah et al. (2016), it was found that higher perceptions of control and ability taxpayers will encourage their compliance intentions. afdalia et al. (2014) have proven that compliance intentions can predict the implementation of governmental regulation no. 71 of 2010 on the accrual based government accounting standards. hartoni and riana (2015) used compliance intentions to predict work behaviour of employees in implementing occupational safety, health, and environment (oshe) policy. wong and lee (2016) used the tpb model with the variable of compliance intention as a predictor of work protocol and occupational safety behaviour. compliance intentions can also predict the work behaviour of hospital employees in carrying out standard operating procedure (sop) of medical services (yami, 2015). compliance intentions are at times affected by subjective norms (yasa & prayudi, 2019), perceived behaviour control (pbc) (sarrah et al., 2016), peer reference and family (nuryana, 2016). however, in previous studies, compliance intentions/intention to comply has never been used as an intervening/mediating variable affected by organisational culture, peer reference and spirituality to predict work behaviour in a modified tpb model. in this study, the variables of tpb were modified to predict the work behaviour of civil servants (pegawai negeri sipil – pns) at indonesia’s ministry of religious affairs based on organisational values (nilai budaya kerja – nbk) with the mediation of compliance intention. in 2015, the ministry of religious affairs issued a policy concerning the implementation of five organisational values (5 nbk), which are integrity, professionality, innovation, responsibility and exemplar. as of 2018, efforts to implement 5 nbk at the ministry of religious affairs had not been entirely successful as reported in a study carried out by the center for research and development of religious literature and heritage, and organizational management, agency for research and development and training of the ministry of religious affairs of the republic of indonesia (2018). accordingly, the ministry of religious affairs has continuously made efforts to improve and find the right formula for implementing 5 nbk. the 5 nbk implementation policy is a part of indonesia’s government bureaucratic reform programme stipulated in the decree of the minister of religious affairs no. 447/2015 on the road map for bureaucratic reform of the ministry of religious affairs in 2015–2019. as the implementation of nbk is an institutional policy, it undoubtedly correlates with the ministry’s encompassing organisational culture and social influence. in addition, because the policy is implemented at the ministry of religious affairs, the factor of spirituality should be considered as having an effect on the work behaviour of the ministry’s civil servants. this is on account of spirituality being closely associated with religiosity (amir & lesmawati, 2016). based on the given background, this study attempts to modify tpb by replacing the pbc variable with organisational culture, subjective norm with peer reference and attitude with spirituality in order to predict the nbk-based work behaviour at the ministry of religious affairs with compliance intention as an intervening/mediating variable. studies conducted by ampofo et al. (2011) and razi et al. (2014) corroborate that pbc can be replaced by organisational culture. hu et al. (2012) also indicate that organisational culture is able to predict compliance intention. subsequently, subjective norm can be replaced by peer reference (trisna, 2019). foltz et al. (2016) show that peer reference can serve as a predictor of behavioural intention. meanwhile, mustikasari (2007), yasa and prayudi (2019) indicate that peer reference has an effect on compliance intention. kuo (2009), fang (2010) and guerin et al. (2018) show the influence of peer reference on work behaviour. furthermore, the attitude variable can also be replaced by spirituality. widuri et al. (2017), yasa and prayudi (2019) show that the spirituality variable in modified tpb can predict tax compliance intention. afif and astuti (2009) demonstrate that the spiritual dimension is one of the factors that influence consumer’s behavioural intention. ahmed et al. (2019) found that islamic work ethic-based spiritual values have positive and significant effect on work behaviour. meanwhile, coetzer et al. (2008) developed a non-theistic spirituality model that has positive influence on workplace behaviour. research purpose, objectives and hypotheses the significance of this study is to corroborate the results of modified tpb by replacing a number of variables, that is pbc with organisational culture, subjective norm with peer reference and attitude with spirituality in order to predict organisational values (nbk)-based work behaviour at the indonesian ministry of religious affairs with compliance intentions as the intervening/mediating variable. organisational culture contains common values, norms and beliefs that serve as the core characteristics of how things are performed in the organisation. those values, norms and beliefs function as a guide for all personnel in the organisation (mukarom & laksana, 2016; wibowo, 2018). accordingly, a strong organisational culture makes it possible to increasingly drive intention (mahal, 2009; schein, 1990), including intention to comply with all organisational policies and rules. several studies have verified the correlation between organisational culture and individual’s compliance intention in an organisation. as an example, hu et al. (2012) have proven the positive and significant influence that organisational culture has as a key predictor of employee compliance with company’s information security policy. based on such study, the first hypothesis relating to the correlation between organisational culture and compliance intention to implement the nbk policy at the ministry of religious affairs is developed as follows: hypothesis 1: organisational culture positively affects compliance intention to implement nbk. this implies that the stronger the organisational culture, the greater the compliance intention to implement nbk. hypothesis 2: peer reference positively affects compliance intention to implement nbk. this implies that the greater the influence of peer reference, the greater the compliance intention to implement nbk. hypothesis 3: spirituality positively affects compliance intention to implement nbk. this implies that the greater the influence of spirituality, the greater the compliance intention to implement nbk. hypothesis 4: organisational culture positively affects nbk-based work behaviour. this implies that the stronger the organisational culture, the better the nbk-based work behaviour. hypothesis 5: peer reference positively affects nbk-based work behaviour. this implies that the greater the influence of peer reference, the better thenbk-based work behaviour. hypothesis 6: spirituality positively affects nbk-based work behaviour. this implies that the higher the spirituality level, the better the nbk-based work behaviour. hypothesis 7: compliance intention to implement nbk positively affects nbk-based work behaviour. this implies that the greater the compliance intention to implement nbk, the better thenbk-based work behaviour. based on the research hypotheses elaborated in the previous passages, the relationships between variables can be illustrated in the following model, as shown in figure 1. figure 1: hypotheses model. literature review theory of planned behaviour there are three key concepts in the tpb: attitude towards behaviour, subjective norm and pbc (ajzen & fishbein, 1970). attitude is an internal state that affects individual action choices to accept or reject a particular object, person or event. attitude is learned behavioural, cognitive, affective inclinations for responding either positively or negatively towards an object, situation, intuition, concept or person. attitude is acquired from one’s belief of consequences brought about by behaviour, which is defined as behavioural beliefs (ajzen, 2002). subjective norm is an individual’s perception or point of view of others’ beliefs that will influence one’s intention to act on the considered behaviour or otherwise. subjective norm describes the extent that a person is motivated to follow the perspective of others in relation to the behaviour he or she will perform (normative belief). ajzen and fishbein (1970) use the term ‘motivation to comply’ to describe this phenomenon, which l refer to whether an individual complies with the perspective of other people who are influential in their life or not. normative belief refers to expectations coming from referents or persons/groups considered influential to the individuals (significant others) such as parents, spouse/partner, close friends, work colleagues or others depending on the behaviour involved (ajzen, 2005). perceived behaviour control is a new construct incorporated in tpb for controlling behaviour. perceived behavioural control is defined as the ease or difficulty of performing a behaviour (ajzen, 1991). according to tpb, intention is a cognitive representation of one’s preparedness to engage in a particular behaviour or action (ajzen, 2005). this means that one’s behavior or action can be realized if she or he has intention to engage in a behaviour/action. there are numerous factors that may disrupt the correlation between intention and behaviour. the manifestation of a behaviour depends on one’s ability to control factors that may influence the said behaviour, either to facilitate or impede its execution. as a theory that has been applied in various extensive fields, the three exogenous variables of tpb (attitude towards behaviour, subjective norm and pbc) have generally been proven to be capable of predicting intention and behaviour (ajzen & fishbein, 1970; ozer & yilmaz, 2011; sarrah et al., 2016). as a result of the broad application of tpb in predicting various behaviour phenomenon, there have been many researchers who made tpb modifications. this is also the case in the present article, tpb’s three main constructs have been modified and replaced by other variables. the pbc variable has been replaced by organisational culture; subjective norm has been replaced by peer reference and attitude by spirituality. as for intention, it is focused on compliance intention. these modifications neither undermine nor alter the substance of tpb. modifying perceived behavioural control by using organisational culture perceived behavioural control refers to external influences that can affect intention and behaviour based on one’s perception of ease or difficulty in performing the behaviour (ajzen, 1991). in this case, the position of pbc can be replaced by organisational culture as it contains common values, norms and beliefs that function as the core characteristics as to how things should be carried out in the organisation. the five organisational values (nilai budaya kerja – nbk) are a part of the organisational culture developed by indonesia’s ministry of religious affairs. hence, incorporating organisational culture as a replacement for pbc is considered correctly in line with the objective of this study. organisational culture refers to values, principles, traditions and attitudes that influence the behaviour of organisational members (robbins & coulter, 2012). to understand whether the ministry of religious affairs has a well-functioning organisational culture, the current research used indicators referring to the seven dimensions of organisational culture proposed by robbins and coulter (2012), namely innovation and risk taking, outcome orientation, people orientation, team orientation, aggressiveness and stability. innovation is not used as an organisational culture indicator in this case because it is included as an nbk-based work behaviour indicator. organisational culture has an influence on compliance intentions, be it compliance with rules, state laws and policies within an organisation or company. studies on the influence of organisational culture on compliance intention in the tpb model are generally used to predict the intention to stay or leave an organisation, such as turnover intention (omeluzor, 2018), intention to leave (leisanyane & khaola, 2013; macintosh & doherty, 2010), withdrawal intention (carmeli, 2005) and intention to stay (abualrub & nasrallah, 2017). other studies put more efforts in associating organisational culture with a particular compliance, such as compliance with code of medical ethics (brønstad, 2011), tax compliance (mollanazari et al., 2016), compliance with financial administration rules (yanto et al., 2017) and compliance with companies’ information security policies (hu et al., 2012). organisational culture also affects work behaviour (alimudin & sukoco, 2017; hofstede et al., 1990; ratnasari et al., 2018; rich & mero, 2015; schein, 1990). amsa (2007) found a strong correlation between organisational culture (shared beliefs, values, norms and traditions in an organisation) and loitering behaviour of employees. organisational culture is an influential factor on employee’s innovative work behaviour (eskiler et al., 2016; ko et al., 2015; sinha et al., 2016; zheng et al., 2019), professional work behaviour (khachian et al., 2016), creative work behaviour (szczepańska-woszczynaa, 2015) and innovation adoption behaviour in organisations (smit, 2014). modifying subjective norm by using peer reference subjective norm refers to the extent of one’s perception to follow the perspectives of others concerning the behaviour they will perform (normative belief). such normative belief deals with expectations originating from referents or persons/groups (significant others) that are influential to the individual such as parents, spouse/partner, close friends, work colleagues, superiors or others depending on the relevant behaviour (ajzen, 2005). accordingly, subjective norm can be replaced by peer reference. in line with the objective of this research, peer reference is defined as work colleagues and superiors/leaders who serve as a good example or role model for the respondent. peer reference denotes individuals or group of individuals who can be considered role models or patrons when engaging in a particular behaviour (vitoria et al., 2009 as cited in trisna, 2019). peer reference has direct (face to face) or indirect effects on one’s behaviour and attitude (kotler & keller, 2009). a study by vitoria et al. (2009) specifies peer reference into four groups, that is parents, siblings, peers and teachers. if this is contextualised in a formal government organisation setting, higher ranking officials tend to be a patron or model for their subordinates. hence, in this study, peer reference or group reference here refers to groups of echelon i, ii and iii officials who serve as role models, examples or patrons for civil servants at the ministry of religious affairs in conducting appropriate behaviour. previous studies have confirmed the correlation between peer reference and compliance intention. generally speaking, those studies analysed the correlation between peer reference and compliance intention in the context of tax and zakat (mustikasari, 2007; nuryana, 2016; yasa & prayudi, 2019). another study shows the influence of peer reference on work behaviour (fang, 2010). peers influence employee behaviour in using new technology (morris et al., 2005). kuo (2009) found that deviant behaviour at the work place and breach of contract being triggered by influence of peers at work. modifying attitude by using spirituality attitude is defined as an internal state that affects an individual’s choice of action concerning a particular object, person or occurrence. an individual’s attitude towards a certain behaviour is obtained from a belief in the consequences brought about by said behaviour, which is termed behavioural belief (ajzen, 2002). a person who believes that a certain behaviour can have positive outcome will have a positive attitude and vice versa. this is why attitude can be replaced by spirituality. the reason is that spirituality also refers to one’s internal state, which contains a series of motivational traits, common emotional powers and non-specific affective power that encourage, direct and select various behaviours (piedmont, 2001). this article is inclined towards the perspective that views spirituality as part of religion or religiosity (love, 2002; selvam, 2013). to measure the indicator of spirituality, we used the daily spiritual experience scale (dses) developed by underwood and teresi (2002). daily spiritual experience scale has been used as a measuring tool for spirituality in over 200 research publications, and it has been translated into 40 languages (underwood, 2011). previous studies frequently used the spirituality variable to modify tpb for predicting tax compliance intention (elkins et al., 1988; widuri et al., 2017; yasa & prayudi, 2019). spirituality has been known to affect work behaviour. chen et al. (2019) found that spirituality has a significant effect in increasing employees’ proactive work behaviour. mahmud and yusof (2018) used spirituality as a predictor of work safety behaviour. spirituality also has an influence on ethical behaviour (pio et al., 2015), pro-environment work behaviour (afsar et al., 2016) and customer-oriented work behaviour (moghaddampour & karimian, 2013). coetzer et al. (2008) developed a non-theistic spirituality model, which affects behaviour at the work place. the developed model successfully illustrated the positive correlations between spiritual values and work behaviours that are unassociated with a particular religious belief. research methodology population and sampling the research population consisted of civil servants (pegawai negeri sipil – pns) with echelon iii rank working in 34 regional offices (kantor wilayah – kanwil) of the ministry of religious affairs throughout indonesia who held a position as head of administration division (kepala bagian tata usaha – kabag. tu), head of division (kepala bidang – kabid) and head of section (kepala seksi – kasi). the total research population was 759 respondents. considering the significant number of population and its extensive distribution throughout the country, sample data were subsequently used. samples were determined by following ferdinand’s (2006) formula. as the study employed 36 parameters in the questionnaire, the number of samples was as many as 36 × 6 = 216 respondents. the research samples, 216 respondents, were selected using purposive sampling technique. data collection procedures data collection was performed using a questionnaire. as a result of the wide distribution of research subjects (respondents), the questionnaire was given in google form format so that it could be uploaded online. the questions in the questionnaire were close ended. the data collection process was conducted as follows. first, the questionnaire was made in google form format then uploaded on the internet. second, the pre-determined respondents were asked to fill in the questionnaire, and after completing the questionnaire correctly, it will be automatically sent to the researcher’s data base. third, a filter was put in the questionnaire as control, so the respondents were filtered according to the researcher’s requirement. fourth, the researcher closed access to the questionnaire once the submitted questionnaires have met the expected amount. method of analysis as the research model is considered as a rather complex multivariate analysis, structural equation modelling (sem) was used to analyse the data. the main step required in this process is conducting testing of the measurement model in order to ensure that the instruments have satisfied validity and reliability requirements. the confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) approach was used to test instrument validity and reliability. the subsequent step was to test the structural model. once the model was deemed fit, the next step was the hypothesis test. the hypotheses that claimed influence were tested using ‘t-test’. in accordance with most hypothesis testing, a standard significance level of 5% (=0.05) was used in the process. discussion direct influence of organisational culture, peer reference and spirituality in compliance intentions to implement organisational culture as mentioned here, the research samples totaled 216 respondents consisting of heads of administrative division (kabag tu), heads of division (kabid) and heads of section (kasi) at 34 regional offices (kanwil) of the ministry of religious affairs. after the selection and verification of submitted questionnaires, as many as 212 samples had met the required criteria as shown in table 1. table 1: distribution of respondents based on position. once data were collected, sem was used for data analysis. the steps carried out in applying sem analysis included two stages. first, testing of measurement model by using cfa. second, testing of the structural model. by reason of simplification, confirmatory testing in this study was performed simultaneously for all the concepts. to verify whether the empirical (statistical) model or statistics covariance matrix developed by the researchers is similar to or fitting with the theoretical (parameter) model or parameter covariance matrix, five elements or goodness-of-fit index were used, which are chi-square, significance, the goodness-of-fit index (gfi), adjusted goodness of fit index (agfi) and the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea). results of confirmatory testing after modifying some of the indicators had indicated a result of fit or meeting the required criteria. this means that the empirical model developed in the study is deemed compatible with the theoretical model. confirmatory factor analysis results are provided in table 2. table 2: goodness-of-fit test results for the modified confirmatory model. subsequently, instrument validity and reliability testing were carried out with a cfa approach using factor loading (lambda = λ) value with significance value of 0.05. if the significance value produced from the testing is < 0.05, then it can be concluded that the tested questions are valid (hair et al., 2006; sekaran, 2006; sekaran & bougie, 2017). meanwhile, the reliability testing of the instrument (questionnaire) in aggregate (composite) used values of construct reliability. the instrument is deemed reliable if calculation result indicates a construct reliability value > 0.7 (sekaran, 2006). once validity testing was performed, all variable measurement indicators have factor loadings or lambda with a significance value of ≤ 0.05. this implies that all question indicators in the organisational culture measuring instrument are deemed valid. meanwhile, the calculation of the reliability test in aggregate or composite for the organisational culture variable resulted in a construct reliability value of 0.871 (> 0.70), the peer reference variable resulted in a construct reliability value of 0.895 (> 0.70), the spirituality variable resulted in a construct reliability value of 0.824 (> 0.70), the compliance intention to implement nbk variable resulted in a construct reliability value of 0.900 (> 0.70) and the nbk-based work behaviour variable resulted in a construct reliability value of 0.929 (> 0.70). it can, therefore, be concluded that all indicators or question items in the instrument are deemed reliable. the next analysis refers to the structural model test, which is preceded by a goodness-of-fit test. in the first stage, the fit test result between the empirical model and the theoretical model indicates that some parts of the model did not fit. accordingly, the model had to be modified. once modifications were applied on the structural model by eliminating or correlating indicators or items that have high correlations in one construct, the acquired results are shown in figure 2: figure 2: simultaneous concept measurement model. given that sem had deemed the model to be of good fit, the following analysis could be conducted, that is hypothesis testing for direct effect, indirect effect and total effect coefficients. considering that the analysed data are an interval scale, analyses of testing results used standardised values, namely values of standardised direct effect, standardised indirect effect and standardised total effect. the results of analyses are summarised in table 3. table 3: research hypotheses testing results. table 3 shows that each independent variable (organisational culture, peer reference and spirituality) partially has significant direct effect on compliance intention to implement nbk. this is verified with the significance values produced through testing; each variable has a significance level of < 0.05. nonetheless, the three variables partially have indirect effect on nbk-based work behaviour. this is corroborated by the significance level produced in the testing being > 0.05. meanwhile, the compliance intention to implement nbk variable has direct effect on nbk-based work behaviour with a significance level < 0.05. intention as a work culture determinant at the ministry of religious affairs in indonesia according to the test results, the effect of x1 on y1 has been proven significant as (p) = 0.050 (equal to 0.05). therefore, hypothesis 1 is accepted. that is, organisational culture positively affects compliance intention to implement nbk. the better the organisational culture, the greater the compliance intention to implement nbk. this also applies vice versa. the result indicates that organisational culture has been proven effective as a predictor of intention. organisational culture is considered an external influence/situational influence, as a modification of the pbc variable, capable of predicting compliance intention to implement nbk at the regional offices of the ministry of religious affairs. the result of this study is relevant with previous studies that consider organisational culture as a predictor of compliance intention. for instance, hu et al. (2012) corroborated the positive and significant effect of organisational culture as a key predictor of employee’s compliance intention with company information security policy. yanto et al. (2017) employed the organisational culture variable as a predictor of small medium enterprise (sme) manager’s compliance intention in making reports according to the accounting standards without public accountability (standar akuntansi tanpa akuntabilitas publik). subsequently, based on test results, the effect of x2 on y1 has been proven significant as (p) = 0.036 (less than 0.05). therefore, hypothesis 2 is accepted. that is, peer reference positively affects compliance intention to implement nbk. the greater the influence of peer reference, the greater the compliance intention to implement nbk and vice versa. this finding indicates that peer reference has been proven effective as a predictor of intention. peer reference is considered a social influence, as a modification of the subjective norm variable, capable of predicting compliance intention to implement nbk at regional offices of the ministry of religious affairs. this finding is relevant with several past studies associating peer reference with compliance intention (haryadi & wiyono, 2014; suwarto, 2016; yusuf, 2006). not many studies used peer reference as a variable to modify tpb for predicting compliance intention and work behaviour. peer reference is commonly included as one of the indicators of subjective norm instead of replacing subjective norm (mustikasari, 2007; yasa & prayudi, 2019). the role that leaders play as an exemplary model also has a substantial influence on employee’s compliance intention to work particularly in government institutions (riyaniningsih & triyaningsih, 2010). this is in line with the finding of this research, which shows that respondents perceive that peer reference (superiors: echelon i and ii officials; co-workers: fellow echelon iii officials) supports nbk implementation at the ministry of religious affairs. peer reference even suggests, urges and instructs employees to implement nbk. this, consequently, instigates respondent’s belief, which triggers compliance intention to implement nbk as it is supported by echelon i, ii and iii officials serving as their points of reference. subsequently, based on test results, the effect of x3 on y1 has been proven significant as the significance level is less than 0.05. therefore, hypothesis 3 is accepted, that is spirituality positively affects compliance intention to implement nbk. the higher a person’s level of spirituality, the greater the compliance intent to implement nbk and vice versa. this finding demonstrates that spirituality has been proven effective as a predictor of intention. spirituality is considered an internal influence (personal influence), as a modification of the attitude variable, capable of predicting compliance intention to implement nbk at regional offices of the ministry of religious affairs. this implies that positive attitude towards spirituality will bring about compliance intention to implement nbk as it is aligned with values of spirituality and teachings of islam adhered by the majority of the respondents. the finding of this study shows that respondents have a high level of compliance intention to implement nbk because they are driven by the belief that god constantly watches over human behaviour and the belief that religion is a source of power in terms of work. based on the hypotheses testing results, it is known that spirituality partially has the most significant direct effect on compliance intention to implement nbk compared with the other two independent variables (organisational culture and peer reference). this indicates that spirituality is the most influential factor in compliance intention to implement nbk at the ministry of religious affairs. the respondents’ spirituality as a behavioural belief led to actual work behaviour based on nbk. as stated by ajzen and fishbein (1970), ajzen (2002), behavioural beliefs connect behaviour with a certain outcome that is achieved when a certain behaviour is performed. in other words, a person who believes that a behaviour can generate positive outcome will have a positive attitude and vice versa. in the context of spirituality, positive outcome does not refer to material or financial gains, it is more of a psychological benefit such as inner peace or religious benefit such as belief in receiving god’s affection and gift. these are the values expected to be developed as written in the motto on the logo of the ministry of religious affairs ‘ikhlas-beramal’ [be sincere-do good deeds]. a number of previous studies have confirmed the influence that spirituality has on compliance intention to implement government policy or regulation (christian & alm, 2014; elkins et al., 1988; hardjana, 2005; widuri et al., 2017; yasa & prayudi, 2019). subsequently, the fourth hypothesis was not accepted (not supported by empirical data), because the significance level = 0.903 (greater than 0.05). meanwhile, the indirect effect of x1 on y2 as mediated by y1 has been proven significant. this result indicates that organisational culture does not have direct effect on nbk-based work behaviour, but it does have indirect effect when mediated by compliance intention to implement nbk as an intervening variable. this finding is relevant with a study by passos et al. (2013), which highlights the influence factors that organisational culture has as a subjective norm to predict the behaviour of developing software technology using behaviour intention as an intervening variable in the tpb model. however, passos et al. (2013) placed organisational culture as a subjective norm, while this study used organisational culture to replace pbc. other studies show that intention has a significant effect as an intervening variable between attitude and behaviour (tan et al., 2018), attitude and decision to purchase products (haikal, 2018), attitude and performance (başar & varoğlu, 2016). similarly, the fifth hypothesis is not accepted because the significance level = 0.902 (greater than 0.05). meanwhile, the indirect effect of x2 on y2 as mediated by y1 has been proven to be significant. this shows that peer reference does not have direct effect on nbk-based work behaviour, but it does have indirect effect when mediated by compliance intention to implement nbk as an intervening (mediating) variable. this finding differs with several previous studies, which found that peer reference has an effect on certain work behaviour without being mediated by compliance intention as an intervening variable (fang, 2010; foltz et al., 2016; herlina & loisa, 2018; morris et al., 2005; morrison & nolan, 2007). the sixth hypothesis is also not accepted because the significance level = 0.598 (greater than 0.05). meanwhile, the indirect effect of x3 on y2 as mediated by y1 has been proven significant, it even has the highest score when compared with organisational culture and peer reference. this shows that spirituality does not have direct effect on nbk-based work behaviour, but it does have indirect effect when mediated by compliance intention to implement nbk as an intervening (mediating) variable. the stronger the respondent’s spiritual belief, the greater the compliance intention to implement nbk, which further improves nbk-based work behaviour. this finding differs with several prior studies, which found that spirituality affects work behaviour without being mediated by intention as an intervening variable (ahmed et al., 2019; chen et al., 2019; choerudin, 2015; coetzer et al., 2008; mahmud & yusof, 2018; wicaksono & urumsah, 2016; yilmaz & bahçekapili, 2015). as for the seventh hypothesis, it is accepted because the significance level is less than 0.05. the greater or higher the compliance intention to implement nbk, the better the nbk-based work behaviour and vice versa. this is in accordance with ajzen’s (2005) theory, which states that intention is a cognitive representation of one’s readiness to perform certain behaviour/act. meanwhile, compliance intention in the organisational context may be defined as a cognitive representation of one’s readiness in the form of impetuses that consciously emerge to believe, accept and act on all organisational policies, provisions and rules voluntarily (darley et al., 2001). several prior studies have also found compliance intention as a predictor of work behaviour (afdalia et al., 2014; hartoni & riana, 2015; yami, 2015). these results indicate that compliance intention to implement nbk plays a role as a mediating variable of influence between the three independent variables (organisational culture, peer reference and spirituality) and nbk-based work behaviour. the magnitude of indirect effect and total effect that the three independent variables have on nbk-based work behaviour is shown in table 4. table 4: indirect effect and total effect. according to the elaboration of the hypotheses given here, it is known that organisational culture, peer reference and spirituality, respectively, affect nbk-based work behaviour through the mediation of compliance intention to implement nbk. this indicates that the three variables have an effect on nbk-based work behaviour when mediated by compliance intention to implement nbk. it is, thus, known that compliance intention in this modified tpb model has a significant role as an intervening variable or mediator. among the three modified tpb variables, spirituality has the strongest influence on nbk-based work behaviour as mediated by compliance intention. conclusion results of this study have extended the implementation of the tpb by modifying pbc with organisational culture, subjective norm with peer reference and attitude with spirituality to predict nbk-based work behaviour at the regional offices of the ministry of religious affairs with compliance intention as a mediating/intervening variable, which acquired positive and significant results. theoretically speaking, the findings in this study provide empirical evidence that modifying tpb reinforces tpb’s applicability to predict compliance intention and work behaviour. practically speaking, this research provides recommendations for improving the implementation of the five nbk values to the ministry of religious affairs in three aspects. first, enhance civil servants’ (pns) spirituality by providing substantial understanding of religious values. second, intensify the role and support of structural leaders, particularly echelon 1, 2 and 3 officials so they provide good examples in the implementation of nbk. third, strengthen organisational culture at the ministry of religious affairs by creating result/impact oriented programme planning (result/impact oriented government). limitations and future research the present study did not distinguish the respondents in terms of work duration, career path and education level. future research should consider these three aspects to complement this research model. in addition, subsequent research may be carried out in non-religious institutions to expand the general applicability of the theoretical model proposed in this study. acknowledgements competing interests the author(s) declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.r.a. took the lead in writing the manuscript. a.u. conceived and planned the experiments and carried out the experiments. m.a. contributed to sample preparation. w.f.r. contributed to the interpretation of the results. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. ethical considerations this article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article, as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abualrub, r.f., & nasrallah, m.a. (2017). leadership behaviours, organizational culture and intention to stay amongst jordanian nurses. international nursing review, 64(4), 520–527. https://doi.org/10.1111/inr.12368 afdalia, n., pontoh, g.t., & kartini, k. (2014). theory of planned behavior dan readiness for change dalam memprediksi niat implementasi peraturan pemerintah nomor 71 tahun 2010. jurnal akuntansi dan auditing indonesia, 18(2), 110–123. https://doi.org/10.20885/jaai.vol18.iss2.art3 afif, a.z., & astuti, r.d. (2009). the addition of spiritual dimension on customer value to investigate the relationship of customer value, customer satisfaction and behavior intention on islamic banks saving products in indonesia. asean marketing journal, 1(1), 13–24. https://doi.org/10.21002/amj.v1i1.1978 afsar, b., badir, y., & kiani, u.s. (2016). linking spiritual leadership and employee pro-environmental behavior: the influence of workplace spirituality, intrinsic motivation, and environmental passion. journal of environmental psychology, 45(1), 79–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2015.11.011 ahmed, a., arshad, m.a., mahmood, a., & akhtar, s. (2019). the influence of spiritual values on employee’s helping behavior: the moderating role of islamic work ethic. journal of management, spirituality & religion, 16(3), 235–263. https://doi.org/10.1080/14766086.2019.1572529 ajzen, i. (1991). theory of planned behavior. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 50(1), 179–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-t ajzen, i. (2002). perceived behavioral control, self efficacy, locus of control, and the theory of planned behavior. journal of applied social psychology, 32(2), 665–683. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2002.tb00236.x ajzen, i. (2005). attitudes, personality, and behavior. open university press. ajzen, i., & fishbein, m. (1970). the prediction of behavior from attitudinal and normative variables. journal of experimental social psychology, 6(4), 466–487. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(70)90057-0 alimudin, a., & sukoco, a. (2017). the leadership style model that builds work behavior through organizational culture. lentera, 3(2), 362–375. amir, a.y., & lesmawati, d.r. (2016). religiusitas dan spiritualitas: konsep yang sama atau berbeda? jurnal ilmiah penelitian psikologi (jipp): kajian empiris dan non-empiris, 2(2), 67–73. ampofo, a., mujtaba, b., cavico, f., & tindall, l. (2011). the relationship between organizational ethical culture and the ethical behavior of employees: a study of accounting and finance professionals in the insurance industry of united states. journal of business and economics research, 2(9), 13–24. https://doi.org/10.19030/jber.v2i9.2915 amsa, p. (2007). organizational culture and work group behaviour: an empirical study. journal of management studies, 23(3), 347–362. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.1986.tb00959.x appah, e., & wosowei, e.c. (2016). tax compliance intentions and the behaviour of the individual taxpayer: evidence from nigeria. research journal of finance and accounting, 7(13), 1–9. armitage, c.j., & conner, m. (2001). efficacy of the theory of planned behaviour: a meta-analytic review. british journal of social psychology, 40(4), 471–499. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466601164939 bamberg, s., ajzen, i., & schmidt, p. (2003). choice of travel mode in the theory of planned behavior: the roles of past behavior, habit, and reasoned action. basic and applied social psychology, 25(3), 175–187. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324834basp2503_01 başar, u., & varoğlu, k. (2016). intention to quit as a mediator of the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and neglect of work. journal of management and economics, 23(3), 751–765. brønstad, a. (2011). the role of organizational culture in compliance with the principles of the 3rs. lab animal [lab anim (ny)], 40(1), 22–26. https://doi.org/10.1038/laban0111-22 carmeli, a. (2005). the relationship between organization culture and withdrawal intentions and behavior. international journal of manpower, 26(2), 177–195. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720510597667 chen, s., jiang, w., chu, f., & hua, c. (2019). how does spiritual leadership influence proactive work behavior: evidence from chinese firms. academy of management annual meeting proceedings, 1(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2019.10786abstract chen, s., jiang, w., zhang, g., & chu, f. (2019). spiritual leadership on proactive workplace behavior: the role of organizational identification and psychological safety. frontiers in psychology, 10, 1206, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01206 choerudin, a. (2015). pengaruh spiritualitas terhadap perilaku kerja karyawan dengan kecerdasan emosional sebagai variabel mediator (studi pada karyawan pt. bank bri syariah wilayah surakarta). doctoral thesis, universitas sebelas maret surakarta. christian, r.c., & alm, j. (2014). empathy, sympathy, and tax compliance. journal of economic psychology, 40(2), 62–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2012.10.001 coetzer, g., biberman, j., & tischler, l. (2008). transcending belief: a non-theistic model for operationalizing spiritual values, practices and states and their relationship to workplace behavior, interbeing. spring/summer, 2(1), 19–31. conner, m., & sparks, p. (1996). the theory of planned behaviour and health behaviours. in m. conner & p. norman (eds.), predicting health behaviour: research and practice with social cognition models (pp. 121–162). open university press. darley, j.m., messick, d.m., & tyler, t.r. (2001). social influences on ethical behavior in organizations. erlbaum. elkins, d.n., hedstrom, l.j., hughes, l.l., leaf, j.a., & sauders, c. (1988). toward a humanistic-phenomenological spirituality: definition, description, and measurement. journal of humanistic psychology, 28(4), 5–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167888284002 eskiler, e., ekici, s., soyer, f.s., & sari, i. (2016). the relationship between organizational culture and innovative work behavior for sports services in tourism enterprises. physical culture and sport: studies and research, 69(1), 53–64. https://doi.org/10.1515/pcssr-2016-0007 fang, r. (2010). peer influence on undermining behaviors in the workplace: a social network perspective. dissertation, university of minnesota. ferdinand, a. (2006). metode penelitian manajamen: pedoman penelitian untuk penulisan skripsi, tesis dan desertasi ilmu manajemen. badan penerbit universitas diponegoro. foltz, c.b., newkirk, h.e., & schwager, p.h. (2016). an empirical investigation of factors that influence individual behavior toward changing social networking security settings. journal of theoretical and applied electronic commerce research, 11(2), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-18762016000200002 guerin, r.j., toland, m.d., okun, a.h., rojas-guyler, l., & bernard, a.l. (2018). using a modified theory of planned behavior to examine adolescents’ workplace safety and health knowledge, perceptions, and behavioral intention: a structural equation modeling approach. journal of youth and adolescence, 47(1), 1595–1610. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0847-0 haikal, d.m. (2018). the effect of consumer ethnocentrism, brand image, and perceived quality on purchase decisions with purchase intention as intervening variable. jurnal akuntansi, manajemen dan ekonomi, 20(2), 38–49. https://doi.org/10.32424/1.jame.2018.20.2.1120 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., anderson, r.e., & tatham, r.l. (2006). multivariate data analysis with reading (6th ed.). pearson prentice hall. hardjana, a.m. (2005). religiusitas, agama dan spiritualitas. kanisius. hartoni, i.g.p.o., & riana, i.g. (2015). sikap, norma subjektif, dan kontrol perilaku pada implementasi keselamatan kerja: dampaknya terhadap intention to comply (studi pada pekerja kontraktor pt. hutama karya kantor wilayah iv bali, ntb, ntt). jurnal ekonomi dan bisnis universitas udayana, 4(4), 243–264. haryadi, w., & wiyono, y. (2014). peran pemimpin, rekan kerja, dan keluarga dalam memotivasi karyawan di pt mulya adhi paramita surabaya. jurnal manajemen bisnis, 2(1), 1–11. herlina, & loisa, r. (2018). analisis dampak kualitas persahabatan pada peningkatan kinerja dan kebahagian di tempat kerja generasi milenial. journal of communication studies, 3(2), 15–31. hofstede, g., neuijen, b., ohayv, d.d., & sanders, g. (1990). measuring organizational cultures: a qualitative and quantitative study across twenty cases. administrative science quarterly, 35(2), 286–316. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393392 hu, q., dinev, t., hart, p., & cooke, d. (2012). managing employee compliance with information security policies: the critical role of top management and organizational culture. decision sciences, 43(4), 1–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5915.2012.00361.x kerr, a., lennon, a., & watson, b. (2009). the call of the road: factors predicting students’ car travelling intentions and behavior. transportation, 37(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-009-9217-9 khachian, a., farahani, m.a., haghani, h., & tameh, m.a. (2016). evaluation nurses professional behavior and its relationship with organizational culture and commitment in 2015. international journal of medical research and health sciences, 5(12), 247–252. ko, y.k., yu, s., & kang, k.h. (2015). organizational culture and organizational support as factors affecting the innovative behaviors of general hospital nurses. journal of korean academy of nursing administration, 21(2), 223–231. https://doi.org/10.11111/jkana.2015.21.2.223 kotler, p., & keller, k.l. (2009). manajemen pemasaran. jilid i. edisi ke-13. erlangga. kuo, c. (2009). psychological contract breach and workplace deviance behavior: the moderating effects of perceived peer support and punishment. national science council. leisanyane, k., & khaola, p.p. (2013). the influence of organisational culture and job satisfaction on intentions to leave: the case of clay brick manufacturing company in lesotho. eastern africa social science research review, 29(1), 59–75. https://doi.org/10.1353/eas.2013.0001 love, p.g. (2002). comparing spiritual development and cognitive development. journal of college student development, 43(3), 357–373. macintosh, e.w., & doherty, a. (2010). the influence of organizational culture on job satisfaction and intention to leave. sport management review, 13(2), 106–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2009.04.006 mahal, k.p. (2009). organizational culture and organizational climate as a determinant of motivation. the iup journal of management research, 8(10), 38–51. mahmud, m., & yusof, s.m. (2018). the influence of religiosity on safety behavior of workers: a proposed framework. pertanika journal of social sciences and humanities, 26(1), 1–20. meng, c.l., othman, j., & d’silva, j.l. (2014). ethical decision making in academic dishonesty with application of modified theory of planned behavior: a review. international education studies, 7(3), 126–139. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v7n3p126 moghaddampour, j., & karimian, m.v. (2013). a study on impact of workplace spirituality on customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior by considering the role of spiritual intelligence: a case study of an insurance company. management science letters, 3(6), 1633–1648. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2013.05.024 mollanazari, m., abouhamzeh, m., & abad, m.a. (2016). organizational culture and corporate tax compliance (the case study of large taxpayers units). accounting and auditing reviews, 23(1), 1–18. morris, m.g., venkatesh, v., & ackerman, p.l. (2005). gender and age differences in employee decisions about new technology: an extension to the theory of planned behavior. ieee transactions on engineering management, 52(1), 69–84. https://doi.org/10.1109/tem.2004.839967 morrison, r., & nolan, t. (2007). negative relationships in the workplace: a qualitative study. qualitative research in accounting and management, 4(2), 203–221. https://doi.org/10.1108/11766090710826646 mukarom, z., & laksana, m.w. (2016). membangun kinerja pelayanan publik: menuju clean government dan good governance. pustaka setia. mustapha, r., hussin, z., siraj, s., & darusalam, g. (2016). does islamic religiosity influence the cheating intention among malaysian muslim students? a modified theory of planned behavior. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 6(12), 389–406. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v6-i12/2504 mustikasari, e. (2007, july 26–28). kajian empiris tentang kepatuhan wajib pajak badan di perusahaan industri pengolahan di surabaya. simposium nasional akuntansi x (pp. 1–41). department of accounting universitas hasanuddin. nuryana, f. (2016). pengaruh sikap, norma subjektif, dan kontrol perilaku terhadap niat kepatuhan muzakki pegawai negeri sipil (pns) dalam membayar zakat profesi pada badan amil zakat (baz) kabupaten sumenep. nuansa: jurnal penelitian ilmu sosial dan keagamaan islam, 13(2), 383–416. https://doi.org/10.19105/nuansa.v13i2.1105 omeluzor, s.u. (2018). organizational culture variables as factors influencing librarians’ turnover intentions in university libraries in south-south and south-east of nigeria. library philosophy and practice (e-journal), 1693. retrieved from https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/1693/ ozer, g., & yilmaz, e. (2011). comparison of the theory of reasoned action and the theory of planned behavior: an application on accountants’ information technology usage. african journal of business management, 5(1), 50–58. passos, c., cruzes, d.s., & mendonça, m. (2013). beliefs underlying teams intention and practice: an application of the theory of planned behavior. proceedings of eselaw, 13, 103–116. peredaryenko, m.s. (2019). gold dinar as a consumer product: modified version of the theory of planned behaviour. international journal of economics, management & accounting, 27(2), 353–372. piedmont, r. (2001). spiritual transcendence and the scientific study of spirituality. journal of rehabilitation, 67(1), 4–14. pio, r.j., nimran, u., alhabsji, t., & hamid, d. (2015). influence of spiritual leadership on ethical behavior, quality of work life, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and employee performance. development research of management, 10(1), 22–60. https://doi.org/10.19166/derema.v10i1.173 ratnasari, s.l., rahmawati, sutjahjo, g., & yana, d. (2018, july 7–9). lecturer’s performance: leadership, organizational culture, work motivation, and work behavior. the 2018 international conference of organizational innovation (icoi) (vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 703–715). kne social sciences. razi, m.j.m., karim, n.s.a., & mohamed, n. (2014, november 17–18). organizational factors, perceived acceptance and behavioral intention as dimensions of knowledge management readiness. in the 5th international conference on information and communication technology for the muslim world (ict4m) (pp. 1–23). institute of electrical and electronics engineers (ieee). rich, l., & mero, n.p. (2015). the link between organizational culture and work behavior: the value of regulatory focus. academy of management annual meeting proceedings, 2015, 15593. https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2015.15593abstract riyaniningsih, s.p., & triyaningsih, s.l. (2010). pengaruh disiplin, balas jasa dan keteladanan pimpinan terhadap motivasi kerja pegawai dinas kesehatan kabupaten sukoharjo. jurnal manajemen sumber daya manusia, 4(2), 109–119. robbins, s.p., & coulter, m. (2012). management (11th ed.). pearson education. roni, s.m., djajadikerta, h.g., & trireksani, t. (2017, november 22–23). does organisational culture affect dysfunctional behavior in information system security? in proceedings of the 18th asian academic accounting association (four a) annual conference 2017 (pp. 176–184). asian academic accounting association (foura). sardžoska, e., & tang, t. (2012). work-related behavioral intentions in macedonia: coping strategies, work environment, love of money, job satisfaction, and demographic variables. journal of business ethics, 108(3), 373–391. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1096-2 sarrah, r., muslim, r.y., & nurhuda, n. (2016). pengaruh sikap, norma subjektif, dan kontrol perilaku terhadap kepatuhan pajak dengan niat sebagai variabel intervening pada penyetoran spt masa. jurnal fakultas ekonomi, 8(1), 1–15. schein, e.h. (1990). organizational culture. american psychologist, 45(2), 109–119. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.45.2.109 sekaran, u. (2006). research methods for business. salemba. sekaran, u., & bougie, r. (2017). metode penelitian untuk bisnis pendekatan pengembangan-keahlian. salemba empat. selvam, s.g. (2013). towards religious-spirituality: a multidimensional matrix of religion and spirituality. journal for the study of religions and ideologies, 12(36), 129–152. sinha, s., pushpendra, p., & kumar, p. (2016). organizational culture, innovative behavior and work related attitude. journal of workplace learning, 28(8), 519–535. https://doi.org/10.1108/jwl-06-2016-0055 smit, j. (2014, october 13–15). the relationship between organizational culture and innovation. in 25th annual conference of the international information management association (iima) (pp. 1–16). palm springs, ca: international information management association (iima). suwarto, s. (2016). karakteristik tes biologi kelas 7 semester gasal. jurnal penelitian humaniora, 17(1), 153–161. https://doi.org/10.23917/humaniora.v17i1.2346 szczepańska-woszczynaa, k. (2015). leadership and organizational culture as the normative influence of top management on employee’s behavior in the innovation process. procedia economics and finance, 34(1), 396–402. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)01646-9 tan, s.a., yacob, s.n., & tan, j.p. (2018). the usage of sexual internet media and sexual behaviour among sexually experienced adolescents in malaysia: sexual intention as a mediator. pertanika journal of social sciences and humanities, 26(4), 2571–2582. taylor, d., bury, m., campling, n., carter, s., garfied, s., newbould, j., & rennie, t. (2006). a review of the use of the health belief model (hbm), the theory of reasoned action (tra), the theory of planned behaviour (tpb), and the trans-theoretical model (ttm) to study and predict health related behaviour change. nice publisher. trisna, e. (2019). perilaku merokok siswa sma/smk di indonesia: tinjauan tpb yang dimodifikasi. doctoral thesis, universitas islam indonesia. underwood, l.g. (2011). the daily spiritual experience scale: overview and result. religions, 2(1), 29–50. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel2010029 underwood, l.g., & teresi, j.a. (2002). the daily spiritual experience scale: development, theoretical description, reliability, exploratory factor analysis, and preliminary construct validity using health-related data. annals of behavioral medicine, 24(1), 22–33. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324796abm2401_04 urumsah, d., wicaksono, a.p., & pratama, a.j.p. (2016). melihat jauh ke dalam: dampak kecerdasan spiritual terhadap niat melakukan kecurangan. jurnal akuntansi dan auditing indonesia, 20(1), 47–55. https://doi.org/10.20885/jaai.vol20.iss1.art5 vitoria, p.d., salgueiro, m.f., silva, s.a., & vries. (2009). the impact of social influence on adolescent intention to smoke: combining types and referents of influence. british journal of health psychology, 14(2), 681–699. https://doi.org/10.1348/135910709x421341 wibowo. (2018). budaya organisasi: sebuah kebutuhan untuk meningkatkan kinerja jangka panjang. rajawali press. wicaksono, a., &. urumsah, d. (2016). factor influencing employees to commit fraud in workplace: empirical study in indonesian hospitals. asia pacific fraud journal, 1(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.21532/apfj.001.16.01.01.01 widuri, r., mangoting, y., & tjondro, e. (2017, december 12). integrative approach: psychology and spirituality as prediction of taxpayer compliance behavior. in international conference on finance, management and business (pp. 1–24). jakarta: department of management, faculty of economics and business, universitas diponegoro. wong, d.b., & lee, s.g. (2016). modelling the predictors of intention in workplace safety compliance of a multi-ethnic workforce. safety science, 88(2), 155–165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2016.05.003 yami, a.a.m. (2015). using the theory of planned behaviour to explore the intentions of a multicultural nursing workforce to comply with policies and procedures in the prince sultan military medical city (psmmc). doctoral thesis, faculty of health sciences, university of southampton. yanto, h., yulianto, a., sebayang, l.k.b., & mulyaga, f. (2017). improving the compliance with accounting standards without public accountability (sak etap) by developing organizational culture: a case of indonesian smes. the journal of applied business research, 33(5), 929–940. https://doi.org/10.19030/jabr.v33i5.10016 yasa, i.n.p., & prayudi, m.a. (2019). nilai-nilai etika berbasis kearifan lokal dan perilaku kepatuhan perpajakan. jurnal ekonomi dan bisnis, 22(2), 361–390. https://doi.org/10.24914/jeb.v22i2.2527 yilmaz, o., & bahçekapili, h.g. (2015). without god everything is permitted? the reciprocal influence of religious and meta-ethical beliefs. journal of experimental social psychology, 58(2), 95–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2015.01.003 yusuf, s. (2006). psikologi perkembangan anak dan remaja. remaja rosdakarya. zheng, j., wu, g., xie, h., & li, h. (2019). leadership, organizational culture, and innovative behavior in construction projects: the perspective of behavior-value congruence. international journal of managing projects in business, 12(4), 888–918. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-04-2018-0068 article information authors: carren field1 johann louw2 affiliations: 1section of organisational psychology, university of cape town, south africa2department of psychology, university of cape town, south africa correspondence to: carren field postal address: section of organisational psychology, university of cape town, rondebosch 7701, south africa dates: received: 05 oct. 2011 accepted: 30 jan. 2012 published: 13 july 2012 how to cite this article: field, c., & louw, j. (2012). a theory-driven evaluation of a wellness initiative. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(3), art. #427, 8 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i3.427 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. a theory-driven evaluation of a wellness initiative in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study: description of the wellness model    • motivation for the study       • alcohol policy       • counselling service       • financial skills       • lifestyle management       • hiv and aids       • life threatening diseases policy    • literature review: programme theory-driven evaluation and employee wellness    • the potential value-add of the study • research design    • research approach    • research strategy    • research method       • research setting       • entrée and establishing researcher roles       • sampling       • data collection methods       • recording of data       • data analyses       • strategies employed to ensure data quality       • reporting • findings    • engaging the stakeholders and developing programme theory    • assessing the plausibility of the programme theory • ethical considerations    • potential benefits and hazards    • recruitment procedures    • informed consent    • data protection • trustworthiness    • reliability    • validity • discussion    • limitations    • suggestions for future research • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: by reporting on an evaluation of a wellness initiative, this article brings together an element of organisational development (employee wellness) with an approach to programme evaluation (programme theory-driven evaluation). research purpose: two questions were addressed: ‘what is the causal logic of the wellness initiative?’ and ‘is this a plausible programme theory according to social science research and literature?’ motivation for the study: a study that could demonstrate the usefulness of the theory-driven evaluation approach, especially in the local human resource (hr) domain, was considered to be valuable. in addition, this evaluation provided a careful consideration of how plausible it is for such interventions to achieve what they set out to do. research design, approach and method: the evaluation relied mainly on qualitative methods (the examination of secondary data and interviewing) to extract programme theory, and on literature to assess plausibility. main findings: the study had two main outcomes: the finalisation of a model of how the programme is supposed to work according to programme staff, and the conclusion that the model is plausible, provided it is implemented at full strength. practical/managerial implications: programme staff are advised to pay particular attention to implementation fidelity, especially to employee participation and involvement in the programme’s activities. a number of strategies are recommended to strengthen the effect of the model. contribution/value-add: this evaluation showed the importance of conducting a theory-driven evaluation, not only in order to understand the programme and its context, but also to provide a basis for an implementation and outcome evaluation. introduction top ↑ key focus of the study this article links an element of organisational development, namely employee wellness, with an approach to programme evaluation, in particular programme theory-driven evaluation. it uses the introduction of an employee wellness programme in a large brewery to illustrate how to go about conducting such an evaluation, and to provide a published example of how evaluation unfolds in ‘real life’. background to the study: description of the wellness model this evaluation was performed in the cape town branch of a large brewery. its international headquarters identified organisational health as a core characteristic of the industry, and the human resource (hr) department in each subsidiary company was tasked to develop a wellness programme for its organisation. in the early months of 2008 the cape town subsidiary of the brewery commenced the development of their wellness model (wm). this model has been adopted by other subsidiaries in order to achieve a common, south african approach to wellness within different breweries. it is this model that is the evaluand, in other words, the object of the evaluation. the main objective of this study was to extract the wm’s programme theory, as the assumptions that guided it were all still implicit. in the process, we also wanted to show the usefulness of a theory-driven evaluation to understand any programme. two questions guided the study: ‘what is the causal logic of the wellness initiative?’ and ‘is this plausible?’ motivation for the study a study that could demonstrate the usefulness of the theory-driven evaluation approach, especially in the local hr domain, was considered valuable. in addition, the evaluation provided a careful consideration of how plausible it is that such interventions could achieve what they set out to do.the wm consists of six different plans, each with its own activities and aims, which are described in more detail below. alcohol policy the brewery abides by the objectives as set out in the liquor act 2003 (act no. 59 of 2003), which aims to promote responsible alcohol use through the setting of norms and standards within the liquor industry. three alcohol interventions are linked to these guidelines. an alcohol policy document formulates an hr policy and procedure to maintain discipline and a healthy and safe working environment for employees through the setting of rules pertaining to the alcohol consumption of their employees. more specifically it states: • rules regarding the use and abuse of alcoholic beverages by employees • alcohol consumption of employees whilst on duty, reporting for duty, in company pubs or at social functions • the risks and issues related to alcohol dependency • the procedure for alcohol testing • the disciplinary procedures for staff not adhering to the regulations as set out in the policy document. in addition to the policy, the company provides ongoing educational workshops, which provide employees with information on the implications and consequences of alcohol abuse. these workshops cover areas such as road and workplace safety, addiction risks of alcohol, early signs of alcohol dependency and information about a number of resources to assist employees with problems. finally, in order to promote safe alcohol use, the company provides treatment to employees who are alcohol dependent. where the employees themselves have indicated their problem, the company covers the costs for the necessary assessments, treatment and counselling services. disclosure of alcohol dependency is kept confidential and reasonable time off is granted for rehabilitation. counselling service an outsourced service provider, which employs qualified counsellors, provides a confidential, telephonic counselling service. the counsellors are on call at all times and can deal with: • personal, family or work-related concerns • financial, debt and legal issues • productivity and safety issues of staff (for managers) • emotional, behavioural and health concerns and issues of employees. financial skills an annual educational workshop which aims to assist staff to manage their finances and plan for retirement, forms part of the model. the current economic recession in south africa was the reason for implementing this plan. lifestyle management an annual wellness week, which promotes healthy lifestyle choices to foster psychological, emotional, physical and nutritional balance in employees, is one of the six plans. flexible working arrangements, which enable employees to attend the different activities, form part of the design:• day one of the wellness week focuses on physical education. employees take part in numerous exercises and activities such as yoga, pilates and boot camp. employees also receive information about the three gymnasiums located near the company premises. discounted rates for employees have been organised at these gymnasiums. • day two highlights the importance of hiv testing, and confidential testing and counselling are provided. tests for other health risk factors, for instance high cholesterol, are also available. • on day three the focus is on mental health and well-being. the counsellors from the outsourced counselling provider are involved in this during the day, and explain their role and services. • day four deals with medical health management. exercise experts and doctors educate employees about the different life stages and their associated health risks and prevention measures for these risks. • the fifth day focuses on nutrition and relaxation. nutritionists deliver presentations on healthy diets and various food stalls exhibit and sell healthy food. massage and spa treatments are also available. • the final day of the wellness week is family day. on this saturday employees are encouraged to spend quality time with their partners and children on the company premises. the plan includes activities suitable to all attendees and healthy catering. the aim is to promote a balanced lifestyle for all staff. hiv and aids the company explicitly acknowledges the high prevalence of hiv and aids in south africa. it provides funding and donations to non-profit organisations working with this disease. however, as part of the wm it also includes an internally focused, two-pronged strategy. firstly, the strategy is aimed at managing existing infections through the provision of treatment and, secondly, at preventing new infections by informing employees about these through educational programmes. in terms of managing existing infections, the company launched the awareness counselling and testing campaign (act) in 2003. this intervention allows all employees to receive free hiv and aids testing to make them aware of their status and, if necessary, to start early treatment. test results are confidential and employees who are hiv-positive receive anti-retroviral therapy, lifestyle management and counselling services, all paid for by the company. both staff and their dependants receive this benefit. to prevent new infections, the company uses peer education, external experts, workshops, video, theatre and the provision of free condoms to focus on the behaviour and attitude change of employees. a special workshop on hiv and aids is presented on world aids day (01 december). life threatening diseases policy this policy and its procedures stipulate that all employees who have contracted a life threatening disease (cancer, heart disease, tuberculosis, chronic obstructive airways disease, hepatitis b or hiv and aids) are treated fairly and are informed of their rights. the policy document also provides managers with guidelines on how to deal with affected employees. all staff have access to education workshops, tests and counselling for these diseases. apart from these six plans, the company has also introduced flexible working arrangements for some positions in the brewery. with flexi-time, employees can stagger their starting and finishing work times, provided that they are at work from 09h00–15h00 and that they work the number of hours stipulated in their contract. this allows employees to spend time with their families or on leisure activities to achieve work-life balance. literature review: programme theory-driven evaluation and employee wellness a programme is an organised set of activities aimed to bring about a change for the better in the state of the problem or in the recipients. as such, programmes are based on a set of underlying assumptions about how they work to bring about this change. these assumptions are usually causal hypotheses, which propose how the inputs of the programme will result in the intended outcomes of the programme (chen, 2005; rossi, lipsey & freeman, 2004). the role of a theory-driven evaluation is to extract these assumptions from the programme stakeholders and to develop what bickman called ‘… a plausible and sensible model of how a programme is supposed to work’ (1987, p. 5). this evaluation used a programme theory-driven evaluation approach, to develop a model or programme theory for a wellness initiative offered by a large brewery. the main aim of this wellness programme was to enhance employee health. donaldson and gooler (2003) explain that theory-driven evaluation is a relatively new approach within evaluation practice. it was developed through the integration and synthesis of multiple ideas and tools from the different approaches, which existed in the earlier years of evaluation science. today, programme theory-driven evaluations are becoming increasingly popular despite the confusion about the exact nature of this type of evaluation (donaldson, 2007). this confusion is partly the result of the fact that many interchangeable terms are used to label this approach. examples of these terms include: theory of practice, theory-based evaluation, theory-driven evaluation, theory of change, change model, logic model, and others (donaldson & lipsey, 2006). all of these terms have the common assumption that each programme is based on a particular set of beliefs or causal hypotheses. an evaluator conducting a programme theory-driven evaluation would aim to make these implicit assumptions (usually thoughts of various stakeholders, which are not recorded on paper) known, and formalise them as part of the programme’s documentation. the aim of programme theory-driven evaluation is two-fold. firstly, the evaluator extracts the programme theory from programme stakeholders and secondly, the evaluator investigates whether or not this theory is plausible and sensible. thus, the central purposes of theory evaluation are, firstly, to understand fully the nature of the programme, including its purpose and design (donaldson & gooler, 2003) and, secondly, to determine its plausibility by assessing the model’s alignment with previous empirical evidence and social science research (reynolds, 1998). in other words conducting a theory evaluation would provide the evaluator and stakeholders with information about whether the programme could be expected to achieve its outcomes or not. programme theory-driven evaluation has received its fair share of criticism. theorists like scriven (1998) and stufflebeam (2001) have argued that there is no need for this type of evaluation and that an outcome evaluation, which provides stakeholders with results on whether the programme is working or not, is more beneficial. scriven argues that theory evaluations are often a waste of time and that the role of an evaluator is not to know how a programme’s inputs produce outputs and how those outputs produce outcomes, but rather to provide data on the programme’s effectiveness. he contends that it is possible to measure the success of a programme without having to investigate its programme theory. rogers (2000) and reynolds (1998) provided three reasons why evaluators may be apprehensive about conducting program-driven theory evaluation. firstly, most programmes lack an explicit theory model because stakeholders have little understanding of the underlying assumptions of their programme. secondly, programme theory models may become too complex and detailed for an evaluator to use as a guide for collecting and analysing data. lastly, programme staff and stakeholders may have little interest in a programme theory, as their focus is mainly on the programme’s success. weiss (1998) responded to these arguments by noting that whilst a specific theory-driven programme evaluation would not allow evaluators to make inferences about other programmes, it could serve the need of the client to understand the programme design and improve it. it could also provide clients with a process by which to reach consensus about how the programme works. in turn, such consensus could lead to the commitment of stakeholders and staff, and their support for the programme. more carefully documented theory-driven evaluations could also contribute to evaluation science by providing programme designers with good programme theory on which to base a similar programme. a collection of fairly similar programmes could also be used for meta-analysis, to extract what works and what does not. finally, a programme theory, which shows the causal relationships of a programme, could provide the evaluator with a framework for an impact evaluation. other evaluators such as chen (2005), donaldson (2007), rogers (2000), rossi et al., (2004) and shadish, cook and campbell (2004) support weiss’ arguments. they contend that theory-driven evaluation results are not merely a list of programme components of an evaluand. theory evaluations are able to provide details, explanations and propositions of the various programme components and, in so doing, they establish an underlying logic about the programme’s operation (donaldson, 2007). donaldson also points out that in the case of an unsuccessful programme, a theory evaluation could provide reasons for programme failure. on the other hand, a theory evaluation of an effective programme could provide information on mediating and moderating variables, which could strengthen the programme effect. turning to employee wellness, researchers (haviland, 1996; matrone, 2008; wilkinson, 1999) have used a number of terms to refer to programmes aimed at improving employee health, namely, employee assistance programmes, wellness programmes and initiatives, and health promotion. these programmes can all be described as long-term organisational activities adopted and implemented to promote employee behaviour that will enhance the physical, mental, psychological and emotional health and well-being of employees. employee assistance programmes have increased in size and popularity in the past decade (haviland, 1996; ilgen, 1990). according to haviland, in the 1930s, the focus of such initiatives was on worker and workplace safety. however, in the 1950s, the focus changed to wellness as a lifestyle, which promoted physical and psychological well-being (fogarty, 2008). through education and feedback, employee health was encouraged and programme activities included changing undesirable behaviours related to drinking, nutrition, diet and exercise. in 1970, the world health organisation (who) began to encourage health promotion and wellness within organisations in america and, in 1987, in european countries. since that time, researchers and employers postulated the relationship between employee health and worker productivity (haviland, 1996). this perceived relationship prompted organisations to include psychological and emotional well-being components in their physical health interventions. these interventions utilised attitude and behaviour change to bring about employee wellness. this was evident in the intervention under evaluation, as reflected in the programme description above. in the present case, although a full description of the wm existed, an explicit programme theory was not articulated in any of the relevant documentation. therefore, the programme theory could be described as implicit (rossi et al., 2004) or tacit (weiss, 1998). we, therefore, decided to conduct a programme theory-driven evaluation to develop this programme theory, through various engagements with programme stakeholders and intended users of the programme (patton, 1997). in order to elicit the theory underlying the wm, the following questions, adapted from rossi et al. (2004), guided the evaluation: 1. what is the causal logic of the programme (programme theory)? 2. is this a plausible programme theory according to social science research and literature? the potential value-add of the study it could be concluded that, whilst the use of theory-driven evaluations is contested, potential benefits of such evaluations have also been documented. in south africa there are not many documented instances of such evaluations. for example, in a virtual conference on methodology in programme evaluation, organised by the wits programme evaluation group, only one south african contribution came close to utilising such an approach (hassett & potter, 2010). in addition, papers on hr evaluation were completely absent. thus, any study that could demonstrate the usefulness of the theory-driven evaluation approach would therefore be valuable, especially in the hr domain where very little has been done in this respect, and not only in south africa. this evaluation details a programme theory-driven evaluation conducted on an hr wellness initiative, to contribute to the empirical evidence of the value of theory-driven evaluations in the hr domain. as a result of the few evaluations like these in the local literature, we spend some time in the next section on how we extracted the programme theory, and how we built this theory through an interactive, iterative method of working with stakeholders. this resulted in a consensual model of how the programme is supposed to work. we were able to consider the plausibility of the theory in the light of existing literature. although ‘only’ a theory evaluation was conducted, we were able to make recommendations to the organisation about improvements to the programme. research design top ↑ research approach an exploratory design was used for this evaluation. research strategy the evaluation relied mainly on qualitative methods to extract programme theory and on a review of relevant literature to assess the plausibility of the programme theory. research method research setting this theory evaluation was undertaken prior to the implementation of a wellness programme in a beer brewery. entrée and establishing researcher roles the first evaluator was granted permission to evaluate the wellness model by the designer of the wm. she worked closely with the designer and the wellness coordinator. sampling two data sources were used for this evaluation, namely secondary data (programme records and document review) and key informant interviews with programme stakeholders. the two key informants were the designer of the wm and the wellness coordinator within the cape town brewery. data collection methods programme records and documentation, including corporate presentations, guides to managers, internal company policies, and newsletters were explored for information on the evaluand (for examples see http://www.sabmiller.com/files/pdf/corporate_presentation.pdf). recording of data the primary evaluator tape-recorded and transcribed the interviews with the two key informants. data analyses we analysed the programme records in order to generate the description of the wm. thereafter, the evaluators followed donaldson’s (2007) guidelines for developing a programme theory, namely:• we engaged the stakeholders. in this evaluation two key informants were interviewed. we intended to engage the wellness committee in this step, but time constraints rendered them unavailable for consultation. • we developed the first draft. structured interviews with the two key informants explored what they thought the six plans of the wm would achieve, and encouraged them to expand on these outcomes in their own words. these key informants were then questioned about how they thought the specific activities within the six plans would lead to the outcomes they had formulated. • we presented the first draft to the stakeholders. information gathered from the two key informants in the previous step was then plotted as a box-and-arrow diagram by the evaluators. this causal map was discussed with the key informants to ascertain whether or not it represented, fairly and accurately, their conceptualisation of the programme. • we assessed the plausibility of the first draft. we assessed the definition of wellness and the plausibility of the links in the causal map by means of a literature review. the main search parameters were, firstly, ‘employee wellness’ and, secondly, an advanced search for ‘employee wellness and evaluation’. • we finalised the programme theory. changes to the programme theory were first verified with the two key informants. upon their agreement the theory was finalised. strategies employed to ensure data quality in this study, very few real threats existed to the quality of the data collected. nevertheless, steps were taken to ensure that the picture of the programme that emerged was accurate. throughout the process of gathering data, careful notes were taken, and key informants were regularly consulted. the first evaluator produced drafts of the programme theory and presented these to the designer and coordinator of the programme in an iterative process, to remove possible misunderstandings. additionally, the plausibility of the programme theory that emerged was cross-checked against existing literature on wellness models. reporting the findings are reported as a plausible programme theory in the form of a diagram, which indicates how the programme will lead to changes in the life styles of the intended participants. suggestions for good implementation practice were extracted from the literature and added to the programme theory. findings top ↑ the findings will be presented in terms of three of the strategies for the development of a programme theory, namely: engaging the stakeholders, developing the first draft, and assessing the plausibility of the first draft. engaging the stakeholders and developing programme theory during interviews with the key informants, it became evident that they had difficulty in explaining their understanding of the programme’s logic and that they had no formalised documentation, which reflected it. this was a puzzling observation, and it probably was a result of the top-down nature of the parent company’s strategic focus on employee health as part of organisational health. quite specific questions from the evaluators, and a review of the programme documents, resulted in a preliminary programme theory. this consisted of little more than ‘there really is not a problem as such within the brewery, but as this programme was mandated by senior management, we had to implement it to enhance employee health’.further questioning of the key informants focused on how the wm would lead to enhanced employee health or other as yet unidentified outcomes. the key informants explained that the wm would encourage employees to adopt healthier lifestyle choices, which would then lead to enhanced health. in turn, healthy employees would enhance the image of the company. these additional insights were then presented in the form of a typical causal theory diagram (figure 1). when the draft was presented to the two key informants, they had difficulty dealing with the causal relationships of the whole wm. in order to overcome this obstacle, the evaluators divided the wm into sub-components and asked questions about each component. for instance, the question for the sub-component on hiv and aids was: ‘what effect will the implementation of the hiv and aids initiative have for the employees?’ thus, a diagram was drawn up for each sub-component of the wm indicating this sub-component’s short, medium and long-term outcomes. this helped the key informants to plot the causal relationships within the different components of the wm. we used these sub-component theories to refine the previous draft, and develop and build the overall programme theory, as presented in figure 2. the diagram captures a more sophisticated understanding of the wm’s impact model, in which two separate outcome lines can be ascertained. at one level, the wellness initiative encourages employees to make healthier lifestyle choices, which will lead to healthier employees who will benefit the organisation. at another level, the initiative is expected to increase job satisfaction, which will set a different outcome chain in motion. this model was presented to the key informants. they agreed that it captured a more accurate and complete understanding of what the programme is supposed to achieve than they indicated previously. we therefore can agree with donaldson (2007), that reaching consensus is often not particularly difficult, and that such an interactive process often leads to a common understanding. assessing the plausibility of the programme theor we examined the literature generated by the literature search of wellness programmes for two aspects, namely the underlying philosophy, and the outcomes of the wellness programmes. the underlying philosophy of most wellness programmes seems to rest on the notion that a healthier employee is a happier employee, and a happier employee is a more productive employee (danna & griffin, 1999; haviland, 1996; srivastara, 2008). according to danna and griffin, both employees and the organisation experience positive outcomes from effective wellness programmes. the following empirical studies support this, and demonstrate: • decreased staff turnover and decreased absenteeism (gustin, 2006; hermis, 2001; montgomery, 2008; polychronopoulos, 2008; wolff, 2003; wolfe & parker, 1994) • increased morale and employee job satisfaction (breiner, 2007; conrad, 1988; mason, 1992; matisonn, 2009; montgomery, 2008; toomey, 2006) • increased productivity (breiner, 2007; fogarty, 2008; matisonn, 2009; montgomery, 2008; toomey, 2006; wolff, 2003) • increased retention of highly skilled staff (wolfe & parker, 1994) • improved competitive advantage (gustin, 2006; hermis, 2001; polychronopoulos, 2008) • enhanced employee health and healthy lifestyle choices (conrad, 1988; montgomery, 2008; wolff, 2003) • improved organisational image because of the company’s commitment to employee health (haviland, 1996; ho, 1997; marshall, 2008). these outcomes provide evidence supporting the assumption that implementing a wellness programme should bring about positive effects for employees and the organisation. most of these outcomes are included in the wm’s programme theory and, therefore, it can be assumed that this theory is plausible. however, it is important to note that no recent south african wellness programmes have been evaluated in order to determine whether or not these outcomes have been achieved in practice. figure 1: draft version of the wellness model’s programme theory. figure 2: finalised wellness model programme theory. ethical considerations top ↑ the ethics in research committee of the faculty of commerce, university of cape town, approved the evaluation. potential benefits and hazards there were no benefits or hazards for participants who took part in the evaluation. recruitment procedures the designer of the wellness model and the wellness coordinator provided access to the programme documents and took part in the interviews to elicit the programme theory. they were identified by their role only. informed consent the two key informants were aware of the scope and purpose of the interviews and agreed to provide the required information to the primary evaluator. data protection the process by which the primary evaluator and the key informants agreed on the programme theory is described in the findings section. trustworthiness top ↑ reliability the key informants checked the programme theory at different stages of its development and agreed to the final theory. this process is described in the findings section. validity the evaluation focused on a specific programme theory and did not seek to generalise the findings to theories of other, similar programmes. discussion top ↑ the main objective of the evaluation was to provide a plausible programme theory for a wellness programme. this evaluation has demonstrated the importance of conducting a theory-driven evaluation, not only in order to understand the programme and its context, but also to provide a basis for an implementation and outcome evaluation. the finding, that employee participation is essential for the success of the wm, and the strategies to increase such participation, will be useful for improving the programme’s effectiveness. the main findings of this evaluation showed that, by using a process of consensus building with programme staff, the evaluator succeeded in producing a sophisticated programme theory for the brewery’s wellness programme. two strands of outcomes were identified, namely healthier lifestyle choices and increased job satisfaction for future participants in the programme. a review of the literature confirmed that the programme theory and its outcomes were plausible. whilst the programme theory of the wm was shown to be plausible, this does not guarantee the success of the programme. researchers (downey, 1996; haviland, 1996; ho, 1997; wilkinson, 1999; wolfe & parker, 1994) agree that although a wellness initiative’s programme theory may be feasible, implementation fidelity is imperative for its success. the relationship between programme activities and outcomes is specifically sensitive to the influence of the implementation variable, namely employee service utilisation. according to downey (1996) and wolfe and parker (1994), the desired outcomes of a wellness programme rely heavily on employee participation and involvement. milano (2007) indicates that wellness programmes are often sporadic and randomly implemented and consequently do not succeed. she points out that multi-component programmes have low utilisation levels. common barriers to programme success include: • lack of promotional materials • generic, non-individualised health messages • low motivation of staff to attend programme activities • target audiences not being reached • inconvenient scheduling of activities. the involvement of top management and their attitudes toward the programme could create a culture of participation for all staff members, which may result in greater utilisation of services (wolfe & parker, 1994). additionally, services provided on site, with convenient scheduling as well as time off to attend programme activities, all have positive effects on participation levels. in fact, the number of employees utilising the programme services determines the programme’s success. in order to strengthen the effect of the wm, it is suggested that some of the following strategies are considered. these are to: • gain top management’s commitment, support and engagement in the wm (downey, 1996; ho, 1997; wilkinson, 1999; wolfe & parker, 1994) • have strong promotional efforts and targeting of employees (ho, 1997; wolfe & parker, 1994) • conduct a needs assessment of current employee health and preferences (downey, 1996; haviland, 1996; ho, 1997) • allow for family involvement in the programme (ho, 1997) • ensure the programme logistics are well organised and that the scheduling of programme activities is convenient (downey, 1996; wolfe & parker, 1994) • develop policy documents outlining the organisation’s commitment towards the wm and provide general information on the programme (downey, 1996; haviland, 1996) • provide supervisors with training on the wm to make them aware of the services (haviland, 1996; wilkinson, 1999). limitations initially, this evaluation was intended to be an outcome evaluation. however, the economic climate at the time halted the implementation of the wellness programme. the programme stakeholders then agreed to a theory evaluation. this theory needs to be tested to see which outcomes are sustainable and which outcomes are unrealistic. it was not possible to complete this aspect of the evaluation. suggestions for future research ideally, the next step in a programme theory-driven evaluation would be to use the model to develop further evaluation questions and collect data to answer them. in other words, the theory-driven evaluation conducted would serve as a starting point for an implementation evaluation. the implementation evaluation could investigate how well those wm components, already implemented, were delivered and whether or not employees were using the services offered. a further focus could be on coverage (who uses the services), the quality of the services, and whether or not adequate resources were allocated to the programme. unfortunately, the brewery had to stop the full roll-out of the wellness programme and its evaluation because of various financial and organisational reasons. however, the programme theory remains useful and could be used as an evaluation framework once the obstacles to full implementation have been overcome. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this paper. authors’ contributions c.f. (university of cape town) completed this evaluation as a requirement for her master’s degree in programme evaluation. j.l. (university of cape town) supervised the evaluation. references top ↑ bickman, l. (1987). the functions of program theory. new directions for program evaluation, 33, 5–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ev.1443breiner, l. (2007). wellness in the workplace affects the bottom line. westchester county business journal, 46, 26. chen, h.t. (2005). practical program evaluation. thousand oaks: sage. conrad, p. (1988). worksite health promotion: the social context. social science medicine, 26, 485–489. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(88)90381-4 danna, k., & griffin, r.w. (1999). health and well-being in the workplace: a review and synthesis of literature. journal of management, 25, 357–384. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920639902500305 donaldson, s.i. (2007). the emergence of program theory-driven evaluation science. new york: taylor & francis group. donaldson, s.i., & gooler, l.e. (2003). theory-driven evaluation in action: lessons from a $20 million statewide work and health initiative. evaluation and program planning, 26, 355–366. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0149-7189(03)00052-1 donaldson, s.i., & lipsey, m.w. (2006). roles for theory in contemporary evaluation practice: developing practical knowledge. in i. shaw, j.c. greene & m.m. mark (eds.), the handbook of evaluation: policies, programs, and practices, (pp. 56–75). london: sage publications. downey, a.m. (1996). fit to work (health promotion programmes). business quarterly, 61, 69–74. fogarty, s. (2008). the importance of eaps in population health management. benefits and compensation digest, 45, 11–14. gustin, k. (2006). the value of healthy employees. national provisioner, 220, 40–42. hassett, a., & potter, c. (2010). applying empowerment theory in a school development setting: a theory-based evaluation. virtual conference on methodology in programme evaluation, university of the witwatersrand, johannesburg. paper retrieved from http://wpeg.wits.ac.za/index.htm haviland, t.r. (1996). employee assistance and wellness programmes: assessing what contributes to effective programs and the relationship to employee health, worker productivity and health care costs. unpublished master’s thesis, new york medical college, new york, usa. hermis, p.s. (2001). wellness in the workplace: a qualitative study. unpublished doctoral dissertation, pepperdine university, california, usa. ho, j.t.s. (1997). corporate wellness programmes in singapore: effect on stress, satisfaction and absenteeism. journal of managerial psychology, 12, 177–189. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683949710174801 ilgen, d.r. (1990). health issues at work: opportunities for industrial/organisational psychology. american psychologist, 45, 273–283. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.45.2.273, pmid:2178507 marshall, l. (2008). workplace wellness surge. coloradobiz, 35, 51–55. mason, j.c. (1992). healthy equals happy plus productive. management review, 81, 33–37. matisonn, s. (2009, january). wishing wellness. money marketing, p. 53. matrone, g.l. (2008). employee assistance program impact: one local program’s effectiveness. unpublished master’s thesis, southern connecticut state university, south connecticut, usa. milano, c. (2007). what ails workplace wellness programs? risk management magazine, 54, 30–36. montgomery, s.l. (2008). building employee wellness through implementing exercise, nutrition and chronic health education. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of south carolina, south carolina, usa. patton, m.q. (1997). utilization-focused evaluation. (4th edn.). thousand oaks: sage polychronopoulos, l. (2008). the road to workplace wellness. nz business, 22. reynolds, a.j. (1998). confirmatory program evaluation: a method for strengthening causal inference. american journal of evaluation, 19, 201–221. rogers, p.j. (2000). program theory evaluation: not whether programs work but how they work. in g. madaus, d. stufflebeam & t. kellaghan (eds.), evaluation models, (pp. 209–233). new york: kluwer press.  rossi, p.h., lipsey, m.w., & freeman, h.e. (2004). evaluation: a systematic approach. (7th edn.). thousand oaks: sage publications. scriven, m. (1998). minimalist theory: the least theory that practice requires. american journal of evaluation, 19, 57–70. shadish, w.r., cook, t.d., & campbell, d.t. (2004). experimental and quasi-experimental designs for generalized causal inference. boston: houghton mifflin company. srivastara, s.s. (2008). evaluating causal model for employee wellness and productivity. unpublished master’s thesis, golden gate university, san francisco, usa. stufflebeam, d. (2001). evaluation models. new directions for evaluation, 89, 7–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ev.3 toomey, d. (2006). wellness and prevention programs generate healthy outcomes. executive health & wellness guide, 19, 13. weiss, c.h. (1998). evaluation: methods for studying programs and policies. upper saddle river: prentice hall. wilkinson, c. (1999). management, the workplace and health promotion: fantasy or reality? health education journal, 58, 56–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001789699905800107 wolfe, r.a., & parker, d.f. (1994). employee health management: challenges and opportunities. the academy of management executive, 8, 22–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/ame.1994.9503101067 wolff, s. (2003). organizational health: beyond integrated disability. compensation benefits review, 35, 7–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0886368703255425 article information author: gerhardus van zyl1 affiliation: 1department of economics and econometrics, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: gerhardus van zyl postal address: po box 10152, aston manor 1630, south africa dates: received: 10 apr. 2012 accepted: 27 aug. 2012 published: 31 jan. 2013 how to cite this article: van zyl, g. (2013). the relative labour productivity contribution of different age-skill categories for a developing economy. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #472, 8 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.472 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the relative labour productivity contribution of different age-skill categories for a developing economy in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • problem statement    • literature review • research design    • research approach and method       • measuring instrument       • statistical analysis • results • discussion    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests • references • appendix a abstract top ↑ orientation: the article dealt with the estimation, computation and interpretation of the relative productivity contributions of different age-skill categories.research purpose: the aim of the article was to estimate and compute, (1) relative productivity contributions and (2) relative productivity contribution–employee remuneration cost levels for different age-skill categories. motivation for the study: the research was deemed necessary given the current debate on relative productivity levels and possible changes to the retirement age in the south african labour market. no real research in this regard has been published regarding the south african labour market situation. research design, approach and method: a less restrictive production function was used, allowing for the simultaneous estimation and final computation of relative labour contribution levels of different age-skill categories. main findings: the lower-skilled segment produced significantly smaller productivity contributions and the relative productivity contribution–employee remuneration cost ratios of the 55 years and older age group were superior in the higher-skilled segment but, at the same time, the lowest in the lower-skilled segment. practical/managerial implications: it is recommended that human resource practitioners (given the perceived rigidity of labour legislation) implement and maintain structures that promote higher productivity levels for all age-skill categories in the workplace. contribution/value-add: an estimation procedure, which can be applied to the measurement of the relative productivity contribution of different age-skill categories, has been established. introduction top ↑ problem statement the article adds new insight into the age-real productivity debate in south africa, as no estimation, computation, quantification and interpretation of this magnitude on the age-relative labour productivity and employee remuneration cost ratios (when different skill levels are taken into consideration) has previously been conducted. the manufacturing, construction and the trade and accommodation industries of the gauteng province of south africa are used as case studies. there is a general debate on, (1) relative productivity levels and (2) the retirement age in the south african economy and the possible impact (if any) that a change in the retirement age might have on labour productivity benefits, the potential loss of valuable expertise and the possible creation of a further loss of skilled employees. this particular research focuses on the age-real productivity aspect of this debate. over the past two decades, renewed research interest has focused on the relationship between the different employee age groups and labour productivity in the workplace. the increasing ageing profile of populations in developed economies (especially in europe) and its impact on those economies has prompted more research (colonia-willner, 1998; daveri & maliranta, 2006; dostie, 2006; guest & shacklock, 2005; malmberg, lindh & halvarsson, 2005; remery, henkins, schippers & ekamper, 2003; roger & wasmer, 2009; skirbekk, 2003; vandenberghe & waltenberg, 2010) on the age-productivity relationship. no real research has been conducted in this regard for developing economies, where the realities are (1) real positive population growth rates, (2) a greater number of younger people entering the job market and (3) a growing component of active employees at the higher end of the age groups. literature review daveri and maliranta (2006), guest and shacklock (2005), remery et al. (2003) and van ours and stoeldraijer (2010) indicated very low and even negative productivity differentials for older employees. these studies concluded that, (1) lower productivity differentials for older employees are caused by higher employee remuneration costs and, at the same time, an inability to adapt to new technology and structural changes in the labour market, (2) a general preference exists for younger employees (simply as a result of relative lower employee remuneration costs), (3) greater discrepancies exist between the productivity contribution levels of ‘older’ employees and remuneration levels (the argument is that marginal productivity levels are growing slower than employee remuneration levels) and (4) firms tend to follow rigid employee remuneration schemes (based on qualifications, experience and tenure) and would then be inclined to adjust their employment structures and not necessarily nominal employee remuneration levels. colonia-willner (1998), dostie (2006), roger and wasmer (2009) and vandenberghe and waltenberg (2010) concluded that, in certain circumstances, the real productivity contribution levels for ‘older’ employees can be significantly positive because of certain job categories requiring a longer timeframe for the accumulation of job-specific skills and experience. the roger and wasmer (2009) study specifically indicated that older, higher-skilled employees were the most productive, whilst older, lower-skilled employees were the least productive when compared to the other age groups.general aspects on the age-labour productivity relationship, for which all the abovementioned studies are in agreement, are that: • employee remuneration differentials reflect actual differences in relative productivity contribution levels for the different age groups. • employee remuneration levels tend to vary far less than relative productivity levels. • a definite inequality exists between relative productivity contributions and employee remuneration levels for all the different age groups (the argument is that employee remuneration differentials do reflect actual differences in employee productivity). • relative productivity contribution-levels tend to reach a maximum and then decline as employees become older. • employers are constantly trying to achieve an employee-age mix that would yield the highest possible relative productivity contribution levels. in terms of the measurement of the productivity contribution of the different age-skill categories, the majority of the studies (daveri & maliranta, 2006; dostie, 2006; guest & shacklock, 2005; vandenberghe & waltenberg, 2010) used a restrictive production function methodology. a less restrictive measurement methodology was developed by roger and wasmer (2009) in their extensive study on the actual profile of relative productivity contributions across the different age groups in the manufacturing, services and trade sectors of the french economy. these authors developed a unique and less restrictive production function in which the labour input was treated as a nested constant elasticity substitution (ces) model. in this particular model, (1) a smaller number of constraints were imposed on production technology and (2) the imperfect substitution between the different categories of employees was allowed for. the model also, (1) enabled the differentiation of employees simultaneously by age and skill level and (2) estimated the differences in the age-productivity and age-employee remuneration (in relative terms) separately within each skill level. research design top ↑ research approach and method the research design comprises the, (1) specification of an econometric model that would capture the relative labour productivity contributions for the different age groups (in accordance with the different skill levels), (2) identification of the different industries that would serve as proxies for the estimation and computation of the different relative productivity contribution and relative productivity contribution–employee remuneration ratios, (3) statistical validation of the required sample of businesses and the data collected in the proxy industries and (4) estimation and computation process and the interpretation of the estimation and computation results. measuring instrument a simplified version of the roger and wasmer (2009) model was used for this particular research. the international standard classification of occupations (isco-88) was used for the differentiation of the different skill levels. category a constituted the more skilled employee segment, whilst category b constituted the less skilled employee segment. in terms of the different age groups, three categories were identified, namely employees aged, (1) 35 years and younger, (2) older than 35 years but younger than 55 years and (3) 55 years and older. these age categories were specifically chosen in order to allow for comparative analysis with similar research results. in terms of the estimation and computation process, the different employee categories were treated heterogeneously across the defined age-skill groups, but homogeneously within the different age-skill groups. this simply means that employees belonging to the same age-skill group were assumed to be perfectly substitutable. the methodology of the model of roger and wasmer (2009, pp. 10–12, 19, 27–35), as applied in this particular study, was explained in the following few paragraphs. in the model, the aggregate labour input (high-skilled and low-skilled employees) took the form of a nested ces function: l = (σδilipi)1/pi [eqn 1] where l = labour, i = skill category, δi = distribution parameter and pi = substitution parameter. in terms of the different age-skill categories, each skill category was treated as a ces function by itself: li = (σiδijlijpij)1/pij [eqn 2] where i = skill category, j = age category, δij = distribution parameter per age-skill category and pij = substitution parameter per age-skill category. in the estimation process, the distributionas well as the substitution parameters were estimated, followed by the estimation of the productivity differentials per age-skill category. in order to estimate the productivity contribution per employee category the marginal productivity (mp) for each employee category was computed (given the estimated values of the ces parameters). it is important to note that, (1) constant returns to scale was assumed and (2) that the euler’s theorem was used in order to specify the labour function. this particular function is homogeneous to the degree of 1 and was presented as a sum of labour inputs times the marginal productivities: f(l,l2…..ln) = l1∂f/∂l1 + l2∂f/∂l2 + …ln∂f/∂ln) [eqn 3] where f = the function of labour, l1l2ln = labour inputs and ∂/l = marginal productivity per labour input. in order to cater for skill differentiation the marginal product for each skill category was computed: mpi = ∂y/∂l ∙ ∂l/∂li [eqn 4] where y = output, l = labour input and li = different skill levels. in terms of the nested ces function, the marginal productivity per skill category was presented as: mpi = akαβ(σiδilipi)β/pi -1δilipi-1 [eqn 5] where mpi = marginal productivity per skill category, k = capital input, α = marginal productivity of capital, δi = distribution per skill category, li = employee skill category and pi = substitution parameter per skill category. the ratio of the different skill levels was computed in order to determine the relative marginal productivity for the different employee skill categories: mp1/mp2 = ∂l/∂l1 ÷ ∂l/∂l2 = λ = δ1 / δ2 (l1/l2)pi-1 [eqn 6] where λ = ratio of the marginal productivities of the two skill categories 1 and 2 and δ1 / δ2 = ratio of the distribution parameters for skill categories 1 and 2. a comparison of productivity contributions over different skill categories requires the estimation of the ratio between the marginal productivity of a skill category and the average marginal productivity of the total labour input: mp1/mpav = l/l1 + λ-1l2 and mp2/mpav = l/λl1 + l2 [eqn 7] where mpav = average marginal productivity for the total labour input. in terms of the impact of age differentiation on labour productivity, the marginal productivity per age-skill category is computed: mpij = ∂y/∂l ∙ ∂l/∂li ∙ ∂li/∂lij [eqn 8] where mpij = marginal productivity per age-skill category. and mpi = akαβ(σδi lipi)β/pi 1δilipi/pj 1δijlijpij -1 [eqn 9] where δij = distribution parameter per age-skill category and pij = substitution parameter per age-skill category. the relative marginal productivity of any two age groups of employees in a given skill category is: mpi1/mpi2 = δi1/δi2(li1/li2)pij-1 [eqn 10] the relative marginal productivities between the different age categories were: • relative marginal productivity for employees younger than 35 years versus employees older than 35 years but younger than 55 years of age, represented as: mpi35</mpi35-55 = φ [eqn 11] • relative marginal productivity for employees younger than 35 years versus employees 55 years and older, represented as: mpi35</mpi55+ = γ [eqn 12] • relative productivity for employees older than 35 years but younger than 55 years versus employees 55 years and older, represented as: mpi35-55/mpi55+ = η [eqn 13] the productivity contribution of each age category was then given by the ratio of the marginal productivities of the respective age group over the average marginal productivity of a specific skill category: mpi35</mpav = li/li35< + φ-1li35-55 + γ-1li55+ [eqn 14] mpi35-55/mpav = li/φli35< + li35-55 + η-1li55+ [eqn 15] mpi55+/mpav = li/ γli35< + ηli35-55 + li55+ [eqn 16] in order to estimate the distribution and substitution parameters that are necessary to determine the productivity contributions of the different age-skill categories, the production function model (in which labour is differentiated simultaneously by the different age and skill categories) was estimated as: y = akα(γ(δl35<ll35<pl + δl35-55l35-55lpl + (1 – δl35< – δlm)llopl) ps/pl + (1 γ) (δh35<lh35<ph + δh35-55lh35-55ph + (1 – δh35< – δh35-55)lh55+ph)ps/ph)β/ps [eqn 17] where γ = the ratio of the marginal productivities of the 35–55 years and the 55 years and older age groups, δly = distribution parameter of the lower skill 35 years and younger age category, δlm = distribution parameter of the lower skill 35–55 years age category, δhy = distribution parameter of the higher skill 35 years and younger age category, δhm = distribution parameter of the higher skill 35–55 years age category, ll35<pl = substitution parameter of the lower skill 35 years and younger age category, ll35-55lpl = substitution parameter of the lower skill 35–55 years age category, ll55+pl = substitution parameter of the lower skill 55 years and older age category, lh35<ph = substitution parameter for the higher skill 35 years and younger age category and lh55+ph = substitution parameter for the higher skill 55 years and older age category. the model also allowed for the computation of the total share of the different age-skill categories in terms of the total employee remuneration costs. these computations gave a clear indication of the relative employee remuneration–labour productivity levels per age-skill category. statistical analysis the gauteng province of south africa was identified as a case study for this particular study because of the dominant gross geographical product (ggp) position of this particular province in the south african economy. the manufacturing, construction and the trade and accommodation industries in gauteng were identified as proxy industries based on, (1) the important contribution of these industries to the ggp of gauteng and (2) the availability of applicable real data. information on firms in the manufacturing, construction and the trade and accommodation industries was supplied by construction education and training authorities (ceta), manufacturing sector education and traing authority (cathsseta), service sector education and training authorities (services seta), manufacturing, engineering and related service sector education and training authority (merset), wholesale and retail sector education authority (w&rseta), food and beverages sector education and training authority (foodbevseta), the department of labour, and statistics south africa (stastsa). it was also the aim of the data collection process to make sure that the spread of firms throughout the different industries was statistically significant. in the manufacturing and construction industries, only firms that have more than 80 employees were included in the sample groups. for the trade and accommodation industry, only firms that had more than 10 employees were included. given the aforementioned constraint and statistical validation requirements, the sample response sizes (192 firms in the manufacturing industry, 96 firms in the construction industry and 89 firms in the trade and accommodation industry) were found to be statistically significant. for each of the individual firms in the sample groups, data had to be collected on value added, value of the capital stock (including material stock), the hours worked per age group, the hours worked per age-skill category and the hourly earnings by age and by age-skill category. monthly employee remuneration levels were transformed to hourly rates. data on the different variables had to be standardised (values were divided by 100 000 and logarithms were then computed), in order to enable comparison and application of the data in the estimation process. the summary sample statistics are presented in appendix a. the data revealed interesting statistics for the different sample categories. firstly, the individual percentage contribution of the different age groups to the total hours worked was relatively the same for all three industries. the 35–55 years age group was the biggest contributor (on average 45%), followed by the 35 years and younger age group (on average 33%) and, lastly, the 55 years and older age group (on average 21%). secondly, in terms of the age-skill categories, the lower-skilled category contributed approximately 67% of the total hours worked (albeit a smaller contribution of 58% in the trade and accommodation industries), compared to the approximately 33% contribution of the higher-skilled category (except for the trade and accommodation industries where the contribution was higher at 42%). in the lower-skilled segment, the 35–55 years age group was the biggest contributor to the total hours worked, followed by the 35 years and younger age group. in the higher-skilled segment, the spread of the total number of hours worked per age group was more evenly in the case of the manufacturing and construction industries. in the trade and accommodation industry the contribution of the 35–55 years age group was much higher (47%). thirdly, for both the lower-skilled and higher-skilled segments, the 35–55 years age groups had, by far, the greatest total employee remuneration capacity (in excess of 60%), whilst the total employee remuneration capacity of the 55 years and older age group exceeded that of the 35 years and younger age group. table 1: estimation results for the distribution and substitution parameters when the labour input is differentiated by age and skill level. results top ↑ the parameter estimates of the non-linear production functions are listed in table 1. the estimations in table 1 were used to compute, (1) the marginal productivity contribution of each age-skill category and (2) a remuneration-productivity profile for the different age-skill categories (equations 4–16). this was conducted for each firm in the sample groups. in order to perform a general comparison of all the productivity contributions of the different age-skill categories, (1) a marginal productivity contribution mean value was computed for each of the three industries and (2) the ratio of marginal productivity contribution was computed for each age-skill category for the individual firms and the industry marginal productivity contribution mean value. average ratios for each age-skill category per industry were then computed. if the ratio of the marginal productivity contribution of a specific age-skill category and the mean marginal productivity contribution value equalled 1, the marginal productivity contribution of that specific age-skill category was the same as the industry average. if the value of the ratio was greater than 1 the marginal productivity contribution of that particular age-skill category exceeded the industry average, and if the ratio was less than 1 the marginal productivity contribution was less than the industry average. all the computed average marginal productivity contribution ratio values for the different age-skill categories in the different industries are listed in table 2.analysts should not only concern themselves with relative productivity contribution levels but should also consider the applicable employee remuneration cost aspect of a particular productivity contribution level. from a productivity contribution–employee remuneration cost perspective, it was deemed necessary to compute the marginal productivity contribution–marginal employee remuneration cost ratios for each of the age-skill categories in the different industries. this simply meant that the productivity contributions were matched with the employee remuneration costs. if the productivity contribution–employee remuneration cost ratio was greater than 1, the relative productivity contribution of a particular age-skill category exceeded the relative employee remuneration cost of that age-skill group and if the ratio was smaller than 1, the relative productivity contribution of a particular age-skill category was less than the relative employee remuneration cost of that age-skill group. the computation of the marginal productivity–employee remuneration ratios also required the computation of the marginal employee remuneration cost ratios (i.e. average employee remuneration cost per age-skill category divided by average employee remuneration cost for the industry). if the relative employee remuneration cost ratio was greater than 1, the average employee remuneration cost of that particular age-skill category exceeded the average employee remuneration cost of the employers and if the ratio was less than 1, the average employee remuneration of that particular age-skill category was smaller than the average employee remuneration costs of the employers. the employee remuneration and the productivity contribution–employee remuneration cost ratios of all the different age-skill categories for the three industries are listed in table 3. table 2: marginal productivity ratios per age-skill category for the three industries. discussion top ↑ the aim of the article was to estimate, compute, quantify and interpret the real productivity levels for the different employee age groups when different skill levels are taken into consideration.the estimation results of the marginal ratios per age-skill category indicated that for the lower-skilled category, the 55 years and older age group had the lowest productivity contribution whilst the 35–55 years age group had the highest productivity contribution (the relative productivity contribution levels of this particular age group marginally exceeded the average industry productivity contribution levels for the three industries). it was also significant to note that for the 35 years and younger age group the productivity contribution was less than the average industry productivity contribution levels. these results are a confirmation of the general perception of low productivity levels for the lower-skilled employee component of the south african economy. the challenge for human resource practitioners (given the perceived rigidity of current labour legislation) is to (1) enhance a greater understanding of the importance of higher productivity levels in the workplace and (2) implement structures that would promote and monitor productivity levels more efficiently and to constantly improve work-based training. the abovementioned findings are in contrast with the findings of the roger and wasmer (2009) study, which indicated a significant productivity contribution (exceeding the average industry productivity contribution) of the ‘younger’ age group (in those particular developed economies). the results derived for the higher-skilled segment are in contrast with the results derived for the lower-skilled segment. the 55 years and older age group generated relative productivity contributions that significantly exceeded the average industry productivity levels. the same applies to the 35–55 years age group, but at a relative smaller magnitude. these results are similar to the findings of the colonia-willner (1998) and roger and wasmer (2009) studies, which indicated high productivity levels for the ‘older’ age group in the higher-skilled segment. a plausible explanation is that for certain higher-skilled occupations, a high level of longer job experience and ‘learning by doing’ effects are a necessity. given the significant higher productivity contribution levels of the higher-skilled segment (in comparison with the lower-skilled segment) it is important that, (1) older highly-skilled employees are kept in the workplace for as long as possible and (2) that structures are put in place that could limit any outflow of high-skilled employees from the south african workplace. it is surprising to note that the relative productivity contribution of the 35 years and younger age group still remained lower than the average industry productivity contribution levels (albeit better than the lower-skilled segment). in this regard, it is felt that the productivity levels of this particular age-skill category can be improved by enhancing the quality and speed of learning and training and to rigorously keep track with technological progress. table 3: employee remuneration and the productivity contribution–employee remuneration ratios per age-skill category for the three industries. in terms of the productivity contribution–employee remuneration cost component the results of the study should be of great interest to human resource and remuneration specialists. in the case of the lower-skilled segment the productivity contribution–employee remuneration cost ratio for both the younger than 35 years and older than 55 years age groups were smaller than 1 (for all three industries). this is a clear indication that relative productivity contributions are lower than relative employee remuneration costs. in simplistic terms, it reflects a situation where both age groups are paid more than they should be paid when productivity levels are considered. the productivity contribution–employee remuneration levels are especially low for the older than 55 years age group. this particular outcome was also recorded in the remery et al. (2003) and the rogers and wasmer (2009) studies. in the case of the 35–55 years age group, the productivity contribution–employee remuneration cost ratios were marginally higher than 1 (for all three industries), thus indicating a situation where the relative productivity contributions matched the relative employee remuneration costs. the abovementioned discussion is again a confirmation of the general perception that the relative remuneration costs of lower-skilled employees in south africa is too high. given the unionised nature of this particular skill segment, the challenge for human resource practitioners (as mentioned earlier) is to implement effective strategies that would enhance higher productivity levels (especially for an ever-expanding younger than 35 years age group in the south african labour market). the situation is totally reversed when the higher-skilled segment is considered. the productivity contribution–employee remuneration cost ratios of the 55 years and older age group (greater than 1) was greater than the other two age groups (in all three industries). this is a clear confirmation of the superior productivity contribution levels of this particular age-skill group. these results have been obtained even when the relative employee remuneration cost ratios were greater than 1 (for all three industries), which simply means that the relative productivity contributions of this particular age group exceeded the relative high employee remuneration costs. the productivity contribution–employee remuneration cost ratio for the 35–55 years age group was also greater than 1 (indicating high levels of relative productivity contributions). the younger than 35 years age group also presented better relative productivity contribution–employee remuneration cost ratios (compared to the lower-skilled segment). these ratios were slightly less than 1, indicating a situation where relative productivity contributions nearly match relative employee remuneration costs. conclusion top ↑ the results of this particular study are, again, a confirmation of, (1) relative low productivity levels and relative high employee remuneration costs in the more unionised lower-skilled segment of the south african labour market, (2) the absolute need to improve the productive skill base of the labour market and (3) the need to maintain skilled employees (for all age groups) in the workplace. further possible extensions of this particular study are, (1) the relative productivity contribution levels of the two gender groups (for the three age-skill categories) and (2) geographical differences in terms of relative productivity contribution levels (for the three age-skill categories). acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. references top ↑ colonia-willner, r. (1998). practical intelligence at work: relationship between aging and cognitive efficiency among managers in a bank environment. psychology and aging, 13(1), 1–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0882-7974.13.1.4, pmid:2736382 pmid:daveri, f., & maliranta, m. (2006). age, technology and labour costs. research institute of the finish economy paper series, (1010), 1–51. dostie, b. (2006). wages, productivity and aging. international zeolite association discussion paper series, (2496), 1–32. guest, r., & shacklock, k. (2005). the impending shift to an older mix of workers: perspectives from the management and economics literatures. journal of organisational behaviour, 10(3), 713–728. malmberg, b., lindh, t., & halvarsson, m. (2005). productivity consequences of workforce ageing. arbetsrapport, 17, 1–43. remery, c., henkens, k., schippers, j., & ekamper, p. (2003). managing an ageing workforce and a tight labour market. population research and policy review, 22(1), 21–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1023543307473 roger, m., & wasmer, m. (2009). heterogeneity matters: labour productivity differentiated by age and skills. national institute of statistics and economic studies, (4), 1–37. skirbekk, v. (2003). age and individual productivity: a literature survey. max planck institute for demographic research working paper series, (028), 1–37. vandenberghe, v., & waltenberg, f. (2010). ageing workforce, productivity and labour costs of belgium firms. institut de recherches economiques et sociales paper series, (3), 1–30. van ours, j.c., & stoeldraijer, l. (2010). age, wage and productivity. international zeolite association discussion paper series, (4765), 1–50. appendix a top ↑ appendix_a: summary of the sample statistics. 3-visser.qxd due to the acceleration of change, traditional bureaucracy can no longer keep up its pace (toffler, 1990). as bureaucratic hierarchies decline and horizontally oriented teams and work units evolve, specialized management skills are needed. babcock (1996) argues that one of the prime responsibilities of the project manager is to build the project team. this involves a whole spectrum of management skills to identif y, commit and integrate various project groups from traditional functional organisations into a single programme management system. across the board there is a subtle but profound change in the personality traits rewarded by the economic system. this change cannot help but shape the emerging social character of the manager and the engineer. babcock (1978) as well as badawy (1983) state that the engineer who becomes a manager faces a bewildering task as he must: � re-orient his thinking from things to people, � learn how to motivate others to get work done rather than do it himself, and � develop a knack for playing the political game that is so much a part of the management scene. seethamraju and agrawal (1999) indicate in their study that although large numbers of engineers are in management, it is generally believed that they still lack soft skills such as: � communication, � business management, and � interpersonal skills to be successful in management positions. kemper (1975) emphasizes that engineers are expected to be experts in certain areas. their education leads them to be observant of what they see. engineers are concerned with the creation of devices, systems and structures for human use. seethamraju and agrawal (1999) postulate that the engineer is by implication, through his education, trained to be a scientist of things and not a motivator or counsellor of people. lannes (2001) reports that engineers work mostly with objects and they usually identif y with the technical aspects of organizations. one of the most challenging functions in the engineering industry today is project management, for t wo reasons. firstly it requires management skills and abilities that are different from those required in a traditional functional management position. secondly there is very little training support available to those engineers moving into management positions. thornberry (1987) states that the project managers are, however, expected to have a very broad perspect ive, to be able to work mostly with people and primarily to identif y with the project rather than their former function areas. johnston (1987) reports that surveys have shown that the majorit y of professional engineers are required to assume a degree of management responsibilit y as they approach mid-career, and for some, the opportunit y may come earlier. badawy (1995) indicates that 63% of the engineers in the usa are employed as managers at the age of 65. this proves the need for generalists in today’s business world. the successful transition of engineers into management is due to three interrelated components, namely knowledge, skills and attitudes. a thorough knowledge of the principles and elements of administration is needed for managerial success. however, such knowledge by itself is not enough to ensure competency. management theory is seen as a science, while management practice is seen as an art. an effective manager is thus a person who has developed a set of managerial skills. for the purposes of this study, the word or term “engineer” will be used according to the definition of repic (1990) and kemper (1975). the engineer is a person who, by reason of his knowledge, use of mathematical, physical, engineering sciences and the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design, which were acquired through engineering education and experience, is qualified to practise engineering. tertiary education of engineers in south africa the t ypical duration of the education of an engineer, who is practising as a professional engineer in south africa, has been four years of undergraduate studies. o’connor (1994) argues that engineers usually do not need to work with scient ists and mathemat icians. they have sufficient knowledge to deal with the problems themselves. a sufficient acquaintance with the humanities and social sciences will help an engineering student to understand the large social problems of his time. babcock (1996) is of the opinion that the “engineering curriculum should include specific engineering courses that incorporate written, hercules visser louis naudé johann schepers department of human resources management rand afrikaans university abstract this article argues that there is a difference in leadership styles between experienced and inexperienced engineers in south africa. it was found that experienced engineers are more transformational and more transactional than inexperienced engineers. to demonstrate this in the study, the researcher uses the multifactor leadership questionnaire (mlq) of bass and avolio (1995) to identif y leadership style. the argument is substantiated by the results of a statistical analysis of leadership style administered to 85 experienced and inexperienced engineers in total. opsomming hierdie artikel debateer die verskil in leierskapstyle tussen ervare en onervare ingenieurs in suid-afrika. dit is bevind dat ervare ingenieurs meer transformasioneel en meer transaksioneel is wanneer vergelyk word met onervare ingenieurs. om hierdie studie te demonstreer, het die navorser gebruik gemaak van die multifaktor leierskapvraelys (mlv) van bass en avolio (1995) om leierskapstyl te identifiseer die argument word verder ondersteun deur die resultate van statistiese analise van leierskapstyl wat uitgevoer is op 85 deelnemers, beide van ervare en onervare ingenieurs in totaal. transformation of managerial skills of engineers requests for copies should be addressed to: h visser, department of human resource management, rau, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 17 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (2), 17-23 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (2), 17-23 oral, graphical and interpersonal communication skills, and these areas should be emphasised in the evaluation of the student performance”. typical personality profiles of engineers lumsdaine, lumsdaine and shelnutt (1999) argue that the personality profile of the engineer is to be factual, analytical, mathematical, technical, logical, rational and critical – the typical analyst. engineers may become fixated on the technical aspects of the job and fail to see interrelationships and the greater whole in the process. motivation of engineers toffler (1990) states that professional specialists “seemingly derive their rewards from inward standards of excellence, from their professional societies and from the intrinsic satisfaction of their task. in fact, they are committed to the task, not the job; to their standards, not their boss”. haug & dofny (1997) state in their research that engineers are predominantly ‘locals’. their goals are directed primarily inward, at achieving the goals of the company and advancing within the company. the career path of the engineer the engineer does not have a t ypical career path to prepare him/her for the management role. o’connor (1994) postulates that only a few engineers receive training in new management principles. the reason why engineers tend to gravitate towards the scientific approach to management is that they are usually rational, numerical and logical. in sharp contrast, engineering work today in general, is based on knowledge, teamwork and the application of certain skills. the manager’s role is to concern himself with the people in his team. o’connor (1994) states that these t wo roles are linked so closely together that separation will inevitably lead to bad engineering and bad management. work experience and interpersonal skills as requirements for engineers to become successful managers a lack of experience and understanding can cause an engineer to fail in his duty as manager. for the engineer to be successful, he must broaden himself beyond purely technical matters, according to thornberry (1987). one of the most difficult areas for engineers to improve on is people skills, especially when they move into a project management position. these skills are not as highly valued or as critical in an individual contributor’s role as they are in a project manager’s job. to gain more experience, mcallister (1984) proposes that the engineer can take on diverse assignments, participate in technical societies and committee work, and cultivate a natural curiosity to understand the overall context of his efforts. engineers tend to focus more on things than people, logic than emotion, and facts than feelings. bircumshaw (1980) confirms that many engineers are not sensitive enough in the field of management. this can be emphasized by the practical, logical thinking engineer being irritated by the irrational, often inconsistent behaviour of those who he manages. it is argued by sedge (1985) that an engineer, who is used to working with ‘things’, may never have acquired the necessary interpersonal skills to operate in a ‘people-oriented’ role. as engineers become involved in larger projects, they require interdisciplinary skills. engineers then discover that success will depend not only on technical expertise, but also on other factors such as organizational and people issues. lannes (2001) states that the knowledge and skills required in the phase of development are primarily things such as project management, interpersonal and communication skills, interdisciplinary skills in finance and marketing, and other organizational skills. to work well with diverse groups of people is an abilit y that is sought after by company management when they want to appoint new supervisors. engineers are usually assigned to teams. to accomplish their work in a way that will result in the achievement of a common goal, team members must work closely with their peers and supervisors. the performance of the entire team depends on the engineer and if he becomes too independent, the whole team suffers. in most job situations today, koontz, o’donnell & weihrich (1984) are of the opinion that poor communication skills can prevent an engineer from moving up. freston & lease (1987) state that a new engineer may be average in technical abilit y, but how people perceive him in meetings and over the telephone is a key to his success. according to sedge (1985), it is possible that an engineer, performing a role with a “thing” or “data” orientation, may never have acquired the necessary interpersonal skills to operate in a “people”-oriented role. most management training fails to meet the needs of those in transition and bayton and chapman in sedge (1985) recommend that improved selection and training procedures are required to smooth the transition process. the transition from engineer to manager sarchet (1969) states that by 2000, more than 50% of corporations would have been headed by men with an engineering background. managers generally focus on leadership skills, technical skills and administrative skills. table 1 below depicts the role differences between engineers and managers as indicated by bennett (1996). table 1 role differences between engineers and managers position engineer manager focus more concerned with things more concerned with people technical/scientific decision makes decisions with much often makes decisions with -making information, under inadequate information, conditions of greater certainty under conditions of greater uncertainty involvement works on tasks and problem directs the work of others to solving personally goals process work based on facts with work based on fewer facts, outcomes quantifiable outcomes less measurable outcomes effectiveness depends on personal depends on interpersonal technical expertise, attention skills in communication, to detail, mathematical/ conflict management, technical problem solving, getting ideas across, and designing negotiating and coaching dependency experiences role as experiences role as autonomous interdependent responsibility individual accomplishment in many objectives at once, one project, task or problem requiring orchestrating a at a time broad range of variables and organisational entities creativity creative with products, creative with people and designs, materials organisations bottom line will it work? will it make/save money for the organisation? source: bennett (1996) transformational and transactional leadership styles according to avolio and bass (1991), research indicates that transformational leadership can develop in individuals at lower levels in the organization if those individuals have the opport unit y to observe the behaviour of successful, appealing, higher level leaders. the aspiring transformational leader must be willing to re-examine his or her strengths and weaknesses as a leader. visser, naude, schepers18 transformational leaders display four distinct characteristics that avolio and bass (1991) label the four is: � individualized consideration transformational leaders pay attention to the individual employee and his needs rather than treating all followers alike and having the same needs. such leaders listen to and share an individual’s concerns while simultaneously helping to build the individual’s confidence. � intellectual stimulation to serve in a transformational leadership role, avolio & bass (1991, p. 14) argue that a leader should be concerned with providing ways and reasons for people to change the way they think about technical problems, human relations problems, and even their own personal attitudes and values that have developed over the individual’s lifespan. an intellectually stimulating leader helps people to think about ‘old’ problems in new ways and to use reasoning and evidence to solve problems. � inspirational motivation avolio and bass (1991) postulate that antecedents such as past personal accomplishments, the development of communication skills, and role modelling of other leaders create the potential to inspire others. this potential is realized in part by the interplay with individualized consideration and intellectual stimulation when the person is in a leadership role. � idealized influence avolio and bass (1991) believe that by showing respect for others and by building their confidence and trust in the overall mission, transformational leaders are able to develop much referent power and influence over others. the transactional leadership style focuses on the interpersonal transactions between managers and employees. leaders are seen as engaging in behaviours that maintain a quality interaction between themselves and followers (kreitner and kinicki, 2001, p. 567). the leader helps the follower identif y what must be done to accomplish the desired results: better quality output, more sales or services and reduced cost of production. in helping the follower to identif y what must be done, the leader takes into consideration the person’s selfconcept and esteem needs. the focus is therefore on how leaders influence the follower’s expectations. gibson, ivancevich and donnelly (1997) state that a natural outflow of this style is therefore that the transactional leader relies on contingent reward and on management by exception. contingent reward is then defined by gibson (1997, p. 315) as ‘the leader informs followers about what must be done to receive the rewards they prefer’ and management by exception is defined as ‘the leader permits followers to work on the task and doesn’t intervene unless goals aren’t being accomplished in a reasonable time and at a reasonable cost’. bass (1985) states that transactional leadership depends on contingent reinforcement and this could be either positive contingent reward (cr) or the more negative active or passive forms of management-by-exception. method this section describes the method that was employed in the study, including a description of the target population and measuring instrument. participants/respondents the respondents consisted of t wo independent samples. firstly, all the st udents currently enrolled for their engineering degrees composed a community of interest. the unit of study (cooper, 1998, p. 215) was engineering students who are engaging in their degrees at the rand afrikaans university in south africa. the sampling method used is nonprobability sampling as defined by cooper (1998, p. 237). for the purposes of this research, judgement sampling was used as a type of purposive sampling method. the researcher selected sample members to conform to some criteria. the most common attributes of engineering students are their type of education and lack of managerial experience. the sample size (n) is 37. secondly, engineering managers at a utility company composed a community of interest. the non-probability sampling method was used. the most common attribute of engineering managers is their managerial experience. the sample variance is therefore greater. the sample size (n) is 48. measuring instruments leadership style was measured by the multifactor leadership questionnaire (mlq) developed by bass & avolio (1995). the mlq measures the broad range of leadership from laissez-faire to idealized influence. the mlq consists of 45 items with four factors that represented the meaning of each construct of the full range model. procedure the research procedure had the following steps: � the researcher administered the questionnaire in person. � respondents were told that confidentiality would be kept. � respondents were asked to complete the mlq leader answer sheet. it was explained to the respondents that the questionnaire consisted of statements about t ypical leadership behaviour and they were asked to indicate how often they behaved in a certain way. the items required that the respondents should indicate how strongly they identified with the behaviour. because of the fact that the questionnaire is self-explanatory, respondents did not have to provide their names. this took 20 minutes. � all the tests were sent to the statistical consultation service at rau for data analysis. statistical analysis the following statistical methods were used to assess leadership styles of experienced and inexperienced engineers: a) cronbach alpha of the mlq b) frequency distributions of biographical variables of eskom and rau respondents c) descriptive statistics and independent samples t-test for leadership styles of engineers d) comparison of the vectors of means of experienced and inexperienced engineers in respect of the manova measures e) analysis of variance to compare means of experienced and inexperienced engineers in terms of the manova measures results measuring instrument: the multifactor leadership questionnaire as seen in table 2, nine items were rejected and the remaining 36 items of the mlq provided a measurement of leadership st yle. three corresponding scales were formed, that represent the transformational leadership st yle, the transactional leadership st yle and the non-leadership st yle for inexperienced engineers and engineering managers. although some of the reliabilit y coefficients are very low for this research, the measuring instrument has been tested in different research projects and is seen as sufficient for this research. transformation of managerial skills 19 table 2 measuring instrument: the multi leadership questionnaire cronbach alpha number of items 1. tertiary institution participants transformational 0,8622 20 leadership transactional leadership 0,4782 12 non-leadership 0,6983 4 total 36 2. utility comapny participants transformational 0,8653 20 leadership transactional leadership 0,6675 12 non-leadership 0,3202 4 total 36 comparison of data sets in terms of background variables for the utility company & tertiary institution. tables 3 and 4 represent the distribution of biographical variables of a utility company and a tertiary institution. tabel 3 distribution of respondents/experienced engineers in a utility company according to biographical variables demographic variable n % formal education commercial 18 38,3 bachelor’s 23 48,9 master’s 4 8,5 doctoral 0 0,0 other 2 4,3 total 47 100 number of employees reporting directly to participants 1-5 19 54,3 5-10 11 31,4 10-20 1 2,9 20-50 3 8,6 50 or more 1 2,9 total 35 100 number of employees reporting indirectly to participants 1-5 8 3,8 5-10 1 3,8 10-20 5 19,2 20-50 5 19,2 50 or more 7 26,9 total 26 100 number of completed years in the organization 1-5 11 24,4 5-10 13 28,9 10 or more 21 46,7 total 45 100 number of completed years in management 1-5 23 62,2 5-10 9 24,3 10 or more 51 3,5 total 37 100 table 4 distribution of respondents/inexperienced engineers in a tertiary institution according to biographical variables demographic variable n % formal education commercial 3 8,8 bachelors 19 55,9 masters 9 26,5 doctoral 2 5,9 other 1 2,9 total 34 100 number of employees reporting directly to participants 1-5 22 91,7 5-10 0 0,0 10-20 0 0,0 20-50 0 0,0 50 or more 2 8,3 total 24 100 number of employees reporting indirectly to participants 1-5 11 64,7 5-10 3 17,6 10-20 1 5,9 20-50 1 5,9 50 or more 1 5,9 total 17 100 number of completed years in the organization 1-5 18 66,7 5-10 8 29,6 10 or more 1 3,7 total 27 100 number of completed years in management 1-5 19 95,0 5-10 1 5,0 10 or more 0 0 total 20 100 as seen in tables 3 and 4, more participants in the utility company indicated that they had been exposed to management positions. it is indicated that respondents from the utility company have more work experience in category 10 years or more than the tertiary institution participants. this is in sharp contrast to one tertiary institution respondent who had more than 10 years of work experience. as seen in tables 3 and 4, the total number of employees reporting to the utility group is more than the total for the tertiary group. more employees report indirectly to the utility group than to the tertiary group. the high count for employees reporting to the tertiary group in the first category (1-5 years) is due to the fact that one employee at the tertiary institution runs a business on a part-time basis in africa. more employees report directly to the utility company participants compared to the tertiary institution participants. tables 3 and 4 show the difference in the number of years of formal education between the two independent groups. a total of 47 participants (of the possible 81 participants) of the two independent groups are from the utility company, and they indicated formal education at different levels. it is clear that the group representing the utility group has more years of formal education than the tertiary group. the 45 items of the mlq could not be subjected to chisquare tests in order to establish whether there is a visser, naude, schepers20 relationship bet ween the biographical variables from the t wo independent samples: the tertiary institution sample (which represents young engineers), and the ut ilit y comapny engineers (who represent the engineering manager). the number of respondents per cell for the different background variables was too small (20% of the cells have expected frequencies smaller than 5). leadership styles from table 5, it is clear that significant differences were found in the mean scores of the transformational and transactional leadership styles when the experienced engineers and the inexperienced engineers were compared. the assumption is that the dimensions or scales of the mlq are correct. from table 5 it is clear that the tertiary institution engineers are less transformational and transactional than the utility company engineers. on average, the two groups do not differ in terms of the non-leadership style. the probabilit y value for the transformational leader is 0,00 and is smaller than 0,05, which means that there is a stat ist ically significant relat ionship bet ween the transformational leadership st yle and experienced engineers. the assumption is made that the utilit y company engineers are representatives of experienced engineers. the probabilit y value for transactional leaders is 0,002 and is smaller than 0,05, which means that there is a statistically significant relationship bet ween transformational leadership st yle and the tertiary institution engineers. the assumption is made that the tertiary institution engineers are representative of inexperienced engineers. this supports the assumption that the t wo groups differ in terms of leadership st yle. as seen in table 6, a test of equality (hotelling t²) of means considered the three dependent variables (transformational leadership style, transactional leadership style and the nonleadership style) for experienced and inexperienced leaders. since the significance level (0,00) is less than 0,05 for the t² test, it is clear that the two groups provide different results with respect to leadership st yle; 0,246 is statistically significant. table 6 manova: comparison of the vectors of means of experienced and inexperienced engineers in respect of the chronometric measures effect value f hypothesis error sig, partial df df of f eta squared intercept pillai’s trace 0,988 2172,174 3,000 81,000 0,000 0,988 wilk’s lambada 0,012 2172,174 3,000 81,000 0,000 0,988 hotelling’s trace 80,451 2172,17 3,000 81,000 0,000 0,988 roy’s largest root 80,451 2172,174 3,000 81,000 0,000 0,988 groups pillai’s trace 0,197 6,636 3,000 81,000 0,000 0,988 wilk’s lambada 0,803 6,636 3,000 81,000 0,000 0,988 hotelling’s trace 0,246 6,636 3,000 81,000 0,000 0,988 roy’s largest root 0,246 6,636 3,000 81,000 0,000 0,988 p < 0.05 transformation of managerial skills 21 table 5 descriptive statistics: independent samples t-test for leadership styles in respect of experience of engineers group n mean std deviation transformational utility company 48 3,1064 0,4110 leadership style transformational tertiary institution 37 2,8054 0,4857 leadership style transactional utility company 48 2,2751 0,4272 leadership style transactional tertiary institution 37 1,9865 0,3926 leadership style non-leadershipl style utility company 48 0,5729 0,4464 levene’s test for equality t-test for equality 95% confidence of variance of means interval of the difference independent f sig t df sig mean std error lower upper samples test above difference difference transformational 0,136 0,714 leadership style utility company 3,645 83 0,000 0,3550 0,9739 0,1613 0,5487 equal variances assumed 3,567 70,345 0,001 0,3550 0,0995 0,1565 0,5534 tertiary institution equal variances assumed transactional 0,001 0,973 leadership style utility company 3,197 83 0,002 0,2886 0,0902 0,1090 0,4681 equal variances assumed tertiary institution 3,233 80,408 0,002 0,2886 0,0892 0,1109 0,4662 equal variances assumed non-leadership style 5,852 0,018 utility company -1,696 83 0,094 -0,2221 0,1309 -0,4825 0,0383 equal variances assumed -1,593 55,097 0,117 -0,2221 0,1394 -0,5015 0,0573 tertiary institution equal variances assumed next, an analysis of variance (anova) was performed in order to compare the means of the experienced and inexperienced engineers in respect of each of the chronometric measures. from table 7, it is clear that the analysis of variance indicates that there are three dependent variables. the total variance of all scores was broken down into a, between group variance. table 7 comparisons of the means of experienced and inexperienced engineers in respect of the chronometric measures source dependent sum of df mean f p variable (y) squares square group transformational 2,633 1 2,633 13,288 0,00 leadership style transformational 1,740 1 1,740 10,223 0,002 leadership style non-leadership style 1,031 1 1,031 2,877 0,094 error 60,318 83 0,726 p < 0,05 (f0,05 (1,83) = 3,9 from an inspection of table 7, it is clear that transformational leadership, transactional leadership and non-leadership differ significantly between experienced and inexperienced engineers. this supports the assumption that leadership style differs between experienced and inexperienced engineers. discussion the purpose of the study was to establish whether there is a statistical, significant difference in the leadership styles of inexperienced and experienced engineers. the researcher concludes that there is a statistically significant difference in leadership styles between the independent samples, namely the experienced utilit y company engineers and the inexperienced tertiary institution engineers. it is clear from the research results that the inexperienced engineers as well as the experienced engineers have leadership styles and therefore managerial skills. three leadership styles were identified, namely the transformational leadership style, the transactional leadership style and the non-leadership style for each of the two groups. the two groups provided different results with respect to leadership style. there is a statistically significant relationship between transformational leadership style and inexperienced engineers. there is a statistically significant relationship between the trans-formational leadership style and experienced engineers/ engineering managers. inexperienced engineers are less transformational and transactional than the utility company engineers. on average, the two groups do not differ in terms of the non-leadership style. it is clear from the research results that the utility group representing the experienced engineers has more years of formal education than the tertiary institution group. the utility group has also been more exposed to managerial positions than the tertiary institution group. this supports the findings that more people report directly and indirectly to the experienced engineers compared to the inexperienced engineers. the results also indicate that the experienced engineers have more work experience in the category 10 years or more years compared to the inexperienced engineers. the findings of this research confirm the theory that successful managers tend to grow into their jobs over an extended period of time (bennett, 1996, sedge, 1985). the findings also support the arguments of o’connor (1994) and badaway (1995) that the engineers have no typical career path to prepare them for the management role. if transformational and transactional leadership styles enable managers to lead and manage people more effectively, then it becomes necessary for engineers to broaden themselves beyond technical matters as argued by thornberry (1987) and thamhain (1983). for the inexperienced engineer to prepare himself for management, he will need to obtain knowledge about management and develop management skills during his formal studies. these managerial skills include the ability to work with and motivate subordinates. the management of business organisations has a key role in initiating and implementing a transition model or programme to ensure that an environment is put in place that will provide the necessary managerial training for the inexperienced engineer to become a successful manager. this can be a difficult process for the engineer, and to ease it and overcome resistance, a well-thought-out and intensive strategy would have to be developed by management. this process starts with the selection of inexperienced engineers and the mlq can be used as a selection tool in order to identif y leadership style. as leadership style could be identified by the mlq, this measuring instrument could be used as a test during the selection process of inexperienced engineers. the mlq could also be used as a measurement of progress of the transformational and transactional leadership styles after training. for the purposes of this investigation, respondents were asked to rate themselves according to the items of the mlq. it is recommended that if similar research is done in future, at least three subordinates or colleagues could also complete the instrument and rate the person from their perspective. this might provide a clearer picture of the person’s leadership style. it is also recommended that the sample size could increase for future research. it would also be worthwhile pursuing means of improving the mlq as some of the items were rejected and did not contribute to identif ying the three leadership styles but focused more on the problemsolving ability of the respondent. the findings of this research are valuable because of a lack of previous research on the leadership styles and managerial skills of inexperienced and experienced engineers in the south african context. references avolio, b.j. & bass, b.m. (1991). the full-range of leadership development. binghamton: state university of new york, centre for leadership studies. babcock, d.l. (1978). is the engineering manager different? machine design, march, 82-85. babcock, d.l. (1996). managing engineering and technology: an introduction to management for engineer. 2nd edition, prentice hall, new jersey. badawy, m.k. (1995). developing managerial skills in engineers and scientists. john wiley & sons, ny, 2nd edition. badawy, m.k. (1983). why managers fail. research management, may – june, 26 – 31. bass, m.m. (1985). leadership and performance beyond expectations. new york: free press. bennett, f.l. (1996). the management of engineering. john wiley & sons, inc., ny. bircumshaw, r.m. (1980). selecting general managers from engineers. ieee proceedings, 127, 4, may, 252-258. cooper, d.r. (1998). business research methods. singapore: mcgraw-hill. freston, n.p. & lease, j.e. (1987). communication skills training for selected supervisors. training and development journal, july, 67-70. visser, naude, schepers22 gibson, j. l, ivancevich, j. m. & donnelly, j. h. (1997). organisations: behaviour, structure, process. usa: rob zwettler. haugh, m.r. & dofny, j. (1997). work and technology, sage studies in international sociology, sage publications, london. johnstone, d.l. (1987). management for engineers, peter peregrinus ltd, uk. kemper, j.d. (1975), the engineer and his profession. 2nd edition holt rinehart and winston, ny. koontz, h., o’donnell, c. & weihrich, h. (1984). management. mcgraw-hill, ny. kreitner, r. & kinicki, a. (2001). organisational behaviour. 5th ed. new york, mc graw -hill, 548-571. lannes, w.j. (2001) what is engineering management? ieee transactions on engineering management, february, 107-100. lumsdaine, e., lumsdaine, m. & shelnutt, j.w. (1999). creative problem solving and engineering design. mcgraw-hill, inc. college custom series. new york. mc allister, j. (1984). why engineers fail. machine design, february, 47-49. o’connor, d.t. (1994). the practice of engineering management – a new approach. john wiley & sons, new york. repic, e.d. (1990). how to improve your management style. machine design, july, 66-69. sarchett, b.r. (1969). the engineer as manager. engineering education, april, 944. sedge, s.k. (1985). a comparison of engineers pursuing alternate career paths. journal of vocational behavior, 27, 5670. seethamraju, r. & agrawal, r. (1999). engineers as managers: a conceptual model of transition. parramatta, nsw , australia, 293-297. thamhain, h.j. (1983). managing engineers effectively. ieee transactions on engineering management, november, em-30, 4, 231-237. thornberry, n.e, (1987). training the engineer as project manager. training and development journal, october, 41, 10, 67-69. toffler, a. (1990). power shift. bantam books. n.y. 1990. transformation of managerial skills 23 11groenewald.qxd the centre for work performance (rand afrikaans university, 2002) identified, among a number of current issues for debate, the need for “effectively attracting, growing and retaining talent” (emphasis added). figura (2000), hrfocus (2001) and johnson (2000) share the view that retaining the correct mixture of human talent ensures a competitive advantage. it is recognised internationally (hrfocus, 2001; johnson, 2000; liebmann, 2000; ridderstråle and nordström, 2000; vicere, 1991; ziarati et al., 1995) that the talent of people is a key success factor in global competitiveness. during the past decade major changes have taken place in the corporate landscape, such as globalisation, aggressive competition and cross-penetration of markets, as well as the introduct ion of virt ual work teams (barner, 2000). these changes have impacted drastically on the talent life cycle of enterprises: t urnover of talent has been affected; totally new or different talent requirements have emerged and enterprises have experienced difficult y in recruiting and retaining talent. cataldo et al. (2000, p. 55) remark that the “current skills sets are proving to be inadequate to meet the rapidly changing fast-paced world of technical and business needs”. hrfocus (2001, p. 14) reports that “eight y percent of white collar jobs would be obsolete in five years”. because of the birth of new first-time technologies and competitors emerging from unexpected fields (barner, 2000), leading enterprises experience a need for new talent to staff ‘jobs’ that did not previously exist. in this regard cataldo et al. (2000) remark that it is no longer strange to lay off people, in order to eliminate obsolete positions, while simultaneously hiring people to acquire new talent. not only is there some doubt concerning talent as an inborn gift (simonton, 2001; sunoo, 2001), but is the need for developing latent talent largely uncontested (bals, 1999; lunn, 1995; mayo, 2000). because of the fierce competition in attracting and retaining talent, prudent enterprises proactively develop leadership and grow talent to ensure a best-in-class workforce (cf. barner, 2000; figura, 2000; friedland, 2000; greene, 2000; hammett, 2001; matthew, 2000; mcdonald, 1999; seligman, 2000; shoebridge, 2000; tulgan, 2001; united states of america, 2000; voros, 1999; way, 2000). while the individual’s responsibility is emphasised (cf. el-tannir, 2000; greene, 2000; johnson et al., 1999; maloka, n.d.; radebe, 2001; seligman, 2000), the duty of employers (el-tannir, 2002; garavan et al., 2001; johnson, 2000) is also crucial if they wish to attract and retain talent. mentoring programmes (cf. conway, 1995; johnson et al., 1999; managers handbook, 1997), graduate programmes (cf. cross, 1999; doherty et al., 1997; smith & smith, 1990) and mutually advantageous partnerships with education providers (cf. barnes & phillips, 2000; berkeley, 1998; blackburn & fryer, 1996; brindley & ritchie, 2000; davies, 1998; dealtry, 2001; doncaster, 2000; gericke, 2001; rosenbaum, 2000; sandelands, 1998; stephen et al., 1997; teare, 2000; ziarati et al., 1995) are further prominent in literature. thomas groenewald willem schurink programme in leadership in performance and change in the department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract organisational talent is internationally regarded a key success factor in a competitive world and is continuously challenged. in south africa, the apartheid heritage further presents major challenges regarding developmental opportunities of talented people. co-operative education presents, as structured educational strateg y that progressively integrates academic study with learning through productive work experiences, itself as a means to grow the talent of the south african people. as result of the inadequate practice of co-operative education and a fair amount of associated resistance, ‘classical’ literat ure is reviewed. the literat ure review further identifies the core properties of co-operative education and the study has attempted to distil the core principles of a phenomenological research design. the specific ‘phenomena’ which the research focused on are existing joint vent ures bet ween higher education institutions and business enterprises aimed at educating people and growing talent. selections of the voices of the research participants are presented in this article. although the present study identifies several shortcomings regarding the practice of co-operative education, it pioneers the notion that the growing of talent can be enhanced through a co-operative education strateg y. opsomming organisatoriese talent word internasionaal beskou as ’n sleutelfaktor in ’n kompeterende wêreld en word dus voortdurend aan uitdagings onderwerp. in suid afrika stel die nagevolge van apartheid grootskaalse uitdagings ten opsigte van die ontwikkelings moontlikhede van talentvolle mense. koöperatiewe onderwys bied, as gestruktureerde opvoedkundige strategie wat progressief akademiese leer met produktiewe werkservaring integreer, ’n geleentheid om die talent van suid-afrikaners op te bou. ‘klasieke’ literatuur word weegegee ten einde die ontoereikende beoefening van koöperatiewe onderwys en ’n gepaartgaande redelike mate van weerstand aan te spreek. die literatuurstudie identifiseer verder die kerneienskappe van koöperatiewe onderwys en probeer om die vernaamste eienskappe van ’n fenomenologiese studie raak te vat. die spesifieke ‘fenomene’ waarop die studie fokus, is die bestaande samewerking tussen tersiêre instellings en besigheidsondernemings om mense op te lei en hul talent te ontwikkel. geselekteerde uitsprake van die deelnemers aan die studie word weergegee en alhoewel daar verskeie tekortkominge rakende die beoefening van koöperatiewe onderwys geïdentifiseer is, verteenwoordig die studie baanbrekerswerk op die terrein van die rol van koöperatiewe onderwys in die ontwikkeling van talent. the contribution of co-operative education in the growing of talent in south africa: a qualitative phenomenological exploration requests for copies should be addressed to: t groenewald, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 93 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (3), 93-104 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (3), 93-104 groenewald, schurink94 the need for growing the talent of people in south africa the report of the black economic empowerment commission (bee com., 2001, p. 13) states “colonial and apartheid policies had a devastating impact on the development of black human capital”. this neglect of part of south africa’s “most important economic resource – its people” will for a long time restrict the potential growth rate and will render many south african enterprises less competitive. in this regard ziarati et al. (1995) observe that for enterprises to continue to prosper in the international marketplace, where competition is fierce, enterprises can no longer afford mediocrit y. in other words the situation presents a major challenge to both education providers and to enterprises to grow or develop the talent of south africans. bee com. (2001, p. 17) argues the need for “an integrated national hrd [human resource development] strateg y” published in april 2001, i.e. the human resource development strateg y for south africa – a nation at work for a better life for all (republic of south africa, 2001). mulemfo (2000) highlights the need for growing talent in view of the lagging productivit y in south africa and in africa as a whole. he asserts that low productivit y is evident and cites examples such as workers sitting idle when the boss is absent; teachers chatting rather than doing their work; a variet y of illnesses invented by government officials to miss work; and go-slow attitudes promoted by unions. mulemfo (2000, p. 90) submits that “people who will work hard to produce more” are needed. hadland and rantao (1999, p. 135) capture the need for growing talent in south africa by quoting the profound words of patti waldmeir subsequent to the first democratic elections of 1994: “(the country) emerged in the real world, where poverty is the biggest challenge to all democratic governments, and where there are tougher problems to solve than apartheid”. hadland and rantao (1999) conclude that the more than 50 years of apartheid marginalised and disempowered black people. south africa shares this predicament of decolonisation and deracialisation with the rest of africa, according to mamdani (1999). this idea of the socio-economic legacy of apartheid was referred to by president thabo mbeki’s ‘two nations’ speech of 29 may 1998. in this regard mamdani (1999, p. 126) observes that “if white south africa were a country on its own, its per capita income would be 24th in the world, next to spain; but if black south africa were a separate country, its per capita income would rank 123rd globally, just above the democratic republic of the congo”. mamdani (1999, p. 129) appealing for “an intellectual rebirth, a reawakening of the mind”; further asserts: “renaissance is first and foremost a reawakening of thought” (p. 130) and claims that the driving force “is inevitably the intelligentsia”. according to the article “education for an ‘african renaissance’” (2000, p. 14) “education is the sine quo non for empowering the people of africa to participate in and benefit more effectively from the opportunities available in the globalised economy of the 21st century”. james (1997) cautions that the renaissance in south africa must not be simply celebrated as an event or serve as symbolic rhetoric (cf. fourie, n.d.; maloka, n.d.) or merely represent hopes and ideals (university of witwatersrand, 1999). the african renaissance must be carefully nurtured in order to succeed. fourie (n.d.), mbeki (1998a, 1998b), netshitenzhe (1998), radebe (2001) and the african renaissance and international co-operation fund act (republic of south africa, 2000) emphasise factors such as the importance of good education and human development to succeed in the immense challenge. maloka (n.d.) refers to an article by vusi maviembela, president mbeki’s political advisor. he portrayed the ‘african renaissance’ as the third moment in the post-colonial history, after decolonisation and the democratic upsurge of the 1990s. kofi annan, secretary general of the united nations, according to james (1997), refers to three waves similar to these moments. the second wave was marked by civil wars, tyranny of military rule and economic stagnation. the key elements, according to maloka (n.d.) of the ‘african renaissance’ are socio-political democratisation, economic regeneration and improvement of geopolitical standing in world affairs. these elements represent a globalist perspective. further perspectives are the pan africanist perspective (pax africana: african problems solved by african solutions) and a culturalist perspective (an ethnophilosophy of returning to the roots of the people of africa). co-operative education and the growing of talent co-operative education is an educational philosophy that advocates the formal integration of work experience (or community service) into the theoretical curriculum (pratt, 1996). cates and jones (1999) define co-operative education as a structured educational strategy that progressively integrates academic study with learning through productive work experiences in a field related to a student’s academic or career goals. this experiential learning is not an add-on to the curriculum, but an integral part of the educational process. cooperative education presents itself as a means to grow the talent of the south african people. a large degree of conceptual drift of the construct co-operative education occurred. it is therefore necessary to revisit the literature of the inception years and to let those voices speak. these voices were chosen to give authenticit y and are interwoven with more contemporary views. on 26 january 1914 schneider, dean of the college of engineering of the university of cincinnati, appeared before the committee of education of the house of representatives in washington, and stated (united states of america, 1914, pp. 3-5, 9) among others the following regarding the ‘cooperative system of education’: “[t]he cooperative system aims to tie theory and practice together directly. [t]he student completes all the … courses … necessary to the obtaining of a … degree, and he [or she] also finishes his apprenticeship course in the practical field … this apprenticeship course in the practical work is arranged by the university, and is just as carefully worked out as his university curriculum. the theoretical work in the university and the practical work in the commercial field are coordinated by a number of devices, but principally by the use of teachers whom we call coordinators. [t]he theory and practice are made to work hand in hand so that the practical work has the highest possible educational value. the practical work is just as carefully arranged as the college curriculum. every detail of the practical course is carefully arranged and practice and theory are knit together in a uniform scheme through a carefully devised system of coordination. the function of this [coordination] department is to see that an intimate tie is established between the theory and practice and to check and counter check this tie. in this way the outside practical work is made of great educational value.” (emphasis added.) regrettably “schneider left no comprehensive statement of the philosophy of the co-operative system” (freund, 1947, p. 13). however, he did leave a heritage of success in education. eshbach (1947, p. 18) remarks that “[w]hen properly done, co-operative education in the growing of talent 95 there is no better or more effective method than co-operative education for professional vocations”. he suggests that the latin motto ‘experimentia docet’ (experience teaches), forms the heart of co-operative education. eshbach (1947, p. 19) observes that schneider’s innovative contribution was the “taking of the st udent to industry, where experience and practice can be observed in a more nat ural state” (emphasis added). the nucleus of schneider’s philosophy is balanced training, i.e. “theory comes first, both as to time order and as to emphasis” (p. 10) followed by “hard contact with life” (p. 11, emphasis added in both cases) and comprehension of the workings of things where they operate. in this regard geier (1947, p. 25), president of the cincinnati milling machine company, corroborates that “[c]o-operative education seeks to weld theoretical knowledge and practical experience into the most effective tool for today’s work” (emphasis added). according to ellison (n.d.) this new teaching methodolog y changed twentieth-century education. only when students began to apply the theory to practice did their minds start to ask questions, suggesting a need or motivation for deeper learning (langford & cates, 1997). schneider further became convinced that many professional concepts and skills could only be understood and mastered through actual work experience (university of cincinnati, 1998, 1996). charles kettering, a strong advocate of co-operative education, research director of general motors corporation and chair of the thomas alva edison foundation, initiated the documenting of evidence of co-op’s educational value. this resulted in a publication ‘work-study college programs’ in 1961, which attributed many educational benefits to co-operative education (sovilla, 1998). with regard to the educational value and educational benefits ferris (1969, p. 482) highlights the following key advantages: first its impact on the curriculum. it not only provides the occasion for making changes that have been put off because they require too much work, time, and money, but once a programme is going, a new kind of interplay is set up between campus and community that gives the curriculum a dynamic quality. students bring something back into the classroom. they confront questions and problems that would not have occurred to them in the classroom alone and bring them back looking for answers and solutions. in the process, the gap between theory and practice narrows. and because practice keeps changing, theory is kept to the test. the second side advantage is that private industry is brought into the educational process in a meaningful rather than patronizing way. … coordinating a cooperative education program is no simple task, placing students has not been a major problem. the job market — in many ways the most critical aspect of all — has been excellent. (emphasis added.) from the excerpts above it is evident that in the late 1960s the educational paradigm co-operative education resulted in a dynamic programme curriculum as well as an interaction between the higher education institution and its community. learners enjoyed the benefit of workplace learning in addition to their formal studies. the job market was seen as a critical aspect and the involvement of private industry in the educational process was emphasised. smith and lancaster (1995, p.1) remark: “[a] recurrent theme in the co-op literature is the identification of strategies for integrating cooperative education into the ‘academic mainstream’ of colleges and universities”. they observe the persistence of this theme since 1980. in this regard the accreditation council for cooperative education (n.d. web page) also emphasises faculty involvement as one of the required attributes of co-operative education programmes at colleges and universities. the original goal of co-operative education was to enhance student learning. sovilla (1998) remarked that the leaders of many institutions do not seem to appreciate the mission of cooperative education or else choose to ignore it. the coordinating and administrative support service must be an integral part of the academic programme that aids the achievement of the curriculum outcomes. however, kerka (1999) cautions that too much emphasis is placed on job placements instead of learning and calls for a redesign and/or reconceptualisation of co-operative education (i.e. learning from work experience integrated into the curriculum). kerka (1999) as well as wilson, stull and vinsonhaler (1996) suggest a fresh perspective and definition of co-operative education as a curriculum model, affirming work-based learning and based on sound adult learning theories and principles such as self-directed learning, reflective learning/practice and transformative learning. duwart and canale (1997) recommend a three-phase educational process, i.e. preparation, experience and reflection. however, finn (1997) suggests it is necessary to go beyond reconceiving to adopting co-operative education as educational strategy. furco (1996) and kerka (1999) indicate that although ser vice learning (learning derived from rendering services related to the course of study) and co-operative education have different goals the following apply to both: active engaging in meaningful work renders the best learning; active learners produce knowledge; contextual learning in real situations as instructional strateg y; integration of the t wo forms of learning; and formal partnerships with real-life learning providers. kerka (1999, p.3) declares that partnerships should be developed into a supportive cult ure where “employer support does not have to be repeatedly obtained and there are clearly understood long-term expectations”. the accreditation council for cooperative education (n.d. web page) furthermore emphasises employer involvement as one of the required attributes of co-operative education programmes and reuss (2001) declares partnerships a key component. in essence, the construct co-operative education can be reduced to three core dimensions: (a) the integrated curriculum, (b) learning derived from work experience and (c) the logistical organisation and co-ordination of the learning experience. the research question(s) and the study’s aim the aim of the study is to demonstrate the value of cooperative education in the growing of people talent. the specific phenomenon forming the focus of this study is the exist ing joint vent ures bet ween higher educat ion institutions and business enterprises in order to educate people and grow talent. the study’s central research question is: what is the contribution that co-operative education can make, in the growing of talent of the south african people? bentz and shapiro (1998) and kensit (2000) caution that the researcher must allow the data to emerge: “doing phenomenolog y” means capt uring “rich descriptions of phenomena and their settings” (p. 104). for this reason the actual research questions that were put to participants (both academics and enterprise representatives involved) were phrased as follows: � how did/do you experience the joint educational venture? � what value, if any, has been derived from the collaborative effort? kvale (1996) draws a similar distinction between the research question and the interview question. it is important to keep in mind that the findings may, or may not, illustrate that the practice of co-operative education contributes to the growing of talent. in this regard jon kabat-zinn, referenced by bentz and shapiro (1998, p. 39) state that “inquiry doesn’t mean looking for answers”. groenewald, schurink96 method we decided upon a qualitative research design in order to achieve the goal of this study. the type of qualitative research requires determines the research design (cf. creswell, 1998; mason, 1996). however, researchers are not restricted to any one pure approach but may blend different approaches and metaphorically weave a fabric comprising a variety of threads, colours, textures and blends (creswell, 1998), thus blurring the disciplinary boundaries (schurink, 2002a). research paradigm in view of the plethora of qualitative research designs, it is advisable for a qualitative researcher to qualif y her/his scientific beliefs and research paradigm, i.e. what constitutes her/his ontology (beliefs and perceptions about the nature of reality), her/his epistemology (where the researcher stands in relation to reality and in which way s/he will go about searching for truth) and her/his methodology (the methods and techniques that will be used to research reality) to those with an interest in the research (denzin & lincoln, 1998; mason, 1996; schurink, 2002b). creswell (1994, 1998) as well as denzin and lincoln (2000) add a fourth concept, i.e. the researcher’s axiology (i.e. ethics and values). this concept is particularly important since it differs from quantitative research endeavours, which claim to be value-free and unbiased, in that qualitative research is valueladen and biased. from an ontological position or perspective, qualitative researchers believe that realit y is constructed by individuals, i.e. different personal versions of the nat ure and the essence of things (mason, 1996). a multitude of realities therefore exists. creswell (1994, p. 4) observes that “[f]or the qualitative researcher, the only realit y is that which is constructed by the individuals involved in the research situation”. the researcher is dependent upon the voices (quotes and themes in words) and informant or participant interpretations to understand a given realit y (creswell, 1994, 1998). the ontological dimension of the study is the sub-discipline of human resource development, more especially leadership in performance and change. within the study there is, further, an overlap with education as a discipline. generally individuals are held responsible for the growth of their own talent. however, planned and co-ordinated educational programmes, especially those, which alternate theoretical learning with real-life application, result in synerg y, i.e. the whole is more than the sum total of the parts. the value that an individual will derive from an educational programme is dependent on her/his own efforts and abilities, as well as the management of the programme. the value that is derived is further influenced by the extent to which the curriculum succeeds in integrating theory with real-life application. a researcher’s epistemology according to creswell (1994), mason (1996) and holloway (1997) is literally her/his theory of knowledge, which serves to decide how the social phenomenon will be st udied. our epistemological position can be formulated as: (a) data are contained within the perspectives of people that are involved with co-operative education programmes, either in a co-ordinating capacit y or as programme participant, and (b) because of this we engaged with the participants in collecting the data. a phenomenological methodology was identified as the best means for this type of study. phenomenologists, in contrast to positivists, believe that the researcher cannot be detached from her/his own presuppositions and that the researcher should not pretend otherwise (hammersley, 2000). in this regard mouton and marais (1990, p. 12) state that individual researchers “hold explicit beliefs”. the intention of this research, at the onset (preliminary focus), is to gather perspectives regarding the phenomenon of the growing of talent and the contribution of co-operative education to this process. phenomenology according to giorgi (stones, 1988, p. 143) the operative word in phenomenological research is ‘describe’. the aim of the researcher is to describe as accurately as possible the phenomenon while refraining from any pre-given framework, but staying true to the facts. according to welman and kruger (1999, p. 189) “phenomenologists are concerned with understanding social and psychological phenomena from the perspectives of people involved”. a researcher applying phenomenology is concerned with the lived experiences of the people (cf. greene, 1997; holloway, 1997; kruger, 1988; kvale, 1996; maypole & davies, 2001; robinson & reed, 1998) involved, or who were involved, with the issue being researched. the words of van den berg, translated by van manen (1997, p. 41) profoundly capture what is stated in this paragraph: [phenomena] have something to say to us – this is common knowledge among poets and painters. therefore, poets and painters are born phenomenologists. or rather, we are all born phenomenologists; the poets and painters among us, howe ver, understand ver y well their task of sharing, by means of word and image, their insights with others – an artfulness that is also laboriously practised by the professional phenomenologist. locating the research participants according to hycner (1999, p. 156) “the phenomenon dictates the method (not vice-versa) including even the type of participants”. purposive sampling was chosen in determining the primary participants: the sample was based on our judgement and the purpose of the study (cf. babbie, 1995; greig & taylor, 1999; schwandt, 1997), i.e. those who “have had experiences relating to the phenomenon to be researched” (kruger, 1988 p. 150). we identified the programme managers at higher education institutions in the south african province of gauteng, who are responsible for educational programmes that are tailored to the needs of and offered in collaboration with commerce, industry and/or government. interviews were arranged with these programme managers. these interviewees, with their ‘informed consent’ (bailey, 1996, p. 11; arksey & knight, 1999; street, 1998) are the primary unit of analysis (bless & higson-smith, 2000). in order to trace additional participants or informants, we used snowball sampling: a method of expanding the sample by asking one informant or participant to recommend others for interviewing (babbie, 1995; miller & crabtree, 1992). the purposefully selected interviewees were requested to give, at their discretion, the names and contact details of persons based in commerce, industry and/or government who (a) were co-responsible for the educational programmes and (b) who had participated in the programme presented. because creswell (1998, pp. 65 & 113) recommends “long interviews with up to 10 people” for a phenomenological study, a sample size of ten managers, five responsible for educat ional programmes and five at collaborat ing enterprises, were selected. in addition to the ten interviewees, one group of programme participants (learners or students) was requested to write essays on their experiences. with another group of programme participants some participated in a focus group discussion, while others wrote essays. the purpose of collecting data from three different kinds of informants was to effect a form of triangulation, i.e. ‘data triangulation’ to contrast the data and ‘validate’ the data if it yields similar findings (cf. arksey & knight, 1999; bloor, 1997; holloway, 1997). co-operative education in the growing of talent 97 procedure unstruct ured in-depth phenomenological interviews were conducted with both the educational instit ution-based programme managers and with the enterprise-based representatives. these interviews were conducted as follows: our questions were “directed to the participant’s experiences, feelings, beliefs and convictions about the theme in question” (welman & kruger, 1999, p. 196). husserl according to bentz and shapiro (1998, pp. 41 & 96), called it bracketing where the inquiry is performed from the perspective of the researcher. bracketing (caelli, 2001; davidson, 2000; king, 1994; kruger, 1988; kvale, 1996) in this study entailed asking the participants or informants to set aside their experiences about the collaborative educational programme and to share their reflection on its value. data were obtained about how the participants “think and feel in the most direct ways” (bentz & shapiro, 1998, p. 96). we focused on “what goes on within” the participants and got the participants to “describe the lived experience in a language as free from the constructs of the intellect and societ y as possible”. this is one form of bracketing. there is also a second form of bracketing, which, according to miller and crabtree (1992, p. 24) is about the researcher that “must ’bracket’ her/his own preconceptions and enter into the individual’s lifeworld and use the self as an experiencing interpreter”. kvale (1996, pp. 1-2) remarks with regard to data capturing during the qualitative interview that it “is literally an inter view, an interchange of views between two persons conversing about a theme of mutual interest”. the researcher attempts to “understand the world from the participants’ point of view, to unfold meaning of peoples’ experiences”. at the root of phenomenology “the intent is to understand the phenomena in their own terms – to provide a description of human experience as it is experienced by the person herself” (bentz & shapiro, 1998, p. 96) and allowing the essence to emerge (cameron, schaffer & hyeon-ae, 2001). the maxim of husserl was ‘back to things themselves!’ (kruger, 1988, p. 28). in addition to the ten interviews conducted in this study, the educational institution-based programme managers in two instances arranged access to programme participants. depending on the circumstances, groenewald either talked directly to the programme participants and asked them to write essays or worked through the programme manager and presented the following request: write down your viewpoints, perspectives or feelings of the programme you are undergoing, or have completed. you need not give your name. you need not concern yourself with grammar or spelling. if possible, compare this programme with others you may have done, which are not offered through collaboration bet ween an employer and an educational institution (or purely academic programmes known to you from talking to other students). explicitation of the data the phenomenological explicitation process that we used comprises five stages: (a) bracketing and phenomenological reduction. the term reduction, coined by husserl, is regarded by hycner (1999) as unfortunate, because it has nothing to do with the reductionist natural science methodology. it would do a great injustice to human phenomena through over-analysis, removal from the lived contexts of the phenomena and worse possibly reducing phenomena to cause and effect. phenomenological reduction “to pure subjectivity” (lauer, 1958, p. 50), instead, is a deliberate and purposeful opening by the researcher to the phenomenon “in its own right with its own meaning” (fouche, 1993; hycner, 1999, p. 144). it further points to a suspension or ‘bracketing out’ (or epoche), “in a sense that in its regard no position is taken either for or against” (lauer, 1958, p. 49), the researcher’s own presuppositions and not allowing the researcher’s meanings and interpretations or theoretical concepts to enter the unique world of the informant/participant (creswell, 1998, pp. 54 & 113; moustakas, 1994, p. 90; sadala & adorno, 2001). this is a different conception of the term bracketing used when interviewing to bracket the phenomenon researched for the interviewee. here it refers to the bracketing of the researcher’s personal views or preconceptions (miller & crabtree, 1992). based on holloway (1997, p. 119) and hycner’s (1999, p. 145) recommendation, groenewald repeatedly listened to the audio recording of each interview in order to become familiar with the words of the interviewees/participants and to develop a holistic sense, the ‘gestalt’. zinker (1978, p. 77) explains that the term phenomenology implies “that process which one experiences as uniquely one’s own; adding the dimensions of here and now gives personal phenomena existential immediacy”. (b)delineating units of meaning. this is a critical phase of explicating the data, in that those statements that are seen to illuminate the researched phenomenon are extracted or ‘isolated’ (creswell, 1998; holloway, 1997; hycner, 1999). the researcher is required to make a substantial number of judgement calls while consciously bracketing her/his own presuppositions in order to avoid inappropriate subjective judgements. groenewald carefully scrutinised the list of units of relevant meaning that were extracted from each interview and eliminated the clearly redundant units (moustakas, 1994). to do this he considered the literal content, the number (the significance) of times a meaning was mentioned and also how (non-verbal or para-linguistic cues) it was stated. the actual meaning of two seemingly similar units of meaning might be different in terms of weight or chronology of events (hycner, 1999). (c) clustering units of meaning to form themes. with the list of non-redundant units of meaning in hand groenewald again bracketed his presuppositions in order to remain true to the phenomenon. a rigorous examination of the list of units of meaning followed and he elicited the essence of meaning within the holistic context. hycner (1999) remarks that this calls for even more judgement and skill on the part of the researcher. colaizzi, quoted by hycner (1999, pp. 150-151), makes the following remark about the researcher’s ‘artistic’ judgement here: “particularly in this step is the phenomenological researcher engaged in something which cannot be precisely delineated, for here he is involved in that ineffable thing known as creative insight”. clusters of themes were formed by grouping the units of meaning together (creswell, 1998; king, 1994; moustakas, 1994) and significant topics identified, also called units of significance (sadala & adorno, 2001). both holloway (1997) and hycner (1999) emphasise the importance of the researcher returning to the recorded interview (the gestalt) and forth to the list of non-redundant units of meaning to derive clusters of appropriate meaning. there were several overlaps in the clusters, which can be expected, considering the nature of human phenomena. by interrogating the meaning of the various clusters the central themes were determined, “which expresses the essence of the cluster” (hycner, 1999, p. 153). (d)summarise each interview, validate and modif y. a summary that incorporates all the themes elicited form the data gives a holistic context. ellenberger, quoted by hycner (1999, pp. 153-154), captures it as follows: whatever the method used for a phenomenological analysis the aim of the investigator is the reconstruction of the inner world of experience of the participant. each individual has his own way of experiencing temporality, spatiality, materiality, but each of these coordinates must be understood in relation to the others and to the total inner ‘world’. groenewald, schurink98 at this point groenewald conducted ‘validity checks’ and returned the ‘analyses’ to the participants to determine if the essence of the interview has been correctly ‘captured’ (hycner, 1999, p. 154). a few modifications were done as result of this ‘validity check’. (e) general and unique themes for all the inter views and composite summary. after the process outlined from (a) to (d) was completed for all the interviews groenewald looked “for the themes common to most or all of the interviews as well as the individual variations” (hycner, 1999, p. 154). care was taken not to cluster common themes if significant differences existed. the unique or minority voices are important counterpoints to bring out regarding the phenomenon researched. groenewald concluded the explicitation by writing a composite summary, which reflects the context or ‘horizon’ from which the themes emerged (hycner, 1999, p. 155; moustakas, 1994, p. 97). according to sadala and adorno (2001, p. 289) the researcher, at this point “transforms participants’ everyday expressions into expressions appropriate to the scientific discourse supporting the research”. however, coffey & atkinson (1996, p. 139) emphasise that “good research is not generated by rigorous data alone … [but] ‘going beyond’ the data to develop ideas”. initial theorising, however small, is derived from the qualitative data. results the results of this study reflects the views of a considerable range of fields or disciplines, which is summarised in table 1. capital alphabet letters are used in table 1 for ethical reasons, i.e. to protect the identity of participants and their employers. the same alphabet letters hereafter serve to identif y the voices of relevant participants. table 1 the range of participants interviewed educational institution based commerce, industry and/or interviewees represented the government based interviewees following fields or disciplines: represented the following fields or disciplines: a. human resources/personnel f. general management development management and general middle for local government. management education. b. project management. g. commercial and financial accounting services. c. senior and middle general h. construction and civil engineering. management development. d. marketing and management i. science, technology, engineering sciences. and minerals research. e. information technology. j. travel, tourism and public transportation. composite summary a wide spectrum of perspectives was found regarding the phenomenon of joint educational ventures and the perceived value derived from such collaborative efforts. among others, the significant role of mentors and the importance of a suitable mentor supervising work-based learning stood out. associated with this was the importance of commitment by employers and the capacity to devote managerial energy. however, difficulty is generally experienced in finding sufficient suitable experiential learning opportunities. there is a perception that experiential learning does not add value because of its deficiencies and the constraints experienced regarding its proper management. however, based on the good results derived from in-service training and satisfaction with the integration of theory and practice, we encountered an opposing perspective. learnerships as element of the national skills development strategy were further perceived important and contributing to societ y at large. another important perspective was the required responsiveness by educational institutions to the needs of enterprises. although some educational partnerships tailored to organisational needs existed, the failure of educational institutions and inflexibility of partnerships were also prevalent. unique themes the composite summary above only reflects the themes that are common to most or all of the interviews. as already indicated individual variations or unique themes (hycner, 1999) are equally important. several themes emerged from this study, which are reflected in table 2. the themes that emerged are in column 1 in the table and the research participants from which the themes originated are indicated with ticks in the relevant columns. table 2 the scope of the qualitative data collected themes that emerged research participants (see table 1) a b c d e f g h i j curriculum adaptation to fit � � � � corporate needs is enabled by collaboration between higher education institutions and enterprises. formal bureaucracy disempowers, whereas entrepreneurial freedom empowers. the functioning of advisory � � � � committees leaves a lot to be desired. the benefits of learning from work � � � placements are undermined as a result of a lack of opportunities and support from providers. views varied regarding the � � � � � � certification of in-service training providers. monitoring of experiential learning providers seems problematic. structured inhouse programmes appear to work fine. a ‘talent pool’ is formed by offering � � in-service training programmes. learnerships’ are an important � � � � � element of the south african government skills development strategy. mentoring plays a significant role in � � � � work-based learning, as well as at post-graduate level. learning is accelerated when real � � � � work-based learning offers learners � � the opportunity to clarif y their career choice. educators and mentors should � always take into consideration that although they are synchronously in a situation with learners from another generation their worldviews are dissimilar to those of the learners. with regard to the importance of collaboration between enterprises and educational institutions participant j declares that “institutions have their curriculum outlined and corporate world has certain expectations, but the two do not really meet, however, we experienced that we could sit down with the staff and tell them what we as an organisation need”. co-operative education in the growing of talent 99 participant a proclaims, “programmes developed specifically for industry … came about as result of the inflexibility of the institution’s formal programmes in relation to the changing needs in the market”. participant a asserts that inflexible national educational structures do not accommodate rising industry needs and mentions that “one of the biggest problems currently in south africa is the inflexibility of formal programmes”. participant g experiences institutions as inflexible and remarks that “[u]nfortunately the technikons do not see the urgency as the companies see it, technikons are quite happy to carry on until they hit a brick wall and then they change”. participant a motions that “a culture of entrepreneurship needs to be established at higher education institutions” and a consulting mindset espoused among academics. participant a explains that the curriculum of formal programmes may serve as ‘spine’ or broad mental framework with which to approach the client. this idea is echoed by the views of participant f. according to research participants the functioning of technikon advisory committees leaves a lot to be desired. participant h observes: “[a] diverse grouping of people, representing diverse organisations, attends [a advisory committee meeting] and needs to arrive at decisions, as a result people waffle” and often experiences that the “attendees of advisory committee meetings as being ill informed about preceding actions”. it appears that advisory committees primarily serve the purpose of sharing technikon information with commerce and industry. it is the experience of participant g that advisory committees primarily serve the purpose of sharing technikon information with commerce and industry. participant e corroborates this by acknowledging that although an advisory committee exists for their programme it “[s]ometimes meets once a year or once every two years, you tell industry what you are doing and they say great!” participant e admits that the interaction has not been close and that involvement should be closer. from the data collected it is evident that the ctp’s ideals with regard to the functioning of advisory committees, do not necessary materialise. however, in contrast, participant b (universit y-based) claims that regarding their research advisory board “members are consulted in the research strategy of the departments involved and what needs to be researched”. participant b submits that “[t]he principle of work integrated learning is laudable and the concept is sound” but that “[s]ignificant industry experience at under-graduate level is practically problematic”. and further: “[a]n extremely sensitive and willing industry partner is necessary to make reaching out activities, practical projects and vacation work successful” and observes that “the success of learning from work experience is fully dependent on the fact if an industry partner is supportive and available, that has the time and energy at management level to make this learning happen”. participant d finds that “the institution struggles to place students”. their experience is that “employers no longer want to take students, due to resource constraints, mainly no longer having money to remunerate students but also not having people available/willing to mentor students”. participant g complains, “there is a big gap between the tertiary institutions and business with regard to what is expected and what happens in experiential learning”. with regard to the monitoring of experiential learning, participant g further observes that the institution sends “somebody out once during a semester to interview, talk about and see if experiential learning takes place correctly … students are essentially cheap labour … training is consequential and production the purpose. there is a big deficiency”. when comparing the five scenarios (views of participants c and d that are institution-based, and participants f, g and i that are enterprise-based) to the fundamentals of co-operative education, only participant f’s scenario represents good cooperative education practice. only the scenarios of participants f and j are indicative of managed integration of theory and practice. it is important to note that both are enterprise-based. instead, one would have expected that the views of institution-based participants would have reflected good co-operative education practice. both participants i and j remarked that in-service training programmes offer enterprises the opportunity to get to know the performance of people in training. this knowledge enables enterprises to make informed choices regarding who to consider for future employment. participant j takes pride in saying “[w]e created a talent pool, if there is a vacancy we know whom to employ” and asserts that “[w]e further do not have to use strangers because we know that we already have a pool of people”. the money that would have been spent on recruiting is rather spent on training. participant h professes that “learnerships are part of the national skills strategy, which is about human development … [it is] the vehicle (karretjie om mee te ry) … learnerships offer certain incentives from government and opportunities for enterprises”. participant g indicates that the “hot subject at the moment is learnerships” and particiapnt c asserts that in-company programmes, which are still very popular in south africa, are gaining interest from sectoral education and training authorities (setas). particiapnt f claims that certificates issued by enterprises are no longer adequate, people want more substantial acknowledgement, which a learnership qualification offers. participant g believes that it is feasible to convert an existing formal qualification to unit standards and that it can then become a learnership, which will make it easy for an enterprise to recover bursary funding and increase available opportunities. mentoring and mentorship come into play in educational programmes with the application of the theory studied and how the theory is applied in reality, according to participant h, who states “it brings out the ‘know how’ of a person”. this ‘know how’ (or talent) represents the person’s value to an employer. regarding the importance of mentors, participant c states “mentors play a significant role … they are expected to fulfil their role as mentor or face the possibility of being surpassed by the would-be mentee … this keeps mentors on their toes … requirements include both theoretical know-how and practical competence … the mentor facilitates the experiential learning of participants”. regarding the importance of the mentor in the work-based learning setting, participant e remarks “[y]ou have to evaluate the mentor as well, because if you place a third year student in a company the mentor should be adequately experienced and qualified”. at post-graduate level, according to participant b, it is often the practice that groenewald, schurink100 “[t]he participant has a study leader (academic person at university) and a mentor, in industry. the mentor considers the relevance of what is taught, if it addresses the problems experienced in industry, and if what is taught is applicable”. it is important that the reader realises that this type of research differs from other postgraduate research conducted at universities in that it is concerned with truth (‘die waarheid’). participant e reinforces that “co-operative education is an educational model that integrates classroom theory with real-life work placements. to be most effective, a work placement has to be managed by the educator and not just something left up to the company”. participant g remarks that it is their experience as employer that “students during the first half of their experiential leaning do not contribute much, they are very raw and do not know anything. they do very basic stuff. during the second half they are very productive. the money spent on them is a good return on investment. however, the value of the individual depends very much on her/his own curiosity and drive. some require pushing”. with regard to the second year of company-specific training and the productivity of in-service trainees during the second half, participant i declares that “[a]n in-service training st udent becomes fully a member of a design or pilot campaign , which is carefully thought out”. participant j points out the unfort unate realit y that people from disadvantaged communities often do not have access to gaining work experience. participant j emphasises that “students partaking in a joint venture programme are really advantaged because they can see if this is what they really want. they can see is what they will really be going through when they completed their degree, diploma or certificate”. with regard to the matter of choices participant h presents a personal theoretical construct which he calls ‘synchronous dissimilarit y’ (gelykt ydige ongelykheid). he asserts that different generations are simultaneously in the same time frame but are dissimilar (‘synchronous dissimilarit y’) with regard to values and approach to work, learning and life. he emphasises that when growing talent through collaborat ion bet ween educat ional inst it ut ions and employers, it should be taken into consideration that the world-views of learners are likely to be different from those of the educators or trainers. perspectives of programme participants in one case, 29 learnership participants wrote essays about their points of view, feelings about and/or perspectives on the programme they were undergoing. in another case four participants wrote essays and three participated in a focus group interview. many express a great deal of optimism and gratitude, whereas others indicate some measure of stress, and a few express pessimism or convey criticism. the word ”talent” was used spontaneously in three essays. selected perspectives are: the programme is considered a great opportunity for people seeking to take up a particular career. � the programme “gives young people hope for the future” in that it helps learners to obtain tertiary qualifications from reputable institutions employers look for people with experience, which a learnership offers. � the programme gives you an opportunity to realise your god-given potential and talent. � the programme is a talent scout to society as a whole, but more specifically benefits the most under-privileged people, who cannot afford to learn and need assistance. the programme helps to improve the well-being of society. � the system of learnerships, where employers and educational institutions work together, should be taken down to school leavers to jumpstart their careers and to help those people with the love for and talent towards a specific job. � the programme exposes one to many things, including the employer, the educational institution, team-building, getting to know yourself and your capabilities, grooming, discipline, responsibility and the drive to work hard. participants are most fortunate. � the programme “prepares us for times ahead when we will actually be involved in the workplace”. � the programme is very good, but stressful with regard to all the things that need to be learned. the programme offers opportunities to practise what you have been taught. you acquire good communication and telephone skills, as well as knowledge of e-mail, and you learn good grooming and how to dress for work. � you are learning under pressure, and you learn about time management and the more efficient use of time. � employers should pay attention to the way they inform their staff about the learnership programme, as some departments were disorganised. � too much time is spent in some departments, as it is possible to understand what is going on in a shorter period. � the programme schedule makes provision for lectures and working experience only, not for study time, for which provision should be made. guidance and supervision in the workplace are further lacking, and there should be dedicated staff in each department to teach students. the stress related to working late or night shifts and the restrictions that this places on study time make the programme difficult, especially if one is writing an examination the following day. concerns were also expressed about safety if working abnormal hours. the examination performance expectations set by the employer are threatening and create anxiety. participants sometimes felt like leaving the programme. “[a]part from the technical skills that some subjects are offering me i learn a lot on how to work with people”. the participant felt that the technikon programme is far better than some purely academic programmes in that it shaped him/her to be a professional person able to slot into a strategic management, planning, and even admin-related position in addition to performing purely technical duties, “thus making me extremely versatile, flexible and giving me a solid enough base to expand on in future”. “i have basically earned all my practicals at work … it has been quite embarrassing for me when i couldn’t do the most basic things … [i]t’s a very sad situation when you meet other students from other institutions having a clear understanding of basic stuff …”. “the experience and training that i have been privileged enough to receive [where i worked] has been invaluable … i firmly believe that i learned more about the [xx] field in the 8 months that i have been [working] than i learned in 2½ years at [the technikon]”. discussion the ten participants interviewed (five education institutionbased programme managers and five enterprise-based representatives) shared a comprehensive range of perspectives. from these shared perspectives, although the findings cannot co-operative education in the growing of talent 101 be generalised, one may conclude with some confidence that co-operative education has the potential to serve as an educational paradigm to grow the talent of people in south africa. however, from these perspectives it seems also reasonable to conclude that there are currently several shortcomings and/or restraining factors with regard to the practice of co-operative education. from this st udy, it is clear that not all programme participants are equally satisfied; some are more satisfied than others. in order to optimise the learning of those programme participants who are less satisfied, appropriate intervent ions are recommended, such as for example making the necessary arrangements that programme participants do not work nightshift prior to a test. other interventions may include stress management training by the instit ution’s st udent counselling services. from the perspectives of participants it is further evident that the logistical organisation and co-ordination of programmes may require improvements. however, we also found that bureaucratic processes refute the core principles of co-operative education. these bureaucratic processes obstruct needs-focused (where experiential learning is integrated) curriculum design. we further found that advisory committees do not function the way they are intended. we found that major difficulties are experienced in finding sufficient experiential learning placement opportunities for students. it appears that supportive and reliable partners are crucial and must be nurtured. learnerships appear from the findings of this study to be exemplary of good co-operative education practice. it is important to note that the benefits derivable from experiential learning are largely undermined, according to the research findings, as a result of inadequate arrangements, co-ordination and monitoring. from the findings it is clear that the appropriate level of supervision and/or mentoring of experiential learners is a key to the success of co-operative education. on a more positive note, co-operative education programmes are instrumental in creating a talent pool, and afford programme participants the opportunity to clarif y their career choices by being exposed to workplace realities. from a limited degree of data triangulation that was feasible, it is clear that the notion of an integrated curriculum is highly valued by co-operative education programme participants, but that the organisational logistics may be problematic. the qualitative research findings and literature review of the present study are of importance to four clusters of bodies: (a) for the rand afrikaans university’s centre for work performance. the findings address one of the major issues identified by the centre for resolution: the growing of talent. the literature review and findings of the present study are of considerable value to the endeavours of enterprises that are seeking ways to enhance their efforts in growing the talent of their people and should form part of the literature sources of the centre. (b)for the technikon sector of higher education in south africa. the qualitative research findings are of importance to the committee of technikon principals (ctp) and technikon management, because the findings question the ctp’s assumptions regarding the practice of co-operative education by technikons in gauteng. the findings further suggest an inefficacy of technikon education. the findings are of importance to the department of education (doe), the council on higher education (che), south african qualifications authority (saqa) and the ctp, because the findings suggest that the national process with regard to the approval of technikon qualifications is counterproductive to needs-focused education by technikons. (c) for the national role players in the position to amend the skills development levies act. the findings and literature review are of importance to the department of labour (dol), doe, the south african revenue services (sars) and the national treasury in view of the contemplated amendments to the skills development levies act to make provision for funding co-operative education programmes. the findings and literature review are of importance to dol, the various sectoral education and training authorities (setas) and professional bodies, because of the valuable contribution regarding the design and improvement of learnerships and similar co-operative education programmes. (d)for the national government role players involved in the national human resources development (hrd) strategy. the findings and literature review are of importance to the south african national government and associated role players (for example, dol, doe, commissions such as the black economic empowerment commission, political parties, etc.) with regard to the national hrd strategy, skills development policies, etc. from the positive experiences of research participants about joint educational ventures and/or the perceived value derived from collaborative efforts, it can be concluded that cooperative education presents itself as an educational strategy to enable higher education institutions to contribute significantly to the talent growth required among the people of south africa. references accreditation council for cooperative education. (n.d.). college and university program attributes. retrieved april 24, 2002 from: http://www.co-opaccreditation.org/attribut.html. arksey, h & knight, p. (1999). inter viewing for social scientists. london: sage. babbie, e. (1995). the practice of social research. 7th edition. belmont, calif.: wadsworth. bailey, c.a. (1996). a guide to field research. thousand oaks, calif.: pine forge. bals, t. (1999). fostering talents in vocational training: current strategies in germany. high ability studies, 10 (1), 97-105. barner, r. (2000). talent wars in the executive suite. futurist, 34(3), 35-41. barnes, n.j. & phillips, p.s. (2000). higher education partnerships. international journal of sustainability in higher education, 1 (2), 182-190. bee com. see black economic empowerment commission. bentz, v.m. & shapiro, j.j. (1998). mindful enquiry in social research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. berkeley, j. (1998). promoting lifelong learning through education partnership: part 1. education & training, 40 (6/7), 256-261. black economic empowerment commission. (2001). bee com. report. johannesburg: skotaville. blackburn, p & fryer, b. (1996). an innovative partnership in management development. management development review, 9 (3), 22-25. bless, c. & higson-smith, c. (2000). fundamentals of social research methods, an african perspective. 3rd edition. lansdowne: juta. bloor, m. (1997). techniques of validation in qualitative research: a critical commentary. in millar, g. & dingwall, r. (eds.) (1997). context and method in qualitative research (pp. 37-50). london: sage. brindley, c. & ritchie, b. (2000). undergraduates and small and medium-sized enterprises: opportunities for a symbiotic partnership? education & training, 42 (9), 509-517. groenewald, schurink102 caelli, k. (2001). engaging with phenomenology: is it more of a challenge than it needs to be? quantitative health research, 11 (2), 273-282. cameron, m.e., schaffer, m. & hyeoun, p. (2001). nursing students’ experience of ethical problems and use of ethical decision-making models. nursing ethics, 8 (5), 432-448. cataldo, p., van assen, j & d’alessandro, a. (2000). how to win the telecom talent war. america’s network, 104 (11), 55-58. cates, c. & jones, p. (1999). learning outcomes – the educational value of cooperative education. maryland: cooperative education association. coffey, a & atkinson, p. (1996). making sense of qualitative data, complementary research strategies. thousand oaks: sage. conway, c. (1995). mentoring in the mainstream. management development review, 8 (4), 27-29. crabtree, b.f. & miller, w.l. (eds.) (1992). doing qualitative research. research methods for primary care, volume 3. newbury park: sage. creswell, j.w. (1994). research design, qualitative and quantitative approaches. thousand oaks: sage. creswell, j.w. (1998). qualitative inquiry and research design, choosing among five traditions. thousand oaks: sage. cross, l. (1999). grooming management talent. graphic arts monthly, 71 (9), 93-96. davidson, j. (2000). a phenomenology of fear: merleau-ponty and agoraphobic life-worlds. sociology of health & illness, 22 (5), 640-681. davies, d.w. (1998). beyond the boundary: the learner perspective in wbl. journal of workplace learning, 10 (3), 152-156. dealtry, r. (2001). managing the transition to the corporate university — a synthesis of client research. the journal of workplace learning, 13 (5), 215-222. denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. (eds.) (2000). handbook of qualitative research. 2nd edition. thousand oaks: sage. denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. (eds.) (1998). the landscape of qualitative research, theories and issues. thousand oaks: sage. doherty,n., viney, c. & adamson, s. (1997). rhetoric or reality: shift in graduate career management? career development international, 2 (4), 173-179. doncaster, k. (2000). learning agreements: their function in work-based programmes at middlesex university. education & training, 42 (6), 349-355. duwart, e.j. & canale, r.l. (1997). re-engineering cooperative education learning. industry & higher education, 11 (4), 229235. education for an ‘african renaissance’. (2000). africa recovery, 14(2), 14. retrieved april 7, 2002 from: http://www.un.org/ ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/subjindx/142educ6.htm. ellison, c. (n.d.). cooperative education at university of cincinnati. retrieved december 22, 1999 from: http://www.daap.uc.edu/sop/sop_programs/cooperative_e ducation.html. el-tannir, a.a. (2002). the corporate university model for continuous learning, training and development. education & training, 44 (2), 76-81. eshbach, o.w. (1947). co-operative courses and their place in a university. in: university of cincinnati. (1947). four decades of the co-operative system. fortieth anniversary program, october 16, 1946, with addresses and additional facts on the founding and development by herman schneider of the co-operative system of technological education. cincinnati, ohio: cincinnati university library. ferris, b. (1969). cooperative education: neglected winner. journal of higher education, 40 (6), 480-483. figura, s.z. (2000). human capital: the missing link. govexec.com, march 1. retrieved february 16, 2002 from the world wide web: http://www.govexec.com/gpp/0300hr.htm. finn, k.l. (1997). the spaces between: toward a new paradigm for cooperative education. journal of cooperative education, 32 (2), 36-45. fouche, f. (1993). phenomenological theory of human science (pp. 87-112). in snyman, j. (ed.) (1993). conceptions of social inquiry. pretoria: human science research council. fourie, p. (n.d.). the african renaissance and technology transfer. retrieved april 7, 2002 from: http://www.geocites. com/collegepark/square/6130/olvol03/fourie.htm. freedland, m. (2000). the talent wars. professional builder, 65 (1), 175-176. freund, c.j. (1947). the philosophy of the co-operative system. in: in: university of cincinnati. (1947). four decades of the cooperative system. fortieth anniversary program, october 16, 1946, with addresses and additional facts on the founding and development by herman schneider of the co-operative system of technological education. cincinnati, ohio: cincinnati university library. furco, a. (1996). service-learning and school-to-work: making the connections. journal of cooperative education, 32 (1), 7-14. garavan, t.n., morley, m, gunnigle, p. & collins, e. (2001). human capital accumulation: the role of human resource development. journal of european industrial training, 25 (2,3,4), 48-68. geier, f.v. (1947). the co-operative system and industry. in: university of cincinnati. (1947). four decades of the cooperative system. fortieth anniversary program, october 16, 1946, with addresses and additional facts on the founding and development by herman schneider of the co-operative system of technological education. cincinnati, ohio: cincinnati university library. gericke, j.s. (2001). companies, colleges team up to develop talent. aviation week & space technology, 154 (12), market supplement, 24-27. greig, a. & taylor, j. (1999). doing research with children. london: sage. greene, m. (1997). the lived world, literature and education (pp. 169-190). in vandenberg, d. (ed.) (1997). phenomenology & education discourse. johannesburg: heinemann. greene, m.v. (2000). war for talents greets graduates with it skills. the black collegian, 3 (1), 80. hadland, a. & rantao, j. (1999). the life and times of thabo mbeki. rivonia: zebra. hammett, s. (2001). agents pay more to win war for talent. national under writer, october, 24-25. hammersley, m. (2000). taking sides in social research. london: routledge. holloway, i. (1997). basic concepts for qualitative research. oxford: blackwell science. hrfocus see retention. hycner, r.h. (1999). some guidelines for the phenomenological analysis of interview data (pp. 143-164). in bryman, a & burgess, r.g. (eds.) (1999). qualitative research. volume iii. london: sage. james, j.a. (1997). the idea of an african renaissance: myth or reality. in the general convention of the alpha phi alpha fraternity. washington, d.c. retrieved april 7, 2002 from: http://usembassy.state.gov/posts/sf1/wwwhjj12.html. johnson, m. (2000). wining the people wars. london: prentice hall. johnson, s.k., geroy, g.d. & griego, o.v. (1999). the mentoring model theory: dimensions in mentoring protocols. career development international, 4 (7), 384-391. kensit, d.a. (2000). rogerian theory: a critique of the effectiveness of pure client-centred therapy. counselling psychology quarterly, 13 (4), 345-342. kerka, s. (1999). new directions for cooperative education. eric clearinghouse on adult career and vocational education, columbus, oh. eric digest no 209. retrieved april 25, 2002 from: http://www.ed.gov/databases/eric_digests/ed434245. html. king, n. (1994). the qualitative research interview. in cassell, c. & symon, g. (eds.) (1994). qualitative methods in organisational research, a practical guide. london: sage. co-operative education in the growing of talent 103 kruger, d. (1988). an introduction to phenomenological psychology. 2nd revised edition. cape town: juta. kvale, s, (1996). inter views, an introduction to qualitative research inter viewing. thousand oaks: sage. lauer, q. (1958). phenomenology, its genesis and prospects. new york: harper. liebmann, l. (2000). the only real ‘core competency” is growing talent. computer world, may 1, 33. langford, d. & cates, c. (1997). co-operative education as a means of developing general education skills. retrieved unknown date from: http://fairway.ecn.purdue.edu/v1/asee/ sect95/4a/4a5.html. lunn, t. (1995). selecting and developing talent: an alternative approach. management development review, 8 (1), 7-10. maloka, e.t. (n.d.). the south african ‘african renaissance’ debate: a critique. retrieved april 7, 2002 from: http://www.cean.u-bordeaux.fr/polis/vol8n5/moloka.pdf. mamdani, m. (1999). there can be no african renaissance without an african-focused intelligentsia. in makgoba, m.w. (ed.) (1999). african renaissance the new struggle. sandton: mafube & cape town: tafelberg. managers handbook see mentoring: a crucial strategy. mason, j. (1996). qualitative researching. london: sage. matthew, l. (2000). your strategy for the talent war. management today, october, 106-111. mayo, a. (2000). the role of employee development in the growth of intellectual capital. personnel review, 29 (4), 521-533. maypole, j. & davies, t.g. (2001). students’ perceptions of constructivist learning in a community college american history ii … community college review, 29 (2), 54-80. mbeki, t. (1998). statement by deputy president mbeki at the african renaissance conference, september 28, 1988. retrieved april 7, 2002 from: http://www.anc.org.za/ ancdocs/history/mbeki/1998/tm0928.htm. mcdonald, l. (1999). fighting the talent war. best review: property-casualty insurance edition, 99 (8), 8. mentoring: a crucial strategy. (1997). managers handbook, 2 (3), 12. miller, w.l. & crabtree, b.f. (1992). primary care research: a multimethod typology and qualitative road map. in b.f. crabtree & w.l. miller (eds.) (1992). doing qualitative research. research methods for primary care, volume 3. newbury park: sage. moustakas, c. (1994). phenomenological research methods. thousand oaks: sage. mouton, j. & marais, h.c. (1990). basic concepts in the methodology of the social sciences. revised edition. pretoria: human sciences research council. mulemfo, m.m. (2000). thabo mbeki and the african renaissance. pretoria: actua. netshitenzhe, j. (1998). the media in the african renaissance. in the african renaissance conference. retrieved april 7, 2002 from: http://www.gcis.gov.za/media/joel/media.htm. pratt, p m. (1996). earn and learn through cooperative education. retrieved december 22, 1999 from: http://www.environs. com/talbot/learn1.html. radebe, j. (2001). the south african government’s vision for the african renaissance and african unity: contextualising the policy. in african unity and revival: a vision for the millenium conference. moscow: russian federation. retrieved april 7, 2002 from: http://www.dpe.gov.za/ docs/sp/2001/sp1002.html. rand afrikaans universit y. (2002). centre for work performance. current burning issues. retrieved february 11, 2002 from: http://general.rau.ac.za/cwp/current_burning_ issues/current_burning_issues1.htm. republic of south africa. (2001). department of education. human resource development strategy for south africa – a nation at work for a better life for all. retrieved april 28, 2003 from: http://www.udw.ac.za/merger/ documents.htm, or alternatively from: http://education.pwv. gov.za/policies%20and%20reports/2001_report/reports_200 1.htm. republic of south africa. (2000). african renaissance and international co-operation fund act 51 of 2000. pretoria: government printers. retention. (2001). six ways to win the talent wars. hrfocus, 78(6): 1, 14-15. reuss, p.b. (2001). students reap the benefits from facultyemployer connection. journal of career planning & employment, 61 (3), 37-39. ridderstråle, j. & nordström, k. (2000). funky business, talent makes capital dance. harlow: bookhouse. robinson, d. & reed, v. (eds.) (1998). the a – z of social research jargon. aldershot: ashgate. rosenbaum, d.b. (2000). concern about talent shortage leads industry into classrooms. engineering news record, 254 (17), 44-51. sadala, m.l.a. & adorno, r.dec.f. (2001). phenomenology as a method to investigate the experiences lived: a perspective from husserl and merleau pontt’s thought. journal of advanced nursing, 37 (3), 282-293. sandelands, e. (1998). developing a robust model of the virtual corporate university. journal of knowledge management, 1 (3), 181-188. seligman, m. (2000). the talent wars. management, 47 (9), 52-57. schurink, w.j. (2002a). introduction. unpublished introductory lecture notes of a qualitative workshop for doctoral and masters students, 5 april 2002, department of human resource management. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. schurink, w.j. (2002b). core features of qualitative research. unpublished lecture one notes of a qualitative workshop for doctoral and masters students, 5 april 2002, department of human resource management. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. schwandt, t.a. (1997). qualitative inquiry, a dictionary of terms. thousand oaks: sage. shoebridge, n. (2000). strategies for the talent war. business review weekly, 22 (32), 10. simonton, d.k. (2001). talent development as a multidimentional, multiplicative, and dynamic process. american psychological society, 10 (2), 39-43. smith, b.w. & lancaster, a-m. (1995). the growth in commitment to cooperative education in a computer science program. journal of studies in technical careers, xv (2), 71-79. smith, a. & smith, b. (1990). a successful development partnership. industrial & commercial training, 22 (6), 3-8. sovilla, e.m. (1998). co-op’s 90-year odyssey. the american society for engineering education [asee] prism, january, 18-23. retrieved december 22, 1999 from: http://www. asee.org/pubs/html/coop.htm stephen, j., jones, p. & huntington, s. (1997). pre-placement work-based projects within a retail sandwich degree. industrial and commercial training, 29 (2), 49-52. street, a. (1998). in/forming inside nursing: ethical dilemmas in critical research. in shacklock, g. & smyth, j. (1998). being reflective in critical educational and social research. london: falmer. stones, c.r. (1988). research: toward a phenomenological praxis (pp. 141-156). in kruger, d. (1988). an introduction to phenomenological psychology. 2nd revised edition. cape town: juta. sunoo, b.p. (2001). hr scouts recruit, develop and retain talent at pr agency. workforce, march: 46-47. teare, r. (2000). modelling the virtual university. the journal of workplace learning, 12 (3), 111-123. tulgan, b. (2001). winning the talent wars. employment relations today, 28 (2), 37-51. united states of america. (2000). national aeronautics & space administration [nasa]. human resources and education: functional leadership plan. retrieved february 16, 2002 from: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/codez/plans/flps/fflp.pdf. united states of america. (1914). house of representatives. committee on education. cooperative system of education – vocational education. in a hearing before the committee on education, statement by mr herman schneider. sixty-third congress, second session, on 26 january 1914. washington: government printing office. university of cincinnati. (1996). division of professional practice. historical view. retrieved december 22, 1999 from: http://www.uc.edu/propractice/history.html. university of cincinnati. (1998). department of civil and environmental engineering. retrieved december 22, 1999 from: co-op. http://www.cee.uc.edu/coop/coop.htm. university of witwatersrand. (1999). graduate school for humanities and social sciences. thinking through the african renaissance. retrieved april 7, 2002 from: http://www.wits.ac.za/fac/arts/african /archive/afr.html. van manen, m. (1997). phenomenological pedagogy and the question of meaning (pp. 41-68). in vandenberg, d. (ed.) (1997). phenomenology & education discourse. johannesburg: heinemann. vicere, a.a. (1991). the changing paradigm for executive development. journal of management development, 10 (3), 44-47. voros, s.v. (1999). winning the talent wars with smart recruiting. business press, 12 (3), 25-26. way, n. (2000). talent war. business review weekly, 22 (32), 6470. welman, j.c. & kruger, s.j. (1999). research methodology for the business and administrative sciences. johannesburg: international thompson. wilson, j.w., stull, w.a. & vinsonhaler, j. (1996). rethinking cooperative education. journal of cooperative education, 31 (2 & 3), 154-165. ziarati, r., griffiths, j., bennett, m. & payne, p. (1995). university of central england-rover partnership. logistics information management, 8 (6), 8-12. zinker. j. (1978). creative process in gestalt therapy. new york: vintage. groenewald, schurink104 4-nkosi.qxd motivation for the study the changes in south africa after 1994 had an impact on south african organisations in relation to the challenging economic conditions and political imperative. this led to the focus on employees as a source of competitive advantage and the emphasis on organisational cult ure (which has been established to be having a high impact on the bottom-line business results), as a means to mobilise employees for productivity and profit. it is imperative for management to know the company culture and assess employees’ belief system against the organisation’s values. the diversity of the south african population, with its variety of cultures, led to a need for a valid, reliable, unbiased, and fair culture assessment instrument. the requirement is that such measuring instrument should respect cultural diversity and make accurate predictions of members of, amongst others, different race, gender, age and language groups. organisational culture there is no single universally accepted definition of the term ‘’organisational culture’’ and this has led to a great deal of confusion and ambiguity in the literature. organisational culture is often defined in terms of shared meanings-patterns of beliefs, rituals, symbols, and myths that evolve over time, serving to reduce human variability and control and shape employee behaviour in organisations (peters & waterman, 1982; wilkins & ouchi, 1983; denison, 1996). the development of culture is a natural socio-dynamic process, which occurs regardless of the intent of executive management, although it may be influenced by management (schein, 1985). while organisation may develop a relatively homogeneous culture (peters & waterman, 1982), unique and divergent subcultures may evolve for separate departments or sub-groups within the organisation. other theories have demonstrated an appreciation for the function of culture as social glue. according to smircich (1983), culture conveyed to employees a sense of identity, facilitated the generation of commitment to something larger than the self, and enhanced social system stability, as well as guiding and shaping behaviour. martins’ (1989) culture assessment instrument represented one line of inquiry in the field of organisational culture. martins (1989, p.45) defined organisational culture as follows: “organisational culture is an integrated pattern of human behaviour, which is unique to a particular organisation and which originated as a result of the organisation’s sur vival processes and interaction with its environment. culture directs the organisation to goal attainment. newly appointed employees must be taught what is regarded as the correct way of behaving”. culture provides an underlying pattern to the behaviour of organisations, just as personality provides an underlying pattern to the behaviour of the individual. a strong culture provides employees with a clear understanding of ‘’the way things are done’’. it provides stability to an organisation, the community, and south africa as a nation (martins & martins, 2002). groeschl and doherty (2000) pointed out that culture consists of several elements of which some are implicit and others are explicit. schein (1985) identified three levels of culture, i.e. artefacts, values and assumptions (see figure 1). insight into these levels is fundamental to understanding the culture of organisations. in order to fully understand the complexit y of the organisational culture literature, it is necessary to explore the various perspectives of culture that have been adopted by the organisational behaviourists and other researchers in this field (wilson, 2001). martin and meyerson (1988) identified the following three major perspectives in organisational culture research. the integration perspective portrays a strong or desirable culture as one where there is organisation-wide consensus and consistency. espoused values are consistent with formal themba james nkosi gert roodt department of human resources management rand afrikaans university abstract the aim of this study was to investigate the bias and fairness of the culture assessment instrument (cai), that is, to assess whether the mean culture scores of different groups (race, gender, age and language) discriminate on a total score and an item level. the sample consisted of 4066 respondents from five different companies, originating from various industries. the scores of the 56 cai-items were factor analysed on two levels, followed by an iterative item analyses. significant differences between race and language mean scores were identified on a total score and item level. where differences on an item level were detected, such item-wordings were scrutinized to ensure that they were fair, non-prejudiced and not stereotyping any group. based on these findings, it was concluded that the cai in its current form is not biased against any particular group and is therefore fair. opsomming die doel van hierdie studie was om die sydigheid en billikheid van die culture assessment instrument (cai) te ondersoek, dit is om te bepaal of gemiddelde kultuurtellings van verskillende groepe (ras, geslag, ouderdom en taal) diskrimineer op ’n totaaltelling en itemvlak. die steekproef het bestaan uit 4066 respondente uit vyf verskillende organisasies, afkomstig uit verskillende bedrywe. die tellings van die 56 cai-items is op twee vlakke gefaktoranaliseer, gevolg deur ’n iteratiewe itemontleding. beduidende verskille tussen gemiddelde tellings van rasen taalgroepe is identifiseer, maar slegs ’n klein proporsie van die variansie kon aan kultuurverskille toegeskryf word. in gevalle waar verskille op itemvlak geïdentifiseer is, is sulke item-bewoordings ondersoek vir billikheid, bevooroordeling en die nie-stereotipering van enige groep. gebaseer op hierdie bevindinge, is daar tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat die cai in sy huidige vorm nie sydig teenoor enige groep is nie en gevolglik billik is. an assessment of bias and fairness of the culture assessment instrument requests for copies should be addressed to: tj nkosi, department of human resource management, rau, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 24 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (2), 24-36 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (2), 24-36 practices, which are consistent with informal beliefs, norms and attitudes. cultural members share the same values, promoting a shared sense of loyalty and commitment. where inconsistencies, conflict or subcultural differentiation occur, this is portrayed as being a weak or negative culture (martin, 1995). figure 1: schein’s levels of culture (source: adapted from schein, 1985, p. 14) the differentiation perspective emphasises that rather than consensus being organisation-wide, it only occurs within the boundaries of a subculture. at the organisational level, differentiated subcultures may co-exist in harmony, conflict or indifference to each other. van maanen (1991), in his study of disneyland, found groups of employees who considered themselves as being distinct. these sub-cultures related to different jobs, different levels of organisational status gender and class. claims of harmony from management masked a range of inconsistencies and group antagonisms. what is unique about a given organisation’s culture, then, is the particular mix of subcultural differences within an organisation’s boundaries. the fragmentation perspective views ambiguity as the norm, with consensus and dissension co-existing in a constantly fluctuating pattern influenced by events and specific areas of decision making. as stated by frost et al. (1991), consensus fails to coalesce on an organisation-wide or subcultural basis, except in transient, issue-specific ways. rather than the clear unity of the integration perspective, or the clear conflicts of the differentiation viewpoint, fragmentation focuses on that which is unclear. many of the studies in organisational culture focus on only one of these perspectives, arguing whether it and it alone is evident within the organisation. as an example of this, meyerson (1991) have made the point that much of the popular literature (deal & kennedy, 1982; peters & waterman, 1982) rested on the mistaken assumption that organisational culture consists of shared meanings and commonalties that are quite homogeneous, monolithic and organisation-wide. little or no consideration was given to the potential existence of subcultures or dissension unless as an indication of a weak culture. there are also major methodological differences between the three perspectives. martin and meyerson (1988) argued that any culture contains elements that can be understood only when all three perspectives are used. from a senior manager’s/director’s point of view, the integrationist perspective may be congruent with a manager’s desire to see their values and policies shared and followed. middle management may want to distance itself from senior management and therefore subcultures and a differentiation perspective may be more appropriate. newcomers and disenchanted shop floor workers may fit in more with the fragmentation perspective. therefore, within a company there may be organisation-wide consensus on some issues, consensus only within certain subcultures on other issues and an ambiguous state on the remainder. schein, in frost et al. (1991), suggested that there may be a core set of ideological guidelines within an organisation that require a minimal consensus and consistency, otherwise organisations would not function. therefore consistency, consensus, harmony and integration may occur, but within the midst of inconsistencies, ambiguities, conflicts, disruption and dissolution. this complexity can cause a major headache. following is a description of various models of organisational culture. measuring organisational culture although the concept of organisational culture has been prominent in organisational and management literature since the 1970s (barley, meyer, & gash, 1988), scholars still disagree on the best way to measure it (see o’reilly, chatman, & caldwell, 1991; rousseau, 1990a). some writers have suggested the use of multiple methods (e.g., martin, 1992; rousseau, 1990a), but these methods are often complex, expensive, and timeconsuming (ashkanasy et al., 2000a). the literat ure since 1989 on the st udy, diagnosis and measurement of cult ure has not been part icularly abundant. perhaps this is because there has been so much emphasis on the characteristics of a “qualit y” culture that managers are no longer concerned about the kind of culture they have; but only about the kind of culture they want to have (lewis, 1995). reynierse and harker (1986) use a combinat ion of quantitative and qualitative measures to measure culture. the qualitative methods involve interviews and group discussions, while the quantitative method, which they call organisational dynamics, is a survey questionnaire using 95 items on a five-point ordinal scale of definite agreement to definite disagreement. the method aims to provide managers with tangible feedback in managing cult ure, their “fundamental proposition” being “that you can’t manage organisational culture unless you can measure it” (reynierse & harker, 1986, p. 1). reynolds (1986) used a questionnaire to measure culture differences between organisations to see if the measured differences relate to differences in performance. barnett (1988) outlined details of what he calls a “galileo tm” or “galileo analysis” for measuring culture accurately. some of the methods are common to those used in qualitative approaches, but barnett quantifies the results. it is considered that the method is too narrow, using only language, symbols and concepts as measurable elements. wiener (1988) measured “central value systems” and believes that by measuring the intensity and breadth of key values, one can measure culture. nossiter and biberman (1990, p.13) have used a technique for studying and diagnosing culture they call “projective drawing and metaphorical analogy fantasising”, where questionnaires ask participants to draw an image and name an animal representing their organisation and department. they believe that the creativity involved may motivate employees to think more about their organisations. tucker et al. (1990) designed a comprehensive questionnaire, developed from interviews and discussions with 50 managers of organisations. they believe results from the questionnaire, which are quantified, will help provide some preliminary information on the organisation’s culture to managers attempting to deal with particular situations and problems with their cultures. bias and fairness of the culture assessment instrument 25 gabriel (1991) saw stories as the basis for the myths that act as coping mechanisms for individuals in organisations. most of these techniques are as yet too recent for much empirical testing to have been carried out on them. a case for quantitative measurement among authors who suggested some use of quantitative measures are amsa (1986), barnett (1988); bookbinder (1984); cooke and rousseau (1988); desatnick (1986); hofstede (1986); reynierse (1986); reynierse and harker (1986); reynolds (1986) and wiener (1988). what is borne out by the literature is that questionnaires can play an important role in the quantitative analysis of organisational culture (reichers & schneider, 1960; rousseau, 1990a). scholars such as martin (1992) have noted that quantitative assessment of organisational culture has been criticized in the past because of a strong mono-method bias in the field. although martin argues for a need to include qualitative data in culture studies, the essence of her case is that there is a need for a multilevel and multimethod conceptualization. in this respect, schein’s (1985) three level t ypolog y provides a distinctive role for both quantitative and qualitative measurement. further, as the element of culture become more conscious and observable to participants in a study, they become more accessible to standardized assessment (rousseau, 1990a). for example, it is generally agreed that surveys represent an efficient and standardized means of tapping the shallower levels of schein’s typology. the deepest level of culture, on the other hand, can be investigated only through more intensive observation, focused interviews, and the involvement of organisational members in self-analysis (ott, 1989; rousseau, 1990a; schein, 1990). the thrust of this argument is that there is a clear and continuing role for quantitative measures as a means of assessing the less abstract levels of organisational culture. all quantitative measures of culture are likely to suffer from the same limitations, with the main weakness being that basic assumptions are often non-debatable and unconscious. people’s written or oral answers to questions are not necessarily indicative of their basic assumptions. the usefulness of quantitative measurement may not be restricted to the shallower levels of organisational culture only. deal and kennedy (1982) have argued, there may be grounds for maintaining that the three levels of culture are unified especially when a culture may have the potential to tap deeper levels of culture (ott, 1989; rentsch, 1990). ashkanasy et al. (2000a) have noted that survey methods have characteristics that render them especially useful for organisational culture research. self-report surveys allow respondents to record their own perceptions of realit y. because behaviour and attitudes are determined not by objective reality but by actors’ perceptions of reality (rentsch, 1990), it is clearly appropriate to focus on perceptions rather than realit y. further, self-report measures offer internal credibility to organisational members, which is likely to increase the likelihood that members will accept the results of the survey. researchers have cited numerous other advantages of survey assessment and of quantitative techniques generally. these include allowing replication and cross-sectional comparative studies, providing an accepted frame of reference for interpreting data, helping the evaluation and initiation of culture change efforts in organisations, and providing data that can be analysed through multivariate statistical techniques (cooke & rousseau, 1988; xenikou & furnham, 1996). in summary, what is borne out by the literature, is that questionnaires can play an important role in the quantitative analysis of organisational culture (reichers & schneider, 1990). a need for assessing for bias and fairness of culture assessment instrument the purpose of the current study is to establish if the culture assessment instrument of martins (1989) has the ability to validly and reliably, measure with fairness and without bias the culture mean scores of the different race, gender, age and language groups. the assumption was made that if culture measuring instruments are biased and unfair towards any particular group, it may negatively affect the measuring outcomes. the diversity of the south african population, with its variety of cultures, led to a need for valid, reliable, biased free and fair culture assessment instrument. the requirement is that such measuring instrument should respect cultural diversity and make accurate predictions of members of different race, gender, age and language groups. such reliable instrument can provide valuable insight into the culture of a company represented by a heterogeneous workforce. obtained differences should not be attributed to subjective content of the items i.e. a response to a stereotypical statement, but on the objective assessment of ‘reality’ to be measured. in the field of tests and measurements the word unfairness or inequity means anything bad, bigoted, racist or suppressive – thus, a subjective perception or opinion. fairness is the focus on the accusation that tests or measurements are unfair, contaminated by extraneous factors, and subject to misuse and abuse. the term bias is defined as a systematic error in the measurement process and is also referred to as differential item functioning (dif) (kanjee, 2002). the term is conceptually distinct and operationally different from the concept of fairness, equality, and prejudice. bias then is a technical term and denotes nothing more or less than the consistent distortion of a statistics (osterlind, 1983, p.10). bias as stated by osterlind (1983), is also considered the presence of a systematic error in measurement. items are judged relatively more or less difficult for a particular subgroup by comparison with the performance of another subgroup or groups drawn from the same population. people respond to questionnaires on the basis of their response sets, in cross-cultural research, therefore, some problems arise because societal cultures often differ in their response sets on the basis of which people respond to questionnaires (hui & triandis, 1989; triandis, 1994). the transferability of the studies to other cultures was identified by elenkov (1998) as one of the biggest obstacles in crosscultural research. individuals come from different cultural groups, which also affects their mindset and framework and they would therefore interpret stimuli in different ways. this variance in interpretation could have a significant influence on the results. berry and triandis (1980) argued that it should be possible to compare two groups on a single dimension, where they have a common feature or equivalence. the two authors identified the following kinds of equivalence: � functional equivalence, exists when two or more behaviours related to functionally similar problems; � conceptual equivalence, lie in the common meaning of stimuli concepts or behaviours and is also a pre-condition for comparison; � translation equivalence, is of importance where the existing research instrument is translated by using a bilingual nkosi, roodt26 translator, i.e. translation to a new language and then reverses the translation into the original language; � semantic equivalence, uses a bipolar adjective scale to indicate the meaning of a concept across languages; and � metric equivalence, essentially means the structuring of the measuring instrument in similar ways within one group in order to make valuable inter-group comparison. all of the above mentioned equivalences need to be present in order for the measuring instrument to have construct validity. the following section deals with the research design of the study method the research participants the sample consisted of 4066 participants from five different companies originating from various industries. particulars of organisations that are included in the study are provided in table 1. from table 1 it is clear that there are significant differences in sample size (ranging from 119 to 2459) between the different organisations. noting that sample size effects levels of significance, due consideration was given to it during the analysis phase. table 1 participating organisations company no. organisation n 1 bank 1056 2 bank-home loans 219 3 retail 119 4 information technology 213 5 services-parastatal 2459 total 4066 table 2 provides a brief overview of the biographical properties of the survey sample. from table 2 it can be inferred that the majority of respondents are white, male, afrikaans speaking and in the age group 24-35. the measuring instrument the measuring instrument (cai) was developed by martins (1989). the latest version of the cai consists of 89 items, but only 56 items, that were common to all the companies in the sample, were included in the study. these 56 items are proportionally representative of the six dimensions of the questionnaire. the overall reliability (cronbach coefficient alpha) of the five-point response scale version of the instrument, used in this study, is 0,945. the internal consistency of the dimensions varies between 0,655 and 0,932. the theoretical model that underpins the culture assessment instrument of martins (1989) is provided in figure 2. the model consists of three main elements, i.e. the organisational system, survival functions and dimensions of culture. the various subsystems together form the cult ure of the organisation, which influences the behaviour of employees, suppliers and customers as well as the relationship with the community. according to martins (1989) an organisation is a complex social system in which individual and group activities take place. in order for the organisation to adapt to the external environment its internal processes also have to change and adapt on a continuous basis. the organisational system consists of five systems i.e., goal, technical, structural, psychosocial, and management subsystem. these five subsystems form the internal subsystem. the external subsystem consists of the environment in which the organisation operates. the way, in which all the external factors are dealt with, could have a major impact on the success and survival of the organisation. table 2 biographical variables category count % race white 1086 26,71 coloured 294 7,23 indian 125 3,07 black 912 22,43 no response 1649 40,56 total 4066 100 age 24 and younger 438 10,77 25-35 1808 44,47 36-45 1006 24,74 46 and more 638 15,69 no response 176 4,33 total 4066 100 gender male 2034 50,02 female 1876 46,14 no response 176 3,84 total 4066 100 language afrikaans 1014 24,94 english 225 5,53 other 21 0,52 no response 2806 69,01 total 4066 100 it is therefore assumed that as a result of the interaction and reciprocal influence of the various subsystems on one another, a unique culture is created in each organisation, which makes it unique and distinguishes it from other organisations. the research procedure the data set was built from data gathered from the participating companies over the past few years. the information was gathered mainly with a view to improve the performance of the companies. hence, the aim in gathering the information was the same in all the cases. statistical analysis the statistical procedures applied were selected for their suitability to test the research hypothesis of the study. in the first phase of the study procedures applied include descriptive statistics, factor analyses, and iterative item analyses to establish the reliability of the construct being used. in respect of factor analyses, a procedure developed by schepers (1992) was followed. this procedure includes first as well as second level factor analyses. in the second phase of the data analyses, analyses of variance and a measure of association was applied to test for differences between the mentioned groups. the statistical consultations service of the rand afrikaans university conducted the analyses. all calculations were done by means of spss-windows program of spss-international. bias and fairness of the culture assessment instrument 27 results the analyses of the data proceeded in two phases. phase 1: factor and reliability analyses the item scores on the cai were factor analysed in order to determine the underlying factor structure of the instrument. a procedure developed by schepers (1992) was followed in order to counter for possible effects of differential item skewness resulting in artefactors (artificial factors). also this procedure normalises the distributions through the creation of sub-scores that are more suitable for factor analysis. first level factor analysis in order to determine sampling adequacy and test for sphericity, the kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy (0,971) and the bartlett’s test of sphericity (chi square = 73746,998, df = 1540; p = 0,000) were respectively carried out on the intercorrelation matrix of the 56 items of the instrument. the obtained results indicated that the matrix complies with the requirements for factor analysis. the 56 items of the cai were intercorrelated and the eigenvalues of the unreduced intercorrelation matrix were calculated. owing to limited space, the intercorrelation matrix (56 x 56) is not reproduced here. nine factors were postulated according to kaiser’s (1974) (eigenvalues-greater-than-one) criterion. the eigenvalues of the unreduced item intercorrelation matrix are given in table 3. the factor matrix was rotated to simple structure by means of varimax rotation (see table 4). from table 4 it can be seen that only eight factors were extracted. no significant loadings were obtained on the ninth factor. the eight factors explain about 46% of the variance in the factor space. it can also be seen from table 4 that factors 7 and 8 each have only two item loadings, which make them non-determined. it is pointed out that a factor should consist of at least three item loadings. these two factors were retained for the second level factor analysis. the distribution statistics of sub-scores on the eight factors are depicted in table 5. an inspection of table 5 reveals that this distribution is rather symmetric and closely resembles a normal distribution, based on the close proximity of the mean, median and mode. the distributions are thus suitable for analysis of variance, complying with a major requirement according to hair et al. (1998). table 3 eigenvalues of the unreduced item intercorrelation matrix root eigenvalues cumulative root eigenvalues cumulative variance % variance % 1 14,668 26,193 29 0,642 75,607 2 2,714 31,040 30 0,623 76,720 3 1,806 34,266 31 0,616 77,821 4 1,595 37,115 32 0,598 78,889 5 1,345 39,517 33 0,594 79,950 6 1,264 41,774 34 0,590 81,003 7 1,145 43,819 35 0,580 82,039 8 1,136 45,848 36 0,568 83,054 9 1,059 47,739 37 0,561 84,055 10 0,989 49,506 38 0,556 85,049 11 0,947 51,198 39 0,545 86,022 12 0,912 52,827 40 0,543 86,991 13 0,887 54,410 41 0,533 87,942 14 0,872 55,968 42 0,517 88,865 15 0,828 57,447 43 0,511 89,778 16 0,823 58,916 44 0,503 90,677 17 0,802 60,348 45 0,501 91,571 18 0,786 61,751 46 0,485 92,437 19 0,774 63,133 47 0,477 93,289 20 0,766 64,501 48 0,470 94,129 21 0,749 65,837 49 0,452 94,936 22 0,730 67,141 50 0,439 95,719 23 0,711 68,411 51 0,436 96,498 24 0,705 69,669 52 0,412 97,235 25 0,692 70,905 53 0,410 97,967 26 0,684 72,126 54 0,402 98,685 27 0,664 73,312 55 0,382 99,367 28 0,643 74,460 56 0,354 100,000 trace = 56 nkosi, roodt28 figure 2: martin’s model of culture source (martins, 1989, p. 92) table 4 rotated factor matrix question factor 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 q57 0,769 q73 0,644 q34 0,597 q25 0,573 q55 0,573 q46 0,548 q42 0,544 0,304 q24 0,515 q23 0,481 0,320 q64 0,462 0,325 q63 0,429 0,396 q33 0,428 q67 0,399 0,345 q39 0,388 q59 0,388 q51 0,354 q43 0,349 q11 0,333 q68 0,327 q28 0,325 q66 0,515 q70 0,482 q49 0,431 0,328 q62 0,401 0,431 q45 0,430 q65 0,392 0,412 q36 0,396 q54 0,371 0,321 q60 0,366 q71 0,310 q52 0,307 q44 0,226 q31 0,533 q6 0,480 q5 0,423 q30 0,403 q4 0,356 q41 0,323 0,330 q29 0,292 q14 0,675 q13 0,315 0,630 q12 0,573 q15 0,303 q19 0,438 q21 0,359 q20 0,359 q27 0,302 q7 0,517 q2 0,496 q8 0,466 q3 0,373 q10 0,369 q72 0,433 q47 0,327 q26 0,308 q37 0,244 extraction method: principal axis factoring. rotation method: varimax with kaiser normalisation. rotation converged in 23 iterations. table 6 matrix of inter-correlations of sub-scores ss 1 ss 2 ss 3 ss 4 ss 5 ss 6 ss 7 ss 8 ss 1 1,000 0,628 0,682 0,556 0,612 0,417 0,353 0,319 ss 2 0,628 1,000 0,615 0,414 0,603 0,457 0,214 0,311 ss 3 0,682 0,615 1,000 0,433 0,555 0,517 0,246 0,255 ss 4 0,556 0,414 0,433 1,000 0,504 0,294 0,109 0,195 ss 5 0,612 0,603 0,555 0,504 1,000 0,411 0,141 0,273 ss 6 0,417 0,457 0,517 0,294 0,411 1,000 0,136 0,246 ss 7 0,353 0,214 0,246 0,109 0,141 0,136 1,000 0,145 ss 8 0,319 0,311 0,255 0,195 0,273 0,246 0,145 1,000 * all correlations are significant at the 0,010 level (2-tailed). n=4066 bias and fairness of the culture assessment instrument 29 table 5 distribution statistics for the 8 sub scores sub-scores mean median mode std. deviation skewness std. error kurtosis std. error of skewness of kurtosis ss 1 3,172 3,238 3,52 0,765 -0,344 0,038 -0,322 0,077 ss 2 3,446 3,556 3,56 0,668 -0,317 0,038 -0,038 0,077 ss 3 3,060 3,167 3,33 0,855 -0,229 0,038 -0,516 0,077 ss 4 3,381 3,667 4,00 1,063 -0,398 0,038 -0,766 0,077 ss 5 3,369 3,333 3,33 0,770 -0,269 0,038 -0,193 0,077 ss 6 3,892 4,000 4,00 0,653 -0,768 0,038 0,863 0,077 ss 7 3,026 3,000 3,00 1,010 -0,156 0,038 -0,708 0,077 ss 8 3,592 4,000 4,00 0,876 -0,605 0,038 -0,030 0,077 n = 4066 missing values = 0 minimum value = 1 maximum value = 5 table 7 eigenvalues of the unreduced inter-correlation matrix of sub-scores initial eigenvalues extraction sums of squared loadings root total % of cumulative total % of cumulative variance 1 3,827 47,841 47,841 3,361 42,018 42,018 2 0,942 11,775 59,616 3 0,844 10,556 70,172 4 0,703 8,790 78,962 5 0,610 7,629 86,591 6 0,504 6,304 92,895 7 0,321 4,006 96,901 8 0,248 3,099 100,000 trace = 8 table 8 sorted and rotated factor matrix of sub-scores sub-scale scale 1 h2j ss 1 0,858 0,660 ss 2 0,823 0,591 ss 3 0,811 0,595 ss 4 0,616 0,372 ss 5 0,601 0,330 ss 6 0,564 0,316 ss 8 0,374 0,131 ss 7 0,304 0,129 extraction method: principal axis factoring. 1 factor extracted. 5 iterations required. the intercorrelations of the subscores are depicted in table 6. from table 6 it is clear that all the intercorrelations are significant at the 0,01 significance level. second level factor analysis sub-scores were calculated on the eight obtained factors. the kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy (0,875) and the bartlett’s test of sphericity (chi square = 11979,791; df = 28; p = 0,000) were conducted on the inter-correlation matrix of the eight sub-scores. it is clear that this matrix, comprising of the eight subscores, also complies with the requirements for factor analysis. the eigenvalues were calculated on the unreduced intercorrelation matrix of the subscores. the eigenvalues of the unreduced inter-correlation matrix of subscores appear in table 7. it is clear from table 7 that one factor was postulated. in table 8, the respective loadings of the sub-scores on the one factor extracted are presented. reliability the internal consistency of the single scale obtained from factor analyses (the degree of homogeneity among the items) was computed using cronbach coefficient alpha. table 9 provides the item reliability statistics for the scale. the closer the value of the cronbach coefficient alpha to 1 the greater the reliability of the scale. hence, the cronbach coefficient alpha of 0,945 indicates that the scale is highly reliable and can consistently measure the dimensions of the magnitude of organisational culture it is designed to measure. in other words, the measuring instrument is capable of consistently reflecting the same underlying constructs. furthermore, it indicates a high degree of homogeneity amongst the scale items. table 9 item statistics of the cai scale mean scale variance corrected alpha if item if item item-totalif item deleted deleted correlation deleted q2 182,310 1120,033 0,300 0,945 q3 182,416 1113,948 0,327 0,945 q4 182,917 1094,479 0,526 0,944 q5 183,421 1102,019 0,441 0,944 q6 183,172 1093,445 0,473 0,944 q7 182,126 1125,377 0,194 0,945 q8 182,333 1109,236 0,396 0,944 q10 182,539 1104,559 0,474 0,944 q11 182,775 1100,582 0,560 0,944 q12 182,822 1094,317 0,513 0,944 q13 182,912 1095,447 0,460 0,944 q14 182,835 1095,843 0,506 0,944 q15 182,434 1106,652 0,381 0,944 q19 183,246 1097,836 0,443 0,944 q20 182,797 1104,650 0,366 0,945 q21 182,518 1110,650 0,324 0,945 q23 183,352 1083,842 0,584 0,943 q24 183,410 1089,231 0,612 0,943 q25 183,228 1086,502 0,560 0,943 q26 182,655 1117,183 0,242 0,945 q27 182,657 1112,705 0,361 0,944 q28 183,209 1086,742 0,573 0,943 q29 182,781 1096,212 0,520 0,944 q30 182,934 1091,020 0,586 0,943 q31 183,243 1091,040 0,561 0,943 q33 183,098 1092,359 0,580 0,943 q34 183,024 1082,393 0,667 0,943 q36 182,333 1122,885 0,203 0,945 q37 182,636 1116,514 0,304 0,945 q39 183,280 1089,542 0,536 0,944 q41 183,374 1093,897 0,529 0,944 q42 183,493 1084,821 0,602 0,943 q43 183,256 1093,593 0,529 0,944 q44 182,838 1104,725 0,415 0,944 q45 182,919 1103,466 0,453 0,944 q46 183,076 1090,547 0,569 0,943 q47 183,350 1103,241 0,405 0,944 q49 182,981 1092,726 0,578 0,943 q51 183,080 1104,398 0,427 0,944 q52 182,617 1106,825 0,444 0,944 q54 182,556 1116,923 0,310 0,945 q55 182,939 1084,958 0,621 0,943 q57 182,958 1092,115 0,470 0,944 q59 183,427 1097,552 0,465 0,944 q60 183,652 1097,560 0,480 0,944 q62 182,614 1096,302 0,567 0,943 q63 182,702 1095,184 0,577 0,943 q64 182,889 1089,848 0,596 0,943 q65 182,856 1093,133 0,586 0,943 q66 182,451 1098,969 0,499 0,944 q67 182,801 1096,741 0,547 0,944 q68 183,284 1106,092 0,406 0,944 q70 182,767 1098,537 0,507 0,944 q71 182,827 1102,382 0,471 0,944 q73 182,823 1088,629 0,603 0,943 q72 183,072 1128,213 0,095 0,946 n of cases = 4066 n of items = 56 cronbach coefficient alpha = 0,945 nkosi, roodt30 thus far the data set has been reduced to a single scale and it has been established that the scale is highly reliable. the six theoretical dimensions of the cai could not be replicated by factor analysis. the next phase of the statistical process comprises analysis of variance. the results thereof are reported in the next section. phase ll: inferential statistical analyses for testing differences between groups in this section the results of the inferential statistical analyses followed by the cramer’s v tests are presented for the four different groups i.e. race, gender, age and language. in cases where, the anova (for more than two groups) or the ttest (for two groups) does not show any significant differences in culture mean scores based on race, gender, age or language group, will possibly indicate that the culture assessment instrument (cai) is not biased. further statistical analyses on an item level are conducted to identif y those items that could effectively distinguish culture differences between the different race, gender, age and language groups in order to scrutinize those items for possible bias and unfairness in their particular wordings. the statistical procedure conducted for this purpose, is the cramer’s v test, a measure of association. the cramer’s v test will be used to test the hypothesis on bias or fairness on an item level. in respect of cramer’s v, a chi square coefficient of >0,2 was set. thus all items with chi square values equal to or larger than 0,2 will indicate prominent differences between groups. hypothesis 1: there are significant differences in the culture mean scores of the different race groups the first hypothesis tested for bias or unfairness on the race group level. table 10 shows the culture mean scores for the different racial categories. table 10 culture mean scores for different categories of race race mean std. deviation n 1 white 3,503 0,563 1073 2 black 3,399 0,591 292 3 coloured 3,189 0,731 125 4 indian 3,047 0,641 908 total 3,295 0,643 2396 it should be noted that the group means are different and that the group sizes vary, therefore the levene’s test for equality of error variances should be conducted. the levene’s test shows that the error variances of groups are significantly different. the dunnett post hoc test should therefore be interpreted. from table 11 it can be inferred that there are significant culture differences between racial groups. the partial eta squared indicates that 11,2% of the variance in culture mean scores can be attributed to culture differences. table 12, depicts the outcome of the dunnett post hoc test, which also shows significant differences between the different race categories (marked with an *). the following discussion will focus on the measure of association (cramer’s v) which is a statistical tool used to identif y those items that could effectively distinguish culture differences between the different race groups. a value of >0,2 was set, thus all items with values equal to or larger than 0,2 will be considered to show a moderate association. table 11 anova: testing for culture differences between race groups source type iii sum df mean f p(f) sig. partial eta of squares square squared corrected model 111,093 3 37,031 100,748 0,000 0,112 intercept 12614,307 1 12614,3 34318,9 0,000 0,935 r ace 111,093 3 37,031 100,748 0,000 0,112 error 879,9424 2394 0,368 total 7036,778 2398 corrected total 891,035 2397 r squared = 0,112 (adjusted r squared = 0,111) only item 25 – “employment takes place without discrimination in terms of race, gender, age and language’’, detected a significant difference between racial groups. it seems that the wording of the item is not biased or stereotyping any particular group. hypothesis 2: there are significant differences in the culture mean scores of the different gender groups the second hypothesis tested for bias or unfairness on gender group level. table 13 provides the culture mean scores of gender groups. table 13 shows that there are more males (52%) than females (48%) and the results of the levene’s test of equality of error variances show that the error variances are significantly different and the results of t-tests for unequal variances should therefore be interpreted. table 14, depicts the results of the t-test and shows partial eta squared of 0,03% which suggests that only an insignificant small proportion of the variance can be attributed to culture difference scores. the following discussion will focus on the results of the cramer’s v test, to identif y those items under this category that could effectively distinguish culture differences between the different gender categories. a chi square value of >0,2 was set, thus all items with values equal to or larger than 0,2 will be scrutinized for possible bias or unfairness. only item number 72, “managers in this division have the necessary leadership skills”, show that the chi square value is greater than 0,2, indicating a prominent difference of gender group response. on closer scrutiny, the item does not show any bias or unfairness to any particular gender group because the item is worded in such a way that it conveys the same meaning, i.e. conceptual and semantic equivalence, irrespective of gender. both male and female responses are based on their perception, not influenced by their particular gender. hypothesis 3: there are significant differences in the culture mean scores of the different age groups the third hypothesis tested for bias or unfairness on age group levels. table 15 illustrates the culture mean scores for different age groups. table 15 depicts that the age group 24 years and less are in the majority and ages 46 years and older are in the minority. the levene’s test of equality of error variances detected significant differences in error variances. the dunnett post hoc tests should therefore be interpreted. table 16 will show the outcome of the analysis of variance. bias and fairness of the culture assessment instrument 31 table 13 culture mean scores for different gender groups gender mean std. deviation n male 3,3611 0,60899 2022 female 3,2933 0,57576 1869 total 3,3286 0,59415 3891 table 14 t-test for culture differences of gender groups t df p (t) mean se partial differ squared eta equal 3,559 3889 0,000 0,0677 0,01904 0,003 variances assumed equal 3,566 3887,015 0,000 0,0677 0,01899 0,003 variances not assumed table 15 culture mean scores for different age groups age mean std. deviation n 24 and younger 3,4291 0,53630 4352 25 – 35 3,2811 0,59105 1799 36 – 45 3,3433 0,60297 1001 46 and older 3,3771 0,61086 636 total 3,3296 0,59360 3871 table 16 anova-test for age group differences source type iii sum df mean f p(f) sig. partial eta of squares square squared corrected model 10,149 3 3,383 9,6659 0,000 0,007 intercept 33243,60 1 33243,6 9,665 0,000 0,961 age 10,149 3 3,383 0,000 0,007 error 1353,474 3867 0,350 total 44278,64 3871 corrected total 1363,623 3870 r squared = 0,007 (adjusted r squared = 0,007) nkosi, roodt32 table 12 dunnett post hoc comparison tests for race groups 95% confidence interval (i) race (j) race mean difference (i-j) std. error sig lower bound lower bound dunnet t3 1 1 2+ 0,1035 0,0385 0,045 0,0015 0,2054 3+ 0,4230 0,0676 0,000 0,2427 0,6034 4+ 0,4557 0,0273 0,000 0,3837 0,5277 2 1+ 0,1035 0,0385 0,045 -0,2054 -0,0015 2 3+ 0,3195 0,0739 0,000 0,1230 0,5161 4+ 0,3522 0,0405 0,000 0,2451 0,4593 3 1+ 0,4230 0,0676 0,000 -0,6034 -0,2427 2+ 0,3195 0,0739 0,000 -0,5161 -0,1230 3 4 0,0327 0,0687 0,998 0,1506 0,2159 4 1+ 0,4557 0,0273 0,000 -0,5277 -0,3837 2+ 0,3522 0,0405 0,000 -0,4593 -0,2451 3 0,0327 0,0687 0,998 -0,2159 0,1506 1 = white; 2 = black; 3 = coloured; 4 = indian/asian the mean difference is significant at the 0,05 level. table 16 depicts the anova test which shows partial eta squared of 0,7% suggesting that an insignificant small proportion of variance could be attributed to culture differences. table 17 depicts the outcome of the dunnett post hoc tests, where asterisks indicate all those age groups with significant differences, i.e. the age group which is 24 yrs and younger is significantly different to 25-35 yrs and 36-45 yrs age groups. the following section deals with the results of the measure of association. there is no item that is equal to or larger than the set criteria of 0,2. it can be inferred that there is no item significantly related to age group differences. hypothesis 4: there are significant differences in the culture mean scores of the different language groups the fourth hypothesis tested for bias or unfairness on a language group level. table 18 culture mean scores for different language groups language mean std. deviation n afrikaans 3,4235 0,47485 1014 english + other 3,1937 0,52850 246 total 3,3786 0,49405 1260 table 18 depicts the results of the culture mean scores for different language categories. afrikaans has majority (80,5%) of participants as compared to english and other language group (19,5%) and a levene’s test for equality of error variances should therefore be conducted. the levene’s test yielded significantly different error variances for language groups. the t-test for unequal variances should therefore be interpreted. table 19 depicts the outcome of the t-test and shows a partial eta squared of 3,4% indicating that only a small portion of the variance can be attributed to culture differences. the following section will focus on the results of the cramer’s v test in order to establish whether significant differences for the two language groups occur on an item level. table 19 t-tests for language group differences t df p (t) mean se partial differ differ eta squared equal 6,658 1258 0,000 0,2298 0,03452 0,034 variances assumed equal 6,238 347,142 0,000 0,2298 0,03685 0,034 variances not assumed table 20 depicts items 2, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 30, 33, 34, 64 & 73, as above or equal to the set chi square value of 0,2. each item was individually analysed and the following conclusion was reached: � the items were worded or constructed in such a way that it does not offend or stereotype any of the language group under study. � the items were worded in such a way that it conveys the same meaning for the different language groups, i.e. semantic equivalence. � the criterion of conceptual and semantic equivalence is also met in the construction of these items. � the different language groups had the same understanding in such a way that the response provided is not influenced by language affiliation but by the respondent perception. � the items were worded in such a way that the respondents’ response was based on their perception not on their language affiliation. bias and fairness of the culture assessment instrument 33 table 17 dunnett post hoc comparison test for age groups 95% confidence interval (i) age (j) age mean difference (i-j) std. error sig lower bound lower bound dunnet t3 24 and younger 25-35 0,1479* 0,02925 0,000 0,0708 0,2251 36-45 0,0857* 0,03201 0,044 0,0014 0,1701 46 and more 0,0520 0,03533 0,599 -0,0411 0,1451 25-35 24 and less -0,1479* 0,02925 0,000 -0,2251 -0,0708 25-35 -0,0622 0,02361 0,050 -0,1243 0,0000 36-45 -0,0959* 0,02794 0,004 -0,1696 -0,0223 36-45 24 and less -0,0857* 0,03201 0,044 -0,1701 -0,0014 25-35 0,0622 0,02361 0,050 0,0000 0,1243 36-45 -0,0338 0,03082 0,853 -0,1150 0,0474 46 and more 24 and less -0,0520 0,03533 0,599 -0,1451 0,0411 25-35 0,0959* 0,02794 0,004 0,0223 0,1696 36-45 0,0338 0,03082 0,853 -0,0474 0,1150 based on observed means *the mean difference is significant at 0,05 level table 20 cramer’s v test for language group differences on item level (items in bold show prominent language group differences) no. item cramer’s v sig (p-value) 2. i understand the overall objectives of the 0,317 0,000 organisation. 3. i am in possession of measurable standards 0,176 0,000 of the results to be achieved. 4. subordinates are given the opportunity to 0,145 0,000 make contributions with regard to goals and standards that are determined for them. 5. written objective contracts for at least the 0,151 0,000 next 12 months are given to employees. 6. feedback sessions are held with employees 0,238 0,000 three times a year about the manner in which outputs are obtained, in order to evaluate their performance. 7. i know precisely who our target market 0,203 0,000 and clients are. 8. we really spare no efforts in understanding 0,230 0,000 the needs of our customers. 10. we listen actively in order to understand the 0,220 0,000 current and future needs of our customers. 11. the company continuously lives according 0,229 0,000 to its core values. 12. our employees display a professional image 0,090 0,037 in their contact with the public, their elationship with colleagues and their general behaviour at work. 13. employees respect the property and other 0,075 0,135 possessions of the organisation. they protect it and do not take anything belonging to the organisation. 14. employees display an attitude of doing things 0,039 0,753 right the first time. 15. we provide our products/services totally free 0,159 0,000 from any discrimination (race or gender). 19. we are satisfied with the technological 0,073 0,153 equipment (systems and computers) as resources to do our work. 20. the physical appearance of the workplace 0,074 0,146 (buildings, furniture and reception areas) supports the company’s image. 21. the way we dress supports the organisation’s 0,106 0,007 image. 23. in the company employment equity has 0,103 0,009 become a reality for all employees. 24. the company knows what employees’ 0,147 0,000 needs are 25. employment takes place without discrimination 0,111 0,004 in terms of gender, race or language. 26. in order to adjust to the rapidly changing 0,033 0,849 political situation in south africa it is desirable to appoint people of colour at all levels of authority in our organisation. 27. the company is a sought after employer in the 0,126 0,001 employment market. 28. we retain our best workers. 0,031 0,871 29. internal training is of high standing quality. 0,103 0,009 30. managers and supervisors are sufficiently 0,203 0,000 prepared for their task through training. 31. performance evaluation is succeeded with 0,159 0,000 development interviews during which training and development actions are jointly planned with employees. 33. the company responds quickly to changes 0,205 0,000 in the external environment (e.g. interests rate adjustments) 34. the company is managed effectively on all 0,238 0,000 levels. 36. the minimum duplication of work occurs. 0,075 0,135 37. i know exactly what my role in my work 0,130 0,000 environment is. 39. a visible trust relationship exists between 0,093 0,027 employees and management. 41. i am adequately informed about the work 0,183 0,000 activities of other divisions in the company. 42. there are sufficient personal discussions 0,097 0,019 (“eyeball sessions”) between managers and their employees. 43. higher level management takes purposeful 0,126 0,001 actions to make contact with employees on lower levels. 44. i have an open channel of communication to 0,170 0,000 my immediate supervisor/manager. 45. purposeful action is taken to involve all 0,043 0,675 employees in decision making. 46. my work environment could be described as 0,016 0,988 participative. 47. when management make decisions that affect 0,167 0,000 employees, the persons involved are consulted. 49. employees and immediate supervisors/managers 0,174 0,000 collectively formulate objectives. 51. my work results can be determined accurately. 0,059 0,364 52. control of own work is promoted. 0,129 0,000 54. persons in positions of power delegate 0,060 0,336 sufficiently to complete work successfully. 55. i believe that my own personal objectives can 0,090 0,038 be satisfied in the company. 57. i don’t mind doing extra work if necessary 0,035 0,822 (“going the extra mile”). 59. performance is evaluated objectively according 0,124 0,001 to actual results. 60. the company’s remuneration system is fair. 0,170 0,000 62. the organisation is known for its innovative 0,135 0,000 services. 63. employees are continuously encouraged to 0,130 0,000 develop better work procedures and methods. 64. rules and regulations are continuously 0,210 0,000 reviewed to cope with change. 65. in our organisation employees are self0,098 0,017 motivated and have the ability to control their own work. 66. management believes employees are self0,085 0,059 motivated and have the ability to control their own work. 67. there is good teamwork in my department. 0,070 0,188 68. the work proceedings at the different divisions 0,170 0,000 of the company are being co-ordinated. 70. we solve our differences. we get down to the 0,122 0,001 root of our differences. 71. conflict is resolved by confronting those 0,039 0,759 involved with the problem and mutually working towards solutions. 72. managers in this division have the necessary 0,160 0,000 leadership skills. 73. i believe that our management has the vision 0,233 0,000 and knowledge to lead the organisation successfully into the future. nkosi, roodt34 discussion findings regarding the empirical research objectives the primary objective of the empirical research was to determine the ability of the cai to validly and reliably, without bias or unfairness, distinguish between the mean culture scores of the different race, gender, age and language groups, in other words to determine the bias or fairness of the cai. for the purpose of this study, the following four hypotheses were tested: � h1: there are significant differences in the mean scores of the different race groups the cai of martins (1989). � h2: there are significant differences in the mean scores of the different gender groups on the cai of martins (1989). � h3: there are significant differences in the mean scores of the different age groups on the cai of martins (1989). � h4: there are significant differences in the mean scores of the different language groups on the cai of martins (1989). the empirical finding for the first hypothesis is that there are significant differences between racial groups. the partial eta squared indicated that 11,2% of the variance could be attributed to differences in culture mean scores. significant differences between racial groups on an item level were also detected, which could be an indication of item bias. it seemed however that the wording of the items was not stereotyping any particular group. the empirical finding for the second and third hypotheses, i.e. gender and age, respectively, did not meet the expectation that the instrument would identif y significant differences in the mean culture scores of the different gender and age groups. the empirical finding on the fourth hypothesis showed that there were significant differences on the mean scores of the different language groups, but according to the t-test the outcome of the language group differences shows a partial eta squared of 3,4% indicating that only a small portion of the variance can be attributed to culture differences. significant differences between racial groups on an item level were also detected, which could be an indication of item bias. it seemed however that the wording of the items was not stereotyping any particular group. based on the literature review, however, a priori differences in the cultures between different race and language groups were postulated. there were no significant differences between the different gender and age groups. possible limitations of the study are that only a limited number of organisations across different industries participated in the survey and that findings can not be generalised all south african companies. also, only 56 items of the original 89-item instrument were used, limiting observations and findings only to these items. conclusions the purpose of this study was to conduct an assessment of bias and fairness of martins (1989) culture assessment instrument (cai), in the context of race, gender, age and language groups. elenkov (1998) identified one of the biggest obstacles in crosscultural research as the transferability of these studies to other cultures. individuals come from different cultural groups, which also affects their mindset and framework and they would therefore interpret stimuli in different ways. a questionnaire item is said to be biased or unfair, when the response of the participant is influenced by race, gender, age and language and not by the individual perception on the raised issue. in this article, the results of the various statistical procedures were documented and main observations were made. the results of the descriptive statistics, factor analysis, inferential statistics and measure of association (cramer’s v) were portrayed. the study aimed at determining whether different racial, gender, age and language groups display different response patterns with respect to test items in respect of, race, gender, age and language groups. individual items were scrutinized for any form of bias or unfairness. the results of item categorization exercises were reflected. based on the cramer’s v statistics, only race and language showed significant differences on an item level. a closer scrutiny of these items revealed no bias or stereotyping in their wording. suggestions for further research it is suggested that the cai and the items it consists of, are scrutinized in terms of the generally accepted criteria for test and item construction. several limitations in test and item construction have been identified. (see du toit, 2003; petkoon, 2003; smith, 2003 in this regard). it is also suggested that deeper levels of culture are included in the instrument. a possible suggestion is also to focus the instrument on unique aspects of culture, such as myths, stories and rituals about heroes, founders and champions, rather than focusing on generic business processes of organisations. acknowledgement the authors are indebted to prof nico martins of organisational diagnostics for providing the data set for conducting this research. the 56-item cai used in this research was abstracted from a larger item pool collected across various organisations and does not constitute the original organisational culture survey of prof martins. data collected from each organisation by means of the survey were supplemented by qualitative methods. the authors would like to thank riëtte eiselen and her staff from statcon at rau for their professional service and valuable contribution regarding the data analyses for this project. references amsa, p. (1986). organisational culture and work group behaviour: an empirical study, journal of management studies, 23 (3), may, 347-362. ashkanasy, n.m., broadfoot, l.e. & falkus, s. (2000). questionnaire measures of organisational culture. in ashkanasy, n.m., wilderom, c.p.m. and peterson, m.f. (eds), handbook of organisational culture and climate (31-145). beverly hills, ca: sage publications, inc. barley, s.r., meyer, g.w., & gash, d.c. (1988) cultures of culture: academics, practitioners and pragmatics of normative control. administrative science quarterly, 33 ,2460. barnett, g.a. (1988). communication and organisational culture, in goldhaber, g.m. and barnett, g.a. (eds). the handbook of organisational communication, ablex, norwood, 101-30. bookbinder, s.m. (1984). measuring and managing corporate culture, human resource planning, 7 (1), 47-53. cooke, r.a. & rousseau, d.m. (1988). behavioural norms and expectations: a quantitative approach to the assessment of organisational culture, group and organisation studies, 13, 245-273. deal, t.e. & kennedy, a.a. (1982). corporate culture, addisonwesley, reading, ma. denison, d.r. (1996). what is the difference bet ween organisational culture and organisational climate? a native’s point of view on a decade of paradigm wars. academy of management review, 21 ,619-654 bias and fairness of the culture assessment instrument 35 desatnick, r.l. (1986). management climate surveys: a way to uncover an organisation’s culture, personnel, 63 (5), 49-54. du toit, w.f. (2003). the discriminant validity of the culture assessment instrument: a comparison of company cultures. unpublished doctoral thesis, johannesburg rand afrikaans university. elenkov, d.s. (1998). can american management concepts work in russia? a cross-cultural comparative study. california management review, 40 (4), 133-153. foxcroft, c. & roodt, g. (eds.) an introduction to psychological assessment in the south african context. cape town: oxford university press. frost, p.j., moore, l., louis, m., lundberg, c. & martin. (eds.) (1991). reframing organisational culture. beverly hills, ca: sage publications. gabriel, y. (1991). turning facts into stories and stories into facts: a hermeneutic exploration of organisational folklore, human relations, 44 (8), 857-75. groeschl, s. & doherty, l. (2000). conceptualising culture. cross cultural management – an international journal, 7 (4), 12-17. hofstede, g. (1986). the usefulness of the ‘organisational culture’ concept, journal of management studies, 23 (3), 253-57. hui, c.h., & triandis, h.c. (1989). effects of culture and response format on extreme response styles. journal of crosscultural psychology, 20, 296-309 kanjee, a. (2002). cross-cultural test adaptation and translation. in c. foxcroft & g. roodt (eds.) an introduction to psychological assessment in the south african context. cape town: oxford university press. lewis, d. (1995). researching strategic change – methodologies, methods and techniques. in hussey, d. (ed.), rethinking strategic management, john wiley and sons, london, 269316. martin. & meyerson, d. (1988). organisational culture and the denial, channelling and acknowledgement of ambiguity. in pondy, l.r., boland, jr. r.j. & thomas. (eds.) managing ambiguity and change. new york, ny: john wiley & sons. martin, j. (1992). cultures in organisations: three perspectives. new york: oxford university press. martins, n. (1989). organisasiekultuur in ’n finansiële instelling. ongepubliseerde d.phil-proefskrif. pretoria: university of pretoria. nossiter, v. & biberman, g. (1990). projective drawings and metaphor:analysis of organisational culture. journal of managerial psychology, 5 (3) 13-6 osterlind, s.j. (1983). test item bias: quantitative applications in the social sciences. beverly hills, ca: sage publications, inc. o’reilly,c.a.,iii, chatman, j.a. & caldwell, d.f. (1991). people and organisational culture: a profile comparison approach to assessing person-organisational fit. academy of management journal, 34, 487-516. ott, j.s. (1989). the organisational culture perspective. pacific grove,ca: brooks/cole. owen, k. (1989). bias in test items: an exploration of item content and item format. pretoria: human science research council. peters, t.j. & waterman, r.h. (1982). in search of excellence: lessons from america’s best-run companies, new york: harper & row. petkoon, l.j. (2003). the discrimant validity of the culture assessment instrument: a comparison of company sub-cultures. unpublished doctoral thesis, johannesburg rand afrikaans university. reichers, a.e. & schneider, b. (1990). climate and culture:an evolution of constructs. in b.schneider (ed), organisational climate and culture (pp.5-39). san francisco: jossey-bass. rentsch, j.r. (1990). climate and culture:interaction and qualitative differences in organisational meanings. journal of applied psychology, 75, 668-681. reynierse, j.h. (1986). measuring corporate culture, the business magazine, september-october, pp. 64-67. reynierse, j.h. & harker, j.b. (1986). measuring and managing organisational culture, human resource planning, 9 (1), 1-8. reynolds, p.d. (1986). organisational culture as related to industry, position and performance: a preliminary report, journal of management studies, 23, 333-345. rousseau, d.m. (1990) assessing organisational culture: the case for multiple methods. in b. schneider (ed.) organisational climate and culture (pp.153-192). san francisco: jossey-bass. schein, e.h. (1990). organisational culture. american psychologist, 45, 109-119. schepers, j.m. (1992). toetskonstruksie: teorie en praktyk. johannesburg: rau press. smircich, l. (1983). concepts of culture and organisational analysis, administrative science quarterly, 28 (83), 339-59. smith, s.a. (2003). an evaluation of response scale formats of the culture assessment instrument. unpublished doctoral thesis, johannesburg rand afrikaans university. triandis, h.c. (1994). cross-cultural industrial and organisational psychology. in h.c.triandis, m.d. dunnette, & l. hough (eds.), handbook of industrial and organisational psychology (2nd ed., vol.4, pp103-172). palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. tucker, r.w., mccoy, w.j. & evans, l.c. (1990), can questionnaires objectively assess organisational culture? journal of managerial psychology, 5 (4), 4-11. van maanen, j. (1991). the smile factory: work at disneyland. in frost, p.j., moore, l., louis, m., lundberg, c. & martin. (eds). reframing organisational culture. beverly hills, ca: sage publications. wiener, y. (1988). forms of value systems: a focus on organisational effectiveness and cultural change and maintenance, academy of management review, 13 (4), 534545. wilkins, a.l., & ouchi, w.g. (1983). efficient cultures: exploring the relationship bet ween culture and organisational performance. administrative science quarterly, 28, 468-481. wilson, a.m. (2001) understanding organisational culture and the implications for corporate marketing. european journal of marketing, 35 (3/4): 353-367. xenikou, a., & furnham, a. (1996). a correlational and factor analytic study of four questionnaire measures of organisational culture. human relations, 49, 349-371. nkosi, roodt36 5-korsten.qxd the last two decades constituted a period of great discovery and change for business in the global environment. the fall of communism, the development of international trade unions over continents, new political dispensations, the social responsibilities of a world in which poverty increases, international health threats and trade treaties across international borders, has opened new frontiers in management thinking. the knowledge, skills and leadership qualities that managers and leaders need in the new business environment, differ significantly from what they were during times of stability. the re-admission of south africa into the global arena has an impact on south africa business leaders and the decisions they make regarding their competitive advantage. huysamen (2002) indicate that the business leaders in south africa faces the following major challenges: the growing impact of aids on the community; growing urbanisation; low literacy rate of the south african workforce; resource shortages; crime in the business environment; involvement of government in the business sector and the huge amount of unutilised potential in the country and in business. human action played a major role in a large number of spectacular incidents and accidents – and in an even larger number of seemingly mundane events. from the literature it appears that work related errors and their consequences could be disastrous. not only to the individual or those closely involved in the error situation but, due to the scale and nature of the technology, also to society at large – at times regardless of national borders. in this regard reference has been made to the tenerife runway collision (1977), the three mile island nuclear accident (1979), the bhopal tragedy (1984), the challenger and chernobyl disasters (1986), the loss of the mars orbiter (1999), the concorde crash (2000) and the enron (2001) and saambou bank liquidations (2002). from this list and other incidents cited in the literature, it seems reasonable to suggest that errors can occur in all human or human initiated activities – whether it be in transport, the nuclear field, mining, advertising or finance. the implication is that errors are no longer only associated with ‘accidents’ resulting in damage or injury, but that there now seems to be a drive in the literature to study errors in a much broader context – not only across different sectors in the economy but also across different managerial functions. this tendency is also evident in the literature as far as empirical research is concerned. on the basis of reason (1990) it appears that empirical studies progressed from covering the accident and safety field, the field of ergonomics, the engineering field as far as automated and semi-automated systems are concerned, to the current emphasis on managerial decisions. as far as theoretical issues are concerned, an abundance of views, opinions, theories and research approaches regarding human error is to be found in the literature. from the literature it appears that those anchored in the man as information processor and the allied field of human cognition, are the most influential. in short these two approaches concentrate on the reception of information, decisions made on the basis of the information and the eventual execution of responses as the loci or sources of human error. variations in the views of proponents in each of these two approaches seem to be mainly due to the factors (including attitudes), which may affect sound cognition or information processing. the importance of attitudes (or its allied concepts such as world view, orientation and others) in the study of errors can be inferred from the present-day approach to management or organisational behaviour where values and culture are considered as primary factors in determining organisational success and survival. on the basis of the literature there is the temptation to suggest that value and attitude are concepts applicable to the individual and that value and culture are related concepts applicable to the organisation. errors have been defined as “… all those occasions in which a planned sequence of mental or physical activities fails to achieve its intended outcome, and when these cannot be attributed to the intervention of some change agency” (reason, 1990, p. 9). rasmussen (1986, p. 149) defined error in a much simpler way: “… if a system performs less satisfactory than it normally does – because of human act or a disturbance that could have been counteracted by a reasonable human act – the cause will very likely be identified as a human error”. nature of errors according to reason (1990) human error is neither as abundant nor as varied as its vast potential might suggest. not only are errors much scarcer than correct actions, they also tend to take a surprisingly limited number of forms. errors also appear in victor a korsten karel j stanz j blignaut programme in leadership in performance and change department of human resources rand afrikaans university kst@eb.rau.ac.za abstract the aim of this study was to develop a management error orientation questionnaire (meoq) to be used as an instrument to measure the attitude of management towards errors in the workplace. the sample comprised of 232 managers from a variety of business sectors. a factor analysis on 59 items yielded three factors and these factors were interpreted as the attitude of dealing with errors, the risk of errors and error strain. the three scales were subjected to an item analysis and yielded significant levels of reliability. opsommimg die doel van die studie was om ’n bestuursfout oriëntasie vraelys (management error orientation questionniare) te ontwikkel wat as ’n meetinstrument kan dien om die houding van bestuur met betrekking tot foute, in die werksomgewing te bepaal. die steekproef het uit 232 bestuurders uit ’n verskeidenheid van besigheidsektore bestaan. ’n faktoranalise op 59 items het drie faktore opgelewer, naamlik die houding aangaande die hantering van foute, die risiko van foute en foutspanning. die drie faktore is onderwerp aan ’n itemanalise en het aanvaarbare vlakke van betroubaarheid gelewer. the development of a management error orientation questionnaire requests for copies should be addressed to: k stanz, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 37 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (1), 37-44 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (1), 37-44 similar guises across a wide range of mental activities. comparable error forms can be identified in action, speech, perception, recognition, judgement, problem solving, decisionmaking, concept formation, interpretation and the like (rasmussen, 1982). the exact representation of a typical framework for human error is not possible. human error and human cognition is related and a typical description of the aspects of human cognition is not yet fully understood. notwithstanding the differences between psychologists on these subjects regarding structure, processing and representation, reason (1988, 1990) and rasmussen (1986) indicated that most of the contemporary models contain important areas of common ground, which could be classified as control modes, cognitive structures, attentional mode and schematic control mode. the accuracy of error prediction depends largely on the extent to which the factors giving rise to the errors are understood. this understanding requires a theory, which relates to the three major elements in the production of an error: (a) the nature of the task and its environmental circumstances, (b) the mechanisms governing performance and (c) the general nature of the individual (reason, 1990). the notion of intention and error is inseparable and intention comprises of two elements: (a) an expression of the end-state to be obtained, and (b) an indication of the means by which it is to be achieved. both elements may vary widely in their degree of specificity (reason, 1990). “all intentional actions have intentions in action but not all intentional actions have prior intentions” (searle as cited by reason, 1990, p. 6). a distinction between error types and error forms is also used to classif y errors. error type relates to the presumed origin of the error within the stages involved in conceiving and then carrying out an action sequence. the stages are described by reason (1990) under three broad headings: planning, storage, and execution. error theories the literature abounds to a number of taxonomies reflecting a variety of practical concerns and theoretical orientations and ranging from the highly task specific to broad statements of underlying error tendencies. the grouping of error theories could be done by means of the natural science tradition or the cognitive science tradition. the basic assumptions about human cognition form the bases of the modern error theories (reason, 1990). a number of models were developed in the theory on errors (neisser,1976; broadbent, 1984; norman and draper, 1986). the most practical model was the one developed by rasmussen (1982) who developed the skill-ruleknowledge framework in an effort to construct an executable taxonomy of human errors. the framework defined three performance levels: � skill-based level (sb). at this level human performance is governed by stored patterns of pre-programmed instructions. errors at this level will be related to the intrinsic variability of force, space or time coordination. � rule-based level (rb). solutions of familiar problems are governed by stored rules. errors at this level are associated with the misclassification of situations leading to the application of the wrong rule or with the incorrect recall of procedures. � knowledge based level (kb). actions must be planned on-line, using conscious analytical processes and previous gained knowledge or experience. errors would therefore arise from resource limitations or incomplete or incorrect knowledge. rasmussen (1982) identified eight stages of decision-making (or problem solution): activation, observation, identification, interpretation, evaluation, goal selection, procedure selection and activation. the major contribution from this framework has been to chart the shortcuts that human decision makers take in real-life situations. evaluation of errors the focus on the evaluation of errors is stressed for two main reasons. first, errors have been deeply investigated from different theoretical perspectives and in a number of environmental settings (reason, 1990). it is thus possible to refer to data already collected and to consolidated theories to interpret and even to classif y a given deviation from the correct course of action. second, errors are worthwhile indicators signalling all those circumstances in which environmental characteristics do not match with cognitive abilities (rizzo, parlangeli, marchigiani, & bagnara, 1996). with few exceptions, error analyses address mainly the quantitative issue (norman, 1983). these analyses cope with the number or the rate of errors that are produced in a given session of interaction, but leave to the research teams in charge for finding a solution for the different types of errors. the few approaches that have been devised to address the qualitative issue mainly focus on the occurrence of the error, not on its detection and recovery. they provide guidelines for reducing the occurrence of errors or for minimizing their impact but rarely for supporting their detection and recovery (rizzo, et al., 1996). one of the few set of guidelines that cope with the issue of error detection is the one put forward by norman (1983). this set of principles has, however, some drawbacks that make the principles only partially applicable to all the types of human error. indeed, the guidelines are applicable to ‘slips’ and rarely to ‘mistakes’ (rizzo, et al., 1996). error orientation errors and attitudes are important issues in work psychology for a number of reasons. errors produce stress, lead to accidents, influences quality outputs, has an effect on performance and will affect the culture of the organisation (van dyck, 1997). the attitudes towards errors and how one deal with them are indications of a company’s organisational culture (baron, 1986). bureaucratic companies usually have the attitude to prevent errors from happening at all costs, while the entrepreneurial business usually have a more positive attitude towards error and what can be learnt from them (van dyck, frese and sonnentag, 2000). if a company attempts to change its culture one needs a measure of error orientation (van dyck, 2000). rybowiak, garst, frese and batinic (1999) found the main concepts of error orientation to be: (a) analysing error occurrences; (b) communication with colleagues; (c) short term competence error handling and recovery; (d) long term learning from errors; (e) anticipation of errors; and (f) adequate risk taking. together these concepts enhance a successful error orientation approach. error management is impeded by (g) strain caused by errors, and (h) the covering up of errors. rybowiak et al., (1999) developed one of the first questionnaires aimed at measuring the orientation towards errors – the error orientation questionnaire (eoq). the publication indicates that error orientation can be conceptualised within the general coping concept. according to this research team, the coping concept refers to the extent that an individual can stay calm in the face of errors, to cover up the fact that an error has occurred, as opposed to communicating about them, and to actively deal with an error or to learn from it. in the development of the eoq (rybowiak, et al., 1999) a set of six scales – error competence, learning from error, error risk taking, error strain, error anticipation, covering up errors – for measuring orientation towards errors. from the items included korsten, stanz38 in the scales, they suggest that error competence and learning from errors are related to self-efficacy, planand action orientation; error risk taking was related to need for achievement, control rejection and readiness for change; error strain was related to ill-health; error anticipation implied a negative outlook on life; and covering up was related both to environmental factors (career stress, job security) and to lack of self-esteem, rejecting responsibility and control. according to the authors the strength of their study was the fact that they could cross-validate the factor structure and that the scales were developed in a representative sample. previous studies have indicated that an error culture does exist in companies (rybowiak, garst, frese and batinic 1999; van dyck, 2000). van dyck (2000) developed an error culture questionnaire and concluded that beliefs, attitudes, norms and behavioural approaches regarding errors could be shared and that error culture does exist. the reaction of management toward errors could be placed in two basic categories – punishment and empathy. the replication and the function of exploratory behaviour, and the effect of training were researched. dormann & frese, (1994) and van dyck, (2000) published results on the managing of error culture in organisations. bear (1999) studied the influence of error management climate and psychological safet y climate on the relationship bet ween modern manufacturing practices and company performance. other studies include error training and the role of goal orientation (heimbeck, 1999), and the role of error cult ure on organisational performance (van dyck, et al., 2000). attitudes attitudes are a central part of human individuality. in most instances it is most certainly the case that a persons’ attitude towards a particular attitude object may influence his or her behaviour towards this object. moreover an attitude toward one object may influence behaviour (and attitudes) towards other attitude objects (oppenheim, 1992). attitudes are central to the subject of social psychology because they are central to social lives. individuals are easily categorised according to their attitudes (e.g. conservatives or feminists). an attitudes statement is “… a single sentence that expresses a point of view, a belief, a preference, a judgement, an emotional feeling, or a view on something” (oppenheim, 1992, p. 11). bohner and wänke (2002) simply define an attitude as being a summary evaluation of an object of thought. baron (1986, p. 140) defines attitudes as “… relatively lasting clusters of feelings, beliefs, and behaviour tendencies directed toward specific persons, ideas, objects or groups.” attitudes could be developed through natural selection (tesser, 1993) or through external influences which include exposure (bornstein, 1989), contiguity, imitation, reinforcement, observation (bohner & wänke, 2002) and persuasion (howard, 1997). attitude and behaviour various indicators of attitude strength as well as personality variables have been identified as moderators of the attitudebehaviour relation (bohner & wänke, 2002). high correlations though bet ween attitude and behaviour do not provide sufficient evidence for inferring that attitude cause behaviour. behaviour may influence attitude. third variables such as salient context-dependent beliefs influence both attitude reports and behaviour. schwartz and bohner (2001) indicate that if these context factors remain stable, high attitude-behaviour correlations could be expected. attitudes do predict behaviour but they do not cause behaviour. attitudes are mostly perceived as straight lines, running from positive, through neutral, to negative feelings about the object or issue in question. the general attempts at measurements are then to place a person’s attitude on the linear continuum in such a way that it can be described as mildly positive, strongly negative and so on – preferably in terms of a numerical score or else by ranking (oppenheim, 1992). attitudes will play an important role in the operations and management of a business. work-related attitudes often play a key role in shaping the behaviour and actions in organisations. the understanding of attitudes of individuals will enhance the understanding of the people side of the business. the views individuals hold about their jobs and organisations often exert powerful effects upon their performance and other aspects of organisational behaviour. the most successful methods to change attitudes are based on approaches of persuasion and dissonance (baron, 1986). key work-related attitudes that indicate the role attitudes can play in the business and management environment includes job satisfaction, organisational commitment, prejudice and dissonance. on the basis of the importance attached to the role of attitudes, values and culture as far as errors are concerned, the main purpose of the study then was to develop a questionnaire through which the attitudes of managers towards errors can be measured. the study addresses the issue of the attitudes of management towards errors and a questionnaire will be developed to measure this attitude. method participants the sample was chosen from a variety of business sectors in south africa. a basic database with potential companies was drawn up. no distinction was made in terms of the size of the company and the selection of businesses included large multinational corporations, public companies, private companies and individually owned businesses. managers at the level of middle management, senior management and at executive level were approached within the identified businesses to complete the questionnaire. it was expected that the respondent has some subordinates reporting to him/her or at least be in decision-making managerial position. procedure a senior executive of the target companies was contacted and after receiving confirmation that the company could be approached for the research, the questionnaire was distributed through electronic mail to either a contact person in the company (who would further distribute it within the company) or to the contact list supplied by the company. the questionnaire was returned to a dedicated electronic mail address. in some cases hard copies of the questionnaire were distributed when requested. it is difficult to determine an accurate response rate for electronically distributed questionnaires since the number of questionnaires forwarded from one participant to the next, can not be established. the researcher sent out 1386 questionnaires electronically to 283 businesses and 150 hard copies were distributed to individuals. in total 247 questionnaires were returned of which 85% were returned electronically. of the 247 questionnaires that were returned, fifteen were discarded due to the incorrect completion thereof and 232 were statistically analysed. the composition of the population and sample is presented in table 1. the sector analysis indicate that the manufacturing environment dominated the sample as 25% of the participants came from this sector and none of the other sectors reaching more than 10% participation. management error orientation questionnaire 39 table 1 biographical particulars of the respondents sample number percentage sector academic 2 0,9 agriculture 13 5,6 communication 13 5,6 construction 9 3,9 education 9 3,9 financial services 19 8,2 government 4 1,7 information technology 17 7,3 manufacturing 59 25,4 mining 3 1,3 retail 16 6,9 service provider 23 9,9 social services 2 0,9 transport 22 9,4 other 21 9,1 total 232 100,0 number of employees < 50 101 43,5 51 – 200 40 17,2 201 – 1000 47 20,3 > 1000 44 19,0 total 232 100,0 business turnover < r10m 60 25,9 r10m – r50m 50 21,6 r50m – r100m 21 9,0 r100m – r500m 43 18,5 >r500m 45 19,4 no turnover 13 5,6 total 232 100,0 management level owner 22 9,5 director 31 13,3 senior manager 84 36,2 middle manager 63 27,2 junior manager 19 8,2 other 13 5,6 total 232 100,0 academic qualifications grade 12 and lower 26 11,2 degree/diploma 101 43,6 post graduate 105 45,2 total 232 100,0 gender male 174 75,0 female 58 25,0 total 232 100,0 age < 35 64 28,4 36 – 45 100 44,5 >45 61 27,1 total 225 100,0 from table 1 it can be seen that the majority of the participants are general managers from the senior management level and that they have a tertiary qualification, are male and in the age group 36 to 45. the measuring instrument the questionnaire developed in this st udy consists of two sections – a biographical section and the management error orientation questionnaire (meoq). the management error orientation questionnaire (meoq) builds on research of individual error management orientation (rybowiak et al., 1999). the meoq consists of 59 items, which were developed within eleven theoretical attitude factors related directly to the management of errors. these factors are error competence, learning from errors, error risk taking, error strain, error ant icipat ion, covering up errors, error communication, thinking about errors, helping with errors, prevention of errors and general attitude towards error. the first six of these categories were taken from the error orientation questionnaire (eoq) that was developed by rybowiak et al. (1999). each category has a minimum of four questions. all items in the meoq are endorsed on a five point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). statistical analysis the factor analysis on item scores was conducted by the statistical consultation service of the rand afrikaans university according to a procedure suggested by schepers (1992). results factor analysis of items the 59 items of the meoq were intercorrelated and subjected to a principal factor analysis. due to a lack of space, the intercorrelation matrix is not reproduced here. based on kaiser’s criterion (1961), 13 factors were postulated and extracted. the obtained factor matrix was rotated to simple structure by means of a varimax rotation. subscores were calculated in respect of 12 factors with acceptable loadings. five items were omitted during the initial factor analysis. factor analysis of the subscores of the meoq the 12 subscores were intercorrelated and subjected to a principal factor analysis. the obtained factor matrix was rotated to simple structure by means of a direct oblimin rotation. the intercorrelations of the subscores are given in table 2. three factors were postulated and extracted. the three factors accounted for 51,97% of the variance of the test scores. the eigenvalues are presented in table 3. table 3 indicates that three eigenvalues are greater than unit y. table 4 shows the rotated factor matrix of the meoq. from an inspection of table 4 it appears that all three factors are relatively well determined. factor i has six moderate to high loadings and factor ii and iii have three loadings each. the intercorrelations bet ween the three factors are given in table 5. two items were omitted during the second-order factor analysis. table 5 shows that factor ii (the risk of errors) and factor iii (error strain) is positively correlated. three scales were formed corresponding to the three factors by including all the items with high loadings on each factor. an item analysis was performed in respect of scale i with 37 items (table 6), scale ii with 6 items (table 7) and scale iii with 9 items (table 8) and cronbach alpha coefficients of 0,937; 0,701 and 0,717 respectively were found. table 6 shows that in scale i the item-total correlations range from 0,118 to 0,812. the scale is internally relatively inconsistent and no items were rejected. the high reliability coefficient was sufficient for the purpose of constructing a meoq. korsten, stanz40 table 3 eigenvalues of unreduced intercorrelation matrix root eigenvalues % of cumulative variance % 1 3,027 25,226 25,228 2 1,830 15,252 40,480 3 1,379 11,492 51,972 4 0,927 7,728 59,700 5 0,843 7,027 66,727 6 0,797 6,644 73,371 7 0,689 5,744 79,115 8 0,621 5,176 84,291 9 0,605 5,041 89,332 10 0,525 4,375 93,707 11 0,500 4,169 97,876 12 0,255 2,124 100,000 trace 12,000 table 4 rotated factor matrix of the meoq variables items k factor i factor ii factor iii h 2 j sfs1 41, 52, 40, 29, 33, 22, 26 0,651 -0,048 -0,505 0,821 16, 1, 54, 30, 45, 28, 51, 12, 14, 8, 27, 57, 46, 53, 38, 59, 3, 11, 7, sfs2 49, 4, 56, 39, 36, 5 6 0,230 -0,064 0,305 0,501 sfs3 43, 13, 32, 31, 44, 48 6 0,371 0,342 0,144 0,258 sfs4 20, 23, 47 3 0,192 -0,630 -0,087 0,488 sfs5 58, 9 2 0,655 0,102 -0,059 0,446 sfs6 37 1 0,306 -0,419 -0,040 0,301 sfs7 19, 25 2 -0,011 -0,066 0,645 0,405 sfs8 55, 35 2 -0,033 -0,600 0,109 0,344 sfs9 18 1 0,500 -0,134 0,117 0,262 sfs10 50 1 -0,136 -0,064 0,305 0,122 sfs11 42 1 0,453 -0,055 -0,121 0,241 sfs12 26 1 0,433 -0,233 -0,088 0,287 52 37 6 9 table 5 matrix of intercorrelation of rotated factors factor i factor ii factor iii factor i 1,000 factor ii -0,007 1,000 factor iii -0,191 0,212 1,000 in scale ii the item-total correlations range from 0,275 to 0,622 and although internally consistent and no items were rejected, there were only six items in this scale and the reliability coefficient was just above the standard of 0,7. the scale does fit the purpose of constructing the meoq and was retained. the obtained reliability for scale iii was 0,717. the item-total correlations varied from 0,224 to 0,464, which indicate internal consistency. no items were lost and the scale comprises nine items. management error orientation questionnaire 41 table 2 the matrix of intercorrelations of simplified factor scores simplified factor score simplified 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 factor score 1 1,000 2 -0,252 1,000 3 0,125 0,304 1,000 4 0,379 -0,271 -0,116 1,000 5 0,544 0,076 0,200 0,052 1,000 6 0,261 -0,182 -0,041 0,383 0,220 1,000 7 -0,426 0,352 0,049 -0,142 -0,115 -0,118 1,000 8 0,042 -0,152 -0,224 0,382 -0,047 0,234 0,042 1,000 9 0,294 0,031 0,141 0,156 0,317 0,285 0,014 0,031 1,000 10 -0,247 0,180 -0,045 -0,012 -0,122 -0,159 0,211 0,016 -0,071 1,000 11 0,424 -0,037 0,159 0,167 0,287 0,163 -0,085 0,004 0,185 -0,212 1,000 12 0,442 -0,110 -0,026 0,269 0,297 0,242 -0,122 0,111 0,278 -0,59 0,275 1,000 discussion the 59 items written for the meoq were subjected to a factor analysis and the results obtained in the present study yielded three factors. the three factors that emerged were identified as factor i: the attitude of dealing with errors, factor ii: the risk of errors and factor iii: error strain (stressed caused by errors). a content analysis of the theoretical categories indicate that more items would have been lost (26 against 7) if the original theoretical design would have been used as the meoq. in the exploratory factor analysis one of the final factors that was formed (factor iii), was named error stain and in the content analysis the factor error strain with 9 items were eliminated. the attitude of dealing with errors can be said to represent aspects like competency in dealing with errors, the communication of errors, the prevention of errors, thinking about errors, helping with errors and general attitude about errors. this factor relates to the practical aspects of error management. the risk of errors is an indication of the effect that errors could have on the business and is specifically related to management. this factor addresses risk management and korsten, stanz42 table 6 item statistics of scale i: the attitude of dealing with erors item description n (xg) (sg) (rgx) (rgxsg) q1 when an error occurs, management at this organisation usually knows how to rectif y it 226 3,735 1,042 0,637 0,664 q3 in our organisation management take into account that errors will be made from time to time 226 3,628 1,039 0,434 0,451 q7* in our organisation errors will not be admitted if it has not been detected 226 3,080 1,201 0,393 0,472 q8 in our organisation, when someone makes an error, s/he shares it with others so that the 226 3,115 1,172 0,602 0,706 same mistake won’t be made again q9 in this organisation, management spends a lot of time on how errors could have been prevented 226 2,885 1,277 0,513 0,655 q11 it is a goal of management in this organisation that work gets done without errors 226 4,066 0,984 0,472 0,465 q12 management in our organisation are directly involved in the correction of errors 226 3,611 1,111 0,610 0,678 q13 for an organisation to survive it is essential to work without errors 226 3,027 1,286 0,282 0,363 q14 when employees in our organisation make an error, they can ask others for advice on 226 3,925 1,006 0,641 0,645 how to continue q16 management believes that the open discussion of errors is fruitful 226 3,863 1,152 0,704 0,811 q17 in this organisation management will discipline those covering up mistakes 226 3,677 1,157 0,337 0,390 q18 management plan for mistakes to happen in our business 226 2,726 1,114 0,312 0,348 q22 quick and efficient correction of errors has a high priority in this organisation 226 3,991 1,112 0,725 0,806 q26 when people start to work on a new task in this organisation, they are aware that errors 226 3,686 0,949 0,443 0,420 can occur q27* in this organisation the discussion of errors with others serves no point 226 3,951 1,201 0,605 0,727 q28 in general management in this organisation warn each other about errors that might come up 226 3,535 1,075 0,637 0,685 q29 after an error, management thinks through how to correct it 226 3,854 0,980 0,769 0,754 q30 when individuals in our organisation are unable to correct an error they turn to management 226 3,858 0,908 0,599 0,544 q31 management believe work can be done without error if enough effort is put into it 226 3,535 0,980 0,172 0,169 q32 people who make errors should be disciplined 226 2,420 1,126 0,178 0,2004 q33 in our organisation, errors are promptly corrected 226 3,615 1,115 0,760 0,847 q38* the discussion of errors between managers in our organisation has limited purpose 226 3,739 1,115 0,530 0,591 q40 since errors and their solutions provide important information for our work, we discuss 226 3,633 1,051 0,786 0,826 them within our organisation q41 in our organisation the occurrence of an error, is analysed thoroughly 226 3,443 1,173 0,812 0,952 q42 if people in our organisation are unable to continue their work after an error, they can 226 3,212 1,115 0,420 0,468 rely on others to complete the task q43 making errors is unnecessary 226 2,960 1,259 0,206 0,259 q44* most errors happen due to incapable workers 226 3,562 1,119 0,118 0,132 q45 although mistakes are made in our organisation, we don’t let go of the final goal 226 4,248 0,806 0,575 0,464 q46 management in this organisation believes that errors point to areas of improvement 226 3,805 0,974 0,596 0,581 q48 management in our organisation gets upset when errors occur 226 3,504 1,003 0,099 0,099 q51 management in this organisation discuss errors among one another 226 3,566 1,032 0.670 0,691 q52 if something went wrong, sufficient time is taken in our organisation to think it through 226 3,274 1,101 0,789 0,869 q53 error management is part of the strategic thoughts of our business 226 2,956 1,232 0,654 0,806 q54 management organises work in such a way that the correction of errors will be as easy as possible 226 3,230 1,135 0,724 0,822 q57* management prefer to keep their errors to themselves 226 3,217 1,201 0,520 0,625 q58 management are focussing on the possibility of errors happening 226 2,850 0,995 0,501 0,499 q59* in our organisation employees that admit errors are asking for trouble 226 3,730 1,201 0,520 0,625 (rgxsg) index of reliability of item g (rgx) correlation of item g with total score (sg) standard deviation of the item g (xg) mean of the item cronbach alpha = 0,937 number of items = 37 means of items = 3,508 standard deviation of mean of items = 0,421 * inverse items could be preventative of nature. error strain (factor iii) is related to the stress that is caused by errors happening or the possibility of errors happening. on the surface it appears that there is a connection between risk of errors and error strain with a positive correlation between these factors. the attitude of dealing with errors will be preventative in nature and the risk of error and error strain relates to attitudes once the error has happened. the results of this study cannot be compared to other similar research. rybowiak et al. (1999) developed the eoq with which the orientation of individuals in terms of errors was tested. their study indicated six constructs in the empirical model of the eoq and the results of the present study supported the reliabilities that were found in relation of the eoq. although differently worded, the three scales that were found to be reliable in the meoq also correlated well in the eoq. it was found in the meoq that the cross-validation of the eight empirical groupings that were originally used in eoq, was not reliable and that only two of those theoretical factors of the eoq would have correlated well with the final factors of the meoq if they were to be used in the meoq. as the three scales found in the meoq were done through exploratory factor analysis, and the final questionnaire included most of the questions that were used in the eoq, it is concluded that the exploratory scales of the meoq carries more weight than the scales in the eoq. it was also concluded that error orientation differs between individuals (as was tested in the eoq) and managers (as was tested in the meoq) and that different factors determine the attitude between individuals and managers. in pract ical terms the meoq could be used when new managers are appointed, in career contingency plans, in the development of a management team and when individuals are being promoted in the corporate hierarchy. the instrument could be used in the strategic planning process of a company to determine level of error orientation as an important internal factor and could indicate whether it is a strong point or weak point within the organisation. in conclusion, the present study opens up new research possibilities, for instance the determination of management orientation among gender groups and in the south african context among different race groups. the testing of management attitudes in high-risk business sectors should further be determined. management error orientation questionnaire 43 table 7 factor scale ii (stress caused by error): descriptive statistics item description n (xg) (sg) (rgx) (rgxsg) q20 management in this company encourages taking calculated risks 228 3,009 1,172 0,431 0,505 q23 management in our organisation has the view that they would rather make mistakes 228 3,224 1,220 0,505 0,616 than to do nothing q35 for the organisations to achieve something, it has to risk the occurrence of errors 228 3,746 1,097 0,275 0,302 q37 management are not surprised by mistakes because they expect them 228 2,860 1,027 0,382 0,392 q47 management believes that it is fine to risk an error every once in a while 228 3,026 1,090 0,622 0,678 q55 to get better in what we do in our business, we don’t mind that something could go wrong 228 2,973 1,009 0,331 0,334 (rgxsg) index of reliability of item g (rgx) correlation of item g with total score (sg) standard deviation of the item g (xg) mean of the item cronbach alpha = 0,701 number of items = 6 means of items = 3,140 standard deviation of mean of items = 0,320 table 8 factor scale iii (the risk of making errors): descriptive statistics item description n (xg) (sg) (rgx) (rgxsg) q4 management in our organisation feel stressed when errors happen 229 3,572 1,047 0,402 0,421 q5 during their work people at this organisation are often concerned that errors might occur 229 3,319 1,030 0,255 0,263 q19 employees in this organisations are often relieved if someone other than they themselves 229 3,044 1,173 0,416 0,488 makes an error q25 management in this organisation are relieved if an error occurs in another department 229 2,552 1,240 0,400 0,496 q36 management in our organisation are afraid of mistakes happening 229 3,044 1,154 0,464 0,536 q39 announcing errors that you have made to others will have a negative effect on your career 229 2,432 1,203 0,485 0,583 q49 in this organisation, management are often surprised when mistakes occur 229 2,756 0,960 0,400 0,384 q50 there are advantages in covering up errors 229 1,611 0,938 0,224 0,210 q56 in this organisation management gets irritated when errors occur 229 3,288 1,086 0,458 0,497 (rgxsg) index of reliability of item g (rgx) correlation of item g with total score (sg) standard deviation of the item g (xg) mean of the item cronbach alpha = 0,717 number of items = 9 means of items = 2,846 standard deviation of mean of items = 0,593 references baron, r.a. (1986). behaviour in organisations, 2nd ed. borton: allyn and bacon inc. bear, m. (1999). the influence of error management climate, and psychological safety climate on the relationship between modern manufacturing practices and company performance. unpublished master’s thesis, university of giessen, giessen. bohner, g and wänke, m. (2002). attitude and attitude change. new york: psychology press. bornstein, r.f. (1989). exposure and effect: overview and metaanalyses of research, 1968-1987. psychological bulletin, 106, 265-289. broadbent, d.e. (1984). the maltese cross: a new simplistic model for memory. the behavioral and brain sciences, 7, 55-94. dormann, t. and frese, m. (1994). error training: replication and the function of exploratory behavior. international journal of human-computer interaction, 6, 365-372. heimbeck, d. (1999). error training and the role of goal orientation. in training and motivation: the function of implementation intentions, goal orientation and errors for performance. doctoral dissertation, university of amsterdam, amsterdam. howard, d.j. (1997). familiar phrases as peripheral persuasion cues. journal of experimental social psychology, 33, 231-243. huysamen, c.a. (2002). behavioural and personality correlations in transactional and transformational leadership. unpublished doctor’s dissertation. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. neisser, u. (1976). cognition and reality: principles and implications of cognitive psychology. san francisco: w.h. freeman & co. norman, d.a. (1986). reflections on cognition and parallel distributed processing. in d. rummelhart and j. mcclelland (eds.), parallel distributed processing (vol 2). cambridge: mit press. norman, d.a. (1983). design rules based on analysis of human error. communications of the acm, 26, 254-258. oppenheim, a.m. (1992). questionnaire design, inter viewing and attitude measurement. london: printer publishers. rasmussen, j. (1982). human errors: a taxonomy for describing human malfunction in industrial installations. journal of occupational accidents. 1982, 4, 311-335. rasmussen, j. (1986). information processing and human-machine interaction. amsterdam: elsevier science publishers b.v. reason, j. (1988). modelling the basic error tendencies of human operators. reliability engineering and system safety, 22, 137-153. reason, j. (1990). human error. cambridge: cambridge university press. rizzo, a., parlangeli, o, marchigiani, e. and bagnara, s. (1996). the management of human errors in user-centered design. sigchi bulletin, 28 (3), 6-10. rybowiak, v., garst, h., frese, m. and batinic, b. (1999). error orientation questionnarie (eoq): reliability, validity, and different language equivalence. journal of organizational behavior, 20 527-547. schepers, j.m. (1992). toetskonstruksie: teorie en praktyk. johannesburg: rau press. schwartz, n. and bohner, g. (2001). the construction of attitudes. in a. tesser & n schwartz (eds.), blackwell handbook of social psychology: vol. 1. intra-individual processes (p 436-457). oxford: blackwell. tesser, a. (1993). the importance of heritability in psychological research: the case of attitudes. psychological review, 100, 129-142. van dyck. c. (1997). error climate and management issues: its links to organizational performance. in r pepermans, a. buelens, c.j. vinkenburg & p.g.w. jansen (eds), managerial behaviour and practices. amersfoort: acco publishers. van dyck, c. (2000). putting error to good use: error management culture in organizations. unpublished doctoral dissertation, the vrije universiteit, amsterdam, the netherlands. van dyck, c., frese, m. and sonnentag, s. (2000). error management culture and organizational performance: on mastering the challenges of errors. article submitted for publication. korsten, stanz44 article information authors: diane banks1 gert roodt1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: gert roodt email: groodt@uj.ac.za postal address: po box 524, auckland park 2006, south africa dates: received: 07 oct. 2010 accepted: 12 jan. 2011 published: 29 mar. 2011 how to cite this article: banks, d., & roodt, g. (2011). the efficiency and quality dilemma: what drives south african call centre management performance indicators? sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #331, 17 pages. doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.331 copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) the efficiency and quality dilemma: what drives south african call centre management performance indicators? in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction • literature review    • operational efficiency in call centres    • quality work performance    • the conflict between efficiency and quality    • management practices    • conclusions about the literature review • research design    • research approach    • research method       • sample and sampling procedure       • measuring instrument       • research procedure       • data analysis • research results • discussion    • summary of the findings       • operational efficiency and the focus on quality in the call centre       • findings that challenge the focus on quality interactions       • the conflict between efficiency and quality in management       • the conflict between efficiency and quality in the industry    • implications for managers    • limitations of the study    • future research    • conclusion • references abstract (back to top) orientation: call centres have become principal channels of communication with customers. therefore, companies attempt to reduce costs and improve the quality of their interactions with customers simultaneously. these objectives are often conflicting and call centre managers struggle to balance the efficiency and quality priorities of the business. research purpose: this study explored the key performance indicators that drive management practices in the south african call centre industry in the context of the dilemma between efficiency and quality. motivation for the study: the south african government has identified call centres as a method of creating jobs and foreign investment. management practices affect centres’ performance. understanding these practices will help to achieve these aims. research design, approach and method: the researchers used a web-based questionnaire in a survey with south african call centre managers in more than 44 different organisations that represented nine industry sectors. main findings: this study indicated that the dilemma between efficiency and quality is prevalent in south african call centres and that efficiency key performance indicators drive management practices. practical/managerial implications: the inconsistencies the study reported mean that south african organisations should assess the alignment between their organisational visions, the strategic intentions of their call centres and the performance measures they use to assess their call centre managers. contribution/value-add: this study adds to the relatively small amount of empirical research available on the call centre industry in south africa. it contributes to the industry’s attempt to position itself favourably for local and international outsourcing opportunities. introduction (back to top) the strategic role of call centres is changing. it has become the primary way of delivering services and the main source of contact for customers. companies attempt to achieve customer satisfaction by offering their customers easy access to their services and products whilst lowering their costs through a consolidated approach. this approach has its problems and managers struggle to balance the efficiency and quality imperatives of their businesses. this research focuses on these conflicting objectives and investigates the performance indicators that drive management practices in the south african call centre industry. an array of easily accessible measures, which call centre technology offers, enables efficiency. these measures focus on call quantities and performance targets and offer data like: • the number of calls waiting • the proportion of calls answered • the average call duration • the customer waiting time. neely, bourne and kennerley (2003) suggested that there is too much measuring. radnor and mcguire (2004) found that the role of call centre managers is administrative rather than managerial. managers focus on efficiency measures rather than on managing the quality of the customer experience – the courtesy, friendliness, and enthusiasm of call centre agents (ccas). call centre managers have to decide on practices that will meet the companies’ expectations of rationalised operations whilst ensuring employee wellbeing and customer satisfaction. numerous researchers have investigated the conflicting nature of these call centre objectives well (bain & taylor, 2000; batt, 1999; houlihan, 2002; kinnie, hutchinson & purcell, 2000; taylor & bain, 1999; wallace, eagleson & waldersee, 2000). these studies suggest that the two objectives – efficiency and quality – are contradictory. dean and rainnie (2009, p. 326) captured the discrepancy in their reference to the call centre as ‘a unique and contradictory service environment’. there is an increased interest in the south african call centre industry as a way of creating jobs and foreign investment. this has given the industry a high level of visibility. trade and industry minister rob davies stated, at the 2009 launch of the department of trade and industry investment call centre in soweto, that ‘the call centre is an apex government priority in terms of the cabinet plan of action of 2007’ (department of trade and industry 2009a, para.2). nimrod zalk, deputy director-general of the industrial development division, supported this. at the business process outsourcing week, held in november 2009, zalk suggested that the government has prioritised and committed itself to the off-shoring industry (department of trade and industry, 2009b). this study contributes to the research on call centres in three ways: • there have been relatively few empirical studies on the local call centre industry. the south african government’s interest in call centres makes this industry important. therefore, the study aimed to add to the body of research. • in an overview of the current literature on call centres, robinson and morley (2007) and russel (2008) concluded that research has concentrated on the labour processes call centres use and the experiences of ccas. this study intended to use information from call centre managers to establish what drives call centre management practices in south africa and how these relate to the dilemma between efficiency and quality. • the third addresses burgess and connel’s (2004) suggestion that most call centre literature comes from case studies. this is evident in the empirical studies on the call centre industry in south africa. they suggested that surveys should supplement the current research. this study used a survey that elicited responses from more than 44 different businesses representing nine industry sectors. this provided a broad foundation on which to base conclusions. batt and moynihan (2002, p. 18) suggested that managing front-line employees in the technology-intensive call centre environment is one of the biggest challenges facing call centre managers and that the current literature has not investigated the ‘black box’ that links management practices to performance outcomes fully. therefore, this paper aims to offer more insight into south african call centre management practices and to contribute to the industry’s attempt to position itself favourably for international and local outsourcing opportunities. in exploring management practices in south african call centres, the study investigates the following core research question: ‘the efficiency and quality dilemma: what drives south african call centre management performance indicators?’ the specific research sub-objectives for this study are to: • establish whether there is a strong emphasis on operational efficiency in call centres • determine whether there is a predominant focus on the quality measures of work performance in call centres • determine whether there is conflict between efficiency and quality measures • establish which performance management practices call centres use. a secondary objective of the study is to compare south african call centre management practices with australian practices (where possible). this explains the frequent references to robinson and morley (2006; 2007). the rest of the article is in four parts. it starts with a review of the existing literature relevant to these sub-objectives. a description of the research design follows. the study then presents the results of the survey, a discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications and concludes with suggestions for further research. literature review (back to top) the call centre industry has grown rapidly with the development of telecommunication technology and its integration with information technology. companies identify call centres as powerful customer channels. they also attempt to reduce costs and improve the quality of their customer interactions simultaneously. holman and wood defined a call centre as: a work environment in which the main business is mediated by computer and telephone-based technologies that enable the efficient distribution of incoming calls (or allocation of outgoing calls) to available staff, and permit customer-employee interaction simultaneously with the use of display screen equipment and the instant access to, and inputting of, information. (cited in holman, wall, clegg, sparrow & howard, 2002, p. 4) christina wood, the director of the 2007 inaugural contact centre global forum, stated that over 80% of all customer interactions happen through call centres and that the industry employs six million people worldwide in this industry (khuzwayo, 2007). in today’s business world, call centres are an inevitable component of service delivery. one would rarely speak to anybody else but a cca to resolve a query, to find additional information, to lodge a complaint or, in some industries, to buy a service or product. call centres have become multi-channelled communication centres that offer fax, email, web chat and the internet, in addition to the traditional telephone, as communication channels for the customer. companies choose call centres as their preferred form of interaction with customers. call centres offer the first, and often the only, point of contact and they use call centres to differentiate their products and services from those of their competitors (armistead, kiely, hole & prescott, 2002). call centres have moved from occupying a relatively small niche to being a significant part of the global economy. the call centre industry in south africa has also experienced tremendous growth. the south african national business process outsourcing (bpo) and call centre report of 2008 suggested that there were about 1500 operational call centres. they employed between 150 000 and 170 000 ccas nationally (multimedia group & c3africa, 2008). this report showed that most call centres were based in gauteng (71.6%), that there was a tendency towards smaller centres with fewer than twenty seats, and that south africa was largely a captive environment where organisations own the centre and use it exclusively for their own purposes (65.5%). the most significant function the centres perform is to address the queries of customers. the financial services industry used call centres the most. call centres are highly measured environments. developments in the computer and telephone-based technologies have allowed call centre managers, from their desks, to track the number of calls that ccas take within any given time, the speed with which they answer the calls, the duration of the calls, the number of abandoned calls and the time that ccas spend off the phone. in fact, managers are able to monitor every minute that ccas spend in the office. in addition to these quantitative measures, calls are recorded. this enables managers to listen to conversations in order to assess the ccas’ tone of voice, enthusiasm and friendliness. the focus on monitoring performance has elicited various investigations into the effect that this practice has on ccas and managers. some authors defined the ccas’ work as closely monitored and controlled by technology, typically very routine and monotonous with little opportunity for personal discretion and poorly paid (bain, watson, mulvey, taylor & gall, 2002; taylor & bain, 1999). others presented a more positive picture. they suggested that call centre work varied widely and that there were environments that offered ccas some flexibility and discretion (deery & kinnie, 2002; frenkel, tam, korczynski & shire, 1998; korczynski, 2002). richardson and howcroft (2006, p. 60), in their classification of call centres as ‘utopian’ or ‘dystopian’ environments supported these opposing views. constant monitoring, excessive surveillance, de-motivated ccas and high production targets characterise the latter. in contrast, empowered agents, who had the flexibility and knowledge to adopt a customer-focused approach, typify utopian environments. houlihan (2001) found that call centre managers had become preoccupied with logistics and statistics. managers focused on predicting call peaks and used technology to manage call-handling patterns proactively: we witness a separation of the system management and ‘man’ management tasks ... the call centre is taking away many of the choices managers make about how they do their job. (houlihan, 2011, p. 212) call centre managers were expected to maintain required service levels (the percentage of calls answered within a specific period) and the quality of service (the courtesy, friendliness, and enthusiasm the ccas offer) without exceeding operational budgets (halliden & monks, 2005). to investigate further the dilemma between efficiency and quality, in which call centre managers find themselves, the study discusses the literature under the four research sub-objectives mentioned above. operational efficiency in call centres the integration of information and computer technologies, to optimise service delivery to customers, is central to call centres. taylor and bain (1999, p. 115) called this integration the ‘taylorisation of white-collar work’. this is characterised by an increase in managers’ powers, highly fragmented tasks and extensive controlling and monitoring of employees. they proposed that most call centres relied heavily on technology to increase ccas’ production but stated that these technologies ‘cannot secure the requisite quality performance’ essential in a service environment (p. 111). frenkel et al. (1998, p. 966) called these properties of technology ‘informative control’. robinson and morley (2007, p. 250) suggested that the manager’s role has changed from ‘that of active investigator, director and overseer of work activities to that of monitor and evaluator of the worker’s performance’. the development of sophisticated electronic monitoring and the extensive use of data in managing operational efficiency resulted in the critical assessment of call centres as the ideal environment to exercise ‘panopticon’ control (foucault, 1997). panopticon refers to a prison design that jeremy bentham proposed more than two hundred years ago. this design allowed the wardens to observe and control prisoners continuously without the prisoners seeing them – ‘the panopticon induces in the prisoner a state of congruence and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power’ (robinson & morley, 2007, p. 250). foucault (1997) used this design as a metaphor for describing call centre practices. fernie and metcalf (1998, p. 9) suggested that ‘the agents are constantly visible and the supervisor’s power has been rendered perfect via the computer monitoring screen.’ authors like bain and taylor (2000); barnes (2004); richardson and howcroft (2006); and robinson and morley (2007) contested this view. they suggested that the claim of complete managerial control denied the existence and importance of ccas’ resistance to control structures. in addition to this, robinson and morley (2007) stated that, although it was evident that centres used efficiency data to monitor performance, the managers’ intentions were more than pure control. the global call centre report (holman, batt & holtgrewe, 2007) explored 2500 call centres in 17 countries. they found that using data from call centre technology was a widespread activity. in this regard, call centres in south africa ranked amongst those with the highest degree of call centre monitoring (benner, lewis & omar, 2007). this study aimed to investigate the extent to which call centres in south africa used efficiency measures. this led to the first hypothesis of the study: hypothesis 1: there is a high focus on efficiency in south african call centres. quality work performance the wide variety of call centre technologies available focuses mainly on a common goal – to offer quality interactions that satisfy customers. feinberg, ik-suk, hokama, de ruyter and keen (2000) undertook an empirical study to assess the predictors of customer satisfaction. they identified 13 critical elements in general use and assessed how they related to caller satisfaction. the data from 514 call centres showed that most of the operational measures they use calculated the efficiency of the call centre. the authors concluded that ‘we make important what we can measure ... the technological developments in the call centre industry may be the driver of what we think is important in call centres’ (p. 131). in their assessment of the call centre literature, aksin, armony and mehrotra (2007) proposed that it was necessary for call centres to develop a better understanding of customers’ quality expectations and how these relate to the qualitative and quantitative management practices call centres use. in a competitive business environment, achieving customer satisfaction is a strategic necessity and a primary objective. in their exploratory cross-sectional study in seven call centres in the western cape, hart, chiang and tupochere (2009) reported that most managers believe that service quality was critical to the operational success of the call centres. the 2008 contact center satisfaction index indicated that 95% of customers who had satisfying experiences with ccas would do business with the company again (teodoru, 2008). the american customer satisfaction index concurred and illustrated a significant link between customer satisfaction and organisational profitability (fornell, mithas, morgeson & krishnan, 2006). there is a broad stream of literature that suggests that service quality is an important determinant of customer satisfaction and that the level of service differentiates companies from their competitors. the type of management practice call centres use affects employees’ ability to provide the required service level. this in turn affects the sustainable success of the centre (fisher, milner & chandraprakash, 2007; little & dean, 2006; moshavi & terborg, 2002; sergeant & frenkel, 2000). this survey undertook to explore whether call centres in south africa focus on the service quality necessary for customer satisfaction. therefore, the second hypothesis of this study is: hypothesis 2: the customer and the quality of the interaction with the customer are important to south african call centre managers. the conflict between efficiency and quality the literature indicates that efficiency and quality are both important for ensuring customer satisfaction (armistead et al., 2002; feinberg et al., 2000; frenkel et al., 1998). there is, however, a concern about balancing the management of efficiency with that of quality. batt & moynihan, 2002; hart et al., 2009; houlihan, 2002 suggest that they are two contradictory objectives and that it is not always possible to achieve both simultaneously. the interest in the practices that call centres use to manage this conflict has resulted in various research activities.in their study of the information technology (it) service company, fijitsu services, marr and parry (2004) provided evidence that a focus on efficiency measures could be counter-productive to achieving customer satisfaction. in support of this, dean and rainnie (2009, p. 332) referred to ‘the clash of operational efficiency with customer demands’ and used focus groups to identify the organisational factors that affected service quality. they reported that the measures call centres used were not necessarily conducive to ensuring quality service and that ccas favoured productivity targets because these measures were more visible, frequently used and linked to job security. a study focusing on call centre management responsibilities in australia found that managers preferred customer service as a key performance indicator. however, in their quest to satisfy company requirements, they paid more attention to quantitative measures (robinson & morley, 2006). richardson and howcroft (2006, p. 78) explored the inconsistency between system objectives and outcomes and talked about ‘the contradictions and tensions that exist in call centre work’. deery and kinnie (2002); frenkel et al. (1998); kinnie et al. (2000); and taylor and bain (1999) also highlighted the competing expectations of cost-reducing management practices with the need to make customers feel important and valued. in addition to the evidence from the literature that supports the dilemma between efficiency and quality, call centres employ some practices that promote this conflict. most big call centres have electronic information boards that display real-time data about the number of calls waiting, the proportion of calls answered and the average waiting time – call statistics they use to manage call quantities. it is very seldom that these boards display any data about the quality of responses. benner et al. (2007) found that the boards give feedback on the quantitative performance of ccas more often than feedback and coaching related to the quality of the interactions. in a study of the efficiency and service quality of an israeli call centre, raz and blank (2007) presented the contrast between the verbal declarations of managers about the integration of quantity and quality and its collapse in the workplace. houlihan (2001, p. 232) proposed that ‘call centres are rooted in contradictory and structural paradoxes, and confront a number of trade-offs on that basis’. in their analysis of the literature about conflicting call centre objectives, robinson and morley (2007, p. 255) concluded ‘the efficiency imperative predominates and most call centres are run along taylorist lines’. the literature suggests a tension between call centres’ desire for customer service and their preferred focus on operational efficiency. despite the fact that call centres may claim to have a focus on service quality, the actual practices offer a different message. this discrepancy leads to the third hypothesis of this study: hypothesis 3: the key performance indicators (kpis) allocated to the role of call centre managers in south africa focus on efficiency measures. management practices the literature to date has indicated that call centres are not all managed in the same manner and much research has focused on the outcome of the different practices (frenkel et al., 1998; taylor & bain, 1999; taylor, mulvey, hyman & bain, 2002). call centres tended to adopt the classic mass production model associated with assembly lines. here functions are highly specialised, skill requirements minimal and discretion disappears in favour of repetitive tasks. batt and moynihan (2002, p. 16) suggested that the mass production model assumed that a job could be designed as ‘turn-over proof’ with workers as ‘replaceable parts’. they researched the economic viability of three models of service delivery and concluded that call centres seldom used a professional service model with high quality individualised services and a focus on training and knowledge. in a study of four call centres in gauteng, fisher, miller and thatcher (2007, p. 48) found that south african call centre management practices ‘have a historic disposition towards control and taylorism’ and focused on production irrespective of the conceptual service model. some studies have investigated the relationship between control and empowerment. houlihan (2002) used four british call centres to examine low discretion and high commitment in action. discretion refers to the extent to which ccas can make personal decisions when dealing with customers. high commitment practice suggests strategies like high discretion, job scope, job security and involvement initiatives. this study found little evidence of an in-depth application of high commitment practices and suggested that the focus was rather on the quantity of calls and performance targets. managers were reluctant to compromise efficiency for quality service or employee well-being. wallace et al. (2000, p. 174) referred to the adoption of a ‘sacrificial hr strategy’. managers sacrificed employee well-being to achieve efficiency and accepted burnout and high turnover as part of the management strategy. frenkel et al. (1998) offered a more positive picture. they suggested an approach where work organisation was standardised but which included some elements of flexibility and discretion. a more recent study, undertaken by d’cruz and noronha (2007), also reflected this positive portrayal. it focused on the experiences of ccas who worked in a technical call centre in india. they described an environment with complex tasks that required specialised skills and offered variety, autonomy and less standardised processes. in south africa, hart et al. (2009) offered evidence that the seven call centres explored in the western cape had a tendency towards a more empowered approach. in contrast to most studies, houlihan (2001, 2002) focused on how call centre managers experienced the conflicting requirements associated with the job. she found that they did not always adopt some practices by choice. instead, the task-focused environment prescribed them. work processes were centrally determined within the wider context of the organisation. managers were ultimately accountable to the business and unable to ignore the company’s focus on cost efficiency. houlihan argued that, in many instances, managers were not empowered to manage and concluded that, like ccas, managers also faced confusing organisational demands and conflicting role requirements. raz and blank (2007) talked about competing directives. robinson and morley (2006) stated that managers focused on performance efficiency to satisfy company requirements. based on these arguments, the study proposes a fourth hypothesis: hypothesis 4: despite the focus on efficiency measures, south african call centre managers prefer qualitative key performance indicators. conclusions about the literature review the quandary that managers face has become more diverse and complex with the ‘two boss phenomenon’ – efficiency demands from the company and quality demands from the customer (russel, 2008, p. 202). despite the extensive growth and development of the industry, this conflict still appears to be relevant. the effect of globalisation and the growing practice of outsourcing exacerbate it. the rationale for this practice is reduced costs and this provides the impetus for efficiency-driven management practices (russel, 2008). based on the literature that supports this conflict, this study aims to explore what drives south african call centre management kpis and how these indicators relate to the dilemma between efficiency and quality in which managers find themselves. research design (back to top) this study discusses the research design under the sub-headings of ‘research approach’ and ‘research method’. where similar information was available, it drew comparisons with the australian study of robinson and morley (2006, 2007). research approach the researchers used a quantitative, cross-sectional approach to develop an outsider’s perspective of the management practices at call centres in south africa and gives accurate descriptions of them (huysamen, 1998). the researchers conducted a survey using a web-based questionnaire that they adapted from the robinson and morley (2006, 2007) study that assessed the management responsibilities in australian call centres. statkon, a statistical consultancy associated with the university of johannesburg, hosted the questionnaire. it collated all the responses. the researchers did correlation data analysis to assess whether, and how strongly, variables related to each other. research method four headings present the research method: • sample and sampling procedure • measuring instrument • research procedure • data analysis. sample and sampling procedure the target population for this study was call centre managers in south africa. c3africa research and the multimedia group did a comprehensive market analysis of the local call centre industry and published the south african national bpo and call centre report (multimedia group & c3africa, 2008). this report used the database of their web-based information resource, the contact industry hub. it contained 1342 call centres. the researchers adopted various approaches whilst developing the sampling frame to target as many call centre managers from as many industries as possible. andy quinan, from c3africa, placed the survey on the contact industry hub website and advertised it in its newsletter on 10 march 2010. the researchers extracted call centre managers from an existing client and contact list, approached potential participants at the 2010 call centre conference that knowledge resources hosted and identified call centres from the telephone directory as well as the internet. they approached personnel agencies, human resource departments, training companies and consultants operating in the call centre industry. some agreed to distribute the questionnaire to their respective client bases. of the 180 questionnaires circulated, respondents returned 111 usable questionnaires. this is a response rate of 62%. the 130 questionnaires the robinson and morley (2006, 2007) survey used showed a similar response rate. some organisations have more than one call centre and the returned questionnaires represented more than 44 different south african businesses. in terms of the 1342 call centres in the contact industry hub database, the number of responses for this survey does not seem to represent the whole population. however, most call centre literature comes from case studies and focuses on a few organisations (burgess & connel, 2004). compared to the australian survey, on 37 large companies, the questionnaires the researchers used in this study represent more than 44 different businesses from nine industry sectors. because most of the empirical studies on the south african call centre industry have been case studies, the number of participating organisations and the variety of industry sectors in this study is a sufficiently broad base from which to describe the management practices call centres in south africa use. table 1 gives some insight into the different industry sectors represented in the sample and indicates that most of the respondents came from a financial services environment. the south african national bpo and call centre report (multimedia group & c3africa, 2008) supports this. it found that there were more call centres in this sector than in any other of the industries. the table also shows that most of the participating call centres have between 51 and 100 seats and there was a higher number of smaller call centres. this is consistent with the 2008 report. table 1: demographic details of participating call centres. in contrast, robinson and morley (2006, 2007) used large call centres with a minimum of 100 employees for their study. participating centres managed both in-bound and outbound calls, 77% have been operational for more than five years and 31.3% indicated an annual attrition rate of less than 5%. this relatively low attrition rate was evident in both the south african national bpo and call centre report (multimedia group & c3africa, 2008). they showed an attrition rate of above 45%. the robinson and morley (2006, 2007) survey showed that 33% of their participating call centres had an annual attrition rate of less than 5%. the responses further reported that most of the call centres in this sample operated seven days a week, 24 hours a day. as with the robinson and morley (2006) survey, the results indicated that the participating call centres had several attributes. this illustrated that the findings were not limited to a particular type of centre and made the results valid and reliable. table 2 gives some characteristics of the respondents for this and the australian survey. the similar results indicate an even spread between male and female call centre managers, with the majority being in the 31 to 40 age group. most participants in the south african study have occupied their current positions as managers for more than four years and have been call centre agents before. table 2: characteristics of call centre managers in south africa and australia. measuring instrument the study aimed to describe call centre management practices in ways similar to those of robinson and morley (2006). therefore, the researchers developed a questionnaire that contained 33 questions using the 2006 study as a starting point. professor clive morley offered a copy of, and permission to adapt, their survey. the researchers were careful to remove unrelated items to ensure that all the questions addressed the hypotheses of this study. they drew on the literature to design additional questions about performance management practices. the questionnaire included closed and open-ended items. the researchers offered sufficient options to reduce possible bias and included open-ended questions to elicit additional insights to supplement the quantitative survey data. the researchers did a pilot test of the questionnaire with four call centre managers, who had extensive experience in the industry, to ensure further validity. these managers gave feedback about the relevance of each item, the clarity of the questions, the structure of the survey and the time that it took to complete. their insights contributed to ensuring that the questions were clear and likely to elicit accurate information to measure what the survey intended to. as in the robinson and morley (2006) study, the researchers considered the time constraints of the call centre managers in the design. it took about 15 minutes to complete. in an attempt to identify the consistency of the responses and to explore the concepts from different angles, the researchers cross-referenced responses with different items. they improved the reliability of the data by using a good sample size and ensuring that respondents had the necessary experience as call centre managers to offer meaningful responses. the questionnaire fell into five sections to orientate the respondents and to improve clarity (babbie & mouton, 2001). the discussion that follows offers more information about the content of the different sections of the questionnaire. sections 1, 2 and 3 – the call centre manager, the organisation and the call centre: the first three sections included general information about the manager, the organisation, and the set-up of the particular call centre. this was to give a better understanding of the context in which the centre used its management practices. section 1 dealt with biographical details about the call centre manager. they included age, gender, time in current position and previous experience as a call centre agent (items 1.1 to 1.5). section 2 explored the organisation in terms of its industry sector, its mission and vision (items 2.1 and 2.2). the third section enquired about the number of seats in the call centre, the operating hours, the type of calls it handled, the number of years that it has been operational, the annual agent turnover rate and the focus of the centre (items 3.1 to 3.8). section 4 – performance measurement practices: this section gathered information about the call centre’s performance measuring practices, like call monitoring, the use of display boards, the customer satisfaction measures it uses and the coaching activities it undertakes (items 4.1 to 4.11). section 5 – the role of call centre manager: section 5 addressed issues about the role of the call centre manager. respondents identified those aspects of their jobs that they enjoyed most and least (items 5.1 and 5.2). the researchers grouped these responses into target-driven activities and people-management activities. the researchers explored the kpis firstly by asking the respondents to identify the three highest-weighted indicators that were allocated to their roles (item 5.4) and then to write their own kpis specifying the three most important indicators (item 5.5). respondents had to select measures that they felt determined the success of their call centres (item 5.7) and identify the first performance measure that they looked at when they had been absent from the office. the researchers excluded responses to an item that identified the single biggest constraint to executing the role of call centre manager from the study because of a technical error on the web-based questionnaire (item 5.3). research procedure robinson and morley (2006) distributed their questionnaire via mail to two hundred call centre managers. for this survey, the researchers sent 180 respondents an emailed invitation to participate in the survey. this clarified the procedures, offered the link to the website, explained the broad aims of the study and emphasised anonymity and confidentiality. to increase the response rate, the researchers personalised invitations where possible and offered the respondents a summary of the findings in exchange for their participation. the researchers collected data over a period of two months, starting in february 2010. they sent two email reminders to encourage participation during this period. data analysis the web-based questionnaire enabled the capture of all data directly into a central database that expedited the processing of the data. the researchers gave the frequency distributions of the responses and did cross tabulations to assess the relationship between variables. the frequency distributions indicated a clear preference for certain variables, with the result that there was not the required minimum number of responses in some of the cross tabulation cells to perform the chi-square test. as in the robinson and morley (2006, 2007) study, the researchers adopted a descriptive approach to present the results of the survey. research results (back to top) to present the results of the 111 returned questionnaires, the researchers used the research hypotheses to structure the information. where possible, they compared the results to those from the robinson and morley (2006) study. the researchers used the response frequencies to the items to assess each hypothesis. they are discussed and a summary of the results concludes this section. hypothesis 1 – there is a high focus on efficiency in south african call centres: the researchers used a variety of items to identify which measures call centres in south africa focused on: items 4.2, 4.4, 4.6, 4.8, and 4.10. the robinson and morley (2006, 2007) survey reported that 91% of call centres in australia used call monitoring. table 3 illustrates this high preference in south africa as well (96%). this table presents the frequency distributions for items that address the most important measures call centres use in monitoring calls (item 4.2) and in assessing customer satisfaction (item 4.6). table 3: call monitoring, monitoring measures and customer satisfaction measures. these results show that respondents identified the quality of the interactions with customers as the main aspect that call centres used in monitoring calls (75.5%) compared to efficiency measures, like the average call handling time and the number of calls taken. to support this, the researchers identified the quality of interactions as the most important measure call centres used to assess customer satisfaction in item 4.6 (65.9%). the australian survey indicated that 58% of call centres used call monitoring, customer surveys and waiting times as measures of customer service standards. table 4 presents the results for item 4.8. this examined the measures managers use to evaluate the quality of service. contrary to the results presented thus far, 48.9% of participating managers ranked compliance with business processes as the most important. the ccas’ politeness to customers (35.6%) followed. table 4: measures of service quality and aspects to coach. these two measures were also the most important aspects of the coaching activities of the call centres in item 4.10. however, it is important to note that businesses usually design their processes to ensure that customers’ requests are managed effectively within the structure of the organisations. therefore, these focus on satisfying the organisational and customers’ needs. this is a possible reason for these apparently different results. table 5 records the results for items 4.3 and 4.4. the researchers recorded disparate results for item 4.4. this enquired about the measures call centres used on the monitoring display boards. a total of 78% of call centres in australia and 67.7% of centres in south africa used display boards. only 12.3% of call centres in south africa that used these boards displayed qualitative measures. table 5 reports the frequencies for the four variables in this item. it suggests that display boards usually displayed information like the number of calls waiting and average waiting time, the number of available agents and the number of abandoned calls. however, it is important to note that call centres use some quantitative measures, like the number of calls waiting and average waiting time, as indicators of the level of service they offer to customers. therefore, the researchers achieved the first objective of the study. table 5: monitoring boards. hypothesis 2 – the customer and the quality of the interaction with the customer are important to south african call centre managers: table 6 presents the results for items 3.6 and 4.5. these asked call centre managers to select the most important focus of their centres and whether they measured customer satisfaction. table 6: the focus of the call centre. the results showed that 84.5% of participating call centres measured customer service. the majority of participants (77.6%) ranked customers as the most important and statistics and agents as the least important focus of the call centres. the robinson and morley (2006, 2007) survey reported that 97% of call centres in australia measured customer service standards and that 38% of respondents chose ‘customers mattered’ as most descriptive of their call centres. of the responses that identified customers as the focus of the call centre, table 7 illustrates that 78.4% also indicated the quality of the interaction with customers as the most important measure in call monitoring. table 7: cross tabulation of the measures used in call monitoring and the importance of the customer in the call centre focus. the responses to item 2.2 further supported the importance of the customer. here, most call centre managers (78%) indicated that their organisations mentioned customer service in their vision or mission statements. the questionnaire asked respondents to quote sections from the statements that were most relevant to their call centres. responses report the examples that follow: • a total focus on customer needs to meet or exceed their expectations at all times • inspiring and leading our clients and our people on a journey to deliver exceptional customer experiences • to allow clients to focus on their core business by providing tailored and responsive customer service solutions that improve service quality and exceed client and end-user satisfaction, loyalty and expectations. the robinson and morley study (2006, 2007) confirmed the importance of customers. here, 89% of respondents indicated that their companies referred to customer service in their mission statements, visions or values. the focus on more qualitative measures, as reported in items 4.2 and 4.6, further supported the suggestion that customers and the quality of the interactions with customers were important to call centre managers in south africa. therefore, the researchers achieved the second objective of the study. hypothesis 3 – the key performance indicators allocated to the role of call centre manager in south africa focus on efficiency measures: to investigate the roles of call centre managers, item 5.4 asked participants to list the three highest-weighted kpis allocated to their roles. the researchers identified four categories from the responses. these were: • quantitative indicators, like the number of abandoned calls and service levels • qualitative indicators, like the quality of audits and coaching activities • financial indicators, like gross profit and achieving budgets • indicators that focus on customer satisfaction. eighty participants completed this item. the results in table 8 indicate that 26.3% of respondents listed a quantitative indicator as the highest-weighted kpi allocated to the role of call centre manager. a financial indicator (23.8%) followed. table 8: highest-weighted kpis allocated to call centre managers. the various combinations of kpis further confirmed the preference for quantitatively allocated indicators. of the 26.3% of respondents who listed a quantitative indicator as the highest-weighted kpi, 22.2% listed the same category for the other two kpis. this suggested that the three highest-weighted kpis allocated to the role were quantitative. of the 16.3% of responses that indicated a qualitative indicator as having the highest weight, 33.3% listed quantitative indicators for the other two kpis. when respondents listed a financial indicator as having the highest weight, 22.2% of respondents offered a quantitative indicator for the other two kpis. the robinson and morley (2006) survey reported similar results. here 37% of call centre managers listed a quantitative measure as the most important kpi. only 15% reported a qualitative indicator. item 5.8 supported the focus on quantitative indicators in call centre managers’ kpis. this enquired about the first single performance measure that managers checked when they had been out of the office. table 9 presents the results for this item and suggests that 27.8% of managers looked at the number of calls answered within a specific period. the agents’ service quality (22.2%) followed. it is interesting to note the low customer satisfaction rating (13.3%). a possible reason for this could be that service levels are part of the customer satisfaction measure. this quantitative measure gives call centre managers some insight into how long customers wait for service. therefore, it indicates the level of service that call centres offer. table 9: the first performance measure call centre managers look at if they have been out of the office. in the interviews they conducted with six call centre managers, robinson and morley (2006) reported similar results and suggested that most managers first looked at measures related to the productivity of the call centre and considered these more important to report to senior managers. in contrast, table 10 shows that the three most important measures reported to senior managers in south african call centres were the quality of service the agents offer (26.2%), the customer satisfaction rating (19.3%), and the level of service (17.2%). therefore, the researchers have achieved the third research objective of this study. table 10: measures reported to senior managers. hypothesis 4 – despite the focus on efficiency measures, south african call centre managers prefer qualitative key performance indicators: item 5.5 asked the respondents what the three most important kpis would be if they had to write their own indicators. the researchers identified the same four categories as for item 5.4 and reported the results in table 11. these suggest that most respondents offered qualitative (25.7%) and customer satisfaction indicators (23%) as their preferred kpis. it also yields similar results to the robinson and morley (2006) study, where 37% of respondents listed an indicator related to customer satisfaction and service measures. table 11: preferred kpis for call centre managers in south africa and australia. item 5.1 highlighted the south african managers’ preference for qualitative indicators. this asked what the managers enjoyed most in their roles. the results in table 12 suggest that 60.9% of managers preferred the people management activities, like developing and empowering people, interfacing with customers and staff and working with a group to achieve the required outcomes. in contrast to this, 11.5% of respondents preferred activities, like monitoring and analysing call centre statistics for projections and scheduling in order to meet monthly targets. table 12: functions and measures that determine success that the managers enjoyed most. table 13 shows that, of the 26.3% of respondents who listed a quantitative indicator as the highest-weighted kpi, 60% indicated that they enjoyed people-management activities most. managers also identified the quality of service agents offered (26.7%) and the customer satisfaction rating (25.4%) as measures that determine the success of call centres for item 5.7. robinson and morley (2006) similarly reported that 58% of managers ranked measures related to customer service as most important for their call centres. table 13: cross tabulation of the aspects managers enjoyed most and the highest-weighted allocated kpis. both studies showed a very clear preference for measures associated with the quality of service and customer satisfaction as opposed to those measures that address the quantitative aspects of call centres. the frequencies in the south african study for quantitative measures, like the number of calls agents took (2.5%), the number of abandoned calls (2.5%), and the average call handling time (3.4%) were all relatively low. the results shown in table 14 are interesting. this is a cross tabulation of items 5.4 and 4.2. item 5.4 listed the highest-weighted kpis allocated to managers and item 4.2 identified the one most important aspect to measure in monitoring calls. the frequency distribution suggests a strong preference for the qualitative measure in monitoring calls, irrespective of the type of kpi allocated to managers. therefore, the researchers have achieved the fourth objective of the study. table 14: cross tabulation of the highest-weighted allocated kpis and the most important measures in monitoring calls. the results suggest that customers were the focus of call centres in both south africa and australia and that the quality of the interaction with customers was important to call centre managers. this interaction with customers was highly emphasised in the call monitoring activities, as was assessing the levels of customer satisfaction. response frequencies for quantitative measures, like the number of calls, the average call handling time, the number of calls within a specific period and the number of abandoned calls were relatively low. despite this preference for qualitative measures, the information offered to ccas on monitoring display boards focused mostly on quantitative measures like the number of calls waiting and average waiting time, the number of available agents, and the number of abandoned calls. in addition, the highest-weighted kpis allocated to call centre managers in both countries appeared to be quantitative. both studies suggested that the number of calls ccas answered within a specific period was the first performance measure that managers checked when they had been out of the office. in contrast to this, managers reported that their personal choice was qualitative kpis and indicators that focused on customer satisfaction and that they enjoyed the people-management activities associated with their jobs most. further, managers identified qualitative measures, like the quality of service agents offered and the customer satisfaction rating, as critical for the success of call centres. the care the researchers took in designing the questionnaire, the pre-testing and because the sample represented many different types of call centres from various industry sectors, supported the reliability of these results. the responses were therefore not restricted to a particular type of call centre, its size, industry or function. discussion (back to top) call centres have become the primary source of contact for customers for companies attempting to reduce costs and improve the quality of their customer interactions simultaneously. research has proposed that these objectives – quality and efficiency – are contradictory and that managers struggle to balance these company imperatives (batt, 1999; bain & taylor, 2000; wallace et al., 2000; houlihan, 2002; kinnie et al., 2000; raz & blank, 2007; taylor & bain, 1999). the purpose of this research was to investigate the management practices call centres in south african use in ways similar to the robinson and morley (2006) study in the context of the dilemma between efficiency and quality. in south africa, the call centre industry has been identified as an important source of creating jobs and foreign investment. despite this, there have been relatively few empirical studies on the local industry and, as burgess and connel (2004) suggested, most of the literature comes from case studies. this study conducted a survey with call centre managers from more than 44 different organisations, representing nine industry sectors. it aimed to supplement the comparatively small base of empirical literature and to contribute to the south african call centre industry’s attempt to position itself favourably for both local and international outsourcing opportunities. the researchers explored the core research question – ‘the efficiency and quality dilemma: what drives south african call centre management performance indicators?’ using these sub-objectives: • to establish whether there is a high focus on operational efficiency in call centres • to determine if there is a predominant focus on the quality measures of work performance in call centres • to determine whether there is conflict between efficiency and quality measures • to establish which performance management practices call centres use. a secondary objective of the study was to compare south african call centre management practices with australian practices (where possible). this explains the frequent references to robinson and morley (2006; 2007). this section begins with a discussion of the first two objectives under the combined heading of operational efficiency and the focus on quality in call centres. it also offers findings that challenge the focus on quality interactions with customers. a discussion of the efficiency and quality conflict follows. this explores the key performance indicators that drive management practices. it makes general observations about the conflict between efficiency and quality in the industry. it explores and locates its premises in the literature and practices that the call centre industry uses. where applicable, the researchers compare it to the robinson and morley (2006) study. it suggests implications for managers and highlights the limitations of the survey. the discussion concludes with suggestions for future research. summary of the findings operational efficiency and the focus on quality in the call centre the literature suggests that the integration of information and communication technologies, and that sophisticated real-time data enables managers to measure almost every aspect of the centre, (jack, bedics & mccary, 2006) is what defines call centres. the widespread use of technology in management has been the topic of many studies in the last decade and call centres have been accused of providing the ideal environment for the exercise of ‘panoptican’ control (fernie & metcalf, 1998). although various authors dispute this, there is evidence that measuring productivity and reporting on statistics were still the prevalent focus (houlihan, 2001; neely et al., 2003). despite the rapid development that has occurred in this industry, taylor and bain (2005) concluded that the rationale for call centres remained chiefly about containing costs and that other areas, like improving customer service, were less important. in contrast, hart et al. (2009) researched seven call centres in cape town and found that managers favoured measures that focus on customers’ experiences rather than those that focus only on agent productivity. robinson and morley’s 2006 australian study confirms this preference. they reported that call centre managers regarded customer service as their main responsibility. the results of this survey agree with the findings of these two studies and suggest that customers are the focal point of most of the participating centres. managers indicated that call monitoring activities adopt qualitative measures when assessing agents’ interactions with customers and when determining the level of customer satisfaction. respondents concur with the robinson and morley (2006) study. they also recorded a preference for qualitative kpis and that they enjoyed the people-management activities associated with their jobs most. both these studies identify qualitative measures, like the quality of the service agents offer and the customer satisfaction rating, as critical features necessary for the success of call centres. these findings therefore do not support the first hypothesis of this study: that call centres emphasise efficiency measures. they rather support the premise that customers and the quality of the interactions are important to call centre managers in south africa. findings that challenge the focus on quality interactions however, other practices in australian and south african centres challenge the prevalence of quality customer interactions. although participating managers indicated low preferences for quantitative measures, these studies reported that the first measure managers checked when they had been out of the office was the number of calls taken within a specific period. this shows the importance that managers attach to this productivity measure and contradicts their stated focus on qualitative measures. the technology call centres use makes efficiency measures easily accessible. they offer a real-time glimpse of call centre productivity and they do contribute to the quality of service the centres offer. as suggested by robinson and morley (2007) and marr and parry (2004), the emphasis that call centre managers in this survey placed on the number of calls answered within a specific period seems to indicate that this measure is used as a proxy for quality and customer satisfaction. if most calls have been answered within the expected time and there are not many calls waiting, managers could assume that customers are satisfied with the level of service call centres offer. however, the service level measure simply shows whether customers had been kept waiting and offers no information about how their queries had been resolved. this ultimately creates the customer experience. participating managers in australia and south africa reported that the quality of the customers’ experience with ccas mainly drives the success of call centres. the reassurance that managers in both countries derive from this measure is therefore misguided. therefore, they should not use it as the first measurement of customer satisfaction a further inconsistency was the information that display boards in south african call centres offer the most. this is the number of calls waiting, the number of available ccas and the number of abandoned calls. as suggested by taylor and bain (1999, p. 109), these types of measures encourage ccas to develop an ‘assembly-line in the head’ and create pressure to focus on call duration so that they are available to take the next call. display boards are generally visible to all ccas and offer constant reminders of the importance of the information they display. the current use of these boards in south african call centres presents conflicting messages to ccas about what is really important in call centres. it illustrates taylor and bain’s concept of an assembly line and is incongruent with the suggested focus on qualitative measures. further, dean and rainnie’s (2009) proposal, that ccas favour productivity targets because these measures are more visible, raises the question about which of the demands, customer satisfaction or availability, ccas prefer in south african call centres. although there was evidence to support the hypothesis that customers and the quality of interactions are important to call centre managers in south africa, these inconsistencies indicated that some call centre management practices are incongruent with this hypothesis. the conflict between efficiency and quality in management the findings of this study indicate that managers believe that call centres in south africa do not emphasise efficiency and that the quality of interactions and customer satisfaction take precedence in this industry. most participating call centre managers reported that their organisations’ vision and mission statements cited the importance of customer service. this reinforces the significance of customers in the robinson and morley (2006) survey. however, the kpis of call centre managers do not corroborate this. kpis are specific performance measures that are aligned to the success factors of the organisation and offer employees direction about what is critical and what they should focus on. achieving these kpis is essential for organisational success and its sustainability (de waal, 2002). the results of this survey indicate that, despite the importance that mission statements give to customer service, quantitative and financial measures that focus on the production efficiency of call centres were the highest-weighted performance indicators allocated to call centre managers. these findings support the third hypothesis that the kpis allocated to call centre managers in south africa focus on efficiency. robinson and morley (2006) also report this tendency. a total of 37% of participating australian managers listed a quantitative measure as their highest-ranked formal kpi and identified achieving financial budgets as a key aspect of managers’ responsibilities. these results indicate a conflict between the intended strategic focus of organisations in south africa and australia and the performance measures that determine the roles of call centre managers. despite the reported findings, that these call centres focus on customer satisfaction, the efficiency kpis allocated to managers determines the strategic focus of management activities. kaplan and norton (1992, p. 71) coined the well used phrase that ‘what you measure is what you get’ and suggested that organisational measures strongly influence the behaviour of employees. the participating managers’ choice of a quantitative measure as the most important indication of the state of the call centre when they had been out of the office testifies to the accuracy of this statement. although managers suggested that call centres focused on qualitative measures in most of the monitoring activities, it appears that, as kaplan and norton (1992) suggest, the nature of the measures allocated to them does in fact affect managers’ behaviour. another inconsistency emerged in the differences between the allocated kpis and the managers’ preferred kpis. when given the opportunity to list their own kpis, managers in this and the robinson and morley (2006) study identified qualitative and customer satisfaction indicators as most important. houlihan (2002) suggested that managers are not necessarily empowered to make decisions about the approaches that they adopt when managing their call centres. this argument appears to be relevant to call centres in south africa and australia and supports the hypothesis that call centre managers in south africa prefer qualitative kpis. although managers attempt to focus on the quality of customer interactions, efficiency measures ultimately determine their success. the conflict between efficiency and quality in the industry the dilemma between quality and quantity seems to be evident in the prevailing call centre literature and in technological developments. although the literature highlights the importance of quality in call centres, there is more empirical information on efficiency and the effect of technology than on the qualitative assessment practices in the industry. software vendors continually release tools that are more sophisticated to measure and report real-time productivity data automatically on each call that call centres handle. in contrast to this, qualitative measures are not as easily and readily available. typically, these measures are not automated. they require human intervention from quality assessors who randomly select calls that they assess against predetermined performance standards. this is labourand time-intensive. it requires assessors with advanced skills that add to the cost per call. they can assess only a small fraction of calls in a period and this contributes to expensive interventions. feinberg et al. (2000) suggested that technologies made some things easy to measure and this leads to automatic reporting. this argument, as well as the apparent industry focus on efficiency, supports the hypothesis that the ways of assessing call centre managers focus on quantitative aspects. implications for managers in this study, there seem to be inconsistencies between the visions of organisations, the emphasis that kpis place on quantitative performance indicators, the measures that managers consider important and some management practices that centres use. the efficiency-driven kpis do not empower call centre managers to realise the importance their companies seem to place on quality customer experiences. therefore, it is necessary for organisations in south africa to assess alignments between their visions, the strategic focus of their call centres and the performance measures that determine the roles of call centre managers.the information that display boards in south african call centres display and the managers’ use of quantitative measures to establish the effectiveness of call centres contradict the intended focus on quality and present ccas with conflicting messages. therefore, it is essential for call centre managers to ensure that their management activities promote quality and that their display boards present the primary objectives of their call centres. however, organisations should be cautious about how they introduce qualitative measures as performance indicators in call centres. bain et al. (2002, p. 183) wrote about ‘the application of numerical means of measurement’ and discussed using a list of measures against which to assess the quality of interactions. this assessment produced a score as the outcome and attached targets to it. the result was to quantify the quality that promoted the culture of achieving targets. however, quality should rather identify the performance criteria that lead to satisfied customers. therefore, the number of quality assessments and what scores managers attain are the least important things. rather, assessments should offer indications of how call centres satisfy customers’ needs. limitations of the study this study set out to investigate what determines the performance indicators of call centre managers in south africa. the results showed a focus on quantitative and financial measures. in contrast, managers reported preferences for qualitative measures and indicated that their centres used a customer-focused approach. the contradictions this study reported could indicate possible bias from the participating managers. managers might have indicated what they felt the practices should be instead of reporting what actually happened in their call centres. the researchers could have explored this possibility in interviews, as the robinson and morley (2006) study did. in the light of the results, questions about how managers implemented the suggested quality approach and how they extracted the quality metrics could have added to the insights derived from this study. robinson and morley (2007) also reported the possibility of bias in their study of managers’ views on call centres in australia. they suggested that the managers’ perspective, whether biased or not, contributed to other points of view the literature presented. this is also the standpoint of this study. the researchers regarded the sample size for this study as acceptable and the results offered some insight into the practices 44 different organisations used. however, the clear preference for certain options meant that the researchers did not get the required minimum number of responses for some of the cross tabulation cells. this meant that the researchers could not perform a chi-square test effectively. a larger sample would have allowed better analyses of the relationships between the different variables. future research this study suggested a possible lack of alignment between the performance measures for call centre managers and organisations’ mission statements. the researchers suggest that future research explores the position of call centres within their organisations to identify what call centres are supposed to achieve. the researchers also suggest that future research investigates the argument that houlihan (2002) presents, which is that managers are not necessarily empowered to make decisions about the approaches that they use in their management of call centres. in the light of the south african government’s interest in developing the business process outsourcing industry sector, an investigation into the management practices employed within outsourced call centres could yield valuable information. holman et al. (2007) stated that the ownership status of call centres affected the management practices they use. cost is usually an important consideration in the decision to outsource certain functions. contracts also often put the host under pressure to increase production and reduce costs. the nature of these agreements requires operational transparency. this could mean adopting a mass production approach to create an environment that is easily measureable. the question for future research is, therefore, the extent to which the management practices the outsourced call centres use differ from those the hosted call centres adopt. there is relatively little scientific research available on the management practices that south african call centres use. the tremendous growth and the huge investment companies make in this industry necessitate further studies to expand the extent and depth of empirical theory on this topic. conclusion this study conducted a survey amongst south african call centre managers in more than 44 different organisations representing nine industry sectors. the aim was to explore the management practices call centres south in africa use given the dilemma between quality and quantity the literature proposes. the results of this study show that: • the visions of organisations promote quality customer experiences • managers prefer qualitative measures for most of their call monitoring activities • managers believe that customers are the focus of call centres. in contrast, the measures that direct the management practices of call centre managers demand a focus on cost and production efficiency. these measures reinforce the focus on efficiency that earlier literature reported. the similarity in results between the australian study and this survey suggests that call centre managers in both countries experience the same kinds of challenges. it supports the view that the extensive use of technology limits the variation in management practices that call centres can use (russel, 2008; taylor et al., 2002). the results also imply that call centre managers in south africa are not necessarily empowered to decide on appropriate management practices and that conflicting organisational demands regulate them. this study proposes that the dilemma between quality and quantity, as discussed in the literature, is prevalent in south african call centres and that quantitative kpis drive the management practices that call centres use. it also substantiates russel’s (2008, p. 213) argument that call centres ‘preserve significant features of the past’. references (back to top) aksin, z., armony, m., & mehrotra, v. (2007). the modern call center: a multi-disciplinary perspective on operations management research. production and operations management, 16(6), 665–688. doi:10.1111/j.1937-5956.2007.tb00288.x armistead, c., kiely, j., hole, l., & prescott, j. (2002). an exploration of managerial issues in call centres. managing service quality, 12(4), 246–256. doi:10.1108/09604520210434857 babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2001). the practice of social research. oxford university press. bain, p., & taylor, p. (2000). entrapped by the ‘electronic panopticon’? worker resistance in the call centre. new technology, work and employment, 15(1), 2–18. doi:10.1111/1468-005x.00061 bain, p., watson, a., mulvey, g., taylor, p., & gall, g. (2002). taylorism, targets and the pursuit of quantity and quality by call centre management. new technology, work and employment, 17(3), 170−185. doi:10.1111/1468-005x.00103 barnes, a. (2004). diaries, dunnies and discipline: resistance and accommodation to monitoring in call centres. labour and industry, 14(3), 127–137. batt, r. (1999). work organization, technology and performance in customer service and sales. industrial & labor relations review, 52(4), 539–564. doi:10.2307/2525063 batt, r., & moynihan, l. (2002). the validity of alternative call centre production models. human resource management journal, 12(4), 14–34. doi:10.1111/j.1748-8583.2002.tb00075.x benner, c., lewis, c., & omar, r. (2007). the south african call centre industry: a study of strategy, human resource practices and performance. retrieved november 22, 2009,from http://link.wits.ac.za/papers/south%20africa%20gcc%20report.pdf burgess, j., & connel, j. (2004). emerging developments in call centre research. labour & industry, 14(3), 1–13. d’cruz, p., & noronha, e. (2007). technical call centres: beyond “electronic sweatshops” and “assembly lines in the head.” global business review, 8(1), 53–67. doi:10.1177/097215090600800104 dean, a.m., & rainnie, a. (2009). frontline employees views on organizational factors that affect the delivery of service quality in call centres. journal of services marketing, 23 (5), 326–337. doi:10.1108/08876040910973431 deery, s., & kinnie, n. (2002). call centres and beyond: a thematic evaluation. human resource management journal, 12(4), 3–13. doi:10.1111/j.1748-8583.2002.tb00074.x department of trade and industry (2009a). launch of department of trade and industry investment call centre at soweto. retrieved march 17, 2010, from http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2009/09101909051001.htm department of trade and industry (2009b). south africa’s business process outsourcing (bpo) sector reaching greater heights. retrieved march 17, 2010, from http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2009/09113010351001.htm de waal, a.a. (2002). the human element in performance management systems. quest for balance. new york: john wiley & sons, inc. feinberg, r.a., ik-suk, k., hokama, l., de ruyter, k., & keen, c. (2000). operational determinants of caller satisfaction in the call center. international journal of service industry management, 11(2), 131–138. doi:10.1108/09564230010323633 fernie, s., & metcalf, d. (1998). (not) hanging on the telephone: payment system in the new sweatshops. centrepiece, 3, 7–11. fisher, j., milner, k., & chandraprakash, a. (2007). organisational climate, job tension and job satisfaction in a south african call centre case study. ergonomics sa, 19(2), 22–30. fisher, j., miller, k., & thatcher, a. (2007). performance monitoring, supervisory support, and job characteristics and their impact on employee well-being amongst four samples of call centre agents in south africa. in lecture notes in computer science, 4566, 48−56. retrieved january 20, 2010, from springerlink database. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-73333-1_7 fornell, c., mithas, s., morgeson, f., & krishnan, m.s. (2006). customer satisfaction and stock prices: high returns, low risk. journal of marketing, 70(1), 3–14. doi:10.1509/jmkg.2006.70.1.3 foucault, m. (1997). discipline and punish: the birth of the prison. retrieved july 17, 2010, from http://www.esubjects.com/curric/general/world_history/unit_three/pdf frenkel, s.j., tam, m., korczynski, m., & shire, k. (1998). beyond bureaucracy? work organization in call centres. the international journal of human resource management, 9(6), 957–979. doi:10.1080/095851998340694 hart, m.l., chiang, y.-a.a., & tupochere, m. (2009). balancing agent performance and customer service in contact centres. journal of contemporary management, 6, 151–169. halliden, b., & monks, k. (2005). employee-centred management in a call centre. personnel review, 34(3), 370–385. doi:10.1108/00483480510591480 holman, d., batt, r., & holtgrewe, u. (2007). the global call centre report: international perspectives on management and employment. retrieved january 26, 2010, from http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/globalcallcenter/upload/gcc-intl-rept-us-version.pdf holman, d., wall, t.d., clegg, c.w., sparrrow, p., & howard, a. (2002). the new workplace. a guide to the human impact of modern working practices. west sussex: john wiley & sons, ltd. houlihan, m. (2001). managing to manage? stories from the call centre. journal of european industrial training, 25(2/3/4), 208–220. houlihan, m. (2002). tension and variations in call centre management strategies. human resource management journal, 12(4), 67–85. doi:10.1111/j.1748-8583.2002.tb00078.x huysamen, g.k. (1998). methodology for the social and behavioural sciences. south africa: international thomson publishing. jack, e.p., bedics, t.a., & mccary, c.e. (2006). operational challenges in the call center industry: a case study and resource-based framework. managing service quality, 16(5), 477–500. doi:10.1108/09604520610686142 kaplan, r.s., & norton, d.p. (1992). the balanced scorecard – measures that drive performance. harvard business review, 70(1), 71–79. khuzwayo, w. (2007, april 29). sa call centres take on the world. business report. retrieved march 10, 2010, from http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fsectionid=561&farticleid=3803048 kinnie, n., hutchinson, s., & purcell, j. (2000). ‘fun and surveillance’: the paradox of high commitment management in call centres. international journal of human resource management, 11(5), 967–985. doi:10.1080/095851900422375 korczynski, m. (2002). human resource management in service work. hampshire: palgrave. little, m.m., & dean, a.m. (2006). links between service climate, employee commitment and employees’ service quality capability. managing service quality, 16(5), 460–476. doi:10.1108/09604520610686133 marr, b., & parry, s. (2004). performance management in call centers: lessons, pitfalls and achievements in fujitsu services. measuring business excellence, 8(4), 55–62. doi:10.1108/13683040410569415 moshavi, d., & terborg, j.r. (2002). the job satisfaction and performance of contingent and regular customer service representatives. a human capital perspective. international journal of service industry management, 13(4), 333–347. doi:10.1108/09564230210445069 multimedia group & c3africa (2008). south african national bpo & call centre report. johannesburg: multimedia group. neely, a., bourne, m., & kennerley, m. (2003). dysfunctional performance through dysfunctional measures. cost management, 17(5), 41–45. radnor, z., & mcguire, m. (2004). performance management in the public sector: fact or fiction? international journal of productivity and performance management, 53(3), 245–260. doi:10.1108/17410400410523783 raz, a.e., & blank, e. (2007). ambiguous professionalism: managing efficiency and service quality in an israeli call centre. new technology, work and employment, 22(1), 83–96. doi:10.1111/j.1468-005x.2007.00185.x richardson, h.j., & howcroft, d. (2006). the contradictions of crm – a critical lens on call centres. information and organization, 16, 56–81. doi:10.1016/j.infoandorg.2005.10.001, doi:10.1016/j.infoandorg.2005.10.002 robinson, g., & morley, c. (2006). call centre management: responsibilities and performance. international journal of service industry management, 17(3), 284–300. doi:10.1108/09564230610667122 robinson, g., & morley, c. (2007). running the electronic sweatshop: call centre managers’ views on call centres. journal \ of management and organization, 13, 249–263. doi:10.5172/jmo.2007.13.3.249 russel, b. (2008). call centres: a decade of research. international journal of management reviews, 10(3), 195–219. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2370.2008.00241.x sergeant, a., & frenkel, s. (2000). when do customer contact employees satisfy customers? journal of service research, 3(1), 18–34. doi:10.1177/109467050031002 taylor, p., & bain, p. (1999). ‘an assembly line in the head’: work and employee relations in the call centre. industrial relations journal, 30(2), 101–117. doi:10.1111/1468-2338.00113 taylor, p., & bain, p. (2005). ‘india calling to the far away towns’: the call centre labour process and globalization. work, employment and society, 19(2), 261–282. doi:10.1177/0950017005053170 taylor, p., mulvey, g., hyman, j., & bain, p. (2002). work organisation, control and the experience of work in call centres. work, employment and society, 16(1), 133–150. doi:10.1177/09500170222119281 teodoru, s. (2008). contact center satisfaction index 2008. retrieved march 31, 2010, from http://www.retailsolutionsonline.com/article.mvc/customer-contact-impacts-the-bottom-line-0003 wallace, c.m., eagleson, g., & waldersee, r. (2000). the sacrificial hr strategy in call centers. international journal of service industry management, 11(2), 174–180. doi:10.1108/09564230010323741 209-12 nov 2009 [ final version].indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #209 (page number not for citation purposes) the influence of leadership behaviour on organisational citizenship behaviour in self-managed work teams in malaysia authors: zoharah omar1 arifi n zainal2 fatimah omar2 rozainee khairudin2 affi liations: 1department of professional development and continuing education, universiti putra malaysia, malaysia 2school of psychology and human development, universiti kebangsaan malaysia, malaysia correspondence to: zoharah omar e-mail: zoharah@educ.upm.edu.my postal address: department of professional development and continuing education, faculty of educational studies, universiti putra malaysia, 43000, serdang selangor, malaysia keywords: transformational leadership; transactional leadership; organisational citizenship behaviour; self-directed work team; self-managing work team dates: received: 05 apr. 2009 accepted: 14 aug. 2009 published: 20 oct. 2009 how to cite this article: omar, z., zainal, a., omar, f., & khairudin, r. (2009). the infl uence of leadership behaviour on organisational citizenship behaviour in self-managed work teams in malaysia. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur 7(1), art. #209, 11 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.209 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. abstract this study examined the infl uence of transformational-transactional leadership behaviour on organisational citizenship behaviour in self-managed work teams and the augmenting effect of transformational-transactional leadership behaviour. this cross-sectional correlation study was conducted on 93 self-managed work teams in a multinational manufacturing company. data were collected through group face-to-face administration by the researcher and statistically analysed through pearson correlation, partial correlation and multiple regressions. results showed that both transactional and transformational leadership behaviour have a positive infl uence on organisational citizenship behaviour among team members. transformational leadership behaviour, however, has a greater infl uence on organisational citizenship behaviour compared to transactional leadership behaviour. the results also confi rmed the augmenting effect of transformational leadership behaviour on the relationship between transactional leadership behaviour and organisational citizenship behaviour. 196vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 11 introduction the shift from the use of strict hierarchical structures and individualised jobs to team-based work designs, such as self-managed work-team structures, has increased the importance of employees’ behaviours that are beyond employees’ formal role requirements to ensure organisational effectiveness (borman, 2004; farh, zhong & organ, 2004; lepine, erez & johnson, 2002). this is because, unlike traditional work settings, self-managing work-team environments require members to assume many of the functions otherwise ascribed to management, such as assigning tasks to members, scheduling breaks, scheduling work and determining work methods (katzenbach & smith, 1993; manz & sims, 1993; wellins, byham & wilson 1991), in the absence of strict control from their supervisors (campion, medsker & higgs, 1993; cohen, ledford & spreitzer, 1996). furthermore, in such work systems, employee behaviours cannot be easily observed and reinforced (cappelli & rogovski, 1998) because the employees are mostly responsible for managing their own work. such work systems require team members to take up ‘extra-roles’ by undertaking tasks that are above and beyond the call of their duty to help team members so that their work teams function effectively (lepine et al., 2002; smith, organ & near, 1983). behaviours such as volunteering to carry out tasks that are not formally a part of the job, persisting with extra effort when necessary, helping and cooperating with other people serve as a critical catalyst to organisational effectiveness (borman, 2004). such discretionary behaviour or extrarole behaviour is described as organisational citizenship behaviour (george & bettenhausen, 1990; lepine et al., 2002; organ, 1988; podsakoff, ahearne & mackenzie, 1997; smith et al., 1983; van der vegt, van de vliert & oosterhof, 2003). according to smith et al. (1983), organisational citizenship behaviour cannot be accounted for by the same motivational bases that induce people to join, stay and perform within contractual, enforceable role prescriptions. organisational citizenship behaviour is therefore not easily enforced by reward or by the threat of sanction because much of such behaviour has altruistic characteristics that are often subtle and diffi cult to measure (smith et al., 1983). if such is the case, how does one instil such behaviour among employees at the work place, especially in a self-managed work-team structure? literature and past research have proposed several antecedent factors that have either a direct or an indirect infl uence on citizenship behaviour. one of these antecedents is leadership behaviour (george & bettenhausen, 1990; pearce & herbik, 2004; podsakoff, mackenzie, paine & bachrach, 2000; smith et al., 1983; van der vegt et al., 2003). leadership behaviours involved mainly in the study of organisational citizenship behaviour are transformational and transactional leadership behaviours. these two types of leadership behaviours are regarded as important in work-team structures (jung & avolio, 1999; pearce & sims, 2002; pillai & williams, 2003). despite its importance, most studies on transformational leadership behaviour have focused on its impact on in-role performance and follower satisfaction (judge & piccolo, 2004; rowold, 2008; vecchio, justin & pearce, 2008) rather than on ‘extra-role’ performance (podsakoff et al., 1997). these studies therefore did not capture the most important effects of transformational leadership behaviour. the essence of transformational leadership is that leaders involved cause followers ‘to do more than they are originally expected to do’ and to be willing to ‘transcend self-interest for the sake of the organization’ (yukl, 2002, p. 267). podsakoff et al. (1997) reported in their study that an indirect relationship exists between transformational leadership behaviour and organisational citizenship behaviour. according to lim and polyhart (2004), there is still very little published empirical research on leadership in self-managed work-team structures. besides that, much existing research on the topic of organisational citizenship behaviour was conducted with individuals as the target of examination. recent literature and past research have shown that organisational citizenship behaviour is not only manifested in individual behaviour but also observable in teams and groups (george & bettenhausen, 1990; pearce & herbik, 2004; podsakoff et al., 1997; randel, 2003). only a few organisational citizenship behaviour researchers, however, have examined this behaviour at group-level analysis (schnake & dumler, 2003). original research omar, zainal, omar & khairudin sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 9 (page number not for citation purposes) 197 vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 11 furthermore, it is one of the fundamental propositions in the theory of transformational-transactional leadership behaviour that transformational leadership augments or supplements the impact of transactional leaders’ behaviour on employee outcome and that transformational leadership is unlikely to be effective without transactional leadership behaviour (den hartog, van muijen & koopman, 1997; judge & piccolo, 2004; lowe, kroeck & sivasubramaniam, 1996; podsakoff, mackenzie, moorman & fetter, 1990). even though this proposition is often discussed, however, it has not been widely tested empirically (judge & piccolo, 2004). judge and piccolo (2004) conducted a metaanalysis to investigate the augmenting hypothesis of the impact of transformational-transactional leadership behaviour on in-role performance and on followers’ satisfaction and motivation. they found that transformational leadership appears to be generally a stronger predictor for criteria that reflect follower satisfaction and motivation, while transactional leadership behaviour tends to have a stronger influence on in-role performance. employee organisational citizenship behaviour is an extrarole behaviour, however, not formally rewarded or punished by the organisation, unlike in-role job performance (organ, 1988). the augmenting effect of transformational-transactional leadership behaviour on organisational citizenship behaviour therefore needs to be investigated because the manifestation of organisational citizenship behaviour is not the same as in-role job performance. accordingly, the purpose of the present study is to examine the influence of transformational-transactional leadership behaviour on organisational citizenship behaviour. the study also examines the augmenting effect of transformationaltransactional leadership behaviour in predicting organisational citizenship behaviour in self-managed work teams. it is important for such a study to be conducted because, in a selfmanaging work-team environment, team members often fulfil many roles and responsibilities performed by supervisors in a traditional work setting. most of these functions are not easily observed and require team members to voluntarily take their own initiative or perform tasks beyond their job scope. this study therefore adds to the body of knowledge in determining the extent to which leadership factors influence team members’ organisational citizenship behaviour. transformational-transactional leadership behaviour self-management does not imply that self-managed work teams function without leaders. self-managed work teams must still receive directions and instructions from a person at a higher level in the organisation (yukl, 2002). according to o’connell, doverspike and cober (2002), although work teams tend to hold a greater degree of responsibility for their self-management than traditional work groups, they often still have a designated or external leader who plays a significant leadership role. external leaders play an important role in team effectiveness because selfmanaging work teams are rarely delegated with full decisionmaking authority (morgeson, 2005). ‘external leaders’ refers to people outside the teams who are appointed by management to facilitate the work teams (stewart, manz & sims, 1999; yeatts & hyten 1998). they are commonly called facilitators, coordinators, counsellors or coaches. this role is frequently undertaken by middle-level management (yukl, 2002). although facilitators are appointed by management similar to supervisors in a traditional work structure, they have different roles and functions in a self-managed work-team structure (stewart et al., 1999). in a self-managed work team, the role of the facilitator is not so much to direct and control but rather to guide and support the team in reaching performance targets and realising continuous improvement (wellins et al., 1991). key decisions, such as hiring and firing, dealing with customers and purchasing equipment, are often still made by external leaders. in addition, activities such as encouraging the team, managing team boundaries and dealing with unexpected problems or events are also commonly performed by external leaders (morgeson, 2005). ultimately, the job of a facilitator is to create optimal working conditions so that team members can take on responsibilities to work productively and solve complex problems on their own (lussier & achua, 2007). one theoretical framework recognised in literature as useful for understanding external team-leader behaviour is founded on conceptual and empirical work on transactional leadership and transformational leadership (kuo, 2004; & pearce & sims, 2002; yammarino, spangler & dubinsky, 1998). the transactionaltransformational leadership paradigm can be extended to both the team and the group context (bass, 1997). bass (1997) also found evidence of the presence of transactional-transformational leadership behaviour in various organisations and cultures, such as in india, spain, singapore, japan, china, germany, austria and indonesia. transactional leadership behaviour refers to leadership behaviour that entails an exchange between leader and follower (den hartog et al., 1997). it is commonly referred to as ‘contingentreward based exchanges’ (jung & avolio, 1999, p. 208). to play transactional leadership roles, leaders should clarify what is expected from their followers and what they will receive in return for attaining these expectations (den hartog et al., 1997). furthermore, they should provide constructive feedback to keep their followers at task and link extrinsic rewards, such as praise, recognition and monetary reward, to task accomplishment (jung & avolio, 1999; tracey & hinkin, 1998). as a result, employees understand their job roles and the expectations set for them by their leaders and organisations (avolio, waldman & yammarino, 1991) and the subordinates or followers are confident that they can fulfil expectations and achieve mutually valued outcomes (bass, 1985). literature on work teams has also stressed the importance of contingent-reward behaviour to enhance work-team effectiveness. effective reward systems in a work-team environment are those that provide recognition and reinforcement contingent for excellent team performance (hackman, 2002; yeatts & hyten, 1998). as such, when leaders of work teams reward team members (in the form of either monetary reward or praise) for the accomplishment of team goals or excellent performance, they exhibit transactional contingent-reward behaviour. furthermore, burke et al. (2006) assert that transactional leadership behaviour is likely to be used by team leaders in task-focused behaviour to enhance performance outcomes through task accomplishments by their team members. an effective work team nevertheless requires external leaders to exhibit not only transactional leadership behaviours but also transformational leadership behaviours. according to graen and uhl-bien (1991), although leader-member exchange may begin with a simple transactional relationship, leaders need to become transformational. ‘transformational leadership’ refers to the process whereby an individual engages with others and creates a connection that raises the level of motivation and morality in both the leader and the followers (northouse, 1997). according to yammarino et al. (1998), such leadership often uses emotional and/or ideological appeals that change individuals’ work values to consider not only themselves but also the larger group or team. transformational leaders also attempt to raise the needs of their followers and promote change in them and in their groups (yammarino et al., 1998). these leaders arouse heightened awareness and interest in the groups, increase confidence and gradually move their followers from concerns for existence to concerns for achievement and growth (avolio et al., 1991; yammarino et al., 1998). transformational leaders are also described as those who seek new ways of working, seek opportunities in the face of risk, prefer effective answers to efficient answers and are less likely to support the status quo (lowe et al., 1996). following the transformational leadership conceptualisation from the work of bass (1985), much literature has suggested four distinct transformational leadership behaviours, s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #209 (page number not for citation purposes) the influence of leadership behaviour on organisational citizenship 198vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 11 commonly labelled as the ‘four i’s’, representing individualised consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation and idealised influence (previously referred to as ‘charisma’) (avolio et al., 1991; bass, 1985; den hartog et al., 1997). additionally, podsakoff et al. (1990), in reviewing the work of various leadership scholars, suggested a much more comprehensive key-behaviours indicator for transformational leaders. they suggest six key behaviours, which greatly overlap with the four i’s but which also have extended features. these six key behaviours are as follows: identifying and articulating a vision.• the leader provides vision and a sense of mission, instils pride, gains respect and increases optimism. providing an appropriate model.• the leader sets an example for the employees to follow that is consistent with the values that the leader espouses. fostering the acceptance of group goals.• the leader promotes cooperation among the employees and encourages them to work together toward a common goal. expecting high performance.• the leader demonstrates expectation for excellence, quality and/or high performance on the part of the followers. providing individualised support• . the leader shows respect toward the followers and is concerned about their personal feelings and needs. providing intellectual stimulation.• the leader challenges the followers to re-examine some of their assumptions about their work and re-think how it can be performed. transformational leadership and transactional leadership are viewed as complementary rather than polar constructs, thereby suggesting that effective leaders use a combination of both types of leadership to increase their followers’ motivation and performance (yukl, 2002). past research has also demonstrated that transformational leadership behaviour has greater influence on team effectiveness than transactional leadership behaviour. sosik, avolio and kahai (1997) reported that both transformational leadership and transactional leadership are positively related to team effectiveness. they found that transformational leadership behaviour, however, has more positive significance and impact on team effectiveness. a recent study conducted by vecchio et al. (2008) nevertheless suggested that transactional leadership may have greater potential predictive value than previously assumed. organisational citizenship behaviour organisational citizenship behaviour is commonly defined as discretionary ‘extra role’ behaviour not formally rewarded or punished by an organisation that, in the long run, benefits the organisation by improving efficiency and effectiveness (organ, 1988). examples of organisational citizenship behaviour include punctuality, helping other employees, volunteering for things that are not required, making innovative suggestions to improve a department and not wasting time (organ, 1988; schnake, 1991; smith et al., 1983). organisational citizenship behaviour also includes behaviour that a person voluntarily refrains from, such as finding fault with other employees, expressing resentment, complaining about insignificant matters and starting arguments with others (schnake, 1991). organisational citizenship behaviour in a work-team context is described as behaviour that extends beyond the prescribed roles and responsibilities of the team members (randel, 2003). such behaviour includes efforts that support group cohesion and behaviour that is helpful to task accomplishment in groups (randel, 2003). high levels of organisational citizenship behaviour are valuable in teams because the complex and dynamic nature of a task and the specialised knowledge and expertise of the team members working in such team environments make it difficult to specify and control individual behaviour (van der vegt et al., 2003). organ (1988) suggested five dimensions of organisational citizenship behaviour. the first of these is altruism, which refers to voluntary actions that help another person with a work problem, such as instructing a new employee on how to use equipment, helping a co-worker to catch up with a backlog of work or fetching material that a colleague needs and cannot get on his/her own. the second is conscientiousness, which refers to a pattern of behaviour of going well beyond minimally required levels of attendance, punctuality, housekeeping and conserving resources and related matters of internal maintenance. the third is sportsmanship, which refers to behaviour that tolerates inevitable inconvenience and imposition without complaint or grievance. the fourth is courtesy, which refers to all those foresighted gestures that help someone else to prevent a problem, such as keeping others informed of decisions and actions that may affect them (schnake & dumler, 2003). the fifth is civic virtue, which refers to responsible constructive involvement in the political process of an organisation, including not just expressing opinions but also reading mail, attending meetings and keeping abreast of larger issues involving the organisation. podsakoff et al. (1997), however, asserted that managers often have difficulty in recognising some of these fine distinctions and tend to lump altruism, courtesy, cheer-leading and peacekeeping into a single helping-behaviour dimension. they therefore suggest three dimensions of organisational citizenship behaviour at group level, namely helping behaviour (consisting of altruism, courtesy, peace-keeping and cheer-leading [organ, 1988]), sportsmanship and civic virtue. this study investigates organisational citizenship behaviour following the dimensions suggested by podsakoff et al. (1997). transformational-transactional leadership behaviour and organisational citizenship behaviour literature and past research have suggested that transformational-transactional leadership behaviour has a positive influence on organisational citizenship behaviour. according to podsakoff et al. (2000), transactional leadership behaviour may increase employee citizenship behaviour. they suggested that, when managers reward subordinates based on their performance achievement, the subordinates’ organisational citizenship behaviour increases. this is because, although managers reward subordinates based on their inrole performance, most often the successful performance of in-role functions requires subordinates to perform extra-role tasks. to gain greater rewards, subordinates therefore exhibit more citizenship behaviour, such as being more helpful and cooperative, in order to perform their in-role functions successfully. besides, one of the key characteristics of a self-managed workteam design is the existence of interdependent tasks, goals and rewards to achieve team effectiveness (campion et al., 1993). wageman and baker (1997) suggested that the most interdependent reward system is one in which rewards accrue to a group based on collective performance and are distributed among all members, independent of individual performance. transactional leadership behaviour in a self-managed work team involves the creation of a contingency between team members’ efforts toward the accomplishment of their goals and their receipt of rewards (yammarino et al., 1998). team members are often collectively rewarded for the accomplishment of their shared goals and this encourages the team members to work cooperatively to achieve their goals so that they may obtain their rewards. furthermore, it has been widely recognised that, although organisational citizenship behaviour involves discretionary behaviour not directly rewarded formally, employees may have a broader conception of performance that includes citizenship behaviour (walumbwa, wu & orwa, 2008). judge and piccolo (2004), in their meta-analysis, also suggested that the validity of transactional leadership behaviour is significantly stronger in a business setting compared to original research omar, zainal, omar & khairudin sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 9 (page number not for citation purposes) 199 vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 11 other settings. a recent study conducted in a school setting nevertheless reported that, even though transactional leadership behaviour had a positive relationship on the teachers’ organisational citizenship behaviour, transactional leadership did not explain the significant amount of variance in organisational citizenship behaviour and only transformational leadership behaviour explained the significant amount of variance in the teachers’ organisational behaviour (nguni, sleegers, & denessen, 2006). similarly, a more recent study conducted on the transformational and transactional leadership behaviour of a christian pastor on the followers’ outcomes, such as extra effort, also reported that transactional leadership had no influence on the followers’ extra effort (rowold, 2008). these findings, however, were contextual in nature. for instance, both studies indicated that very little transactional leadership behaviour was exhibited by the leaders (the head teacher and pastor) due to the nature of their work. moreover, from a theoretical perspective, this proposition is supported by the interdependence theory proposed by deutsch (1949, cited in van der vegt & van der vliert, 2002). according to van der vegt and van der vliert (2002), this theory distinguished two types of outcome or reward interdependence: a cooperative and a competitive context. a cooperative context exists when group members receive or perceive joint goals and receive joint reward for the attainment of their shared goals. a competitive context exists when the goals and rewards of the members are mutually exclusive. van der vegt and van der vliert (2002) asserted that many studies have tested deutsch’s interdependence theory and have generally shown that a cooperative context is superior to a competitive context in fostering caring and committed relationships, collaborative behaviour, social support, feelings of personal responsibility, intrinsic and achievement motivation, psychological health, feelings of well-being and satisfaction. additionally, shaw, duffy and stark (2000) suggested that group-based reward structures tend to foster cooperation and diminish competitiveness. wageman and baker (1997) also posited that the presence of reward interdependence is critical to eliciting and reinforcing the optimal level of cooperative behaviour that leads to enhanced group performance. when leaders in self-managed work teams therefore provide extrinsic rewards, such as praise, recognition and monetary reward when the team members accomplish their goals, the team members may show higher organisational citizenship behaviour because being cooperative may help them to accomplish their team goals. based on this premise, the following is hypothesised: hypothesis 1 transactional leadership behaviour has a positive relationship with organisational citizenship behaviour in self-managed work teams. as for transformational leadership behaviour, studies involving individual work structures have found that this leadership behaviour is positively related to all the five dimensions of organisational citizenship behaviour (podsakoff et al., 1990; podsakoff et al., 2000). a study conducted by lapierre (2007) reported that supervisors’ demonstration of benevolence toward their subordinates, which is a form of transformational leadership behaviour, had a positive influence on subordinate willingness to provide their supervisors with extra-role efforts. yun, pearce and sims (2000) reported in their study that, in work-team settings, transformational leadership behaviour was positively associated with team citizenship behaviour. they asserted that the defining characteristic of transformational leaders, which is to inspire and stimulate team members, may result in the team members engaging in positive citizenship behaviour. following the argument by smith et al. (1983), transformational leadership, which is characterised by leading, inspiring and stimulating followers, may influence citizenship behaviour in a team context because the leader’s behaviour in giving support and showing consideration to the work team, which is a form of citizenship behaviour, is modelled by the team members. literature has suggested that the essence of transformational leadership is that transformational leaders ‘lift ordinary people to extraordinary heights’ (boal & bryson, 1988, p. 11) and cause ‘followers to do more than they are expected to do’ (yukl, 2002, p. 272). from a theoretical perspective, the leader supportiveness exhibited by transformational leaders toward their team members initiates a pattern of exchange that is social and non-contractual in character and that creates the norm of reciprocity. according to blau (1964), ‘social exchange’ refers to the relationships that entail unspecified future obligations. social exchange is based on the norm of reciprocity (gouldner, 1960), which posits that, if one exchange partner does something beneficial for another, an obligation is generated to reciprocate good faith behaviour (cropanzano & mitchell, 2005). team members may choose citizenship behaviour as a means of reciprocation to their facilitator for exhibiting transformational leadership behaviour. wayne, shore and liden (1997) suggested that the norm of reciprocity creates obligations toward another when that party engaged in a previous behaviour that was beneficial to the recipient. in this context, a leader’s supportive behaviour toward team members creates a feeling of obligation in the team members to reciprocate the leader’s behaviour. the following is therefore hypothesised: hypothesis 2 transformational leadership behaviour has a positive relationship with organisational citizenship behaviour in self-managed work teams. augmenting effects of transactional and transformational leadership although literature has suggested that transformational leadership and transactional leadership are distinct from each other, they are not considered as mutually exclusive processes (yukl, 2002). as hater and bass (1988) pointed out, contrasting transactional leadership and transformational leadership does not imply that the models are unrelated. both these leadership constructs are viewed as complementary rather than polar constructs (lowe et al., 1996). avolio et al. (1991) asserted that transformational leadership behaviour should not be viewed as a replacement for transactional leadership behaviour but that it should rather be viewed as adding to other styles of leadership, such as transactional leadership. bass (1990) suggested that, while transactional leadership can be effective in stable environments, transformational leadership is important for organisations undergoing rapid and destabilising change. literature has further suggested that an effective transformational leadership style requires the existence of a transactional relationship between a leader and their subordinates, and that transformational leadership is likely to be ineffective in the total absence of a transactional relationship between them (lowe et al., 1996). literature has, however, suggested that transformational leadership increases follower motivation and performance more than transactional leadership (den hartog et al., 1997; hater & bass, 1988). in other words, transformational leadership augments the impact of transactional leadership behaviour on employee outcome but transformational leadership behaviour is unlikely to be effective without transactional leadership behaviour (den hartog et al., 1997; lowe et al., 1996; podsakoff et al., 1990). judge and piccolo (2004), following bass (1998), defined the augmentation effect as the degree to which the transformational leadership style builds on the transactional base in contributing to the extra effort and performance of followers. they further asserted that transactional leadership results in followers meeting expectations and, in exchange, being rewarded accordingly but that it is transformational leadership that motivates followers to move beyond expectations. this signifies that, without the foundation of transactional leadership, transformational effects may not be possible. these assertions signify that both transformational and transactional leadership behaviour complement each other. there is also a dissenting view about the augmenting effect of transformational-transactional leadership behaviour on s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #209 (page number not for citation purposes) the influence of leadership behaviour on organisational citizenship 200vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 11 leadership outcomes, however, suggesting that transformational leadership adds to transactional leadership but not vice versa (bycio, hackett & allen, 1995; judge & piccolo, 2004). judge and piccolo (2004) argued that, if there were nothing unique to transactional leadership, its scientific and applied value would be called into question. their findings, however, suggested that both transformational and transactional leaders add scientific and applied value to leadership outcomes. based on this, the following is therefore hypothesised: hypothesis 3 the strength of the relationship between transactional and transformational behaviour in respect of organisational citizenship behaviour is reduced when controlling for either one of the leadership behaviours. research design research approach this study followed the quantitative tradition using a crosssectional correlational strategy, as suggested by gravatter and forzano (2003), to examine the influence of transformationaltransactional leadership behaviour on organisational citizenship behaviour in self-managed work teams and the augmenting effect of transformational-transactional leadership behaviour. the cross-sectional correlational strategy was chosen because it has been widely used in the field of social science to study relationships among two or more variables (de vaus, 2004). primary data were collected from members of self-managed work teams from a single organisational setting. many studies on self-managed work teams have been conducted in a single setting (campion et al., 1993; cohen et al., 1996; pearce & herbik, 2004; pearce & sims, 2002; pillai & williams, 2004; van der vegt, & van der vliert, 2000). such research has its own strengths in that it enables the control of extraneous influences on the research outcome (pearce & herbik, 2004). research method research participants the population of this study comprised 93 self-managed work teams with 520 team members working in a manufacturing company in malaysia. each work team comprised three to seven members depending on the nature of the job. the unit of analysis was group level. hence, at group level, the total population of the 93 self-managed work teams was used as the sample in this study. according to mcintyre and salas (1995), studies on work teams tend to make inferences on the work team population and not on the members. the use of the group level rather than the individual level of analysis was therefore much more appropriate. since this study involved a single organisational setting and a group level of analysis was used as the unit of analysis, a non-probability sampling technique was used. according to mcintyre and salas (1995), it is difficult to use a probability sampling technique for studies examining team behaviour because of the limited number of work teams, especially permanent work teams, in organisations. they therefore asserted that the use of a probability sampling technique as the best sampling technique in such a study is almost impossible. a purposive sampling strategy was used for this study. only team members who had been assigned directly to a single team and had worked for a year or more were selected as respondents. the reasoning behind the latter criterion was that they were assigned to a permanent work team only after onthe-job training of a year. with that, 472 team members from 93 teams were selected as respondents. although purposive sampling is used more commonly in qualitative studies, punch (1998, p. 106) asserted that such a method is also suitable in studies examining relationships among variables because ‘it make sense to select the sample in such a way that there is a maximum chance for any relationship to be observed’. study setting the organisation studied gradually implemented the selfmanaged work-team design from 2001. the self-managed work-team structure was implemented to replace the individual work structure previously practised by the organisation. in the old structure, team members were grouped as crew members working the same shift. in the new self-managed work structure, employees working across various shifts are grouped as work teams and referred to as team members. each team reports to an external leader referred to as a facilitator and performs interdependent tasks as a team. the team members are empowered with greater responsibilities and are involved in problem-solving and decision-making in their work team. each team is given an annual target that is monitored on a monthly basis and the team members receive monthly incentives based on the team’s achievement of its goal. the monthly target and the amount of the reward are set by management at the start of the year. the facilitator of each team is responsible for coaching and guiding the team members to achieve their performance target. the facilitator is also responsible for most of the functions traditionally performed by an external leader, such as hiring new team members, disciplining team members, dealing with customers, purchasing equipment, helping team members in continuous improvement activities, managing team boundaries and dealing with unexpected problems (morgeson, 2005; wellins et al., 1991). measures data were collected through self-administered questionnaires. the variables studied were measured with the instrument developed by past researchers, as discussed below. all the items used to assess the variables were measured with a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 = ‘strongly disagree’ to 5 = ‘strongly agree’. since the unit of analysis is group level, all the items in the original instruments using the word ‘i’ or ‘my’ were replaced with ‘our’ or ‘we’ to reflect the group-level evaluation. transactional leadership behaviour was measured by five items taken by podsakoff et al. (1990) from podsakoff, todor, grover and huber (1984) (sample item: ‘our facilitator always gives us positive feedback when we perform well’ and ‘our facilitator personally compliments us when we do outstanding work’). the cronbach’s alpha value for this scale was 0.82. in this study, the transactional leadership behaviour exhibited by the facilitators of the self-managed work teams was assessed based on the team members’ evaluation of their facilitators’ behaviour. transformational leadership behaviour. a total of 24 items was used to assess all six dimensions of transformational leadership behaviour, as suggested by podsakoff et al. (1990). twenty-three items were developed following podsakoff et al. (1990) (sample item: ‘our facilitator shows respect for our personal feelings’, ‘our facilitator asks questions that prompt us to think’ and ‘our facilitator provides a good model for me to follow’). one additional item, ‘our facilitator states that he/she is confident with our team members’ ability to do our best’, was constructed for the high-performance expectations dimension by the researchers in this study based on literature review. according to podsakoff et al. (1990), there are two important aspects to leaders’ expectations of high performance: leaders must inform their subordinates of their expectations and leaders must express their confidence in their subordinates’ abilities to meet those expectations. podsakoff et al. (1990) stated that their instrument measured only the first aspect. an additional item was therefore developed to assess the second aspect. the cronbach’s alpha value for this scale was 0.95. the transformational leadership behaviour exhibited by the facilitators of the self-managed work teams was assessed based on the team members’ evaluation of their facilitators’ behaviour. organisational citizenship behaviour was measured by 13 items assessing three dimensions of organisational citizenship original research omar, zainal, omar & khairudin sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 9 (page number not for citation purposes) 201 vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 11 behaviour, namely helping behaviour, sportsmanship and civic virtue, following podsakoff et al. (1997). these items were developed by podsakoff et al. (1997) and based on the conceptual work of organ (1988) and the empirical research of mackenzie, podsakoff and fetter (1991), and podsakoff et al. (1990) (sample item: ‘our team members obey company rules and regulations even when no-one is watching’ and ‘our team members help other members who have heavy work loads’). these items were used by podsakoff et al. (1997) in their study involving work groups. the cronbach’s alpha value for this scale was 0.86. since the unit of analysis of this study is group level, the referentshift approach of chan (1998) was adopted to assess team-level organisational citizenship behaviour through the individual team member’s assessments of the overall team members’ organisational citizenship behaviour. all items thus used the words ‘our team members . . .’. furthermore, the referent-shift approach could help to reduce self-report bias arising from team members’ tendency to respond in socially desirable ways when assessing their own organisational citizenship behaviour. research procedure written approval was obtained from the organisation for the researcher, with the assistance of a human resource department officer, to collect data for this research through group-administered questionnaires. the human resource officer prepared the schedule for 15 face-to-face group meetings involving approximately 25 respondents. the respondents were informed that participation was voluntary. at each meeting, the purpose and procedures were explained. the respondents were then handed a questionnaire and asked to complete it while in the room (trochim, 2006). this procedure enabled the researcher to stay in control of the data collection. for example, the researcher was able to explain questions that respondents found unclear and provide detailed instructions where necessary (rea & parker, 2005). this method of data collection also yields a high response rate (trochim, 2006). a total of 420 responses was obtained, which accounted for 89% of the response rate. analysis of data at individual and at group level several statistical techniques were used in this study for the purpose of the analysis of the data. a descriptive statistical analysis with frequency distribution and mean and standard deviation was used to describe the demographic profile at the individual and at the group level of analysis and to describe the variables of the study. according to kirkman and rosen (1999), researchers can measure team-level phenomena using individual members’ data and then aggregating these to team level. many researchers of work teams and groups have aggregated data obtained at individual level at group level for the purpose of analysis (campion et al., 1993; darch-zahavy & somech, 2002; doolen, 2001; george & bettenhausen, 1990). since the unit of analysis used in this study was group level, the data obtained from the respondents at individual level were aggregated to group level following the recommendations of kirkman and rosen (1999). the data aggregation was performed using the spss version 15 by averaging the individual responses for each independent and dependent variable across all the team members and by using the mean team scores for the independent and dependent variables as measures for analysis, following james, demaree and wolf (1984). in order to determine whether data can be aggregated from individual to group level, two tests were performed following doolen (2001) and george and bettenhausen (1990). the two tests were 1) the inter-rater agreement test and 2) the differences between groups test. the inter-rater agreement (r wg(j) ) was tested with the formula suggested by james et al. (1984). if the inter-rater agreement score is r wg(j) = 0.7 or higher, the level of agreement is high and individual-level data can be aggregated to group level (george & bettenhausen, 1990; james et al., 1984). the second test was performed using the analysis of variance (anova). if the f value obtained is greater than 1.00 (f > 1.00), a difference between groups is considered to exist (george & bettenhausen, 1990) and aggregation to the group level of analysis is appropriate. the results of the aggregation analysis, as shown in table 1, indicated that both conditions were met. the data in this study could therefore be aggregated to group level. finally, the aggregated data were statistically analysed using pearson correlation, partial correlation and multiple regression. the statistical significance at p = .05 was used in this study as the cut-off point for significance. results demographic profile of respondents at individual and group level of analysis table 2 presents the demographic profile of the respondents at the individual and at the group level of analysis. the average age of the respondents was 25 and ranged from 18 to 42. the majority of the respondents (98.8%) were from the malay ethnic group. the majority (69.8%) were also male and most (66.7%) were single. most of the respondents (82.1%) had attained the highest level of secondary-school education. the average tenure of the respondents with the organisation was five years. more than half (62.9%) had served the company for less than six years. most (64%) were production operators. they comprised the largest number of workers on the production floor. the majority (82.9%) of the respondents worked three-shift cycles. most of the teams (79.6%) were from the production department. relationship between transactional and transformational leadership behaviour in respect of organisational citizenship behaviour table 3 reports the mean standard deviation, correlation and partial correlation concerning the variables of study. since multiple-item measures were used to assess the variables in this study, a composite score was computed for all three variables of study. since the total score for each variable varied due to the different number of items used, the weighted mean score was used for ease of interpretation. with that, a standard score between 1 and 5 was used for all the variables. the mean value obtained indicated that the self-managed work-team leaders in the organisation possessed higher transformational leadership behaviour (m = 4.09, sd = 0.25) compared to transactional leadership behaviour (m = 3.45, sd = 0.36). the results also revealed that both transactional leadership behaviour (r(93) = 0.48, p < 0.01) and transformational leadership behaviour (r(93) = .63, p < .01) were significantly and positively related to organisational citizenship behaviour (m = 3.58, sd = 0.27). the results showed that transformational leadership behaviour had a stronger positive relationship with organisational citizenship behaviour compared to transformational leadership behaviour. both hypothesis 1 and hypothesis 2 were therefore supported by this study. table 1 inter-rater agreement and differences between groups (n = 93) variable inter-rater agreement rwg(j) (median value) differences between groups (f ratio) transactional leadership behaviour 0.98* 2.12** transformational leadership behaviour 0.99* 1.55** organisational citizenship behaviour 0.97* 1.43** *r wg(j) > 0.7 ** f ratio > 1 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #209 (page number not for citation purposes) the influence of leadership behaviour on organisational citizenship 202vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 11 a regression analysis, as shown in table 4, was performed to determine the extent to which both these leadership behaviours influenced self-managed work-team organisational citizenship behaviour. the results of the regression revealed that both these leadership behaviours explained a sizeable proportion of variance (r2 = 0.40, f(2, 90) = 30.49 and p < 0.05) in selfmanaged work-team organisational citizenship behaviour. this indicated that both these leadership behaviours contributed approximately 40% to organisational citizenship behaviour in the self-managed work team studied. transactional leadership behaviour nevertheless did not predict self-managed work-team organisational citizenship behaviour (ß = 0.05, p > 0.05). only transformational leadership behaviour predicted self-managed work-team organisational citizenship behaviour (ß = 0.60, p < 0.05). augmenting effect of transformationaltransactional leadership behaviour on organisational citizenship behaviour a partial correlation analysis, as shown in table 3, was used to explore the relationship between transactional leadership behaviour and organisational citizenship behaviour while controlling for transformational leadership behaviour and the relationship between transformational leadership behaviour and organisational citizenship behaviour while controlling for transactional leadership behaviour. results revealed that there was no relationship between transactional leadership behaviour and organisational citizenship behaviour while controlling for transformational leadership behaviour (r(93) = 0.05, p > 0.05). this suggested that controlling for transformational leadership behaviour had a significant effect on the strength of the relationship table 2 demographic profile of respondents at individual (n = 420) and group level of analysis (n = 83) variable frequency percentage (%) individual level of analysis (n = 420) 1. gender a) male 293 69.8 b) female 127 30.2 2. ethnic group a) malay 415 98.8 b) indian 5 1.2 3. marital status a) single 280 66.7 b) married 138 32.9 c) widowed/divorced 2 0.5 4. age a) 18–22 years 136 38.0 b) 23–27 years 155 43.3 c) 28–32 years 40 11.2 d) 33–37 years 21 5.9 e) 38–42 years 6 1.7 5. education level a) lower secondary (srp/pmr) 8 2.0 b) upper secondary (spm) 345 84.8 c) a-level (stpm) 29 7.1 d) certificate 20 4.9 e) diploma 5 1.2 6. years of service a) 1–3 years 187 44.5 b) 4–6 years 77 18.3 c) 7–9 years 56 13.3 d) 10–13 years 51 12.1 7. shift schedule a) shift 1 (08:00–16:00) 212 50.5 b) shift 2(16:00–24:00) 109 26.0 c) shift 3(24:00–08:00 27 6.4 d) normal (08:00–16:00) 72 17.1 8. position a) production operator 269 64.0 b) quality inspector 52 12.4 c) technician 25 6.0 d) production support 74 17.6 group level of analysis (n = 93) 9. number of teams per department a) production department 74 79.6 b) quality department 13 14.0 c) maintenance department 6 6.5 original research omar, zainal, omar & khairudin sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 9 (page number not for citation purposes) 203 vol. 7 no. 1 page 8 of 11 between transactional leadership behaviour and organisational citizenship behaviour. there was a moderate positive significant relationship between transformational leadership behaviour and organisational citizenship behaviour while controlling for transactional leadership behaviour (r(93) = 0.46, p < 0.05). the strength of the relationship, however, had reduced compared to the original bivariate correlation. this suggested that controlling for transactional leadership behaviour had little effect on the strength of the relationship between transformational leadership behaviour and organisational citizenship behaviour. hypothesis 3 was therefore supported by this study. discussion this study aimed to examine the influence of transactionaltransformational leadership behaviour on organisational citizenship behaviour in self-managed work teams and the augmenting effect of transformational-transactional leadership behaviour on its relationship with organisational citizenship behaviour. the focus of the study was on external leaders referred to as ‘facilitators’ of the self-managed work team in the organisation studied. external leaders are people outside the teams who are appointed by management to facilitate the work teams. they play an important role in team effectiveness (morgeson, 2005; stewart et al., 1999; yeatts & hyten, 1998). the findings of this study revealed that the work teams perceived their facilitators to possess both types of leadership behaviours, although transformational leadership behaviour seemed to be stronger than transactional leadership behaviour. the findings also revealed that both leadership behaviours correlated positively with organisational citizenship behaviour in the self-managed work teams. further analysis, however, revealed that only transformational leadership predicted organisational citizenship behaviour. this was consistent with the assertion by bass (1990) that transactional leadership is effective in stable organisations, while transformational leadership is much more important in organisations undergoing rapid and destabilising change, as was found to be the case in the organisation that was studied. during the preliminary investigation, this study found that the self-managed work-team structure had been implemented to replace the individual work structure that had previously been practised by the organisation. the facilitators could therefore focus more on engaging in transformational leadership behaviour to take the work teams to greater heights and change their mind-sets from focusing on individual achievement to focusing on collective goals and achievements. this explained the team members perceiving their facilitators to display stronger transformational leadership behaviour. the results of this study showed that transformational leadership had a positive influence and predicted the organisational citizenship behaviour of the teams. these results were consistent with the assertion that transformational leadership is responsible for performance beyond expectation and that its motivational potential surpasses that of leadership models characterised by leader-follower exchanges or of transactions as exhibited in transactional leadership behaviour (hater & bass, 1988). the results were also consistent with literature and past research, which has suggested that transformational leadership behaviour has a positive influence on organisational citizenship behaviour (podsakoff et al., 1997; podsakoff et al., 2000; nguni et al., 2006; yukl 2002). the theoretical explanation of the relationship between transformational leadership behaviour and organisational citizenship behaviour using the social-exchange theory was also supported. the social-exchange theory suggests that leader supportiveness exhibited by transformational leaders toward their team members initiates a pattern of exchange that is social and non-contractual in character and that creates the norm of reciprocity in which team members choose citizenship behaviour as a means of reciprocation (cropanzano & mitchell, 2005; wayne et al., 1997) for the positive leadership behaviour shown by their facilitators. the findings of this study showed that, although there was a relationship between the transactional leadership behaviour and the organisational citizenship behaviour of the self-managed work teams, this leadership behaviour had no influence on organisational citizenship behaviour. this was consistent with the results of recent studies by rowold (2008) and nguni et al. (2006). the facilitators in this study did not have direct control over the amount of monthly incentives that their team members received, as this had been set by management. facilitators generally do not have direct control over the amount of rewards to be granted because team rewards are based on the achievement of targets, measured quantitatively. not much transactional exchange between facilitators and their team members that elicits organisational citizenship behaviour therefore occurs. facilitators may, however, provide their team members with encouragement, guidance, motivation and inspiration, which are defining characteristics of transformational leadership behaviour and which may result in team members engaging in organisational citizenship behaviour. this was evident from the findings of this study, which showed that the team members perceived their facilitators to engage more in transformational leadership than in transactional leadership. judge and piccolo (2004) reported in their meta-analysis that transformational leadership behaviour is a stronger predictor for criteria that reflect follower satisfaction and motivation and that transactional leadership behaviour tends to have a stronger influence on in-role performance. burke et al. (2006) also suggested that transactional leadership behaviour is likely to be used by team leaders to complete task-focused behaviour for performance outcomes to be enhanced. transactional leadership behaviour therefore may have a stronger influence on team performance and transformational leadership behaviour may have a stronger influence on organisational citizenship behaviour in selfmanaged work teams. the results of this study also supported the augmenting hypothesis of transformational-transactional leadership obtaining performance beyond basic expectation (lowe et al., 1996). the results revealed that the sole use of transactional leadership behaviour in the total absence of transformational leadership behaviour did not enhance organisational citizenship behaviour in the work teams and that effective transformational leadership required the existence of a transactional relationship table 3 means, standard deviations, zero order and partial correlations for study variables variables mean sd r partial r ocb tclb tslb ocb ocb 3.58 0.27 tclb 3.45 0.36 0.48(**) 0.05 tslb 4.09 0.25 0.63(**) 0.72(**) 0.48(**) * p <0.05, ** p <0.01 ocb = organisational citizenship behaviour, tclb = transactional leadership behaviour, tslb = transformational leadership behaviour note the partial correlation between transactional leadership behaviour and organisational citizenship behaviour after controlling for transformational leadership behaviour, the partial correlation between transformational leadership behaviour and organisational citizenship behaviour after controlling for transactional leadership behaviour table 4 summary of multiple-regression analysis of influence of transactional and transformational leadership behaviour on organisational citizenship behaviour variable β t p f r2 transactional leadership behaviour 0.05 0.46 0.65 30.49** 0.4 transformational leadership behaviour 0.6 5.12** 0.01 standardised regression coefficients are reported. ** p < 0.01 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #209 (page number not for citation purposes) the influence of leadership behaviour on organisational citizenship 204vol. 7 no. 1 page 9 of 11 between the leaders and the followers. although the results revealed that transformational leadership behaviour had a stronger influence on organisational citizenship, such behaviour should not be viewed as a replacement for transactional leadership behaviour (avolio et al., 1991) but should rather add to other styles of leadership, such as the transactional leadership style. while each of these two leadership behaviours individually correlates with organisational citizenship behaviour, both behaviours operate most effectively in combination. both are viewed as complementary constructs rather than polar constructs (lowe et al., 1996). as lowe et al. (1996) suggest, transformational leadership seeks new ways of working, it seeks opportunities in the face of risk and it tends to utilise symbolism and imagery to solicit increased effort. transactional strategies may also be used when appropriate, however, transformational leadership is likely to be ineffective in the total absence of a transactional relationship between leaders and their subordinates. this study found that both transactional and transformational leadership behaviours were important in enhancing organisational citizenship behaviour in self-managed work teams. even though transformational leadership behaviour has a greater influence on organisational citizenship behaviour, both these leadership behaviours operate most effectively in combination. implications, limitations and suggestions for further research the findings of this study support the theoretical propositions on the contribution of transformational and transactional leadership behaviour in influencing citizenship behaviour among team members. the findings also support the propositions that transformational leadership behaviour augments transactional leadership behaviour in influencing work teams to engage in organisational citizenship behaviour. the study furthermore contributes to theory development and research on organisational citizenship behaviour by examining the influence of leadership behaviour on organisational citizenship behaviour at group level. schnake and dumler (2003) asserted that organisational citizenship behaviour theory and research that omit specific consideration of levels issues are considered incomplete. practically, this study suggests the importance of external leaders in engaging in both these leadership behaviours to motivate work teams to engage in organisational citizenship behaviour, such as helping other team members, performing tasks beyond their roles and responsibilities and being supportive of organisational and work-team efforts. external leaders should therefore rely not only on reward exchange behaviour as a way to encourage organisational citizenship behaviour among team members. nevertheless, from the partial-correlation and multipleregression results, one may argue that a spurious relationship exists between transactional leadership behaviour and organisational citizenship behaviour, which is due to the fact that both variables are influenced by transformational leadership behaviour. this supports the dissenting view about the augmenting effect of transformational-transactional leadership behaviour that suggests transformational leadership adds to transactional leadership but not vice versa (bycio et al., 1995; judge & piccolo, 2004). it can be argued that whatever validity there is to transactional leadership, it is due to its association with transformational leadership, which is also evident in this study. as judge and piccolo (2004) noted, if the positive effects of transactional leadership are simple byproducts of transformational leadership, there is nothing unique to transactional leadership and, if this is so, its scientific and applied value would be called into serious question. one main limitation of this study is that it was conducted in a single study setting. the findings of the study therefore cannot be generalised and more studies are needed to research this phenomenon in various organisations. another limitation of this study is that the influence of transactional and transformational leadership behaviour on work teams’ in-role performance was not considered. a study including this would therefore provide greater insight into understanding the extent to which both these leadership behaviours influence not only ‘extra-role’ performance but also ‘in-role’ performance. previous studies have also reported that transactional leadership behaviour has a stronger influence on performance-related outcome (judge & piccolo, 2004). it may thus be possible that both these leadership behaviours have varying degrees of influence depending on the types of outcomes. this study therefore suggests further studies to examine these relationships. furthermore, from methodological perspectives, the use of partial correlation and regression may not be able to fully explain the transactionaltransformational leadership behaviour model and its influence on organisational citizenship behaviour. the basic statistical methods are not sufficient to test the hypothesised model in a simultaneous analysis of the entire system of variables (byrne, 2001; schumacher & lomax, 2004). for that, further research with a structural modelling technique is recommended to better understand the phenomenon of the study. finally, considering the high intercorrelations between transactional and transformational leadership behaviour, as indicated in past studies (judge & piccolo, 2004; nguni et al., 2006; rowold, 2008), further study is needed to re-examine the transformationaltransactional leadership construct. references avolio, b.j., waldman, d.a., & yammarino, f.j. (1991). leading in the 1990s: the four i’s of transformational leadership. journal of european industrial training, 15(4), 9–16. bass, b. (1985). leadership and performance beyond expectations. new york: free press. bass, b. (1990). from transactional to transformational leadership: learning to share the vision. organizational dynamics, 18(3), 19–32. bass, b.m. (1997). does the transactional-transformational leadership paradigm transcend organizational and national boundaries? american psychologist, 52(2), 130–139. bass, b.m. (1998). transformational leadership: industry, military, and educational impact. mahwah: lawrence erlbaum. blau, p. (1964). exchange and power in social life. new york: john wiley. boal, k.b., & bryson, j.m. (1988). charismatic leadership: a phenomenological and structural approach. in j.g. hunt, b.r. baliga, h.p. dachler, & c.a. schrieshiem (eds.), emerging leadership vistas, (pp. 5–28). lexington: lexington books. borman, w.c. (2004). the concept of organizational citizenship. current directions in psychological science, 13(6), 238–241. burke, c.s., stagl, k.c., klien, c., goodwin, g.f., salas, e., & halpin, s.m. (2006). what types of leadership behaviours are functional in teams: a meta-analysis. the leadership quarterly, 17, 288–307. bycio, p., hackett, r.d., & allen, j.s. (1995). further assessments of bass’s (1985) conceptualization of transactional and transformational leadership. journal of applied psychology, 80, 468–478. byrne, b. (2001). structural equation modelling with amos. mahwah: lawrence erlbaum associates. campion, m.a., medsker, g.j., & higgs, a.c. (1993). relations between work group characteristics and effectiveness: implications for designing effective work groups. personnel psychology, 46, 823–850. cappelli, p., & rogovski, n. (1998). employee involvement and organizational citizenship behaviour: implications for labour law reform and lean production. industrial labor relations review, 51(4), 633–655. chan, d. (1998). functional relations among constructs in the same content domain at different levels of analysis: a typology of composition models. journal of applied psychology, 83(2), 234–246. original research omar, zainal, omar & khairudin sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 9 (page number not for citation purposes) cohen, s.g., ledford, g.e., jr., & spreitzer, g.m. (1996). a predictive model of self managing work team effectiveness. human relations, 49(5), 643–677. cropanzano, r., & mitchell, m.s. (2005). social exchange theory: an interdisciplinary review. journal of management, 31, 874– 900. darch-zahavy, a., & somech, a. (2002). team heterogeneity and its relationship with team support and team effectiveness. journal of educational administration, 40(1), 44–66. den hartog, d.d., van muijen, j.j., & koopman, p. (1997). transactional versus transformational leadership: an analysis of the mlq. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 70, 19–34. de vaus, d. (2002). analyzing social science data. london: sage publications. doolen, t.l. (2001). the impact of organizational context on work team effectiveness: a study of production and engineering teams. dissertation abstracts international. (umi no. 3015203). farh, j.l., zhong, c.b., & organ, d.w. (2004). organizational citizenship behaviour in the people’s republic of china. organization science, 15(2), 241–253. george, j.m., & bettenhausen, k. (1990). understanding prosocial behaviour, sales performance, and turnover: a group level analysis in a service context. journal of applied psychology, 75(6), 698–709. gouldner, a.w. (1960). the psychology of behavioural exchange. reading, ma: addison-wesley. graen, g.b., & uhl-bien, m. (1991). the transformation of professionals into self-managing and partially selfdesigning contributors towards a theory of leadershipmaking. journal of management systems, 3, 33–48. gravatter, f.j., & forzano, l.b. (2003). research methods for the behavioural science. belmont: wadsworth/thomson learning. hackman, j.r. (2002). leading teams: setting the stage for great performances. boston: harvard business school press. hater, j., & bass, b. (1988). superiors’ evaluation and subordinates’ perceptions of transformational and transactional leadership. journal of applied psychology, 73(3), 695–702. james, l.r., demaree, r.c., & wolf, g. (1984). estimating withingroup interrater reliability with and without response bias. journal of applied psychology, 69(1), 85–98. judge, t.a., & piccolo, r.f. (2004). transformational and transactional leadership: a meta-analytic test of their relative validity. journal of applied psychology, 89(5), 755– 768. jung, d.i., & avolio, b.j. (1999). effects of leadership style and followers’ cultural orientation and performance in group and individual task conditions. academy of management journal, 42(2), 208–218. katzenbach, j.r., & smith, d.k. (1993). the wisdom of teams. new york: harvard business school press. kirkman, b.l., & rosen, b. (1999). beyond self-management: antecedents and consequences of team empowerment. academy of management journal, 42(1), 58–74. kuo, c.c. (2004). research on impacts of team leadership and team effectiveness. the journal of american academy of business, september, 266–278. lapierre, l.l. (2007). supervisor trustworthiness and subordinates’ willingness to provide extra-role efforts. journal of applied social psychology, 37(2), 272–297. lepine, j.a., erez, a., & johnson, d.e. (2002). the nature and dimensionality of organizational citizenship behaviour: a critical review and meta-analysis. journal of applied psychology, 87(1), 52–65. lim, b.c., & polyhart, r.e. (2004). transformational leadership: relations to the five-factor model and team performance in typical and maximum context. journal of applied psychology, 89(4), 610–621. lowe, k.b., kroeck, k.k., & sivasubramaniam, n. (1996). effectiveness correlates of transformational and transactional leadership: a meta-analytic review of the mlq literature. leadership quarterly, 7(3), 385–427. lussier, r.n., & achua, c.f. (2007). leadership: theory, application, skill development. mason: thomson higher education. mackenzie, s.b., podsakoff, p.m., & fetter, r. (1991). organizational citizenship behaviour and objective productivity as determinants of managerial evaluations of salespersons’ performance. organizational behaviour and human decision processes, 50, 123–150. manz, c.c., & sims, h.p. (1993). business without bosses: how self managing teams are building high performing companies. new york: john wiley & sons. mcintyre, r.m., & salas, m. (1995). measuring and managing for team performance: emerging principles form complex environments. in r.a. guzzo, e. salas, & associates (eds.), team effectiveness and decision making in organizations, (pp. 9–45). san francisco: jossey-bass. morgeson, f.p. (2005). the external leadership of self-managing teams: intervening the context of novel and disruptive events. journal of applied psychology, 90(3), 497–508. nguni, s., sleegers, p., & denessen, e. (2006). transformational and transactional leadership effects on teachers’ job satisfaction, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviour in primary schools: the tanzanian case. school effectiveness and school improvement, 17(2), 145– 177. northouse, p.g. (1997). leadership theory and practice. thousand oaks: sage publications. o’connell, m., doverspike, d., & cober, a.b. (2002). leadership and semiautonomous work team performance. group and organization management, 27(1), 50–65. organ, d.w. (1988). organizational citizenship behaviour: the good soldier syndrome. lexington: lexington books. pearce, c.l., & herbik, p. (2004). citizenship behaviour at the team level of analysis: the effects of team leadership, team commitment, perceived team support, and team size. the journal of social psychology, 144(3), 293–310. pearce, c.l., & sims, h.p. (2002). vertical versus shared leadership as predictors of the effectiveness of change management teams: an examination of aversive, directive, transactional and empowering leader behaviours. group dynamics: theory, research and practice, 6(2), 172–197. pillai, r., & williams, e.a. (2004). transformational leadership, self-efficacy, group cohesiveness, commitment and performance. journal of organizational change management, 17(2), 144–159. podsakoff, p.m., ahearne, m., & mackenzie, s.b. (1997). organization citizenship behaviour and the quantity and quality of work group performance. journal of applied psychology, 82(2), 262–270. podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., moorman, r.h., & fetter, r. (1990). transformational leader behaviours, and their effects on followers’ trust in leader, satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behaviours. leadership quarterly, 1(2), 107–142. podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., paine, j.b., & bachrach, d.g. (2000). organizational citizenship behaviours: a critical review of the theoretical and empirical literature and suggestions for future research. journal of management, 26(3), 513–563. podsakoff, p.m., todor, w.d., & skov, r. (1982). effect of leader contingent and non-contingent reward and punishment behaviors on subordinate performance and satisfaction. academy of management journal, 25, 810–821. podsakoff, p. m., todor, w. d., grover, r. a. & huber, v.l. (1984). situational moderators of leader reward and punishment behaviors: fact or fiction? organizational behavior and human performance, 34(1), 1–63. punch, k.f. (1998). introduction to social research: quantitative and qualitative approaches. london: sage publications. randel, a.e. (2003). the salience of culture in multinational teams and its relations to team citizenship behaviour. international journal of cross cultural management, 3(1), 27– 44. vol. 7 no. 1 page 10 of 11 205 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #209 (page number not for citation purposes) the influence of leadership behaviour on organisational citizenship rea, l.m., & parker, r.a. (2005). designing & conducting survey research: a comprehensive guide. san francisco: jossey bass. rowold, j. (2008). effects of transactional and transformational leadership of pastors. pastoral psychology, 56, 403–411. schnake, m. (1991). organizational citizenship: a review, proposed model and research agenda. human relations, 44(7), 735–759. schnake, m., & dumler, m.p. (2003). levels of measurement and analysis issues in organizational citizenship behaviour research. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 76, 283–301. schumacher, r.e., & lomax, r.g. (2004). a beginner’s guide to structural equation modeling. mahwah: lawrence erlbaum associates. shaw, j.d., duffy, m.k., & stark, e.m. (2000). interdependence and preference for group work: main and congruence effects on the satisfaction and performance of group members. journal of management, 26(2), 259–279. smith, c.a., organ, d.w., & near, j.p. (1983). organizational citizenship behaviour: its nature and antecedents. journal of applied psychology, 68(4), 653–663. sosik, j.j., avolio, b.j., & kahai, s.s. (1997). effects of leadership style and anonymity on group potency and effectiveness in a group decision support system environment. journal of applied psychology, 82(21), 89–103. stewart, g.l., manz, c.c., & sims, h.p. (1999). team work and group dynamics. new york: john wiley and sons inc. tracey, j.b., & hinkin, t.r. (1998). transformational leadership or effective managerial practices? group and organization management, 23(3), 220–236. trochim, w.m. (2006). the research methods knowledge base. (2nd edn.). retrieved january, 2008, from http://www. socialresearchmethods.net/kb/ van der vegt, g.s., & van der vliert, e. (2002). intra-group interdependence and effectiveness: review and proposed directions for theory and practice. journal of managerial psychology, 17(1), 50–67. van der vegt, g.s., van de vliert, e., & oosterhof, a. (2003). informational dissimilarity and organizational citizenship behaviour: the role of intra-team, interdependence and team identification. academy of management journal, 46(6), 715–725. vecchio, r.p., justin, j.e., & pearce, c.l. (2008). the utility of transactional and transformational leadership for predicting performance and satisfaction within a path-goal theory framework. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 81, 71–82. wageman, r., & baker, g. (1997). incentives and cooperation: the joint effects of task and reward interdependence on group performance. journal of organizational behaviour, 18, 139–158. walumbwa, f.o., wu, c., & orwa, b. (2008). contingent reward transactional leadership, work attitudes, and organizational citizenship behavior: the role of procedural justice climate perceptions and strength. the leadership quarterly, 19, 251– 265. wayne, s.j., shore l.m., & liden, r.c. (1997). perceived organizational support and leader-member exchange: a social exchange perspective. academy of management journal, 40(1), 82–111. wellins, r.s., byham, w.c., & wilson, j.m. (1991). empowered teams: creating self directed groups that improve quality, productivity, and participation. san francisco: jossey bass. yammarino, f.j., spangler, w.d., & dubinsky, a.j. (1998). transformational and contingent reward leadership: individual, dyad and group level of analysis. leadership quality, 9(1), 27–55. yeatts, d.e., & hyten, c. (1998). high performing self-managed work teams: a comparison of theory to practice. thousand oaks: sage publications. yukl, g. (2002). leadership in organizations. (5th edn.). new jersey: prentice hall. yun, s., pearce, c.l., & sims, h.p. (2000). leadership, team ocb, collective efficacy and team performance. paper presented at the academy of management, toronto. vol. 7 no. 1 page 11 of 11 206 article information author: hanna m. salminen1 affiliation: 1school of business and economics, university of jyväskylä, finland correspondence to: hanna salminen postal address: po box 35, fin-40014, finland dates: received: 21 sept. 2011 accepted: 13 dec. 2011 published: 17 feb. 2012 how to cite this article: salminen, h.m. (2012). turning the tide: registered nurses’ job withdrawal intentions in a finnish university hospital. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(2), art. #410, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i2.410 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. turning the tide: registered nurses’ job withdrawal intentions in a finnish university hospital in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • trends from the research literature    • research objectives    • the potential value–add of the study • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results • discussion    • conclusion    • limitations    • recommendations • acknowledgements    • competing interests • references abstract top ↑ orientation: given the global shortage of registered nurses, it is important to investigate the intentions for job withdrawal of nurses, and resolve these, in order to retain nurses in the field.research purpose: the objective was to examine the intentions for job withdrawal of ageing and younger nurses, and the antecedents of these intentions, with special reference to job control and perceived development opportunities. the age of 45 was adopted as a starting point when referring to ageing employees. motivation for the study: different forms of job withdrawal have rarely been studied together and associated. research design, approach and method: a quantitative study was applied with logistic regression analyses. respondents were registered nurses working in a university hospital in finland. the response rate was 46.1% (n = 343). main findings: a quarter (25%) of the nurses had frequently thought about leaving the profession and 19% of the nurses had thought about taking early retirement. factors that increased the likelihood of intentions for occupational turnover were young age, low job satisfaction, low organisational commitment, low work ability and skills in balance with or above present work demands. the intention to take early retirement was increased with older age, being male, working shifts, low work ability, low job satisfaction and poor job control. practical/managerial implications: a nurse’s job satisfaction and work ability should be regularly monitored and opportunities should be offered them, to apply their skills and to control their work, in order to retain them. contribution/value–added: the article added information about the factors that contribute to a nurse’s intentions for job withdrawal. introduction top ↑ key focus of the study finland is one of the fastest–ageing societies in the world (tuominen, 2007). therefore finland, like many other countries, is facing ‘a demographic double whammy’, these being an ageing nursing workforce coupled with greater demands for health care services because of the ageing population (armstrong–stassen & schlosser, 2010; buchan & calman, 2004). there is already a substantial shortage of registered nurses in many countries, resulting from the ageing nursing workforce, the number of nurses who leave the profession prematurely and the decline in the number of young people entering the nursing profession (blakeley & ribeiro, 2008; estryn–behar, van der heijden, fry & hasselhorn, 2010). compared to other occupational groups, nurses tend to leave their profession in much greater numbers (van der heijden, van dam & hasselhorn, 2009). the nurses early exit (next) study (n = 25 324), conducted in 10 european countries (belgium, germany, finland, france, great britain, italy, netherlands, norway, poland and slovakia), showed that 14% of nurses had frequently thought about giving up nursing (hasselhorn, müller & tackenberg, 2005). the intention of finnish nurses to leave their profession has varied in different studies, from 15% (laine, 2005) to over 30% (hintsala, 2005; kuokkanen, leino–kilpi & katajisto, 2003). occupational turnover concerns young nurses in particular. for example, a recent study showed that 26% of young (under 30 years old) finnish nurses have often thought about giving up nursing (flinkman, laine, leino–kilpi, hasselhorn & salanterä, 2008).nurses also tend to retire before the standard retirement age (blakeley & ribeiro, 2008). in finland, the number of nurses per capita is the highest in europe, but the nursing population is relatively old (flinkman et al., 2008). according to a recent study, finnish nurses generally wish to retire at about the age of 59 (eskola, 2007). the finnish pension system was reformed in 2005 in order to increase participation in the labour force amongst older employees. since these reforms, employees have had the option to retire between the age of 63 and 68. employees can also retire at the age of 62, but then their pension is permanently lower than the normal pension (hietaniemi & ritola, 2007). in this article, the intentions for job withdrawal are studied with special reference to perceived development opportunities and job control. the rationale for this is that both development opportunities and job control have been presented as important examples of incentives relating to the nurses’ retention strategies (hayes et al., 2006; lavoie–tremblay, o’brien–pallas, viens, brabant & gélinas, 2006). in this study the intentions of the nurses are used to reflect their actual decision to leave the job, because previous studies have shown that the intention towards job withdrawal is a powerful predictor of the actual event (adams & beehr, 1998; beehr, 1986; flinkman, leino–kilpi & salanterä, 2010). by identifying the factors associated with an employee’s intention for job withdrawal, preventive actions could be taken before he or she actually withdraws from the job. the next section presents the theoretical framework of the study followed by the methodology. thereafter the results of the study are presented and discussed. the article closes with conclusions and recommendations. trends from the research literature over the years, both managers and researchers have enquired why employees leave organisations (adams & beehr, 1998; estryn–behar et al., 2010). organisational withdrawal is defined, for the purposes of this research, as a general construct, composed of a variety of acts or intentions that reflect both the negative attitudes of the job and the target of these negative attitudes. two forms of organisational withdrawal have been empirically distinguished: job withdrawal and work withdrawal. job withdrawal reflects ‘employees’ efforts to remove themselves from a specific organisation and their work role’, and work withdrawal refers to the efforts of employees ‘to avoid specific aspects of their specific work role’ (adams & beehr, 1998; hanisch & hulin, 1991).this paper focuses on two types of job withdrawal: occupational turnover and early retirement. occupational turnover is defined as leaving a profession, while early retirement refers to leaving a position or a career path before normal retirement age (hanisch & hulin, 1990, 1991). occupational turnover and early retirement can be imposed or voluntary; in this study, the focus is on the latter. both occupational turnover and early retirement are long–lasting psychological processes (beehr, 1986). the next–study showed that, for the majority of the nurses who left the profession, serious consideration of leaving began in the year which preceded eventual leaving (flinkman et al., 2010; hasselhorn et al., 2005). the retirement process takes place years before and after the actual exit from working life. therefore, retirement can be seen as an ongoing process rather than a discrete event (beehr, 1986; taylor & shore, 1995). long before employees actually retire they start to develop representations of their future experiences, as retirees, and start to consider when to retire (beehr, 1986). these representations and intentions are influenced by many factors, such as labour market opportunities and social security rules and also individual and social variables (zappalà, depolo, fraccaroli, guglielmi & sarchielli, 2008). factors influencing the job withdrawal process are classified in many ways. beehr (1986) identified three main dimensions influencing the retirement process: (1) personal, (2) work–related and (3) environmental. a simpler distinction is based on work–related and non-work dimensions. work–related factors refer, for example, to autonomy, skill variety and task significance whereas non-work characteristics are related to personal obligations such as having to care for a sick family member or an enthusiasm to engage in personal hobbies (beehr, glazer, nielson & farmer, 2000). the decision to leave the profession and the decision to retire early are both likely to be the result of a process with numerous simultaneous underlying causes, so–called ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors (beehr et al., 2000; hayes et al., 2006). push factors are adversely perceived aspects of a job that cause employees to want to end their current employment (e.g. conflicts at work or ill health), and pull factors are attractive external incentives, such as university studies or early retirement opportunities (estryn–behar et al., 2010; schultz, morton & weckerle, 1998). however, employees perceive these pushes and pulls in different contexts and therefore the same event may be rated as either a push or pull for different employees (schultz et al., 1998). it is suggested that the choice employees make between these two forms of intended job withdrawal is dependent on the level of desirability of these options, and also the factors that cause the form of withdrawal more likely to happen in a particular situation (adams & beehr, 1998; hanisch & hulin, 1991). on the personal level, age is a factor that influences withdrawal by limiting the options available to the employee (adams & beehr, 1998). an inverse relationship between age and turnover has been demonstrated in previous studies concerning the nurses’ intentions to leave the profession (flinkman et al., 2010; hayes et al., 2006). the tendency for employees to consider retirement increases as they age (lehto & sutela, 2008; von bonsdorff, 2009). however, there are also studies which have demonstrated that older employees plan to retire later than expected (adams, 1999; zappala et al., 2008). taylor and shore (1995) argue that young respondents may be less realistic about the retirement decision than those who are closer to the retirement age. deteriorating health has consistently been an important predictor that signals the decision to retire early (beehr, 1986; elovainio et al., 2005; von bonsdorff, 2009). it has been suggested that poor health limits an employee’s ability to perform their job and to remain in their role at work (hanisch & hulin, 1991). in recent studies the concept of work ability has been applied to indicate the balance between the demands required by the job and the employee’s personal resources, consisting of health, ability, education, competence, values and attitudes (camerino et al., 2008; ilmarinen, 2006). results from the next–study have shown that low work ability is associated with the intention to leave the nursing profession (camerino et al., 2008). it has been suggested that women are more likely to choose professional change or retirement because they typically have more discontinuous work histories, lower tenure and lower pay (adams & beehr, 1998). however, several studies have demonstrated that male nurses have a greater intention to leave the profession than female nurses (flinkman et al., 2010; hasselhorn et al., 2005; hintsala, 2005). in addition, children, spouses and ageing parents are seen to affect the work and turnover habits of nurses, possibly leading to a change in the working environment (flinkman et al., 2010; hayes et al., 2006). gender has been included in many studies concerning early retirement, but the results are mixed (zappala et al., 2008). talaga and beehr (1995) have found that for older men and women, traditional gender roles explained some of their retirement decisions. the number of dependents increased the odds of retirement for women and decreased the odds for men (talaga & beehr, 1995). however, a study among finnish health care and social employees found no gender differences in the consideration of early retirement (elovainio et al., 2005). the dissatisfaction with salary or low pay may contribute to a nurse’s intention behind occupational turnover (flinkman et al., 2010; hayes et al., 2006). flinkman et al. (2008) found that dissatisfaction with their salary was one of the most important reasons for young (under 30) finnish nurses to consider ending their nursing career. income is also one of the strongest predictors of the decision to retire (beehr et al., 2000). previous studies have demonstrated that those who have greater financial security generally retire at an earlier age (adams, 1999; taylor & shore, 1995). for example, zappalá et al. (2008) found that income per se did not affect the employees’ retirement decision, but this decision was rather affected by the adequacy of the financial situation for retirement. educational level is believed to have an impact on the nurses’ intention behind turnover: better educated nurses are more likely to leave their current organisation in order to seek career advancement, especially if there are limited career opportunities in their current organisation (flinkman et al., 2010; hayes et al., 2006). in finland, numerous studies have shown that the risk of early retirement is higher among staff with lower levels of education (forma, tuominen, tuominen & väänenen–tomppo, 2006; järnefelt, 2010). the pattern is similar in all european union countries and additionally in the united states (järnefelt, 2010). the central element of the organisational withdrawal model is the notion that both turnover and early retirement are enacted in response to work–related attitudinal antecedents, especially job satisfaction and organisational commitment (adams & beehr, 1998; mathieu & zajac, 1990). job satisfaction is conceptualised as the individual’s opinion about how well personal expectations at work correspond to outcomes. job satisfaction has been considered in empirical studies to be either an overall feeling about the job (global approach) or a related set of attitudes about different aspects of the job (facet approach) (coomber & barriball, 2007). in this study the global approach is used, because the interest was in overall job satisfaction. organisational commitment has been characterised by three factors: firstly, a strong belief in and acceptance of the organisation’s goals and values, secondly, a willingness to exert a considerable effort on behalf of the organisation, and thirdly, a strong desire to maintain membership in the organisation (mowday, steers & porter, 1979). previous studies have demonstrated that younger nurses tend to report lower organisational commitment than older nurses (flinkman et al., 2008; laine, 2005; salminen, 2009). earlier studies have consistently reported that job satisfaction and organisational commitment are key antecedents of employee turnover (mathieu & zajac, 1990; peterson, 2004). price and mueller (1981) have viewed turnover as a product of job satisfaction and organisational commitment, which in turn are influenced by personal, organisational (such as opportunities for training and development) and environmental factors (such as alternative job opportunities outside the organisation) (hayes et al., 2006). organisational withdrawal theory suggests that the same antecedents should be found for retirement, but the empirical data are somewhat more mixed (adams & beehr, 1998; hanisch & hulin, 1991). on the basis of earlier studies it is assumed that job satisfaction and organisational commitment are negatively related to both occupational turnover and retirement intentions. however, because retirement involves withdrawal from working life and an entirely new lifestyle with different societal norms, it is possible that the relationship of job satisfaction and organisational commitment to early retirement intentions, will be weaker than is found for their relationship to the intentions for occupational turnover (adams & beehr, 1998). in the field of human resource management (hrm) the mechanisms through which hr practices may influence the retention of ageing and younger nurses, are rarely studied (armstrong–stassen & schlosser, 2010). however, it has been found that hr practices that demonstrate investment in employees and recognition of their contributions signal an organisation’s support for, and commitment to, its employees. from a social exchange perspective, employees respond to the organisation’s actions by continuing their participation in the organisation (armstrong–stassen, 2008). at the individual level, hr practices are considered to have an impact on an employee’s evaluation of management policies and practices, which in turn will affect the employees’ behaviour and their personal feelings of job satisfaction and well–being (guest, 1999). access to training and development activities are seen as one means by which the organisation communicates the value it places on the employees’ contribution, which in turn can enhance motivation and commitment to the organisation (patrickson & hartmann, 1995). for example, poor development opportunities have been associated with the nurses’ intentions to leave the profession (flinkman et al., 2008; hasselhorn et al., 2005). although social exchange studies have not been concerned specifically with older employees, it is arguable that hr practices, targeted to the needs of older employees, may serve as a signal to older employees that the organisation values their contribution and older employees respond by remaining with their organisation (armstrong–stassen, 2008). previous studies imply that having a reasonable amount of occupational competence is related to a nurse’s well–being and also to his or her employability (van der heijden et al., 2010). it can also be assumed that older employees with obsolete skills are the most likely to retire early (armstrong–stassen & schlosser, 2007; beehr, 1986). an ideal work environment emphasises opportunities for learning and development included with opportunities for participative decision making (karasek & theorell, 1990; lavoie–tremblay et al., 2006). karasek’s (1979) job demand–control model specifies two independent inputs influencing job strain: job demands (the amount of work, complexity of work and time constraints) and control of the work situation (the capacity to apply one’s qualifications and develop new job skills, and the authority of employees to make decisions concerning their work). according to this model, job strain and related health problems occur in situations where high demands coincide with low control. on the other hand, high demand together with high decision latitude can lead to the positive learning of new skills and behaviours (elovainio et al., 2005). recent studies have shown that among nurses dissatisfaction was an important work–related reason for their occupational turnover. dissatisfaction involved the lack of application of their abilities, a lack of autonomy and difficulties with working hours (estryn–behar et al., 2010; flinkman et al., 2010). work that required much physical effort and that involved repetitive tasks exhausted the employees and may have lead them to consider early retirement (beehr et al., 2000; zappalá et al., 2008). for example, poor job control and high job demands have been found to increase the likelihood of finnish health care and social employees considering early retirement (elovainio et al., 2005). research objectives the objective of this study is twofold. first, it examines the intentions of younger and ageing registered nurses to leave the nursing profession and their intentions to retire early. registered nurses refer to persons who have a valid qualification and are registered by the national supervisory authority for welfare and health (valvira). in finland, the nursing profession is regulated by law and working as a nurse requires authorisation (in working as a registered nurse in finland. (n.d.). retrieved from http://www.valvira.fi/en/licensing/professional_practice_rights/nurses). in this study the distinction between younger and ageing employees rests on a definition based on chronological age, and the age of 45 is adopted as a starting point when referring to ageing employees, which is in line with previous studies (camerino et al., 2008; ilmarinen, 2006). secondly, this study investigates how nurses’ perceptions of their development opportunities and job control, together with other work–related and personal factors, are associated with the intentions for job withdrawal. work–related variables are expected to explain additional variance over and above personal variables in the intention to leave the profession and the intention to retire early. the potential value–add of the study previous studies, concerning the intentions of nurses’ that have resulted in a high job turnover, have mostly focused on organisational turnover (hayes et al., 2006; irvine & evans, 1995; price & mueller, 1981). there is little evidence of the factors associated with the nurses’ occupational turnover (flinkman et al., 2010; hasselhorn et al., 2005). however, investigating the nurses’ intentions to leave the profession is important because withdrawal from the profession reduces the number of nurses in the field (flinkman et al., 2010; van der heijden et al., 2009). in order to prevent nursing shortages it is also important to investigate the nurses’ early retirement intentions and understand what work–related factors contribute to the decision to retire early (van der heijden, schalk & van veldhoven, 2008). there is a need for retention strategies that favour both ageing and younger nurses (lavoie–tremblay et al., 2006). only a few studies have combined their investigations into forms of job withdrawal, the intention to leave the profession and the intention to take early retirement (hanisch & hulin, 1990, 1991). this paper seeks to fill this gap. research design top ↑ research approach a quantitative research approach was followed in the execution of the study. the data were collected at a single point–of–time, with the primary aim of identifying the significant personal and work–related factors associated with intentions for job withdrawal. the study described in this paper is part of a broader age management research project, conducted in the school of business and economics at the university of jyväskylä in finland. research method research participants the study population consisted of 896 registered nurses working in a public university hospital located in northern savo, finland. the registered nurses participating in the study were permanently or temporarily employed and they worked in surgical wards or in internal medicine. nurses holding a managerial position were excluded from the study. the sampling was systematic: every fifth nurse was left out. the systematic sampling left us with a total of 747 nurses who actually participated in the study. the response rate was 46.1% (n = 343). no questionnaires were rejected because they were all fully completed. the study design allowed us to analyse the demographic data (age, gender, form of employment) of the non-respondents. no statistically significant differences were detected between respondents and non-respondents regarding demographic data, which meant that no systematic bias occurred among nurses participating in the study. the demographic characteristics of the respondents are presented in table 1. table 1: demographic characteristics of the respondents (n = 343). the mean age of the respondents was 41.2 years and the age range was from 23 to 59 years. age was categorised into four groups: under 35 (n = 94), 35–44 (n = 119), 45–54 (n = 104) and over 54 (n = 26). the majority of the respondents were female (92%). sixty percent of the respondents worked in the surgical wards and the rest worked in the internal medicine unit. most of the nurses worked in rotating shifts (79%) and most of them were permanently employed (76%). the majority of those who were employed on a temporary basis were younger employees (under 45) and there was a statistical difference between the form of employment and the age groups (χ2 = 96.790, df = 3, p < 0.001). the educational background of the respondents was recoded into two groups: college level registered nurse education (79%) and a bachelor’s degree in nursing (21%). most of the younger respondents had the higher level of education and most of the older respondents had the lower level. the relationship between education and age was statistically significant (χ2 = 61.350, df = 3, p < 0.001). the difference in educational level between the younger and ageing nurses is explained by the fact that in the 1990s the nursing education changed from college level to bachelor’s degree in finland (råholm, larsen hedegaard, löfmark & slettebø, 2010). measuring instruments the questionnaire was developed by three researchers of the age management research project, and it was the same as one used in an earlier age management survey in another finnish hospital (salminen, 2009). every researcher had her own research interest (training and development, rewarding and leadership) and she was responsible for questions and scales related to her own topic, but the outcome variables (job withdrawal intentions, organisational commitment and job satisfaction) were determined and selected together. the questionnaire was piloted four months earlier and nine randomly selected younger and ageing nurses, from both surgical wards and the internal medicine unit, completed the questionnaire and concluded that all the questions were comprehensible. the questionnaire firstly addressed demographics (age, gender, marital status, education, pay, form of employment, shift work, number of children, the field of patient care), followed secondly by work–related variables. the intention to leave the nursing profession was measured with one question: ‘how often have you thought about giving up nursing completely?’ the question was a modified version of one used in the next–study (hasselhorn, tackenberg & müller, 2003; hasselhorn et al., 2005). the specific time period (during the past 12 months), which was used in the original question, was excluded because the aim of this study was to examine and compare the current intentions regarding both forms of job withdrawal. previous studies have also demonstrated that the consideration process of occupational turnover (flinkman et al., 2010; hasselhorn et al., 2005) and retirement (beehr, 1986; taylor & shore, 1995) differ in the length of time of each. the intentions for early retirement were also measured with one question: ‘how often have you thought about seeking retirement before your full retirement age?’ the question was based on the questions used in earlier finnish studies (elovainio et al., 2005; lehto & sutela, 2004). there was a minor modification of the wording concerning the early retirement question, to render it congruent with the occupational turnover question. in both questions the scale ranged from 1 to 5, 1 ‘never’, 2 ‘a few times a year’, 3 ‘a few times a month’, 4 ‘a few times a week’ and 5 ‘every day’. job satisfaction was measured with one question: ‘how satisfied are you in your present work?’ (lehto & järnefelt, 2000). the five–point response scale varied from very dissatisfied (1) to very satisfied (5) (mean = 3.54, sd = 1.00). the organisational commitment scale consisted of six likert scale items. the scale was a reduced version of the original organisational commitment scale (porter, steers, mowday & boulian, 1974; tuomi & vanhala, 2002). organisational commitment was characterised by three factors: firstly, a strong belief in and acceptance of the organisation’s goals and values, secondly, the willingness of the employee to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organisation, and thirdly, a strong desire to maintain membership in the organisation. two items indicated each of these three factors. the sum variable included all six items (mean = 2.88, sd = 0.72, coefficient α = 0.77). the nurses’ estimation of their work ability was indicated with one question from the work ability index (tuomi, ilmarinen, jahkola, katajarinne & tulkki, 2002). nurses were asked to estimate their current work ability compared to their lifetime best. this single–item question has been found to correlate highly with the entire work ability index, and is therefore a reliable measure of self–rated work ability (tuomi et al., 2002). the scale varied from 0 to 10, with 10 indicating work ability at its best (mean = 8.33, sd = 1.42). the development opportunities scale consisted of four items. respondents were asked to consider what kind of opportunities they have in their present job for: (1) training that promotes their professional skills, (2) self development, (3) career progress and (4) learning new things at their workplace. the items were based on earlier finnish studies (lehto & järnefelt, 2000; tuomi & vanhala, 2002). a five–point response scale was used for these items, varying from very poor (1) to very good (5). a sum variable called ‘development opportunities’ was formed from these four items (mean = 3.21, sd = 0.58, coefficient α = 0.77). the job control scale was a reduced version of karasek’s (1979) job demand–control model (elovainio et al., 2005; lehto & järnefelt, 2000). job control was measured as the extent to which nurses felt free to determine the quantitative and qualitative factors of their own work process. controllability was measured using eight items. respondents were asked about their opportunities to determine (1) their working methods, (2) the pace at which they worked, (3) how work was shared among the staff, (4) who they worked with, (5) procedures at work, (6) the content of their work, (7) the objectives of their work and (8) working hours. the scale anchors were 1 ‘not at all’, 2 ‘to a limited extent’, 3 ‘quite a lot’, 4 ‘considerably’ (mean = 2.1, sd = 0.49, coefficient α = 0.81). nurses were also asked to indicate what they perceived their competence level to be, to perform their job. the response scale was (1) ‘i need additional training in order to perform well in my present job’, (2) ‘my skills are in balance with present work demands’, (3) ‘i have the potential to carry out more challenging tasks’ (lehto & järnefelt, 2000). some of the scales were modified to fit the purpose of the study, while others were adapted without changes. the questionnaire was piloted by a group of nurses in an effort to establish its validity. the reliability of the sum variables were shown to be satisfactory, with alpha coefficients larger than 0.70 (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). however, questionnaire items as short as one sentence, asked as criteria for measuring the intentions for job withdrawal and job satisfaction, could have weakened the reliability of these instruments. research procedure the permission to conduct the study was obtained from the ethical committee of the hospital. questionnaires were distributed via the hospital’s internal post to the nurses in march 2005. the internal post was used because the researchers did not have the respondents’ home addresses. each respondent received a personalised envelope (name and station of ward) containing a questionnaire and a return envelope. the confidentiality of the study was guaranteed in the covering letter. the covering letter indicated the purpose of the study and included instructions for answering the questions. participation in the study was voluntary. consent was assumed when respondents returned a completed questionnaire. respondents had the right to withdraw at any stage in the research process. each questionnaire was coded to preserve anonymity whilst allowing researchers to identify non-returns. the response rate was 46.1% (n = 343). statistical analysis the statistical analyses were carried out with spss 18.0. the χ2–test was used to examine the differences between younger and ageing nurses regarding their intention to leave the nursing profession and their intention to retire early. the five–point response scale to job withdrawal intentions was dichotomised: those who have frequent thoughts of leaving (a few times a month or more often) and those who consider leaving a few times a year or not at all. it could be regarded as natural for most professional people to consider leaving their job a few times a year (estryn–behar et al., 2010; flinkman et al., 2008). in correlation analysis the original scale of the job withdrawal intentions was used. logistic regression analyses were performed to estimate the strength of the association between independent variables (personal and work–related variables) and dependent variables (job withdrawal intentions). results top ↑ the frequent intention to leave the profession, for the overall sample, was 25% (n = 86) (table 2). almost one in five (19%, n = 65) nurses had frequently (a few times a month or more often) thought about early retirement. the χ2–test showed that there was a statistical difference between age groups and their intention to give up nursing (χ2 = 13.296, df = 3, p = 0.004). the youngest nurses (under 35) thought most often about leaving the profession whereas the oldest nurses (over 54) considered early retirement. the relationship between age groups and the intention to take early retirement was statistically significant (χ2 = 10.466, df = 3, p = 0.015). table 2: age groups and frequent intentions for job withdrawal. the descriptive statistics, means, standard deviations, reliability estimates, and spearman’s rho correlations for the variables are reported in table 3. the cronbach coefficients were over 0.70, which are acceptable (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). table 3: means, standard deviations, reliability estimates and bivariate correlations for the variables. the intention to leave the profession and the intention to take early retirement were positively and significantly correlated (r = .407, p < 0.01). concerning personal variables, age correlated negatively with the intention to leave the profession (r = –.239, p < 0.01) and positively with the intention to retire early (r = .210, p < .01). with work–related variables, the strongest negative correlation was found between job satisfaction and the intention to leave the profession (r = –.459, p < 0.01). there was also a strong negative correlation between organisational commitment and the intention to leave the profession (r = .424, p < 0.01). work ability, job control and perceived development opportunities had negative correlations with both forms of job withdrawal intention. two logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the factors associated with the intention to leave the profession and the intention to retire early. the predictive power of the variables is indicated with multivariate odds ratios. table 4 shows that from the personal variables, only age was significantly associated with intentions to leave the profession. in other words, older age decreased the odds ratio for the intentions to leave the profession (or = 0.926). from the work–related variables, work ability, job satisfaction and organisational commitment, these turned out to be significantly associated with the intentions for occupational turnover. good work ability (or = 0.657), high job satisfaction (or = 0.459) and high organisational commitment (or = 0.376) decreased the likelihood of intentions for occupational turnover. in addition, those who had skills that were balanced with their present work demands (or = 7.277), or who judged that they had the potential to carry out more challenging tasks (or = 13.176), had an increased likelihood of intending to leave the profession. the nagelkerke r–square of 0.43 indicates the amount of variation in the dependent variable accounted for by the model (pallant, 2005). table 4: logistic regression analysis of the intention to leave the profession. as is evident in table 5, age, gender and shift work were the only personal variables that were significantly associated with intentions to retire early. older age increased the odds ratio (or = 1.081), whereas, being female (or = 0.226) and not working in shifts (or = 0.331) decreased the odds ratio of intentions for early retirement. as far as work–related variables were concerned, work ability, job satisfaction and job control were significantly related to the intention to retire early. better work ability (or = 0.837), higher job satisfaction (or = 0.520) and higher job control (or = 0.199) decreased the risk of intended early retirement. the nagelkerke r–square was 0.33. table 5: logistic regression analysis of the intention to retire early. discussion top ↑ the main objective of this study was to examine the factors associated with the intentions for occupational turnover and early retirement, with special reference to perceived development opportunities and job control. given the global shortage of registered nurses, understanding the antecedents of the intentions for job withdrawal is of great importance. in this study, the actual withdrawal decisions or transitions were not studied. however, behavioural intentions are found to be significantly related to actual behaviours, and they are therefore an ideal substitute when time constraints prevent the measurement of the actual behaviours (hanisch & hulin, 1990). this has been shown in both occupational turnover (flinkman et al., 2010) and retirement literature (adams & beehr, 1998).the results showed that a quarter of the nurses who participated in the study had frequently thought about leaving the profession. this finding supports the work of previous finnish researchers (flinkman et al., 2008; kuokkanen et al., 2003). almost a fifth of the nurses had frequently thought about taking early retirement. a recent national study, in finland, demonstrated that approximately 30% of finnish nurses considered themselves unable to work until the retirement age, for health reasons (laine et al., 2011). this finding, that intentions for job withdrawal were age dependent, is supported by previous studies (flinkman et al., 2010; hayes et al., 2006; lehto & sutela, 2008). those who considered leaving the nursing profession were in the younger age group, while those who considered early retirement were in the older age group. there were both similarities and differences in the factors associated with the intentions for job withdrawal. work ability was associated with both forms of job withdrawal intention. this finding is in line with earlier studies (camerino et al., 2008; von bonsdorff, koponen & aaltio, 2009). in other words, the result suggests that an imbalance between personal resources and the demands of the job forced the nurses to consider occupational turnover or early retirement. this is not surprising, because the nursing profession is both mentally and physically demanding (van der heijden et al., 2009). in line with previous studies, this study showed that job satisfaction had an important role in both forms of job withdrawal intention (hasselhorn et al., 2005; kuokkanen et al., 2003). the result supports the basic assumption that when nurses are satisfied with their jobs, they are less likely to consider leaving them. however, organisational commitment was only associated with the intentions for occupational turnover. this study showed that poor job control increased the likelihood of thoughts about early retirement. this finding offers support for the results of previous research (elovainio et al., 2005; von bonsdorff et al., 2009). however, job control was not associated with the intentions for occupational turnover. surprisingly, perceived development opportunities were also not associated with the intentions for occupational turnover, although some earlier studies have shown that poor development opportunities are related to the nurses’ intentions to leave the profession (hasselhorn et al., 2005; hayes et al., 2006). one explanation for this result is that the perceived development opportunities were operationalised with only four items in this study. a larger scale could have given a more accurate picture of the perceived development opportunities. however, it should be noted that perceived development opportunities were positively correlated with job satisfaction, which in turn was associated with both forms of job withdrawal intention. this lends support for price and mueller’s (1981) turnover model, which states that job satisfaction and organisational commitment moderate the relationship between organisational factors, such as development opportunities and turnover intentions. armstrong–stassen and schlosser (2010) have also pointed out that hr practices may have relatively distal rather than immediate influences on the decision of individuals to remain with their organisation. with regards to competence at performing one’s job, the likelihood of leaving the profession was greater for those who had their skills in balance with their present work demands, or who judged that they had the potential to carry out more challenging tasks. dissatisfaction of a nurse, with the use of his or her abilities and skills have been shown, in previous studies, to be an important work-related factor associated with the nurse’s intention to leave the profession (estryn–behar et al., 2010; flinkman et al., 2010). conclusion the nurses’ occupational turnover represents a major problem in health care organisations concerning recruitment costs, organisational continuity, the ability to care for patients and the quality of care given (flinkman et al., 2010; hayes et al., 2006). high rates of occupational turnover may also discourage prospective students from joining the profession in the first place (jourdain & chênevert, 2010). early retirement is yet another factor contributing to the problem of a shortage of nurses. in many countries two measures that have been implemented to address this problem are recruiting nurses from overseas, and increasing the enrolment of students in schools of nursing (blakeley & ribeiro, 2008). however, there is also the need to implement retention strategies, which equally favour younger and ageing nurses (lavoie–tremblay et al., 2006). recognising the antecedents of both occupational turnover and early retirement can help organisations to re-design work and hr practices, in order to keep both younger and ageing nurses in their profession. the results of this study have some practical implications for preventing the trend of job withdrawal. firstly, this study highlights the importance of job satisfaction amongst the nurses who were studied. it seems that job dissatisfaction was one factor contributing to the nurses’ occupational turnover and intentions for early retirement. therefore, the health care organisation should pay attention to factors influencing the nurses’ job satisfaction in order to prevent premature loss of capable and knowledgeable nurses, and to secure health services in the future. the nurses’ intentions for job withdrawal and job satisfaction should be regularly evaluated in order to prevent them leaving the profession prematurely. secondly, the findings also indicate that promoting work ability is an important factor to prevent both forms of job withdrawal. attention should also be paid to the competencies of the nurses. this means matching skills and abilities with the demands of the job (ilmarinen, 2006). those nurses, who consider that they have the potential to carry out more challenging tasks, should be offered opportunities to utilise their skills and competencies. in line with previous studies, the results seem to suggest that making work more controllable and increasing personal autonomy, especially amongst the ageing nurses, can increase their ability to cope at work until retirement age (blakeley & ribeiro, 2008; elovainio et al., 2005; lavoie–tremblay et al., 2006). limitations the results of this study should be interpreted in the light of the study’s limitations. firstly, caution is required when generalising the results, because of the rather low response rate (46.1%), and the fact that this study was restricted to one finnish university hospital. it should also be noted that the study was cross–sectional. a longitudinal study is needed in order to confirm the causal directions between the antecedents and the intentions for job withdrawal (adams & beehr, 1998). the second limitation concerns the use of one sentence items for measuring constructs. in the future there will be a need to strengthen these instruments. another weakness of this study is that the roles of occupational commitment and affective organisational commitment were not studied, even though previous studies have emphasised their importance in the decision to leave one’s profession (laine, 2005; van der heijden et al., 2009) and in the decision to retire early (adams, 1999). there may be a common–method bias because, in this study, self–reported measures were used for all the study variables (podsakoff, mckenzie, lee & podsakoff, 2003). the development opportunities and job control were studied from the subjective experience of nurses, which may only partly reflect the actual situation. however, it is true that peoples’ perceptions of what their organisation is doing will play an important role in their decision to remain with or to leave their organisation (armstrong–stassen, 2008). finally, the full age range of the sample was used in the analyses because the study focused on both occupational turnover and early retirement. however, theoretical and empirical knowledge tells us that younger nurses are more likely to leave their profession and older nurses are more like to retire early (flinkman et al., 2010; hayes et al., 2006; von bonsdorff, 2009). when these two forms of job withdrawal intention are studied separately, a more age–restricted sample should be used (adams & beehr, 1998). recommendations some suggestions for future research are offered. firstly, it must be acknowledged that both occupational turnover and early retirement have multiple antecedents. therefore one question for further study is how other hr practices are associated with intentions for job withdrawal. secondly, it would be interesting to investigate the role of managerial support associated with job withdrawal intentions. previous studies have suggested that low leadership quality results in lower job satisfaction, which in turn predicts the nurses’ intentions to leave the profession (coomber & barriball, 2007; hayes et al., 2006) and to retire early (von bonsdorff et al., 2009). thirdly, more research is also needed into the role of factors outside the organisation, such as the labour market or family issues. one suggestion for future research is to focus on the nurses’ career and career–related variables, because both occupational turnover and early retirement are often regarded as the outcome of a career decision–making process (adams & beehr, 1998; van der heijden et al., 2009). finally, a qualitative study approach could be used to derive a deeper understanding of factors contributing to the nurses’ intentions for job withdrawal. acknowledgements top ↑ an earlier version of this article was presented at the 26th workshop on strategic human resource management in may 2011 in reykjavik, iceland. the author would like to thank the ellen and artturi nyyssönen foundation and the foundation for economic education for funding the writing of this study. competing interests the author declares that she has no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this paper. references top ↑ adams, g.a. (1999). career related variables and planned retirement age: an extension of beehr’s model. journal of vocational behavior, 55(2), 221–235. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1998.1679adams, g.a., & beehr, t.a. (1998). turnover and retirement: a comparison of their similarities and differences. personnel psychology, 51, 643–665. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1998.tb00255.x armstrong–stassen, m. (2008). human resource management practices for mature workers and why aren’t employers using them? asia pacific journal of human resources, 46, 334–352. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1038411108091755 armstrong–stassen, m., & schlosser, f. (2007). benefits of a supportive development climate for older workers. journal of managerial psychology, 23(4), 419–437. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940810869033 armstrong–stassen, m., & schlosser, f. (2010). when hospitals provide hr practices tailored to older nurses, will older nurses stay? it may depend on their supervisor. human resource management journal, 20(4), 375–390. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2010.00143.x beehr, t.a. (1986). the process of retirement: a review and recommendations for future investigation. personnel psychology, 39, 31–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1986.tb00573.x beehr, t.a., glazer, s., nielson, n.l., & farmer, s.j. (2000). work and nonwork predictors of employees’ retirement ages. journal of vocational behavior, 57(2), 206–225. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1999.1736 blakeley, j.a., & ribeiro, v.e.s. (2008). early retirement among registered nurses: contributing factors. journal of nursing management, 16, 29–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2934.2007.00793.x, pmid:18211333 buchan, j., & calman, l. (2004). the global shortage of registered nurses: an overview of issues and actions. geneva: international council of nurses. camerino, d., conway, p.m., van der heijden, b.i.j.m., estryn–behar, m., costa, g., & hasselhorn, h.-m. (2008). age–dependent relationships between work ability, thinking of quitting the job, and actual leaving among italian nurses: a longitudinal study. international journal of nursing studies, 45, 1645–1659. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2008.03.002, pmid:18456268 coomber, b., & barriball, k.l. (2007). impact of job satisfaction components on intent to leave and turnover for hospital–based nurses: a review of the research literature. international journal of nursing studies, 44, 297–314. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2006.02.004, pmid:16631760 elovainio, m., forma, p., kivimäki, m., sinervo, t., sutinen, r., & laine, m. (2005). job demands and job control as correlates of early retirement thoughts in finnish social and health care employees. work & stress, 19(1), 84–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02678370500084623 eskola, k. (2007). iän merkitys hoitajien, opettajien ja palomiesten työssä. [the meaning of age in the work of nurses, teachers and fire fighters]. in k. kauppinen & j. evans (eds.), monikko – tasa-arvo monimuotoisissa työyhteisöissä [monikko – equity in diverse work communities], (pp. 57–71). retrieved september 19, 2011, from http://www.tasa-arvoklinikka.fi/tasa/images/stories/pdf/monikko_kirja.pdf estryn–behar, m., van der heijden, b.i.j.m., fry, c., & hasselhorn, h-m. (2010). longitudinal analysis of personal and work–related factors associated with turnover among nurses. nursing research, 59(3), 166–177. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/nnr.0b013e3181dbb29f, pmid:20421841 flinkman, m., laine, m., leino–kilpi, h., hasselhorn, h.-m., & salanterä, s. (2008). explaining young registered finnish nurses’ intention to leave the profession: a questionnaire survey. international journal of nursing studies, 45, 727–739. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2006.12.006, pmid:17280674 flinkman, m., leino–kilpi, h., & salanterä, s. (2010). nurses’ intention to leave the profession: integrative review. journal of advanced nursing, 66(7), 1422–1434. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2010.05322.x, pmid:20497270 forma, p., tuominen, e., tuominen, k., & väänänen–tomppo, i. (2006). sukupuoli ja aiottu eläkeikä [gender and intended retirement age]. in a-m. lehto, h. sutela & a. miettinen (eds.), kaikilla mausteilla. artikkeleita työolotutkimuksesta. [with all ingredients. articles about the working condition studies], (pp. 203–222). studies 244. helsinki: statistics finland. guest, d.e. (1999). human resource management – the workers verdict. human resource management journal, 9(3), 5–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.1999.tb00200.x hanisch, k.a., & hulin, c.l. (1990). job attitudes and organisational withdrawal: an examination of retirement and other withdrawal behaviors. journal of vocational behavior, 37, 60–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(90)90007-o hanisch, k.a., & hulin, c.l. (1991). general attitudes and organisational withdrawal: an evaluation of a causal model. journal of vocational behavior, 39, 110–128. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(91)90006-8 hasselhorn, h.-m., tackenberg, p., & müller, b.h. (eds.). (2003). working conditions and intent to leave the profession among nursing staff in europe. report no 7:2003. stockholm: saltsa. hasselhorn, h.-m., müller, b.h., & tackenberg, p. (eds.). (2005). next scientific report july 2005. retrieved september 12, 2011, from http://www.next.uni-wuppertal.de/en/index.php?articles-and-reports/ hayes, l.j., o’brien–pallas, l., duffield, c., shamian, j., buchan, j., hughes, f. et al. (2006). nurse turnover: a literature review. international journal of nursing studies, 43, 237–263. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2005.02.007, pmid:15878771 hietaniemi, m., & ritola, s. (eds.). (2007). the finnish pension system. handbooks 2007:6. finnish centre for pensions. retrieved september 10, 2011, from http://www.etk.fi/binary.aspx?section=44670&item=60250/ hintsala, a. (2005). autonomia ammatista poistumisen ennakoijana hoitotyössä – naisja mieshoitajien arviointia ja vertailua päätöksenteosta, pätevyydestä, työn tärkeydestä ja johtamisesta hoitotyössä. [autonomy anticipating career change in nursing. female and male nurses’ assessment and comparison of decision–making, competence, importance of work and leadership in nursing]. doctoral dissertation. publications, e. social sciences 117. kuopio: kuopio university. ilmarinen, j. (2006). towards a longer worklife – ageing and the quality of worklife in the european union. helsinki: finnish institute of occupational health. irvine, d.m., & evans, m.g. (1995). job satisfaction and turnover among nurses: integrating research findings across studies. nursing research, 44(4), 246–253. pmid:7624236 järnefelt, n. (2010). education and longer working lives. a longitudinal study on education differences in the late exit from working life of older employees in finland. doctoral dissertation. finnish centre for pensions, studies 2010:1. helsinki: finnish centre for pensions. jourdain, g., & chênevert, d. (2010). job demands–resources, burnout and intention to leave the nursing profession: a questionnaire survey. international journal of nursing studies, 47, 709–722. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2009.11.007, pmid:20138278 karasek, r.a. (1979). job demand, job decision latitude, and mental strain: implications for job redesign. administrative science quarterly, 24(2), 285–308. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2392498 karasek, r.a., & theorell, t. (1990). healthy work, stress, productivity, and the reconstruction of working life. new york: basic books. kuokkanen, l., leino–kilpi, h., & katajisto, j. (2003). nurse empowerment, job–related satisfaction, and organisational commitment. journal of nursing care quality, 18(3), 184–192. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00001786-200307000-00004, pmid:12856902 laine, m., kokkinen, k., kaarlela–tuomaala, a., valtanen, e., elovainio, m., keinänen, m. et al. (2011). sosiaali-ja terveysalan työolot 2010. [the working conditions and well–being of social and health care staff 2010]. helsinki: finnish institute of occupational health. laine, m. (2005). hoitajana huomennakin. hoitajien työpaikkaan ja ammattiin sitoutuminen. [organisational and professional commitment of nurses]. doctoral dissertation. annales universitatis turkuensis c 233. turku: university of turku. lavoie–tremblay, m., o’brien–pallas, l., viens, c., brabant, l.h., & gélinas, c. (2006). towards an integrated approach for management of ageing nurses. journal of nursing management, 14, 207–212. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2934.2006.00604.x, pmid:16600009 lehto, a.-m., & järnefelt, n. (eds.). (2000). jaksaen ja joustaen. artikkeleita työolotutkimuksesta. [managing and bending. essays of the working conditions]. helsinki: statistics finland. lehto, a.-m., & sutela, h. (2004). uhkia ja mahdollisuuksia. työolotutkimusten tuloksia 1977–2003. [threats and opportunities. studies of the working conditions 1977–2003]. helsinki: statistics finland. lehto a.-m., & sutela, h. (2008). työolojen kolme vuosikymmentä. työolotutkimusten tuloksia 1977–2008. [three decades of working conditions. studies of the working conditions 1977–2008]. helsinki: statistics finland. mathieu, j.e., & zajac, d.m. (1990). a review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of organisational commitment. psychological bulletin, 108, 171–194. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.108.2.171 mowday, r.t., steers, r.m., & porter, l.w. (1979). the measurement of organisational commitment. journal of vocational behavior, 14, 224–247. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(79)90072-1 nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory. (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw–hill. pallant, j. (2005). spss survival manual. (2nd ed.). london: open university press. patrickson, m., & hartmann, l. (1995). australia’s ageing population: implications for human resource management. international journal of manpower, 16(5/6), 34–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437729510095935 peterson, s.l. (2004). toward a theoretical model of employee turnover: a human resource development perspective. human resource development review, 3(3), 209–227. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1534484304267832 podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., lee, j.y., & podsakoff, n.p. (2003). common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. journal of applied psychology, 88, 879–903. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879, pmid:14516251 porter, l.w., steers, r.m., mowday, r.t., & boulian, p.v. (1974). organisational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover among psychiatric technicians. journal of applied psychology, 59(5), 603–609. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0037335 price, j.l., & mueller, c.w. (1981). a causal model of turnover for nurses. academy of management journal, 24(3), 543–565. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/255574, pmid:10252608 råholm, m-b., larsen hedegaard, b., löfmark, a., & slettebø, å. (2010). nursing education in denmark, finland, norway and sweden – from bachelor’s degree to phd. journal of advanced nursing, 66(9), 2126–2137. pmid:20626496 salminen, h. (2009). access to learning – focus on ageing finnish nurses. lifelong learning in europe 4/2009, 216–224. schultz, k.s., morton, k.r., & weckerle, j.r. (1998). the influence of push and pull factors on voluntary and involuntary early retirement decision and adjustment. journal of vocational behavior, 53, 45–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1997.1610 talaga, j.a., & beehr, t.a. (1995). are there gender differences in predicting retirement decisions? journal of applied psychology, 80(1), 16–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.80.1.16, pmid:7706191 taylor, m.a., & shore, l. (1995). predictors of planned retirement age: an application of beehr’s model. psychology and ageing, 10(1), 76–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0882-7974.10.1.76, pmid:7779319 tuomi, k., & vanhala, s. (eds.). (2002). yrityksen toiminta, menestyminen ja henkilöstön hyvinvointi. seurantatutkimus metalliteollisuudessa ja vähittäiskaupan alalla. [firm’s performance, success and well–being of the personnel. a follow–up study in the metal industry and in the retail sector]. studies b 40. helsinki: helsinki school of economics. tuomi, k., ilmarinen, j., jahkola, a., katajarinne, l., & tulkki, a. (2002). work ability index. (2nd rev. edn.). occupational health care no. 19. helsinki: finnish institute of occupational health. tuominen, e. (2007). the role of pension policy in promoting longer working careers of older people. working papers 2007:3. helsinki: finnish centre for pensions. van der heijden, b.i.j.m., schalk, r., & van veldhoven, m.j.p.m. (2008). ageing and careers: european research on long–term career development and early retirement. career development international, 13(2), 85–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430810860512 van der heijden, b.i.j.m., van dam, k., & hasselhorn, h.m. (2009). intent to leave nursing. the importance of interpersonal work context, work–home interference, and job satisfaction beyond the effect of occupational commitment. career development international, 14(7), 616–635. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430911005681 van der heijden, b.i.j.m., kummerling, a., van dam, k., van der schoot, e., estryn–behar, m., & hasselhorn, h.m. (2010). the impact of social support upon intention to leave among female nurses in europe: secondary analysis of data from the next survey. international journal of nursing studies, 47, 434–445. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2009.10.004, pmid:19909953 von bonsdorff, m.e. (2009). intentions of early retirement and continuing work among middle–aged and older employees. doctoral dissertation. jyväskylä studies in business and economics 83. jyväskylä: university of jyväskylä. von bonsdorff, m.e., koponen, s., & aaltio, i. (2009). staying in working life? early retirement intentions among public sector nurses. in m. beisheim, f. maier, l. kreil & b. gusenbauer (eds.), constructions of women’s age in the workplace, (pp. 31–53). frankfurt am main: peter lang. working as a registered nurse in finland. (n.d.). retrieved november 18, 2011, from http://www.valvira.fi/en/licensing/professional_practice_rights/nurses zappalà, s., depolo, m., fraccaroli, f., guglielmi, d., & sarchielli, g. (2008). postponing job retirement? psychological influences on the preference for early or late retirement. career development international, 13(2), 150–167. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430810860558 abstract introduction research purpose and objectives literature review research design findings discussion limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) michiel j. van den berg opentia research focus area, school of industrial psychology and human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, vanderbijlpark, south africa marius w. stander opentia research focus area, school of industrial psychology and human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, vanderbijlpark, south africa leoni van der vaart opentia research focus area, school of industrial psychology and human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, vanderbijlpark, south africa citation van den berg, m.j., stander, m.w., & van der vaart, l. (2020). an exploration of key human resource practitioner competencies in a digitally transformed organisation. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 18(0), a1404. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v18i0.1404 original research an exploration of key human resource practitioner competencies in a digitally transformed organisation michiel j. van den berg, marius w. stander, leoni van der vaart received: 28 may 2020; accepted: 29 sept. 2020; published: 08 dec. 2020 copyright: © 2020. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: digital transformation lies at the heart of what has been termed the fourth industrial revolution, and many researchers consider this as one of the most significant drivers of change in the area of human resource management. for this reason, organisations and human resource practitioners (hrps) are encouraged to re-evaluate their roles to ensure that they are able to impact the business performance. research purpose: this study reflects upon the potentially unique competency requirements of the hrp in a digitally transformed organisation by exploring the perceptions of the line partner. motivation for the study: digitalisation is transforming the roles of hrps. consequently, hrps may need a different set of competencies. despite the transformation and the associated change in competency requirements, little knowledge exists regarding the hrp competencies needed (especially in digitally transformed organisations). research approach/design and method: the researcher identified 43 senior line partners through a purposive sampling procedure to participate in semi-structured interviews. nineteen participants completed the interview process. the researcher analysed the interview data using thematic analysis. main findings: the main themes are the ability to design, extract, understand, analyse, interpret and apply information (data); continuous learning; stakeholder relationship management; and cultivating positive organisational practices. practical/managerial implications: the exploration of competencies provides organisations with additional context in terms of the complexity of the environment for the hrp, and provides a model that can be utilised for talent management. contribution/value-add: this study contributes to the limited knowledge regarding hr competencies in digitally transformed organisations, especially from the perspective of line partners. keywords: digitalisation; digitally transformed organisation; hr transformation; hr competencies; talent management. introduction digitalisation is at the heart of the fourth industrial revolution (schwab, 2016). digitalisation, or digital transformation, propelled us into an era within which digital business models and digitally driven business processes are the cornerstones of company operations (abolhassan, 2017; cianni & steckler, 2017). digitalisation refers to the increasing penetration of digital technologies in society (with concomitant changes in the connection of individuals and their behaviours), whereas digital transformation refers to the managed adaptation to digitalisation to ensure sustainable value creation for the organisation (gimpel & röglinger, 2015). corporations are fuelling digital transformation to enhance engagement with their customers, empower employees, optimise operations and transform products and services (bilgeri, fleisch, gebauer, & wortmann, 2019). digital transformation not only creates opportunities but also presents challenges (schwab, 2016). the increased use of digital technology complicates the ways in which employees are managed, and process automation reduces the employee population as robots replace employees (makridakis, 2017). on top of this, < 50% of executives believe that their organisations have the resources and capabilities in place to execute and support their company’s digital transformation strategy (diromualdo, el-khoury, & girimonte, 2018). traditional human resource management (hrm) support models are no longer adequate to demonstrate hr’s contributions to the business (garcia-arroyo & osca, 2019). this lack of contribution comes at a time when the increased use of digital technology is enabling hrm functions to collect, store and utilise data, resulting in one of the most significant drivers of change (stone, deadrick, lukaszewski, & johnson, 2015). there is, however, an opportunity for the hrm function if it decides to adopt digital technology for operational impact and delivery (ulrich, younger, brockbank, & ulrich, 2012). although support for digital adoption is widely recognised, deloitte’s global human capital trends report indicates that hrm departments are failing to keep up with technological innovations and development (bersin, pelster, schwartz, & van der vyver, 2017), with as few as 35% of global human resource practitioners (hrps) rating their hrm capabilities as good (bersin et al., 2017). over the last decade, the hrp has made significant strides in moving from the role of caretaker and record-keeper to a place of strategic importance in the boardroom (kavanagh, thite, & johnson, 2009). based on the re-positioning of the hrp, accompanied with the nature of the hrm function, the hrp is now perfectly positioned to guide the organisation through the rapid era of digital disruption (zeoli & billeter, 2019). this positioning, however, only holds true if the hrp is transformed and has the right competencies for the journey. however, a literature gap exists in terms of the required hr competencies within the context of digitally transformed organisations (dto). existing literature only provides us with hr competency models that are relevant within a general context. research purpose and objectives the purpose of this study was to explore the key hrp competencies needed in a dto. the study focused explicitly on identifying and describing these competencies from the perspective of the line partner as a business partner. most hr competency models are compiled with the input from the hrp and with little input from business. wright, mcmahan, snell and gerhart (2001) suggested that feedback from senior-level line partners is an invaluable method of ascertaining competency requirements, as these senior managers use hr services on both individual and people manager levels. for the purpose of this study, the term ‘competency’ is defined as knowledge, skills and attributes (ulrich, younger, brockbank, & ulrich, 2016). literature review digitalisation and the human resource management function, human resource management operating model and the role of the human resource practitioner the adoption of a specific hrm operating model is driven by numerous factors, including the company’s objectives, the external environment, market conditions and the availability of labour (harrop, 2017). with the introduction of digital technology and the likes of artificial intelligence (ai) and machine learning (ml), the hrm function possesses the ability to leapfrog other support functions and is progressively becoming more digitalised (makridakis, 2017). digital technologies are changing the ways in which hr services are delivered to ensure greater customer focus, in-depth analytics and an all-round higher level of performance (diromualdo et al., 2018). humans are being complemented by machines, which is causing process redesigns and a complete overhaul of hr service delivery (guszcza, lewis, & evans-greenwood, 2017). these process changes are affecting all areas of hr, with ai leading to rapid process acceleration and efficiencies in recruitment, replacing manual curriculum vitae (cv) screening by automated bots that complete such tasks in seconds (kashyape, 2018). digital process management provides the hr function and managers with more transparency and greater access to previously closed data sets (abolhassan, 2017). this enhanced visibility also comes with an additional layer of accountability to ensure data privacy, cybersecurity and fraud prevention (rao, 2018). with so much of emerging technology available, higher levels of judgement will be needed as interconnected data sensors enable real-time monitoring of employees, raising privacy and security flags (bondarouk & brewster, 2016). the back-office services of hr are experiencing the most significant redesign with the automation of transactional tasks (zeoli & billeter, 2019). the use of digital technology does not stop with automation by means of ai. other technologies, such as robotics and virtual and augmented reality, are being employed to enhance the hr experience (parry & battista, 2019). historically, the hrp has struggled to demonstrate a direct business impact (panayotopoulou & papalexandris, 2004). in this regard, digitally enabled human capital analytics, where analytical processes are applied to human capital management to improve employee performance, are proving to be a game-changer for the hrp (dutta, 2018). as digital enablement continues, more hr analytics are moving to ‘push’ reporting that enables line partners to see relevant data in real time (bersin et al., 2017). this revolution is influencing the perception of the hrp value-add and at the same time inducing hrps to take on a more significant role in organisations (kaji, hurley, gangopadhyay, bhat, & khan, 2019). to influence the perception of line partners with regard to the hr value-add, the hrp will have to use a full suite of digital tools to produce a positive business impact (dutta, 2018). to optimise the hrp’s opportunity to add value, hrps need to assist their organisations in building strategic flexibility to preserve and develop their competitive advantage (sekhar, patwardhan, & vyas, 2016). the hrp should contribute to the organisation to a far greater extent. it will be critical for the hrp to ascertain the advantages and disadvantages of digitalisation for employees and the broader organisation (gartner inc, 2018). the hrp, therefore, has an extended gatekeeper role in guaranteeing that companies use digital technology with high levels of judgement, as these decisions will have far-reaching effects on the organisational culture and the lives of employees (diromualdo et al., 2018). ultimately, digital disruption is no longer merely a way to change the business landscape, but instead has become a survival tactic and long-term strategy (andriole, 2018). companies must identify the core competencies necessary to remain competitive. this places additional responsibility upon organisations and the hrp to re-educate, retrain and replace the necessary competencies to ensure competitiveness through digital transformation (andriole, 2018). to lead and support an organisational digital transformation strategy, the hrps need to shift their focus towards the identification and building of digital capabilities, including new emerging capabilities such as ‘risk management, simplicity, connection and innovation; doing so will enhance company performance’ (ulrich & dulebohn, 2015, p. 195). accordingly, the development of digital capabilities should be the goal of the hrm function, and the hrp has a unique opportunity through digitalisation to provide enhanced company support if the choice is to embrace digital competency development (ulrich & dulebohn, 2015). the hrm function has a dual role to fulfil in enhancing the hr competency levels and challenging the business and leaders to adapt to the changing digital paradigm (frey & osborne, 2017). human resource competencies for digital transformation digital technology and big data have infiltrated all areas of business life and the hrp’s role is no exception (scholz, 2017). digital transformation plays a crucial role within the current organisational context, increasing the need for aligned hr competencies. based on a digital era competency evaluation, four key competencies are required of the hrp for success in a dto. these competencies are ‘business knowledge, hr expertise, change management and technology expertise’ (bengtsson & bloom, 2017, p. 28). within the dto context, hrps require analytical capabilities and data modelling skills that go far beyond what has previously been required (lipton, 2017). in a dto, hr competence is necessary in managing the data produced by technology, and more than this, the ability to plan interventions accordingly (manuti & de palma, 2017). lipton (2017, p. 50) adds to the specific dto competency focus by saying that ‘the ever-increasing pace of innovation and constant emergence of new technology has made competencies like risk-taking and tolerance for ambiguity critical, too’. betchoo (2016, p. 3) also contributed by saying that the development of digitally aligned competencies revolves around being more ‘agile, people-oriented, innovative, connected, aligned and efficient’. with the dto context in mind, the chartered institute of personnel development (cipd) emphasised the impact of digitalisation to such an extent that they have espoused ‘digital working’ as one of the core competencies within the ‘hr professional map’, stating that (cipd, 2018): [d]igital working is about understanding the role of technology and the impact it has on people and the people function. it is knowing the latest technology offerings and understanding how they can improve productivity and help more collaborative work. (p. 1) similarly, the industrial and labour relations (ilr) school included the competency of ‘technology champion’ in its competency framework, defining it as ‘the ability to recognize emerging technological trends that will impact business performance, and to champion technology usage throughout the company to drive adoption’ (kelly & rapp, 2016, p. 6). in south africa, the sa board for people practices (sabpp) supports the digital context-driven view, adding that hrps require competencies in the technology space if they are going to add value in the digital era (subban, 2016a). the sabpp has placed so much emphasis on the dto context that it has assigned the following naming convention to the aligned competency: ‘citizenship for the future – innovation, technology and sustainability’ (meyer, 2012, p. 3). the sabpp has gone even further and included the competency of ‘innovator’ into the national hr competency model and defined it as being a ‘citizen of the future’, which is defined as ‘the ability to drive innovation, optimise technology and contribute to sustainability of organisations’ (subban, 2016b, p. 2). in 2016, the rbl group introduced a revised hr competency model with nine competencies divided into three sections (ulrich & brockbank, 2016). in this model, ulrich and brockbank (2016, p. 20) nominate the competency of ‘technology and media integrator’ as key for hrp success in the digital era, explaining it as (ulrich & brockbank, 2016): [h]r professionals must be able to leverage technology and technological tools to support their efforts to create high performing organisations. they also rely on social media to recruit, retain, develop and engage human capital. (p. 27) the above literature supports the view that the digital revolution has changed the way hr delivers processes and services (diromualdo et al., 2018). because of digitalisation, the hrp is now being complemented by a wide array of digital technology, which has directly affected the knowledge, skills and attributes required in a digital environment (guszcza et al., 2017). research design research approach and strategy a qualitative descriptive design, from an interpretive paradigm, was used. the design is appropriate as it provides basic descriptions of the phenomenon (i.e. competencies requirements of the hrp from the perspective of the line partners) whilst taking context into account (i.e. a dto) (sandelowski, 2010). as this study was interested in the interpretation of the perceptions of line partners, the researcher assumed an interpretive stance (elliott & timulak, 2005). following on the interpretive approach, the researcher was not in search for ‘truths’ about the research participants’ experiences, but rather to explore how they make meaning from their experiences (davis & michelle, 2011). research setting, entrée and establishing researcher roles the researcher purposively chose a multinational organisation at the forefront of digital transformation for this study. the environment is rich with best-in-class systems and processes and characterised by a high performing culture (i.e. fast-paced and outcomes-based). at the same time, employees in this environment are encouraged to think big, to innovate and to challenge the status quo in order to stay at the forefront of digital transformation. the researcher is employed in the organisation and it was important that the researcher remains impartial and mindful of any personal biases. in this regard, there was no sponsorship of this research project by the organisation and the study was conducted purely for academic research purposes. because of the accessibility permitted within the organisation, the researcher assumed a direct approach to entrée, which raised a few ethical considerations. the researcher obtained permission from the organisation to conduct the research through a multi-level sign-off process. the working relationship between the researcher and the prospective participants did not place the researcher in a position of authority, nor was there any potential for influencing the research participants. although a collaborative employment relationship existed with the organisation, there were no personal relationships with the study participants that might affect the insider/outsider independence of the researcher. research participants and sampling methods the aim of this research was to explore the impact of digitalisation on the competency requirements of hrps from the perspective of the line partner. consequently, the sample consisted of line partners with deep insights into both digitalisation and the role and competency requirements of hrps. the researcher employed a purposive sampling technique for this study based on the following two criteria: (1) the participants needed to be senior managers within the company and (2) the participants needed to have a background of working in a dto. such participants have sufficient experience in working with hrps to formulate competency requirements whilst taking context into account in their formulation. purposive sampling methods place primary emphasis on data saturation to ensure that the research continues until no new substantive information emerges (hennink, kaiser, & marconi, 2017). the researcher invited 43 qualifying senior managers to contribute to the study, of whom 21 accepted the invitation. two participants, however, later withdrew because of work commitments. the remaining 19 participants that accepted the invitation were interviewed. data saturation was reached after the ninth interview. the majority of the participants were males (95%), older than 40 years of age (58%) and occupying senior management positions (95%). only 26% of the participants were employed for less than a year, whereas the majority (69%) were employed for between 2 and 6 years. the demographic information of the sample is representative of the overall employee population in terms of gender, race, age and tenure on senior management level. data collection and recording method semi-structured interviews were conducted. according to silverman (2016), interviews produce efficient data about the phenomenon of interest in accordance with interviewees’ experiences. semi-structured interviews aid in keeping the data extraction uniform whilst at the same time allowing participants the freedom to render individual accounts of their experiences. additional probing enabled the researcher to gather rich, deep and detailed accounts of the participants’ experiences (lincoln, 1995). in this way, detailed subjective descriptions of competency requirements can be provided that are in line with the research design employed. the following questions formed part of the semi-structured interviews: what in your view is a dto? would you deem your organisation to be one? what in your view is the impact of a dto on the role of an hrp? in your view, what general competencies (knowledge, skills and attributes) do hrps need to be successful in a dto? which of the competencies mentioned above do you regard as the most critical for organisational success and why? the researcher recorded all the interviews in order to facilitate in-depth data analysis. the interviews were conducted in english, which aided with the transcribing process. in terms of informed consent and confidentiality, the researcher assigned the participants numbers (presented as ‘interviewee #’ throughout the article) that form the basis of reporting. strategies employed to ensure data quality and integrity to establish trustworthiness, the researcher focused on credibility, transferability, conformability and dependability (krefting, 1991). to ensure credibility, the present study used thick descriptions of the phenomenon under investigation, peer review and debriefing. transferability of the research findings was ensured by providing a detailed description of the research setting, sampling method and sample size. the researcher ensured confirmability by demonstrating that the findings emerged from the data and not the researcher’s own predispositions. the researcher and peer reviewer co-coded and reviewed the raw data independently. the researcher also made use of probing questions and paraphrasing to clarify participants’ statements (morrow, 2005). in order to improve the dependability of the study, the researcher documented the various elements of the data-gathering procedure. the researcher evaluated the effectiveness of the research process through critical reflection (shenton, 2004), and ensured dependability by creating an audit trail for both the research process and the research findings. data analysis and interpretation thematic analysis (ta), a data analysis method used to identify and analyse patterns in qualitative data (clarke & braun, 2013), was employed. clarke and braun (2013) outline six phases within the ta process and stress that it is a non-linear process. the following steps were taken to ensure rigour throughout the six phases: phase (1), familiarisation with the data; (2) the researcher performed extensive coding; (3) searching for themes; (4) reviewing themes; (5) the naming convention of themes was aligned to similar names from the literature; and (6) writing up all the information. ethical consideration ethical approval was granted by the research ethics committee of the university (clearance number: nwu-00813-18-a7) as well as the department of human resource management at the organisation. once ethical approval had been obtained, the researcher submitted the relevant approval and research process to the organisation for final approval to proceed. following all the relevant approvals, an invitation to participate in the research was sent to all the participants. ethical consideration was given to matters of privacy, confidentiality and anonymity, the termination of participants’ involvement and the provision of research attention. participation was voluntary and it was made clear that participants could withdraw from the study at any time if they wished so. findings in this section, the research findings are outlined according to the themes that emerged. in order to obtain an in-depth understanding of the impact of digitalisation on the competency requirements of the hrp, it was essential to explore whether or not the environment/organisational context within which the study was conducted could be classified as a dto. consequently, the interviews began by asking the participants to explain their understanding of a dto and if they would deem their organisation to be one. the feedback from participants was overwhelmingly one-sided, with the vast majority commenting that the organisation could be described as digitally transformed. as evidence for this feedback, the participants substantiated their views with tangible examples that they identified as digitally transformed. this is a just confirmation of the original selection of the organisation as a dto. interviewee feedback is given verbatim. for example, when asked about the definition of a dto, interviewee #7 (snmgr, softdev, 22/07/19) stated the following: ‘digitally transformed for me would mean that we use data internally to optimise or move us as fast as possible in terms of taking risks, or helping customers, or making decisions and having that data be something that makes us more productive and more efficient and smarter about outcomes’ and ‘there is a significant advantage in what i would consider a dto to be able to filter out a lot of the noise and provide useful information that is actionable and relevant.’ following the dto contextual setting, a detailed ta was conducted, and four core themes emerged from the interviews. these themes revealed that the key competencies of an hrp within a dto were identified as: (1) contextualising hr data and information, (2) continuous learning, (3) stakeholder relationship management and (4) cultivating positive organisational practice. these four themes, along with the required knowledge, skills and attributes, are summarised in table 1. table 1: core and sub-themes of the study. theme 1: contextualising human resource data and information being part of a dto, differing from traditional organisations, demands a thorough understanding of the context of the business. the hrp needs some information technology (it) knowledge and skills and should be able to use data generated within a digital business context to contribute to organisational success. subtheme 1: knowledge, insight and understanding of the business context a deep understanding of the specific organisational business context was one of the principal subthemes. the participants reported possessing an appreciation of the digital business context as a vital ingredient for hrp success. emphasising the link with knowledge of the business environment, interviewee #12 (mmgr, softdev, 12/08/19) added: ‘the hrp needs to have both the technical know-how and a deep understanding of the nature of the environment. i think if you are coming from a pure hr background into this [technical] environment, i think you would struggle actually because all of a sudden you are expected to engage in conversation that is completely foreign.’ it is evident that the line partners regarded the specific technical environmental elements as key, as interviewee #19 (mmgr, softdev, 05/09/19) referred to the level of general engagement and understanding by stating: ‘i think for a successful hrp, they need to have at least an appreciation of the tech space and what is going on here; they must be able to talk the language of a tech environment. so just having some tech awareness so that it is relatable so that they at least have that base understanding.’ subtheme 2: information technology knowledge and practical skills, specifically in the area of digitalisation the appreciation of the business context in subtheme 1 aligns closely with the next theme, which focuses on the practical it and/or digitally informed skills. because of the nature of the business environment in a dto, most of the participants highlighted the need for both an aptitude and interest in the technological space. interviewee #7 (snmgr, softdev, 22/07/19) reported the importance of this by stating: ‘the digital hrp is going to be highly ineffective if they cannot understand all of the [technical] capabilities that are available to them to be efficient, productive and effective. if you do not fully understand ml, or if you do not fully understand ai and the tools that are available, then you are probably going to be pretty ineffective in your role.’ interviewee #10 (mmgr, softdev, 08/08/19) tried to clarify the level of it proficiency required and stated that: ‘it literacy does not mean being able to use outlook. it literacy is thinking in terms of tooling and process and knowing how it should be executed with the use of technology.’ subtheme 3: the ability to utilise (design, extract, understand and apply) data in such a way that it can be leveraged to produce a positive business impact subtheme 3 focuses on the ability to utilise digital data. this theme received an overwhelming amount of support from almost all the research participants. participants reported the importance of information utilisation in the information age and data as the main currency. participants mentioned multiple layers of utilisation and interviewee #13 (mmgr, softdev, 13/08/19) supported the utilisation of data by stating, ‘the whole point of digital transformation is to create a history that you can look back upon and obtain data to actually support decisions going forward’. interviewee #1 (snmgr, softdev, 02/07/19) added that ‘the core of any dto is going to be data’. participants mentioned different levels of sophistication with regard to data utilisation, but interviewee #1 (snmgr, softdev, 02/07/19) emphasised the ability to analyse, interpret and apply the insights from data for business impact by stating that: ‘there are vast amounts of data that we are not tapping into that would help us make much better decisions, help us spot problems, challenges and opportunities earlier, and know very quickly whether interventions are working.’ interviewee #17 (snmgr, softdev, 05/09/19) also underscored the amount of data available by noting: ‘in a digital world, i think what makes it easier is that you can actually codify all of those [people practice] scenarios. digitalisation gives people the ability to get more information, more access.’ theme 2: continuous learning in the changing world of work, and more so in a dto with rapid change, it is expected from a practitioner to manage ambiguity and an unpredictable business environment. learning agility will be important to make judgements in situations with limited historical evidence to rely on. in a dto, the risk of errors will increase, demanding a certain level of resilience to ‘bounce’ back after mishaps. subtheme 1: the ability to deal with ambiguity continuous learning was the second core theme, emphasising the necessity for hrps to effectively engage and interact with their surroundings. based on the rapid pace of change within the dto environment, subtheme 1 refers to the ability of the hrp to deal with ambiguity. interviewee #6 (snmgr, softdev, 19/07/19) mentioned the changing business environment and the potential impact this might have on the hrp: ‘the role of hr is radically transformed in a dto, and there would be a psychological and strategic role to fill and not a transactional one’. interviewee #8 (snmgr, softdev, 24/07/19) focused on the rapid number of changes by stating, ‘it is difficult for the hrp to keep up-to-date with the digitised playbooks and work instructions’. interviewee #14 (mmgr, softdev, 13/08/19) agreed with this view and added, ‘based on the change in the operational environment, you need someone [hrp] who is comfortable taking on multiple challenges at the same time, comfortable with ambiguity’. subtheme 2: the ability to apply sound judgement the second subtheme was the ability to apply sound judgement. this mainly stems from the complex and layered decision-making model that exists within the digitally transformed environment. interviewee #9 (mmgr, softdev, 08/08/19) commented on the complexity of the environment within which the hrp operates and added that: ‘it is an incredibly soft dynamic space that they [hrp] work in, and then you have this really hard edge with things like the economics of the business or kinds of legal aspects where there is very little room to wiggle because of the ramifications they can have. they [hrp] need to know when to be soft and when to be hard.’ interviewee #14 (mmgr, softdev, 13/08/19) shared this view: ‘in a dto, a lot of hr services would be self-service for the customers and hr would be handling the exceptions cases. the hrps in a dto will apply much more judgement and operate in the grey. they will make context-driven judgement applications.’ subtheme 3: being agile and adaptive the pace and speed of business execution have rapidly accelerated in the digital era, and the hrp operating within a dto needs to be agile to adapt and adopt new practices and ways of working. interviewee #6 (snmgr, softdev, 19/07/19) emphasised this point, noting: ‘being a dto means that you’re now engaging with customers through digital channels, you’re automating. by being more agile and lightweight, you [hrp] are able to say yes to deliver on customer needs.’ interviewee #3 (snmgr, softdev, 04/07/19) commented on the changing business environment by stating, ‘the hrp needs to be able to recognise the changing needs of the employees and the changing needs of the business and the market’. subtheme 4: resilience resilience is the fourth subtheme. this subtheme is closely linked to the subtheme of ambiguity, judgement and agility needed in the dto environment. the following quote by interviewee #3 (snmgr, softdev, 04/07/19) frames this ability well: ‘the hrp needs to have a different level of resilience in a dto, based on the added complexities of time zones, cultures, fast pace, etc.’ interviewee #11 (mmgr, softdev, 12/08/19) agreed with this view and stated: ‘in a dto, you are going to see large volumes and a fast pace. information and data will flow through rapidly, and thus, you will need to have more resilience.’ theme 3: stakeholder relationship management in dto-driven organisations with complex business models and a high level of digitisation and automatisation, allowing a line manager access to information needs hrps who can clearly communicate on technology-related topics. the ability to effectively engage, interact and communicate with various stakeholders is high on the priority list. subtheme 1: excellent verbal and non-verbal communication skills: communication skills, both verbal and non-verbal, were another subtheme referenced by the participants. in a dto, hrps will engage with multiple stakeholders across a variety of geographical, cultural and language dimensions and the ability to draft clear, concise and culturally sensitive communication is a critical competency. interviewee #2 (mmgr, softdev, 04/07/19) underscored both the complexity and importance of the communication competency in a dto by stating: ‘knowing how and how best to reach out to individuals, how to set priorities on different requests because you no longer hear a tone of voice, you are no longer face-to-face with that person, you can no longer see their expressions or whatever the case may be.’ this is amplified by the numerous mediums through which communication is distributed in a dto environment. interviewee #8 (snmgr, softdev, 24/07/19) emphasised this by saying: ‘in a dto, the hr practitioner can be overwhelmed with the various channels through which to communicate, with the result that they may focus their attention on the medium and not the message.’ interviewee #3 (snmgr, softdev, 04/07/19) focused more upon the nature of the business model that created additional complexity and added that: ‘due to the global matrix environment, we almost operate in a disjointed manner, very remotely. we need to be virtually connected and on the same brainwave’. theme 4: cultivating positive organisational practice in a fast-moving business environment, the hrp needs to play a critical role in employee wellness. with the availability of information, the hrp must ensure confidentiality and the privacy of personal information. the ability to understand, value, integrate and protect the core values and rights of all employees whilst aligning it to the organisation values is a core competence in a dto. subtheme 1: functioning as wellness and cultural custodian: within the cultivating positive organisational practice core theme, the subtheme of functioning as wellness and cultural custodian was derived from the interviews. interviewee #1 (snmgr, softdev, 02/07/19) commented on the importance of maintaining the organisational culture and moral fibre and emphasised the additional responsibility that the hrp has as follows: ‘i mean keeping the organisation honest, keeping the organisation humane. because it is going to be very easy to slip into automating all the things, the software does all the things and software is not particularly good at being humane.’ interviewee #7 (snmgr, softdev, 22/07/19) agreed with this and added: ‘at some point in time maybe there is a situation where the hr interface with the employees is digital and not human, and i just do not know how satisfactory that would be to the employee.’ maintaining a wellness balance is challenging in any environment; however, in a dto, this is especially true because of the speed and rigour of the business operations. interviewee #8 (snmgr, softdev, 24/07/19) commented on the interconnected components by stating, ‘the collective wellbeing of the dto stems from having the right culture and the hrp is part of the bigger ecosystem’. interviewee #7 (snmgr, softdev, 22/07/19) asked, ‘could an employee get the same kind of empathetic advice from the digital interface?’ interviewee #12 (mmgr, softdev, 12/08/19) also added to this by cautioning the hrm function: ‘the more efficient and digitised an organisation becomes, the more the hrp could become disconnected from the employees’. interviewee #19 (mmgr, softdev, 05/09/19) also made this point and said: ‘we should have an understanding of the challenges that come with that [dto]. what drives tech employees? what are the unique characteristics associated with the performance of tech employees? how do they differ from other employees that we have across in the business?’ subtheme 2: functioning as the protector of privacy: a number of participants referred to data privacy as another of the subthemes supporting the core theme of functioning as wellness and cultural custodian. interviewee #13 (mmgr, softdev, 13/08/19) was wary of the potential volume of new data being generated and how this was being processed, stating: ‘you [company] now have an increased amount of information that you need to process. and there is always the risk of not processing it in the right way. usually, we just interpret the signals we get from the systems. the problem with data utilisation is that you don’t necessarily know if you are interpreting the data in the right manner. the use of ai, ml and other digital technology should be closely guarded.’ in a bid to highlight the rigorous access standards that should be in place, interviewee #8 (snmgr, softdev, 24/07/19) noted the following: ‘an understanding of the regulatory model is a necessity for those who want to gain access to information and those who want to restrict access to it’. discussion four themes and accompanying subthemes are reported in the previous section. in this section, the findings are analysed in relation to the literature, thereby combining inductive and deductive approaches. this allows the participants’ voices to be interpreted in a broader model of existing knowledge and enables an in-depth understanding of the research findings. as a starting point, it is essential to highlight the alignment between the definitions of a dto, as referenced by the research participants, and those provided within the literature. although it is beyond the scope of this research, alignment is important for contextualisation. in defining digitalisation, betchoo (2016) referred to the interconnected nature of digital technology as one of its primary elements, with social media, mobility, analytics, cloud computing and the internet as critical examples. the use of advanced technology for data collection, storage and processing was also referenced with powerful tools such as ai and ml, seen as the differentiating technologies in a dto (brynjolfsson & mcafee, 2014; davenport & kirby, 2016). keywords cited by the research participants include ‘data usage’, ‘data optimisation’, ‘actionable insights’, ‘connection’, ‘tool usage’, ‘customer enablement’, ‘decision-making’, ‘increased productivity’, ‘efficiency’ and ‘service delivery’. these keywords also form part of the definitions of digitalisation (i.e. the increasing penetration of digital technologies in society with the associated changes in the connection of individuals and their behaviours) and digital transformation (‘managed adaptation of companies in light of progressing digitalisation in order to assure sustainable value creation’) (gimpel & röglinger, 2015, p. 5). it can, therefore, be concluded that employees unanimously perceived the participating organisation as a dto. based on the dto contextual environment, the study participants were asked to identify the critical hrp competencies in a dto. with the assistance of ta, participant feedback was grouped into four core themes within the findings section of the research article. the discussion of these four themes, in relation to the literature review, is presented next. contextualising human resource data and information to demonstrate the importance of having knowledge, insight and understanding of the business context, most of the participants highlighted business insights or business acumen as the cornerstone of effectiveness in a dto. understanding this context and the impact of digital technology on all aspects of the organisation is seen as critical for hr success (kelly & rapp, 2016). understanding the business context and being digitally knowledgeable are competencies cited by both the literature (kashyape, 2018) and the interviewees as crucial for hrp success in a dto. within the literature, words such as ‘speed’, ‘execution’, ‘tech-savvy’ and a whole host of digital technology phrases from big data to ml capture the dto context (davenport & kirby, 2016, p. 46). when comparing contextualising hr data and information with existing literature, there is a large degree of alignment. both the society for human resources management (shrm, 2016, p. 32) and cipd (2018, p. 6) simply call this competency ‘business acumen’. the australian human resources institute (ahri, 2015, p. 3) refers to this competency in their ‘model of excellence’ and defines it as being ‘business-driven’. the university of cornell’s ilr school, in turn, uses the terms ‘business acumen and business contributor’ to demonstrate the focus required (kelly & rapp, 2016, p. 6). in south africa, the sabpp refers to ‘organisational capability’, whilst one of the four pillars of the competency model is hr and business knowledge (meyer, 2012, p. 4). in the most recent research conducted by the rbl group, they refer to ‘strategic positioner’ (ulrich et al., 2016, p. 6). when compared with the synthesis of current hr competency models by vu (2017, p. 5), there is an intersection in the area defined as ‘business-related’ (vu, 2017, p. 5). to demonstrate the importance of having information technology knowledge and practical skills, specifically in the area of digitalisation, buchanan, kelley and hatch (2016) made specific reference to the competency of being digitally well informed when they identified current global hr trends. they indicated that the new breed of chief executive officers (ceo) is progressively getting younger, more global and more technologically informed, resulting in an increased need for hr functions to follow suit. collecting, storing and processing hr data are becoming critical aspects of the hr agenda (manyika et al., 2016). research conducted by bersin et al. (2017) found that the hrm function is transforming as a result of the availability of big data sets for studying employee behaviours to identify levers for performance enhancement. the availability of data is accelerating as digital enablement continues and wearable devices and the internet of things create more data in real time (bersin et al., 2017). the research participants agreed with this and added that data are much more visible now and that as a result, identifying trends is much easier. it is, therefore, important that hrps not only understand data, but also identify where in the organisation data are created, how to capture these data and how to put systems in place to extract and report on the data. makridakis (2017) agrees with the sentiment of data utilisation and commented that the availability of powerful tools such as ai and ml had provided hr with the ability to advance their business insights and execution rapidly. when comparing information technology knowledge and practical skills to the existing literature, cipd (2018, p. 8) refers to ‘digital working’. the ahri (2015, p. 1) refers to these competencies in their ‘model of excellence’ and defines it as being ‘business-driven’. the university of cornell’s ilr school, in turn, referred to ‘technology champion’ (kelly & rapp, 2016, p. 9). in south africa, the sabpp refers to this as being ‘citizenship for future innovation, technology and sustainability’ (meyer, 2012, p. 4). in the most recent research conducted by the rbl group, they refer to ‘technology and media integrator’ (ulrich et al., 2016, p. 6). when compared to the synthesis of current hr competency models by vu (2017, p. 5), there is an intersection in the following areas: ‘hr tools, practices and process-related’. to demonstrate the importance of having the ability to utilise (design, extract, understand and apply) data in such a way that it can be leveraged to produce a positive business impact, parry and battista (2019) said that there are numerous digital tools such as robotics, and virtual and augmented reality that can be utilised to enhance performance. the availability of data makes this data analysis possible, and abolhassan (2017) noted that hrps now have access to previously closed data sets that enable them to create more transparency. this transparency through data enables the hrp to make sound data-driven arguments for change in the organisation. in her analysis of the perception that hr adds value to the business, dutta (2018) encouraged hr to make more use of the digital tools at its disposal. dutta (2018) further said that, in particular, data science and intelligence tools should be utilised as the differentiators of success. automation and ai therefore not only complement the work of the hrp, but they also bring the challenge of acquiring new competencies (guszcza et al., 2017). this ‘cognitive collaboration’ should be regarded as a significant benefit, and guszcza et al. (2017, p. 6) added that when humans and computers work in an augmented relationship, they think better together. when comparing the ability to utilise data with the existing literature, cipd (2018, p. 7) refers to ‘analytics and creating value’, whilst the university of cornell’s ilr school refers to ‘data and analytics’ (kelly & rapp, 2016, p. 8). the sabpp refers to ‘solution creation and implementation’ and lists ‘analytics and measurement’ as one of the hr capabilities (meyer, 2012, p. 4), and the rbl group refers to ‘analytics designer and interpreter’ (ulrich et al., 2016, p. 6). continuous learning to demonstrate the importance of the ability to deal with ambiguity, parry and battista (2019) commented that uncertainty and ambiguity are the new normal. research participants echoed the view that the ever-changing and ambiguous environment is here to stay and added that the hrp needs to be adaptable and willing to change. human resource practitioners need to be able to navigate this changing environment, not only for themselves but also to help the business and their internal customers (i.e. employees) to make sense of the changes (stephan, uzawa, volini, walsh, & yoshida, 2016). stephan et al. (2016) observed that hr must play a significant role in assisting employees in making sense of digital technology and guiding them through the highly ambiguous transformational journey. when comparing the ability to deal with ambiguity to existing competency literature, the rbl group adds the competency of ‘paradox navigator’ (ulrich et al., 2016, p. 6). the ability to self-navigate and, at the same time, guide and assist line partners and employees through the rapid change journey requires a number of unique competencies. in comparison with current competency model literature, shrm (2016, p. 27) referred to this as ‘navigation’. bondarouk and brewster (2016) stated that with so much emerging technology available, superior levels of judgement are needed as additional data and visibility continue to raise the privacy and security concerns. to demonstrate the importance of the ability to apply sound judgement, the research interviewees added by saying that hr has the additional accountability to help the business stop, analyse and determine a constructive path forward. additionally, the research participants added that within a dto, most of the hygiene or transactional hr activities have been automated and, as a result, interactions with hrp are strategic, requiring higher levels of judgement. diromualdo et al. (2018) highlighted the importance of this and added that these high judgement scenarios might have far-reaching effects on the organisation and the lives of employees. rao (2018) added to this by saying that the elements of a highly ambiguous environment, fuelled by scenarios of high judgement, created a very complex environment in which hrps need to operate. when comparing superior levels of judgement to the existing literature, shrm (2016, p. 27) referred to ‘organisational leadership’ as being essential for success, whilst the sabpp referred to ‘leadership and personal credibility’ (meyer, 2012, p. 4). the rbl group adds the competency of ‘credible activist’ and ‘paradox navigator’ (ulrich et al., 2016, p. 6). to demonstrate the importance of the ability to be agile and adaptive, the study participants added that speed of execution is vital within the dto environment where communication channels and culture are largely different. rao (2018) postulated that the combination of a variety of geographical locations, backgrounds and mindsets creates the need for a review of how we manage this workforce within which different communication styles and mechanisms are needed. based on the disruption caused by the introduction of digital technology, the hrps are forced to adapt and re-evaluate their roles (panayotopoulou & papalexandris, 2004). when comparing agility and adaptability to the current literature, cipd (2018, p. 9) and ahri (2015, p. 5) mentioned the importance of ‘managing change’ or being a ‘change leader’. in comparison with the synthesis of current hr competency models by vu (2017, p. 5), the theme of ‘change’ was cited. to demonstrate the importance of resilience, the study participants commented that, because of the complexities of global working, time zone differences, different cultures, ample amounts of data and a fast-paced environment, the hrp requires a different level of resilience. bhatia (2016) stated that the hrp is required to innovate, accelerate the speed of execution and adapt to new digital leadership roles. oswald and kleinemeier (2017, p. 76) argued that ‘as digitization increases the speed and intensity of change, employees should also possess more fundamental competencies like dealing with complexity and increased tempo; they ought also to be resilient’. when comparing resilience with current competency model literature, ahri (2015, p. 3) referred to an ‘expert practitioner’. stakeholder relationship management when comparing the competency theme of stakeholder relationship management with the current literature, shrm (2016, p. 37) refers to ‘consultation’. the ilr includes the competency of ‘external stakeholder relationships’ (kelly & rapp, 2016, p. 9) and the sabpp refers to these competencies as ‘leadership and personal credibility’ (meyer, 2012, p. 4). to demonstrate the importance of having excellent verbal and non-verbal communication skills, several participants highlighted that in a high percentage of cases, the hrp would be communicating an undesirable outcome and, as such, an astute communicator is needed. the study participants added that because of the complexity of multiple cultures and geographies, the phrasing of communication is vital. the society for human resources management (2016, p. 46) competency model also reported the need for excellent communication skills with such importance that it is regarded as one of their nine core competencies and defined as ‘the ability to effectively exchange information with stakeholders’. the ilr added a competency of ‘internal boundary spanner’ (kelly & rapp, 2016, p. 9), whilst the sabpps hr model also supports the importance of communication and defines this competency as follows: ‘interpersonal and communication skills: all hr work depends on successful relationships, and excellent interpersonal and communication skills are of utmost importance’. research participants emphasised this even more by saying that, because of most of the communication being digital in the global matrix environment, hrps need to be expert communicators with one of the participants commenting that the hrp needs to be on the same ‘brain wave’ as the rest of the organisation. cultivating positive organisational practice to demonstrate the importance of functioning as wellness and cultural custodian, frey and osborne (2017) commented that the potential impact of automation and job displacement could have a significant impact on the employee population, adding that the hrm function has a pivotal role to play as the custodian of organisational values (frey & osborne, 2017). this view was also shared during the research process, and they added that, because of the pace of change in a dto, the culture could be very volatile. the study participants also commented on the consequences of atomisation and said that a less human interface has an impact on the culture as people are still going to need human engagement. brown et al. (2017) added to this risk and stressed that a ‘less human’ organisation may have a severe impact on employees at a time when business leaders are already wrestling with unprecedented individual risks. manuti and de palma (2017) commented that the interaction between man and machine could also be beneficial to workforce wellness as technologies such as ai and ml could serve as an early warning system for the manager in terms of job satisfaction and even employee burnout. parry and battista (2019), however, said that it was the role of the hrp to monitor and maintain the wellness equilibrium within the organisation. when comparing wellness and cultural custodian with the current literature, shrm (2016, p. 50) refers to this competency as ‘global and cultural effectiveness’, whilst cipd (2018, p. 5), in turn, mentions the importance of ‘managing culture and behaviours’. the ahri (2015, p. 4), in turn, refers to the importance of ‘a workplace and workforce designer, and a culture and change leader’. the rbl group adds the competency of the ‘culture and change champion’ (ulrich et al., 2016, p. 6). when comparing the competency of contextualising hr data and information with the synthesis of current hr competency models by vu (2017), the competency of ‘organisational culture’ was again common. to demonstrate the importance of functioning as the protector of privacy, stulgienė and čiutienė (2012) noted that, in their view, hrm policies and processes were lagging behind dto trends. the study participants also stressed the importance of privacy and the interpretation of data. data, and more specifically hr data, can be interpreted in multiple ways and with different contextual layers and, as such, research participants cautioned on the extraction of a binary result. the view that hr and data management policies and practices are lagging behind the digital curve is exacerbated by the volume and transparency of the data available (rao, 2018). when comparing the protector of privacy to the current literature, shrm (2016, p. 22) emphasised the importance of ‘ethical practice’, whilst ahri (2015, p. 4) referred to being an ‘ethical and credible activist’. when comparing the competencies identified through the research with existing competency models, it became evident that the literature provided overwhelming support for all the competencies highlighted by the research participants. what is less evident is the importance of these competencies for hrp success within the dto context, as opposed to a non-dto environment. for example, participants deemed the contextualisation of hr data and information as essential for success. additionally, continuous learning emphasises the ability of hrps to deal with ambiguity and to be able to adapt and apply good judgement. these skills are essential in a dto environment characterised by speed and the automation of routine hr tasks. human resource practitioners also need to apply high-level decision-making, even more so than in a non-dto environment. therefore, it is important to not simply look at the alignment between the competencies identified in the current study and previous research, but also evaluate the level of importance for hrp success in the dto as highlighted by the study participants. limitations and recommendations there were a few noteworthy limitations of this study. the first limitation is based on the exclusion of the hrp from this research, meaning that a self-reflected view from the hrp could not be obtained. a second limitation was the generalisability of the research results caused because of the focus on the dto context, and as a result, this limited the data gathering to a single company. the last limitation arises from the timing of the research. the researcher gathered participants’ views at a single point in time, and as such, the research relied heavily on primary data of the interviews, providing a limited opportunity to verify these perspectives. the following recommendations were made: hrps need to utilise the additional visibility created of the hrp competencies for self-development within a dto context. organisations need to encourage proactive engagement between line partners and their hr practitioners to ensure transparency in terms of competency expectations. organisations should utilise the hrp competencies within a dto context to tailor attraction, development and performance management programmes. industrial and organisational psychology practice should be adopted to modify the current educational curriculum to include digital competencies. conclusion to explore the potentially unique competency requirements of the hrp, the researcher interviewed senior managers who operate within the dto environment to gain their perspectives about the impact and key competency requirements of the hrp. the findings of this research demonstrated that the hrp requires key competencies in the following areas: (1) contextualising hr data and information, (2) continuous learning, (3) stakeholder relationship management and (4) cultivating positive organisational practice. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.j.v.d.b. acted as the primary researcher as this study formed part of his master’s research. he conceptualised the article, collected the data, interpreted the research results and shared in the writing of the article. m.w.s. and l.v.d.v. acted as the supervisor and co-supervisor, respectively. they played an advisory role, assisting in the conceptualisation of the study, interpretation of the research results and refining the research article. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability statement data sharing will be done in line with ethics requirements. the data is the intellectual property of the north-west university and will be provided upon reasonable requests to the corresponding author. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references abolhassan, f. (2017). the drivers of digital transformation: why there’s no way around the cloud. cham: springer. andriole, s.j. (2018). skills and competencies for digital transformation. it professional magazine, 20(6), 78–81. https://doi.org/10.1109/mitp.2018.2876926 australian human resources institute [ahri]. (2015). ahri’s model of excellence. retrieved from https://www.ahri.com.au/about-us/model-of-excellence/ bengtsson, c., & bloom, m. (2017). human resource management in a digital era: a qualitative study of hr managers’ perceptions of digitalization and its implications for hrm. unpublished master’s dissertation, lund university school of economics and management. bersin, j., pelster, b., schwartz, j., & van der vyver, b (2017). rewriting the rules for the digital age: 2017 global human capital trends. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/global/documents/humancapital/hc-2017-global-human-capital-trends-gx.pdf betchoo, n.k. (2016). digital transformation and its impact on human resource management: a case analysis of two unrelated businesses in the mauriti an public service [conference proceeding]. 2016 ieee international conference on emerging technologies and innovative business practices for the transformation of societies (emergitech), balaclava, mauritius, 03–06 august. retrieved from https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7737328 bhatia, p.p. (2016). racing ahead with technology: digital hr through smartphones. iup journal of information technology, 12(4), 36–47. bilgeri, d., gebauer, h., fleisch, e., & wortmann, f. (2019). driving process innovation with iot field data. mis quarterly executive, 18(3), 25–17. https://doi.org/10.17705/2msqe.00016 bondarouk, t., & brewster, c. (2016). conceptualising the future of hrm and technology research. the international journal of human resource management, 27(21), 2652–2671. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1232296 brown, j., gosling, t., sethi, b., sheppard, b., stubbings, c., sviokla, j., & zarubina, d. (2017). workforce of the future: the competing forces shaping 2030. retrieved from https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/services/people-organisation/workforce-of-the-future/workforce-of-the-future-the-competing-forces-shaping-2030-pwc.pdf brynjolfsson, e., & mcafee, a. (2014). the second machine age: work, progress, and prosperity in a time of brilliant technologies. new york, ny: ww norton & company. buchanan, j., kelley, b., & hatch, a. (2016). digital workplace and culture: how digital technologies are changing the workforce and how enterprises can adapt and evolve. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/us/documents/human-capital/us-cons-digital-workplace-and-culture.pdf chartered institute of personnel development [cipd]. (2018). the cipd profession map. copyright chartered institute of personnel and development. retrieved from https://www.cipd.co.uk/learn/profession-map cianni, m., & steckler, s. (2017). transforming organizations to a digital world. people & strategy, 40(2), 14–19. retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=gale%7ca491982126&sid=googlescholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=19464606&p=aone&sw=w clarke, v., & braun, v. (2013). teaching thematic analysis: overcoming challenges and developing strategies for effective learning. the psychologist, 26(2), 120–123. retrieved from http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/21155/3/teaching%20thematic%20analysis%20research%20repository%20version.pdf davenport, t.h., & kirby, j. (2016). only humans need apply: winners and losers in the age of smart machines. new york, ny: harper. davis, c.h., & michelle, c. (2011). q methodology in audience research: bridging the qualitative/quantitative ‘divide’. journal of audience and reception studies, 8(2), 527–561. retrieved from https://www.waikato.ac.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/148424/4a-davis-michelle.pdf diromualdo, a., el-khoury, d., & girimonte, f. (2018). hr in the digital age: how digital technology will change hr’s organization structure, processes and roles. strategic hr review, 17(5), 234–242. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr-08-2018-0074 dutta, d. (2018). social media and technology trends in hrm: cases in recruitment and talent management. retrieved from https://www.intechopen.com/download/pdf/63271 elliott, r., & timulak, l. (2005). descriptive and interpretive approaches to qualitative research. in j. miles & p. gilbert (eds.), a handbook of research methods for clinical and health psychology (pp. 147–159). oxford: oxford university. frey, c.b., & osborne, m.a. (2017). the future of employment: how susceptible are jobs to computerisation? technological forecasting and social change, 114(1), 254–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2016.08.019 garcia-arroyo, j., & osca, a. (2019). big data contributions to human resource management: a systematic review. online publication. the international journal of human resource management, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2019.1674357 gartner inc. (2018). the ceo 20 pulse on the future of work. retrieved from http://www.portailrh.org/lecercle/pdf/gartner-ceo-20-pulse-on-the-future-of-work.pdf gimpel, h., & röglinger, m. (2015). digital transformation: changes and chances – insights based on an empirical study. fraunhofer institute for applied information technology fit. retrieved from https://fim-rc.de/paperbibliothek/veroeffentlicht/542/wi-542.pdf guszcza, j., lewis, h., & evans-greenwood, p. (2017). cognitive collaboration: why humans and computers think better together. deloitte review, 1(20), 7–30. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/deloitte-review/issue-20/augmented-intelligence-human-computer-collaboration.html harrop, j.j. (2017). assessment and recommendations for effective hr service delivery model implementation for organizations. middle east journal of business, 12(1), 23–27. retrieved from http://www.mejb.com/upgrade_flash/jan2017/hr.pdf hennink, m.m., kaiser, b.n., & marconi, v.c. (2017). code saturation versus meaning saturation: how many interviews are enough? qualitative health research, 27(4), 591–608. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732316665344 kaji, j., hurley, b., gangopadhyay, n., bhat, r., & khan, a. (2019). 2019 deloitte global human capital trends. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/us/articles/5136_hc-trends-2019/di_hc-trends-2019.pdf kashyape, a. (2018). hr jobs: will artificial intelligence retire recruiters? retrieved from https://www.financialexpress.com/jobs/hr-jobs-will-ai-retire-recruiters/1227482/ kavanagh, m.j., thite, m., & johnson, r.d. (2009). the future of hris: emerging trends in hrm and it. in m.j. kavanagh & r.d. johnson (eds.), human resource information systems: basics, applications, and future directions (pp. 409–418). thousand oaks, ca: sage. kelly, c., & rapp, k. (2016). the hr function in 2021: models & competencies [video file]. retrieved from http://www.cornell.edu/video/hr-function-2021-models-competencies krefting, l. (1991). rigor in qualitative research: the assessment of trustworthiness. american journal of occupational therapy, 45(3), 214–222. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.45.3.214 lincoln, y.s., (1995). emerging criteria for quality in qualitative and interpretive research. qualitative inquiry, 1(3), 275–289. https://doi.org/10.1177/107780049500100301 lipton, a., (2017). the internet of people delivers new ways of learning. the professional journal of hr people + strategy, 40(3), 49–51. retrieved from https://go.gale.com/ps/anonymous?id=gale%7ca499598709&sid=googlescholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=19464606&p=aone&sw=w makridakis, s. (2017). the forthcoming artificial intelligence (ai) revolution: its impact on society and firms. futures, 90(1), 46–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2017.03.006 manuti, a., & de palma, p.d. (2017). digital hr: a critical management approach to the digitalization of organizations. cham: springer. manyika, j., lund, s., bughin, j., woetzel, j., stamenov, k., & dhingra, d. (2016). digital globalization: the new era of global flows. retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/business%20functions/mckinsey%20digital/our%20insights/digital%20globalization%20the%20new%20era%20of%20global%20flows/mgi-digital-globalization-full-report.ashx meyer, m. (2012). the new national hr competency model: how do you measure up? retrieved from https://www.scribd.com/document/133352138/hr-competency-model-assessment morrow, s.l. (2005). quality and trustworthiness in qualitative research in counseling psychology. journal of counseling psychology, 52(2), 250–260. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.52.2.250 oswald, g., & kleinemeier, m. (2017). shaping the digital enterprise. berlin: springer. panayotopoulou, l., & papalexandris, n. (2004). examining the link between hrp orientation and firm performance. personnel review, 33(5), 499–520. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480410550125 parry, e., & battista, v. (2019). the impact of emerging technologies on work: a review of the evidence and implications for the human resource function. retrieved from https://emeraldopenresearch.com/articles/1-5/v1/pdf rao, m.m. (2018). a study of digitalization in hrm and its effectiveness in execution of hr strategies and policies. helix, 8(6), 4220–4222. https://doi.org/10.29042/2018-4220-4222 sandelowski, m. (2010). what’s in a name? qualitative description revisited. research in nursing and health, 33(1), 77–84. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.20362 scholz, t.m. (2017). big data in organizations and the role of human resource management: a complex systems theory-based conceptualization. frankfurt: peter lang. schwab, k. (2016). the fourth industrial revolution. new york, ny: crown business. sekhar, c., patwardhan, m., & vyas, v. (2016). a study of hr flexibility and firm performance: a perspective from it industry. global journal of flexible systems management, 17(1), 57–75. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40171-015-0120-2 shenton, a.k. (2004). strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research projects. education for information, 22(2), 63–75. https://doi.org/10.3233/efi-2004-22201 silverman, d. (2016). qualitative research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. society for human resources management [shrm]. (2016). shrm competency model. retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/learningandcareer/career/pages/shrm-competency-model.aspx stephan, m., uzawa, s., volini, e., walsh, b., & yoshida, r. (2016). digital hr revolution, not evolution. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/co/documents/human-capital/digital%20hr%20revolution%20not%20evolution.pdf stone, d.l., deadrick, d.l., lukaszewski, k.m., & johnson, r. (2015). the influence of technology on the future of human resource management. human resource management review, 25(2), 216–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.01.002 stulgienė, a., & čiutienė, r. (2012). hrm challenges in transition to project management (project-based organization). economics and management, 17(3), 1214–1218. https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.em.17.3.2145 subban, l. (2016a). sabpp fact sheet: hr technology. south african board of people practices, 7(1), 1–20. subban, l. (2016b). sabpp fact sheet: innovation in hr. south african board of people practices, 6(1), 1–23. ulrich, d., & brockbank, w. (2016). hr business partner model: past and future perspectives: international waters-hr strategy. hr future, 2016(12), 16–21. ulrich, d., & dulebohn, j.h. (2015). are we there yet? what’s next for hr? hrp review, 25(2), 188–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.01.004 ulrich, d., younger, j., brockbank, w., & ulrich, m. (2012). hr from the outside in: six competencies for the future of human resources. new york, ny: mcgraw hill. ulrich, d., younger, j., brockbank, w., & ulrich, m. (2016). 2016 hr competency model. retrieved from https://www.apg.pt/downloads/file954_pt.pdf vu, g.t.h. (2017). a critical review of human resource competency model: evolvement in required competencies for human resource professionals. journal of economics, business and management, 5(12), 357–365. https://doi.org/10.18178/joebm.2017.5.12.539 wright, p., mcmahan, g., snell, s., & gerhart, b. (2001). comparing line and hr executives’ perceptions of hr effectiveness: services, roles, and contributions. human resource management, 40(2), 111–123. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.1002 zeoli, m.l., & billeter, k. (2019). transforming hr to be more digital (and more human). workforce solutions review, 10(1), 4–7. retrieved from https://ihrim.org/wsr-home/archives/#1585236224990-f040b067-9d7b abstract introduction objectives of the study literature review research methodology results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) munodani chapano department of human resources management, faculty of business and economic sciences, nelson mandela university, gqeberha, south africa michelle r. mey department of human resources management, faculty of business and economic sciences, nelson mandela university, gqeberha, south africa amanda werner department of human resources management, faculty of business and economic sciences, nelson mandela university, gqeberha, south africa citation chapano, m., mey, m.r., & werner, a. (2022). adoption of digital strategies across the human resource value chain. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1992. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1992 original research adoption of digital strategies across the human resource value chain munodani chapano, michelle r. mey, amanda werner received: 17 may 2022; accepted: 12 july 2022; published: 22 sept. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: digital technologies are transforming the way business functions operate, and this also applies to the human resource management (hrm) function. research purpose: the purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which south african organisations have adopted digital hrm strategies across the human resource (hr) value chain and the extent to which these digital strategies are perceived to contribute to the achievement of business objectives. motivation for the study: this study provides an indication of the trend of the adoption of digital hrm strategies and whether the digital strategies support business goals. research approach/design and method: a quantitative research design using a cross-sectional survey was used. data were collected by means of a survey with a questionnaire from 312 hrm professionals and line managers in the automotive industry in the eastern cape province of south africa. purposive and snowball sampling was used, and data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis (efa), descriptive, paired-sample tests, pearson correlations and regression analysis. main findings: the findings of this study indicate that digital hrm strategies have been moderately adopted across the hr value chain. the perceived contribution of these digital strategies towards attainment of business objectives was high. practical/managerial implications: constraints such as lack of digital skills by hrm practitioners, which hinder the adoption of digital hrm strategies across the hr value chain, should be addressed. contribution/value-add: this research assists hrm practitioners and leaders in south africa regarding which digital strategies to adopt to contribute to the achievement of organisational objectives. keywords: hrm digitalisation; digital hrm technologies; hr value chain; digital hrm strategies; organisational objectives/performance; south africa. introduction digitalisation, which is caused by continuous inventions and advances in digital technologies of the fourth industrial revolution (4ir), has become a buzzword across many organisational operations, including human resource management (hrm) (world economic forum [wef], 2016). organisations exploit technologies of the 4ir by digitalising the production and distribution of commodities (wef, 2016). digitalisation has been accelerated by the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic and its related consequences such as lockdowns (agrawal, dutta, kelly, & millán, 2021). depending on the degree of embracement of technologies and preparedness for change, organisations have either adopted or are contemplating adopting digital strategies across the human resource (hr) value chain. the force behind the digitalisation of hrm is to improve and sustain efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of a range of hrm services, which also directly or indirectly improves the employee experience and enables a quick response to the needs of the business (deloitte, 2020; jayabalan, makhbul, nair, subramaniam, & ramly, 2021; thite, 2019). as a result, some researchers and business leaders express confidence that hrm’s strategic role as a business partner could be fulfilled (jani, muduli, & kishore, 2021; schiemann & ulrich, 2017). other researchers (bondarouk & brewster, 2016; poisat & mey, 2019) reveal more doubt about the impact of digital hrm strategies on service delivery, and this is mostly because of a lack of empirical research results. this lack of evidence could serve as a contributing factor to a reluctant and haphazard approach to adopt digital hrm strategies. in addition, the researchers are basing their arguments on past research that did not specifically probe the impact of hrm on organisational performance (guest, 2011; ulrich, 1997). even in cases where empirical evidence depicts an association between hrm practices and organisational performance (huselid, 1995), specific strategies and practices of the hrm function that have a significant impact were difficult to determine (becker & gerhart, 1996; guest, 2011; ulrich, 1997; wright & ulrich, 2017). while this debate is ongoing, the adoption of digital strategies in hrm, as with any other business operation, is now inevitable whether in developed or undeveloped countries (deloitte, 2016). organisations lagging in the digitalisation race are vulnerable, as they may lose relevance (deloitte, 2016; jani et al., 2021). although hrm digitalisation is being discussed at conferences in south africa and leaders are acknowledging a need to digitalise the hrm function (chro south africa, 2021), there is still a need to ascertain the extent to which organisations in south africa have adopted digital hrm strategies across the hr value chain (sabpp, 2019). in addition, the business community needs to know the extent to which the digitalisation of hrm contributes to the attainment of business goals. therefore, this study aims to empirically ascertain the extent to which south african organisations have adopted digital hrm strategies across the hr value chain and the extent to which this has contributed towards the achievement of organisational objectives. objectives of the study this study aims to determine the extent to which organisations in south africa have adopted digital hrm strategies across the hr value chain and the extent to which these digital strategies are perceived to contribute to the achievement of organisational objectives. following this introduction, the study presents the literature review. this is followed by the research methods that were used to undertake the study. thereafter, the results and their discussion are presented. the link between results and literature is discussed in the discussion section. following this, practical implication of the results, limitations of the study and recommendations for future research are outlined. finally, a conclusion drawn from the results is presented. literature review the literature review focuses on the adoption of digital hrm strategies and value that could be gained. digital hrm strategies are hrm practices or functions such as digital recruitment and selection that are executed using digital technologies (barman & das, 2018). a plethora of 4ir technologies can be adopted for the digitalisation of hrm and comprise social media, mobile applications, analytics and cloud computing (smac), for example, and other emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (ai), blockchain, machine learning, internet of things (iot), virtual reality, gamification and robotics (bersin, 2017; thite, 2019). in south africa, the following broad digital hrm strategies could be adopted across the hr value chain: digital workforce planning (including digital recruitment and selection); digital performance management; digital learning and development; digital reward and recognition; digital employee wellness management; digital employment relations management; and digital organisational development (sabpp, 2014). these seven identified digital hrm strategies are functional hr value chain elements extracted from the hr architecture depicted in the sabpp hr management system model (sabpp, 2014). in addition, it should be noted that the seven hr value chain elements are supported by 30 hr professional practice standards (sabpp, 2014). examples of the 30 hr professional practice standards include absenteeism management, collective bargaining, succession planning, recruitment and selection, career management and culture management (sabpp, 2014). the goal of adopting an hrm strategy across the hr value chain is to assist in achieving business objectives, thus positioning hrm as a value-adding function rather than an expense to the organisation (wright & ulrich, 2017). similarly, digital hrm strategies could, for example, enable effective and efficient collection, processing and utilisation of employee data, leading to the identification of potential talent that could contribute to business results (amla & malhotra, 2017). mjomba and oyagi (2021) posit that digital hrm strategies contribute to achieving organisational goals by facilitating the collection and provision of talent information to assist hrm practitioners and managers in making informed decisions. the final results are financial results such as increases in sales, profits, market share and market value for the business (armstrong & taylor, 2020). thus, it is expected that digital hrm strategies that could be adopted across the hr value chain in south africa could contribute to the achievement of business objectives through influencing hr outcomes such as motivation, satisfaction, engagement and commitment. this then influences business outcomes such as productivity, quality and customer satisfaction, and finally improved sales, profits, market share and market value. the following sections discuss digital hrm strategies that could be adopted to ascertain their potential contribution to the attainment of organisational goals. digital workforce/human resource management planning digital applications in workforce planning can forecast and audit the talent pool within the organisation (dulebohn & johnson, 2013). through workforce analytics, employee data sourced through video and exit interviews can be mined by ai’s predictive models to inform intelligent decision-making regarding talent (jia, guo, li, li, & chen, 2018). wiblen (2019) observed that digital workforce planning contributes to the consistent identification of talent eligible to be retained and for development across the organisation. for example, algorithms could calculate the likelihood of some individual employees leaving the organisation at a future period. in this instance, if the individuals are valuable, the organisation could make proactive strategies to retain them before they leave (wiblen, 2019). however, there are fears that vendors of technologies could evaluate and determine talent requirements, rather than the organisation’s hrm practitioners themselves doing the task. in addition, thite (2019) also doubted the authenticity and objectivity of the role of digital planning of the workforce, citing that there are instances where organisations have struggled to develop a unified and accessible talent database. digital recruitment and selection digital recruitment and selection enable the online execution of tasks via social networking sites, career websites and job portals (thite, 2019). it is argued that digital recruitment and selection directly influence organisational success. the digitalisation of screening, interviewing, shortlisting and providing feedback to applicants and interviewees reduces the time and costs spent on these tasks by hrm teams, creating time to execute more strategic value tasks (burbach, 2019). for example, candidates who match job profile and company culture could be sourced easily from diverse databases using ai which scours and screens resumes (burbach, 2019). social media can be used to network with potential talent and screen their profiles, while mobile applications could be used to deliver personalised recruitment and onboarding processes (holm & haar, 2019). this in turn improves employee engagement and communication within the organisation (burbach, 2019). however, holm and haar (2019) argue that the adoption of digital technologies makes recruitment and selection complex and costly, as there is a need for recruitment officers and job applicants to have the necessary digital skills and digital applications to be able to use diverse digital channels of the digital recruitment and selection system. digital employee performance management in digital performance management, analytics and ai embedded in hrm performance systems mine employee performance data from diverse sources (rondeau, 2019). mobile and cloud-based solutions aid the provision and accessibility of real-time feedback about employee performance, thus reducing resources devoted to the practice as compared to paper-based performance management (rondeau, 2019). robotic process automation digitalises the performance management administration and generation of reports, resulting in the execution of such tasks quickly, with less bias and few errors (shrivastava, kataria, chabani, tongkachok, & salameh, 2022). bissola and imperatori (2019) observed positive correlation between digital performance management and organisational outcomes such as employee engagement and motivation. however, it could be challenging for hrm practitioners and hrm teams to equip themselves with skills in performance management governance and skills needed to evaluate employee performance using technologies. rondeau (2019) also points out that digital performance management decreases face-to-face interaction between the employees and supervisors, as supervisors tend to rely more on digitalised performance data. in this way, digitalised employee performance feedback is unlikely to draw the attention and change the behaviour of employees as compared to feedback delivered through interpersonal interaction (rondeau, 2019). digital learning and development human resource management practitioners rank digital learning and development as a key priority (deloitte, 2016, 2017), replacing the conventional classroom or face-to-face learning because of its collaborative and engaging ingredients (chartered institute of personnel and development [cipd], 2017). the often-used technologies in digital learning and development comprise learning management systems; virtual classroom, webcasting, video and zoom conferencing; and microsoft teams technology, which is embedded with ai and machine learning solutions to facilitate curation of content, effective and efficient administration and management of learning (thite, 2019). predictive employee analytics could be applied to predict learning and skill gaps within the organisation (thite, 2019). mobile applications facilitate convenience delivery and accessibility of learning content. these technologies have the potential to deliver personalised learning across diverse talent groups and facilitate the measurement of the impact of learning and development interventions on organisational performance (jayabalan et al., 2021; wasserman & fisher, 2020). however, thite (2019) points out that digital learning and development offer fewer opportunities for learners to interact with other learners in discussions. in this regard, learners who rely primarily on instructors would struggle, as there are limited chances to ask for clarifications and feedback from the instructor. digital reward and recognition management the use of ai and machine learning technology, such as a neural network system, enhances the design and structuring of benefits and compensation programmes (jia et al., 2018). this results in the verification of the accuracy of claim submissions digitalised, while chatbots could facilitate the handling of first-level rewards and benefit queries (rondeau, 2019). insights about employees’ preferences for diverse salary and wage components could be generated using employee analytics, thus revealing the impact of organisational compensation and benefits components on employee attraction, motivation and retention (jayabalan et al., 2021; johnson, stone, & lukaszewski, 2020). the managerial self-service and employee self-service systems are also used in the dissemination of compensation data and information to senior managers and general employees (thite, 2019). the ability of the digital applications to integrate compensation and reward data with data from other hrm functions promotes the compilation of accurate and unbiased benefits and compensation structures (rondeau, 2019). in addition, these technologies reduce the time needed to execute such functional tasks (thite, 2019). however, digital reward management systems are criticised for being rigid in that they allow final decisions that are the prerogative of the manager to be made by technology (rondeau, 2019). digital employee wellness management digital employee wellness management involves using ai and machine learning-powered wearables, digital health devices and mobile applications to collect, generate and monitor employee health and wellness data timeously (brassey, güntner, isaak, & silberzahn, 2021). this data is used by hrm practitioners to improve wellness and health and to create a sustainable behaviour change in employees (brassey et al., 2021). in this regard, through employing analytics, insights about employee well-being are generated from the data, resulting in timely employee well-being intervention devised to deal with the affected employees. in addition, digital technologies enable well-being assistance programmes to reach many employees at once, benefiting organisations with few health consultants and thus saving time and resources (diamandis & kotler, 2015). using ai-powered robots and chatbots, employees can receive mental health therapy anonymously at any time and at any place (brassey et al., 2021). however, digital employee wellness management is criticised for aiding the unconsented collection and utilisation of employee information (rose, barton, souza, & platt, 2014). this could negatively affect employee job satisfaction and commitment and could see the organisation facing charges of infringing employees’ security and privacy (rose et al., 2014). digital employment relations management in digital employment relations management, the development and deployment of employee engagement surveys, sending of automatic reminders and collating data about employee engagement and job satisfaction levels can be digitalised through ai, analytics, robotics and machine learning technologies (rondeau, 2019). employee analytics draw insights on talent engagement levels and appropriate interventions developed (rondeau, 2019). digital employment relations management also includes management of trade union and workers’ committee information, using digital technologies (palm, bergman, & rosengren, 2020). mobile applications and social media facilitate the dissemination and sharing of information, such as employee relations policies (shrivastava et al., 2022). therefore, it is argued that digital employment relations management improves communication and cooperation in individual and collective labour relationships (palm et al., 2020). however, burbach (2019) asserts that the use of technologies in the coordination of the employment relationship could make employees work 24/7 (burbach, 2019), leading to overwork. this undermines employee morale, productivity and organisational climate. in addition, it diminishes physical interaction between employees and employers (burbach, 2019). physical interactions between employees and employers are perceived to sustain positive and productive relationships within the workplace, as they reduce employees’ feeling of disenfranchisement (burbach, 2019; parry & battista, 2019). digital organisational development using technology, hrm practitioners, as cultural ambassadors, are encouraged to be leaders in embracing a technological culture within the organisations (fisher & bondarouk, 2020). when hrm practitioners collaborate with leaders across the business functions in this regard, an agile culture in which digitalisation can thrive is created. for example, kahai (2020) argues that digitalisation makes team leaders and team members more open to each other and the community, which improves the organisation’s brand. digital leadership is characterised as adaptable and effective in virtual teams, and not averse to risk-taking (contreras, baykal, & abid, 2020). however, the demerits of using digital technologies in organisational development activities are that managers are required to acquire ethical, conflict and change skills in a digitalised workplace (fisher & bondarouk, 2020). this challenge includes the ability to choose suitable digital technologies favourable for smooth flow of information across the organisational stakeholders. in this regard, hrm practitioners are urged to communicate often and make follow-ups to their messages to reduce misunderstandings and information loss because of diverse digital communication platforms (kahai, 2020). the discussion in this section reveals that the adoption of digital hrm strategies across the hr value chain could contribute to the attainment of organisational objectives even though potential negative outcomes were also revealed. therefore, this study seeks to empirically determine the extent to which organisations in south africa had adopted digital hrm strategies across the hr value chain and the extent to which these digital strategies contribute to the achievement of organisational objectives. research methodology research approach this study adopted the quantitative and cross-sectional methodological approach, using a questionnaire survey as the data collection instrument. research participants and sampling the target population for this study comprised hr directors, hr managers and hrm practitioners and line managers who worked within small, medium and large companies in the automotive manufacturing industry in the municipalities of nelson mandela bay and buffalo city in gqeberha and east london in the eastern cape province of south africa. a nonprobability sampling procedure, which comprised purposive and snowball sampling methods, was used in the study to select participants from the targeted organisations. a total of 425 online questionnaires were distributed, of which 328 were returned, 312 of which were usable, achieving a response rate of 73.41%. the demographic profile of the respondents is summarised in table 1. this information was used to screen respondents to ensure that only data collected from targeted respondents were included for analysis. table 1: demographic profile of respondents. n = 312: research measuring instrument and administration procedure an online questionnaire was employed that consisted of 34 digital hrm strategies items. some of the 34 digital hrm strategies items included in the online questionnaire are digital recruitment, digital selection, digital management of the succession planning, digital employee performance management, digital absenteeism management, digital management of employee wellness, et cetera. there was no existing validated questionnaire to measure the phenomenon investigated in this study. as a result, the items included in the questionnaire were derived from the literature review. thus, the 34 digital hrm strategies items were derived from the hr architecture’s seven hr value chain elements depicted in the sabpp hr management system model, including the 30 hr professional practice standards created to support them (sabpp, 2014). the items were measured on two separate five-point likert rating scales, namely (1) the extent of use in hrm (use) and (2) the extent of contribution towards the achievement of business objectives (contribution). the respondents were asked to rate the extent to which the 34 digital hrm strategies were being used in their organisation (use) and the extent to which each has improved the hrm’s contribution towards the achievement of business objectives (contribution). the five-point likert rating scales ranged from not at all (1), small extent (2), moderate extent (3) great extent (4) and very great extent (5) for both use and contribution. the survey was administered using questionpro survey software with a link to the questionnaire. the survey link was sent to prospective respondents (hr directors, hr managers, hrm practitioners and line managers) via e-mail. the respondents could complete the online questionnaire by opening their e-mail and clicking on the survey link attached. statistical analysis both descriptive and inferential statistics were applied, using statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 27, to analyse the collected empirical data. exploratory factor analysis (efa) was used to statistically determine the most appropriate structures and latent factors underlying the item variables. kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) measure was used for checking sampling adequacy and bartlett’s test of sphericity (bts) to check data suitability for efa (hair, babin, anderson, & black, 2018). thus, with kmo of 0.929 and 0.944 for both the use and contribution scales respectively, and bts of 0.000 for both the use and contribution scales, was adequate, and data were considered suitable for factor analysis. principal axis factoring (paf) was used for factor extraction (williams, brown, & onsman, 2012). after that, descriptive statistics such as the mean scores and standard deviations were used to describe extracted factors. inferential statistics such as the paired sample t-tests, pearson correlations and regression analysis were used to establish and explain the relationship between the variables and to provide inferences on the whole population from which the sample data was drawn (bhattacherjee, 2012). ethical considerations all ethical protocols required for this study were observed. participation in the study by the respondents was voluntary. prospective respondents were informed of the purpose of the study in the covering e-mail letter prior to their consenting to participate. if the prospective respondents were not interested in completing the survey, they could just leave the survey by not clicking the ‘start’ button. results the pattern matrix and related factor loadings showed that four factors emerged for both use and contribution scales. however, since the objective of having two scales was to compare the use to contribution, the factor structure for use was used for contribution. this was validated by performing confirmatory factor analysis (cfa). in this regard, all the parameter estimates were statistically significant (p < 0.05), and the fit indices indicated an adequate model fit (hair et al., 2018). after close examination of the items that loaded onto each factor, and the relationship that existed among them, the four factors for the use structure were labelled as follows: factor 1 (digital talent practices), factor 2 (digital organisational design & culture), factor 3 (digital employment relations management) and factor 4 (digital media). all the items were valid as they loaded onto each factor, revealing loadings higher than 0.3, with the highest loading being 1.02 and the lowest 0.374 (hair et al., 2018). cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the use factors ranged from 0.807 to 0.944, and for contribution ranged from 0.795 to 0.946, indicating high reliability of the questionnaire and the data collected. factor 1: digital talent digital talent practices refer to the efficient and effective identification, acquisition, appraisal, development and retention of the right people (talent) in the organisation (claus, 2019). factor 2: digital org (design and culture) digital org (design and culture) is a practice related to the management of the organisational culture and design. as a strategic partner with touchpoints at every level, hrm plays a paramount role throughout the organisation. in this regard, digital org (design and culture) contributes invaluable insights into the organisational design and culture processes. factor 3: digital employment relations management (erm) digital erm is a practice related to the management of the employment relationship within an organisation. digital erm refers to digital practices that enhance the relationship between employers and employees, and among employees, on an individual and collective basis. factor 4: digital media digital media is a practice related to the use of digital media technologies in hrm. these are everyday technologies, applications and platforms that keep employees connected, and that are used for communicating, collaborating and transacting routine hr work in a digitalised workplace (deloitte, 2017). table 2 summarises the descriptive statistics obtained for the factors. the mean value for digital media was 3.69 and digital talent was 3.52 for use, which show that respondents had moderate to high perception on the adoption of these digital strategies within the organisations. digital org (design & culture) (m = 3.11) and digital erm (m = 2.88) show that respondents had moderate perception on the adoption. on the other hand, the mean value for digital media was 3.83 and digital talent was 3.71 for contribution, which show that respondents had high perception on the contribution of these digital strategies in achieving organisational objectives. digital org (design & culture) (m = 3.29) and digital erm (m = 2.98) show that respondents had moderate perception on the contribution of these digital strategies. table 2: descriptive statistics for the factors. the paired sample statistics computed to determine whether the mean factor scores for contribution were higher than the factor scores for use in each comparison show that the average mean score for digital media (contribution) (m = 3.84, sd = 0.84) compared to digital media (use) (m = 3.69, sd = 0.88) was the highest. digital talent (contribution) (m = 3.71, sd = 0.79) followed in comparison to digital talent (use) (m = 3.52, sd = 0.74) (see table 2). overall, the factor mean scores for contribution were higher than the factor means scores for use in each comparison, including for pair 5, which compared overall digital hrm strategies (use) and digital hrm strategies (contribution) (see table 2). the paired sample t-tests in table 3 were performed to determine whether there were statistically significant differences between contribution and use pairs. the results illustrate that digital org (design & culture) (t [311] = −9.135, p < 0.001) had the highest statistically significant difference between use and contribution, followed by digital talent (t [311] = −8.753, p < 0.001) and digital media (t [311] = −6.382, p < 0.001). digital erm had the lowest statistically significant difference (t [311] = −4.201, p < 0.001). overall, statistically significant differences were observed across all the pairs, including pair 5 – overall digital hrm strategies (use) and digital hrm strategies (contribution) (see table 3). table 3: paired sample t-tests and cohen’s d for the factors. moreover, table 3 illustrates paired sample effect sizes computed using cohen’s d-test. this statistic was performed to determine the significant effect of the variances, using the sample standard deviation of the mean difference for use and contribution paired factors. a medium significant effect was recorded for the digital org (design & culture) (d = −0.517), followed by digital talent (d = −0.496) and digital media (d = −0.361) with close to medium significant effect. digital erm (d = −0.238) registered a small effect size (see table 3). table 4 outlines the pearson’s correlation statistics for the relationship between digital hrm strategies (use) and (contribution) factors. the results reveal that digital org (design & culture) (0.917) had the most robust correlation between use and contribution, followed by digital media (0.885), digital talent (0.884) and digital erm (0.884). all correlations were positive and strong. this suggests that the contribution of the digital hrm strategies towards the achievement of business objectives was increasing with every increase in use in hrm, with digital org (design & culture) likely to increase at a higher rate than the other digital strategies. in all instances, correlations were statistically significant at 1% level (0.01) (see table 4). table 4: correlation analysis: adoption of digital human resource management strategies (use) factors and (contribution) factors. table 5 illustrates regression analysis results for the effect of the digital hrm strategies (use) factors on overall digital hrm strategies (contribution) to further provide insight into the relationship and connectedness between use and contribution. table 5a: regression analysis: adoption of digital human resource management strategies (use) factors and adoption of digital human resource management strategies (contribution). table 5b: regression analysis: adoption of digital human resource management strategies (use) factors and adoption of digital human resource management strategies (contribution). table 5c: regression analysis: adoption of digital human resource management strategies (use) factors and adoption of digital human resource management strategies (contribution). as summarised in table 5, digital hrm strategies (use), consisting of four factors, as a predictor explains 82.9% of the variance in digital hrm strategies (contribution). digital talent (β = 9.153) and digital media (β = 8.998) were the highest predictors of the variance, followed by digital erm (β = 5.497) and digital org (design & culture) (β = 5.347). overall, the high unstandardised coefficients and standardised coefficients of all the four factors, and the significant levels (p = 0.000), as summarised in table 5, indicate that the digital hrm strategies (use) factors significantly predict the variance in digital hrm strategies (contribution). discussion outline of the results this study aimed to determine the extent to which organisations in south africa have adopted digital hrm strategies across the hr value chain and the extent to which these digital strategies are perceived to contribute to the achievement of organisational objectives. the findings of this study indicate that digital hrm strategies (m = 3.30) have been moderately adopted across the hr value chain (see table 2). the perceived contribution of these digital strategies (m = 3.45) towards the attainment of business objectives was high (see table 2). adoption of digital human resource management strategies the findings of this study produced a four-factor model of digital hrm strategies that were moderately adopted across the hr value chain, consisting of (1) digital talent, (2) digital org (design & culture), (3) digital erm and (4) digital media. comparatively, digital media (m = 3.69) and digital talent (m = 3.52) have been the most adopted strategies, whereas digital org (design & culture) (m = 3.11) and digital erm (m = 2.88) were the least adopted among the four digital hrm strategy factors (see table 2). table 2 also indicates overall digital hrm strategies (use) (m = 3.30) and overall digital hrm strategies (contribution) (m = 3.45). this confirms that digital hrm strategies contribute to organisational performance. these results are not surprising because it is reported that the aspects of the digital talent (m = 3.52), such as digital recruitment and selection free hrm practitioners from executing mundane administrative duties manually to focus on strategic hrm activities (sivathanu & pillai, 2018). digital learning and development practices could increase the motivation and satisfaction of learners, and that training costs will be reduced, whilst training speed and flexibility will be enhanced (johnson et al., 2020). in addition, digital media (m = 3.69) strategies emphasise the importance of using social media and mobile applications to transact hrm work by hrm practitioners and leaders. human resource management practitioners use these technologies to keep employees and stakeholders connected in the pursuit of organisational goals. ulrich (2019) asserts that hrm can add more value to the business by investing in digital strategies that help it access information, connect with stakeholders for better decision-making and to augment employees’ social experience. deloitte (2017) reports that a digital workplace should be accompanied by hr work transacted through social and media platforms. digital org (design & culture) (m = 3.11) and digital erm (m = 2.88) strategies (see table 2) were the least adopted among the four digital hrm strategy factors identified from the factor analysis. this means that positive outcomes derived from adopting these strategies towards attaining organisational goals were not exploited fully within the organisations. yet, it is believed that digital hrm thrives where there is an innovative and an agile-minded workforce (digital workforce), a learning organisation (characterised by constant organisational mindset change) and a flexible culture to foster change (deloitte, 2017). accenture (2018) projects that jobs at risk of disappearing could be reduced if adoption of human–machine interaction skills by the south african workforce doubles. the lack of digital skills by hrm practitioners (deloitte, 2017) could be one of the reasons that led to the lower adoption of these digital strategies. another reason could be the fear by hrm practitioners and hrm teams and managers to lose face-to-face and human contact between employees and employers because of digitalisation (burbach, 2019; thite, 2019). the nature of physical transactions would change because of digital activity, with some people preferring to engage with their hrm and line managers via digital platforms (burbach, 2019; parry & battista, 2019). an unintended consequence is the perception that digital interactions could blur the boundaries between work life and personal life, resulting in stress for employees (parry & battista, 2019). there are also security concerns about the surveillance of the personal information of employees (rose et al., 2014). furthermore, factors such as competing organisational priorities, financial constraints, bureaucracy and hesitant by top management to buy-in could also have contributed to the low adoption of digital org (design & culture) (m = 3.11) and digital erm (m = 2.88) and to the overall moderate adoption rate of digital strategies in hrm (m = 3.30) (azhar, 2019; burbach, 2019). digital human resource management strategies contribution to business objectives even though the digital hrm strategies have been moderately adopted (m = 3.30), as revealed in the descriptive results of this study (table 2), it should be commended that their contribution to the attainment of business objectives, as revealed from paired sample tests, pearson’s correlation and regression analysis results (table 3, table 4 and table 5), have been perceived to be higher than the adoption rate. for example, the findings from regression analysis reveal that digital hrm strategies (use), consisting of four factors, as a predictor explains 82.9% of the variance in digital hrm strategies (contribution) (see table 5). this means that positive outcomes, such as efficiency and effectiveness in the execution of hrm operational tasks, strengthening and improvement of the relationship between the organisation’s stakeholders (jani et al., 2021), increased employee engagement, motivation and commitment, which aid the achievement of organisational goals (thite, 2019), could be realised if hrm adopts the digital hrm strategies. these findings are not new. researchers (bissola & imperatori, 2013; ma & ye, 2015; thite, 2019) believe that organisational culture and organisational design processes are hrm transformational activities, which strengthen the strategic role of the hrm towards achieving organisational goals. this refers to digital org (design & culture) strategies. ulrich (2019) asserts that more value can be added to the business by investing in digital strategies that help hrm to access information and to connect with stakeholders. this refers to digital talent and digital media strategies. this fosters hrm to make better decisions and augment employees’ social experience (bersin, 2017; deloitte, 2017; ulrich, 2019). practical implications as a result of this study, it may be recommended that hrm practitioners and leaders within south african organisations may consider prioritising the adoption of digital talent, digital media, digital erm and digital org (design & culture) strategies across the hr value chain to enhance organisational performance through hrm digitalisation. table 2 results show that respondents had moderate perception on the adoption of digital org (design & culture) (m = 3.11) and digital erm (m = 2.88). azhar (2019) and burbach (2019) suggest that obstacles such as fear and lack of digital skills by hrm practitioners, competing organisational priorities and financial constraints, among others, are the factors that influence the low adoption rate of digital strategies. therefore, hrm practitioners may have to eliminate all obstacles that may hinder the adoption of digital strategies across the hr value chain. furthermore, this study reveals that hrm digitalisation correlates with the achievement of business objectives by 82.9% variance (table 5) in south african organisations regardless of the moderate adoption rate. therefore, the belief that hrm digitalisation has little or no impact on organisational performance could be dispelled. thus, hrm practitioners, managers and leaders within organisations may be compelled to embrace digitalisation and start rolling out programmes to increase and aid the successful adoption of digital hrm strategies. existing literature revealed scant empirical research to ascertain the contribution of digital hrm strategies to organisational performance (marler & parry, 2016). however, positive results revealed in this study could accelerate and broaden the adoption rate of digital hrm strategies across the hr value chain within south african organisations. still, ulrich (2019) cautioned that hrm should adopt digital hrm strategies that align with overall digital agenda of the business. this suggest that hrm practitioners should empower themselves with digital competencies like digital skills and data mining skills, and be endowed with credible activism, strategic and paradox management skills (deloitte, 2021; ulrich, kryscynski, ulrich, & brockbank, 2017). these skills will enable hrm practitioners to navigate the 4ir technological complexities and adopt lucrative and viable digital strategies across the hr value chain (bersin, 2017; deloitte, 2021; ulrich et al., 2017). notably, joseph, thomas, and abbott (2021) identified digital competencies that will enable entry-level hrm professionals contribute to strategic business partnering, namely technologising employee processes, processing data expertly and translating external trends. similarly, schultz (2021) identified roles of hrm practitioners in the 4ir, namely that they should be technologyand data-driven and embrace human–machine collaboration. in addition, it should also be noted that other generic competencies needed by hrm practitioners such as communication and problem-solving skills, analytical skills, creativity and team player skills are not excluded in this context (garavan, carbery, & rock, 2012). likewise, the need for hrm practitioners to be ethical, resilient, changeand business-driven were also identified in schultz’s (2021) study. limitations of the research this study involved organisations in the automotive manufacturing industry in the nelson mandela bay and buffalo city municipalities in gqeberha and east london in the eastern cape province of south africa. if this study had been carried out beyond the automotive industry and the eastern cape province, more profound insights into the findings of this research could have been obtained. recommendations for future research it is recommended that future research on the same phenomenon could be extended beyond the current research’s geographical area and organisational industry and beyond the borders of south africa. this research of digital hrm strategies adoption across the hr value chain seems to be the first of its kind in south africa; thus, more studies could strengthen the findings obtained in this study (sabpp, 2019). the findings of this study revealed that digital org (design & culture) and digital erm strategies were challenging to adopt across the hr value chain, as compared to digital talent and digital media strategies. as these strategies, particularly digital org (design & culture) strategies, contribute to the attainment of business objectives, it is recommended that the factors that may impede their smooth adoption such as fear and lack of digital skills by hrm practitioners, competing organisational priorities and financial constraints, among others, be studied in detail. this could see hrm practitioners become empowered with strategies to enhance the adoption rate. the study implies that digital talent and digital media strategies were the easiest to adopt. therefore, it is recommended that best practices relating to the adoption of these digital strategies be studied further to benefit from simple, ingenious and appealing ways of leveraging them to maximise value contribution towards organisational performance. in addition, possible barriers such as fear and lack of digital skills by hrm practitioners, competing organisational priorities and financial constraints should be studied to find ways to overcome them. the current study’s findings as revealed by the descriptive statistics, generally, indicate that the adoption rate of digital hrm strategies was perceived to be moderate within the surveyed organisations. however, the contribution of digital hrm strategies to the attainment of business objectives was perceived to be higher than adoption rate as revealed from the paired sample tests, pearson’s correlation and regression analysis results. conclusion in the new world of work (the 4ir), organisations are forced to adopt digital strategies across various operational chains in an endeavour to achieve optimum efficiency in the execution of tasks. human resources is not excluded from this context, hence the need to adopt digital strategies across the hr value chain for efficiency and to contribute to the attainment of organisational goals. because of limited empirical research that ascertained the adoption of digital hrm strategies and their contribution to organisational performance, researchers and leaders within organisations were sceptical of the potential contribution of hrm digitalisation towards the attainment of organisational goals. however, despite the limitations, the results of this study may contribute to ending this debate, perhaps compelling researchers and practitioners to accept that hrm digitalisation contributes to the attainment of organisational goals. in addition, it may arouse the curiosity of other researchers to conduct more research to confirm the results of this study and explore appealing ways of digitalising hrm. further, the results of this study have contributed to the body of knowledge pertaining to the relationship between the digitalisation of hrm and organisational performance in the south african workplace. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank ms carmen stindt, who assisted with data processing. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.c. was the main writer of the manuscript. m.r.m. and a.w. contributed to the writing of the manuscript. ethical considerations ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from nelson mandela university research ethics committee (ref. no. h20-bes-hrm-016). funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for profit sector. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors. references accenture. (2018). creating south africa’s future workforce. retrieved from https://www.accenture.com/za-en/insight-creating-south-africa-future-workforce agrawal, m., dutta, s., kelly, r., & millán, i. (2021). covid-19: an inflection point for industry 4.0. mckinsey & company. retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/covid-19-an-inflection-point-for-industry-40?cid=eml-web armstrong, m., & taylor, s. (2020). armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice (15th ed.). london: kogan page. amla, m., & malhotra, m. (2017). digital transformation in hr. international journal of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary studies (ijims), 4(3), 536–544. azhar, m.n. (2019). factors affecting the acceptance of e-hrm in iraq. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 9(2), 264–276. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v9-i2/5542 barman, a., & das, k. (2018, may 06). global revolution for digitalising human resource management: its vulnerability viz-a-viz sustainability? in international conference sustainability development – a value chain perspective (sdvp – 2018) (pp. 1–11). retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324975991_global_revolution_for_digitalising_human_resource_management_its_vulnerability_viz-a-viz_sustainability/link/5aee88d3458515f599830a83/download becker, b., & gerhart, b. (1996). the impact of human resource management on organizational performance: progress and prospects. academy of management journal, 39(4), 779–801. https://doi.org/10.5465/256712 bersin, j. (2017). digital hr: platforms, people and work. global human capital trends. deloitte. retrieved from https://dupress.deloitte.com/dup-us-en/focus/human-capital-trends/2017/digitaltransformation-in-hr.html bhattacherjee, a. (2012). social science research principles, methods and practices. tampa bay: university of south florida (usf). bissola, r., & imperatori, b. (2013). facing e-hrm: the consequences on employee attitude towards the organisation and the hr department in italian smes. european journal of international management, 7(4), 450–468. https://doi.org/10.1504/ejim.2013.055282 bissola, r., & imperatori, b. (2019). hrm 4.0 for human-centered organizations. advanced series in management (vol. 23, p. 272). bingley; emerald group publishing. bondarouk, t., & brewster, c. (2016). conceptualising the future of hrm and technology research. the international journal of human resource management, 27(21), 2652–2671. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1232296 brassey, j., güntner, a., isaak, k., & silberzahn, t. (2021). using digital tech to support employees’ mental health and resilience. mckinsey & company. retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/life-sciences/our-insights/using-digital-tech-to-support-employees-mental-health-and-resilience burbach, r. (2019). strategic evaluation of e-hrm. in m. thite (ed.), e-hrm: digital approaches, directions and applications (pp. 235–249). london: routledge. chro south africa. (2021). hr indaba: the biggest hr conference in africa. retrieved from https://chro.co.za/hr-indaba/ cipd. (2017). digital learning. fact sheets. retrieved from https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/people/development/digitallearning-factsheet claus, l. (2019). hr disruption – time already to reinvent talent management. business research quarterly, 22(3), 207–215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brq.2019.04.002 contreras, f., baykal, e., & abid, g. (2020). e-leadership and teleworking in times of covid-19 and beyond: what we know and where do we go. frontiers in psychology 11, 590271. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.590271 deloitte. (2016). the new organization: different by design: global human capital trends 2016. deloitte university press. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/global/documents/humancapital/gx-dup-global-human-capital-trends-2016.pdf deloitte. (2017). rewriting the rules for the digital age: 2017 deloitte global human capital trends. deloitte university press. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/global/documents/humancapital/hc-2017-global-human-capital-trends-gx.pdf deloitte. (2020). a memo to hr expand focus and extend influence. deloitte university press. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/focus/human-capital-trends/2020/changing-role-of-human-resources-management.html deloitte. (2021). diving deeper five workforce trends to watch in 2021. deloitte university press. retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/focus/human-capital-trends/2021/workforce-trends-2020.html diamandis, p., & kotler, s. (2015). bold: how to go big, create wealth and impact the world. new york, ny: simon and schuster. dulebohn, j.h., & johnson, r.d. (2013). human resource metrics and decision support: a classification framework. human resource management review, 23(1), 71–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2012.06.005 fisher, s., & bondarouk, t. (2020). the encyclopedia of electronic human resource management. berlin: de gruyter oldenbourg. garavan, t.n., carbery, r., & rock, a. (2012). mapping talent development: definition, scope and architecture. european journal of training and development, 36(1), 5–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090591211192601 guest, d. (2011). human resource management and performance: still searching for some answers. human resource management journal, 21(1), 3–13. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2010.00164.x hair, j.f., babin, j.b., anderson, r.e., & black, w.c. (2018). multivariate data analysis (8th ed.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. holm, a.b., & haahr, l. (2019). e-recruitment and selection. in m. thite (ed.), e-hrm: digital approaches, directions and applications (pp. 172–195). london: routledge. huselid, m.a. (1995). the impact of human resource management practices on turnover, productivity, and corporate financial performance. academy of management journal, 38(3), 635–672. https://doi.org/10.5465/256741 jani, a., muduli, a., & kishore, k. (2021). human resource transformation in india: examining the role digital human resource technology and human resource role. international journal of organizational analysis. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoa-08-2021-2886 jayabalan, n., makhbul, z.k.m., nair, s., subramaniam, m., & ramly, n.a.b. (2021). the impact of digitalization on human resource management practices in the automotive manufacturing industry. journal of southwest jiaotong university, 56(5), 524–537. https://doi.org/10.35741/issn.0258-2724.56.5.48 jia, q., guo, y., li, r., li, y., & chen, y. (2018, december 02–06). a conceptual artificial intelligence application framework in human resource management. in proceedings of the 18th international conference onzcvc electronic business (pp. 106–114). guilin: iceb. johnson, r.d., stone, d.l., & lukaszewski, k.m. (2020). the benefits of e-hrm and ai for talent acquisition. journal of tourism futures, 7(1), 40–52. https://doi.org/10.1108/jtf-02-2020-0013 joseph, r.m., thomas, a., & abbott, p. (2021). information technology competencies for entry-level human resource strategic partners. sa journal of human resource management, 19, a1327. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1327 kahai, s. (2020). e-leadership. in s. fisher & t. bondarouk (eds.), the encyclopedia of electronic human resource management (pp. 131–137). berlin: de gruyter oldenbourg. ma, l., & ye, m.l. (2015). the role of electronic human resource management in contemporary human resource management. open journal of social sciences, 3(4), 71–78. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2015.34009 marler, j.h., & parry, e. (2016). human resource management, strategic involvement and e-hrm technology. international journal of human resources management, 27(19), 2233–2253. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1091980 mjomba, s.h., & oyagi, b.n. (2021). the influence of human resource information system on organizational performance in tanzania: a case of zanzibar ports corporation. american journal of humanities and social sciences research, 5(1), 473–480. palm, k., bergman, a., & rosengren, c. (2020). towards more proactive sustainable human resource management practices? a study on stress due to the ict-mediated integration of work and private life. sustainability, 12(20), 8303. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12208303 parry, e., & battista, v. (2019). the impact of emerging technologies on work: a review of the evidence and implications for the human resource function. emerald open research, 1, 5. https://doi.org/10.12688/emeraldopenres.12907.1 poisat, p., & mey, m.r. (2017). electronic human resource management: enhancing or entrancing? sa journal of human resource management, 15, a858. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.858 rondeau, k.v. (2019). e-performance management and reward. in m. thite (ed.), e-hrm: digital approaches, directions and applications (pp. 196–213). london: routledge. rose, j., barton, c., souza, r., & platt, j. (2014). data privacy by the numbers. retrieved from https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/slideshow/information_technology_strategy_digital_economy_data_privacy_by_the_numbers/#ad-image-0 sabpp. (2014). sabpp hrm standards. retrieved from https://www.sabpp.co.za/page/hr_standards sabpp. (2019). the official communication for all hr practitioners. hr voice. retrieved from https://sabpp.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/hr-voice_february-2019_with-active-links.pdf schiemann, w.a., & ulrich, d. (2017). rise of hr – new mandates for io. industrial and organizational psychology, 10(1), 3–25. https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2016.76 schultz, c.m. (2021). the future and the role of human resource management in south africa during the fourth industrial revolution. sa journal of human resource management, 19, a1624. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v19i0.1624 shrivastava, g., kataria, n., chabani, z., tongkachok, k., & salameh, a.a. (2022). role of e-hrm practices on business effectiveness in the digital era – an empirical study. academy of entrepreneurship journal, 28(s2), 1–9. thite, m. (2019). e-hrm: digital approaches, directions and applications. new york, ny: routledge. ulrich, d. (1997). human resource champions: the next agenda for adding value and delivery results. boston: harvard business school press. ulrich, d. (2017). do an hr technology audit to get the most out of digital hr. linkedin. retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/do-hr-technology-audit-get-most-digital-dave-ulrich ulrich, d. (2019). foreword and forward thinking of digital hrm. in m. thite (ed.), e-hrm: digital approaches, directions and applications (pp. xxvi–xxiv). london: routledge. ulrich, d., kryscynski, d., ulrich, m., & brockbank, w. (2017). competencies for hr practitioners who deliver outcomes. wiley periodicals. wasserman, m.e., & fisher, s.l. (2020). e-learning. in s. fisher & t. bondarouk (eds.), the encyclopedia of electronic human resource management (pp. 202–207). berlin: de gruyter oldenbourg. wef. (2016). the future of jobs: employment, skills and workforce strategy for the fourth industrial revolution. retrieved from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/wef_future_of_jobs.pdf wiblen, s. (2019). e-talent in talent management. in m. thite (ed.), e-hrm: digital approaches, directions & applications (pp. 153–171). london: routledge. williams, b., brown, t., & onsman, a. (2012). exploratory factor analysis: a five-step guide for novices. australasian journal of paramedicine, 8(3), 1. https://doi.org/10.33151/ajp.8.3.93 wright, p.m., & ulrich, m.d. (2017). a road well-travelled: the past, present and future journey of strategic human resource management. annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behavior, 4, 45–65. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032516-113052 article information authors: yolandi van der berg1 nico martins1 affiliations: 1department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: nico martins postal address: po box 1550, glenvista 2058, south africa dates: received: 05 june 2011 accepted: 19 aug. 2012 published: 11 jan. 2013 how to cite this article: van der berg, y., & martins, n. (2013). the relationship between organisational trust and quality of work life. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #392, 13 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.392 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the relationship between organisational trust and quality of work life in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study    • trends from the research literature    • research objectives    • potential value-add of the study    • what will follow?    • literature review       • organisational trust       • quality of work life • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • reliability analysis    • structural equation modelling results       • model 1: organisational trust relationship model       • model 2: relationship between organisational trust and quality of work life    • summarised results of model 1 and model 2 • ethical considerations • trustworthiness • discussion    • summary    • limitations of the study    • recommendations for future research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: managers within organisations should be more attentive regarding their managerial practices, the quality of work life (qwl) and trust relationships, as experienced by employees.research purpose: the aim of the study was to determine the relationship between organisational trust and qwl. motivation for the study: recent organisational changes have refocused attention on the productivity and performance of sales representatives. these changes have brought about a re-evaluation of their qwl and the organisational trust they experience. research design, approach and method: an internet-based survey methodology was used to collect primary data from a probability sample of 282 sales representatives; a 72% response rate was obtained. responses were analysed using quantitative techniques and structural equation modelling. main findings: results confirmed a positive relationship between managerial practices with organisational trust and qwl and a lower relationship between the personality dimensions, organisational trust and the qwl. practical/managerial implications: the study accentuated how important it is for management to be constantly aware of employees’ trust and their experience of a qwl, as these factors can lead to severe consequences if not properly managed. contribution/value add: the study focused attention on the importance of building good trust relationships within an organisation, as it seems as though the personality traits and managerial practices of managers influence not only the trust relationship experienced by employees, but also their experience of a qwl. introduction top ↑ key focus of the study the overall purpose of this research was to determine whether or not there is a significant relationship between organisational trust (comprising of the ‘big five’ personality dimensions [agreeableness, conscientiousness, resourcefulness, emotional stability and extraversion]) and managerial practices (information-sharing, work support, credibility and team management) and quality of work life (qwl), as well as between the ‘big five’ personality dimensions and trust for sales representatives within a south african beverage manufacturing, sales and distribution organisation. furthermore, it was anticipated that data obtained from this study would enable management within an organisation to improve the qwl of the employees by focusing energy and resources on those aspects which could make a significant difference. background to the study employment relations within south africa have changed significantly, altering the type of work employees do, when they work and how much they work (rothmann, 2003). the extent and rate of change within organisations has created renewed interest in the quality of employees’ work lives, particularly in south africa where organisations have to deal with cultural diversity, the ethnic composition of the workforce and changes in value systems and beliefs (kirby & harter, 2001; kotzé, 2005; sekwena, 2007).dissatisfaction with working life is a problem affecting almost all employees during their working career, regardless of position or status. the boredom, frustration and anger experienced by employees disenchanted with their work life can be costly to both the individual and the organisation. although many managers seek to reduce job dissatisfaction at all organisational levels, including their own, they sometimes find it difficult to isolate and identify all of the factors which affect and influence the qwl (huang, lawler & lei, 2007; may, lau & johnson, 1999; walton, 1973). according to kaushik and tonk (2008) and koonmee, singhapakdi, virakul and lee (2010), an employee’s qwl is determined by the interaction of personal and situational factors involving both personal (subjective) and external (objective) aspects of work-related rewards and experiences. from this, one can extrapolate that a person’s awareness and evaluation of a situation can also have an influence on the perspective he or she has on that situation. according to kotzé (2005), the changes in the ethnic composition of the south african workforce, specifically with regard to changes in beliefs and value systems, as well as the greater importance placed on knowledgeable workers, are factors which may influence qwl. affirmed and emphasised by martins (2000) and schoorman, mayer and davis (2007), these changes in the workforce may also lead to an increase in the importance of trust in organisations. this is because perceptions of an individual’s ability, benevolence and integrity will have an impact on how much trust the individual can acquire and will also affect to what extent an organisation will be trusted. shaw (2005) also affirms that the success of qwl programmes will depend on the ability of an organisation to reinforce high levels of trust. quality of work life is assumed to affect various organisational factors (job effort and performance, organisational identification, job satisfaction and job involvement) (ballou & godwin, 2007), whilst organisational trust is the employee’s expectation of the reliability of the organisation’s promises and actions (politis, 2003). thus, the more the job and the organisation can gratify the needs of workers, the more effort workers may invest at work, with commensurate improvements in productivity (huang et al., 2007; kerce & booth-kewley, 1993; may et al., 1999). trends from the research literature from the literature on organisational trust, it can be concluded that trust is an essential part of the effectiveness and performance of an organisation. long, sitkin and cardinal (2003) urge managers to build trust between employees and the organisation in order to enhance organisational effectiveness. martins and von der ohe (2002) also indicate that trust is created by leadership, which in turn influences relationships and job satisfaction. from the literature review, it seems as though current organisations are trusted less than in the past: specifically within south africa, martins (2000) and esterhuizen and martins (2008) found a significant trust gap between employees and employers. this underlines how important it is for managers to understand trust, its influence within the organisation and how to build it. with regard to the qwl construct, there seems to be a lack of proper definition and many researchers have related it to various organisational dimensions, influencing the perception employees have regarding their experience of qwl. reviewing the literature on qwl, it appears there may be an ongoing debate on whether personal factors (dispositional tendencies) or organisational factors (job characteristics) are the main determinants of perceived qwl (kerce & booth-kewley, 1993; kotzé, 2005). research has further shown that qwl is not only a significant determinant of various enviable organisational outcomes, but that it also significantly influences the non-working life of an individual and is an important predictor of the life satisfaction, health and psychological well-being of employees (ballou & godwin, 2007; kaushik & tonk, 2008; koonmee et al., 2010; martel & dupuis, 2006; sirgy, efraty, siegel & lee, 2001; srivastava, 2008; wilson, dejoy, vandenberg, richardson & mcgrath, 2004; wright & bonett, 2007). however, based on the literature review, there is no denying the importance of qwl, as most employees’ lives are tied to, and organised according to, the actions of their organisations. in addition, most individuals spend a great deal of their time participating in job or work-related activities and even plan their time, living standards and social interaction around the demands of their work. research objectives the primary objective of this study was to determine whether or not there is a significant relationship between organisational trust (‘big five’ personality dimensions and managerial practices) and qwl, and between the ‘big five’ personality dimensions and trust for sales representatives within a south african beverage manufacturing, within four organisational regions spread over three south african provinces, utilising structural equation modelling. potential value-add of the study apart from the practical value of the study in confirming and motivating management of the organisation studied to foster a better trust relationship with its sales representatives and contribute to their overall qwl experience, the outcomes of this research also point to new findings within the work environment. this research study can be seen as an exploratory attempt to test an integrated model consisting of managerial practices, personality aspects and qwl. as far as could be established, such an integrated model has not been tested in this context before. what will follow? the literature review has two specific aims: firstly, to conceptualise organisational trust constructs (organisational trust and qwl) and confirm their importance within the organisational context and, secondly, to focus on a theoretical analysis aimed at confirming a possible relationship between these constructs. the review is followed by a description of the research design, including the research approach, the nature of the respondents who participated in the study, the measuring instruments used and the manner in which data were collected and analysed. the findings of the study are then presented and discussed, and recommendations made to the management of the organisation studied. the paper concludes by mentioning the limitations within the theoretical and empirical research and giving recommendations for future research. literature review organisational trust tschannen-moran and hoy (2000) reviewed articles on trust which were written over four decades before the turn of the millennium. they concluded that trust was a difficult concept to define, as it was complex and multifaceted and had different bases and degrees, depending on the context of the trust relationship. büssing (2002, p. 36) supports this view by stating that trust is ’not at all a straightforward and clearly defined concept‘. trust can be regarded as a multidimensional construct, consisting of a cognitive (belief about another’s trustworthiness), affective (role of emotions in the trust process) and behavioural (relying on another and disclosing sensitive information) base (büssing, 2002; gillespie & mann, 2004; rousseau, sitkin, burt & camerer, 1998; schoorman et al., 2007; tschannen-moran & hoy, 2000). tschannen-moran and hoy (2000) consequently proposed a multidimensional definition of trust, namely: trust is one party’s willingness to be vulnerable to another party based on the confidence that the latter party is (a) benevolent, (b) reliable, (c) competent, (d) honest, and (e) open. (p. 556) despite the differences in conceptualisation, there are a number of common elements unifying the many different definitions of trust. in particular, there seems to be an agreement that trust is ’the willingness to be vulnerable based on the positive expectations of the intentions or behaviour of others‘ (mayer, davis & schoorman, 1995, p. 712). secondly, it seems that interdependence and uncertainty are necessary conditions for trust to develop. mcevily, weber, bicchieri and ho (2006, p. 54) conceptualise trust as a ’choice to make oneself vulnerable under the conditions of interdependence and uncertainty’. in line with the above and taking into account that this research study is conducted within an organisational context, the authors use the definition provided by von der ohe, martins and roode (2004, p. 6) restricted specifically to the field of industrial psychology and the employer-employee relationship. for the purposes of this research study, organisational trust is therefore defined as ‘the choice to make oneself vulnerable with the express belief in the positive intent and commitment to the mutual gain of all parties involved in the relationship’. according to various authors (bews & martins, 2002; hay, 2002; lämsä & pučėtaitė, 2006; martins, 2000; nooteboom, 2002; rossouw & van vuuren, 2004; schoorman et al., 2007; whitener, 1997), three common characteristics of trust can be distinguished: • trust in another party reflects a belief that the other party will act benevolently. • trust involves a willingness to be vulnerable and to risk the possibility that the other party may not fulfil the expectation of benevolent behaviour. • trust involves dependence between the parties, meaning their performance is influenced by one another. shaw (1997) postulates that trust influences performance within organisations on four levels: • organisational success – trust is required to empower employees and groups to act on various objectives. • group effectiveness – in order to realise a common goal, groups depend on the interdependency of people to work together. high levels of trust are needed for advanced performance. • one-on-one collaboration – people who work together need to trust one another. this enables information-sharing, taking necessary risks and dealing effectively with adversity. • individual credibility – trust in employees is required for people to perform their jobs and will influence the degree to which people are given autonomy, resources and support. support is usually given to people believed to be trustworthy. according to hay (2002) and lämsä and pučėtaitė (2006), the importance of trust in organisations is likely to increase over the next few years. this is reiterated by bews and rossouw (2002) and martins (2000), specifically in relation to south africa, as a result of the changing composition of the workforce and the focus on employment equity. a study conducted by klein (2008) indicated trust in the south african government had dropped by 7.91% since april 2006 and approval of government issues, such as transparency and accountability, correct appointments, crime, inflation, narrowing the income gap and fighting corruption, had dropped by 20.00%. often, organisations do not realise the consequences their actions have on the trust relationship between the employee and employer (von der ohe et al., 2004). research by the centre of industrial and organisational psychology at the university of south africa during 1995–1996 investigating the possible antecedents led to the assumption that trust within organisations is created by personality factors and managerial practices. these personality factors (the ‘big five’) are agreeableness, conscientiousness, resourcefulness, emotional stability and extraversion; the managerial practices are information-sharing, work support, credibility and team management (martins, watkins, von der ohe & de beer, 1997). as indicated, personality refers to a set pattern of characteristics, thoughts, feelings and behaviours which differentiates one person from another and persists over time and situations (phares, 1991). the five-factor model of personality (i.e. the ‘big five’) is a generic template which can be used to understand the structure of personality (barrick & mount, 1991; kaushik & tonk, 2008). in a study investigating the relation of the ‘big five’ personality dimensions to job performance, barrick and mount (1991) and barrick, mount and judge (2001, p. 11) confirmed that the dimensions’ characteristics explain a significant proportion of work performance within a work environment and have ’provided a comprehensive yet parsimonious theoretical framework to systematically examine the relationship between specific personality traits and job performance‘. meta-analyses have found that conscientiousness and emotional stability are related to supervisory ratings of job performance and training success across occupational groups (salgado, 2002). in the development of a trust model, martins (2000) and martins and von der ohe (2002) also identified the ‘big five’ personality aspects (robbins, 1996) as significant indicators of trust and their results provided support for the claim that personality characteristics, together with managerial practices – information-sharing, work support, credibility and team management – have an influence on the trust relationships between managers and employees. this overview links to the notion that organisational trust is not necessarily an interpersonal form of trust, but rather a systems form of trust deriving from structures and processes within an organisation, such as fairness and perceived organisational support (bagraim & hime, 2007), which, in turn, relates to the qwl and employee experiences within the organisation. quality of work life as mentioned above, there is no denying the importance of qwl – most individuals spend a great deal of their time participating in job or work-related activities and even plan their time, living standards and social interaction around the demands of their work. indeed, to a large extent, people define themselves and others in terms of their work, making qwl in organisations a major component of quality of life in general (kotzé, 2005; rathi, 2010).although qwl is a term used today in almost every area of organisational activity, definitions of qwl tend to change focus continually and it has been viewed in various ways: as a movement, a set of organisational interventions (approaches to management in organisations) and as a type of working life experienced by employees (reflecting the affective evaluation of individuals) (kotzé, 2005; wyatt & wah, 2001). whilst qwl as a construct was first introduced in the 1950s, its foundation as a concept and term was most probably laid at the first international conference on qwl at arden house in 1972, where significant focus was placed on developing a credible and functional measure of qwl to make working environments more humane for workers (hannif, burgess & connell, 2008; koonmee & virakul, 2007; kotzé, 2005; wyatt & wah, 2001). extensive research on the definition and measurement of qwl from a range of disciplines has since emerged and hannif et al. (2008, p. 274) suggest that three categories of definition are found in the literature. these are, (1) a concept concerned with employees’ job satisfaction, (2) a concept going beyond job satisfaction and encompassing subjective well-being and (3) a ‘dynamic, multidimensional construct that incorporates any number of measures – objective and subjective – relating to employment quality’. although qwl is a concept which has been examined, discussed and researched, its definition and application remain rather vague and there seems to be a significant lack of clarity on the qwl construct, as there is no reliable instrument to promote consistency in its measurement (chung, killingworth & nolan, 1997; kandasamy & sreekumar, 2009; kotzé, 2005; martel & dupuis, 2006; rathi, 2010). for the purpose of this research, the following definition of qwl will be used: the perception of the extent to which the work environment, work experiences and work rewards meets the full range of employees’ needs, as determined by the interaction of personal and situational factors (kaushik & tonk, 2008; koonmee et al., 2010). quality of work life reflects the quality of relationships between employees and their total working environment. it can be seen as creating conditions within the work environment that promote individual learning and development, provide employees with influence and control over their work decisions and create meaningfulness for employees leading to greater personal satisfaction (kaushik & tonk, 2008). schneider and dachler (in kaushik & tonk, 2008, p. 36) found the feelings employees have about their job ’tend to be stable over time and might be a product of specific personality traits’. as already mentioned, personality traits are psychological in nature, relatively stable over time and provide the reasons for behaviour (church, 2000); they seem to be interrelated with trust and qwl by means of the ‘big five’ personality factors. indeed, multiple research has found a link between the ‘big five’ personality factors (i.e. conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability, resourcefulness and extraversion) and dimensions relating to qwl such as job performance (barrick et al., 2001; bozionelos, 2004; gellatly & irving, 2001; hurtz & donovan, 2000; rothmann & coetzer, 2003), job satisfaction (goodstein & lanyon, 1999; judge, higgins & cable, 2000; thoresen, kaplan, barsky, warren & de chermont, 2003), emotional intelligence (salgado, 2002), organisational engagement (bozionelos, 2004), job proficiency (salgado, 2002), organisational commitment (thoresen et al., 2003), work and time pressures (dijkstra & fred, 2005; morgan & de bruin, 2010; pienaar, rothmann & van de vijver, 2007) work–life balance (thomson & de bruin, 2007; wayne, musisca & fleeson, 2004) and reaction to change (vacola, tsaousis & nikolaou, 2004). research conducted by kaushik and tonk (2008) found a positive correlation between the construct qwl and three of the ‘big five’ dimensions of personality, namely extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness. in addition, research by rothmann and coetzer (2003) indicated that personality dimensions were related to management performance and identified emotional stability, resourcefulness and agreeableness as being significantly related to management performance. shaw (2005, p. 249) proposes that the success of qwl programmes will depend on the ability of the organisation to ’reinforce high levels of trust‘, which, in turn, will improve organisational performance. apart from their positive relationships with various dimensions of the qwl construct, as well as findings directly relating it to the construct (kaushik & tonk, 2008), the ‘big five’ personality aspects are also significant indicators of trust (von der ohe & martins, 2010). however, it does seem as if there is a lack of research into the relationship between qwl and organisational trust. based on these theories and discussions, this study investigated whether there is a relationship between organisational trust – which includes the ‘big five’ personality aspects (agreeableness, conscientiousness, resourcefulness, emotional stability and extraversion), managerial practices (information-sharing, work support, credibility, team management, interpersonal trust and change that has occurred) (martins & martins, 2002; von der ohe & martins, 2010) and qwl (consisting of the following dimensions: skill discretion, decision authority, task control, work and time pressure, role ambiguity, physical exertion, hazardous exposure, job insecurity, lack of meaningfulness, social support supervisor, social support co-workers and job satisfaction) (van der doef & maes, 1999). research design top ↑ research approach the empirical research is quantitative in nature and a cross-sectional research design was used to answer the research objectives. this particular research design was thought to be most suited to this research study because the response rates of a cross-sectional design are generally high, it involves eliciting information on a single occasion from individuals in different conditions and conclusions can be drawn within a short period of time. structural equation modelling (sem) was used to test the relationship between the various factors or dimensions of organisational trust and qwl. research method research participants an internet-based survey methodology was used to collect data from the target audience and the data were analysed using appropriate parametric methods. the unit of analysis used for this research was employees within the organisation; more specifically, the sales representatives within four organisational regions spread over three south african provinces (gauteng, free state and kwazulu-natal). approval was obtained from the organisation to conduct the research. probability sampling was used, following simple random sampling as all sales representatives across the organisation were invited to participate in the research. all respondents completed the web-based survey voluntarily and no restrictions were placed on participation, including variables of gender, race, educational qualifications, tenure and levels of experience. all participants were ensured of the confidentiality of their responses.the invitation to partake in the research study was sent out to 282 sales representatives across the business sector in the three provinces. in total, 203 participants completed the online questionnaire (72% response rate). of the 203 participants, 133 were male (65.5%) and 70 (34.5%) were female. the majority of respondents were african (124, 61.1%), below the age of 46 years (175, 86%) and had a tenure of 2–5 years (80, 39.4%). measuring instruments a combined organisational trust and qwl questionnaire consisting of 6 biographical questions, 92 organisational trust questions and 59 qwl questions was posted on a survey company’s website ( http://www.orgdia.co.za/) with an open invitation for sales employees to participate.to measure organisational trust, the trust audit survey was used (martins, 2000) and comprised sections 1–4 of the questionnaire. section 5 encompassed the qwl construct and was measured by means of the leiden quality of work questionnaire (van der doef & maes, 1999). organisational trust survey: the primary focus of the organisational trust survey was to explore the role of trust in the workplace and to gather views on the existence of a trust relationship, correlated with personality and managerial practices and behaviour as a whole (martins & martins, 2002). the questionnaire consists of 12 dimensions, comprising the 5 personality aspects and 6 managerial practices and the trust relationship (martins, 2000; martins & von der ohe, 2002; von der ohe & martins, 2010, von der ohe et al., 2004). the trust questionnaire required the respondents to evaluate statements using a five-point likert scale, from 1 (strongly disagreed) to 5 (strongly agreed). the questionnaire was then scored for each of the various dimensions. all the dimensions were scored in such a way that a low score indicated non-acceptance or distrust of the dimension, whilst a high score indicated acceptance of the trust dimension or high levels of trust. in addition to the above dimensions, an additional section was added to the questionnaire to measure participants’ satisfaction with changes that had occurred in their organisations. reliability in measuring these constructs was established in a previous study (martins, 2000; von der ohe & martins, 2010). the ‘big five’ personality aspects are: • conscientiousness – this includes traits such as being persistent, determined, hardworking, dependable, thorough and responsible. • agreeableness – this reflects being liked, courteous, good natured, cooperative, forgiving and soft-hearted. • emotional stability – this reflects an absence of anxiety, depression, anger, worry and insecurity. • resourcefulness – this includes imaginativeness, creativity, broad-mindedness and intelligence. • extraversion – this comprises sociability, friendliness, talkativeness and activity. managerial practices include: • information-sharing – willingness to give individual feedback on performance and to reveal company-related information in an honest manner. • work support – willingness to support employees when needed and to provide job-related information for the accomplishment of objectives. • credibility – willingness to listen, consider proposals, allow others the freedom to express feelings, being tolerant of mistakes and ensuring that employees enjoy prestige and credibility in the organisation. • team management – the effective management of team and individual goal accomplishments and the handling of conflict within groups. • interpersonal trust – the trust relationship between top management, the immediate manager and colleagues. • changes that have occurred – participants’ satisfaction with changes that had occurred within their organisations. the trust relationship dimension in the questionnaire was directly related to the trust dimension and measured by five questions dealing with various aspects of trust between employees and their immediate supervisors in terms of openness, honesty, fairness and intention to motivate employees. the reliability of the questionnaire was shown to be highly satisfactory, with alpha coefficients ranging between 0.82 and 0.95 for the five-factor model of personality characteristics and managerial practices (martins, 2000). the reliability was based on a total sample of 6528 employees from 22 south african companies (martins, 2000) which are similar to the organisation in which this research study was conducted. the trust audit compiled by martins (2000) has been used to construct a conceptual model for the manifestation of trust and as a valid and reliable measurement of organisational trust in research studies over the past few years (cyster, 2005; von der ohe & martins, 2010; von der ohe et al., 2004). although there are other trust measurements, most of them are grounded solely in personality theory and only a few focus on aspects relating to organisations (büssing, 2002). the trust questionnaire focuses on six dimensions which have been found to have a high correlation with management practices. these management practices also correlate significantly with trust (factor intercorrelation – 0.58) (martins, 2000). leiden quality of work questionnaire: the leiden quality of work questionnaire was used as a measure for qwl. the questionnaire was constructed by van der doef and maes (1999). according to these authors, the questionnaire aims to develop a reliable measure of work characteristics that would be considered relevant from a theoretical perspective. the questionnaire was constructed to assess work characteristics from two occupational stress models, namely the job demand-control-support model (i.e. psychological demands, skill discretion, decision authority, and social support from supervisor and employee) and the michigan model (job stressors such as overload, role ambiguity, responsibility, role conflict etc.). the model includes 59 items, measuring 11 work characteristics and 1 outcome variable, namely job satisfaction. the 11 work characteristics are (van der doef & maes, 1999): • skill discretion (task variety and the extent to which the job challenges an employee’s skills) • decision authority (freedom of decision-making regarding work related activities) • task control (control over time management and work execution) • work and time pressure (workload and time constraints experienced by employees) • role ambiguity (clear understanding of role and responsibility within an organisation) • physical exertion (physical burden of work) • hazardous exposure (physical exposure to dangerous objects or situations) • job insecurity • lack of meaningfulness (perception that an employee’s work is important and valued) • social support supervisor (support provided by line manager) • social support co-workers (instrumental and emotional support provided by colleagues). all items were phrased as statements (i.e. ’my job is worthwhile‘) with four answer categories (disagree completely, disagree, agree and agree completely), which resulted in a 59-item pool with a standard format. as a general quality of work measure, the leiden quality of work questionnaire is suitable for all occupational groups. confirmatory analysis by means of linear sem was used to examine the factor structure of the questionnaire (van der doef & maes, 1999). the factor correlations were 0.87 to 0.88. the reliability was based on the total sample of 10 112 respondents (van der doef & maes, 1999). although the goodness-of-fit index (gfi) and the non-normed fit index (nnfi) were still somewhat below the recommended criterion (0.90), the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) indicated a good fit of the model. the cronbach’s alpha for these scales ranged from 0.73 to 0.93 (van der doef & maes, 2002). according to kotzé (2005), the point of view from which qwl is defined will determine the criteria relevant in its evaluation. some qwl measurements only evaluate employees’ experiences of satisfaction or dissatisfaction, or look at job-related perceptions and attitudes of individuals, whilst some measure only job characteristics (kerce & booth-kewley, 1993; wilcock & wright, 1991). a more integrated approach to the measurement of qwl is therefore important. the leiden quality of work questionnaire includes 12 dimensions consisting of both personal and structural factors, which gives a more comprehensive view of the work situation. research procedure after permission to conduct the research was obtained from the organisation, the questionnaire was posted on an external survey company’s website. participants were informed of the research via an internal email that explained the objectives and importance of the study, what was being measured and what would happen to the results. instructions on how to complete and submit the questionnaire were given on the opening page of the website. questions participants might have had were also included pre-emptively in the electronic communication, as was an invitation to send any enquiries or questions to the author. participants were also assured of the confidentiality of their responses. the participants were able to complete the questionnaire in their own time and submit their answers when done. data was then collected from respondents following the hyperlink to the measuring instrument. as this was a web-based application, the data were anonymously stored on the survey company’s server as soon as the respondents completed the questionnaire. the data were then verified as far as possible by checking for contradictions and obvious misinformation. statistical analysis the statistical processing of data is presented in terms of quantitative procedures and statistical techniques. the spss statistical programme amos 18 (2009) was used for this purpose. the quantitative procedures included the use of descriptive statistics to describe the basic features of the data. inferential statistics included the cronbach’s alpha and confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) to determine the reliability of the instruments. structural equation modelling multivariate analysis technique was used to determine the relationship between the constructs (organisational trust and qwl) and the independent dimension of trust to test the theoretical model. confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis and regression analysis within sem were used to test the three hypotheses. two sem approaches were subsequently followed, namely the strictly confirmatory approach (to confirm a structural model specified by another researcher) and the model development approach (to find models into which the data fitted well statistically) (garson, 2009; schumacker & lomax, 2004). results top ↑ reliability analysis the cronbach’s alpha was used to determine the internal reliability of items within each factor (results are presented in table 1). although the reliability of both questionnaires had already been reported on, it was still important to verify reliability, especially as the leiden quality of work questionnaire reliability scores are not based on the south african population. an acceptable value for cronbach’s alpha is between 0.70 and 0.80 and values substantially lower indicate an unreliable scale (field, 2005). however, kline (1999) notes that although the generally accepted value for reliability is 0.80, when dealing with psychological constructs, values below 0.70 can be expected because of the diversity of the constructs being measured. according to nichols (1999), a cronbach’s alpha will be negative whenever the average covariance amongst the items is negative. these items should be recoded. according to nunnally (1967), a suitable criterion for instruments in the early stages of development is regarded as between 0.05 and 0.60. for the purpose of this research study, a reliability coefficient of 0.50 or higher was considered an acceptable score of internal consistency. based on each factor’s cronbach’s alpha, it was determined that all factors included within the organisational trust dimension had a strong internal reliability, with the lowest score being 0.602 obtained for information-sharing. agreeableness presented with the highest score of 0.980. these findings are consistent with research conducted by von der ohe et al. (2004), in which the internal consistency reliability of all constructs was high. table 2 shows a comparison of the cronbach alphas of the current research study and the research conducted by von der ohe et al. (2004). the reliability coefficient of the factors, which forms part of the qwl dimension, appeared to vary between -0.179 and 0.908, with five of these reliability coefficients being above 0.900 – which could be regarded as acceptable internal consistency (kline, 1999). the item analysis based on cronbach’s alpha suggested there was a negative relationship between some items, that is, decision authority and job insecurity, after recoding took place. based on these reliability results, information-sharing (0.602) was excluded from sem model 1 (organisational trust model) because of its weak cronbach’s alpha. overall, it could be concluded that the internal consistency (reliability) of the overall organisational trust questionnaire and the factors were consistent in what it was intended to measure, and were thus acceptable. consequently, decision authority was excluded from sem model 2 (relationship between organisational trust and qwl) because of its weak cronbach’s alpha. there was, however, no obvious reason for the negative cronbach’s alpha obtained for job insecurity and the low score for work and time pressure, as there did not appear to be any coding error. it was therefore decided to include both as part of the model. with regard to the leiden quality of work questionnaire and its factors, internal reliability seemed to vary between the various factors and could definitely be improved. most of the dimensions of the leiden quality of work questionnaire portrayed acceptable coefficients. the exceptions were job insecurity and work and time pressure. table 1: results of reliability analysis. table 2: comparison of cronbach alphas between past findings and the present research study. structural equation modelling results two models were originally tested using the covariance matrix based on sem procedures. alternative models were tested on the basis of the theory and changes to the structural and/or measurement models were made as suggested by the sem modification indices. as previously mentioned, this research study included two approaches with regard to sem models. firstly, model 1 (organisational trust relationship model) could be regarded as a strictly confirmatory approach to corroborate the already established model of organisational trust, as proposed by martins (2000). the second approach (model 2: the relationship between organisational trust and qwl) could be seen as a model development approach in which the goal is to find a model into which the data fits well statistically, but which also has practical and substantive theoretical meaning, as it entails specifying a model in which the initial data do not fit at an acceptable model fit criterion level (schumacker & lomax, 2004). model 1: organisational trust relationship model the trust relationship model proposed by martins (2000) was again confirmed. within the original model, martins (2000) found a low relationship between trust and the personality aspects (0.240) and a positive relationship between trust and managerial practices (0.580). the results also indicated that credibility, group management and work support are directly associated with managerial practices. information-sharing did not appear to be directly associated with managerial practices. results further revealed a non-significant chi-square of 4404.511, based on 33 degrees of freedom with a probability value of less than 0.001. however, model 1 included two factors additional to martins’s (2000) model, namely change which has occurred, and interpersonal trust, but excluded the dimension of information-sharing (weak cronbach alpha). table 3 shows a comparison of the findings from martins (2000) with the findings within this research, indicating the chi-square, degrees of freedom, probability level and comparative fit indexes (cfi).the significant minimum fit chi-square statistic obtained (90.874; df = 40, p = 0.000) demonstrated imperfect model fit and implied the model might not be adequate and might therefore have to be rejected. however, the chi-square statistic is sensitive to multivariate normality and sample size (fan, thompson & wang, 1999). to overcome this problem, bollen and long (1993) and kelloway (1995) recommend the ratio of chi-square and degrees of freedom (χ²/df) be used instead. a value of between 2 and 5 is believed to indicate good fit. using this ratio, a value of 2.272 was obtained for the structural model. when evaluated against this standard, it seemed that the model fitted the data adequately. root mean square error of approximation is based on the analysis of residuals, with smaller values indicating a better fit with data (ryu & west, 2009). garson (2009) contends that a value lower than 0.080 indicates acceptable fit. model 1 achieved an rmsea value of 0.079, which falls within what is regarded as acceptable fit. the gfi for model 1 was 0.922, which indicates an adequate fit. in addition, the cfi equalled 0.980, the normed fit index (nfi) equalled 0.965 and the nnfi equalled 0.973, which indicate a good fit as all of the values are very close to the recommended perfect fit, from 0 (no fit) to 1 (perfect fit). based on these indices, model 1 achieved adequate fit. the results also indicated that personality and managerial practice have a causal relationship with the trust relationship dimension. results depicted in table 4 further indicated a positive relationship between the managerial practices and personality aspects (0.79). this is consistent with the research findings by von der ohe et al. (2004), in which they found a positive relationship between the ‘big five’ personality aspects and both the trust relationship and credibility dimensions. in order to improve model fit, changes suggested by the sem modification indexes were taken into consideration. these changes related to moderate correlations found between the unknown variables (error variances). table 3: comparison of trust results. table 4: structural equation modelling correlations coefficients within organisational trust. figure 1: model 2 – relationship between organisational trust and quality of work life. model 2: relationship between organisational trust and quality of work life in model 2, the relationship between the constructs of organisational trust and qwl is depicted. the path diagram and parameter estimates are illustrated in figure 1. results revealed a non-significant chi-square (622.252), based on 0.196 df with a probability of 0.000. the ratio of chi-square and degrees of freedom (χ²/df) was equal to 3.175, indicating an adequate fit (a value of between 2 and 5 is believed to be a good fit) (bollen & long, 1993). contradictory to this, model 2 achieved an rmsea value of 0.104. according to garson (2009), an rmsea value of 0.050 or less indicates a close approximation and values of up to 0.080 suggest a reasonable fit of the model in the population. a value of 0.104 therefore suggested a moderate fit within the population. the gfi for model 2 was 0.754, which also indicated a moderate fit. in addition, the cfi equalled 0.910, the nfi equalled 0.875 and the nnfi equalled 0.894, which confirmed these findings. based on the above indices, it is therefore believed the structural model achieved a moderate fit. analysing the sem correlation coefficients between the various variables (see table 5), the model indicated moderate correlations between qwl and managerial practices (0.68), as well as between qwl and personality aspects (0.54). furthermore, the pearson product-moment correlation co-efficient was used to calculate the correlations between organisational trust, qwl, personality and managerial practices (see table 6). all correlation coefficients were significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). highly significant positive relationships (at a 0.01 level of significance) were evident between the trust relationship and personality dimensions (0.793), managerial practices and the trust relationship (0.760), and managerial practices and personality (0.702), suggesting that if managerial practices are regarded as positive, the trust employees experience will increase accordingly. moderate linear relationships were evident between managerial practices and qwl (0.613), trust relationship and qwl (0.545), and qwl and personality (0.502). table 5: structural equation modelling correlations coefficients between organisational trust and quality of work life. table 6: pearson product-moment correlations coefficients. summarised results of model 1 and model 2 based on the above discussion of the overall gfi indices, both model 1 and model 2 produced acceptable gfis by means of the non-significant chi-square obtained, as well as values attained for the relative chi-square (χ²/df). model 1 attained an acceptable absolute gfi of 0.922, which was above the 0.900 cut-off and so reflected a good model fit. model 2 produced a gfi of 0.754, which fell below the 0.900 cut-off and could therefore be interpreted as a moderate fit. both model 1 and model 2 achieved acceptable incremental fit measures for the following:• cfi: model 1 = 0.980 and model 2 = 0.910, both of which were above the cut-off, reflecting good model fit. • nfi: model 1 = 0.965, which was above the cut-off point (0.90), reflecting good model fit and model 2 = 0.875, which was close to the cut-off point and could therefore be interpreted as reflecting adequate fit. • nnfi: model 1 = 0.973, which was above the cut-off point (0.90), reflecting good model fit and model 2 = 0.894, which was close to the cut-off point and could therefore be interpreted as reflecting adequate fit. based on these results, model 1 (organisational trust relationship) could therefore be accepted as a model with a good fit and model 2 (relationship between organisational trust and qwl) could be accepted as a model with a moderate fit. further analysis seemed to indicate that personality aspects had less impact on trust (estimate of 1.51) than managerial practices (estimate of 2.89). within the personality dimension, agreeableness had the highest impact (estimate of 14.79), explaining 93.2% of the variance, followed by conscientiousness (estimate of 12.41), explaining 75.9% of the variance. focusing on the managerial practices, it seemed as though credibility had the highest impact (estimate of 13.11), explaining 95.3% of the variance, whilst team management explained 91.5% of the variance (estimate of 7.47). change which has occurred (estimate of 4.98) and interpersonal trust (estimate of 5.18) seemed to have the lowest impact on trust, explaining 16.0% and 41.7% or the variance, respectively. within the qwl dimension, social support from colleagues had the highest impact (estimate of 6.75), explaining 97.5% of the variance, followed by social support from the supervisor (estimate of 4.01), explaining 93.4% of the variance (see table 5). hazardous exposure (estimate of 0.65) and physical exertion (estimate of 0.49) seemed to have the lowest impact and only explained 2.0% and 5.0% of the variance, respectively. this might be the result of the specific work environment of a sales representative, as it seems they are not necessarily exposed to hazardous circumstances and physical exertion. this research study therefore indicated that, for sales representatives, there is a stronger relationship between qwl and managerial practices than between qwl and their personality constructs. ethical considerations top ↑ as mentioned above, participation in the survey was voluntary after permission was obtained from the organisation to conduct the survey. participants were also informed and assured of the confidentiality of their responses. data were collected via the web and anonymously stored on the survey company’s server. trustworthiness top ↑ the reliability and validity of both questionnaires were determined accordingly, as discussed in the ‘results’ section above. discussion top ↑ this research study can be seen as an exploratory attempt to test an integrated model consisting of managerial practices, personality aspects and qwl. in particular, the aim of this study was to investigate the implied theoretical relationship between the dimensions making up the organisational trust construct and those which form the qwl construct. the results of the analysis of model 1 (organisational trust relationship) confirm a positive relationship between the managerial practices and personality dimensions (0.790). similar results were found within the pearson product-moment correlations. highly significant positive relationships (at a 0.010 level of significance) were found between the trust relationship and personality dimensions (0.793), managerial practices and the trust relationship (0.760), and managerial practices and personality (0.702), suggesting that if managerial practices are regarded as positive, the trust employees experience will increase accordingly. this also confirms the research conducted by martins (2000). moderate linear relationships were evident between managerial practices and qwl (0.613), trust relationship and qwl (0.545), and qwl and personality (0.502). the relationship between organisational trust and qwl (model 2) also indicated a positive relationship between qwl and managerial practices (0.68) but a lower relationship with the personality constructs (0.54). martins (2000) and von der ohe et al. (2004) found agreeableness to be a significant manifestation of the ‘big five’ personality aspects. this is confirmed by the results of this research. also, in accordance with martins’s (2000) research, it seems that the personality aspects have a lower impact on organisational trust than managerial practices. summary from the empirical results, the assumption can be made that if an organisation intends to improve the satisfaction levels of sales representatives, the focus should be on improving the managerial practices and qwl dimensions. in this environment, a focus on the ’correct‘ personality types will not have a great influence on organisational trust or positively influence qwl. research results regarding the organisational trust construct have been supported by research carried out by cyster (2005), martins (2000), martins and martins (2002), martins and von der ohe (2002), von der ohe et al. (2004) and von der ohe and martins (2010).the findings of this research study are useful because they not only provide valuable information about an understanding of the relationship between organisational trust and qwl, but also have some practical implications which may be useful for organisations. firstly, this study shows that managers within organisations should be more attentive to their managerial practices than to their personality traits, as this might influence the building of trust relationships within the organisation. managers should therefore pay attention to the job-related needs of employees, as well as the influence managerial practices may have on the qwl experienced by employees. it is also important to note the potentially valuable contribution of this research to a better understanding of the organisational trust and qwl constructs within the organisational context. as far as could be established, such an integrated model has not been tested in this context before. this study therefore makes a valuable contribution to theory-building and practice in the field of organisational psychology, especially within the south african context. limitations of the study as with all research, this study is subject to a number of limitations. the first obvious limitation is the use of the leiden quality of work questionnaire, as it was designed for use in a completely different context to the one in which it was used in this study. whilst it seemed to demonstrate good psychometric properties and had obtained satisfactory reliability and validity scores, the instrument may require further revision and refinement, specifically for use within the south african context. the focus on a specific functional area (sales) within one organisation restricted the study to a relative small sample (n = 203). although it is desirable to have a large sample, the researcher was limited to the number of sales representatives within the soft-drink division of the organisation. although sufficient to conduct sem, the convenience sample means a conservative test of the hypotheses without much statistical power to reveal potentially significant relationships. however, the benefit of conducting the research within one functional area in one organisation was that any alternative explanations for any observed variance could be ruled out, as the circumstances of all the sales representatives are mostly the same. recommendations for future research from the results, the following recommendations might assist the organisation to foster a better trust relationship and contribute to the overall qwl experience of its sales representatives:• social support, specifically from the line manager and colleagues, seems to play an important role within the qwl experienced by these employees and it is therefore recommended that the company be aware of and focus on positive interaction with its employees. • possible coaching and mentoring techniques might be considered, not only to aid in positive interaction with the employees, but also to provide the sales representatives with the necessary work support from their managers. • listening to and considering the employees’ proposals and suggestions and providing them with recognition will enhance these employees’ experience of their managers’ credibility. a proper reward and recognition scheme might assist in addressing this. • fair and unbiased team management practices will also foster a better trust relationship and increase the job satisfaction employees experience within their roles. the results also suggest several other interesting future studies on qwl and organisational trust. research on the violation of trust by line managers and its consequences has not received much attention and a possible future research venture could be to look into the possible consequences of a broken trust relationship on the qwl experienced by employees. a further possibility is to use a longitudinal research design to determine the temporal relationship between these variables across levels as different organisational factors such as communication, effectiveness, change and demographic variables can affect the trust relationship. conclusion in this article, the purpose, literature overview, research design, results, several conclusions, recommendations and limitations of the study were discussed and explained. conclusions were made about the theoretical as well as the empirical sections of this research. the outcomes of this research also point to new findings within the work environment and recommendations were made to enhance research specifically within this domain.this research emphasises how important it is for the management of an organisation to be constantly aware of the trust employees have in the organisation, as this can lead to severe consequences if not properly managed. furthermore, it is essential for an organisation to create an environment in which employees experience qwl, as research has indicated this influences not only performance, commitment, profitability, job involvement, absenteeism and turnover rate, but also the overall trust relations experienced by employees. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this paper. authors’ contributions n.m. (university of south africa) was the project leader and was responsible for the experimental and project design, managing the online survey and the conceptual contributions on organisational trust. y.v.d.b (university of south africa) was responsible for marketing and coordinating the survey, as well as the conceptual contributions on quality of work life. references top ↑ bagraim, j.j., & hime, p. (2007). the dimensionality of workplace interpersonal trust and its relationship to workplace affective commitment. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 33(3), 43–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v33i3.394ballou, b., & godwin, n.h. (2007). quality of ’work life‘: have you invested in your organisation’s future? strategic finance, october, 41–45. barrick, m.r., & mount, m.k. (1991). the big five personality dimensions and job performance: a meta-analysis. personnel psychology, 44(1), 1–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1991.tb00688.x barrick, m.r., mount, m.k., & judge, t.a. (2001). personality and performance at the beginning of the new millennium: what do we know and where do we go next? international journal of selection and assessment, 9(1/2), 9–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00160 bews, n., & martins, n. (2002). an evaluation of facilitators of trustworthiness. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 28(4), 14–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v28i4.70 bews, n., & rossouw, d. (2002). contemporary organisational change and the importance of trust. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 28(4), 2–6. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v28i4.72 bollen, k.a., & long, j.s. (eds.). (1993). testing structural equation models. newbury park: sage. bozionelos, n. (2004). the relationship between disposition and career success: a british study. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 77(3), 403–420. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317904175268 büssing, a. (2002). trust and its relations to commitment and involvement in work and organisations. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 28(4), 36–42. chung, c.c., killingworth, a., & nolan, p. (1997). a critique of the concept of quality of life. international journal of health care quality assurance, 10(2), 80–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09526869710166996 church, t.a. (2000). culture and personality: toward an integrated cultural trait psychology. journal of personality, 68, 651–704. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-6494.00112, pmid:10934686 cyster, s. (2005). a comparative study of the trust audit results of three business units of a south african company. unpublished thesis, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. dijkstra, e.j., & fred, w.v. (2005). separate and joint effects of medium type on consumer responses: a comparison of television, print and the internet. journal of business research, 58(3), 377–386. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0148-2963(03)00105-x esterhuizen, w., & martins, n. (2008). organisational justice and employee responses to employment equity. south african journal of labour relations, 32(2), 66–85. fan, x., thompson, b., & wang, l. (1999). effects of sample size, estimation method, and model specification on structural equation modeling fit indexes. structural equation modeling, 6(1), 56–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540119 field, a. (2005). discovering statistics using spss. (2nd edn.). london: sage publications. garson, g.d. (2009). structural equation modeling. retrieved november 08, 2009, from http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/garson/pa765/statnote.htm gellatly, i.r., & irving, p.g. (2001). personality, autonomy, and contextual performance of managers. human performance, 14(3), 231–245. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup1403_2 gillespie, n.a., & mann, l. (2004). transformational leadership and shared values: the building blocks of trust. journal of managerial psychology, 19(6), 588–607. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940410551507 goodstein, l.d., & lanyon, r.i. (1999). applications of personality assessment to the workplace: a review. journal of business and psychology, 13(3), 291–322. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1022941331649 hannif, z., burgess, j., & connell, j. (2008). call centres and the quality of work life: towards a research agenda. journal of industrial relations, 50(2), 271–284. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022185607087902 hay, a. (2002). trust and organisational change: an experience from manufacturing. sa journal of industrial psychology, 28(4), 40–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v28i4.78 huang, t., lawler, j., & lei, c. (2007). the effects of quality of work life on commitment and turnover intention. social behavior and personality, 35(6), 735–750. http://dx.doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2007.35.6.735 hurtz, g.m., & donovan, j.j. (2000). personality and job performance: the big five revisited. journal of applied psychology, 85, 869–879. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.85.6.869, pmid:11125652 judge, t.a., higgins, c.a., & cable, d.m. (2000). the employment interview: a review of recent research and recommendations for future research. human resource management review, 10(4), 383–406. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(00) 00033-4 kandasamy, i., & sreekumar, a. (2009). wrklfqual: a tool for measuring quality of work life. research and practice in human resource management, 17(1), 59–70. kaushik, n., & tonk, m.s. (2008). personality and quality of work life. icfai journal of organizational behavior, vii(3), 34–46. kelloway, e.k. (1995). structural equation modelling in perspective. journal of organizational behavior, 16, 215–224. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.4030160304 kerce, e.w., & booth-kewley, s. (1993). quality of work life surveys in organisations: methods & benefits. in p. rosenfeld, j.e. edwards & m.d. thomas (eds.), improving organisational surveys: new direction, methods and applications, (pp. 158, 188–209). newbury park: sage publications. kirby, e.l., & harter, l.m. (2001). discourses of diversity and quality of work life. management communication quarterly, 15(1), 121–127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/ 0893318901151008 klein, m. (2008, 20 january). government not doing a good job. sunday times business times, p. 3. kline, p. (1999). handbook of psychological testing. (2nd edn.). new york: routledge. koonmee, k., & virakul, b. (2007). ethics, quality of work life and employee job-related outcomes: a survey of hr and marketing managers in thai businesses. nida development journal, 47(4), 67–97. koonmee, k., singhapakdi, a., virakul, b., & lee, d. (2010). ethics institutionalization, quality of work life and employee job-related outcomes: a survey of human resource managers in thailand. journal of business research, 63(1), 20–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2009.01.006 kotzé, m. (2005). the nature and development of the construct ’quality of work life‘. acta academica, 37(2), 96–122. lämsä, a., & pučėtaitė, r. (2006). development of organisational trust among employees from a contextual perspective. business ethics: a european review, 15(2), 130–141. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8608.2006.00437.x long, c.p., sitkin, s.b., & cardinal, l.b. (2003). managerial action to build control, trust, and fairness in organizations: the effect of conflict. paper presented at the international association of conflict management conference, 15–18 june 2003, (pp. 1–57). melbourne, australia. martel, j.p., & dupuis, g. (2006). quality of work life: theoretical and methodological problems, and presentation of a new model and measuring instrument. social indicators research, 77(2), 333–368. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11205-004-5368-4 martins, e., & martins, n. (2002). an organisational culture model to promote creativity and innovation. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 28(4), 58–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v28i4.71 martins, n. (2000). developing a trust model for assisting management during change. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 26(3), 27–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v26i3.716 martins, n., & von der ohe, h. (2002). trust as a factor in determining how to attract, motivate and retain talent. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 28(4), 49–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v28i4.79 martins, n., watkins, m., von der ohe, h., & de beer, m. (1997). trust audit summary report. centre for industrial and organisational psychology, department of industrial psychology. pretoria: university of south africa. may, b.e., lau, r.s., & johnson, s.k. (1999). a longitudinal study of quality of work life and business performance. south dakota business review, 58(2), 3–7. mayer, r.c., davis, j.h., & schoorman, f.d. (1995). an integrative model of organisational trust. academy of management review, 20, 709–734. mcevily, b., weber, r.a., bicchieri, c., & ho, v.t. (2006). can groups be trusted? an experimental study of trust in collective entities. in r. bachmann & a. zaheer (eds.), handbook of trust research, (pp. 52–67). cheltanham: edward elgar publishing limited. morgan, b., & de bruin, k. (2010). the relationship between the big five personaity traits and burnout in south african university students. south african journal of psychology, 40(2), 182–191. nichols, d.p. (1999). my coefficient a is negative!, spss keywords, nr 68. retrieved november 11, 2010, from http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/spss/library/negalpha.htm nooteboom, b. (2002). trust: forms, foundations, functions, failures and figures. cheltanham: edward elgar publishing ltd. nunnally, j.c. (1967). psychometric theory. new york: mcgraw hill. phares, j.e. (1991). introduction to personality. (3rd edn.). new york: harper collins. pienaar, j., rothmann, s.r., & van de vijver, f.j. (2007). occupational stress, personality traits, coping strategies, and suicide ideation in the south african police service. criminal justice and behavior, 34(2), 246–258. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1177/0093854806288708 politis, j. (2003). the connection between trust and knowledge management: what are its implications for team performance? journal of knowledge management, 7(5), 55–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13673270310505386 rathi, n. (2010). relationship of quality of work life with employees’ psychological well-being. international journal of business insights and transformation, 3(1), 53–60. robbins, s.p. (1996). essentials of organisational behaviour: concepts, controversies, applications. (7th edn.). englewood cliffs: prentice-hall international. rossouw, d., & van vuuren, l. (2004). business ethics. (3rd edn.). cape town: oxford university press south africa. rothmann, s. (2003). burnout and engagement. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 29(4), 16–25. rothmann, s., & coetzer, e.p. (2003). the big five personality dimensions and job performance. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 29(1), 68–74. rousseau, d.m., sitkin, s.b., burt, r.s., & camerer, c. (1998). not so different after all: a cross discipline view of trust. academy of management review, 23(3), 393–404. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1998.926617 ryu, e., & west, s.g. (2009). level-specific evaluation of model fit in multilevel structural equation modeling. structural equation modeling: a multidisciplinary journal, 16(4), 583–601. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10705510903203466 salgado, j.f. (2002). the big five personality dimensions and counterproductive behaviours. journal of selection and assessment, 10(1/2), 117–125. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00198 schoorman, f.d., mayer, r.c., & davis, j.h. (2007). an integrative model of organisational trust: past, present and future. academy of management review, 32(2), 344–354. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.2007.24348410 schumacker, r.e., & lomax, r.g. (2004). a beginner’s guide to structural equation modeling. (2nd edn.). mahwah: lawrence erlbaum associates inc. sekwena, e. (2007). interaction between work and personal life: experiences of police officers in the north west province. acta criminologica, 20(4), 37–54. shaw, r.b. (1997). trust in the balance. san francisco: jossy-bass. shaw, w.h. (2005). business ethics. belmont: thomson wadsworth. sirgy, m.j., efraty, d., siegel, p., & lee, d. (2001). a new measurement of quality of work life (qwl) based on need satisfaction and spillover theories. social indicators research, 55(3), 241–302. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1010986923468 spss amos for windows, version 18 [computer software] (2009). chicago: spss inc. srivastava, a.k. (2008). effect of perceived work environment on employees’ job behaviour and organizational effectiveness. journal of the indian academy of applied psychology, 34(1), 47–55. thomson, l., & de bruin, k. (2007). personality as predictor of life balance in south african corporate employees. journal of contemporary management, 4, 68–85. thoresen, c.j., kaplan, s.a., barsky, a.p., warren, c.r., & de chermont, k. (2003). the affective underpinnings of job perceptions and attitudes: a meta-analytic review and integration. psychological bulletin, 129(6), 914–945. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.129.6.914, pmid:14599288 tschannen-moran, m., & hoy, w.k. (2000). a multidisciplinary analysis of the nature, meaning, and measurement of trust. review of educational research, 70(4), 547–593. vacola, m., tsaousis, i., & nikolaou, i. (2004). the role of emotional intelligence and personality variables on attitudes toward organisational change. journal of managerial psychology, 19(2), 88–110. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940410526082 van der doef, m., & maes, s. (1999). the leiden quality of work questionnaire: its construction, factor structure, and psychometric qualities. psychological reports, 85, 954–962. http://dx.doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1999.85.3.954, pmid:10672758 van der doef, m., & maes, s. (2002). teacher-specific quality of work versus general quality of work assessment: a comparison of their validity regarding burnout, (psycho)somatic well-being and job satisfaction. anxiety, stress and coping, 15(4), 327–344. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1061580021000056500 von der ohe, h., & martins, n. (2010). exploring trust relationships during times of change. journal of human resource management, 8(1), 1–9. von der ohe, h., martins, n., & roode, m. (2004). the influence of credibility on employer–employee trust relations. south african journal of labour relations, 28(2), 4–32. walton, r.e. (1973). quality of work life: what is it? sloan management review, fall, 11–21. wayne, j.h., musisca, n., & fleeson, w. (2004). considering the role of personality in the work-family experience: relationships of the big five to work–family conflict and facilitation. journal of vocational behavior, 64, 108–130. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/s0001-8791(03)00035-6 whitener, e.m. (1997). the impact of human resource activities on employee trust. human resource management review, 7(4), 389–404. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(97)90026-7 wilcock, a., & wright, m. (1991). quality of work life in the knitwear sector of the canadian textile industry. public personnel management, 20(4), 457–468. wilson, m.g., dejoy, d.m., vandenberg, r.j., richardson, h.a., & mcgrath, a.l. (2004). work characteristics and employee health and well-being: test of a model of healthy work organization. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 77(4), 565–588. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/0963179042596522 wright, t.a., & bonnet, d.g. (2007). job satisfaction and psychological well-being as nonadditive predictors of workplace turnover. journal of management, 33(2), 141–160. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206306297582 wyatt, t.a., & wah, c.y. (2001). perceptions of qwl: a study of singaporean employees’ development. research and practice in human resource management, 9(2), 59–76. 207--23 nov 2009 [ final version].indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #207 (page number not for citation purposes) a spirited workplace: employee perspectives on the meaning of workplace spirituality authors: christian l. van tonder1 priyal ramdass1 affi liations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: christian l. van tonder e-mail: chrisvt@uj.ac.za postal address: industrial psychology and people management, po box 524, university of johannesburg, auckland park, south africa keywords: spirit at work; spirituality; workplace spirituality; religion; spiritual and religious expression at work (srw) dates: received: 19 mar. 2009 accepted: 19 aug. 2009 published: 30 oct. 2009 how to cite this article: van tonder, c.l., & ramdass, p. (2009). a spirited workplace: employee perspectives on the meaning of workplace spirituality, sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menlikehulpbronbestuur 7(1), art. #207, 12 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.207 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. abstract although views on the nature of workplace spirituality abound, the meaning of the concept and its relatedness to other organisational constructs are everything but clear. using a qualitative approach, the current study set out to explore the meaning of workplace spirituality among a group comprising 31 employees of a south african manufacturing concern. the fi ndings derived through content analysis align well with literature perspectives on the phenomenon. the fi ndings however also reveal that employee awareness and understanding of workplace spirituality are limited. 230vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 12 introduction workplace spirituality is commonly described in terms of an employee experiencing a sense of ‘wholeness, connectedness at work, and deeper values’ (gibbons cited in milliman, czaplewski & ferguson, 2003). in practice, however, the meaning of this construct is less than clear and it is often used interchangeably with the phrases ‘spirit at work’ or ‘spirituality at work’ (see for example komala & ganesh, 2007, p. 124). notwithstanding this apparent lack of clarity, interest in the notion of workplace spirituality appears to be gaining momentum (johnson, 2007; king, 2007; mcconkie, 2008). this is somewhat paradoxical, for when the term ‘spirituality’ is raised in business and institutional settings it invariably invokes scepticism. employees have stated outright that they do not feel safe in expressing their views of spirituality in workplace settings (lips-wiersma & mills, 2002). bruce (2000, pp. 466–468) also reports a very high proportion of people (74%) who claim to be spiritual in nature and who express the fear that religious beliefs will be forced onto them if spirituality is introduced into the workplace. propping up the counterargument, grant, o’neil and stephens (2004) argue that their case study results have revealed that the majority of employees in this secular bureaucracy actually believe that their work is spiritual. these employees have indicated that they experience workplace spirituality in a variety of ways and are eager to talk about the phenomenon but struggle to fi nd opportunities to practice their spiritual beliefs. they actually perceive the discussion of spirituality in the workplace as ‘unwelcome’ (grant et al., 2004, p. 266). equally insightful is the observation that executives consistently and clearly differentiated between spirituality and religion (cf. mitroff & denton, 1999a, p. 86) and that the majority (approximately 60%) of the 100 executives and senior managers interviewed held positive views of spirituality but negative views of religion. about 30% conveyed positive views of both, leaving very small proportions who held negative views of spirituality (2%) and spirituality and religion (8%) respectively. more recently lund dean and safranski (2008, p. 359) reported that employers recognise and in some instances embrace employees’ wish for ‘soul-enriching fulfi lment at work’ and have argued that spiritual and religious expression at work (referred to as srw) has emerged as a ‘major organisational paradigmatic shift’. this view is based largely on the extensive coverage of the subject in popular business and press articles that has appeared in newsweek, fortune and business week (see milliman et al., 2003). these often-confl icting sentiments provide a glimpse of the importance and relevance but also sensitivity and controversy that accompany the concept of spirituality in the workplace. yet, despite this hesitancy, the interest in spirituality in the workplace appears to be increasing, as is evidenced in the work of scholars and among managers and management consultants (biberman, 2003; cavanagh, 1999; daft & marcic, 2004; fawcett, brau, rhoads, whitlark & fawcett, 2008; grant et al., 2004; huang & kleiner, 2001; johnson, 2007; lund dean & safranski, 2008). indicative of this growing interest in the phenomenon of spirituality and workplace spirituality is the variety of perspectives from which the subject has been approached. most notable is the debate concerning the relatedness of spirituality and religiosity or religiousness, with most publications addressing this topic. however, more recently attention has been devoted to organisational cultures that embrace and embody workplace spirituality and the incorporation of spiritual values in organisations (fawcett et al., 2008; milliman, ferguson, tricket & condemi, 1999; wagner-marsh & conley, 1999). workplace spirituality and organisational change are increasingly receiving attention (heaton, schmidt-wilk & travis, 2004), as do spiritual leadership (fairholm, 1996; ferguson & milliman, 2008; mitroff & denton, 1999b; neck & milliman, 1994), learning and management development premised on spirituality (neal, 2008) and spirituality as organisational intervention (cf. lund dean & safranski, 2008). to be expected in view of the surge of interest in the subject, the legal and political challenges of attending to workplace spirituality in organisations (king, 2007; schley, 2008) are also beginning to receive scholarly attention. the reasons for this surge of interest in workplace spirituality, however, are less than clear, but theories that attempt to account for its rise in popularity nonetheless abound. one of the most commonly argued perspectives is that societal trends are at the root of the growing interest in the phenomenon. these include the demoralising effect on workers of large-scale organisational change programmes such as downsizing, restructuring and re-engineering; the decline in neighbourhoods, churches and communities as places where a sense of connectedness and community can be experienced, which gave original research van tonder & ramdass sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 7 (page number not for citation purposes) 231 vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 12 rise to workplaces becoming substitute communities; a growing interest in eastern management paradigms and philosophies that accord substantial prominence to individual spirituality; a workforce that is aging (especially the baby boomers) and is now seeking greater engagement and more meaningful self-expression in the workplace; and global competitiveness pressures and the belief that spirituality would secure a competitive advantage for companies as it is understood to engage the full potential of the employee (ashmos & duchon, 2000; burack, 1999; cash & gray, 2000; conger, 1994; mohamed, wisnieski, askar, & syed, 2004; zohar & marshall, 2004). apart from these reasons roof (1999), viewing the subject from a sociological perspective, suggests that other modern developments, such as an increasingly need-driven and anxious society, further inform this search for meaning. despite the uncertainty that surrounds the reasons for the growing interest in the phenomenon, there seems to be general concurrence, at least at a conceptual and intuitive level, that workplace spirituality offers more benefits than disadvantages. scholars typically cite a number of expected benefits, both at the level of the individual and the organisation that accrue from the introduction of spirituality in the workplace (see in particular krishnakumar & neck, 2002). most of these, it seems, arise from the adoption of spiritual values and beliefs, which then results in the transformation of the individual and hence the workplace and organisational practices (dehler & welsh, 1994; kinjerski & skrypnek, 2004; mccormick, 1994; neck & milliman, 1994). typically, these gains are clustered in the categories of an enriched and fuller life experience at the level of the individual employee, which then leads to a range of outcomes such as improvements in culture, productivity and performance at the organisational level (burack, 1999; mitroff & denton, 1999a). a number of quantitative studies, for example, have found that workplace spirituality is positively associated with employee work attitudes such as organisational commitment, intention to quit, intrinsic work satisfaction, job involvement and organisation-based self-esteem (milliman et al., 2003), and organisational identification and work rewards satisfaction, and inversely related to organisational frustration (kolodinsky, giacalone & jurkiewicz, 2008). in a similar fashion, several other studies were undertaken but the operationalisation of workplace spirituality in these studies differed in important ways, which precludes meaningful conclusions. the generally optimistic view of the value and benefits of spirituality in the workplace observed in the literature is consequently eroded by the paucity of empirical research on the subject. it is also in the absence of adequate empirical research that uncritical perspectives on the phenomenon gain momentum. a few scholars have, for example, indicated that prevailing perspectives on the workplace spirituality phenomenon tend to understate the equally important ‘negatives’ of the phenomenon, for example exploiting or manipulating employees through the unobtrusive system of control created by efforts to establish workplace spirituality (biberman & coetzer, 2005; goodier & eisenberg, 2006). except for the occasional study (e.g. the seminal work of mitroff & denton, 1999a, 1999b) research on workplace spirituality to date has largely been of a conceptual, theoretical and quasi-empirical nature, with empirical research on workplace spirituality notably in short supply (lund dean, 2004; lund dean & safranski, 2008; mohamed et al., 2004). in the absence of substantive research it is hardly surprising to find that there is no commonly accepted definition of workplace spirituality or spirit at work (king, 2007; tischler, biberman, & mckeage, 2002) and that a clear operational definition of the construct is lacking (king & crowther, 2004; kinjerski & skrypnek, 2004). in fact, one of the most salient observations emerging from the literature is the concurrence among scholars that definitional clarity on what spirituality in the workplace or spirit at work entails is still lacking (butts, 1999; garcia-zamor, 2003; kinjerski & skrypnek, 2004; mcconkie, 2008). this is not for want of definitions or attempts at defining the construct, as virtually every scholar has attempted to articulate the meaning of workplace spirituality, spirit at work or organisational spirituality with the result that measures (and implicit operational definitions) abound (king & crowther, 2004; mccormick, 1994; mohamed et al., 2004). the diversity evident in the multitude of definitions of spirituality actually contributes to confusion and frustration and precludes rigorous comparison of research results (macdonald, 2000; mohamed et al., 2004). the difficulty in defining spirituality, some argue (mohamed et al., 2004; neal, 1997), arises from the subjective nature of the construct and the inability to categorise it. from the preceding, it would seem that the growing interest in the field of srw is premised on a weak scientific foundation (especially empirical research). the notion of workplace spirituality or spirit at work is substantially under researched – a situation not helped by the abundance of definitions in use. the majority of these definitions lack clarity and confound rather than assist and ultimately create measurement difficulties as different authors tend to measure different aspects of what they believe are spirituality constructs. of specific interest to the current study is kinjerski and skrypnek’s (2004) observation that spirit at work at the level of the individual employee has received very little research attention thus far. they argue that such research should be initiated at the level of the individual and should commence with the search for a comprehensive and measurable definition of the construct (p. 29). kinjerski and skrypnek’s study, however, focused on 14 professionals who were involved in the notion of spirit at work but did not focus pertinently on the employee level. the current study consequently will speak to this area of inquiry and explore the meaning of workplace spirituality at the level of the worker or employee. the research question consequently is concerned with the salient meaning parameters that employees attach to the notion of workplace spirituality. this can be operationalised as ‘what meaning do employees attach or ascribe to the term workplace spirituality?’ in pursuing this research focus, the study aims to establish the current level of awareness and understanding of workplace spirituality at this level of the organisation. a secondary consideration is to establish whether and to what extent empirically derived meanings ascribed to workplace spirituality align with theoretical conceptualisations of the concept. to this end, the discussion leads with a brief overview of the design and methodological parameters of a qualitative study through which the meaning parameters of the spirituality construct in a local manufacturing setting was explored. the empirical observations drawn from the 31 respondents are then analysed and contrasted with perspectives emerging from relevant literature. the discussion concludes with a brief consideration of the constraints and implications of the research as well as avenues for continued research. research design approach to the research spirituality is generally perceived to be a personal and intrapersonal phenomenon. workplace spirituality, which is more appropriately ascribed to the collective than the individual, is construed and enacted through the perceptions and cognitions of individual employees during social interaction with one another in an organisational setting. while some common understanding should be evident, ultimately the meaning of the phrase will vary from person to person. it is a function of a variety of factors including how the person perceives, interprets, and internalises the meaning of situations. the meaning of workplace spirituality is entirely dependent on those who constitute the organisation and how they tend to view and communicate this phenomenon (i.e. a socially constructed phenomenon). from this position the phenomenon is likely to s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #207 (page number not for citation purposes) a spirited workplace: employee perspectives on the meaning of workplace spirituality 232vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 12 be more a result of members’ (employees’) actions than they may recognise (morgan, 1997). ontologically, this approach fits denzin and lincoln’s (2005) constructivist paradigm and burrell and morgan’s (1979) interpretive sociological research paradigm (which are often combined – creswell, 2003; esterberg, 2002). this is consistent with the research question, which seeks to determine the meaning of workplace spirituality from the perspective of the employee and which characterises the research as exploratory and inductive. epistemologically, knowledge of the workplace spirituality phenomenon can be found in what dixon (1999) refers to as the tacit ‘meaning structures’ of the employee, that is, the cognitions, feelings and associations of the individual employee. this will manifest in the employee’s narrative (statements, comments or expressions), for example in response to broad open-ended questions on the subject. a compatible methodology should engage and listen to employees to generate rich data that will allow detailed study of participants’ narratives and enable the extraction of relevant meaning as it pertains to the subject under study (denzin & lincoln, 1994). this is best obtained in a naturalistic setting where the phenomenon is ‘lived’ and reified by employees. data so obtained will eventually produce a descriptive account as well as generate some understanding of how spirituality at work is conceptualised by employees in a manufacturing concern. research strategy the current study aimed to explore the meaning that employees ascribe to the construct ‘workplace spirituality’. this characterises the study as essentially an interpretive activity and unambiguously locates it in the domain of qualitative research. however, while the focus of the study on the phenomenon of workplace spirituality is clear, the choice of research strategy is less obvious. the field of qualitative research characteristically reflects a methodological plurality and an extensive range of interpretative activities, which according to denzin and lincoln (2005, p. 6) ‘privileges no single methodological practice over another’ yet it is also regularly characterised by ‘tensions and contradictions’ (p. 8). the choice of an inquiry strategy may well entail a consideration of anything from five to 28 research strategies, which all fundamentally aim to gain a deeper understanding of some phenomenon (cf. creswell, 2003, p. 183). as the current study was primarily descriptive and concerned with the meaning parameters of employees’ daily lived experiences of the phenomenon (cf. creswell, 1998; sousa, 2008), in this instance workplace spirituality, a phenomenological tradition, was selected as the strategy of inquiry. here the focus was more pertinently on exploring the convergent and divergent meanings that emerged when a group of employees provided their descriptive accounts of the phenomenon. a phenomenological inquiry that engages a single individual or case would not enable an appropriate response to the research question. such use of a number of cases to study a phenomenon or more general condition, referred to as a multiple or collective case study (stake, 2005) or multisite qualitative research (herriott & firestone, 1983), fits in with the varied applications of phenomenological inquiry in use (creswell, 1998; sousa, 2008). research method research setting a manufacturing plant located in the gauteng region of south africa and a division of a large multinational organisation in the food and beverages industry constituted the research setting for the current study. entree and establishment of researcher roles permission to conduct the study was sought and obtained from the human resources manager and management team. the purpose of the study was clarified in correspondence with the management and thereafter with the staff and again during the one-on-one and group meetings with employees. from the onset it was indicated to management and later to respondents that participation was voluntary, that respondents would remain anonymous and that information would be treated in strict confidence. moreover, the respondents knew the researcher through her role as internal human resources consultant and this ensured optimum participation by employees in the department. sampling using purposive sampling 31 employees, spread over three hierarchical levels in the manufacturing plant, were identified. this ensured diversity in terms of position, line function, age, race, gender and years of service and consequently solid prospects for obtaining diverse (and indeed common) views on the meaning of workplace spirituality. although representative sampling is less important in qualitative research, pausing to reflect on the profile of the respondent group tends to be useful when considering transferability and confirmability of findings (drisko, 2005). in terms of gender, respondents were evenly distributed with men comprising 52% and women 48% of respondents. the sample was slightly skewed towards management (50% and 13% were middle and senior management respectively) and english as home language, with 74% of respondents english speaking, while afrikaans and african languages represented 16% and 9% respectively. with regard to age the majority of the respondents, 64%, were aged between 36 and 50 years, followed by 29% who fell within the 22–35 years age range. the majority of the respondents had between one and five years service (48%), with 29% residing in the 6–10 years service bracket. the largest proportion of the sample had progressed beyond high school education to obtain a three-year diploma (42%), while 16% had obtained a b-degree and 13% an honours degree, suggesting a reasonably educated participant group. method of data gathering central to the study was the focus on narrative, a form of social action characterised by common properties, structures, conventions and genres (atkinson & delamont, 2005, p. 825) and the primary vehicle (or evidence) for exploring the meaning parameters of workplace spirituality. documents and text, an embodiment of narrative, derive their significance from the socially organised properties they possess and the (powerful) purposes for which they are utilised (atkinson & delamont, 2005 p. 825). moreover, holstein and gubrium (2005, p. 485) have asserted that ‘ordinary language is the modus operandi’ and that the meaning of a word (in the natural attitude) relates principally to what it references. proceeding from this premise a structured interview schedule was developed to obtain verbatim (written) narrative from respondents. this method was consistent with the ‘written open-ended surveys’ that kinjerski and skrypnek (2004, p. 30) employed in their exploratory and descriptive study that engaged 14 professionals on the meaning of spirit at work. four basic open-ended questions were included, which required respondents to indicate their familiarity with the notion of workplace spirituality, to outline what they understood the phrase to mean and to indicate whether they thought it was important. the last item provided them with the opportunity to add any other comments. measures to ensure data quality data quality was optimised firstly through the method of data gathering. respondents provided written narrative in response to the four key questions posed to them and did so in their own handwriting. the data were then transferred immediately to an electronic medium and the capturing of verbatim responses was checked by an associate for accuracy in capturing and presentation. respondents were allocated brief pseudonyms (e.g. respondent r10) that were indicated on the completed (anonymous) questionnaires and captured with the data. original research van tonder & ramdass sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 7 (page number not for citation purposes) 233 vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 12 procedure on the prearranged day for conducting the research and after briefing respondents on the purpose and structure of the interview schedule (and that written narrative was required), the schedule was handed out to the respondents. it was again brought to the respondents’ attention that they were under no obligation to participate but that should they decide to do so, confidentiality would be maintained. the protection of their anonymity and privacy was reaffirmed. this entailed, inter alia, that pseudonyms (rather than their names) would be used in the transcriptions of the narrative. they were also assured of feedback upon conclusion of the study and an open invitation was extended to participants to contact the researcher should questions arise at a later stage. to facilitate sense making the collected raw data were collated (captured) and transferred into an easily readable form (cf. maykut & morehouse, 1994) with the purpose of extracting key themes, using basic content analysis (crabtree & miller, 1992). analysis of the data qualitative data analysis consists of a continuous iterative process of data reduction, data display and drawing conclusions (miles & huberman, 1994), often performed through what is referred to as content analysis. to this end, it should be noted, as holstein and gubrium (2005, p. 485) assert, that ‘words and categories are the constitutive building blocks of the social world’. content analysis consequently aims to engage and interrogate the social world through the narrative (words and text) provided by respondents. although a time-consuming and exhaustive process that requires both convergent and divergent thinking (merriam, 1998; miles & huberman, 1994), content analysis remains the preferred method for analysing narrative. this was the selected vehicle for analysing the descriptive statements on workplace spirituality and was performed in accordance with the constant comparative method as outlined by maykut and morehouse (1994, pp. 126–148). this method aims to bring to the fore unique units and patterns of meaning and essentially entailed inductive category coding and simultaneous comparison of units of meaning across categories. according to miles and huberman (1994, p. 249), a better understanding of a phenomenon is arrived at when objects (e.g. the semantic units of meaning) are grouped and further conceptualised on the basis of similar patterns and characteristics. repeated sorting of data into patterns (an inductive method) enables higher levels of abstraction and commences with the identification of small units of meaning in the data, which then serves as a basis for establishing and defining more encompassing categories of meaning. following this practice, the narrative obtained from the respondents was transcribed verbatim, line-by-line, and read several times to form a holistic understanding of the collected data. the main ideas that emerged were then written down and recurring regularities in the data noted as themes or preliminary categories. a phrase or a sentence was used as the semantic unit of analysis. these units of meaning were then compared to the provisional categories and where they corresponded, they were allocated common codes and clustered together (belonging to the same category), while those that differed were allocated ‘new category’ status and a new code. this process was repeated for all the data obtained from the respondents. the system of categories (meaning) so arrived at was then inspected for patterns and relationships among these patterns. the coding process enabled organisation and quantification of the data/observations for subsequent interpretation. data categories were refined through an editing style that entailed the researchers noting comments in the margins of the text and subsequently reconsidering or recoding earlier observations if so suggested by these comments. illustrative excerpts of a random selection of participant responses are indicated in table 1. responses are sorted on the basis of participants’ reported familiarity with workplace spirituality. findings the observations emerging from the current study are briefly reported in terms of the respondents’ awareness of workplace spirituality and the meaning parameters they ascribed to the phenomenon. as a further consideration, respondents’ assessment of the importance of workplace spirituality is briefly entertained. employee perspectives on the meaning of workplace spirituality in response to the question assessing respondent awareness of (familiarity with) the phrase ‘workplace spirituality’, 13 respondents (42% of the sample) indicated that they knew the phrase while 12 (39%) were unfamiliar with it. six (or 19%) expressed ambiguity in terms of the phrase (e.g. they used expressions such as ‘not sure’, ‘i think...’ or ‘not completely’) but nonetheless attempted to describe what they thought the phrase referred to. this was also true for those who denied any knowledge of workplace spirituality. these attempted descriptions were taken into consideration and coded in terms of the same (emergent) codebook but were kept separate during analyses. key concepts or terms that consistently surfaced in the brief narratives provided by respondents across the different response categories (‘yes’, ‘not sure’ or ‘no’) were identified and, as a first step, the frequency of their occurrence was noted (see table 2). the contents of table 2 alert us to the conceptual domains and specifically the constructs that employees select to construct meaning (or ‘meaning structures’ – cf. dixon, 1999) around the table 1 illustrative excerpts of respondent views on the meaning of workplace spirituality respondent no. statement provided in response to the question, ‘what is meant by workplace spirituality?’ familiar with phrase: ‘yes’ 1 ‘recognition of a higher self – in ourselves and all others and realising the role of spirituality at work.’ 9 ‘the way you conduct yourself in the workplace to support others and making decisions to the higher good of all and the environment.’ 13 ‘i think it refers to the values and ethical culture of the workplace. it talks to how people relate to each other spiritually at work and how they are led. a spiritual workplace would have a sense of purpose greater than just producing a product or providing a service; the job and the workers would have something deeper and people would feel a spiritual connection and a greater sense of meaning in what they do and in their relations.’ familiar with phrase: ‘not sure’/‘uncertain’ 11 ‘humane people like to create, living out their passion without fear. it also creates an atmosphere of trust and honest communication.’ 22 ‘my understanding is religion/theology and religious studies. ‘workplace spirituality’ would be working together and respecting other people’s beliefs and religion.’ 27 ‘i think it refers to being spiritual at work but also not imposing your spiritual beliefs on other people. we have to be respecting of other people’s beliefs while remaining true to our own religions.’ familiar with phrase: ‘no’ 6 ‘spirituality means understanding your conscience. thus workplace spirituality looks at how you utilise the same theory in your work environment, in your daily activities at work.’ 14 ‘religion and culture.’ 31 ‘you refer to people who believe in their religion and culture.’ s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #207 (page number not for citation purposes) a spirited workplace: employee perspectives on the meaning of workplace spirituality 234vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 12 notion of workplace spirituality. these concepts and phrases do not provide a clear indication of how these constructs relate to one another, i.e. how meaning is derived. as a second procedure, themes were extracted on the basis of larger semantic units (beyond concepts/phrases). these not only indicated that the meaning of the phrase workplace spirituality is embedded in a number of themes but further suggested a number of metathemes or metacategories within which the extracted themes could be clustered. responses to the question ‘what does spirituality in the workplace mean or refer to?’ accordingly revealed that workplace spirituality is perceived as a phenomenon that shapes the ‘inner world’ of the employee (metatheme 1), that is enacted in the workplace (metatheme 2) and which impacts on the employee and the workplace (metatheme 3). from the narrative of this group of respondents, workplace spirituality (metatheme 1) is seen as bringing about a qualitatively different inner world and/or state of mind in the employee compared to employees in workplaces where there is no experienced or enacted spirituality. it enhances self-insight and awareness in respect of self and others and provides meaning and a sense of purpose for the employee. moreover, it is seen as a phenomenon that engages the employee more holistically and completely and that, more specifically, embraces the employee’s beliefs in the divine and cultivates a commitment to humanistic values. moreover, workplace spirituality creates a positive state of mind and induces positive affect in the employee. excerpts from respondent narratives that are illustrative of this metatheme are provided in table 3. whereas metatheme 1 suggests that workplace spirituality shapes and alters the inner world of the employee, metatheme 2 indicates that workplace spirituality is also and in particular about the employee enacting and positively expressing this (altered) inner world. this metatheme reflects how the employee acts and interacts with others in a broader social context, which includes enacting his or her belief systems. it is, however, also about contributing beyond the normal call of duty. at the same time, respondent views portray workplace spirituality as engendering a heightened social awareness and orientation in employees and manifesting in employee interaction that is markedly table 2 recurring concepts and phrases in employee-provided meanings of workplace spirituality category phrases/concepts frequency of occurrence ‘yes’ a ‘not sure’ b ‘no’ c self-oriented descriptors self ‘yourself’, ‘higher self’, ‘soul’, ‘conscience’, subconscious mind’ 6 3 2 purpose ‘sense of purpose’, ‘meaning’, ‘knowing where you’re going’, ‘higher purpose’ 11 1 self-fulfilment ‘fulfilment’, ‘enjoyment’, ‘happiness’, ‘satisfaction’ 2 3 beliefs ‘beliefs’, ‘spiritual beliefs’, ‘religious beliefs’, ‘balance beliefs’ 9 4 2 values ‘respect’, ‘dignity’, ‘honesty’, ‘humane’, ‘loyalty’, ‘commitment’ 6 6 emotions ‘emotions’, ‘feelings’, ‘uplift people’s spirits’ 5 1 5 conduct (self) ‘being spiritual’, ‘meaning in what they do’, ‘something deeper’, ‘making decisions for the higher good’ 8 ‘living out’, ‘expression’, ‘doing’ 3 ‘coping’, ‘less stressed’, ‘without fear’ 2 2 subtotal (self-oriented) 52 16 13 socially oriented descriptors conduct (towards others) ‘knowing’, ‘understanding’, ‘recognition’, ‘acknowledgement’, ‘ethical’, ‘acceptance’/ ‘accept’, ‘tolerance’, ‘helping’, ‘supporting’, ‘giving more’ 15 7 1 ‘relating’/’relations’, ‘connecting’/‘connectedness’, ‘linkage’ 7 ‘togetherness’, ‘working together’, ‘team work’ 3 3 other ‘other’, ‘people’, ‘colleagues’, ‘employees’, ‘all’ 14 9 5 subtotal (socially oriented) 39 19 6 other descriptors religion/faith ‘religion’, ‘religious’, ‘faiths’ 2 3 7 culture ‘culture’, ‘atmosphere’ 2 2 3 workplace ‘workplace’, ‘work’, ‘job’, ‘work environment’ 15 5 9 total responses 110 45 38 note: of 31 respondents 13, 12 and 6 respectively indicated that they were familiar with, unfamiliar with and uncertain of the meaning of the phrase workplace spirituality. arespondents who indicated that they were familiar with the workplace spirituality concept. brespondents who were ambiguous about the meaning of the concept . crespondents who denied any familiarity with the meaning of the concept. table 3 metatheme 1: workplace spirituality shapes the ‘inner world’ of the employee theme statement provided in response to the question, ‘what is meant by workplace spirituality?’ metatheme (pattern) 1: workplace spirituality brings about a qualitatively different inner world and inner state in the employee compared to employees in workplaces where there is no spirituality. workplace spirituality does the following: theme 1.1 enhances self-insight and awareness in respect of self and others. ‘recognition of a higher self – in ourselves and in all other...’ [sic] (r1); ‘means understanding your conscience’ (r6); ‘how one feels about oneself’ (r23); ‘to understand and find peace within themselves to be able to connect to fellow workers’ (r26); ‘an understanding and acknowledgement of work colleagues’ (r12) theme 1.2 provides meaning and a sense of purpose. ‘people find meaning through spirituality’ (r9); ‘the workers would have something deeper...and a greater sense of meaning in what they do’ (r13); ‘…making decisions to the higher good of all’ (r9); ‘sense of purpose beyond coming to work for 8 hours’ (r4) theme 1.3 engages the employee more holistically and completely. embraces the employee’s beliefs in the divine and cultivates a commitment to humanistic values. ‘...relates to your spiritual path’ (r1); ‘people come to work with their spirituality/spiritual beliefs’ (r3); ‘...‘spirituality’ is just one aspect that makes up the whole ‘being’’ (r20); ‘understand their spiritual beliefs’ (r3); ‘respecting of other people’s beliefs while remaining true to your own religion’ (r27) ‘the ability to respect each other and be honest with one another’ (r10); ‘respecting and understanding each other’ (r29); ‘a way of expressing more humanity’ (r11); ‘it is important to have respect, dignity, and honesty as part of one’s values in the workplace’ (r22) theme 1.4 creates a positive state of mind and induces positive affect in the employee. ‘affects an individual’s outlook on their work as well as their co-workers and interactions with them’ (r23); ‘people who work for companies they consider to be spiritual are less fearful, more ethical and more committed’ (r11); ‘contributes to personal happiness’ (r21); ‘have peace and tranquillity in their souls’ (r26); ‘allows one to enjoy coming to work’ (r10); ‘it brings some form of peace and harmony’ (r5) note: excerpts are from written narrative provided by respondents (respondent identity indicated in parentheses). original research van tonder & ramdass sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 7 (page number not for citation purposes) 235 vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 12 appreciative and accommodating of others. a central theme that is closely associated with the latter is that employees perceive workplace spirituality as facilitating a sense of connectedness and relatedness as well as a sense of community in the employee (see table 4 for illustrative examples of narrative). the third metatheme indicates that respondents generally ascribe a meaningful influence and consequences to workplace spirituality, which they perceive as causal outcomes of the enacted inner world of the employee. these outcomes most often assume the form of a gain or achievement. workplace spirituality, for example, positively enhances employee coping and well-being, contributes to employee functioning and performance, influences and directs workplace interaction and conduct, and shapes the culture and atmosphere of the workplace/work environment. table 5 provides illustrative excerpts of respondent narrative in support of these themes. in addition to the identified themes and metathemes, respondent narrative indicated further themes that characterise this group’s perceptions of the phenomenon, which did not align as powerfully with the metathemes. the first relates to the (difficult) challenge of balancing spiritual beliefs and work requirements – a consequence of intertwining what is traditionally regarded as separate life domains (the work environment and the private or personal spiritual life of the employee). one respondent, for example, indicated that employees ‘are always trying to balance their spiritual beliefs with what the workplace requires of them’ (respondent r3), while another stated, ‘you want to gain “alignment” and understand how your work relates to your spiritual path’ (respondent r1). congruence between personal, more spiritual values and work activities or organisational values is important for it creates meaning for the individual employee – a construct placed at the centre of the phenomenon of workplace spirituality (driver, 2007). the second theme concerns the equation of spirituality with religion. this is in part an artefact of employees’ different levels of familiarity with the workplace spirituality concept. note in this regard also the high incidence of ‘religion’ terminology among those who, reportedly, were not familiar with the concept and the low incidence of this among those who indicated that they were familiar with the concept (see table 2). several respondents raised this issue and some (largely those who reported being unfamiliar with the concept) demonstrated this confusion. workplace spirituality accordingly was described as follows: ‘… who believes in any religion or culture’ (r29) ‘religion in the workplace’ (r7) ‘… may mean a place where one can retire to for religious needs’ (r17) ‘… religion in the workplace – it can also mean people’s (employees’) spirit (emotions) within the workplace’ (r18) ‘… having a good spirit – not necessarily religion based’ (r25) ‘people must use their spirit at home or at their church.’ (r30) ‘i believe we don’t need anyone’s culture or religion. this is about business ...’ (r31) the sentiments conveyed by respondents r30 and r31 appear to echo the earlier observations about the scepticism that surrounds the notion of workplace spirituality (e.g. bruce, 2000). table 4 metatheme 2: workplace spirituality is about enacting the employee’s ‘inner world’ theme statement provided in response to the question, ‘what is meant by workplace spirituality?’ metatheme (pattern) 2: workplace spirituality is about the employee enacting and positively expressing the employee’s (altered) ‘inner world’. it reflects how the employee acts and interacts with others in a broader social context. workplace spirituality... theme 2.1 is about employees enacting their inner world and belief systems, without hesitation. ‘the way we express our spirituality at work’ (r8); ’living out their passion without fear’ (r11); ‘how people relate to each other spiritually at work’ (r13); ‘free to express yourself’ (r15); ‘the manner in which we live out our spirituality at work’ (r16) theme 2.2 is about.... contributing. ‘suggests giving of “myself” beyond just my skills and services to the organisation’ (r4); ‘sense of purpose greater than just producing a product or providing a service’ (r13); ‘helping each other’ (r2) theme 2.3 reflects a heightened social awareness and orientation in employees and manifests in employee interaction that is markedly appreciative and accommodating of others. ‘understanding and acknowledgment of work colleagues’ (r12); ‘the way you conduct yourself in the workplace to support others’ (r9); ‘tolerate different cultures in the workplace; get to know each other well’ (r15); ‘the way we interact with each other ethically’ (r16); ‘not offend each other unintentionally’ (r16); ‘respecting other people’s beliefs’ (r22); ‘not imposing your spiritual beliefs on others’ (r27) theme 2.4 facilitates a sense of connectedness and relatedness. people would feel a spiritual connection’ (r13); ‘use your subconscious mind to connect with everything’(r26); ‘how they show their linkage with other departments’ (r24); ‘you can connect by accepting other faiths and their spiritual upbringing in the work environment’ (r26) theme 2.5 instils a sense of community in the employee. ‘togetherness, respect and dignity‘ (r2); ‘how colleagues feel about themselves and each other and how we all work together’ (r12); ‘working together as a team’ (r15); ‘working together and respecting other people’s beliefs’ (r22) note: excerpts are from written narrative provided by respondents (respondent identity indicated in parentheses). table 5 metatheme 3: workplace spirituality is perceived to impact on the employee and the workplace theme statement provided in response to the question, ‘what is meant by workplace spirituality?’ metatheme (pattern) 3: workplace spirituality has a meaningful influence and consequences, which are perceived as causal outcomes of the enacted inner world of the employee. these outcomes most often assume the form of a gain or achievement. workplace spirituality positively... theme 3.1 enhances employee coping and well-being. ‘that helps balance the pressure and demands of the day to day living’ (r9); ‘contributes to personal happiness’ (r21); ‘the peace/stress one feels in the working environment’ (r21); ‘being fulfilled in understanding and doing my purpose’ (r4) theme 3.2 contributes to employee functioning and performance. ‘has a direct impact on an individual to perform better’ (r10); ‘can improve performance and bring out more from individuals’ (r11); ‘is important for the success of the business through having people perform at their best’ (r18); ‘equips you with the means to be able to do your job better’ (r28) theme 3.3 influences and directs workplace interaction and conduct. ‘informs how you treat people’ (r1); ‘if people do not have a sense of peace and spirituality in the workplace they will become negative and demotivated’ (r12); ‘tolerate different cultures in the workplace’ (r15); ‘boosts morale in the team’ (r16) theme 3.4 shapes the culture and atmosphere of the workplace/ work environment. ‘creates an atmosphere of trust, and honest communication’ (r11); ‘creates a good work environment’ (r12); ‘creating a spirit and energy that is unique to your workplace’ (r26); ‘may uplift people’s spirits’ (r27); ‘a good concept that can enhance the work ethic’ (r5) note: excerpts are from written narrative provided by respondents (respondent identity indicated in parentheses). s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #207 (page number not for citation purposes) a spirited workplace: employee perspectives on the meaning of workplace spirituality 236vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 12 a third and less prominent theme articulated the meaning of workplace spirituality in terms of the employee’s identity and identification with his or her work and organisation. respondent r4’s statement, ‘it also involves being recognised by the organisation for who i am, and not for what i do’, is illustrative of the former while the identification dimension is highlighted by the comments of respondents r20 and r26: ‘... how happy you are with the work you do and how well one identifies with it’ (r20) and ‘... something to your soul that you identify with’ (r26). in general, the identified themes convey clear meaning patterns for this employee group. the observed meaning patterns (see tables 2 to 5) in some respects reveal substantial parallels with the extant knowledge base yet also deviate in other respects. it is notable that the metathemes convey a sentiment of experiencing and enacting or doing – two of the methods through which the individual is able to derive meaning in life (cf. frankl, 1959). this largely reflects the different knowledge levels among employees with regard to workplace spirituality. in the discussion section, these observations are briefly compared to existing conceptualisations of workplace spirituality as reported in the literature. perceived importance of workplace spirituality although the ‘yes’/‘familiar with’ and the ‘no’/‘unfamiliar with’ responses on workplace spirituality (13 and 12 responses respectively) were evenly balanced, a generally more optimistic sentiment is conveyed with regard to the importance of workplace spirituality. in this regard 18 respondents (or 58%) indicated ‘yes’/’important’ while only four respondents (13%) stated ‘no’/‘unimportant’. this general optimism is noteworthy yet also perplexing as it includes several respondents who indicated that a phenomenon of which they knew little or nothing is important. generally though, the reasons advanced for the importance of the phenomenon stem from the perceived positive influence and impact that is assumed to accrue from incorporating spirituality in the workplace (see table 5 for the perceived gains and positive influence of workplace spirituality). this is consistent with the general belief that positive gains can be derived from workplace spirituality (krishnakumar & neck, 2002; mitroff & denton, 1999a). discussion the study aimed to establish employees’ awareness and understanding of workplace spirituality as well as the degree of alignment of empirically derived meanings with theoretical conceptualisations of workplace spirituality. when the findings of the current study (themes in tables 3 to 5) table 6 selection of contemporary definitions of spirituality author definition of spirituality driver (2007, p. 612) ‘…the search for meaning at work with meaning referring to the experience of a connection to a higher purpose’. fairholm (cited in neal, 2008, p. 380) ‘one’s spirituality is the essence of who he or she is. it defines the inner self, separate from the body, but including the physical and intellectual self.... spirituality also is the quality of being spiritual, of recognizing the intangible, life-affirming force in self and all human beings. it is a state of intimate relationship with the inner self of higher values and morality. it is recognition of the truth of the inner nature of people’. heaton, schmidt-wilk and travis (2004, p. 63) ‘… “pure spirituality” to refer to a silent, unbounded, inner experience of pure selfawareness, devoid of customary content of perception, thoughts and feelings’. ... “applied spirituality” to refer to the domain of practical applications and measurable outcomes that automatically arise from the inner experience of “pure spirituality”’. johnson (2007, p. 427) ‘…a means to provide meaning in one’s life, to foster growth and development, and to establish connectedness and community, thereby helping individuals see that they are a part of something bigger than themselves’. king (2007, p. 105) ‘… is a “search for the sacred”, a process or journey by which the individual examines life, its meaning and purpose, and the overall effect that one has on others and the environment, including the organization’. koenig, mccullough and larson (2000, p. 18) ‘... is the personal quest for understanding answers to ultimate questions about life, about meaning, and about relationship to the sacred of transcendent, which may (or may not) lead to or arise from the development of religious rituals and the formation of community’. lips-wiersma and mills, (2002, p. 185) ‘... is connoted with daily personal integration and applications of deeply held values such as humility, integrity or service’. table 7 selection of contemporary definitions of workplace spirituality author definition of workplace spirituality ashmos and duchon (2000, p. 137) ‘the recognition that employees have an inner life that nourishes and is nourished by meaningful work that takes place in context of community.’ dehler and welsh (1994, p. 19) ‘a specific form of work feeling that energises action.’ gockel (2004, p. 158) ‘... covers a broad range of phenomena, experienced both within and outside of a formal religious tradition, which centers on a personal experience of the sacred and one’s connection to it, to others, and to life itself in the context of workplace.’ harrington, preziosi and gooden (2001, p. 155) ‘spirituality at work is not about religious beliefs. rather, it is about people who perceive themselves as spirited beings, whose spirit needs energizing at work. it is about experiencing real purpose and meaning at work beyond paychecks and task performance. spirituality is really about people sharing and experiencing some common attachment, attraction, and togetherness with each other within their work unit and the organisation as a whole.’ marques (2006, p. 885) ‘the awareness that interconnectedness, respect and recognition are not limited to ourselves and our environment but are also very much applicable to all those with whom we work on a regular or incidental basis, in such a way that these qualities can lead to more than mere enhanced enjoyable workplace circumstances but to increased return on investments as well.’ kinjerski and skrypnek (2004, p. 27) ‘… describes the experience of employees who are passionate about and energized by their work, find meaning and purpose in their work, feel that they can express their complete selves at work and feel connected to those with whom they work.’ komala and ganesh (2007, p.125) ‘spirit at work is “a distinct state that is characterized by physical, affective, cognitive, interpersonal, spiritual, and mystical dimensions”...’ ‘drawing on kinjerski and skrypnek, 2004, they more specifically circumscribe the phenomenon as ”... a physical sensation characterized by a positive state of arousal or energy; positive affect characterized by profound feeling of well-being and joy; cognitive features involving a sense of being authentic, an awareness of alignment between one’s values and beliefs and one’s work, an interpersonal dimension characterized by a sense of connection to others and common purpose; a spiritual presence characterized by a sense of connection to something larger than self, such as a higher power, the universe, nature or humanity; and a mystical dimension characterized by a sense of perfection, transcendence, living in the moment, and experiences that were awe-inspiring, mysterious, or sacred.”’ original research van tonder & ramdass sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 7 (page number not for citation purposes) 237 vol. 7 no. 1 page 8 of 12 are compared with the content parameters of a random selection of definitions of spirituality (see table 6) and workplace spirituality (see table 7) a substantial degree of alignment is observed. the collective view of workplace spirituality as it emerged from the respondent views is largely consistent with the ‘common’ elements of spirituality and workplace spirituality. these are the search for meaning and purpose, a sense of wholeness, a sense of connectedness and community at work, the experience of deeper values, and beliefs that are aligned/consistent with the values of the organisation (milliman et al., 2003; mitroff & denton, 1999b). however, no individual respondent’s views completely capture what are considered emergent common themes of the workplace spirituality phenomenon. this is consistent with, for example, mitroff and denton’s (1999a) observation that nearly every interviewee in their study included most of the elements of the spirituality construct. this finding is unsurprising as spirituality was traditionally viewed as a personal matter not to be discussed in the workplace (king, 2007). knowledge and understanding of spirituality within organisations furthermore have not advanced because of the tacit avoidance or marginalisation of such topics and subjects by management scholars (goodier & eisenberg, 2006; mohamed et al., 2004, p. 102 refer to scholarly ‘neglect’ and ‘intellectual bias’), the result of which is the notable absence of spirituality constructs in organisational and management theory. this position, however, is being challenged by notable empirical research in this domain, in particular the seminal work by mitroff and denton (1999a; 1999b). employees’ limited understanding of workplace spirituality, however, also manifests in the confusion of religion and spirituality in their responses. respondents who confirmed their familiarity with the workplace spirituality concept were less likely to equate workplace spirituality with religion, religiosity or religious values, compared to those who were unfamiliar or less familiar with the phenomenon. the latter consistently equated spirituality with religion. this, too, is a very common trend, which may account for the regular discussions of this relationship in the literature (mcconkie, 2008). there is some merit in the intuitive association of the two constructs as some argue that the identities of the two constructs overlap and hence imply an interrelatedness of the two constructs (hill & smith, 2003; king, 2007). part of the observed confusion stems from the similarities between or conceptual overlaps of the two constructs, to the extent that both constructs ‘… suffer from definitional murkiness’ (mcconkie, 2008, p. 338). this becomes a substantive pragmatic concern when many respondents claim to be both spiritual and religious (hill & pargament, 2003; mitroff & denton, 1999a). the conceptual domains of both religion and spirituality, for example, at their core focus on meaning (hill & smith, 2003) and the nature of life (extending beyond physical life) both acknowledge the existence of an ultimate being or power, or god (burgess in harrington, preziosi & gooden, 2001). against this, contemporary views (cacioppe, 2000; conger, 1994; harrington et al., 2001; king, 2007; lips-wiersma & mills, 2002) seem to differentiate spirituality from religion on several grounds: religion, it is argued, is embodied in established beliefs in the past and some notion of a ‘systematised truth’ and organised theologies and doctrines about man’s destiny (past and eternal) in relation to self, others and god or a divine being. it is rooted in a specific set of formal beliefs, values and principles. these are typically embedded in a morality frame or perspective and are associated, among other, with symbols, the observance of prescribed religious practices and rituals, holy days, and dress codes. it is faith-based and not subject to the requirements of scientific endeavour. spirituality is more personal, pragmatic and less definitive. it is often described as an enduring quest for meaning and purpose in life, and is concerned with the daily integration and application of deeply held values such as humility, integrity, and service. it is typically perceived as being/extending beyond a specific religious denomination (refer also to tables 5, 6 and 8). the conceptualisation of spirituality and religion in the literature, as briefly outlined, would suggest that the observed confusion of meaning parameters among employees is to be expected. however, at an applied level this would pose problems, and interventionists endeavouring to advance the notion of workplace spirituality would be well advised to carefully consider the definitional challenges of these closely related constructs. a second consideration relates to the interchangeable use of the concepts workplace spirituality and spirituality (or spirit) at work. most scholars would refer to workplace spirituality but discuss spirituality in the context of the workplace or environment. while this is by far the most common approach, kolodinsky et al. (2008, pp. 265–266), for example, have argued that at least three different perspectives on workplace spirituality are evident from scholarly reports: • workplace spirituality as the application of personal spirituality in the workplace, i.e. the transfer of individual spiritual ideals and values to the work setting. • workplace spirituality as organisational spirituality, i.e. the organisation’s spiritual values (the individual employee’s perception of). • workplace spirituality as interactive workplace spirituality, which entails the interaction of the individual employee’s personal spiritual values with the spiritual values of the organisation. although the validity of kolodinsky et al.’s (2008) typology has not been subjected to rigorous testing, it nonetheless suggests that further refinement of concepts and theory frames is needed. notwithstanding this status, respondent data in this study (see tables 3 to 5) appear to align with kolodinsky et al.’s first approach or category, i.e. the transfer of personal spirituality concepts to the workplace. this then also suggests that concepts of workplace spirituality observed among the employees of this institution are in their infancy and bound to become more sophisticated with time and in concert with the evolution of the workplace culture in the participating organisation. the latter appears to be at a rudimentary stage and the result of the limited awareness of employees. conceptual clarity with regard to the workplace spirituality construct in itself, however, remains a challenge (harrington et al., 2001; mcconkie, 2008) and it is improbable that a commonly accepted (agreed) meaning for the concept will be established soon. indeed, it is questionable whether a universal definition of the construct is attainable or, more importantly, desirable, given the multiplicity of perspectives on the construct and the value accorded to such diverse conceptualisations (cf. krishnakumar & neck, 2002; lund dean, 2004). definitions, however useful, in and of themselves do not represent the central focus of the phenomenon. mitroff, for example, has argued that complete and final definitions are in the majority of cases not possible and are often the outcome rather than the starting point of research (cf. lund dean, 2004). while this perspective is fundamental to the purpose of the current study (and eventually reflected in its findings), it is equally valid to argue, as mohamed et al. (2004, p. 103) have done, that definitions of spirituality are likely to be more incomplete than incorrect. this was also demonstrated at the applied level as, in the current study, no single respondent provided an adequate description of workplace spirituality (using literature-based perspectives as gauge – see also tables 6 and 7). empirical research, however, is needed to reveal the inadequacies of scientific and applied perspectives and will invariably accentuate and crystallise the conceptual boundaries of the construct. in this regard only a few studies have been conducted that provide empirical comment directly and/or indirectly on the meaning parameters of workplace spirituality. the findings of the current study are consequently briefly contextualised in terms of some of the reported empirical studies. s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #207 (page number not for citation purposes) a spirited workplace: employee perspectives on the meaning of workplace spirituality 238vol. 7 no. 1 page 9 of 12 in what is arguably one of the more robust and comprehensive empirical studies on spirituality, macdonald (2000) administered a composite survey-based instrument with 20 psychological measures of spirituality to two groups of undergraduate students, representing 534 and 938 students respectively, and subjected the results to factor analysis. the factors so extracted de facto provided an operational definition of the spirituality construct. spirituality, accordingly, encapsulated five dimensions (macdonald, 2000, p. 187 in particular). these factors or dimensions were (corresponding themes from the current study are indicated in parentheses) • cognitive-perceptual expressions of spirituality, which include beliefs, attitudes and perceptions regarding the nature and importance of spirituality (see themes 1.1, 1.3 and 2.1 in tables 3 and 4 and the majority of the themes in table 5, which encapsulate the employee’s beliefs about the positive influence of spirituality); • experiential expressions of spirituality, which include spiritual, religious, mystical peak, transcendental and transpersonal experiences (refer to themes 2.4 and 2.5 in table 4); • existential well-being, which is expressed through a sense of meaning and purpose (see themes 1.2, 1.4, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1 and 3.2 in tables 3 to 5); • beliefs in paranormal phenomena of a psychological nature (this dimension did not surface in respondent narrative); and • religiousness, which entails religious beliefs and attitudes and religious behaviour and practice (see in this regard individual statements in support of themes 1.3, 2.4 and 2.5 in tables 3 and 4 and commentary on the religion-spirituality relationship). similar convergence is observed when the findings of the current study are compared with the key observations obtained from 33 senior management members (goodier & eisenberg, 2006, pp. 52–53). these authors observed that spirituality for the respondents meant expressing feelings of love and appreciation and eliminating fear from the workplace (compare with themes 1.3, 2.1 and 2.3 in tables 3 and 4); a sense of connection (and interdependence) with the inner being, colleagues and the universe (refer to themes 2.4 and 2.5, table 4) and acknowledging the ‘whole person’ at work (refer to themes 1.3 and 2.2, tables 3 and 4); a sense of meaning and purpose beyond themselves (refer to theme 1.2, table 3) and placing people before profit, viewing work as a calling and serving others (see themes 2.2 and 3.3, tables 4 and 5); and enacting a small set of core values, specifically honesty (being authentic and truthful), sacred communication (e.g. emphatic listening), fairness, excellence and celebration (see themes 1.3 and 3.4, tables 3 and 5). although the qualitative nature of the current study does not allow precise categorisation and fair comparison, the extracted themes juxtaposed against the dimensions reported in the mentioned studies reveal a substantial degree of convergence. comparison with other empirical studies using both qualitative and quantitative research approaches (refer to table 8) confirms this observation. inspection of table 8 reveals a high degree of alignment between the findings of the current study and those of the cited empirical studies. of these, the study by kinjerski and skrypnek (2004) can be accentuated as it was in many respects similar to the current study (in focus, design and methodology). what is table 8 the meaning of workplace spirituality (ws): comparison of findings (themes) from selected empirical studies and the current study fairholm (1996, p. 12) mitroff and denton (1999a, p. 89) kinjerski and skrypnek (2004) mohan and uys (2006) the current study survey, respondents not stated interviews with 88+ executives surveys and interviews with 14 spirituality professionals interviews with 10 middle to senior management professionals survey involving 31 employees (managerial and non managerial) characteristics of spirituality an inner conviction of a higher, • more intelligent force the essence of self that • separates humans from animals what humans rely on for comfort, • strength and happiness the part of us searching for • meaning, values, life purposes a personal belief system• an emotional level, a feeling• the acting out in thought and • deed of the experience of the transcendent in human life a personal relationship with god • key elements of spirituality not formal, structured • or organised nondenominational, • above and beyond denominations broadly inclusive, • embracing everyone the ultimate source • and provider of meaning and purpose in life the awe we feel in • the presence of the transcendenta the sacredness • of everything, the ordinariness of everyday life the deep • feeling of the interconnectedness of everything inner peace and calm• an inexhaustible • source of faith and willpower the ultimate end • in itself themes/dimensions of spirit at work physical experience: • physiological arousal and energy affective experience: • positive affect characterised by wellbeing and joy cognitive experience: • authenticity, alignment and making a contribution authenticity: expressing • oneself completely at work alignment: congruity • between one’s values and beliefs and one’s work making a difference: a • belief in work as a higher purpose interpersonal experience: • sense of connection to others and common purpose spiritual presence: • awareness of connection to something larger than self mystical experience: a • sense of perfection and transcendence emergent themes relationship with • higher beings making sense of life• acknowledging and • nourishing the inner world living authentically• finding meaning and • purpose through work our relationship with • other people living a balanced life• organisations as • spiritual entities our role in creating • the future emergent themes on workplace spirituality ws shapes the inner world of the employee• o enhances self-insight and awareness in respect of self and others o provides meaning and a sense of purpose o engages the employee more holistically and completely; embraces the employee’s beliefs in the divine and cultivates a commitment to humanistic values o creates a positive state of mind and induces positive affect in the employee ws is about enacting the employee’s inner • world o is about enacting the inner world and belief systems without hesitation o is about contributing o reflects a heightened social awareness and orientation in employees and manifests in employee interaction that is markedly appreciative and accommodating of others o instils a sense of connectedness and relatedness o instils a sense of community ws is perceived to impact on the employee • and the workplace o enhances employee coping and wellbeing o contributes to employee functioning and performance o influences and directs workplace interaction and conduct o shapes the culture and atmosphere of the workplace note: basic data gathering methodology and the nature of the sample engaged are indicted in the first row for each of the studies cited. athe authors indicate that while most respondents did not articulate all dimensions indicated here, most endorsed the ‘existence of a supreme guiding force’ and ‘interconnectedness’ (p. 89) as the fundamental components of spirituality. original research van tonder & ramdass sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 7 (page number not for citation purposes) different, though, is that unlike the sample of professionals engaged in the kinjerski and skrypnek (2004) study, who researched and published on spirituality, the current study engaged managerial and nonmanagerial employees working for the same manufacturing concern, who reported varying levels of awareness and knowledge of the workplace spirituality phenomenon. the consistency of these observations demonstrates that the experience of workplace spirituality is bound to embody similar meaning parameters for a broad segment of the general population. implications and recommendations the high degree of convergence observed between the findings of the current study and those observed for the cited empirical studies strengthens existing knowledge of, and validates the fundamentals of the workplace spirituality phenomenon on the one hand. on the other hand, it also confirms the validity of the findings of the current study. this is a positive note for those who lobby for and wish to engage spirituality in the workplace. however, while the convergence of empirical observations suggests that managers and practitioners could proceed more confidently, the pragmatics of implementing workplace spirituality are everything but uncomplicated. the nature, scope and character of workplace spirituality practices need to account for the divided sentiments (fears and expectations) among employees and in particular the potential legal impact of implementing a phenomenon that is currently characterised as a ‘complex legal debate’ (lund dean & safranski, 2008, p. 363). the matter is sufficiently complex and significant, to the extent that the clinton administration in the usa attempted to provide industry guidelines for implementing srw (king, 2007). the experience base with workplace practices, however, is very lean and legally accepted parameters of implementation are only now beginning to emerge from the rather slow, tedious and costly case law route (king, 2007; schley, 2008). all this means is that research efforts should expand and intensify and address fundamental and applied perspectives on workplace spirituality. avenues for future research the findings on employees’ understanding of workplace spirituality (in the current study) suggest awareness creation and education of key organisational constituencies (management in particular) as a first step to advance srw practices and to realise the anticipated gains of such practices. however, to attempt to do so in the absence of a credible (scientific) knowledge base will be risky for both the scientific and practitioner communities. heaton et al. (2004) have recommended more systematic theoryinformed but in particular model-based research of a robust and rigorous nature to address the prevailing ambiguity around constructs of work spirituality or workplace spirit. building on this platform it is argued here that this should now assume the form of systematic empiricism, as the subject is currently beset by conceptual perspectives. even though this approach implies that science (knowledge) in respect of workplace spirituality will advance incrementally and slowly, this will nevertheless happen in a systematic and coherent manner. empirical work characterised by careful conceptualisation and designed to build and test theory is more likely to affirm the key meaning parameters of the phenomenon in unambiguous terms and establish reliable and valid measurement approaches, which are necessary to systematically advance the science and practice with regard to workplace spirituality. limitations while the findings of this study echo and validate important meaning parameters of the workplace spirituality construct when compared to those generated by various local and international studies, the findings nonetheless remain context bound. managers and scientists consequently have to exercise caution when considering the transferability of these findings to their/other contexts. moreover, while the data proved useful and illuminating in the form that it was generated, its nature (a function of focus and design) precludes deeper exploration of the relatedness of workplace spirituality to managerial behaviours and institutional culture and practices. these foci should be the subject of further research initiatives of different designs. conclusion the study sought to explore the meaning parameters of workplace spirituality at the level of the employee and did so by engaging a group of co-workers in a manufacturing concern. the findings revealed substantial correspondence with several studies that engaged different research populations. this is encouraging, as it suggests that sufficient consensus is beginning to emerge, with ‘sufficient’ referring to the level of coherence and continuity needed to convince institutional managers of the potential significance of the phenomenon in the workplace. from this particular vantage point it should be noted that many workplace ‘ills’ often manifest in the form of neglect of the individual employee and hence neglect of the employee’s development and growth. employee development and growth, however, appears to be a natural by-product of spirituality in the workplace (i.e. workplace spirituality). a more appreciative and compassionate employee attitude towards co-workers is often pursued through an array of teambuilding interventions, at substantial cost and a time premium to the institution. workplace spirituality, however, appears (implicitly) to foster such a philosophy among employees with practically no contribution by the institution. numerous value-inculcation programmes, again at great cost and at best with questionable results, cannot achieve what the implicit value base of spirituality applied in the workplace (e.g. honesty, fairness and compassion) intuitively appears to accomplish. it would seem that spirituality could foster organisational stability and wellness in ways that require less rather than more institutional resources. notwithstanding the scientific and pragmatic challenges associated with a complex construct, the application of workplace spirituality holds substantial promise for an improved work experience and work environment, more so in a fragmented postmodern society with its challenges to individual and collective identities. references ashmos, d.p., & duchon, d. (2000). spirituality at work: a conceptualization and measure. journal of management inquiry, 9(2), 134–145. atkinson, p., & delamont, s. (2005). analytic perspectives. in n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds.), the sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd edn.) (n.p.). thousand oaks: sage publications. biberman, j. (2003). how workplace spirituality becomes mainstreamed in a scholarly organisation. in r.a. giacolone & c.l. jurkiewicz (eds.), handbook of workplace spirituality and organizational performance (n.p.). new york: m.e. sharpe biberman, j., & coetzer, g. (2005). can critical people also be spiritual? reconciling critical and spiritual approaches. tamara journal, 4(4.1), 70–74. bruce, w.b. (2000). public administrator attitudes about spirituality: an exploratory study. american review of public administration, 30(4), 460–472. burack, e. h. (1999). spirituality in the workplace. journal of change management, 12(4), 280–292. burrell, g., & morgan, g. (1979). sociological paradigms and organisational analysis: elements of the sociology of corporate life. aldershot: gower. butts, d. (1999). spirituality at work: an overview. journal of organizational change management, 12(4), 328–331. cacioppe, r. (2000). creating spirit at work: re-visioning organisation development and leadership – part 1. the vol. 7 no. 1 page 10 of 12 239 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #207 (page number not for citation purposes) a spirited workplace: employee perspectives on the meaning of workplace spirituality leadership and organizational development journal, 21(1), 48–54. cash, k.c., & gray, g.b. (2000). a framework for accommodating religion and spirituality in the workplace. academy of management executive, 14, 124–134. cavanagh, g.f. (1999). spirituality for managers: context and critique. journal of organisational change management, 12(3), 186–199. conger, j. (1994). spirit at work. san francisco: jossey-bass. crabtree, b.f., & miller, w.l. (1992). a template approach to text analysis: developing and using codebooks. in b.f. crabtree, & w.l. miller (eds.). doing qualitative research (n.p.). newbury park: sage. creswell, j.w. (1998). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five traditions. thousand oaks: sage publications. creswell, j.w. (2003). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (2nd edn.). thousand oaks: sage publications. daft, r.l., & marcic, d. (2004). understanding management (4th edn.). mason: southwestern. dehler, g.e., & welsh, m.a. (1994). spirituality and organizational transformation: implications for the new management paradigm. journal of managerial psychology, 9(6), 17–26. denzin, n.k., & lincoln, y.s. (eds.). (1994). handbook of qualitative research (2nd edn.). thousand oaks: sage publications. denzin, n.k., & lincoln, y.s. (2005). the sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd edn.). thousand oaks: sage. dixon, n.m. (1999). the organizational learning cycle: how we can learn collectively (2nd edn.). aldershot: gower publishing. drisko, j.w. (2005). writing up qualitative research. families in society, 86(4), 589–593. driver, m. (2007). meaning and suffering in organizations. journal of organizational change management, 20(5), 611–632. esterberg, k.g. (2002). qualitative methods in social research. boston: mcgraw hill. fairholm, g. (1996). spiritual leadership: fulfilling whole-self needs at work. leadership and organizational development journal, 17(5), 11–17. fawcett, s.e., brau, j.c., rhoads, g.k., whitlark, d., & fawcett, a.d. (2008). spirituality and organizational culture: cultivating the abcs of an inspiring workplace. international journal of public administration, 31, 420–438. ferguson, j., & milliman, j. (2008). creating effective core organizational values: a spiritual leadership approach. international journal of public administration, 31, 439–459. frankl, v.e. (1959). man’s search for meaning. new york: pocket books. garcia-zamor, j.c. (2003). workplace spirituality and organizational performance. public administration review, 63(3), 355–363. gockel, a. (2004). the trend towards spirituality in the workplace: overview and implications for career counselling. journal of employment counselling, 42, 156–167. goodier, b.c., & eisenberg, e.m. (2006). seeking the spirit: communication and the (re)development of a “spiritual” organization. communication studies, 57(1), 47–65. grant, d., o’neil, k., & stephens, l. (2004). spirituality in the workplace: new empirical directions in the study of the sacred. sociology of religion, 65(3), 265–283. harrington, w.j., preziosi, r.c., & gooden, d.j. (2001). perceptions of workplace spirituality among professionals and executives. employee responsibilities and rights journal, 13(3), 155–163. heaton, d.p., schmidt-wilk, j., & travis, f. (2004). constructs, methods, and measures for researching spirituality in organizations. journal of organizational change management, 17(1), 62–82. herriott, r.e., & firestone, w.a. (1983). multisite qualitative policy research: optimizing description and generalizability. educational researcher, 12(2), 14–19. hill, p.c., & pargament, k.i. (2003). advances in the conceptualisation and measurement of religion and spirituality: implications for physical and mental health research. american psychologist, 58(1), 664–674. hill, p.c., & smith, g.s. (2003). coming to terms with spirituality and religion in the workplace. in r.a. giacalone, & c.l. jurkiewicz (eds.), handbook of workplace spirituality and organizational performance, n.p. new york: m.e. sharpe. holstein, j.a., & gubrium, j.f. (2005). interpretive practice and social action. in n.k. denzin, & y.s. lincoln (eds.), the sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd edn.) (n.p.). thousand oaks: sage publications. huang, c., & kleiner, b.h. (2001). new developments concerning religious discrimination in the workplace. the international journal of sociology and social policy, 21(8–10), 128–136. johnson, a.l. (2007). mary parker follett: laying the foundations for spirituality in the workplace. international journal of public administration, 30, 425–439. king, s.m. (2007). religion, spirituality, and the workplace: challenges for public administration. public administration review, 67, 103–114. king, j.e., & crowther, m.r. (2004). the measurement of religiosity and spirituality: examples and issues from psychology. journal of organizational change management, 17(1), 83–101. kinjerski, v.m., & skrypnek, b. (2004). defining spirit at work: finding common ground. journal of organizational change management, 17(1), 26–42. koenig, h.g., mccullough, m., & larson, d.b. (2000). handbook of religion and health. new york: oxford university press. kolodinsky, r.w., giacalone, r.a., & jurkiewicz, c.l. (2008). workplace values and outcomes: exploring personal, organizational, and interactive workplace spirituality. journal of business ethics, 81, 465–480. komala, k., & ganesh, l.s. (2007). individual spirituality at work and its relationship with job satisfaction and burnout: an exploratory study among healthcare professionals. the business review, cambridge, 7(1), 124–129. krishnakumar, s., & neck, c.p. (2002). the “what”, “why” and “how” of spirituality in the workplace. journal of managerial psychology, 17(3), 153–164. lips-wiersma, m., & mills, c. (2002). coming out of the closet: negotiating spiritual expression in the workplace. journal of managerial psychology, 17(3), 183–202. lund dean, k. (2004). systems thinking’s challenge to research in spirituality and religion at work: an interview with ian mitroff. journal of organizational change management, 17(1), 11–25. lund dean, k., & safranski, s.r. (2008). no harm, no foul? organizational intervention in workplace spirituality. international journal of public administration, 31, 359–371. macdonald, d.a. (2000). spirituality: description, measurement, and relation to the five factor model of personality. journal of personality, 68(1), 153–197. marques, j.f. (2006). the spiritual worker: an examination of the ripple effect that enhances the quality of life inand outside the work environment. journal of management development, 25(9), 884–895. maykut, p., & morehouse, r. (1994). beginning qualitative research: a philosophical and practical guide. london: the falmer press. mcconkie, m. l. (2008). spirituality and the public sector: an introduction. international journal of public administration, 31, 337–341. mccormick, d. (1994) spirituality and management. journal of managerial psychology, 9(6): 5–8. merriam, s.b. (1988). case study research in education: a qualitative approach. san francisco: jossey-bass. miles, m.b., & huberman, a.m. (1994). qualitative data analysis (2nd edn.). london: sage publications. milliman, j., czaplewski, a.j., & ferguson, j. (2003). workplace spirituality and employee work attitudes: an exploratory vol. 7 no. 1 page 11 of 12 240 original research van tonder & ramdass sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 7 (page number not for citation purposes) neck, c., & milliman, j. (1994). thought self-leadership: finding spiritual fulfilment in the organizational life. journal of managerial psychology, 9(6), 9–16. roof, w.c. (1999). spiritual marketplace: baby boomers and the remaking of american religion. princeton: princeton university press. schley, d.g. (2008). legal aspects of spirituality in the workplace. international journal of public administration, 31, 342–358. sousa, d. (2008). from monet’s paintings to margaret’s ducks: divagations on phenomenological research. existential analysis, 19(1), 143–155. stake, r.e. (2005). qualitative case studies. in n.k. denzin, & y.s. lincoln (eds.), the sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd edn.) (n.p.). thousand oaks: sage publications. tischler, l., biberman, j., & mckeage, r. (2002). linking emotional intelligence, spirituality and workplace performance: definitions, models and ideas for research. journal of managerial psychology, 17(3), 203–218. wagner-marsh, f., & conley, j. (1999). the fourth wave: the spiritually-based firm. journal of organizational change management, 12(4), 292–301. zohar, d., & marshall, i. (2004). spiritual capital: wealth we can live by. london: bloomsbury publishing. empirical assessment. journal of organizational change management, 16(4), 426–447. milliman, j., ferguson, j., tricket, d., & condemi, b. (1999). spirit and community at south west airlines: an investigation of a spiritual values-based model. journal of organisational change management, 12(3), 221–233. mitroff, i.i., & denton, e.a. (1999a). a study of spirituality in the workplace. sloan management review, 40(4), 83–92. mitroff, i.i., & denton, e.a. (1999b). a spiritual audit of corporate america: a hard look at spirituality, religion and values in the workplace. san francisco: jossey-bass. mohamed, a.a., wisnieski, j., askar, m., & syed, i. (2004). towards a theory of spirituality in the workplace. competitiveness review, 14(1–2), 102–107. mohan, d.l., & uys, j.s. (2006). towards living with meaning and purpose: spiritual perspectives of people at work. sa journal of industrial psychology, 32(1), 53–59. morgan, g. (1997). images of organization. thousand oaks: sage publications. neal, j.a. (2008). integral learning: a new look at management development in public administration. international journal of public administration, 31, 372–395. neal, j. (1997). spirituality in management education: a guide to resources. journal of management education, 21, 121–140. vol. 7 no. 1 page 12 of 12 241 article information authors: sumaya laher1 sarah croxford1 affiliations: 1psychology: school of human and community development, university of the witwatersrand, south africa correspondence to: sumaya laher postal address: psychology, school of human and community development, university of the witwatersrand, private bag 3, wits 2050, south africa dates: received: 04 oct. 2012 accepted: 26 july 2013 published: 02 oct. 2013 how to cite this article: laher, s., & croxford, s. (2013). men are from mars, women are from venus: exploring gender differences in personality in the south african context. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #499. 8 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.499 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. men are from mars, women are from venus: exploring gender differences in personality in the south african context in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • gender and personality    • gender, race and personality • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instrument       • procedure       • data analysis • results    • descriptive statistics    • one-way anova/ancova: gender and personality    • two-way anova: gender, race and personality • discussion    • limitations of the study    • implications of this study    • implications for human resources management    • recommendations for future research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interest    • authors' contributions • references • footnote abstract top ↑ orientation: gender differences in personality have been explored in american and european contexts, but african and specifically south african research in the area is lacking.research purpose: this study investigated whether there were gender differences in personality and what this might mean for a south african organisational context where personality assessments are frequently employed for decision-making. motivation: personality tests are widely used in many fields, including the industrial, organisational and research fields. due to the impact that these tests have, it is essential that these tests are used in a fair and unbiased manner. research design, approach and method: a cross-sectional, non-experimental design was used. a questionnaire consisting of demographic information and the neo-pi-r was administered to a non-probability, convenience sample of 425 south african university students. the data was examined using anovas and ancovas. main findings: significant gender differences were found on neuroticism, anxiety, vulnerability, depression, self-consciousness, extraversion, warmth, activity, assertiveness, positive emotions, aesthetics, feelings, ideas, agreeableness, compliance, tender-mindedness, altruism, modesty, straightforwardness, trust, conscientiousness, order, achievement striving and self-discipline. practical/managerial implications: the findings indicate differences between men and women are systematic and largely innate and therefore need to be acknowledged when personality tests are used in decision-making. personality tests also need to be employed constructively to further team-building and diversity. contribution/value-add: this study adds to the body of research in south africa on gender as well as on how the neo personality scales manifest in different race groups. introduction top ↑ personality tests are widely used in many fields, including research, industrial, organisational, educational and forensic psychology, in general clinical practices and in understanding health risk behaviour (kaplan & saccuzzo, 2009; moerdyk, 2009). due to the impact that these tests have on the lives of individuals and the institutions using the tests, it is essential that these psychometric tests provide accurate information about underlying traits. furthermore, a personality test may contain bias when used in a culture other than the culture in which it was developed (laher, 2013; meiring, van de vijver, rothmann & barrick, 2005; van de vijver & leung, 2001; van eeden & mantsha, 2007). according to the employment equity act (act no. 55 of 1998), all psychological instruments should be reliable, valid, unbiased and fair for all groups in south africa where groups are defined by gender and race. thus gender differences in personality need to be examined. gender differences are of particular interest because of the implications they may have for bias in decision-making procedures. there is also a documented body of literature internationally that suggests that some gender differences, particularly as they pertain to neuroticism and agreeableness, are innate. this presents a separate set of challenges to the organisational context in terms of how these differences should be addressed if they are found to be present in the south african context. thus, this study explored gender differences across personality traits in a sample of south african university students using the revised neo personality inventory (neo-pi-r, costa & mccrae, 1992). more specifically, this study examined whether gender differences could be found across the personality domains and facets of the neo-pi-r. the study also sought to examine if these differences were influenced by race. gender and personality as part of a larger study, feingold (1994) examined gender differences across personality traits in widely used personality tests. men were found to score moderately higher on assertiveness (d = 0.50).1 women scored slightly higher on anxiety (d = 0.25) and trust (d = 0.28). the largest difference was found in tender-mindedness (d = 0.97), where women scored higher than men. these patterns were found to be consistent across age, educational level and culture (feingold, 1994). williams, satterwhite and best (1999) used the neo-pi-r to analyse gender stereotypes as perceived by university students across 25 countries. extraversion, conscientiousness and openness to experience were found to be more frequently perceived as male traits, and neuroticism and agreeableness more frequently associated with women. costa, terracciano and mccrae (2001) analysed self-report data obtained from the neo-pi-r across 26 cultures and found consistent patterns of gender differences. they reported the results separately for united states (usa) adults and the other 25 cultures. among usa adults, women scored higher on neuroticism (d = 0.51), agreeableness (d = 0.59) and extraversion (d = 0.29). these results were replicated in other cultures. the usa sample did not show any significant gender differences for openness to experience and conscientiousness. in other countries, however, women scored higher than men on openness to experience and conscientiousness, although the effect sizes were very small (d = 0.11–0.16) (costa et al., 2001). mccrae et al. (2005) found similar results to costa et al. (2001) when using observer, rather than self-report, ratings obtained from the neo-pi-r across 50 cultures. women were found to score higher than men on all scales, with a large effect size for neuroticism (d = 0.49), a small to moderate effect size for agreeableness (d = 0.32), and very small effect sizes for extraversion (d = 0.15), openness (d = 0.07) and conscientiousness (d = 0.14). in contrast to the studies cited above, hyde (2005) advanced the gender similarities hypothesis which argues that men and women are more similar than different on most psychological variables. hyde (2005) posits that the magnitude of gender differences are often over-inflated, resulting in the misconception that men and women are vastly different from each other. he argues further that claims about the differences between men and women pervade the mass media, resulting in the development of unsubstantiated gendered stereotypes. such stereotypes have detrimental effects on relationships, parenting and the advancement of women in the workplace. hyde (2005) suggested that attention should be paid to effect sizes when interpreting research results with regard to gender differences and proposed that gender differences with an effect size (when calculated using cohen’s d) of less than 0.35 are too minor to warrant attention. feingold (1994) found effect sizes larger than 0.35 on the scales of tender-mindedness, where women scored higher than men, and assertiveness, where men scored higher than women. costa et al. (2001) and mccrae et al. (2005) found that women scored higher than men with an effect size greater than 0.35 on neuroticism, and costa et al. (2001) found that women scored higher than men with an effect size greater than 0.35 on the scale of agreeableness across cultures. gender differences tend to vary at facet level within the other three domains. for example, in the domain of extraversion, women typically score higher than men on warmth and positive emotions, whereas men typically score higher than women on assertiveness and excitement-seeking (costa et al., 2001; mccrae et al., 2005). gender, race and personality costa et al. (2001) and mccrae et al. (2005) found that gender differences tend to be greater in western cultures than in african cultures (costa et al., 2001; mccrae et al., 2005). costa et al. (2001) reported that that zimbabweans and black south african people reported very little evidence of gender differences on any of the scales (effect sizes were close to zero on all scales). the biggest gender differences were found in belgium, with women scoring higher than men on all domains (neuroticism d = 0.69, agreeableness d = 0.55, extraversion d = 0.36 and openness to experience d = 0.40). white south african people were found to be mid-way in the rank ordering with white women scoring higher than white men on all domains (neuroticism d = 0.50, agreeableness d = 0.46, extraversion d = 0.19 and openness to experience d = 0.27) in costa et al.’s (2001) study. mccrae et al. (2005) did not find any significant gender differences in nigeria, india, botswana or ethiopia, and the most significant gender differences were found in the united kingdom, where women scored higher than men in all domains (neuroticism d = 0.78, agreeableness d = 0.84, extraversion d = 0.43, openness to experience d = 0.28). south africa was not included in the mccrae et al. (2005) study. given the consistent findings with regard to gender differences, as well as the employment equity act stipulation that tests should be reliable, valid and fair for all groups (where groups are defined by gender and race), this study explored the relationship between race and gender on personality in a south african sample. research design top ↑ research approach this research took the form of a non-experimental, correlational design. there was no manipulation of the independent variables, no random assignment of individuals to groups, and no control group. a questionnaire was administered at a single point in time; hence the design is a cross-sectional design (whitley, 2002). research method research participants the sample consisted of 425 students from the university of the witwatersrand, johannesburg. participants ranged from 18 to 50 years (m = 21.33, sd = 3.8). seventy-one percent (n = 303) of the sample were female. forty-eight percent (n = 192) were white people and 54.82% (n = 233) were black people. african, mixed race and indian individuals were grouped into the black people category based on the employment equity act, which collapses these three groups into the black people grouping. additionally, research has suggested that asian and african cultures are typically collectivist and white people (western cultures) are typically individualist (eaton & louw, 2000; mccrae, 2004). thus, from a theoretical perspective, combining these groups is also useful. in terms of home language, 68.45% (n = 291) spoke english as their home language and 35.13% (n = 134) spoke another language as their home language. measuring instrument data was collected using a self-report questionnaire that incorporated a demographics section and the neo-pi-r. the demographics section asked participants for their age, gender, race and home language. the neo-pi-r was developed by costa and mccrae (1992) as an operationalisation of the five-factor model (ffm) of personality. each of the five factors, namely (1) neuroticism, (2) extraversion, (3) openness to experience, (4) conscientiousness and (5) agreeableness, is measured individually using 48-item domain scales. each domain is also made up of six facets, with each facet consisting of eight items. responses are measured on a five-point likert scale ranging from strongly disagree = 0 to strongly agree = 5.research using the neo-pi-r in south african samples has demonstrated good internal consistency reliability for the domain scales ranging from 0.91 to 0.74 (laher & quy, 2010; rothman & coetzer, 2003; storm & rothman, 2003). in this study, the internal consistency reliability coefficients for the domain scales were 0.91 for neuroticism, 0.89 for extraversion, 0.87 for openness to experience, 0.87 for agreeableness, and 0.92 for conscientiousness. with the exception of actions (α = 0.55), tender-mindedness (α = 0.50) and impulsivity (α =0.59), all the facet scales had internal consistency reliability coefficients above 0.60. procedure ethical clearance for this study was obtained from the human research ethics committee at the university of the witwatersrand (protocol number: hons/09/0011h). students were asked to complete the questionnaire during lecture time. students were informed what completion of the questionnaire entailed. they were assured of confidentiality and anonymity and feedback was available in the form of a summary of the study and results on request. students placed the completed questionnaires in a sealed box in the lecture room or could return them to a sealed box in the central psychology office. responses were entered and scored on computer and the relevant statistical analysis was performed using sas enterprise guide (version 4). data analysis descriptive statistics using means, standard deviations, minimum and maximum values and skewness coefficients were used for personality scales. frequencies were conducted for gender and race as reported in the sample section. a one-way analysis of variance (anova), a one-way analysis of co-variance (ancova) and a two-way anova were used to analyse the results. cohen’s d was used to calculate effect sizes for significant pair wise differences whilst eta2 was used in the two-way anovas (huck, 2009). results top ↑ descriptive statistics for the neo-pi-r are presented first. this is followed by results from the anova analysis exploring gender differences across the neo-pi-r domain and facet scales. finally results from the two-way anova and one-way ancova are presented. in the one-way ancova, race is partialled out and in the two-way anova, race and gender are examined together. descriptive statistics table 1 presents the means, standard deviations, minimum and maximum values, and skewness coefficients for the domain and facet scales of the neo-pi-r. it is evident that all the variables were normally distributed. all scales are also generally within the ranges as specified for the neo-pi-r (costa & mccrae, 1992). table 1: descriptive statistics for the neo-pi-r. one-way anova/ancova: gender and personality table 2 shows that gender differences, significant at p < 0.01, were found on the scales of neuroticism (d = 0.44), anxiety (d = 0.50), depression (d = 0.30), self-consciousness (d = 0.34), vulnerability (d = 0.47), warmth (d = 0.36), positive emotions (d = 0.29), aesthetics (d = 0.39), feelings (d = 0.34), agreeableness (d = 0.25), straightforwardness (d = 0.21), altruism (d = 0.44) and modesty (d = 0.57). gender differences significant at p < 0.05 were found on the scales of assertiveness (d = 0.23), ideas (d = 0.24), compliance (d = 0.23), tender-mindedness (d = 0.10), order (d = 0.23) and achievement striving (d = 0.12). from the mean scores it is evident that men scored higher than women on assertiveness and ideas only. similar results were evident in the one-way ancova as evidenced in table 2. table 2: anova results for gender on the neo-pi-r (row 1) and ancova results after partialling out the effects of race on the neo-pi-r (row 2). two-way anova: gender, race and personality table 3 presents the results from the two-way anova for gender and race on the neo-pi-r. a significant gender/race groupings interaction effect was found for activity (η2 = 0.02), positive emotions (η2 = 0.01), conscientiousness (η2 = 0.01), order (η2 = 0.02) and self-discipline (η2 = 0.01), but the effect sizes were quite small. the post hoc tests revealed that white women scored higher than white men on (1) activity, (2) positive emotions, (3) conscientiousness, (4) order and (5) discipline. white women scored higher than black women on activity. black women scored higher than white men on order and self-discipline. black men scored higher than white men on order and self-discipline, as evidenced in table 4. table 3: two-way anova results from gender and race groupings on the neo-pi-r. table 4: post hoc test results from two-way anovas with gender and race groupings on the neo-pi-r. it is further evident from table 3 that main gender effects, significant at p < 0.01, were found on the scales of neuroticism (d = 0.43), anxiety (d = 0.50), depression (d = 0.29), self-consciousness (d = 0.29), vulnerability (d = 0.46), warmth (d = 0.36), positive emotions (d = 0.31), aesthetics (d = 0.39), feelings (d = 0.34), agreeableness (d = 0.55), straightforwardness (d = 0.43), altruism (d = 0.44) and modesty (d = 0.57). main gender effects, significant at p < 0.05, were found on the scales of assertiveness (d = 0.21), ideas (d = 0.24), compliance (d = 0.23), tender-mindedness (d = 0.27), conscientiousness (d = 0.22), order (d = 0.27) and achievement striving (d = 0.27). examination of the mean scores shows that men scored higher than women on assertiveness and ideas only. there were also main race effects that were significant at p < 0.01. these were for openness to experience (d = 0.44), fantasy (d = 0.47), feelings (d = 0.51), values (d = 0.38) and deliberation (d = 0.37). significant differences across race at p < 0.05 were found for impulsiveness (d = 0.14) and compliance (d = 0.24). discussion top ↑ this study explored gender differences across personality traits using the neo-pi-r. this was done specifically to investigate implications for bias. furthermore, race was examined with gender on the personality scales to determine if the pattern of systematic differences would change or not. the findings of this study have the potential to further the understanding of gender bias in personality measurement in the south african context. this is particularly pertinent to the south african context where the employment equity act states that all tests used must be scientifically reliable, valid and fair for all groups, where groups are defined according to gender and race. significant gender differences were found on neuroticism, anxiety, vulnerability, depression, self-consciousness, warmth, activity, assertiveness, positive emotions, aesthetics, feelings, ideas, agreeableness, compliance, tender-mindedness, altruism, modesty, straightforwardness, order and achievement striving. women scored higher on all scales except for assertiveness and ideas, where men scored higher. these results were consistent across the analyses and did not change when the effects of race were included or when they were partialled out. the pattern of gender differences across the neo-pi-r facet scales found in this study corresponds most closely to the results from costa et al.’s (2001) and mccrae et al.’s (2005) adult aged samples, which consistently found that women scored higher than men on the scales of anxiety, depression, self-consciousness, vulnerability, warmth, aesthetics, feelings, straightforwardness, altruism, modesty and tender-mindedness, and that men scored higher than women on assertiveness and ideas. the results also concur with feingold’s study (1994) in which women scored higher than men on anxiety and tender-mindedness, and men scored higher than women on assertiveness. costa et al. (2001) and mccrae et al. (2005) reported that women scored higher than men on gregariousness, actions, trust and dutifulness. costa et al. (2001) also found that women scored higher than men on angry hostility and impulsiveness and men scored higher than women on excitement-seeking. these differences were not replicated in this study. in addition, the predicted large effect size for the difference between male and female scores on assertiveness and tender-mindedness (feingold, 1994) were not evident in this study. in contrast to costa et al.’s (2001) results, which did not indicate a significant gender difference on achievement striving, the current study found that women scored higher than men on achievement striving. when using observer rather than self-report measures, mccrae et al. (2005) found that adult men were rated more highly than adult women on achievement striving, but college-age women were rated higher than college-age men. mccrae et al. (2005) ascribed this to a global increase in the vocational aspirations of young women (mccrae et al., 2005). there is a body of literature devoted to examining gender differences in personality and various theories are proposed to explain the differences, ranging from evolutionary perspectives to social learning theories; the underlying assumption of all of these theories is that there are fundamental, systematic differences between men and women (see costa et al., 2001; friedman & schustack, 2009; hyde, 2005; larsen & buss, 2008). the findings of this study, particularly those differences with moderate effect sizes like neuroticism, anxiety, vulnerability, aesthetics, altruism, modesty and agreeableness to an extent, lend credence to the argument for certain innate personality traits. this argument is strengthened since this pattern of differences remained invariant across all analyses conducted. furthermore, it was evident from the results that the interaction between race and gender produced no evidence for systematic differences across white and black people groupings, suggesting that these differences are invariant across individualist and collectivist cultures. costa et al. (2001) alluded to differences in personality expression across gender in individualist versus collectivist cultures, but the results of the current study demonstrate that dividing cultures into those that can be described as individualistic and those that are collectivist is not so clear-cut, especially in the south african context. the possibility exists that using race as a basis for arguments on individualism and collectivism is incorrect. more nuanced ways of examining individualism and collectivism need to be incorporated into further studies. however, the inclusion of race as variable in the current study did yield some significant findings. significant differences were observed on impulsivity, openness to experience, fantasy, aesthetics, values, compliance and deliberation across the white people and black people samples. black individuals scored lower on all the above-mentioned scales, except for compliance and deliberation where they scored higher. except for the compliance effect size, all other effect sizes were in the moderate range suggesting that, like gender, race as a variable deserves further investigation on bigger and more representative samples. limitations of the study samples drawn from university students are often homogeznous in terms of cultural and social factors and may therefore not be representative of the trends within the larger population (mccrae, 2001). the use of non-probability convenience sampling within a single university population makes it difficult to estimate the degree to which the sample is representative of personality trends in south africa. the grouping together of african, mixed race, indian and asian individuals to create the black population grouping was necessary due to the small number of african (n = 121), mixed race (n = 27), indian (n = 76) and asian (n = 9) participants who took part in the study. however, collapsing these race groupings into a single group (even though there was a rationale for this) may have obscured differences across personality traits in african, mixed race, indian and asian individuals, and thus negated the ability to accurately to assess the differences among these groups. it is also possible that university samples represent more acculturated samples. it would be necessary therefore for future studies to employ measures of individualism and collectivism as well as acculturation to further understand the nature of gender differences in personality in the south african context. implications of this study from a more practical perspective, the differences in the mean scores of male and female responses on the neo-pi-r domain and facet scales suggest the possibility of a construct bias when the neo-pi-r is used in a south african sample. however, one is inclined to question whether the psychometric examination of gender bias in personality instruments is of value, since it is almost a universal finding that men and women will differ on certain characteristics (see costa et al., 2001; friedman & schustack, 2009; hyde, 2005). either way – whether we examine gender bias in psychometric studies of personality or whether we assume that some differences are universal – we need to address these differences or control for them when we utilise these psychometric instruments. for example, if a man and a woman both apply for the same executive position but it is evident that women generally score lower on assertiveness, for the woman to get the position she would have to score much higher than women and men alike. to control for this, gender norms become salient and the results of both the current study and previous research indicate that this is warranted. there is no guarantee that the gender norms created on a standardisation sample in usa can be applied in south africa. as is evident from the results of the current study, at the domain level there is sufficient agreement between results found internationally and those in south africa, but at the facet level there are certain differences. implications for human resources management to address the issues raised, it would be of value to examine mean differences across gender as standard practice as it will allow one to control for it either by developing local norms, using the norms provided in the test manual if applicable or applying differential selection techniques if applicable. given that systematic differences have been found across genders in terms of personality, human resources practitioners need to be aware that personality tests cannot be the most reliable factor in selection decisions even if different norms are employed. on the other hand, personality is an important factor in assessing the person-job fit, and personality (combined with human capital) is argued to be an important predictor of productivity. for example, it is typically assumed that successful managers are ambitious, aggressive and dominant (weichselbaumer, 2000). the results from the current study suggest that men and women differ on certain personality traits, and that men’s high scores on assertiveness and ideas might make them more suitable for managerial positions than women. however, contemporary researchers argue that men and women have both masculine and feminine traits (maheshwari & kumar, 2008). any individual, regardless of biological sex, may have a feminine orientation, a masculine orientation, or a high degree of masculine and feminine traits, which is referred to as androgyny. androgynous individuals have been found to be more effective leaders as they are highly flexible in adopting masculine and feminine behaviours as required by the organisational demands. for example, androgynous managers have been found to balance the need for technical capabilities and individual achievement with the need for cohesive group relationships and effective communication. the above suggests that masculine and feminine attributes are equally valuable in leadership positions. as the sample in this study provided evidence for gender differences across certain personality traits, selecting men and women with their different innate personality traits may facilitate interpersonal learning across genders and the opportunity to develop a more androgynous workforce. furthermore, the agreeableness and neuroticism differences point to a possibility that women may innately possess a higher eq, which has proven to be an essential requirement in the current organisational context. recommendations for future research in order to enhance the understanding of the influence of south african cultural variables on shaping gender differences across personality traits, it may be useful for future researchers to investigate the distinctive features of south african culture that shape personality, rather than inferring such influences from changes in personality scores. it may be useful, for example, to investigate the differences in the values held by individuals for whom english is a first language compared to values held by individuals for whom isizulu is a first language. the use of a sample that is more representative of the south african population would be beneficial in establishing whether the patterns of gender differences in this study can be generalised to the larger south african context. future research may also consider the use of alternative operationalisations of culture. hill and sprague (1999), for example, suggest that social class is an important factor in the socialisation of personality traits. mccrae et al. (2005) suggest that gender differences may be associated with hofstede’s dimensions of individualism, power distance and masculinity. thus, utilising hofstede’s measure or other measures of individualism and collectivism as well as measures of acculturation would be useful. conclusion there may be some truth to the adage that men are from mars and women are from venus, but as discussed in the preceding sections it is these differences that are so beneficial to an organisation’s growth and success. organisations need to be aware of the potential differences and how best to use them to increase diversity in the workforce and to facilitate team building. the existence of these differences also needs to be acknowledged and addressed in selection and promotion settings to ensure that individuals are not unduly advantaged or disadvantaged based on information from personality tests. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interest the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions s.l. (university of the witwatersrand) was the project leader and conceptualised the study, collected the data, conducted most of the analysis and wrote majority of the article. s.c. (university of the witwatersrand) served as a research assistant on the project and assisted with locating some relevant literature for the study, conducting some of the analysis and contributed to writing parts of the literature review and discussion. references top ↑ costa, p.t., & mccrae, r.r. (1992). neo-pi-r professional manual. florida: psychological assessment resources, inc.costa, p.t., terracciano, a., & mccrae (2001). gender differences in personality traits across cultures: robust and surprising findings. journal of personality and social psychology, 81, 322–331. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.2.322 eaton, l., & louw, j. (2000). culture and self in south africa: individualism – collectivism predictions. journal of social psychology, 140, 210–217. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224540009600461, pmid:10808644 feingold, a. (1994). gender differences in personality: a meta-analysis. psychological bulletin, 116, 429–456. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.116.3.429, pmid:7809307 friedman, h.s., & schustack, m.w. (2009. personality classic theories and modern research. (4th edn.). boston: pearson. hill, s.a., & sprague, j. (1999). parenting in black and white families: the interactions of gender with race and class. gender and society, 13, 480-502. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/089124399013004004 hyde, j.s. (2005). the gender similarities hypothesis. american psychologist, 60, 581–592. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.60.6.581, pmid:16173891 huck, s. w. (2009). reading statistics and research (5th edn.). boston: pearson. kaplan, r.m., & saccuzzo, d.p. (2009). psychological testing: principles, applications and issues. (7th edn.). pacific grove, ca: brooks/cole. laher, s. (2013). understanding the five factor model and five factor theory through a south african cultural lens. south african journal of psychology, 2, 208–221. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0081246313483522 laher, s., & quy, g. (2009). exploring the role of spirituality in the context of the five factor model of personality in a south african sample. journal of psychology in africa, 19(4), 513–521. larsen, r.j., & buss, d.m. (2008). personality psychology. (3rd edn.). boston: mcgraw hill. maheshwari, n., & kumar, v. (2008). personal effectiveness as a function of psychological androgyny. industrial psychiatry journal, 17, 39–45. mccrae, r.r. (2004). human nature and culture: a trait perspective. journal of research in personality, 38, 3-14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2003.09.009 mccrae, r.r., terracciano, a. & 78 members from the members of the personality profiles of cultures project. (2005). universal traits from the observer’s perspective: data from 50 cultures. journal of personality and social psychology, 88, 547–561. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.88.3.547 meiring, d., van de vijver, f., rothmann, s., & barrick, m.r. (2005). construct, item and method bias of cognitive and personality tests in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 31, 1–8. moerdyk, a. (2009). the principles and practice of psychological assessment. pretoria: van schaik publishers. rothman, s., & coetzer, e.p. (2003). the big five personality dimensions and job performance. south african journal of industrial psychology, 29, 68–74. storm, k., & rothmann, s. (2003). the relationship between burnout, personality traits and coping strategies in a corporate pharmaceutical group. south african journal of industrial psychology, 29, 35–42. van de vijver, r.j.r., & leung, k. ( 2001). personality in cultural context: methodological issues. journal of personality, 69, 1007–1031. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-6494.696173, pmid:11767816 van eeden, r., & mantsha, t. (2007). theoretical and methodological considerations in the translation of the 16pf5 into an african language. south african journal of psychology, 37, 62–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/008124630703700105 weichselbaumer, d. (may, 2000). is it sex or personality? the impact of sex-stereotypes on discrimination in applicant selection. university of linz economics working paper no. 0021. retrieved 25 august 2012, from http://www.economics.uni-linz.ac.at/papers/2000/wp0011.pdf williams, j.e, satterwhite, r.c., & best, d.l. (1999). pancultural gender stereotypes revisited: the five-factor model. sex roles, 40, 513–525. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1018831928829 whitley, b.e. (2002). principles of research and behavioural science. boston: mcgraw hill. footnote top ↑ 1. effect sizes for significant findings are reported using cohen’s d. 200--10 nov 2009 [final version] .indd s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #200 (page number not for citation purposes) applying the criteria of ulrich and brockbank for the assessment of the role of human resources as a strategic business partner in a mining company authors: lize de bruyn1 gerhard (gert) roodt1 affi liations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: gerhard (gert) roodt e-mail: groodt@uj.ac.za postal address: po box 524, auckland park, 2006, south africa keywords: human-resource management; strategic human-resource management; strategic business partner; ulrich’s and brockbank’s criteria; qualitative evaluation dates: received: 05 mar. 2009 accepted: 31 july 2009 published: 07 oct. 2009 how to cite this article: de bruyn, l., & roodt, g. (2009). applying the criteria of ulrich and brockbank for the assessment of the role of human resources as a strategic business partner in a mining company. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur 7(1), art. #200, 11 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.200 this article is available at: http://www.sajhrm.co.za © 2009. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. abstract the aim of this study was to apply the 14 criteria of ulrich and brockbank for the assessment of the movement of a human-resource function from its current development phase to a strategic business-partner role. a qualitative method, based on casing, was adopted as the research strategy. data were collected from members of the human-resource forum of an organisation through a semi-structured focus group, individual interviews and solicited document reviews. the collected data were analysed through open coding or thematic analyses. findings indicated that the organisation’s human-resource function was moving from operational human-resource service provision to a more strategic focus. 176vol. 7 no. 1 page 1 of 11 introduction core focus of the study authors have argued in articles, books and studies that the human resources (hr) function should become a strategic business partner, but are hr functions really achieving this? what does becoming a strategic business partner entail (lawler & mohrman, 2003)? this study endeavoured to fi nd answers to these complex questions. context of the study the hr function has transitioned through different phases, from playing a purely administrative role to a service-delivery role to a strategic-partner role. focus is currently shifting towards human-capital management. the hr function can and is increasingly making signifi cant contributions to the building of an organisation that is staffed by effective human capital to carry out the work of the organisation and enable the accomplishment of business strategy (lawler & mohrman, 2003). this is also referred to as ‘talentship’ (boudreau & ramstad, 2007). strategic human-resource management (hrm) is a complex process that is constantly evolving and being studied and discussed by academics and commentators. important questions are raised on the management of human capital, the kind of functions to be performed by hr with respect to human capital management and the organisation of the hr function for the addition of value in the changing business environment (lawler & mohrman, 2003). it is thus imperative that the hr function fi rst focusses more on strategic issues and then on demonstrating its direct impact on business outcomes through proper measurement. sullivan (2005, p. 148) stated that ‘most c-level executives have come to expect very little from their hr departments with regards to impacting the bottom line other than through cost containment’. it is believed, however, that hr has the highest potential impact on both corporate results and the bottom line. organisations should therefore demand that their hr shift from its traditional decision-making model based on intuition to one based on data. the question is: how can an organisation ensure that its hr function transforms? according to sullivan, ceos should demand change by instilling accountability (hr should accept accountability for the measurement of and continual • increase in workforce productivity), demanding speed, quality, cost effi ciency and improved bottom-line impact demanding data-based decision making• making managers accountable and reward them appropriately for good results.• hall (2005, p. 102) believed that, in fi ve years, the hr function would look very like any other strategic part of an organisation. he felt that, in future, hr leaders may view their roles as part of the following three components: hr leaders should be strategic partners with their business counterparts and be aligned with their • respective business units hr leaders should leverage centres of expertise to provide baseline programmes for payroll and • benefi ts, for example hr should focus even more on talent acquisition and retention. this is where companies could • gain true competitive advantage: having the right people in the right job doing the right work. a possible fourth component that hr leaders may use is the consideration of how their processes may be integrated and supported by even more robust technology for greater effi ciency (hall, 2005). according to ulrich (1998), some consensus is emerging on several themes: hr is under scrutiny, which is to be welcomed• hr, as we know it, should change• a changing hr will represent important challenges and will require new competencies• original research de bruyn & roodt sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 0 (page number not for citation purposes) 177 vol. 7 no. 1 page 2 of 11 if hr does not meet the challenges of change, it is at risk of • being disbanded. ulrich (2005) stated that the universal value premise is that value is defined by the receiver more than the giver. this requires hr professionals to focus less on what they do and more on what they deliver. it is therefore imperative that hr professionals understand emerging basic trends for them to have credibility at the strategic table and to support statements with empirical data about these business trends. according to meisinger (in cascio & boudreau, 2008), many hr professionals are still not competent in the use of measurement to move their business forward. rationale for the study kochan and dyer (1993) reported that the strategic hrm models of the 1980s were too limited and reactive in character because they depended heavily on the values, strategies and support of top executives and line managers. they mentioned that a model capable of achieving sustained and transformational change should incorporate more active roles in respect of other stakeholders. sanz-valle, sabater-sanchez and aragon-sanchez (1999) examined matches between hr practices and types of business strategies and found significant associations between some hr practices and business strategies in companies. with these taken into consideration, the value-proposition model by ulrich and brockbank (2005) (see the following) provides a framework for the assessment of the hr function’s role and a way of building a specific hr strategy. the model by ulrich and brockbank incorporates what can and should exist for all stakeholders, namely (1) a set of standards directing hr investment in strategy, structure and practices, and (2) a template for ensuring that each hr professional contributes towards achieving this. literature review the value-proposition model by ulrich and brockbank (2005) emphasises that hr succeeds when it creates value by meeting the requirements of five elements. the aim of this study was to evaluate the extent to which hr meets the requirements of these five elements, which are set out here. knowing external business realities every firm operates in the context of external business realities. the external business realities that currently have the greatest influence on external customers and owners are the radical transformation of technology, economic and regulatory environments, and major changes in human demographics, all in a context of increasing globalisation (ulrich & brockbank, 2005). brown (2003) stated that hr departments are not simply trying to improve what they have always done but are also transforming through the re-creation and reinvention of an hr function driven by a business need rather than by an hr-function need. the top driver of transformation is the desire to become a more strategic function and to align hr with the organisation’s strategic goals (brown, 2003). christensen (2005) supported the view that hr leaders should prove that they deserve to sit at the conference table. he stated that, to accomplish this goal, hr leaders should ensure that they thoroughly understand the business, including the products, sales strategies and customer service. hagen (1998) and christensen shared the same view of the hr function being an ‘organisational architect’ or ‘scout’ by scanning the landscape and environment and by integrating ‘people issues’ with corporate business components. longbottom (2005) argued that the function is better employed in providing leadership on people matters as a means of delivering competitive advantage. this is where value is added. according to him, hr is increasingly becoming central to every management decision, reflecting the pivotal role of people in the delivery of business objectives. serving internal and external stakeholders value is defined by the receivers of hr work – investors, customers, line managers and employees – more than the givers. hr is successful if and when its stakeholders perceive that it produces value (ulrich & brockbank, 2005) or that it is effective. according to boudreau and ramstad (2007, p. 120), effectiveness describes the relationship between talent and organisational performance and the portfolio of policies and practices that creates and supports that performance. cantrell (2005) agreed with ulrich and brockbank that effectiveness is not measured by inputs but by results. mayo (2004, p. 7) added to these arguments by recommending that a clear distinction be made between hr’s ‘functional added value’ and the value that people throughout an organisation can add to different stakeholders. hagen (1998) described the role of hr as that of a chess master engaging in constant evaluation of all ‘players’ on the ‘chess board’, determining how best to influence and leverage change champions with the authority to make change happen. christensen (2005) emphasised that hr should serve line managers in such a way that they do not attempt to resolve any people or organisational matters without advice from and consultation with the hr function. crafting hr practices – (people, performance, information and work processes) people and performance management are the traditional province of hr but hr professionals should also devote their attention to two additional areas: the flow of information and the flow of work. these emerging hr activity areas have greater impact on the human side of a business and add value to key stakeholders (meisinger in cascio & boudreau, 2008; ulrich & brockbank, 2005). the use of metrics in hr is slowly growing but many typical metrics have no causal relationships to desired outcomes. it is proposed that hr executives be given the opportunity to sit at the executive-committee table as strategic partners by adopting new innovative solutions from the marriage of science, technology and intellectual resources (singh & latib, 2005). although many academic researchers have emphasised the need for measurement and hr metrics (cantrell, 2005; higgins, 2005; mayo, 2004; singh & latib, 2005; sullivan, 2005), there is still a significant gap between the stated objectives of hr functions and the methods used to measure their performance and valueadd to organisational goals. longbottom (2005, p. 15) disagreed with this argument. he claimed that the hr profession has come to a sorry state if it stakes its reputation on such a blunt instrument and the structures of regulatory compliance. he also mentioned that statistical data should not be confused with the key performance indicators that are integral to the management of a business. longbottom stated that playing the numbers game does not raise the profile or improve the performance of the hr profession; neither does it secure the place of hr as a strategic business partner to the chief executive. huselid, becker and beatty (2005) suggested that hr success is about driving workforce success and that hr success should therefore be measured by the impact of hr on workforce success through effective hr practices. conner and ulrich (1996) believed that, for hr effectiveness to be improved and for it to have greater impact, the hr function should understand how to add value in an organisation by helping line managers align hr and practices with business needs. s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #200 (page number not for citation purposes) applying the criteria of ulrich and brockbank 178vol. 7 no. 1 page 3 of 11 building human resources effective hr leaders align their departments with the organisations that they serve and match their resources with business requirements. at the top, hr should help to make the whole corporation greater than the sum of its parts and to implement practices that support corporate strategies, build shareholder value and shape the corporate image (ulrich & brockbank, 2005). boxall and purcell (2003) stated that strategic hrm is concerned with explaining how hrm influences organisational performance. strategic hrm is based on hrm principles incorporating the concept of strategy. wright (1992) added to this by highlighting two important dimensions that distinguish strategic hrm from traditional hrm. this entails the linking of hrm practices with the strategic management process of an organisation and coordination or congruence among the various hrm practices. hagen (1998) explained that the role of a strategic business partner requires not only a shift in thinking on the part of hr professionals but, more importantly, also a shift in behaviour. he mentioned that, by understanding their new roles and associated behaviours, hr professionals are better equipped to partner with business line and executives to become a strategic business partner. lawler and mohrman (2003) argued that the hr function can make and increasingly is making significant contributions to building an organisation that is staffed by the right human capital to carry out the work of the organisation and work according to its business strategy. this aspect is specifically investigated in this study. hr professionalism hr professionals are employee advocates charged with ensuring that the employer-employee relationship is one of reciprocal value. besides advocating for employees today, they also build the future workforce as human-capital developers. they are furthermore functional experts, designing and delivering hr practices that ensure individual ability and create organisational capability. as strategic partners, they help line managers at all levels to reach their goals. and, to tie it all together, they should be genuine leaders, credible both within their hr function and to those outside (ulrich & brockbank, 2005). christensen (2005) agreed that hr professionals are poised to assume major responsibilities and should become key players in the evolution of business strategy. hagen (1998) stated that hr professionals should demonstrate skills and knowledge in change management, strategic hr planning, talent management, merger and acquisition integration and rationalisation, global team development and strategic diversity. research questions ulrich and brockbank (2005) developed a framework for the assessment of hr functions that draws on an 18-year study of more than 29 000 hr professionals and line managers worldwide. the framework provides value-focused criteria for hr and identifies the actions that hr should take to become a strategic business partner. they believed that the emphasis for hr should be on deliverables – not processes – and on the contribution of value. ulrich and brockbank (2005) stated that, for hr to create value, hr should know the meaning of value. this includes the understanding of the external business reality of technology, of economic and regulatory issues and of workforce demographics that affect its organisation. hr should also know its internal stakeholders, customers and investors, and what they value. the framework furthermore examines how hr practices add value by handling the flow of people, the flow of performance management, the flow of information and the flow of work. to further our understanding, we assessed the hr function of an organisation (explained under the research method) by applying the value-proposition model by ulrich and brockbank (2005). the research questions addressed in this study were as follows: can a traditional hr function be evaluated to determine the • degree of strategic alignment of the hr function within the strategic business objectives of the organisation? has the hr function of the organisation completed the • transformation to become a successful strategic business partner? the framework is presented in table 1, which illustrates the five elements and 14 criteria of the value proposition. the objective of this study was to assess, in qualitative terms, whether the hr function of a mining company meets the requirements of the five elements and 14 criteria by ulrich and brockbank (2005) of becoming a strategic business partner. the organisation first needed to become a successful strategic business partner before it could proceed to the next development phase of human-capital metrics. the rest of the article’s structure is as follows: a description of the research design entailing a detailed description of the table 1 five elements and fourteen criteria by ulrich and brockbank of the hr value proposition in becoming a strategic business partner premise of the hr value proposition elements of the hr value proposition criteria for an effective hr function hr succeeds when it creates value knowing external business realities 1. recognises external business realities and adapts practices and allocates resources accordingly serving external and internal stakeholders 2. creates market value for investors by increasing intangibles 3. increases customer share by connecting with target customers 4. helps line managers deliver strategy by building organisational capabilities 5. clarifies and establishes an employee value proposition and ensures employees have the abilities to do their jobs crafting hr practices 6. manages people processes in ways that add value 7. manages performance-management processes and practices in ways that add value 8. manages information processes and practices in ways that add value 9. manages work-flow processes and practices in ways that add value building hr resources 10. has a clear strategic planning process for aligning hr investments with business goals 11. aligns its organisation with the strategy of the business ensuring hr professionalism 12. has staff who play clear and appropriate roles 13. builds staff ability to demonstrate hr competencies 14. invests in professionalism through training and development experiences original research de bruyn & roodt sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 0 (page number not for citation purposes) 179 vol. 7 no. 1 page 4 of 11 research approach, strategy and method follows. the findings of the case study are then discussed. finally, recommendations, limitations and suggestions for further research are offered. research design research approach according to saunders, lewis and thornhill (2003), the research philosophy of researchers depends on the way in which researchers think about the development of knowledge, which also affects the way in which they go about doing research. there are three views about the way in which knowledge is developed and judged as being acceptable: positivism, realism and interpretivism. from the interpretivist position, the subjective meanings motivating people’s actions should be explored to understand the phenomena. from this paradigm, the researcher is interested in understanding the views of hr personnel and line managers on the strategic contribution of the hr function to the execution of strategy. as this study was conducted within the organisation of which the researcher was an employee, the role of a practitionerresearcher was adopted. the advantage of this position was that the first author who did the field work had extensive knowledge of the organisation and understood the complexity of what went on in the organisation. she was also, however, very conscious of the assumptions and preconceptions that were held, as this could prevent her from exploring issues that would enrich the research. the authors were therefore careful of threats to the quality of the data by being too close to the research setting (saunders et al., 2003). qualitative methodology is dialectical and interpretative. during the process of interaction between the researcher and the subject, the subject’s world is discovered and interpreted by means of qualitative methods. the qualitative-research paradigm refers to research that elicits participant accounts of meaning, experience or perception. it also produces descriptive data in the participant’s own written or spoken words. it thus involves identifying the participant’s beliefs and values that underlie the phenomena. research strategy the hr forum of the organisation was chosen as the case to be investigated in this study. a case study is defined as an empirical enquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, when the boundaries between the phenomenon and the context are not clearly evident, and in which multiple sources of evidence are used (saunders et al., 2003, p. 93; yin, 1994). a case study was adopted as research strategy for the purpose of this study, as it generates answers to the questions ‘why?’, ‘what?’ and ‘how?’ research method ‘research method’ refers to the process applied to execute a research strategy. research methods are also described as ‘the way to the goal’. research context and entrée as an hr practitioner and a member of the organisation, the first author had a special relationship with the hr forum. the advantage of being an employee of the organisation where the study was undertaken was that the researcher possessed knowledge of the organisation and understood the complexity of what went on in it. the organisation is the world’s leading primary producer of precious group metals. it is listed on the securities exchange and the johannesburg stock exchange and is the sole listed entity for the group. the group is also listed on other international stock exchanges. each of the subsidiaries has an hr function as part of the group hr department and is managed by an hr manager. these hr managers are all part of a forum known as the hr forum, which is led by the group hr director. the different stream leaders (transformation, organisational effectiveness, talent management and hr development) are also members of the hr forum. it was the members of the hr forum who were targeted for the focus group and one-on-one interviews. participants all the participants were experts in the field of hr and, by using the focus-group interviewing method, the participants’ knowledge and experience were explored. the first author was able to examine what they thought, how they thought and why they thought that way. this is called purposive sampling, meaning that individuals with particular hr knowledge, for example, are selected for the focus groups. focus groups were utilised to assess the hr function to determine the strategic alignment of the hr function within the organisation. terre blanche & durrheim (1999) called this convenience or opportunistic sampling. the members of the focus groups were homogenous (the participants share key features), preexisting (the groups comprise work colleagues) and concerned (the participants ‘have a stake’ in the outcome of the research) (willig, 2003, p. 30). five senior hr managers were interviewed in the individual interviews. data collection the model by ulrich and brockbank (2005) was utilised to assess the value add of the hr function by applying the integrated hr blueprint for the transformation of the hr function as developed by ulrich and brockbank. in this blueprint, ulrich and brockbank identified five elements and established 14 criteria for hr with a value focus. the hr function of the organisation was assessed to determine the elements of the hr value framework that were and were not in place. assessments rely on the assembling of data, a task that involves two issues: content and process. content deals with the information that is collected and process with how it is collected (ulrich & brockbank, 2005, p. 16). the five elements of the hr value proposition indicated the framework used to assess the overall hr function in the organisation. based on the identified five elements, an interview protocol was created to assess the hr business-partner role within the organisation. qualitative interviews and document reviews were used. the two different types of qualitative interviews that were used were one-on-one and focus-group interviews. one focus-group interview was conducted with selected hr managers and the one-on-one interviews were conducted with selected line managers and other senior managers within the organisation. the overall purpose of the focus group and one-on-one interviews was to explore the topic in depth through group and individual discussions. solicited document reviews were done to obtain comprehensive and historical information on the hr value add according to the five elements and 14 criteria for hr with a value focus identified by ulrich and brockbank (2005). one-on-one interviews• a general interview-guide approach was used to ensure that the same general areas of information were collected from the various interviewees. this interview approach provided more focus than the conversational approach but still allowed a degree of freedom and adaptability in obtaining information from the interviewees (mcnamara, 1999). interview guides ensure the good use of limited interview time, make the interviewing of multiple subjects more systematic s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #200 (page number not for citation purposes) applying the criteria of ulrich and brockbank 180vol. 7 no. 1 page 5 of 11 and comprehensive and help to keep interactions focused. in keeping with the flexible nature of qualitative-research design, interview guides can be modified over time to focus attention on the areas of particular importance or to exclude questions that the researcher finds unproductive for the goals of the research (hoepfl, 1997). focus-group interviews• focus groups are powerful means of evaluating services or testing new ideas. basically, focus groups are interviews but of six to ten people at the same time in the same group. a great deal of information can be obtained during a focus-group session (mcnamara, 1999). according to mcnamara (1999), the advantage of focus-group interviews is that common impressions can be obtained from participants quickly and reliably, with much range and depth of information. mcnamara (1999) also mentioned that the challenges are that it can be hard to analyse responses and that a good facilitator is needed for safety and closure. he furthermore mentioned that it can be difficult to schedule six to eight people together for a session. the interviews were structured according to sound ethical principles: the whole objective of the research was explained• techniques were used to help the individuals to express • themselves. the reliability of the interviews was assured through a precise description of the situation and through the method of data collection, analysis and interpretation. complete notes were made of the interviews that took place, giving an exposition of the interviewer’s influence within the research framework. data recording data were captured by means of field notes. according to schurink (2004), field notes are the written account of what researchers hear, see, experience and think in the course of the collecting of and reflecting on data in qualitative-research studies. they are not merely summaries of events but detailed reproductions of what takes place. the researcher in the present study typed the field notes on a computer, where they were safely stored. this saved time during the marking, coding, copying and moving of parts of the field notes to various texts. schurink also mentioned that field notes are a step towards data analysis. he stated that note writing forces researchers to think clearly about particular observations, what exactly happened, where events occurred, when events took place, who the actors were and how they experienced events. notes on aspects such as non-verbal communication between the interviewer and the subject, and the physical circumstances in which the interview took place were written down. the researcher ensured that all the notes made in this data-collection phase were then clearly and systematically typed. a coding system was utilised to store the data in the analytic files. according to schurink (2004), the task of coding by a researcher is to recognise persistent words, phrases and themes within the data for later retrieval and resorting. the coding system was managed manually. solicited documentation review hoepfl (1997) claimed that another source of information that can be invaluable to qualitative researchers is the analysis of documents. such documents may include official records, letters, newspaper accounts, diaries and reports as well as the published data used in a review of literature. for the purpose of this study, the documentation that was reviewed comprised strategic planning documents for 2006/7; performance-management templates• policy documents• procedures• minutes of meetings during 2006/7.• data analysis saunders et al. (2003) distinguished between the deductive and the inductive approach, as follows: deductive: to develop a theory and hypothesis and design a • research strategy to test the hypothesis inductive: to collect data and develop theory as a result of • data analysis. according to saunders et al. (2003), the deductive approach owes more to positivism and the inductive approach to interpretivism. recently, qualitative researchers have paid less attention to differences and have accepted a mix between the two. this study aimed to obtain the experiences (the opinion and understanding) of individuals on the strategic contribution of the hr function to the execution of strategy (the context). the most appropriate approach for the sake of this study was therefore to follow an inductive-qualitative approach, as this approach allowed the study of the phenomena as they unfolded in the real situations, without manipulation, as interrelated wholes rather than as split–up, discreet, predetermined variables. ‘the aim of data analysis is to transform information (data) into an answer to the original research question’ (saunders et al., 2003, p. 47). qualitative data consist of words and observations, not numbers. as with all data, analysis and interpretation are required to bring order and understanding. for the purpose of this study, we used a content-analysis approach, as narrative data needed to be analysed and interpreted. the focus-group interviews produced narrative data in the form of full transcripts and notes and the individual interviews produced data in the form of notes, a summary or word-to-word transcripts. documents, reports and articles served as evaluation data. the core of qualitative-data analysis relies on three related processes: the description of phenomena, the classification of the phenomena and the interconnectedness of the concepts. the first phase was therefore to develop a thorough and comprehensive description of the phenomenon under study. the second was to classify the data that formed the conceptual foundation upon which the interpretation and explanation were based. the third was to make connections among the building blocks of the concepts of the analysis. the analysis of the qualitative results and findings is presented here. results element 1: knowing external business realities the findings on knowing external business realities are presented in table 2. the findings in table 2 may be summarised as follows: the content of the themes and the exemplary quotes • indicated the challenges that the organisation faced in dealing with external business realities the hr function was aware of the basic trends relative • to the technological, economic and regulatory issues and contributed meaningfully to management discussions in this regard according to solicited document reviews that were done, • the organisation reacted to challenges posed by emerging external business realities by initiating an enhanced safetyimprovement plan it is thus evident that the organisation was fully aware of • external business realities and that hr played an integral part as the driver of this change and of business transformation all hr strategies wer• e aligned with the enhanced safetyimprovement plan and the overall business strategy. original research de bruyn & roodt sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 0 (page number not for citation purposes) 181 vol. 7 no. 1 page 6 of 11 the evidence provided confirmed that the organisation, together with the hr function, was aligned with criterion 1, as it recognised external business realities, adapted practices and allocated resources accordingly. element 2: serving external and internal stakeholders the findings on serving external and internal stakeholders are presented in table 3. in summary, the analysis of the data indicated that line managers were starting to accept hr interventions in their management roles. line managers should experience a more integrated, aligned and standardised approach from hr. the document reviews indicated that the hr function was producing value to stakeholders by focusing on four strategic issues over a three-year period: ‘war for talent’ and the addressing of skills shortages• an hr information-system project• an hr review process• the implementation of the enhanced safety-improvement • plan. focus on the 'war for talent' and the addressing of skills shortages will create market value for shareholders, as the right people with the right skills doing the right things will be attracted and retained. focus on the addressing of skills shortages will ensure that employees have the abilities to do their jobs (criteria 2 and 5). • the hr review process was undertaken by the hr department as a means to ensure that the hr function was table 2 emerging themes pertaining to element 1: knowing external business realities element criterion emerging themes exemplary supportive evidence element 1 criterion 1 themes quotes knowing external business realities recognises external business realities and adapts practices and allocates resources accordingly current market share• social, legal and economic • challenges undergoing of transformation• alignment of hr strategies and • practices ‘the most critical element is the current market share and the organisation’s control of the majority of known resources.’ ‘the resources are vulnerable, unless the organisation addresses the social, legal and economic challenges successfully.’ ‘the organisation is currently an organisation undergoing transformation and hrs need to understand the changing business context.’ ‘the organisation has gone through a restructuring process of the mining and processing divisions to enable the mine manager to focus on greater efficiency in the extraction of the metal.’ ‘hr will need to align this hr strategy to the safety improvement initiative and will need to keep track of the environment.’ table 3 emerging themes pertaining to element 2: serving external and internal stakeholders element criterion emerging themes exemplary supportive evidence element 2 criterion 2 themes quotes serving external and internal stakeholders creates market value for investors by increasing intangibles competent people as enablers• effective talent-management practices• ‘competent people are the enabler to the achievement of goals which is to work safely, on target, doing the right thing right the first time, efficiently and effectively.’ ‘effective talent management has an impact on most priorities and the current attrition rate is concerning.’ ‘the war for talent exists! also in hr.’ criterion 3 themes quotes increases customer share by connecting with target customers competence taken to the workforce• management of expectations• • alignment, integration and application of processes ‘competence needs to be taken to the workplace, whereby the best performing specialist is becoming the hr person to train the people in their normal production area.’ ‘hr practitioners must start managing the expectations of their customers and stakeholders in order to proof their valued contribution and success.’ ‘hr is delivering – interventions, models, practices and matrixes are in place, which is good. the only problem is the alignment, integration and application of processes.’ criterion 4 themes quotes helps line managers deliver strategy by building organisational capabilities lacking of people skills in line managers• handover of responsibilities from hrs to line managers• ‘line managers are lacking people skills and are not adequately equipped to take up the role of human capital managers as opposed to their daily production activities.’ ‘the organisation will need to plan strategically how hrs will hand over responsibilities to line.’ criterion 5 themes quotes clarifies and establishes an employee value proposition and ensures employees have the abilities to do their work training as entity on its own• overload of interventions• development of people as a whole• ‘training is seen as a separate entity from the work environment and there is a lack of integration between trainer, trainee and manager. thus the benefit of training is lost!’ ‘there is currently an overload of interventions and it dilutes the purpose.’ ‘a new approach to people development is needed where a person will be developed as a whole. not training for competence, but for completeness.’ s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #200 (page number not for citation purposes) applying the criteria of ulrich and brockbank 182vol. 7 no. 1 page 7 of 11 positioned to support business imperatives and line managers to deliver on its mandate, especially in view of expansion requirements. it was envisaged that the implementation of the hr review would address criteria 3 and 4 successfully. element 3: crafting hr practices the findings on crafting hr practices are presented in table 4. the analysis of the data indicated that culture change was needed within hr and effective talent-• management practices were imperative a new culture was evolving and the need for more effective • talent-management processes was realised (criterion 6) the content of the themes and the exemplary quotes indicated • that the hr function faced huge challenges with regard to its information system and the integrity of its data the hr information-system project was to address the • challenges with regard to information, data integrity and the flow of information (criterion 8) the performance-management process was still individually • based and focused on inputs rather than results (criterion 7) the work-flow processes and practices were still simplistic • and not managed in ways that added value (criterion 9). element 4: building hr resources the findings on building hr resources are presented in table 5. in summary, the analysis of the data indicated that the size of the organisation posed many challenges to the • table 4 emerging themes pertaining to element 3: crafting hr practices element criterion emerging themes exemplary supportive evidence element 3 criterion 6 themes quotes crafting hr practices manages people processes in ways that add value necessity of culture evolution • in hr identification and retention of • talented employees ‘a culture evolution is needed and it will start with the building of capacity of hr personnel, competence of employees, building of trusting relationships and creating an environment that is conducive for change.’ ‘strategic alignment and focus are crucial and hrs need to focus on attracting the right people, effective talent identification, focussed development and retention of skills. in order to move from good to great we need to retain the right thinkers with the right capabilities.’ criterion 7 themes quotes manages performancemanagement processes and practices in ways that add value when are hrs successful?• focus on individual • performance ‘how can one determine whether hr is a high performing team?’ ‘is hr successful when it has reached its targets or when the customer satisfaction has improved?’ ‘currently the performance of hr is measured by means of an individual performance agreement and only for hr professionals in supervisory and management positions. the system must be rolled out to all levels to improve efficiency and effectiveness.’ criterion 8 themes quotes manages information processes and practices in ways that add value reliability of hr data and • systems inadequate sap training• necessity of relevant metrics • and data integrity ‘we cannot rely on the information provided by the hr system.’ ‘the bridge between it and hr must be strengthened.’ ‘the sap training is not adequate. it only provides trainees with access to a screen and the training does not address the holistic process.’ ‘hr needs to ensure its impact on the organisation by implementing relevant metrics, but the systems to provide accurate and relevant data are lagging.’ ‘hrs’ inability to provide data of integrity is hampering their operational excellence.’ criterion 9 themes quotes manages work-flow processes and practices in ways that add value hr value chain• simplicity of systems and • processes ‘hr must manage labour and talent.’ ‘the hr value chain needs to be implemented to its fullest by putting the necessary systems and processes in place.’ ‘the simplicity of systems and processes is causing problems for hr and a total mindset change is needed.’ table 5 emerging themes pertaining to element 4: building hr resources element criterion emerging themes exemplary supportive evidence element 4 criterion 10 themes quotes building hr resources has a clear strategic planning process for aligning hr investments with business goals • linking of strategy to hr infrastructure • challenge of size of organisation ‘workforce strategy needs to be linked to the hr infrastructure to ensure the right resources to address the need for a competent workforce.’ ‘hr must be careful not to define its mission too broadly, specifically at strategic level.’ ‘the size of the organisation is a challenge and it forces the hr function to create specialist positions, which is causing silo effects and crisis management without specific focus.’ criterion 11 themes quotes aligns its organisation to the strategy of the business • hr development emphasis • resource allocation • transactional vs. strategic-issues focus ‘the efficiency and effectiveness of the organisation are directly linked to hr development and the development of the person as a whole has a huge impact on cost efficiency and the way the organisation mines.’ ‘hr resources need to be allocated to specific focus areas, taking diversity and change into consideration.’ ‘the organisation must relook at its business model and must do a comparison of the hr function as an internal service provider, whose focus needs to be on strategic issues and not on competing with the external service providers.’ ‘there is currently a lack of strategic direction and no collective thought in solutions to problems.’ ‘hr is currently fighting fires and is falling behind on transactional issues and there is no time to concentrate on strategic issues.’ original research de bruyn & roodt sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 0 (page number not for citation purposes) 183 vol. 7 no. 1 page 8 of 11 hr function, as all strategies were directly linked to hr management effective resource allocation had a direct impact on • hr’s ability to implement practices that meet business requirements and support strategies due to the amount of transactional issues, hr had no • resources (time or people) to concentrate on strategic issues the hr review process was addressing the structural • changes that should take place within the hr function to address criteria 10 and 11 effectively. element 5: ensuring hr professionalism the findings on ensuring hr professionalism are presented in table 6. in summary, the findings suggested the following: the content of the emerging themes and exemplary quotes • indicated that the organisation experienced difficulty in retaining hr professionals and that the 'war for talent' was not a reality within hr hr’s competence, maturity and depth of experience were • questionable. according to the hr director, there were three primary tasks that should be performed: hr should lead business transformation• hr should align the hr strategy with the enhanced safety-• improvement plan initiative hr should drive cultural change.• to achieve these tasks, hr should understand the changing business contextkeep • track of the environment• develop the capabilities needed to drive transformation• develop a sense of curiosity.• it was clear that, for hr to be perceived as professional, the hr vision, values and defined tasks should be implemented and behaviour that demonstrated support of the values should be observable to ensure excellent service delivery and credibility among stakeholders (criteria 12, 13 and 14). discussion knowing external business realities the organisation is undergoing transformation and hr should transform accordingly. the newly appointed ceo demands improved safety performance, higher productivity, a caring culture and performance excellence. according to sullivan (2005), hr transforms only if the ceo demands change, instils accountability within hr, and demands speed, quality, cost efficiency and improved bottom-line impacts. this, together with the context of increasing globalisation, is imperative for hr to keep abreast with the latest developments and to be aware of the influence of external business realities on hr’s performance. hr professionals being ‘at the table’ requires more than just simple familiarity with hr issues or internal operations; it requires knowledge about the driving forces that shape the fundamental nature of business (boudreau, 2007; ulrich & brockbank, 2005). it is evident from the findings that the organisation realises the external business realities and that hr plays an integral part as the driver of this change and of the business transformation. all hr strategies should be aligned with the enhanced safetyimprovement plan and the overall business strategy. this aligns with the views of brown (2003), christensen (2005) and hagen (1998) that hr transformation entails the integration of people issues with business issues. the evidence confirms that the organisation, together with the hr function, is aligned to criterion 1, as it recognises the external business realities and adapts practices and allocates resources accordingly. serving external and internal stakeholders from the analysis of the results, it is evident that hr should focus more on effective and efficient talent acquisition and retention to create market value for its investors. as previously mentioned, competent people are the enablers to the achievement of goals, and higher competitive advantage can be gained by increasing the competence of the workforce. hr is, however, delivering, which table 6 emerging themes pertaining to element 5: ensuring hr professionalism element criterion emerging themes exemplary supportive evidence element 5 criterion 12 themes quotes ensuring hr professionalism has staff who play clear and appropriate roles talent war• competence and capabilities of • hr professionals standardisation, ownership and • role clarity ‘getting and keeping talent are a challenge even in the hr function.’ ‘the overall competence and capabilities of hr professionals need to be improved, especially in the organisational development and talent management areas.’ ‘standardisation is taking too long, operational hr is not taking ownership and capacity problems to deliver on most sites are posing challenges.’ ‘responsibility for standardisation needs to be owned by operations and cannot be done from a central point.’ ‘role clarity and an alignment of efforts will ensure success within the hr’s function and it will ensure that the client experiences an integrated and focused hr approach to fulfil the business requirements.’ criterion 13 themes quotes builds staff ability to demonstrate hr competencies • coaching • lack of competence ‘i feel that the most experienced practitioner needs to coach the young inexperienced workforce.’ ‘passion and drive are not a problem in hrs, they lack competence.’ criterion 14 themes quotes invests in hr professionalism through training and development experiences • lack of depth of experience in hrs • necessity of improvement in maturity levels • giving and receiving of constructive criticism • necessity of change in mindset ‘due to the high turnover rate of hr professionals, there is a lack of depth of experience and the labour forces need to be stabilised at all supervisory levels.’ ‘i feel that the maturity levels of hr professionals need to improve and they need to show responsibility and accountability for their work.’ ‘hrs must give and be able to receive constructive criticism and must improve their emotional stability and eo.’ ‘a mind set change is needed in order to live the values of the organisation.’ s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #200 (page number not for citation purposes) applying the criteria of ulrich and brockbank 184vol. 7 no. 1 page 9 of 11 is evident in the number of interventions implemented and in the models, practices and matrixes that exist. the only problem is the lack of the integration of interventions and alignment with the overall objectives of the organisation, which is causing line managers to be overloaded with different initiatives and the purpose of the interventions to be diluted. the results indicate that the line managers are starting to accept hrm interventions in their management roles but need a more integrated, aligned, standardised approach from hr. as previously mentioned, christensen (2005) emphasised that hr should serve line managers in such a way that they do not attempt to resolve people issues without advice from and consultation with hr. it is clear that hrm is becoming integral to business operations, as it was recommended that competence be taken to the workforce. hr can be successful only if it starts to manage the expectations of external and internal stakeholders successfully. by focusing on strategic issues, hr can address the expectations of stakeholders through the effective management of the environment. effective management of the environment results in employee satisfaction and a defined employee value proposition, as employee productivity and retention will improve. through this defined value proposition, hr can demonstrate to its stakeholders its strategic contribution to the overall achievement of the organisational goals. crafting hr practices the organisation is challenged by high attrition rates. effective and efficient talent-management practices are imperative in the retention of people skills and of the competencies needed to meet business results. the results from the analysis indicate that the current performance-management processes and practices are not measuring the results of hr but rather the inputs. it is still all about the activity – measuring the effectiveness of hr in terms of traditional measures – and not about the impact of the activity employed. it is evident that the organisation is experiencing problems with the reliability and integrity of the data from the hr information system, to the extent that the line managers are of the opinion that they cannot rely on the data provided by hr. cantrell (2005), higgins (2005), mayo (2004), singh and latib (2005) and sullivan (2005) presented much evidence of the importance of the availability of data and of proper metrics to prove hr strategic contribution to business results. ulrich and brockbank (2005) mentioned that, for credibility, hr professionals should not only understand the logic of external trends but should also have data to back up their position and know where to find such data. the current inability of the hr information system to provide accurate data is destroying hr’s knowledge foundation and hr professionals are not equipped to start meaningful conversations about customers, shareholders, management or employees. building hr resources the content of the emerging themes and exemplary quotes indicate that it is imperative that the workforce strategy be linked to the hr infrastructure to ensure the right resources to address the needs of the organisation. the size of the organisation is posing a challenge to hr and is causing hr to concentrate more on transactional activities and to neglect strategic issues due to resource problems. it is evident from the analysis of the results that the hr function within the organisation is lacking strategic direction and that it tends to over-promise and under-deliver. this may be a result of hr resources not being allocated to specific focus areas and not being aligned to business requirements. the ultimate test for hr is to determine how successfully it serves its customers, line managers and employees. this is measured in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. the effectiveness of hr efforts is measured by the delivery of value through intangibles and through the capabilities and abilities of people. the efficiency of hr efforts is measured by the transactions performed through standardised processes. wright (1992) emphasised that the linking of hrm practices with the strategic-management process of an organisation and the coordination or congruence among various hrm practices are crucial. it is also recommended that the organisation revisit its business model for hr and the different generic patterns that hr normally assumes, these being hr functional organisation, hr shared services and embedded hr. the hr review process is addressing the structural changes that should take place within the hr function to ensure strategic alignment between the hr function and business requirements. ensuring hr professionalism the analysis of the results indicates that the organisation is experiencing difficulty in retaining hr professionals and that the ‘war for talent’ within hr is a reality (boudreau & ramstad, 2007). as previously mentioned, passion and drive are not a problem in hr but rather a lack of competence, especially in the organisational-development and talent-management functions. due to the high turnover rate of hr professionals, there is a lack of depth in experience, the maturity levels of the new entrants are low and there is a lack of accountability and responsibility. role clarity is also still problematic. it is thus evident that the hr professionals within the organisation are not yet in a position to fulfil their future roles as strategic partners, which will leverage their centres of expertise. hall (2005) mentioned that hr should focus more on talent acquisition and retention; the organisation is currently not very successful in this area, since processes are not yet integrated or supported by technology for greater efficiency. ulrich and brockbank (2005) described the various roles of hr professionals as being strategic partner, functional expert, human-capital developer, employee advocate and hr leader. for the organisation to ensure hr professionalism, it should have hr practitioners who play clear and appropriate roles and whose ability is developed through training with a view to the achievement of the required hr competencies. it is clear that, for hr to be perceived as professional, the hr vision, values and defined tasks should be implemented and the behaviour that demonstrates support of the values should be observable to ensure excellent service delivery and credibility among the stakeholders. this view is supported by hagen (1998) and christensen (2005) in literature. conclusion the purpose of this study was to assess, in a qualitative manner, whether the specific organisation’s hr function meets the requirements of the five competency elements and 14 criteria by ulrich and brockbank (2005) to become a strategic business partner (hence the dichotomous categories). the results are indicated in table 7. within this context, there is evidence that the hr function of the organisation is starting its transition from an operational hr to a more strategically focused hr. the organisation is aware of its external business realities and strategies are being developed but the implementation of the strategies, however, seems to be problematic. the organisation is also starting to become more focused on maximum value from people but it needs to integrate, standardise and align processes more effectively. proof of hrm becoming an integral part of business operations includes business partners who understand the business and hrm serving its external and internal stakeholders more effectively. line managers are also accepting hrm interventions in their management roles and are valuing hrm expertise, evidence of more effective hrm. hr practitioners are furthermore becoming more professional, as there is focus on specific tasks original research de bruyn & roodt sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur s a j ou rn al o f h um an r es ou rc e m an ag em en t http://www.sajhrm.co.za a rt ic le # 20 0 (page number not for citation purposes) and capabilities and as the culture within hr is starting to evolve towards service excellence. recommendations given the technological, economic and regulatory, and demographic realities of our global world, hr insight has been pushed to the forefront of business success. now, more than ever, business success comes from hr, and the ‘dna’ for hr’s success is the hr value proposition. with this value proposition, the hr profession has a point of view about what can and should exist for all stakeholders, a set of standards directing hr investments in strategy, structure and practice, and a template for ensuring that each hr professional contributes to the organisation. the hr value proposition is the blueprint for the future of hr (ulrich & brockbank, 2005). the effectiveness of hr, however, is currently not measured by inputs but rather by results. in many organisations, there is a significant gap between the stated objectives of the hr functions and the methods that the hr functions use to measure their effectiveness. it is recommended that the hr function of the organisation concerned be assessed thoroughly through a quantitative audit to determine which elements of the hr framework are in place in the organisation and which are not. this assessment will provide the hr function with an indication of the strengths and weaknesses of the hr function and will assist the practitioners to focus efforts on the elements in need of attention. with this understanding, the hr professionals will be proactive rather than reactive, control their destiny and add sustainable value. ultimately, with this understanding, the hr professionals will be able to engage in conversations with all the organisational stakeholders and bring sustainable value to the table (ulrich & brockbank, 2005). limitations it must be kept in mind that this study was conducted in only one organisation in the mining industry and that no further assumptions can therefore be made with regard to the mining industry as a whole. the number of participants was also limited due to difficulty experienced in the scheduling of a sufficient number of participants at a given time. a limited number of line managers was also interviewed and their inputs would have been valuable to the process. the quality of the data may be questioned due to the fact that the researcher was very close to the research setting and that the assumptions and preconceptions of the researcher may have prevented issues being explored that could have enriched the research. suggestions for further research cantrell (2005, p. 86) stated that ‘even professional hr consultants will admit that there currently exist few clearly defined performance measures for hr. as a result, the overall knowledge within hr is uneven’ singh and latib (2005) also mentioned that scientific research in this area is limited and, if present at all, is often shoddy. cantrell (2005) further stated that hr is facing such increased pressure to demonstrate accountability for human capital to the business and to the ceo that effective hr metrics have become imperative. research has shown that organisations that take a more rigorous, metrics-based approach to assess the impact of hr interventions on business results have far better business results than organisations that do not use such metrics. the lack of scientific thinking in human-capital management remains virtually universal. cascio and boudreau (2008) concluded that ‘intangible’ does not translate into ‘unmeasurable’. human-capital metrics and benchmarking are two areas that need revamping through scientific thinking. the use of metrics in hr is slowly growing but many of the typical metrics have no causal relationships to the desired outcomes. it is therefore proposed that hr executives be given the opportunity to sit at the executive-committee table as strategic partners by adopting new innovative solutions from the marriage of science, technology and intellectual resources (singh & latib, 2005). we believe that considerable future work is still required to develop a method to identify human-capital metrics for the hr function within a mine and, more particularly, to search and to find relevant data to develop the right metrics that will link hr performance and strategic business objectives. table 7 summary of research findings pertaining to meeting the 14 criteria elements of the hr value propositions criteria for the transformation of the hr function alignment to criterion fully partially knowing external business realities 1. recognises external business realities and adapts its practices and allocates resources accordingly √ serving external and internal stakeholders 2. creates market value for investors by increasing intangibles √ 3. increases customer share by connecting with target customers √ 4. helps line managers deliver strategy by building organisational capabilities √ 5. clarifies and establishes an employee value proposition and ensures employees have abilities to do their jobs √ crafting hr practices 6. manages people processes in ways that add value √ 7. manages performance-management processes and practices in ways that adds value √ 8. manages information processes and practices in ways that add value √ 9. manages work-flow processes and practices in ways that add value √ building hr resources 10. has a clear strategic planning process for aligning hr investments with business goals √ 11. aligns its organisation with the strategy of the business √ ensuring hr professionalism 12. has staff who play clear and appropriate roles √ 13. builds staff ability to demonstrate hr competencies √ 14. invests in hr professionalism through training and development experiences √ vol. 7 no. 1 page 10 of 11 185 s a journal of h um an r esource m anagem ent http://www.sajhrm.co.za sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur original research a rticle #200 (page number not for citation purposes) applying the criteria of ulrich and brockbank references boudreau, j.w., & ramstad, p.m. (2007). beyond hr: the new science of human capital. boston: harvard business school press. boxall, p., & purcell, j. (2003). strategy and hr management. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. brown, d. (2003, 17 november). hr steps to prove strategic value. canadian hr reporter, pp. 20–21. cantrell, s. (2005). how smart hr departments win with business intelligence. in a. warton (ed.), people, performance, profit: maximizing return on human capital investments, (pp. 84–87). san francisco: montgomery research, inc. cascio, w.f., & boudreau, j.w. (2008). investing in people: financial impact of human resource initiatives. upper saddle river: pearson education. christensen, r. (2005). roadmap to strategic human resources. turning a great idea into a business reality. retrieved july 28, 2008, from http://www.getabstract.com conner, j., & ulrich, d. (1996). hr roles: creating value, not rhetoric. hr planning, 19. retrieved july 28, 2008, from http://www.questiamedia.com/corp/site/index.html hagen, c. (1998). the role of human resources in whole systems change: hr as scout, chess master, cartographer, and architect. retrieved june 28, 2008, from http://www.workinfo.com/ free/downloads/170.htm hall, g. (2005). george hall explains how marriott attracts, retains and develops employees. in a. warton (ed.), people, performance, profit: maximizing return on human capital investments, (pp. 102–103). san francisco: montgomery research, inc. higgins, n.j. (2005, 22 november). measured approach to risk avoidance. personnel today, p. 15. hoepfl, m.c. (1997). choosing qualitative research: a primer for technology education researchers, 9(1). retrieved may 9, 2006, from http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/jte/v9n1/hoepfl. html huselid, m., becker, b., & beatty, r. (2005). the workforce scorecard. boston: harvard business school press. kochan, t.a., & dyer, l. (1993). managing transformational change: the role of human resource professionals. the international journal of human resource management, 4(3), 569–590. lawler, e.e., & mohrman, s.a. (2003). human resources as strategic partner: what does it take to make it happen? human resource planning, 26(3), 15–29. longbottom, d. (2005, 22 november). numbers game only adds to confusion. personnel today, p. 15. mayo, a. (2004). making metrics relevant. strategic hr review, 4(1), 7. mcnamara, c. (1999). overview of basic methods to collect information. retrieved may 9, 2006, from http://www. managementhelp.org/research/overview.htm sanz-valle, r., sabater-sanchez, r., & aragon-sanchez, a. (1999). human resource management and business strategy links: an empirical study. international journal of human resource management, 10(4), 655–671. saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2003). research methods for business students’ third edition. new york: pearson education limited. schurink, w.j. (2004). lecture ten: data analysis. models of qualitative research. unpublished lecture notes, johannesburg. singh, p., & latib, m. (2005). achieving breakthrough returns on human capital. in a. warton (ed.), people, performance, profit: maximizing return on human capital investments, (pp. 160–163). san francisco: montgomery research, inc. sullivan, j. (2005). ceos must expect more from their hr function. in a. wharton (ed.), people, performance, profit: maximizing return on human capital investments, (pp. 148–150). san francisco: montgomery research, inc. terre blanche, m., & durrheim, k. (1999). research in practice. cape town: university of cape town press. ulrich, d. (1998). the future calls for change. workforce, 77(1), 87–91. ulrich, d., & brockbank, w. (2005). the hr value proposition. boston: harvard business school press. warton, a. (ed.), people, performance, profit: maximising return on human capital investments. san francisco: montgomery research, inc. willig, c. (2003). introducing qualitative research in psychology. buckingham: open university press. wright, p.m. (1992). theoretical perspectives for strategic hr management. journal of management, 1992, june. retrieved july 28, 2008, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/ mim3495/is850/ain14933140?tag=untagged yin, r. (1994). case study research: design and methods. (2nd edn.). beverly hills: sage publishing. vol. 7 no. 1 page 11 of 11 186 article information authors: ereen mclaggan1 adéle bezuidenhout2 chris t. botha1 affiliations: 1department of people management and development, tshwane university of technology2department of human resource management, university of south africa correspondence to: adéle bezuidenhout postal address: po box 392, unisa 0003, south africa dates: received: 30 june 2012 accepted: 27 june 2013 published: 16 oct. 2013 how to cite this article: mclaggan, e., bezuidenhout, a., & botha, c.t. (2013). leadership style and organisational commitment in the mining industry in mpumalanga. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydksrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #483, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.483 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. leadership style and organisational commitment in the mining industry in mpumalanga in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • problem statement       • background and contextualisation of the study       • trends from the literature: leadership style       • trends from the literature: organisational commitment       • integration of leadership style and organisational commitment • method    • research approach    • research method       • population       • measuring instruments       • research procedure • results • discussion    • limitations of the study    • recommendations for future research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors' contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the mining industry is a notoriously difficult environment in which to achieve positive work outcomes, such as organisational commitment. therefore it was decided to investigate the association between transformational leadership and organisational commitment at a coal mine in phola in the mpumalanga province, a geographical area largely neglected by scientific researchers. research purpose: the aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the transformational and transactional leadership styles (as measured by the multifactor leadership questionnaire 5x) and organisational commitment (as measured by the organisational commitment questionnaire) in the coal mining industry at a specific site in phola. motivation for the study: a need was identified for research to be conducted in the coal mining industry in mpumalanga on a leadership style that enhances organisational commitment. committed employees represent valuable human capital that should be retained for as long as possible research design, approach and method: a quantitative, cross-sectional survey design with random sampling (n = 88) was used to collect the necessary data. both instruments showed acceptable internal consistencies. main findings: statistically significant relationships were found between two variables: organisational commitment (for the purposes of this article, this refers to affective commitment) and leadership styles (transactional and transformational). practical/managerial implications: managers and human resource practitioners will benefit from the knowledge gained by the study. line managers should practise transformational leadership to improve commitment, engagement and satisfaction among their subordinates. contribution/value add: the findings of this research add to the body of existing knowledge on transformational leadership and commitment. valuable insights have been gained on the appropriate leadership style needed to improve commitment in a demanding and under-researched context, namely the coal mining industry in phola, mpumalanga. introduction top ↑ problem statement background and contextualisation of the study the south african mining industry faces continuous challenges in terms of increased demand for productivity, labour unrest, skills shortages, loss of scarce technical skills due to emigration and high turnover rates (van schalkwyk, du toit, bothma & rothmann, 2010). the need for inspired leadership is nowhere more evident than in this dynamic context and increasingly stakeholders, including employees, shareholders, politicians and academics, expect leadership to provide solutions to these organisational problems (hughes, 2010). in today’s fast-paced world, the international pressure on organisations to perform better raises the question of how employees will cope and whether they will stay committed to their organisations. south africa’s coal mining industry is under increasing pressure to produce coal in order to meet the country’s rapid increasing need for electricity. the current debate revolves mainly around the question of whether the managers themselves have sufficient motivation and energy to lead and engage supervisors and, in turn, the ordinary mine workers into the 21st century (rothmann & joubert, 2007).organisations are social systems in which the various human resources are important contributing factors to effectiveness and efficiency. moreover, the optimal development and utilisation of individual characteristics and competencies are crucial to enhance effectiveness in the workplace (jonker & joubert, 2009). this has led researchers to emphasise the importance of reviewing the factors that influence individuals’ job satisfaction and organisational commitment (lumley, 2010) because organisations are unable to succeed without the efforts and commitment of their staff (rad & yarmohammadian, 2006). managers who fail to lead and motivate their personnel may contribute to low productivity (laka-mathebula, 2004). success in an organisation in terms of the attainment of goals and realisation of objectives depends on managers and their leadership style(s). mokgolo, mokgolo and modiba (2012) postulate that transformational leadership is vital to effective management, because the effectiveness of the leader determines the eventual success of the organisation. transformational leaders are able to inspire followers to change their expectations, perceptions and motivations and to work towards common goals (judge & piccolo, 2004). hence, by adopting an appropriate leadership style, managers will have a positive effect on job satisfaction, productivity and organisational commitment of supervisors and employees (rad & yarmohammadian, 2006). organisational commitment in particular has attracted considerable interest as attempts have been made to come to a better understanding of the intensity and stability of an employee’s dedication to the organisation (lumley, 2010). this article is grounded in the multifactor leadership theory, incorporating the transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles. for the purpose of this article, the two leadership styles that will be measured and reported on are the transformational and transactional leadership styles. a large portion of contemporary leadership research has focused on the effects of transformational and charismatic leadership on the motivation and performance of followers (lowe & gardner, 2000). similar research studies in different contexts have documented significant positive correlations between transformational leadership and organisational commitment (emery & baker, 2007; stander & rothmann, 2008). in addition, research indicates that transformational leadership is more effective than transactional leadership in developing leaders and enhancing the loyalty, trust, self-esteem and self-efficacy of followers (northouse, 2010). transformational leaders are proactive; they improve follower awareness of transcendent, collective interests and more importantly they inspire followers to achieve extraordinary goals (antonakis, avolio & sivasubramaniam, 2003). a transformational leader is someone who inspires followers to transcend their own self-interests for the good of the organisation and who is capable of having an effect on their followers (avolio, zhu, koh & bhatia, 2004). in contrast, transactional leadership is an exchange process based on the fulfilment of contractual obligations and is typically represented as setting objectives and monitoring and controlling outcomes (antonakis et al., 2003). transactional leadership tends to be transitory in that once a transaction is completed the relationship ends or will be redefined (lussier & achua, 2010). organisational commitment is conceptualised in the literature as (1) a strong desire to remain a member of a particular organisation, (2) a willingness to achieve high levels of effort on behalf of the organisation, and (3) a definite belief in, and acceptance of, the values and goals of the organisation (luthans, 2010). allen and meyer (1996) in their seminal theory on organisational commitment distinguish between three organisational commitment sub-dimensions: affective, continuance and normative commitment. a significant number of research studies confirm that different leadership styles play a critical role in organisational commitment (elloy, 2005; meyer & allen, 1997; rad & yarmohammadian, 2006; shahzad, rehman & abbas, 2010; stum, 1999) but, due to production pressures, leadership of people in the mining industry is often ignored. for this article, the focus will be on the affective commitment sub-dimension, as previous research results indicate a correlation between leadership style and affective commitment. managers and supervisors may lose sight of the fact that they are dependent on their employees, to the detriment of the staff and eventually the mining plant’s production figures (laka-mathebula, 2004). trends from the literature: leadership style in a rapidly changing world, in which the ongoing development of the potential of the workforce is considered a prerequisite for remaining competitive, it is possible that leadership styles may fail to meet the leadership challenges confronting most organisations today (avolio, 2004). yukl (2010) argues that leadership reflects the assumption that it involves a process in terms of which intentional influence is exerted over other people to guide, structure and facilitate the activities and relationships in either a group or an organisation. stack (2010) concludes that leadership does not mean being the best; rather it refers to the ability to bring out the best in others. for the purpose of this study, it was decided to use the multifactor leadership questionnaire (mlq), -version 5x. it focuses on the transactional and transformational leadership styles, with sub-variants of inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualised consideration and idealised influence. it also investigates the sub-variants of transactional leadership, which include contingent rewards and management by exception (active) and management by exception (passive).transformational leadership may be perceived when a leader and a follower enable each other to advance to a higher level of morale and motivation (nemanich & keller, 2007). through the strength of their vision and personality, transformational leaders are able to inspire followers to change their expectations, perceptions and motivations and to work towards common goals. judge and piccolo (2004) are of the opinion that transformational leadership produces numerous positive outcomes. the evidence suggests that transformational leadership is linked to the outcomes that most organisations, individuals and leaders would value. mokgolo et al. (2012) found in their study within the south african context that engaging in transformational leadership behaviour is an effective strategy to empower line managers to meet the challenges they face. transformational leader induces additional effort by directly increasing the follower’s confidence as well as by elevating the value of outcomes through expanding the transcendental interests and level of needs of the follower (bass, 1985). the followers of transformational leaders are more satisfied with their leaders in comparison with laissez-faire leaders and, by extension, with their jobs as a whole. evidence indicates strong correlations between transformational leadership and extra effort, also referred to as organisational citizenship behaviour, on the part of employees (judge & picollo, 2004). transformational leaders also possess the ability to motivate their subordinates to commit themselves to performance beyond expectation (howell & avolio, 1992). bass (1990) maintains that this may occur in the following three main ways: firstly by raising the level of awareness of the objective of the organisation and how it is to be achieved, secondly by encouraging co-workers to place the organisation’s objectives above their own personal interests and, lastly, by the leader satisfying and stimulating people’s higher-order needs. bass and colleagues (avolio, bass, jung & berson, 2003; bass, 1985, 1997) have identified the following five factors which represent the behavioural components of transformational leadership: • idealised influence (attributes): occurs when followers identify with and emulate those leaders who are trusted and perceived to have an attainable mission and vision. • idealised influence (behaviour): refers to leader behaviour that result in followers identifying with leaders and wanting to emulate them. • inspirational motivation: closely related to idealised influence. it implies that leaders behave in ways that motivate and inspire those around them by providing meaning and challenge as regards their followers’ work. • intellectual stimulation: occurs when leaders encourage their followers to be innovative and creative by questioning assumptions, reframing problems and approaching old situations in new ways. • individual consideration: occurs when leaders relate to followers on a one-on-one basis in order to elevate goals and develop skills. such leaders also consider the individual’s developmental and growth needs. managers who demonstrate individualised consideration often coach, mentor and counsel their subordinates. transactional leadership is an exchange process which is based on the fulfilment of contractual obligations; it is typically represented as setting objectives as well as monitoring and controlling outcomes (antonakis et al., 2003). as a result, it tends to be transitory in that, once a transaction has been completed, the relationship either ends or will be redefined (lussier & achua, 2010). transactional leadership occurs when one person takes the initiative in making contact with others for the purpose of an exchange of valued things. both parties acknowledge the power relationships of the other and together they continue to pursue their respective purposes. they are not bound together by a mutually similar purpose (steward, 2006). bass (1985) and bass and avolio (2004) describe transactional leadership in terms of the use of contingent rewards and management by exception (both active and passive). they view contingent rewards as the rewards that a leader will bestow on a subordinate once the latter has achieved agreed upon goals, encompassing behaviour that is intended to clarify performance expectations, and will follow in exchange for good performance (valeria, 2009). transactional leaders rely on goals and objectives that are set, measured and evaluated by the organisation with transactional leaders monitoring followers to ensure that mistakes are not being made (lussier & achua, 2010). active management by exception spans behaviours that are intended to prevent potential problems in a proactive way before the problems even arise. passive management by exception includes being on the alert for deviations from the expected performance norms and standards, and providing feedback to correct any such deviations from the norm (bass & avolio, 2004). trends from the literature: organisational commitment organisational commitment is described as a multifaceted concept encompassing hard work, the involvement in organisational activities as well as the implicit and explicit identification with organisational values; it reflects loyalty of employees and is an ongoing process (passarelli, 2011). according to greenberg and baron (2010), organisational commitment is associated with a high level of willingness both to share and to make sacrifices.commitment may be conceptualised in a model comprising three components or approaches: affective, continuance and normative commitment (allen & meyer, 1996). these three approaches of commitment may be described as psychologically different orientations towards the organisation. affective commitment refers to an individual’s orientation towards the organisation in terms of loyalty, identification and involvement (robbins, judge, odendaal & roodt, 2010). the individuals who are dedicated on an emotional level usually remain with the organisation because they see their employment as harmonious with the goals and values of the organisation (ferreira, basson & coetzee, 2010). continuance commitment describes the investment that the employee makes in the organisation, for example their contributions, organisation-specific skills that may not be transferable, time and effort. the longer people remain in their organisation, the more they have to lose (ferreira et al., 2010). normative commitment is the third dimension of organisational commitment and reflects feelings of obligation to stay with an organisation as a result of pressures from others. the multidimensionality of organisational commitment reflects its complex nature. the three types of commitment coexist, are not mutually exclusive and it is possible for an employee to develop one or any combination of the three aspects of commitment (laka-mathebula, 2004). morgan (2012) is of the opinion that, from an attachment perspective, it can be said that affective commitment reflects the strength of the relationship, continuance commitment reflects duration and normative commitment reflects responsibility. it is argued that people stay in an organisation either because they want to (affective commitment), because they have to (continuance commitment), or because they ought to (normative commitment). considering the strengths of correlations identified in previous research studies, for the purpose of this article the focus of the analysis will be on the affective commitment sub-dimension. organisational commitment is extremely valuable to an organisation; studies highlight that commitment may impact significantly on the successful performance of an organisation (nehmeh, 2009). it is essential that employees be reassured that their jobs are secure or they will not be prepared to put in more effort to achieve the organisational objectives. certain determinants of organisational commitment fall outside of the managers’ spheres of control, thus providing them with few opportunities to enhance these feelings of commitment. for example, commitment tends to be lower when the economy is such that employment opportunities are plentiful: an abundance of job options will probably lower continuance commitment. despite the fact that leaders are not able to control the external economy there are several options available to them with regard to retaining employees (greenberg, 2009). commitment may be enhanced by enriching jobs firstly through giving employees more authority (coe, zehnder & kinlaw 2008; greenberg 2009), secondly by increasing employee involvement in decision making (gennard & judge, 2005) and thirdly by aligning the interests of the company with those of the employees (wellin, 2007). commitment is a force that binds an individual to a course of action or behaviour, a dynamic process of interaction between individuals and their environment, and as employees become more involved in their organisation, the nature of their commitment changes (liou, 2008). integration of leadership style and organisational commitment rad and yarmohammadian (2006) hypothesise that leadership styles and organisational commitment are highly interrelated, as leaders who practise effective leadership in planning and administering organisational functions will strongly motivate their employees to commit to the organisation. lee (2005) also maintains that there is a positive association between transformational leadership and organisational commitment: a transformational leader’s consideration for their followers’ individuality and willingness to coach them will, in effect, create meaningful exchanges (lee, 2005).stander and rothmann (2008) found that a leader’s behaviour impacts positively on employee attitudes towards their jobs; these positive attitudes in turn result in employees’ desire to maintain their relationship with the company concerned. the purpose of this study was to empirically determine if transformational and transactional leadership styles correlate positively with affective commitment. association between transformational leadership, transactional leadership and organisational commitment is yet to be determined in the coal mining environment. this article will add to existing research on leadership styles and organisational commitment within the mining environment in south africa. this information will be valuable to human resource practitioners, as well as line managers within the mining sector in south africa, as it might contribute to finding a solution to the ongoing labour unrest within this complex context. method top ↑ research approach this study employed a quantitative cross-sectional survey design, measuring the respective constructs and reporting on the statistical correlation between them (maree, 2007; mouton, 2006). research method population at this specific mining plant in phola the total number of supervisors or managers and employees was 120. the population included workers from all levels, ranging from unskilled to semi-skilled, supervisors and team leaders to management. the lowest level of employees had a level of literacy that was adequate for the valid completion of the questionnaires. it was decided to approach every individual and request them to participate in the research study. according to cooper and schindler (2008), this research procedure, where every individual in the target population has an opportunity to participate in the research, is called a census. according to cooper and schindler (2008), a census is appropriate when the population is small and when the elements are quite heterogeneous. they postulate that any sample drawn from a relatively small, heterogeneous population may not be representative of the population from which it is drawn. as the total population at this mining site in phola was only 120 and the population differed in terms of age, gender, education, position in the organisation and ethnicity, it was judged necessary to use a census instead of sampling. it was decided to employ a field worker to strive for maximum participation. although all employees and supervisors or managers had the opportunity to participate in the census, 32 declined to participate. the total number of completed questionnaires received was n = 88. the response rate was thus 73%. this was judged an acceptable response rate to continue with the statistical analysis of the data. the descriptive information of the sample is given in table 1. table 1: characteristics of participants. as indicated in table 1, the majority (75%) of employees were male, as was to be expected in the male-dominated mining environment in south africa. most of the employees were not married (67%). only 25% were on supervisory level, whilst 75% were employees. the majority of employees (57%) had completed grade 12; 24% of employees indicated that they did not finish their secondary education and only 19% of employees had a post-matric qualification, which included a technical trade certificate, a national diploma or a degree. from this information it is evident that the respondents were mostly not ‘highly skilled’. measuring instruments two measuring instruments were used in the empirical study. the multifactor leadership questionnaire (mlq) 5x (bass & avolio, 1990) was developed to measure both transactional and transformational leadership behaviour. for the purposes of this research study, permission was obtained from the developers and the right to use the instrument for this study was purchased. nine sub-scales, including charisma, individualised consideration, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, contingent reward and management by exception (active) and management by exception (passive), are included in order to differentiate leader behaviour further. the mlq is unique in the sense that it identifies a wide spectrum of leadership behaviour, from charismatic behaviour to avoidance of leadership (laissez-faire leadership) (ackermann, schepers, lessing & dannhauser, 2000). the organisational commitment questionnaire (ocq) (meyer, allen & smith, 1993) was used to measure the organisational commitment of employees. affective, continuance and normative commitment dimensions are measured by this questionnaire. the questionnaire consisted of 18 items. a five-point likert response scale was used ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). research procedure the management at the mine was approached and permission was obtained to conduct the study. throughout the study all efforts were made to maintain high ethical standards. anonymity and confidentiality were protected at all times. questionnaires were used to gather primary data and a correlational approach was followed in the data analysis. the questionnaires were hand delivered to the participants and they were completed in pen, returned anonymously and collected immediately afterwards. the respondents in this study represented leaders (team leaders, supervisors and managers) and followers (ordinary mine workers). results top ↑ statistical analysis was carried out with the spss version 13 program (spss, 2005). descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. cronbach alpha coefficients were used to determine the reliability of the measuring instruments (bass & avolio, 2004; field, 2005). pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were used to specify the relationships between the variables. statistical significance was set at a 95% confidence interval level (p < 0.05). the different languages and different educational levels were collapsed to improve statistical significance, as some of the categories had very low levels of representation. languages were grouped into nguni, sotho and afrikaans groups. the different educational levels were grouped in secondary and tertiary groups. one-way analysis of variance (anova) is used to determine whether there are any significant differences between the means of three or more independent (unrelated) groups (field, 2005). in this study, anovas were used to test the correlation between language and organisational commitment. the independent t-test is an inferential statistical test that determines whether there is a statistically significant difference between the means in two unrelated groups (field, 2005). this study employed an independent t-test to determine a possible correlation between organisational commitment and gender, marital status, educational level and organisational level.the descriptive statistics and cronbach alpha coefficients of the measuring instruments are reported in table 2. a cronbach’s alpha of ≥ 0.80 is appropriate for cognitive tests, ≥ 0.70 is more suitable for ability tests and, for psychological constructs, values below < 0.70 can realistically be expected (field, 2005; pallant, 2011). these results indicate the reliability of the instruments, which is consistent with findings of other research. due to the low cronbach alpha of normative and continuance commitment, this sub-dimension was not considered in further analysis. table 2: descriptive statistics and cronbach alpha coefficients of measuring instruments. table 2 indicates that, numerically, the respondents perceived the leadership style used at this specific plant as more transformational (m = 2.55; sd = 0.89), although transactional leadership is also present in the way the leadership in this organisation behaves (m = 2.07; sd = 0.91). table 2 also shows that respondents seem to be more committed to the organisation in terms of affective commitment (m = 3.64; sd = 0.67). an independent sample t-test was conducted to test the association between educational level and the affective organisational commitment sub-scale. the results of the t-test showed no significant difference in the mean scores for secondary education (m = 3.65; sd = 0.643) and tertiary education (m = 3.62; sd = 0.778) in terms of affective commitment: t (86) = 0.168, p = 0.867). there was also no significant difference in mean scores for married employees as regards affective commitment (m = 3.839; sd = 0.606) compared with those employees who are not married (m = 3.535; sd = 0.676): t (78) = 1.989, p = 0.050. accordingly, the empirical study reveals that marital status has no effect on any of the organisational commitment dimensions. a statistically significant difference did not present in the mean scores for male employees as regards affective commitment (m = 3.625; sd = 0.730) compared with female employees (m = 3.689; sd = 0.474): t (86) = 0.384, p = 0.702. accordingly, the empirical results of this study appear to indicate that neither gender nor educational level nor home language shows any association with affective commitment. correlations between the respondents’ leadership style and affective commitment levels are reported in table 3. positive practical correlation coefficients of medium effect were found between affective commitment and idealised influence (attributes), idealised influence (behaviour), inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and contingent rewards. furthermore, a positive practical correlation coefficient of small effect was found between affective commitment and individual consideration. table 3: pearson product-moment correlation as regards organisational commitment and the multifactor leadership questionnaire dimension. this implies a correlation between the transformational and transactional leadership styles used by the supervisor or manager and the level of affective commitment of employees at this coal mining site in phola in the mpumalanga province of south africa. discussion top ↑ the objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between leadership styles and organisational commitment at a mining site in phola in the mpumalanga province. the results showed that a statistically significant relationship exists between transformational and transactional leadership styles and affective commitment. the results indicated that the subordinates of supervisors who adopt a transformational leadership style, who show an interest in and value their subordinates and make the employees feel important, will show more affective commitment towards their organisation. such employees will then perceive that they are an important asset of the organisation and this, in turn, will increase their commitment to the organisation. they are expected to show a willingness to stay with the organisation. in addition, they will also feel that their efforts are being recognised. this, in turn, may trigger a chain reaction of the employees working more productively because they know that their hard work will pay off. this study found that the respondents tend to perceive the leadership style at this coal mining site in phola, mpumalanga, to be more transformational and transactional. this finding is in keeping with the findings of walumbwa, lawler, avolio and wang (2005) and marmaya, hitam, torsiman and balakrisham (2011, p. 1586). in addition, the respondents perceived that both transformational and transactional leadership may be a result of the augmentation effect, namely the degree to which transformational leadership builds on transactional leadership (bass, 1999, p. 5; judge & piccolo, 2004, p. 765). bass (1999, p. 21) comments that the best leaders are both transformational and transactional. these findings will be of value to human resource managers, as line managers will have to be developed and trained in the competencies required by transactional and transformational leadership styles. berson and avolio (2004, p. 641) maintain that transformational leaders perceive the strategic goals of the organisation. they argue that transformational leaders are more sensitive to their environment and thus formulate and disseminate strategic goals that capture both the attention and the interest of their followers. on one hand, managers who have a transformational leadership style will focus on the big picture of the organisation and try to encourage the employees to have the same mindset. on the other hand, transactional leaders are those who guide or motivate their followers in the direction of established goals by clarifying role and task requirements (robbins, 2003, p. 343). northouse (2010) further states that transactional leaders place greater emphasis on work standards, assignments and task-oriented goals compared with transformational leaders. managers with a transactional leadership style would want to be more incentive driven to motivate their employees. as human resource managers are well educated in terms of organisational behaviour, as compared with many technical line managers in a mining context, it is important that these findings be unpacked and that the line managers are informed and guided in terms of their own leadership styles. they should be made aware of how their actions are perceived and how they should communicate the strategic alignment between the organisation’s goals and, for example, the productivity targets for their own business units. the human resource manager has to disseminate information on the impact of the specific leadership style on organisational commitment and provide support to the line managers in terms of coaching and mentoring when needed. the findings of this study indicate an association between the occurrence of transformational and transactional leadership and affective commitment. transformational leaders are able to inspire and motivate their followers to change their expectations. accordingly, followers at this mining site who are guided by a transformational leader can be expected to be more committed. committed employees tend to be more willing to accept responsibility than employees who are not committed. furthermore, employees who have more responsibility tend to feel that the organisation values their services. this, in turn, will improve organisational commitment. transactional leaders focus on rewards for the fulfilment of duties. a willingness to expend extra effort indicates some degree of organisational commitment. extra effort in the mining industry as a result of higher levels of commitment will increase productivity and this, in turn, will increase the organisation’s profit. the affective commitment indicates a moderately positive correlation with idealised influence (attributes), idealised influence (behaviour), inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and contingent reward, but a small significant positive correlation only with individualised consideration. idealised influence (attributes) refers to followers identifying with and imitating their leaders; idealised their influence (behavioural) refers to leader behaviour that results in followers identifying with such leaders. inspirational motivation implies that leaders behave in ways that motivate and inspire others, whilst intellectual stimulation occurs when leaders encourage their followers to be both innovative and creative. individualised consideration occurs when leaders relate to followers on a one-on-one basis in order to elevate goals and develop skills. employees feel more emotionally attached to and involved in the organisation if steps are taken to ensure that they perceive that their work affects the organisation. this is in keeping with the findings of riaz, akram and ijaz (2010). as regards affective commitment, this study suggests that transformational leadership behaviours are positively related to the way employees feel about wanting to stay with the company. however, a study conducted by chandna and krishnan (2009, p. 8) found that affective commitment bore no relation to transformational leadership. nevertheless, in this study affective commitment shows a significant relationship with one of the transactional leadership sub-scales, namely contingent reward. contingent rewards support the reinforcement theory of motivation (spector, 2008) and this, in itself, will engender a desire to remain with the organisation (lumley, coetzee, tladinyane & ferreira, 2011). employees feel that their efforts are being valued when they are rewarded for what they do. in addition, employees experience a sense of achievement when the supervisors acknowledge their hard work and this, in turn, will then increase the employees’ commitment to the organisation and they will work harder and be more productive so as to receive more acknowledgment. the transformational leadership style consists of the following sub-scales: idealised influence (attributes), idealised influence (behaviour), inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration. the results of this study indicate that the employees of supervisors adopting a transformational leadership style will show greater affective commitment towards their organisations as compared with followers of transactional leaders. this finding is in accordance with the findings of walumbwa et al. (2005), gao and bai (2011, p. 46) and marmaya et al. (2011, p. 1586). the transactional leadership style consists of the following sub-scales: contingent reward, management by exception (active) and management by exception (passive). it is clear that from this study that contingent reward has a positive correlation with affective commitment. this correlation suggests that leadership behaviours involving the exchange of rewards for realising agreed upon objectives may be related to the way employees feel about having to remain with an organisation. this result also provides an indication that the more passive a leader is in making decisions or providing feedback the less committed an employee will feel to the organisation. the followers of transformational leaders exhibit higher levels of commitment to their organisational mission, a willingness to work harder, greater levels of trust in their leader and higher levels of cohesion in comparison with followers of laissez-faire leaders (avolio, 2004). nyengane (2007) also suggests that if employees feel a sense of belonging to the organisation they will remain with the organisation simply because they want to; in so doing, they exhibit affective commitment. in view of the fact that the transformational leadership has a relationship with organisational commitment, organisations should attempt to foster this leadership style. by implementing programmes that encourage leaders to develop a transformational leadership style, organisations will be able to improve the commitment levels of their employees (nyengane, 2007, p. 100). this is an important implication for human resource managers, as they will have to accept responsibility for designing and delivering effective training and development programmes to empower and provide line managers with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to fulfil their mandate in the mining industry. it is also necessary that human resource management and development managers design and implement coaching and mentoring programmes to support line managers after completion of the training courses to allow them to practise and internalise the new behaviours and skills. a transformational leader should act as a coach, role model and inspirational figure to their subordinates and thus create conditions under which employees contribute enthusiastically to the organisation (nel et al., 2008, p. 365). managers in the mining industry may become transformational leaders by helping their employees both to understand and to deal with changes in the workplace. in addition, managers should communicate the vision of the organisation to the employees and provide a systematic plan in terms of which this vision may be realised. it is important that managers recognise good performance and give credit where it is due. it is also essential that managers provide guidance to employees when the employees are either struggling or making mistakes. such behaviours prove to employees that the management team both trusts and respects them. organisations that require their employees to develop organisational commitment should provide a supportive work environment which, in turn, will create a mutually beneficial environment for both parties. it would appear that both transformational and transactional leadership behaviours have an influence on affective commitment. according to bass (1999, p. 5), the integration of these two leadership styles will have an interactive effect. managers and supervisors at the research site may increase the level of commitment of the employees by undergoing training on coaching and mentoring practices within the organisation. in addition, managers and supervisors should endeavour to enhance their knowledge of both transformational and transactional leadership paradigms. it is strongly recommended that pay practices and bonus schemes are regularly revised to demonstrate to employees that they are valuable to the leaders in the mining company. organisations that require their employees to develop organisational commitment should provide comprehensive training that will encourage leaders to exhibit leadership behaviours such as building trust, inspiring a shared vision, encouraging creativity and recognising accomplishments (nyengane, 2007, p. 101). walumbwa and lawler (2003, p. 1097) are of the opinion that managers and supervisors who are equipped with transformational leadership techniques are likely to engage employees by identifying their strengths, formulating accurate and reasonable expectations for them, developing them and motivating them to perform beyond their expectations. limitations of the study the findings of the study should be viewed within the context of certain limitations. firstly, the fact that only one mining site was targeted in this research study, makes it impossible to generalise the results. a diversity of mining sites and equal representation of races, organisational levels and gender should improve the value of the research. secondly, the self-report questionnaire that was used limited the respondents to the specific questions asked. thirdly, some participants may have been concerned about the confidentiality of the survey and chose to answer in what they perceived as an appropriate way. the fact that a cross-sectional design was used can also be viewed as a limitation, as longitudinal data would have contributed to the depth of the data obtained. recommendations for future research as far as the sample is concerned, replication (with possible enlargement of the sample) of the study on more than one mining site would be highly desirable. in addition, an attempt should also be made to determine the overall commitment of management. conclusion organisations should attempt to find tools with which to infuse the desired leadership style and also provide relevant training which is conducive to the development of organisational commitment. bordin, bartman and casimir (2007) mention that supervisors should be empathetic listeners be communicative and sensitive to the needs of subordinates, understanding and approachable. the proposed transformational leadership behaviours will encourage employees to be more committed to their organisation and strive to become exemplary leaders themselves within the organisation in the near future. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions e.m. (tshwane university of technology) initiated the project as part of her m tech hrm degree. a.b. (university of south africa) acted as supervisor, and was therefore involved from the conceptualisation of the project, and c.t.b. (tshwane university of technology) acted as co-supervisor. the authors wrote the article jointly as a team effort. references top ↑ ackermann, c.p., schepers, j.m., lessing, b.c., & danhauser, z. (2000). die faktorstruktuur van bass se veelfaktor-leierskapvraelys in die suid-afrikaanse konteks [the factor structure of bass’s multifactor leadership questionnaire in the south african context]. journal of industrial psychology, 26(2), 58–65.allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1990). the measurement and variables associated with affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organisation. journal of occupational psychology, 63, 1–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.x allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1996). affective, continuance and normative to the organisation: an examination of the construct validity. journal of vocational behaviour, 49, 252–276. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1996.0043 antonakis, j., avolio, b.j., & sivasubramaniam, n. (2003). context and leadership: an examination of the nine-factor full-range leadership theory using the multifactor leadership questionnaire. the leadership quarterly, 14(3), 261–295. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(03)00030-4 avolio, b.j. (2004). leadership development in balance: made/born. hillsdale, nj: erlbaum. avolio, b.j., bass, b.m., jung, d.i., & berson, y. (2003). predicting unit performance by assessing transformational and transactional leadership. journal of applied psychology, 88(2), 207–218. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.2.207, pmid:12731705 avolio, b.j., zhu, w., koh, w., & bhatia, p. (2004). transformational leadership and organisational commitment: mediating role of psychological empowerment and moderating role of structural distance. journal of organisational behavior, 25, 951–968. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.283 bass, b.m. (1985). leadership: good, better, best. organisational dynamics, 13(3), 26–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(85)90028-2 bass, b.m. (1990). from transactional to transformational leadership: learning to share the vision. organisational dynamics, 18(3), 19–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(90)90061-s bass, b.m. (1997). does the transactional-transformational leadership paradigm transcend organisational and national boundaries? journal of american psychologist, 52(2), 130–139. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.52.2.130 bass, b.m. (1999). two decades of research and development in transformational leadership. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 8(1), 9–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/135943299398410 bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1990). developing transformational leadership: 1992 and beyond. journal of european industrial training, 14(5), 21–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090599010135122 bass, b.m., & avolio b.j. (2004). mlq multifactor questionnaire. 3rd sampler set: technical report, leader form, rater form and scoring key for mlq form 5x-short. mindgarden. berson, y., & avolio, b.j. (2004). transformational leadership and the dissemination of organisational goals: a case study of a telecommunications firm. the leadership quarterly, 15(5), 625–646. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2004.07.003 bordin, c., bartman, t., & casimir, g. (2007). the antecedents and consequences of psychological empowerment amongst singaporean it employees. management research news, 30(1), 34–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01409170710724287 chandna, p., & krishnan, v.r. (2009). organisational commitment of information technology professionals: role of transformational leadership and work-related beliefs. tecnia journal of management studies, 4(1), 1–13. coe, c., zehnder, a., & kinlaw, d.c. (2008). coaching for commitment: achieving superior performance from individuals and teams. san francisco, ca: pfeiffer. cooper, d.r., & shindler, p.s. (2006). business research methods. boston, ma: mcgraw-hill. elloy, d.f. (2005). the influence of super-leader behavior on organisational commitment, job satisfaction and organisational self-esteem in a self-managed work team. leadership and organisational development journal, 26(2), 120–127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437730510582554 emery, c.r., & barker, k.j. (2007). the effect of transactional and transformational leadership styles on the organizational commitment and job satisfaction of customer contact personnel. journal of organizational culture, communication and conflict, 11(1), 77. ferreira, n., basson, j., & coetzee, m. (2010). psychological career resources in relation to organisational commitment: an exploratory study. south african journal of human resource management, 8(1), 1–10. field, a. (2005). discovering statistics using spss. london: sage. gao, f.y., & bai, s. (2011). the effects of transformational leadership on organisational commitment of family employees in chinese family business. international conference on economic trade and development, 7, 43–48. gennard, j., & judge, g. (2005). employee relations. (4th edn.). london: broadway. greenberg, j. (2009). managing behavior in organisations. upper saddle river, nj: prentice-hall. greenberg, j., & baron, r.a. (2010). behavior in organisations. (4th edn.). needham heights, ma: simon & schuster. hughes, m. (2010). managing change: a critical perspective. london: cipd. howell, j.m., & avolio, b.j. (1992). the ethics of charismatic leadership: submission or liberation. academy of management executive, 6(2), 43–56. jonker, c.s., & joubert, s. (2009). emotion work and well-being of client service workers within small and medium-sized enterprises. management dynamics, 18(2), 35–48. judge, t.a., & piccolo, r.f. (2004). transformational and transactional leadership: a meta-analytic test of their relative validity. journal of applied psychology, 89(5), 755–768. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.5.755, pmid:15506858 laka-mathebula, m.r. (2004). modelling the relationship between organisational commitment, leadership style, human resource management practices and organisational trust. unpublished phd thesis, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. lee, j. (2005). effects of leadership and leader-member exchange on commitment. leadership and organisational development journal, 26(8), 655–672. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437730510633728 liou, s.r. (2008). an analysis of the concept of organisational commitment. nursing forum, 43(3), september, 117–125. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6198.2008.00103.x, pmid:18715344 lowe, k.b., & gardner, w.l. (2000). ten years of the leadership quarterly contributions and challenges for the future. leadership quarterly, 11, 459–514. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(00)00059-x lumley, e. (2010). exploring the relationship between anchors, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. unpublished master’s dissertation, department of industrial and organisational psychology, unisa, pretoria, south africa. lumley, e.j., coetzee, m., tladinyane, r., & ferreira, n. (2011). exploring the job satisfaction and organisational commitment of employees in the information technology environment. southern african business review, 15(1), 100–118. lussier, r.n., & achua, c.f. (2010). leadership: theory, application and skill development. (3rd edn.). mason, oh: south-western cengage learning. luthans, f. (2010). organizational behavior. (11th edn.). international: mcgraw hill. marmaya, n.h., hitam, m., torsiman, m., & balakrisham, b.k.p.d. (2011). employees’ perception of malaysian managers’ leadership styles and organisational commitment. african journal of business management, 5(5), 1584–1588. maree, k. 2007. first steps in research. pretoria: van schaik. meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1997). commitment in the workplace: theory, research and application. london: sage. meyer, j.p., allen, n.j., & smith, a. (1993). commitment to organisations and occupations: extension and test of a three-component conceptualisation. journal of applied psychology, 78, 538–555. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.4.538 mokgolo, m.m., mokgolo, p., & modiba, m. 2012. transformational leadership in the south african public service after the april 2009 national elections. south african journal of human resource management/suid-afrikaanse tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(1), art. #334, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i1.334 morgan, s.j. (2012). the human side of outsourcing: psychological theory and management practice. west sussex: john wiley. mouton, j. (2006). understanding social research. pretoria: van schaik. nehmeh, r. (2009). what is organisational commitment, why should managers want it in their workforce and is there any cost effective way to secure it? smc working paper, 5, 1–9. nel, p.s., werner, a., haasbroek, g.d., poisat, p., sono, t., & schultz, h.b. (2008). human resource management. (7th edn.). south africa: oxford. nemanich, l.a., & keller, r.t. (2007). transformational leadership in an acquisition. a field of study of employees. leadership quarterly, 18, 49–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2006.11.003 northouse, p.g. (2010). leadership: theory and practice. california: sage. pmcid:pmc2946584 nyengane, m.h. (2007). the relationship between leadership style and employee commitment: an exploratory study in an electricity utility of south africa. unpublished mba dissertation, rhodes university, grahamstown, south africa. pallant, j. (2011). spss survival manual. new york: mcgraw hill. passarelli, g. (2011). employees’ skills and organisational commitment. international business research, 4(1), 28–42. rad, a.m.m., & yarmohammadian, m.h. (2006). a study of relationship between managers’ leadership style and employees’ job satisfaction. leadership in health services, 19(2), xi–xxviii. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13660750610665008 riaz, t., akram, m.u., & ijaz, h. (2010). impact of transformational leadership style on affective employees’ commitment: an empirical study of banking sector in islamabad (pakistan). journal of commerce, 3(1), 43–51. robbins, s.p. (2003). organisational behaviour. (10th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. robbins, s.p., judge, t.a., odendaal, a., & roodt, g. (2010). organisational behaviour: global and south african perspective. (2nd edn.). cape town: pearson education. rothmann, s., & joubert, j.h.m. (2007). job demands, job resource, burnout and work engagement of managers at a platinum mine in the north west province. south african journal of business management, 38(3), 49–61. shahzad, k., rehma, k.u., & abbas, m. (2010). hr practices and leadership styles as predictors of employee attitude and behaviour: evidence from pakistan. european journal of social science, 14(3), 417–426. spector, p. (2008). industrial and organisational behaviour. (5th edn.). hoboken, nj: john wiley. spss inc. (2005). spss 13.0 for windows. chicago: author. stack, l. (2010). super competent: the six keys to perform at your productive best. hoboken, nj: john wiley. stander, m.w., & rothmann, s. (2008). the relationship between leadership, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. south african journal of human resources, 6(3), 7–13. steward, j. (2006). transformational leadership: an evolving concept examined through the works of burns, avolio, and leithwood. canadian journal of education administration and policy, 54, june, 1–29. stum, d.l. (1999). maslow revisited: building the employee commitment pyramidst. strategy and leadership, 29(4), 4–9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/10878570110400053 van schalkwyk, s., du toit, d.h., bothma, a.s., & rothmann, s. (2010). job insecurity, leadership empowerment behaviour, employee engagement and intention to leave in a petrochemical laboratory. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #234, 7 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8il.234 valeria, a.m. (2009). developing woman leaders: a guide for men and women in organisations. west sussex: wiley & blackwell. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781444315967 walumba, f.o., & lawler, j.j. (2003). building effective organisations: transformation leadership, collectivist orientation, work-related attitudes, and withdrawal behaviours in three emerging economies. international journal of human resource management, 14, 1083–1101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0958519032000114219 walumbwa, f.o., lawler, j.j., avolio, b.j., & wang, p.s.k. (2005). transformational leadership and work-related attitudes: the moderating effects of collective and self-efficacy across cultures. journal of leadership and organisational studies, 11(3), 2–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/107179190501100301 wellin, m. (2007). managing the psychological contract: using the personal deal to increase business performance. hampshire: gower house. pmid:18032184 yukl, g. (2010). leadership in organisations. (7th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. 6prinsloo.qxd the cliché that “change is the only constant” continues to accurately describe the world of work and economics in a competitive global environment. to stay with and cope with change all entities in a national economy have a need to continually re-skill their people (heller,1998, p.5) to meet this need in south africa, the minister of labour adopted and presented the national skills development strategy to the citizens of the country in february 2001 as a solution to the problem of re-skilling (department of labour, 2001). the sub-title of the strategy document – skills for productive citizenship for all – summarises the vision for the future. the mission statement of the strategy document directly addresses the need that south africa has for getting to grips with its skills deficiencies: “to equip south africa with the skills to succeed in the global market and to offer opportunities to individuals and communities for self advancement to enable them to play a productive role in society.” (department of labour, 2001, p.4) to implement the national skills development strateg y the government promulgated the skills development act, 1988 (act no. 97 of, 1998). on 20 march 2000 the minister of labour established 25 sector education and training authorit ies (setas) in designated economic sectors in terms of section 9(1) of the act . the purpose of setas is to help implement the nat ional skills development strateg y and to increase the skills of people in their designated sector. the effectiveness of setas since march 2000 to date, the success record of the proposed solution to develop skills in south africa has been mixed. over the last few years media reports have mirrored successes and failures. the star carried an upbeat series of articles in october 2001 (star, 2001) that gave the impression that the new system is ready for successful implementation. in contrast, the same newspaper reported in february 2002 that “government is going to get tough with companies that are not training their employees, thus leaving millions of rand in skills development funds unspent” (star, 2002, p.27). a business day article under the headline “some setas work, others are a disaster” (business day, 2002) quotes sam morotoba the exuctive officer of the national skills authority as saying that “leadership disputes have emerged as the common element in the setas where problems have been identified”. this comment attributed to an individual involved at the highest level with the process seems to point to problems around leadership competencies within setas as an important contributing cause of implementation failures. an understanding of the relation bet ween leadership competence and seta effectiveness is clearly in the national interest. this paper reports on a study that investigated three related questions that may be asked in this regard: “how important is leadership competence as a factor influencing seta effectiveness?”; “what are the leadership competencies relevant to and important for seta effectiveness?”; and “how can the required seta leadership competencies be developed?”. theoretical framework and approach setas are statutory bodies established in terms of an act of parliament. however, they function under the authority of a board that is made up of elected employer and trade union representatives from the relevant sectors, thereby making the seta more relevant and responsive to the needs of the customers within the different sectors. in this way setas are similar to any organisation that operates and serves a specifically demarcated market segment. the approach in this study was thus to locate the analysis of leadership competencies within the current theoretical florus pj prinsloo ah lategan department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract through a literature survey and a qualitative survey of the views of a selected sample of key role-players in the implementation of the south african skills development strategy a number of transformational leadership competencies were identified that influence the effectiveness of sector education and training authorities (setas). a subsequent quantitative survey of the views of a random sample of seta managers and board members ranked the identified leadership competencies in terms of relevance to and importance for effectiveness of seta leadership teams. the research results were applied to propose a learning programme strategy to develop the identified transformational leadership competencies amongst seta leaders. opsomming in ’n literatuuroorsig en ’n kwalitatitatiewe opname van die sienings van ’n geselekteerde steekproef onder sleutelrolspelers in die uitvoering van die suid-afrikaanse vaardigheidsontwikkelingstrategie is ’n aantal transformerende leierskapsvaardighede geîdentifiseer wat die effektiwiteit van sektorale onderwysen opleidingsgesagliggame (sooge) beînvloed. ’n daaropvolgende kwantitatiewe opname van die sienings van ’n ewekansige steekproef van soog-bestuurders en –raadslede het die geîdentifiseerde leierskapsvaardighede op, onderskeidelik, ’n toepaslikheidsen ’n belangrikheidskaal vir soog-leierskapspanne getakseer. die navorsingsresultate is toegepas om ’n leerprogramstrategie voor te stel om die geïdentifiseerde transformerende leierskapsvaardighede onder soog-leiers te ontwikkel. identifying a national leadership skills training and development strategy for leaders within sector education training authorities (setas) requests for copies should be addressed to: a. lategan, andries@mail.ngo.za 43 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (1), 43-50 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (1), 43-50 prinsloo, lategan44 understanding of organisational dynamics. the organisational dynamics model developed by veldsman (2002) was adopted as the appropriate theoretical framework for this purpose. veldsman (2002) views organisations operating in the postmodern world as a “network of dynamically interdependent nodes within a force field of effects and counter-effects which must be fused”. he describes each one of these nodes or contextual factors as follows: � ecosphere – the setting in which an organisation is embedded such as markets, clients, products, services, suppliers, communities and the broader society. � strategic intent – sum total of vision, missions, values and goals of organisation � leadership – activities related to future creation, actualisation and continuity in an organisation � culture – shared ways if seeing, interpreting and doing � architecture – the shape, structure, roles, systems and practises of an organisation � resources – means to attain ends such as money, facilities, technology, knowledge, skills. the departure point for this study was that the anecdotal evidence from newspaper reports referred to above gives a strong indication that leadership – defined as activities related to future creation, actualisation and continuity in an organisation – should be ranked as the most critical independent variable or context ual factor inf luencing seta effectiveness in relation to the others nodes in the veldsman model. research aims the primary aim of this study was to identif y transformational leadership competencies that are applicable, important and relevant to the effectiveness of setas in south africa. the final aim was to apply the findings in the first part of the study to arrive at recommendations for a strategy to develop the identified transformational leadership competencies amongst seta leaders. research design research approach the ontolog y of the qualitative research strateg y was based on grounded theory. the research is the first of its kind due to the fact that setas are very new organizational structures within the country, having been established by law in march 2000. a set of transformational leadership competencies from a literat ure review were related to the functions of the seta as described in the law. this formed the basis for observat ions from a selected group of persons through an interview and discussion guide. this approach resulted in a set of applicable transformational leadership competencies linked to seta functions being identified inductively. the epistemology of the qualitative approach thus has its foundation on transformational leadership competencies within the scope of what is applicable to the functions of a seta. the validity of the competencies was confirmed through the interview process to check for applicability of each transformational competency in relation to the functions of the seta. research methodology participants in the study seven subject matter experts in the field of south african skills development and seta related issues were selected for interviews and discussions. these included employees within the department of labour who have regulatory oversight over the setas, a members of the national skills authority that advise the minister of labour on skills development, employees of the south african qualifications authority responsible for quality of skills development programmes and private skills development consultants who work on a daily basis with the setas. the group selected consisted of very experienced individuals in the 40 to 55 age group, all at senior executive levels within their organizations. data gathering methods data was gathered using a structured interview process (an interview schedule) based on the use of carefully designed interview and discussion guide. procedure of gathering the data the procedure to collect the data was carefully controlled and followed the following sequence: � an interview and discussion guide was developed to ensure that each interview followed the same process, thereby ensuring consistency of data gathering. � each interviewee was contacted telephonically or in person to explain the process and request the person to participate. � the interview and discussion guide was e-mailed or faxed to the interviewee who completed it to the best of their ability and retuned to the researcher. � the researcher reviewed the interviewee’s comments and then contacted the interviewee telephonically or in person or by e-mail to check and confirm the comments of the interviewee. treatment of the data all the data was first captured on the interview and discussion guides and analysed against the criteria included on the guide. the data was categorised into three sections: first section related to the competencies that were applicable to seta leaders. through the review of the comments from interviewee each competency was found to be not applicable, partially applicable or very applicable. the second section related to contextual factors within setas and how important each factor was in relation to transformational leadership competencies. the third section was based on subjective comments from the interviews. a general trend analysis was used to pick up reoccurring themes in the data submitted. results and discussion survey of leadership theories and competencies following van maurik (2001), four generations of leadership theories developed in the latter part of the twentieth century may be identified: � trait theories based on the premise that all leaders had certain basic “traits” in their personalities. � behavioural theories based on the assumption that leadership could be taught and that good leadership was a matter of adopting the right sort of behaviour. � contingency theories based on “transactions” between leader and followers. leadership styles which are “contingent or dependent” on the situation and transactions between leaders and followers. � transformational theories based on the idea of the leader as an agent of change. the transformational leadership competencies identified in the fourth generation of leadership theories are critical for a national leadership strategy for setas 45 seta leaders. however none of the insights of the other generations can be completely ignored, especially the transactional generation. table 1 summarises generic leadership competencies from a literature review of the above leadership theories. table 1 summary of generic leadership competencies trait theories (van maurik, 2001) � ideological security – strong sense of conviction you are right � moral courage – could stand alone if required � constancy – could not easily be turned � an iron will – could go things alone � a low need for love – respect was more important than love behavioural theories (van maurik, 2001) � man has a will � man is open to good and evil � situation drives man � reason motivates man � interdependence is man’s basic mode of interaction � interaction is man’s social unit of importance � objective best describes man’s view of man transactional & transformational theories (van maurik, 2001) transactional leadership transformational leadership clarif y goals and objectives to establish a long term vision obtain immediate results create structures and processes for create a climate of trust control solve problems empower people to control themselves; manage problem solving maintain and improve the current change the current situation situation plan, organize and control coach and develop people guard and defend the culture challenge and change the culture power comes from position and power comes from influencing a authority in the organisation network of relationships de kets vries (2001) � surgency – people with a more assertive character, strong achievement orientation � sociability – people with the trait of extroversion, people’s people � receptivity – people who are open to new ideas and experiences � agreeableness – people who are flexible, likable, positive people � dependability – people who are conscientious, who deliver � analytical intelligence – people with more than average intelligence, think strategically � emotional intelligence – people who manage own and read other’s emotions veldsman (2002) � wisdom – to know when, how, and with whom to do what � ethical competence – act consistently, coherently from moral convictions � personal competence – qualities of a person enabling a style of conduct � transformational competence – change the existing into something new � transactional competence – build, maintain and improve existing systems � technical competence – use knowledge, expertise and skills in a technical domain � capacity to learn – distil knowledge & wisdom from experience and change � contextual competence – handle the complexity of a situation at the appropriate level. madi (2000) � build a sense of mission – be certain of where you are going, set goals, actively promote the mission � be a conqueror or be apprenticed to a conqueror – look for and approach mentors, use books as mentors. � mission is more important than convention – focus on the mission, achieve it at all costs � lead the charge from the front – stick you neck out, dictate the direction that the company must follow � build a fanatical team – surround yourself with people that will help you make your dream come true � be a good strategist or get one – plan you work and then work your plan � go where angels fear to tread – courage is needed for any kind of leadership, take up challenges � know the battlefield better than the enemy – know the industry, know the market, know the competitors � be obsessed with world-class technologies – use the best tools you can afford to grow the business � never believe your own pr – never think you have arrived, always seek ways to improve seta functions and leadership competencies the functions of the setas are listed in chapter 3, section 10 of the skills development act (republic of south africa , 1998). these functions were linked to the most relevant generic leadership competencies identified in the literature search as summarised in table 1. the linkages are shown in table 2. transformational leadership competencies applicable to setas a qualitative research approach was used to contextualise the generic competencies to the south african seta leaders. this qualitative approach was implemented through a series of openended interviews with seven carefully selected individuals involved with setas and the implementation of the national skills development strategy. from the interviews conducted the competencies that were identified as applicable are shown in table 3. the interviewees also indicated that the other contextual factors described by veldsman (2002) have to be considered, not only leadership competencies. however, the interviewees recommended that the contextual factors should be explained in a simpler manner for participants in further research. such simpler descriptions are shown in table 4. the applicable transformational leadership competencies and contextual factors were used in a questionnaire based quantitative research process to establish importance and relevance of each competence and contextual factor to seta leaders. the research sample selected was four seta managers per seta and four board members per seta, a total of eight persons per seta. the total number of research questionnaires that was sent out for the survey amounted to t wo hundred. this questionnaire that had been designed was piloted at one specifically selected seta. each person in the pilot study was asked to complete the questionnaire and comment on whether it was firstly understandable and secondly not too time consuming to complete. seven out of the eight persons approached ret urned the questionnaire with favourable and positive comments. the primary quantitative research process was implemented from 21 january 2003 until 28 march 2003. results the total number of questionnaires recovered amounted to a total of 35 a 17,5% recovery rate. an analysis of the returns from setas is shown in figure 1. prinsloo, lategan46 the percentage of questionnaires returned by seta is shown in table 5. a total of fifteen out of the current twenty five setas responded. research results thus include input from 60% of the setas. this research result gives validit y to the research since more than 50% of the setas had input to the research. the research findings and the conclusions reached from the research findings will as a result of the 86% input from seta managers be considered more the views of seta management members rather than the views of seta board members. the research showed that setas mostly employed between 21-40 full time employees countrywide. figure 2 illustrates this. an analysis of the respondents to the survey shows the gender, race and ages breakdown of the seta management members that responded to the survey. figures 3,4,5 show these breakdowns. table 6 shows the percentages of respondents that ranked each transformational leadership competency for seta managers as very relevant and very important. as may be expected, the correlation coefficient between the two sets of data shown in table 6 is +0,946 which is close to a perfect correlation of +1. table 2 linking seta functions to leadership competencies no. section of act function description related leadership competencies 1 10.(1)(a) a seta must develop a sector skills plan within the framework of the technical competence national skills development strategy build a sense of mission, develop analytical intelligence, receptivity 2 10.(1)(b)(i) a seta must implement its sector skills plan by establishing transformational competence learnerships mission is more important than convention, tenacity, moral courage 3 10.(1)(b)(ii) a seta must implement its sector skills plan by approving ethical competence workplace skills plans create structures and processes for control, solve problems 4 10.(1)(b)(iii) a seta must implement its sector skills plan by allocating grants technical competence in the prescribed manner to employers, education and training create structures and processes for control, solve problems providers and workers 5 10.(1)(b)(iv) a seta must implement its sector skills plan by monitoring education transactional competence and training in its sector create structures and processes for control, be obsessed with world class technologies 6 10.(1)(c)(i) a seta must promote learnerships by identif ying workplaces for transformational competence practical experience surgency and sociability, lead the charge from the front 7 10.(1)(c)(ii) a seta must promote learnerships by supporting the development contextual competence of learning materials be a good strategist or get one, plan, organize and control 8 10.(1)(c)(iii) a seta must promote learnerships by improving the facilitation transactional competence of learning create structures and processes for control 9 10.(1)(c)(iv) a seta must promote learnerships by assisting in the conclusion transformational competence of learnership agreements build a fanatical team, go where angels fear to tread 10 10.(1)(d) a seta must register learnership agreements technical competence create structures and processes for control 11 10.(1)(e) a seta must within a week from its establishment, apply to the technical competence south african qualifications authority for accreditation as a body capacity to learn, analytical intelligence, tenacity contemplated in section 5(1)(a)(ii)(bb) and must, within 18 months from the date of that application, be so accredited 12 10.(1)(f) a seta must collect and disburse the skills development levies in ethical competence its sector solve problems, create structures and processes for control 13 10.(1)(g)(i) a seta must liaise with the national skills authority on the national transformational competence skills development policy dependability 14 10.(1)(g)(ii) a seta must liaise with the national skills authority on the national transformational competence skills development strategy dependability 15 10.(1)(g)(iii) a seta must liaise with the national skills authority on its sector transactional competence skills plan solve problems, plan organise and control 16 10.(1)(h)(i) a seta must report to the director general on its income and ethical competence expenditure dependability, analytical intelligence 17 10.(1)(h)(ii) a seta must report to the director general on the implementation transactional competence of its sector skills plan create structures and processes for control 18 10.(1)(i)(i) a seta must liaise with the employment services of the department transactional competence and any education body established under any law regulating agreeableness, dependability, create structures and processes for control education in the republic to improve information about employment opportunities 19 10.(1)(i)(ii) a seta must liaise with the employment services of the department transactional competence and any education body established under any law regulating agreeableness, dependability, create structures and processes for control education in the republic to improve information between education and training providers and the labour market 20 10.(1)(j) a seta must appoint staff necessary for the performance of its ethical competence functions build a fanatical team 21 10.(1)(k) a seta must perform any other duties imposed by this act or technical competence consistent with the purposes of this act analytical intelligence 22 10.(2)(a) a seta has all such powers as are necessary to enable it to perform transformational competence its duties referred to in subsection(1) establish a long term vision 23 10.(2)(a) a seta has the other powers conferred on the seta by this act ethical competence create structures and processes for control 24 10.(3) a seta must perform its functions in accordance with this act ethical competence and its constitution create structures and processes for control a national leadership strategy for setas 47 table 3 contextualised transformational leadership competencies transformational leadership competency building a sense of mission in all seta stakeholders developing the analytical skills of your staff creating an openness to new ideas from others creating structures and processes for control developing problem solving skills of your staff having tenacity having moral courage developing the assertiveness of your staff developing the social skills of your staff developing strategic planning skills in yourself developing organising capacity in yourself building a dynamic team developing the capacity to learn in yourself and your staff creating an agreeable spirit among your staff developing staff that are dependable table 4 contextual factors that are to be considered in quantitative survey factor veldsman description simplified description 1 ecosphere external environment 2 strategic intent /leadership leadership competencies 3 culture organisational culture 4 architecture organisational structure 5 resources resources table 5 percentage of questionnaires returned by setas type of setastakeholder count % bankseta 1 2,9 ceta 1 2,9 chieta 8 22,9 didteta 2 5,7 etdp-seta 6 17,1 fasset 4 11,4 foodbev 1 2,9 inseta 2 5,7 isett 1 2,9 mqa 1 2,9 services 2 5,7 setasa 1 2,9 teta 1 2,9 theta 3 8,6 w&rseta 1 2,9 total 35 100,00 figure 1: analysis of questionnaires received from setas figure 2: number of full time employees per seta figure 3: gender breakdown of seta managers figure 4: race breakdown of seta managers w&rseta theta teta setasa services mqa isett inseta foodbev fasset etdp-seta didteta chieta ceta bankseta 41 or more 21-40 1-20 missing gender femalemale 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0p e rc e n t race african white african indian african coloured african black 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0p e rc e n t prinsloo, lategan48 figure 5: age breakdown of seta managers table 6 very relevant/important transformational leadership competencies seta manager leadership competency % of % of respondents respondents that said that said very very relevant important building a sense of mission in all seta stakeholders 54,3 63,6 developing the analytical skills of your staff 28,6 27,3 creating an openness to new ideas from others 48,6 34,4 creating structures and processes for control 65,7 60,6 developing problem solving skills of your staff 40,0 33,3 having tenacity 32,4 28,1 having moral courage 42,9 52,9 developing the assertiveness of your staff 17,1 17,6 developing the social skills of your staff 14,3 8,8 developing strategic planning skills in yourself 65,7 73,5 developing organising capacity in yourself 45,7 50,0 building a dynamic team 71,4 72,7 developing the capacity to learn in yourself & 52,9 55,9 your staff creating an agreeable spirit among your staff 30,3 32,4 developing staff that are dependable 51,4 50,0 the close correlation bet ween relevant and important competencies allows for an accurate ranking of the competencies from most relevant & important to least relevant & important. using the very important as primary index the competencies are ranked in table 7. leadership competency is only one of five contextual factors that impinge upon the effectiveness of any organisation. during the research process the other four factors were also evaluated by the seta managers. the research analysed if the other factors were as important, more important or less important than leadership competencies. the research results are shown in figure 6. the middle section of each bar in figure 6 is significantly larger than the bottom or top sections. the implication is that other context ual factors are as important as leadership competencies within setas. a closer look at the results indicates that the external environment and resources are considered more important than organisational culture and organisational structure. this is confirmed in the percentages shown in table 8. table 7 ranking transformational leadership competencies ranking seta manager 1 = most important/ transformational leadership competency relevant 15 = least important/ relevant 73,5 = 1 developing strategic planning skills in yourself 72,7 = 2 building a dynamic team 63,6 = 3 building a sense of mission in all seta stakeholders 60,6 = 4 creating structures and processes for control 55,9 = 5 developing the capacity to learn in yourself and your staff 52,9 = 6 having moral courage 50,0 = 7 developing organising capacity in yourself 50,0 = 7 developing staff that are dependable 34,4 = 9 creating an openness to new ideas from others 33,3 = 10 developing problem solving skills of your staff 32,4 = 11 creating an agreeable spirit among your staff 28,1 = 12 having tenacity 27,3 = 13 developing the analytical skills of your staff 17,6 = 14 developing the assertiveness of your staff 8,8 = 15 developing the social skills of your staff figure 6: importance of transformational leadership competencies in relation to other organisational contextual factors from responses of seta managers age over 50 years41 50 yearsunder 40 years 60 50 40 30 20 10 0p e rc e n t table 8 other contextual factors compared to leadership competencies eternal environment organisational culture organisational structure resources count % count % count % count % less important than leadership competencies 5 14,3 6 17,1 4 11,4 as important than leadership competencies 28 80,0 22 62,9 22 62,9 29 82,9 7 20,0 8 22,9 7 20,0 2 5,7 35 100,0 35 100,0 35 100,0 35 100,0 a national leadership strategy for setas 49 to further analyse this comparison bet ween leadership competencies and other contextual factors, the respondents were also requested to rank each contextual factor including leadership competencies in importance. this research result is shown in figure 7. by referring to the actual percentage data as shown in table 9 below, leadership competencies are considered most important by 51,4% of the respondents and second most important by 37.1% of the respondents. that totals 88,5% of respondents that believe that leadership competencies are most or second most important of the contextual factors in a seta. external environment and organisational culture are also important while organisational structure and resources were considered less important. discussion the research validates the hypothesis that transformational leadership competency is currently the most important of the seta contextual factors. figure 7: all contextual factors ranked in importance more than 50% of the seta management members showed interest and responded to this survey. this indicates that there is interest in and acceptance of the need to develop a strateg y for leaderships skills training and development among seta management members. a specific strategy needs to be urgently developed, agreed upon by seta managers and seta board members and implemented by the seta managers forthe development of leadership competencies for all seta managers. very few seta board members showed interest in this survey at all. board members appear not concerned with the development of leadership competencies of seta management members. setas have small numbers of employees in relation to the nature and enormity of their task. this appears to indicate that setas are finding it hard to employ people that they require. it is possible though that some of the setas are using an outsourcing model for implementing skills development in their sectors and not employing full time staff. a strategy for the leadership competency development for seta management members must include developing the seta leader competency for capacitating existing fulltime seta staff or identif ying competent service providers for outsourced activities. race and possible age imbalances will need to be redressed among seta management members when the legislative moderat ing factors such as employment equit y are considered. gender imbalance is less of a problem. a strateg y for the leadership competency development for seta management members must include competencies of seta leaders for developing younger black males to become competent seta managers. this relates to the organisational transformational needs of an organisation that include the necessit y to consider situational factors in south africa. this could indicate the need for a mentoring programme within setas. a close correlation exists bet ween very relevant and very important leadership competencies for seta managers. this allows for an accurate ranking of the leadership competencies in terms of most critical to least critical. a strateg y for the leadership competency development for seta management members must address the competencies as listed in the priorit y sequence in table 4. this can be achieved through a struct ured learning programme that requires seta managers to develop competencies in the same sequence as listed in table 7. leadership competencies are clearly considered more important than other contextual factors, but others should not be ignored. seta managers see the need for the development of transformational leadership competencies as more important than other contextual factors. a strategy for the leadership competency development for seta management members must focus on the development of leadership competencies primarily, but must consider the contextual factors of the external environment and organisational culture as analysed in figure 8 and table 9. conclusion in conclusion the research study for identifying a national leadership skills training and development strategy for leaders within sector education training authorities (setas) clearly points to the need for a carefully planned structured learning programme for developing leadership competencies of seta leaders. table 9 percenatge analysis of importance of all contextual factors eternal environment organisational culture organisational structure resources leadership competencies count % count % count % count % count % most important 10 28,6 5 14,3 1 2,9 3 8,6 18 51,4 second most important 4 11,4 10 28,6 6 17,1 6 17,1 13 37,1 third most important 6 17,1 12 34,3 9 25,7 8 22,9 1 2,9 fourth most important 7 20,0 4 11,4 7 20,0 13 37,1 1 2,9 least important 8 22,9 4 11,4 12 34,3 5 14,3 2 5,7 total 35 100,0 35 100,0 35 100,0 35 100,0 35 100,0 prinsloo, lategan50 such a learning programme can take the format of a formal institutionally based qualification or a more vocationally based learnership programme. either learning process will need to be carefully assessed through actual workplace competency based assessment. a structured learning programme for all seta leaders (board members and managers) should be developed and implemented within the next twelve to eighteen months for all setas to develop leaders with the specific transformational leadership competencies in the priority order as sequenced in table 7 of this report. the learning programme should be developed and implemented through a process that involves and commits all seta leaders to the process. the learning programme and process will need to include the following critical factors: � develop seta staff capacity � implement and achieve national employment equity targets � link development of leadership competencies to development of other related contextual factors as listed in figure 16 � allow leaders within specific setas to develop at their own pace. references business day (2002). national news, 29 april. city press (2003). minister deplores setas sorry state, 8 march. department of labour. learnerships, transforming people, transforming south africa. pretoria: department of labour. department of labour (2001). the national skills development strategy – skills for productive citizenship for all. pretoria: department of labour. heller, r. (1998). managing change. london: dorling kindersley limited. kets de vries, m. (2001). the leadership mystique, a user’s manual for the human enterprise. financial times, prentice hall. madi, p.m. (2000). leadership lessons from emperor shaka zulu the great. johannesburg: knowledge resources. republic of south africa (1998). skills development act. no 97 of 1998, government gazette, volume 401, no. 19240. star (2001). business report. 4 october, pp.6 –9. star (2002). parliamentary briefings, 4 february 4. sunday times (2002). business times survey on setas, 21april. van maurik, m. (2001). writers on leadership. city??: penguin business. veldsman, t.h. (2002). into the people effectiveness arena – navigating between chaos and order. johannesburg: knowledge resources. article information author: willie t. chinyamurindi1 affiliation: 1department of management, open university business school, united kingdom correspondence to: willie chinyamurindi postal address: the open university business school, walton hall, milton keynes mk7 6aa, united kingdom dates: received: 17 nov. 2011 accepted: 17 oct. 2012 published: 05 dec. 2012 how to cite this article: chinyamurindi, w.t. (2012). an investigation of career change using a narrative and story-telling inquiry. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(2), art. #447, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i2.447 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. an investigation of career change using a narrative and story-telling inquiry in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • research objectives    • career decision-making and career change    • theoretical development    • using narratives to understand career change • research design    • research approach    • research strategy    • research method       • research setting       • entrée and establishing researcher roles       • sampling       • data collection methods       • recording of data       • data analyses       • strategies employed to ensure quality data       • reporting • findings    • source of career change    • effects of career change    • role of distance learning enrolment on individual career change • ethical considerations • discussion    • limitations of the study    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the role of the career change experience has been investigated in this research. understanding career change will assist with organisational interventions for the support and retention of employees.research purpose: the study explores the factors that influence career change amongst a sample of distance learners. motivation for the study: distance learning is becoming popular in south africa as individuals can work and learn simultaneously. some people use distance learning to facilitate career change. research design, approach and method: a narrative and storytelling inquiry was used. data was obtained through unstructured interviews by purposive sampling. main findings: sources of career change included personal growth and ambition, and structural changes in relation to current work. the career change experience was found through participants’ stories and narratives to influence individual well-being. finally, distance learning was favoured as a vehicle for career change for its flexibility and low cost. practical/managerial implications: organisations will benefit from an understanding of employee career change experiences as identified in this study. arising from this, support and retention interventions can be put in place. contribution/value-add: the research study shifts attention to career change as part of the career decision-making process. this focus is an emerging area of inquiry in the careers literature. this adds to the body of knowledge by identifying, in a south african context, the factors influencing career change and the impact of this on the individual. interventions for individuals and organisations are suggested. introduction top ↑ in recent years, the practice of an individual holding one job or remaining with one organisation is being replaced with periodic employment, change of professions and organisations (hall, 2004). several reasons have been suggested to explain this change in employment patterns. changes happening in the global competitive business environment, coupled with the increasing demand for employability in the knowledge economy, have resulted in changes in the workplace and career development (arnold & cohen, 2008; baruch, 2004; herr, cramer & niles, 2004). chudzikowski (2012) suggested that careers in the present day are characterised by the need to remain employable, flexible and maintain market value. this quest may result in individuals pursuing diverse career paths and shifts in organisational loyalties (baruch, 2004; marshall & bonner, 2003; suutari & taka, 2004). in addition to this, individuals in such economies appear to have multiple identities (ibarra, 2003) and commitments (cohen, 2003). all these serve as possible reasons for periodic employment characterised by change of professions and organisations by the individual. this study investigated the phenomenon of career change amongst a sample of previously disadvantaged distance learners in south africa. previously disadvantaged individuals in south african consist of black africans, indians, chinese south africans, mixed-race people, women, youth, the disabled and people residing in rural communities (cottrell, 2005). these people play an important contribution to the south african economy although having being marginalised by the laws of apartheid. apartheid entailed a policy of ’separateness‘ (cottrell, 2005, pp. 14–15) and meant that educational, job and career opportunities were classified by race (stead & watson, 2006). this resulted in limited employment and career opportunities for the black populace. efforts through acts of law have been introduced targeted at benefiting individuals disadvantaged by apartheid. these laws strive to achieve parity and equity in south africa given the historical legacy of apartheid (czakan, 2006). at the core of this, empowering individuals previously disadvantaged by apartheid is recognised as key (booysen, 2000). one way to achieve this was through a number of interventions targeted at the role of education and skills development (toni & olivier, 2004). one such intervention aimed at removing barriers of access that impede previously disadvantaged individuals from attaining an education (south african department of education, 1997). with this intervention, the role of distance learning, especially amongst previously disadvantaged individuals, was affirmed as important (south african department of education, 2010). its popularity stems from a range of reasons. firstly, distance learning meets the needs of rural communities learning taking place, albeit at a physical distance (south african department of education, 1997). secondly, distance learning suits the socioeconomic situations of the previously disadvantaged (glennie & bialobrzeska, 2006). thirdly, distance learning allows for flexibility between work and study (lemmer, 2009). fourthly, distance learning is a cheaper mode of study to full–time enrolment (msila, 2006; south african department of education, 1997, 2010). in essence, distance learning in south africa is viewed as a tool for upward mobility (lemmer, 2009) through the attainment of skills. this role of distance learning has been suggested to have an impact also on individual career development (burgess & russell, 2003). research in south africa has predominantly investigated the role of education on career development outside the distance-learning context (geldenhuys & de lange, 2007; jordaan, smithard & burger, 2009; myburgh, 2005; watson, brand, stead & ellis, 2001). this gap in the research led to this study. although the career planning process is often described in developmental terms as composed of careful planning and reasoning (mcmahon, 2006), there is growing emphasis that the process is actually characterised by tangential movements and disjointed choices, and is based on the emergence of opportunities (bloch, 2005). this is worth investigating especially in contexts such as south africa where opportunities appear to be emerging for previously disadvantaged individuals. an overlooked aspect of career development is that of the career change experience which includes ’frustration‘ and the ’potential impact on career decisions‘ (young, 2009, p. 282). this presented an opportunity for this research study to investigate career change amongst a sample of previously disadvantaged distance learners in south africa. research objectives the main research aim was to understand the career change experience amongst a sample of previously disadvantaged distance learners. this includes the factors influencing individual career change experience. the research study is located in the distance-learning context which is identified as being important especially concerning issues of affirmative action and social justice. in addition to this, such a context does not only have potential with regard to issues of access to education but also individual career development. thus, this study investigated the career change experience in a distance-learning context. the research question was set as follows: ’what factors affect the career change experience and what role does distance learning play in this experience amongst a sample of distance learners in south africa?’ arising from this, interventions on an individual and organisational level that influence support and retention strategies can be proposed. the next section presents a review of the literature on career development and career change. the methodology and analysis procedure used in the study follow. thereafter, the results are presented together with a subsequent discussion. finally, the conclusion and recommendations receive attention. career decision-making and career change various definitions of a career have been proposed in the extant literature. hall (2002) viewed a career as consisting of an individual’s sequence of perceived work roles. this has been suggested to include the roles of students or those in formal and informal work (baruch, 2004). the aim in the process of career development is one of individual ’self-development‘ (maree, 2002, p. 9) and empowerment of the individual (savickas et al., 2009).the process of career change in this study was defined as ’movement across occupational boundaries‘ (hess, jepsen & dries, 2012, p. 280). this also represents a possible move from paid to unpaid work done by an individual or the change from wage employment in an organisation to self-employment from home or vice-versa (rhodes, 2000). through a range of theoretical frameworks and empirical studies, the literature identifies a number of factors that influence the individual career decision-making process and that can subsequently inform career change. theoretical development using bem’s (1967) self-perception theory, focus is on how an individual defines him or herself based on behaviours and perception of the self. in some cases, the source of decision-making (including career change) is based on a desired image and managing its perception to others (bono & vey, 2007; chen & fang, 2008). thus, this perception can act as a driver of decisions and behaviour (mcfarland, yun, harold, viera & moore, 2005).an alternate view of understanding career decision-making is through the lens of trait and factor theories (holland, 1992, 1997). this occurs in three steps (stead & watson, 2006, p. 15). firstly, an individual needs to have a clear understanding of him or herself, including their ability, attitude, interest, ambition and limitations. a ’trait‘ is thus defined as referring to the characteristics of the individual who is making a career decision. secondly, the ’factors‘ should include requirements from the different occupations of the individuals. thirdly, a match between traits and factors should be achieved. it is assumed that the better the relation between the traits and the factors, the more accurate the match will be. in essence, career change as a decision can occur influenced by these individual traits or factors. some empirical studies can be cited as being grounded in trait and factor theories. oleski and subich (1996) utilised holland’s code for current and intended occupation on a sample of workers. the study found that a relationship existed between participants’ intended occupation in relation to life satisfaction when compared to their current occupation. in essence, the workers’ view of their future in an occupation was related to their life satisfaction based on a consideration of individual traits and factors. concerns have been raised with using traits and factors as predictors of decision-making. herr and cramer (1992) questioned whether traits and factors alone can be accurate predictors of individual career decision-making. an omission to this theory is the role of other factors, such as individual background, including the nuances of socioeconomic factors on decisionmaking. this omission is viewed as making trait and factor theories oversimplified with regard to career decision-making (savickas et al., 2009). career decision-making can also be understood through the lens of social learning theory. the literature identifies that through reinforcement and feedback (mitchell & krumboltz, 1996) this may lead to the making of career decisions (krumboltz, 1979). this also creates a basis by which individuals prepare and understand the world of work (gibson & mitchell, 1999). a number of ways have been found in which individuals can make career decisions hinging on social learning theory. these are: • formal and informal learning (brown, bimrose, barnes & hughes, 2012) • academic pursuits and the feedback from this (lent, brown & hackett, 2002) • the influence of the media and role models through a process of learning by association (inkson, 2007). these all attest to tenets held in the social learning theory of career decision-making (krumboltz, 1979; mitchell & krumboltz, 1996). in essence, these may also inform decisions around career change. the developmental view of career decision-making also receives attention. the developmental view of decision-making assumes that the process occurs through individual careful planning and reasoning (mcmahon, 2006). these tenets have been argued by various theories. for example, the work of donald super (super, 1990) has been seminal. the main themes of super’s work assumed that career development was influenced by age. in this respect, individuals develop in a predictable stage-by-stage manner in response to their choices or commitment towards work or a goal. super believed that individuals achieve this well when they have a crystallised self-concept (super, 1984). this crystallised self-concept was thought to be an enabler (through abilities, interests, personality traits and values) in making career choices. super further argued that the ability to make career choices changes with time (super, tiedeman & borrow, 1961) eventually leading to vocational maturity (super, 1990). he also believed time (past, present and future) to be central to individual career development. this time factor was further embedded in super’s life-career rainbow (super, 1990). emphasis was placed on the interaction between individual roles and stages of development in informing career development. the findings from empirical work hinging on super’s developmental theory appear tenuous and raise more questions than they do answers. in south africa, much of the theorising has hinged on the developmental view of careers. this has mostly been investigated using the survey approach relying on instruments mostly from north america (bosch, de bruin, kgaladi & de bruin, 2012; creed, patton & watson, 2002; du toit & de bruin, 2002; jordaan et al., 2009; myburgh, 2005; patton, creed & watson, 2003; schultheiss & stead, 2004; stead & chetty, 2002; watson et al., 2001). using such techniques has helped to identify factors that influence career decision-making including the career development process. however, some concerns can be raised. firstly, this research study argues for the need to go beyond simply identifying factors and endeavours to understand how these factors holistically influence career development as a process. this is where a qualitative understanding of careers can be worthwhile, especially when investigating a ’personal‘ and ’highly complex’ subject matter such as career change (wise & milward, 2005, p. 401). secondly, aspects of contextual differences bring into question the relevance of such methods and their reliance on western instruments in south africa (stead, 2007). it has been noted that differences between countries do exist (creed et al., 2002; patton et al., 2003). this brings to light issues regarding the cross-cultural applicability of these western instruments and their relevance in south africa (gianokos, 1999). this includes the failure to account for environmental and social factors fully which may have a bearing on career decision-making and career development (naicker, 1994). thirdly, a growing body of literature appears to question the developmental view of career decision-making (bright, pryor, chan & rijanto, 2009; henneberger & sousa-poza, 2007; hirshi & vondracek, 2009). they are of the opinion that in present-day economies, individual career development could be a dynamic process instead of it being static or rational, as assumed in developmental views of career decision-making (savickas et al., 2009). the developmental view of career decision-making, although having concerns, still receives attention. brown (1999) commends it as laudable in helping to understand the nature of career decision-making. in addition to this, tools and instruments used in career assessment and career guidance still hinge on the developmental view of careers (zunker, 2002). finally, bloch’s theory of career decision-making investigated aspects of complexity and emergent opportunities in decision-making (bloch, 2005). in this, the process of decision-making is believed to be one of tangential movements, disjointed job choices and is based on the emergence of opportunities (young, 2009). in bloch’s theory, formal descriptions of reasoning and planning that characterise long-term careers are not realistic and are described as based on opportunities and demands that become available (bloch, 2005). in essence, career decisionmaking is assumed as being fluid and not always occurring in a logical progression (giles & larmour, 2000; lapointe, 2010; maree & beck, 2004). it can also be assumed that career change as part of the career development process arises because of perceived individual needs or the lack of them (bloch, 2005; mcmahon, 2006). this makes an individual search for a change to their current situation. however, the fact that individuals have bounded rationality (simons, 1994) affects the process of decision-making. this can result in bias and the individual searching for more information to help make decisions (nadkarni & barr, 2008). the current work was motivated by the need to study career change as part of the career development process separate from the quantitative paradigm. rather, a qualitative investigation was adopted. this was done for three reasons. firstly, traditional career theories have been criticised for their neglect of women and minority groups in their theorising (osipow & fitzgerald, 1996) given that these people face unique challenges (brown, 1990). these theories have been attributed mostly to white men in western countries and do not reflect the situation in south africa (stead & watson, 2006). this study seeks to investigate the career change experience of an often neglected yet important constituency in previously disadvantaged individuals. secondly, given that south africa is undergoing rapid social, economic and political change (stead, 2007) this brings into question the veracity of traditionally held views of career decisionmaking in such contexts. arising from this, this study investigated the career change experience of previously disadvantaged groups in contexts such as south africa. this investigation moves away from just identifying factors influencing career change and extends to an understanding of the entire experience. thirdly, objective data has been generated using mostly quantitative research design to understand career decision-making in south africa, as already stated. these studies hinge on instruments developed in a western context, a fairly different domain to that of south africa. an opportunity thus exists for generating subjective data in careers research (lamprecht, 2002) as a potential contribution to an already saturated research field. this is regarded as forming the ‘new’ careers literature agenda (chudzikowski, 2012, p. 298). this places the impetus for this study on understanding career behaviour such as career change using a qualitative approach (wise & milward, 2005). this study did this using a narrative and story-telling inquiry. using narratives to understand career change the use of the qualitative approach for the study of new definitions for a career has been applauded (chudzikowski, 2012) but a review of the literature reveals that it has rarely been used in investigations of career change (wise & milward, 2005).according to cohen and mallon (2001), a narrative inquiry entails understanding: ways in which individuals make sense of their careers as they unfold through time and space, attending to both the holistic nature of careers as well as to specific career transitions. (pp. 48–49) this consists of a scheme by which human beings make their experiences meaningful (bruner, 1986; polkinghorne, 1988) through the stories they tell (abbot, 2002). consistent with the narrative inquiry is the contextual action theory (valach & young, 2002) that views life career action as an ’ongoing, ever-changing and holistic experience’ in the individual’s life (wise & milward, 2005, p. 401). stemming from this, narratives based on the stories individuals tell can tap into highlighting the complexities brought forward by micro and macro factors and their influence in career development, specifically career change. this research study extended a growing body of work using qualitative methods to understand career change internationally (wise & milward, 2005) by using narrative inquiry to understand career development in south africa (geldenhuys & de lange, 2007; maree & beck, 2004; maree, ebersöhn & molepo, 2006). this represented a novel process in understanding not just career decision-making but aspects of career change apart from the dominant quantitative research method. research design top ↑ research approach a qualitative approach was followed in this research by adopting an interpretive research philosophy (creswell, 2009). this philosophy is based on individual experience and interpretation. the emphasis is on understanding meaning and how the individual interprets what is deemed as social reality. in this case, the research investigated the career change experience from the lens of previously disadvantaged individuals. research strategy twenty participants took part in this study and were enrolled as distance learners. the majority of participants were xhosa speaking. thirteen women and seven men were interviewed. the age groups of these participants ranged from 29 to 45 and are reported in table 1. the majority of participants were enrolled in undergraduate courses with only five pursuing post-graduate courses. table 1 gives an outline of the participants in this study. table 1: respondents’ characteristics. research method research setting the research was conducted in the eastern cape of south africa at the campus of a leading distance learning provider in south africa. entrée and establishing researcher roles ethics approval was attained through the participating and hosting institutions before commencing data collection. interviews were arranged with participants and conducted at the convenience of the participants in a dedicated office. the researcher personally contacted each prospective participant to the study and explained the context and purpose of the study before participation. thus, the duties of the researcher covered the recruitment and the data collection phases of this research. all research participants voluntarily took part in the study and their rights were communicated before the start of the interview. this included the right to withdraw at any point of the interview and for collected data to be deleted in their presence. sampling convenience sampling (cohen, manion & morrison, 2007, p. 114) was used for this research and allowed the researcher to identify ‘available and accessible’ participants to the study. the distance learning centre was a strategic hub in which to access these students as it served as a convenient meeting place for students, staff and for finding learning materials. the study paid attention to an inclusion and exclusion criteria. participants to the study had to be registered and have valid student status with the distance-learning university. in addition to this, participants had to fit in with the criteria recognised by law of being previously disadvantaged either by race or by gender (cottrell, 2005). participants were excluded if they did not meet this criterion. data collection methods unstructured interviews were used as the main method of data collection as a mechanism through which the meaning of behaviours and events in people’s lives were conveyed in the natural flow of a conversation (patton, 2002). individual interviews offered opportunity to gather data that was unaffected by members of the group. these conversations allowed for the triggering of memories, reflection on experiences, elaboration of ideas and clarification of responses (rubin & rubin, 2005). the interview methodology employed in this study was informed by the model of constructing narratives for critical social inquiry with a view to generating detailed accounts rather than brief answers or general statements (riessman, 2008). emphasis was also placed on the importance of meaning and subjectivity through the interaction of participants rather than a discrete exchange of questions and answers (rubin & rubin, 2005). the central tenet here was that narrated experiences are socially constructed and that there can be many different constructions of events, each of which is true and unique (rubin & rubin, 2005). each of the interviews lasted between 45 and 90 min. recording of data the interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. interview transcripts then served the purpose of further data analysis data analyses the analysis of the interview data was done using qsr nvivo 8 a data management software. the data analysis technique used was based on previous work done using narratives in understanding human experience (mccormack, 2000; rhodes, 2000). this procedure was based upon three levels of meaning. firstly, the content of each interview was written as a brief vignette and then into a longer narrative about each participant. the purpose here was to help develop a good understanding of the career development experience (including the aspects of career change). this was done by re-reading each interview and listening to audio recordings. mccormack (2000, p. 221) advised that each narrative be scanned for ‘markers’ of stories, namely, orientation, abstract, what happened, evaluation and coda. the basic goal of this stage was to enter into the emotion and details as defined by the storyteller. this type of interrogation was viewed as allowing for a key question to be answered about each interview, ‘… what kind of story is this?’ (thornhill, clare & may, 2004, p. 188). based upon this, a basic understanding of each participant’s story was compiled.secondly, a level of meaning-making was used. this involved identifying the narrative themes which were conveyed by the participant and their career change experience. preliminary themes from each interview were identified whilst setting for cross-case comparison. this also entailed a process of coding which was based on classifying responses into meaningful categories (nachmias & nachmias, 1996). by identifying common themes and regularities the aim was to discover how widespread the career development experiences were amongst all of the participants’ stories. to achieve this means of analysis, the use of narrative processes as tools with which to enhance and give meaning to a story were considered (mccormack, 2000). a final means of data analysis entailed analysing the content of the gathered narrative accounts and themes (mccormack, 2000). this was done by identifying themes and using quotes based on consistencies across participant stories (rhodes, 2000). strategies employed to ensure quality data issues of reliability and validity in this study were addressed using various prescribed guidelines (creswell, 2009). the internal reliability of this study was enhanced in the following ways. firstly, rich and thick descriptions of the data were formulated in order to allow readers to make decisions regarding the scientific merit of the findings. this is important, especially when there is need to understand career behaviour from a multi-cultural context with the ultimate purpose of sharing the results on an international scale. secondly, data was gathered over a period of time in order to avoid participant and interviewer fatigue. finally, in order to ensure that all the data was accurately recorded, interviews were audiotaped and extensive notes were taken during the fieldwork (creswell, 2009). reporting the main findings from the analysis will be presented as (1) sources of career change, (2) effects of career change and (3) the role of distance learning enrolment on individual career change. participant stories and narratives are used to illustrate this. however, because of length restrictions the most salient stories and quotes are given focus. findings top ↑ source of career change career change was attributed as a source of two identified themes in the participants’ stories and narratives. these included reasons attributed to (1) personal growth and ambition and (2) structural changes in current work or job. personal growth and ambition served as the most salient theme for necessitating individual career change. within this theme, variation existed amongst participant stories and narratives. some participants cited the need to develop further and the only way to do this was through a career change. w12 was working as a sales agent for a reputable south african marketing company, a job which was ‘tedious’ and ‘monotonous’. interestingly, w12 makes reference to the influence of apartheid in telling her career change story: ‘the accounting profession in the past, that is, during the apartheid era was restricted to only a select few. so coming from the marginalised group on the basis of colour and gender i wanted to actually break these barriers. there are still a few black people who are ca’s, some are just accountants. for me, i wanted to go all the way. this was enough motivation to make the move to banking and hopefully become an accountant within my bank.’ (w12, woman, 29) in the same way as w12, other participants brought forward the issue of apartheid in explaining their career change story (w5 and w19). the story and narrative of w5 receives attention as an illustration. w5 made specific inference to pre-apartheid and post-apartheid south africa. during pre–apartheid south africa: ‘i started off as a teacher in motherwell. i grew up in the apartheid days and in those days as a black person you did not have much for you. it’s either you became a teacher, nurse or a general hand. my father worked for a school in the township and was an educator and he instilled the value of education. i actually think i became a teacher just after him.’ (w5, man, 45) w5 did not offer any valence between the influence of apartheid or his father regarding his career decision-making. however, the impact of both appears inevitable, given his narration. this was made apparent in a further quote detailing how w5 ‘made the shift from teaching to information technology’: ‘… you know as black people we were stopped from getting into some of these professions; this is good for us in the new south africa. we just need to continue working hard and to show people not happy with this, that we can also do well.’ (w5, man, 45) the above quote was interesting and laden with a sense of racial identity through the use of the possessive pronoun ‘we’. here w5 appeared to identify himself with the cause of black people who were denied opportunities during apartheid. to w5, the transition from a pre-apartheid to post-apartheid dispensation offered an opportunity for career development, specifically a career change. in some stories, individual’s lack of interest in their current career facilitated career change. this was significant amongst the majority of participants (w1, w2, w3, w6, w7, w10, w13, w9 and w12). an illustration of this is the story of w9 who had worked for over 5 years as a secretary. the motivation to be a secretary had been influenced by the portrayal of this career as being one of ‘glamour and fame’. however, after working for five years w9 narrated her experience: ‘… i thought being a secretary was about glamour and fame. however, i soon was caught in routine work and realised that this was not my thing. i made the change to psychology.’ (w9, man, 35) career change necessitated by a quest to develop oneself further illustrates how the notion of a career is unpredictable, messy and intricate. individual career decisions do not appear to be set in stone or fixed but open to a process of negotiation. structural changes in an individual’s current job or work were another identified source of career change amongst participant stories. this covered any interruption to an individual’s job or work caused by redundancy, retrenchment or unemployment. subsequently, from these experiences individuals made the decision to change careers. some examples from the respondents are used to illustrate this below. w9 experienced retrenchment whilst working for a large motor manufacturing company in the eastern cape: ‘i was working as an operator building engines at different stations. i got retrenched and this was just beyond me as the company was cutting down on staff. it was a tough job but i was so happy to be retrenched as that gave me opportunity to try other things.’ (w9, man, 35) w9 appeared happy with being retrenched so that he could ‘try other things’. w9 turned to studying as a way to improve his chances of securing employment and enrolled to study after a suggestion from a friend that he pursue a degree with double majors in ‘commerce and education’ (b com ed). this was strategic for the purpose of securing specialisation in the ‘corporate world or education sector’. w9 turned to a career working as a teacher in port elizabeth. he did not enjoy the teaching job: ‘i was teaching life science, business economics and computer science. i discovered within education there was no personal growth. you remain a post–level teacher before you can go up the ladder. the reason is you have to wait for someone to die to get a position. take for example; being a principal you have to wait for the current principal to retire or die … the kids were disrespectful … it affects and discouraged me and i knew this was not my thing. i decided to leave. also as a temporary teacher with no promise of employment and so i took the risk.’ (w9, man, 35) w9 recounted many stories, all of which seemed to be rooted in the theme of being unemployed. these stories showed patterns of broken employment and working part-time. this movement appeared to show two things. firstly, w9’s work history demonstrated his desire to construct his career. secondly, and related to the first, the changes in jobs and careers in w9’s story presented opportunities and constrains in this career construction. this appears to paint a picture of the complexity and unpredictability of career change. participant w16 also went through a period of being unemployed for ‘over ten years’ with temporal work opportunities described as ‘piece jobs’ that helped her survive. this participant bemoaned of how she acquired these ‘piece jobs’ using her matric certificate not her degree. participant w16 managed to get a job as a secretary. it is during the period of being unemployed and going through various piece jobs that the decision was made to change from being a secretary to a teacher. this was motivated by the perception of ‘stability of income’ and ‘abundant opportunities’ in the teaching profession. participant w16’s account is similar to that of w12. she also used her circumstance of being unemployed after working as a ‘sales agent’ to charter a way forward into a new career in auditing in a bank. a decision she describes as a ‘gamble’ that eventually ‘paid off’, albeit the ‘uncertainty’. being unemployed appeared to be a paradox as found through participant stories and narratives including the ones not used for empirical illustration. at first, the state of being unemployed emerged as a constraint to an individual’s current career trajectory. however, it was also an opportunity to try new things thus facilitating a career change. this opportunity was not optional but mandatory in the quest for the individual to survive and also earn a living. effects of career change the effect of the career change experience based on participants’ stories and narratives was also ascertained. this experience had an influence on individual well-being. this highlighted how emotive the period of career change can be. it is a process filled with uncertainty and takes a toll on the individual. an example to illustrate this is the journey taken by w13 from being an engineer to a pastor, ‘it was a difficult decision that took me a year and half to decide. a decision that was physically straining’ (w13, man, 29).other participants corroborated the same sentiments as w13: • ‘i felt i had made the wrong decision based upon what i had studied. it did not feel good’ (w2, woman, 30). • ‘being retrenched is not a nice feeling. on the one hand is this unknown about what is going to happen … then the thought of how you will provide for the family’ (w18, man, 40). • ‘i was panicking because i had graduated and i was supposed to be the one who was helping and supporting my parents instead i was the one getting the support. i lost my self-esteem when i could not get a job’ (w16, woman, 34). role of distance learning enrolment on individual career change through participants’ stories and narratives the role of distance learning enrolment on the career change experience was ascertained. distance learning allowed an individual to rise above the challenge of disadvantage and also to negotiate around this by attaining an educational qualification. this helped the individual move to a desired career. although distance learning occupied a pragmatic consideration because it was cheap, education was viewed as a way of facilitating career change. the attainment of an education through distance learning thus occupied importance in the stories of the previously disadvantaged distance learners.w16, after years of working as a secretary and making the change to teaching, stated, ‘i do have hope that this postgraduate certificate will make me more marketable’ (w16, woman, 34). w14 had a similar experience. she worked as a police officer after being self-employed and described the rationale for distance learning as dual. firstly, it ‘allows for flexibility of being a mom and a professional’ (w14, woman, 36) and secondly ‘i think the diploma will help me climb the ranks, as it will be easy to get a promotion upon completion’ (w14, woman, 36). finally, all of the participants affirmed the role distance learning played during their career change experience. a common theme that ran across all of the participants’ stories and narratives in the career change experience was that distance learning was a cheap mode of study, thus facilitating career change: • ‘i did not have money to study full-time. so i started working part-time to save money to study via distance learning. the fees are lower than other universities’ (w9, man, 35). • ‘distance learning is cheaper as i can’t afford full-time study’ (w19, woman, 41). ethical considerations top ↑ participants to the research were informed of their rights including the voluntary nature of the research and consent was mandatory before commencing the research. pseudonyms were used to disguise participant names as a measure to protect them. discussion top ↑ the main purpose of this study was to investigate the career change experience amongst previously disadvantaged individuals in south africa. from the participants’ stories a common theme appeared which was the desire to enact career choice especially when faced with situations necessitating career change. this study attests to the emerging trend of periodic employment and change in jobs or careers in present day economies as influencing an understanding of careers (hall, 2004). thus, the process of career decision-making was found to be non-linear, non-stable and without a logical progression. this study found career change as being based on complexity and emergent opportunities affecting individuals (bloch, 2005).from the analysis of the data, the career change experience was rooted in a societal and cultural context. this was often cited when explaining this experience. this study thus confirms previous findings that demonstrated the influence of such a context on individual career decision-making in south africa (geldenhuys & de lange, 2007; jordaan et al., 2009; myburgh, 2005; watson et al., 2001). uniquely this is done by investigating the career change process. this study also demonstrated how the process of enacting career change decisions occurs as a socially constructed phenomenon. this revelation may have come about as a result of the narrative analysis which enabled a more in-depth look into this complex phenomenon. thus, career change, apart from being ‘personal’ and ‘highly complex’ (wise & milward, 2005, p. 401) was found to be a process of individual performance and co-construction (lapointe, 2010). factors identified in this research such as the quest for personal growth and ambition, and structural changes related to the work or job situation informed this process. the role of education, particularly distance learning, was found important in helping individuals facilitate the process of their career change. this supports previous work in south africa that demonstrated the role of education on individual career development (geldenhuys & de lange, 2007; jordaan et al., 2009; myburgh, 2005; watson et al., 2001). uniquely, the benefits of distance learning identified in the literature were also found to be important to the career change experience (glennie & bialobrzeska, 2006; lemmer, 2009). the thinking here is that distance learning occupies a pragmatic function which cannot be divorced from individual needs or the circumstances surrounding disadvantage. this was an imperative which was manifest in how participants engaged in the dual responsibility of work and study, and the flexibility which was required to maintain this balance. in essence, this assisted the career change experience by acquiring a qualification to support this. distance learning thus created a space not just for acquiring an education but aiming for mobility from one career to another. it was a bridge for moving out of a career and the quest for a better life considering the individual situation and background in south africa. theoretically, the findings of this work do not negate assertions held in traditional career theories. for instance, individual traits and interests as suggested in the trait and factor theory (holland, 1992, 1997) were found to inform decisions on career change. this was often cited when individuals justified career change based on personal interests and consideration. in addition to this, enactment of career decisions entailed constant revision. in turn, this negated the idea of a career as being a linear and predictable process held in the developmental view of careers. career development in this study was a continuous life project with no fixed state of arrival, but instead characterised by constant revision regardless of individual experiences of work and study. career change bore evidence to this and supported empirical work showing the constant revision of a career especially in rapidly unstable contexts (henneberger & sousa–poza, 2007; hirshi & vondracek, 2009). practical implications can be suggested from this research. given the perceived benefit of distance learning, especially amongst previously disadvantaged individuals, building more of such universities may make sense. given that cost consideration is cited as a barrier by previously disadvantaged individuals entering full-time study and access to education (msila, 2006), this study magnifies the important role of distance learning. this suggestion has implications not just on improving access to education but also for the social justice agenda in south africa. practical interventions targeted at those distance learners undergoing career change can be suggested. for example, training interventions dealing with how to balance the demands of life roles including study and employment are warranted. this is needed given that these issues were salient in participants’ stories and narratives. the findings from the research are likely to be of value to human resource practioners who will work with individuals undergoing or contemplating career change. understanding the factors motivating this provides a useful starting point for retention strategies and improving individual jobs and careers. limitations of the study the study has notable limitations. concern was raised over the small number of respondents interviewed. a small number of respondents were used for the purpose of making a theoretical argument and to illustrate the merit of qualitative methods in providing a deeper understanding of career development and career change. this was useful in generating theory around such career behaviours.notwithstanding such limitations, this study also placed importance on understanding the role of context, historical consideration and disadvantage when it came to the career change experience. future research could extend from this by means of continued investigation of such phenomenon in south african organisations. finally, future research could also investigate career change behaviour outside the distance learning context as a basis for comparison. conclusion this study offered an interesting exploration of how complex variables influence career change in south africa. in doing so, the study has focused on the need to understand such behaviour using methods and research design that have not traditionally received attention. sources of individual career change were identified including their effect on individual well-being. by utilising this knowledge, solutions may be suggested. uniquely, focus was given to distance learning as an opportunity and prerequisite for individual career development, especially for the previously disadvantaged in south africa. acknowledgements top ↑ an earlier version of this paper was presented at the gender, work and organisation: 7th biennial international interdisciplinary conference, hosted by keele university in june 2012. competing interests the author declares that is no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this paper. references top ↑ abbot, h. (2002). the cambridge introduction to narrative. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press.arnold, j. (1997). managing careers into the twenty–first century. london: paul chapman. arnold, j., & cohen, l. (2008). the psychology of careers in industrial-organizational settings: a critical but appreciative analysis. in g.p. hodgkinson & j.k. ford (eds.), international review of industrial/organizational psychology, 23, 1–44. chichester: wiley. baruch, y. (2004). managing careers: theory and practice. harlow: ft-prentice hall/pearson. bem, d.j. (1967). self-perception: an alternative interpretation of cognitive dissonance phenomena. psychological review, 74, 183–200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0024835, pmid:5342882 bloch, d.p. (2005). complexity chaos and nonlinear dynamics: a new perspective on career development theory. career development quarterly, 53, 194–207. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2005.tb00990.x bono, j.e., & vey, m.a. (2007). personality and emotional performance: extraversion, neuroticism, and self-monitoring. journal of occupational health psychology, 12, 177–192. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.12.2.177, pmid:17469999 booysen, a.e. (2000). towards a more feminine business leadership for the 21st century: a literature review and a study of the potential implications for south africa. south african journal of labour relations, 1(23), 31–54. bosch, a., de bruin, g.p., kgaladi, b., & de bruin, k. (2012). life role salience among black african dual-career couples in the south african context. the international journal of human resource management, 23(14), 2835–2853. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.671506 bright, j.e.h., pryor, r.g.l., chan, e., & rijanto, j. (2009). the dimensions of chance career episodes. journal of vocational behavior, 75(1), 14–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.02.007 brown, a., bimrose, j., barnes, s.a., & hughes, d. (2012). the role of career adapt-abilities for mid-career changers. journal of vocational behaviour, 80(3), 754–761. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2012.01.003 brown, d. (1990). summary, comparison and critique of the major theories. in d. brown, l. brooks & associates (eds.), career choice and development. san francisco: jossey – bass. bruner, j.s. (1986). actual minds, possible worlds. cambridge. ma: harvard university press. burgess, j.r.d., & russell, j.e.a. (2003). the effectiveness of distance learning initiatives in organizations. journal of vocational behavior, 63(2), 289–303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0001-8791(03)00045-9 chen, y., & fang, w. (2008). the moderating effect of impression management on the organizational politics-performance relationship. journal of business ethics, 79, 263–277. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9379-3 chudzikowski, k. (2012). career transitions and career success in the ‘new’ career era. journal of vocational behaviour, 81(2), 298–306. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.10.005 cohen l., & mallon m. (2001). my brilliant career? using stories as a methodological tool in careers research. international studies of management and organization, 31(3), 48–68. cohen l., manion, l., & morrison, k. (2007). research methods in education. (6th edn.). london: routledge-falmer. cohen, a. (2003). multiple commitments in the workplace: an integrative approach. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. cottrell, r. (2005). south africa: a state of apartheid. new york: chelsea house. creed, p.a., patton, w., & watson, m.b. (2002). cross-cultural equivalence of the career decision-making self-efficacy scale-short form: an australian and south african comparison. journal of career assessment, 10, 327–342. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10672702010003004 creswell, j.w. (2009). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods. (3rd edn.). los angeles: sage. czakan, p. (2006). retention of workers in telecommunications. unpublished mba thesis, university of cape town, cape town, south africa. du toit, r., & de bruin, g.p. (2002). the structural validity of holland’s r-i-a-s-e-c model of vocational personality types for young black south african men and women. journal of career assessment, 10, 62–77. geldenhuys, j., & de lange, n. (2007). career identities of first-year female coloured students. south african journal of education, 27, 117–137. gianokos, i. (1999). career counselling with battered women. journal of mental health counseling, 21, 1–14. gibson, r.l., & mitchell, m.h. (1999). introduction to counseling and guidance. (5th edn.). upper saddle rive, nj: prentice hall. giles, m., & larmour, s. (2000). the theory of planned behaviour: a conceptual framework to view the career development of women. journal of applied psychology, 30(10), 2137–2157. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2000.tb02429.x glennie, j., & bialobrzeska, m. (2006). overview of distance education in south africa. johannesburg: saide. hall, d.t. (2002). careers in and out of organizations. thousand oaks: sage. hall, d.t. (2004). the protean career: a quarter-century journey. journal of vocational behavior, 65, 1–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2003.10.006 henneberger, f., & sousa-poza, a. (2007). arbeitsplatzstabilität und arbeitsplatzwechsel in der schweiz [employment stability and job mobility in switzerland]. bern: haupt. herr, e.l., & cramer, s.h. (1992). career guidance and counselling through the life span: systematic approaches. new york: harper collins. herr, e.l., cramer, s.h., & niles, s.g. (2004). career guidance and counselling through the lifespan: systemic approaches. (6th edn.). boston: allyn & bacon. hess, n., jepsen, d.m., & dries, n. (2012). career and employer change in boundaryless career. journal of vocational behaviour, 81, 280–288. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.10.009 hirshi, a., & vondracek, f. (2009). adaptation of career goals in early adolescence to self and opportunities. journal of vocational behaviour, 75(2), 120–128. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.05.005 holland, j.h. (1997). making vocational choices: a theory of vocational personalities and work environments. (3rd edn.). englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. holland, j.l. (1992). making vocational choices: a theory of vocational personalities and work environments. (2nd edn.). odessa, fl: psychological assessment resources. ibarra, h. (2003). working identity: unconventional strategies for re-inventing your career. illinois: harvard business press. inkson, k. (2007). understanding careers: the metaphors of working lives. london: sage publications. jordaan, y., smithard, c., & burger, e. (2009). comparing levels of career indecision among selected honours degree students at the university of pretoria. meditari, 17(2), 1–15. krumboltz, j.d. (1979). a social learning theory of career decision-making. in a.m. mitchell, g.b. jones & j.d. krumboltz (eds.), social learning and career decision making. cranston, ri: carroll press. pmid:20738188 lamprecht, j.c. (2002). career assessment skills. in k. maree & l. ebersohn, life skills in career counselling. sandown, heinemann. lapointe, k. (2010). narrating career, positioning identity: career identity as a narrative practice. journal of vocational behaviour, 77, 1−9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2010.04.003 lemmer, e.m. (2009). empowerment of women students through educational achievement: a narrative inquiry. african education review, 6(1), 80–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/18146620902857319 lent, r.w., brown, s.d. & hackett, g. (2002). social cognitive career theory. in d. brown & associate (eds.), career choice and development. (4th edn.). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. maree, j.g., & beck, g. (2004). using various approaches in career counselling for traditionally disadvantaged learners: some limitations of a new frontier. south african journal of education, 24, 80–87. maree, k. (2002). theoretical approaches: an overview. in k. maree & l. ebersöhn (eds). life skills and career counselling (n.p.). sandown: heinemann publishers. maree, k., ebersöhn, l., & molepo, m. (2006). administering narrative career counselling in a diverse setting: trimming the sails to the wind. south african journal of education, 26, 49–60. marshall, v., & bonner, d. (2003). career anchors and the effects of downsizing: implications for generations and cultures at work: a preliminary investigation. journal of european industrial training, 27(6), 281–291. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090590310479910 mccormack, c. (2000). from interview transcript to interpretative story: part 1. viewing the transcript through multiple lenses. field methods, 12(4), 282–297. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1525822x0001200402 mcfarland, l.a., yun, g., harold, c.m., viera, l., jnr., & moore, l.g. (2005). an examination of impression management use and effectiveness across assessment center exercises: the role of competency demands. personnel psychology, 58, 949–980. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2005.00374.x mcmahon, m. (2006). career counselling: applying the systems theory framework of career development. journal of employment counseling, 32, 29–38. mitchell, l.k., & krumboltz, j.d. (1996). krumboltz’s learning theory of career choice and counselling. in d. brown, l. brooks & associates (eds.), career choice and development. (3rd edn.). san francisco, california: jossey–bass. msila, v. (2006). school choice – as if learners matter: black african learners’ views on choosing schools in south africa. mevlana international journal of education, 57(1), 1–14. myburgh, j.e. (2005). an empirical analysis of career choice factors that influence first-year accounting students at the university of pretoria: a cross-racial study. meditari accountancy research, 13, 35–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/10222529200500011 nachmias, f.c., & nachmias, d. (1996). research methods in the social sciences. (5th edn.). new york: worth publishers. nadkarni, s., & barr, p.s. (2008). environmental context, managerial cognition and strategic action: an integrated view. strategic management journal, 29, 1395–1427. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smj.717 naicker, a. (1994). the psycho-social context of career counselling in south african schools. south african journal of psychology, 24(1), 27–34. oleski, d., & subich, l.m. (1996). congruence and career change in employed adults. journal of vocational behaviour, 49, 221–229. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1996.0041 osipow, s.h., & fitzgerald, l.f. (1996). theories of career development. boston, ma: allyn & bacon. patton, m.q. (2002). qualitative research and evaluation methods. thousand oaks, ca: sage. patton, w., creed, p.a., & watson, m. (2003). perceived work related and non-work related barriers in the career development of australian and south african adolescents. australian journal of psychology, 55, 74–82. polkinghorne, d.e (1988). narrative knowing and the human sciences. albany, ny: state of new york university press. rhodes, h. (2000). mid-life career change to home-based self-employment in a group of women. unpublished master’s dissertation, simon fraser university, british columbia, canada. riessman, c.k. (2008). narrative methods for the human sciences, los angeles, ca: sage. rubin, h.j., & rubin, i. (2005). qualitative interviewing: the art of hearing data. thousand oaks: ca: sage. savickas, m., nota, l., rossier, j., dauwalder, j.p., duarte, m.e., guichard, j. et al. (2009). life designing: a paradigm for career construction in the 21st century. journal of vocational behaviour, 75(3), 239–250. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.04.004 schultheiss, d., & stead, g.b. (2004). childhood career development scale: scale construction and psychometric properties. journal of career assessment, 12, 113–134. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072703257751 simons, r. (1994). how new top managers use control systems as levers of strategic renewal. strategic management journal, 15, 169–189. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250150301 south african department of education. (1997). curriculum 2005: discussion document. pretoria: government printers. south african department of education. (2010). education statistics in south africa 2009. department of education, pretoria. stead, g.b. (2007). cultural psychology as a transformative agent for vocational psychology. international journal for educational and vocational guidance, 7, 181–190. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10775-007-9125-5 stead, g.b., & chetty, j. (2002). construct validity of occupational awareness inventory among south african children. paper presented at the annual meeting of the american psychological association, chicago. stead, g.b., & watson, m.b. (2006). career psychology in the south african context. pretoria: van schaik publishers. super, d. (1990). a life-span, life-space approach to career development. in d. brown (ed.), career choice and development, (n.p.). san francisco: jossey-bass publishers. super, d., tiedman, d.v., & borrow, h. (1961). vocational development: a symposium, personal and guidance journal. personnel and guidance journal, 40(1), 11–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2164-4918.1961.tb02077.x super, d.e. (1984). career and life development. in d. brown & l. brooks (eds.), career choice and development, (n.p.). san francisco, jossey-bass. suutari, v., & taka, m. (2004). career anchors of managers with global careers. journal of management development, 23(9), 833–847. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02621710410558440 thornhill, h., clare, l., & may, r. (2004). escape, enlightenment and endurance: narratives of recovery from psychosis. anthropology and medicine, 11, 181–199. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13648470410001678677 toni, m.n., & olivier, m.a.j. (2004). academic identities of black female first-year students. south african journal of education, 24, 194–199. valach, l., & young, r.a. (2002). contextual action theory in career counselling: some misunderstood issues. canadian journal of counselling, 36(2), 97–112. watson, m.b., brand, h.j., stead, g.b., & ellis, r.r. (2001). confirmatory factor analysis of the career decision-making self-efficacy scale among south african university students. journal of industrial psychology, 27(1), 43–46. wise, a.j., & millward, l.j. (2005). the experiences of voluntary career change in 30 somethings and implications for guidance. career development international, 10(5), 400–417. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430510615328 young, a.m. (2009). frustration-instigated career decisions: a theoretical exploration of the role of frustration in career decisions. human resource development review, 8, 281–299. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1534484309337209 zunker, v.g. (2002). career counselling: applied concepts of life planning. (6th edn.). pacific grove, ca: brooks/cole. 2-labuschagne.qxd synopsis the purpose of this article is to identify the components of success from the literature and to test the components in practice to see to what extent each component forms part of the success experience of a financial institution’s senior management. the result was evaluated from a personal and professional leadership (ppl) perspective. attention was given to the concept ‘success’ by describing and explaining the concept. possible personal and professional leadership guidelines to experience success were investigated and recommendations made to the financial institution. a quantitative and descriptive research strategy was followed. the primary research methods used in the study included a sur vey, word and concept analysis. a word and concept analysis of the word ‘success’ was undertaken, while a literature study was conducted, to investigate current data documented on the subject of success. a questionnaire was developed to determine the success experience of the senior managers of a financial institution. the data was analysed, compared and interpreted. the most important findings of the study are as follows: � from the literature study and the empirical results of the investigation it was found that success is not necessary prosperity or money. although money can be an advantage it does not guarantee sustainable success. � success is not a single component, for example accomplishment or achievement. success requires a holistic approach constituted by multiple components. from the literature, 31 components of success were identified. to experience true success, balance in terms of all the life dimensions is required. � three success factors were identified in this study. the first factor is about the “inside-out” success experience (intrinsic factor). the second factor is an “outside-in” success experience (extrinsic factor). both factors must be acknowledged in success aspirations. the third factor is a ppl-factor. taking action is a result of the “inside-out” factor. this component is calculated, well thought through and based on an awareness of who i am; where i’m going, and why i am going there. it also includes knowledge about my purpose in life, understanding my potential and realising my potensial. this action should further be built around the individual’s character and principles. � success is primarily not happiness. success and happiness is not a goal to be achieved but a by-product of that which is longed for. � success is not power or influence. you could achieve success by reaching a certain position at work and think that you have made it. this position does not indemnify you from an empty and unfulfilled feeling. �� success is not achievement and cannot only be measured against achievement alone. �� success is a journey. how do i use each day? do i make the best of each opportunity? do i see the opportunity around me? do i take the necessary action? �� more than two thirds of the respondents’ linked success with the realisation of their goals, the reaching of certain milestones, living in balance with their life dimensions. �� respondents that are 37 and older are more inclined to experience success in their emotional life in contrast with those under 37 years. �� very happy people are more inclined to experience success in terms of their social and emotional life than people that are fairly happy. ppl, in conclusion, regarding the success experience of a financial institutions senior management, challenges the traditional understanding of success and brings the individual to an awareness with regards to the write picture of what success is, and points to the allignment of happiness, health; relationships, emotions, goals, dreams and potential in order to achieve it. although, there are as many definitions of success as there are people thinking about it, success in one wjp labuschagne jc kok dpj smith departement opvoedkunde randse afrikaanse universiteit abstract the success experience of a financial institutions senior management. no clarity exists either in literature or in practice regarding people’s success experience. people often experience a dissonance between external success and internal fulfillment. important components needed to experience success were identified from literature in order to determine in practice to what extent such components formed part of the success experience of a financial institution’s senior management. internal (intrinsic) and external (extrinsic) factors were identified as necessary factors in order to experience success in a balanced way. in this article the findings of senior management’s success experience are reported. the research was conducted by means of qualitative and quantitative methodology from a personal and professional leadership perspective. opsomming daar is onduidelikheid in die literatuur, en in die praktyk, oor wat presies die belewenis van sukses by mense is. mense ervaar dikwels ’n dissonans tussen uiterlike sukses en innerlike vervulling. belangrike komponente in die belewing van sukses is in die literatuur geïdentifiseer en in die praktyk getoets om vas te stel tot welke mate interne (intrinsieke) en eksterne (ekstrinsieke) faktore deel uitmaak van die suksesbelewing van senior bestuur in ’n finansiële instelling. beide stelle faktore is van belang om op ’n gebalanseerde wyse sukses te kan beleef. in hierdie artikel word die bevindings ten opsigte van senior bestuur se suksesbelewing gerapporteer. die navorsing is met behulp van kwalitatiewe sowel as kwantitatiewe metodologie vanuit persoonlike en professionele leierskapsperspektief ondersoek. suksesbelewing van seniorbestuurders van ’n groot finansieële instelling versoeke vir afskrifte moet gerig word aan: dpj smith, departement menslikehulpbronbestuur, rau universiteit, po box 524, aucklandpark, 2006 9 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (1), 9-15 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (1), 9-15 area of your life does not mean overall success. balance in all the different life dimensions of life is essential. you must know who you are, where you stand with yourself, what you would like to do and take the necessary steps to get there. all these aspects are based on the principles of personal and professional leadership. the conclusion can be made that ppl can make an important contribution to experience success in a balanced way. die probleem daar is onduidelikheid in die literatuur, en ook in die praktyk, oor wat presies die belewenis van sukses by mense is. vele mense klim die suksesleer om ten einde tot die besef te kom dat hulle leer teen die verkeerde muur geleun het. in hierdie artikel is ’n analise gemaak van die suksesbelewing by seniorbestuurders van ’n groot finansiële instelling. indien die topbestuur inligting kan kry oor hulle seniorbestuurders se suksesbelewing, kan dit hulle in staat stel om hulle seniorbestuur individueel so te bestuur sodat dit hopelik kan lei tot verhoogde produktiwiteit, kreatiwiteit, spanwerk, verbeterde verhoudings, gelukkiger werknemers, persoonlike groei, verbeterde gesondheid en ’n gebalanseerde lewe. die basiese vrae wat gevra is, is: wat is die onderliggende diepgaande behoefte by sulke seniorbestuurders? hoe sien en beleef hulle sukses? ervaar hulle persoonlike groei en kreatiwiteit? is hulle hart en gees in dit wat hulle doen of is hulle vasgevang in iemand anders se prentjie van sukses? vind hulle vreugde en balans tussen die lang werkure, druk en verantwoordelikheid wat van hulle vereis word? doelstelling die doel met hierdie artikel is om die komponente waaruit sukses bestaan vanuit die literatuur te bepaal en in die praktyk te toets om te peil in watter mate elke komponent deel vorm van sodanige seniorbestuurders se belewing van sukses. die resultaat hiervan is aan die hand van ’n persoonlike en professionele leierskapperspektief van sukses beoordeel. daar is beoog om in hierdie verband waardevolle inligting aan die finansiële instelling te verskaf ten einde hulle seniorbestuur beter te verstaan in terme van: personeelretensie, persoonlike ontwikkeling, bevordering, loopbaanbeplanning, toekomstige uitdagings, om balans in sy werknemers se lewensdomeine te ervaar, maar ook om nuwe seniorbestuur na die finansiële instelling te lok. konsepverheldering vier sentrale konsepte verskyn in hierdie artikel rondom die sukses-vraag naamlik: ‘sukses’, ‘vervulling’ en ‘geluk’ en ‘ppl’. die eerste drie genoemde konsepte kom later aan die woord. dit is wel nodig om die vierde konsep ‘ppl’ eerste hier toe te lig. persoonlike en professionele leierskap (ppl): verskeie dissiplines het elk ’n eie perspektief op die mens. onder hierdie dissiplines tel die psigologie, die filosofie, die sosiologie, die biologie en die teologie. persoonlike en professionele leierskap het ook ’n eie perspektief op die mens. volgens smith (2001, p. 2) kan persoonlike en professionele leierskap gedefinieer word as: “ ’n studie van die kontinue of voortgesette verbintenis van die mens tot geldige en funksionele: selfkennis; doelnastrewing; potensiaalrealisering; begrip van samewerking met en waardetoevoeging tot ander mense, in besonder naasbestaandes, uitgebreide familie, vriende, kollegas in werkverband en mense in die algemeen; professionele bekwaamheid, vaardigheid en doeltreffendheid, veral vir sover dit die-in-lyn-bring van die mensfaktor tot organisasiedoeltreffendheid behels.” as paradigma verwys die ppl-perspektief se uitgangspunt daarna dat die mens se optrede deur sy innerlike harmonie bepaal word. enige verandering van gedrag sal bepaal word deur ’n verandering van die persoon self (brewis, 2000, p. 7). covey (1992, pp. 42-43) verwys hierna as die “inside-out approach”. hierdie van binne-nabuite-benadering is ’n proses van hernuwing gebaseer op natuurlike wette wat menslike groei en progressie voorafgaan en wat dan lei tot verantwoordelike onafhanklikheid en effektiewe interafhanklikheid. hierdie benadering beteken dat die mens met hom/ haarself begin – sy diepste self, sy karakter, sy paradigmas, sy waardes en sy motiewe (covey, 1992, p. 43). in terme van leierskap wys cashman (2000, p. 18) daarop dat dit nie moontlik is om die leier van die persoon te skei nie. baie mense maak hierdie fout om leierskap te sien as ’n eksterne gebeurtenis. mense is gekondisioneer om te fokus op die eksterne manifestering van leierskap (visie, charisma, inspirasie, kreatiwiteit, ens.). leierskap is nie bloot iets wat mense doen nie, maar is wel ’n proses, ’n intieme uitdrukking van wie ons is. cashman (2000, p. 19) sluit by covey (1992, p. 43) aan as hy sê: “as we learn to master our growth as a person, we will be on the path to mastery of leadership from the inside out”. leierskap is die outentieke uitdrukking van die self wat waarde skep (cashman, 2000, p. 20). ons doelgerigte innerlike lewe kom tot uitdrukking en ons maak ’n verskil vanuit onsself. soos wat ons beweeg na ’n meer vervulde lewe, vervang ons fokus op sin en doel ons enkelvoudige fokus op eksterne sukses sodat ons innerlike dinamiek wat sukses en vervulling ondersteun, na vore kan tree (cashman, 2000, pp. 22-23). persoonlike en professionele leierskap hou homself besig met die vrae: wie is jy? waarheen gaan jy? hoekom gaan jy daarheen? dit wil juis beklemtoon dat die mens ’n keuse-moontlikheid het. ppl wys op die mens se daaglikse dissonanse en wil die mens begelei tot: selfkennis deur bewusmaking en bewuswording; verstaan en realisering van die individu se potensiaal; doelnatrewing; verstaan en waardeer die krag van jou denke; leef vanuit jou kern; vernuwe jouself daagliks – elke dag ’n bietjie beter; bou beter verhoudings en word vertrouenswaardig; balans in al sy lewensdimensies. hierdie ppl-perspektief is onderliggend en deurslaggewend in die skrywe van hierdie artikel. metode deelnemers die volle komplement (een honderd en sestig) seniorbestuurders van ’n bepaalde finansiële instelling is betrek as respondente. hierdie bestuurders is versprei oor suid-afrika. daar is op hierdie groep bestuurders besluit vanweë hulle tweede plek posisie in die vier-vlak leierskapband van die gegewe finansiële instelling. hierdie groep seniorbestuurders het dus ’n aansienlike posisie en verantwoordelikheid binne die finansiële instelling en sou as suksesvol beskou kan word. meetinstrumente navorsingstrategie ’n kwantitatiewe navorsingstrategie is aangewend met die klem wat val op die omvang van die probleem in die samelewing of die verband tussen twee of meer veranderlikes in ’n populasie. in sodanige gevalle is empiries-statisties kwantifiserende tipe navorsing gepas. die meetinstrument word dan gebruik om die data in te win. statistiese tegnieke word gebruik om die toepaslike verwerkings te doen. die resultate het moontlike veralgemeningspotensiaal in die populasie waaruit die respondente kom (smith, 1993, p. 31). verder word daar van ’n beskrywende strategie gebruik gemaak om ’n sistematiese, feitlike en akkurate beskrywing van ’n situasie of ’n saak te gee, ter wille van beter verstaan, insig en ingeligtheid (smith, 1993, p. 35). goeie begrip, insig en kennis van sukses sal gevorm word. navorsingsontwerp om die suksesbelewing van ’n finansiële instelling se seniorbestuur te bepaal, is ’n vraelys ontwerp op die basis van lanuschagne, kok, smith10 die literatuurstudie. dit behels die formulering van vrae soos dit in tabel 1 verskyn. ’n likerttipe 5 punt skaal is gebruik. die vraelys is in afrikaans en engels aan die respondente aangebied. prosedure vraelyste is aan die seniorbestuurders gestuur deur middel van die instelling se e-posstelsel. alle respondente is gevra om anoniem te bly en hulle response op ’n harde kopie uit te druk en terug te stuur, direk aan die navorser deur middel van die interne possisteem. anonimiteit van die respondente is hiermee ook gewaarborg. statistiese ontleding ’n totaal van 73 vraelyste is binne die gestelde tyd teruggestuur. hierdie totaal verteenwoordig ’n 45.6% respons. vier vraelyste is na die spertyd ontvang en is buite rekening gelaat. die geslag van die respondente het verdeel as 76.7% (56 uit 73) mans en 23.3% (17) vroue. die minimum ouderdom van die respondente is 26 en die oudste 57 met ’n gemiddelde ouderdom van 41.82. van hierdie 73 is 79.5% (58) getroud, 6.8% (5) woon saam, 9.6% (7) is geskei en 4.1% (3) was nog nooit getroud nie. in terme van hulle hoogste opvoedkundige kwalifikasies het 19.4% (14) ’n matriek(graad 12) kwalifikasie of laer, 38.9% (28) ’n post matriek-sertifikaat of diploma, 26.4% (19) ’n honneursgraad of gevorderde diploma, 13.9% (10) ’n meestersgraad en 1.4% (1) ’n doktorsgraad. die respondente se huistaal is oorwegend engels met 58.3% (42), 37.5% (27) is afrikaans, 2.8% (2) ’n indiese taal en 1.4% (1) isizulu. die geloof-of godsdiensverdeling is hoofsaaklik christen met 83.6% (61) gevolg deur hindu met 9.6% (7) en islam met 1.4% (1). die balans 5.5% (4) het nie in een van die bogenoemde kategorieë geval nie. die gemiddelde jare diens van die respondente was 12.4 jaar, met 1 jaar as die minimum en 37 jaar diens as die maksimum. 4.1% (3) van die respondente verdien tussen r10, 001.00 en r15,000.00 per maand, 6.8% (5) verdien tussen r15,001.00 en r20,000.00, 32.9% (24) verdien tussen r20,001.00 en r30,000.00 per maand, 52.1% (38) respondente verdien meer as r30,000.00 per maand terwyl 4.1% (3) respondente geweier het om hierdie vraag te beantwoord. die gemiddelde werksure per week is 51.68 uur, met ’n minimum van 10 uur en ’n maksimum van 80 uur. die respondente is gevra om hulle lewe te oorweeg in terme van hoe gelukkig hulle deesdae is. 28.8% (21) het gesê hulle is baie gelukkig, 57.5% (42) dat hulle taamlik gelukkig is, 2.7% (2) was nie baie gelukkig nie en 11% (8) was glad nie gelukkig nie. geldigheid ’n multi-orde faktor-analise is gebruik en die ‘principal axis factoring’ (ekstraksie metode) en die varimax rotasie met oblimin en kaizer se normalisasie (rotasie metode) het drie faktore opgelewer. op die basis van hierdie bevindings is die instrument en die data wat ingesamel is aanvaar as geldig met verwysing tot suksesbelewing. resultate die eerste orde faktor-analise het 8 faktore gelewer in terme van die vraag: in watter mate vorm elkeen van die volgende vir u ’n deel van u belewing van sukses? die kaiser-meyer-olkin steekproef se geskiktheid het te laag op .681 getoets. ’n tweede orde faktoranalise is vervolgens gedoen en net twee faktore is opgelewer. van die twee faktore bestaan die eerste uit 17 items, met ’n cronbach-alpha betroubaarheidskoëffisient van .8666. die tweede faktor lewer 10 items met ’n cronbach-alpha betroubaarheidskoëffisient van .8666. hierdie tellings was oortuigend vir die navorser om met verdere analise voort te gaan. faktor 1 se gelyste 17 items 1. (11.4) die progressiewe realisering van waardige doelwitte. 2. (11.21) vervulde verwagtinge. 3. (11.22) prestasie (‘achievement’). 4. (11.23) verrigting (‘accomplishment’). 5. (11.31) vervulling. 6. (11.17) lojaliteit teenoor medewerknemers. 7. (11.18) volle waardering vir afgehandelde werk. 8. (11.19) taktvolle dissipline. 9. (11.12) werksekuriteit. 10. (11.13) goeie werksvoorwaardes. 11. (11.16) hulp met persoonlike probleme. 12. (11.9) help ander om suksesvol te wees. 13. (11.7) ken jou doel in die lewe. 14. (11.11) interessante werk. 15. (11.15) ’n gevoel van “in wees” op dinge. 16. (11.20) werksbevrediging. 17. (11.28) gesondheid al die bo-gelyste items het te make met intrinsieke waardes. hierdie faktor is oorwegend ’n van binne-na-buite-benadering tot sukses. faktor 2 se gelyste 10 items 1. (11.5) die vermoë om jou begeertes te vervul. 2. (11.6) rykdom. 3. (11.10) goeie salaris. 4. (11.29) materiële dinge. 5. (11.30) erkenning. 6. (11.27) prestige. 7. (11.26) weelde. 8. (11.14) promosie. 9. (11.24) mag. 10. (11.25) roem. bogenoemde items van faktor 2 het te doen met eksterne beloning. hierdie benadering is oorwegend ’n van buite-nabinne-benadering tot sukses. tabel 1 rangorde van suksesbelewingkomponente rangvraag 11 gemiddeld standaardorde in watter mate vorm elkeen van die afwyking volgende vir u ’n deel van u belewing van sukses? 1. 23. verrigting 4.53 .603 2. 28. gesondheid 4.53 .709 3. 11. interessante werk 4.51 .626 4. 22. prestasie 4.51 .626 5. 7. ken jou doel in die lewe 4.48 .603 6. 32. vervulling 4.45 .602 7. 20. werksbevrediging 4.40 .640 8. 21. vervulde verwagtinge 4.37 .635 9. 5. die vermoë om jou begeertes te vervul 4.33 .688 10. 9. help ander om suksesvol te wees 4.32 .780 11. 18. volle waardering vir afgehandelde werk 4.32 .762 12. 31. erkenning 4.27 .821 13. 4. die progressiewe realisering van waardige 4.26 .746 doelwitte 14. 10. goeie salaris 4.12 .781 15. 12. werksekuriteit 4.06 .886 16. 14. promosie 4.03 .763 17. 15. ’n gevoel van “in wees” op dinge 3.90 .930 18. 13. goeie werksvoorwaardes 3.89 .774 19. 17. lojaliteit teenoor medewerkers 3.86 .902 20. 19. taktvolle dissipline 3.62 .922 21. 6. rykdom 3.56 1.014 22. 24. mag 3.15 .828 23. 28. prestige 3.15 .938 24. 27. weelde 3.05 .864 25. 30. materiële dinge 3.03 .799 26. 16. hulp met persoonlike probleme 2.85 .953 27. 25. roem 2.75 .894 suksesbelewing van seniorbestuurders 11 sonder om spesifiek na al 27 komponente individueel te kyk, is dit voldoende om ’n paar opvallendes uit te sonder. opvallend in die rangorde is die posisie wat geld (goeie salaris – posisie 14; rykdom – posisie 21; en weelde – posisie 24) inneem, teenoor die ander komponente. vroeër is uitgewys dat geld/rykdom die algemeenste wanopvatting van sukses is. dit ondersteun ook die genoemde gedagte dat indien jy ’n sekere punt bereik het, geld nie meer so belangrik is nie, maar wel sukses. geld as komponent van sukses is minder belangrik as wat die algemene persepsie daarvan is. die stelling gemaak dat mag dikwels die indruk laat van sukses en dat mag soos geld van verbygaande aard is. die rangorde plaas mag in posisie 26 uit 27. daar kan hieruit moontlik afgelei word dat mag nie sukses tipeer soos tradisioneel aanvaar is nie. materiële dinge in posisie 25 beklemtoon dat dit waarna jy soek, nie met die uitbreiding van jou bates verkry kan word nie en dat hierdie tipe gedrag neig na kitsoplossings wat nie die toets van die tyd weerstaan nie. alhoewel roem verwerf kan word deur dit wat jy bereik en vermag, is dit in essensie nutteloos indien soos vermeld: “… goals that you are not authentically connected to are essentially meaningless …” jy kan een oggend ontwaak nadat jou doelwitte verwesenlik is en steeds ontkoppel van jouself voel. die laaste plek wat roem inneem tipeer die gevoel van die respondente gemeet aan al die ander komponente dat roem ’n wêreldse standaard is wat aan jou gegee word indien jy die norm of standaard in die oë van die wêreld oorskry het. gesondheid is hoog aangeslaan in posisie 2. dit is gestel dat positiewe gesondheid geassosieer word met ’n kapasiteit om die lewe te geniet, uitdagings te weerstaan en nie net die afwesigheid van siekte nie. alhoewel gesondheid ’n belangrike komponent van sukses blyk te wees, is die moontlikheid nog daar dat ons onvervuld kan bly as ons nie die goddelike saad binne ons versorg nie. dit wil dus voorkom, anders as wat die literatuur voorhou, dat hierdie groep seniorbestuurders se keusepatroon nie die literatuur tendense en wanopvattings in sake soos geld; rykdom; mag; materialisme of gevoel navolg nie. ’n voorkeur word gegee vir verrigting; gesondheid; interessante werk en om jou doel in die lewe te ken. bespreking die tradisionele siening: van buite-na-binne-sukses volgens hierdie suksesbenadering glo mense dat sukses na hulle toe kom – nie deur harde werk, die gebruik van talente of vaardighede nie. dit word verkry deur kans – deur die lotto te speel, op perdewedrenne wed of enige ander vorm van dobbel (denney, 2002, p. 11). sommige mense sal dalk een keer in hulle leeftyd hierdie geluk beleef, ander sal hulle lewensposisie vererger en tussen hoop en teleurstelling leef. van buite-na-binne-sukses word ook beskryf as eenmalige sukses, seldsaam en omstandigheidsgebonde, jy moet daarvoor wag, jy is nie voorbereid daarop nie en ongemaklik daarmee (maxwell, 1998, audio). die tradisionele komponente van sukses word vervolgens aangebied. geld/rykdom volgens maxwell (1997, p. 6) is die mees algemene wanopvatting oor sukses dat dit gelykstaande is aan rykdom. rykdom bring nie sukses of tevredenheid nie. maxwell (1997, p. 7) haal vir aristotle onassis aan dat hy gesê het: “ after you reach a certain point, money becomes unimportant. what matters is success”. rykdom is ten beste van verbygaande aard. geld kan nie geluk of liefde koop nie, die wêreld is vol ongelukkige miljoenêrs wat nie liefdevolle verhoudings kan behou nie (gray, 1999, p. 9). ’n verdere probleem met geld is dat dit wel kos vir jou kan koop, maar nie aptyt nie; geld kan klere koop, maar nie skoonheid nie; geld kan ’n mooi huis koop, maar nie noodwendig ’n gelukkige huis nie; geld kan boeke koop, maar nie wysheid nie; geld kan medisyne koop, maar nie gesondheid nie; geld kan iemand aan jou sy besorg, maar nie liefde nie; geld kan al die weelde van die wêreld koop, maar nie geluk nie. gray (1999, p. 9) sê dat hierdie wanpersepsie ons beroof van ons mag. die mens kan sy lewe in die rigting van persoonlike sukses stuur as hy erken dat geld hom nie gelukkig kan maak nie, want dit is ’n illusie (gray, 1999, p. 10). mag mag laat dikwels die indruk van sukses, maar is tydelik van aard (maxwell, 1997: 9). dit is ’n goeie toets vir ’n mens se integriteit en karakter, maar is op sigself nie positief of negatief nie, maar kan wel positief of negatief aangewend word (maxwell, 1997:10). mag is ook nie die bron van sekuriteit of sukses nie. mag, net soos rykdom, is van verbygaande aard. prestasie volgens maxwell (1997, p. 10) het mense bestemmingsiekte. hulle glo as hulle iewers kan arriveer, ’n sekere posisie beklee, ’n doelwit behaal of selfs ’n verhouding kan hê met die regte persoon, sal hulle suksesvol wees. maxwell (1997, p. 10) het sukses gedefinieer as ’n progressiewe realisering van ’n doelwit wat die moeite werd is, maar het erken dat hierdie definisie kort van die merk geval het. al sou jy jou doelwitte bereik en goed presteer, het jy nog geen waarborg dat jy sukses of tevredenheid sou beleef nie. somtyds lê die geheim daarin om besig wees met ’n aktiwiteit en nie soseer by die einddoel nie. vir maxwell (1997, pp. 10-11) is sukses die reis en vir waitley (1995, p. 251) die manier waarop gereis word. materialisme dit is soos wanneer iemand terug dink aan ’n tyd toe hy met sy hele hart, siel, en verstand iets wou gehad het. eventueel wanneer daardie iets bekom is, kan hy die gevoel nie behou wat hy gedink het hy sou kry nie. dit waarna gesoek is, word nie met die uitbreiding van bates verkry nie. hierdie tipe gedrag neig na kitsoplossings wat nie die toets van die tyd weerstaan nie. ons is nie ongelukkig omdat ons nie het wat ons wil hê of nodig het nie, maar ons is ongelukkig omdat ons nog nie gekry het waarna ons soek nie – ons soek op die verkeerde plek (williams, 2002, p. 17). gray (1999, p. 20) sê dat ons na persoonlike sukses moet strewe, eerder as materiële sukses. persoonlike sukses word verkry wanneer jy regtig goed voel oor jouself, jou verlede, jou hede en jou toekoms. watter goed doen dit om materiële dinge te verwerf en steeds leeg en onvervuld te voel? roem/eer die hat (1992, p. 907) verwys na roem as ’n toestand om deur ander bewonder en geprys te word; om iemand lof of eer aan te doen. roem of eer word van buite jouself deur ander aan jou toegeken. dit is die wêreldse standaard waaraan sukses meer dikwels gemeet word en beteken dat jy die norm of standaard in die oë van die wêreld oorskry het, byvoorbeeld om ’n rekord te breek, die beste te wees met iets, om ’n fortuin te maak, wêreldvrede te bewerk (carter-scort, 2000, p xiii-xiv). carter-scott (2000, pp. 9-10) stel hierdie saak in perspektief: “ despite the fact that the world may applaud such efforts, however, goals that you are not authentically connected to are essentially meaningless…you may wake up one day having achieved your goals but feeling disconnected from yourself “. lanuschagne, kok, smith12 gesondheid gesondheid volgens bouchard is: “… ’n toestand met fisieke, sosiale en psigologiese dimensies elk op ’n kontinuum met positiewe en negatiewe pole. positiewe gesondheid word geassosieer met ’n kapasiteit om die lewe te geniet en uitdagings te weerstaan, dit is nie net die afwesigheid van siekte nie. negatiewe gesondheid word geassosieer met morbiditeit en in ekstreme situasies met mortaliteit” (dryer, 1996, p. 5). elke mens verwag om meer uit die lewe te haal, die gehalte en die duur daarvan te verhoog (serfontein, 2001, p. 11). volgens serfontein (2001, p. 11) het ’n nuwe fokus op dieet die afgelope t wintig jaar ons laat besef watter voordele afsonderlike voedingstowwe wat op ’n onkonvensionele manier gebruik word, kan hê om die lewe te help verleng. buiten dieet, is denkpatrone en gesindheid twee ander belangrike aspekte: “of ons daarin slaag om ’n lewensverwagting van oor die 100 jaar te bereik, sal hoofsaaklik deur ons denkpatrone bepaal word. hoe ons dink, bepaal hoe ons optree en hoe ons optree, bepaal baie aspekte van ons lewe, waaronder die gehalte daarvan” (serfontein, 2001, pp. 12-13). ’n derde belangrike aspek is geestesprosesse: “ons geestesprosesse is hoogs afhanklik van ons fisieke welsyn…’n gesonde gees kan net in ’n gesonde liggaam leef…produktiewe, inspirerende en vernuwende gedagtes kan nie ontwikkel in ’n liggaam wat wanfunksioneer nie. ’n beter lewensgehalte en hoër lewensverwagting sal net werklikheid word as ons denkpatrone stelselmatig verander, maar dit kan net gebeur as ons liggaam en brein fisiek daarop ingestel is” (2001, p. 15). gesondheid is nie sukses op sigself nie, maar ’n belangrike deel daarvan. chopra (1996, p. 2) voel dat selfs met die ervaring van goeie gesondheid ons steeds onvervuld kan bly as ons nie die goddelike saad binne ons versorg nie. ’n spesiale gevoel en geluk nog ’n wanpersepsie is dat ’n mens sukses gevind het wanneer hy suksesvol of gelukkig voel. donald trump (in maxwell, 1997, p. 8) het gesê: “ the real measure of success is how happy you are”. hierdie oortuiging onderstreep dat mense sukses vereenselwig met dit wat hulle nie het nie. hier teenoor beweer maxwell (1997, p. 8) dat die voortdurende soeke na geluk, die primêre rede is waarom mense so mistroostig is. as jy geluk jou doel maak, is jy amper seker van mislukking. ook williams (2002, p. 14) deel hierdie gedagte as hy verduidelik dat dit ’n fout is om te glo dat sukses ons gelukkig sal maak of die pyn sal wegneem, want sukses sal alleenlik beklemtoon wat ons reeds voel en dink. ’n mens kan nie op geluk vertrou om sukses te meet nie (maxwell, 1997, p. 8). maar wat is geluk? volgens die merriam-webster dictionary (http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary) dateer die woord ‘geluk’ terug na die v yftiende eeu en het te doen met welvaart en voorspoed; dit is ’n staat van welstand en tevredenheid. die woord ‘geluk’ het ook noue verband met die woord ‘joy’, ’n selfstandige naamwoord en middel-engelse woord afkomstig van die oud-franse woord ‘joie’ en van lat yn ‘gaudia’, asook grieks ‘gethein’ wat ‘to rejoice’ beteken. vanaf die dertiende eeu is hierdie woord gebruik om emosie te verwek as gevolg van welstand, sukses, goeie geluk of selfs die vooruitsig om iets te besit wat jy begeer het. dit is ’n staat van geluk en die bron of oorsaak van genot. maar wat is die oorsake wat daartoe lei dat mense gelukkig is? geluk word volgens denny (2002, p. 8) bereik op drie maniere: � deur uit te sien na iets. dink net hoe jy sal reageer as jy ’n nuwe motor wil koop. die opgewondenheid bou binne jou op. die dag as jy die motor in ontvangs neem, is alles nuut. na ’n paar maande verander jou gesindheid teenoor die motor. jy vind dat die plesier nie gekom het deur die besit van die motor nie, maar deur uit te sien om die motor te besit. hierdie beginsel kan aangewend word vir enigiets wat besit of bereik wil word. � deur mededeelsaam te wees. ’n vreugde wat gedeel word is ’n vreugde wat verdubbel word en ’n bekommernis wat gedeel word is bekommernis wat gehalveer word. geluk lê daarin om met ander te deel, ’n gee gesindheid. � om iemand anders gelukkig te maak. ware geluk lê juis in die gee vir ’n ander, eerder as die ontvang. denny (2002, p. 11) motiveer bogenoemde drie riglyne vir geluk deur te sê dat dié volle verstaan van ‘geluk’ een van die hoofareas is waarop ons moet konsentreer. dit word nie in die skole, universiteite of van ouer na kind oorgedra nie. so baie wat na sukses soek, soek in die verkeerde rigting. geluk, soos sukses, is nie ’n doel op sigself wat nagejaag kan word nie, maar ’n neweproduk van die resultaat van dit wat nagejaag word. om geluk te vind moet ons ’n inwaartse reis begin om terug te vind en te onthou wie ons regtig is (gray, 1999, p. 23). deur inwaarts te kyk, ontdek ons dat geluk, mag, vrede en liefde reeds daar teenwoordig is. hierdie kwaliteite is wie ons regtig is. van binne-na-buite-sukses van binne-na-buite-sukses is ’n benadering waar jy nader aan sukses beweeg. hierdie vorm van sukses gebeur meer dikwels, is ’n keuse, jy neem die inisiatief, dit is voortdurende sukses, jy is meer voorbereid vir hierdie vorm van sukses en jy is ook meer gemaklik daaroor omdat jy daarvoor gewerk het (maxwell, audio: statements about success). jou selfbeeld bepaal jou vlak van volgehoue sukses omdat jy ook nooit verder kan groei as waartoe jy glo jy in staat is nie (maxwell, audio, statements about success). sukses hang van jou verwagtinge af mayer (1999, p. 5) sê dat die hele saak, rondom of ’n persoon suksesvol is, baie kompleks is omdat die resultate afhanklik is van ’n persoon se langen korttermyn verwagtinge. bykomende by talente, vaardighede en opleiding is daar veel meer faktore wat binne of buite jou beheer is. indien iemand werk vir ses a simbole en in een vak ’n b simbool behaal, sou die meeste mense reken dat hy suksesvol was. maar die persoon kan mislukking ervaar as die eindresultaat gemeet word aan die aanvanklike verwagting. die bepalende faktor in enige saak om ’n sukses te wees, is jou verwagtinge. die kriteria waaraan ons ons sukses meet en beoordeel, moet vooraf bekend wees. min mense is werklik 100% suksesvol in alles wat hulle doen. jy moet jou beste doen, uit jou ervaringe leer en die kennis wat jy versamel het, neem sodat jy dit die volgende keer nog beter kan doen (mayer, 1994, p. 4). sukses, volgens mayer (1999, p. 10), moet gesien word volgens drie kriteria: � sien sukses in sekere tydlyne: moment na moment, dag tot dag, maand tot maand, jaar na jaar of oor jou hele lewe (mayer, 1999, p. 10). � het jy jou verwagtinge oorweeg voordat jy begin het (mayer, 1999, p. 10)? � is hierdie verwagtings jou eie, jou ouers of dalk die wêreld s’n (mayer, 1999, p. 10)? sukses versus vervulling carter-scott (2000, p. xiii) sê dat alhoewel sukses vir verskillende mense verskillende dinge beteken, is dit wel duidelik dat daar ’n diepe behoef te bestaan by talle mense wat onderliggend werk deur hulle visie, drome en doelwitte aan vervulling. volgens die merriam-webster woordeboek (ht t p://www.m-w.co.com/cgi-bin/dict ionary) beteken vervulling: om vol te maak (vul); om in effek te bring; om vereistes na te kom; om tot ’n einde te bring; om te bevredig; om te omvorm na die realiteit, maar ook om die volle potensiaal te ont wikkel van iets. sukses het ’n eksterne konnotasie en vervulling ’n interne konnotasie. jy alleen kan jouself as vervuld ag, maar sukses is iets wat aan jou toegedig word van buite jouself. hierdie standaarde waaraan sukses suksesbelewing van seniorbestuurders 13 gemeet word, is die wêreld se standaarde en by implikasie beteken dit dat jy die norm of standaard in die oë van die wêreld oorskry het, of dat jy jou drome gerealiseer het (carter-scott, 2000, p. xiv). tom en natalie rusk (1988, pp. 194-195) sluit by hierdie gedagtes aan: “success is a necessary ingredient for fulfillment in work. and fulfillment in work is necessary for an overall sense of wellbeing…by definition, success provides money, prestige, fame and influence. success can also give you a sense of accomplishment and confidence in a particular ability … success is not fulfillment. success alone is never enough. many people are successful; far fewer feel fulfilled”. monroe (1992, pp. 140-141) voer aan dat ons as ’n gemeenskap sukses met vervulling verwar en dat sukses alleen gedefinieer kan word deur doel (“purpose”) en gemeet kan word deur gehoorsaamheid aan daardie doel. sukses is nie wat jy gedoen het vergeleke met wat ander gedoen het nie, maar wel wat jy gedoen het vergeleke met wat jy moes doen (monroe, 1992, p. 142). ‘doel’ (“purpose”) is die sleutel en die fondasie vir sukses (monroe, 1992, p. 142). dit is die ware bron van vervulling en die enigste ware meting van die lewe (monroe, 1992, p. 142). ‘doel’ is nie om ’n goeie ding te doen nie, maar wel om die regte ding te doen; dit word die verskil om besig te wees en om effektief te leef (monroe, 1992, p. 143). sukses vanuit ’n persoonlike en professionele leierskap perspektief volgens ’n ppl-perspektief besef mense dat hulle sukses van hulself afhang om op ’n proaktiewe wyse, gegrond op karakter, beginsels en waardes in balans met alle lewensdimensies, hulle lewensdoel te verwesenlik deur potensiaal te maksimaliseer en te realiseer. sodoende kan ’n mens met al sy talente, vaardighede en gawes nie net hierdie bates vir homself/haarself hou nie, maar ook aanwend vir ’n groter doel as net sy/haar eie: om ’n nalatenskap daar te stel en iemand anders te help om suksesvol te wees. verhoudings speel ’n sentrale rol in ppl-perspektief in terme van sukses. navorsing toon dat verhoudings die sleutel is in gesondheid, voorspoed, geluk, hoop en feitlik enigiets van waarde (ziglar, 1998, p. 3). ppl kyk holisties na die mens in al sy dimensies. sukses moet in hierdie dimensies gebalanseer word om waarlik sukses te kan beleef. van binne-na-buite-sukses moet eers realiseer en gebalanseer word met van buite-na-binne-sukses. van binne-na-buite-sukses (karakter, beginsels, waardes, doel, potensiaal, selftransendering, wie ek is, ens.) is die wortels wat die boom stewig anker, voed en die groei van die boom is die resultaat hiervan. die vrugtetakke en blare van die boom is die van buite-na-binne-sukses (geld, prestasie, eer, lof, erkenning, gevoel, mag, verrigting, ens.). die sleutel tot sukses is balans in al die mens se dimensies. volgens henning (2001, p. 40) is daar stappe vanuit ’n persoonlike en professionele leierskapsperspektief wat ’n mens kan neem om lewensbalans te skep: fisieke dimensie – hou jou liggaam in stand en versorg jou liggaam deur gesond te eet, gereelde oefening, rus en ontspanning asook die vermyding van destruktiewe gewoontes soos rook en alkoholmisbruik. emosionele dimensie – neem eienaarskap van positiewe (liefde, omgee en lag) en negatiewe emosies (kwaad, aggressie, woede) en streef na positiewe emosies. word bewus van jou emosionele aksies, verstaan die onderliggende boodskap van daardie emosies en laat tyd en ruimte om ’n gepaste emosionele reaksie. sodoende kan jy emosies in jouself bestuur. ’n mens bly sodoende in beheer van sy eie emosies met eienaarskap en verantwoordelikheid. sosiale dimensie – belê in ander mense, oorskry jouself, doen goed aan ander, ontwikkel ’n oorvloedshouding en voeg elke dag waarde in iemand se lewe toe. maak seker dat jy gehaltetyd met diegene deurbring wat vir jou belangrik is en vir wie jy omgee. kommunikeer betekenisvol met mense met wie jy in ’n verhouding staan, hetsy in jou gesin; huwelik; groter familie; vriendskap of werkomgewing. geestelike dimensie – werk aan geestelike verdieping – lewe doelgerig; luister na mooi musiek; bid of mediteer; ontwikkel ’n dankbaarheidshouding; lees inspirerende of motiverende leesstof; voeg elke dag waarde aan iemand toe. leef jou drome en strek jouself om jou potensiaal te realiseer. intellektuele dimensie – ’n mens moet nuuskierig bly om meer te wil weet – ’n ewige leerder. konstante en nimmereindigende verbetering begin hier waar jy meer lees, met ingeligte persone gesels, verdere opleiding deurmaak, kursusse bywoon, selfhelpmaterial te bestudeer, seminare bywoon, ensovoorts. gevolgtrekking die probleem wat aan die begin van artikel studie gestel is, naamlik dat daar onduidelikheid in die literatuur bestaan en ook in die praktyk oor wat presies die belewenis van sukses by mense is, asook dat mense dikwels ’n dissonans ervaar tussen uiterlike sukses en innerlike vervulling, blyk vanuit die bespreking geregverdig te wees. belangrike komponente wat nodig is om sukses te beleef, is uit die literatuur geïdentifiseer en in die praktyk getoets om ’n interne(intrinsieke faktor) en ’n eksterne(ekstrinsieke faktor) van suksesbelewing te stel. albei hierdie faktore moet aandag geniet om op ’n gebalanseerde wyse sukses te kan beleef. die aksie-handeling staan voorop om sukses te inisieer. sukses, in een area van jou lewe beteken nie algehele sukses nie. balans in al die verskillende lewensdimensies waarin die mens funksioneer, is noodsaaklik. die mens moet weet wie hy is, waar hy met homself staan, wat hy graag wil doen en wees, asook dienooreenkomstige stappe doen om daar uit te kom. aangesien al hierdie aspekte op die beginsels van persoonlike en professionele leierskap berus, kan die gevolgtrekking gemaak word dat persoonlike en professionele leierskap ’n belangrike bydrae kan lewer om sukses op ’n gebalanseerde wyse te kan beleef. persoonlike en professionele leierskap riglyne daar verskillende stappe vanuit ’n persoonlike en professionele leierskapsperspektief wat ’n mens kan neem om lewensbalans ten opsigte van suksesbelewing te skep: � word bewus van wanbalans in jou lewe en dat jy dit kan regstel en nuwe balans kan skep. � jy kan self keuses maak en verantwoordelikheid vir jou eie lewe aanvaar. � klaar jou waardes uit. bly getrou aan jouself, aan dit wat vir jou belangrik is en betekenis aan jou lewe gee. waardes sal jou in staat stel om jou prioriteite te bepaal en sodoende kongruensie bewerk tussen wat ek sê en doen. � sukses as balans in terme van jou lewensdimensies kan as riglyn dien om nagevolg te word. dis belangrik dat jou suksesbeskouing en die belewing daarvan kongruent moet wees om vervulling te kan beleef. hierdie belewing word moontlik as jou sukses ooreenkom met wie jy is, waarheen jy op pad is en hoekom jy daarheen op pad is. die realisering van jou potensiaal, die nastrewing van jou doelwitte vanuit jou waardes, deur middel van jou drome, moet getrou wees aan jou karakter en beginsels en tot diens van jou medemens. die strewe om waarde toe te voeg tot die mense rondom jou, is ’n verdere voorvereiste om vervulling te beleef. lanuschagne, kok, smith14 die mens se eerste taak is om sy unieke gawes te ontdek deur dit te vind wat vir hom vreugde verskaf. wanneer dit gebeur, ontdek hy sy energie en begin hy om sy eie niche in die lewe te skep. hy vind dit as hy dit ontdek wat natuurlik na hom toe kom. hy vind ongetapte krag van wil en innerlike mag wat vloei van sy gees, wat tot uitdrukking kom wanneer hy dit wat uniek en waardevol is, tot uitdrukking laat kom. om die lewe te bou kompleet met innerlike satisfaksie, persoonlike sin en erkenning, moet hy die werk skep waarvoor hy lief is. op hierdie wyse kan die mens ’n manier skep om ’n inkomste te verdien deur te doen waarvoor hy lief is, terwyl hy ander mense dien op ’n outentieke wyse. verwysings brewis, f.m. (2000). die mens as faktor in suksesvolle organisasies: ’n persoonlike en professionele en leierskapsperspektief. ongepubliseerde magisteressay, randse afrikaanse universiteit, johannesburg. carter-scott, c. (2000). if success is a game, these are the rules. london: ebury press. cashman, k. (2000). leadership from the inside out. provo: executive publishing. chopra, d. (1996). the seven spiritual laws of success. london: bantam press ltd. covey, sr. (1992). the seven habits of highly effective people. london: simon & schuster ltd. denny, r. (2002). success for yourself. london: clays ltd, st ives plc. dryer, l.i. (1996). totale welstand ’n begripsomskr ywing. potchefstroom: pu. gray, j. (1999). how to get what you want and want what you have a practical guide to personal success. london: random house. henning, w. (2001). ’n persoonlike en professionele leierskapsperspektief op die skep en handhawing van lewensbalans. ongepubliseerde magisteressay, randse afrikaanse universiteit, johannesburg. maxwell, j.c. (oktober 1998). audio casette – enjoy. statements about success. kaapstad: meridien marketing. maxwell, j.c. (1997). the success journey. atlanta: thomas nelson publishers. mayer, j. (1999). success is a journey: 7 steps to achieving in the business of life. new york: mcgraw-hill. mirriam, webster’s collegiate dictionary. www.m-w.com/cgibin/dictionary. monroe, m. (1992). in pursuit of purpose. shippensbury: destiny image publishers, inc. rusk, t. & rusk, n. (1998). coach yourself to success. london: thorsons. schoonees, p.c.; swanepoel, c.j.; du toit, s.j.; booysen, c.m. (1965). verklarende handwoordeboek van die afrikaanse taal (hat). kaapstad: perskor. serfontein, w. ( 2001). geneesende voeding – omskep jou lewe. kaapstad: tafelberg-uitgewers. smith, d.p.j. (2001). persoonlike en professionele leierskap. klasaantekeninge. johannesburg: rau. smith, d.p.j. (1993). navorsingsontwerp en metodes van navorsing. johannesburg: rau. waitley, d. (1995). empires of the mind. nicholas brealey publishing ltd. williams, n. (2002). unconditional success. london: bantam press. ziglar, z. (1998). success for dummies. foster city: idg books worldwide inc. suksesbelewing van seniorbestuurders 15 3grobelaar.qxd traditionally, marketing and product development were regarded as organisations’ sources of competitive advantage. however, in today’s information-intensive environment, marketing and product development can fairly easily be replicated and converted into competitive requirements. hanley (1997) is of the opinion that customer service is the only aspect that differentiates one organisation from another, especially organisations in the same industry. service refers to all the activities that create a bond between organisations and their clients anything an organisation does that enhances the customer experience (blem, 1995; harris, 2000). this definition implies that all organisations have a service component – it is the extent of this service component that distinguishes one organisation from the next. although the word “customer” has recently been included in the vision and mission statements of many organisations, it is the delivery of customer service that will provide an organisation with a competitive edge (fritz, 1997). due to the intensified focus on customer service, much literat ure is available on its definition, characteristics, importance and how it can be achieved (sureshchandar, rajendran & anantharaman, 2002). at the same time, much emphasis is placed on the importance of identif ying customer service as an organisation’s core capability in order to deploy and protect it to ensure competitive advantage (hafeez, zhang & malak, 2002; hamel & prahalad, 1994). understanding what individual competencies are required to establish a customer service core capability, will enable organisations to focus their energy on developing the competencies that will have the desired effect on realising their vision as well as many other benefits for the organisation (fritz, 1997; parasuraman, zeithaml & berry, 1988; sureshchandar et al., 2002). in light of the importance of customer service delivery and the impact of individual competencies on developing this aspect as an organisational core capability, it is alarming to note that little literature is available on employee skills and behaviour that should be displayed and developed to ensure that customer service excellence prevails and may be regarded as an organisation’s core capability. a number of terms relating to competencies and competence appear to be used interchangeably in literature, depending on the manner in which they are defined by the author. ulrich’s (1998, p. 6) definition of the difference bet ween core competencies and core capability, as described below, has been used to define the difference between these terms for purposes of this research. capabilities: level of analysis individual organizational technical 1 3 functional or technical core competence, such competencies, such as as organizational individual abilities in abilities in logistics, finance, engineering, risk management, marketing, customer distribution, service, etc. manufacturing, etc. social/ 2 4 organizational cultural social competencies, organizational perspective such as individual capability, such as leadership abilities in organizational setting direction abilities in speed, cycle (vision, customer), time, leveraging mobilizing individual intellectual capital, commitment working across (diversity), leveraging boundaries, etc. organizations (team-work, change), personal credibility, etc. figure 1: competence and capability (ulrich, 1998) figure 1 illustrates how individual and organisational capabilities can be regarded from a technical as well as a social perspective. the technical approach emphasises functional orientation, whilst the social dimension requires coping with how individuals and groups connect and collaborate. for purposes of this research, skills required by individuals, whether technical or social in nature, are referred to as core competencies. core competencies, for purposes of this research, are defined as skills, knowledge, attitudes, attributes, rl grobbela ar g roodt a venter aven@rau.ac.za department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract in today’s information-intensive environment customer service is an important aspect that differentiates one organisation from another. this research focuses on those individual competencies which will lead to a customer service core capability in a human resources call centre. data was obtained from call centre agents (n=18), supervisors (n=3) and customers (n=25) by means of five focus group-, three individualand 25 telephonic interviews, respectively. the transcendental realism research procedure was applied within a qualitative research paradigm. ten key competencies were identified by all groups of participants. opsomming in vandag se inligtings-intensiewe omgewing is kliëntediens ’n belangrike aspek wat organisasies van mekaar onderskei. hierdie navorsing fokus op welke individuele bevoegdhede tot ’n kliëntedienssleutelbekwaamheid in ’n menslikehulpbron-oproepsentrum sal lei. data is van oproepsentrumagente (n=18), -toesighouers (n=3) en -kliënte (n=25) ingewin deur middel van onderskeidelik vyf fokusgroep-, drie individueleen 25 telefoniese onderhoude. die transendentale realisme navorsingsprosedure is binne ’n kwalitatiewe navorsingsparadigma toegepas. tien sleutelbevoegdhede is deur al drie groepe deelnemers geïdentifiseer. critical competencies to promote a customer service core capability in a human resources call centre requests for copies should be addressed to: rl grobbelaar, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 16 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (3), 16-24 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (3), 16-24 values (or clusters thereof) required in performing a task, and the abilit y to apply them in a particular context or environment (bellis, 1999; lindsay & stuart, 1997; meyer, 1996; spencer & spencer, 1993). the term capability, on the other hand, for purposes of this research, represents the collective and accumulated skills and technologies (rather than a single, discrete skill or technology) residing in the organisation as a whole, rather than individuals (hamel & prahalad, 1994; prahalad & hamel, 1990; ulrich, 1998). a core capability refers to those capabilities that play a more important role than others in realising the business objectives of an organisation (hafeez et al., 2002, p. 31). according to hamel and prahalad (1994) a skill must meet three requirements to be considered a core capability: 1) it must make a significant contribution to customer-perceived value; 2) be difficult to imitate, thereby leading to competitor differentiation; and 3) be extendable to a wide variety of markets and products. this implies that core capabilities are those which are at the heart of the uniqueness of an organisation. it is this core capability of an organisation that drives its ability to rapidly change and innovate in response to new and changing markets and market pressures (shippmann, ash, battista, carr, eyde, hesketh & kehoe, 2000). current literat ure on the competencies that should be displayed and developed to ensure that customer service excellence prevails and may be regarded as an organisation’s core capability includes the frameworks of parasuraman et al. (1988) and spencer and spencer (1993). these authors refer to a number of generic competencies which are required for human service professionals in a service organisation. the competencies identified by these authors are required in jobs that have a focus on helping others, rather than on business outcomes or technical processes and are discussed below. the findings of these authors reiterates the importance of the current study to investigate human resource competencies in a call centre environment. more about this, in a section below. the five overall qualit y dimensions which have general applicability in the service sector, according to parasuraman et al. (1988) are based on empirical research conducted in various service sectors, and are as follows: tangibles: physical facilities, equipment, and appearance of personnel; reliability: ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately; responsiveness: willingness to help customers and provide prompt service; assurance: knowledge and courtesy of employees, and their ability to convey trust and confidence; and empathy: caring, individualised attention the employees provide to their customers. in the generic model of helping and human service professionals (spencer and spencer, 1993), the following competencies of superior helping and human service workers are evident: impact and influence: establishes credibilit y; tailors presentation, language to audience; individual influence strategies; uses examples, humour body language, voice. developing others: innovative teaching methods; flexible response to individual needs; belief in students’ potential. interpersonal understanding: takes time to listen to others’ problems; is aware of others’ moods and feelings, understands body language; aware of others’ background, interests and needs; may understand long-term situations in depth. self confidence: confident in own abilities and judgement; takes responsibilit y for problems, failings; questions, gives suggestions to their superiors. self control: keeps own emotions from interfering with work; avoids inappropriate involvement with clients; stress-resistance, has stamina, humour. other personal effectiveness competencies: accurate selfassessment, learns from mistakes; occupational preference: finds work enjoyable; organizational commitment: aligns self with mission; affiliative interest: genuinely likes people; positive expectations of others. professional expertise: expands and uses professional knowledge. customer service orientation: discovers and works to meet underlying needs; follows through on questions, requests, complaints. teamwork and cooperation: solicits inputs, credits, and cooperates with others. analytical thinking: sees causal relationships, inferences; systematically breaks apart complex problems. conceptual thinking: recognizes patterns, uses concepts to diagnose situations; makes connections, theories; simplifies, clarifies difficult material. initiative: does more than is required in job; (responds quickly, decisively in a crisis). flexibility: adapts style, tactics to fit the circumstances; and directiveness/assertiveness: sets limits, says no when necessary; confronts problem behaviour. spencer and spencer (1993) also distinguish bet ween threshold and differentiating competencies. threshold competencies are described as the essential characteristics required by all incumbents of a position to be minimally effective. these competencies usually refer to knowledge or basic skills and do not distinguish superior from average performers. differentiating competencies, on the other hand, are those factors which distinguish superior from average performers. the findings of the research have been compared to the above frameworks and will be discussed in detail later in the article. one environment in which customer service is of utmost importance is a call centre. many organisations have established call centres as a key means of contact with customers. this implies that much of the contact between the organisation and its customers is via the call centre. each contact with a customer is therefore of utmost importance and could affect the manner in which the customer perceives the organisation, as the customer has little else by which to judge the organisation. the importance of being aware of the competencies required to promote a customer service core capability in a human resources call centre is emphasised when considering the integrating effect competencies have on key human resource management processes. competencies form the basis of selection, assessment, succession planning, appraisal, training and development, and reward practices in organisations (meyer, 1996). it is therefore of critical importance for the overall performance and, ultimately, business success of an organisation to identif y the key competencies which should be used as the basis of human resource management processes in the particular environment. customer service core capability 17 the specific call centre environment focused on in this research is a human resources call centre. in this environment the customers are the organisation’s own employees. employees contact the human resources call centre telephonically for assistance relating to any of the organisation’s human resources policies or procedures. against the above background, a question that arises is: which individual competencies will lead to a customer ser vice core capability in a human resources call centre environment? the objective of the study is thus to identif y the individual competencies that will lead to a customer service core capability in a human resource call centre environment. research design the research design will be described in the following sections: research approach, research participants, data gathering methods, research procedure and analysis of the data. research approach in order to obtain descriptive data of the individual competencies required by human resources call centres which promote customer service as an organisational core capability, a qualitative research paradigm has been followed. in terms of research approach within the qualitat ive paradigm, ontolog y refers to what exists in the world to the nat ure, form and essence of realit y (punch, 1998). for purposes of this research the ontological dimension assumed is nominalistic – where social realit y is regarded as the product of individual consciousness and cognition, rather than an object of independent existence (cohen, manion & morrison, 2000). realit y about the phenomenon has therefore been assumed as being that which exists in people’s minds (potter, 1996). the research has subsequently focused on obtaining insight into the individual competencies which key stakeholders regard as critical to promote a customer service core capabilit y in a human resources call centre. the key stakeholders that contributed to this research include agents, supervisors and customers of a human resources call centre. epistemology refers to the science of knowing the question of what counts as knowledge and the relationship between the knower and the known (babbie, 1995; punch, 1998). an antipositivist epistemological assumption has been made by the researcher, thereby assuming that knowledge is based on experience and insight of a unique and, essentially, personal nature (cohen et al., 2000). the interpretive paradigm applied in anti-positivist studies implies that research begins with individuals and sets out to understand their interpretations of the world around them; theory is emergent and should be grounded on data generated by the research conducted (cohen et al., 2000). in following the anti-positivist assumption and an interpretive paradigm, the researcher adopted an intersubjective approach, which can be described as the belief that although researchers can never be purely objective, they are not limited to pure subjectivity either. by following an intersubjective approach, the researcher has attempted to gain trust and rapport with the participants to get as close as possible to them (babbie & mouton, 2001; potter, 1996). the researcher attempted to develop neutral and “objective” data-gathering instruments/procedures and analytical schemes and also attempted to minimise the distance between the researcher and participants by being actively involved in the data collection process. the anti-positivist philosophical viewpoint that has been assumed by the researcher is phenomethodological in nature. this viewpoint advocates that behaviour is determined by the phenomenon of experience rather than by external, objective and physically described reality (cohen et al., 2000). in following the phenomethodological viewpoint the researcher attempted to examine the phenomenon without preconceived notions or expectations (anastasi, 1990; potter, 1996). instead, the researcher has aimed to understand what the participants believe are critical individual competencies required for a customer service core capability in a human resources call centre environment. the qualitative research paradigm, and specifically the antipositivist assumptions and phenomethodological philosophy, has been adopted by the researcher with the belief that this is the most appropriate approach with which to address the research question. participants the concern with sampling for qualitative research is gaining access to relevant evidence about the phenomenon, as opposed to random sampling where each element is given an equal chance of being selected (potter, 1996). purposive sampling is considered the most appropriate means of sampling in qualitative research (punch, 1998). this entails sampling in a deliberate manner with a specific purpose or focus in mind. theory-driven sampling, where the sample is decided on ahead of the research (punch, 1998) is the form of purposive sampling that was deemed most relevant to this particular research. for purposes of this research, the epistemological position and phenomethodological approach described above were used in determining the research participants that were included in the sample. this implies that the selected sample included participants that are involved with customer service, specifically in a human resources call centre environment. the key function of agents in a human resources call centre is to provide telephonic support and advice service to customers, relating to any of the organisation’s human resources policies or procedures. since the essence of a call centre agent’s function is providing customer service, this group formed the core sample for the research. the researcher ensured that the agent participants were representative in terms of their length of service in the call centre environment, their age, gender, race and most recent performance rating. the total group of 18 agents were divided into focus groups consisting of three to four agents each. on completion of each focus group, the researcher determined the degree to which the most recent group’s data corresponded with the output of previous focus groups and determined the frequency with which certain competencies had been identified. after having conducted five focus groups, a number of recurring themes in terms of the data emerged. upon finding that most of the themes were recurring, the researcher decided to proceed with the next step of data gathering, namely interviews with call centre supervisors. the data obtained from call centre agents was verified with individuals that deal with the performance of call centre agents, namely call centre supervisors. due to being directly involved with call centre agents’ performance and also understanding what customers regard as good service, the supervisors were asked about what they believed to be critical individual competencies to promote a customer service core capability in a human resources call centre environment. the particular call centre used for this research employs three supervisors, all of whom participated in the research. customers’ perceptions about what they believe to be critical individual competencies required for a customer service core capability in a human resources call centre environment grobbela ar, roodt, venter18 were also obtained. the researcher considered it important to understand customer expectations in terms of service delivery, and to incorporate this data with the data obtained from agents and supervisors. customer participants were representative in terms of the nature of their queries, as well as their geographical representation. a total of 25 customers participated in the research. the researcher determined that the last number of customers interviewed appeared to provide similar data to what had already been obtained during the first few customer interviews. a sample of 25 was therefore regarded as providing a fair representation of customer expectations. data gathering methods the researcher has attempted to discover perceptions of key stakeholders (providing service, managing the performance of those providing the service, or receiving the service) in terms of individual competencies they regarded as critical for customer service in a human resources call centre. the interview as data gathering technique is considered to be a good way of accessing people’s perceptions and the meaning they attach to reality (punch, 1998). in this research two forms of interviews were used to gather data, namely a focus group inter view process and individual inter views, consisting of (a) interviews where there was physical interaction between the researcher and the participants and (b) telephonic interviews. the focus group inter view technique entails a process of facilitated group interaction rather than the question and answer approach of traditional interviews, and the role of the researcher changes accordingly to a moderator or facilitator supplying questions and topics to the group to guide the discussion (punch, 1998). due to being aligned with the epistemological assumptions of this research (cohen et al., 2000), the focus group technique was considered particularly appropriate and was therefore applied in interviewing groups of human resources call centre agents. in order to ensure that the researcher was able to focus primarily on data that is relevant to the research question being discussed, an independent facilitator assisted in facilitating group discussions. after completion of the focus groups, structured individual inter views with human resources call centre supervisors were conducted on an individual basis by the researcher. the purpose of conducting the individual interviews with supervisors was, firstly, to determine what the supervisors consider to be critical individual competencies required for a customer service core capability in the particular environment and, secondly, to verif y the data obtained during focus groups with agents. customers of the human resources call centre are familiar with obtaining information by means of telephonic contact and the researcher therefore considered it appropriate to conduct individual telephonic interviews with this portion of the sample. applying a variety of data gathering methods to different sample groups, as described above, served as a form of triangulation so as to strengthen and enhance the information obtained in the research from different dimensions (babbie & mouton, 2001; miles & huberman, 1984; potter, 1996). research procedure the research procedure applied in this research is referred to as miles and huberman’s transcendental realism, which is directed at “tracing out lawful and stable relationships among social phenomena, based on the regularities and sequences that link these phenomena“ (punch, 1998, p.202). the three main components of transcendental realism are data reduction, data display and drawing and verif ying conclusions. although they may be regarded as separate components of the analysis, data reduction, data display and drawing/verif ying conclusions may be regarded as concurrent activities, interacting throughout the analysis (punch, 1998). the three components will be discussed below, with specific reference to how they were applied in the research. for purposes of this research, the research problem was approached inductively. as such, analysis of data to identif y trends and patterns was conducted after each occurrence of data collection, namely after each focus group held with call centre agents. the findings of the analysis of the data obtained during focus groups with call centre agents was used in guiding the researcher’s focus in the next data gathering occurrence being the next focus group, the interviews with supervisors and the telephonic interviews with customers. data reduction occurs continually throughout the first, middle and later stages of analysis and as such, forms part of the analysis. the objective of data reduction is to reduce the data without significant loss of information or the context in which it was obtained (punch, 1998). in the early stages of analysis, data reduction is effected through editing, segmenting and summarizing of the data (punch, 1998). during this research the researcher applied data reduction after each focus group interview with agents, by summarizing the data obtained from the particular group. in the middle stages of analysis, data reduction was established through coding, memoing, and associated activities such as finding themes, clusters and patterns. this occurred in the research after each iteration of data gathering, in that the researcher combined and compared newly gathered data to that which had already been documented. in so doing, similarities were determined prior to continuing with the next data gathering exercise. conceptualizing and explaining, result in data reduction in the later stages of analysis (punch, 1998). the data display component of transcendental realism entails organising, compressing and assembling information in any way that moves the analysis forward. data display provides the basis for further analysis and may take the form of graphs, charts, networks, or any form of diagramme (punch, 1998). in the early stages of research, the researcher displayed data obtained in diagrams (so-called mindmaps), so as to aid the analysis of which competencies were related to others mentioned by previous groups in the data gathering process. during later stages of data gathering and analysis the researcher chose to display data in the form of tables so as to integrate data obtained during the research with information available on the topic in literature. the reasons for reducing and displaying data, as described above, are to assist in drawing and verifying conclusions. although this component of transcendental realism follows the preceding two components, it takes place almost concurrently with them (punch, 1998). an initial conclusion in this research, which was verified throughout the data gathering process, entails the assumption of the value that top and average performing agents would be able to add to the research. prior to conducting the research, the researcher made the assumption that top performing agents in a human resources call centre will more easily be able to identif y differentiating competencies, compared to agents who perform at an average level. the researcher was of the opinion that the average performing agents would struggle to identif y what competencies are considered as threshold and differentiating. for this reason the research proposal suggested that focus groups be held with top performers and average performers respectively. however, after the first focus group was conducted, comprising top performing agents in a human resources call centre, the researcher determined that, although top performing agents are easily able to identify critical competencies for customer service, customer service core capability 19 they were less able to distinguish between which of the identified competencies are considered threshold and differentiating. top performing agents were of the opinion that most of the competencies identified were threshold, and that very few were considered to differentiate between average and top performers. for this reason the researcher amended the initial structure of the focus groups, so as to ensure that each focus group consisted of agents that performed at different levels. as discussed above, the three data gathering methods applied in this research are the focus group interviewing technique, the individual interview and the telephonic interview. the first phase of data gathering entailed conducting focus groups with three to four human resources call centre agents. during each focus group the facilitator and researcher (co-facilitator) were introduced to the group. informed consent was obtained by introducing participants to the research topic and clarifying terminology that would be used throughout the discussion, including organisational capability, individual competency, and threshold and differentiating competencies. the group was also informed that the researcher would record data throughout the discussion and that all information would be treated as confidential: no names would be attached to information reported. after informing participants of these details, consent for participating in the research was obtained from all. prior to commencing with the discussion on the topic, the researcher also explained the time available to the group to conclude the discussion, as well as what would be done with data obtained and how feedback on the research would be provided to participants. each focus group was firstly asked to identif y competencies which they believe are critical for agents in a human resources call centre environment, so as to enable customer service as an organisational core capability. once the group had identified the competencies they believed to be critical for customer service, they were asked to classif y the identified competencies as being threshold or differentiating. as a closing question, each group member was asked what they would highlight as the one key differentiating competency required by an agent in a human resources call centre in order to provide good customer service. the researcher considered it necessary to verif y the results obtained during agent focus group interviews with parties that are responsible for managing the performance of the agents, namely supervisors. interviews with supervisors were considered necessary as they deal with both top and average performing agents and also obtain regular feedback from customers when receiving compliments and complaints about the service provided by agents. as such, the researcher regarded supervisors as having a good overall knowledge of the competencies that would lead to customer satisfaction, as well as which competencies would result in good performance. the second phase of gathering data therefore entailed individual interviews with human resources call centre supervisors. during these interviews the researcher firstly attempted to determine what the supervisors consider to be critical individual competencies required for a customer service core capability in the particular environment. this data was obtained in a similar manner to the method used in the focus groups where the participant was asked a question about what they consider to be critical individual competencies in the particular environment. thereafter, the researcher presented data obtained from the human resources call centre agents during the focus groups, to verif y whether the supervisor considered the competencies identified by the agents to be critical for a customer service core capability. the supervisors were also asked to classif y the competencies identified by themselves and the agents as being either a threshold or a differentiating competency. the researcher considered it important to understand customer expectations in terms of service delivery, and to incorporate this data with data obtained from agents and supervisors. the final phase in the data gathering process thus entailed telephonic interviews with a sample of the human resources call centre’s customers. the researcher firstly probed the customer to determine their view on their previous interaction with the human resources call centre. customers were then asked what they consider to be critical individual competencies required for a customer service core capability in the human resources call centre. in this manner the researcher attempted to obtain data about what the customers expect from agents in a human resources call centre. treatment of the data the three main operations involved in the transcendental realism framework of qualitative analysis are coding, memoing and developing propositions (punch, 1998). these operations will briefly be described below, and an indication provided of how they were used in this research. coding is the process of putting tags, names or labels against pieces of data, whether individual words, sentences or other small or large portions of data. by assigning labels to data, the researcher attaches meaning to the pieces of data. the purpose of labelling data is to index it and provide a basis for storage and retrieval thereof (miles & huberman, 1984). on completion of each focus group, the researcher applied coding to the data obtained in the particular session. in so-doing, the competencies described by the agents were “labelled” so as to ensure that competencies described by more than one group could be easily identified. the researcher found this particular operation useful, as various groups of agents identified similar competencies, although they labelled them differently. by applying coding, the researcher was able to ensure that similarities between what each focus group identified, were captured. an example of a code applied by the researcher is interpersonal sensitivity. call centre agents referred to numerous aspects of interpersonal sensitivity during the focus groups, including the ability to relate to individuals that have varying personalities and needs, and displaying empathy towards customers for their particular situation. the researcher labelled data related to the abilit y to understand customers and colleagues alike as interpersonal sensitivity. during further analysis of the data, coding was also used to determine whether findings of the research corresponded to “labels” in parasuraman et al.’s (1988) five overall quality dimensions with general applicability in the service sector, and spencer and spencer’s (1993) generic model of helping and human service professionals. once data had been obtained from the various focus groups, the researcher combined the data into categories created during the coding phase of analysis. this integrated information was presented to the human resources call centre supervisors to verify to what extent they agreed with the competencies identified by agents. a similar process of coding was used to label data obtained from supervisors and customers. this assisted the researcher in identif ying similarities bet ween data provided by each participant group. memoing is the creative-speculating part of developing analysis. not necessarily the second stage of data analysis, memoing is the recording of ideas that occur to the researcher while doing coding and therefore begins at the start of analysis, in conjunction with coding. memoing may have conceptual content, as it helps the researcher to move from a theoretical to a conceptual level. memoing is the researcher’s creative means to start producing propositions (miles & huberman, 1984). memoing was applied by the researcher in this particular study by noting the frequency with which certain codes were applied after each data gathering phase. by identif ying which competencies were identified by most agents, supervisors and grobbela ar, roodt, venter20 customers, the researcher was able to speculate about the most critical individual competencies to promote a customer service core capability in a human resources call centre. the researcher was, for example, able to identif y that resilience was a competency that was identified as being critical by a number of focus groups and supervisors, whilst empowering the client was only mentioned by one focus group as being a critical competency. developing propositions refer to conclusion drawing and the verif ying of conclusions. although conceptually distinct from coding and memoing, developing propositions may happen concurrently with the above. the aim of this stage is to integrate what has been done into a meaningful coherent picture of the data (miles & huberman, 1984). the researcher developed propositions in this particular study by focusing on the ease with which groups of agents who perform similarly were able to identif y critical competencies and categorise these as threshold or differentiating. as already described before, this resulted in the researcher’s initial assumption that top performing agents would more easily be able to differentiate between threshold and differentiating competencies. due to the initial propositions made by the researcher, the subsequent focus groups consisted of agents that performed at different levels. this enabled the researcher to verif y the initial proposition about how agents with different levels of performance related to the topic being explored. results data obtained from human resources call centre agents, supervisors and clients were combined to determine which competencies these groups felt were essential to promote a customer service core capability in the particular environment. customer service core capability 21 table 1 individual key competencies identified by participants key competency identified description of competency, as provided by participants listening and understanding the ability to listen to and accurately assimilate detailed information in order to grasp what the customer requires. oral communication skills proficiency in the use of at least the english language to understand what the customer is requesting, as well as to provide advice in a manner which can be considered helpful by the customer. product knowledge and technical skills in a human resources call centre environment, this implies a thorough knowledge of the human resources policies, procedures and processes of the organisation, and how they should be applied in various contexts. although not specifically mentioned by customers, an aspect of technical skills which is essential in being able to apply knowledge of policies and procedures includes a knowledge of the telephonic and technical systems used in the environment; basic computer literacy is therefore also essential. networking ability by having the necessary networks in place, the agent will more easily be able to provide an answer to the client in the expected turnaround time, as they will be in a better position to know where to obtain specific information. friendly tone of voice/willingness to assist a tone of voice and general disposition that indicate eagerness to assist. time management skills customers expect quick turnaround times, both in terms of the time in which their call is answered, as well as the time in which their query is resolved. this implies that agents should be able to prioritise between taking additional calls to ensure that waiting time for customers is reduced, and following up on outstanding queries to ensure that the time taken to resolve a query is kept to a minimum. this relates to the sense of urgency that customers considered to be very important. portraying a professional image this relates to the manner in which the agent assures the customer that s/he is knowledgeable and experienced through tone of voice and choice of language. quality orientation agents should be concerned with the quality of the service they provide, as customers are particularly concerned that the information they receive should be correct. reliability customers expect that agents will provide accurate information when answering their query. furthermore, customers expect that agents will adhere to the time frame contracted with them, when needing to obtain additional information before being able to provide the resolution to their query. customers also have the need to know that their information will be treated as confidential. using initiative customers expect an agent to resolve their query, regardless of the effort required. this often entails the agent having to “go the extra mile” to obtain additional information or research the matter more widely than usual. interpersonal sensitivity * the ability to relate to individuals (customers as well as team members) that have varying personalities and needs. this competency includes displaying empathy towards customers for their particular situation. appropriate questioning * the ability to probe by asking appropriate questions so as to identif y the customer’s specific need. resilience * to be adaptable and flexible to deal with the constant changes and pressures of the work environment, including irate callers. this includes the ability to exercise emotional control, both towards clients who may ask questions which seem self-explanatory, as well as fellow team members. persuasiveness * the ability to convince customers regarding the correct manner in which to approach a particular situation, given the policy and procedure as guideline. this is regarded as critical, as customers are not always willing to apply the answer that the agent provides, even though it is correct given the policy and circumstances. cross-functional awareness * understanding different roles/departments and how they interlink within the organisation. this enables the agent to contextualise the question asked by a customer and the information provided to the customer. understanding human resources practices * educational background and qualifications of agents are regarded as critical in a human resources call centre environment. this ensures that the agent has a basic understanding of human resources practices, which assists in providing answers to a customer in relation to matters that aren’t necessarily addressed in a policy. teamwork * to be aware of the effect that you have on your colleagues, so as to create a harmonious and co-operative work environment. respect for others * show respect towards others by treating others (customers and colleagues) as you would like to be treated. passion * demonstrate commitment and eagerness for every task. * agents and supervisors in the human resources call centre agreed that thee competencies were essential in promoting customer service as a core capability. although not mentioned by the customers interviewed, these may be regarded as critical competencies which enable that which customers expect. the key individual competencies identified by all groups of participants (agents, supervisors and customers) are reflected in table 1. the three groups of participants in this research (agents, supervisors and customers) all identified listening and understanding, oral communication skills, product knowledge and technical skills, networking ability, a friendly tone of voice/willingness to assist, time management skills, portraying a professional image, quality orientation, reliability and using initiative as the key individual competencies required for a customer service core capability in a human resources call centre environment. certain competencies were identified as critical by both agents and supervisors, but weren’t listed by participants from the customer group. these competencies are: interpersonal sensitivity, appropriate questioning, resilience, persuasiveness, cross-functional awareness, an understanding of human resources practices, teamwork, respect for others, and passion. when considering the nature of these competencies which were not identified by the customer group of participants, it could be deduced that these competencies enable that which customers expect. in other words: they may not be competencies that are visible to customers and would therefore not be considered critical to this group. however, to meet customer expectations, it could be assumed that these competencies are necessary within a human resources call centre environment. during the data gathering phase, human resources call centre agents and supervisors were asked to categorise the competencies which they had identified as critical in terms of promoting a customer service core capability in a human resources call centre, as either threshold or differentiating. table 2 indicates this categorisation. table 2 categorisation of key competencies identified by participants key competency categorised as categorised as no agreement identified threshold differentiating as to by most by most categorisation participants participants listening and understanding x oral communication skills x product knowledge and x technical skills networking ability x friendly tone of voice/ x willingness to assist time management skills x portraying a professional image x quality orientation x reliability x using initiative x interpersonal sensitivity * x appropriate questioning * x resilience * x persuasiveness * x cross-functional awareness * x understanding human x resources practices * teamwork * x respect for others * x passion * x * agents and supervisors in the human resources call centre agreed that three competencies were essential in promoting customer service as a core capability. although not mentioned by customers interviewed, these may be regarded as critical competencies which enable that which customers expect. of the 19 competencies identified as being critical to promote a customer service core capability in a human resources call centre environment, 11 were categorised as being threshold competencies by the agent and supervisor participants in this study. this implies that they are considered to be essential characteristics required of all incumbents of a position in order to be minimally effective. the identified threshold competencies include the ability to listen and understand, oral communication skills, product knowledge and technical skills, a friendly tone of voice and willingness to assist, time management skills, portraying a professional image, quality orientation, reliability, interpersonal sensitivity, resilience and respect for others. four of the competencies were categorised as being differentiating, in that they distinguish superior from average performers. these include using initiative, persuasiveness, cross functional awareness, and understanding human resources practices. participants in the research differed about whether networking ability, appropriate questioning, teamwork and a passion for what you do should be categorised as threshold or differentiating. discussion a number of threshold and differentiating individual competencies required to promote customer service in a human resources call centre were identified by the participants in this study and listed in table 1. the competencies were also categorised by the agent and supervisor participants into being threshold or differentiating, as set out in table 2. table 3 provides an indication of how individual key competencies identified by participants in this research as being critical in order to promote a customer service core capability, correspond to current theoretical frameworks. for this purpose the findings of this research have been compared to three models/frameworks, namely: � ulrich’s (1998) framework of competence and capability, as set out in figure 1; � parasuraman et al.’s (1988) five overall quality dimensions which have general applicability in the service sector, as set out above; and � spencer and spencer’s (1993) generic model of helping and human service professionals, as set out above. competencies identified by the above authors are required in jobs that have a focus on helping others, rather than on business outcomes or technical processes. the focus of this study, namely a human resources call centre environment, could be considered one area in which jobs have this particular focus of helping others. the models/frameworks are therefore considered useful in comparing findings of this research. when comparing the key individual competencies identified by participants in this research to ulrich’s (1998) model, depicted in figure 1, it is evident that the participants in this research have identified both social and technical competencies on an individual level. although most identified competencies can be categorised within the social/cultural perspective of ulrich’s model, a number of key technical competencies were also regarded as being critical within a human resources call centre environment. parasuraman et al.’s (1988) overall quality dimensions for the service sector appear to focus strongly on what individuals within the service sector should do to meet customer expectations. this model has a smaller focus on what is required within a team context to enable meeting customer needs. for this reason, competencies such as appropriate questioning, grobbela ar, roodt, venter22 resilience, persuasiveness, teamwork, respect for others and passion, which were identified by the participants in this research, do not appear to correspond to any one of the quality dimensions in parasuraman et al.’s framework. it is interesting to note that most of the competencies identified by all three groups of participants in this research correspond to parasuraman et al.’s dimensions. however, the identified competencies which did not appear to correspond with any of the dimensions are mostly those which were not identified by customer participants in the research. the tangible dimension in parasuraman et al.’s framework was not identified as critical by the participants in this research. of the three frameworks from current literature used to compare this research’s results to, spencer and spencer’s (1993) generic model of helping and human service professionals appears to correspond the best to key competencies identified in this research. most of the key competencies identified by participants in this research are also addressed by at least one competency in spencer and spencer’s generic model. although most of the competencies identified by participants in this research correspond to currently available models/frameworks, the t wo competencies identified by participants in this research which do not appear to correspond to parasuraman et al.’s (1988) dimensions, or to spencer and spencer’s (1993) generic model of competencies, are networking ability and cross-functional awareness. since both frameworks used for comparison purposes are related to generic jobs that have a focus on helping others, and do not focus on a human resources call centre specifically, it may be assumed that net working abilit y and cross-functional awareness are competencies that are uniquely required in a human resources call centre environment. it is suggested that this assumption be verified in subsequent research. the fact that most competencies identified as critical by the participants in this research can be categorised within the social/cult ural perspective of ulrich’s (1998) model has particular relevance to the human resource management processes of selection and training and development. with regards to selection of agents for a human resources call centre environment, the findings of this research indicate that one should guard against appointing agents in this environment on the basis of their technical skills only, as this will disregard the critical social competencies identified in the research. because social competencies have been identified as critical within the human resources call centre environment, they should be considered a critical requirement that applicants should meet in order to be considered suitable for appointment into the position. in terms of training and development, traditional training is often focused on developing an incumbent’s technical skills. findings of this research indicate that care should be taken to include training and development of social competencies, over and above the traditional focus on development of technical skills. this will ensure that agents within a human resources call centre environment are fully equipped to perform their role. during the data gathering phase of the research it was identified that, depending on their level of performance, participants generally experienced little difficult y identif ying critical competencies required to promote a customer service core capability, and were mostly able to categorise the identified competencies into being threshold or differentiating. the customer service core capability 23 table 3 individual key competencies identified by participants, compared to current theoretical frameworks key competency identified current theoretical frameworks ulrich’s (1998) framework of parasuraman et al.’s (1988) spencer & spencer’s (1993) generic competence and capability five overall quality dimensions with model of helping and human general applicability in the service sector service professionals listening and understanding individual social competency empathy interpersonal understanding oral communication skills individual social competency impact and influence; conceptual thinking product knowledge and individual technical competency assurance professional expertise technical skills networking ability individual social competency friendly tone of voice/willingness individual social competency responsiveness impact and influence to assist time management skills individual social competency responsiveness initiative portraying a professional image individual social competency assurance impact and influence quality orientation individual social competency reliability customer service orientation reliability individual social competency reliability customer service orientation using initiative individual social competency responsiveness customer service orientation; initiative interpersonal sensitivity * individual social competency empathy interpersonal understanding; self control; other personal effectiveness competencies appropriate questioning * individual social competency professional expertise; analytical thinking resilience * individual social competency self control; flexibility persuasiveness * individual social competency self confidence; directiveness/assertiveness cross-functional awareness * individual technical competency understanding human resources individual technical competency assurance professional expertise practices * teamwork * individual social competency interpersonal understanding; self control; other personal effectiveness competencies; teamwork and cooperation respect for others * individual social competency interpersonal understanding; self control; other personal effectiveness competencies; teamwork and cooperation passion * individual social competency other personal effectiveness competencies * agents and supervisors in the human resources call centre agreed that three competencies were essential in promoting customer service as a core capability. although not mentioned by the customers interviewed, these may be regarded as critical competencies which enable that which customers expect. researcher determined that participants who perform at a lower level in relation to other participants found it difficult to identify critical competencies required by agents. at the same time, these participants were more likely to identif y factors external to themselves as requisite before they could deliver customer service. the group of participants with lower performance levels therefore appears to either have a defense reaction (cf. freud, 1977) or to exhibit an external locus of control (cf. rotter, 1966). although top performing agents were easily able to identify critical competencies, they could not readily differentiate between threshold and differentiating competencies. it is believed that this may be due to the fact that most of them already posses these qualities and are therefore more likely to consider all identified competencies as essential to providing customer service, thus categorising the bulk of identified competencies as threshold. recommendations the critical competencies identified in this study should be applied by parties involved in the human resource management of human resources call centres to ensure that the critical competencies are acquired, developed, managed and retained. this will ensure that a customer service core capability is developed in the organisation, resulting in the achievement of the organisational or departmental vision and mission, which will in most cases include a drive to establish customer service as an organisational core capability. as is clear from the comparison of identified key competencies to ulrich’s (1998) model of competence and capability, and the comparison of the findings of this research to this model, both technical and social/cultural individual competencies should be attended to. limitations this particular exploratory, qualitative study was conducted in a human resources call centre environment in a financial institution, which implies that the results cannot be generalised to other call centres or to other service environments. it is therefore not evident from this particular research whether the competencies identified are generic to other service environments, or only apply to a human resources call centre environment. a fairly large number of critical individual competencies were identified by participants in the current study. this may result in practical difficulties for managers of human resources call centres attempting to apply human resource management processes focused on the entire list of competencies. working with a large number of competencies tends to result in a lack of focus, which may not yield optimal results in terms of promoting a customer service core capability in the organisation. suggestions for further research given the limitations of this exploratory, qualitative study, it is suggested that the study be replicated in other call centres, so as to determine the applicabilit y of the findings in other call centre environments that do not necessarily focus on providing a service in terms of queries relating to human resources policies and procedures. furthermore, it is suggested that the st udy be replicated in service environments other than call centres, which will determine to what extent the findings of this study can be applied across service environments. it is also suggested that a quantitative study on the same topic be conducted, so as to confirm the findings of this study with a larger population and across service environments. a quantitative study may assist in prioritising key competencies and eliminating some of the less critical competencies, so as to enable managers of service environments to focus primarily on those that can be considered essential. a final suggestion for further research is to determine what actions could be implemented by managers of service environments, to ensure that the critical competencies are acquired, developed, managed and retained. references anastasi, a. (1990). psychological testing (6th ed.). new york, ny: macmillan. babbie, e. (1995). the practice of social research (7th ed.). belmont, ca: wadsworth. babbie, e. & mouton, j. (2001). the practice of social research. cape town, south africa: oxford. bellis, i. (1999). between the rock and the hard place. people dynamics (september), 14-19. blem, n. (1995). ser vice, please, south africa! cape town: juta. cohen, l., manion, l. & morrison, k. (2000). research methods in education. new york: routledge. freud, a. (1977). the ego and the mechanisms of defense. new york: international universities press. fritz, j.l. (1997). there must be fire! the importance of leadership and management support. in s. brown (ed.). breakthrough customer ser vice: best practices of leaders in customer support. canada: john wiley & sons. hafeez, k., zhang, y. & malak, n. (2002). core competence for sustainable competitive advantage: a structured methodolog y for identif ying core competence. ieee transactions on engineering managament, 49 (1), 28-35. hamel, g. & prahalad, c.k. (1994). competing for the future. boston, ma: harvard business school press. hanley, m. (1997). customer service as a basis for breakthrough business strategy. in s. brown (ed.). breakthrough customer ser vice: best practices of leaders in customer support. canada: john wiley & sons. harris, e.k. (2000). customer ser vice: a practical approach (2nd ed.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. lindsay, p.r. & stuart, r. (1997). reconstruing competence. journal of european industrial training, 21 (9), 326-332. meyer, t. (1996). creating competitiveness through competencies: currency for the 21st centur y. randburg: knowledge resources. miles, m.b. & huberman, a.m. (1984). qualitative data analysis: a sourcebook of new methods. beverly hills, ca: sage. parasuraman, a., zeithaml, v.a. & berry, l.l. (1988). servqual: a multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. journal of retailing, 64 (spring), 12-40. potter, w.j. (1996). an analysis of thinking and research about qualitative methods. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. prahalad, c.k. & hamel, g. (1990). the core competence of the corporation. har vard business review, 68 (3), 79-91. punch, k.f. (1998). introduction to social research: quantitative and qualitative approaches. london: sage. rotter, j.b. (1966). generalised expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. psychological monographs, 80 (1). shippmann, j.s., ash, r.a., battista, m., carr, l., eyde, l.d., hesketh, b. & kehoe, j. (2000). the practice of competency modeling. personnel psychology, 53 (3), 703-740. spencer, l.m. & spencer, s.m. (1993). competence at work: models for superior performance. new york: john wiley. sureshchandar, g.s., rajendran, c. & anantharaman, r.n. (2002). determinants of customer perceived service quality: a confirmatory factor analysis approach. journal of ser vices marketing (16) 1, 9-34. ulrich, d. (1998). delivering results: a new mandate for human resource professionals. boston: harvard business school publishing. grobbela ar, roodt, venter24 article information authors: fatima rasool1 christoff j. botha1 affiliations: 1potchefstroom business school, north west university, south africa correspondence to: christoff botha email: christoff.botha@nwu.ac.za postal address: north west university, potchefstroom business school, potchefstroom 2520, south africa dates: received: 13 mar. 2010 accepted: 16 may 2011 published: 15 july 2011 how to cite this article: rasool, f., & botha, c.j. (2011). the nature, extent and effect of skills shortages on skills migration in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #287, 12 pages. doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.287 copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) the nature, extent and effect of skills shortages on skills migration in south africa in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction • statement of the problem • objectives • research design    • research approach    • research method       • location of the data       • techniques for collecting data       • procedures for collecting data       • analysing the data • the nature and extent of skills shortages    • education    • structural changes    • emigration    • hiv and aids    • crime • findings    • effect one: the world cup    • effect two: eskom    • effect three: the mining industry    • effect four: global competitiveness    • effect five: unemployment • discussion    • limitations of the study and suggestions for future research    • summary • acknowledgements    • authors’ contributions • references abstract (back to top) orientation: south africa is currently experiencing a serious shortage of skilled workers. it has a negative effect on south africa’s economic prospects and on global participation in south africa (sa). this skills shortage severely affects socioeconomic growth and development in sa. research purpose: this study focuses on the causes and effects of the skills shortages in south africa. motivation for the study: the researchers undertook this study to highlight the role that skilled foreign workers can play in supplementing the shortage of skilled workers in south africa. the shortage is partly because of the failure of the national education and training system to supply the economy with much-needed skills. research design, approach and method: the researchers undertook a literature study to identify the nature, extent and effect of skills shortages in south africa. they consulted a wide range of primary and secondary resources in order to acquire an in-depth understanding of the problem. the article explains the research approach and method comprehensively. it also outlines the research method the researchers used. main findings: this study shows that several factors cause serious skills shortages in sa. practical/managerial implications: the researchers mention only two significant implications. firstly, this article provides a logical description of the nature, extent and effect of skills shortages on the economy. secondly, it indicates clearly the implications of skills shortages for immigration policy. contribution/value-add: this study confirms the findings of similar studies the centre for development and enterprise (cde) conducted. opening the doors to highly skilled immigrants can broaden the skills pool. introduction (back to top) the south african government is giving the issue of skills shortages considerable attention. however, skill shortages are still very real in south africa (sa) today. the proliferation of new legislation, like employment equity legislation and the mining charter for women, reflect this. the legislation aims at developing the skills and employability of all citizens in order to alleviate poverty, address historical inequalities, create employment opportunities and improve the competitiveness of the national economy (du toit & van tonder, 2009, pp. 20–21). the promulgation of the skills development act (no. 98 of 1999) created an enabling institutional and regulatory framework for expanding strategic investment in education and training across all economic sectors. this act led to the establishment of sector education and training authorities (setas), which representatives of organised labour and business manage, to promote skills development. the south african qualifications authority act (no. 58 of 1995) created a national qualifications framework (nqf) to increase accessibility and portability to learners to improve their qualifications. the national qualifications framework act (no. 67 of 2008) repealed this act. despite a number of education reforms, like changes to the school curricula, the country still faces considerable skills shortages. the media highlight this regularly and it causes criticism from social partners like employer bodies, trade unions and the government. according to bhorat, meyer and mlatsheni (2002), the centre for development and enterprise (2007b) and kraak (2008), there seems to be consensus that skills shortages are major obstacles to economic growth and job creation in south africa. the government’s commitment to halve unemployment and poverty by 2014 led to the establishment of the accelerated and shared growth initiative for south africa (asgisa). the deputy president at the time, ms phumzile mlambo-ngcuka, formally launched asgisa in february 2006. the joint initiative on priority skills acquisition (jipsa) was established a month later to address the scarce and critical skills sa needed to meet asgisa’s objectives. asgisa identified six ’binding constraints’ that prevent south africa from achieving its desired growth rate: • the relative volatility of the currency • the cost, efficiency and capacity of the national logistics system • shortages of suitably skilled workers and the spatial distortions of apartheid that affect unskilled labour costs • barriers to entry, limits to competition and limited new investment opportunities • the regulatory environment and the burden on small and medium enterprises (smes) • deficiencies in state organisation, capacity and leadership (see the 2011 annual reports of jipsa and asgisa). the accelerated and shared growth initiative for south africa also stated that the ‘apprenticeship system is on its way out‘ (2011). there have been new developments and the definition of ‘learnership’ includes ‘apprenticeship’. the national treasury appointed the harvard group to analyse growth prospects for south africa. it drew a similar finding on skills shortages (2008) and concluded that human resource shortages limit economic growth prospects in sa. the human resource development review (kraak, 2008, p. 22) identified skills shortages as major impediments to socio-economic growth and development. skills shortages in south africa are the consequences of the interplay of several complex socio-political and economic factors. with the advent of democracy in 1994, the new government inherited a divided education and training system that comprised fifteen education departments the apartheid government established along racial and regional lines. the apartheid education and training system produced super-structural chaos that wasted funds, inefficiency and very poor graduate outputs aggravated (hofmeyr & buckland, 1992, p. 26). according to the clothing, textile, footwear and leather sector education and training authority (ctfl), lifting sanctions against south africa in the 1990s, in effect, exposed the economy to international economic competition. the entry of china and india as globally competitive export economies, together with the world trade organisation’s reduction in tariffs, placed further pressure on the domestic economy (ctfl, 2006, p. 28). the inability of the education and training system to meet the growing demands of local firms for skilled graduates aggravates the situation. the rising aspirations of the previously disadvantaged majority of the population further compounded the demand-driven needs of the labour market (kraak, 2008, p. 1). the south african economy experienced accelerated growth after 2002. this resulted in a shortage of skilled workers in virtually all economic sectors. see figure 1. figure 1: economic growth outpaces employment growth. economic growth rates after 2004 increased to 5% after averaging 3% during the preceding 10 years. growth increased to average 3.4% between 2000 and 2004 but increased by almost 5% between 2004 and 2007 (south african reserve bank, 2011). an increase in jobs during the latter period accompanied the growth. however, the growth in employment was not high. the economy grew between 2004 and 2007 but employment tended to decline. the recovery from the global economic meltdown in 2008 continued in the final quarter of 2010 and in the early months of 2011, its momentum stronger than many observers had expected. major developing countries maintained high rates of economic growth. however, they were aware of the dangers of inflation and tightened their monetary policies. the recovery remained fragile in the major advanced economies. monetary policies remained accommodative to support growth, although the major advanced economies reduced or withdrew the earlier fiscal stimuli in the interests of fiscal sustainability (south african reserve bank, 2011). apart from the shortage of skills, factors like affirmative action, emigration and employment equity also contributed to unemployment during this period. affirmative action affected many skilled people and they thought that the government did not appreciate their talents or skills. in addition, the results of a survey the southern africa migration project conducted show that approximately 83% of white people and 20% of black people opposed the government’s affirmative action policy (mcdonald & crush, 2002, p. 40). emigration was the option many took. whilst affirmative action is one factor that contributes to the migration of skilled workers, others include crime, better wage offers, a better quality of life and future for their children, economic stability and improved health care (bezuidenhout, joubert, hiemstra & struwig, 2009; bornman, 2005; van rooyen, 2000). therefore, it is clear that, despite the number of efforts made to address the challenges confronting the country, skills constraints continue to affect it (mccord & bhorat, 2003, p. 137). statement of the problem (back to top) currently there is a vigorous debate amongst various interest groups about the chronic skills shortages in the country and the inability of the education and training system to meet the demand-driven needs of the economy. despite these debates and ongoing policy reforms, the nature of the skills shortage in south africa remains poorly defined (cde, 2007a, p. 11). there is no widely accepted definition of a skills shortage or of how government should respond to it. therefore, the nature, scale and severity of skills shortages are often miscalculated, misunderstood and misused. this results in poor public policies, with their associated high levels of wastage (benjamin, 2008; ellis, 2008). in addition, the reliability and validity of labour market data are worrying. according to mccord and bhorat (2003, p. 116), poor labour market information systems and outmoded occupational forecasting models exacerbate skills shortages. the quality of labour force data in south africa is generally poor and those of occupational statistics are even poorer. van aardt (2009, p. 144) concurs that, in many situations, these statistics are available only in highly aggregated forms and contain broad categories like senior officials, managers, professionals and technicians. admittedly, various private and public agencies conduct a considerable amount of labour market research. however, it fails to give a holistic picture of the true state of the skills shortages in sa. one prevailing misconception is to regard the concepts of ‘scarcity’ of skills and ‘shortage’ of skills as meaning the same. the national scarce skills list (department of labour, 2006/7) refers to ‘scarce’ skills when, in fact, it is referring to skills ‘shortages’. there is a tendency to perceive the problem of skills shortages only from the perspective of a weak education and training system. therefore, some argue, the only way to address skills shortages is through an increase in public investment on education and training. training is necessary, but it is an inadequate response to alleviating skills shortages. an increase in the public provision of training may only be appropriate if there is evidence of a decline in the ratios of persons being trained to total employment. the development policy research unit (2007, p. 12) offers a range of other possible responses to alleviating the skills shortages. these include freeing wages, developing a progressive skills immigration policy, reviewing labour market policy and improving industrial policy, amongst others. issues like foreign direct flows, trade penetration, technological advancements, competition policy, as well as monetary and fiscal policies also determine the skills sets the labour market demands. from another perspective, ellis (2008, p. 121) states that upgrading the educational system is necessary. however, this would not to produce enough entrants to the labour market to eliminate the skills shortages in the short term. nzimande (2009) agrees that education and training by themselves cannot resolve the problem of skills shortages. the government seems committed to addressing skills shortages. currently, the state’s contribution to public education remains the single largest investment in public services. spending on education has grown 14% every year for the past three years and accounts for r140.4 billion in provincial and national government spending for 2008/2009 (manuel, 2009). a promising development was the expenditure, on further education and training colleges, of over r14 billion for the period ahead and on student financial assistance, which will increase (2011 budget speech, 2011). gordhan (2011) indicated that the government has provided r9.5 billion for expanding education and training colleges and skills development further. trevor manuel, the minister of finance at the time, indicated in his 2009 budget speech that government had allocated close to r9 billion to public skills development programmes (manuel, 2009). this spending could help to address the skills shortages that emigration has caused. it includes: • r1 billion to the umsobomvu youth fund • r1.28 billion to further education and training (fet) bursaries and recapitalisation • r6.2 billion to sector education and training authorities • r1.5 billion to the national skills fund. for 2009, the baseline funding for fet colleges included r995 million for bursaries for 162 360 students. there was also a further r285 million to recapitalise technical high schools over the next three years. the government allocated an additional r700 million for higher education subsidies to accommodate the expected growth in student numbers from 783 900 in 2008 to 836 800 in 2009. the government also allocated an extra r330 million to the national student financial aid scheme for poor students (manuel, 2009). therefore, it is clear that the government is setting aside large sums of money to improve education and training. the figures from the 2011 budget speech include adjustments for remunerating teachers and an additional r24.3 billion for education and skills over the next three years. this will increase the expenditure on education and skills from r190 billion in 2011/2012 to r215 billion in 2013/14. the government is trying desperately to increase valuable skills output through its increased education budget. however, structural changes in the economy are exacerbating the skills shortages. there is less emphasis on the mining, manufacturing and agriculture sectors compared to the services and financial sectors. the latter sectors generally employ highly skilled people who are in demand globally compared to mining, which employs large numbers of unskilled and semi-skilled workers (statistics south africa, 2008). table 1 gives information on occupational category movements between 1997 and 2008. table 1: growth in selected occupational categories during the 1997–2008 period. table 1 shows considerable growth in employment for administrative and managerial, professional and technical, the service-related as well as the transport and communication occupational categories. however, there is negative growth in the clerical and sales category. in other words, as the economy moves towards greater capital and skills intensity, the demand for unskilled workers is diminishing (mccord & bhorat, 2003, p. 115). this shows structural changes in the economy with a growing demand for skilled workers. the government continues to place a high premium on development. according to gordhan (2011), the budget proposes a range of measures to accelerate employment creation. an example is setting aside r9 billion over the next three years for a jobs fund to co-finance innovative public-sector and private-sector employment projects. from a different perspective, the demand for skilled workers is acquiring a global dimension. firms in developed countries like australia, new zealand, the united states of america (usa), great britain and canada are recruiting highly skilled south africans with high levels of education and advanced occupational skills (van rooyen, 2000, p. 62–68). we call the loss of skilled workers the ‘brain drain’. this movement also affects south africa as thousands of skilled south africans leave the country every year. some of the factors that influence emigration include crime, affirmative action, black economic empowerment, poor education standards and inadequate government provisions for health care. a net inflow of immigrants in the 1980s has become a net outflow in the 2000s. this is a major contributing factor to the skills crisis. the unofficial number of emigrants is estimated at three times the official number (bhorat et al., 2002; cde, 2008; van rooyen, 2000). more recently, the official number of emigrants per 1000 of the population was 4.98 (immigration statistics, 2011). attempts to recruit foreign skills to work in local firms are proving to be a challenge. from a service delivery perspective, the department of home affairs is battling to process approximately 35 200 quota work permit applications sa made available in 2007 to attract foreign workers to help alleviate these shortages. in 2008, the department of home affairs issued only 1010 work permits in areas of scarce and critical skills. south africa’s restrictive skills immigration policy and regulations are also very problematic (bhorat et al., 2002; cde, 2008; ellis, 2008). for example, according to sa migration international (2011), applicants with special skills or qualifications in a certain category may obtain an exceptional skills permit based solely on these skills or qualifications even if they submit no employment offer. these people must have a relevant qualification or five years of relevant experience. objectives (back to top) the objectives of this study are to: • identify the nature, extent and effect of skills shortages on the economy • determine the implications of skills shortages for immigration policy. to achieve these objectives, the outcomes that follow are relevant: • to determine the extent of research undertaken in the field and what remains to be learned • to establish the nature and extent of the research problem • to distinguish what is relevant and irrelevant to the study • to identify different perspectives for the study • to provide a theoretical framework for the empirical investigation • to interpret the findings (seaman, 1987, p. 87). research design (back to top) research approach the research paradigm the researchers adopted was nonempirical (or theoretical). they conducted a comprehensive and a critical analysis of the literature on skills and skills shortages. these shortages are the consequences of the interplay between several complex socio-political and economic factors. these may include globalisation, a dysfunctional education system and structural changes in the labour market. the researchers investigated and discussed them nonempirically. research method the researchers conducted a literature study to identify the nature, extent and effect of skills shortages in south africa. the objectives of this study were to acquire an in-depth understanding of the problem. the researchers achieved this aim by consulting various primary and secondary sources, which they retrieved through literature searches. these sources included journals, books, periodicals, databases, government publications, international papers and others limited to the period between 1987 and 2009. the keywords the researchers used for the literature searches included ‘skills needs’, ‘skills shortages’, ‘emigration’, ‘brain drain’, ‘scarce skills’ and ‘immigration’. the researchers expanded the literature search using the same keywords to include 2010 and 2011 to see what authors have published. ‘emigration’ yielded only three abstracts. the total number of hits the researchers obtained was 28. they included 21 abstracts. it became clear to the authors that this is a relevant topic for researchers in sa. location of the data for the literature search, the researchers targeted the databases that follow during the literature phase of this study: ‘ebsco’, ‘science direct’, ‘emerald’, ‘isi web of knowledge’, ‘sabinet’, ‘isap’ and ‘sae pubs’ that cover business, management and multidisciplinary subjects. they accessed these databases through ‘ebscohost’, an academic and business resource with a powerful search engine that provides online access to full text collections of thousands of e-journals as well as more than 100 indexing and abstracting databases. the researchers gained access to ebscohost through the http://www.nwu.ac.za/library portal. they included south african e-journals in the search. the researchers also reviewed the reference lists of articles for additional publications that they may not have properly indexed or found during the database searches. they also conducted internet searches of professional organisations like http://www.bpesa.org.za and http//www.callcentres.co.za. the researchers also included applicable data they found in electronic masters dissertations, doctoral theses and academic books from all the academic libraries in south africa. techniques for collecting data the researchers used ‘emigration’, ‘brain drain’, ‘push pull’, ‘migration’ and ‘globalisation’ as keywords for all the databases. the authors then focused on literature they found using ebsco. the researchers recorded these results from ‘ebsco’: • ‘emigration’: 1130 hits • ‘brain drain’: 1286 hits • ‘push pull’: 1041 hits • ‘migration’: 27 058 hits • ‘globalisation’: 18 404 hits. the ‘isi web of knowledge’ yielded these results: • ‘emigration’: 1186 hits • ‘brain drain’: 200 hits • ‘push pull’: 97 hits • ‘migration’: 8088 hits • ‘globalisation’: 8335 hits. the researchers’ strategy was to focus on and isolate data that suggested descriptions and/or correlations between variables that they used to formulate postulates. they considered articles that related directly to the keywords and that had links to immigration. the researchers retrieved data from dissertations, theses and textbooks by using the search engines of the respective libraries. where possible, they downloaded the articles in portable document format (pdf), printed them and saved them in a folder. procedures for collecting data the researchers then studied the data carefully and categorised them according to whether they were suited to a south african context and at least covered the extent and nature of skills or skills migration. the retained only the articles that referred specifically to the key words of this study. the researchers noted and recorded the exact location of textbooks and articles in academic journals. in this manner, they ensured trustworthiness because the results could be replicated by using the same databases and library search engines. analysing the data the researchers meta-analysed the data they gathered from the literature study. thereafter, they extracted the literature relevant to the study and used it in their discussion. they used tables and graphs to give further information on the issues. finally, the researchers outlined the effects of the skills shortages. the nature and extent of skills shortages (back to top) in order to understand the nature of skills shortages in south africa, one has to have a working definition of the term ‘skills shortage’. the literature gives several different perspectives on what a ‘skills shortage’ is. studies use different definitions according to their objectives. according to trendle (2008, p. 9), the term ‘skills shortages’ applies when the quantity of skills particular work-related categories demand exceeds the supply of these skills. shah and burke (2003, p. 6), on the other hand, associate a skill with professional qualifications or occupations. in this context, one may define a skills shortage as workers that lack certain qualifications or as a shortage of workers in a particular occupation. the department of education, science and training (2002, p. 3) acknowledges the existence of a skills shortage when an employer is unable to fill or experiences considerable difficulty in filling vacancies for an occupation at present levels of remuneration and conditions of service. a traditional definition that appeals to economists is the one that arrow and capron (1959, p. 307) offer. this is that a shortage is ‘a situation in which there are unfilled vacancies in positions where salaries are the same as those currently being paid to others of the same type and quality’. according to barnow, trutko and robert, a skills shortage is: a market disequilibrium between supply and demand in which the quantity of workers demanded exceeds the supply available and willing to work at a particular wage and working conditions at a particular place and point in time. (barnow, trutko & robert, 1998, p. 7) this study uses this definition of a skills shortage: a skill shortage occurs when any one of the following situations arises or a combination of them: shortage of workers in a particular occupation, labour demand exceeds availability of skills, or workers lack appropriate qualifications. (barnow, trutko & robert, 1998; shah & burke, 2003; trendle, 2008) this definition is appropriate for this study as it covers the situations that may cause skills shortages in this country. a few major factors that contribute to an extensive shortage of skills in south africa are: • globalisation • a dysfunctional education system • structural changes in the labour market • a general under-investment in skills development • emigration (anderson, 2008; barker, 2003; development policy research unit, 2007; du toit & van tonder, 2009). the issue of persisting skills shortages resurfaces in the media regularly with an ever-growing call for the government to do more to address this problem. there are frequent comments from political parties, employers and unions citing skills shortages as a major obstacle to economic growth and job creation. according to kraak (2004, p. 70), there is a growing realisation from government that the path to national economic prosperity depends fundamentally on a highly skilled workforce. the discussion that follows will provide an in-depth insight into the factors that contribute to these shortages. education many see the education and training system of this country as the main contributor to the national skills crisis. the system is characterised by low education standards, inadequate provision for early childhood development, declining grade 12 pass rates, declining enrolments at fet colleges, lack of resources, under-qualified teachers, weak management and poor teacher morale. high failure rates in schools, colleges and universities offer little hope of addressing the skills shortages. according to the south african civil society information service (sacsis), these developments are obstacles to the production skills the economy requires (sacsis, 2009). despite the large sums of money the government spends on education, the outcomes are grossly inadequate. according to pandor (2008), a 2008 survey gave a literacy rate of 36% and a numeracy rate of 35% amongst grade 3 children. only 10% of the children scored above 70%. in addition, grade 6 pupils who perform at grade 3 levels and a vast majority of pupils who do not complete their schooling are very wasteful. benjamin (2008, p. 5) states that south africa had come last in global studies in literacy and reading, as well as in mathematics and science. african countries like ghana, botswana, morocco and tunisia have been outperforming it. the number of south africans completing school was also below the norm compared to other developing countries. only 30.9% of south african adults had completed high school whilst 69.8% of adults in developed countries complete high school. together with the low achievement rates, only 13% of learners enrolled for science and 9% for mathematics at the higher-grade level in 2006. figure 2 shows a decline in grade 12 mathematics and science results between 1995 and 2001. therefore, it reduced the supply of quality skills and the availability of required talent. the economy can only grow if there are more educated people (cde, 2008, p. 13). the south african civil society information service (sacsis, 2009) believes that skilled immigrants can remedy this situation temporarily. figure 2: decline in grade 12 mathematics and science results between 1991 and 2006. the 1994 results were not available. the situation improved between 2001 and 2006. table 2 gives more information about the performance in mathematics and science in 2008. table 2: analysis of mathematics and science marks in 2008. this situation is largely the result of the poor quality of schooling for black learners in the past. poor results, particularly in mathematics and science, compounded the problem (see figure 2). therefore, many black students who enter tertiary institutions are reluctant to pursue careers in the science and technology fields (pandor, 2008). furthermore, a large number remain marginalised because they lack the specialised skills the economic turnaround requires. a university study found that nearly 50% of all dropouts aged between 18 and 20 were black first-year students (ray, 2009, p. 11). the march 2005 labour force survey reveals that 42% of african youth between 15 and 24 years of age had stopped their studies and entered the labour market. more than 60% of them have less than a grade 12 qualification, whilst 33% have nothing more than grade 12. this is a matter of great concern as the weaknesses in education are bound to affect their preparedness for the labour market and deprive them of actual employment opportunities (kraak, 2004, p. 13). furthermore, estimates are that each year about 1.1 million children start grade 1. however, only 589 912 pupils sat the grade 12 examinations in 2008. this means that half a million children drop out from school. the situation has an extensive effect on this country, especially as far as their chances of employment are concerned. although the government has lowered the requirements to pass, only 20% achieved a university-entrance qualification in 2008. furthermore, only 63 038 matriculates achieved 50% in mathematics, whilst only 42 323 achieved 60% and better. mathematics educators have questioned the standard of the mathematics examination papers. if this were to be the standard for the future, then the students would not be able to pursue mathematics-related careers like engineering, business science and architecture (ramphele, 2009, p. 19). making either mathematics or mathematical literacy compulsory for the national senior certificate (nsc) was a major step forward. it doubled the number of university entrance passes in 2008 compared to the previous year. almost 60 000 learners passed mathematics in 2008. however, an additional 35 500, who wrote mathematical literacy, could have passed mathematics if they had written mathematics instead. this would have tripled the number of university entrance passes compared to 2007. similarly, whilst almost 34 000 learners passed science in 2008, approximately 27 000 more learners could have passed judging by their marks in other subjects (the maths and science performance of south africa’s public schools, 2010). if the government does not address the issues at the school level urgently and adequately, then the high dropout problems at higher education institutions will continue. according to a human sciences research council (hsrc) study, only a small percentage of students between 2002 and 2004 completed their studies in the minimum time. figure 3 gives the annual outflows from public higher education institutions (universities and universities of technology). the high dropout rate is costing the national treasury r4.5 billion in grants and subsidies to universities, up from r1.3 billion in 2002. this does not augur well for alleviating the skills shortages. figure 3: annual outflows from public higher education institutions during the 2002–2004 period. according to kraak (2004, p. 23), another shortcoming in education and training is the inefficiency of the fet sector. students who have completed grade 12 are expected to study courses that are on grade 10 and grade 11 levels. these qualifications are actually lower than their highest level of achievement and their levels of learning are regressing. despite this additional vocational qualification, employment opportunities are still very low. only 33.6% of fet graduates find employment (kraak, 2004, p. 24). according to akoojee et al. (2008), public further education and training in south africa is a sector in transition. it has undergone a process of institutional transformation but still has to become more responsive to market demands and a state-led development vision. the tertiary education system needs to link more closely to developments in industry. according to richardson (2007, p. 17), tertiary institutions are not producing enough graduates with relevant qualifications to keep up with the demands of the labour market. they are producing graduates in fields where the demand for these skills is not growing. there appears to be a mismatch between supply from the tertiary institutions and demand from the labour market. structural changes the structural changes in the south african economy also contribute to skills shortages. according to bhorat et al. (2002) and ellis (2008), employment in some sectors has expanded whilst in others it has contracted, causing large numbers of job losses. for example, the contributions of the mining and agricultural sectors to gross domestic product (gdp) is declining compared to that of the services sector, which includes finance and business services. factors that contributed to reducing the contribution of the mining sector include the numerous strikes by labour unions, electricity shortages and the global economic crisis. trendle (2008, p. 3) states that the growth in the services sector, which is now world-wide, is causing a demand for skilled people, whilst there is a diminishing demand for unskilled and semi-skilled workers in mining and agriculture. it is clear that the public sector (as well as the mining, manufacturing and construction sectors) has to use relatively more workers in order to contribute towards outputs in the economy than do the trade and financial sectors. the trade and financial sectors use only 23% of formal non-agricultural workers to contribute 44% towards total output. this shows that sectors that use skilled people – and that are therefore less labour-intensive – contribute relatively more towards economic growth than sectors that are more labour-intensive and rely on unskilled or semi-skilled workers do (the south african economy iv: employment, 2010). together with structural change, new products, technology and workplace arrangements cause a change in skills needs. these skills, according to richardson (2007, p. 9), are specific to occupations and take years to acquire. this explains the ongoing concern in south african business and policy circles about the ‘skills shortage’. however, according to manuel (2009), issues like education and skills training, as well as what the government does about them, will determine whether the country will sustain a growth of 6% by 2010. the country can only achieve this with an educated and efficient workforce. emigration another worrying factor in south africa is the role of emigration in the skills crisis. according to the cde (2010), south africa is suffering a debilitating skills shortage. its own skills production system is grossly inefficient and skilled people have been leaving the country at an alarming rate. this worsens the situation. from this literature research, it is clear that south africa needs to reform its migration policies urgently. south africa needs to reform other elements of its migration system as well. in particular, it needs to introduce changes to the way it implements these policies and systems. the problem is not a new one. official figures for 2001 indicate that south africa lost six times more professionals and technicians than it gained. south africa has lost approximately 20% of its skills through emigration. in addition, 70% of skilled south africans consider emigrating (cde, 2002, p. 5). white skilled professionals are the majority of those who leave the country. however, there are also black people who do. however, because of the country’s history, skills are concentrated in the white population. in 1997 alone, the emigration of skilled professionals cost the government about r68 billion of investment in human capital because of the loss of skilled south africans. bhorat et al. (2002, p. 4) believe that this huge loss of skills is very worrying. furthermore, statistics from south african sources do not reflect this ‘brain drain’ accurately. however, immigration statistics from foreign countries do reflect the size of the problem (van rooyen, 2000, p. 26–29). the reasons for inaccurate emigration statistics include: • emigrants not completing forms at south african airports to avoid complications if they decide to return • the travel allowance of r500 000 does not mean they must emigrate officially • younger skilled workers do not have large amounts of money and official emigration does not concern them (mitchell, 2003). there are various reasons why these skilled people emigrate. the push factors include crime, employment equity, poor working conditions, poor service delivery, high living costs, declining education standards, an unfriendly business environment, low-income levels and political events. affirmative action is a large concern of white people (mattes & richmond, 2000; rogerson & rogerson, 2000). many white south africans have left their country because of affirmative action to seek greener pastures (ramphele, 2008, p. 19). according to rogerson and rogerson (2000, p. 49), 74% of the people who emigrated were unhappy with the level of taxation, 68% were concerned with family safety and security and 71% were unhappy with living costs. according to bezuidenhout et al. (2009), the migration of doctors from their home countries is not a new phenomenon. apart from voluntary migration for various reasons, developed countries actively recruit medical professionals, often from sub-saharan africa. doctors in south africa are valued for the high standard of training they receive locally, a quality which makes them prime candidates for employment. various factors are involved in the push-pull theory of migration. it has, however, been reported extensively that the push factors usually play a much greater role in doctors’ decision to leave their countries of origin than do pull factors in the host, or recipient, country. the push factors that motivate migration most frequently include dissatisfaction with remuneration packages and working conditions, high levels of crime and violence, political instability, lack of future prospects, the human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (aids) as well as declining education standards. in addition to a depletion of intellectual resources through the loss of highly qualified and skilled people, countries also face substantial financial problems that the migration of doctors causes. a government subsidy of medical students’ training could be a lost investment when young graduates seek permanent employment abroad. the major pull factors are the positive factors that attract people to another country (mattes & richmond, 2000, p. 32). they include attractive salary packages, early retirement in the education sector, opportunities to gain international work experience, improved lifestyles and various career choices (du plessis, 2009; rogerson & rogerson, 2000). hiv and aids south africa is experiencing the largest hiv and aids epidemic in the world. an estimated 5.6 million south africans were hiv positive in 2008, one of the largest numbers of hiv positive people of any country in the world (provincial hiv/aids statistics, 2008). almost one in five south africans between the ages of 20 and 64 is hiv positive (solomon, 2006, p. 14). increased attrition rates because of hiv and aids are going to affect the country adversely in the 21st century by diminishing the future skills pool (mitchell, 2003). according to maritz (2002, p. 2), people from all walks of life are affected. loss of professionals, like engineers, doctors, managers, teachers and lawyers affects service and delivery. table 3 gives the effect of a no-aids scenario compared to an aids scenario on the labour force. table 3: projected changes in the size of the labour force for the 2000–2015 period. whilst the hiv and aids epidemic is affecting people of working age mostly, the number of orphans is increasing as many of them are leaving school to take care of their younger siblings. the social grants they receive from the government partly make this possible. crime according to bheki (2009), the high crime rate is also costing south africa much in loss of lives, revenue and skills. therefore, it makes no sense for the commissioner of police, bheki cele, to support a moratorium on releasing crime statistics (bheki, 2009) instead of making them public and making every attempt to enlist support to reduce crime rapidly. he offers the reasons that follow for the moratorium: • criminals use the statistics for their own purposes; if not released the police will be able to handle criminal incidents better • crime statistics in certain countries are released at particular intervals and not all the time • the statistics would be used for political mudslinging. in addition, maritz (2002, p. 3) states that the financial costs incurred through crime are extensive. it costs approximately r250 000 to replace a skilled worker in south africa. furthermore, the world bank investment climate survey for 2006 indicates that the average cost of crime for companies in the formal sector is actually 1.1% of sales, 3% of net value added, and 5% of labour costs (world bank, 2006). these figures negatively influence investments from large international companies. according to mcdonald (2008), a study of small businesses showed that at least half of the companies had experienced a crime-related incident in the past year. apart from business-related crime incidents, an average of 25 000 people are murdered each year in the country (south african emigration, 2003). this affects the functioning of certain sectors and decreases the skills pool. the psychological effects of crime are additional concerns. du preez (2002) and du toit and van tonder (2009) confirm the views of other researchers who state that crime is a major reason that skilled workers emigrate. according to bailey (2003, p. 249), countries with extensive skills reserves have many advantages. they handle the challenges and opportunities of globalisation easily. this is primarily because their workforce is better equipped to work with new technologies and equipment. bailey (2003, p. 249) adds that another factor that makes these countries successful is that they are the main benefactors of skills migration as they have expansive skills immigration policies for highly skilled professionals. these countries have long understood the benefits of encouraging skilled immigration. it can serve as short-term solution and add value to the economy. it becomes increasingly clear that south africa has to turn to importing skills as one short-term to medium-term solution to address the inadequacies in various sectors. findings (back to top) the skills shortage has a widespread effect on sa. it affects the level of economic productivity and reduces the country’s capacity to develop a knowledge society. this, in turn, affects the country’s functioning in the global economy (glass & choy, 2001; kaplan, meyer & brown, 1999). furthermore, the loss of highly skilled workers through emigration ‘would deplete the source country’s level of human capital and thus reduce the capacity of that country to achieve as much technological progress as other economies’ (glass & choy, 2001, p. 9). the article discusses a number of major effects. effect one: the world cup according to mckechnie (2008), with the fédération internationale de football association (fifa) 2010 world cup, the shortage of engineers, quantity surveyors, technicians and architects in the construction industry placed great pressure on infrastructural growth. there is a shortage of engineers in this country. seven hundred engineers join the economy every year from universities. by 2010 the need was about 11 000. this means that we needed 16 times more engineers than we had (mackenzie-hoy, 2008). effect two: eskom according to pickworth (2008), eskom needs to realise that the electricity crisis is ‘their problem’ and that the government must intervene and introduce expensive solutions like power buy-backs or paying for generators. eskom is set to impose a 34% hike in electricity tariffs, smaller than the 88% increase it had been considering. eskom revised its increase because of the global economic slowdown. the inadequacies in the present education system, together with the poor results in mathematics and science, are definitely not helping. furthermore, the apprenticeship system is underutilised. the levels of artisan training have dropped from about 300 000 registered artisan apprentices in 1975 to an estimated 3000 in 2006 – a ten-fold drop. effect three: the mining industry according to macartney (2008), in an ernst and young report, the international mining industry is also facing critical labour shortages at all levels. approximately a third of south africa’s engineers have left the country. according to the engineering council of south africa (ecsa), approximately 300 qualified engineers leave south africa every year (ecsa, 2007). these figures are based only on engineers who are registered with ecsa. this growing labour shortage has become a significant threat to the industry because engineers fill a large segment of senior positions in the south african mining environment. when these engineers emigrate, it is a setback to the mining sector (swart, 2009, p.1). problems with retaining skilled mining staff, combined with insufficient new graduates and an aging workforce, are affecting the south african industry. according to macartney (2008), the massive demand in the resources and construction sectors exacerbate these problems. this poses a threat to the mining industry as it also faces competition from other industries for engineers and other skilled staff. as was evident in the construction industry, apprenticeships in the mining industry have also been neglected recently. apprenticeship programmes that eskom and iscor offered helped to supply skills (macartney, 2008). effect four: global competitiveness it is clear that skills shortages are affecting the economic growth of the country and limiting its level of global participation. according to the global competitiveness report (2008/2009), south africa’s world competitiveness ranking is 45th of 134 countries. smaller countries, like bahrain and lithuania, are more competitive than south africa. consequently, south africa is unable to secure the direct foreign investment necessary to drive the country forward economically. effect five: unemployment at present, south africa has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world. it is largely concentrated in the young and unskilled black population. this situation affects the economy and the stability of the whole country (rodrik, 2006, p. 2). the high unemployment rate increases poverty and leads to higher crime levels. discussion (back to top) the main objectives of the study were to identify the nature, extent and effect of the skills shortages on the economy as well as to determine the implications of the skills shortages for immigration policy. the findings and results of the literature study show that the researchers achieved their objectives. it is clear that south africa is losing a considerable percentage of its highly skilled and skilled workers to the global economy. this situation will retard south africa’s participation in the competitive global field. the education system is not moving quickly enough to replenish these shortages whilst hiv, aids and crime are issues that also need urgent solutions. whilst the country and the government need time to put their plans and policies on immigration and skills development in order, the country would welcome a short-term to medium-term solution to its skills shortages. there are several possible ways of alleviating the skills shortages. they include, amongst others: • reviewing labour market policy as enunciated in some labour acts and codes of good practice • improving education and training by reviewing school curricula and the role of the sector education and training authorities • improving industrial policy • developing a more robust skills immigration policy. the government, business organisations and labour unions should address the immigration issue to move the country forward. president mbeki, in his state of the nation speech in 2001, also supported the need for skilled immigration. the harvard group (2008) and boswell, stiller and straubhaar (2004) recommended importing highly skilled people to ease the skills shortages. the guiding principle should be to allow the entry of people who have the necessary skills and experience to earn a living, be tax contributors and consumers of the goods and services the country provides. evidence suggests that skilled immigrants contribute to economic growth, create jobs and reduce the costs of worker training (cde, 2007a, p. 46). one qualified immigrant teacher of mathematics or science can actually ‘create’ many jobs. finally, opening the doors to highly skilled immigrants could supplement the skills pool and contribute to the economic growth of the country (van aardt, 2009, p. 144). limitations of the study and suggestions for future research a serious limitation in this study was to include research on the economic meltdown and its influence on migration patterns. south africans, especially those in britain, find it increasingly difficult to find jobs and job security in an economy that the global economic crisis hit hard. it seems that it is less favourable to emigrate than before the crisis. another limitation was the availability of trustworthy statistics for migration in general and for emigration in particular. sources are either old or for regions other than south africa. therefore, the extensive literature search was necessary. future research on immigration and emigration, and the problems this article discussed, can focus on the large and important economies like britain and america. many of the ‘poorer’ economies are likely to lose skilled people to these countries. this can include matters like growth, unemployment and inflation. a study on migration patterns in southern africa can yield answers to specific problems for this region, such as the reasons for immigration and emigration. summary it is clear from the literature research that south africa is experiencing a high shortage of skills. factors like poor education standards, structural changes in the economy, emigration and crime are amongst the factors that contribute to this skills crisis. furthermore, poor labour market information systems and outmoded occupational forecasting models exacerbate the skills shortages. an example is the recent controversy about the release of labour force data for the last quarter of 2008. the data showed declining unemployment and a contracting economy. the country needs to find solutions to overcome the skills shortages for the immediate to short term as well as the medium to long term. this will enable the country to strive towards higher economic growth and global competitiveness. acknowledgements (back to top) authors’ contributions fatima rasool is a phd student enrolled at the north west university in south africa. her study focuses on the immigration policy of the country and she wants to contribute to job creation with this research. christoff botha is an industrial sociologist and full time lecturer at the potchefstroom business school of the north west university in south africa. his passion for human resources stretches over a period of more than 20 years. references (back to top) akoojee, s., mcgrath, s., & visser, m. (2008). further education and training colleges. in a. kraak & k. press (eds.), human resources development review 2008: education, employment and skills in south africa, (pp. 254–277). cape town: hsrc press. anderson, b. (17 april 2008). dire skills gap. finweek, p. 81. arrow, k.j., & capron, w.m. (1959). dynamic shortages and price rises: the engineer-scientist case. quarterly journal of economics, 73, 292–308. doi:10.2307/1883726 asgisa, a. (2006). deputy president briefing on accelerated and shared growth initiative. retrieved february 06, 2006, from www.pmg.org.za/briefings/briefings.php?id=246 bailey, t. (2003). skills migration. human resources development review. cape town: hsrc press. barker, f. (2003). the south african labour market. pretoria: van schaik. barnow, s., trutko, j., & robert, l. (1998). skill mismatches and worker shortages: the problem and appropriate responses. urban institute policy memorandum prepared for the us department of labor, washington dc. benjamin, c. (25 november 2008). poor education hampering sa growth effort. business day, p. 5. bezuidenhout, m.m., joubert, g., hiemstra, l.a., & struwig, m.c. (2009). reasons for doctor migration from south africa. sa fam pract, 51(3), 211–215. bheki, c. (2009). national commissioner of police, bheki cele seems to be wary of releasing crime statistics. retrieved august 10, 2009, from http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/talkback bhorat, h., meyer, j.b., & mlatsheni, c. (2002). skilled labour migration from developing countries: study on south and southern africa. international migration papers (52), international labour office, geneva. retrieved august 22, 2009, from http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/migrant/download/imp/imp52e.pdf bornman, e. (2005). emigrasie onder afrikaners vandag [emigration among afrikaners today]. tydskrif vir geesteswetenskappe, 45(3), 386–399. boswell, c., stiller, s., & straubhaar, t. (2004). forecasting labour and skills shortages: how can projections better inform labour migration policy? hamburg: hamburg institute of international economics (hwwa). centre for development and enterprise. (2002). south africa’s new immigration law: a salvageable instrument for economic growth? pretoria: cde. centre for development and enterprise. (2007a). doubling for growth: addressing the maths and science challenges in south africa’s schools. pretoria: cde. centre for development and enterprise. (2007b). the skills revolution: are we making progress? pretoria: cde. centre for development and enterprise. (2008). immigrants in johannesburg, estimating numbers and assessing impacts. pretoria: cde. centre for development and enterprise. (2010). much of sa’s maths and science potential still being wasted. retrieved march 25, 2011, from http://www.cde.org.za/article.php?a_id=381 clothing, textile, footwear and leather sector education and training authority (ctfl). (2006). sector skills plan. durban: ctfl seta. department of education, science and training (dest). (2002). nature and causes of skills shortages: reflections from the commonwealth national industry skills initiative working groups. department of employment and workplace relations. australia: australian government printers. department of labour. (2006/2007). state of skills in south africa. pretoria: government press. development policy research unit (dpru). (2007). skills shortages in south africa: key issues. dpru policy brief series. school of economics. cape town: university of cape town. du plessis, t.h. (2009). south african expatriates as potential entrepreneurs: an exploratory study. unpublished doctoral theses. potchefstroom: north-west university. du preez, j. (2002). the depletion of the human resources pool in south africa. acta commercii, 2002(2), 80–84. du toit, c., & van tonder, j. (2009). south africa’s economic performance since 1994: can we do better? in c. parsons (ed.), zumanomics, which way to shared prosperity in south africa? challenges for a new government. retrieved march 25, 2011, from http://www.clarkesbooks.co.za/assets/catalogues/catalogue120.html ellis, s. (2008). south africa and international migration: the role of skilled labour. in a.w. segatti, & l. landau (eds.), migration in post-apartheid south africa: challenges and questions to policy makers. retrieved march 25, 2011, from http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/19182/ engineering council of south africa (ecsa). (2007). annual report 2006–2007. retrieved august 14, 2009, from www.ecsa.co.za/documents/080306_2006_2007_annual_report.pdf glass, h., & choy, w.k. (2001). brain drain or brain exchange? treasury working papers 01/22. auckland: crown. global competitiveness report. (2008/2009). retrieved september 21, 2009, from http://www.weforum.org/gcr gordhan, p. (2011). south african budget. retrieved march 25, 2011, from http://www.oldmutual.co.za/documents/budgetspeech/2011/budgethighlights.pdf harvard group. (2008). final recommendations of the international panel on growth, south africa. retrieved may 11, 2009, from www.treasury.gov.za hofmeyr, j., & buckland, p. (october 1992). the governance of education in south africa. paper presented at the meeting of nepi planning, systems and structure research group. cape town: government printers. human science research council. (2002–2004). hemis study. pretoria: government printers. immigration statistics. (2011). immigration statistics: net migration rate (most recent) by country. retrieved march 25, 2011, from http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/imm_net_mig_rat-immigration-net-migration-rate joint initiative on priority skills acquisition (jipsa) and accelerated shared growth initiative for south africa (asgisa) annual reports. (2011). accelerated and shared growth initiative for south africa (asgisa). retrieved march 25, 2011, from http://www.info.gov.za/asgisa/ kaplan, d., meyer, j.b., & brown, m. (1999). brain drain, new data: new options. trade and industry monitor. retrieved november 13, 2009, from www.queensu.ca/samp/migrationresources/braindrain/documents/bailey.pdf kraak, a. (2004). an overview of south african human resources development. cape town: hsrc. kraak, a. (2008). the education-economy relationship in south africa, 2001–2005. human resources development review. cape town: hsrc. labour force survey. (2005). statistics south africa labour force survey. retrieved july 12, 2009, from http://www.statssa.gov.za mackenzie-hoy, t. (2008). tackling shortage of engineers. retrieved march 25, 2011, from http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/tackling-shortage-of-engineers-2008-06-06 macartney, a. (2008). skills shortage in the international mining industry now at critical levels. johannesburg: ernst and young. manuel, t. (2009). the budget speech. retrieved march 25, 2011, from http://www.treasury.gov.za/documents/national%20budget/2011/speech/speech2011.pdf maritz, g. (2002). impacts of hiv/aids for business organizations: a strategic management approach. unpublished master’s theses. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. mattes, r., & richmond, w. (2000). the brain drain: what do skilled south africans think? in j. crush (ed.), losing our minds: skills migration and the south african brain drain. retrieved march 25, 2011, from http://www.sarpn.org.za/eventpapers/april2002_imp/campbell/campbell.pdf mccord, a., & bhorat, h. (2003). overview of the south african economy. human resources development review. cape town: hsrc. mcdonald, a.d., & crush, j. (2002). destinations unknown: perspectives on the brain drain in southern africa. pretoria: africa institute of south africa. mcdonald, k. (2008). the impact of crime on small businesses in south africa. a study commissioned by the presidency of south africa, july 2008, sbp, south africa. retrieved may 20, 2009, from http://www.sbp.org.za mckechnie, i. (2008). engineering shortage causes havoc. engineering news. retrieved august 26, 2008, from www.engineeringnews.co.za mitchell, j. (2003). white exodus out of south africa. retrieved june 10, 2009, from http://www.southafricanemigration.com/reviews.htm news 24. (2011). power crisis. retrieved march 25, 2011, from http://www.news24.com/southafrica/powercrisis nzimande, b. (august 2009). the post school education and training system: some issues of policy. paper presented at the open forum of the minister of higher education and training. durban, south africa. pandor, n. (2008). untitled public address. paper presented at the foundation phase conference. retrieved april 23, 2009, from http://www.search.gov.za pickworth, e. (2008). power crisis escom’s problem. retrieved march 25, 2011, from http://www.fin24.com/economy/power-crisis-eskoms-problem-20080121 provincial hiv/aids statistics. (2008). south african institute of race relations: south africa survey. retrieved may 19, 2009, from http://www.sairr.org.za/research-and-publications/the-south-africa-survey ramphele, m. (31 august 2008). job equity needs a lot of work. sunday times, p. 19. ramphele, m. (18 january 2009). another generation betrayed. sunday times, p. 19. ray, m. (11 june 2009). blade runner. finweek, p. 11. republic of south africa. (1995). the south african qualifications authority act no.58 of 1995. pretoria: government printer. republic of south africa. (1998). skills development act no. 98 of 1999. pretoria: government printer. richardson, s. (2007). what is a skill shortage? national institute of labour studies. adelaide: flinders university. rodrik, d. (august 2006). understanding south africa’s economic puzzles. working paper 130. centre for international development. boston: harvard university. rogerson, c.m., & rogerson, j.m. (2000). dealing in scarce skills: employer responses to the brain drain. in j. crush (ed.), losing our minds: skills migration and the south african brain drain. retrieved march 25, 2011, from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/iders%3a+nationalism,+globalization+and+the+south+african...-a094337334 seaman, c.h. (1987). research methods: principles, practices and theory of nursing. new york: appleton and lange. shah, c., & burke, g. (november 2003). skill shortages: concept measurement and implications. working paper 52. department of employment and workplace relations (dewr). melbourne: centre for the economics of education and training. solomon, h. (2006). why cosatu has got it wrong. cips electronic briefing paper 41. centre for international political studies. pretoria: university of pretoria. south african advertising research foundation. (2008). all media and product survey. johannesburg: saarf. south african emigration. (2003). general statistics on south african emigration. retrieved may 04, 2009, from http://www.southafricanemigration.com/did-you-know.htm south african emigration. (2003). general statistics on south african emigration — why people leave sa. retrieved may 04, 2009, from http://www.southafricanemigration.com/why-emigrate.htm south africa migration international. (2011). visas and permits for south africa. retrieved march 25, 2011, from http://www.sami.co.za/quota.htm south african reserve bank (sarb). (2008). quarterly bulletin, pretoria. retrieved march 25, 2011, from http://www.resbank.co.za/lists/news%20and%20publications/attachments/4066/full%20quarterly%20bulletin.pdf south african reserve bank (sarb). (2011). quarterly bulletin, pretoria. retrieved march 25, 2011, from www.resbank.co.za statistics south africa. (june 2008). quarterly employment statistics. pretoria: statistics south africa. swart, j.h. (2009). potential emigration of engineers in a large mining organisation: an exploratory study. unpublished master’s theses. potchefstroom: north-west university. the maths and science performance of south africa’s public schools. (2010). the maths and science performance of south africa’s public schools. some lessons from the past decade. retrieved april 18, 2011, from http://www.cde.org.za/article.php?a_id=380 the south african civil society information service (sacsis). (2009). immigration’s contributions to south africa’s development: is it a good thing? retrieved october 12, 2009, from www.sacsis.org.za the_south_african_economy_iv:_employment. (2010). your online encyclopedia. retrieved march 25, 2011, from http://myfundi.co.za/e/the_south_african_economy_iv:_employment trendle, b. (2008). skill and labour shortages — definition, cause and implications. working paper 54. labour market research unit. queensland: queensland government press. van aardt, c. (2009). labour policy and job creation: too many holy cows? in c. parsons (ed.), zumanomics. which way to shared prosperity in south africa? challenges for a new government. retrieved march 25, 2011, from https://my.unisa.ac.za/portal/tool/2cdf766e-b24b-4879-8032-d3ea5dbefe3a/contents/faculties/ems/docs/cfvi_report.pdf van rooyen, j. (2000). the new great trek: the story of south africa’s white exodus. pretoria: unisa press. vass, j. (2003). the impact of hiv/aids, in human resources development review. education, employment and skills in south africa. cape town: hsrc. world bank. (2006). an assessment of the investment climate. report 34907. retrieved march 09, 2009, from http://go.worldbank.org 2011 budget speech. (2011). the budget speech. retrieved march 25, 2011, from http://www.treasury.gov.za/documents/national%20budget/2011/speech/speech2011.pdf article information author: johann louw1 affiliation: 1department of psychology, university of cape town, south africa correspondence to: johann louw postal address: department of psychology, university of cape town, rondebosch 7701, south africa dates: received: 05 oct. 2011 accepted: 30 jan. 2012 published: 13 july 2012 how to cite this article: louw, j. (2012). programme evaluation: can it improve human resource management practice? sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(3), art. #428, 5 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i3.428 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. programme evaluation: can it improve human resource management practice? in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • current theoretical perspectives: a theory-based approach    • best practices    • not reinventing the wheel    • educating practitioners to think evaluatively    • the evidence base for human resource interventions    • evaluation as a planning tool    • evaluation as a transdiscipline • acknowledgements    • competing interests • references abstract top ↑ orientation: this is the final article in the special edition on human resource (hr) programmes and evaluation. its starting point is that programme evaluation is the application of a wide range of social science research methods that provide credible information about the need, use, planning, effectiveness and cost of a programme. research purpose: the purpose of this article is to review the other articles in this volume, and to draw out general conclusions about their contributions to knowledge in the field. motivation for the study: if evaluations are undertaken in the hr domain in south africa, they remain mostly unpublished, and thus cannot contribute to a knowledge base for the field. research design, approach and method: this article provides a theory-based approach to programme evaluation. the seven articles were analysed in terms of two major functions of programme evaluation, namely to ask ‘how does a programme work?’, and ‘does it work?‘ main findings: eight overarching themes are identified in the articles included in this volume. practical/managerial implications: the evidence discussed here can be used to make better decisions, promote organisational learning, improve practice, and enhance employee wellbeing. contribution/value-add: the main contribution of this concluding article is its argument that research and theory in this field can enhance the work of hr professionals, by providing evidence about how ‘good’ a programme is, and why it is good. this adds substantial value in a world characterised by accountability and evidence-based practice. introduction top ↑ evaluations in the corporate sector are seldom made public. reports of studies about the effectiveness of training programmes, mentoring and coaching exercises, employee wellness interventions, leadership development, and other interventions, more often than not remain in-house, and are not accessible to others outside the organisations that commissioned the studies. as a result, it is difficult to develop a knowledge base about these interventions. without access to findings about them, it is impossible to synthesise or accumulate knowledge about good practices, dependable relationships, or strong effects. this volume, as the first collection of evaluations of human resource (hr) programmes in south africa, is a major step to improve practice through evaluation. in this article i provide a critical reflection about the articles contained in this volume, identify common themes, and draw out potential contributions to human resource management. the value of this special edition lies in: • collecting these evaluations in a single volume for readers, that covers an area in which little evaluation has been undertaken • containing user-friendly examples of how to go about evaluating hr programmes • showing the variety of evaluation methods that can be used for evaluating hr programmes • exhibiting the first examples of theory-driven evaluations in hr. as a result of reading these articles with contemporary programme evaluation knowledge in mind, at least seven themes stand out: • the authors follow a common approach (programme theory-driven evaluation), and this strengthens the usefulness of their work. • all of the articles include careful consideration of programme activities, and this creates the possibility of getting to best practices. • literature (or research) reviews enable practitioners to accumulate practical knowledge of programmes. • human resource practitioners are not familiar with thinking in evaluation terms, and studies like these could make useful contributions to change this, and to provoke practitioners to think evaluatively. • the evidence base for selecting specific hr interventions is generally quite low. • programme evaluation can play a significant role in planning hr interventions, and this is not sufficiently recognised in the field. • as a transdiscipline, programme evaluation can enrich applied fields such as hr practice. in the rest of this article i will expand on these themes, and argue more generally that programme evaluation reports of hr interventions, as described in the articles, can play a significant role in the improvement of practices in the field. current theoretical perspectives: a theory-based approach the strength of all the studies included in this volume is that they stick to a programme theory-driven approach. chen (1990, p. 415) gave a straightforward description of what programme theory is: ‘... a set of implicit or explicit assumptions of how the program should be organized and why the program is expected to work.’ rossi, lipsey and freeman (2004) expanded on these two aspects: what chen calls programme organisation they call process theory. this includes all aspects of the implementation of the programme: its target population; how these individuals will be reached; how they interact with the programme facilities, personnel, administration, facilities; and other aspects of implementation. the second aspect of chen’s definition is the programme’s impact theory. for rossi et al. (2004): the cause and effect sequence maps the proximal and distal outcomes of the programme’s desired ends.the authors in this edition generally follow donaldson (2007), who gave detailed accounts of the complexities and challenges of systematically following a particular approach to evaluations in the real world. thus, this volume, in a sense, is an hr companion to donaldson’s more general work, and fills the gap in our understanding about what happens in evaluation practice in this field. (it might be more accurate to say ‘what could happen’, because these practices are far from routine in the field, as the studies show). the importance and usefulness of a theory-based approach to human resource programme evaluation are clear from these articles. for a start, they all emphasise how important it is simply to describe the intended activities (process) and desired outcomes (impact). in many of the programmes an explicit programme description was not present, and therefore it was difficult to know what was supposed to happen in the programme. in the contribution by hendricks and louw-potgieter (this edition), for example, they show how a modest programme theory led to the development of sparse programme activities, which did not produce the outcomes envisaged by the programme manager. they re-direct programme planners to develop a more plausible programme theory and to extend programme activities to establish the link between intended outcomes. in most cases programmes gave very little attention to outcomes, and if they did, it was to relatively short-term outcomes (see rundare & goodman, in this edition). brinkerhoff (2003) has correctly identified longer-range outcomes in human resource as higher-level business goals, often referred to as strategic goals or objectives. if hr professionals could show how their activities are connected to these overall business needs, via programme theory building, we believe their work will be better integrated with what the rest of the organisation is trying to achieve. the article by field and louw (this edition) provides a more extensive list of reasons why programme theory-driven evaluation is useful, as well as some arguments by critics of this approach. the authors follow the best advice on how to extract programme theory, which is namely to engage and interact with programme stakeholders first (rossi et al., 2004, p. 162). in some instances this is all that they had to go on, as other sources of information about programme theory were non-existent (programme documents and records), or impossible to implement (site visits and observation). however, as i will discuss below, an important further step is to link the emerging programme theory to what is known about the topic in the literature, and in this the authors followed many of the good practices suggested by donaldson (2007). a further major benefit of describing and systematising the programme in this manner is that it creates (or encourages) consensus amongst the stakeholders. over time programme planners, staff members, management, and funders may drift apart in their understanding of how the programme is supposed to work, and this exercise brings them together again (for example, in some cases different stakeholders, in fact, were never in agreement about what the programme is supposed to accomplish). engaging different stakeholders also enables them to participate meaningfully in the evaluation itself, and increases the chances that the evaluation results will be used by the organisation. stakeholders, such as programme planners and managers, together with programme documentation, are important sources of programme theory. another source, of course, is social science theories and research, and quite a few authors used the social science literature to ask questions about the programme theory. they asked, for instance, ‘given the programme-as-designed, what does the literature tell us about the plausibility of this programme achieving its intended outcomes?’ this is a further illustration of the usefulness of taking the existing literature seriously and, in all instances, where the plausibility question was raised, the authors’ considerations were useful to the programme. the strength of social science research is that much of it exists in the hr and organisational psychology literature. if programme managers engage more with this research (or employ contractors to show them what the research says), they could generate plausible programme theories and design effective programme activities based on such theories. thus, programme theory-based evaluation, in donaldson’s (2007, p. 10) terms, is a versatile programme evaluation approach that has been used successfully to develop and improve programmes, aid decision-making, facilitate organisational learning, create new knowledge, and meet transparency and accountability needs. best practices a few evaluations in the present edition went one step further than just elucidating programme theory, in that they compared the programme as intended (theory) to the programme as delivered (for instance, buys & louw; salie & schlechter, in this edition). in other words, they added an implementation component to the evaluation, namely how the programme actually works. thus, some of them could show where implementation steps were missing, weakly implemented, or even wrongly conceptualised. as a result, all of the evaluations paid much attention to programme activities. this, at first glance, may seem rather obvious, but programmes are often remarkably vague about which activities constitute a programme. thus, the simple exercise followed by the present authors, of constructing programme process theory by asking questions about programme activities and resources, clarified matters for the relevant stakeholders. there is, however, a more important motivation for focusing on these aspects of a programme. ideally we would like to determine the activities that make up good practice in a field of study. for example, which activities should be included in training programmes or performance management programmes? in addition, we would like to know about the requirements for implementation, how the programme activities should be delivered (and aligned) to maximise chances of having an effect. joseph, emmett and louw-potgieter (this edition) for example used an implementation evaluation to show how a pay-for-pe rformance programme had little effect because of its flawed implementation. these authors were able to extract the essential variables for the successful implementation of such a programme. not reinventing the wheel the potential benefits of carefully considering existing knowledge in a field are obvious, and this reflects the importance of reviewing the literature. programme evaluators often focus on a slightly different knowledge base to hr professionals, and look for indications of effectiveness rather than instructions on how to perform things. all the articles in this volume include literature reviews that were narrowly focused on what the existing knowledge base can tell hr practitioners about what works for whom and under which circumstances.brinkerhoff and montesino (1995), for example, identified low rates of transfer from corporate education to the work environment as a major factor that limits the effectiveness of training. this, in itself, is a major finding from the literature, the knowledge of which will assist the training department to increase the effectiveness of training programmes. however, the literature is even more useful in this regard: it spells out what the factors are that encourage the transfer of training. these include the alignment of training programmes with the strategic direction of the organisation; the degree of connection between training professionals, the trainees themselves, and line managers of the trainees; and attention to the phases before and after the training. therefore, instead of focusing so closely on the design and delivery of learning interventions, these authors argue that training professionals can increase the effectiveness of the training by attending to issues of the transfer of training. beets and goodman, and rundare and goodman (this edition) are cases in point. literature (or research) reviews enable us to accumulate knowledge about what works in a field, and how and why it works. the information we have about hr interventions is too often of a piecemeal nature, difficult to collect and even more difficult to integrate. the publication of these studies is a significant step to counteract this tendency, and to promote the accumulation of practical knowledge. educating practitioners to think evaluatively the experience of all the authors in conducting these studies was that hr people were not used to evaluations. in two rather extreme instances it even extended to the extent that data were not made available to evaluators, despite undertakings to the contrary (for instance field & louw; salie & schlechter, this edition). it is reasonable to expect some form of anxiety when programmes are evaluated, and it might be that a few programme managers were excessively anxious about this. hopefully, this reaction will abate as hr stakeholders and programme managers become more familiar with evaluation, perhaps simply through participating in evaluation. this is often referred to as process use, ‘… cognitive, behavioral, program, and other organizational changes resulting, either directly or indirectly, from engagement in the evaluation process and learning to think evaluatively …’ (patton, 2008, p. 108). patton identified some of the positive consequences of this, for example: • the organisation’s culture becomes infused with evaluative thinking • there are enhanced shared understandings about the programme’s model and expected outcomes • the intervention is supported and reinforced • other additional consequences. in addition, evaluators working in the south african hr field may have to plan quite specifically to reduce extreme evaluation anxiety. donaldson, gooler and scriven (2002) identified a number of signs that indicate possible excessive evaluation anxiety: • accusing evaluators of hidden agendas • avoiding or refusing to work with evaluators • stalling to use evaluation results • amongst others signs. in addition, these authors provide a number of useful strategies to deal with this, such as expecting and accepting it right from the start, providing balanced continuous feedback for improvement, and providing role clarification on an ongoing basis. the lack of monitoring data for evaluation is evident in almost all of these programmes. because of this, almost all evaluators had to collect post hoc data and stay with formative or implementation evaluations. frequently, the evaluators were in fact responsible for collating this information in a meaningful way, and the impression remained that not much would have been undertaken with it were it not for the evaluation. as a result, feedback, in the organisation about the programme, is often unsystematic and haphazard. it leaves very little room to make recommendations about improving, for example, the number, type, timing, and presentation of programme activities. in other words, feedback is given on the basis of hunches or impressions, whilst we have argued that it is best based on what the literature says and findings from the evaluation. programme staff must be convinced of the importance of keeping accurate records – for their internal evaluation, if for nothing else. the focus on programme theory in an evaluation draws attention to programme outcomes. given the unsettled nature of the programmes included in this volume, no outcome evaluations were conducted (although a few evaluations used proximal outcomes – like buys & louw; beets & goodman, this edition). we have seen no evaluations of long-term outcomes and, despite our limited exposure to hr interventions in this volume, we see little evidence that this will materialise in the hr field in the near future. the evidence base for human resource interventions reading through the articles, one cannot help but wonder: on what grounds were these hr interventions introduced in the organisations concerned? and, based on what evidence were decisions made to continue or discontinue the interventions? almost all of the authors commented on some or all of the following: • the absence of a clear problem definition, • a conceptualisation of programmes and what it could do • systematic data on implementation • the specific outcomes that could be taken as an indication of success of the programme. in other words, in a world that increasingly values evidence-based decision-making, these cases cast doubt on the quality of information about south african hr practice. there is at least one international study that would strengthen this impression. proudfoot consulting (2008) found that south african companies train their personnel more extensively than their international counterparts, but do very little to find out whether or not the training is in any way useful. there is no need to make the case here for evidence-based management, but one has to ask, if business decisions are not based on empirical evidence, what then drives these decisions? is it: • conventional wisdom? • assumptions about the right decisions? • copying what seems to work for other organisations? • management fads? • quick fixes based on success stories from management gurus? whatever the case might be, these articles ask hr practitioners and management to pause and consider the evidence for introducing or continuing with a programme. for example, when a training programme is introduced, what evidence is there that it is the best answer to a well-defined and understood problem in the organisation? which known alternatives were considered instead of training? training normally assumes that poor performance is the result of a lack of knowledge, skills, or attitudes – but what if the problem is one of low intrinsic motivation, which would perhaps require a job enrichment scheme to improve performance? it is sometimes said that programme evaluators ask programme staff to hit the ‘pause’ button; to stop and consider what is being undertaken in response to a perceived problem. this is possibly the less obvious lesson to be learned from these empirical studies. evaluation as a planning tool in all of the programmes discussed in the previous articles, evaluation was introduced at some time into the life of the programme. this is probably the default option, not just in hr interventions, but also in programmes of all types. almost all introductory textbooks on programme evaluation (e.g. rossi et al., 2004), however, argue for evaluators to become involved in a programme much earlier in its life cycle. thus, evaluation is of significant value in terms of designing and delivering a programme rather than as an activity that kicks in halfway through delivery of the programme, or only at its end. in other words, evaluation can also be a prospective activity, to be used as a planning tool, and not just as an activity that comes at the end of the process. when designing a programme, for example, a programme evaluator can assist programme planners to think through the problem that the programme is supposed to address and consider: • the elements that should be included • the way in which the activities should be delivered • what can be expected to change after a specified period of time • other related problems. field and louw (this edition) illustrated this well in their recommendations regarding design and implementation of a wellness programme. evaluation as a transdiscipline evaluation is increasingly regarded as a transdiscipline, and one ‘that has standalone status as a discipline and is also used as a methodological or analytical tool in several other disciplines’ (scriven, 2008, p. 65, emphasis in original). in an earlier piece, scriven argued that these ’… disciplines are notable because they supply essential tools for other disciplines, while retaining an autonomous structure and research effort of their own‘ (2003, p. 19).the articles in the present edition, firstly, showcase knowledge, skills and methods that are specific to the discipline of evaluation. secondly, and more importantly, they show how the research and theory of this field can enhance the work of hr professionals, by providing evidence about how ‘good’ a programme is as well as why it is good. in a corporate environment, characterised by accountability and evidence-based practice, this is a substantial value added to their work. such evidence can be used to make better decisions, promote organisational learning and effectiveness, improve practice, and enhance employee wellbeing (donaldson, 2007, p. 240). to paraphrase michael scriven’s (2003) thoughts about the possibilities of evaluation to enrich applied fields like hr: the human resources field will divide into the progressive, evaluation-enriched school, and the conservative, evaluation-impaired school. the evaluation enriched group … will become the winner in nearly all bids for resources and contracts aimed at separating solutions from non-solutions of corporate problems. the evaluation-impaired branch will gradually wither on the vine, with its aging adherents exchanging stories about the good old days. (pp. 19–20) acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this paper. references top ↑ brinkerhoff, r. (2003). the success case method. san francisco: berrett-koehler.brinkerhoff, r.o., & montesino, m.u. (1995). partnerships for training transfer: lessons from a corporate study. human resource development quarterly, 6(3), 263–274. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.3920060305 chen, h.t. (1990). theory-driven evaluations. newbury park, ca: sage. donaldson, s.i. (2007). program theory-driven evaluation science: strategies and applications. new york: lawrence erlbaum associates. donaldson, s., gooler, l., & scriven, m. (2002). strategies for evaluation anxiety: toward a psychology of program evaluation. american journal of evaluation, 23(3), 261–273. patton, m.q. (2008). utilization-focused evaluation. (edn.). los angeles: sage. proudfoot consulting. (2008). a world of unrealised opportunities. global productivity report. retrieved august 30, 2011, from www.alexanderproudfoot.com/workarea//downloadasset.aspx?id=254 rossi, p., lipsey, m.w., & freeman, h.e. (2004). evaluation. a systematic approach. (7th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. scriven, m. (2003). evaluation in the new millennium: the transdisciplinary vision. in s.i. donaldson & m. scriven (eds.), evaluating social programs and problems: visions for the new millennium, (pp. 19–42). mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. scriven, m. (2008). the concept of a transdiscipline: and of evaluation as a transdiscipline. journal of multidisciplinary evaluation, 5(10), 65–66. abstract introduction literature review methods result discussion acknowledgements references appendix about the author(s) andy andy department of hospital administration, faculty of economics and business, universitas pelita harapan, south jakarta, indonesia ferdi antonio department of hospital administration, faculty of economics and business, universitas pelita harapan, south jakarta, indonesia citation andy, a., & antonio, f. (2022). linking work engagement of emergency physicians to patient centricity in underdeveloped regions. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 20(0), a1971. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1971 original research linking work engagement of emergency physicians to patient centricity in underdeveloped regions andy andy, ferdi antonio received: 19 apr. 2022; accepted: 16 aug. 2022; published: 15 sept. 2022 copyright: © 2022. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: health facilities in underdeveloped regions present their challenges in terms of research, especially regarding the work engagement (we) of health workers, in this case, emergency physicians. adjustments to existing research models are needed to obtain accurate responses. patient centricity (pc) as a new term in healthcare is the estimated variable in this study. research purpose: this study aimed to examine the relationship between the antecedents of we and pc in emergency physicians who worked at hospitals in underdeveloped regions in indonesia, incorporating we as a mediator. motivation for the study: studies linking we to pc have never been established. furthermore, studies regarding we have never been carried out in underdeveloped regions, and most of them are only limited to job resources as a benchmark. research design/approach, and method: a quantitative survey was conducted through a purposive sampling technique to collect data from emergency physicians in hospitals in east nusa tenggara. there are 183 eligible respondents, whose responses were analysed through partial least squares structural equation modelling (pls-sem). main findings: the direct link to we was found to be predominated by physician autonomy and public service motivation. it was found that we positively and significantly connected to pc. the pls-predict resulted in large cross-validated redundancy for this model. practical/managerial implications: this study has implications for policymakers and hospital management in developing personal and job resources in optimising pc through we. contribution/value-add: this study will show a new approach where we can estimate pc, and this model can be replicated and tested in a larger population of physicians. keywords: work engagement; patient centricity; emergency physician; social exchange theory; pls-sem. introduction having underdeveloped regions is a challenge for a country, especially in the effort to distribute health services. insufficient resources, inappropriate allocations and suboptimal service quality are major obstacles to health services in underdeveloped regions. based on the world bank data (2022), lower-middle-income and lower-income countries account for most of the global burden of disease, but global spending on health is only 9.845%. in many developing countries, a lack of resources contributes to people’s difficulties in accessing health services. these resources can be in the form of infrastructure, funds and health workers. southeast asia is described as an area with a geographical position that becomes a major crossroads of trade, causing different health statuses in each country. unfortunately, indonesia as the largest country in southeast asia allocates a budget for the health of 2.905% of gross domestic product (gdp) in 2019 (the world bank, 2022), making it the second-lowest country. indonesia has a poor public health service system with only six doctors per 10 000 population (world health organization [who], 2020), which is still far from the who limit (1:1000). this can be an obstacle to the realisation of the sustainable development goals (sdgs). the lack of equitable distribution of the national health workforce contributes to this consequence. indonesia has 62 districts that are classified as underdeveloped regions based on presidential regulation of the republic of indonesia number 63 of 2020 concerning the determination of underdeveloped regions for 2020–2024 (kementerian sekretariat negara republik indonesia, 2020). east nusa tenggara is the province with the most underdeveloped districts in indonesia. however, there are still very few health workers living in this area. the focus of the authors in this regard is the high disengagement of physicians in underdeveloped regions, which often causes vacancies. moreover, there has been limited research that has explored the cause of physician disengagement, which can aggravate the inaccessibility of the community to health services (rabkin et al., 2019). work-related well-being has been widely studied as work engagement (we) (shanafelt et al., 2016). work engagement is characterised by a positive motivational state of well-being that involves high levels of energy, enthusiasm and dedication to one’s work. professionals who are passionate, dedicated and engaged in work will be proactive in achieving work goals and striving for excellence (salanova & schaufeli, 2008). the morale of the organisational workforce will determine its efficiency. behavioural and social science research shows that we and job performance are correlated. work engagement and morale among medical practitioners is a worldwide concern today. poor we leads to increased physician turnover, which negatively affects medical care job satisfaction (scheepers et al., 2017). consequently, by creating an environment that encourages job satisfaction, healthcare managers can develop motivated, productive and engaged physicians. this in turn will contribute to better quality patient care and patient satisfaction. efforts to improve the quality of health services cannot be separated from efforts to improve the quality and performance of all human resources (hr) and professionals in hospitals, and an important hr asset is the we of emergency physicians, because they are the gate for patients seeking treatment at the hospital; besides that, they have direct and earliest contact with patients, thus creating a first impression of the quality of hospital services (cooper et al., 2019). based on the personal interviews with seven emergency physicians at a private hospital in east nusa tenggara, several factors can be related to welfare such as health facilities, relationships with colleagues, income and promotion opportunities. moreover, practice in more than one hospital with variety regarding the number of patients and the duration of work reduces the physician’s punctuality to be present in service. they also admit that this affects their role in service, which can also be affected by their we. it is possible that from the results of the preliminary study, a temporary conclusion can be drawn that the we of the emergency physicians has not been fulfilled, resulting in patient dissatisfaction with the services provided. considering that we tends to have a strong influence on the performance of physicians as professionals in hospitals, it can be seen in productivity, late attendance and physician turnover rates (atingabili et al., 2021). research has been conducted in several countries with models designed in previous studies (hadi & hanif, 2022; rameshkumar, 2020; van & nafukho, 2020). however, most of these studies were conducted in nonmedical populations (davidescu et al., 2020; gawke et al., 2017; imran et al., 2020; vuong et al., 2021). most of the we studies conducted on health workers were still carried out in secondary and tertiary referral hospitals (mehta, 2020; petrovsky & ritz, 2014), so specifications related to the explanatory ability of this model were needed for the population of health workers in underdeveloped regions. moreover, most of them are only limited to job resources as a benchmark, and they rarely measure the personal resources of their employees, in this case, physicians (mehta, 2020). besides the effort to assess the we of emergency physicians, studies are needed to link this with their patient centricity (pc) – enabling patients to secure medical assistance according to the choice, time and place of need (ricca & antonio, 2021) – to improve patient safety and patient engagement. to explore the research gap, this study aims to examine the factors related to emergency physician we and how we relates to pc. the results of the analysis of this research model are expected to make a new contribution to confirming the we theory in the context of emergency services in underdeveloped regions. it is also hoped that managerial benefits can be found to increase the we of the emergency physician to improve the quality of hospital services. literature review social exchange theory the initial focus that gave rise to modelling in this study was the social exchange theory developed by homans in 1961. social exchange theory is a theory in social science that states that in social relationships, there are elements of reward, sacrifice and profit that interact. this theory explains how humans perceive relationships with each other based on their perceptions of (1) the balance between what is given in the relationship and what is excluded from the relationship; (2) the type of relationship that is carried out; (3) how humans relate to the society (between communities), where small groups are households and have better relationships with others (meira & hancer, 2021). social exchange theory includes the basic theory of rationality, more integrative exchange theory, network exchange theory and rational choice theory. although there are various modes of exchange, homans focused his studies on dyadic exchange (cropanzano & mitchell, 2005). this theory underlies the model of antecedents and consequences of employee engagement that is applied in this study. antecedents of work engagement work engagement is determined by a variety of factors, including job characteristics, perceived organisational support (pos), perceived supervisor support (pss), perceptions of distributive justice and perceptions of procedural justice, all of which predict a variety of outcomes, such as job satisfaction, organisational commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour directed at either the individual or the organisation (saks, 2006). employees determine their level of involvement in their work and organisation based on the resources available to them. the antecedent is a resource in the model, and when employees receive it, they will respond with a higher level of engagement (saks, 2019). employees believe they are compelled to put more effort into their work because of the rewards they receive from their employer. the amount of cognitive, affective and physical resources an individual is willing to dedicate to the performance of their function is determined by the organisation’s economic or socio-emotional resources (žnidaršic & bernik, 2021). the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) has been utilised in the majority of we studies. according to a recent evaluation of engagement research, uwes was used in 86% of investigations (bailey et al., 2017). this makes it impossible to compare saks’ (2019) findings to those of other engagement research, and it raises doubts about the model’s validity and generalisability. based on the review and comparison conducted by saks through the revision of the method in 2019, the overall results of measuring we using uwes are the same as the results of his prior study, which can provide some support for generalising its findings to uwes we measures. however, uwes is related to all consequences, and uwes mediates the relationship between antecedents and consequences as well as we (saks, 2019). engaged workers have superior performance and financial outcomes as a result of their great dedication and focus on their work activities. furthermore, engaged workers have more creativity and are more inclined to innovate and be entrepreneurial because of their openness to new ideas (gawke et al., 2017). in addition to these results at the individual level, research has indicated that workers with high we are more likely to assist their coworkers. work engagement is favourably associated with team performance at the team level (saks, 2019). because engagement spreads from one person to the next, it has a significant impact on the team. little is known about the we of emergency physicians, although their key role can determine the quality of services provided. lack of job support, long working hours and challenges in managing life-threatening cases are associated with increased stress and lower job satisfaction (shams & el-masry, 2013). the authors applied the revised saks’ (2019) antecedent model to examine the factors that could have relations with the we of emergency physicians. physician autonomy (pa) implies that physicians should have full freedom to treat patients according to their best judgement (zhang et al., 2021). physicians lose their professional autonomy under managed care. professional (clinical) autonomy is compromised under managed care, such as frequently having to seek consent before starting treatment, prescribing only authorised drugs and following a specific treatment plan for a particular disease. things like the above will greatly affect the we of the physician concerned about carrying out his or her obligations in the hospital. public service motivation (psm) is defined as an individual orientation, in this case, that of emergency physicians who work in both district and private hospitals, towards providing services to people with the intention of doing good for the larger community (palma & sepe, 2017). public service motivation has been associated with major positive consequences, such as organisational citizenship behaviour as described by koumenta (2015), organisational commitment as studied by naff and crum (1999) and job satisfaction as described by steijn (2008). a meta-analysis by cerasoli et al. (2014) showed that performance improvements and increased probability of performance were more visible with the help of intrinsic motivational sources than extrinsic motivators. according to petrovsky and ritz (2014), there is a significant positive relationship between psm and organisational performance. work–life balance (wb) as a form of work flexibility provides a balance between the professional and personal life of the workforce, which leads to high performance and the overall improvement of the organisation (davidescu et al., 2020). job adjustment theory states that job flexibility leads to higher engagement and increased job performance. if bal and de lange (2014) proved that the relationship between work flexibility and work performance was mediated by labour commitment, it also showed that time flexibility significantly affects labour productivity. a good and healthy relationship with colleagues (rc) can lead to social support provided by the organisation and is described as interpersonal exchanges in which one individual helps another individual in the organisation, as seen in the interspeciality relationship that is well established within the pillars of the medical profession. social support is comfort, attention, appreciation or other forms of assistance that individuals receive from other people or groups. peer support is positive feelings, trust and attention from others in the individual’s work life, recognition, one’s trust and direct assistance in a certain form (vassos et al., 2019). perceived organisational support for employees is an effort to realise welfare and various awards that can be given for contributions and evaluations of employee performance (atingabili et al., 2021). based on this understanding, employees who receive pos will positively perceive the support, and vice versa, pos will give a negative evaluation of employees that both determines we and employee performance, including physicians (imran et al., 2020). therefore, the physician’s perception of the support provided by the company becomes interesting to study more deeply because it can determine how the physician behaves at work. several efforts to motivate and improve employee performance are through rewards and recognition (rr). if the remuneration is arranged correctly and fairly, accompanied by good rewards, the employees will feel satisfied and motivated to achieve the goals and objectives of the organisation. the level of remuneration of workers will determine the scale of life and, in turn, will show the dignity and social status in society. therefore, if employees think that the salary they receive is inadequate, performance satisfaction decreases, they are not motivated and this ultimately affects work performance, so organisational goals are not achieved (rehman et al., 2010). jain and khurana (2017) argue that employees possessing the required knowledge and skills are essential for any organisation seeking growth and success in business. in today’s dynamic business scenario, the opportunity to learn and develop (old) has gained importance in keeping employees engaged and maintaining a competitive advantage. proper learning and development plans to nurture talent can increase engagement rates. khan et al. (2016) interpret training and development and job satisfaction as important parameters of employee performance. they tried to study the effect of training and development on employee performance through job satisfaction. a sample of 105 employees of a telecommunication company in pakistan was collected and analysed. the results showed that there was a positive impact of training and development on employee performance. thus, they concluded that by investing in training and development programs, we among employees would potentially increase. physicians who spend more time completing paperwork (pw) and have a bigger administrative workload have poorer job satisfaction (ly & glied, 2014). there is also evidence that using an electronic health record is linked to reduced professional satisfaction and increased burnout (shanafelt et al., 2016). administrative work, on the other hand, can be beneficial, as there is evidence that telephone and electronic communication with patients can reduce office visits and enhance patient outcomes (apaydin, 2020). physical, psychological, social and organisational components of a workplace that are good or functional in attaining work goals, minimising working demands and accompanying physiological and psychological costs and encouraging human growth, learning and development have been classified as hospital resources (bakker & demerouti, 2007). only physical resources (hospital facility [hf]) were investigated in this research. a literature review indicates that job resources have been found to mediate the relationship between behaviour and organisational workforce performance (shin & hur, 2019). extending the aforesaid reasoning, the authors propose the following hypotheses: h1: physician autonomy is positively connected with we. h2: public service motivation is positively connected with we. h3: work–life balance is positively connected with we. h4: relationship with colleagues is positively connected with we. h5: perceived organisational support is positively connected with we. h6: rewards and recognition are positively connected with we. h7: opportunity to learn and develop is positively connected with we. h8: paperwork is negatively connected with we. h9: hospital facility is positively connected with we. linking work engagement and patient centricity there has been no research linking we and pc. despite minimal evidence in healthcare, previous research has linked we to higher performance in a variety of industries. engaged health workers are more likely to be genuinely driven, achieve their goals and learn from their mistakes, which has been linked to organisational-level quality outcomes. physician engagement is considered to be higher in the healthcare industry than in other industries, and hospitals with more physician involvement deliver better patient care and have a better safety record than those with low we (wake & green, 2019). although there is still limited research on this subject, the historical relationship between job satisfaction, we and service quality was reported in a study by west et al. (2011), where patient satisfaction, hospital mortality rate, infection rate, absenteeism, staff turnover and annual health check-up ratings were significantly impacted. based on the explanation above, the authors established the following hypothesis: h10: work engagement is positively linked to pc. research framework from the signified literature reviews mentioned above, the authors have proposed the research framework as illustrated in figure 1. in this model, there are 11 variables with 10 paths marked with arrows to describe the research hypothesis. figure 1: conceptual framework. methods sampling and data collection a quantitative survey with a cross-sectional approach for collecting the primary data was applied to answer the research questions. the conceptual framework was empirically tested with a purposive sampling technique on the population obtained from nonmanagerial emergency physicians who have worked for at least a year in the district and private hospitals in east nusa tenggara in march 2022. the authors explained the main objective of the research to the physicians to obtain permission for the data collection. the survey continued for 4 weeks, and a total of 190 responses were gathered. a few respondents did not meet the inclusion criteria, because of their position that also doubled as managerial staff in the hospital. after elimination, 183 eligible samples were collected. this amount met the criteria of the minimum sample requirement based on guidance for analysis with partial least squares structural equation modelling (pls-sem) (kock & hadaya, 2018). the respondents participated anonymously and voluntarily, in which they were convinced of the confidentiality of their responses. measuring instruments a set of indicators in a structured questionnaire instrument are used to measure the constructs in the proposed conceptual framework. the questionnaire utilised in this study was developed from a previous study and then tweaked to fit the needs of the investigation. translators have already translated this questionnaire into the local language to guarantee that all questions are easily understood. before being sent, this questionnaire was examined by specialists in the field of service marketing. on a scale of 1–5, respondents were asked to rate their level of agreement with the assertions on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), as specified in the questionnaire. the questionnaire for pa was adopted from fida and najam (2019); psm from zubair et al. (2021); wb from irawanto et al. (2021); rc, pw and hf from mehta (2020); pos from atingabili et al. (2021); rr from baqir et al. (2020); old from vuong et al. (2021); we from lovakov et al. (2017); and pc from srivastava and singh (2020). data analysis techniques the conceptual framework consists of 11 constructs and is considered a complex research model; therefore, the pls-sem method was preferable as it could analyse complex models in exploratory research. partial least squares structural equation modelling approaches are preferred when the orientation of the study is more on the explanatory abilities of the model (hair et al., 2019). the pls-sem analysis was applied through smartpls version 3.3.8 (smartpls gmbh, oststeinbek, germany), which was selected as it provides a bootstrapping menu to test significance (memon et al., 2021). the main procedure with pls-sem is based on two types of models, namely measurement and structural models. the measurement model is established to measure reliability and validity between indicators and their respective constructs in the model. the reliability testing phase includes indicator reliability (outer loading) and construct reliability (cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability). the validity testing phase includes construct validity (average variance extracted [ave]) and discriminant validity (heterotrait–monotrait [ht–mt] ratio). if these four things have met the requirements of reliability and validity, it can proceed to the next stage. the structural model is deployed to test the significant relationship between each construct in the research model. further, a mediation analysis will be conducted to evaluate the variables that act as a mediator in this model. a more advanced pls technique, in this study, importance–performance map analysis (ipma), is utilised for more specific managerial implications (ringle & sarstedt, 2016). ethical consideration the ethics committee of the universitas pelita harapan, with regard of the protection of human rights and welfare in research, has carefully reviewed the research protocol including the information given to the potential subjects entitled: ‘linking work engagement to patient centricity of emergency physicians in underdeveloped regions’. the department of hospital administration, universitas pelita harapan, approves the above-mentioned protocol including the information given to the potential subjects (ref. no. 002/mars-feb-uph/i/2022). result demographic results the demographic data of the 183 eligible respondents are represented in table 1. the majority of the respondents were male (52.5%), while women represented 47.5%. based on age group, most of the participants were from the age group 20 to 29 years (64.5%). also, most of the participants had 1–5 years of job experience. in terms of working duration, most of the respondents had 40 h – 80 h per week. table 1: respondent profile. measurement model the outer loading from the reflective model was done to assess the indicator of reliability. the results of the analysis show that all 59 research indicators meet the outer loading criteria, with a loading value above 0.708. from the internal consistency test, all constructs showed cronbach’s alpha greater than 0.7 and composite reliability as an upper threshold ranging between 0.7 and 0.95 (hair et al., 2019), indicating the constructs’ reliability of the respective model. assessment of the convergent validity was done by measuring the ave. this validity check shows that each construct has an ave ≥ 0.50 as required (hair et al., 2019), showing all constructs can explain at least 50% of item variance in the model, thus establishing convergent validity. the results of the reliability and validity tests can be seen in table 2. a list of questionnaire statements concerning the indicators can be seen in appendix table a1. table 2: reliability and validity analysis. the final step of the measurement model analysis is to check the discriminant validity by ht–mt ratio. this approach was used as it is known to have a more precise value (hair et al., 2019; henseler et al., 2014). the recommended threshold value for ht–mt ratio is below 0.9, referring to hair et al. (2019) to establish that each construct indicator is conceptually different. table 2 shows that all ht–mt values are well below the 0.9 thresholds; thus, it is concluded that all indicators used in this research model have adequate discrimination to measure their respective constructs. this measurement model analysis had passed the four parameters of the reliability and validity test sequentially. therefore, it can be concluded that all indicators in this research model are reliable and valid to measure their respective constructs specifically. the model fit indices in this study were assessed by standardised root mean square (srmr), and the value obtained was 0.06, lower than 0.08, which was the required value, indicating a good model fit (sarstedt et al., 2022). structural model this study performed coefficient determinant or r2 to measure accuracy and q2 to measure the cross-validated redundancy of the model. priorly, the inner variance inflation factor (vif) test was conducted to check multicollinearity issues. the findings showed all the constructs had inner vif below 5 as suggested (hair et al., 2019); thus, it can be said that there is no multicollinearity issue found in this model. the result found that pc had r2 = 0.713 and was categorised as moderate accuracy of the estimation (hair et al., 2019). thus, it can be said that the respective model has adequate capability to estimate pc. work engagement had r2 = 0.579, indicating that it had a moderate accuracy. furthermore, we had a large effect size on pc with an f2 value of 2.484. the out-of-sample redundancy value was applied from the blindfolding feature of pls-sem (hair et al., 2019). all the q2 are found > 0, whereas pc shows q2 = 0.597 and was categorised as large value (> 0.5). work engagement has q2 = 0.494. therefore, it can be said that endogenous constructs in the out-of-sample model approach have sufficient cross-validated redundancy. hypothesis testing by bootstrapping feature was conducted to determine the association of the variables in the model and confirm whether the hypothesis proposed in this study was supported. the bootstrap approach was used to establish the significance of the data analysis in pls-sem (memon et al., 2021). the cut-off value of t-statistics > 1.645 (one-tailed with alpha 0.05) and accordance with confidence interval (ci) 5% and ci 95% direction with the directional hypotheses were used as a criterion to determine whether the hypothesis is significant (hair et al., 2019; sarstedt et al., 2022). the results are shown in table 3. table 3: hypothesis test result. it can be seen in table 3 that there are eight hypotheses supported by t-statistics > 1.645 and p < 0.05, with positive or negative direction (coefficient, ci 5% and ci 95%) following the directional hypotheses. the other two hypotheses such as h6 and h9 were not supported. the coefficient of pa to we was 0.474, greater than others in estimating we. given its predominant relationship with we, the authors did a subgroup analysis of pa with the other variables in this study and found that differences in employee length of service led to differences in pa in its contribution to we and vice versa. emergency physicians with more than 5 years of service had a standardised coefficient of pa 2.98 times higher than those with less than 5 years of service (0.763 vs. 0.256). because of its prominent relationship with we, the authors did a subgroup analysis of psm dividing the respondents into two categories, high psm and low psm, based on the average of their scores in the concerned variable. emergency physicians with high psm had a standardised coefficient of pa 6.11 times higher than emergency physicians with low psm (0.757 vs. 0.124). this shows the contribution of psm to pa in estimating we. moreover, it was found that pos and rc were higher in respondents with high psm. r2 for the we variable in respondents with high psm was higher than low psm (0.854 vs. 0.382), which was categorised as substantial strength of relationship, giving the interpretation that this research model was more accurate when applied to respondents with high psm. furthermore, mediation analysis was also carried out to determine the mediation significance through the specific indirect effects, as recommended by nitzl et al. (2016). based on the result of mediation analysis in table 4 as below, we as the mediator construct tested had t-statistics above 1.645 thresholds for the supported hypotheses. this result indicates that we is proved as a significant mediator towards pc. table 4: specific indirect effect. importance–performance map analysis is a useful tool to identify indicators, providing input to managers to prioritise their improvement activities (ringle & sarstedt, 2016). this method is based on the importance that resulted from the total effect and performance based on the mean value. importance–performance map analysis could be seen as four quadrants, whereas the focus is more on the quadrant with indicators that have more importance, whether the performance is sufficient or vice versa. figure 2 shows the mapping to identify the respective indicators that need to be maintained or improved. figure 2: importance–performance map of indicators. this graphic illustrates an indicator to which hospital management must pay more attention. indicator psm4, which contains respondents’ responses that serving public health would give them good feelings even if they were not paid enough for it, is not sufficient. therefore, this matter needs to be prioritised by policymakers and hospital management because it is considered important for emergency physicians but has not shown adequate performance. as seen in the data analysis from smartpls 3.3.8, the empirical model can be described as the following (figure 3). work engagement and pc have moderate strength of relationship. therefore, this research model can be suggested for research on we and pc of emergency physicians. figure 3: empirical model. discussion the research model was empirically tested on emergency physicians in hospitals in underdeveloped regions to answer the question of whether the antecedents of we as an independent variable through its mediating variables can have an impact on pc. patient centricity as a new construct becomes an important outcome target as a marker of quality of care. this is following the concept of antecedents and impacts of we (saks, 2019) and the concept of pc (srivastava & singh, 2020). this study focuses on the concept of patient-centred care, especially in underdeveloped regions with a growing healthcare industry, and it requires a great deal of improvement in the quality of its services. on this basis, there will be differences in the meaning of respondents’ perceptions of the antecedents of we. from the empirical model, it is known that from 10 hypotheses, 8 significantly support the direction of the hypotheses, such as the positive association of pa, psm, psm, rc, pos and old toward we, the negative association of pw toward we and positive association of we toward pc. physician autonomy has the predominant relationship with we compared to other independent variables. these results are in line with previous research conducted by zhang et al. (2021) with a population of volunteer physicians in wuhan, china, which also demonstrates the role of pa. these results also confirm social cognitive theory, which says that social cognitive ability is related to a person’s specific behaviour (bandura, 1982). in this study, this behaviour can be reflected as we in the healthcare industry. in the context of physicians working in underdeveloped regions, pa might be related to positive thoughts, which then drive motivation at work. this can be reflected by the pa3 indicator, which is the most important from this construct to make physicians feel more autonomous in carrying out their profession. positive thoughts formed from well-maintained autonomy will form optimism that will help them in completing work. in this case, leadership will play a very important role. to deepen these findings, a subgroup analysis was performed on the perception of emergency physicians based on the length of service. it was found that the perception of emergency physicians who had worked longer was better than those who had not worked for a long time. this can be related to schedule control and work experience, which is more dominated by superiors so that it provides conditions that give a better perception of autonomy in their work, which is in line with the concept of a superior–subordinate relationship. on the other hand, this research model is also in line with the job demand–resource (jd–r) model that autonomy can help employees to achieve a balance between work and personal time. the two things above will contribute to the length of service of the employees, so a significant difference can be seen in this study. public service motivation also has a prominent relationship with we. this result is in line with previous studies. cooke et al. (2018) analysed the relationship between psm as an antecedent of we in executive workers from public sector organisations through the sem approach. their results support that psm is more likely to be an antecedent of we than a moderating variable. this is also reinforced by de simone et al. (2016) with the finding of a positive correlation between psm and we. these results show the importance of psm to be part of the application of the jd–r framework by bakker and demerouti (2007), that we can occur when an employee has adequate personal resources to face challenges in his work. therefore, it is important to evaluate the motivation of healthcare employees and whether their values are consistent with organisational goals, especially during the recruitment and selection process. this implication is also reinforced by the ipma results at the indicator level, which show that the psm4 indicator is the most important thing and its performance needs to be improved to support optimal we through good recruitment procedures. based on the subgroup analysis, it was found that psm has a contribution to pa in its association with we. this is in line with previous research by yu (2021), which revealed the involvement of the agency-stewardship concept in the linear relationship between psm and pa. higher pos and rc in respondents with high psm show the relationship between personal and job resources in increasing we, not only as a direct effect on we but also as an indirect effect. public service motivation as a variable that is still not widely studied, especially in the health sector, needs to be observed in further research. moreover, this study also proves the significant relationship of five other independent variables such as wb, rc, pos, old and pw. this finding is in line with previous research in the context of hrs that these variables play a significant and positive role in we (apaydin, 2020; harcourt & abimbola, 2022; imran et al., 2020; scheepers et al., 2017; žnidaršic & bernik, 2021). however, there are two variables with insignificant relationships in this study, such as rr and hf. considering that this research was conducted in underdeveloped areas, physicians who work in their respective units will generally lower their expectations of the quantity and quality of existing health facilities. reinforced by the limited number of hospitals, physicians generally understand that the rewards they can achieve are limited to the existing health facilities in their area. the new contribution of this research is to show a new approach where we can estimate pc. the model is categorised as moderate strength of relationship (r2 = 0.713) with large effect size (f2 = 2.484). in the out-of-sample prediction method, the model quality was assessed by the cross-validated redundancy value shown by q2. the q2 value obtained in this research is 0.597, showing the validity of the model when there is a parameter change. thus, this model can be considered adequate in estimating pc in emergency physicians and can be suggested to be replicated and tested in a larger and more diverse population of physicians in future studies. there were limited studies confirming factors directly related to pc from the physicians’ perspectives. previous studies were more focused on patients’ perspectives (scheepers et al., 2017). therefore, these findings can contribute to the repertoire of hr management. in the end, patients will evaluate services based on what they receive, which perception comes to their mind from services provided by health workers, in this case, physicians. physicians who are more engaged with their work will tend to provide better services by pc. this research provides a new perspective on how good we can be a benchmark for a long-term outcome regarding healthcare quality. limitations and recommendations in this study, several research limitations can be identified as a concern for further research with similar topics related to we and pc. firstly, the sample of this study came from one province with a variety of hospital types and numbers of emergency physicians in each hospital, which affected the duration of work and work-related stress faced by each respondent who participated in this study. therefore, it can be suggested in further research to take the respondents from the same hospital type and scale, so that the sample will be more representative with more stringent criteria. secondly, the majority of respondents in this study were 20–29 years old. this can affect the results because of different perceptions. therefore, it is recommended to involve respondents of more diverse ages to get more accurate results in future research. thirdly, this study has limitations in the sampling method carried out through an online questionnaire, which was thus conducted because of the covid-19 pandemic. questionnaires conducted online have a weakness where the condition of the respondents cannot be known with certainty. emotional factors or the respondent’s mood when filling out the questionnaire can affect the results. a suggestion for further research is for data to be collected or questionnaires to respondents face to face, while still implementing community health protocols. based on the results of the subgroup analysis in this study, testing the model using the length of service as control or moderating variable is also suggested, considering the differences in the results obtained in respondents based on the length of work, both on intrinsic and extrinsic factors affecting we. moreover, psm can be beneficial as one of the antecedents of we in future research, because this study has proven the importance of psm in creating we in health workers. furthermore, more research is needed to analyse the relationship between pc and patient experience to assess differences in service quality from the perceptions of health workers and patients. finally, this research model can be used for other research involving more developed areas to assess the relationship between we and pc. conclusion eight out of 10 hypotheses were proven to be supported with significant and appropriate directions of relationship. this research model has moderate strength of relationship and large cross-validated redundancy on pc as the dependent variable. therefore, this model is replicable for further research with different populations. based on the results, pa and psm are two factors with the most predominant positive relationships on we of emergency physicians, followed by pos, rc, wb and old. paperwork showed a negative connection that weakens the we. hospital management needs to pay attention to the well-being of emergency physicians, particularly in making decisions according to their respective competencies, which will have an impact on experience and confidence in serving patients. it also needs to look at the work motivation of emergency physicians, especially during the recruitment and selection process, and needs to assess whether the personal values of the employees concerned are consistent with organisational goals. to reduce the potential for disengagement because of pw, hospital management can apply to the health office to employ administrative staff who specifically work on administrative matters related to claims or counting consumables in the unit concerned, providing a computerised system in the form of digital applications to simplify the tasks. at the level of policymaker, the local public health officials can evaluate the emergency physicians who will be or have been placed in the area concerned through the assessment of psm. maintaining the quality of the existing we antecedents can support the achievement of an optimal pc. acknowledgements the authors are very thankful to all the participants for taking part in the survey, who were drawn from the hospitals in east nusa tenggara province, for giving their valuable time to fill out the questionnaire. the authors would also like to thank the staff from the provincial health office for providing secondary data needed to support this research. competing interests the authors have declared that no competing interests exist. author’s contributions a.a. constructed the manuscript, gathered the data and managed the data analysis. f.a. together with a.a. managed the data analysis and supervised consolidating this article for publication. funding information this research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. data availability data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study. disclaimer the views and opinions expressed in this article are of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors and the publisher. references apaydin, e. (2020). administrative work and job role beliefs in primary care physicians: an analysis of semi-structured interviews. sage open, 10(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019899092 atingabili, s., wang, w., mensah, i., tackie, e., ahakwa, i., & sarkodie, p. (2021). teamwork and physician burnout: the moderating role of perceived organisational support. health, 13, 416–438. https://doi.org/10.4236/health.2021.134034 bailey, c., madden, a., alfes, k., & fletcher, l. (2017). the meaning, antecedents and outcomes of employee engagement: a narrative synthesis. international journal of management reviews, 19(1), 31–53. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12077 bakker, a., & demerouti, e. (2007). the job demands-resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22(3), 309–328. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 bal, p., & de lange, a. (2014). from flexibility human resource management to employee engagement and perceived job performance across the lifespan: a multisample study. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 88, 126–154. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12082 bandura, a. (1982). self efficacy mechanism in human agency. american sociological review, 19(6), 786–787. https://doi.org/10.2307/2087928 baqir, m., hussain, s., waseem, r., & islam, k. (2020). impact of reward and recognition, supervisor support on employee engagement. american international journal of business and management studies, 2(3), 8–21. https://doi.org/10.46545/aijbms.v2i3.256 cerasoli, c., nicklin, j., & ford, m. (2014). intrinsic motivation and extrinsic incentives jointly predict performance: a 40-year meta-analysis. psychological bulletin, 140(4), 980–1008. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035661 cooke, d.k., brant, k.k., & woods, j.m. (2018). the role of public service motivation in employee work engagement: a test of the job demands-resources model. international journal of public administration, 42(9), 765–775. https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2018.1517265 cooper, a., davies, f., edwards, m., anderson, p., carson-stevens, a., cooke, m., donaldson, l., dale, j., evans, b., hibbert, p., hughes, t., porter, a., rainer, t., siriwardena, a., snooks, h., & edwards, a. (2019). the impact of general practitioners working in or alongside emergency departments: a rapid realist review. bmj open, 9(4), e024501. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-024501 cropanzano, r., & mitchell, m. (2005). social exchange theory: an interdisciplinary review. journal of management, 31(6), 874–900. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206305279602 davidescu, a.a., apostu, s., & paul, a. (2020). work flexibility, job satisfaction, and job performance among romanian employees – implications for sustainable human resource management. sustainability, 12, 6086. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12156086 de simone, s., cicotto, g., pinna, r., & giustiniano, l. (2016). engaging public servants: public service motivation, work engagement and work-related stress. management decision, 54(7), 1569–1594. https://doi.org/10.1108/md-02-2016-0072 fida, m., & najam, n. (2019). construction and validation of fida and najam job autonomy scale for employees. pakistan journal of psychological research, 34(3), 511–527. https://doi.org/10.33824/pjpr.2019.34.3.28 gawke, j., gorgievski, m., & bakker, a. (2017). employee intrapreneurship and work engagement: a latent change score approach. journal of vocational behavior, 100(6), 88–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2017.03.002 hadi, l., & hanif, r. (2022). the influence of work engagement on employee performance at pt. telkom indonesia tbk., witel malang through organizational citizenship behavior as a mediation variable. international journal of science, technology & management, 3(2), 368–375. https://doi.org/10.46729/ijstm.v3i2.478 hair, j., risher, j., sarstedt, m., & ringle, c. (2019). when to use and how to report the results of pls-sem. european business review, 31(1), 2–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr-11-2018-0203 harcourt, p., & abimbola, l. (2022). supervisor and co-workers relationship and employee engagement of law firms in port harcourt, nigeria. international journal of academic accounting, finance & management research, 6(2), 1–10. henseler, j., ringle, c., & sarstedt, m. (2014). a new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. journal of the academy of marketing science, 43(1), 115–135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8 imran, m.y., elahi, n.s., abid, g., ashfaq, f., & ilyas, s. (2020). impact of perceived organizational support on work engagement: mediating mechanism of thriving and flourishing. journal of open innovation: technology, market, and complexity, 6(3), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.3390/joitmc6030082 irawanto, d., novianti, k., & roz, k. (2021). work from home: measuring satisfaction between work–life balance and work stress during the covid-19 pandemic in indonesia. economies, 9(3), 96. https://doi.org/10.3390/economies9030096 jain, s., & khurana, n. (2017). enhancing employee engagement through training and development. asian journal of management, 8(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.5958/2321-5763.2017.00001.4 kementerian sekretariat negara republik indonesia. (2020). peraturan presiden republik indonesia no. 63 tahun 2020 tentang penetapan daerah tertinggal tahun 2020–2024. in kementerian sekretariat negara (issue 018390, pp. 1–8). retrieved february 4, 2022 from https://jdih.setkab.go.id/puudoc/176108/perpres_nomor_63_tahun_2020.pdf khan, a., abbasi, s., waseem, r., ayaz, m., & ijaz, m. (2016). impact of training and development of employees on employee performance through job satisfaction: a study of telecom sector of pakistan. business management and strategy, 7(1), 921–929. https://doi.org/10.5296/bms.v7i1.9024 kock, n., & hadaya, p. (2018). minimum sample size estimation in pls-sem: the inverse square root and gamma-exponential methods. information systems journal, 28(1), 227–261. https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12131 koumenta, m. (2015). public service motivation and organizational citizenship. public money & management, 35(5), 341–348. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2015.1061169 lovakov, a., agadullina, e., & schaufeli, w. (2017). psychometric properties of the russian version of the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes-9). psychology in russia, 10, 145–162. https://doi.org/10.11621/pir.2017.0111 ly, d., & glied, s. (2014). the impact of managed care contracting on physicians. journal of general internal medicine, 29(1), 237–242. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-013-2589-8 mehta, p. (2020). resource availability, professional relationships and physician job satisfaction. european journal of molecular & clinical medicine, 7(8), 2001–2013. https://doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2021.7270 meira, j.v.de s., & hancer, m. (2021). using the social exchange theory to explore the employee-organization relationship in the hospitality industry. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 33(2), 670–692. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijchm-06-2020-0538 memon, m.a., ramayah, t., cheah, j.-h., ting, h., chuah, f., & cham, t.h. (2021). pls-sem statistical programs: a review. journal of applied structural equation modeling, 5(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.47263/jasem.5(1)06 naff, k., & crum, j. (1999). working for america: does public service motivation make a difference? review of public personnel administration, 19(4), 5–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x9901900402 nitzl, c., roldan, j.l., & cepeda, g. (2016). mediation analysis in partial least squares path modelling: helping researchers discuss more sophisticated models. industrial management and data systems, 116(9), 1849–1864. https://doi.org/10.1108/imds-07-2015-0302 palma, r., & sepe, e. (2017). structural equation modelling: a silver bullet for evaluating public service motivation. quality & quantity, 51(2), 729–744. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-016-0436-9 petrovsky, n., & ritz, a. (2014). public service motivation and performance: a critical perspective. evidence-based hrm: a global forum for empirical scholarship, 2(1), 57–60. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebhrm-07-2013-0020 rabkin, s., dahl, m., patterson, r., mallek, n., straatman, l., pinfold, a., charles, m., van gaal, s., wong, s., & vaghadia, h. (2019). physician engagement: the vancouver medical staff association engagement charter. clinical medicine, 19(4), 278–281. https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmedicine.19-4-278 rameshkumar, m. (2020). employee engagement as an antecedent of organizational commitment – a study on indian seafaring officers. asian journal of shipping and logistics, 36(3), 105–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajsl.2019.11.003 rehman, m., khan, m., & lashari, z. (2010). effect of job rewards on job satisfaction, moderating role of age differences: an empirical evidence. african journal of business management, 1(2), 1131–1139. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1507742 ricca, r., & antonio, f. (2021). the implementation of care coordination model toward delivery of quality care in private hospital outpatient setting. milestone: journal of strategic management, 1(1), 41. https://doi.org/10.19166/ms.v1i1.3213 ringle, c.m., & sarstedt, m. (2016). gain more insight from your pls-sem results the importance-performance map analysis. industrial management and data systems, 116(9), 1865–1886. https://doi.org/10.1108/imds-10-2015-0449 saks, a. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169 saks, a. (2019). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement revisited. journal of organizational effectiveness: people and performance, 6(1), 218–234. https://doi.org/10.1108/joepp-06-2018-0034 salanova, m., & schaufeli, w. (2008). a cross-national study of work engagement as a mediator between job resources and proactive behaviour. international journal of human resource management, 19(1), 116–131. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190701763982 sarstedt, m., hair, j., pick, m., liengaard, b., radomir, l., & ringle, c. (2022). progress in partial least squares structural equation modeling use in marketing research in the last decade. psychology & marketing, 39(5), 1035–1064. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21640 scheepers, r., lases, l., arah, o., heineman, m., & lombarts, k. (2017). job resources, physician work engagement, and patient care experience in an academic medical setting. academic medicine, 92(10), 1472–1479. https://doi.org/10.1097/acm.0000000000001719 shams, t., & el-masry, r. (2013). job stress and burnout among academic career anaesthesiologists at an egyptian university hospital. sultan qaboos university medical journal, 13(2), 287–295. https://doi.org/10.12816/0003236 shanafelt, t., dyrbye, l., sinsky, c., hasan, o., satele, d., sloan, j., & west, c. (2016). relationship between clerical burden and characteristics of the electronic environment with physician burnout and professional satisfaction. mayo clinic proceedings, 91(7), 836–848. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2016.05.007 shin, y., & hur, w. (2019). linking flight attendants’ job crafting and ocb from a jd-r perspective: a daily analysis of the mediation of job resources and demands. journal of air transport management, 79, e101681. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2019.101681 srivastava, s., & singh, s. (2020). linking personal growth initiative and organizational identification to employee engagement: testing the mediating-moderating effects in indian hotel industry. journal of hospitality and tourism management, 45, 79–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2020.07.005 steijn, b. (2008). person-environment fit and public service motivation. international public management journal, 11, 13–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/10967490801887863 the world bank. (2022). current health expenditure (% of gdp) – indonesia. the world bank data. retrieved january 30, 2022 from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/sh.xpd.chex.gd.zs?locations=id van, h.t.m., & nafukho, f.m. (2020). employee engagement antecedents and consequences in vietnamese businesses. european journal of training and development, 44(2–3), 89–103. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejtd-03-2019-0036 vassos, m., nankervis, k., skerry, t., & lante, k. (2019). can the job demand-control-(support) model predict disability support worker burnout and work engagement? journal of intellectual & developmental disability, 44(2), 139–149. https://doi.org/10.3109/13668250.2017.1310818 vuong, b., giao, h., & tushar, h. (2021). determinates of factors influencing job satisfaction and organizational loyalty. management science letters, 11(1), 203–212. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2020.8.014 wake, m., & green, w. (2019). relationship between employee engagement scores and service quality ratings: analysis of the national health service staff survey across 97 acute nhs trusts in england and concurrent care quality commission outcomes (2012–2016). bmj open, 9(7), e026472. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-026472 west, m., dawson, j., & admasachew, l. (2011). nhs staff management and health service quality. department of health. world health organization (who). (2020). medical doctors (per 10 000 population). world health organization. retrieved january 31, 2022 from https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/indicators/indicator-details/gho/medical-doctors-(per-10-000-population) yu, j. (2021). agency autonomy, public service motivation, and organizational performance. public management review, 1(1), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2021.1980290 zhang, h., zhao, y., zou, p., liu, y., & gan, l. (2021). engagement among physicians fighting covid-19: the mediating role of autonomy. occupational medicine, 71(1), 9–11. https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqaa203 žnidaršic, j., & bernik, m. (2021). impact of work-family balance results on employee work engagement within the organization: the case of slovenia. plos one, 16(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245078 zubair, s., khan, m., & mukaram, a. (2021). public service motivation and organizational performance: catalyzing effects of altruism, perceived social impact and political support. plos one, 16(12), e0260559. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0260559 appendix table 1-a1: measurement of work engagement and patient centricity. article information authors: vhutshilo masibigiri1 hester nienaber2 affiliations: 1hr manager, inland, packnstack, hatfield, south africa 2department of business management, unisa, south africa correspondence to: hester nienaber email: nienah@unisa.ac.za postal address: po box 392, unisa 0003, south africa dates: received: 05 aug. 2010 accepted: 25 jan. 2011 published: 25 mar. 2011 how to cite this article: masibigiri, v., & nienaber, h. (2011). factors affecting the retention of generation x public servants: an exploratory study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #318, 11 pages. doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.318 copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) factors affecting the retention of generation x public servants: an exploratory study in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction • synthesis and critical evaluation of the literature • research design    • research approach    • research strategy    • research method    • research setting    • entrée and establishing researcher roles    • sampling    • data collection    • data capture    • data analysis    • strategies to ensure data quality    • reporting • findings • discussion    • conclusion • references • footnotes abstract (back to top) orientation: retaining employees, especially generation xers, is imperative to ensure the high performance of organisations. purpose: the purpose of this study was to explore the factors that affect the retention of generation x public servants. motivation for the study: given their unique characteristics, it is a challenge to retain generation x employees. this problem may be worse in the public sector than in the private sector, as there are fewer financial rewards in the public service than in the private sector. research design, approach and method: the interpretivist paradigm is appropriate for this study. it used a qualitative, empirical approach. the researchers obtained the data through purposive sampling and interviews. main findings: the study showed that the factors affecting the retention of generation x public servants include work content, utilisation of skills, career advancement, work–life balance, compensation, security needs, leadership and drive. practical/managerial implications: employers, like the civil service, can be proactive in retaining generation x employees because of the factors that affect their retention. managers can prevent further pressure on service delivery that the skills shortage has caused if they use the skills the employees already have. contribution/value-add: the article fills a gap, as there has been little research on staff retention. this is particularly true of generation x employees in south africa. this article adds information that will improve retention strategies for generation x employees, particularly in the public service. introduction (back to top) the world of work has changed during the last two decades because of globalisation, technological advances, new ways of doing business and even new forms of organisations to meet changing market demands and to keep ahead of competitors (holbeche, 2009; vittori, 2007). the changing world of work also saw the advent of the ‘knowledge worker’. this changed employees’ (called ‘ talent’) needs. consequently, talent and their employment are at the forefront of business agendas to ensure high performance (harvey, 2009; linne, 2009). because talent is not submissive, employers should respond to their changing needs in order to ensure continuous, appropriate and successful responses to changing market needs (holbeche, 2009). therefore, it is imperative that organisations attract, develop and retain the right talent at all levels to ensure their ongoing competitive advantage vis-à-vis competitors (bersin, 2008; boxall, 1998; grant, 1996, 2010; heinen & o’neill, 2004; peteraf, 1993; truss & gratton, 1994). retaining the right talent in south african organisations, as is the case internationally, is challenging because of recent phenomena like the struggle for talent, skills shortages, employee mobility and the imminent retirement of baby boomers. this situation will become worse if organisations do not handle recessionary layoffs properly. these phenomena adversely affect the ability of organisations to create and maintain their competitive advantage and their consequent performance. generation x employees are losing their trust in, and loyalty to, their organisations and fear boredom. organisations must retain them if they are to create and sustain their competitive advantage. generation x employees are human capital repositories of knowledge, skills and expertise, and ensure good performance. retaining generation x employees, in particular, is important for both the private and public sectors. the retention problem may even be worse for the public sector as there are fewer financial rewards in the public service than in the private sector1 (niewenhuizen, 2009). the skills shortage2 (sherry, 2008) and high vacancy rates3 put pressure on service delivery, especially in the public sector. factors like the crime rate4 compound the problem. it leads to emigration and reduces capacity in the public sector. black economic empowerment (bee) requirements are not helping because of the lack of appropriately qualified and experienced candidates, especially in the case of senior management posts (temkin, 2008, 2009). senior managers play an important part in retaining staff because they are responsible for managing talent, of which retention is an integral part, in organisations. the response of traditional employers to staff retention is reactive in nature. they try to decrease the desire of staff to leave (de vos & meganck, 2009; williams, 2008). this approach, however, is seldom successful – once people have expressed the desire to leave, efforts to retain them may already be too late (mosley & hurley, 1999). furthermore, the changing competitive landscape necessitates a different approach to staff retention (pfau & kay, 2002) if the organisation wants to succeed and prosper in the long term. retention has recently received increased attention in the literature, either separately or as part of talent management strategies. the significance of retention stems from the integrated nature of managing talent. this is the implementation of integrated strategies and systems to ensure high performance by developing improved processes of attracting, developing, retaining and using people with the required skills and aptitudes to meet current and future business needs (lockwood, 2006). despite the plethora of literature on retention, organisations’ responses to the needs of talent in contemporary times appear to be unsuccessful and jeopardise high performance. retention is important for organisations as it ensures that they have the right skills at all levels and occupations to enable them to achieve their goals, especially that of high performance. news coverage shows that goal achievement and high performance are current challenges, especially for the south african public sector (jeffrey, 2010). the purpose of this article is to report on an exploratory study amongst generation x public servants in south africa in 2008 about the factors that affect their retention and the strategies to retain them. the research question was ‘what factors affect the retention of generation x public servants in south africa?’ this would serve as basis for developing retention strategies for generation x public servants. the article fills a gap as there has been little research so far in the area of staff retention in general (kontoghiorghes & frangou, 2009) and in south africa in particular (kerr-phillips & thomas, 2009), especially of generation x employees (munsamy & bosch-venter, 2009).this article offers information that will assist the development of retention strategies for generation x employees, particularly in the public service. the next section presents a review of the literature on retention with specific reference to generation x. an exposition of the methodology used in the study follows. thereafter the article presents and discusses its results. the article closes with conclusions and recommendations. synthesis and critical evaluation of the literature (back to top) this section highlights retention with specific reference to generation x employees. the section touches on the costs associated with leaving and retention versus turnover briefly. it presents the factors that affect the retention of generation x employees and specific strategies to retain them in more detail. the latter is the specific focus of the research. retaining talent refers to employers’ efforts to create an environment that engages employees for the long term and ensures that they keep desirable workers in order to meet business objectives (frank, finnegan & taylor, 2004). however, if employees are not satisfied with these efforts they can leave. therefore, retention results from mutual satisfaction between employees and employers and occurs voluntarily (kontoghiorghes & frangrou, 2009). retaining talent is important because staff members that leave organisations incur direct and indirect costs. the direct costs of recruiting new employees include the costs of recruitment agencies, interviewing and assessing prospective candidates and finding replacements whilst the recruitment process is underway. they include training and development costs, as well as the cost of severance packages or dismissal if the organisation employed the wrong candidates in the first place. organisations can calculate direct costs easily as they link to specific activities (hillmer, hillmer & mcroberts, 2004). indirect costs pertain to knowledge, especially tacit knowledge, which employees take with them when they leave. losing tacit knowledge is detrimental to achieving long-term competitive advantage, organisational objectives and high performance. organisations cannot easily calculate the indirect costs, like the knowledge specific employees have, and their contributions to creating competitive advantage, achieving goals and high performance. they may far outstrip the direct costs of staff turnover. high performance and competitive advantage go together. competitive advantage explains and predicts why some organisations are able to achieve and sustain performance that yields higher returns (carpenter & sanders, 2009; david, 2009; grant, 2010; hough, thompson, strickland & gamble, 2008; ireland, hoskisson & hitt, 2009; pearce & robinson, 2009). in its simplest form, competitive advantage means that organisations make it easier for customers to do business with them than with their competitors because of the value they offer to customers (kotler & armstrong, 2000). the crux of competitive advantage is the ability of managers to use their current unique bundles of resources and capabilities in ways that maximise value whilst they develop the resources and capabilities they need for the future (grant, 2010; helfat & peteraf, 2003; peteraf, 1993). of all the resources at firms’ disposal, knowledge is the most important (brown, 2009). this is because talent, especially generation x employees, is seen as the knowledge repositories of organisations and is one of the building blocks of organisations’ competitive advantage (bersin, 2008; boxall, 1998; cunningham, 2007; grant, 2010; heinen & o’neill, 2004; helfat & peteraf, 2003; peteraf, 1993; truss & gratton, 1994). therefore, retaining them is important for creating and sustaining competitive advantage as well as ensuring high performance. retention has recently received increased attention in the literature as an entity on its own (ahlrichs, 2007; cheney & nienaber, 2009; demarco, n.d.; de vos & meganck, 2009; frank et al., 2004; hillmer et al., 2004; jamrog, 2004; kerr-phillips & thomas, 2009; kontoghiorghes & frangou, 2009; linne, 2009; munsamy & bosch-venter, 2009; pillay, 2009; salopeck, 2008; schachter, 2009; smith, 2009). retention is also seen as part of talent management, of which it forms an integral part (bersin, 2008; boxall, 1998; cook & macauley, 2009; fegley, 2006; harvey, 2009; heinen & o’neill, 2004; kesbey, 2008; lee & maurer, 1997; lewis & heckman, 2006; lockwood, 2006; mosley & hurley, 1999; naveen, 2000). however, according to kontoghiorghes and frangou (2009), the literature on retention is not as abundant as that on turnover, which also deals with employees leaving organisations. the different concepts require different approaches to retain employees or to deter them from leaving. previous research has demonstrated that retention, whether in the private or public sector, is a multi-faceted construct that a number of drivers affect. they include employee commitment, especially affective and normative commitment (abbott, white & charles, 2005; joseph, ng, koh & ang, 2007; meyer, allen & smith, 1993; samuel & chipunza, 2009), engagement (dewhurst, 2009; frank et al., 2004); communication (demarco, n.d.; perrine, 2009); leadership and interaction (dyer, 2009; perrine, 2009; samuel & chipunza, 2009); and specific human resource (hr) practices (bova & kroth, 2001; rose & gordon, 2010; samuel & chipunza, 2009). commitment and engagement correlate negatively with turnover or the intention to leave the organisation. affective commitment reflects an emotional attachment to, and identification with, organisations. normative commitment, on the other hand, mirrors a sense of belonging (meyer & smith, 2000). affective commitment is sensitive to experience whilst normative commitment can develop in response to social pressures (powell & meyer, 2004). engaged employees are those who know what their organisations do, can articulate their competitive advantage accurately and passionately, care about their customers and communicate with colleagues even in informal settings (dyer, 2009). generation xers value communication because it facilitates participation in true exchanges of ideas and ensures that others hear and understand messages (perrine, 2009; schachter, 2009; vaughn, 2008). communication per se is important for creating commitment and engagement. generation xers prefer leadership behaviours that are associated with generational themes, especially flexibility, recognition and challenging working conditions (cordeniz, 2002; perrine, 2009; pfau & kay, 2002; rodriquez, green & ree, 2003; salopek, 2008). they also contribute to the commitment and engagement of generation xers. hr practices that promote the retention of generation x employees include flexible working arrangements, recognition, training (including mentoring), development, and performance management (including feedback). in the case of public servants like nurses (perrine, 2009) and engineering and technical professionals (rose & gordon, 2010) competitive remuneration is another factor that affects the retention of generation xers. these hr practices overlap with leadership as well as commitment and engagement. they also foster commitment and engagement. the different drivers that affect retention interact with one another, illustrating that retention is indeed a multi-faceted concept. furthermore, this information shows that retention is a delicate matter that needs careful attention to ensure that employees remain and preserve the knowledge, skills and experience necessary for continuity. in the case of generation x employees, these drivers feed their unique characteristics particularly. it is more challenging to retain generation x employees. they are more likely to leave when dissatisfied than any other generation because of their unique characteristics and different sets of goals, aspirations and values (ahlrichs, 2007; demarco, n.d.; johnson, 2004; western & yamamura, 2006). generation xers, born between 1965 and 1981 (bova & kroth, 2001), often grew up alone because their parents worked and many of their parents had divorced (cordeniz, 2002). consequently, generation xers are concerned about life balance. they are also protective of the family (demarco, n.d.). furthermore, they tend to be sceptical and pragmatic and value leadership by competence (cordeniz, 2002). they have no respect for service, title or rank because their parents had it all but lost their jobs anyway (demarco, n.d.). generation xers are independent, need to belong and want meaningful work (perrine, 2009; vaughn, 2008). however, they consider life experiences more important than work (johnson, 2004). they tend to be loyal to their skills rather than to their employers. therefore, they have no objection to crossing borders in order to augment and hone their skills (ruch, 2000). this makes it difficult to retain this generation (johnson, 2004). according to cordeniz (2002), generation xers change jobs on average once every 3½ years. these unique characteristics of generation xers tie in with factors that affect retention, especially commitment, engagement, leadership and hr practices. to protect the contributions of generation xers, especially public servants, to achieving goals and high performance, the literature suggests specific strategies for retaining them. generation xers need to be provided with flexibility that meets their needs; generation x employees require flexibility in working time, work and rewards (cordeniz, 2002; johnson, 2002; rose & gordon, 2010). flexibility in working time includes flexibility in lifestyle. generation x employees sometimes prefer time off for doing overtime work, saving commuting time by working from home and flexible work schedules (withers, 2001). generation x employees might also prefer compensation in time rather than money (johnson, 2002). flexible work might include tackling a challenging task they can accomplish in a workday. although generation x employees prefer challenging work environments, the environments should be fun to work in, although they do not have to be secure (bova & kroth, 2001; perrine, 2009; rodriquez et al., 2003). flexible work arrangements include flexible rewards. this is a manifestation of recognition, something generation x employees value (ahlrichs, 2007; perrine, 2009). equitable pay is part of recognition, which means a competitive salary based on work performance irrespective of gender and seniority (ahlrichs, 2007). flexibility reflects the aptitudes of generation x employees, which should align with the strategy of the organisation to ensure goal achievement and high performance. appropriate leadership needs to be provided for generation x employees. leadership plays an important role in meeting the needs of employees and, in particular, the needs of generation x employees. this means that generation xers need leaders with different styles and attitudes (bova & kroth, 2001; cordeniz, 2002; rodriquez et al., 2003). different styles and attitudes are particularly conducive to building relationships (alrichs, 2007). leadership is one of the key factors for retaining employees. the saratoga institute (in ashby & pell, 2001) supports this. it states that the relationship workers have with their bosses determines 50% of work–life satisfaction. the style of manager-leaders has a profound effect on retention, especially that of generation xers. according to taylor (2002) and cordeniz (2002), employees want leaders who know and understand them, treat them fairly and are people they can trust. manager-leaders should be able to build trust, esteem and high performance. manager-leaders must communicate with generation xers about their job-related likes and dislikes (cordeniz, 2002). this means that manager-leaders provide employment experiences (salopek, 2008) where organisational values are compatible with individual ones (taylor, 2002). as soon as generation x employees think that their values are incompatible with those of their organisations, they are prepared to leave. generation x employees think that opportunity, regardless of age or tenure, and being surrounded by talented peers (ahlrichs, 2007), is part of the employment experience. leadership has a decisive effect on commitment and engagement, and influences the decisions of generation xers to stay or leave. generation x employees should be provided with opportunities for growth. generation x employees are loyal to their skills rather than to their employers. therefore, they put a premium on learning and growth (cordeniz, 2002; rose & gordon, 2009; ruch, 2000). again, leader-managers play important parts in ensuring that the skills of generation xers are developed as well as used. cordeniz (2002), dibble (1999) and flaherty (2005) emphasise that learning (training) is necessary to retain generation x employees and to keep them energised and committed. alrichs (2007) and vaughn (2008) point out that employees can learn in ways other than through training. organisations can create diverse environments because generation xers feel that they can learn from the experiences of others. career development, like performance management, succession planning, promotions, lateral moves and temporary assignments, are other ways generation xers can hone their skills (demarco, n.d.; rose & gordon, 2010; salopek, 2008; schachter, 2009; taylor, 2002; vaughn, 2008). if these activities are ongoing rather than haphazard or sporadic, they can ensure continuity (taylor, 2002) of employment. open communication plays an important role in developing careers (pfau & kay, 2002). it is critical for generation x employees to feel that they are contributing and are trusted with some control over their work (ruch, 2000). generation x employees also need developmental feedback in order to produce good results. organisations can use this feedback as retention tools if it is relevant to the job, specific and timely (dibble, 1999). in summary, these specific strategies to retain generation x show that intrinsic work factors (demarco, n.d.; johnson, 2002; schachter, 2009; smith, 2009; taylor, 2002; vaughn, 2008; withers, 2001) are important to generation xers. these strategies influence the commitment and engagement that are important to retention. in addition, holbeche (2009), salopek (2008) and vaughn (2008) propose that these strategies show that retention continues the process of recruiting staff with aptitudes and skills that align fully with organisational strategies. in addition, the retention strategies specific to generation x employees clearly show that organisations really need a strategic approach that differs from the traditional and reactive one hr departments use. research has found that hr departments tend to focus on factors that researchers believe cause turnover rather than those that promote retention. research design (back to top) research approach a researcher’s philosophical assumptions do influence an inquiry, although research largely hides them (creswell, 2009), by explaining why things are the way they are for the researcher (henning, van rensburg & smit, 2004). an interpretivist research philosophy, with its emphasis on experience and interpretation, is appropriate to this study. interpretive research is concerned with meaning and tries to understand how people interpret social reality. in this instance, the research tries to understand the factors that influence the retention of generation x public servants. the interpretive philosophy is congruent with the purpose of this research because it explores generation x public sector employees’ perceptions of factors that influence their retention. descriptions of the participants’ perspectives of social reality provide data that form the basis of themes and categories about these factors that we can use to develop retention strategies for generation x public servants. the interpretivist philosophy is appropriate to a qualitative research approach for collecting and analysing data for this research (collis & hussey, 2009; creswell, 2009; hallebone & priest, 2009; henning et al., 2004). research strategy the researchers used a case study to investigate the problem. this was appropriate for the inquiry as it allowed the researchers to explore a contemporary phenomenon in its real-life context (myers, 2009; perry, 2001). the researchers obtained their data about retaining generation x employees in the public service from secondary sources. they obtained their empirical evidence from semi-structured interviews. the researchers believed that these would yield richer data than a survey would because they could cross-examine responses to open-ended questions. the focus was on generation x public servants. the researchers integrated the themes they derived from each participant into those of the groups and compared their findings with those they noted in the literature. research method the researchers used an interview guide containing 15 open-ended questions. they based the questions on the theory in the literature. the questionnaire consisted of three sections. the first covered demographics (race, gender, salary, educational qualifications, home language and marital status). the second dealt with factors that affect the retention of generation x employees, and the third covered turnover (i.e. why generation x employees leave their employers). research setting the researchers selected ten generation xers employed by state departments based in pretoria for this research. they collected data between september and october 2007, and verified and analysed them between october 2007 and april 2008. entrée and establishing researcher roles one researcher, who was employed by a state department at the time of the study, approached 10 generation x colleagues who were willing to participate in the study. the researcher complied with ethical requirements by getting consent from participants and assuring them that the researchers would keep the information they submitted confidential. therefore, the researchers did not name participants but numbered them for the study. the department also gave the researchers permission to conduct the study. sampling the purpose of the study was to gain a clearer understanding of factors that influence the retention of generation x public servants. therefore, the researchers used purposive sampling. although there is no ideal sample size for studies using a qualitative approach, there are guidelines for case studies. eisenhardt (1989) proposes samples of between four and ten. morse (in denzin and lincoln, 1994) suggests six cases whilst creswell (2002, in onwuegbuzie & leech, 2007) prefers between three and five cases. consequently, the eight persons who responded to the researchers’ invitation to participate were consistent with these guidelines for qualitative case study research. the unit of analysis was the individual generation x participant (babbie, 2007; perry, 2001). the main limitation to this study was that the researchers could not generalise the results to the whole population of generation x employees because of the research design. the researchers ensured reliability by using a formalised, structured process. if other researchers use the same approach, they should get similar results. data collection the researchers organised the interviews telephonically with the eight participating generation x public servants. the researchers thought that the interviewees would know most about the subject. this insured external validity (perry, 2001). the researchers held semi-structured interviews with participants. this allowed them to gain a deeper understanding of the context in which participants gave responses and to recognise that the approaches to retention would be unique. data capture the researchers conducted hour-long semi-structured interviews in places (the homes or offices of the interviewees) and times convenient to them. the researchers used the retention definition that frank et al. (2004) proposed as the reference definition throughout the interviews to ensure shared meaning. the researchers increased credibility by clarifying concepts. the researchers recorded the interviews in notes the interviewer made. they verified the results with interviewees to ensure that the notes reflected what the interviewees had meant. although the interviewer was inexperienced, she ensured productive interviews by identifying questions in advance to make sure that all the interviewees answered all the questions. she did not always ask all the questions because some of the answers emerged whilst she was asking other questions. therefore, the note taking was painstaking as the interviewer verified all the responses. in retrospect, however, it might have been better to record the interviews as well as take notes. consequently, taking notes only, instead of supplementing them with audio or video recordings, is a weakness of this study. data analysis the researchers analysed the notes using content analysis. the analysis involved searching for phrases and themes and comparing them with predefined categories that emerged from the literature on the retention of generation x employees. the researchers identified common themes and established the importance of themes by identifying which ones the interviewees mentioned repeatedly. the researchers analysed the data manually, because the number of responses was small, by linking the themes to retention factors in the literature. furthermore, the researchers could consider latent content as they analysed the data manually. they reduced the risk of losing meaning by allowing for exhaustive categories that dealt with meanings that were similar and relevant to the study. consequently, the researchers tried to ensure rigour by not excluding any relevant data or including anything that was irrelevant. strategies to ensure data quality the researchers ensured rigour by using semi-structured interviews and pre-testing the interview guide with a generation x public servant who was not a participant. reporting the researchers used an interpretivist approach to report the findings of the study. this means that the interviewer was part of the meaning-making process. they adopted the realist approach as described by fisher (2010). according to the realist approach, concepts exist independently of how people perceive or experience reality. furthermore, the concepts are cognitively accessible to those observing them. nevertheless, accessibility does not mean that knowledge is a perfect interpretation of reality. it is only approximately objective. as such, people can know about the concepts relatively objectively (fisher, 2010). findings (back to top) eight of the ten participants the researchers approached to participate in this inquiry accepted the invitation. they were all generation xers according to the definition of bova and kroth (2001) as all were between 27 and 43 years old (i.e. born between 1965 and 1981). furthermore, various south african state departments employed them. they were thus public servants. therefore, the researchers can accept their responses as relevant to this generation and employment sector. for ethical reasons, this article does not give the names of the participants or the departments involved. the next section gives the biographical information of the participants. the factors that influence their retention follow. all of the participants were single parents and their language profiles reflected the composition of the south african population. venda was the most common language. more males than females participated in the research. the qualifications of the participants indicated that these generation xers were educated. five had honours degrees, two had a first degree and one a national diploma. this implies that these generation x public servants had knowledge and skills that were relevant to their employers. their positions show this as well. seven were professionals and one was a technical person. therefore, they are assets to their employers. five of the interviewees’ annual salaries fell below r150 000, one earned between r151 000 and r250 000 and two earned between r251 000 and r350 000. the low salaries do not reflect the value of the interviewees. the participants’ profiles follow: • participant 1: held an honours degree, had worked with the current employer for between four and five years and for four or five previous employers. participant 1 earned an annual salary of between r151 000 and r250 000. participant 1 had similar experience to participants 2 and 3. • participant 2: held an honours degree, had worked with the current employer for between five and six years and for four or five previous employers. participant 2 earned an annual salary of between r251 000 and r350 000. the experience of participant 2 was similar to that of participants 1 and 3. • participant 3: held an honours degree, had worked with the current employer for between five and six years and for four or five previous employers. participant 3 earned an annual salary of less than r150 000 per annum. the experience of participant 3 was similar to that of participants 1 and 2. • participant 4: held an honours degree, had worked with the current employer for between two and three years and for one previous employer. participant 4 earned less than r150 000 per annum. • participant 5: held a first degree, had worked with the current employer for less than one year and for two or three previous employers. participant 5 earned less than r150 000 per annum. • participant 6: held an honours degree and had worked with the current employer for between one and two years and for one previous employer. the annual salary of participant 6 was below r150 000 per annum. • participant 7: held a technical qualification, had worked with the current employer for between one and two years, for four or five previous employers and earned less than r150 000 per annum. • participant 8: held a first degree, had worked with the current employer for between seven and eight years, for 10 previous employers and earned between r251 000 and r350 000 per annum. one can determine the loyalty of the generation xers to their employers by the length of their tenures. the tenures of the interviewees with their current employers ranged from less than a year to between seven and eight years. two participants had been with their current employers for between one and two years, whilst one participant had worked for between two and three years for his current employer. three participants had worked for between three and four years, four and five years and five to six years respectively. the participants’ tenure shows that they generally stay for short periods with an employer. this is consistent with the observations of cordeniz (2002). consequently, the interviewees are not loyal to their employers, based on the short periods they stayed with one employer. six of the participants had worked for more than one employer after they entered the labour market. in most cases (four), these interviewees had worked for between four and five employers before joining their current employers, followed by between two and three employers. in one case, the interviewee had worked for more than 10 employers before joining the current employer. the number of previous employers suggests that these participants are nomadic. training, both self-initiated and employer-initiated, reflects their loyalty to their skills. the interviewees’ responses to training and development support this notion as they all had attended some selfor employer-initiated training programmes. four participants had initiated the same number of programmes as their employers did. two participants had initiated more programmes than their employers did. two participants were satisfied with the programmes their employers initiated (table 1 reflects these differences). table 1:training and development initiatives. the biographical information of the participants showed that there was no pattern in qualifications, experience, training, employment tenure or salary. this brief overview of the biographical information of the interviewees suggests that they share the common characteristics of generation xers as noted in the literature. therefore, one can expect that the typical factors that affect the retention of generation xers will also affect the participants. the factors that affect their retention follow. the prominent factors that emerged during the discussions about retention factors were career growth and development. the next most prevalent factors that affected the retention of these generation x employees were flexible working conditions, compensation and benefits. most generation xers the researchers interviewed indicated that their salaries were adequate for what they were doing if their salary increases keep pace with inflation. however, most respondents were not satisfied that their employers were using their skills optimally and understood their poor remuneration because of this. participant 1, for example, mentioned that she was ‘unhappy in [her] current position owing to the job itself as well as supervisor’s behaviour’. on further questioning, she responded ‘the work was unchallenging’ and ‘did not utilise [her] skills fully’. furthermore, she pointed out that the ‘employer did not pay for the skills of their staff’. participants 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 also clearly expressed concern, in differing degrees, about poor pay. however, they were not nearly as upset as participant 1 about the salary. participant 4 merely mentioned that he ‘ felt bad’ in general about his remuneration. participant 5 mentioned that ‘the salary should match the service of a person’, but did not offer any further comment. participant 7 was adamant that ‘salary should not get behind in terms of inflation’. participant 8 believed that ‘the basic salary of public servants should increase’. all of these participants indicated that their employers did not use their expertise to their liking, implying job dissatisfaction. some of their comments support this idea: • ‘[i] need more duties that hold challenges and opportunities to learn new things’ (participant 4) • ‘doing the same duties for a long period of time, become unexciting, especially if the job is not spiced up with training to make it more interesting’ (participant 5) • participants 6 and 7 required a ‘better working environment’ • ‘[i am] not happy with my job’ as it was not “challenging”’ (participant 8). • participant 8 believed that the unhappiness will pass as soon as ‘i get a challenging job’ or at least ‘activities that are challenging’. he further indicated that he would leave the organisation for ‘new challenges’ and ‘work that is related’ to his education. career development might mean that their employers would use the skills of these public servants better. however, interviewees’ comments about career development were generally not positive. career development is the responsibility of supervisors and these comments might reflect the behaviour and attitudes of supervisors. participant 2, for example, indicated that ‘there are no growth prospects or career advancement opportunities’. these rely on expertise and support the perception that employers do not use current skills and experience fully. furthermore, ‘ bad career management’ and ‘poor performance management systems’ perpetuate the situation. this means that employers are not using skills and experience fully. only participants 1, 7 and 8 indicated that they were unhappy in their current jobs, mainly because of poor relationships with their direct supervisors. participant 2 mentioned that she was happy with her job but unhappy with her supervisor. she pointed out that the ‘supervisor is not supporting [her] in solving work related problems’ and ‘not accommodating the flexibility needs of employees’, compounding the frustrations associated with career development and inadequate use of skills and experience. nevertheless, she ‘had taken 50 days sick leave in the last year’, without being specific about the nature and duration of the sick leave. participant 1 indicated that the supervisor was ‘not responsive to the flexibility needs of the staff’ and ‘ did not assist [her] in solving work related problems when required’. according to participant 1, she would only be happy if she ‘changed jobs’. participant 7 responded vaguely, mentioning ‘a good working environment is required, which can be attained by at least monthly meetings to assist staff in solving their work related problems’. he further implied that he ‘had been looked over’ for a well-deserved promotion. participant 8 mentioned that he ‘preferred a more challenging job’ that was not available and ‘flexibility needs were not entirely met’. although participants 3, 4, 5 and 6 indicated that they were happy in their current jobs, they also indicated a lack of challenging work. the researchers asked the participants whether it was easy to change jobs. most responded that it was not. the main reason they gave was the current economic cycle that did not favour employees. it appears that the non-supportive attitudes and behaviours of supervisors reflect a breakdown in interaction, whilst interaction is necessary for commitment and engagement. the researchers grouped the factors that affect the retention of generation x public servants according to themes: • organisational factors, which included career, specifically the work content; utilisation of skills; career advancement; work–life balance; compensation; security needs; educational mismatch; and leadership • the individual, which included drive. the discussion gives more detail about the findings of the study. discussion (back to top) the purpose of the study was to establish which factors affect the retention of generation x public servants. generation xers are more likely to leave their organisations when they are dissatisfied than any other generation. employers can develop strategies to retain them if they know which factors affect retention. although these generation xers were knowledge workers according to their qualifications, experience and tenures with their current employers, as well as their number of past employers, their compensation did not reflect their status as valuable assets to their organisations. for this reason, the salaries they earn do not reflect their contributions to creating and sustaining competitive advantage. the responses of the generation xers showed that they were aware of, and concerned about, their poor compensation. dissatisfaction with salary, as part of compensation, is a factor that affects the retention of generation x employees. salary is a factor that puts the retention of generation xers, especially public servants, at risk (perrine, 2009; rose & gordon, 2010; ahlrichs, 2007; perrine, 2009; rose & gordon, 2010). niewenhuizen (2009) notes that civil servants are poorly remunerated. salary seems to reflect on the value of employees. the participants in this study felt that the salaries their employers paid showed that their employers did not acknowledge them as assets. this raises questions about the commitment and engagement of these employees. if employers do not acknowledge their employees, they become imperative ingredients for good performance. according to authors like alrichs (2007), bova and kroth (2001), pfau and kay (2002), rodriquez et al. (2003), salopek (2008) and taylor (2002), acknowledgement is one of the factors that affects the retention of generation xers and contributes to employee commitment and engagement. hence, the responses of these participants are consistent with what these authors found. career-related issues, specifically work content, utilisation of skills and career advancement, are factors that affect the retention of generation xers. work content, utilisation of skills and career development affect tenure. the comments of these generation xers about tenure, current and previous, indicate the mobility of this generation. consequently, their comments about tenure support the literature in asserting that generation x employees are nomadic (ahlrichs, 2007; cordeniz, 2002; demarco, n.d.; johnson, 2004; western & yamamura, 2006). this implies that generation xers will leave if dissatisfied with their working conditions. however, in view of the current economic climate, it seems that the tough labour market deters them from changing jobs as it could adversely affect their security. the interviewees commented that it is not easy to change jobs at the moment because of the current economic climate. the interviewees were all single parents with obligations and commitments to households. this shows that they were protective of their families and is consistent with the findings of (demarco, n.d.) on the unique characteristics of generation xers. the responses of these generation xers to training and development programmes show that, if their employers did not initiate programmes that met the needs of the interviewees adequately, they initiated programmes themselves. there seems to be no correlation between these training and development programmes and the qualifications, experience or salaries of the interviewees. participants 2 and 4 had honours degrees, whilst participant 8 had a first degree. they had attended six programmes each, three of which were self-initiated. participant 5 had a first degree and had attended two programmes, one of which was self-initiated. participant 1, with an honours degree, had attended one self-initiated programme, whilst participant 7, with a technical qualification, had attended three employer-initiated programmes. in checking the responses of the interviewees to other questions, it transpired that those who were more or less satisfied with their current working conditions (participants 3, 5 and 6) did not invest much time and effort on self-initiated training and development programmes. however, where interviewees were not entirely satisfied with either their working conditions (participants 1, 2 and 8) or work content (participant 4), they initiated training and development programmes to avoid boredom. therefore, we can regard training as a way of keeping them energised and committed (flaherty, 2005). consequently, it seems that training and development link to the intrinsic features of people, like drive or motivation, rather than to their qualifications, position, tenure and salary. furthermore, in attending to their own training and development needs, these generation xers remain loyal to their skills. this is consistent with the literature (alrichs, 2007; demarco, n.d.; dibble, 1999; flaherty, 2005; pfau & kay, 2002; rose & gordon, 2009; ruch, 2000; salopek, 2008; samuel & chipunza, 2009; schacter, 2009; taylor, 2002; vaughn, 2008). the responses of the interviewees support the literature when it comes to growth and development. the interviewees felt that their employers did not use their skills optimally. the led to them feeling bored. this suggests an educational mismatch between the employees and the posts they hold. when the researchers asked the interviewees why they did not move to greener pastures, they responded that, given the current economic conditions, it is not so easy to change jobs because the job market is tough. furthermore, given that they were single parents with commitments, it would be risky to venture into unknown territories for longer than they were prepared to endure. this shows that these generation xers were concerned about their security and that of their dependants. this concern about security differs from opinions in the literature (ruch, 2000). therefore, these generation xers reaffirmed that family is important to them (demarco, n.d.). this seems to suggest that these participants will suffer the consequences of an unexciting job rather than make their families suffer. the researchers discussed the responses about flexible working conditions in greater depth to understand them better. participants indicated that employers supported work–life balance as far as family responsibility, leave and employee-assistance programmes are concerned. however, they did not mention the importance of flexible times and schedules in enabling generation xers to accommodate their family responsibilities. their comments about flexibility support the theory about their flexibility needs (alrichs, 2007; bova & kroth, 2001; johnson, 2002; rodriquez et al., 2003; withers, 2001). although the interviewees mentioned leadership less often, it seemed to be an important issue for retention. the leadership of supervisors seems to influence the retention of generation xers. the non-supportive nature of their leaders discouraged the interviewees most. their supervisors did not accommodate their career development and flexibility needs specifically. it seems that their supervisors have let the employees down. the relationship between employees and supervisors is an important issue in the workplace. supervisors can respond to the needs of employees, especially their career and work–life balance needs, if they know and understand their employees, treat them fairly and are people the employees can trust. leadership plays an important part in engagement and acts as a precursor to customer service and retention (cordeniz, 2002; dewhurst, 2009; dyer, 2009; perrine, 2009). furthermore, job satisfaction is a precursor to engagement. clearly, the participants are generally not satisfied with their jobs. more specifically, they are unhappy about how their employers are using their skills and experience or addressing their career development and flexibility needs. leadership plays an important part in managing talent. good management means attracting, developing and retaining the right staff to ensure performance. consequently, one should not see retention in isolation, but should view talent management as a whole. the inadequacy of appropriately qualified and experienced senior managers supports the views of temkin (2008, 2009). they are clearly not able to lead, manage talent or ensure the retention of generation x employees effectively. conclusion this study set out to identify the factors that affect the retention of generation x employees in the public service. the retention of generation x employees is important because they are the knowledge repositories of organisations. they help to create and sustain competitive advantage and to achieve organisational goals and good performance. however, generation x employees are nomadic and they are more likely than any other generation to leave their organisations when dissatisfied. subsequently, knowing which factors affect their retention could lead to effective retention strategies. retention is an integral part of managing talent, although the areas of recruiting and developing staff were not part of this study. this article fills a gap in the empirical evidence about the factors that affect the retention of generation x employees in the south african public service. the findings of the study confirm what the literature notes about the factors that affect the retention of generation x employees. we can classify the factors that affect retention into compensation, career (which includes work content, utilisation of skills and career advancement), work–life balance, security, educational mismatch and leadership. all of these fall within the ambit of organisations. motivation, on the other hand, is the responsibility of employees. when considering the factors that affect the retention of generation x employees, the role of the leader is paramount. leaders can directly influence most of the factors. adapting to the changing world of work, especially the requirements of employees, seems in desperate need of attention. the researchers recommend that further research into retaining generation x employees is undertaken in order to generalise the findings. the role of leadership should also be investigated more thoroughly. references (back to top) abbott, n.g., white, a.f., & charles, m.a. (2005). linking values and organizational commitment: a correlational and experimental investigation in two organizations. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 78, 531−551. doi:10.1348/096317905x26174 ashby, f.c., & pell, a.r. (2001). embracing excellence: becoming an employer of choice to attract and keep the best talent. paramus: prentice hall press. ahlrichs, n. (2007). retaining four generations at work. tec australia & new zealand. retrieved october 30, 2009, from http://www.tec.com/au/node/215 babbie, e. (2007). practice of business and social research. belmont, ca: wadsworth. bersin, j. (2008). the business impact of talent management. banking strategies, 84(5), 6. bova, b., & kroth, m. (2001). workplace learning and generation x. journal of workplace learning, 13(2), 57−65. doi:10.1108/13665620110383645 boxall, p. (1998). achieving competitive advantage through human resource strategy: towards a theory of industry dynamics. human resource management review, 8(3), 265−288. doi:10.1016/s1053-4822(98)90005-5 brown, a.s. (2009). think of workers as assets. mechanical engineering, january, 131 (1), 20. business must resolve dire skills shortage. (2008). business day. retrieved november 18, 2008, from http://bis.hosted.inet.co.za/news carpenter, m.a., & sanders, g. (2009). strategic management: a dynamic perspective. upper saddle river: pearson international. cheney, v., & nienaber, h. (2009). exploring hr perspectives on succession planning as retention aid for engineering professionals: the case of sadri in 2007/08. journal of contemporary management, 6, 441−462. collis, j., & hussey, r. (2009). business research: a practical guide for undergraduate & post-graduate students. 3rd edition. london: palgrave macmillan. cook, s., & macauley, s. (2009). talent management: key questions for learning and development. training journal, july 2009, 37−41. cordeniz, j.a. (2002). recruitment, retention and management of generation x: a focus on nursing professionals. journal of healthcare management, 47(4), 237−244. creswell, j.w. (2002). educational research: planning, conducting and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. upper saddle river: pearson education. in onwuegbuzie, a.j. & leech, n.l. 2007. a call for qualitative power analysis. quality and quantity, 41, 105−121. creswell, j.w. (2009). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed approaches. 3rd edition. thousand oaks: sage. cunningham, i. (2007). talent management: making it real. development and learning in organizations, 21(2), 4. doi:10.1108/14777280710727307 david, f.r. (2009). strategic management: concepts and cases. upper saddle river: pearson international. dearth of supply chain skills. (2008). business times. retrieved may 25, 2009, from http://bis.hosted.inet.co.za/news demarco, d. (n.d.). 7 strategies to retain gen-x women. retrieved october 30, 2009, from http://hr.blr.com/whitepapers.aspx?id=77349 de vos, a., & meganck, a. (2009). what hr managers do versus what employees value: exploring both parties’ views on retention management from a psychological contract perspective. personnel review, 38(1), 45. doi:10.1108/00483480910920705 dewhurst, s. (2009). does everyone understand what engagement means? strategic communication management, 13(4), 14. dibble, s. (1999). keeping your valuable employees: retention strategies for your organisation’s most important resources. new york: john wiley. dyer, k. (2009). taking employee engagement to new heights. strategic communications management, 13(4), 1. eisenhardt, k.m. (1989). building theories from case study research. academy of management review, 14(4), 532−550. doi:10.2307/258557 fegley, s. (2006). talent management survey report, society for human resource management. retrieved april 13, 2007, from http://www.shrm.org/research fisher, c. (2010). researching and writing a dissertation: an essential guide for business students. 3rd edition. essex: pearson education ltd. flaherty, j. (2005). trainer as a retention agent. training and development, 59(2), 61−64. frank, f.d., finnegan, r.p., & taylor, c.r. (2004). the race for talent: retaining and engaging workers in the 21st century. human resource planning, 27(3), 12−25. grant, r.m. (1996). toward a knowledge-based theory of the firm. strategic management journal, 17(winter special issue), 109−122. grant, r.m. (2010). contemporary strategy analysis. 7th edition. london: palgrave-mcmillan. harvey, d. (2009). talent strategy is vital. personnel today, june 23, 13. hallebone, e., & priest, j. (2009). business and management research: paradigms & practices. london: palgrave macmillan. heinen, j.s., & o’neill, c. (2004). managing talent to maximize performance. employment relations today, 31(2), 67. doi:10.1002/ert.20018 helfat, c.e., & peteraf, m.a. (2003). they dynamic resources-based view: capability lifecycles. strategic management journal, 24(10), 997. doi:10.1002/smj.332 henning, e., van rensburg, w., & smit, b. (2004). finding your way in qualitative research. pretoria: van schaik. hillmer, s., hillmer, b., & mcroberts, g. (2004). the real costs of turnover: lessons from a call centre. human resource planning, 27(3), 34−41. holbeche, l. (2009). aligning human resources and business strategy, 2nd ed. oxford: elsevier. ireland, r.d., hoskisson, r.e., & hitt, m.a. (2009). the management of strategy: concepts and cases. mason: cengage learning. jamrog, j. (2004). the perfect storm: the future of retention and engagement. human resource planning, 27(3), 26−33. jeffrey, a. (2010, 03 june). growth-focussed policies: why sa is doing so badly. moneyweb. retrieved june 04, 2010, from http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page johnson, m. (2002). talent magnet: getting talented people to work for you. london: pearson education. johnson, m. (2004). new rules of engagement: life-work balance and employee commitment. london: chartered institute of personnel development. joseph, d., ng, k., koh, c., & ang, s. (2007). turnover of information technology professionals: a narrative review, meta-analytic structural equation modelling, and model development. mis quarterly, 1(3), 547−577. kerr-phillips, b., & thomas, a. (2009). macro and micro challenges for talent retention in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), 1−10. kesbey, d. (2008). talent management. training journal, december 2008, 34. kontoghiorghes, c., & frangrou, k. (2009). the association between talent retention, antecedent factors and consequent organizational performance. s.a.m. advanced management journal, winter, 74(1), 29−58. kotler, p., & armstrong, g. (2000). principles of marketing. upper saddle river: prentice-hall. lawless, a. (2005). numbers and needs: addressing imbalances in the civil engineering profession. halfway house: south african institution of civil engineering. lee, t.w., & maurer, s.d. (1997). the retention of knowledge workers with the unfolding model of voluntary turnover. human resource management review, 7(3), 247−275. doi:10.1016/s1053-4822(97)90008-5 lewis, r.e., & heckman, r.j. (2006). talent management: a critical review. human resource management review, 16, 139−154. doi:10.1016/j.hrmr.2006.03.001 linne, l. (2009). obtaining and retaining the best talent. rough notes, 152(6), 32−34. lockwood, n.r. (2006). talent management: driver for organizational success. hr magazine, 51(6). meyer, j.p., allen, n., & smith, a.c. (1993). commitment to organizations and occupations: extension and test of a three component conceptualization. journal of applied psychology, 78(4), 538−551. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.78.4.538 meyer, j.p., & smith, c.a. (2000). hrm practices and organizational commitment: test of a mediation model. canadian journal of administrative sciences, 17(4), 319−330. doi:10.1111/j.1936-4490.2000.tb00231.x myers, m. (2009). qualitative research in business and management. thousand oaks: sage. morse, j.v. (1994). the dance of qualitative research designs: metaphor, methodology and meaning. in denzin, n.k., & lincoln, y.s. 1994. handbook of qualitative research. thousand oaks: sage. mosley, v., & hurley, m. (1999). it skill retention. information management & computer security, 7(3), 129−132. doi:10.1108/09685229910279425 munsamy, m., & bosch-venter, a. (2009). retention factors of management staff in the maintenance phase of their careers in local government. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), 1−9. naveen, l. (2000). management turnover and succession planning in firms. arizona state university. department of finance. niewenhuizen, c. (2009). scarcity, requirements and remuneration of applicants with management qualifications in the private-, publicand higher education sectors. journal of contemporary management, 6, 310−234. operation getthehellout. (2008). business day. retrieved april 19, 2009, from http://bis.hosted.inet.co.za/news. accessed on 30 october 2009 parastatals need to fill 6000 jobs (2010, 18 may). cape times. perry, c. (2001). case research in marketing. the marketing review, 1, 303−323. doi:10.1362/1469347002530790 perrine, j.l. (2009). recruitment and retention report: strategies to boost rn retention. nursing management, 40(4), 20−22. doi:10.1097/01.numa.0000349685.24165.21, pmid:19346920 peteraf, m.a. (1993). the cornerstones of competitive advantage: a resource-based view. strategic management journal, 14(3), 179−191. doi:10.1002/smj.4250140303 pfau, b.n., & kay, i.t. (2002). the human capital edge: 21 people management practices your company must implement (or avoid) to maximize shareholder value. new york: mcgraw-hill. pillay, r. (2009). retention strategies for professional nurses in south africa. leadership in health services, 22(1), 39. doi:10.1108/17511870910928010 powell, m.d., & meyer, p. (2004). side bed theory and the three-component model of organizational commitment. journal of vocational behavior, 65, 157−177. doi:10.1016/s0001-8791(03)00050-2 rodriquez, r.o., green, m.t., & ree, m.j. (2003). leading generation x: do the old rules apply? journal of leadership and organisational studies, 9(4), 67−75. doi:10.1177/107179190300900406 rose, d.m., & gordon, r. (2010). retention practices for engineering and technical professionals in an australian public agency. australian journal of public administration, 69(3), 314−325. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8500.2010.00693.x ruch, w. (2000). how to keep gen x employees from becoming x-employees. training and development, 54,40−44. salopek, j.j. (2008). retention buzz. training and development, january, 62(1), 23−25. samuel, m.o., & chipunza, c. (2009). employee retention and turnover: using motivational variables as a panacea. african journal of business management, 3(8), 410−415. schachter, d. (2009). staff retention: preparing for the recovery. information outlook, 13(3), 36−37. sherry, s. (2008). cultivating talent, financial mail, 21 november. retrieved october 30, 2009, from http://bis.hosted.inet.co.za/news shortage of skills across the board. (2008). business day, 23 july. retrieved october 30, 2009, from http://bis.hosted.inet.co.za/news skills shortage is sa’s achilles heel. (2008). financial mail, 1 august. retrieved october 30, 2009, from http://bis.hosted.inet.co.za/news smith, g.p. (2009, 27 october). recruitment and retention strategies: how to attract, keep and motivate today’s workforce. manager wise. retrieved october 27, 2009, from http://bis.hosted.inet.co.za/news accessed taylor, c.r. (2002). the talent focus. training and development, 56(12), 26−31. temkin, s. (2008). quarter of senior manager jobs held by blacks, business day, 2 december. retrieved october 30, 2009, from http://bis.hosted.inet.co.za/news temkin, s. (2009, 16 july). firms put survival ahead of quotas, business day. truss, c., & gratton, l. (1994). strategic human resource management: a conceptual approach. international journal of human resource management, 5(3), 663−686. vaughn, b. (2008). the top 10 incentives to recruit and retain generation x employees. retrieved october 30, 2009, from http://diversitynetwork.dtui.com/members/dtui/blog/view/ vittori, s. (2007). the employment contract and the changed world of work. place unknown: ashgate pub co. western, j.w., & yamamura, j.h. (2006). generational preferences for work environment fit: effects on employee outcomes. career development international, 12(2), 150−161. doi:10.1108/13620430710733631 williams, n. (2008). employers pay price for staff retention failings. personnel today, 15 july, 47. withers, p. (2001). retention strategies that respond to worker value, workforce. retrieved february 27, 2007, from http://www.workforce.com footnotes (back to top) 1.see saratoga institute, 2005, in munsamy & bosch-venter, 2009. 2.see business must resolve dire skills shortage. (2008). business day, 18 november. available at http://bis.hosted.inet.co.za/news; dearth of supply chain skills. (2008). business times, 25 may. available at http://bis.hosted.inet.co.za/news; shortage of skills across the board. (2008). business day, 23 july. available at http://bis.hosted.inet.co.za/news; skills shortage is sa’s achilles heel. (2008). financial mail, 1 august. available at http://bis.hosted.inet.co.za/news. 3.parastatals need to fill 6000 jobs (2010). cape times, 18 may 2010. 4.operation getthehellout. (2008). business day, 19 april. available at http://bis.hosted.inet.co.za/news. reviewer acknowledgement open accesshttp://www.sajhrm.co.za page 1 of 1 sa journal of human resource management recognises the value and importance of the peer reviewer in the overall publication process – not only in shaping the individual manuscript, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank all reviewers who participated in shaping this volume of sa journal of human resource management: adele thomas ameeta jaga amos engelbrecht anton grobler anton schlechter antoni barnard bennie linde boris urban byron adams cara jonker claude-helene mayer cookie govender crizelle els dawie marais dries schreuder ebben van zyl estelle boshoff ewert kleynhans frans maloa frieda koekemoer gary paul gerrit louw hannah osei hartmut von der ohe hendrik lloyd hennie kriek ingrid potgieter jana venter johann burden joey buitendach we appreciate the time taken to perform your review successfully. johannes de beer jurie van vuuren k.p. moalusi leona ungerer letitia van der merwe llewellyn van zyl m.a. themba magda bezuidenhout mandla ndlangamandla marius pretorius mark bussin melinde coetzee michelle may miemsie de jager nadia ferreira nico martins nicole dodd nisha harry noel pearse paul bedu-addo penny abbott pieter grobler rian viviers richard chazuza roslyn de braine rudolf oosthuizen salome vosloo sonia swanepoel talat islam willie chinyamurindi in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for sa journal of human resource management, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on www.sajhrm.co.za for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a reviewer. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at http://www. sajhrm.co.za 2. in your ‘user home’ [http://www.sajhrm. co.za/index.php/sajhrm/ user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest. 3. it is good practice as reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to sa journal of human resource management. please do not hesitate to contact me if you require assistance in performing this task. jana venter submissions@sajhrm.co.za tel: +27 (0)21 975 2602 fax: +27 (0)21 975 4635 sajhrm sa journal of human resource management article information authors: bright mahembe1 amos s. engelbrecht1 francois s. de kock1,2 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology, stellenbosch university, south africa2section of organisational psychology, school of management studies, university of cape town correspondence to: bright mahembe postal address: university of stellenbosch, private bag x01, matieland, stellenbosch, 7602 dates: received: 14 jan. 2013 accepted: 20 may 2013 published: 16 july 2013 how to cite this article: mahembe, b., engelbrecht, a.s., & de kock, f.s. (2013). a confirmatory factor analytic study of a self-leadership measure in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #520, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.520 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. a confirmatory factor analytic study of a self-leadership measure in south africa in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • research problem       • key focus of the study       • research purpose       • contribution to the field       • what will follow    • literature review       • self-leadership theory       • self-leadership strategies       • self-leadership as a global factor       • measurement of self-leadership       • the present study • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instrument: revised self-leadership questionnaire (rslq)       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • preliminary analyses       • missing values       • item analysis       • dimensionality analysis       • confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) results       • second-order confirmatory factor analysis       • model modification indices (first-order model)       • power assessment       • discriminant validity • discussion    • outline of the research results    • practical implications    • limitations of the study and suggestions for future research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors' contributions • references • footnote abstract top ↑ orientation: self-leadership is considered to be essential for effective individual functioning in occupational and academic contexts. the revised self-leadership questionnaire (rslq) is widely utilised for measuring self-leadership, but its psychometric properties have not been established on a south african sample. by implication, important questions also exist about the theoretical structure of self-leadership in the south african context.research purpose: the research aim of this study was to investigate the reliability and factorial validity of the revised self-leadership questionnaire on a south african sample. in doing so, the results of the research would also provide valuable insights into the latent factor structure of the self-leadership construct. motivation for the study: on a practical level, the research sought internal validity evidence for the use of the rslq in the south african context. on a theoretical level, questions remain about the best conceptual representation of self-leadership as a construct. research design, approach and method: the revised self-leadership questionnaire was administered to a non-probability sample of 375 south african young adults. the first and second-order factor structure underlying contemporary models of self-leadership using confirmatory factor analytic techniques was tested. main findings: results showed that the rslq measured self-leadership with suitable reliability and internal validity. all eight subscales had high internal consistency coefficients. confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) of the first and second-order models conclusively demonstrated good factorial validity. practical/managerial implications: the study found that the rslq has good measurement properties for a south african context. academics, practitioners and managers are urged to use the measure in its present form for applications such as leadership development and promoting self-management. contribution/value-addition: the study extends the body of psychometric evidence supporting the use of the revised self-leadership questionnaire in the south african milieu. the researchers have further indicated that self-leadership can be represented by a hierarchical latent factor structure, where a general factor drives more specific dimensions of self-leadership. introduction top ↑ research problem the bulk of studies on the measurement properties of the revised self-leadership questionnaire (rslq) were conducted in the usa, europe and asia (for a review, see houghton et al., 2012); thus it was considered important that local validation of the measure precedes its use in a south african setting. the main research question of the study was thus: is the revised self-leadership questionnaire a reliable and valid measure of self-leadership on a south african sample? by extension, the primary objective of this study was to test the reliability and construct and/or factorial1 validity of the rslq on a south african sample. to the researchers’ knowledge, the rslq has been used locally in a single published study (van zyl, 2008), but the psychometric properties were not reported.aside from psychometric objectives for this study, the researchers were also interested in theoretical and practical issues, for various reasons. firstly, houghton and neck (2002) found that a second-order factor structure, where general self-leadership affects various more specific self-leadership facets, provided a more parsimonious fit to their research data. no other study has replicated this investigation of a possible hierarchical structure for self-leadership. however, a second-order model provides a view of self-leadership that is more ‘harmonious with self-leadership theory’ (houghton & neck, 2002, p. 672). secondly, it is also an open question whether this second-order structure would replicate to a non-western setting found in a developing nation, such as south africa. other studies have shown that african leadership has unique aspects, but also shares common elements with international models (van zyl, 2009). as such, the researchers wanted to test the generalisability of theoretical models of self-leadership to a south african sample. answers to these theoretical questions could also have important practical implications. for example, the choice of best fitting factor structure could influence the way in which self-leadership measures are used in self-leadership training and development. also, these results may impact guidelines for the scoring of the rslq and the interpretation of its scores. for these reasons, a second objective of the present study was to test both a first and second-order factor structure of self-leadership in the sample. key focus of the study self-leadership is a self-influence process through which people seek to direct their cognitions and actions in order to reach desired goals (manz, 1986; manz & neck, 2004), and it is mostly concerned with explaining ways to enhance organisational performance through individual-initiated thinking and acting (diliello & houghton, 2006). this focus has resulted in self-leadership being considered an important contributor to success in occupational and academic settings – a view supported by considerable empirical research. for example, at the individual level, studies consistently show that self-leadership relates to improved work performance (stewart, courtright & manz, 2011) and team role performance (hauschildt & konradt, 2012). self-leadership has also been linked to more specific personal work outcomes, such as enhanced individual innovation and creativity potential (curral & marques-quinteiro, 2009; diliello & houghton, 2006), entrepreneurship (d’intino, goldsby, houghton & neck, 2007) and productivity (birdi et al., 2008). studies show that self-leading employees are better adjusted, more confident (stajkovic & luthans, 1998) and enjoy greater career success (murphy & ensher, 2001; raabe, frese & beehr, 2007). in addition to individual level outcomes, self-leadership exerts its influences at interpersonal and group levels. for instance, self-leadership has been associated empirically with team performance and processes (hauschildt & konradt, 2012; konradt, andressen & ellwart, 2009). in sum, empirical evidence shows that self-leadership plays a critical role in important work outcomes. research purpose despite its relevance for learning and performance at work, the uptake of self-leadership in managerial and academic settings has been hampered by measurement issues (manz & neck, 2004). the shortcomings of early self-leadership research instruments (e.g., anderson & prussia, 1997; cox, 1993; manz, 1993a, 1993b, 1993c) were addressed by houghton and neck (2002), who developed a rslq designed to address these limitations. they argued that the development of self-leadership theory and its application in management practice was being stunted by a lack of commonly agreed-upon and psychometrically rigorous measurement instruments. it follows that more research is needed to assess the measurement properties of the rslq (houghton & neck, 2002), especially when it is applied in new cultural contexts (houghton, dawley & diliello, 2012). contribution to the field the study intended to validate a measure of self-leadership in a south african setting and, at the same time, test the transportability of self-leadership theoretical models. in addition to the potential to facilitate the development and performance of employees and managers at work, self-leadership could have wider socio-economic relevance in developing countries such as south africa. stemming from its nature, self-leadership is a learning competency that could play an important role in transformation on an individual, group, organisational and societal level (van zyl, 2009). a history of segregated development in education and employment (kamps & engelbrecht, 2011) has fostered a lack of opportunities to engage in education or training for certain groups, particularly black people and women (de goede & theron, 2010). as such, human capital in south africa requires ongoing affirmative development of a sustainable nature. a key aspect in affirming individuals, groups and society is to foster self-leadership at various levels. studies show that individual self-leadership is interlinked with higher-level group and organisational self-leadership – it is, essentially, a multilevel construct (stewart et al., 2011). the researchers saw opportunities to utilise the rslq (if it can measure self-leadership appropriately for a local context) in applications that may include both work and non-work uses. what will follow to conclude, the study sought to test the psychometric properties of a self-leadership measure as well as the underlying theoretical model of the construct in the south african context to answer both applied and theoretical reasons. next, the key literature that informs this investigation will be discussed. an overview of the study method, results and discussion will be provided later on before concluding with recommendations for use in practice and research. literature review self-leadership theory self-leadership can be defined as a self-influence process through which people achieve the self-direction and self-motivation necessary to perform (manz & neck, 2004). self-leadership comprises behavioural and cognitive strategies that positively influence personal effectiveness (neck & houghton, 2006). self-leadership theory draws from several psychological theories that include: self-control theory (cautela, 1969; thoresen & mahoney, 1974), social learning theory (bandura, 1977) and the notion of self-management and self-regulation (carver & scheier, 1981; kanfer, 1970).according to self-leadership theory, achievement of personal effectiveness is a function of three primary self-leadership strategies comprising behaviour-focused, natural reward and constructive thought pattern strategies (manz, 1986; manz & neck, 2004). these strategies will be discussed next. self-leadership strategies behaviour-focused strategies: behaviour-focused self-leadership strategies are designed to encourage positive, desirable behaviours that lead to successful outcomes, whilst suppressing negative, undesirable behaviours that lead to unsuccessful outcomes (neck & houghton, 2006). behaviour-focused strategies include using self-goal setting, self-observation, self-cueing, self-reward and self-punishment (or constructive self-feedback) (manz & neck, 2004). behaviour-focused strategies raise awareness of when and why individuals engage in specific behaviours. as such, the resulting self-awareness is a critical precondition for changing or eliminating ineffective and inefficient behaviours. self-goal setting enables the focused action that is required to achieve behaviour change. if these goals are achieved, self-rewards may be applied by the individual when, for example, mentally congratulating oneself for an important accomplishment, or imparting a physical reward as a ‘prize’ for completing a difficult project. similarly, individuals who apply self-leadership using behaviour-focused strategies would also self-punish as a means to discourage negative behaviour that results in undesirable consequences they recognise.natural reward strategies: natural reward strategies are designed to enhance the intrinsic motivation vital for performance (manz & neck, 2004). they increase the subjective experience of competence and self-determination through the enhancement of, and focus on, enjoyable task features (alves et al., 2006). people apply two primary natural reward strategies because they are motivated by inherently enjoyable aspects of the task or activity, namely (1) building more pleasant and enjoyable features into a given activity so that the task itself becomes naturally rewarding, or (2) shaping one’s own perceptions by focusing attention away from the unpleasant aspects of a task and refocusing it on the task’s inherently rewarding aspects (manz & neck, 2004; neck & houghton, 2006). essentially, the former strategy represents changing the task itself in order to make it better, whilst the latter involves cognitive reframing of the task in order to make it seem better. constructive thought strategies: in contrast to behaviour-focused or reward-focused strategies, constructive thought strategies facilitate the formation of constructive thought patterns and habitual ways of thinking that may positively impact performance (neck & houghton, 2006). being geared towards the creation of positive thinking, constructive thought strategies attempt to reduce dysfunctional beliefs, assumptions and negative self-talk, whilst also increasing positive self-image (alves et al., 2006). individuals apply constructive thought strategies when they engage in visualising performance, engage in positive self-talk, and examine individual beliefs and assumptions to align cognitions with desired behaviour (neck & manz, 1996; neck, stewart & manz, 1995). criticism against the self-leadership notion: despite intuitive appeal and substantial research support, questions have been raised about the notion of self-leadership. firstly, is self-leadership not simply a recasting of individual difference variables included as a part of existing personality constructs, such as conscientiousness? secondly, other authors have questioned the uniqueness of self-leadership strategies, because they are founded upon, and operate within, the context of other established theories of self-regulation, motivation and self-influence (guzzo, 1998; markham & markham, 1995, 1998). houghton et al. (2012, p. 220), in response to these criticisms, emphasised that self-leadership is a normative or prescriptive model rather than a deductive or descriptive theory. normative theories, such as self-leadership, are prescriptive and emphasise how something should be done, whereas descriptive theories seek to explain the basic operation of various phenomena without giving normative information for applying an approach. the conceptual distinction between self-leadership and other theories has been a subject of persistent debates (see neck & houghton, 2006, for a review). it therefore remains important to consider the possibility that specific self-leadership strategies are distinct from general dimensions that may underlie their operation. whilst self-leadership consists of a particular set of behavioural and cognitive strategies that are based upon, and related to, other theories of personality, motivation, and self-influence, such as self-regulation theory and social cognitive theory, self-leadership strategies remain distinct from these approaches (neck & houghton, 2006). self-leadership as a global factor when considering the domains within which self-leadership may occur, namely thought, behaviour and reward, it becomes evident that self-leadership may represent a dynamic interaction of cognitive, behavioural and affective elements all geared towards self-influencing the actions of the individual. contemporary views that attempt to explain behaviour adopt systems approaches that incorporate elements that span across different domains of functioning. for example, the cognitive-affective system theory of personality (mischel & shoda, 1995) proposes that stable systems mediate how individuals select, construe and process information before generating behaviours. these interdependent systems encompass the respective domains of thinking about behaviour, feelings toward these behaviours and, lastly, engaging and disengaging in behaviours. following this interdependence logic, it can be speculated that self-leadership strategies that focus on behaviour, natural reward and constructive thought are influenced by an underlying, general predisposition to influence the self. if a general latent dimension of self-leadership exists, then it would be observed as a single underlying factor driving self-leadership strategies, such as those outlined above. as such, a hierarchical view of self-leadership is proposed where a general self-leadership predisposition influences the operation of specific self-leadership strategies (see figure 1). one of the aims of the study was to test the possibility that self-leadership may be represented as a hierarchical construct – a view that would be harmonious with self-leadership theory (houghton & neck, 2002). figure 1: the rslq second-order confirmatory factor analysis path diagram indicating eight first-order factors loading onto a single second-order self-leadership factor. measurement of self-leadership although research evidence suggests that self-leadership is an important organisational pre-requisite for effective individual-initiated functioning, its uptake and potential contribution has been marred by the lack of a universal and psychometrically sound research instrument to measure the construct (houghton et al., 2012). manz (1993a, 1993b, 1993c) first developed items to measure both self-leadership and self-management at the individual level. the scales were designed to capture dimensions of both self-management and self-leadership, although aspects of self-leadership such as constructive thought were still not yet fully developed in this instrument (neck & houghton, 2006; stewart et al., 2011). at about the same time, cox (1993) developed and tested a 34-item unpublished self-leadership questionnaire (slq), with eight unique factors (by principle components analysis) labelled as: self-problem-solving initiative, self-efficacy, teamwork, self-reward, self-goal setting, natural rewards, opportunity thought and self-observation or evaluation.building on the work of manz (1993a, 1993b, 1993c), anderson and prussia (1997) made further developments to the slq, based largely on earlier prototypes (e.g., manz, 1992; manz & sims, 1991). content validation of their initial 90-item slq resulted in 50 items which measured ten factors falling into three dominant categories: behaviour-focused strategies, natural reward strategies, and creating constructive thought pattern strategies. the ten factors were labelled as: self-goal setting, self-reward, self-punishment, self-observation, self-cueing and self-withholding, focusing thoughts on natural rewards, visualising successful performance, self-talk and evaluating beliefs and assumptions. the first six factors represent an individual’s behaviour-focused strategies, one factor (focusing thoughts on natural rewards) represents the natural rewards obtained from self-leadership, and the remaining three factors evaluate the constructive thought pattern strategies of self-leadership. however, the major drawback of their measure was that several items loaded on the wrong factor and/or demonstrated slightly above threshold cross-loadings with other factors (houghton & neck, 2002). attempts to validate the instrument on a second sample indicated that the focusing thoughts on natural rewards subscale showed inadequate internal consistency (α = 0.62), implying significant instability of reliability across samples for the subscale (anderson & prussia, 1997). the revised self-leadership questionnaire (rslq) (houghton & neck, 2002) attempted to further refine the psychometric properties of the original slq because of the shortcomings already discussed. the rslq was created by eliminating or rewriting ambiguous items from the slq (anderson & prussia, 1997) and by integrating additional items from the previously unpublished self-leadership assessment instrument (cox, 1993). the rslq consists of 35 items in nine subscales, representing three self-leadership dimensions, namely: behaviour-focused, natural reward, and constructive thought dimensions. the behaviour-focused dimension is made up of five subscales: self-goal setting; self-reward; self-punishment; self-observation and self-cueing. the natural reward dimension consists of one subscale, whilst the constructive thought dimension has three subscales: visualising successful performance; self-talk; and evaluating beliefs and assumptions. the rslq has shown a greater degree of reliability and construct validity than earlier measures (e.g., the slq of anderson & prussia, 1997). exploratory factor analytic studies by houghton and neck (2002) supported the three-dimensional structure of the rslq. these authors also conducted confirmatory factor analysis of a hierarchical model, but although a second-order solution was confirmed, the generalisability of their results to other samples has not been determined. despite questions about the best way to conceptualise self-leadership (e.g., hierarchically versus a first-order factor structure), the applications of the rslq suggest that it is an effective self-leadership measure with the potential to facilitate more empirical self-leadership research (curral & marques-quinteiro, 2009; houghton & jinkerson, 2007). moreover, the rslq has been translated into a number of foreign languages, including chinese (ho & nesbit, 2009; neubert & wu, 2006), portuguese (curral & marques-quinteiro, 2009), turkish (dogan & sahin, 2008), hebrew (carmeli, meitar & weisberg, 2006), and german (andressen & konradt, 2007). the translated versions of the rslq further confirm the original findings by houghton and neck (2002) and give additional evidence of the measure’s cross-cultural validity (houghton et al., 2012). however, the english measure’s properties have not been investigated in the south african context. although the rslq has been administered in a south african setting (e.g., van zyl, 2008), its reliability and construct validity was not reported. the present study the study attempted to test the psychometric properties of the rslq on a south african sample, with two primary objectives in mind. first, more research was needed on the reliability and validity of the rslq before it could be used in applied and research settings in south africa. as a result, the researchers hypothesised that the rslq would show acceptable reliability and good model fit in a south african sample.second, important questions remain about the theoretical structure of self-leadership internationally, but also in a south african setting. more specifically, the researchers wanted to determine whether or not a second-order model (that includes a general self-leadership factor) would represent the self-leadership construct better than a first-order factor structure (where self-leadership consists of three subcomponents). in sum, the researchers hypothesised that a second-order factor model (with a single self-leadership dimension affecting three self-leadership sub-dimensions and subsequent observed variables) would fit the data better than a first-order model (three sub-dimensions affecting the observed variables). research design top ↑ research approach a quantitative survey design was used to achieve the research objectives. a cross-sectional correlational study design was required to obtain data for confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) and structural equation modelling (sem). common source bias – a typical threat in studies using this type of research design – was not considered a threat in this study, as the researchers measured only a single variable (i.e., self-leadership) and its components. research method research participants the study used young adults studying full-time at a south african university. using a non-probability sampling strategy, 400 questionnaires were distributed to participants and 375 completed questionnaires were returned. the resulting response rate was very high (93.75%) because research questionnaires were administered in class, with voluntary participation. the demographic characteristics of the sample are shown in table 1. the sample consisted of 248 female (66.1%) and 127 male (33.9%) participants. the majority (54.4%) fell in the age category between 21 and 30 years. the ethnic distribution in the sample was white people (75.2%), mixed race people (16%) and black people (7.7%). the majority (86.4%) of respondents had a matric qualification as the highest level of education. table 1: sample description. measuring instrument: revised self-leadership questionnaire (rslq) self-leadership was measured using the revised self-leadership questionnaire (rslq) (houghton & neck, 2002). the rslq is a self-report measure that contains 35 item statements rated by means of a 5-point likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all accurate), 2 (somewhat accurate), 3 (a little accurate), 4 (mostly accurate) and 5 (completely accurate). the rslq items comprise nine subscales categorised into three groups.behaviour-focused self-leadership: behaviour-focused self-leadership was measured with five subscales identified as self-goal setting (five items), self-reward (three items), self-punishment (four items), self-observation (four items) and self-cueing (two items). constructive thought self-leadership: constructive thought self-leadership was measured with three subscales comprising visualising successful performance (five items), self-talk (three items) and evaluating beliefs and assumptions (four items). the self-punishment subscale was excluded from the analyses as advised by jeffery houghton (j. houghton, personal communication, 31 march, 2011). natural reward self-leadership: natural reward self-leadership was measured with a single five-item scale. earlier studies (e.g., houghton & neck, 2002) have shown generally acceptable cronbach’s alpha internal consistency coefficients of the nine underlying subscales (0.74 to 0.93) and factor stability across samples. research procedure permission for the research was obtained from the participating institution’s research ethics committee. after briefing participants about the aim of the study, they received a composite questionnaire, which included a covering letter and a biographical section. the covering letter introduced the reason for the study and instructions and provided information concerning the participants’ rights to voluntary participation. informed consent was sought from the participants before completion of the questionnaires and confidentiality of the information or data obtained was maintained. no potential hazards to participants were envisaged in the study. statistical analysis the data were analysed with confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) and structural equation modelling (sem). cfa is usually performed to test the measurement model underlying a measure, whilst the structural model is tested with sem. sem helps to explain the patterns of covariances found amongst the observed variables in terms of the relationships hypothesised by both the measurement and structural models (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). these techniques represent the best multivariate procedures for testing both the construct validity and theoretical relationships amongst a set of concepts represented by multiple measured variables (hair, black, babin & anderson, 2010). the researchers decided to adopt a confirmatory analytic technique instead of employing exploratory factor analysis (efa). whereas efa searches for structure amongst variables by allowing loadings between every observed variable (i.e., item or item parcel) and every factor (i.e., scale), in cfa, the full measurement model is specified a priori as an effort to achieve a much stronger test of the measurement theory underlying a measure (williams, vandenberg & edwards, 2009). as such, cfa is generally considered more appropriate for theory testing than efa (hair et al., 2010). lisrel 8.80 (du toit & du toit, 2001) was used to perform a first and second-order confirmatory factor analysis on the rslq to determine the fit of the models. robust maximum likelihood (rml) estimation was used to estimate the parameters set free in the model because of the lack of multivariate normality in the data (jöreskog & sörbom, 1996; mels, 2003). results top ↑ preliminary analyses missing values in order to ensure that all cases formed part of the analyses, the researchers analysed the extent of missing values. there were very few missing values and these had no obvious pattern. the use of imputation by matching resulted in an effective sample size of 373 cases, with only two cases being lost (jöreskog & sörbom, 1996). item analysis item analysis using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) reliability procedure (ibm corporation, 2011) was performed on the items of the revised self-leadership questionnaire. all subscales showed high (α > 0.80) (nunnally, 1978) coefficient alpha values, except for two subscales (evaluating beliefs and assumptions and focusing thoughts on natural rewards) which were slightly below 0.80. a summary of the internal consistency reliability coefficients is shown in table 2, where alphas are reported in the diagonal (in bold). table 2: descriptive statistics and inter-correlations of subscale scores of the revised self-leadership questionnaire. dimensionality analysis to confirm the uni-dimensionality of each scale prior to cfa (williams et al., 2009), unrestricted principal axis factor analyses with direct oblimin rotation were performed on each of the eight revised self-leadership questionnaire (rslq) subscales, each representing a facet of the multi-dimensional self-leadership construct. the eigenvalue-greater-than-unity rule of thumb was used to determine the number of factors to extract. all eight sub-scales of the rslq were found to be uni-dimensional. all factor loadings were acceptable (> 0.30) and variance explained in each factor was satisfactory (> 40%). the results are presented in table 3. it must be noted that the aim of the efa was to assess dimensionality of each scale and not to explore the factor structure of the rslq across dimensions, which would have been inappropriate if cfa was to follow (hair et al., 2010). table 3: exploratory factor analysis output for the rslq self-leadership dimensions. confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) results first-order confirmatory factor analysis: the goodness-of-fit index (gfi) indices for the first-order measurement model are displayed in table 4. in the model tested here, the eight subscales were hypothesised to represent latent factors that cause variance in their respective indicator variables. the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) of 0.04 indicated good (close) fit, with 90% cis [0.03; 0.04] indicating that the hypothesis of close fit was not rejected at p = 0.01. the absolute, relative and comparative indices all indicated acceptable model fit, goodness-of-fit (gfi) = 0.89, normed fit index (nfi) = 0.97, comparative fit index (cfi) = 0.99. table 4: goodness-of-fit indices obtained for the measurement and structural models. the standardised factor loadings (see table 5) were generally significant and substantial (> 0.5), except for one item (item 8) with a relatively low loading (0.36) on its hypothesised latent factor, that is, focusing thoughts on natural rewards. as is evident, all items were reasonable indicators of their respective latent factors. table 5: factor loading estimatesa for self-leadership measurement model (first-order). the latent correlations amongst the eight rslq dimensions are given in table 6. these correlations essentially reflect the correlations between the eight rslq subscales corrected for the attenuating effect of (random and systematic) measurement error. the correlations are within reasonable limits (0.29 < r < 0.76), as high values (> 0.90) may have indicated severe multi-collinearity (tabachnick & fidell, 2001). table 6: inter-correlations between latent rslq dimensions, average variance extracted (ave) and shared variance estimates. second-order confirmatory factor analysis next, the researchers tested a second-order hierarchical model, where a single self-leadership latent dimension was hypothesised to affect the eight remaining sub-dimensions of self-leadership, which, in turn, would cause variance in their respective observed variables (see figure 1). the results of the second-order cfa indicated that the data fit the model well (see table 4), rmsea = 0.04 (90% cis: 0.03; 0.04), gfi = 0.88, nfi = 0.96, cfi = 0.99. although the value for the standardised root mean squared residual (rmr) (0.06) marginally missed the 0.05 cut-off indicative of good fit, the other goodness-of-fit indices (see table 4) indicated good fit of the second-order model with the data. the resulting fit indices suggest that a second-order model is a reasonable representation of the self-leadership construct, supporting the results of houghton and neck (2002).the unstandardised gamma matrix (see table 7) was used to assess the significance of the estimated path coefficients (γij,) expressing the strength of the influence of the general self-leadership factor on the eight latent self-leadership facets. in this table, the gamma parameters are significant if t > │1.96│ (p < 0.05) (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). judging from the t-values (all > 1.96) general self-leadership appears to have a positive and significant influence on all the sub-facets of self-leadership. table 7: latent variable intercorrelations between second-order self-leadership and first-order factors (unstandardised gamma matrix). model modification indices (first-order model) the aim of the model modification indices is to determine whether any of the currently fixed parameters, when freed in the model, would significantly improve the parsimonious fit of the model. modification indices indicate the extent to which the chi-square fit statistic decreases when a currently fixed parameter in the model is freed and the model re-estimated (jöreskog & sörbom, 1993). according to the modification indices, consideration should be given to the possibility of a number of cross-loadings between items and factors other than those they were designed to measure. for example, fit would increase if item 16 loaded on the visualising successful performance dimension and having items three, 14 and 29 loaded on the self-goal setting dimension. consideration should also be given to the possibility of having items three, 10, 21, 27 and 28 loaded on the evaluating beliefs and assumptions dimension and having items 10 and 27 loaded on the self-observation dimension. however, the magnitudes of the expected completely standardised parameter changes (i.e., the expected factor loading estimates that would be obtained if the currently fixed parameters would be set free) associated with the fixed parameters in this matrix do not warrant setting any of these parameters free, with a few exceptions. item 29 could be freed to load onto self-goal setting; 21, 27, and 28 onto evaluating beliefs and assumptions and item 27 onto self-observation. however, to justify freeing the identified items, a convincing theoretical argument would have to be offered to explain why the items should be regarded as also reflecting latent dimensions and why the factor loading could be expected to be positive. a close look at the rslq items identified above shows that, although the modification indices point to the direction of including the items as indicators of the latent variables that they are also loading on, it does not make theoretical sense to do so. power assessment a rweb (1.03) translation of the statistical analysis system (sas) syntax provided by preacher and coffman (2006) was used to derive the power estimates for the tests of exact and close fit. in the study, a significance level (a) of 0.05, a sample size of 373 and the degree of freedom (df) in the structural model (second-order model) were used for calculations. a resulting power value of 1 for the tests of exact fit and close fit implies that, under the conditions that characterised this specific study, approximately 100% of incorrect models would be rejected. this boosts confidence in the model. discriminant validity farrell (2010) presented a method for assessing the discriminant validity of two or more factors by comparing the average variance extracted (ave) of each construct with the shared variance between constructs. the ave reflects the average proportion of variance in the indicator variables that is accounted for by the latent variable that the indicator variables were tasked to represent (diamantopoulos & sigauw, 2000). if the ave for each construct is greater than its shared variance with any other construct, discriminant validity is supported. in this case, two of the shared variance estimates were marginally greater than the average variance extracted estimates for each of the constructs (see table 6). however, the use of 95% confidence intervals utilising an excel macro developed by scientific software international (mels, 2010) indicated that all the eight latent variables show discriminant validity as none of the 28 confidence intervals include unity. discussion top ↑ the objective of the study was to contribute to the international research on the revised self-leadership questionnaire (houghton & neck, 2002) by testing the reliability and construct validity of the rslq on a south african sample. outline of the research results all the subscales with the exception of the focusing thoughts on natural rewards and evaluating beliefs and assumptions subscales had reliability coefficients above 0.8. first-order cfa confirmed the relationships between the observed variables comprising the eight latent variables of self-leadership. the results indicate that the rslq demonstrated sufficient factorial and/or construct validity. the second-order cfa confirmed that the eight self-leadership factors contributed to an overall self-leadership construct.based on the outcomes of the current study using a south african sample of young adults, it can be concluded that the revised self-leadership questionnaire showed good reliability, discriminant and factorial validity. this outcome is consistent with the findings reported in several other studies conducted in different countries such as china (ho & nesbit, 2009; neubert & wu, 2006), portugal (curral & marques-quinteiro, 2009), turkey (dogan & sahin, 2008), and germany (andressen & konradt, 2007). practical implications the study contributes to practice by confirming the sound psychometric properties of the rslq on a south african setting. the study also contributes to the advancement of the use of valid and reliable instruments as legislatively required (e.g., employment equity act [no. 55 of 1998], republic of south africa, 1998) in south africa.the results of the study suggest that the rslq was able to measure self-leadership reasonably well in a south african sample. the measure appeared to render scores with an underlying theoretical structure that conforms to the proposed first and second-order structures of self-leadership. as such, the researchers recommend that practitioners and researchers utilise the current measure in its present form. however, more work is needed to replicate the researchers’ findings in other populations, such as with working adults. the study highlighted some possible weaknesses in some of the subscales, especially in the shorter measures. future studies should develop some of the shorter subscales (e.g., self-cueing, self-reward and self-talk) in order to ensure that the underlying constructs are adequately measured in terms of breadth and depth of their respective content domains. limitations of the study and suggestions for future research the study had limitations which should be acknowledged. first, the study findings cannot be generalised to the broader population of working adults without further replication. the sample that was used consisted of mostly young adults (21–30 years) in the student role and, despite its adequate gender balance, it does not fully represent the demographic profile of south africans from an ethnicity point of view. as such, more research is needed on the structure of self-leadership in a more demographically balanced sample. the researchers are also not sure that the measurement and structural models would fit equally well when comparing different cultural groups. with measurement invariance across cultures being such an important question in south african applied psychology, the researchers urge more work on the equivalence of the rslq on a multicultural south african sample. also, an item bias analysis could indicate whether all items function equally well from an equivalence point of view. however, despite these recommendations, extant findings suggest that self-leadership measures transport relatively well across cultures (e.g., ho & nesbit, 2009; neck & houghton, 2006).lastly, there is a need to replicate the study using a sample made up of employees in the public and private sectors to see if similar results would be obtained. future studies should attempt to draw probability samples from larger, more general populations in order to increase the generalisability of the results. conclusion the psychometric evaluation of the rslq in the study indicates good reliability and factorial validity. overall, the results of this study are in line with international research regarding the psychometric properties of the rslq. the researchers also extend this research by showing that the factor structure of self-leadership may be hierarchical in nature, where general self-leadership ‘causes’ self-leadership in specific forms, as measured by the facets of the rslq.the rslq may prove to be an effective self-leadership measure with much potential to facilitate empirical self-leadership research and practice. the researchers urge practitioners to use the rslq to promote self-leadership as a means to enhance both job and academic performance. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they had no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions b.m. (stellenbosch university) was the project leader responsible for the data collection, statistical analyses and write-up of the article, whilst a.s.e. (stellenbosch university) and f.d.k. (who was working at stellenbosch university at the time of the study, now at the university of cape town) contributed to the write-up of the article. references top ↑ alves, j.c., lovelace, k.l., manz, c.c., matsypura, d., toyasaki, f., & ke, k.g. (2006). cross-cultural perspective of self-leadership. journal of managerial psychology, 21(4), 338–359. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940610663123 anderson, j.s., & prussia, g.e. (1997). the self-leadership questionnaire: preliminary assessment of construct validity. the journal of leadership studies, 4(2), 119–143. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/107179199700400212 andressen, p., & konradt, u. (2007). measuring self-leadership: psychometric test of the german version of the revised self-leadership questionnaire. zeitschrift fur personalpsychologie, 6, 117–128. http://dx.doi.org/10.1026/1617-6391.6.3.117 bandura, a. (1977). self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioural change. psychological review, 84, 191–215. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.84.2.191, pmid:847061 birdi, k., clegg, c., patterson, m., robinson, a., stride, c., wall, t., & wood, s. (2008). the impact of human resource and operational management practices on company productivity: a longitudinal study. personnel psychology, 61(3), 467–501. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2008.00136.x carmeli, a., meitar, r., & weisberg, j. (2006). self-leadership skills and innovative behaviour at work. international journal of manpower, 27, 75–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437720610652853 carver, c.s., & scheier, m.f. (1981). attention and self-regulation: a control theory approach to human behaviour. new york: springer-verlag. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/z978-1-4612-5887-2 cautela, j.r. (1969). behaviour therapy and self-control: techniques and applications. in c.m. franks (ed.). behavioural therapy: appraisal and status (pp. 323–340). new york: mcgraw-hill. cox, j.f. (1993). the effects of super-leadership training on leader behaviour, subordinate self-leadership behaviour, and subordinate citizenship. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of maryland, college park, md. curral, l., & marques-quinteiro, p. (2009). self-leadership and work role innovation: testing a mediation model with goal orientation and work motivation. revista de psicologıa del trabajo y de las organizaciones, 25(2), 163–174. http://dx.doi.org/10.4321/s1576-59622009000200006 d’intino, r.s., goldsby, m.g., houghton, j.d., & neck, c.p. (2007). self-leadership: a process for entrepreneurial success. journal of leadership and organisational studies, 13(4), 105–120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10717919070130040101 de goede, j., & theron, c.c. (2010). an investigation into the internal structure of the learning potential construct as measured by the apil-b test battery. management dynamics, 19(4), 30–55. diamantopoulos, a., & siguaw, j.a. (2000). introducing lisrel. london: sage. pmcid:1298088 diliello, t.c., & houghton, j.d. (2006). maximizing organisational leadership capacity for the future: toward a model of self-leadership, innovation and creativity. journal of managerial psychology, 21(4), 319–337. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940610663114 dogan, s., & sahin, f. (2008). a study of reliability, validity and adaptation of revised self-leadership questionnaire-rslq to turkish context. journal of economics and administrative sciences, 26, 139–164. du toit, m., & du toit, s.h.c. (2001). interactive lisrel: user’s guide. lincolnwood, il: scientific software international. pmcid:1729816 farrell, a.m. (2010). insufficient discriminant validity: a comment on bove, pervan, beatty and shu. business research, 63, 324–327. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2009.05.003 guzzo, r.a. (1998). leadership, self-management, and levels of analysis. in f. dansereau, & f.j. yammarino (eds.). leadership: the multiple-level approaches, classical and new wave (pp. 213–219). stanford, ct: jai press. hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2010). multivariate data analysis: a global perspective (7th edn.). upper saddle river, new jersey: pearson. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmva.2009.12.014 hauschildt, k., & konradt, u. (2012). the effect of self-leadership on work role performance in teams. leadership, 8(2), 145–168. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1742715011429588 ho, j., & nesbit, p.l. (2009). a refinement and extension of the self-leadership scale for the chinese context. journal of managerial psychology, 24(5), 450–476. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940910959771 houghton, j.d., dawley, d., & diliello, t.c. (2012). the abbreviated self-leadership questionnaire (aslq): a more concise measure of self-leadership. international journal of leadership studies, 7(2), 216–232. houghton, j.d., & jinkerson, d.l. (2007). constructive thought strategies and job satisfaction: a preliminary examination. journal of business and psychology, 22(1), 45–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10869-007-9046-9 houghton, j.d., & neck, c.p. (2002). the revised self-leadership questionnaire: testing a hierarchical factor structure for self-leadership. journal of managerial psychology, 17(8), 672–691. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940210450484 ibm corporation. (2011). ibm spss statistics for windows, version 20.0. armonk, new york: ibm corp. jöreskog, k.g., & sörbom, d. (1993). lisrel 8: structural equation modelling with the simplis command language. united states of america: scientific software international, inc. jöreskog, k.g., & sörbom, d. (1996). lisrel 8: user’s reference guide. chicago: scientific software international. pmid:9010656 kamps, j.m., & engelbrecht, a.s. (2011). the influence of emotional intelligence on diversity complexity cognition and the attitude towards diversity. south african journal of business management, 42(3), 37–48. kanfer, f.h. (1970). self-regulation: research, issues, and speculation. in c. neuringer, & j.l. michael (eds.), behaviour modification in clinical psychology (pp. 178–220). new york: appleton-century-crofts. konradt, u., andressen, p., & ellwart, t. (2009). self-leadership in organisational teams: a multilevel analysis of moderators and mediators. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 18(3), 322–346. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594320701693225 manz, c.c. (1986). self-leadership: toward an expanded theory of self-influence processes in organisations. academy of management review, 11(3), 585–600. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/258312, http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1986.4306232 manz, c.c. (1992). mastering self-leadership: empowering yourself for personal excellence. englewood cliffs, new jersey: prentice-hall. manz, c.c. (1993a). the art of positive psyching: skills for establishing constructive thinking patterns. king of prussia, pa: organization design and development. pmcid:182271 manz, c.c. (1993b). becoming a self-manager: skills for addressing difficult, unattractive, but necessary tasks. king of prussia, pa: organization design and development. pmcid:182271 manz, c.c. (1993c). redesigning the way you do your job: skills for building natural motivation into your work. king of prussia, pa: organization design and development. pmcid:182271 manz, c.c., & neck, c.p. (2004). mastering self-leadership: empowering yourself for personal excellence (3rd edn.). upper saddle river, new jersey: prentice-hall. manz, c.c., & sims, h.p. (1991). super-leadership: beyond the myth of heroic leadership. organisational dynamics, 19(4), 18–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(91)90051-a markham, s.e., & markham, i.s. (1995). self-management and self-leadership re-examined: a levels of analysis perspective. leadership quarterly, 6, 343–359. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/1048-9843(95)90013-6 markham, s.e., & markham, i.s. (1998). self-management and self-leadership re-examined: a levels of analysis perspective. in f. dansereau, & f.j. yammarino (eds.), leadership: the multiple-level approaches, classical and new wave (pp. 193–210). stanford, ct: jai press. mels, g. (2003). a workshop on structural equation modelling with lisrel 8.54 for windows. university of port elizabeth. mels, g. (2010). structural equation modelling with lisrel 9 for windows. chicago: scientific software international. mischel, w., & shoda, y. (1995). a cognitive-affective system theory of personality: reconceptualizing situations, dispositions, dynamics, and invariance in personality structure. psychological review, 102(2), 246–268. murphy, s.e., & ensher, e.a. (2001). the role of mentoring support and self-management strategies on reported career outcomes. journal of career development, 27(4), 229–246. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1007866919494 neck, c.p., & houghton, j.d. (2006). two decades of self-leadership theory and research: past developments, present trends, and future possibilities. journal of managerial psychology, 21(4), 270–295. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940610663097 neck, c.p., & manz, c.c. (1996). thought self-leadership: the impact of mental strategies training on employee behaviour, cognition, and emotion. journal of organisational behaviour, 17(5), 445–467. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199609)17:5<445::aid-job770>3.3.co;2-e, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199609)17:5<445::aid-job770>3.0.co;2-n neck, c.p., stewart, g., & manz, c.c. (1995). thought self-leadership as a framework for enhancing the performance of performance appraisers. journal of applied behavioural science, 31(3), 278–302. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0021886395313004 neubert, m.j., & wu, j.c. (2006). an investigation of the generalisability of the houghton and neck revised self-leadership questionnaire to a chinese context. journal of managerial psychology, 21(4), 360–373. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940610663132 nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory. new york: mcgraw-hill. preacher, k.j., & coffman, d.l. (2006). computing power and minimum sample size for rmsea [computer software]. available from http://quantpsy.org/ raabe, b., frese, m., & beehr, t.a. (2007). action regulation theory and career self-management. journal of vocational behaviour, 70(2), 297–311. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2006.10.005 republic of south africa. (1998, october 19). employment equity act. government gazette, no. 19370. stajkovic, a.d., & luthans, f. (1998). self-efficacy and work related performance: a meta-analysis. psychological bulletin, 124(2), 240–261. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.124.2.240 stewart, g.l., courtright, s.h., & manz, c.c. (2011). self-leadership: a multilevel review. journal of management, 37(1), 185–222. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206310383911 tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2001). using multivariate statistics (4th ed.). needham heights, ma: allyn & bacon. pmid:16705786 thoresen, c.e., & mahoney, m.j. (1974). behavioural self-control. new york: holt, rinehart & winston. pmid:16795484, pmcid:1311681 van zyl, e. (2008). the relation between stress and self-leadership characteristics among a group of first-line supervisors working in a state organisation. tydskrif vir geesteswetenskappe, 48, 454–466. van zyl, e. (2009). self-leadership and leadership development. in e. van zyl (ed.), leadership in the african context (pp. 81–96). cape town: juta. williams, l.j., vandenberg, r.j., & edwards, j.r. (2009). structural equations modeling in management research: a guide for improved analysis. the academy of management annals, 3(1), 543–604. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19416520903065683 footnote top ↑ 1. construct validity is generally seen as a broader term encompassing factorial validity. although the terms are technically distinct, we use them interchangeably in the study. article information authors: caren b. scheepers1 johannes g. shuping1 affiliations: 1gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa correspondence to: caren scheepers email: caren.scheepers@irodo.com postal address: po box 38197, faerie glen, pretoria 0043, south africa dates: received: 12 may 2010 accepted: 24 feb. 2011 published: 16 aug. 2011 how to cite this article: scheepers, c., & shuping, j. (2011). the effect of human resource practices on psychological contracts at an iron ore mining company in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #302, 19 pages. doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.302 copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) the effect of human resource practices on psychological contracts at an iron ore mining company in south africa in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction • literature review    • psychological contracts    • human resource practices • research proposals • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • demographics    • conclusions for proposal 1 – four types of psychological contracts exist in the organisation: transactional, transitional, balanced and relational       • perceptions of employees’ obligations       • perceptions of employer’s obligations       • comparisons between the employees’ and the employer’s obligations       • findings on the types of psychological contracts    • findings for proposals 2–5 on the relationship between human resource practices and types of psychological contracts • discussion    • proposal 1    • proposal 2    • proposal 3    • proposal 4    • proposal 5 • summary    • limitations of the study    • recommendations for further research    • conclusions • references abstract (back to top) orientation: human resource practices influence the psychological contract between employee and employer and, ultimately, organisational performance. research purpose: the objective of this study was to examine the effect of human resource practices on the types of psychological contracts in an iron ore mining company in south africa empirically. motivation for the study: although there have been a number of conceptual studies on the effect of human resource practices on psychological contracts, there has been no effort to synthesise the links between these contracts and various human resource practices systematically. this study endeavoured to provide quantitative evidence to verify or refute conceptual studies on this relationship. its findings could inform human resource strategies and, ultimately, the prioritisation of human resource practices to improve the cost-effective allocation of resources. research design, approach and method: the researchers administered two questionnaires. these were rousseau’s psychological contract inventory (2000) and the human resource practices scale of geringer, colette and milliman (2002). the researchers conducted the study with 936 knowledge workers at an iron ore mining company in south africa. they achieved a 32% response rate. main findings: the findings showed that most participants have relational contracts with the organisation. another 22% have balanced contracts, 8% have transitional contracts whilst only 1% have transactional contracts. the study suggests that there are relationships between these psychological contracts and specific human resource practices. the study found that training and development was the most important human resource practice for developing relational and balanced contracts. employees thought that they contributed more than their employer did to the relationship. the researchers developed a model to illustrate the influence of the various human resource practices on psychological contracts. practical/managerial implications: the influence of human resource practices on relational contracts could assist organisations to invest in human resource practices. during recessions, organisations tend to reduce expenditure on human resource practices, especially training and development. the findings of this study, about the relationship between training and development and relational contracts, highlight the negative effect that this trend could have on psychological contracts, individual and organisational behaviour and, ultimately, organisational performance. contribution/value-add: based on this empirical study, the researchers proposed a conceptual model to illustrate the relationship between different psychological contracts and specific human resource practices, like training and development, which had the strongest relationships with relational contracts. introduction (back to top) numerous studies emphasise the importance of psychological contracts between employer and employee (freese & schalk, 2008; rousseau, 2004; rousseau & wade-benzoni, 1994; wöcke & sutherland, 2008). organisations invest in human resource practices, like remuneration, training and development, to improve these relations (martin, staines & pate, 1998; sims, 1994). although research has shown that human resource practices influence psychological contracts (guzzo & noonan, 1994; martin et al., 1998; sims, 1994), it is crucial to synthesise the links between specific human resource practices and psychological contracts systematically to inform these investments. therefore, the researchers had to gather descriptive data on the relationship between human resource practices and psychological contracts. psychological contracts refer to beliefs people hold about promises others make to them and which they accept and rely on (rousseau, 1995). in organisations, these contracts include employers’ and employees’ expectations of each another (rousseau, 2004; rousseau & wade-benzoni, 1994). they give an insight into difficulties about employment relationships and the implications of these difficulties on individual and organisational behaviour (aggarwal & bhargava, 2008). the researchers conducted the study on knowledge workers at an iron ore mining company in south africa. one of the characteristics of knowledge workers is their high turnover level, with the consequent high costs to the organisations that employ them. therefore, it is necessary to understand the psychological contracts that knowledge workers have with their organisations. particularly in times of recession, cost-effective spending on human resource practices is essential. through determining which human resource practices play significant roles in building psychological contracts with knowledge workers, this study could assist to prioritise the allocations of resources to these practices. against this background, the purpose of this research was to answer the research question: ‘what types of psychological contracts do organisations have with knowledge workers and what is the effect of human resource practices on these contracts?’ more specifically, the objective of this study was to examine the relationships between these different types of psychological contracts and human resource practices empirically. the article has four parts. firstly, it reviews the literature relevant to psychological contracts and human resource practices. secondly, it presents the research design and discusses techniques of data analysis. thirdly, it presents summarised findings. the article concludes with a discussion of the implications for managing human resources and suggestions for future research. literature review (back to top) this review of the relevant literature explores psychological contracts, human resource practices and their relationships. psychological contracts secondary evidence on psychological contracts reveals critical relationships between employers and employees to ensure productivity, continued innovation and creativity (coyle-shapiro & kessler, 2000; flood, turner, ramamoorthy & pearson, 2001; maguire, 2002). historically, employers expected employees to work hard to meet the demands of their managers. in return, employers would provide job opportunities with guaranteed advancement and lifetime employment (de meuse, bergmann & lester, 2001; strong, 2003). however, this traditional structure of employee-employer relationships, based on an edifice of trust, loyalty, commitment and long-term relationships, has changed (arnold, 1996; herriot, manning & kidd, 1997). the demands of globalisation, continual technological developments and the diversity of market requirements have forced employment relationships to change (strong, 2003). as the pressure on organisations to become more flexible, adaptable and efficient increases, they may engage in strategies that alter employees’ perceptions of the employment exchange (de meuse et al., 2001). the dynamic nature of contemporary employment relations has led to an emphasis on two particular contract terms: the timeframes and performance requirements of the contracts (rousseau & wade-benzoni, 1994). two major types of contracts are common in the workplace. they anchor two ends of what have been described as contractual continuum-transactional and relational contracts. when one arranges these two contract features in a two-by-two framework (see figure 1), one can identify four types of contracts: transactional (1), transitional (2), balanced (3) and relational (4). rousseau (2000) defines the transactional contract (1 in figure 1) as an employment arrangement with a short term or limited duration. it focuses primarily on: • economic exchanges • specific, narrow duties • limited worker involvement or development in the organisation. the employer offers employment for a specific or limited time and is not bound to future commitments. freese and schalk (2008) also emphasise the transactional features of psychological contracts. they warn that their features resemble traditional labour contracts more closely than psychological contracts do as mental models of employee attitudes and behaviour. rousseau (1995, 2004) emphasises another kind of short-term contract in which performance requirements are weak. she warns that the transitional contract (2 in figure 1) is not really a psychological contract but a cognitive state that reflects the consequences of organisational change and transitions that are at odds with an earlier employment contract. it is a breakdown in contracts. it lacks commitment about future employment and has few or no explicit performance demands or contingencies. it is a state one finds in organisations that are closing down. the literature defines balanced contracts (3 in figure 1) as specific and open-ended employment arrangements conditioned in terms of the economic success of organisations (wöcke & sutherland, 2008). workers can develop their careers and both workers and organisations contribute greatly to each other’s learning and development. performance and contributions to the organisations’ competitive advantage, particularly in the face of changing demands that market pressure causes, determine the rewards to workers. in this sense, they are more conditions than psychological contracts. the relational contract (4 in figure 1) is an open-ended, less specific or weak agreement that establishes and maintains a relationship based on emotional involvement and financial reward (robinson & rousseau, 1994). the employer commits to stable wages and long-term employment. the employee is obliged to support the organisation and to be loyal and committed to the organisation’s needs and interests. rousseau (2000) developed an instrument called the psychological contract inventory (pci) to measure the features of psychological contracts (freese & schalk, 2008). it is based on the conceptual framework shown earlier and is grounded in organisational theory and research. although there are other views about the different types of psychological contracts that co-exist in employment relationships (isaksson, 2005), this study used rousseau’s (2000) method of assessing one type of psychological contract in each employment relationship. balanced contracts are types of psychological contracts based on the economic success of organisations and employees’ opportunities to develop their careers (rousseau & wade-benzoni, 1994). however, this study sees them as psychological contracts based on the theoretical framework of rousseau and wade-benzoni (1994) for the four types of psychological contracts. transactional and relational contracts can exist in one employment relationship. an example is the high-performance work team (rousseau, 2000). the focus of this study was the relationship between the different types of psychological contracts and human resource practices. therefore, rousseau’s (2000) frame of reference provided a useful method of analysis. human resource practices, like recruitment, training, development and remuneration, determine the state of these psychological contracts. the next section discusses these practices. figure 1: types of psychological contracts (rousseau, d.m., & wade-benzoni, k. (1994). linking strategy and human resource practices: how employee and customer contracts are created. human resource management journal, 33(3), 463–489. doi:10.1002/hrm.3930330312). human resource practices human resource practices send strong messages about what organisations expect and what employees can anticipate in return (guest, 1998; rousseau & greller, 1994). they are major mechanisms employees use to understand the terms of their employment (rousseau, 1995; rousseau & wade-benzoni, 1994). furthermore, human resource practices create contractual and future intentions through hiring practices, reward practices and developmental activities. organisations even use them as communication tools (guzzo & noonan, 1994; lucero & allen, 1994; rousseau & greller, 1994; sims, 1994). several studies confirm the influence of these human resource practices on organisational performance (ahmad & schroeder, 2003; allen & griffeth, 1999; chang & huang, 2005; huselid, 1995; khatri, 2000; xirogiannis, chytas, glykas & valiris, 2007). the high cost of recruitment and selection (pfeffer, 1998), the lag and productivity loss during the induction period (davies, 2001), the loss of business opportunity (walker, 2001) and poor customer relationships (clarke, 2001; messmer, 2000) highlight the importance of retaining committed employees (chew & chan, 2008). figure 2 lists some of these human resource practices. they include providing equitable remuneration (boyd & salamin, 2001), recognising the efforts and contributions of employees (davies, 2001), providing opportunities for training and career development (chew & chan, 2008) and shaping employees’ attitudes and behaviour (whitener, 2001). the recruitment process is the employees’ first communication with the organisation. therefore, it influences their attitudes and behaviour significantly (aggarwal & bhargava, 2008; morrison & robinson, 1997). moreover, suazo, martinez and sandoval (2009) emphasise the effect of induction on employees’ perceptions of the organisation. new work experiences, interesting assignments, skills-based training in line with an organisation’s business objectives and a planned career path also signal the organisation’s intention to foster a long-term employment relationship (aggarwal & bhargava, 2008; martin et al., 1998; sims, 1994). in addition, rousseau and ho (2000) and robinson (1996) confirm that compensation and benefits have a major effect on the employment relationship from the outset. performance-management practices also play key roles in determining employee-employer expectations (aggarwal & bhargava, 2008; king, 2000). maguire (2002) emphasises that world class organisations invest in their people by aligning these human resource practices strategically. figure 2 illustrates aggarwal and bhargava’s (2008) conceptual model. it explains the links between human resource practices, psychological contracts and employees’ attitudes, behaviour and organisational performance. aggarwal and bhargava (2008) explain the central role that human resources play in influencing psychological contracts and organisations’ performance. figure 2 illustrates that an organisation’s business strategy directly influences its employment relationship strategy, which human resource practices (like recruitment, training and development, learning and performance management) implement. on an individual level, these human resource practices influence the employee’s understanding of the employment relationship or psychological contract. however, the conceptual model does not specify which of these human resource practices has the strongest relationship. nevertheless, the model demonstrates the influence of psychological contracts on employees’ attitudes and behaviours and the performance of organisations. the model also illustrates that human resource practices lead to normative contracts and affect organisational culture. they, in turn, lead to shared attitudes, behaviours and improved organisational performance. this study contributes to the body of knowledge on psychological contracts and their relationships with human resource practices. an empirical study was necessary to examine which human resource practices have the strongest influence on the shaping of psychological contracts. figure 2: a model of the relationship between human resource (hr) practices, psychological contracts and their effects on employee attitudes and behaviours (aggarwal, u., & bhargava, s. (2008). reviewing the relationship between human resource practices and psychological contract and their impact on employee attitude and behaviours: a conceptual model. journal of european industrial training, 33(1), p. 20). research proposals (back to top) the researchers developed the five research proposals that follow from their review of relevant literature and used them when compiling this study’s questionnaire.• proposal 1. four types of psychological contracts exist in the organisation: transactional, transitional, balanced and relational. • proposal 2. efficient training and development practices are important requirements for establishing relational psychological contracts. • proposal 3. an optimal performance-appraisal practice is an important requirement for establishing relational psychological contracts. • proposal 4. remuneration practices are important requirements for establishing transactional and transitional psychological contracts. • proposal 5. an excellent communication practice is an important requirement for establishing relational and balanced psychological contracts. the next section explains the research design the researchers used to test these proposals. research design (back to top) research approach in order to answer the research question about the relationship between psychological contracts and human resource practices, it was essential to gather data on psychological contracts and human resource practices. the literature review revealed four types of contracts and between four and six human resource practices. to investigate a relationship between so many factors, the researchers needed quantitative data and descriptive analysis. there have been qualitative conceptual studies and the researchers needed empirical data to verify their findings. it was essential to use existing questionnaires to ensure the validity of this study and to ensure that it measures what it professed to. this was to investigate psychological contracts and human resource practices. once the university’s ethical committee had granted ethical clearance, the researchers conducted a survey using a pre-tested quantitative questionnaire. the ethical committee was convinced that the research would not harm or disadvantage respondents and the respondents gave their consent to participate in the survey. the company also gave permission to use its information in the study and subsequent academic journal articles. the researchers offered no inducement to participate in the study. they did not ask for, or record, names and only used aggregated information in the study. the researchers thought that an electronic survey would be suitable because it: • does not have interviewer influence • is accessible • provides geographical flexibility (the population was spread over three provinces) • ensures the anonymity of the respondents • is cost-effective, as zikmund (2003) described. the researchers collected quantitative data from the survey. the research approach ensured the reliability of the study because other researchers could easily repeat the study by using the existing questionnaire. research method the researchers identified human resource practices (training and development, performance appraisals, reward and communication) as independent variables because they influence the type of psychological contract, which they identified as the dependent variable. research participants the target population and unit of analysis for this study consisted of knowledge workers at an iron ore mining company in south africa. the researchers drew this sample from the organisation’s employee database. the knowledge worker sample had the characteristics that follow. they: • all had been with the organisation for more than one year • all had a qualification (diploma or degree) • were from all levels in the organisation • were involved in complex work that requires making decisions • all participated in performance appraisals • were engaged in inter-functional activities • were familiar with all human resource practices. to investigate such a large sample, the researchers sent questionnaires to all these knowledge workers – 936 in total. the final sample included 302 useable questionnaires. this was a 32% response rate and adequate for statistical analysis (yehuda, 1999). measuring instruments investigating the relationship between psychological contracts and human resource practices required a survey instrument that included both these elements. the researchers used existing and credible questionnaires that had been widely researched. the questionnaire they used in this study consisted of three sections: • demographic information, like age, gender, qualification, race, position, supervision, geographical area and tenure • types of psychological contracts • human resource practices. types of psychological contracts: the researchers assessed the types of psychological contracts using rousseau’s pci (2000). there were 73 questions in this section. an example is ‘to what extent have you made the following commitments or obligations to your employer?’ the researchers used a 5-point likert scale for the assessment: 1 for ‘not at all’, 2 for ‘to a small extent’, 3 for ‘to a moderate extent’, 4 for ‘to a large extent’ and 5 for ‘to a very large extent’. researchers have used the questionnaire extensively in international (dabos & rousseau, 2004; hui, lee & rousseau 2004; rousseau, 2000) and in south african studies (maharaj, 2003; wöcke & sutherland, 2008). it assessed the employees’ and the employer’s obligations, psychological contract transitions and psychological contract fulfilment. contemporary researchers on psychological contracts, like freese and schalk (2008), confirmed that the pci is based on theory and is therefore conceptually valid. the inventory also covers the employees’ and the employer’s obligations (rousseau & wade-benzoni, 1994). as rousseau’s research involved knowledge workers, the inventory was applicable to this study. rousseau (2000) published a reliability alpha coefficient of 0.7. in this study, the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the four types of contracts were high. on the subscales, the cronbach’s alpha coefficients were generally acceptable, except for the transactional contract factors. the results section lists the cronbach’s alpha coefficients the researchers obtained for the pci in this study. arnold (1996) emphasises that the results of empirical research on these types of contracts remain inconclusive and that the results often do not cross-validate. he describes the instability of the transactional and relational factors and difficulties in replicating studies. however, rousseau (2000) claims that the pci has construct validity and that one can generalise many aspects of the conceptualisation and operationalisation of psychological contract dimensions across societies. she published extensive factor analyses for discriminant and convergent validity. the other instrument the researchers used in this study was the human resource practices scale. human resource practices: researchers have used the human resource practices scale of geringer et al. (2002) widely to measure the effect of human resource practices. von glinow, drost and teagarden (2002) claim that their major study on the scale in 40 countries offers solution methodology for conducting globally distributed human resource practices research. content experts from six continents developed the human resource practices scale. although practitioners from west and east africa were included, south africa was unfortunately not included in the global research project. the researchers in this study contributed to the body of knowledge on global human resource practices. there were 50 questions in this section of the questionnaire for this study, derived from the human resource practices scale. an example is: ‘how accurately do the following statements describe your organisation’s practices?’ the researchers also used a 5-point likert scale in this part of the survey: 1 for ‘not at all’, 2 for ‘to a small extent’, 3 for ‘to a moderate extent’, 4 for ‘to a large extent’ and 5 for ‘to a very large extent’. the next sections discuss the instrument’s reliability and validity. the original global study, of geringer et al. (2002), intended to compare human resource practices in different countries meaningfully. the reliability of the findings in different settings was important. therefore, the scale was tested in both developing and developed countries (geringer et al., 2002). von glinow et al. (2002) warn against the measuring scale, instead of the research question, becoming the driver of the study. they also state that it is no longer enough simply to enter a new culture with a survey instrument developed and implemented in, for instance, north america. the scale includes approximately 10 items per human resource practice to improve the reliability of the instrument. although geringer et al. (2002) did not publish internal reliability coefficients, the researchers chose this scale on human resource practices because of its relevance and content validity. von glinow et al. (2002) and drost, frayne, lowe and geringer (2002) published articles based on their research on the human resource practices scale. in this south african study, the researchers found high cronbach’s alpha coefficients for all five human resource practices. however, high reliability coefficients do not imply high validity. the items in the questionnaire were developed from grounded theory and the inputs of subject matter experts from the 40 different countries. geringer et al. (2002) claim high content validity through the scale’s rigorous refinement and piloting processes. translation was not an issue in this study, as it was in the global study, because all respondents were firstor second-language english speakers. geringer et al. (2002) give evidence of triangulation to improve the content validity of the scale. drost et al. (2002) and von glinow et al. (2002) operationalised the scale with their results, thereby providing further empirical evidence of construct validity. in this study, the researchers conducted exploratory factor analysis on these practices to validate the findings further. the questionnaire the researchers used for this study consisted of the three sections described earlier. the researchers piloted it with respondents from the sample and tested it for simplicity, understanding and completion time. the following section discusses the research procedure. research procedure the researchers identified employees that fit the criteria, as discussed in the section on research participants, for the research sample from the organisation’s employee database. they sent emails, with links to the web-based electronic survey, to these knowledge workers. it took between 30 and 45 minutes to complete the survey. the researchers sent reminders to the participants two weeks after distributing the questionnaire and a final reminder five days before the survey closed. they captured the data in excel and conducted the statistical analysis afterwards. statistical analysis the researchers performed data analysis to determine: • the response rate and omissions • the demographics of the sample • the type of psychological contracts the participants had • the effect of the sample’s demographics on the types of psychological contracts • the effect of human resource practices on the different psychological contracts. they divided the questions in the questionnaire into categories, as prescribed by rousseau (2000), to assess psychological contracts. to test for differences between employee and employer variables, the researchers performed a paired t-test to determine whether there is any significant difference at the 5% level. the researchers used the following formula to determine the types of psychological contracts: pc = {> (balanced; relational; transactional; transitional)} where: • ‘pc’ denotes psychological contract • ‘balanced’ denotes mean • ‘relational’ denotes mean • ‘transactional’ denotes mean • ‘transitional’ denotes mean. the greater mean value between the four contract types defines the pc of a respondent. furthermore, the researchers performed an analysis of variance (anova) to determine the effect of human resource practices on psychological contracts. the researchers then performed duncan’s multiple range test to determine the means of respondents with a particular contract for each human resource practice. the researchers used chi-square and pearson correlations to test for significance at the 0.05 level (zikmund, 2003). the next section gives the results of these descriptive and inferential statistical analyses. results (back to top) this study set out to investigate the relationship between psychological contracts and human resource practices. the previous section presented the research design. this section presents the survey response rates, the demographic analysis and the corresponding results. tables 1 to 11 give the results of the statistical analysis. tables 1–7 give the perceptions of the employees’ and the employer’s obligations and compare them. these tables illustrate the conclusions about the first proposal on the four types of psychological contracts that could possibly exist in the organisation. the researchers paid special attention to the reliability and validity of the assessment instrument. tables 8–11 illustrate the types of psychological contracts and the effects that human resource practices have on them in order to highlight the conclusions for the other four proposals. the next section presents the results of the demographic analysis. the article then presents the tables. demographics the smallest percentage of respondents (10%) was younger than 30 years of age. however, the percentages in the rest of the age groups were evenly distributed. most of the respondents were white (71%) and male (74%). this is consistent for workers in the mining industry and south african knowledge worker populations (strong, 2003; wöcke & sutherland, 2008). the respondents were evenly distributed across the qualification categories. most (29%) had diplomas. the positions of the respondents in the organisation were evenly distributed. senior managers had the lowest percentage (15%). this is consistent with industry norms. most of the sample (62%) had people who reported to them. most of the sample (65%) had spent more than 10 years with the organisation and 26% of the sample had been with the organisation for more than five years. conclusions for proposal 1 – four types of psychological contracts exist in the organisation: transactional, transitional, balanced and relational psychological contracts comprise perceptions about the employees’ and the employer’s obligations. the researchers used rousseau’s questionnaire (2000) with a standardised method of analysis. in order to ascertain the four types of psychological contracts, the researchers reviewed the perceptions about employees’ obligations to the organisation, the employer’s obligations to the employees and the differences between them. perceptions of employees’ obligations the researchers analysed the perceptions of the employees’ obligations and present the results in this section. table 1 illustrates the findings about employees’ obligations to the organisation and cronbach’s alpha coefficients. before discussing the descriptive statistics for the perceptions of the respondents, the reliability and validity of the scales require attention. rousseau (2000) reports that, although several scales did meet the traditional standards for reliability, problematic scales in her study were ‘employer narrowness’ and ‘employee stability’. in her study, ‘short term’ also yielded an alpha coefficient of 0.69 for four items, whilst a three-item version met reliability standards. however, in the later version of the pci (rousseau, 2008), which this study used, four items were again included under ‘short term’. finer analysis of the item frequencies yielded interesting patterns. where the alpha coefficients were low, the pattern of responding showed that participants usually chose one point on the scale. for items under ‘short term’, for example, between 45% and 63.91% of the respondents chose 1 (‘not at all’) on the scale. the same pattern occurred for ‘loyalty’. the participants consistently answered 4 (‘to a large extent’) on items like ‘make personal sacrifices for this organisation’ and ‘take this organisation’s concerns personally’. these low variances in the answers could also have contributed to lower alpha coefficients. the researchers needed to conduct factor analysis to investigate these findings. they identified a 6-factor solution, with one item loading onto a seventh. this is similar to rousseau’s (2000) findings. table 2 gives the factor analysis for employees’ obligations. one could describe the seven factors the researchers identified as: • ‘development external’ (factor i) • ‘security’ (factor ii) • two items from ‘dynamic performance’ (factor iii) • ‘short term’ and ‘narrow’ loaded onto the same factor (factor iv) • ‘loyalty’ combined with two factors of ‘dynamic performance’ (factor v) • ‘development internal’ • negative loading on two items of ‘short term’ (factor vi) • ‘fulfil a limited number of responsibilities’ (factor vii). the factor correlation for rotated factors showed that there is a relationship between factors iii and v, with a coefficient of 0.55. the four items of ‘dynamic performance’ were split between these factors. the eigenvalue for factor i was 6.44 and explained 21.01% of the variance. the seven factors explained 45.04% of the variance. rousseau (2000) also reports that, in a singapore sample, divergent patterns emerged, like a 3-factor solution for employer obligations and a five-factor solution for employee obligations. this study revealed similar trends, where contract forms collapsed to load onto the same factors, like ‘short term’ and ‘narrow’. although there was a departure from a single structure in this study, the results generally fell within the psychological forms that rousseau (2000) reports. rousseau has conducted research to improve the measurement of ‘short term’ (transactional contracts). freese and schalk (2008) warn against adding or deleting items to fit a particular setting. therefore, the researchers used the current format of rousseau’s (2008) questionnaire in this study. the standard deviation was high for most dimensions. the mean for ‘career development – external market’ was 2.77. this showed that employees did not build contacts or skills that would improve their employment opportunities outside the organisation. the standard deviation, however, was 0.9, and showed that some respondents were preparing themselves for possible employment at other organisations. ‘dynamic performance requirements’ had a mean of 4.14 and a standard deviation of 0.55. employees were obliged to perform in order to achieve new and more demanding goals to help the organisation become and remain more competitive (rousseau, 2000). they were willing to go out of their way to ensure the success of the organisation at their own cost. ‘career development – internal market’ had a mean of 4.03 and a standard deviation of 0.63. the employees felt that they were obliged to seek development opportunities, build skills and make themselves increasingly valuable to their current employer. furthermore, there was a moderate relationship between the employees’ willingness to accept challenges (‘dynamic performance requirements’) and seeking out development opportunities (‘career development – internal market’). the pearson correlation coefficient between ‘dynamic performance requirements’ and ‘career development – internal market’ was 0.5965 with a probability of < 0.0001. most of the employees tended to show ‘loyalty’ to their employer, with a mean of 4.03 and a standard deviation of 0.61. employees would make personal sacrifices for the organisation and protect its image because they were emotionally involved with it. ‘loyalty’ had a pearson correlation coefficient of 0.5638 and a probability value of < 0.0001 with ‘security’. this showed that there is a moderate relationship between employees’ commitment and their intention of staying indefinitely at the organisation. employees showed that they felt obliged to stay with the organisation for a long time and had not made plans to work elsewhere. this was clear in the ‘security’ dimension, where the mean was 3.66. however, the standard deviation was 0.9. the mean for ‘short term’ employment with the organisation was 1.97 and the standard deviation was 0.69. this showed that employees did not intend to leave their current jobs. the same trend emerged for the ‘narrow’ dimension, where the mean was 1.84 and the standard deviation was 0.66. this was an indication that employees were prepared to have a broader job description than their contracts stipulated for the good of the organisation. the employees felt an obligation to their employer. the researchers also needed to ascertain the perceptions of the employer’s obligation. the next section gives their findings. perceptions of employer’s obligations table 3 gives the results for each of rousseau’s psychological contract dimensions for employer’s obligations, as the employees perceive them, as well as the cronbach’s alpha coefficients. finer analysis of the item frequencies revealed a pattern. where the alpha coefficients were low, the pattern of answering showed that participants usually chose one point on the scale. for example, the answers to the item ‘short-term employment’ (employer obligation to employee) showed that 52.32% of the respondents chose 1 (‘not at all’) on the scale. this was also true for item ‘a job for a short time only’, where 63.91% chose 1. the researchers conducted an exploratory item-level factor analysis on employer’s obligations. they found a 5-factor solution, similar to rousseau’s (2000) study. table 4 shows the principle factoring axis analysis. in this study, the researchers neatly defined the three psychological contracts by principal axis factoring. the fourth contract had a very low representation in the sample and the researchers concentrated on the other three. the five factors were: • ‘dynamic performance requirements’ • ‘career development – internal market’ • items of ‘career development – external market’ (factor i — balanced contract) • ‘loyalty’ • ‘security’ (factor ii – relational contract). two items of ‘career development – external market’ loaded on their own as a separate factor. these were: • ‘potential job opportunities outside the organisation’ and ‘contacts that create employment opportunities elsewhere’ (factor iii) • ‘short term’ and ‘narrow’ (factor iv – transactional contract). a single item, ‘help me to respond to ever greater industry standards’, also loaded slightly onto a fifth factor (factor v). two items on ‘career development – external market’ loaded onto the same factor as ‘internal development’. this was similar to rousseau’s findings (2000). the eigenvalue of factor i was 10.2657 and explained 34.93% of the variance. the five factors the researchers identified in this study explained 50.49% of the variance. furthermore, items from ‘dynamic performance requirements’, ‘career development – internal market’ and ‘career development – external market’ loaded onto this factor. the correlation coefficient for factors i and ii was 0.62. this shows that there is a relationship between the elements of the balanced and relational contracts. for example, rousseau’s singapore study also showed convergence between the balanced contract forms. rousseau (2000) explains that societal differences or lower levels of variation in the kinds of psychological contract forms and human resource strategies could cause this. this study endeavoured to investigate the effect of these human resource strategies on psychological contracts. therefore, the researchers used rousseau’s version (2008) of the questionnaire. the average standard deviation for the employer’s obligation variables was 0.82. employees’ perception of their employer’s obligation, in terms of ‘career development – external market’, was that the employer was not doing enough to help them to find external job opportunities. the mean for this dimension was 2.57 and the standard deviation was 0.85. the employer did not allocate job assignments to them or inform them of opportunities outside the organisation. the employer also did not give them contacts that could create employment opportunities elsewhere. with regard to ‘dynamic performance requirements’, employees felt that the employer helped them to achieve their highest possible levels of performance in the organisation. the mean for this dimension was 3.3, with a standard deviation of 0.87. this also shows that some employees disagreed with this sentiment. however, the general results showed that employees believed that the employer enabled them to adjust to new and challenging performance requirements. with regard to the dimension of ‘career development – internal market’, employees thought the employer granted them opportunities to develop their careers; it yielded a mean of 3.28. the standard deviation of 0.9 showed that some employees disagreed. the mean for ‘loyalty’, based on employees’ perception of the employer’s obligation, was 3.3. it had a standard deviation of 0.87. most employees felt that the employer showed some loyalty to them regarding their personal welfare. the employees believed that the employer made decisions that were in their (the employees’) best interests. the pearson product-moment correlation coefficient between ‘career development – internal market’ and ‘loyalty’ was 0.70739, at a probability of < 0.0001. this showed a relationship between these two dimensions of psychological contracts. the respondents saw the employer’s decisions as being in their best interests in many instances and relevant to their career development. furthermore, there was a correlation coefficient between ‘career development – internal market’ and ‘dynamic performance requirements’, of 0.89174 at a probability of < 0.0001. this showed that the support they receive from the organisation to meet challenges has influenced their perception of career opportunities in the firm. employees perceived their employment in the organisation as secure and felt that they had stable benefits for their families. the mean for ‘security’ was 3.57, with a standard deviation of 0.78. their tenure in the organisation confirmed this, as 65% of the sample had been with the organisation for more than 10 years. most of the workforce did not believe that the employer had ‘short term’ objectives for them. it had a mean of 1.99 and a standard deviation of 0.72. in general, employees felt that the employer had tried to retain them in the organisation. as with the ‘security’ dimension, employees believed that the employer involved them in organisational matters and broadened their job descriptions to advance their careers. however, these results do not show whether there were significant differences between the perceptions of employees’ and the employer’s obligations. the next section compares these perceptions. comparisons between the employees’ and the employer’s obligations table 5 gives the findings of the t-test on the comparisons between the employees’ and the employer’s obligations. where the p-value (probability value) was less than 0.05, there was a significant difference between the two variables at the 5% level. ‘loyalty’, ‘narrow’, ‘dynamic performance requirements’ and ‘career development – internal’ and ‘career development – external’ showed significant differences between the employees’ and the employer’s obligations at the 5% level. for ‘short term’, there was no significant difference between the perceptions of the employees’ and the employer’s obligations. the belief that the employer intended to retain their services in the long term supported the employees’ intention to stay with the organisation for the long term. there was a significant positive difference for ‘loyalty’. this shows that the employees believed that they showed more loyalty to the organisation compared to the loyalty it showed them. again, as in the case of ‘short term’ employment, there was no significant difference in perceptions of ‘security’. to conclude this section, the employees still believed that they were contributing more in each of these dimensions than the employer was. from their perspective, the employer could do more for the relationship than was currently the case. given these findings, the researchers examined the different psychological contracts. the next section gives these results. findings on the types of psychological contracts proposal 1 suggested that all the types of psychological contracts exist in the organisation. table 6 shows the different psychological contracts that the researchers found. the alpha coefficient for transactional contracts was 0.69. therefore, the researchers had to view the results for this contract cautiously. they needed factor analyses to evaluate their validity. in rousseau’s (2000) study, the findings on the transactional contract were also interpreted with difficulty. most of the sample (69%) had relational contracts with the organisation. balanced contracts followed, with 22% of the sample. approximately 8% of the sample had transitional contracts whilst only 1% had transactional contracts. the researchers conducted an analysis of the effect of demographical factors, like gender, qualifications, supervision and tenure, on the type of psychological contract. this examination helped to identify the factors that contributed to the kind of contract. the researchers performed a chi-square test of dependency (zikmund, 2003) on the effect of demographic groupings on the types of psychological contracts. there was no significant relationship between gender and type of psychological contract at the 5% level, as well as for position in the organisation. however, in the case of supervisory responsibilities, the chi-square test gave a chi-square statistic of 6.03 at 2 degrees of freedom. this had a probability level of 0.0491 and showed that there was a significant relationship between supervision and type of psychological contract for respondents who had balanced or relational contracts and supervisory responsibilities. employees with transitional contracts had no supervisory responsibilities. for length of tenure, the chi-square test yielded a chi-square statistic of 20.86 at 4 degrees of freedom and a probability level of 0.0003. it showed a significant relationship between length of tenure and type of psychological contract. respondents with more than 10 years of service dominated the relational and transitional contract groups. in the balanced contract group, a large percentage (38.81%) of the respondents fell into the 0–5 year group. the chi-square test on race groupings yielded a chi-square of 38.18 at 6 degrees of freedom at a probability level of < 0.0001. this showed a significant relationship at the 5% level. white people had a majority in the relational contract groups. however, in the balanced and transitional contract groups, the proportions of black people were 38.81% and 25.93% respectively. relational contracts are open-ended and less specific agreements that establish and maintain relationships (robinson & rousseau, 1994). the two dimensions for relational contracts were ‘security’ and ‘loyalty’. tenure had a significant effect on the formation of a relational contract. of the relational group, 72% had been with the organisation for more than 10 years. employees with fewer than five years’ service had a relatively low number of relational contracts compared to other contract groups. white people had the highest number of relational contracts. the literature defines balanced contracts as dynamic and open-ended employment arrangements. the three dimensions for balanced contracts were ‘career development – external’, ‘career development – internal’ and ‘dynamic performance requirements’. approximately 23% of the sample had balanced contracts in the organisation. the employer was willing to help employees achieve long-term employability outside the organisation as well as within it. the employer expected employees to develop skills that were marketable outside the organisation and those that were valuable to the organisation. the employer required ‘dynamic performances’ from the employees. it expected them to perform new and challenging tasks. the employees also had to prove that they were flexible in their work because their job descriptions could change. with regard to support, the employer had made a commitment to assist employees to learn and develop new skills continuously. as with relational contracts, supervision affected the formation of balanced contracts in the workplace. balanced contracts were more relevant to employees who were supervisors than to others. tenure did not have a significant effect on the formation of balanced contracts compared to relational contracts. both parties contributed to learning, whether for external or internal employability. this was appealing to employees with fewer than five years’ tenure, compared to the relational contract groups where the emphasis was on security. black people had more balanced contracts than other types. of the sample with balanced contracts, 39% were black people. this was a substantial figure compared to relational contract groups. wöcke and sutherland (2008) state that the high turnover of black managers shows the strong influence a favourable labour market place has on black people. the employer expected them to train and develop skills for internal as well as external employability. rousseau (1995, 2004) emphasises that the transitional contract is not actually a psychological contract. instead, it is a cognitive state that reflects the consequences of organisational change and transitions that are at odds with a previous employment contract. the questions in the questionnaire did not distinguish between employees’ perceptions of employees’ and employer’s obligations in transitional contracts. therefore, the researchers present the findings on transitional contracts separately from those on the other contracts. table 7 provides the findings for transitional psychological contracts. the means of these dimensions were consistent. however, they had high standard deviations. approximately 8% of the sample had transitional contracts. this is low when one compares it to the two contract types discussed earlier. the relevant dimensions for this type of contract are ‘no trust’, ‘uncertainty’ and ‘erosion’. the cronbach alpha coefficients were high for all three dimensions. the factor analysis revealed that one factor (transitional contract) explains 49% of the variance and has an eigenvalue of 6.36028. the pearson correlation coefficient statistics showed high correlations between the responses to these three dimensions. the pearson correlation coefficient between ‘uncertainty’ and ‘no trust’ was 0.77285 at a probability of < 0.0001, whilst that between ‘erosion’ and ‘uncertainty’ was 0.70216 at a probability of < 0.0001 and that between ‘no trust’ and ‘erosion’ was 0.61984 at a probability of < 0.0001. this shows that respondents who distrusted the organisation probably also experienced uncertainty and erosion in their relationship with the employer. employees with transitional contracts tended to have fewer supervisory functions compared to those with relational and balanced contracts. of these employees, 60% were not supervisors. tenure tended to have a significant difference. employees with more than 10 years of service seemed to dominate the transitional contract groups (51%). as 52% of employees with transitional contracts had more than 10 years of service, it is possible that these employees were very close to retirement and were preparing to leave the organisation. racial distribution also had a significant difference at the 5% level. of the employees with transitional contracts, 52% were white. affirmative action policies might influence this factor (wöcke & sutherland, 2008). employees in first-line management and subordinates make up 52% of workers with transitional contracts. it was not possible for the researchers to perform a statistical analysis of employees with transactional contracts because of the small number of respondents. the second largest mean meant that all three respondents had transitional contracts. therefore, the researchers conducted an analysis on three contract groups. sixty-seven had balanced contracts, 208 had relational contracts and 27 had transitional contracts. in addition to the types of psychological contracts, the researchers investigated the relationship between these contracts and specific human resource practices. the next section presents the results. table 1: perceptions of employees’ obligations. table 2: pattern of rotated factor loadings for employees’ obligations. table 3: perceptions of employer’s obligations. table 4: pattern of rotated factor loadings for employer’s obligations. table 5: paired t-test at a significance level of 5%. table 6: types of psychological contracts. table 7: transitional psychological contracts. findings for proposals 2–5 on the relationship between human resource practices and types of psychological contracts the reliability and validity of the human resource practices scale (geringer et al., 2002) needs to be established before a discussion of the relationship between the types of psychological contracts and human resource practices is possible. table 8 gives the results of the reliability study and table 9 the results of the validity study. the researchers found a five-factor solution. the five factors could explain 43.12% of the variance. all items assessing ‘performance appraisal’ loaded onto factor i. this factor also explains 24.74% of the variance. the item that describes the purpose of performance appraisal as ‘for salary administration’ loaded slightly onto ‘remuneration practices’. however, there were nine other factors with high loadings. the items that assessed ‘training and development’ loaded onto factor ii. one item, ‘provide a reward to employees’, was very low. items on ‘communication’ loaded only onto factor iii except for the item ‘too many people need to be consulted before you can do anything here’, which loaded slightly onto ‘communication’. the item ‘informal communication works better here than informal communication does’ loaded negatively, yet loaded slightly onto ‘hiring practices’. all items that assessed ‘remuneration practices’ loaded onto factor iv. factor v represented most of the ‘hiring practices’ items, except for three items that loaded onto ‘remuneration practices’. there was convergent validity between the items that loaded onto the same factor. table 10 gives the factor correlations for rotated factors. this exploratory factor analysis showed that factor i (‘performance appraisal’), with a high eigenvalue, also correlated higher than any other factor with factors ii, iii, iv and v. factor i correlated the highest with factor ii (‘training and development’) and factor iii (‘communication’). there was discriminant validity between the human resource practice scales, given by the five-factor solution. table 11 gives the findings on how these human resource practices influenced psychological contracts and the level of significance of each practice. means with different superscripts differed significantly at the 5% level. there was no significant difference between the means of balanced and relational contracts. however, transitional contracts differed significantly in almost all human resource practices except ‘remuneration’. the researchers provided the results of the different types of psychological contracts, as well as their relationships with human resource practices. the next section discusses the results systematically according to the proposals. table 8: alpha coefficients of the human resource practices scale. table 9: patterns in the rotated factor loadings for the human resource practices scale. table 10: factor correlations for rotated factors. table 11: relationship between human resource practices and psychological contracts. discussion (back to top) the study examined the types of psychological contracts that exist in an organisation and the relationships between these contracts and specific human resource practices. the previous sections gave the research methodology and results. this section categorises the results and discusses them by proposal. proposal 1 the research supported proposal 1 on rousseau’s four types of psychological contracts that exist in organisations (1994). the contracts in the sample were skewed towards the relational and balanced psychological contracts. supervision and tenure were important attributes in establishing relational psychological contracts. therefore, organisations can benefit from development programmes on supervision. there were fewer previously disadvantage individuals (pdis) with relational contracts. organisations could develop pdis for opportunities outside the organisations to establish relational contracts. supervision, but not tenure, influenced employees with balanced contracts significantly compared to relational contracts. black employees had a high percentage of balanced contracts and had opportunities for career development. wöcke and sutherland (2008) attribute this to the favourable market conditions that allow for mobility within and outside organisations. in order to change the balanced contracts of employees into relational ones, employers could consider giving pdis opportunities to progress to supervisory positions. employees with transactional contracts had the lowest number in the sample, whilst those with transitional contracts had only a small percentage. these employees did not hold supervisory positions in the organisation. employees with higher tenures dominated the transitional contract group compared to those with fewer than five years’ service. white employees dominated the transitional contract group. this probably indicates the effects of affirmative action policies in south africa (wöcke & sutherland, 2008). organisational hierarchy influenced employees with transitional contracts because most of them fell into the bottom segment of the organisational structure. to move employees away from this type of contract, employers could invest in developing their careers. proposal 2 proposal 2 states that efficient training and development practices are major requirements for forming relational psychological contracts. the results in table 11 show that training and development were ranked first amongst employees with balanced and relational contracts and second amongst those with transitional contracts. relational and balanced contracts had means of 3.5702 and 3.5776 respectively. this implies that employees thought that training and development had a significant effect on their contracts. the amount of training and development the employer was willing to invest in employees with relational contracts might have determined the amount of loyalty these employees had for the company. it might also have given these employees a sense of security. the employer would not develop them if it intended to break the employment relationship. suazo et al. (2009) support this. they state that, since organisational funds are usually limited, spending funds on training may tell employees that the organisation values them and that they are likely to enjoy long-term or permanent employment. the ranking of training and development was high (second) for those with transitional contracts. the mean for these employees was 2.9296 – a difference of almost 0.7 compared to other employees. employees with transitional contracts also value career development, possibly to prepare them for other employment. proposal 3 the results in table 11 support proposal 3 that an optimal performance-appraisal practice is a major requirement for forming relational psychological contracts. employees with relational and balanced contracts ranked performance-appraisal practices third. both types of contract recorded means of approximately 3.3. however, employees with transitional contracts ranked it the lowest (fifth), with a mean of 2.596. performance appraisals play key roles in determining employee-employer expectations and have a direct influence on other practices. the feedback from the performance-appraisal process relates directly to the terms and conditions of employment, like remuneration, promotion and training opportunities (suazo et al., 2009). employees with transitional contracts thought that performance appraisals had the least effect on their working relationships and did not value this practice. proposal 4 proposal 4 states that remuneration is a major requirement for establishing transactional and transitional psychological contracts. the findings of the study supported this. employees with transitional contracts thought that remuneration had the biggest effect (ranked first) of the human resource practices, with a mean of 3.0494. employees with relational contracts thought it was the least important (fifth) practice and those with balanced contracts ranked it fourth, with means of 3.2345 and 3.2786 respectively. the relational contract’s dimension of stability addresses remuneration issues in the relational contract. employees with relational contracts believed that the employer was committed to offering stable wages and long-term employment. sauzo et al. (2009) state that the compensation systems, which create psychological contracts, are often implicit. they give two examples. remuneration incentives, like merit pay increases, may signal that employees have stable or long-term employment with the organisation. however, benefits like retirement or health insurance may signal that organisations value their employees and they can therefore expect long-term employment. employees with balanced contracts also saw remuneration practices as implied. in contrast, employees with transitional contracts saw remuneration as the most important human resource factor. rousseau (2004) says these workers tend to perform in ways consistent with the contributions that organisations pay them to make. these employees know that organisations do not guarantee their employment. proposal 5 proposal 5 suggested that excellent communication practice is a major requirement for forming relational and balanced psychological contracts. the results in table 11 showed that workers with relational and balanced contracts ranked communication as the second most important practice in forming these contracts. employees with relational and balanced contracts had means of 3.3517 and 3.3806 respectively. employees with transitional contracts ranked it fourth, with a mean of 2.6296.workers with relational contracts have emotional relationships with the organisation. they expect to represent the organisation and want to create a positive image of it. they are personally involved with the organisation and know that the organisation is also concerned about their well-being. regular communication on matters that concern the organisation or its employees is essential to them. employees with balanced contracts believe in career development. therefore, communication about policies or changes in policies is important in determining their career plans. these employees are willing to accept new and challenging demands for the well-being of the organisation and feedback on organisational performance is important to them. on the other hand, employees with transitional contracts do not trust the employer. therefore, they think that communication aims at misleading employees intentionally. these employees view procedures and policies negatively or as ways of limiting their freedom. communicating with these employees may not benefit the organisation, as the relationship is beyond repair. although the researchers did not include the dimension of hiring practices as one of the proposals, they included it in the study. employees with relational contracts ranked hiring practices fourth, with a mean of 3.2601. hiring practices had the least effect on employees with balanced contracts, who ranked them fifth. the practice had a mean of 3.2015 for employees with balanced contracts. this suggests that it had a moderate effect on these employees. hiring creates the foundation for a psychological contract with an employee because it is the first intervention or communication with the potential employer (arthur, 2001). employees with transitional contracts showed a significant difference at the 5% level compared to employees with relational and balanced contracts, with a mean of 2.9185. employees with transitional contracts ranked it third amongst the human resource practices, much higher than did employees with other types of contracts. this suggests that employees with transitional contracts found hiring practices more important than the other two contract groups did because they were looking for new employers. this section discussed the types of psychological contracts and their relationships with human resource practices. the next section contains a summary and the implications of the study. summary (back to top) based on the findings in table 11, table 12 gives a summary of the human resource practices in order of importance for creating specific psychological contracts.table 12 gives an insight into the effects of moving employees from one type of contract to another. it emphasises the effect of human resource practices on these contracts. human resource practices could actually affect each other. for example, performance appraisal could have a direct effect on training, development and remuneration. employers who have a long-term perspective prefer relational psychological contracts. training and development had the highest effect on creating this type of contract, with communication having the second highest effect. organisations also communicate through internal procedures and practices (suazo et al., 2009) and may include employment benefits. employees ranked performance appraisal third in its effect on relational psychological contracts. it could facilitate communication and move employees from a balanced to a relational contract (schraeder, becton & portis, 2007). hiring practices were fourth in affecting the formation of relational contracts, followed by remuneration. tulgan (2001) suggests that employers should ensure employability through ongoing training and development, thereby avoiding employee turnover and the need for excessive hiring within the organisation. remuneration was the human resource practice with the greatest effect on employees with transitional contracts. training and development was second in its effect on creating transitional psychological contracts. employees might have seen training as a means of empowering themselves for employment elsewhere. in conclusion, the following model illustrates the effect of human resource practices on the different psychological contracts. as the relationship with the employer improves (moving up the steps), the upper blocks require more investment. this will improve organisational performance (aggarwal & bhargava, 2008). the researchers developed this model (figure 3) to illustrate how psychological contracts could move from red to green by investing in human resource practices. when the employer invests in training and development, communicates with employees and has a sound performance-appraisal procedure in place, the employer develops the employee further in terms of hiring or promotion and better remuneration. this leads to the establishment of relational psychological contracts. table 12: human resource practices in order of importance for creating specific psychological contracts. figure 3: model of the effect of human resource practices on psychological contracts. limitations of the study the researchers conducted the research in a single organisation and limited it to the mining sector. therefore, it did not give a clear perspective of different environments and cultures in different organisations or industries. it also focused only on knowledge workers. this makes it difficult to extrapolate the findings. in addition, the length of the questionnaire led to fatigue. recommendations for further research based on these limitations, the researchers recommend further research that includes different industries and blue-collar workers. other researchers could then test the model of the effect of human resource practices on psychological contracts in different settings. conclusions (back to top) these research findings, with their limitations, assisted the researchers to understand the effect of human resource practices on forming psychological contracts. it supported the conceptual findings of aggarwal and bhargava (2008) with empirical data. organisations could invest resources according to the model in figure 3. in times of recession, organisations may decrease expenditure on training and development. therefore, human resource practitioners need to note the possible implications of employee loyalty and breaching psychological contracts because of the strong relationship between training and development and relational contracts. references (back to top) aggarwal, u., & bhargava, s. (2008). reviewing the relationship between human resource practices and psychological contract and their impact on employee attitude and behaviours: a conceptual model. journal of european industrial training, 33(1), 3–41.ahmad, s., & schroeder, r.g. (2003). the impact of human resource management practices on operational performance: recognizing country and industry differences. journal of operations management, 21, 19–43. doi:10.1016/s0272-6963(02)00056-6 allen, d.g., & griffeth, r.w. (1999). job performance and turnover: a review and integrative multi-route model. human resource management review, 9(4), 525–548. doi:10.1016/s1053-4822(99)00032-7 arnold, j. (1996). the psychological contract: a concept in need of closer scrutiny? european journal of work and organisational psychology, 5, 511–521. doi:10.1080/13594329608414876 arthur, d. (2001). the employee recruitment and retention handbook. new york: amacom. boyd, b.k., & salamin, a. (2001). strategic reward systems: a contingency model of pay system design. strategic management journal, 22, 77–93. doi:10.1002/smj.170 chang, w.a., & huang, t.c. (2005). relationship between strategic human resource management and firm performance. international journal of manpower, 26(5), 434–449. doi:10.1108/01437720510615125 chew, j., & chan, c.a. (2008). human resource practices, organisational commitment and intention to stay. international journal of manpower, 29(6), 503–522. doi:10.1108/01437720810904194 clarke, k.f. (2001). what businesses are doing to attract and retain employees — becoming an employer of choice. employee benefits journal, 3, 34–37. coyle-shapiro, j.c., & kessler, i. (2000). consequences of psychological contract for the employment relationship: a large-scale survey. journal of management studies, 37(7), 903–930. doi:10.1108/01437720810904194 dabos, g.e., & rousseau, d.m. (2004). mutuality and reciprocity in the psychological contracts of employees and employers. journal of applied psychology, 89(1), 52–72. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.89.1.52, pmid:14769120 davies, r. (2001). how to boost staff retention. people management, 7, 54–56. de meuse, k.p., bergmann, t.j., & lester, s.w. (2001). an investigation of the relational component of the psychological contract across time, generation, and employment status. journal of managerial issues, 13, 102–118. drost, e.a., frayne, c.a., lowe, k.b., & geringer, j.m. (2002). benchmarking training and development practices: a multi-country comparative analysis. human resource management, 41(1), 67–86. doi:10.1002/hrm.10020 flood, p.c., turner, t., ramamoorthy, n., & pearson, j. (2001). causes and consequences of psychological contracts among knowledge workers in the high technology and financial services industries. international journal of human resource management, 12(7), 1152–1165. doi:10.1080/09585190110068368 freese, c., & schalk, r. (2008). how to measure the psychological contract? a critical criteria-based review of measures. south african journal of psychology, 38(2), 269−286. geringer, j.m., colette, a.f., & milliman, j.f. (2002). in search of ‘best practices’ in international human resource management: research design and methodology. human resource management, 41(1), 5–30. doi:10.1002/hrm.10017 guest, d. (1998). is the psychological contract worth taking seriously? journal of organizational behavior, 19, 649–664. doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(1998)19:1+<649::aid-job970>3.0.co;2-t guzzo, r., & noonan, k. (1994). human resource practices as communications and the psychological contract. human resource management, 33(3), 44–72. doi:10.1002/hrm.3930330311 herriot, p., manning, w., & kidd, j.m. (1997). the content of a psychological contract. british journal of management, 8, 151–162. doi:10.1111/1467-8551.0047 hui, c., lee, c., & rousseau, d.m. (2004). psychological contracts and organizational citizenship behavior in china: investigating generalizability and instrumentality. journal of applied psychology, 89(2), 311–321. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.89.2.311, pmid:15065977 huselid, m.a. (1995). the impact of human resource management practices on turnover, production, and corporate financial performance. academy of management journal, 38(3), 635–672. doi:10.2307/256741 isaksson, k. (2005). psychological contracts across employment situations: psycons. retrieved september 26, 2008, from www.uv.es\-psycon khatri, n. (2000). managing human resource for competitive advantage: a study of companies in singapore. international journal of human resource management, 11(2), 336–365. doi:10.1080/095851900339909 king, j.e. (2000). white-collar reactions to job insecurity and the role of psychological contract: implications for human resource management. human resource management, 39(1), 79–91. doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-050x(200021)39:1<79::aid-hrm7>3.0.co;2-a lucero, m., & allen, r. (1994). employee benefits: a growing source of psychological contract violations. human resource management journal, 33(3), 425–446. doi:10.1002/hrm.3930330310 maguire, h. (2002). psychological contracts: are they still relevant? career development international, 7(3), 167–180. doi:10.1108/13620430210414856 maharaj, k. (2003). a comparative study of the psychological contract of white and black managers. unpublished master’s thesis. johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. martin, g., staines, h., & pate, j. (1998). the new psychological contract: exploring the relationship between job security and career development. human resource management journal, 6(3), 20–40. doi:10.1111/j.1748-8583.1998.tb00171.x messmer, m. (2000). orientation programs can be key to employee retention. strategic finance, 81, 12–15. morrison, e., & robinson, s.l. (1997). when employees feel betrayed: a model of how psychological contract violation develops. academy of management review, 22, 226–256. doi:10.2307/259230 pfeffer, j. (1998). seven practices of successful organizations. california management review, 40, 96–125. robinson, s.l. (1996). trust and breach of the psychological contract. administrative science quarterly, 41, 574–599. doi:10.2307/2393868 robinson, s.l., & rousseau, d.m. (1994). violating the psychological contract: not the exception but the norm. journal of organizational behaviour, 15, 245–259. doi:10.1002/job.4030150306 rousseau, d.m. (1995). psychological contracts in organizations: understanding written and unwritten agreements. london: sage. rousseau, d.m. (2000). psychological contract inventory. technical report no. 2000-02. pittsburgh, pa: heinz school of public policy and management, carnegie mellon university press. rousseau, d.m. (2004). psychological contracts in the workplace: understanding the ties that motivate. academy of management executive, 18(1), 120–127. rousseau, d.m. (2008). psychological contract inventory: employer and employee obligations. pittsburgh, pa: heinz school of public policy and management, carnegie mellon university press. rousseau, d.m., & greller, m. (1994). human resource practices: administrative contract makers. human resource management, 33(3), 372–382. doi:10.1002/hrm.3930330308 rousseau, d.m., & ho, v. (2000). psychological contract issues in compensation. in s. rynes & b. gerhart (eds.), compensation issues in organizations: current research and practice. san francisco: jossey-bass. rousseau, d.m., & wade-benzoni, k. (1994). linking strategy and human resource practices: how employee and customer contracts are created. human resource management journal, 33(3), 463–489. doi:10.1002/hrm.3930330312 schraeder, m., becton, j.b., & portis, r. (2007). a critical examination of performance appraisals. the journal for quality & participation, 30(1), 20–25. sims, r. (1994). human resource management’s role in clarifying the new psychological contract. human resource management, 33(3), 373–383. doi:10.1002/hrm.3930330306 strong, e.v. (2003). the role of the psychological contract amongst knowledge workers in the reinsurance industry. unpublished master’s thesis. gordon institute of business science. pretoria: university of pretoria. suazo, m.m., martinez, p.g., & sandoval, r. (2009). creating psychological and legal contracts through human resource practice: a signalling theory perspective. human resource management review, 19, 154–166. doi:10.1016/j.hrmr.2008.11.002 tulgan, b. (2001). winning the talent wars. new york: norton & company. von glinow, m.a., drost, e.a., & teagarden, m.b. (2002). converging on ihrm best practices: lessons learned from a globally distributed consortium on theory and practice. human resource management, 41, 123–140. walker, j.w. (2001). perspectives. human resource planning, 24, 6–10. whitener, e.m. (2001). do ‘high commitment’ human resource practices affect employee commitment? a cross-level analysis using hierarchical linear modelling. journal of management, 27, 515–564. doi:10.1177/014920630102700502, doi:10.1016/s0149-2063(01)00106-4 wöcke, a., & sutherland, m. (2008). the impact of employment equity regulations on psychological contracts in south africa. international journal of human resource management, 19(4), 528–542. xirogiannis, g., chytas, p., glykas, m., & valiris, g. (2007). intelligent impact assessment of hrm to the shareholder value. retrieved september 20, 2009, from www.sciencedirect.com yehuda, b. (1999). response rate in academic studies: a comparative analysis. human relations, 52(4), 421−438. doi:10.1023/a:1016905407491, doi:10.1177/001872679905200401 zikmund, w.g. (2003). business research methods. (7th edn.). mason, oh: thompson/south-western. article information authors: hartmut von der ohe1 nico martins1 affiliations: 1department of industrial and organisational psychology, school of management sciences, unisa, south africa correspondence to: hartmut von der ohe email: vdoheh@unisa.ac.za postal address: department industrial and organisational psychology, ajh 4-25, po box 392, unisa, pretoria, 0003, south africa keywords trust; change; credibility; information sharing; time dimension; demographics; economic sector; government dates: received: 21 sept. 2009 accepted: 29 june 2010 published: 26 oct. 2010 how to cite this article: von der ohe, h., & martins, n. (2010). exploring trust relationships during times of change. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #256, 9 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.256 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) exploring trust relationships during times of change in this original research article... open access • abstract • introduction • the trust construct • impact of demographical and biographical variables • research design    • research approach    • research method      • research participants and sampling strategy      • measuring instrument      • managerial practices construct:      • trust relationship:      • organisational trust:      • changes that had occurred:      • reliability and validity of the questionnaire:      • statistical analysis: • results    • item and reliability analysis    • analysis of variance or t-test • discussion    • managerial implications and recommendations • references abstract (back to top) orientation: in the current economic climate and the resulting fast-changing global business and political environment, trust among different role players in organisations has become critical for survival. research purpose: the objective of this study was to explore the impact of different variables such as demographics on trust relationships in south african organisations. motivation for the study: anecdotal evidence and preliminary data collected for a national trust indicator seemed to suggest a shift in trust levels in organisations. research design: a trust questionnaire was administered to a convenience sample of 307 respondents in all economic sectors. parametric and nonparametric analyses were used to determine significant differences among economic sectors, job levels and sample periods. main findings: no significant differences were found for job levels or the different sample periods. however, significant differences were found for the economic sectors and, specifically, between government participants and other sectors for the dimensions of change, team management, organisational trust, information sharing and credibility. practical implications: in times of change, leadership in organisations need to be aware of the impact on trust levels. it is therefore important that leaders in government focus more on trust-enhancing behaviours needed to repair mistrust in organisations. contribution: although the effect of time on trust levels is inconclusive, the clearly differing levels of trust in various economic sectors point to the importance of appropriate and fitting approaches to building trust and not a 'one-size-fits-all' attitude. introduction (back to top) over the last decade, the phenomenon of trust within and among organisations has been the focus of increasing attention on both an international and national level (bews & martins, 2002). tyler and kramer (1996) already noted that because of widely publicised organisational practices such as the high compensation of ceos, organisations have experienced declining trustworthiness in the eyes of their employees and members of other organisations. robinson and rousseau (1994) discovered that 55% of their respondents reported that their employer had violated a psychological contract and that this violation significantly reduced trust. indeed, the popular press has noted that 'a seemingly endless stream of bad news alleging widespread management negligence and malfeasance is chipping away at the trust vital to a free-market system' (byrne, 2002, p. 31). an international survey in 2005 found that only 25% of americans, 21% of europeans, 29% of japanese, 43% of chinese and 55% of brazilians believe that information from their ceo is credible (kreitner & kinicki, 2007). according to salamon and robinson (2008), the research on the importance of trust in organisations has grown rapidly. furthermore, researchers such as lau, lam and salamon (2008), highlight that employees' trust in their leaders has been found to have important benefits for organisations, such as improving organisational commitment, organisational citizenship behaviour, team performance and organisational performance. research in south africa by von der ohe, martins and roode (2004) emphasised the importance for south african managers or supervisors of recognising traits such as being organised and hardworking, as well as being dependable, thorough and responsible in order to enhance trust. the opposite can lead to a lack of trust in a manager or supervisor and a low level of credibility being associated with that person. a study of 500 business professionals indicated that the main factor in deciding to stay on in their job or leave was whether they had a trusting relationship with their manager (kreitner & kinicki, 2007). as the continuous changes in the world of work will inevitably influence trust relationships positively or negatively, it was decided to monitor trust levels over time. this national longitudinal trust survey is meant to be a barometer of the levels of trust in a fast-changing south african business environment. during preliminary analysis of the data, it was noticed that certain institutions seem to stand out constantly (büssing, 2002; von der ohe et al., 2004). one of these was the public service. according to kroukamp (2008), trust in institutions, especially government, is vital to achieve stability and development in every nation. trust enhances confidence in institutions and, consequently, enhances the cooperation of citizens to effect the policies and programmes of government. ethics and behaviour in the south african public service context occur within a definite legislative and policy framework. edwards (2008) lists at least 13 different acts and white papers intended to promote and emphasise sound ethical conduct, professionalism and accountability in the public sector. in addition, south african organisations must adhere to a number of implicit regulations in order to have legitimate employment regulations, or organisational rules, in the workplace (esterhuizen & martins, 2008). another important aspect, which might have an influence on trust in organisations, is the worldwide economic recession. nearly 20 years ago already, brown (1992) mentioned that during times of recession it is much more difficult for participatory management to succeed as trust decreases because of management actions such as, for instance, freezing salaries or retrenching workers. the mentioned regulations, continuous changes in the world of work as well as the worldwide economic recession can all have an impact on employment relations and, especially, the trust relationships in organisations. the trust construct (back to top) according to arrow (1974), trust is an important lubricant of a social system. it is extremely efficient in that trust means that people can rely on other people's promises. researchers such as mayer, davis and schoorman (1995) posit that a party decides whether to trust another (the trustee) based on expectations about the other party's future behaviour, as determined by the perceived trustworthiness of the trustee. bäckstrőm (2008, p. 21) defines trust as follows: 'trust concerns one party's confidence in an exchange partner'. according to reina and reina (1999, p. 11), trust is 'a relationship of mutual confidence in contractual performance, honest communication, expected competence and a capacity for unguarded interaction'. kreitner and kinicki (1995, p. 342) define trust as 'a reciprocal faith in others' intentions and behaviour'. shaw (1997, p. 21) views trust as 'the belief that those on whom we depend will meet our expectations of them' and robbins (1996, p. 357) defines trust as the 'characteristic of high-performance teams where members believe in each other's integrity, character, and ability'. accordingly, martins (2000) concisely states that various characteristics appear to emerge from the current models and definitions, which focus on features such as integrity, competence, openness, vulnerability, reliability and expectations, as well as on the role of the trustee and trustor. butler (1991), castelfranchi and falcone (1998), du plessis (2006), lau et al. (2008), mayer et al. (1995), shaw (1997) and others have examined the components of trust. mayer et al. (1995) developed a model of trust of which the key factors are ability, benevolence and integrity. shaw (1997) developed a model of trust that encompasses the organisation as a whole by also addressing the formal structures and processes and organisational culture. he describes the key leverage points to sustain trust as 'achieving results, acting with integrity and demonstrating concern (shaw, 1997, p. 33)'. pennington (1992) states that earning and maintaining the trust of others require leaders to excel in five areas, namely character, competence, communication, consistency and courage. research done by martins, watkins, von der ohe and de beer (1997) led to the assumption that trust in organisations is created by personality factors and managerial practices. the personality factors are agreeableness, conscientiousness, resourcefulness, emotional stability and extraversion; the managerial practices are information sharing, work support, credibility and team management. barrick and mount (1991) confirmed that five personality characteristics, referred to as the 'big five' (in this research, referred to as the five-factor model of personality), explain a significant proportion of work performance in industrial settings. these characteristics were viewed as possible antecedents of interpersonal trust among managers and employees (martins et al., 1997). a summary of the elements in a relationship of trust, as viewed by various researchers, is displayed in table 1. the research by martins et al. (1997) focused on determining a relationship between personality, managerial practices and trust on a generic level but did not empirically address the specific aspects of personality and managerial practices that are at the core of the positive relationship found with trust. martins (2000) subsequently developed a comprehensive model that defines the specific personality attributes or characteristics of the trust relationship, also taking into account specific components of managers' behaviour. taking cognisance of the above for the purposes of this study, the authors restricted the role and influence of trust to the field of industrial psychology and, specifically, to the employer-employee relationship. trust is therefore defined as the process in which a trustor relies on a trustee (a person or group of people) to act according to specific expectations that are important to the trustor, without taking advantage of the trustor's vulnerability (martins, 2002). this definition provides the foundation for this study, as it supports both the model of trust and the questionnaire that are used in this follow-up study. impact of demographical and biographical variables (back to top) according to lau et al. (2008), relatively few researchers have examined the effect of relational demographics in manager-employee dyads. tsui and o'reilly (1989) found that differences in education, gender and race between members of supervisor-subordinate dyads were related to increased role ambiguity, unfavourable performance evaluations and a lower level of attraction on the part of managers to their corresponding subordinates. in a study by hay (2002), the researcher concluded that the differences in trust in different relationships provided a strong argument for the study of trust at a number of different levels. in his research, büssing (2002) found that it is characteristic for the new type of highly qualified and flexible employee to experience a loose relationship between personal trust in the supervisor or organisation and identification with their job and work. den hartog, shippers and koopman (2002) found that employees on lower levels would often not have enough discretion or resources to pursue visions that deviate significantly from basic organisational goals or those proposed by higher management. bews and uys (2002), who found that more respondents trust their immediate supervisors rather than top management, confirmed this. they also found that employees at higher job levels have more trust in their direct supervisors than those at lower job levels. another important finding by bews and uys (2002) was that employees over the age of 52 were inclined to be more positive about management and the unfolding of change than were younger employees. trust in authority figures, superiors and decision makers are vital as these people make a significant input regarding the distribution or allocation of rewards and resources (colquitt, conlan, wessan, porter & ng, 2001). research done by cyster (2005) found significant differences among the results of some biographical groups in a south african company: • the personal trust between supervisors and subordinates is much higher in some business units than in others. • significant differences were found for all five of the trust dimensions among job grades, with management being the most positive group and the skilled and qualified employees (patterson c band) being the most negative group. •significant differences were found among the qualification groups and, especially, between those with less than grade 8 qualifications and those with diplomas, as well as between those with grade 8 or 9 qualifications and those with diplomas. du plessis (2006) explains that where distrust exists, for instance among departments or areas within a business, it is likely that there will be pockets of knowledge in the organisation that will not be integrated or free flowing because knowledge is not shared by the individuals working in these pockets. research by lau et al. (2008, p. 203) found that when the composition of vertical dyads follows education and organisational rank norms (i.e. better educated vs. less educated managers, senior managers vs lower-ranked managers), staff members perceive managerial trustworthiness to be higher than they would if the dyads were compared otherwise. (lau et al., 2008, p. 203) they furthermore found that demographic dissimilarities have a more significant influence on perceptions of trustworthiness than do similarities. another facet that needed to be addressed was the question of the influence that time has on trust. when revisiting their seminal article (mayer et al., 1995), schoorman, mayer and davis (2007) noted that, against their expectations, the issue of time had not been sufficiently explored in real-life situations. in this study the researchers attempted to take note of this as '[b]y including a consideration of time, studies of trust should lead to more predictable results' (schoorman et al., 2007, p. 352). it appears as if job levels, age, differences in education, gender and race have an impact on trust relationships. although the above discussion shows that demographics appear to have an impact on trust and the way trust is perceived, bews and uys (2002) concluded that more empirical research is needed before a clear picture and understanding can emerge. a focus of the current study is to investigate the impact of demographics such as job level, industry and sample periods on the trust levels of employees. table 1: summary of the elements in a relationship of trust based on this study, and in accordance with the brief discussion above of the trust construct and demographical impact, the following hypotheses were formulated: hypothesis 1: there is a significant difference between the two sample time periods. hypothesis 2: there is a significant relationship between the dimensions of trust and job levels. hypothesis 3: there is a significant relationship between the dimensions of trust and the economic sector. research design (back to top) research approach this study followed a quantitative approach, using internet-based survey methodology to collect primary data from a convenience sample of respondents. the data were analysed using appropriate parametric or, if the sample distribution required it, nonparametric methods. research method research participants and sampling strategy the trust questionnaire, consisting of the three biographical questions, was posted on a survey company's website with an open invitation for individuals and organisations to participate, the rationale being to involve as many employees from the whole spectrum of business sectors in south africa as possible. another justification for posting on the website was to obtain unbiased information from as diverse a group of participants as possible and it was hoped that the respondents would feel more willing to reveal confidential information, such as the name of their employer, on a third-party website. secondly, the survey, with an invitation to participate, was also placed on the website of hr future, a monthly magazine focused on human resources. thirdly, invitations were sent out with a link to a database of 800 current or previous course participants in the field of human resource or industrial psychology. as an internet-based survey methodology was used, it was difficult to ascertain whether the correct population was targeted. for this reason, a convenience sampling strategy was followed to reach as big an audience as possible in all economic sectors. the target population was not only human resources managers but also included line managers with an interest in the area of organisational trust. the data were collected from respondents following one of the links discussed above to the survey instrument. as this is a web-based application, the data were anonymously stored on the server as soon as the respondent had completed the questionnaire. the data were then verified as far as possible by checking for contradictions and obvious misinformation. in total, 307 participants completed the questionnaire. the fear that the above method of attracting responses would target mainly the younger 'web-wise' generation was unfounded, as about half (51.1%) indicated that they were over 35 years of age. furthermore, the participants ranged from top management (3.3%), senior management (12.7%), middle management (26.1%) and supervisors (9.8%) to technical staff or professionals (31.6%) and other levels (13.7%). because of the large number of respondents that had classified themselves as 'other' (17.3%), it was decided to recode the sectors. it appears as if respondents did not always identify their sectors correctly. as nearly all of the respondents (93%) had supplied the name of their employer to one of the open questions, it was possible to recode the sectors. after recoding, the following main sectors emerged: primary (mines, manufacturing and construction) (21.2%), services (29.6%), government (34.8%), retail and wholesale (7.2%) and unknown (7.2%). it was decided to use these four newly grouped sectors in the subsequent analysis. measuring instrument the objective of the trust questionnaire was to gather views on the existence of a trust relationship, correlated with personality and managerial practices and behaviour as a whole. with the current focus of the research (see the hypotheses) and the electronic nature of the survey, it was decided to exclude the section on personality, as it would unnecessarily extend the length of the questionnaire. the focus would also not be on the personality constructs per se but rather on trust and change. ultimately, the questionnaire consisted of sections covering managerial practices, trust relationships and organisational trust and, lastly, a section that measured any changes that had occurred. pmanagerial practices construct: the managerial practices section measured the following managerial dimensions, which are defined as follows (martins, 2002): [credibility:] this includes a willingness to listen, consider proposals, allow others the freedom to express feelings, tolerate mistakes and ensure that employees enjoy prestige and credibility in the organisation. [team management:] this dimension refers to the effective management of team and individual goal accomplishments and the handling of conflict within groups. [information sharing:] this dimension indicates a willingness to give individual feedback on performance and to reveal company-related information in an honest manner. [work support:] this dimension deals with the willingness to support employees when needed and provide job-related information for accomplishing objectives. (martins, 2002) trust relationship: the trust relationship dimension in the questionnaire was directly related to the trust dimension and was measured by five questions dealing with various aspects of trust between employees and their immediate supervisors. the trust relationship dimension reflects the relationship with the immediate supervisors in terms of openness, honesty, fairness and intention to motivate employees. organisational trust: this dimension focused on the trust relationship between top management, the immediate manager and lower level employees. changes that had occurred: in addition to the above dimensions, an additional section was added to the questionnaire to measure participants' satisfaction with changes that had occurred in their organisations. reliability and validity of the questionnaire: the reliability of the questionnaire was shown to be highly satisfactory, with alpha coefficients ranging between 0.82 and 0.94 for the various dimensions (martins, 2000). in addition, the goodness-of-fit index (gfi) was 0.95, the adjusted-goodness-of-fit index (agfi) was 0.91 and the parsimony-goodness-of-fit index (pgfi) was 0.50 (martins, 2000). the goodness-of-fit test is performed in order to determine whether a set of observed data corresponds to some theoretical distribution (downie & health, 1983). a gfi with a value of close to 0.90 reflects a good fit, an agfi with a value of 0.90 reflects a good model fit and a pgfi varies between 0 (no fit) and 1 (perfect fit). it could therefore be deduced that a good model fit was established (martins, 2000). structural equation modelling (sem) was used to assess the validity of the conceptual model of the manifestation of trust. sem is a linear cross-sectional statistical modelling technique, which includes confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis and regression analysis (kline, 1998). the eqs software programme was utilised to test the trust model, using sem (martins, 2000). a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted, following the procedure outlined by schumacher and lomax (1996), to determine whether the data were compatible with the assumption that each of the proposed latent variables represented separate constructs. the results revealed a chi-square of 4â 404.511, based on 33 degrees of freedom with a probability value of less than 0.001. the normal theory chi-square for this solution is 3â 538.303. additionally, the comparative fit index (cfi) = 0.890, the bentler-bonet normed fit index (bdnfi) = 0.889 and the bentler-bonet non-normed fit index (bbnnfi) = 0.850. these were all very close to the recommended perfect fit, 0 (no fit) to 1 (perfect fit) (martins, 2002). statistical analysis: to analyse the data, both parametric as well as nonparametric techniques were used where appropriate. firstly, item and reliability analysis in the form of cronbach's alpha was conducted. to test the hypotheses, t-tests and analysis of variance were used. results (back to top) item and reliability analysis in the present study, the construct validity of the managerial practices and trust relationship dimensions was accepted. the internal consistency reliabilities of these constructs, as well as the dimensions of change and organisational trust, were calculated. the cronbach-alpha coefficients are reported in table 2.the results of all 10 dimensions were above 0.80. typically, this is what is expected for an established questionnaire. according to nunnally (1967), the cronbach-alpha scores for an established scale should be at least above 0.70. an examination of the results of the item analysis shows only two items, which can increase the cronbach-alpha scores of the dimensions if deleted. however, these increases are very low and therefore it was decided to retain all items. the statistical programme used to determine the above was the spss statistical package, version 16. the descriptive statistics for the overall results of the seven dimensions are also displayed in table 2. if the cut-off point of a mean of 3.20 is used, which can be seen as a reasonable cut-off point to differentiate between positive and negative perceptions (odendaal & roodt, 1998), only information sharing and change were below the cut-off point with organisational trust very close to the cut-off point with a mean of 3.2158. table 2: descriptive statistics for total group and reliability coefficients of dimensions analysis of variance or t-test all the items in the trust questionnaire required the respondents to respond on a five-point likert scale, where a low rating (1) indicated that the respondents strongly disagreed and a high rating (5) that they strongly agreed. the questionnaire was then scored for each of the various dimensions. all dimensions were scored such that a low score indicated nonacceptance or distrust of the specific dimension, while a high score indicated acceptance of the trust dimension or high levels of trust. the analysis of variance and t-test approaches were appropriate strategies for testing the formulated hypotheses. the biographical groups, such as economic sector and job level, were regarded as independent variables. the dependent variables were the seven trust dimensions.g-graphs were compiled to determine whether the results were distributed normally and levene's test was used to test for homogeneity of variance, as the levene's statistic tests the null hypothesis that the group variances are equal. these results would indicate when it would be deemed expedient to use non-parametric statistics for further analysis. non-parametric tests are usually used in the case of small samples, which was not the case in this study, but as this research involved the use of ordinal-level data (likert-type response scales), it was an acceptable alternative to the more stringent parametric tests (pett, 1997). t-tests were used to compare the means of two groups. if the means of more than two groups had to be compared, an analysis of variance (anova) was used as 'analysis of variance tests the hypothesis that the group means of the dependent variable are equal' (spss, 2007, p. 184). table 3 gives an overview of the descriptive statistics of the four sectors. these results show positive results for the dimensions of trust relationships, teamwork and work support but low mean scores for information sharing and organisational trust. the most positive sector appears to be services, with all the mean scores above 3.30. the lowest mean scores are for information sharing (government and retail or wholesale sectors) and change (government sector). the lowest scoring dimension that stands out is change but only in the case of the government sector. in contrast, it is important to note that information sharing is the lowest scored dimension for all the sectors. the highest scored dimensions are trust relationships and team management for the services sector. government appears to be the sector with the lowest trust as four of the seven dimensions are below the proposed cut-off point of 3.20. to determine whether the mean dimension scores differ significantly among the four sectors, table 4 provides the results of the anova. except for the trust relationship and work support dimensions, the other dimensions (change, team management, organisational trust, information sharing and credibility) show significant differences across all four sectors. the descriptive statistics for the job levels are presented in table 5. both an anova as well as the kruskal-wallis test were conducted. no significant differences emerged by job level overall or by job level per economic sector. it is, however, important to note that both supervisors and 'all other levels' experienced change below a mean of 3.00, for three of the job levels (top management and executives, senior management and middle management); information sharing was also perceived as the lowest ranked dimension. another interesting tendency is that all job levels perceived the dimensions of trust relationship, team management and work support as positive (mean score above 3.20). to investigate the main question, that is to say, whether the global financial meltdown in the latter half of 2008 has already had an effect on trust levels, two distinct sample periods could be included, namely that before july 2008 and that after july 2008. the descriptive statistics of the two sample periods are presented in table 7. according to the levene statistic (see table 8), equal variances could not be assumed, so that it was necessary to use the kruskal-wallis test as this test makes 'minimal assumptions about the underlying distribution of the data' (spss, 2007, p. 1259) and 'tests whether k independent samples defined by a grouping variable are from the same population' (spss, 2007, p. 1266). the kruskal-wallis test (see table 8) indicated no significant differences for the two sample periods. it is again important to note that information sharing and change were below the 3.20 cut-off point for both periods, while organisational trust was also below this cut-off point for the second period. table 3: descriptive statistics for the four economic sectors table 4: comparison of dimension scores for different economic sectors (anova) table 5: descriptive statistics for job levels table 6: comparison of dimensions scores for job levels (anova) table 7: descriptive statistics for sample periods table 8: scomparison of dimension scores for the two sample periods discussion (back to top) this study should be viewed as part of a larger effort by the researchers to understand the possible influence of the passage of time and the impact of certain demographics on trust relationships. the current results make several contributions. firstly, concerning the first hypothesis regarding the time dimension, the findings indicate no significant differences between the different trust dimensions for the two measured periods. this could point to the stability of the trust construct, but very low scores for the dimension of organisational trust for the second time period might be an indication that the economic recession may be starting to influence the trust relationship between top management, the immediate manager and employees at a lower level. there might be various reasons why no significant differences are found between the two time periods, but this still does not support the notion that the trust construct is stable over time. one reason might be the increased economic and financial pressure on companies during the second half of 2008. this might have forced management to focus more on the measured dimensions to maintain a positive relationship and profitability. during the second half of 2008, the economic and financial pressure on organisations had also just started to have an impact and no immediate actions such as liquidations, downsizing or mergers were announced. the authors anticipate that the planned analysis of the data to be collected in 2009 and later might show the influence that the recession has on trust levels. if this effect does not materialise, however, it might point to the stability of the trust construct even during times of economic recession. secondly, the differences among the sectors show that government employees experience two of the dimensions as significantly less positive than all three of the other sectors (see tables 5 and 6), and three dimensions are significantly more negative than the primary and services sectors but, interestingly, similar to the retail and wholesale sectors. it therefore appears as if government sector employees are the most distrustful of their management and the organisation. as indicated in the introduction, this may be attributed to the more focused approach of government to implement employment equity. according to israelstam (1999), the implementation of employment equity will lead to the changing face of organisations, which will no longer be dominated by white supremacy. at the opposite end of the spectrum, white males feel that they are being victimised by employment equity (düweke, 2004). these males might respond by leaving the organisation or, worse still, remaining in the organisation and covertly resisting the employment equity plans and their implementation (israelstam, 1999). trust levels may also be affected by managers' making use of the generous severance packages being offered as part of employment equity programmes and the resultant outflow of key skills. one would also need to investigate whether the reported incidences in the popular press of nondelivery of services to the public, as a result of real or perceived mismanagement or corruption, lead to feelings of low trust in superiors, or the public sector as employer, by public servants at all levels. all the above could have a more negative effect on the perceptions of government employees. a study by careers24.com (2008) in south africa, completed online by 21 000 respondents, showed similar tendencies. the survey included questions on leadership, which measure the company's commitment to its people, the time managers spend on people issues and the quality of the relationship between managers and employees. all four of the government institutions that participated showed the lowest survey results of all the participating sectors for the dimension of leadership. the fact that no significant results were found among the job levels shows that all employees experience the results consistently. these results differ from those of research conducted by bews and uys (2002), who found that employees at higher job grades have more trust in their direct supervisor, who tends to be part of top management, than do those at lower job grades. the results of this study also differ from those of a recent diagnosis in a south african organisation conducted by esterhuizen and martins (2008). these results indicated a perceived lack of trust between employees and management, with significant differences among the results of the job levels for leadership, which includes trust. the reason for the difference in results might be that the present study was done across sectors and not in one organisation, as was the case with the two previously mentioned studies. managerial implications and recommendations the apparent lower levels of trust of government participants in their management can affect ethical and authentic leadership, as trust is a primary attribute associated with leadership. when it breaks down, it has serious adverse effects on a group's performance (robbins, judge, odendaal & roodt, 2009). according to furia (1996), some of the other effects of mistrust are as follows:• people who mistrust conceal information and act opportunistically to take advantage of others. •a few mistrusting people can poison an entire organisation. • mistrust usually reduces productivity. • a climate of mistrust tends to stimulate dysfunctional forms of conflict and impede cooperation. it is therefore important that leaders in government focus more on trust-enhancing behaviours, which furia (1996) lists as: • sharing relevant information • reducing controls • allowing for mutual influence • clarifying mutual expectations • meeting expectations. management professor or consultant fernando bartolomè offers the following six guidelines for building and maintaining trust (kreitner & kinicki, 2007): • communication: keep team members and employees informed by explaining policies and decisions and providing accurate feedback. be candid about your own problems and limitations. tell the truth. • support: be available and approachable. provide help, advice, coaching and support for team members' ideas. • respect: delegation, in the form of real decision-making authority, is the most important expression of managerial respect. actively listening to the ideas of others is a close second. (empowerment is not possible without trust.) • fairness: be quick to give credit and recognition to those who deserve it. make sure that all performance appraisals and evaluations are objective and impartial. • predictability: as mentioned previously, be consistent and predictable in your daily affairs. keep both expressed and implied promises. • competence: enhance your credibility by demonstrating good business sense, technical ability and professionalism. research furthermore indicates important findings to repair mistrust in organisations. according to kim, ferrin, cooper and dirks (2004), individuals will exhibit more trusting beliefs in and trusting intentions toward an accused party if that party apologises rather than denies culpability for a trust violation. the researchers conclude as follows: indeed, the implications of such attributions can be so dramatic that they can lead managers to exhibit greater trust in those who have confirmed guilt with an apology than in those who have claimed innocence. (kim et al., 2004, p. 116) another important implication, for government institutions in particular, is the finding that trust is positively correlated with affective commitment. this is a significant predictor of both absenteeism and turnover (colquitt, scott & le pine, 2007). according to dirks and ferris (2002), when implementing leadership as a mechanism to promote trust in local government, a distinction between different perspectives of trust in leadership should be taken into consideration. this may be either the perceptions of the follower of the relationship with the leaders or a character-based perspective. the limitations of this study are that only a relatively limited sample participated in the survey. the researchers are currently analysing the results of a follow-up survey, which will lead to a broader database and better comparisons among the sectors and other biographical variables. the main focus of this next phase though is to try to investigate and gain some clarity concerning the apparently elusive effect of time on organisational trust levels. it is suggested that it might be fruitful for other researchers also to investigate the effect of time, as suggested by schoorman et al. (2007). references (back to top) arrow, k. (1974). kenneth arrow on capitalism in society. business and society innovation, 10, 22-27. bäckstrőm, l. (2008). trust relationships: how sales people view the quality of relationship with friends and customers. management dynamics, 17(3), 20-27. barrick, m.r., & mount, m.k. (1991). the big five personality dimensions and job performance: a meta-analysis. personnel psychology, 44(1), 1-26. bews, n., & martins, n. (2002). an evaluation of the facilitators of trustworthiness. special edition: sa journal of industrial psychology /sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 28(4), 14-19. bews, n., & uys, t. (2002). the impact of organisational restructuring on perceptions of trustworthiness. special edition: sa journal of industrial psychology /sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 28(4), 21-28. brown, d. (1992). why participative management won't work here. management review, 81(6): 42-46. büssing, a. (2002). trust and its relations to commitment and involvement in work in organisations. special edition: sa journal of industrial psychology /sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 28(4), 36-42. butler, j.k. (1991). toward understanding and measuring conditions of trust: evaluation of conditions of a trust inventory. journal of management, 17(3), 643-663. byrne, j.a. (2002, 24 june). restoring trust in corporate america. business must lead the way to real reform. business week, pp. 30-35. careers24.com. (2008). the salary survey results 2008. retrieved january 27, 2008, from http://www.careers24.com/talentsurvey/results.pdf castelfranchi, c., & falcone, r. (1998). social trust: cognitive anatomy, social importance, quantification and dynamics. in proceedings of the workshop on deception, fraud and trust in aged societies: autonomous agents conference, 9 may 1998. st paul, mn: springer verlag. colquitt, j.a., conlan, d.e., wessan, m.j., porter, c.o.l.h., & ng, k.y. (2001). justice at the millennium: a meta-analytical review of 25 years of organisational justice research. journal of applied psychology, 86(3), 425-445. colquitt, j.a., scott, b.a., & le pine, j.a. (2007). trust, trustworthiness and trust prosperity: a meta-analytic test of their unique relationships with risk taking and job performance. journal of applied psychology, 92(4), 909-927. cyster, s. (2005). a comparative study of the trust audit results of three business units of a south african company. unpublished thesis, university of south africa, pretoria. den hartog, d.e., shippers, m.c., & koopman, p.l. (2002). the impact of leader behaviour on trust in management and co-workers. special edition: sa journal of industrial psychology /sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 28(4), 29-34. dirks, k.t., & ferris, d.l. (2002). trust in leadership: meta analytical findings and implications for research and practice. journal of applied psychology, 87(4), 611-628. du plessis, m. (2006). the impact of organisational culture on knowledge management. cambridge: chandos publishing. düweke, l.d. (2004). the role of employment equity in gender diversity. unpublished master's dissertation, university of south africa, pretoria. edwards, t. (2008). the nuts and bolts of ethics, accountability and professionalism in the public sector: an ethical leadership perspective. journal of public administration, 43(3.1), 77-88. esterhuizen, w., & martins, n. (2008). organisational justice and employee responses to employee equity. sa journal of labour relations, 32(2), 66-85. furia, g.l. (1996). facilitators guide to interpersonal trust surveys. san francisco: jossey-bass, pfeiffer. hay, a. (2002). trust and organisational change: an experience from manufacturing. special edition: sa journal of industrial psychology /sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 28(4), 43-47. israelstam, i. (1999). problems and pitfalls attached to the implementation of employment equity plans. people dynamics, 17(7), 14-19. kim, p.h., ferrin, d.l., cooper, c.d., & dirks, k.t. (2004). removing the shadow of suspicion: the effects of apology versus denial for repairing competenceversus integrity-based trust violations. journal of applied psychology, 89(1), 104-118. kreitner, r., & kinicki, a. (1995). organizational behaviour. chicago: irwin. kreitner, r., & kinicki, a. (2007). organizational behaviour. new york: mcgraw hill/irwin. kroukamp, h. (2008). trust building as a leadership pillar in south african local government. journal of public administration, 43(4.1). lau, d.c., lam, l.w., & salamon, s.d. (2008). the impact of relational demographics on perceived managerial trustworthiness: similarity or norms? the journal of social psychology, 148(2), 187-205. martins, n. (2000). developing a trust model for assisting management during change. journal of industrial psychology, (3), 27-38. martins, n. (2002). a model for managing trust. journal of manpower, 23(8), 745-769. martins, n., watkins, m., von der ohe, h., & de beer, m. (1997). trust audit summary report. centre for industrial and organisational psychology. department of industrial psychology, pretoria: university of south africa. mayer, r.c., davis, j.h., & schoorman, f.d. (1995). an integrative model of organisational trust. academy of management review, 20(3), 709-734. nunally, j.c. (1967). psychometric theory. new york: mcgraw. odendaal, a.c., & roodt, g. (1998). corporate culture and participation: independent constructs? journal of industrial psychology /sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 24(3),14-21. pennington, r. (1992). building integtity-driven organizations. retrieved september 8, 2001 from http://penningtongroup.com/articles/integdrivenlead.asp pett, m.a. (1997). non-parametric statistics for health care research: statistics for small samples and unusual distributions. london: sage. reina, d.s., & reina, m.l. (1999). trust and betrayal in the workplace. san francisco: berret-koehler. robbins, s.p. (1996). organizational behaviour concepts, controversies and applications. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. robbins, s.p., judge, t.a., odendaal, a., & roodt, g. (2009). organisational behaviour: global and southern african perspectives. cape town: pearson education. salamon, s.d., & robinson, s.l. (2008). trust that binds: the impact of collective felt trust on organisational performance. journal of applied psychology, 93(3), 593-601. schoorman, f.d., mayer, r.c., & davis, j.h. (2007). an integrative model of organizational trust: past, present, and future. academy of management review, 32(2), 344-354. schumacher, r.e., & lomax, r.g. (1996). a beginners guide to structural equation modelling. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. shaw, f.b. (1997). trust in balance. san francisco: jossey-bass. spss (2007). spss 16.0 command syntax reference. chicago, il: spss inc. tsui, a.s., & o'reilly, c.a. (1989). beyond simple demographic effects: the importance of relational demography in superior-subordinate dyads. academy of management journal, 32, 402-423. tyler, t.r., & kramer, r.m. (eds.). (1996). trust in organizations: frontiers of theory and research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. von der ohe, h., martins, n., & roode, m. (2004). the influence of credibility on employer-employee trust relations. south african journal of labour relations, 28(2), 4-31. article information authors: marius meyer1 gert roodt1 michael robbins1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: marius meyer email: marius@sabpp.co.za postal address: po box 524, auckland park 2006, south africa how to cite this article: meyer, m., roodt, g., & robbins, m. (2011). human resources risk management: governing people risks for improved performance. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #366, 12 pages. doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.366 copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) human resources risk management: governing people risks for improved performance in this opinion paper... open access • introduction • methodology • growth in the field of managing risk • what is risk management? • international risk management standards • governing risk in king iii • risk and the human resources link • integrating risk and performance • types and examples of human resources risks    • complying with legislation    • understanding trends in the business environment    • people and corporate culture    • implementing business strategy    • carrying out operations • an human resources risk assessment framework • guidelines for managing human resources risk • conclusion • acknowledgements    • authors’ contributions • references introduction (back to top) against a backdrop of uneven and uncertain economic recovery, the worldwide economic recession has led to a renewed focus on managing risk (butler, 2010). at a local level, the king iii code on governance in south africa has been in effect from 01 march 2010. in response to king iii, the south african board for people practices (sabpp) recently released an opinion paper on the human resource (hr) implications of king iii (sabpp, 2009). given the important role of hr directors in supporting king iii, and the sound governance of south african organisations in particular, the human resource research initiative of sabpp identified the management of hr risk as one of the most important opportunities that hr practitioners have for adding value to the new governance dispensation in the country. in fact, the 2009 ernest and young business risk report highlighted the importance of hr risk management. christopher lipski, hr risk management service line leader in the united states of america (usa), said that ‘managing risk in the hr area has become an increasingly important issue for global executives’ (ernest & young, 2009). in his new book on successful south african entrepreneurs, brian joffe, chief executive officer (ceo) of the bidvest group, states: ‘a key risk in future – just like today – is people risk.’ we live in a country with a dearth of skills. so a key test of entrepreneurship is how you develop people. one of the big lessons from bidvest is that you grow by growing people and working together. you rarely find bad people in business. the problem is usually a bad fit. give people the right opportunity, the right tools and training, and they will perform. this article gives a brief overview of the importance of managing risk from an hr risk management perspective. the point of departure is that, in addition to other factors in business, a lack of proper hr risk management contributes to poor governance because businesses often use a reactive approach to hr management with no or little regard for managing risk. methodology (back to top) the researchers followed the following methodology when compiling this article: • a literature review of risk management and hr risk management • a focus group session with hr managers • consolidating these into an hr risk management framework and guidelines for south african organisations. growth in the field of managing risk (back to top) risk management, as an emerging management discipline, has gone from strength to strength over the last decade. various universities have started to offer short academic courses in managing risk and companies employ risk managers to ensure that risk management receives the attention that it deserves. the appointment of risk managers also had its downside because it meant that senior managers saw managing risk as a separate organisational function that risk managers controlled. now, in the new governance regime that king iii proposed, managing risk has been elevated to board level using the best practice guideline that companies should appoint a chief risk officer (cro) to boards. in a similar vein, king iii elevated and repositioned risk management at board level by referring to the ‘governance of risk’. in fact, governing risk is now a whole chapter in king iii (chapter 4). managing risk should therefore form part of the strategic plan of an organisation. however, as taleb (2007) warns, companies must be careful of becoming risk complacent when they assume that they can forecast the future accurately. who forecast 9–11, the tsunami and the worldwide economic recession? all of these dramatic events had a major effect on business all over the world. however, risk managers and boards could not forecast any of these events. thus, managing risk has indeed become an emerging field. however, businesses need a more integrated and proactive approach to ensure that they becomes resilient and develop capacity to handle risks and disasters. what is risk management? (back to top) the word ‘risk’ entered the english language from the old italian word riscare, which means ‘to dare’. the very nature of business is about taking risk for reward (zulu, 2010). businesses invest money to yield returns on the risks they take. risks are ‘uncertain future events which, left unchecked, could adversely influence the achievement of a company’s business objectives’ (naidoo, 2002). the definition in the international organization for standardization (iso) 31 000 risk management standard is that ‘a risk is the effect of uncertainty on objectives’ (airmic, 2010; iso, 2009). the iso guide also emphasises that a risk may be positive, negative or a deviation from the expected and that risk often becomes visible in an event, a change in circumstances or a consequence. at the same time, risk is a normal and unavoidable element in any business. entrepreneurs and investors pursue business opportunities despite the risks. yet, not dealing with risks can lead to business failure and even the collapse of the company. table 1 gives a risk perspective of the fédération internationale de football association (fifa) world cup 2010 tournament held in south africa. it is a brief summary of the possible risks. table 1 shows that one can view risks as positive or negative, depending on the potential outcome of the particular type of risk. in essence, the challenge is to identify the specific risks and to plan for any deviation from the expected. table 1: a brief analysis of possible risks during the fifa world cup 2010. fortunately, the fifa world cup 2010 was a huge success because fifa, the local organising committee and all other stakeholders had excellent risk management plans in place. for example, when security guards went on strike (an hr risk) at one of the stadiums, the police deployed additional officers to the site. in addition, because schools closed, a number of employees had to take leave that depleted their usual december leave. consequently, these employees had to work without a sufficient break in december. furthermore, some companies slowed down considerably during this period and many day-to-day businesses lost money whilst waiting for decisions pending the end of the fifa world cup. a group of hr directors from executives global network south africa had a detailed discussion about the hr planning and risks associated with the fifa world cup. their discussions covered the negative risks and the potential positive consequences, like improved morale and nation building. thus, robust risk management planning is essential for the success of any venture, project or organisation. therefore, a business needs a risk management framework to provide assurance about the effectiveness of its operations and the validity of the findings of its risk management reporting. the framework should have a clear focus on the cost implications and effects of these factors on the business. the purpose of managing risk is to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of operations, to enforce compliance with regulations, to support business sustainability, to ensure reliable reporting to stakeholders and to ensure responsible behaviour. significantly, the king iii report specifically mentions hr as an important area for identifying and reducing risk. boards should report annually on risks and sustainability issues, like social development, transformation, ethics, safety and the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (aids) (iod, 2009). in fact, in high-risk environments, businesses may need more frequent management reports. therefore, companies should assess people or hr risks as part of their overall management of risk (sabpp, 2009). german banks have taken the lead in developing strategies to manage hr risks (paul & mitlacher, 2008). in addition, deloitte (2008) highlights the importance of managing hr risk in the modern business environment. the king iii report on governance for south africa defines risk management as: the identification and evaluation of actual and potential risk areas as they pertain to the company as a total entity, followed by a process of either avoidance, termination, transfer, tolerance, exploitation, or mitigation of each risk, or a response that is a combination or integration. (iod, 2009) however, some risk management experts feel that king iii does not address managing risks adequately. they feel that king iii is not sufficiently aligned to the iso risk management standard and is out of touch with typical modern risk management practices at leading organisations. a study by ernest and young shows that reputation makes up as much as 50% of a company’s share price. the exxon valdez oil spill cost the company $2 billion in the first two months and a further $10 billion to restore the environment. if this was not enough, the united states (us) government fined it another $5 billion. from a risk management perspective, the most important question is what caused the tragedy. was it bad environmental practice, poor management, a lack of control or negligence? it was probably all of these, but the root cause analysis showed a remarkable origin – faulty hr policy. this resulted in under staffing and poor working conditions. in essence, the cause was aggressive cost cutting at the company. a company needs to consider the value of its goodwill and intellectual property in its annual valuation, especially in the event of a sale. often companies feel that contractors are less of a risk. however, one can challenge this when the company sells intellectual property but does not actually own the property it intends selling or which it wants valued. this has become evident in audits because companies felt that the absence of a long-term relationship reduces risk. however, they had not considered that: • the top staff are not actually bound to the company or its policies and procedures • the company and labour brokers are legally, jointly and severable liable, so contractors and labour brokers do not reduce risk as much as managers think they do. a study by beatty, ewing and sharp (2003) also showed that hr risk was associated with higher organisational risk. the very nature of global hr poses several risks, like political instability, fraud, terrorism, regulations, health and safety, human rights abuses and intellectual property issues (garratt, 2003). therefore, managing risk is the process by which a board, in consultation with managers, decides which risks to eliminate, accept, reduce or transfer (naidoo, 2002). an hr risk is any people, culture or governance factor that causes uncertainty in the business environment that could adversely affect the company’s operations. figure 1 gives some interesting results of a survey the human capital institute (africa) conducted on business risks. figure 1 shows that the human capital institute (africa) identified human capital risk as the most significant threat to businesses in south africa. however, companies are not ready to deal with human capital risks. this finding is consistent with international research. a survey by the economist intelligence unit found that risk managers regard poor human capital management as the biggest threat to the long-term success of global businesses (wybrecht, 2010). figure 1: types of risks the human capital institute (africa) identified. international risk management standards (back to top) the iso 31000 international standard on risk management gives a useful frame of reference to assist hr directors to place hr strategy within the context of risk management. in particular, the iso principles and guidelines document (iso, 2009) is extremely important. the document recommends that hr practitioners become directly involved in: • embedding risk management as an integral part of all organisational processes, including managing change • considering human and cultural factors and, more specifically, recognising the capabilities, perceptions and intentions of external and internal people who can facilitate or hinder the achievement of organisations’ objectives • supporting managers to ensure that companies align their culture and risk management policies • supporting performance management by assisting managers to determine the risk management performance indicators that align with the performance indicators of organisations • acting as drivers to ensure legal and regulatory compliance • building capacity for effective risk management that begins with employee induction and follows it with training in managing risk • establishing appropriate organisational structures with clear roles and accountabilities for managing risk • establishing sound relationships with internal stakeholders, thus considering perceptions and reinforcing values. governing risk in king iii (back to top) the king iii report on governance has a whole chapter on governing risk. table 2 outlines the relevant governance elements, principles, and recommended governance practices, together with appropriate hr directors’ responses. table 2: governing risk. table 2 shows that sound risk governance depends largely on clear governance elements and principles that are the foundations of risk governance. however, elements and principles of governance are not enough. a governance system requires clear practices for the effective governance of risk, like monitoring risk management activities. lastly, the sabpp (2009) paper on king iii asserted that hr directors have a critical role to play in general governance. in order to make the role of hr directors more explicit, the next session looks at risk and the hr link. risk and the human resources link (back to top) when one tracks the progress of the hr profession, it becomes clear that it has gone through different stages of development. these stages define the core competencies, to a certain extent, of the hr profession – the ‘things’ that hr directors are doing or should be doing. in general, the hr profession is moving beyond the strategic business partner role towards one of being a driver of business success and sustainability. some companies’ hr functions are not performing well in this transformation process, whilst others are still struggling to become strategic partners. research suggests that the recipients of hr services (line managers) are not ad idem with hr directors about the importance and the effectiveness of hr services (magau & roodt, 2010). for example, sometimes managers see training as a waste of time. this perception is a main source of hr’s credibility crisis: what is the contribution of hr directors to the success of a business? in order to meet this challenge, hr directors need to identify and manage its risks effectively, amongst other things. hr personnel should collect information about people-related governance, risk and compliance issues. the hr director should present company directors with a complete report of hr compliance and operational risks, as well as the recommended actions, and accept responsibility for reducing them. furthermore, hr personnel can assist the board in related areas, like managing executive succession, providing board development and administrative services as well as supporting the remuneration committee (deloitte, 2008). although king iii mentions human capital risks, this aspect deserves more prominence. the deloitte (2008) report asserted that ‘people and behaviour are often the biggest sources of business risk.’ therefore, it is essential to ensure that a company’s risk management plan includes people risks. it needs a comprehensive analysis of its people risks, one that significantly transcends the current narrow focus on safety in high-risk environments like factories and mines. people risks include company culture, talent shortages and retention, incompetence, employee performance, unethical behaviour, low morale, grievances and disputes, excessive absenteeism, employee wellness, sabotage, workplace violence, as well as noncompliance with industry and other regulations and laws. if an organisation makes political appointments without a proper focus on the right qualifications and skills needed for a job in the public sector, and in certain private companies, these appointments may affect productivity. this leads to poor turnaround times in dealing with suspensions of senior managers or hasty decisions to dismiss managers without proper investigation. in the south african environment, failure to transform and, in particular, to achieve employment equity targets are significant risks. south african organisations need a more integrated approach to managing hr risks. they need to consider hr risks in every major business decision, like opening a branch in a different province or country. research has clearly shown that so-called ‘soft’ issues, like cultural incompatibility, have led to more major business failures during mergers, acquisitions and international joint ventures than ‘hard’ factors, like cash flow or debt, have. any strategic risk-management exercise, which a business conducts without a hr due diligence exercise and without considering crucial inputs from senior hr executives, is bound to encounter some form of hr-related problem. board directors and chief executives are, by definition, also human resources that organisations should use optimally to ensure profitability and productivity. organisations should subject directors, their board subcommittees and audit committees to the same regular 360-degree performance assessments and reviews as they do with ordinary employees. for too long, boards, managers and hr practitioners have turned a blind eye on incompetent managers and directors, people who simply do not attend board meetings and are, in most instances, free agents who operate above the scrutiny and reproach of company shareholders and other stakeholders. whilst king iii is correct to emphasise the importance of information technology (it) governance, neglecting hr governance is a serious omission. deloitte (2008) states that ‘governance, risk and compliance challenge affect every part of the business – and every one of those challenges has a significant human component.’ hr practitioners must use their unique knowledge, skills and experience to help business leaders tackle governance, risk and compliance issues throughout the organisation. like its predecessor, king ii, the third king code highlights the importance of ethics at board, management and staff levels. it also emphasises, in particular, the need for an ethical culture. however, to think that an ethical code in itself will instil a culture of ethics is short sighted. deloitte (2008) argues that every business scandal or regulatory violation ultimately has its roots in the workforce. that is why hr practitioners must expand their role from ‘stewards’ (which focuses on workforce compliance and administration) to ‘strategists’ (which affects every governance, risk and compliance issue with a human element). regular articles in the press about governance problems in the boards of parastatals serve as good examples of the need for a strong focus on ethics at board level and throughout the organisation. carnel botha, director of bdo spencer steward in cape town, says that ‘companies need to proactively look for red flags when it comes to their employees’ (botha, 2008). audits identify certain ethical risks that companies should manage. hr practitioners should also play a more proactive role in ensuring the appointment of staff with the right abilities, values and ethical culture. organisations place too much emphasis on the technical knowledge and skills of employees and not enough on their ethical character and behavioural fit. organisations need to consider the psychological contract upfront. every employee’s values and needs must align with the values and culture of the company. hr practitioners can help line managers to probe for character fairly and legally when conducting interviews. in addition, organisations need hr due diligence to prevent the damage that incompetence causes (deloitte, 2008). the hr executive often works with business development teams at a global level and has to add value to the process of interpreting business opportunities. a new global business opportunity may allow a business to increase its profits. however, it may also present risks that could have an adverse effect on sustainability and growth if the business does not manage these risks well. finkelstein (1999) states that most cross-border mergers and acquisitions are not successful and ryan (2006) reports that only 13% of executives said that these deals went smoothly. differences in corporate governance, regulatory environments and national culture create additional layers of complexity that companies needs to manage. furthermore, a global company needs a clear hr due diligence process to highlight all the hr risk factors that the company should manage to avoid rushed and poor decisions. the hr executive can make a valuable contribution by collaborating with commercial and financial managers in the due diligence process. in this way, the hr executive can add value to the process of interpreting and developing business opportunities as well as ensuring an effective approach to completing projects. in line with the corporate governance principles of accountability and responsibility, companies need a rigorous and systematic approach to hr due diligence. the project development team should examine all the hr risk factors and look for answers to the questions that arise. the challenge is then to explore, within the legal framework, how to reduce these risk factors. managing hr risk is a key element of hr governance. proper hr risk management gives hr executives an opportunity to fulfil their fiduciary duties of care and sound financial management. therefore, hr risk management flows directly from external and internal stakeholder engagement. hr risk management addresses key hr risk issues like reducing risk, hr due diligence, the role of hr committees, implementing codes of ethics and fair labour practices. companies should identify hr risks in different sites or countries and develop proactive risk-reducing plans to deal effectively with these risks. liaising with and consulting different stakeholders is an important element of sound hr governance. the purpose of the seamless interfaces between the different stakeholders is to reduce the different risks and uncertainties that arise because of the interaction between them. inevitably, the hr practitioner needs to work closely with the risk manager and risk committee to ensure that the overall risk management plan of the company includes hr risks. integrating risk and performance (back to top) the long-term and sustained success of an organisation relies on two key factors: risk management and performance management. strategic objectives are the bases for the approach an organisation adopts to achieve both. a process-based framework needs to unify performance, risk and compliance management and move out of the risk or finance office. organisations have seen the disciplines of performance, risk, and compliance management as separate for a long time, but the walls are breaking down. managing performance begins with the objectives an organisation is trying to achieve and risk management has evolved from its silo-driven roots into enterprise risk management. therefore, it has become clear that an organisation must identify and assess risks in the light of the objectives it is trying to achieve. a process-based framework that allows for effective organisational governance needs to unify all three of these disciplines. risk and performance management also share other essential management system elements. continuous improvement is crucial in the ever-changing commercial world and organisations must see managing risk as a continuous process. it is essential that organisations review the incidence of risk to see whether it has changed over time. managing risk is a dynamic process and good governance practice requires an organisation to identify new risks, to eliminate some and to update control measures in response to changing internal and external events. an organisation also needs to review its assessments of probability and effect, particularly in the light of the actions of managers and/or external influences. king iii requires that internal auditors assess the system of managing risk or annual review in the first instance and report on the effectiveness of control measures. improving business results requires an organisation to simplify risk management practices and to integrate them seamlessly with normal business operations, its planning and budgeting processes and organisational culture. managing risk is no longer an add-on or fad. private and public sector organisations alike have struggled to understand the steps and techniques of implementing risk management practices. those who have succeeded are reaping the fruits of their labours. high performing organisations, having developed strategies through sound strategic planning processes, must implement strategies ruthlessly by removing performance barriers or risks through enterprise-wide risk management practices. approaches to managing risk are designed to enable an organisation to reduce the uncertainty surrounding the achievement of its objectives. they aim at reducing the likelihood that the events, which organisations expect to affect them negatively, will occur. these approaches also focus on reducing the effect these events might have on achieving objectives. performance management approaches focus on selecting the strategic objectives that an organisation needs to achieve and on monitoring progress through measurable parameters. these approaches revolve around cascading these measurable parameters down to each person in the organisation. the monitoring system uses trend, deviation and root cause analyses of these parameters. the organisation then consolidates these individual parameters to analyse whether the organisation is achieving its strategic objectives. types and examples of human resources risks (back to top) a review of the literature on risk suggests that one finds general business risks in these areas: • compliance with legislation • understanding trends in the business environment • people and corporate culture • implementing business strategy • carrying out operations. hr risks are no different. one finds them in the same areas. the sections that follow discuss each of these hr risk areas in more detail. complying with legislation there is a wide range of relevant legislation. companies’ hr policies should show compliance with these different pieces of legislation: • the employment equity act • the skills development act • the black economic empowerment act • the basic conditions of employment act • the occupational health and safety act • the labour relations act • the mining, banking, it and other charters. the typical hr risk here is noncompliance. this means that hr managers should have a clear understanding of what each piece of legislation requires for compliance, regardless of whether this entails the actions a company must take or information it needs to provide. compliance is not relevant only to hr legislation. the huge increase in fines for noncompliance with legislation for anticompetitive behaviour is a good example. munnik (2008) asserts that: ‘your management of employment equity, or lack thereof, could put your business at risk.’ companies need to consider the effects of fines and pressure from the minister of labour to comply with employment equity legislation. therefore, if a company complies with employment equity requirements too quickly and employs incompetent people, who cause damage to the business, these appointments can cause significant risk to the business. on the other hand, if it complies too slowly, the company may face prosecution for noncompliance and significant risk to its reputation may follow. understanding trends in the business environment business environments do change. what are the key drivers of change and what are the effects and consequences of change for the business and its hr function? this question suggests that hr managers should understand key trends in their business’ environment and be able to convert them into business and hr strategies and policies. typical hr risks here are top and senior managers, including hr managers, who lack the ability to analyse the external and internal business environments systematically, who lack the ability to understand what the key drivers of change in these contexts are, who lack the ability to convert them into business strategies or to foresee their strategic implications. people and corporate culture people and corporate culture drive the implementation of the business’ strategies. does the company have the right people in the right places? can these people perform their jobs in a constructive, engaging and empowering climate? these questions suggest that hr managers should find the right talent and create the right environment in which people can perform. typical hr risks here are: • not having the right talent in the right places • not attracting and retaining key talent • performance that does not meet predetermined standards • training and development interventions that do not improve performance • absence of a constructive company climate. furthermore, the human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) and aids have a disastrous effect on many businesses. ‘in some sub-saharan african countries, a third of the workforce has the hiv virus’ (feller, 2007). this problem could seriously affect the business’ sustainability. implementing business strategy strategy implementation means developing a business strategy and then implementing it. does the company have a strategic or business plan? does this plan convert into different project plans with clear time lines for implementation? is there an effective budgeting and governance system in place? these questions suggest that hr managers should help to draft the business strategy, understand the supportive role and function of hr practitioners in governance, and help to implement the strategy. typical hr risks here are that the business does not have a strategic or business plan that converts into different strategic objectives or projects and that the business has not spelt out the demands on, or implications for, hr practitioners in terms of talent, policies, practices and procedures. carrying out operations carrying out operations means converting business or project plans into executable operations or tasks. do these functions or tasks have the right people to execute them? has the business specified performance standards? are systems for measuring performance and management in place? these questions suggest that hr managers should help to design and implement performance management systems. in this area, typical hr risks are not having clearly defined operations and tasks or the right staff to execute them. further risks are the absence of clearly defined performance standards and systems for measuring and managing performance. for example, harris (2007) showed that careless selection could be disastrous. in fact, she stated that one can trace many corporate disasters back to poor recruiting practices. in some cases, businesses did not check curricula vitae (cvs) properly. the typical operational risks that organisations experience usually dominate risk management. however, several examples of people or hr risks have come to the surface recently. the literature reports typical hr risks. not all companies experience all of these risks. some will occur more often in certain businesses than in others. in addition, there may be different risks at some companies and new risks may emerge in the future. given that risk is about uncertainty, many other unexpected events may occur. no risk manager could have predicted the 9/11 attacks, the 2008–2009 worldwide economic recession, the swine flu epidemic or the eruption of the volcano in iceland. furthermore, the workplace stress and work overload that staff shortages cause and poor communication during restructuring processes pose significant risks to organisations. the challenge is to build rigorous risk management systems and resilient organisation cultures where all employees have a risk mindset to enable their organisations to respond to typical risks, even if new risks come to the fore. however, most of the typical hr risks outlined in table 3 have been around for some time. table 3: examples of human resources risks. some companies are addressing their hr risks proactively and almost aggressively, whilst others sit back and wait for the risk to disappear. one can adopt a ‘wait-and-see’ attitude, or a ‘make-and-see’ one. the latter focuses on introducing programmes proactively to reduce and manage hr risks. for example, statistics show that 14 mineworkers die every month (swanepoel, 2009). surely, the industry can introduce more proactive safety programmes to reduce safety risks. essentially, the involvement of the whole workforce in creating and maintaining a safety culture will be a key component of managing hr risk effectively. during the release of the sabpp king iii opinion paper, hr managers were asked to provide the sabpp with a list of hr risks in a focus group session. figure 2 presents the findings of the focus group session. figure 2: human resources (hr) risks identified by hr managers. figure 2 shows that the challenge of retaining employees is the biggest hr risk for the 40 hr managers who participated in the focus group session. they indicated that skills shortages were the second biggest risk, followed by poor leadership or management in their organisations. interestingly, some of the delegates suggested that poor leadership contributes to the high turnover of staff. they also identified lack of compliance with laws, rules and procedures as a major hr risk. furthermore, it appears as if organisations struggle to deal with verifying qualifications properly during recruitment and selection processes. interestingly, hr managers reported employee sabotage as another hr risk. some of the hr managers referred to this problem as ‘internal terrorism.’ an human resources risk assessment framework (back to top) an hr risk assessment framework provides a conceptual model for systematically developing and planning hr risk management actions in an organisation. the framework is useful for determining the level of hr risk in an organisation and for measuring it. the human factor management assessment risk framework, that figure 3 illustrates, provides a basis for planning, assessing and implementing hr risk management. figure 3: human factor management assessment risk framework. figure 3 illustrates the european foundation of quality management risk management model adapted for an hr risk management framework. the building blocks to the left of the framework show the capabilities an organisation needs to make hr risk management work. it begins with human factor risk leadership to the far left of the framework. here senior managers and the hr executive of the organisation take responsibility for human factor risk leadership. in essence, this means that the hr executive leads by locating hr risk management at board level. therefore, the hr director introduces human factor risk leadership to the organisation. however, line management ownership is critical here. the next building block shows the importance of people as key components of the risk management framework. people contribute to risks daily, either positively or negatively. if managed proactively, people play a significant role in creating and maintaining a risk culture, as king iii proposed. however, managing risk does not happen automatically. therefore, it is necessary to create a human factor risk policy and strategy to institutionalise hr risk in the company (next building block). next, the organisation needs partnerships to optimise human risk management, both internal and external to it. internally, the organisation needs partnerships between different departments to manage risk (like between the health and safety function as well as the production department). externally, the organisation may need a variety of partnerships with key stakeholders to get the right information and/or support to manage hr risk (like the department of labour, suppliers or industry bodies). human factor risk processes are at the centre of the framework (all the processes and practices the organisation needs to manage human factor risk). the key question is ‘do risk management processes incorporate effective hr risk management?’ once the organisation has developed all the capabilities to manage risk (left-hand side of the framework), it is ready to deal with risks. the company has developed the resilience it needs to handle human factor risk (next building block) and can then report on the outcomes of its risk management framework (last block). essentially, the better its capabilities, the more likely the organisation is to manage risk successfully. the critical question is ‘does hr risk management help the organisation to achieve its objectives?’ however, whilst an organisation may achieve a high level of maturity in dealing with risk, a company will never succeed entirely in managing risk. therefore, the different intersections that link all the building blocks of the model, together with the bottom arrow, imply that the organisation needs continuous innovation and learning. control measures are concerned with the actions the organisation takes to reduce the probability or effect of risk, although they may never eliminate or transfer risk completely. this is true for all the areas of managing an organisation. treating and tolerating risk are key elements of the process of controlling risk. the four options for dealing with risk follow. box 1: four options for dealing with risk. the example that follows shows the commitment of a south african bank to take responsibility for managing hr risk. box 2: commitment of a south african bank to take responsibility for managing human resources risk. the iso (2009) standard on risk and the nedbank example make it clear that organisations need hr executives to adopt a relevant approach and framework for managing hr risk. the example that follows shows how organisations can apply the iso definition of risk in the hr environment: • objective – the objective is to employ competent people with the right knowledge and skills to perform their jobs. • risk – there may be significant skills gaps in the market and in the people who apply for a position. • event – the decision is to risk employing the candidate despite the skills gaps the organisation identified. • consequence – the employee starts to work and delivers substandard work. the consequence is that the business loses key customers. the business suffers because of poor hr risk management in recruiting and selecting. in the light of this example of the effect of uncertainty on business objectives in the hr field, hr managers can conduct similar risk analyses on all other hr subfields, like talent management, employee induction, learning and development, employment relations and performance management. hr managers need to decide on and implement relevant hr risk management actions to ensure that they address hr risks adequately in their organisations. the key question is to decide what can go wrong and then to plan accordingly. guidelines for managing human resources risk (back to top) hr risk management provides unique opportunities for hr directors, managers and practitioners to support risk governance and management and to develop appropriate hr risk management plans to address hr risks. therefore, the researchers propose the guidelines that follow for hr directors. redesign your organisation’s hr plan to include hr risk management. aligning hr policy with the overall business strategy is essential for managing hr risk effectively. when your company pursues business projects, conduct hr due diligence to identify the hr risks relevant to business plans. read more about risk management to gain a proper understanding of the importance of risk management and governance in the workplace. study the ise risk management guidelines and chapter four of the king iii report and code for governance in south africa. this chapter deals with governing risk. based on the knowledge you will gain from chapter four of king iii, together with the iso guidelines for governance at your organisation, identify opportunities where you can add value to the risk management practices and risk culture at your company. arrange a meeting with your organisation’s cro or head of risk. show this person that you are studying risk management and ask this person to show you where and how you can contribute to managing risk, especially from an hr perspective. ensure that key staff members in your organisation have the proper training and education for managing risk. they include the board, managers and other key staff members that risk management affects directly. develop skills in managing risk throughout the organisation. liaise with line managers to explore opportunities where you can help to create and nurture a risk management culture in your organisation. check whether your organisation’s risk register has a record of hr risks and assist the cro and line managers to identify risk management strategies to deal with these risks. excellent people and talent management are the best bulwarks against hr risks. therefore, introduce rigorous talent management strategies and systems and ensure that line managers take full responsibility for leading and managing people. in addition, the hr executive should manage hr compliance with all relevant laws, rules, codes or standards. support the board by ensuring that the company appoints a highly competent cro and other risk managers for different business units. ongoing staff training in risk management is very important for the sustainability and future success of the organisation. introduce robust hr risk controls, monitoring systems and respond appropriately to any hr risks by using early warning systems before an hr risk starts to threaten the sustainability of the organisation. the company needs regular hr audits, with an emphasis on clear reporting lines, and evidence of actions it has taken to address hr risks. consider holding regular meetings with staff members to discuss hr risk factors that may affect business operations. conclusion (back to top) organisations risk their sustainability if they do not consider the effects of hr risks on their businesses. hr risk management presents hr directors with opportunities to elevate current hr strategies to board level, given that risk governance is now a board responsibility. line managers must consider all people risks in the business. most risks in business come, directly or indirectly, back to people – the human element is the major source of business risk. the challenge for hr executives is to gain a proper understanding of risk management methodology, then to identify, reduce and manage hr risks. failing to manage hr risks may threaten the sustainability of companies. managing hr risk is not only about the softer issues. many organisations suffer from poor governance and a lack of clear policies, processes and procedures. fortunately, though, developing and implementing effective hr risk management strategies can lead to significant business opportunities and allow the hr executive to ensure that hr risk management is embedded in the overall governance and management strategies of organisations. as zulu (2010) concludes, ‘not managing risks, is risky in itself’. this article is a position paper that the human resource research initiative (hrri) of the south african board for people practices published. acknowledgements (back to top) the researchers acknowledge the institute of directors (iod) as the custodians and compilers of the king iii report. however, this sabpp position paper contains the views of the sabpp and the iod does not necessarily agree with it. the researchers thank the iod for its leadership as the champion of sound governance in south africa. the researchers encourage hr managers to embrace king iii and to help their boards and executive management teams to implement king iii. the original king iii report and code can be ordered directly from the iod. authors’ contributions m.m. is ceo of the south african board for people practices (marius@sabpp.co.za). g.r. is head of the centre for work performance at the university of johannesburg. m.r. is director of international management of risk (imorsa). references (back to top) airmic. (2010). a structured approach to enterprise risk management (erm) and the requirements of iso 31000. london: the association of insurance and risk managers. beatty, r.w., ewing, j.r., & tharp, c.g. (2003). hr’s role in corporate governance: present and prospective. human resource management, 42(3), 257–270. doi:10.1002/hrm.10084 botha, c. (2008). corporate fraud: notice the red flags. management today, 24(4), 58. brown, w. (2006). how well does your hr management system curb fraudulent practices? people dynamics, 24(8), 23. bryson. (2003). managing hrm risk is a merger. employee relations, 25(1), 14–30. bsi. (2010). publicly available specification 1010:2010, third draft version 2.0: guidance on the management of psychosocial risks in the workplace. united kingdom: british standards institute. butler. (2010). the downside of recovery: the new business risk landscape in 2010. management today, 28(2), 60–62. ceo. (2009). alcohol abuse and workplace losses. ceo, 8(5), 36–37. colman, s. (2007). employment practices’ liability and risk management. people dynamics, 25(11). deloitte. (2008). taking the reins: hr’s opportunity to play a leadership role in governance, risk management and compliance. chro strategist and steward series. deloitte consulting. midtown: manhattan. engelbrecht, l. (2009). king iii: the director’s view. business brief, 14(2), 18–20. ernest, & young. (2009). the 2009 ernest & young business risk report. feller, g. (2007). beating the virus. africa investor, 64–66. finkelstein, s. (1999). safe ways to cross the merger minefield. in t. dickson (ed.), mastering global business: the complete mba companion in global business. london: financial times management. garratt, b. (2003). thin on top: why corporate governance matters and how to measure and improve board performance. london: nicholas brealy. harris, m. (2007, 18 november). careless hiring can be disastrous. business times. harris, m. (2010, 30 may). high cost of disengaged workers. business times. heath, w. (2007). the biggest risk of all — not developing tomorrow’s talent. ceo, 6(6), 74–75. heath, w. (2008). ignoring the risks of commercial crime. ceo, 7(3), 108–109. heslop, b., hilbron, d., koob, j., & szumyk, r. (2005). why hr governance matters: managing the hr function for superior performance. new york city: mercer human resource consulting. iod. (2009). king iii report and code of governance for south africa – 2009. king committee on governance. johannesburg: institute of directors (iod). iso. (2009). iso 31 000 international standard: risk management – principles and guidelines. geneva: international standards organization. iso. (2009). guide 73: risk management — vocabulary. geneva: international standards organization. magau, m.d., & roodt, g. (2010). an evaluation of the human capital bridgetm framework. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1). doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.276 malkin, r. (2007). the cost of absenteeism. people dynamics, 25(10), 30. martin, j., & schmidt, c. (2010). how to keep your top talent. harvard business review, may, 54–61. meyer, m., & robbins, m. (2010). hr risk management: balancing hr governance, risk and compliance. paper presented at the sabpp professional review conference. midrand: knowledge resources. munnik, j. (2008). from basic compliance to true transformation. hr highway, january/february, 20–23. naidoo, r. (2002). corporate governance: an essential guide for south african companies. cape town: double storey. paul, c., & mitlacher, l. (2008). expanding risk management systems: human resources and german banks. strategic change, 17, 21–33. doi:10.1002/jsc.813 pile, j. (2009). the prognosis is good. financial mail, 202(6), 19. pitman, j. (2010). clear and present danger? entrepreneur, june. robinson, j. (2008, may 08). turning around employee turnover. gallup management journal. retrieved n.d., from http://gmj.gallup.com/content/106912/turning-around-your-turnover-problem.aspx ryan, c. (2006, 10 september). cross-border deals on track. sunday times, p. 3. sabpp. (2009). comments on the king iii code and report for south africa: hr — the way forward. parktown: sabpp. sacht, j. (2010). business risks identified in south africa. personal discussion. johannesburg. sanborn, m. (2008). tactics to reduce pharmacy staff turnover and increase job satisfaction. hospital pharmacy, 43(8), 670–675. shl (2007). how to become an air traffic controller. the selection process. www.stuckmic.com/international-atc/5015-intl-air-traffic-control-employment.html stelzner, s. (2006). the risks of racism in the workplace. people dynamics, 24(8). swanepoel, e. (2009). tougher stance. mining weekly, 15(35), 12. taleb, n.n. (2007). the black swan: the impact of the highly improbable. london: penguin books. temkin, s. (2009, 25 february). king report to focus on board responsibility. business day. the european foundation for quality management (1999). the efqm excellence model. retrieved n.d., from http://www.efqm.org/en/tabid/132/default.aspx van der merwe, n. (2009). increased mobility a security threat. enterprise risk, 3(3), 33–34. van graan, w. (2009). safety failures: miners count the cost in unexpected ways. enterprise risk, 3(3), 16–17. wright, l. (2010). entrepreneur who did it his way. in m. makura (ed.), south africa’s greatest entrepreneurs. johannesburg: mme media. wybrecht, g. (2010). the sustainable mba: the manager’s guide to green business. chichester: john wiley. zinn, s. (2011). personal interview: hr risk manager from nedbank. zulu, t. (2010). risk and reward: start and run a successful small business in south africa. cape town: tafelberg. article information authors: chris f.c. bothma1 gert roodt1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: gert roodt postal address: po box 524, auckland park 2006, south africa dates: received: 01 nov. 2012 accepted: 13 dec. 2012 published: 15 apr. 2013 how to cite this article: bothma, c.f.c., & roodt, g. (2013). the validation of the turnover intention scale. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #507, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.507 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the validation of the turnover intention scale in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • literature review       • defining turnover intention       • theoretical models that explain turnover intentions       • implications of turnover intentions • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results • ethical considerations • discussion    • summary of key findings    • practical implications and recommendations    • limitations and suggestions for future research • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors' contributions • references • footnote abstract top ↑ orientation: turnover intention as a construct has attracted increased research attention in the recent past, but there are seemingly not many valid and reliable scales around to measure turnover intention.research purpose: this study focused on the validation of a shortened, six-item version of the turnover intention scale (tis-6). motivation for the study: the research question of whether the tis-6 is a reliable and a valid scale for measuring turnover intention and for predicting actual turnover was addressed in this study. research design, approach and method: the study was based on a census-based sample (n = 2429) of employees in an information, communication and technology (ict) sector company (n = 23 134) where the tis-6 was used as one of the criterion variables. the leavers (those who left the company) in this sample were compared with the stayers (those who remained in the employ of the company) in this sample in respect of different variables used in the study. main findings: it was established that the tis-6 could measure turnover intentions reliably (α = 0.80). the tis-6 could significantly distinguish between leavers and stayers (actual turnover), thereby confirming its criterion-predictive validity. the scale also established statistically significant differences between leavers and stayers in respect of a number of the remaining theoretical variables used in the study, thereby also confirming its differential validity. these comparisons were conducted for both the 4-month and the 4-year period after the survey was conducted. practical/managerial implications: turnover intention is related to a number of variables in the study which necessitates a reappraisal and a reconceptualisation of existing turnover intention models. contribution/value-add: the tis-6 can be used as a reliable and valid scale to assess turnover intentions and can therefore be used in research to validly and reliably assess turnover intentions or to predict actual turnover. introduction top ↑ the retention of staff is considered to be a pressing people issue and consequently much has been published about it (cf. bothma & roodt, 2012; du plooy & roodt, 2010; greyling & stanz, 2010; griffeth, horn, & gaertner, 2000; kotzé & roodt, 2005; mendes & stander, 2011). turnover intentions (intentions to stay or leave the organisation) is an important criterion variable in similar types of studies, but such studies seldom publish any additional validation information on these criterion measures. the challenge and importance of this study therefore is to develop a scale that can serve as a valid and reliable criterion variable in future turnover or retention studies.although turnover intention is covered well in the literature, the need remains to validate turnover cognition scales (sager, griffeth & horn, 1998). the motivation for validating the shortened version of the turnover intention scale (tis-6) is that most other scales use only a limited number of scale items. martin (2007) observed that various researchers have only used single item scales (guimaraes, 1997; lambert, hogan, & barton, 2001), with obvious metric limitations. according to martin (2007), only a limited number of other studies have used more than three items in their instruments (becker, 1992; fox & fallon, 2003; lum, kervin, clark, reid & sirola, 1998). it seems that information on the metric properties of such instruments is lacking and that no validation research is reported specifically on the tis-6 (the studies by jacobs [2005] and martin [2007] report on the longer tis versions). the main research question of this study is therefore as follows: is the shortened tis-6 a reliable and valid scale for measuring turnover intention and for predicting actual turnover? the objectives of the study are to investigate, (1) the reliability, (2) the construct (factorial) validity, (3) the criterion-predictive validity and (4) the differential validity of the tis-6 within the context of a large south african information, communication and technology (ict) sector company. the contribution of this study would be that a valid and reliable turnover intention scale is developed for future use as a criterion or predictor variable. it is also important to use valid and reliable scales as a proxy for predicting actual turnover. literature review defining turnover intention bester (2012) noted that turnover intention is seldom precisely defined in reported studies. he concluded that this practice is probably attributable to the assumption that people perceive the term to be self-explanatory. bester (2012) further argued that many researchers (horn, griffeth & salaro, 1984; mobley, 1982; mowday, steers, & porter, 1979; steers, 1977) viewed turnover intention as the final step in the decision-making process before a person actually leaves a workplace. turnover intention can therefore be described as an individual’s behavioural intention or conation, in fishbein and ajzen’s (1975) framework of planned behaviour, to leave the employ of the organisation. lacity, lyer and rudramuniyaiah (2008, p. 228) defined turnover intention as ‘… the extent to which an employee plans to leave the organisation’. for the purpose of this study, the definition of tett and meyer (1993, p. 262) is used, who aptly defined turnover intention as: ‘… the conscious and deliberate wilfulness to leave the organisation’. the tis-6 was developed as a conation (intention) to distinguish it from the affective (emotion) and the cognitive (knowledge) components of psychological activities as conceptualised by fishbein and ajzen (1975).against the background of fishbein and ajzen’s (1975) theoretical framework, behavioural intention is a reliable determinant of actual behaviour (jaros, jermier, koehler & sincich, 1993; muliawan, green & robb, 2009). it has also been empirically established that turnover intention (conation) has a positive relationship with actual turnover (actual behaviour) (byrne, 2005; hendrix, robbins, miller & summers, 1998; steensma, van breukelen & sturm, 2004). several authors argued that turnover intention can be used as a valid proxy for actual labour turnover (jaros et al., 1993; muliawan et al., 2009; tett & meyer, 1993). turnover is the result of a coping strategy used by employees to escape the current situation (cf. petriglieri, 2011). turnover can be permanent, when employees leave the employment institution, or it can be characterised by horizontal mobility when employees seek and accept transfers to other departments (kirpal, 2004). tett and meyer (1993, p. 262) referred to turnover as ‘… the last in a sequence of withdrawal cognitions …’, a practice that petriglieri (2011, p. 648) named an ‘identity exit’. theoretical models that explain turnover intentions several authors (bakker & demerouti, 2006; jacobs, 2005; lee & mitchell, 1994; mobley, 1982; morrell, loan-clarke, arnold & wilkinson, 2008; petriglieri, 2011; schaufeli & bakker, 2004; zeffane, 1994) have developed and tested models in an attempt to explain turnover intentions and related constructs. perhaps the most prominent of these is the job resources-demands (jd-r) model (bakker & demerouti, 2006; bakker, demerouti & verbeke, 2004), which provides plausible explanations as to why individuals may choose to leave an organisation. in most studies that used the jd-r model, the path to turnover intention is the result of job demands that cause burnout. an indirect relationship between job demands and turnover intention is therefore proposed. bester (2012) also suggested that this idea is based upon studies which have found that job demands, especially when there are less resources, stimulate exhaustion (the opposite of engagement) and, in turn, cause turnover intentions (bakker & demerouti, 2006; bakker et al., 2004; demerouti, bakker, nachreiner & schaufeli, 2000; schaufeli & bakker, 2001; schaufeli & bakker, 2004). according to schaufeli and bakker (2004), the link between work engagement, burnout and turnover intention is well established. the abovementioned studies also indicated that the absence of job resources was related to disengagement, which increased turnover intention. a possible limitation of the jd-r model may be that it mostly emphasises contextual and/or organisational resources and demands and, to a lesser extent, personal resources or the role of personal agency. sweetman and luthans (2010), on the other hand, introduced the concept of ‘psychological capital’ (personal resources), which includes facets such as efficacy, optimism, hope and resiliency that may act as a buffer between contextual demands and turnover intention.the finding that the absence of job resources stimulated turnover intention was also supported in a study that did not use the jd-r model (agarwal, ferrat & de, 2007). along a similar line, du plooy and roodt (2010) indicated on a bivariate level that both work engagement and organisational citizenship behaviour are negatively related to turnover intention, whilst work alienation and burnout are positively related. in a stepwise multiple regression, however, work alienation explains the largest amount of variance (54%) in turnover intention, whilst the beta weight of organisational citizenship behaviour (β = 0.064) in the prediction model turned positive. these findings therefore suggest that work engagement and work alienation should rather be viewed as polar opposites with organisational citizenship behaviours and burnout, respectively, as resulting consequences. it seems that in tight economic or labour market conditions, individuals do not wish to ‘burn bridges’, which may explain the positive relationship between organisational citizenship behaviours and turnover intention. jacobs (2005) proposed a different turnover intention model, where positive or negative perceptions of organisational culture (predictors) were related to turnover intentions (criterion). a number of variables mediated this said relationship, such as job satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviour, organisational commitment and knowledge sharing (cf. boshoff, van wyk, hoole & owen, 2002; wasti, 2003 for similar types of models). individuals’ perception of organisational culture may therefore trigger key mediating variables, which may, again in turn, lead to decisions to leave or stay with the organisation. another theoretical framework which may shed light on an individual’s decision to exit an organisation is petriglieri’s (2011) theory of identity threat responses. in a nutshell, this theory argues that individuals assess the identity threat and possible coping responses against the threat strength and the background of existing social support. this results in two broad coping strategy categories of either identity protection responses or identity restructuring responses. identity exit is one of the identity restructuring responses which will eliminate the identity threat. this model has particular relevance for turnover within the conceptual framework of work identity. implications of turnover intentions bothma (2011) argued that leaving a job may not always be an option for an individual. the decision to leave is influenced by many personal and contextual factors such as employability and labour market conditions. an individual’s turnover intention is dependent on perceived chances and the ease of finding another job (especially in tough economic conditions), the role of mobility cognitions, as well as individual differences in search behaviour. alternative employment opportunities therefore influence actual labour turnover behaviour (agarwal et al., 2007; akgün & lynn, 2002; allen & meyer, 1996; bellou, 2008; boies & rothstein, 2002; brown, 1996; carmeli & gefen, 2005; chen, chu, wang & lin, 2008; jaros et al., 1993; lee & mitchell, 1994; martin & roodt, 2008; mobley, 1982; senter & martin, 2007; wheeler, gallagher, brouer & sablynski, 2007).bothma (2011) concluded that the turnover phenomenon has significant cost and other negative consequences for any organisation (bluedorn, 1982; greyling & stanz, 2010; mobley, 1982). losing employees that are highly skilled may have disruptive implications for organisations, such as impaired organisational functioning, service delivery and administration. it may also contribute to increased costs of re-hiring and re-training employees (roodt & bothma, 1997; sulu, ceylan & kaynak, 2010). these mentioned consequences provide a sound rationale for this validation study of the tis-6. in summary, this study will investigate and make comparisons of those that leave the employ of the organisation (leavers) versus those that stay in service (stayers) in respect of turnover intentions, work-based identity scores, the three dimensions of work engagement, the three dimensions of burnout, organisational citizenship behaviour, personal alienation and task performance. research design top ↑ research approach the research approach followed in this study is empirical and quantitative, where a cross-sectional field survey generated the primary research data for this study. for data analyses, correlational statistical procedures were applied for generating plausible, ex post facto explanations for relationships between variables. research method the research method used in this study will be explained under the headings that follow. a more detailed explication of the research method can also be found in bothma and roodt (2012, pp. 6–8), whilst the discussion of the measuring instruments are also detailed in the first author’s thesis (bothma, 2011). research participants a census-based sampling approach1 was used to survey the target population below middle management (n = 23 134), in the service of a south african ict sector company. the survey was conducted over a 1-month period with a web-based questionnaire application. an invitation to participate in the survey was sent to the entire target population via e-mail, with the universal resource locator (url) address attached for ease of responding. responses on the web-based questionnaire were anonymous. a response rate of about 11% yielded a sample of 2429 research participants. this sample was used for the comparisons of leavers and stayers over both the 4-month and the 4-year period.table 1 reflects that most participants were men (63.2%). the majority of the participants (44.1%) were white, followed by black (26.3%), coloured (16.3%) and asian or indian (13.3%). these ethnic proportions reflect the heterogeneity of the company’s work force. the mean age of the participants was about 40 years, which reflects a mature labour force. the majority of the respondents were from operational levels (55.0%) and were stationed in the corporate region (25.0%) of the company. about 41.0% of the participants had a matric or lower qualification, followed by 27.0% that possessed a national or national higher diploma. table 1: biographical and demographical profile of the respondents (n = 2429). measuring instruments a number of established measuring instruments with known reliabilities and validities were used in this study. owing to the lack of space, not all the validity and reliability coefficients as reported in previous studies can be reported here. only brief reference will be made to cronbach alpha reliabilities reported by the original authors and those found in this study.turnover intention scale: turnover intention (the intention to leave or stay) was measured with a six-item scale adapted from the 15-item scale initially developed by roodt (2004). to enhance the reliability of responses, behaviour intention should be measured within a reasonable timeframe after accepting a position within a company. based on recommendations from literature (muliawan et al., 2009), this study used a 6-month period. examples of items included in the tis-6 are: ‘how often have you considered leaving your job?’ and ‘how often do you look forward to another day at work?’ jacobs (2005) reported a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.91 for the 15-item version of the ti scale. martin (2007) and martin and roodt (2008) in their study reported a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.90 for a 13-item version of the scale. the reliability of the tis-6 will be reported in the ‘results’ section. alienation scale: the five-item alienation scale (al) of banai, reisel and probst (2004) is based on the personal alienation scale of korman, wittig-berman and lang (1981) and was also later used by banai and reisel (2007) to measure work alienation in a cross-national study. examples of the selected items are: ‘to what extent do you feel that your daily activities don’t reflect your real interests and values?’ and ‘how likely is it that you would prefer to live a different life than you are currently doing?’ banai and reisel (2007) reported a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.80 for the al. the cronbach alpha reliability for the scale in this study was 0.81. helping behaviour: according to podsakoff, mackenzie, paine and bachrach (2000), helping behaviour includes various conceptualisations such as altruism, peace-making, cheerleading and interpersonal helping. helping behaviour was measured with a nine-item scale of which five items were from the helping behaviour scale (van dyne & lepine, 1998) and four items from the altruism dimension of the citizenship behaviour scale (smith, organ & near, 1983). examples of the selected items are: ‘how often do you volunteer to do things in your work group?’ and ‘how often do help others who have heavy workloads?’ van dyne and lepine (1998) reported cronbach alpha coefficients for the helping behaviour scale in a range from 0.88 to 0.95. this study reported a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.86 for helping behaviour measured by the combined and adjusted scale. maslach burnout inventory – human services survey: for the purpose of this study, the maslach burnout inventory – human services survey (mbi-hss-20) (maslach & jackson, 1981) was used to measure burnout at work. the 20-item instrument is composed of three dimensions, namely emotional exhaustion (ee) (eight items) with cronbach alpha coefficients ranging from 0.85 to 0.90, depersonalisation (dp) (five items) with cronbach alpha coefficients ranging from 0.58 to 0.79 and reduced personal accomplishment (pa) (seven items) with cronbach alpha coefficients ranging from 0.70 to 0.71 (gil-monte, 2005; maslach, jackson & leiter, 1996). examples of the selected items are: ‘i feel emotionally drained from my work’ and ‘i feel used up at the end of the work day.’ a seven-point likert-type frequency rating scale ranging between extreme values of 0 (never) and 6 (always) was used to rate job burnout items (maslach, jackson & leiter, 1986, 1996). this study found cronbach alpha coefficients of 0.89 for emotional exhaustion, 0.70 for depersonalisation and 0.71 for reduced personal accomplishment. utrecht work engagement scale: the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes-17) was used to measure work engagement in this study. the 17-item version consists of three dimensions, namely vigour (vi) (six items) with cronbach alpha coefficients ranging from 0.75 to 0.82, dedication (de) (five items) with cronbach alpha coefficients ranging from 0.88 to 0.90 and absorption (ab) (six items) with cronbach alpha coefficients ranging from 0.70 to 0.77 (schaufeli, salanova, conźalez-romá & bakker, 2002). examples of scale items are: ‘at my work, i feel bursting with energy’ and ‘time flies when i’m working’. a seven-point likert-type frequency rating scale ranging between extreme values of 0 (never) and 6 (always) was used to rate work engagement items (schaufeli & bakker, 2003). this study found a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.91 for the uwes-17. task performance scale: task performance assessment was independently conducted by participants’ supervisors. these assessments were measured with an adaptation of a nine-item scale (rotenberry & moberg, 2007; williams & anderson, 1991). examples of the scale items are: ‘how often does this employee perform the tasks that are expected from him or her?’ and ‘how frequently does this employee fail to perform essential duties?’ care was taken that the scale did not overlap with items related to contextual, helping behaviour performance as discussed above. rotenberry and moberg (2007) reported a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.91 for the task performance scale. this study found a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.94 for task performance. work-based identity scale: previous attempts were made to measure work-based identity (aryee & luk, 1996; buche, 2003, 2006, 2008; walsh & gordon, 2007; wayne, randel & stevens, 2006), but no suitable measuring instrument was found that complied with the theoretical definition of work-based identity. different scales that measure different facets of work-based identity as defined in the work-based identity prototype (refer to bothma, 2011), such as work role centrality, person–environment fit, organisational identification, job involvement, occupational and/or professional identity and career identity were sourced, adapted and combined to measure work-based identity (lauver & kristof-brown, 2001; lodahl & kejner, 1965; mael & ashforth, 1992; roodt, 1997; roodt, de braine, bothma & jansen, 2009; serafini, maitland & adams, 2006). a proposed work-based identity scale was compiled, consisting of 36 items representing the different facets of work-based identity, selected from a number of various pre-existing scales. firstly, items were selected from the organisational-related commitment scale of roodt (1997). examples of selected items are: ‘to what extent do you regard work as the most important aspect in your life?’ and ‘to what extent does your job allow for the achievement of personal goals?’ secondly, job involvement was measured with items that were selected from lodahl and kejner’s (1965) job involvement scale, such as: ‘how likely are you to regard your work as only a small part of who you are?’ thirdly, items were selected from three subscales from the functions of identity scale of serafini et al. (2006). the items were selected from the subscales: ‘structure’ – defined as ‘… the structure of understanding of who one is’ (p. 1), ‘goals’ – defined as ‘… meaning and direction through commitments, values and goals’ (p. 1) and ‘future’ – defined as ‘… meaning and direction through commitments, values and goals and sense of future’ (p. 1). fourthly, organisational identification was measured with the scale of mael and ashforth (1992). examples of the adapted items are: ‘how often do you say “we” rather than “they” when you talk about the organisation that you work for?’ and ‘how interested are you in what others think about the organisation that you work for?’ finally, person-organisation fit was measured with items selected from the scale of lauver and kristof-brown (2001). examples of the selected items are: ‘to what degree do your values match or fit the values of the organisation that you work for?’ and ‘to what degree are you able to maintain your values at the organisation that you work for?’ reliability and validity of the instrument was determined by submitting the 36-item questionnaire to first-level and second-level factor analyses to determine the factor structure (figure 1). three columns can be identified in figure 1. the left-hand column shows the theoretical sub-constructs as explained above with their respective reliabilities. the middle column shows the results of the first-level factor analysis based on the six postulated factors and their respective reliabilities. the right-hand column shows the results of the second-level factor analysis and the respective reliabilities of the two postulated factors. the factor analyses yielded a 28-item, one-dimensional work-based identity scale with a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.95 (roodt et al., 2009). the second factor, labelled ‘future’, was omitted because it was based on experimental items. figure 1: factor analyses results of the work-based identity scale. research procedure an electronic invitation to participate in the survey was sent to all ict sector company employees up to middle management. the survey instrument was designed in such a way that it allowed for ‘one-at-a-time completion’ of separate components of the survey. the successful completion of the questionnaire by the participants activated the last survey instrument, the task performance scale, to be completed by their immediate supervisor. electronic reminders were sent out on a weekly basis to all participants requesting and reminding them to participate (or thanking those that participated already). participation was voluntary, responses were treated as confidential and no incentives were provided to enhance participation.in the 4-month period after the initial survey was conducted it was established that 84 respondents left the service of the company (identified by means of the company’s persal system) – this group was labelled the ‘leavers’. a random sub-sample of 88 was drawn from the remainder of the initial sample – and this group was labelled the ‘stayers’. the leavers and stayers were compared in terms of the different variable mean scores. the same procedure was then repeated after a 4-year period, where 405 leavers of the same initial sample were compared with 405 randomly selected stayers from the remaining sample. by only using their persal numbers, all the participants remained anonymous to the researchers. statistical analysis all statistical analyses were conducted with the standard spss (version 18.0) software program (pallant, 2007) by the statistical consultation service (statcon) of the university of johannesburg. these analyses were conducted in two phases. in the first phase, descriptive statistical analyses, factor and iterative item reliability analyses and correlations between all the variables were conducted. in the second phase, inferential statistical analyses were conducted. results top ↑ a summary of the factor analysis procedure and results on the tis-6 is presented in table 2. the second column in table 2 refers to the item loadings (ranging between 0.73 and 0.81) on the single extracted factor and the third column to the scale internal consistency reliability (item gq2 was reflected). a single factor was extracted (principal axis factoring with varimax rotation) with a cronbach alpha reliability coefficient (α = 0.80) for the tis-6. these findings confirm the factorial validity as well as the reliability of the tis-6. table 2: factor analysis results of the turnover intention scale. similar factor analytic procedures were repeated for the other variables used in the study (which are not repeated here), but their reliabilities were reported individually earlier under the sub-heading ‘measuring instruments’. the intercorrelations between the different variables are presented in table 3, in which it is evident that the different variables are all significantly related. more specifically, the correlations between turnover intentions and other variables range between r(2428) = -0.11, p = 0.050 for helping behaviour and r(2428) = 0.73, p = 0.001 for alienation. in the first case, turnover intention would decrease if helping behaviour increases. in the second case, turnover intention would increase if alienation increases. table 3: intercorrelation matrix (pearson correlations) of the different variables. the data profiles of the 84 employees who resigned from the ict company over the 4-month period after the survey was conducted were compared with the data profiles of the 88 employees drawn randomly from the remaining sample (n = 2345) who stayed with the company. independent sample t-tests were conducted to compare the different variable scores of those employees who resigned versus those who stayed. the following analyses (displayed in table 4) provide evidence that the turnover intention score can be used as a proxy for actual labour turnover. the guidelines of cohen (1988, pp. 284–287) were followed to calculate the effect sizes for independent-sample t-tests, expressed as partial eta-squared. the variance strength of partial eta-squared is indicated as ranging between 0.01 ≤ ηp2 ≤ 0.05 (small*), 0.06 ≤ ηp2 ≤ 0.13 (moderate**) and ηp2 ≥ 0.14 (large***) effect. table 4: independent-samples t-tests comparing group means (4-month period). there was a significant difference in the turnover intention scores of those employees who resigned (m = 5.14, sd = 1.26) compared to those who stayed (m = 4.13, sd = 1.28): t(170) = 5.20, p ≤ 0.001 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = 1.01, 95% ci: 0.63 to 1.39) has a large effect (ηp2 = 0.14). this finding supports the criterion-predictive validity of the tis-6 to predict actual turnover.there was a significant difference in the work-based identity scores of those who resigned (m = 4.16, sd = 1.22) compared to those who stayed (m = 4.96, sd = 0.92): t(153.8) = -4.84, p ≤ 0.001 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = -0.79, 95% ci: -1.12 to -0.47) has a moderate effect (ηp2 = 0.12). there was a significant difference in the personal alienation scores of those who resigned (m = 4.85, sd = 1.40) and those who stayed (m = 4.12, sd = 1.37): t(170) = 3.43, p ≤ 0.001 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = 0.73, 95% ci: 0.31 to 1.14) has a moderate effect (ηp2 = 0.07). there was a significant difference in the emotional exhaustion (bo1) scores of those who resigned (m = 3.06, sd = 1.36) compared to those who stayed (m = 2.19, sd = 1.42): t(170) = -2.18, p = 0.030 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = 0.86, 95% ci: -0.65 to -0.03) has a small effect (ηp2 = 0.03). there was a significant difference in the depersonalisation (bo2) scores of those who resigned (m = 1.93, sd = 1.31) compared to those who stayed (m = 1.48, sd = 1.23): t(170) = 4.06, p ≤ 0.001 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = 0.45, 95% ci: 0.46 to 1.28) has a moderate effect (ηp2 = 0.09). there was a significant difference in the reduced personal accomplishment (bo3) scores of those who resigned (m = 3.92, sd = 0.98) compared to those who stayed (m = 4.26, sd = 1.06): t(170) = 2.32, p = 0.021 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = -0.34, 95% ci: 0.07 to 0.83) has a small effect (ηp2 = 0.04). there was a significant difference in the vigour (we1) scores of those who resigned (m = 3.96, sd = 1.38) compared to those who stayed (m = 4.73, sd = 1.00): t(151) = -4.24, p ≤ 0.001 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = -0.78, 95% ci: -1.14 to -0.42) has a moderate effect (ηp2 = 0.09). there was a significant difference in the dedication (we2) scores of those who resigned (m = 3.60, sd = 1.78) compared to those who stayed (m = 4.60, sd = 1.21): t(145) = -4.32, p ≤ 0.001 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = -1.00, 95% ci: -1.46 to -0.54) has a moderate effect (ηp2 = 0.10). there was a significant difference in the absorption (we3) scores of those who resigned (m = 3.86, sd = 1.43) compared to those who stayed (m = 4.59, sd = 0.97): t(145.3) = -3.94, p ≤ 0.001 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = -0.73, 95% ci: -1.10 to -0.36) has a moderate effect (ηp2 = 0.08). all the effect sizes in respect of individual variables as reported above support the criterion-predictive and the differential validity of the tis-6 in the 4-month period after the survey. there was no significant difference in the helping behaviour scores of those who resigned (m = 5.27, sd = 1.13) compared to those who stayed (m = 5.51, sd = 0.95): t(170) = -1.565, p = 0.119 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = -0.25, 95% ci: -0.56 to 0.07) was insignificant. there was no significant difference in the task performance of those who resigned (m = 5.51, sd = 1.07) compared to those who stayed (m = 5.76, sd = 0.93): t(154) = -1.566, p = 0.120 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = -0.25, 95% ci: -0.57 to 0.07) was insignificant. the data profiles of the 405 employees who resigned from the ict company over the 4-year period after the survey was conducted were compared with the data profiles of 405 employees drawn randomly from the remaining sample (n = 2024) who stayed with the company. independent-sample t-tests were conducted to compare the different variable scores of those employees who resigned versus those who stayed. the following analyses (displayed in table 5) provide evidence that turnover intention scores can be used as a proxy for actual labour turnover. table 5: independent-samples t-tests comparing group means (4-year period). there was a significant difference in the turnover intention scores of those employees who resigned (m = 4.41, sd = 1.42) compared to those who stayed (m = 4.03, sd = 1.30): t(801) = -4.10; p ≤ 0.001 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = -0.39, 95% ci: -0.58 to -0.20) has a small effect (ηp2 = 0.02).there was a significant difference in the work-based identity scores of those who resigned (m = 4.71, sd = 1.13) and those who stayed (m = 4.99, sd = 0.99): t(793) = 3.88; p ≤ 0.001 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = 0.29, 95% ci: 0.14 to 0.43) has a small effect (ηp2 = 0.02). there was a significant difference in the personal alienation scores of those who resigned (m = 4.34, sd = 1.49) and those who stayed (m = 3.89, sd = 1.34): t(798.9) = -4.55; p ≤ 0.001 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = -0.45, 95% ci: -0.65 to -0.26) has a small effect (ηp2 = 0.02). there was no significant difference in the emotional exhaustion (bo1) scores of those who resigned (m = 2.73, sd = 1.57) and those who stayed (m = 2.56, sd = 1.49): t(808) = -1.58; p = 0.113 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = -0.17, 95% ci: -0.38 to 0.04) was insignificant. there was a significant difference in the depersonalisation (bo2) scores of those who resigned (m = 1.74, sd = 1.29) and those who stayed (m = 1.63, sd = 1.24): t(808) = -1.22; p = 0.223 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = -0.11, 95% ci: -0.28 to -0.07) was insignificant. there was no significant difference in the reduced personal accomplishment (bo3) scores of those who resigned (m = 1.87, sd = 1.11) and those who stayed (m = 1.81, sd = 1.00): t(808) = -0.96; p = 0.339 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = -0.07, 95% ci: -0.22 to 0.07) was insignificant. there was a significant difference in the vigour (we1) scores of those who resigned (m = 4.45, sd = 1.26) and those who stayed (m = 4.71, sd = 1.16): t(802.5) = 3.07; p ≤ 0.001 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = 0.26, 95% ci: 0.09 to 0.43) has a small effect (ηp2 = 0.01). there was a significant difference in the dedication (we2) scores of those who resigned (m = 4.15, sd = 1.60) and those who stayed (m = 4.55, sd = 1.44): t(797.9) = 3.49; p ≤ 0.001 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = 0.38, 95% ci: 0.17 to 0.59) has a small effect (ηp2 = 0.01). there was a significant difference in the absorption (we3) scores of those who resigned (m = 3.53, sd = 1.31) and those who stayed (m = 3.84, sd = 1.16): t(797) = 3.57; p ≤ 0.001 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = 0.31, 95% ci: 0.14 to 0.48) has a small effect (ηp2 = 0.02). there was no significant difference in the helping behaviour scores of those who resigned (m = 5.12, sd = 0.75) and those who stayed (m = 5.12, sd = 0.75): t(808) = 0.02; p = 0.983 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = 0.00, 95% ci: -0.10 to 0.11) was insignificant. there was a significant difference in the task performance of those who resigned (m = 5.70, sd = 0.99) and those who stayed (m = 5.87, sd = 0.93): t(808) = 2.69; p = 0.007 (two-tailed). the difference in the means (mean difference = 0.18, 95% ci: 0.05 to 0.31) has a small effect (ηp2 = 0.01). all the effect sizes in respect of the individual variables reported above are small, but still significant (except where stated as insignificant) and do therefore still support the criterion-predictive and the differential validity of the tis-6 in the 4-year period after the survey. the independent sample t-tests that were conducted to compare the different variable scores of those employees who resigned and those who stayed differed significantly in nine of the 11 t-tests (over a 4-month period after the initial survey) and seven of the 11 t-tests (after a 4-year period after the initial survey). these results confirm the differential validity of the turnover intention scale over these two time periods, as well as its use as a proxy for actual labour turnover. ethical considerations top ↑ all ethical protocols of the institution were observed and adhered to in conducting this research. discussion top ↑ despite the fact that turnover intention scales are frequently used as criterion variables, little is known about their metric properties. no previous studies were conducted to assess the reliability and the validity of the shortened tis-6, besides the studies of jacobs (2005) and martin (2007) that used a longer version of the scale, but did not investigate the relationship with actual turnover. the research objectives of the present study were therefore to evaluate the reliability, the factorial, criterion-predictive and differential validity of the tis-6 in measuring turnover intentions or predicting actual turnover. this study will add to the validity and reliability information of the tis, in general, and the tis-6, specifically, and will contribute towards establishing its credibility for future use in the scientific community. summary of key findings an exploratory factor analysis (efa) using principal axis factoring and varimax rotation established that the tis-6 is a one-dimensional construct, thereby confirming the construct (more specifically the factorial validity – cf. allen & yen, 1979) of the scale. the item loadings (ranging between 0.73 and 0.81) on the single extracted factor and the overall reliability (α = 0.80) of the tis-6 is on an acceptable level, thereby confirming the reliability of the scale. it was also established that scores of the tis significantly relate to all other variables in this study, namely work engagement, work-based identity, burnout, helping behaviour, work alienation and task performance. these findings confirm previous research conducted by bakker and demerouti (2006), bakker et al. (2004), demerouti et al. (2000), schaufeli and bakker (2001) and schaufeli and bakker (2004), mainly within the jd-r framework that linked turnover intention to work engagement and burnout. the relationships between turnover intention and work alienation and work-based identity have not been reported on previously.in order to establish the criterion-predictive validity of the scale the tis-6, mean score differences for those who resigned were compared to a randomly selected group from the sample of those who stayed with the organisation (respectively for the 4-month and 4-year periods after the survey). the obtained tis-6 mean score differences were significant and the effect size was large (for the 4-month period), which suggest that the tis-6 could effectively predict actual turnover. these findings confirm previous research conducted by byrne (2005), hendrix et al. (1998) and steensma et al. (2004) that turnover intention and actual turnover are positively related. it also confirms the research by jaros et al. (1993), muliawan et al. (2009) and tett and meyer (1993) that turnover intentions can be used as a proxy for actual turnover. the criterion-predictive validity of actual turnover of the tis-6 was hereby established. in order to establish the differential validity of the scale, independent-sample t-tests were conducted in respect of the other variables to establish whether the mean scores of those employees who resigned (n = 84) and those who stayed (n = 88) differed significantly. more specifically, significant mean score differences (independent-sample t-tests) were found in eight of the 10 remaining variables (work-based identity, personal alienation, three work engagement dimensions and three burnout dimensions), with effect sizes ranging between moderate and small (in the 4-month period after the survey). the same procedure was repeated on a data set in a 4-year period after the survey where scores of leavers (n = 405) and stayers (n = 405) were compared in respect of the same variables. more specifically, significant mean score differences were found in six of the 10 remaining variables (work-based identity, personal alienation, three work engagement dimensions and task performance), but in this case all the effect sizes were small. no previous research could shed light on these longitudinal findings over both a short term and a medium term. these results (both on a 4-month and a 4-year period after the survey) confirm the differential validity of the tis-6. these results show that the tis-6 is a reliable and valid measure to assess the construct turnover intention and to validly predict actual turnover behaviour, as was suggested by jaros et al. (1993) and muliawan et al. (2009). these results also confirm the differential validity of the tis-6 as well as its use as a proxy for actual labour turnover. practical implications and recommendations turnover intention in this study significantly relates to a number of other variables outside the jd-r framework, such as work-based identity, personal alienation, the three dimensions of work engagement (vigour, dedication and absorption) and the three dimensions of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, reduced personal accomplishment), and not only to the suggested chain of resources and demands as suggested by bakker and associates (bakker & demerouti, 2006; bakker et al., 2004; demerouti et al., 2000; schaufeli & bakker, 2001, 2004). these findings, in combination with the different models proposed by the du plooy and roodt (2010) study, jacobs (2005), lee and mitchell (1994), as well as petriglieri’s (2011) findings, necessitate a reappraisal and a reconceptualisation of models that portray individuals’ cognitive processes before leaving or exiting the organisation. petriglieri’s model, especially within an identity framework, shows potential in this regard. the potential buffering role that psychological capital facets (sweetman & luthans, 2010) may play in these cognitive processes also warrants further research.the findings of this study further suggest that the tis-6 can be used as a reliable and valid measure to assess turnover intention. the tis-6 can therefore be used for business applications and academic research to validly and reliably assess turnover intention or to predict actual turnover. limitations and suggestions for future research a possible limitation of the study is that the tis-6 was only applied in a single organisational setting. however, a strength of the study was that it yielded a fairly large sample representing most of the different cultural groups in the south african work context. besides the suggestion of reappraising and reconceptualising the cognitive processes involved before individuals are making the decision to leave the organisation, another suggestion for future research may be to compare the scores of the tis-6 across different cultural groups in order to test for possible differential item functioning and for measurement invariance. there is a possibility that cultural groups may respond differently to tis-items and to antecedents leading to turnover decisions. a third suggestion may be to investigate the role of psychological capital facets as possible buffers between contextual job demands and turnover intentions. conclusion top ↑ this study set out to determine whether the tis-6 is a reliable and valid instrument to assess turnover intentions and to predict actual turnover. the results of the study confirm the scale’s reliability, as well as its factorial, criterion-predictive and differential validity. the research objectives of the study are hereby achieved. acknowledgements top ↑ the research reported in this article is the product of a collaborative research project between the university of johannesburg and the vrije university, amsterdam. financial support from the south africa netherlands research programme on alternatives in development (sanpad) for conducting this research is hereby acknowledged. conclusions drawn or opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of sanpad. a basic, draft version of this research article was presented as a paper at the xxix pan pacific business conference, 24–27 may 2012 and a reduced version was subsequently published in the proceedings of the pan pacific conference. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions f.c.b. (university of johannesburg) conducted the research as a part of this doctoral study. g.r. (university of johannesburg) was the supervisor for this study. g.r. wrote the largest portion of this article, whilst f.c.b conducted the statistical analyses on which this article reported. references top ↑ agarwal, r., ferrat, t.w., & de, p. (2007). an experimental investigation of turnover intentions among new entrants in it. the data base for advances in information systems, 38(1), 8–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1216218.1216222akgün, a.e., & lynn, g.s. (2002). antecedents and consequences of team stability on new product development performance. journal of engineering and technology management, 19, 263–286. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0923-4748(02)00021-8 allen, m.j., & yen, w.m. (1979). introduction to measurement theory. monterey: brooks/cole publishing company. allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1996). affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organisation: an examination of construct validity. journal of vocational behavior, 49, 252–276. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1996.0043, pmid:8980084 aryee, s., & luk, v. (1996). work and non-work influences on the career satisfaction of dual-earner couples. journal of vocational behavior, 49, 38–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1996.0032 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2006). the job demands-resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22(3), 309–328. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & verbeke, w. (2004). using the job demands-resources model to predict burnout and performance. human resource management, 43(1), 83–104. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20004 banai, m., & reisel, w.d. (2007). the influence of supportive leadership and job characteristics on work alienation: a six-country investigation. journal of world business, 42, 463–476. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2007.06.007 banai, m., reisel, w.d., & probst, t.m. (2004). a managerial and personal control model: predictions of work alienation and organisational commitment in hungary. journal of international management, 10, 375–392. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2004.05.002 becker, t.e. (1992). foci and bases of commitment: are they distinctions worth making? academy of management journal, 35(1), 232–244. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256481 bellou, v. (2008). exploring civic virtue and turnover intention during organisational changes. journal of business research, 61, 778–789. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2007.09.001 bester, f. (2012). a model of work identity in multicultural work settings. unpublished dphil thesis, university of johannesburg, johannesburg. bluedorn, a.c. (1982). managing turnover strategically. business horizons, march–april, 6–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0007-6813(82)90097-0 boies, k., & rothstein, m.g. (2002). managers’ interest in international assignments: the role of work and career satisfaction. international journal of intercultural relations, 26, 233–253. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0147-1767(02)00002-0 boshoff, a.b., van wyk, r., hoole, c., & owen, j.h. (2002). the prediction of intention to quit by means of biographic variables, work commitment, role strain and psychological climate. management dynamics, 11(4), 14–28. bothma, f.c. (2011). the consequences of employees’ work-based identity. unpublished dcom thesis, university of johannesburg, johannesburg. bothma, f.c., & roodt, g. (2012). work-based identity and work engagement as potential antecedents of task performance and turnover intention: unravelling a complex relationship. sa journal of industrial psychology, 38(1), art. #893, 17 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v38i1.893 brown, s.p. (1996). a meta-analysis and review of organisational research on job involvement. psychological bulletin, 120(2), 235–255. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.120.2.235 buche, m.w. (2003). it professional work identity: construct and outcomes. unpublished doctoral thesis, university of kansas, kansas city. buche, m.w. (2006). gender and it professional work identity. in e.m. trauth (ed.), encyclopedia of gender and information technology, (pp. 434–439). hershey: idea group reference. buche, m.w. (2008). influence of gender on it professional work identity: outcomes from a pls study. retrieved october 10, 2008, from http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1355272 byrne, z. (2005). fairness reduces the negative effects of organisational politics on turnover intentions, citizenship behaviour and job performance. journal of business and psychology, 20, 175–200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10869-005-8258-0 carmeli, a., & gefen, d. (2005). the relationship between work commitment models and employee withdrawal intentions. journal of managerial psychology, 20(2), 63–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940510579731 chen, h.c., chu, c.i., wang, y.h., & lin, l.c. (2008). turnover factors revisited: a longitudinal study of taiwan-based staff nurses. international journal of nursing studies, 45, 277–285. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2006.08.010, pmid:17011564 cohen, j.w. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. (2nd edn.). hillsdale: lawrence erlbaum. demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., nachreiner, f., & schaufeli, w.b. (2000). a model of burnout and life satisfaction among nurses. journal of advanced nursing, 32, 454–464. http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2000.01496.x, pmid:10964195 du plooy, j., & roodt, g. (2010). work engagement, burnout and related constructs as predictors of turnover intentions. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), art. #910, 13 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.910 fishbein, m., & ajzen, i. (1975). belief, attitude, intention and behavior: an introduction to theory and research. reading: addison-wesley publishing company. fox, s.r., & fallon, b.j. (2003). modeling the effect of work/life balance on job satisfaction and turnover intentions. symposium paper presented at the 5th australian industrial and organisational psychology conference, melbourne, australia. gil-monte, p.r. (2005). validacao factorial de maslach burnout inventory (mbi-hss) para profissionais espanhois [factorial validity of the maslach burnout inventory (mbi-hss) of spanish professionals]. revista saúde pública, 39(1), 1–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/s0034-89102005000100001 greyling, j., & stanz, k. (2010). turnover of nursing employees in a gauteng hospital group. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), art. #850, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.850 griffeth, r.w., horn, p.w., & gaertner, s. (2000). a meta-analysis of antecedents and correlations of employee turnover: update, moderator tests, and research implications for the next millennium. journal of management, 26, 463–488. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920630002600305 guimaraes, t. (1997). assessing employee turnover intentions before/after tqm. international journal of quality & reliability management, 14(1), 46–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02656719710156770 hendrix, w., robbins, t., miller, j., & summers, t. (1998). effects of procedural and distributive justice on factors predictive of turnover. journal of social behavior and personality, 13(4), 611–632. horn, p.w., griffeth, r.w., & sellaro, l. (1984). the validity of mobley’s (1977) turnover model. organizational behavior and human performance, 34, 141–174. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(84)90001-1 jacobs, e.j. (2005). the development of a predictive model of turnover intentions of professional nurses. unpublished dcom thesis, university of johannesburg, johannesburg. jaros, s.j., jermier, j., koehler, j., & sincich, t. (1993). effects of continuance, affective and moral commitment on the withdrawal process: an evaluation of eight structural equation models. academic management journal, 36(5), 951–995. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256642 kirpal, s. (2004). work identities of nurses. between caring and efficiency demands. career development international, 9(3), 274–304. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430410535850 korman, a.k., wittig-berman, u., & lang, d. (1981). career success and personal failure: alienation in professionals and managers. academy of management journal, 24, 342–361. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/255846 kotzé, k., & roodt, g. (2005). factors that affect the retention of managerial and specialist staff: an exploratory study of an employee commitment model. sa journal of human resource management, 3, 48–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v3i2.65 lacity, m.c., lyer, v.v., & rudramuniyaiah, p.s. (2008). turnover intentions of indian is professionals. information systems frontiers on outsourcing, 10, 225–241. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10796-007-9062-3 lambert, e.g., hogan, n.l., & barton, s.m. (2001). the impact of job satisfaction on turnover intent: a test of a structural measurement model using a national sample of workers. social science journal, 38(2), 233–250. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0362-3319(01)00110-0 lauver, k.j., & kristof-brown, a. (2001). distinguishing between employees’ perceptions of person-job and person-organization fit. journal of vocational behavior, 59, 454–470. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2001.1807 lee, t.w., & mitchell, t.r. (1994). an alternative approach: the unfolding model of voluntary employee turnover. academy of management review, 19(1), 51–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1994.9410122008 lodahl, t.m., & kejner, m. (1965). the definition and measurement of job involvement. journal of applied psychology, 49, 24–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0021692, pmid:14279757 lum, l., kervin, j., clark, k., reid, f., & sirola, w. (1998). explaining nursing turnover intent: job satisfaction, pay satisfaction, or organizational commitment. journal of organisational behaviour, 19(3), 305–320. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199805)19:3<305::aid-job843>3.0.co;2-n mael, f., & ashforth, b.e. (1992). alumni and their alma mater: a partial test of the reformulated model of organisation. journal of organisational behaviour, 13, 103–124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.4030130202 martin, a. (2007). employee perceptions of organisational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intentions in a post-merger institution. unpublished mcom dissertation, university of johannesburg, johannesburg. martin, a., & roodt, g. (2008). perceptions of organisational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intentions in a post-merger tertiary institution. sa journal of industrial psychology, 34(1), 23–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v34i1.415 maslach, c., & jackson, s.e. (1981). the measurement of experienced burnout. journal of occupational behaviour, 2(2), 99–113. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.4030020205 maslach, c., jackson, s.e., & leiter, m.p. (1986). maslach burnout inventory: manual. (2nd edn.). palo alto: consulting psychologists press. maslach, c., jackson, s.e., & leiter, m.p. (1996). maslach burnout inventory: manual. (3rd edn.). palo alto: consulting psychologists press. mendes, f., & stander, m.w. (2011). positive organisation: the role of leader behaviour in work engagement and retention. sa journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), art. #900, 13 pages, http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i1.900 mobley, w.h. (1982). some unanswered questions in turnover and withdrawal research. academy of management review, 7, 111–116. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1982.4285493 morrell, k., loan-clarke, j., arnold, j., & wilkinson, a. (2008). mapping the decision to quit: a refinement and test of the unfolding model of voluntary turnover. applied psychology: an international review, 57(1), 128–150. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2007.00286.x mowday, r., steers, r., & porter, l. (1979). the measurement of organizational commitment. journal of vocational behaviour, 14, 224–247. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(79)90072-1 muliawan, a.d., green, p.f., & robb, d.a. (2009). the turnover intentions of information systems auditors. international journal of accounting information systems, 10(3), 117–136. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.accinf.2009.03.001 pallant, j. (2007). spss survival manual: a step-by-step guide to data analysis using spss version 15. (3rd edn.). new york: open university press. petriglieri, j.l. (2011). under threat: responses to and the consequences of threats to individuals’ identities. the academy of management review, 36(4), 641–662. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.2009.0087 podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., paine, j.b., & bachrach, d.g. (2000). organisational citizenship behaviours: a critical review of the theoretical and empirical literature and suggestions for future research. journal of management, 26(3), 513–563. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920630002600307 roodt, g. (1997). theoretical and empirical linkages between work-related commitment foci. sa journal of industrial psychology, 23(2), 6–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v23i2.624 roodt, g. (2004). turnover intentions. unpublished document. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. roodt, g., & bothma, f.c. (1997). die koste van vrywillige, beheerbare arbeidsomset [the cost of voluntary, controlable labour turnover]. journal of industrial psychology, 23(1), 26–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v23i1.619 roodt, g., de braine, r., bothma, f.c. & jansen, p.g. (2009). the work-based identity questionnaire (wi-28). unpublished questionnaire. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. rotenberry, p.f., & moberg, p.j. (2007). assessing the impact of job involvement on performance. management research news, 30(3), 203–215. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01409170710733278 sager, j.k., griffeth, r.w., & horn, p.w. (1998). a comparison of structural models representing turnover cognitions. journal of vocational behaviour, 53(2), 254–273. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1997.1617 schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2001). werk en welbevinden: naar een positiewe benadering in de arbeidsen gezondheidspsychologie [work and well-being: towards a positive approach in the work and health psychology]. gedrag en organisatie, 14, 229–253. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2003). utrecht work engagement scale, preliminary manual. utrecht: occupational health psychology unit, utrecht university. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organisational behavior, 25, 293–315. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.248 schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., conźalez-romá, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3, 71–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 senter, j.l., & martin, j.e. (2007). factors affecting the turnover of different groups of part-time workers. journal of vocational behavior, 71, 45–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2007.03.004 serafini, t.e., maitland, s.b., & adams, g.r. (2006). the functions of identity scale: revisions, validation and model testing. poster presented at the biennial meeting of the society for research on adolescence, san francisco, california. smith, c.a., organ, d.w., & near, j.p. (1983). organizational citizenship behavior: its nature and antecedents. journal of applied psychology, 68, 653–663. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.68.4.653 steensma, h., van breukelen, w., & sturm, m. (2004). studying employee turnover by splitting up the usual comparison group. journal of individual employment rights, 11, 211–227. http://dx.doi.org/10.2190/46u9-t06l-8m32-pefm steers, r. (1977). antecedents and outcomes of organizational commitment. administrative science quarterly, 22 (1), 46–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2391745 sulu, s., ceylan, a., & kaynak, r. (2010). work alienation as a mediator of the relationship between organisational injustice and organisational commitment: implications for healthcare professionals. international journal of business and management, 5(8), 27–38. sweetman, d., & luthans, f. (2010). the power of positive psychology: psychological capital and work engagement. in a.b. bakker & m.p. leiter (eds.), work engagement: a handbook of essential theory and research (pp. 54–68). new york: psychology press. tett, r.p., & meyer, j.p. (1993). job satisfaction, organisational commitment, turnover intention and turnover: path analyses based on meta-analytic findings. personnel psychology, 46(2), 259–293. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1993.tb00874.x van dyne, l., & lepine, j.a. (1998). helping and voice extra-role behaviours: evidence of construct and predictive validity. academy of management journal, 41(1), 108–120. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256902 walsh, k., & gordon, j.r. (2007). creating an individual work identity. human resource management review, 18(1), 46–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2007.09.001 wasti, a.s. (2003). organisational commitment, turnover intentions and the influence of cultural values. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 76, 303–321. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317903769647193 wayne, j.h., randel, a.e., & stevens, j. (2006). the role of identity and work-family support in work-family enrichment and its work-related consequences. journal of vocational behavior, 69, 445–461. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2006.07.002 wheeler, a.r., gallagher, v.c., brouer, r.l., & sablynski, c.j. (2007). when person-organisation (mis)fit and (dis)satisfaction lead to turnover. the moderating role of perceived job mobility. journal of management psychology, 22(2), 203–219. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940710726447 williams, l.j., & anderson, s.e. (1991). job satisfaction and organisational commitment as predictors of organisational citizenship and in-role behaviours. journal of management, 17(3), 601–617. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700305 zeffane, r.m. (1994). understanding employee turnover: the need for a contingency approach. international journal of manpower, 15(9/10), 22−37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437729410074182 footnote top ↑ 1. bothma and roodt (2012) described a census-based sampling approach as follows: ‘before the term census-based sampling can be understood, the terms census and random sample need to be explained. in a census the whole target population is surveyed and participation is compulsory. a random sample on the other hand is a randomly selected portion of the target population; they can choose whether to participate in the survey or not. a census-based sampling approach enumerates all members of the target population (similar to a census) with the choice to participate in the survey or not. self-selection bias (which falls outside the control of the researcher) equally affects response rates of census-based as well as other random sampling strategies. because a census-based sampling approach enumerates the complete population as a sample, it is a more accurate sampling strategy compared to normal random sampling strategies where only small portions of the population are sampled’. why people earn more: learn how book title: pay: why people earn what they earn and what you can do now to make more isbn: 9781107014985 publisher: cambridge university press, 2012, us$14.36* *book price at time of review reviewer: jenni gobind1 affiliation: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa postal adress: postnet suite 333, private bag x17, weltevreden park 1715, south africa how to cite this book review: gobind, j. (2014). why people earn more: learn how. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslike hulpbronbestuur 12(1), art. #614, 2 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.614 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. book review open access kevin f. hallock, labour economist at cornell university, explains to a general audience how their pay is determined. arguments are based primarily on lessons from labour economics and human resources management. the author skilfully explains why people earn what they earn and how they can earn more in both the short and the long run. it describes wages, wage differences across groups, wage inequality, how organizations set pay and why, executive and ‘superstar’ pay, the difference between pay and ‘total rewards’ (including benefits, opportunities for growth, colleagues and working conditions), compensation in non-profits and the differences between the cost of compensation to organisations and the value employees place on that compensation. it also offers tips on what an individual can do to do to earn more. the book follows a literary fiction structure written in four parts, each part layering on the previous ones and drawing in the interest of the reader. hallock engages the reader’s attention in the intricacies of pay through his casual and skilful use of anecdotes based on his personal experience in jobs from professional cucumber picker to ivy league professor: so, what does hallock do? instead of trying to cover everything and to do so in depth, his approach has allowed him to selectively choose topics that he feels are most compelling and to focus on engaging the reader around these select topics. he skilfully hones in on a policy area, highlights a theoretical idea or two, and then describes one or a few empirical studies that are especially relevant and that provide pertinent evidence on the policy question (gerhart, 2010, p. 526). hillock makes reference to the american context and yet the parallels with remuneration in south africa are unmistakeable and almost mysterious. chapter 1 of part i includes a brief synopsis of the 13 chapters to follow. chapter 2 is about wages, wage distribution and wage inequality. for a south african reader, chapter 2 is of interest as it touches on aspects of south african pay that are current and often misconstrued. hillock provides insight into compensation differences and the difference in levels of pay between men, women, the young and african americans. this chapter discusses the extraordinarily wide distribution of income in the world with specific reference to the united states. hillock discusses reasons for the dramatic level of income inequality and whether it is likely to change in the future. chapter 3 discusses who makes what and their characteristics. this chapter commences with a discussion on wage differences by occupation. this includes a list of occupations and a discussion of the level of compensation and benefits in those jobs, as well as the characteristics of people holding those jobs, including amongst others, age, education, gender, levels of experience and average seniority on the job. chapter 4 discusses the difference between wages and total compensation, and asks a very pertinent question: is there a difference between the cost of compensation to organisations and the value of that compensation to employees? hillock goes on to discuss employer cost of employee compensation, what is understood by total compensation and employers’ perception of how employees value compensation. part ii of the book focuses mostly on pay structure and the process large organisations utilise when establishing their pay structure. chapter 5 discusses basic strategy and compensation strategy, starting with a basic framework looking at the world of work total rewards model. hillock relies on a hypothetical case to expound on the why salaries should be kept a secret. midway through the chapter hillock discusses strategy, factors that influence strategy and the understanding, business and functioning of compensation. chapter 6 delves into job analysis, job evaluation and internal comparisons. the chapter explains what is in a job and organising job analysis, how and what to collect when gathering data for a job analysis and job evaluation. hillock expounds on job evaluation basics and the ways to consider job evaluation, including ranking and point systems. internal comparisons of job evaluation are briefly touched on. relying on a passage from the bible, hillock is able to show that relative comparisons can matter as much as or even more than absolute comparisons. chapter 7 discusses the importance of collecting the right comparison data and matching internal structure to external market data. for instance, chapter 7 touches on what goes into determining what organisations pay using data surveys. chapter 8 focuses on the highly paid; although the chapter looks at athletes and entertainers, the chapter specifically investigates ceos of publicly traded, for-profit companies. hillock begins the chapter with the ways executives are paid. he provides an overview of the basic kinds of pay levels, mix and pay distributions for publicly traded firms in the united states. in the latter part of chapter 8, hillock discusses why one should not believe what is written about ceo pay. in so doing, he goes on to unpack executive pay and company size, risk between pay and performance and risk and executive compensation. part iii concentrates on how people are paid and how much they are paid. chapter 9 outlines the problems and difficulties of evaluating performance and executive pay. hillock returns to his favourite anecdote, cucumber picking, which helps to illustrate the best way to pay a person. he touches on a safelite glass case study on low productivity and the compensation system. relying on the safelite glass case study, hillock moves on to discuss performance appraisal and incentive pay. chapter 10 describes stock and stock options and offers a guide to where they are and are not useful as a way to pay people. stock options are defined; why organisations offer stock options and how employees value stock options are discussed. chapter 11 is a relatively short chapter which discusses pay mix and asks the following questions: why offer benefits? would employees prefer cash? chapter 12 takes an international perspective, examining international compensation, culture and methods of paying workers across countries. chapter 13 touches on compensation in non-profit organisations and the distinction between non-profit organisations and for-profit organisations. hillock investigates possible reasons for differences in pay between the for-profit and non-profit sectors whilst emphasising pay and performance in non-profit organisations. his discussion is well supported with empirical findings on the non-profit versus for-profit pay gap. hillock briefly touches on executive pay in non-profit organisations, gender and race in non-profit organisations and non-profit and international pay. part iv is titled ‘what you can do to make more and concluding remarks’. chapter 14 is an open, almost casual discussion on what you can do now to make more now and later, which hillock describes as ‘easy stuff’. hillock suggests that one should ‘ask’, do one’s homework and be part of the solution. in a bold statement hillock adds that one should switch employers and get a face-lift or plastic surgery as beautiful people make more money than people who are not so beautiful. in addition to this bold statement, hillock makes reference to academic literature that suggests that drinking can increase your earnings, that two jobs are better than one and finally to talk to people and be patient. hillock concludes his book with chapter 15 with concluding remarks on pay. i can only concur with anne ruddy, president and ceo of worldatwork that hillock’s book pay: why people earn what they earn and what you can do now to make more is: a truly refreshing read on the complicated and highly emotional world of pay. dr. hillock helps make sense of the purpose and approach behind the many components of our (us) pay what and why we make what we do. his informal style and rhetoric make for an informative read, allowing for easy application and guidance anywhere in the world. references gerhart, b. (2012). pay: why people earn what they earn and what you can do now to make more. by kevi f. hallock. cornell university ilr school ilr review, 66(2). retrieved october 07, 2013, from http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2960&context=ilrreview 8-dutoitroodt.qxd organisational culture a review of the literature revealed that the construct “organisational culture” remains one of the most contested areas of academic inquiry within the broader field of organisational studies. it is characterised by competing definitions, epistemologies and research paradigms. controversies exist about virtually all aspects of this construct including the mechanics and extend of its contribution to organisational performance (erwee, lynch, millett, smith & roodt, 2001). according to ajiferuke and boddewyn’s (1970, p.154) “there are almost as many meanings of culture as people using the term”. kroeber and kluckhohn (1952) already suggested in 1952 that there were as many as 164 meanings of the term “culture’’. since then it was hoped that the field may have been further refined and a more “common’’ definition may have been agreed upon. instead, what culture is and the nature of it are still hotly contested (bolman & deal, 1991). fortunately, some areas of overlap can be discerned. most basic is that there seems to be general agreement that organisational cultures are based in sets of meanings shared by some groups of people. this focus on what is shared has been neglected by other constructs used to study organisations and thus gives the culture construct a useful distinctiveness for organisational research (beyer, hannah & milton, 2000). the culture assessment instrument (martins, 1989) represents one line of inquiry in the field of organisational culture. martins (1989, p. 45) defines organisational culture as follows: “organisational culture is an integrated pattern of human behaviour, which is unique to a particular organisation and which originated as a result of the organisation’s sur vival processes and interaction with its environment. culture directs the organisation to goal attainment. newly appointed employees must be taught what is regarded as the correct way of behaving.” this definition of culture conforms to green’s (1989) notion of culture as the organisation’s equivalent of the individual’s personality. culture provides an underlying pattern to the behaviour of organisations, just as personality provides an underlying pattern to the behaviour of the individual. fundamental to the development of the cai is the belief that organisational culture can be defined in terms of a set of uniform dimensions or characteristics. this approach falls firmly within the positivistic approach of culture (denison, 1996). within this perspective the central aim is the development of a set of dimensions across which culture could be compared (denison, 1996) and measured and hence more effectively managed (erwee et al., 2001). groeschl and doherty (2000) pointed out that culture consists of several elements of which some are implicit and others are explicit. schein (1985) identified three levels of culture, i.e. artefacts, values and assumptions (see figure 1). insight into these levels are fundamental to understanding the culture of organisations. figure 1: schein’s levels of culture adapted from schein (1985, p.14) willie du toit gert roodt department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract the aim of this study was to assess the discriminant validity of the culture assessment instrument (cai); that is to distinguish between mean culture scores of different companies. the convenience sample consisted of 4066 respondents from five different companies, originating from various industries. cai scores of 56 items were factor analysed on two levels, followed by iterative item analyses. significant differences between company mean scores were identified, but only a small portion of the variance in these scores could be ascribed to culture differences. based on these findings, it was concluded that the cai in its current form does not possess discriminant validity. it is recommended that items attuned to deeper levels of culture, based on schein’s three-level typology, be added to the instrument. opsomming die doel van die studie was om die diskriminante geldigheid van die ‘culture assessment instrument’ (cai) te beoordeel; dit is om tussen gemiddelde kultuurtellings van verskillende ondernemings te onderskei. die geleentheidsteekproef het bestaan uit 4066 respondente uit vyf verskillende ondernemings afkomstig uit verskeie industrieë. cai-tellings van 56 items is op twee vlakke gefaktoranaliseer, gevolg deur iteratiewe itemontledings. beduidende verskille tussen ondernemings se gemiddelde kultuurtellings is gevind, maar slegs ’n klein proporsie van die variansie in die tellings kon aan kultuurverskille toegeskryf word. gebaseer op hierdie bevindinge, is daar tot die slotsom gekom dat die cai in sy huidige vorm nie oor diskriminante geldigheid beskik nie. daar is aanbeveel dat items gerig op dieper kultuurvlakke, gebaseer op schein se drievlaktipologie, tot die instrument gevoeg word. the discriminant validity of the culture assessment instrument: a comparison of company cultures requests for copies should be addressed to: g roodt, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 77 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (1), 77-84 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (1), 77-84 artefacts are visible, tangible and audible demonstration of behaviour supported by organisational norms, values and assumptions. artefacts range from physical aspects such as architecture to forms of language to rituals. values represent the principles and standards valued by organisational members. values are the foundation as to what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. assumptions and beliefs are the basis of an organisation’s culture. where solutions to a problem work continuously, the solution is used unconsciously and becomes the way things are done by the group. assumptions are the basis for how organisational members think and feel. assumptions are unconscious and are taken for granted (schein, 1985). to fully understand the complexity of the organisational culture literature, it is necessary to note the various perspectives of culture (wilson, 2001). perspectives of organisational culture martin and meyerson (1988) identified three major perspectives in organisational culture research, i.e. the integration perspective; the differentiation perspective, and the fragmentation perspective. the integration perspective portrays a strong or desirable culture as one where there is organisation-wide consensus and consistency. espoused values are consistent with formal practices, which are consistent with informal beliefs, norms and attitudes. cultural members share the same values, promoting a shared sense of loyalty and commitment. where inconsistencies, conflict or subcultural differentiation occur, this is portrayed as being a weak or negative culture. the differentiation perspective emphasises that rather than consensus being organisation-wide, it only occurs within the boundaries of a subcult ure. at the organisational level, differentiated subcultures may co-exist in harmony, conflict or indifference to each other. van maanen (1991), in his study of an organisation, found groups of employees who considered themselves as being distinct. these sub-cultures related to different jobs, different levels of organisational status, gender and class. claims of harmony from management masked a range of inconsistencies and group antagonisms. what is unique about a given organisation’s culture, then, is the particular mix of subcult ural differences within an organisation’s boundaries. the fragmentation perspective views ambiguity as the norm, with consensus and dissension co-existing in a constantly fluctuating pattern influenced by events and specific areas of decision making. as stated by frost, moore, louis, lundberg, and martin (1991), consensus fails to coalesce on an organisation-wide or subcultural basis, except in transient, issuespecific ways. rather than the clear unity of the integration perspective, or the clear conflicts of the differentiation viewpoint, fragmentation focuses on that which is unclear. many of the studies in organisational culture focus on only one of these perspectives, arguing whether it and it alone is evident within the organisation. martin and meyerson (1988) argued that any culture contains elements that can be understood only when all three perspectives are used. therefore, within a company there may be organisation-wide consensus on some issues, consensus only within certain subcultures on other issues and an ambiguous state on the remainder. schein, in frost et al. (1991), suggested that there may be a core set of ideological guidelines within an organisation that require a minimal consensus and consistency, otherwise organisations would not function. therefore consistency, consensus, harmony and integration may occur, but within the midst of inconsistencies, ambiguities, conflicts, disruption and dissolution. not ing the complexit ies associated with the different perspectives described above, this study is carried out from the integration perspective, where cultural members share the same values, promoting a shared sense of loyalt y and commitment. measuring organisational culture although the concept of organisational culture has been prominent in organisational and management literature since the 1970s (barley, meyer, & gash, 1988), scholars still disagree on the best way to measure it (see o’reilly, chatman, & caldwell, 1991; rousseau, 1990). some authors have suggested the use of multiple methods (e.g., martin, 1992; rousseau, 1990), but these methods are often complex, expensive, and time-consuming (ashkanasy, broadfoot & falkus, 2000). following are examples of different ways of measuring organisational culture. reynierse and harker (1986) used a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures to measure culture. the qualitative methods involve interviews and group discussions, while the quantitative method, which they call organisational dynamics, is a survey questionnaire using 95 items on a five-point ordinal scale of definite agreement to definite disagreement. the method aims to provide managers with tangible feedback in managing culture, their “fundamental proposition” being “that you can’t manage organisational culture unless you can measure it” (reynierse & harker, 1986, p. 1). reynolds (1986) used a questionnaire to measure culture differences between organisations to see if the measured differences relate to differences in performance. barnett (1988) outlined details of what he calls a “galileo tm” or “galileo analysis” for measuring culture accurately. some of the methods are common to those used in qualitative approaches, but barnett quantifies the results. it is considered that the method is too narrow, using only language, symbols and concepts as measurable elements. wiener (1988) measured “central value systems” and believes that by measuring the intensity and breadth of key values, one can measure culture. nossiter and biberman (1990, p.13) used a technique for studying and diagnosing culture they call “projective drawing and metaphorical analogy fantasising”, where questionnaires ask participants to draw an image and name an animal representing their organisation and department. they believe that the creativity involved may motivate employees to think more about their organisations. tucker, mccoy, and evans (1990) designed a comprehensive questionnaire, developed from interviews and discussions with 50 managers of organisations. they believe results from the questionnaire, which are quantified, will help provide some preliminary information on the organisation’s culture to managers attempting to deal with particular situations and problems with their cultures. gabriel (1991) saw stories as the basis for the myths that act as coping mechanisms for individuals in organisations. most of these techniques are as yet too recent for much empirical testing to have been carried out on them. a case for quantitative measurement among authors who suggest some use of quantitative measures are amsa (1986), barnett (1988), bookbinder (1984), cooke and rousseau (1988), desatnick (1986), hofstede (1986), reynierse (1986), reynierse and harker (1986), reynolds (1986) and wiener (1988). scholars such as martin (1992) noted that quantitative assessment of organisational culture has been criticised in the past because of a strong mono-method bias in the field. although martin argues for a need to include qualitative data in culture studies, du toit, roodt78 the essence of her case is that there is a need for a multilevel and multi-method conceptualisation. in this respect, schein’s (1985) three level typology provided a distinctive role for both quantitative and qualitative measurement. as the elements of culture become more conscious and observable to participants in a study, they become more accessible to standardised assessment (rousseau, 1990). for example, it is generally agreed that surveys represent an efficient and standardised means of tapping the shallower levels of schein’s typology. the deepest level of culture, on the other hand, can be investigated only through more intensive observation, focused interviews, and the involvement of organisational members in self-analysis (ott, 1989; rousseau, 1990; schein, 1990). the thrust of this argument is that there is a clear and continuing role for quantitative measures as a means of assessing the less abstract levels of organisational culture. all quantitative measures of culture are likely to suffer from the same limitations, with the main weakness being that basic assumptions are often non-debatable and unconscious. people’s written or oral answers to questions are not necessarily indicative of their basic assumptions. the usefulness of quantitative measurement may not be restricted to the shallower grounds for maintaining that the three levels of culture are unified especially when a culture is strong. in this case, quantitative measurement of organisational culture may have the potential to tap deeper levels of culture (ott, 1989; rentsch, 1990). ashkanasy et al. (2000a) noted that survey methods have characteristics that render them especially useful for organisational culture research. self-report surveys allow respondents to record their own perceptions of reality. because behaviour and attitudes are determined not by objective reality but by actors’ perceptions of reality (rentsch, 1990), it is clearly appropriate to focus on perceptions rather than on reality. further, self-report measures offer internal credibility to organisational members, which is likely to increase the likelihood that members will accept the results of the survey. researchers have cited numerous other advantages of survey assessment and of quantitative techniques generally. these include allowing replication and cross-sectional comparative studies, providing an accepted frame of reference for interpreting data, helping the evaluation and initiation of culture change efforts in organisations, and providing data that can be analysed through multivariate statistical techniques (cooke & rousseau, 1988; xenikou & furnham, 1996). in summary, what is borne out by the literature, is that questionnaires can play an important role in the quantitative analysis of organisational culture (reichers & schneider, 1990) a need for assessing discriminant validity hofstede (1980) defined culture as the “collective programming of the mind, which distinguishes the members of one category of people from another.” this definition stresses that culture is collective and not a characteristic of individuals (shared values); is interesting only to the extent that it differentiates between categories of people (maull et al., 2001). yet, despite the fact that it’s the differences in culture that makes it an interesting phenomenon, the literature review revealed that reporting on the ability of organisational culture instruments to assess cultural differences bet ween companies is grossly neglected. the literature often reports on the consensual, construct, and criterion validit y of organisation culture instruments, but not the discriminant validity of the instruments (ashkanasy, wilderom & peterson, 2000). hence, clearly there is a need to assess the discriminant validity of organisational culture instruments. this need is addressed in this study. method the research participants a convenience sample, consisting of 4066 participants from five different companies originating from various industries, was used. particulars of organisations that are included in the study are provided in table 1. from table 1 it is clear that there are significant differences in sample size (ranging from 119 to 2459) between the different organisations. noting that sample size effects levels of significance, due consideration was given to it during the analysis phase. table 1 participating organisations company no. organisation n 1 bank 1056 2 bank – home loans 219 3 retail 119 4 information technology 213 5 services – parastatal 2459 total 4066 table 2 provides a brief overview of the biographical properties of the survey sample. from table 2 it can be inferred that the majority of respondents are white, male, afrikaans speaking and in the age group 25 – 35. table 2 biographical variables category count % race white 1086 26.71% coloured 294 7.23% indian 125 3.07% black 912 22.43% no response 1649 40.56% total 4066 100% age 24 and younger 438 10.77% 25 – 35 1808 44.47% 36 – 45 1006 24.74% 46 and more 638 15.69% no response 176 4.33% total 4066 100% gender male 2034 50.02% female 1876 46.14% no response 156 3.84% total 4066 100% language afrikaans 1014 24.94% english 225 5.53% other 21 0.52% no response 2806 69.01% total 4066 100% the measuring instrument the measuring instrument (culture assessment instrument) was developed by martins (1989). the latest version of the cai consists of 89 items, but only 56 items, that were common to all the companies in the sample, were included in the study. these 56 items are proportionally representative of the six dimensions of the questionnaire. the overall reliabilit y (cronbach discriminant validity of the cai 79 coefficient alpha) of the 5-point response scale version of the instrument, used in this study, is 0,933. the internal consistency of the dimensions varies between 0,655 and 0,932. the theoretical model, which underpins the cai, is depicted in figure 2. according to martins (1989) an organisation is a complex social system in which individual and group activities take place. the various subsystems together form the culture of the organisation. organisational culture influences the behaviour of employees, suppliers and customers as well as the relationship with the community. culture has an effect on the internal as well as the external environment and is in turn influenced by both environments. the reason being that the organisation has to continuously adapt to the external environment. in order for the organisation to adapt to the external environment its internal processes have to change and adapt on a continuous basis. from figure 2 it can be seen that the model consists of three main elements, i.e. the organisational system, survival functions and dimensions of culture. the organisational system consists of five subsystems i.e., goal -, technical -, structural -, psychosocial -, and management subsystem. these five subsystems form the internal subsystem. the external system consists of the environment in which the organisation operates. the organisation thus has to stay abreast of shareholders, customers, competitors, the community, as well as political, statutory, economic and ecological factors. the way, in which all the external factors are dealt with, could have a major impact on the success and survival of the organisation. as a result of the interaction and reciprocal influence of the various subsystems on one another, a unique culture is created in each organisation, which makes it unique and distinguishes it from other organisations. from figure 2 it is clear that the two main variables that must be taken into account in assessing the culture of an organisation are the problems of survival and adaptation of the organisation to the (a) external environment and (b) the internal organisational system. dimensions of culture are subdivided into two categories, i.e. those that relate to the external environment and those that relate to the internal environment (see figure 2). dimensions relating to the external environment are: (a) strategy, mission, goals and objectives; (b) shareholders, customers, competitors and community; and (c) the means to reach goals. dimensions relating to the internal environment are: (a) employees in the organisation; (b) interpersonal relations; (c) management processes; and (d) management orientation. the research procedure the data set was built from data gathered from the five participating companies over the past few years. the information was gathered mainly with a view to improve the performance of the companies. hence, the aim in gathering the information was the same in all the cases. statistical analysis the statistical procedures were selected for their suitability to test the research hypotheses of the study. these procedures include descriptive statistics, factor analyses, and analyses of variance. in respect of factor analyses a procedure developed by schepers (1992) was followed. this procedure includes first as well as second level factor analyses. the statistical consultation service of the rand afrikaans university conducted the analyses. all calculations were done by means of the spss – windows program of spss – international. results first level factor analysis on the inter-correlation matrix the 56 items of the culture assessment instrument were intercorrelated and rotated to a simple structure by means of the varimax rotation. owing to limited space, the intercorrelation matrix (56 x 56) is not reproduced here. principal axis factoring was used as the extraction method. based on kaiser’s (1961) (eigenvalues-greater-than-unit y) criterion nine factors were postulated. subsequently, sub-scores (ss) were calculated for these nine factors. meaningful item du toit, roodt80 figure 2: a model of organisational culture (martins, 1989, p.92) loadings were obtained on eight of the nine postulated factors. these eight factors, which explain about 46% of the variance in the factor space, were retained for second level factor analysis. second level factor analysis on the inter-correlation matrix the eight sub-scores (obtained from the first factor analysis) were inter-correlated and the results of the inter-correlation of the sub-scores are displayed in table 3. table 3 matrix of inter-correlations of sub-scores (ss) ss 1 ss 2 ss 3 ss 4 ss 5 ss 6 ss 7 ss 8 ss 1 1,000 ss 2 0,628 1,000 ss 3 0,682 0,615 1,000 ss 4 0,556 0,414 0,433 1,000 ss 5 0,612 0,603 0,555 0,504 1,000 ss 6 0,417 0,457 0,517 0,294 0,411 1,000 ss 7 0,353 0,214 0,246 0,109 0,141 0,136 1,000 ss 8 0,319 0,311 0,255 0,195 0,273 0,246 0,145 1,000 all correlations are significant at the 0,01 level (2-tailed). according to kaiser’s (1961) criterion a single factor was postulated. table 4 provides the eigenvalues of the unreduced factor matrix. this factor explained 48% of the variance in the factor space. table 4 eigenvalues of the unreduced inter-correlation matrix of subscores initial eigenvalues root total % of cumulative variance % 1 3,827 47,841 47,841 2 0,942 11,775 59,616 3 0,844 10,556 70,172 4 0,703 8,790 78,962 5 0,610 7,629 86,591 6 0,504 6,304 92,895 7 0,321 4,006 96,901 8 0,248 3,099 100,000 trace = 8 the factor solution converged after 5 iterations. table 5 provides the rotated factor matrix of the cai. table 5 sorted factor loadings on postulated factor sub-scores scale h2j 1 ss 1 0,858 0,660 ss 2 0,823 0,591 ss 3 0,811 0,595 ss 4 0,616 0,372 ss 5 0,601 0,330 ss 6 0,564 0,316 ss 7 0,374 0,131 ss 8 0,304 0,129 extraction method: principal axis factoring. 1 factor extracted. 5 iterations required. an iterative item analysis procedure was conducted on this single scale and a very high cronbach coefficient alpha of 0,945 was obtained. table 6 provides the item statistics for the cai. table 6 item statistics of the cai scale scale corrected alpha mean variance itemif item if item if item total deleted deleted deleted correlation q2 182,310 1120,033 0,300 0,945 q3 182,416 1113,948 0,327 0,945 q4 182,917 1094,479 0,526 0,944 q5 183,421 1102,019 0,441 0,944 q6 183,172 1093,445 0,473 0,944 q7 182,126 1125,377 0,194 0,945 q8 182,333 1109,236 0,396 0,944 q10 182,539 1104,559 0,474 0,944 q11 182,775 1100,582 0,560 0,944 q12 182,822 1094,317 0,513 0,944 q13 182,912 1095,447 0,460 0,944 q14 182,835 1095,843 0,506 0,944 q15 182,434 1106,652 0,381 0,944 q19 183,246 1097,836 0,443 0,944 q20 182,797 1104,650 0,366 0,945 q21 182,518 1110,650 0,324 0,945 q23 183,352 1083,842 0,584 0,943 q24 183,410 1089,231 0,612 0,943 q25 183,228 1086,502 0,560 0,943 q26 182,655 1117,183 0,242 0,945 q27 182,657 1112,705 0,361 0,944 q28 183,209 1086,742 0,573 0,943 q29 182,781 1096,212 0,520 0,944 q30 182,934 1091,020 0,586 0,943 q31 183,243 1091,040 0,561 0,943 q33 183,098 1092,359 0,580 0,943 q34 183,024 1082,393 0,667 0,943 q36 182,333 1122,885 0,203 0,945 q37 182,636 1116,514 0,304 0,945 q39 183,280 1089,542 0,536 0,944 q41 183,374 1093,897 0,529 0,944 q42 183,493 1084,821 0,602 0,943 q43 183,256 1093,593 0,529 0,944 q44 182,838 1104,725 0,415 0,944 q45 182,919 1103,466 0,453 0,944 q46 183,076 1090,547 0,569 0,943 q47 183,350 1103,241 0,405 0,944 q49 182,981 1092,726 0,578 0,943 q51 183,080 1104,398 0,427 0,944 q52 182,617 1106,825 0,444 0,944 q54 182,556 1116,923 0,310 0,945 q55 182,939 1084,958 0,621 0,943 q57 182,958 1092,115 0,470 0,944 q59 183,427 1097,552 0,465 0,944 q60 183,652 1097,560 0,480 0,944 q62 182,614 1096,302 0,567 0,943 q63 182,702 1095,184 0,577 0,943 q64 182,889 1089,848 0,596 0,943 q65 182,856 1093,133 0,586 0,943 q66 182,451 1098,969 0,499 0,944 q67 182,801 1096,741 0,547 0,944 q68 183,284 1106,092 0,406 0,944 q70 182,767 1098,537 0,507 0,944 q71 182,827 1102,382 0,471 0,944 q73 182,823 1088,629 0,603 0,943 q72 183,072 1128,213 0,095 0,946 n of cases = 4066 n of items = 56 cronbach coefficient alpha = 0,945 discriminant validity of the cai 81 analysis of variance (anova): comparison between companies in order to test the hypothesis of the study, which states that there are significant differences in the culture scores between companies from various industries, an analysis of variance was carried out on the data set. the results of these analyses are depicted in tables 7 – 10. in table 7 the aggregate mean for each organisation is depicted. table 7 descriptive statistics company mean std. n deviation bank 191,460 26,800 1056 bank – home loans 191,877 27,940 219 retail 186,244 33,051 119 information technology 177,545 29,061 213 services – parastatal 184,244 36,821 2459 total 186,237 33,749 4066 from table 7 it is clear that the company in the banking industry has the highest mean (192), whilst the company in the information technology industry has the lowest mean (177). this means that the culture of the company in the banking industry was most positively assessed, whilst the culture of the company in the it industry was least positively assessed. analysis of variance was preceded with the levene’s test for the equality of error variances. the results are depicted in table 8. table 8 levene’s test of equality of error variances (a) f-ratio df1 df2 p(f) 45,214 4 4061 0,000 tests the null hypothesis that the error variance of the dependent variable is equal across groups. from table 8 it can be inferred that the error variance of the dependent variable is not equal across the companies, and the dunnett post hoc tests should therefore be interpreted (see table 10). the differences in variance between the companies are depicted in table 9. at a first glance it would appear that there are significant differences in mean culture scores between the different companies. table 9 anova: comparison between organisations in respect of culture source type iii sum df mean f-ratio p(f) partial of squares square eta squared corrected model 61640,548(a) 4 15410,137 13,698 0,000 0,013 intercept 45611830,805 1 4561183,805 40545,511 0,000 0,909 comp 61640,548 4 15410,137 13,698 0,000 0,013 error 4568437,846 4061 1124,954 total 145655506,000 4066 corrected total 4630078,394 4065 a) r squared = 0,013 (adjusted r squared = 0,012) however, it must be kept in mind that the sample sizes differ considerably. thus, in order to make accurate inferences, it was necessary to make provision for the differences in sample size. for this purpose the partial eta squared was calculated. partial eta squared revealed that only an insignificant portion, namely 1,3% of the variance could be attributed to culture differences. the results of the dunnett post hoc tests are depicted in table 10. from table 10 it can be seen that the bank and home loans are significantly different from it and services, but as mentioned above only an insignificant small portion of the variance could be explained. table 10 dunnett post hoc tests (i) (j) mean std. error sig. 95% confidence company company difference interval (i-j) lower upper bound bound bank home loans -,4165 2,060 1,000 -6,224 5,391 retail 5,216 3,140 0,639 -3,712 14,145 it 13,916(*) 2,155 0,000 7,838 19,994 services 7,216(*) 1,110 0,000 4,107 10,326 home loans bank ,416 2,060 1,000 -5,391 6,224 retail 5,633 3,570 0,704 -4,462 15,720 it 14,332(*) 2,744 0,000 6,612 22,052 services 7,633(*) 2,029 0,002 1,912 13,355 retail bank -5,216 3,140 0,639 -14,145 3,712 home loans -5,633 3,570 0,704 -15,728 4,462 it 8,699 3,626 0,159 -1,549 18,948 services 2,000 3,119 0,999 -6,873 10,874 it bank -13,916(*) 2,155 0,000 -19,994 -7,838 home loans -14,332(*) 2,744 0,000 -22,052 -6,612 retail -8,699 3,626 0,159 -18,948 1,549 services -6,699(*) 2,125 0,018 -12,695 -0,703 services bank -7,217(*) 1,110 0,000 -10,326 -4,107 home loans -7,633(*) 2,029 0,002 -13,355 -1,912 retail -2,000 3,119 0,999 -10,874 6,873 it 6,699(*) 2,125 0,018 0,703 12,695 * the mean difference is significant at the .05 level. hence, the hypothesis, which states that there are significant differences in mean culture scores between the different companies in the sample, is rejected. it can thus be concluded that the instrument does not posses discriminant validity, i.e. the capability to distinguish culture between companies from different industries. discussion it is clear from the factor analyses and the item analysis that the construction of the cai is based on a number of sound psychometric principles. the cai complies with most of the criteria, which according to schepers (1992) as cited in swart, roodt and schepers (1999) are important in constructing a questionnaire: � the construct “culture” is theoretically clearly founded. � there is no doubt about which domain the construct belongs to, i.e. “organisational culture” � sub domains were identified, i.e. mission/vision; management processes; employee needs and objectives; external environment; means to achieve objectives; and interpersonal relations. � behavioural indicators were identified for the sub domains. these behavioural indicators were used to link the theoretical concepts with the empirical variables. du toit, roodt82 the one criterion that was somewhat neglected is item format, which includes aspects such as: � the question should be short and simple. � the question should be clear and unambiguous. � the respondent should have the necessary knowledge to answer the question. � the question should be phrased neutrally. � the question should not make the respondent feel guilty. � the question should be asked on the highest level of measurement that would still make sense. the questionnaire uses a 5-point likert response scale where all the response categories are labelled. according to schepers (1992) the equal interval quality of a scale is lost if more than t wo points are anchored. schepers (1992) recommended that it is better to use an intensity response scale where only the two extreme categories are labelled as depicted in figure 3. figure 3: proposed intensity response scale schepers (1992, p.14) the factor analyses resulted in a robust single factor that indicates a fairly sound theoretical basis as well as a sound procedure in the construction of the cai. this assumption is supported by a high internal consistency of 0,945. this indicates a high reliability and only a limited amount of error variance in the measurement of the construct “organisational culture”. the results of the analysis of variance revealed that there are differences in mean culture scores bet ween the various companies. however, as mentioned before only 1,3% of these differences could be attributed to differences in cultures. in other words the culture of the bank is the same as the culture of the retail chain store, is the same as the culture of the public service organisation and is the same as the culture of the information technology organisation. however, based on the literature review, a priori differences in cultures between companies, especially if they are from various industries were postulated. the cai did not detect these differences. it can thus be inferred that the instrument does not possess the ability to distinguish differences in cultures between companies from different industries. these findings suggest that the cai lacks discriminant validity. on the other hand the cai reliably assessed communalities in culture between companies. this is the strength of the instrument. it is good at detecting communalities between companies. see figure 4 for a graphic representation of what the findings suggest. in figure 4 each circle represents a different company and the shaded area represents the similarities between the companies, as identified by the instrument. the areas not shaded represent the unique differences between the companies, not identified by the instrument. these communalities, however, are mainly at surface level – the level of artefacts and creations with reference to schein’s (1985) three-level typology (see figure 1). at this level companies may appear to have the same culture. the reason for this phenomenon is that companies are quick to embrace the latest management tools and practices in their striving to keep up with the fast changing business environment. there is a possibility that the instrument detected these practices which are common to all companies. in sum, the instrument identifies similarities at surface level but not differences at the deeper levels. the scale was designed for the tangible, espoused level (the level of practice if you wish) but not for the deeper (unconscious) level of tacit values and basic assumptions. inferences can be made about the deeper levels, but the items in the instrument did not purposefully and systematically expose the deeper levels of organisational culture. figure 4: similarities between companies emanating from the findings of the literature and the empirical research it is recommended that further research be undertaken to operationalise the construct organisational culture at the deeper levels, which are, the levels of tacit values, taken for granted assumptions and basic beliefs. the authors believe that with proper operationalisation at the more fundamental levels it will be possible to successfully distinguish cultures between companies from the positivistic paradigm. finally, it is recommended that the application of the culture assessment instrument be supplemented with methods from the interpretative paradigm for a holistic and comprehensive view on the culture of a company. references ajiferuke, m. & boddewyn, j. (1970). socioeconomic indicators in comparative management. administrative sciences quarterly, december, 453-458. amsa, p. (1986). organizational culture and work group behaviour: an empirical study. journal of management studies (uk), 23 (3), 347-62. ashkanasy, n.m., broadfoot, l.e. & falkus, s. (2000a). questionnaire measures of organizational culture. in ashkanasy, n.m., wilderom, c.p.m. & peterson, m.f. (eds.), handbook of organizational culture and climate. california: sage publications, inc. ashkanasy, n.m., wilderom, c.p.m. & peterson, m.f. (eds.) (2000b), handbook of organizational culture and climate. california: sage publications, inc. barley, s. r., meyer, g. w., & gash, d. c. (1988). cultures of culture: academics, practitioners and the pragmatics of normative control. administrative science quarterly, 33, 24-60. barnett, g.a. (1988). communication and organizational culture. in goldhaber, g.m. & barnett, g.a. (eds), the handbook of organizational communication (101-30). ablex, norwood. beyer, j.m., hannah, d.r. & milton, l.p. (2000). ties that bind: culture and attachments in organisations. in ashkanasy, n.m., wilderom, c.p.m. & peterson, m.f. (eds), handbook of organizational culture & climate (323-338). california: sage publications, inc. bolman, l. & deal, t. (1991). reframing organisations: artistry, choice and leadership. san francisco, ca.: jossey-bass publishers. bookbinder, s.m. (1984). measuring and managing corporate culture. human resource planning, 7 (1), 47-53. discriminant validity of the cai 83 cooke, r.a. & rousseau, d.m. (1988). behavioural norms and expectations: a quantitative approach to the assessment of organizational culture. group and organization studies, 13, september, 245-73. denison, d.r. (1996). what is the difference bet ween organizational culture and organizational climate? a native’s point of view on a decade of paradigm wars. academy of management review, 21, 619-654. desatnick, r.l. (1986). management climate surveys: a way to uncover an organization’s culture. personnel, 63 (5), 49-54. erwee, r., lynch, b., millett, b., smith, d. & roodt, g. (2001). cross-cultural equivalence of the organisational culture survey in australia. journal of industrial psychology, 27 (3), 7-12. frost, p.j., moore, l., louis, m., lundberg, c. & martin, j. (eds) (1991), reframing organisational culture. beverly hills, ca: sage publications. gabriel, y. (1991), turning facts into stories and stories into facts: a hermeneutic exploration of organizational folklore. human relations, 44 (8), 857-75. green, l. (1989). corporate culture asset or liability. human resource management yearbook, 72-74. groeschl, s. & doherty, l. (2000). conceptualising culture. cross cultural management – an international journal, 7 (4), 12-17. hofstede, g. (1980). culture’s consequences. beverly hills, ca: sage. hofstede, g. (1986). editorial: the usefulness of the ‘organizational culture’ concept. journal of management studies, 23 (3), may, 253-57. kaiser, h.f. (1961). a note on guttman’s lower bound for the number of common factors. british journal of statistical psychology, 14 (1), 1. kroeber, a. & kluckhohn, f. (1952). culture: a critical review of concepts and definitions, cambridge, mass.: harvard business review. martin, j. & meyerson, d. (1988). organisational culture and the denial, channelling and acknowledgement of ambiguity. in pondy, l.r., boland, jr., r.j. & thomas, h. (eds), managing ambiguity and change. new york. ny: john wiley & sons. martin, j. (1992). cultures in organizations: three perspectives. new york: oxford university press. martins, n. (1989). organisasiekultuur in ‘n finansiële instelling (d.phil-proefskrif). pretoria: universit y of pretoria. (unpublished). maull, r., brown, p. & cliffe, r. (2001). organisational culture and quality improvement. international journal of operations & production management, 21 (3), 302-326. nossiter, v. & biberman, g. (1990). projective drawings and metaphor: analysis of organisational culture. journal of managerial psychology (uk), 5 (3)13-6. o’reilly, c. a., iii, chatman, j. a., & caldwell, d. f. (1991). people and organizational culture: a profile comparison approach to assessing person-organization fit. academy of management journal, 34, 487-516. ott, j.s. (1989). the organisational culture perspective. chicago: dorsey press. reichers, a. e., & schneider, b. (1990). climate and culture: an evolution of constructs. in b. schneider (ed.), organizational climate and culture (5-39). san francisco: jossey-bass. rentsch, j. r. (1990). climate and culture; interaction and qualitative differences in organizational meanings. journal of applied psychology, 75, 668-681. reynierse, j.h. & harker, j.b. (1986). measuring and managing organizational culture. human resource planning, 9 (1), 1-8. reynierse, j.h. (1986). measuring corporate culture. the business magazine, septemberoctober, 64-67. reynolds, p.d. (1986). organizational culture as related to industry, position and performance: a preliminary report. journal of management studies (uk), vol. (23), 333-45. rousseau, d.m. (1990). assessing organizational culture: the case for multiple methods. in b. schneider (ed.), organizational climate and culture (153-192). san francisco: jossey-bass. schein, e.h. (1985). organizational culture and leadership: a dynamic view. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. schein, e.h. (1990). organizational culture. american psychologist, 45, 109-119. schepers, j.m. (1992). toetskonstruksie: teorie en praktyk. johannesburg: rau press. swart, c., roodt, g., & schepers, j.m. (1999). itemformaat, differensiële itemskeefheid en die faktorstruktuur van ‘n selfvoltooiingsvraelys. tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 25 (1), 33-43. tucker, r.w., mccoy, w.j. & evans, l.c. (1990). can questionnaires objectively assess organisational culture? journal of managerial psychology (uk), 5 (4), 4-11. van maanen, j. (1991). the smile factory: work at disneyland. in frost, p.j., moore, l., louis, m., lundberg, c. & martin, j. (eds). reframing organisational culture. beverly hills, ca: sage publications. wiener, y. (1988), forms of value systems: a focus on organizational effectiveness and cultural change and maintenance. academy of management review, 13 (4), 534-45. wilson, a. m. (2001). understanding organisational culture and the implications for corporate marketing. european journal of marketing, 35 (3/4), 353-367. xenikou, a., & furnham, a. (1996). a correlational and factor analytic study of four questionnaire measures of organizational culture. human relations, 49 (349-371). du toit, roodt84 article information authors: saleemah salie1 anton schlechter1 affiliations: 1section of organisational psychology, university of cape town, south africa correspondence to: anton schlechter postal address: section of organisational psychology, university of cape town, rondebosch 7701, south africa dates: received: 05 oct. 2011 accepted: 17 feb. 2012 published: 13 july 2012 how to cite this article: salie, s., & schlechter, a. (2012). a formative evaluation of a staff reward and recognition programme. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10 (3), art. #422, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i3.422 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. a formative evaluation of a staff reward and recognition programme in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • prescriptive programme theory for reward and recognition programmes       • increasing motivation       • reducing turnover       • opposing perspectives       • standards for reward and recognition programmes    • description of the programme under evaluation    • programme theory    • evaluation questions • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research setting       • entrée and establishing researcher roles       • sampling       • data collection methods       • recording of data       • data analyses       • reporting • findings    • question 1: programme design    • question 2: service delivery and resources    • question 3: programme outcomes • ethical considerations    • potential benefits and hazards    • recruitment procedures    • informed consent    • data protection • trustworthiness    • reliability    • validity • discussion    • question 1: programme design    • question 2: service delivery and resources    • question 3: programme outcomes    • evaluating against the standard for reward programmes    • conclusion    • recommendations    • limitations    • future research • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: it is generally assumed that reward and recognition programmes have increased staff motivation and reduced staff turnover.research purpose: the main aim of this evaluation was to test the plausibility of the programme theory underlying a staff reward and recognition programme within a retail setting. secondary aims were to assess whether or not the programme was implemented as intended and whether or not its outcomes were well defined. motivation for the study: different groups of people may have different assumptions about whether a reward and recognition programme works or not. this evaluation was motivated by the different assumptions held by programme stakeholders, programme recipients and social science researchers regarding the programme. research design, approach and method: this formative evaluation used a descriptive design. primary qualitative data were collected by means of structured interviews with the human resource development (hrd) facilitator and ten programme participants. main findings: the results showed that the programme theory was not plausible and that the programme was not implemented as intended. although the hrd facilitator and the participants agreed that the programme led to improved customer service, they disagreed about the other programme outcomes. practical/managerial implications: this evaluation contains practical suggestions for improving the programme theory, the programme implementation process and the redefinition of the outcomes of the programme as standard performance indicators. contribution/value-add: this evaluation contributed to the limited literature on the effect of reward and recognition programmes. whilst there is a vast amount of literature pertaining to such programmes, very few formal evaluations exist about them. introduction top ↑ the programme under evaluation was a staff reward and recognition programme implemented by one of the leading fashion retailers in south africa. the evaluation aimed to explore whether or not the theoretical assumptions underlying this programme were plausible, whether or not it was implemented as intended and whether its outcomes were well defined or not. evaluators such as chen (2005) and rossi, lipsey and freeman (2004) have, in recent years, expounded on the merits of defining evaluations and developing guidelines which will assist in differentiating one evaluation study from another. an evaluation framework which allows evaluators to differentiate between various types of evaluation was used here (see figure 1). in terms of the framework presented above a theory evaluation can either focus on the programme theory and design element, or alternatively encompass an evaluation of the theory across the different elements proposed in the model. chen (2005) indicates that theory evaluations are both descriptive and prescriptive by nature. a descriptive theory evaluation uncovers causal processes within the design, whilst a prescriptive theory evaluation examines the programme’s composition in terms of generally accepted standards. this evaluation assessed the programme theory across its design, implementation and proximal outcomes and was both descriptive and prescriptive by nature. the evaluators employed an inductive approach which allowed for the exploration of theory generated from actual programme activities and intended outcomes (patton, 1997). finally, the evaluation was formative, suggesting that evaluation results will be used for programme improvement (trochim, 2006). prescriptive programme theory for reward and recognition programmes from the literature presented here it can be assumed that reward and recognition programmes increase motivation and reduce staff turnover. figure 1: a framework of evaluation types. increasing motivation according to armstrong (2002), motivation refers to the factors which influence human behaviour and is usually comprised of three main elements: direction, effort and persistence. one of the most common theories outlining the relationship between reward and motivation is vroom’s (1964) expectancy theory. this theory postulates that employees tend to be motivated when they receive rewards in exchange for doing their jobs, provided that these rewards are valued (armstrong, 2002). motivation can be intrinsic or extrinsic (armstrong, 2002). intrinsic motivation refers to the ‘... inherent tendency to seek out novelty and challenges, to extend and exercise one’s capacities, to explore, and to learn’ (ryan & deci, 2000, p. 70). in other words, individuals are motivated by self-generated factors such as pride, ownership, self-actualisation and the desire to grow and develop. on the other hand, extrinsic motivation refers to ‘… what is done to or for people to motivate them’ (armstrong, 2002, p. 56). this can include rewards such as increased pay, praise or promotion, as well as punishments, such as disciplinary action, withholding pay, or criticism. each type of motivation has a different effect on human behaviour. intrinsic motivation operates by means of self-motivation whilst extrinsic motivation is based on the expectation of recognition and reward (jensen, mcmullen & stark, 2007). there is a vast amount of research on the effects of rewards on motivation and, whilst some theorists propose that rewards may have a detrimental effect on motivation (applebaum, 1993; deci & ryan, 1985; kohn, 1993), there are others who advocate the use of rewards as effective tools to increase motivation (cameron & pierce, 1996; eisenberger & cameron, 1996; nelson, 1998; platten, 1996). although this controversial relationship between reward and recognition programmes and extrinsic and intrinsic motivation does exist, research suggests that if staff perceive a clear link between excellent performance and reward, the programme will indeed increase motivation. such reward programmes would reinforce the employees’ perceptions of their competence and would influence intrinsic motivation (ulrich & brockbank, 2005). according to baker (1993), when organisations reward desired behaviours they reinforce particular outcomes and goals which may be strategically aligned to the organisation’s vision and mission. for example, should the organisation value teamwork, then the reward and recognition scheme should be designed in such a way that outstanding teamwork is rewarded and positively reinforced. therefore, the underlying premise is that whilst rewards may indeed be used to increase motivation, motivation can only be sustained if both intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors are incorporated in the programme design (amabile, 1993). mottaz (1985) indicates that the job level may serve as a moderating variable between reward and motivation: intrinsic reward showed a stronger relationship with motivation and job satisfaction in upper-level occupations, whilst extrinsic reward was related positively to motivation and job satisfaction in lower-level occupations. reducing turnover reward and recognition programmes have also been linked to a reduction in staff turnover. the concept of job commitment, which has been defined as ‘… the likelihood that an individual will stick with a job, and feel psychologically attached to it’ has been linked directly to turnover (rusbult & farrell, 1983, p. 430). research showed that job commitment increases with an increase in job rewards and a reduction in turnover. of interest here is that this relationship is evident from the start of the employment contract, which suggests that reward programmes may have a significant effect on the job commitment of employees as early on as the hiring phase (rusbult & farrell, 1983). reward programmes also influence turnover in the long term, as such programmes strengthen the incentive to retain excellent performers whilst generating an incentive for poor performers to leave (bishop, 1986). harrison, virick and william (1996) found that reward programmes produce greater job satisfaction, which reduces the desire for employees to consider alternative employment opportunities, and this, resultantly, reduces turnover. however, they further argue that the degree of reward contingency affects the performance-turnover relationship, which suggests that in order to reduce turnover schemes should be designed in such a way that rewards are not maximally contingent but rather linked to a combination of reward and recognition (harrison et al., 1996). in summary, reward programmes can be used to reduce staff turnover provided that such programmes include an element of intrinsic motivation and are reviewed throughout the employment contract in order to sustain performance. opposing perspectives in conducting a theory evaluation, it is appropriate to consider different perspectives regarding the programme theory. for this reason the evaluators examined the views of critics who question the relationship between these programmes, motivation and staff retention. firstly, kohn (1993) provides a detailed analysis of why reward programmes cannot be relied upon to motivate employees or improve performance. he suggests that these programmes secure only temporary compliance and cannot guarantee long term results. he also argues that money does not necessarily motivate employees, as suggested by hertzberg’s (1959) research on motivating factors in organisations. this view is supported by accelteam (2008), a consulting company, which compared motivating factors and found that money did not rate very highly. instead, the potential to grow in the company, having a job which is fulfilling and which has reasonable expectations and challenges, and identification with the organisation were stronger predictors of motivation. secondly, rewards are often viewed as punishment because of their manipulative nature (deci & ryan, 1985; kohn, 1993). reward programmes may have unintended consequences like demoralisation, interpersonal tension and unhappiness for staff who are not rewarded. kohn also indicated that individually based reward programmes could discourage the idea of teamwork and group participation. thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, it is suggested that reward programmes undermine the idea of intrinsic motivation (kohn, 1993). rewards are typically seen as a poor substitute for genuine feelings of accomplishment and satisfaction. denning (2001) suggests that reward programmes may create a culture where employees expect to be rewarded for behaviour and performance that are considered as basic under normal circumstances. throughout the debate about the effects of reward and recognition on motivation, various meta-analyses have been conducted to investigate this assumed causal relationship. from rummel and feinberg (1988), through to wiersma (1992) and tang and hall (1995), noteworthy results have indicated that rewarding performance with extrinsic rewards does indeed lower motivation. the explanation for this is the perceived controlling effect of extrinsic rewards. however, literature also suggests that in specific industries, such as trade, the failure to reward performance will result in organisations losing their best employees (beer, 1993). beer maintains that incentive programmes encourage self-interest and discourage organisational commitment. he suggests that employees should be paid equally, but that the top bracket of performers should additionally be rewarded for performance. this will allow the organisation to identify poor performers and recognise excellent performers. amabile (1993) and baker (1993) state that there are both advantages and disadvantages associated with reward programmes. amabile (1993) is of the opinion that incentive programmes stifle commitment and may also undermine intrinsic motivation. however, if rewards are perceived as providing new possibilities they may lead to an increase in creativity. tangible rewards plus intrinsic motivation may be a good motivational combination. baker indicated that reward programmes may have many unintended outcomes, but that well-designed reward programmes may have the desired effects. in summary, it would seem that critics of reward programmes agree that if these programmes are well designed and implemented they may offer benefits like improved staff retention, employee effectiveness and loyalty. however, manipulative reward programmes cannot guarantee long-term goals and may discourage organisational commitment. thus, alternative approaches, such as work process reorganisation, the need for training and the promise of promotions have been identified as substitutes for reward-based programmes. standards for reward and recognition programmes one key point has emerged thus far from the literature on such programmes, namely that reward programmes increase performance in the short term (bowen, 2000). in this section the focus is on the design and implementation of an effective reward programme. in order to understand reward, one has to understand motivation. intrinsic motivation is internalised by the individual whilst extrinsic motivation is dependent on expectations, as discussed previously. rewards can be offered as motivating factors provided that they are aligned with certain guidelines. firstly, concerning these guidelines, employees respond to reward out of a sense of personal choice. in other words they need to value the reward being offered. furthermore, different factors motivate different people and therefore different people will value a specific reward differently (morrall, 1996). a reward programme, tailored to different needs will have the desired effect. secondly, successful reward programmes incorporate both extrinsic and intrinsic motivators (bowen, 2000). this follows from the first guideline: namely that whilst certain employees may value a higher base pay, others may be motivated by feedback and the opportunity to grow and develop. thirdly, organisational culture is reflected in a reward programme as it indicates which behaviours are important and valued by the organisation. for example, in a high-performance culture excellence may be rewarded and a mind-set will prevail where extraordinary effort is valued. alternatively, if an organisation’s focus is on customer service it makes sense that teamwork, consideration and regard for customers are top priorities (bowen, 2000). fourthly, successful reward and recognition programmes need to be aligned with corporate goals (benardin, 2003; bowen, 2000). programmes should be designed in such a way that performance measures are compatible with strategic goals for the long and short term. for instance, one would expect an organisation that designs new technology to have performance measures, which reward innovation (short-term improvements to existing products) and creativity (a longer-term measure which rewards the design of new products). both corporate goals and performance indicators should be measurable, clear, unambiguous, achievable, challenging and relevant to every person participating in the reward programme (jensen et al., 2007; zenger, 1992). this will provide direction to employees and clarify what they are striving towards. fifthly, and in line with expectancy theory (vroom, 1964), employees must believe that an increase in performance will lead to a valued reward (benardin, 2003; zachary & kuzuhara, 2005). should this element be present, then employees will be motivated to perform, with the understanding that performance will be rewarded. in summary, the standards for an effective reward and recognition programme identified from the literature are that: • the reward is tailored to individual needs • it contains intrinsic and extrinsic motivators • it reflects the company’s culture • it is aligned with its goals • the recipients perceive a clear link between improved performance and reward. description of the programme under evaluation the programme under evaluation was developed in a large retail organisation. it has been implemented in all 400 stores over the past five years. during the particular year of the evaluation the programme was being run for the fifth time. small, non-significant changes are made to the programme on an annual basis. the programme is discussed and developed during the first half of the year and is launched officially in july. the programme is a national staff reward and recognition programme based on a point system. the intervention is run annually for a six-month period. according to the stakeholders, reward and recognition principles have been used in its conceptualisation. it was designed by the chief executive officer, the human resource manager and the marketing department. the short-term programme goal is to provide outstanding customer service and motivate staff to drive their own development. the longer-term goals are to sustain motivational levels, encourage staff to perform at higher levels than those contained in their job descriptions, and to retain staff. the target population comprises all employees at store level. this includes store managers, supervisors and staff at all branches. the programme is compulsory for the target population. guidelines for the programme are discussed annually in june and communicated to area and store managers, who in turn are required to launch and communicate the programme to employees. each store receives a budget for its launch, which may consist of a launch breakfast, canteen decorations, or a morning of discussion, activities and games. each store receives a work chart with the names of its employees. the chart monitors and maps out the points awarded to employees for the remainder of that year. points are also monitored on the organisational database, and tallied in december. every month each store is awarded a certain number of points, according to particular measures such as turnover, customer feedback and the number of new accounts opened. these points are then divided equally amongst staff in that store and added to the points on the chart. thus, the store receives the credit as a team. the number of points awarded to each store is decided by head office. in terms of turnover, points are awarded when stores reach a certain percentage of their target each month (not divulged to the evaluators). customer service is measured by contacting a randomly selected group of store customers who are required to rate the service they received. the number of new accounts opened per store is measured against the number of new accounts opened during the previous year. there is also an opportunity for individual employees to score additional points. if an area or store manager recognises that certain individuals are excelling at customer service or are performing above their job descriptions, they communicate this to the human resource (hr) department at head office where the points are added to the staff member on the store’s chart. during the intervention employees are also required to complete two staff workbooks which can earn them additional points. whilst these workbooks are designed annually, they generally cover topics such as administrative aspects of the business, business culture, vision, strategy, health and safety and employee relations. the workbooks may also include areas of specific concern, namely stock loss and absenteeism. the workbooks are to be completed and returned within a three month period after which points are awarded. employees are able to check their scores by sending a short message service (sms) to the database. this allows them to monitor points needed to reach the target and encourages them to strive for a higher point score. in december of each year, all work chart points are tallied nationwide. the hr department will then select the top twenty-five employees across all 400 stores in south africa, who have earned the most points. these individuals consequently receive a three-day holiday paid for in full by the organisation. programme theory the hr manager provided the following information on how the programme will change the recipients’ behaviour (see figure 2).the descriptive assumption or the underlying logic of the programme is that the intervention, which is made up of the activities described earlier, will lead to an increase in employee motivation, which in turn will lead to improved performance. this constitutes the causal theory underlying the intervention, or in evaluation terms, the cause-and-effect sequence (rossi et al., 2004). it is important to note that whilst the organisation considered the programme capable of achieving various other goals and objectives, such as employee retention and improved customer service, as discussed previously, these outcomes do not appear in the stakeholders’ programme theory. figure 2: programme theory. box 1: evaluation questions. table 1: interview schedule. evaluation questions a formative evaluation improves a programme by examining its delivery, the quality of its implementation and the assessment of the organisational context, personnel procedures and inputs (trochim, 2006). the primary goal of a formative evaluation is to collect feedback from programme recipients and stakeholders in order to make revisions where necessary (bhola, 1990). the advantage of this on-going, dynamic process is that findings can be used to improve real-time programme activities and facilitate learning and effectiveness in the organisation (chappuis & chappuis, 2008). in essence then, the goals of a formative evaluation are: • to provide rapid feedback • to assist in documenting the programme • to assist in planning and revising to maximise the potential of the programme. the evaluation questions, presented in box 1, will be used as a framework for this formative evaluation. the main aim of a formative evaluation is to provide suggestions for improving the programme under evaluation. practical improvements which will strengthen the link between programme activities and outcomes will be provided in the evaluation. research design top ↑ research approach a descriptive design was utilised for this evaluation. according to babbie and mouton (1998, p. 105), descriptive research is ‘the precise measurement and reporting of the characteristics of some population or phenomenon under study’. primary data were collected by means of structured interviews with data providers. research method research setting the evaluation took place in a large retail fashion organisation in cape town. access to stores and the availability of data providers were specific challenges of this setting. entrée and establishing researcher roles the human resource development (hrd) facilitator granted the first evaluator access to the programme and its records. six months into the evaluation, access to programme records was restricted. whilst this is later discussed in more detail under limitations, the data collection procedure was somewhat compromised both in terms of sample size and access to documentation. nonetheless all available programme records and documentation related to the programme description and implementation were consulted. programme records relating to incentives were not available to the evaluator. sampling two streams of data providers were chosen, namely the hrd facilitator who represented the organisation and a sample of employees who were the recipients of the programme. for the latter convenience sampling was used. as a result of time and access constraints within the organisation a sample of ten recipients (five permanent team members and five casual staff, comprising seven women and three men) who qualified for the reward was chosen. data collection methods structured survey interviews were conducted with the hrd facilitator and the sample of employees. in table 1, the evaluation questions, interview questions and data providers are described. recording of data all data providers were interviewed individually by the primary evaluator. responses were tape-recorded and transcribed. data analyses the evaluation questions provided the structured themes of the analysis. the responses of the programme recipients to the interview questions were analysed quantitatively (number of respondents) and qualitatively (the specific meaning provided), and then compared with the responses of the programme manager where applicable. reporting the findings for each evaluation question were reported and discussed qualitatively using common thematic extraction. direct quotations from the interviews were selected as supporting evidence, where claims were made regarding the fidelity of the programme implementation. findings top ↑ the results are reported in terms of the evaluation questions which were derived from the programme theory. question 1: programme design the hrd facilitator was of the opinion that the programme theory was plausible, as the previous year’s successful programmes were based on this theory. the quote below illustrates this:… our previous success proves that the programme motivates staff, drives development, and helps to retain employees … so yes, i do think that this programme motivates staff and improves their performance. this is definitely plausible. (hrd facilitator) as a stakeholder with a vested interest in the programme, the hrd facilitator’s enthusiasm and confidence were expected. she also responded positively to the question related to the employees’ perception of the reward: … employees love the incentive and are extremely motivated to win it … we use the three day get-away to really treat them and make them feel special and previous winners have loved the trips … (hrd facilitator) to test the plausibility of the programme theory further, the employees were asked whether or not they knew what reward was offered and if they were happy with the reward. all ten employees criticised the choice of reward. the following quotations support the idea that the reward is not meaningful to the recipients: … they take you to head office and to see the sights … i think that’s pathetic. i can do that in my own spare time. i wouldn’t want to win that … what’s to achieve? (recipient 3) … it’s a get-away in cape town to do things i’ve already done. can’t they give us more options that we actually want to win? (recipient 5) … a three day get-away … but to me table mountain is nothing special. why can’t they ask me what i want to do? (recipient 6) … the reward is three days in cape town. this is not motivating for people who live in cape town. (recipient 8) why can’t they offer you a better salary rather or allow you to apply for more senior positions? look at how many people work there … this is not a reward. (recipient 10) question 2: service delivery and resources all ten employees agreed that the procedures for delivering the programme, identifying the winners and sustaining the programme were neither well-defined nor sufficient. this directly challenged the hrd facilitator’s response to this same question. most employees responded that the programme had not been successfully delivered to them, as is evident from the following quotes:… they don’t identify anybody and to be honest, it’s not delivered at all … maybe it’s because i worked the late shift that day … (recipient 1) … how can delivery be well-defined or sufficient if i don’t know anything about it and i’ve been working there for 2 years now? (recipient 4) … nobody explained anything to me … i sort of found out via the grapevine when i saw the chart on the wall … (recipient 9) … when you start late in the year, i think they just forget about you … (recipient 10) the sample of employees acknowledged that the programme was successfully launched, but not sustained after the launch. the following selected quotations support this: … you only hear about the programme when it starts [in june] and never again and then you just see points magically appearing … (recipient 1) … i know about the programme, but i don’t understand how they award points. every time your points increase, but i don’t know why. they don’t even give you feedback … (recipient 2) another delivery question dealt with programme activities and their role in achieving outcomes. again, the hrd facilitator was positive about this aspect of the programme: … these activities are drawn up to help employees perform more effectively and have been quite successful over the years … (hrd facilitator) six employees agreed that the activities were well-defined and easy to do. however, they were negative about the relevance of these activities to their performance. the following quotations were selected to illustrate these opinions: … the activities make you look stupid. they give you these mcqs with nonsensical options. the [workbooks] are forced on you, but every year they ask the same questions. i don’t see how that will make me a top performer … so no, they are not sufficient to achieve the goals. (recipient 3) … the activities don’t make any sense. staff don’t even fill in the books and yet they get points. how is that supposed to achieve anything? (recipient 5) … the activities are stupid and pointless and only achieve one thing – undermining us … (recipient 7) … nobody has time to fill in these books especially because they’re unrelated to the goals … (recipient 10) four employees indicated that the activities did achieve the outcome of motivating staff, but that this was dependent on staff themselves. the following responses capture this sentiment: … they could be sufficient to achieve the outcomes, but that depends on the person completing the activities … (recipient 1) … i enjoy the activities because it really helps to refresh me about policies and procedures that i may have forgotten … (recipient 6) … they can help to achieve the goals if you complete the [workbooks] as you should. it helps me. (recipient 9) the final delivery question dealt with adequacy of resources for programme implementation and was directed at the hrd facilitator. she emphasised that resources, in terms of time, money, training and delivery of the programme were indeed adequate: … we have allocated more than enough time and finances for the programme. we hold training workshops to train store and area managers on how to deliver the programme and a lot of money is spent on marketing the programme. we have a huge function every year at head office to introduce it and it has been extremely successful so far. (hrd facilitator) the hrd facilitator’s positive response could not be assessed against programme records relating to budget resulting from confidentiality issues raised by the organisation. question 3: programme outcomes sufficient consensus existed regarding programme outcomes. the hrd facilitator and seven employees agreed that improved customer service was an intended outcome. three employees were uncertain of the outcomes, and their responses ranged from self-development, lowering pilfering to self-management. eight out of ten employees reported that the outcomes were not well defined and the following selected responses illustrate their disagreement: … not at all … i’ve never been told about how the programme works, what its outcomes or incentives are … (recipient 3) … not all of it because most of the things they award you for, you don’t even know where it comes from … (recipient 4) … no … nobody explains anything … you just see a chart on the wall … (recipient 5) contrary to this, the hrd facilitator and two employees considered that the outcomes are indeed well-defined: … the programme’s outcomes are well-defined and it has been running successfully for a few years … (hrd facilitator) … well-defined? i think they are … (recipient 7) in terms of the feasibility of outcomes all ten employees and the hrd facilitator agreed that it was possible to achieve the outcomes. however, specific concerns were raised regarding their achievability: … they are feasible but they change the rules all the time to try and make it harder for you to reach those goals … (recipient 1) … they would be feasible if the incentive was good enough … (recipient 6) … they could be achieved if we knew for definite what they were … (recipient 9) ethical considerations top ↑ the ethics in research committee of the faculty of commerce, university of cape town, approved the evaluation. potential benefits and hazards there were no benefits or hazards for participants who took part in the evaluation. the hrd facilitator agreed to be identified by role and the recipients of the programme who were interviewed remained anonymous. recruitment procedures the hrd facilitator granted the primary evaluator access to relevant programme documents and participants. informed consent the primary evaluator explained the purpose of the interview and the time it would take to all recipients and the hrd facilitator. data protection the primary evaluator tape-recorded and transcribed all interviews. the primary evaluator was the only person who could access the transcriptions. trustworthiness top ↑ reliability a structured survey was developed for the interviews (see table 1). validity the evaluation focused on a specific programme and did not seek to generalise the findings to other, similar programmes. discussion top ↑ the main objective of the evaluation was to explore whether or not this reward and recognition programme delivered its intended outcomes of increased motivation and improved performance. this evaluation contributes to the sparse literature that questions whether or not reward and recognition programmes are effective. the discussion will be presented in terms of the evaluation questions stated earlier plus the standards identified for successful reward and recognition programmes. question 1: programme design whilst the hrd facilitator was of the opinion that the programme theory was plausible (in other words, that the programme led to increased motivation and improved performance), the plausibility was tested further by asking the employees whether or not they knew which reward was offered and if they were happy with it. all employees were critical of the reward. whilst the causal theory may indeed be plausible, the responses from the sample of employees suggested that one of the elements necessary for a successful programme, namely meaningful rewards (armstrong, 2002; dewitt, 2001; morrall, 1996), was absent. such a reward or incentive may be either intrinsic or extrinsic, but should be meaningful to the recipient (jensen et al., 2007). from the responses the sample appeared to show disdain for the ultimate reward, which is a key programme design flaw. in addition there was no clear consensus about the exact characteristics of the incentive. although most of the sample group was aware that the reward was a three-day get-away in cape town, not many of their responses reflected confidence as to what this get-away entailed. in summary, whilst one of the organisational stakeholders (the hrd facilitator) viewed the programme theory as plausible and the reward as meaningful to the recipients, the data collected from the recipients were not aligned with this opinion. this evidence suggested that the programme theory and design might be weak and inconsistent. a proper needs analysis may generate more meaningful rewards which could be more motivating. question 2: service delivery and resources in terms of programme delivery and sustainability it was clear that the programme has not been implemented as intended. this was evident from the negative responses from all ten employees who criticised these two aspects of the programme. in addition, those employees who were familiar with the programme did not seem to understand the way the programme was intended to work. the basis of the programme (a points system) did not appear to be well-defined or maintained. employees were not aware of how points were awarded. this lack of knowledge is a concern. it was also apparent that whilst some employees initially received the programme, delivery of the programme was not being sustained through to completion. the programme was intended to target all staff. however, delivery inconsistencies suggested that this was not the case. the majority of employees agreed that the programme activities were well defined and easy to perform. however, they questioned the relevance of the activities to improved performance. these responses showed a marked difference to the response of the hrd facilitator who postulated a clear link between programme activities and improved performance. furthermore, some employees indicated that staff motivation depended on individual employees and not on the programme. the hrd facilitator indicated that there were sufficient resources for programme implementation. however, this response could not be assessed against programme records. in summary, service delivery did not happen as intended. the programme seemed to have been launched effectively, but not sustained to completion. the programme was not fully understood by its target audience and some of the programme activities (e.g. the workbook completion) were not completed as intended. furthermore, some of the activities were regarded as meaningless and as not contributing to improved performance. these programme delivery shortcomings may have a serious influence on the effect of the programme. question 3: programme outcomes from the results it was evident that most of the sample agreed with the hrd facilitator that one intended outcome of the programme was to improve customer service. however, a minority identified other outcomes, such as self-management and the prevention of stock loss and theft. this may become problematic as not all recipients might be working towards the same behaviour change that the programme was supposed to bring about. whilst there was consensus about the outcome of improved customer service most employees agreed that the definition of the outcomes was not sufficiently clear. responses suggested that the outcomes were not discussed with employees and, whilst the initial roll-out might have been satisfactory, programme delivery had been poor, affecting the programme’s outcomes. this was supported by the available programme documents, which failed to clarify programme outcomes. from the literature (jensen et al., 2007; zenger, 1992) it was clear that understanding outcomes is an important step in the process of achieving them. lack of such understanding could confuse recipients and fail to direct their behaviour to achieving the intended outcomes. in summary, there seemed to be sufficient consensus that the programme was intended to improve customer service. however it is questionable whether or not all outcomes were clearly defined and understood. evaluating against the standard for reward programmes reward programmes, which recognise that employees need to value the reward, tend to be successful (morrall, 1996). from the employees’ responses it became clear that none of the sampled recipients valued the reward or were motivated by it to improve their performance. some responses indicated that recipients would prefer intrinsic rewards (e.g. the opportunity to develop their careers in the organisation), or more relevant extrinsic rewards (e.g. increased pay). these suggest that recipients are at varying stages of need and motivation and that a programme which does not take this into account may even decrease employees’ motivation levels. a standard reward that is not valued may appear manipulative and may undermine the effect of the programme. from the data it was unclear what organisational culture is like and whether it supports a customer service-focused reward programme or not. judging from the responses, indicating the lack of clarity regarding the outcome of the programme, it seemed as if clear channels of communication do not exist at all levels of the organisation. this was reinforced by the maturity of the programme: it has been running for five years and yet recipients are still unaware of the rewards and the outcome of the programme. the programme design shows that it is aligned with strategic objectives as it is intended to improve customer service, increase motivation and reduce turnover. for a retail business, these objectives are relevant, realistic and geared towards greater organisational success. best practice performance indicators should be clear and unambiguous (benardin, 2003). from the data it could be concluded that recipients were aware of how points can be earned, but were uncertain as to how these points are allocated. there were niggling indications that the technical details of the point system are not understood (e.g. only smaller stores achieve the rewards, unfair and inconsistent awarding of points, etc.). the lack of clear and unambiguous corporate goals and performance indicators could prevent employees from striving towards common goals and thus undermine the programme outcome (jensen et al., 2007; zenger, 1992). the recipients of successful reward programmes believe that excellent performance will lead to rewards. the recipients of this programme were not confident that this is the case. this is a serious flaw of the programme implementation. if reward is perceived to be distributed arbitrarily or if recipients are of the opinion that only people in specific stores receive the reward, then a disjuncture exists between performance and reward, and this may affect employee motivation negatively. whilst the programme is based on specific indicators like turnover, customer feedback and the number of new accounts opened, no standards are supplied for these indicators. recipients know that they have to work towards these indicators, but do not know how much is good enough to earn the award. in the literature (benardin, 2003; jensen et al., 2007; zenger, 1992), there is agreement that indicators and standards have to be focused, reasonable, measurable, participatory, neutral, challenging, achievable and should provide the basis for feedback. these indicators and standards may well be present in the programme records (the evaluators had restricted access to this). if so, failure to communicate this to recipients may undermine the effect of the programme. out of the six guidelines for successful reward programmes, it would seem that the programme under evaluation conformed to one, namely programme goals aligned with organisational strategy. the evaluators recommend that stakeholders improve the programme theory and design, based on the research and results presented here. conclusion from the findings it was clear that the hrd facilitator and the recipients had different opinions regarding the plausibility of the programme theory and the value attached to the rewards. furthermore, the evaluators found inconsistencies in programme delivery and sustainability across sites. on the other hand, both the hrd facilitator and the recipients agreed that the programme improved customer service. this finding was important, as it showed that the programme goals were aligned with the organisation’s strategy. recommendations reward programmes affect motivation and performance (cameron & pierce, 1996; eisenberger & cameron, 1996; nelson, 1998; platten, 1996). therefore, the evaluators suggest that the programme theory be reviewed in order to generate a plausible theory, which would contain all the causal links postulated by the hrd facilitator. it may look like the diagram in figure 3.from this limited evaluation, it is clear that some programme components may unintentionally undermine the proposed theory. in order to improve this, programme activities should be developed in alignment with the revised programme theory. a second recommendation is to conduct an ongoing and formal needs analysis to ascertain which rewards are valued by the recipients of the programme. from the evaluation, it was clear that the recipients were not enthralled by a weekend in cape town. valued rewards would also address the rather abstract question of what motivates people, and highlight that some recipients choose extrinsic and others intrinsic rewards as motivators. thirdly, a systematic programme delivery process could ensure that all recipients understand the different aspects of the programme (theory, outcomes, indicators, standards, process of awarding points, etc.). this delivery process could be evaluated in order to ascertain whether or not it has resulted in increased consensus and understanding of the programme. fourthly, the programme needs to clarify performance indicators and standards to ensure that recipients understand what they are striving for and what level of performance is good enough. this should foster support for the programme and contribute to its success. a final recommendation is an ongoing monitoring process to track whether or not programme outcomes are being achieved and implementation processes followed. the information from this process could be used in a formative manner, to improve the programme on an annual and ongoing basis. limitations firstly, six months into the evaluation, the evaluators were required to sign a confidentiality clause. this resulted in restrictions being placed on the provision of relevant financial data and free access to programme records. these restrictions precluded specific aspects of an implementation evaluation.secondly, the evaluation was limited by the non-availability of specific data providers. the busy schedule of the hrd facilitator affected the quality of the information relating to the programme description and theory. thirdly, the small sample group who partook in the evaluation may not have been representative of the intended target population. the evaluators were only able to source recipients from two stores. however, the ten recipients provided valuable data regarding their experience of the programme and these data were useful when comparing the current programme against standards of good practice for reward programmes. future research this evaluation highlighted an important evaluation experience, namely how to work around unexpected restrictions placed on access to programme records. first-time evaluators often expect unlimited access to clean, abundant data. this may not be the case and evaluators need to understand how to cope with hindrances and obstacles in their way to a good evaluation. this evaluation contributed to the limited literature on the effect of reward programmes. whilst there is a vast amount of literature pertaining to reward programmes, very few evaluations of such programmes exist. this evaluation provided the opportunity to ask: ‘how does the programme work’; and ‘does the programme work?’ continuing this line of inquiry in future research may raise the level of debate regarding the effects of reward programmes. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this paper. authors’ contributions s.s. (university of cape town) completed this evaluation as a requirement for her master’s degree in programme evaluation. a.s. (university of cape town) supervised the evaluation. references top ↑ accelteam. (2008). employee motivation: theory and practice. retrieved october 17, 2008, from http://accel-team.com/motivation/amabile, t.m. (1993). rethinking rewards. harvard business review, 71(6), 37–49. applebaum, e. (1993). rethinking rewards. harvard business review, 71(6), 37–49. armstrong, m. (2002). employee reward. (3rd edn.). london: chartered institute of personnel development. babbie, e., & mouton, j. (1998). the practice of social research. oxford: oxford university press. baker, g.p. (1993). rethinking rewards. harvard business review, 71(6), 37–49. beer, m. (1993). rethinking rewards. harvard business review, 71(6), 37–49. benardin, h.j. (2003). human resource management: an experiential approach. boston: mcgraw-hill. bishop, j. (1986). the recognition and reward of employee performance. retrieved november 23, 2008, from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ericdocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/2f/32/de.pdf bhola, h.s. (1990). evaluating ‘literacy for development’ projects, programs and campaigns: evaluation planning, design and implementation and utilization of evaluation results. hamburg: unesco institute for education. bowen, r.b. (2000). recognizing and rewarding employees. new york: mcgraw hill. cameron, j., & pierce, w.d. (1996). the debate about rewards and intrinsic motivation: protests and accusations do not alter the results. review of educational research, 66(1), 39–51. chappuis, s., & chappuis, j. (2008). the best value in formative assessment. educational leadership, december 2007 – january 2008, 14–18. chen, h.-t. (2005). practical program evaluation: assessing and improving planning, implementation and effectiveness. thousand oaks: sage. deci, e.l., & ryan, m.r. (1985). intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behaviour. new york: springer. denning, s. (2001). incentives for knowledge management. incentives for knowledge management – incentives for knowledge sharing 2000. retrieved n.d.,from http://www.stevedening.com/incentives_knowledge_management.html dewitt, k. (2001). incentives for profit. commercial carrier journal, 158(10). eisenberger, r., & cameron, j. (1996). the detrimental effects of reward: myth or reality? american psychologist, 51, 1153–1166. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.51.11.1153, pmid:8937264 harrison, d.a., virick, m., & william, s. (1996). working without a net: time, performance, and turnover under maximally contingent rewards. journal of applied psychology, 81(4), 331–345. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.81.4.331 herzberg, f. (1959). the motivation to work. new york: wiley/chapman & hall. jensen, d., mcmullen, t., & stark, m. (2007). the manager’s guide to rewards. philadelphia: hay group, inc. kohn, a. (1993). why incentive plans cannot work. harvard business review, 71(5), 54. morrall, k. (1996). motivating sales staff with rewards. bank marketing, 28(7). mottaz, c.j. (1985). the relative importance of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards as determinants of work satisfaction. the sociological quarterly, 26(3), 365–385. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1985.tb00233.x nelson, b. (1998). influencing top management on the value of incentive programs. fresno business journal, 322–349. patton, m. (1997). utilization-focused evaluation. (3rd edn.). thousand oaks: sage. platten, p.e. (1996). incenting with a vengeance. cfo, 12(6). rossi, p., lipsey, m.w., & freeman, h.e. (2004). evaluation. a systematic approach. (7th edn.). thousand oaks: sage. rummel, a., & feinberg, r. (1988). cognitive evaluation theory: a meta-analytic review of the literature. social behavior and personality, 16, 147–164. http://dx.doi.org/10.2224/sbp.1988.16.2.147 rusbult, c.e., & farrell, d. (1983). a longitudinal test of the investment model: the impact on job satisfaction, job commitment, and turnover of variations in rewards, costs, alternatives, and investments. journal of applied psychology, 68(3), 429–438. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.68.3.429 ryan, r.m., & deci, e.l. (2000). self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. american psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.68, pmid:11392867 tang, s.-h., & hall, v.c. (1995). the overjustification effect: a meta-analysis. applied cognitive psychology, 9, 365–404. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/acp.2350090502 trochim, w.m.k. (2006). introduction to evaluation. research methods knowledge base. retrieved n.d., from http://anatomyfacts.com/research/researchmethodsknowledgebase.pdf ulrich, d., & brockbank, w. (2005). the hr value proposition. boston: harvard business school press. vroom, v.h. (1964). work and motivation. new york: john wiley & sons. wiersma, u.j. (1992). the effects of extrinsic rewards in intrinsic motivation: a meta-analysis. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 65, 101–114. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1992.tb00488.x zachary, w.b., & kuzuhara, w.l. (2005). organizational behaviour: integrated models and applications. mason: thomson. zenger, t. (1992). why do employers only reward extreme performance? examining the relationships among performance, pay, and turnover – process and outcome: perspectives on the distribution of rewards in organisations. administrative science quarterly, 37, n.p. article information authors: mpho d. magau1 gert roodt1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: gert roodt email: groodt@uj.ac.za postal address: university of johannesburg, p.o. box 524, auckland park, 2006 keywords human capital; intellectual capital; strategic business partner; strategic alignment; south african mining industry dates: received: 21 jan. 2010 accepted: 09 mar. 2010 published: 22 june 2010 how to cite this article: magau, m.d., & roodt, g. (2010). an evaluation of the human capital bridgetm framework. sa journal of human resource management/ sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. #276, 10 pages. doi: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.276 copyright notice: © 2010. the authors. licensee: openjournals publishing. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) an evaluation of the human capital bridgetm framework in this original research article... open access • abstract • introduction    • literature review • research design    • research approach    • research method       • participants       • measuring instrument       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • first phase of the data analysis    • first-level factor analysis       • second-level factor analysis    • second phase of the data analysis • discussion    • summary of the results    • managerial implications    • possible limitations of the study and directions for future research • conclusion • references abstract (back to top) orientation: the methodologies employed for achieving two important goals of human resource (hr) measurement, namely to enhance decisions about human capital and to connect hr and business strategy, are rarely empirically investigated. research purpose: the aim of the present study was therefore to use the human capital (hc) bridgetm framework to compare the views of hr practitioners with those of line management on hc solutions towards achieving strategic business objectives. motivation for the study: the motivation for this study was to determine whether the hc bridgetm framework can create a useful platform for leveraging human capital solutions and for demonstrating hr value-add. research design: a census-based survey was conducted on a target population of 787 supervisors and managers in specific categories in a mining company, which yielded 202 responses. the measuring instrument used was based on the hc bridgetm framework and on the company’s strategic objectives. item intercorrelations on the subscales were followed by factor analyses and iterative item analyses. main findings/results: the self-developed measuring instrument yielded an overall cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.97. statistically significant differences were found between line management’s and hr practitioners’ views in respect of the three strategic business objectives. practical/managerial implications: the results suggested that hr management was not yet fully aligned in respect of strategic business objectives and of becoming a strategic business partner. contribution/value-add: the study therefore suggested that the hc bridgetm framework can be used as a method to connect human capital processes with business strategy to leverage business results and to demonstrate value-add. introduction (back to top) attempts to demonstrate the contribution by human resources (hr) to business strategy have received both negative and positive feedback from line management in a number of studies (lawler, 2004, 2005; lawler & boudreau, 2009; lawler & mohrman, 2003). while hr practitioners believe mostly that their contribution to business success is meaningful, line management’s view on hr’s value-add is not aligned with this (lawler, 2005). new methodologies for hr practitioners to demonstrate their contribution to business success are therefore required. during the era of business downsizing, reengineering and outsourcing, it became apparent that hr practitioners’ intuitive belief that the contributions of the hr function are critical to firm success may not be shared by their line colleagues (wright, mcmahan, snell & gerhart, 1998). boudreau and ramstad (1997) indicated that it is hard to demonstrate hr’s contribution when other managers’ views must be taken into consideration and it can be deduced that hr’s own assessment of its human capital is subjective unless it satisfies the expectations of line management in demonstrating its value-add. this challenge was further highlighted by wright et al. (1998) when they concluded that it is hard to convince line executives that hr management does provide a value-added contribution to the firm in the face of calls for blowing up the hr function (stewart, 1996). hr executives have therefore become increasingly concerned with being able to demonstrate hr function’s value to the firm (ulrich, 1997). considerable progress in numerous approaches to demonstrate that hr practices can indeed contribute to firm performance has been made (becker & gerhart, 1996; becker, huselid, pickus, & spratt 1997; huselid, 1995) but, as it is not the focus of this article to explain these different approaches in detail, no further elaboration on these approaches are provided here. mitsuhashi, park, wright and chua (1998) found significant differences between line management’s and hr’s perception in certain areas of hr, such as training, staffing and communication. wright et al. (1998), for example, uncovered that line executives rate hr’s staffing and succession plans as unsatisfactory. lawler’s (2005) also found significant differences in hr’s contribution to business objectives. these studies, however, did not focus on demonstrating hr’s contribution in managing human capital towards achieving strategic objectives. the present study will therefore indicate how human capital can be used to connect with company-specific strategic business objectives, namely ‘operational excellence’, ‘growing the company’ and ‘securing the future. by way of conclusion, lawler, levenson and boudreau (2004) indicated that, if hr management wants to play a strategic role in organisations, it should develop its ability to measure how human capital decisions affect business and vice versa to demonstrate its value-add to line management. the key focus of this study is therefore to compare the views of hr and line management on the impact, effectiveness and efficiency of human capital solutions towards achieving the strategic objectives of the firm using the human capital (hc) bridge™ framework by boudreau and ramstad (2002). this framework will enable hr management to leverage pivotal connections between human capital in key roles and in key business processes to achieve sustainable business results and to demonstrate hr’s value-add. the next section of this article creates the context of this study through a literature review and by unpacking the research design, which covers the approach and method, followed by the presentation of the results and a discussion. the article concludes with a brief synopsis of the recommendations and suggestions in respect of potential future research. literature review academics, researchers and consultants are rapidly developing approaches for executives to assess and guide strategic hr alignment to increase organisational effectiveness through human capital management. among these approaches are the search for correlations between hr practices and business performance (becker, huselid & ulrich, 2001) and the identification of links between human capital practices and shareholder value measures (pfau & kay, 2002), which should embrace line executives’ views. line executives’ perceptions of the effectiveness and importance of hr practices will help to indicate the potentials that hr departments have in regard to becoming real business partners (barney & wright, 1998; tsui 1987; ulrich, 1998; ulrich, allen, brockbank, yonger & nyman, 2009; ulrich, brockbank, johnson, sandholtz & yonger, 2008; ulrich, brockbank, yeung & lake, 1995).the rapidly changing business environment and increasing complexity of modern organisations have converged to support the idea that hr management should become a strategic partner and that hr management could demonstrate its value-add through measuring its human capital contribution (lawler & mohrman, 2003). the well-known concept of the strategic partner (barney & wright, 1998; schuler, 1992; ulrich, 1998; ulrich et al., 2008; ulrich et al., 2009) contends that hr departments should help line managers to resolve business issues and align hr’s interests with the achievement of organisational goals. many organisations in developed countries are now highly dependent on their human capital for their competitive advantage (lawler, 2004); the market value of corporations increasingly depending on their intangible assets, such as their knowledge, core competencies and organisational capabilities (ulrich & smallwood, 2003). these changes have created a growing consensus that effective human capital management is critical to an organisation’s success (jackson, hitt & denisi, 2003). there is currently no empirical evidence that suggests that this should be different for south african organisations or for organisations in developing country contexts. the concept of human capital is powerful in that it blends traditional aspects of personnel management (such as employee skills, knowledge and abilities) with the economic principles of capital accumulation, investment, deployment and value creation, which underlie much of strategic management (dierickx & cool, 1989). within the broad context of intellectual capital, bontis and fitz-enz (2002), on the one hand, define human capital as the combination of generic inheritance, education, experience and attitudes about life and business. chen and lin (2005), on the other hand, define human capital investment as input made by a company in talents that benefit competitive advantage, which are valuable and unique, and that should be kept out of reach of other companies. boudreau and ramstad (2002) defined human capital as the hidden talent of employees and of potential employees. these definitions create the context within which people’s knowledge and skills are viewed as investments in the company. these investments, however, still cannot be translated into expected returns, as hr management lacks specific methodologies that connect human capital solutions with business-process outcomes to demonstrate hr’s value-add. the present study is therefore positioned within this ambit of finding methodological solutions to these challenges. in order to address these challenges, boudreau and ramstad (2002, 2007) developed the hc bridge™ framework, which applies a metaphor of a bridge to describe the links between investments in hr programmes and sustainable business success. the model focuses not on what hr management is doing but on what the organisation should be doing about human capital or talent. within this framework, hc refers to human capital and br to the first letters of the surnames of the two authors, which are boudreau and ramstad. the framework suggests strategic talent or human capital connections that can be adapted to different businesses or competitive situations. it is based on the three generic elements of successful existing decision frameworks, namely efficiency, effectiveness and impact. in the hc bridge™ framework, each of these fundamental anchor points are broken down further into a set of linking elements that can be used to articulate the framework more explicitly. figure 1 describes the framework proposed to articulate organisational or business unit strategies tangibly enough to connect them to human capital investments. the hc bridge™ framework is useful as a planning tool in that it works from sustainable strategic success at the top to derive implications for hr practices and investments at the bottom. the framework is built on the three major anchor points and their associated fundamental questions. the three anchor points, as indicated, are efficiency (do we deliver hr programmes and practices through the frugal use of resources, such as time, money and labour?), effectiveness (when we implement hr programmes and practices, do they have an effect on the people to whom we apply them?) and impact (do we apply hr programmes and practices to the talent pools where they have the greatest effect on our strategic and organisational effectiveness?). figure 1: hc bridge tm framework the hc bridge™ framework has implications for many elements of hr. one significant implication is to guide the creation and use of measures to demonstrate hr management’s strategic contribution. research shows that the two important goals of hr measurement, which are to enhance decisions about human capital and to connect hr’s strategy, are rarely achieved (corporate leadership council, 2001; lawler, 2004). a strong case can therefore be made for hr management developing better metrics and analytics if it is ever to become a true strategic partner in most organisations (lawler, levenson & boudreau, 2004). according to brown (1999), the problem is that the metrics that these organisations have on the ‘people part’ of the business do little to tell them about the value-add and performance of human capital. hr management should therefore find other methods to measure the contribution of human capital against organisational performance and thereby demonstrate its value-add to line management. some approaches have been used to demonstrate the contribution of hr management in managing human capital through theoretical modelling. wright, mcmahan and mcwilliams (1994) used the resource-based view of the firm to analyse how hr management can provide hrs that are valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable, thus fulfilling the criteria of a source of sustainable competitive advantage. another approach was the use of actual hr metrics as a means of showing where the hr function stands in performing its tasks relative to either other firms or its own past performance in these metrics. fitz-enz (1980, 1984, 1990) has also done extensive work at the saratoga institute in gathering efficiency indicators for a large number of hr activities. one can also assess hr management effectiveness through surveying its customers. lawler (2004; 2005) and lawler and boudreau 2009) used survey techniques to evaluate business executives’ and hr professionals’ views on the value of hr management. results of some of these studies are reported below. lawler (2004) found that, in most organisations, senior executives recognise the importance of human capital. when asked whether hr issues are critical to strategy, most senior executives report that they are. they also say that they want hr management to make a contribution to strategy and to play a role in supporting its implementation. despite the logical arguments and support for hr management playing a major role in the development of business strategy, however, this research, according to lawler, suggested that, in most corporations, it is not a major player in the development and implementation of business strategy. in a 2004 survey of major corporations, fewer than 40% of hr executives surveyed reported that hr management is a full partner in strategy development. the results were even worse when their counterparts in management were asked: fewer than 25% of senior executives reported that hr management is a full partner in the development and implementation of business strategy. there are a number of reasons why hr management is not a major player in business strategy development: • hr executives are rarely on corporate boards. • hr executives are not members of the senior management team. • hr management is often mired in administrative data and ends up with a largely administrative role. • hr executives’ careers do not expose them to business and business strategy. • hr management does not have the kinds of metric and analytic capabilities that finance and marketing have. lawler’s research on hr management as a strategic partner suggested that there are a number of steps that hr practitioners can – but often do not – take that will lead to them having a major role in business strategy. this article will now look at the major steps that can be taken. the emerging consensus in hr literature is that the most effective hr departments are those that add value by playing a business partnership role (lawler & mohrman, 2003). lawler and boudreau (2009) found that, for several decades, the hr function in corporations has indeed been encouraged to become a strategic partner. findings from their longitudinal study of large corporations, however, suggested that hr management is not a strategic partner yet and that little or no movement towards it becoming one has occurred. in their analysis of what hr practitioners can do to become a strategic partner, they therefore showed some clear actions that hr practitioners can take: • develop talent in hr management. • create corporate centres of excellence. • develop the right metrics and analytics. • perhaps most importantly, understand how human capital management impacts business results. the results of the study by lawler and boudreau (2009) also showed that there are a number of strategy activities that hr practitioners can be involved in and that, to some degree, different factors influence how much hr practitioner are involved in each of these. the study by wright et al. (1998) examined the importance of hr management from the viewpoints of both top level line and hr executives in respect of hr roles, effectiveness and contributions. it demonstrated significant differences between line executives and hr executives, as line executives gave average importance ratings as opposed to their hr counterparts, who gave relatively high ratings. it did indicate, however, that line executives increasingly believe that the attraction, selection, retention and motivation of employees, particularly those with managerial talent, are critical to their firm’s future success and that the effective delivery of services provided by hr management is integral to the firm’s competitive advantage. the results also indicated that both line and hr executives recognise the potential importance of hr activities in the firm’s competitive advantage and that both groups agree on hr management’s strengths and weaknesses in delivering the relevant services. the results also, however, pointed to the fact that line executives do not give marks that are nearly as high as hr executives do when it comes to evaluating hr management’s effectiveness. mitsuhashi et al. (1998) investigated the perceptions of line and hr executives on hr effectiveness in firms in the people’s republic of china. the major finding of this study was that, while there are no significant differences between hr executives’ and line executives’ perceptions of the importance of each functional area in hr management, there are significant differences between their perceptions of the effectiveness of these areas. these differences imply that line executives are more dissatisfied with current hr capabilities than are hr managers. the results of this study were congruent with the findings of previous studies related to hr management in the people’s republic of china (goodall & warner, 1997; tsang, 1994; verburg, 1996; wright et al., 1998). while these studies attempted to demonstrate hr management’s contribution to organisational performance using different approaches, as articulated, less attention was paid on finding connections between human capital as a component of hr management and strategic business processes. a significant issue in hr management strategy is that of integration with overall business strategy, which, in practice, is difficult to achieve (roos, fernstrom & pike, 2004). a systematic approach should be adopted to overcome this problem. the hc bridgetm framework (boudreau & ramstad, 2002, 2007) was therefore considered in the present study, as it attempts systematically to identify connections between human capital investments and strategic business objectives. the latter are long-term objectives formulated to support the attainment of company business strategy. this study looked at three strategic business objectives: (1) operational excellence; (2) growing the company; and (3) securing the future. the effectiveness, efficiency and impact of hr activities within each of these strategic business objectives were consequently assessed in terms of the hc bridgetm framework. the aim of the present study is to use the hc bridgetm framework to assess, on a comparative basis, the views of hr and line management towards achieving company-specific strategic business objectives. different studies (lawler, 2004; lawler & boudreau, 2009; lawler & mohrman, 2003; mitsuhashi et al., 1998; wright et al., 1998) suggested that it appears as if hr departments do not meet the relatively high expectations of line executives. in view of the above-mentioned research findings and the fundamental nature of the hc bridgetm framework anchor points, the following three research hypotheses are formulated to test hr’s and line managers’ views on achieving company-specific strategic business objectives: h1: there are statistically significant differences between line management’s and hr professionals’ views on the effectiveness, efficiency and impact of human capital on strategic objective 1, ‘operational excellence’. h2: there are statistically significant differences between line management’s and hr professionals’ views on the effectiveness, efficiency and impact of human capital on strategic objective 2, growing the company. h3: there are statistically significant differences between line management’s and hr professionals’ views on the effectiveness, efficiency and impact of human capital on strategic objective 3, ‘securing the future’. research design (back to top) the research design is discussed under the following two headings: research approach and research method. research approach the research approach followed in the present study is from the quantitative tradition, a cross-sectional field survey was therefore conducted and an ex post facto approach in the correlational data analysis was followed. this approach was deemed most appropriate to address the research objectives of this study, as such a survey would yield primary data suitable for conducting the comparative analyses. research method the research method is described under the following four headings: participants the research was conducted at one of south africa’s mining companies at its free state and gauteng regional operations. a census-based survey was conducted (meaning that the entire target population had an equal chance to participate) within a specific supervisory and management target population (n = 787), with the researchers focusing more on potential participants exposed to the company’s performance management system. a response rate of 202 (26%) was obtained. in terms of the demographic profile, about 20% of the participants represented the human capital function (n = 41) and 93% represented line management (n = 147), while 14 responses were received from other departments. the information gathered from the sample was used to describe the population at that time (kerlinger & lee, 2000), as indicated in table 1. from table 1, it is clear that the age of the respondents ranged from 20 to 60 years and that the majority of the participants were males, representing 85% of the sample. with regard to academic qualifications, 57% of the sample had a senior high-school qualification and 43% had a tertiary qualification. this reflected the educational profile of the supervisors and managers within both line management and the hr professional categories. table 1: sample description in terms of biographical variables > measuring instrument every form of survey relies on the use of a questionnaire, comprising a set of questions designed to generate the data necessary for accomplishing the objectives of the research project (mcdaniel & gates, 1996). as an existing questionnaire for the present study was not available, the researchers developed a 27-item questionnaire based on the company’s strategic themes and on the hc bridgetm framework. the three subsections of the questionnaire represented the company’s strategic themes, namely ‘operational excellence’, ‘growing the company’ and ‘securing the future’. the subsections were linked to the three dimensions of the hc bridgetm framework, namely effectiveness, efficiency and impact. some of the following items were used in these three categories: effectiveness: ‘performance management system enables work performance and competency development’; ‘hr contributes in creating an enabling environment where talent in pivotal roles operates.’ efficiency: ‘critical skills are attracted within reasonable costs and efficient hr solutions’; ‘hr expedites decision making about talent pools through quantifiable measures.’ impact: ‘hr influences growth through performance management in talent pools’; ‘hr is an integral part of business planning.’ kraut (1996) concluded that the most commonly used response scale was a 5-point scale. a 5-point categorical response scale, where all categories were anchored, was therefore used to record the responses of the respondents to each item. the scale ranged from 1 (‘strongly disagree’) to 5 (‘strongly agree’). the questionnaire consisted of five items in respect of the three dimensions of the first strategic objective (operational excellence). fifteen items were used to measure ‘operational excellence’, 6 to measure ‘growing the company’ and 6 to measure ‘securing the future’, which gives a total of 27 items. with each strategic objective subscale, an equal number of items was used to measure the effectiveness, efficiency and impact dimensions. the researchers adhered to the guidelines developed for structuring questions, namely that questions should be purposeful, unambiguous, complete and factual, that questions that are double-barrelled, sensitive, leading, negative and bias should be avoided, that questions should be relevant and kept short, that respondents should be able to answer all questions, that wording has an important impact on responses and that abbreviations, technical terminology, value judgments and hidden assumptions should be avoided (babbie & mouton, 2001; church & waclawski, 1998; devellis, 1991; fife-schaw, 2000; kraut, 1996; mcdaniel & gates, 2001; rubin & babbie, 1997; sarantakos, 1998; smith, 2003; struwig & stead, 2001; welman & kruger, 2001). research procedure a covering letter explaining the purpose of the present study was attached to the questionnaire, assuring the confidentiality of the responses, as were general instructions on how to complete the questions (boon & arumugam, 2005). the study followed this approach because the covering letter also included a demographic section. the questionnaire was initially tested with the executive committee team of the company’s free state operation before it was circulated for data collection to the target population. this process was consistent with the suggestion that sensitive questions be identified during a pilot study by mcclendon and o’brien (1988), mcdaniel and gates (2001) and rust and golombok (1999). the survey questionnaire of the present study was distributed to the hr departments to assist in coordinating the data-collection process. this procedure was supported by boon and arumugam (2005), who used the survey questionnaire as the main form of data collection. boon and arumugam (2005) distributed their questionnaire to all the employees from the different job levels and functions within an organisation through an officer or coordinator from either the hr or the administration department of the organisation. statistical analysis the data from the questionnaire were collated and the results were analysed by the statistical consultation service of the university of johannesburg. firstly, item intercorrelations for the three subsections were conducted, followed by factor analyses and iterative-item reliability analyses. lastly, to test the stated hypotheses, group comparisons were provided to indicate statistically significant differences between line management and hr in all three subsections of the scale. table 2: item intercorrelation (15 x 15) matrix of operational excellence table 3: item intercorrelation (6 x 6) matrix of growing the company table 4: item intercorrelation (6 x 6) matrix of securing the future table 5: intercorrelation matrix of the three sub-sections of the scale table 6: eigenvalues of the unreduced 3 x 3 intercorrelation matrix table 7: factor loadings and communalities table 8: item means and standard deviations for the overall scale and item reliability, the statistics are grouped according to scale sub-sections (n = 178) table 9: mean differences, mean ranks and tests of significance of the scale sub-sections results (back to top) the first phase of the data analysis included the item intercorrelations of the three subsections of the questionnaire, followed by factor analysis and iterative-item reliability statistics. in the second phase, group comparisons were provided to indicate statistically significant differences between hr and line management in all three subsections of the scale. first phase of the data analysis this phase consists of the two levels of factor analyses, discussed under the following subheadings: first-level factor analysis owing to the relatively small sample size (fewer than 10 respondents per item), an adjusted procedure for the first-level factor analysis was used. this procedure entailed the parcelling of items in the theoretical dimensions (in other words, the three subsections of the scale representing the three strategic objectives). tables 2, 3 and 4 provide the item intercorrelation matrices on subsections of the scale, namely for ‘operational excellence’, ‘growing the company’ and ‘securing the future’. acceptable measures of sampling adequacy (> 0.80) were also obtained in the anti-image correlation matrices (not displayed here owing to limited space), indicating that all the items were significantly related to the measured construct and could be retained for the factor analyses.the tests developed by kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) and bartlett yielded acceptable results on the three-item intercorrelation matrices. the results of the kmo tests were 0.92, 0.85 and 0.85 for ‘operational excellence’, ‘growing the company’ and ‘securing the future’, respectively. the obtained chi-square values of bartlett’s test were, respectively, 2 161.29, 974.97 and 985.25 (all statistically significant; p ≤ 0.000), with the corresponding degrees of freedom of 105, 15 and 15 for ‘operational excellence’, ‘growing the company’ and ‘securing the future’. these obtained values indicated that these matrices were suitable for further factor analysis. single factors were extracted on each item intercorrelation matrix for each subsection of the scale. the cronbach alpha reliabilities (cronbach, 1951) for the different theoretical subsections were 0.95 for ‘operational excellence’, 0.93 for ‘growing the company’ and 0.92 for ‘securing the future’, confirming the single-factor structures for the theoretical dimensions of the scale and providing a sound basis for testing the hypotheses. second-level factor analysis in the second-level factor analysis, the subscores for the three subsections were intercorrelated; the results are portrayed in table 5. subsections 1, 2 and 3 were positively intercorrelated with each other, as illustrated in the 3 x 3 matrix presented in table 5. the kmo and bartlett’s tests on this matrix yielded the acceptable results of 0.75 and 370.59 (df = 3; p ≤ 0.000), respectively, indicating that the matrix was suitable for further factor analysis. eigenvalues were calculated and a single factor was postulated based on the criterion of roots greater than unity by kaiser (1961). these eigenvalues are provided in table 6. the obtained factor matrix was rotated to a simple structure by means of a varimax rotation with kaiser normalisation. the obtained factor loadings and corresponding communalities of the single extracted factor are displayed in table 7. they exceed minimum requirements. table 8 depicts descriptive-item statistics for the three subsections of the scale as well as the reliability statistics of these subsections. the iterative-item analysis yielded an overall cronbach alpha reliability (cronbach, 1951) coefficient of above 0.97 for the scale as a whole. this indicated that the human capital solutions towards achieving the company’s three strategic objectives were reliably measured. to allow for the testing of the formulated hypotheses, comparisons between hr’s and line managers’ views were conducted on a strategic objective level and not on the overall scale. second phase of the data analysis the scores on the subsections of the scale were subjected to non-parametric tests of significant differences for a comparative evaluation of the views on hr management’s contribution towards achieving strategic objectives through human capital. non-parametric tests were selected specifically because measurement data were generated on an ordinal-measurement level. in the ‘box and whisker’ plots in figures 2, 3 and 4, comparative views on significant differences between hr’s and line management’s views on human capital’s contribution towards achieving ‘operational excellence’, ‘growing the company’ and ‘securing the company’s future are presented’.these graphs indicated significant mean differences between the views of line and hr managers. the effect sizes of these mean differences were probably small, based on the degree of overlap (> 80%) between the response distributions (howell, 1997). table 9 presents the mean scores, mean ranks and statistical-significance tests of differences between hr and line management in respect of the three strategic objectives. the mean ranks in table 9 revealed statistically significant differences between hr and line management mean scores in respect of the three subsections of the scale. the differences were statistically significant for strategic objectives 1 and 2, but at a slightly lower level for strategic objective 3 in the mann-whitney u-tests and wilcoxon w-tests. on these grounds, all three null hypotheses were rejected. these significant differences provided support for the acceptance of all three alternative hypotheses (h11, h12 and h13), albeit hypothesis h13 being statistically significant at a slightly lower level (p = 0. 06). discussion (back to top) the primary aim of the present study was to compare the views of hr and line management on achieving strategic business objectives by using the hc bridgetm framework. this was the first south african study using the hc bridge™ framework as a method to do a quantitative assessment of whether hr and line managers share the same views on hr management’s service delivery. the value-add of the study specifically resided in demonstrating the suitability of the hc bridge™ framework in identifying those aspects in respect of which hr and line managers differed and for the future improvement of human capital services. summary of the results three hypotheses were formulated in the study, namely to test whether line managers’ and hr’s views were similar in respect of how human capital contributes towards the achievement of three strategic objectives, (1) operational excellence, (2) growing the company and (3) securing the future. the results provided support for the acceptance of all alternative hypotheses (h11, h12 and h13), albeit hypothesis h13 being statistically significant at a slightly lower level (p = 0.06). line management indicated that human capital interventions in respect of effectiveness, efficiency and impact were relatively less connected to three of the company’s strategic objectives. by contrast, the hr practitioners believed that these interventions added significantly more business value. the statistically significant differences in respect of the three strategic objectives found in this study implied that the line managers (as the recipients of hr management’s services) were not satisfied with the current human capital solutions provided by hr management with reference to supporting the company’s strategic objectives. the hc bridge™ framework provided a suitable framework for making these comparisons.when linked back to the research literature, these results were consistent with the findings of several studies (lawler, 2004; lawler & boudreau, 2009; lawler & mohrman, 2003; mitsuhashi et al., 1998; wright et al., 1998), in which significant differences between line management’s and hr practitioners’ perceptions of the effectiveness of hr activities were discovered. in the mitsuhashi et al. study, the differences were found to be statistically significant, particularly in respect of hr’s contribution to the bottom line, building human capital, becoming a business partner and supporting the business plan. the wright et al. (1998) study also reported significant differences between line executives and management on hr’s services, roles and contribution. the results furthermore supported the studies by lawler (2004, 2005), in which significant differences between line managers’ and hr’s views were found in respect of a range of hr services. figure 2: group comparisons between hr and line on operational excellence figure 3: group comparisons between hr and line on securing the future figure 4: hc bridge tm framework managerial implications hr and line management are still likely to have different views on how they perceive the contribution of hr management in managing human capital due to their diversified interests within a business. the resource-dependence theory (jacobs, 1974; pfeffer & salancik, 1978) holds that organisations consist of various social actors with different and incongruent interests, thereby suggesting that one may expect differences in opinion among such actors.in the present study, the hr practitioners’ view was, more specifically, that they provided human capital solutions that added value to the business and that this was not recognised as such by line management. line management held a different view to that of the hr managers in that hr solutions added significantly less value in respect of pivotal effectiveness, efficiency and impact aspects. the underlying concern from line management was that there were significantly fewer connections between human capital and business strategy in respect of pivotal roles and key business processes. examples of such mismatches in respect of all three strategic business objectives were apparent in the demonstration of value-add in the pivotal aspects of effectiveness, efficiency and impact: • attracting and retaining critical skills and talent for achieving targets. • training and development interventions to facilitate skills and knowledge acquisition in talent pools. • managing talent pipelines to enable succession planning. • establishing and managing performance management systems. as a result, human capital was not being used optimally to contribute towards achieving strategic objectives. this should be considered as an opportunity for hr to improve on its value-add to business in these areas. mitsuhashi et al. (1998) indicated that line management’s evaluations of hr activities, such as human capital management, should be taken seriously to construct a strong connection between hr activities and organisational performance. the hr practitioners’ concerns stemmed from line management’s failure to implement human capital solutions and from being disempowered to make meaningful decisions towards the success of the business. mitsuhashi et al. (1998) concluded that hr departments may not have the power to act strategically, although power does often reside in expert knowledge and in someone being perceived to be an expert by line managers. establishing expert knowledge and, ultimately, expert power is a necessary condition for the achievement of business goals and sustained competitive advantage through the supply of valuable, rare, non-imitable and non-substitutable human capital solutions (wright et al., 1994). less-empowered hr departments are less likely and less able to act strategically. the development of hr management expertise is therefore imperative. a company’s human capital should be deployed in areas where it can have the greatest impact in the realisation of return on investment and the assurance of the company’s competitive advantage. the hc bridge™ framework is aimed at articulating the connections between human capital investment and the strategic success of an organisation (boudreau & ramstad, 2004) and could assist in the management of the differences between hr and line management. while hr expects line management to implement human capital solutions properly, line management expects hr practitioners to provide optimal human capital solutions to make the biggest difference through activities that blend with business processes for value creation. these differences are still likely to prevail unless hr managers demonstrate that their human capital solutions add significant value to a business. the results of this study suggested that there should be a systematic connection between human capital investments and the strategic objectives of a firm, to which hr managers should pay attention. possible limitations of the study and directions for future research from a methodological point of view, a possible limitation of this study stems from the small sample size of the hr participants, which reduces statistical power. related to this aspect is the fact that the study was conducted only in a single organisation, which makes it difficult to generalise the findings beyond this sample. considering the general level of hr development in south africa, however, the findings of the present study suggest that the trends shown in this study are likely to apply to hr management in south africa in general.the hc bridgetm framework was not applied to its fullest extent in the sense that it was not used to guide measurement solutions to assist both hr and line managers to measure the contribution of human capital towards strategic objectives. boudreau and ramstad (2007) concluded that the significant implication of the hc bridgetm framework is that it can be used to guide the creation and use of measures that demonstrate hr management’s strategic value-add. in the same way, hr measurement needs to extend its traditional focus on the hr function and increase its capability to support key decisions about human capital that drive organisational effectiveness (boudreau, 2006). hr management therefore needs to develop much better metrics and analytics if it ever wants to become a true strategic partner in most organisations (lawler et al., 2004). lawler and mohrman (2003) identified the use of metrics as one of the four characteristics that lead to hr management being a strategic partner. the application of the hc bridgetm framework, however, can be used to guide the development of human capital metrics, thereby meeting line managers’ prerequisite for hr management to be a strategic partner. the present study also did not demonstrate how human capital can be used as a source of competitive advantage as per the resource-based model of barney (1991). further research should therefore build on this research and select other methodologies to measure the contribution of human capital and to demonstrate how human capital can support the sustainable competitiveness of a firm. conclusion (back to top) the objective of the present study was to determine the suitability of the hc bridgetm framework to compare the views of hr and line management on achieving strategic business objectives. statistically significant differences between hr and line managers were found in respect of all the strategic objectives, hence the rejection of null hypotheses h01, h02 and h03. the research objective of this study to determine whether the hc bridgetm framework is suitable as a methodology was therefore achieved. the results raise a concern in that hr management is still not being viewed as adding value by the recipients of hr services. hr management should therefore first develop human capital metrics and analytics before it can become and be recognised as a full strategic business partner. references (back to top) babbie, r.e., & mouton, j. (2001). the practice of social research. oxford: oxford university press. barney, j. (1991). firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. journal of management, 17, 99–120. barney, j., & wright, p. (1998). on becoming a strategic partner: the role of human resources in gaining competitive advantage. human resource management, 37(1), 31–46. becker, b., & gerhart, b. (1996). the impact of human resource management on organizational performance: progress and prospect. academy of management journal, 39(4), 779–801. becker, b., huselid, m., pickus, p., & spratt, m. (1997). hr as a source of shareholder value: research and recommendations. human resource management, 36(1), 39–48. becker, b., huselid, m., & ulrich, d. (2001). the hr scorecard: linking people, strategy and performance. cambridge: havard business school press. bontis, n., & fitz-enz, j. (2002). intellectual capital roi: a causal map of human capital antecedents and consequents. journal of intellectual capital, 3(3), 223–247. boon, o.k., & arumugam, v. (2005). does soft tqm predict employees’ attitudes? the tqm magazine, 17(3), 279–289. boudreau, j.w. (2006). talentship and hr measurement and analysis: from roi to strategic organisational change. human resource planning, 29(1), 25–33. boudreau, j.w., & ramstad, p.m. (2007). beyond hr: the new science of human capital. boston: harvard business school press. boudreau, j.w., & ramstad, p.m. (1997). measuring intellectual capital: learning from financial history. human resource management, 36(3), 343. boudreau, j.w., & ramstad, p.m. (2002). strategic i/o psychology and the role of utility analysis models. ithaca: cornell university. brown, m.g. (1999). human capital’s measure for measure. association for quality & participation, september/october, 28–31. chen, m.h., & lin, k.j. (2005). the role of human capital cost in accounting. journal of intellectual capital, 5(1), 116–130. church, a.h., & waclawski, j. (1998). designing and using organisational surveys. hampshire: gower publishing limited. corporate leadership council (2001). exploring the measurement challenge: a survey on hr metrics. washington: corporate leadership council. cronbach, l.j. (1951). coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. psychometrika, 16, 297–334. devellis, r.f. (1991). scale development: theory and applications. london: sage publications ltd. dierickx, i., & cool, k. 1989. asset stock accumulation and sustainability of competitive advantage. management science, 35(12), 1504–1511. fife-schaw, c. (2000). questionnaire design. in g.m. breakwell, s. hammond, & c. fife-schaw (eds.), research methods in psychology (2nd edn., pp. 158–174). london: sage publications limited. fitz-enz, j. (1980). quantifying the hrs function. personnel, march–april, 41–52. fitz-enz, j. (1984). how to measure human resources management. new york: mcgraw-hill. fitz-enz, j. (1990). human value management: the value-adding human resource management strategy for the 1990’s. san francisco: jossey-bass. goodall, k., & warner, m. (1997). human resources in sino-foreign joint ventures: selected case studies in shanghai compared with beijing. the international journal of human resource management, 8(5), 569–593. howell, d.c. (1997). statistical methods for psychology. belmont: wadsworth publishing company. huselid, m.a. (1995). the impact of human resouce management practices on turnover, productivity, and corporate financial performance. academy of management journal, 38, 635–672. jackson, s., hitt, m., & denisi, a. (eds.). (2003). managing knowledge for sustained competitive advantage: designing strategies for effective human resource management. san francisco: jossey–bass. jacobs, d. (1974). dependency and vulnerability: an exchange approach to the control of organisations. administrative science quarterly, 19, 45–59. kaiser, h.f. (1961). a note on guttman’s lower bound for the number of common factors. british journal of statistical psychology, 14(1), 1. kerlinger, f.n., & lee, h.b. (2000). foundations of behavioral research. (4th edn.). new york: harcourt college publishers. kraut, a.i. (1996). planning and conducting the survey: keeping the strategic purpose in mind. in a.i. kraut (ed.), organisational surveys: tools for assessment and change (pp. 149–176). san francisco: jossey–bass. lawler, e.e. (2004). from human resource management to organisational effectiveness. los angeles: center for effective organizations, university of southern california. lawler, e.e. (2005). introduction: transforming hr. in hr metrics and analytics: driving strategic organizational change (section 5). los angeles: center for effective organizations, university of southern california. lawler, e.e., & boudreau, j.w. (2009). what makes hr a strategic partner? los angeles: center for effective organizations, university of southern california. lawler, e.e., levenson, a.r., & boudreau, j.w. (2004). hr metrics and analytics: use and impact. human resource planning, 27(4), 27–35. lawler, e.e., & mohrman, s.a. (2003). hr as a strategic partner: what does it take to make it happen? human resource planning, 26(3), 15–29. mcclendon, mck.j., & o’brien, d.j. (1988). questions order effects on the determinants of subjective well-being. public opinion quarterly, 52(3), 351–364. mcdaniel, c., & gates, r. (1996). contemporary marketing research. (3rd edn.). st. paul: west publishing company. mcdaniel, c., & gates, r. (2001). marketing research essentials. (3rd edn.). cincinnati: southern-western college publishing. mitsuhashi, h., park, h.j., wright, p.m., & chua, r.s. (1998). line and hr executives’ perceptions of hr effectiveness in firms in the people’s republic of china. new york: center for advanced human resource studies, cornell university. pfau, b.n., & kay, i.t. (2002). the five key elements of a total rewards and accountability orientation. benefits quarterly, third quarter, 7–15. pfeffer, j., & salancik, g.r. (1978). the external control of organizations. new york: harper & row. roos, g., fernstrom, l., & pike, s. (2004). human resource management and business performance measurement. measuring business excellence, 8(1), 28–37. rubin, a., & babbie, e. (1997). research methods for social work. pacific grove: brooks/cole publishing company. rust, j., & golombok, s. (1999). modern psychometrics: the science of psychological assessment. (2nd edn.). london: routledge. sarantakos, s. (1998). social research. (2nd edn.). south yarra: macmillan. schuler, r.s. (1992). strategic human resource management: linking people with the needs of the business. organizational dynamics, 20, 19–32. smith, s.a. (2003). an evaluation of response scale formats of the culture assessment instrument. unpublished thesis. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university stewart, t. (1996). taking on the last bureaucracy. fortune, 15 january, p. 105. struwig, f.w., & stead, g.b. (2001). planning, design and reporting research. cape town: pearson education south africa. tsang, e.w.k. (1994). human resouce management problems in sino-foreign joint ventures. international journal of manpower, 15(9;10), 4–21. tsui, a. (1987). defining the activities and effectiveness of the human resource department: a multiple constituency approach. human resource management, 26(1), 35–69. ulrich, d. (1997). measuring human resourcess: an overview of practice and a prescription. hr management, 36(3), 303. ulrich, d. (1998). intellectual capital = competence x commitment. sloan management review, 39(2), 15–26. ulrich, d., allen, j., brockbank, w., yonger, j., & nyman, m. (2009). hr transformation: building human resources from the outside in. new york: mcgraw-hill/rbl institute. ulrich, d., brockbank, w., johnson, d., sandholtz, k., & yonger, j. (2008). hr competencies: mastery at the intersection of people and business. alexandria: shrm. ulrich, d., brockbank, w., yeung, a.k., & lake, d.g. (1995). human resource competencies: an empirical assessment. human resource management, 34(4), 473–496. ulrich, d., & smallwood, n. (2003). why the bottom line isn’t! how to build value through people and organisation. hoboken: john wiley. verburg, r. (1996). developing hrm in foreign-chinese joint ventures. european management journal, 14(5), 518–525. welman, j.c., & kruger, s.j. (2001). research methodology for business and administrative sciences. (2nd edn.). cape town: oxford university press. wright, p.m., mcmahan, g.c., & mcwilliams, a. (1994). human resources and sustained competitive advantage: a resource-based perspective. international journal of human resource management, 5(2), 301–326. wright, p.m., mcmahan, g.c., snell, s.a., & gerhart, b.a. (1998). comparing line and hr executives’ perceptions of hr effectiveness: services, roles, and contributions. new york: center for advanced human resource studies, cornell university. 5mollo.qxd the problem of poor organisational performance is rife in the per-way (company to company transportation) industry, inasmuch as it is experienced by many organisations in south africa. this problem is further highlighted by the annual research conducted and published by the world economic forum. the world competitive reports of 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 & 1999 refer. these reports indicate that south african business organisations fare exceptionally poorly when compared to other developed and developing nations. furthermore, a few of the more disconcerting facts are that the capacity of management to identif y and implement competitive practices falls in the bottom 25% for all developed and developing nations and south african organisations fall in the bottom 10% for productivity when compared with other developing nations. the above situation requires leadership of organizations in south africa particularly to take responsibility for developing new management skills and applying these skills sensitively to their specific workforce situation. the subject of this paper, a manufact uring enterprise, is an organisation in per-way business (i.e. providing mining and railway companies with steel for rail-tracks and/or roads). the company is situated in the gauteng province, in an industrial area called isando in kempton park. this company was started in 1976. it has exchanged several hands in terms of ownership. but the company is now owned by an austrian. in terms of several reports and perception surveys, this company is experiencing a myriad of problems, and of particular importance for this research is that there is inadequate performance alleged to be caused by lack of effective leadership. with a critical mass of managers within per-way industry asking for changes, it is imperative for upper management to respond and organisational policies and systems will stand a better chance of being changed. furthermore, it takes credible managers and/or leadership who are effective in their day to day roles and who contribute to the organisation’s mission and goals to influence change. table 1 represents the desired leadership competencies. table 1 leadership competencies competency description communication leadership within the manufacturing enterprise concerned should clearly define expectations for employees. focus leadership should be comfortable with issues of power and conflict and be at ease in assuming accountability. production they should be clear about what they expect in terms of levels of performance. people concern for production and performance should be balanced with empathy and authentic concern for employee growth and development. control they should have systems in place that allow them periodic and consistent review and monitoring of employee performance. feedback they should provide regular, ongoing, and spontaneous feedback concerning positive and negative aspects of employee performance. as rhinesmith (1996, p. 59) says “leadership is about creating the conditions where people can perform to their potential in a fashion which they and their company are comfortable. it is about creating a vision for the organisation and then articulating it so that others believe in the vision and then successfully implement it”. wickens (1995, p. 93) expresses the view that leaders have to project several years ahead to determine where the organisation is going. leaders begin with the individual and then ensure that all in the team are working together to achieve common objectives. tompkins (1995, p. 25) is also of the opinion that the most important role of company leadership is defining a company’s vision and aligning people in the company behind this vision. it is therefore heartening to realise that the manufacturing enterprise concerned has taken the first step of defining its vision. the second step is now to get people aligned behind this vision. it is in this regard whereby manning’s (1999, p. 73) statement becomes true that: boldness and sense of urgency is also required to be effective. what is now required is that leadership of the manufacturing sm mollo k stanz t groenewald programme in leadership in performance and change department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract against the backdrop of a literature review on leadership approaches, models and theories, the aim of this study was the identification of shortcomings regarding leadership competencies within a particular manufacturer. semistructured interviewing was used within a grounded theory research design. a stratified random sample of participants contributed to the study. opposing perspectives about several themes emerged from the data such as, vision direction, communication channels, growth, rewarding performance, leadership-role, and change problems. seminars and workshops towards improvement of competencies are recommended. opsomming teen die agtergrond van ’n literatuurstudie rakende benaderings, modelle en teorië oor leierskap, was die doel van die studie om tekortkominge in leierskapbevoegdhede in ’n bepaalde vervaardiger te identifiseer. gedeeltelik gestuktureerde onderhoude was gebruik, binne ’n begrondeteorie ontwerp. ’n gestrativeerde ewekansige steekproef van deelnemers het bygedra tot die studie. teenstrydige perspektiewe rakende verskeie temas, soos visiegerigtheid, kommunikasiekanale, groei, prestasiebeloning, leierskaprol en veranderingsprobleme, het voorgespruit uit die data. seminare en werkswinkels ten einde bevoegdhede te verbeter word aanbeveel. leadership competencies in a manufacturing environment requests for copies should be addressed to: k. stanz, karels@uj.ac.za 34 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (1), 34-42 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (1), 34-42 * a special word of appreciation to dr. thomas greonewald for the hard work in getting this article print ready.s leadership competencies 35 enterprise concerned should now hold a view that “if they are going to get it wrong, then they would be better off failing faster so that they can learn faster”. this implies progressive leadership that has what it takes to take the risks associated with ‘breaking the mould’ and who base their thinking on all the reasons why business vision and objectives can be accomplished as opposed to why it cannot be accomplished. at this stage, it is also important to have a clear understanding of the concept ‘leadership’. what is leadership? as kreitner and kinicki (2004, p. 595) puts it “disagreement about the definition of leadership stems from the fact that it involves a complex interaction among the leader, the followers, and the situation”. for example some researchers define leadership in terms of personality and physical traits, while others believe leadership is represented by a set of prescribed behaviours. in contrast, other researchers believe that leadership is a temporary role that can be filled by anyone. there is a common thread, however, among the different definitions of leadership. the common thread is social influence i.e. within an organisational context, leadership is defined as “a social influence process in which the leader seeks the voluntary participation of subordinates in an effort to reach organisational goals” (leuchter, 2000, p. 45). peters and austin (1985, pp. 5 6) describe leadership in broader terms: leadership means vision, cheerleading, enthusiasm, love, trust, verve, passion, obsession, consistency, the use of symbols, paying attention as illustrated by the content of one’s calendar, out-and-out drama (and the management thereof), creating heroes at all levels, coaching, effectively wandering around, and numerous other things. leadership must be present at all levels of the organisation. it depends on a million little things done with obsession, consistency, and care, but all of those million little things add up to nothing if the trust, vision, and basic belief are not there. figure 1: leadership context according to veldsman (2002a, p. 78) leadership is a dynamic and organic process, as reflected by figure 1 above, which consists of an interconnected and interdependent set of roles. a role refers to a way of doing. these roles are taken up and terminated in everchanging combinations and priorities in concert with changing contextual circumstances and the agenda being pursued. the chosen combinations and priorities are a function of the future creation and realisation embarked upon. the roles must be performed such that the overall act of leadership forms a coherent and unified whole, in and of itself, but also with the context in which it is embedded. the roles serve as a bridge between the leadership context and competencies. tompkins (1995, p. 29) identified several competencies that are necessary for the motivation of people by saying that leaders define motivation by exhibiting the five mental qualities namely integrity, credibility, enthusiasm, optimism and determination. they also define motivation by how they communicate, and in this regard tompkins (1995, p. 32) says leaders don’t think of communication as something they do, but view it from the receiver’s end. that is to say, for them communication is not the generation of a message, but rather the receipt of the message by the receiver. lastly, he says that leaders define motivation by how they work. furthermore, it would appear that for the manufacturing enterprise concerned, to achieve leadership excellence it must revisit and review its leadership psycho-social dynamics; competencies and capabilities; processes and roles and styles and modes. subsequent discussions highlight theories around these issues. leadership approaches historically there have been three approaches to leadership (carrell, jennings & heavrin, 1997, p.469; hellriegel, jackson & slocum, 2002, p. 407; kreitner & kinicki, 2004, p. 597). the earliest approach sought to identif y a set of traits possessed by effective leaders (the traits approach). the search for leadership traits, essentially involving comparisons bet ween the characteristics of successful leaders with those of unsuccessful ones and non-leaders, ended in the 1950’s after generating negative results (mann, 1959, p. 243). in the second approach (the behavioural approach) researchers then began to emphasise the behaviour patterns of the leader congruent with effective leadership. this resulted in the classification of leadership behaviour under various styles (cogill, 1986, p. 480). with this approach, effective leaders did not need to possess magical traits but, instead, had to provide strong direction and support while encouraging subordinates to participate in important decisions (howell, bowen, dorfman, kerr & podsakoff, 1990, p. 23; veldsman, 2002b, p. 34). researchers later began to recognise that there was no single most effective leadership st yle for generating good performance in all situations. the third approach, the so called situational/contingency approach suggests that while a particular leadership style may be effective in one situation, different behaviour may be required under another set of circumstances. as early as 1948, stogdill (1974, p. 48) had stated “it becomes clear that an adequate analysis of leadership involves not only a study of leadership but also situations”. the situational/contingency approach was, therefore, a logical extension of the behavioural approach. trait approach the trait approach assumed that “great men” or “natural leaders” were endowed with certain characteristics necessary for leadership (siegel & lane, 1982, p. 166). “great-man-theories” did not persist for two main reasons. firstly, little evidence existed for the genetic predisposition of leadership characteristics. secondly, leaders who were found to be successful in certain situations were not necessarily successful in others (cogill, 1986, p. 478). the search for leadership traits ended in the 1950’s after studies by allport (1924), bird (1940), geien (1967), gibb (1969), jenkins (1947), mann (1959) and stogdill (1974), attempted unsuccessfully to find a consistent and strong trait or constellation of traits that differentiated leaders from followers. furthermore, research indicated that there was a considerable variation in personalities, abilities and skills of successful leaders. allport (1924), for example, suggested 19 traits which were essential for leadership, while bird (1949), in a review of mollo, stanz, groenewald36 studies, compiled a list of 79 leadership traits (stogdill, 1974). traits generally failed to correlate with leadership in a strong or consistent manner and the types and numbers of traits listed as significant vary depending on the study cited (cogill, 1986, p. 478). furthermore, it is not clear how many of the differences reflect the effects of occupancy of a leadership position. for example, occupying the role of a leader may contribute to the manifestation of some of those traits rather than having those traits increasing one’s chances of being selected as a leader (vroom, 1983). also, there is a considerable variance across situations in both the magnitude and direction of the relationship between most personality attributes and leadership stat us. situational determinants such as task, structural components and social-psychological concepts such as organisational climate, play a role in leadership behaviour (campbell, dunnette, lawler & weick, 1970). as evidence accumulates from better-designed research and new research methods, trait research is slowly discovering how leader traits relate to leadership behaviour and leadership effectiveness. recent research has been on managerial motivation and specific skills rather than on personality traits and general intelligence. vroom (1983, p. 535) suggests that instead of conceptualising leadership as a general trait applicable to all situations, leadership could be expressed as a set of highly specific traits each of which would be applicable to clearly defined situations. behavioural approach the trait approach provided an incomplete view of the leadership process and researchers began to focus on the behavioural correlates of effective leadership. effective and ineffective leaders were distinguished from one another by their characteristics behaviour patterns in their work roles. these behavioural patterns were classified as leadership styles (jackson & keaveny, 1980, p. 26). three main leadership styles were identified initially. these were autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire. autocratic leadership means that a supervisor retains personal control over planning and decision making. by contrast, democratic leadership involves providing an opportunity for subordinates to have a say in decisions affecting their work. democratic or employee-centred leadership implies concern for the satisfaction of subordinate needs and welfare. according to cogill (1986, p. 482) the autocratic-democratic continuum has been conceptualised as a continuum of bosscentred or subordinate-centred leadership by tannenbaum and schmidt in 1958. laissez-faire leaders by contrast, avoid attempting to influence their subordinate and neglect their supervisory duties. they maintain both a psychological as well as a physical distance from subordinates and are generally ineffective (cogill, 1986, p. 484). schein (1980, p. 39) notes that almost every leadership style theory is essentially concerned with the extent to which the leader is people-oriented and task oriented. the michigan leadership studies and the ohio leadership studies in the late 1940’s were concerned with the behaviour of leaders in their leadership roles. the michigan studies aimed initially at differentiating behaviour patterns bet ween effective and less effective managers (vroom, 1983, p. 1540). the researchers studied differences in supervisory behaviour of 24 work groups divided into high and low productivity categories. highly productive supervisors were more frequently employee centred, were more likely to exercise general rather than close supervision and were more likely to differentiate their roles from those of their subordinates in terms of duties performed. the ohio state leadership studies began by attempting to identif y the dimensions needed to characterise differences in the behaviour of leaders. according to vroom (1983) researchers (fleishman, 1953; fleishman & harris, 1962; hemphill, 1959) identified two independent dimensions called “consideration” and “initiating structure”. “consideration” represented the extent to which a leader was concerned with the feelings of his or her subordinates (people orientation). “initiating structure” referred to the degree to which the leader facilitated goal attainment (task orientation). a large number of investigations were generated by the initial findings. fleishman and harris (1962, p. 48) for example, found that leaders who were high on consideration tended to have lower grievance rates than those who were high on initiating structure. it was also found that leaders high on consideration to have more satisfied subordinates than those low on consideration. the relationship between consideration and rated leader effectiveness was found to vary with the research population (bass, 1981, p. 78). for example, a negative correlation was reported for air-crew commanders in combat while a positive relationship was found for managers and office staff in an industrial organisation (graen, dansereau & minami, 1972, p.112; bennis & nanus, 2001, p. 60). while the ohio state leadership studies had suggested that people-oriented styles, in contrast to task-oriented styles, resulted in a number of favourable work outcomes (fleishman & harris, 1962, p. 52), subsequent research indicated that for groups to be effective, leaders had to be concerned with both people and task dimensions (schein, 1980, p. 97). this resulted in the emergence of two approaches. the first approach is the one-best-leadership approach. liden and graen (1980) contend that one of the major characteristics of contemporary leadership literature is the assumption that leaders manifest one consistent leadership style. blake and mouton (1964, p. 33) suggested that there need not be a conflict between production goals and personal need satisfaction (vroom, 1983). their model is prescriptive, pointing to an ideal leadership style in which the leader has both a high concern for production and for people. the leader attempts to combine creativity, high productivity and high morale through team action. in contrast to the one-best-style approach, some researchers have suggested that there is no best style since leadership effectiveness is contingent upon the situation, the task or subordinates (fielder, 1967, p. 76). they suggest that leadership style is not a constant, which can be demonstrated, in any given situation. the situational/contingency approach the situational/contingency approach suggests that while a particular style of leadership may be effective in one situation; this may not be the case under a different set of circumstances. sit uational researchers began to identif y the various situational demands purported to influence leadership. siegel and lane (1982) identified “time-demand” as a constraint on managerial behaviour. katz and kahn (1966) identified “organisational level” as another situational demand (cogill, 1986). nealy and fielder (1968) found that the most successful first-line supervisor was not necessarily successful at the second level of management. on the other-hand bass (1981) emphasises “organisational climate” as being an important dimension to be taken into account. he also viewed climate as an organisational feat ure that is an important situational constraint on leadership processes (kolowski & dohert y, 1989). vroom (1983) found that the leader’s subordinates in an organisation exerted an important situational constraint on the leader’s effectiveness. some subordinates may respond more favourably to democratic employee-oriented leadership where participation in decision making is encouraged, while others have a low need for independence and a high need for authoritarianism preferring tasks to be delegated. based on the research, it appears that the most appropriate leadership st yle is determined by the conditions under which the leader has to operate (vroom, 1983). a number of researchers have put forward models pertaining to the situational/contingency approach to leadership. subsequent discussion will explain fielder’s contingency model; the ‘house path-goal model’; leadership competencies 37 the reddin 3-dimensional management st yle theory; the hersey and blanchard life-cycle theory and leader-member exchange (lmx) theory (bennis, spreitzer & cummings, 2001, p. 133). fielder’s contingency model – fielder (1967) made an important contribution to leadership theory by attempting to explain the relationship between different situational factors. these factors are leadership style, leader-member relations, task structure and leader power position. the basic proposition of the model is that effective leadership is a joint function of characteristics of the leader and features of the situation. fielder (1967) elevated the importance of situational factors to the same level as leader characteristics. the model postulates that the effectiveness of a leader is dependent upon the motivational system of the leader and the favourableness of the situation, and that group performance can be improved either by modif ying the leader’s style or by modif ying the group task situation (fielder, 1967). according to fielder (1967) the most crucial element in leadership is the leader-member relationship, that is, the extent to which the members trust and respond to the leader. fielder (1967) defines sit uational favourableness as “the degree to which the situation enables the leader to exert inf luence over his/her group” (p.13). eight sit uational combinations have been studied and classified according to data from empirical investigations. these range from a situation most favourable to the leader (good leader-member relations, structured task, and strong power position) to the most unfavourable situation (poor leader-member relations, unstructured task, and weak power position). by combining scores on each of the three dimensions, the overall sit uat ional level of favourableness is arrived at. the appropriate matching of leadership st yle and the degree of favourableness of the group sit uation determines group performance. the model suggests that group performance can be improved by modif ying the leader’s st yle or by modif ying the group-task situation. a measure of the motivational personality of leaders is provided by the “least preferred co-worker score” (lpc). fielder (1967) concludes that high lpc leaders (those who describe their least preferred co-worker in favourable terms) are thought to place greater value on relatedness with people, while low lpc leaders are motivated by task achievement rather than interpersonal relations (vroom, 1983). fielder (1967) discovered that where the situation was favourable to the leader the most effective leaders were found to have been task oriented (low lpc score). this was indicated by the strong negative correlation between lpc and group performance. in moderately favourable situations, effective leaders had a high lpc score reflected by moderately high positive correlations between leader’s lpc scores and group performance. finally, in situations unfavourable to leadership, effective leaders were those with low lpc scores. this was indicated by a moderate negative correlation between lpc scores and group performance (siegel & lane, 1982). fielder (1967) suggests that this have implications for selection. individuals with appropriately high or low lpc scores, depending on the situational favourability, will, when selected, provide the optimal match for the group and result in improved group performance. the contingency model’s emphasis upon situational factors in interaction with leadership characteristics made an important contribution to leadership theory, incorporating and building on the facets of earlier models (cogill, 1986). other reviews conclude that the research tends to support the model, although not for every octant and not as strongly for field studies as for laboratory studies (yukl, 1989). the ‘house path-goal model’ – a number of leadership theories have examined leadership st yles in various situations. the path-goal leadership model (house, 1971) suggests that leaders will be effect ive in mot ivat ing subordinates when they are able to make rewards potentially available to subordinates depending on the accomplishment of certain agreed upon objectives. according to house (1971) the leader should be viewed as a motivator of individual workers towards goal attainment. this motivation takes place as the leader varies his/her leadership st yle to meet the requirements of the situation. house (1971) further identified t wo classes of sit uat ional variablessubordinate characteristics (abilit y, need for independence and self control, need for affiliation) and environmental forces (nat ure of the task, formal authorit y system, primary work group) which are hypothesised as influencing the extent to which subordinate motivation can be increased by leadership behaviour. path-goal research has investigated the relationship between the ohio state leadership dimensions of consideration and initiating struct ure as measured by the subordinate satisfaction, performance, expectancies and role clarity. the environmental forces and subordinate characteristics are included as moderators in these studies. grulke (2002, p. 211) concludes that research findings provide stronger support for path-goal predictions about consideration than about initiating structure and stronger support for predictions about satisfaction than about performance. stogdill (1974) supports the model because its cause and effects components allow it to be tested. it has been criticised because of the possibilit y that employees could misconstrue the intentions of the leader as he/she manipulates their level of motivation. graen & cashman (1975) conclude that the model needs refinement as it does not adequately explain how the leader learns about the organisational environment and adjusts his/her st yle across different situations with different employees (bass, 1981). however, methodological limitations of the validation research, such as over-reliance on questionnaire data from the same respondents and difficulties in measuring intervening motivational processes, suggest that the theory has to be adequately tested before conclusions can be made. the reddin 3-dimensional management style theory – reddin’s (1970) 3 dimensional management style theory went beyond blake and mouton’s model by identif ying four basic leadership st yles, whose effectiveness depended on the sit uation (cogill, 1986). reddin (1970) proposed three dimensions within the four st yles: the supervisor’s relationship orientation and task orientation in conjunction with effectiveness. hollander and julian (1969) reacted favourably to its three dimensional portrayal of leadership along with its leadership requirements for effective supervision. although reddin (1970) suggested that his framework explained effectiveness as a function of matching style to situation, his approach did not identif y specific sit uational attributes that could be incorporated into predictive scheme (vecchio, 1987). however, some authors have criticised the model for being primarily descriptive, lacking more specific and definitive descriptions and thus being largely untestable (yukl, 1989). the hersey and blanchard life-cycle theory – hersey and blanchard (1988) build on reddin’s suggestion that leader or manager effectiveness varied according to style and proposed a life-cycle theory of leadership (vroom, 1983). according to the theory, task orientation and relationship orientation needed to be examined in conjunction with the dimension of follower maturity to account for leadership effectiveness. then, using traditional categories of leader behaviour, initiating structure and consideration, they suggested that as the level of follower maturity increased, effective leader behaviour would involve less structuring (task orientation) and less socio-emotional mollo, stanz, groenewald38 support (relation-orientation). graeff (1983) argues that the theory correctly focuses on issues of leader flexibility and the importance of subordinate attributes as the key situational determinant of appropriate leader behaviour, but believes it makes only a minor contribution to leadership theory because it can be shown to overlap to varying degrees with other theories. vecchio’s (1987) results suggested that more recently hired employees might need and appreciate greater task structuring from their superior. a number of writers including blake and mouton (1982), graeff (1983) and yukl (1989) have pointed out conceptual weaknesses in the theory, including ambiguous constructs, oversimplification, and lack of intervening explanatory processes (carrel, jennings & heavrin, 1997, p. 56). leader-member exchange (lmx) theory – most of various contemporary leadership theories (for example, mcgregor’s theory y, blake and mouton’s managerial grid, hersey and blanchard’s sit uational leadership theory, and fielder’s contingency theory) either focus on a “general leadership st yle”, or only take account of the behaviour of the manager and ignore that of the subordinate. this makes such approaches concept ually unsound. firstly, given the range of individual differences bet ween subordinates, no single managerial st yle can be expected to be appropriate for all subordinates. secondly, examining only the behaviour of managers only represents half the equation in manager-subordinate dyads (nunns, ballantine, burns & king, 1990, p. 47). thus, within recent leadership research, the leader-member vertical dyad has been found to make a contribution in accounting for leader effectiveness criteria (liden & graen, 1980). the vertical dyad linkage theory, now called “leadermember exchange theory”, describes how leaders develop different exchange relationships over time with different subordinates (dansereau, graen & haga, 1975; graen & cashman, 1975). whilst, a number of contemporary leadership theories (house’s path-goal model; fielder’s contingency model and reddin’s 3-dimensional theory of leadership effectiveness) focus on a general leadership style approach within the context of the situation, the lmx theory stresses the importance of emphasising the individual dyadic relationship between supervisor’s (termed “leaders”) and each of their subordinates (termed “members”) according to vecchio & gobdel (1984). lmx theory is based upon the concept of a developed or negotiated role (dienesch & liden, 1986). this theory says, within organizations, employee’s roles typically are defined in an ambiguous and incomplete manner. thus, the interpersonal exchange relationship between subordinate and supervisor are assumed to be an important mechanism in determining the type of role that a subordinate will play in his/her organisation. the leader-member relationship bet ween supervisor and subordinate develops overtime, resulting in a relatively high or low quality exchange between the parties (scandura & graen, 1984). a high quality exchange relationship is characterised by subordinates receiving greater influence, autonomy and tangible benefits in return for greater loyalty, commitment and assistance in performing administrative duties. where the exchange is of poor quality, it is characterised by a low level of trust, interaction, support and reward (dienesch & liden, 1986). the theory is situational only in the sense that leaders treat subordinates differently depending on whether they are part of the in-group or out-group. the theory has been extended to include a manager’s upward relationships. in essence the theory suggests that: a leader who has a favourable exchange relationship with his/her own boss has more potential for establishing a special exchange relationship with subordinates. according to dienesch & liden (1986) research a special upward exchange relationship is a key prediction of a manager’s advancement in the organisation in longitudinal research conducted in japan. a special downward exchange relationship with a subordinate results in greater loyalt y and performance by the subordinate (graen, novak & sommerkap, 1982; scandura & graen, 1984; vecchio & gobdel, 1984). in addition, high qualit y exchanges have been associated with higher levels of subordinate job satisfaction and involvement. the lmx theory has a number of conceptual weaknesses. some important issues, such as the process of role-making, have not received enough attention, either in the theory itself or in the research conducted to test it by dienesch and liden (1986). there is limited research on the basis on which selection of in-group members, and it is still not clear how this selection occurs. the theory has been criticised for an inability to replicate certain results across settings (vecchio & gobdel, 1984). dienesch and liden (1986) suggest that there is a need for further refinement of the lmx scale and investigation into dimensionality of the lmx relationship. it is important to make a clearer separation between measures of the quality of the relationship (for example, perceptions of mutual trust, loyalty and respect), measures of specific leader behaviour (for example, delegating, consulting, praising and supporting) and measures of outcomes (for example, performance and t urnover). finally, further research is necessary to explore the perceptions of members regarding the nature of role differentiation within the group (posner & kouzes, 2001, p. 126). all the above-mentioned theories reiterated what was said in the introduction that some researchers define leadership in terms of personality and physical traits, while others believe leadership is a temporary role that can be filled by anyone. the latter seems to be unpopular and not supported by most theories mentioned above. however, it is important to mention that there is a common thread in all the theories. the common thread is ‘social influence’. there is an agreement that – within an organisational context, leadership is a social process in which the leader seeks the voluntary participation of subordinate in an effort to reach organisational goals (leuchter, 2000, p. 45). it would appear that the social influence is not bringing the results and/or organisational goals within the manufacturing enterprise concerned, hence questions are being asked as to ‘where is the problem?’ and ‘what should be done?’ and ‘by who? research design glaser (1992, p. 22), co-proponent of grounded theory with strauss, cautioned against a formulation of a specific research problem because it forces the data. both these authors emphasised theoretical sensitivity i.e. the researcher need to distance her/himself from the theory to avoid drifting into preconception and to maintain a balance between theory development and ‘good science’ (dey, 1999, pp 3-4; glaser, 1992, pp 27 & 49; strauss & corbin, 1990, pp. 10-27, 29, 50-55, 68 – 76). strauss and corbin (1997, p. 172) commented that beginning with an interest in a substantive area, rather than a research problem, exemplifies appropriate use of grounded theory methodology. as highlighted in the previous sections the manufact uring enterprise concerned seems to be experiencing productivity problems. but because performance is a product of various factors, namely, structures, systems, procedures, organisational and interactive systems in place. at that juncture it couldn’t be pinpointed as to what causes lack of and/or poor performance. consequently, semistructured interviews were therefore decided upon to research the problem. leadership competencies 39 the researcher allowed what is relevant to the area of study to emerge (glaser, 1992, p. 21; strauss & corbin, 1990, p. 23). the data offered by participants was documented because grounded theory is an iterative process, described by bryman and burgess (1999, p. 25) as follows: … the researcher begins to collect data guided by a rather general view of the research issue, theorises about his/her data (for example, by noting interesting general categories and their connections), examines these initial theoretical reflections by carrying out further data collection, theorises further, collects more data and so on. the idea is progressively to elaborate a more general theoretical statement about the data. the objective of grounded theory is therefore to intimately link research to the realit y of the participants and to allow findings to emerge from the ‘actual words spoken by the participants, and thus truly “grounded” in them’. although firmly rooted in the original data, the research results also involve the inductive interpretations of the data by researcher (hurst, 1999, p. 180). the researcher also consulted a number of relevant accessible documents, both primary and secondary. bell (1993, p. 68) defines a document as “an impression left by a human being on a physical object” and a primary source as a document which came into existence in the period under research, and a secondary source as an interpretation of events of the period under research based on primary sources. this may also include primary sources such as documents or testimonies of eyewitness accounts to an event, and a secondary source document as evidence of individuals who did not actually observe or participate in the event. primary sources can be deliberate or inadvertent. bell (1993, p. 68) defines deliberate sources as those, which are produced for the attention of future researchers. they could include such documents as autobiographies, memoirs of politicians, diaries and documents of self-justification. bell further adds that such documents are deliberately written to preserve evidence for fut ure purposes of self-vindication or reputationenhancement. on the other hand, inadvertent sources are those used by the researcher for a purpose other than the one they were originally intended for. according to bell (1993, p. 69) examples of such documents include among several others: records of the legislative bodies, government departments, letters and newspapers, bulletins, handbooks and prospectus. for the purpose of this study the researcher accessed relevant primary and secondary sources from the shelves and reserve collections of both public and academic libraries. documents accessed, include among others, books, journals, articles, abstracts, theses/dissertations, local and national newspapers. however, more emphasis will be placed on inadvertent sources, for as bell (1993, p. 68) observes, they are produced for contemporary practical purposes and likely to be more straightforward than deliberate sources. to avoid bias and create a balanced study, the contents of all the documents used were critically analysed. participants participants were selected through purposeful sampling. the reason is that 35% of total workforce of the manufacturing enterprise concerned qualifies to be classified as part of leadership and the rest i.e. 65% is ordinary employees. the population of staff was divided into four clearly recognisable, non-overlapping sub-populations (welman & kruger, 1999, p. 55) namely, operators, supervisors, middle managers and executive managers – see table 2. the proportion of individuals from each subpopulation was calculated to make up a sample of sixteen (16) participants. a table of random numbers was used (welman & kruger, 1999, p. 290) to identif y the stratified random sample of participants. table 2 stratified random sample category population sample gender per sample operators 32 8 6 males & 2 females supervisors 8 2 1 female & 1 male middle-managers 12 4 4 males executive managers 6 2 2 males total 58 16 procedure the data collection was through semi-structured interviews by means of a sensitising brief with which the researcher entered the field followed by open-ended questions (brott & myers, 1999, p.340). the sensitising brief was basically to explain to the participants the nature of the interview and also to allay the fears of possible victimisation. the participants were given comfort that the aim of the interview is not to determine who should be retrenched. participants were further given assurance that their identity will not be disclosed. the information was extracted by way of purposeful discussion within the ambit of leadership competencies. the researcher identified through literature review that the following four topical areas are imperative to the discussion (brott & myers, 1999, p. 341): 1. make some comments regarding the appropriateness of the vision, mission, key objectives and strategies of your organisation. 2. comment on how the leadership of the enterprise concerned provides vision and initiate change. 3. does leadership allow their team members to grow and to carry-out tasks without interruption? 4. are there issues with your current leadership competencies, planning and decision making processes? are there issues with regard to regulation (e.g. evaluation systems, reward systems, performance measures, etc)? however, the researcher at no stage forced the discussion but engaged in a dialogue with the participants to capture their true perspectives on the four issues above. furthermore, the researcher made use of a flipchart to record responses. once the responses were captured on a flipchart, they were read back to the participants for confirmation. it should be mentioned that as the discussion unfolded key statements and phrases were jotted down. data analysis grounded theory has three major components, the data, the analysis thereof (or interpretative procedures) and the written report. the reciprocal relationship between the data and the analysis (for example, coding and, categorising) has already being indicated (strauss & corbin, 1990, pp. 20 & 23). the coding entails the breaking down of data, conceptualising and putting it together in new ways. the specific coding methods vary in terms of the background or training of the researcher, his/her experience and the purpose (strauss & corbin, 1990, pp. 20 & 57). glaser (1992, p. 46) as well as strauss & corbin (1990, p. 23) indicated three major types of coding, namely, open, axial and selective. open coding is the process of fracturing data, examining it, comparing, conceptualising and categorising. axial coding is a set of procedures to put data together in new ways after open coding. the paradigm model is used to link sub-categories of data with categories. simplified, the sequential steps of the paradigm model are: causal conditions, phenomenon, context, intervening conditions, action/ interaction strategies and consequences. selective coding starts after the core category has been found. it is a delimiting coding (or explicating the story line) of only those issues that relates to the core category. mollo, stanz, groenewald40 during the entire coding process ample use is made of memos and diagrams. memos are analysis notes and may include code notes (such as concept ual labels, paradigm feat ures, etc) theoretical notes (such as summaries of potential categories and their properties etc) and operational notes. diagrams are visual representations of the emerging relationships bet ween concepts, it shows process, depicts lines of action and integrates. memos and diagrams are sorted and organised to finalise the integration (glaser, 1992; strauss & corbin, 1990). the research findings based on the data collected from the participants are presented in the next section. vision directedness there are t wo distinct groupings of views regarding the vision, mission and strategies of the manufacturing enterprise concerned that emerged. on one hand, there are those that feel very positive, and on another-hand, there are those that are negative. it would appear that those individuals in high ranks within the organisation feel positive with regard the mission and vision. to them, the organisation has a mission, vision and strategies though some work still needs to be carried-out. this is supported by the comment made: “i know we have mission, vision and strategies, but i don’t see them anywhere”. among this grouping there is also a view that not only that the company has a vision and mission, these have been articulated clearly on paper (“the objectives, mission and vision of my company is very clear and neat on paper, but in practice the contrary”). furthermore, the same group also feels that the vision and mission is helpful in providing a clear picture of the bigger picture and this situation is exciting to them. to this group, because the company has a mission and vision it implies that now the organisation is heading in new direction (“we are heading towards reaching our vision to be preferred global partner in the provision of our products”). the second group that is negative feels that the mission and vision is nowhere. this was uttered through statements such as “there is no sense of internal vision”; ”no where to be seen in the offices” and “i don’t know the vision and mission statements of the organisation”. furthermore, there was also one view that even though negative it seems to suggest that there is awareness of existence of mission and vision. the comment says “i however have my doubts whether the key objectives and strategic plans fully support the vision, mission statements, actual progress is another story”. in the same camp, this is supported by another one, which says “i think the key objectives as it is now is a bit unrealistic”. communication: “the missing link” a participant remarked that “communication should be the keyword”. however, contrary to one participant that voiced very positive remarks (quoted below), the majority of participants felt that communication is lacking. our company sends out a weekly communication from md’s desk providing information on the latest decisions made and on product delivery. it provides a clearer picture of where we fit into the company and why certain things are happening. as it was said above, this participant went further to say “i think communication should be the key-word”. however, majority of the participants was negative about how communication is conducted within the manufacturing enterprise concerned. their statements range from saying communication is fragmented, poor, problematic, missing and needs to be improved. somebody said: it is a pick up in the passage exercise” and another says “no communication between working indians and managers, just load the work on you without knowing what you are doing. growth is selectively encouraged on the subject of growth some participants were positive and some were negative. individuals, who were positive, were saying that team members are allowed to grow although clear parameters are sometimes sadly lacking. to them, there are staff attending courses and some staff not attending. it would appear to them that some leaders promote growth and some don’t. positive statements such as “team members are well trained, innovative and f lexible, so yes leadership allows team members to grow, enabling them to be multi-skilled” were uttered. on the other-hand, there were individuals who felt that they never get the opportunity to attend courses to broaden their knowledge. one said “when i feel i’m in need of training, there is either no money to go, or no time, therefore there is no growth”. performance is not rewarded there were only two participants who gave positive remarks on performance being rewarded. to them performance is measured and evaluated against productivity, as if everything is in place. the majority of participants were negative and of the view that performance appraisals and resultant rewards are done haphazardly and inconsistently because appraisers need training. in this continuum comments range from no reward system, system not clear, system not working, measures are not a true reflection and system not accurate. a common response was: no bonuses, no reward systems. i work hard as it is my belief to do the best i can but often feels, why i do? we all get the same increase, i really don’t know whether i will ever be something higher than my current position due to lack of career-pathing. leadership-role is questioned the participants’ responses on the role of the leadership of the manufact uring enter prise concerned were basically negat ive. their response portrays leadership failing to unite employees, initiating change poorly and more often imposing it, taking decisions unilaterally, lacking priorities and being selfish. to the participants leaders within the organisation are not only susceptible of what has just been said but they are also not focused. it was said “ i am of the opinion that executive staff should concentrate on strategic issues rather than gett ing involved in operational issues”. change is problematic except for one participant who made the remark that change is initiated via different levels, the manufacturing enterprise concerned has changed from being just a provider of few products to a modern enterprise and according to him/her, leadership should also skill employees for change. the rest of participants were negative on how leadership initiate change. it was said that changes are not communicated, you ‘pick it up in the passage’ or you will see it happening or being imposed without any discussion. in conclusion other issues which were mentioned by t wo participants which are of general nat ure were (1) fear of being retrenched (2) and fuel allowance. one participant said “before i had a dream with my organisation because i thought is where i am going to get my pension but now i am afraid of losing my job anytime. my company is not the same as before”. the second participant said in good spirit she did not get fuel allowance after the company has relocated. the various themes that emerged from the data collected are summarised in table 3. leadership competencies 41 table 3 themse that emerged from the data collected protagonists antagonists vision directedness. known, clear, do not know; not seen, appropriate and good practices contrary; doubt is strategies support. communication: md’s desk sends poor communication “the missing link”. weekly communication channels; ‘pick up in with latest decisions. the passage’; breakdown clear picture of where between management fit in. and staff. growth is selectively team members well never get an encouraged. trained; multi-skilling opportunity to attend enabled; allowed to courses; no money; grow. workload does not llow for. performance is not in place on paper; haphazard appraisals; rewarded. measured and evaluated across-the-board against productivity. increases; not working. leader-role is fragmentation; questioned. enforcing authority; operational interference; not prioritising; not proactive. change is problematic. skilled for; initiated at fragmented; enforced; different levels. no vision; just see; not written. discussion the results mentioned-above suggest that leadership within the manufacturing enterprise concerned should make efforts to be vision focused, to improve on communication, to give employee development priority, to review the way performance is being currently rewarded and the way changed is introduced in the company. because leadership is about creating conditions where people can perform to their potential in a fashion, which they and their company are comfortable, as rhinesmith (1996, p. 59) said, it is therefore important that those conditions are created in the organisation. the starting point should be to let the employees of the organisation see themselves in the vision. as the results indicated, this is currently sadly missing. secondly, the employees through leadership should be made to understand and believe in the company objectives and consider company objectives as important. thirdly, employees should be empowered and be involved in setting the objectives and their efforts be recognised, valued and rewarded. lastly, employees should receive prompt, supportive and accurate feedback. it is imperative at this stage to remember some facts mentioned in previous paragraphs. firstly, a fact was mentioned earlier on that: leadership never happens in isolation – there can be no leaders without followers, and all leadership activities take place within a particular context. it means one should consider not only personal make-up of the leader but also the make-up of the followers and the specifics of the particular situation. the makeup of the followers and the specifics of the particular situation were not studied in this research, thus the findings are confined to leadership make-up and/or competencies. as vroom (1983) says “leader’s subordinate in an organisation exert an important situational constraint on the leader’s effectiveness”. secondly, to put it differently, the most crucial element in leadership is leader-member relationship – that is the extent to which the members trust and respond to the leader. thirdly, as the path-goal leadership model suggested ‘leaders are effective in motivating subordinates when they are able to make rewards potentially available to subordinates depending on the accomplishment of certain agreed upon objectives’. recommendations subsequent discussions conclude by suggesting possible solutions. in the light of the above findings the following recommendations are made to improve leadership competencies: � seminars and workshops concerning organisational development and related matters like employee productivity, participation and organisational competitiveness should be jointly held by trade union and the manufacturing enterprise concerned. this will help to forge improvement in competencies and bring about compatible views, values and perception among all stakeholders � the organisation concerned should consider encouraging managerial staff to take short courses concerning employment relations. emphasis in such courses be put on the benefits of co-ordinated participative programmes and the need for managers to into customer-centred-leaders � managers who successfully complete above-mentioned courses should be recognised by awarding certificates to them. it is also imperative that current leadership and people with leadership potential are continuously identified, trained and developed to become effective leaders. the main focus should be instilling the following competencies: � leadership with credibility i.e. the ability to foster trust by leadership by acting fairly and honestly in all relationships � having a sense of mission and purpose � ability to communicate a vision � ability to inspire others � emotional intelligence � ability to participate fully with people on all levels � ability to detect positive qualities in others, and the willingness to share responsibility in a measure appropriate to those qualities, and � willingness to learn, adapt and grow since change is often a step into the unknown. references bass, b.m. (1981). handbook of leadership: revised and expanded edition. new york: free press. bell, j. (1993). doing your research project. (2nd ed). buckingham: open university press. bennis, w.g. & nanus, b. (1985). leaders: the strategies for taking charge. new york: harper & row. bennis, w.g, spreitzer, g.m. & cummings, t.g. (2001). the future of leadership: today’s top leadership thinkers speak to tomorrow’s leaders. san francisco: jossey – bass. blake, r.r. & mouton, j.s. (1982). the managerial grid. houston: gulf. blake, r.r. & mouton, j.s. (1964). an overview of the grid. training and development journal, may, 29-37. brott, p.e. & myers, j.e. (1999). development of school counselor identity: grounded theory. a.s.c.a. professional school counseling, 2 (5). bryman, a. & burgess, r.g. (eds) (1999). qualitative research (vol). london: sage. campbell, j.p., dunnette, m.d., lawler, e.e, & weick, k.e. (1970). managerial behaviour, performance and effectiveness. new york: mcgraw-hill. carrell, m.r., jennings, d.f. & heavrin, j.d (1997) fundamentals of organisational behaviour. london: prentice-hall. cogill, c. (1986). behaviour in organizations: south african perspectives (2nd ed.) johannesburg: mcgraw-hill. dansereau, f., graen, g. & haga, b. (1975). a vertical dyad linkage approach to leadership within formal organizations: a longitudinal investigation of the role making process. organisational behaviour and human performance. dienesch, r.m. & liden, r.c. (1986). leader-member exchange model of leadership: a critique and further development. academy of management review, 11, 618-634. mollo, stanz, groenewald42 dey, i. (1999). grounding grounded theory – guidelines for qualitative inquiry. san diego: academic press. fielder , f.e. (1967). a theory of leadership effectiveness. new york: mcgraw-hill fleishman, e.a. (1953). the description of supervisory behaviour. journal of applied psychology, 37 (1), 1-6. fleishman, e.a. & harris, e.f. (1962). patterns of leadership behaviour related to employee grievances and turnover. personnel psychology, 15, 43-56. glaser, b.g. (1992). basics of grounded theory analysis – emergence vs force. mill valley, ca: sociology press. graeff, c.l. (1983). the situational leadership theory: a critical review. academy of management review, 8, 285 – 296. graen, g. & cashman, j. (1975). a role-making model of leadership in formal organisationas: a development approach. oh: kent state university press. graen, g., dansereau, f. & minami, t. (1972). dysfunctional leadership styles: organisational behaviour and human performance, 7, 216 – 236. graen, g., novak, m.a. & sommerkap, p. (1982). the effects of leader-member exchange and job design on productivity and satisfaction: testing a dual attachment model. organisational behaviour and human performance, 30, 109 – 131. grulke, w. (2002) ten lessons from the future. 21st century impact on business, individuals and investors. hellriegel, d., slocum, j.w. & woodman, r.w. (1983). organisational behaviour 4th ed). west publishing company: new york. hemphill, j.k. (1959). job descriptions for executives. har vard business review. july – august, 55 – 67. hersey, p. & blanchard, k.h. (1988). management of organisational behaviour: utilising human resources. englewood cliff: prentice-hall. hersey, p. & blanchard, k.m. (1972). management or organisational behaviour: utilizing human resources (2nd ed.). englewood cliffs, new jersey: prentice hall. hollander, e.p. & julian, j.w. (1969). contemporary trends in the analysis of leadership process. psychological bulletin, 17 (5), 387 – 397. house, r.j. (1971). a path goal theory of leader effectiveness. administrative science quarterly, 16 (3) , 321 – 338. howell, j.p., bowen, d.e., dorfman, p.w., kerr, s. & podasakoff, p.m. (1990). substitutes for leadership: effective alternatives to ineffective leadership. organisational dynamics, summer, 21-38. hurst, s. (1999). legacy of betrayal: a grounded theory of becoming demoralized from the perspective of women who have been depressed. canadian psychology, 40 (3), 179-191. jackson, j.h. & keaveny, t.j. (1980). successful super vision. englewood cliffs, new jersey: prentice-hall. katz, d. & kahn, r. (1996). social psychology of organisations. new york: wiley press. kozlowski, s.w.j. & doherty, m.l. (1989). integration of climate and leadership: examination of a neglected issue. journal of applied psychology, 74 (4), 546-553. kreitner, r. & kinicki, a. (2004). organisational behaviour. new york. mcgraw hill. leuchter, d.c. (2000). leadership. new york. mcgraw hill liden, r. & graen g.b. (1980). generalisability of the vertical dyad linkage model of leadership. academy of management journal, 23, 451-465. mann, r.d. (1959). a review of the relationships between personality and performance in small groups. psychological bulletin, 56, 241-270. manning, t. (1999). world-class strategies for winning your customers (3rd ed). kenwyn.juta. nealy, s.m. & fielder, f.e. (1968). leadership functions of middle managers. psychological bulletin, 70 (5) , 313 – 329. nunns, c., ballantine, k., burns, a. & king, s. (1990). subordinate assessment of organisational leadership: evaluation of the leader member exchange scale. ergonomics sa, 2 (2), 46-53. peters, t. & austin, n. (1985). a passion for excellence. new york. random house. posner, b. & kouzes,j. (2001). the leadership challenge. san francisco: jossey-bass. rhinesmith, s.h. (1996). a manager’s guide to globalisation. new york. mcgraw hill. reddin, w.j. (1970). managerial effectiveness. new york: mcgrawhill. scandura, t.a. & graen, g.b. (1984). moderating effects of initial leader-member exchange status on the effects of a leader intervention. journal of applied psychology, 69, 428 – 436. schein, e.h. (1980). organisational psychology (3rd ed.). englewood cliffs, new jersey: prentice-hall. siegel, l. & lane, i.m. (1982). personnel and organisational psychology. homewood: irwin-dorsey. stogdill, r.m. (1974). handbook of leadership: a sur vey of the literature. new york: free press. strauss, a. & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative researchgrounded theory procedures and techniques. newbury park, california: sage. strauss, a. & corbin, j. (eds) (1997). grounded theory in practice. thousand oaks, california: sage. tompkins, j. (1995). the genesis enterprise creating peak to peak performance. new york. mcgraw hill. vecchio, r.p. (1987). situational leadership theory: an examination of a prescriptive theory. journal of applied psychology, 72 (3) , 444-451. vecchio, r.p. & gobdel, b.c. (1984). the vertical dyad linkage model of leadership: problems and prospects. organisational behaviour and human performance, 34, 5-19. veldsman, t.h. (2002a) navigating galaxies of leadership stars: aligning context, roles and competencies for leadership effectiveness. johannesburg: knowledge resources. veldsman, t.h. (2002b) navigating between chaos and order. johannesburg: knowledge resources. vroom, v.h (1983). leadership. handbook of industrial and organisational psychology (pp. 1527-1552). new york: wiley. welman, j.c. & kruger, s.j. (1999). research methodology for the business and administrative sciences. johannesburg: international thompson publishing. wickens, p.d. (1995). the ascendant organisation. london. macmillan. yukl, g. (1989) managerial leadership: a review of theory and research. journal of management, 15 (2), 251-189. reviewer acknowledgement open accesshttp://www.sajhrm.co.za 87 page 1 of 1 sa journal of human resource management recognises the value and importance of the peer reviewer in the overall publication process – not only in shaping the individual manuscript, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank all reviewers who participated in shaping this volume of sa journal of human resource management: adele thomas amos engelbrecht billy boonzaier carren field chantal olckers chris van tonder claude-helene mayer danie du toit frans cilliers frans maloa gerhardus van zyl hester nienaber ingrid potgieter jan visagie karl heslop k.p. moalusi linda fourie we appreciate the time taken to perform your review successfully. llewellyn van zyl louw botha magda bezuidenhout martina kotzé melanie bushney michael samuel michelle may nico martins nicole dodd nicolene barkhuizen nidhi maheshwari penny abbott richard chazuza rudolf oosthuizen sonia swanepoel vijaya chidambaram in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for sa journal of human resource management, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on www.sajhrm.co.za for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a reviewer. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at http://www. sajhrm.co.za 2. in your ‘user home’ [http://www.sajhrm. co.za/index.php/sajhrm/ user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest. 3. it is good practice as reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to sa journal of human resource management. please do not hesitate to contact me if you require assistance in performing this task. margo martens submissions@sajhrm.co.za tel: +27 (0)21 975 2602 fax: +27 (0)21 975 4635 sajhrm sa journal of human resource management article information authors: pharny d. chrysler-fox1 gert roodt1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: pharny chrysler-fox postal address: po box 524, auckland park 2126, south africa dates: received: 28 aug. 2013 accepted: 28 may 2014 published: 01 sept 2014 how to cite this article: chrysler-fox, p.d., & roodt, g. (2014). changing domains in human capital measurement. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12(1), art. #585, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.585 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. changing domains in human capital measurement in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • literature review       • balanced scorecard       • human resource scorecard       • workforce scorecard       • human capital bridge • research design    • research approach    • case selection strategy    • research method       • research setting       • entrée and establishing researcher roles       • sampling       • data collection methods       • recording of data       • data analysis       • strategies employed to ensure quality data       • reporting • findings    • domain 1: burning issues and emerging trends within the people arena (7)    • domain 2: human resource function delivery excellence (35)    • domain 3: strategic people initiatives’ progress (7)    • domain 4: employee contribution to business success (42)    • domain 5: the effectiveness of the human resource value chain (135)    • domain 6: employee engagement (33)    • domain 7: customer satisfaction (32) • discussion    • practical implications    • limitations of the study    • suggestions for future research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the management context is dynamic; this is especially evident in human capital as the primary source of value creation as opposed to physical and natural resources. in response, measurement methodologies have moved from a transactional approach (strategy implementation) to a transformational approach (human capital contribution paradigm), as well as diverging into different purposes. to date, there has been little overlap on recent domains to consider in managing and measuring the contribution of the human resource function and employees, and how to unlock and add value.research purpose: the aim of the study was to explore and describe changing domains within human capital management to be managed and measured. motivation for the study: the motivation was to advance the understanding of changing measurement domains to aid practitioners to manage and measure the contribution of the human resource function and employees, in order to unlock and add value and ultimately contribute to the success of an organisation. research design, approach and method: unstructured, in-depth interview data of purposively selected cases from a selected panel of human resource practitioners specialising in human capital measurement was thematically analysed in this exploratory-descriptive investigation. main findings: findings suggested that seven domains should be managed and measured. these domains highlight new areas of impact and levels of management. in addition, cross-domain relationships in measurement allow for an understanding of the impact and potential value on which to capitalise. practical/managerial implications: new domains to manage and measure focus the attention of practitioners beyond the transactional performance management paradigm to a transformational approach to influence the business strategy. higher education institutions need to develop students’ cognitive skills to facilitate systems thinking. contribution: this study suggests a new approach to managing and measuring the human capital function and the workforce. introduction top ↑ measurement frameworks for the measurement of human resource (hr) and human capital are in transition. (for clarity, the term human capital is employed where hr denotes management practices to manage human capital, the latter signifying a collective of unique attributes of employees or the workforce.) this transition is due to the fact that contemporary frameworks have different purposes and no longer reflect the balanced scorecard’s (kaplan & norton, 1996) perspectives and subsequent developments. these transitions echo becker, huselid and ulrich’s (2001) observation 12 years ago that: there is little consensus, … and no real framework for thinking about the subject … [and] we have seen little improvement in this over this over the past eight years. (p. ix) this study explores the changing human capital measurement domains. the awareness of human capital and its measurement practices have diverged, despite becker et al.’s (2001) observation that they have all converged. this is clear in the different purposes of frameworks, which are mainly driven by advancement in measurement. rooted in the performance management paradigm, with the main (and transactional) aim of implementing the business strategy, we observe various scorecards (see becker et al., 2001 and huselid, becker & beatty, 2005, for discussion of the hr scorecard and the workforce scorecard). not all scorecards in the literature are complementary (see phillips, 2005, for examples of transactional scorecards applicable to human resource management). the complementary scorecards paved the way towards the transformational approach embedded in a human capital contribution paradigm. different strands in this paradigm aim to show the impact of people and people-related initiatives on the bottom line (e.g. bassi & mcmurrer, 2008; boudreau & ramstad, 2007; cantrell, benton, laudal & thomas, 2006) and on the financial value of human capital (people as assets) (e.g. scholz, stein & müller, 2007). this is in acknowledgement of human capital as the primary source of value creation as opposed to physical and natural resources (bassi & mcmurrer, 2006). the above presentation of impact and value necessitates management questions, information and decisions. boudreau and ramstand (1998) argue that management information is used to support decisions, to persuade others and to set a fashion. d. davis (2005) propounds specific information needs at strategic, tactical and technical (operational) levels, each associated with their own types of decision. the roles of the business and strategic partners (ulrich, 1997) emphasise the integration between the hr function and the business to aid in decisions regarding the workforce. consequently, this issue has certain implications for the measurement and management of employee-related data and information, as well as for employees, and thus needs some explication. similarly, a shift in the view regarding the source of value has impacted the conceptualisation and measurement of the workforce and the hr function. this shift includes the intangible people aspects, such as culture and employee engagement. in addition to transactional management of processes and best practices, an additional issue is the understanding of the economic value of people in human capital analytics. these developments have created a need to understand people as an asset, as will be highlighted next. the changing context has created challenges for measurement frameworks. there is the necessity for an ongoing evaluation of hr practices, as there is no universal approach to improving organisational performance and it will thus vary between organisations (bassi & mcmurrer, 2007; brown, 2007). the purpose of this research was to answer the question: ‘what are the domains to consider in managing and measuring people?’ ‘domain’ here refers to a territory under rule, control or influence (domain, 2013). the concurrent research objective was to explore and describe changing management and measurement domains in the management of people amongst a selected panel of expert practitioners in human capital measurement. linkage models that aim to express the contribution of people (human capital) to organisational performance were not considered. previous literature addressed various measurement frameworks that emerged over time to manage and measure the hr function and human capital. historically, management predominantly made use of the balanced scorecard. this scorecard presents a limited understanding of the value and contribution of people, given the dynamic field of hr. additional scorecards were developed to allow a more detailed approach to measuring the hr function (e.g. becker et al., 2001) and the workforce (e.g. huselid et al., 2005). the importance of employees in relation to organisational performance gained prominence in more recent analytic frameworks for example, the human capital development framework (cantrell et al., 2006) and the human capital capability scorecard (bassi & mcmurrer, 2008). aside from the research that informed the hr scorecard and workforce scorecard (becker et al., 2001; huselid et al., 2005), little empirical work on recent domains to consider in managing and measuring performance exists. previous work focused on the extension of existing domains (e.g. hr scorecard and workforce scorecard), critique of existing frameworks (e.g. wicks & st. clair, 2007) and the proposal of a new framework, namely the human capital bridge (boudreau & ramstad, 2005). the main contribution of the present study was describing changing domains in the management and measurement of the hr function and human capital. the remainder of this article considers the theoretical framework that informed this research question, followed by the research design employed to explore and describe the question at hand. this is followed by the findings, after which a discussion and conclusion are presented. literature review the measurement frameworks to be used internally within an organisation to manage and measure performance, with the business strategy as context, are discussed chronologically in this section. three scorecards have been dominating people measurement, namely the balanced scorecard, the hr scorecard and the workforce scorecard. huselid et al. (2005) argue that these major scorecards share certain commonalities. firstly, they integrate with kaplan and norton’s (1996) balanced scorecard; secondly, strategy execution is emphasised (as opposed to operational issues) (huselid et al., 2005); thirdly, they are based on a system of leading and lagging indicators and, finally, they include both tangible and intangible assets (becker et al., 2001). the domains of each scorecard and inherent limitations are reviewed next. balanced scorecard kaplan and norton (1996) developed the balanced scorecard to assist management to clarify and translate the vision and strategy of an organisation, to communicate and link strategic objectives and measures, to plan, set targets and align strategic initiatives and to enhance feedback and learning. the balanced scorecard consists of four perspectives to measure. financial themes, in the financial perspective, propel the business strategy. the customer perspective includes measurements of market share, customer retention, customer acquisition, customer satisfaction and customer profitability. in addition, it delineates the value proposition to customers, embedded in product and service attributes (functionality, quality and price), customer relationship (quality of purchasing experience and personal relationships) and image and reputation. the internal business process perspective centres around three processes, namely innovation, operations and post-sale service (kaplan & norton, 1996). the impact of the hr function’s strategies and practices are more prominent in the next perspective.the learning and growth perspective consists of two groups of measurements. the first group, core employee drivers, consists of satisfaction, retention and productivity. satisfaction observes employee morale and overall job satisfaction. retention focuses on retaining employees in whom the organisation has a long-term interest. productivity measures reflect the sum of skills, morale, innovation, improved internal processes and satisfied customers (kaplan & norton, 1996). core employee drivers are influenced by situation-specific drivers, which are discussed next (kaplan & norton, 1996). the second group, situation-specific unique drivers, consists of staff competencies, climate for action and technological infrastructure. staff competencies signify reskilling in terms of strategic skills, training levels and skills leverage. climate for action refers to a key decision cycle, strategic focus, staff empowerment, personal alignment, morale and teaming. technology infrastructure, which refers to strategic technologies, strategic databases, proprietary software and patents and copyrights, generates information about each customer’s relationship with an organisation and rapid, timely and accurate feedback on products or services delivered to employees in operations (kaplan & norton, 1996). the design logic, to aid understanding of how value is created, centres around cause-and-effect relationships. the learning and growth perspective (e.g. employee skills) drives the internal perspective (e.g. process quality and cycle time), which, in turn, impacts the customer perspective (e.g. on-time delivery and customer loyalty). these leading indicators ultimately drive a lagging indicator, namely the financial perspective (e.g. return on capital employed) (kaplan & norton, 1996). three limitations exist, namely the integration of the hr function into the balanced scorecard and the underemphasis of the employee perspective, which is responsible for the concomitant management philosophy. the first limitation refers to a downsized representation of the hr function in the internal process perspective (boudreau & ramstad, 2002; flamholtz, 2005). to address this limitation, boudreau and ramstand (2002) present alternative measures (such as calculating hr function financials, e.g. hr programme budgets, determining customers’ levels of satisfaction using, e.g. hr client satisfaction surveys, determining operational efficiency, e.g. the yield rates of recruitment sources, and measuring learning and growth, e.g. the qualifications of hr practitioners) in all four perspectives. they argue that none of the approaches are indicative of a link to organisational outcomes. brown (2007) also points to measurement complexities associated with organisational performance. brown (2007) expanded kaplan and norton’s (1996) four perspectives to five categories. people metrics, for example, focuses on employee satisfaction, human capital, communication, health and safety, and diversity and ethics. brown argues that the first three metrics are always important for all types of organisations. human capital refers specifically to the value an employee has for an employer, as embedded in specific knowledge and skills, interpersonal knowledge and skills (non-technical abilities), intelligence or abilities and relationships. possibly implied (but not made explicit) and related to employees in brown’s (2007) framework is the impact of external metrics, which consider variables such as brand image, external factors (e.g. local economy, employment and job growth) and risks (e.g. competitive threats, environmental risks, safety and security risks, research findings risks, legal risks and technological threats and risks). the measurement of hr productivity and processes is reflected in the operational metrics. the remaining two categories are (1) financial and strategic and (2) customer metrics (brown, 2007). this approach perpetuates the limitation of the downsized hr function. the second limitation points to the approximation of the learning and growth perspective to people (flamholtz, 2005). wicks and st. clair (2007) point to the vagueness of the employees’ perspective and argue that people are pulled towards an overall organisational vision (kaplan & norton, 1992, cited in wicks & st. clair, 2007) and, consequently, that motivation and commitment cannot be assumed. though commitment is not addressed, kaplan and norton (2006) consider the notion of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. in reviewing the learning and growth perspective, kaplan and norton (2004) shed light on the importance of intangible assets to support the internal processes. three groups of intangible assets, termed strategic readiness, were identified: human capital (i.e. skills, training and knowledge), information capital (i.e. systems, databases and networks) and organisation capital (i.e. culture, leadership, alignment and teamwork). two concepts in organisation capital deserve discussion. kaplan and norton (2004) describe leadership as motiving employees to new ways of working, specifically behaviours that support value creation (i.e. a focus on customers, innovation and results) and strategy execution (i.e. employees’ understanding of the company’s mission, vision and values, accountability, communications and teamwork). culture encompasses culture as well as climate, reflected respectively in shared attitudes and beliefs free from the organisation’s infrastructure and shared perceptions of formal and informal organisational policies and practices. culture (and change) is critical, as it refers to new attitudes and behaviours required due to changes in the business strategy (kaplan & norton, 2004). kaplan and norton argue that different stakeholders attach different levels of importance to intangible assets. despite kaplan and norton’s (2004) move towards employee commitment, buttressed by culture, wicks and st. clair (2007) argue for the need for employee motivation (in this case, addressed by leadership) and a commitment philosophy, as there is no specific focus on employee commitment in the balanced scorecard and it is left to interpretation by management. wicks and st. clair propound the competing values framework to understand how culture and managerial behaviour impact organisational effectiveness. in addition to the balanced scorecard approach, emphasis is placed on collaboration (which focuses on improving employee satisfaction and work systems and enhancing employee learning) and creation (which refers to innovation, growth and promotion of health and wellness). the third limitation articulates the philosophy management holds regarding measurement. wicks and st. clair (2007) point to the balanced scorecard’s management philosophy, which focuses on control rather than commitment. a management philosophy marked by control presupposes a trade-off between the key variables of cost and quality and people, who may consequently be undervalued and overworked employees. this could result in negative quality and cost implications in the long run. conversely, a commitment-based philosophy that fosters cooperation and trust allows organisations to respond more rapidly to changes in the environment (khatri et al., 2006, cited in wicks & st. clair, 2007). in response, wicks and st. clair argue that their competing values framework is consistent with the commitment management philosophy. rather than adapting particular hr-related and people-related limitations of the balanced scorecard, a new scorecard for hr, which is discussed next, was developed by becker et al. (2001). human resource scorecard becker et al. (2001) developed the hr scorecard to address the downsized hr function in the balanced scorecard. the hr scorecard consists of five interrelated elements pertaining to the hr function. competence refers to knowledge, skills, abilities or personality characteristics, and is represented in competencies such as knowledge of the business, delivery of hr practices, management of change, management of culture and personal credibility. high-performance work systems unique to each organisation are identified after defining the hr deliverables. high-performance work systems emphasise a performance focus of elements (e.g. hr policies, processes and practices) in the hr system (e.g. linking selection and promotion decisions to validated competency models, developing strategies to ensure skills demanded to execute strategy and enacting policies that attract, retain and motivate high-performing employees). system alignment refers to two dimensions of alignment, namely between strategy implementation and the hr system, and hr’s strategic role and competencies of human resource practitioners and line managers; the two dimensions are linked to specific hr deliverables in executing the business strategy.hr efficiency refers to core efficiency measures and strategic measures. hr deliverables consist of performance drivers and hr enablers. performance drivers (which demonstrate strategic influence) relate to core people-related capabilities or assets (e.g. productivity and employee satisfaction). since they are unique to organisations, it is challenging to identify them. hr enablers reinforce performance drivers and include an organisation’s entire system of enablers or hr value chain (e.g. from employee selection to development and rewards). this scorecard is underpinned by a specific design logic. competencies effect a high-performance work system, which, in turn, impacts the system alignment and, as a consequence, ensures (or not) delivery and efficiency (becker et al., 2001). similar to the balanced scorecard’s limitation of underrepresentation of people, beatty and schneider (2005) point to a lack of prominence of employees and their strategic performance in the hr scorecard. in addition, the role of line managers responsible for strategic performance of employees is understated in previous scorecards (huselid et al., 2005). huselid et al. (2005) addressed the limitation in employee representation and its critical role in strategy implementation, and subsequently developed the workforce scorecard, which is explicated next. workforce scorecard huselid et al.’s (2005) workforce scorecard is a response to a missing link (i.e. people) between the balanced scorecard and the hr scorecard. their central argument rests on the notion that an effective workforce is, in addition to being the most important asset of an organisation, also critical to organisational performance and is controlled (directly and immediately) by managers.huselid et al. (2005) advocate four elements that are leading indicators of success, driving the implementation of operational, customer and financial strategies of the balanced scorecard. workforce mindset and culture refer to the norms and expectations that the workforce needs to understand. workforce competencies comprise the knowledge, skills and ability of each employee to execute the organisational strategy. workforce behaviours consist of leadership and employee behaviours that are consistent with implementing the organisational strategy. the focus is on strategic employee performance rather than the contribution of the hr function (huselid et al., 2005). workforce success is: the product of very specific leadership and workforce behaviours. leadership and workforce behaviours are in turn a function of workforce competencies. finally, competencies, behaviors, and results are a function of the firm’s skills [(p. 70) and] as such reflect how well the workforce has contributed to the execution of the organisation’s strategy. (huselid et al., 2005, p. 6) the workforce scorecard integrates with the balanced scorecard and the hr scorecard (see huselid et al., 2005, for a visual depiction). to manage and measure workforce success, where the workforce scorecard bridges a gap between strategy and the hr function, is argued to be the optimal approach in value creation. this chain originates in an organisation’s strategic and operational goals (embedded in the balanced scorecard), is cascaded into the development of a workforce strategy (in the workforce scorecard, with increasing responsibility of line management) and is subsequently reflected in the development of the hr function’s strategy (in the hr scorecard), which lays the foundation for the workforce being a strategic asset. value is created in the opposite direction (from the human sciences research council [hsrc], through the workforce scorecard to the balanced scorecard) in this value chain. phillips (2005) published optional scorecards for human resource management on a smaller scale. these scorecards represent variations in configuration and focus; however, their focus is internal and transactional. boudreau and ramstand (2002) argue that scorecards focus on efficiency and effectiveness and lack an indicative link to organisational outcomes. in response, they developed the human capital bridge to address this shortcoming (boudreau & ramstad, 2007). human capital bridge boudreau and ramstad (2007) retained the focus on efficiency and effectiveness. efficiency is reflected in two elements, namely investments and policies and practices. effectiveness underpins the elements of human capacity and aligned actions. the researchers added an impact anchor, which includes elements of talent pools and structures, resources and processes and, lastly, sustainable strategic success to address the shortcomings described above. planning starts with the impact elements, then the effectiveness elements and, lastly, the efficiency elements. execution happens in the opposite direction.with the focus on impact, xirogiannis, chytas, glykas and valiris (2008) argue that, at strategic level (impact level), business strategy, organisational capabilities, hr practices, shareholder satisfaction, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction (as an integrated domain) should be considered when designing a decision modelling tool to aid management in reasoning about strategic-level metrics. it is evident that the hr function has shown increasing strategic functioning over time, considering various foci, outcomes, perspectives, the increasing importance of employees and logic. the changes are evident in the enlargement of focus (developments to address the limitations of scorecards over time), enlargement of outcomes (from efficiency to effectiveness to impact), the reflected enrichment of perspectives (e.g. health and safety, diversity and ethics, brown, 2007), the importance of employees (e.g. in the workforce scorecard and the desired management philosophy, wicks & st. clair, 2007) and lastly, a value-adding logic that connects various perspectives. what remains unchanged is the centrality of the business strategy. the following section describes the research design employed to explore these issues. research design top ↑ research approach this exploratory-descriptive (marshall & rossman, 1999) investigation was embedded in the qualitative paradigm. marshall and rossman (1999) argue that exploratory studies furnish important categories of meaning that produce hypotheses for further investigation, owing to rich descriptions of underexplored complex circumstances, and descriptive studies aim to document and describe the phenomenon.the researchers’ ontology, the stance of reality and what can be known about it (nel, 2007) are rooted in realism, which asserts an external reality independent of people’s beliefs about it or understanding of it (ritchie & lewis, 2004). realists seek to understand a common reality in which people operate inter-dependently (sobh & perry, 2006). ontology favours a particular epistemology (guba & lincoln, 1994), which considers what knowledge is, how it is possible, ideas about the natural world, how we can (and ought to) obtain knowledge, how we can (and ought to) reason and, consequently, refers to the methods, validity and scope of knowledge researchers use (nel, 2007). the epistemological position was objectivism, which views phenomena as external facts outside the researcher’s influence (bryman & bell, 2003). consequently, this study was approached with a distant, non-interactive posture and excluded values and other biases through empirical methods, including confounding factors, in order not to influence the outcomes, as recommended by guba (1990). case selection strategy for this investigation, a multiple case study approach was adopted to explore and describe the changing measurement domains. a case study strategy allows the exploration and description of a contemporary event (mouton, 2001; yin, 2009) without behavioural control of the events (yin, 2009). furthermore, it accommodates (exploratory-) descriptive questions and provides an understanding into the decisions participants take pertaining to a specific phenomenon (yin, 2012). moreover, to ensure depth and richness of the potential findings and analytical (transferability) as opposed to statistical generalisation, a multiple case study design was adopted. this design contributes to the credibility of an inquiry with multiple sources of evidence (e.g. field notes and observations and unsolicited secondary data) (yin, 2012) and an a priori theoretical framework to guide data collection and analysis (yin, 2009), all in a triangulation fashion that permits a convergence of data (babbie & mouton, 2001; yin, 2009) and thus enhances transferability (babbie & mouton, 2001). the researchers in particular implemented yin’s (2012) holistic multiple case design, focussing on expert individuals. this design permits replication, given multiple cases (with a single unit of analysis), which allows assessment of findings (which could also include contrasting responses). unsolicited documents (and field notes) were included in the analysis and treated as the voice of the participant; this ruled out yin’s embedded case study with multiple units of analysis and as such data was not treated as a separate unit of analysis. research method research setting the field setting from which the data was sourced consisted of a small panel of expert practitioners (cases). these participants, who formed part of a group of measurement specialists, were actively involved in measurement; in particular, they exerted leadership and consulted at an executive level. the individuals were considered the unit of analysis. entrée and establishing researcher roles entrée was gained in two ways: firstly, by approaching an informant who participated and, thereafter, by contacting purposively selected participants (non-referred) known to the first and second author and snowballed participants (nominated). all participants were firstly contacted by phone to inquire about possible participation in this study. nominated participants were informed of their nomination, without disclosing the identity of the referee. an informative email was then sent to the participant, detailing the purpose of this study. when continued interest was displayed, a convenient time was scheduled to conduct the interview. sampling the researchers focused on a community of members who share a particular interest, in this case, the measurement of the hr function and people. in addition, they needed to be specialist practitioners who functioned at an executive level. furthermore, these individuals needed to exert leadership and consult in the field of human capital measurement. this homogeneous approach was adopted to sample participants of similar background and experiences to understand a focused issue (patton, 2002), as they may provide meaningful findings and interpretations (guest, bunce & johnson, 2006) and it may reduce the number of participants needed (guest et al., 2006; jette, grover & keck, 2003).the above criteria were applied to the non-probability sampling strategies as part of a systemic plan to avoid referral bias regarding nominees, which could result in friends or the easiest person to recruit being nominated (davis, johnson, randolph, liberty & eterno, 2005). sampling commenced with a key informant (babbie & mouton, 2001), who identified other possible participants. snowball sampling was next applied, where collected data (henning, van rensburg & smit, 2004), in addition to participant nomination (brink, van der walt & van rensburg, 2006), pointed to other possible participants. purposive sampling, a third strategy, was employed, drawing on the researchers’ knowledge about of the topic (henning et al., 2004) and practitioners who were knowledgeable about the particular field (brink et al., 2006). seven participants resulted from these sampling strategies. six participants’ data were included in the analysis; they were from the financial services industry (two cases), the information and communication technologies industry (three cases) and the food and beverages industry (one case). they occupied executive positions: two were in human resources, two were chief operating officers, one was involved in strategy and one in operations. three participants were registered industrial psychologists and the remaining three had qualifications outside of the discipline of management. in addition, they all possessed a doctoral degree, except for one, whose highest qualification was a master’s degree. they were all white men, aged between 41 and 57 years (the average age was 50). the data of a seventh participant (from the technology, i.e. software and computer services, sector) were excluded from the data analysis. data collection methods primary and secondary data was collected. to collect primary data, unstructured and open-ended interviews were employed to ensure intense and broad understanding of each individual’s point of view. participation and consent, in the context of confidentiality, were agreed upon at the beginning of an interview. field notes were made during the interviews, with the permission of the participants. all participants were asked the same question, namely: ‘what contextual factors should be taken into account in selecting human capital metrics?’ probing questions about core (eriksson & kovalainen, 2008) and sensitising (patton, 2002) concepts were posed in light of the immediate interview context (as facilitated by the field notes to formulate new questions, patton, 2002) and the purpose of the study (patton, 2002). original interviews varied between 26 min and 1 h 23 min. unsolicited secondary data (e.g. participant-authored opinion articles and organisational documentation) were collected. this assisted in interpreting primary data by means of discussion, comment and debate (mouton, 2001). secondary data was analysed, with the consent of participants (mason, 2002) and with the research question in mind. recording of data primary interview data was recorded at a high audio sampling rate to ensure clarity, which facilitated an efficient transcription process and, consequently, the verification of transcripts. interviews were transcribed verbatim, including all superfluous phrases and words and other random aspects, such as interruptions and pauses. this approach provided confirmatory support during analysis for the rejection of one participant’s data (see description below). secondary data (i.e. solicited and unsolicited documents) and field notes were digitised where required. all data (primary and secondary) in paper format was converted and stored digitally (in portable document format [pdf]) with password protection and backups in the digital domain. digital data was also contextually stored as a hermeneutic unit in atlas.ti and protected by a password. data in hard copy format was filed and locked away. the latter strategy facilitated the retrieval of data. data analysis schurink, fouché and de vos (2011) propound five important aspects of qualitative data analysis. two particular aspects, namely that data analysis can be conducted in numerous ways and, hence, be classified into informal to formal strategies, informed the choice of data analysis method. an informal data analysis strategy, thematic analysis, as advocated by braun and clarke (2006), was employed to sort, systematise and analyse the data. claims made using thematic analysis reflect reality in reporting patterns of experiences, meanings and the reality of the participants and thus do not develop a theory and are not wedded to a specific theory (braun & clarke, 2006).braun and clarke’s (2006) approach to thematic analysis consists of six phases. phase 1 commenced with data familiarisation, which focuses on the depth and breadth of data through repeated active reading in search of meanings and patterns. field notes were used to assist with data familiarisation (patton, 2002). next, in phase 2, initial code generation, data was organised into initial codes, as informed by interesting aspects that may form the basis of themes, through a systematic approach, with full and equal attention across the data set. interviews were also coded for examples of measurements. in this phase, researchers choose between different approaches and levels of coding. braun and clarke propose an inductive (data-driven), deductive (theory-driven) or hybrid approach. an inductive approach was adopted and, in some cases, deductive, according to the research question, to formulate definitions of the codes at an explicit level. both latent and semantic (in vivo code generation) levels were used. this is in agreement with braun and clarke’s argument that analysis can focus exclusively or primarily on one level. once data was related to codes, searching for themes (phase 3) commenced. in this phase, different codes were sorted into potential themes. relationships between codes, themes and different levels of themes were identified (braun & clarke, 2006). next, we validated themes against supporting data, in phase 4: theme reviewing. braun and clarke claim that themes should ‘adequately capture the contours of the coded data’ (p. 91). problematic themes may be collapsed into each other or broken down into separate themes; some themes may not be actual themes (e.g. if there is insufficient supporting data or the data is too diverse). unstructured interviews result, as was experienced, in a great deal of time spent to code and find patterns in responses, due to different questions and resulting different responses (patton, 2002). in phase 5, defining and naming themes, we defined and further refined themes by considering the essence of each theme and the aspect of the data it captures and analysed data within the themes (braun & clarke, 2006). the last phase, producing the report, entailed transferring output of phase 5 in the format of a report (braun & clarke, 2006). strategies employed to ensure quality data the criteria for trustworthiness of qualitative research follow a mutually dependent logic, in that a study should be dependable (reliable) to be credible (valid) to be transferable (lincoln & guba, 1985, cited in babbie & mouton, 2001). dependability refers to the notion of reaching similar findings when the same or similar participants are used in the same context when repeating a study (babbie & mouton, 2001). guba and lincoln (1985, cited in babbie & mouton, 2001) introduced the strategy of inquiry audit, in which an auditor examines ‘critical incidents (documentation and interview notes) and a running account of the process of inquiry’ (p. 278) and the product (babbie & mouton, 2001). we documented the data reconstruction and synthesis illuminated by process notes, disseminated in this article, and a natural history and reflexivity in the original research report. this report also explicates the methodological and ethical complexities of this research design (sugden & tomlinson, 1999, in sparkes, 2002).credibility considers the truth as exemplified by the compatibility between the realities amongst participants and those that the researcher ascribes to them (babbie & mouton, 2001). to ensure credibility, reflexivity was conducted (before and during the project), which contributed to objectivity, avoided bias brought about by background and prior knowledge (taylor, gibbs & lewins, 2005) and sensitised the researcher to the researcher-participant relationship and its consequences on data collection, analysis and representation (mays & pope, 2000). in combatting bias, we applied selection criteria and specific sampling strategies. during data analysis, we conducted member checks, to review vague concepts and interpretation to deepen our understanding thereof (patton, 2002). peer debriefing was employed to review the process of coding and emerging themes, as well as to consider an outlier. outliers may present valuable insights into the findings or, as a negative case, to expand and revise the interpretation to explain this outlier (onwuegbuzie & leech, 2007). consequently, participant 1 was excluded from analysis, post theory and investigator triangulation (denzin, 1978, in seale, 1999). this case displayed conceptual confusion, exemplified by incorrect use of terminology. additional intentional influencing tactics were also employed, namely social desirability (babbie & mouton, 2001; mouton, 2001) and impressions management (roodt, 2009). data was collected to meet the criteria of adequacy, in particular, saturation, the attainment of which means that variation is understood and can be explained (morse, 1994). attaining breadth and depth (bowen, 2008) and a concern for meaning and not frequencies (mason, 2010) guided the data analysis to achieve saturation. during phase 2 of braun and clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis, transcripts were coded to achieve breadth and saturation of codes was reached after the first five participants’ interviews were coded, after which no new codes emerged. saturation is reached when no new codes emerge, as argued by guest et al. (2006). in order to account for more detail and variation as propounded by charmaz (2006), the focus shifted to a depth of saturation at which point codes were sorted into themes (phase 3) and selected themes were collapsed into each other (phase 4) to reveal the domains discussed in the findings. in addition, a natural history that explicated methodological and ethical complexities of this research design (sugden & tomlinson, 1999 in sparkes, 2002) accompanied the original research project. transferability is the extent to which findings can be related to other participants (or contexts) and necessitates credibility (babbie & mouton, 2001). sufficiently detailed descriptions (thick descriptions) of contextualised data were collected and reported (babbie & mouton, 2001). purposive sampling maximised the range of information from and about the context (babbie & mouton, 2001). in addition, snowball sampling was employed to locate specialists to maximise information (babbie & mouton, 2001). confirmability was approximated through investigator and theory triangulation, an audit trail and inter-rater reliability: the coding process outcomes were verified by two peer investigators not part of this study. reporting a scientific style, an external privileged researcher’s account (sparkes, 2002), is employed to report what has been found (plummer, 2001, in sparkes, 2002). in support of the merit and validity of the analysis (braun & clarke, 2006), a realist writing style (sparkes, 2002) was employed to foreground participants’ voices and was embedded within the analytical narrative (or scientific writing style, braun & clarke, 2006). selected participants’ quotations were edited, since english was not the first language of most participants, by removing unnecessary repetitions or patterns of words and irrelevant or disjointed interjections; ‘[sic]’ was added to anomalous or erroneous sections. findings top ↑ seven domains to measure were found. groundedness of the domains (themes) across the dataset is indicated in brackets. domain 1: burning issues and emerging trends within the people arena (7) participant 4 explained that organisations, in a turbulent context, must be able to scan the external environment to be informed about people challenges, trends and issues:‘that’s the storm the pilot is flying into. [this domain becomes the] radar screen, so to speak, [showing] what the weather patterns or systems look like.’ (participant 4, male, 57) participant 4 offered qualitative benchmarking to understand nuances within the organisation and leading practices and world-class people management employed by organisations: ‘you can do the quantitative assessments, but you miss out a lot in the nuances.’ (participant 4, male, 57) ‘you may be doing reasonably well on the figures but qualitatively are you a world class? do you have world-class people management in your company?’ (participant 4, male, 57) there are general issues and trends to keep track of, for example talent management and employment equity (as a strategic issue): ‘the main one is your environmental scanning domain where you say, “what are the burning issues and emerging trends with respect to the people arena?” in other words what are the things? ee [employment equity], ah talent management, that tells you these are the things you have to watch.’ (participant 4, male, 57) domain 2: human resource function delivery excellence (35) this domain considers the functioning of two elements, namely the hr function (and practices) and hr professionals, alongside the hr value chain. participant 4 described the domain as follows:‘this is your performance along your hr value chain … [also] your hr value chain delivery … [where you look] at the hr function itself … [and the] service delivery excellence by the people [hr] professionals.’ (participant 4, male, 57) in addition to compliance, the hr function needs to have effective practices that could predict an impact on the organisation: ‘so, in other words, if you’ve done all your good hr, like your training and your good pipeline management and equity management and all of those sorts of things, they could predict a hard-nose[d] business sales performance a year later in a team which is pretty good.’ (participant 7, male, 54) however, the hr practices facilitated by hr professionals are inseparable and, once optimised, may contribute to the success of the various functions: ‘one of the other things that we do is that we have an hr review which is an annual review of all the hr functions within the business. and, you know, again it’s driven by hard-nose[d] metrics that we collect all the stuff in, have a look [at] it and say, “look, you know, if you’re a good hr team, you’re helping your business unit to slow down labour turnover. you’re helping your business unit speed up filling of vacancies. you help your business unit attract high calibre talent.” and through all of those processes, by optimising your workforce, sales, marketing, manufacturing and all the rest of the line functions, … [you] contribute to them [business units].’ (participant 7, male, 54) examples of measurements found are: the hr budget (allocation and compliance), hr expenses (e.g. spend on recruitment, spend on and cycle time of the process), quality and utilisation (e.g. with competency acquisition and implementation), return on investment, revenue (e.g. hr costs relative to total revenue of the organisation) hr practitioners versus full-time equivalents and span of control. domain 3: strategic people initiatives’ progress (7) the purpose of this domain is to track strategic people initiatives ‘like a little bit of a project’ (participant 4):‘[these are] strategic people issues and how you are progressing against that and what value they are already adding to the business.’ (participant 4, male, 57) ‘let’s say you’re introducing leadership development in your company. and only installing or putting in a learning academy and putting your leaders through that, how far are [we] with it?’ (participant 4, male, 57) failing to focus on strategic people initiatives may cause the organisation to suffer, as participant 1 explained: ’but the overall direction of the business suffer, because i … haven’t elevated the business.’ (participant 1, male, 54) measurement should be included in the management of these initiatives or projects: ‘it says also [that] we expect now, through our leadership development, à la phillips or kirkpatrick, to see a 5% difference in the effectiveness of our leaders.’ (participant 4, male, 57) talent management was indicated as a concept to consider. other, limited examples refer to the unique strategic contexts of organisations. domain 4: employee contribution to business success (42) some participants claimed the importance of the contribution of employees to the performance and success of business performance indicators in the context of the business strategy:‘how are people contributing to the success of the business in terms of the key performance indicators for the business. of course those indicators … have to then also be contextualised and will be determined by the strategy of the business.’ (participant 4, male, 57) participant 4 mentioned that this domain represents the perspectives of the balanced scorecard, excluding the learning and growth perspective: ‘and your business balanced scorecard actually sits inside that block. in other words, how much profit are you generating per employee, how are you growing your market share per employee that you employed, across [three] dimensions of the balanced scorecard.’ (participant 4, male, 57) participant 5 indicated that people-related measures should be linked to performance indicators, which also assist to formulate a business strategy: ‘think about how you as hr help this business to compete better ... all the metrics that you use help this business to grow market share, to make more money, to sell more merchandise. … so once the dependent variable for hr practitioners can be whatever the purpose of business of that particular business is, then i think we’ll get this sorted. so on our retail side it’s about selling furniture. right. so the hr metric must be within that context.’ (participant 5, male, 48) dependent variables found, though non-exhaustive, were, for example: profit, growth, market share, innovation, sustainability and operational excellence. domain 5: the effectiveness of the human resource value chain (135) this domain focuses on the effectiveness of the hr value chain in supporting the business value chain within an organisational context (i.e. design of the organisation and related processes). participants advocated the efficiency and effectiveness of activities and processes in the hr value chain, as embedded in the understanding of the specific roles and responsibilities. participant 2 explained the importance of understanding the context:‘it’s about understanding where it [hr] fits into the [business] value chain, … what’s the role, what are the key activities that are performed by this particular environment … what is that they’re [hr function] trying to achieve in the organisation?’ (participant 2, male, 51) three elements contribute to the effectiveness of the hr value chain. firstly, cascading the business strategy and understanding the implementation thereof in the business value chain: ‘then you start to disaggregate them, pull that down and say, “which part of this organisation is responsible for doing that?”’ (participant 2, male, 51) ‘implementation once you [hr strategic partner] have decided what the strategy is and [have] tested it with these guys [management of functions] and said, “that’s it. that’s possible.” but that how to think, how to position, who’s positioned where, how are we going to manage the dynamics, all of those sort of things which are sort of somewhere between tactics and strategy, i suppose, i think the hr guys do play a very significant role, or can.’ (participant 2, male, 51) secondly, a solid understanding of the activities (including inputs and outputs) in the business value chain will influence the enabling people policies and practices: ‘what are the inputs? what are the outputs? what do i want and how am i going to drive behaviour that is consistent with where i want to get the business strategically?’ (participant 2, male, 51) ‘then you have to look at your enabling people policies and practises. out of that you will define your modes of client engagement with the company and then you would have to define the people contribution to the success of these organisations.’ (participant 4, male, 57) lastly, a partnership with the business ensures a supporting hr value chain: ‘you can’t be a partner unless you have a shared desired outcome. and, taking it to the metrics level, if you are hr and you are measured on staff turnover, for example, you can’t be a partner to me unless i am also measured to some extent on staff turnover and you are also measured, at least part, by what i’m responsible for.’ (participant 3, male, 47) ‘[we] can only get this right if we close the loops. here’s [sic] the hr experts. here’s [sic] the support functions in business. here’s the front end of business, we sell stuff. we’re here to compete better. let’s get these links sorted.’ (participant 5, male, 48) groups of representing measurements found amongst the participants were: staffing (recruitment and selection, headcount and turnover), competence acquisition, performance of talent (differentiation of the workforce), succession planning, employment relations and compliance (e.g. employment equity). domain 6: employee engagement (33) participant 4 described this domain, found amongst most of the participants, as follows:‘it deals with the compelling reasons [or measures] why this desired, ideal person(s) must join and stay with the organisation [and] aims to maximise people’s engagement in the organisation in terms of their hearts, minds and spirit.’ (participant 4, male, 57) participant 7 gave an example of causation between domain 5 (hr value chain effectiveness) and how it impacts this domain: ‘i did [a] study a couple of years ago, looking at the correlations between [a] whole host of hr variables, organisational climate and hard-nosed business measures. and i found that not only were the correlations between them significant in a cross-sectional setting, they are also predictable over a one year period.’ (participant 7, male, 54) examples mentioned by participants of what to consider to measure were: employer-employee value proposition, organisational culture and climate, employee commitment, motivation, morale, health (relating to stress), characteristics of a job (e.g. interesting and exciting, stretched goals and accountability), employee satisfaction, communication and feedback. domain 7: customer satisfaction (32) some participants indicated the importance of customer satisfaction, both externally and internally. although usually associated with external customer satisfaction, some participants made reference to sears and roebuck and co.’s employee-customer-profit chain, in which employees, customers and profit are causally related (as discussed in becker et al., 2001). participant 4 included leadership in the above causal chain as impacting on peoples’ attitudes and, ultimately, (internal) customer satisfaction:‘here’s my leadership. this is what leadership does. it impacts on my people and particularly their attitudes. attitudes in turn affect customer satisfaction, customer satisfaction in turn affect the profitability of the company.’ (participant 4, male, 57) ‘when you integrate with your other functions in terms of customer satisfaction that will, with high levels of motivation, impact your bottom line positively. we make those assumptions.’ (participant 7, male, 54) two participants pointed to challenges of the above assumption, both pointing to validity issues: ‘it’s not necessarily true because if there’s competitive product on the market that comes in at a same quality, significantly lower price or whatever, the customer may still be very happy with you.’ (participant 2, male, 51) ‘but it’s amazing how many different versions there are of what constitutes customer satisfaction or sales performance. you’d think it’s quite simple, but the more you think ... the more you uncover dangerous assumptions.’ (participant 3, male, 47) the implementation of the business strategy within the business and hr value chain (see domain 5) will ultimately shape and influence customer expectations and satisfaction: ‘so you’ll have to go and contextualise it. look at some of these general things because you’ll have to educate your customer and then relate and say, “okay, this one could be important for you in relation to that because you are a factory and you’ve got a mine.”’ (participant 6, male, 41) all participants referred, unqualified though, to customer satisfaction to measure. only participant 4 highlighted the number of customer complaints per thousand employees as a measurement. discussion top ↑ the purpose of this study was to explore and describe changing domains in human capital measurement. consequently, this study highlighted seven domains, especially the emerging focus on intangibles (employee engagement and customer satisfaction), as being important to measure. the main contribution of this study is to describe changing domains in the management and measurement of the hr function and human capital.four new domains were found, namely domains 1, 3, 6 and 7. domain 1 has not previously been discussed in the literature and senior management in hr is urged to scan the external environment. domain 3, in which strategic people initiatives are monitored, is a new configuration, despite literature that propounds the use of scorecards to implement a strategy (i.e. people initiatives) (becker et al., 2001; huselid et al., 2005; kaplan & norton, 1996). domain 7 escalates the importance of leadership in strategy implementation to a separate domain. literature partially addresses aspects of leadership and climate (kaplan & norton, 2004), motivation and a management philosophy of commitment (wicks & st. clair, 2007). a possible explanation for the new configuration of domains may be a systems approach for the hr function and human resource practitioners, to be integrated and influenced organisation-wide. domain 1 could be explained by the increasing importance of strategy formulation and implementation for hr professionals. domains 2, 4 and 5 reflect previous scorecards. the hr scorecard’s (becker et al., 2001) doables and deliverables are reflected in domain 2 (i.e. hr competencies and practices and hr costs) and domain 5 (i.e. hr system alignment). the workforce scorecard (huselid et al., 2005) is reflected in domains 6 and 7 (i.e. leadership and workforce behaviours), as well as domain 3 (i.e. workforce success against strategic objectives). of note is the scant representation of the workforce’s mindset and culture (as found in domains 2, 4 and 6) and competencies in a particular domain. the financial perspective of the balanced scorecard (kaplan & norton, 1996) is reflected in domain 4. the domains reflect new areas of impact and level of management. domains 1 to 3 focus on the hr function and senior management, with domain 2 also calling for a monitoring (transactional) role. in partnership with line management, domains 4 and 5 focus on the organisation (external to the hr function) and respectively call for a strategic and a transactional role. similarly, domains 6 and 7 focus on both the hr function and the organisation; each calls for a strategic and a transactional role. perspectives that are impacted in a logical sequence in scorecards (becker et al., 2001; huselid et al., 2005; kaplan & norton, 1996) gave way to considering what and who is to be impacted and implied and the level of management required to do so. a possible explanation could be a systemic approach to the organisation (and not perspectives of value-add). given the focus of impact, discussed above, it is no surprise to find the concept of understanding contribution and value that is now embedded in finding relationships across domains. despite scorecard literature advocating perspectives that, through a sequence of leading perspectives, create value and measure relationships (becker et al., 2001; huselid et al., 2005; kaplan & norton, 1996), participants’ focus shifted to systemically understand value in terms of relationships. the above focus on cross-domain relationships now allows for understanding and creating impact, both within the hr function (internal focus) and outside of the hr function (external focus). impact has been understood in terms of scorecard perspectives (which include efficiency and effective measures) (becker et al., 2001; huselid et al., 2005; kaplan & norton, 1996), in agreement with boudreau and ramstad (2007), who argue for impact within the hr function with regard to certain elements. in conclusion, the hr function and workforce remain important and particular attributes to consider have been regrouped within an internal or external focus of the hr function. furthermore, changing roles (not necessarily competencies) are noticeable within the architecture and modes of engagement within the hr function. this then points to the importance of the conceptualisation of the hr function according to a systems approach and how to unravel the value embedded in the workforce. furthermore, the leading indicator perspectives of the scorecard parlance gave way to an understanding of relationships amongst domains and how to create an impact on these relationships. as such, strategy formulation can no longer rely on scorecard perspectives. complexity in relationships now drives strategy formulation and implementation. practical implications this study has implications for various stakeholders. for hr practitioners, reconceptualised domains (architecture) of performance to manage and measure, including new hr programmes and practices like ethics and diversity, are made available. in addition, these domains separate the hr function into different levels (strategic and operational) and areas of responsibility to allow human resource practitioners to function at a particular level of complexity. consequently, these domains compel hr professionals to move beyond a performance management paradigm into a strategic paradigm to allow for an understanding of possible change inside and outside the organisation that may influence the formulation of the business strategy. thus, the implementation process of the strategy becomes a transactional activity that now focuses attention on the formulation of business strategy or strategic change. such differentiation allows for specific types and levels of information, tailor-made for specific audiences within and outside the hr function. the domains found allow line managers not only to take decisions, but also to monitor specific aspects within these domains that are of importance to their function. the above necessitates higher education institutions to focus on the development of students’ cognitive skills to allow systems thinking and functioning within a complex environment. limitations of the study despite efforts to ensure dependability and transferability, the findings are limited to a particular context, as the research design was directly applicable to the research participants (or six multiple cases) investigated in specific sectors in the south african context. despite the limitations, this type of study provides an in-depth description of a small number of cases, which ensures high construct validity and in-depth insights into the findings (mouton, 2001). suggestions for future research the reconceptualisation of the roles within the hr function should be quantitatively explored and explained. furthermore, a similar exercise should consider the levels of complexity and responsibility and how they relate to the development of the business strategy. conclusion the purpose of this study was to identify changing measurement domains in human capital management. taking a qualitative approach and applying thematic analysis to the unstructured interview data of six expert practitioners functioning at executive level, seven domains were found. therefore this study has met its objective. acknowledgements top ↑ we thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. prof willem schurink is acknowledged for his contributions to the methodology of this study. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions p.d.c.-f. (university of johannesburg) and g.r. (university of johannesburg) were responsible for the overall conceptualisation of this study, whilst the first author executed the study and wrote the article. references top ↑ babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2001). the practice of social research. cape town, south africa: oxford university press southern africa (pty) ltd.bassi, l.j., & mcmurrer, d.p. (2006). beyond employee satisfaction, roi, and the balanced scorecard: improving business results through improved human capital measurement. in r.c. preziosi (ed.), the 2006 pfeiffer annual: human resource management, (pp. 3–15). san francisco, ca: john wiley & sons, inc. bassi, l.j., & mcmurrer, d.p. (2007). maximizing your return on people. harvard business review, 85(3), 115–123. bassi, l.j., & mcmurrer, d.p. (2008). toward a human capital measurement methodology. advances in developing human resources, 10(6), 863–881. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1523422308325611 beatty, r.w., & schneider, c.e. (2005). workforce strategy: a missing link in hr’s future success. in m. losey, s. meisinger & d. ulrich (eds.), the future of human resource management: 64 thought leaders explore the critical hr issues of today and tomorrow, (pp. 199–207). hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons, inc. becker, b., huselid, m.a., & ulrich, d. (2001). the hr scorecard: linking people, strategy, and performance. boston, ma: harvard business school press. boudreau, j.w., & ramstad, p.m. (1998). human resource metrics: can measures be strategic? cahrs working paper #98-10. ithaca, ny: cornell university, school of industrial and labor relations, center for advanced human resource studies. boudreau, j.w., & ramstad, p.m. (2002). strategic hrm measurement in the 21st century: from justifying hr to strategic talent leadership. cahrs working paper #02-15. ithaca, ny: cornell university, school of industrial and labor relations, center for advanced human resource studies. boudreau, j.w., & ramstad, p.m. (2005). talentship, talent segmentation, and sustainability: a new hr decision science paradigm for a new strategy definition. human resource management, 44(2), 129–136. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20054 boudreau, j.w., & ramstad, p.m. (2007). beyond hr: the new science of human capital. boston, ma: harvard business school press. bowen, g. (2008). naturalistic inquiry and the saturation concept: a research note. qualitative research, 8(1), 137–142. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468794107085301 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa brink, h., van der walt, c., & van rensburg, g. (2006). fundamentals of research methodology for health care professionals. cape town, south africa: juta & co. brown, m.g. (2007). beyond the balanced scorecard: improving business intelligence with analytics. new york, ny: productivity press. bryman, a., & bell, e. (2003). business research methods. oxford, uk: oxford university press. cantrell, s., benton, j.m., laudal, t., & thomas, r.j. (2006). measuring the value of human capital investments: the sap case. strategy and leadership, 34(2), 43–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/10878570610652626 charmaz, k. (2006). constructing grounded theory: a practical guide through qualitative analysis. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications ltd. davis, d. (2005). business research for decision making. belmont, ca: thomson brooks/cole. davis, w.r., johnson, b.d., randolph, d., liberty, h.j., & eterno, j. (2005). comparing police drug allegations with enumerations of drug users/sellers. an international journal of police strategies and management, 28(4), 594–608. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13639510510628686 domain. (2013). in oxford english dictionary. oxford university press. eriksson, p., & kovalainen, a. (2008). qualitative methods in business research. los angeles, ca: sage publications, inc. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9780857028044 flamholtz, e.g. (2005). human resource accounting: human capital management, and the bottom line. in m. losey, s. meisinger & d. ulrich (eds.), the future of human resource management: 64 thought leaders explore the critical hr issues of today and tomorrow, (pp. 268–277). hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons, inc. guba, e.g. (1990). the alternative paradigm dialog. in e.g. guba (ed.), the paradigm dialog, (pp. 17–27). newbury park, ca: sage publications, inc. guba, e.g., & lincoln, y.s. (1994). competing paradigms in qualitative research. in n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds.), handbook of qualitative research, (pp. 105–117). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. guest, g., bunce, a., & johnson, l. (2006). how many interviews are enough? an experiment with data saturation and variability. field methods, 18(1), 59–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1525822x05279903 henning, e., van rensburg, w., & smit, b. (2004). finding your way in qualitative research. pretoria, south africa: van schaik publishers. huselid, m.a., becker, b., & beatty, r.w. (2005). the workforce scorecard. boston, ma: harvard business school press. jette, d.j., grover, l., & keck, c.p. (2003). a qualitative study of clinical decision making in recommending discharge placement from the acute care setting. physical therapy, 83(3), 224–236. kaplan, r.s., & norton, d.p. (1996). the balanced scorecard: translating strategy into action. boston, ma: harvard business school press. kaplan, r.s., & norton, d.p. (2004). measuring the strategic readiness of intangible assets. harvard business review, 82(2), 52–63. kaplan, r.s., & norton, d.p. (2006). alignment: using the balanced scorecard to create corporate synergies. boston, ma: harvard business school publishing coorporation. marshall, c., & rossman, g.b. (1999). designing qualitative research. (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. mason, j. (2002). qualitative researching. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. mason, m. (2010). sample size and saturation in phd studies using qualitative interviews. forum qualitative sozialforschung/forum: qualitative social research, 11(3). retrieved april 11, 2014, from http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1428/3027 mays, n., & pope, c. (2000). qualitative research in health care: assessing quality in qualitative research. british medical journal, 320(50), 50–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.320.7226.50 morse, j.m. (1994). designing funded qualitative research. in n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds.), handbook of qualitative research, (pp. 220–235). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. mouton, j. (2001). how to succeed in your master’s and doctoral studies: a south african guide and resource book. pretoria, south africa: van schaik publishers. nel, j.p. (2007). epistemology vs ontology. retrieved september 13, 2010, from http://www.mentornet.co.za/files/documents/epistemologyvsontology.pdf onwuegbuzie, a.j., & leech, n.l. (2007). validity and qualitative research: an oxymoron? quality & quantity, 41, 233–249. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11135-006-9000-3 patton, m.q. (2002). qualitative research and evaluation methods. (4th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. phillips, j.j. (2005). investing in your company’s human capital: strategies to avoid spending too little—or too much. new york, ny: american management association. ritchie, j., & lewis, j. (2004). qualitative research practice: a guide for social science students and researchers. london, uk: sage publications, inc. roodt, g. (2009). power and politics. in s.p. robbins, t.a. judge, a. odendaal & g. roodt (eds.), organisational behaviour: global and south african perspectives, (2nd edn.) (pp. 349–373). cape town, south africa: pearson education south africa. scholz, c., stein, v., & müller, s. (2007). monetary human capital measurement: empirical evidence from the german dax 30 companies. paper presented at the annual meeting of the academy of management, philadelphia, pa, 03–08 august. schurink, w.j., fouché, c.b., & de vos, a.s. (2011). qualitative data analysis and interpretation. in a.s. de vos, h. strydom, c.b. fouché & c.s.l. delport (eds.), research at grass roots for the social sciences and human service professions, (4th edn.) (pp. 397–423). pretoria, south africa: van schaik publishers. seale, c. (1999). the quality of qualitative research. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. sobh, r., & perry, c. (2006). research design and data analysis in realism research. european journal of marketing, 40(11/12), 1194–1209. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090560610702777 sparkes, a.c. (2002). telling tales in sport and physical activity: a qualitative journey. champaign, il: human kinetics. taylor, c., gibbs, g.r., & lewins, a. (2005). quality of qualitative analysis. retrieved september 13, 2010, from http://onlineqda.hud.ac.uk/intro_qda/qualitative_analysis.php ulrich, d. (1997). human resource champions: the next agenda for adding value and delivering results. boston, ma: harvard business school press. wicks, a.m., & st. clair, l. (2007). competing values in healthcare: balancing the (un)balanced scorecard. journal of healthcare management, 52(5), 309–324. xirogiannis, g., chytas, p., glykas, m., & valiris, g. (2008). intelligent impact assessment of hrm to the shareholder value. expert systems with applications, 35(4), 2017–2031. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2007.08.103 yin, r.k. (2009). case study research: design and methods. (4th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. yin, r.k. (2012). applications of case study research. (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. article information authors: dries schreuder1 melinde coetzee1 affiliations: 1department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: dries schreuder postal address: po box 392, university of south africa, pretoria 0003, south africa dates: received: 10 apr. 2012 accepted: 18 sept. 2012 published: 03 dec. 2012 how to cite this article: schreuder, d., & coetzee, m. (2012). a review of four decades of research in organisational career psychology by academia in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10 (2), art. #474, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i2.474 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. a review of four decades of research in organisational career psychology by academia in south africa in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study    • research objective    • potential value-add of the study    • literature review       • present challenges for career research in south africa    • what will follow • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research setting       • researcher roles       • sources of data       • data collection methods       • recording of data       • data analyses       • strategies employed to ensure quality data       • reporting • findings    • theme 1: issues of professional importance    • theme 2: career theory and concepts    • theme 3: developmental life stage studies    • theme 4: world of work    • theme 5: career assessment and technology    • theme 6: organisational career interventions • discussion    • conclusion    • limitations and recommendations for future research • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: career research in organisations has increased in importance since the 1970s, which heralded new directions for organisational career research and practice both globally and nationally. research purpose: the study critically reviewed trends in organisational career psychology research in south africa from 1970 to 2011 in terms of global and present national challenges that require empirical investigation in the contemporary south african world of work context. motivation for the study: the increasingly complex contexts, in which people have been pursuing their careers since the catalytic 1970s, demand the continuous generation and development of knowledge for the benefit of the discipline and practice of careers. research design, approach and method: a broad systematic review was carried out to analyse documented academia research (n = 110) on careers from 1970 to 2011, which was published in six accredited south african scientific journals. main findings: much of the research addressed issues pertaining to career theory and concepts, the world of work and career assessment and technology. career development, professional issues and organisational career interventions in the multi-cultural south african context appear to be under-researched. practical/managerial implications: the insight derived from the findings can be employed by academia and researchers, in this field, to plan future research initiatives that will contribute to the profession and practice of career guidance and counselling in the contemporary workplace. contribution/value-add: the findings provide preliminary insight that adds to the body of knowledge concerned with career studies in the south african organisational context. introduction top ↑ key focus of the study career research ’... will have to match the nature of its subject: rapidly changing, fast learning and complex’ (hall & mirvis, 1995, p. 349).career research in organisations has increased in importance since the 1970s, a period which heralded new directions for career research both globally and nationally. representing the renewal of the careers field, the 1970s witnessed a reinvention and regeneration of innovative theory production, collegial dialogue and the establishment of the careers field in professional societies (derr & briscoe, 2007). this was achieved under the mentoring influence of edgar schein of the sloan school of management at the massachusetts institute of technology (mit). today it is recognised that the increasingly complex and turbulent contexts in which people have been pursuing their careers, since the catalytic 1970s, continue to demand the generation and development of knowledge for the benefit of the discipline and practice of careers (creager, 2011; krieshok, motl & rutt, 2011; obschonka, silbereisen & wasilewski, 2012; savickas, 2011). derr and briscoe (2007) also regard career research as a central element of contemporary organisational studies. background to the study career psychology was legitimised as a field within the more generalised field of organisation studies during the mid-1970s. during the mid-1980s and early 1990s, the emergence of the so-called knowledge economy resulted in scholars drastically rethinking the very nature of work and careers (gunz & peiperl, 2007). globalisation, technological advances, changes in industrial and employment structures for production flexibility, political change and the diversification of workforce demographics (within a context of heightened economic uncertainty and turbulence) witnessed the emergence of the boundary-less and so-called ’non-traditional‘ career in the late 1990s and early 2000s (gunz & peiperl, 2007; obschonka et al., 2012; savickas, 2011). since the early 2000s, there has been a continuance of these trends along with rising unemployment and concerns about skills scarcity, which increasingly affect the jobs, careers and lives of people in the 21st century (schreuder & coetzee, 2011). savickas (2011) emphasises the need for the information societies of the 21st century to learn how to deal with uncertainty, numerous employment transitions and jobless or temporary work assignments. savickas posits that career studies, whilst adopting a constructionist research paradigm, should focus attention on peoples’ employability rather than on their employment (2011). innovative career counselling and development theories and practices are required, that help individuals develop the required career adaptability skills to reconceptualise their careers in the 21st century and redesign their working lives. obschonka et al. (2012) further point to a lack of research on individuals’ subjective experiences (intra-individual constellations) of change-related demands. schein (2007) emphasises that career research in the 21st century world of work should continue to address contemporary problems faced by individuals and organisations. apart from contributing new, relevant knowledge and innovative solutions to the career challenges of the contemporary world of work (savickas, 2011), career scholars (and their research) need to help management scholars and practitioners recognise the primacy of career theory and scholarship to the key questions facing organisations and individuals today (derr & briscoe, 2007). research objective given the importance of career research in the contemporary world of work context, the purpose of this study was to explore organisational career research trends by academia in south africa from 1970 to 2011. its purpose was also to evaluate these trends in terms of global and present national challenges that require empirical investigation in the contemporary, multi-cultural south african world of work context.the research questions were as follows: • what core research themes emerge from career research in organisations by academia in south africa from 1970 to 2011? • what are the implications of these research themes with regard to global and present national challenges that require empirical investigation in the contemporary, multi-cultural south african world of work context? potential value-add of the study the increasingly complex contexts in which people have been pursuing their careers since the catalytic 1970s demand the continuous generation and development of knowledge for the benefit of the discipline and practice of careers. apart from the global changes that affect the nature of work and careers, the post-apartheid context of south african workplaces also poses unique career-related challenges to individuals and professional career counsellors. the insights derived from the findings may be employed by academia and researchers when planning future research initiatives. given the paucity of empirical work on career research trends in south africa, the findings may provide preliminary insights that add to the body of knowledge concerned with the evolution of the field and professional practice in the south african context. literature review according to derr and briscoe (2007), the concepts of career and career success (hall, 1976) and the internal career orientations of people (driver, 1980; schein, 1977, 1996, 2006) were major themes in the international careers literature from the 1970s onwards. information about adult life stage development (levinson, 1978; super, 1990) and the importance of work-life balance (bailyn, 1977, 1980) grew in intensity. in america, women’s rights in the workplace, careers and affirmative action became popular themes in the 1970s and are even more so today (derr & briscoe, 2007). the social context of careers and its boundary-less nature increasingly received attention (arthur, inkson & pringle, 1999). research on careers and organisations focused on planning, staffing, socialisation and mentoring as well as job enrichment issues (derr & briscoe, 2007). in the 21st century, career research in organisations increasingly started to focus on succession planning, attracting, managing and retaining talent and high-potential employees (conger & fulmer, 2003; derr & briscoe, 2007; derr, briscoe & buckner, 2002). chaichanasakul et al. (2011) analysed 830 articles that were published in the journal of career development from 1972 to 2007. they concluded that articles related to the theme ’career counselling and interventions‘ had been published most frequently in this journal. they further established that the five most frequently studied variables were the following: 1. career guidance (mostly published prior to 1990, coinciding with the vocational guidance movement originated by frank parsons in the 1970s and 1980s) 2. career programming and interventions 3. cross-cultural issues (including constructs such as women’s career issues, cross-national studies, career issues amongst racial and ethnic minorities, and social class-related career issues) 4. career counselling process and outcome 5. career aspirations. articles related to career assessment (scale development and validation of career-related measurements) and career issues at work (career commitment, networking, management, and career transition) were amongst the least often studied. in an extensive 2010 review of both quantitative and qualitative career development and counselling research published in international scientific journals, creager (2011) highlighted the following as dominant themes in career research literature: • research on issues of professional importance: studies highlighted the need for continued training in multi-cultural awareness and skills, including counsellor burnout, values and their work lives. the multi-cultural competence of professional career development counsellors includes an awareness of the diverse needs of employees from historically disadvantaged populations, people with disabilities, those who are economically deprived, unemployed, underemployed and culturally different from other worker populations. other research themes include social justice and advocacy in terms of the availability and provision of supportive career development systems and options for all populations in the workplace (creager, 2011). • research on career theory and concepts: research studies mostly revised or expanded on existing theory, providing additional empirical support for a theory or a construct. as was also established in the review by chaichanasakul et al. (2011), these studies mostly focused on holland’s theory of career personality and work (50th anniversary), social cognitive career theory (scct) and the utility of the constructs of self-efficacy and interests as predictors of career goals and choices. research that examined developmental theories mostly used student populations and focused on constructs such as cognitive development, career maturity, career exploration, career decision-making, career adaptability and career calling. other constructs included factors related to career indecision, such as career self-efficacy, career-related emotional maturity, information needs, vocational identity development, the career decision status of students, individual background variables (e.g. gender, family, peers, income status, beliefs), and psychological and social cognitive factors (creager, 2011). • developmental life stage studies: research has indicated a need for childhood developmental models of career development relating to career choice and attainment. research studies that examined young people aged 11–19 years (middle childhood and adolescence) focused on gender-related differences relating to early interests, influences on academic and career development, future time perspective and career planning, career aspirations, decision making and goals as well as school engagement. research on populations in the school-to-work transition phase (young adulthood) identified the following themes as important factors in career and life planning: social support and relationships, expectations of adversity and adaptability, optimism regarding future opportunities, the evolution of work values and career identity, job instability and personality traits, work adjustment and the influence of gender-family roles on work value-work reward discrepancy and job satisfaction. studies of mid-life and older adults focused on the moderating effect of job complexity and age on opportunities (creager, 2011). chaichanasakul et al. (2011) established in their review that super’s life span/development theories mostly drove research on developmental life stage studies. • research on the world of work: studies focused on career dynamics in the workplace and the concept of the boundary-less career, employees’ perceptions of career success, work and job satisfaction, work burnout, unemployment, work-related change, work-family interface and flexible work arrangements, mentoring, career mobility and work engagement. some studies examined the workplace for lesbian and gay people, and the relationship between organisational heterosexism, citizenship behaviour and performance. other themes focused on the big five personality traits and their relationship to various work-related constructs. the career decision processes of employed adults, career adjustment to change and workers coping with an uncertain and changing work situation were also examined. the role of work embeddedness in mediating the influence of negative events causing thoughts of leaving a job between job performance and organisational citizenship behaviours was also investigated. some studies emphasised a vocational self-concept as an important aspect of career self-management in optimising current person-job fit. other studies focused on cohort differences relating to work (e.g. the perceived career needs of millennials and employees in the early adulthood phase of their careers) (creager, 2011). • research on career assessment and technology: career assessment research included studies on the development of new measures, revision or refinement of instruments, evaluation of measures and career interest assessment. core themes in career assessment research were career decision making or indecision, self-efficacy, family influence, goal mastery, sexual identity management, personality, working alliance and childhood career development. career assessment technology research focused on the use of the internet or web-based assessment systems and online virtual career counselling centres for career choice and development (creager, 2011). • research on career interventions: studies on career interventions mostly focused on career courses and mentoring activities in the school and post-school environment. constructivist career courses were emphasised, focusing on planning skills, personal meaning-making and the co-creation of knowledge resulting in empowering career behaviour. self-efficacy interventions were also a major research theme (creager, 2011). since the mid-2000s, international organisational career research increasingly started to focus on the post-modern approaches to career counselling, such as life-career design (hartung, 2011; savickas, 2009) and savickas’s (2005) and savickas’s et al. (2009) career construction theory. the role of emotions in careers has also become an increasingly important theme (brown, george-curran & smith, 2003; hartung, 2011). themes, such as the following, are growing in importance: • career and subjective well-being (cotter & fouad, 2011; kidd, 2008) • employability (fugate, kinicki & ashforth, 2004; van der heijde & van der heijden, 2006) • job and career embeddedness (feldman & ng, 2007) • job and career mobility (ng, sorensen, eby & feldman, 2007) • work-life enrichment (greenhaus & powell, 2006). these themes reflect the changing nature of the world of work and careers, which requires people to develop their career meta-competencies or psychological career resources that they require to design a meaningful life-career in an uncertain, more chaotic world of work (schreuder & coetzee, 2011). research in organisational career psychology in south africa did not receive much attention from researchers in the early years between 1950 and 1970. according to a study by schreuder and coetzee (2010), covering the period from 1950 to 1979, only 10 scientific career-related research projects were published; between 1980 and 2008 there was a significant increase in career research and 233 articles were published in scientific journals. these figures include peer-reviewed articles, and master’s and doctoral dissertations. in the broader context, this represents only 10% of the total number of publications in industrial and organisational psychology from 1950 to 2008. table 1 provides an overview of the core career-related research themes identified by the study of schreuder and coetzee (2010). table 1: overview of south african career research themes in organisations from 1950 to 2008. present challenges for career research in south africa apart from the global challenges posed to the career development of people in the 21st century, individuals pursuing careers in the post-apartheid south african multi-cultural work context, face the reality of dealing with issues and challenges relating specifically to affirmative action and employment equity policies. these policies provide greater career and job mobility opportunities to black people and women in particular. research on attracting, developing and retaining talented and scarce or critical skills staff from the equity pool will remain a concern for south african organisations in the foreseeable future (coetzee, 2011). south africa is an understudied population, and new knowledge and insights are required on the career experiences and needs of black women and people with disabilities in particular. the relationship between career development and socio-economic and educational background, race or ethnicity, and gender needs attention, as a result of the crucial place this relationship occupies in optimal career development (creager, 2011). moreover, the prevalence of hiv and aids in south african workplaces and communities (dhet, 2010) needs continued research, focusing on how these affect the career development of people, their well-being and success. in addition, the following need to be facilitated by research initiatives: • youth employment • graduate employability • vocational guidance and skills development and induction to work as a vital bridge into productive and satisfying adulthood. the unemployed south african youth also remain an area of great concern (dhet, 2010). research by crocetti, palmonari and pojaghi (2011) emphasises the importance of understanding the career development needs and life outlook of the emerging adult (young people aged between 18 and 28). they found that emerging adults (arnett, 2000) who face the challenge of finding their own occupation earlier, or with a lower level of education, experienced less satisfaction in life and had a less positive future orientation than their peers with a higher educational level. they also appear to feel less equipped, than their peers, to deal with continuous changes in a labour market that increasingly requires highly specialised workers. these findings suggest the need for further empirical research in the south african work context. the changing nature of work and careers in a multi-cultural and multi-generational work context has, for many people, made some motivational and career development theories less relevant. this, in turn, calls for new, more relevant theories and measures to encourage greater career agency and career self-management (bergh, 2009). creager (2011) advocates the need for research on culturally sensitive approaches to career counselling and assessment. what will follow in the next section, the research design for this paper will be elaborated on and the research approach and method will be covered. the results will then be presented and the findings discussed. the article concludes with a brief synopsis of the most important conclusions, limitations of the research design and recommendations for possible future research initiatives. research design top ↑ research approach a broad qualitative systematic review (petticrew & roberts, 2006) was undertaken. this approach allowed the researchers to gather, analyse, report and evaluate documented research evidence on organisational career psychology in terms of its relevance for inclusion in the database, and to categorise the data in terms of the dominant career psychology research sub-themes. research method research setting in the context of the present study, the field of organisational career psychology was targeted to achieve the aim of the present study. the study was anchored in the academic domain and focused on documented research in the field of organisational career psychology in south africa. researcher roles as a result of the qualitative nature of the research, the researchers acted as the research tool. in an effort to ensure objectivity in the data analyses, the researchers remained constantly aware of their personal views and potential bias, and how such subjectivity might influence the objectivity and neutrality of the research findings. sources of data as a result of being anchored in the academic domain, the boundary of the systematic review was defined to include only documented research in the field of organisational career psychology in south africa. this included 110 published articles on career research from 1970 to 2011 from the following six peer-reviewed department of higher education and training-accredited south african scientific journals: • south african journal of industrial psychology • south african journal of human resource management • south african journal of psychology • acta academica • south african journal of labour relations • southern africa business review. the 110 research articles were treated as the sources of data and the identified themes were treated as the data. data collection methods a search was undertaken by means of an on-line information technology service, the south african bibliographic information network (sabinet). using ’career‘ as the keyword and within the context of the stated boundary of the research, the data included studies (n = 110) carried out during the past 40 years in organisational career psychology. the searches were conducted over a period of 12 months. recording of data databases were systematically reviewed and synthesised, using a pre-established categorisation framework (creager, 2011; esterberg, 2002; petticrew & roberts, 2006). codes and labels were attached to emerging themes that fit in the categorisation framework. all data were retained for possible future scrutiny. the data were safely stored to protect them from loss, destruction and unauthorised access. data analyses in line with an international study conducted by creager (2011), a categorisation framework was established a priori. given this, the following six sub-themes of career psychology formed the basis for the categorisation framework used to synthesise the data: • research on issues of professional importance • research on career theory and concepts • developmental life stages studies • research on the world of work • research on career assessment and technology • research on organisational career interventions. in line with recommendations from esterberg (2002), the focused categorisation process entailed manually going through the sources of data, line by line, to identify the dominant themes and focusing on the key categories identified for the purposes of this research. strategies employed to ensure quality data the objectivity and trustworthiness, of the data analysis process, were maximised by involving two researchers who were both experienced in systematic data analysis, making sure that they discussed their own possible biases throughout and continually looking for evidence that either contradicted or confirmed the themes. the average agreement rate was 98% (i.e. 98% of the factors were allocated to the same theme categories by each researcher). as a form of researcher triangulation, comments from researchers on the evolution of and challenges in the career psychology field (creager, 2011; derr & briscoe, 2007; gunz & peiperl, 2007; krieshok et al., 2011; obschonka et al., 2012; savickas, 2011) were also considered in the interpretation of the findings. reporting the results of the systematic review are presented in terms of the chosen categorisation framework. descriptive statistics (% frequencies and core themes) are used to present the dominant research trends. findings top ↑ table 2 provides an overview of general (south african) research in the careers field frequency trends from 1970 to 2011, within the six pre-determined research theme categories. the sub-themes identified for each of the six research themes emerged from a scientifically rigorous analysis of the 110 research articles that were published from 1970 to 2011, in the six south african scientific journals listed above. due to the extent of the number of publications in each of these journals, only the themes and the sub-themes are reported here, without reference to specific sources and examples for the sake of scientific parsimony. all data were retained for possible future scrutiny. this approach is in agreement with the research approach followed by schreuder and coetzee (2010) to report findings of this nature and extent. theme 1: issues of professional importance table 2 shows that research on themes in this category represented proportionally 7.3% (n = 8) of all the theme categories of the published articles. core themes relating to issues of professional importance included: career counselling, career planning practices, career guidance system, and the profile of the industrial psychologist. theme 2: career theory and concepts studies on career theory and concepts represented proportionally 27.3% (n = 30) of all the theme categories of the published articles. core themes included: career theories, career identity, career salience, career resilience, career patterns, career anchors or orientations, career attitudes, career choice, career success, career aspirations, career advancement, psychological career resources, vocational interest, and personality traits. theme 3: developmental life stage studies research on themes in this category represented proportionally 10.9% (n = 12) of all the theme categories of the published articles. core themes included: life stage perspectives, career development, career decision or indecision, career maturity, early career, career expectations, and barriers to career advancement. theme 4: world of work table 2 shows that themes in the world of work category (n = 29; f = 26.4%) proportionally dominated career research by academia in south africa. the dominant themes in this category included: developing women’s potential, working women, graduate women’s job expectations, psychological contract, job satisfaction, career and life balance, work and family conflict, retention, work readiness, protean career, boundary-less career, work and family interface and spillover and enrichment, internal career, work-related concerns of hiv and aids, burnout, retention factors, job embeddedness, career mobility, work engagement, and subjective work experiences. theme 5: career assessment and technology research in this category was proportionally also a core focus area for academia (n = 25; f = 22.7%). core themes included: the validity and structural equivalence of psychological measures in the south african context (e.g. career orientations inventory), reliability of the career decision profile, development of a new career interest questionnaire and the career development questionnaire, validity of the career resilience questionnaire, determining selection criteria, construct validity of the career myth scale, constructing personality profiles, and computerised career counselling. theme 6: organisational career interventions research on themes in this category proportionally represented only 5.4% (n = 6). core themes included: career guidance system, addressing barriers to career advancement, anxiety management, training in career planning and management, managing reality shock, and mentoring. table 2: frequencies of the dominant career research themes in organisations from 1970 to 2011. discussion top ↑ this research critically reviewed dominant research trends from 1970 to 2011 in the careers field in the south african context, and evaluated these trends in terms of global and present national challenges that require empirical investigation in the contemporary south african world of work context. overall, the findings indicate the lack of an evolving general trend of research focus areas in organisational career psychology over the years. proportionally, much of the research addressed issues pertaining to career theory and concepts and the world of work in the south african context. similar to international trends (creager, 2011), research on career concepts focused mostly on dynamics in the work setting, on concepts of job and career satisfaction and success, retention and career well-being issues (burnout, work engagement, subjective well-being), as well as on issues pertaining to the work and family interface. this trend seems to reflect the influence of the globally changing nature of work and careers on south african workplaces. however, considering that the changing nature of work and careers in a multi-cultural and multi-generational south african work context has, for many people, made some motivational and career development theories less relevant, more seems to be needed in the field of career theory research (bergh, 2009). chaichanasakul et al. (2011) also express a concern that the number of career theories from multicultural, cross-cultural, and international perspectives is extremely limited in the career research literature. although career assessment and technology proportionally also appear to have been amongst the dominant research focus areas, when evaluating the core themes and instruments discussed, more research seems to be needed in this area. internationally, the career assessment field appears to continue to have a paucity of research on subjective assessments that can further career choice and development (chaichanasakul et al., 2011; creager, 2011; hartung, 2010). bergh (2009) posits that, in the post-apartheid south african multi-cultural workplace context, culture-free career assessment tests should be designed and tested, or refined and standardised. creager (2011) also advocates the need for international research on culturally sensitive approaches to career counselling and assessment. research on developmental life stage issues, organisational career interventions and professional practice seem to be proportionally under-researched in the south african context. in the light of the present employment and employability challenges faced by south african youth in the emerging adulthood phase (dhet, 2010), more research needs to be undertaken in this area. the question can be asked, how relevant and needs-driven was the reported research within the south african context? numerous south african scholars (augustyn & cillié, 2008; katzell & austin, 1992; moalusi, 2001; pietersen, 2005; schreuder, 2001; sweder & fiske, 1986; van vuuren, 2006; veldsman, 2001) have questioned the extent to which research in industrial and organisational psychology, in general, has been problem-orientated over the years. the same would probably apply to career psychology as a sub-field of industrial and organisational psychology. researchers in industrial and organisational psychology have been told that their research output often appears to be a function of data availability, without taking into account the actual needs of industry. judging from the variety of topics studied in organisational career psychology over four decades, researchers can probably be accused of the same. career anchors have, for example, been widely researched over the years, but since schein (1977) established this concept over 30 years ago, no longitudinal research has been undertaken, which could have shed more light on the value of the concept in the contemporary world of work. moreover, in line with international concerns raised by creager (2011) and chaichanasakul et al. (2011), multicultural aspects of career assessment and development appear to need innovation and renewal in the south african work context. it is recommended that academia properly investigate the needs of a post-apartheid south african industry, to ensure that their research focus areas are relevant and that their research methods are linked to the nature of the identified problems and challenges. important issues have received very little attention from researchers, such as the following: • the new emerging psychological contract • retention of talented and scarce-skills employees • preparing young people for the world of work • youth unemployment • graduate employability and coping with employment instability • work-family enrichment • spillover and balance • new career development and counselling models for the post-apartheid period • multiculturalism • information technology-driven knowledge society • generational and socio-demographical differences • the career prospects of women and employees with disabilities within the context of employment equity. conclusion in the light of the findings of this study it can be concluded that organisational career psychology research in south africa seems to be lagging behind in terms of international trends in career psychology research focus areas. moreover, organisational career research in south africa appears to need revival and innovation in terms of addressing the needs and concerns posed by the global world of work and post-apartheid, multicultural south african workplaces. by the mid-1900s, hall and mirvis (1995) had already stated that the study of careers needed to become better connected to the career environment and become more multidisciplinary. previous research on careers does not necessarily fit today’s turbulent working environment. ’hence, the nature of the research will have to match the nature of its subject: rapidly changing, fast learning and complex‘ (hall & mirvis, 1995, p. 349). moreover, being an applied discipline contributing to the psychology of working and living in a global post-traditional (new millennium) society, career research should bring innovative, relevant solutions that can be applied to the benefit of the career development issues that humans grapple with in their daily lives (krieshok et al., 2011; savickas, 2011). longitudinal, multi-year, career-related studies addressing the development of people across their lifespan are required (creager, 2011). in the light of the challenges posed by global and national career-related needs and concerns, it appears that more research is needed in the following research focus areas of organisational career psychology: • transformation from jobs to jobless work. employees are facing a number of employment transitions during their working lives. the digital revolution is changing the form of work and, therefore, demands that new questions should be asked by researchers. long-term careers will still exist, but part-time and temporary work are increasing, wherein permanent jobs are being replaced by temporary assignments (savickas, 2011). career research should help determine the readiness of employees to adapt to the requirements of the evolving information society and what they need to successfully construct their careers in a boundary-less and jobless occupational world. • due to the reality of jobless work (and temporary assignments), the focus is now on employability rather than employment. employability requires specific skills from people, in which the employability of employees and students is to be determined. the focus should not be for an individual to maintain employment but to remain employable and to manage his or her career through adaptability, intentionality, life-long learning and autobiographical reasoning (savickas, 2011). • developing new career counselling models and theories relevant to the contemporary, multi-cultural working environment. • people work for longer. in the future there will be more people working beyond the normal retirement age of 65 years. this could be by choice or necessity. it is becoming more difficult for people to retire for financial reasons. an area of research could be to determine whether or not an individual’s interests change beyond retirement, and the results could help senior people choose appropriate new careers in the later stages of their lives (chope, 2011). • the career interests of emerging adults, especially those with disabilities, need to be investigated. research has shown that people with disabilities rarely experience an optimal person-job fit as they are often misplaced, with no consideration of their interests and personality profiles in relation to the job profile (turner, unkefer, chichy, peper & juang, 2011). • taking the demands of the changing and existing working environment into account, predictors for career success remain an important research focus area. • research focusing on working women has increased. areas that probably need more attention are the unique barriers to the career progression of women and the factors predicting their career success (johnson & eby, 2011). • more south african research is needed on the work-family interface. concepts such as work to family positive spill over and work to family enrichment need to be further investigated. much that has been written on work-family conflict has a negative connotation, whilst the one domain (work or family) can also benefit from the positives of the other domain (masuda, mcnall, allen & nicklin, 2012). the research should preferably be culture-related and more south african data are required. • research to determine the relationship between dispositional variables and work family conflict can be considered. research has provided insights into the dispositional variables that serve as risk factors, as well as those that appear to serve a protective purpose against work-family conflict (allen et al., 2012). • millions of people in south africa are out of work. what can career psychologists do to improve the lives of the unemployed and underemployed? current career research seems mostly to focus on the middle class in the corporate world. limitations and recommendations for future research the limitations of the present study should be interpreted in the light of the stated objective of the study. it should be pointed out that the present study was approached from an academic perspective and did not include unpublished research. using the sabinet portal to access documented, published peer-reviewed research articles, from only six accredited south african journals, necessarily excluded other research-related national and international publications and unpublished research. only two researchers were involved in the primary data analysis. trustworthiness of the findings could have been maximised by involving additional independent researchers in the data analyses. although it is recognised that reporting the findings of the present research was considerably limited by the journal requirements and the nature of the research study, the findings could have been strengthened by quoting specific references and research, as examples of the six research themes. notwithstanding these limitations, the findings provide valuable preliminary insights that add to the body of knowledge that focuses on the evolution of the field of organisational career psychology in south africa. the insights derived from the findings can be employed by academia and researchers in the field to plan future research initiatives that will contribute to the profession and practice of career guidance and counselling in the post-apartheid multi-cultural, multi-generational south african workplace. such research directions should take cognisance of the challenge for career psychology research to remain relevant to the issues and concerns posed by the 21st century world of work. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this paper. authors’ contributions d.s. (university of south africa) was the project leader and conducted the literature research and data analyses and assisted in writing up the report. m.c. (university of south africa) assisted with the literature research, the data analyses and writing up the report. references top ↑ allen, t.d., johnson, r.c., saboe, k.n., cho, e., dumani, s., & evans, s. (2012). dispositional variables and work-family conflict: a meta-analysis. journal of vocational behavior, 80(1), 17–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.04.004arnett, j.j. (2000). emerging adulthood: a theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. american psychologist, 55(5), 469–480. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.5.469, pmid:10842426 augustyn, j.c.d., & cillié, g.c. (2008). theory and practice in industrial psychology: quo vadis? sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 34(1), 70–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v34i1.419 arthur, m.b., inkson, k., & pringle, j.k. (1999). the new careers: individual action and economic change. thousand oaks, ca: sage. bailyn, l. (1977). involvement and accommodation in technical careers: an inquiry into the relation to work at mid-career. in j. van maanen (ed.), organizational careers: some new perspectives, (pp. 109–132). new york: wiley. bailyn, l. (1980). the slow-burn way to the top: some thoughts on the early years of organizational career. in c.b. derr (ed.), work, family and the career, (pp. 94–105). new york: praeger. bergh, z.c. (2009). fields of study and practice areas in industrial and organisational psychology. in z.c. bergh & a.l. theron (eds.), psychology in the work context, (pp. 16–29). cape town: oxford university press. brown, c., george-curran, r., & smith, m.l. (2003). the role of emotional intelligence in the career commitment and decision-making process. journal of career assessment, 11(4), 379–392. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072703255834 chaichanasakul, a., he, y., chen, h.h., allen, g.e.k., khairallah, t.s., & ramos, k. (2011). journal of career development: a 36–year content analysis (1972–2007). journal of career development, 38(6), 440–455. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0894845310380223 chope, r.c. (2011). reconsidering interests: the next big idea in career counseling theory research and practice. journal of career assessment, 19(3), 343–352. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072710395540 coetzee, m. (2011). the psychology of personnel retention. in m. coetzee & d. schreuder (eds.), personnel psychology, (pp. 233–271). cape town: oxford university press. conger, j.a. & fulmer, r.m. (2003). developing your leadership pipeline. harvard business review, 81(12), 76–85. cotter, e.w., & fouad, n.a. (2011). the relationship between subjective well-being and vocational personality type. journal of career assessment, 19(1), 51–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072710382614 creager, m.f.s. (2011). practice and research in career counseling and development – 2010. the career development quarterly, 59, 482–527. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2011.tb00973.x crocetti, e., palmonari, a., & pojaghi, b. (2011). work identity, well-being and time-perspective of typical and atypical young workers. in m. cortini, g. tanucci & e. morin (eds.), boundaryless careers and occupational well-being, (pp. 181–190). new york: palgrave mcmillan. department of higher education and training (dhet). (2010). framework for the national skills development strategy 2011/12-2015/16. pretoria: dhet. derr, c.b., & briscoe, j.p. (2007). the catalytic 1970s: lessons for the 2000s. in h. gunz & m. peiperl (eds.), handbook of career studies, (pp. 528–541). london: sage. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412976107.n29 derr, c.b., briscoe, j.p., & buckner, k. (2002). managing leadership in the united states. in c.b. derr, s. roussillon & f. bournois (eds.), cross-cultural approaches to leadership development. westport, ct: quorum books. driver, m.j. (1980). career concepts and organizational change. in c.b. derr (ed.), work, family and the career, (pp. 18–37). new york: praeger. esterberg, k.g. (2002). qualitative methods in social research. new york: mcgraw-hill. feldman, d., & ng, t. (2007). careers: mobility, embeddedness, and success. journal of management, 33(3), 350–377. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206307300815 fugate, m., kinicki, a.j., & ashforth, b.e. (2004). employability: a psycho-social construct, its dimensions, and applications. journal of vocational behaviour, 65, 14–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2003.10.005 greenhaus, j.h., & powell, g.n. (2006). when work and family are allies: a theory of work-family enrichment. academy of management review, 31, 72–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.2006.19379625 gunz, h., & peiperl, m. (2007). handbook of career studies. london: sage. hall, d.t. (1976). careers in organizations. ca: goodyear. hall, d.t., & mirvis, p.h. (1995). careers as lifelong learning. in a. howard (ed.), the changing nature of work, (pp. 323–361). san francisco: jossey-bass. hartung, p.j. (2010). practices and research in career counseling and development – 2009. the career development quarterly, 59, 98–142. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2010.tb00057.x hartung, p.j. (2011). barrier or benefit? emotion in life-design. journal of career assessment, 19(3), 296–305. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072710395536 johnson, c.d., & eby, l.t. (2011). evaluating career success of african american males: it’s what you know and who you are that matters. journal of vocational behavior, 79, 699–709. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.03.021 katzell, r.a., & austin, j.t. (1992). from then to now: the development of industrial–organisational psychology in the united states. journal of applied psychology, 77(6), 803–835. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.77.6.803 kidd, j.m. (2008). exploring components of career well-being and the emotions associated with significant career experiences. journal of career development, 35(2), 166–186. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0894845308325647 krieshok, t.s., motl, t.c., & rutt, b.t. (2011). the evolution of vocational psychology: questions for a postmodern applied discipline. journal of career assessment, 19(3), 228–239. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072710395530 levinson, d.j. (1978). the seasons of a man’s life. new york: ballantine. levinson, d.j. (1986). a conception of adult development. american psychologist, 41, 3–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.41.1.3 masuda, a.d., mcnall, l.a., allen, t.d., & nicklin, j.m. (2012). examining the constructs of work to family enrichment and positive spillover. journal of vocational behavior, 80(1), 197–210. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.06.002 moalusi, k.p. (2001). repositioning industrial psychology for the creation of new futures in turbulent times. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 27(4), 17–21. ng, t.w.h., sorensen, k.l., eby, l.t., & feldman, d.c. (2007). determinants of job mobility: a theoretical integration and extension. journal of occupational and organizational pyschology, 80, 363–386. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317906x130582 obschonka, m., silbereisen, r.k., & wasilewski, j. (2012). constellations of new demands concerning careers and jobs: results from a two-country study on social and economic change. journal of vocational behavior, 80, 211–223. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.08.002 petticrew, m., & roberts, h. (2006). systematic reviews in the social sciences: a practical guide. oxford: blackwell. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9780470754887 pietersen, h.j. (2005). knowledge development in industrial/organisational psychology (south africa). sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 31(2), 78–85. savickas, m.l. (2005). the theory and practice of career construction. in s.d. brown & r.w. lent (eds.), career development and counselling: putting theory and research to work, (pp. 42–70). hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons. savickas, m.l., nota, l., rossier, j., dauwalder, j.p., duarte, m.e., & guichard, j. (2009). life designing: a paradigm for career construction in the 21st century. journal of vocational behavior, 75, 239–250. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.04.004 savickas, m.l. (2011). new questions for vocational psychology: premises, paradigms, and practices. journal of career assessment, 19(3), 251–258. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072710395532 schein, e.h. (1977). career anchors and career paths: a panel study of management school graduates. in j. van maanen (ed.), organizational careers: some new perspectives, (pp. 49–64). new york: wiley. schein, e.h. (1996). career anchors revisited. implications for career development in the 21st century. academy of management executive, 1, 80–88. schein, e.h. (2006). career anchors. in j.h. greenhaus & g.a. callanan (eds.), encyclopedia of career development, (pp. 63–69). new dehli: sage publication. schein, e.h. (2007). career research: some issues and dilemmas. in h. gunz & m. peiperl (eds.), handbook of career studies, (pp. 573–576). london: sage. schreuder, a.m.g. (2001). the development of industrial psychology at south african universities: a historical overview and future perspective. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 27(4), 2–7. schreuder, a.m.g., & coetzee, m. (2010). an overview of industrial and organisational psychology research in south africa: a preliminary study. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 36(1), art. #903, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.903 schreuder, amg., & coetzee, m. (2011). careers: an organisational perspective. (4th edn). cape town: juta. super, d.e. (1990). a life-span, life-space approach to career development. in d. brown, l. brooks & associates (eds.), career choice and development: applying contemporary theories to practice, (pp. 30–45) (2nd edn). san francisco: jossey-bass. sweder, r.a., & fiske, d.w. (1986). uneasy social science. in d.w. fiske & r.a. sweder (eds.), metatheory in social science: pluralism and subjectivities, (pp. 15–25). chicago: university of chicago press. turner, s., unkefer, l.g., cichy, b.e., peper, c., & juang, j. (2011). career interests and self-estimated abilities of young aduls with disabilities. journal of career assessment, 19(2) 183–196. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072710385651 van der heijde, c.m., & van der heijden, b.i.j.m. (2006). a competence-based and multidimensional operationalisation of employability. human resource management, 45(3), 449–476. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20119 van vuuren, l. (2006). industrial psychology: goodness of fit? fit for goodness. inaugural lecture, university of johannesburg, johannesburg. veldsman, t. (2001). a new playing field, game and/or different rules? into the future with industrial psychology as a discipline and profession. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 27(4), 34–41. 2lombard.qxd change is a part of life (szamosi & duxbury, 2002, p. 184) and change is also viewed as the only constant (corporate executive board, 2003, p. 2). pritchett (1996) in szamosi & duxbury (2002, p. 184) suggests that in recent years the term “change” became synonymous with upheaval and chaos in the business context. research (buckingham & coffman, 2001, p. 86; muoio, 2000; corporate executive board, 2003, p. 3; handy, 2002; bridges & mitchell, 2000; schiemann, 2004 online) suggests that change is a necessity for survival in this competitive era. this rationale results from view that there must be innovation and innovation means change. it could therefore be argued that it has become critical for companies to understand how to manage change effectively. irrespective of the type of change, which organisations go through, people are always affected the most by any change efforts (kotter & cohen, p. 11; 2002,lombard & crafford, 2003, p. 45, coker, 2000, p. 24; mabin, forgeson & green, 2001; kets de vries, 2002; seely, 2000, p. 24; pheng, 1999, p. 124). the view of szamosi & duxbury (2002, p. 184) compliments this view by stating that nearly all authors who have contributed to change literature have placed great importance on human factors as being critical to the ultimate success of an organisation’s change efforts. research (drucker in wind & main, 1999, p. 50; kotter & cohen, 2002 pp. 103 – 104; steiner, 2001, pp. 153 – 161; zeffane, 1996, pp. 38 – 39; clarke & meldrum, 1999, pp. 70 – 71; french & delahaye, 1996; pp. 24 – 27) suggests that it is the responsibility of managers to make change a success by growing the organisation one person at a time. a one-person-at-a-time strategy will enable managers to be in touch with the personal fears and concerns of employees. the researchers argued that first-line managers should be able to grow their areas of responsibility one person at a time by understanding each person’s fears and concerns and helping them to deal with it on a personal level. research (kent, 2003; biegun, 2002, p. 542; schiemann, 1992; prosci, 2003; archilles, harris & harris, 2002, p. 169) has indicated that resistance to change is one of the primary reasons why change interventions fail or why success is not achieved in the change process. more specific, the inability of first-line managers to deal with resistance to change has been cited by pheng (1999, pp. 121–124) as a primary cause for change projects to fail. what is resistance to change? resistance has been defined as employee behaviour that seeks to challenge, disrupt, or prevent change from taking place (folger & skarlicki, 1999, p. 36). resistance to change can be caused by individual, group and organisational factors (mabin et al, 2001, p. 169). resistance is a response to feeling threatened that with resultant anxiety. resistance to change is closely associated “fear of loss” and “fear of the new” (coker, 2000, p. 24; mabin et al, 2001; tichy, 1997, p. 78; seely, 2000, p. 24; pheng, 1999, p. 124). firstline managers can support individuals to overcome anxiety and fear of the new by creating an environment where learning is the norm and where people are allowed to learn from mistakes (wilson & wilson, 1998, p. 157). the aspect of loss is particularly pertinent and the factors such as individual factors, economic loss, inconvenience, perceived threats, power, social disruption and loosing face can strengthen the fear of loss. resistance to change results in people that are complacent and do not function at their full potential (lefton & buzzota, 1980). consulting experience of the researchers proved that resistant people are problem reporting versus problem solving and do not suggest ways to overcome obstacles. it can therefore be argued that first-line managers need to create and maintain an environment where people are empowered and accountable. such an environment is characterised by team members that choose growth above fear. the environment that the first-line manager will have to create is one � where team members can learn from their mistakes; � where team members share their suggestions and opinions although it might not be accepted; cn lombard jj za aiman department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract continuous changes in markets needs require effective and corresponding change management at all levels in organisations. first-line managers are directly responsible for meeting the demands of clients and resistance to change at this level could result in sub-standard outputs. the effectiveness of change interventions will be largely determined by the competence of first-line managers to facilitate the desired change taking into account resistance to change. the purpose of this article is to evaluate the competencies required by first-line managers to deal with resistance to change as identified by lombard & crafford (2003). the findings of this article are based on an empirical study. opsomming deurlopende verandering in die behoeftes van markte vereis effektiewe en ooreenstemmende bestuur van verandering op alle vlakke in organisasies. eerstelyn bestuurders is primêr verantwoordelik om markverwagtinge te ewenaar en selfs te oorskry. weerstand teen verandering op hierdie vlak kan tot sub-standaard uitsette aanleiding gee. die sukses en effektiwiteit van veranderingsintervensies in organisasies sal grootliks afhang van die bevoegdheid van eerstelyn bestuurders om die verlangde verandering teweeg te bring met in agneming van weerstand teen verandering. die oogmerk van hierdie artikel is om die bevoegdhede wat eerstelyn bestuurders sal benodig om weerstand te kan hanteer, soos geïdentifiseer deur lombard en crafford (2003), te evalueer. die bevindinge van hierdie artikel is gebaseer op empiriese navorsing. an empirical evaluation of competency requirements for first-line managers to deal with resistance to change requests for copies should be addressed to: cn lombard, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 7 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (3), 7-15 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (3), 7-15 � where team members will confront the brutal facts irrespective if it means being unpopular with team members; and � accepting that being emotionally uncomfortable is an opportunity to move outside of the comfort zone into the learning zone. resistance to change could manifest on three levels. the first two levels refer to the person, while the third level is associated with management and everything they represent (mariotti, 1998, p. 140; maurer, 2000, p. 47). it could be deduced that the first-line manager can perform an integral role in minimising resistance to change by creating an environment where people share their fears openly and honestly. first-line managers and resistance to change organisations are measured in terms of the quality of their products and services. first-line managers are directly responsible for operational employees who ensure the production and delivery of these products and services (robbins, 1998, p. 6). the effectiveness of change interventions in organisations will largely be determined by the competence of first-line managers to facilitate the desired change through and with operational employees (moran & brightman, 2001, p. 111). conversely, change interventions that fail might be the result of systems, processes and technology, but it is the human element in organisations that manifest the success or failure of the change. if first-line managers are not able to deal with resistance to change proactively and effectively, the resistance to change can manifest in the form of sub-standard outputs. customers and clients only measure organisations on the quality of their outputs (i.e. service and products). in a competitive business environment, organisations cannot afford to have dissatisfied customers and clients, because customers and clients will take their business elsewhere and it will also present opportunities for rival organisations in a particular industry. considering this, it is evident that first-line managers have a wide array of responsibilities. these responsibilities include the following (renfrow, 2000, p. 108; appelbaum, st pierre & glavas, 1998, p. 281; moran & brightman, 2001, p. 111; bittel (1987) in frylink, 1998, p. 38): � facilitating effective change strategies that was formulated by top managers; � operationalising the change requirements for their specific areas of responsibility; and � ensuring that products and services are delivered according to customer and client standards through, and with operational employees that are or might resist the envisaged change. considering the above, a number of key variables need to be addressed in testing the competence requirements for first-line managers to deal with resistance to change. in the opinion of the researchers, first-line managers should be: � instrumental in the facilitation of successful change; � able to deal with resistance to change on an individual and team level; � able to create an environment that is receptive for change where the team members become the custodians of the new changes to improve products or services; and � able to cascade organisational strategies to his/her personal area of responsibility. in a literature study of lombard & crafford (2003), the above key variables were used. in this study a functional analysis (fletcher, 1997) was used to formulate the key roles and units of competence that first-line managers will require to deal with resistance to change. to answer the research questions the units of competence to deal with resistance to change identified by lombard & crafford (2003) will be tested empirically. motivation for the research although contemporary research cites resistance to change and the inability of managers to deal with resistance to change as the greatest change management obstacles, little research has been directed specifically at the role of the first-line manager to deal either with resistance to change, or with the competencies they require to effectively deal with resistance to change. however the competency framework developed by lombard & crafford (2003) based on a literature study provides a basis for further research. given the poor track record of change implementation, the absence of researched examples regarding the significance of resistance to change in track record, the pivotal role that the first-line manager plays in implementing and institutionalising change, any research which could fill this gap will be relevant to organisations world wide. problem statement and hypothesis the primary research questions that this study envisages to answer, are as follows: � will the units of competence identified by lombard & crafford (2003, pp. 47–50) contribute to the personal levels of competence of first-line managers? � is the importance of the units of competence to deal with resistance to change equal to the contribution it can make to personal competence levels of first-line managers? � which units of competence are the most important to deal with resistance to change? the hypotheses that were formulated for this research are as follows: � h1: the units of competence identified by lombard & crafford (2003) are important for first-line managers to deal effectively with resistance to change (where ssm, ucm and tdfs represents the organisations where the empirical research was conducted and who prefers to that the authors use the abbreviations only and not disclose the names). �� h0: avg impssm = avg impucm = avg imptdfs �� ha: at least one company has a mean which is significantly different from the other two companies � h2: the units of competence identified by lombard & crafford (2003) will make an important contribution to the personal competence levels of the first-line managers to deal effectively with resistance to change (where pc = personal level of competence). �� h0: avg pcssm = avg pcucm = avg pctdfs �� ha: at least one company has a mean which is significantly different from the other two companies the research was designed to test the hypotheses empirically. method participants in this study the research was conducted in a large organisation from the service industry with local and international involvement. at the time of the research the company employed 7500 people nationally and offer a diverse range of outsourced services to the fast moving consumer goods (fmcg) industry. the organisation has a client base that includes a large number of the blue-chip food manufacturers in the country and they are expanding rapidly into other areas such as general merchandise, pharmaceutical and liquor. the population chosen for research was all the first-line (patterson c-bands) managers from the three largest business units in the organisation. these first-line managers function in a highpressure environment that is characterised by continuous change. lombard, za aiman8 of the 194 questionnaires sent out, 162 were returned. this results in a return rate of 83.5 percent. from the high response rate it appears that the focused approach that the researchers followed was successful. the biographical information of the respondents is tabled in table 1. for the purposes of this article the abbreviations of the different business units will be used. table 1 biographical data of respondents business unit frequency percentage ssm 52 32 ucm 68 42 tdfs 43 26 total 162 100 gender frequency percentage male 129 80 female 33 20 total 162 100 age in complete years frequency percentage 30 years old and less 77 49 older than 30 years 80 51 totaal 157 100 highest academic qualification frequency percentage senior high school 82 51 certificate/diploma 56 35 degree/post degree 23 14 total 161 100 length in service in current position frequency percentage less than 2 years 53 33 2 years 45 28 more than 2 years 61 39 total 159 100 span of control frequency percentage less than 11 33 20 between 11 and 20 36 22 between 21 and 30 59 37 more than 30 34 21 total 162 100 the biographical data in table 1 indicates that the majority of the respondents represented ucm (42%); were male (80%); a good blend between maturity and youth; has a grade 12 qualification (51%); has two years and less experience in their current position (61%); has a span of control of between 21 and 30 people (37%). measuring instrument since the researchers could not find an existing questionnaire that measured the competencies required to deal with resistance to change, a new questionnaire was constructed. the development of a new questionnaire is supported by burton (2000, p. 344). the questionnaire was based on the units of competence formulated by lombard & crafford (2003, pp. 46-51). these units of competence formed part of the suggested competence framework required by first-line managers to deal with resistance to change (lombard & crafford, 2003, pp. 46-51). these competencies were obtained by means of a literature study and the applications of a functional analysis as suggested by fletcher (1997). the rationale for this approach was to obtain as much as possible data from secondary, documented historical sources (burton, 2000, pp. 343–345). the constructs that were identified from the work of lombard & crafford (2003, p. 46–51) that the researchers wanted to test are tabled below: table 2 competencies for first-line managers to effectively deal with resistance to change key roles units of competence � align the change strategy of �� obtain a comprehensive understanding area of responsibility with of the target state of change that of the organisation �� obtain an understanding of customer needs/potential target market �� conduct a strategic plan for personal area of responsibility �� facilitate planning to determine bestpractice solutions � ensure a personal readiness �� prepare self for change for change � minimise resistance to �� conduct an audit of individual strengths change and weaknesses of team members by involving them in the process �� compile individual communication strategies �� compile team communication strategies �� conduct individual information sessions �� compile individual personal development plans �� facilitate development of team members �� agree on a code of conduct governing behaviour during change �� act as a continual catalyst for change �� understand the rationale for change �� develop a business case for bottom-up change the questionnaire contained the biographical data required for the research, the instructions to complete the questionnaire, as well as 15 competencies which were simplified into 38 singular questions making use of a likert-type, 5-point scale. all these questions required of the respondents to firstly, indicate the importance for dealing with resistance to change in a proactive manner and secondly, to what extent the unit of competence will contribute to the personal level of competence to deal with resistance to change in a proactive manner in the workplace. the cronbach coefficient alpha of the questionnaires used for in this research is 0,9463 confirming the high reliability of the scale and that the researchers succeeded in measuring the construct in a reliable manner (statsoft, 2003 online). the ratings that were used for the two likert-type scales varied between one (totally unimportant) to five (of critical importance) for the questions pertaining to importance for dealing with resistance to change and one (“i strongly disagree that this competency will enable me to deal with resistance to change is a proactive manner”) to five (i strongly agree that this competency will enable me to deal with resistance to change is a proactive manner”) for the questions pertaining to the contribution of the competency to the personal level of competence in the workplace. procedure as a new questionnaire was utilised for this research, a pilot study was conducted. the outcome of the pilot study indicated that the questionnaire does not require major redesign or question formulation. due to the geographical spread of the field managers in the three organisations, the questionnaires were administered electronically and in supervised groups. to obtain a high response rate, the researchers followed this approach. electronic administration the body of the electronic mail (e-mail) message contained an introduction and an endorsement from the chief executive office officer (ceo) of the organisation as well as the group human resources manager from each business unit. e-mail messages were sent out in personalised batches of three or five. this was done so that those receiving the request did not see themselves as part of broad circulation groups and therefore perceive that their lack of response would go unnoticed. as competency requirements to deal with resistance 9 completed questionnaires were returned, questionnaires were checked for potential areas that could cause a spoilt questionnaire. electronic backups were made of accurate and complete responses and the log sheet was updated to identif y outstanding responses. respondents were individually thanked for their contributions. every third day individual reminders were sent out to all respondents who failed to submit questionnaires. these steps ensured a high response rate. a total of 59 electronic mail responses were administered. supervised groups the majority of the questionnaires were administered in supervised groups. this was done during training interventions where the researcher or colleagues made 30 minutes available for the completion of the questionnaires. it was also administered at cycle planning meetings where all first-line managers have to be present. the endorsement from the ceo was read to the respondents and the purpose of the research was explained to the respondents. the administrator facilitated questions from the respondents, reiterated the importance of their honest contributions, and contracted confidentiality of the responses with the groups. on completion each individual questionnaire was verified for accuracy to prevent spoilt questionnaires. this approach ensured accuracy of completion and a high response rate. in total 103 questionnaires were administered by means of supervised groups. all statistical analyses were performed by statistical consultation service (statkon) of the rau university results statistical analyses for the purposes of this study the following statistical analyses were performed: � factor analysis � analysis of variance (anova) � paired samples t-test. � independent samples t-test. � multiple comparisons (post hoc tests) a factor analysis was conducted to reduce the number of variables (38) into fewer meaningful factors. the results of the factor analysis will also be used in the determination of the reliability of the questionnaire. in this research a first levels as well as a second level factor analysis were conducted. this study will employ an exploratory factor analysis, which seeks to uncover the underlying structure of a large set of variables. although there are several types of factor analyses, the preferred type of factoring for this research is the principle access factoring (paf). this study will apply the varimax rotation for the first level analysis, while a direct oblimum will be performed for the second level factor analysis. this type of rotation is called variance maximizing because the objective of the rotation is to maximize the variance (variability) of the “new” variable (factor), while minimizing the variance around the new variable. the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) sampling measure of adequacy and the bartlett’s test of sphericity were applied to predict if the data is likely to factor according to the suggested kmo value of higher that 0.5 to be acceptable. the results are documented in table 3. table 3 kmo and bartlett’s test kmo measure of sampling adequacy 0,825 bartlett’s test of sphericity approx. chi-square 3564,486 df 703 sig. 0,00 the results indicate that the data set complies with the requirements for factor analysis (kmo msa > 0,6 and bartlett’s test yields a significant p-value < 0.0005) (kaiser, 1960 in statsoft, 2003 online). principle axis factoring (paf) was used to extract the factors. the kaiser criterion (eigenvalues > 1) (kaiser, 1960 in statsoft, 2003 online) was used to determine the number of factors to be extracted. nine factors were subsequently extracted explaining 70,85% of the variation. to improve interpretation, the factor matrix was rotated using the orthoganol (varimax) rotation. the results of the rotated factor matrix indicating the factors loading are documented in table 4. table 4 rotated factor matrix clustering item factor 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 factor 1 10,3 0,781 0,138 0,117 0,119 (uoc 8, 10, 11) 10,2 0,778 0,111 0,128 0,195 0,131 0,158 0,121 10,4 0,774 0,239 0,133 0,184 11,2 0,688 0,215 0,173 0,233 0,164 –0,138 0,242 11,1 0,643 0,175 0,143 0,300 0,210 –0,105 0,332 10,1 0,638 0,243 0,224 0,195 0,212 –0,141 8 0,541 0,351 0,161 0,231 0,137 0,187 0,223 0,173 factor 2 6,2 0,256 0,564 0,111 (uoc 5,6,7) 5,2 0,134 0,562 0,249 0,153 0,244 0,195 0,171 0,120 7,1 0,279 0,550 0,118 0,158 0,386 6,1 0,240 0,525 0,142 0,285 0,152 0,152 7,2 0,285 0,516 0,155 0,137 0,489 5,3 0,489 0,262 0,127 0,119 0,185 0,164 5,1 0,175 0,400 0,205 0,218 0,259 0,292 0,219 factor 3 15,3 0,148 0,104 0,824 0,148 0,102 0,209 0,117 (uoc 15) 15,2 0,103 0,212 0,804 0,124 0,126 15,4 0,182 0,122 0,668 0,124 0,235 0,153 0,356 15,1 0,289 0,261 0,607 0,203 0,211 0,177 1,2 0,770 0,176 0,109 0,138 factor 4 1,1 0,190 0,694 0,258 0,153 (uoc 1 & 4) 2,3 0,108 0,105 0,602 0,382 0,294 –0,185 0,195 4,1 0,173 0,215 0,188 0,566 0,234 0,206 4,2 0,177 0,190 0,300 425 0,145 0,142 0,193 0,298 factor 5 3,2 0,113 0,159 0,794 0,114 0,110 (uoc 2 & 3) 3,1 0,132 0,189 0,600 0,122 0,272 3,3 0,225 0,260 0,582 0,125 0,283 2,2 0,199 0,145 0,438 0,496 0,130 –0,226 2,1 0,296 0,332 0,431 0,153 factor 6 14,2 0,169 0,150 0,143 0,129 0,101 0,778 0,125 0,178 (uoc 14) 14,3 0,204 0,104 0,138 0,106 0,759 0,145 0,139 14,1 0,178 0,374 0,195 0,114 0,578 factor 7 13,3 0,318 0,160 0,157 0,192 0,184 0,676 0,113 (uoc 12 & 13) 13,2 0,234 0,293 0,130 0,112 0,607 0,241 12,1 0,264 0,210 0,117 0,239 0,325 0,548 0,141 12,2 0,275 0,348 0,188 0,215 0,138 0,286 0,514 –0,170 factor 8 7,3 0,240 0,290 0,100 0,134 0,229 0,160 0,604 0,184 (uoc 7) factor 9 9 0,216 0,368 0,168 0,132 0,162 0,122 0,649 (uoc 9) 13,1 0,159 0,207 0,311 0,309 0,179 0,436 lombard, za aiman10 second level factor analysis sub-scores were calculated on the nine principle components extracted in the first level factor analysis. the kmo of sampling adequacy and the bartlett’s test of sphericity were applied on the inter-correlation matrix of the nine sub-scores. the results of this analysis are reflected in table 5. table 5 kmo and bartlett’s test kmo measure of sampling adequacy 0,897 bartlett’s test of sphericity approx. chi-square 501,630 df 36 sig. 0,000 the results in table 5 indicate that the data set complies with the requirements for factor analysis, as it is higher that 0.5 (statcon online, 2003). principle axis factoring (paf) was used to extract the factors. the kaiser criterion (eigenvalues > 1) (kaiser, 1960 in statsoft, 2003 online) was used to determine the number of factors to be extracted. one factor was subsequently extracted explaining 50.93% of the variation. no further rotation was requires as only one factor was extracted. importance of units of competence the results documented of the statistical analysis conducted, strives to test the research hypotheses (h1 & h2) and their related statistical hypotheses. the results documented in the next section reflects the results of the one-way anova and the independent t-tests of the rankings of the importance of the units of competence as well as the contribution to personal competence of the units of competence between groups, within groups, and the total picture. anova results the statistical analysis performed by statkon reported the central tendencies of the variables tested along with a confidence level of 95% (statistical significance value of 0,05). statsoft (2003 online) are of the opinion that a sample size of a hundred or more can be classified as a large sample that will result in valid assumptions about the mean. it can therefore be deduced that the sample size used in this empirical research is sufficient to make valid assumptions based on the resultant mean scores. table 6 ref lects the anova results of the importance of the units of competence between groups, within groups and the total. the anova results documented in table 6 indicate that there are no statistical significant differences (p-values between groups, within groups and in the overall picture of the statistical analysis). it could therefore be argued that ho is accepted for research hypothesis h1 due to the fact that the p-values (sig) are all larger than 0,05. the results in table 6 suggest that an equal level of importance of the units of competence to deal with resistance to change is reflected within groups, between groups and in the overall statistical analysis. table 7 reflects the anova results of the contribution of the units of competence to the personal competence levels between groups, within groups and the total. the anova results documented in table 7 indicate that there are no statistical significant differences (p-values between groups, within groups and in the overall picture of the statistical analysis). it could therefore be argued that ho is accepted for research hypothesis h2 due to the fact that the p-values (sig) are all larger than 0,05. table 6 anova of the importance of the units of competence (uoc) between groups (bg), within groups (wig) and the total uoc nr. sum of df mean f sig squares square 1 bg 0,355 2 0,178 0,642 0,537 wig 41,813 147 0,284 total 42,168 149 2 bg 0,423 2 0,211 0,516 0,598 wig 59,822 146 0,410 total 60,245 148 3 bg 0,830 2 0,415 wig 30,505 145 0,210 1,974 0,143 total 31,336 147 4 bg 0,144 2 0,072 0,234 0,791 wig 45,617 148 0,308 total 45,762 150 5 bg 0,114 2 0,057 0,154 0,858 wig 54,019 146 0,370 total 54,133 148 6 bg 0,346 2 0,173 0,818 0,443 wig 30,915 146 0,212 total 31,262 148 7 bg 0,297 2 0,149 0,526 0,592 wig 41,020 145 0,283 total 41,318 147 8 bg 0,699 2 0,349 0,576 0,563 wig 84,910 140 0,606 total 85,608 142 9 bg 0,539 2 0,270 0,806 0,449 wig 48,883 146 0,335 total 49,423 148 10 bg 0,853 2 0,426 1,153 0,319 wig 54,012 146 0,370 total 54,865 148 11 bg 0,190 2 0,095 0,236 0,790 wig 59,143 147 0,402 total 59,333 149 12 bg 0,645 2 0,323 0,842 0,433 wig 56,348 147 0,383 total 56,993 149 13 bg 0,186 2 0,093 0,325 0,723 wig 41,582 145 0,287 total 41,768 147 14 bg 0,667 2 0,333 0,760 0,470 wig 63,640 145 0,439 total 64,306 147 0,126 15 bg 0,252 2 0,411 0,307 0,736 wig 59,585 145 total 59,837 147 competency requirements to deal with resistance 11 table 7 anova of the contribution of the units of competence (uoc) to personal competence levels between groups (bg), within groups (wig) and the total uoc nr. sum of df mean f sig squares square 1 bg 1,228 2 0,614 1.120 0,329 wig 80,605 147 0,548 total 81,833 149 2 bg 1,120 2 0,560 0,721 0,488 wig 114,231 147 0,777 total 115,351 149 3 bg 0,738 2 0,369 0,486 wig 112,392 148 0,759 0,616 total 113,131 150 4 bg 1,868 2 0,934 1,633 0,199 wig 84,080 147 0,572 total 853948 149 5 bg 0,328 2 0,164 0,233 0,793 wig 103,543 147 0,704 total 103,870 149 6 bg 1,196 2 0,598 0,862 0,424 wig 101,271 146 0,694 total 102,466 148 7 bg 2,038 2 1,019 1,773 0,173 wig 84,492 147 0,575 total 86,530 149 8 bg 5,099 2 2,550 2,675 0,072 wig 137,227 144 0,953 total 142,327 146 9 bg 1,661 2 0,830 1,006 0,368 wig 120,540 146 0,826 total 122,201 148 10 bg 0,947 2 0,474 0,838 0,435 wig 83,662 148 0,565 total 84,609 150 11 bg 1,918 2 0,959 1,942 0,147 wig 72,582 147 0,494 total 74,500 149 12 bg 2,463 2 1,232 1,904 0,153 wig 95,105 147 0,647 total 97,568 149 13 bg 2,527 2 1,263 2,050 0,132 wig 90,573 147 0,616 total 93,099 149 14 bg 1,414 2 0,707 0,865 0,423 wig 120,929 148 0,817 total 122,343 150 15 bg 2,887 2 1,443 2,466 0,088 wig 86,626 148 0,585 total 89,512 150 the results in table 7 suggest that there is an equal reflection within groups, between groups and in the overall picture in the way that the units of competence contribute to the personal levels of competence to deal with resistance to change. group results the group results of the paired samples t-test are documented in table 8. table 8 paired results of the samples t-test for the group pair of uoc mean t df sig. 1 0,1500 2,199 159 0,029 2 0,1833 2,695 159 0,008 3 0,2746 4,072 158 0,000 4 0,2236 3,347 160 0,001 5 0,1094 1,698 159 0,091 6 0,2437 3,850 157 0,000 7 0,1488 2,628 158 0,009 8 0,1429 1,708 153 0,090 9 0,1772 2,476 157 0,014 10 0,0411 0,731 159 0,466 11 0,1313 2,162 159 0,032 12 0,1522 2,539 160 0,012 13 0,2044 3,118 158 0,002 14 0,1698 2,640 158 0,009 15 0,0807 1,364 158 0,175 the results in table 8 indicates that with 4 of the 15 units of competence the respondents across the group had an equal rating of the importance of the units of competence to deal with resistance to change and the contribution of the units of competence to personal competence levels. the results in table 8 also indicate that, of the 15 units of competence tested, 11 had statistical significant differences. these 11 units of competence are listed below: � 1 (p-value = 0,029): obtain a comprehensive understanding of the target state of change. � 2 (p-value = 0,008): understand the rationale for change. � 3 (p-value = 0,000): obtain an understanding of the customers needs/potential target market. � 4 (p-value = 0,001): conduct a strategic plan for personal area of responsibility. � 6 (p-value = 0,000): prepare self for change. � 7 (p-value = 0,009): conduct an audit of individual strengths and weaknesses of team members by involving them in the process. � 9 (p-value = 0,014): compile team communication strategies � 11 (p-value = 0,032): determine changes in roles of subordinates due to change. � 12 (p-value = 0,012): compile individual personal development plans. � 13 (p-value = 0,002): facilitate development of team members. � 14 (p-value = 0,009): agree on a code of conduct governing behaviour during change. considering the statistical significances and the representation of ucm in this sample group, it evident that this group had a significant influence on the outcome of the empirical research. the high occurrence of statistical significant differences could suggest that across the three organisations (ssm, ucm and tdfs), there was a lack of consensus between the importance of the units of competence and the contribution of the units of competence to personal competence levels to deal with resistance to change. this will be discussed later in this article. figure 1 below is a representation of the integrated group results of the mean scores of the importance of each unit of competence lombard, za aiman12 to deal with resistance to change and the contribution that each unit of competence can make to the personal competence levels of the respondents. figure 1: average score for all three groups the results presented in figure 1 indicate that the responses are negatively skewed. the mean responses were assessed as being so important to the respondents that variances needed to be assessed to determine the differences in ranking and between units of competence. this could imply the following: � the respondents considered all the units of competence as of real importance to deal with resistance to change and as contributing to their personal levels of competence to deal with resistance to change. � the respondents considered it as socially acceptable to respond positively to the questions. � the respondents did not pay real attention to the questions and completed the questionnaires just to get it done. although the mean scores do not reflect the results of a statistical hypothesis, it can be argued that the high mean scores contribute to the reliability that has been indicated earlier in the study. discussion one of the central premises of this research was that first-line managers leading others through their resistance to change do not only require a singular competence of dealing with resistance to change. resistance to change requires a holistic and integrated approach which � enables first-line managers to deal with their own resistance to change; � enables first-line managers to clearly understand the rationale of the change and the end state thereof; � focuses on the individual; � be catalysts for bottom-up change; and � contribute to organisational effectiveness and efficiencies by being proactive to resistance to change. importance of the units of competence a comparison of the mean scores indicates that the all the units of competence are of significant importance to first-line managers to be able to deal with resistance to change. the empirical research proved that none of the units of competence of lombard & crafford are of limited importance or of no importance to enable first-line managers to deal with resistance to change. table 9 reflects the mean scores of the units of competence from the highest to the lowest mean ranking. table 9 mean scores of the importance of units of competence to deal with resistance to change from the highest to the lowest mean ranking ranking mean unit of competence score 1 4,7089 6 prepare self for change. 2 4,6281 1 obtain a comprehensive understanding of the target state of change 3 4,6247 3 obtain an understanding of customer needs/ potential target market 4 4,6013 9 compile team communication strategies 5 4,5440 13 facilitate development of team members 6 4,5404 4 conduct a strategic plan for personal area of responsibility 7 4,5283 7 conduct an audit of individual strengths and weaknesses of team members by involving them in the process 8 4,5281 11 determine changes in roles of subordinates due to change 9 4,4876 12 compile individual personal development plans 10 4,4780 14 agree on a code of conduct governing behaviour during change 11 4,4729 2 understand the rationale for change 12 4,4523 15 develop a business case for bottom-up change 13 4,4416 8 compile individual communication strategies 14 4,4271 10 conduct individual information sessions 15 4,3677 5 facilitate planning to determine best-practice solutions considering the results in table 9 highlighted, the following significant information regarding the suggested units of competence to deal with resistance to change: � four of the top ten units of competence (rankings 1,2, 3, and 6) refer to competencies that deal with personal mastery and personal understanding of the change. � three of the top ten units of competence (rankings 7,8, and 9) refer to competencies that deal with growing the area of responsibility “one person at a time”. � three of the top ten units of competence (rankings 4,5, and 10) refer to competencies that deal with contributing to the team/organisational levels. it could be inferred the units of competence identified by lombard & crafford (2003) reflect an integrated and holistic approach to enabling first-line managers to deal with resistance to change. first-line managers that are able to demonstrate the behaviours associated with the fifteen units of competence would be recognised by subordinates, peers and superiors as a good role models and effective manager of resistance to change. the units of competence with the highest mean score (prepare self for change) proves that there is a correlation between international research regarding resistance to change (kent, 2003; biegun, 2002, p. 542; schiemann, 1992; prosci, 2003; archilles et al, 2002, p. 169; van buren & werner (1996), in appelbaum, st-pierre, glavas, 1998, p. 293) and the south african scenario. a criteria for successful change required that managerial resistance to change need to be overcome before that of operational employees should be dealt with. the empirical research confirms this criterion for successful change. of value to this research is the fact that the personal resistance to change of first-line managers can be due to their lack of understanding of the envisaged change and not due to the fact that they are not receptive for change. behaviour that manifests itself as resistance to change is therefore not always resistance against what people think, but also because of the feelings they experience during the change process. this research therefore confirms the view of kotter & cohen (2002, p. 11) and kets de competency requirements to deal with resistance 13 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 2 3 4 5 6 7 89 10 11 12 13 14 15 importance personal level vries (2002) that change is an integration of what a person “sees, feels and thinks”. the combination of these three elements result in resistance to change that can manifest or be associated with “fear of loss” and “fear of the new”. the empirical research challenges the traditional view that firstline managers are not expected to conduct strategic planning. although not a strategic level, the high mean score for the unit of competence that refers to the ability of first-line managers to conduct strategic plans for their areas of responsibility indicates the importance of alignment and cascading organisational strategies to the lowest levels as criteria for successful change. the integrated nature of dealing with resistance to change should focus on competencies for first-line managers, which will enable them to design and implement a behavioural, technical and structural strategy to support the achievement of successful change. considering the results documented in table 9, it could be argued that the following hypothesis has been proved true: h1: there is a correlation between the units of competence identified by lombard & crafford and the importance for firstline managers to deal effectively with resistance to change. contribution to personal levels of competence the results of the samples t-tests indicate that the respondents were of the opinion that all the units of competence can contribute their personal levels of competence to deal with resistance to change. comparing the mean scores indicates that all the units of competence are important to contribute to the personal competence levels of first-line managers to be able to deal with resistance to change. it can be inferred that not one of the units of competence is viewed as of limited importance or of no importance to contribute to the personal competence levels of first-line managers. table 10 reflects the mean scores of the units of competence from the highest to the lowest mean ranking. table 10 mean scores of units of competence contributing to personal levels of competence to deal with resistance to change from the highest to the lowest mean ranking ranking mean unit of competence score 1 4,4781 1 obtain a comprehensive understanding of the target state of change 2 4,4652 6 prepare self for change 3 4,4241 9 compile team communication strategies 4 4,3969 11determine changes in roles of subordinates due to change 5 4,3859 10 conduct individual information sessions 6 4,3795 7 conduct an audit of individual strengths and weaknesses of team members by involving them in the process 7 4,3716 15 develop a business case for bottom-up change 8 4,3501 3 obtain an understanding of customer needs/ potential target market 9 4,3396 13 facilitate development of team members 10 4,3354 12 compile individual personal development plans 11 4,3168 4 conduct a strategic plan for personal area of responsibility 12 4,3082 14 agree on a code of conduct governing behaviour during change 13 4,2987 8 compile individual communication strategies 14 4,2896 2 understand the rationale for change 15 4,2583 5 facilitate planning to determine best-practice solutions considering the results documented in table 10, it could be argued that the following hypothesis has been proved true: h2: there is a correlation between the units of competence identified by lombard and crafford and the contribution of the units of competence to the personal competence levels of firstline managers. ranking of the units of competence the results of the research indicate that the six most important units of competence for first-line managers to deal with resistance to change are as follows: � 6 – prepare self for change. � 1 – obtain a comprehensive understanding of the target state of change. � 3 – obtain an understanding of customer needs/ potential target market. � 2 – understand the rationale for change. � 4 – conduct a strategic plan for personal area of responsibility. � 15 – develop a business case for bottom-up change. considering the most important units of competence it could be argued that first-line managers can benefit from the following elements of competence to deal with resistance to change: � analytical skills � entrepreneurial skills � business acumen � communication skills � problem solving and decision-making it could be argued that the units of competence identified by lombard & crafford (2003) reflect an integrated and holistic approach to enabling first-line managers to deal with resistance to change. limitations of the study this study has provided relevant and interesting insights into the roles of first-line managers in dealing with resistance to change and the units of competence required to deal with resistance to change. to motivate further research in this field of study, the following limitations of this specific study are recognised: � the understanding of the term competence as well as the application thereof in organisational context is diverse. this study considered competence from a functional analysis approach as suggested by fletcher (1997). � the study did not attempt to develop measurable standards that are required if competence is to be assessed. � the study was limited to the units of competence within the functional analysis framework as suggested by fletcher (1997, p. 11) and the national examining board for supervisors and management (1998, p. 8) and did not identif y the specific elements of competence (skills, knowledge, personal competencies, control guidelines, tools and equipment, and conditions and circumstances). � the study is limited to the limitations of a survey. � the likert-type scale that was used in the questionnaire resulted in mean scores that represented values between the highest two scales. � this study focused on the modern perceptions of the roles of first-line managers. � this study assumed that organisations view the profile of a first-line manager as a management level that could be a catalyst for bottom-up change. � this study did not investigate the possibility of whether it is practical to expect of one individual that to be able to apply all the required units of competence in the workplace. � the test sample only comprised members of three organisations within one holding company representing one industry. the researcher is aware of the potential problems of overgeneralisation when testing perceptions of localised samples. � the sample sizes of the organisations in the study differ, lombard, za aiman14 which have an influence on both the statistical analysis as well as the findings based on the analyses, despite statistical measures to counter for these effects. following are the recommendations for future research. recommendations for future research the above limitations of the research highlight the fact that the field of study can benefit from recommendations that focus on a practical, theoretical and methodological perspective. the following recommendations for future research are recommended: recommendations from a theoretical perspective from a theoretical perspective it is recommended that further research be carried out in the following areas: � the identification of specific elements of competence (for example skills and knowledge) for each unit of competence � the entrepreneurial roles of first-line managers in organisations. � the profile of the modern first-line manager. recommendations from a practical perspective from a practical perspective it is recommended that an assessment instrument be designed with measurable standards to determine individual development needs of first-line managers to deal with resistance to change. recommendations from a methodological perspective from a practical perspective the following recommendations are suggested: � the design and development of a seven-point likert-type scale with more specific options of selection on the importance and non-importance scales to facilitate a more exact reflection of mean scores. � qualitative approaches and methods, including the facilitation of focus groups and interviews should also be included to supplement questionnaire surveys. reference achilles, a., harris, a.g. & harris s.g. (2002). crafting a change message to create transformational readiness. journal for organizational change management, 15 (2), pp. 169 – 183. appelbaum, s.h., st-pierre, n. & glavas, w. (1998). strategic organisational change: the role of leadership, learning, motivation and productivity. management decision, 36 (5), pp. 289–301. biegun, r. (2002). conquering organisational change: how to succeed where most companies fail. journal of organisational change management, 15 (5), pp. 542–546. bridges, w. & mitchell, s. (2000). leading transition: a new model for change. leader to leader, 16, spring. buckingham, m. & coffman, c. (2001) first, break all the rules. what the world’s greatest managers do differently. london: simon & schuster business books. clarke, m. & meldrum, m. (1999). creating change from below: early lessons for agents of change. the leadership and organization development journal, 20 (2), pp. 70–80. coker, c. (2000). resistance to change and obstacles that can be overcome. business journal: ser ving jacksonville & northeast florida, 15 (17), p. 24. corporate executive board, (2003). change management models. corporate leadership council, pp. 1–5 folger, r. & skarlicki, d.p. (1999). unfairness and resistance to change: hardship as mistreatment. journal of organizational change management, 12 (1), pp. 35–50. fletcher, s. (1997). designing competence-based training. london: kogan page. french, e. & delahaye, b. (1996). individual change transition: moving in circles can be good for you. leadership & organisational development journal, 17 (7), pp. 22–28. frylinck, b.l. (1998). competences required of first-line managers to manage change successfully. an unpublished research report submitted to the faculty of management, university of the witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment for the degree of master of management. handy, c. (2002). elephants and fleas: is your organization prepared for change? leader to leader, 24, spring. kent, r.h. (2003). conquering 2003 and beyond. the mansis development corporation. kets de vries, m.f.r. (2002). can ceo’s change? yes but only if they want to. paper presented to the insead alumni at a breakfast meeting at the grace hotel on 4 july 2002. kotter, j.p. & cohen, d.s. (2002). the heart of change. boston: hbs press. lefton, r. & buzzota, v.r. (1980). improving productivity through people skills. new york: bakllinger. lombard, c. & crafford, a. (2003). competency requirements for first-line managers to deal with resistance to change. sa journal of human resource management, 1 (1), pp. 42-52. mabin, v.j., forgeson, s. & green, l. (2001). harnessing resistance: using the theory of constraints to assist change management. journal of european industrial training, 25 (2/3/4), pp. 168–191. moran, j.w. & brightman, b.k. (2001). leading organisational change. career development international, 6 (2), pp. 111–118. muoio, a. (2000). gm has a new model for change. fast company. retrieved from the worldwide web, http://www. fastcompany.com/learning pheng, l.s. (1999). towards managerial efficacy: back to 2,000year-old guiding principles. the learning organisation, 6 (3), pp. 121–131. prosci (2003). change management. retrieved from the worldwide web, http://prosci.com/change-management.htm nickols, f. (2000). change management 101: a primer. retrieved from the worldwide web, http://home.att.net/nickols/ change.htm renfrow, c. 2000. change management – integrating the four p’s to critical success. chain store age, 76 (1), p. 108 robbins, s.p. (1998). super vision today! prentice hall: new york. seely, c. (2000). change management: a base for knowledgesharing. knowledge management, 3 (4), pp. 24–29. schiemann, w.a. (1992). organisational change starts with strategic focus. william schiemann & associates. schiemann, w.a. (2003). organisational change: lessons from a turnaround. retrieved from the worldwide web, www.metrus.com szamosi, l.t. & duxbury, l. (2002). development of a measure to assess organizational change. journal of organisational change management, 15 (2), pp. 184–201. statsoft (2003). electronic statistics textbook. retrieved from the worldwide web, http://www.statsoft.com/textbook.htm steiner, c. (2001). a role for individuality and mystery in “managing” change. journal of organizational change management, 14 (2), pp. 150–167. tichy, n. (1997). bob knowling’s change manual. fast company. http://www.fastcompany.com/learning wilson, l. & wilson, h. (1998). play to win. bard press: austin. wind, j.y. & main j. (1999). driving change. how the best companies are preparing for the 21st century. kogan page: london. zeffane, r. (1996). dynamics of strategic change: critical issues in fostering positive organizational change. leadership & organisational development journal, 17 (7), pp. 36–43. competency requirements to deal with resistance 15 article information authors: caroline downes1 eileen koekemoer1 affiliations: 1school of human resource management, faculty of economic and management sciences, north-west university, south africa correspondence to: eileen koekemoer email: eileen.koekemoer@nwu.ac.za postal address: po box 19087, noordbrug, potchefstroom, south africa dates: received: 27 apr. 2011 accepted: 28 june 2011 published: 20 oct. 2011 how to cite this article: downes, c., & koekemoer, e. (2011). work–life balance policies: challenges and benefits associated with implementing flexitime. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #382, 13 pages. doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.382 notes: caroline downes conducted this research as part of her masters degree that she completed at the north-west university. copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) work–life balance policies: challenges and benefits associated with implementing flexitime in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study    • research purpose    • trends from the research literature    • the potential value-add of the study    • literature review       • work–life balance policies and flexitime       • implementing flexitime • research design    • research approach    • research strategy    • research method       • research setting       • entrée and establishing the researcher’s roles       • sampling       • data collection methods       • recording of data       • data analysis       • strategies employed to ensure quality data       • reporting       • reflexivity • findings    • theme 1: individual challenges associated with using flexitime    • theme 2: general challenges associated with flexitime    • theme 3: required aspects for the effective use of flexitime    • theme 4: benefits that would follow the use of flexitime       • individual benefits       • organisational benefits • discussion    • limitations of the study    • recommendations    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • authors’ contributions • references abstract (back to top) orientation: helping employees to balance their work and family lives is a business imperative. work–life balance policies (like flexitime) aim to support employeesto do so. however, implementing these policies is problematic. research purpose: the aim of this article is to report on the challenges and benefits associated with implementing flexitime as a work–life balance policy. motivation for the study: organisations must develop and implement work–life balance policies. this requires human resource practitioners to investigate and understand experiences and perceptions about the challenges and benefits of flexitime. research design, approach and method: the researcher used a qualitative research design with an exploratory approach. she drew a nonprobability purposive and voluntary sample (n = 15) from the financial sector. she used semi-structured in-depth interviews to collect the data and conducted content analyses to analyse andinterpret them. main findings: the researcher extracted four main themes (individual and general challenges, the aspects organisations need to implement flexitime effectively andthe benefits that would follow its implementation) from the data. its benefits vary from work–life balance to employee loyalty and commitment. some challenges are maintaining productivity, a shortage of critical resources and understanding flexitime. practical/managerial implications: the research identified requirements that human resource practitioners should attend to in order to ensure that organisations use flexitime more effectively. contribution/value-add: the researcher obtained unique findings about the minimum requirements for implementing flexitime effectively. they could assist organisations to address the challenges that employees face. introduction (back to top) key focus of the study organisations have recently experienced more and more competitive pressure to perform faster and better and to be more cost-effective (blyton, blunsdon, reed &datmalchian, 2006; duxbury & higgins, 2003). consequently, there has been a breakdown of the traditional working contract and the concept of lifetime employment has become a notion of the past (galinsky,bond & hill, 2004; halpern, 2005). organisations must now accommodate a variety of supply and demand factors, one of which is the demand for a secure, flexible and low-cost labour force. the recent changes in the nature of work, along with the introduction of new technologies (cellphones, email and other means of electronic communication) have led to many employees struggling to balance roles in their work and personal lives (hayman, 2009; hobsor, delunas & kelsic, 2001). as a result, organisations and employees are becoming increasingly aware of the potential benefits of work–life balance (wlb) and associated wlb policies. the present study aims to explore the perceived challenges and benefits associated with implementing wlb policies, especially that of flexitime. background to the study work–life balance is an important and critical issue in the 21st century. however, human resource practitioners only recently began to see wlb as a business issue that has benefits for both employees and employers (clutterbuck, 2003). research that supports the benefits of wlb for organisations is substantial. it highlights a positive, although indirect, influence on organisational profit (michie & williams, 2003; morgan, 2009). organisations and employees are becoming increasingly aware of the potential benefits of employee wlb. some of them include employee satisfaction and well-being; reduced absenteeism and turnover; successful recruitment and retention; increased productivity; and customer satisfaction(mayberry, 2006; morgan, 2009; white, hill, mcgovern, mills & smeaton, 2003). a roffey park institute (2004) study found that 38% of a sample of employees would consider leaving their current employer to gain a better wlb, even if it meant reduced pay. mayberry (2006) also states that organisations that invest heavily in wlb report lower employee turnover. consequently, wlb is one of the top employee concerns of today and is a frequent topic of discussion during recruitment interviews (clutterbuck, 2003). in the 2003 best company to work for survey, 23 companies reported employee wlb as a key aspect of their retention strategies (dex, 2004). furthermore, in a 2008 study atjohnson and johnson, employees who used wlb policies took only half as much sick leave as those who did not (morgan, 2009). with such important organisational advantages, it is not surprising that the existence and use of wlb policies have become increasingly prevalent globally (doherty,2004; ferber, o’farrell & allen, 1991; kossek & ozeki, 1998; reynolds, 1999; sanichar, 2004). in addition, a few multinational organisations in south africa have adopted these policies (appiah-mfodwa, horwitz, kieswetter, king & solai, 2000; mageni & slabbert, 2005). research purpose some studies do give information about the use of flexitime in south africa. however, there is little information about its implementation and value as a wlb policy and contributor to wlb for the south african employee. in addition, the associated challenges and benefits of this policy seem to be lacking in previous research. therefore, the aim of this article is to report on the challenges and benefits associated with implementing flexitime as a wlb policy in a south african organisation. trends from the research literature according to lewis and cooper (2005), flexitime (or ‘flexible working hours’) is one of the most commonly used wlb policies and its use is increasing steadily. flexitime supports significantly higher levels of wlb than do traditional, fixed-hour working schedules (hayman, 2009). according to research from the families and work institute, employees with greater control over work schedules are more likely to show increased engagement, retention, job satisfaction and overall wellbeing (powers, 2004). various additional benefits for organisations to implement flexitime successfully include savings on overtime and other premium employeepayments; improved delivery time and response to client and work demands; better employee adaptability to workloads; increased employee motivation; and reduced tardiness and absenteeism (horwitz, kieswetter, king & solai, 2000). the potential value-add of the stud because of the potential obstacles or challenges that human resource practitioners usually face when they implement wlb policies, employers should consider flexitime carefully. how organisations implement wlb policies determines their success (mageni & slabbert, 2005). therefore, organisations need to develop, implement and frequently monitor wlb policies like flexitime (clutterbuck, 2003; dancaster, 2006; duxbury & higgins, 2003; horwitz et al., 2000). monitoring and implementing these policies means that human resource practitioners must investigate and understand the experiences,views and perceptions of all stakeholders, especially those of employees, about the challenges and benefits of flexitime and its implementation. information about the possible challenges and benefits associated with implementing policies is critical for organisations. without this information, they are likelyto develop and implement policies that they have not tailored to the needs and requirements of employees. consequently, organisations might fail to achieve the benefits they expect (clutterbuck, 2003; mageni & slabbert, 2005; mayberry, 2006). in south africa, most organisations are not sufficiently aware of employee perspectives about how they implement their wlb policies, especially flexitime. the researcher believes that this article will give south african organisations the information they need to develop and implement flexitime policies. it could benefit both employees and employers. literature review work–life balance policies and flexitime given the considerable influence of the absence of wlb on employees and organisations, initiatives aimed at supporting employees with wlb problems have become more popular and commonplace in organisations (cooke, zeytinoglu & mann, 2009). wlb policies improve the autonomy of workers in coordinating and integrating the work and nonwork areas of their lives (felstead, jewson, phizacklea & walters, 2002). mayberry (2006) has identified over 100 variations of wlb policies. amongst the alternatives that organisations offer are on-site or subsidised child and/or elder care, flexible working schedules, job sharing and employee assistance programmes (dalcos & daley, 2009; hobsor et al., 2001). although these alternatives vary considerably, according to dex (2004), most wlb policies fall into five categories: • flexitime work schedules • flexiplace or telecommuting • job-sharing • part-time flexiplace • sabbaticals or career breaks. recently, international studies have shown that there is a greater focus on introducing and implementing workplace flexibility (flexitime) compared to other wlb initiatives (carlson, grywacz & kacmar, 2010). flexitime is an alternative or flexible working schedule. it is central to research on wlb. it is also a key strategy that policy makers use to assist employees in today’s global economy (hill et al., 2010). the national study of employers showed a significant increase, between 1998 and 2009, in the number of employers thatoffer flexitime (carlson et al., 2010). according to hill et al. (2010), flexitime assists employees to manage their work and family responsibilities by allowing them to reduce work–family conflict and to improve functioning and performance at work and at home. the literature calls flexitime a variety of flexible work schedules. all of them offer employees choices about the start and end of working hours. all employees must work a specific number of hours per week or month. however, they may vary their hours of work within limits (robbins, ordendaal & roodt, 2004). similarly, according to dalcos and daley (2009), flexitime allows employees to choose when, where and for how long they engage in work-related tasks. flexitime usually means that each working day has a core of six hours surrounded by a ‘flexibility band’ in which employees may exercise their discretion (robbins et al., 2004). therefore, one employee may work between 07:00 and 15:00 whereas another may choose to work between 08:00 and 16:00. the core hours are between 09:00and 15:00 (lewis & cooper, 2005). however, flexitime is an umbrella concept or approach. this is clear from the different ways and varying degrees that organisations offer flexibility (horwitz et al., 2000). according to lewis and cooper (2005), variations of this policy often include different starting and finishing times for each day, the length and timing of lunch breaks, the length of the working day and compressed workweeks. a compressed workweek allows for varying the length of the week so that employees may work for only three days a week whilst still working the total number of hours required for a working week (robbins et al., 2004). implementing flexitime despite the potential benefits of flexitime, its implementation has been problematic (clutterbuck, 2003; mayberry, 2006; powers, 2004). some of the problems theliterature has raised include (akyeampong, 1993; cipd research report, 2000; mcdonald, bradley & brown, 2008): • the different ways organisations manage flexitime • difficulties with implementing flexitime in teams and work groups • the absence of communication and education about these policies • the possible stigma or career penalties associated with using flexitime. furthermore, managers and/or organisational leaders may discourage flexitime implicitly or explicitly because of their reluctance to relinquish control (dancaster, 2006). international research has covered wlb and wlb policies, like flexitime, well (clutterbuck, 2003; hill, erickson, holmes & ferris, 2010; richman, civian, shannon, hill & brennan, 2008). however, there is little research on wlb policies, especially flexitime, in the south african working context (dancaster, 2006). therehave been some work–family balance studies in south africa. however, most of these studies were cross-sectional quantitative studies that focused more on the conceptualisation, measurement and associated outcomes of wlb (koekemoer & mostert, 2006; koekemoer, mostert & rothmann, 2010; koekemoer & mostert, 2010b; marais, mostert, geurts & taris, 2009; mostert, cronjé & pienaar, 2006; mostert & rathbone, 2007; patel, govender, paruk & ramgoon, 2006; pieterse &mostert, 2005; rost & mostert, 2007). until the present, south african research on flexitime has focused on labour market flexibility (horwitz, allan, brosnan & walsh, 2000) and atypical work (greef& nel, 2003) and neglected wlb. consequently, issues surrounding wlb policies and flexitime are severely underrepresented (dancaster, 2006). the available research on flexitime is limited. it covers the relevance of flexitime to the south african workplace, the personal consequences of flexitime for white working mothers, legislation and flexible working arrangements (barling & barunbrug, 1984; dancaster, 2006; mageni & slabbert, 2005). the next section discusses the research design and methodology the researcher used in this study. she used a qualitative approach to explore the implementation of flexitime. she discusses the results. she also presents and discusses various themes about implementing flexitime. research design (back to top) research approach the researcher used a qualitative research design and an exploratory approach to explore and describe employees’ experiences of the implementation of flexitime. by applying the methodology of the post-positivism paradigm, researchers can acquire information in more natural settings by collecting more situational information and determining the meanings and purposes that people ascribe to their actions (guba & lincoln, 1994). in this research, a qualitative approach was especially beneficial because it allowed employees to describe what was meaningful or important to them about flexitime in their own words rather than restricting them to predetermined categories. qualitative research, using an exploratory or phenomenological approach, allows researchers to understand and present personal points of view that participants often conceal (hammersley, 1998). an interpretative phenomenological approach aims at gaining a better understanding of the nature and quality of thephenomena (flexitime in this study) as they occur (willig, 2008). research strategy the research strategy the researcher used in this research was to analyse the employer’s implementation of flexitime in the organisation through interviews where the employee was the unit of analysis. she interviewed 15 employees to gain more insight into, and detailed information about, how the organisation implements flexitime. research method research setting during interviews, it is important to note the interaction between researchers and participants in a particular context or setting (terre blanch, durrheim & painter, 2006). with the importance of the setting in mind, the researcher used a private interview room at the johannesburg offices of the organisation. the organisation the researcher used for this research was an international financial institution. its employees worked at various levels of management. she was careful to ensure that the interview room was comfortable, temperate and quiet, and located at a sufficient distance from other employees to ensure privacy. to reduce disturbances, the researcher placed a ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door. because the validity and success of the research depended on the participants being at ease with the research process (hesse-biber & leavy, 2004), the researcher introduced herself in a warm and friendly manner, detailed the context of theinterview and emphasised its purpose. entrée and establishing the researcher’s roles the research field consisted of an international auditing and consulting organisation located in johannesburg that offers its employees access to, and use of, flexitime as a wlb policy. it is critically important to establish entry into the research field before data collection commences (de vos, strydom, fouche & delport, 2005). in order to establish the roles of the researcher, the organisation and participants, the researcher held meetings with the managers of the organisation, before the research commenced, to discuss the aim of the research and to obtain written permission for it. the researcher was an external researcher and not an employee of the organisation. she approached the organisation for permission to conduct the research at the organisation. in order to conduct the research as unobtrusively as possible and to ensure that the participants did not see the researcher as a threatening intruder (de vos et al., 2005), the organisation appointed an employee from the organisation to introduce the participants to the researcher and to arrange suitable interview dates andtimes. this person acted as inter-mediator. the role of the inter-mediator was to identify employees who were willing to participate in the research and to provide the researcher with the necessary contactdetails and other biographical information. this happened after the researcher obtained permission to conduct the research. the inter-mediator arranged for the interviews and the researcher only attended or visited the organisation on the dates and times of the interviews. during qualitative research, researchers act as research tools and encourage the participants to discuss their perspectives, experiences, feelings and thoughts openly. consequently, researchers have direct influences on the quality of the data (ritchie & lewis, 2005). therefore, the researcher in this study attended qualitative training that emphasised interview skills and communication techniques. interview training has a major effect on the quality of the data and is especially necessarywhen researchers need in-depth and detailed data (lewis-beck, bryman & liao, 2004). in an effort to control for interviewer distortion, it was critical for the researcher to be constantly aware of her personal views and potential bias and of how hersubjectivity could influence the objectivity and neutrality of the findings (terre blanche et al., 2006). reflection, in the form of critical self-examination, happened during the interview process. the researcher took time to reflect on her interview performance andinfluence after each interview. to assist with this, the researcher used a co-researcher to discuss any concerns that the she had. the co-researcher assisted with developing the interview schedule,provided support during data collection and reviewed the quality of the information. the researcher explained the use of tape recorders and asked the participants for permission to use one before the interviews began. during this research, sheapplied five basic ethical considerations to the treatment of participants. these were informed consent, no deception, the right to withdraw, debriefing and confidentiality (willig, 2008). she discussed all these aspects with the participants before they decided to participate in the research and emphasised them again during the interviews. sampling the researcher drew a nonprobability purposive and voluntary sample of 15 employees from the research field, an international auditing and consultingorganisation in johannesburg. besides selecting the research participants in a non-random manner, she included criteria to determine which employees could form part of the research sample. these criteria required that employees: • should have access to the flexitime that the organisation offered • be willing to participate in the research and give their written consent after the researcher informed them about the purpose and procedures of the research • be willing to be interviewed by the researcher • be prepared to have their interviews tape recorded. the researcher determined the sample size according to the number of employees who were accessible and willing to participate. in this sample, most participantswere women (60%), english-speaking (53.30%) and between the ages of 30 and 39 (66.70%). although most participants had children (66.7%), some participants had no children (33.30%). more than half of the sample was married or living with a partner and their children still lived at home (53.30%). although all of the participants indicated that they had a domestic helper to assist with household chores (100%), very few participants indicated that a nanny or au pair assisted them(13.30%) or had a stay-at-home husband (6.70%) who looked after the children. with regard to position at work, the sample had more participants at senior levels, like managerial (33.3%) and senior managerial levels (26.7%). there were only afew participants at partner (20.00%) and associate director or director levels (6.70%). the interviews continued until the data was saturated (terre blanche et al., 2006). data collection methods the researcher collected the data using semi-structured individual interviews. a ‘semi-structured interview’ is a method of collecting data where a flexibleinterview schedule guides a single interviewer who uses active listening and probing to allow for in-depth detail and understanding (forrester, 2010). using the interpretive approach, a semi-structured interview allows the researcher to gather data and study the phenomenon from the perspectives of the participants, probing further when unexpected issues emerge (neuman, 2003). the researcher developed and evaluated the interview schedule before the interviews. two external experts in qualitative research and the field of work–life balance research evaluated and helped to develop the interview schedule. the schedule asked the participants three standard questions after the preamble: your organisation offers you flexitime and you have access to it. 1. please indicate whether you use flexitime or not. 2. please describe what you perceive as challenges when it comes to using the flexitime your organisation offers. 3. what do you perceive as the benefits of using the flexitime your organisation offers? the researcher also used communication techniques like minimal verbal response, paraphrasing, reflection, clarifying and summarising to encourage participants to elaborate on their feelings, thoughts, experiences and perspectives (neuman, 2003). in addition to the verbal information the researcher collected during the interviews, she made observation notes (or field notes) immediately after each interview. she categorised these notes as methodological or personal (hesse-biber & leavy, 2004). her methodological notes referred to possible influences on the researchprocess like the environment, comfort and interruptions (bester, 2010). the personal notes contained the researcher’s own experiences, like her emotional and physiological state as well as her experience of the participants (bester, 2010). therefore, these observation notes provided a written account of what the researcher saw, heard, experienced and thought during the interviews and could contribute more depth and detail to the research findings. recording of data with the permission of the participants, the researcher tape recorded the interviews and transcribed them verbatim. in addition, she made detailed observationnotes after each interview. in order to ensure confidentiality, the researcher labelled her observation notes, transcriptions and tapes using alphabetical coding according to the interview planthat only the researcher knew. for example, she coded interview one as interview a and interview two as interview b. the researcher stored the observation notes, the transcriptions and tapes safely to ensure that data could not expose or exploit the participants (burns & grove, 1997). creswell (2003) also emphasised protecting the data as an important research issue because data should be protected from loss, destruction and unauthorised access. although the participants had given their written consent, the researcher assured them that they could withdraw from the research at any time should they wish to.throughout the research, the researcher upheld and respected the participants’ right to privacy, anonymity, fair treatment and to protection from discomfort and harm (neuman, 2003). data analysis during the data analysis process, the researcher analysed the verbatim transcripts using content analysis and an interpretative phenomenological approach. content analysis is a systematic technique that gathers and compresses large bodies of text into specific and identifiable content categories (hesse-biber & leavy, 2004). this method of qualitative analysis was appropriate for this research because it focuses on, and considers, both content and the contextual meaning of the text. it assisted the researcher to make replicable and valid inferences (hsieh & shannon, 2005). analysing qualitative data using an interpretive approachis a process of making sense. it requires researchers to immerse themselves in the data, to make sense of the data and to identify themes. these themes give a recognisable and useful account of the data (lyons, 2007). the researcher first read the interview transcripts thoroughly several times. she then divided the participant responses into meaningful units and wrote them as sentences or paragraphs. finally, she separated all the meaningful units into categories that she identified as major themes. the co-researcher later reviewed and agreed that these were the themes. following careful analysis of the major themes, the researcher, with the help of the coresearcher, was able to recognise, explore and summarise the major themes as smaller and comparable subthemes. although the researcher took comprehensive field notes after each interview, they yielded no significant new meanings or suggested contrasting evidence or findings. according to de vos et al. (2005),researchers do not necessarily use the observation notes in their final report. however, they can review observation notes and decide if they should include the notes based on their content and the value they add. strategies employed to ensure quality data quality data gives a detailed description of the researchers’ experience and involvement in the research. they also present the authentic perspectives and context of the research participants (neuman, 2003). the researcher upheld the principles of credibility (checking the truth-value of the findings), transferability (ensuring the applicability of the findings), dependability (ensuring the consistency of the findings) and conformability (ensuring neutrality or freedom from bias) to ensure quality data (appleton, 1995; devos et al., 2005; guba, 1981). the researcher used six measures to ensure the quality of the data. she: 1. attended pre-pilot interview training to improve her interviewing skills and confidence, followed by pilot interviews to evaluate the interview schedule and to give her interviewing practice 2. described each stage of the research clearly and carefully to explain what she did and why and to ensure that she followed the process exactly and remained neutral throughout the interviews 3. collected comprehensive observation notes after each interview for additional detail, depth and quality of data 4. used an independent co-coder to review the main and subthemes 5. discussed the interpretations of the findings with the participants and peers to ensure truth-value after presenting the findings to the managers of the organisation in a feedback session 6. interacted with the readers to ensure that she presented the material in such a way that the readers felt that the research clarified or increased their understanding of the subject matter (willig, 2008) through elaborate explanations and/or interpretations of the findings and by providing examples or transcript excerpts. reporting the researcher used a qualitative reporting style in which she described each of the major themes that emerged from the data separately. she presented anddiscussed the participants’ experiences of each of the major themes. she also offered selected quotations (interview excerpts) to illustrate the typical responses of the participants and the more complex themes that required further explanation. she made minor changes, which involved omitting words from some of the interview excerpts without affecting their meaning, in order to produce a more concise statement that would assist readers to understand it (de vos et al., 2005). reflexivity the researcher influences and shapes the research process as a person in qualitative research. this is personal reflexivity (willig, 2008). it is important because it encourages researchers to reflect on the extent to which the person of the researcher is implicated in the research and its findings. according to willig (2008), researchers can integrate reflexivity in a report and raise it in context, whenever it is relevant. in this research, the researcher reflected upon the themes that she extracted during the data analyses. she reports on these after the findings that follow. findings (back to top) the researcher identified four main themes from the data. the first two themes relate to challenges associated with implementing flexitime. a clear differenceemerged from the responses about the specific challenges that employees face about their own use of flexitime and the more general challenges associated with implementing flexitime. the researcher consequently labelled these themes ‘individual challenges’ and ‘general challenges’. the third theme relates to the requirements for the effective implementation of flexitime, whilst the last theme indicates the benefits of flexitime. the researcher describes these four themes in more detail below. she gives associated meanings and explanations to illustrate. theme 1: individual challenges associated with using flexitime it was clear from the responses that several issues confronted the participants who used flexitime. table 1 presents these individual challenges. some participants describe maintaining productivity or performance as more challenging when they work flexitime compared to when they work fixed hours.according to some participants, this challenge is most common when they use flexitime to postpone work because of personal commitments or responsibilities, laziness or poor time management. it then negatively affects achieving deadlines and outputs. however, other participants admitted to working far longer hours or taking little or no personal or free time because they cannot disengage from work. therefore, although some participants may work flexibly and maybe not in afternoons, their inability to disengage from work makes it difficult. in addition, they mentioned this inability to disengage because of its negative influence on managing and maintaining personal life and work – instead of spending time with family or friends, someparticipants continued working. some participants highlighted the lack of infrastructure, like connectivity, as one of the main reasons why they preferred not to use alternative workingenvironments because these critical resources are essential to their work. here are two examples of participants’ comments: ‘you end up working longer hours, you actually don’t relax ever because you are constantly working.’ (participant 6) ‘as a single mom i don’t have the flexible support at home to just rearrange my hours.’ (participant 5) besides these challenges that employees face, the researcher also identified some general challenges. table 1: individual challenges associated with using flexitime. theme 2: general challenges associated with flexitime table 2 presents these general challenges. according to the participants, one of the major challenges is managing employees’ productivity, performance and availability and their perceptions about flexitime. despite the apparent awareness of flexitime in the organisation, responses revealed a significant lack of knowledge and understanding about its use. frequentmisconceptions related to who may and may not use it and how one should apply to use flexitime. from the responses, it was clear that only a few employees actively discussed flexitime with their managers, possibly because of the negative perceptionssurrounding it. some participants said that many employees believe that women, especially mothers, are the only rightful users of flexitime, thus restricting the use of flexitime by other employees. another general perception the participants held was that if one is not at work one is misusing flexitime and not working. some employees, who are aware of these perceptions, would therefore restrict their use of flexitime. moreover, these perceptions pose a greater challenge when managersand directors hold them. they, in turn, may restrict access and use. possible misuse of flexitime was a major challenge that participants in managerial positions mentioned. they said they could not ensure whether employees werereally working or even with clients when they were not at the office. many of these participants also highlighted their concern about the lack of a disciplinary process for the misuse and abuse of flexitime they had witnessed. managers also frequently mentioned that junior employees are likely to misuse flexitime and the challenge this presents for managers to monitor their use of flexitime more closely. some managers stated that they refused flexitime to junior employees until they had proved their ‘professional maturity’ and earned the privilege. the availability of employees (in some cases face-to-face availability) is often an expectation of clients and colleagues who depend on employees for assistance or to complete tasks. this expectation, coupled with the ever-changing demands of the environment, influences employee access and use of flexitime. some participants said the unavailability of colleagues was a significant challenge and concern, especially when it directly influences their productivity or outputs. the following quotations are examples: ‘i don’t have a problem with people using flexitime until the point where it impacts negatively on my ability to deliver, then i get voicey about it. i sometimes can’t get hold of a person for days because he/she is working from home or “working differently”; it’s so frustrating and it affects my ability to deliver.’ (participant 14) ‘if you are working with clients, internal or external, there is this expectation of availability, and not just telephone availability, but face-to-face availability. some clients get really irritated by us using it.’ (participant 8) employees who face clients and who were not always granted access to flexitime by managers or their departments consistently identified this as a challenge because clients do not understand or support flexitime and become irritated by employees who use it. here is a comment one made: ‘there are directors that don’t want flexitime to be used and so they just put a lot of pressure on their staff so they don’t use it.’ (participant 9) participants also mentioned aspects of flexitime that relate closely to the challenges. according to the participants, these aspects – if they are present – greatly increase the effective use of flexitime. the participants regarded them as minimum requirements for the effective implementation of flexitime. the researcher included the aspects that are necessary for flexitime to be effective in theme 3. table 2: general challenges associated with using flexitime. theme 3: required aspects for the effective use of flexitime these aspects could, in some cases, help to alleviate the challenges mentioned earlier. the participants regarded them as critical for the effective implementation offlexitime. table 3 presents them. participants often mentioned the need for critical resources, like connectivity and employee face-to-face availability, because they were aware of the importance of continuous communication. they highlighted communication as a critical requirement for planning and managing tasks successfully. the quotation that follows illustrates and explains this requirement: ‘this environment is tough; people expect things, so even if you are working flexible work hours or flexi location, you have to be responding all the time. connectivity helps me senda reply, if not that night then early the next morning.’ (participant 6) participants also emphasised the need for individual planning and management consistently in their responses. the participants gave personal examples of whenthey had failed to plan and manage their schedules effectively and of the consequences they faced. some of the participants described failing to plan as being disrespectful towards colleagues, clients and managers who are likely to be affected. consequently, participants in managerial roles emphasised professional discipline often. they described demonstrating qualities like maturity and responsibility as necessary for employee access and use of flexitime. the quotation below illustratesthis: ‘you need to own it, just because you are on flexitime don’t make it anyone else’s problem. you need to be responsible and professional in your use. if you go to lunch put yourphone on forward and follow up on the calls, be responsible.’ (participant 14) professional discipline links to job performance, which all participants emphasised with equal fervour. participants agreed that employees should not use flexitime if it negatively affects their performance: ‘if you do not complete what you need to it will affect other employees and the service lines within the organisation, our clients, targets and deadlines, so you have to be respectful ofthat.’ (participant 12) participants also raised reduced job performance as a concern for managers. they mentioned that some managers seem to distrust employees’ use of flexitime and consequently supported it less. many participants described managers’ trust in employees as a critical determiner of employee access to, and use of, flexitime. participants, who felt that scheduling or planning boards were necessary for managing and scheduling work tasks and as a way of notifying colleagues when theywere working different hours or from different locations, recommended that the organisation use these boards for communication. this communication is critical to inform others when an employee is not available so that others can be on standby to assist. participants emphasised employee availability and visibility as essential for transferring knowledge, developing supportive relationships, mentoring junior employees and for planning and using flexitime successfully. the quotation below expresses these sentiments: ‘employees need to have access to more senior employees; they need to know who they are and build relationships with them. this will help them grow and develop to their best potential.’ (participant 10) participants with children highlighted the importance of having flexible support at home. they should be able to adjust to employees’ changing work schedules, especially when client deadlines and demands change so easily: ‘sometimes you have many client deadlines, you have to be flexible and so does your support at home because you cannot get rigid in terms of your professional capacity. so you need to be flexible and make sure your support structure at home fits that model.’ (participant 9) central to controlling and measuring flexitime was the expressed need for the careful recording and scheduling of how employees use flexitime. participants made several requests for guidelines and a company disciplinary process for those who misuse flexitime. misuse of this nature is a serious concern for the organisation and managers, especially because they associate the misuse of flexitime with junior employees. participants said that managers need to have more control and beable measure how employees use flexitime. the quotations that follow emphasise this clearly: ‘some rules or guidelines should be established to help managers; there should also be some kind of criteria to explain why some people get flexitime and others don’t, just to make itfair.’ (participant 14) ‘when you notice they are abusing it, which happens you must address it quickly and disciplinary processes must be followed.’ (participant 7) participants, who are frustrated because managers do not support their use of flexitime, said they needed managers to understand employees’ unique lifestyles and daily challenges about their working preferences and to allow them the access to, and use of, flexitime that they require. participants also mentioned their needto understand the guidelines for using flexitime, the criteria to qualify for flexitime as well as expectations about employee performance and use of flexitime. the quotations below illustrate this need to understand these aspects of flexitime: ‘as a manager, you need to know who your employees are and what is their working preference, much like you need to know their strengths and weaknesses.’ (participant 7) ‘education is necessary, particularly since several old-school managers don’t recognise the benefits or know how to manage its use, so they just refuse employee use who lose out.’ (participant 5) not all of the required aspects the participants referred were in use at the time of the interviews. nevertheless, the participants emphasised their importance.although participants mentioned several challenges and aspects that needed attention, they did indicate that benefits would follow if the organisation were to introduce flexitime and use it effectively. table 3: requirements for the effective use of flexitime. theme 4: benefits that would follow the use of flexitime table 4 gives the various individual and organisational benefits participants mentioned. individual benefits managing responsibilities in personal life and controlling work were benefits the participants mentioned consistently in the interviews. participants experienced work–life balance because of their newly found feeling of control and freedom to spend time at their own discretion, rather than feeling anxious about leaving the office: ‘there is no feeling of anxiousness that you have to be at work, you cannot schedule a personal appointment, you know that if you have to step out to go see your specialist or go get medicine that it is not going to be frowned upon like.’ (participant 4) participants went into detail when describing their psychological benefits. these benefits included reduced levels of stress and anxiety and increased levels of energy, passion and overall happiness in their working environment. according to the participants, all these benefits resulted from a better work–life balance. participants mentioned achieving bonuses or performance incentives as benefits of the improved productivity that results from flexitime. participants felt they were achieving more because they could control their work according to their unique working preferences. examples they gave are working early in the morning or at home to reduce distractions and interruptions. in addition, participants stated that flexitime allowed them to maintain productivity by making up for losttime because of examinations or illness. many of the participants mentioned that avoiding peak traffic periods optimises production. they mentioned that many employees had arranged their working hours to miss these times. the quotation below gives an example of the benefits they experienced from the new arrangement: ‘there are distinct examples of improved productivity. an audit team in midrand started work at six in the morning and then left at three because they were very early and were not stressed from traffic therefore they were more productive.’ (participant 14) table 4: benefits that would follow the use of flexitime. organisational benefits the ability to be flexible in response to changing deadlines and workloads is critical in a demanding, client-orientated environment. flexitime allows for thisadaptability and assists the organisation to meet client deadlines and improve overall organisational productivity and performance: ‘because the needs of the client changes all the time you might be slow this week and have many deadlines the next. so you need to have that flexibility to meet the client’s deadlines.’ (participant 8) flexitime as an attraction and retention strategy was a recurring subtheme in participant responses. several of the participants related cases where employees returned to the company primarily because of the ‘privilege’ of working flexitime. other participants described flexitime as the reason they work at the organisation, stating they could not work and manage their personal lives without it. several participants commented on flexitime as a marketing tool for the organisation: ‘flexitime makes the company attractive to the outside world; you would be surprised how many people are interested in working here just because of it alone.’ (participant 7) many participants interpreted flexitime as an expression of organisational care and concern for the employee. participants reported heightened levels of employee loyalty, commitment and motivation that resulted in improved productivity. participants commented on their willingness to work overtime to meet deadlines and complete tasks, knowing they would be granted time off. some participants declared their intention to work longer and harder in exchange for the care theorganisation offers employees: ‘if they are giving you that flexibility then i always feel i have to do all my work i can’t not, they are being so nice to me how could i let them down by not finishing my work.’ (participant 8) in addition to employee loyalty, commitment and motivation, many participants stated that increased levels of employee concentration and energy contribute to improvedproductivity. it was interesting to note that some participants indicated that they use time off to relax, whilst others said they use it to start and complete additional work. these findings show that participants had opposing views on productivity. the subtheme of maintaining productivity (a challenge in theme 1) is an example. it was clear from the data analysis that some participants really do feel that flexitime helps them to be more productive. however, maintaining productivity whilst working flexitime was challenging for others. the researcher could not ignore these opposing views and included them. the researcher felt that other factors could possibly influence flexitime, like personality types, and might explain these opposing views. some employees tend to procrastinate whilst working and flexitime will allow them to procrastinate more whilstworking. however, flexitime will work for employees who are more conscientious. however, this view is the researcher’s and participants did not offer this explanation explicitly. discussion (back to top) the aim of this article is to report on the challenges and benefits associated with implementing flexitime as a wlb policy in a south african organisation. these findings give valuable information about how employees experience flexitime, since work–life balance and its associated organisational polices, like flexitime, have recently become an important area of research for human resource practitioners (dancaster, 2006; glynn, steinberg & mccartney, 2002; kossek & ozeki, 1998; reynolds, 1999; sanichar, 2004). because of the various organisational and employee benefits associated with wlb, the popularity and use of these policies (likeflexitime) in organisations – both nationally and internationally – have increased (appiah-mfodwa et al., 2000; mageni & slabbert, 2005). however, implementing these policies in organisations poses challenges for human resource practitioners and employees (clutterbuck, 2003; mayberry, 2006; powers, 2004). the researcher discovered that the participants found flexitime challenging. this is consistent with findings from previous research (oke & idiagbon-oke, 2007). some of the specific aspects that participants found challenging are maintaining their productivity, managing their time and struggling to find a balance betweenwork and personal life. although previous studies (horwitz et al., 2000; grainger & holt, 2005; mageni & slabbert, 2005) have identified time management and maintaining productivity as challenges, the one of balancing work and personal life is interesting and contradictory. the reason organisations introduce flexitime is to help employees achieve and sustain this balance. participants explained this more clearly by referring to other challenges that they experience. they include the absence of infrastructure in alternative work locations and the difficulty of disengaging from work. many participants, even though they have flexible work hours, struggle to disengage from work when they participate in other activities. as a result, they still find itdifficult to balance work and personal life. this inability to disengage from work relates closely to the literature on recovery experiences (like mastery, control, psychological detachment and relaxation) and the need for recovery experiences in order to maintain wlb (sonnentag & fritz, 2007). in addition to the individual challenges, participants identified general challenges they face when they use flexitime. these challenges relate more to the organisation and originate there. its human resource practitioners should address them at that level. some of these challenges are consistent with those previous studies have found. they include managing perceptions, employees’ misuse of flexitime, ineffectivecommunication between employees and differences in the nature of work (akyeampong, 1993; bianchi & milke, 2010; cipd, 2000; cooke, 2005; oke & idiagbon-oke, 2007). other challenges the participants mentioned are their partial understanding of flexitime, the availability of employees and maintaining productivity. although they also mentioned maintaining productivity as an individual challenge, participants in management positions also indicated difficulty with managing the productivity and performance of their subordinates who use flexitime. interestingly, the present research revealed an additional perspective to the existing literature on flexitime. the participants indicated their specific requirements for using flexitime effectively. according to them, these aspects are critical for organisations that offer flexitime. some of them include critical resources; individualplanning and management; job performance; professional discipline; effective communication; supportive relationships; and employee availability. of these, previous research (mageni & slabbert, 2005; oke & idiagbon-oke, 2007) included critical resources, planning and self-management. from the participants’ point of view, organisations need to consider and address all of these aspects when they introduce flexitime because these aspects could help employees deal with thechallenges they face. although flexitime poses various challenges, participants also identified the benefits of flexitime. the literature covers some of them. they include wlb, managingtraffic, productivity, attraction and retention (cooke, 2005; cooke, zeytinoglu & mann, 2009; richman et al., 2008). in addition to these benefits, the participants also mentioned individual benefits. they include being able to manage responsibilities in their personal lives, beingable to control their work, psychological benefits (like reduced anxiety and stress), as well as organisational benefits like employee performance, concentration, loyalty, motivation and commitment. the participants did indicate that their productivity and managing responsibilities in their personal lives improved. however, the recent literature is contradictory. kattenbach, demerouti and nachreiner (2010) found no relationship between flexitime and performance. however, carlson et al. (2010) found a full mediating relationship between family performance, job satisfaction and flexibility. limitations of the study the present research yielded valuable information about flexitime and its implementation. however, it also has some limitations. one major limitation is its research field – the organisation the researcher used in this research and its policy of flexitime. the present research field included only one organisation. this might suggest that the specific problems this research identified about implementing flexitime might be organisation-specific. if the researcher had included more than one organisation, she might have identified broader aspects or challenges. however, previous studies identified some of these themes and could reveal similar findings. although the researcher gave very valuable feedback to the organisation she used for this research, one should be careful about generalising the findings to flexitime policies that other organisations use or develop. the researcher chose a non-random sample. however, it is worth mentioning that all the participants in the sample indicated that they have a domestic helper. this could explain some of the findings about their experiences of work–life balance or their use of flexitime. however, the participants did not explicitly mention this possible influence on their experiences of wlb or their use of flexitime. it also did not emerge during the interviews. in addition, it is also important to consider the limitations of qualitative research. qualitative research tends to work with smaller samples. this means that, although one can make valuable insights into particular cases, it is not possible to make claims about trends, regularities or distributions for a whole population (willig, 2008). furthermore, because the objectivity of the researcher is more of an ideal than a reality, alternative interpretations of the data are always possible. although a qualitative approach was appropriate for this research, it is always important to note that qualitative research does not always yield generalisable results. recommendations despite these limitations, this research will help human resource practitioners to develop and manage flexitime in their organisations. this research clearly shows that organisations should attend to or manage various aspects of flexitime. for example, the researcher recommends that, irrespective of the organisation and its specific flexitime policy, the employees’ awareness and knowledge of, and information about, its policy is crucial. therefore, human resource practitioners should inform their employees about the policy. they could do so during orientation programmes for new employees. the researcher also recommends that organisations empower their employees to use these policies by giving them the necessary critical resources (like 3g and cellphones) and help them with infrastructure at alternative locations. furthermore, employees and employers should decide jointly on a way of managing and controlling the misuse of flexitime. important recommendations for future research include investigating the use of flexitime in different occupational, ethnic and gender groups and the effectiveness of implementing these policies. in addition, future research could identify and evaluate other wlb policies that organisations in south africa use. conclusion this research makes it clear that implementing flexitime presents various challenges and organisations need to look at various aspects to use it effectively. althoughemployees are also responsible for improving the implementation of these policies, the main responsibility lies with organisations because many of the challenges occur at that level. the effective use of flexitime policies depends largely on human resource practitioners’ ability to address these challenges. acknowledgements (back to top) authors’ contributions the first author wrote and prepared most of the article and collected the data. the second author gave guidance about the format and content of the article. she also helped with the technical preparation of the manuscript, the data analysis and the conceptualisation of the study. references (back to top) appiah-mfodwa, a., horwitz, f., kieswetter, g., king, d., & solai, l. (2000). flexible work practices, productivity improvement and employment. society in transition, 31(2), 95–110. akyeampong, e.b. (1993). flexitime work arrangements. perspectives on labour and income, 3(5), 123–142. allen, t.d., herst, d.e., bruck, c.s., & sutton, m. (2000). consequences associated with work-to-family conflict: a review and agenda for future research. journal of occupational health psychology, 5, 278–308. doi:10.1037/1076-8998.5.2.278, pmid:10784291 appleton, j.v. (1995). analysing qualitative interview data: addressing issues of validity and reliability. journal of advanced nursing, 22, 993–997. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.1995tb02653.x barling, j., & barenbrug, a. (1984). some personal consequences of flexitime work schedules. journal of social psychology, 7 (4), 137–138. doi:10.1080/00224545.1984.9924524 bester, p. (2010, august 10). qualitative research. presented for the research methodology course at the north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa. blyton, p., blunsdon, b., reed, k., & datmalchian, a. (2006). work-life integration: international perspectives on the balancing of multiple roles. new york: palgrave macmillan. bianchi, s.m., & milkie, m.a. (2010). work and family research in the first decade of the 21st century. journal of marriage and family, 72 (1), 705–725. doi:10.1111/j.17413737.2010.00726.x burns, n., & grove, s.k. (1997). the practice of nursing research: conduct, critique and utilization. (3rd edn.). philadelphia, pa: wb saunders. carlson, d.s., grywacz, j.g., & kacmar, k.m. (2010). the relationship of schedule flexibility and outcomes via the work-family interface. journal of managerial psychology, 25(4), 330–335. doi:10.1108/02683941011035278 castells, m. (2000). materials for an exploratory theory of the networked society. british journal of sociology, 51 (2), 5–24. doi:10.1111/j.1468-4446.2000.00005.x, doi:10.1080/000713100358408> cipd research report. (2000). employment trends survey: people driving performance. london: pertemps and confederation of british industry. clutterbuck, d. (2003). managing work-life balance: a guide for hr in achieving organisational and individual change. london: uk chartered institute of personnel and development. cooke, g.b. (2005). the nature and incidents of non-standard work arrangements. unpublished master’s dissertation, mcmaster university, ontario, canada. cooke, g.b., zeytinoglu, i.u., & mann, s.l. (2009). weekend-based short work weeks: peripheral work or facilitating ‘work-life balance?’. community, work and family, 12(4), 409– 415. doi:10.1080/13668800902753911, pmid:2576907 dancaster, l. (2006). work-life balance and the legal right to request flexible working arrangements. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 9(2), 175–180. de vos, a.s., strydom, h., fouche, c.b., & delport, c.s.l. (2005). research at grass roots: for the social sciences and human service professions. pretoria: van schaik publishers. dex, s. (2004 july). flexible working arrangements in the uk. paper presented at the work life balance across the life course conference, centre for research on families and relationships, edinburgh: edinburgh university. dalcos, s.m., & daley, d. (2009). work pressure, workplace social resources and work-family conflict: the tale of two sectors. international journal of stress management, 16(4), 291–311. doi:10.1037/a0017319 doherty, l. (2004). work-life balance initiatives: implications for women. employee relations, 26 (4), 433–452. doi:10.1108/01425450410544524 duxbury, l., & higgins, c. (2003). work-life conflict in canada in the new millennium: a status report. healthy communities division, health canada. retrieved november 01, 2006, from http://www.cprn.org ferber, m.a., o’farrell, b., & allen, l.r. (eds.). (1991). work and family: policies for a changing work force. washington, dc: national academy press. felstead, a., jewson, n., phizacklea, a., & walters, s. (2002). opportunities to work at home in the context of work-life balance. human resource management journal, 12(1), 54–77. doi:10.1111/j.1748-8583.2002.tb00057.x forrester, m.a. (2010). doing qualitative research in psychology. a practical guide. university of kent: sage. fox, m.l., & dwyer, d.j. (1999). an investigation into the effects of time and involvement in the relationship between stressors and work family conflict. journal of occupational health psychology, 4(2), 167–174. doi:10.1037/1076-8998.4.2.164, pmid:10212868 frone, m.r., russel, m., & cooper, m.l. (1993). relationship of work-family conflict, gender and alcohol expectations to alcohol use and abuse. journal of organizational behaviour, 14(2), 545–558. doi:10.1002/job.4030140604 galinsky, e., bond, j.t., & hill, e.j. (2004). when work works: a status report on the workplace and flexibility. new york: families and work institute. geurts, s.a.e., rutte, c.g., & peeters, m.c.w. (1999). antecedents and consequences of work-home interference among medical residents. social science & medicine, 48, 1135– 1148. doi:10.1016/s0277-9536(98)00425-0 glynn, c., steinberg, i., & mccartney, c. (2002). work-life balance: the role of the manager. horsham: roffey park institute. grainger, h., & holt, h. (2005). results of the second flexible working employee survey. labour market trends, july, 297–302. greef, a., & nel, p.s. (2003). employment transformation enhancement in south africa: establishing a job-sharing model to promote employment equity. south african journal of labour relations, 27(2), 23–62. guba, e.g. (1981). criteria for assessing the trustworthiness of naturalistic inquiries. educational resources information centre annual review paper, 29, 75–91. guba, e.g., & lincoln, y.s. (1994). competing paradigms in qualitative research. in n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (ed.), handbook of qualitative research (pp. 105–117). thousand oaks, ca: sage. halpern, d.f. (2005). how time-flexible work policies can reduce stress, improve health and save money. journal of the international society for the investigation of stress, 21(3), 157–168. hammersley, m. (1998). reading ethnographic research. london: longman. hayman, j.r. (2009). flexible work arrangements: exploring the linkages between perceived usability of flexible work schedules and work/life balance. community, work and family, 12(3), 237–338. doi:10.1080/13668800902966331, pmid:2576907 hesse-biber, s.n., & leavy, p. (2004). approaches to qualitative research: a reader on theory and practice. usa: oxford university press. hill, e.j., erickson, j.j., holmes, e.k., & ferris, m. (2010). workplace flexibility, work hours and work-life conflict: finding an extra day or two. journal of family psychology, 24(3), 349–358. doi:10.1037/a0019282, pmid:20545408 hobsor, c.j., delunas, l., & kelsic, d. (2001). compelling evidence for the need for corporate work/life balance initiatives: results from a national survey of stressful life-events. journal of employment counseling, 4(8), 38–44. horwitz, f.m., allan, c., brosnan, p., & walsh, p. (2000). flexible work practices: perspectives from the southern hemisphere. south african journal of business management, 31(2), 76–83. horwitz, f., kieswetter, g., king, d., & solai, l. (2000). flexible work practices, productivity improvement and employment. journal of management, 31(2), 95–110. hsieh, h., & shannon, s.e. (2005). three approaches to qualitative content analysis. qualitative health research, 15, 1277–1288. doi:10.1177/1049732305276687, pmid:16204405 kattenbach, r., demerouti, e., & nachreiner, f. (2010). flexible working times: effects on employee exhaustion, work-nonwork conflict and job performance. career development international, 15(3), 279–295. doi:10.1108/13620431011053749 koekemoer, f.e., & mostert, k. (2006). job characteristics, burnout and negative workhome interference. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 32(3), 87–97. koekemoer, e., & mostert, k. (2010a). an exploratory study of the interaction between work and personal life: experiences of south african employees. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 36(1), 1–15. koekemoer, e., & mostert, k. (2010b). work-nonwork interference: preliminary results on the psychometric properties of a new instrument. sa journal of industrial psychology /sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 36(1), 1–13. doi:10.4102/sajip.v36i1.908 koekemoer, e., mostert, k., & rothman, s. jr. (2010). interference between work and nonwork roles: the development of a new south african instrument. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 36(1), 1–14. kossek, e.e., & ozeki, c. (1998). work-family conflict, policies, and the job-life satisfaction relationship: a review and directions for organizational behaviour – human resources research. journal of applied psychology, 83, 139–149. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.83.2.139 lewis, s., & cooper, c. (2005). work-life integration: case studies of organisational change. england: john wiley and sons. lewis-beck, m.s., bryman, a., & liao, t.f. (2004). the sage encyclopedia of social science research methods. thousand oaks: sage publications. lyons, e. (2007). doing qualitative research: initial questions. in e. lyons & a. coyle (eds.), analysing qualitative data in psychology. london: sage publications. mageni, g.f., & slabbert, a.d. (2005). meeting the challenge of the work-life balance in the south african workplace. south african journal economic management sciences, 8(4), 393–401. marais, c., mostert, k., geurts, s.a.e., & taris, t.w. (2009). measuring work-home interaction in indigenous languages: the psychometric properties of a translated version of the survey work-home interaction-nijmegen (swing) instrument. south african journal of psychology, 39(2), 202–219. mayberry, p. (2006). work-life balance policies and practices in the uk: views of an hr practitioner. journal of management, 23(2), 167–188. mcdonald, p., bradley, l., & brown, k. (2008). visibility in the workplace: still an essential ingredient for career success?. the international journal of human resource management, 19(12), 2198–2215. doi:10.1080/09585190802479447 michie, s., & williams, s. (2003). reducing work related psychological ill health and sickness absence: a systematic literature review. occupational and environmental medicine, 60(1), 3–9. doi:10.1136/oem.60.1.3, pmid:12499449, pmcid:1740370 morehead, a. (2002). behind the paid working of single mothers: managing change and constructing support. family matters, 61(4), 56–61. morgan, l. (2009). the impact of work life balance and family friendly human resource policies on employees job satisfaction. london: oxford university press. mostert, k., & rathbone, a.d. (2007). work characteristics, work-home interaction and engagement of employees in the mining industry. management dynamics, 16(2), 36–52. mostert, k., cronjé, s., & pienaar, j. (2006). job resources, work engagement and the mediating role of positive work-home interaction of police officers in the north west province. acta criminologica, 19(3), 64–87. neuman, w.l. (2003). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. united states of america: allyn and bacon. oke, a., & idiagbon-oke, m. (2007). implementing flexible labour strategies: challenges and key success factors. journal of change management, 7, 69–87. doi:10.1080/14697010701254912 patel, c.j., govender, v., paruk, z., & ramgoon, s. (2006). working mothers: work-family conflict, job performance and family/work variables. sa journal of industrial psychology/ sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 32(2), 39–45. pieterse, m., & mostert, k. (2005). measuring the work-home interface: validation of the survey work-home interaction – nijmegen (swing) instrument. management dynamics, 14(2), 2–15. powers, v. (2004). keeping work and life in balance. management journal, 12(2), 45–59. reynolds, h.b. (1999). it is not enough to offer work/life programs – you need to promote them. benefits quarterly, second quarter, 13–17. rice, r., frone, m.r., & mcfarlin, d.b. (1992). work non-work conflict and the perceived quality of life. journal of organisational behaviour, 13(2), 155–168. doi:10.1002/job.4030130205 richman, a.l., civian, j.t., shannon, l.l., hill, e.j., & brennan, r.t. (2008). the relationship of perceived flexibility, supportive work-life policies, and use of formal flexible arrangements and occasional flexibility to employee engagement and expected retention. community, work & family, 11(2), 183–197. doi:10.1080/13668800802050350, pmid:2576907 ritchie, j., & lewis, j. (2005). qualitative research practice: a guide for social science students and researchers. london: sage publications ltd. robbins, s.p., ordendaal, a., & roodt, g. (2004). organisational behaviour: global and southern african perspectives. pretoria: pearson publications. roffey park institute (2004). retrieved september 22, 2010, from http://www.roffeypark.com/research/wlb.html rost, i., & mostert, k. (2007). the interaction between work and home of employees in the earthmoving equipment industry: measurement and prevalence. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 33(2), 54–61. sanichar, a. (2004). the strategic implications and management considerations of work/life programmes. journal of contemporary management, 1, 31–44. sonnentag, s., & fritz, c. (2007). the recovery experience questionnaire: development and validation of a measure assessing recuperation and unwinding at work. journal of occupational health psychology, 12, 204–221. doi:10.1037/1076-8998.12.3.204, pmid:17638488 terre blanche, m., durrheim, k., & painter, d. (2006). research in practice: applied methods for the social sciences. cape town: university of cape town press. willig, c. (2008). introducing qualitative research in psychology. new york: open university press. white, m., hill, s., mcgovern, p., mills, c., & smeaton, d. (2003). high performance management practices, working house and work life balance. british journal of industrial relations, 41(5), 175–195. doi:10.1111/1467-8543.00268 article information authors: manasseh m. mokgolo1 patricia mokgolo2 mike modiba3 affiliations: 1department of human resources management, university of south africa, south africa2learning and development unit, tromso management consultants cc, boyne, south africa 3tromso management consultants cc, boyne, south africa correspondence to: manasseh mokgolo postal address: po box 392, university of south africa, pretoria 0003, south africa dates: received: 13 oct. 2010 accepted: 28 sept. 2011 published: 23 apr. 2012 how to cite this article: mokgolo, m.m., mokgolo, p., & modiba, m. (2012). transformational leadership in the south african public service after the april 2009 national elections. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(1), art. #334, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i1.334 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. transformational leadership in the south african public service after the april 2009 national elections in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • background to the study    • the research problem    • research objectives    • trends from the research literature       • transformational leadership and contextual antecedents       • leadership acceptance       • job performance       • job satisfaction • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results • discussion    • contribution to the literature    • implications for future research    • limitations of the study    • recommendations    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the implementation of transformational leadership in public services after national elections has been well recorded in other parts of the world. however, this is not the case in south africa. research purpose: the purpose of the study is to determine whether transformational leadership has a beneficial relationship with subordinate leadership acceptance, job performance and job satisfaction. motivation for the study: leadership is a critical issue that the public sector needs to address in order to survive and succeed in today’s unstable environment. according to groenewald and ashfield (2008), transformational leadership could reduce the effects of uncertainty and change that comes with new leaders and help employees to achieve their objectives. research design, approach and method: the sample comprised 1050 full-time employees in the public sector based in head offices. the measuring instruments included the multifactor leadership questionnaire (mlq), the leadership acceptance scale (las), the job satisfaction survey (jss) and the job performance survey (jps). main findings: transformational leadership had a positive correlation with subordinate leadership acceptance, performance and job satisfaction. practical/managerial implications: managers can train public sector leaders to be transformational leaders because of the adverse effect lack of transformation can have on employees’ attitudes in areas like satisfaction, performance and commitment. contribution/value-add: this study makes an important contribution to our understanding of transformational leadership processes and to how the public service can improve its practices in order to render quality service to south africans. introduction top ↑ background to the study south african public service leadership is a sensitive matter on the agenda of interest groups and societies, to mention a few, today. the united nations development programme (2003, p. 2) highlighted that ‘for the public sector organisations to survive and succeed in today’s unstable ever changing environment they need to address leadership‘. furthermore, the united nations development programme (2003) emphasises that the public service needs a corps of people who, whilst operating within the framework of the rule of law, are able to apply transformational leadership skills when tackling extraordinarily difficult challenges.bass (1985, 1998); bass and avolio (1994); nemanich and keller (2007); waldman, javidan and varella (2004) define transformational leadership as a relationship between a leader and followers based on a set of leadership behaviours that subordinates see as showing idealised influence, motivational inspiration, intellectual stimulation and consideration for people. in addition, line managers or leaders are key sources of influence on leadership acceptance, performance and job satisfaction. employees who work in changing situations may have a more positive, open-minded approach to the change of leaders and develop a more accepting attitude. groenewald and ashfield (2008) argue that transformational leaders could reduce the effects of uncertainty and change that comes with new leaders and help employees to achieve their objectives. bass and avolio (1994) supported this idea. they state that transformational leaders could raise subordinate performance to an acceptable standard. researchers like haslam and platow, 2001; hogg and terry, 2001; and hogg and van knippenberg, 2003 assert that a shift from the individual towards the social (group) level of identity is a step toward successful leadership transformation. van knippenberg and hogg (2003) and van dick (2004) argue that the members of high salience groups, with which people identify strongly, significantly affect the efficacy of their leaders according to how prototypical of them the members see them to be. the research problem national elections represent a significant strategic renewal for government leaders. however, they also pose significant challenges to the effectiveness of their leadership. according to nemanich and keller (2007):successful management of employees’ attitudes after national elections is vital because employees can choose to leave the services or remain, hold onto critical operational knowledge or share it, and raise their productivity level or become distracted by new leadership. further, stress that leadership transformation and redeployment of employees can cause social identity issues that can lead to frustration and anger about uneven performance and reduced job satisfaction. (p. 49) ernst and vitt, 2000; hogg and terry, 2000; and nygaard and dahlstrom, 2002 maintain that these leadership issues can cause an exodus of talent, tardiness, absenteeism, lower productivity, reduced customer satisfaction, less innovation and, ultimately, reduced economic benefits. therefore, it is vital that managers become transformational leaders because leader effectiveness determines the success levels of organisations. the transformational leadership literature reminds us that a wide range of factors affects employees. their leaders, who hope to initiate change in departments and generate follower acceptance, face a daunting task (kavanagh & ashkanasy, 2006; michela & burke, 2000). early research that built on the ’great man‘ theory of leadership (judge, bono, ilies & gerhardt, 2002) found that, for leaders to be effective, they must behave differently in different situations. transformational leadership positively affects a wide range of individual and organisational outcomes in a variety of contexts, including business (jung, chow & wu, 2003), the public sector (rafferty & griffin, 2004) and education (koh, steers & terborg, 1995). research objectives recent reviews (balogun, 2003; harris & moran, 2000) of research into government or public service leadership transformation after national elections show that few studies in south africa have examined the effect of transformational leadership on subordinate leadership acceptance, job performance and job satisfaction. therefore, the present study has attempted to answer the research question of whether transformational leadership has a beneficial relationship with subordinate leadership acceptance, job performance and job satisfaction. the main objectives of this paper are: • to obtain information on how transformational leadership variables relate to subordinate leadership acceptance, job satisfaction and performance • to provide policy-makers with useful recommendations on how to improve and develop best transformational leadership practices. trends from the research literature transformational leadership and contextual antecedents transformational leadership theory postulates that transformational leadership emerges more strongly and effectively in situations of crisis or uncertainty, like those that occur after elections (bass, 1990; shamir, house & arthur, 1993; yukl & howell, 1999).according to bass, avolio, jung and berson (2003) as well as vera and crossan (2004), transformational leaders help subordinates to unlearn past routines, develop creative solutions to ambiguous problems and respond appropriately to new environments. waldman, ramirez, house and puranam (2001) argue that charismatic leadership influences the performance of organisations in an environment of uncertainty, but not in more stable situations. pillai and meindl (1998) also found that, in demanding circumstances, transformational leadership behaviour tended not to emerge. in a study that covin, kolenko, sightler and tudor (1997) conducted, charismatic leadership behaviours had a positive relationship with employee satisfaction. therefore, transformational leadership is ‘a relationship between a leader and followers based on a set of leader behaviours perceived by subordinates as exhibiting idealised influence, motivational inspiration, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration‘ (bass, 1985, 1998; bass & avolio, 1994, p. 88). according to bass (1998) individualised consideration makes employees feel that their organisations value them and their need to understand and resolve their personal uncertainties. transformational leaders make subordinates feel that they have a calling to work toward a valuable purpose, like building new and larger entities. the effect of these transformational behaviours is that employees will be more satisfied with their jobs because they believe that they are doing important work for leaders who value their contributions. leadership acceptance leadership acceptance is the extent to which subordinates have a positive attitude to their appointed leaders and perceive the changes as beneficial (bass & avolio, 1994). according to marks and mirvis (1992), leadership acceptance is an important organisational outcome because subordinates, who are more satisfied with the organisational change strategy (like new management styles), are likely to adjust more quickly to the new culture and strategies that the new leaders are trying to implement. in addition, they argue that resistance to the new leaders is an underlying cause of unproductive behaviours that range from reduced productivity to sabotage.employees enter their new jobs with their own set of expectations based upon their previous experience. these expectations place meaning, motivation and cause–effect relationships in order. according to drazin, glynn and kazanjian (1999), they share commonalities in these expectations with co-workers from the same previous leaders, but not with co-workers from the new leaders. employees’ pre-existing expectations may also overlap very little and even conflict with new their leaders’ expectations, which represent the reality of the new leaders. in addition, robbins, odendaal and roodt (2002, p. 73) state that ’this cognitive dissonance (incompatibility) is aroused by the uncertainty and disruptive change process, increases the influence and importance of leader behaviours‘. when leaders change, employees become aware that the measuring tools for performance and loyalty have changed suddenly. this threat to the traditional values and lifestyles of their organisations leaves employees in a state of defensiveness that low levels of trust and cultural shock accentuate. mckendall (1993) also suggested that: employee reactions pass through four stages: (1) disbelief and denial, (2) anger, then rage and resentment, (3) emotional bargaining beginning in anger and ending in depression, and finally (4) acceptance. unless these different stages are recognised and dealt with astutely, employees will have difficulty reaching the acceptance stage, and the risk of leadership integration failure is increased significantly. (p. 100) for subordinates to be satisfied with their new leaders, they need to be able to understand the need for social services and believe that this is worthy of the disruption the new leaders may cause. they need to be able to relate to the new vision for the future at national, provincial and municipal level and find it to be a desirable objective. the skills of transformational leaders facilitate this process by explaining the vision and socially constructing common frames that form the groundwork for building consensus. the skills of leaders at communicating a vision to employees, and inspiring support for it, are the basis for building employee understanding of organisations’ reasons for change. in support of these arguments, robbins et al. (2002), and nemanich and keller (2007) have found that charismatic leadership has a positive relationship with leadership acceptance. during times of leadership change, it is important that the leaders of organisations create an atmosphere of psychological safety for all employees to engage in the new behaviours, and they need to be involved in order to verify for themselves the validity of the new beliefs and values. according to nemanich and keller (2007), transformational leadership is essentially a process of social influence in which employees want to feel included, supported and reinforced. van dick (2004), van knippenberg and hogg (2003) maintain that relations between employees and their leaders will affect perceived leader effectiveness. therefore, understanding these relations needs to include issues about employees’ self-concepts. however, many peripheral aspects, like organisational culture and leadership practices, may be constraining factors that will affect employees and their perceptions of their leaders. transformational leaders use idealised influence to empower followers, thereby raising their tolerance for uncertainty and their ability to adapt to new, changing conditions. according to maitlis (2005): the powerful communication skills associated with idealised influence can be used in formal and informal meetings with subordinates to expand leaders’ abilities to help employees understand the benefits of new leadership. (p. 22) vera and crossan (2004) further emphasise that: through intellectual stimulation, leaders encourage subordinates to question the universality of previous cognitive frames, opening the door for new frames to develop. by considering each subordinate as an individual, transformational leaders can provide support through the change process by facilitating social reconstruction to bring more uniform interpretations to people with separate experience bases. (p. 222) the researchers formulated hypothesis 1 using the preceding literature: • hypothesis 1: transformational leadership has a positive relationship with subordinates’ leadership acceptance. job performance job performance, broadly speaking:encompasses both what employees do and how well they perform their job, the initiative they take, their resourcefulness in solving problems, the extent to which they completes tasks, the way in which they use their available resources as well as the time and energy they spend on tasks. (mokgolo, 2008, p. 245) transformational leaders inspire followers to perform beyond normal expectations. for example, transformational leadership positively affected the performance of teams in a longitudinal study that keller (2006) conducted and of subordinates in a cross-sectional study that whittington, goodwin and murray (2004) performed. these studies found that transformational leadership had a direct effect, at all levels in the hierarchy, on the performance of followers. in addition, by building employees’ identification with the new leaders, transformational leaders motivate employees to engage in organisational citizenship (bono & judge, 2003; shamir et al., 1993) for the good of their organisations. by setting an example of individualised consideration, transformational leaders model positive interpersonal behaviours that reduce conflict and improve productivity in the workplace. bass (1985) developed a model of situational antecedents for transformational leadership and emphasised the importance of contextual antecedents in later work (bass, 1998; bass et al., 2003). in his model, transformational leadership is particularly effective in changing environments as well as during times of uncertainty and distress (bass, 1998; house & aditya, 1997; waldman et al., 2001; yukl & howell, 1999). transformational leaders: are essentially change agents; they visualise a future different to that of the status quo and inspire subordinates to work with them to achieve the future goals and objectives of the public service. (vera & crossan, 2004, p. 224) after national elections, transformational leadership behaviours play a critical role in helping subordinates to accept that a better future lies in integrating public service departments or units. in addition, bass et al., (2003) state that, by inspiring employees to work toward that future, transformational leaders motivate employees to maintain their satisfaction and improve performance despite their uncertainty and anxiety about integrating. these studies helped the researchers to formulate their second hypothesis: • hypotheisis 2: transformational leadership has a positive relationship with subordinate job performance. job satisfaction because job satisfaction is a widely researched and complex phenomenon, it follows that there are many definitions of the concept. according to lumley, coetzee, tladinyane and ferreira (2011), job satisfaction is:an individual’s overall feeling about their job and their attitudes towards various aspects or facets of their job, as well as an attitude and perception that can influence the degree of fit between the individual and the organisation. (p. 101) robbins (1993) also stated that people with high job satisfaction seem to have generally positive attitudes whilst those who are dissatisfied appear to have generally negative attitudes to their jobs. spector (1997), cited in lumley et al. (2011), explains: that for researchers to understand these attitudes, they need to understand the complex and interrelated facets of job satisfaction, namely pay, promotion, supervision, benefits, contingent rewards, operating procedures, co-workers, nature of the work and communication. (p. 102) research shows that job satisfaction does not occur in isolation because it depends on organisational variables like structure, size, pay, working conditions and leadership, which all characterise the climate of organisations (sempane, rieger & roodt, 2002). according to rothmann and coetzer (2002, p. 30), job satisfaction amongst employees ’is an indicator of organisational effectiveness, and is influenced by organisational and personal factors‘. most employers realise that the optimal functioning of their organisations depends partly on the level of job satisfaction of their employees. therefore, the statement that ’happy employees are productive employees‘ (saari & judge, 2004) applies. rothmann and coetzer (2002) also emphasise that employee job satisfaction is very important and, for employee performance to improve, organisations need employees’ full commitment at all levels. therefore, leadership affects employees’ job satisfaction greatly and can cause employees to resign, to become tardy in productivity or to decrease their performance. it is also clear that situational appraisals, which will reflect employees’ cognitive evaluations of how situations or events will affect their levels of wellbeing, influence their reactions to changes in leaders. some employees experience fewer negative effects and are more accepting. those most affected no longer care and are simply trying to survive. these notes led the researchers to: • hypothesis 3: transformational leadership has a positive relationship with job satisfaction. research design top ↑ research approach the researchers used a quantitative survey design (shaughnessy & zechmeister, 2003) to achieve their research objectives. research method research participants the participants were middleand top-level employees from various public sector departments at provincial head offices. the researchers distributed anonymous questionnaires to 1050 employees, which they had to complete themselves, in all the departments. of these, 66% were men and 34% were women. the participants completed 896 questionnaires. this is a return rate of 85%. the researchers collected their data from employees a year after the elections. employee survey instruments collected data on employees’ perceptions of: • their managers’ transformational leadership behaviours • their perceptions of their own levels of leadership acceptance, job performance and job satisfaction. the employee questionnaires included an open-ended invitation to provide comments. the researchers drew a 30% systematic random sample using a population list of approximately 3500 public sector employees from all functional categories. the sample excluded employees in departments located outside the head office in each province. the reason was that employees in these departments do not often engage in as broad a range of tasks as employees in head offices do. measuring instruments the researchers used employee survey instruments to collect data on perceptions of: • managers’ transformational leadership behaviours • employees’ perceptions of their acceptance of leadership • employees’ perceptions of their job performance • employees’ perceptions of their job satisfaction. the employee survey questionnaires included an open-ended invitation to provide comments. the researchers measured all variables using a five-point response scale. it ranged from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). in some cases, the researchers needed to make slight changes to sentence structure. the transformational leadership questionnaire: the researchers measured transformational leadership using the multifactor leadership questionnaire (mlq). it comprised 20 items. the researchers selected the items according to how well employees assessed the theoretical constructs the researchers highlighted in the introduction to this article (bass & avolio, 2000). the mlq assesses idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration. in some cases, the researchers needed to make slight changes to sentence structure. the researchers discuss the transformational leadership questionnaire items below. for idealised influence, the items the researchers included the extent to which managers encourage employees to be team players, motivate sections to work together to achieve the same goals, develop a team attitude and spirit amongst employees and believe that all employees are crucial to the success of the departments’ goals. for inspirational motivation, the items the researchers included the extent to which managers encourage high standards, talk optimistically, express confidence and speak enthusiastically. for intellectual stimulation, the items the researchers included the extent to which managers ask questions that make employees think, get employees to rethink the way they do things and challenge employees to think about problems in new ways. for individualised consideration, the items the researchers included how managers spend their time, the extent to which managers treat employees as individuals, the extent to which managers consider that employees have different strengths and abilities from others and develop employees’ strengths. the cronbach’s alpha was .96. the leadership acceptance scale (las): covin et al. (1997) developed the las. the researchers used it to assess and determine employees’ perceptions about the leadership transition. the researchers used 13 items and in some cases they had to make slight changes to sentence structure. the las assessed the dimensions of responsibility, influence, teamwork, ability, goal setting and self-image as well as the extent to which employees accept change. the cronbach’s alpha was .71. the job satisfaction survey (jss): the researchers measured job satisfaction using 12 items from the scale that spector (1997) designed. the jss measured security, working conditions and advancement. mokgolo (2008) previously tested the jss on a sample of 231. it yielded a cronbach’s alpha of .88 (mokgolo, 2008). the cronbach’s alpha for this study was .79. the job performance survey (jps): the researchers measured job performance using 12 items from zammuto, london and rowland (1982) and schepers (1994). the researchers used the jps to measure the accomplishment of objectives and acceptability of interpersonal behaviours. the job performance items included achievement, flexibility and innovation, decision centralisation and social relations. cronbach’s alpha for this study was .76. research procedure the researchers received ethical clearance and permission to conduct the study from all the provincial departments that agreed to participate in the study. they visited the participants at their workplaces to conduct sessions that would last approximately 40 minutes each, during which they would collect the data. all participants received the questionnaires and covering letters that explained the purpose of the study and ensured confidentiality. the participants indicated their consent to participate by returning the questionnaires. statistical analysis the researchers chose their data analysis procedures based on their applicability to the correlational nature of the research design. the researchers used descriptive and inferential statistics to analyse the data. they conducted linear regression analyses to test their research hypotheses. although they set a cut-off point of p < .05, they also considered a practical effect size of r > .30 (medium effect, cohen, 1992) for the correlational analyses so that they could interpret the practical significance of the findings. in terms of the linear regression analyses, they used the value of adjusted r² to determine the proportion of the total variance of the dependent variables (sla, jps and jss) that the independent variable (mlq) explained. for the purpose of this study, they treated r-values larger than .30 (medium effect) and r² values larger than .13 (medium effect) as practically significant. results top ↑ table 1 gives means, standard deviations and instrument reliabilities. tables 2, 3 and 4 give the results of the standardised linear regression analyses for transformational leadership and the dependent variables of leadership acceptance, job satisfaction and job performance. table 1: means, standard deviations and instrument reliabilities. table 2 shows linear regression analysis estimates for subordinate leadership acceptance, as a dependent variable, and the transformational leadership dimensions. intellectual stimulation was the best predictor of leadership acceptance (β = .18; p ≤ .01) according to the public sector employees who participated in this study. idealised influence and inspirational motivation (β = .15; p ≤ .01 and β = .11; p ≤ .05) were also significant contributors (adjusted r2 = .24). they showed that the independent variable accounted for 24% of the variance in subordinate leadership acceptance. table 2: linear regression analysis estimates for transformational leadership dimensions and subordinate leadership acceptance. table 3 shows linear regression analysis estimates for job performance, as a dependent variable, and the transformational leadership dimensions. idealised influence was the best predictor of job performance (β = .31; p ≤ .001). intellectual stimulation, individualised consideration and inspirational motivation (β = .22; p ≤ .01; β = .13; p ≤ .001; and β = .12; p ≤ .01) were also significant contributors (adjusted r2 = .60). they show that the independent variable accounted for 60% of the variance in job performance. table 3: linear regression analysis estimates for transformational leadership dimensions and job performance. table 4 shows linear regression analysis estimates for job satisfaction, as a dependent variable, and the transformational leadership dimensions. inspirational motivation was the best predictor of job satisfaction (β = .41; p ≤ .001). idealised influence and intellectual stimulation (β = .19; p ≤ .001 and β = .16; p ≤ .001) were also significant contributors (adjusted r2 = .62). they show that the independent variable accounted for 62% of the variance in job satisfaction. in the light of these results, the researchers accepted their hypotheses. table 4: linear regression analysis estimates for transformational leadership dimensions and job satisfaction. discussion top ↑ the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between transformational leadership and subordinate leadership acceptance, with job performance and job satisfaction as dependent variables. the results of the study provide much-needed insight into the relationships between transformational leadership behaviours and employee attitudes and performance in the public service. the results also point to issues that the public service could address to root out the causes of poor service delivery, which results from incompetent management and leadership. the results yielded significant correlations between transformational leadership and the dependent variables of leadership acceptance, job satisfaction and performance. with regard to transformational leadership (mean = 3.60), intellectual stimulation appears to be the best predictor of subordinate leadership acceptance (β = .18, p < .01; mean = 3.38). idealised influence (β =15, p < 01) and inspirational motivation (β = 12, p < 05) are also significant contributors. the independent variable accounted for 24% of the variance in subordinate leadership acceptance (see table 2). table 3 shows that idealised influence is the best predictor of job performance (β = .31, p < .001; mean = 3.69). intellectual stimulation (β = .22, p < .01), individualised consideration (β = .13, p < .001) and inspirational motivation (β = .12, p < .01) are also significant contributors. the independent variable accounted for 66% of the variance in job performance. table 4 also shows that, of the variables this study included, inspirational motivation is the best predictor of job satisfaction (β = .41, p < .001; mean = 3.69). idealised influence (β = .19, p < .001) and intellectual stimulation (β = .16, p < .001) are also significant contributors. the independent variable accounted for 62% of the variance in job satisfaction. the amount of explained variance is unusually high. in answering the research question of whether transformational leadership has a beneficial relationship with subordinate leadership acceptance, job performance and job satisfaction, this study shows that there is indeed a relationship between transformational leadership, subordinate leadership acceptance, job performance and job satisfaction. however, uncertainty and change exerted downward pressure on the attitudes and performance of subordinates after elections. this resulted in negative outcomes, mostly at the provincial and municipal level. they include low employee morale, loss of key talent and poor service delivery. these results are consistent with findings that medley and larochelle (2005) reported. they found that transformational leadership relates most strongly to job satisfaction and job performance. these results illuminate the vision for the future that transformational leaders need to create to persuade subordinates to perform optimally in a dynamic environment, even in the absence of clear and immediate goals (nemanich & keller, 2007). in addition, in the uncertain context of leadership changes, subordinate job performance and satisfaction respond to the skills of transformational leaders in inspiring and motivating employees. the findings support the expectation that transformational leaders increase employee acceptance as well as performance and satisfaction expectations. they try to transform the abilities, personal values and self-concepts of employees and move them to higher levels of needs and aspirations. the present study showed that those responsible for leading departments do not have the appropriate transformational skills to manage their departments effectively and efficiently. this, in turn, has led to negative perceptions of employees about how leaders manage their departments and about their leadership. this has had a detrimental effect on the ability of employees to accept their new leaders and view the ’new organisation and its culture‘ positively. min-huei (2005) supports the argument that leaders should consider using transformational leadership behaviours to motivate employees at all levels to make the extra effort (‘organisational citizenship’) that organisations need to maintain quality service delivery during change. leaders should engage in transformational behaviours, like providing individualised attention to support employees during change and using their intellectual skills to help employees to understand the visions of organisations. the public service departments that have transformational leaders at all levels from top to bottom convey to their staff, their customers, society as well as their suppliers and financial sponsors that: • they have a vision for the future • they are confident that they have leaders who are committed to developing their staff members and making the public services sector a success (bass & avolio, 1994). contribution to the literature this study makes an important contribution to our understanding of transformational leadership processes. the findings should encourage leaders to engage in transformational leadership behaviours in order to boost the creative performance of their employees or subordinates and to address the ever-increasing and continuously changing demands of the work environment and society. good leadership in the public sector is essential, particularly given the recent scandals about corruption and greediness. the findings add new knowledge that can improve public service practices for effective leadership, the retention of valuable staff members and quality service delivery. finally, the findings of this study might serve as a reference point for policy decisions about leadership change. implications for future research this study showed that transformational leadership behaviour influences employees’ performance, job satisfaction and acceptance of leadership. given the lack of research on transformational leadership in south africa, this study adds to the field of leadership studies by providing empirical research on this topic in the public sector. therefore, the study is significant in terms of understanding leadership and employee relationships as well as how organisations can improve these relationships. with regard to current research on transformational leadership in south africa, this study suggests that transformational leaders could play a vital role in the public service. this study addressed only three constructs of work-related behaviours (performance, job satisfaction and leadership acceptance). further research in this field could examine other constructs related to the effectiveness and outcomes of public services. examples of these constructs are organisational citizenship behaviour and employee commitment. limitations of the study although the current study yielded some interesting results, there are limitations that could limit its generalisability. firstly, the researchers drew their samples from provincial departments in head offices in each province. secondly, the current findings may not apply to settings where employees are less educated or are not professionals. lastly, relying simply on quantitative research does not allow for a complete understanding of complex leadership behaviour. it is important, for instance, to supplement quantitative research with qualitative research through in-depth case studies or face-to-face interviews with selected leaders or managers. recommendations transformational leadership requires an outlook that differs considerably from a mindset of compliance. managers in the public sector should be experts on using the talents of employees in their departments to achieve provincial competitive advantage. transformational leadership can play an important role in giving the leaders what they need in order to ensure success.leaders need to develop visions that all stakeholders share and should be able to use inspirational language to do so. leaders must engage in acts that involve personal risk and sacrifice. in addition, socio-cultural and gender diversity require a strong vision in order to focus on mutual goals and provide a sense of assurance. furthermore, to gain the trust of subordinates, leaders must be role models and show total commitment to achieving the objectives of the public service. leaders must commit the resources the public service needs to identify strategic objectives, outputs or results. they must ensure that the outputs, characteristics, work activities and tasks their subordinates perform are consistent with these objectives. according to dubois, rothwell, stern and kemp (2004), transformational leadership needs leaders who are willing to add a qualitative aspect to their quantitative mindset and who are open to rethink what they mean by performance and ’quality service delivery‘ – especially when the work is strategic to the success of the public service . the national government will need to consider whether the leadership interventions that it has introduced to assist leadership at national, provincial and local level are having an effect on the broader change process that it has begun. more specifically, it is necessary to evaluate the interventions in terms of sustainability, cost and adding value. conclusion transformational leadership is vital to effective management because the effectiveness of leaders determines the success of organisations. according to hall, johnson, wysocki and kepner (2005), organisations that take the time to teach leadership are far ahead of their competitors. by becoming familiar with the transformational leadership approach and combining the four ‘is’ (idealised influence, inspirational motivation, individualised consideration and intellectual stimulation), which bass, 1998; bass & avolio, 1993 modelled, managers can become effective leaders in the public service. one can also use transformational leadership in one-on-one or group situations. using this approach, the manager (leader) and the associates (followers) become ’transformed‘ to improve job performance and help organisations to be more productive and successful. the findings suggest that engaging in transformational leadership behaviours is an effective strategy to help line managers (both political and non-political) to meet challenges. finally, when a leader is authentic and genuinely concerned about the wellbeing of his or her followers/subordinates and demonstrates an active commitment to the development of these subordinates, people are changed. (whittington, pitts, kageler & goodwin, 2005, p. 602) acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them when they wrote this paper. authors’ contributions m.m.m. (university of south africa) designed the study, completed the data analysis and edited the article. p.m. (tromso management consultant cc) helped with the literature review and with distributing and collecting the questionnaires. m.m. (tromso management consultant cc) funded the study. references top ↑ balogun, m.j. (2003). leadership and agency governance: the search for the common cause of excellence in the african public service. ethiopia: united nations economic commission for africa addis ababa.bass, b.m. (1985). leadership and performance beyond expectations. new york: the free press. bass, b.m. (1990). bass and stogdill’s handbook of leadership. new york: the free press. bass, b.m. (1990). from transactional to transformational leadership: learning to share the vision. organisational dynamics, winter, 114–178. bass, b.m. (1998). transformational leadership: industrial, military and educational impact. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1994). improving organisational effectiveness through transformational leadership. sage: thousand oaks ca. bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (2000). mlq multifactor leadership questionnaire. redwood city: mind garden. bass, b.m., avolio, b.j., jung, d.i., & berson, y. (2003). predicting unit performance by assessing transformational and transactional leadership. journal of applied psychology, 88, 207–218. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.2.207, pmid:12731705 bono, j.e., & judge, t.a. (2003). self-concordance at work: toward understanding the motivational effects of transformational leaders. academy of management journal, 46, 554–571. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/30040649 cohen, j. (1992). quantitative methods in psychology: a power primer. psychological bulletin, 112(1), 153–159. covin, t.j., kolenko, t.a., sightler, k.w., & tudor, r.k. (1997). leadership style and post-acquisition satisfaction. journal of management development, 16, 22–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02621719710155454 chemers, m.m. (2001). leadership effectiveness: an integrative review. in m.a. hogg & s. tindale (eds.), blackwell handbook of social psychology: group processes, (pp. 376–399). maulden, ma: blackwell. drazin, r., glynn, m., & kazanjian, r. (1999). multilevel theorizing about creativity in organisations: a sensemaking perspective. academy of management review, 24, 286–307. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/259083 dubois, d.d., rothwell, w.j., stern, j.k., & kemp, k.k. (2004). competency based: human resources management. palo alto california: davis black publishing. ernst, h., & vitt, j. (2000). the influence of corporate acquisitions on the behavior of key inventors. r & d management, 30, 105–119. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9310.00162 greenleaf, r. (2008). the servant-leader within: a transformative path. new york: paulist press. groenewald, a., & ashfield, g. (2008, 07 may). when leaders are also explorers. the star workplace, p. 56. hall, j., johnson, s., wysocki, a., & kepner, k. (2005). transformational leadership: the transformation of managers and associates. university of florida, ifas. harris, p.r., & moran, r.t. (2000). managing cultural differences: global leadership strategies for cross-cultural business success. houston, tx: gulf publishing company. haslam, s.a., & platow, m.j. (2001). your wish is our command: the role of shared social identity in translating a leader’s vision into followers’ action. in m.a. hogg & d. terry (eds.), social identity processes in organisations, (pp. 213–228). new york: psychology press. hogg, m., & terry, d. (2000). social identity and self-categorisation processes in organisational contexts. academy of management review, 25, 121−140. hogg, m.a., & terry, d.j. (eds.). (2001). social identity processes in organizational contexts, philadelphia, pa: psychology press. hogg, m.a., & van knippenberg, d. (2003). social identity and leadership processes in groups. in m.p. zanna (ed.), advances in experimental social psychology, 35, 1–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0065-2601(03)01001-3 hogg, m. (1996). social identity and self-categorization processes in organisational contexts. academy of management review, 25, 121–140. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/259266 house, r.j., & aditya, r.n. (1997). the social scientific study of leadership: quo vadis? journal of management, 23, 409–473. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920639702300306 howell, j.m., & shamir, b. (2005). the role of followers in the charismatic leadership process: relationships and their consequences. academy of management review, 30, 96–112. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.2005.15281435 ivancevich, j., & matteson, m. (2002). organisational behaviour and management. (6th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. judge, t.a., bono, j.e., ilies, r., & gerhardt, m.w. (2002). personality and leadership: a qualitative and quantitative review. journal of applied psychology, 87(4), 765–780. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.765, pmid:12184579 judge, t.a., & bono, j.e. (2000). five-factor model of personality and transformational leadership. journal of applied psychology, 85, 751–765. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.85.5.751, pmid:11055147 judge, t.a., & piccolo, r.f. (2004). transformational and transactional leadership: a meta-analytic test of their relative validity. journal of applied psychology, 89, 755–768. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.5.755, pmid:15506858 jung, d.i., chow, c., & wu, a. (2003). the role of transformational leadership in enhancing organisational innovation: hypotheses and some preliminary findings. the leadership quarterly, 14, 525–544. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(03)00050-x kavanagh, m.h., & ashkanasy, n.m. (2006). the impact of leadership and change management strategy on organisational culture and individual acceptance of change during a merger. british journal of management, 17(1), 81–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2006.00480.x keller, r.t. (2006). transformational leadership, initiating structure, and substitutes for leadership: a longitudinal study of r&d project team performance. journal of applied psychology, 91, 202–210. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.1.202, pmid:16435950 koh, w.l., steers, r.m., & terborg, j.r. (1995). the effects of transformational leadership on teacher attitudes and students performance in singapore. journal of organisational behaviour, 16, 319–333. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.4030160404 leithwood, k.a., & jantzi, d. (2000). the effects of transformational leadership on organisational conditions and student engagement with schools. journal of educational administration, 38(2), 112–125. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09578230010320064 lumley, e.j., coetzee, m., tladinyane, r., & ferreira, n. (2011). exploring the job satisfaction and organisational commitment of employees in the information technology environment. southern african business review, 15(1), 100–118. maitlis, s. (2005). the social processes of organisational sensemaking. academy of management journal, 48, 21–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2005.15993111 marks, m.l., & mirvis, p.h. (1992). rebuilding after the acquisition: dealing with ‘survivor sickness’. organisational dynamics, 21, 18–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(92)90061-q martins, n., & coetzee, m. (2007). organisational culture, employee satisfaction, perceived leader emotional competency and personality type: an exploratory study in a south african engineering company. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 5(2), 20–32. medley, f., & larochelle, d.r. (2005). transformational leadership and job satisfaction. nursing management, 26(9), 68–68. michela, j.l., & burke, w.w. (2000). organisational culture and climate in transformations for quality and innovation. in n.m. ashkanasy, c.p.e. wilderom & m.f. peterson (eds.), handbook of organisational culture and climate, (pp. 117–129). london: sage publications inc. min-huei, c. (2005). a study to improve organisational citizenship behaviours. academy of management journal, 15(7), 653–663. mokgolo, m.m. (2008). management experiencing internal changes and external pressure. management today, 24(2), 52–55. mckendall, m. (1993). the tyranny of change: organizational development revisited. journal of business ethics, 12, 93–104. nemanich, l.a., & keller, r.t. (2007). transformational leadership in an acquisition: a field study of employees. leadership quarterly, 18, 49–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2006.11.003 nygaard, a., & dahlstrom, r. (2002). role stress and effectiveness in horizontal alliances. journal of marketing, 66(2), 61–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.66.2.61.18474 pillai, r., & meindl, j.r. (1998). context and charisma: a ’meso‘ level examination of the relationship of organic structure, collectivism, and crises to charismatic leadership. journal of management, 24, 643–671. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920639802400505 rafferty, a., & griffin, m. (2004). dimensions of transformational leadership: conceptual and empirical extensions. leadership quarterly, 15, 329–354. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2004.02.009 robbins, s. (1993). organisational behaviour: concepts, controversies, and applications. (6th edn.). new jersey: prentice hall. robbins, s.p, odendaal, a., & roodt, g. (2002). organisational behaviour: global and southern african perspectives. cape town: pearson education south africa. rothmann, s., & coetzer, e. (2002). the relationship between personality dimensions and job satisfaction. business dynamics, 11(1), 29–42. saari, l., & judge, t. (2004). employee attitudes and job satisfaction. human resource management, 43(4), 395–407. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20032 sempane, m., rieger, h., & roodt, g. (2002). job satisfaction in relation to organisational culture. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 28(2), 23–30. schepers, j.m. (1994). die konstruksie en evaluering van ‘n prestasiebeoordelingsvraelys vir nie-akademiese personeel [the construction and evaluation of a performance evaluation questionnaire for non-academic personnel]. johannesburg: rau. shaughnessy, j.j., & zechmeister, e.b. (2003). research methods in psychology. (4th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. shamir, b., house, r.j., & arthur, m.b. (1993). the motivational effects of charismatic leadership: a self-concept based theory. organisation science, 4, 577–594. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.4.4.577 spector, p. (1997). job satisfaction: application, assessment, causes and consequences. california: sage publication. van dick, r. (2004). my job is my castle: identification in orgnisational contexts. in c.l. cooper & i.t. robertson (eds.), international review of industrial and organisation psychology, 19, 171–203. van knippenberg, d., & hogg, m.a. (2003). a social identity model of leadership effectiveness in organisations. in b. staw & r.m. kramer (eds.), research in organisational behaviour, 25, 245–297. van knippenberg, d., & van leeuwen, e. (2001). oganisational identity after a merger. in m.a. hogg & d.j. terry (eds.), social identity processes in organisational contexts, (pp. 249–264). philadelphia: psychology press. vera, d., & crossan, m. (2004). strategic leadership and organisational learning. academy of management review, 29, 222–240. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.2004.12736080 united nations development programme. (2003). leadership and social transformation in the public sector: moving from challenges to solutions. new york: oxford university press. waldman, d., javidan, m., & varella, p. (2004). charismatic leadership at the strategic level: a new application of upper echelons theory. leadership quarterly, 15, 355–380. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2004.02.013 waldman, d.a., ramirez, g.g., house, r.j., & puranam, p. (2001). does leadership matter? ceo leadership attributes and profitability under conditions of perceived environmental uncertainty. academy of management journal, 44, 134–143. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3069341 whittington, j.l., pitts, t.m., kageler, w.v., & goodwin, v.l. (2005). legacy leadership: the leadership wisdom of the apostle paul. leadership quarterly, 16, 749–770. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.07.006 whittington, j., goodwin, v., & murray, b. (2004). transformational leadership, goal difficulty, and job design: independent and interactive effects on employee outcomes. leadership quarterly, 15, 593–606. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2004.07.001 yukl, g. (2002). leadership in organisations. (5th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. yukl, g., & howell, j.m. (1999). howell, organisational and contextual influences on the emergence and effectiveness of charismatic leadership. leadership quarterly, 10, 257–283. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(99)00014-4 zammuto, f.r., london, m., & rowland, m.k. (1982). organisation and rater differences in performance appraisals. personnel psychology, 35, 643–657. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1982.tb02216.x article information authors: gerdi mulder1 lené i. jorgensen1 j. alewyn nel1 deon meiring2 affiliations: 1workwell: research unit for economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom campus, south africa2department of human resource management, university of pretoria, south africa correspondence to: alewyn nel postal address: po box 114, school of human resource sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa, 2520 dates: received: 30 oct. 2012 accepted: 03 june 2013 published: 30 july 2013 how to cite this article: mulder, g., jorgensen, l.i., nel, j.a., & meiring, d. (2013). the evaluation of a frame-of-reference training programme for intern psychometrists. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #506, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.506 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the evaluation of a frame-of-reference training programme for intern psychometrists in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • assessors in assessment centres    • training of assessors    • frame-of-reference training       • research objectives • method    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results • discussion    • limitations    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors' contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the use of assessment centres (acs) has drastically increased over the past decade. however, acs are constantly confronted with the lack of construct validity. one aspect of acs that could improve the construct validity significantly is that of assessor training. unfortunately untrained or poorly trained assessors are often used in ac processes. research purpose: the purpose of this research was to evaluate a frame-of-reference (for) programme to train intern psychometrists as assessors at an assessment centre. motivation of study: the role of an assessor is important in an ac; therefore it is vital for an assessor to be able to evaluate and observe candidates’ behaviour adequately. commencing with this training in a graduate psychometrist programme gives the added benefit of sending skilled psychometrists to the workplace. research design, approach and method: a quantitative research approach was implemented, utilising a randomised pre-test-post-test comparison group design. industrial psychology postgraduate students (n = 22) at a south african university were used and divided into an experimental group (n = 11) and control group (n = 11). three typical ac simulations were utilised as preand post-tests, and the ratings obtained from both groups were statistically analysed to determine the effect of the for training programme. main findings: the data indicated that there was a significant increase in the familiarity of the participants with the one-on-one simulation and the group discussion simulation. practical/managerial implications: training intern psychometrists in a for programme could assist organisations in the appointment of more competent assessors. contribution/value-add: to design an assessor training programme using for training for intern psychometrists in the south african context, specifically by incorporating this programme into the training programme for honours students at universities. introduction top ↑ the popular use of assessment centres (acs) has over the years drastically increased at international level in various applied industries (international task force on assessment centre guidelines, 2010; krause & gebert, 2003). it is widely accepted that acs are mostly used in the field of personnel psychology for processes such as recruitment, selection and identification of managerial potential and talent (dilchert & ones, 2009; lievens & thornton, 2005). lievens and thornton (2005) emphasise the efficacy and importance of the implementation of acs in personnel selection and promotion. although for a long time acs were solely used at international level, this technique began to be established in south africa as a popular assessment technique in 1974 (meiring, 2008). major companies incorporated acs as a means of assessment, which led to a need for practitioners to exchange ideas in a constructive manner, and hence the founding of the assessment centre study group (acsg) (meiring, 2008). since 1970 the main aim of the acsg has been to hold annual conferences to promote new research, insights and the teaching of acs in a constructive and effective manner.thornton and rupp (2006) explain that an ac can be seen as a combination of work-like exercises as well as other assessment type procedures specifically designed to activate certain behaviour in candidates in order for those behaviours and skills to be evaluated and observed. schlebusch (2008) claims that the main aim and purpose of an ac is to select the most appropriate participant to be appointed in a position or programme and also states that one of the criteria for an ac is that participants should be informed that results will influence the decision of appointment. some specific features that should also be present in an ac are: a job analysis should be carried out; multiple simulations and assessment instruments should be utilised; multiple and competent observers and role-players should be present; behavioural and not psychological constructs should be observed; behaviour should be noted and classified; data integration should take place and efficient feedback should be provided to participants (schlebusch, 2008). although an ac is one of the more costly techniques used for assessment, acs have good predictive validity (eurich, krause, cigularov & thornton, 2009; thornton, murphy, everest & hoffman, 2000) and criterion-related validity (arthur, day, mcnelly & edens, 2003). acs also show evidence of good inter-rater reliability, although this also depends on the expertise level of the assessors (lievens, 2002). moreover, joiner (2004) states that in the american private sector acs reach a 300% return on investment (roi) at some point. thornton and mueller-hanson (2004) state that although acs consistently demonstrate criterion validity, the construct validity is still lacking in many instances. collins, schmidt, sanchez-ku, thomas, mcdaniel and le (2003) mention in their study that evidence against construct validity, such as constant low construct validity in certain dimensions, has in fact been reported. the issue of construct validity can be seen as one of the biggest challenges that acs face (guion, 1998). in his study lievens (2009, p.104) also mentions the significant issue of construct validity; he feels that acs have to overcome the ‘lack of evidence to measure the constructs (dimensions) they are reported to measure’. it can thus safely be said that the biggest unresolved problem that still remains in the practice of acs is that of construct validity. the consistency of assessor judgments is one specific aspect of acs that influences or contributes to construct validity (pell, homer & roberts, 2008). the main task of an assessor in an ac is to observe a candidate’s behaviour and assign a rate, which then determines whether the candidate is appointed in a specific post (goodstone & lopez, 2001). the assessor’s expertise therefore plays a significant role in the construct validity of the process (jones & born, 2008). assessors in assessment centres the main task of acs is the evaluation of various competencies, and a team of assessors is needed to observe and assess these competencies (schlebusch, 2008). according to the international task force on assessment centre guidelines (2010, p. 10), an assessee is ‘an individual whose competencies are measured by an assessment centre’. this corresponds with previous research (lievens, tett & schleicher, 2009; schleicher, day, mayes & riggio, 2002). goodstone and lopes (2001) confirm this by stating that an assessor’s task is ultimately that of performance appraisal; therefore the essential part of any ac process is that of a trained assessor observing a candidate’s behaviour and assessing it by giving it a rating. the importance of validity in acs is clear from findings by jones and born (2008) who found that assessors react more positively to behaviours and situations with which they are familiar – they therefore give emotive ratings. schlebusch (2008) argues that up until now south african research has been reactive rather that proactive and that research on acs, and specifically assessor training for the south african context, is limited. it is clear that although many issues contribute to the construct validity debate, one crucial element is that of assessors and their training. lievens (2009) asserts that trained observers should be used to observe participants in a typical job-related setting, whilst paying attention to various determined dimensions. observing and evaluating participants are therefore carried out by observers or individuals otherwise known as assessors. schlebusch (2008) defines assessors as the group of individuals who ‘have the greatest impact on the whole assessment process’. literature indicates that two of the most common mistakes made in any ac is, firstly, using unqualified assessors and, secondly, using poorly trained assessors (thornton & meuller-hanson, 2004). both holmboe (2004) and lievens (1998) found that the training of assessors could possibly have a significant effect on the construct validity of acs. that the focus of assessor training should be on the quality of the training rather than the quantity (length) has been supported by research (jackson, atkins, fetcher & stillman, 2005). schlebusch (2008) supports this statement when he states that not only the validity but also the reliability of an ac can be influenced by the quality of assessor training, and therefore specific care should be taken to ensure that they are indeed competent. training of assessors the main aim of training observers is to develop certain abilities that enable them to accurately and effectively rate participants’ behaviour (schlebusch, 2008). lievens et al. (2009) stress the fact that sufficient training for assessors is critical. for these assessors to be able to rate accurately, schlebusch (2008) says, some of the skills relevant to observing, noting, classifying and evaluating participants’ behaviour during exercises or simulations have to be developed. they should also be able to record behaviour and reactions in detail and with precision. schlebusch (2008) indicates steps that should ideally be followed for an individual who wishes to be classified as a competent assessor. jones and born (2008) claim that the level of assessor expertise significantly affect the validity of acs and can be very beneficial to the ac process. schlebusch (2008) recommends that, in the south african context, an assessor in training should first attend an ac as a participant and then as an assessor (although their input will not be considered at that time). when individuals have attended two acs, the international task force on assessment centre guidelines (2010) advises they undergo lecture room training, after which they should twice act as assistant assessors under the supervision of a qualified and competent assessor (schlebusch, 2008). the expert assessor, the ac administrator and other members of the assessor team all have to agree on the matter before the individual can be declared a competent assessor (international task force on assessment centre guidelines, 2010; schlebusch, 2008). lievens et al. (2009), however, claim that evidence exists for another technique, namely frame-of-reference training, which could increase inter-reliability, dimension differentiation and even criterion validity. jackson et al. (2005) suggest that frame-of-reference (for) training should be implemented in the training of assessors to ensure a shared understanding of dimensions being measured. frame-of-reference training frame-of-reference (for) training focuses on developing a mutual understanding or frame of reference amongst assessors (lievens, 2002; lievens et al., 2009; schleicher et al., 2002). the purpose of developing this mutual understanding is to equip all assessors with the same performance model that they can then utilise as a tool whilst observing at an ac (lievens et al., 2009). this mutual understanding can be reached by defining the dimensions (constructs or competencies) to be evaluated, providing and describing appropriate behavioural examples of the dimensions (constructs or competencies) to be evaluated, providing opportunities for practising evaluations, and finally providing feedback to assessors relating to their evaluations (bernarding, buckley, tyler & wiese, 2000; melchers, lienhardt, von aardburg & kleinmann, 2011; sulsky & kline, 2007). the ultimate goal of for training is therefore to assist assessors in their tasks of observing and evaluating behaviours, and then categorising their observations into accurate and appropriate performance dimensions. lievens (2002; 2009) and thornton and rupp (2006) have on numerous occasions emphasised the importance and advantage of for training in increasing the effectiveness of assessors. jackson et al. (2005) state that an explanation for this could be the fact that for training promotes an improved theoretical as well as practical understanding of relevant behaviour amongst assessors. this understanding can be linked to certain areas related to the performance and organisational requirements of each ac. for training should therefore be specifically designed for a certain ac (lievens, 2002). for example, in an ac where listening skills are observed, the specific listening skills required at the ac will be defined and discussed in detail during the training. a practical example of the listening skills required will then be illustrated or discussed. certain skills that may be seen as listening skills but are not necessarily required by the particular ac will also be discussed. the aim of this process is to equip the assessors with a mental picture of the competency they will observe during the ac and to eliminate the possibility of assessors using their own mental pictures of how a certain competency manifests. however, lievens et al. (2009) also indicate that research on comprehensive training approaches such as for training is lacking. schleicher et al. (2002) believe that implementing for training for assessors can be viewed as an intervention that will have a significant influence on both the construct validity and the criterion validity of acs. for training is recognised as a well-known term in the field of performance appraisal, mostly because of the evidence that for has a significant positive effect on assessors’ reliability and accuracy (lievens, 2009; schleicher et al., 2002). lievens and thornton (2005) point out that for training not only trains assessors to distinguish between behaviours and dimensions in accordance with a specific framework, but also reduces the cognitive load as a unified scoring framework can be implemented. lievens (2002; 2009) and schleicher et al. (2002) claim that if the for training approach is followed it should lead to more accurate results by educating assessors to use more effective and appropriate schemas (frames of reference). this argument is supported by the research of various authors, all of whom have reported that for training presented higher discriminative validities, criterion validities and rating accuracy (lievens, 2002; schleicher et al., 2002). the evidence that for trained assessors are better able to use different dimensions accurately (lievens, 2002), implies that the principles of for training should be incorporated into assessor training. the argument of schleicher et al. (2002), that for increases overall validity as well as legal defensibility, further emphasises the importance of implementing and following this approach. after completing an honours degree in industrial psychology a student can register as a psychometrist with the health professions council of south africa (hpcsa). the hpcsa states that a registered psychometrist should be able to participate in assessment procedures in diverse settings and organisations. regarding the scope of practice for assessments the hpcsa (health professions council of south africa, 2010) mentions that during all assessments observers have to declare the limits of their evaluations and that they may not misuse assessment techniques or results. by training graduate psychometrist students in for methods, their ability to participate in diverse assessments and settings should be enhanced. from the discussion above it is clear that by focusing on effective assessor training, more specifically for training, construct validity as well as predictive and content validity should increase. it has, however, been speculated that for could also influence convergent validity. at the moment, however, there is no conclusive evidence for this speculation. although international studies exist on assessor training as well as for training, no such research exists for training psychometrists in the south african context. research objectives the discussion above leads to the objectives (general and specific) of this research being formulated as follows:general objective: the general objective of this research was to evaluate a training programme for intern psychometrists being trained as assessors at an assessment centre. specific objectives: specific objectives of this research were: • to investigate the content and methodology for a frame-of-reference training programme for assessors. • to evaluate the effects of a frame-of-reference training programme for intern-psychometrists as assessors of an assessment centre. method top ↑ research approach a quantitative design was implemented for this research. the research also fell within the field of experimental research. a classic experimental research design was implemented where two groups were established. according to salkind (2009) a classic experimental design allows the researcher to extensively explore the effect of the independent variable (for training programme) on the dependent variable (participants’ knowledge of the subject). furthermore, a randomised pre-test-post-test control group design was implemented (salkind, 2009). research method research participants the population consisted of postgraduate students at a tertiary institution. purposive sampling was used to obtain a population of 22 industrial psychology students (n = 22) who were included in the study. the sample size was governed by data saturation and was determined by the number of participants willing to participate and accessible (burns & grove, 1987). the method of purposive sampling is used in incidents where the sampling is not necessarily focused on being random but rather done with a specific outcome in mind and has the goal of providing a sample of information-rich participants (bryman & bell, 2011; maree, 2007; struwig & stead, 2007). the participants were predominantly white (91%), afrikaans speaking (91%) and female (68%). all participants were between the ages of 20 and 25 years. measuring instruments data was collected by means of ratings of nine competencies of a typical ac simulation. during this process the participants were requested to evaluate independent role-players according to nine competencies whilst viewing a dvd recording of a typical ac simulation. during their evaluation they were asked to award a rating to the role-player on the various competencies. the ratings received from the experimental and the control group were compared and analysed after the preand post-test. the effect of the for training programme on the participants’ practical understanding and their skills in observing behaviour accurately was determined by comparing the results of the preand post-tests respectively. research procedure in order to gather data statistically and ethically the research project obtained approval from the university’s ethics committee. once approval was granted, all participants were invited to an information session during which the researches’ aims and procedures were explained to them. the participants’ consent was obtained, and then they were randomly divided into the control group and the experimental group. this is in accordance with the pre-test-post-test control group design (de vos, strydom, fouché & delport, 2005). the schedule for the pre-test simulations was then drawn up. the entire group was subjected to a pre-test assessment. during this pre-test the participants had to evaluate role-players in an ac according to nine predetermined competencies. the experimental group was then subjected to the for training programme, whilst the comparison group received no training. the training programme mainly consisted of a series of workshops dedicated to the development of interviewing and assessment skills. the programme was presented by means of two previously recorded acs during which the participants were taught for principles. once the training programme had been presented, the entire group underwent the post-test. the group again evaluated the dvd recording of the ac that they had seen during the pre-test. the comparison group only underwent the training programme after the post-test had been administered. the ratings of the experimental and control group were compared after the post-test to measure the effect of the for training programme. the training period was scheduled for the end of the university’s semester, and took place on three consecutive days in order to minimise the carry-over effect. statistical analysis in this study, spss (2012) was utilised to determine non-parametric statistics, namely the mann-whitney u-test and the wilcoxon signed ranks test. the mann whitney u-test was implemented with the experimental and control groups by comparing the medians, to determine whether the two groups were at the same level prior to the implementation of the for training programme. this non-parametric technique is preferred for data measured according to a category or a ranking, as well as for small samples (pallant, 2010), which was the case in this study. the wilcoxon signed ranks test was then used to determine the difference between the preand post-test results in the experimental group. this technique is used with repeated measures, in other words, to measure the participants at two different occasions (pallant, 2010). effect sizes were calculated for the results of both the mann whitney u-test and the wilcoxon signed ranks test. this was done by dividing the z-value by the square root of n (n = 22). the guidelines set by cohen (1988) were used to determine the effect size, namely 0.1 = small effect, 0.3 = medium effect and 0.5 = large effect. cronbach alpha coefficients were also used to determine the internal consistency and reliability of the ratings received. these statistics were utilised to effectively observe the effect of the training programme on the rating difference and accuracy between the experimental group and control group. results top ↑ the following section gives an account of the results of the study. firstly, the content and methodology of the for training programme will be reported, and then the cronbach alpha will be investigated. finally, the non-parametric statistics will be reported. table 1 depicts the content and methodology of the for training programme. table 1: the content, objectives and methodology of the for training programme for assessors at assessment centres. the training programme was conducted over a three-day period. an existing training programme was adjusted to accommodate frame-of-reference training. from the table it can be seen that the first workshop focused on basic facilitation skills such as listening, objective attending and paraphrasing. the second workshop focused on informing the participants of the principles of an ac and included in-depth discussions of the competencies assessed. during the second day of the training programme, practical exercises were conducted on rating the four candidates (role-players) taking part in two separate one-on-one simulations on the competencies (strategic perspective, interpersonal skills, leadership, conflict management, judgement, self-confidence, assertiveness, persuasive communication and performance under pressure). on the third day of the training programme two workshops were presented. the first one focused on practical exercises for rating the same candidates participating in two different presentation simulations on the discussed dimensions. the second workshop focused on practical exercises to rate two group discussion simulations consisting of four candidates each. this study consisted of two groups: an experimental group and a control group. in order to answer the second objective of this study, the first step was to determine the internal consistency of the ac (one-on-one, presentation and group discussion simulations) between the experimental group and control group. the results are reported in table 2. table 2: the cronbach’s alphas (α) between the preand the post-test for the experimental and control group for the ac. according to table 2, the internal consistency for the experimental and control groups for the preand post-test is illustrated by reporting the cronbach alphas. from the table it can be derived that the internal consistency for the experimental group from the pre-test (across all three simulations) ranges between 0.725 and 0.941, and for the post-test between 0.574 and 0.936. similarly, for the control group the cronbach alphas for the pre-test (across all three competencies) range from 0.545 to 0.958 and for the post-test between 0.737 and 0.932.after this the significant differences between the experimental and control groups prior to the for training programme were determined in terms of the rating of the nine competencies of the ac. a mann-whitney u-test revealed no significant differences between the experimental and control groups in their assessment of the one-on-one, presentation and group discussion simulations. for the three simulations utilised in the ac, the mann-whitney u-test ranged between 31 and 60, the z-value ranged between -1.94 and -0.03, the p-value ranged between 0.052 and 0.974, and the correlations coefficient ranged between -0.41 and -0.01. the next step was to investigate the difference between the preand post-test scores of the experimental group for the nine competencies of the ac (one-on-one, presentation and group discussion simulations). these results are reported in table 3. table 3: the difference between the preand post-test scores for the experimental group for the ac. the wilcoxon signed ranks test indicated a statistically significant reduction in candidate 3’s asssessment of the one-on-one simulation after the for training programme, z = -2.81, p = 0.306, with a large effect size (r = -0.60) (see figure 1). the median score on the aforementioned decreased from the pre-test (md = 7.56) to the post-test (md = 6.78). similarly, a significant reduction was found for candidate 1 (z = -2.36, p = 0.018, r = -0.50: large effect) and candidate 3 (z = -2.80, p = .005, r = -0.60: large effect) in the assessment of the group discussion simulation. the median score for candidate 1 decreased from the pre-test (md = 6.67) to the post-test (md = 5.22) and for candidate 3 from the pre-test (md = 6.89) to the post-test (md = 6.22) (see figure 2). figure 1: the comparison of the preand post-test rating for the one-on-one simulation by the experimental group. figure 2: the comparison between the preand post-test ratings for the group discussion simulation for the experimental group. the differences between the preand post-test scores for the control group for the nine competencies of the ac (one-on-one, presentation and group discussion simulations) are reported in table 4. table 4: the difference between the preand post-test scores for the control group for the ac. table 4 reveals that, unlike the results for the experimental group, the wilcoxon signed rank test for the control group shows no statistically significant differences between the preand post-test for the ac (one-on-one, presentation, group discussion simulations). the next step involved the determination of the differences in the rating of the nine competencies of the ac between the experimental and control groups after the for training programme had been implemented within the experimental group. a mann-whitney u-test revealed a significant difference in the assessment of the one-on-one simulation for candidate 2 between the experimental group and the control group (u = 25, z = -2.34, p = 0.019, r = -0.50: large effect). additionally, a significant difference was found in the assessment of the presentation simulation for candidate 3 between the experimental group and the control group (u = 28, z = -2.14, p = 0.032, r = -0.46: medium effect). the remaining differences between the experimental and control groups were non-significant. discussion top ↑ this study focused on evaluating a frame-of-reference (for) training programme for assessors at an assessment centre. the main aim of the programme was to improve the evaluation and assessment skills of graduate psychometrist students. generally, the results indicate that the for training programme did indeed improve the assessment skills of the experimental group. according to the health professions council of south africa (hpcsa), a postgraduate student in the field of industrial and organisational psychology should be able to assist in various assessment procedures in a diversity of settings and organisations. hence the for training programme had the objective of improving the students’ basic facilitation skills, their familiarity with the simulations implemented to measure pre-determined competencies as well as their experience and familiarity with the competencies and the assessment process. the results indicated that the for training programme increased the participants’ familiarity with the one-on-one simulation and partially with the group discussion simulation. however, no significant results could be reported for the participants’ ability to assess the presentation simulation. literature indicates that an assessment centre is a process that utilises multiple work-like exercises to measure multiple dimensions, pertinent to effective performance in a specific position (hoffman, melchers, blair, kleinmann & ladd, 2011; thornton & rupp, 2005). assessors at an assessment centre can be viewed as the individuals who, through multiple work-like exercises, observe, classify and evaluate the multiple dimensions displayed by the candidates taking part in the multiple exercises (goodstone & lopez, 2001; hoffman et al., 2011; international task force on assessment centre guidelines, 2010; schlebusch, 2008). the training of these assessors focuses on developing those abilities that will equip them in the matter of observing, assessing and classifying candidates’ behaviour effectively and accurately (schlebusch, 2008). a technique often used for assessor training is frame-of-reference (for) training (jackson et al., 2009). frame-of-reference training aims at developing a mutual understanding between the assessors with regard to the competencies required at a specific assessment centre (lievens & conway, 2001; lievens et al., 2009; schleicher et al., 2002). the first objective of this study was to investigate the content and methodology of a frame-of-reference training programme for assessors at assessment centres. this resulted in the compilation of a three-day training programme consisting of five separate workshops. an assessor training programme developed by spangenberg (1997) was adapted for the required context. the first day of the training consisted of two workshops. the first workshop focused on basic facilitation skills such as listening, objective attending and paraphrasing. a helping skills programme providing training in facilitation skills by du preez and jorgensen (in press) was adapted to fit the context and interviewing purposes of the assessor training programme. research indicates that these are important competencies for assessors at assessment centres (an international survey of assessment centre practices, 2010). the second workshop focused on informing the participants of the principles of an ac and provided in-depth discussions of the competencies being assessed. the discussion concerning the principles of an ac focused on the objectives of an ac, the reasons for using an ac, characteristics of an ac, different simulations that can be implemented at an ac and the role and duties of the assessor. the simulations utilised in the training, as well as skills necessary for assessing (observe, record, classify and evaluate or orce) were discussed. the competencies utilised in the training were defined and discussed in terms of certain behavioural indicators of these competencies, and the scoring sheet was discussed and explained in detail. the competencies utilised in this study were strategic perspective, interpersonal skills, leadership, conflict management, judgement, self-confidence, assertiveness, persuasive communication, performance under pressure, adaptability, ability to follow instructions, information usage, oral communication and technical and professional knowledge. this corresponds with previous studies on the requirements of a for training programme as well as research on the content of typical assessor training programmes (melchers, lienhardt, von aardburg & kleinmann, 2011; bernardin et al., 2000; schlebusch, 2008; sulsky & kline, 2007). during the second day of the training programme practical exercises were conducted on rating the four candidates (role-players) taking part in two separate one-on-one simulations on the competencies (strategic perspective, interpersonal skills, leadership, conflict management, judgement, self-confidence, assertiveness, persuasive communication and performance under pressure). the contents of this part of the training correspond with studies regarding for training (bernardin et al., 2000; melchers et al., 2011; sulsky & kline, 2007). on the third day of the training programme two workshops were presented. the first one focused on practical exercises in rating the same candidates taking part in two different presentation simulations on the discussed dimensions. the second workshop focused on practical exercises in rating two group discussion simulations consisting of four candidates each. this part of the training concurs with research on the principles and content of a for training programme which point to the importance of providing practical exercises and feedback on these practice ratings (bernardin et al., 2000; melchers et al., 2011; sulsky & kline, 2007). concerning the results of the second objective ‑ to evaluate a frame-of-reference training programme for assessors at assessment centres – the evaluation and assessment skills of the experimental group was found to have improved. firstly, the internal consistency for the ac was investigated. the ratings for the competencies of the ac for both the experimental and control group in the pre-test all showed high reliabilities. in the post-test for the experimental group all the competencies also showed high reliabilities. however, the presentation simulation for candidate 3 had a relatively low reliability for the experimental group. the ratings for the competencies of the ac for the control group in the pre-test all showed high reliabilities as well. however, the group discussion simulation for candidate 3 had a relatively low reliability. for the one-on-one simulation, a significant increase in internal consistency was reported for all three candidates. this could indicate that the reliability of the ac had increased with the post-test, which would, in its turn, indicate a positive effect of the for training programme. however, no significant increases were reported for the presentation simulation, and a decrease was in fact reported for the presentation simulation during the post-test. the reliabilities for the presentation simulation were still relatively high. this could indicate that although there was a decrease for the post-test, the measurement was still reliable, meaning that out of the three simulations the for training programme showed the least improvement for the presentation simulation. the reliabilities for the post-test for this group were, however, all within the acceptable range. this indicates that the experimental group had a good reliability for the pre-test, which made an increase in the post-test even more significant (lievens, 2002, 2009; schleicher et al., 2002). this implies that the for training led to a more accurate assessment. various researchers (jones & born, 2008; holmboe, 2004; lievens, 1998, 2009) have found that assessor expertise is crucial for accurate evaluation. during the for training the least attention was given to the presentation simulation. the partially significant results indicated by the group discussion simulation are confirmed in previous research (melchers, kleinmann & prinz, 2010). the results of the pre-test showed that no significant differences in the rating of the ac existed between the experimental and control groups which could have had an influence on the training programme. this indicates that the two groups were at the same level concerning their knowledge of for training prior to the implementation of the programme. after the experimental group had received the for training, the results indicated that the participants improved in their rating of candidate 2 for the one-on-one simulation. this is an indication that the way in which the participants rated this simulation were similar (the ratings became closer between the participants). the same result was found for the group discussion simulation for two of the three candidates. furthermore, the results for the control group indicated no statistically significant differences between the preand post-test for the ac. previous studies regarding for training support this finding by stating that for training promotes a mutual understanding between assessors (jackson et al., 2005; lievens, 2001; lievens et al., 2009; schleicher et al., 2002; thornton & rupp, 2005). it can therefore be concluded that the for training programme did in fact create a better mutual understanding and definition of the competencies assessed for each candidate in the experimental group. a study done by melchers, kleinmann and prinz (2010) found that a group discussion simulation is one of the most difficult simulations to evaluate. because there are multiple candidates as well as multiple dimensions that have to be evaluated simultaneously, the process may result in cognitive overload. the fact that the experimental group showed the largest improvement in the group discussion simulation could indicate that the for training programme had a significant influence on this group. no constant differences in the ratings of certain competencies were reported during the presentation simulation for the experimental group. one could speculate that a reason could be the fact that during the for training, the least amount of time was spent on the rating of the presentation simulation as the participants claimed to feel confident in their rating of its content sooner than with the other simulations. previous research (goodstone & lopez, 2001; lievens, 2001; schlebusch, 2008; hoffman et al., 2011; international task force on assessment centre guidelines, 2010) supports the finding that the amount of training for a specific simulation can have an effect on the reliability of the rating for that simulation. another observation made during the training on the presentation simulation was that the scenarios used in the training would not necessarily enable an honours student to truly measure the relevant competencies. possible explanations for this phenomenon could be that the scenarios for the simulation did not make it possible for the candidates to portray those competencies seen as necessary for an industrial psychology honours student. the scenarios required specific expertise in subjects which are not related to industrial psychology. the presentation was also not delivered in front of an audience but only recorded. this made it difficult for candidates to portray the industrial-specific competencies required for the simulation. therefore there was some difficulty to truly practise the ratings for honours student competencies. the results further indicated significant differences for two simulations between the experimental group and the control group from the pre-test to the post-test, namely in the one-on-one simulation for candidate 2, and of the presentation simulation for candidate 3. this implies that the two groups measured differently on only two simulations (ideally they should measure differently on more simulations; the experimental group therefore showing a significant improvement compared to the control group). it is possible that these results can be explained as a stochastic error. kahane (2008, p. 218) describes a stochastic error as ‘variables or processes that are inherently random (i.e. not deterministic or exact)’. a similar finding was reported by melchers et al. (2011). overall, there is an indication that there was a better mutual understanding of the competencies in the experimental group after the for training. this indicates that there was indeed improvement in the assessment skills of the graduate industrial psychology students at assessment centres. in conclusion it can be stated that the for training programme had an effect on the reliability of the ratings awarded by the assessors. as stated in previous studies, accurate rating by assessors could have a significant effect on the construct validity of the ac, and therefore this for training could have positive and practical implications for various ac processes. limitations with regard to the limitations of the present study, the following can be said: firstly, the length of the training should be extended so that participants can gain more practical experience, enabling them to rate efficiently and accurately on all nine competencies. although the current programme consisted of three days of intensive training, the cognitive load was immense. secondly, the participants were postgraduate students in industrial psychology and, although this kind of training did not form part of their course work, they had previous, albeit limited, knowledge of assessment centres. this could have had an effect on the experiment in that the pre-test results were predominantly positive and it was therefore difficult to prove significant differences in the post-test results. lastly, the sample size (n = 22) could be seen as a possible limitation of this study, as in such a small sample size, a single irregular rating can influence the interpretation of the results. however, the entire population available was utilised and a larger sample size was not possible. conclusion despite these limitations, the research findings have important implications for future research. one suggestion for future research on a for training programme would be to use a population group without any prior behavioural science training. the international survey of assessment centre practices (2010) shows that although hr members of staff are mostly used as assessors, line managers comprise 53% and members of staff with expertise 27% of assessors used.another recommendation for future research is to consider the design of the ac simulations being used. a better design together with an effective training programme for assessors could improve the construct validity of an ac significantly. acknowledgements top ↑ the authors wish to acknowledge funding support from the national research foundation (nrf). any opinion, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and therefore the nrf does not accept any liability in regard thereto. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions g.m. (north-west university) conducted the data collection, assisted with the data analysis, and wrote the manuscript. l.i.j. (north-west university) supervised the study and assisted with the data collection and the development of the manuscript. j.a.n. (north-west university) assisted with the data analysis and prepared manuscript for review and subsequent publication. d.m. (university of pretoria) co-supervised the study and commented on the final draft of the manuscript. references top ↑ an international survey of assessment centre practices (2010). the global research questionnaire. surrey, uk: assessment & development consultants ltd.arthur, w., day, e., mcnelly, t.l., & edens, p.s. (2003). a meta-analysis of the criterion-related validity of assessment center dimensions. personnel psychology, 56, 125–154. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2003.tb00146.x bernardin, h.j., buckley, m.r., tyler, c.l., & wiese, d.s. (2000). a reconsideration of strategies for rater training. research in personnel and human resources management, 18, 221–274. bryman, a., & bell, e. (2011). business research methods. oxford, uk: oxford university press. burns, n., & grove, s.k. (1987). the practice of nursing research. philadelphia: wb saunders. cohen j. (1988). statistical power analysis (2nd edn.). hillsdale: erlbaum. collins, j.m., schmidt, f.l., sanchez-ku, m., thomas, l., mcdaniel, m.a., & le, h. (2003). can basic individual differences shed light on the construct of assessment centre evaluations? international journal of selection and assessment, 11(1), 17–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00223 de vos, a.s., strydom, h., fouche, c.b., & delport, c.s.l. (2005). research at grass roots for the social sciences and human services professions (3rd edn.). pretoria, south africa: van schaik publishers. dilchert, s., & ones, d.s. (2009). assessment centre dimensions: individual differences correlates and meta-analytical incremental validity. international journal of selection and assessment, 17(3), 254–270. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2389.2009.00468.x du preez, j. & jorgensen, l.i. (in press). the evaluation of a helping skills training programme for intern-psychometrists. journal of psychology in africa. eurich, t.l., krause, d.e., cigularov, k., & thornton, g.c. iii. (2009). assessment centres: current practice in the united states. journal of business & psychology, 24, 387–407. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10869-009-9123-3 goodstone, m.s., & lopez, f.e. (2001). the frame of reference approach as a solution to an assessment centre dilemma. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 53(2), 96–107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1061-4087.53.2.96 guion, r.m. (1998). assessment, measurement, and prediction for personnel decisions. mahwah: lawrence erlbaum associates. health professions council of south africa (2010). health professions act 1974 (act 56 of 1974). retrieved june 08, 2011, from http://www.hpcsa.co.za hoffman, b.j., melchers, k.g., blair, c.a., kleinmann, m., & ladd, r.t. (2011). exercises and dimensions are the currency of assessment centres. personnel psychology, 64, 351–395. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2011.01213.x holmboe, e. (2004). faculty and the observation of trainees’ clinical skills: problems and opportunities. academic medicine, 79(1), 16–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00001888-200401000-00006, pmid:14690992 international task force on assessment centre guidelines (2010). guidelines and ethical considerations for assessment centre operations. san francisco: development dimensions international. jackson, d.j.r., atkins, s.g., fletcher, r.b., & stillman, j.a. (2005). frame of reference training for assessment centres: effects on inter-rater reliability when rating behaviours and ability traits. public personnel management, 34(1), 17–30. joiner, d.a. (2004, june). assessment centre trends: assessment centre issues and resulting trends. paper presented at the 28th annual meeting of ipmaac, seattle, washington. jones, r.g., & born, m.p. (2008). assessor constructs in use as the missing component in validation of assessment centre dimensions: a critique and directions for research. international journal of selection and assessment, 16(3), 229–238. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2389.2008.00429.x kahane, l.h. (2008). regression basics (2nd edn.). thousand oaks: sage. krause, d.e., & gebert, d. (2003). a comparison of assessment centre practices in organisations in german speaking regions and the united states. international journal of selection and assessment, 11, 297–312. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0965-075x.2003.00253.x lievens, f. (1998). factors which improve the construct validity of assessment centers: a review. international journal of selection and assessment, 6, 141–152. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00085 lievens, f., & conway, j.m. (2001). dimension and exercise variance in assessment centre scores: a large-scale evaluation of multitrait-multimethod studies. journal of applied psychology, 86(6), 1202–1222. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.6.1202, pmid:11768062 lievens, f. (2002). an examination of the accuracy of slogans related to assessment centres. personnel review, 31, 86–102. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ 00483480210412436 lievens, f., & thornton, g.c. iii. (2005). assessment centres: recent developments in practice and research. in a. evers, n. anderson, & o. voskuijl (eds.), the blackwell handbook of personnel selection (pp. 243–264). malden: blackwell. lievens, f. (2009). assessment centres: a tale about dimensions, exercises and dancing bears. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 18(1), 102–121. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594320802058997 lievens, f., tett, r.p., & schleicher, d.j. (2009). assessment centres at the crossroads: toward a reconceptualization of assessment centre exercises. research in personnel and human resources management, 28, 99–152. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/s0742-7301(2009)0000028006 maree, k. (2007). first steps in research. pretoria, south africa: van schaik publishers. meiring, d. (2008). assessment centres in south africa. in s. schlebusch, & g. roodt (eds.), assessment centres: unlocking potential for growth (pp. 21–31). randburg, south africa: knowres publishing. melchers, k.g., kleinmann, m., & prinz, m.a. (2010). do assessors have too much on their plates? the effects of simultaneously rating multiple assessment centre candidates on rating quality. international journal of selection and assessment, 18(3), 329–341. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2389.2010.00516.x melchers, k.g., lienhardt, n., von aarburg, m., & kleinmann, m. (2011). is more structure really better? a comparison of frame-of-reference training and descriptively anchored rating scales to improve interviewers’ rating quality. personnel psychology, 64, 53–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2010.01202.x pallant, j. (2010). spss survival manual. a step by step guide to data analysis using spss (4th edn). berskhire, england: mcgraw-hill pell, g., homer, m.s., & roberts, t.e. (2008). assessor training: its effect on criteria-based assessment in a medical context. international journal of research & method in education, 31(2), 143–154. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17437270802124525 salkind, n.j. (2009). exploring research (pp. 243–251). saddle river: pearson education. schlebusch, s. (2008). before the centre. in s. schlebusch & g. roodt (eds.), assessment centres: unlocking potential for growth (pp. 176–196). randburg, south africa: knowres publishing. schleicher, d.j., day, d.v., mayes, b.t., & riggio, r.e. (2002). a new frame for frame-of-reference training: enhancing the construct validity of assessment centres. journal of applied psychology, 87(4), 735–746. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.735, pmid:12184577 spangenberg, h.h., (1997). middle management development centre. training manual. pretoria, south africa: author. spss inc. (2012). ibm spss 20.0 for windows. chicago: spss incorporated. struwig, f.w., & stead, g.b. (2001). planning, designing and reporting research. cape town, south africa: pearson education south africa. sulsky, l.m., & kline, t.j.b. (2007). understanding frame-of-reference training success: a social learning theory perspective. international journal of training and development, 11(2), 121–131. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2419.2007.00273.x thornton, g.c., iii., murphy, k.r., everest, t.m., & hoffman, c.c. (2000). higher cost, lower validity and higher utility: comparing the utilities of two tests that differ in validity, costs, and selectivity. international journal of selection and assessment, 8, 61–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00134 thornton, g.c., iii., & mueller-hanson, r. (2004). developing organisational simulations: a guide for practitioners and students. mahwah: lawrence erlbaum. thornton, g.c., & rupp, d.e. (2006). assessment centres in human resource management: strategies for prediction, diagnosis and development. mahwah: lawrence erlbaum. article information authors: adel azar1 mohammad vahid sebt1 parviz ahmadi1 abdolreza rajaeian1 affiliations: 1department of management, tarbiat modares university, iran correspondence to: adel azar postal address: po box 14115-111, tehran, iran dates: received: 25 nov. 2011 accepted: 17 oct. 2012 published: 15 apr. 2013 how to cite this article: azar, a., sebt, m.v., ahmadi, p., & rajaeian, a. (2013). a model for personnel selection with a data mining approach: a case study in a commercial bank. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #449, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.449 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. a model for personnel selection with a data mining approach: a case study in a commercial bank in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key concepts       • what is data mining?       • knowledge discovery       • recruitment and selection of employees       • decision tree       • quick unbiased and efficient statistical tree algorithm       • chi-squared automatic interaction detector algorithm       • c 5.0 algorithm       • classification and regression tree algorithm    • background of data mining application in human resources management • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • conceptual model    • case study       • data preparation       • target variables definition       • trees making       • initial selection of suitable trees for drawing rules       • examining produced trees       • create rules • results    • selection of rules    • final research model • discussion    • conclusion    • limitations of the study    • recommendation for future research • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors' contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the success or failure of an organisation has a direct relationship with how its human resources are employed and retained. research purpose: in this paper, a decision-making tool is provided for managers to use during the recruitment process. the effective factors in employees’ performance will be identified by discovering covert patterns of the relationship between employees’ test scores and their performance at work. motivation for the study: large amounts of information and data on entrance evaluations and processes have been kept in organisations. there is a need to discover the pattern in the relationship between employee’s test scores and their performance at work as a tool for use during the recruitment process. research design, approach and method: the data mining technique that was used in this project serves as the decision tree. rules derivation was accomplished by the quick unbiased and efficient statistical tree (quest), chi-squared automatic interaction detector (chaid), c5.0 and classification and regression tree (cart) algorithm. the objective and the appropriate algorithm were determined based on seemingly ‘irrelevant’ components, which the commerce bank human resources management’s experts describe. main finding: it was found that the ‘performance assessment’ variable was not considered as the objective. also, it was concluded that out of 26 effective variables only five variables, such as province of employment, education level, exam score, interview score and work experience, had the most effect on the ‘promotion score’ target. practical/managerial implication: the database and personnel information of the commerce bank of iran (in 2005 and 2006) was studied and analysed as a case study in order to identify the labour factors that are effective in job performance. appropriate and scientific employment of staff that were selected from the entrance exams of companies and organisations were of crucial importance. contribution/value-add: it is of great importance that an extensive use of data mining techniques be applied in other management areas. whilst this is a low-cost technique, it can help managers to discover covert knowledge in their organisations. introduction top ↑ human capital is amongst the most valuable assets of an organisation. in recent years, human resources have been the centre of attention and have drawn a remarkable part of the time and assets of progressive companies. success or failure of a company, amongst other factors, is related to how its workforce is recruited and retained (jazani, 2000).suitable candidate selection for each job is also one of the most crucial issues of management decision-making. likewise, data in hand that may be available publicly does not have great value. however, when the data is processed and becomes part of information and knowledge, it may create much value. therefore, organisations should develop and acquire strong skills in data-processing techniques such as data mining (khaef, ahmad, mottaghi & sebt, 2007). the existence of many databases in organisations (especially in human resources management departments), has led to data mining techniques being applied in this research as a tool to embark on one of the most important issues of management in human resources management, namely, workforce recruitment. in other words, the effective factors will be identified in employees’ performance by discovering covert patterns of the relationship between employees’ test scores and their performance at work. this will provide a decision-making tool for managers to use during the recruitment process. key concepts what is data mining? data mining technique was first introduced and used in the late 1980s. significant developments were made in the 1990s and continued through the 21st century (hand, mannila & smyth, 2001). data mining is the process of discovering the pattern of internal relation and structure of data (berry & linoff, 2004). in fact, data mining discovers the interesting, unexpected and valuable constructions from inside of large data and is an activity corresponding to statistics and analysis of data (hand et al., 2001).it is predicted that data searching will have revolutionary development in the next decade (daniel & larose, 2006). it is called one of the top ten superior technologies, which will have striking effects in world evolution by the massachusetts institute of technology (mit) (daniel & larose, 2005). knowledge discovery in the late 1980s, new terms of knowledge discovery were applied to databases and the artificial intelligence specialists used the word ‘machine learning’ for the knowledge-extracting process, from the first step to the end. this may cause a misunderstanding because when data mining tools are used in databases the results appear surprising. however, the general process of scientific discovery is a bit far removed from automation and even requires human interference. for this reason, many authors consider the process of scienctific discovery as a combination of art and science (weiss & indurkhya, 1998). the process of knowledge discovery includes data mining techniques that are targeted at solving specific problems and making decisions by using mathematical models and computers, and applying data analysis on a big database. discovered patterns and structures in the analysis will lead a researcher to find a solution, which could then be applied to the problem. a model can qualify as knowledge when: • it is understandable by average people • it passes a validity test, to a certain degree • it is functional • it presents new information of which users had no prior knowledge (mendonca & sunderhaft, 1999). recruitment and selection of employees beardwell and wright (2004) state that recruitment and selection are two processes, the focus of which are to identify and secure appropriate people to meet the human resource needs of an organisation. the two terms ‘recruitment is over’ and ‘selection started’ are often used as a subject of study (anderson, 1994).for the purpose of analysis, we need to make a distinction between the two terms. however, according to most definitions, ‘recruitment’ refers to the first half of the hiring process and ‘selection’ to the second half. recruitment aims at identifying suitable candidates and selection focuses on choosing the best of them. selection presents the final step of decision-making in a hiring process (cowling & mailer, 1990). recruitment and selection enable organisations to employ their staff and establish their human resource base. an increasingly competitive and global business environment, along with ever-improving quality and customer service, has highlighted the importance of recruitment and selection of appropriate employees (porter, smith & fagg, 2006). decision tree decision tree is a strong and widely used tool for clustering and forecasting. unlike the neural networks, decision tree generates rules. it means that decision tree describes its prediction in the form of rules, whereas in neural networks only the final prediction is expressed, and the fact of the matter is hidden inside the net. also in decision tree, the data set does not necessarily need to be a numeric one. decision tree enables us to present our predictions in the form of rules, without any need for complicated calculations for data grouping. it can be used for different kinds of data, that is, continuous or discrete, and can identify the variables with most impact in prediction and grouping. decision trees are also useful for exploring data to gain insight into the relationships of a large number of candidates’ input variables to a target variable. considering that decision trees combine both data exploration and modeling, they are a powerful first step in the modeling process, even when the final model is built by using some other technique. decision-tree methods have wide applicability for data exploration, classification and scoring. decision trees are also a natural choice when the goal is to generate understandable and explainable rules. the ability of decision trees to generate rules that can be translated into comprehensible natural language or structured query language (sql) is one of the greatest strengths of the technique. decision trees require less data preparation than many other techniques because they ‘are equally adept at handling continuous and categorical variables’ (bekhor et al., p. 9). ‘categorical variables, which pose problems for neural networks and statistical techniques’ (bekhor et al., p. 9), are split by forming groups of classes. for this reason, decision trees are often used to pick a good set of variables that can be used as inputs in another modeling technique (berry & linoff, 2004). the algorithm of a decision tree starts with developing a test, which can best divide groups. the most important objective of grouping is to obtain a model for prediction. a data set called ‘training data’, which includes individual variables and records, are applied for this purpose. in the steps that follow, the same procedure is performed for lower nodes with fewer numbers of data in order to obtain the best rules. eventually, the tree becomes so large that there remains no room for further separation of node data. at this stage, the effectiveness of the created tree should be measured. for this purpose, a set of data or records, which are different from those used to create the tree, will be used. the standard which is being measured consists of correctly classified data and the predicted class is the same as the real one. in general, the advantages of using decision tree above other data mining techniques are that: • calculations are quicker • accuracy level is higher • it is easier to learn • rules make better sense. tests in each algorithm of the decision trees are different and selection of trees will also be completed differently. quick unbiased and efficient statistical tree algorithm quick unbiased and efficient statistical tree (quest) algorithm is a binary tree growth algorithm (loh & shih, 1997). this algorithm chooses the branch field and branch point separately. a single branching variable in quest chooses an unbiased variable. chi-squared automatic interaction detector algorithm chi-squared automatic interaction detector (chaid) means to discover the automatic x2 challenges. this method, which was developed by kass (kass, 1980), uses the results of a statistical test as a very effective statistical technique for segmentation or tree growth. chaid evaluates all amounts of a prediction field. c 5.0 algorithm expansion of an id3 algorithm is a c4.5 algorithm and its developed version is c 5.0. id3 algorithm starts with all training prototypes in the main node of the tree. thereafter, one specification is chosen for dividing these prototypes. for each degree of characteristic, a branch is created. a subset in proportion to the degree of the characteristic will be determined by branch and moves towards child nodes. this algorithm is applied for every child node so that all samples in one node are from the same class. this algorithm develops the range of classes from pages to numeric features. as a result, estimates are related to features that come from dividing data to subsets. classification and regression tree algorithm cart algorithm, which is one of the most famous methods in decision tree, was introduced by breiman and his colleagues in 1984. cart method creates binary branches based on one field. it means that each group is divided into two other groups. the norm which is used to evaluate branches is ‘diversity’:• min[p(c1),p(c2)] • 2p(c1)p(c2) • [p(c1). log p(c2)] + [p(c2). log p(c1)]. background of data mining application in human resources management data mining can be used to identify the causes of some human resource problems in organisations. schroeck (1999), howeedy (2002) and olson (2002) have presented some reports about application of data mining to human resources management:• a consultant of metlife insurance has created ‘if … then’ rules concluded from historical information and has used them in investigating the inspection departments. typical results from this research (denker, 2000) related to human resources management is as follows: discovering excessive wages by monitoring deviation from average wage in each income bracket. • identify employees who commute a long distance to work. it is very likely that these employees will quit their jobs if an employment opportunity close to their residence arises. • identify employees who do not benefit from the increasing profit of the company. • identify employees who do not benefit from the company’s bonus plans and health care programmes. • identify employees who make better effort than their peers. as mentioned, there are high-level data mining tools such as neural networks. however, software tools developed to make ‘if … then’ rules are less costly than data mining tools. furthermore, data mining is used to reduce time and costs and increase access to candidates with higher quality (sas institute inc. 2004). meanwhile, the best research using data mining for personnel selection was titled ‘data mining to improve personnel selection and enhance human capital’ authored by chien and chen (2007). they have presented a model for personnel selection in the electronics industry. whilst our approach shares some similarities with chien and chen’s research, it has some differences as follows: • the knowledge discovered by chien and chen was based on parameters such as age, gender, marital status, education and experience whereas in our research the relations of those parameters were with entrance exam marks. obviously limited parameters will bring limited knowledge too. • their case study was based on a capital-intensive industry, whereas our research has focused on a service industry, in which human capital plays a major role. • the strength of chien and chen’s research is the number of data records in excess of 3000. • in their research there are three target variables, namely, job performance, retention and turn-over reasons. however, in the current research, target variables are ‘job performance’ and ‘promotion scores’. this is because the latter variables are related not only to personnel but also to the organisation. • the algorithm used in chien and chen's research was the chaid method using only one tree, but in the current research an attempt was made to allocate an appropriate algorithm using logical reasons and to mention the level of error and also eliminate the limitation of using only one tree. in addition, and from results of previous studies, the technique used by researchers in the data mining area is just ‘decision tree’. however, different algorithms are applied in the data mining area. research design top ↑ research approach the success or failure of an organisation has a direct relationship with how its human resources are employed and retained. it is the case that organisations keep large amounts of information and data on entrance evaluations and processes. this information, however, is often left unutilised, or at best, analyzed through rudimentary statistical methods. in the current era, new intelligent technology has created tools to aid humankind in transforming large volumes of data into knowledge and information. data mining is considered a solution for analysing this data. the present thesis takes this approach further by avoiding opinion-based methods that are traditionally used in the selection of new employees. research method in this project, the status of employees’ upgrade is recognised by using data mining techniques and rules, and the relation between entrance exam marks and staff situation with job performance. firstly, job performance, the private information of employees in commercial banks and the human indices, were effective in performance or upgrade, were identified by studying exam databases. in the next step, a suitable model was designed to address the shortcomings of previous researches by learning from previous studies about data mining and human source performance.thereafter, a data warehouse was created. with data mining techniques, the data set was cleansed. in other words, the unsuitable and redundant variables were removed. after data cleansing, the records with empty fields were deleted and suitable amounts were replaced for lost data. research participants in order to test the designed model, the sample set of candidates who passed the entrance exam were applied and were hired in 2004 and 2005 in the commercial bank.this was part of a subset that consisted of over 30 000 participants in the entrance exam. however, because it is necessary to evaluate the relation between the test marks and the participants’ performance and promotion, only the part of the data sample associated with candidates who were hired by the bank and had worked there for at least one year was chosen. the number of accepted and hired individuals in 2004 and 2005 was over 940. however, we could find only 711 individuals with complete records. the records consisted of 26 information fields about personnel information, hiring status, exam marks and job performance. they were chosen as the final data set. access to this database requires some data preparation such as data conversion, review of missing data, reduction of data size, data enrichment, data repair and data cleansing. this is completely explained in detail in the case study. many researchers (breiman, friedman, olshen & stone, 1984; chien & chen, 2007; hartigan, 1975; quinlan, 1986) in human resources management have used the decision tree technique in data mining. the decision tree was chosen for this purpose. the algorithms that will be used in this technique are quest, chaid, c5.0 and cart. in order to choose the best algorithm, an approach that is explained in the next section was taken. measuring instruments in the next step, using decision tree techniques, data was classified and analysed and the primary results were obtained. finally, the orders which were not obvious were explained. in this research the data set were prepared by ms excel and rules were drawn using spss clementine software (version 12.0).finally, validity and reliability of the rules were examined and then the model for knowledge discovery and application for personnel selection was presented. conceptual model based on defined variables and existing databases, the conceptual model for discovering knowledge from entrance exam results was designed according to figure 1. as illustrated in the model, in the first step, the variable groups were defined and the most effective variables were identified. thereafter, the data mining process will be implemented by entering these variables as well as target variables for each algorithm. results will be used to predict employees’ job performance and their promotion in the future. the final results will be used as organisational knowledge to improve efficiency in the organisation. figure 1: knowledge discovery conceptual model from database of entrance examinations. case study data preparation data preparation includes all the steps that prepare records and variables to create the mode l and the tree. this step is usually the longest and most important in data mining and knowledge discovery processes. the better the quality of the data, the more precise the modeling and results will be. this process has been carried out in six steps, explained as follows: • step 1: several meetings were arranged with the managers of human resources to brief them on the objectives of the project and also to evaluate the data records of the personnel. • step 2: the type of variables in four categories (personal variables, examination variables, job variables and performance variables) were defined according to existing fields in the records. this was done in collaboration with human resource associates of the bank. • step 3: according to the bank’s human resource records, out of all the applicants who wrote the entrance exam in 2004 and 2005, 970 individuals were admitted and employed. because of the dispersion that existed in the exam database and the employees’ records, data records were reduced to 717 records with 37 fields by using ms excel tools. • step 4: considering that each field represents only one variable, immediately after creating the database, all redundant or incomplete variables or fields are deleted, combined or converted. during this stage, the initial 37 fields were reduced to 26. • step 5: the quantitative and qualitative values of each variable were reviewed. some variables were concatenated. all records then were evaluated and six records eliminated. therefore, the number of complete records was reduced to 711. finally, the database of 711 records with 26 variables was prepared in an excel worksheet to build the model and the tree. these variables were grouped in four categories as follows: • personal variables (including age, grade point average [gpa], professional experience, marital status, gender, education, major, name of school). • exam variables (including marks for various subjects, overall score, interview score). • job variables (including years at job, employment status, position). • performance related variables (including promotion score, performance evaluation and total score). target variables definition target variables such as promotion score and performance assessment are determined in this research with respect to the conceptual model.promotion score: this score is defined as the spread between the scores of the position he or she was hired for, and his or her current position. if there is no change this score will be 0. the maximum score that was reached was no greater than 1150. considering this variable is one of the target variables, the scores are grouped in four levels as shown in table 1. table 1: data classification of preferment score. performance assessment: this variable will be determined based on employee’s performance evaluation, which was conducted at least twice per year for each employee. the maximum score is 100. all the quantitative scores are grouped in seven qualitative categories as shown in table 2. table 2: data classification of performance assessment score. trees making to build the tree we need to find answers to the following questions:• should all variables be simultaneously incorporated in building the tree? • does the accuracy of the tree depend on the number of records or variables? • what combination of variables makes the best tree? • does the selection of target variables have significance in building the tree? • which data mining algorithm will reach the best conclusion? for answering above questions, the used process for trees making are as follows: • step 1: considering four identified groups are variables and two target variables, including several algorithms to build the decision tree, all applicable models will be evaluated. the existence of four independent variables, two target variables, and six feasible algorithms to build the decision tree (quest, chaid, c5.0, cart in towing state and cart in ordered state) will result in 180 alternative ways to build the tree: where, ‘x’ is the number of groups of independent variables, ‘y’ is the number of target variables, and ‘a’ is the number of algorithms. therefore: 550 training records were randomly selected, for which each of the identified 180 models were trained with use of spss clementine software and the accuracy of each was calculated and registered. in the seven detected states with quest algorithm, there was no possibility of building a tree. the permissible number of levels is limited to four, because going beyond the fourth level would make drawn rules too long and therefore useless. • step 2: with respect to the obtained results and considering the most effective variables amongst all the trees (173 trees), 12 trees were constructed. the sums of errors that were obtained from each algorithm for all 185 available trees are presented in table 3. table 3: algorithms accuracy from 185 perquisite trees. • step 3: finally, the accuracy for each target variable and algorithm type were estimated, the result of which is shown in table 4. table 4: target variables accuracy from 185 perquisite trees. initial selection of suitable trees for drawing rules given the number of produced trees, it is obvious that many rules will be drawn from these trees. in order to draw conclusions from the rules, it is necessary to separate good trees from other produced models. in doing so, several criteria were defined for choosing trees, as follows:• trees with over 70% accuracy • trees with one or more levels (meaning a rule has been drawn) • trees that includes at least one of the individual variables or exam variables • trees whose effective variables are amongst either in the individual variable or exam variable groups. by applying the above criteria, 17 trees were selected in the initial step to go for exam step, amongst which 3 trees were selected. all three had performance evaluation as their target variable and the algorithm used for all was c5.0. examining produced trees experimental data was used to examine the 17 selected models for the purpose of creating rules. from the final data, 161 records were randomly selected as experimental data to be used for this step. in other words, all 161 selected records were used for training the tree and making the model.in this step, each of the 17 selected trees in the former step was examined by inputting the experimental data and measuring their accuracy. because the accuracy of three trees, whose target variable was ‘performance evaluation’ had significantly declined, those trees as well as the ‘performance evaluation’ variable were eliminated before entering the rule creation step. the accuracy levels for the eliminated trees are as show in table 5. table 5: test accuracy of trees with 'performance assessment' target variable. therefore the number of selected models for creating rules was reduced to 14. considering that the models and the rules generated by cart (ordered) and cart (towing) algorithms were identical, only one of these was chosen. the test results of the algorithms are presented in table 6. table 6: algorithms accuracy of 14 chosen trees. it can be concluded that the ‘promotion score’ variable and cart algorithm have resulted in the highest accuracy. this occurred whilst the ‘performance evaluation’ variable was not observed in any of the final models and the models built based on that had resulted in a high error level. create rules after the final selection of trees, rules and trees need to be created. the purpose of creating rules is to evaluate each tree and to translate each rule from mathematical and logic language to plain language comprehensible by experts.it is worth noting that each rule is associated with an occurrence probability that can be estimated based on the number of the records associated with the defined rule: where p is the probability of the rule occurrence, n is the number of all considered records and nc is the number of coincided records with rule. it is obvious that the deeper (belonging to the lower level of trees) the branch is the lower the value of n will be. out of 89 drown rules and considering frequency of rules in some trees, 68 rules were obtained from data mining. also, the variables that had strong correlation with the target variable (promotion score) were province of employment; examination score; interview score; education degree; years of experience; mathematics score; english score; university graduated from; education discipline and general information score. therefore only 10 variables had most effect on the 68 created rules. results top ↑ selection of rules it is fair to assume that not every created rule is reasonable. there are three main reasons for this:1. not all presented rules have a high probability and frequency. 2. some rules may contradict others. 3. models created from data do not necessarily contain knowledge, therefore, they might have been created randomly. considering that the analysis of all these rules could be tedious and difficult, final rules will be created based upon expert judgments according to the following principles: • rules that have both n >= 100 and p > = 60%. • rules that have both n > = 50 and p > = 70%. by applying the above principles and our expert judgment only 19 rules were chosen. some of the selected rules are presented in table 7. table 7: the final rules sample. also, the number of variables that have a strong correlation with the target variable (promotion score) were decreased to five variables as follows:• education level or degree (repeated in 11 rules) • examination score (repeated in 8 rules) • interview score (repeated in 8 rules) • province of employment or job location (repeated in 6 rules) • years of experience (repeated in two rules). final research model the summary of the foregone steps is depicted in figure 2. it is worthwhile to note that in the final of the eleven-step approach presented earlier, stresses on the repeatability of the data mining process and the benefit of the discovered knowledge are in redoing of the steps. this way, improvements can be made in data mining results and rules creation in each iteration of the exam. furthermore, data mining will be performed in a more guided manner. figure 2: knowledge discovery model from database of entrance examinations with data mining. discussion top ↑ obviously, many methods are introduced for recruitment in management science. non-use of information technology in this field and using the idea of knowledge hidden in the database of current staff performance creates new issues in this field. the main objective of this study is to prevent the improper selection of employees by using statistical and commonly known methods.the purpose of this research was to search the database for employee performance by using data mining methods in order to discover patterns of employee efficiency and effectiveness and to convert this information into useful knowledge for the organisation. after discovering these patterns, the rules related to factors affecting performance were extracted and provided to managers. this will help them select the best employees. according to the comments of bank experts about rules, some conclusions derived are as follows: • deleting of target variables such as ‘performance assessment’ demonstrates that system performance evaluation is not implemented properly. • according to derived rules, multiple-choice tests conducted are not standard and not appropriate criteria for use in an interview session. • age, gender and marital status of employees have no effect on their upgrade’s status. • exam courses such as literature, education, mathematics and general knowledge have no effect on performance and promoting those selected. • some upgrades have been made when an employee submits a degree after employment. • employees’ university of choice has an effect on the interview. • employees’ major field of study has no effect on employment. • with regard to the accuracy of extracted rules, higher knowledge represents superior candidates. • the main reason for promoting people in the northern areas is related to the extent of these areas and the fact that posts are emptied earlier in these areas. although this information is openly available to managers, documents can now be submitted to check this with confidence. finally, it is obvious that knowledge cannot necessarily be obtained from extracted rules. other research should be done to provide additional knowledge. the following recommendations can be submitted to improve the study: • with regard to the removal of test variables, it is essential to change the type of selected course and its content. • it is better to change scoring methods for performance evaluation and training tools should be used for completing information. • it is essential that a realistic performance assessment is kept separate from performance assessment based on payment. • it is appropriate to design and replace exams in which intelligence and capabilities such as report writing and basic banking information can be measured. • it is proposed that training sessions should be held for interviewees before conducting interviews. • it is appropriate to record the details of interviews and scores in separate databases. • it is better to define a coefficient for each course of the entrance exam. • it is essential to maintain exam information, private information, job information and performance information for more detailed assessment in the future. the continuous update of current databases in organisations can be considered important for the data mining process. the process of providing and maintaining data can be improved by software specialists. conclusion the appropriate and scientific employment of staff selected on the basis of organisations and companies entrance exams, especially in service-based organisations, are of crucial importance. the use of data mining and the discovery of covert knowledge in these organisations will be very effective.in this article, whilst existing approaches to data mining applied in human source management were reviewed, a new model with a stress on the best feasible tree or trees selection appropriate with the data bank was presented. the status of employees’ upgrades were recognised by using data mining techniques, the rules and relation between entrance exam marks and staff situation with job performance. firstly, job performance, the private information of employees in commercial banks and the human indices which were effective in performance or upgrade were identified by studying exam databases. in the next step, a suitable model was designed to address the shortcomings of previous research by learning from these studies about data mining and human source performance. secondly, a data warehouse was created. with data mining techniques, the data set was cleansed. in other words, the unsuitable and redundant variables were removed. after data cleansing, the records with empty fields were deleted and suitable amounts were replaced for lost data. thirdly, with decision tree techniques, data was classified and analysed and the primary results were obtained. finally, the orders which were not obvious were explained. in conclusion, the validity and reliability of the rules were examined and the model for knowledge discovery and application for personnel selection was presented. as a result, in a conceptual approach to the most effective variables, as well as target variables, it was determined that the ‘performance evaluation’ target variable was not an appropriate choice for building a relation with other variables. also, it was concluded that, out of 26 effective variables only five variables, such as province of employment; education level; exam score; interview score and work experience had the most effect on the ‘promotion score’ target. it is of great importance that an extensive use of data mining techniques can be made in other management areas. whilst this is a low-cost technique, it can help managers to discover covert knowledge in their organisations. limitations of the study the limitations of the study can be classified in two separate groups as follow:• lack of access to data mining software in iran. • lack of access to personnel data bases. recommendation for future research in order to complement and enhance the results of this study in human resource management, the following recommendations can be considered for future research:• designing a model for recruitment of entrance exam volunteers by means of a fuzzy data mining approach. • investigating the difference between the result of data mining for the recruitment model of entrance exam’s volunteers by means of a decision tree and neural network technique. • investigating the relationship between the evaluation scores of interviewees with the future performance of employed people by means of the data mining approach. • applying data mining techniques in other areas of management. • investigating the relationship of banks’ employee performance in provincial branches with the index of deposits absorption. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.a. (tarbiat modares university) was the supervisor of the dissertation. m.v.s. (tarbiat modares university) was the main provider of dissertation and was responsible for experimental and project design and wrote the manuscript. p.a. (tarbiat modares university) was the advisor of dissertation. a.r. (tarbiat modares university) partly wrote the manuscript. references top ↑ anderson, a. (1994). effective personnel management: a skills and activity-based approach. oxford: blackwell business.beardwell, j., & wright, m. (2004). recruitment and selection. in i. beardwell, l. holden & t. claydon (eds.), human resource management: a contemporary approach (4th edn., pp.190–229). london: prentice hall. bekhor, s., mahalel, d., prashker, j., prato, c.g., galtzur, a., & factor, r. (2007). exploratory research by means of data mining for investigating the relationship between the infrastructure, the drivers and the characteristics of offences. paper presented to the ran naor foundation for the advancement of road safety research. retreived n.d., from http://www.oryarok.org.il/webfiles/audio_files/behor_mahalel.pdf?&lang=en_us&output=json berry, m.j.a., & linoff, g.s. (2004). data mining techniques for marketing sales and customer relationship management. (2nd edn.). the hoboken, new jersey: john wiley & sons publishing inc. breiman, l., friedman, j.h., olshen, r.a., & stone, c.j. (1984). classification and regression trees. new york: chapman & hall. chien, c.f., & chen, l.f. (2007). data mining to improve personnel selection and enhance human capital: a case study in high-technology industry. expert systems with applications, 34, 280–290. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2006.09.003 cowling, a., & mailer, c. (1990). managing human resources. (2nd edn.). london: edward arnold. daniel, t., & larose, j. (2005). discovery knowledge in data: an introduction to data mining. wiley interscience. daniel, t., & j. larose. (2006). data mining methods and models. the hoboken, new jersey: wiley & sons publishing inc. denker, r. (2000). audites for human resource applications. retrieved 2008, from http://www.wizsoft.com/default.asp?win=8&winsub=49 hand, d., mannila, h., & smyth, p. (2001). principles of data mining. cambridge: the mit press. hartigan, j.a. (1975). clustering algorithms (probability & mathematical statistics). john wiley & sons inc. howeedy, r. (2002). first door uses web trends to create a human resource database. retrieved 2008, from http://www.information-management.com/issues/20020601/5262-1.html jazani, n. (2000). human resource management. tehran: ney publishing inc. kantardzic, m. (2003). data mining: concept, models and algorithms. wiley: iee press. pmid:12858662 kass, g.v. (1980). an exploratory technique for investigating large quantities of categorical data. applied statistics, 29(2), 119–127. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2986296 khaef, e., ahmad, a., mottaghi, p., & sebt, m.v. (2007). examining the influence of employment model utilization based on data mining, on the employees' replacement rate. first iran data mining conference, nov. loh, w.y., & shih, y.s. (1997). split selection methods for classification trees. statistica sinica, 7, 815–840. mendonca, m., & sunderhaft, n. (1999). mining software engineering data: a survey, data & analysis center for software (dacs) state-of-the-art report, no. dacs-soar-99-3. olson, d.l., & jesse, s. (2012). case study of open-source enterprise resource planning implementation in a small business. enterprise is, 6(1), 79–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17517575.2011.566697 olson, r.k. (2002). genetic and environmental influences on reading and related cognitive skills. dyslexi, 4, 10–16. porter, k., smith, p., & fagg, r. (2006). leadership and management for hr professionals. oxford: butterworth heinemann. quinlan j.r. (1986). the effect of noise on concept learning. in michalski et al., (ed.), machine learning: an artificial intelligence approach, vol. 2. morgan kaufmann. sas institute inc. (2004). sas® 9.1 sql procedure user’s guide. cary, nc: sas institute inc. schroeck, m.j. (1999). data warehousing in human resource management systems. information management magazine. retrieved 2008, from http://www.information-management.com/issues/19990601/1019-1.html?zkprintable=true weiss, s.m., & indurkhya, n. (1998). predictive data mining: a practical guide. san francisco: morgan kaufmann. article information authors: rudolf m. oosthuizen1 melinde coetzee1 fezeka mntonintshi1 affiliations: 1department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: rudolf oosthuizen postal address: po box 392, university of south africa 0003, south africa dates: received: 22 may 2014 accepted: 18 july 2014 published: 28 oct. 2014 how to cite this article: oosthuizen, r.m., coetzee, m., & mntonintshi, f. (2014). investigating the relationship between employees’ career anchors and their psychosocial employability attributes in a financial company. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12 (1), art. #650, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.650 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. investigating the relationship between employees’ career anchors and their psychosocial employability attributes in a financial company in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus    • background to the study    • literature review       • career anchors       • psychosocial employability attributes       • research objective       • potential for added value       • what follows • research design    • research approach    • research method       • participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • descriptive statistics    • correlations    • scheffé’s post-hoc test: age and race differences • discussion    • relationship between career anchors and psychosocial employability attributes    • differences between the age groups    • differences between the race groups    • implications for practice    • limitations and recommendations for future research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the challenge of sustaining one’s employability in a highly dynamic and turbulent labour market places new demands on individuals’ ability to navigate their career development. career management practices in organisations should help individuals gain awareness of the career meta-capacities they need to sustain their employability.research purpose: the objective of the study was to investigate the relationship between employees’ career anchors and their psychosocial employability attributes as important career meta-capacities in contemporary career development. the study also investigated whether individuals from different age and race groups differed significantly regarding these career meta-capacities. motivation for the study: career management has become essential in the contemporary workplace for employees to sustain their employability. research points to the importance of psychosocial career meta-capacities in helping employees to manage their career development and employability. research design, approach and method: a cross-sectional quantitative survey using primary data was conducted on a non-probability purposive sample (n = 108) of full-time employees (67% women; 78% 26–45 years old; 78% black employees) at a south african financial company. correlations and scheffé’s post-hoc test were performed to achieve the research objectives. main findings: significant positive relationships were observed between the participants’ career anchors and their psychosocial employability attributes. age and race groups differed significantly only in terms of their career anchors. practical/managerial implications: career management practices in the organisation should accommodate the differences in career orientations and how these relate to the psychosocial employability attributes of their employees. contribution: the findings add potentially important insights that may inform human resource practices aimed at enhancing the career development and employability of employees and addressing the career needs of different age and race groups. introduction top ↑ key focus proactive career management has become essential in the contemporary workplace for employees to sustain their employability (bezuidenhout, 2011; chudzikowski, 2012; schreuder & coetzee, 2011; tones, pillay & kelly, 2011), especially in the financial sector (joāo & coetzee, 2011). the financial sector is recognised for its quest to attract, retain and develop talent from diverse groups of people due to global and national skills shortages in this sector (dhet, 2014; joāo & coetzee, 2011; pato & spira, 2008; south african institute of chartered accountants [saica], 2008). hillage and pollard (1998) view employability as the capacity of an individual to gain initial employment, to maintain employment and to move self-sufficiently within the labour market. the challenge of sustaining one’s employability in a highly dynamic and turbulent labour market with unclear career paths places new demands on employees’ ability to navigate their career development (savickas & porfeli, 2012; van der heijde, 2014). research points to the importance of psychosocial career meta-capacities in helping employees to manage their career development and employability (coetzee, 2014; savickas & porfeli, 2012; stauffer, maggiori, froidevaux & rossier, 2014; tones et al., 2011). career management practices in organisations should help individuals gain awareness of the career meta-capacities they need to sustain their employability (nazar & van der heijden, 2012; schreuder & coetzee, 2011; van der heijde, 2014). in this regard, the present study focuses on the constructs of career anchors (schein, 1990) and psychosocial employability attributes (bezuidenhout, 2011), which have been recognised in the research literature as important psychosocial career meta-capacities in contemporary career development (coetzee & schreuder, 2014; potgieter, 2012, 2014). background to the study research on the relationship between individuals’ career self-concept and their self-perceived employability has increased in importance in the light of the more turbulent and uncertain nature of individuals’ career paths (chudzikowski, 2012; nazar & van der heijden, 2012). in terms of career management and development, work is seen as an important context for the expression of one’s self (nazar & van der heijden, 2012). edgar schein’s seminal work on career anchors emphasises the development of a stable career self-concept or identity (which he termed the ‘career anchor’) in career decision-making and management (feldman & bolino, 1996; schein, 1990). schein’s (1978, 1992) research on the career anchors of employees suggests that individuals’ true career-related abilities, needs and values become crystallised through a variety of real-work experiences. research by beyer and hanna (2002) as well as nazar and van der heijden (2012) corroborates this view by suggesting that the career identity develops in the context of the workplace and the work experiences that give individuals the chance to enact a variety of roles and explore different identities, which add more complexity to their identities in terms of roles, interests and abilities. work experiences facilitate the integration of individuals’ interests with their abilities, preferences and values and, as a consequence, a stable career identity as expressed by people’s career anchors (coetzee & schreuder, 2014; feldman & bolino, 1996).coetzee and schreuder (2014) view people’s career anchors as important career meta-capacities in contemporary career development. career meta-capacities denote individuals’ career-related psychological capital and social resources and strengths that enable them to be self-directed learners and proactive agents in the construction and design of their careers and employability in the contemporary turbulent occupational world (coetzee, 2014; savickas & porfeli, 2012). ndzube (2013) notes that in the volatile labour market conditions of the 21st century, the external career is bound to take different shapes and forms and individuals may be forced to take decisions that have not been carefully considered. ndzube further argues that individuals need a deeper sense of career identity and self-awareness to enact appropriate career choices under these conditions. the career anchor develops in the process of career development and enables the careerist to make choices congruent with the individual’s career identity (ndzube, 2013; schein, 1990). career anchors are thus seen to lead to a deeper self-awareness and a clear career identity (ellison & schreuder, 2000; ndzube, 2013). the career identity is seen as an important aspect of individuals’ self-perceived employability and their expectations for the future. nazar and van der heijden (2012) purport in this regard that individuals with well-crystallised career identities relating to their personal career preferences, motives and values appear to be psychologically free from the boundaries of organisational and group constraints, and better able to adjust to changing career circumstances and sustain their future employability. research indicates a significant relationship between individuals’ self-esteem or self-concept and their employability (pool & sewell, 2007), and psychosocial employability attributes such as career self-management, career resilience, sociability and proactivity (potgieter, 2012, 2014). however, it is not clear from the research how schein’s (1978, 1990, 1992) notion of career anchors relates to other career meta-capacities such as people’s psychosocial employability attributes. the present study, therefore, focused on this relationship to add to the extant career research literature. individuals’ age and race were also of specific relevance to the present research due to the importance of these characteristics in today’s generationally and racially diverse organisational context. age is an important concept in career development research (super, 1990) whilst research on the subjective work experiences of different racial groups in the post-apartheid south african organisational context has increased in importance (coetzee & bergh, 2009; coetzee & schreuder, 2009; themba, oosthuizen & coetzee, 2012). research shows that person-related characteristics such as age and race may influence individuals’ employability (clarke, 2008). age relates to specific life and career stages and the differences in psychological vocational development tasks individuals need to deal with in their career development (schein, 1990; super, 1990). individuals under the age of 25 are regarded as in their early life and career stage and generally harbour career preoccupations relating to the personal freedom to explore life and career possibilities (coetzee & roythorne-jacobs, 2012; super, 1990). individuals between the ages of 26 and 45 are generally regarded to be in the establishment life and career stage. typical career preoccupations include settling down in one’s career, working to make one’s place in a chosen field of work, thinking about the job on a long-term basis and advancing in one’s work, job and career (coetzee & roythorne-jacobs, 2012; super, 1990). individuals older than 45 are seen to be in the maintenance (45–65) and retirement (≥ 65) phases of their lives and careers. they are either preoccupied with updating their skills and adjusting to new technology to maintain their positions (45–65) or preparing for retirement (≥ 65) (coetzee & roythorne-jacobs, 2012; super, 1990). in terms of age and race differences, previous research indicated differences in career anchors (coetzee & schreuder, 2008) and psychosocial employability attributes (botha, 2014). understanding the diverse career-related needs of individuals from different ages or life and career stages and those from different race groups has also increased in importance in the light of the multicultural south african work environment (coetzee & schreuder, 2008). the present research, therefore, also explored the differences between these groups in terms of their career anchors and psychosocial employability attributes. literature review career anchors schein’s (1990, 1996) notion of career anchors is regarded as an important meta-capacity in contemporary career development (coetzee & schreuder, 2014). individuals’ constellations of self-perceived talents and abilities (based on actual successes in a variety of real-work settings), self-perceived motives and needs (based on actual experiences with a variety of job assignments) and self-perceived attitudes and values (based on reactions to a variety of norms and values encountered in different work groups and organisations) describe their dominant career anchors and stabilise their career decisions in predictable ways (chang, jiang, klein & chen, 2012; feldman & bolino, 1996; schein, 1990).schein (1990) differentiates between eight career anchors as described below (chang et al., 2012; feldman & bolino, 1996): • career anchors that focus on the expression of work-related talents: »technical or functional competence: the individual is primarily motivated by the need to exercise technical and functional expertise. »general managerial competence: the individual is primarily motivated by the need to pursue higher managerial levels and greater responsibility to determine policymaking. »entrepreneurial creativity: the individual is primarily motivated by the need to build or create something that is entirely one’s own project. • career anchors that focus on structuring one’s work roles consistent with basic personal desires and personal life: »autonomy and independence: the individual is primarily motivated to seek work situations that are maximally free of organisational constraints. »security and stability: the individual is primarily motivated by job security and long-term attachment to one organisation. »lifestyle: the individual is primarily motivated to balance career with lifestyle. • career anchors that focus on individuals’ identification with their occupations and the cultures of their organisation: »service or dedication to a cause: the individual is primarily motivated to help others and improve the world in some fashion. »pure challenge: the individual is primarily motivated to overcome obstacles, conquer difficult tasks or problems and to overwhelm competitors. wils, wils and tremblay (2010) found the eight career anchors to be significantly related to specific work values such as openness to change (pure challenge, entrepreneurial creativity and autonomy and independence), self-transcendence (technical competence and service or dedication to a cause), self-enhancement (managerial competence) and conservation (security and stability and lifestyle). the motivational domains underpinning these work values can be either compatible or mutually inconsistent and may influence career decisions (coetzee & schreuder, 2014). coetzee and schreuder (2011) also found positive associations between the career anchors and people’s self-perceived employability. as a career meta-capacity, the career anchor is seen as an internal resource that functions as a set of driving and constraining forces on individuals’ career decisions and choices (coetzee & schreuder, 2014). based on their career anchors, individuals will either be attracted to, or pulled back into, environments more congruent with the stable self-concept or career identity represented by the career anchor (chang et al., 2012; feldman & bolino, 1996). career-related change, growth and movement will occur within some circumscribed area and will not be random (feldman & bolino, 1996). research suggests that, apart from a dominant career anchor, individuals may also have secondary (second preferred anchor) and tertiary (third preferred career anchor) career anchors, which may enable them to adapt to changing career circumstances (coetzee & schreuder, 2008, 2014; feldman & bolino, 1996; schein, 1990). in terms of age, coetzee and schreuder (2008) found that individuals aged 25 and younger are significantly more driven by their personal needs in terms of their career anchors than their older counterparts, showing a strong preference for the autonomy and independence career anchor. individuals aged 26 and older showed a higher preference for the service or dedication to a cause, pure challenge and managerial competence career anchors than their younger counterparts. coetzee and schreuder further found that coloured, indian and white people had a stronger preference for the entrepreneurial creativity career anchor than black africans. psychosocial employability attributes psychosocial career meta-capacities are seen to act as key transactional resources between the inner (psychological) and external (social) worlds of a person in the management of one’s employability (coetzee, 2014; savickas & porfeli, 2012). these meta-capacities are regarded as important for proactive career behaviour and essential for sustaining one’s employability in the contemporary employment market (bezuidenhout, 2011; botha, 2014; coetzee, 2014; potgieter, 2012, 2014).bezuidenhout (2011) identified a range of psychosocial career meta-capacities that she termed essential ‘employability attributes’ in the management of employability. these attributes include psychosocial meta-capacities relating to the career (career self-management, career resilience and entrepreneurial orientation), intrapersonal (proactivity, self-efficacy and emotional literacy) and interpersonal (sociability and cultural competence) behavioural domains of an individual (botha, 2014). the career meta-capacities that relate to these three behavioural domains are outlined below. attributes relating to the individual’s career behaviour: career self-management is regarded as important for career development (pool & sewell, 2007) and includes attributes relating to the willingness to set career goals, reflect on them, identify the competencies required to achieve them and implement appropriate actions to achieve these career goals (botha, 2014). career resilience refers to the ability to bounce back and to demonstrate a high degree of adaptability, flexibility, self-confidence and competence regardless of adverse career circumstances (bezuidenhout, 2011). fugate and kinicki (2008) found resilient individuals to have positive self-evaluations and optimism about and confidence in their capacity to handle challenges and future events. entrepreneurial orientation refers to the ability to create employment by taking advantage of career opportunities and profiting from one’s own connections and skills (bezuidenhout, 2011). obschonka (2014) regards entrepreneurial skills as essential for sustaining one’s employability. attributes relating to the individual’s intrapersonal behaviour: proactivity denotes active role orientations and future-oriented and self-initiated action to change and improve oneself and one’s career situation (bezuidenhout, 2011). a proactive personality has been positively related to active adaptability and employability (mihail, 2008; van der heijde & van der heijden, 2006). self-efficacy entails the belief in one’s capabilities to cope with a range of challenging or stressful demands in a variety of contexts (bezuidenhout, 2011). efficacy beliefs have been related to employability, career satisfaction and positive career development (pool & sewell, 2007; van der heijde & van der heijden, 2006). emotional literacy refers to the adaptive use of emotions in the management of one’s career (bezuidenhout, 2011). research also indicates a positive association between individuals’ emotional intelligence and their self-perceived employability (coetzee & schreuder, 2011; pool & sewell, 2007). attributes relating to the individual’s interpersonal behaviour: sociability encompasses networking behaviours and openness for building social contacts and networks in the advancement of one’s career (bezuidenhout, 2011). successful networking has been related to increased job opportunities, career advancement and satisfaction (forret & sullivan, 2002). cultural competence refers to the ability to use knowledge about other cultures and their customs, beliefs, interaction rules and values to build positive intercultural relations in the workplace (bezuidenhout, 2011). although there is a dearth of research on the relationship between schein’s (1990) construct of career anchors and bezuidenhout’s (2011) set of employability attributes, ndzube (2013) proposes certain theoretical similarities between these two constructs. these theoretical similarities are summarised in table 1. both constructs relate to an enhanced self-awareness of one’s capacities in managing one’s career development in the contemporary employment context. career anchors and psychosocial employability attributes facilitate the development of individuals’ career identity or self-concept and guide the setting of clear career goals and career decisions (bezuidenhout, 2011; ndzube, 2013; schein, 1990, 1996). it was, therefore, expected that individuals’ career anchors would relate positively and significantly to their psychosocial employability attributes. table 1: theoretical similarities between the constructs of career anchors and psychosocial employability attributes. there appears to be limited research on the differences between age and race groups on the psychosocial employability attributes postulated by bezuidenhout (2011). this may be attributed to the fact that research on individuals’ employability attributes in the south african organisational context is limited (bezuidenhout, 2011). in terms of age, botha (2014) found older employees to have higher self-perceptions of their self-efficacy than their younger counterparts. her research suggests further that white people tend to obtain lower scores than other race groups on cultural competence and sociability. research objective the objective of the study was to investigate the relationship between employees’ career anchors and their psychosocial employability attributes as important career meta-capacities in contemporary career development. the study also explored whether individuals from different age and race groups differed significantly regarding these career meta-capacities. potential for added value the findings may potentially contribute important insights that may inform human resource practices aimed at enhancing the career development and employability of employees. understanding the career anchors and employability attributes of different age and race groups may further contribute to career development support interventions for these groups. what follows the next section outlines the research design. the results are then reported and discussed. research design top ↑ research approach a cross-sectional quantitative research approach was adopted for the purposes of this study because the study was limited to a single financial company at a certain point in time. research method participants the population was 180 individuals employed in a single financial organisation. non-probability purposive sampling was used. the survey yielded a final sample of 108 useable questionnaires (60% response rate). women represented 67% of the sample. the sample comprised participants at managerial level (31%) and staff level (69%) positions. in terms of age, the sample was represented by participants of 25 years or younger (21%) and those aged between 26 and 45 (78%). the racial groups constituted 49% black african, 10% mixed race, 19% indian and 21% white people. measuring instruments the career orientations inventory (coi) developed by schein (1990) and the employability attributes scale (eas) developed by bezuidenhout and coetzee (2011) were used to assess the participants’ career anchors and psychosocial employability attributes. a biographical questionnaire was also included.the coi (schein, 1990) measures respondents’ career anchor orientations on a six-point likert-type scale (1 = never true for me; 6 = always true for me) and consists of 40 items in total: five technical or functional competence items (e.g. ‘i will feel successful in my career only if i can develop my technical or functional skills to a very high level of competence’), five general managerial competence items (e.g. ‘i dream of being in charge of a complex organisation and making decisions that affect many people’), five entrepreneurial creativity items (e.g. ‘building my own business is more important to me than achieving a high-level managerial position in someone else’s organisation’), five autonomy and independence items (e.g. ‘i am most fulfilled in my work when i am completely free to define my own tasks, schedules and procedures’), five security and stability items (e.g. ‘i would rather leave my organisation altogether than accept an assignment that would jeopardise my security in that organisation’), five lifestyle items (e.g. ‘i dream of a career that will permit me to integrate my personal, family and work needs’), five service or dedication to a cause items (e.g. ‘i am most fulfilled in my career when i have been able to use my talents in the service of others’) and five pure challenge items (e.g. ‘i will feel successful in my career only if i face and overcome very difficult challenges’). the coi has shown good psychometric validity and reliability in other south african multicultural samples (coetzee & de villiers, 2010; coetzee, schreuder & tladinyane, 2007). acceptable internal consistency reliability coefficients (cronbach’s alpha) ranging between 0.64 (technical or functional competence) and 0.79 (entrepreneurial creativity) were obtained for the present study. the eas (bezuidenhout & coetzee, 2011) measures respondents’ responses on a six-point likert-type scale (1 = never; 6 = always) and consists of 56 items in total: 11 career self-management items (e.g. ‘i know what i must do to make a success of my career’), six career resilience items (e.g. ‘i anticipate and take advantage of changes in my career environment’), seven entrepreneurial orientation items (e.g. ‘i continuously look into new business opportunities’), seven proactivity items (e.g. ‘i spend a lot of time enhancing my knowledge and skills to benefit my career’), six self-efficacy items (e.g. ‘when i achieve something, it is because of my own effort’), seven emotional literacy items (e.g. ‘i can easily understand why i feel a certain way’), seven sociability items (e.g. ‘i can use my networks to find new job opportunities’) and five cultural competence items (e.g. ‘i can easily initiate and maintain relationships with people from different cultures’). similar to the coi, the eas has evidenced good psychometric validity and reliability in other south african multicultural samples (botha, 2014; potgieter, 2012). acceptable internal consistency reliability coefficients (cronbach’s alpha) ranging between 0.74 (sociability) and 0.90 (career self-management) were obtained for the present study. research procedure ethical clearance to conduct the research was obtained from the ethics committee of the research institution. the management of the organisation in which the study was conducted provided permission for the study. the questionnaires were manually distributed to the participants. an informed consent form was attached for the participants to sign and return for record keeping and to meet ethical requirements. thereafter, group sessions were held for the completion of the questionnaires which took on average about 20 min. one of the researchers collected the questionnaires from the participants during the group sessions. other ethical considerations included honouring confidentiality, voluntary participation and utilising the results for broad group-based research purposes only. individual feedback was provided at the request of the participants. statistical analysis the ibm social package for social sciences version 22.0 was used to analyse the data. the statistical analysis involved computing descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations and internal consistency reliability coefficients) and correlations to assess the relationship between the participants’ career anchors and psychosocial employability attributes. to assess whether the age and race groups differed significantly regarding their career anchors and psychosocial employability attributes, wilks’s lambda and scheffé’s post-hoc tests were applied in order to determine the source of differences. to counter the probability of a type i error, the significance value was set at the 95% confidence interval level (p ≤ 0.05). results top ↑ descriptive statistics table 2 shows that the participants obtained the highest mean scores on the following three career anchors: pure challenge (mean = 4.44; sd = 0.98), technical or functional competence (mean = 4.42; sd = 0.88) and service or dedication to a cause (mean = 4.37; sd = 0.84). the participants obtained the lowest mean score on the general managerial competence career anchor (mean = 3.50; sd = 0.98). in terms of the eas, the participants obtained relatively high mean scores for all eight psychosocial employability attributes. the highest mean scores were obtained for career self-management (mean = 4.78; sd = 0.83) and entrepreneurial orientation (mean = 4.75; sd = 0.82). they obtained the lowest mean score on sociability (mean = 4.36; sd = 0.83). table 2: descriptive statistics – means, standard deviations and internal consistency reliability coefficients. correlations as shown in table 3, significant and positive correlations of small (r ≤ 0.29) and large (r ≥ 0.50) practical effects were obtained between almost all the career anchors and psychosocial employability attributes. the technical or functional competence, security and stability and lifestyle career anchors did not relate significantly to the cultural competence attribute. the strongest correlations (large practical effect) were observed between the following variables: the service or dedication to a cause career anchor and career self-management (r = 0.52; p ≤ 0.01), self-efficacy (r = 0.55; p ≤ 0.01), career resilience (r = 0.51; p ≤ 0.01), entrepreneurial orientation (r = 0.54; p ≤ 0.01) and proactivity (r = 0.56; p ≤ 0.01). entrepreneurial creativity also had significant correlations of large practical effect with self-efficacy (r = 0.55; p ≤ 0.01) and, as expected, entrepreneurial orientation (r = 0.53; p ≤ 0.01). the pure challenge career anchor also showed significant correlations of large practical effect with self-efficacy (r = 0.52; p ≤ 0.02) and entrepreneurial orientation (r = 0.52; p ≤ 0.01). table 3: correlations between career anchors and psychosocial employability attributes. scheffé’s post-hoc test: age and race differences the wilks’s lambda statistic showed significant differences between the age and race groups in terms of their career anchors only. these groups did not differ significantly regarding their psychosocial employability attributes.in terms of age, the significant scheffé’s post-hoc test results summarised in table 4 showed that the age group 26–45 obtained significantly higher mean scores than those younger than 25 on the technical or functional competence (mean difference = -3.00; p = 0.02), autonomy and independence (mean difference = -2.96; p = 0.04), lifestyle (mean difference = -3.23; p = 0.01) and service or dedication to a cause (mean difference = -2.78; p = 0.02) career anchors. table 4: significant scheffé’s post-hoc test results – age. in terms of race, the significant scheffé’s post-hoc test results summarised in table 5 showed the following differences: the black african participants obtained significantly higher mean scores than the indian participants on the entrepreneurial creativity (mean difference = -6.45; p = 0.00), autonomy and independence (mean difference = -3.86; p = 0.02) and service or dedication to a cause (mean difference = -3.55; p = 0.01) career anchors. the black african participants obtained significantly higher mean scores than the white participants on the security and stability career anchor (mean difference = 3.74; p = 0.02). table 5: significant scheffé’s post-hoc test results – race. discussion top ↑ the objective of the study was to explore the relationship between employees’ career anchors and their psychosocial employability attributes as important career meta-capacities in contemporary career development. the study also explored whether individuals from different age and race groups differed significantly regarding these career meta-capacities. relationship between career anchors and psychosocial employability attributes overall, the results showed significant positive associations between the eight career anchors and the psychosocial employability attributes. of particular interest are those relationships with a large practical effect (r ≥ 0.50) and especially those between the three dominant career anchors of the participants (pure challenge, technical or functional competence and service or dedication to a cause) and the psychosocial employability attributes. the rationale for focusing in this section on only the three dominant career anchors that emerged for the participants is based on parsimony and research suggesting that, apart from a dominant career anchor, individuals may also have secondary and tertiary career anchors that may enable them to adapt to changing career circumstances (coetzee & schreuder, 2008, 2014; feldman & bolino, 1996; schein, 1990). moreover, the three career anchors relate well to the nature of the work typically encountered in the financial environment which is predominantly technical or functional competence and service oriented (joāo & coetzee, 2011).the pure challenge career anchor relates to individuals’ identification with their occupations and the culture of the organisation (feldman & bolino, 1996). the results suggested that the motivational driving force underpinning the pure challenge career anchor is positively associated with an entrepreneurial orientation and proactivity in particular. according to bezuidenhout (2011), these two psychosocial employability attributes represent individuals’ ability to create employment by taking advantage of career opportunities and profiting from their own connections and skills (entrepreneurial orientation) and their belief in their capabilities to cope with a range of challenging or stressful demands in a variety of contexts (self-efficacy). the findings corroborate wils et al.’s (2010) view that the pure challenge career anchor is motivated by having the openness to change and a sense of self-directedness. individuals with a pure challenge career anchor are generally motivated to overcome obstacles and conquer difficult tasks or problems in the work environment (schein, 1990). coetzee and schreuder (2011) found both the pure challenge and technical or functional competence career anchors to be positively associated with a concern for challenging opportunities to use, develop and demonstrate abilities and skills relating to one’s employability. similar to the pure challenge career anchor, the service or dedication to a cause career anchor relates to individuals’ identification with their occupations and the culture of the organisation (feldman & bolino, 1996). individuals with a service or dedication to a cause career anchor are primarily motivated to help others and improve the world in some fashion (schein, 1990). the results indicated in practical terms strong associations between this career anchor and the entrepreneurial orientation and self-efficacy attributes, including the career self-management, career resilience and proactivity attributes. research in the south african financial environment also indicates an entrepreneurial orientation (coetzee & de villiers, 2010) and confidence in career mobility opportunities due to the professional nature of the job or profession (joāo & coetzee, 2011). the findings of the present study further support research by coetzee and schreuder (2011), which indicates a positive link between the service or dedication to a cause career anchor and individuals’ employability beliefs, that is, the belief that they have the attributes, skills, knowledge, experience and occupational expertise to create or attract employment with ease. the career preoccupations underpinning the service or dedication to a cause career anchor may further explain the findings of the present research. the career concerns of this career anchor relate to opportunities to influence the employing organisation or social policies in the direction of one’s personal values and involve the need to demonstrate skills and abilities in achieving one’s goals (coetzee & schreuder, 2011; schein, 1990). the technical or functional competence career anchor is motivated by the need to exercise one’s work-related talents and improve one’s technical and functional expertise (feldman & bolino, 1996; schein, 1990). however, in practical terms, the results showed only a moderate association between the technical or functional competence career anchor and the employability attributes of entrepreneurial orientation, self-efficacy, proactivity, career resilience and career self-management. this finding may be attributed to the primary motivational force underpinning the technical or functional competence career anchor, as also in the case with the service or dedication to a cause career anchor, being that of transcending one’s own needs and contributing one’s talents and expertise to the greater good of the whole (wils et al., 2010). differences between the age groups overall, the results showed that the two age groups (≤ 25 years and 26–45 years) did not differ significantly regarding their employability attributes. the two age groups only differed in terms of the technical or functional competence, autonomy and independence, lifestyle and service or dedication to a cause career anchors. the older age group showed a significantly higher preference for these career anchors than their younger counterparts. the findings are in agreement with research by coetzee and schreuder (2008), which shows individuals in the early life and career stage to have less strong preferences for the service or dedication to a cause and technical or functional competence career anchors than their older counterparts. however, the present findings are contrary to coetzee and schreuder’s (2008) research, which shows the early life and career stage individual to have a stronger preference for the autonomy and independence career anchor than their older counterparts. the findings of the present study suggest that the participants in the establishment life and career stage (26–45 years) were more preoccupied than those in the early life and career stage (≤ 25 years) with the expression of their work-related talents (technical or functional competence), structuring their work consistent with their basic personal desires and personal life (autonomy and independence and lifestyle) and identifying themselves strongly with their occupations and the culture of the organisation (service or dedication to a cause). these findings may be attributed to the typical career-related preoccupations associated with the establishment life and career stage, namely that of settling down in one’s career and life, working to make one’s place in a chosen field of work and thinking about the job on a long-term basis (coetzee & roythorne-jacobs, 2012; super, 1990). differences between the race groups overall, the results showed that the four race groups (black african, mixed race, indian and white) did not differ significantly regarding their employability attributes. the black, indian and white participants only differed in terms of the entrepreneurial creativity, autonomy and independence, security and stability and service or dedication to a cause career anchors. the findings are contrary to research by coetzee and schreuder (2008), which indicates no significant differences between these race groups in terms of their career anchors. in terms of wils et al.’s (2010) research on schein’s (1990) career anchors and schwartz’s (1992) work values, it appears that the black participants associated more strongly than the indian participants with the motivational forces of openness to change and self-directedness (as underpinned by the entrepreneurial creativity and autonomy and independence career anchors) and self-transcendence (as underpinned by the service or dedication to a cause career anchor). the black participants also associated more strongly than their white counterparts with the motivational force of conservation (security and stability). these findings could be attributed to the current south african employment equity legislation favouring the advancement of black africans in particular and the communal value system that black africans subscribe to (schreuder & coetzee, 2011). joāo and coetzee (2011) also found that professionals in the financial environment feel positive about career mobility opportunities, which may be enhanced for black people due to affirmative action legislation. implications for practice the practical value of the research findings lies in the design of career management practices that are based on the associations found between the participants’ career anchors and their psychosocial employability attributes. organisational career management practices should strive to increase employees’ self-awareness of their career anchors and how these relate to their ability to manage and sustain their employability (ndzube, 2013). career discussions should help employees understand their strengths and weaknesses in terms of the psychosocial employability attributes they require to sustain their employability (potgieter, 2012, 2014) and how these relate to their career identities or self-concepts and the motivational forces (values) that underpin their primary, secondary and tertiary career anchors (coetzee & schreuder, 2014).career management practices should also consider the differences observed between the age and race groups in terms of their career anchors. the different career-related needs and motivations of employees in the early life and career stage and establishment life and career stage and the black african, indian and white employees in the organisation who participated in this study could be used to inform career discussions. such career discussions could focus on helping these groups understand how their career anchors influence their career decisions and how their career anchors relate to their capacity to manage their career development and employability (coetzee & schreuder, 2014; ndzube, 2013). limitations and recommendations for future research the discussion of the meaning of the results and potential implications of the findings must take into consideration the strengths and limitations of the research. on the positive side, the measures used in the study were guided by a sound theoretical framework and proven reliability and validity in the south african multicultural employment context. potential limitations of the study relate to the exploratory nature of the research design. the generalisation of results may be limited to the organisation in which the study was conducted only. the correlational design focused on exploring the strength and direction of the associations between the variables of concern to the study. therefore, no statements about causation can be made. in light of the relatively small sample and unequal distribution of the age and race groups in the particular organisation, the study needs to be replicated with broader population groups in a wider range of occupational contexts. conclusion notwithstanding the limitations, the study could be regarded as a first step in investigating the relationship between two constructs that are recognised in the career research literature as important career meta-capacities in the career development and employability of individuals. although exploratory in nature, the results also pointed to important differences between age and race groups in terms of their career anchors. in light of the increasingly multicultural work and uncertain career contexts in which employees have to construct their careers, it is trusted that the findings provided valuable insights that may potentially contribute to career management practices in the financial environment. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions r.m.o. (university of south africa) supervised the project and assisted with the writing up of the article. m.c. (university of south africa) wrote up the research article. f.m. (university of south africa) collected the data and conducted the statistical analysis. references top ↑ beyer, j., & hanna, d. (2002). building on the past: enacting established personal identities in a new work setting. organization science, 13 (6), 636–652. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.13.6.636.495bezuidenhout, m. (2011). the development and evaluation of a measure of graduate employability in the context of the new world of work. unpublished master’s dissertation, department of human resources, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. bezuidenhout, m., & coetzee, m. (2011). preliminary exploratory factor analysis: student employability scale. unpublished research report, department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. botha, j. (2014). the relationship between adult learner self-directedness and employability attributes – an open distance learning perspective. unpublished master’s dissertation, department of human resource management, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. chang, c.l.h., jiang, j.j., klein, g., & chen, h.g. (2012). career anchors and disturbances in job turnover intentions – a case study of it professionals in taiwan. information & management, 49 , 309–319. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2012.08.002 chudzikowski, k. (2012). career transitions and career success in the ‘new’ career era. journal of vocational behavior, 81 , 298–306. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.10.005 clarke, m. (2008). understanding and managing employability in changing career contexts. journal of european industrial training, 32 (4), 259–284. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090590810871379 coetzee, m. (2014). a psychological career resources framework for contemporary career development. in m. coetzee (ed.), psycho-social career meta-capacities: dynamics of contemporary career development (pp. 87–122). dordrecht, the netherlands: springer international. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00645-1_6 coetzee, m., & bergh, z. (2009). psychological career resources and subjective work experiences of working adults: an exploratory study. southern african business review, 13(2), 1–31. coetzee, m., & de villiers, m.a. (2010). sources of job stress, work engagement and career orientations of employees in a south african financial institution. southern african business review, 14(1), 27–57. coetzee, m., & roythorne-jacobs, h. (2012). career counselling and guidance in the workplace: a manual for career practitioners. (2nd edn.). cape town, south africa: juta. coetzee, m., & schreuder, a.m.g. (2008). a multi-cultural investigation of students’ career anchors at a south african higher education institution. south african journal of labour relations, 32(2), 45–65. coetzee, m., & schreuder, a.m.g. (2009). using the career orientations inventory (coi) for measuring career orientations in the south african organisational context. south african journal of industrial psychology, 35 (1), article #806, 13 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v35i1.806 coetzee, m., & schreuder, a.m.g. (2011). the relation between career anchors, emotional intelligence and employability satisfaction among workers in the service industry. southern african business review, 15(3), 76–97. coetzee, m., & schreuder, a.m.g. (2014). career anchors as a meta-capacity in career development. in m. coetzee (ed.), psycho-social career meta-capacities: dynamics of contemporary career development (pp. 139–154). dordrecht, the netherlands: springer international. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00645-1 coetzee, m., schreuder, a.m.g., & tladinyane, r. (2007). career anchors and its relation to organisational commitment. southern african business review, 11(1), 65–86. dhet. (2014). government gazette notice 380: national scarce skills list, version 20 may 2014. pretoria, south africa: government printer. ellison, j.a., & schreuder, a.m.g. (2000). the relationship between career anchors, occupational types and job satisfaction of mid-career employees. journal of industrial psychology, 26(2), 1–6. feldman, d.c., & bolino, m.c. (1996). careers within careers: reconceptualising the nature of career anchors and their consequences. journal of human resources review, 6 (2), 89–112. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(96)90014-5 forret, m.l., & sullivan, s.e. (2002). a balanced scorecard approach to networking: a guide to successfully navigating career challenges. organizational dynamics, 31 (3), 245–258. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0090-2616(02)00112-2 fugate, m., & kinicki, a.j. (2008). a dispositional approach to employability: development of a measure and test of implications for employee reactions to organisational change. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 81 , 503–527. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317907x241579 hillage, j., & pollard, e. (1998). employability: developing a framework for policy analysis. research brief no. 85. london, uk: department for education and employment. ibm statistical package for social sciences version 22.0 [computer software]. (2011). armonk, ny: ibm corporation. joāo, t.f., & coetzee, m. (2011). perceived career mobility and preference, job satisfaction and organisational commitment in the financial sector: an exploratory study. south african journal of labour relations, 35(1), 38–60. mihail, d.m. (2008). proactivity and work experience as predictors of career-enhancing strategies. human resource development international, 11 (5), 523–537. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13678860802417668 nazar, g., & van der heijden, b.i.j.m. (2012). career identity and its impact upon self-perceived employability among chilean male middle-aged managers. human resource development international, 15 (2), 141–156. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2012.664692 ndzube, f. (2013). the relationship between career anchors and employability. unpublished master’s dissertation, department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. obschonka, m. (2014). entrepreneurship as 21st century skill: taking a developmental perspective. in m. coetzee (ed.), psycho-social career meta-capacities: dynamics of contemporary career development (pp. 293–306). dordrecht, the netherlands: springer international. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00645-1_16 pato, t., & spira, j. (2008). sa searching in vain for 22000 accountants . retrieved february 23, 2008, from http://beta.saica.co.za/tabid/1185/itemid/903/sa-searching-in-vain-for-22-000-accountants.aspx pool, l., & sewell, p. (2007). the key to employability: developing a practical model of graduate employability. education and training, 49 (4), 227–289. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00400910710754435 potgieter, i.l. (2012). the development of a career meta-competency model for sustained employability. unpublished doctoral thesis, department of human resource management, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. potgieter, i.l. (2014). personality and psychosocial employability attributes as meta-capacities for sustained employability. in m. coetzee (ed.), psycho-social career meta-capacities: dynamics of contemporary career development (pp. 35–54). dordrecht, the netherlands: springer international. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00645-1_3 savickas, m.l., & porfeli, e.j. (2012). career adapt-abilities scale: construction, reliability, and measurement equivalence across 13 countries. journal of vocational behavior, 80 , 661–673. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2012.01.011 schein, e.h. (1978). career dynamics: matching individual and organizational needs. massachusetts: addison-wesley. schein, e.h. (1990). career anchors: discovering your real values. san diego: ca: pfeiffer. schein, e.h. (1992). career anchors and job/role planning: the links between career planning and career development. in d.h. montross & c.j. shinkman (eds.), career development theory and practice (pp. 207–217). springfield, il: charles c. thomas. schein, e.h. (1996). career anchors revisited. implications for career development in the 21st century. academy of management executive, 1, 80–88. schreuder, a.m.g., & coetzee, m. (2011). careers: an organizational perspective. (4th edn.). cape town, south africa: juta. schwartz, s.h. (1992). universals in the content and structure of values: theoretrical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. in m.p. zanna (ed.), advances in experimental social psychology (vol. 25, pp. 1–65). san diego, ca: academic press. south african institute of chartered accountants (saica). (2008). the financial management, accounting and auditing skills shortage research report , 2008. retrieve february 23, 2008, from https://www.saica.co.za/documents/skills_report_sh.pdf stauffer, s.d., maggiori, c., froidevaux, a., & rossier, j. (2014). adaptability in action: using personality, interest and values data to help clients increase their emotional, social, and cognitive career meta-capacities. in m. coetzee (ed.), psycho-social career meta-capacities: dynamics of contemporary career development (pp. 55–74). dordrecht, the netherlands: springer international. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00645-1_4 super, d.e. (1990). a life span, life-space approach to career development. in d. brown & l. brooks (eds.), career choice and development (2nd edn., pp. 197–261). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. themba, m.a., oosthuizen, r.m., & coetzee, m. (2012). exploring socio-demographic differences in career maturity in the south african military. south african journal of labour relations, 36(1), 8–30. tones, m., pillay, h., & kelly, k. (2011). the link between age, career goals and adaptive development for work-related learning among local government employees. journal of career assessment, 19 (1), 92–110. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072710382618 van der heijde, c.m. (2014). employability and self-regulation in contemporary careers. in m. coetzee (ed.), psycho-social career meta-capacities: dynamics of contemporary career development (pp. 7–18). dordrecht, the netherlands: springer international. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00645-1_1 van der heijde, c.m., & van der heijden, b.i.j.m. (2006). a competence-based and multidimensional operationalisation and measurement of employability. human resources management, 45 (3), 449–476. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20119 wils, l., wils, t., & tremblay, m. (2010). toward a career anchor structure: an empirical investigation of engineers. industrial relations, 65 (2), 236–256. http://dx.doi.org/10.7202/044301ar reviewer acknowledgement open accesshttp://www.sajhrm.co.za 159 page 1 of 1 sa journal of human resource management recognises the value and importance of the peer reviewer in the overall publication process – not only in shaping the individual manuscript, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank all reviewers who participated in shaping this volume of sa journal of human resource management: anita bosch basak yanar claude-helene mayer dries schreuder elrie botha fiona donald frans maloa frieda koekemoer magda bezuidenhout mandla ndlangamandla marissa de klerk melanie bushney we appreciate the time taken to perform your review successfully. nadia ferreira nico martins pieter grobler richard chazuza roelf van niekerk rudolf oosthuizen salome vosloo sanet van der westhuizen sumaya laher tshilongamulenzhe m. christopher zoharah omar in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for sa journal of human resource management, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on www.sajhrm.co.za for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a reviewer. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at http://www. sajhrm.co.za 2. in your ‘user home’ [http://www.sajhrm. co.za/index.php/sajhrm/ user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest. 3. it is good practice as a reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to sa journal of human resource management. please do not hesitate to contact me if you require assistance in performing this task. margo martens submissions@sajhrm.co.za tel: +27 (0)21 975 2602 fax: +27 (0)21 975 4635 sajhrm sa journal of human resource management article information authors: faith n. zwane1 lindie du plessis1 elmarie slabbert1 affiliations: 1faculty of economic and business sciences, tourism, research in economic environs and society, north-west university, potchefstroom campus, south africa correspondence to: lindie du plessis postal address: private bag x6001, potchefstroom 2520, south africa dates: received: 24 apr. 2013 accepted: 22 aug. 2013 published: 31 mar. 2014 how to cite this article: zwane, f.n., du plessis, l., & slabbert, e. (2014). analysing the skills expectations of employers in the south african tourism industry. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12(1) art. #550, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.550 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. analysing employers’ expectations of employee skills in the south african tourism industry in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus    • background    • trends from research literature    • purpose       • objectives of the research       • contribution to field       • what will follow    • literature review • the importance of human resources in the tourism industry • tourism training programmes • skills attributes expected by employers in the tourism industry • method    • research approach       • research participants       • measuring instrument       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • profiling the employers who participated in the study    • comparison of skills expectations and the skills presented from an employer perspective    • comparison of skills categories • discussion    • outline of the results       • most significant findings evident from the results    • practical implications and recommendations       • the following implications can be derived from the above discussions    • limitations and suggestions for future research    • conclusion • acknowledgement    • competing interest    • authors' contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: owing to the nature of the tourism industry, which is highly service orientated, employees should possess certain skills such as self-reliance, people and certain specialist skills, and general employability when working in this industry. however, it seems that employees are not well enough prepared and equipped with these skills to satisfy the requirements of employers. thus human resource practitioners need to provide more in-service training. furthermore, there is a high turnover of employees, which adds pressure to the management of human resources.research purpose: this study focused on comparing employers’ expectations of employee skills in the tourism industry and the skills acquired by learners in the culture, art, tourism, hospitality and sport skills education training authorities’ (cathsseta) programmes with regard to self-reliance, people and certain specialist skills, and general employability. motivation for the study: education, training and the creation of employment are amongst the key priorities of the south african government for improving the current labour situation in the tourism industry. however, the industry has complained that learners are not prepared for the workplace. thus, it is important to determine the skills that are supposedly lacking. research design, approach and method: descriptive research, following a quantitative approach, was chosen, whereby questionnaires were distributed amongst tourism and hospitality employers listed with cathsseta (n = 217). a total of 141 (n = 141) completed questionnaires were received (a response rate of 65%). between 2008 and 2012, 5633 learners participated in the cathsseta programmes. descriptive statistics and t-tests were used to analyse the data. main findings: employers expect higher levels of competence than those which learners in the cathsseta programme can deliver. more specifically, employers indicate that learners lack skills in handling customers professionally and being proactive in solving problems. this creates difficulties in operating in the tourism business environment where service delivery is important in satisfying tourists’ needs and improving loyalty levels to the establishment. nor are employers satisfied with the ability of learners to be self-reliant. a lack of cooperation between the various role players in developing appropriate training programmes is evident. practical/managerial implications: it is necessary to review the current cathsseta programme and training providers to ensure that quality training is provided. human resource practitioners should be involved in the development of a more appropriate programme that will adhere to the needs of the tourism industry. training programmes should focus on the development of self-reliance and, more specifically, the ability to deal with customers in an efficient and professional manner. these are basic skills that the learners currently lack. prospective learners should take an aptitude test to ensure that they will be able to meet the requirements of this industry and to manage the challenges facing them. contribution: the most important skills needed for working in the tourism environment were identified thus giving direction to the development of tourism training programmes. the importance of cooperation in developing training programmes was emphasised. introduction top ↑ key focus with the significant growth of the tourism industry in south africa since the country’s first democratic elections in 1994 (grobler, warnich, carrell, elbert & hatfield, 2006; department of tourism, 2011), various efforts have been made by the government to improve the skills levels of south africans in this industry. the culture, art, tourism, hospitality and sport seta (cathsseta) programmes were designed to cater for this need, but the majority of tourism employers participating in the cathsseta programmes have indicated that they are not satisfied with the skills displayed by learners working in their tourism enterprises. hence the question arises whether the cathsseta programme is effectively addressing the skills expectation of the tourism industry. background high-season business demands in the tourism industry such as time pressure, high employee turnover, rapid money turnover – especially in small businesses – and the inability to assess the benefit of training and the expertise needed to provide training have been identified as hindering and discouraging the provision of ongoing employee training in this industry (d’annunzio-green, maxwell & watson, 2004; baum, amouh & spivack, 1997; jerris, 1999). nonetheless, according to haven-tang and jones (2006) as well as lucas (2004), some of these constraints in the tourism industry are generally accepted as inevitable and natural processes. in addition, the tourism industry is dominated by small businesses (lucas, 2004; baum, 1999; peacock & ladkin, 2002) with some of the owner-manager positions in these small businesses being filled by expatriates, the majority of whom lack tourism knowledge and management skills and have never undergone formal tourism training (d’annunzio-green et al., 2004; haven-tang & jones, 2006; baum et al., 1997; baum, 1995). globally, the industry faces skills shortages in key operational, technical and managerial areas, the extent varying between developed and developing countries. nevertheless, tourism remains a large contributor to south africa’s gross domestic product (gdp). furthermore, its wider economic impacts are forecast to rise by 4.8% per annum from r328.2 billion (11.4% of gdp) in 2011 to r522.4 billion (11.5% of gdp) by 2021. the total contribution to employment, including jobs indirectly supported by the industry, is forecast to rise by 2.5% per annum from 1 334 000 jobs (10.1% of total employment) in 2011 to 1 709 000 (10.7% of total employment) by 2021 (world travel and tourism council (wttc), 2011). the international labour organisation (ilo) (2010) states that it is said that career opportunities are more accessible in tourism than in many other sectors of the economy owing to the diverse and fragmented nature of this industry. this is evident in the support the industry provides to improve the skills and knowledge of interested learners, which has led to the development of various training institutions and programmes such as cathsseta learnerships and internships. accessibility to the latter has also become a priority of the south african government and other role players across the industry, and involves both urban and rural communities (akoojee, 2009; pawson, 1999). saayman (2005) argued in 2005 that the future of a successful south african tourism industry is closely linked to the development of its human resource capacity. trends from research literature according to noe, hollenbeck, gerhart and wright (2009) and chen and klimoski (2007), the nature of the modern business environment and the challenges in the 21st century make training more important today than ever before. various training programmes were developed to address this situation because it is important to ensure that the skills expected in the workplace and those obtained by learners during training are in accord. however, it is a continuous struggle to find adequate and skilled employees to face the challenges of the tourism industry (saayman, 2005). although not indicated by all business, being up to date with rapid changes, especially in the area of technology, is a skill that most students as well as new tourists do possess. this implies, however, that employees face more informed tourists with specific needs. hence, employees are required continually to learn new skills and to be able to solve problems effectively individually and in teams to meet these needs. the following studies identified skills necessary to function optimally in the tourism industry. bennett, dunne and carre (2000) noted that employers want employees who are flexible, adaptive, proactive and transformable with an ability to learn quickly in this changing world of work. fuller, munro and rainbird (2004) noted that tacit skills such as time management, organising and multitasking are often facilitated by certain forms of learning such as group work. leadership and management positions in the industry demand skills that can only be provided through wider experience and training that focuses on cognitive and problem-solving skills, in addition to sector specific skills (earle-malleson, 2009). a study conducted by groenewald and schurink (2003) revealed that learners are able to identify their potential and talents through exposure to the core aspects of the industry that include team work, workplace environment, time management, communication skills, responsibility and a drive to work hard. busby and gibson (2010) further added that it is imperative for the development and inclusion of a range of transferable skills which includes teamwork, presentations and information technology (it) skills. diplari and dimou (2010) found that overall experiential learning assists learners to improve their management skills and abilities, which include time management, group work skills, leadership and motivation abilities. latagan, dinu and stoica (2010) caution that it must be understood that organisations do not ask for the educational systems to produce educated and skilled learners, but rather individuals with basic knowledge, commitment, innovative and entrepreneurial minds, the ability to be flexible in training and to establish and maintain social relationships. purpose this study thus focused on comparing employers’ expectations of employee skills in the tourism industry and the skills displayed by learners in the cathsseta programmes with regard to self-reliance, people and certain specialist skills, and general employability. objectives of the research the objectives were to compare employers’ expectations of employee skills in tourism and the skills displayed by learners in cathsseta programmes with regards to self-reliance, people and certain specialist skills, and general employability in the tourism industry. contribution to field this study contributes to identifying current skills gaps that hamper effective operation in the tourism industry. quality training and development programmes can close these gaps. this will lead to improving the service levels in this industry, thus creating a more sustainable industry. the research points to the importance of cooperation between human resource practitioners and training providers in providing effective training programmes. what will follow in the literature review the importance of human resources in the tourism industry is analysed, as well as the current status of tourism training programmes and the skills applicable to the tourism industry. this is followed by the research design, results, discussion and implications. literature review the diversity of the tourism industry requires various skills for each subsector and offers a wide range of jobs with diverse human capital requirements. it is accepted that tourism employees should be self-reliant, focused on people, have general employment skills as well as specialist skills (fuller et al., 2004; groenewald & schurink, 2003; hjalager, 2003; saayman & geldenhuys, 2003). however, after a few years of implementation it is not certain that the cathsseta training programmes meet the needs of the industry and whether learners are equipped with the necessary skills to function effectively in this industry. it is thus the objectives of this research to investigate the attainment of self-reliance, people and certain specialist skills, and general employability through participation in these training programmes. the importance of human resources in the tourism industry top ↑ macro changes such as globalisation and technological advancements have affected the hierarchical levels of organisations as well as the employment fraternity for some time now (dulebohn & werling, 2007). human resources (hr) constitutes a key management component of any business and the success of a business often depends on how well its hr is developed, managed and sustained. businesses that promote optimal hr practices often exhibit greater market value per employee and a more cost-effective organisational performance (walsh, enz & siguaw, 2003; giauque, resenterra & siggen, 2010). hr also contributes to the quality, competitiveness and sustainability of most industries, and effects positive attributes, beneficial behaviour and other competencies in personnel (marlow, 2006; smith & smith, 2007; mehrabad & brojeny, 2007 and ivancevich, 2010). beech and chadwick (2006) point out that the presence of hr acknowledges the importance of employees as an asset of any organisation. noe et al. (2009), valachis, christou, sigala and maroudas (2009), and swanson and holton (2009) maintain that most businesses seek to provide a quality service and remain competitive in their industry through their employees. this primarily depends on the professionalism and relevant skills achieved through training and development. in addition, noe et al. (2009), smith and smith (2007) and swanson and holton (2009) note that there are strong links between training and development, and business strategy. therefore, organisations have prioritised linking training programmes to business goals which, in turn, connect with the aims of both functions in an attempt to provide employees with information, skills and an understanding of the organisation and its goals. this is even more so in the tourism industry, which is all about people and how to handle and manage them. however, according to zagonari (2009) and lee-ross and pryce (2010), training in the tourism industry has historically not been a priority because of the high staff and cost turnover, especially in small businesses and organisations that feared that trained employees would be poached by competitors. ladkin (2005) and d’annunzio-green et al. (2004) note that, in this industry, labour characteristics such as occupational diversity, relatively low pay rates, high levels of mobility, small organisations, low specificity of skills as well as the inability to assess the benefit of training and the expertise required to provide training have been identified as hindering and discouraging the provision of continuous employee training in tourism. janes (2003) avers that the key to providing effective training lies firstly in reducing and eliminating barriers to training for organisations, and then in promoting an organisational culture that is committed to training as well as providing expertise in training design and delivery. this commitment should also be applied to the tourism industry. tourism training programmes top ↑ saayman (2005) points out that, in south africa, travel courses were introduced in the 1980s and tourism management courses were developed mainly in the early 1990s. in the relatively short period that these courses have been on offer, many challenges have been met and questions answered. according to breytenbach (2010), these courses include tourism programmes that help to develop the skills, attributes and competencies required by different components of the industry that offer graduates a broad range of employment opportunities. d’annunzio-green et al. (2004) and airey (2005) state that, in developing countries such as south africa, vocational education that offers sector-specific skills for operational or supervisory positions in sectors such as tourism is very limited. thus, employers are confronted with employees who are fundamentally unskilled and require considerable investment in training and development. therefore, as indicated by holden and jameson (1999), this situation has called for higher education to play an increasing role in providing knowledge and skills for new entrants to the labour market through various interventions such as learnerships and internships. a learnership is primarily a workplace learning programme supported by a structured learning phase which results in a qualification and is facilitated by employers. it comprises study units categorised as fundamental, core, and elective unit standards. fundamental unit standards include literacy, communications and basic mathematical skills. core unit standards are central to the qualification (e.g. care for customers), whilst elective unit standards are selected from a range of units (e.g. manage and organise groups) (committee for tutorial matters (ctm) standing committee, 2000; breytenbach, 2010; cathsseta, 2010; department of education, 1998). an internship is entered into when a student has completed certain studies and takes up in-service training in an organisation which seeks to provide the appropriate work experience required for obtaining employment (cathsseta, 2010). these programmes are mainly facilitated by cathsseta in south africa and aim at bridging the gap between the training programmes and the tourism industry. the activities of cathsseta include overseeing qualification quality assurance, accrediting training providers, monitoring training provision and registering assessors. cathsseta therefore offers support through the two experiential activities mentioned above, namely learnerships and internships. these learning programmes are targeted at both the employed and the unemployed who wish to develop their careers in the tourism industry. skills attributes expected by employers in the tourism industry top ↑ according to soanes, hawker and elliot (2006) skill is the ability to do something well. business dictionary.com (2011) and mish (ed.) (1997) further define it as a capability and aptitude acquired through purposeful, orderly and sustained effort to smoothly and adaptively carry out complex activities or job functions involving ideas (cognitive skills), things (technical skills), and/or people (interpersonal skills). skills review analyses developed in about the 1980s when employers persuaded government to challenge the autonomy of the training sector by reviewing and evaluating the traditional curricula because the employers felt that the curricula were not aligned to their needs (bennet et al., 2000; hoddinott, 2004). in addition, employees in tourism, as diplari and dimou (2010) explain, deem the level of skills and knowledge offered in tertiary education to be unsatisfactory and not in line with their needs. zagonari (2009) has further added that, because of technological advancements and the mature nature of the industry’s consumers, employers require specialisation and a well-educated workforce with a focus on providing a quality service. the introduction of learnerships and internships has facilitated improving the necessary skills and knowledge levels of learners.however, the tourism industry requires specific skills. bennett et al. (2000) and hjalager (2003) note that employers require employees to be flexible, adaptable and transformable, and able to learn quickly. oliver, russel, gilli, hughes , schuder, brown and towers (1997), and bennett et al. (2000) state that employees need to demonstrate initiative, possess the ability to work well with others, solve problems routinely, and apply technology effectively. bailey (1997) and sinclair (1997) maintain that employees also need to be able to work independently with minimum supervision and to be creative. according to bailey (1997) and bennett et al. (2000), it is essential for employees to have acquired a broader knowledge and conceptual understanding of what their jobs entail for them to fit easily into the workplace culture. they further need to be able to acquire, organise and interpret information. saayman and geldenhuys (2003) conducted a study amongst travel agents, tour operators and tour guides and identified the following as important in this field of study: computer skills, arithmetic skills, telephone skills, business writing, listening skills, language skills, negotiation skills, presentation skills, leadership and social skills, organisational skills, interpersonal skills, research skills, ethical and social responsibility skills, and cultural sensitivity skills. some employers in tourism view communication skills as the top priority, followed by it skills. work experience with language skills was considered to be the least important. employers rated generally transferable people skills above tourism knowledge when these were compared, and tourism knowledge was viewed as merely adding value. certain companies considered experience to be more important than a degree-level qualification (peacock & ladkin, 2002; earle-malleson, 2009). besides the above, holden and jameson (1999) argue that graduates are regarded by many small and medium enterprise (sme) employers as being impractical, reluctant to get their hands dirty, slow to become productive and inclined to hold a poor view of what employment in an sme should be like. employers express the view that the knowledge, skills, competencies and values of new graduates may not be synchronised with the needs and expectations of employers in this industry (griesel & parker, 2009; earle-malleson, 2009; diplari & dimou, 2010). swanson and holton (2009) add that organisations struggle to find the quality and relevance of learners’ prior training useful, regarding it as either ‘too generic’ or ‘far removed’ from the workplace realities. to meet the changing requirements of companies, tertiary institutions must design programmes that venture beyond content, thereby encouraging independent learning strategies whilst focusing on the ability to think systematically and redefine problems (ctm standing committee, 2000). schuurman (2004) perceives part of the problem to be that employers are not offered an opportunity to express their real needs. he advocates that they should be engaged in all the processes, since they could provide the most relevant information on training needs for tourism labour market and ultimately also be the ones to address the major shortcomings of current training programmes in the industry. organisations also lack experienced or suitably trained mentors with ample time on their hands. sometimes induction is poor or even absent (national biodiversity institute, 2010; groenewald & schurink, 2003). smith and smith (2007) also indicate that employers are becoming increasingly conscious of the value gained from their investments in training and are demanding that training be much more deliberately aligned with the strategic needs of their organisations. with regard to issues contributing to the training problems, saayman (2005) points out that approximately 75% of the teachers have formal qualifications in the more structured sectors of tourism. drouhin and sweet (2000) comment that the placement of those teachers with mainly formal qualifications and little practical experience as opposed to those who are employed in the industry and have a more practical approach will remain a challenge. it is evident from this discussion that human resources plays an important role in the functioning of the tourism industry and that certain skills are expected from the learners who are enrolled in the education and training programmes. however, many employers in tourism have voiced their concern over the quality, performance and deliverables that learners bring with them when they enter the experiential learning employment programmes in their workplaces (national biodiversity institute, 2010). various studies have also indicated that the skills expected in the industry and those that are displayed by the learners do not concur – a situation which creates many challenges and impacts on the sustainability of the industry and the provision of job opportunities. with the implementation of learnerships and internships in the south african tourism industry it appeared that these challenges were being addressed. the question therefore remains: how do the skills expected by employers in the tourism industry compare with those displayed by the learners who have participated in the cathsseta programmes? method top ↑ research approach a descriptive research design was followed by applying a quantitative research approach where primary data were collected from employers in the tourism industry who participated in the cathsseta training system. the research method used in this study will be explained under the headings that follow. research participants cathsseta approved the survey and granted permission for the questionnaire to be distributed through their database system. thus a census-based sampling approach was used to survey the target population (n = 217) by means of emails. this was done over a period of three months and yielded a sample of 141 research participants (a 65% response rate). all employers taking part in the cathsseta programmes were included in the survey, which they willingly completed (see table 1 for demographic information). table 1: profiling the employers who participated in the study. measuring instrument a structured questionnaire which consisted of four sections, namely (1) employer’s profile (which included open and closed questions related to the sector of operation in the industry, location, years or months in business); (2) participation in the cathsseta programme (closed questions related to the type of programme, duration of participation); (3) identification of skills required by employers (likert scale questions related to self-reliance, people and specialist skills, and general employability in the tourism industry), and lastly (4) identification of skills presented by learners that participated in the cathsseta programme (likert scale questions related to self-reliance, people and specialist skills, and general employability in the tourism industry). the questionnaire was based on an in-depth analysis of literature and more specifically the questionnaires of riley, ladkin and szivas (2002), latagan et al. (2010), hjalager (2003), saayman and geldenhuys (2003), peacock and ladkin (2002), earle-malleson (2009), busby and gibson (2010), and o’neil, allred and baker (1997). the cronbach alpha coefficients were examined to determine the reliability of the data and, in all cases; values were above 0.60 and therefore seen as reliable for exploratory research. research procedure the employers were contacted via their cathsseta email account and requested to complete the questionnaire. as the cathsseta database was used to reach employers, authorisation was requested by the researcher and granted by the skills development and research manager. an electronic reminder was sent to the target population after one month. a web-based questionnaire system called surveymonkey was used as a link to the questionnaire. where the participants did not have access to the internet, a questionnaire was faxed instead. nowhere were participating employers referred to by name and thus their anonymity was ensured. the questionnaires were automatically stored by the surveymonkey electronic survey program and those that were emailed or faxed were manually captured into a microsoft excel spreadsheet. statistical analysis the statistical analyses were conducted by means of spss (version 20.0) software program. the process consisted of two stages (spss, 2010). firstly, descriptive statistics were used to analyse the socio-demographic profile of respondents and their involvement in the cathsseta programme. secondly, the differences between the scores of the two groups (the skills expectations of industry and those presented by employees in the tourism workplace) were analysed by judging the difference between their means relative to the variability of their scores for which t-tests were performed. results top ↑ the results comprised a profile of the employers who had participated in the study as well as a comparison between the employers’ expectations of employees’ skills and the skills displayed by cathsseta learners in the workplace. the results were based on the opinion of the employers. profiling the employers who participated in the study table 1 indicates that most of the employers who participated in this survey operate in the hospitality industry (61%), followed by the travel industry (17%). seventy per cent (70%) of these businesses have been in operation for between seven and 10 years. these employers could therefore offer a trustworthy opinion on the skills expected from and displayed by learners. small, medium and large businesses are all well represented in the sample. these businesses mostly participate in the learnership programme (44%), with 32% participating in both learnerships and internships. employers are thus equipped with information about both programmes, which can provide valuable insight. the employers recruit learners who study mostly at private training institutions (38%) or colleges or fet colleges (39%). the following section focuses on the comparison between the skills expected by employers and those displayed by the learners, based on the opinions of the employers mentioned above. the effectiveness of the cathsseta programmes is therefore assessed from the perspective of the employer. comparison of skills expectations and the skills presented from an employer perspective the following discussion aims to analyse the employees’ skills expected by the employers and those presented by the learners who participated in the cathsseta programmes from the perspective of the employers. it further aims to identify the most and the least important skills as determined by the industry to help ensure accurate coordination with the current curriculum. this was done by means of an independent sample t-test.table 2 illustrates significant statistical differences (p < 0.05) between the employers’ skills expectations and the skills employees presented as evaluated by the employers. table 2: t-test for skills expectations and skills presented. the largest significant differences exist between skills expected by employers and skills presented by learners with regard to customer orientation and the employees’ ability to be proactive. in the case of customer orientation, employers expect greater skill (m = 4.54, sd = ± 0.77) from the learners than they feel the latter display (m = 3.14, sd = ± 0.93). the same applies with regard to being proactive: employers expect a greater ability to be proactive (m = 4.09, sd = ± 0.80) than the learners display (m = 2.71, sd = ± 0.94). no significant difference exists between the employers’ low expectations of learners’ ability to speak a foreign language (m = 1.69, sd = ± 0.90) and the learners’ low level of foreign language proficiency (m = 1.65, sd = ± 0.98).the least significant difference occurs for numeracy. however, employers still expect better proficiency (m = 3.38, sd = ± 1.02) than is displayed by the learners (m = 2.93, sd = ± 0.79). the employers’ highest expectations relate to the ability of learners to work with customers (m = 4.54), the willingness of learners to learn (m = 4.53), and the ability of learners to work in a team (m = 4.38) and to be professional (m = 4.28). comparison of skills categories the skills as identified in the literature were categorised as follows: self-reliance, people skills, general employment skills and specialist skills.in the analysis of the skills categories, significant differences exist in all four groups (see table 3). in all cases, the skills expectations of employers are much higher than the skills presented by the learners. for instance, it is evident that employers expect higher levels of self-reliance (m = 3.96, sd = ± 0.62) than the learners display (m = 2.91, sd = ± 0.75). significant differences occur with regard to the learners’ ability to network, be resourceful and act as initiators in the category of self-reliance. table 3: t-test for skills expectation factors and skills presented. discussion top ↑ outline of the results the aim of this study was to compare the employers’ expectations of employees’ skills in the tourism industry with the skills presented by learners in the cathsseta programmes with regard to self-reliance, people and specialist skills, and general employability.the results show that hospitality sector employers are the majority implementers of these programmes. the participating businesses have been in operation for between seven and ten years, therefore are able to give a trustworthy opinion on the skills expected from and presented by learners. most significant findings evident from the results firstly, it was found that significant differences exist for all the skills assessed but one. in all instances, the employers expected the learners to be better skilled as a result of their participation in the training programmes. therefore the content and outcomes of the cathsseta programmes should be revisited. these findings can be attributed either to employer expectations being too high or the training programmes being inadequate to satisfy the human resource needs of employers.secondly, the largest significant differences were found between the skills expected by employers and those displayed by learners with reference to customer orientation and the ability of learners to be proactive. regarding customer orientation, employers expected learners to be better oriented towards their customers than the learners currently appear to display. according to them, learners are not adequately prepared to work with customers and satisfy their needs. thorough attention must be paid to improving customer orientation skills as learners were unable to meet the high demands set by the employers. tajeddini (2010) indicated that the tourism industry demands a more customer-oriented approach where value to the customer is provided efficiently and continuously (choi & chu, 2001). with reference to being proactive, it was found that employers expected higher levels of proactiveness than learners presented. this is supported by bennett et al. (2000) and hjalager (2003), who indicate that employers in the tourism industry demand flexible, proactive and adaptive employees. thus it appears that employers believe that the current cathsseta training programmes do not adequately equip learners with customer orientation skills or improve their ability to be proactive. thirdly, the ability to speak a foreign language was not considered important. this was also found in studies conducted by peacock and ladkin (2002), and earle-malleson (2009). most south africans speak english and can therefore accommodate foreign and local visitors without being able to speak a foreign language. fourthly, the least significant difference was found relating to numeracy. employers’ expectations and the skills presented by the learners were almost on the same level. however amoah and baum (1997) found a gap between what is offered by education institutions and what the industry seeks in the united kingdom. littlejohn and watson (2004) also identified the importance of numeracy as part of a tourism curriculum. the cathsseta programme should therefore continue to improve the numeracy skills of participating learners. finally, it is evident from the findings of the skills categories that the most significant difference was found to relate to self-reliance. employers were not satisfied with the learners’ level of being proactive, their willingness to learn, and their ability to network, plan and organise effectively. oliver et al. (1997) indicate that these factors are very important as they form a bridge between the individual, society and the environment. eraqi (2006) found that the development of employees’ empowerment and autonomy are important in providing quality tourism services. more attention should therefore be given to these skills in the training programme. practical implications and recommendations the following implications can be derived from the above discussions firstly, the comparison between the skills expected by employers and those presented by cathsseta learners reveal various significant differences. this is of concern for human resource practitioners in the south african tourism industry, especially considering the money spent on these programmes and the number of learners involved. the employers expect much more skill from the learners than they currently display. it is evident that tourism human resource practitioners and cathsseta need to improve their cooperative efforts and collaborate to adapt the current training programmes so that they equip the learners with the required skills and knowledge. a more coordinated effort is needed to improve the current outcomes of these programmes. the result of such action could be that human resource practitioners would provide less in-house training to learners upon their arrival in the tourism enterprise. secondly, training programmes for the tourism industry should emphasise the skills and knowledge pertaining to the handling of and orientation towards customers. this is the lifeblood of any tourism business and if learners fail in this important task it might impact on the success and sustainability of the business. it is recommended that human resource practitioners also expose learners to role plays and videos showcasing ways to handle customers. although a lack of proper customer orientation has been found in various previous studies, it remains a challenge that needs to be addressed. thirdly, the gap regarding self-reliance, considered to be an important element for entering the industry, requires attention. cathsseta should ensure that learners are adequately prepared to deal with networking opportunities, planning, organising and prioritising certain tasks, and that they show a willingness to learn. employers should make sure there is a good fit between a person and the job. this will lead to better outcomes, since some self-reliance skills are personality traits. limitations and suggestions for future research a possible limitation of this study is the number of participants, which, although representative of the employers involved in the cathsseta programme, is not necessarily representative of the tourism industry. however, the bigger role players are participating in this programme and thus provide a good view of the current situation. it is suggested that the research is also conducted in other sectors of the tourism industry to determine the specific skills needed by certain sectors. conclusion this study compared the employers’ expectations of employees’ skills in tourism and the skills displayed by cathsseta learners. the importance of certain skills have been highlighted in the literature, but this study revealed that various gaps still exist between the skills that employers demand and those that learners are able to deliver after having completed their training programmes. the expectations of the employers exceed the level of skill that learners are currently able to deliver; this causes frustration and, very importantly, also influences the growth of the tourism industry. human resource practitioners in the south african tourism industry need to evaluate the current workplace environment to determine how training programmes can be adapted to the needs of industry, and also to evaluate the role of the industry in this process. this will directly impact the sustainability of the tourism industry and assist in improving the quality of tourism services in this country. this research indicated that, although government institutions such as cathsseta aim at providing an opportunity for young south africans to obtain training and education in the tourism industry, learners are not yet competent in the workplace. the skills gaps identified in this study should be addressed. acknowledgement top ↑ financial assistance from the culture, arts, tourism, hospitality and sport sector education and training authority (cathsseta) is gratefully acknowledged. statements and suggestions made in this study are those of the author and should not be regarded as those of above institution. competing interest the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions f.n.z. (north-west university) conducted the research for her master’s degree and therefore wrote the concept paper. l.d.p. (north-west university) was the supervisor of this study and e.s. (north-west university) was co-supervisor. both these supervisors assisted in writing the final manuscript. references top ↑ airey, d.w. (2005). growth and development. in d.w. airey & j. tribe (eds.), an international handbook of tourism education, (pp. 13–22). oxford: elsevier. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-044667-7.50005-7akoojee, s. (2009). scarce skills and public technical and vocational education and training in south africa: twin challenge or two sides of the same coin? southern african review of education, 15(2), 117–138. amoah, v.a., & baum, t. (1997). tourism education: policy versus practice. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 9(1), 5–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09596119710157531 bailey, t. (1997). changing in the nature of work: implications for skills and assessment. in h.f o’neil (ed.), workforce readiness: competencies and assessment, (pp. 27–45). new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates. baum, t. (1995). managing human resources in the european hospitality industry: a strategic approach. london: chapman and hall. baum, t. (1999). human resource management in tourism small business sector: policy dimension. in d. lee-ross (ed.), hrm in tourism and hospitality: international perspectives on small to medium sized enterprises, (pp. 3–16). new york: cassell. baum, t., amouh, v., & spivack, s. (1997). policy dimensions of human resources management in the tourism and hospitality industries. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 9(5/6), 221–229. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09596119710172615 beech, j., & chadwick, s. (2006). introduction – the unique evolution of tourism as ’business‘. in j. george & s. chadwick (ed.), the business of tourism management, (pp. 3–18). essex: pearson education limited. bennett, n., dunne, e., & carre, c. (2000). skills development in higher education and employment. buckingham: shre and open university press. breytenbach, a. (2010). an evaluation of tourism industry perceptions of tourism programmes of selected further and higher education institutions in the western cape. thesis and dissertations, cput. paper 149. retrieved august 30, 2011, from http://dk.cput.ac.za/td_cput/149 busby, g., & gibson, p. (2010). tourism and hospitality internship experience overseas: a british perspective. journal of hospitality, leisure, sport and tourism education, 9(1) , 4–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.3794/johlste.91.244 business dictionary. (2011). definition of skill. retrieved aug 19, 2011, from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/skill.html culture, art, tourism, hospitality and sport skills education training authorities (cathsseta). (2010). learnership policy. sandton: cathsseta. chen, g., & klimoski, r.j. (2007). training and development of human resources at work: is the state of our science string? journal of human resource management review, 17(2), 180–190. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2007.03.004 choi, t.y., & chu, r. (2001). determinants of hotel guests’ satisfaction and repeat patronage in the hong kong hotel industry. international journal of hospitality management, 29(3), 277–297. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0278-4319(01)00006-8 committee for tutorial matters (ctm) standing committee: co-operative education. (2000). best practice in co-operative education. durban: south african society for co-operative education (sasce). d’annunzio-green, n., maxwell, g.a., & watson, s. (2004). human resource management: international perspective in hospitality and tourism. surrey: thomson learning. department of tourism (2011). national tourism sector strategy. pretoria: government printer. diplari, a., & dimou, i. (2010). public tourism education and training in greece. journal of industry and higher education, 24(2), 115–120. http://dx.doi.org/10.5367/000000010791190976 drouhin, m., & sweet, r. (2000). from initial education to working life: making transition work.. in d. atchoarena (ed.), new trends in technical and vocational education, (pp. 1–175). paris: unesco. dulebohn, j.h., & werling, s.e. (2007). compensation research past, present and future. journal of human resource management review, 17(2), 191–207. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2007.03.002 earle-malleson, n. (2009). tourism. in a. kraak (ed.), sectors and skills: the need for policy alignment, (pp. 300–317). cape town: hsrc press. eraqi, m.i. (2006). tourism services quality in egypt. benchmarking: an international journal, 13(4), 469–492. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14635770610676308 fuller, a., munro, a., & rainbird, h. (2004). introduction and overview. in h. rainbird, a. fuller & a. munro (eds.), workplace learning in context, (pp. 1–18). london: routledge. giauque, d., resenterra, f., & siggen, m. (2010). the relationship between hrm practices and organisational commitment of knowledge workers: facts obtained from swiss smes. journal of human resource development international, 13(2), 185–205. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13678861003703716 griesel, h., & parker, b. (2009). a baseline study on south african graduates from the perspective of employers. (a baseline study undertaken by higher education south africa and the south african qualification authority). pretoria: hesa. grobler, p., warnich, s., carrell, r.m., elbert, f.n., & hatfield, r.d. (2006). human resource management in south africa (3rd edn.). london: thomson learning. groenewald, t., & schurink, w. (2003). the contribution of co-operative education in the growing of talent in south africa: a qualitative phenomenological exploration. south african journal of human resource management, 1(3), 93–104. haven-tang, c., & jones, e. (2006). human resource management in tourism businesses. in j. beech & s. chadwick (eds.). the business of tourism management, (pp. 89–113). essex: pearson education limited. hjalager, a.m. (2003). global tourism careers: opportunities and dilemmas facing higher education in tourism. journal of hospitality, leisure, sports and tourism education, 2(2), 26–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.3794/johlste.22.35 hoddinott, s. (2004). the assessment of workers basic skills: a critique based on evidence from the united states, canada and england. in h. rainbird, a. fuller & a. munro (eds.), workplace learning in context, (pp. 89–106). london: routledge. holden, r., & jameson, s. (1999). employing graduates in hospitality small to medium-sized enterprises: context and issues. in d. lee-ross (ed.), hrm in tourism and hospitality: international perspectives on small to medium-sized enterprise, (pp. 48–66). london: cassell. international labour organisation (2010). developments and challenges in the hospitality and tourism sector: issues paper for discussion at the global dialogue forum for the hotels, catering and tourism sector. geneva: international labour office. ivancevich, j.m. (2010). human resource management (11th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. janes, l.p. (2003). training and development in tourism organizations. in s. kusluvan (ed.), managing employee attitudes and behaviours in the tourism and hospitality industry, (pp. 310–338). new york: nova science publishers. jerris, l. (1999). human resources management for hospitality. new jersey: prentice-hall. ladkin, a. (2005). careers and employment. in d. airey & j. tribe (eds.), an international handbook of tourism education, (pp 437–450). oxford: elsevier. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-044667-7.50034-3 latagan, m., dinu, c., & stoica, a.m. (2010). continuous training of human resources – a solution to crisis going out. procedia – social and behavioural sciences, 2(2), 5139–5146. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.835 lee-ross, d., & pryce, j. (2010). human resources and tourism: skills, culture and industry. london: channel view. littlejohn, d., & watson, s. (2004). developing graduate managers for hospitality and tourism. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 16(7), 408–414. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09596110410559096 lucas, r. (2004). employment relations in the hospitality and tourism industries. london: routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203644553 marlow, s. (2006). human resource management in smaller firms: a contradiction in terms. journal of human resource management review, 16(4), 467–477. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2006.08.004 mehrabad, m.s., & brojeny, m.f. (2007). the development of an expert system for effective selection and appointment of the jobs applicants in human resource management. journal of computer and industrial engineering, 53(2), 306–312. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2007.06.023 mish, c.f. (ed.). (1997). the merriam webster dictionary. springfield, ma: merriam webster incorporated. national biodiversity institute (2010). survey to identify the best support for internships in the biodiversity sector: report and recommendations. cape town: sanbi. noe, r.a., hollenbeck, j.h., gerhart, b., & wright, p.m. (2009). fundamentals of human resource management (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. o’neil, h.f., allred, k., & baker, e.l. (1997). review of workforce readiness theoretical framework. in h. f. o’neil (ed.), workforce readiness: competencies and assessment, (pp. 3–25). mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. oliver, k.m., russel, c., gilli, l.m., hughes, r.a., schuder, t., brown, j.l., & towers, w. (1997). skills for success in maryland: beyond workplace readiness. in h.f. o’neil (ed.), workforce readiness: competencies and assessment, (pp. 47–76). new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates. http://dx.doi.org/10.2466/pms.1997.85.1.123 pawson, p. (1999). cooperative education in the south african tourism industry: strategy implementation at technikon pretoria. conference proceedings of the world conference on cooperative education of the world association for cooperative education, 4–7 july 1999. usa: washington, dc. peacock, n., & ladkin, a. (2002). exploring relationships between higher education and industry, a case study of a university and the local tourism industry. industry and higher education, 16(6), 393–401. http://dx.doi.org/10.5367/000000002101296568 riley, m., ladkin, a., & szivas, e. (2002). tourism employment: analysis and planning. clevedon: channel view publications. saayman, m. (2005). south africa. in d. airey & j. tribe (ed.), an international handbook of tourism education (pp. 257–269). london: elsevier. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-08-044667-7.50021-5 saayman, m., & geldenhuys, s. (2003). an analysis of skills required for selected sectors of the tourism industry. south african journal in sports, physical education and recreation, 25(1), 83–95. schuurman, l. (2004). an evaluation of tourism training: a conceptual analysis. master’s dissertation. cape town: cape technikon. sinclair, k.e. (1997). workforce competencies of college graduates. in h.f. o’neil (ed.), workforce readiness: competencies and assessment, (pp. 103–120). new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates. smith, a., & smith, e. (2007). the role of training in the development of human resource management in australian organisations. journal of human resource development international, 10(3), 263–279. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13678860701515208 soanes, c., hawker, s., & elliot, j. (eds.). (2006). paperback oxford english dictionary. new york: oxford university press. south africa. department of education. (1998). skills development act no 97, 1998. pretoria: government printer. spss inc. (2010). spss® 16.0 for windows, release 16.0.0. copyright© by spss inc., chicago, illinois. swanson, r.a., & holton iii, e.f. (2009). foundations of human resource development (2nd edn.). san francisco: berrett-koehler. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.20002 tajeddini, k. (2010). effect of customer orientation and entrepreneurial orientation on innovativeness: evidence from the hotel industry in switzerland. tourism management, 31, 221–231. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2009.02.013 valachis, i., christou, e., sigala, m., & maroudas, l. (2009). developing human resources’ skills and knowledge in tourism and hospitality industry through the determination of quality of training programs. journal of tourism and hospitality management, 15(1), 61–72. walsh, k., enz, c.a., & siguaw, j.a. (2003). innovations in hospitality human resource cases from the u.s. lodging industry. in s. kusluvan (ed.), managing employee attitudes and behaviours in the tourism and hospitality industry, (pp. 788–803). new york: nova science publishers. world travel, & tourism council (2011). travel and tourism economic impact. london: wttc. zagonari, f. (2009). balancing tourism education and training. international journal of hospitality management, 28(1), 2–9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2008.03.006 article information authors: robin j. snelgar1 michelle renard1 danie venter2 affiliations: 1department of industrial and organisational psychology, nelson mandela metropolitan university, south africa2department of statistics, nelson mandela metropolitan university, south africa correspondence to: robin snelgar postal address: po box 77000, port elizabeth 6031, south africa dates: received: 23 jan. 2011 accepted: 29 jan. 2013 published: 24 apr. 2013 how to cite this article: snelgar, r.j., renard, m., & venter, d. (2013). an empirical study of the reward preferences of south african employees. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #351, 14 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.351 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. an empirical study of the reward preferences of south african employees in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background    • research purpose    • research objectives    • what will follow    • literature review       • demographic influences on reward preferences       • generational influences on rewards       • culture and personality effects on reward preferences    • the use of rewards in the attraction, motivation and retention of employees    • research question • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instrument       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results • ethical considerations    • potential benefits and hazards    • recruitment procedure    • informed consent    • data protection • trustworthiness    • reliability    • validity • discussion    • practical implications    • implications for future research    • limitations of the study    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors' contributions • references • footnote abstract top ↑ orientation: adapting traditional reward systems to focus on employee preferences has become a necessity as companies strive to attract, motivate and retain a skilled and high performing workforce.research purpose: the aim of the study was to identify certain categories of rewards that employees consider to be most important, including base pay, contingency pay, benefits, performance and career management, quality work environment, and work–home integration. the impact of these reward categories on an organisation’s ability to attract, motivate and retain employees was explored, together with the influence of demographic variables on reward preferences. motivation for the study: there is much debate over whether reward packages should be tailor-made to suit individual employees. it has been argued that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach with regard to rewards is no longer effective. research design, approach and method: a structured questionnaire, based on the total rewards model, was used to achieve the objectives of the study. a sample of 250 employees from 11 medium-sized to large-sized organisations participated in the study. main findings: the results showed that base pay is deemed to be the most preferred reward component amongst respondents; however, they are most dissatisfied with the level at which this reward is provided by their current employers. base pay is also the most important reward when attracting and retaining employees. differences between reward preferences and demographic variables, including age, gender and job level, were found. practical/managerial implications: organisations should design their reward systems according to the preferences of their employees by focusing on base pay and contingency or variable pay. these rewards will also serve to retain them; although, to motivate employees, non-cash awards and recognition should be emphasised. contribution/value-add: this study contributes to literature on reward preferences, which is lacking in a south african context. it also provides support for segmentation of rewards based on certain demographic variables. introduction top ↑ key focus of the study the rewards that employees receive should be important to them and address their needs. rewards refer to the compensation that an employee receives from an organisation in exchange for his or her services (jiang, xiao, qi & xiao, 2009). when companies structure their reward systems correctly, employees inherently perform well to achieve the organisation’s goals as well as their own (pfau & kay, 2002). milkovich, newman and gerhart (2011) also specified that rewards can play a significant role in influencing employees’ attitudes and perceptions of work. owing to the fact that rewards represent anything that is valuable and meaningful to the recipient, skilled and talented employees are less likely to be motivated by rewards that are not aligned with their preferences and values (chiang & birtch, 2007). in the past, the primary focus of reward systems was on compensating employees by financial means (e.g. through a basic salary), but with a rapidly changing workforce, a more holistic and integrated approach to reward management is now required (zingheim & schuster, 2001). during the past several years, the concept of total rewards has become a popular topic of discussion. according to heneman (2007), the shift from the phrase ‘compensation and benefits’ to ‘total rewards’ has resulted from the inability of many organisations to offer pay increases and added benefits because of intense competition in the marketplace. employers therefore have to find alternate, less costly forms of rewards that will still attract, retain and motivate employees (heneman, 2007). ‘total rewards’ thus describes a reward strategy that combines compensation, employee benefits, work–life balance, personal recognition and career development in the benefits package (armstrong & brown, 2001; costello, 2010; worldatwork, 2007). these elements represent an inventory from which organisations can design reward packages that create value for the organisation and its employees. a total rewards framework allows employers to consider employee preferences in accordance with individual needs and be more flexible when designing reward packages (bussin, 2011). it also enables organisations to identify the correct combination of rewards for its particular workforce (worldatwork & towers watson, 2012). this understanding of total rewards forms the key focus of this study. background in the past few years, companies have faced a difficult economic environment that has challenged traditional reward practices and strategies (deloitte development llp, 2009). having experienced the effects of a worldwide economic recession since 2008, human resource managers within south africa face increasing pressure to contribute more significantly towards the success of their organisations (grobler et al., 2011). remuneration accounts for over half the operating costs of most south african organisations, which points to the importance of maximising the return on these costs (sutherland, 2011), especially in trying economic times. yet, unfortunately, according to the africa competitiveness report 2011, south africa received a score of only 3.2 out of possible 7.0 within the sub-pillar of ‘pay and productivity’, coming 112th out of 139 participating countries (world economic forum, world bank & african development bank, 2011). this implies that pay is not strongly related to employee productivity in this country. in addition, growing concern regarding the retention of high performers has resulted in employers rethinking the way in which they reward their employees (deloitte consulting llp, 2008), particularly because of the shortage of skilled and executive employees in africa (sutherland, 2011). businesses in africa are struggling to find the skilled employees they require, with many skilled african graduates emigrating to developed countries (world economic forum et al., 2011). meyer and kirsten (2012) agreed with this, stating that there has been a steady loss of skilled and qualified individuals from south africa as a result of emigration, which poses a problem because of the need for skills to promote production in the country. furthermore, generation x and y employees now comprise a large part of the south african workforce, resulting in new strategies needing to be formulated to successfully retain and motivate these younger employees (grobler et al., 2011). in today’s turbulent working environment where competition is rife, companies are moreover under pressure to add value and demonstrate flexibility in dealing with new challenges and opportunities (armstrong & brown, 2001). south africa in particular is characterised by strong market competition (world economic forum et al., 2011), especially because globalisation has driven the need to be competitive (swanepoel, erasmus & schenk, 2008). demographic and sociological changes (vandenberghe, st-onge & robineau, 2008), as well as differences in employee preferences as a result of generational differences and life stages (giancola, 2008) and cultural influences (chiang & birtch, 2007), all present employers with major challenges when attracting, retaining and motivating employees. companies are now required to adopt innovative ways of management in order to differentiate themselves in the labour market (heneman, 2007), particularly with regard to how their reward systems are developed and managed. organisations have responded to these pressures by adopting more flexible structures such as total reward packages, which better position organisations to attract and retain high quality employees (bussin, 2011). research purpose employee rewards has thus become an important topic in today’s economy as companies strive to find a balance between reward components, as well as identify those components that provide for employees’ personal needs (costello, 2010). as competition in the workplace increases, employees are becoming more demanding when it comes to rewards, expecting organisations to make exceptions based on their individual preferences and needs (herman & gioia, 2000). peoples’ needs and preferences change over time (gross & friedman, 2004) and there are many factors that can affect employees’ reward preferences, including age, values, religion, marital status, number of dependents and culture (meyer & kirsten, 2012). rewards packages that fit well with such characteristics and preferences of employees can result in increased motivation and, ultimately, improved performance (lawton & chernyshenko, 2008). for example, flexible benefits and rewards packages allow employees to tailor their packages to suit their personal motivations, work and leisure interests, career stage and domestic circumstances (armstrong & brown, 2009). thus, it is useful to provide employees with flexibility in choice regarding the different reward categories available, allowing for the design of ‘different, employee-initiated reward profiles’ (nienaber & bussin, 2011, p. 2). this can also be referred to as the individualisation of rewards packages (corby, palmer & lindop, 2009), where choices are built into the reward system (swanepoel et al., 2008). however, nienaber and bussin (2011) explained that it is virtually impossible for large-sized and medium-sized companies to administer rewards based on the unique preferences of individuals, because of the difficulty such companies would experience in administering and governing thousands of unique reward profiles. one manageable way to address this issue is to design reward packages according to different employee groups or segments. this would entail clustering various types of rewards depending on the needs of certain employee segments. for example, according to mercer’s seventh global total rewards survey (mercer, 2008), different rewards are often offered for different employee groups specifically according to job level, job family, business unit, product line or lifecycle, as well as geographic location. further examples of ways by which to segment a workforce include categorising it by generation, age, gender, family size, occupation, educational level or religion (du toit, erasmus & strydom, 2007). segmentation is one of three key principles that, once applied to organisations’ reward and talent management models, will result in significant improvements to both talent return on investment and human capital risk management (worldatwork & towers watson, 2012). research objectives based on the above, the aim of this study is to identify categories of rewards that are preferred by south african employees within the corporate world, as well as how satisfied these employees are with these rewards as offered by their current employers. furthermore, this study will explore the influence of demographic variables on reward preferences, as well as the impact that reward categories have on an organisation’s ability to attract, motivate and retain employees. what will follow numerous means of segmenting employees with regard to reward preferences are examined in this paper, including the influence of demographic factors and generational differences. thereafter, a discussion on the use of rewards in attracting, retaining and motivating employees will be provided. literature review demographic influences on reward preferences research has shown that individuals’ reward preferences are influenced by their personal demographic characteristics. for example, nienaber, bussin and henn (2011) found that reward preferences differ according to a number of demographic factors, such as number of children, race, age, job level, educational qualifications, marital status, years of service, as well as gender. in terms of job level and type, lawton and chernyshenko (2008) found that full-time employees with dependants prefer family-supportive rewards, such as medical and life insurance, and that lower level employees feel that additional education and training would increase their chances for career advancement. employees in lower level jobs, such as administrative and junior management levels, have also been observed to hold significantly higher preferences for remuneration and benefits when compared to senior and executive management (nienaber et al., 2011). it is thus possible that job level be used to categorise a workforce so that employee groups can be more effectively rewarded (mercer, 2008).chiang and birtch (2006) stated that demographic variables such as gender affect reward preferences. nienaber et al.’s (2011) research showed that women have a stronger preference for remuneration and benefits as well as for a conducive working environment. additionally, konrad, ritchie, lieb and corrigall (2000) revealed that men place greater importance on career advancement and promotions as well as increased responsibility without the interference from managers. however, fisher and yuan (1998) found no gender differences in reward preferences such as wages, working conditions, interesting work and growth and promotion opportunities. similarly, chow and ngo (2002) established that a high salary and good working conditions are considered to be important by both male and female employees. in terms of age, it has been found that needs change as employees get older; for example, employees who are older value rewards such as flexible work arrangements and skill development rather than cash compensation (hedge, borman & lammlein, 2006). therefore, it can be suggested that a higher age is related to a preference for rewards that offer work flexibility and training and development opportunities. this is in contrast with research by cennamo and gardner (2008), who discovered that extrinsic rewards such as pay and benefits are valued more highly by older employees than younger employees. lawton and chernyshenko (2008) concluded that young employees with simpler jobs value training and development opportunities more than their older peers, a finding that is also contrary to that of hedge et al. (2006). nienaber et al. (2011) discovered that reward categories, such as remuneration and benefits, as well as a conducive working environment, are valued more by younger employees, reducing in need as employees age. younger employees also may prefer more tangible rewards, such as medical plans or maternity or paternity leave, whereas older employees may value stock options or retirement plan contributions (mehta, anderson & dubinsky, 2000). furthermore, fisher and yuan (1998) found that younger employees place more importance on promotion, growth in skills, as well as interesting work, whereas older employees value job security and sympathetic help with personal problems more than their younger peers. based on the above, it is suggested that if employers have an understanding of the demographic characteristics of employees, they will be able to design rewards packages such as personal benefit schemes that will create unique value for their employees and ultimately lead to a competitive advantage in the labour market (lawton & chernyshenko, 2008). generational influences on rewards a generation can be interpreted in terms of cohorts, life experiences or historical experiences. a cohort is a group of people who share a similar experience or characteristic within a specific time frame (dencker, joshi & martocchio, 2007). the generational school of thought argues that values have been influenced by the defining moments or major historical events that occur as individuals grow older (giancola, 2008). each group originates from a distinct and unique era and therefore has its own view on business issues. presently, four distinct generations of people are interacting in the workplace (murphy, 2007). generational experts typically place individuals into the following generations according to their birth date: veterans, the silent generation, traditionalists or the gi generation (1925–1942), baby boomers (1943–1960), generation x (1961–1981) and generation y or millennials (1982–present) (giancola, 2008). according to bussin (2011), each generation has a different view on rewards. the most valued rewards for veterans are flexible schedules, part-time hours and recognition of expertise and experience. baby boomers prefer recognition of hard work, healthcare and retirement benefits and autonomy. generation x values flexible work arrangements, work–life balance and rewards that are tangible. lastly, learning and development opportunities, immediate performance feedback, working in teams and having positive role models are important to generation y (hewlett, sherbin & sumberg, 2009; reynolds, 2005; zingheim & schuster, 2008). cennamo and gardner (2008) also discovered that generation y employees value work–life balance, freedom and flexibility in their jobs. despite the above research, jorgensen (2003) questioned whether there is enough empirical evidence to base workplace strategies and practices on the differing values, likes and dislikes of the generations. according to findings of research conducted by noble and schewe (2003), there was no empirical evidence to support the validity of generational segmentation in the workforce. in south africa, research conducted by moore (2009) and nienaber et al. (2011) revealed that different generations do not have different reward preferences. the implication therefore is that structuring reward packages around generational differences can lead to dissatisfaction amongst employees. however, smola and sutton (2002) argued that companies do need to examine their reward systems in relation to the needs and expectations of generational groups, because failure to address these differences can result in lower levels of employee productivity, conflict in the workplace and miscommunication. this is especially because employees in different generational groups expect the rewards they receive to meet their individual needs (dencker et al., 2007). yet, a survey conducted in 2008 to gain insight into how employers are handling the challenge of rewarding a multigenerational workforce revealed that 56% of organisations do not even consider generational differences when designing and implementing total reward programmes (worldatwork, 2008). this means that although there is an awareness of generational differences, organisations may be underestimating the importance of addressing the needs of each generation and rewarding them accordingly (worldatwork, 2008). culture and personality effects on reward preferences although not empirically investigated in this study, it is worth briefly noting the influence that culture and personality play on individuals’ preferences for certain rewards. multinational organisations can improve their competitive position by changing their compensation practices to match the cultural preferences of employees across countries (westerman, beekun, daly & vanka, 2009). research conducted by chiang and birtch (2005, 2006, 2007) revealed that culture does influence certain reward preferences and thus understanding how reward preferences differ across cultures is key to managing multinational reward systems. ensuring that compensation practices are in line with a country’s culture is important because it shows cultural awareness and sensitivity and results in increased financial performance (schuler & rogovsky, 1998). furthermore, in terms of personality, nienaber et al.’s (2011) south african study confirmed that individuals with certain personality types and preferences experience different reward preferences. vandenberghe et al. (2008) found that individuals who are open to experience are attracted to rewards such as flexible work schedules, variable pay, bonuses, relationships with co-workers and development and career opportunities, whilst roberts, chernyshenko, stark and goldberg (2005) proposed that conscientious individuals value family-orientated benefits, as they feel the duty to support their families and make sure they provide for their needs. the use of rewards in the attraction, motivation and retention of employees remuneration is a driver of retention, job satisfaction, as well as employee commitment in south africa (sutherland, 2011). the objectives of a south african compensation system should thus include attracting highly qualified employees, as well as motivating and retaining these employees through incentivising desired behaviour and rewarding good performance (grobler et al., 2011; meyer & kirsten, 2012). highlighting this finding, swanepoel et al. (2008) and armstrong, brown and reilly (2010) mentioned that remuneration impacts the attraction and retention of employees, whilst phillips and gully (2012) stated that competitive wages and benefits have, time and again, been listed as a means of attracting and retaining employees. according to grobler et al. (2011), job applicants compare different job offers and pay scales, putting more weight on the comparative salaries being offered to them as opposed to benefits and intrinsic rewards on offer because it is easier to compare monetary offers.in terms of retention, grobler et al. (2011) noted that inadequate compensation is often the cause of turnover. this is confirmed in the south african context by mohlala, goldman and goosen (2012), who found that monetary rewards were lacking in their organisation under study. this negatively affected retention, especially for those who had been employed there for longer periods of time. respondents confirmed that employees had left the organisation to move to where they had been offered better salaries. good benefits can also be used to increase retention, but phillips and gully (2012) mentioned that this will only affect retention positively if employees understand and appreciate the benefits provided. furthermore, these authors suggest that workplace flexibility, in the form of alternate job arrangements, could assist in retaining employees, because arrangements such as job sharing, flextime and telecommuting could help employees to better balance their work and home lives. recognition of performance is also stated by rose (2011) as helping to reduce employee turnover, as well as improve the engagement and motivation of employees. armstrong and brown (2009, p. 53) stated that strategic rewards can assist an organisation in establishing itself as a ‘great place to work’, which will result in attracting high-performing individuals to work there and thereafter remain working there. the ability of rewards to recruit and retain can thus be incorporated as evaluation criteria for assessing the effectiveness of rewards, such as by measuring rates of involuntary turnover and the retention of high performance or key skill staff (armstrong & cummins, 2011). rewards and recognition have also been shown to lead to engagement, which comprises motivation, commitment and organisational citizenship and, in turn, leads to improved performance (armstrong et al., 2010). motivation can be improved by rewarding good performance and offering incentives (grobler et al., 2011). these authors elaborate that organisations can make use of rewards such as promotions and merit increases, as well as intrinsic rewards such as goal accomplishment, to encourage continued high levels of performance from employees. research question the above review of research literature points towards the need for the present study. with the exception of nienaber et al.’s (2011) research, limited south african research exists that quantitatively explores the relationship between demographic variables and reward preferences. research in the south african context is also lacking in terms of how employees perceive different reward categories to affect their levels of attraction, motivation and retention. this must be investigated so that south african reward packages can be tailored accordingly.therefore, based on the above, the research question for this study is: ‘what preferences do south african employees hold in terms of rewards?’ research design top ↑ research approach this study used a quantitative research approach. primary data on the reward preferences of employees were obtained by using a structured questionnaire, based on nienaber et al.’s (2011) reward preferences questionnaire (rpq). the research was primarily descriptive in nature, as it aimed to understand and interpret the reward categories most preferred by employees, as well as which categories are most likely to attract, retain and motivate employees. research method research participants respondents consisted of employees from 10 medium-sized to large-sized port elizabeth-based companies and one johannesburg-based company. the researchers made contact with the human resource managers, owners or managers of these companies and requested that they forward the questionnaire to employees within their companies via electronic mail. no particular industry was focused on, as non-probability convenience and snowball sampling was relied upon to collect the data. convenience sampling was utilised because the researchers were in direct contact with the managers in the various firms and this was followed by snowball sampling when these managers passed the questionnaires on to further respondents. as stated by malhotra (2010), subsequent respondents are selected in this way, based on referrals. a total of 250 respondents were obtained for this study in this manner. as the researchers relied on the managers of the various companies to disseminate the questionnaires, they were unable to ascertain the exact number of questionnaires distributed. the response rate was, for this reason, difficult to estimate, although it could be estimated that the questionnaire reached over 4500 potential respondents based on the sizes of the companies. the biographical profile of the sample is summarised in table 1. it is evident from this table that there was a fairly equal distribution of genders and that the majority of respondents earned over r20 000.00 per month, were white, married, had over four people in their household, held a postgraduate qualification and had been working for their current employer for over 10 years. table 1: biological profile of the study sample. measuring instrument nienaber et al.’s (2011) rpq was used as a base from which to achieve the objectives of this study. according to these authors, the rpq was informed by the theory of the total rewards model and was originally tested on two pilot groups before being finalised. for the purposes and objectives of this study, the rpq was modified with permission from nienaber et al. although the rewards categories remained the same as in nienaber et al.’s questionnaire, the phrasing of the items was changed and the likert scale was altered from a seven-point scale to a five-point scale. the modified questionnaire had two distinct sections that clearly measured both reward preferences and respondents’ levels of satisfaction with their current rewards received, which differs from the original rpq. furthermore, whilst the original rpq asked respondents to indicate one of the six reward categories that had the greatest impact on them with regard to attraction, retention and motivation, the modified questionnaire allowed respondents to rate, on a five-point likert scale, the extent to which each of the six reward categories impacted on an organisation’s ability to attract, retain and motivate them. as a result of these modifications to the original rpq, the questionnaire was piloted with 15 randomly selected respondents in industry. after completing the pilot study, suggestions from the respondents were noted and the questionnaire was amended accordingly. based on the above insight into the development of the questionnaire, an explanation of the questionnaire’s two sections will now be provided. section a – demographics: section a contained demographic variables in order to determine their influence on reward preferences. the items included gender, age, racial group, marital status, level of education, number of members in the household, household income per month, job level, job category and years of service. the response format consisted of a range of options for each item and respondents were asked to select the box which best represented their own personal characteristics. section b – reward preferences: section b consisted of three sub-sections that collected responses with regard to different reward categories. section b1 aimed to determine the importance of the reward categories included in the total rewards mix model, as well as the levels of satisfaction that the respondents experienced with the rewards that they currently receive from their employers. this section was divided into six categories or dimensions of rewards, with a total of 42 items. examples of items in each category are: • base pay: ‘a market-related salary’. • contingency or variable pay: ‘merit increases linked to personal performance’. • benefits: ‘medical aid benefits through a medical aid scheme’. • performance and career management: ‘constructive feedback on my performance’. • quality work environment: ‘a good working relationship with my colleagues’. • work–home integration: ‘the ability to work flexible working hours’. a five-point likert scale was used to measure both reward preferences (importance) and satisfaction. the scale ranged from 1 = ‘not important at all’ to 5 = ‘extremely important’ for reward preferences and 1 = ‘very dissatisfied’ to 5 = ‘very satisfied’ for satisfaction. in section b2, respondents were requested to indicate which of the six reward categories listed above would have an impact on an organisation’s ability to attract, retain and motivate them. the aim of this sub-section was to understand the key elements in the total rewards model that would attract, retain and motivate talented and high performing employees. section b3 consisted of two open-ended, ranking questions. the first question asked the respondents to list two rewards in order of importance, excluding salary, which they would include in their total rewards package. the second question asked the respondents to list the two most important factors, such as lifestyle, economic situation or family, which would affect their reward choices. the aim of these questions was to enable the respondents to express their attitudes and opinions and to assist the researchers in interpreting the answers to the structured questions in the previous sub-sections. research procedure the questionnaire was distributed via electronic mail to companies in both port elizabeth and johannesburg. a covering letter accompanied the questionnaire, emphasising that participation was voluntary and that the respondents would remain anonymous. the human resource managers, owners or managers of these companies were asked to distribute the questionnaire electronically to their members of staff. data for this study were collected in two ways. originally, electronic questionnaires in microsoft word format were sent to respondents (format 1). however, when the response rate for these questionnaires proved low because respondents had to email the questionnaires back to the researchers, it was decided to develop an online version of the questionnaire using an online survey tool to assist in increasing the response rate (format 2). the advantages of using online questionnaires are that the response time is shorter and the data are collected into a central database, therefore saving time and resources associated with the data capturing process (ilieva, baron & healey, 2001). respondents were given 2 weeks to complete the questionnaire and either return it to the researchers via electronic email (format 1) or complete the questionnaire via the online survey tool (format 2). a total of 124 responses were received via electronic mail from the respondents (format 1) and a total of 126 responses were received from the online questionnaire (format 2), bringing the total number of respondents to 250. once the completed questionnaires were received in either of these formats, the responses were captured electronically in one central database and sent for statistical analysis. statistical analysis both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. descriptive statistics in the form of frequency tables were used to calculate the reward categories’ summated scores. in terms of inferential statistics, item analysis, analysis of variance (anova) and multivariate analysis of variance (manova) were used. item analysis was conducted in two ways. firstly, it was established whether the summated scores in the questionnaire had adequate internal consistency by calculating cronbach’s alpha coefficients. secondly, a series of factor analyses with principal component analysis were used as the factor extraction technique for each set of items corresponding to a particular summated score individually. this was conducted to determine the significance of the factor loadings. manova was used to determine biographical related variance to the importance of rewards. univariate anova was conducted to determine relationships between biographical variables that were found to be significantly related to the importance of rewards. cohen’s d statistic was then calculated where statistically significant differences were found, to determine practical significance. content analysis was also conducted for the last two open-ended questions in the questionnaire, in order to extract the themes from responses. results top ↑ item analysis determined the reliability of the summated scores for the six reward categories derived from the 42 items in section b1 of the questionnaire for the importance and satisfaction scores, as well as the six items in section b2 for the consolidated attract, retain and motivate scores. the first part of the item analysis consisted of establishing whether the summated scores demonstrated adequate internal consistency by calculating cronbach’s alpha coefficients, as previously explained. the values are reflected in tables 2.from table 2, it can be seen that the cronbach’s alpha coefficient scores were almost all greater than 0.60, the recommended minimum value for reliability (malhotra, 2010). one exception was the importance score for contingency pay, with a value of 0.52. however, with this exception, the observed cronbach’s alpha coefficients confirmed the reliability of the reward categories’ summated scores. table 2: internal consistency statistics for reward categories' summated scores. the second part of the item analysis consisted of a series of factor analyses, using principal component analysis as the factor extraction technique, for each set of items corresponding to a particular summated score individually.1 almost all factor loadings were greater than 0.350, the minimum value deemed statistically significant according to the guidelines of hair, black, babin, anderson and tatham (2006) for a sample of size n = 250. only three loadings less than the threshold value were observed: ‘a dedicated parking bay at work’ (0.308) for benefits importance, ‘total control over work methods without a manager’s interference’ (0.284) for performance and career management importance and ‘the ability to work flexible working hours’ (0.323) for work–home integration satisfaction. given the acceptable cronbach’s alpha coefficients recorded for all summated scores and the importance of not jeopardising content validity, the three items with loadings slightly less than the recommended minimum value were retained in calculating the summated scores. the extent to which each of the six reward categories had an impact on an organisation’s ability to attract, retain and motivate respondents is reflected in table 3, in which the reward categories are ranked in order of importance based on mean scores. it is seen from this table that base pay (monthly salary or remuneration) is the reward that most strongly attracts and retains employees, whereas performance recognition and career management is the reward that most strongly motivates employees. table 3: the impact of the reward categories on organisations' ability to attract, retain and motivate employees. descriptive statistics for the reward category summated scores are depicted in table 4. it is important to note that the mean scores are in the range 1–5, corresponding to the likert-scale used in the questionnaire but standardised so that higher (or lower) scores depict positive (or negative) perceptions. in table 4, the factors are categorised into groups based on the significance of mean score differences as determined by a series of one-sample t-tests at the alpha = 0.05 significance level (bonferroni adjusted) for statistical significance and cohen’s d statistics with a threshold value of 0.20 for practical significance. table 4: descriptive statistics for the reward category summated scores. five of the importance scores obtained mean values greater than the lower limit of the positive interval of the scale (3.4 – 5.0), with the value of 3.39 for work–home integration being only marginally below this level. the satisfaction mean values were all in the neutral interval (2.6 – 3.4), with the exception of quality work environment obtaining a mean score of 3.41, only slightly higher than the upper limit of the interval. all the reward categories obtained mean scores in the positive interval in terms of their ability to attract, retain and motivate. inspection of the groups based on the significance of between-factor mean score differences, revealed the following with regard to the ranking of reward categories as perceived by respondents: • importance: base pay is the most important reward factor, whilst contingency pay, performance and career management and quality work environment are the second most important, followed by benefits in third place and, finally, work–home integration. • satisfaction: respondents were most and second-most satisfied with quality work environment and benefits, respectively. grouped together in third place were performance and career management, work–home integration and base pay. the least satisfactory reward category was contingency pay. • attract, retain and motivate: there were no significant differences amongst the top four rewards, that is, base pay, performance and career management, contingency pay and work–home integration. benefits and quality work environment were single factor groups placed second and third. it is worth noting from these results that whilst base pay was deemed the most important reward category and also placed first with regard to its impact to attract, reward and motivate employees, it came second last in terms of respondents being satisfied with this reward. multivariate anova was conducted to determine which, if any, of the biographical variables are related to the importance of rewards construct. the biographical variables are listed in table 5, a summary of the results of the first manova iteration. it is evident that gender, age and job level have a statistically significant relationship with importance, because their p-values were lower than the significance value of 0.05. table 5: multivariate analysis of variance for the relationship between biographical variables and the importance of reward – iteration 1. the univariate anova results for these three biographical variables that were found to be significantly related to importance are reflected in table 6. statistically significant relationships can be seen between gender and base pay, quality work environment and work–home integration, between age and base pay, contingency pay and work–home integration and between job level and benefits. table 7 indicates the statistics for those factors related to biographical variables according to the significant results shown in table 6. a small practically significant difference can be seen when cohen’s d statistic falls in the interval of 0.20 < |d| < 0.50 and a moderate practically significant difference is found when cohen’s d statistic falls in the interval of 0.50 < |d| < 0.80. table 6: univariate analysis of variance results. table 7: statistics for factors related to biographical variables. the following observations can be made based on the results depicted in table 7:• gender: men perceive base pay, quality work environment and work–home integration as less important than women. • age: employees in the age group 18 – 29 years regard base pay and contingency pay as less important than older employees. the younger the employee is, the more important he or she deems work–home integration. • job level: the job levels ranked according to the perceived importance of benefits for the group are: administrative or clerical, followed by junior management, specialist or professional, general management and, finally, senior management. the differences amongst groups are significant, except for those between junior management, specialist or professional and general management. respondents were asked in the last two open-ended questions to list, in order of importance, the two most important rewards (excluding salary or base pay) that they would include in their total reward package and the two most important factors that would affect their reward choices. the results of the content analysis are depicted in tables 8 and 9, ranked in order of importance based on the number of first-placed responses. it is evident from table 8 that contingency pay, benefits and performance and career management are the top three rewards mentioned in terms of importance (similar to findings in table 4). family needs, lifestyle and financial security are the most important factors influencing the choice of rewards, according to table 9. table 8: importance of rewards in total reward package. table 9: importance of factors affecting employees' reward choices. ethical considerations top ↑ the researchers were not required to process this research through the ethical clearance committee of their university, because of the fact that the research was not of a sensitive nature; respondents were not part of a vulnerable group such as children, nor were the respondents students or staff of the university. potential benefits and hazards the measurement instrument utilised in this study posed no risk or danger to respondents. the data collected were stored securely, with only the researchers having access to it. benefits will arise from this study if organisations around south africa take note of the recommendations made by the researchers. recruitment procedure respondents were recruited for this research study via electronic mail, which included a description of the study. all respondents were aware that participation in this research study was voluntary and that they could withdraw from the research at any stage if they so wished. it was emphasised to respondents that all responses would be kept confidential. informed consent the researchers clearly outlined the purpose of the study to respondents. respondents provided their informed consent by means of completing the questionnaire, whether in formats 1 or 2, as explained previously. data protection all responses to the questionnaires were electronically captured and stored in a password-protected file that was only accessible to the researchers. trustworthiness top ↑ reliability internal consistency reliability assesses the reliability of a set of items when several items are summed to form a total score for a scale (malhotra, 2010). in this line, cronbach’s coefficient alpha was calculated in order to determine the internal consistency of the modified questionnaire, as discussed previously. validity construct validity was confirmed as a result of the initial rpq being developed out of theory pertaining to the total rewards model, which ensured that the items in the questionnaire were linked with literature pertaining to rewards. furthermore, content validation was attained by means of expert analysis of the content of the modified questionnaire. the questionnaire was analysed by a specialist in the field of statistics, as well as two rewards professionals who are nationally renowned in this field. all three individuals approved the modified questionnaire. discussion top ↑ this research aimed to identify employees’ rewards preferences, the degree of satisfaction experienced with their reward packages, as well as what elements of rewards will attract, retain and motivate employees. the results in table 4 indicate that base pay is considered to be the most important reward category amongst the respondents, whilst work–home integration the least important reward category. this finding is not surprising, as pay has been cited as the main reason why individuals work (price, 2011). research conducted by chiu, luk and tang (2002) also showed that base salary was listed as one of the five most popular reward components offered to employees, together with annual leave, paid sick leave, year-end bonuses and maternity leave. it is interesting to note though that when respondents were asked to list their two most important rewards that they would include in their total reward package excluding salary or base pay, contingency or variable pay and benefits were the most frequent responses (table 8) and contingency or variable pay was also listed as second-most important in table 4. based on large amounts of research on contingency or variable pay plans, lawler (2000) concluded that providing employees with such incentives increases the work behaviours that are rewarded. yet, more recently, armstrong and brown (2009) have stated that academic studies frequently demonstrate that contingent pay, or pay for performance, actually demotivates rather than motivates employees. this is because most employees are average performers as opposed to top performers, which results in the majority of employees feeling hard done by when they do not receive salary increases based on performance. the researchers note that this is one of the problems with extrinsic forms of motivation, which will be discussed in greater detail in the ‘practical implications’ section of this article. the results in table 4 also reveal that whilst base pay and contingency or variable pay were deemed to be important reward categories and were also placed first with regard to their impact on attracting, rewarding and motivating employees (in line with findings by worldatwork, scott, mcmullen & royal, 2012), respondents were the most dissatisfied with both of these categories. this suggests that organisations are not providing their employees with sufficient financial rewards to fund their needs outside of work, or to ensure that their chosen or desired lifestyles can be maintained. interestingly though, quality work environment was show to be the least important factor in attracting, retaining and motivating employees (table 3); yet, respondents were most satisfied with this element of their total reward package (table 4). this indicates that employers are not focusing their efforts on ensuring that employees are satisfied with those rewards that hold the greatest importance in attracting, motivating and retaining employees, such as base and contingency pay. table 3 showed that performance and career management was rated the most important reward in terms of motivating employees and rated the second-most important factor in retaining staff. this supports research conducted by worldatwork (2010) that showed that performance and development rewards were most important in motivating and retaining employees. therefore, although pay is one of the most important factors when it comes to attracting and retaining employees, organisations should not only use this element of rewards to attract, retain and motivate employees but rather non-financial elements as well (hill & tande, 2006). as stated by chen and hsieh (2006), high performing employees with valuable skills work for more than just money, looking for a job that can offer them an optimistic future, an opportunity for professional and personal growth, a positive working environment, as well as recognition. the study also aimed to determine whether certain demographic variables were related to the importance of rewards. table 5 indicates that gender, age and job level were found to be related to reward preferences, whereas marital status, education level and number of household members held no relationship with the importance of rewards. in terms of gender, the results in table 7 revealed that women prefer base pay, quality work environment and work–home integration more than men. the fact that women place more importance on pay and a conducive working environment is in line with south african findings by nienaber et al. (2011), yet is in contrast to chow and ngo’s (2002) study that showed that both male and female employees consider high salary and good working conditions to be important in their jobs. the finding that women place more importance on integrating their work and home lives is also in contrast to findings by paddey and rousseau (2011), who found no gender differences in south africa with regards to restructuring work to accommodate one’s home life such as family responsibilities. work–family conflict can have serious implications for organisations, such as poor performance, lower levels of commitment and loyalty and an increase in employee turnover rates (fu & shaffer, 2001; thornthwaite, 2004), no matter whether experienced by men or women. this was confirmed in the present study, with work–home integration being found to be a key factor in the attraction, retention and motivation of employees. additionally, in a 2009 job satisfaction survey, 46% of employees rated flexibility to balance life and work as very important (society for human resource management, 2009), regardless of gender. thus, organisations cannot downplay the importance of work–home integration both to male and female employees. job level was found in this study to influence employees’ preference for benefits, with administrative and junior management level employees exhibiting the highest preference for benefits. this finding correlates with nienaber et al.’s (2011) south african study, in which it was discovered that employees occupying lower level jobs, such as administrative and junior management levels, had significantly higher preferences for remuneration and benefits when compared to senior and executive management. the researchers suggest that this could be because employees first need to be satisfied with pay and benefits before intrinsic rewards such as career management or work–home integration can be effective in motivating individuals. this is in line with tang and west (1997), who stated that when people have enough money, they may then turn their attention to satisfying intrinsic needs such as recognition, achievement and career advancement. with regard to age, the study showed that respondents in the age group 18–29 years (generation y) place less importance on base pay and contingency or variable pay than older respondents. this is in contrast to nienaber et al. (2011), who found no significant differences in reward preferences amongst generations in south africa, with all generations stating that salary and benefits are important aspects of rewards. yet, cennamo and gardner (2008) found that older employees value extrinsic rewards, such as pay and benefits, more than younger employees, which is in line with the present study’s findings. they argued that this may be as a result of the career stage of employees; that is, older employees may be at a stage in their working career where they receive higher salaries and benefits, therefore placing more importance on these types of rewards. younger employees, on the other hand, place more emphasis on rewards such as work–home integration, as revealed in table 7. in support of this finding, cennamo and gardner (2008) discovered that employees who fall into the generation y category value freedom in their jobs, such as work–life balance, and prefer rewards that allow them to have a more flexible lifestyle. owing to the changing demographics of the workforce, companies are becoming more aware of the importance of these types of benefits, especially for the younger generation (milkovich et al., 2011). the present findings do not agree with giancola (2008) and cennamo and gardner’s (2008) statements that employees prefer to select their benefits according to their life stage (for example, retirement benefits being less important to employees in their twenties but becoming more important as they age), because no significant age differences were found for benefits. however, based on the other generational results discovered, this study does support certain generational reward differences. these results adequately answer the research question posed earlier, as they have demonstrated the preferences that south african employees hold in terms of rewards. practical implications base pay and contingency or variable pay have been found to be classified as extremely important by respondents, as well as rewards that influence the retention of employees. this finding is in line with rose (2011), who stated that individuals naturally indicate a preference for cash (in this case, base and contingency pay) over a non-cash award, such as work–home integration. yet, respondents in this study were most dissatisfied with these rewards; and many managers in south africa become reluctant to provide wage increases during periods of poor economic growth (meyer & kirsten, 2012), such as the after-effects of the recession presently being experienced. it can thus be recommended that employers place more emphasis on the design of their base and contingency pay, in order both to satisfy the financial needs of their employees and retain high performing employees. organisations can make use of wage surveys to determine the ‘going rate’ in the south african labour market (grobler et al., 2011) to achieve this.however, rose (2011) explained that non-cash awards, such as retail shop vouchers, magazine subscriptions or tickets to sporting events, should in fact be emphasised in the workplace for their motivational ability, instead of cash incentives. this is because the tangible effect of such a non-cash award will last longer than a cash award and such awards can be tailored to the interests and needs of employees, thus making them more personal. furthermore, contingent pay in the form of incentives often results in the majority of employees not receiving the incentive and thus being demotivated instead of motivated. recognition of achievement should thus be used as a motivator instead, provided it is differentiated from an employee’s base pay and the message conveyed is one of celebrating success. this will reinforce current effective performance as opposed to incentivising performance through a typical carrot-and-stick incentive plan (rose, 2011). as stated by this author, incentives extrinsically motivate employees, resulting in ‘the danger of destroying some intrinsic motivation by putting a price on it through cash’ (rose, 2011, p. 109). organisations need to bear this in mind when developing incentive and recognition programmes. the results of this study provide useful guidelines for organisations to structure their reward packages according to the needs and preferences of their employees based on factors such as gender and age, for example by emphasising work–home integration to women and younger employees, or providing flexible or ‘cafeteria’ styles of benefit arrangements to employees of differing job levels (see meyer & kirsten, 2012). this emphasises the fact that traditional forms of rewards are no longer solely applicable in today’s diverse workforce and employers need to understand that rewards now encompass the overall value that a company offers its employees. furthermore, family needs, lifestyle, financial security and career ambitions were all found to be important factors affecting the reward choices of employees. a rewards programme that does not take such examples of employees’ needs into account may decrease the motivation levels of employees (salie & schlechter, 2012). implications for future research literature provides limited research on reward preferences and segmentation of workforces in terms of rewards, other than flexible benefit packages. it is also sparse concerning research on the impact that demographic variables have on reward choices. the researchers thus recommend that future studies focus on the role that race, job level and income level play on reward preferences in south africa. south africa is a multicultural country with employees of varying socio-economic status, which makes it difficult for employers to cater for the different needs and lifestyle of its workforce. demographic variables that are of relevance to south africa, such as those mentioned, will provide a better indication of how reward packages should be developed and implemented in this country. additionally, research that focuses more specifically on reward preferences amongst generations, such as generation x and y differences, would be useful in today’s working environment where organisations are dealing with a workforce composed of four different generations. this is in line with giancola (2006), who specified that generational research is lacking in academic journals, which incorrectly indicate to experts that the concept lacks long-term value. this study did not investigate two other important influences on the attractiveness of elements in total rewards packages, namely cultural and personality influences, which were briefly discussed in the literature review. these aspects have been empirically measured in previous studies internationally but have been largely neglected within south african research. culture and personality thus indicate avenues for future research within a multicultural country such as south africa. limitations of the study as the researchers had to rely on managers in various companies to disseminate the questionnaires, they had little control over the composition of the sample or the industry to which the respondents belonged. they were also unable to compute an accurate response rate, as it was unable to be determined how many questionnaires were distributed. although the respondents were provided with written instructions, misunderstandings may also have taken place. categories of generations differ from culture to culture and nation to nation and the use of the existing cohort model may be inadequate for a south african analysis. further research is thus required into appropriate south african categories. additionally, the influences of culture and personality on reward preferences was introduced in the literature review, but were not investigated empirically in this study. finally, a range of variables were analysed in relation to reward preferences, but a more focused analysis of specific variables in relation to reward preferences is necessary in future research. conclusion creating a holistic reward strategy is a far greater challenge than in the past, where a company’s only concern was to offer a market-related salary (gross & friedman, 2004). today, a ‘one-size-fits all’ or ‘one-dimensional’ approach with regard to rewards is no longer effective (see chiang & birtch, 2005; giancola, 2008; mercer, 2008). organisations need to take information about their employees into consideration in order to develop effective reward strategies. providing employees with the opportunity to vary their remuneration package to meet their specific needs can have a motivational impact and positively influence the company’s competitive position in the labour market (marchington & wilkinson, 2005). similarly, an understanding of individual reward preferences is needed if companies are to build effective reward systems that will attract, retain and motivate a skilled and high performing workforce (lawler, 2000). organisations must begin to focus on allocating their budgets in ways that not only increase return on investment and provide high levels of value to employees, but that also drive the required behaviours in employees (worldatwork & towers watson, 2012). thus, organisations should develop a total rewards approach in which both pay and non-pay reward elements are brought together to engage staff, whilst simultaneously segmenting this total reward approach to take key employee differences into account (armstrong et al., 2010). acknowledgements top ↑ the researchers extend their heartfelt gratitude to those employees around south africa who put time and effort into questionnaire completion for this study. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions r.j.s. (nelson mandela metropolitan university) was the project leader for this research. d.v. (nelson mandela metropolitan university) was responsible for the data analysis and assisted with interpretation. m.r. (nelson mandela metropolitan university) took charge of editing the manuscript. references top ↑ armstrong, m., & brown, d. (2001). new dimensions in pay management. london: chartered institute of personnel and development. armstrong, m., & brown, d. (2009). strategic reward: implementing more effective reward management. london: kogan page. armstrong, m., brown, d., & reilly, p. (2010). evidence-based reward management: creating measurable business impact from your pay and reward practices. london: kogan page. armstrong, m., & cummins, a. (2011). the reward management toolkit: a step-by-step guide to designing and delivering pay and benefits. london: kogan page. bussin, m. (2011). the remuneration handbook for africa. randburg: knowres publishing. cennamo, l., & gardner, d. (2008). generational differences in work values, outcomes and personorganisation values fit. journal of managerial psychology, 23(8), 891–906. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940810904385 chen, h., & hsieh, y. (2006). key trends of the total reward system in the 21st century. compensation and benefits review, 38(6), 64–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0886368706292542 chiang, f.f.t., & birtch, t.a. (2005). a taxonomy of reward preference: examining country differences. journal of international management, 11(3), 357–375. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2005.06.004 chiang, f.f.t., & birtch, t.a. (2006). an empirical examination of reward preferences within and across national settings. management international review, 46(5), 573–596. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11575-006-0116-4 chiang, f.f.t., & birtch, t.a. (2007). the transferability of management practices: examining cross-national differences in reward preferences. human relations, 60(9), 1293–1330. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0018726707082849 chiu, r.k., luk, v.w., & tang, t.l. (2002). retaining and motivating employees: compensation preferences in hong kong and china. personnel review, 31(4), 402–431. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00483480210430346 chow, i.h.s., & ngo, h. (2002). gender differences in job attribute preferences and job choice of university students in china. the journal of applied business research, 18(2), 15–25. corby, s., palmer, s., & lindop, e. (2009). trends and tensions: an overview. in s. corby, s. palmer & e. lindop (eds.), rethinking reward, (pp. 3–20). new york: palgrave macmillan. costello, r. (2010). communicating total rewards: spotlight on the employee value proposition. aon consulting: ready e-newsletter, 2(7), 1–3. retrieved june 14, 2012, from http://www.aon.com/attachments/total_rewards_spotlight.pdf deloitte consulting llp. (2008). 2008 top five total rewards priorities survey. retrieved 11 may, 2009, from https://www.deloitte.com/assets/dcom-unitedstates/local%20assets/documents/us_consulting_hc_2008top5totalrewards_130508.pdf deloitte development llp. (2009). under pressure: compensation and retention during a turbulent economy. retrieved 11 may, 2009, from http://www.deloitte.com/assets/dcom-austria/local%20assets/documents/studien/hc/019_2009_under%20pressure.pdf dencker, j.c., joshi, a., & martocchio, j.j. (2007). employee benefits as context for intergenerational conflict. human resource management review, 17(2), 208–220. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2007.04.002 du toit, g.e., erasmus, b.j., & strydom, j.w. (2007). introduction to business management. (7th edn.). cape town: oxford university press. fisher, c.d., & yuan, x.y. (1998). what motivates employees? a comparison of us and chinese responses. the international journal of human resource management, 9(3), 516–528. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/095851998341053 fu, c.k., & shaffer, m.a. (2001). the tug of work and family: direct and indirect domain-specific determinants of work-family conflict. personnel review, 30(5), 502–522. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/eum0000000005936 giancola, f. (2006). the generation gap: more myth than reality. human resource planning, 29(4), 32–37. giancola, f. (2008). should generation profiles influence rewards strategy? employee relations law journal, 34(1), 56–68. grobler, p.a., wärnich, s., carrell, m.r., elbert, n.f., & hatfield, r.d. (2011). human resource management in south africa. (4th edn.). andover: cengage learning. gross, s.e., & friedman, h.m. (2004). creating an effective total reward strategy: holistic approach better supports business success. benefits quarterly, 20(3), 7–12. hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., anderson, r.e., & tatham, r.l. (2006). multivariate data analysis. (6th edn.). upper saddle river: prentice hall. hedge, j.w., borman, w.c., & lammlein, s.e. (2006). the aging workforce: realities, myths, and implications for organizations. washington, dc: american psychological association. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/11325-000 heneman, r.l. (2007). implementing total rewards strategies: a guide to successfully planning and implementing a total rewards system. retrieved august 14, 2012, from http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/benefits/documents/07rewardsstratreport.pdf herman, r.e., & gioia, j.l. (2000). how to become an employer of choice. winchester: oakhill press. hewlett, s.a., sherbin, l., & sumberg, k. (2009). how gen y and boomers will reshape your agenda. harvard business review, 87(7/8), 71–76. hill, b., & tande, c. (2006). total rewards: the employment value proposition. workspan, 10(6), 19–22. retrieved june 11, 2010, from http://www.tandehill.com/pdfs/total-rewards.pdf ilieva, j., baron, s., & healey, n.m. (2001). on-line surveys in international marketing research: pros and cons. retrieved june 09, 2010, from http://www.e-space.mmu.ac.uk/e-space/bitstream/2173/1640/1/ilieva%2520wp01_10.pdf jiang, z., xiao, q., qi, h., & xiao, l. (2009). total reward strategy: a human resources management strategy going with the trend of the times. international journal of business and management, 4(11), 177–183. jorgensen, b. (2003). baby boomers, generation x and generation y? policy implications for defence forces in the modern era. foresight, 5(4), 41–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14636680310494753 konrad, a.m., ritchie, j.e., lieb, p., & corrigall, e. (2000). sex differences and similarities in job attribute preferences: a meta-analysis. psychological bulletin, 126(4), 593–641. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.126.4.593 lawler, e.e. (2000). rewarding excellence: pay strategies for the new economy. san francisco: jossey-bass. lawton, k.e., & chernyshenko, o.s. (2008). examining determinants of employee benefit preference: joint effects of personality, work values, and demographics. asia pacific journal of human resources, 46(2), 220–240. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1038411108091759 malhotra, n.k. (2010). marketing research: an applied orientation. (6th edn.). upper saddle river: pearson. marchington, m., & wilkinson, a. (2005). human resource management at work: people management and development. (3rd edn.). london: chartered institute of personnel and development. mehta, r., anderson, r.e., & dubinsky, a.j. (2000). the perceived importance of sales managers’ rewards: a career stage perspective. journal of business and industrial marketing, 15(7), 507–524. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/08858620010351779 mercer (2008). mercer snapshot survey: total rewards – us report. retrieved august 12, 2012, from http://www.imercer.com/uploads/us/pdfs/mercer_us_total_rewards_survey_%20sept2008.pdf meyer, m., & kirsten, m. (2012). introduction to human resource management. pretoria: van schaik. milkovich, g.t., newman, j.m., & gerhart, b. (2011). compensation. (10th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. mohlala, j., goldman, g.a., & goosen, x. (2012). employee retention within the information technology division of a south african bank. sa journal of human resource management, 10(2), 1–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.438 moore, a. (2009). reward preferences for generations in selected ict companies. unpublished master’s thesis, university of johannesburg, south africa. murphy, s.a. (2007). leading a multigenerational workforce. retrieved august 12, 2012, from http://assets.aarp.org/www.aarp.org_/cs/misc/leading_a_multigenerational_workforce.pdf nienaber, r., & bussin, m. (2011). remuneration policy and strategy. in m. bussin (ed.), the remuneration handbook for africa: a practical and informative handbook for managing reward and recognition in africa, (pp. 1–18). randburg: knowres publishing. nienaber, r., bussin, m.h.r., & henn, c. (2011). the relationship between personality types and reward preferences. acta commercii, 11(2), 56–79. noble, s.m., & schewe, c.d. (2003). cohort segmentation: an exploration of its validity. journal of business research, 56(12), 979–987. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0148-2963(02)00268-0 paddey, m., & rousseau, g.g. (2011). the effects of the global recession on the work restructuring levels of managers in the south african automotive industry. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 14(3), 346–360. pfau, b.n., & kay, i.t. (2002). the five key elements of a total rewards and accountability orientation. benefits quarterly, 18(3), 7–15. phillips, j.m., & gully, s.m. (2012). strategic staffing. (2nd edn.). upper saddle river: pearson. price, a. (2011). human resource management. (4th edn.). andover: cengage learning. reynolds, la. (2005). communicating total rewards to the generations. benefits quarterly, 21(2), 13–17. roberts, b.w., chernyshenko, o.s., stark, s., & goldberg, l.r. (2005). the structure of conscientiousness: an empirical investigation based on several major personality questionnaires. personnel psychology, 58(1), 103–139. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2005.00301.x rose, m. (2011). a guide to non-cash reward. london: kogan page. salie, s., & schlechter, a. (2012). a formative evaluation of a staff reward and recognition programme. sa journal of human resource management, 10(3), 1–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i3.422 schuler, r.s., & rogovsky, n. (1998). understanding compensation practice variations across firms: the impact of national culture. journal of international business studies, 29(1), 159–177. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490030 smola, k.w., & sutton, c.d. (2002). generational differences: revisiting generational work values for the new millennium. journal of organizational behavior, 23(4), 363–382. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.147 society for human resource management. (2009). 2009 employee job satisfaction: understanding the factors that make work gratifying. retrieved june 18, 2012, from http://www.shrm.org/research/surveyfindings/articles/documents/09-0282_emp_job_sat_survey_final.pdf sutherland, m. (2011). foreword. in m. bussin (ed.), the remuneration handbook for africa. randburg: knowres publishing. swanepoel, b.j., erasmus, b.j., & schenk, h.w. (2008). south african human resource management: theory and practice. (4th edn.). cape town: juta. tang, t.l., & west, w.b. (1997). the importance of human needs during peacetime, retrospective peacetime, and the persian gulf war. international journal of stress management, 4(1), 47–62. thornthwaite, l. (2004). working time and work–family balance: a review of employees’ preferences. asia pacific journal of human resources, 42(2), 166–184. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1038411104045360 vandenberghe, c, st-onge, s., & robineau, e. (2008). an analysis of the relation between personality and the attractiveness of total rewards components. industrial relations, 63(3), 425–453. westerman, j.w., beekun, r.i., daly, j., & vanka, s. (2009). personality and national culture: predictors of compensation strategy preferences in the united states of america and india. management research news, 32(8), 767–781. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01409170910977988 worldatwork. (2007). worldatwork total rewards model: a framework for strategies to attract, motivate and retain employees. retrieved june 18, 2012, from http://www.worldatwork.org/pub/total_rewards_brochure.pdf worldatwork. (2008). rewarding a multigenerational workforce. retrieved june 18, 2012, from http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/adimlink?id=28411 worldatwork. (2010). the relative influence of total rewards elements on attraction, motivation and retention. retrieved june 18, 2012, from http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/adimlink?id=37008 worldatwork, scott, d., mcmullen, t., & royal, m. (2012). retention of key talent and the role of rewards. retrieved august 15, 2012, from http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/adimlink?id=62016 worldatwork, & towers watson. (2012). the talent management and rewards imperative for 2012: leading through uncertain times. retrieved august 12, 2012, from http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/adimlink?id=56563 world economic forum, world bank, & african development bank. (2011). the africa competitiveness report 2011. retrieved january 18, 2013, from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/wef_gcr_africa_report_2011.pdf zingheim, p.k., & schuster, j.r. (2001). winning the talent game: total rewards and the better workforce deal! compensation and benefits management, 17(3), 33–39. zingheim, p.k., & schuster, j.r. (2008). managing total compensation to achieve multiple objectives. mworld, 7(1), 37–40. footnote top ↑ 1. the table depicting the results of the factor analyses was not included in this article because of its large size. it is however available from the authors upon request. 7kotze.qxd the ‘war for talent’ is an international phenomenon (hay, 2001). the demand for and retention of talent are therefore not challenges unique to south african employers. in south africa, however, these challenges are aggravated by three additional factors, namely 1) the emigration of skilled people that has and still is taking place at an alarming rate (frost, 2002); (2) the relative scarcity of specialist and managerial employees due to an oversupply of unskilled labour and an under-supply of skilled labour (frost, 2002); and (3), a national drive to address employment equity, which is fuelling the war for talent among people from designated groups. employers are left with two options to succeed in the south african war for talent: option 1 is to become and remain an employer of choice – thus becoming a “talent magnet” that is able to attract and retain people with the required profile (johnson, 2002); and option 2 is to develop, retain and efficiently utilise the employer’s existing talent pool. as far as retention is concerned, the employer has to explore and then manage the factors or attributes that influence such skilled or talented employees to either “stay” or “leave” (dibble, 1999). this study focuses on the second option, and more specifically on retention. aims of the study the primary objective of the study is to investigate the major factors that affect the retention of specialist and managerial staff in two south african banks. the secondary objective is to investigate whether differences exist between (a) the previously disadvantaged individuals and nonpreviously disadvantaged individuals, (b) males and females, (c) age groups and (d) service tenure groups in respect of factors contributing to staff turnover. national and international trends in staff turnover and retention the p-e corporate service’s international biannual survey of more than 800 companies employing 1,5 million people shows that national staff turnover averaged 13% over the past four years, compared with 10% in 1998 (westcott, 2003). the survey also reported that the main reason for leaving an employer was the prospect of better pay and better working conditions. among skilled staff, 23% of those who resigned did so for better pay, 5 percentage points more than in 2001. this accounted for about 19% of staff resigning at lower levels – about 6 percentage points lower than in 2001. the turnover was at its highest among skilled clerical, secretarial, financial and administrative staff, reaching 20%. the figure for management and specialist staff was about 15%, with 10% for senior management. the shifts in retention and turnover experienced in the south african labour market are also experienced internationally. according to hay (2002), holding onto jobs was a priority in the late 1980s and early 1990s as employees were laid off in their droves. this has since all changed. employee turnover has increased by 25% in the last five years. hay (2002) strengthens this point by referring to an international survey spanning over 50 countries and 330 companies, where one-third of employees plan to resign from their jobs within the next two years. it is clear from the above that retention is becoming an increasing challenge, locally and internationally. in the markinor south african employee relationship survey (markinor, 2003) employees were asked to rate factors that they presume affect commitment. in descending order of influence, the factors influencing commitment to the organisation included fairness at work, the reputation of the company, concern for employees, trust in employees, day-to-day satisfaction, job definition, a sense of achievement, work resources, communication, appreciation of ideas and union attitude. retention of staff is an issue of importance taylor (2002) quotes from the towers perrin survey among hr professionals in the uk where 75% of the respondents believe that retention is their number one people-related issue. ninetytwo percent of respondents were of the opinion that retention is increasing in importance. taylor (2002) supports this statement by mentioning us workers who typically hold 5,6 different fulltime jobs between the ages of 18 to 24. compounding the problem is the continued erosion of employee loyalty. according to taylor (2002), the generation x employees (those born between 1961 and 1981) have different values than the previous generation source. they believe that security is tied koos kotzé gert roodt jck@dotmail.co.za leadership in performance and change programme department of human resources management university of johannesburg abstract a study about the factors affecting the retention of managerial and specialist staff was conducted amongst the 120 highest paid employees of two banks. the response rate was 86%. the study investigated the veldsman employee commitment model. the study also explored whether retention factor differences exist amongst biographical groupings. various differences were identified between previously disadvantaged individuals (pdis) and non-pdis, male and female, service tenure groups and age groups. opsomming ‘n studie is gedoen insake die faktore wat retensie van bestuuren spesialispersoneel affekteer. dit is gedoen onder die 120 hoogste betaalde bestuursen spesialispersoneel van twee banke. 86% van die steekproef het reageer. die studie het veldsman se “employee commitment” model ondersoek. verdere ondersoek is gedoen om te bepaal of retensiefaktore beduidend verskil tussen biografiese groeperinge. beduidende verskille is geïdentifiseer tussen voormalige benadeelde individue (vbie) en nie-vbie, mans en vroue, diensjare groepe en ouderdomsgroepe. factors that affect the retention of managerial and specialist staff: an exploratory study of an employee commitment model requests for copies should be addressed to: g roodt, gertr@uj.ac.za 48 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (2), 48-55 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (2), 48-55 more to career than to a company. jobs are therefore seen as stepping-stones to the next opportunity. this attitude can also be seen as a reaction to a loss in company loyalty. retention and staff turnover are issues of importance because they impact on an organisation in several ways. the research of ahlrichs (2000) highlights the very high and often underestimated costs of turnover of key staff for employers (also compare roodt & bothma, 1997). the visible turnover costs are items such as leave capitalization, recruitment costs, reference checks, security clearance, temporary worker costs, relocation costs, formal training costs and induction expenses. invisible costs include increased hr and payroll administration, loss of productivity, transition meetings and informal training. hidden costs such as missed deadlines, loss of organisational knowledge, lower morale due to overwork, clients’ impact and chain reaction turnover. another turnover impact for the organisation is the fact that long-tenured employees develop personal relations with customers. these relations are the foundation for a reenforcing cycle of positive interactions between employees and customers. staff retention therefore has a positive effect on good customer relations and ultimately profitability (roland, rust, stewart & pielack, 1996). demotivated remaining staff is another outcome of staff turnover. losing good employees is also costly in terms of the impact it has on company morale. those that remain may often feel demotivated or disheartened, resulting in a drop in productivity and job satisfaction. if staff members witness the new job opportunities being snapped up by their colleagues, they could also follow suit. these latter expenses, although more difficult to quantif y, are also costly (hay, 2001). although there may be other factors that affect retention, the factors as indicated by the veldsman model will be investigated for the purposes of this study. a model to illustrate the antecedents of retention veldsman (2003) proposed a model to explain the relationship of various factors that affect the propensity of an employee to stay or leave an organisation. this model is given in figure 1. figure 1: veldman’s employee commitment model according to figure 1 an individual in the first instance has certain views regarding his/her organisation as an employer of choice (eoc) which affects his/her decision to join and stay with the company. the propensity to stay or to leave is further affected by organisational climate and culture, job satisfaction, and employee well-being. organisational climate and culture reflects how the individual engages with the macro work setting. job satisfaction indicates the micro (or immediate) work setting engagement of the employee. employee wellbeing is situated between organisational climate and job satisfaction. this positioning indicates the positive and/or negative responses of the employee to his/her total work setting, i.e. the macro and micro work settings, which is reflective of his/her internal experiences of his/her work engagement. the propensity to stay or leave according to the veldsman model in figure 1 is moderated by the individual's mobility (the ability to pursue and find alternative employment) and the prevailing market conditions facing the individual (such as a favourable or unfavourable supply/demand for labour or the prevailing economic climate). figure 2 describes the influence of mobility and market or industry conditions on the propensity to leave or stay (veldsman, 2003). figure 2: effect of mobility and market conditions on the propensity to stay or leave factors that affect the retention of employees the factors that affect retention of employees have to be managed – and must therefore be identified. such factors are clustered into three categories as described in the veldsman model: factors pertaining to organisational climate and culture; factors pertaining to job satisfaction and factors pertaining to employee well-being. factors pertaining to organisational climate organisational climate is defined as an enduring characteristic of an organisation which embodies the members’ collective perceptions about their organisation with respect to dimensions such as trust, cohesiveness, support, recognition, innovation and fairness. it also reflects the prevalent norms, values and attitudes and the organisation’s culture (moran & volkwein, 1992, p. 20). the following studies have linked retention to organisational climate: � employees are more likely to leave if they perceive a lack of clear direction on the part of management. an international survey spanning 50 countries and 330 companies revealed that 74% of dissatisfied employees feel that their company has no clear sense of direction, compared to 43% of satisfied employees. it would appear that companies are less adept at marketing themselves to their employees than they are at selling the company to other stakeholders (hay, 2002). � level of control over work environment: lok and crawford (1999) found a significant positive correlation between commitment and the level of control over the work environment. control in this context refers to the employee’s freedom or ability to influence or manipulate the work environment. � lok and crawford (1999) also found a significant positive correlation bet ween commitment and innovative and supportive subcultures. in this context, an organisational subculture refers to the culture in a section, team or department, which is often different to the greater organisational culture. in the same study, a negative correlation was found bet ween commitment and a bureaucratic subculture. the markinor (2003) study also pointed out that commitment levels to a team or department are stronger than to the company, strengthening the argument that “employees quit a boss, not a company”. � employees’ reaction to “the war-for-talent mindset”: demby (2002) reported that many top-performing companies are obsessed with talent and are endlessly recruiting and dismissing as many top performers as they can. many companies believe that bringing in people from outside the company is necessary for high performance. an unintended factors that affect the retention of managerial and specialist staff 49 negative consequence of this mindset was that newly recruited people, supposedly with the sought-after talent, were viewed as being superior to existing staff in the company. as a result, the “institutional type of employee” (the loyal career type who wants to stay in the company) started to believe that the only way to get ahead was to leave to move from company to company. in this sense, “being loyal” became negative. factors pertaining to job satisfaction job satisfaction is a result of employees’ perceptions of how well their jobs provide in those qualities that they perceive as important (luthans, 1998, p. 44). a strong correlation, and in fact a causal relationship between job satisfaction, employee commitment and retention, has been established in several studies to date, as reported by roland et al (1996). the following specific factors pertain to job satisfaction and its relationship to retention: � udo and tor-guimaraes (1997) found that significant indirect influences on the intention to stay were job satisfaction, job involvement, task characteristics and role stressors. � the second-highest factor contributing to high turnover according to hay’s international study (2002) is that employees are “unhappy with their boss”. in fact, 74% of those who planned to stay were happy with their managers, compared to 41% of those planning to leave. � in a landmark study by the gallup organisation that includes interviews with 1 million employees and 80 000 managers, it emerged that people leave managers, not companies. this suggests that if a turnover problem exists, first look at the organisation’s managers (taylor, 2002). � leadership and managerial strateg y: the link bet ween leadership and commitment is evident in the work of brewer (1993). here, employees’ commitment was examined in relation to the level of consent to, and conflict with, managerial strateg y. in brewer’s model of commitment, although managerial strateg y is not the same as leadership, the at tributes and skills required in leadership could be seen as an essential part of managerial strateg y. in the research of lok and crawford (1999), a consideration leadership st yle was found to have a greater influence on commitment and job satisfaction than a taskorientated leadership st yle. � satisfaction of higher-order needs: the study of lok and crawford (1999) confirmed the strong positive correlation between commitment and higher-order needs, or intrinsic factors as per mazlow’s hierarchy of needs theory and herzberg’s theory of motivation. examples of higher-order needs as per lok and crawford’s study (1999) referred to the level of control over the working environment, the amount of interaction, acceptance by co-workers, the level of professionalism, praise received from colleagues and leader as well as feedback. � asymmetric information: sigler (1999) stated that insufficient information on and communication about the employee’s performance may complicate the employer’s endeavour to retain productive employees. without adequate information, an employer may not be able to distinguish between productive and non-productive employees. employees often take credit for successes and deflect failures to other employees. also, poor communication can lead to a situation where the manager does not know what information to ask the employee and the employee does not know what to provide. therefore, productive workers cannot distinguish themselves from non-productive workers and are not rewarded accordingly. factors pertaining to employee well-being warr (1990) described affective well-being as the emotional state of employees within their total work setting as being either predominantly negative or positive on 3 principal axes: (a) anxious – contented, (b) enthusiastic – depressed and (c) pleased – displeased. having established the relationship bet ween employee satisfaction and retention in the previous section, it is important to note that roland et al (1996) found that employee satisfaction is largely driven by satisfaction with managerial processes related to employee well-being. these processes include supervision, benefits, work design and work environment. the following specific factors pertain to employee well-being and its relationship to retention: � skills and talent development: this proved to be the most significant retention factor in an international study, as reported by hay (2002). another significant factor that emerged from this study is managers who fail to take an interest in staff’s career development. both these factors were found to have a profound effect on the emotional well-being of employees in their work situation. closely associated with skills and talent development is the opportunity to learn new skills. according to hay’s international study (hay, 2002) only 38% of those planning to leave were satisfied with the current opportunities to learn new skills. the markinor south african employee relations survey (markinor, 2003) also pointed out that development of a long-term career is a major driver of employee loyalty. therefore, many employees feel trapped in a narrow job function with little scope for development. this trapped feeling was also found to have a profound effect on the emotional well-being of employees. � advancement opportunities: hay’s study (2002) also revealed that only 22% of employees planning to leave were satisfied with advancement opportunities. this dissatisfaction was found to be an important factor in the emotional wellbeing of staff. � the p-e corporate survey in which 800 south african companies participated, reported that the main reason for leaving an employer was the prospect of better pay and better working conditions. amongst skilled staff, 23% of those who quit left for better pay. this accounted for about 19% of staff resigning at lower levels (westcott, 2003). � according to a study by walker information spanning 31 countries, what employees want (i.e. the top drivers for employee loyalty) is fair treatment, care/concern and trust, and better communication. the south african leg of this survey revealed the same result (markinor, 2003). yet, as reported by taylor (2002), a retention study by the society of human resource management shows that what employers give employees instead, are better benefits and more competitive compensation i.e. commodities. this is according to taylor (2002) a problem of alignment – not giving what employees want. in the previous sections, the link between propensity to stay or leave on the one hand, and organisation climate/culture, job satisfaction and employee well-being on the other hand, was illustrated. the link between employee commitment and his/her propensity to stay or leave in this section the link between employee commitment and their propensity to stay or leave will be addressed. durkin and bennett (1999, p. 124) defined employee commitment as a mindset that ties the individual to the organisation. the authors distinguished between three levels of employee commitment: (1) internalised commitment: the employee adopts specific behaviours and attitudes because their contents are congruent with the individual’s value system; (2) identification commitment: the employee adopts attitudes and behaviour in order to gain association with a valuable third party and (3) compliance commitment: the employee adopts specific patterns of behaviour and attitudes in return for specific rewards. employee commitment and employees’ propensity to stay or leave have been found to be negatively related to labour kotze, roodt50 turnover in the studies of cotton and tuttle (1986) and clegg (1983). udo and tor-guimaraes (1997) found significant correlations between organisational commitment and intention to stay (correlation of 0,33) amongst 216 plant managers. the correlation bet ween job satisfaction and organisational commitment also proved to be strong (0,46). durkin and bennett (1999) reported studies where significant negative correlations were found bet ween internalised commitment and turnover, as well as a positive correlation with longer tenure intentions. however, an interesting dynamic was found in the research of durkin and bennett (1999). they found a low intent to leave was related to high levels of identification commitment, and low levels of internalized commitment. the low level of internalized commitment was the result of significant changes in the case organisation. the employees did not accept these changes well. however, staff members’ high level of identification commitment more than compensated for the potential increase in a propensity to leave. identification commitment therefore seems to be a powerful retention factor, which supports the rationale of employers to strive to become an “employer of choice”. linking employer-of-choice status with the employees’ propensity to stay or leave ahlrichs (2000, p. 37) described an employer of choice (eoc) as a company that, because of its status and reputation, is always the first choice (or at least on the shortlist) of high qualit y candidates. these companies outperform their competition in attracting and retaining talented people. in the veldsman model, the eoc stat us of an organisation would attract or distract the employee to join the company. eoc companies score high in the following dimensions according to ahlrichs (2000): comparative high compensation contingent on performance; sensitivity to work, health and family needs; good growth opportunities; job security; high level of pride in work and company (this could be linked to identification commitment); openness, good communication; fairness; reduced status distinctions and barriers; camaraderie and friendliness; selective hiring of new personnel – ensuring that talented, dedicated staff members with good interpersonal skills are hired. the research of herman and goya (2000) added to this list by finding that an eoc provides career growth, opportunities, a challenging work environment and meaningful work, involvement and the opportunity to make a difference all of these being more important than money. all of the eoc characteristics have been dealt with in the previous sections and have been linked to the propensity of employees to stay or leave. research design research approach the research approach followed in this study was a quantitative, non-random field survey. the data analysis conducted was correlational and ex post facto in nature using the primary data generated by the survey. the survey was conducted over a period of two months during 2003. research methodology the research methodology followed in this study will be discussed under the following four headings: research participants the 60 highest remunerated staff in each of two south african commercial banks were selected to participate in the study. these 120 individuals represented their managerial and specialist staff, being their core talent. the 60 selected staff members of bank a represented 9% of the bank’s 660 permanent staff members, whereas the 60 selected staff of bank b represented 7,3% of the bank’s 820 staff members. of the 120 selected staff members, 104 (86,6%) responded. table 1 displays a breakdown of the respondents in terms of gender, age, years of service and previously disadvantaged individual (pdi) status: table 1 biographical analysis of respondents variable n % gender male 47 45,27 female 55 52,9 no response 2 1,9 total 104 100 age 18-30 36 34,6 31-40 44 42,3 41+ 20 19,2 no response 4 3,8 total 104 100 years of service 1-3 years 46 44,1 4-9 years 36 34,6 10+ 13 12,5 no response 9 8,7 total 104 100 pdi status previously disadvantaged 33 31,3 white male and female 69 66,3 no response 2 1,9 total 104 100 from table 1 it is clear that males and females are about equally represented in the sample; the majority of respondents are younger than 40 years, are less than 10 years in the employment of their organisations; and about one third are from previously disadvantaged groups. measuring instrument veldsman (2003) assisted by geldenhuys developed the questionnaire used in this research. veldsman granted permission for its use in this study. the veldsman employee commitment questionnaire (vec questionnaire) has 107 statements in six sections, based on the six theoretical dimensions of the model described in a previous section. the sections/theoretical dimensions of the questionnaire are described in table 2: a separate section deals with biographical information, such as race, years of service, age and gender. the respondent agrees or disagrees with 107 statements, using a 5-point likert scale. on the likert scale, 1 represents a very negative response to the statement, being “strongly disagree” or “not at all”, whilst 5 represents a very positive response, being “strongly agree” or “constantly”. research procedure senior management’s approval at both banks was obtained prior to the study. the questionnaires were distributed by the researcher to the participants. clear instructions were provided. the purpose factors that affect the retention of managerial and specialist staff 51 of the study and the benefits for both the participants and the two banks involved, were explained. participants were also given the model and theory on which the questionnaire is based. to ensure confidentiality and enhance reliability, the study was conducted anonymously. the participants placed the completed questionnaires anonymously in sealed boxes at central collection points. strict control was maintained over the completed questionnaires. the author administered all the questionnaires to ensure consistency in the process. table 2 structure of the veldsman employee commitment questionnaire section description of the dimension section a organisational climate a1: mission & goals management’s efforts and success to have clear and well communicated goals, what the organisation is about and where it is going. the respondent’s agreement with such goals a2: communication sufficient information flow throughout the bank a3: planning management’s efforts and success in the planning work, inter-departmental planning and job clarity as a result of planning a4: coordination & an organised and coordinated work environment. control management in touch with ground level activities a5: decision making decision making involvement and awareness of the rationale of decisions in their companies a6: organisational work gets done in organised and structured way. jobs clarity are clearly defined and logically structured a7: performance the existenceand fairness perceptions of standards performance standards, as well as perceived recognition on performance a8: organisational supports that staff would get from seniors when support making mistakes and management’s respect for staff’s efforts a9: team work efficient team functioning a10: change the efficient management of change in the bank a11: diversity the effective management of diversity, valuing diversity and equality issues section b job satisfaction b1: overall overall satisfaction with bank, job, the impact that satisfaction job has on life and family b2: skills & abilities sufficient skills to do the job, sufficient training and learning opportunities b3: leadership leadership strength/competence in bank and relationship with leaders b4: relationships relationship with colleagues/trust amongst colleagues b5: remuneration market related remuneration and fair remuneration practices b6: performance efficient and fair feedback on performance from evaluation manager section c employer of choice section d propensity to stay/leave d1: why i came to reasons why the respondent came to work for work here the bank d2: why i continue reasons why the respondent will continue working to work here at the bank section e employee well-being: negative and positive emotions/feelings experienced lately section f organisational commitment: care for the company’s future, feeling secure, would like to stay with company statistical analyses the collation of the data, the analyses thereof and the generation of results were conducted by the statistical consultation service of the university of johannesburg. the analyses of the data were conducted in three broad phases. the first phase focused on descriptive statistics, factor analyses on two levels and determining the reliability of the theoretical dimensions in the questionnaire using iterative item analyses. on the first level, items were parcelled according to theoretical dimensions and then intercorrelated. on the second level, sub-scores were calculated on the theoretical dimensions and then intercorrelated. due to the small number of respondents, schepers’s method for reliability analysis was applied (schepers, 1993). the second phase focused on correlation and regression statistics. regression analyses were conducted to establish causes of variance amongst the different theoretical constructs of the veldsman employee commitment model. in the final phase, anova tests, t-tests were conducted and finally eta square coefficients were provided to determine whether differences of practical significance exist between the major biographical groupings. results descriptive statistics and reliability analysis the results of the reliability analyses on the theoretical dimensions are reported in table 3. table 3 descriptive statistics and reliability analysis n minimaximean std. schepers’s cronmum mum deviareliabach tion bility alpha a1: mission & goals 104 2,50 5,00 4,0505 0,57070 0,616 a2: communication 104 1,00 5,00 3,2307 0.77483 0,731 a3: planning 104 1,75 5,00 3,7308 0,61602 0,640 a4: coordination 104 1,33 5,00 3,1923 0,86984 0,734 a5: decision making 104 1,00 5,00 3,1603 0,94279 0,749 a6: org. clarity 104 1,50 5,00 3,5721 0,83148 0,539 a7: perf. standards 104 1,17 5,00 3,3766 0,92607 0,856 a8: org. support 103 1,00 5,00 3,1165 1,13155 0,849 a9: team work 104 1,33 5,00 3,6442 0,90577 0,831 a10: change 104 1,00 5,00 3,1058 0,95702 0,853 a11: diversity 103 1,53 5.00 3,1786 1,05938 0,930 section a: 102 1,53 4,90 3,4034 0,67892 0,966 0,959 org. climate b1: overall satisf. 104 1.00 5,00 3,6923 0,98060 0,830 b2: skills & abilities 104 2,50 5,00 3,9880 0,63128 0,632 b3: leadership 103 1,63 5,00 3,9490 0,79548 0,909 b4: relationships 103 1,00 5,00 3,4660 0,81051 0,759 b5: remuneration 99 1,00 5,00 3,0505 0,96691 0,862 b6: perf. evaluation 104 1,00 5,00 3,2404 1,09385 0,911 section b: 98 1,70 4,89 3,6043 0,69816 0,908 0,945 job satisfaction section c: employer 103 1,50 5,00 3,5825 0,93901 0,919 of choice d1: why i came to 98 1,67 5,00 3,6327 0,73103 0,861 work here d2: why i continue 97 1,00 5,00 3,4731 0,89498 0,910 to work here section d: propen96 1,83 5,00 3,5480 0,78933 0,939 0,940 sity to stay/leave sect. e: employee 99 1,00 4,67 3,0640 0,92665 0,918 well-being section f: org 102 1,25 5,00 3,4191 0,84444 0,738 commitment kotze, roodt52 the minimum, maximum and mean scores of the 104 respondents were provided. cronbach’s alpha reliabilit y coefficients of >0,7 are considered reliable. correlation analysis the intercorrelations of the different theoretical dimensions are presented in table 4. table 4 intercorrelations between variables a b c d e f a organisapearson correlation 1 0,884 0,753 0,668 0,683 0,759 tion climate n 102 96 101 95 97 100 b job pearson correlation 0,884 1 0,757 0,587 0,698 0,767 satisfaction n 96 98 97 91 93 97 c employer pearson correlation 0,753 0,757 1 0,769 0,586 0,777 of choice n 101 97 103 96 99 101 d propensity pearson correlation 0,668 0,587 0,769 1 0,613 0,674 to stay or n 95 91 96 96 93 95 leave e employee pearson correlation 0,683 0,698 0,586 0,613 1 0,705 well-being n 97 93 99 93 99 98 f organisapearson correlation 0,759 0,767 0,777 0,674 0,705 1 tional n 100 97 101 95 98 102 commitment all correlations are significant at the 0,001 level (2-tailed). high correlations (>0.5) amongst all dimensions would suggest that all dimensions share common variance. owing to limited space, correlations between the subsections are not provided. exploring differences between the biographical groups to determine whether significant differences in scores exist between biographical groupings, t-tests (equality of means 2tailed) were calculated between the two pdi status groups (white and non-white), as well as between male and female. anova tests were performed between the age groups and between the service tenure groups. the anova and t-test results are provided in table 5. table 5 differences in biographical groupings anova t-tests age years of gender pdi service status dimension f sig. f sig. t sig t sig (2tail) (2tail) a1: mission & goals 2,36 0,100 5,092 0,008 -0,379 0,705 0,785 0,434 a2: communication 1,507 0,227 3,652 0,030 -0,828 0,409 -0,916 0,362 a3: planning 0,667 0,516 4,004 0,022 -0,795 0,429 -0,374 0,709 a4: coordination 0,690 0,504 3,377 0,008 1,679 0,096 0,392 0,694 a5: decision making 0,432 0,650 1,929 0,151 0,962 0,338 -2,423 0,017 a6: org. clarity 1,208 0,303 1,952 0,148 -0,947 0,346 -1,165 0,247 a7: perf. standards 2,390 0,097 4,006 0,021 -0,304 0,762 -2,664 0,009 a8: org. support 4,457 0,014 5,626 0,005 -0,311 0,765 -1,445 0,125 a9: team work 0,092 0,912 2,603 0,079 0,456 0,650 0,923 0,358 a10: change 3,503 0,034 13,827 0,000 1,270 0,207 -1,455 0,149 a11: diversity 3,555 0,032 4,706 0,009 -0,768 0,444 -3,695 0,000 section a: org. 2,130 0,125 2,774 0,001 -0,745 0,458 -1,884 0,063 climate b1: overall satisfctn 2,391 0,097 3,468 0,035 -0,510 0,611 -1,093 0,277 b2: skills & abilities 3,099 0,050 5,682 0,005 -0,287 0,775 -0,777 0,439 b3: leadership 1,133 0,326 6,413 0,002 -0,441 0,660 -0,852 0,369 b4: relationships 1,945 0,149 1,533 0,221 0,384 0,702 -0,040 0,068 b5: remuneration 3,612 0,031 2,896 0,061 0,715 0,477 -2,028 0,045 b6: perf. evaluation 0,311 0,734 6,560 0,002 -0,727 0,496 -1,854 0,067 section b: job 1,784 0,174 6,298 0,003 0,019 0,985 -1,292 0,200 satisfaction section c: employer 2,514 0,086 8,006 0,001 -0,810 0,420 -2,550 0,012 of choice d1: why i came to 4,806 0,010 4,395 0,015 -1,495 0,183 -0,764 0,447 work here d2: why i continue 4,058 0,020 4,758 0,011 -1,549 0,125 -1,480 0,142 to work here section d: propen4,886 0,010 5,116 0,008 -1,523 0,131 -1,210 0,230 sity to stay/leave section e: employee 0,647 0,526 8,986 0,000 -2,040 0,044 -0,666 0,507 well-being section f: org 2,433 0,093 8,337 0,000 -1,640 0,104 -2,251 0,027 commitment t-values and f-values with a significance less than 0,05 indicate a significant difference between groups. predicting propensity to stay adjusted r-square calculations were performed to establish to what extent one section causes variance in another section. the r-square values are indicated in figure 3. figure 3: sources of variance between variables high r-square values (>0,5) indicate a large amount of variance explained by the respective predictors. discussion of the respondents, about 45% were males and 54% females, indicating a fairly balanced group. two thirds of the respondents were white (non-pdi status). this is fairly representative of the current racial composition of the higher income groups at the participating banks – though not of the broader south african demographics. regarding the reliability analysis as per table 3, high levels of reliability (>0,7) are reported on all sections, ranging between 0,739 to 0,959. the obtained reliability coefficients can be questioned based on the small sample size. owing to the small sample size the items were parcelled in theoretical dimensions in the first level factor analysis and by intercorrelating sub-scores from these parcels on the second level factor analysis reliabilities were derived. this procedure resulted in reliabilities higher than 0,9. three of the eleven subsections of section a are characterised by lower cronbach’s alpha values. this may be due to the small number of items in each subsection. the correlation analysis indicated strong correlations between all factors, which factors that affect the retention of managerial and specialist staff 53 are significant at the 0,01 level (2-tailed). the correlations range between 0,884 and 0,586. predicting the propensity to stay or leave the large proportion of variance explained in propensity to stay or leave, as reflected by the adjusted r-square values in figure 3, indicate a statistically sound model. this study thus confirmed the assumptions in veldsman’s model that the major factors affecting retention are organisational commitment, employer of choice perceptions, organisational climate and employee well-being. these major factors affecting retention have also been reported in literature as follows: a) factors pertaining to organisational climate and culture: as reported in figure 3, 57% of the variance in organisational commitment is explained by organisational climate. with reference to the various factors that comprise organisational climate in table 2, this strong relationship has also been reported by hay (2002), lok and crawford (1999) and markinor (2003). these studies all reported retention’s positive correlation with a clear sense of direction, control over the working environment, un-bureaucratic subcultures, commitment to team, innovative and supportive subcultures. b) factors pertaining to job satisfaction: as reported in figure 3, 58% of the variance in organisational commitment is explained by job satisfaction. with reference to the various factors that comprise job satisfaction in table 2, this strong relationship has also been reported by the following researchers: udo and tor-guimaraes (1997) on job satisfaction, job involvement and task characteristics; taylor (2002), brewer (1993), roland et al (1996) and hay (2002) on a good relationship/satisfaction with immediate supervisor, the employee’s commitment to the managerial strategy and managerial processes; lok and crawford (1999) and sigler (1999) on acceptance by co-workers, feedback from manager and the level of professionalism in the workplace; hay (2002) on skills development, the opportunity to learn new skills and advancement opportunities; westcott (2003) on the prospect of better pay and better working conditions; markinor (2003) on fair treatment, care/concern and better communication. c) factors pertaining to employee-wellbeing: as reported in figure 3, 49% of the variance in organisational commitment is caused by employee well-being. in this regard, udo and torguimaraes (1997) found that role stressors were significant indirect influences on retention. d) factors pertaining to employer of choice perceptions: as reported in figure 3 as well as in table 4, employer of choice is strongly related to organisational commitment. the dimensions that make up “employer of choice” have been described by ahlrichs (2000). all these dimensions have been linked to retention in various studies, especially in the studies of markinor (2003), hay (2002), durkin and bennett (1999) and udo and tor-guimaraes (1997). biographical differences the other aim of the study was to determine whether differences exist between demographical groupings such as pdi status, gender, service tenure and age pertaining to factors that affect retention. if such differences exist, different retention strategies would be required to address their unique characteristics. this appears to be indeed the case: pdi status differences several statistical significant differences exist between pdi and non-pdi groups. all differences were rated small to medium effect based on the obtained eta square values. previously disadvantaged individuals gave lower scores than whites in subsection a5 (decision making), subsection a7, (performance standards), subsection a11 (diversit y), subsection b5 (remuneration), section c (employer of choice perceptions) and section f (organisational commitment). could it be that pdis perceive their appointments to some extent as tokenism, without “real” decision making and that double standards are thus applied in the company? being sought after in the south african labour market at present, could pdis be under the impression that they are underpaid? do they feel that companies are not genuinely valuing diversity? these issues could be investigated in future studies. this study suggests that the retention of pdis could be enhanced by achieving the following: � improve decision making involvement and awareness of the rationale of decisions in the company. � set clear and challenging goals and encourage staff to achieve them. improve the links between remuneration, recognition and good work. � manage diversity more efficiently, value diversity and attend to negative equality perceptions. � attend to remuneration concerns (i.e. perceptions of under payment and remuneration fairness issues) � improve employer of choice perceptions. age differences significant differences, of small to medium effect, based on the obtained eta square values exist in the following sections: subsection a8, organisational support: respondents in the 41+ age category gave higher scores than the 31-40 age category. subsection a 10, change: respondents in the 18-30 age category gave higher scores than the 30-40 age category. subsection a11, diversity: respondents in the 18-30 age category gave higher scores than 30-40 age category. subsection b5, remuneration: respondents in the 41+ age category gave a higher score than the 30-40 age category. section d, propensity to leave is higher amongst the respondents in the 31-40 age category than amongst the 18-30 age category. this study suggests that retention could be enhanced with strategies or interventions which are targeted at the indicated age categories where the identified problems exist. notably, such problems mostly exist in the 31-40 age category. could it be that staff in this age category are more prone to unrealistic expectations and thus became frustrated with the lack of opportunities and perceived poor change management? these issues could be investigated by future research. years of ser vice differences tenure differences are reported in three categories. the first category is between respondents with 1-3 years service who gave statistically significant higher scores than respondents with 4-9 years service in sections a (organisational climate) and b (job satisfaction). within sections a and b, this difference occurred in following subsections: subsection a1 (mission and goals), subsection a2 (communication), subsection a8 (organisational support), subsection a10 (change), subsection a11 (diversity) and subsection b3 (leadership). the second difference is between respondents with 1-3 years service who gave significant higher scores than respondents with 10+ years service in the following dimensions: subsection a4 (coordination and control), subsection b1 (overall satisfaction), subsection b2 (skills and abilities), section d (propensity to stay), section e (employee wellbeing) and section f (organisational commitment). thirdly, staff with 10+ years service gave higher scores on subsection a7 (performance standards) than staff with 4-9 years service. the research clearly indicates that staff with medium to longer tenure is experiencing more problems that impact on retention than staff who joined less than 4 years ago. could this be indicative of longer tenure staff’s inability or unwillingness to deal with the constant change in the workplace? this study thus kotze, roodt54 suggests that retention could be enhanced with strategies or interventions which are targeted at medium and longer term tenure groups, in the problem areas indicated above. gender differences only one statistically significant difference between male and female was identified. the employee wellbeing (positive feelings or emotions) of females are higher than males. the difference was rated a small effect based on the obtained eta square coefficient. it can be derived from table 1 that the majority of the male respondents were white males. could the current employment equity legislation and practices (that reduce the opportunities and options for white males) have a negative effect on the wellbeing of white males? this issue could be investigated in future studies. this study thus suggests that retention amongst males could be enhanced with interventions that increase the wellbeing of males. limitations of the study only two banks participated in this study, both with a staff complement of less than 1000. as such the results cannot be assumed to be representative of the either the broader south african banking industry, or the broader south african work force. suggestions for future research it is suggested that further research should be conducted to determine whether the factors affecting retention of managerial and specialist staff (as identified in this study) would also be applicable in bigger financial institutions, and possibly in other industries than the banking industry. this study revealed that employees over the age of 30, males, previously disadvantages individuals, as well as individuals with more than 4 years service are the problematic biographical groups in terms of retention. this study has dealt with what the issues are, but not why these issues have developed amongst these groups. it is suggested that qualitative studies should be conducted to research the reasons for retention complications amongst these biographical groups. in this study several suggestions were made to enhance retention amongst the indicated biographical groups where their propensity to leave seemed concerning. a final suggestion for further research would be in the nature of such strategies or interventions as well as how successful these strategies or interventions eventually proved to be. references ahlrichs, n.s. (2000). competing for talent. key recruitment and retention strategies for becoming an employer of choice: palo alto, ca: davies-black publishing. brewer, a. (1993). managing for employee commitment, sydney: longman clegg, c.w. (1983). psychology of employee lateness, absence and turnover. journal of applied psychology, 68 (3), pp 88-101. cotton, j.l. & tuttle, j.m. (1986). employee turnover: a metaanalysis and review with implications for research. academy of management review, 11 (3), pp 55-70. demby, e.r. (2002). loyalty may become cool again. workforce online. january 2002. retrieved november 13, 2003, from the world wide web: www.workforce.com/archive/feature/ 23/38/78/index.php. dibble, s. (1999). keeping your valuable employees. new york: john wiley and sons, inc. durkin, m. & bennett, h. (1999), employee commitment in retail banking, international journal of bank marketing, 17 (3), pp 124-134 frost, l. (2002, may). finding the top people. hr future magazine, 2001, 1 (3), pp 30-32. hay, m. (2002). strategies for survival in the war of talent. career development international, 6 (1), pp 52-55. herman, r.e. & goya, j.l. (2000). how to become an employer of choice. winchester virginia: oakhill press. johnson, m. (2002). talent magnet, getting talented people to work for you. london: prentice hall. lok, p. & crawford, j. (1999). the relationship between commitment and organisational culture, subculture, leadership style and job satisfaction in organizational change and development. leadership and organisational development journal, 20 (1), pp 365-374. luthans, f. (1998). organisational behaviour (8th ed). singapore: irwin/ mcgraw-hill. markinor. (2003). south african employee relationship survey, september 2003. retrieved october 1, 2003, from the world wide web: http://www.markinor.co.za/ downloads/err.doc moran, e.t. & volkwein, j.f. (1992). the cultural approach to the formation of organisational-climate. human relations, 45 (1), pp 19-47. roland, t., rust, g.l., stewart, h.m. & pielack, d. (1996). the satisfaction and retention of front-line employees. international journal of service industry management, 7 (5), pp 62-80. roodt, g. & bothma, fc (1997) die koste van vrywillige, beheerbare arbeidsomset. tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 23 (1), 26-30. schepers, j.m. (1993). betroubaarheid van saamgestelde tellings. journal of industrial psychology, 19 (3), pp 1-5. sigler, k.j. (1999). challenges of employee retention. management research news, 22(10), pp 1-6. taylor, c.r. (2002). focus on talent. t+d, 56 (12), pp. 26–33. udo, g.j., tor-guimaraes & m.i. (1997). an investigation of the antecedents of turnover for manufacturing plan managers. international journal of operation management, 19 (9), pp 912-930. veldsman, t.h. (2003). personal communication. internal research report. cs holdings. westcott, m. (2003). sa companies’ workforce are stabilising, survey shows. business day 18 february 2003, retrieved october 1, 2003, from the world wide web: http://www. businessday.co.za/articles/tarkarticle. aspx?id=701470. warr, p. (1990). the measurement of well-being and other aspects of mental health. journal of occupational psychology, 63, pp 193-210 williams, l.j. and hazer, j.t. (1986). antecedents and consequences of satisfaction and commitment in turnover models. journal of applied psychology, 72 (1), pp. 219 -310. factors that affect the retention of managerial and specialist staff 55 3rajeshree.qxd more has been written about how research into eaps should be carried out and its failures and shortcomings than has actually been carried out (csiernik, 1995). but in an age that demands evidence-based effectiveness for physical and mental health services, the future of eaps is not sustainable without firm research to demonstrate cost effectiveness and improvement in employees’ psychological functioning and performance. broadly defined, an eap is a professional assessment, referral and/or short term counseling service offered to employees with alcohol, drug or mental health problems that may be affecting their work performance. masi (1984) describes an eap as a method of intervention that focuses on the decline of job performance, not on the nature of the employee’s problem to restore the worker to full productivity. although numerous methodological difficulties have been associated with the study of eaps (csiernik, 1995), there is every reason to believe that eaps, like most therapeutic interventions do help people in psychological distress. most comprehensive evaluation studies in the past have focussed on the treatment of alcoholism problems in industry, with very few addressing the broad-based eap concept or the numerous other problems that an employee may present with. the focus on measurable goal attainment scales as a framework permitted studies of the efficacy of different treatment modes, but these proved to be insufficient and incomplete since they emphasized only treatment outcome and had no relationship to cost or work performance (masi, 1984). other factors which have been attributed to the paucity of eap research include issues of confidentiality (masi & friedland, 1988), the ideological basis of eaps (grimes, 1988) and a lack of suitable eap measures (roman, 1984). evaluation is also constrained by time and money in the workplace and access to employees. researchers have frequently noted the numerous methodological difficulties alluded to above associated with conducting eap research, with many putting forward requirements of the ideal study. these requirements include, but are not limited to: collection of data from standardised measures, experimental research design, inclusion of employees who use other mental health services, links between mental health status and utilisation rates, adequate control groups, random assignment of treatment versus non-treatment conditions, work performance indicators, cost benefit and economic analysis, establishment of base rate levels of pre and post eap intervention over a couple of years and long term follow up of employees (arthur, 2001). however, there is no study to date that satisfies all of these criteria, and it is difficult to imagine how all of these criteria can be satisfied, deal with the problem of employee confidentiality, and gain access to personal records. in addition, there is also the problem of confounding variables outside the control of researchers – for example, different and changing economies, human resource policies, management styles and social and cultural factors that may interfere with or influence the outcomes or conclusions of an experiment. finally, when it comes to claims that eaps can provide valuable feedback to organizations and improve their overall effectiveness, there is the difficulty of generalizing from the relatively small number (4% to 8%) of employees who use them (berridge et.al., 1997). what is important to note, however, is that despite these methodological constraints in answering these ‘big questions‘ with properly controlled, large scale effectiveness studies, research can nevertheless proceed in a step-by-step manner and respond to smaller but just as crucial questions. several evaluations of eaps have been conducted (jerrell and rightmeyer, 1982). the results of research relevant to this paper are noted below. propensity to use an eap a number of factors affecting ones propensity to use an eap have been identified. delaney, grube and ames (1998), found that belief in the eap, or eap efficacy, was found to have a significant impact on propensity to use the eap.the effect of eap-related factors on propensity to use the service is supported by research conducted by harris and fennel (1988), holosko & feit (1988), hall, vacc and kissling (1991) & (braun & novak, 1986). r ajeshree naicker christa fouché department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract employers worldwide are appreciating the increasing need for maximum employee productivity and effectiveness in a global economy. in countries with labour and/or skill shortages, the strategic value of worker recruitment and retention is vital. employers are thus utilising workplace services, such as employee assistance programmes (eaps) and other related programmes to enhance their overall human resources systems. however, the mere introduction of an eap is not in itself sufficient to achieve all of the above. eaps if not properly implemented are seldom successful and must therefore be evaluated to demonstrate their effectiveness. thus in order to achieve the above the present study was designed with the overall aim of evaluating an insourced employee assistance programme (eap) over a one year period in terms of impact and efficiency evaluation. the methodology implemented and the results of the study are presented in this article. opsomming werkgewers wêreldwyd toon waardering vir die toenemende behoefte aan maksimum werknemerproduktiwiteit en doeltreffendheid in ‘n globale ekonomie. in lande met arbeidsen vaardigheidstekorte, is die strategiese waarde van werknemerwerwing en -behoud krities. werkgewers gebruik dus werkplekdienste, soos werknemerbystandsprogramme (eaps) en ander verwante programme, om die algehele menslikehulpbronstelsels te verbeter. maar die blote ingebruikneming van ‘n eap is opsigself nie genoegsaam om al die bogenoemde te bereik nie. eaps is selde suksesvol, indien dit nie korrek geïmplementeer word nie en behoort om hierdie rede geëvalueer te word ten einde hulle doeltreffendheid te demonstreer. ten einde die bogenoemde te bereik, is die teenswoordige studie ontwerp met die oorkoepelende oogmerk om die ingekontrakteerde werknemerbystandsprogram (eap) oor ‘n periode van een jaar te evalueer in terme van impaken effektiwiteitsbeoordeling. die metodologie en die resultate van die studie word in die artikel aangebied. the evaluation of an insourced employee assistance programme requests for copies should be addressed to: r naicker, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 25 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (1), 25-31 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (1), 25-31 demographic variables have also been linked with seeking help from an eap. the delaney et al (1998) study highlighted union status, education, ethnicity, age and gender as the most significant predictors. thus there is some support for the notion that individual characteristics may be predictors of propensity to use an eap. however, these demographic characteristics are probably indicative of the broader concept of social standing. in south africa, specifically, past discrepancies in education and opportunity have resulted in black employees (and to some extent, women), still occupying lower positions in the organisational hierarchy. standing in the organisation, or perceptions of status, may therefore account for the fact that certain groups of employees (generally blue collar workers, or those who occupy lower positions) tend to be the primary consumers of the eap (scanlon, 1986). this may be because they do not fear a loss of status if it emerges that they have used the service, or alternatively, it may be that these employees experience greater challenges or problems as a result of their position (for example greater financial pressures) for which they need to seek help. although higher use of the eap amongst women has been reported, gerstein, moore, duffey & dainas (1993) found no difference between men and women, and no difference between different ethnic groups. certain organisational factors have also been identified as potential determinants of voluntary eap use. social support or the belief that one’s co-workers were supportive of eap usage was found to be an influence in the delaney et al (1998) research, with increased support leading to increased likelihood of eap usage. linked to social support, supervisor encouragement was another variable, which was positively related to stated propensity to use the employee service. indeed, supervisors may play a pivotal role in aiding troubled employees to seek help, as they are “conduits to assistance” (hopkins, 1997, p34). this is because supervisors perform the function of formal referrals to the programme, but also because of the less formal influence they have on employees’ behaviour. supervisors can significantly influence an employee’s perceptions of the organisational climate, and it is argued that if they succeed in creating an impression of a supportive environment, then the likelihood of using an organisational service will increase (hopkins, 1997). harris and fennel (1988) take this idea further, proposing that supervisor attitudes towards the eap, and in particular, the extent to which they encourage self-referral, will have profound impact on their subordinate’s help-seeking behaviour. the value of supervisors to the success of an eap was also demonstrated in a study conducted by amaral & cross (1998). hiatt et al (1999) in their study of the effectiveness of job performance referrals found that supervisors that referred employees to an eap rated job performance elements as significantly improved after treatment. attendance was the job element which was rated the lowest before eap services, and which showed the greatest improvement of all job elements. significant improvements were also found for conduct, quality and quantit y of work and interpersonal relationships. consistent with findings from previous studies those employees who were referred by supervisors were more likely to be male and have substance abuse and occupational problems. thus, it is clear that organisational variables may play a large role in an individual’s decision to seek help from the eap, which ultimately impacts on utilisation rates. however, given that the organisation provides the context for the eap, a much wider array of organisational factors may affect propensity to use an eap. utilisation research several studies have supported the conclusion that more clients come to eaps via self-referral than from any other referral source: straussner’s (1988) study of utilisation of all eaps in the new york metropolitan area found that 54% of clients were self referred, bayer & barkin (1990) found that 68% of the eap consortium that they studied were self referred, while nearly all (96.2%) of 182 randomly selected eap practitioners surveyed by mcclellan & miller (1988) reported that they utilised self referral as a means of identif ying clients. research on the types of eap services that are used most often have been inconsistent and inconclusive. part of the difficulty lies in the different terminology used by different researchers. while some researchers create service categories based on the terminology used by eap professionals (e.g. assessment, referral and supervisory training), others use the type of problem reported (e.g. psychological, financial or alcohol and drug rehabilitation) to categorise services (bayer & barkin, 1990). in a 1984 study, shore found that psychological counselling was the most used eap service. in their 1990 study of eap utilisation, bayer and barkin found that ‘other’ was the most highly represented category accounting for 30.7% of the problems seen. in this context ‘other’ included problems associated with work adjustment, career concerns, family issues and minor personal problems. luthans & waldersee (1989) contend that these differences reflect a bias in detection and labeling which is caused by the eaps philosophical orientation that may be built into the studies in question. satisfaction research attridge (2001) reports that surveys conducted in 1999 and 2000 of more than 1000 clients who used external eaps showed that 75% of clients report decreased stress, 73% report improved overall health and well-being, 67% report improved performance of routine daily activities, 72% report improved productivity and 60% reported avoided absenteeism. moreover, users who reported a benefit in one area generally reported benefits in other areas as well. research conducted by macdonald et al (1997), aimed to determine the impact of counselling through an eap on selected work performance areas. their analysis found that employees who used the eap had higher rates of absenteeism than the control group, both before and after eap intervention. of particular interest to the present study was the supplementary data obtained through employee surveys. in the survey, employees were asked to indicate their degree of satisfaction with the eap. ninety-one percent of respondents were satisfied with the overall quality of services, 95.4% were satisfied with how confidentiality was protected and 88.1% were satisfied with the helpfulness of counsellors. in terms of the effectiveness of treatment, 85.4% were satisfied. most respondents indicated that the number of times that they had met with the counsellor was adequate (75.1%). mcclellan (1989), in his study of a sample of the state of ohio employees found similar results with regard to employee satisfaction. specifically, 94% of employees who returned completed questionnaires felt that the eap was prompt in response to their needs, 92% were comfortable with the eap counsellor, 89% reported that they would recommend the eap to family members or co-workers, 92% felt that their privacy and confidentiality were protected, and 87% felt that they would use the eap again if they had a need for it. these findings did not vary significant between self-referrals and supervisory referrals. eap cost effectiveness research in terms of eap cost effectiveness studies, although most organisations see the importance of demonstrating costeffectiveness, very few actually perform systematic cost-benefit analyses (cba). in practice evaluation is often based on anecdotal evidence or self-report satisfaction surveys, concerning service quality or improvements in employee well being or performance. reasons frequently cited for the scarcity of cost-benefit evaluations include insufficient resources (time, expense, expertise required to carry out the evaluation) and problems in obtaining hard data on employee productivity (lack of clear absence data, confidentiality issues etc). another valid reason relates to the fact that many valuable eap benefits are intangible and thus difficult to measure and evaluate in monetary terms. naicker, fouché26 given these evaluation barriers, few good cost benefit evaluation studies have been undertaken over the years, and even fewer have been published. however, a review of the cba studies that are actually available shows results that are overwhelmingly positive. the results of the evaluation conducted by smith & mahoney (1990) on the mcdonnell douglas corporation showed an investment to savings ratio of 4:1. masi & goff (1987), in their study showed a $7 return per employee for every $1 invested and blaze-temple & howat (1997) in their study showed a cost-benefit ratio of 1:1. this suggests that the rarity of published cba studies is more likely to be due to the perceived difficulties in carrying out the evaluation rather than an indication that eaps may in fact not be cost-effective. from the literature presented above it is apparent that cba studies offer broad support for eap cost-effectiveness. however what is also apparent is that a great deal of variation exists across the noted cost-benefit ratios. this variation can largely be explained by the differences in evaluation methodology and study populations. thus when clear evaluation study differences exist it is fair to note that the power of the cba results to be generalised is reduced. however, despite this and owing to the absence of eap cost-effectiveness studies in south africa organisations should be encouraged to carry out cba’s in their unique environments to establish organisation specific evidence of eap value. in accordance with the brief discussion above, the overall aim of the study undertaken by the author was the evaluation of an insourced employee assistance programme (eap) over a one-year period in terms of impact and efficiency evaluation. in an attempt to achieve this, the following objectives are formulated: impact evaluation: to measure the utilisation rate as well as client’s satisfaction with the programme. efficiency evaluation: to measure the cost-effectiveness of the programme. limitations of the study the following possible limitations to the study exist: � the absence of a control group. � the use of a non-probability method of sampling. � no evidence exists as to the reliability or validity of the questionnaires used to assess client’s satisfaction with the programme. � a final limitation is that the response rate on the employee survey was very low, limiting the generalisability of the findings. description of the programme the employee assistance programme was designed to provide a wide range of psychosocial services to employees of a large south african company. the eap was a contracted programme i.e. provided by an independent external company providing for both self-referrals as well as supervisory referrals. it was based on a brief therapy model and provided assistance for a broad range of personal problems. it was located off-site. methodology research design in order to achieve the aims set out above evaluative research was conducted and a descriptive design used. sample the unit of analysis consisted of employees of a large transport company in south africa. the sampling strategy was in essence non-probability. in terms of the specific method used purposive sampling was used. since two different forms of evaluation were conducted each of these will be dealt with separately in terms of the sampling strategy. however, before this is done some research concerning sampling strategies in eap evaluations will first be presented. according to yamatani (1993) discussions of options regarding the variety of sample groups for eap evaluation are rarely available among journal publications. in most cases, eap researchers are inaccurately defining the selected sample groups based on outdated definitions that are typically reflective of classical research in social psychology. thus, the classic design that is inclusive of experimental and control groups (via random assignment), is becoming a thing of the past in eap research, due to frequent unfeasibility. moreover, such designs tend to generate ethical and moral questions regarding research conduct when eap interventions are denied from employees suffering from personal problems for the sake of conducting experimentally based eap evaluations. the more contemporary types of sample groups currently used in eap research as proposed by yamatani (1993) include: � target group which consists of employees who are in need of eap services � treatment group which consist of employee users of eap services � comparison group which consists of employees who are in need of eap services but are yet to receive eap interventions � proxy group which may be knowledgeable of individuals who are in need of or recipients of eap services � criterion group which consists of healthy employees who are not exhibiting job performance or other cost related problems � subgroups which consists of various categories of groups in reference to their demographic factors (e.g. age, gender, race). yamatani (1993) suggests the random selection of the abovementioned groups in cases involving a large number of individuals for deriving accurate evaluation results. ideally it is recommended that evaluation studies include 30 sample individuals as a minimum. however, it is noted that the larger the sample size the better the chances of complex analysis. the classification of eap sampling strategies discussed above will be used in the discussion of the sample below. impact evaluation under impact evaluation 2 areas were considered i.e. utilisation rates and clients’ satisfaction with the programme. the sample used to determine utilisation rates consisted of all employees who had used the programme i.e. the treatment group. in terms of numbers a total of 1792 employees were used in the computation of the utilisation rate. clients’ satisfaction with the programme was measured both in terms of employees who had referred themselves (self-referrals) to the programme as well as supervisors who made management/mandatory referrals. in terms of the self-referrals, of the 1400 self-referrals, only 195 completed the client feedback cards. this translates into a response rate of 13.9%. in terms of management/mandatory referrals responses were received from 62 supervisors. however, 22 had to be discarded because of missing information. given the nat ure of the study i.e. program evaluation conducting a pre-test was not possible. efficiency evaluation the sample used to compute the cost-benefit ratio of the programme consisted of all employees who used the programme during the period in question. i.e. the treatment group. in terms of actual numbers, the sample size was 1792. measuring instruments impact evaluation data required to compute the utilisation rate was sourced from the company’s management information system. in terms of the evaluation of clients’ satisfaction with the programme 2 different questionnaires were used in keeping with the 2 types of referral procedures i.e. self referrals and management/mandatory referrals. insourced employee assistance programme 27 employees who referred themselves to the programme were requested to complete a client feedback card at the termination of therapy. the feedback card included issues such as satisfaction with the counselling process and confidentiality (naicker, 2002). the completion of this questionnaire was done both anonymously and voluntarily. clients were requested to complete six routine questions by responding with a yes or no answer. provision was also made for any other comments that the employee may have wanted to add. in terms of management/mandatory referrals, copies of the supervisory feedback card were electronically mailed or faxed to all supervisors who had referred an employee to the eap. the questionnaire was designed to enable the referring supervisor/ manager to assess the effectiveness of the programme in changing behaviour at the workplace and measured dimensions such as absenteeism, tardiness, morale, productivity, attitude, relationships and involvement in accidents, grievance procedures and on the job accidents (naicker, 2002). details on how to return the questionnaire were also provided. telephonic follow up calls were made to all supervisors in an attempt to increase the response rate. again the questionnaires that were used are those used routinely by a major eap service provider (recognised both locally and internationally). however, despite its wide use no research to date has been conducted on the reliability/validity of the said questionnaire. although this in essence is an obvious drawback to the study, cognisance must be taken of the fact that minimal research has been conducted on eaps and to the author’s knowledge no such validated questionnaires exist. efficiency evaluation data required to ascertain the cost effectiveness of the programme was sourced from the company’s management information systems. statistical analysis in the present study, data collected was quantitatively analyzed, due to the specific nature of the data obtained. impact evaluation utilization rate according to the employee assistance professional association, (eapa, 2001), although utilization is one of the most critical measurements in determining the effectiveness of eap services, there is to date no standard definition of eap utilization. the traditional definition of eap utilization is the number of new eap cases opened during a given time period, usually 12 months, divided by the total number of employees eligible for eap services. however, utilization measurement in the eap field is inconsistent, due to the lack of standard definitions of key terms. for the purposes of this report eap utilization is defined as the activit y by employees or employee family units divided by the total number of eligible employees (eapa, 2001). information needed to compute the utilization based on the formula presented above was sourced from the company’s mis. client’s satisfaction with the programme � client feedback cards (self – referrals) descriptive statistics were used to analyze the client feedback cards. the frequency of yes or no answers for each individual question was determined and tabulated. � super visory feedback cards (management/mandatory referrals) here again descriptive statistics were used. frequencies were computed in terms of the specific dimensions that were included on the form e.g. improvement in absenteeism. efficiency evaluation a specific formula developed by the company was used to compute the cost-benefit ratio. results utilisation rate the annualised utilisation rate of the present study was computed to be 5.2%. this was just above the international benchmark of 5% for the first of a programme and is a possible reflection of the need for such a programme in the organisation under study as well as the success of the communication programme conducted at implementation of the programme. the utilisation rate was then further broken down into the specific demographics of the clients as well as those of the eap. the findings of each of these dimensions are presented below. client demographics in terms of client demographics the following specific findings were evident. � the programme was used predominantly by males. however, the percentage of females is clearly much higher than their representation in the employee demographics of the company. part of this distribution can perhaps be explained by the high incidence of marital and family problems in the client population, since females are generally more inclined to seek assistance when faced with personal problems. � the programme was utilised by employees of various ethnic origins, however, whites are over represented in the client population, while african employees are underrepresented. according to delaney et al. (1998) ethnic origin is a significant predictor of eap usage. results of the delaney et al. (1998) study indicated that black employees were more likely to indicate a propensity to use an eap. it would be expected that this would be the case in the present study, given the discrepancies of the past. � in terms of age ranges, highest utilisation occurred between the ages of 30-44. the available literature indicates that younger employees are more likely to seek help from an eap. however, in all of these studies younger has not been defined in terms of a specific age range (delaney et al, 1998), and it is thus difficult to comment on the results of the present study in terms of previous research. � employees with high school education were represented the most prominently. � delaney et al. (1998) in their research indicated that as education levels increased propensit y to use the eap decreased. � married individuals are the most likely to seek treatment. this finding is probably an indication of the problems that single persons encounter. however, it should be supplemented by further research. � employees with 9 or less years of service seem to be the most likely to become clients of the eap. � employees with a wide variet y of occupations utilised the programme, with operational staff accounting for 36.4% of the client population. this finding is consistent with past research (luthans & waldersee, 1989; gerstein & bayer, 1988) eap demographics � the percentage of management/mandatory referrals was found to be 22%, which is well above the international benchmark of 7%-8% (eapa, 2001). according to hopkins (1997), supervisors play a pivotal role in aiding troubled employees to seek help. this is because supervisors perform the function of formal referrals to the programme, but also because of the less formal influence that they have on employees’ behaviour. it is also argued that if supervisors are successful in creating an impression of a supportive environment, then the likelihood of using an organisational service will increase. this is possibly the case in the present study in addition to the success of the communication and training programme. � couple and family related problems were the most commonly reported at admission to the programme. this naicker, fouché28 was followed by life events, psychological and work relationship problems. � marital and family problems were the most common diagnoses at discharge from the programme. � in terms of non-counselling issues, the majority of employees who contacted the programme required financial advice or assistance. in terms of the above three findings, research on the types of eap services used most often have been inconsistent and inconclusive. luthans & waldersee (1989) contend that these differences reflect a bias in detection and labeling which is caused by the eaps philosophical orientation that may be built into the studies in question. thus unless standard definitions are put forward no definite conclusions as to the type of services used most often can be drawn. client’s satisfaction with the programme client feedback cards responses on the client feedback cards were overwhelming positive with a 100% positive response rate on almost all dimensions. the positive responses are in keeping with the findings of previous research (macdonald et al., 1997). super visory reply cards productivity, absenteeism and morale were the most frequently reported problems. this was followed by involvement in incidents/accidents and attitude. of these problems supervisors rated involvement in accidents/incidents and absenteeism as being the constructs that improved the most post-eap. also of note was the high percentage of problems reported as unchanged. (see table 1). this is a significant finding and possibly warrants an investigation into the quality of treatment or the factors influencing supervisors perception of the service. most studies measuring the effectiveness of job performance referrals have found that supervisors that referred employees to an eap rated job performance elements as being significantly improved after treatment (hiatt et al, 1999; amaral & cross, 1988). absenteeism was usually the element rated the lowest pre-eap and which showed the greatest improvement post-eap. significant improvements were also found for conduct, qualit y and quantit y of work and interpersonal relationships. table 1 responses of supervisors on referred employees problems post-counselling (n = 40) employee problem n% post counselling improved unchanged absenteeism 55.0% 68.2% 31.8% tardiness 35.0% 42.9% 57.1% morale 52.5% 61.9% 38.1% productivity 55.0% 50.0% 50.0% attitude 45.0% 55.6% 44.4% medical problems 25.0% 60.0% 40.0% relationship with co-workers 35.0% 57.1% 42.9% relationship with supervisor 37.5% 60.0% 40.0% relationship with sub-ordinates 32.5% 53.8% 46.2% involvement with disciplinary matters 22.5% 33.3% 66.7% involvement with on-the-job 47.5% 78.9% 21.1% accidents/incidents average – 56.5% 43.5% cost effectiveness of the eap in terms of the cost effectiveness of the programme, it was computed that for every r1.00 spent on the eap between r5 and r8 was saved in terms of recovered lost productivity (see table 2). table 2 return on investment scenario 1: productivity loss at 28% @ average salary new clients success rate success rate at 75% at 50% 1792 1344 896 average annual productivity saving to saving to salary loss at 28% comp at 75% comp at 50% r 62, 432.72 r 17, 481.16 r 23, 494, 681.19 r15, 663, 120.79 eap saving saving contribution at 75% at 50% r 3,539,700.00 r 23,494,681.19 r 15,663,120.79 cost saving r19,954,981.19 r 12,123,420.79 scenario 2: productivity loss at 35% @ average salary new clients success rate success rate at 75% at 50% 1792 1344 896 average annual productivity saving to saving to salary loss at 28% comp at 75% comp at 50% r 62, 432.72 r 21,851.45 r 29,368,351.49 r 19,578,900.99 eap saving saving contribution at 75% at 50% r 3,539,700.00 r 29,368,351.49 r 19,578,900.99 cost saving r 25,828,651.49 r 16,039,200.99 calculations were based on the following assumptions: � the eap treated a total of 1792 new clients during the period in question. � the success rate on a full service contract of the service provider is 75.1%. this was proven by a study conducted by the university of pretoria (dr. laurie terblance, 1999). a 75% success rate and a 50% success rate (worst case scenario) were thus used in the calculations. � the average annual salary of employees in the company (all levels) is r62 432.72. in addition, as alluded to in the literature review organizations loose between 28%35% of a troubled employee’s income due to productivity loss. thus, both a 28% and a 35% impact have been used in the calculations. conclusion the range of acceptable employee utilisation rates is 4% to 8% (berridge, cooper & marchington, 1997). the present eap had a utilisation rate of 5.2%. this utilisation rate is especially significant given that it was achieved in the first year of the programme. when compared to benchmarking data from comparable programs or similar industries, an accurate utilisation rate can provide a general understanding of how well an eap is engaging the organisation’s employees in its services (eapa, 2001). thus although the utilisation rate does provide a good starting point for understanding an eap’s outreach activities and casefinding insourced employee assistance programme 29 strategies, when viewed in isolation its value is sometimes limited as it can only yield an overall indication of the extent to which employees are participating in the program. a low utilisation rate for instance, might suggest that the eap needs to increase its promotional activities, but does not provide specific direction on what the program should do differently. thus, improvements in eap processes and practices can come about by examining the utilization rate in combination with other performance indicators that provide specific information about who participated in the program and perhaps how they reached it, as in the present study. of particular interest to the present study is the very high percentage of management and mandatory referrals. this is probably an indication of a very high level of awareness amongst supervisory and managerial staff in the programme. it is probably also a reflection of the value of eap management training and its role in the successful implementation of an eap. notwithstanding the above, and the fact that utilisation rates are often seen as an indicator of the success/failure of an eap, cognisance should be taken of the fact that the push for high utilisation rates reflects a commonly held misconception that the more cases an eap opens, the more successful it is. while this may be true for those rare programs with low employee-tostaff ratios, the reality in most eaps is that this “head counting” comes at the expense of other services that go into making the program successful such as consistent follow-up. the survey conducted regarding employees’ and supervisors’ satisfaction with the eap is important for a number of reasons. of particular interest to this study, client satisfaction data is invaluable in providing feedback about potential problems and needed changes. the data can also be used to demonstrate programme effectiveness in a managed care setting. in saying this cognisance is taken of the numerous problems associated with satisfaction research, the fact that eaps typically conduct program evaluation based on client satisfaction studies and that benefits stemming from positive study results are often of lower value compared to negative study results. this is mainly due to the uncertain utility of client satisfaction compared to the magnit ude of liabilit y associated with eap client dissatisfaction. although satisfied eap clients are essential for successful eap operation that will not in itself guarantee program effectiveness. thus, client satisfaction studies are more contributory towards program improvement when the eap identifies the sources of client dissatisfaction and modifies its operations accordingly. in the same vein, the high rate of elements regarded as unchanged by supervisors are important in that it allows for investigation into the problem and the possibility of subsequent improvement. notwithstanding all of the above such an overall positive effect reported by both clients and supervisors of the present eap must not be underrated or overlooked. although, client evaluation of the eap should indeed continue on a routine basis, for monitoring purposes it is apparent that the eap for the most part has been successful in substantially helping employees suffering from personal problems. in addition although the cost benefit figures for the few published cba studies offer broad support for eap costeffectiveness, a great deal of variation exists across the noted cost-benefit ratios. this variation can to a large extent be explained by the differences in evaluation methodology and study populations. it is for this reason that no comment can be made in terms of the findings of the present study in terms of previous literature. what can be stated though is that the current eap was cost beneficial. recommendations although the above demonstrates that there are a significant number of methodological issues yet to be resolved regarding how best to conduct the various types of eap evaluation, it is important for the profession to encourage familiarity with the diversity and scope of the various types of eap evaluations. such research knowledge will help increase the use of evaluation articles, allow eap personnel to generate relevant self-directed administrative and intervention questions and increase participatory interest in conducting eap evaluations. what is important to note is that even with all of the problems alluded to above, even brief and inexpensive evaluation projects can provide meaningful assessments of how an eap is implemented and meeting its goals (blair, 1990). a well-defined evaluation with reasonable scope, will at the very least, yield a benchmark for comparison with future evaluation efforts and provide a base on which later efforts can build. what does exist is an adequate starting point, with the opportunity and need for much more comprehensive and unif ying work. based on the findings, limitations and implications of the present study, a number of other areas have also been identified that would provide informative research. the most obvious of these areas is the well-constructed and conducted evaluation of other forms of eaps (santa barbara, 1984). it has been noted throughout this study that there is very little theoretical guidance for developing and evaluating eaps (jerrell & rightmyer, 1982). it would therefore appear that the time has arrived for developments in model building. in this vein jerrell & rightmyer (1982) propose that “such conceptual models would prove most useful in the specification of evaluation strategies which are parsimonious, systematic and rigorous, yet flexible enough to be implemented in diverse programs” (p.262). in addition, of particular interest to researchers and organisations are the long term benefits of eap intervention. thus future eap research should assess the effects of the eap over time by adopting follow-up periods of not less than 6 months. the application of a time-series design in this regard (christensen, 1985), where repeated follow-up measures are conducted, may be useful in assessing this long-term benefit. further research is also needed across multiple organisations with eaps of different structures to better identif y other factors that may influence attitudes. for example, research has suggested different patterns of use among internal and contracted eaps (harlow, 1987). in addition globalisation has resulted in the emergence of more international eaps, resulting in the need for more examination of more cross-cultural variations in attitude. in terms of cost-benefit studies it is recommended that a differentiation be made between self-referred and supervisory referred clients. it could be hypothesized that clients who are supervisory referrals demonstrate greater job performance deterioration than self-referred, and would therefore need to be weighted accordingly. from the evidence reviewed and as is apparent from the present study, a well designed and well-implemented eap has great potential to show good return on the investment made in it. organisations committed to the employment of a quality eap, therefore, have an opportunity to knit together humanitarian and economic concerns by providing a service that both supports the well-being of their employees and is of real bottom line value to the organisation. references amaral, t.m. & cross, s.h. (1998). cost-benefits of super visory referrals. almaca: los angeles. arthur, a. (2001). employee assistance programs. do they work? eapa exchange, july/august, 21-23. attridge, m. (2001). the role of eaps in managing human naicker, fouché30 capital. eapa exchange, may/june, 39-40. bayer, g.a. & barkin, a.c. (1990). employee assistance program utilisation: comparison of referral sources and problems. employee assistance quarterly, 5 (4), 63-70. berridge, j., cooper, c.l. & marchington, c.h. (1997). employee assistance programmes and workplace counselling. new york: john wiley & sons. blaze-temple, d. & howat, p. (1997). cost-benefit of an australian eap. employee assistance quarterly, 12 (3), 1-24. braun, a.l. & novak, d.e. (1986). a study of eap non-utilisation. eap digest, 7, 52-55. csiernik, r. (1995). a review of research methods used to examine employee assistance delivery options. evaluation and program planning, 18, 25-36. christensen, l.b. (1985). experimental methodology. boston: allyn & bacon. delaney, w., grube, j. & ames, g. (1998). predicting the likelihood of seeking help through the employee assistance programme among salaried and union hourly employees. addiction, 93 (3), 399-410. eapa, (2001). towards the standardization of employee assistance measures. arlington : eapa. gerstein, l.h. & bayer, g.a. (1988). employee assistance programs: a systemic investigation of their use. journal of counseling and development, 66, 294-297. gerstein, l., moore, d., duffey, k. & dalnas, c. (1993). the effects of biological sex and ethnicity on eap utilization and referrals. consulting psychology journal, 45, 23-27. grimes, c.h. (1988). employee assistance programs: the quest for a research base. eap research: an annual of research and research issues, 2, 99-104. hall, l., vacc, n.a., & kissling, g. (1991). likelihood to use employee assistance programs: the effects of sociodemographic, socio-psychological, sociocultural, organization and community factors. journal of employment counselling, 28, 63-73. harlow, k. (1987). a comparison of internal and external employee assistance programs. journal of human ser vices, 7, 16-21. harris, m. & fennel, m. (1988). perceptions of an employee assistance program and employees’ willingness to participate. journal of applied behavioural science, 24 (4), 423-438. hiatt, d., hargrave, g. & palmertree, m. (1999). effectiveness of job performance referrals. employee assistance quarterly, 14 (4), 33-43. holosko, m.j. & feit, m.d. (1988). eap’s: assessing how they work. employee assistance quarterly, 3 (3), 1-4. hopkins, k. (1997). influences on formal and informal supervisor intervention with troubled workers. employee assistance quarterly, 13 (1), 33-51. jerrell, j.m. & rightmeyr, j.f. (1982). evaluating employee assistance programs: a review of methods, outcomes and future directions. evaluation & program planning, 5, 255-267. luthans, f. & waldersee, r. (1989). what do we really know about eaps? human resource management, 28, 385-401. masi, d.a. (1984). designing employee assistance programs. new york: american management association. masi, d.a. & friedland, s.j. (1988), eap actions and options. personnel journal, 67 (6), 60-67. masi, d.a. & goff, m.e. (1987). the evaluation of employee assistance programmes. public personnel management, 16 (4), 323-327. mcclellan, k. (1989). cost-benefit analysis of an ohio eap. employee assistance quarterly, 5 (2), 67-85. mcclellan, k. & miller, r.e. (1988). eaps in transition. purpose and scope of services. employee assistance quarterly, 3 (34), 25-42. macdonald, s., wells, s. & lothian, s. (1997). evaluation of employee assistance program at a transportation company. evaluation and program planning, 7, 495-505. naicker, r. (2002). the evaluation of an insourced employee assistance programme. unpublished doctoral dissertation. roman, p.m. (1984). the environment for eap research: comments on structures of organisational support. in c.h. grimes (ed.). eap research: an annual of research and research issues, vol.1. troy: human resources press. santa barbara, j. (1984). a client centered eap approach. eap digest, 4 (5), 34-36. scanlon, w. (1986). alcoholism and drug abuse in the workplace. new york: praeger. shore, h. (1984). employee assistance programs-reaping the benefits. management review, 25 (3), 69-73. smith, d.c. & mahoney, j.j. (1990). mcdonnell douglas corporations employee assistance financial offset study 19851989. westport: alexander & alexander counselling group. straussner, s.l.a. (1988). a comparative analysis of in-house and contractual employee assistance programs. employee assistance quarterly, 3 (34), 43-55. terblanche, l.s. (1999). ’n evaluerende ondersoek na die impak van die werknemerhulpprogram soos bedr yf deur company x: “n bedryfsmaatskaplikewerk ondersoek. universiteit van pretoria. yamatani, h. (1993). suggested top ten evaluations for employee assistance programmes: an overview. employee assistance quarterly, 9 (2), 65-82. insourced employee assistance programme 31 article information authors: natasha nel1 j. alewyn nel1 byron g. adams2,3 leon t. de beer1 affiliations: 1workwell research unit, north-west university, potchefstroom campus, south africa 2department of culture studies, tilburg university, the netherlands 3department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, kingsway campus, south africa correspondence to: leon de beer email: debeer.leon@nwu.ac.za postal address: private bag x6001, potchefstroom 2520, south africa dates: received: 29 apr. 2014 accepted: 12 feb. 2015 published: 30 apr. 2015 how to cite this article: nel, n., nel, j.a., adams, b.g., & de beer, l.t. (2015). assessing cultural intelligence, personality and identity amongst young white afrikaans-speaking students: a preliminary study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #643, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.643 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. assessing cultural intelligence, personality and identity amongst young white afrikaans-speaking students: a preliminary study in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • research purpose and objectives    • literature review       • cultural intelligence outwardly       • personality: general definition and relation with cultural intelligence       • identity: general definition and relation with cultural intelligence       • the present study • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure and ethical considerations       • statistical analysis • results • discussion    • outline of results    • practical implications    • limitations and recommendations    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: cultural intelligence (cq) is a relatively new construct to academia that has recently gained increasing attention. its relevance in a multicultural context like south africa is apparent since cultural interaction between different ethnic groups is unavoidable. research purpose: the objective of this research is to determine the relationship between personality, identity and cq amongst young afrikaans-speaking south africans. research approach, design and method: a quantitative research design was used in this study. this study was cross-sectional in nature. for the purpose of this study, a sample of young south african university students (n = 252) was used. the personal identity subscale from the erickson psychosocial stage inventory, the multi-ethnic identity measure, the religious identity short scale, the south african personality inventory questionnaire and the four factor model of cultural intelligence scale were applied as the measuring instruments. main findings: religious identity and ethnic identity have a relationship with cognitive cq. soft-heartedness and conscientiousness have a relationship with behavioural cq. also, soft-heartedness, facilitating, extroversion and religious identity have a relationship with motivational cq. practical/managerial implications: organisations within south africa will gain a better understanding of cq and the benefits of having a culturally intelligent workforce as a strengths-based approach. culturally intelligent employees will be able to adjust to working with co-workers from another culture, not feel threatened when interacting with co-workers and clients and be able to transfer knowledge from one culture to another, which will aid the organisation in completing overseas assignments, cross-cultural decision-making, leadership in multicultural environments and managing international careers. contribution/value-add: cq is a relatively new concept and empirical research on positive subjects is still very limited. research on personality, identity and cq within the south african context is still very limited. therefore, this study will contribute to literature on positive psychology and cultural intelligence. introduction top ↑ south africa as a complex and diverse society is comprised of individuals representing at least 14 different ethnocultural groups and 11 official languages (statssa, 2014). this cultural diversity impacts almost every aspect of daily life for south africans. relationships and interactions with colleagues, friends and even strangers are perceptibly with individuals from different cultures backgrounds (ang & van dyne, 2008; booysen & nkomo, 2014). individuals are defining themselves constantly by drawing from and interacting in various settings and situations, namely family, work, friends, religious groups and leisure activities (adams & crafford, 2012). therefore, these cross-cultural interactions require individuals who may have different expectations and assumptions about how to approach cultures other than their own and how to make decisions based on their own cultural backgrounds (maznevski & distefano, 2000; nkomo & kriek, 2011). as diversity is one of south africa's greatest assets, the failure to adjust to and understand similarities and differences across cultures often results in inappropriate language and behaviour. this may come across as insensitivity to individuals from different groups and may negatively impact relationship building across different cultures (naughton, 2010). such a diverse society poses various challenges and threats to individuals who are not aware of the information in embedded cues in cultures different from their own (thomas & inkson, 2003). the result is that individuals are divided into two opposing camps: firstly, those who welcome the new challenges and strive to master the new social field and, secondly, those who resist the change and stick to their established values (booysen & nkomo, 2014). of the more than 52 million people who inhabit south africa, over five million are young south africans (statssa, 2014). the 2014 mid-year population estimates by population group indicate that 86% of youth is african, 12% mixed race, 2.08% indian or asian and 5.94% white (kaus, 2014; statssa, 2014). the diversity that south african youth are faced with in society is reflected at many south african universities (kaus, 2014; statssa, 2014). according to makalela and mccabe (2013), afrikaans-speaking students are still in the majority over non-afrikaans language speakers in south african universities, even after 20 years of democracy. makalela and mccabe mention that language policies pertaining to diversity at universities are still in their early years and will take a while to rectify. young afrikaans-speaking south africans must overcome various barriers (selective perception, social categorisation, stereotyping, attribution, identity developing; dolby, 2001; thomas & inkson, 2003), realistic threats (the fear of harm or a decline in one's quality of life) and symbolic threats (the fear that one's cultural group or its place in society is threatened; harrison & peacock, 2010) when they perform in a diverse context. since diversity is a reality in south africa, it therefore becomes pertinent to aid students to function effectively in a diverse society (bikson & law, 1994). in this microcosm, representative of the society in which universities exist, interpretation of cultural information is often in accordance with an individual's own preconceived framework (ng & early, 2006). it serves as the foundation of an individual's cultural intelligence (cq) and forms the basis for comprehending and decoding the behaviour of oneself and others (thomas et al., 2008). research indicates that certain abilities and attributes allow some individuals to be more effective during cross-cultural communications and allow them to become more aware of misunderstandings and miscommunications (ang & van dyne, 2008). it is argued that successful cross-cultural relationships are developed by individuals who are more culturally intelligent (ang & van dyne, 2008). thus, cq is an individual's ability to adapt, detect, understand, reason and act on cultural cues appropriately across cultural contexts (ng & early, 2006; van dyne et al., 2012). the question, however, is what aspects of a person makes them more prone to exhibit cq? theoretically, it is evident that a set of diverse individual differences could relate to cq (ang et al., 2006; ang & van dyne, 2008). according to ang and van dyne (2008), individual differences could be distinguished between trait-like and state-like constructs. trait-like constructs can be defined as individual differences not specific to a certain situation or task and stable over time, for example personality characteristics (chen, gully, whiteman & kilcullen, 2000). in comparison, state-like constructs are individual differences specific to a certain situation or task and tend to be compliant over time, for example anxiety (chen et al., 2000). furthermore, early and ang (2003) conceptualise personality characteristics and identity as antecedents or causal agents of cq. identity is a main force when structuring political, social and national relations (negus, 2002). it serves as a mean of internalising cultural meanings and identities to make sense of the world and to locate ourselves within it (dolby, 2001). identity surrounds us, influencing the way one maps out realities, possibilities and relations with others (dolby, 2001). it is valuable for oneself and others to be aware of one's own cq. having cq can assist in cross-cultural interactions, creating opportunities for young afrikaans-speaking south africans students to develop skills and competencies needed to function effectively in a diverse society (mahembe & engelbrecht, 2014). research purpose and objectives from the above it is evident that cq can assist in cross-cultural interactions, creating opportunities for young afrikaans-speaking south african students to develop skills and competencies needed to function effectively in a diverse society (hurtado, dey, gurin & gurin, 2003). furthermore, an individual being culturally intelligent increases the prospective for successful interactions and relationship building when interacting with individuals from cultural groups other than their own, which enhances intellectual and personal development and promotes more openness to diversity (ang & van dyne, 2008; early & ang 2003). studies on the factors that determine the cultural intelligence of youths are relatively sparse; hence, the present study intends to fill this gap by studying the relationship between personality, identity dimensions and cq. the general objective of this research is to determine the relationship between identity dimensions, personality and cultural intelligence. more specifically, we are interested in how different identity dimensions (personal, ethnic and religious; adams, van de vijver & de bruin, 2012) as well as personality factors (as identified by the south african personality inventory; nel et al., 2012) is associated with cq. identity is defined as a personality construct relating to an individual's understanding of who they are, having personal values and goals and knowing what they want to achieve in life (shaffer, 2010). personality refers to an individual's organised patterns of thought, feelings and behaviour (meyer, moore & viljoen, 2008). since the concept of cq is relatively new, also in the south african context, limited empirical research on the concept is available; this scarcity and the diverse composition of south africans in a culturally, ethnicity and religious diverse environment fuelled the current study. we would argue that the new knowledge pertaining to the relationship between personality, identity and cq in south africa will contribute to the broader field of positive psychology by providing answers on how south africans can function effectively, adapt and learn skills across cultural settings (sheldon & king, 2001). also, cq will contribute to positive psychology to urge a more open perspective towards the ability to function across cultures by successfully applying developed adaptations and learned skills. we continue this section by introducing cq and discussing its relationship with personality and identity. literature review cultural intelligence outwardly cq is defined as the natural ability of an individual to interpret and understand behaviour, emotions and motivations of individuals from cultures different from their own (early & mosakowski, 2004). it is the ability to function, adapt and manage effectively in a diverse cultural setting (ang et al., 2006). it considers not only an individual's ability to interact with others, but also their knowledge of themselves, their own culture and other cultures, as well as relations and perception skills associated with cross-cultural interaction (thomas et al., 2008). cq is grounded in the traditional stream of multiple intelligence, which is included in different perspectives of intelligence and comprises four main dimensions: cognitive cq, motivational cq, behavioural cq and metacognitive cq (sternberg & detterman, 1986). dimension 1, cognitive cq, is an individual's knowledge of the norms, conventions and practices in different cultures, acquired from educational and personal experiences (koh et al., 2009). it includes knowledge of legal, political, economic and social systems of different cultures and basic principles of cultural values (hofstede, 2001). thus, those with high cognitive cq are individuals who recognise the similarities and differences across cultures. this enables them to interact with individuals who are culturally different and assists them in making informed cultural judgments and decisions (ward, fischer, lam & hall, 2009). dimension 2, motivational cq, is an individual's ability to direct attention and energy towards learning about and functioning and adapting in new intercultural situations and surroundings (ang et al., 2006; koh et al., 2009). those with high motivational cq are high in intercultural self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation to engage in cross-cultural experiences and master their nuances because of high levels of confidence and interests in experiencing novel cultural settings (early & ang, 2003). dimension 3, behavioural cq, is an individual's ability to demonstrate suitable verbal and non-verbal actions during intercultural interactions (koh et al., 2009). furthermore, those with high levels of behavioural cq possess a broad and flexible range of behaviours and are able to demonstrate suitable behaviours based on the specifics of the situation (koh et al., 2009). those with high behavioural cq will be able to culturally adapt to and fit in certain situations and be able to vary their behaviour (ang et al., 2006). dimension 4, metacognitive cq, is an individual's entire cultural consciousness and awareness during intercultural interactions (koh, joseph & ang, 2009). the metacognitive factor of cq focuses on higher order cognitive processes. it involves the ability to plan, monitor and revise mental models of cultural norms. those with high levels of metacognitive cq will continuously engage in active thinking about people and situations when cultural backgrounds differ. these individuals will be critical about their own habits, assumptions and culturally bound thinking. they will also assess and adjust their mental map, which allows them to increase their probability for understanding individuals from other cultural groups and to reflect on the knowledge and preconceptions of that individual (van dyne, ang & koh, 2009). regarding measurement of cq, the cultural intelligence scale (cqs) was developed by reviewing existing intelligence and intercultural competency literature (koh et al., 2009) and conducting interviews with eight executives with broad global experience (ang et al., 2006). undergraduates in singapore were used for the initial factor structure validity, retaining the best 20 items with the strongest psychometrical properties (koh et al., 2009; van dyne et al., 2009). furthermore, cross-validation of the cqs demonstrated a strong relationship between the items and each subscale, supporting internal consistency with reliabilities greater than 0.70 (mahembe & engelbrecht, 2014; van dyne et al., 2009). in addition, the cqs provided results that supported that cq could be generalised across time and countries, thus providing support for item intercept invariance and invariance in factor loadings and factor covariance (ang et al., 2006). other research has correlated the basic personality traits of the big five factor model with an individual's cq (ryder, alden & paulhus, 2000). in accordance with these findings, clancy and dollinger (1993) report a relationship between identity and the five factors of personality. in the sections that follow, we discuss the various dimensions of identity (personal and social) and personality and their respective relationships with cq. the premise of our argument is that there is a relationship between identity, personality and cq, with identity and personality expected to act as antecedents or casual agents of cq (early & ang, 2003). personality: general definition and relation with cultural intelligence preceding research has identified individual-level factors, like personality, as predictors of cross-cultural adjustment (caligiuri, 2000). personality can be defined as the organisation of physical, psychological and spiritual characteristics of an individual which direct their behaviour in interaction within the context in which the individual finds themselves (meyer, moore & viljoen, 2008). identity represents the individualism of an individual's life which produces different behaviours across different social settings (mcferran, aquino & duffy, 2010). working with individuals who are culturally different might be difficult for some individuals, because of misunderstandings influencing the value of effective cross-cultural interactions (lievens, harris, van keer & bisqueret, 2003). for this reason, it is important to understand why some individuals are more effective than others in dealing with culturally diverse situations. personality may also be considered an important contributor to understanding cross-cultural effectiveness and hence cq, as individuals would be able to create new mental maps of other peoples’ personality and cultural background to assist individuals to react suitably to them (thomas, 2006). previous research has indicated that the big five strongly predict behaviour across time, contexts and cultures. the big five model consists of the five trait domains, as defined by goldberg's (1990) taxonomy: extraversion (or surgency), agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism (vs emotional stability), and openness to experience (or intellect and culture; simms, 2006). caligiuri (2000) emphasises the use of the big five taxonomy in classifying personality traits, due to the representation being a universal adaptive mechanism, allowing individuals to deal with and meet the demands of physical, social and cultural environments. the big five serve as adaptive mechanisms that influence individuals to behave in certain ways to accomplish goals, given particular situations (buss, 1991). thus, individuals with certain personality traits suited for a given social environment will adapt more effectively than those who do not have the appropriate traits or personality characteristics for that same role (ang, van dyne & koh, 2006). research done by ang et al. (2006) showed that certain personality traits were associated with cq. individuals who are high on the conscientiousness domain value and devote time and thought to planning, order, innovative problem-solving and are methodical during cross-cultural situations; thus, conscientiousness related positively to metacognitive cq (ang et al., 2006). high agreeableness relates positively to behavioural cq, indicating that individuals who are agreeable are easy-going in their social behaviours and more flexible in their verbal and non-verbal behaviours in a cultural intelligent manner during cross-cultural interactions. highly extroverted individuals have high levels of cognitive cq, motivational cq and behavioural cq. these individuals tend to be self-confident and sociably seek to interact in different cultural settings as they learn about the different cultures in the process and are not restrained to exhibit flexible behaviour (ang et al., 2006). in addition, extroverted individuals will be more likely able to deal with unfamiliar cross-cultural interactions than introverts. openness to experience (including curiosity, broad-mindedness and imagination) related to all four factors of cq. individuals who are open to change will be more willing to experience and enjoy new and unfamiliar situations and environments (pulakos, arad, donovan & plamondon, 2000). thomas and inkson (2003) state that inquisitiveness (openness) provides individuals with opportunities to develop cq through interacting across different cultural settings as they tend to be curious to investigate and pursue different knowledge. in addition, thomas and inkson indicate that the possession of hardiness as a personality characteristic to cope with stress, recover from shock and perceive stressful events, is supportive of the attainment of cq. interacting with people from different cultures involves ambiguity, tension and emotion. thus it is valuable to develop hardiness to develop cq. the south african personality inventory (sapi) will be used to measure the construct of personality (nel et al., 2012; valchev et al., 2013). the theoretical objective of sapi was to add insights to the general concept of the universality and cultural specificity of personality (van de vijver, meiring, rothmann, de bruin & foxcroft, 2006). furthermore, the practical objective was to develop a psychometrical instrument that complies with the present legislation in south africa (van de vijver et al., 2006). everyday conceptualisation of personalities founded within the south african context in all the official language groups were used to develop the sapi (meiring, 2005). furthermore, sapi aimed to assess the construct equivalence, reliability, validity and bias of the personality questionnaire for all 11 official languages in south africa. the purpose was to determine the degree of applicability of the personality structure founded in western studies and in the diverse south african groups. sapi was expected to find unique personality factors (meiring, 2005). the present study will focus on the following sapi constructs, as these may be best associated with cq: conscientiousness, extraversion, openness, soft-heartedness, relationship harmony, intellect, integrity and facilitating. conscientiousness is the achievement of goals through immense effort or inner drive, behaviour influenced by certain social standards, attitudes and practices and precision and thoroughness in a neat and tidy manner or in a habitual sequence (nel et al., 2012). extraversion is described as the act, state or habit of being mainly concerned with, and obtaining satisfaction from, what is outside the self, having the power or right to give orders or make decisions, being open to share or speak with other people, being energetic and optimistic and having the tendency or character to be sociable or to associate with one's fellows (nel et al., 2012). soft-heartedness represents the quality of being pleasant and kind and concerned with the welfare of others, having appreciation and gratitude towards others, taking other individuals’ needs and feeling into consideration and having humanity and compassion towards others (nel et al., 2012). relationship harmony represents characteristics and behaviour such as believing in maintaining good relationships, by being forgiving, calm, tolerant, understanding and cooperative (nel et al., 2012). openness is described as ‘being receptive to new and different ideas or things or to the opinions of others; it refers to a person who is open or receptive to others or ideas and a person who wants to learn new things’ (nel et al., 2012). intellect is described as the ability to think and obtain knowledge, having a natural ability or aptitude, being knowledgeable, socially skilful and attentive of external and internal things and having insight into the emotions and internal conflict of other individuals (nel et al., 2012). integrity is described as an individual's moral consciousness, characterised by truthfulness, devotion and trustworthiness (nel et al., 2012). facilitating is described as the ability to direct and lead people according to one's own experiences, through example and advice, and proactively encouraging people through one's own behaviour (nel et al., 2012). identity: general definition and relation with cultural intelligence identity is how the individual defines themselves (adams et al., 2012). it encompasses those personal and social aspects that enable the individual to make sense of their world and to locate themselves in it (dolby, 2001). identity can be defined as the bridging conception between the individual agency, choice and the creation of self, on the one hand, and history, culture and social roles on the other (watson, 2008). furthermore, identities are cognitive aspects of an individual and are internalised role expectations attached to social relationships (stryker, 2007). accordingly, it is the result of a dynamic, conscious and continuous struggle for an individual to develop an answer to the question of ‘who am i?’ caused by the need to be a part of something greater than themselves (kreiner, hollensbe & sheep, 2006; sveningsson & alvesson, 2003). cultural studies mainly focus on social and political issues of identity in south africa, because of intensified feelings of cohesion and ethnic identity separating south african society (swartz, 2008). it is thus important to understand the identities of each ethnocultural group (mattes, 2004). research has shown that identity has an important influence on how individuals map their realities, possibilities and relationships with others, yet this has not been discussed in psychological terms or on an individual level (dolby, 2001; swartz, 2008). identity is distinguished by two dimensions: personal identity and social identities. personal identity can be defined as the ‘me’ component of the self-concept. it stems from erikson's (1968) seminal work on the developmental trajectory of individuals into adulthood and reflects the interpersonal differentiation that derives from intra-individualistic characteristics, for example traits, beliefs and skills (onorato & turner, 2004). thus, it is the individual's own conception of who and what they are, focusing on the multiple qualities in which the individuals is unique and different from other individuals (garcia-prieto, bellard & schneider, 2003). social identity, which stems from social identity theory (sit; tajfel & turner, 1986) and self-categorization theory (sct; turner, 1999), refers to an individual's group membership. this is their knowledge that they belong to a social group (hitlin, 2003; hogg & abrams, 1993; onorato & turner, 2004). social identity emphasises commonality and cohesion with a significant social group, for example ‘i am a south african’ (garcia-prieto et al., 2003). it is extremely dynamic and can vary in terms both type and content as a function of inter-group relations and other immediate contextual factors; having a particular social identity means being in harmony with a particular group, defined by members who are similar to you, and behaving in a manner that is congruent with the group's values and perspectives (stets & burke, 2000). culture as a social aspect of identity may encompass both ethnicity and religion and plays an important role in shaping an individual's sense and identity and influencing an individual's behaviour and the way they act (ryder et al., 2000). personal and social identity influences an individual's behavioural choices as identity is negotiated between intra-individual aspects and the social context (garcia-prieto et al., 2003; verkuyten, 2005). research done by thomas and inkson (2003) indicates that a well-developed self-concept and understanding of an individual's own belief system motivates behaviour. individuals with an honest and clear understanding of themselves are not threatened by views and behaviours of individuals that differ from their own; furthermore, they are better able to understand and explain their own social experiences (markus & sentis, 1982). hence, these thoughts about oneself influences behaviours towards and interactions with others. we would argue that an individual with a coherent sense of identity would be more culturally intelligent. a clear sense of identity is characterised in some part by the ability to handle the outcomes of negative cross-cultural interactions (chen, lin & sawangpattanakul, 2011). if an individual's identity is not well developed it presents a potential obstacle and threat during cross-cultural interactions, which influences an overall cq and day-to-day cross-cultural interactions (imai & gelfand, 2010). cq thus provides an innovative framework for understanding an individual's social and personal identity (early & ang, 2003). the present study empirical studies and literature confirmed the capability of cq to predict behavioural outcomes such as cultural adaptation, cultural judgement, decision-making and successful completion of overseas assignments (ang et al., 2006). previous research primarily focused on personality factors (the big five personality dimensions) and not identity, leading to the hypothesis that personality characteristics (trait-like individual differences) are predictors of cq (state-like individual differences) (ang et al., 2006; early & ang, 2003). thoughts about oneself influence behaviour and interactions with others (early & ang, 2003). also, literature suggests that personality characteristics are significant predictors for success in cross-cultural settings; for this reason, the importance of personality correlating with cq is emphasised. identity and personality form the basis and anchor the individuals during cross-cultural interactions (early & ang, 2003). thus, high cq is associated with identity and personality since understanding new cultures may involve the discarding of pre-existing conceptualisations about cross-cultural interactions. this study will thus emphasise the importance of a young afrikaans-speaking south africans’ identity and personality characteristics in forming an individuals’ general levels of cq. research design top ↑ research approach the study was a quantitative study. according to struwig and stead (2007), research that is quantitative in nature is a form of conclusive research involving large representative samples and data collection procedures that that are comparatively structured. a cross-sectional survey was used to collect the data and to achieve the research objectives. during a cross-sectional design several groups of people are examined at one point in a time (salkind, 2009). the advantage of using this approach for the study was that it was less expensive and time consuming. research method research participants for the purpose of this study, a sample of young south african university students (n = 252) were used. the sampling methods were convenience and quota sampling. according to struwig and stead (2007), a convenience sample is chosen based on its availability and with quota sampling the respondents are selected according to their characteristics. the participants were young white, afrikaans-speaking south african students from a university based in north west. in this study, the majority of participants were female (63.90%) and 19 years of age (51.60%). almost all of the participants were christian (90.10%). furthermore, the majority of participants were students in their first year (72.20%) and had a good english reading ability (61.90%). measuring instruments biographical questionnaire: a biographical questionnaire was used to measure age, gender, religion, english reading ability and level of education. cultural intelligence: cq was measured with the 20-item, self-reported four factor model of cultural intelligence scale developed and validated by ang et al. (2006). the scale included four items for metacognitive cq, six for cognitive cq, five for motivational cq and five for behavioural cq. sample items included ‘i am conscious of the cultural knowledge i apply to cross cultural interaction’ for metacognitive cq, ‘i know the rules for expressing non-verbal behaviors in other cultures’ for cognitive cq, ‘i enjoy interacting with people from different cultures’ for motivational cq and ‘i change my verbal behaviour when a cross-cultural interactions requires it’ for behavioural cq. respondents were asked to use a seven-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) to indicate the extent to which each item described them. cronbach's alphas in the present study showed high reliability (α = 0.92) overall, along with high reliability for the four dimensional subscales: metacognitive cq (α = 0.90), cognitive cq (α = 0.91), motivational cq (α = 0.89) and behavioural cq (α = 0.90) (imai & gelfand, 2010). a recent south african preliminary validation study by mahembe and engelbrecht (2014) amongst young adult south africans found the following alpha coefficients: metacognitive cq (α = 0.79), cognitive cq (α = 0.81), motivational cq (α = 0.83) and behavioural cq (α = 0.84). personality measure: personality was measured by items from the sapi scale (hill et al., 2013). we selected 99 items from the pool to represent the nine clusters: soft-heartedness (21 items), relationship harmony (14 items), openness (9 items), extroversion (13 items), emotional stability (14 items), integrity (9 items), intellect (6 items), facilitating (3 items) and conscientiousness (11 items). respondents were asked to use a seven-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) to indicate the extent to which each item described their personalities. the scale has the following reliability (cronbach's alpha) values: soft-heartedness (α = 0.85), relationship harmony (α = 0.86), openness (α = 0.83), extroversion (α = 0.78), emotional stability (α = 0.82), integrity (α = 0.86), intellect (α = 0.76), facilitating (α = 0.81) and conscientiousness (α = 0.85). all the clusters of the sapi were included in a shortened version. included items did well in the pilot and validation study (hill et al., 2013). identity: personal and social identity were measured by three scales. personal identity was measured with the 12-item subscale of the erikson psycho social inventory (epsi) developed by rosenthal, gurney and moore (1981). this measure was adapted and validated for the south african context by adams et al. (in process). a sample item is ‘i change my opinion of myself a lot’. respondents were asked to use a five-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (not applicable to me) to 5 (always applicable to me) to indicate the extent to how they feel about themselves. the scale has a reliability (cronbach's alpha) value of 0.71. the religious identity short scale (riss) was used by adams et al. (inprocess) in an international study on adolescents’ identity and well-being. it is a unidimensional scale with six items rated on a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 (not applicable to me) to 5 (always applicable to me). the six items measure how individuals may feel about their religious views. items include ‘i perceive myself as a member of my religious community’ and ‘my religious beliefs will remain stable’. the scale has a reliability (cronbach's alpha) value of between 0.77 and 0.91 (adams et al., in process). the multi-ethnic identity measure (meim) was used to measure ethnic identity exploration and belonging (phinney, 1992). the measure consisted of 12 items. a sample item is ‘i have spent time trying to find out more about my ethnic group, such as its history, traditions and customs’. respondents were asked to use a four-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree) to indicate the extent to which they would describe their feelings about their ethnic group. the scale has a reliability (cronbach's alpha) value of between 0.81 and 0.89 across ethnic groups (phinney, 1992). research procedure and ethical considerations booklets, containing all the questionnaires, were compiled after permission was gained from the ethical committee from a tertiary institution based in north west and ethical clearance was given. the time required to complete the questionnaire was about 90 minutes. the participants completed the questionnaire during class and were given two hours to complete the questionnaires. participants were reminded of completion a week before the questionnaires were collected, after which the data collection process ended and the data analysis was performed. participation in the study was voluntary and the confidentiality and anonymity of participants were emphasised. the participants were informed about the purpose and aim of the study. statistical analysis the statistical analysis was carried out using ibm spss (pallant, 2013) and mplus 7.11 (muthén & muthén, 2013). spss was used to calculate descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) and cronbach's alpha coefficients were used to determine the reliability of the constructs that were measured. further analysis was conducted with mplus. regretfully, normal structural equation modelling methods were not possible due to the number of parameters that had to be estimated in comparison to the sample size. therefore, the factors were created with sum scores from the items to lessen the number of parameters; ultimately, multiple regression methods was the only viable option. all of the regressions were specified in the same analysis (multiple regression) and the maximum-likelihood estimator (robust version) was chosen for the analysis. this specific estimator is advantageous as it is robust against the possibility of non-normality in the data and presents more accurate standard errors. product-moment correlation coefficients were used to specify the relationships between the variables and regression analysis to determine which dimensions of personality and identity predicted cq. effect sizes were used to determine the practical significance of the results. cut-off points of 0.30 (medium effect) and 0.50 (large effect) were set for the practical significance of the correlation coefficients (cohen, 1988). results top ↑ the results section consists of five tables encompassing the statistical outcomes from the collected data, followed by a short report. table 1 includes the descriptive statistics and cronbach's alpha coefficients. table 2 presents the correlations between variables. tables 3–6 show the results of the regression analysis with personality and identity as independent variables and cq as the dependent variable. table 1: descriptive statistics and cronbach's alpha coefficients of the measuring instruments. table 2: correlation coefficients between cultural intelligence, personality and identity. the assessment of table 1 shows that acceptable cronbach's alpha coefficients were obtained, ranging from 0.63 to 0.91. eight scales, namely emotional stability, extraversion, facilitating, integrity, intellect, openness, relationship harmony and personal identity, showed an alpha coefficient lower than the guideline cut-off of 0.70 (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). however, according to black and porter (1996), an alpha coefficient of 0.60 and higher should still be considered adequate in research where relatively new concepts are studied, as is the case in this study. the scores on the sapi, cqs, epsi and meim questionnaires are normally distributed. as can be seen in table 2, cognitive cq correlates practically and statistically significantly with metacognitive cq (medium effect; r = 0.42), motivational cq (medium effect; r = 0.48) and behavioural cq (large effect; r = 0.52). metacognitive cq correlates practically and statistically significantly with motivational cq (large effect; r = 0.54), behavioural cq (large effect; r = 0.55), conscientiousness (medium effect; r = 0.33), emotional stability (medium effect; r = 0.30), extroversion (medium effect; r = 0.31), facilitating (medium effect; r = 0.40), intellect (medium effect; r = 0.47) and openness (medium effect; r = 0.42). motivational cq correlates practically and significantly with behavioural cq (large effect; r = 0.58) and correlates practically and statistically significantly with facilitating (medium effect; r = 0.30), intellect (medium effect; r = 0.34) and openness (medium effect; r = 0.31). behavioural cq correlates practically and statistically significantly with conscientiousness (medium effect; r = 0.31), emotional stability (medium effect; r = 0.34), extroversion (medium effect; r = 0.31), intellect (medium effect; r = 0.33), openness (medium effect, r = 32), relationship harmony (medium effect; r = 0.34) and soft-heartedness (medium effect; r = 0.35). the following tables include the results of the regression analysis. table 3 summarises the regression analysis with personality and identity as predictors of cognitive cq. more specifically, religious identity (ß = -0.17; p ≤ 0.05) and ethnic identity (ß = 0.15; p ≤ 0.05) predict cognitive cq. table 3: multiple regression analysis with cognitive cultural intelligence as dependent variable. table 4 summarises the regression analysis with personality and identity as predictors of metacognitive cq. more specifically, intellect (ß = 0.29; p ≤ 0.05), facilitating (ß = 0.19; p ≤ 0.05) and ethnic identity (ß = 0.11; p ≤ 0.05) predict metacognition cq. table 4: multiple regression analysis with metacognitive cultural intelligence as dependent variable. table 5 summarises the regression analysis with personality and identity as predictors of motivational cq. more specifically, soft-heartedness (ß = 0.29; p ≤ 0.05), facilitating (ß = 0.18; p ≤ 0.05) extroversion (ß = -0.18; p ≤ 0.05) and religious identity (ß = -0.16; p ≤ 0.05) predict motivational cq. table 5: multiple regression analysis with motivational cultural intelligence as dependent variable. table 6 summarises the regression analysis with personality and identity as predictors of behavioural cq. more specifically, soft-heartedness (ß = 0.41; p ≤ 0.05) and conscientiousness (ß = 0.23; p ≤ 0.05) predict behavioural cq. table 6: multiple regression analysis with behavioural cultural intelligence as dependent variable. discussion top ↑ outline of results the results will be discussed and further evaluated in this section. first of all, the relationships between the constructs will be discussed and evaluated. the discussion will then be followed by evaluating the personality and identity aspects that predict cq outcomes. the specific objective was to determine the relationship between aspects of cq and aspects of personality and identity amongst afrikaans-speaking south african youth. it is evident that metacognitive cq is related practically and statistically significantly to conscientiousness, emotional stability, extroversion, facilitating, intellect and openness. some of these findings are consistent with ang et al. (2006). individuals will find it easier to be culturally intelligent if they value planning and order, possess effective emotional skills and creativity, are encouraging and open towards others and eager to learn new things. thus, afrikaans-speaking south african youth with these personality characteristics have the ability to develop higher levels of metacognitive cq. motivational cq related practically and statistically significantly with facilitating, intellect and openness. individuals who tend to guide and encourage others, have high levels of social intellect and skilfulness and are open to change will be more likely to be able to direct their energy towards cultural differences. thus, afrikaans-speaking south african youth with these personality characteristics have the ability to develop higher levels of motivational cq. behavioural cq correlated practically and statistically significantly with conscientiousness, emotional stability, extroversion, intellect, relationship harmony and soft-heartedness. individuals who value order and planning, together with a strong ego and emotional sensitivity, a tendency to be open, social intellect and skilfulness, approachability and interpersonal relatedness and demonstrate empathy and gratitude will be able to demonstrate suitable verbal and non-verbal actions during cross-cultural interactions and settings. thus, afrikaans-speaking south african youth with these personality characteristics have the ability to develop higher levels of behavioural cq (ang et al., 2006). cognitive cq and behavioural cq were not statistically significant related to openness in this study. this finding is in contrast to that of ng and early (2006) and implies that openness is a critical personality trait and relevant to the diverse environment. also, the relationships between openness and relationship harmony (0.82) and soft-heartedness and relationship harmony (0.79) are high, thus indicating that the sapi-questionnaire items might measure the same construct. in addition, the results in general supported the theoretically based predictions and demonstrated that cq is associated with personality and identity as the second specific objective. those afrikaans-speaking south african youths with a well-developed ethnic identity have knowledge of norms, practices and conventions of their own cultural settings, thus building a foundation for decision-making and performance across cultural settings. ethnic identity was thus positively related to cognitive cq. this is in line with research done by early and ang (2003). regarding the negative aspect of cognitive cq, the regression analysis showed that religious identity contributes strongly negatively to cognitive cq. thus, individuals with no religious identity will not be able to interact with people from culturally different environments due to their lack of a formed basic framework of cultural values. furthermore, intellect, facilitating and ethnic identity were positive predictors of metacognitive cq. this makes sense because a person with high levels of intellect tends to be more willing to learn new things and to pursue new knowledge, increasing the accuracy of their understanding (ang et al., 2006; thomas & inkson, 2003). additionally, someone who has high levels of facilitating has the ability to guide, motivate and encourage other individuals to realise their potential. this is a critical component of metacognitive cq because it promotes active thinking about people and situations when their cultural backgrounds differ. soft-heartedness, facilitating, extroversion and religious identity were positive predictors for motivational cq. this is consistent with research done by ang et al. (2006), which indicated that highly extroverted individuals will be more self-confident and will sociably seek interactions in different intercultural settings. furthermore, an understanding of an individual's own belief system will motivate behaviour influencing the ideal outcomes and ways of behaving (fiske & taylor, 1984; thomas & inkson, 2003). also, individuals with high levels of soft-heartedness and facilitating are usually concerned with the welfare of their peers and the broader community, as well as with guiding, motivating and encouraging other individuals. this makes sense, because these individuals will function more effectively in cross-cultural situations through sociocultural adaption and social empathy (ward et al., 2009). furthermore, soft-heartedness and conscientiousness were positive predictors of behavioural cq. an individual with high levels of soft-heartedness and conscientiousness has the ability to demonstrate concern for others and to be sensitive towards others, as well as the ability to comply with the social norm (koh et al., 2009). this is a critical component of behavioural cq because it allows an individual to demonstrate suitable behaviour based on the specific intercultural situation. thus, in our diverse culture having these personality traits will allow individuals to demonstrate appropriate verbal and non-verbal actions during cross-cultural interactions and situations, in other words will show ubuntu (nel et al., 2012). the present findings failed to support ang et al.'s (2006) findings that openness to experience (including curiosity, broad-mindedness and imagination) predicts all four factors of cq. an individual with high levels of openness tends to be more willing to learn and experience new things. also, extroversion did not predict cognitive cq and behavioural cq. ang et al. state that extroverted individuals tend to seek interactions in different cultural settings and are not restrained in exhibiting flexible behaviour. the explanation for this inconsistency might be that that openness to change and an extroverted personalities within a diverse south africa are to some extent unknown for our society. thus, on the one hand is the afrikaans-speaking south african youth who welcome new challenges and master the diversity of the new social field and on the other those who resist change and hold on to their fixed values (vestergaard, 2001). another unanticipated result was personal identity (self-concept) not predicting all four factors of cq. this is inconsistent with markus and sentis (1982), who argue that an individual with a clear understanding of themselves would not be threatened by intercultural situations. however this could be supported with the notion that afrikaans-speaking south african youths are faced with difficulty in forming their identities (dolby, 2001; thomas & inkson, 2003). practical implications research has been done on cq and various external behavioural outcomes; however, the present findings open a new window to the investigation of personality, identity and cq within the south african context. although cq has been proven to be important, literature has highlighted it as an underexplored research issue. for that reason, this study makes a contribution to accumulating literature on positive psychology and cq. students within south africa will gain a better understanding of cq and the benefits of having cq in a diverse context will attribute to a better strengths-based approach. culturally intelligent students will enable the university to create a cross-cultural inclusive environment in which students can adjust to working with students from other cultures, transfer knowledge of one culture to another, complete assignments successfully, not feel threatened when interacting with members from other cultural groups, improve cross-cultural decision-making, exhibit leadership in multicultural environments and improve working relationships in their future careers. research on cq is still new in south africa. a recent study by mahembe and engelbrecht (2014) explored the construct validity amongst a south african sample, whilst previous research focused more on managers and leadership behaviour with cq (de vos, 2012; du plessis, 2011). the concept of cq is unique in south africa since the country has various indigenous cultural groups that are obligated to work together in a multicultural environment. therefore, it is important to build on theory for this concept in the south african context, especially in cross-cultural studies. each cultural group is unique in terms of their history, social standing and educational scope in south africa. to explore the phenomena adequately in south africa, an emic-etic approach (goldberg, 1990) will suffice in order to tap deeper into what cq entails in a multicultural south africa. furthermore, the inclusion of personality and identity in this study means that it provides valued findings in terms of individual differences and the effect thereof on a person's cq. limitations and recommendations the study described in this article had several limitations. firstly, the participants in the study consisted only of young afrikaans-speaking south africans from a higher education institution. more research is needed into identity, personality and cq from other language and cultural groups in south africa as well as from different universities. secondly, the sample size was considered relatively small (n = 252), which had an impact on statistical power. additionally, we would not advise generalisation to other populations from the current study. lastly, some of the cronbach's alpha coefficients of the sapi questionnaire did not meet the requirement of nunnally and bernstein (1994) that the alpha value be above 0.70. however, because this is an exploratory study, alpha coefficients of 0.60 or higher are deemed acceptable (black & porter, 1996). the current study only focused on young afrikaans-speaking south africans from a higher education institution; additional studies should be carried out in other south african universities, as well as other language groups. the results obtained in such studies could then be compared with those obtained in the present study, promoting an in-depth investigation of cq across cultures in south africa. future studies should also use larger samples to increase the confidence that study findings would be consistent across other similar groups. conclusion the current study provided insights into the relationship between specific aspects of personality, identity and cq. the four dimensions of cq were practically and statistically significantly related to each one of the cq dimensions, consistent with the results of ang et al. (2006). in fact, an individual with metacognition, cognition (mental intelligence), motivational and behavioural intelligence will be able to interact across various cultural settings and situations. it was also evident that various personality aspects predicted most aspects of cq, religious identity was found to be the most profound predictor of cq elements, whilst ethnic identity did predict some elements of cq. with personality it was not surprising when reviewing the results since similar findings were found in a previous study by ang et al. (2006). however, a unique finding from this study was the inclusion of identity with cq. religious and ethnic identity (as social identity elements; landman, 2013) predicted some of the aspects of cq. it seems that social identity is an important aspect amongst the afrikaans youth and it influences the way they conduct themselves in multicultural settings. acknowledgements top ↑ the sapi project aims to develop an indigenous personality measure for all 11 official languages in south africa. participants are b.a. (university of johannesburg and tilburg university, the netherlands), c.h. (university of johannesburg), l.j. (north-west university), d.m. (university of pretoria), j.a.n. (north-west university), i.r. (north-west university), v.v. (university of pretoria), and f.v.d.v. (north-west university, tilburg university, the netherlands, and university of queensland, australia). competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions n.n. (north-west university) was the first author and this publication originated from her master's dissertation. j.a.n. (north-west university) acted as the first author's supervisor and gave important direction and conceptual inputs. b.g.a. (tilburg university) provided input, guidance and reviews during the write-up. l.t.d.b. (north-west university) acted as corresponding author, performed the statistical analysis and also wrote that section of the article. references top ↑ adams, b.g., & crafford, a. (2012). identity at work: exploring strategies for identity work. sa journal of industrial psychology, 38(1), 45–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v38i1.904 adams, b.g., abubakar, a., van de vijver, a.j.r., alonso-arbiolo, i., kamble, s., mazrui, l. et al. (in process). identity in context: a six-nation study on adolescent identity and well-being. adams, b.g., van de vijver, f.j.r., & de bruin, g.p. (2012). identity in sa: examining self-descriptions across ethnic groups. international journal of intercultural relations, 30, 377–388. retrieved from http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ijintrel.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2011.11.008 ang, s., & van dyne, l. (2008). conceptualization of cultural intelligence: definition, distinctiveness, and nomological. in s. ang, & l. van dyne (eds.), handbook of cultural intelligence: theory, measurement and applications (pp. 3–15). new york, ny: m.e. sharpe. ang, s., van dyne, l., & koh, c. (2006). personality correlates of the four-factor model of cultural intelligence. group & organization management, 31, 64–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1059601105275267 bikson, t.k., & law, s.a. (1994). global preparedness and human resources. santa monica, ca: rand institute on education and training. black, s.a, & porter, l.j. (1996). identification of the critical factors of tqm. decision sciences, 27(1), 1–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5915.1996.tb00841.x booysen, l.a.e., & nkomo, s.m. (2014). new developments in employment equity and diversity management in south africa. in a. klarsfeld, l.a.e. booysen, e. ng, i. roper, & a. tatli (eds.), international handbook on diversity management at work (2nd edn., pp. 241–265). padstow, uk: t.j. international ltd. http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/9780857939319.00018 buss, d.m. (1991). evolutionary personality psychology. in m.r. rosenzweig, & l.w. porter (eds.), annual review of psychology (pp. 459–492). palo alto, ca: annual reviews. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ps.42.020191.002331 caligiuri, p.m. (2000). the big five personality characteristics as predictors of expatriate's desire to terminate the assignment and supervisor-rated performance. personnel psychology, 53, 67–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2000.tb00194.x chen, a.s., lin y., & sawangpattanakul, a. (2011). the relationship between cultural intelligence and performance with the mediating effect of culture shock: a case from philippine labourers in taiwan. international journal of intercultural relations, 35, 246–258. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2010.09.005 chen, g., gully, s.m., whiteman, j., & kilcullen, r.n. (2000). examination of relationships among trait-like individual differences, state-like individual differences, and learning performance. journal of applied psychology, 85(6), 835–847. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.85.6.835 clancy, s.m., & dollinger, s.j. (1993). identity, self and personality: identity status and the five-factor model of personality. journal of research on adolescence, 3, 227–245. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327795jra0303_2 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. (rev. edn.). orlando, fl: academic press. de vos, a.j. (2012). cultural intelligence as a fundamental enabler in the sa army's peacekeeping repertoire. south african army journal, 8, 30–37. dolby, m.e. (2001). constructing race: youth, identity, and popular culture in south africa. new york, ny: state university of new york press. du plessis, y. (2011). cultural intelligence as managerial competence. alternation, 18(1), 28–46. early, p.c., & ang, s. (2003). cultural intelligence: individual interactions across cultures. palo alto, ca: stanford university press. early, p.c., & masokowski, e. (2004). cultural intelligence. harvard business review, 80(10), 139–146. erikson, e.h. (1968). identity, youth and crisis. new york, ny: norton. fiske, s., & taylor, s. (1984). social cognition. reading, ma: addison-wesley. garcia-prieto, p., bellard, e., & schneider, s.c. (2003). experiencing diversity, conflict, and emotions in teams. applied psychology: an international review, 52(3), 413–440. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1464-0597.00142 goldberg, l.r. (1990). an alternative ‘description of personality’: the big five factor structure. journal of personality and social psychology, 59, 1216–1229. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.59.6.1216 harrison, n., & peacock, n. (2010). cultural distance, mindfulness and passive xenophobia: using integrated threat theory to explore home higher education students perspectives and internationalisation at home. british educational research journal, 36(6), 877–902. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01411920903191047 hill, c., nel, j.a., van de vijver, f.j.r., meiring, d., adams, b.r., valchev, v.h. et al. (2013). developing and testing items for the south african personality inventory. sa journal of industrial psychology, 12(1), 1–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i1.1122 hitlin, s. (2003). values as the core of personality identity: drawing links between two theories of self. social psychology quarterly, 66(2), 118–137. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1519843 hofstede, g. (2001). culture's consequences: comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations. thousand oaks, ca: sage. hogg, m.a., & abrams, d. (1993). towards a single-process uncertainty-reduction model of social motivation in groups. in m.a. hogg & d. abrams (eds.), group motivation: social psychological perspectives (pp. 173–190). london, uk: harvester/wheatsheaf. hurtado, s., dey, e.l., gurin, p.y., & gurin, g. (2003). college environments, diversity, and student learning. in j.c. smart (ed.), higher education: handbook of theory and research (vol. 18, pp. 145–189). dordrecht, the netherlands: kluwer. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0137-3_3 imai, l., & gelfand, m.j. (2010). the culturally intelligent negotiator: the impact of cultural intelligence (cq) on negotiation sequences and outcomes. organizational behaviour and human decision processes, 112, 83–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2010.02.001 kaus, w. (2014). conspicuous consumption and race: evidence from south africa. papers on economics and evolution, 1003, 1–21. retrieved from http://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/32637/1/622802046.pdf koh, c., joseph, d., & ang, s. (2009). cultural intelligence and global it talent. in h. bidgoli (ed.), the handbook of technology management (vol. 3, pp. 828–844). new york, ny: john wiley & sons. kreiner, g.e., hollensbe, e.c., & sheep, m.l. (2006). where is the me among the we: identity work and the search for optimal balance. academy of management journal, 49(5), 1031–1057. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2006.22798186 landman, c. (2013). the (de)construction of religious identity in oral history research in south africa. studia historiae ecclesiasticae, 39(1), 1–14. lievens, f., harris, m.m., van keer, e., & bisqueret, c. (2003). predicting cross-cultural training performance: the validity of personality, cognitive ability, and dimensions measured by an assessment center and a behavior description interview. journal of applied psychology, 88, 476–489. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.3.476 mahembe, b., & engelbrecht, a.s. (2014). a preliminary study to assess the construct validity of a cultural intelligence measure on a south african sample. south african journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.558 makalela, l., & mccabe, r. (2013). monolingualism in a historically black south african university: a case of inheritance. linguistics and education, 24(4), 406–414. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2013.09.004 markus, h., & sentis, k. (1982). the self in social information processing. in j. suls (ed.), psychological perspectives on the self (pp. 41–70). hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum. mattes, r. (2004). understanding identity in africa: a first cut. working paper 2004–38. cape town, south africa: afrobarometer. maznevski, m., & distefano, j.j. (2000). global leaders are team players: developing global leaders through membership on global teams. human resource management, 39, 195–208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/1099-050x(200022/23)39:2/3<195::aid-hrm9>3.0.co;2-i mcferran, b., aquino, k., & duffy, m. (2010). how personality and moral identity relate to individuals’ ethical ideology. business ethics quarterly, 20(1), 35–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/beq20102014 meiring, d. (2005). sapi project (2005–2009). retrieved september 13 2014, from http://www.meiringd.co.za/projects.html meyer, w.f., moore, c., & viljoen, h.g. (2008). personology: from individual to ecosystem. (4th edn.). johannesburg, south africa: heinemann. muthén, l.k., & muthén, b.o. (2013). mplus user's guide. (7th edn.). los angeles, ca: muthén & muthén. naughton, w.m. (2010). do highly effective principals have high levels of cultural intelligence? unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of la verne, la verne, ca. retrieved from proquest dissertations and theses database. (umi no. 3430709). negus, k. (2002). the work of cultural intermediaries and the enduring distance between production and consumption. cultural studies, 16(4), 501–515. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09502380210139089 nel, j.a., valchev, v., rothmann, s., van de vijver, f., meiring, d., & de bruin, g. (2012). personality structure in south africa. journal of personality, 81(2), 61–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2011.00751.x ng, k.y., & early, p.c. (2006). culture and intelligence old constructs, new frontiers. group and organization management, 31, 4–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1059601105275251 nkomo, s.m., & kriek, d. (2011). leading organizational change in the ‘new’ south africa. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 84, 453–470. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.2011.02020.x nunnally, j.c. & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory. (3rd edn.). boston, ma: mcgraw-hill. onorato, r.s., & turner, j.c. (2004). fluidity in the self-concept: the shift from personal to social identity. european journal of social psychology, 34, 257–278. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.195 pallant, j. (2013). spss survival guide: a step by step guide to data analysis using ibm spss. (5th edn.). berkshire, uk: mcgraw-hill open university press. phinney, j. (1992). the multigroup ethnic identity measure: a new scale for use with adolescents and young adults from diverse groups. journal of adolescent research, 7, 156–176. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/074355489272003 pulakos, e.d., arad, s., donovan, m.a., & plamondon, k.e. (2000). adaptability in the workplace: development of a taxonomy of adaptive performance. journal of applied psychology, 85, 612–624. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.85.4.612 rosenthal, d.a., gurney, r.m., & moore, s.m. (1981). from trust to intimacy: a new inventory for examining erikson's stages of psychosocial development. journal of youth and adolescence, 10, 525–537. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf02087944 ryder, a.g., alden, l.e., & paulhus, d.l. (2000). is acculturation unidimensional or bidimensional? a head-to-head comparison in the prediction of personality, self-identity, and adjustment. american psychological association, 79(1), 49–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0022–3514.79.1.49 salkind, n.j. (2009). exploring research. (7th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. shaffer, m.a. (2000). disruptions to women's social identity: a comparative study of workplace stress experienced by women in three geographic regions. journal of occupational health psychology, 5(4), 441–456. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.5.4.441 sheldon, k.m., & king, l. (2001). why positive psychology is necessary. american psychologist, 56(3), 216–217. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0003-066x.56.3.216 simms, l.j. (2006). the big seven model of personality and its relevance to personality pathology. journal of personality, 75(1), 65–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2006.00433.x statistics south africa. (2014). mid-year population estimates. retrieved september 10, 2014, from http://beta2.statssa.gov.za/publications/p0302/p03022014.pdf sternberg, r.j., & detterman, d.k. (1986). what is intelligence? contemporary viewpoints on its nature and definition. norwood, nj: ablex. stets, j.e., & burke, p.j. (2000). identity theory and social identity theory. social psychology quarterly, 63(3), 224–237. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2695870 struwig, f.w., & stead, g.b. (2007). planning, designing and reporting research. (4th edn.). cape town, south africa: pearson education south africa. stryker, s. (2007). identity theory and personality theory: mutual relevance. journal of personality, 75(6), 1–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2007.00468.x sveningsson, s., & alvesson, m. (2003). managing managerial identities: organisational fragmentation, discourse and identity struggle. human relations, 56(10), 1163–1193. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00187267035610001 swartz, s.m. (2008). composition and identity: a theoretical approach to first-year composition. published doctoral dissertation, department of english, indiana university of pennsylvania, philadelphia, pa. retrieved from proquest. (3303547). tajfel, h., & turner, j.c. (1986). the social identity theory of intergroup behavior. in s. austin and w.g. austin (eds.), psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 7–24). chicago, il: nelson-hall. thomas, d.c. (2006). domain and development of cultural intelligence: the importance of mindfulness. group organization management, 31(1), 78–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1059601105275266 thomas, d.c., & inkson, k. (2003). people skills for global business: cultural intelligence. san francisco, ca: berrett-koehler publishers, inc. thomas, d.c., elron, e., stahl, g., ekelund, b.z., ravlin, e.c., cerdin, j. et al. (2008). cultural intelligence: domain and assessment. international journal of cross-cultural management, 8(2), 123–143. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1470595808091797 turner, j.c. (1999). some current issues in research on social identity and self-categorization theories. in n. ellemers, r. spears & b. doosje (eds.), social identity (pp. 6–34). oxford, uk: blackwell. valchev, v.h., nel, j.a., rothmann, s., van de vijver, f.j.r., meiring, d., & de bruin, g.p. (2013). similarities and differences in implicit personality concepts across ethno-cultural groups in south africa. journal of cross-cultural psychology, 44(3), 365–388. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022022112443856 van de vijver, f., meiring, d., rothmann, i., de bruin, g.p., & foxcroft, c. (2006). development of the south african personality inventory (sapi) in 11 indigenous language groups. retrieved september 14, 2014, from http://www.intestcom.org/downloads/itc2006brussels/session3.2.4vandevijver.pdf van dyne, l., ang, s., & koh, c.k.s. (2009). cultural intelligence: measurement and scale development. in m.a. moodian (eds.), contemporary leadership and intercultural competence: exploring the cross-cultural dynamics within organizations (pp. 233–254). thousand oaks, ca: sage. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452274942.n18 van dyne, l., ang, s., ng, k.y., rockstuhl, t., tan, m.l., & koh, c. (2012). sub-dimensions of the four factor model of cultural intelligence: expanding the conceptualization and measurement of cultural intelligence. social and personality psychology compass, 6(4), 313–395. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2012.00429.x verkuyten, m. (2005). the social psychology of ethnic identity. new york, ny: psychology press. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203338704 vestergaard, m. (2001). who's got the map? the negotiation of afrikaner identity in post-apartheid south africa. daedalus, 130(1), 19–44. ward, c., fischer, r., lam, f.s.z., & hall, l. (2009). the convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity of scores on a self-report measure of cultural intelligence. educational and psychological measurement, 69(1), 85–105. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013164408322001 watson, t.j. (2008). managing identity: identity work, personal predicaments and structural circumstances. organization, 15(1), 43–121. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1350508407084488 article information authors: ndayiziveyi takawira1 melinde coetzee2 dries schreuder2 affiliations: 1department of human resource management, university of south africa, south africa2department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: ndayiziveyi takawira postal address: po box 392, pretoria 0003, south africa dates: received: 30 jan. 2013 accepted: 25 feb. 2014 published: 06 may 2014 how to cite this article: takawira, n., coetzee, m., & schreuder, d. (2014). job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention of staff in a higher education institution: an exploratory study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12(1) art. #524, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.524 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention of staff in a higher education institution: an exploratory study in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • potential value-add    • background to the study    • research objective    • literature review       • job embeddedness       • work engagement       • turnover intention       • the relationship between job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention • method    • research approach    • research design       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analyses • results    • descriptive statistics    • correlational statistics    • multiple regression • discussion • conclusion    • implications for human resource management • limitations and recommendations for future research • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the world economy is becoming increasingly knowledge driven, and intellectual capital is now considered as a human resource that affords organisations a competitive advantage. a high turnover rate in higher education and the importance of retaining staff are concerns that have resulted in increased interest in psychological variables, such as job embeddedness and work engagement that may influence employee retention.research purpose: the objective of this study was to explore the relationship between job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention of staff in a higher education institution. motivation for the study: research on how employees’ job embeddedness and work engagement influence their turnover intention is important in the light of organisational concerns about retaining knowledgeable staff in the current higher education environment. research design, approach and method: a cross-sectional quantitative survey was conducted on a non-probability purposive sample (n = 153) of academic and non-academic staff in a south african higher education institution. main findings: correlational analyses revealed significant relationships between job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention. multiple regression analyses showed that organisational links and dedication significantly and negatively predict turnover intention. practical/managerial implications: when designing retention strategies, management and human resource practitioners need to recognise how job embeddedness and work engagement influence the turnover intention of higher education staff. contribution: these findings contribute valuable new knowledge that can be applied in the retention of staff in the higher education environment. introduction top ↑ key focus of the study as the global economy is increasingly knowledge driven, and with a global skills shortage, intellectual capital has become a source of competitive advantage for organisations (halawi, aronson & mccarthy, 2005; powell & snellman, 2004). furthermore, more organisations are awakening to the need to grow the intellectual capital of their employees in order to compete successfully in an increasingly demanding global economy (burke & el-kot, 2010; lawler, 2008). retention of talent has, therefore, become more critical, both in south africa and globally. (macey & schneider, 2008; powell & snellman, 2004; ryder, 2010). the present study seeks to contribute to the literature on staff retention by focusing on the relationship between the constructs of job embeddedness and work engagement, and the turnover intention of employees. these variables have been linked to staff retention in the research literature (halbesleben & wheeler, 2008) but their relationship has not been examined in the south african higher education context. this investigation seeks to contribute to the retention of staff in the higher education environment in south africa by making recommendations for developing job embeddedness and work engagement, based on the findings of the study. potential value-add this article contributes valuable new knowledge that could be used to inform retention strategies for employees in the higher education environment and may stimulate further research to promote a better understanding of the role of the three constructs described in retaining staff. background to the study higher education plays a critical role in the creation of knowledge for the cultivation of future talent and socio-economic development in south africa (van den berg, manias & burger, 2008). socio-economic and political strategies implemented by governments competing in the global economy are increasingly impacting negatively on the availability of talent in higher education (makhanya, 2012). furthermore, new labour market demographics, globalisation and competitive pressures have become essential for businesses to be effective (marchington & wilkinson, 2008). academics are essential to societal life, because they are responsible for educating the leaders of society, as well as for conducting scientific research and furthering knowledge (coetzee & rothmann, 2004). however, higher education institutions in south africa have become vulnerable to losing their highly qualified knowledge workers to well-paid offers from the private sector, and headhunting from other higher education institutions internationally (ngobeni & bezuidenhout, 2011). martin and roodt (2008) note in this regard the need for further studies to establish the turnover behaviour of academic staff in higher education institutions. institutional knowledge is a key component in the knowledge economy, (powell & snellman, 2004); managing knowledge through knowledge identification, acquisition, development, transfer and retention is, therefore, particularly important in higher education institutions (probst, raub & romhardt, 2000). moreover, these institutions not only produce highly skilled and enlightened intellectual capital for the social transformation and economic development of a nation (shikha, 2012), but their core business activities, including research and development, require talented human capital to deliver quality learning experiences to students (netswera, rankumise & mavundla, 2006). recognising the forces that keep employees in their current employment is critical in attracting and retaining talented staff in higher education institutions (lawler & finegold, 2000; michaels, handfield-jones & axelrod, 2001). retention of talented staff promotes better decision-making capabilities, enhanced quality of curriculum programmes based on best practices, improved academic services and reduces turnover costs (kidwell, vander linde & johnson, 2000). consequently, higher education institutions can succeed in contributing to the socio-economic development of south africa by retaining the critical human capital that makes it possible to provide higher education to all stakeholders, including students and society as a whole (coetzee & rothman, 2004; van den berg, bakker & ten cate, 2013). turnover has significant implications for an organisation, with influencing factors such as the potential cost of human capital loss and interruption of ongoing organisational activities (smyth, zhai & li, 2009). research indicates that job embeddedness and work engagement have emerged in the current world of work as constructs that may significantly influence employees’ turnover intention (halbesleben & wheeler, 2008; mitchell, holtom & lee, 2001a). in particular, employees with low levels of job embeddedness and work engagement are more likely to have a higher intention of leaving the organisation, as well as actually leaving it (mitchell, holtom, lee, sablynski & erez, 2001b). talent retention is becoming more essential as an organisation’s human capital increasingly becomes the key source of competitive advantage (halawi et al., 2005; pfeffer, 2005). a growing awareness of shifts in the characteristics of the workforce is calling for organisations to be more focused in retaining skilled employees, keeping them fully engaged and embedding them in their jobs (frank, finnegan & taylor, 2004). it is therefore vital for organisations to be able to make informed decisions about developing effective retention practices that result in the reduction of turnover. (hillmer, hillmer & mcroberts, 2004). research objective the objective of the present study is to explore the relationship between the job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention of staff in a higher education institution. in the light of the need to retain talented staff in the south african higher education context (martin & roodt, 2008; ngobeni & bezuidenhout, 2011), it may prove valuable to explore the relationship between these variables. employees’ job embeddedness and work engagement are starting to be recognised as important factors in retaining valuable talented employees and are seen to offer organisations a competitive advantage (bakker, schaufeli, leiter & taris, 2008; du plooy & roodt, 2010; mitchell et al., 2001a). this recognition suggests the value of an investigation of these variables in the higher education context. should significant associations be detected between these variables in this exploratory study, more expanded studies can be conducted in the higher education environment. the results of these follow-up studies can then also be compared with studies of staff in other occupational contexts. literature review job embeddedness job embeddedness is defined as ‘… the combined forces that keep a person from leaving his or her job’ (yao, lee, mitchell, burton & sablynski, 2004, p. 159). although job embeddedness consists of two dimensions, organisational and community embeddedness (mitchell et al., 2001b) researchers have found that when job relocation is not a factor, organisational dimensions better predict employee retention than do community dimensions (allen, 2006; lee, mitchell, sablynski, burton & holtom, 2004). thus, in this study, the investigation of job embeddedness is restricted to the organisational dimensions. mitchell et al. (2001b) conceptualise job embeddedness as connections to other aspects of the job (e.g. people and groups), the perception of a person-job fit and the sacrifices related to leaving the job. job embeddedness is a relatively new construct that was developed by mitchell et al. (2001b) and represents a broad collection of factors that influence an employee’s decision to remain in or to leave an organisation.according to mitchell and lee (2001), the critical characteristics of job embeddedness have to do with links that individuals have on the job, their fit with their jobs and what they would have to give up or sacrifice should they consider leaving their jobs. mitchell et al. (2001b) suggest that the link aspects of embeddedness are formal or informal connections between an employee and other entities on the job. as the number of these links increases, the greater the likelihood becomes that an employee will stay in the organisation (holtom, mitchell & lee, 2006). ‘fit’ refers to an employee’s perceived compatibility with the organisation as well as with his or her job; hence, a higher fit shows higher embeddedness (holtom et al., 2006). finally, ‘sacrifice’ has to do with perceived costs of benefits, whether material or psychological, that may be lost by leaving the job. thus, the higher the perceived cost, the greater the embeddedness will be (halbesleben & wheeler, 2008; holtom et al., 2006). many people stay in organisations as a result of connections they have to people (e.g. co-workers or network groups), projects they are involved in or sponsored community engagement activities (mitchell et al., 2001a). friedman and holtom (2002) suggest that the more connected a person is professionally and socially, the more likely he or she is to stay in their organisation. therefore, leaving a job often requires individuals to sacrifice or give up perks, routines or social networks in projects with which they have grown familiar (mitchell et al., 2001a). several studies have found that individuals embedded in their jobs are less likely to leave than those who are not embedded in their jobs (allen, 2006; mitchell et al., 2001b) mitchell et al. (2001a) suggest that analysing job embeddedness differs from traditional models for predicting turnover because it focuses on employee retention rather than employee turnover. this view is supported by mitchell and lee (2001) who found that job embeddedness predicted turnover better than the traditional job attitude models. therefore, the theory of job embeddedness focuses on keeping employees in the organisation, rather than keeping them from leaving for other organisations (mitchell et al., 2001a). research has found a significant negative relationship between job embeddedness and turnover intention (allen, 2006; crossley, bennet, jex & burnfield, 2007; halbesleben & wheeler, 2008). in addition, job embeddedness seems to predict turnover more than combinations of perceived desirability and ease of movement measures do (e.g. job satisfaction, organisational commitment, job alternatives and job search). mitchell and lee (2001) highlight the fact that highly embedded and satisfied employees are less likely to search for alternative employment opportunities. on the other hand embedded employees may feel stuck in unfavourable jobs, experience frustration or lose motivation due to fear of losing connections with entities of the job, or what they would have to give up should they consider leaving their jobs (crossley et al., 2007). in the context of the present study, the focus is on the positive aspects of job embeddedness, that is, the forces that keep people satisfied with and engaged in their jobs. work engagement work engagement is a theoretical concept that has emerged in the field of psychology (bakker et al., 2008) and research in work engagement has been a focus of interest for the past ten years, culminating in two different schools of thought that distinguish burnout from work engagement (maslach, schaufeli & leiter, 2001; schaufeli, salanova, gonzalez-roma & bakker, 2002). for the purposes of this study, work engagement entails ‘a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterised by vigour, dedication, and absorption’ (schaufeli et al., 2002, p.74). according to schaufeli et al. (2002), work engagement is a constant and affective cognitive state that does not focus on an object, occasion or the behaviour of an individual. as indicated in the definition, engagement has three primary components. the first is vigour, which relates to elevated levels of energy and mental resilience when occupied with a work activity, the willingness to invest effort in one’s work activity and showing perseverance when faced with difficulty. thus, employees who feel great vigour at work are highly motivated by their jobs and are likely to remain persistent when encountering difficulties (mauno, kinnunen & ruokolainen, 2006). the second component, dedication, is characterised by a strong involvement and pride in one’s work, coupled with a sense of significance, passion, and inspiration. the final dimension of work engagement is absorption, which is characterised as being so completely focused and absorbed in one’s work that time passes rapidly and one has difficulty detaching from a work activity (schaufeli et al., 2002).saks (2006) suggests that work engagement is associated with an individual’s attitudes, intentions and behaviours. therefore, engaged employees are likely to be more attached to their organisation and would have a lower propensity to leave it (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). this view is supported by several researchers who found that work engagement is negatively related to turnover intention (du plooy & roodt, 2010; harter, schmidt & hayes, 2002). work engagement was found to have positive results relating to job satisfaction, a motivated workforce, employee well-being and less likelihood of leaving an organisation (barkhuizen & rothmann, 2006; schaufeli & bakker, 2004; van den berg, bakker & ten cate, 2013; yeh, 2013). in addition, a meta-analysis of 7939 business units in 36 companies by harter et al. (2002) reported a significant positive relationship between work engagement and business outcomes such as customer satisfaction and loyalty, profitability, turnover and safety. bakker and demerouti (2008) proposed four reasons why engaged employees perform better than unengaged employees. firstly, engaged employees were found to have positive sentiments towards their job, consequently leading to productivity. secondly, engaged employees were seen to be more open to work opportunities and more confident and optimistic (cropanzano & wright, 2001). thirdly, research suggests that engagement is positively related to employee well-being, leading to better performance (bakker & demerouti, 2008; schaufeli & bakker, 2004; shimazu, schaufeli, kubota & kawakami, 2012). lastly, engaged employees work more productively because they have the ability to create their own resources. xanthopoulou, bakker, demerouti, and schaufeli (2007) found in their study of highly skilled dutch technicians that personal resources (optimism, self-efficacy and organisational-based self-esteem) resulted in higher levels of work engagement. turnover intention turnover intention is defined as the manifestation of ‘the (subjective) probability that an individual will change his or her job within a certain time period’ (sousa-poza & henneberger, 2002, p.1), whereas turnover is a voluntary occurrence or event which is defined as the ‘individual movement across the membership boundary of an organisation’ (price, 2001, p. 600). contrary to turnover, turnover intentions are not definite, but are often associated with job search behaviour (sousa-poza & henneberger, 2002). according to karatepe and ngeche (2012), employees with turnover intentions tend to render poor service and corrode organisational effectiveness. research has shown that intent to leave an organisation is one of the indicators of turnover (bothma & roodt, 2013). from the organisation’s perspective, turnover of employees can lead to costs arising from recruitment, selection, training or the employment of temporary staff (morrell, loan-clarke & wilkinson, 2004). in addition, turnover may have an effect on the organisational culture or employee morale (morrell et al., 2004).coetzee and schreuder (2010) suggest that external factors, such as competition for talent and the availability of alternative jobs in the local or global economy, contribute to the problems of high employee turnover. however, embeddedness and engagement have become popular concepts that promote employee retention (halbesleben & wheeler, 2008). as an employee retention theory, job embeddedness is a combination of forces that keep an individual from leaving the job (mitchell et al., 2001b) whereas work engagement represents a positive work-focused psychological state that keeps an employee in the job (schaufeli et al., 2002). the relationship between job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention according to halbesleben and wheeler (2008), job embeddedness represents a build-up of connections (e.g., co-workers or networks) that will be difficult to replace outside the organisation. likewise, a move out of the organisation may require an excellent alternative to be worth the sacrifice of invested resources. job embeddedness is related to the organisation and the workplace, thus higher levels of job embeddedness would be related to lower intention to leave the organisation. work engagement, on the other hand, is more related to energy and psychological attachment to one’s job; thus, employees who are more engaged with their work may be unwilling to disengage owing to the invested energy and high levels of identification with the job (bakker et al., 2008).mitchell et al. (2001b) and schaufeli and bakker (2004) suggest that turnover intention can be driven by a lack of embeddedness and a disengaged workforce. limited information is available on the relationship between job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention. however, a study by halbesleben and wheeler (2008) reported a significant relationship between these three constructs. in terms of job embeddedness and turnover intention, mitchell et al. (2001b) reported that people who are embedded in their jobs have less intent to leave the organisation, whilst halbesleben (2010) found a significant relationship between work engagement and turnover intention. considering that both job embeddedness and work engagement are regarded as key constructs that drive employees’ turnover decisions (halbesleben & wheeler, 2008), the following hypotheses were formulated. h1a: a statistically significant relationship exists between individuals’ job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention. h2a: job embeddedness and work engagement negatively predict turnover intention. method top ↑ research approach the study utilised a cross-sectional survey design to collect quantitative primary data by using self-administered questionnaires (leedy & ormrod, 2005). research design research participants a non-probability purposive sample of 153 employees of a south african higher education institution participated in the study. the group comprised professors, senior lecturers, lecturers and support professionals in the institution’s college of economic and management sciences. the racial composition of the sample was predominately african (52%), with the rest of the sample comprising white (37%), asian (8%) and mixed race (3 %) people. participants were in the early and mid-career stage (26–45 years) and most (54%) had been in the organisation’s employment for at least five years and (59%) had been in their current position for at least five years. overall, married (66%) and female (61%) participants dominated the sample. measuring instruments the job embeddedness scale (jes): the jes (mitchell et al., 2001b) is a self-report instrument that includes three scales, namely links (e.g., ‘my co-workers are similar to me’), fit (e.g., ‘my job utilises my skills and talents well’), and sacrifice (e.g., ‘i would sacrifice a lot if i left this job’). the response scale was scored on a six-point likert scale varying between degrees of intensity, for example, from 1 ‘strongly disagree’ to 6 ‘strongly agree’. a higher response aggregate indicates higher levels of job embeddedness. mitchell et al. (2001b) reported acceptable internal consistency reliabilities (cronbach’s alpha) for links (6 items) a = 0.68, fit (7 items) a = 0.87 and sacrifice (10 items) a = 0.86. various studies have reported the validity of the jes (burton, holtom, sablynski, mitchell & lee, 2010; halbesleben & wheeler, 2008; mitchell et al., 2001b). acceptable internal consistency reliability links (a = 0.79), fit (a = 0.81) and sacrifice (a = 0.88) were yielded in the present study. the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes): the uwes (schaufeli & bakker, 2003) measures three integral aspects of work engagement. the uwes is a self-report instrument that includes three scales, namely vigour (e.g., ‘i am bursting with energy in my work’), dedication (e.g., ‘i find the work that i do full of meaning and purpose’), and absorption (e.g., ‘time flies when i am working’). the response scale was scored on a seven-point likert scale varying between poles of intensity, for example, from 0 ‘never’ to 6 ‘always’. barkhuizen and rothmann (2006) and schaufeli and bakker (2004) reported acceptable cronbach alpha internal consistency reliability coefficients for the three subscales between 0.68 and 0.91. a south african study by storm and rothmann (2003) reported the following alpha coefficients for the three subscales: vigour (6 items) a = 0.78, dedication (5 items) a = 0.89 and absorption (6 items) a = 0.78. the uwes has been validated in several countries, including south africa (albrecht, 2013; schaufeli & bakker, 2003; schaufeli et al., 2002; storm & rothmann, 2003). acceptable internal consistency reliabilities were yielded for the three subscales: vigour a = 0.85, dedication a = 0.88 and absorption a = 0.87 in the present study. the turnover intention scale (tis): the tis (mitchell et al., 2001b), was used to measure employee intentions of leaving an organisation. the tis is a self-report instrument that includes only three items. the response scale was scored on a six-point likert scale varying between poles of intensity, for example, from 1 ‘strongly disagree’ to 6 ‘strongly agree’. an example of a statement from the tis is ‘i intend to leave the organisation in the next 12 months’. internal consistency reliability coefficient was reported as between 0.88 and 0.91 (al-sharafi & rajiani, 2013; halbesleben & wheeler, 2008; mitchell et al., 2001b). an acceptable internal consistency reliability of a = 0.97 was yielded in this study. research procedure ethical approval for the study was obtained from the higher education institution before the measuring instruments were distributed. distribution was done using the contact information list of academics and support professionals working in the college of economics and management sciences, which is available for use by employees in the institution. a purposively chosen group was requested to participate in the research by completing the jes, uwes and tis questionnaires. the participants were approached directly and provided with a covering letter explaining the purpose of the study. informed consent was obtained and it was emphasised that participation in the study was voluntary, anonymous and confidential. the participants were asked to return the completed questionnaire to the address provided. a sample of 153 usable questionnaires was returned. statistical analyses the statistical analysis was conducted using the spss software, version 20.0.0 (spss, 2011). descriptive, correlational and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. the cronbach alpha coefficient was used to assess the internal consistency reliability of each of the measuring instruments. pearson’s product-moment correlations were performed to test the research hypothesis h1a. in order to counter the probability of a type 1 error, it was decided to set the significance value at a 95% confidence interval level (p ≤ 0.05). for the purposes of this study, r values larger than 0.30 (medium effect) (cohen, 1992) were regarded as practically significant.the relationship between the three variables was further analysed by performing multiple regression analyses to explore the proportion of variance in the dependent variable (turnover intention) that is explained by the independent variables (job embeddedness and work engagement) (tredoux & durrheim, 2013). the value of the adjusted r2 (fp ≤ 0.05) was used to interpret the results and r2 values larger than 0.13 (medium effect) (cohen, 1992) were regarded as practically significant. results top ↑ descriptive statistics table 1 provides the means, standard deviations, skewness, kurtosis and internal consistency reliability coefficients for the job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention variables. the results show that the reliability of the factors, as measured by cronbach’s alpha, are all above 0.70, which confirms the internal consistency of the items in a variable. in terms of the jes means and standard deviations, table 1 shows that the total jes mean average score was (m = 4.50; sd = 0.78). fit to the organisation obtained the highest mean score (m = 4.79; sd = 0.78), followed by sacrifice to the organisation (m = 4.28; sd = 0.92). the lowest mean score was obtained on the links to the organisation subscale (m = 4.27; sd = 0.93). the skewness and kurtosis values for the jes ranged between -0.02 and 0.49, excluding the fit to organisation skewness (-1.12) and kurtosis (1.47), thereby not falling within -1 and +1 normality range recommended for these coefficients (howell, 2008). table 1: descriptive statistics: job embeddedness scale, utrecht work engagement scale and turnover intention scale. in terms of the uwes means and standard deviations, table 1 shows that the total uwes mean average score was (m = 4.37; sd = 0.90). the dedication subscale obtained the highest mean score (m = 4.50; sd = 0.97) followed by vigour (m = 4.36; sd = 0.88). the lowest mean score was obtained on the absorption subscale (m = 4.30; sd = 0.98). the skewness and kurtosis values for the uwes ranged between -0.33 and 0.25, thereby falling within the -1 and +1 normality range recommended for these coefficients (howell, 2008). the tis was measured with three items. in terms of the mean and standard deviation, table 1 shows that the total mean average score was (m = 1.98; sd = 1.44) which indicated a lower turnover intention score. the turnover intention skewness was (1.44) and kurtosis (1.04), thereby not falling within -1 and +1 normality range recommended for these coefficients (howell, 2008). correlational statistics as illustrated in table 2, links, fit and sacrifice to organisation correlated significantly and positively with the work engagement sub-dimensions. the correlations varied from r = 0.39 to 0.48 (p < 0.000; medium practical effect size). links to organisation had a significant correlation of medium practical effect size (r ≥ 0.30 < 0.49) with vigour (r = 0.48; p < 0.000), dedication (r = 0.48; p < 0.000) and absorption (r = 0.41; p < 0.000). fit to organisation had a significant correlation of medium practical effect size (r ≥ 0.30 < 0.49) with vigour (r = 0.47; p < 0.000), dedication (r = 0.47; p < 0.000) and absorption (r = 0.41; p < 0.000). sacrifice to organisation had a significant correlation of medium practical effect size (r ≥ 0.30 < 0.49) with vigour (r = 0.46; p < 0.000), dedication (r = 0.45; p < 0.000) and a moderate significant correlation with absorption (r = 0.39; p < 0.000). table 2: pearson’s product-moment correlations: job embeddedness scale, utrecht work engagement scale and turnover intention scale. as illustrated in table 2, links, fit and sacrifice to organisation correlated significantly and negatively with turnover intention. the correlations varied from r = -0.30 (p < 0.000; medium practical effect size) to r = -0.50 (p < 0.000; large practical effect size). the strongest negative significant correlation (r = -0.50; p < 0.000) was observed between links to organisation (r = -0.50; p < 0.000) and turnover intention. fit to organisation had a negative significant correlation of medium practical effect size (r ≥ 0.30 < 0.49), whilst turnover intention (r = -0.30; p < 0.000) and sacrifice to organisation had a negative correlation with turnover intention (r = -0.42; p < 0.000; medium practical effect). as illustrated in table 3, vigour, dedication and absorption correlated significantly and negatively with turnover intention. the correlations varied from (r = -0.25; small practical effect size, p < 0.002) to (r = -0.37; medium practical effect size, p < 0.000). the strongest significant correlation (r = -0.37; p < 0.000; medium practical effect) was observed between dedication and turnover intention. vigour had a negative significant correlation of small practical effect size with turnover intention (r = -0.29; p < 0.000), whereas absorption had a negative significant correlation (r = -0.25; small practical effect; p < 0.002) with turnover intention. table 3: pearson’s product-moment correlation: utrecht work engagement scale and turnover intention. in table 4 significant relationships were observed between total job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention (p < 0.000). a significant positive relationship (r = 0.51; large practical effect, p < 0.000) was observed between total job embeddedness and work engagement. a statistically significant negative relationship was observed between job embeddedness and turnover intention (r = -0.42; medium practical size, p < 0.000). finally, a moderate negative statistically significant relationship was observed between total work engagement (r = -0.32; medium practical effect size, p < 0.000) and turnover intention. table 4: pearson’s product moment correlation: job embeddedness scale, utrecht work engagement scale and turnover intention. the results provided sufficient evidence to support research hypothesis h1a: a statistically significant relationship exists between individuals’ job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention. multiple regression table 5 indicates that the regression models explained (r2 ≥ 0.13 ≤ 0.25) medium practical effect percentages of variance in the dependent variable (cohen, 1992). table 5: multiple regression analyses: job embeddedness scale and utrecht work engagement scale versus turnover intention. in terms of the jes variables, regression model 1 in table 5 shows that the jes variables explain 19% (r2 = 0.19; medium practical effect) of the variance in total turnover intention. only links to organisation (< = -0.48; p = 0.06) contributed significantly and negatively in explaining the variance in total turnover intention. in terms of the uwes variables, regression model 2 in table 5 shows that the uwes variables explain 13% (r2= 0.13; medium practical effect) of the variance in total turnover intention. only dedication (< = -0.55; p = 0.001) contributed significantly and negatively in explaining the variance in total turnover intention. the results provided sufficient evidence to support research hypothesis h2a: job embeddedness and work engagement significantly and negatively predict turnover intention. discussion top ↑ the study explored the relationship between job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention. overall, the results indicated a significant relationship between the participants’ job embeddedness and work engagement. the results showed that the participants who had high levels of job embeddedness and work engagement had significantly lower turnover intentions. it appears from the results that employees who feel highly embedded in their jobs experience the need to stay in the organisation. consistent with the findings of halbesleben and wheeler (2008) and mitchell et al., (2001b), the present results suggest that strong formal or informal connections between an employee and institution or other people, the person’s fit with the job and organisation and the perceived personal losses (like giving up colleagues or interesting research projects) may result in keeping the employee in the institution. similarly, those participants who are highly engaged in their jobs appear to have less intent to leave the institution. these results support the findings of saks (2006) and schaufeli and bakker (2004), namely that engaged employees are likely to have a greater attachment to their organisation and have positive experiences, which leads to a lower propensity to leave the organisation.the results suggest that job embeddedness is a stronger negative predictor of the participants’ turnover intention than work engagement. the findings are in agreement with those of halbesleben and wheeler (2008) who found job embeddedness to be a stronger negative predictor of turnover intention as compared to work engagement. in addition, the results suggest that the participants’ links were significantly negatively related to their turnover intention. mitchell et al. (2001b) found that the more the number of links between the person and job or organisation the more he or she feels bound to the job and organisation. in relation to work engagement, the present results also showed that the participants’ dedication significantly contributed to lower turnover intention. a study conducted by barkhuizen and rothmann (2006) amongst academics supports these findings as they also reported relatively high levels of dedication amongst participants. overall, it can be concluded that high levels of job embeddedness (organisational links) and work engagement (dedication) lead to lower turnover intentions. the findings of this study contribute valuable new knowledge on the relationships between these variables, and they focus attention on the practical implications of job embeddedness and work engagement in the retention of employees in the higher education context. conclusion top ↑ implications for human resource management the findings confirm the need to consider job embeddedness and work engagement in the higher education context in order to understand employees’ turnover intention. in view of the argument that embedded and engaged employees demonstrate increased performance and lower intentions of leaving the organisation (halbesleben & wheeler, 2008), it is suggested that the participating higher education institution and its management consider programmes for improving the embeddedness and engagement of its staff in order to reduce turnover intention. in this context, it is suggested that to help employees fit their jobs and the organisation better, as well as enabling them to build stronger links with colleagues, supervisor support is provided that gives guidelines, assistance, trust in and praise for subordinates (bergiel, nguyen, clenney & taylor, 2009). employees are then likely to become more embedded in their jobs and less likely to leave their organisation (mitchell et al., 2001a). the results showed that engaged and dedicated employees have lower turnover intention, so the higher education environment should be encouraged to help sustain employees’ vigour and dedication by providing, for example, meaningful work activities, flexible working arrangements, opportunities for growth and development and incentive compensation (saks, 2006; van den berg et al., 2008). the higher education institution in this study should explore the extent to which provision is made for personal and professional development. embeddedness and engagement can be promoted through training programmes that target both organisational health and individual well-being so that a positive emotional climate is created in the workplace (schaufeli & salanova, 2008). growth opportunities imply that employees have the chance to develop and demonstrate their potential, which may lead them to better fit their jobs and the organisation. employees may thus be more embedded in their jobs and less likely to leave when there are opportunities for personal and professional development (bergiel et al., 2009). management could enhance engagement by coaching employees on setting goals, developing career plans, and by pointing out pitfalls and giving advice where necessary (barkhuizen & rothmann, 2006). in addition, job resources with a positive impact, such as feedback from the supervisor, collegial support, social contact and personal growth may result in higher levels of vigour and dedication amongst employees (van den berg et al., 2008). mitchell et al. (2001a) suggest non-financial incentives such as sabbatical leave or flexible work schedules to enhance employee embeddedness. socialisation tactics, network groups, mentoring to address early career needs for guidance, support, affirmation and developing a sense of belonging could actively embed newcomers in the organisation in an effort to reduce turnover intention (allen, 2006; freidman & holtom, 2002). limitations and recommendations for future research top ↑ this study used self-report questionnaires to gather data on all three measures at one point in time. the cross-sectional research design limits the possibility of drawing conclusions about the causal nature of the relationships and gives no idea of change in behaviour and perceptions over time. hence it is recommended that future research uses a longitudinal design to examine the impact of job embeddedness and work engagement on employees’ turnover intention. because this study was exploratory in nature and involved only a small non-probability purposive sample of participants, generalising the findings to the larger context of the higher education institution concerned, and to other occupational contexts cannot be done. however, the significant associations found between the variables of relevance to the study warrant future research with larger samples in other higher education institutions. such studies could also consider comparing the results with other population groups in industry.despite these limitations, the results of this study provide valuable new insights regarding the relationship between job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention as they apply to the south african higher education context. the research also provides a platform for future studies using larger samples from within this sphere. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions n.t. (university of south africa) conducted the literature review and statistical analyses and wrote up the article. m.c. (university of south africa) acted as co-supervisor of the research project, assisted with the statistical analyses and reviewed the article. d.s. (university of south africa) acted as supervisor of the research project and assisted with the review of the article. references top ↑ albrecht, s.l. (2013). work engagement and the positive power of meaningful work. advances in positive organisational psychology, 1, 237−260. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/s2046-410x(2013)0000001013allen, d.g. (2006). do organisational socialisation tactics influence newcomer embeddedness and turnover? journal of management, 32(2), 237−256. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206305280103 al-sharafi, h., & rajiani, i. (2013). leadership practices and talent turnover: study on yemeni organisations. business and management research, 2(3), 60−67. http://dx.doi.org/10.5430/bmr.v2n3p60 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2008).towards a model of work engagement. career development international, 13(3), 209−223. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430810870476 bakker, a.b., schaufeli, w.b., leiter, m.p., & taris, t.w. (2008). work engagement: an emerging concept in occupational health. work and stress, 22, 187−200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02678370802393649 barkhuizen, n.,& rothmann, s. (2006). work engagement of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. management dynamics, 15(1), 38−46. bergiel, b.e., nguyen, v.q., clenney, b.f., & taylor, g.s. (2009). human resource practices, job embeddedness and intention to quit. management research news, 32(3), 205−219. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01409170910943084 bothma, c.f.c., & roodt, g. (2013). the validation of the turnover intention scale. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), 507−519. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.507 burke, r.j., & el-kot, g. (2010). work engagement among managers and professionals in egypt: potential antecedents and consequences. african journal of economics and management studies, 1(1), 42−60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/20400701011028158 burton, j.p., holtom, b.c., sablynski, c.j., mitchell, t.r., & lee, t.w. (2010). the buffering effects of job embeddedness on negative shocks. journal of vocational behavior, 76, 42−51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.06.006 coetzee, m., & rothman, s. (2004). an adapted model of burnout for employers at a higher education institution in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 30(3), 29−40. coetzee, m., & schreuder, d. (2010). personnel psychology: an applied perspective. cape town: oxford university press. cohen, j. (1992). quantitative methods in psychology: a power primer. psychological bulletin, 112(1), 153−159. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155 cropanzano r.s., & wright, t.a. (2001). when a ‘happy’worker is really a ‘productive’worker: a review and further refinements of the happy-productive worker thesis. consulting psychology journal 53(3), 182–199. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1061-4087.53.3.182 crossley, c.d., bennet, r.j., jex, s.m., & burnfield, j.l. (2007). development of a global measure of job embeddedness and integration into a traditional model of voluntary turnover. journal of applied psychology, 92(4), 1031−1042. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.4.1031 du plooy, j., & roodt, g. (2010). work engagement, burnout and related constructs as predictors of turnover intention. south african journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 1-13. frank, f.d., finnegan, r.p., & taylor, c.r. (2004). the race for talent: retaining and engaging workers in the 21st century. human resource planning, 27(3), 12−24. friedman, r.a., & holtom, b. (2002). the effect of network groups on minority employee turnover intentions. human resource management, 41(4), 405−421. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.10051 halawi, a.l., aronson, e.l., & mccarthy, v.r. (2005). resource-based view of knowledge management for competitive advantage. the electronic journal of knowledge management, 3(2), 75-86. halbesleben, r.b. (2010). a meta-analysis of work engagement: relationship with burnout, demands, resources and consequences. in a. b. bakker (ed), & m. p. leiter.work engagement: a handbook of essential theory and research (pp.102−117). new york: psychology press. halbesleben, j.r.b., & wheeler, a.r. (2008). the relative roles of engagement and embeddedness in predicting job performance and intentions to leave. work & stress, 22(3), 242−256. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02678370802383962 harter, j.k., schmidt, f.l., & hayes, t.l. (2002). business-unit level relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: a meta-analysis. journal of applied psychology, 87(2), 268−279. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.2.268 hillmer, s., hillmer, b., & mcroberts, g. (2004). the real costs of turnover: lessons from a call center. human resource planning, 27(3), 34−41. holtom, b.c., mitchell, t.r., & lee, t.w. (2006).increasing human and social capital by applying job embeddedness theory. organisational dynamics, 35(4), 316−331. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2006.08.007 howell, d.c (2008).fundamental statistics for the behavioural sciences (6thed.). belmont, ca: thomson wadsworth. karatepe, o.m., & ngeche, r.n. (2012). does job embeddedness mediate the effect of work engagement? a study of hotel employees in cameroon. journal of hospitality marketing and management, 21(94), 440-461. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19368623.2012.626730 kidwell, j.j., vander linde, k.m., & johnson, l.s. (2000). applying corporate knowledge management practices in higher education. educause quarterly, 23(4), 28−33. lawler, e.e. (2008). talent: making people your competitive advantage. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. lawler, e.e., & finegold, d. (2000). individualising the organisation: past, present and future. organisational dynamics, 29(1), 1−15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0090-2616(00)00009-7 lee, t.w., mitchell, t.r., sablynski, c.j., burton, j.p., & holtom, b.c. (2004). the effects of job embeddedness on organizational citizenship, job performance, volitional absences, and voluntary turnover. academy of management journal, 47, 711−722. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/20159613 leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2005). practical research: planning and design. (8th ed.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice-hall. macey, w.h., & schneider, b. (2008).the meaning of employee engagement. industrial and organisational psychology, 1(1), 3-30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2007.0002.x makhanya, m. (2012). student graduateness. in m. coetzee, j. botha, n. eccles, n. holtzhauzen & h. nienaber (eds), developing student graduateness and employability, (p. 29). randburg: knowres. marchington, m., & wilkinson a.(2008). human resource management at work: people management anddevelopment (4th ed.).london: chartered institute of personnel and development. martin, a., & roodt, g. (2008). perceptions of organisational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intentions in a post-merger south african tertiary institution. sa journal of industrial psychology, 34 (1), 23-31. maslach, c., schaufeli, w.b., & leiter, m.p. (2001). job burnout. annual review of psychology, 52, 397-422. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397 mauno, s., kinnunen, u., & ruokolainen, m. (2006). job demands and resources as antecedents of work engagement: a longitudinal study. journal of vocational behaviour, 70, 149-171. michaels, e.d., handfield-jones, h., & axelrod, b. (2001). the war for talent. cambridge, ma: harvard business press. mitchell, t.r., holtom, b.c., & lee, t.w. (2001a). how to keep your best employees: developing an effective retention policy. academy of management executive, 15(4), 96-109. mitchell, t.r., holtom, b.c., lee, t.w., sablynski, c.j., & erez, m. (2001b). why people stay: using job embeddedness to predict voluntary turnover. academy of management journal, 44(6), 1102-1121. mitchell, t.r., & lee, t.w. (2001). the unfolding model of voluntary turnover and job embeddedness: foundations for a comprehensive theory of attachment. research in organisational behaviour, 23, 189-246. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0191-3085(01)23006-8 morrell, k., loan-clarke, j. & wilkinson, a. (2004). the role of shocks in employee turnover. british journal of management, 15, 335-349. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2004.00423.x netswera, f.g., rankumise, e.m., & mavundla, t.r. (2006). employee retention factors for south african higher education institutions: a case study. south african journal of human resource management, 3(2), 36-40. ngobeni, e.k., & bezuidenhout, a. (2011). engaging employees for improved retention at a higher education institution in south africa. african journal of business management, 5(23), 9961-9970. pfeffer, j. (2005). producing sustainable competitive advantage through the effective management of people. academy of management executive, 19(4), 95-106. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/ame.2005.19417910 powell, w.w., & snellman, k. (2004). the knowledge economy. annual review of sociology, 30, 199-220. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.29.010202.100037 price, j. (2001). reflections on the determinants of voluntary turnover. international journal of manpower, 22, 600-624. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/eum0000000006233 probst, g., raub, s., & romhardt, k. (2000) managing knowledge: building blocks for success. london: wiley. ryder, a. (2010). ngos and salary allocation: the new reality for south african ngos, 2010. retrieved march 01, 2011 from www.ngopulse.org/article/ngos-and-salary-allocations. saks, a.m. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600-619. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169 schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2003). utrecht work engagement scale. preliminary manual.utrecht: utrecht university. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organisational behavior, 25, 293-315. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.248 schaufeli, w.b., & salanova, m. (2008). enhancing work engagement through the management of human resources. in naswall, k., sverke, m & hellgren, j. (eds.). the individual in the changing working life (pp. 380-402). cambridge, ma: cambridge university press. schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzalez-roma, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a confirmative analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3, 71-92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 shikha, v.g. (2012). talent acquisition and retention issues of faculty in higher education. journal of human resource management and development, 2(2), 20-31. shimazu, a., schaufeli, w.b., kubota, k., & kawakami, n. (2012). do workaholism and work engagement predict employee well-being and performance in opposite directions? industrial health, 50, 316-321. smyth, r., zhai, q., & li, x. (2009). determinants of turnover intentions among chinese off farm migrants. econ change restruct, 42, 189-209. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10644-008-9067-z sousa-poza, a., & henneberger, f. (2002). analyzing job mobility with job turnover intentions: an international comparative study. research institute for labour economics and labour law, 82, 1-28. spss for windows, rel. 20.0.0. (2011). chicago: spss inc. storm, k., & rothmann, s. (2003). a psychometric analysis of the utrecht work engagement scale in the south african police service. south african journal of industrial psychology, 29, 62-70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/008124630303300404 tredoux, c., & durrheim, k. (2013). numbers, hypotheses and conclusions. (2nd ed). cape town: uct press. van den berg, h., manias, d., & burger, s. (2008). the influence of job-related factors on work engagement of staff at university of the free state. acta academica, 40(3), 85-114. van den berg, b.a.m., bakker, a.b., & ten cate, t.j. (2013). key factors in work engagement and job motivation of teaching faculty at a university medical centre. perspectives on medical education. 2(5-6): 264–275. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40037-013-0080-1 xanthopoulou, d., bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2007). the role of personal resources in the job demands-resources model. international journal of stress management, 14, 121-141. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.14.2.121 yao, x., lee, t.w., mitchell, t.r., burton, j.p., & sablynski, c.s. (2004). job embeddedness: current research and future directions. in r. griffeth & p. hom (eds.), understanding employee retention and turnover (pp.153-187). greenwich, ct: information age. yeh, c.m. (2013). tourism involvement, work engagement and job satisfaction among frontline hotel employees. annals of tourism research, 42, 214-239. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2013.02.002 article information authors: chantal olckers1 yvonne du plessis1 affiliations: 1department of human resource management, university of pretoria, south africa correspondence to: chantal olckers postal address: private bag x20, hatfield 0028, south africa dates: received: 29 sept. 2011 accepted: 03 apr. 2012 published: 06 sept. 2012 how to cite this article: olckers, c., & du plessis, y. (2012). the role of psychological ownership in retaining talent: a systematic literature review. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(2), art. #415, 18 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i2.415 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the role of psychological ownership in retaining talent: a systematic literature review in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study    • trends from the research literature    • research objectives    • potential value of the study • research design    • research approach    • research method       • location of the data       • search terms and selected criteria       • analysis and presentation of the data • results    • study objective 1: to define and explain psychological ownership       • the concept of ‘mine’       • relationship with targets       • the cognitive and affective core    • a multidimensional framework of psychological ownership       • 1. needs       • 1.1 motives for, or the roots of, psychological ownership       • 1.1.1 self-efficacy       • 1.1.2 self-identity       • 1.1.3 having a home       • 1.2 routes to psychological ownership       • 1.2.1 controlling the ownership targets       • 1.2.2 getting to know the targets intimately       • 1.2.3 investing in targets       • 2. values       • 3. goals       • 4. actions       • 5. state of psychological ownership       • 5.1 target factors       • 5.2 individual factors       • 5.3 process factors       • 5.4 contextual factors       • 6. behavioural consequences of psychological ownership       • 7. outcomes    • study objective 2: to distinguish psychological ownership from other work-related attitudes    • study objective 3: to explore the role that psychological ownership could play in retaining skilled talent • discussion    • study objective 1    • study objective 2    • study objective 3    • conclusion    • limitations of the study    • suggestions for future research • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: managing psychological ownership can have positive attitudinal and behavioural effects, promote organisational effectiveness and support talent retention.research purpose: this paper seeks to explore and describe psychological ownership, distinguish it from other work-related attitudes and clarify the role that psychological ownership can play in retaining talent. motivation for the study: previous studies of human resource practices and organisational characteristics that affect organisational commitment and the retention of talent have reported that absent variables could be responsible for varied results. psychological ownership could be one of them. research design, approach and method: based on a systematic review of the literature published over the last 20 years, the authors synthesised various research perspectives into a framework of psychological ownership and its links to retaining talent. main findings: the authors found that psychological ownership was a comprehensive multidimensional construct. it is distinct from other work-related attitudes and seems capable of enabling organisations to retain the talents of skilled employees. practical/managerial implications: organisations can benefit from psychological ownership because it leads employees to feel responsible towards targets (like organisations) and to show stewardship. it can help organisations to retain talent and influence the intentions of skilled employees to remain with their organisations. contribution/value-add: psychological ownership, as an integrated multidimensional construct, has expanded the existing theory about the organisational commitment and work-related attitudes that organisations need to retain talent in the 21st century. introduction top ↑ key focus of the study psychological ownership has recently received attention from many researchers. they hypothesise that formal ownership can have positive attitudinal and behavioural effects through psychologically experienced ownership and that a psychological sense of ownership may form integral parts of employees’ relationships with their organisations. they suggest that psychological ownership amongst members of organisations can have positive effects on organisational effectiveness and can promote staff retention. psychological ownership is a situation where employees feel as though the object of ownership, or a piece of it, belongs to them (‘it is mine!’). the present study aims, firstly, to explore the literature and describe psychological ownership and its defining elements, because the phenomenon has links with positive behavioural and social-psychological consequences. secondly, it aims to examine how psychological ownership is distinct from other related constructs. thirdly, it aims to explore the role that psychological ownership can play in retaining the talents of skilled employees. background to the study to compete in today’s highly competitive business market (arnold & randall, 2010), organisations must recruit top talent and retain talented employees who have psychological connections with their work and organisations. locally and internationally, skilled employees can choose from a larger pool of jobs in the contemporary world of work. as the ‘war for skilled talent’ escalates, according to de villiers (2006), it becomes increasingly important to explore the psychological factors that influence employees’ commitment and loyalty so that organisations can retain their skilled employees.in 2002, the hay group conducted a survey amongst employees who worked in 330 companies in 50 countries. one third of them reported that they intended to resign from their jobs within the next two years (hay, 2002). many of the world’s most admired companies acknowledge that they will lose half their senior executives in the next five years. human capital at deloitte conducted research amongst a wide range of companies across all industry sectors in south africa and published it in the south african guide to executive remuneration and reward. it showed that south african businesses lose up to 50% of their executives every four to five years (rich stay comfortably rich, 2008). more than a third (35%) of executives gave better employment opportunities as their reason for leaving their present organisations (rich stay comfortably rich, 2008). therefore, organisations have to face the major challenge of retaining their best and most talented staff. employee turnover, especially in difficult economic times, can drain the intellectual capital of organisations badly. furthermore, increasing job mobility in the global knowledge economy, where employees average six employers in a career (o’neal, 2005), exacerbate the retention challenge. trends from the research literature based on a study of human resource practices and other organisational characteristics that affect organisational commitment, fiorito, bozeman, young and meurs (2007) suggest that psychological ownership may be one of the variables that can serve as a predictor of organisational commitment.in their development of a model of employee ownership, pierce, rubenfeld and morgan (1991) posit that employee ownership leads to social-psychological and behavioural outcomes. however, in her study of the employee attitudes of 37 employee stock ownership plan (esop) companies, klein (1987) found no significant relationship between the percentage of stock that the esop employees owned and their levels of job satisfaction or commitment. pendleton, wilson and wright (1998) found that most esop shareholders did not seem to have a strong sense of ownership and most believed that nothing had changed in the organisation because of employee ownership. in a longitudinal study, dunn, richardson and dewe (1991) found little difference between the attitudes of owners and those of non-owners. in one of the two firms in his case study, kruse (1984) actually found evidence of lower levels of commitment over time. long (1982) found a significant decrease in employee satisfaction following a conversion to employee ownership. these findings suggest that, if actual ownership remains unchanged between the two points of investigation, some mediating and/or extraneous variable other than ownership must be driving attitudinal change. pierce et al. (1991) have identified an intervening variable, ‘psychological ownership’, which could play a role in the interface between share ownership and employee commitment. in later work, pierce, kostova and dirks (2001, 2003) drew on studies in sociology, philosophy, human development and psychology to introduce a theory of psychological ownership in organisations. it defined psychological ownership as a construct that is separate and distinct from the legal or equity ownership of an organisation. mattila and ikävalko (2003) argue that ownership connects to the relationships between human beings and the things and objects with which they surround themselves. this shows that ownership is a much broader concept than a particular legal regime and the status that follows it. pierce et al. (1991) suggest that ownership is multidimensional and that it functions as a formal (objective) and as a psychologically experienced phenomenon. pierce et al. (1991) suggest that, regardless of the type of ownership (social ownership, worker-producer cooperatives, direct ownership and esops), psychological ownership will lead to the integration of the employee-owner with the organisation and the ownership experience. o’reilly (2002) notes that: when managers talk about ownership, what they typically want to instil is not financial ownership but psychological ownership – a feeling on the part of the employees that they have a responsibility to make decisions that are in the long-term interest of the company. (p. 19) therefore, pierce et al. (2001) suggest that, if esop employees feel a greater sense of ownership, their commitment to their organisations is likely to increase. conversely, if they do not experience psychological ownership, their level of organisational commitment is likely to remain unchanged, whatever their level of share ownership. therefore, it is important to have a closer look at the mediating and/or extraneous variable of psychological ownership because it is associated with positive behavioural and social-psychological consequences. research objectives the study had the objectives that follow:• to explore and describe psychological ownership and its defining elements because it has associations with positive behavioural and social-psychological consequences • to distinguish psychological ownership from other work-related attitudes (like organisational commitment, organisational identification, internalisation, psychological empowerment and job involvement) • to explore the role that psychological ownership could play in retaining skilled talent. potential value of the study the study aims to expand on the existing theory of organisational commitment and the work-related attitudes that organisations need to retain talent by presenting a multidimensional framework of psychological ownership that distinguishes psychological ownership from its antecedent and consequent conditions. it intends to show how organisations can benefit from psychological ownership because psychological ownership can lead employees to feel responsible towards targets (like organisations) and to display stewardship. furthermore, this ownership could play a role in retaining talent and could influence employees’ intentions to remain with their organisations. research design top ↑ research approach the researchers conducted a systematic review of the literature. according to tranfield, denyer and smart (2003), a systematic review identifies the key scientific contributions relevant to a subject by using extensive literature searches of published and unpublished studies. by using transparent and reproducible procedures, systematic reviews improve the quality and outcomes of review processes.review processes generally consist of three parts: data collection, data analysis and synthesis. in this study, the authors conducted a critical analysis of the work of seminal authors in order to explore and describe psychological ownership and its defining elements, to distinguish psychological ownership from other work-related attitudes and to explore the role that psychological ownership can play in retaining talent. research method location of the data in this study, the systematic approach entailed extensive searches of relevant management databases. these were ebscohost, jstor, business source premier, proquest, sage and interscience. the authors used these databases because they contain comprehensive data from accredited international and national multidisciplinary journals that specialise in human resource management, social, personnel and applied psychology as well as general management and organisational behaviour – the disciplines within which this research study resides. the authors conducted manual searches as well as internet searches to identify secondary references and other publications of the researchers the authors identified in their original searches. search terms and selected criteria in order to explore and describe psychological ownership, the authors used the key words psychological ownership in their literature search. they limited their search to english language publications between 1991 and 2010 that dealt specifically with psychological ownership. they chose 1991 as the starting date because the first scientific article that they could find that referred to the concept of ‘psychological ownership’ appeared in that year. the original search identified more than 67 scientific papers, unpublished conference papers and reviews of the literature. however, the authors chose only published scholarly journals that defined psychological ownership and examined psychological ownership in an organisational context. this resulted in 12 articles. in order to distinguish psychological ownership from other work-related attitudes, the authors used these keywords: commitment, empowerment, identification, internalisation and job involvement. it is important to note that the search for commitment alone identified more than one million papers, commentaries and literature reviews. however, the focus of the study was to conceptualise psychological ownership and to distinguish it from related concepts. therefore, the authors chose only the articles, published between 1987 and 2010, that enabled them to define the core of the concepts (commitment, empowerment, identification, internalisation and job involvement), that gave the motivational basis of the concepts, that discuss the psychological state of the concepts and indicate the consequences of particular concepts. the search on work-related attitudes resulted in 13 papers. to explore the role that psychological ownership can play in retaining talent, the authors initially used these keywords in their literature search: talent, retaining talent, talent retention, retention to stay and employee retention. they conducted this search to define the concept of talent and to highlight the importance of retaining talent for organisations. of the 14 scientific articles that were relevant to this study and were written between 2000 and 2010, eight remained. the authors eliminated five articles because they were not relevant to the purpose of the study. the authors then used combinations of the key words talent, retaining talent, talent retention, retention to stay and employee retention with the key words psychological ownership. this search resulted in only one published paper for more detailed scrutiny from 10 citations. however, this one article did not focus specifically on retaining talent, but on psychological ownership as a predictor of intentions to leave. table 1 contains the list of all the journals from which the authors sampled the 34 articles in this study. analysis and presentation of the data the authors used thematic analysis for analysing and reporting. this, according to tranfield et al. (2003), summarises what one knows already and focuses on the extent to which there is consensus across various themes.the authors evaluated the articles in terms of: • the purposes of the studies • whether they were qualitative or quantitative • their methods of collecting data • their key findings. the authors categorised common themes that emerged from the data to achieve the three objectives of the study: to explore and describe psychological ownership and its defining elements, to distinguish psychological ownership from other work-related attitudes and to explore the role that psychological ownership could play in retaining talent. tables 2, table 3 and table 5 summarise the key features of the papers the authors used for this study. table 1: articles used in the review. results top ↑ study objective 1: to define and explain psychological ownership research on the psychology of possession links feelings of ownership with positive attitudes about the targets of ownership, self-concept and a sense of responsibility to the targets. pierce et al. (2001) conclude that: • the feeling of ownership is innately human • employees develop feelings of ownership of both tangible and intangible objects • ownership has important emotional, behavioural and attitudinal consequences for those who experience it. many researchers and scholars have recognised and commented on the relationship between a sense of possession on the one hand and work and organisational contexts on the other. brown (1989) suggests that psychological ownership may be a key to organisational competitiveness in the 21st century, whereas kubzansky and druskat (1993, cited in pierce et al., 2003), propose that psychological senses of ownership may be integral parts of employees’ relationships with their organisations. what is psychological ownership and how can one define it? pierce et al. (2003, p. 86) link feelings of possession with a sense of ownership. they define psychological ownership as ‘that state where an individual feels as though the target of ownership or a piece of that target is “theirs”’. in their discussion of the construct, they highlight a number of distinguishing features. the concept of ‘mine’ firstly, they suggest that a sense of ownership manifests in the meanings and emotions one usually associates with ‘my’ or ‘mine’ and ‘our’. the conceptual core of psychological ownership is a feeling of possessiveness (wilpert, 1989) and of having a psychological link with specific objects or targets (the products of one’s labour, one’s home, one’s country or others). therefore, psychological ownership answers the question: ‘what do i feel is mine?’ relationship with targets secondly, psychological ownership reflects a relationship between employees and targets: objects that can be either material (like work or tools) or immaterial (like workspace or ideas). in this relationship, employees see the objects as having close connections with themselves, becoming parts of the ‘extended self’. isaacs (1933, p. 225) explains that ‘what is mine becomes a part of me’. the cognitive and affective core thirdly, pierce et al. (2003) have noticed that psychological ownership (the feeling that things are ‘mine’ or ‘ours’) has many facets. it includes a cognitive and affective core, as the model in figure 1 shows. the cognitive aspect reflects employees’ awareness, beliefs and thoughts about the targets of ownership. affectively, feelings of ownership produce pleasure and give the owners feelings of efficacy and competence. therefore, psychological ownership of organisations consists, in part, of emotional attachments to them. it transcends merely cognitive evaluations of organisations. table 2: psychological ownership. a multidimensional framework of psychological ownership researchers have proposed several motivational models (kanungo, 1982) to help predict employees’ behaviour in organisations. roodt (2004) proposed a motivational model based on a meta-theoretical analysis for explaining states of commitment. the authors adapted this model to develop a multidimensional framework of psychological ownership that distinguishes between the antecedents and consequences of psychological ownership. the authors prefer the term ‘framework’ to that of ‘model’ in this study because frameworks are untested, whereas researchers have proved empirically that models present phenomena in particular ways.according to the framework the authors used here, salient needs, followed by salient values and then by salient goals, trigger employees’ actions. emotional (affective) and cognitive content influence these actions. satisfying salient needs will lead to particular levels of psychological ownership that can result in either positive or negative behaviours. these behaviours then lead to particular outcomes for organisations. figure 1 illustrates the proposed multidimensional framework of psychological ownership. it is important to note that psychological ownership has psychological theories of possession as its basis. in addition, according to avey, avolio, crossley and luthans (2009), one may associate psychological ownership with positive organisational behaviour (pob). luthans (2002, p. 59) defines pob ‘as the study and application of positively oriented human resource strengths and psychological orientated practices that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed for performance improvement in today’s workplace’. according to avey et al. (2009), psychological ownership has much in common with more widely recognised pob constructs and approaches like psychological capital (luthans, youssef & avolio, 2007), psychological well-being (quick & quick, 2004; wright, 2005), positive organisational scholarship (cameron, dutton & quinn, 2003) as well as character strengths and virtues (peterson & seligman, 2004). all have positive orientations towards organisations and associations with accomplishment and success. psychological ownership also meets the specific pob criteria that luthans (2002) and luthans et al. (2007) suggested because its basis is theory and research, one can measure it, it is open to change and development and affects the performance of organisations. the authors discuss roodt’s (2004) proposed adapted model, which the authors used in their framework (see figure 1) below. 1. needs why do employees develop feelings of psychological ownership? what lies beneath this psychological condition? the answers lie in the motives or reasons for, or ‘roots’ of, psychological ownership. according to pierce et al. (2001), psychological ownership exists because it satisfies three basic human needs: self-efficacy, self-identity, and having a home. 1.1 motives for, or the roots of, psychological ownership pierce, jussila and cummings (2009) suggest that each of these motives facilitates the development of the state of psychological ownership, rather than being the direct cause of its occurrence. they add that if feelings of ownership have their roots in this set of motives, one can assume that employees could develop feelings of ownership for a variety of objects as long as they allow this set of motives to operate and to be satisfied.the authors discuss each of the three motives for psychological ownership in detail. 1.1.1 self-efficacy according to isaacs (1933), the motive that underlies possession is, in large part, a desire to be in control. according to furby (1978), controlling objects through ownership produces pleasure and leads to perceptions of personal efficacy. furby concludes that possessions become part of the extended self and are, therefore, important to employees because possessions help them to exercise control over the physical environment as well as over other employees. figure 1: multidimensional framework of psychological ownership. 1.1.2 self-identity the second motivation that underpins psychological ownership is the need for self-identity. pierce et al. (2003) proposed that employees use ownership to define themselves, to express their self-identities to others and to maintain their continuity across time.employees experience pleasure and find comfort in their interactions with objects. therefore, they internalise the socially shared meaning they ascribe to those objects and they become part of their self-identities (mccracken, 1986). dittmar (1992, p. 86) concludes that it is through our interactions with our possessions, coupled with reflections about their meaning, that ‘our sense of identity, our self-definition, are established, maintained, reproduced and transformed’. rousseau (1998) notes that employees establish, maintain, reproduce and transform their self-identities by interacting with intangibles like organisations, missions or purposes. therefore, it is important to ensure that all employees have well-defined goals and that they know exactly what their organisations expect of them. 1.1.3 having a home having a ‘home’ in which to live is the third motive for feelings of ownership. according to weil (1952, p. 41), having a place of one’s own is an important ‘need of the human soul’. employees need to ‘own’ specific spaces. having a home or a place in which to live is a fundamental human need that goes beyond physical concerns and satisfies a pressing psychological need to belong (porteous, 1976). one can best understand belongingness, in terms of psychological ownership in organisations, as feelings that employees belong in their organisations. according to avey et al. (2009), when employees feel that they own their organisations, their ‘having a place’ meets their needs for belonging because it meets their social and socio-emotional needs. however, how can employees come to feel this ownership? 1.2 routes to psychological ownership pierce et al. (2001) proposed that the phenomenon of psychological ownership has its roots in a set of human motives (self-efficacy, self-identity and having a home) and that employees can develop feelings of ownership for a variety of objects as long as the objects allow these motives to operate and to be satisfied. they examined how members of organisations come to feel ownership and identified three main routes through which psychological ownership emerges: • controlling the targets (objects) • getting to know the targets intimately • investing in the targets. therefore, when employees exercise greater control, get to know the targets (organisations) intimately, and invest themselves in the targets of ownership, a sense of responsibility takes root and possessive feelings develop. although the authors examined these routes separately, they could be interrelated. the authors discuss these ‘routes’ to psychological ownership in more detail below. 1.2.1 controlling the ownership targets control over objects gives rise to feelings of ownership of them (furby, 1978; mcclelland, 1951; rochberg-halton, 1984). furby (1978) argues that the greater the amount of control employees can exercise over objects, the more they experience the objects psychologically as part of themselves. mcclelland (1951) believes that employees begin to regard material objects that they can control as a part of themselves and that the greater the amount of control, the more they experience the objects as part of themselves. according to pierce et al. (2001), organisations can provide their members with numerous opportunities to exercise varying degrees of control over a number of factors, each of which is a potential target of psychological ownership. for example, job design is such a factor (hackman & oldham, 1980; kanungo, 1992). more complex tasks and jobs, which provide greater autonomy, imply higher levels of control and increase the likelihood that feelings of ownership of targets will emerge (pierce et al., 2009). conversely, some organisational factors, like centralisation and formalisation, decrease the possibility that employees can exert control. therefore, these factors may impede the development of psychological ownership. in these situations, employees learn that nothing is ‘theirs’, because power vests in the structures and they have limited control over their organisations or any part of them (pierce et al., 2001). researchers, like o’driscoll and beehr (2000), as well as parker (1998), found that the extent to which employees believe that they have control is a key determinant of their effective responses like job satisfaction, work involvement and organisational commitment. empirical evidence supports the relationship between autonomy and control, control and psychological ownership, as well as autonomy and psychological ownership (pierce, o’driscoll & coghlan, 2004; tanaka & yamauchi, 2000; yamauchi, kumagai & kawasaki, 1999). 1.2.2 getting to know the targets intimately beaglehole (1932) argues that intimate knowledge of objects, employees or places enables a union with them to occur. sartre (1969 [1943]) posits that the more information employees have about, and the more knowledge they have of, objects, the deeper is the relationship between the objects and themselves and the stronger their feelings of ownership. therefore, employees find themselves psychologically linked to things because of their active participation in, or association with, those things.pierce et al. (2001) propose that, by various processes of association, organisations can provide their members with a number of opportunities for getting to know potential targets of ownership like work, jobs, projects and teams. for example, when members of organisations receive information about possible organisational targets of ownership (like the missions of their organisations, their goals and performance), they tend to feel that they know their organisations better and may develop senses of psychological ownership of them. however, information alone may not be enough to create senses of ownership. the intensity of the associations, like the number of interactions between employees and their targets, also influences outcomes. longer associations with targets (like long tenures) are more likely to lead to perceptions of knowing targets better and, as a result, to senses of ownership. making information more accessible and less costly to acquire can also promote intimate knowledge. 1.2.3 investing in targets according to durkheim (1957), employees own the objects they have created in much the same way that they own themselves. the investment of employees’ energy, effort, time and attention in objects causes them to become one with the objects and to develop feelings that they own them (rochberg-halton, 1984).pierce et al. (2001) note that organisations provide a wealth of opportunities for their members to invest in different aspects of their organisations, like their jobs, projects, products, assignments or work teams, and therefore to feel ownership of those targets. according to beaglehole (1932), workers can develop senses of ownership of their work, their machines and the products of their labour. the investment occurs in several forms, including investing employees’ time, skills, ideas as well as their psychological, physical, and intellectual energies. as a result, employees may begin to feel that the target of ownership comes from them. pierce et al. (2001) suggest that employees’ psychological ownership of targets becomes stronger the more they invest in the targets. several activities in organisations may require different levels of self-investment. one can illustrate this by the example that follows. non-routine technologies and jobs that are more complex allow employees to use their own judgement. they will then probably invest more of their own thoughts, personal styles and distinctive knowledge. creating objects is one of the most apparent and powerful means through which employees invest in objects (pierce et al., 2001). creation involves investing one’s values and identity as well as one’s time and energy. pierce et al. (2001) illustrate this by the examples that follow. engineers may feel that they own the goods they design, politicians that they own the bills they write and entrepreneurs that they the organisations they establish. academics may feel strong ownership of the outcomes of their academic pursuits. 2. values pelham (1995) states that personal values make some objects more or less valued. pierce et al. (2003) also claim that different attributes are important to different employees and that they seek different types of objects. to increase their self-concepts, employees may attempt to increase feelings of self-worth by striving to possess, psychologically or legally, the objects that hold the greatest importance for them. ownership is one way of boosting employees’ self-esteem, which is why they are probably likely to feel that they own the objects they consider most important according to their personal values.pierce et al. (2003) illustrate this with the example that follows: … individuals whose perceptions of self-worth are predicated on intellect, or who are part of cultures that value intellect, may seek to feel ownership over targets that reinforce this attribute (e.g., books, pieces of art). (p. 20) in contrast, it is possible that employees legally own some objects, yet never claim them as their own. this could be the case when the objects are not sources of efficacy and effectance and have no associations with the employees’ self-identities and/or the places in which they live, even though, according to pierce et al. (2003, p. 20), they ‘might have been earned with hard cash and is controlled and known’. 3. goals according to liberman, idson, camacho and higgens (1999), theorists distinguish between two important categories of desired goals: those that relate to advancement and growth and those that relate to safety and security. therefore, employees have two self-regulatory systems that are concerned with acquiring either nurture or security. employees’ self-regulation in relation to their hopes and aspirations (ideals) satisfies their needs for nurture. their goal is accomplishment and the regulatory focus is promotion. in contrast, employees’ self-regulation of duties and obligations (‘oughts’) satisfies their security needs. their goal is safety and their regulatory focus is prevention. both promotion and prevention motivations are important for human survival. therefore, the one approach is not necessarily more desirable than the other is. avey et al. (2009) have applied these two approaches to examining psychological ownership. therefore, psychological ownership takes two forms: promotion-orientated and prevention-orientated psychological ownership. 4. actions positive attitudes towards targets, improved self-concepts and senses of responsibility are the three fundamental outcomes associated with feelings of possession (furby, 1978). a ‘bundle of rights’ also frequently defines ownership. ownership is associated with the right to information about the targets of ownership and the right to have a voice in decisions that affect employees. however, responsibility should balance all rights associated with ownership. van dyne and pierce (2004) suggest that this sense of possession, which allows employees to satisfy their basic needs for efficacy and effectance, self-identity and place, is a key to work-related attitudes, self-concepts, and behaviours. therefore, psychological ownership has links with positive motivational, attitudinal and behavioural consequences. 5. state of psychological ownership several factors influence the emergence of psychological ownership. the potential for developing psychological ownership resides in both targets and employees and situational forces influence its emergence and manifestation. 5.1 target factors pierce et al. (2001) suggest that targets must be visible and attractive to employees in order to capture their interest and attention. targets must also have particular characteristics that fulfil the motives for efficacy and effectance, self-identity, and/or the need for a place or home. organisations could reveal their goals and expectations in their newsletters and display them in posters on notice boards in break rooms, display their mission statements at workstations and talk regularly to employees about them. this will have dual benefits: when organisations establish and monitor their goals, employees see visible achievements and feel that their organisations acknowledge and recognise them. 5.2 individual factors according to pierce et al. (2003), there are differences in the strengths of the motives over time. personality also has an effect. winter, steward, klohen and duncan (1998) point out that personality traits affect how employees express motives in their behaviour. 5.3 process factors therefore, the processes through which psychological ownership emerge link to complex interactions between the ‘roots’, the ‘routes’, target factors and individual factors. the three roots of psychological ownership (efficacy and effectance, identity and having a home) depend to some extent on each other. ownership may emerge as the result of any one, or any subset of, these needs (pierce et al., 2003). similarly, the three routes to psychological ownership (control, intimate knowledge and self-investment) are complementary, additive and distinct. any single route may result in feelings of ownership that are independent of the others. 5.4 contextual factors although many contextual elements affect the emergence of psychological ownership, the focus in this review was on two aspects: structural and cultural aspects. the authors found that the structural aspects of the social context, like norms, rules, laws and hierarchies, might promote or prevent employees from developing feelings of ownership, whilst the cultural aspects of the social context also have a significant influence on the phenomenon of psychological ownership (pierce et al., 2003).therefore, states of psychological ownership, whilst they could be latent in each employee, do not necessarily always occur and are not equally strong across employees, targets and situations. complex interactions between a number of intra-individual, object-related and contextual factors determine psychological ownership. 6. behavioural consequences of psychological ownership psychological ownership can result in either positive or negative behaviours. psychological ownership has been associated with:• greater commitment to organisations (vandewalle, van dyne & kostova, 1995) • greater accountability (vandewalle et al., 1995) • greater job satisfaction (avey et al., 2009; buchko, 1993; mayhew, ashkanasy, bramble & gardner, 2007; pierce et al., 1991; vandewalle et al., 1995; van dyne & pierce, 2004) • better organisational performance (van dyne & pierce, 2004; wagner, parker & christianson, 2003) • better organisation-based self-esteem (avey et al., 2009; vandewalle et al., 1995; van dyne & pierce, 2004) • more effort from employees to engage in organisational citizenship behaviours (avey et al., 2009; vandewalle et al., 1995; van dyne & pierce, 2004) • increases in extra-role behaviour (vandewalle et al., 1995): employees with higher levels of psychological ownership are more likely to engage in extra-role behaviours • intentions to remain with organisations (avey et al., 2009; buchko, 1993). scholars like dirks, cummings and pierce (1996) and pierce et al. (2001) have also discussed the causal relationship between psychological ownership and resistance to organisational change, feelings of responsibility, willingness to take personal risks and make personal sacrifices. unfortunately, psychological ownership could lead to other dysfunctional organisational behaviours. deviant behaviours are other possible outcomes of psychological ownership that might lead to violations of organisational norms. however, according to pierce et al. (2003), psychological ownership does not necessarily lead to dysfunctional behaviours, although it might lead to them in particular circumstances. 7. outcomes employees’ behaviour leads to particular outcomes for organisations. according to bernstein (1979, p. 483), ‘ownership instils a sense of pride in employees and acts as a motivator of greater performance’. therefore, it is likely that ownership will encourage employees to think and behave like owners. this will improve the performance and effectiveness of organisations. buchko (1993) maintains that ownership may influence employees’ behaviours mainly through its effects on the intentions of employees to remain with their organisations (and retention from the organisations’ points of view). table 3: related constructs: commitment, identification, psychological empowerment, internalisation and job involvement. 2: to distinguish psychological ownership from other work-related attitudes according to pierce et al. (2001), the concept of psychological ownership raises questions about its conceptual distinctiveness because a number of constructs in organisational behaviour theory describe the psychological relationships that employees develop with their organisations. morrow (1983) argued that it is important to distinguish between work-related attitudes (like organisational commitment, organisational identification, internalisation, psychological empowerment, job involvement and, in this case, psychological ownership) to avoid construct proliferation because all these attitudes involve a sense of attachment to, or resonance with, organisations.three constructs that are particularly interesting, when one considers psychological ownership, are organisational commitment, organisational identification and internalisation. organisational commitment refers to feelings and/or beliefs about why employees want to remain with particular organisations (meyer & allen, 1991). mael and ashforth (1992) and dutton, dukerich and harquil (1994) define organisational identification as a perceived oneness with an organisation and experience that organisation’s successes and failures as one’s own. internalisation is the incorporation of values and assumptions with the self as guiding principles (mael & ashforth, 1992). although commitment, identification and internalisation describe different types of psychological relationships with organisations, they could coexist with psychological ownership, especially when its targets are organisations (pierce et al., 2001). commitment, identification and internalisation are neither necessary nor sufficient conditions for psychological ownership. however, they are likely to have reciprocal relationships with it (pierce et al., 2001). pierce et al. (2001) theorise that one can distinguish psychological ownership from other constructs on the basis of factors like its conceptual core (possessiveness), its focus, the motive it serves, its development, the type of state, the selected consequences as well as rights and responsibilities (see table 4). these notions undoubtedly share a number of similarities. however, the specifics of the different definitions suggest that the conceptual core differs from one concept to the next. table 4 focuses primarily on the distinctiveness of psychological ownership and the other constructs rather than the similarities and links between them. there may be overlaps between the observed effects of psychological ownership and those of other constructs. for example, theorists suggest that identification and psychological ownership both produce positive effects (like organisational citizenship behaviour) and negative effects (like deviance). however, the processes through which these effects occur are different. commitment, identification and internalisation have references to the self in common. however, they differ in their theoretical anchoring. the concept of psychological ownership has its base in psychological theories of possession, whilst social identity theory is the basis of identification and social membership is the basis of commitment (pierce et al., 2001). from table 4, point 2, it is clear that the question each of these constructs answers is different. therefore, feeling a sense of ownership of an organisation, feeling possessiveness and that the organisation is ‘mine’ or ‘ours’ differs fundamentally from the need, the desire or the obligation to remain with the organisation, that is, organisational commitment (meyer & allen, 1991). ownership differs from: • using unique and admired characteristics of organisations to define the self or identify with them (edwards, 2005; mael & tetrick, 1992) • association-based goal equivalence or internalisation (o’reilly & chatman, 1986) • feeling competent and intrinsically motivated at work, or psychological empowerment (spreitzer, 1995; stander & rothmann, 2010) • being consumed by work and having work as the central life interest (blau & boal, 1987; hackett, lapierre & hausdorf, 2001; lawler & hall, 1970). therefore, pierce et al. (2001) conclude that it is reasonable to suggest that psychological ownership may predict: • certain effects that existing theoretical models of other constructs do not explain • criterion variance that any of the other constructs currently do not explain. many studies confirm the existence of a construct like psychological ownership. mayhew et al. (2007) and avey et al. (2009) have shown that there is a strong association between affective organisational commitment and psychological ownership. van dyne and pierce (2004) have provided discriminant validity evidence for the distinctiveness of psychological ownership items from the items they used to measure commitment, identification, internalisation, job satisfaction and involvement. their observation of the unique ability of psychological ownership to predict worker attitudes and behaviours over and above the effects of demographic characteristics, affective organisational commitment, organisational identification, internalisation, job involvement and job satisfaction is important because it demonstrates the unique contribution of the psychology of possession to the understanding of relationships between employees and their organisations. olzer, yilmaz and ozler (2008) also found that psychological ownership variables account for 50.1% of changes in organisational commitment variables. vandewalle et al. (1995) report that organisational commitment mediates the effects of psychological ownership on extra-role behaviour. therefore, psychological ownership makes a difference, because possessive feelings about organisations (psychological ownership) lead to increases in organisational commitment. committed employees are prepared to engage in extra-role behaviours (constructive work efforts that benefit their organisations and go beyond the required work activities) and extra-role behaviours contribute to higher performance. therefore, earlier research has shown that there is a relationship between extra-role behaviours and performance. organisations that value organisational commitment and extra-role behaviours may want to increase the incidence of these behaviours by increasing psychological ownership. table 4: comparing psychological ownership to commitment, identification, internalisation, psychological empowerment and job involvement. study objective 3: to explore the role that psychological ownership could play in retaining skilled talent from the background to this study, it is clear that it is a challenge for organisations to keep their best and most talented staff. although some employees may try to sit out a downturn, the best are always employable and can go elsewhere. this creates a ‘war for talent’. kotzé and roodt (2005) argue that the demand for, and difficulties in retaining, talent are challenges that are not unique to south african employers. however, they show that three additional factors compound them in south africa. firstly, skilled people have emigrated and continue to do so at an astonishing rate. for example, according to grant thornton’s 2008 international business report (ibr), 32% of respondents, who took part in a survey amongst 300 privately-owned businesses that employed between 100 and 400 members of staff, confirmed that they had seriously considered leaving south africa permanently (‘third of workers mull emigration’, 2008). secondly, there is a relative scarcity of specialist and managerial employees because of an over-supply of unskilled labour and an under-supply of skilled labour. thirdly, the national drive to address employment equity has fuelled a war for talent amongst employees from designated groups. consequently, organisations need to consider how to keep their best employees – particularly given the huge costs they incur when valuable employees depart. employees, who leave organisations, often take with them valuable knowledge and expertise they have gained through experience. in addition to these indirect costs, organisations may also face many costs that relate directly to turnover. they include exit interview time and administrative requirements, paying unused vacation leave, the cost of employing temporary workers or paying overtime for co-workers, which organisations ask to fill in, and training costs. replacement costs include advertising, headhunting and selection fees. training costs, both formal and informal, add to the overall burden (mitchell, holtom & lee, 2001). losing good employees is also costly because of its effect on morale. the employees who remain often feel demotivated or disheartened. this causes decreased productivity and job satisfaction. if staff members see their colleagues snapping up new job opportunities, they could leave (hay, 2002). kotzé and roodt (2005) suggest that employers have two options to succeed in the war for talent. the first is to become and remain an ‘employer of choice’. this will attract and retain employees with the profile they require (cappelli, 2000). the second is to develop, retain and use their existing talent pool efficiently. the second option is the preferred one in this study. rossi (2000), who suggests that the best method of filling important vacancies is to ensure that current qualified employees remain, also recommends the second option. organisations know their current employees. in addition, they are familiar with the internal workings of their organisations. they have already established the formal and informal networks they need to help them remain productive in their organisations and their organisations have trained them to use many of their methods and systems. in the effort to win the war for talent, organisations have shifted their attention to determining the intrinsic and extrinsic reward variables that help them to retain talent. previous studies, like those of bernthal and wellins (2001) as well as cappelli (2000), have identified several intrinsic and extrinsic factors. different studies attach differing levels of importance to these factors. a study by towers perrin (hr focus, 2003), for example, emphasises extrinsic rewards like performance-based pay. however, kaye and jordan-evans (2002) report that, despite the importance of extrinsic variables, like compensation, for retaining talent, intrinsic factors, like having good supervisors, significant and challenging work and opportunities to develop are more important. in a study on 745 employee responses to a retention survey that bernthal and wellins (2001) conducted, employees rated the retention factors that follow as very important: • the quality of their relationships with supervisors or managers • the ability to balance work and home life • the level of cooperation with co-workers • a clear understanding of work objectives • the level of challenging work and autonomy – the freedom to direct work. jamrog (2004) explains: the best people are not motivated by and do not stay for the money alone. they stay because they are engaged and challenged by work that makes them better at what they do. they want to work for more than just the pay check. (p. 11) in his article ‘hunting for black executives’, bruce whitfield (2007) observed that many south african companies struggle to retain upwardly-mobile black talent, even though companies under pressure to transform are prepared to pay large salaries to attract the right skills. however, although human resource directors acknowledge the importance of competitive salaries when it comes to attracting and retaining talented staff, they realise that ‘it’s not all about the money’. meyer and allen (1991) observed that organisations that focus on intrinsically important variables benefit by eliciting greater affective commitment from their talented employees. behaviours and attitudes, like strong beliefs in, and acceptance of, the values and goals of their organisations, the willingness to work hard to benefit their organisations and the desire to remain with their organisations, illustrate this. birt, wallis and winternitz (2004) have found that organisations with high levels of employee commitment outperform those with low levels by 200%. rankin (2000) advises that focusing on intrinsic variables in order to increase commitment amongst talented employees seems to make good business sense. buchko (1993) found that ownership could influence employee behaviours, mainly through its effect on the intentions of employees to remain with their organisations. this effect is both direct and indirect. it operates through increased organisational commitment to tie employees to their organisations and decrease the effects of turnover. consistent with much of the previous research on turnover (like that of mobley, 1982), buchko (1993) found that the intention to leave mediates the effects of commitment on turnover. according to him, the direct and indirect effects of ownership are significant. in fact, previous research (french & rosenstein, 1984; klein, 1987; long, 1982) has suggested that the effects of attitudinal variables on ownership are strong enough to influence turnover independently of their effects on intentions to leave. in their study, jeswani and dave (2011) proposed a conceptual framework of psychological ownership as a predictor of intentions to leave. avey et al. (2009) and olckers (2011) found a positive relationship between psychological ownership and employees’ intentions to remain with their organisations. it seems clear that psychological ownership could affect the intentions of employees to remain with their organisations. therefore, it can probably play a role in retaining talent. table 5: talent retention. discussion top ↑ here, the authors elaborate on the achievement of the three study objectives and the implications of psychological ownership for human resource practitioners and managers. study objective 1 the authors have achieved their first study objective: ‘to explore and describe the concept of psychological ownership’. psychological ownership is ‘that state where an individual feels as though the target of ownership or a piece of that target is “theirs”’ (pierce et al., 2003, p. 86). according to pierce et al. (2001), employees can direct psychological ownership at several objects (including organisations, jobs or work projects). it is a sense of possessing objects where the objects become extensions of themselves and link closely to employees’ identities (pierce et al., 2001). therefore, this study determined that psychological ownership provides an answer to the question ‘what do i feel is mine?’ organisations can benefit from managing psychological ownership because, according to pierce et al. (1991) and mayhew et al. (2007), psychological ownership can motivate employees to perform at high levels and even inspire them to engage in extra-role behaviours. beaglehole (1932) and furby (1978) theorise that feelings of possession create a sense of responsibility that influences behaviour. according to hall (1966), feelings of responsibility include a responsibility to invest time and energy to advance the cause of organisations by being protective, caring and nurturing. when employees identify closely with their organisations, the desire to maintain, improve and protect that identity results in an improved sense of responsibility for work outputs (kubzansky & druskat, 1993, cited in pierce et al., 2003). according to pierce et al. (2001), one can see several organisational effects, including stewardship, as responsibilities and as the products of psychological ownership. according to rogers and freundlich (1998), employees who feel that they own their organisations believe that they have the right to influence the directions of their organisations and that they have a ‘deeper responsibility’ than those who do not feel ownership. according to pierce et al. (2001), it is possible to facilitate the development of psychological ownership in organisations because organisations can satisfy the motives of psychological ownership (self-efficacy and effectance, self-identity and having a place), although managers cannot control these motives. however, managers can work on the so-called ‘routes’ to psychological ownership by organising work so that employees become more psychologically tied to the targets (like organisations) and the targets become extensions of themselves. the authors finally achieved their first study objective by introducing a multidimensional framework of psychological ownership that distinguishes the antecedents from the consequences of psychological ownership because it links with positive behavioural and social-psychological consequences. study objective 2 the authors achieved their second study objective, which was ‘to distinguish psychological ownership from other related constructs’ by clearly indicating its distinctiveness. it is important to pay attention to psychological ownership because it is conceptually distinct from organisational commitment, identification, internalisation, psychological empowerment and job involvement. it describes a unique aspect of the human experience in organisations. the particular ability of psychological ownership to predict worker attitudes and behaviours, over and above the effects of demographic characteristics, affective organisational commitment, organisational identification, internalisation, job involvement and job satisfaction, is important. it shows the unique contribution of the psychology of possession to understanding the individual-organisation relationship (van dyne & pierce, 2004). table 4 makes it clear that one can distinguish psychological ownership from other work-related constructs. these factors are its conceptual core (namely possessiveness), its focus, its motive, its development, its type of state, its selected consequences as well as rights and responsibilities. study objective 3 the authors also achieved their third study objective, which was ‘to explore the role that psychological ownership could play retaining skilled talent’. it is clear from the literature that it is a challenge for organisations to retain their most talented and skilled staff. therefore, the managers in organisations are responsible for creating work environments that engage and retain employees. if organisations can develop and foster a sense of psychological ownership amongst employees by addressing the factors in the framework, they could become better workplaces where sustainable performance and retaining talent is not a problem but a competitive differentiator. organisations can benefit from psychological ownership because it leads employees to feel responsible towards targets (like organisations) and to show stewardship. it can help organisations to retain talent and influence the intentions of skilled employees to remain with their organisations. therefore, it is clear that psychological ownership, which is a multidimensional construct, could help organisations to retain the talents of skilled employees. conclusion this study determined that psychological ownership provides an answer to the question: ‘what do i feel is mine?’ if talented employees do not feel that parts of their organisations are theirs, they might not mind leaving. traditional retention strategies, like benefits, incentives and development opportunities, will become ineffective. the pivotal role that psychological ownership plays is obvious. human resource practitioners and managers must understand that they cannot always retain talent using tangible means. the intangible psychological phenomenon is also important and often ignored. limitations of the study the construct of psychological ownership, like most social constructs, is complex. this might pose a limitation to the framework if it has omitted some variables. the researchers have done their best to be objective in developing the framework of psychological ownership and in considering the construct’s relation to retaining talent. nevertheless, some subjectivity is a possibility. suggestions for future research the authors have made theoretical recommendations to increase psychological ownership in organisations. they have not ruled out the possibility of building onto the framework as a topic for future research because there could be other variables that apply in different contexts. the current environment calls for the development of a survey instrument that organisations can use to understand whether, and how, employees interpret their psychological ownership of their organisations and to help organisations to retain their most valuable employees. such an instrument should determine the extent to which employees (especially given their diversity) feel that they own their organisations, whether employees feel that they identify with them, have a sense of responsibility towards them and feel that they have some control over their work environments. furthermore, a study into the links between psychological ownership and attitudes to work in different generations could also be useful for retaining talent and could reveal possible differentiating factors. acknowledgements top ↑ the authors acknowledge maureen bashabe, who created an example of the design they used in this paper: bashabe, m. (2010). defining talent management: a review of the south african literature. unpublished master’s thesis. university of johannesburg, johannesburg. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriate influenced them when they wrote this paper. authors’ contributions the authors contributed equally to this article. references top ↑ arnold, j., & randall, r. (2010). work psychology: understanding human behaviour in the workplace. (5th edn.). harlow, essex: pearson education.avey, j.b., avolio, b.j., crossley, c.d., & luthans, f. (2009). psychological ownership: theoretical extensions, measurement and relation to work outcomes. journal of organizational behavior, 30, 173–191. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.583 beaglehole, e. (1932). property: a study in social psychology. new york: macmillan. bernstein, p. (1979). workplace democratization: its internal dynamics. new brunswick, nj: transaction books. bernthal, p.r., & wellins, r.s. (2001). retaining talent: a benchmarking study. hr benchmark group, 2(3), 1–28. birt, m., wallis, t., & winternitz, g. (2004). talent retention in a changing workplace: an investigation of variables considered important to south african talent. south african journal of business management, 35(2), 25–31. blau, g.j., & boal, k.b. (1987). conceptualizing how job involvement and organizational commitment affect turnover and absenteeism. academy of management review, 12(2), 288–300. retrieved march 16, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/258536 brown, t.l. (1989, 19 june). what will it take to win? industry week, p. 15. buchko, a.a. (1993). the effects of employee ownership on employee attitudes: an integrated causal model and path analysis. journal of management studies, 30(4), 633–657. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.1993.tb00319.x cameron, k., dutton, j., & quinn, r. (eds.). (2003). positive organizational scholarship. san francisco: berrett-koehler. cappelli, p. (2000). a market-driven approach to retaining talent. harvard business review, 78(1), 103–112. de villiers, r. (2006). alumni talent: how losing the retention battle can help with the talent war. civil engineering: magazine of the south african institution of civil engineering, 14(1), 15. dirks, k.t., cummings, l.l., & pierce, j.l. (1996). psychological ownership in organizations: conditions under which individuals promote and resist change. in r.w. woodman & w.a. pasmore (eds.), research in organizational change and development (pp. 1–23). greenwich, ct: jai. dittmar, h. (1992). the social psychology of material possessions: to have is to be. new york: st. martin’s. dunn, s., richardson, r., & dewe, p. (1991). the impact of employee share ownership on worker attitudes: a longitudinal case study. human resource management journal, 1(1), 1–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.1991.tb00227.x durkheim, e. (1957). professional ethics and civil morals. (c. brookfield, trans.). london: routledge and kegan paul. dutton, j.e., dukerich, j.m., & harquil, c.v. (1994). organizational images and member identification. administrative science quarterly, 39, 239–263. retrieved february 10, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2393235 edwards, m.r. (2005). organizational identification: a conceptual and operational review. international journal of management reviews, 7(4), 207–230. article first published online: 23 feb 2006, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2005.00114.x fiorito, j.d.p., bozeman, a., young, a., & meurs, j.a. (2007). organizational commitment, human resource practices, and organisational characteristics. journal of managerial issues 19(2), 186–207. french, j.l., & rosenstein, j. (1984). employee ownership, work attitudes, and power relationships. academy of management journal, 27(4), 861–869. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/255883 furby, l. (1978). possession in humans: an exploratory study of its meaning and motivation. social behaviour and personality, 6(1), 49–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.2224/sbp.1978.6.1.49 hackett, r.d., lapierre, l.m., & hausdorf, p.a. (2001). understanding the links between commitment constructs. journal of vocational behavior, 58, 392–413. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2000.1776 hackman, j.r., & oldham, g.r. (1980). work redesign. reading, ma: addison–wesley. hall, e.t. (1966). the hidden dimension. garden city, ny: doubleday. hay, m. (2002). strategies for survival in the war of talent. career development international, 7(1), 52–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430210414883 hr focus. (2003). rewards: the not–so secret ingredient for managing talent. hr focus, 80(1), 3–5. isaacs, s. (1933). social development in young children. london: routledge & kegan paul. jamrog, j. (2004). the perfect storm: the future of retention and engagement. tampa, fl: human resource institute, university of tampa, florida. jeswani, s., & dave, s. (2011). conceptual framework on psychological ownership as predictor of turnover intentions. kkimrc international journal of research in finance and accounting 1(1), 52–70. kanungo, r.n. (1982). work alienation: an integrative approach. new york: praeger. kanungo, r.n. (1992). alienation and empowerment: some ethical imperatives in business. journal of business ethics, 11(5), 413–422. retrieved june 05, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25072290 kaye, b., & jordan-evans, s. (2002). retention in tough times. training and development, 56(1), 32–37. klein, k. (1987). employee stock ownership and employee attitudes: a test of three models. journal of applied psychology, 72(2), 319–332. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.72.2.319, pmid:3583982 kotzé, k., & roodt, g. (2005). factors that affect the retention of managerial and specialist staff: an exploratory study of an employee commitment model. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 3(2), 48–55. kruse, d. (1984). employee ownership and employee attitudes: two case studies. norwood, pa: norwood editions. lawler, e.e., & hall, d.t. (1970). relationship of job characteristics to job involvement, satisfaction and intrinsic motivational. journal of applied psychology, 54(4), 305–312. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0029692 liberman, n., idson, l.c, camacho, c.j., & higgins, t.e. (1999). promotion and prevention choices between stability and change. journal of personality and social psychology, 77(6), 1135–1145. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.77.6.1135, pmid:10626368 long, r.j. (1982). worker ownership and job attitudes: a field study. industrial relations, 21(2), 196–215. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-232x.1982.tb00228.x luthans, f. (2002). the need for and meaning of positive behavior. journal of organizational behavior, 23(6), 695–706. retrieved october 15, 2010, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4093649 luthans, f., youssef, c.m., & avolio, b.j. (2007). psychological capital: developing the human competitive edge. oxford: oxford university press. mael, f., & ashforth, b.e. (1992). alumni and their alma mater: a partial test of the reformulated model of organizational identification. journal of organizational behavior, 13(2), 103–123. retrieved october 15, 2010, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2488176 mael, f., & tetrick, l.e. (1992). identifying organizational identification. educational and psychological measurement, 52(4), 813–824. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013164492052004002 mattila, j., & ikävalko, m. (2003). participative strategy process in a professional organization and the concept of psychological ownership. reykjavik, iceland: paper presented at the 17th nordic conference on business strategies. mayhew, m.g., ashkanasy, n.m., bramble, t., & gardner, j. (2007). a study of the antecedents and consequences of psychological ownership in organizational settings. journal of social psychology, 147(5), 477–500. mcclelland, d. (1951). personality. new york: holt, rinehart & winston. mccracken, g. (1986). culture and consumption: a theoretical account of the structure and movement of the cultural meaning of consumer goods. journal of consumer research, 13(1), 71–84. retrieved october 15, 2010, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2489287 meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1991). a three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment. human resource management review, 1(1), 61–89. mitchell, t.r., holtom, b.c., & lee, t.w. (2001). how to keep your best employees: developing an effective retention policy. academy of management executive, 15(4), 96–109. mobley, w.h. (1982). employee turnover: causes, consequences and control. reading, ma: addison–wesley. morrow, p.c. (1983). concept redundancy in organizational research: the case of work commitments. academy of management review, 8(3), 486–500. retrieved june 05, 2011, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/257837 o’driscoll, m.p., & beehr, t. (2000). moderating effects of perceived control and need for clarity on the relationship between role stressors and employee affection reactions. journal of social psychology, 140(2), 151–159. o’driscoll, m.p., pierce, j.l., & coghlan, a. (2006). the psychology of ownership: work environment structure, organizational commitment, and citizenship behaviors. group and organizational management, 31(3), 388–416. olckers, c. (2011). a multi-dimensional measure of psychological ownership for south african organisations. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. o’neal, s. (2005). total rewards and the future of work. workspan, 48(1), 18–26. o’reilly, c.e., & chatman, j. (1986). organizational commitment and psychological attachment. journal of applied psychology, 71(3), 492–499. o’reilly, c.e. (2002). the wrong kind of ownership. across the board, 39(5), 19–20. olzer, h., yilmaz, a., & ozler, a. (2008). psychological ownership: an empirical study on its antecedents and impacts upon organizational behaviors. problems and perspectives in management, 6(3), 38–47. parker, s. (1998). enhancing role-breadth self efficacy: the roles of job enrichment and other organizational interventions. journal of applied psychology, 83, 835–852. pelham, b. (1995). self-investment and self-esteem: evidence for a jamesian model of self-worth. journal of personality and social psychology, 69, 1141–1150. pendleton, a., wilson, n., & wright, m. (1998). the perception and effects of share ownership: empirical evidence from employee buy-outs. british journal of industrial relations, 36(1), 99–123. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8543.00082 peterson, c., & seligman, m. (2004). character strengths and virtues: a handbook and classification. new york: oxford university press. pierce, j.l., jussila, i., & cummings, a. (2009). psychological ownership within the job design context: revision of the job characteristics model. journal of organizational behavior, 30(4), 477–496. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.550 pierce, j.l., kostova, t., & dirks, k.t. (2001). towards a theory of psychological ownership in organizations. academy of management review, 26(2), 298–310. c:\users\user\appdata\local\temp\retrieved retrieved n.d., from http://www.jstor.org/stable/259124 pierce, j.l., kostova, t., & dirks, k.t. (2003). the state of psychological ownership: integrating and extending a century of research. review of general psychology, 7(1), 84–107. pierce, j.l., o’driscoll, m.p., & coghlan, a.m. (2004). work environment structure and psychological ownership: the mediating effects of control. journal of social psychology, 144(5), 507–534. pierce, j.l., rubenfield, s.a., & morgan, s. (1991). employee ownership: a conceptual model of process and effects. academy of management review, 16(1), 121–144. retrieved october 05, 2009, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/258609 porteous, j. (1976). home: the territorial core. geographical review, 66(4), 383–390. quick, j.c., & quick, j.d. (2004). health, happy, productive work: a leadership challenge. organizational dynamics, 33, 329–337. rankin, m.j. (2000). winning the war for talent: how to become an employer of choice. trusts and estates, 139(4), 54–57. rich stay comfortably rich. (2008, september 02). fin24.com. retrieved october 16, 2010, from http://www.fin24.com/business/rich-stay-comfortably-rich-20080902 rochberg-halton, e.w. (1984). object relations, role models, and cultivation of the self. environment and behavior, 16(3), 335–368. rogers, l., & freundlich, f. (1998). nothing measured, nothing gained. employee ownership report, xviii, no. 1. oakland, ca: national center for employee ownership. retrieved october 20, 2009, from http://www.ownershipassociates.com roodt, g. (2004). concept redundancy and contamination in employee commitment research: current problems and future directions. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 30(1), 82–90. rossi, j.f. (2000). employee retention: why do employees stay with a company? st. joseph’s college, new york, 471, 1–19. rousseau, d.m. (1998). why workers still identify with organizations. journal of organizational behavior, 19(3), 217–233. retrieved october 16, 2010, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3100169 sartre, j.p. (1969 [1943]). being and nothingness: a phenomenological essay on ontology. new york: philosophical library. spreitzer, g.m. (1995). psychological empowerment in the workplace: dimensions, measurement and validation. academy of management journal, 38(5), 1442–1465. retrieved october, 2010, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/256865 stander, m., & rothmann, s. (2010). psychological empowerment, job insecurity and employee engagement. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 36(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.849 tanaka, k., & yamauchi, h. (2000). influence of autonomy on perceived control beliefs and self-regulated learning in japanese undergraduate students. north american journal of psychology, 2(2), 255–273. third of workers mull emigration. (2008, may 20). fin24.com. retrieved february 10, 2011, from http:///www.fin24.com/business/articles/default/display_print_article.aspx?articleid=1518-1786_2 tranfield, d., denyer, d., & smart, p. (2003). towards a methodology for developing evidence-informed management knowledge by means of systematic review. british journal of management, 14(3), 207–222. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375 van dyne, l., & pierce, j.l. (2004). psychological ownership and feelings of possession: three field studies predicting employee attitudes and organizational citizenship behaviors. journal of organizational behavior, 25(4), 439–459. retrieved october 21, 2010, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4093721 vandewalle, d., van dyne, l., & kostova, t. (1995). psychological ownership: an empirical examination of its consequences. group and organization management, 20(2), 210–226. wagner, s.h., parker, c.p., & christianson, n.d. (2003). employees that think and act like owners: effects of ownership beliefs and behaviors on organizational effectiveness. personnel psychology, 56, 847–871. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2003.tb00242.x weil, s. (1952). the need for roots: prelude to a declaration of duties toward mankind. london: routledge & kegan paul. whitfield, b. (2007, february 07). hunting for black executives. fin24.com. retrieved february 10, 2011, from http://www.fin24.com/articles/hunting wilpert, b. (1989). property, ownership, and participation: on the growing contradictions between legal and psychological concepts. in r. russel & v. rus (eds.), international handbook of participation in organizations: for the study of organizational democracy, co-operation, and self-management, vol. 2 (pp. 149–164). new york: oxford university press. winter, d., steward, j.o., klohen, e., & duncan, l. (1998). traits and motives: toward an integration of two traditions in personality research. psychological bulletin, 105, 230–250. wright, t.a. (2005). the role of ’happiness‘ in organizational research: past, present, and future directions. in p.l. perrewe & d.c. ganster (eds.), research in occupational stress and well-being, vol. 4 (pp. 221–264). amsterdam: jai press. yamauchi, h., kumagai, y., & kawasaki, y. (1999). perceived control, autonomy, and self-regulated learning strategies among japanese high school students. psychological reports, 85, 779–798. 7-sutherland.qxd it is often said that an organisation is only as good as its people and that knowledge workers are a major source of competitive advantage in a world where most processes and systems have been standardised across industry participants (templer & cawsey, 1999). attracting and retaining intellectual capital, a cadre of highly skilled, independent, internationally marketable and mobile individuals, is a critical feature of globalisation (paul, 2000). for this reason, an organisation’s ability to retain knowledge workers is a critical component in determining its present and future success. the financial impact of knowledge worker turnover is under-appreciated by organisations as the hidden nature of turnover costs, such as loss of organisational memory, conceals its true magnitude (corporate leadership council, 1998a). the attrition of knowledge workers has been viewed as a major cause for concern for the management of organisations. in what has been termed “the war for talent” (tulgan, 2001), the job mobility of executives and knowledge workers is increasing (chambers, foulon, handfield-jones, hankin & michaels, 1998). in the changing world of work, the psychological contract bet ween employer and employee has changed fundamentally (lee, 2001) and long term commitment to an organisation is no longer expected by either party (armstrong & murlis, 1998). furthermore, friedman, hatch and walker (1998) write that the notion of a permanent job has become an oxymoron. as organisations become increasingly dependent on knowledge workers, paradoxically these workers’ tenure seems to reduce. bussin (2002) reports that the issue of increasing retention and decreasing turnover has become paramount in organisational life, and that attracting and retaining key talent has become a critical organisational competency. the literature on retention mentions the need for organisations to develop and communicate winning employee value propositions (chambers et al., 1998). however, there is a paucity of empirical research on what the key components of such a proposition must be in order for the retention of key employees to be enhanced. the literature review set out below shows that fifty years of academic research on labour turnover has, in many ways, led to more questions than answers. most studies have tested extremely highly focused hypotheses, were carried out in single companies or industries, looked at turnover and not retention factors, and/or were carried out prior to the new knowledge economy (morrell, loan-clarke & wilkinson, 2001). thus the aim of this research was to determine what the underlying retention factors are that are important to knowledge workers and whether or not these factors are universal, or if there are segments in the population of knowledge workers that desire different retention devices. literature review there is a plethora of academic literature available on the many facets of labour turnover, retention and knowledge workers, which serve as the main variables of this research. the knowledge economy the world economy has progressed from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy (pine & gilmore, 1998). with knowledge being viewed as a major contributing factor to organisational success, the purveyors of this knowledge in organisations deserve to be focused on. drucker (1974) first used the term “knowledge worker”; he described these individuals as employees who carry knowledge as a powerful resource which they, rather than the organisation, own. drucker (1989: 175) states “knowledge workers know that their knowledge…. gives them freedom to move since everyone’s knowledge has a multitude of applications in the information or knowledge age”. a few years later drucker (2002, p. 76) wrote that knowledge workers have become the major creator of wealth and jobs and “…increasingly the success and even the survival of every business will depend on the performance of its knowledge workforce”. he goes on to say that the knowledge economy will increasingly depend on higher levels of education. harrigan and dalmia (1991) define knowledge workers as key employees who create intangible value-adding assets, and who often transport margie sutherland wilhelm jorda an department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract one of the characteristics of knowledge workers is their high level of mobility. the cost of labour turnover of these key resources is high in both financial and non financial terms. there is thus a need to understand what the factors are that underpin the retention cognitions of knowledge workers. data was collected from 306 knowledge workers in full time employment representing a wide range of demographic groupings. the results showed that job satisfaction and organisational commitment do not predict knowledge workers’ proposed future length of service. factor analysis revealed seven underlying dimensions of retention cognitions. cluster analysis revealed nine distinct clusters of knowledge workers with regard to their retention cognitions. high levels of individualism, need for challenge and focus on personal development were demonstrated. the implications of these findings are discussed. opsomming een van die eienskappe van kenniswerkers is hulle hoë vlak van mobiliteit. die koste van arbeidsomset van hierdie sleutelbronne is hoog in beide finansiële en nie-finansiële terme. daar bestaan dus ’n behoefte om die faktore wat onderliggend is aan die retensiekognisies van kenniswerkers te verstaan. data is ingesamel van 306 kenniswerkers in voltydse diens wat ’n wye reeks demografiese groeperings verteenwoordig. die resultate dui daarop dat werktevredenheid en organisasieverbondenheid nie die kenniswerkers se verwagte lengte van diens voorspel nie. faktorontleding het sewe onderliggende dimensies van retensiekognisies blootgelê. ’n bondelontleding het nege duidelike bondels van kenniswerkers ten opsigte van hulle retensiekognisies onderskei. hoë vlakke van individualisme, behoefte aan uitdaging en fokus op persoonlike ontwikkeling is aangedui. die implikasies van hierdie bevindinge word bespreek. factors affecting the retention of knowledge workers requests for copies should be addressed to: m sutherland, department of human resource management, rau, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 55 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (2), 55-64 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (2), 55-64 those assets in their heads when they change employers. brown and duguid (1996) redefine the concept of a knowledge worker as a “learning person” who is at the core of knowledge transfer in an organisation. one of the key features of knowledge workers in the new world of work is their increasing mobility and the consequences of this to the organisation. the mobility of these knowledge workers is a major concern in the new economy as the loss of knowledge workers to an organisation means loss of both tangible and intangible knowledge and possibly competitive advantage (kinnear & sutherland, 2000). templer and cawsey (1999) regard knowledge workers as having portfolio careers, meaning that they have a portfolio of skills that they sell to a range of clients. the new world of work has led to transitions in the employer/employee relationship over time. tulgan (2001) identifies three stages within this relationship. the first phase was when employers gave up the not ion of life-t ime employment. this was followed by the second phase where employees took responsibilit y for their own careers. the third – the current phase – is one of a mutual balance of power bet ween employer and employee. this series of transitions has lead to dramatic changes in psychological contracts. dibble (1999) notes that one of the characteristics of the new contract is that employees cont inually change jobs throughout their career in an attempt to ensure the best for themselves. in addition, despres and hiltrop (1995) define part of the change from traditional work to knowledge work as being characterised by a shift in the employee’s loyalt y from the organisation and its career systems to the knowledge worker’s own profession, net works and peers. hence, a significant consequence of the change in the psychological contract is the increased mobilit y of knowledge workers. knowledge workers are seen to be fundamentally different from workers in the industrial economy and have their own unique concept ion of what represents job sat isfact ion (kinnear, 1999) and, hence, focused research needs to be carried out on what drives the various aspects of their performance and, especially, their mobilit y. labour turnover trevor (2001) reports that over 1000 academic studies have been carried out on labour turnover. despite the information gained from these studies, fitz-enz and phillips (1998:107) argue that “… retention of key employees is probably the biggest challenge in human asset management today”. labour turnover is classified in the literature as either voluntary or involuntary. voluntary turnover is defined as employee initiated, with the staff member seeking better employment conditions or prospects or job satisfaction. involuntary turnover is defined as employer initiated and due to retrenchment or dismissal for disciplinary or performance related reasons (p-e corporate services, 2001). the present research is concerned only with voluntary turnover. antecedents of turnover in order to manage turnover one needs to understand its causes. there is a large body of literature on the predictive role of a large number of competing variables on labour turnover (morrell et al., 2001). the literature reviewed points to a multiplicity of factors. mitchell, holtom and lee (2001), however, find that all of the studies on antecedents to turnover leave about 75% of the variance in turnover unexplained. two recent large-scale studies of the literature on turnover have attempted to categorise the plethora of turnover models developed over the half century of research into attrition. the work of morrell et al. (2001) identifies two schools of turnover research and subsequent modelling. they write firstly of the labour market school or economic school, which looks at issues such as labour supply and demand, job search theory and techniques, and objective opportunities. work by prominent researchers such as griffeth and hom, mobley, gaertner, and vanenberg and nelson are classified by morrell et al. (2001) as falling into this school. the other school of research they term “the psychological school”, where issues of affect are studied; emphasis is placed on individual decision making and, in particular, the impact of job dissatisfaction and organisational commitment are studied as antecedents of turnover. key researchers identified by morrell et al. (2001) as falling in this school include march and simon, price and mueller, and mobley’s expanded model. the research by rouse (2001) classifies previous research into two other groupings, namely: rational versus instinctual models. rational models assume that employees rationally follow a linear progression towards turnover. the turnover process is viewed as beginning with the employee experiencing job dissatisfaction. factors that determine job dissatisfaction and organisational commitment are studied and their weak, though significant, relationship to turnover – together with other factors – is studied to explain the turnover phenomenon. work by mobley, and steers and mowday, are classified by rouse (2001) as epitomising this rational school. the instinctual models assume that most people who leave an organisation are relatively satisfied with their job but typically a precipitating event – referred to as a “shock” – is the basis for departure. this body of research then examines turnover as a destination arrived at via distinct paths. lee and mitchell’s work is defined by rouse as being typical of this school of study. intention to leave is seen by many writers as the best predictor of turnover. the corporate leadership council (1999) showed a strong correlation between intention to depart and actual turnover. likewise, maertz and campion (2001) in their largescale analysis of turnover research find that “intention to quit” has demonstrated the most consistent bi-variate relationship to t urnover behaviour with an r value consistently around the 0.50 level. many of the authors indicate the interdependence of job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and intention to leave. the corporate leadership council (1999) states that the link between “employee satisfaction” and “intention to leave” is weakening as, increasingly, highly satisfied employees leave their organisation for new opportunities. cappelli (2000) distinguishes very usefully between loyalty and commitment in the new world of work. in particular, he writes that it is a false belief that commitment can only exist in a long-term relationship. milkovich and boudreau (1997) remind the reader that the decision to leave is influenced by many factors, over some of which the organisation has no control and over some of which the organisation has moderate control. the literature on specific antecedents can be divided into three sections: environmental antecedents external to the organisation; antecedents internal to the organisation and employee specific issues. the antecedents external to the organisation lie within the labour-market approach to turnover discussed above (cappelli, 2000). these precursors of turnover are those over which an organisation has almost no control and include: unsolicited approaches (lee, mitchell, holtom, mcdaniel & hill, 1999); labour-market influences (maertz & campion, 2001); emigration caused by macro social problems (bennett, 2003) and impacts of the employment equity act (van as, 2001). the antecedent factors internal to the organisation over which organisations have some control are: shock events in the organisation (allen & griffeth, 1999); problems with a manager (pine & gilmore, 1998); pay (milkovich & boudreau, 1997); lack of development opportunities (hay, 2001) and change processes (baron, hannon & burton, 2001). sutherland, jorda an56 employee specific antecedents which are associated with individual employees’ own career drivers include knowledge worker characteristics (trevor, 2001) and family responsibilities (milkovich and boudreau, 1997). consequences of turnover labour t urnover is also commonly classified as either functional or dysfunctional. allen and griffeth (1999) assert that functional turnover is characterised by a situation where high-performance employees remain with the organisation while poor performance employees leave. van as (2001) points out that mobility can lead to organisational renewal and change, can clean out ‘deadwood’, making it easier to introduce new ideas, can prevent complacency, and create mobility opportunities for existing staff. dysfunctional turnover is characterised by high-performance employees leaving and poor performance employees staying. the literat ure generally reports on the dysfunctional consequences of labour turnover to the organisation. the literature on the negative consequences of attrition breaks attrition costs down into direct and indirect costs. direct costs are those that occur in the short term after the resignation and are relatively easy to quantif y. swanepoel, erasmus, van wyk and schenk (2000) assert that the direct costs of replacing an employee comprise recruitment and advertising costs, agency fees, applicant expenses, relocation expenses and all employment office expenses. some of the components of indirect costs of turnover are: loss of knowledge (kpmg management consulting, 1998); productivit y impacts (michaud, 2000); lowered morale of remaining staff (tziner & birati, 1996); loss of momentum in the organisation (van as, 2001); loss of organisational memory (hansen, nohria & tirney, 1999 and van as, 2001) and customer dissatisfaction (koys, 2001). it is extremely difficult to place exact estimates on the total financial impact of labour turnover, particularly as lost intellectual capital is almost unmeasurable (fitz-enz & phillips, 1998). much of the literature estimates the financial cost of the labour turnover of a knowledge worker to be equal to more than a year’s salary (michaud, 2000). the american management association (1997) reports the costs of the loss of a knowledge worker at between six and eighteen months salary. branch (1998) believes the cost to be 150% of the departing person’s salary. in summary, it is clear from the literature that turnover of knowledge workers in general has a large negative impact on organisations. labour turnover rates the hay study of 500,000 employees in 300 companies in 50 countries (hay, 2001) found that employee turnover has increased by 25% in the last five years and one third of people in current employment plan to move within the next three years. key employee turnover is running at historically high levels in south africa. the p-e corporate services survey (2001) of 700 south african companies shows that the turnover rate in general has risen from 7% in 1994 to 14% in 2001. in summary, if it is assumed from the literature that there is a 15% labour turnover amongst knowledge workers a year and that the total costs are equal to eighteen months salary, then the cost of knowledge worker turnover to an organisation is equal to 22% of the total annual salary bill for these workers. because of these costs, maertz and campion (2001) suggest studies be done on the avoidability of turnover, i.e. on the means of retaining knowledge workers. retention branch (1998) contends that the objective of retention policies should be to identif y and retain committed employees for as long as is profitable both to the organisation and the employee. the literature reveals that there is a multiplicity of suggested methods for retaining talent, approaching retention on many different levels, and in many different ways; as ettore (1997: 49), notes “…at its most effective, corporate retention is a sophisticated juggling act”. a worrying feat ure of the literat ure is how much of it appears anecdotal, with very few empirical st udies being reported. the recommendations in the literature can be classified into three main groups: retention devices for the whole organisation: the suggested forms that this can take can be classified under: acceptance of increased mobility, including strategies to maintain knowledge (olivera, 2000); and restructuring the organisation to make attrition less impactful (cappelli, 2000). changing human resource systems: some of the suggested systemic human resource changes are: adjusting hiring techniques (mengel, 2001); establishing appropriate organisational cult ural and value systems (bartlett and ghosal, 2000) effectively utilising exit interviews and root cause analyses (branch, 1998 and corporate leadership council, 2002); identif ying key roles and individuals (cappelli, 2000); differential management of good and poor performers (hanigan in ettore, 1997); pay system changes (dibble, 1999 and gaertner, 1999); and internal branding of the employee value proposition (chambers et al., 1998 and sykes, 2001). retention devices for individuals: some of the factors seen to contribute to individual knowledge worker retention are: ensuring employability via ongoing training and development (tulgan, 2001); performance related pay (corporate leadership council, 1998b and cappelli, 2000); increased recognition of individual contribution (forrest, 1999); increased communication and involvement (woodruffe, 1999 and ruch, 2000); giving work that can be done independently (jooste, 1997 and wickens, 1995); giving more freedom (kinnear and sutherland, 2000); traditional fringe benefits (wickens, 1995); improving the qualit y of management (dobbs, 2001); attending to work/personal life balance (ruch, 2000); giving challenging work (harpur, 2002 and kaye and jordan-evans, 2000); individual job sculpting (butler & waldroop,1999); encouraging social ties (mitchell et al., 2001); and ensuring access to leading edge technologies (kinnear & sutherland, 2000). demographic differences price (1999) and gaertner (1999) state that what is important is the identification of different management strategies for the retention of different t y pes of employees. the harvard management update (2001) also emphasises that research is needed to establish what different groups want in order to retain their services. robbins (1998) mentions the role cultural values and lifestyle preferences play in influencing one’s perception of the work environment, while hulin, roznowsi and hachiya (1985) acknowledge that the perception of job alternatives and job satisfaction would be different across different employee populations. research questions the literature review led to the formulation of the following research questions: research question 1: what is the relationship between job satisfaction, organisational commitment and intention to leave for knowledge workers? research question 2: what are the most important variables and underlying factors affecting the retention cognitions of knowledge workers? research question 3: can knowledge workers be segmented into different groupings with regard to their retention cognitions? retention of knowledge workers 57 method a cross-sectional pre-experimental research design (leedy, 1997) was selected for the study. as few empirical studies investigating retention factors for knowledge workers could be found in the literature this study was exploratory in nature. the study was carried out in two phases; the first (qualitative) stage was carried out in order to elicit variables to be used in the questionnaire in the second (quantitative) phase of the study. this represents a triangulated research design (leedy, 1997) which blends both qualitative and quantitative data measurement to allow the data to be explored from two perspectives and, in this way, increasing its construct validity. population the population consists of all knowledge workers in south africa and a sampling frame (creswell,1994) could not be established. brown and duguid (1996) define a knowledge worker as a learning person. knowledge workers are partially defined by despres and hiltrop (1995) as people who advance their careers through external study instead of internal training and development programmes. armstrong and murlis (1998) partially define the new psychological contract as one where employees rely on external, rather than internal, training and development providers. most of the empirical studies mentioned in the preceding literature review examined single-profession samples, e.g. nurses, retail workers, and information technology employees, which greatly limited the generalisability of their findings. thus, in order to access knowledge workers, part-time learners, all in full-time employment, at a university business school were used to represent the knowledge worker population. the uniqueness of the method of accessing some of the population used in this study was that the respondents were drawn from a broad range of industries, as is shown in the results section. sampling as this is an exploratory study a judgement sample was used. this is a form of purposive sampling, which is commonly used in exploratory research (cooper & schindler, 1998) where the researcher selects sample members to conform to some criterion (in this case, knowledge workers as defined above). the sample size of 306 was sufficiently large to meet the statistical test requirements for the between-group testing, cluster analysis, and factor analysis. questionnaire construction for phase 1, which may be seen as a pilot study, a qualitative open-ended questionnaire was used (cooper & schindler, 1998) to assist in ensuring the content validity of the ensuing questionnaire. thirty research respondents, from the sample defined above, all of whom had changed employer within the preceding two years, were selected. the respondents were asked to recall the reasons why they left their previous employer and what that employer could have done to retain them. this data was content analysed to generate the independent variables for the research. the variables that emerge from the literature were used deductively to provide additional direction for the quantitative questionnaire for phase 2 (creswell, 1994). forty two independent variables emerged from phase 1. the questionnaire for phase 2 was quantitative. biographical data was collected at the beginning of the questionnaire. the respondents were asked to record their length of service in their current organisation and how long they thought they would remain in their organisation. the respondents were asked to complete schriesheim and tsui’s (2002) job satisfaction index on a five point likert-type scale. the next group of questions were on organisational commitment, perceived level of mobility capital, and how active the respondents were with regard to seeking other work opportunities. the respondents were then asked to rate the 42 retention variables, developed in phase 1 of the study, on a four point likert-type scale, noting how important each item was with regard to their intention to leave or stay with their current employer. the questionnaire was pretested and corrected for design errors. data-gathering procedure the questionnaires for both phases were administered using the intercept method under controlled lecture room conditions to ensure the standardisation of data gathering, to decrease nonresponse errors, and increase response rates (cooper & schindler, 1998). limitations the limitations of this research are: it is a cross-sectional design that precludes a longitudinal study that might have determined causality; the sampling methodology falls under the nonprobability methods and, for this reason, the extent to which the sample represents the population cannot be claimed with confidence; the measurements rely on the perceptions of the respondents and not their actions. results and discussion three-hundred-and-six respondents completed the questionnaire. the sample composition was as follows: sixty six percent male; thirty five percent female; thirty four percent white; fifty five percent black; eight percent asian (including indian and chinese respondents) and six percent coloured. they worked in all industry groups, being approximately evenly distributed over mining, manufacturing, construction, retail, hospitality, government, medical, academic, consulting and information technology organisations. eighty percent of the respondents had at least one degree. the ages of the respondents ranged from 21 to 51, with a mean of 32.02 and a standard deviation of 5.5. the years of service in their current organisations ranged from 0 to 24 years, with a mean of 4.11, a median of 2.8 and a standard deviation of 4.2, indicating a highly mobile group that is highly skewed to the bottom end of the scale. the above data indicates that a broad range of knowledge workers was used as the sample for the study. however, the sample limitations are noted. research question 1: what is the relationship between job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and intention to leave for knowledge workers? tables 1 to 7 summarise the data on the antecedents of labour turnover. the data is given in percentages with the modal category being shaded. table 1 for how much longer do you envisage working for your current organisation? less than 6 6 months to 1 to 2 3 to 5 more than until i months a year years years 5 years retire 9.5 16.4 36.7 24.9 9.5 3.0 table 1 shows the high mobility of the sample, in that a quarter of the group intend leaving their organisations within a year and more than 60% within two years. table 2 which one of the following categories best describes your current situation? i am not looking for another job 33 i occasionally look into opportunities for changing jobs 52 i am continually actively seeking another job opportunity 15 sutherland, jorda an58 table 2 shows that the 67% of the sample were in the job market. tables 1 and 2 indicate that the sample was in a position to record their cognitions with regard to retention. a chi-squared two variable test showed a significant dependence between tables 1 and 2 at a significance level of 0.05. this reflects the opinion expressed in the literature that intention to leave is highly correlated with job search activities and subsequent labour turnover (lee at al., 1999). table 3 job satisfaction levels satisfied very somewhat neutral satisfied very correlation with: dissatisfied dissatisfied satisfied with table 1 nature of 5.5 20.2 13.7 43.3 17.3 0.35 work boss 10.7 20.2 19.5 29.6 19.9 0.24 peer 2.6 5.6 19.3 53.6 19 0.08 relations pay 13.0 23.8 22.5 36.5 4.2 0.26 promotion 18.9 26.1 20.8 22.5 11.7 0.36 opportunities overall 8.5 23.1 19.5 40.4 8.5 0.46 satisfaction in comparing tables 1, 2 and 3, it is of interest that despite high levels of satisfaction the estimated future length of service is extremely low. this is consistent with the views expressed by the corporate leadership council (1999) that the link between employee satisfaction and intention to leave is weakening as increasingly highly satisfied employees leave their organisations for new opportunities. the council is of the opinion that this de-linking is driven by: the continual perfection of the labour markets; increased visibility of employment offers from other organisations; and the reduction in switching costs from one organisation to another. the kendall tau correlation coefficients in table 3 show that overall job satisfaction correlates significantly with intention to quit, although the amount of explained variance is only 21%, as determined by the coefficient of variation (r squared). the components of job satisfaction that correlate most highly with intention to quit are satisfaction with promotion opportunities and with the nature of work being carried out, (r = 0.36 and 0.35 respectively). this is consistent with the views of tulgan (2001) and kaye and jordan-evans (2000) that knowledge workers are preoccupied with growth opportunities and the need to be involved in exciting and challenging work. table 4 how committed are you to furthering the goals of your employing organisation? not committed 4.9 slightly committed 13.8 very committed 57.0 totally committed 24.3 again, in comparing table 4 to tables 1 and 2, it becomes clear that despite more than 80% of the sample seeing themselves as being very committed to the organisation, these knowledge workers don’t anticipate staying in the organisation for much longer. this disparit y is of interest as the literat ure on labour turnover traditionally views turnover as an indicator of organisational commitment. this data is consistent with cappelli’s view (2000) that loyalt y and commitment are not synonyms in the new world of work. in particular, cappelli writes that it is a false belief that commitment can only exist in long term relationships and emphasises that what is needed is commitment to the current work, rather than long-term loyalt y. the correlation bet ween organisational commitment and intention to quit is 0.32, with the coefficient of variation showing that only 10% of the variation in intention to leave is explained by organisational commitment. the present study has shown that contrary to the views expressed in the literat ure, organisat ional commitment should not be defined as “intention to stay” for knowledge workers. table 5 how easy would it be to find an equivalent or better job by the end of the year? extremely difficult 3.9 difficult 37.2 easy 44.7 very easy 14.1 table 5 indicates that the respondents perceive that they have very high movement capital, which trevor (2001) finds to be composed of education, cognitive ability, and occupationspecific training, all of which correlate positively with turnover. pearson (1991) termed these members of the labour market “opportunists”, who are marked by their confidence and adaptability and make unplanned employer changes when offered a better deal. in summary, this part of the research showed that the relationship between job satisfaction, organisational commitment and intention to stay with one’s employing organisation has been weakened in the knowledge economy. these highly mobile knowledge workers display how the psychological contract has moved on from an era where there was an emphasis on job security and loyalty to the company to an era where the emphasis is on employability and loyalty to one’s own career and skills (armstrong and murlis, 1998). research question 2: what are the most important variables and factors affecting the retention cognitions of knowledge workers? table 6 shows, in descending order, the individual variables that the sample rated as being the most important in determining the length of their future stay with their organisation. table 6 the most important variables affecting retention variable mean 1. lack of challenging work 3.53 2. your level of trust in management 3.46 3. lack of career development opportunities 3.42 4. incentive/bonus/variable pay 3.37 5. base pay 3.37 6. individual recognition & praise being given 3.36 7. freedom to work independently 3.33 8. career planning by the organisation 3.29 9. relationship with your immediate boss 3.25 10.issues you have raised being unattended 3.25 retention of knowledge workers 59 table 6 supports the finding by kinnear (1999) that independence, individualism and personal achievement are the fundamental needs of knowledge workers. she found that retention strategies should be based on freedom to act, financial rewards and recognition, development opportunities, and access to leading edge technologies. the data from this study indicates that, in addition, knowledge workers desire a high level of focus on their own career development. this is in agreement with dobbs (2001) who asserted that knowledge workers’ length of stay in an organisation is determined by their relationship with their manager. table 7 illustrates the variables, in descending order of importance, that have the least influence on knowledge workers’ decisions to stay with or leave an organisation. table 7 least important variables in retention variable mean 10.receiving an upsetting performance review 2.54 9. upsetting organisational changes 2.53 8. ongoing stress at work 2.52 7. share options in the company 2.43 6. medical aid benefits 2.36 5. physical office environment 2.33 4. social friendships at work 2.20 3. distance between your home and work 2.13 2. ease of staying in current organisation versus 2.09 difficulty of moving to another job 1. emigration intentions 1.89 table 7 indicates that the knowledge workers in this study are not retained as a result of factors relating broadly to personal comfort. the data confirms the futility for retention purposes of many of the current fringe benefits, such as share options and medical aid, being offered by organisations (wickens, 1995). as cappelli (2000:103) states: “traditional strategies for employee retention are unsuited to a world where talent runs free”. factor analysis in order to determine if the 42 variables could be reduced to a more meaningful set of factors that underlie the retention cognitions of knowledge workers, a factor analysis was conducted, using a principal component analysis with varimax techniques of rotation (hair, anderson, tatham & black, 1995). after visual inspection of the scree-plot for points of inflection and an examination of the eigenvalues, a seven factor solution was selected. the cut off point of eigenvalues greater than 1.8 was used and a cut-off value of 0.4 was used on the absolute value for loading items onto factors (hair et al., 1995). the cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated to test the internal reliability of the factors. the resulting factors could be logically interpreted in terms of the theory base of the study. the preceding information indicates that this is a satisfactory factor solution (hair et al., 1995). the factors were labelled according to the items that loaded onto each factor, taking cognisance of the factor loadings. the factors are presented below. these factors are a composite measure, or shorthand, of the retention cognitions of knowledge workers. they support the findings of the corporate leadership council (1998), the hay study (2001), and cappelli’s (2000) seminal writings. however, their findings did not look at the multivariate nature of the factors influencing knowledge workers’ decisions as to whether or not to continue in employment with their current organisation. the factors are rank-ordered in table 15 according to their factor means in order to determine their relative importance. table 8 factor 1 eigenvalue 2.97 cronbrach’s alpha 0.67 factor loading questionnaire item -0.67 company strategy problems -0.61 company reputation -0.55 organisations general culture -0.49 the performance appraisal process -0.46 communication problems internally -0.43 relationship with boss factor label: organisational setting table 9 factor 2 eigenvalue 3.02 cronbrach’s alpha 0.70 factor loading questionnaire item 0.60 distance between work and home 0.58 ease of staying versus difficulty of going 0.50 ongoing stress at work 0.50 work versus personal life balance 0.47 job security at present organisation 0.45 physical office environment 0.43 medical aid benefits 0.42 fitting into the culture in terms of race, age and gender factor label: personal comfort table 10 factor 3 eigenvalue 3.39 cronbrach’s alpha 0.70 factor loading questionnaire item 0.66 issues you raised being unattended 0.54 job not being designed around your needs 0.53 lack of challenging work 0.51 individual recognition and praise being given 0.51 your ideas being ignored 0.43 your level of commitment to the organisation 0.43 company structure problems 0.42 communication problems internally factor label: egocentricity and challenge within the organisation sutherland, jorda an60 table 11 factor 4 eigenvalue 1.86 cronbrach’s alpha 0.55 factor loading questionnaire item 0.73 to change your field of work 0.59 your need to work in a different type of company factor label: desire for a change in career table 12 factor 5 eigenvalue 2.25 cronbrach’s alpha 0.56 factor loading questionnaire item -0.69 the salary increase system -0.60 short term promotion opportunities -0.44 incentives/bonus/variable pay -0.43 base pay -0.42 the performance appraisal process -0.41 being offered a job by another organisation factor label: performance related rewards table 13 factor 6 eigenvalue 1.86 cronbrach’s alpha 0.3738 factor loading questionnaire item -0.61 freedom to work independently -0.59 incentive/bonus/variable pay factor label: independence table 14 factor 7 eigenvalue 2.26 cronbach’s alpha 0.54 factor loading questionnaire item 0.66 career planning by the organisation 0.60 training provided by the organisation 0.48 lack of career development opportunities 0.41 your level of trust in management factor label: career development support by the organisation the mean scores in table 15 indicate that the first five retention factors are considered to be important to knowledge workers as they each have a mean of over 3 while the last two are relatively unimportant. there is also a 0.44 jump in the differences between the means between the fifth and sixth factors, whereas all the other differences are 0.1 or less. the table confirms armstrong and murlis’ (1998) assertion that, in terms of the new psychological contract, employees have the right to demand interesting and important work, the freedom and resources to perform it well, receive pay that reflects their contribution, and to get training and experience needed to be employable in “this” or another organisation. the data indicates a “me generation” in which egocentricity is the norm. table 15 relative importance of the retention factors factor the factor factor label mean on number 4-point scale 3.35 6 independence 3.28 7 career development support by organisation 3.18 3 egocentricity and challenge within the organisation 3.11 1 organisational setting 3.07 5 performance related rewards 2.63 4 desire for a career change 2.42 2 personal comfort research question 3: can knowledge workers be segmented into different groupings with regard to their retention cognitions? demographic differences the first set of statistical analyses looked for between-group differences on the 42 individual retention items, using a significance level of 0.05. of the 42 mann whitney u tests done on the retention variables for gender differences, only six significant differences were found. the 42 kruskal-wallis analyses of variance, performed to examine differences between race groups, showed only seven significant differences. the 42 kruskal-wallis tests performed on the three age categories revealed only three items with significant differences. the 42 kruskal-wallis tests revealed only four significant differences between the various industry groupings. in summary, of the 168 hypotheses tested, only 20 significant differences were found. hence the sample cannot be segmented on the basis of individual variables and singular demographic variables. a multivariate basis was thus used to segment the sample. multivariate segmentation a cluster analysis was conducted in order to explore the data set for the definition of subgroups of homogeneous individuals (hair et al., 1995). the k-means analysis revealed nine clusters. the distribution of respondents between the clusters varied from 11 to 49 respondents with a mean of 31.88. the f-ratio test rejected the null hypothesis at the 0.01 significance level, showing the clusters to be independent of one another with significantly different cluster means. the clusters explain 78.36% of the variance in the data. hence, a satisfactory cluster solution was determined (hair et al., 1995). the clusters are described in tables 16 to 24, each of which gives: � the number of respondents in the cluster; � the retention factors that the cluster significantly differs from, as defined by a z-score of greater than an absolute value of 1, which gives the cluster its characteristic identity; � the identif ying profile of the respondents in the cluster as defined by the variables that were shown via two variable chisquared tests of dependence to significantly identif y the cluster members, the variables being race, gender, satisfaction with the nature of work, envisaged future stay with the organisation, age, academic course being studied, the level of importance they place on fitting into the organisational culture and their level of job search activity; and, finally, � the cluster label based on the two preceding identif ying profiles. retention of knowledge workers 61 table 16 cluster 1 n = 38 cluster characteristic: cluster label: salon culture these respondents have an unusually high desire for personal comfort. respondent identity: these are mainly women and respondents for whom fitting into the organisational culture is extremely important table 17 cluster 2 n = 36 cluster characteristic: cluster label: the seekers these respondents are driven by an above average need for a career change. respondent identity: these are mainly young respondents planning to leave their organisation in less than a year and who are dissatisfied with many aspects of their current job. they are actively looking for jobs. table 18 cluster 3 n = 42 cluster characteristic: cluster label: the groupies these respondents are not driven by a need for individualism. respondent identity: these are mainly young respondents who are largely coloured and asian. table 19 cluster 4 n = 33 cluster characteristic: cluster label: the disengaged these respondents place less importance on individualism, performance related rewards and don’t look to the organisation to develop them. respondent identity: these are respondents planning to leave the organisation in less than six months. table 20 cluster 5 n = 24 cluster characteristic: cluster label: the self-sufficient these respondents do not want to change their careers and have very low need for personal comfort. respondent identity: these are mainly white respondents who aren’t planning to change jobs. they are not concerned with fitting into the organisational culture. table 21 cluster 6 n=11 cluster characteristic: cluster label: the depressives this handful of respondents are extreme outliers in their rejection of concern about the organisation and their rejection of egocentricity. furthermore they aren’t concerned with individualism or personal comfort. respondent identity: these respondents mainly plan to leave in less than a year. they are characterised by being unhappy with the pay they are receiving. table 22 cluster 7 n = 48 cluster characteristic: cluster label: contended new agers this group of respondents represents the average knowledge worker as described in the factor analysis, with a slightly above average concern for looking after their own needs respondent identity: these are respondents who are satisfied with the nature of the work they perform and plan to stay in the organisation in the medium term. they are over represented by coloured and asian respondents table 23 cluster 8 n = 49 cluster characteristic: cluster label: the co-dependants these respondents have a high organisational dependency on all 3 factors relating to the organisation. respondent identity: these are mainly black respondents studying on the map programme who feel that fitting into the organisation’s culture is extremely important table 24 cluster 9 n = 26 cluster characteristic: cluster label: the self starters this group of respondents does not expect the organisation to take responsibility for their development respondent identity: these are chiefly young male mba respondents. the clusters in tables 16 to 24 show that knowledge workers in this sample are not a homogeneous population, but comprise sub-groupings that have distinct identities. this supports wickens’ view (1995) that companies need to appeal to unique and individual value systems rather than provide generic motivators. although some literature discusses the need to understand differing retention requirements (harvard management update, 2001) and the fact that one’s life experience may influence one’s work cognitions (robbins, 1998), no empirical evidence of such information could be found. clearly, this exploratory research is but the basis for the development and validation of further psycho-graphic profiles that could assist organisations to respond fully to the range of aspirations that their knowledge workers have. recommendations the transformation to the knowledge era, and the consequent changes in the psychological contract between employer and employee, has resulted in retention of knowledge workers being a key issue in management today. recommendations on retention that emerge from the findings of this study are listed below under three major stakeholder groups. recommendations to management the literature review and the data from this sample indicate that managers and human resource managers in particular, need to understand that: high levels of knowledge worker mobility are a defining characteristic of the knowledge based economy; the costs associated with this mobility and the benefits of reducing labour turnover via employing retention strategies are significant; high levels of employee commitment can be achieved but not long term loyalty. as cappelli (2000:105) writes, “you are managing a river not a dam”, i.e. managers should adapt to a continual flow of people through the sutherland, jorda an62 organisation. this implies that organisations should develop a high level of competence in attracting and selecting competent knowledge workers. they should also ensure the continual transfer and encoding of knowledge, so that in the event of a knowledge worker leaving, their knowledge is retained by the organisation. the data suggests the organisations need to develop and communicate compelling employee propositions that highlight the availability of challenging work, career development opportunities, as well as rewards based on individual performance. recommendations to academics this research has begun to develop an understanding of the complexity of the drivers of mobility amongst knowledge workers. what is evident is that the new world of work is fruitful ground for empirical research into the defining characteristics of knowledge workers. in particular, this research suggests to fellow academics that the old theories may no longer hold; job satisfaction and organisational commitment do not necessarily lead to loyalty, long defined as the intention to remain with an employer. the psychological contract has changed profoundly, with concomitant spin-offs that need to be fully researched. the data shows that knowledge workers have defining overarching characteristics and can be further segmented into meaningful sub-groupings, each with its own defining characteristics. these factors need to be further researched so that management theories and practices for the knowledge era could be built on an empirical basis. recommendations for knowledge workers this research has implications for the way knowledge workers manage their careers. they need to understand that this is the age of self determination. they must create their own futures by continuously developing their employabilit y via further education and developing new, labour-market related competences. conclusion this research set out to understand the mobility of knowledge workers, which is a defining characteristic of the new world of work. the retention cognitions of a large sample of these employees were established, supplying information on the high level of individualism, the need for challenge and the career management desires of this new breed of worker. this study may contribute to the understanding organisations and academics have of more effective methods for managing knowledge workers, who are unique and increasingly important contributors to the knowledge based economy. references allen, d.g. & griffeth, r.w. (1999). job performance and turnover: a review and integrative multi-route model. human resource management review, 9 (4), 525-548. american management association. (1997). retention management strategies, practices, trends. new york: saratoga institute. armstrong, m. & murlis, h. (1998). reward management. london: biddles ltd. baron, j.n, hannan, m.t. & burton, m.d. (2001). labor pains: change in organisational models and employee turnover in young, high-tech firms. american journal of sociology, 106 (4), 960-1010. bartlett, c. & ghosal, s. (2000) competing on human capital. book in progress. http://www.linezine.com/4.2/articles/ chsghebip.htm accessed 12/02/03 bennett, j. (2003). employers have their work cut out. sunday times. business times. march 16. johannesburg, 1. branch, s. (1998). you hired ‘em. but can you keep ‘em? fortune magazine, november 9, 101-104. brown, j.s. & duguid, p. (1996). organisational learning and communities-of-practice. in: cohen, m.d. & sproull, l.s. (eds). organisational learning. california: sage publications. bussin, m. (2002). retention strategies: remuneration answers. johannesburg: knowledge resources. butler, t. & waldroop, j. (1999). job sculpting. the art of retaining your best people. har vard business re view, september-october, 144-152. cappelli, p. (2000). a market driven approach to retaining talent. har vard business review, january-february, 103-111. chambers, e.g., foulon, m., handfield-jones, h., hankin, s.m. & michaels, e.g.iii (1998). the war for talent. the mckinsey quarterly, (3), 44-57. cooper, d.r. & schindler, p.s. (1998). business research methods boston: mcgraw-hill. corporate leadership council (1998a) crafting a “compelling offer”. preliminary results from primary research into the career decisions of high value employees. washington dc: the corporate advisory board. corporate leadership council (1998b). addressing systematic drivers of dissatisfaction. washington dc: the corporate advisory board. corporate leadership council (1999). salient findings on career decisions of high value employees. washington dc: the corporate advisory board. corporate leadership council (2002). follow-up on exit inter view data. march. washington dc: the corporate advisory board. creswell, j.w. (1994). research design, qualitative & quantitative approaches. london: sage. despres, c. & hiltrop, j.m. (1995). human resource management in the knowledge age: current practices and perspectives on the future. employee relations, 17 (1), 9-23. dibble, s. (1999). keeping your valuable employees. new york: john wiley. dobbs, k. (2001). knowing how to keep your best and your brightest. workforce, april, 57-60. drucker, p.f. (1974). management. london: heinemann. drucker, p.f. (1989). the new realities. oxford: heinemann professional publishing. drucker, p.f. (2002). they’re not employees, they’re people. har vard business review, february, 70-77. ettore, b. (1997). how are companies keeping the employees they want. management review, 86 (5), 49-53. fitz-enz, j. & phillips, j.j. (1998). a new vision for human resources. menlo park: crisp management library. forrest, d. (1999). the foundation of employee retention. http://www.keeping employees.com/whitepapers/attitude accessed 12/02/03 friedman, b. hatch, b. & walker, d.m. (1998). delivering on the promise. new york: the free press. gaertner, s. (1999). structural determinants of job satisfaction and organisational commitment in turnover models. human resource management review, 9 (4), 479-493. hair, f., anderson, r.e., tatham, r.l. & black, w.c. (1995). multivariate data analysis. new jersey: prentice hall. hansen, m.t., nohria, n. & tierney, t. (1999). what’s your strategy for managing knowledge? har vard business review, march-april, 106-116. harpur, a. (2002). retention factors affecting knowledge workers in the financial ser vices sector. unpublished mba project report. johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. harrigan, k.r. & dalmia, g. (1991). knowledge workers: the last bastion of competitive advantage. planning re view, november – december, 19(6), 4-11. harvard management update (2001). a new retention strategy: focusing on individuals. har vard business school publishing, 6 (1), 2-4. hay, m. (2001). strategies for survival in the war of talent. career development international, 7 (1), 52-55. hulin, c.l., roznowsi, m. & hachiya, d. (1985). alternative opportunities and withdrawal decisions: empirical and theoretical discrepancies and an integration. psychological bulletin, 97, 233-250. retention of knowledge workers 63 jooste, a. (1997). new strategic questions for the knowledge age. in: duff y, n., jooste, a. & whittaker, l. (eds.). leveraging knowledge for business performance. proceedings of the first south african knowledge management conference, (pp.83-105). johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. kaye, b. & jordan-evans, s. (2000). retention: tag, you’re it! training & development, april, 29-33. kinnear, l. (1999). determinants of organisational commitment amongst knowledge workers. unpublished master of management research report. johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. kinnear, l. & sutherland, m. (2000). determinants of organisational commitment amongst knowledge workers. south african journal of business management, 31 (3), 106112. koys, d.j. (2001). the effects of employee satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviour, and turnover on organisational effectiveness: a unit-level, longitudinal study. personnel psychology, 54, 101-139. kpmg management consulting. (1998). knowledge management research report. kpmg. lee, g. (2001). towards a contingent model of key staff retention: the new psychological contract reconsidered. south african journal of business management, 32 (1), 1-9. lee, t.w., mitchell, t.r., holtom, b.c., mcdaniel, l.s. & hill, j.w. (1999). the unfolding model of voluntary t urnover: a replication and extension. academy of management journal, 42 (4), 450-462. leedy, p. (1997). practical research planning and design. new jersey: prentice hall. maertz, c.p. & campion, m.a. (2001). turnover. in: robertson, i. & cooper, c. personnel psychology and hrm. new york: john wiley. mengel, d. (2001). top ten ways to retain high performance employees. hr future. august, 7. michaud, l. (2000). the value of retaining employees. agency sales magazine, 30 (11), 25-27. milkovich, g.t. & boudreau, j.w. (1997). human resource management. chicago: irwin. mitchell, t.r., holtom, b.c. & lee, t.w. (2001). how to keep your best employees: developing an effective retention policy. academy of management executive, 15 (4), 96-107. morrell, k., loan-clarke, j. & wilkinson, a. (2001). unweaving leaving: the use of models in management of employee turnover. international journal of management review, 3 (3) 219-244. olivera, f. (2000). memory systems in organisations: an empirical investigation of mechanismsfor knowledge collection, storage and access. journal of management studies, 37 (6), 811-832. paul, d. (editor). (2000). the best companies to work for in sa. cape town: zebra press. pearson, r. (1991). the human resource. berkshire: mcgraw hill. p-e corporate services (2001). human resources practitioners handbook. johannesburg: p-e corporate services. pine, b.j. & gilmore,j.h. (1998). welcome to the experience economy. har vard business review, july-august, 97-105. price, j.l. (1999). introduction to the special issue on employee turnover. human resource management review, 9 (4), 387-395. robbins, s.p. (1998). organisational behaviour. new jersey: prentice hall. rouse, p.d. (2001). voluntary turnover related to information technolog y professionals: a review of rational and instinctual models. the international journal of organisational analysis, 9 (3), 281-290. ruch, w. (2000). how to keep gen x employees becoming xemployees. training & development, april, 40-45. schriesheim, c. & tsui, a.s. (2002). development and validation of a short satisfaction instrument for use in survey feedback interventions. in: fields, d.l. taking the measure of work; a guide to validated scales for organisational research and diagnosis. london: sage. sykes, a. (2001). you can retain staff without paying them more. hr future, august, 38. swanepoel, b., erasmus, b., van wyk, m. & schenk, h. (2000). south african human resource management: theory and practice. kenwyn: juta & co. templer, a.j. & cawsey, t.f. (1999). rethinking career development in the era of portfolio careers. career development international, 4 (2), 70-76. trevor, c.o. (2001). interactions among actual ease-ofmovement determinants and job satisfaction in the prediction of voluntary turnover. academy of management journal, 44 (4), 621-638. tulgan, b. (2001). winning the talent wars. new york: norton & company. tziner, a. & birati, a. (1996). assessing employee turnover costs: a revised approach. human resource management review, 6 (2), 113-122. van as, d.s. (2001). executive mobility in a manufacturing environment. unpublished mba project report. johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. wickens, p.d. (1995). the ascendant organisation. london: macmillan. woodruffe, c. (1999). winning the talent war. chichester: john wiley. sutherland, jorda an64 abstract introduction synthesis and critical evaluation of the literature and hypotheses research design, approach and method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) mark bussin department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa michelle nicholls department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa ronel nienaber department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa citation bussin, m., nicholls, m., & nienaber, r. (2016). the relationship between occupational culture dimensions and reward preferences: a structural equation modelling approach. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a737. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.737 note: this article is partially based on michelle nicholls’ thesis of the degree of doctor of philosophiae in human resource management at the department of industrial and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa, with supervisor prof. m. bussin and co-supervisor dr r. nienaber, received october 2012, available here: http://ujdigispace.uj.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10210/8356/nicholls.pdf?sequence=1 original research the relationship between occupational culture dimensions and reward preferences: a structural equation modelling approach mark bussin, michelle nicholls, ronel nienaber received: 15 july 2015; accepted: 01 feb. 2016; published: 17 june 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: reward has links to employee attraction and retention and as such has a role to play in managing talent. however, despite a range of research, there is still lack of clarity on employee preferences relating to reward. research purpose: the purpose of the research was to recommend and appraise a theoretical model of the relationship between occupational culture dimensions and reward preferences of specific occupational groups in the south african context. motivation for the study: the motivation for this study was to address the gap that exists with reward preferences and occupational culture with a view to identifying and gaining insight into individual preferences. research design, approach and method: a structural equation modelling approach was adopted in exploring the proposed relationships. a south african information, communication, and technology (ict) organisation served as the population, and a web-based survey assisted in gathering study data (n = 1362). main findings: the findings provided support for the relationship between occupational culture dimensions and certain reward preferences. in particular, statistically significant results were obtained with the inclusion of the environment, team, and time occupational culture dimensions as independent variables. practical implications and value-add: the study provides workable input to organisations and reward professionals in the design of their reward strategies and programmes. introduction key focus of the study and background employee turnover remains a concern for employers (silverstone, 2009). organisations continue to face the challenge of retaining the key skills and competencies required to achieve organisational objectives, particularly so in a very demanding economic climate and competitive talent market (moore & bussin, 2012; munsamy & venter, 2009; nzukuma & bussin, 2011). bhattacharya and mukherjee (2009) highlight the association between employee retention and reward. employee reward is concerned with the reward of individuals as aligned to the value that they add to the organisation (armstrong, 2002). despite the introduction of a total reward approach (worldatwork, 2008), effective reward remains a challenge for organisations. trends from the research research has considered reward preferences from a range of standpoints in an attempt to better comprehend individual preferences. this has included consideration of the influence of demographic factors such as race, gender, age and marital status (moore & bussin, 2012; nienaber, bussin & henn, 2011; schlechter, thompson & bussin, 2015; snelgar, renard & venter, 2013), personality type (nienaber et al., 2011; vandenberghe, st-onge & robineau, 2008), generational theory (bunton & brewer, 2012; bussin & van rooy, 2014; smit, stanz & bussin, 2015; snelgar et al., 2013), industry (bussin & toerien, 2015) and the influence of national culture on reward preferences (herkenhoff, 2000; newman & nollen, 1996; schuler & rogocsky, 1998; westerman, beekun, daly & vanka, 2009), led primarily by hofstede’s (1980) research. despite these studies, further clarity is still required on how organisations should devise appropriate reward strategies, especially when dealing with non-financial rewards (armstrong & stephens, 2005; schlechter et al., 2015). while the impact of national culture on reward preferences has been researched (herkenhoff, 2000; hofstede, 1980; westerman et al., 2009), occupational culture offers a further level of culture, which impacts on employee behaviour informed by membership to an occupational group (lachman, nedd & hinings, 1995). as with national culture, occupational culture too may impact on employee behaviour in terms of reward preferences; however, this has not been empirically tested and explored in the literature as yet. research objectives the primary purpose of this study was to research reward preferences from an occupational culture perspective within the south african context. in line with this purpose, the main objective of the research was to propose and evaluate a theoretical model of the relationship between occupational culture dimensions and employee reward preferences. the core research problem relates to a gap in empirical research of the effect occupational culture has on reward preferences. the potential value-add of the study by assessing the extent to which occupational groups prefer the different types of reward offered in the workplace, organisations will be more informed and enabled to leverage benefit from the structuring of the different reward elements in accordance with these preferences, thereby aiding retention efforts. in addition, consideration of occupational groups from a time orientation perspective in particular may guide organisations to structure incentive plans in such a manner that the preference for shortor long-term incentives can be optimised to achieve the greatest return for this investment. organisations too can consider the findings in the application of the principles relating to pay allocation and pay orientation. what will follow the next section is a review of the literature, outlining research on the main constructs and integrating it with this research. this is followed by a description of the research design, findings, results and discussion. synthesis and critical evaluation of the literature and hypotheses occupational culture theory while organisations display their own culture, further cultures (known as subcultures) are evident within the larger organisational system. subcultures form along different lines, and occupation is proposed as one of the most pronounced differentiators in the organisation context (trice, 1993). culture pertains to shared values, beliefs and ideas. occupational culture theory holds that shared values, beliefs, ideas and orientations are based on membership in a specific profession or occupation group (ames, duke, moore & cunradi, 2009; sheer & chen, 2003; trice, 1993). from an organisational perspective, values, beliefs and orientations influence the behaviour of employees (herkenhoff, 2004). by nature, shared values and beliefs may therefore impact the behaviour of occupational groups. this impact may be evident in aspects such as reward preferences. viitanen (2000) highlights that contributing to the formation of occupational cultures are the rights, privileges and obligations that employees have, based on their occupational group. characteristics of occupational cultures include factors such as unique training and development, particular duties, control over certain functions and tasks, possessing specific competencies, knowledge and skills and obtaining specific qualifications and membership in professional and occupational bodies and associations (o’hara-devereaux & johansen, 1994; schein, 2004; trice, 1993). dimensions of occupational culture hofstede’s (1980) national culture dimensions assist in the study of occupational culture (ulijn, nagel & liang, 2001). herkenhoff (2009) concurs and has highlighted that by measuring occupational culture against relevant occupational culture dimensions, it is possible for researchers to assess relative differences across occupational groups. herkenhoff (2009) proposed five occupational culture dimensions, namely power, risk, gender, time and team. power the power occupational culture dimension considers the extent to which power differences are accepted and addressed within the occupation (herkenhoff, 2009). from this premise, a high score on the power dimension highlights that an individual is more likely to accept power differences. from a national culture perspective, this is aligned to the power distance national culture dimension (hofstede, 1991; punnett & ricks, 1997) and deals with the extent to which inequality in society is accepted. high power distance national cultures would typically display the following characteristics: bureaucratic, hierarchical structures; defined and accepted order and ranking; decision making that is centralised; as well as authoritarian-based leadership (lee & carter, 2005; mead, 1990; punnett & ricks, 1997). erez (1997) highlights that is this is evident in reward systems too where pay differences based on an employee’s grade or level are readily accepted (erez, 1997). conversely, aspects such as extensive consultation, promotion of equal rights and the possibility to change status and ranking are characteristic of low power distance cultures. within the organisation context, this is evident in flatter structures, smaller pay differentials and a leadership style that is more democratically based (hofstede, 1995; punnett & ricks, 1997). given the empirical links between national culture and reward, the following directional hypotheses are proposed with regards to the relationship between the occupational culture dimension of power and employee reward preferences: hypotheses 1 (h1): a positive relationship is predicted between power and job-level–based benefits. hypotheses 2 (h2): a positive relationship is predicted between power and performance and recognition. hypotheses 3 (h3): a positive relationship is predicted between power and career and development. risk the risk occupational culture dimension gives consideration to the degree to which taking risks is accepted and encouraged among members of the occupational group. in this instance, for occupational groups that display a low score on the risk dimension, members try to avoid risk and uncertainty. as highlighted by herkenhoff (2009), this is typically evident in attempts to cater for eventualities through documenting procedures, roles and processes. occupationally, reduced risk and uncertainty would be associated with predictable and routine jobs (for example, payroll clerk) and this would be evident through a low score on the risk dimension. conversely, jobs associated with risk and chance taking (e.g. fire fighters) show a high score on this dimension. from a national culture perspective, risk is aligned to uncertainty avoidance. this pertains to the manner in which uncertainty is dealt with and the tendency to either promote uncertainty or seek surety. this is likened to low and high uncertainty avoidance cultures, respectively (hofstede, 1980). from a work perspective, high uncertainty avoidance is evident in a need for job security, mapped career paths, retirement plans as well as clear goals, roles and responsibilities. low uncertainty avoidance is witnessed through risk taking, more informality in roles and processes and quick decision making (hofstede, 1995; lee & carter, 2005; mead, 1990; punnett & ricks, 1997). given the literature presentations, the following directional hypotheses are formulated regarding the relationship between the occupational culture dimension of risk and employee reward preferences: hypotheses 4 (h4): a negative relationship is predicted between risk and guaranteed package. hypotheses 5 (h5): a negative relationship is predicted between risk and pension. hypotheses 6 (h6): a negative relationship is predicted between risk and short-term incentives. hypotheses 7 (h7): a negative relationship is predicted between risk and job security. gender the gender occupational culture dimension, which incorporates the service, machismo, and environment dimensions, deals with the extent to which gender-based role differentiation is experienced and promoted within the occupation (herkenhoff, 2009). service relates to the degree to which the occupation involves providing assistance or service to others. machismo is associated typically with male-dominated occupations, while environment considers the extent to which the occupation places value on the workplace environment (herkenhoff, 2009). in the present study, the service and environment dimensions are considered. from a national culture perspective, the gender dimension can be associated with the masculinity-femininity dimension (hofstede, 1980). masculinity is associated with the degree to which traditional male behaviour or values (for example, assertiveness and ambition) are promoted in the community. workwise, this plays out in differentiated work roles and an achievement orientation (mead, 1990; punnett & ricks, 1997). more feminine cultures are typically more fluid in their gender roles and emphasis is placed on traditional feminine values, such as orientation focus on relationships. workwise, it translates into a focus on work–life balance, a pleasant working environment and social welfare considerations (hofstede, 1995; lee & carter, 2005; punnett & ricks, 1997). given these national culture links, the following directional hypotheses are formulated regarding the relationship between the gender occupational culture dimensions of environment and service and employee reward preferences: hypotheses 8 (h8): a positive relationship is predicted between environment and performance and recognition. hypotheses 9 (h9): a positive relationship is predicted between environment and career and development. hypotheses 10 (h10): a positive relationship is predicted between environment and work hours. hypotheses 11 (h11): a positive relationship is predicted between environment and family-related benefits. hypotheses 12 (h12): a positive relationship is predicted between service and work hours. hypotheses 13 (h13): a positive relationship is predicted between service and family-related benefits. time time refers to the degree to which the occupational group is long-term focused (herkenhoff, 2009). occupational groups that display a short-term orientation (that is a low score on the time occupational culture dimension) display a preference for short-term results and feedback from a work and reward perspective, an example being a call centre agent with daily outbound call targets. conversely, occupational groups that display a long-term orientation (a high score on the time occupational culture dimension) place more emphasis on goals, rewards and objectives that are future based (herkenhoff, 2009). from a national culture perspective, this aligns with bond’s (1988) long-term orientation dimension. based on the presented literature, the following directional hypotheses are formulated regarding the relationship between the occupational culture dimension of time and employee reward preferences: hypotheses 14 (h14): a positive relationship is predicted between time and pension. hypotheses 15 (h15): a negative relationship is predicted between time and short-term incentives. team the team occupational culture dimension can be likened to the individualism-collectivism national culture dimension, which considers the individual in relation to his or her national culture group (hofstede, 1980; trompenaars, 1993). herkenhoff (2009) concurs that it relates to the extent to which personal needs and desires are primary to those of the collective. occupationally, this relates to the promotion of the needs of the individual versus those of the group. a high score on the team dimension is associated with collectivism, while a low score on the team dimension is aligned to individualism. workwise, the dimension has an influence on reward systems. this is apparent in the equity and equality pay allocation principles (erez, 1997). equity can be associated with individualism while equality aligns to a team orientation, namely collectivism. effective reward in high individualist cultures focuses on practices that encourage and reward independent work and decision making, while in low individualist cultures, reward would be group based on group decision making and performance (mead, 1990; punnett & ricks, 1997). in low individualist cultures, it may be found that top performers share their monetary reward for goal attainment with the team (trompenaars, 1993), thereby practically displaying the principle of collectivism. the following directional hypotheses are formulated regarding the relationship between the occupational culture dimension of team and employee reward preferences: hypotheses 16 (h16): a positive relationship is predicted between team and team pay. hypotheses 17 (h17): a positive relationship is predicted between team and team equal. reward theory the international professional reward association, worldatwork, advocates a total reward approach to employee reward. total reward can be defined as ‘the monetary and non-monetary return provided to employees in exchange for their time, talents, efforts, and results’ (worldatwork, 2007, p. 4). this approach considers the employee holistically in terms of personal and professional needs. in consideration with the range of employee needs, total reward encompasses rewards that are financially and non-financially based. financial reward, for example, payand monetary-based incentives, speaks to the individual’s financial needs. non-financial reward encompasses aspects such as opportunities for learning and growth, career prospects and management, organisational values, performance and recognition, relationships at work, job security and work–life balance (armstrong, 2002; thompson & mchugh, 2002; worldatwork, 2008). total reward frameworks the framework utilised in the study for total reward is indicated in figure 1. the total reward framework incorporates financial rewards, non-financial rewards and benefits. financial rewards incorporate two reward elements, namely guaranteed package and shortand/or long-term incentives (bussin, 2011). guaranteed package is a primarily south african–based reward term and refers to basic pay in this instance. as suggested by worldatwork (2008), provision was included for the following non-financial reward elements, namely work hours (representing work–life balance), performance and recognition and career and development opportunities. job security is incorporated as a non-financial reward element, given the primarily intangible nature of this reward element. benefits include retirement or pension, job-level–based benefits and family-related benefits as per herkenhoff’s (2000) national culture or pay study. figure 1: total reward framework adopted in the study. the study further considers pay orientation and pay allocation principles referred to as team pay and team equal, respectively. research design, approach and method research approach the research design was exploratory and explanatory. the research was quantitative and a structural equation modelling (sem) approach was selected in order to test the hypotheses and to explore the proposed relationships between the latent and observed research variables (nye & drasgow, 2011). research method participants and sample: a south african information, communication, and technology (ict) organisation was selected for the study purpose considering its 20 420 employees who are employed on a permanent basis. all employees up to and including first-line management who are south african nationals were considered. the population was divided into occupational groups and sorted according to employee reference numbers. every tenth employee per occupational group was selected for the sample. some occupational groups consisted of small representations (e.g. accountants), and these groups were excluded. the final sample included the following occupational groups: manager, information technology, technician, clerical or admin and sales. the output of the sampling was a study sample of 10 581. data collection resulted in 1362 usable questionnaires, which represents a 12.9% response rate (the study organisation typically obtains a 10% response rate to surveys; the response rate was therefore aligned to the norm). table 1 provides a profile of the respondents. all race groups participated in the study, with the bulk of respondents being white people (48.3%), male gender (70.1%) and from the 40to 49-year age group (41.3%). the technician occupational group had the largest representation (44.4%). the age, gender and occupational group distribution of respondents was representative of the target population. in terms of race, the white group was over-represented, and conversely, the african group was under-represented. table 1: biographical and demographic data of respondents. measuring instrument: a web-based survey was utilised in the study. the first part of the survey related to biographical and demographic data collection. the second part, which made use of a five-point likert-type rating scale, contained the independent and dependent variable measurement scales. the following descriptors were used: 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neither disagree nor agree, 4 = agree and 5 = strongly agree. biographical and demographic questionnaire the biographical and demographic questionnaire requested respondent information regarding age, race, gender and occupational group. occupational culture questionnaire background to the questionnaire: herkenhoff’s (2010) professional culture questionnaire (pc08) served as the basis for the design of the occupational culture questionnaire (pc10). the pc08 measured occupational culture differences based on the five national culture dimensions proposed by hofstede (1980) and bond (1988). there is paucity of occupational culture measurement tools available, and given the published empirical testing, the pc08 was selected as the most appropriate measure aligned to the research purpose the pc08 consisted of 15 questions, which cover the five occupational culture dimensions, namely power, time, risk, gender (service) and team. three questions are included for each of the dimensions (herkenhoff, 2010). amendments to the original measurement tool: slightly low reliabilities were calculated for some of the subscales of the pc08. to strengthen the measurement tool’s psychometric properties, additional items were incorporated for all subscales. the environment component of the gender dimension was further incorporated in the questionnaire for the study purpose. given the amendments, the proposed pc10 questionnaire was subjected to rigorous measurement model analysis as part of the study. validity or reliability: the reliability analysis results are shown in table 2. as highlighted in the table, with the exception of the power subscale (0.59), all the occupational culture subscales on the pc10 questionnaire attained a cronbach’s coefficient alpha value of at least 0.70 as recommended (pallant, 2007). subject matter experts confirmed the face validity of the questionnaire. table 2: pc08 (herkenhoff, 2010) and pc10 subscale reliabilities. reward preference questionnaire: background to the questionnaire: the south african reward preference questionnaire (sarm10) is based on the rm98 remuneration questionnaire, which measured employee remuneration preferences (herkenhoff, 2000, 2009). the rm98 questionnaire considered 7 remuneration elements and consisted of 17 items, namely 2 to 4 items per element (herkenhoff, 2000). the seven remuneration elements are hierarchical, pension, job security, work hours, welfare, team pay and team all (herkenhoff, 2000). amendments to the original measurement tool: the rm98 questionnaire was revised to align to the modern approach to total reward as proposed by worldatwork (2008). the rm98 was further american based and was amended to align to the south african context. additional items were incorporated to the rm98 in order to address lower-than-desired reliabilities, which were reported across some of the subscales. given the amendments, the sarm10 questionnaire was subjected to rigorous measurement model analysis. validity or reliability: reliability analysis results for the final study are shown in table 3. as indicated in the table, reliabilities for the job security (0.65) and work hours (0.59) subscales of the original rm98 were lower than desired. excepting the team pay subscale (0.69), reliabilities for the sarm10 reward subscales were acceptable. face validity of the sarm10 questionnaire was confirmed by reward experts. table 3: rm98 (herkenhoff, 2000) and sarm10 subscale reliabilities. questionnaire pre-testing the proposed research questionnaire underwent pre-testing and two pilot studies. each pilot consisted of 820 employees. a stratified sampling procedure ensured that employees from the identified occupational groups were represented appropriately. a total of 160 responses were received in the first pilot study, and 146 of these responses were complete (19.5% response rate). for the second pilot study, 139 complete responses were received (17% response rate). the computerised ibm spss statistics package, version 18 (ibm, 2011), was utilised to conduct initial statistical analyses. this incorporated exploratory factor analysis with maximum likelihood and oblique rotations. cronbach’s coefficient alpha was calculated in terms of the reliability and item analysis. results from pilot study 1 revealed very different properties to those reported for the original measurement tools (i.e. the pc08 and rm98). reliabilities across most of the subscales were below cut-off values, and the factor analyses results were problematic for a number of the subscales. problematic items were reworked and additional items per subscale were added. the revised questionnaire was re-tested. results of the second pilot study revealed improved reliabilities across most of the subscales. a few of the subscales remained problematic with below-average reliabilities (namely, the power, risk and team occupational culture subscales and the job-level–based benefits, work hours and team pay reward subscales). a few factor analysis issues remained. the questionnaire was amended to address the problems highlighted through the factor analysis. research procedure data collection for the two pilot studies took place over a 5-day period each, while data collection for the main study took place over a 10-day period. in collecting the study data, an email was sent to the sample which introduced the research, its purpose and objective. the email included the survey web-link and completion instructions. it further highlighted that participation was voluntary and that responses would be used for research purposes alone. reminder emails were distributed to the sample in the main study halfway through the data collection period (i.e. after 5 days). statistical analysis the computerised ibm spss statistics package, version 18 (ibm, 2011), was utilised to calculate descriptive statistics and in conducting exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. winsteps, version 3.71.0 (linacre, 2011), was utilised in conducting rasch rating scale analysis in order to consider the contribution of each item towards the internal consistency. results descriptive statistics descriptive statistics for the occupational culture questionnaire (pc10) are included in table 4. the highest mean score (4.50) was reported for item a19 on the environment subscale (‘i make decisions in my job without clearly defined guidelines’). item a11 (‘i would rather work less hours and get less pay’) displayed the lowest mean score (2.79). the majority of the items displayed a negative skewness. this represented a positive response pattern (pallant, 2007). robust maximum likelihood (rml) was utilised in the further analyses to cater for skewness in the data. table 4: descriptive statistics for the occupational culture scale (pc10). sarm10 descriptive statistics are shown in table 5. the highest mean score (4.51) was reported for item d7 on the performance and recognition subscale (‘being recognised for my skills and abilities is important to me’). item b26 (‘i would rather work less hours and get less pay’) reported the lowest mean score (1.93); this item was in the work hours subscale. the majority of the items displayed a negative skewness representing a positive response pattern (pallant, 2007). rml was utilised in the further analyses to cater for skewness in the data. table 5: descriptive statistics for the reward preference scale (sarm10). structural equation modelling analyses in line with the study purpose, analyses focused on testing the proposed sem theoretical model. the first step consisted of assessing the model fit with specific consideration to the standardised residuals and the ‘goodness of fit’ statistical analysis. in terms of the proposed theoretical model, 1301 statistically significant standardised residuals with an absolute value greater than 2.58 (p < 0.01) were detected in the reproduced residual matrix. the output of the goodness of fit analysis is reflected in table 6. as reflected, the root mean square error of approximation = 0.040, p = 1.000, 90% confidence interval [0.039, 0.040] and was indicative of good fit. in addition, the standardised root-mean-square residual value of 0.069 provided support for good model fit. however, lower-than-desired comparative fit index and tucker–lewis index values of 0.777 and 0.768 were found; therefore, only partial empirical support was reported for the fit of the proposed theoretical model. table 6: goodness of fit statistics for the proposed structural equation modelling theoretical model. focus was given to the gamma parameters or regression lines in considering the model parameter estimates of the proposed theoretical model. of particular interest were the size, direction and statistical significance of the relationships. table 7 presents the standardised and unstandardised gamma values. nine of the hypothesised regressions showed statistically significant relationships, with the majority of these values displaying statistical significance at the p < 0.01 level. all the statistically significant relationships were positive, with the exception of h13 (service and family-related benefits) and h15 (time and short-term incentives), which reported standardised gamma values of -0.168 (p < 0.01) and -0.089 (p < 0.05), respectively. while a negative relationship was hypothesised between time and short-term incentives (h15), a positive relationship was hypothesised between service and family-related benefits (h13). the direction of the relationship is therefore unexpected. table 7: gamma parameters for the proposed structural equation modelling theoretical model. model r-square values or commonalities were considered, given that in some cases it was found that dependent variables in the proposed theoretical model had more than one independent variable contributing to the reported variance. cohen’s (1988) guidelines assisted in interpreting the effect size, whereby r = 0.10 reflected a small effect size, r = 0.30 a medium effect size and r = 0.50 a large effect size. the model r-square values for the proposed theoretical model are reflected in table 8. as can be seen, results revealed statistically significant model r-square values in that power and environment together explain 11.2% variance in performance and recognition. power and environment combined explain 7.9% variance in career and development. the team occupational culture subscale explains 6.3% of the variance in team pay, and environment and service jointly explain 5.8% variance in family-related benefits. work hours, environment and service collectively explain 4.3% of the variance therein. relatively small effect sizes were found. table 8: r-square values for the proposed structural equation modelling theoretical model. model r-square values were not statistically significant for the guaranteed package, short-term incentives, pension, job-level–based benefits, job security, and team equal reward subscales. measurement issues were reported for the dependent variable measurement model relating to the guaranteed package, short-term incentives, pension, job-level–based benefits and team equal subscales. issues around model fit were also cited for these particular subscales. the lack of statistical significance of these r-square values could therefore be measurement related. with regards to job security, chiang (2005) suggests that a preference in this regard is typically influenced by broader external or contextual factors rather than culture values, and this may assist in understanding the lack of statistical significance with regard to the job security reward element at a model level. to this end, environmental elements such as the economic position as well as values and practices in the organisation, rather than a sole focus on cultural issues, could have an influence on the job security reward element. hypothesis testing hypotheses h1–h17 were formulated relating to the proposed relationships between the occupational culture dimensions and reward preferences. as proposed by pallant (2007), in reviewing the hypothesised relationships, the practical and statistical significance of relationships was considered. in terms of practical significance, of particular concern is the extent of the correlation and direction of the relationship. guidelines proposed by cohen (1988) assisted in guiding the interpretation of the size of the correlation (r), whereby r = 0.10 indicated a small effect size, r = 0.30 indicated a medium effect size and r = 0.50 and greater indicated a large effect size. statistical significance considers the probability that the relationship exists and a cut-off of p < 0.05 was applied. r-square values provide insight into effect sizes. r-square values and commonalities were calculated and aided in the hypotheses testing. based on the output of the statistical analyses, 7 of the 17 formulated hypotheses were empirically supported. this pertained to the relationships between the environment occupational culture dimension and performance and recognition (h8), career and development (h9), work hours (h10) and family-related benefits (h11), as well as the occupational culture dimension time and short-term incentives (h15) and the team occupational culture dimension and team pay (h16) and team equal (h17). very significant positive relationships with a small effect size were evident for environment and performance and recognition (h8), environment and career and development (h9), environment and work hours (h10) and environment and family-related benefits (h11). the variances explained in performance and recognition, career and development, work hours and family-related benefits were 11.2%, 7.9%, 4.3% and 5.8%, respectively. a significant negative relationship between time and short-term incentives (hypothesis h15) was evident with a small effect size. a 1.2% variance was explained in short-term incentives. a very significant positive relationship was identified for hypothesis h16, namely the relationship between team and team pay. a small effect size was evident, and 6.3% variance was explained in team pay. a significant positive relationship between team and team equal (hypothesis h17) was found. a very small effect size was evident and 0.4% variance was explained in team equal. although statistically significant relationships were found for hypotheses h6 (risk and short-term incentives) and h13 (service and family-related benefits), the direction of these relationships was not as predicted, and as such, these hypotheses could not be empirically proven. the remaining proposed hypotheses did not achieve the required level of statistical significance and could therefore not be empirically validated. discussion all the hypothesised relationships in the proposed sem theoretical model pertaining to the environment occupational culture dimension were empirically corroborated. therefore, a positive relationship was found between the environment occupational culture dimension and a number of the reward preferences, namely, performance and recognition, career and development, work hours and family-related benefits. the environment occupational culture dimension has not been researched previously, and as such, the findings are of particular interest. the findings are in line with the position that environment and work–life balance play a key role for knowledge workers in the information technology sector (bussin & toerien, 2015; johns & gratton, 2013) and the value that employees place on career growth and development (nienaber et al., 2011; schlechter et al., 2015). it is interesting to observe that the reward elements in these relationships (that is, in hypotheses h8 to h11) are largely non-financial reward based. non-financial reward elements are related to emotional factors, which are seen as contributors to employee engagement (heger, 2007). these emotional factors relate to aspects such as work achievement, work relationships, work climate and the opportunity to learn and grow (shuck, rocco & albornoz, 2011). the significant findings on these particular hypotheses could potentially be seen as further evidence in support of the relationship between non-financial rewards and employee engagement. the research highlighted a negative relationship between time and short-term incentives (hypothesis h15). the negative relationship suggests that occupational groups that display a longer term orientation towards time show a lesser preferences for short-term rewards, for example on-the-spot incentives. previous occupational culture research highlighted a short-term orientation specifically for the information technology occupational group, which indicates a preference for feedback which is immediate rather than postponed (herkenhoff, 2010). the present findings are therefore in support of previous findings, albeit interpreted from a reward perspective. the relationships between the team occupational culture dimension and the team pay and team equal reward elements were also empirically supported. from a national culture perspective, the significant influence of the individualism-collectivism dimension on reward systems has previously been recorded. with an alignment between the team occupational culture and the individualism-collectivism national culture dimension, the current results display similar support from an occupational group perspective. practically, this implies that occupational groups with a team orientation may be inclined to prefer team-based reward practices such as recognition for the group as a whole, team-based awards and equal pay for team members. managerial implications findings of the research suggest that evaluating the extent to which an occupational group places the needs of the team above those of the individual may assist organisations in considering a team-based approach to reward. it is probable that those groups that are more concerned about team needs will demonstrate a greater preference for a team-based reward approach. this may assist the organisation in decision making regarding pay practices, that is, in opting for individual versus team-based rewards. furthermore, where risk-based incentives are incorporated as part of the overall reward strategy, the consideration should be given to whether employees are shortor long-term focused. this will assist in aiding maximum impact of adopting an incentive-based reward strategy. in this way, the study provides practical input to organisations and reward professionals in the design of reward strategies and programmes. adopting a completely individualised approach to reward is problematic for organisations administratively (nienaber & bussin, 2011). a group approach to reward may be more feasible. in practically implementing such an approach, organisations could consider a fixed basic pay and benefits structure with provision for flexible benefits, which are occupational group and reward preference-based (e.g. this may include the option for shortand/or long-term incentives for the sales occupational group). based on the findings, this approach may be of particular value to organisations in the implementation of non-financial rewards elements such as career growth and development, work-life balance and performance and recognition. this would ease the administrative burden for the organisation while leveraging reward benefit from a retention perspective. given that turnover levels tend to be higher for ict staff versus general staff (p-e corporate survey, september 2010) and that attracting and retaining knowledge workers remains a challenge (bussin & toerien, 2015; schlechter et al., 2015), the findings may be of particular relevance for organisations operating in the ict space. as previously highlighted, the influence of occupational culture extends further than its influence on reward preferences and resultant reward practices. a consideration of the influence of occupational culture may assist organisations in better understanding not only individual behaviour but also group and organisation behaviour. from a human resource management perspective, an enhanced understanding of behaviour at these three levels may assist organisations in optimising efforts, enhancing performer–manager relationships and creating a conducive and motivating work environment. limitations of the study and directions for future research the research was conducted in one country and one company in order to contain the effects of national and organisational culture. by nature of this research approach, generalisation of the findings has to be arrived at with caution. despite a sizable sample and adopting a stratified strategy on sampling, the over-representation of the white race group needs to be noted in the interpretation of the final results. future research should include replication studies as well as broader populations in order to aid the generalisability of the findings. concerns around the psychometric properties of certain subscales of the measurement tool were acknowledged, and this may have impacted the results incorporating the job-level–based benefits and work hours as well as the power, service, and risk dimensions. follow-up studies should focus on a further refinement of these measures. conclusion with workforces becoming more diverse and globalised, the status quo of one-size-for-all cannot possibly last. reward preferences exist, and much more research is required to better understand these preferences. we know already that reward preferences exist by gender, race, myers briggs profile, life cycle, and now we know that it also exists within different occupational groups. organisations now need to find a way to implement reward choices to ensure optimal retention of staff. this will make them more productive, efficient and profitable. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.b., m.n. and r.n. were the principle investigators and were responsible for the design of the project. m.n. was responsible for field work and writing up the research. m.b., m.n. and r.n. wrote the article. references ames, g.m., duke, m.r., moore, r.s., & cunradi, c.b. (2009). impact of occupational culture on drinking behavior of young adults in the u.s. navy. journal of mixed methods research, 3(2), 129–150. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1558689808328534 armstrong, m. (2002). employee reward. london: chartered institute of personnel and development. armstrong, m., & stephens, t. (2005). a handbook of employee reward management and practice. london: kogan page. bhattacharya, s., & mukherjee, r. (2009). rewards as a key to employee engagement: a comparative study on i.t. professionals. asbm journal of management, 2(1), 160–175. bond, m. (1988). finding unusual dimensions of individual variation in multi-cultural studies of values: the rokeach and chinese value surveys. journal of personality and social psychology, 55, 1009–1015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.55.6.1009 bunton, t.e., & brewer, j.l. (2012). discovering workplace motivators for the millennial generation of it employees. proceedings of the acm 1st annual conference on research in information technology, 13–18 october. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2380790.2380795 bussin, m. (2011). the remuneration handbook for africa: a practical and informative handbook for managing and recognition in africa. randburg, south africa: knowres publishing. bussin, m., & toerien, w.c. (2015). influence of reward preferences in attracting, retaining, and motivating knowledge workers in south african information technology companies. acta commercii, 15(1), art. #290, 13 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ac.v15i1.290 bussin, m., & van rooy, d.j. (2014). total rewards strategy for a multi-generational workforce in a financial institution. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), art. #606, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.606 chiang, f. (2005). a critical examination of hofstede’s thesis and its application to international reward management. the international journal of human resource management, 16(9), 1545–1563. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190500239044 cohen, j. (1988) statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd edn.). hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. erez, m. (1997). a culture-based model of work motivation. in p. earley & m. erez (eds.), new perspectives on international industrial/organizational psychology (n.p.). san francisco, ca: new lexington press. heger, b.k. (2007). ‘linking the employment value proposition (evp) to employee engagement and business outcomes: preliminary findings from a linkage research pilot study’, organization development journal, 25(2), 121–132. herkenhoff, l.m. (2000). national remuneration (pay) preferences: cultural analysis within the hofstede model. la vergne, tn: dissertation.com. herkenhoff, l.m. (2004). culturally tuned emotional intelligence: an effective change management tool? strategic change, 13, 73–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jsc.666 herkenhoff, l.m. (2009). a socially intelligent approach to global remuneration. world journal of management, 1(1), 118–140. herkenhoff, l.m. (2010). professional culture, emotional intelligence and the emotional process model. the journal of organizational leadership and business, summer. 2010, 1–30. hofstede, g. (1980). culture’s consequences: international differences in work-related values. beverley hills, ca: sage. hofstede, g. (1991). cultures and organizations: software of the mind. london: mcgraw-hill. hofstede, g. (1995). managerial values. in t. jackson (ed.), cross-cultural management (pp. 150–165). oxford: butterworth-heinemann. ibm. (2011) ibm spss statistics editions. retrieved july 14, 2015, from http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/en/yts03009usen/yts03009usen.pdf johns, t., & gratton, l. (2013). the third wave of virtual work. harvard business review, 91, 66–72. lachman, r., nedd, a., & hinings, b. (1995). analyzing cross-national management and organizations: a theoretical framework. in t. jackson (ed.), cross-cultural management (n.p.). oxford: butterworth-heinemann. lee, k., & carter, s. (2005). global marketing challenges: changes, challenges and new strategies. new york: oxford university press. linacre, j.m. (2011). winsteps (version 3.71.0) [computer software], beaverton, or: winsteps.com. mead, r. (1990). cross-cultural management communication. chichester: john wiley. moore, a., & bussin, m. (2012). reward preferences for generations in selected information and communication technology companies. sa journal of human resource management, 10(1), art. #325, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i1.325 munsamy, m., & venter, a. (2009). retention factors of management staff in the maintenance phase of their careers in the local government. sa journal of human resource management, 7(1), art. #198, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102.v35i1.198 newman, k., & nollen, s. (1996). culture and congruence: the fit between management practices and national culture. journal of international business studies, 27(4), 753–779. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490152 nicholls, m.l. (2012). the relationship between occupational culture, occupational groups and reward preferences. doctoral thesis. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. nienaber, r., & bussin, m. (2011). remuneration policy and strategy. in m. bussin (ed.), the remuneration handbook for africa: a practical and informative handbook for managing reward and recognition in africa (n.p.). johannesburg: knowres publishing. nienaber, r., bussin, m., & henn, c. (2011). the relationship between personality types and reward preferences. acta commercii, 11(2), art. #153, 9 pages. nye, c.d., & drasgow, f. (2011). assessing goodness of fit: simple rules of thumb simply do not work. organizational research methods, 14(3), 548–570. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1094428110368562 nzukuma, k.c.c., & bussin, m. (2011). job-hopping amongst african black senior management in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 9(1), art. #360, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.360 o’hara-devereaux, m., & johansen, r. (1994). globalwork: bridging distance, culture and time. san-francisco, ca: jossey-bass. pallant, j. (2007). spss survival manual: a step-by-step guide to data analysis using spss version 15 (3rd edn.). new york: open university press. p-e corporate services sa (pty) ltd. (2010). human resources practitioner’s handbook. johannesburg: p-e corporate services. punnett, b.j., & ricks, d.a. (1997). international business (2nd edn.). cambridge: blackwell business. schein, e.h. (2004). organizational culture and leadership (3rd edn.). san-francisco, ca: jossey-bass. schlechter, a., thompson, n., & bussin, m. (2015). attractiveness of non-financial rewards for prospective knowledge workers. employee relations, 37(3), 274–295. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/er-06-2014-0077 schuler, r., & rogocsky, n. (1998). understanding compensation practice variations across firms: the impact of national culture. journal of international business studies, 29(1), 159–177. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490030 sheer, v.c. & chen, l. (2003). successful sino-western business negotiation: participants’ accounts of national and professional cultures. the journal of business communications, 40(1), 50–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/002194360304000104 shuck, m.b., rocco, t.s., & albornoz, c.a. (2011). exploring employee engagement from the employee perspective: implications for hrd. journal of european industrial training, 35(4), 300–325. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090591111128306 silverstone, y. (2009). preparing for the recovery: five ways to get your organization ready now. accenture. retrieved july 14, 2015, from http://www.accenture.com/global/research_and_insights/by_subject/talent_and_organization/human_resources_mgmt/preparing-recovery.htm smit, w., stanz, k., & bussin, m. (2015). retention preferences and the relationship between total rewards, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor support. sa journal of human resource management, 13(1), art. #665, 13 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.665 snelgar, r.j., renard, m., & venter, d. (2013). an empirical study of the reward preferences of south african employees. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #351, 14 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.351 thompson, p., & mchugh, d. (2002). work organisations: a critical introduction (3rd edn.). basingstoke: palgrave. trice, h.m. (1993). occupational subcultures in the workplace. ithaca, ny: ilr press. trompenaars, f. (1993). riding the waves of culture: understanding cultural diversity in business. london: the economist books. ulijn, j., nagel, a., & liang, t.w. (2001). the impact of national, corporate and professional cultures on innovation: german and dutch firms compared. journal of enterprising culture, 9(1), 21–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/s0218495801000043/ vandenberghe, c., st-onge, s., & robineau, e. (2008). an analysis of the relation between personality and the attractiveness of total rewards components. industrial relations, 63(3), 425–453. viitanen, e. (2000). characteristics of the occupational culture of physiotherapy in health centres. advances in physiotherapy, 2, 83–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/140381900443346 westerman, j.w., beekun, r.i., daly, j., & vanka, s. (2009). personality and national culture: predictors of compensation strategy preferences in the united states of america and india. management search news, 32(8), 767–781. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01409170910977988 worldatwork. (2007). the worldatwork handbook of compensation, benefits and total rewards: a comprehensive guide for hr professionals. hoboken, nj: john wiley and sons. worldatwork. (2008). worldatwork total rewards model: strategies to attract motivate and retain employees. retrieved september 20, 2014, from http://www.worldatwork.org/pub/total_rewards_model.pdf article information authors: camilla l. krog1 krishna govender1,2 affiliations: 1regenesys business school, johannesburg, south africa 2school of management, it and governance, university of kwazulu-natal, south africa correspondence to: krishna govender email: krishnag@regenesys.co.za postal address: postnet suite #71, private bag x9976, sandton city 2146, south africa dates: received: 11 may 2015 accepted: 22 july 2015 published: 16 oct. 2015 how to cite this article: krog, c.l., & govender, k. (2015). the relationship between servant leadership and employee empowerment, commitment, trust and innovative behaviour: a project management perspective. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #712, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.712 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the relationship between servant leadership and employee empowerment, commitment, trust and innovative behaviour: a project management perspective in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction • literature review    • leadership    • project leadership    • servant leadership       • empowerment       • altruistic calling and employee empowerment       • emotional healing and employee empowerment       • wisdom and employee empowerment       • persuasive mapping and employee empowerment       • organisational stewardship and employee empowerment       • employee empowerment and commitment       • employee empowerment and trust       • employee empowerment and innovative behaviour • method    • research context    • sample • research instruments    • servant leadership measurement       • employee empowerment       • commitment       • innovative behaviour    • data collection procedure • ethical considerations    • data analysis • results • discussion of the findings    • practical implications    • limitations    • recommendations    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: understanding the relationship between a project sponsor’s servant leadership traits and employee commitment, trust and innovative behaviour. research purpose: this study aimed to understand the relationship, if any, between a project sponsor’s servant leadership traits of altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping and organisational stewardship and a project team’s empowerment, commitment, trust and innovative behaviour. motivation of the study: most project leadership studies focus on understanding the role and power position of the project manager, with very little research being dedicated to understanding the effect the leadership style has on the project team and project success. research approach: a survey was conducted amongst a non-probability sample of 48 project team members from amongst a population of 257, comprising project managers, business analysts and it staff of a medium sized fleet management organisation that is in the process of implementing an entirely new enterprise resource planning system. main findings: through inferential statistical analysis, using structural equation modelling and path analysis, it was determined that persuasive mapping has the strongest impact on employee innovative behaviour, followed by employee commitment and trust via the mediator of employee perceived empowerment. wisdom and organisational stewardship had a negative impact on employee perceived empowerment. practical/managerial implications: project sponsors need to exhibit persuasive mapping, altruistic calling and emotional healing traits due to the significant influence that these have on employee innovative behaviour, commitment and trust, albeit through their perceived empowerment. contribution/value-add: this study contributes to knowledge of leadership, more especially servant leadership and its significance in project management, which knowledge may contribute to project success. introduction top ↑ leadership has remained a fascination through the ages, possibly because of its mysterious nature and also because it touches everyone’s lives yukl, 2013, p. 17). within the project management field, leadership is recognised as a key practical skill; however, what is more interesting is the extent to which traditional leadership models and theories are able to successfully capture their effectiveness within a project environment (clarke, 2012, pp. 128–129). tannenbaum and schmidt (1973, as cited in clarke, 2012, p. 197) argue that leadership style offers a means to categorise the different leaders’ behaviours within the current context and provides the mechanism to establish the manner in which a project manager would behave towards the project team. most studies focus on understanding the roles and power position of the project manager (clarke, 2012, p. 128), with very little research being dedicated to understanding the effect of the leadership style on the project team. with the rapid expansion of organisations utilising projects as an everyday form within the workplace (jessen, 2002, as cited in clarke, 2012, p. 128) it is important to understand the relationship between the project sponsor’s leadership style and the project team’s ‘outcomes’. although greenleaf’ s (1970) servant leadership essay sparked much interest, resulting in many articles being written supporting it as a fresh approach to leadership (sipe & frick, 2009, as cited by hayden, 2011, p. 3) it is only in the last 5 years, that it has been possible to measure the servant leadership dimensions within a leader (hayden, 2011, p. 4). this however only addresses half of the problem, as the ability to measure follower outcomes is also imperative (greenleaf, 1970, as cited in hayden, 2011, p. 2). furthermore, an understanding of followers’ ‘outcomes’ goes beyond those elements identified by greenleaf , namely, healthier, wiser, freer, autonomous and becoming servant leaders themselves, and requires further investigation. moreover, although studies have focused on the servant leader in a general organisational environment, very little attention has been given to understanding the servant leader in a project environment, especially the role of a project sponsor. furthermore, little or no attention has been given to understanding the optimal leadership profile of a project sponsor and even less to understanding the influence that the project sponsor’s leadership style has on the individual outcomes within a project team. in light of the above, the focus of this article is to understand the influence, if any, that a project sponsor’s servant leadership traits of altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping and organisational stewardship have on a project team’s ‘outcomes’, which, for the purposes of this article are defined as: employee empowerment, commitment, trust and innovative behaviour. literature review top ↑ leadership yukl (2013, p. 26) argues that a leader’s characteristics have been the dominant focus of leadership studies, with specific emphasis on one or all of the following characteristics: trait, behaviour, or power. research in the field of, inter alia, contingency or situational theory states that the ideal leadership style is dependent on the situation, the follower and the leader (hannay, 2009, p. 2). this approach emphasises the importance of contextual factors that influence leadership processes, the major variables being the type of work to be carried out, the type of organisation and the external environment (yukl, 2013, p. 29). emerging leadership theories suggest that the true power of a leader is no longer linked to the leader’s position within the organisation, but rather to transforming the organisation and its workers (burns, 1978 as cited by stone & patterson, 2005, p. 7). today’s leadership theory studies have evolved and extend into focusing on the ethical leader, which encompasses transforming, servant, authentic and spiritual leadership styles (yukl, 2013, p. 335). project leadership as a result of the environmental challenges, projects are proving to be an effective vehicle for organisations to be flexible and adaptable to their changing environments and are therefore able to assist organisations achieve their strategy, in the development of new products and services and to continually improve the organisation and its product and service offering (winter et al., 2006, as cited by leyva & matović, 2011, p. 1). hauschildt et al. (2000, as cited by thompson, 2010, p. 6) identified that both technical components and organisational and human aspects are the challenges that affect the success of a project, and they established that the technical components contributed to 50% of the challenge, with the remaining 50% being organisational and human aspects, with leadership being the major factor. leadership in a project team has yet to receive the attention that it deserves (clarke, 2012, p. 128) and has primarily focused on trying to identify the optimal leadership profiles of a project manager for different project types. according to riaz, masood and mohammad (2013, p. 99) in order for a project to be a success, it is essential that the right leadership and management skills, knowledge, expertise and characteristics are present in order for the right decisions to be made at the right time, with the right resources allocated to the right place. project leadership is ultimately responsible for defining a clear and understandable project mission outlining the project outcomes, which can be measured (anantatmula, 2010, p. 19). although there is no definitive leadership style that is preferred above others as the ideal style when leading projects (anantatmula, 2010, p. 14), thompson (2010) has recognised servant leadership as being a model that may assist in overcoming many of the challenges a leader may face on a project. in order for a project to be a success it relies heavily on effective and efficient activities performed by individuals at three levels, namely the project sponsor, project managers and project team members (kilkelly, 2011, p. 4). project teams are widely used in organisations that undertake research and development, innovation and product development, and are relatively easy to study as they have clearly defined tasks, dedicated resources with a fairly stable membership and leadership structure (rickards & moger, 2000, p. 273). it is the responsibility of the project’s leadership, in this case the project sponsor, to ensure that the project team forms a cohesive unit, which can only be achieved through the continual nurturing of the team in order to cultivate a team that has its own unique identity and personality, whilst remaining focused on its objectives and goals. according to redick, reyna, schaffer and toomey (2014, p. 29), one of the most challenging tasks of the leader or project sponsor is to get the project team to work together as a team, since without a cohesive team, the project could be in jeopardy of being unsuccessful. the concern for societies is on leadership that is focused on employee well-being (van dierendonck, 2010, p. 1228); servant leadership emerged as a leadership theory that has been linked to ethics, virtues and morality (parris & peachey, 2013, p. 378). graham (1991, as cited by van dierendonck, 2010, p. 2) states that servant leadership may be of particular relevance in this era due to its focus on social responsibility. servant leadership the concept ‘servant leadership’ was coined by greenleaf (1970, as cited by yukl, 2013, p. 336) who defined it as an individual’s desire to serve others. servant leadership can be defined as the manner in which a servant leader goes about influencing their followers; a servant leader is also the leader who actively understands and practises behaviour that places the good of those they lead over their own self-interest: the emphasis is placed on developing followers rather than the glorification of the leader (hale & fields, 2007, as cited by walumbwa, hartnell & oke, 2010, p. 517). whilst researchers acknowledge that volumes have been written about servant leadership and its attributes, the focus of this article is on barbuto and wheeler’ s (2006) five servant leadership dimensions, namely altruistic calling, emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping and organisational stewardship, and an exploration of how the aforementioned are related to employee commitment, trust and innovative behaviour mediated through employee empowerment. a brief description of each of the aforementioned constructs thus follows, resulting in the formulation of hypotheses to explore the proposed relationships. empowerment in order for teams to be effective, the members should be empowered and trusted, committed and given space to be innovative. the impact of empowered employees goes beyond the organisation, which ultimately results in a better society (patterson, as cited by van winkle, allen, de vore & winston, 2014, p. 72), which confirms what greenleaf (1970) noted, namely, that a leader who uses power and authority to create a better society is defined as a servant leader (van winkle et al., 2014, p. 72). the empowerment of individuals in a project team context has become an important area of study as there is increasing evidence that what holds true for empowering employees in a general organisational context does not necessarily translate to a project context (nauman et al., 2010 as cited by tuuli, rowlinson, fellows & liu, 2012, p. 150). this research endeavoured to investigate the influence servant leadership has on empowering a project team utilising the employee empowerment assessment developed by menon (2001, p. 166). altruistic calling and employee empowerment greenleaf (1977, as cited by hayden, 2011, p. 23) describes altruistic calling as the conscious choice of the leader to serve others. fry (2003, p. 112) further describes altruism in a spiritual leadership setting as ‘unconditional, unselfish, loyal, and benevolent care, concern, and appreciation for both self and others’. scott and seglow (2007, as cited by vaughn, 2014, p. 7) define altruism as a means to ‘promote the interests of others’ with smith et al. (1983, as cited by chin, 2011, p. 4) expanding on this and describing altruism as a ‘pro-social act’ towards individuals within an organisation. from the above it is apparent that altruism is the force that drives an individual to act in the service of others, without regard for their own well-being; it is not motivated by the recognition or rewards that can be had as a result of serving others. thus, altruistic calling may therefore impact on how a project sponsor influences the project team to be inspired to achieve the objectives of the project. according to hannay (2009, p. 5), in order for a servant leader to be effective they will require the participation and interaction of their employees, and in order for employees to participate and interact, they need to feel empowered, that is, they need the freedom (autonomy) to be able to contribute their thoughts, opinions and recommendations in a work environment where those contributions are respected and utilised. in order for employees to work autonomously they need to feel empowered to do so; thus empowerment is about giving employees the autonomy to make the necessary decisions as to how they go about their daily tasks (haas, 2010, as cited in humborstad & perry, 2011, p. 326). in light of the above, and with respect to the project sponsor as the servant leader and the project team member as the employee, it is hypothesised that: hypothesis 1: altruistic calling will be positively related to employee perceived empowerment. emotional healing and employee empowerment barbuto and wheeler (2006, p. 318) define emotional healing as a leader’s commitment and skill in helping others recover spiritually from a trauma. they further expand and state that leaders who are skilled in emotional healing are empathic individuals and great listeners, thereby facilitating the healing process. leaders with this emotional healing trait will create a safe environment for employees to voice both their personal and professional issues. some scholars have argued that the ability of a leader to provide emotional healing to employees goes beyond the individual and provides the emotional stability for the organisation as a whole (weymes, 2003, as cited in barbuto & gifford, 2010, p. 6). emotional healing has been associated with the leader’s ability to really listen to their followers and that the leader is empathetic to the plight of others. an empathic leader has the ability to create an environment that is safe for their followers to express both their professional and personal issues (barbuto & wheeler, 2006, p. 318). in light of the above, specifically with respect to the project sponsor (as servant leader) and project team members as employees, it may be hypothesised that: hypothesis 2: emotional healing will be positively related to employee perceived empowerment. wisdom and employee empowerment scholars have likened wisdom to notions of awareness and the astuteness of the leader to pick up cues in their environments (barbuto & wheeler, 2006, p. 306). mckenna and rooney (2005, p. 2) on the other hand summarise wisdom as being the intellect of both rational (scientific) practices as well as transcendent (tacit) processes that include imagination, intuition and creativity. wisdom in a leader has also been defined as the ability of the leader to assess their environment and extract the necessary cues from the environment to make decisions based on an understanding of what the consequences would be as a result of their decisions (barbuto & wheeler, 2006, cited in hayden, 2011, p. 23). based on the above, and with respect to the project sponsor and project team members, it is hypothesised that: hypothesis 3: wisdom will be positively related to employee perceived empowerment. persuasive mapping and employee empowerment greenleaf (1980, as cited by russell & stone, 2002, p. 151) highlights persuasion as a fundamental trait of the servant leader. persuasive mapping also enables the servant leader to identify their followers’ needs as well as be able to provide the necessary information so that their followers are able to perceive the importance of their work (chin & pan, 2011, as cited by klein, 2014, p. 58). another important aspect of persuasive mapping is that the leader’s influencing ability stems from a place where they are not reliant on formal authority or legitimate power to influence their followers (barbuto & wheeler, 2006, p. 307). in order to have a lasting and effective influence over their followers, the servant leader needs to approach persuasion from a rational perspective and have the ability to identify their follower’s needs. bennis and nanus (1997, as cited by russell & stone, 2002, p. 152) state that a ‘pull’ leadership style will result in employees being empowered. thus, through influencing their followers, servant leaders are ultimately persuading their team to follow their lead willingly and thus the employees are empowered to choose to follow. greenleaf (1980, as cited in russell & stone, 2002, p. 151) argues that persuasion on the part of the leader is to go out ahead of the team, to show them the way forward; followers voluntarily and willingly follow as they are empowered to do so. considering the above, this study hypothesises that: hypothesis 4: persuasive mapping will be positively related to employee perceived empowerment. organisational stewardship and employee empowerment organisational stewardship is not only the servant leader’s ability to create a sense of community within the organisation, but also includes the leader’s passion for impacting positively on society as a whole (klein, 2014, p. 3). due to the ever growing demand on organisations to stay ahead of the game, it is becoming increasingly important for organisations to evolve and adopt innovative approaches to organisational stewardship. stewardship encompasses empowerment and the individual ‘choosing partnership over patriarchy’ and ‘distributing ownership and responsibility’ (block, 1993, as cited by russell & stone, 2002, p. 149). by sharing and owning the responsibility for organisational stewardship, employees will feel empowered to act. in light of the above, it is hypothesised that: hypothesis 5: organisational stewardship will be positively related to employee perceived empowerment. employee empowerment and commitment team commitment has three dimensions that can be identified, namely affective commitment, which describes an employee’s commitment and willingness to remain with the a team because they want to, continuance commitment, which describes the costs associated with leaving a team and results in an employee remaining with said team because they have to, and normative commitment, which refers to an employee remaining with a team because they ought to as a result of their feelings of obligation towards the team (mahembe & engelbrecht, 2013, p. 1). according to seibert, wang and courtright (2011, p. 985), when an employee has feelings of autonomy and empowerment, it is probable that these feelings will result in increased commitment to the organisation. furthermore, employee empowerment has also been associated with an increase in continuance commitment as the employee would be reluctant to leave a work environment that is empowering, since the employee may view leaving the organisation as sacrificing something of value (meyer & allen, 1991, as cited by seibert et al., 2011, p. 985). taking into consideration the abovementioned, it is hypothesised that: hypothesis 6: project team member’s perceived empowerment will be positively related to their commitment. employee empowerment and trust anantatmula (2010, p. 19) states that trust encourages project team members to work together in a collaborative manner, encourages networking amongst the team members and enables the team to innovate. leaders demonstrate their trust in team members through their actions, such as how much the leader controls or checks up on the team’s work, the level of delegation, as well as the amount of freedom the team members are given in order to participate (barry, 2002, as cited in redick et al., 2014, p. 24). trust is a key factor for leaders to establish as it enables the leader to motivate the team to accomplish both the mission and vision of the project and allows the leader to manage any conflicts that may arise that, if unresolved, could impact negatively on project performance and may prevent the team from forming a cohesive unit (anantatmula, 2010, p. 19). leadership style has been noted as playing a significant indirect role in forming team cohesiveness and efficacy, via trust amongst team members (chuang et al., 2004, as cited by fung, 2014, p. 4). employees perceive empowerment as a sign that their leader trusts them and, in turn, the employee trusts their leader, colleagues and organisation (henkin & moye, 2006, as cited in berraies et al., 2014, p. 86). in light of the aforementioned arguments, this study hypothesises that: hypothesis 7: employees’ perceived empowerment will be positively related to trust. employee empowerment and innovative behaviour innovative behaviour, which includes creativity and servant leadership, has been cited as an important leadership construct that encourages creativity (neubert et al., 2007, as cited by yoshida, sendjaya, hirst & cooper, 2014, p. 2). the development of new services, which requires innovative behaviour by employees, is heavily dependent on leadership (de jong & den hartog, 2003, p. 7), and effective leadership has been credited for the presence of innovative behaviour in an organisation (khan, aslam & riaz, 2012, p. 18). according to some researchers, leadership has been noted to stimulate innovative behaviour (kouzes & posner, 2002; mumford et al., 2010, as cited by noor & dzulkifli, 2013, p. 129). research has identified a strong relationship between employee empowerment and innovation, which encompasses both the encouragement to innovative and actual innovative behaviour (fernandez & moldogaziev, 2013, p. 492). the empowering of employees is important for initiating the process of innovation as it provides the employee with the independence to act in new and creative ways that go against the normal organisational standard operating processes and procedures (pierce & delbecq, 1977, as cited by fernandez & moldogaziev, 2013, p. 492). in order to explore the relationship between employee empowerment and innovative behaviour in a project management context, h8 was formulated: hypothesis 8: the employee’s perceived empowerment will be positively related to their innovative behaviour. the various relationships hypothesised between the project sponsor as the servant leader and the project team members as employees are depicted in the conceptual model in figure 1. the above hypothesised relationships depicted in the conceptual model were explored using the methodology explained below. figure 1: hypothesised relationships and conceptual model. method top ↑ research context this study was conducted in a medium sized organisation that provides products and services within the fleet management industry in south africa and surrounding african countries. the organisation was in the process of implementing an entirely new enterprise resource planning (erp) system that was to form the foundation for the organisation’s information technology (it) solution. a critical part of the organisational strategy is to improve on and automate its business, remove redundant processes and implement key performance indicators (kpis) set against each process in order to manage employee and supplier deliverables and service delivery to clients. the objective of the it project is to empower its employees, clients and suppliers and increase the organisation’s client base without having to increase staff overheads. the erp system will enable the delivery of an additional six it solutions which will utilise the erp transactional data and processes to deliver the following: a client and supplier portal, mobility solutions, business intelligence reporting, output documentation and transactional reporting, system integration and enterprise content management. the unique organisational requirements necessitated the need for the project sponsor to have an active hands-on approach and to personally engage and work with all members of the project team in order to deliver the erp and its additional six it solutions to the organisation. the project team was made up of the following sub-units that are interdependent: the project sponsor, the programme manager, four it managers, the project manager, the business analysts, the functional unit representatives comprising the general managers, external consultants representing third party suppliers and developers, all of whom are required to collaborate in order to achieve the project objectives. the outcomes of empowerment, commitment, trust and innovative behaviour will be measured at these sub-unit levels, with the servant leadership traits being measured at the project sponsor’s level. sample non-probability sampling, specifically purposive or judgement sampling, was used (ivankova, creswell & plano clark, 2011, p. 178), as it ensured that the ‘sample selected for the study was representative of the population in terms of the context of the study based on the researcher’s specific purpose, and expert opinion regarding the population being studied’. the sample comprised third party ‘supplier’ employees fulfilling the role of consultants on the erp project and project managers, as well as internal employees fulfilling the role of business analysts, general managers, it managers, project managers and developers. the survey was conducted amongst a non-probability sample of 48 project team members from amongst a population of 257, comprising project managers, business analysts and it staff of the fleet management organisation. research instruments top ↑ servant leadership measurement the traits of servant leadership were measured by means of the servant leadership questionnaire developed by barbuto and wheeler (2006, as cited in hayden, 2011, p. 22). the aforementioned authors derived five conceptually and empirically distinct servant leadership factors, namely altruistic calling, emotional healing, persuasive mapping, wisdom and organisational stewardship, analysed the five-factor construct and confirmed the revised 23-item instrument’s internal consistency whose cronbach’s coefficient alphas ranged from 0.82 to 0.92 (freeman, 2011, p. 127). employee empowerment menon’ s (2001) employee empowerment questionnaire was used to measure employee empowerment, since it is both valid and reliable. menon’s approach to employee empowerment was an integrative psychological approach and was developed on the basis that the psychological experience of power forms the basis for feeling empowered (menon, 2001, p. 153). although the questionnaire had three sub-categories, namely perceived control, perceived competence and goal internalisation, the researchers selected specific questions from each sub-category on the basis that they were aligned to the purpose of this study and the hypotheses proposed. commitment the organizational commitment questionnaire adapted from the questionnaire developed by tayyab and tariq (2001) was used to measure organisational commitment, since it was deemed reliable (0.93 alpha coefficient on the full scale, with the subscales ranging between 0.89 and 0.95). however, only a select number of questions were included in the combined questionnaire used for this study’s purposes, namely those that could be reasonably modified to represent accurate scenarios that the project team member could face in a project environment and those aligned to the purpose of the study and the proposed hypotheses. innovative behaviour dobni (2008) developed a questionnaire to measure innovative behaviour which was associated with unidimensionality and activities and elements of innovation. certain questions were selected from dobni’s questionnaire from amongst those that appeared under the subheading of ‘organizational constituency’ because they resonated with situations that could be contextualised by a project team member within the setting of the project environment. data collection procedure for the purposes of this study, the group administration method was adopted, which entailed arranging an appropriate date, time and location for the respondents to complete the questionnaire. however, in instances when the respondent was not available, an electronic version of the questionnaire was emailed for completion and returned electronically. ethical considerations top ↑ written permission was obtained from the organisation implementing the erp system. further, written permission was received from the project sponsor, who is the independent variable in this study; finally, each questionnaire incorporated a covering letter addressed to the respondents which explained the research process. furthermore, the researcher was cognisant of the sensitivities regarding the research and the resultant impact that the research may have on the participants. data analysis the smart pls software for structural equation modelling was used to explore the relationships in the proposed conceptual model and assess the measurement instruments. smart pls is a regression based technique that has emerged as a powerful approach to test causal relationships amongst variables (chinomona & surujlal, 2012), even under conditions of non-normality. in addition, smart pls can handle complex predictive models in small to medium sample sizes and therefore fits the purpose of this study since the current study sample size is relatively small (44). pls also generates path coefficients for the relationships modelled amongst the constructs. the significance of these coefficients was assessed using the bootstrap procedure (with 100 sub-samples), which provided the t-values for each path estimate. results top ↑ table 1 shows the measurement reliability, validity, mean values and the item loadings of the variables. convergent validity was determined by assessing the values of items that loaded on their respective variables. the item loadings are expected to reach a threshold of 0.5 or higher to be acceptable. discriminant validity was checked by ensuring that there was no significant inter-research variable cross-loadings (chin, 1998). as reflected in table 1, all items have loadings greater than 0.5, with no cross-loadings greater than 0.750, whilst the t-statistics were derived from bootstrapping (100 resamples). as such, this confirms that all the measurement items converged well on their respective constructs and therefore are acceptable measures. table 1: accuracy analysis statistics. according to chin (1998), research variables should have an average variance extracted (ave) of more than 0.5 and inter-construct correlations should be less than 0.850 for discriminant validity to exist. table 1 reflects that all constructs exceeded these criteria, with the ave being greater than 0.503 and the highest inter-construct correlation value being 0.750 (table 2). the aforementioned confirms the existence of discriminant validity of the measurement used in this study. table 3 and figure 2 present the results of the pls analysis procedure on the structural model, along with the path estimates and t-values. support for the study hypotheses, which are labelled on their corresponding paths in figure 2, could be ascertained by examining the directionality (positive or negative) of the path coefficients and the significance of the t-values. the standardised path coefficients are expected to be at least 0.2 and preferably greater than 0.3 (chin, 1998). figure 2: measurement and structural model results. source: compiled by the authors. ac, altruistic caring; ec, employee commitment; eh, emotional healing; eib, employee innovative behaviour; epe, employee perceived empowerment; et, employee trust; os, organisational sponsorship; pm, persuasive mapping; w, wisdom. table 2: correlation between research constructs. although the results provide support for the proposed positive relationships between the hypotheses, table 3 indicates that only three (h3, h4 and h5) of the posited relationships are statistically significant (t-statistics value is greater than 2). figure 2 and table 3 provide the path coefficients for h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, h7 and h8 (0.217, 0.016, -0.117, 0.570, -0.297, 0.658, 0.385 and 0.690 respectively). by following the formulae provided by tenehaus, vinzi, chatelin and lauro (2005), the global goodness-of-fit (gof) statistic for the research model was calculated using the equation: table 3: results of structural equation model analysis. the calculated global gof is 0.38, which exceeds the threshold of 0.36 suggested by wetzels, odekerken-schröder and van oppen (2009); this led the researchers to conclude that the research model has a good overall fit. in summary, this study reveals that persuasive mapping has strongest influence on employee perceived empowerment compared to altruistic caring, emotional healing, wisdom and organisational sponsorship. however, wisdom and organisational sponsorship have a negative effect on employee perceived empowerment, whilst at the same time, the relationships between wisdom and employee perceived empowerment and emotional healing and employee perceived empowerment relationships are insignificant. on the other hand, employee perceived empowerment has a stronger effect on employee innovative behaviour, when compared to employee trust and employee commitment. the results also show that persuasive mapping has the strongest impact on employee innovative behaviour, followed by employee commitment and lastly, employee trust via employee perceived empowerment. by implication, the findings indicate that the more the employers or sponsors use a persuasive approach in their leadership, the more the employees will feel empowered and consequently the more willing they are to adopt innovative behaviour. discussion of the findings top ↑ haas (2010, as cited in humborstad & perry, 2011, p. 326) argues that autonomy comes about when employees are empowered, by their leader, to be self-sufficient in conducting their day-to-day activities as they see fit. this study supports that the aforementioned assertion is equally applicable in a project environment as well, since the altruistic calling in a project sponsor is positively related to the project team’s sense of employee perceived empowerment (h1). although barbuto and wheeler (2006, p. 318) highlight that the servant leadership trait of emotional healing would empower employees to express their personal and professional issues, this study did not support the postulation made by the researcher, and the results were insignificant (h2). furthermore, although manz (1998, as cited in russell & stone, 2002, p. 152) states that if a leader is wise, they will guide and support their followers by empowering them to lead themselves, this view was also not supported in this study, since the servant leadership trait of ‘wisdom’ did not result in an empowered project team (h3). according to hannay (2009, p. 5), if employees feel that their leader is omnipotent and unquestioningly correct in all matters, it is unlikely then that they will feel empowered to provide an opinion or challenge their leader’s position. this could be the case in this study, where the project team members are intimidated by the project sponsor’s wisdom and therefore do not feel empowered to offer their opinion or object to or challenge the project sponsor. the project environment may also not lend itself to the project team members feeling empowered, due to the circumstances of the project; the project sponsor may be taking unilateral decisions, as a result of their assumed wisdom, which sees them not consulting with or getting feedback from the project team members, which may create a sense of disempowerment amongst the project team members. these unilateral decisions maybe as a result of the constraints and pressures experienced within a project environment where time is of the essence. according to some existing research, persuasive mapping involves empowering employees to make their own decisions; thus, when employees follow, they do so willingly (bennis & nanus, 1997, as cited in russell & stone, 2002, p. 152). this study supports the aforementioned, in that the results show that persuasive mapping of the project sponsor results in the project team feeling empowered (h4). in order for organisational stewardship to be adopted, a leader needs to empower their followers so that they freely choose to become stewards themselves (fairholm, 1997, 1998, as cited in russell & stone, 2002, p. 149). the leader empowers followers by creating a partnership with them so that organisational stewardship is a responsibility that is jointly owned by all parties (block, 1993, as cited in russell & stone, 2002, p. 149). the results of this study do not support the aforementioned views, in that it was evident that organisational stewardship in the project sponsor did not result in the project team members being empowered (h5). research shows that when employees experience a sense of empowerment it translates into an increase in the employee’s commitment to the organisation (seibert et al., 2011, p. 985). additionally, an increase in continuance commitment ensues when employees feel empowered; this continuance commitment is accounted for by the employee experiencing a sense of loss of something they hold as valuable should they leave the organisation (meyer & allen, 1991, as cited by seibert et al., 2011, p. 985). this study further supports the aforementioned views, in that the project team members felt empowered, which translated into them being committed to the project (h6). some studies have also argued that when employees feel empowered they perceive it as a sign that their leader trusts them, which translates into the employees then trusting their leader, their colleagues, as well as the organisation (henkin & moye, 2006, as cited in berraies et al., 2014, p. 86). the aforementioned seems to true in a project management environment, since, in this study, the project team members felt empowered and this translated into a positive relationship with trust amongst the project team members (h7). recent studies have acknowledged the strong relationship that exists between employee empowerment and employee innovativeness (fernandez & moldogaziev, 2013, p. 492), and empowerment has been identified as a key initiator of the innovation process within employees, since through empowerment, employees have autonomy to act in ways that are novel and unique and which go against the existing status quo (pierce & delbecq, 1977, as cited by fernandez & moldogaziev, 2013, p. 492). this study also supports the aforementioned views in that there is a strong relationship between the project team’s perception of empowerment and their innovative behaviour (h8). practical implications the findings provide fruitful implications to both practitioners and academicians. on the academic side, this study contributes to the leadership literature by systematically exploring the impact of altruistic caring, emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping and organisational sponsorship on employee commitment, employee trust and employee innovative behaviour through the mediating role of employee perceived empowerment in a project management context in south africa. in particular, the findings provide tentative support for the proposition that altruistic caring, emotional healing and persuasive mapping should be recognised as significant ‘instruments’ to influence employee innovative behaviour, commitment and trust via employee empowerment. on the practitioners’ side, the important influential role of persuasive mapping and altruistic caring on employee empowerment and consequently on employee innovative behaviour, commitment and trust is highlighted. this study points out that project leaders should adopt and exhibit persuasive mapping and altruistic caring leadership qualities, in order to make their employees feel empowered and consequently stimulate their innovative behaviour, commitment and trust. limitations this study, albeit exploratory, was conducted in one organisation and one project. for greater generalisation, a repeated study in different organisational contexts is necessary. a further limitation is the geographic spread of the study, which only concentrated on a single province (out of nine) in south africa. moreover, the study was limited to only 44 participants in one organisation. recommendations the limitations of this research can also be viewed as avenues for future studies. an important limitation is the geographic spread of the study since it only concentrated on a single province (out of the nine south african provinces). subsequent research should contemplate replicating this study in other provinces of south africa or even other african countries for comparison. moreover, since the study was limited to only 44 participants in one organisation in south africa, future studies should consider expanding the data collection to include a larger, more representative sample. finally, further research could also investigate the effects of other servant leadership dimensions on employee empowerment. such an expanded model may likely yield more interesting research findings and insights of value to both academics and practitioners alike. conclusion the purpose of this study was to determine the influence of altruistic caring, emotional healing, wisdom, persuasive mapping and organisational sponsorship on employee commitment, employee trust and employee innovative behaviour through the mediating role of employee perceived empowerment. in particular, eight hypotheses were postulated and tested using data from 44 respondents in south africa. the empirical results supported three of the research hypotheses and five in a significant way. the findings indicate that persuasive mapping has the strongest impact on employee innovative behaviour followed by employee commitment and lastly employee trust via employee perceived empowerment when compared to the influence of altruistic caring, wisdom, emotional healing and organisational sponsorship on the same. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions this article was extracted from the mba dissertation of c.l.k. (regenesys business school) whose study was supervised by k.g. (university of kwazulu-natal). the article was primarily written by k.g. k.g. advised c.k. on the data analysis and interpretation of the findings and write-up thereof. references top ↑ anantatmula, v.s. (2010). project manager leadership role in improving project performance. engineering management journal, 22(1), 13–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10429247.2010.11431849 barbuto, j.e., & gifford, g.t. (2010). examining gender differences of servant leadership: an analysis of the agentic and communal properties of the servant leadership questionnaire. journal of leadership education, 9(2), 1–21. barbuto, j.e., & wheeler, d.w. (2006). scale development and construct clarification of servant leadership. group & organization management, 31, 300–326. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1059601106287091 berraies, s., chaher, m., & ben yahia, k. (2014). employee empowerment and its importance for trust, innovation and organizational performance. business management and strategy, 5(2), 82–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.5296/bms.v5i2.6558 chin, y.-c. (1998). altruistic leadership, employee engagement and financial performance. sacramento, ca: california state university. chin, y.-c., 2011, altristic leadership, employee engagement and financial performance, sacramento, california state university. chinomona, r., & surujlal, b. (2012). antecedents of gambling risk taking behaviours in south africa. african journal of physical, health education, recreation and dance, 1(1), 50–63. clarke, n. (2012). leadership in projects: what we know from the literature and new insights. team performance management: an international journal, 18(3/4), 128–148. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13527591211241042 de jong, j., & den hartog, d. (2003). leadership as a determinant of innovative behaviour: a conceptual framework, the hague, the netherlands: scientific analysis of entrepreneurship and smes. dobni, c.b. (2008). measuring innovation culture in organizations: the development of a generalized innovation culture construct using exploratory factor analysis. european journal of innovation management, 11, 539–559. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14601060810911156 fernandez, s., & moldogaziev, t. (2013). employee empowerment, employee attitudes, and performance: testing a causal model. public administration review, 73, 490–506. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/puar.12049 freeman, g.t. (2011). spiritual and servant leadership: a conceptual model and research proposal. emerging leadership journeys, 4(1), 120–140. fry, l.w. (2003). toward a theory of spiritual leadership. the leadership quarterly, 14(6), 693–727. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2003.09.001 fung, h.-p. (2014). relationships among team trust, team cohesion, team satisfaction and project team effectiveness as perceived by project managers in malaysia. international journal of business, economics and management, 1(1), 1–15. greenleaf, r.k. (1970). who is the servant leader? in the servant as leader. retrieved september 4, 2015, from https://greenleaf.org. hannay, m. (2009). the cross-cultural leader: the application of servant leadership theory in the international context. journal of international business and cultural studies, 1, 1–12. hayden, r.w. (2011). greenleaf’s ‘best test’ of servant leadership: a multilevel analysis. lincoln, ne: faculty publications: agricultural leadership, education & communication department. humborstad, s.i.w., & perry, c. (2011). employee empowerment, job satisfaction and organizational commitment: an in-depth empirical investigation. chinese management studies, 5, 325–344. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506141111163390 ivankova, n.v., creswell, j.w., & plano clark, v.l. (2011). first steps in research. (9th edn.). pretoria, south africa: van schaik. khan, m.j., aslam, n., & riaz, m.n. (2012). leadership styles as predictors of innovative work behaviour. pakistan journal of social and clinical psychology, 10(1), 17–22. kilkelly, e. (2011). using training and development to recover failing projects. human resource management international digest, 19(4), 3–6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09670731111140649 klein, n.d. (2014). the relationship between servant leadership and employee engagement: the mediating roles of trust and fit. omaha, ne: creighton university. kouzes, j.m., & posner, b.z. (2002). the leadership practices inventory: theory and evidence behind the five practices of exemplary leaders. retrieved february 12, 2015, from http://www.leadershipchallenge.com leyva, j.a.m., & matović, v. (2011). project management practices at the front-end of management consulting projects. umeå, sweden: umeå school of business. mahembe, b., & engelbrecht, a.s. (2013). the relationship between servant leadership, affective team commitment and team effectiveness. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.495 mckenna, b., & rooney, d. (2005). wisdom management: tensions between theory and practice in practice. queensland, australia: university of queensland. menon, s.t. (2001). employee empowerment: an integrative psychological approach. oxford and malden, uk: blackwell publishers. noor, h.m., & dzulkifli, b. (2013). assessing leadership practices, organizational climate and its effect towards innovative work behaviour in r& d. international journal of social science and humanity, 3(2), 129–133. http://dx.doi.org/10.7763/ijssh.2013.v3.211 parris, d.l., & peachey, j.w. (2013). a systematic literature review of servant leadership theory in organizational contexts. journal of business ethics, 113, 377–393. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1322-6 redick, a., reyna, i., schaffer, c., & toomey, d. (2014). four-factor model for effective project leadership competency. journal of it and economic development, 5(1), 21–35. riaz, a., tahir, m.m., & noor, a. (2013). leadership is vital for project managers to achieve project efficacy. research journal of recent sciences, 2(6), 99–102. rickards, t., & moger, s. (2000). creative leadership processes in project team development: an alternative to tuckman’s stage model. british journal of management, 11, 273–283. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00173 russell, r.f., & stone, a.g. (2002). a review of servant leadership attributes: developing a practical model. leadership & organization development journal, 23(3), 145–157. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437730210424 seibert, s.e., wang, g., & courtright, s.h. (2011). antecedents and consequences of psychological and team empowerment in organizations: a meta-analytic review. journal of applied psychology, 96(5), 981–1003. pmid: 21443317, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0022676 stone, a.g., & patterson, k. (2005). the history of leadership focus. virginia beach, va: regent university. tayyab, s., & tariq, n. (2001). development of an indigenous organisational commitment questionnaire. pakistan journal of psychological research, 16(1–2), 31–45. tenehaus, m., vinzi, e., chatelin, y.m., & lauro, c. (2005). pls path modeling. computational statistics and data analysis, 48, 159–205. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.csda.2004.03.005 thompson, k.n. (2010). servant leadership: an effective model for project management, minneapolis, mn: capella university. tuuli, m.m., rowlinson, s., fellows, r., & liu, a.m.m. (2012). empowering the project team: impact of leadership style and team context. team performance management: an international journal, 18(3/4), 149–175. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13527591211241006 van dierendonck, d. (2010). servant leadership: a review and synthesis. journal of management, 37, 1228–1261. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206310380462 van winkle, b., allen, s., devore, d., & winston, b. (2014). the relationship between the servant leader behaviours of immediate supervisors and follower’s perceptions of being empowered in the context of small business. journal of leadership education, 13(3), 70–82. vaughn, e.c.r. (2014). assessing altruistic behaviour, burnout, and wellness outcomes of entry level live-in and live on residence life professionals. louisiana: louisiana state university. walumbwa, f.o., hartnell, c.a., & oke, a. (2010). servant leadership, procedural justice climate, service climate, employee attitudes, and organizational citizenship behavior: a cross-level investigation. journal of applied psychology, 95, 517–529. pmid: 20476830, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0018867 wetzels, m., odekerken-schröder, g., & van oppen, c. (2009). using pls modelling to assess hierarchical construct models: guidelines and empirical illustration. mis quarterly, 33(1), 177–195. yoshida, d.t., sendjaya, s., hirst, g., & cooper, b. (2014). does servant leadership foster creativity and innovation? a multi-level mediation study of identification and prototypicality. journal of business research, 67, 1395–1404. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.08.013 yukl, g. (2013). leadership in organisations. (8th edn.). essex, uk: pearson education limited. reviewer acknowledgement open accesshttp://www.sajhrm.co.za 83 page 1 of 1 sa journal of human resource management recognises the value and importance of the peer reviewer in the overall publication process – not only in shaping the individual manuscript, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank all reviewers who participated in shaping this volume of sa journal of human resource management: ashraf kagee billy boonzaier desmond painter donna podems joanne uphill johanna (joey) buitendach james maposa jan vorster we appreciate the time taken to perform your review successfully. mark bussin melinde coetzee michael quayle penny abbott sostina mutasa stella kyobula-mukoza yvonne du plessis in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for sa journal of human resource management, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on www.sajhrm.co.za for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a reviewer. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at http://www. sajhrm.co.za 2. in your ‘user home’ [http://www.sajhrm. co.za/index.php/sajhrm/ user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest. 3. it is good practice as reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to sa journal of human resource management. please do not hesitate to contact me if you require assistance in performing this task. margo martens submissions@sajhrm.co.za tel: +27 (0)21 975 2602 fax: +27 (0)21 975 4635 sajhrm sa journal of human resource management 5-fouche.qxd one of the most important implications of globalisation is that workers from different racial, cultural and ethnic backgrounds, as well as workers with different sexual orientations and people with disabilities – enter the workplace with increased strength, both in numbers and in feelings of self-worth. they demand that their realities be given credibility, their needs be addressed and that their approaches be added to the pool of acceptable alternatives (nieuwmeijer, 2001). diversity brings stimulation, challenge and energy; it does not always lead to harmony. the mix of cultures, genders, life-styles and values often become a source of misunderstanding and conflict. many enlightened managers, from senior company directors to shop-floor supervisors, want to create business environments where differences are valued and where people, who look, talk and think differently can work productively together (nieuwmeijer, 2001). nieuwmeijer (2001) states that the task is daunting, especially in south africa with its history of apartheid, discriminatory labour practices and freedom-struggles – first political and now socioeconomical, with emotions and pressure of equal opportunities and affirmative action influencing diversity in the workplace. people of all races who still live in the past are unable or unwilling to make a quantum jump into the future in order to become competitive. she states that in order to create a role model for diversity management in the south african business environment, it is necessary to understand the concepts “global competitiveness” and “world-class business practices”. the underlying reason for this is that the diversity function provides the innovative and competitive edge of the business organisation’s journey in pursuit of world-class. leadership simply cannot treat a culturally diverse workforce as a homogeneous group. (human, 1996a, manning, 1997a, booysen, 1999) while the resistance, resentment and aggression shown towards management by a certain faction of workers must be taken into account, the fears and uncertainties of others must be considered (human, 1996, manning, 1997). in an attempt to change the existing mental model that diversity is a result of affirmative action, a broader definition of diversity against a global perspective is introduced. the definition provides a focus away from the current race and gender issue. in order to manage diversity effectively in organisations it is important to understand the meaning and implications of the concept “diversity”. concept classification includes gender and race, although diversity does not automatically mean “with respect to gender and race”. o’mara (1994) defines diversity as “race, gender, age, language, physical characteristics, disability, sexual orientation, economic status, parental status, education, geographic origin, profession, lifestyle, religion, position in the company hierarchy, and any other difference” (p. 115). affirmative action, included in the labour relations act 66 of 1995, the employment equity act 55 of 1998 and the promotion of equality and prevention of unfair discrimination act 4 of 2000, is direct in its intentions to promote workplace democracy – yet surveys and corroborated opinions are aligned in concluding that business in south africa on the whole is lagging behind in effecting change leading towards becoming ‘world class’ (nieuwmeijer, 2001). booysen (1999) reiterates that more people of previously disadvantaged groups are entering both the market place and managerial ranks. the survival of organisations depends on the effective management of this diversity. discovering unity through diversit y by understanding the strengths and weaknesses of different individuals are essential to reaching the organisation’s potential. human (1991; 1996a; 1996b), and grobler (1996) point out that if a workforce is diverse, cultural diversit y needs to be managed specifically in order for organisations to function optimally. managing diversit y requires the creation of an open, supportive, and responsive organisation in which differences are valued, encouraged, and managed. rhinesmith (1996, p. 9) however, points out that the first important challenge in diversity management is the compilation of effective strategies and structures, which are necessary for quick decision-making and the best competitive advantage. he is of the opinion that no global strategy can be achieved without translation into the policies, structures, processes and procedures of the company. this implies that the integration of these elements into an effective system is the foundation of a global strategy. successful integration however is dependent on the nature and quality of organisational leadership. willard rappleye (march 2001) states that diversity in the workplace has “reached the top level of integration in strategy, practice and policy at a handful of major corporations where it is understood to be the great new opportunity for competitive advantage” (www.corporateleadershipcouncil.com). christa fouche school of social and cultural studies massey university, auckland cherylene de jager anne crafford department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract this article reports on the evaluation of a programme that was designed and developed in an attempt to address the reasons why diversity programmes fail. a large company in the banking sector initiated the development of the product and keynote personnel from this company evaluated the content. the content was found to adhere to best practice requirements. opsomming die artikel evalueer die inhoud van ’n diversiteits-program wat ontwerp en ontwikkel is ten einde die redes waarom diversiteits-opleiding faal, aan te spreek.’n groot maatskappy in die banksektor het die ontwikkeling geinisieer en ’n aantal senior personeellede is genader om die inhoud te evalueer. daar is bevind dat die inhoud aan wêreldklas standaarde voldoen. the evaluation of a diversity program requests for copies should be addressed to: c de jager, department of human resource management, rau, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 37 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (2), 37-44 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (2), 37-44 it is clear and evident that diverse workplaces are the result of a number of factors, namely: globalisation, legislation and the entrance of previously disadvantaged groups into the workplace. managers were equipped to manage sameness, and the shift towards managing a diverse workforce requires new knowledge and skills sets. background to the problem a large number of organisations provide programmes in an attempt to equip managers with the skills to manage diversity. the workshop presented at the company in the banking sector succeeded in creating awareness about diversity to some extent, but made no significant contribution towards equipping managers with the necessary skills to manage diversity. a programme, with the relevant content that will provide managers with the skills and information to manage a diverse work force, was needed. the process the first step was to assess the current product content and process: � the process commenced with a fact-finding exercise. � informal interviews and general discussions were used to gather the information. � there were two programmes available and the facilitators could choose which programme to use. this resulted in uncertainty. � some facilitators tried to combine the two programmes and it was evident that there was no clear process or guidelines. � the designer of the current delegate handout was interviewed and the philosophy behind the choice of content included in the workbook was explained. � the accompanying facilitator’s guide was assessed. � the diversity custodian was interviewed several times to determine the purpose, the envisioned outcomes and the preferred perspective of the workshop. � it was evident that the intended outcomes were not realised by the programme content and process. � the operating facilitators were interviewed, either face-toface, telephonically or by means of an e-mail, in order to determine and evaluate the effectiveness and the applicability of the current programme content and process. � some strategic people management specialists were interviewed. � the existing programme material and the implementation process were evaluated against the purpose and the outcomes the custodian hoped to achieve. � the existing process was assessed and commented on. � the match between the programme content, the process followed and the training methodology used, was assessed. � a training workshop was attended and evaluated. � recommendations were presented to an opinion team. the team represented all the parties previously interviewed. � content and process adjustments were discussed in a brainstorming session. � the team decided that some of the current programme content must remain but that a new programme or programmes and processes had to be designed. � it was agreed that the programme should include: userfriendly delegate guides, facilitator guides or toolkit/programmes that cater for a variety of facilitation styles and content that adheres to best practice requirements. the second step was to decide what was needed: � more than one programme was needed in order to cater for the different target groups. � there are no unit standards available for diversity training and a standard generating body was formed only recently. � a literature search indicated that there are merely guidelines for successful and unsuccessful diversity training. � no best practice requirements are currently available. � the guidelines for what constitutes successful or unsuccessful diversity training were used as the basis for the literature review and were used as best practice guidelines. � the literature review provided guidelines for the programme content as well as for a possible process that can be followed to ensure success. � these guidelines formed the basis of the content of the programme. the third step was to list the reasons why diversity programmes fail and to account for these reasons by conducting literature research. the top reasons why diversity training fails will now be listed and discussed against a literat ure review (http://www.diversitydtg.com/articles/topten.html). 1. diversity training is driven from the affirmative action or employment equity office. diversity training must come from the whole organisation through a steering committee made up of employees from a representative cross-section of the organisation. managing diversity is not something that one puts in a onemonth action plan with the expectation of concluding it three months later. managing diversity is a long-term change process involving various stages, each with particular characteristics and problems, all of which are affected by the organisation’s culture and resources. it is thus clear that a diversity advisory or steering committee has to be established (http://www.diversitydtg. com/articles/bestprac.html) and that diversity training is the responsibility of the whole organisation. 2. diversity training is done because it is the right or moral thing to do: make the business case for diversity training first. cox (1994) states that the types of organisational change facilitated by diversity are (1) moral, ethical and social responsibility goals, (2) legal obligations and (3) economic performance goals. it is therefore of extreme importance that the business case is argued and that one should avoid moral justifications for diversity programmes. it is thus clear that one should stay away from moral justifications and base diversity programmes on business reasoning (www.corporateleadershipcouncil.com and http://www.diversit ydtg.com/articles/ bestprac.html). training is all the organisation is doing. the organisation is not reviewing or scrutinising hiring, promotion, leadership development and business practices. human (1991; 1996a; 1996b) and grobler (1996) point out that if a workforce is diverse, cultural diversity needs to be managed specifically in order for organisations to function optimally. managing diversity requires the creation of an open, supportive, and responsive organisation in which differences are valued, encouraged, and managed. o’mara (1994) argues that defining managing diversit y as a process highlights its evolutionary nature. it allows corporations to develop (evolve) steps for generating a natural capability to tap the potential of all employees. the recruitment and selection strateg y should attempt to diversif y the recruiting pool without compromising standards (http://www.diversitydtg.com/articles/bestprac.html). susan jackson (http://inform.umd.edu./diversit y/response/ workplace/.io.htmll) supports this statement by stating that advice on how to design and conduct fair and unbiased selection interviews and performance appraisals, that will enable and support workforce diversity, is needed. 3. diversity training has management support, but not its commitment. the organisation will wait for the fad to pass if management does not participate and provide real evidence of its commitment to the process. fouche, de jager, crafford38 carlton (2000) states that when diversity is fuelled and encouraged by a liberating leader(s)-led environment, its goal is always ever increasing and sustained performance. he continues that unless top management commits time and constructs tangible diversity targets for which it is held accountable, little will change. grobler (1996) points out that the future leaders of companies in south africa should ref lect on the demographic composition of the country. the leadership philosophy should be aimed at the future and achievement based on partnership. he continues that the days of autocratic leadership have passed – the concepts of demand and control are simply no longer acceptable. leadership must include elements such as integrity, fairness, democracy, empowerment, broad consultation, and respect for the individual and sensitivity for cultural diversity. grobler (1996) concludes by saying “the future leader must also be caring, show empathy, be willing to serve, and recognise human worth” (p. 11). 4. the training being conducted is off the shelf and not custom designed to meet the unique need of a specific organisation or business unit. tafoya (2002) states that a diversity program effort is a longterm change effort because of the focus on assessing systems, policies and practices of an organisation and making them more relevant to the diverse needs of the employees and customer or client. this implies that training programmes have to be customised to meet the unique need of a specific organisation. 5. training is being developed and led solely by external diversity consultants and trainers. no ownership or buy-in is solicited and the programme eventually perishes and the external diversity trainer is the “fall guy”. 6. diversity training was designed and developed without a formal needs analysis or diagnosis of the organisation. what did the designer know anyway? tafoya (2002) states that an audit or assessment or survey has to be completed to identif y the organisation’s diversity issues and to gauge organisational culture. this involves a review of the organisation’s systems, plans, and policies to guide, reward, and sanction behaviour to diagnose existing conditions. he concludes by stating that the latter is necessary for planning training and other diversity activities to address relevant diversity issues. 7. the diversity-training programme is awareness-based but provides no skills, no practical, “hands-on”, everyday tools. nieuwmeijer (2001) states that in most traditional business organisations the knowledge and skills to manage diversity are normally not part of the managers’ experience and adds that whilst old methods do not suffice, new ones have yet to be developed. jamieson and o’mara (1991) developed a flexmanagement model that can provide managers with the necessary flexibility for managing the changing workforce. this model is a good benchmark to use for developing new diversity management models. south african managers need to extract the best management tools from schools representing a variet y of cultural management orientations within and outside of south africa. they need to understand and value the cultural diversity of the south african workforce and to be flexible in using “what works” from a cultural perspective. only then will south african organisations gain the competitive edge (nieuwmeijer, 2001). jamieson and o’mara (1991) provide guidelines on how to develop skills for managing a diverse workforce. flexibility is an important factor in determining success in managing the changing workforce. 8. the diversity training had no formal follow-up. action items had no owners and nobody revisited the training. organisations need to have internally driven initiatives supported by senior management’s commitment as well as by ongoing awareness campaigns. organizations should acknowledge and celebrate diversity within the employment ranks before attempting to value and manage diversity (http://www.diversitydtg.com/articles/ bestprac.html). organizations should also celebrate and share diversity training success stories (http://www. diversitydtg. com/articles/bestprac.html). it is thus clear that the diversitytraining programme should form part of a larger intervention as well as be part of an ongoing and integrated process. 9. diversity programmes should not occur in a vacuum and must be supported by other initiatives and activities. diversity training programmes are not the cure all, and all employees should be encouraged to initiate and participate in potential diversity initiatives. jamieson and o’mara (1991) highlight the importance of taking a systematic approach to planning for and managing the kinds of changes required by the new, more diverse workforce. this involves developing policies, systems, and practices to accommodate a changing workforce. the flex-management model can provide a roadmap that will help organizations and managers to think and act differently about modif ying procedures at individual and organizational levels. the fourth step was to list the reasons why diversity-training programmes succeed. successful diversity training (http://www.diversitydtg.com/ articles/topten.html): 1. is developed through a partnership of internal employees (diversity steering committee) and an external subject matter expert (diversity consultant and trainer). 2. has a senior-level advocate or champion. 3. is supported by sound research. the organisation is presenting the business rationale and the bottom-line results of doing this work. the organisation also presents the cost of not doing this work because their future, market share, retention of talent and performance depend on understanding and anticipating the needs of an increasingly diverse workplace and marketplace. 4. occurs in a supportive corporate culture, one that reflects an ongoing commitment to continuous learning. 5. is “skill-based”: all diversity training is awareness based; you need to develop a set of skills or a diversity toolkit. 6. ensures transfer of skills from the training room to the workplace: diversity training should educate and empower all employees with new skills and tools. 7. is not dependent on one person (diversity trainer or manager) to save the organisation. steering committees representing the whole organisation must champion the initiatives. 8. does not occur in a vacuum and must be supported by other initiatives and activities: training alone is not the cure all. all employees should be encouraged to initiate and participate in potential diversity initiatives. 9. takes on a life of its own: employees are encouraged to get involved and to develop and lead discussions. mini-training and other activities should foster an ongoing and continuous commitment to creating and promoting a more inclusive work environment that values our differences. it is thus evident that there is a strong relationship between the reasons for the success and failure of diversit y-training the evaluatiob of a diversity program 39 programs. the evaluation questionnaire that was used to evaluate the content of the diversity programme has taken both sets of guidelines into consideration. the final step was then to design a programme. � a programme and process toolkit was designed. � the content of this diversity management programme needs to be evaluated in order to determine whether it addressed all the requirements of a best practice product. this is the focus of the research undertaken. tayeb (1998) quotes a dutch manager who expresses this point well. “sometimes when i hear my company talk about harmonisation, i think they want us all to play the same note. well, i am a musician, and let me tell you harmony doesn’t mean that; it means that we all play different notes, but together we sound beautiful (p. 180).” the original programme, “valuing diversit y”, is mainly awareness based. a programme with the relevant content that will assist the managers in how to manage diversity is included in the process and is called: “harmonising diversity.” the above-mentioned literat ure overview has led to the development of the product that now needs to be evaluated. it has to be taken into consideration that a change management component, a training component, as well as an integrated approach with the existing interventions in the organisation, influenced the design and content selection process. project goals the aim of the research was to 1) compare the content of a diversit y management programme to best practice requirements; and 2) to make conclusions regarding the further development of a diversity programme with the relevant content, in an attempt to create a best practice product. research methodology participants/respondents convenience sampling as described by kerlinger (1986) was used. rossi and freeman (1989) support the use of convenience sampling and adds that formative evaluation may include testing and assessing a programme at one or a few sites, or with a small sample of targets, prior to full implementation. the target boundaries (adequate target specification establishes boundaries, that is, rules determining who or what is included and excluded when the specifications are applied) were determined by the “as-is” situation (rossi & freeman, 1989). de vos, strydom, fouche and delport (2002) state that the use of key informants means that a few people known to be involved with the services needed of the client group are asked for their opinions. only a selected number of participants was involved in the evaluation process. the population was defined as thirty-five (35) highly qualified professionals, specialists, managers and senior managers, with years of training and organisational development experience involved with the diversity training programme. thirty-five questionnaires were distributed to the whole population and thirt y-one questionnaires were returned. the participants had to evaluate the content after reviewing the programme toolkit. of the 31 participants, 10 (32,3%) were male and 21 (67,7%) were female. their mean age was 36.7 years. the majority of these participants are managers, professionals, senior managers and specialists. of the 31, one participant has a phd, 9 (29,0%) have master’s degrees and 12 (38,7%) have honours degrees. only two participants have only grade 12, three have a diploma and the remaining four have a first degree. it is indeed a very exclusive and selective group that was used to evaluate the content. these participants have years of experience in the training and organisational development field. measuring instrument a questionnaire was distributed electronically and by hand. this questionnaire was developed using the guidelines for best practice. as such, the following elements were included as items in the questionnaire (i.e. the extent to which the respondents regarded the following as part of the programme): � the economic rationale for implementing employment equity (the business case for diversity training). � the information to establish an employment equity forum (employment equity act and the implications thereof). � the guidelines to establish an employment equity forum (how to establish a forum in order to comply to legislative requirements) � guidelines to assist in the adjustment of existing policies and procedures in the company to support the employment equity drive (the diversity-training programme forms an integral part in order to enable the employment equity drive) � the commitment of top management for the diversitytraining programme � top management’s commitment to the process � the nature of the programme as being customised and meeting the unique needs of the organisation � the input from various key role-players � assistance to management to construct tangible diversity targets for which it is held responsible � a proper and comprehensive needs analysis � guidelines to skills needed to manage diversity. � programme content inclusive of practical, “hands-on” everyday tools � the line of thought that the diversity-training programme is merely an aspect of the complete diversity drive in the organisation � the programme link to the other interventions that are currently running in the company � guidelines on how to create a forum to communicate diversity success stories. � guidelines to design and develop action plans for activities that will assist in creating an inclusive workforce. royse (1992) states that developing a good questionnaire requires that one constantly has to revise the instrument in order to make sure that a good instrument has been constructed. the questionnaire has been adjusted several times in order to ensure that it is set out to evaluate what needs to be evaluated. procedure de vos et al (2002) state that the issue of evaluation is not whether a programme should be evaluated, but rather how it will be evaluated. a systematic approach to evaluation as researched by rossi and freeman will be used to evaluate whether or not the programme content addresses the reasons why diversity training programmes fail. the aim is to improve the content of the existing programme and is therefore known as formative evaluation (de vos et al., 2002). programme monitoring is, in essence, a type of formative evaluation (de vos et al., 2002). an evaluability assessment is a form of qualitative research that permits the evaluator to develop an understanding of the program and to enlist support for subsequent evaluation activities. (rossi & freeman, 1989) the above guidelines were used during the process followed in order to assess the ‘as-is’ situation. rossi and freeman (1989) define evaluation research as follows: “evaluation research is the systematic application of social research procedures for assessing the conceptualisation, design, fouche, de jager, crafford40 implementation, and the utility of social intervention programs (p. 18).” they continue by stating that evaluation research is a robust arena of activity directed at collecting, analysing and interpreting information on the need for, implementation of, and effectiveness and efficiency of intervention efforts to better the lot of humankind. royce (1992) states that programme evaluation is like basic research in that both follow a logical, orderly sequence of events. evaluations are undertaken for a variety of reasons: to judge the worth of ongoing programs and to estimate the usefulness of attempts to improve them; to assess the utility of innovative programs and initiatives; to increase the effectiveness of program management and administration; and to satisf y the accountability requirements of program sponsors (rossi & freeman, 1989). evaluations focus on the extent and severit y of the problems regarding the intervention and then design the programs in such a way in order to ameliorate them. in the conduct of ongoing and new programs, evaluation helps to determine the degree to which the programs are effective – that is, how successf ully they are reaching the intended target populations and are providing the resources, services, and benefits envisioned by their sponsors and designers (rossi & freeman, 1989). de vos et al (2002) state that the more reliable the instruments and observations, the more reliable the results. rossi and freeman (1989) continue by stating that for accountabilit y pur poses, and to aid in decisions concerning whether programs should be cont inued, expanded or curtailed, evaluation should consider costs in relation to benefits and compare an intervention’s cost effectiveness with that of alternative strategies for allocating scarce resources. rossi and freeman (1989) concludes this statement by stating that evaluation should provide the most valid and reliable findings possible within political and ethical constraints and the limitations imposed by time, money and human resources. in the design of the evaluation questionnaire, t wo key concepts were taken into consideration. the following concepts were of importance for the evaluation in question: inter vention: any program or other planned effort designed to produce changes in a target population (rossi & freeman, 1989). for the purpose of this research, the term intervention referred to the designed diversity management programme as implemented in a company in the banking sector. target population: the persons, organisation, communities or other units at which an intervention is directed (rossi & freeman, 1989). for the purpose of this research the members of the target population can be regarded as the keynote influencers in the company. they have the relevant qualifications, status and years of experience required to evaluate the content of the programme objectively. the following statements are characteristics of evaluation research: (refer to rossi & freeman, 1989) � its methods cover the gamut of prevailing research paradigms. � a significant number of programmes were often hurriedly put into place, were poorly conceived, improperly implemented, and ineffectively administered. � there is increased attention to fiscal accountability and the managerial effectiveness of programmes. � there will continue to be resource restraints that require choosing which social or intervention areas to concentrate on and which social or interventions or programmes should be given priority. � intensive scrutiny of existing programmes will continue because of the pressure to curtail or dismantle those for which there is limited evidence of program efficiency and efficient delivery of services. � unanticipated problems with delivering the intervention or with the intervention itself may require modif ying the programme, and consequently, the evaluation plan as well. � the central purpose of evaluation differs from that of basic social research and evaluations fit into a different institutional and political context. � the translation of logic into the procedure should depend upon context, purpose and expected payoff. � the key goal is to design and implement an evaluation that is as objective as possible – that is, to provide a firm assessment, one that would be unchanged if the evaluation was replicated by the same evaluators or conducted by another group. � the scope of the evaluation, the questions and the research procedures used depend on the purpose for which it is being conducted, e.g. a modification or expansion of an existing effort. � many programmes are not implemented and executed according to their original design. � this evaluation will not focus on a cost-benefit or costeffectiveness analysis due to the fact that all possible resources needed to ensure the successful implementation of the intervention, have already been allocated and approved. rossi and freeman (1989) state that new interventions are relatively rare and add that most programs introduced as “new and innovative” are modifications of existing practices. what makes an intervention innovative in our sense is that the particular treatment has never been applied to the population specified. according to them, a programme is innovative if it has not been subject to implementation and assessment in the following way: the intervention itself is still in an emerging or research and development (“r&d”) phase – that is, there is no (or very limited) evidence that it has an impact as an installed program. de vos et al. (2002) state that what really distinguishes intervention research from programme evaluation is the fact that when intervention research is attempted, something new is created and then evaluated. they continue by saying that when one is asked to evaluate an existing programme, one is doing programme evaluation. the existing program needed to be fine-tuned. program fine-t uning t y pically occurs because program sponsors and staff are dissatisfied with the effectiveness or the efficiency of their interventions, or both (rossi & freeman, 1989). rossi and freeman (1989) state that fine-t uning basically requires three related sets of activities on the part of the sponsors, program staff, and evaluators: reappraising program objectives and outcomes, undertaking reputabilit y assessments, and re-planning /re-designing the program. de vos et al., (2002) list six steps for the process of evaluation. these six steps are: 1) needs assessment, 2) evaluabilit y assessment, 3) programme monitoring, 4) impact assessment, 5) cost-effectiveness evaluation and 6) utilisation evaluation. rossi and freeman (1989) state that every evaluation must be tailored to its program and add that the role evaluation can play varies according to whether the program is a new one being designed and implemented or an established program to be evaluated or fine-tuned. existing programs are more difficult to evaluate in terms of their impact and efficiency but evaluation can help to ensure that the program is implemented correctly and can facilitate planning or program improvement. royse (1992) states that when there is a perception that a programme could be improved – that it could become better in some way, then it needs to be evaluated. a considerable number of evaluations are directed at fine-tuning of programs, for example, modif ying the program to increase its effectiveness (rossi & freeman, 1989). reputabilit y assessments are evaluat ions based on the clients’ opinions of the program procedures and services (rossi & freeman, 1989). the latter will be evaluated by the evaluatiob of a diversity program 41 means of a questionnaire. rossi and freeman (1989) state that formative studies are evaluations that assess the conduct of programmes during their early stages. royse (1992) supports rossi and freeman and adds that formative evaluation is employed to adjust and enhance a programme and serves to guide and direct programmes – especially new programmes. the re-designed diversit y management programme content has just been designed, developed and distributed for evaluation. results the data from the questionnaire was analysed by utilising spss 11.01 for windows. descriptive statistics were calculated. the results are reported in terms of whether or not the content of the programme addresses the reasons why diversity programmes fail or succeed. table 1 frequencies of reaction to questionnaire item item 1 2 3 4 5 strongly strongly n disagree agree 1. economic rationale for 0 0 4 20 7 31 implementing employment equity 2. information to establish an 0 4 4 15 8 31 mployment equity forum 3. guidelines to establish an 0 3 7 12 9 31 employment equity forum 4. information to adjust policies 0 7 9 12 3 31 and procedures to support employment equity drive 5. commitment and support of 0 4 14 10 2 30* top management for the program 6. evidence of top management’s 0 10 13 5 3 31 commitment to the process 7. customizes product meeting 0 0 14 15 2 31 the unique needs of the organisation 8. input from various key 1 1 7 2 10 31 role-players 9. assistance to conduct tangible 0 5 5 19 2 31 diversity targets 10. displays comprehensive needs 0 1 11 14 5 31 analysis 11. guidelines of skills to be 0 1 9 16 5 31 developed to manage diversity 12. provide manager with practical, 0 5 5 19 2 31 “hands-on” everyday tools 13. the program is an aspect of 0 3 11 10 7 31 the diversity drive in the organisation 14. link to the other interventions 0 4 6 16 5 31 that are currently running 15. provide to create a forum to 0 3 11 15 2 31 communicate diversity success stories 16. promote the design and 0 4 8 12 7 31 development of an action plan *not all items were completed as can be seen form table 1: question 1: of the 31 participants, 4 (12,9%) were uncertain, 20 (64,5%) agreed and 7 (22,6%) strongly agreed that the content contained a strong argument and convinced them of the economic rationale for employment equity. question 2: of the 31 participants, 4 (12,9%) disagreed, 4 (12,9%) were uncertain, 15 (48,4%) agree and 8 (25,8%) strongly agreed that the content provides one with the necessary information to enable one to establish an employment equity forum. question 3: of the 31 participants, 3 (9,7%) disagreed, 7 (22,6%) were uncertain, 12 (38,7%) agree and 9 (25,8%) strongly agreed that the content provides the necessary guidelines to enable one to establish an employment equity forum. question 4: of the 31 participants, 7 (22,6%) disagreed, 9 (29,0%) were uncertain, 12 (38,7%) agreed and 9 (29,0%) strongly agreed that the content assists you in determining how to adjust the existing policies and procedures in the organisation to support the employment equity drive in your business plan. question 5: of the 31 participants, 4 (13,3%) disagreed, 14 (46,7 %) were uncertain, 10 (33,3%) agreed and 2 (9,7%) strongly agreed that the content reflects the commitment and support of top management for the diversity-training programme. question 6: of the 31 participants, 10 (32,3%) disagreed, 13 (41,9%) were uncertain, 5 (16,1%) agree and 3 (9,7%) strongly agreed that the content provides real evidence of top management’s commitment to the process. question 7: of the 31 participants, 14 (45,2%) were uncertain, 15 (48,4%) agreed and 2 (6,5%) strongly agreed that the content reflects a customised product meeting the unique needs of the organisation. question 8: of the 31 participants, 1 (3.2%) strongly disagreed, 1 (3,2%) disagreed, 7 (22,6%) were uncertain, 12 (38,7%) agreed and 10 (32,3%) strongly agreed that the content indicates that the design of the product solicited the input from various key roleplayers. question 9: of the 31 participants, 5 (16,1%) disagreed, 5 (16,1%) were uncertain, 19 (61,3%) agree and 2 (6,5%) strongly agreed that the content assists management to construct tangible diversity targets for which they are held accountable. question 10: of the 31, 1 (3,2%) disagreed, 11 (35,5%) were uncertain, 14 (45,2%) agreed and 5 (16,1%) strongly agreed that the content displays that a proper and comprehensive needs analysis was conducted. question 11: of the 31 participants, 1 (3,2%) disagreed, 9 (29,0%) were uncertain, 16 (51,6%) agreed and 5 (16,1%) strongly agreed that the content provides guidelines as to which set of skills needs to be developed in order to be able to manage diversity. question 12: of the 31 participants, 5 (16,1%) disagreed, 5 (16,1%) were uncertain, 19 (61,3%) agreed and 2 (6,5%) strongly agreed that the content provides the managers with practical, “hands-on” every day tools. question 13: of the 31 participants, 3 (9,7%) disagreed, 11 (35,5%) were uncertain, 10 (32,3%) agreed and 7 (22,6%) strongly agreed that the content imposes the line of thought that the diversity training programme is merely an aspect of the complete diversity drive in an organisation. fouche, de jager, crafford42 question 14: of the 31 participants, 4 (12,9%) disagreed, 6 (19,4%) were uncertain, 16 (51,6%) agreed and 5 (22,6%) strongly agreed that the content is linked to the other interventions that are currently running in the organisation. question 15: of the 31 participants, 3 (9,7%) disagreed, 11 (35,5%) were uncertain, 15 (48,4%) agreed and 2 (6,5%) strongly agreed that the content provides guidelines as to how to create a forum to communicate diversity success stories. question 16: of the 31 participants, 4 (12,9%) disagreed, 8 (25,8%) were uncertain, 12 (38,7%) agreed and 7 (22,6%) strongly agreed that the content promotes the design and development of an action plan for activities that will assist in creating an inclusive workforce. it is clear from the data reflected in table 1 that the key informants agreed or strongly agreed with the following aspects of the programme: � the programme content addresses the economic rationale for implementing employment equity and the business case for diversity training. � the information in the programme content enables one to establish an employment equity forum. � the programme content provides guidelines to enable one to establish an employment equity forum. � the programme content provides guidelines to assist one on how to adjust the existing policies and procedures in the company to support the employment equity drive in one’s business plan. � the programme content reflects that the design of the programme solicits the input form various key role-players. � the programme content assists management to construct tangible diversity targets for which they are held responsible. � the programme content displays that a proper and comprehensive needs analysis was conducted. � the programme content provide guidelines to assist one as to what set of skills needs to be developed in order to be able to manage diversity. � the programme content provides the managers with practical, “hands-on” everyday tools. � the programme content imposes the line of thought that the diversity-training programme is merely an aspect of the complete diversity drive in an organisation. � the programme content indicates that the programme is linked to the other interventions that are currently running in the company. � the programme content provides guidelines as to how to create a forum to communicate diversity success stories. � the programme content provides guidelines to design and develop action plans for activities that will assist in creating an inclusive workforce. it was further clear that the evaluators disagreed or were uncertain with the following elements: � the programme content reflects the commitment of top management for the diversity-training programme. � the programme content provides real evidence of top management’s commitment to the process. � the programme content reflects a customised programme that meets the unique needs of the organisation. discussion the results reveal that the programme content reflects the economic rationale for employment equity as well as a business case for diversity programmes. the programme content contains the necessary information as well as the guidelines to enable one to establish an employment equity forum. there is a slight uncertainty regarding the fact that the content provides sufficient guidelines as to how to adjust the existing policies and procedures in the company to support the employment equity drive in the different business units. the content needs to be revised and a project team will assist in designing a template in order to assist the project managers to adjust the policies and procedures in the company to align with the employment equity requirements, as well as with the strategies of the business units. the results reflect that the design of the product solicited the input from various key role-players and that it assists management to construct tangible diversit y targets for which they are held accountable. the content also displays that a proper and comprehensive needs analysis was conducted and that the content includes guidelines as to which set of skills needs to be developed in order to be able to manage diversity. the results indicated that the content provides the managers with practical, “hands-on” everyday tools that can assist them in managing a diverse workforce. the content provides comprehensive details about the flex-management model. the content also links the diversity training programmes to the other interventions that are currently running in the company. the results also reflect that guidelines on how to create a forum where the business unit can communicate diversity success stories are included in the content. the results, however, reflect some areas of concern. the participants’ response indicated that the content does not reflect the commitment and support of top management for the diversity-training programme. the response also indicated that the content does not provide real evidence of top management’s commitment to the process. the content will be adjusted and a process will be designed to solicit the buy-in and support of top management. it is suggested that a template, which contains a guideline with an agreement of intent is to be included in the content. the diversity intervention in a business unit should reach beyond the fact that the diversitytraining programme was attended. processes need to be designed to transfer the skills and knowledge gained at the training session to the workplace. one of the reasons why diversity programs fail is due to the fact that one first has to create an awareness of the diversity issues before one can value or manage diversity. the content of the diversitytraining programme will include a number of suggestions on how to design diversity awareness campaigns in a business unit. the results also indicated that the content does not reflect the fact that it was customized to meet the unique needs of the organisation. the content of the diversity-training programme is available in hardcopy as well as in an electronic format. templates provide guidelines on how to adjust the content to comply with the strategies of the different business units. a training process needs to be designed to assist the users of the content to fully utilise the potential of the content. the results also indicate that the content does not impose the line of thought that the diversity training-programme is merely an aspect of the complete diversity drive in the organisation. the company has launched a number of initiatives in an attempt to rectif y the latter statement. the topic of diversity training and diversity management has been included in most of the content of other initiatives in the organisation. the results indicate some uncertaint y whether the content promotes the design and development of an action plan for act ivit ies that will assist in creat ing an inclusive workforce. the content does in fact contain a template that attempts to provide guidelines for the user on how to the evaluatiob of a diversity program 43 create an action plan. the content needs to now include a list of activities to provide the users with guidelines on how to design and develop activities and initiatives for creating an inclusive workforce. the results have been obtained by using convenience sampling. the next step will now be to fine-tune the content, develop and design a facilitation process that will transfer the learning of the content, conduct a pilot training session and evaluate the content again. rossi and freeman (1989) emphasize the above by stating that for any evaluation, many good designs can be proposed, but no perfect one. the content of the diversity-training programme is a living document and will be constantly evaluated and improved upon. references booysen, a.e. 1999. an examination of race and gender influences on the leadership attributes of south african managers: dbl dissertation, university of south africa, pretoria. cox, t. (1999). cultural diversity in organisations. san francisco: berrett-koeler. charlton, g. (2000). human habits of highly effective organisations. western cape: van schaik. cross, e.y., katz, j.h., miller, f.a. & seashore, e. w. (1994). the promise of diversity. new york: irwin. de vos, a. s., strydom, h., fouche, c.b. & delport, c.s.l. (2002). research at grass roots. pretoria: van schaik. grobler, p.a. (1996). leadership challenges facing companies in the new south africa. inaugural lecture, department of business management, university of south africa, pretoria. human, l. (1991). ‘advancement, affirmative action and diversity: what south africa can learn from the usa.’ south african journal of labour relations, august, 9 (12), 11-21. human, l. (1996a). contemporary conversations: understanding and managing diversity in the modern world. coree, senegal: coree institute. human, l. (1996b). future competencies of managing diversity: what south african managers need. in m. e. steyn & k. b. motshabi, cultural synergy in south africa (pp. 171-184). pretoria: sigma. jamieson, d. & o’mara, j. (1991). managing workforce 2000. san francisco: jossey bass. kerlinger, e.n. (1986), foundations of behavioural research. new york: rinehart & winston. manning, t. (1991). world-class strategies for winning your customers. kenwyn: juta. nieuwmeijer, l.j. (2001). conflict and peace research: south african realities and challenges. pretoria: hsrc. o’mara, j. (1994). diversity activities and training designs. san diego: california pfieffer. rhinesmith. s. h. (1996). a manager’s guide to globalisation: six skills for success in a changing world. chicago: irwin. rossi, p. h. & freeman. h.e. (1989). evaluation: a systematic approach. london: sage. royse, d. (1993). program evaluation: an introduction. united states: nelson-hall. tayeb, m.h. (1996). the management of multicultural workforce. new york: john wiley. trends in diversity (march 2001). www.corporateleadership council.com. tafoya, d. a. (12 march 2002). guide for a model diversity plan. retrieved april 9, 2002 from the world wide web: http://www.oaac.co.la.co.us/modeldiversityplan.html. http://www.inform.umd.edu./diversity/response/workplace/.ih. tml (4 october 2002). universit y of maryland, http://inform.umd.edu./diversity/ response/workplace/.io.htmll a report to the carnegie commission on preventing deadly conflict. (july 1997). a house no longer divided: progress and prospects for democratic peace in south africa. fouche, de jager, crafford44 10vanzyl2.qxd objectives of the study the primary empirical research objective of this article (part two of the study) is to establish a theoretical framework of soe managers’ espoused theory on building blocks of innovation. the secondary objectives of the study are to empirically determine managers’ views on: 1) approaches to innovation; 2) barriers to innovation; and 3) enablers of innovation. hereby, the primary objective of the study will be achieved, namely to compare and integrate the theoretical frameworks based on a literature review and the empirically based espoused theory of managers. few authors have attempted to build an integrated conceptual framework of the building blocks of innovation, although authors such as kuczmarski (1996) admitted that many executives today, similar to him twenty years ago, have not yet figured out how to create an environment that breeds innovation. in support of these notions, leaders and/or managers required a common point of reference in the shape of a conceptual multi-dimensional framework that dealt with the complex nature of innovation, which may be used and built upon in practice and research (cooper, 1998). various authors stated through their discourses, their belief that innovation is the key to organisational survival and growth (handy 1996, drucker 1955, hivner, hopkins & hopkins, 2003; kuczmarski 1996; mcgivern & tvorik, 1997, mohamed, 2002; tucker 2003). consequently, there is a need for the development of a theoretical framework of the building blocks of innovation (covered in the first part of the study) that can serve as a basis for comparison with managers’ espoused theory of innovation, as a business practice (covered in the second part of the study). research design research approach the study was executed using a qualitative research approach (schurink & schurink, 2001), more specifically the symbolicinteractionist approach (denzin, 1989). the design and method chosen within the qualitat ive spectrum was grounded theory with a literat ure review according to grounded theory guidelines. grounded theory has a specific set of principles and a process to facilitate data analysis, which is supported by analy tical induction and crossreferencing. visually the design and approach of the research are presented in figure 1. figure 1: summary of the research design and approach betsi van zyl gert roodt johan coetsee department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract in this article (the second part of a t wo-part study) the focus is on establishing a theoretical framework of stateowned enterprise (soe) managers’ espoused theory of building blocks of innovation. a qualitative approach, namely grounded theory, supported by theoretical sampling, was applied in generating the primary data for the study from different management levels in the soe. the managers’ espoused theory, based on empirical evidence, shows that innovation consisted of five important building blocks, namely contextual setting; strategic enablers; business enablers; foundational enablers; and human resources; each with its own categories and sub-categories. the study also identified barriers to innovation. an innovation diffusion framework, specifically for implementation in a government context, was proposed. opsomming die fokus van hierdie artikel (deel t wee van ’n t weedelige studie) is op die daarstelling van ’n teoretiese raamwerk van best uurders in ’n staatsbeheerde onderneming (sb0) se voorgestane teorie van innoveringsboublokke. ’n kwalitatiewe benadering, naamlik gegronde teorie ondersteun deur teoretiese steekproefneming is gebruik om die primêre data vir die studie uit verskillende bestuursvlakke van die sbo te verkry. die voorgestane teorie wat op empiriese navorsing gebaseer is, toon dat innovering uit v yf belangrike boublokke bestaan, naamlik ’n kontekstuele omgewing; strategiese bemagtigers; besigheidsbemagtigers; grondslagbemagtigers; en menslike hulpbronne; elkeen met sy eie kategorieë en subkategorieë. die studie het ook hindernisse vir innovering geïdentifiseer. ’n innoveringsdiffusieraamwerk, spesifiek vir implementering in die staatsdiensomgewing, is voorgestel. building blocks of innovation within a state-owned enterprise (part two) requests for copies should be addressed to: g roodt, gertr@uj.ac.za 79 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (2), 79-88 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (2), 79-88 research methodology the following six aspects will be covered under the research methodology: participants in the study the participants in the study spanned hierarchical levels from junior employees to chief executive officers. the breakdown of the sample is summarised below in terms of designation, job focus and gender. table 1 key features of the sample number designation job focus gender data collection of partimethod cipants 3 ceo strategic m direct interviews 1 general manager strategic f direct interview 3 executive manager strategic m direct interviews 5 senior manager strategic/ m (4) 4 direct interviews tactical f (1) 1 correspondence 8 managers tactical/ m (3) 6 direct interviews operational f (4) 2 telephonic interviews 7 middle managers operational m (5) 3 direct interviews f (2) 1 telephonic interview 1 correspondence 4 junior managers operational f direct interviews method of data gathering the data collection took place on different, integrated levels. the initial sampling, based on theoretical sampling, focused on participants with a strategic focus with regard to their job outputs. the content of the data collected during these init ial interviews indicated the most informative subjects for the next level based on progressive sampling. the sampling during this level was supported by sequential and purposive techniques, such as snowballing (mouton & marais, 1996; stewart & stewart, 1990). participants on this level comprised of employees across the hierarchical spectrum of the state-owned enterprise and their job outputs were mostly tactical and operational. the results of both the init ial sampling and progressive sampling directed resource sampling. resource sampling indicated the interaction with paper-based information, such as enter prise documents, enter prise magazines, media releases, articles and books. figure 2: graphic representation of the data collection process data collection procedure the primary data collection technique was direct interviews supported by telephonic interviews and correspondence (mathers et al., 2002). additional information gathering took place in the form of documentation, relevant literat ure studies, and books plus articles supplied by participants. documentat ion and available literat ure analysis made important contributions through applying the comparative analysis technique. data capturing field notes were capt ured by using note-taking, and supported by cognit ive mapping. to ensure the comprehensibilit y and consistency of note-taking, an electronic format was drawn up beforehand based on the cornell system (pauk, 1989). cognitive mapping was used to indicate the links bet ween concepts, as well as the raw facts contained in the notes. this method of data capt uring assisted in summarising informat ion; consolidat ing informat ion from different research sources; and in structuring complex data (swan & newell, 1994). data management data was managed by using transcription and memos. transcription, through tape analysis, meant adding to the notes taken during the interview to ensure comprehension. word-for-word transcriptions (narratives) were not used. the idea was not to relate a narrative, but to capt ure the essence of the building blocks of innovat ion. the electronic data sheets that were developed and used for the interviews were used for this exercise as well. in effect, the writ ten notes were transferred to the electronic version with the added information. during transcript ion, each interview was given a code to ensure anonymit y. as themes and categories emerged they were allocated an ident ificat ion code to ensure cross-referencing and retrievabilit y. after each interview, the notes were checked and completed to ensure their completeness and understandabilit y (leedy & ormrod, 2001; star, 1997; strauss & corbin, 1990; pandit, 1996; parker & roffey, 1996). thoughts, important ideas and reflections were capt ured as “memos” as described by strauss and corbin (1990). emerging theories were capt ured, as well as new questions that should be answered or included during consequent interviews. this was done to keep a record of personal thought processes and formed a supportive point for the analysis procedure. keeping memos ensured that reflection and reviewing were done constantly. inconsistencies were noted and followed up. meaningful associations were also noted (pope et al., 1999). memos consisted of comments made by participants, as well as capt uring personal notes on emerging relationships bet ween categories, sub-categories and their dimensions. treatment of the data grounded theory described a data coding system as its analysis method. an important feat ure is that data is categorised through codes and concepts and not numbers. the number of times that the same piece of information is categorised is not important. the focus is not to quant if y the informat ion, but to make new connect ions bet ween informat ion-rich data that will inform the emerging theory. a coding procedure was used to analyse the data of which open coding, axial coding and select ive coding form part, inclusive of constant comparison, cross-index ing and cognit ive mapping (leedy & ormrod, 2001; star, 1997; strauss & corbin, 1990; swan & newell, 1994; pandit, 1996; parker & roffey, 1996). a lthough these methods are ment ioned separately, their application was integrated. a map (figure 3) of all the methods and techniques used is given as a broad overview. van zyl, roodt, coetsee80 figure 3: a map of data analysis methods and techniques used coding is a process of simultaneously reducing the data by dividing it into units of analysis and coding each unit. this way of data reduction is an iterative process. the coding process was ongoing and dynamic. the coding process (leedy & ormrod, 2001; star, 1997; strauss & corbin, 1990; pandit, 1996; parker & roffey, 1996) consisted of specific steps, namely: open coding: the objective of this step was to identif y variables with regard to innovation. this step also served the pur pose to guide f urther and more focused data collection, leading to f urther concept ualisation of the data and refinement of the coding schemes through constant comparison. axial coding: this step directed the interaction (reading and rereading of the material collected) of the data. this meant that recurring concepts were studied to determine the reason for the recurrence. informed by analytical and theoretical ideas developed through the analysis procedure, concepts are further refined and reduced by grouping them together into categories and sub-categories. selective coding: the links and relationships that would give rise to the emerging theory during selective coding were established by defining groups of concepts that belonged together thematically during axial coding. similarities and differences in compiled codes were clustered together to underpin the emerging theory. constant comparison: this process included four steps, namely the transcription of information received, integrating and analysing additional data, continuous modifications to the data as relationships became clearer and the theoretical explanation of the data. by using analytic induction, the emerging theory was tested against existing theory in literature, as it became relevant, as well as against further analysis of the data. analytic induction rendered the opportunity to verif y, confirm and qualif y emerging concepts, categories and variables by searching through the data. cross-indexing: analysis showed that some of the variables could belong to more than one category. cross-indexing allowed the variables to be linked to the different categories. collection and analysis of data continued, until theoretical saturation had been reached. this point in the study occurred when no new concepts emerged from data collected or from constant comparison. results owing to a lack of space, the data (descriptions) and codes obtained from the participant interviews are not included here, but can be inspected more closely in van zyl (2005). the data were grouped in categories, sub-categories and themes that were identified as the emerging espoused theory on the building blocks of innovation. through constant comparison the information were reflected in a comparative table, which was integrated to formulate a comprehensive theory on the building blocks of innovation. managers’ espoused theory of building blocks of innovation the categories, sub-categories and themes that depict the building blocks of innovation, based on the empirical findings will be briefly discussed. the contextual setting: the contextual setting depicts the external environment that influences the business perspective of the state-owned enterprise and includes the incremental approach to innovation; the radical approach to innovation; the people approach to innovation and the technolog y approach to innovation. the strategic enablers: these enablers depict those categories and sub-categories that could be seen to influence the state-owned enterprise on strategic level and fall under the category of clarity of purpose, namely strategy, including the strategic intent and vision, described as the future orientation of the state-owned enterprise; structure, which includes job design, crossfunctional teams, and collaboration and leadership, describing the visioning ability, leadership orientation and leadership styles of leaders within the state-owned enterprise. the business enablers: these enablers depict those categories and sub-categories within the organisation that would facilitate the internal business processes to take innovation forward, such as reward and recognition focusing on morale fatigue and the innovative spirit; change management focusing on the principles thereof and on the risk of creating comfort zones; ideas generation regarded as a resource and the management thereof; knowledge management focusing on the sharing of information and the creation of knowledge as an asset; business intelligence focusing on the ability to scan the business environment; evaluation system focusing on measuring innovation and customer-orientation focusing on customer intimacy. foundational enablers: the foundational enablers consist of those categories and sub-categories in the internal environment that creates the business atmosphere within which duties must be executed. the foundational enablers are culture inclusive of motivational factors; climate (having an effect on employees and customers) and the value system (trust, commitment and support). human resource enablers: the human resource enablers refer to management practices focusing on participative management, self-management; issues pertaining to the foundational enablers, as well as internal business processes; internal orientation focusing on intrapreneurship; learning focusing on individual and organisational learning (double-loop learning, continuous learning and reflective learning); skills focusing on emotional equity; creativity focusing on the support of the state-owned enterprise to such a capability; emotional maturity focusing on emotional intelligence. barriers refer to macro-level barriers, which include shareholding, legislation and the national market position of the state-owned enterprise; meso-level barriers which include organisational architecture such as internal politics, internal environment, management practices, change orientation, risk orientation, structural issues (bureaucracy and silo’s), clarity of purpose, funding, human capital and relationship management and micro-level barriers focusing on individual level such as time pressures, financial compensation, knowledge levels, internal competition, comfort zones, inertia and thinking skills, e.g. systems thinking. all the enablers, barriers and the building blocks of innovation ii 81 contextual setting, have to a greater or lesser degree, a reciprocal influence on one another. the framework of the espoused theory on innovation building blocks is presented in figure 4. discussion the discussion of the findings will be presented as follows: � the presentation and discussion of an integrated conceptual framework of the barriers of innovation based on the comparison of the espoused theory and the current theoretical framework based on the literature review. � the presentation of the building blocks of innovation based on the integrated conceptual framework. � the discussion of emerging key themes that were identified during the empirical research phase that influenced the development of an integrated conceptual framework of the building blocks of innovation; and � the presentation of the practical significance of these findings. the presentation and discussion of an integrated conceptual framework contextual setting: the contextual setting is a result of the research focusing on the internal orientation/approach of organisations towards innovation. this includes the drivers of innovation, the external environment in which the organisation functions and the approach towards innovation. drivers of innovation: the findings of the empirical study showed that although innovation is not a continuous endeavour, events of innovation rather take place as discrete events. this notion is supported by the results of the literature study. in practice, the empirical study did not indicate specific drivers of innovation. however, it was found that the biggest driver of innovation within the soe is problem solving, as it supports the strategies of cost cutting and efficiency; giving innovation the face of a discrete event. external environment: the empirical research findings, supported by the literature review, showed that cognitive understanding of the reciprocal relationship between innovation and economic fluctuations is important to organisations. the reason is that innovation cycles and the profile of organisations impact on one another. a mature organisation with mature products, according to its “s-curve” (abraham & knight, 2001), will show a specific innovation-adoption orientation. this proved to be in line with the findings of the study. an organisation should be able to pinpoint its position with relative accuracy, as this knowledge would inform creative destruction (drejer, 2002; clark & staunton, 1996). the participants of the study did not mention creative destruction, as an innovative practice, although the literature study showed that it forms an integral part of innovation and its practices. approaches to innovation: according to the innovation adoption model (rogers, 1995) the soe falls within the late majority/laggard phase. innovation will only be adopted and diffused when it has proven to be useful, e.g. when it can be a solution to a problem or a way to achieve efficiency. this conservative orientation results in incremental innovation, where the innovation is relatively risk-free and is mainly focused on solving problems of efficiency and maintaining/upgrading the soe’s ageing infrastructure. by following an incremental approach to innovation, the soe adheres to its cost-saving strategy supported by the empirical van zyl, roodt, coetsee82 figure 4: the soe managers’ espoused theory on building blocks of innovation findings that showed innovation as not being a grand strategy of the soe, but being regarded only as an organisational value, which is not pursued actively in the operational sense. mr radebe, minister of transport, (2004) indicated that: “the underlying purpose of any transport system is to move people and goods eff iciently, as cheaply as possible …” (south african transport conference, p. 1). these words confirm and emphasise the strategies of cost cutting and efficiency as indicated in the findings. these strategic approaches influence the internal attitude and orientation towards innovation; hence innovation only takes place as and when problems need to be solved as opposed to being a natural inclination of doing business. according to the “s-curve” theory (abraham & knight, 2001) the maturity stage of the soe also fits the incremental, conservative approach to innovation. the focus of the soe is on efficiencies and not on conquering or pioneering radical innovations. however, focusing only on incremental innovation could lead to a negative response to market fluctuations and reduced sales velocity. the findings of the study indicated that market loss has been taking place at a rate that raised concern within the soe. the current monopolistic market position of the soe creates the impression that it has a captive market. hence, the enterprise believes that it does not need radical innovations that change business models or alter markets. its product and service offerings are mature and only improvements are made or redevelopment takes place, but not market altering changes as experienced through radical innovation. furthermore, it became clear that the innovations that are adopted are mostly technolog y-based. according to freeman’s study (freeman, 1982), when organisations are in stagnat ion, they tend to favour innovat ion based on technolog y that has been developed external to the organisation. it is important to note that although the soe fits the t ypical mat ure organisation profile with its t ypical economic impact, the literat ure review also emphasised how important innovation is, and that organisations need to reinvent themselves continually. cooper (1998) suggested that mechanistic organisational structures (bureaucracies) favour incremental innovation. barriers/inhibitors to innovation: barriers/inhibitors towards innovation showed the notion that barriers and enablers of innovation are different sides of the same coin. the barriers based on the literature review focused mainly on internal barriers to innovation, such as rigid strategic planning, culture, leadership, structural inhibitors, intolerance, strategic gridlock and tunnel vision (andriopoulos, 2001; arias, 1995; borins, 2002; buchen, 2003; gurteen, 1998; kilroy, 1999; kono, 1988; tucker, 2002; quinn et al., 1997). the results of the empirical study posed barriers on three levels, namely macro (national), meso (organisational) and micro (individual) level. with regard to barriers that will inhibit innovation, those cited by the participants and those cited through the literature review are quite generic and universally applicable to most organisations. the difference is in the degree to which these inhibitors are applied and enforced. the enablers of innovation: the individual enablers of innovation from the empirical findings compared positively with the enablers that were indicated through the literature review as these building blocks could be regarded as generic in nature. foundational enablers/business atmosphere enablers: the foundational enablers that emerged from the empirical findings correspond with the business atmosphere enablers indicated by the literature review. both empirical findings and literature review emphasised organisational culture (ahmed, 1998; andriopoulos, 2001; brooking, 1997; martins & terblanche, 2003; tucker, 2002) climate (ahmed, 1998; buckler, 1996; cooper, 1998; kono, 1988) and values (arad et al., 1997; gratton, 2000; johnson, 2001). the empirical findings showed more emphasis on the category dealing with climate as opposed to the reviewed literature that paid more attention to culture. the reason could be two-fold: � culture and climate could have been used interchangeably. � climate is focused on more as the practical and individual impact of climate is more immediate and tangible on the workforce. both the empirical findings and literature review indicated values to be an important enabler, and as can be seen from the findings of the empirical study, innovation is cited as a value of the soe. business enablers/business process enablers: the empirical findings indicated specific processes that were deemed important if innovation was to take place consistently within the soe. it was felt that, although these processes were cited, some of them might not be currently in operation and many of these processes cited were based on theoretical knowledge as opposed to current practice. therefore, the business enablers are more of a “should be”. the important processes mentioned by the participants were supported by the literature as business process enablers (buchen, 2003; cooper, 1998; darroch & mcnaughton, 2002; henry, 2001; justesen, 2001; kaplan & norton, 2004; senge, 1990; tucker, 2002; uecke, 2002). most of the categories seem to be similar. however, the literature review yielded more categories and those should be added to this dimension, as it would serve to enrich the integrated framework of innovation building blocks. strategic enablers/business management enablers: the strategic enablers of the empirical findings were supported by the literature review. there was a difference in the clustering of the categories. the empirical findings tended to cluster strategy and structure linked to leadership. the literature review cited structure (andriopoulos, 2001; cooper, 1998; martins & terblanche, 2003; mcadam & mcclelland, 2002; urabe et al., 1988; quinn et al., 1997), leadership (andriopoulos, 2001; clark & staunton, 1990; judge et al., 1997; quinn et al., 1997; tucker, 2002; uecke, 2002) and management practices (buchen, 2003; cooper, 1998; peters & waterman, 1982; senge, 1990) as important components of innovation. the literature review revealed in vast amounts of information on these subjects as disciplines in their own right. the empirical findings also showed that management practices were viewed as a human resource enabler rather than a strategic enabler. human resources/human enablers: both the empirical findings and the literature review suggested that people are an important enabler of innovation. both the empirical findings and literature review yielded similar categories within the human resource domain, with major emphasis on emotional intelligence and creativity. the literature review dealt with creativity from a focus point of the various skills that underpin creativity (ahmed, 1998; cooper, 1998; gratton, 2000; henry, 2001; juniper, 1996; klemm, 2004; mcadam & mcclelland, 2002; quinn et al., 1997; zhuang et al., 1999), while the empirical findings have a strong underpinning of the influence that the appropriate climate yields. both the empirical findings and literature review have cited the importance of specific skills, mental attitude and a specific approach to doing business. in the case of the literature research huge volumes of information was available on pure entrepreneurship and less on intrapreneurship. the empirical findings focused more on intrapreneurship. with regard to the skills cited, the literature review gave a description of more specific skills, whereas the empirical findings emphasised that skills in the broad sense are important. emotional intelligence can be deemed an important enabler towards a framework of innovation building blocks (gratton, 2000; goleman, 1995; sy & côte, 2004). the empirical findings building blocks of innovation ii 83 emphasised emotional equity and emotional maturity. it seems that effective innovation depends on disciplined management systems and processes, starting with an appreciation of people and their skills. structural enablers: both the empirical findings and the literat ure review yielded similar struct ural enablers (andriopoulos, 2001; cooper, 1998; martins & terblanche, 2003; mcadam & mcclelland, 2002; urabe, 1988; quinn et al., 1997). the literature review showed that appropriate structural designs for various contexts, including innovation, should be applied. the emphasis in the soe is rather on more rigid structural enablers. the building blocks of innovation based on the integrated conceptual framework it was clear that no integrated conceptual framework existed in the state-owned enterprise that was researched, as innovation is only stated as a value and not an actionable objective (strategy document, 2002-2007). as stated by cooper (1989) a need for a common point of reference is essential in bureaucracies. this supports the notion that an integrated conceptual framework should be developed in a state-owned enterprise that pinpoints the building blocks of innovation to ensure that innovation, as a business practice, can become a natural part of doing business as opposed to being just a problem-solving tool. as a consequence, a conceptual framework of the building blocks of innovation based on the empirical findings and enriched by the literature review was developed through the results of constant comparison, integration and the reflections of both the literat ure and the empirical frameworks. a discussion of the content of the integrated framework depicting the building blocks will follow: the contextual setting, as the first building block, depicts the external environment that influences the business perspective of the soe and includes the following: � the approach to innovation which is incremental; � the market position of the enterprise based on s-curve and innovation adoption and diffusion theories; and � the drivers of innovation which is problem-solving. the strategic enablers, as the second building block, depict those categories and sub-categories that could be seen to influence the soe on strategic level, such as: � strategy, including the strategic intent and vision, described as the future orientation of the state-owned enterprise; � structure, which includes job design, cross-functional teams, and collaboration, as well as networks taking into cognisance the real threat of strategic gridlock; and � leadership, describing the visioning ability, leadership orientation and leadership styles of leaders within the soe inclusive of the leadership habits, such as reading and having a culch bag of ideas. the business enablers, as the third building block, depict those categories and sub-categories within the organisation that would facilitate the internal business processes to take innovation forward, such as: � reward and recognition focusing on the change of morale fatigue into a challenging innovative spirit inclusive of the broader performance management discipline; � change management focusing on the principles thereof and on the risks of creating comfort zones; � ideas generation regarded as an innovation resource and the management thereof; � knowledge management focusing on the sharing of intelligent information and the creation of knowledge as an asset; � business intelligence focusing on the ability to scan the business environment for informative trends, opportunities and disasters; � evaluation systems focusing on measuring innovation appropriately; � customer-orientation focusing on customer intimacy; � relationship management internally and externally based on underlying issues, such as financial and psychological; � quality management in order to lay the foundation for a positive innovative environment; � communication management as an influence to promote creativity and innovation in a transparent environment; and � diversity management to optimise creativity and innovation within the soe. foundational enablers, as the fourth building block, consist of those categories and sub-categories in the internal environment that creates the business atmosphere within which duties must be executed. the foundational enablers are: � culture inclusive of motivational factors; � climate as having an effect on employees and customers; and � a value system which emphasises trust, commitment and support. human resource enablers, as the fifth building block, refer to those categories and sub-categories that deal with the human or people element, such as: � management practices focusing on participative management and self-management; � issues pertaining to the foundational enablers, as well as internal business processes; � internal orientation focusing on intrapreneurship; � learning focusing on individual and organisational learning, e.g. double-loop learning, continuous learning and reflective learning; � skills focusing on the establishment of emotional equity – i.e. emotional capital; � core skills focusing on “t-shaped” skills, which is a deep vertical knowledge and strong lateral associative skills; � hybrid thinking that involves three types of thinking, namely intuitive thinking where information stimulates the mind to produce an idea, formative thinking where insight is used to mould the idea into a concept (value proposition) and logical thinking where the idea is evaluated sensibly (customer value analysis); � systems thinking that would ensure vertical and horizontal alignment of the innovative activities with the strategies of the organisation; � creativity focusing on the support of the soe to create and maintain such a capability; and � emotional maturity focusing on emotional intelligence and its components. barriers, included in the framework, refer to internal and external inhibitors to innovation, such as: � macro-level barriers, which include shareholding, legislation and the national market position of the state-owned enterprise; � meso-level barriers which include organisational architecture such as internal politics, internal environment, management practices, change orientation, risk orientation, structural issues (bureaucracy and silo’s), clarity of purpose, funding, human capital and relationship management; and � micro-level barriers focusing on individual level such as time pressures, financial compensation, knowledge levels, internal competition, comfort zones, inertia and thinking skills, e.g. systems thinking. a visual presentation of the integrated conceptual framework of the building blocks of innovation is set out below in figure 5. emerging key themes specific themes emerged from the results that could influence the current and future innovation practices within the soe. the themes identified were, cost cutting and efficiency; problembased innovation; incremental versus radical innovation; van zyl, roodt, coetsee84 fragmentation; and the internal attitude towards innovation. the following themes that were supported with examples of innovation occurred in the soe: theme one – cost saving/cutting and efficiency: this fits the image and position (both market and public) of the soe as a national transport entity. the cost-saving and efficiency strategies also fit in with the more risk-averse approach where innovation is concerned, because any investment is exposed to intense public scrutiny. innovation that occurred within the soe is in support of cost cutting or efficiency. by applying the principles of the “scurve” methodology, a mature product life cycle would mean that the soe would focus on cost cutting and improving productivity. theme two – problem-based innovation: innovations cited as examples during the study were all problem-based. in other words, when a problem occurs, a solution would be pursued. in some instances those solutions are creative, resulting in an innovation. hence, problem-solving is seen as the main driver of innovation as opposed to creating new business. theme three – incremental versus radical innovation: if innovation only occurs after a problem has been identified, it could be interpreted as reactive innovation. the findings of the study suggested that the soe has a tendency to follow a more incremental approach to innovation as opposed to a radical approach. this also fits in with the overall conservative approach that is believed to exist within the soe, as well as with its cost-saving strategy, where the innovations that were cited are technology-based which supports the maintenance of the ageing infrastructure. this supports the incremental approach to innovation, which focuses on maintaining the infrastructure rather than changing it dramatically. furthermore, innovation that takes place as a reaction to a problem influences the diffusion of the innovation throughout the enterprise as it is time and space-bound. incremental innovation supports the mature profile of the soe and consequently its strategies. the whole focus is more on being adaptive as opposed to being radical. the leadership of the soe has also been perceived as being conservative. it would seem that a conservative mindset focuses more on maintaining than on innovation. theme four – fragmentation within the soe: the soe’s lack of embracing innovation as a business discipline and not just as a problem-solution tool is aggravated by the structure of the soe which is fragmented and not approached as “one system”. it could create the impression that innovation is not pursued in an integrated, continuous manner, but that innovation occurs in a fragmented way. for example, employees in the soe know about internal innovations only because it made national headlines and not because the process of innovation was shared throughout the enterprise. the soe was described by the participants as a bureaucracy with hierarchical levels focusing on rules, structure (levels), and authority (status). it could be argued that the bureaucratic structure with its t ypical hierarchies fits the strategies of the soe (cost saving, maintenance and efficiency). it is also common in mature organisations that the structure reflects the context in which it operates, e.g. transport is a regulated environment. theme five – internal attitude towards innovation: the results suggested that the application of creativity within the soe is reactive. this form of creativity is demand-driven and surfaces building blocks of innovation ii 85 figure 5: an integrated conceptual framework on building blocks of innovation in the soe when problems arise. many creativity efforts are carried out for selfpreservation rather than to improve services. reactive creativity is the consequence of factors that tend to undermine intrinsic motivation. this became clear when the participants were asked to identify possible building blocks for innovation. it was approached from a negative viewpoint at first. this means that the building blocks were identified as barriers first. also, when prompted, the building blocks were identified in a very mechanistic manner. this supports the notion that innovation is not part of the daily business routine. the barriers are seen as negative aspects as opposed to positive aspects of the building blocks. if innovative practices, utilising the innate creativity of every person, is not practiced daily, it could be a source of frustration amongst employees, hence, the negative initial approach. practical significance the themes discussed above, currently exist in the soe and would have a determining influence on innovative activities within that enterprise. the huge infrastructure (bureaucratic and fragmented), that is basically funded by the taxpayer, would and could not be changed overnight. therefore, to promote continuous innovation, the building blocks of innovation should fit into the current architecture of the soe in order to facilitate the adoption and diffusion of innovation and its practices. with this in mind, a diffusion framework was developed to assist with the dissemination of innovation and its practices inclusive of the building blocks of innovation. this diffusion framework of innovation is proposed to fit into the typical passive, hierarchical bureaucratic structure of the soe, where innovations that do take place are not diffused throughout the fragmented structure of the soe. hence, the emergent building blocks of innovation can be superimposed onto a diffusion framework of innovation. the proposed diffusion framework can change the passive hierarchy into a pro-active one by creating communities of practice to promote innovative practices on existing organisational levels. the approach is to reconfigure the hierarchical structure as a current limitation into an adaptive hierarchical structure. this is in support of the notion that innovation is an adaptive system. therefore, as the soe is currently a fragmented bureaucracy, the various hierarchical levels should be used, not to divide (mechanistically), but to reinforce integration (actively) between the levels of the framework. the interrelationships of the emerged building blocks of innovation, linked to each level, should be harnessed to create an appropriate climate for innovation to become a daily business practice. in this sense, the existing structure of the soe is not changed, but architecture is created that will counteract fragmentation and rigidity, which had been cited as barriers, both by the empirical findings of the study and supported by the literature review. in effect, the same structure must be harnessed as a different set of relationships, e.g. communities of practice as opposed to functional silos. each of the levels of the framework will be discussed sequentially. figure 6: proposed diffusion framework of innovative practices within the soe the levels must be interpreted as a layered network, based on systems-thinking principles. an activity on one level will crossimpact on all the other levels as depicted in figure 6. in this way, the structure can be applied intelligently as opposed to being debilitating with regard to innovation. innovation is initiated on the transactional level. the enterprise is in constant dialogue with its external environment. the result of that dialogue is communicated tangibly and intangibly to all the other levels, such as the strategic level, the tactical level and the operational level. the strategic level refers to the building blocks of strategy, structure and leadership. leadership, starting with executive leadership, should support innovation through its visioning ability. this is the ability to recreate current activities towards a future need. the visioning ability is fed by the communication that the enterprise has with its external environment as determined by the transactional level. this ability is supported by the ability to share this vision as described through clarity of purpose. when this is communicated, shared and understood through a powerful vision, the enterprise could be moved from its reactive state to a more proactive state. clarity of purpose, when managed well, counteracts unfocused activities resulting from employees not having goal clarity, which was cited as a barrier. genuine inquiry and an entrepreneurial attitude will counteract barriers, such as being directive and controlling. as new business development is stated as one of the business objectives and new business is implied in the soe, a growth strategy would be needed. a growth strategy needs innovation. an innovation strategy, with an innovation framework would provide the clarity of purpose. it should be stated in more direct operational terms as opposed to being just a value, as is the current situation. this innovation strategy would form the necessary link to the next level, namely the tactical level. the tactical level has as its purpose the interpretation of the outcomes of decisions on the strategic level. the shape of the enterprise could facilitate innovation. although it would not make sense to suddenly change the current physical shape of such a huge entity (fragmented, bureaucratic and hierarchical), new approaches to execute duties could counteract the “heaviness” and slowness of the enterprise. project teams, consisting of cross-disciplinary team members could function in the same way as many small companies. this approach would also counteract the “silo mentality”, comfort zone syndrome and destructive internal competition. diversity within the teams would challenge and boost creative approach to the task at hand. this incremental approach could facilitate a more integrated enterprise. the enterprise must design the infrastructure in such a way that it will support and strengthen innovation and its practices. the tactical level comprises management practices, including the management of the innovation value chain. participative management should maintain that thin balance between chaos and stability, which is an innate part of any innovation process. participation and support would create and maintain motivational factors that would support practices leading to innovation. participation would also counteract destructive internal competition and debilitating organisational politics. participation is in effect the opposite of command and control. changes are inevitable when innovation is in progress. by approaching any change as a process based on specific principles, the usual turmoil that accompanies it can be minimised and it could be less disruptive in a negative way. the operational level needs to execute the results of the strategic and tactical level. the operational level refers to the business processes and the accompanying systems that create the channel through which the input towards a possible innovation can result in a specific output. therefore, the processes and systems must be conducive van zyl, roodt, coetsee86 to innovative practices. these systems and processes are technology based. to support and facilitate innovation, all processes must be directed at focusing from all possible sources those elements that would lead to an innovation. there must be a concerted effort to capture and evaluate all ideas (idea management); to share learning (networks, teams); to tap into knowledge (knowledge management); and to use all of these when opportunities arise (business intelligence). all of these processes eventually feed back into the strategic level, which is influenced by the transactional level. the whole diffusion framework (figure 6) is interlinked and interdependent through three variables, namely the intangible influence, the human resource asset and technology asset variables. these variables can be seen as initiators and recipients of innovation as innovation is dependent on people and is, in the case of the soe, mainly technology-based. it is also indicative of instability based on technology change and people mobility. the intangible influence is indicative of the biggest area concerning resistance to change. culture, climate and values form the intangible influence that impact on all levels of the internal environment of the soe. the intangibles form the organisational foundation for innovation. the soe must have a supportive internal environment (business atmosphere) conducive to innovative practices. conduciveness was explained in the sense of trust, time and understanding. trust is built or destroyed by what is modelled by the leadership of the enterprise. the intangibles are a manifestation of how the soe presents itself to the external environment. if the customer perceives the soe to be innovative, this in itself can stimulate a demand. errortolerance will feed more calculated risk-taking. human resources are regarded as an asset based on their skills, knowledge and their intangible influences. as an asset it impacts on innovation through the effect leadership has on innovation and its practices; the effect the managerial dimension executes; the effect the employees have on innovation and its practices; and the effect customers have on the innovation presented. employees are driven as much by their emotions as by their intellect. to be truly innovative, the soe must ensure that there is emotional equity. emotional equity refers to a “fit” between what is important for the individual and what is important for the enterprise. this “fit” ensures that individual and organisational objectives are met. elements that would contribute to emotional equity are personal attitude, culture and climate, challenges, level of creativity, level of empowerment, emotional maturity, level of appropriate skills and learning orientation. employees cannot be inventive within an enterprise where risk is seen as a barrier, or where inertia is acceptable. technology (as an asset) can take the form of an enabler for the business processes depicted on the operational level, or it could be new technology implemented to solve problems or save costs. it could also be adaptations to existing technology within the soe. each level depicted in the framework utilises technology differently. an innovation is only useful if it is used by the customer. to ensure that innovation adds to the bottom-line of the soe, innovation should be customer-driven. input is needed from the customer and there must be interaction between the soe and the customer on all the levels indicated in the diffusion framework. poor service levels could be counteracted if customers are seen to be part of the soe. conclusion it would seem that while many organisations subscribe to the importance of innovation, few have been able to maintain a culture that supports innovation as a top strategic priority. the vital importance of continuously fostering and maintaining an innovation culture needs to be realised in the current business environment. the study, for the benefit of the soe, must be repeated at chosen intervals, as innovation is a dynamic phenomenon. therefore, its building blocks would also be dynamic and would need to be up-dated according to changes on macro-, meso-, and micro-levels. reference abraham, j.l. & knight, j.d. (2001). strategic innovation: leveraging creative action for more profitable growth. strategy & leadership, 29 (1), 21-27. ahmed, p.k. (1998). culture and climate for innovation. european journal of innovation management, 1 (1), 30-43. andriopoulos, c. (2001). determinants of organisational creativity: a literature review. management decision, 39 (10), 834-841. arad, s., hanson, m.a., schneider, r.j. (1997). a framework for the study of relationships bet ween organizational characteristics and organizational innovation. the journal of creative behavior, 31 (1), 42-58. arias, j.t.g. (1995). do networks really foster innovation? management decision, 33 (9),52-56. borins, s. (2002). leadership and innovation in the public sector. leadership and organization development journal, 23 (8), 467-476. brooking, a. (1997). intellectual capital. london: international thomson business press. buckler, b. (1996). a learning process model to achieve continuous improvement and innovation. the learning organization, 3 (3), 31-39. buchen, i.h. (2003). future-imbedded innovation methodologies. foresight, 5 (3), 3-9. clark, p. & staunton, n. (1990). innovation in technology and organization. london: routledge. cooper, j.r. (1998). a multidimensional approach to the adoption of innovation. management decision, 36 (8), 493-502. darroch, j. & mcnaughton, r. (2002). examining the link between knowledge management practices and types of innovation. journal of intellectual capital, 3 (3), 210-222. denzin, n.k. (1989). the research act: a theoretical introduction to sociological methods. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. drejer, a. (2002). situations for innovation management: towards a contingency model. european journal of innovation management, 5 (1), 4-17. drucker, p.f. (1955). the practice of management. suffolk: pan books. freeman, c. (1982). innovation and long-cycles of economic development. conference paper: international seminar on innovation and development at the industrial sector. 25-27 august, university campinas. retrieved from the world wide web on 07/05/2003: http://www.catlibraries.org. goleman, d. (1995). emotional intelligence: why it can matter more than iq. london: bloomsbury. gratton, l. (2000). living strategy: putting people at the heart of corporate purpose. financial times/prentice hall. gurteen, d. (1998). knowledge, creativity and innovation. journal of knowledge management, 2 (1), 5-13. handy, c. (1996). beyond certainty: the changing worlds of organisations. london: arrow business books. henry, j. (2001). creativity and perception in management. london: sage publications. hivner, w, hopkins, w.e. & hopkins, s.a. (2003). facilitating, accelerating, and sustaining the innovation diffusion process: an epidemic modeling approach. european journal of innovation management, 6 (2), 80-89. janszen, f. (2000). the age of innovation: making business creativity a competence, not a coincidence. london: prentice-hall. johnson, d. (2001). what is innovation and entrepreneurship? lessons for larger organisations. industrial and commercial training, 33 (4), 135-140. building blocks of innovation ii 87 jones, t. & kirby, s. (2002). taking ideas to market. uk: capstone publishing. judge, w.q., fryxell, g.e. & dooley, r.s. (1997). the new task of r&d management: creating goal-directed communities for innovations. california management review, 39 (3), 72-85. juniper, d. (1996). human resource and creativity. work study, 45 (7), 15-22. justesen, s.l. (2001). innoversity. masters thesis in intercultural management. mpp working paper no. 6/2001. kaplan, r.s. & norton, d.p. (2004). strategy maps. converting intangible assets into tangible outcomes. boston: harvard business school press. kilroy, d.b. (1999). creating the future: how creativity and innovation drive shareholder wealth. management decision, 37 (4), 363-374. klemm, w.r. (2004). leadership: creativity and innovation. conference paper: concepts for airforce leadership (au-24). retrieved from the world wide web on 07/05/2003: http://www.au.af.mil. kono,t. (1988). factors affecting the creativity of organizations: an approach from new product development. in urabe, k.; child, j.;kagono, t. walter de gruyter (eds.) innovation and management: international comparisons. berlin. 105-144. kuczmarski, t.d. (1996). fostering an innovation mindset. journal of consumer marketing, 13 (6), 7-13. leedy, p.d. & ormrod, j.e. (2001). practical research: planning and design. new jersey: merrill prentice hall. mathers, n., fox, n. & hunn, a. (2002). using inter views in a research project. trent focus for research and development in primary health care. trent focus. university of nottingham. 1-25. martins, e.c. & terblanche, f. (2003). building organisational culture that stimulates creativity and innovation. european journal of innovation management, 6 (1), 64-74. mcadam, r & mcclelland, j. (2002). individual and teambased idea generation within innovation management: organisational and research agendas. european journal of innovation management, 5 (2), 86-97. mcgivern, m.h. & tvorik, s.j. (1997). determinants of organizational performance. management decision, 35 (6), 417-435. mohamed, m.a.k. (2002). assessing determinants of departmental innovation: an exploratory multi-level approach. personnel review, 31 (5), 620-641. mole, v. & elliot, d. (1987). enterprising innovation: an alternative approach. london: frances pinter. mouton, j. & marais, h.c. (1996). basic concepts in the methodology of the social sciences. pretoria: hsrc publishers. pandit, n.r. (1996). the creation of theory: a recent application of the grounded theory method. the qualitative report, 2 (4). parker, l.d. & roffey, b.h. (1996). methodological themes: back to the drawing board: revisiting grounded theory and the everyday accountant and manager’s reality. accounting, auditing & accountability journal, 10 (2), 212-247. pauk, w. (1989). the cornell note taking system. on-line study skills. retrieved from the world wide web on 09/04/2003: http.//www.clt.cornell.edu. peters, t. & waterman, r. (1982). in search of excellence: lessons from america’s best run companies. new york: harper and row. pope, c., ziebland, s. & mays, n. (1999). qualitative research in healthcare. london: bmj publishing. pyka, a. & küppers, g. (2002). innovation networks: theory and practice. cheltenham, uk: edward elgar. quinn, j.b., baruch, j.j. & zien, k.a. (1997). innovation explosion: using intellect and software to revolutionize growth strategies. new york: the free press. radebe, j. (2004). opening address: south african transport conference. pretoria. retrieved from the world wide web on 07/05/2003: http://www.transport. gov.za. rogers, e.m. (1995). diffusion of innovations. new york: the free press. schurink, w.j. & schurink, e.m. (2001). deciding to use a qualitative research approach. in schurink, w.j. (ed.) models of qualitative research. part one. department of human resource management. johannesburg: rau. senge, p.m. (1990). the fifth discipline. the art and practice of the learning organization. new york: doubleday currency. star, s.l. (1997). grounded classification: grounded theory and faceted classif ication. conference paper: information systems and qualitative research. ifips wg 8.2. retrieved from the world wide web on 07/05/2003: http://www.alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/~star/gt.htlm. stewart, v. & stewart, a. (1990). business applications of repertory grid. goodwood, sa: national printers. strauss, a. & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques. thousand oaks, ca.: sage. strategy document. (transnet). 2002-2007. swan, j.a. & newell, s. (1994). managers’ beliefs about factors affecting the adoption of technological innovation: a study using cognitive maps. journal of managerial psychology, 9 (2), 3-11. sy, t. & côté, s. (2004). emotional intelligence: a key ability to succeed in the matrix organization. journal of management development, 23 (5), 437-455. tucker, r.b. (2002) driving growth through innovation. how leading firms are transforming their futures. san francisco: berrett-koehler publishers. tucker, r.b. (2003). innovation and growth. strategy & leadership, 19 (4), 29-31. uecke, o. (2002). aio: an innovative organization. paper within entrepreneurial creativity. jönköping international business school. jönköping university. 1-13. urabe, k. (1988). innovation and the japanese management system. in urabe, k.; child, j.; kagono, t. walter de gruyter (eds.) innovation and management: international comparisons. berlin. 3-25. van zyl, e. m. (2005). building blocks of innovation within a stateowned enterprise. unpublished d phil-thesis. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. zhuang, l., williamson, d. & carter, m. (1999). innovate or liquidate – are all organisations convinced? a two-phased study into the innovation process. management decision, 37 (1), 57-71. van zyl, roodt, coetsee88 review panel edition 3.2 prof s brijball-paramasur university of kwazulu natal dr m coetzee unisa prof ta coetzee university of pretoria prof d coldwell university of kwazulu natal ms z dannhauser university of stellenbosch dr ws de villiers university of stellenbosch prof r doktor university of hawaai prof c hoole university of pretoria prof w jordaan emeritus professor unisa prof p koortzen unisa prof r le roux university of kwazulu natal mr a moerdyk rhodes university prof b swanepoel university of southern queensland prof c theron university of stellenbosch prof c van wyk north-west university prof e van zyl university of the free state dr a venter university of johannesburg review panel 89 article information authors: yolandi janse van rensburg1 billy boonzaier1 michèle boonzaier1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology, stellenbosch university, south africa correspondence to: billy boonzaier postal address: department of industrial psychology, stellenbosch university, private bag x1, matieland 7602, south africa dates: received: 05 july 2012 accepted: 08 july 2013 published: 30 sept. 2013 how to cite this article: janse van rensburg, y., boonzaier, b., & boonzaier, m. (2013). the job demands-resources model of work engagement in south african call centres. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #484, 13 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.484 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the job demands-resources model of work engagement in south african call centres in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • the nature of call centres       • problems and research initiating questions       • call centres and the job demands-resources model of work engagement       • goals of the study       • what will follow    • literature review       • work engagement in call centres       • sense of coherence: a critical personal resource in call centres       • team effectiveness: a critical job resource in call centres       • leadership effectiveness: a critical job resource in call centres       • proposed work engagement structural model • method    • research approach    • research method       • participants       • measures       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • measurement model       • item analysis       • evaluating the measurement model    • test of the work engagement structural model       • fitting the structural model       • descriptive statistics and correlation analysis       • multiple regression analysis       • partial least squares path analysis • discussion    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interest    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: a ‘sacrificial human resource strategy’ is practised in call centres, resulting in poor employee occupational health. consequently, questions are posed in terms of the consequences of call centre work and which salient antecedent variables impact the engagement and well-being of call centre representatives.research purpose: firstly, to gauge the level of employee engagement amongst a sample of call centre representatives in south africa and, secondly, to track the paths through which salient personal and job resources affect this engagement. more specifically, the relationships between sense of coherence, leadership effectiveness, team effectiveness and engagement were investigated, thus testing the job demands-resources model of work engagement. motivation for the study: to present an application of the job demands-resources model of work engagement in a call centre environment in order to diagnose current ills and consequently propose remedies. research design: a cross-sectional survey design was used and a non-probability convenient sample of 217 call centre representatives was selected. the measuring instruments comprise the utrecht work engagement scale to measure engagement, the team diagnostic survey to measure team effectiveness, the leadership practices inventory to gauge leadership effectiveness, and the orientation to life questionnaire to measure sense of coherence. a series of structural equation modelling analyses were performed. main findings: contrary to the ‘electronic sweatshop’ image attached to call centre jobs depicted in the literature, results show a high level of employee engagement for call centre representatives in the sample. also, personal resources such as sense of coherence and job resources such as team effectiveness related significantly to engagement. a non-significant relationship exists between leadership effectiveness and engagement. practical/managerial implications: both the content and context of jobs need to be addressed to increase the personal and job resources of call centre representatives. contribution/value-add: the job demands-resources model of work engagement can be used to improve the occupational health and performance of employees in call centres. introduction top ↑ the nature of call centres the call centre industry in south africa consists of approximately 1500 call centres and currently employs approximately 150 000 call centre representatives (ccrs) (banks & roodt, 2011). a call centre is defined by holman (2005, p. 111) as ‘a work environment in which the main business is mediated by a computer and telephone based technologies that enable the efficient distribution of incoming calls (or allocation of outgoing calls) to available staff, and permit the customer-employee interaction to occur simultaneously with the use of display screen equipment and the instant access to, and inputting of, information. it includes parts of companies dedicated to this activity, as well as whole companies that specialize in such services’. inbound call centres mainly respond to incoming calls and deal with customer complaints, requests and questions. outbound call centres are mainly for initiating contacts on behalf of an organisation attempting to sell products or services. call centres in general consist of jobs of different levels of complexity, ranging from unskilled ccrs who provide standard information from prescribed scripts to highly skilled representatives who deal with sophisticated problems as in the case of nursing or medical help desks. holman, batt and holtgrewe (2007) report the results of a global study of the management and employment practices in call centres. the survey included 475 000 employees covering almost 2500 call centres in 17 countries. data revealed that call centres look similar across countries with regard to organisational features, markets and service offerings. however, call centre workplaces differ based on the customs, norms and laws of the specific country. the average age of the call centres studied was eight years. the call centre industry evidenced certain general characteristics. call centres typically serve national rather than international markets (86% serve only their national, regional or local market). two-thirds of all call centres serve the company’s own customers. inbound calls account for 78% of call traffic, similar technologies are employed and the average call lasts between 3 and 4 min. seventy five per cent of ccrs work in centres employing 230 or more workers. structures are flat, with managers comprising 12% of staff. females make up 71% of the staff complement. in recently industrialised countries, performance monitoring (i.e. feedback on performance and call quality and listening) occurs on a weekly basis or more often. for example, a comprehensive oral performance evaluation instrument was developed to assess filipino ccrs’ customer service transactions with callers from the united states (friginal, 2013). ratings of job quality (using indices of employee discretion and supervisory monitoring) reveal that 50% of call centres in industrialised countries have low to very low quality jobs (low discretion or high monitoring). internationally, this number drops to 38%; india is a notable exception: 75% of call centres have low job discretion, and monitoring activities are the most intense of any country. a full 67% of all call centre workers in the world work in low to very low quality jobs. with regard to management practice, 60% of call centres make no use of self-directed teams; the exception is sweden where 60% of the call centre workforce is involved in self-directed teams. the global average call centre staff turnover rate is 20% with great variation between countries (e.g. turnover in austria is 4%, whereas in india it is 40% and one-third of staff have less than one year’s service at the call centre). the first call centres in south africa began to appear in the mid-1970s and mushroomed in the late 1990s due to a combination of improved computer technology and reduced telecommunications costs (benner, lewis & omar, 2007). south african call centres developed similarly to most other countries in that they emerged initially to serve a domestic market. south africa, along with the rest of the world, experienced a call centre boom since the late 1990s. call centres are increasingly being utilised by various government departments in south africa to coordinate and facilitate communication between stakeholders during service delivery programmes (bond-barnard, steyn & fabris-rotelli, 2013). gordi (2006) sums up several reasons why investors consider south africa the ideal location for international call centres. a favourable exchange rate between the south african rand and all major international currencies translates into a lower operational cost. south africa is rich in the amount of skilled labour required and workers are equipped with a relatively neutral accent. the local telecommunications industry possesses advanced technologies with international cable and satellite links and shares a similar time zone with the european union. problems and research initiating questions a study of call centres in gauteng by fischer, miller and thatcher (in banks & roodt, 2011) found that the management practices employed underscore taylorism and a command-and-control approach. currently the industrial psychology literature related to call centres highlights the negative aspects of call centre work environments and the resultant adverse impact on worker well-being. according to rameshbabu, reddy and fleming (2013), the burgeoning call centre industry is characterised by long working hours, varying schedules and unique job demands, which render it susceptible to high absenteeism, high turnover and negative health outcomes. call centres have been labelled ‘assembly lines in the head’, ‘electronic sweatshops’ or ‘satanic mills’ (armistead, kiely, hole & prescot, 2002). high stress levels, high staff turnover and emotional burnout are factors that are often associated with call centres (lombard, 2009). the fairly low-skilled nature of the work in some call centres is associated with low levels of job satisfaction (rose & wright, 2005). the jobs of ccrs are characterised by repetitive movements whilst complex information is technologically processed. however, good communication skills and efficiency are expected of ccrs. in addition, call centre employees often work in noisy environments under high time pressure, and their performance is usually monitored online (ferreira & saldiva, 2002). brannan (2005) describes call centre agents as emotional labourers. high emotional labour has been associated with a number of negative psychosocial effects. the reason for this is due to emotive dissonance and a clash between real feelings and a fake display of feelings (tracy, 2005). li, chen and lu (2008) report that musculoskeletal discomfort, a hoarse or painful throat and eye strain are the most prevalent work-related symptoms among ccrs. inadequate sleep and job stress from interpersonal factors were associated with experienced cardiovascular and gastrointestinal symptoms (rameshbabu, reddy & fleming, 2013). also, encountering difficult customers was shown to be the most pronounced stressor in a call centre. researchers have challenged the industry’s ‘sweatshop’ image and called for the redesign of jobs in call centres (boonzaier & boonzaier, 2008; cartwright, 2003; crome, 1998; fisher, milner & chandraprakash, 2007; hauptfleisch & uys, 2006). in terms of management practice in call centres, it seems evident that managers are unwilling to compromise efficiency for quality customer service and ccrs’ occupational well-being. ill-health, disengagement, burnout and high absenteeism and turnover of employees are accepted as the norm and have been referred to as the ‘sacrificial human resource strategy’ of call centres by wallace, eagleson and waldersee (2000, p. 174). balance is lost between the logics of efficiency, customer care and the well-being of the employee. the ccr experiences the tension of the incompatibility between these goals and feels compelled to satisfy the demands of the company and the demands of customers, sometimes at the expense of personal need satisfaction. a series of related conflicts are experienced by ccrs: being treated as machines while supervisors tell them that they are valued, and managers espousing trust, but employing technology of distrust. for example, baraka, baraka and el-gamily (in press) developed qualitative metrics to maximise call centre efficiency and quality. in this instance the delone and mclean model was introduced in order to evaluate the performance of call centres. in south africa, there is a lack of alignment between the mission statements of companies, which purport client satisfaction, and the performance targets the call centre managers propagate. also, the use of readily available, technologically driven efficiency measures by call centre managers ‘limits the variation in management practices that call centres can use’ (banks & roodt, 2011, p. 16). the question arises whether above accusations are universal or not. kinnie, hutchinson and purcell argue that: ... call centres exhibit fascinating contrasts between satisfying customer needs and motivating employees, between intensive surveillance systems and normative, fun activities, and between the demands of the product market and the pressures of the labour market (2000, p. 968). there are call centres that have managed to balance conflicting pressures by incorporating fun-filled initiatives, and enhancing personal and job resources in an environment where employees are tightly constrained. for example, as ccrs spend up to 90% of their working day sitting, the use of sit-stand desks was associated with countering sedentary behaviour (straker, abbott, heiden, mathiassen & toomingas, 2013), which consequently has been shown to be a risk factor for obesity, diabetes, some cancers and even death. in a study of 339 swiss call centre employees (grebner, semmer, lo faso, gut, kalin & elfering, 2003), ccrs were compared to five other occupations (cooks, sales assistants, nurses, bank clerks and electronics technicians). similar levels of well-being and less intention to quit were found amongst ccrs compared to the other occupational groups: call centre work compares favourably with shop floor manufacturing and clerical work with regard to well-being. indeed, at two call centres the level of well-being was equivalent to, and in many cases better than, these comparable forms of employment (holman, 2002, p. 46). hart, chiang and tupochere (2009), in their cape town study, found a good balance between ccrs’ drive for efficiency and customer care. the call centre industry has started focusing on high commitment management or high involvement work systems to remedy current poor call centre people practices. high commitment management typically involves ‘recommitment practices which aim to attract and select highly committed and flexible people, internal labour markets which reward commitment and training with promotion and job security, and methods of direct communication and team working’ (wood & de menezes, in kinnie et al., 2000, p. 968). much focus is placed on reviewing the management structure, modifying the reward or recognition systems and increasing flexibility by introducing training for staff. empirical studies by schaufeli and bakker (2004) have revealed that some employees, regardless of high job demands and long working hours, do not develop burnout. these members seem to find pleasure in hard work and dealing with job demands. in a study by kinman and jones (2003) it was found that some employees thrived on the fact that their work is stressful. richardson and hawcroft (in banks & roodt, 2011) indicate that the nature of the work executed in call centres, as well as how they are managed, varies widely. they classified call centres as either dystopian or utopian. dystopian call centres are characterised by high target setting, excessive surveillance, disengaged employees and constant monitoring. utopian call centres, on the other hand, encourage and empower ccrs to engage with customers to meet their needs and grant ccrs flexibility and discretion in performing their work. holman (2002) argues that, whereas some employees may enjoy call centre work, for many it is demanding, stressful, and promotes occupational ill health. the potential benefits of call centre work for employees, over and above their salary, are not clear. in conclusion, the overriding detrimental effects of call centre work are well documented and the call centre industry is currently in a poor state with regard to management and people practices. the main research-initiating question for this study is therefore: • which salient antecedent variables in call centres impact the occupational well-being of ccrs in south africa? tangential research-initiating questions are: • what are the consequences of call centre work in terms of the occupational well-being of ccrs in south africa? • what is the road forward for management and people practices in call centres in south africa? call centres and the job demands-resources model of work engagement the major challenge that the managers of call centres face is to find ways to engage employees and to build a sense of belonging and ownership that will support efficiency, customer satisfaction and ccr occupational health. the present study uses an overall theoretical framework of occupational well-being, the job demands-resources (jd-r) model, reformulated by bakker (2011), to examine how different categories of working conditions in call centres are related to work engagement and performance. since its initial development by demerouti, bakker, nachreiner and schaufeli (2001), the jd-r model has demonstrated usefulness as a comprehensive yet parsimonious model for conceptualising and investigating well-being, engagement and work performance.the jd-r model has been applied to various occupational settings, irrespective of the particular demands and resources involved. it has been tested locally by rothmann and joubert (2007) and internationally for various occupational groups (including teachers, hospital nurses, dentists, blue-collar and white-collar workers, and private home-care professionals), including call centre employees (llorens, bakker, schaufeli & salanova, 2006). the basic structure of the jd-r model is maintained even when it is applied in different national and international contexts. the jd-r model assumes that job resources (e.g. autonomy, performance feedback, social support and supervisory coaching) and personal resources (e.g. optimism, self-efficacy, resilience and self-esteem), independently or in combination, predict worker engagement, especially when the job demands (e.g. work pressure, emotional demands and physical demands) are high, as in the case of call centre work. job demands refer to the characteristics of the job that require sustained physical or psychological (cognitive and emotional) effort or skills and are associated with physiological or psychological costs. job resources refer to those characteristics of the job that are functional in achieving work goals, reduce job demands and the associated physiological and psychological costs, or stimulate personal growth, learning and development (bakker & demerouti, 2007). worker engagement, in turn, has a positive impact on job performance (e.g. in-role performance, creativity and financial turnover). job and personal resources thus initiate a motivational process that leads to worker engagement and quality performance. the jd-r model of work engagement is graphically depicted in figure 1. the feedback loop indicates how employees who are engaged and perform well are able to create their own resources that foster further engagement and better performance. this process of employees actively changing or influencing their work environments and job characteristics is referred to as job crafting. ‘job crafting is defined as the self-initiated changes that employees make in their own job demands and job resources to attain and/or optimize their personal (work) goals’ (tims, bakker & derks, 2012). the jd-r model explains how employees’ working conditions influence their health and commitment to the organisation through two independent processes. this model assumes that job resources and job demands evoke two different but related processes, namely a motivational process in which job resources stimulate employees’ motivation to foster engagement and organisational commitment and, secondly, a health impairment process in which high job demands deplete employees’ mental and physical resources leading to job burnout and health problems (demerouti & bakker, 2011). the absence of personal and job resources evoke a cynical attitude towards work interactions. it is postulated that job resources may ‘buffer the impact of job demands on job strain, including burnout’ (bakker & demerouti, 2007, p. 314). bakker, demerouti and schaufeli stated that: ... call centre employees who can draw upon job resources such as social support from colleagues and performance feedback feel more dedicated to their work and more committed to their organization, and, consequently, are less inclined to leave the organization (2003, p. 408). goals of the study given the problems in call centres and given the jd-r model as a framework to understand and investigate this work engagement problem, the study set out, firstly, to gauge the level of employee engagement amongst a sample of call centre representatives (ccrs) in south africa and, secondly, to track and thereafter test the hypothesised causal paths through which salient personal and job resources, as reported in the literature, affect the engagement of ccrs. what will follow consequently, prominent studies and attendant hypotheses that relate to the goals of this investigation will be discussed. also, the research approach and method, the results, a discussion of the findings and the recommendations for management practice in call centres will be presented. literature review work engagement in call centres ‘employee engagement is a desirable condition, has an organisational purpose, and connotes involvement, commitment, passion, enthusiasm, focused effort, and energy, so it has both attitudinal and behavioural components’ (macey & schneider, 2008, p. 4). hence, engagement is of fundamental importance to any organisation’s success. huckerby (in pech & slade, 2006) found that only 17% of employees are truly engaged in their organisations, while 63% are not engaged and 20% are disengaged (i.e. have uncoupled themselves from work roles and withdraw cognitively and emotionally). in research conducted by tasker (in pech & slade, 2006), 25% of human resource organisations admitted that their staff were not engaged and that the situation was worsening. almost half (44%) said that tackling the issue was an overwhelming challenge.based on the aforementioned studies reporting the problems experienced in call centres and given the general lack of engagement in the workplace, the following question arose: what is the level of ccr work engagement in south africa? consequently, the following hypothesis was formulated: • hypothesis 1: a low level of work engagement exists amongst ccrs in south africa. work engagement is defined by kahn (1990, p. 694) as ‘the harnessing of organisation members’ selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively and emotionally during role performances’. engagement has been used to refer to a psychological state (involvement, commitment, attachment, mood), a performance construct (either effort or observable behaviour, including pro-social and organisational citizenship behaviour), disposition (positive affect), or some combination thereof (macey & schneider, 2008). ccrs who are engaged become physically involved in tasks, are cognitively vigilant and become emphatically connected to others in the work that they are doing. work engagement is defined in terms of three dimensions, namely vigour, dedication and absorption (schaufeli & bakker, 2003): • vigour is characterised by high levels of energy and mental resilience whilst working, as well as a willingness to exert effort and to persist even through difficult times. thus, an employee who feels great vigour at work is highly motivated by their job and is likely to remain very persistent when encountering difficulties or hassles at work (mauno, kinnunen & ruokolainen, 2006). • dedication is characterised by a strong psychological involvement in one’s work, feeling a sense of significance and enthusiasm, inspired and proud, and viewing work as a challenge. this dimension of work engagement shares some conceptual similarity with the more traditional concept of job involvement, which has been defined as the degree to which an employee psychologically relates to their job and to the work performed therein (mauno et al., 2006). vigour and dedication are the direct opposites of (emotional) exhaustion and mental distance (depersonalisation), when considering burnout (schaufeli & bakker, 2003). • absorption refers to ‘total concentration on immersion in work characterized by time passing quickly and finding it difficult to detach oneself from one’s work’ (schaufeli, in mauno et al., 2006, p. 151). absorption is closely related to the concept of ‘flow’ (nakamura & csikszentmihalyi, in van der colff & rothmann, 2009), an optimal state of experience where focused attention, a clear mind, unison of body and mind, effortless concentration, complete control and intrinsic enjoyment are experienced. people get so intensely involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at a great cost, purely for the sake of doing it (mauno et al., 2006). work engagement helps individuals to derive benefits from stressful work (britt, adler & bartone, in sonnetag, 2003). bakker, demerouti, hakanen and xanthopoulou (2007) found that work engagement is positively related to organisational commitment and business unit performance (customer satisfaction, loyalty, profitability, productivity, turnover and safety). engaged workers tend to work harder and are more likely to produce the results their customers and organisations want. engaged workers have high energy and self-efficacy (schaufeli, in bakker & demerouti, 2008) and report that their jobs make good use of their skills, that their work is challenging and stimulating, and that their work provides them with a sense of personal accomplishment (roberts & davenport, 2002). engaged workers are more productive than non-engaged workers; they experience positive emotions and better health (bakker & xanthopoulou, 2013), create their own job and personal resources, and transfer their engagement to others. it is conceivable that the transfer of engagement amongst members of the same work team increases performance. ‘if colleagues influence each other with their work engagement, they may perform better as a team’ (bakker & demerouti, 2008, p. 217). engaged employees are successful in mobilising their job resources (schaufeli & bakker, 2003), hence a team of engaged workers is more likely to have the resources they need for effective performance, in contrast with a team of disengaged workers. based on this evidence, the following hypothesis was formulated: • hypothesis 2: work engagement has a significant positive effect on team effectiveness (te). sense of coherence: a critical personal resource in call centres muller and rothmann (2009) identify sense of coherence as a critical personal resource associated with coping with stress. antonovsky gives the following definition of soc: the sense of coherence is a global orientation that expresses the extent to which one has a pervasive, enduring though dynamic feeling of confidence that the stimuli deriving from one’s internal and external environments in the course of living are structured, predictable, and explicable; the resources are available to one to meet the demands posed by these stimuli; and these demands are challenges, worthy of investment and engagement. (antonovsky, 1993) sense of coherence consists of three components: com-prehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness. fourie, rothmann and van de vijver (2008) describe these concepts in the following way: • comprehensibility refers to the extent to which one perceives stimuli from the internal and external environment as information that is ordered, structured and consistent. the stimuli are perceived as comprehensible and make sense on a cognitive level. • manageability refers to the extent to which individuals experience events in life as situations that are endurable or manageable, or even as new challenges. • meaningfulness refers to the extent to which one feels that life is making sense on an emotional and not just a cognitive level. in a study undertaken to investigate the effects of job demands, job resources and sense of coherence on the burnout and work engagement of non-professional counsellors in south african banks, it was found that non-professional counsellors with a strong sense of coherence experienced less burnout and more work engagement. presumably, this is because stimuli from the environment are perceived as ‘making cognitive sense’ and as ‘motivationally relevant and meaningful’ (fourie et al., 2008, p. 44). muller and rothmann (2009) also report a positive relationship between soc and job satisfaction, work engagement, life satisfaction, general well-being and actively coping with stressors. hence, based on the above-mentioned evidence, a third hypothesis was formulated: • hypothesis 3: sense of coherence of ccrs has a significant positive influence on work engagement. individuals who have a high soc usually exhibit resistance to the effects of stress and are more capable of encountering stressful situations without experiencing the negative effects thereof. these people tend to experience environmental stimuli in a manner sufficiently structured to enable them to anticipate events and the resources required to meet the demands imposed on them. such experiences are likely to lead to favourable perceptions of one’s own influence at work and the support that one receives from supervisors and colleagues (fourie et al., 2008). employees with a weak soc tend not to be particularly satisfied with or passionate about their jobs. employees with a strong soc search for meaning in life; consequently they also expect it from challenging assignments in their work and are keen to join groups where a variety of skills is required. rothmann (in muller & rothmann, 2009) found soc to be significantly related to job satisfaction. workers with a high soc experience a positive relationship with colleagues and management, and receive recognition with a higher frequency compared to those with a weak soc (rothmann, in muller & rothmann, 2009). given that soc influences the ability to mobilise and generate social resources in the workplace (fourie et al., 2008) and that optimal individual contributions set the scene for effective teamwork (mickan & rodger, 2002), it can be inferred that a team consisting of members with a high soc may demonstrate greater team effectiveness. based on the aforementioned studies, the following hypothesis was formulated: • hypothesis 4: ccrs’ sense of coherence has a significant positive effect on team effectiveness. team effectiveness: a critical job resource in call centres salanova, llorens, cifre, martinez and schaufeli (2003) consider the perceived collective efficacy of members of a work team as an important job resource impacting worker engagement. team members feel engaged as they converse emotionally with other team members who collaborate closely to accomplish particular tasks. torrente, salanova, llorens and schaufeli (2012) furthermore indicate that work engagement by a team mediates the impact of perceived social resources and team performance as assessed by the supervisor. team members thus serve as models of engagement and performance and this implies that effective team functioning enhances worker engagement. consequently, the following hypothesis was formulated:• hypothesis 5: team effectiveness has a significant positive influence on the work engagement of ccrs. according to van den broek, barnes and townsend (2008), most call centre operations organise their workforce around team structures; for example, 75% of australian call centre operations are organised around team structures (p. 257). making use of teams is also not a new concept in south african call centres. wageman, hackman and lehman (2005) define team effectiveness more broadly by looking at the following three-dimensional conceptualisation: • the productive output of the team (the product, service, or decision) must meet or exceed the standards of quantity, quality, and timeliness of the team’s clients. it is the client’s views that count, not those of team members. this is known as the process criteria of effectiveness and is a joint function of the following three performance processes (wageman et al., 2005):  the level of effort group members collectively expend carrying out task work,  the appropriateness to the task of the performance strategies the group uses in its work, and  the amount of knowledge and skill members bring to bear on the task. thus, teams that operate in ways that leave one or more of these three functions unfulfilled are likely to fall short of client standards of acceptable performance: • the social processes that the team uses (in carrying out the work) should enhance members’ capability to work together interdependently in the future. • the group experience must contribute positively to the learning and well-being of individual team members rather than frustrate, alienate or de-skill members. specifically, van den broek et al. (2008, p. 258) conclude that ‘teaming up provides ways for workers to develop coping mechanisms in order to survive the rigours of call centre work’. teams can better provide a directed and collaborative effort to address complex task concerns (montoya-weiss, massey & song, 2001) and to help workers through greater shared learning and problem-solving (batt & appelbaum, in kinnie et al., 2000), which will lead to higher productivity, greater levels of employee commitment and staff with more developed skills (armistead et al., 2002). hence, the sixth hypothesis was formulated: • hypothesis 6: team effectiveness has a significant positive influence on ccrs’ sense of coherence. leadership effectiveness: a critical job resource in call centres bakker and demerouti (2007) report that a leader’s appreciation and support can help workers to cope with job demands, facilitate their performance, and act as ‘a protector against ill health’ (p. 316). van der colff and rothmann (2009) further advise that in order for employees to perceive that work expectations are manageable and within their power, employers should ensure that employees are equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills, material, instruments and other resources, and that the workload is balanced. ‘employees will regard their work as meaningful when a degree of independence and freedom of choice is allowed in the performance of their tasks. participation in decision making will enhance employees’ feeling of membership and contribute to the meaningfulness component of sense of coherence’ (van der colff & rothmann, 2009, p. 8). based on this rationale, the seventh hypothesis was formulated: • hypothesis 7: leadership effectiveness has a significant positive influence on the sense of coherence of ccrs. leadership is an important job resource predicting worker engagement. kouzes and posner (2001) report that leaders are at their personal best when displaying the following five practices of leadership: • challenging the process through innovative ways to improve the status quo, accepting inevitable risks as learning opportunities. • inspiring a shared vision by exciting others with their passionate belief in a better future. • enabling others to act by fostering collaboration, mutual respect, and a climate of trust and appreciation. • modelling the way by establishing principles and standards of excellence and then setting an example for others to emulate. they set interim goals so that people can achieve small wins as they work towards larger, more daunting objectives. • encouraging the heart by recognising individual contributions and involving individual members in celebrating achievements. the leadership practices inventory (lpi) was compiled to measure the above five leadership practices. kouzes and posner (2001, p. 5) note that ‘the more frequently you demonstrate the behaviours included in the lpi, the more likely you will be seen as an effective leader’ and that ‘when people succeed in improving their use of the five leadership practices, they enhance their contributions to their organisations, their families and communities’ (p. 2). research in call centres has shown that inadequate coaching and training and a lack of team leader support can contribute to job stress, depression, emotional exhaustion and anxiety (bakker et al., 2003). conversely, there is evidence of a positive relationship between three job resources (performance feedback, social support and supervisory coaching) and engagement, of which dedication is a core aspect. hassan and ahmed (2011) show that authentic leadership promotes subordinates’ trust in a leader and also contributes to follower engagement. also, bakker and xanthopoulou (2013) indicate that engaged leaders encourage the engagement and performance of followers through vicarious learning. breevaart and bakker (2013) mention that transformational leadership impacts positively on employee engagement but that some leadership styles can undermine motivation and well-being. consequently, the following hypothesis was formulated: • hypothesis 8: leadership effectiveness has a significant positive influence on work engagement. people who frequently demonstrate leadership behaviours are seen as being more effective in meeting job-related demands, being more successful in representing their units to upper management, creating higher-performing teams and fostering loyalty and commitment (kouzes & posner, 2001). if the team leader of a call centre is not effective in leading their team, there is a strong possibility that the team will not function effectively. consequently, the following hypothesis was formulated: • hypothesis 9: leadership effectiveness has a significant positive influence on the effectiveness of teams. figure 1: the job demands-resources model of work engagement. proposed work engagement structural model hypothesis 2 to hypothesis 9 are graphically portrayed as causal paths in figure 2. figure 2: proposed work engagement structural model. method top ↑ research approach a correlational, ex post facto, cross-sectional design was used with a survey as the data collection technique. research method participants employing convenience sampling, 14 call centres located across south africa were approached to participate in the study. of these, seven consented: three located in cape town, three in pretoria and one in johannesburg. the services offered by these call centres range from providing client support, selling services, products and insurance, providing technical and human resource support to internal personnel, offering telephonic support with regard to client or patient care, handling queries on disease and drug use, and providing emotional support and counselling.the study population of 217 ccrs included 90 males (42%), 122 females (56%) and five respondents (2%) who did not indicate their gender. the average age of the respondents was 29.2 years; the mean organisational tenure was 3.3 years, whilst the average period of serving in a team was 1.2 years. the racial demographics of the sample are: 39% white people, 33% mixed race people, 24% african people and 4% indian people. thirty-five percent of the ccrs were from pretoria, 50% from cape town and 15% from johannesburg. measures engagement (e): the shortened utrecht work engagement scale (uwes-9) was used. it consists of nine items and measures levels of engagement on a seven-point frequency rating scale, ranging from 0 (never) to 6 (every day) (fourie, et al., 2008). it includes the three constituting aspects of work engagement: vigour, dedication and absorption. vigour is assessed by three items that refer to high levels of energy and resilience. dedication is assessed by three items that refer to deriving a sense of significance from one’s work, feeling enthusiastic and proud about one’s job, and feeling inspired and challenged by it. absorption is also measured by three items, which refer to being totally and happily immersed in one’s work and having difficulties detaching oneself from it so that time passes quickly and one is oblivious to one’s surroundings.sense of coherence (soc): the 13-item short form (soc-13) of the orientation to life questionnaire (olq) was used to measure sense of coherence. strümpfer and de bruin state that: … researchers who wish to use a total soc-score may use the short form, which is less than half the length of the long form, without much loss of information or accuracy (2009, p. 2). the soc-13 includes four items measuring meaningfulness, five items measuring comprehensibility and four items measuring manageability. answers are given on a seven-point likert scale on which the extreme answers (e.g. 1 = never and 7 = always) are formulated for each question (fourie et al., 2008). a total score is summed, which can range from 13, which indicates a low sense of coherence, to 91, which indicates a high sense of coherence (pallanta & laeb, 2002). leadership effectiveness (le): (the kind permission granted by barry posner to use the leadership practices inventory is hereby acknowledged.) call centre representatives indicated how frequently their team leader engaged in each of 30 behaviours, six for each of the five leadership practices defined by kouzes and posner (2001). the inventory uses a 10-point frequency scale (where 1 = almost never and 10 = almost always). team effectiveness (te): the team diagnostic survey (tds) is an instrument for assessing the properties of organisational work teams that has been specifically designed to be useful both in scholarly research on teams and in the practical diagnosis of teams’ strengths and weaknesses (wageman et al., 2005). when completed in full, the tds generates a profile of the team. for the purpose of this study only two sections (sections 8 and 9) of the tds were used to measure team effectiveness. these two sections provide measures of the three effectiveness criteria. section 8 comprises 13 statements; respondents rate the statements according to their accuracy in describing how members of the team work together. each statement is marked on a five-point scale, where 1 is very inaccurate and 5 is very accurate. this section consists of four subscales, namely effort, performance strategy, knowledge and skill, and quality of interaction. section 9 presents 13 statements about how respondents feel about their involvement with the team. respondents indicate if they agree with each statement by allocating a point to each on a five-point scale, where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. this section consists of four subscales, namely, relationship satisfaction, internal motivation, general satisfaction and growth satisfaction. the cronbach’s alpha for measures are reported in table 1 and table 2. table 1: cronbach’s alpha and average inter-item correlation for subscales. table 2: means, standard deviations, internal consistency reliabilities, and intercorrelations of study variables. research procedure a primary data design (data collected by the researcher) was followed to collect quantitative data (instrument scores) with a self-administered questionnaire. preliminary, informal interviews were conducted with call centre managers and ccrs as a means of gaining insight into the nature of the call centre environment.to make participation more attractive, each call centre could earn, by participating, a feedback file containing a feedback report and a collection of salient call centre articles and team-building activities; this incentive ‘toolbox’ was designed so that it would not sacrifice the anonymity, privacy or confidentiality of the respondents. an inclusion criterion was set that required the call centre to operate within a team structure and each team to be supervised by a team leader. a formal letter outlining the purpose of the study was provided to each call centre. each participant in the study also signed an informed consent form that gave a comprehensive explanation of the study. participation was voluntary. anonymity and confidentiality were assured. statistical analysis data was captured using microsoft excel. various statistical techniques were used to analyse the data and to test the proposed engagement model; these include computing cronbach’s alpha for testing reliability as part of the item analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) for validating the measurement model, exploratory factor analysis (efa) where cfa indicated unsatisfactory model fit, pearson correlations to test uni-variate relationships, regression analysis to test multivariate effects on engagement (e), and structural equation modelling (sem) path analysis. finally, partial least squares (pls) path analysis was conducted as an alternative method for evaluating the structural model. results top ↑ measurement model item analysis an item analysis was done on all the items used in the questionnaire. the standard set for an acceptable reliability score is ≥ 0.6 (malhorta, 2004). from table 1 it is evident that the cronbach’s alpha for the e subscales ranged from 0.72 to 0.85 and for the soc items the alphas ranged from 0.58 to 0.71. the le subscales ranged between 0.89 and 0.94. the alphas for e, soc and le are thus acceptable. the te subscale alphas, however, did not fall within the acceptable range (from 0.29 to 0.67). the inter-item correlations, however, showed to be positive for all the subscales of le, e, soc and te. evaluating the measurement model cfa was done on each subscale of e, soc, le and te. the findings for the subscales of e, soc and le were satisfactory. however, the subscales of te were found to be problematic. the data did not support the postulated subscales identified by wageman et al. (2005) as contained in the tds. an efa was done to determine the number of factors in section a (effort, performance strategy, knowledge and skill, and quality of interaction) and section b (growth satisfaction, relationship satisfaction, general satisfaction and internal motivation) for te.instead of four factors, two factors were extracted for section a: dedication and equity. dedication refers to members of the team being committed; innovative; willing to share knowledge and expertise; learning from experience and being energised and uplifted by other team members. item 3 and item 6 did not match this new-found factor so they were removed. equity refers to whether members do their fair share of work, noticing changes in the situation, the level of unpleasantness, how team members react when their actions are corrected and carrying out plans made to proceed with a task. two factors were extracted for section b: internal satisfaction and functional satisfaction. all of the items loaded onto either one of the two factors, thus no items were deleted. internal satisfaction refers to learning a lot from the work, enjoying the work, feeling personal satisfaction if the team succeeds, feeling bad when the team performs poorly, enjoying working with team mates and getting to know them, advancing personal knowledge and skills and having personal satisfaction with the team. functional satisfaction refers to relationships amongst team members, whether own creativity and initiative is suppressed by the team, whether working on the team is frustrating and whether own feelings are affected by team performance. oblique rotation determined that the two factors were found not to correlate with each other, thus there was no shared variance between the two factors. item analysis for te was repeated. the findings with the four new factors’ subscales were acceptable (alpha ranging from 0.67 to 0.84). a confirmatory factor analysis was also repeated for te and was found to be acceptable (rmsea ranging from 0.048 to 0.074). test of the work engagement structural model fitting the structural model the model did not at first reflect in lisrel 8.8, possibly due to the small ratio between sample size and the number of parameters that had to be tested. the model was modified by removing the path coefficients not leading to engagement (see figure 3 for the revised engagement structural model). figure 3: revised work engagement structural model. descriptive statistics and correlation analysis all correlations in table 2 were found to be statistically significant at the 1% level. although all the correlations were significant, two of them were weak correlations: soc and le (r = 0.19) and soc and te (r = 0.25). the cronbach’s alpha coefficients of all the instruments, that is the uwes-9, olq, lpi and tds, are to be considered acceptable (µ ≥ 0.70). table 2 furthermore indicates significant positive relationships (statistically and practically) between work engagement, sense of coherence, leadership effectiveness and team effectiveness (all medium effects). multiple regression analysis a multiple regression analysis was conducted with work engagement as the dependent variable, and sense of coherence, leadership effectiveness and team effectiveness as independent variables. table 3 indicates that 32% of the variance of work engagement in call centres is predicted by sense of coherence, leadership effectiveness and team effectiveness. the regression coefficients of all three variables were statistically significant, albeit marginal in the case of leadership effectiveness. the standardised regression coefficients for both sense of coherence (ß = 0.32) and team effectiveness (ß = 0.31) were moderate. ccrs seem to be more engaged in their work when they operate within an effective team and when they have a pervasive, enduring though dynamic feeling of confidence that the stimuli deriving from their internal and external environments in the course of living are structured, predictable and explicable; the resources are available to them to meet the demands posed by these stimuli; and these demands are challenges, worthy of investment and engagement. table 3: regression analysis with work engagement as dependent variable. partial least squares path analysis a pls path analysis, a prediction-oriented structural equation modelling technique, was conducted to determine model fit. the outer-model measurement fit was found to be satisfactory, thus the subscale factors all measure what they are supposed to measure. confidence intervals on the factor loadings were determined using bootstrap analysis. the path coefficients between le, soc, te and e are depicted in figure 4. all path coefficients in the model were found to be significant, except for the relationship between le and e: the leadership practices of team leaders do not predict employee engagement in call centres. the nature of the work and other content and context factors in call centres more than satisfy the needs of ccrs, who seem to be indifferent to whether the team leader is effective or not.in summary, hypotheses 3, 4, 5, 7 and 9 are accepted. hypothesis 8 should be rejected. hypotheses 2 and 6 could not be tested due to model modification. figure 4: partial least squares report for the work engagement model. discussion top ↑ the average level of engagement for the sample was 4.18. schaufeli and bakker (2003) compared the average level of work engagement between occupational groups. in their study farmers and managers exhibited the highest scores, whereas blue-collar workers and physicians showed the lowest scores. when comparing ccrs’ levels of engagement (mean = 4.18) with occupations scoring highest on engagement (farmers and managers, with average scores of 4.24 and 4.22 respectively), it appears that call centres are not in a crisis and thus are not the typical ‘sweatshops’ as reported in the literature; this necessitates the rejection of hypothesis 1.the results of this study affirm the results of previous studies (bakker & xanthopoulou, 2013; de braine & roodt, 2011; demerouti & bakker, 2011) and calls for the adoption of the jd-r model to improve occupational health. according to this model the impact of job demands and job and personal resources on work engagement and performance can be investigated. general practices should therefore be introduced to enhance the personal and job resources of employees. as 32% of the variance in ccr work engagement is determined by soc, te and le, a range of practices can be considered in order to enhance engagement, and ultimately performance, based on these three constructs: • minimise job demands like computer problems, changes in tasks, emotional demands and work overload. • give recognition; for example, have prize-giving events, award certificates and have a floating trophy for the year. • make the work environment fun; for example, have team building sessions with team development activities and celebrate successes. • involve ccrs in decision making by allocating portfolios, for example ‘social member’ to plan functions and ‘finance member’ to negotiate funds. • enhance career development and introduce succession planning. this will reduce intention to quit. • introduce formal training of team leaders by implementing a mentorship programme through which the team leader is empowered with specified leadership practices and where constant development feedback is given. • implement a peer coaching system to provide ongoing feedback reports to team leaders and team members with regard to leader and member performance. this would enhance the understanding of job requirements. • make use of team building activities to encourage good teamwork and interpersonal relationships amongst colleagues and management. individuals with a weak soc should be assisted in dealing with distress they experience at work. support, motivation and recognition from management and colleagues should be reinforced (muller & rothmann, 2009, p. 9). • introduce discussion groups. this provides a collaborative effort to address complex task concerns aiding workers through greater shared learning and problem solving. • team leaders must practise support and active listening skills. a high quality relationship with a supervisor may alleviate the influence of job demands, since leaders’ appreciation, motivation and support puts demands in another perspective. • introduce regular, structured team meetings. ccrs with a low soc should be well informed about processes and procedures within the company (muller & rothmann, 2009). leaders can contribute to the development of employees’ soc by providing information in a consistent, structured, ordered and understandable format. • equip ccrs with the necessary knowledge, skills, material, instruments and resources, and ensure a balance in the load of tasks to be handled. ccrs should feel that the work expectations are manageable and within their power (rothmann, jackson & kruger, 2003). • let ccrs share in decision making; let teams come up with ideas to solve problems. participation in decision making will enhance ccrs’ feeling of membership and contribute to the meaningfulness component of soc (van der colff & rothmann, 2009). • increase diversity in order to improve client service and general problem solving. • monitor team dynamics and try to have engaged members represented in all teams. the transference of engagement by role models enhances the collective engagement of a team. • practise good human resource management in terms of recruitment, selection, induction, training, compensation, health and safety, and industrial relations. tims et al. (2012) identify and laud the phenomenon of job crafting. engaged and efficient employees will in most cases practise job crafting by altering task-related aspects of their jobs in order to attain personal and work-related goals. job crafting comprises the changes introduced by employees in order to balance the job demands and personal resources with personal needs and abilities. this could involve initiating efforts to modify the nature of the relationships at work, for example the time spent with colleagues and customers, and also the intensity of these relationships. employees may also craft the cognitions they have of aspects of the work in order to increase the meaning of working. it is not the same as job redesign where complete jobs are changed, but refers to smaller self-directed alterations. this practice should be encouraged by managers. particularly against the background of the positive metrics emerging regarding the call centre industry in south africa, the dissemination of this psychometric data can fruitfully inform (potential) employees and managers online about current levels of occupational health and engagement as well as about relevant antecedent variables. recommended guidelines can then serve to enhance the work functioning of call centre employees and teams. examples of such wellness audits, currently being used in spain and the netherlands, can be found at www.wont.uji.es . future research should test whether other personal and job resources predict work engagement, for example psychological capital and the core job characteristics. also, influence of the jd-r model on psychological and medical health symptoms should be investigated. the main shortcoming of the study was the use of a cross sectional approach to infer causality. conclusion contrary to the negative image attached to call centre jobs in the literature, results show a high level of work engagement for ccrs in the sample. also, personal resources such as sense of coherence and job resources such as team effectiveness related significantly to work engagement. a non-significant relationship exists between leadership effectiveness and work engagement. this result reflects on the ccrs’ diminished perception of the function and task of call centre managers. managers are possibly viewed as administrators who do not provide job resources and who do not serve the needs of ccrs. work engagement was best predicted by sense of coherence and then by team effectiveness. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interest the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions b.b. (stellenbosch university) was the project leader and co-wrote the manuscript with m.b. (stellenbosch university). y.j.v.r. (stellenbosch university) was responsible for the preliminary literature review, the survey and data processing. m.b. also made conceptual contributions and edited the manuscript. references top ↑ antonovsky, a. (1993). the structure and properties of the sense of coherence scale. social science and medicine, 36, 725–733. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536 (93)90033-z armistead, c., kiely, j., hole, l., & prescot, j. (2002). an exploration of managerial issues in call centers. managing service quality, 12(4), 246–256. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09604520210434857 bakker, a.b. (2011). an evidence-based model of work engagement. current directions in psychological science, 20(4), 265–269. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0963721411414534 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2007). the job demands-resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22(3), 309–328. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2008). towards a model of work engagement. career development international, 13(3), 209–223. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/136204308 10870476 bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., hakanen, j.j., & xanthopoulou, d. (2007). job resources boost work engagement, particularly when job demands are high. journal of educational psychology, 99(2), 274–284. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.99.2.274 bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2003). dual processes at work in a call centre: an application of the job demands-resources model. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 12(4), 393–417. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1359432034400016 bakker, a.b., & xanthopoulou, d. (2013). creativity and charisma among female leaders: the role of resources and work engagement. the international journal of human resource management, 24, 2760–2779. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.751438 banks, d., & roodt, g. (2011). the efficiency and quality dilemma: what drives south african call centre management performance indicators? sa journal of human resource management, 9(1), 1–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.331 baraka, h.a., baraka, h.a., & el-gamily, i.h. (in press). assessing call centers’ success: a validation of the delone and mclean model for information system. egyptian informatics journal. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eij.2013.03.001 benner, c., lewis, c., & omar, r. (2007). the south african call centre industry: a study of strategy, human resource practices and performance, part of the global call centre industry project, june. bond-barnard, t.j., steyn, h., & fabris-rotelli, i. (2013). the impact of a call centre on communication in a programme and its projects. international journal of project management, 31(7), 1006–1016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.12.012 boonzaier, b., & boonzaier, m. (2008). from sweatshops to sweetshops – job redesign as an innovation for sustaining call centres. proceedings of the 16th international conference on pacific basin finance, economics, accounting and management, 02–04 july 2008 (pp. 229–253). brisbane, australia. brannan, m.j. (2005). once more with feeling: ethnographic reflections on the mediation of tension in a small team of call centre workers. gender, work and organization, 12(5), 420–439. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2005.00282.x breevaart, k., & bakker, a.b. (2013). how leaders influence their followers’ work engagement. european work and organizational psychology in practice, 5, 31–35. cartwright, s. (2003). new forms of work organization: issues and challenges, leadership & organization development journal, 24(3), 121–122. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437730310469534 crome, m. (1998). call centres: battery farming or free range. industrial and commercial training, 30(4), 137–141. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00197859810218065 de braine, r., & roodt, g. (2011). the job demands-resources model as predictor of work identity and work engagement: a comparative analysis. sa journal of industrial psychology, 37(2), art. #889, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i2.889 demerouti, e., & bakker, a.b. (2011). the job demands-resources model: challenges for future research. sa journal of industrial psychology, 37(2), art. #974, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i2.974 demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., nachreiner, f., & schaufeli, w.b. (2001). the job demands-resources model of burnout. journal of applied psychology, 86, 499–512. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.499, pmid:11419809 ferreira, m. jr., & saldiva, p.h.n. (2002). computer-telephone interactive tasks: predictors of musculoskeletal disorders according to work analysis and workers’ perception. applied ergonomics, 33, 147–153. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0003-6870(01)00058-8 fisher, j., milner, k., & chandraprakash, a. (2007). organisational climate, job tension and job satisfaction in a south african call centre case study. ergonomics sa, 19(2), 22–30. fourie, l., rothmann, s., & van de vijver, f.j.r. (2008). a model of work wellness for non-professional counsellors in south africa. stress and health, 24, 35–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smi.1163 friginal, e. (2013). evaluation of oral performance in outsourced call centres: an exploratory case study. english for specific purposes, 32(1), 25–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2012.06.002 gordi, m. (2006). job satisfaction of call centre representatives. unpublished master’s thesis, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa. grebner, s., semmer, n.k., lo faso, l., gut, s., kalin, w., & elfering, a. (2003). working conditions, well-being, and job-related attitudes among call centre agents. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 12, 341–365. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594320344000192 hart, m.l., chiang, y-a.a., & tupochere, m. (2009). balancing agent performance and customer service in contact centres. journal of contemporary management, 6, 151–169. hassan, a., & ahmed, f. (2011). authentic leadership, trust and work engagement. world academy of science, engineering and technology, 56, 750–756. hauptfleisch, s., & uys, j.s. (2006). the experience of work in a call centre environment, sa journal of industrial psychology, 32(2), 23–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v32i2.231 holman, d. (2002). employee well-being in calls centers. human resource management journal, 12(4), 35–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2002.tb00076.x holman, d.j. (2005). call centres. in d.j. holman, t.d. wall, c.w. clegg, p. sparrow, & a. howard (eds.), the essentials of the new work place: a guide to the human impact of modern working practices (pp. 111–131). chichester: wiley. holman, d., batt, r., & holtgrewe, u. (2007). the global call centre report: international perspectives on management and employment, report on the global call centre network. kahn, w.a. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 33, 692–724. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256287 kinman, g., & jones, f. (2003). running up and down the escalator: stressors and strains in uk academics. quality in higher education, 9, 21–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13538320308162 kinnie, n., hutchinson, s., & purcell, j. (2000). ‘fun and surveillance’: the paradox of high commitment management in call centers. the international journal of human resource management, 11(5), 967–985. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/095851900422375 kouzes, j.m., & posner, b.z. (2001). leadership practices inventory [lpi]. (rev. 2nd edn.). (electronic version). participant’s workbook, ph.d. san francisco: jossey-bass/pfeiffer. li, y-h., chen, c-y., & lu, s-y. (2008). physical discomfort and psychosocial job stress among male and female operators at telecommunication call centers in taiwan. applied ergonomics, 1–8. llorens, s., bakker, a.b., schaufeli, w., & salanova, m. (2006). testing the robustness of the job demands-resources model. international journal of stress management, 13(3), 378–391. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.13.3.378 lombard, a. (2009). sensoray intelligence in call centres. paper presented at 3rd annual call centre conference, johannesburg, south africa. macey, w.h., & schneider, b. (2008). the meaning of work engagement. industrial and organisational psychology, 1, 3–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2007.0002.x malhorta, n.k. (2004). marketing research: an applied orientation. (4th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson education inc. mauno, s., kinnunen, u., & ruokolainen, m. (2006). job demands and resources as antecedents of work engagement: a longitudinal study. journal of vocational behaviour, 70(1), 149–171. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2006.09.002 mickan, s., & rodger, s. (2002). characteristics of effective teams: a literature review. australian health review, 23(3), 201–208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/ah000201 montoya-weiss, m.m., massey, a.p., & song, m. (2001). getting it together: temporal coordination and conflict management in global virtual teams. academy of management journal, 44(6), 1251–1262. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3069399 muller, y., & rothmann, s. (2009). sense of coherence and employees’ perceptions of helping and restraining factors in an organisation. sa journal of industrial psychology, 35(1), 1–10. pallanta, j.f., & laeb, l. (2002). sense of coherence, well-being, coping and personality factors: further evaluation of the sense of coherence scale. personality and individual differences, 33, 39–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0191-8869(01)00134-9 pech, r., & slade, b. (2006). employee disengagement: is there evidence of a growing problem? handbook of business strategy, 7(1), 21–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/10775730610618585 rameshbabu, a., reddy, d.m., & fleming, r. (2013). correlates of negative physical health in call center shift workers. applied ergonomics, 44, 350–354. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2012.09.002, pmid:23040668 roberts, d.r., & davenport, t.o. (2002). job engagement: why it’s important and how to improve it. employment relations today, 29(3), 21–28. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1002/ert.10048 rose, e., & wright, g. (2005). satisfaction and dimensions of control among call center customer service representatives. the international journal of human resource management, 16(1), 136–160. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0958519042000295000 rothmann, s., jackson, l.t.b., & kruger, m.m. (2003). burnout and job stress in a local government: the moderating effect of sense of coherence. sa journal of industrial psychology, 29(4), 52–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v29i4.122 rothmann, s., & joubert, j.h.m. (2007). job demands, job resources, burnout and work engagement of managers at a platinum mine in the north west province. sa journal of business management, 38(3), 49–61. salanova, m., llorens, s., cifre, e., martinez, i., & schaufeli, w.b. (2003). perceived collective efficacy, subjective well-being and task performance among electronic work groups: an experimental study. small groups research, 34, 43–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1046496402239577 schaufeli, w., & bakker, a.b. (2003). utrecht work engagement scale preliminary manual (electronic version 1, november 2003). occupational health psychology unit. pmcid:pmc1765719 schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multiple-sample study. journal of organizational behaviour, 25, 293–315. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.248 sonnetag, s. (2003). recovery, work engagement, and proactive behaviour: a new look at the interface between non-work and work. journal of applied psychology, 88, 518–528. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.3.518 straker, l., abbott, r.a., heiden, m., mathiassen, s.e., & toomingas, a. (2013). sit-stand desks in call centres: associations of use and ergonomics awareness with sedentary behavior. applied ergonomics, 44, 517–522. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2012.11.001, pmid:23218118 strümpfer, d.j.w., & de bruin, g.p. (2009). antonovsky’s sense of coherence and job satisfaction: meta-analyses of south african data. sa journal of industrial psychology, 35(1), 1–3. tims, m., bakker, a.b., & derks, d. (2012). development and validation of the job crafting scale. journal of vocational behavior, 80, 173–186. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.05.009 torrente, p., salanova, m., llorens, s., & schaufeli, w.b. (2012). teams make it work: how team work engagement mediates between social resources and performance in teams. psicothema, 24(1), 106–112. pmid:22269372 tracy, s.j. (2005). locking up emotion: moving beyond dissonance for understanding emotion labor discomfort. communication monographs, 72(3), 261–283. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03637750500206474 van den broek, d., barnes, a., & townsend, k. (2008). ‘teaming up’: teams and team sharing in call centres. journal of industrial relations, 50(2), 257–269. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022185607087901 van der colff, j.j., & rothmann, s. (2009). occupational stress, sense of coherence, coping, burnout and work engagement of registered nurses in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 35(1), 1–10. wageman, r., hackman, j.r., & lehman, e. (2005). team diagnostic survey: development of an instrument. journal of applied behavioral science, 41, 373–398. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0021886305281984 wallace, c.m., eagleson, g., & waldersee, r. (2000). the sacrificial hr strategy in call centers. international journal of service industry management, 11(2), 174–180. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09564230010323741 article information authors: anna meyer-weitz1 friederike baasner-weihs2 martin weihs3 affiliations: 1school of applied human sciences, university of kwazulu-natal, howard college campus, south africa 2hiv/aids research unit, nelson mandela metropolitan university, south africa 3hiv/aids, sexually transmitted infections and tb (hast), human sciences research council, south africa correspondence to: friederike baasner-weihs email: baasnerweihs@gmail.com postal address: po box 77000, nelson mandela metropolitan university, port elizabeth 6031, south africa dates: received: 15 nov. 2014 accepted: 02 july 2015 published: 26 nov. 2015 how to cite this article: meyer-weitz, a., baasner-weihs, f., & weihs, m. (2015). health challenges in south african automotive companies: wellness in the workplace. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #672, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.672 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. health challenges in south african automotive companies: wellness in the workplace in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • purpose    • literature review • method    • research approach       • participants       • measuring instruments       • data collection       • data analysis • results    • company location and characteristics    • perceived impact of health influencing factors on production costs    • monitoring efforts of health influencing conditions on production costs    • success in managing the impact of health factors on production costs    • workplace health promotion initiatives    • health conditions perceived to be an important focus for workplace wellness programmes • discussion    • perceived impact of health conditions on production costs    • monitoring and managing of health conditions in the organisation       • workplace health promotion initiatives    • limitations    • recommendations    • partnership approach to support workplace wellness programmes       • comprehensive workplace wellness programmes    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: in south africa, workplace programmes in the automotive industry focus predominantly on occupational health and safety and hiv and aids. the implementation of focused workplace interventions might be hampered when companies are not convinced that the condition (i.e. hiv and aids) is the main negative health influencing factor responsible for increased production costs. research purpose: the study investigated the health influencing conditions perceived to negatively impact company production costs and related interventions. motivation for the study: apart from hiv and aids, little information is available about the health challenges in the south african workplace and focused hiv and aids programmes might only partly respond to the key health challenges of workplaces. the inter-relatedness of various risky lifestyle factors linked to health conditions necessitates a comprehensive health promotion approach. research approach, design and method: a cross-sectional survey was conducted amongst 74 companies selected through stratified random sampling. non-parametric tests were conducted to investigate the health influencing factors perceived to impact production costs, the monitoring thereof, extent of containment and the implementation of interventions in terms of company size and ownership. main findings: the health factors perceived to have a moderate to large impact were hiv and aids, smoking, alcohol use, stress, back and neck ache and tuberculosis, also reported to be better monitored and managed by medium and large organisations. small organisations reported a smaller impact, fewer efforts and less success. hiv and aids programmes were more evident in large companies and those with wellness programmes (52%). workplace programmes enabled better monitoring and managing of impacting health conditions. smaller organisations were not convinced of the benefits of interventions in addressing health challenges. practical/managerial implications: as the impacting health conditions seemed linked, comprehensive and integrated wellness programmes are required to address the health issues and ensure organisations’ competitiveness. contribution: the results contribute to a better understanding of the perceived salient health influencing factors that impact on production costs. data support the inter-relationships between the identified health concerns and call for more holistic wellness programmes. introduction top ↑ a healthy, well-trained, highly qualified and motivated workforce is critical for organisations’ competitiveness in the global market. the workplace has been identified and has become a key health-promoting setting worldwide with corporate strategies and interventions directed at enhancing employees’ health and well-being (burton, 2010; dornan & jane-llopis, 2010; ilo, 2009; van wyngaardt, 2010). in most countries, workplace wellness-promoting strategies focus on health and safety, lifestyle and psychosocial factors (burton, 2010). in south africa, health matters in the workplace are regulated by a predominant labour approach to occupational health and safety as outlined by the occupational health and safety act (no. 85 of 1993). the hiv and aids pandemic however has necessitated a more public health approach to health matters as more focused hiv and aids initiatives are required and encouraged by the international labour organisation’s recommendation 200 (ilo, 2010). it is argued that company initiatives can slow down the hiv infection rate and reduce human suffering by improving knowledge regarding hiv and aids and tuberculosis (tb), facilitate access to hiv counselling and testing (hct) and the timely support and treatment of hiv-infected employees and their partners (department of labour, 2000, 2012). the south african private sector, various corporate structures like the south african business coalition on health and aids (sabcoha), the automotive industry development centre eastern cape (aidc ec) and international donor organisations responded by advocating and supporting the implementation of hiv and aids workplace programmes (hawps). strong support was developed for the integration of hawps into broader workplace wellness programmes (wwps) (sabcoha, 2012). workplace wellness is currently high on the southern african development community’s (sadc) agenda and reporting on health initiatives as part of companies’ statutory reporting is being discussed as it is considered to be beneficial to businesses and socioeconomic development (mail & guardian, 2015). purpose whilst many south african organisations have responded to the challenges posed by the hiv epidemic by implementing hawps, others have been slow to respond. the automotive component manufacturing sector seems to face challenges in this regard. one important factor might be perceptions that a workplace programme only focusing on hiv and aids is unlikely to successfully address their health challenges. according to the healthy company index, a study conducted by discovery in 2014 amongst 151 south african companies in partnership with the university of cambridge and rand europe, the three most prevalent health concerns reported by employers are stress, blood pressure and cholesterol, whilst employees’ most prevalent chronic diseases are high blood pressure, depression and diabetes (discovery, 2014). although the importance of addressing hiv and aids in the workplace is widely supported and governed by guidelines and policies, it is likely that the implementation of hawps is hampered when companies are not convinced that hiv and aids is the main negative health influencing factor responsible for increased production costs. the question arises whether comprehensive wellness programmes addressing various negative health influencing factors impacting organisations’ production costs would not be considered more acceptable whilst simultaneously also providing the necessary platform to address hiv and aids. little is however known of the health conditions perceived to negatively impact production costs of companies in the automotive sector. the aim of this descriptive study was therefore to gain a better understanding of the health conditions perceived to negatively influence the production costs of south african companies in the automotive manufacturing sector and their related responses to enable a more informed view of appropriate responses to their health challenges. ethical clearance for the study was obtained from the ethics committee of the university of kwazulu-natal (hss/1424/010m). literature review the world health organization (who) considers workplace health programmes as one of the best-buy options for prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases and for mental health (who, 2015). however, hiv and aids remains a key focus in workplaces globally as organisations have an economic interest and a moral obligation to engage in the prevention of hiv and aids, ensure access to support and treatment, whilst also ensuring a safe work environment free from hiv and aids stigma and discrimination (ilo, 2010). despite the relative stability of the hiv and aids pandemic in south africa over the last years, hiv and aids has a profound impact on the social and economic development of the country as the age groups mostly affected are the economically active group, between the ages of 29 and 35 years (department of health, 2013). a study in the south african automotive manufacturing sector revealed that 33% of companies perceived hiv and aids to have a major impact on profits and indicated that investment decisions were influenced by hiv and aids related factors (van wyngaardt, 2010). however, the sabcoha 2005 survey found that in comparison to medium and large companies, small companies (fewer than 100 employees) have reported less noticeable hiv and aids related impacts (ellis, 2006; ellis & terwin, 2005). it is also known that small and medium-sized enterprises (smes) face a number of structural constraints to implementing workplace programmes, including a lack of designated human resource personnel (connelly & rosen, 2005; hannon et al., 2012). the lack of resources is also hindering the proper assessment of needs and the monitoring and evaluation of interventions. scepticism about the likely effectiveness of health promotion programmes could be linked to the anticipated investment costs required for workplace interventions in relation to the possible benefits (george & quinlan, 2009). current practice shows that large south african original equipment manufacturers (oems) like for example ford, vw, gm and mercedes-benz have incorporated hiv and aids programmes into wellness programmes, also addressing other health conditions (panter, 2009). this is supported by findings of large surveys, for example the global survey of health promotion, workplace wellness and productivity strategies (buck consultants, 2014), which have reported that in african workplaces, workplace safety, work-life issues and stress were, next to infectious diseases and hiv and aids, mentioned as the most important health issues driving the corporate wellness strategy. several literature sources recommend extending the scope of workplace interventions beyond hiv related issues (arend, 2008; dickinson, 2008). furthermore, the inter-relatedness of various risky lifestyle factors linked to health conditions necessitate a comprehensive health promotion approach. for example, hiv infection is the strongest risk factor for tuberculosis (tb) and is responsible for south africa’s tb epidemic, further compounded by increasing drug resistance (abdool karim, churchyard, abdool karim & lawn, 2009). people abusing alcohol and drugs are known to be at greater risk for hiv infection due to the increased likelihood for engaging in unprotected sex (fisher, bang & kapiga, 2007; rehm, shield, joharchi & shuper, 2012). problematic use of alcohol is high amongst employees in many south african industry sectors with alcohol use being a major risk factor for communicable and noncommunicable diseases, injuries and mental disorders (parry, patra & rehm, 2011; rehm et al., 2010). furthermore, alcohol abuse by employees can cause serious accidents and interfere with work efficiency and precision. alcohol and drug abuse has been found to significantly impact employee work performance and absenteeism (chakraborty & subramanya, 2013; verster et al., 2010). a statistically positive relationship is also found between stress and substance use, that is, alcohol and smoking (azagba & sharaf, 2011, 2012a; hassani et al., 2014). the use of both substances are known risk factors for various chronic diseases, such as asthma (henneberger et al., 2015), cardiovascular disease and related conditions (chandola et al., 2008). stress on the other hand, is also associated with increased body mass index (azagba & sharaf, 2012b), anxiety, depression, hostility and headaches (stansfeld & candy, 2006), which are conditions linked to both absenteeism and presenteeism. several studies confirm the relationship of musculoskeletal symptoms amongst workers and the physical, psychosocial and organisational environment in the workplace and consequently argue for a multifaceted approach by improving physical, psychosocial and organisational aspects of the working environment (frederiksen, karsten, indahl & bendix, 2015; widanarko, legg, devereux & stevenson, 2012, 2014). evidence exists for the health and well-being effects of wwps linked to increased productivity and job satisfaction (aldana, merrill, price, hardy & hager, 2005; blake, zhou & batt, 2013; torp, grimsmo, hagen, duran & gudbergsson, 2013). the cost effectiveness of wwps is particularly enhanced when both physical and psychosocial factors are addressed (cancelliere, cassidy, ammendolia & côté, 2011). this could also be applicable to small businesses as there is evidence that by integrating wellness into their culture and operations, small companies can improve the health of the entire workforce population (merrill et al., 2011). the literature provides a vast range of arguments to support the implementation of holistic wwps addressing the various health influencing factors impacting on employees and consequently the organisation. however, in reality, the availability of data to inform company management about the specific needs of their employees with regard to health issues might be limited (ilo, 2009; who, 2015). as little information is available on the views of companies in the south african automotive sector about health conditions impacting their production costs, ways in which these are monitored and managed as well as their views about current interventions, this study aims to explore these issues to better inform wwps in this sector. method top ↑ research approach the study is an exploratory descriptive study using a quantitative research approach. a cross-sectional survey was conducted amongst companies in the automotive manufacturing sector in south africa. participants an updated, representative south african aidc ec database with 527 companies was used as the sampling frame for the stratified random sampling of 258 companies across all nine provinces. the realised sample comprised 74 companies from a total of 167 companies who initially agreed to participate in the study. the survey questionnaire was directed at company representatives, such as human resource managers or general managers. measuring instruments the survey questionnaire was designed to be self-administered and to investigate the following aspects: company details (size, annual turnover, number of employees and skills level), questions with regard to the impact of health conditions on production costs, monitoring efforts and success in management of health conditions using a five-point likert scale. items pertaining to company responses to hiv and aids and general wellness were also included. a pilot study was conducted to assess the appropriateness of the questionnaire before data collection. data collection the company representatives were contacted to negotiate study participation. the aims and objectives of the study, the voluntary nature of participation, confidentially and anonymity of data were discussed. the data collection process was clarified: instruments were either distributed via fax or email to be returned within a two-week period, with follow-up calls as a reminder. whilst only 74 companies returned their questionnaires, they were well distributed across the provinces in relation to the database used as a sampling frame. missing information was minimal and random. data analysis data processing and analysis were conducted using spss 19 (statistical package for the social sciences). frequencies were calculated for all the items followed by descriptive and central tendency exploration. recoding was done to improve the response categories for analysis; company size was coded as small (8–49 employees), medium (50–199 employees) and large (200+ employees). company ownership was coded as multinational organisations (1) and national or local ownership (2). non-parametric tests were used as the data was not normally distributed. kruskall-wallis tests were conducted to assess the median scores of the different sized companies pertaining to: perceived impact of different health conditions on their production costs, the extent of their monitoring efforts and success in the management of the health conditions, beliefs about the likely success of wwps and hawps to address their health challenges and views of health conditions that should be included in wwps. the mann-whitney u-tests were used to assess the difference between multinational and national organisations on the above measures. in addition these tests were also used to assess the difference between those who indicated having a wwp (yes or no) pertaining to perceptions about the monitoring and perceived success in the management of health conditions. cohen’ s (1988) criteria was used to assess the effect sizes (0.1 = small; 0.3 = medium and 0.5 = large). chi-square tests for independence were conducted to assess whether organisation size and ownership were associated with the following workplace wellness initiatives (yes = 1; no = 0): hawp, hct and antiretroviral treatment (art) services and wwp. the phi coefficient effect size statistic was used for two-by-two tables (small effect = 0.01, medium effect = 0.03 and large effect = 0.05) whilst cramer’s v was used for larger tables (small effect = 0.01, medium effect = 0.03 and large effect = 0.05). in addition, mann-witney u-tests were also used to investigate the presence of different hiv and aids related initiatives, such as hawp, hct and art services (yes or no) pertaining to the perceived impact of hiv and aids on their production costs (not depicted in any table). spearman’s correlation analysis was done to assess the association between the perceived success of hawps and wwps in addressing organisations’ health challenges (not in table). results top ↑ company location and characteristics most of the questionnaires were completed by company managers (45%; n = 33), followed by human resources managers (38%; n = 28) and administrative staff (11%; n = 7); only a few company ceos (5%; n = 4) completed the questionnaires (missing data for two companies). this designation varied depending on the size and the turnover of the company. only 25% of companies were multinational whilst the rest were national organisations. more than 50% of the participating companies reported an annual turnover of more than r50 million. with regard to the geographic location of the companies, the provincial distribution showed that the majority (51%) of companies was from the eastern cape, followed by gauteng (22%), kwazulu-natal (18%), western cape (8%) and north west (1%). most participating companies were medium to large companies (43.3%) employing between 200 and 499 people fulltime, followed by micro to small companies (56.7%) employing between 8 and 49 people. unskilled employees accounted for 21%, followed by semi-skilled (27.12%), skilled (26.7%) and highly skilled employees (25.10%). the employees of most organisations, irrespective of size, seemed to be semi-skilled and skilled. slightly more highly skilled employees were employed across all organisations than unskilled employees. perceived impact of health influencing factors on production costs about half of the organisations perceived that most health factors have a small impact on their production costs. overall, hiv and aids and smoking were considered by 34% and 36% of organisations respectively to have a moderate to large influence followed by alcohol use (30%), stress (29%), chronic back and neck ache (25%), tuberculosis (24%), hypertension (21%), diabetes (14%), hypercholesterolemia (7%) and lastly obesity (6%) (not in table). the kruskall-wallis tests (depicted in table 1), indicated that smaller companies generally perceived most health conditions to have a smaller impact on their production costs than medium to large organisations with the exception of tb and chronic back and neck ache, for which they reported a similar impact to medium-sized organisations. for hiv and aids, tuberculosis and alcohol use, medium-sized and large organisations indicated a similar impact on their production costs whilst smoking and hypercholesterolemia were seen more serious by larger organisations in comparison to the others. table 1: the impact, monitoring and successful management of health conditions by company size. with regard to the differences between multinational and national enterprises (not depicted in a table), the mann-witney u-test showed a significant difference in the perceived impact of hiv and aids by multinational (md = 3, n = 17) and national (md = 2, n = 54) enterprises (u = 306, z = -2.12, p = 0.034). multinational companies recorded a higher median score for the impact of hiv and aids than others. a medium effect was found (r = 0.25). monitoring efforts of health influencing conditions on production costs with regard to the monitoring efforts of health conditions in organisations, the data shows that hiv and aids is best monitored (56%), followed by alcohol use (52%), tuberculosis (46%) and then hypertension (36%). the health conditions that are least monitored are obesity (48%), hypercholesterolemia (41%) and diabetes (37%) (not in table). a statistically significant difference in the monitoring efforts of health conditions was noted in the kruskall-wallis tests between the different sized companies (table 1). diabetes, hypertension, hiv and aids and tb were generally well monitored by large organisations whilst hiv and aids also seems to be better monitored than the other conditions in small and medium-sized organisations. the mann-witney u-test did not show any significant differences with regard to the monitoring efforts of health conditions between national and multinational organisations (not shown in a table). success in managing the impact of health factors on production costs hiv and aids appears to be the most successfully managed condition as 53% of companies reported moderate to high levels of success, followed by alcohol and tb (46% and 39% respectively) and then hypertension and smoking by 30% of companies. marginal success was reported by most in the management of smoking (37%), whilst 30% of companies indicated moderate to high levels of success. however, few organisations considered themselves to be successful in addressing obesity and hypercholesterolemia (8% and 18% respectively) amongst their employees (frequencies are not depicted in a table). the kruskall-wallis test results (table 1) suggest that large organisations are generally more likely to successfully address the impact of various health conditions on their production costs than medium and small enterprises. in particular, great success was reported with hypertension, hypercholesterolemia and chronic back and neck ache followed by hiv and aids and tb. the management of smoking and diabetes seemed however to be less effective and the difference from other sized organisations was less enhanced. the mann-witney u-test revealed a significant difference in the perceived success in the management of tuberculosis by multinational (md = 4, n = 18) and national (md = 3, n = 53) organisations (u = 325.5, z = -2.06, p = 0.04). multinational organisations had a higher mean score for the management of tuberculosis. the effect (r = 0.244) can be considered to be a small to medium one (not depicted in a table). workplace health promotion initiatives more than half of the companies (52.1%) reported having workplace wellness programmes irrespective of company size or ownership. of the companies surveyed, 70.4% indicated having an hiv and aids education programme, 57.5% offered hct services, whilst fewer organisations (21.1%) provided art services. according to the chi-square results, organisations that reported having a wellness programme were more likely to indicate also having an hiv and aids education programme (x2 = 5.035, df1, p = 0.025, phi = 0.30) and hct services (x2 = 8.208, df1, p = 0.004, phi = 0.37). larger organisations were also significantly more likely to have hiv and aids education programmes (x2 = 7.003, df2, p = 0.03, cramer’s v = 0.432) and hct services (x2 = 13.229, df2, p = 0.001; cramer’s v = 0.432) than other medium and smaller organisations. no differences were detected for art services amongst the different sized companies. in addition, the mann-witney u-test revealed that the mean score for the perceived impact of hiv and aids differed between organisations that indicated having an hiv and aids education programme (md = 3, n = 49) and those that did not (md = 2, n = 20; u = 314, z = -2.392, p = 0.017, medium effect size: r = 0.288). those that had a hawp obtained a higher mean score on perceived hiv and aids impact. the above results are not depicted in a table. when investigating the experiences of companies with and without a wwp, it was clear that those that indicated having a wwp seemed better able to monitor the health conditions and appeared to be more successful than those without a wwp in managing the impact of the various health conditions on their production costs. the results of the mann-whitney u-tests (see table 2) suggest that organisations with a wellness programme were significantly better able to monitor diabetes, hypertension, chronic back and neck ache, obesity, hypercholesterolemia, hiv and aids, as well as stress. similarly, companies with a wellness programme seemed also more successful in managing the impact of obesity, stress, smoking, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, diabetes chronic back and neck ache as well as hiv and aids on their companies’ production costs than the others. this was however more enhanced for stress, smoking, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, diabetes and chronic back and neck ache than for hiv and aids. table 2: monitoring and management of health conditions by presence of workplace wellness programmes. the kruskall-wallis tests showed a significant difference in the mean scores for the small versus medium and large organisations with regard to the perceived success of wwps (x2 = 11.77, df2, p = 0.003), and hawps (x2 = 13.42, df2, p = 0.001) in addressing their health challenges (table 1). smaller organisations were not convinced about the likely success of both these programmes whilst medium and large organisations were more supportive (md = 2 versus md = 4 respectively for both wwp and hawp on a range of 1–5). furthermore, a strong positive correlation (r = 0.796) was found between perceived success of a comprehensive wwp and hawp in addressing company health challenges (not depicted in a table). the above study findings suggest not only the importance of the impact of hiv and aids on organisation’s production costs, but also that other health influencing factors are of concern. companies that reacted by implementing wwp instead of hawp were not only more successful in monitoring the impact but also seemed to be more successful in managing most health conditions. health conditions perceived to be an important focus for workplace wellness programmes the majority of companies believed that a wwp should pay considerable attention to hiv and aids (57%), followed by tuberculosis (38%), alcohol use (28%) and stress and smoking (both 25%). in accordance to the outcomes of the kruskall-wallis tests as depicted in table 3, larger organisations seemed to believe that most health factors should receive attention in wwp in comparison to smaller organisations. no significant differences were detected in the mann-whitney u-tests for multinational and local organisations in this regard (not in table). table 3: health conditions to address in a workplace wellness programmes. discussion top ↑ the organisations that responded to the survey reflect the broad range in the automotive sector spanning from small and medium to large organisations with turnover rates ranging from less than r5 million to more than r50 million. despite the relatively small sample, when compared to the existing aidc ec database, the sample does reflect the larger population with regard to size and multinational and national ownership of the organisations in the automotive sector. representation of different sized organisations is particularly important, as micro and small organisations have not responded adequately to the challenges posed by hiv and aids due to limited financial resources and expertise in this regard (ellis & terwin, 2005; vass & phakathi, 2006). perceived impact of health conditions on production costs the health conditions that are perceived by the organisations to have a moderate to large impact on their production costs are hiv and aids, smoking, alcohol use, stress, chronic back and neck ache and tuberculosis. small organisations generally perceive most conditions to have a smaller impact than larger organisations. the likely interactive relationships between the concerned health conditions are striking. alcohol use is known to increase the risk for hiv infection due to the likelihood of unprotected sexual activities (fisher et al., 2007; rehm et al., 2012). closely linked to hiv infection is tb; the comorbidity of tuberculosis with hiv is well researched in south africa (abdool karim et al., 2009; harries et al., 2010; unaids, 2011) and often used as an indirect indicator of hiv prevalence. stress levels on the other hand have been reported to have a positive and statistically significant association with alcohol consumption and smoking intensity (azagba & sharaf, 2011). these health influencing factors are also known risk factors for various chronic diseases (azagba & sharaf, 2011; lucini, solaro, lesma, gillet & pagani, 2011). chronic stress has been linked to a wide range of adverse health outcomes such as cardiovascular disease and hypertension (azagba & sharaf, 2011; babu et al., 2014; chandola et al., 2008; lucini et al., 2011), as well as back and neck pain (widanarko et al., 2012). it is thus not surprising that all these health conditions were raised as posing some concern for the organisations surveyed. the consensus that hiv and aids impacts company production costs supports the negative influence of a generalised hiv and aids epidemic on the south african economy (thurlow, gow & george, 2009; van zyl & lubisi, 2009). it also concurs with the study of van zyl and lubisi (2009) in which hiv and aids was found to negatively impact company productivity levels, labour, profit levels, prices and sales. concerns about alcohol use should be noted as it not is only linked to increased risk for hiv infection, but also has detrimental consequences for organisations (kirkham et al., 2015; mcfarlin & fals-stewart, 2002; osilla et al., 2010). alcohol use impacts negatively on levels of absenteeism and productivity, whilst intoxication poses serious safety concerns (atkinson, 2001, as cited in elliott & shelley, 2005). the legal framework for occupational health and safety places a large responsibility on organisations to ensure a safe workplace and necessitates the close monitoring and management of alcohol use in the workplace. organisations viewed alcohol use and smoking as having an impact on their production costs, possibly linked to a loss of productivity due to alcohol-related absenteeism and multiple smoking breaks amongst smokers (sabcoha, 2012; sarna et al., 2009). substance use might also be more noticeable than other health influencing conditions. monitoring and managing of health conditions in the organisation the perceived impact of health issues on production costs seemed to be linked to the monitoring efforts of health conditions. hiv and aids, alcohol use, tb and hypertension were reported to be best monitored by medium to large organisations. organisations were also more likely to perceive having some success in the management of these conditions. organisations who perceived hiv and aids to have a negative impact were also more likely to have a hawp, offer hct and art services and were thus able to manage hiv and aids. the importance of the workplace as a setting for hct has been highlighted in research (corbett et al., 2006, 2007). despite the fact that the greater majority of organisations indicated having a hawp and showing some commitment to the fight against hiv and aids, it was more so for larger than smaller organisations, a finding that is also supported by previous studies (elliott & shelley, 2005; vass & phakathi, 2006). however, the management success of various health influencing factors was more likely in organisations with wwps. similarly, the sabcoha survey (ellis & terwin, 2005) reported that the sectors more profoundly affected by hiv and aids tend to have the most mature programmes and many have integrated hawp into broader wpps. the results of this study support these findings as companies that had a wwp were significantly better able to monitor hiv and aids and appeared to be more successful than those without a wwp in managing the impact of hiv and aids on their production costs. the inability of small organisations to monitor and successfully manage particularly hiv and aids, tb and hypertension is likely due to the absence of wwps. the absence of wwp is possibly a result of limited human and financial resources hampering the implementation of effective interventions as supported in other studies (connelly & rosen, 2006; ellis & terwin, 2005; vass & phakathi, 2006). workplace health promotion initiatives the implementation of wwps in 52% of the organisations surveyed, irrespective of organisation size, is encouraging and augurs well for enhancing wellness in the workplace. international research indicates that larger organisations are generally more likely to implement health promotion programmes (holistic wwps) than smaller organisations (harris, huang, hannon & williams, 2011; linnan et al., 2008). similarly to the sabcoha findings (ellis & terwin, 2005), the organisations with a wwp were more likely to perceive hiv and aids and other health conditions as having an impact on their production costs, a perception most likely to have contributed to the implementation of a wwp, thereby contributing to greater levels of success in the management of these health influencing factors. these organisations were also more likely to have a hawp and offer hct and access to art. rosen, feeley, connelly and simon (2007) report that for large organisations, the provision of art to employees was seen as a good investment whilst small and even medium-sized companies had restricted human and financial capacity to respond in this regard. efforts to reach out to smes in the automotive sector to assist them in capacity building and wwp implementation have been initiated by for example sabcoha (2012), aidc ec and development agencies like deutsche gesellschaft für internationale zusammenarbeit (giz). the attention paid to tb by most companies is encouraging although small companies do not seem to have much success in the management of tb. the capacity in the workplace to monitor the quality of care to employees with tb is of critical importance in efforts to support tb treatment completion. evidence exists for the cost effectiveness of public-private workplace (pwp) provision of tb treatment in south africa to reduce costs for the patient, workplace and government (sinanovic & kumaranayake, 2006a, 2006b, 2010). as larger organisations were more likely to monitor and report success in the management of tb, successful workplace support for directly observed treatment (dot), the internationally supported control strategy for tb, would be more likely in organisations with well supported, resourced and comprehensive wwps. most organisations believed that wwps, and to a lesser extent that hawps, would be successful in addressing their health challenges. the support for a more comprehensive wwp is understandable as various other health factors apart from hiv and aids were highlighted as impacting negatively on organisations’ production costs and therefore as important to address in wwps, in particular tuberculosis, substance use and stress. these lifestyle factors, as mentioned earlier, have been found to impact negatively on the health and well-being of workforces and thus on organisation effectiveness. human resources can be considered an organisation’s most important resource; employee well-being is therefore a key factor to long-term organisational effectiveness. research studies have shown positive relationships between employee health and well-being and productivity levels (bloom, canning & sevilla, 2005; cancelliere et al., 2011; kuoppala, lamminpää & husman, 2008). however, small organisations were less likely to be convinced about the likely success of both hawps and wwps in addressing their health challenges. this finding helps to explain the reluctance of small companies in the south african automotive sector to implement hawps and possibly also wwps. this scepticism about the likely effectiveness of health promotion programmes could be linked to the anticipated investment costs required for workplace interventions in relation to the possible benefits as highlighted by george and quinlan (2009). furthermore, the limited available human resources in small organisations may account for this view. hannon et al. (2012) recently found that a lack of capacity was a key barrier to the implementation of health promotion programmes in low-wage industries in the us. apart from a few specific case studies, little research evidence exists for the effectiveness of hawp in the south african context, whilst wwp in south africa is still in its infancy. organisations should be made aware of the importance of monitoring and evaluating hawps and wwps and to share their findings. international evidence exists for the health-enhancing effects and cost effectiveness of workplace wellness programmes (aldana et al., 2005; allen, lewis & tagliaferro, 2012). however, best evidence suggests that wwp should address both psychosocial and physical factors (cancelliere et al., 2011; kuoppala et al., 2008). successful wwps thus imply not merely a disease focus, but require a change in an organisation’s ‘health culture’ to ensure a supportive environment for health and well-being, fully integrated into the mission and vision of the organisation (blake & lloyd, 2008). the results of this study contribute to a better understanding of the perceived salient health influencing factors that impact automotive organisations’ production costs. but more importantly, the results support the known inter-relationships between the identified health concerns and calls for more holistic wellness programmes. in addition, efforts to facilitate a participatory process amongst relevant stakeholders (e.g. employees, family members and unions) to better understand the health-related needs of the workforce will contribute further to a relevant and nuanced health promotion response. as companies’ competitiveness and growth seem to hinge on the effectiveness of health promotion interventions, the implementation of comprehensive wwps is therefore a convincing organisational strategy to not only address the concerned health conditions and successfully address the hiv and aids pandemic, but also to foster general workplace well-being. limitations whilst the response rate of 29% is generally low, despite attempts to motivate a higher return rate, the response rate is similar to other electronic mail surveys, ranging between 20% and 24% (kaplowitz, hadlock & levine, 2004). the feedback received indicated that the timing of the survey, just before the yearly christmas recess with increased production demands, impacted on the response rate. the study findings are limited to perceptions of managers. these perceptions are not necessarily based on objective company policies and therefore some level of bias is possible. recommendations based on the results of this study, the following recommendations are proposed. partnership approach to support workplace wellness programmes a greater awareness of existing networks should be facilitated using organisations such as sabcoha, other nongovernmental organisations and the public sector to assist in companies’ wellness intervention needs. the facilitation of partnerships with other institutions to assist in hiv and aids service provision, including the treatment of other sexually transmitted infections, opportunistic infections (especially tb) and counselling support will be helpful to address organisations’ concerns regarding hiv and aids. however, the integration of hiv and aids interventions within wwps seems appropriate as hiv and aids were not considered by all organisations to have the most severe impact on production costs. smaller companies in particular need support in the development of tailored and cost-effective interventions, based on needs and risk assessments and directed first at addressing their more immediate health concerns, so that they may reap the benefits of well-designed interventions. also, more emphasis needs to be placed on monitoring and evaluation of interventions. this process could initiate a necessary attitude change in becoming less sceptical of the likely success of wwp. comprehensive workplace wellness programmes a comprehensive, workplace health promotion approach would provide a cost-effective and sustainable way to address the multitude of health influencing factors apart from hiv and aids impacting on both the individual employees and the business alike. support seems to exist for addressing various health conditions within wwps and this reiterates the need to strengthen and extend existing efforts to broaden its predominant disease focus. in particular, occupational stress as a risk factor for substance use, cardiovascular diseases and safety should be addressed at both an individual and organisational level. the existing occupational health and safety initiatives in the workplace could provide opportunities to extend health and well-being programmes. greater effort is thus required to advocate for a comprehensive approach to health and well-being in the workplace that calls for supportive leadership, relevant policies and systems in the workplace as well as the fostering of an organisational culture to ensure that organisations become supportive environments for health and well-being grounded in ethical principles and values. in addition, organisations will benefit from a deeper understanding of the views of who and ilo pertaining to health promotion’s role in the transformation of organisations, as this could form an important foundation for developments in organisational change. the likely direct and indirect benefits from a holistic approach will not only improve individual employee health and well-being, but is also likely to create a workforce that feels valued and is committed and engaged. conclusion the results of this study enhanced understandings of the perceived salient health influencing factors that impact the production costs of companies in the south african automotive sector. apart from hiv and aids, substance use such as smoking and alcohol use, stress, chronic back and neck ache and tuberculosis, are deemed to pose challenges to the organisations. importantly, the results point to the known inter-relationships between the identified health concerns and calls for more holistic wellness programmes. companies’ competitiveness and growth seem to hinge on the effectiveness of health promotion interventions; the implementation of comprehensive workplace wellness programmes is therefore a convincing organisational strategy to not only address the concerned health conditions and the hiv and aids pandemic, but also to foster general workplace well-being. the study findings therefore call for the careful development and implementation of theoretically sound and appropriate workplace wellness interventions with cognisance of the holistic health-promoting workplace framework as suggested by the who (2015). furthermore, careful monitoring and proper evaluation should be considered as an integral part of a responsible intervention approach. this will enable the development of scientifically based best evidence, necessary for the fostering of health and well-being in the south african workplace. acknowledgements top ↑ this work was conducted in 2010–2012 during a project run by the automotive industry development centre eastern cape (aidc ec) and the deutsche gesellschaft fur internationale zusammenarbeit (giz), a technical development agency owned by the german government. many thanks to the aidc ec and giz. many thanks also to the participating companies for permission to publish these findings. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.m.-w. (university of kwazulu-natal) was the project leader. m.w. (aidc ec and giz at the time of the study, human science research council at the time of completion of the work) and f.b.-w. (aidc ec and giz at the time of the study, nelson mandela metropolitan university at the time of completion of the work) were responsible for study design and data collection. data analysis and calculations were performed by a.m.-w., who also wrote the manuscript, supported by f.b.-w. and m.w. references top ↑ abdool karim, s.s., churchyard, g.j., abdool karim, q., & lawn, s.d. (2009). hiv infection and tuberculosis in south africa: an urgent need to escalate the public health response. lancet, 374(9693), 921–933. pmid: 19709731, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(09)60916-8 aldana, s.g., merrill, r.m., price, k., hardy, a., & hager, r. (2005). financial impact of a comprehensive multisite workplace health promotion program. preventive medicine, 40(2), 131–137. pmid: 15533521, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2004.05.008 allen, j.c., lewis, j.b., & tagliaferro, a.r. (2012). cost-effectiveness of health risk reduction after lifestyle education in the small workplace. preventing chronic disease, 9, e96. pmid: 22575081, http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd9.110169 arend, e.d. (2008). wellness programme and health policy development at a large faith-based organisation in khayelitsha, south africa. african journal of aids research, 7(3), 259–270. pmid: 25875454, http://dx.doi.org/10.2989/ajar.2008.7.3.3.650 azagba, s., & sharaf, m.f. (2011). the effect of job stress on smoking and alcohol consumption. health economics review, 1(1), 1–14. pmid: 22827918, http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2191-1991-1-15 azagba, s., & sharaf, m.f. (2012a). the association between workplace smoking bans and self-perceived, work-related stress among smoking workers. bmc public health, 12(1), 1–8. pmid: 22329920, http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-123 azagba, s., & sharaf, m.f. (2012b). the relationship between job stress and body mass index using longitudinal data from canada. international journal of public health, 57(5), 807–815. pmid: 22371003, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00038-012-0348-y babu, g.r., jotheeswaran, a.t., mahapatra, t., mahapatra, s., kumar, a., detels, r. et al. (2014). is hypertension associated with job strain? a meta-analysis of observational studies. occupational and environmental medicine, 71(3), 220–227. pmid: 24142979, http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2013-101396 blake, h., & lloyd, s. (2008). influencing organisational change in the nhs: lessons learned from workplace wellness initiatives in practice. quality in primary care, 16(6), 449–455. pmid: 19094421 blake, h., zhou, d., & batt, m.e. (2013). five-year workplace wellness intervention in the nhs. perspectives in public health, 133(5), 262–271. pmid: 23771680, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1757913913489611 bloom, d.e., canning, d., & sevilla, j. (2005). health and economic growth: reconciling the micro and macro evidence. center on democracy, development and the rule of law working papers. retrieved may 08, 2015, from http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty_pages/romain.wacziarg/demogworkshop/bloom and canning.pdf buck consultants. (2014). working well: a global survey of health promotion, workplace wellness and productivity strategies. retrieved may 08, 2015, from https://www.bucksurveys.com/bucksurveys/surveys/globalwellness/tabid/72/default.aspx burton, j. (2010). who healthy workplace framework and model: background and supporting literature and practices. retrieved may 8, 2015, from http://apps.who.int//iris/handle/10665/113144 cancelliere, c., cassidy, j.d., ammendolia, c., & côté, p. (2011). are workplace health promotion programs effective at improving presenteeism in workers? a systematic review and best evidence synthesis of the literature. bmc public health, 11, 1–11. pmid: 21615940, http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-11-395 chakraborty, s., & subramanya, a.h.c. (2013). socio-demographic and clinical predictors of absenteeism a cross-sectional study of urban industrial employees. industrial psychiatry journal, 22(1), 17–21. pmid: 24459368, http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0972-6748.123589 chandola, t., britton, a., brunner, e., hemingway, h., malik, m., kumari, m. et al. (2008). work stress and coronary heart disease: what are the mechanisms? european heart journal, 29(5), 640–648. pmid: 18216031, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehm584 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. (2nd edn.). hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum. retrieved n.d., from http://books.google.com/books?id=tl0n2lrao9oc connelly, p., & rosen, s. (2005). will small and medium enterprises provide hiv/aids services to employees? an analysis of market demand. the south african journal of economics, 73(s1), 613–626. connelly, p., & rosen, s. (2006). treatment of hiv/aids at south africa’s largest employers: myth and reality. south african medical journal, 96(2), 128–133. pmid: 16532081 corbett, e.l., dauya, e., matambo, r., cheung, y.b., makamure, b., bassett, m.t. et al. (2006). uptake of workplace hiv counselling and testing: a cluster-randomised trial in zimbabwe. plos medicine, 3(7), e238. pmid: 16796402, http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030238 corbett, e.l., makamure, b., cheung, y.b., dauya, e., matambo, r., bandason, t. et al. (2007). hiv incidence during a cluster-randomized trial of two strategies providing voluntary counselling and testing at the workplace, zimbabwe. aids, 21(4), 483–489. pmid: 17301567 department of health. (2013). the 2012 national antenatal sentinel hiv & herpes simplex type-2 prevalence survey in south africa. retrieved may 08, 2015, from http://www.health-e.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ashivherp_report2014_22may2014.pdf department of labour. (2000). hiv& aids technical assistance guidelines. retrieved july 30, 2015, from http://www.labour.gov.za/dol/documents/useful-documents/employment-equity/hivaids-technical-assistance-guidelines department of labour. (2012). employment equity act, 1998 (act no. 55 of 1998): code of good practice on hiv and aids and the world of work (2012). retrieved may 08, 2015, from http://www.labour.gov.za/dol/downloads/legislation/acts/employment-equity/hivaidstechnicalguide.pdf dickinson, d. (2008). traditional healers, hiv/aids and company programmes in south africa. african journal of aids research, 7(3), 281–291. pmid: 25875456, http://dx.doi.org/10.2989/ajar.2008.7.3.5.652 discovery. (2014). healthy company index 2014. retrieved may 08, 2015, from http://healthycompanyindex.co.za/uploads/downloads/healthy-company-index-2014-overall-report.pdf dornan, a., & jane-llopis, e. (2010). the wellness imperative: creating more effective organisations. geneva: world economic forum. retrieved n.d., from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/wef_he_wellnessimperativecreatingmoreeffectiveorganizations_report_2010.pdf elliott, k., & shelley, k. (2005). impact of employee assistance programs on substance abusers and workplace safety. journal of employment counseling, 42(3), 125–132. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1920.2005.tb00906.x ellis, l.l. (2006). the economic impact of hiv/aids on small, medium and large entreprises. the south african journal of economics, 74(4), 682–701. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2006.00093.x ellis, l.l., & terwin, j.e. (2005). the impact of hiv/aids on selected business sectors in south africa, 2005. retrieved may 08, 2015, from https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/40176 fisher, j.c., bang, h., & kapiga, s.h. (2007). the association between hiv infection and alcohol use: a systematic review and meta-analysis of african studies. sexually transmitted diseases, 34(11), 856–863. pmid: 18049422 frederiksen, p., karsten, m.m.v., indahl, a., & bendix, t. (2015). what challenges manual workers’ ability to cope with back pain at work, and what influences their decision to call in sick? journal of occupation rehabilitation. pmid: 25808992, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10926-015-9578-1 george, g., & quinlan, t. (2009). ‘health management’ in the private sector in the context of hiv/aids: progress and challenges faced by company programmes in south africa. sustainable development, 17(1), 19–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/sd.366 hannon, p.a., garson, g., harris, j.r., hammerback, k., sopher, c.j., & clegg-thorp, c. (2012). workplace health promotion implementation, readiness, and capacity among midsize employers in low-wage industries: a national survey. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 54(11), 1337–1343. pmid: 23090160, http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/jom.0b013e3182717cf2 harries, a.d., zachariah, r., corbett, e.l., lawn, s.d., santos-filho, e.t., chimzizi, r. et al. (2010). the hiv-associated tuberculosis epidemic—when will we act? lancet, 375(9729), 1906–1919. pmid: 20488516, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(10)60409-6 harris, j.r., huang, y., hannon, p.a., & williams, b. (2011). low-socioeconomic status workers: their health risks and how to reach them. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 53(2), 132–138. pmid: 21270663, http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/jom.0b013e3182045f2c hassani, s., yazdanparast, t., seyedmehdi, s.m., ghaffari, m., attarchi, m., & bahadori, b. (2014). relationship of occupational and non-occupational stress with smoking in automotive industry workers. tanaffos, 13(2), 35–42. henneberger, p.k., liang, x., lillienberg, l., dahlman-höglund, a., torén, k., & andersson, e. (2015). occupational exposures associated with severe exacerbation of asthma. international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease, 19(2), 244–250. pmid: 25574926, http://dx.doi.org/10.5588/ijtld.14.0132 international labour organisation (ilo). (2009, june 15). workplace well-being. retrieved may 05, 2015, from http://www.ilo.org/safework/areasofwork/workplace-health-promotion-and-well-being/wcms_118396/lang--en/index.htm international labour organisation (ilo). (2010, july 06). recommendation 200: recommendation concerning hiv and aids and the world of work adopted by the conference at its ninety-ninth session, geneva, 17 june 2010. retrieved may 08, 2015, from http://www.ilo.org/ilc/ilcsessions/99thsession/texts/wcms_142613/lang--en/index.htm kaplowitz, m.d., hadlock, t.d., & levine, r. (2004). a comparison of web and mail survey response rates. public opinion quarterly, 68, 94–101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfh006 kirkham, h.s., clark, b.l., bolas, c.a., lewis, g.h., jackson, a.s., fisher, d. et al. (2015). which modifiable health risks are associated with changes in productivity costs? population health management, 18(1), 30–38. pmid: 25375893, http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/pop.2014.0033 kuoppala, j., lamminpää, a., & husman, p. (2008). work health promotion, job well-being, and sickness absences--a systematic review and meta-analysis. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 50(11), 1216–1227. pmid: 19001948, http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/jom.0b013e31818dbf92 linnan, l., bowling, m., childress, j., lindsay, g., blakey, c., pronk, s. et al. (2008). results of the 2004 national worksite health promotion survey. american journal of public health, 98(8), 1503–1509. pmid: 18048790, http://dx.doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2006.100313 lucini, d., solaro, n., lesma, a., gillet, v.b., & pagani, m. (2011). health promotion in the workplace: assessing stress and lifestyle with an intranet tool. journal of medical internet research, 13(4), e88. pmid: 22068357, http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/jmir.1798 mail & guardian. (2015, april 2). campaigning for a fourth bottom line. retrieved may 05, 2015, from http://mg.co.za/article/2015-04-02-00-campaigning-for-a-fourth-bottom-line/ mcfarlin, s.k., & fals-stewart, w. (2002). workplace absenteeism and alcohol use: a sequential analysis. psychology of addictive behaviours, 16(1), 17–21. pmid: 11934081, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0893-164x.16.1.17 merrill, r.m., aldana, s.g., pope, j.e., anderson, d.r., coberley, c.r., vyhlidal, t.p. et al. (2011). evaluation of a best-practice worksite wellness program in a small-employer setting using selected well-being indices. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 53(4), 448–454. pmid: 21407092, http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/jom.0b013e3182143ed0 osilla, k.c., dela cruz, e., miles, j.n.v., zellmer, s., watkins, k., larimer, m.e. et al. (2010). exploring productivity outcomes from a brief intervention for at-risk drinking in an employee assistance program. addictive behaviors, 35(3), 194–200. pmid: 19897312, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2009.10.001 panter, c. (2009). workplace wellness works. mercedes benz. workshop, nelson mandela bay business chamber, port elizabeth, south africa, 29 october 2009. parry, c.d., patra, j., & rehm, j. (2011). alcohol consumption and non-communicable diseases: epidemiology and policy implications. addiction, 106(10), 1718–1724. pmid: 21819471, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03605.x rehm, j., baliunas, d., borges, g.l.g., graham, k., irving, h., kehoe, t. et al. (2010). the relation between different dimensions of alcohol consumption and burden of disease: an overview. addiction, 105(5), 817–843. pmid: 2033157, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2010.02899.x rehm, j., shield, k.d., joharchi, n., & shuper, p.a. (2012). alcohol consumption and the intention to engage in unprotected sex: systematic review and meta-analysis of experimental studies. addiction, 107(1), 51–59. pmid: 22151318, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03621.x rosen, s., feeley, f., connelly, p., & simon, j. (2007). the private sector and hiv/aids in africa: taking stock of 6 years of applied research. aids, 21(suppl. 3), s41–s51. pmid: 17666961, http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.aids.0000279693.61652.2d sabcoha. (2012). sabcoha: empowering business in the fight against hiv 2004 to 2012. flagship report. retrieved may 08, 2015, from http://www.sabcoha.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/sabcoha flagship report final.pdf sarna, l., aguinaga bialous, s., wells, m.j., kotlerman, j., froelicher, e.s., & wewers, m.e. (2009). do you need to smoke to get a break? smoking status and missed work breaks among staff nurses. american journal of preventive medicine, 37(suppl. 2), s165–s171. pmid: 19591757, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2009.05.005 sinanovic, e., & kumaranayake, l. (2006a). quality of tuberculosis care provided in different models of public-private partnerships in south africa. international journal of tuberculosis and lung disease, 10(7), 795–801. pmid: 16848343 sinanovic, e., & kumaranayake, l. (2006b). sharing the burden of tb/hiv? costs and financing of public-private partnerships for tuberculosis treatment in south africa. tropical medicine & international health: tm & ih, 11(9), 1466–1474. pmid: 16930269, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3156.2006.01686.x sinanovic, e., & kumaranayake, l. (2010). the motivations for participation in public-private partnerships for the provision of tuberculosis treatment in south africa. global public health, 5(5), 479–492. pmid: 19479590, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17441690902942498 stansfeld, s., & candy, b. (2006). psychosocial work environment and mental health – a meta-analytic review. scandinavian journal of work, environment and health, 32(6), 443–462. pmid: 17173201, http://dx.doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.1050 thurlow, j., gow, j., & george, g. (2009). hiv/aids, growth and poverty in kwazulu-natal and south africa: an integrated survey, demographic and economy-wide analysis. journal of the international aids society, 12, 1–13. pmid: 19758444, http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1758-2652-12-18 torp, s., grimsmo, a., hagen, s., duran, a., & gudbergsson, s.b. (2013). work engagement: a practical measure for workplace health promotion? health promotion international, 28(3), 387–396. pmid: 22692482, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/heapro/das022 unaids. (2011). nearly 50% of people who are eligible for antiretroviral therapy now have access to lifesaving treatment. retrieved may 03, 2015, from http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/pressreleaseandstatementarchive/2011/november/20111121wad2011report/ van wyngaardt, m. (2010, february 19). hiv/aids research study first of its kind in south africa. engineering news. retrieved may 03, 2015, from http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/hivaids-research-for-automotive-component-sector-2010-02-19 van zyl, g., & lubisi, c. (2009). hiv/aids in the workplace and the impact on firm-efficiency and firm-competitiveness: the south african manufacturing industry as a case study. sa journal of human resource management, 7(1), 1–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.206 vass, j., & phakathi, s. (2006). managing hiv in the workplace: learning from smes. cape town: hsrc press. verster, j.c., stephens, r., penning, r., rohsenow, d., mcgeary, j., levy, d. et al. (2010). the alcohol hangover research group consensus statement on best practice in alcohol hangover research. current drug abuse reviews, 3(2), 116–126. pmid: 20712593, http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1874473711003020116 who. (2015). healthy workplaces: a who global model for action. retrieved may 04, 2015, from http://www.who.int/occupational_health/healthy_workplaces/en/ widanarko, b., legg, s., devereux, j., & stevenson, m. (2012). raising awareness of psychosocial factors in the occurrence of low back symptoms in developing countries. work, 41(suppl. 1), 5734–5736. pmid: 22317668, http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/wor-2012-0934-5734 widanarko, b., legg, s., devereux, j., & stevenson, m. (2014). the combined effect of physical, psychosocial/organisational and/or environmental risk factors on the presence of work-related musculoskeletal symptoms and its consequences. applied ergonomics, 45(6), 1610–1621. pmid: 24934982, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2014.05.018 abstract introduction research design findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) hendrik j. pelser department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa anita bosch department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa willem schurink department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa citation pelser, h.j., bosch, a., & schurink, w. (2016). an organisational coherence model to maintain employee contributions during organisational crises. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a725. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.725 note: this article is based on a phd thesis ‘an organisational coherence model to maintain employee contribution during organisational crises’ by h.j. pelser in 2014 at university of johannesburg, south africa. original research an organisational coherence model to maintain employee contributions during organisational crises hendrik j. pelser, anita bosch, willem schurink received: 19 june 2015; accepted: 28 jan. 2016; published: 01 june 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: crises that threaten an organisation’s continued existence cannot be seen in isolation when considering the perception of threats to individual job security. these threats often go hand in hand with employee panic. research purpose: the aim of this study was to establish a model to assist organisations in managing employee emotionality and panic during times of crisis. motivation for the study: environmental crises threaten organisations’ existence, threatening employees’ livelihood and resulting in employee panic. panic reduces employees’ contributions. organisations that are successful harness employee contributions at all times. research design, approach, and method: a modernist qualitative research methodology was adopted, which included a case study as research strategy, purposive sampling to select 12 research participants, semi-structured interviews for data gathering, focus groups for data verification, and the use of grounded theory for data analysis. main findings: an organisation’s ability to manage employee panic depends on the relationship between the foundational elements of authentic leadership, crisis readiness, resilience practices, versatile and committed talent, strategic management, quality management, and coherence actions taken during the crisis, which include crisis leadership, ongoing visible communication, mindfulness, work flexibility, and decisions based on the greatest financial need and social support. practical/managerial implications: the study provides a best-practice option for managing emotionality during crises for the case organisation and other organisations within the vehicle components and other manufacturing industries. contribution/value-add: the coherence hexagons model is presented as a tool to manage employee panic during crisis. introduction key focus of the study ‘i couldn’t sleep last night but stayed up talking about what was going to happen’. ‘it is terrible. death. it’s like a massive earthquake’. a person can be forgiven for thinking that these are lines from a disaster movie. the comments are, in fact, from lehman brothers employees duo ai and kirsty mccluskey after the news of the potential collapse of the bank broke (teather, orr & hopkins, 2008, p. 1). these are also the kind of reactions that may become commonplace in the future as the pressure on organisations increases because of higher levels of competition and environmental volatility. unmanaged, these reactions could spread panic through organisations, which, in turn, could cause their collapse. modern managers therefore have a duty to find ways of dealing with emotionality and panic. background the metaphor of the ‘perfect storm’ has been proposed to capture the essence of the post-2000 business environment (dotlich, cairo & rhinesmith, 2009). contributing to the perfect storm environment is the increase in the scale of crises. the simple truth is that modern crises have no respect for national boundaries (beck, 1992). the interconnected nature of the modern globalised society exposes a variety of systems to what is termed the transboundary crisis (boin, 2009). boin (2009) described a transboundary crisis as one with no clear beginning or end that threatens a range of system elements in the absence of clear-cut plans of action to remedy the consequences. organisations and their leaders operate within a crisis-driven context, where discontinuity and unpredictability are the norm. the leadership reality is one that is increasingly complex, diverse, and uncertain. the world has become a place where it is impossible for leadership to keep up with an operating environment that is flat, fast, interdependent, and risky (dotlich et al., 2009). crises are, in essence, a business reality, inseparable from day-to-day operations (elsubbaugh, fildes & rose, 2004). purpose the motivation for the study was based on the contention that environmental crises will continue to threaten organisations’ existence, posing a threat to employees’ livelihood resulting in panic. unmanaged employee emotionality and panic have the potential of putting a marginal business over the edge. it is in light of these issues that the primary research question was: which organisational elements contribute to or detract from coherence during perceived organisational crises? the following supporting sub-questions apply: which emotions do employees display during perceived crises? which organisational elements contain or fuel employee emotionality and panic during perceived crises? trends gleaned from the literature framed by a set of circumstances where the environment will vacillate between crises, organisations and their leadership have to carve a market niche to serve a customer base that is increasingly informed and less loyal (alrubaiee & al-nazer, 2010). in order to cope with these potential environmental changes, organisations have embarked upon strategic management. strategic management is the integration of functions and resources with strategies to maintain alignment with the external environment and ensure future return in competition and stakeholder value (ehlers & lazenby, 2010). whereas strategic management’s focus is on the offensive aspects of competing in the marketplace, crisis management centres on the defensive capabilities of the company (penrose, 2000). the aim of crisis management is surviving events threatening an organisation’s existence (mitroff, diamond & murat alpaslan, 2006), as opposed to the strategic management focus of dealing with opportunities and threats. the overarching theme of crisis management activities is the use of formal organisational arrangements – systems, structures, and procedures – to secure the continued survival of an organisation during and after a crisis (elsubbaugh et al., 2004; massey & larsen, 2006; mitroff et al., 2006). the potential shortfalls of the formalised approach to crisis management is highlighted by the definition of a crisis provided by the london school of economics’ crisis states research centre, which suggests an inability on the part of institutions or organisations to cope with environmental challenges powerful enough to disrupt and even threaten the continued existence of established systems (porfiriev, 2005). threats to established systems that have the potential for creating real panic are those where the logic in the universe is brought into question, because understanding and processes linked to understanding collapse (weick, 2006). weick (2006) contended that the elements that hold an organisation together are, in many instances, far more tenuous than managers believe, especially when people are required to fulfil unfamiliar roles in completing ambiguous tasks, in circumstances where key roles are neglected. these kinds of threats have the potential to cause significant psychological suffering (miller, 2006). this aspect of broader organisational crisis management has largely been neglected in research. research design research approach elliott, fischer and rennie (1999) stated that qualitative research aims to understand incidents, encounters, and actions engaged with, and lived through by an individual. the focus of qualitative research is therefore to create an understanding of the phenomenon being investigated, by incorporating the perspectives of the participants (elliott et al., 1999), that is, elucidating human environments and experiences (hay, 2005). a number of factors played a role in opting for a modernist qualitative approach in the present study. these included our need to reflect individual experiences, the ideal of creating accurate theory based on an in-depth literature review, the use of multiple methods and rigorous questioning and analysis, and accounting for a full range of eventualities in a structured manner. research strategy a case study as research strategy was used. case studies are, first and foremost, descriptive; secondly, they allow for the generation of rich information about people and particular contexts; and, finally, they create opportunities for the emergence of new ideas and hypotheses (terre blanche & durrheim, 2002). the value of using a single exploratory and intrinsic case study lies in its ability to draw attention to pertinent aspects of human behaviour (schram, 2006). the value of using an intrinsic case study has to be questioned, especially if one considers its limitations in terms of transferability and in creating theory (stake, 1995). silverman (2010), however, countered this opinion by providing the following as guidelines to producing explanations that are transferable: firstly, combining qualitative research with quantitative measures of populations; secondly, following a process of purposive sampling, informed by time and funds; thirdly, using theoretical sampling; and finally, using a model to analyse the case, which shows cross-case transferability. we followed a single exploratory and intrinsic case study method to examine and describe the reactions of staff to the significant drop in demand for automotive products, with the intention of identifying those organisational realities that impact these reactions. research method research setting the case organisation was a privately owned engineering firm that provides components and equipment locally and globally to the automotive, construction, and related industries. we refer to the firm as ‘david’, based on comments from a number of research participants who described the firm as small but tough. employees of david live by the motto of ‘our customers come first’. managers, employees, and teams alike are held accountable for their performance with continuous improvement. they interact on a first-name basis, from the ceo to the sweeper. this, however, does not suggest a lack of respect. finally, an open-door policy exists at all the management levels. the year 2011 posed significant challenges to the continued survival of david, which accurately reflects a crisis-driven environment. the specific events that had caused this included the tsunami that hit japan in march, the floods in thailand between march and august, air travel over europe being disrupted by the eruption of iceland’s grimsvotn volcano in may, strike action locally affecting international freight and transport, snowfalls in august causing the road between gauteng and durban to be closed, and global shortages of required raw materials such as nylon. the crises david faced had impacts both individually and collectively on its performance. entrée and establishing researcher roles we established initial contact with the managing director of david. formal permission to commence with the research was granted in writing. acknowledging and accounting for the influence of the researcher, although important, is not sufficient to ensure quality research. in light of this, we treated the information that the research participants offered with an open mind. we also subjected our own preconceptions to ongoing, intense assessments, and we intermittently discussed key research decisions amongst ourselves and a person previously employed by david, which served as peer debriefing exercises (terre blanche & durrheim, 2002). sampling although there is no consensus regarding the correct qualitative sample size, the ideal is to strike a balance between a population not too large to prevent the extraction of thick, rich data, yet large enough to allow ‘for data saturation (flick, 1998; morse, 1995), theoretical saturation (strauss & corbin, 1990), and informational redundancy (lincoln & guba, 1985)’, originally stated by sandelowski in onwuegbuzie and leech (2007, p. 242). we decided to select employees who potentially had direct and intimate knowledge of the potential ramifications of the recession. furthermore, we selected employees across all functional areas, and drew participants from the operations and management structural levels. we took special care to include employees who were involved in consultative processes with management. whereas the initial sampling we applied was purposive, we thereafter used theoretical sampling, to allow for groups or categories relevant to the research questions, as well as attempts to explain the data (silverman, 2010). we also used chain-reference sampling to identify new categories of data, until saturation was reached. here, one identifies critical cases or informants who are well informed, that is, who have a great deal of information about a phenomenon (cohen & crabtree, 2006). we asked the managing director and interviewees to identify individuals who could contribute critically pertinent information. in light of the above, the research participants indicated in table 1 were drawn from the three main levels of the organisation’s structure. table 1: profile of research participants. data collection methods in line with the usage of multiple data collection methods in the modernist tradition, we used interviewing, focus groups, documents, and participant observation. face-to-face interviews: our primary method of data collection was unstructured interviews, utilising an open-ended question format. also referred to as in-depth, intensive, focused, or ethnographic interviews, this format allows one to obtain detailed information, clarify reasons for behaviour, and uncover the issues behind interviewees’ answers, opinions, feelings, or emotions (van rensburg et al., 2009). we first conducted a pilot interview with one participant. thereafter, we adjusted the interview guide to ensure that information-rich data could be collected during the interviews. the three main open-ended questions that were posed to the interviewees were: what do you recall about the period in 2011, between the tsunami hitting japan and before the floods in thailand? what was the impact on the organisation and its people? how did the employees respond to this impact? what did the employees do? how did they behave? what emotions did they display? how did management respond to these events? what did the managers do? how did they behave? focus group interviews: focus groups are particularly useful for providing qualitative data. the interaction is considered more natural than interviews, as they reflect the real-life influence that people have on one another (krueger & casey, 2000). we specifically used focus groups, firstly, to confirm our interpretation of the findings from the interviews and, secondly, to construct deeper meaning from the emerging findings. to ensure anonymity, the different levels of employees were kept apart in the focus groups, and we did not share the original interpretations or words used during the interviews. additional data sources: a number of additional sources were used, such as process documents detailing issues like tracking and correcting faults, strategies related to cost saving and efficiency, and time sheets. we were also taken on a tour of the facility. we took particular interest in flowcharts indicating the manufacturing processes, the use of buckets to measure waste at the end of shifts, and the large number – comparatively speaking – of female operators on the production line. we also noted other tours being conducted. david’s management actively promoted information and knowledge sharing with other manufacturers as part of their own skills development. this data were captured as field notes. recording of data when recording data, the following are important considerations: the organisation under study, data entry, data backup, and data safety (bogdan & biklen, 2007). all the interviews and focus groups were recorded using two separate digital devices. transcribed interviews: interviews were transcribed. in order to accurately capture the perceptions, emotions, actions, and words of the interviewees and focus group participants, we used field notes to supplement the digital recordings (hahn, 2008). the field notes and voice recordings were used jointly in finalising the transcripts. we paid specific attention to capturing the full narrative of the recording during the transcription process, making additional annotations to reflect pertinent non-verbal communication such as emotions and facial expressions. insights recorded during the interviews and focus groups on the written notes were included in the transcripts. field notes: field notes are primarily used to account for the researcher’s experiences in collecting and reflecting on data (bogdan & biklen, 2007). we attempted to accurately reflect, through the field notes, from both a descriptive and reflective point of view, the content of both the focus groups and the interviews. we kept these field notes in a transcript file. a personal log was completed directly after each interview or focus group, in order to assess and refine the data collected during the interviews. we also maintained an analytical log to keep track of any ideas that related to theories encountered in literature (minichiello, timewell & alexander, 1995). data analysis: we selected the process proposed by merriam (2009) to complete the data analysis, namely category construction, sorting categories and data, naming the categories, and deciding on the number of categories (merriam, 2009, pp. 178–193). the process of constructing categories starts with studying the transcripts, field notes, and any other documentation associated with the interviews. the research question acts as the backdrop against which initial observations are noted. the codes aim to highlight data that may have specific value beyond the mere description of the setting within which the data were obtained (lowe, 1996). our open coding involved coding by sentence or paragraph, using interview transcripts. we used the open codes as the first step in constructing categories. next, we reviewed the transcripts in order to identify common descriptions, and to group these together. this grouping process can be referred to as axial coding. strauss and corbin (1990) explained axial coding as the process whereby data are connected in fresh ways, under created categories or subcategories. we repeated the process described above with all the sets of interview data, with the aim of identifying patterns and regularities, which became the overarching categories and themes within which items were logically grouped (merriam, 2009, p. 181). the category itself is an abstraction drawn from the data, and, in essence, takes on a life of its own, separate from the data (lincoln & guba, 1985). even though naming the categories is largely an inductive process, the reality is that this is guided by the study’s purpose, a researcher’s mindset and current knowledge, and the views of the research participants as interpreted by a researcher. we allocated names to the categories that reflected the detail we saw in the data. we used merriam’s (2009) suggested four guidelines for creating comprehensive and descriptive categories. firstly, the frequency with which something is raised, that is, the number of times an item is mentioned by research participants, guides the development of a category. secondly, audiences may indicate the categories they consider to be more credible. thirdly, some categories may, on the basis of their uniqueness, be retained. finally, some categories may be unique in their ability to provide unique insights into common problems. strategies employed to ensure quality data sharing, interpreting, and representing other people’s experiences is, at the same time, a great privilege and a responsibility (stake, 2010). in order to increase understanding of the complex phenomena encountered (malterud, 2001), we used the four types of triangulation for purposes of credibility, transferability (lincoln & guba, 1985) and dependability (ryan-nicholls & will, 2009) in the following ways (pelser, 2014): data triangulation: we used a number of focus groups to verify the information obtained during the interviews. investigator triangulation: we discussed the interview records amongst ourselves, to ensure the accuracy of our interpretation of the data. theory triangulation: we used existing models in the area of crisisand panic management to deductively assess the accuracy of our interpretations. methodological triangulation: in addition to the information obtained from the interviews and verified via the focus groups, we verified the accuracy of the outcomes with industry experts. findings the period researched – between the tsunami in japan in march of 2011 and the floods in thailand in september 2011– and the objectives of the research, guided the questions of the initial interview guide. the coding process progressed from open coding through axial coding, resulting in 21 categories across the four data sets, as illustrated in table 2. table 2: data categories. we combined the categories through the process of selective coding to create the initial story line. selective coding is the process through which theory is integrated and created (strauss & corbin, 1998). developing theory starts with the generation or clarification of a storyline (pandit, 1996). the analysed storyline becomes the core category of the theory being developed. we believed that it was apparent from the sheer volume of responses that was grouped into the ongoing communication category that the core category would include a reference to this process. the second element that we believed needed to be linked to the process of ongoing communication was that of transparency. the central category was described as follows: ongoing visible communication, trust, and transparency are central to managing employee emotionality during organisational crises. grounded theory has as its essence the emergence of theory from raw data. strauss and corbin (1990), however, considered it appropriate to use those resources that relate to emerging theory as a way of validating the accuracy of findings. as the basis of grounded theory is the emergence of theory from research, we opted to conduct the review by theme or construct. mouton (2009) indicated this option as appropriate for both quantitative and qualitative exploratory studies. the central category we developed via the selective coding process, as well as the categories and themes that emerged from the openand axial coding processes, i.e. the emergent theory, framed the review. from the data, we developed the organisational coherence hexagons model (figure 1). figure 1: the coherence hexagons model. the first column of table 3 presents a summary of our first-order constructs, derived empirically; the second column presents the relevant second-order constructs, drawn from literature; and the third column indicates the elements included in the model to account for the firstand second-order constructs. table 3: elements of the coherence hexagons model. discussion the coherence hexagons model identifies the organisational aspects that have to be in place to manage emotionality and maximise employee contribution during times of crisis. these were expanded on in table 3. why hexagons? in his writings, charles darwin referred to the honeycomb as a masterpiece of engineering, maximising levels of efficiency in terms of labour and wax (zhang, duan, karihaloo & wang, 2010). pappus of alexandria, the 4th-century geometer, suggested that the value of the hexagon lies in the fact that it holds more honey for the same amount of wax used than any other shape (zhang et al., 2010). in addition to their levels of efficiency, beehives are, by their very nature, also incredibly robust and resilient. modern organisations, as do modern employees, have to be efficient, robust, and resilient to survive the crisis-driven environment. the coherence hexagons model identifies the elements required to promote the development of these characteristics. in addition to suggesting efficiency, robustness, and resilience, the hexagon shape also allows for each of the major elements to be expanded on through the use of additional interconnecting hexagons. the hexagons could be at the centre or form part of an evolving theory. interpreting the hexagons several elements have to be embedded in an organisation to provide the foundation for managing emotionality and maximising contributions during times of crisis. these elements, although represented as different sides of the hexagon, are interrelated. leaders are therefore expected to ensure that these sides remain congruent with each other. the sides opposite each other indicate elements that feed into, and off of, each other. the coherence hexagons’ foundational elements and sub-elements authentic leadership makes up the first side, and, because of its importance, is placed at the top of the hexagon. modern employees expect to have leaders who they can trust, who maintain high levels of ethics, and who are emotionally intelligent. the presence of these qualities will ensure that employees respond positively during times of crisis when leaders deploy specific crisis-related actions. crisis readiness makes up the second side of the hexagon. leaders who adopt a mindset of ‘anything can happen’ are in a better position to remain calm during crises. calm leaders are essential to ensure calm employees. crisis planning as the second sub-element of crisis readiness anticipates possible contingencies and provides plans of action to deal with these. these plans promote the perception of leaders being in control. resilience practices make up the third side of the hexagon. organisations with a positive track record of effectively coping with, and rebounding from, previous crises have stories to share of ‘how we have done this before’. these stories serve as a reminder to employees of the potential of the organisation to bounce back. sharing these stories forms an essential part of managing emotionality. resilience practices are underpinned by the sub-elements of speed, transparency, and accountability. speed refers to issues that relate to, amongst others, the turnaround time to recover from previous crises. transparency refers to the extent to which stakeholders are able to understand the internal workings of the organisation. accountability refers to the extent to which leaders accept responsibility for their own actions. situated opposite to authentic leadership is versatile, committed talent. along with authentic leadership, versatile committed talent represents the human element of the model. the sub-elements – corporate social responsibility, wellness, talent management, lifelong or wide learning, and multiskilling – each contributes to the presence of versatilists in the organisation. versatile employees appreciate the importance of employability, as opposed to employment. versatilists also panic less during crises. strategic management and crisis readiness make up the planning component of the model. strategy formulation, as the first phase of the strategic management process, provides a number of essential factors to guide behaviour during crises, such as the organisation’s vision, mission, and value statements, along with strategies to counteract the impact of crisis events. developing and creating an appropriate culture and structure to, if necessary, frame crisis management activities form part of the strategy implementation phase. finally, strategic evaluation and control is essential to verify whether the strategic plan has unfolded as intended, and if necessary to initiate corrective action. quality management and resilience practices combine to form the systems element of the model. quality management and its sub-elements of a quality management system, continuous improvement, and innovation contribute to an organisation’s competitive advantage. during times of crisis, these sub-elements are used to focus employees who are distracted because of stress and emotionality. the coherence hexagons’ action elements the success of the coherence actions undertaken as per the central split hexagon depends on the quality of the foundational processes of the coherence hexagons. the elements are split into those that relate to the behaviour of crisis leaders and those that specifically accommodate the needs of employees. crisis leadership, as the top of the central hexagon and linked to authentic leadership, relates to those actions undertaken by those in authority to maintain employee contribution. successful crisis leaders are calm and visible, and take charge of situations as they occur. intimately linked with crisis leadership is the need for those in positions of authority to engage in ongoing visible communication. leaders are expected to remain up to date with events as they unfold, deal with rumours as they spread, and to truthfully communicate actions taken to deal with the crisis as it evolves. mindfulness is a practice that allows leaders and followers to focus on the immediate, despite the large number of emotional and other distractions that may compete for attention during times of crisis. intimately linked with the presence of versatile committed talent is the need for organisations to be flexible to accommodate and capitalise on these employees and their competencies. work flexibility refers to the opportunities available to employees to move between sections in the organisation and/or to move to other organisations to make up for income lost as a result of actions like short time or layoffs. this aspect plays a key role in retaining talent in the long run. organisational crises, especially those with an economic basis, are often associated with actions such as short time and layoffs. organisations can manage employee panic by basing their staffing decisions on the principle of greatest financial need. employees who fall into the category of greatest financial need are often single parents or from single-income families. finally, people need to feel that they have someone in their corner during times of crisis. social support can come in many forms, including prayer groups, counselling or therapy, and team members supporting each other. organisations have to make these opportunities available during times of crisis. limitations of the study firstly, one of the potential drawbacks related to the selection of the research participants for the present study is that we drew people from different levels in the organisation’s structure, that is, manager, group leader, team leader, and operator. even though we did not observe anything in particular in this regard, the use of people who report to each other may have constrained the research participants in fully contributing during the interviews. secondly, a lack of generalisability is often considered the greatest drawback of using a single case study (bryman & bell, 2007). even though some writers argue that the process of theoretical sampling should create a theory that is exportable (as opposed to generalisable) to situations where circumstances similar to the case exist (flyvbjerg, 2006; morse, 1999a; popay, rogers & williams, 1998; yin, 2003), we believe we have to acknowledge the limitations imposed by using a single research setting. thirdly, merriam (2009) identified the selective use of data by the researcher and potential researcher bias because of researcher subjectivity as another limitation inherent in qualitative research. even though we believe that, through the use of reflexive practices, peer reviews, member checks, peer debriefing, audit trails, and rich, thick descriptions, we may have addressed this issue, we acknowledge this as a potential limitation. fourthly, grounded theory is not immune to criticism. the most common criticism is a lack of scientific (deductive) analysis (gasson, 2004) and its inability to render testable theory (goldthorpe, 2000). the final limitation relates to the actual outcome of the crisis period used to frame the study. the opportunities presented by the subsequent flooding in thailand ensured a positive outcome. no jobs were lost, and additional overtime made up for loss of income. it would be naive not to think that the research participants’ experiences may have been different, had the outcome been negative, that is retrenchments, et cetera. recommendations additional research needs to be conducted on the areas depicted on the external sides of the hexagon. the research should focus on identifying the support elements required in the areas of authentic leadership, crisis readiness, resilience practices, strategic management, and quality management. the research should be based within the context of the crisis-driven environment. another area of research could be the implementation of the coherence hexagons model, specifically ways to diagnose an organisation’s existing design and the processes to transform the organisation to meet the requirements of the model. finally, a study should be undertaken to identify those elements that signal coherence, that is, the point at which employee emotionality and panic have been addressed. at this stage, managers can refocus their leadership on addressing ongoing strategic and operational issues. conclusion the world is changing at a rapid pace and turmoil is becoming the norm. the management of employee panic in times of crises is fast becoming one of the competitive advantages of any business. the coherence hexagon model presented in this paper provides a practical way of addressing coherence when all else may seem out of control. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions h.j.p. was the phd student, a.b. was the supervisor, and w.s. was the co-supervisor of the study which this article is based upon. references allport, g., & postman, l. (1947). the psychology of rumour. new york: henry holt and company. alpaslan, c., green, s., & mitroff, i. (2009). corporate governance in the context of crises: towards a stakeholder theory of crisis management. journal of contingencies and crisis management, 17(1), 38–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5973.2009.00555.x alrubaiee, l., & al-nazer, n. (2010). investigate the impact of relationship marketing orientation on customer loyalty: the customer’s perspective. international journal of marketing studies, ii(1), 155–174. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v2n1p155 archer, j. (1992). campus in crisis: coping with fear and panic related to serial murders. journal of counselling and development, 71(1), 96–100. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.1992.tb02181 barnes, p., powell-griner, e.m., & nahin, r. (2004). complementary and alternative medicine use among adults: united states, 2002. cdc. atlanta, ga: advance data from vital and health statistics. retrieved 24 march 2010, from http://nccam.nih.gov/news/camsurvey.htm barrientos, a., & hulme, d. (2008). social protection for the poor and poorest: an introduction. in a. barrientos, & d. hulme (eds.), social protection for the poor and the poorest: concepts, policies and politics, (pp. 3–24). basingstoke, uk: palgrave-macmillan. beck, u. (1992). risk society: towards a new modernity. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. bogdan, r., & biklen, s. (2007). qualitative research for education: an introduction to theory and methods (5th edn.). boston, ma: pearson education. boin, a. (2009). the new world of crises and crisis management: implications for policymaking and research. review of policy research, 26(4), 367–377. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-1338.2009.00389.x bryman, a., & bell, e. (2007). business research methods (2nd edn.). oxford, ny: oxford university press. carver, c., & scheier, m. (1999). stress, coping, and self-regulatory processes. in l. pervin & o. john (eds.), handbook of personality: theory and research (pp. 553–575). new york: guilford press. chagonda, t. (2012). teachers’ and bank workers’ responses to zimbabwe’s crisis: uneven effects, different strategies. journal of contemporary african studies, 30(1), 83–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2012.639656 choi, j., sung, s., & kim, m. (2010). how do groups react to unexpected threats? crisis management in organisational teams. social behaviour and personality, 38(6), 805–828. http://dx.doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2010.38.6.805 clapham, d. (2005). the meaning of housing: a pathways approach. bristol: policy press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9906.2007.00325_2.x cohen, d., & crabtree, b. (2006). snowball or chain sampling. qualitative research guidelines project. retrieved september 12, 2010, from http://www.qualres.org/homesnow-3816.html cole, k. (2010). management: theory and practice (4th edn.). french forest, nsw, australia: pearson. cooper, c., scandura, t., & schriesheim, c. (2005). looking forward but learning from our past: potential challenges to developing authentic leadership theory and authentic leaders. the leadership quarterly, 16(3), 475–493. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.008 david, f. (2011). strategic management: concepts and cases (13th edn.). nj, upper saddle river: prentice hall. dotlich, d.l., cairo, p.c., & rhinesmith, s.h. (2009). leading in times of crisis: navigating through complexity, diversity, and uncertainty to save your business. san francisco, ca: josey-bass. doyal, l., & gough, i. (1991). a theory of human need. basingstoke, uk: macmillan. dynes, r. (1994). community emergency planning: false assumptions and inappropriate analogies. international journal of mass emergencies and disasters, 12(2), 141–158. echterling, l., presbury, j., & edson mckee, j. (2005). crisis intervention: promoting resilience and resolution in troubled times. upper saddle river, nj: pearson merrill prentice hall. ehlers, m., & lazenby, j. (2010). strategic management: south african concepts and cases (3rd edn.). pretoria, south africa: van schaik. elliott, r., fischer, c., & rennie, d. (1999). the british psychological society evolving guidelines for publication of qualitative research studies in psychology and related fields. british journal of clinical psychology, 38, 215–229. elsubbaugh, s., fildes, r., & rose, m. (2004). preparation for crisis management: a proposed model and empirical evidence. journal of contingencies and crisis management, 12(3), 112–127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0966-0879.2004.00441.x feldman, c., & kuyken, w. (2011). compassion in the lanscape of suffering. contemporary buddhism, 12(1), 143–155. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2011.564831 felicia, s., & ioana, f. (2012). leadership and crisis management during crisis situations. constanta maritime university annals, 17(1), 303–306. retrieved 05 may 2013, from http://cmu-edu.eu/repec/cmc/annals/303-v17.pdf fildis, a. (2011). the welfare of women and children during the global economic crisis. trakya üniversitesi sosyal bilimler dergisi, 13(2), 297–308. flick, u. (1998). an introduction to qualitative research. london, united kingdom: sage publications. florini, a. (2007). the battle over transparency. in a. florini & a. florini (ed.), the right to know: transparency for an open world (pp. 1–18). new york, ny: columbia university press. flyvbjerg, b. (2006). five misunderstandings about case-study research. qualitative inquiry, 12(2), 219–245. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1077800405284363 forrier, a., & sels, l. (2003). the concept of employability: a complex mosaic. international journal of human resource development and management, 3(2), 102–124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/ijhrdm.2003.002414 friedman, t. (2005). the world is flat: a brief history of the twenty-first century. new york, ny: farrar, straus, and giroux. fugate, m., kinicki, a., & blake, e. (2004). employability: a psycho-social construct, its dimensions and applications. journal of vocational behaviour, 65(1), 14–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2003.10.005 gahran, a. (2008, november 26). following mumbai attacks via social media. contentious.com. retrieved 23 march 2010, from http://www.contentious.com/2008/11/26/following-mumbai-attacks-via-social-media/ gall, t., & grant, k. (2005). spiritual disposition and understanding illness. pastoral psychology, 53(6), 515–533. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11089-005-4818-y gasson, s. (2004). rigor in grounded theory research: an interpretive perspective on generating theory from qualitative field studies. in m. whitman & a. woszczynski (eds.), the handbook of information systems research (pp. 79–102). hershey, pa: igi global. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-59140-144-5 goldthorpe, j. (2000). on sociology: numbers, narratives, and the integration of research and theory. oxford: oxford university press. goleman, d., boyatzis, r., & mckee, a. (2002). the new leaders: transforming the art of leadership into the science of results. london, uk: time warner books. gonza´lez-herrero, a., & smith, s. (2008). management on the web: how internet-based technologies are changing the way public relations professionals handle business crises. journal of contingencies and crisis management, 16(3), 143–153. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5973.2008.00543.x greeff, a., & loubser, k. (2008). spirituality as a resiliency quality in xhosa-speaking families in south africa. journal of religion and health, 47(3), 288–301. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10943-007-9157-7 grobler, p., bothma, r., brewster, c., carey, l., holland, p., & wärnich, s. (2011). contemporary issues in human resources management (4th edn.). cape town, south africa: oxford press. hadzic, m. (2011). spirituality and health: current research and future directions. journal of spirituality in mental health, 13(4), 223–235. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19349637.2011.616080 hahn, c. (2008). doing qualitative research using your computer: a practical guide. london, united kingdom: sage publications. hay, i. (2005). qualitative research methods in human geography (2nd edn.). oxford: oxford university press. hayes, s., strosahl, k., & wilson, k. (1999). acceptance and commitment therapy: an experiential approach to behaviour change. new york: guilford press. hellriegel, d., jackson, s., slocum, j., staude, g., amos, t., oosthuizen, t., et al. (2007). management: second south african edition. cape town, south africa: oxford university press. hilton, m., scuffham, p., vecchio, n., & whiteford, h. (2010). productivity, using the interaction of mental health symptoms and treatment status to estimate lost employee productivity. australian and new zealand journal of psychiatry, 44(2), 151–161. http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/00048670903393605 hinchcliffe, s., & woodward, k. (2004). the natural and the social: uncertainty, risk, change. new york: routledge. holdsworth, l. (2011). sole voices: experiences of non-home-owning sole mother renters. journal of family studies, 17(1), 59–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.5172/jfs.2011.17.1.59 hungwe, c. (2011). a review of the challenges and survival strategies of university workers during the economic crisis: a case study of the midlands state university (msu) workers in zimbabwe. international journal of psychological studies, 3(2), 249–265. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijps.v3n2p249 jennex, m. (2013). is social media effective in a crisis situation? san diego university. retrieved 03 october 2013, from http://cbaweb.sdsu.edu/news/stories/2013/07/social_media jennings, c., castro, n., & smith, c. (2005). model for assessing adaptive effectiveness development. journal of contingencies and crisis management, 13(3), 129–134. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5973.2005.00467.x jun, j.s., & myung, s.p. (2001). crisis and organisational paralysis: the lingering problem of korean public administration. journal of contingencies and crisis management, 9(1), 3–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-5973.00148 kim, s. (2010). timeline: toyota’s rise and run-up to its recall crisis. reuters. retrieved 12 may 2013, from http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/02/09/toyota-idusn0920267420100209 krueger, r., & casey, m. (2000). focus groups: a practical guide for applied research (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. lambert, n.m., fincham, f.d., & graham, s.m. (2011). understanding the layperson’s perception of prayer: a prototype analysis of prayer. psychology of religion and spirituality, 3(1), 55–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0021596 lincoln, y., & guba, e. (1985). naturalistic enquiry. beverly hills, ca: sage publications. lowe, a. (1996). an explanation of grounded theory. swedish school of economics and business administration working papers, 336, 1–18. mallett, s. (2004). understanding home: a critical review of literature. the sociological review, 52(1), 62–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954x.2004.00442.x malterud, k. (2001). qualitative research: standards, challenges, and guidelines. the lancet, 358(9280), 483–488. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(08)61345-8 massachusetts coalition for the homeless vs. dukakis, civil no. 80109 (suffolk superior court may 5, 1986). massey, j.e., & larsen, j.p. (2006). crisis management in real time: how to successfully plan for and respond to a crisis. journal or promotion management, 12(3–4), 63–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/j057v12n03_06 mccaffrey, a., eisenberg, d., legedza, a., davis, r., & phillips, r. (2004). prayer for health concerns: results of a national survey on prevalence and patterns of use. archives of internal medicine, 164(8), 858–862. http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archinte.164.8.858 mckee-ryan, f. (2006). job loss. in j. greenhaus & g. callanan (eds.), encyclopedia of career development (pp. 428–434). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412952675.n149 mcrae, r., & costa, p. (2006). personality, coping, and coping effectiveness in an adult sample. journal of personality, 54, 385–405. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1986.tb00401.x meier, p. (2013, february 14). did terrorists use twitter to increase situational awareness? irevolution. retrieved 05 may 2013, from http://irevolution.net/2013/02/14/terrorists-used-twitter/ merriam, s. (2009). qualitative research: a guide to design and implementation. san francisco, ca: john wiley & sons. miller, d. (2006). organisational pathology and industrial crisis. in d. smith, & d. elliot (eds.), key readings in crisis management: systems and structures for prevention and recovery (pp. 75–83). new york: routledge. minichiello, v.a., timewell, e., & alexander, l. (1995). in-depth interviewing (2nd edn.). melbourne, australia: longman. mitroff, i., diamond, m., & murat alpaslan, c. (2006). how prepared are america’s colleges and universities for major crises. change, 38(1), 61–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/chng.38.1.61-67 moran, d. (2011). act for leadership: using acceptance and commitment training to develop crisis-resilient change managers. international journal of behavioural consultation and therapy, 6(4), 341–355. moreira-almeida, a., neto, f., & koeig, h. (2006). religiousness and mental health: a review. revista brazileria de psiquiatria, 28(3), 242–250. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/s1516-44462006005000006 morse, j. (1995). the significance of saturation. qualitative health research, 5(2), 147–149. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/104973239500500201 morse, j. (1999a). qualitative generalizability. qualitative health research, 9(1), 5–6. mouton, j. (2009). how to succeed in your master’s and doctoral studies: a south african guide and resource book. pretoria, south africa: van schaik. onwuegbuzie, a., & leech, n. (2007). sampling designs in qualitative research: making the sampling process more public. the qualitative report, 12(2), 238–254. retrieved 12 february 2010, from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/qr/qr12-2/onwuegbuzie1.pdf padgett, d., cheng, s., & parekh, v. (2013). the quest for transparency and accountability: communicating responsibly to stakeholders in crises. asian social science, 9(9), 31–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ass.v9n9p31 pandit, n. (1996). the creation of theory: a recent application of grounded theory method. nova education. retrieved 12 february 2010, from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/qr/qr2-4/pandit.html pargament, k., ano, g., & wachholtz, a. (2005). the religious dimension of coping: advances in theory, research and practice. in r. paloutzian & e. park (eds.), handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality (pp. 479–495). new york: guilford press. pasquali, v., aridas, t., bedell, d., & magno, a. (2012). household savings rates. global finance. retrieved 13 june 2013, from http://www.gfmag.com/tools/global-database/economic-data/12065-household-saving-rates.html#axzz2fnkoospr pauchant, t., & mitroff, i. (1988). crisis prone versus crisis avoiding organisations: is your company’s culture its own worst enemy in creating crises? organisation environment, 2(1), 53–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/108602668800200105 pelser, h. (2014). an organisational coherence model to maintain employee contribution during organisational crises. unpublished doctoral thesis, university of johannesburg, south africa. penrose, j. (2000). the role of perception in crisis planning. public relations review, 26(2), 155–171. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0363-8111(00)00038-2 popay, j., rogers, a., & williams, g. (1998). rationale and standards for the systematic review of qualitative literature in health. services research. qualitative health research, 8(3), 341–351. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/104973239800800305 porfiriev, b. (2005). managing crises in the eu: some reflections of a non-eu scholar. journal of contingencies and crisis management, 13(4), 145–152. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5973.2005.00470.x robbins, s., judge, t., odendaal, a., & roodt, g. (2009). organisational behaviour: global and southern african perspectives (2nd edn.). cape town, south africa: pearson education. rosnow, r. (1991). inside rumour: a personal journey. american psychologist, 46(5), 484–496. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.46.5.484 roux-dufort, c. (2009). the devil lies in details! how crises build up within organisations. journal of contingencies and crisis management, 17(1), 4–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5973.2009.00563.x ryan-nicholls, k., & will, c. (2009). rigour in qualitative research: mechanisms for control. nurse researcher, 16(3), 70–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.7748/nr2009.04.16.3.70.c6947 samson, a., & zerter, b. (2003). the experience of spirituality in the psycho-social adaptation of cancer survivors. journal of pastoral care and counselling, 57(3), 329–343. sasi. (2013). latest statistics: selected economic indicators for south africa. the south african savings institute. retrieved 23 june 2013, from http://www.savingsinstitute.co.za/ schram, t. (2006). conceptualizing and proposing qualitative research (2nd edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson prentice. seeger, m. (2006). best practices in crisis communication: an expert panel process. journal of applied communication research, 34(3), 232–244. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00909880600769944 seeger, m., sellow, t., & ulmer, r. (2003). communication and organisational crisis. westport, ct: praeger. silver, d. (2005). creating transparency for public companies: the convergence of pr and ir in the post-sarbanes-oxley marketplace. the public relations strategist, 11, 14–17. silverman, d. (2010). doing qualitative research (3rd edn.). london, united kingdom: sage publications. singh, s. (2009). a study on employee participation in decision making. unitar e-journal, 5(1), 20–38. retrieved 12 june 2010, from http://www.teo-education.com/teophotos/albums/userpics/a%20study%20on%20employee%20participation%20in%20decision%20making-1.pdf stake, r. (1995). the art of case study research. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. stake, r. (2010). qualitative research: studying how things work. new york: the guilford press. strauss, a., & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques (2nd edn.). london, united kingdom: sage publications. strauss, a., & corbin, j. (1998). basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. teather, d., orr, j., & hopkins, k. (2008, september 15). wall street crisis: lehman staff tell their stories. the guardian. retrieved 13 june 2013, from http://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/sep/15/lehmanbrothers.creditcrunch1 terre blanche, m., & durrheim, d. (2002). research in practice: applied methods for the social sciences. cape town, south africa: uct press. ulmer, r., sellnow, t., & seeger, m. (2007). effective crisis communication: moving from crisis to opportunity. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15205430701528663 van rensburg, g.h., alpaslan, a.h., du plooy, g.m., gelderblom, d., van eeden, r., & wigston, d.j. (2009). research in the social sciences. pretoria: unisa. walsh, f. (2003). family resilience: strenghts forged through adversity. in f. walsh (ed.), normal family processes (pp. 399–421). new york: the guilford press. weick, k. (2006). the colllapse of sensemaking in organisations: the mann gulch disaster. in d. smith & d. elliot (eds.), key readings in crisis management: systems and structures for prevention and recovery (pp. 258–283). new york: routledge. weick, k., & sutcliffe, k. (2001). managing the unexpected: assuring high performance in an age of uncertainty. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. whitener, e., & brodt, s. (1998). managers as initiators of trust: an exchange relationship framework for understanding managerial trustworthy behaviour. academy of management review, 23(3), 513–530. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1998.926624 yin, r. (2003). case study research: design and methods (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. zamahani, m., ghorbani, v., & rezaei, f. (2011). impact of authentic leadership and psychological capital on followers’ trust and performance. australian journal of basic and applied sciences, 5(12), 658–667. zhang, k., duan, h., karihaloo, b., & wang, j. (2010). hierarchical, multi-layered cell walls reinforced by recycled silk cocoons enhance the structural integrity of honeybee combs. proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america (pnas), 107(21), 9502–9506. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073%2fpnas.0912066107 4-mosia.qxd achieving strategic business objectives; positioning the organisation for sustainable growth; and competing in the global arena has placed a new demand on organisations. the challenge is to identif y those leadership roles that can make a real difference to organisational performance. the core issue is the leadership role enacted. the successful development of strategy formulation, implementation and evaluation requires a sustained and co-ordinated commitment from top leadership. so does successful strategy change (chapman, 2002, p. 18; mattis, 2001, p. 372). leadership needs to identif y new pathways for the organisation to follow, allowing it to build momentum for the future. chapman (2002, p. 22) adds that strategic change in any organisation impacts on all employees, albeit in different ways at different levels. during the strategising process top leadership strives to fit its strategies into an accurately described environment. top leadership acknowledges that strategies emerge from the best fit achieved with customers, which highlights the importance of leadership roles at grass root level. everyone leading a team is managing a small organisation, as all the functions that take place in a large organisation take place in a team (margerison, 2001, p. 121). for example, the group executive committee of an organisation, led by its chief executive officer, is a small organisation because the team represents the whole organisation. leadership in organisations leadership is defined by many researchers as an influencing process that is aimed at directing a group toward the achievement of objectives (conradie, 2001, p. 36; robbins, 1998, p. 303). in the process leadership helps and enables followers to remain focused on objectives (leichtling, 2000, p. 28; melilli, 2000, p. 8; schultz, 2000, p. 94). the effectiveness of leadership in directing and influencing others is seen in improved outputs. in this study leadership is seen as a dynamic-energetic process which consists of an interconnected and interdependent set of roles to energise a group toward the realisation of goals. a role in this context is defined as a set of behaviours associated with the leadership process. the leader derives meaning for life out of helping others to realise their goals within the organisational context. the individual’s energy then flows naturally into serving other. for optimum benefits appropriate competencies required for the execution of strategic functions must be identified and developed. leadership contributions in organisations occur through processes that can be defined as coherent sets of actions performed. the latter statement implies that for each leadership role, there are processes to be performed. leadership roles a leadership role pertains to “the observable way of performing leadership”. the question is, what do those roles look like? according to graetz (2000, p. 550) and mattis (2001, p. 375), one of the roles of leadership involves providing strategic direction. thompson and strickland (1999, p. 37) and smit (1999, p. 148) see the challenges of this leadership role as being, firstly, to provide a shared vision of where the organisation is heading and what its purpose is (the mission). the second challenge is to set objectives, that is, to convert the strategic vision and directional course into specific performance outcomes for each key area which leaders deem important for success. the third challenge in providing strategic direction is to generate and develop a strategy that will determine how to achieve the objectives. strategic direction is imperative in identif ying a systematic intervention that will provide the most leverage to the organisation, as an organisation cannot focus on everything all of the time. the focus of strategy implementation is about positioning and managing organisational and environmental forces during the strategic roll-out in order to ensure operational efficiency. the challenge of strategy implementation is to fulfill the appropriate leadership role of aligning and balancing strategic controls, in terms of both information and behaviour. imbalanced strategic control systems fail to define the boundaries of acceptable behaviour and lead to inflexibility (picken & dess, 1997, p. 36). mojaki s mosia theo h veldsman leadership in performance and change department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract the drive towards flatter and more flexible, empowered, interdependent and responsive organisations in the current rapidly changing global situation necessitates the establishment of an integrated set of leadership roles. the purpose of this study was to propose the integrated leadership-champion framework (il-c); and to determine empirically the importance of the il-c for, as well as the importance of the sub-roles of the il-c across the strategic management processes. the il-c as a complete leadership framework could enable organisations to execute their strategic management processes more effectively and efficiently. the empirical study demonstrated the importance of il-c overall and its leadership sub-roles for the strategic management processes. opsomming die soeke na platter, asook meer buigsame, bemagtigde, interafhanklike en responsiewe organisasies in die huidige vinnig veranderende, globale omgewing noodsaak die daarstelling van ’n geïntegreerde stel van leierskaprolle. die doel van hierdie studie was om ’n geïntegreerde leierskap-kampioen raamwerk (gl-r) voor te stel; en om empiries die belangrikheid van die gl-r vir, asook die belangrikheid van die subrolle van gl-r oor die strategiese bestuursprosesse te bepaal. die gl-r as ’n volledige leierskapraamwerk kan organisasies in staat stel om hul strategiese bestuursprosesse meer doeltreffend en doelmatig te bestuur. die empiriese studie toon die belangrikheid van gl-r oorhoofs, asook sy onderskeie leierskapsubrolle vir die strategiese bestuursprosesse. the importance of different leadership roles in the strategic management process requests for copies should be addressed to: th veldsman, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckalnd park, 2006 26 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (1), 26-36 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (1), 26-36 leadership roles 27 david (1999, p. 5) and rodwell, kienzle and shadur (1998, p. 278) agree that some strategy implementation problems arise when the structures, culture and rewards of an organisation communicate a different message to what is in the strategic plan. rewards could be utilised to reinforce and institutionalise the right new behaviour required for strategy implementation (graetz, 2000, p. 552). the strategic reward plan of the organisation should be made known to all employees (weizmann, 1999, p. 39). being an effective communicator therefore appears to be a critical leadership role with respect to strategising. the inadequate linkage of strateg y formulation to implementation could lead to poor execution and results (koopman, 1999, p. 14). the answer to poor linkage could be found in that leadership role which aligns and integrates all activities of teams in an organisation (margerison, 2001, p. 120). leaders playing this role should have the skill to link people and activities for the successful implementation of adopted strategies. thompson and strickland (1999, p. 337) and koopman (1999, p. 15) agree that strategy-culture conflict weakens the successful execution of strategy. they support the idea that culture alignment is needed to make the chosen structures and processes come alive. david (1999, p. 224) supports the latter authors, saying that the structure should be designed to facilitate the strategic pursuit of the organisation, and to ensure that things are done in the right way. another leadership role identified by mattis (2001, p. 377) is that of resourcing. the resources needed must be created, identified and distributed in line with the strategies formulated. an organisation’s resource strength is of the utmost importance as resources are the most logical and crucial building blocks for strategy, while their weaknesses may represent vulnerabilities that need corrections (thompson & strickland, 1999, p. 132). annual objectives serve as guidelines for direction and action, and channel efforts and resources. in allocating resources such as budget and people, leadership needs to know how it can support the strategy to ensure vision realisation (david, 1999, p. 216). a further leadership role concerns assigning responsibility and accountability (mattis, 2001, p. 379). assigning accountability is key to the success of any business venture. people who are empowered and feel accountable are able to implement the strategies developed by top leadership better than those who are not. establishing accountability by, for example, setting goals and linking them to incentives or rewards could be introduced to inspire the right behaviour (graetz, 2000, p. 550). everyone in an organisation would like to know what s/he is accountable for with respect to strategy formulation, implementation and evaluation. in strategy evaluation, leadership examines the bases for strategy as well as compares the expected results versus actual results, and develops corrective action plans if there are any deviations. leadership of the organisation needs to effectively communicate how individual’s performance will be measured and what is to be measured (van zwieten, 1999, p. 49). problem statement if leadership consists of a number of roles, and leadership makes a central contribution to the strategic management processes, can these different roles be integrated into a single framework and the importance of the framework with its respective leadership subroles be demonstrated for the strategic management processes? general research objectives the primary objective of the research was to propose an integrated leadership-champion framework and determine the relative importance of the integrated leadership-champion framework with its suggested sub-roles for each key process within the strategic management process. the secondary objective was to demonstrate the importance of the framework with its subroles empirically. a proposed integrated leadership-champion framework the integrated leadership champion framework (il-c) was developed relative to the strategic management process. il-c leadership subroles the il-c consists of five leadership sub-roles namely; strategicc, valued-s, powered-t, resourceful and flexible-c champions. the five il-c sub roles are discussed in turn. the strategic-change champion is primarily responsible for setting strategic direction and strategic stewardship. the process of setting strategic direction incorporates strategic thought and action, beginning with the initiation and championing the strategic formulation process, then extend through a systems view to strategic management. strategic stewardship is about the capacity to implement plans developed during the process of setting the strategic direction to maximise stakeholders’ wealth/value. strategic-c champion enjoys generating new ways of looking at things. strategic-c champions are forward thinkers, foresight, conceptualising and future oriented, and enjoy medium-term and long-term thinking. they are very optimistic about the future despite lack of evidence to other team members. they are the organisation’s cheerleaders because of their natural longterm optimism. they are very independent and experimental. the valued-servant champion connects all the strategic management processes by establishing and championing the shared values and promotes business ethics. valued-s champion is the integrated leadership-champion sub-role that mobilises, inspires and energises people through adherence to shared values. the valued-s champion builds trusting relationships which encourage collaboration. the valued-s champion displays a genuineness to serve. valued-s champions are personal, caring, empathetic and highly interactive with members of their immediate organisation. they harness their ability to engage employees emotionally as well as rationally, harnessing their feelings and nurturing a contagion of energy across the entire organisation. they are the soul caretaker, and likeable and form strong bonds with others. in summary, the valued-s champions are: humble, sensitive, value, principle and ethical oriented, listen attentively and willing to serve and are very respectful. the powered-team champion is an integrated leadershipchampion sub-role primarily accountable for establishing and managing cascaded goal and team management. the powered-t champion identifies team member’s readiness to take on certain responsibilities and then distributes his/her powers to those who can accept both responsibilit y and accountabilit y. these champions link team members and different work processes together to ensure effectiveness and implant self confidence and autonomy in them. the powered-t champion typically displays participation and encouragement. s/he encourages others for independent thinking, aligns team members’ personal work preferences with the demands of the job, that is matching the person to the job. the powered-t champion gives authority and holds team members accountable for the results of their work and enables team members to solve conflict that arise in cross-functional teams. the resourceful champion adds value through the resource management process, employee development process and organising process. resourceful champion is the il-c sub-role mosia, veldsman28 that influences organisational processes through the identification of the core resources required for the achievement of set goals. the resourceful champion organises, aligns and distributes the available resources according to the strategic needs of the organisation. resourceful champions have a passion to develop people and organise resources for them in order to enable them to produce the required results through the utilisation of the allocated resources. the purpose of this role is to ensure that strategy gets implemented successfully by providing stakeholders with resources. in summary, the resourceful champions are development oriented, supportive, organised and have a set of contacts. the flexible-control champion is the il-c sub-role which applies and makes decisions according to current and future business results and demands. the flexible-c champion monitors a broad range of events inside and outside the organisation. s/he monitors the changes between strategy execution and strategy adjustment and provides reasons thereof. this role primarily brings flexibility in an organisation, controls factors that could impede expected output, and leads a group into periodic assessments of organisational strategies. the flexible-c champions display the following characteristics: being very adaptive in their dealings, quick in adjusting to new ways, open-minded, pressing hard for performance/results, tolerating possible ambiguity and ensuring that departments deliver on set goals. strategic management processes and il-c subroles strategic management can be seen as a continuous dynamic process of formulating, implementing, enabling and evaluating cross-functional decisions. the four processes are sequential in execution, and should always be revisited to ensure alignment with new developments brought about by the formulation process which seem to be the only one revisited often or yearly. successful organisations require leaders that will initiate and champion the strategy formulation process. the strategy formulation process involves creating a shared vision, clarif ying the organisational mission, and setting strategic objectives and select strategies. the process also requires leadership to distinguish the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the organisation as they relate to individuals, processes, and stakeholders. the strategic-c champion and the flexible-c champion appeared to be appropriate roles to execute these functions, especially the strategic-c champion. during strategy implementation leadership needs to ensure goal congruency amongst individual, process and organisational goals. this process of ensuring congruency involves linking organisational goals with team and individual goals and performance; communicating the set goals to gain employee commitment; and ensuring the attainment of individual, team and organisational goals. this process of goal attainment involves motivating and coaching teams and employees how to set performance goals. the process also involves eliminating barriers to work goal attainment. the il-c sub-role of poweredt champion is of utmost important in this instance. during strategy enablement leadership enhances employees’ performance and influences their behaviour. leaders identif y incentives/rewards that have value for employees. they also need to consider strategic and operational needs in designing an appropriate organisational structure. leadership creates and institutionalises the right culture which reinforces the strategy being implemented, and then achieving performance goals with the highest standards of ethics and integrity. leaders determine which resources can optimise job performance, and effectively deploy them to meet the desired business goals. the resourceful and flexible-c champions are the two il-c sub-roles needed for these functions. with regard to strategy evaluation leadership leads groups in periodic assessment of the organisation’s strategies. leadership institutionalises a performance measurement system that links critical dimensions of performance within and between all levels of the organisation. they initiate corrective action when performance is not congruent to goals. they revise strategic thinking methods based on periodic assessment, and use strategic milestones and operational performance to indicate progress in selected strategies. the flexible-c champion is the il-c sub-role critical to fulfil these functions well. method sample the sample was drawn from a south african petrol and chemical organisation operating both locally and internationally. the sample was drawn from all functional groups. the total population at petro-chem is thirty three thousand employees of which one thousand and sixty constitute the leadership group. the test sample consisted of 265 randomly selected leaders, of whom 4.9% represents the group executive team, which forms the first top leadership level. six percent of the total number represents the group management team which is the second top leadership level; 18.9% is from the divisional executive, the third leadership level; and 70.2% represents the area leaders, which is the fourth leadership level. the majority (28.2%) of the respondents were in the 15-21 years category, with a mean of fifteen years service in the organisation. inversely 56% of the respondents are less than four years in their current positions, while 44% had four or more years. the mean years in current position was 4.2 years. the wide spread of years of service afforded the researcher with the opportunity to receive responses from people who have had a good knowledge and exposure to strategic management processes and leadership roles at petro-chem. table 1 provide a summary of the target population and questionnaires received. table 1 target population groups population sample number of % of questionnaires received received questionnaires group executive 13 13 13 100 team group management 25 25 16 64 team divisional executive 50 50 50 100 members area leaders 550 412 186 45 total 638 500 265 53 table 1 indicates that a total number of five hundred questionnaires were distributed to the sample group. a total of two hundred and sixty five questionnaires were returned. this number represents 53% of the sample group which is 25% of the population. no unusable questionnaires were received because the electronic questionnaire was designed in such a way that if a participant left an item s/he was reminded to complete it, prior to submission. procedure the questionnaires were mailed electronically to all group members except the group executive members who preferred the hard copies. the completed questionnaires were electronically mailed back while others were hand delivered via the internal mail system to the researcher. leadership roles 29 measuring instrument the researcher developed a questionnaire consisting of 35 items based on the following integrated leadership-champion subroles: valued-s champion, strategic-c champion, powered-t champion, resourceful champion, and flexible-c champion. each sub-role was measured by seven items. the purpose of the questionnaire was to assess the importance of the il-c and its sub-roles across the four strategic management processes. a five-point importance scale was provided for each item, namely: 1 = not at all; 2 = lesser extent; 3 = some extent; 4= great extent and 5 = very great extent. a five-point scale with 3 representing “some extent” was chosen to avoid central tendency in responding to items. the questionnaire consists of three sections: an instruction section, a biographical information section and the questionnaire as such (35 items). psychometric properties of questionnaire validity to ensure the highest possible measure of content validity, the questionnaire used in this research was referred to experts and peers for content validation. different experts were asked to determine whether questions really measure what they were intended to measure. the correlation was also done with the literature to ensure relevancy of the questionnaire. factor analysis was conducted in order to explore the existence of the theoretical constructs. before performing factor analysis, the suitabilit y of the correlation matrix for factor analysis was determined. this was done using three methods namely: (1) bartlett’s test of sphericity, (2) the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) index, and (3) examination of the number of off-diagonal elements in the antiimage covariance (aic) matrix > .09. in order to determine the factor structure of the integrated leadership-champion questionnaire (il-c) the 35 items were intercorrelated by means of the anti-image correlation matrix, and subjected to a principal factor analysis. results from the intercorrelation indicate a very high measure of sampling adequacy. in all correlations a msa values above .80 were yielded. the intercorrelaion was further confirmed through the kmo and bartlett tests. according to table 2 in all the four strategic management processes the kmo test yielded a score above .85, which indicated the appropriateness of conduct ing a factor analysis. the bartlett test for all the strategic management processes yielded a significant level of less than .001, which also indicated the probabilit y that the correlation matrix had significant correlation amongst at least some of the variables. these results remained consistent when conducting the second order analysis of both the kmo and bartlet t analysis tests. the relat ionships bet ween the variables as represented by the correlation matrix are presented in table 3. table 3 second order anti-image correlation matrix for strategic management item strategic process off-diagonal values 1 strategic management .928 2 strategic management .920 3 strategic management .887 4 strategic management .873 5 strategic management .927 6 strategic management .950 7 strategic management .928 according to table 3 the off-diagonal correlations are above .86, which proves the existence of an underlying structure between the variables which could form factors. the diagonal elements in the anti-image correlation matrix are the kmo individual statistics for each variable. the off-diagonal variables were significantly positively correlated with each other. table 4 provides results of the principal axis factor analysis. table 4 results of the principal axis factor analysis initial eigenvalues extraction sums of squared loadings factor total % of cumulative % total % of cumulative % variance variance 1 4.38 62.58 62.58 3.99 57.01 57.01 2 .74 10.50 73.08 – – – 3 .59 8.38 81.46 – – – 4 .39 5.60 87.06 – – – 5 .35 5.05 92.11 – – – 6 .34 4.87 96.97 – – – 7 .21 3.03 100.00 – – – in order to determine the dimensionality of factors, the eigenvalues were calculated. the first order analysis was done and yielded seven eigenvalues greater than unity, suggesting seven factors. accordingly the seven factors were extracted and rotated to a simple structure by means of a direct oblimin rotation (see table 5). the second order rotated matrix yielded one properly determined factor, with high loadings on items 4, 3, 1, 5, 2, 6, and 7 within the strategic management process. a one factor solution was found in all four of the strategic table 2 first and second order kmo and bartlett test analysis strategic management no. items extracted factors kmo values bartlett’s significance alpha processes 1st order 2 2nd order 1st order 2nd order strategy formulation 35 6 1 .91 .91 <.001 0.93 strategy implementation 35 10 1 .85 .85 <.001 0.90 strategy enablement 35 8 1 .90 .90 <.001 0.92 strategy control-review 35 8 1 .91 .87 <.001 0.93 strategic management 35 7 1 .94 .91 <.001 0.95 il -c mosia, veldsman30 management processes. a one factor solution was postulated which accounted for 62.58% of the total questionnaire. table 5 results of the direct oblimin rotation for strategic management item strategic process factor 1 h2j 4 strategic management .854 .730 3 strategic management .836 .698 1 strategic management .802 .643 5 strategic management .799 .639 2 strategic management .787 .619 6 strategic management .632 .399 7 strategic management .512 .262 given that the il-c questionnaire is concerned with the measurement of leadership roles, it is perhaps not surprising that the factor analysis gave a one factor solution. however, it is important to highlight that when the content of each of the il-c sub-roles questionnaire items were investigated, the five constructs entitled “the il-c sub-roles” appeared to have high face and content validity. the grouping of items for each of these constructs seemed to tap an appropriate range and depth of information which properly relates to the theoretical construct for each il-c sub-roles. for instance, when the items for the valued-s champion are examined in relation to powered-t champion each appeared to be measuring different content domains. despite the absence of statistical support for the five il-c sub-roles because of the strong relationships between the constructs, the ilc sub-roles constructs themselves and their associated domains do appear to have convergent and discriminent validity. this indicates the need for further field research in a full convergent and discriminent validity analysis for the five il-c sub-roles. reliability in this study item correlation for the five il-c sub-roles was performed using the pearson correlation method. the five il-c subroles items yielded strong positive relationships with significant correlation values of = 0.004 levels (2-tailed) in all the strategic management processes. in order to determine the contribution each item makes to the whole scale, an item-total correlation was performed. in all the four strategic management processes the valued-s champion, strategic-c champion and the powered-t champion consistently yielded values above the acceptable cut off value of 0.35. in the strategic management column, a strategic management process, all the il-c sub role items yielded values above the 0.35 cut off with the exception of item 8 (with a value of .34). since the il-c questionnaire has 35 items rated across the four strategic management columns, it is possible that the low itemtotal correlation values may be an indication of the presence of acquiescence error. a close inspection highlights that in other strategic management columns these items yielded acceptable values. it is therefore suggested that these items be replaced or rephrased in future studies. the second suggestion is to validate the il-c questionnaire per strategic management process in different sample groups. in table 6 the cronbach-coefficient analysis of constructs for this questionnaire is provided. the integrated leadership-champion sub-roles questionnaire yielded in most instances acceptable levels of reliability. the cronbach alpha of the different il-c sub-roles is highly acceptable with the exception of flexible-c champion, which proved low at 0.65 and 0.59 for strategy formulation and implementation respectively. however, the average cronbach alpha for the flexible-c champion is more than acceptable at 0.76. the other four il-c sub-roles had cronbach alpha’s that were above 0.70 and 0.80 in some of the strategic management processes. the overall average cronbach alpha is 0.83, which is high. table 6 reliability of the integrated leadership-champion questionnaire integrated strategy strategy strategy strategy strategic leadershipformulation implementation enablement controlmanagement champion review constructs valued-s 0,80 0,73 0,82 0,78 0,84 champion strategic-c 0,76 0,71 0,77 0,82 0,84 champion powered-t 0,82 0,70 0,76 0,78 0,83 champion resourceful 0,85 0,77 0,76 0,83 0,87 champion flexible-c 0,65 0,59 0,71 0,69 0,76 champion average cronbach 0,83 alpha of sub-roles integrated 0.93 0.90 0.93 0.94 0.96 leadershipchampion an inspection of the last row of table 6 shows a high reliability for all of the strategic management processes across the il-c. the il-c represents all thirty five items of the questionnaire. the reliability of above 0.91 is outstanding. thus the researcher concluded that the integrated leadership-champion questionnaire was reliable. statistical analysis the mauchly’s test of sphericity was used in order to determine whether the differences between means were significant. when the significant level is = 0.05, it is assumed that the assumption of sphericity has been violated. knowing that the assumption of sphericity is violated, requires the use of the huynh-feldt adjustment method. the huynh-feldt correction adjusts the degrees of freedom in the anova test in order to produce a more accurate significance value. the anova test was used to test the significant differences across the four strategic management processes. in the case of a significant anova, differences between means were investigated using the scheffe’s test. in order to determine which il-c sub-role was linked to which strategic management process, correspondence analysis was used. correspondence analysis is a descriptive/exploratory technique designed to analyse two-way and multi-way tables containing some measure of correspondence between rows and columns. hypotheses two sets of hypotheses were tested, namely (i) null hypotheses relating to the importance of the il-c across the strategic management process and the impact of the contextual variables on this relationship (ho1 to ho5 ); and (ii) null hypotheses relating to the link of the five il-c sub-roles to the four strategic management processes (ho6 to ho10 ). results the importance of the il-c relative to the strategic management process: testing ho1 to ho5 table 7 gives a summary of the descriptive statistics regarding the integrated leadership-champion with respect to the four strategic management processes. in strategy implementation and enablement the il-c is seen to be of greatest importance with a mean of 4.18 and 4.11 respectively. strategy formulation and control-review received the lowest ratings. leadership roles 31 according to descriptive statistics in table 7 it is clear that the il-c is of great importance throughout the strategic management processes, even though the degree of importance is different. in strategy implementation and enablement the il-c is seen to be of greatest important with a mean of 4.18 and 4.11 respectively. strategy formulation and control-review received the lowest ratings. the expectation could result in a greater need for being empowered and resourced to execute the strategy more effectively. throughout the analyses the mauchly’s test was performed (tables not reproduced due to limited space). the null hypotheses of sphericity were rejected, since the significant values were smaller than .001. accordingly the degrees of freedom for the anova were adjusted. table 8 gives the anova results for ho1. results and findings regarding ho1 ho1: there is no significant difference between the importance of the integrated leadership-champion across the strategic management processes. table 8 anova results for the importance of the il-c by different leadership groups source type iii df mean f sig. partial eta sum of square squared squares il-c huynh-feldt 23.797 2.674 8.899 67.756 .001 .209 error(il-c) huynh-feldt 89.911 684.535 .131 – according to table 8 a significant difference exists across the four sequential strategic management processes in terms of the importance of the integrated leadership-champion. the null hypothesis thus is rejected. in order to find the area(s) where the significant differences lie, the scheffe’s test is applied, the results of which are given in table 9. in table 9 the acronym sf is used to indicate strategy formulation, while si refers to strategy implementation. se indicates strategy enablement while sc-r represents the strategy control-review process. table 9 scheffe’s tests regarding mean difference for the strategic management processes source integrated type iii df mean f sig. partial eta leadershipsum of square squared champion squares sf vs. si 31.575 1 31.575 139.189 .001 .352 sf vs. se 28.161 1 28.161 85.138 .001 .352 sf vs. sc-r 1.280 1 1.280 .005 .945 .220 si vs. se 1.504 1 1.504 10.949 .001 .041 si vs. sc-r 1.457 1 1.457 10.512 .001 .220 sc-r vs. se 15.702 1 15.702 72.134 .001 .220 according to table 9 all comparisons yielded significant differences at the 0.01 percent level with the exception of sf vs. sc-r which was non-significant. as indicated previously the strategy implementation mean was higher than those of the other processes. the strateg y formulation process was significantly less important with respect to il-c when compared to strategy implementation and enablement. strategy implementation was significantly more important than strateg y formulation; enablement; and control-review. strategy enablement was significantly more important than strategy formulation and control-review. there was no significant difference with respect to strategy formulation and control-review. results and findings regarding ho2 ho2: there is no significant difference between the perceptions of people with different years of experience in an organisation regarding the importance of the integrated leadership-champion for the key strategic management processes. table 10 anova results for the importance of the il-c by years of service in organisation source type iii df mean f sig. partial sum of square eta squares squared il-c*yrs in-org. huynh-feldt 1.248 7.976 .156 1.165 .318 .013 error(il-c) huynh-feldt 92.108 685.928 .134 – the results in table 10 reveal that there was no significant difference between the perceptions of people with different years of service at petro-chem in terms of the importance of the il-c across the strategic management processes. ho2 is accepted. this result implies that people with different years of service at petro-chem perceived il-c as equally important across the various strategic management processes. results and findings regarding ho3 ho3: there is no significant difference between the perceptions of people with different years of experience in their current position regarding the importance of the integrated leadership-champion for the key strategic management processes. table 11 indicates that there is no significant difference between the perceptions of people with various length of service in their current position regarding the importance of the il-c with respect to the strategic management processes. number of years did not influence their perceptions of the ilc importance regarding the strategic management process. ho3 is accepted. table 7 descriptive statistics for the il-c relative to the strategic management processes strategic management n processes and il-c valid missing mean median mode std. skewness std. error kurtosis std. error minimum maximum deviation of skewness of kurtosis strategy formulation: il-c 265 0 3.77 3.82 3.60 .598 -.731 .150 .608 .298 1.71 4.97 strategy implementation: il-c 265 0 4.18 4.22 4.54 .401 -.986 .150 3.186 .298 1.89 5.00 strategy enablement: il-c 265 0 4.11 4.20 4.34 .487 -1.242 .150 2.915 .298 1.83 4.94 strategy control-review: il-c 265 0 3.78 3.85 4.03 .580 -.689 .150 .299 .298 1.83 4.94 il-c mosia, veldsman32 table 11 anova analysis for determining the importance of il-c by years in current job source type iii df mean f sig. partial sum of square eta squares squared il-c * positions huynh-feldt .749 5.276 .142 1.039 .395 .008 error (il-c) huynh-feldt 90.074 659.545 .137 – results and findings regarding ho4 ho4: there is no significant difference between the perceptions of people at different occupational levels regarding the importance of the integrated leadership-champion for the key strategic management processes. table 12 anova results for the importance of il-c by occupational levels source type iii df mean f sig. partial sum of square eta squares squared il-c * levels huynh-feldt 1.552 5.267 .295 2.185 .051 .016 error(il-c) huynh-feldt 93.049 689.936 .135 – according to table 12 a borderline significant value of .051 was found, which the researcher decided to ignore. different occupational levels thus perceived the il-c to be equally important across the different strategic management processes. the null hypothesis was accepted. this implies that different occupational levels did not have any significant influence on the perceptions of the four leadership groups at petro-chem. results and findings regarding ho5 ho5: there is no significant difference between the perceptions of people from different core business processes (cbp) regarding the importance of the integrated leadershipchampion for the key strategic management processes. table 13 anova results for determining the importance of il-c by cbps source type iii df mean f sig. partial sum of square eta squares squared il-c * cbp huynh-feldt 4.373 16.044 .273 2.075 .008 .046 error(il-c) huynh-feldt 89.911 684.535 0.131 – according to table 13 the functional groups (cbps) were significantly different at the .008 level with respect to the importance of the il-c across the various strategic management processes. ho5 is therefore rejected. subsequently the scheffe’s test was performed to determine where the significant differences were. these results are given in table 14. table 14 indicates a significant difference bet ween the perceptions of different functional groups in terms of the importance of the integrated leadership-champion in strategy enablement vs. strategy control-review. the plant and mine maintenance group perceived the il-c to be of great important especially in strategy implementation and enablement while the marketing, liaison and distribution group perceived the il-c to be equally important in all of the processes. this could be attributed to the differences in the fundamental nature of the two functional groups. the plant and mine maintenance functional group represents a production engineering environment which is production-driven and focuses more on doing while marketing, liaison and distribution group form the marketing and sales team which is more systematic in its approach. table 14 scheffe’s test for determining significant difference within the cbps source type iii df mean f sig. partial sum of square eta squares squared il-c * cbp sf vs. si 2.488 6 .415 1.828 .094 .041 si vs. se .946 6 .158 1.148 .335 .026 se vs. sc-r 5.598 6 .933 4.286 .001 .091 summary of results with respect to the importance of the il-c (ho1 to ho5) the importance of the integrated leadership-champion in the strategic management processes was investigated and the results of ho1 to ho5 could be summarised as follows: � the importance of il-c varied significantly across the strategic management processes (ho1). il-c was significantly more important in the case of strategy implementation and enablement than in relation to strategy formulation and control-review. in turn, strategy implementation is more important than strategy enablement. the overall trend is that the il-c is more crucial to strategy implementation. � years of service at petro-chem (ho2), years in current position (ho3), and occupational level (ho4), with regard to the importance of the il-c did not yield any significant differences across the strategic management processes. this implies that the variables of years of service, years in current position and occupational level did not impact significantly on the perceptions of the different leadership groups at petro-chem with respect to the link between il-c and strategic management. � core business processes (ho5) at petro-chem yielded a significant difference with regard to the importance of the ilc across the strategic management processes. amongst all the seven core business processes only one comparison yielded a significant difference, namely the comparison between the plant and mine maintenance group on the one hand and marketing, liaison and distribution group on the other hand. the significant difference occurred at strategy enablement and control-review. the importance of the il-c sub-roles relative to the strategic management processes: testing ho6 to ho10 results and findings regarding ho6 ho6: the strategic-c champion will not be ranked as the most critical il-c sub-role relative to strategy formulation process. according to table 15 strategic-c champion was the most important il-c sub-role for strategy formulation process (57.9%); and the most important sub-role overall relative to all of the other sub-roles (58.8%). these findings thus prove in two ways a strong link between this sub-role and strategy formulation. within the overall strategic management process, the strategic-c champion was rated as the most critical sub-role (24.8%). inversely, for the other three strategic management processes the strategic-c champion was rated as less important, but never perceived as least important in any of these processes. for the control-review process it was the 2nd most important il-c subroles, 3rd for the implementation, and 4th for the enablement process. ho6 thus needs to be rejected. leadership roles 33 results and findings regarding ho7 ho7: the resourceful champion will not be ranked as the most critical il-c sub-role relative to the strateg y implementation process. according to table 15 the resourceful champion was rated the most critical il-c sub-role relative to strategy implementation (33.5%). the importance of the resourceful champion for strategy implementation is also supported by its highest rating within the il-c sub-roles (48.0%). the findings therefore prove in two ways a strong link between resourceful champion and strategy implementation. across the strategic management process the resourceful champion was perceived to be the second most critical il-c subroles (17.4%). regarding the other three processes, the resourceful champion was 3rd in importance regarding strategy enablement and control-review. with respect to strateg y formulation it was the least important il-c sub-role. ho7 is therefore rejected. results and findings regarding ho8 ho8: the powered-t champion will not be ranked as the most critical il-c sub-role relative to the strateg y implementation and enablement processes. according to table 15 the powered-t champion was the second most important il-c sub-role for the strategy implementation process (22.3%). the powered-t champion was the second important sub-role for this process relative to all of the other sub-roles (40.6%). within the strategic management process the powered-t champion was perceived as the second least il-c sub-role (13.7%). despite being the second important il-c sub-role within strategy implementation, it is concluded that the best place for this sub-role is in implementation. powered-t champion was perceived as more important in strategy enablement than in implementation when compared to all other il-c sub-roles. ho8 is therefore rejected. results and findings regarding ho9 ho9: the flexible-c champion will not be ranked as the most critical il-c sub-role relative to the strategy control-review process. according to table 15 the flexible-c champion was the third most critical il-c sub-role with respect to the strategy controlreview process (16.8%). within the il-c the flexible-c champion was perceived as the most critical il-c sub-role regarding strategy control-review (53.8%). this finding indicated a weaker relationship since flexible-c champion’s importance was only confirmed in one instance. across the strategic management process the flexible-c champion was perceived as the least important il-c sub-role (7.7%). the flexible-c champion’s visibility is in the strategy control-review process. ho9 is therefore accepted. results and findings regarding ho10 ho10: the valued-s champion will not be ranked as the most critical il-c sub-role relative to key strategic management processes. according to table 15 the valued-s champion was the most critical il-c sub-role relative to strategy enablement (28.1%) and to the strategy control-review (20.8%). valued-s champion was perceived as a key sub-role in the enablement process (42.3%), and second most important regarding control-review, when compared with the other il-c sub-roles. with respect to strategy formulation and implementation the valued-s champion was rated the second and third most important il-c sub-role respectively. these results yielded a weak link since the valued-s champion was expected to show a strong link to all of the four strategic management processes. tables 15 results of the four leadership group at petro-chem with regard to most critical il-c sub-roles relative to strategic management processes the integrated leadership champion sub-roles leadership vs. strategic constructsvalued-s strategic-c powered-t resourceful flexible-c combination total count 24 147 11 13 17 42 254 % within strategy 9.4% 57.9% 4.3% 5.1% 6.7% 16.5% 100.0% % within il-c role 14.3% 58.8% 8.0% 7.4% 21.8% 21.1% 25.2% count 21 36 56 84 6 48 251 % within strategy 8.4% 14.3% 22.3% 33.5% 2.4% 19.1% 100.0% % within il-c role 12.5% 14.4% 40.6% 48.0% 7.7% 24.1% 24.9% count 71 24 41 39 13 65 253 % within strategy 28.1% 9.5% 16.2% 15.4% 5.1% 25.7% 100.0% % within il-c role 42.3% 9.6% 29.7% 22.3% 16.7% 32.7% 25.1% count 52 43 30 39 42 44 250 % within strategy 20.8% 17.2% 12.0% 15.6% 16.8% 17.6% 100.0% % within il-c role 31.0% 17.2% 21.7% 22.3% 53.8% 22.1% 24.8% count 168 250 138 175 78 199 1008 % within strategy 16.7% 24.8% 13.7% 17.4% 7.7% 19.7% 100.0% % within il-c role 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% s tr a te g y f o rm u la ti o n s tr a te g y e n a b le m e n t s tr a te g y c o n tr o lr e v ie w s tr a te g y im p le m e n ta ti o n s tr a te g ic m a n a g e m e n t p ro c e ss e s total mosia, veldsman34 within the strategic management process the valued-s champion was the third most important il-c sub-role (16.7%). ho10 is therefore accepted. correspondence analysis as mentioned earlier, correspondence analysis is a descriptive/ exploratory technique designed to analyse two-way and multiway tables containing some measure of correspondence between rows and columns. the bi-plot is a diagram which simultaneously plots species scores and sample scores within the correspondence analysis. table 16 indicates that the chi-square value is significant, justif ying the hypothesis that the il-c sub-roles and strategic management processes are related. interpoint distances were computed. the distance matrix was subjected to principal components analysis, yielding in this case three dimensions. however, only two interpretable dimensions are reported, and not the full solution, which is why the inertia (eigenvalues; these represent the percent of variance explained by each dimension) adds up to less than hundred percent, in this case only .328 = 32.8%. this reflects the fact that the correlation between the ilc sub-roles and strategic management processes is not very strong. the inertia “eigenvalues” reflect the relative importance of each dimension, with the first always being the most important and the second one being the next most important. the “proportion of inertia” columns represent the dimension eigenvalues divided by the total (table) eigenvalue. the first dimension explains 67.4% variance of the 32.8% of the total variance explained by the model, while the second dimension explains 24%. sixty seven point four percent of data in the biplot is represented by the first dimension, while 24% is represented by the second dimension. only 8.6% of data is not represented in the bi-plot. figure 1 provides a bi-plot of the il-c sub-roles. in the bi-plot the x-axis (dimension 1) represents the strategic management processes while the y-axis (dimension 2) represents the integrated leadership-champion sub-roles. on close inspection of the bi-plot given in figure 1 it is evident that information is clustered. the information clustered consists of the strategic processes and the il-c subroles. it is shown that some strategic management processes are clustered or associated with some il-c sub-roles. the first observable cluster is the one of the strategic-c champion and the strategy formulation process. this cluster supports the ho1 rejected earlier. the second perceptible cluster is that of the powered-t champion, resourceful champion and the strateg y implementation process. an inference from the above combination is that the powered-t champion and resourceful champion are the il-c sub-roles linked or regarded as most critical in the strategy implementation. table 15 indicates that the powered-t champion was the second most critical il-c subrole relative to the strategy implementation process. this finding supports the results reported in table 15 regarding ho2 and ho3. the third noticeable cluster is that of the valued-s champion, flexible-c champion and strateg y control-review. this upperleft quadrant cluster strongly supports the results given in table 15 indicating that the valued-s champion is the most critical il-c champion relative to the strategic controlreview process (ho4), with the flexible-c champion being second (ho5). summary of results with respect to the importance of the il-c subroles (ho6 to ho10) findings of ho6 to ho10 regarding the most important il-c subrole relative to specific strategic management processes can be summarised as follows: table 16 statistical summary of the bi-plot dimension singular value inertia chi square sig. proportion of inertia confidence singular value accounted for cumulative standard correlation deviation 2 1 .470 .221 .674 .674 .029 .124 2 .280 .079 .240 .914 .029 3 .167 .028 .086 1.000 total .328 330.293 .000 1.000 1.000 figure 1: bi-plot of the il-c sub-roles and strategic management processes leadership roles 35 � the strategic-c champion was the most important il-c subrole for strategy formulation process, as well as the most important sub-role relative to all of the other sub-roles and across the overall strategic management process (ho6: rejected). � the resourceful champion was the most important il-c subrole for strategy implementation, and also first to this process when compared to other il-c sub-roles. across the strategic management process it was 2nd in importance (ho7: rejected). � the powered-t champion was the second most important ilc sub-role relative to strateg y implementation and enablement. it was 2nd when compared to the other il-c subroles within the il-c. across the strategic management processes it was 4th in importance (ho8: accepted). � the flexible-c champion was the third most important il-c sub-role for strategy control-review; and most important subrole to this process relative to all other sub-roles. the flexible-c champion was the 2nd most important il-c subrole for strategy formulation, but the 4th important il-c subrole across the strategic management process (ho9: accepted). � the valued-s champion had a strong link to strategy enablement and control-review, with weaker links with both strategy formulation and implementation. the valued-s champion was the most important il-c sub-role for strategy enablement and control-review; third for formulation; and fourth for implementation, when compared to the other il-c sub-roles. across the strategic management process the valued-s champion was the third most important il-c sub-role (ho10: accepted). discussion and interpretation as discussed earlier the following three proposals pertaining to the il-c and the strategic management processes were made, namely; (i) the il-c is important across the four strategic management processes, (ii) specific il-c sub-roles relate closer to specific strategic management processes, and (iii) contextual variables do not impact on the importance of the il-c across the strategic management process. figure 2: il-c sub-roles relative to the four strategic management processes according to the empirical findings reported in the results section il-c is a single construct leadership relative to strategic management process, and must be seen as undifferentiated whole. when the importance of the il-c was tested across the four strategic management processes it was found to relate best to all processes. however, il-c was of greater importance in the strateg y implementation and enablement while of lesser importance in strategy formulation and control-review. it was also established that the five il-c sub-roles relate best to specific strategic management processes. the strategic-c champion related best to formulation; resourceful champion and powered-t champion related best to implementation and enablement; flexible-c champion to control-review; and valued-s champion related best to enablement and control-review. contextual variables did not have any influence on the proposed links and importance of the il-c across the strategic management processes. these findings suggest that leadership can emphasise the importance of five il-c sub-roles regardless of differences in contextual variables. a common approach thus can be adopted in terms of leadership role relative to strategic management. the results of this st udy have potent ially important practical and theoretical implications. the first implication of the above findings is that individual/team goals could become misaligned with those of the organisat ion if people are going to act during strateg y implementation without a clear understanding of organisational direction and strateg y. a near fatal outcome could be a lacking sense of achievement, and the failure to utilise the opportunit y to improve from lessons learnt during performance review sessions. the leadership st yles of past as well as of present leaders may have entrenched ways of doing things in an organisation. the second implicat ion of the findings points to an indication of an action-oriented culture as opposed to a thinking-oriented one in the organisation. leadership thus is regarded as being more important when it comes to implementing and achieving results than when envisioning is concerned. the organisation therefore deploys most of its resources (including people) at all levels with the aim to deliver set strategies. the third implication of the findings concerns the organisational life cycle. the organisation may already have passed through the phase of formulation (i.e., they know what goals to achieve and how to achieve them) and there may already have been an improvement after the initial cycle of performance assessment. if they are now in the implementation phase, what they need to do is to enable people to perform successfully. theoretically, the study contributes to the body of knowledge with respect to the importance of leadership roles relative to strategic management processes. to date, most researchers have focused less on leadership roles relative to the strategic management process. strengths and limitations of the study the strengths of this study are as follows: � firstly, the il-c model with its suggested links and levels of importance was formulated and empirically shown to hold up. secondly, the establishment of il-c sub-roles linked to specific strategic management processes provides an opportunity to distinguish sub-roles competencies and behaviour that can provide valuable input into leadership development. the limitations of the study are as follows: � firstly, the findings of this study are limited by the unique nat ure of the sample organisation, which limits generalisation to other organisations and industries. � secondly, the il-c questionnaire has 35 items rated across the four strategic management columns by the same respondents. this could have caused an error of acquiescence that could have affected some items negatively. conclussion leadership determines excellent corporate performance. leadership success in the implementation of the strategy is manifested in a conducive organisational climate; a reward strateg y that is linked to strategic objectives; flexible structures that support business demands; and an effective organisational culture that influence behaviour in the right direction. the ultimate desired end results manifest itself in aligned individual and organisational performance. the study demonstrated that an integrated, holistic and systematic approach to leadership, with its constituent subroles relat ive to strategic management, is needed. determining and/or distinguishing the competencies and behaviour of each sub-role within defined performance contracts could be of value to business. the aim is to enable leaders to know their areas of development relative to expected outputs. in view of the study’s findings, it is concluded that the il-c model with its suggested links and levels of importance do hold up. through the organisational development process the proposed il-c framework can be utilised to operationalise leadership roles relative to the strategic management processes in organisations. the overall importance and value of the st udy lie in underlining the increasing importance of leadership in a growing uncertain environment in which appropriate strategising supported by relevant leadership roles is critical. reference chapman, j.a. (2002). a framework for transformational change in organisations. leadership and organization development journal, 1 (23), 16-25. conradie, w. (february 2001). management, leadership, entrepreneurship: all the same? management today, 1 (17), 35-38. david, f.r. (1999). strategic management: concepts. upper saddle river: prentice hall. graetz, f. (2000). strategic change leadership. management decision. 8 (38), 550-562. koopman, j.c. (fall 1999). effective alignment: strategy cannot succeed without it. canadian manager, 3 (24), 14-5. leichtling, b. (june 2000). leaders take responsibility for success. denver business journal, 43 (51), 28-29. margerison, c. (2001). team competencies. team performance management: an international journal, 8 (7), 117-122. mattis, m.c. (2001). advancing women in business organisations. journal of management development, 4 (20), 371-388. melilli, d. (june 2000). a shift in leadership. crain’s cleveland business, 27 (21), 7-8. picken, j. & dess, g.g. (summer 1997). out of strategic control. organisational dynamics, 1 (26), 35-48. robbins, s.p. (1998). organizational behaviour: concepts, controversies & applications. englewood cliff: prentice hall. rodwell, j. j., kienzle, r. & shadur, m. a. (1998). the relationships among work-related perceptions, employee’s attitudes, and employee performance: the integral role of communication. human resource management, 37 (3-4), 277-293, fall/winter. schultz, l.e. (2000). qualities of an exceptional leader. human systems management, 2 (19), 93-103. smit, p.j. (1999). strategic planning readings. cape town: kenwyn. thompson, j.l. & strickland, a.j. (1999). strategic management. richard d irwin. new york. van zwieten, j. (june 1999). how to waste your investment in strategy. training and development, 6 (53), 48-53. weizmann, j. (january 1999). linking rewards to business goals can pay off. washington business journal, 37 (17), 37-45. mosia, veldsman36 article information authors: jasper buys1 johann louw2 affiliations: 1section of organisational psychology, university of cape town, south africa2department of psychology, university of cape town, south africa correspondence to: johann louw postal address: department of psychology, university of cape town, rondebosch 7701, south africa dates: received: 05 oct. 2011 accepted: 31 jan. 2012 published: 13 july 2012 how to cite this article: buys, j., & louw, j. (2012). a process evaluation of a supervisory development programme. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10 (3), art. #423, 13 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i3.423 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. a process evaluation of a supervisory development programme in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • trends from the research literature    • background to the study    • evaluation questions    • the potential value-add of the study • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analyses • results    • question 1: coverage    • question 2: service delivery    • question 3: organisational resources    • question 4: medium-term outcomes • ethical considerations    • potential benefits and hazards    • recruitment procedures    • informed consent    • data protection • trustworthiness    • reliability    • validity • discussion    • conclusions    • recommendations    • limitations    • suggestions for future research • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: an important evaluation function is to assess the adequacy of the programme process, including the extent to which the appropriate people participate in its activities. research purpose: the study aimed to provide information about coverage, service delivery, organisational resources, and medium-term outcomes for a supervisory development programme (sdp) in the hospitality industry. motivation for the study: the primary motivation was to assist programme staff to understand their programme and also to generate information that the programme staff could use to reflect on the programme’s performance and future direction. research design, approach and method: a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods was employed, namely: a literature review; personal interviews; and internal programme documentation, such as e-mail correspondence, financial statements, attendance registers, and personnel records. personal interviews were conducted with two stakeholders, namely the programme manager and programme administrator. the programme data of 69 participants in the sdp were utilised for the evaluation. main findings: the evaluation’s main finding concluded that the ‘implemented programme’ was not congruent with the ‘planned programme’. practical/managerial implications: it is recommended that programme activities and theory should be re-evaluated, as the programme is used mainly as a training programme for new appointees, rather than a management development programme to create a pool of potential supervisors. programme uptake and output should also be closely aligned. the length of time that people in the pool of potential supervisors had to wait before they were appointed should also be reduced. contribution/value-add: by explicating the basic programme theory and studying programme implementation, this evaluation serves as a starting point for future evaluations of the sdp. introduction top ↑ key focus of the study in this article we examine the attributes of a management development programme in the hospitality industry. faced with the dual challenges of high staff turnover and expensive recruiting practices, a major hotel group in the western cape introduced a supervisory development programme to develop a cohort of young, trained employees to become potential supervisors, who could be ready at short notice to fill vacancies as they arose. this report describes the extent to which the implemented programme has achieved this and other objectives. trends from the research literature management development is generally defined as the process through which individuals acquire the necessary capabilities to perform professional management tasks (mabey & finch-lees, 2008; wexley & baldwin, 1986). there is extensive debate about whether or not these management capabilities include the development of leadership capabilities (amos, ristow, ristow & pearse, 2008; kotter, 1990; paauwe & williams, 2001; zaleznik, 1977). the development programme that formed the basis of this evaluation aims to instil both managerial and leadership skills, as well as knowledge and attributes, related to these skills, in participants. it assumes that these capabilities include leadership, and therefore we pay no further attention to this particular debate. a further point of debate was whether or not there is a difference between training, development and education of managers. according to mabey and finch-lees (2008), training refers to the acquisition of concrete and job-specific skills, whilst development is a longer-term learning process, which cuts across jobs. for these authors, management education is typically provided by formal academic institutions like universities and business schools, and is often more theoretical by nature (e.g. a master’s degree in business administration) than training or development. mabey and finch-lees (2008) tried to clarify the debate by suggesting a classification of the three processes of training, development, and education under the super-ordinate label ‘management learning’. the programme under evaluation contains elements of both management education and training and can be categorised under management learning. background to the study the programme under evaluation is a supervisory development programme (sdp) established by a large luxury hotel group based in cape town, south africa. the programme has been running since 2006. the following factors led to the programme’s implementation:• the high turn-over in the hospitality industry, and at this particular hotel • the high cost of replacing exiting staff • lengthy delays in the appointment of new staff as a result of stringent labour legislation • the higher workload of mid-level managers who often have to perform tasks assigned to incompetent supervisors (according to the programme manager, personal communication, june 2009). according to the programme manager the main aim of the sdp is to create a pool of competent supervisors who will address the company’s current and future staff needs for these critical positions. there are specific objectives for the participants and two main stakeholder groups of the sdp. for the participants these are: • gain knowledge about the company as a system • develop a strategic outlook on the organisation • learn the skills required for supervisory positions within their business units. the objective for the managers of participants is improved customer service by supervisors who can exhibit the full range of activities required by their positions. the objectives for the company are: • more skilled employees to fill vacant supervisory positions • improved customer service ratings • compliance with recruitment and selection standards. the target population for the sdp was current supervisors within the organisation (inclusive of those recently appointed from outside) and employees not yet in supervisory positions, but identified by their line managers as potential supervisors. employees from all business units are eligible for selection into the programme, as the same management structure is implemented across the organisation. apart from the hotel group, an international hotel school and a private consultancy (represented by a lecturer from a local business school) participated in presenting the sdp. the duration of the sdp is three months and it is presented bi-annually. the programme activities are illustrated in figure 1, with arrows indicating a direct relationship between activities and shaded activities indicating major assessments. figure 1 shows that the sdp begins with a two-hour training session for senior managers and human resource (hr) staff who are responsible for facilitating and supporting the various programme activities. in this session the external consultant introduces the principles and practice of action learning. for participants, the sdp starts with two half-day modules presented by the consultancy. on the first day, a morning module introduces the principles of action learning. during the afternoon session, a business acumen module is presented which introduces business concepts, terminology and knowledge associated with fulfilling a managerial role within a luxury hotel. at the start of the programme the participants are divided into groups (consisting of 4 to 7 employees each) for the purposes of group assignments and an action learning project. the action learning project aims to integrate the different programme activities. at the end of the programme this summative project is presented to a senior management panel who act as assessors. the next phase of the programme consists of a series of half-day modules, presented to the participants, spaced two weeks apart. modules include: • hr principles • financial principles • principles of food and beverage operations • principles of rooms operations. a senior person within the relevant business unit conducts each of the four-hour presentations. practical group assignments that are related to each of the module’s contents are conducted by the participants after the presentations have been made. assignments are due two weeks after the related module. additional programme activities include writing an individual, reflective journal and attending two half-day coaching sessions. the journal writing activity aims to foster introspection during the participant’s development process. journals are assessed by the programme manager who provides written feedback to participants. the coaching sessions, facilitated by a consultant, present opportunities for applying the knowledge and skills developed during the programme, and for practising questioning, listening and facilitating techniques. activities are assessed on an ongoing basis. students assess their own work, as well as that of their peers. in addition, assessment is conducted by internal and external staff who facilitate the programme activities, the line managers of participants, as well as clients dealing with participants. these assessments are moderated by an international hotel school, which co-sponsors certification of the programme’s successful participants. according to the programme manager, the sdp is based on action learning principles. a basic definition of action learning emphasises that a group of colleagues who form a mutual support structure examine actual, work-related problems and then take action to solve these problems (mcgill & beaty, 1995). in general, programme staff hold assumptions about how their programme will change the programme’s recipients. to elicit these assumptions, the evaluators used a model proposed by rossi, lipsey and freeman (2004) which delineates programme theory into three main parts: • programme impact theory (a causal theory which describes the changes expected in the target population as a result of programme activities) • a service utilisation plan (how the target population will interact with the programme services) • an organisational plan (whether or not the programme has sufficient resources for effective service delivery). although the sdp did not have a formalised programme theory in place, the programme manager could articulate specific programme goals. the evaluators elicited these goals by means of a series of semi-structured and structured interviews with the programme staff and an analysis of programme documents. from the interviews and documents it became clear that the hotel’s senior management responded to the problems of high turnover and skills scarcity, at the supervisory level, with a management training and education programme. figure 2 reflects the assumptions of senior management regarding the change that the sdp will bring about in the participants. the programme’s impact theory, as set out in a causal chain in figure 2, shows how the sdp will lead to changing the state of affairs identified as organisational problems by senior management (i.e., reduced recruitment costs and increased client satisfaction). in order to elicit the programme’s service utilisation plan, the evaluators attempted to analyse the programme activities. the programme documentation did not contain a detailed description of these activities, apart from a diagram showing the sequence of activities and their duration. in this regard, the designers of the sdp assume that attendance of seven half-day modules on specific topics, followed by individual and group action learning projects and finally coaching sessions and reflective journal keeping, would bring about the intended changes in the participants. in terms of the organisational plan, the following implicit assumptions of the programme manager and programme sponsors were elicited: • in-house senior management and a consultant would constitute sufficient resources to deliver the sdp • the length of time scheduled for the sdp would be appropriate for such a programme. figure 1: programme activities of the supervisory development programme. evaluation questions carefully formulated evaluation questions serve to focus and structure an evaluation in order to provide useful answers for programme stakeholders (donaldson & lipsey, 2006; rossi et al., 2004). the evaluators, in cooperation with the stakeholders, formulated the following evaluation questions for the formative evaluation questions presented in box 1, of the sdp. the potential value-add of the study formative evaluations are conducted to provide programmes, and their managing staff, with information that allows them to improve the programme’s activities, delivery, performance and outcomes. thus the contribution of this study is to:• assist programme staff to understand the assumptions of the programme better • provide programme staff with information they can use to reflect on the programme’s current performance and future direction. the study also provided an example of how programme theory can be developed for this type of intervention. furthermore, the study aimed to find out whether or not such an evaluation can be used within the hospitality industry to examine management education programmes. figure 2: impact theory of the supervisory development programme. box 1: questions the evaluators formulated for the formative evaluation of the supervisory development programme. research design top ↑ research approach the study employed a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods to answer the above-mentioned evaluation questions. data for the coverage evaluation questions were obtained from the sdp’s attendance register and assessment documentation.the following data sources were selected for the service delivery evaluation questions: • a literature review with the search parameter, ‘action learning’ • hard copies of the conceptual flowcharts of sdp programme activities • a final flow chart of sdp programme activities in electronic format • hard copies of internal e-mail messages sent between programme staff during the planning phase of the first sdp in 2006 • hard copies of e-mail messages sent between the programme manager and the external consultant during the planning phase of the first sdp in 2006 • hard copies of assessed group projects collected between 2006 and 2008. the data for questions resorting under organisational resources included financial records made available by the programme manager. additionally, an interview with the programme manager provided data relating to time expenditure and the expertise of programme staff. finally, the data for the evaluation questions probing medium-term outcomes were obtained from programme records of assessment outcomes and the hotel’s personnel records. research method research participants the programme manager was an important research participant, in terms of giving approval to conduct the study and providing access to documents, as well as being a key interviewee. in addition to the programme manager, the programme administrator was interviewed a number of times to collect data on the programme. measuring instruments the interviews were used to ask about the programme’s activities and participants, the rationale behind the programme, whether or not clear needs were identified by the programme sponsors and personnel, and which questions the evaluation would focus on. research procedure the first evaluator was introduced to the programme manager by a mutual business acquaintance. an e-mail and a telephone conversation outlining the proposed evaluation led to an invitation to meet the programme manager. the evaluation was conducted at no cost to the organisation and, as such, a verbal agreement between the programme manager and the evaluator served to initiate the evaluation. formal documents that addressed the scope of the evaluation, ethics and the use of evaluation results were later drawn up and signed by the programme manager. initial interviews with the programme manager elicited the goals of the programme. these were used to develop the programme theory discussed earlier. the programme manager agreed that the programme theory represented the causal logic of the sdp. after signing an agreement on the scope of the evaluation and preliminary evaluation questions, the programme manager introduced the evaluator to the programme administrator. monthly meetings for the duration of the evaluation were scheduled with the programme administrator, and each lasted between 30 minutes and 90 minutes. when face-to-face meetings were not possible, the evaluator communicated with the administrator via e-mail. this was found to be less effective, as numerous e-mail messages were needed to deliver the same results as a short interview. meetings with the administrator were focused on developing an understanding of the programme and its activities. through these meetings, the evaluator also gained access to relevant programme documentation and other information needed to answer the evaluation questions. four such meetings took place before the evaluator received all the available programme documents. thereafter, ad hoc meetings and e-mail messages, with probing or clarifying questions, were used successfully to elicit further information. this iterative process was followed until all available programme documentation and information needed to answer the evaluation questions were obtained. the frequency of communication decreased towards the end of the evaluation. as the evaluation involved human participants, the evaluators obtained ethical clearance for the evaluation from the research ethics committee of the commerce faculty at the university of cape town. statistical analyses the evaluators incorporated the information for each participant into a microsoft© excel 2008 for mac spreadsheet. the data included which year and sdp group the participant attended, an identification number, basic demographic information, employment information, attendance of sdp activities and outcomes from sdp assessments. these data were imported into pasw statistics 18.0 for further analysis. descriptive statistics, which were mainly frequency counts and percentages, were used to answer the evaluation questions. results top ↑ the results of the evaluation will be presented in terms of the specific evaluation questions. question 1: coverage a. how many recipients have successfully completed the sdp?according to available programme records, 69 participants completed the sdp between 2006 and 2008, as indicated in table 1. groups consisted of between 12 and 15 participants. mean group size was slightly less than 14 (13.8) for the five sdps evaluated. although group size did not increase at all between 2006 and 2008, the yearly output of participants completing the sdp was significantly higher in 2007 and 2008, as compared to 2006. in 2006, with one sdp running, 15 participants completed the sdp. with two sdps running per year, 28 and 26 participants completed the sdp in 2007 and 2008 respectively. in order to assess completion rates, the available information on attendance, and marks for the 69 delegates who completed the sdp, were compared to the criteria set by the programme staff. the duly performed criteria and academic standards could be obtained from the marking schedules of the sdps, and included the following: • attending all sessions • absence only with the hr manager’s permission or a doctor’s note • handing in all assignments and reflective journals • handing in all assignments and reflective journals on time • a minimum average for the course of 50% or more • no more than one assignment scored between 40% and 49% • any assignment receiving a mark below 40% would have to be resubmitted in order to obtain a minimum mark of 40% which would allow the candidate to proceed with the course. if a participant failed to meet either the duly performed criteria or minimum academic standards, he or she would be asked to withdraw from the programme, subject to review by the sdp academic board. as is evident in table 2, the documentation of programme activities for sdp 2006(1), 2007(1) and 2007(2) was incomplete. this made it difficult to comment on the degree to which participants, who completed the sdp, adhered to the performance criteria stipulated by the programme staff for these specific programmes. in order to answer the evaluation question, an analysis of the available programme documents (attendance registers, marks, and group projects) for the 69 participants, who had completed the sdp, was undertaken. the results are presented in table 2. although there were some missing data regarding marks, all recorded marks met the academic standards set by the programme staff. significantly, this held true for the two 2008 cohorts for which between 80% and 90% of programme activities were documented. with regards to duly performed criteria: • five participants did not submit all reflective learning journals during the 2006 sdp • three participants did not submit all reflective learning journals during the first 2007 sdp • three participants did not submit all reflective learning journals during the second 2007 sdp • one participant was absent from one half-day coaching session during the first 2008 sdp • one participant was absent from one half-day coaching session and one participant did not complete the final written assessment during the second 2008 sdp. these findings should be interpreted cautiously for two main reasons. firstly, the data for the 2006 and 2007 sdps were incomplete, but results for the two 2008 sdps could be interpreted with a higher degree of confidence because of more complete data sets. secondly, no records were available to indicate whether or not the failures to perform duly were for reasons that the programme staff would accept as legitimate (operational requirements or illness). it is therefore possible that an even higher percentage of participants performed duly than is indicated in table 2. in summary, the available data indicated that the majority of participants, completing the sdp between 2006 and 2008, did so successfully as described by the programme standards. both attendance and performance, in relation to programme standards, were taken into consideration to calculate the number of successful participants. if the standards set by the programme were adhered to strictly, a total of 55 participants successfully completed the sdp. b. how many recipients have started but not completed the sdp and why? all participants who enrolled in 2006 and 2007 completed the programme. only two participants dropped out of the programme during the evaluation period, one from the 2008(1) sdp and one from the 2008(2) sdp. this constitutes a dropout rate of 2.8% (total n = 71) between 2006 and 2008. the reasons for dropout were not documented. the evaluator was also not able to interview the exiting individuals as they had both resigned from the organisation at the time of the evaluation. from the programme documentation it was clear that both participants exited the programme at an early stage. there are several possible reasons for the low dropout rate recorded for the sdp between 2006 and 2008. firstly, upon selection into the programme, performance criteria for the sdp are made clear to the participants. secondly, participants sign a compulsory bonding agreement to repay the organisation r3500 should they leave the sdp before their successful completion of this programme or should they leave the organisation within six months after their successful completion of this programme. thirdly, the sdp provides participants with an opportunity for promotion to a supervisory position. lastly, most of the programme’s activities are scheduled during working hours and thus do not require participants to spend time after hours on developmental activities. c. from which business units were recipients selected and were all business units equally represented? the main business units within the hotel are: • rooms division (typically comprising of front office, reservation, housekeeping, uniformed services, telephone services and concierge) • food and beverage division (including specialty restaurants, bars, coffee shops, banqueting, lounges, catering and kitchens) • sales and marketing department • finance department • hr department • maintenance department • the hotel’s spa. the majority of participants were selected from the organisation’s two biggest business units, the rooms division and food and beverage division. table 1:participants completing supervisory development programmes between 2006 and 2008. table 2:adherence to stated performance standards for participants completing the supervisory development programme from 2006 to 2008. table 3:comparison of supervisory development programme activities and action learning literature. table 4:approximate supervisory development programme cost and number of qualifiers from 2006 to 2008. table 5:comparison of participants completing and successfully completing the supervisory development programme and still employed within the organisation from 2006 to 2008. table 6:supervisory development programme participant appointments prior to or after supervisory development programme. question 2: service delivery a. is the sdp a typical action learning programme and is action learning an appropriate medium for management development?in order to answer this evaluation question, a brief literature review was conducted, focusing on the prerequisite activities of an action learning mode of delivery. a basic definition of action learning describes a group or set of colleagues who form a mutual support structure, who work through actual work-related problems faced by the individuals within the group (mcgill & beaty, 1995). learning focuses on taking action, as the name of this approach suggests, through the support of peers. dotlich and noel (1998, p. 15) describe action learning generically as ‘an alternating series of workshops and field experiences’ and as a context for rapid learning. according to this definition, action learning provides both the tools that participants need to solve business-related problems, as well as the context to engage in problem solving. many action learning approaches exist (smith & o’neil, 2003). based on their review of action learning literature published between 1994 and 2000, these researchers identified the following generic components of action learning programmes: • participants grapple with actual business problems as they occur • participants work in small and stable learning groups, called sets • sets meet regularly • there is a fixed programme duration • the business problems participants deal with are relevant to their own working environment • participants take action between meetings to solve the identified business problems they face • questioning and reflection play a major role in the learning process • a supportive and collaborative working environment is created in the set. in table 3, the generic components described by smith and o’neil (2003) are compared with the sdp activities to ascertain the level of congruence between them. based on this comparison it became clear that the sdp contained the majority of the action learning components described in the literature review by smith and o’neil (2003). the most notable exception was that participants did not deal with actual business problems they were facing at work, but simulated problems related to the various business units. based on this comparison of action learning literature and sdp programme activities, it can be concluded that the sdp is an action learning programme that includes the majority of activities described in the reviewed action learning literature. however, is action learning the appropriate approach to address the problems faced by the hotel management? is action learning a mode of delivery that is commonly used to grow a pool of supervisors, who need to think holistically about their organisation, and have a pro-active management style? again, the available literature seems to support the choice of action learning in the context described above. fitzsimmons and fitzsimmons (1994) highlight the key roles of the service manager as those of independent thought and taking appropriate action. mumford (1997) describes both planned learning exercises and seizing learning opportunities, as they emerge from the reality of managerial life, as key strategies in management development. mcgill and beaty (1995) describe action learning as a learning and reflective process that takes place with the support of a group of colleagues working with real problems, with the intent of achieving tangible results. action learning also typically produces unintended competencies such as: gaining increased self-confidence, self-awareness, other-awareness, readiness to take responsibility and initiative, learning a more disciplined way of working, learning how to formulate more informed actions, learning to relate to and communicate effectively with others, and learning to learn (johnson, 1998). action learning theorists paint a picture of action learning that appropriately matches the approach followed by the sdp. this congruence provides some evidence that action learning may be an appropriate approach for supervisory development. b. are the actual programme activities aligned with the intended ones? the answer to evaluation question 4 indicated that the programme activities of the sdp, as intended, were aligned with an action learning mode of delivery. however, the evaluators also examined whether or not these intended activities were the actual activities that participants received whilst on the sdp. we compared the scheduled programme activities for the sdps running between 2006 and 2008 and the actual activities recorded in available electronic and paper-based programme documents for the same period. it became clear that available documentation for the three sdps running between 2006 and 2007 was limited. the reason for this was the resignation of the first programme administrator and the subsequent lack of access to her electronic programme documents. during further interviews with the current administrator, it was established that the missing programme activities did in fact take place each year. programme expenditure (presented in table 4) for the 2006, 2007(1) and 2007(2) sdps supported this claim. however, besides expenditure records indicating that the external consultancy was paid for providing services for all five sdps running between 2006 and 2008, and programme schedules indicating that planned programme activities were scheduled with specific dates, times, presenters and venues, no further records existed. there was no further documented proof that the programme activities were implemented as planned. based on this partial evidence, it would be safe to say that the majority of programme activities between 2006 and 2007 were planned, scheduled and paid for. unfortunately, the available programme documents did not allow a definitive statement as to the actual implementation of these activities. the current programme administrator has been involved with the sdp since the beginning of 2008 and has been able to produce more complete programme documentation. this is reflected in figure 3, which shows that the number of documented activities increased substantially in 2008. the planned programme activities remained relatively consistent during the three years covered by the evaluation. of the 18 to 20 programme activities originally planned (figure 3) only three were changed between 2006 and 2008. in summary, it can be concluded that the planned programme activities took place in 2008. the programme showed a high degree of stability over the three years and five programme instances evaluated, with only one new activity added and two frequency adjustments made during this time. question 3: organisational resources a. are there sufficient resources (e.g. finances, time and expertise) to implement the sdp effectively?the programme utilised considerable financial, time and human resources. in terms of financial resources, hotel management has spent approximately r350 000 between 2006 and 2008, as table 4 indicates. most of the funds were spent on fees charged by the private consultancy. accreditation and co-sponsorship of the sdp by the international hotel school, mentioned earlier, required the second largest investment of financial resources. although total expenditure for the sdp from 2006 to 2008 was considerable, it equated to an average of r5072.46 per participant per three-month programme. it could be argued that the sdp is a cost-effective programme. two factors enabled the hotel to keep programme costs relatively low. firstly, the hotel used its own training venues. secondly, an agreement between the external consultancy and hotel management existed to train hotel managers to facilitate programme activities and phase out the need for a consultant. expenditure of time is another important resource consideration, as time spent by senior managers facilitating the sdp, and participants attending the programme, converts to time being spent on non-core activities, which subsequently results in a decline in productivity. during the three months that the sdp ran, at least fourteen full workdays were spent on training, and this process involved between 12 and 15 participants, twice a year. if not properly planned for, this could add strain to the workload of senior managers facilitating the course, to colleagues of participants who may have to perform extra duties whilst participants are undergoing training, and to the participants themselves. this indirect programme cost should be accounted for in addition to the fees paid to external service providers to achieve a realistic sense of programme cost. two staff members were closely and continually involved in the sdp. the programme manager for the sdp is a senior hr executive within the hotel group, and the programme administrator is an hr manager within the hotel who oversaw the daily planning, running and administration of the programme’s activities. figure 3: number of planned and documented programme activities from 2006 to 2008. figure 4:supervisory development programme graduate appointments into vacant junior management and supervisory positions from 2006 to 2009. figure 5:revised programme theory of the supervisory development programme. question 4: medium-term outcomes a. does a pool of skilled supervisors exist after five sdps have been run, and if so, how many recipients form part of this pool?the successful completion of all programme activities, according to the standards set by the programme staff, was chosen as an indicator of a skilled supervisor. the data are presented in table 5. of the 69 participants who completed the sdp between 2006 and 2008, 45 were still employed by the organisation at the end of august 2009. if it is assumed that all those who completed the sdp have developed the required supervisory skills, then the simple answer to the evaluation question is that a pool of 45 skilled supervisors is still employed by the organisation. however, if evidence of actual skill upon programme completion is required, as reflected in the number of trainees who have complied with all the standards and criteria of success, a different answer emerges. there was documented evidence that 55 participants (or 79.7%) adhered to all the standards set by programme staff. of these 55 skilled participants, 35 (or 63.6%) were still employed by the hotel in 2009. when the six successful sdp graduates who had since been appointed (and, thus, do not form part of the pool of the skilled supervisors that were available for appointment when a vacancy arose) were subtracted from this number, 29 participants remained in the pool. within the limitations of available programme records, and the evaluation method chosen, the most accurate answer to this evaluation question is that a pool of skilled supervisors did exist and that it consisted of 29 employees who had successfully completed the sdp. the aforementioned 29 beneficiaries are still employed by the organisation and have not been appointed into vacant junior management or supervisory positions. the organisation can report back to stakeholders that their investment and efforts have resulted in the creation of a pool of 29 employees who have been trained to be competent supervisors and who are ready to be appointed to fill vacancies when they arise. significantly, the sdp has delivered at least 35 skilled junior managers or supervisors within a period of three years. this result indicates that, to a large degree, the programme is being implemented as planned, up to this point, and has started to deliver its intended short-term outcomes. b. are recipients who successfully completed the sdp being appointed into vacant supervisory positions? according to the programme records, a total of 69 sdp participants completed the programme between 2006 and 2008, of whom 35 could be labelled as having acquired the required skills, in accordance with the programme’s standards. the programme manager also indicated that in some cases newly appointed supervisors, from outside the organisation, were also enrolled in the programme. table 6 reflects the number of participants appointed prior to and after the sdp. of the 55 participants who successfully completed the sdp between 2006 and 2008, 22 (40%) were already employed as supervisors whilst 6 (10.9%) were appointed after completion. thus, the majority of these appointments took place before sdp enrolment and it could be concluded that only six participants were developed by the sdp and appointed permanently when a vacancy arose, as the programme theory stipulates. the 22 incumbents who were appointed did not fit the current understanding of how the programme was supposed to work, which is not necessarily a negative or an unintended outcome for the programme, but it should be incorporated into the formal programme theory. furthermore, two internal appointments of non-sdp graduates and two external appointments were made during the evaluation period. these four appointments were not aligned with the programme theory at all. the continued appointment of non-sdp and external candidates could indicate a serious flaw in the implementation of the sdp, with potential repercussions for how it is perceived by the intended target group. c. how long does a typical recipient have to wait between completion of the sdp and selection into a vacant supervisory position? this question is only relevant to the six sdp graduates who were appointed after graduation – the 22 who were first appointed and then enrolled on the sdp, of course, experienced no waiting period. we could only find data on four appointments, and they waited on average for a rather lengthy period of 17 months, after completing the course to be appointed. twenty-nine successful sdp graduates were still employed by the organisation but had not yet been appointed into supervisor positions. the waiting time by the end of the evaluation period, for these beneficiaries, is indicated below: • 2006(1) graduates not appointed by the end of august 2009 have not been appointed for 37 months (n = 3) • 2007(1) graduates have not been appointed for 25 months (n = 3) • 2007(2) graduates have not been appointed for 22 months (n = 7) • 2008(1) graduates have not been appointed for 13 months (n = 8) • 2008(2) graduates have not been appointed for 10 months (n = 8). although programme staff make it clear to participants that graduation from the sdp does not guarantee promotion, these findings indicated that the relatively small number of sdp graduates who had been appointed, and who were not incumbent supervisors, were appointed after approximately a year and a half. the majority of sdp graduates who had not yet been appointed into supervisory positions had been waiting for promotion for an average of 21 months. d. are sufficient supervisors being developed by the sdp? this evaluation question was answered by comparing the number of skilled supervisors developed by the sdp between 2006 and 2008 with the vacancies reported by the organisation between 2006 and august 2009, when the evaluation was concluded. this information is reflected in figure 4. the majority of supervisory vacancies (32) were filled with employees who were at that time either current or future sdp graduates. four vacancies were filled with individuals from within the organisation, who were not and did not become sdp graduates, whilst two external applicants were employed as supervisors. based on the information gathered, there are two main reasons to believe that the sdp is developing a surplus of skilled junior managers. firstly, only 50.9% of successful graduates had been appointed into vacancies by august 2009 when this evaluation was concluded. for the 49.1% of delegates not yet appointed, the average waiting time was calculated as 21 months, with certain graduates already awaiting promotion for 37 months. it seems that there were twice as many gra duates as vacancies during the evaluation period. secondly, interviews with the programme administrator indicated that programme staff were planning to increase the number of sdp delegates during 2009. the uptake for the first 2009 sdp was reportedly 24 participants, with a similarly sized group planned for the second 2009 sdp. this could potentially increase the number of skilled junior managers by almost 48 individuals within one year. if the number of vacancies does not increase accordingly, even more sdp graduates will form part of the pool of skilled supervisors awaiting promotion. in summary, it could be asserted that the programme theory, as initially formulated by the programme staff, was well implemented up to the creation of a pool of skilled junior managers. only 10.9% of sdp graduates were appointed from this pool of skilled individuals into vacant supervisory positions. the majority (40%) of supervisors were appointed into vacant supervisory positions first and then enrolled into the programme. therefore it seems that the sdp has served mainly as a management training programme for incumbent supervisors, rather than as a management development programme for potential supervisors. based on these findings, a revised programme theory for the sdp, as implemented between 2006 and 2008, is proposed in figure 5. this revised programme theory indicates that there are two groups of sdp participants, namely potential supervisors and incumbent supervisors. as indicated in figure 5, both groups already participated in the sdp. after graduation, only the potential supervisors proceeded to the pool of skilled supervisors. these participants were ready to be appointed into supervisory vacancies and were thus able to attain both the medium and long-term outcomes specified in the original programme theory (figure 1). after graduating from the sdp, the participants who were incumbent supervisors upon entering the programme (indicated by the grey block and perforated lines in figure 5) did not form part of the pool of skilled participants who were available to be appointed into vacancies. these participants had already been appointed into supervisory vacancies and, thus, could not attain all medium and long-term outcomes originally specified. although these participants may also function more efficiently, independently and productively, they did not necessarily help the organisation to reduce the cost of filling vacancies. participants in this second group might also have been appointed from outside the organisation, thus negating the outcomes of reduced recruitment costs and reduced induction periods. ethical considerations top ↑ the ethics in research committee of the faculty of commerce, university of cape town, approved the evaluation. potential benefits and hazards there were no benefits or hazards for participants who took part in the evaluation. the programme manager and programme administrator agreed to be identified by role. recruitment procedures a mutual business acquaintance introduced the primary evaluator to the programme manager. the programme manager introduced the primary evaluator to the programme administrator and provided access to relevant programme documents. informed consent the primary evaluator contacted the programme manager by e-mail and telephone, and at a later stage a formal document outlining the purpose and the scope of the evaluation was signed by the programme manager. data protection the primary evaluator used programme records to record the relevant data of each sdp participant on a spreadsheet. the primary evaluator was the only person who had access to the spreadsheet. trustworthiness top ↑ reliability the primary evaluator verified data from the programme records with the programme administrator. validity the evaluation focused on a specific programme and did not seek to generalise the findings to other, similar programmes. discussion top ↑ the main objective of this evaluation was to assess whether or not a management development programme reduced recruitment costs for the company involved. the importance of this study and its main contribution is that it provides useful information regarding programme theory, implementation and short-term outcomes within a limited time frame and limited resources (donaldson & lipsey, 2006). relevant information regarding the programme’s functioning was collected, interpreted and reported in a user-friendly manner. based on the main findings of the evaluation, aspects of the programme that required attention or improvement have been highlighted for programme staff. furthermore, the programme stakeholders have been provided with a revised programme theory. this evaluation has also summarised the available information for the five sdps running between 2006 and 2008. by explicating the basic programme theory and studying programme implementation, the evaluation also served as a starting point for future evaluations of the sdp. the main results of the evaluation indicated that the programme was not implemented according to the programme plan. there was a risk that this could lead to unintended consequences, such as the participants’ perception that the organisation had violated the psychological contract (smithson & lewis, 2000) of development and promotion. between 2006 and 2008, the sdp functioned mainly as a training programme for incumbent junior managers. if it was mostly used as a training programme, rather than as a management development programme, then the programme activities and theory should be re-evaluated. there may be more efficient ways than the current sdp to train incumbent managers within the organisation. at present, the evaluation results indicated that the sdps, running between 2006 and 2008, might not have had the intended outcome of reducing recruitment costs to fill junior management and supervisory positions within the organisation. following mabey and finch-lees (2008), this programme was treated as a management learning exercise. our results indicated that learning indeed took place, as a pool of skilled managers was created. the theory failure (rossi et al., 2004) that we identified had to do with what had happened further down the outcome chain, in terms of how these newly trained managers were treated. conclusions it is clear that the sdp was not implemented as intended and that the way in which the participants were treated after completing the programme might undermine the positive effect of the programme. it is conceivable that the sdp could develop a surplus of skilled sdp graduates that will negate the need to run the programme for a certain period of time. recommendations it is recommended that the period in which sdp graduates awaited appointment should be taken into account when sdp graduates are considered for a supervisory vacancy. this would reduce the waiting periods for those who have completed the programme successfully. it would be virtually impossible to predict future vacancies precisely or to appoint all graduates immediately after graduation, but despite this it is important to ensure that programme uptake and output are aligned more closely, and that waiting periods are reduced. continually training a surplus of sdp graduates would counteract the initial programme goal of reduced recruitment and selection expenditure. it would also increase the waiting period between graduation and appointment, thus, increasing the risk of dissatisfaction of successful participants. limitations all evaluations operate in situations where there is a tension between what ’the best‘ methods to use are, and what is possible or feasible. in the present case, the evaluators had to rely on rather limited data sources, and even with these they experienced great difficulties obtaining and extracting the information. it would have been more informative if, for example, the evaluator had attended one of the sdps to see the training in action, and also had observed how the programme proceeded. suggestions for future research ideally, one would like to study more programmes like this, to expand the knowledge base about management learning in the local context. for this particular programme, it would have been useful to investigate the perceptions of the trainees who had been waiting to be placed in supervisory positions, given the risks that the study has identified concerning them. finally, a cost-benefit analysis, in terms of the resources allocated to the programme, would yield important information on how to go forward with it. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this paper. authors’ contributions j.b. (university of cape town) completed this evaluation as a requirement for his master’s degree in programme evaluation. j.l. (university of cape town) supervised the evaluation. references top ↑ amos, t.l., ristow, a., ristow, l., & pearse, n.j. (2008). human resource management. (3rd edn.). cape town: juta. donaldson, s.i., & lipsey, m.w. (2006). roles for theory in contemporary evaluation practice: developing practical knowledge. in i. shaw, j.c. greene & m.m. mark (ed.), the handbook of evaluation: policies, programs, and practices, (pp. 56–75). london: sage. dotlich, d.l., & noel, j.l. (1998). action learning: how the world’s top companies are re-creating their leaders and themselves. san francisco: jossey-bass. fitzsimmons, j.a., & fitzsimmons, m.j. (1994). service management for competitive advantage. singapore: mcgraw-hill. johnson, c. (1998). the essential principles of action learning. journal of workplace learning, 10(6), 296–300. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13665629810236219 kotter, j. (1990). what leaders really do. harvard business review, 68(3), 103–111. pmid:10104518 mabey, c., & finch-lees, t. (2008). management and leadership development. london: sage. mcgill, i., & beaty, l. (1995). action learning: a guide for professional, management and educational development. london: kogan page. mumford, a. (1997). management development: strategies for action. (3rd edn.). london: institute of personnel and development. paauwe, j., & williams, r. (2001). seven key issues for management development. journal of management development, 20(2), 90–102. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02621710110382123 rossi, p.h., lipsey, m.w., & freeman, h.e. (2004). evaluation: a systematic approach. (7th edn.). thousand oaks: sage. smith, p.a., & o’neil, j. (2003). a review of action learning literature 1994–2000: part 1 – bibliography and comments. journal of workplace learning, 15(2), 63–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13665620310464102 smithson, j., & lewis, s. (2000). is job security changing the psychological contract? personnel review, 29(6), 680–702. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ 00483480010296465 wexley, k.n., & baldwin, t.t. (1986). post-training strategies for facilitating positive transfer: an empirical exploration. academy of management journal, 29, 508–520. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256221 zaleznik, a. (1977). managers and leaders: are they different? harvard business review, 55(3), 6. reviewer acknowledgement open accesshttp://www.sajhrm.co.za page 1 of 1 sa journal of human resource management recognises the value and importance of the peer reviewer in the overall publication process – not only in shaping the individual manuscript, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank all reviewers who participated in shaping this volume of sa journal of human resource management: adele bezuidenhout adrinet snyman anita bosch bennie linde bouwer jonker byron adams cecilia m. schultz chris j. jordaan chris w. callaghan chux g. iwu claude-helene mayer crystal hoole dawie de villiers deon g.g. rousseau elizabeth c. rudolph elrie botha evante schurink frances de klerk francesca abii francois s. de kock gerhard bezuidenhout hester nienaber jacobus b. van lill jeanine pires-putter karen luyt klaus p. muller leon de beer leon l.t.b. jackson letitia van der merwe lizelle brink magda bezuidenhout marissa de klerk mark bussin martina kotzé nadia ferreira nana n. appiah-agyekum neil buys nicole m. dodd norman chiliya paul k. kariuki penny abbott preeya daya ramudu bbhanugopan richard g. chazuza roslyn t. de braine salome e. vosloo suki l. goodman sumaya laher tarek h. abdeen waliu m. adegbite wilma j. coetzer zheng weibo in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for sa journal of human resource management, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on www.sajhrm.co.za for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a reviewer. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at http://www. sajhrm.co.za 2. in your ‘user home’ [http://www.sajhrm. co.za/index.php/sajhrm/ user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest. 3. it is good practice as reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to sa journal of human resource management. please do not hesitate to contact me if you require assistance in performing this task. margo van blerk submissions@sajhrm.co.za tel: +27 21 975 2602 fax: +27 21 975 4635 sajhrm sa journal of human resource management we appreciate the time taken to perform your review successfully. 268 article information authors: melinde coetzee1 jeremy mitonga-monga1 benita swart1 affiliations: 1department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: melinde coetzee postal address: po box 392, pretoria 0003, south africa dates: received: 25 oct. 2013 accepted: 13 june 2014 published: 28 oct. 2014 how to cite this article: coetzee, m., mitonga-monga, j., & swart, b. (2014). human resource practices as predictors of engineering staff’s organisational commitment. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12 (1), art. #604, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.604 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. human resource practices as predictors of engineering staff’s organisational commitment in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • background    • research objective    • potential value-add    • literature review       • organisational commitment       • human resource practices • research design    • research approach • method    • participants    • measures    • research procedure    • data analysis • results    • descriptive statistics and correlations    • stepwise multiple regressions • discussion    • managerial implications    • limitations and suggestions for future research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: human resource practices are an important means of retaining professionally qualified employees and improving and increasing their future level of organisational performance in today’s turbulent and perpetually competitive world of business.research purpose: this study examined whether human resource practices (as a core aspect of organisational culture) positively predict organisational commitment. motivation for the study: in south africa, high voluntary turnover and skills shortages of professionally qualified people such as engineers are a major obstacle to economic growth and job creation. research design, approach and method: a cross-sectional survey and quantitative design were used with a non-probability purposive sample of 284 early career professionally qualified engineers from a south african engineering organisation. correlational statistical techniques were employed to achieve the research objective. main findings: job satisfaction, training and development and rewards and remuneration positively predicted affective commitment. leadership, rewards and remuneration and training and development also positively predicted normative commitment. human resources policies and procedures positively predicted continuance commitment. practical/managerial implications: managers and human resource practitioners need to take a proactive approach in facilitating an organisational culture that reflects the practices embodied by the variables measured in this study in order to increase organisational commitment. contribution: the findings add new knowledge that may be used to help managers and human resource practitioners understand how these human resource practices may guide retention strategies in the engineering environment. introduction top ↑ human resource (hr) practices have become an increasingly important means for an improved business approach in order for an organisation to survive, remain competitive, sustain its business functions and grow in an ever-changing and competitive environment (papulova & papulova, 2006). hr practices have therefore become an essential aspect of organisational culture in retaining professionally qualified employees such as engineers (aggarwal & d’souza, 2012; chang, wang & huang, 2013; deloitte & touche, 2009). the may 2014 draft of the south african national scarce skills list indicated engineering skills as on one of the top five scarce critical skills for economic growth (department of higher education and training [dhet], 2014). the high voluntary turnover and skills shortages (wöcke & heymann, 2012) of professionally qualified people such as engineers seem to be a major obstacle to economic growth and job creation (construction education and training authority [ceta], 2007; döckel, 2003; kraak, 2008; rasool & botha, 2011). the skills shortages further seem to limit south african businesses’ level of global participation (rasool & botha, 2011). to deal with these challenges, organisations are continuously striving to improve their culture and implement hr practices that will enable them to survive, retain talented employees, remain competitive, sustain their business functions and grow in a turbulent business environment (arachchige & robertson, 2011; coetzee & veldsman, 2013). background in the present study, hr practices are studied as an aspect of organisational culture. deloitte and touche’s (2009) approach to measuring organisational culture focuses on the hr practices that represent the top world-class companies. rashid, sambasivan and johari (2002) posit that the human resource practices associated with high-performing organisational cultures have attracted academia and practitioner attention over the past two decades because of their effects and potential impact on organisational success and staff retention in the contemporary and future world of work. previous studies have indicated that the underlying values, beliefs and principles embedded in an organisation’s culture serve as a valuable foundation for an organisation’s management system and are exemplified and reinforced by the company’s hr practices and behaviours (abu-jarad, yusof & nikbin, 2010; eskildsen & dahlgaard, 2000; martins & martins, 2002). organisational culture, including the hr practices that represent the culture, is regarded as a strong strategic lever in creating an engaged and committed workforce (martins & coetzee, 2007).amah (2012) draws attention to the fact that the hypothesis that strong cultures enhance organisational performance is based on the intuitively powerful idea that organisations benefit from highly committed, motivated employees dedicated to common goals. for instance, organisational commitment is perceived as a key determinant of employee turnover due to its supposed sensitivity to the elements surrounding the work environment (chang et al., 2013; döckel, basson & coetzee, 2006; meyer & allen, 1991). the work environment is regarded as a combination of the psychological environment, hr practices and corporate culture that enable employees to perform their jobs with appropriate support or workplace flexibility, ongoing training opportunities (including teaching job, social and leadership skills) and clear career path and advancement opportunities (amah, 2012; döckel, 2003). previous studies have shown that organisational culture and hr practices (for example, leadership behaviour, performance management, training and development, compensation and communication) influence employee satisfaction, turnover intentions and organisational commitment (chang et al., 2013; döckel, 2003; martins & coetzee, 2007; swart, 2009). research further indicates that organisational commitment can lead to favourable organisational outcomes, including organisational effectiveness, improved performance and reduced staff turnover (meyer & allen, 1997; saif, nawaz, jan & khan, 2012). research objective the present study explored whether human resource practices act as predictors of organisational commitment in the engineering profession. potential value-add although various studies exist internationally that highlight the significance of organisational culture and the concomitant hr practices that support high-performing firms, there seems to be a paucity of research concerning how hr practices relate to employees’ organisational commitment in the south african engineering context. in view of the current skills shortages and concerns about attracting and retaining professionally qualified engineers (ceta, 2007; dhet, 2014; swart, 2009), the present study seems timely and important. literature review organisational commitment organisational commitment refers to the relative strength of an individual’s identification with and involvement in a particular organisation (ezirim, nwibere & emecheta, 2012), the extent to which employees are willing to work on its behalf and the likelihood that they will maintain membership of the organisation (dey, 2012). reade and lee (2012) and kuo (2013) found organisational commitment to be typically associated with characteristics, jobs and behaviours of staff, as well as the socio-cultural environment of an organisation. meyer, stanley and parfyonova (2012) regard organisational commitment as a psychological state or mindset that binds an employee to the organisation. organisational commitment comprises a strong emotional component and includes general interests, principles, values and goals (tsai & cheng, 2011).in the context of the present study, the notion of organisational commitment is based on meyer and allen’s (1997) three-component model of organisational commitment: (1) the psychological state that reveals the level of an individual’s commitment and emotional attachment towards an organisation (affective commitment), (2) the pre-existing conditions leading to the development of that commitment level (continuance commitment) and (3) the behaviours that are expected to result from this commitment (normative commitment). affective commitment refers to the employee’s emotional attachment to, identification with and involvement in the organisation (based on positive feelings or attitudes towards the organisation). in this case, employees strongly identify with the goals of the organisation and want to remain a part of the organisation (ezirim et al., 2012). continuance commitment refers to commitment based on the cost that the employee associates with leaving the organisation (due to the high cost of leaving). in this case, the employee remains with an organisation because of a perceived loss of sunken costs (ezirim et al., 2012). in terms of normative commitment, the employee remains with an organisation because of a sense of obligation. for instance, individuals may feel that they ought to remain with an organisation because they think that it is morally right to continue to participate in the same organisation. an organisation may also have invested more resources in training an employee, who then feels obliged to stay with the organisation to repay the debt (ezirim et al., 2012). in terms of social exchange theories, the strong link between individuals’ commitment to an organisation or occupation implies that employees are more committed after they have weighed the pros and cons following resignation (kuo, 2013; rothrauff, abraham, bride & roman, 2011). kuo (2013) therefore argues that organisational commitment is an effective and highly influential mechanism for connecting employees and the organisation. it also provides cohesion and motivates employees to devote long-term effort to addressing external influences and meeting customer demands (kuo, 2013). bang, ross and reio (2013) support the principle of social exchange theory and indicate that when the values of employees meet the values of the organisation, the strength of employees’ commitment will become greater, to the extent that they could demonstrate blind commitment, which will lead them to sometimes accept the status quo, resulting in the organisation losing its ability to be innovative and adapt to change. ezirim et al. (2012) found that organisational commitment is positively related to a variety of desirable work outcomes, including employee job satisfaction, motivation and performance, and negatively correlated to absenteeism and turnover. van dyk and coetzee (2012) found a strong positive relationship between organisational commitment and hr-related retention practices, which appear to bind individuals to their organisation in the medical and information technology services environments. human resource practices hr practices have assumed considerable importance in the 21st century because of their impact on employee performance, job satisfaction, commitment and retention (momeni, marjani & saadat, 2012). in general, it can be assumed that employees who perceive that their organisation invests in sound hr practices that address their needs will be psychologically and emotionally committed to the organisation (swart, 2009). hr practices refer to the management processes and systems that are widely recognised as improving an organisation’s performance and efficiency (brundage & koziel, 2010; döckel, 2003). scholars have studied this topic by testing numerous types of performance improvement or performance enablers over the years with the aim of identifying and establishing those systems and practices that can help organisations to achieve their envisaged state of excellence (brundage & koziel, 2010; döckel, 2003).the global consulting company deloitte and touche (2009) identified the following 13 core hr practices that are essential to a high-performing culture. these practices are seen to affect a company’s performance and therefore deemed to be important for a creating a strong performance-oriented organisational culture: • leadership relates to the extent to which employees perceive their senior leaders’ level of communication, openness and honesty, as well as the way in which leaders are seen to model the organisational values and inspire employees. research suggests that leaders who treat people in the right ways have a high level of moral development and act with integrity positively influence employees’ affective commitment (detert & treviño, 2010). • management style relates to the extent to which employees perceive the accessibility of their manager or supervisor, as well as whether or not the manager provides them with the necessary resources to accomplish their jobs, consults with employees regarding important decisions, sets realistic performance goals and acknowledges them as individuals. according to zeffane (1994), management style can significantly influence the degree of worker commitment to organisational values and goals. • communication refers to the effectiveness of the internal organisational communication channels, the frequency and quality of communication, communication between management and employees and between departments and the extent to which employees are consulted when decisions are being taken that will impact upon them. ghina (2012) posits that affective commitment might be enhanced under conditions of high organisational communication and involvement of workers in the decision-making process. as individuals are consulted and involved in matters that concern them, strong feelings of loyalty to the organisation may develop. • values and culture refer to employees’ perceptions regarding their company’s vision, mission and values, as well as their experience of the organisational culture insofar as it is employee-centred and promotes good working relationships, trust and transparency. it appears to be that congruence between personal and organisation values and culture is highly motivating and may increase organisational commitment (coetzee & veldsman, 2013; khandelwal & mohendra, 2010). employees’ personal values and culture have been found to be related to affective commitment (rostami, veismoradi & akbari, 2012). • innovation refers to whether or not the organisation continuously comes up with new ideas and innovations in every area, thereby growing its revenue through innovation. pandey and de (2013) indicate that innovation is the only way for companies to obtain a competition position. it is also the principal factor to trigger business growth. innovation results in companies creating new products, systems and service items to meet the demands of customers. innovation practices were found to be related to affective commitment (pandey & de, 2013; swart, 2009). • job satisfaction refers to the extent to which employees have clear work objectives, whether or not they have access to the necessary tools and resources to do their jobs effectively and are afforded the opportunity to fully utilise their talents and skills in their jobs. according to shah, jatoi and memon (2012), employees with clear objectives and who are provided with the necessary tools and resources to carry out their jobs can develop a positive attitude towards the job and organisation. employees’ job satisfaction has been found to be related to affective and continuance commitment (shah et al., 2012). • hr policies and procedures refer the extent to which appropriate hr policies and procedures are in place and are easily accessible to and understood by employees. research by juhdi, pa’wan, milah, hansaram and othman (2012) shows that properly implemented and managed hr policies and procedures increase organisational commitment and decrease intention to resign amongst employees. • performance management refers to the perceived fairness and consistency of implementation as experienced by employees. according to lin, lin and lin (2012), performance management enhances employees’ organisational commitment. psychological commitment is higher amongst highly skilled engineering workers who believe that their company is fair and consistent in the implementation of performance management (decremer, smolders, vanderstraeten & christiaens, 2012). • recognition refers to the extent to which employees perceive recognition (e.g. promotions, verbal recognition, awards) to be effective and fairly implemented within the organisation. according to zaitouni, sawalha and sharif (2011), monetary compensation is important, but not sufficient to retain employees. recognition in the form of non-monetary elements (e.g. verbal recognition and positive feedback) is also important. paré and tremblay (2007) indicate that recognition from managers and peers has been found to be related to affective and continuance commitment. • rewards and remuneration refers to the extent to which employees perceive their remuneration to be market-related and appropriate to their job roles and responsibilities. this practice also explores the nature of benefits and bonus and incentive schemes offered by the organisation. it appears that fair rewards affect organisational commitment. previous research has shown that rewards for quality efforts appear to positively influence employee morale and satisfaction (martins & coetzee, 2007). research by zaitouni et al. (2011) suggests that employees who are provided with benefits, such as increased salary, bonuses and promotion, develop strong feelings of loyalty to the organisation. perceptions of fair rewards and justice lead to higher levels of satisfaction and long-term commitment to the organisation. • training and development refers to the nature of training and development within the organisation in terms of its availability, applicability to employees’ current and future job roles and the range of training opportunities available (deloitte & touche, 2009). training is used to enhance specific skills and correct performance issues to empower employees with needed skills for current and future job requirements. döckel et al. (2006) indicate that employees seem to develop a sense of obligation (normative commitment) and stay longer in an organisation that promotes career opportunity through learning and the ability to apply newly learned competencies. • diversity and transformation refers to the extent to which diversity management is applied within the organisation, with a particular focus on the equitable treatment of employees from different ethnic, gender and age groups. according to jonsen, tatli, ozbilgin and bell (2013), affective and normative commitment may be enhanced under conditions of good equitable treatment and non-discrimination. jonsen et al. (2013) indicate that an engineering work environment that provides equitable fair treatment has the reputation of retaining talented workers. • change management refers to how the change management process is dealt with in the organisation and how employees are managed throughout the change process in terms of adequate communication, involvement and support. visagie and steyn (2011) indicate that employees’ commitment to the organisation is critical when an organisation engages in change initiatives. committed employees can therefore provide many benefits, for example by putting in extra effort to ensure that change succeeds, serving as public relations representatives during the change and going above and beyond the norm to assist the organisation to function effectively (visagie & steyn, 2011). juhdi et al. (2012) describe hr practices as the methods that organisations use to mould employee behaviour, perception and attitudes. organisational culture surveys of employees’ perceptions of the 13 hr practices identified by deloitte and touche (2009) enable organisations to observe which practices foster employee commitment, satisfaction and productivity and which hinder employee satisfaction and productivity. this valuable information can then be used to improve current organisational hr practices, thereby increasing staff satisfaction, commitment and productivity and reducing staff turnover. drawing on the research literature and previous empirical findings, we hypothesised that hr practices positively and significantly predict individuals’ affective, continuance and normative commitment. research design top ↑ research approach a cross-sectional, quantitative survey design approach was used to achieve the objectives of the study. method top ↑ participants a non-probability purposive sample of a total population of 284 professionally qualified engineers from a south african company participated in the study. the sample consisted of 70% white employees, 60% men and 50% employees under the age of 36 years. the participants had been employed by the company for a minimum of three years and were in the early stages of their careers. measures the organisational commitment questionnaire (ocq) (meyer & allen, 1991) was used to measure employees’ level of commitment to their organisation. the ocq consists of 24 items measured on a seven-point likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). examples of items in each of the three ocq dimensions include the following: affective (‘i would be very happy to spend the rest of my career in this organisation’), continuance (‘one of the major reasons i continue to work for this organisation is that leaving would require considerable personal sacrifice; another organisation may not match the overall benefits i have here’), normative (‘i do not feel any obligation to remain with my current employer’). meyer and allen (1997) reported the following internal consistency cronbach’s alpha coefficients: 0.85 for affective, 0.79 for continuance and 0.73 for normative commitment. the present study yielded acceptable internal consistency reliability (cronbach’s alpha) coefficients: 0.89 for affective, 0.68 for continuance and 0.88 for normative commitment.the organisational culture survey (ocs) (deloitte & touche, 2009) was used to measure employees’ perceptions regarding 13 organisational hr practices. these practices are seen to affect a company’s performance and are therefore deemed to be important for creating a strong performance-oriented organisational culture. the ocs consists of 80 items measured on a seven-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). examples of items in each human resource management (hrm) practice dimension include the following: change management (‘in this organisation, employees are encouraged to become involved in and committed to change’), communication (‘communication messages are effective and understood by all employees’), diversity and transformation (‘understanding and respecting diversity is important in this organisation’), hr policies and procedures (‘a concerted effort is made to educate employees on the hr policies and procedures in place’), innovation (‘innovation has been communicated to employees as being a strategic business objective in the organisation’), job satisfaction (‘in general, employees find their work interesting and challenging’), leadership (‘most employees are inspired and motivated by leadership in this organisation’), management style (‘the person i report to involves employees in decisions that affect their job and work performance’), performance management (‘employee performance is managed against clear and measurable objectives’), recognition (‘this organisation recognises employees who behave according to the organisation’s values’), rewards and remuneration (‘employees’ total remuneration packages – salary plus bonus and incentives – are market-related’), training and development (‘training and development for future career advancement is available to all employees’) and values and culture (‘there is a culture of honesty, openness and trust in the organisation’). the ocs is a well-established instrument that is widely used by deloitte and touche (2009), with proven validity and reliability in the south african business environment. the present study yielded high internal consistency reliability (cronbach’s alpha coefficients) for the various dimensions of the bcps: 0.88 for change management, 0.84 for communication, 0.80 for diversity and transformation, 0.84 for hr policies and procedures, 0.79 for innovation, 0.88 for job satisfaction, 0.91 for leadership, 0.91 for management style, 0.98 for performance management, 0.88 for recognition, 0.86 for rewards, 0.88 for training and development and 0.83 for values and culture. research procedure in terms of ethical considerations, permission to conduct the research was obtained from the management of the engineering organisation. the research institution granted ethical clearance. participants completed an informed consent form and it was indicated to them that the completion and return of the questionnaires and consent forms signified that they had granted permission for their responses to the questionnaires to be used for research purposes. participation was voluntary and the confidentiality of the participants was maintained. data analysis the first stage involved determining the means, standard deviations and cronbach’s alpha coefficients. in the second stage, pearson product moment correlations were calculated in order to specify the relationship between the hr practices measured by the ocs and the ocq variables. in terms of statistical significance, it was decided to set a cut-off alpha value at the 95% confidence interval level (p ≤ 0.05). in the last stage, stepwise regression analysis was performed to determine whether or not the hr practices measured by the ocs act as significant predictors of the ocq variables. for the purpose of this study, r2 values larger than 0.50 (large effect) at p ≤ 0.05 (cohen, 1992) were regarded as practically significant: prior to conducting the various regression analyses, collinearity diagnostics were examined to ensure that zero-order correlations were below the level of concern (r ≥ 0.80), that the variance inflation factors did not exceed 10, that the condition index was well below 15 and that the tolerance values were close to 1.0 (field, 2009). (harry & coetzee 2013, n.p.) results top ↑ descriptive statistics and correlations the descriptive statistics and internal consistency reliability coefficients of the measuring instruments are reported in table 1. table 1: descriptive statistics and correlations. the significant correlation coefficients between the hr practices and the three organisational commitment variables (p ≤ 0.05) are reported in table 1. as can be observed from table 1, the correlations between affective and normative commitment and the hr practices mostly ranged between 0.40 (medium practical effect size) and 0.70 (large practical effect size). the correlations between continuance commitment and the hr practices ranged between 0.10 and 0.21 (small practical effect size). no significant correlation was observed between continuance commitment and training and development. these results showed that the zero-order correlations were well below the threshold level of concern (r ≥ 0.80) about multicollinearity and warranted further analysis in the form of regression analysis. n = 284. hr, human resource; m, mean; sd, standard deviation, α; alpha. ***, p ≤ 0.001; **, p ≤ 0.01; *, p ≤ 0.05 standardised beta weights are reported for the final step in each model. n = 284 ***, p ≤ 0.001; **, p ≤ 0.01 stepwise multiple regressions three separate stepwise regression models were calculated, one model for each of the three ocq dependent variables: affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. each of the three stepwise regression models shows the hr practices that significantly explained the variance in each of the three commitment variables respectively.in model 1, table 2 indicates that the regression of the hr practices upon the affective commitment variable produced a statistically significant model (f = 85.21; p ≤ 0.001), accounting for approximately 55% (r2 = 0.55; large practical effect) of the variance in affective commitment. more specifically, job satisfaction (β = 0.33; t = 4.36; p ≤ 0.000), training and development (β = 0.28; t = 4.22; p ≤ 0.000) and rewards (β = 0.20; t = 3.24; p ≤ 0.001) contributed significantly towards explaining the proportion of variance in the affective commitment variable. table 2: stepwise regression results – significant human resource practices as predictors of affective, continuance and normative commitment. in model 2, table 2 indicates that the regression of the hr practices upon the continuance commitment variable produced a statistically significant model (f = 13.29; p ≤ 0.001), accounting for approximately 5% (r2 = 0.05; small practical effect) of the variance in continuance commitment. only hr policies and procedures (β = 0.21; t = 2.95; p ≤ 0.001) contributed significantly and positively in explaining the variance in continuance commitment. in model 3, table 2 indicates that the regression of the hr practices upon the normative commitment variable produced a statistically significant model (f = 71.09; p ≤ 0.001), accounting for 43% (r2 = 0.44; large practical effect) of variance in normative commitment. more specifically, leadership (β = 0.28; t = 3.32; p ≤ 0.001), rewards and remuneration (β = 0.24; t = 3.27; p ≤ 0.001) and training and development (β = 0.21; t = 2.95; p ≤ 0.001) contributed significantly towards explaining the proportion of variance in the normative commitment variable. a test of the difference of dependent multiple r’s, after conversion to z-scores, revealed a significant difference between the affective commitment multiple r and the normative commitment multiple r (z = 1.96; p ≤ 0.05). similarly to the correlation results reported in table 1, these results imply that the identified set of significant hr practices (training and development and rewards and remuneration) are, in general, more strongly related to affective commitment than to normative commitment. however, an analysis of the profiles of beta values of these three hr practices showed that they differed significantly in the two regression analyses reported in table 2 for affective commitment and normative commitment. rewards and remuneration explained significantly more variance in normative commitment than in affective commitment, whilst training and development explained significantly more variance in affective commitment than in normative commitment. discussion top ↑ the purpose of this study was to examine whether hr practices (as a core aspect of organisational culture) significantly predicted employees’ organisational commitment. overall, the correlations showed positive associations between the variables. more specifically, the results showed that the participants’ perceptions of hr practices acted as positive predictors of their level of commitment towards the organisation. more specifically, job satisfaction, training and development and rewards and remuneration significantly and positively predicted the participants’ affective commitment. leadership, rewards and remuneration and training and development further positively predicted the participants’ normative commitment, whilst hr policies and procedures significantly and positively predicted the participants’ continuance commitment. the positive relationship observed between these hr practices and affective, continuance and normative commitment appears to corroborate previous research about these hr practices as being retention factors that increase employees’ commitment to the organisation (döckel, 2003; döckel et al., 2006; van dyk & coetzee, 2012).affective commitment reflects a mindset of desire that develops when employees see their individual employment relationship as being in harmony with the goals and values of the organisation for which they are currently working (ferreira, basson & coetzee, 2010). when employees become involved in and recognise the value and relevance of their association with the organisation in the pursuit of their jobs and careers, they develop a mindset of desire to stay (meyer & herscovitch, 2001). in the present study, training and development and job satisfaction were indicated as the two strongest predictors of the participants’ affective commitment. it appears from the results that providing training and development opportunities and enhancing employees’ job satisfaction by setting clear work objectives, providing them with necessary tools and resources to perform their jobs effectively and affording them the opportunity to fully utilise their talents and skills (deloitte & touche, 2009) will significantly increase their emotional attachment to the organisation. döckel et al. (2006) found that employees are more likely to be emotionally bound to an organisation that provides proper training and career opportunities. ghazanfar, chuanmin, bashir and yang (2012) also found that the training and development of employees are important in enhancing their commitment to the organisation. employees’ job satisfaction has also been positively related to affective and normative commitment (lumley, coetzee, tladinyane & ferreira, 2011; shah et al., 2012). the results of the present study further showed that rewards and remuneration (market-related remuneration, benefits and non-monetary recognition incentives) are important in enhancing the participating employees’ affective commitment. lumley et al. (2011) also found pay satisfaction as an important antecedent of affective commitment. meyer and allen (1997) posit that an organisation that offers attractive compensation packages to employees shows their employees that they do matter to the organisation, which consequently enhances their emotional bond with the organisation. continuance commitment refers to commitment based on the cost that the employee associates with leaving the organisation (meyer & allen, 1997). the observed relationships between hr policies and procedures and continuance commitment are in line with research conducted by meyer and allen (1997). these authors found hr policies and procedures to be effective strategies for managing organisational commitment. normative commitment reflects a mindset of obligation, which develops as a result of the internalisation of norms through socialisation and the receipt of benefits (which encourages a feeling that one should reciprocate), or acceptance of the terms of a psychological contract (ferreira et al., 2010). the results of the present study showed that this mindset is cultivated by positive perceptions of leadership, rewards and remuneration and training and development opportunities. leadership has been related to positive organisational behaviour, which fosters engaged employees, higher performance and commitment, which, in turn, lowers the risk of losing talent (kiyani et al., 2011; mendes & stander, 2011). döckel et al. (2006) and lumley et al. (2011) found pay to have a direct effect on normative commitment. according to meyer and allen (1997), high performance-based pay creates an economic obligation for an individual to remain with an organisation. brundage and koziel (2010) also confirm the importance of establishing a compensation system that focuses not only on salary and benefits but also on career development and growth opportunities in order to retain talented staff. managerial implications overall, the findings of the study add to the retention literature by shedding new light on how employees’ perceptions of hr practices in the south african engineering environment relate to their levels of organisational commitment. the results seem to corroborate research conducted by martin and roodt (2008), which indicates that employees value certain conditions of work and if these conditions are evident and congruent with the individual’s own needs, employees will be more satisfied and committed and less likely to leave the organisation (lumley et al., 2011). in practical terms, the new knowledge gained from the observed relationship between the hr practices of leadership, training and development, rewards and remuneration and job satisfaction and the participants’ affective and normative commitment, and hr policies and procedures and continuance commitment, may be useful in the attraction and retention of talented employees in the engineering environment.organisations can train their managers to practise leadership behaviours that model the values of the organisation and inspire and motivate employees to deliver better performance and higher levels of commitment (chang et al., 2013; detert & treviño, 2010). training and development remain key practices for enhancing affective and normative commitment and, by implication, for retaining valuable staff. formal and informal training and development opportunities should equip employees with the skills and knowledge they need for future career advancement. although managers should be held accountable for the development of their employees, employees should be encouraged and empowered to take control of their own growth and development within the organisation by means of regular performance and development discussions (chang et al., 2013; döckel et al., 2006). fair reward and remuneration practices must be established in order to enhance employees’ affective and normative commitment. remuneration packages should match job roles and responsibilities, be linked to performance and be perceived to be market-related (brundage & koziel, 2010; chang et al., 2013; döckel, 2003; zaitouni et al., 2011). employees’ job satisfaction can be enhanced by ensuring that they are well trained in terms of the knowledge and skills they need to perform their jobs well. interesting and challenging work that taps into the talents and abilities of employees also assists in enhancing job satisfaction and affective commitment (döckel, 2003; van dyk & coetzee, 2012). in order to enhance employees’ continuance commitment, a concerted effort should be made to educate employees on the company’s hr policies and procedures. information about hr policies and procedures should be readily available to everyone. hr policies and procedures should be applied consistently throughout the organisation in order to ensure perceptions of fairness (döckel, 2003; paré & tremblay, 2007). limitations and suggestions for future research a number of limitations should be observed with regard to the present study. given the cross-sectional nature of the research design, this study can yield no statements about causation. the observed associations between the variables have therefore been interpreted rather than established (lumley et al., 2011). this study was further limited to early career participants with a minimum of three years tenure in a single engineering organisation in south africa, which means that the results cannot be generalised to other occupational contexts and regions. future research efforts should be focused on obtaining larger and more representative samples from a more diverse group with longer years of tenure in various occupational sectors. this study may potentially serve as a foundation for researchers to examine, both theoretically and empirically, hr practices and other retention and commitment variables in order to gain further insight into the effect of hr practices as a core aspect of organisational culture on organisational commitment. the results of such studies could be of benefit to organisations when addressing the issue of the retention of engineers and scarce critical skills in other occupations. conclusion the study contributes to knowledge of hr practices that may potentially influence the attraction and retention of early career engineering staff. the findings underscore the importance of assessing employees’ perceptions of hr practices relating to job satisfaction, leadership, training and development, rewards and remuneration and hr policies and procedures as these have been shown to significantly predict higher levels of organisational commitment. the practical implications for managers and hr practitioners are to take a proactive approach in facilitating an organisational culture that reflects the practices embodied by the variables measured in this study. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.c. (university of south africa) was the project leader and assisted with writing up the article. j.m.-m. (university of south africa) was responsible for the literature review and assisted with writing up the article. b.s. (university of south africa) was responsible for the data collection. references top ↑ abu-jarad, i.y., yusof, n.a., & nikbin, d. (2010). a review paper on organisational culture and organisational performance. international journal of business & social sciences, 1, 26–46.aggarwal, u., & d’souza, k.c. (2012). transformational leadership: the link between p-o fit, psychological contract and signature experiences. the indian journal of labour relations, 47, 485–497. amah, e. (2012). corporate and organisational effectiveness: a study of the nigerian banking industry. european journal of business & management, 4(8), 212–229. arachchige, b.j.h., & robertson, a. (2011). business student perceptions of a preferred employer: a study identifying determinants of employer branding. the iup journal of branding management, viii, 25–46. bang, h., ross, s., & reio, t.g. (2013). from motivation to organisational commitment of volunteers in non-profit sport organisations: the role of job satisfaction. journal of management & development, 32 , 96–112. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02621711311287044 brundage, h., & koziel, m. (2010). retaining top talent. journal of accountancy, may, 38–44. construction education and training authority (ceta). (2007). construction education and training authority. pretoria, south africa: ceta. chang, w., wang, y., & huang, t. (2013). work design-related antecedents of turnover intention: a multilevel approach. human resource management, 52 (1), 1–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21515 coetzee, m., & veldsman, d. (2013). exploring espoused organisational values in relation to lived values experiences in the south african financial sector. african journal business management, 7, 480–489. cohen, j. (1992). quantitative methods in psychology: a power primer. psychological bulletin, 112 (1), 153–159. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155 decremer, a., smolders, c., vanderstraeten, a., & christiaens, j. (2012). the impact of institutional pressures on employee performance management systems in higher education in the low countries. british journal of management, 23 , 88–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2012.00820.x deloitte & touche. (2009). organizational culture survey. pretoria, south africa: deloitte & touche. detert, j.r., & treviño, l.k. (2010). speaking up to higher ups: how supervisor and skip-level leaders influence employee voice. organisational sciences, 21, 249–270. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1080.0405 dey, t. (2012). predictors of organisational commitment and union commitment a conceptual study. journal of organizational behavior, 10, 62–75. department of higher education and training (dhet). (2014). government gazette notice 380: national scarce skills list, version 20 may 2014. pretoria, south africa: government printer. döckel, a. (2003). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. unpublished master’s thesis, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. döckel, a., basson, j.s., & coetzee, m. (2006). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. south african journal of human resource management, 42, 20–28. eskildsen, j.k., & dahlgaard, j.j. (2000). a causal model for employee satisfaction. total quality management, 11 (8), 1081–1094. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/095441200440340 ezirim, c.b., nwibere, b.m., & emecheta, b.c. (2012). the influence of corporate culture on organisational commitment: the nigerian experience. international journal business & public administration, 9, 155–180. ferreira, n., basson, j.s., & coetzee, m. (2010). psychological career resources in relation to organisational commitment: an exploratory study. south african journal of human resource management, 8 (1), art. #284, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1 >field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss. (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. ghazanfar, f., chuanmin, s., bashir, m., & yang, l. (2012). human resource management practices and organisational commitment: empirical evidence from the banking sector in pakistan. middle-east journal of scientific & research, 11(100), 1397–1406. ghina, a. (2012). the influence of corporate culture on organisational commitment: case study of civil government organisations in indonesia. international journal of basic & applied sciences, 1(2), 156–170. harry, n., & coetzee, m. (2013). sense of coherence, career adaptability and burnout of early-career black staff in the call centre environment. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 39 (2), art. #1138, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1138 jonsen, k., tatli, a., ozbilgin, m.f., & bell, m.p. (2013). the tragedy of the uncommon: reframing workforce diversity. human relations, 66 (2), 271–294. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0018726712466575 juhdi, n., pa’wan, f., milah, r., hansaram, s.k., & othman, n.a. (2012). hr practices, organisational commitment and turnover intention: a study on employees in klang valley, malaysia. recent research in applied economy, 9, 30–36. khandelwal, k.a., & mohendra, n. (2010). espoused organizational values, vision, and corporate social responsibility: does it matter to organizational members? vikalpa, 35(3), 10–35. kiyani, a., haroon, m., liaqat, a.s., khattak, m.a., bukhari, s.j.a., & asad, r. (2011). emotional intelligence and employee participation in decision-making. african journal of business management, 5(12), 4775–4781. kraak, a. (2008). the education-economy relationship in south africa, 2001–2005, human resources development review. cape town, south africa: hsrc. kuo, y.k. (2013). organisational commitment in an intense competition environment. industrial management & data system, 113 (1), 39–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02635571311289656 lin, s.c., lin, j.s.j., & lin, y.f. (2012). human resource management practices affecting organisational commitment: a study on ceo’s transformational leadership. african journal of business management, 6(22), 6575–6586. lumley, e.j., coetzee, m., tladinyane, r.t., & ferreira, n. (2011). exploring the job satisfaction and organisational commitment of employees in the information technology environment. southern african business review, 15(10), 100–118. martins, n., & coetzee, m. (2007). organisational culture, employee satisfaction, perceived leader emotional competency and personality type: an exploratory study of a south african engineering company. south african journal for human resource management, 5(2), 20–32. martins, e., & martins, n. (2002). an organizational culture model to promote creativity and innovation. south african journal of industrial psychology, 28(4), 54–65. martin, a., & roodt, g. (2008). perceptions of organisational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intentions in a post-merger south african tertiary institution. south african journal of industrial psychology, 34(1), 23–31. mendes, f., & stander, m. (2011). positive organisation: the role of leader behaviour in work engagement and retention. south african journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), 29–41. meyer, j., & allen, n. (1991). a three component conceptualisation of organisational commitment. human resource & management review, 1 , 61–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/1053-4822(91)90011-z meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1997). commitment in the workplace: theory, research and application. thousand oaks, ca: sage. meyer, j., & herscovitch, l. (2001). commitment in the workplace toward a general model. human resource & management review, 11 , 299–326. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(00)00053-x meyer, j.p., stanley, l.j., & parfyonova, n.m. (2012). employee commitment in context: the nature and implication of commitment profiles. journal of vocational behavior, 80 (1), 1–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.07.002 momeni, m., marjani, a.b., & saadat, v. (2012). the relationship between organisational culture and organisational commitment in staff development of general prosecutors of tehran. international journal of business & social sciences, 3(13), 217–221. pandey, s., & de, d. (2013). role of innovation in practices human resources for organisational competitiveness: an empirical investigation. driving economy through innovation & entrepreneurship, 29 , 355–365. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-0746-7_29 papulova, e., & papulova, z. (2006). competitive strategy and competitive advantages of small and midsized manaufacturing enterprises in slovakia. slovakia: e-leader. paré, g., & tremblay, m. (2007). the influence of high-involvement human resources practices, procedural justice, organisational commitment, and citizenship behaviours on information technology professionals’ turnover intentions. group organisation & management, 32 (3), 326–357. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1059601106286875 rashid, z.a., sambasivan, m., & johari, j. (2002). the influence of corporate culture and organisational commitment on performance. journal of management & development, 22 (8), 708–728. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02621710310487873 rasool, f., & botha, c.j. (2011). the nature, extent and effect of skills shortages on skills migration in south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 9(1), 1–12. reade, c., & lee, h.j. (2012). organisational commitment in time of war: assessing the impact and attenuation of employee sensitivity to ethno-political conflict. journal of international management, 18 (1), 85–101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2011.09.002 rostami, r., veismoradi, a., & akbari, p. (2012). the relationship between organisational climate, organisational commitment and innovation in cement west company of kermanshah. technical journal of engineering, 2, 12–19. rothrauff, t.c., abraham, a.j., bride, b.e., & roman, p.m. (2011). occupational turnover intentions among substance abuse counsellors. journal of substance abuse treatment, 40 , 67–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2010.08.008 saif, s.k., nawaz, a., jan, f.a., & khan, m.i. (2012). synthesizing the theories of job satisfaction across the cultural/attitudinal dementions. international journal of contingency research & business, 3(9), 1382–1396. shah, s.m.a., jatoi, m.m., & memon, m.s. (2012). the impact of organisational culture on the employees’ job satisfaction and organisational commitment: a study of faculty members of private sector universities of pakistan. international journal contingency research & business, 3(11), 809–829. swart, b. (2009). best company practices and organisation commitment: an exploratory study of an engineering company. unpublished mba dissertation, graduate school of business leadership, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. tsai, m.t., & cheng, n.c. (2011). understanding knowledge sharing between it professionals – an integration of social cognitive and social exchange theory. behaviour information & technology, 31(11), 1–12. van dyk, j., & coetzee, m. (2012). retention factors in relation to organisational commitment in medical and information technology services. south african journal of human resource & management, 10(2), 433–444. visagie, c.m., & steyn, c. (2011). organisational commitment a responses to planned organisational change: an exploratory study. southern african business review, 15(3), 98–129. wöcke, a., & heymann, m. (2012). impact of demographic variables on voluntary labour turnover in south africa. international journal of human resource management, 23 (16), 3479–3494. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.639028 zaitouni, m., sawalha, n.n., & sharif, a. (2011). the impact of human resource management practices on organisational commitment in the banking sector in kuwait. international journal business & management, 6 (6), 108–123. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v6n6p108 zeffane, r. (1994). patterns of organisational commitment and perceived management style: a comparison of public and private sector employees. human relations, 47 (8), 977–1003. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001872679404700806 article information authors: dennis dahl1 frans cilliers1 affiliations: 1department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: frans cilliers postal address: po box 392, university of south africa 0003, south africa dates: received: 28 jan. 2012 accepted: 28 sept. 2012 published: 27 nov. 2012 how to cite this article: dahl, d., & cilliers, f. (2012). the relationship between cognitive ability, emotional intelligence and negative career thoughts: a study of career-exploring adults. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(2), art. #461, 14 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i2.461 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the relationship between cognitive ability, emotional intelligence and negative career thoughts: a study of career-exploring adults in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study    • research objectives    • potential value-add of the study • literature review    • cognitive ability    • emotional intelligence    • negative career thoughts    • synthesis • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results • discussion    • conclusions    • limitations    • suggestions for future research • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: career exploration can be a stressful experience, often manifested by negative career thoughts. in this article, the factors which influence the ability to cope with negative thinking are investigated.research purpose: this study investigated the relationship between cognitive ability, emotional intelligence and negative thoughts pertaining to career in a sample of unemployed, non-student adults. motivation for study: there is a need for research which investigates the psychological factors that contribute to successful career exploration and decision-making. cognitive ability is one such factor, whilst emotional intelligence is another whose validity is not yet well established. research design, approach and method: a survey design and quantitative procedures were used in gathering and analysing data gathered from 193 non-student, middle-aged adults attending a community-based career exploration programme in british columbia, canada. cognitive ability, emotional intelligence and negative career thoughts before and after a career exploration programme were measured. main findings: neither cognitive ability nor any aspect of emotional intelligence predicted negative career thinking change. cognitive ability predicted overall negative career thoughts as well as decision-making confusion, but only after the programme. the ability to manage emotions, however, predicted negative career thoughts both before and after the career decision-making programme. practical/managerial implications: the managing emotions component of emotional intelligence is significantly associated with negative career thoughts. these findings suggest that career counselling requires that the role of emotions and their influence on behaviours must be given more consideration. industrial and organisational (io) psychologists would benefit from engaging in programmes that train them to assist clients in becoming more aware of, and increasing, their own emotional intelligence. contribution/value-add: the study added insights to the field of career psychology regarding the ability of emotional intelligence to predict important outcomes regarding the dimensions of emotional intelligence (ei) as measured by a performance-based test predicting negative career thoughts amongst the non-student, adult population. introduction top ↑ key focus of the study individuals approach career decision-making with varying degrees of trepidation which can be manifested by negative career thinking. two roles of the career and vocational practitioner are to address this negative thinking and to facilitate the decision-making process, thereby ’helping individuals pursue meaningful and enriching work‘ (kline, 1996, p. 206). typically this is done through an intervention programme – either individual or group – whereby clients are assisted in exploring their own strengths and weaknesses in a variety of areas, as well as investigating the current labour market. some individuals appear to benefit much more from such programmes than others. research that sheds light on the factors contributing to successful career exploration and decision-making is necessary.individuals employ many resources to cope with the challenges of everyday living. intelligence is viewed as a psychological resource which is available to individuals in varying degrees (carroll, 1993; gottfredson, 1998; gottfredson & saklofske, 2009; hunter & schmidt, 1996; jensen, 1998). general mental ability accounts for a large part of the intelligence resources a person has at his or her disposal, but other more specific components are also available. one possible additional resource is that of emotional intelligence, a construct for which there has been considerable interest and criticism, and for which validation is still in progress. there is insufficient knowledge of how both cognitive abilities and emotional intelligence affect career decision-making with respect to negative career thinking. a review of the literature in the areas of cognitive ability, emotional intelligence (ei) and negative career thoughts reveals unknowns that, if addressed, could shed light on all three of these domains. firstly, there is a need to demonstrate the relationships that ei might have with other constructs. for example, there is a need for more studies that investigate the relationship between different measures of cognitive ability and measures of ei (van rooy, viswesvaran & pluta, 2005), and in particular, studies in which a performance or ability-based ei measure is used (brown, george-curran & smith, 2003; mcenrue & groves, 2006). to establish the validity of the ei construct, research is necessary to determine whether ei actually does predict useful outcomes (antonakis, 2004; matthews, zeidner & roberts, 2002; mayer, salovey & caruso, 2004). in other words, it is important to determine whether ei as well as cognitive ability can be employed by individuals as psychological resources in effecting change in behaviour. secondly, within the field of industrial and organisational (io) psychology, career intervention research needs to investigate the mechanisms of change within individuals in the career decision-making process (reese & miller, 2006; slaski & cartwright, 2003). in particular, there is a need to investigate the role of so-called non-cognitive predictors and their relationships to various outcomes (van rooy et al., 2005, p. 446), and whether there are relationships between cognitive and emotional functioning in making decisions (muramatsu & hanoch, 2005), specifically with respect to negative thinking about career exploration. one method for accomplishing this is to observe the change in negative career thoughts as a result of a career exploration programme and determine the relative importance of factors associated with that change. many investigations regarding emotional intelligence and/or career decision-making are conducted using college student samples. research that uses adult, non-student populations is required (brown et al., 2003). background to the study there has been a paradigm shift within the field of io psychology within the last several decades. typically, research regarding career exploration has focused on general mental ability as the dominant influence in predicting behaviour at work, in particular job satisfaction and work performance (ashkanasy, 2004; hunter & schmidt, 1996; kidd, 1998). however, barsade and gibson (2007, p. 36) argue that io psychology has undergone an ’affective revolution‘ in which affective constructs such as emotional intelligence, in addition to the cognitive dimensions, are also seen as influential in career settings. these authors predict that investigating emotional intelligence will considerably expand our understanding of organisational life. unfortunately, the links between emotional intelligence, its subcomponents, and other factors such as cognitive intelligence and negative and positive affect are still unclear. ashkanasy and daus (2005) argue that emotions, and specifically emotional intelligence, are important to study in the context of organisational behaviour. muramatsu and hanoch (2005, p. 202) advance the theory that emotions ‘… play a significant role in guiding and regulating choice behaviour, by virtue of their capacity to modulate numerous cognitive and physiological activities’. the authors argue that these emotional processes contribute to adaptive behaviours, and propose that research is necessary in order to understand in a better way cognitive-emotional interactions in human judgement and decision-making.the world of work is an important space where most individuals spend a great deal of their time as well as their physical and emotional energy. some research has already focused on the relationships between ei and the functioning of individuals in organisations (druskat, sala & mount, 2006). of even more importance than actual work settings, however, is the crucial area of career exploration and decision-making. this has been shown to be not only a cognitively demanding task, but is likely to be experienced as an emotionally taxing and stressful task as well (sampson, peterson, lenz, reardon & saunders, 1996; sampson, reardon, peterson & lenz, 2004). this stress may have been initiated by a variety of changes in the environment, namely, job loss, insecurity, dissatisfaction, restructuring and instability amongst others, resulting in an impediment to achieving one’s personal goals (dekker & schaufeli, 1995; hamilton, karoly & kitzman, 2004; slaski & cartwright, 2003). these changes elicit emotional responses, the magnitude and quality of which depend on the interpretation and value placed on them by the individual. these emotional responses impact cognitive and physiological activities, and thereby promote or impede subsequent performance (lam & kirby, 2002). some research suggests that increased ei is associated with fewer intrusive thoughts and less intense emotional responses to a stressor which helps the individual cope better with the stressful situation (ramos, fernandez-berrocal & extremera, 2007). an increased ability to understand and manage emotions during a stressful event appears to be important to maintaining healthy functioning after the event. rude and mccarthy (2003) argue that greater ei reduces the tendency for an individual to engage in maladaptive coping strategies such as rumination or thought suppression. on the other hand, zeidner, matthews and roberts (2006) observe that ei research has not been adequately linked with indicators of stress symptoms such as negative emotions. investigating the way in which individuals appraise and respond to the stress that precedes and accompanies career exploration, as indicated by negative thinking with respect to career, would begin to address this gap in the literature. much of the research regarding negative career thinking has focused on young adult student groups (gordon, 1998; mcwhirtner, rasheed & carothers, 2000; weinstein, healy & ender, 2002). in addition, many of the studies conducted on the concept of emotional intelligence have also used college age or student samples (e.g. brackett & mayer, 2003; brackett, mayer & warner, 2004; mayer, salovey, caruso & sitarenios, 2003). brown et al. (2003) point out that the generalisability of studies using student populations is limited and needs to include non-student groups. non-student adults are more liable to be challenged by a variety of stressors including unemployment, possible family issues surrounding children, separation, divorce, finances, aging parents et cetera, and possible physical issues that are less likely to be faced by students (amundson & borgan, 1996; osipow, 1999; patton & creed, 2001; phillips & blustein, 1994; super, savickas & super, 1996). for these adults, negative career thinking and coping mechanisms may be different. as well, it has been recommended that research in emotional intelligence focus more on middle-aged adults whose differentiation of abilities is more likely to be maximised as compared with young adults or seniors (schaie, 2001). research objectives appropriate resources that focus on the problem at hand are more likely to result in outcomes that are of benefit to the individual. responding to external or internal changes in some context of the environment in such a way that quality of life, work or relationships is improved, can be said to be adaptive. in this research, negative career thoughts are investigated as an important life outcome because they are closely tied with successful career exploration. two psychological factors that may influence, and therefore predict, negative career thoughts are cognitive ability and emotional intelligence. the primary purpose of this research is to determine the extent, if any, to which cognitive ability and ei, can predict negative career thoughts and negative career thoughts change. in this respect, this research addresses the validity of emotional intelligence as a construct. if emotional intelligence is, in fact, an ability defined as perceiving, using, understanding and managing emotions so as to adapt to one’s environment, then there should be a significant relationship between measured emotional intelligence and negative career thoughts and negative career thoughts change. in addition, if emotional intelligence is a discrete ability apart from general intelligence, then it will be able to predict negative career thoughts and their change when another factor, such as general cognitive ability is accounted for.the following hypotheses are put forward: • hypothesis 1: cognitive ability will be inversely correlated with and predictive of negative career thoughts. • hypothesis 2: emotional intelligence will be inversely correlated with and predictive of negative career thoughts. • hypothesis 3: emotional intelligence will be a better predictor of negative career thoughts than cognitive ability. potential value-add of the study the utility of any construct increases with its ability to predict useful outcomes (bastian, burns & nettelbeck, 2005) and the construct of ei is presently in its infancy in this process. this research is particularly important in io psychology in that it leads to a better understanding of how individuals might react to a variety of stressful workplace situations and how possibly vulnerable individuals in those situations might be identified and assisted. psychological resources, which can be drawn upon to enhance career decision-making, need to be identified and, if possible, developed. literature review top ↑ cognitive ability despite more than a century of scientific investigation, the lack of consensus amongst researchers regarding the fundamental qualities of intelligence speaks to its very complex nature. psychometric approaches to studying intelligence are based on data obtained from tests of mental abilities (sternberg, 2004). by analysing the patterns of correlations between scores on these tests, it is thought possible to determine the structure of intelligence and what parts, if any, comprise it (davidson & downing, 2000; embretson & schmidt mccollam, 2000). statistical procedures for determining their psychometric properties, as well as standardised procedures for administration and scoring, have made possible meaningful comparisons of scores between mental abilities and also between groups of individuals. the complex system’s theories broaden the scope of intelligence to propose that mental abilities are manifest within a cultural or situation-specific context above and beyond what factor analyses may show, and that there are other factors that contribute to success. intelligent behaviour is best seen in everyday interactions with the environment and the subsequent adaptation to that environment. more recently, neurobiological theories provide evidence that intelligent behaviour has a neurological basis and that individuals do appear to have differing amounts of intellectual or mental resources with which to deal with their environments. in the context of this study, cognitive ability is viewed as a psychological resource that is available to individuals in varying degrees. cognitive ability involves the ability to learn, to acquire stores of knowledge and make skilled decisions based on that knowledge (cattell, 1963; embretson & schmidt mccollam, 2000). in addition, it involves problem-solving in novel situations where previously acquired knowledge is not necessarily available (catell, 1963; deary, 2001). furthermore, inductive and deductive reasoning (deary, 2001; hunt, 2005), and mental manipulation of information (stankov, 2003) are also required. cognitive ability also can be regarded as one’s ability to adapt to the environment. adaptability includes a number of subcomponents such as learning from experience, problem-solving when faced with novel situations, and controlling one’s internal and external environments by moulding them when necessary. it involves capitalising on strengths whilst at the same time compensating for weaknesses (sternberg, 2003, 2009). in addition to meeting the challenges of new situations, adaptability must also include purposefulness or goal-directed behaviour (newman & just, 2004; sternberg & salter, 1982). according to sternberg (1997): [i]ntelligence comprises the mental abilities necessary for adaptation to, as well as shaping and selection of, any environmental context. according to this definition, intelligence is not just reactive to the environment but also active in forming it. (p. 1030) industrial and organisational psychologists are divided on the issue of the importance of general mental ability in aspects of work such as personnel selection and job performance (viswesvaran & ones, 2002). on the one hand are those who argue that cognitive abilities are not good enough predictors (goldstein, zedeck & goldstein, 2002; sternberg & hedlund, 2002). on the other are those who point to research supporting its utility in predicting outcomes. according to anderson (2004, p. 271) ’… intelligence tests are very good predictors of real-world accomplishments’. within the world of work, general mental ability has been found to be associated with job performance and career success (herrnstein & murray, 1994; hunter, 1986; schmidt & hunter, 1998), and in a far greater way than other factors, such as structured interviews or reference letters in selecting appropriate personnel (muchinsky, 2006). gottfredson (1998) has claimed that: intelligence as measured by iq tests is the single most effective predictor known of individual performance at school and on the job. it also predicts many other aspects of well-being … (p. 24) dilchert, ones, davis and rostow (2007), observed a substantial negative relationship between cognitive ability and counterproductive work behaviours such as work avoidance, abuse of resources, absenteeism and destruction of property. ree and earles (1991) found that psychometric g and not specific abilities (such as word knowledge, mathematics, automotive or electronics knowledge for example) was the best predictor of success in job training a massive group of air force enlistees. in a further study, ree, carretta and teachout (1995) determined that general ability influenced work performance to a greater extent than did prior job knowledge. hunter and schmidt (1996) reported studies indicating general cognitive ability (g) to be the best predictor for job performance when hiring personnel. emotional intelligence emotional intelligence is likely to represent a much larger construct than any one particular model currently describes and can therefore be studied from a variety of perspectives (austin & saklofske, 2005; zeidner, roberts & matthews, 2008). however, the use of the term ‘intelligence’ assumes that emotional intelligence as a construct should fit in with the nomological network that most scientists would recognise and understand. to be considered as intelligence, there is a general consensus that at least three criteria must be met (mayer, salovey & caruso, 2000). firstly, the intelligence must demonstrate mental ability rather than non-intellectual characteristics or personality descriptions. this assumes the ability to engage in abstract thought, to learn and to solve problems in order to adapt to the environment (sternberg, lautrey & lubart, 2003). secondly, the intelligence must be able to be psychometrically associated with a similar constellation of abilities, but not overly so. dimensions of intelligence such as verbal comprehension or perceptual organisation, for example, can be distinguished by measures that appear to indicate the processing of, and reasoning with, information of a particular type (carroll, 1993; horn & cattell, 1966). the ability to engage in this type of problem-solving can be quantified and psychometrically analysed. similarly, a dimension of emotional intelligence should be distinguishable by the ability to perform emotionally related problem-solving. thirdly, there should be a developmental trajectory for the intelligence in question; that is, it should develop from childhood to adulthood as the result of experience. the extant literature generally distinguishes between two approaches to ei, namely, (1) a group that are much broader in their definitions and include a variety of traits and (2) an ability-based model that is much narrower in its focus. the former group has been labelled ‘mixed models’ and within this approach ei has been variously conceptualised as a set of personal and social competencies necessary for survival and adaptation (bar-on, 1997, 2005; goleman, 1995), or as a lower order personality trait (petrides & furnham, 2006). in contrast to the mixed models, the mayer-salovey ei model conceptualises emotional intelligence as a mental ability rather than as a preferred way of behaving (feldman barrett & gross, 2001; maccann & roberts, 2008; mayer & salovey, 1997; mayer et al., 2000). the disadvantage of this is the possibility of excluding personality or other factors which may in fact contribute to emotional intelligence. on the other hand, because the emotional abilities in the model are thought to be more distinct from other constructs, any relationships found are less likely to be attributed to these other constructs. as a result, the mayer-salovey approach becomes more useful in scientific research, and has been judged by some (e.g. conte, 2005; mcenrue & groves, 2006; ortony, revelle & zinbarg, 2007) to be the best model to be used in empirical research and likely the preferred focus of future ei studies (zeidner, matthews & roberts, 2004). it is at the intersection of emotions and cognition that one finds the ability-based model of ei (mayer, salovey & caruso, 2008). as with other generally accepted factors of mental ability, the ability-based model of ei proposes a parallel component of capacity – that of processing emotionally laden information. mayer and salovey initially proposed a four-branch model of ei including the abilities to (1) perceive emotions (branch 1), facilitate (use) emotions (branch 2), understand emotions (branch 3) and manage emotions (branch 4) (mayer, caruso & salovey, 1999; mayer & salovey, 1997). these abilities are interrelated and viewed hierarchically in that the less psychologically complex abilities such as perceiving and facilitating emotions lay the foundation for the more complex abilities of understanding and managing emotions. managing emotions, at the peak of the hierarchy, is therefore the most complex ability and incorporates the skills below it. according to this ability model, individuals with higher ei should better be able to appraise the emotional environment and generate and direct attention to emotions most salient in the thought processes required for reasoning and decision-making. they should have an advantage in understanding the antecedents, sequences and outcomes of various emotions in the career context allowing them to put behaviours in the proper perspective. most importantly, these individuals should be more likely to be able to adjust their negative thinking by monitoring, managing and reframing these thoughts so as to reach their desired goals (cartwright & pappas, 2007; jordan, ashkanasy & hartel, 2002; lopes, grewal, kadis, gall & salovey, 2006; lyons & schneider, 2005; mayer & salovey, 1997; mayer et al., 2004). to date, research investigating the association of ei as a mental ability with other factors has been relatively scarce. higher ei has been associated with improved perceived interpersonal relationships (lopes et al., 2004; lopes, salovey, côté & beers, 2005; lopes, salovey & strauss, 2003; yip & martin, 2005), with decreased drug use, alcohol consumption and deviant social behaviour in men (brackett & mayer, 2003; trinidad & johnson, 2002), and a higher degree of self-sufficiency and capacity to choose partners with more positive characteristics (amitay & mongrain, 2007). dunn, brackett, ashton-james, schneiderman and salovey (2007) found aspects of ei to be a significant predictor of forecasting accuracy in different emotionally laden situations, possibly leading to better decision-making. in the workplace, lopes et al. (2006) found ei to be significantly associated with job performance indicators such as merit increase and company rank, as well as interpersonal facilitation skills and higher stress tolerance. no research investigating ei as a resource in coping with negative thinking accompanying the career exploration process has been found. negative career thoughts career thoughts have been defined as ‘outcomes of one’s thinking about assumptions, attitudes, behaviours, beliefs, feelings, plans, and strategies related to career problem solving and decision making’ (strauser, lustig & ciftci, 2008, p. 24). when these thoughts are negatively biased, they become unhelpful cognitions perceptions that are often distorted and idiosyncratic in nature and which hinder effective career problem-solving and decision-making (lam & cheng, 2001; osborn, howard & leierer, 2007; sampson et al., 1996). these distorted beliefs may remain unnoticed (kinnier & krumboltz, 1986), and their genuineness is often not questioned by the individual (lam & cheng, 2001). negative career thoughts have been linked to diminished feelings of self-worth and subjective well-being (judge & locke, 1993), depression (saunders, peterson, sampson & reardon, 2000), anxiety, reduced self-esteem (morano, 2006; newman, fuqua & seaworth, 1989; serling & betz, 1990) and reported decrease in life satisfaction (sampson et al., 1996). they appear to be moderately correlated with excessive rumination and maximisation (paivandy, bullock, reardon & kelly, 2008). outwardly, the emotional reactions to these feelings may be manifest in disappointment, anger and hurt when self-imposed expectations are not met (lam & gale, 2004) and in a display of perfectionism (osborn, 1998; roll & arthur, 2002). verbal expressions may be negative and over-generalised (corbishley & yost, 1989). amongst students, negative career thoughts have been found to: • reduce retention in college (tinto, 1993) • act as a barrier to productive career planning (reed, lenz, reardon & leierer, 2000; saunders et al., 2000) • cause poorer psychosocial adjustment in disabled students (dipeolu, reardon, sampson & burkhead, 2002) • correlate significantly with higher test anxiety and achievement motivation (sud & kumar, 2006). considering that ‘the workplace is a forum for the expression of various behaviours’ (judge, scott & ilies, 2006, p. 126), negative career thinking can be expected to be displayed in that environment. decreased job satisfaction, poor work performance, job avoidance and job failure have been reported (judge & locke, 1993; sampson et al., 2004). these behaviours also affect significant others outside the work setting (sampson et al., 2004). negative career thought change is defined as a movement away from a negative framing of career assumptions, attitudes, behaviours, beliefs, feelings, plans and strategies towards a positive approach to career problem-solving and decision-making (strauser et al., 2008). synthesis no research could be found that explores cognitive ability, emotional intelligence and negative career thinking as the variables of interest in one study. however, emotional intelligence and cognitive ability, together or separately, have been investigated in conjunction with other aspects of the world of work such as work performance, emotional labour, job insecurity and career decision-making. côté and miners (2006) investigated the relationship between emotional intelligence, cognitive ability and performance in the workplace. they measured three facets of work performance, as well as cognitive ability and emotional intelligence, in a sample of staff employed at a university. results indicated that there is not a linear relationship between each of cognitive ability and emotional intelligence with job performance, but that participants with lower cognitive ability compensated for this deficiency by displaying higher levels of emotional intelligence in at least two of the job performance criteria.liu, prati, perrewé and ferris (2008, p. 2415) investigated emotional intelligence and negative affect as personal resources influencing the ‘’emotional labour’ that employees perform in coping with customer interactions, as well as outcomes such as job tension and job satisfaction. results indicated a medium and significant relationship (r = -0.37; p < .05) between emotional intelligence and negative affectivity. jordan et al. (2002) have presented a model in which ei acts as a moderator of behavioural reactions to job insecurity. they argue that higher ei, in particular emotional awareness and emotional management, better equips employees to cope with two outcomes of perceived job insecurity, namely, decreased affective commitment to the organisation and increased tension related to the job. according to this view, higher emotionally intelligent individuals are better able to break the cycle of negative thinking and negative coping behaviours that surround job insecurity. brown et al. (2003) hypothesised that an individual’s ability to guide his or her thinking and actions using ei would be efficacious in the career exploration and decision-making process. the authors conclude that the ability to understand, analyse and employ emotional knowledge, as well as the ability to regulate emotions, can be used advantageously in completing careerexploration related tasks. research design top ↑ research approach a quantitative, survey approach, using correlation analysis (terre blanche, durrheim & painter, 2006) was employed to meet the research objectives. research method research participants given the paucity of studies focussing on adult samples that are not attending post-secondary institutions, the sample was limited to middle-aged, non-student adults. there is, of course, no definitive age at which one can be said to be a middle-aged adult, and so it was decided that the career stages proposed by super (1990) be used as a guide. with respect to the ‘life/career rainbow’ (reardon, lenz, sampson & peterson, 2000, p. 14), super divides the working life of an individual into five age spans of which two are most germane to this study, namely, the establishment phase and the maintenance phase, covering the ages of approximately 25 to 65. for this study, the criteria for inclusion, therefore, was that individuals needed to be adults between the ages of 25 and 65 and should not be attending post-secondary institutions or other training programmes.participants were unemployed, non-student adults referred to a career exploration programme funded by the federal government of canada. one hundred and ninety-three adults (64% women) between the ages of 25 and 60 were included in the study. average age was 41.7 years; average education achieved was 12.7 years. participation in the study was voluntary. all participants had adequate knowledge of the english language. measuring instruments three measuring instruments were used in this study, namely, (1) the wonderlic personnel test (wpt), (2) the mayer-salovey-caruso emotional intelligence test (msceit) and (3) the career thoughts inventory (cti). wonderlic personnel test: cognitive ability was measured using the wpt (wonderlic, 2002). the aim of the wpt is to provide a quantitative measure of a person’s general cognitive ability, especially as it pertains to the world of work. the 50 items on the wpt encompass a variety of verbal and non-verbal reasoning and problem-solving tasks such as arranging words into a proper sentence, comparing sequences of numbers, analysing geometric figures and performing math calculations in response to story problems. wonderlic’s (2002) research showed acceptable levels of validity and reliability. mayer-salovey-caruso emotional intelligence test: emotional intelligence was measured by the mayer-salovey-caruso emotional intelligence test version 2 (msceit v.2). the aim of the msceit is to assess one’s ability to process emotionally laden information and use emotions to solve problems. it is based on the premise that ei can best be measured by performance on four factors or branches: perceiving, facilitating, understanding and managing emotions. perceiving (or perceiving, appraising and expressing) emotions refers not only to being aware of emotional content in the environment, but also accurately identifying it, differentiating between genuine and counterfeit emotions, monitoring internal feelings, identifying bodily sensations in one’s own body and expressing emotions accurately (caruso, mayer & salovey 2002). the facilitating emotions dimension assists an individual in focusing attention on salient emotional cues in the environment to enhance rational thinking (gohm, corser & dalsky, 2005; salovey & pizarro, 2003). it enables one to choose the emotional attitude or posture most conducive to problem-solving in the situation, as well as allowing multiple perspectives of the problem. the third branch, understanding emotions, includes the ability to recognise the triggers or antecedent events of emotions, and to gauge the intensity the emotions are likely to reach. it also includes understanding the temporal sequences of emotions, the ways in which emotions can transform from one to another and the complex ways in which different emotions interact. the fourth branch, managing emotions, includes the ability to control the emotional situation within one’s self and with others by solving emotionally laden problems. this also involves managing emotions in context, reframing appraisals of emotions, and deliberately choosing productive emotional responses and avoiding counterproductive ones. ultimately, this ability promotes adaptation through the achievement of goals to enhance one’s life and well-being. the four branches are interrelated and hierarchical in that the first ability, perceiving, provides a platform for facilitating emotions, which in turn forms the foundations for understanding emotions which in turn contributes to emotional management. whilst the four factors can be considered independently, they also interact to produce a global ability of ei (jordan et al., 2002; mayer & salovey, 1997). in addition, the progression from branch one through to four is seen as increasing the degree to which the abilities and skills are incorporated into other psychological subsystems (mayer et al., 2004). in other words, perceiving emotions is a more discrete or modularised ability, whilst managing emotions involves much more integration with the information processing around planning, motivation and goal achievement. caruso et al.’s (2002) research showed acceptable levels of validity and reliability. career thoughts inventory: negative career thinking was measured using the cti (sampson et al., 1996). the aim of the cti is to provide a quantitative measure of a person’s negative career thoughts. the core dimensions of negative career thinking have been determined through principal component analysis to include a global factor as well as three subcomponents for normative groups in a career decision-making milieu (sampson et al., 1996). these three general types of negative career thoughts include decision-making confusion, commitment anxiety and external conflict. decision-making confusion (dmc) is a reflection of an individual’s ability to initiate or maintain the cognitive processes necessary to make career decisions (sampson et al., 1996; strauser et al., 2008). these decisions are facilitated by sufficient clarity regarding how decisions are made and by positive emotional states. in contrast, individuals with reduced ability in this area may be inhibited in their understanding of how to make a decision or may have emotional barriers interfering with effective decision-making (sampson et al., 2004; stauser et al., 2008). these emotional barriers may take the form of anxiety, depression or discouragement which may overwhelm the individual so that sustaining the decision-making process seems impossible. commitment anxiety (ca) refers to one’s ability to commit to a particular career choice and successfully manage the anxieties that may arise as a result of that decision (sampson et al., 1996; strauser et al., 2008). after selecting the most appropriate career path, individuals with lower levels of commitment anxiety are able to continue focusing on their choice whilst disengaging from other possible alternatives and coping with the tensions that are bound to arise from choosing one path over another. individuals with high levels of commitment anxiety may find letting go of alternative plans very stressful to the extent that the accompanying anxiety perpetuates the indecision cycle. external conflict (ec) addresses negative thoughts regarding the ability to balance one’s own perceptions and needs with those of others. excessive focus on external factors, such as opinions of family, friends and colleagues, as well as life circumstances, contribute to a reluctance in making career decisions in individuals displaying high levels of external conflict. on the other hand, those with low external conflict are better able to distinguish which perceptions from others in their environment are more important for decision-making and are more likely to assume personal responsibility for their choices. the cti is a self-report, paper and pencil instrument consisting of 48 statements written to reflect negative career thoughts. test-takers choose one of four responses for each item ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. higher scores indicate more negative thoughts. internal consistency alphas for adults have been found to be high (total cti α = 0.97; dmc α = 0.94; ca α = 0.91 and ec α = 0.81). principle component analysis provides support for the three factors of decision-making confusion, commitment anxiety and external conflict (sampson et al., 1996). research procedure participants completed the first administration of the cti (pre-cti) on the first day before the 16-day programme started. the programme consisted of teaching basic career components, career stages, and individual or group counselling towards facilitating the individual’s exploration of his or her own career matters and decision-making. cognitive ability was measured on the second day using the wpt, and the msceit was administered via computer on the fourth day. upon completion of the programme, each participant completed the cti again (post-cti). data were collected over a period of 24 months because of the limitations imposed by available resources and the nature of the programme. every effort was made to retain consistency in format for each participant.this study contained no psychological or disclosure risks to the subjects. the benefit for them was that their measured behaviours can be utilised by the io psychology fraternity to enlighten scholars and researchers on the relationship between the measured constructs. all possible care was taken to ensure ethical psychometric practice and informed consent for using the data was obtained from all participants. statistical analysis the primary focus of this research was the relationships between cognitive ability, emotional intelligence and negative career thoughts, and the extent to which emotional intelligence and cognitive ability factors could explain the total variance in the scores of the criterion variables (the four cti variables). descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were carried out using the spss version 13 statistics programme. correlation and multiple regression analyses were used to determine the relationships between variables. significance values were set at p ≤ 0.05. results top ↑ table 1 shows means and standard deviations for the variables measured. career thoughts inventory change values were obtained by subtracting postfrom pre-cti scores and therefore a positive value for cti change scores indicates a decrease in negative career thoughts. a t-test for paired samples showed that all differences for cti total, dmc, ca and ec were significant at the p < 0.001 level. effect sizes for r differences for cti total, dmc and ca were large (d > 0.80) whilst for ec the effect size was small to medium (d = 0.44). results thus show that negative career thinking was significantly reduced after the programme compared to before the programme. table 1: means and standard deviations for career thoughts inventory (pre, post and change), emotional intelligence and intelligence quotient. correlations between cognitive ability and ei were positive and significant for ei total, perceiving and understanding, but not significant for facilitating or managing. the overall cognitive ability/ei correlation (r = 0.31; p < .001; medium effect size) is in keeping with those reported in the normative study (mayer et al., 2002, p. 38) and subsequent studies (brackett & mayer, 2003; mayer et al., 2003). amongst the four branches of the msceit, perceiving emotions showed a small to medium effect size (r = 0.19; p < .01). both facilitating emotions and managing emotions correlated the least (r = 0.14; p = 0.064 and r = 0.12; p = 0.113 respectively; small effect size). understanding emotions was most highly correlated with cognitive ability (r = 0.48; p = 0.000, large effect size). this is in keeping with mayer and salovey’s assertion that understanding emotions represents the most cognitive of the branches (mayer et al., 2004). the cognitive ability/ei total correlation is of moderate size that could be expected to exist between overall g and other possible factors of intelligence, which lends credence to the test’s claim of being an ability model (zeidner et al., 2008).table 2 presents correlations between cti pre-scores, post-scores and change scores with ei and cognitive ability. significant correlations of cognitive ability with any pre-cti or cti change scores were not observed. however, cognitive ability was seen to be significantly inversely correlated with negative career thoughts post-programme for total cti (r = -0.15; p = 0.044) and with decision-making confusion (r = -0.22; p = 0.002). table 2: correlations between career thoughts inventory (pre, post and change) scores with emotional intelligence and intelligence quotient. contrary to expectations, no significant relationships between any of the total ei or the four branch scores with change in cti scores were observed. in addition, none of the overall ei or three of the four ei branches (eip, eif, eiu) were seen to correlate with any cti scores both prior to and after the programme. however, data analysis found that negative career thoughts overall prior to the programme were significantly and inversely correlated with the managing emotions branch of the msceit for total cti (r = -0.19; p = 0.008) and with two of the three cti subscales, ca (r = -0.19; p = 0.011) and ec (r = -0.18; p = 0.013). these represent a small to medium-effect size (cohen, 1992). likewise, significant inverse correlations existed between emotional management ability and overall cti, as well as all three subscales, upon completion of the programme; total cti r = -0.21; p = 0.004; decision-making confusion r = -0.19; p = 0.009; commitment anxiety r = -0.21; p = 0.004 and external conflict r = -0.16; p = 0.024. an initial stepwise regression was performed in which cognitive ability and ei total score were entered as predictors of cti change. neither of these variables was seen to predict any of cti change for total or any of the three subscales. a further regression analysis was performed in which cognitive ability, and the four branches of ei were entered as predictors of cti change. cti change for total plus all three subscales was not predicted by any of the predictor variables. regression analyses were carried out for cti pre-test and post-test. table 3 shows the summary of results of the multiple regression analyses predicting negative career thoughts prior to and after the programme. cognitive ability was seen to predict both total cti and decision-making confusion post-programme (2.1% and 5.0% of the variance; small effect sizes ƒ2 = 0.02 and 0.06 respectively). therefore, hypothesis 1 was partially supported, but only for overall negative career thoughts and decision-making confusion as measured upon completion of the career exploration programme. table 3: summary of multiple regression analysis for variables predicting negative career thoughts pre-programme and post-programme. none of the ei perceiving, facilitating, or understanding branches accounted for any appreciable variance. emotional management was seen to predict negative career thoughts both before and after programme for total and all three subscales. pre-cti variances were of similar magnitude (total δr2 = 0.044; dmc δr2 = 0.024; ca δr2 = 0.043 and ec δr2 = 0.034; small effect sizes of 0.02 to 0.05). post-cti variances were also of similar magnitude (total δr2 = 0.048; dmc δr2 = 0.039; ca δr2 = 0.043 and ec δr2 = 0.030; small effect sizes of 0.04 to 0.05). therefore, hypothesis 2 was partially supported, but only for the emotional management branch of ei and only for pre-cti and post cti scores. overall, ei management was seen to predict more cti scores and at the same magnitude as cognitive ability. therefore, it can be concluded that hypothesis 3 is supported by the data. discussion top ↑ this study explored two factors, cognitive ability and ei as measured by an ability-based test which may influence the negative career thoughts experienced by non-student career-exploring adults. integration of these constructs was motivated by the perspective that career exploration is both cognitively demanding and emotionally taxing and is often accompanied by negative thinking regarding the world of work. understanding the relationships between cognitive abilities, emotional abilities and negative career thoughts, therefore, adds to the literature regarding the relative importance of cognitive ability and emotional intelligence in an outcome not yet explored and in a segment of the population for which there is limited research. the study provides new information regarding the relationship between cognitive ability and ei and therefore the validity of ei as a separate aspect of intelligence that acts as a resource in problem-solving and adaptation to the environment. this understanding may provide both counsellor and client insight into dealing with the stresses associated with career exploration and career decision-making.level of cognitive ability was seen to be inversely and significantly correlated with, and predictive of, negative career-thinking scores, but only on the post-test administration and only for decision-making confusion and overall cti. one possibility for these results is that individuals with higher cognitive abilities are able to benefit more from the self-knowledge and labour market knowledge acquired during a career exploration programme, and are better able to make decisions regarding how their particular circumstances might be altered to meet their needs. it may be that higher order cognitive components such as decision-making become activated during the career exploration programme and become more important in predicting decision-making confusion. cognitive ability did not show any significant relationships with negative career thinking change overall or with any of the subcomponents although all the correlations showed a positive trend. levels of ei were obtained for an adult non-student sample. whilst perceiving and facilitating branch scores approached the mean of 100 as calculated for the norming sample, overall ei, understanding and managing scores were significantly lower. when compared with other research in which scores have been reported in sufficient detail to permit analysis, the results in this research were lower than those reported elsewhere with the exception of one study (corbishley & yost, 1989). for example, the total and branch scores in this research are lower than those reported in some studies (e.g. amitay & mongrain, 2007; bastian et al., 2005; farelly & austin, 2007; yip & martin, 2005), but, whilst still lower, more similar to others (e.g. brackett et al., 2004). whether this is related to the adult, non-student sample or a function of unemployment is not known at this point. however, at least three reasons may account for the difference in scores obtained in the current research. firstly, without exception, the participants in the aforementioned studies were university students, mostly recruited from undergraduate or graduate psychology courses and therefore with knowledge (presumably) regarding psychological constructs. secondly, their ages were considerably younger; all age means were less than 30 and most were less than 20. in the current study, individuals under 25 were excluded from the data and the average age was almost 42 years, meaning that the sample was not representative of those reported above. thirdly, the current sample was limited to career-exploring adults who were unemployed. perhaps this population demonstrates lower ei and that is what contributes to their unemployment. there are no other similar samples with which to compare. neither correlation nor regression analyses showed any significant relationship between ei, total or branches and change in negative career thoughts. this could suggest that ei is not a resource individuals employ to modify their thinking. however, a somewhat different picture emerges when the regression analysis was observed for these same predictors on the pre-programme level of negative career thinking. whilst the effect size is small, managing emotions was seen to predict the overall cti as well as all three subscales. individuals with higher emotional managing abilities appear to begin the career exploration experience with fewer negative thoughts. similarly, for results of the multiple regression using post-programme cti scores as the criterion variables, managing emotions was seen to predict total cti as well as all three subscales. the change in variance in negative career thoughts explained by managing emotions when cognitive ability is statistically controlled ranges from 2.4% to 4.4% prior to career exploration and from 3.0% to 4.8% after. these modest amounts are of similar magnitude to those generally found in other studies (zeidner et al., 2008). the results suggest that managing emotions, alone amongst the four ei branches, was already inversely associated with negative career thinking before the beginning of the career exploration programme and also afterward. as a result, the differences between negative career thoughts prior to and after the programme appear to be reduced to non-significance. the evidence suggests that the managing emotions component of emotional intelligence as it is conceptualised and measured in this study is associated inversely with negative career thinking and predicts levels of negative career thinking both prior to and after career exploration. generally, the ability to regulate one’s emotions is viewed as an explanation for understanding how individuals respond to stressful situations in their environment (cartwright & pappas, 2007). the ability to control the meaning of potentially problematic experiences so that the harmful effects are more neutral and kept within manageable bounds enhances an individual’s ability to cope. in the current study, it may be that increased emotional management abilities played a role in moderating participants’ initial negative thoughts with respect to the stresses surrounding their career situation, which then allowed them to negotiate the career exploration process more successfully as was evident in their thoughts after the programme (zeidner et al., 2006). these associations tend to support the view that individuals are possessed of resources upon which they draw to manage the stressors of daily life. jordan et al. (2002) suggested that individuals higher in ei are better able to break the cycle of negative thinking and coping behaviours that usually accompany job insecurity. they encouraged research that investigates which factor of ei might be more important, and where in the sequence of emotional reactions ei is likely to be most effective. the current research supports and adds to jordan et al.’s research by determining that it is higher levels of ei managing that are associated with lower levels of negative career thoughts and may, in fact, influence the degree to which individuals experience negative thoughts. it also appears that this ability is present in the individual before any career exploration has taken place, and the continued regulation of negative career thoughts is also evident following career exploration. considering that emotional managing was predictive of negative career thoughts both before and after career exploration, and cognitive ability only predictive after career exploration, it suggests the possibility that perhaps individuals access their emotional psychological resources first and cognitive resources later, at least in dealing with negative career thoughts. it may be that higher ei individuals construe the eliciting emotional situation of career exploration with a more positively balanced reaction allowing them to regulate the stress deliberately (lyons & schneider, 2005; muramatsu & hanoch, 2005). managing emotions as conceptualised by the mayer-salovey ability model, involves deliberately avoiding thoughts and emotions that may be counter-productive and adjusting negative emotions because of increased insight into the factors impacting a particular event (dunn et al., 2007; jordon et al., 2002). it appears that persons with higher ei managing abilities approach career decisions with fewer negative career thoughts and also navigate the process more successfully. in this sense, ei, or at least emotional management, may be seen as evidence of intelligent behaviour specific to the emotions domain as the individual seeks to adjust to the changes in their life circumstances and attempts to change the environment to suit their purposes. conclusions fluctuations in the worldwide economy have generally resulted in changes in employment patterns and never has this been so apparent than in the last several years. there has been a growing feeling of uncertainty and insecurity in the workplace leading to increased stress on individuals. learning how to navigate career changes successfully will require that individuals have greater access to career counselling. practitioners must, therefore, become knowledgeable regarding the factors that can facilitate career transitions and diminish stress. in the past, models of career decision-making have viewed attitudes and thoughts regarding career strictly as outcomes. career transitions are rarely devoid of emotions and career decision-making is unlikely to be strictly a rational cognitive process. there is an increasing need to consider attitudes and thoughts as part of the sequence of problem-solving in career exploration and an obligation to assist clients in developing what kidd (1998, p. 283) calls ‘career resilience’. this involves a more holistic approach to career counselling and requires that the role of emotions and their influence on behaviours must be given more consideration. investigating the degree of negative thinking with respect to career appears to be a useful component when dealing with career-exploring clients. particularly when pre-administration and post-administration can be completed, the career counsellor has at least one gauge by which progress in reducing counter-productive attitudes can be measured. in addition, the results of an ei assessment can be useful, in spite of the costs that are usually associated with purchasing, administrating and reporting. including an assessment of an individual’s ei amongst the other measures typically administered during career exploration would have a number of advantages. firstly, ei results can be used as an indicator of one’s ability to manage negative thinking. this gives the career practitioner a foundation for the kinds of questions asked during counselling and can be used as a screen to suggest what kind and depth of further testing may need to be done. in addition, such results can add one more piece of information that supports or contradicts one’s choice of career. some careers have much higher demands regarding emotional problem-solving and emotional management. for example, a person with very low emotional intelligence scores wishing to become a teacher of children or work in public relations might be counselled to consider other options where chances of success are greater. industrial and organisational pychologists can benefit from understanding the theories and current research on intelligence in general and emotional intelligence specifically, which have typically been studied within the realm of cognitive psychology. in addition, it is possible that emotional intelligence, or at least aspects of it, can be modified by training. industrial and organisational psychologists would benefit from engaging in programmes that train them to assist clients in becoming more aware of, and increasing, their own emotional intelligence. if vocational counsellors are able both to assess emotional intelligence and provide intervention in managing emotions, they may be able to reduce the perceived uncertainty in their clients and make the career decision-making experience less formidable. limitations caution should be observed if generalising the results obtained in the current study to other locations and other career exploration programmes. subjects in the study were localised in one area of british columbia and were participants in only one programme. in addition, participants were selected because they were experiencing career-related difficulties. it is to be expected that their level of negative career thinking would be higher as a consequence. any time that scores for a group may be more extreme, natural regression to the mean rather than an actual change must be considered a possible limitation. it is possible that variables other than those hypothesised to be associated with the criterion variable may be responsible for differences. further research in which other factors are included as predictor variables would be useful in determining their contributions to change in negative career thinking above and beyond those studied here. by necessity, data were gathered over a period of approximately two years. one difficulty with this circumstance is the effect of historical events on the behaviour and attitudes of participants. the measure of cognitive ability for this research was the most convenient and cost-effective to use under the circumstances. however, as with any cognitive test, it does not capture all of the aspects of cognitive ability. ortony et al. (2007) argue that the msceit measure is more in line with crystallised emotional intelligence. if emotional intelligence does have a fluid component it might be associated with fluid intelligence as conceptualised by cattell. a study in which both fluid and crystallised aspects of intelligence are measured could shed light on this possibility. suggestions for future research of interest for the sample assessed in this study is that ei understanding and ei managing scores are considerably lower than either of perceiving or facilitating. in the hierarchical mayer-salovey ability model of ei, understanding and managing emotions represent higher levels of processing with managing requiring the foundation provided by the lower three branches. to determine whether these values are typical of unemployed adults, it would be useful to administer the msceit to other samples engaging in career exploration, as well as unemployed adults who are not in career exploration. analysing mean differences would help determine whether the current sample was unique. the implementation of a true or quasi-experimental design would address concerns such as regression to the mean as well as shed light on possible causes of negative career change. to do this would require the inclusion of a control group who did not participate in the career exploration programme but completed the necessary assessments. the developmental trajectory of emotional intelligence over the lifespan needs to be investigated further (mayer et al., 2004). at this point there is conflicting information regarding the development of emotional intelligence with age. cursory analyses of age groupings in the current study revealed different levels of ei and cognitive ability at different ages. it is recommended that further research investigate the developmental trajectory of cognitive ability, ei and their interaction over time and their relationship with important life outcomes. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this paper. authors’ contributions d.d. (university of south africa) was responsible for the planning and execution of the project and the analysis of the data. f.c. (university of south africa) took up the role as supervisor of the research project and managed the academic editing of the article. references top ↑ amitay, o., & mongrain, m. (2007). from emotional intelligence to intelligent choice of partner. the journal of social psychology, 147(4), 325–343. http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/socp.147.4.325-344, pmid:17955747amundsen, n., & borgan, w. (1996). at the controls: charting your course through unemployment. scarborough, on: nelson canada. anderson, m. (2004). marrying intelligence and cognition. in r. sternberg & j. pretz (eds.), cognition and intelligence: identifying the mechanisms of the mind, (pp. 268–287). new york, ny: cambridge university press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511607073.015 antonakis, j. (2004). on why ‘emotional intelligence’ will not predict leadership effectiveness beyond iq or the ‘big five’: an extension and rejoinder. organizational analysis, 12(2), 171–182. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/eb028991 ashkanasy, n. (2004). emotion and performance. human performance, 17(2), 137–144. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup1702_1 ashkanasy, n., & daus, c. (2005). rumors of the death of emotional intelligence in organizational behavior are greatly exaggerated. journal of organizational behavior, 26(4), 441–452. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.320 austin, e., & saklofske, d. (2005). far too many intelligences? on the communalities and differences between social, practical, and emotional intelligences. in r. schulze & r. roberts (eds.), emotional intelligence: an international handbook, (pp. 107–128). ashland, oh: hogrefe and huber. bar-on, r. (1997). bar-on emotional quotient inventory: technical manual. toronto, on: multi-health systems. bar-on, r. (2005). the bar-on model of emotional-social intelligence. in p. fernandez berrocal & n. extremera (guest eds.), special issue on emotional intelligence. psicothema, 17. barsade, s., & gibson, d. (2007). why does affect matter in organizations? academy of management perspectives, 21(1), 36–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amp.2007.24286163 bastian, v.a., burns, n.r., & nettelbeck, t. (2005). emotional intelligence predicts life skills, but not as well as personality and cognitive abilities. personality and individual differences, 39(6), 1135–1145. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2005.04.006 brackett, m., & mayer, j. (2003). convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity of competing measures of emotional intelligence. personality and social psychology bulletin, 29(9), 1–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167203254596, pmid:15189610 brackett, m., mayer, j., & warner, r. (2004). emotional intelligence and its relation to everyday behaviour. personality and individual differences, 36, 1387–1402. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0191-8869(03)00236-8 brown, c., george-curran, r., & smith, m. (2003). the role of emotional intelligence in the career commitment and decision-making process. journal of career assessment, 11(4), 379–392. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072703255834 carroll, (1993). human cognitive abilities: a survey of factor-analytic studies. new york, ny: cambridge university press. cartwright, s., & pappas, c., (2007). emotional intelligence, its measurement and implications for the workplace. international journal of management reviews, 10(2), 149–171. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2007.00220.x caruso, d., mayer, j., & salovey, p. (2002). relation of an ability measure of emotional intelligence to personality. journal of personality assessment, 79(2), 306–320. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa7902_12, pmid:12425393 cattell, r. (1963). theory for fluid and crystallized intelligence: a critical experiment. journal of educational psychology, 54, 1–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0046743 cohen, j. (1992). a power primer. psychological bulletin, 112(1), 155–159. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155, pmid:19565683 conte, j.m. (2005). a review and critique of emotional intelligence measures. journal of organizational behavior, 26(4), 433–440. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.319 corbishley, m., & yost, e. (1989). assessment and treatment of dysfunctional cognitions in career counseling. career planning and adult development journal, 5(3), 20–26. côté, s., & miners, c. (2006). emotional intelligence, cognitive intelligence, and job performance. administrative science quarterly, 51, 1–28. davidson, j., & downing, c. (2000). contemporary models of intelligence. in r.j. sternberg (ed.), handbook of intelligence. ch. 3, pp. 34–49. new york, ny: cambridge university press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511807947.004 deary, i. (2001). intelligence: a very short introduction. new york, ny: oxford university press. dekker, s., & schaufeli, w. (1995). the effects of job insecurity on psychological health and withdrawal: a longitudinal study. australian psychologist, 30(1), 57–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00050069508259607 dilchert, s., ones, d., davis, r., & rostow, c. (2007). cognitive ability predicts objectively measured counterproductive work behaviors. journal of applied psychology, 92(3), 616–627. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.3.616, pmid:17484545 dipeolu, a., reardon, r., sampson, j., & burkhead, j. (2002). the relationship between dysfunctional career thoughts and adjustment to disability in college students with learning disabilities. journal of career assessment, 10, 413–427. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072702238404 druskat, v., sala, f., & mount, g. (eds.). (2006). linking emotional intelligence and performance at work. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. dunn, e., brackett, m., ashton-james, c., schneiderman, e., & salovey, p. (2007). on emotionally intelligent time travel: individual differences in affective forecasting ability. personality and social psychology bulletin, 20(20), 1–9. embretson, s., & schmidt mccollam, k. (2000). psychometric approaches to understanding and measuring intelligence. in r.j. sternberg (ed.), handbook of intelligence, (pp. 423–444). new york, ny: cambridge university press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511807947.020 farrelly, d., & austin, e. (2007). ability ei as an intelligence? associations of the msceit with performance on emotion processing and social tasks with cognitive ability. cognition and emotion, 21(5), 1043–1063. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02699930601069404 feldman barrett, l., & gross, j. (2001). emotional intelligence: a process model of emotion representation and regulation. in t.j. mayne & g.a. bonanno (eds.). emotions: current issues and future directions, (pp. 286–310). new york, ny: guilford. gohm, c.l., corser, g.c., & dalsky, d.j. (2005). emotional intelligence under stress: useful, unnecessary, or irrelevant? personality and individual differences, 39(6), 1017–1028. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2005.03.018 goldstein, h., zedeck, s., & goldstein, i. (2002). g: is this your final answer? human performance, 15(1–2), 123–142. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08959285.2002.9668087 goleman, d. (1995). emotional intelligence: why it can matter more than iq. new york, ny: bantam books. gordon, v. (1998). career decidedness types: a literature review. the career development quarterly, 46(4), 386–403. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.1998.tb00715.x gottfredson, l. (1998). the general intelligence factor. scientific american presents intelligence, 9, 24–29. gottfredson, l., & saklofske, d. (2009). intelligence: foundations and issues in assessment. canadian psychology, 50(3), 183–195. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0016641 hamilton, n., karoly, p., & kitzman, h. (2004). self-regulation and chronic pain: the role of emotion. cognitive therapy and research, 28(5), 559–576. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/b:cotr.0000045565.88145.76 hawkins, k., faraone, s., pepple, j., seidman, l., & tsuang, m. (1990). wais-r validation of the wonderlic personnel test as a brief intelligence measure in a psychiatric sample. psychological assessment: a journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 2(2), 198–201. herrnstein, r., & murray, c. (1994). the bell curve. new york, ny: free press. horn, j., & cattell, r. (1966). refinement and test of the theory of fluid and crystallized general intelligences. journal of educational psychology, 57(5), 253–270. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0023816, pmid:5918295 hunt, e. (2005). information processing and intelligence. in r. sternberg & j. pretz (eds.). cognition and intelligence: identifying the mechanisms of the mind, (pp. 1–25). new york, ny: cambridge university press. hunter, j. (1986). cognitive ability, cognitive aptitude, job knowledge and job performance. journal of vocational behavior, 29(3), 340–362. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(86)90013-8 hunter, j., & schmidt, f. (1996). intelligence and job performance: economic and social implications. psychology, public policy, and law, 2(3), 447–472. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8971.2.3-4.447 jensen, a. (1998). the g factor: the science of mental ability. westport, ct: praeger/greenwood. jordan, p., ashkanasy, n., & hartel, c. (2002). emotional intelligence as a moderator of emotional and behavioural reactions to job insecurity. academy of management review, 27, 361–372. judge, t., & locke, e. (1993). effect of dysfunctional thought processes on subjective well-being and job satisfaction. journal of applied psychology, 78, 475–490. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.3.475 judge, t., scott, b., & ilies, r. (2006). hostility, job attitudes, and workplace deviance: test of a multilevel model. journal of applied psychology, 91(1), 126–138. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.1.126, pmid:16435943 kidd, j.m. (1998). emotion: an absent presence in career theory. journal of vocational behavior, 52(3), 275–288. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1997.1629 kinnier, r., & krumboltz, j. (1986). procedures for successful career counselling. in n. gysbers (ed.). designing careers, (pp. 307–335). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. kline, t. (1996). defining the field of industrial-organizational psychology. canadian psychology, 37, 205–209. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0708-5591.37.4.205 lam, d., & cheng, l. (2001). cognitive behaviour therapy approach to assessing dysfunctional thoughts. counselling psychology quarterly, 14(3), 255–265. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09515070110092325 lam, d., & gale, j. (2004). cognitive behaviour therapy: an evidence-based clinical framework for working with dysfunctional thoughts. counselling psychology quarterly, 17(1), 53–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09515070410001665884 lam, d., & kirby, s. (2002). is emotional intelligence an advantage? an exploration of the impact of emotional and general intelligence on individual performance. journal of social psychology, 142, 133–143. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224540209603891, pmid:11913831 liu, y., prati, l.m., perrewe, p., & ferris, g. (2008). the relationship between emotional resources and emotional labor: an exploratory study. journal of applied social psychology, 38(10), 2410–2439. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2008.00398.x lopes, p., salovey, p., & straus, r. (2003). emotional intelligence, personality, and the perceived quality of social relationships. personality and individual differences, 35, 641–658. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0191-8869(02)00242-8 lopes, p., salovey, p., côté, s., & beers, m. (2005). emotion regulation abilities and the quality of social interaction. emotion, 5(1), 113–118. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.5.1.113, pmid:15755224 lopes, p., grewal, d., kadis, j., gall, m., & salovey, p. (2006). evidence that emotional intelligence is related to job performance and affect and attitudes at work. psicothema, 18(suppl), 132–138. pmid:17295970 lopes, p., brackett, m., nezlek, j., schutz, a., sellin, i., & salovey, p. (2004). emotional intelligence and social interaction. personality and social psychology bulletin, 30(8), 1018–1034. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167204264762, pmid:15257786 lustig, d., & strauser, d. (2008). the impact of sense of coherence on career thoughts for individuals with disabilities. rehabilitation counseling bulletin, 51(3), 139–147. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0034355207311313 lyons, j., & schneider, t. (2005). the influence of emotional intelligence on performance. personality and individual differences, 39, 693–703. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2005.02.018 maccann, c., & roberts, r. (2008). new paradigms for assessing emotional intelligence: theory and data. emotion, 8(4), 540–551. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0012746, pmid:18729584 matthews, g., zeidner, m., & roberts, r. (2002). emotional intelligence: science and myth. cambridge, ma: mit. mayer, j., & salovey, p. (1997). what is emotional intelligence? in p. salovey & d. sluyter (eds.), emotional development and emotional intelligence: educational implications, (pp. 3–31). new york: perseus books group. mayer, j., caruso, d., & salovey, p. (1999). emotional intelligence meets traditional standards for an intelligence. intelligence, 27, 267–298. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0160-2896(99)00016-1 mayer, j., salovey, p., & caruso, d. (2000). models of emotional intelligence. in r.j. sternberg (ed.), the handbook of emotional intelligence, (pp. 396–420). new york: cambridge university press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511807947.019 mayer, j., salovey, p., & caruso, d. (2004). emotional intelligence: theory, findings, and implications. psychological inquiry, 15(3), 197–215. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1503_02 mayer, j., salovey, p., & caruso, d. (2008). emotional intelligence: new ability or eclectic traits? american psychologist, 63(6), 503–517. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.63.6.503, pmid:18793038 mayer, j., salovey, p., caruso, d., & sitarenios, g. (2003). measuring emotional intelligence with the msceit v2.0. emotion, 3, 97–105. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.3.1.97 mcenrue, m., & groves, k. (2006). choosing among tests of emotional intelligence: what is the evidence? human resource development quarterly, 17(1), 9–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.1159 mcwhirtner, e., rasheed, s., & crothers, m. (2000). effects of high school career education on social cognitive variables. journal of counseling psychology, 47(3), 330–341. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.47.3.330 morano, m. (2006). how students choose a major: the effect of a college major decision-making course on a student’s anxiety. dissertation abstracts international: section a. humanities and social sciences, 66(11-a), 3931. muchinsky, p. (2006). psychology applied to work. belmont, ca: thomson wadsworth. muramatsu, r., & hanoch, y. (2005). emotions as a mechanism for boundedly rational agents: the fast and frugal way. journal of economic psychology, 26(2), 201–221. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2004.03.001 newman, s., & just, m. (2004). the neural bases of intelligence: a perspective based on functional neuroimaging. in r. sternberg & j. pretz (eds.), cognition and intelligence: identifying the mechanisms of the mind, (pp. 88–103). new york, ny: cambridge university press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511607073.006 newman, j., fuqua, d., & seaworth, t. (1989). the role of anxiety in career indecision: implications for diagnosis and treatment. career development quarterly, 37, 221–230. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.1989.tb00826.x ortony, a., revelle, w., & zinbarg, r. (2007). why emotional intelligence needs a fluid component. in g. matthews, m. zeidner & r. roberts (eds.), the science of emotional intelligence: knowns and unknowns, (pp. 288–304). oxford: oxford university press. osborn, d. (1998). the relationships among perfectionism, dysfunctional career thoughts, and career indecision. doctoral dissertation, florida state university. dissertation abstracts international, 59(10), 3746a. (umi no. 9911447). osborn, d., howard, d., & leierer, s. (2007). the effect of a career development course on the dysfunctional career thoughts of racially and ethnically diverse college freshmen. the career development quarterly, 55, 365–377. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2007.tb00091.x osipow, s. (1999). assessing career indecision. journal of vocational behaviour, 55(3), 147–154. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1999.1704 paivandy, s., bullock, e., reardon, r., & kelly, d. (2008). the effects of decision-making style and cognitive thought patterns on negative career thoughts. journal of career assessment, 16(4), 474–488. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072708318904 patton, w., & creed, p. (2001). developmental issues in career maturity and career decision status. career development quarterly, 49, 336–351. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2001.tb00961.x peterson, g., sampson, j., & reardon, r. (1991). career development and services: a cognitive approach. pacific grove, ca: brooks/cole. peterson, g., sampson, j., reardon, r., & lenz, j. (1996). becoming career problem solvers and decision makers: a cognitive information processing approach. in d. brown & l. brooks (eds.), career choice and development, (3rd edn., pp. 423–475). san francisco, ca: jossey bass. petrides, k., & furnham, a. (2006). the role of trait emotional intelligence in a gender-specific model of organizational variables. journal of applied social psychology, 36(2), 552–569. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0021-9029.2006.00019.x phillips, s., & blustein, d. (1994). readiness for career choices: planning, exploring, and deciding. career development quarterly, 43, 63–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.1994.tb00847.x ramos, n., fernandez-berrocal, p., & extremera, n. (2007). perceived emotional intelligence facilitates cognitive-emotional processes of adaptation to an acute stressor. cognition and emotion, 21(4), 758–772. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02699930600845846 reardon, r., lenz, j., sampson, j., & peterson, g. (2000). career development and planning: a comprehensive approach. scarborough, on: nelson/thomson learning. ree, m., & earles, j. (1991). predicting training success: not much more than g. personnel psychology, 44, 321–332. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1991.tb00961.x ree, m., carretta, t., & teachout, m. (1995). role of ability and prior job knowledge in complex training performance. journal of applied psychology, 80(6), 721–730. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.80.6.721 reed, c., lenz, j., reardon, r., & leierer, s. (2000). reducing negative career thoughts with a career course: technical report no. 25. retrieved june 16, 2009, from http//www.career.fsu.edu/techcenter//tr-25.html reese, r., & miller, c.d. (2006). effects of a university career development course on career decision-making self-efficacy. journal of career assessment, 14(2), 252–266. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072705274985 roberts, r.d., zeidner, m., & matthews, g. (2001). does emotional intelligence meet traditional standards for an intelligence? some new data and conclusions. emotion, 1(3), 196–231. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.1.3.196, pmid:12934681 roll, t., & arthur, n. (july 2002). beliefs in career counseling. paper presented at the national consultation on career development. ottawa, on. rude, s., & mccarthy, c. (2003). emotional functioning in depressed and depression-vulnerable college students. cognition and emotion, 17, 799–806. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02699930302283 salovey, p., & pizarro, d. (2003). the value of emotional intelligence. in r.j. sternberg, j. lautrey & t.i. lubart (eds.), models of intelligence: international perspectives, (pp. 263–278). washington, dc: american psychological association. sampson, j.p., peterson, g.w., lenz, j.g., reardon, r.c., & saunders, d.e. (1996). career thoughts inventory: professional manual. odessa, fl: psychological assessment resources. sampson, j.p., reardon, r.c., peterson, g.w., & lenz, j.g. (2004). career counselling and services: a cognitive information processing approach. belmont, ca: brooks/cole. saunders, d., peterson, g., sampson, j., & reardon, r. (2000). relation of depression and dysfunctional career thinking to career indecision. journal of vocational behavior, 56, 288–298. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1999.1715 schaie, k. (2001). emotional intelligence: psychometric status and developmental characteristics – comment on roberts, zeidner, and matthews. emotion, 1(3), 243–248. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.1.3.243, pmid:12934683 schmidt, f., & hunter, j. (1998). the validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. psychological bulletin, 124, 262–274. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.124.2.262 serling, d., & betz, n. (1990). development and evaluation of a measure of fear of commitment. journal of counseling psychology, 37, 91–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.37.1.91 slaski, m., & cartwright, s. (2003). emotional intelligence training and its implications for stress, health and performance. stress and health, 19, 233–239. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smi.979 stankov, l. (2003). complexity in human intelligence. in r. sternberg, j. lautrey & t. lubart (eds.), models of intelligence: international perspectives, (pp. 27–42). washington, dc: american psychological association. sternberg, r. (1997). the concept of intelligence and its role in lifelong learning and success. american psychologist, 52(10), 1030–1037. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.52.10.1030 sternberg, r. (2003). a broad view of intelligence: the theory of successful intelligence. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 55(3), 139–154. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1061-4087.55.3.139 sternberg, r. (2004). intelligence in humans. encyclopedia of applied psychology, 2, 321–328. sternberg, r. (2009). the theory of successful intelligence. in r. sternberg, j. kaufman & e. grigorenko (eds.), the essential sternberg: essays on intelligence, psychology, and education, (pp. 71–100). new york, ny: springer. sternberg, r., & hedlund. (2002). practical intelligence, g, and work psychology. human performance, 15(2), 143–160. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08959285.2002.9668088 sternberg, r., & salter, w. (1982). conceptions of intelligence. in r. sternberg (ed.), handbook of human intelligence, (pp. 3–28). cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. sternberg, r., lautrey, j., & lubart, t. (2003). where are we in the field of intelligence, how did we get here, and where are we going? in r. sternberg, j. lautrey & t. lubart (eds.), models of intelligence: international perspectives, (pp. 3–25).washington, dc: american psychological association. strauser, d., lustig, d., & ciftci, a. (2008). psychological well being: its relation to work personality, vocational identity, and career thoughts. the journal of psychology, 142(1), 21–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/jrlp.142.1.21-36, pmid:18350842 sud, a., & kumar, s. (2006). dysfunctional career thoughts, achievement motivation, and test anxiety among university students. pakistan journal of psychological research, 21(1–2), 41–51. super, d. (1990). a life-span, life-space approach to career development. in d. brown & l. brooks (eds.), career choice and development. (2nd edn.). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. super, d., savickas, m., & super, c. (1996). the life span, life-space approach to careers. in d. brown, l. brooks & associates (eds.), career choice and development, (3rd edn., pp. 121–178). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. terre blanche, m., durrheim, k., & painter, d. (2006). research in practice. applied methods for the social sciences. cape town: uct press. tinto, v. (1993). leaving college: rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. (2nd edn.) chicago, il: university of chicago press. trinidad, d., & johnson, c.a. (2002). the association between emotional intelligence and early adolescent tobacco and alcohol use. personality and individual differences, 32(1), 95–105. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0191-8869(01)00008-3 van rooy, d., viswesvaran, c., & pluta, p. (2005). an evaluation of construct validity: what is this thing called emotional intelligence? human performance, 18(4), 445–462. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup1804_9 viswesvaran, c., & ones, d. (2002). meta-analysis of fakability estimates: implications for personality measurement. educational and psychological measurement, 59(2), 197–210. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00131649921969802 weinstein, f., healy, c., & ender, p. (2002). career choice anxiety, coping and perceived control. career development quarterly, 50(4), 339–350. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2002.tb00582.x wonderlic personnel test. (2002). wonderlic personnel test & scholastic level exam user’s manual. libertyville, il: wonderlic, inc. yip, j., & martin, r. (2005). sense of humor, emotional intelligence, and social competence. journal of research in personality, 40, 1202–1208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2005.08.005 zeidner, m., matthews, g., & roberts, r., (2004). emotional intelligence in the workplace: a critical review. applied psychology: an international review, 53(3), 371–399. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2004.00176.x zeidner, m., matthews, g., & roberts, r., (2006). emotional intelligence, coping with stress, and adaptation. in j. ciarrochi, j. forgas & j. mayer (eds.), emotional intelligence in everyday life. (2nd edn.), (pp. 100–125). new york, ny: psychology press. zeidner, m., roberts, r., & matthews, g. (2008). the science of emotional intelligence: current consensus and controversies. european psychologist, 13(1), 64–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040.13.1.64 article information authors: zurayda shaik1 johanna h. buitendach1 affiliations: 1school of applied human sciences, university of kwazulu-natal, howard college campus, south africa correspondence to: zurayda shaik email: zurayda.shaik@gmail.com postal address: king george v avenue, durban 4041, south africa dates: received: 11 dec. 2013 accepted: 14 apr. 2015 published: [to be released] how to cite this article: shaik, z., & buitendach, j.h. (2015). the relationship between work locus of control and psychological capital amongst middle managers in the recruitment industry of south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #615, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.615 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the relationship between work locus of control and psychological capital amongst middle managers in the recruitment industry of south africa in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction • literature review    • work locus of control    • psychological capital    • relationship between the constructs of work locus of control and psychological capital • theoretical framework or paradigm    • frederickson’s broaden-and-build theory    • rotter’s social learning theory • research objectives    • what follows • research design • method    • research approach    • research participants    • measuring instruments       • biographical questionnaire       • the work locus of control       • psychological capital questionnaire    • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • descriptive statistics for time 1 and time 2    • pearson momentum correlations for t1 and t2    • test of association between variables    • assessing differences in age of the participants at the two time points • multiple regression analysis for t1 and t2 • discussion    • conclusion and implications    • limitation of the study    • suggestion for future research    • contribution of the study • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the role of traits as a determinant of states has resulted in researchers closely examining their potential for enhancing work behaviour. this is achieved through the examination of the trait and state perspectives. research purpose: this research sought to determine the relationship between work locus of control (wloc) and psychological capital (psycap), with the objective of increasing alertness on the trait and state approach. motivation for the study: the current study investigated the role of traits and states in contributing to the positive psychology arena within the recruitment industry. research approach, design and method: this longitudinal research design involved 425 middle managers at time 1 (t1), at both supervisory and specialist levels, and 190 middle managers at supervisory levels at time 2 (t2). this longitudinal study used a biographical, wloc and psycap questionnaires. main findings: the findings indicated that wloc has predictive value for psycap: a statistically significant and practical relationship was established between wloc and psycap at t1 and t2. however, the multiple regression analysis results were not consistently demonstrated over time. practical managerial implications: understanding the role of personality traits and psychological states can provide managers with additional means of increasing employee efficiency through improving work processes such as recruitment and selection. contributions/value-add: the recruitment and other industries are encouraged to utilise a strength-based approach to enhance work performance through selection processes that incorporate traits and states to further increase organisational competitiveness. introduction top ↑ for the most part, personalities in the workplace play a significant role. spector (1982, p. 482) notes that ‘major theories in organisational psychology assume that the same basic processes account for behaviour across all individuals and that situational characteristics cause predictable behaviour across all individuals’. youssef and luthans (2009) note that traits and trait-like characteristics have been consistently shown to have a significant relationship to work-related outcomes. moreover, psychological states of psychological capital (psycap), such as self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience, have been found to be a baseline for development and create a causal relationship with traits. this has implications for utilising traits as a predictor of positive work states, which can be further developed to improve organisational effectiveness. in addition, this study demonstrated the usefulness of work locus of control (wloc) as a trait in predicting the positive psychological state of psycap amongst middle managers in the recruitment industry of south africa. hence, understanding of the trait versus the state approach in relation to enhancing positivity in the workplace can ensure that individuals’ working lives are more fulfilling. based on these statements the current study adopted a strength-based outlook in examining work. it is also further noted that the south african recruitment industry is a unique industry, facing its own set of challenges. the recruitment process itself is directed by people who need to understand the cross-cultural issues and applicability of legislations such as affirmative action policies, the labour legislations act (no. 66 of 1995), based on south africa’s view of human dignity, and the employment equity act (no. 55 of 1998), amongst others. these influence the industry to adopt practices that present unique challenges, and the applicability and understanding of the trait versus the state approach in enhancing work performance within the recruitment industry would thus be relevant. the introduction article comprises a systematic discussion of a review of the literature on the proposed constructs and creates an understanding of the theoretical framework. literature review top ↑ in the review of literature the researcher provided reviews of themes emerging from previous research findings, as well as reviewing existing approaches towards how these constructs are conceptualised in literature. the literature review begins with the examination of the work locus of control construct. work locus of control there is extensive support that personality differences or understanding individual differences has a significant impact in the work place (e.g. chaplin, john & goldberg, 1988; wang, bowling & eschleman, 2010). over several decades psychological research has focused on locus of control (loc), which is a personality trait that represents the extent to which people believe that the rewards they receive in life can be controlled by their own personal actions (lefcourt, 1984; rotter, 1966). van der sluis, van praag and van witteloostuijn (2004) describe wloc in relation to a personality construct. researchers such as spector, sanchez, siu, salgado and ma (2004) have defined wloc as a perception that one can personally affect particular outcomes. the wloc is further divided into two sub-constructs, which oppose each other. adas (1999) highlights the importance of the internal and external wloc and refers to these constructs as the perceived source of control over behaviour. as summarised by bilgin (2007): people with a high internal locus of control (internals) believe that the promotions or penalties they get at work are due to their own actions and performance. on the other hand, people with a high external locus of control (externals) believe that those events at work are beyond their control and are the result of fate, chance, luck or decisions made by the authority. (p. 40) thomas, sorensen and eby’ s (2006) perspective of wloc has important research implications: they indicate that the wloc is related to various organisational elements and thus future research should not minimise the contributions made. research has consistently demonstrated the importance of traits in achieving organisational objectives; for example, based on a study conducted by thomas et al. (2006), it was found that internal loc was positively associated with desirable work outcomes, such as greater job motivation. however, thomas et al. (p. 1057) highlight that the increased attention given to the role of personality at work is often limited to certain traits such as the ‘big five personality traits of extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness to experience’ and those ‘personality traits outside of the big five taxonomy often receive less research attention, such as the work locus of control’ (thomas et al., 2006, p. 1057). there is extensive support that personality differences or understanding individual differences has a significant impact in the workplace (e.g. wang et al., 2010). for example, it has been found that wloc is related to various important work-related outcomes including psychological capital (babalola, 2009), happiness (e.g. carrim, basson & coetzee, 2006), job satisfaction (e.g. salazar, hubbard & salazar, 2002), organisational citizenship behaviour (e.g. o’ brein, 2004), turnover intentions (e.g. lu, kao, cooper & spector, 2000) and job performance (e.g. chen & silverthorne, 2008). thus, wloc has been related to positive outcomes and a positive strength-based approach. furthermore, literature dating back to phares (1976) notes that internals are more sensitive than externals to information relevant to self-worth. the ‘stronger expectancy of the effort-outcome relationship for internals should be associated with those variables in the work domain that reflect one’s work motivation, such as motivation to learn and sense of empowerment’ (thomas et al., 2006, p. 1072). bosman, buitendach and rothman (2005) note that: it is evident that the locus of control construct is based on the cause and consequence relationship and therefore future expectations (for example, anticipation of redundancy) can be construed in terms of current behaviour. (p. 18) the loc certainly has implications within a work setting as indicated by a study in the call centre environment in south africa: carrim (2006) notes that internals tend to exert increased control as compared to externals in certain work settings, for example work flow, operating procedures, task accomplishment, operating procedures, working conditions, work assignments and relationships. it is thus noted that the loc has relevance to a variety of positive relationships within the workplace. furthermore, maram and miller (1998) indicate a strong relationship between wloc and work behaviour such as leader member exchange and organisational commitment. hence, personalities are an important aspect of organisational behaviour and continue to have strong implications for organisational growth and outcomes. thus, there is evidence that wloc positively influences work behaviour. this study assists in broadening the knowledge base on these important areas. it is noted, in the 1980s researchers critiqued the unidimensional nature of the construct (e.g. krampen, 1985; lefcourt, 1982; levenson, 1981). krampen (1985) notes that a unidimensional nature of the construct is too simplistic. later, furnham and steele (1993) note critiques of the wloc and indicate that internality is not always associated with positivity, as internals are likely to experience lower levels of self-esteem when faced with failure as they more easily demonstrate accountability for their actions and may relate their failure to their actions. thus, the wloc construct is not without its critique and future research can offer clarity on these dilemmas outlined. there are several practical implications for studying the impact of the wloc in the organisational setting. for example, harris, harris and eplion (2007) indicate through the identification of personality traits that are associated with desired individual and organisational outcomes, decision-makers can increase the effectiveness of selection devices when hiring employees. harris et al. (2007, p. 104) found ‘an internal locus of control, need for power, and self-esteem are all associated with positive consequences’. thus, an easy and efficient way to improve job outcomes may be to better select those candidates with desired characteristics in the recruitment process. in terms of the current study the outcomes have important implications for organisations’ selection and recruitment model, in relation to the impact of the wloc on positive psychological states. this study further demonstrated the usefulness of wloc in explaining human behaviour, and not only focused on wloc as a dispositional trait but also examined it as a predictor of positive psychological states. hence, literature has indicated that the personality trait of wloc is relatively stable and linked to positive work outcomes. next, the discussion outlines the positive psychological state of psycap. psychological capital psycap was derived from positive psychology and has been ‘conceptualised, measured, and developed in terms of a state-like positive core construct, to which each of the individual resources of efficacy, hope, optimism, and resiliency synergistically contributes’ (avey, luthans & youssef, 2008, p. 9). psycap has been defined by various researchers as the key psychological elements of individuals’ general positive nature, which is specifically represented as the state of mind to comply with the standards of positive organisation performance (e.g. avey, nimnicht & pigeon, 2010; luthans, avey & patera, 2008; youssef & luthans, 2007). youssef and luthans (2007) recognise that although this recent positive emphasis in organisational behaviour is based on traditional theory-building processes and research methodologies, there is an attempt to study new or at least relatively unique aspects to the workplace, namely positive psychological resource capacities. various researchers have also noted that psycap moves beyond human and social capital and enables individuals to obtain competitive advantages through targeted input and development (luthans, avolio, walumbwa & li, 2005; luthans, luthans & luthans, 2004; luthans & youssef, 2004). the developmental nature of psycap can be further demonstrated by luthans, avey, avolio, norman and combs’ s (2006) study in which they aimed to present a micro-intervention to develop psycap. thus, psychological capital is defined as being: an individual’s positive psychological state of development characterised by: (1) having confidence (self-efficacy) to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks; (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future; (3) persevering toward goals, and when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to succeed; and (4) when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond (resilience) to attain success. (luthans, youssef & avolio, 2007, p. 3) research has also indicated that the positive psychological state of psycap may be particularly attractive to organisations because of its durable nature (luthans et al., 2006). it is not as volatile as a true state, such as mood, yet is still capable of change, unlike fixed traits, such as personality (conley, 1984). allen and potkay, (1981) importantly note that the state versus trait debate has long been discussed in the psychology literature. conley (1984) conducted a longitudinal study to determine and compare the test–retest reliabilities between intelligence, personality and self-opinion constructs (e.g. life satisfaction and self-esteem). conley’s study found that self-opinion constructs such as psycap were more likely to change over time than trait-like predictors such as intelligence. such research and analysis provide support for the notion of a continuum of stability of positive constructs. in addition, luthans, avolio, avey and norman (2007) found that psycap was less stable than the big five personality traits and more stable than positive emotions. thus, it is noted that there is still much to learn about the properties and characteristics of psycap. furthermore, evidence has shown that each of the four sub-constructs of psycap (self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience), as well as the construct as a whole, are relatively stable over time, but also responsive to focused intervention (avey, luthans & mhatre, 2008; bandura, 1997; masten & reed, 2002; seligman, 1998; snyder & lopez, 2002). the view and research established by conley (1984) is supportive of the current studies view that psycap has a state-like nature, which is relatively stable over time and is open to change and development. within the south african context, herbert (2011) contends that although psycap has been shown to be relatively stable over time, its malleability allows it to be open to development. several studies in the south african arena have also shown the importance of psycap in relation to positive organisational outcomes (e.g. appollis, 2010; beal, stavros & cole, 2013; du plessis & barkhuizen, 2011). therefore, the current study attempted to provide further evidence of the important role that psycap may play as a potential contributor to an organisation’s competitive advantage. since psycap is ‘state-like’ and there is at least preliminary evidence that it can be developed (e.g. luthans et al., 2006), ‘investing in and developing employees’ psychological capital may be an example of the new thinking and new approaches that are needed for today’s organisations and their leaders’ (luthans, norman, avolio & avey, 2008, p. 235). next, the literature elaborated on the relationship between wloc and psycap. relationship between the constructs of work locus of control and psychological capital importantly, brandt, gomes and boyanova (2011, p. 264) note the link between ‘psychological capital and personality is somehow implicit in academic writing’. psycap does converge with several more established and relevant traits such as wloc. important contributions have been made in terms of studies of psycap in relation to wloc. for example, avey et al. (2010, p. 388) indicated that ‘optimism is differentiated from hope based on high external locus of control where a person may not be optimistic while still being hopeful’. carifio and rhodes (2002) further highlight that the reverse would also be applicable with individuals with lower levels of hope but still displaying optimism: they are likely to display higher external loc. babalola’ s (2009, p. 184) study was amongst female entrepreneurs from nigeria and an investigation was instituted to determine the influence of psycap on women entrepreneurs’ innovative behaviour; the result indicated that ‘women with high self-efficacy and internal locus of control scored higher on entrepreneurial innovative behaviour than women with low self-efficacy and external locus of control’. further relationships have also been established between psycap and wloc (e.g. luthans, norman, avolio & avey, 2008). in addition, goldsmith, veum and darity’ s (1997) study found that psycap affects an individual’s real wage directly through self-esteem and indirectly through loc. however, further studies should explore these relationships. schreuder and coetzee (2010) provide an overview of industrial as well as organisational psychology research in south africa and highlight that a positive psychological paradigm should be directed towards the facilitation of positive psycap in organisations and employees to ensure positive outcomes such as resilience and health. bergh (2009) notes that south african research has focused on encouraging factors such as an internal loc, personal hardiness, sense of coherence, positive emotions, self-efficacy, hope and optimism. although literature in south africa has indicated relationships between wloc or loc and positive work outcomes (e.g. april, dharani, & peters, 2012), the researcher notes that research has not directly examined the relationship between wloc (trait) and psycap (state). over time, wloc and psycap could be integrated within a larger framework of organisational strategy, structure and culture. as for establishing a causal relationship between wloc and psycap, longitudinal studies can contribute. sheldon, kashdan and steger (2011) also note more psycap longitudinal and experimental designed research is needed for the future. the current research attempted to address this gap. nevertheless, researchers in south africa are actively placing focus on the investigation of intervention effectiveness that can assist in the facilitation of wellness (viviers & coetzee, 2007). however, the implementation of the wloc and positive psychology principles and strategies in professional recruitment setting is still limited in south africa. the current study attempted to further contribute to the body of knowledge in psychology in the hope that further research would be stimulated in relation to the current study. the researcher created further understanding of the wloc and psycap by providing an outline of the theoretical framework utilised in the study. theoretical framework or paradigm top ↑ the researcher elaborates further in terms of theoretical basis for the study. frederickson’s broaden-and-build theory fredrickson’ s (1998, 2001) broaden-and-build theory has relevance to the current study due to its focus on positive emotions and its emphasis on understanding the underlying factors in relation to positive emotions, as well as its contributions to attaining desirable work-related organisational outcomes. positive emotions’ state-like quality have been demonstrated through empirical studies in which positive emotions are enhanced despite adversity (e.g. tugade, fredrickson & barrett, 2004). fredrickson, (2001, p. 220) further notes that ‘the personal resources accrued during states of positive emotions are conceptualised as durable’. it would follow that these psychological resources generated by employees experiencing positive emotions would encourage positive work-related outcomes within the recruitment industry. this would include higher levels of state-like psycap as well as internal wloc due to positive emotions’ association with greater work success resulting from internality. rotter’s social learning theory the social learning theory offers a relevant approach to effectively applying learning processes to achieve organisational objectives. according to weiner (1992), the social learning theory is concerned primarily with the choices that individuals make when confronted with a number of possible alternative manners of behaving. rotter (1954) also assumes that on the basis of variety of learning experiences, general belief systems develop that influence behaviour in any specific situation (lazarus & folkman, 1984). it is proposed that those with an internal loc within the recruitment industry may demonstrate behaviour that is conducive to promoting desirable work behaviour based on the expectancy of positive reinforcement, such as incentives within a context that values performance-driven behaviour. the research objectives for this study are outlined below. research objectives top ↑ to determine the relationship between wloc and psycap. to establish if wloc has predictive value for psycap. what follows the following sections explain the research design, which is comprised of the research approach, research method, research participants, measuring instruments, research procedure and statistical analysis. thereafter, the results are discussed. research design top ↑ an integral part of the research process is the research design (mccall, 1994), which is elaborated on in the proceeding discussion. method top ↑ research approach a quantitative approach was utilised in the current study. neuman (1997, p. 106) defines the quantitative approach as ‘a language of variables, hypothesis units of analysis, and casual explanations’. longitudinal research was utilised as an aspect of the research design as it demonstrated relevance towards measurement of differences or changes, which allows for development of stronger causal outcomes. for the purpose of this study, a conceptual model has been utilised. in the research study the prospective panel design was utilised as it allowed for data to be collected at two or more distinct periods on the same set of cases and variables. the reason for using the longitudinal research design is that the researcher then has great flexibility in the research design, which allows for the identification of sequential patterns in the data. in this regard the variation or stability of results over time and the interaction of the variables with time to determine the influence of time over the variables interactions is examined. the sampling design utilised in the study was the probability sampling design and the systematic sampling technique was utilised. research participants the sample was selected from an emerging recruitment company that has been in operation for approximately 9 years and operates in four different geographic locations in south africa. the sample population comprised 425 employees of which 190 were in middle management based at supervisory level and 235 were in middle management based at specialist levels. the reason for selecting employees in the middle management levels was to ensure contribution of literature in understanding the effects of the proposed constructs on individuals working in more supervisory orientated categories of employment. the majority of the sample group at time 1 (t1) was between the ages of 25 and 35 years (49.2%), belonged to the african race group (57.6%), had one to 5 years of tenure (53.2%) and was female (67.3%). in relation to time 2 (t2), the majority of the population group was between the ages of 36 and 45 (58.9%), belonged to the african race group (60%), had 6–10 years of tenure (67.9%) and was female (66.3%). measuring instruments three questionnaires were administered. biographical questionnaire this questionnaire was designed by the researcher to gather relevant information from the subjects on their age, gender, race, tenure and qualifications. the work locus of control the wloc scale (spector, 1988) comprised 16 items in a likert scale format with response categories ranging from 1 (disagree very much) to 5 (agree very much). a sample item is ‘a job is what you make of it’ (spector, 1988). the validity of the questionnaire has been demonstrated with the wloc scale and loc measures as well as organisational variables (e.g. hoff-macan, trusty & trimble, 1996; spector, 1988). spector (1988) reported reliability coefficient alphas ranging from 0.75 to 0.85 for the instrument. within a south african setting it is noted that a study by bosman et al. (2005) reported a cronbach’s alpha of 0.85. psychological capital questionnaire the 24-item psychological capital questionnaire (pcq) was published by luthans, youssef and avolio (2007, pp. 237–238) and items for each subscale include self-efficacy (‘i feel confident representing my work area in meetings with management’), hope (‘at the present time i am energetically pursuing my goals), resilience (‘i usually take stressful things at work in stride’) and optimism (‘i am optimistic about what will happen to me in the future as it pertains to work’). the questionnaire followed a likert-type format with 24 questions ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree); the emphasis in the instruction to the participants is to provide responses based on ‘how you think about yourself right now’. the pcq has demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties as well as support for its construct validity (luthans, avolio, avey & norman, 2007). herbert (2011) found the cronbach’s alpha reliabilities for self-efficacy, hope, resilience and optimism to be 0.83, 0.81, 0.69 and 0.67 respectively. research procedure approval for this study was obtained from the chief executive officer of the organisation. participating employees were required to sign consent forms. participants were informed about the voluntary nature of participation and assured of confidentiality in the handling of data. the self-administered questionnaires were distributed (to be returned anonymously). this occurred at two separate times: the first time was april 2012 (t1) and the second time was october 2012 (t2). the questionnaires were distributed through an appointed employee who was willing to assist, as well as electronically, and they were collected within a few weeks. statistical analysis the data were analysed using the statistical package for social sciences version 21. descriptive statistics comprised frequency distributions, measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion, as well as cronbach’s alpha coefficients. inferential statistics comprised the pearson momentum correlation and multiple regression analysis. descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviations, minimum and maximum scores, kurtosis and skewness of the results were utilised to describe the distribution of scores for wloc and psycap. in addition, the cronbach’s alpha coefficients were computed for the wloc and psycap; nunnally and bernstein’ s (1994) acceptable reliability threshold of 0.70 was considered. pearson momentum correlations were conducted to determine relationships between wloc and psycap. furthermore, multiple regression analysis was conducted to assess whether wloc predicted psycap. results top ↑ descriptive statistics for time 1 and time 2 in reference to table 2 for t1 and t2, the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for all measuring instruments are considered to be acceptable compared to the guideline of values greater than or equal to 0.70 (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). in reference to table 1 for t1 the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for external and internal wloc was 0.972 and 0.964, respectively. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the psycap scale was 0.964. the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the sub-constructs of psycap, namely self-efficacy, hope, resilience and optimism, were 0.876, 0.874, 0.891 and 0.875, respectively. in reference to table 1 for t2, the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for external and internal wloc was 0.955 and 0.954, respectively. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the psycap scale was 0.936. the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the sub-constructs of psycap, namely self-efficacy, resilience, hope and optimism, were 0.788, 0.802, 0.796 and 0.809, respectively. table 1: characteristics of time 1 participants and time 2 participants. table 2: descriptive statistics. an evaluation of the skewness and kurtosis for t1 and t2 showed that the majority of the scores were lower than 1 and therefore it could be concluded that the majority of the scores were normally distributed. however, certain variables demonstrated skewness and kurtosis above 1 as reflected in table 1 for t1 and t2. however, kline (2005) asserts that cut-off scores below 3 are generally accepted for skewness and scores below 10 are generally accepted for kurtosis. hence, the scores are still within an acceptable range. in addition, the kolmogorov-smirnov statistics on the total wloc and psycap showed significant values of less than 0.05, suggesting a violation of the assumption of normality. in this instance the significance values (p) were less than 0.001. however, pallant (2013) notes that this is quite common in larger samples. pearson momentum correlations for t1 and t2 in reference to table 3, for both t1 and t2, a negative relationship was found between external wloc and psycap, as indicated at t1 (r = -0.645) and t2 (r = -0.598), which is statistically significant (p ≤ 0.01) and practically significant (large effect > 0.50). in addition, a positive relationship was found between internal wloc and psycap, as indicated at t1 (r = 0.657) and t2 (r = 0.590), which is statistically significant (p ≤ 0.01) and practically significant (large effect > 0.50). table 3: pearson correlations between the scales and factors for time 1 and time 2. test of association between variables a chi-square test was conducted to see if there was a significant difference between the first and second sample in terms of gender. a chi-square test for independence (with yates continuity correlation) indicated no significant differences in proportion of gender at both t1 and t2 [χ2 (1, n = 615) = 0.02, p = 0.88, phi = 0.01]. therefore the proportion of female or male participants at both time points was not significantly different and no association exited between gender and time points. using cohen’ s (1988) criteria of 0.10 for small effect, 0.30 for medium effect and 0.50 for large effect, the phi coefficient is considered a very small effect, indicating weaker association between the variables. assessing differences in age of the participants at the two time points an independent sample t-test was conducted between the two groups to see if there was a significant difference in age of the participants at the two time points. participants indicated their age using the following categories under 25 years, 25–35 years, 36–45 years, 46–55 years and 56 years or older. as illustrated in table 5, there was a significant difference in age of the participants at t1 (m = 2.48, sd = 0.591) and t2 [m = 2.65, sd = 0.568; t (613) = -3.294, p = 0.001, two-tailed]. the magnitude of mean difference for age of the participants at the two time points (mean difference = -0.17, 95% ci: -2.68 to -0.068), calculated using eta-squared as per the guidelines provided by cohen (1988, p. 284), was 0.02. table 4: chi-square tests for independence. table 5: independent samples test for differences in age of the participants at the two time points. multiple regression analysis for t1 and t2 top ↑ at t1, in reference to table 4, the model uses external and internal wloc to predict psycap (t = 7.434, r2 = 0.436, f = 162.939, p < 0.001). this means that external and internal wloc accounts for 43.6% of the variance in psycap. the f-test assesses the null hypothesis that all the coefficients of the independent variables are equal to zero (β1 = β2= 0) against the alternative hypothesis that at least one coefficient is not equal to zero. if the p value of the f-test is less than 0.05, then the model is considered significantly better than would be expected by chance. table 3 indicates a p value of 0.000, indicating that there is indeed a linear relationship between psycap and internal and external wloc for t1. the unstandardised beta coefficient (β) associated with external wloc (β = -0.357) is negative; this implied that there is an inverse relationship between psycap and external work locus of control. that is higher external wloc ratings are associated with low psycap rating. on the other hand, the beta coefficient for internal wloc (β = 0.928) is positive; this implied as psycap increases as internal wloc increases. the standardised beta coefficients give a measure of the impact of each variable on the model. a large standardised beta coefficient is an indication that a unit change in this independent variable would lead to a large change in the dependent variable. the t and the p value test the null hypothesis that the individual beta coefficient is equal to zero (variable has no impact on the dependent variable) against the alternative hypothesis that the independent variable has an impact on the prediction of the dependent variable. a p value (significance level) less than 0.05 is an indication that the variable is significant. hence, for external loc the standardised beta coefficient was -0.205 and internal loc was 0.462. the p values indicate that the internal wloc was significant in predicting psycap (p = 0.000 < 0.05) and external wloc was not significant (p = 0.084 > 0.05). in table 4 for t2 the model uses external and internal wloc to predict psycap (t = 5.580, r2 = 0.361, f = 52.777, p < 0.001). this means that external and internal wloc account for 36.1% variance in psycap. table 4 indicates a p value of 0.000. this is an indication that there is indeed a linear relationship between psycap and internal and external wloc. the unstandardised beta coefficient associated with external work locus of control (β = -0.626) is negative; this implies that there is an inverse relationship between psycap and external wloc. that is, higher external wloc ratings are associated with low psycap rating. on the other hand, the beta coefficient for internal wloc (β = 0.369) is positive; this implies psycap increases as internal wloc increases. the standardised beta coefficients for external loc was -0.397 and for internal loc was 0.209. the p values for both the external and internal wloc were not significant in predicting psycap: 0.050 (> 0.05) and 0.301 (> 0.05) respectively. thus, since the p value is over 0.05, the external and internal wloc were not significant in predicting psycap. discussion top ↑ overall, the general objective of this research was to conceptualise the constructs of wloc (internal and external wloc) from literature and identify its relationship to psycap (hope, optimism, self-efficacy and resilience) in a south african sample group within the recruitment industry. this study attempted to establish a standard for the recruitment industry to utilise personality traits and psychological states to improve the selection of their candidates and improve the overall recruitment process. it is also proposed that selection of individuals with these desirable traits and states would also contribute to the recruitment industry competitiveness, effectiveness and efficiency. youssef and luthans (2009) also state that traits demonstrate complex interactions and relationships. they further note that there are a limited number of studies that demonstrate their joint contribution in relation to various workplace variables. the current study proposed to increase the knowledge base within positive organisational psychology and knowledge of the recruitment industry in south africa. thus, the empirical results of t1 and t2 were examined through the use of descriptive statistics, cronbach’s alpha coefficients, pearson momentum correlations and multiple regression analysis. firstly, in the examination of t1, the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for external and internal wloc were 0.972 and 0.964, respectively and the descriptive statistic pertaining to psycap was 0.964. at t2 the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for external and internal wloc, as well as psycap, were 0.955, 0.954 and 0.936, respectively. this is an indication of high cronbach’s alpha coefficients, demonstrating greater reliability of the constructs as well as good internal consistency of the items that were tested at both t1 and t2. furthermore, in relation to the inferential statistics of the pearson momentum correlation, the results based on the positive relationship between the variables was supported by the results of the pearson momentum correlation as, firstly, at t1 a negative relationship was found between external wloc and psycap (r = -0.645), which is statistically significant (p ≤ 0.01) and practically significant (large effect > 0.50). in addition, a positive relationship was found between internal wloc and psycap (r = 0.657), which is statistically significant (p ≤ 0.01) and practically significant (large effect > 0.50). whereas at t2, a negative and practically significant relationship existed between external wloc and psycap (r = -0.598), which is statistically significant (p ≤ 0.01) and practically significant (large effect > 0.50). in addition, a positive relationship was found between internal wloc and psycap (r = 0.590), which is statistically significant (p ≤ 0.01) and practically significant (large effect > 0.50). t2’s result is similar to t1 as the relationships also demonstrated a large effect and practically significance, although there was slight variation in results due to decrease in the pearson momentum correlations as a function of time. this level of significance explained that middle managers who believe that their work situation is determined by their own behaviour are likely to demonstrate higher levels of psycap and middle managers who believe that their work situation is beyond their control displayed lower levels of psycap. however, based on multiple regression analysis conducted in t1 the p values indicates that the internal wloc was significant in predicting psycap (p = 0.000) and external wloc was not significant (p value = 0.084 > 0.05). hence, based on the regression analysis internal wloc at t1 had significant predictive value for psycap. whereas, in the t2 multiple regression analysis, p values for both the internal and external wloc were not significant in predicting psycap (p = 0.301 & 0.05). hence, the regression analysis indicated that neither external nor internal wloc was a significant predictor of psycap. this result is in contrast to the results at t1 for the regression analysis, which indicated that internal wloc has predictive value for psycap. this outcome is significant and makes one consider the interesting implications for these significant changes over time as there was no interventions that could have resulted in the differences in the results. firstly, the results have been supported by empirical research, which has indicated that the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the wloc was greater than 0.70 (e.g. bosman et al., 2005; botha & pienaar, 2006; rothmann & van rensburg, 2002; spector, 1988). in addition, the researcher referred to the literature review on the relationships between wloc and psycap which has consistently shown a positive correlation, prediction and relationship between these variables. for example, the importance of well-being at work in relation to wloc was illustrated in a study by spector et al. (2002), who highlight that the effects of perceived control on well-being are universal, which is supported by the relationships between wloc and work well-being in 24 geopolitical entities. a wealth of literature supports this relationship between traits such as wloc and states such as psycap (e.g. avey et al., 2010; babalola, 2009; carifio & rhodes, 2002). in the south african context the study by maram and miller (1998) indicated that wloc predicts positive work behaviour in relation to wloc although the behaviour was related to leader member exchange and organisational commitment. in sum, research supports the notion that internality is associated with positive well-being and in this study internality was positively associated with psycap and externality was negatively associated with psycap. furthermore in reference to table 4 and table 5, with regard to the sample size in t2, besides the issue of dropouts, two other limiting problems possibly explain the lower sample size (n = 190) at t2. firstly, failure to locate exactly all the respondents who participated at t1: in the space of the 6 months between t1 and t2, some people moved and addresses, phone numbers and email addresses were no longer valid. secondly, failure to obtain maximum cooperation from the response unit at t2. maximum effort in careful planning and design approach was done to reduce non-response at t2. however, as survey fatigue amongst potential respondent increases, researchers (e.g. de leeuw, 2005; wolke et al., 2009) generally agree that absolute thresholds representing ‘adequate’ survey response rates become less than the numbers recruited initially. in this regard, de leeuw (2005) still emphasises that surveys may still accurately represent the attitudes of the target population even if response rates are less than at the initial wave, but cautions that careful cognisance must be taken before generalising the findings beyond the target population. to determine whether participant dropout was random or systematic, the previous (t1) sample was compared with the t2 sample in terms of age and gender, previously shown to be strong confounding variables predicting work-related outcomes. interestingly, the short-term random attrition, however, did not alter the association between gender and the two time points; also, although there were significant differences in age of the participants at the two time points, the magnitude of mean difference for age of the participants at the two time points as depicted by the eta-squared value was very small (0.02), enough to warrant simultaneous adjustment for age. the effect sizes have been identified being good indicators of bias in the parameter estimates (field, 2013). also the outcome of the pearson’s product moment correlations show that the differences in age slightly influenced the practical effect size of the relationship between optimism and external wloc from large to medium effect at t2, most likely because slightly more older people participated on the study at t1 (as reflected by the higher t2 mean age in table 5). however, it should be noted that the effect of the mean differences in age at the two time points was very small; it was significant enough to influence the predictive value of both external wloc and internal wloc towards psycap at t2 (see table 6). the current research results also drew on principles of fredrickson’ s (1998, 2001) broaden-and-build theory, which highlights that positive emotions broaden thought and action repertoire-building positive psychological resources. in the current study it is noted that internals are more likely drawing from a higher level of positive emotions or resources resulting in higher positive psychological resources as well as strengthening of their positive psychological resources, which results in displays of higher levels of positive psychological states as compared to employees with an external loc. table 6: multiple regression analysis of psycap, external and internal wloc for time 1 and time 2. this relationship identified in the current study was also supported by the social learning theory. according to rotter’ s (1954) social learning theory, behaviour potential is equivalent to expectancy of reward and reward value of the goal. the results of the current study are explained through the social learning theory as wloc reinforces the potential value of utilising learning in a manner that can be developed positively. hence, the research has highlighted that managers or leaders with a higher level of internality are more likely to utilise the principles of social learning displaying a higher level of psycap. overall, this research supports positive traits, positive states and positive work-related outcomes, leading to increased effectiveness in the workplace due to broadening and building of positive emotions and linking of expectancies and reinforcements to positive work outcomes. conclusion and implications for the purpose of this study wloc was conceptualised as containing two sub-constructs, namely internal and external wloc. internal loc was conceptualised as individuals who are inclined to be more action orientated, take responsibility for the behaviour, take personal control for their actions, as well as are motivated by internal reinforcements such as success at a task, achievement and so on. hence, these individuals were conceptualised as having greater success and their internal orientation as well as subsequent behaviour patterns are likely to result in greater amount of positive work-related outcomes. in contrast, in the current study external wloc was conceptualised as individuals displaying behaviour that was orientated towards their external environment; with these types of individuals the reinforcement value is external, such as attribute outcomes to luck, chance or others and hence they do not take personal control of the outcomes. for the purposes of the current research study psycap has been construed as comprising four positive psychological capacities: self-efficacy, hope, resilience and optimism. psycap also has been conceptualised as having a nature that is state-like and as such open to development. the developmental nature of psycap’s conceptualisation is relatively important as the combination of the four positive psychological resources can be developed and strengthened to ensure maximal work performance. in the conceptualisation of psycap the researcher was interested in viewing how the entire construct impacted on work behaviour and specifically conceptualised psycap with the notion of the ‘whole is greater than sum of its part’. research has indicated that psycap as a global construct has had a positive relationship on work outcomes. for example, luthans, avolio, avey and norman (2007) note that when: combined with each other, the cognitive and motivational processes are expected to be enhanced … theoretically considering and operationalising each construct as facets of overall psycap (i.e., a latent factor with four facets as indicators) allows for broader and potentially more impactful cognitive and motivational processes to be engaged in work performance. (p. 550) the empirical results of the study clearly indicated that at both t1 and t2 wloc was found to have a statistically and practically significant relationship with psycap. firstly, at both t1 and t2 external wloc was found to have a statistical and practical significant negative relationship with psycap with p less than 0.01 and a large effect. in relation to the internal wloc both t1 and t2 indicated that internal wloc had a statistical and practical significant positive relationship with psycap with p less than 0.01 and a large effect. this implied that as internal wloc increased middle managers were more likely to demonstrate a higher level of psycap due to their internal orientation whilst middle managers with an external orientation who tend to attribute situations to external factors are more likely to experience lower levels of psycap. however, it is noted that there were variations in terms of a decrease in the pearson correlation at t2. furthermore, the results demonstrated significant and interesting relationships based on the regression analysis of both t1 and t2. t1 indicated that internal wloc was a significant predictor of psycap (p value < 0.05; β = 0.462), whereas external was not a significant predictor of psycap (p value > 0.05; β = –0.205). however, these results were not reflected in t2 as the regression analysis noted that the p values were greater than 0.05, for both the internal (β = 0.209) and external (β = –0.397) wloc, which were not significant in predicting psycap. this would have interesting research implications as to the variance of empirical results due to time and further research should be instituted to investigate the variances in research findings based on time differences. however, based on the empirical results of the study it can be concluded that wloc was a predictor of psycap but not consistently over time. in relation to other empirical studies conducted, there has been significant support for the positive relationship between wloc and psycap (e.g. avey et al., 2010; babalola, 2009; carifio & rhodes, 2002). thus, further empirical research can specifically examine the predictive value of wloc on psycap to give clarity to certain variances found in the current empirical results. limitation of the study a limitation of the study is the sample distribution, as the sample was not equally representative of all race groups and there appears to be a dominance of the african race groups. this could imply that the results could have been biased towards the views of the dominant cultural group. stratified random sampling might have delivered a more balanced study population. another limitation is in terms of the research design; future studies that employ longitudinal research design could explore the population group over a period of a few years, rather than the short time gap of 6 months utilised in the current study. this would help to establish a more reliable cause and effect relationship. furthermore, the sample group was limited to the recruitment industry only, which questions the generalisability of the results to other industries. it is proposed that the current research be duplicated or extended to examining the proposed variables in different industries to provide comparability of the results on different categories of employment. further limitations pertain to the sample size at t2, in which there was dropouts partly attributed to the time period. it is noted that high response rate are desirable for precision and power (de leeuw, 2005). furthermore, it is noted that there was difference of age groups at the two time points, which can be further addressed through future research to ensure equal representation of age groups. suggestion for future research future research can expand the findings of the current research, which is necessary to determine further associations amongst wloc and positive psychological states. future research should be extended to other organisations to generalise the results. the results should also be replicated in different organisations and sectors of the south african industry. management should focus on the development and implementation of initiatives aimed at enhancing the components of positive organisational behaviour, as research evidence has shown that the enhancement of the positive resources may improve well-being (avey et al., 2010; avey, wernsing & mhatre, 2011). future research should also focus on other personality variables in relation to psycap, for example examining traits such as sense of coherence and neurotisim as predictors of psychological states, which can have varying and interesting implications for organisational processes. wloc is frequently cited as an important contribution to organisational effectiveness (e.g. spector, 1982). this study further supports this relationship. it would therefore be useful to determine if wloc can be trained in order to encourage psycap within a workplace. although loc is usually considered a trait and therefore relatively stable, clinical psychology has had a great deal of success with teaching coping skills. this type of intervention might encourage a pattern of internal attributions, leading to a more internal loc. overall, the researcher encourages future research to examine the role of traits and states within the organisational behavioural literature. contribution of the study the current study has contributions to offer not only to the field of psychology in general but also to practitioners in varies categories that apply human resource principles to further enhance work-related outcomes, thus reinforcing the notion of positivity in the workplace. furthermore, the outcomes of the study highlighted specific relevance of high levels of psycap and internal wloc to positive organisational outcomes, thus highlighting a key area of further research focus and possible interventions such as training, introduction of policies encouraging positive work behaviour and so on, which is likely to lead to increases in organisational success and effectiveness. in addition, the organisation can introduce several approaches designed towards promotion of personality traits and psychological states through reinforcing the value of positive work behaviour and creating the association or expectancy that positive work behaviour would be rewarded (social learning theory); thus, these principles can be linked to the organisations reward systems, change management strategy and training interventions. furthermore, the trait and state approach can be linked to a strength-based approach as the current empirical results indicated that individuals who demonstrated higher levels of the internal wloc and psycap are more inclined to demonstrate higher levels of positive work-related outcomes. based on this statement, organisations can utilise the trait and state approach in combination rather than opposition with each other to further ensure strategic alignment of organisational goals. for example, increasing the probability of job success through redefining the recruitment and selection process to be inclusive of assessing the traits and states of potential candidates to avoid job mismatch, reduce turnover and increase the probability of job success. in conclusion, personalities and positive psychological states are an integral part of organisational behaviour and continue to have strong implications for organisational growth and outcomes. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions z.s. (university of kwazulu-natal) was the doctoral student. j.h.b. (university of kwazulu-natal) was the supervisor for the research project. references top ↑ adas, a. (1999). educational psychology (1st edn.). amman, jordan: al fikr house. allen, b.p., & potkay, c.r. (1981). on the arbitrary distinction between states and traits. journal of personality and social psychology, 41, 916–928. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.41.5.916 appollis, v.p. (2010). the relationship between intention to quit, psychological capital and job satisfaction in the tourism industry in the western cape. retrieved march 03, 2012, from etd.uwc.ac.za/usrfiles/.../etd_gen8srv25nme4_2557_1304574416.pdf april, k.a., dharani, b., & peters, k. (2012). impact of locus of control expectancy on level of well-being. review of european studies, 4(2), 124–137. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/res.v4n2p124 avey, j.b., luthans, f., & mhatre, k.h. (2008). a call for longitudinal research in positive organisational behaviour. journal of organisational behaviour, 29, 705–711. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.517 avey, j.b., luthans, f., & youssef, c.m. (2008). the additive value of positive psychological capital in predicting work attitudes and behaviours. journal of management, 6, 1–42, retrieved april 24, 2013, from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/leadershipfacpub/6 avey, j.b., nimnicht, j.l., & pigeon, g. (2010). two field studies examining the association between positive psychological capital and employee performance. leadership and organisation development journal, 31(5), 381–401. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437731011056425 avey, j., wernsing, t.s., & mhatre, k.h. (2011). a longitudinal analysis of positive psychological constructs and emotions on stress, anxiety, and well-being. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 18(2), 216–228. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1548051810397368 babalola, s.s. (2009). women entrepreneurial innovative behaviour: the role of psychological capital. international journal of business management, 4(11), 184–192. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v4n11p184 bandura, a. (1997). self-efficacy: the exercise of control. new york, ny: freeman. beal, l. iii, stavros, j.m., & cole, m.l. (2013). effect of psychological capital and resistance to change on organisational citizenship behaviour. south african journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1136 bergh, z.c. (2009). fields of study and practice areas in industrial and organisational psychology. in z.c. bergh, & a.l. theron (eds.), psychology in the work context (pp. 16–29). cape town: oxford university press. bilgin, s.l. (2007). an investigation on the relationship between work locus of control and union commitment. retrieved june 14, 2012, from http://econpapers.repec.org/repec:and:journl:v:7:y:2007:i:1:p:39-52 bosman, j., buitendach, j.h., & rothman, s. (2005). work locus of control and dispositional optimism as antecedents to job insecurity. south african journal of industrial psychology, 31(4), 17–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v31i4.217 botha, p., & pienaar, j. (2006). south african correctional official occupational stress: the role of psychological strengths. journal of criminal justice, 34(1), 73–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2005.11.008 brand, t., gomes, j.f.s., & boyanova, d. (2011). personality and psychological capital as indicators of future job success? a multicultural comparison between three european countries. retrieved march 9, 2013, from http://lta.hse.fi/2011/3/lta_2011_03_s1.pdf carifio, j., & rhodes, l. (2002). construct validities and the empirical relationships between optimism, hope, self-efficacy, and locus of control. work, 19, 125–136. carrim, n. (2006). the relationship amongst locus of control, self-determination and job satisfaction in call centers. retrieved august 09, 2011, from upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-02132012-105055/.../dissertation.pdf carrim, n., basson, j., & coetzee, m. (2006). the relationship between job satisfaction and locus of control in the south african call centre environment. south african journal of labour relations, 2, 66–81. chaplin, w.e., john, o.p., & goldberg, l.r. (1988). conceptions of states and traits: dimensional attributes with ideals as prototypes. journal of personality and social psychology, 54(4), 541–557. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.4.541 chen, j.c., & silverthorne, c. (2008). the impact of locus of control on job stress, job performance and job satisfaction in taiwan. leadership & organisation development journal, 29(7), 572–582. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437730810906326 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. (2nd edn.). new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates. conley, j.j. (1984). the hierarchy of consistency: a review and model of longitudinal findings on adult individual differences in intelligence, personality, and self-opinion. personality and individual differences, 5, 11–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(84)90133-8 de leeuw, e.d. (2005). dropout in longitudinal studies: strategies to limit problem. in b.s. everitt, & d. howell (eds.), encyclopedia of statistics in behavioural science (pp. 515–518). chichester: wiley. du plessis, y., & barkhuizen, n. (2012). psychological capital, a requisite for organisational performance in south africa. south african journal of economic and management studies, 15(1), 16–30. field, a. (2013). discovering statistics using ibm spss statistics. london: sage. fredrickson, b.l. (1998). what good are positive emotions? review of general psychology, 2, 300–319. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.3.300 fredrickson, b.l. (2001). the role of positive emotions in positive psychology: the broaden and build theory of positive emotions. american psychologist, 56, 218–226. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.56.3.218 furnham, a., & steele, h. (1993). measuring of locus of control: a critique of general childrens health – and work related locus of control questionnaire. british journal of psychology, 84(4), 443–489. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.1993.tb02495.x goldsmith, a.h., veum, j.r., & darity, w. (1997). the impact of psychological and human capital on wages. economic inquiry, xxxv, 815–829. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7295.1997.tb01966.x harris, k.j., harris, r.b., & eplion, d.m. (2007). personality, leader-member exchanges, and work outcomes. retrieved may 12, 2012, from http://ibam.com/pubs/jbam/articles/vol8/no2/jbam_8_2_1.pdf herbert, m. (2011). an exploration of the relationship between psychological capital (hope, optimism, self-efficacy, resilience), occupational stress, burnout and employee engagement. retrieved 03 may, 2011, from http://scholar.sun.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10019.../herbert_exploration_2011.pdf hoff-macan, t., trusty, m.l., & trimble, s.k. (1996). spector’s work locus of control scale: dimensionality and validity evidence. educational and psychological measurement, 56, 349–357. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013164496056002016 kline, tj.b. (2005). psychological testing. california: sage publications. krampen, g. (1985). the relevance of locus of control for clinical psychology. zeitschrift fuer klinische psychologie, 14, 101–112. lazarus, r.s., & folkman, s. (1984). stress, appraisal and coping. new york, ny: springer publishing co. lefcourt, h.m. (1982). locus of control: current trends in theory and research. (2nd edn.). hillsade, nj: lawrence erlbaum and associates publishers. lefcourt, h.m. (1984). research with the locus of control construct. new york, ny: academic press. levenson, h. (1981). differentiating among internality, powerful others, and chance. in h.m. lefcourt (ed.), research with the locus of control construct (vol. 1, pp. 15–63). new york, ny: academic press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-443201-7.50006-3 lu, l., kao, s., cooper, c.j., & spector, p.e. (2000). managerial stress, locus of control, and job strain in taiwan and uk: a comparative study. international journal of stress management, 7(3), 209–226. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1009518315691 luthans, f., avey, j.b., avolio, bj., norman, s.m., & combs, g.j. (2006). psychological capital development: toward a micro-intervention. journal of organisational behaviour, 27, 387–393. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.373 luthans, f., avey, j.b., & patera, j.l. (2008). experimental analysis of a web-based training intervention to develop positive psychological capital. academy of management learning & education, 7(2), 209–221. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amle.2008.32712618 luthans, f., avolio, b.j., avey, j.b., & norman, s.m. (2007). positive psychological capital: measurement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. personnel psychology, 60, 541–572. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2007.00083.x luthans, f., avolio, b.j., walumbwa, f.o. & li, w. (2005). the psychological capital of chinese workers: exploring the relationship with performance. management and organisation review, 1(2), 249–271. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8784.2005.00011.x luthans, f., luthans, k.w., & luthans, b.c. (2004). positive psychological capital: going beyond human and social capital. business horizons, 47, 45–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2003.11.007 luthans, f., norman, s.m., avolio, b.j., & avey, j.b. (2008). the mediating role of psychological capital in the supportive organisational climate employee performance relationship. journal of organisational behaviour, 29, 219–238. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.507 luthans, f., & youssef, c.m. (2004). human, social, and now positive psychological capital management: investing in people for competitive advantage. organisational dynamics, 33(2), 143–160. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2004.01.003 luthans, f., youssef, c.m., & avolio, b.j. (2007). psychological capital: developing the human competitive edge. oxford: oxford university press. maram, a., & miller, k. (1998). an empirical assessment of the construct work locus of control. journal of industrial psychology, 24(3), 48–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v24i3.661 masten, a.s., & reed, m.g.j. (2002). resilience in development. in c.r. snyder, & s. lopez (eds.), handbook of positive psychology (pp. 74–88). oxford: oxford university press. mccall, r.b. (1994). fundamental statistics for behavioural sciences. (6th edn.). forth worth, tx: harcourt brace college publishers. neuman, w.l. (1997). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches (3rd edn.). usa: allyn and bacon. nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, j. (1994). psychometric theory. new york, ny: mcgraw hill. o’brein, k.e. (2004). self-determination theory and locus of control as antecedents of voluntary workplace behaviours. retrieved september 12, 2013, from http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/1182 pallant, j. (2013). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using ibm spss (5th edn.). new york, ny: open university press. phares, e.j. (1976). locus of control in personality. new york, ny: general learning press. republic of south africa. (1995). labour legislations act, no. 66 of 1995. pretoria: government printers. republic of south africa. (1998). employment equity act, no. 55 of 1998. pretoria: government printer. rothmann, s., & van rensburg, p. (2002). psychological strengths, coping and suicide ideation in the south african police services in the north west province. south african journal of industrial psychology, 28(3), 39–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v28i3.64 rotter, j.b. (1954). social learning and clinical psychology. engelwood cliffs, ny: prentice hall. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/10788-000 rotter, j.b. (1966). generalised expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. psychological monographs: general and applied psychology, 80(1), 1–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0092976 salazar, j., hubbard, s., & salazar, l. (2002). the influence of locus of control on hotel managers job satisfaction. the journal of human resources in hospitality and tourism, 1(2), 15–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/j171v01n02_02 schreuder, d., & coetzee, m. (2010). an overview of industrial and organisational psychology research in south africa: a preliminary study. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 1–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.903 seligman, m.e.p. (1998). learned optimism. new york, ny: pocket. sheldon, k., kashdan, t.b., & steger, m.f. (2011). designing positive psychology: taking stock and moving forward. oxford: university press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195373585.001.0001 snyder, c.r., & lopez, s. (2002). handbook of positive psychology. oxford: oxford university press. spector, p.e. (1982). behaviour in organisations as a function of employee’s locus of control. psychological bulletin, 91(3), 482–487. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.91.3.482 spector, p.e. (1988). development of the work locus of control scale. journal of occupational psychology, 61, 219–230. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1988.tb00470.x spector, p.e., cooper, c.l., sanchez, j.i., o’driscoll, m., sparks, k., bernin, p. et al. (2002). work locus of control in relation to well-being at work: how generalizable are western work findings? academy of management journal, 45(2), 453–466. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3069359 spector, p.e., sanchez, j.i., siu, o.i., salgado, j., & ma, j. (2004). eastern versus western control beliefs at work: an investigation of secondary control, socio-instrumental control, and work locus of control in china and the us. applied psychology: an international review, 53(1), 38–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2004.00160.x statistical package for social sciences version 21 [computer software]. (2012). armonk, ny: ibm spss inc. thomas, w.h.n., sorensen, k.l., & eby, l.t. (2006). locus of control at work: a meta-analysis. journal of organisational behaviour, 27, 1057–1087. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.416 tugade, m.m., fredrickson, b., & barrett, l.f. (2004). emotional granularity: examining the benefits of positive emotions on coping and health. journal of personality, 72(6), 1161–1190. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2004.00294.x van der sluis, j., van praag, c.m., & van witteloostuijn, a. (2004), the returns to education: a comparative study between entrepreneurs and employees, retrieved november 29, 2013, from http://ftp.iza.org/dp4628.pdf viviers, r., & coetzee, s. (2007). south african universities, research and positive psychology. south african journal for higher education, 2, 764–780. wang, q., bowling, n.a., & eshleman, k.j. (2010). a meta-analytic examination of work and general locus of control. journal of applied psychology, 95(4), 761–768. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0017707 weiner, b. (1992). human motivation: metaphors, theories and research. newbury park, ca: sage publications. wolke, d., waylen, a., samara, m., steer, c., goodman, r., ford, t. et al. (2009). selective drop-out in longitudinal studies and non-biased prediction of behaviour disorders. the british journal of psychiatry, 195, 249–256. http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.108.053751 youssef, c.m., & luthans, f. (2007) positive organisational behaviour in the workplace: the impact of hope, optimism, and resilience. journal of management, 33(5), 774–800. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206307305562 youssef, c.m., & luthans, f. (2009). an integrated model of psychological capital in the workplace. in a. linley, s. harrington, & n. garcea, oxford handbook of positive psychology. new york, ny: oxford university press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195335446.013.0022 article information authors: melinde coetzee1 dries schreuder1 rebecca tladinyane1 affiliation: 1department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: melinde coetzee postal address: po box 392, pretoria 0003, south africa dates: received: 17 july 2013 accepted: 25 feb. 2014 published: 14 aug. 2014 how to cite this article: coetzee, m., schreuder, d., & tladinyane, r. (2014). employees’ work engagement and job commitment: the moderating role of career anchors. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12(1) art. #572, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.572 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. employees’ work engagement and job commitment: the moderating role of career anchors in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus    • background to the study    • literature review       • work engagement       • job commitment       • career anchors       • research objective       • potential value-add       • what will follow • research design    • research approach    • research method       • participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • correlations    • career anchors as moderators of the relationship between work engagement and job commitment: interaction effects • discussion    • moderating effect of the talents and abilities-based career anchors    • moderating effect of the motives and needs-based career anchors    • moderating effect of the attitudes and values-based career anchors    • implications for practice    • limitations and recommendations for future research • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: organisations continue to focus on human resource initiatives for enhancing employee commitment, satisfaction and engagement in order to gain a competitive edge in a dynamic and fast-changing marketplace.research purpose: the objective of the present study was to assess whether individuals’ career anchors (measured by the career orientations inventory) significantly moderate the relationship between their work engagement (measured by the utrecht work engagement scale) and job commitment (measured by the organisation-related commitment scale). motivation for the study: although the literature review suggests that people’s work engagement and job commitment may be influenced by their career anchors, there seems to be a paucity of research examining the interaction effects between these three variables. research approach, design and method: a cross-sectional quantitative survey approach was used. a non-probability purposive sample of adults (n = 318) employed in a human resource capacity in the south african service industry participated in the study. stepwise hierarchical moderated regression analysis was performed to achieve the objective of the study. main findings: the results showed that the work engagement-job commitment relationship was generally stronger for high career anchor preferences than for low career anchor preferences. practical/managerial implications: the results of the study can be useful when human resource interventions for enhancing employees’ engagement and commitment are developed. contribution: the results of the study add new insights to the career literature by showing that people’s career self-concepts (as reflected by their career anchors) are important to consider in enhancing their work engagement and job commitment. introduction top ↑ key focus researchers continue to emphasise the importance of studying employees’ engagement and commitment because of the impact thereof on the successful performance of an organisation (chovwen 2012; field & buitendach 2011; lumley 2009; nurittamont 2012; mendes & stander 2011). committed and engaged employees are regarded as valued assets in organisations (bothma & roodt 2012; ncube & jerie 2012; nurittamont 2012). organisations therefore continue to focus on human resource initiatives that enhance the commitment, satisfaction and engagement of their employees (ncube & jerie 2012; soulsby 2012; takash 2012; vuori, toppinen-tanner & mutanen 2012). background to the study a central challenge in enhancing employees’ engagement and commitment is to create work conditions that facilitate perceptions of fit or congruence between individuals’ career self-concepts, values, needs and desires and the characteristics of their jobs (lumley 2009; tan & quek 2001), and the organisation’s cultural values, practices and objectives (lumley 2009; martins & coetzee 2007, 2011). people’s inner work lives, their self-identities, inner career goals, motivations and desires, and the characteristics of their jobs have been shown to influence their attitudes toward their jobs and the organisation (amabile & kramer 2012; bothma & roodt 2012; hirschi 2012; lumley 2009; yuan et al. 2012) because they appear to act as a motivating force that generate feelings of engagement and commitment (coetzee & de villiers 2010; döckel 2003; meyer, stanley & parfyonova 2012; oyewobi, suleiman & jamil 2012; roodt 1997). people’s self-concepts have been related to their continuing commitment (johnson, chang & yang 2010; vandenberghe & panaccio 2012) and work engagement (bothma & roodt 2012). self-concepts are based on self-definitions, which flow from one’s sense of uniqueness and how one compares to others, and reflect a focus on one’s own interests. once the self-concept has been formed, it functions as a stabilising force, an anchor, and can therefore be thought of as the values and motives that the person will not give up if forced to make a choice (schein 1996). individual self-concepts instil the willingness to preserve valued outcomes (i.e. autonomy, rewards, recognition and growth or development) in the employment relationship and minimise resource losses (i.e. personal characteristics such as talents, abilities, values and motives and conditions and energies that are valued in their own right) (vandenberghe & panaccio 2012; schein 1996). feeling that one has retained valued personal resources in the person-environment interaction results in the feeling that one is in a position to devote enough energy to a line of action; in other words one has higher levels of motivation, engagement and commitment (ferreira 2012; powell & meyer 2004; tladinyane 2012; vandenberghe & panaccio 2012). engagement (i.e. high levels of energy, dedication and absorption in one’s work) and commitment (i.e. high levels of job attachment and motivation) may help to strengthen the career identity through concrete job-related experiences and feedback that are congruent with the individual’s interests and integrated with their abilities and values (weber & ladkin 2009). research also provides evidence of a positive relationship between the characteristics of people’s jobs (i.e. challenging tasks, skills variety, high levels of job responsibility, task autonomy, task feedback and task identity) and their work engagement and commitment to their jobs (crawford, lepine & rich 2010; döckel 2003; vandenberghe & panaccio 2012; van dyk 2011). in this study we seek to understand the fit between individuals’ work engagement, their career self-concepts (as expressed by their career anchors) and their job commitment. the career anchor is the important motivational element of people’s internal careers and is a reflection of the individual’s career self-concept, which consists of personal resources such as self-perceived talents and abilities, basic values and the evolved sense of motives and needs as they pertain to the career (schein 1996, 2006). an incongruence between an individual’s career anchor and the work environment leads to dissatisfaction (tan & quek 2001). congruence includes satisfaction with the work or job characteristics, pay and benefits, promotion system and advancement opportunities (schein 2006). tying people’s career self-concepts (career anchors) to their jobs may help to understand the motivational underpinnings of their work engagement and job commitment (bothma & roodt 2012; coetzee & de villiers 2010; hirschi 2012; lumley 2009; vandenberghe & panaccio 2012). literature review work engagement work engagement is an active and positive work-related state that is characterised by feelings of vigour (energy), dedication and absorption in one’s work (schaufeli, bakker & salanova 2006) and an increase in job resources over time (schaufeli, bakker & van rhenen 2009). high mental resilience and high levels of energy in the workplace, clear and conscientious efforts to devote oneself to work and persistence when facing difficulties demonstrate vigour. vigour helps individuals to be more sensitive to opportunities at work and fosters a more proactive work style (brummelhuis & bakker 2012). dedication is indicated by enthusiasm, inspiration and pride; absorption entails full concentration and being highly and happily engrossed in one’s work (bakker 2011; kassing et al. 2012). work engagement benefits the organisation by stimulating task and contextual performance (halbesleben, harvwey & bolino 2009). disengagement from work may result in employee turnover, absenteeism and poor performance (caldwell, chatman & o’reilly 1990; coetzer & rothmann 2007), whilst work engagement may result in job performance and satisfaction, organisational commitment and lower turnover intention (bothma & roodt 2012; field & buitendach 2011; mendes & stander 2011; newman, joseph & hulin 2010; salanova, agut & peiro 2005; schaufeli & bakker 2004). a survey by brotherton (2012) showed employees’ engagement to be influenced by their career-related needs and desires, the working environment and the type of work they are performing. bothma and roodt (2012) found individuals’ work-based identity to be significantly related to their work engagement. according to these authors, people’s job involvement and commitment are a consequence of their work-based identities and engagement. job commitment the present study focuses on work-related commitment and more specifically individuals’ commitment to their jobs. roodt (1997) views job commitment as the individual’s level of involvement in their job, the importance the individual attaches to the job and the willingness of the individual to dedicate the necessary time and energy to the job. tladinyane (2012) found a significant positive relationship between individuals’ work engagement and their job commitment. high levels of job commitment are associated with positive feelings about one’s job and the nature of the job tasks (tladinyane 2012). theories of person-environment fit posit that people’s career choices are based on the general notion that they perform better and are more satisfied in occupational environments that match their interests or other personal variables (durr & tracey 2009). it appears from the research literature that career self-efficacy beliefs help to stabilise the career self-concept and involvement in the job (schreuder & coetzee 2011). research provides evidence that greater similarity between individuals’ interests and the work type leads to increased similarities between competence beliefs and work type (durr & tracey 2009). levi (2006) and lumley (2009) found individuals’ career anchors to be significantly associated with their satisfaction with the characteristics of their jobs. career anchors are typically associated with different preferences regarding the nature of a job (schein 1996), which in turn may influence people’s level of job involvement (coetzee & de villiers 2010). schein (1996) made the assumption that individuals with a greater fit between their career anchors and work environment (including the person-job fit) will have greater work effectiveness, job satisfaction and job stability. career anchors in the context of the present study, we focus on career anchors as a reflection of a person’s career self-concept, which acts as an important motivational element of people’s internal career and their career choices and attitudes (i.e. job commitment) (schein 1996, 2006). the career self-concept develops as people progress through their careers and is a product of the interaction between the individual and the workplace (wils, wils & tremblay 2010). the career anchor reflects people’s long-term preferences regarding their work and work environment and how they would like to express or utilise personal resources around three poles: (1) self-perceived work talents and abilities, (2) self-perceived motives and needs and (3) basic values and attitudes as they pertain to the career (schein 1996, 2006). although schein (1996) maintains that over time a single career anchor emerges that stabilises, guides and constrains an individual’s career path, research provides evidence that individuals can develop more than one strong career anchor (coetzee & schreuder 2008; feldman & bolino 1996; ramakrishna & potosky 2003; schein 1996; wils et al. 2010). feldman and bolino (1996) clustered the eight career anchors defined by schein (1978) into three groups of anchors: talents and abilities, motives and needs and attitudes and values. table 1 summarises the core motives and values underpinning each of the eight career anchors. feldman and bolino (1996) posit that an individual can have a dominant career anchor in each of these three categories. according to feldman and bolino, the technical competence, managerial competence and entrepreneurial creativity anchors pertain to the work talents of individuals as they centre on the work that individuals perform each day. the security or stability, autonomy or independence and lifestyle anchors represent motives and needs and refer to the way individuals attempt to structure their work according to their basic personal desires and lives. the service or dedication to a cause anchor and the pure challenge anchors represent attitudes and values and are related to ways individuals identify with their occupations and their organisational cultures (wils et al. 2010). the notion of a multiple career profile emphasises the importance of considering the diverse and unique career development needs of people in interventions focusing on enhancing employees’ engagement and commitment (schreuder & coetzee 2011). table 1: core workplace desires and values underlying people's career anchors. research has revealed a relationship between people’s career anchors and their jobs and occupations. congruence between the career self-concept (as reflected by the dominant career anchor) and the job or occupation is a key attribute of schein’s model (cerdin & pargneux 2010). the self-perceived fit between individuals’ career anchors and their jobs and occupations significantly influences their subjective experiences of their work (i.e. job and career satisfaction, life satisfaction and perceptions of work as a valuable activity) (coetzee, bergh & schreuder 2010; ellison & schreuder 2001). research by steele and francis-smythe (2010) showed that career anchors can be matched to job roles and that an optimal fit between individuals’ career anchors and the nature of their job roles increases their job satisfaction and organisational commitment. coetzee, schreuder and tladinyane (2007) also found significant associations between people’s career anchors and their organisational commitment. sortheix et al. (2013) found a positive association between people’s career values and their work engagement. boshoff, bennett and kellerman (1994) also found career anchors to be a significant predictor of people’s job involvement. in the present study, the researchers were interested in examining the moderating effect of career anchors on the relationship between individuals’ work engagement and job commitment. a moderator is characterised as an innate attribute or a relatively stable trait, personality type or disposition (such as people’s career anchor preferences) that acts as an auxiliary variable to refine a hypothesised bivariate causal relationship between an independent and dependent variable (wu & zumbo 2008). moderators explain the strength and direction of the causal effect of the focal independent variable (i.e. work engagement) on the dependent variable (i.e. job commitment) (wu & zumbo 2008). based on the literature review, we proposed the following research hypothesis: h1: career anchors will moderate the relation between work engagement and job commitment such that work engagement will be more strongly related to job commitment for individuals with a high preference for a particular career anchor. in sum, it was expected that there would be two-way interactions between individuals’ career anchors and their work engagement, and that these interactions will significantly influence or predict their level of job commitment because of the self-perceived talents and abilities, motives and needs and attitudes and values underpinning their career anchors. research objective although the literature review suggests that people’s work engagement and job commitment may be influenced by their career anchors, there seems to be a paucity of research examining the interaction effects between these three variables. the objective of the present study was therefore to assess whether individuals’ career anchors significantly moderate the relationship between their work engagement and job commitment. potential value-add understanding the interaction between individuals’ work engagement, career anchors and their job commitment can be useful when human resource interventions for enhancing employees’ engagement and job commitment are developed. such interventions may help to optimise the congruence between employees’ career anchors and their jobs, which may in turn increase their levels of engagement and job commitment and potentially lead to optimal individual and organisational performance (tan & quek 2001). what will follow the next section outlines the research design. the results are then reported and discussed. research design top ↑ research approach a cross-sectional quantitative survey design was used to achieve the research objective. research method participants a non-probability purposive sample of adults (n = 318) employed in a human resource capacity in the south african service industry participated in the study. overall, the majority of the participants were black people (76%). they were also predominantly female (76%) and in the early adulthood life stage and establishment phase of their careers (84% = 26–40 years). the participants occupied staff level (57%) and managerial level (43%) positions in the south african services industry. measuring instruments the career orientations inventory (coi) (schein 2006) was used to measure the career anchors of the participants. the coi is an established instrument that has been used to measure career anchors both internationally and in south africa. the coi is a self-report measure that contains 40 items. responses are captured on a six-point likert scale. the coi has evidenced good psychometric validity and reliability in other south african multi-cultural samples (coetzee & de villiers 2010; coetzee & schreuder 2008, 2009; coetzee, schreuder & tladinyane 2007; ellison & schreuder 2000). acceptable cronbach’s alpha coefficients were obtained for the present study: technical or functional (0.60), general management (0.74), autonomy (0.75), security or stability (0.83), entrepreneurial creativity (0.84), service or dedication to a cause (0.81), pure challenge (0.80) and life style (0.73). because of the relatively low internal consistency reliability of the technical or functional subscale, this career anchor was omitted from the statistical analysis.the participants’ work engagement was measured by means of the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) (schaufeli & bakker 2003). the uwes is a self-report questionnaire that includes 21 items. it is divided into three subscales (vigour, dedication and absorption). a six-point likert-type scale was used for subject responses to each of the 21 items. coetzer and rothmann (2007) confirmed the internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the uwes for the south african context. high cronbach’s alpha coefficients were obtained for the present study: vigour (0.89), dedication (0.92) and absorption (0.90). the participants’ job commitment was measured by means of the job commitment foci subscale of the organisation-related commitment scale (ocs) developed by roodt (1997). the job commitment foci subscale of the ocs is a self-report scale that includes six items, measuring responses on a five-point likert-type scale. acceptable construct validity and internal consistency reliabilities for the ocs and its subscales of over 0.90 were reported by roodt (1997), storm and roodt (2002) and pretorius and roodt (2004). a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.67 was obtained for the present study. because the internal consistency reliability of the scale was close to 0.70, it was regarded as acceptable to warrant further statistical analysis. nunnaly and bernstein (1994) use a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.70 as a directive, whilst resi and judd (2000) argue that between 0.80 and 0.60 is acceptable for research purposes. research procedure data were collected by mailing questionnaires to a purposive sample of employed adults enrolled for honours-level distance learning studies in the field of industrial and organisational psychology in a particular year of study (n = 628). an analysis of the biographical data showed that they were all employed in a human resource capacity in the south african service industry. the postal facilities of the higher education institution were used. additional participants were requested to complete the questionnaires during the annual discussion classes. the researchers made sure that no participant completed a questionnaire twice by checking that the student numbers on the questionnaires returned by mail were not duplicated in the questionnaires completed during the discussion classes. permission for the research was obtained from the institution’s research ethics committee. the purpose of the study was communicated to all participants in the questionnaire booklet. participation was voluntary and the respondents gave their permission for the results to be used for research purposes only. the anonymity and confidentiality of all the participants was ensured. a sample of 318 usable questionnaires was returned, yielding a response rate of 51%. statistical analysis descriptive, correlation and inferential statistics (stepwise hierarchical moderated regression analysis) were used to analyse the data. the statistical analysis was carried out with the help of the statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 20 for windows software (spss 2010). with exception of the technical or functional career anchor (too low internal consistency reliability), we were interested in assessing the moderating effect of the other seven career anchors because each career anchor represents a unique set of career motives, values, needs and interests (schein 2006). following the guidelines of aiken and west (1991), predictor variables were mean-centered before computing the interaction terms. regression models were computed on each of the seven career anchors in terms of their moderating effect on the relationship between the uwes variables (independent variables) and the ocs job commitment subscale (dependent variable). in order to counter the probability of a type 1 error, the significance value was set at the 95% confidence interval level (p ≤ 0.05). for the purposes of this study, cohen’s (1992) f² effect sizes were calculated for establishing the practical significance of the δr² values. results top ↑ the descriptive statistics and correlations amongst the coi, uwes and ocs job commitment variables are displayed in table 2. because of the relatively low internal consistency reliability of the technical or functional subscale, this career anchor was omitted from the statistical analysis. table 2: descriptive statistics and correlations. correlations the results show that the work engagement variables were significantly and positively related to job commitment (r ≥ 0.30 ≤ 0.34; medium practical effect; p ≤ .001). with the exception of the lifestyle and autonomy career anchors, all the other career anchors related positively and significantly to job commitment (r ≥ 0.17 ≤ 0.24; small practical effect; p ≤ .001).the general management (r = 0.14; small practical effect; p ≤ 0.05), service or dedication to a cause (r = 0.17; small practical effect; p ≤ 0.01) and pure challenge (r = 0.20; small practical effect; p ≤ 0.001) career anchors related significantly and positively to vigour. the general management (r = 0.13; small practical effect; p ≤ 0.05) career anchor related significantly and positively to dedication. the general management (r = 0.17; small practical effect; p ≤ 0.01), service or dedication to a cause (r = 0.17; small practical effect; p ≤ 0.01) and pure challenge (r = 0.17; small practical effect; p ≤ 0.01) career anchors related significantly and positively to absorption. these results show that the zero-order correlations were well below the threshold level of concern (r ≥ 0.80) about multicollinearity (field 2009) and warranted further analysis in the form of stepwise hierarchical moderated regression analyses. career anchors as moderators of the relationship between work engagement and job commitment: interaction effects table 3 reports only the significant interaction effects between the variables. in terms of the talents and abilities-based career anchors, table 3 shows that the interactions between the general management career anchor and vigour (β = 0.14; p ≤ 0.01), dedication (β = 0.15; p ≤ 0.01) and absorption (β = 0.14; p ≤ 0.01) were significant. the r² change was significant (r² = 0.02; f² ≥ 0.02 ≤ 0.04; small practical effect; p ≤ 0.01) in each of the regression models. these results provide evidence that the relationship between the participants’ work engagement (vigour, dedication and absorption) and job commitment increased positively and significantly for participants with a high preference for the general management career anchor. however, the moderating effect of this career anchor was small in practical terms. table 3 further shows that the interactions between the entrepreneurial creativity career anchor and dedication (β = 0.11; p ≤ 0.05) and absorption (β = 0.13; p ≤ 0.01) were significant. vigour had no significant interaction effect with the entrepreneurial creativity career anchor. the r² change was significant (r² = 0.01–0.02; f² ≥ 0.01 ≤ 0.02; small practical effect; p ≤ 0.05) in each of the regression models. these results provide evidence that the relationship between the participants’ work engagement (dedication and absorption) and job commitment increased positively and significantly for participants with a high preference for the entrepreneurial creativity career anchor. however, the moderating effect of this career anchor was small in practical terms. table 3: moderated regression analysis examining the interaction effects between the general management and entrepreneurial creativity career anchors and vigour, dedication and absorption (work engagement) on job commitment. as previously stated, because of the relatively low internal consistency reliability of the technical or functional subscale, this career anchor was omitted from the statistical analysis. table 4 reports only the significant interaction effects between the variables. in terms of the motivation and needs-based career anchors, table 4 shows that the interactions between the autonomy or independence career anchor and vigour (β = 0.12; p ≤ 0.05), dedication (β = 0.11; p ≤ 0.01) and absorption (β = 0.14; p ≤ 0.01) were significant. the r² change was significant (r² = 0.01–0.02; f² ≥ 0.01 ≤ 0.02; small practical effect; p ≤ 0.05) in each of the regression models. these results provide evidence that the relationship between the participants’ work engagement (vigour, dedication and absorption) and job commitment increased positively and significantly for participants with a high preference for the autonomy or independence career anchor. however, the moderating effect of this career anchor was small in practical terms. table 4 further shows that the interactions between the lifestyle career anchor and vigour (β = 0.14; p ≤ 0.01), dedication (β = 0.18; p ≤ 0.001) and absorption (β = 0.14; p ≤ 0.01) were significant. the r² change was significant (r² = 0.02–0.03; f² ≥ 0.02 ≤ 0.04; small practical effect; p ≤ 0.01) in each of the regression models. these results provide evidence that the relationship between the participants’ work engagement (vigour, dedication and absorption) and job commitment increased positively and significantly for participants with a high preference for the lifestyle career anchor. however, the moderating effect of this career anchor was small in practical terms. the security or stability career anchor had no significant moderating effect on the relationship between work engagement and job commitment. table 4: moderated regression analysis examining the interaction effects between the autonomy and lifestyle career anchors and vigour, dedication and absorption (work engagement) on job commitment. in terms of the attitudes and values-based career anchors, table 5 shows that the interactions between the pure challenge career anchor and vigour (β = 0.19; p ≤ 0.001), dedication (β = 0.18; p ≤ 0.001) and absorption (β = 0.16; p ≤ 0.01) were significant. the r² change was significant (r² = 0.03–0.04; f² ≥ 0.04 ≤ 0.05; moderate practical effect; p ≤ 0.001) in each of the regression models. these results provide evidence that the relationship between the participants’ work engagement (vigour, dedication and absorption) and job commitment increased positively and significantly for participants with a high preference for the pure challenge career anchor. the moderating effect of this career anchor was moderate in practical terms. table 5 further shows that the interactions between the service or dedication to a cause career anchor and vigour (β = 0.23; p ≤ 0.001), dedication (β = 0.21; p ≤ 0.001) and absorption (β = 0.21; p ≤ 0.001) were significant. the r² change was significant (r² = 0.04–0.05; f² = 0.06; moderate practical effect; p ≤ 0.001) in each of the regression models. these results provide evidence that the relationship between the participants’ work engagement (vigour, dedication and absorption) and job commitment increased positively and significantly for participants with a high preference for the service or dedication to a cause career anchor. the moderating effect of this career anchor was moderate in practical terms. table 5: moderated regression analysis examining the interaction effects between the pure challenge and service/dedication to a cause career anchors and vigour, dedication and absorption (work engagement) on job commitment. to examine the nature of the significant interactions for the relationship between the work engagement variables and job commitment, we conducted a series of simple slope tests for each of the regression models. we used rescaled mean-centered values for the career anchor variables as outlined by aiken and west (1991). the zero values for the coi variables were set at one standard deviation above and below the mean for participants with high and low career anchor mean scores respectively. the most significant finding of the slope test analysis was that each of the career anchors consistently moderated the relationship between the work engagement variables and job commitment. specifically, we found that the work engagement–job commitment relationship was generally stronger for participants with a high career anchor preference than for those with a low career anchor preference. figure 1, figure 2 and figure 3 illustrate the moderating effect of the service or dedication to a cause career anchor in the relationship between the three work engagement variables and job commitment. a similar pattern was observed in terms of the other career anchors. figure 1: service/dedication to a cause (sv) as a moderator of the relationship between vigour (work engagement) and job commitment. figure 2: service/dedication to a cause (sv) as a moderator of the relationship between dedication (work engagement) and job commitment. figure 3: service/dedication to a cause (sv) as a moderator of the relationship between absorption (work engagement) and job commitment. the results provided supportive evidence for our research hypothesis: h1: career anchors will moderate the relation between work engagement and job commitment such that work engagement will be more strongly related to job commitment for individuals with a high preference for a particular career anchor. discussion top ↑ the objective of the present study was to assess whether individuals’ career anchors significantly moderate the relationship between their work engagement and job commitment. the results of the study add new insights to the career literature by showing that employees’ career self-concepts (as reflected by their career anchors) are important to consider in enhancing their work engagement and job commitment. moderating effect of the talents and abilities-based career anchors the talents and abilities-based career anchors (general managerial competence, entrepreneurial creativity) centre on the work that individuals perform day to day (wils et al. 2010). the results showed that the general managerial competence-anchored participants’ desire for power and achievement in top positions, and challenging, varied, integrative work with high levels of responsibility and leadership opportunities (schein 2006), significantly and positively influenced (moderated) the relationship between their work engagement and job commitment. the manager-anchored individuals tend to have a strong desire for solving complex problems and bringing people together to achieve common goals that contribute to the organisation’s success (cerdin & pargneux 2010). this driving desire could explain the strong and positive relationship between their high levels of engagement and commitment to their jobs. entrepreneurial creativity-anchored individuals tend to be motivated by the power and freedom to engage in challenging opportunities to create their own enterprises or invent new services or products (schein 2006). the drive to create could explain the positive moderating effect of the entrepreneurial creativity anchor on the relationship between the participants’ work engagement and job commitment. the stronger the need for entrepreneurial creativity, the more positive the relationship between the individual’s work engagement (dedication and absorption) and job commitment appears to be. similar to the findings of coetzee and de villiers (2010), the results showed no significant correlations between the entrepreneurial creativity career anchor and the participants’ work engagement. this could be attributed to the notion that the entrepreneurial-anchored individual tends to enjoy the initiation phase of a task, gets easily bored and likes to move from project to project in search of new opportunities to create something new (suutari & taka 2004). the significant positive moderating effect of the entrepreneurial creativity anchor on the relationship between the participants’ work engagement and their job commitment confirms schein’s (2006) assertion that entrepreneurial-anchored individuals regard their jobs as important aspects of their lives in that the job provides opportunities to create something new. they may be willing to devote the time and energy needed to achieve their goals of initiating new enterprises. the results of our study suggest that the need to commit to one’s entrepreneurial goals in turn enhance one’s involvement and engagement in the job-related tasks associated with the creative opportunities provided by the job. moderating effect of the motives and needs-based career anchors the motives and needs-based career anchors (security or stability, autonomy or independence and lifestyle) refer to the way individuals attempt to structure their work according to their basic personal desires, needs and lives (wils et al. 2010). it appears from the results that the security or stability career anchor’s need for employment and financial security (schein 2006; tan & quek 2001) does not significantly influence (moderate) the relationship between their work engagement and job commitment. the results of the present study found a positive correlation between the security or stability career anchor and the participants’ job commitment. the job commitment of the security or stability-anchored participants could be attributed to being motivated by long-term attachment to the job and organisation (schein 2006). contrary to research findings reported by coetzee and de villiers (2010), which showed that security or stability-anchored employees had low levels of vigour and that the lack of security significantly and negatively influences their vigour, the results of the present study showed no associations between the participants’ security or stability needs and their work engagement. the findings seem to corroborate schein’s (2006) assertion that security or stability-anchored individuals are generally more concerned about the context of the work (such as improved pay, working conditions and benefits) than the content or nature of their jobs. on the other hand, lumley (2009) found a positive association between the security or stability career anchor and employees’ satisfaction with the nature of their work.the results show that the autonomy or independence-anchored and lifestyle-anchored participants’ career self-concepts positively moderated the relationship between their work engagement (vigour, dedication and absorption) and their job commitment. the job commitment of the autonomy or independence-anchored and lifestyle-anchored participants increased positively as their work engagement (vigour, dedication and absorption) increased. autonomy/independence-anchored individuals are primarily motivated to seek work situations that are maximally free of organisational constraints. they want to see their own schedule and own pace of work (suutari & taka 2004). although the results showed no significant direct association between the autonomy or independence career anchor and the participants’ work engagement and job commitment, the results indicated that the need for freedom to demonstrate one’s own competence positively influenced (moderated) the relationship between the participants’ work engagement and job commitment. the autonomy or independence-anchored participants’ job commitment increased positively as their work engagement (vigour, dedication and absorption) increased. coetzee et al. (2010) found that autonomy or independence-anchored employees tend to regard work as a valuable activity by means of which they can demonstrate their competence. coetzee and de villiers (2010) found that a lack of job autonomy significantly lowers employees’ level of vigour, dedication and absorption. the results of the current study seem to suggest that being committed to demonstrating one’s competence independently from others in turn enhances one’s level of involvement and engagement in the job. lifestyle-anchored employees are motivated by a working environment that enables them to balance their family, career and self-development concerns. their career self-concept is more tied up with how they live their total lives than with the job itself (tan & quek 2001). the need to balance and integrate one’s work and personal life could explain the lack of significant direct associations between the lifestyle career anchor and the participants’ work engagement and job commitment. however, the results show that the lifestyle concern significantly moderated the relationship between the participants’ work engagement and job commitment. the results seem to suggest that being highly motivated by the need to balance one’s personal and family’s welfare with work commitments may increase one’s work engagement and job commitment levels. research by sukal and lopez (2007) found that career anchors did not significantly affect the relationship between employees’ job satisfaction and their perceptions of work-life conflict. however, this study found that a strong congruence between the lifestyle-anchored employees’ need for a work environment that has strong pro-family values and programmes and having the freedom and flexibility to balance one’s work-family life (suutari & taka 2004) results in higher job satisfaction (sukal & lopez 2007). moderating effect of the attitudes and values-based career anchors the attitudes and values-based career anchors (service or dedication to a cause anchor and pure challenge) are related to ways individuals identify with their occupations and their organisational cultures (wils et al. 2010). the results show that the service or dedication-anchored and pure challenge-anchored participants’ career self-concepts positively moderated the relationship between their work engagement (vigour, dedication and absorption) and their job commitment. the job commitment of the service or dedication-anchored and pure challenge-anchored participants increased positively as their work engagement (vigour, dedication and absorption) increased.service/dedication-anchored individuals are dedicated to serve other people and to make the world a better place in which to live and work. their need to serve and work for the greater good of the organisation (schein 2006) may explain their higher levels of engagement and job commitment. service or dedication-anchored employees want to align their work activities with their personal values about helping the broader community or society (schein 2006). congruence between their personal values and the need to serve and the work environment results in higher levels of job satisfaction (sukal & lopez 2007). pure challenge-anchored employees tend to single-mindedly pursue a job or career because it permits them to win out over the impossible. success for them involves constant opportunities for self-test. they define their careers in terms of daily competition to bring solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems and to win out over tough opponents (schein 2006). their need for testing their personal endurance through engaging in risky projects or mentally or physically challenging work (schein 2006) may explain the positive relationship between their work engagement and job commitment. pure challenge-anchored employees enjoy being exposed to challenging tasks that stimulate continuous improvement in performance (tan & quek 2001). boshoff et al. (1994) also found pure challenge-anchored employees to be highly involved in their jobs. lumley (2009) found the pure challenge career anchor to be positively related to employees’ satisfaction with the nature of their work and jobs. implications for practice the research literature provided evidence that employees’ inner work lives, their career self-concepts and inner career goals, motives, values and interests and the characteristics of their jobs influence their performance, engagement and attitudes toward their jobs and the organisation. although certain industries may tend to attract employees with specific career anchor profiles (e.g. the service or dedication to a cause and lifestyle career anchors in the service industry), organisations by the very nature of the variety of job functions they offer tend to employ employees with diverse career anchor profiles (coetzee et al. 2007; coetzee & schreuder 2009). in the present study we were therefore interested in assessing the moderating role of all the career anchors as postulated by schein (2006). a contribution of this study is that the results provide evidence that career anchors are important personal resources that contribute positively to the association between people’s work engagement and job commitment. as such, it is important for organisations that strive to gain a competitive edge in a dynamic and fast-changing marketplace to gain a deeper understanding of the concomitant career motives, values, needs and interests that underpin the unique career anchor preferences of their employees. focusing on human resource initiatives that help to optimise the congruence between employees’ career anchors and the characteristics of their jobs and working conditions may help to enhance their work engagement and job commitment. such interventions have the potential to optimise individual and organisational performance and success. limitations and recommendations for future research the present study was limited to a non-probability sample of predominantly early and establishment career stage black and female employees employed in a human resource capacity in the service industry. the findings can therefore not be generalised to other occupational, race, gender, age and disciplinary contexts. furthermore, given the cross-sectional nature of the research design, this study can yield no statements about causation. associations between the variables have therefore been interpreted rather than established. longitudinal studies should be employed to establish the causal relationships amongst the variables. it is recommended that the study be replicated with broader samples across various occupational, race and gender groups and economic sectors before final conclusions can be drawn about the moderating effect of employees’ career anchors on the relationship between their work engagement and job commitment. the career self-concept and people’s career values and occupational aspirations develop and change over time to opportunities they encounter (sortheix et al. 2013). considering that the present sample of participants was in the early career stage of their lives, future longitudinal studies could analyse how the adjustments relating to an evolving self-concept relate to work engagement and job commitment. conclusion top ↑ notwithstanding the study limitations, novel and valuable knowledge was contributed to the careers literature. the value of the findings obtained in the present study lies in the explanatory utility of the identified associations between the variables of concern in this study. overall, it can be concluded that employees’ career self-concepts and the underpinning talents, abilities, motives, needs, values and interests (as expressed by their career anchors) and how these influence the relationship between their work engagement and job commitment are important factors to consider in their career development. in this regard the results of our study add valuable new insights to the career research literature. the extent to which employees experience congruence between their career anchors and their working environments and the nature of their jobs will determine the level to which they feel energised, dedicated and absorbed in their jobs, which in turn will influence their attachment and commitment to their jobs in the organisation. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.c. (university of south africa) conducted the statistical analysis and literature review and wrote up the research article. d.s. (university of south africa) acted as critical reviewer and assisted in writing up the article. r.t. (university of south africa) collected the data. references top ↑ aiken, l.s., & west, s.g. (1991). multiple regression: testing and interpreting interactions, newbury park, ca: sage.amabile, t.m., & kramer, s.j. (2012). a review of the book. the progress principle: using small wins to ignite joy, engagement and creativity at work. research technology management, 55(6), 68. bakker, a.b., 2011, an evidence-based model of work engagement. current directions in psychological science, 20, 265–269. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0963721411414534 boshoff, a.b., bennett, h.f., & kellerman, a.m. (1994). career orientations as predictors of the level of job involvement of professional people. journal of industrial psychology, 20(2), 8–13. bothma, f.c., & roodt, g. (2012). work-based identitry and work engagement as potential antecedents of task performance and turnover intention: unraveling a complex relationship. south african journal of industrial psychology, 38(1), art. #893, 17 pages. http://dx,doi,org/10.4102/sajip.v38i1.893 brotherton, p. (2012). employee loyalty slipping worldwide: respect, work-life balance are top engagers. t& d, 66(2), 24. brummelhuis, l.l., & bakker, a.b. (2012). staying engaged during the week: the effect of off-job activities on next day work engagement. journal of occupational health psychology, 17(4), 445–455. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0029213 caldwell, d., chatman, j., & o’reilly, c. (1990). building organisational commitment: a multifirm study. journal of occupational psychology, 63, 245–261. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00525.x cerdin, j., & pargneux, m. (2010). career anchors: a comparison between organisation-assigned and self-initiated expatriates. thunderbird international business review, 52(4), 287–298. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/tie.20350 chovwen, c., 2012, predictors of organisational commitment of factory employee. ife psychologia, 20(2), 184–191. coetzee, m., bergh, z.c., & schreuder, a.m.g. (2010). the influence of career orientations on subjective work experiences. south african journal of human resource management, 8(1), art. #279, 13 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.279 coetzee, m., & de villiers, m.a. (2010). sources of job stress, work engagement and career orientations of employees in a south african financial institution. southern african business review, 14(1), 27–57. coetzee, m., & schreuder, a.m.g. (2008). a multi-cultural investigation of students’ career anchors at a south african higher education institution. sa journal of labour relations, 32(2), 45–65. coetzee, m., & schreuder, a.m.g. (2009). using the career orientations inventory (coi) for measuring career orientations in the south african organisational context. sa journal of industrial psychology, 35(1), article #806, 13 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v35i1.806 coetzee, m., schreuder, a.m.g., & tladinyane, r. (2007). career anchors and its relation to organisational commitment. southern african business review, 11(1), 65–86. coetzer, c.f., & rothmann, s. (2007). job demands, job resources and work engagement of employees in a manufacturing organisation. southern african business review, 11(1), 17–32. cohen, j. (1992). quantitative methods in psychology: a power primer. psychological bulletin, 112(1), 153–159. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155 crawford, e.r., lepine, j.a., & rich, b.l. (2010). linking job demands and resources to employee engagement and burnout: a theoretical extension and meta-analytic test. journal of applied psychology, 95, 834–848. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0019364 döckel, a. (2003). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees‘, master’s thesis, department of human resource management, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. durr, m.r., & tracey, t.j.g. (2009). relation of person-environment fit to career certainty. journal of vocational behavior, 75, 129–138. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.05.003 ellison, j., & schreuder, a.m.g. (2000). the relationship between career anchors, job perceptions and job satisfaction. journal of industrial psychology, 26(2), 1–6. feldman, d.c., & bolino, m.c. (1996). careers within careers: reconceptualising the nature of career anchors and their consequences. human resource management review, 6(2), 89–112. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(96)90014-5 ferreira, n., (2012). constructing a psychological profile for staff retention. phd thesis, department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria. field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss, 3rd edn., sage, thousand oaks, ca.field, l.k., & buitendach, j.h., 2011, happiness, work engagement and organisational commitment of support staff at a tertiary education institution in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), 68–77. halbesleben, j.r.b., harvey, j., & bolino, m.c. (2009). too engaged? a conservation of resources view of the relationship between work engagement and work interference with family. journal of applied psychology, 94, 1452–1465. h ttp://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0017595 hirschi, a. (2012). callings and work engagement: moderated mediation model of work meaningfulness, occupational identity, and occupational self-efficacy. journal of counseling psychology, 59(3), 479–485. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0028949 johnson, r.e., chang, c.h., & yang, l.q. (2010). commitment and motivation at work: the relevance of employee identity and regulatory focus. academy of management review, 35, 226–245. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.2010.48463332 kassing, j.w., piemonte, n.m., goman, c.c., & mitchell, c.a. (2012). dissent expression as indicator of work engagement and intention to leave. journal of business communication, 49(3), 237–253. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0021943612446751 levi, o. (2006). the effect of moderator variables on the zero-order correlations between congruernce of career anchors, job satisfaction and psychological well-being. phd dissertation, alliant international university, california. lumley, e.j. (2009). exploring the relationship between career anchors, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. master’s dissertation, department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria. martins, n., & coetzee, m. (2007). organisational culture, employee satisfaction, perceived leader emotional competency and personality type: an exploratory study of a south african engineering company. south african journal for human resource management, 5(2), 20–32. martins, n., & coetzee, m. (2011). staff perceptions of organisational values in a large south african manufacturing company: exploring socio-demographic differences. south african journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), art. #967, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i1.967 mendes, f., & stander, m. (2011). positive organisation: the role of leader behaviour in work engagement and retention. south african journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), 29–41. meyer, j.p., stanley, l.j., & parfyonova, n.m. (2012). employee commitment in context: the nature and implication of commitment profiles. journal of vocational behavior, 80, 1–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.07.002 ncube, f., & jerie, s. (2012). leveraging employee engagement for competitive advantage in the hospitality industry: a comparative study of hotels a and b in zimbabwe. journal of emerging trends in economics and management sciences, 3(4), 380–388. newman, d.a., joseph, d.i., & hulin, c.i. (2010). job attitudes and employee engagement: considering the attitude ‘a-factor. in s. albrecht (ed.), the handbook of employee engagement: perspectives, issues, and research practice (pp. 43–61), elgar, cheltenbaum, england. http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/9781849806374.00010 nurittamont, w. (2012). the relationship amongst organizational commitment, self-efficacy and business performance: an empirical study of hotel businesses in thailand. journal of academy of business and economics, 12(2), 99–108. nunnaly, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory, mcgraw-hill, new york, ny. oyewobi, l.o., suleiman, b., & jamil, a.m. (2012). job satisfaction and job commitment: a study of quantity surveyors in nigerian public service. international journal of business and management, 7(5), 179–192. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v7n5p179 powell, d.m., & meyer, j.p. (2004). side-bet theory and the three-component model of organizational commitment. journal of vocational behavior, 65, 157–177. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v7n5p179 pretorius, a.a.s., & roodt, g. (2004). die verband tussen werknemertevredenheid en organisasieverbondenheid‘, south african journal of industrial psychology, 30(3), 65−74. ramakrishna, h.v., & potosky, d. (2003). conceptualisation and exploration of composite career anchors: an analysis of information systems personnel. human resource development quarterly, 14(2), 199–214. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.1060 resi, h.t., & judd, c.m. (2000). handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology, cambridge university press, cambridge, england. roodt, g. (1997). theoretical and empirical linkages between work-related commitment foci. south african journal of industrial psychology, 23(2), 6–13. salanova, m., agut, s., & peiro, j.m. (2005). linking organisational resources and work engagement to employee performance and customer loyalty: the mediation of service climate. journal of applied psychology, 90(6), 1217–1227. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.90.6.1217 schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2003). utrecht work engagement scale manual. preliminary manual, occupational health psychology unit, utrecht university, utrecht, the netherlands. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organisational behaviour, 25, 293–315. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.248 schaufeli, w.b., bakker, a.b., & salanova, m. (2006). the measurement of work engagement with a brief questionnaire: a cross-sectional study. educational and psychological measurement, 66, 701–716. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013164405282471 schaufeli, w.b., bakker, a.b., & van rheenen, w. (2009). how changes in job demands and resources predict burnout, work engagement and sickness absenteeism. journal of organizational behavior, 30, 893–917. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.595 schein, e.h. (1978). career dynamics: matching individual and organizational needs, addison-wesley, massachusetts. schein, e.h. (2006). career anchors: discovering your real values, pfeiffer & company, san diego, ca. schein, e.h. (1996). career anchors revisited. implications for career development in the 21st century. academy of management executive, 1, 80–88. schreuder, a.m.g., & coetzee, m. (2011). careers: an organisational perspective, 4th edn., juta, cape town, south africa. sortheix, f.m., dietrich, j., chow, a., & salmela-aro, k. (2013). the role of career values for work engagement during the transition to working life. journal of vocational behavior, 83, 466–475. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.07.003 soulsby, r. (2012). engaged bt staff attract like-minded customers. coaching at work, 7(6), 8. spss, 2010, spss for windows, computer software, spss incorporated, chicago, il. steele, c., & francis-smythe, j. (2010). investigating the role of career anchor congruence. paper presented at the 27th international congress for applied psychology, 16 july, melbourne, australia. storm, l., & roodt, g. (2002). die verband tussen organisasiesosialisering en organisasieverbondenheid [the relationship between organisational socialisation and organisational commitment]. tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde/journal of industrial psychology, 28(1), 14–21. sukal, m.f., & lopez, p.d. (2007). linking career anchors with job satisfaction and work-family conflict. paper presented at the american psychological association convention, n.d., los angeles, ca. suutari, v., & taka, m. (2004). career anchors of managers with global careers. journal of management development, 33(9), 833–847. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02621710410558440 takash, j. 2012, make the connection. smart business chicago, 9(12), 12. tan, h., & quek, b. (2001). an exploratory study on the career anchors of educators in singapore. the journal of psychology, 135(5), 527–545. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00223980109603717 tladinyane, r.t. (2012). psychological career resources, work engagement and organisational commitment: a psychological profile for staff retention, phd thesis, department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria. vandenberghe, c., & panaccio, a. (2012). perceived sacrifice and few alternatives commitments: the motivational underpinnings of continuance commitment’s subdimensions. journal of vocational behavior, 81, 59–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2012.05.002 van dyk, j. (2011). the relationship between organisational commitment, retention factors and perceived job embeddedness. master’s thesis, department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria. vuori, j., toppinen-tanner, s., & mutanen, p. (2012). effects of resource-building group intervention on career management and mental health in work organizations: randomized controlled field trial. journal of applied psychology, 97(2), 273–286. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0025584 weber, k., & ladkin, a. (2009). career anchors of convention and exhibition industry professionals in asia. journal of convention and event tourism, 10, 243–255. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15470140903356411 wils, l., wils, t., & tremblay, m. (2010). toward a career anchor structure: an empirical investigation of engineers. industrial relations, 65(2), 236–256. http://dx.doi.org/10.7202/044301ar wu, a.d., & zumbo, b.d. (2008). understanding using mediators and moderators. social indicators research, 87, 367–392. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11205-007-9143-1 yuan, b.j.c., lin, m.b.h., shieh, j., & li, k. (2012). transforming employee engagement into long-term customer relationships: evidence from information technology sales people in taiwan. social behavior and personality, 40(9), 1549–1554. http://dx.doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2012.40.9.1549 article information author: gerhardus van zyl1 affiliation: 1department of economics & econometrics, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: gerhardus van zyl email: hardusvz@uj.ac.za postal address: po box 10152, aston manor 1630, south africa dates: received: 27 jan. 2011 accepted: 16 may 2011 published: 06 sept. 2011 how to cite this article: van zyl, g. (2011). the productivity effect of informal employees: the tshwane tyre-fitting industry as a case study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #354, 6 pages. doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.354 copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) the productivity effect of informal employees: the tshwane tyre-fitting industry as a case study in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction • research design    • research approach    • research method and procedure       • research sample       • statistical analysis • estimation results • discussion    • conclusions and recommendations    • implications for human resource management    • suggestions for further research • references abstract (back to top) orientation: the article investigated the application of a suitable estimation model to measure the productivity spill over effects of informal employees. research purpose: the aim of the article was to estimate the sign and magnitude of productivity spill over effects of informal employees when employee and firm characteristics as well as external factors were considered. motivation for the study: the researcher thought that empirical research was appropriate because of the belief that, because of low productivity levels in the south african workplace, firms are resorting to greater numbers of informal employees in order to generate positive productivity spill over effects that would improve their levels of competitiveness. research design, approach and methodology: the researcher constructed real data series on the applicable variables from weekly data that he collected from firms in the sample group over the sample period. he then applied the nelen, de grip and fourage estimation model to determine the sign and magnitude of the spill over effects for the different employee segments. main findings: the informal employee segment created greater positive productivity spill over effects. this was especially true for older informal employees with longer tenures and lower levels of absenteeism. external factors, like variations in market demand, improved the positive spill over effects that informal employees generated. practical/managerial implications: firms might reconsider the composition of their workforce if the informal employee segment consistently generated higher positive productivity spill over effects. contribution/value-add: the researcher has introduced an estimation procedure that firms can apply to measure the productivity spill over effects of formal and informal employee segments at firm and industry level. introduction (back to top) stagnant job creation in the formal sector, high levels of unemployment and a potentially economically active labour force, which is increasingly looking for informal employment, characterise the south african economy (davies & thurlow, 2011). there is also a belief that firms are resorting to employing greater numbers of informal employees when difficult external factors, such as low levels of economic activity, fluctuations in demand, low productivity and restrictive labour legislation, confront them. given the perceived growth in the demand for informal employees, it has become important to study the composition, location, mobility, skill levels and productivity of informal employees. there is no real research on the productivity of informal employees in the south african economy. this article measures the productivity of informal employees against the productivity of formal employees econometrically. international findings about the relationship between informal workers and productivity are mixed. one school of thought (anderson, grahl, jefferys & tasiron, 2006; arvantis, 2005; blundell, brewer & francesconi, 2005; connolly & gregory, 2008; darton & hurrell, 2005; montgomery, 1988; perontin & robinson, 2000; rosendaal, 2003) argues that there is a negative relationship between informal workers and productivity. the researchers give three reasons for their point of view. firstly, they contend that employers expect informal employees to invest less in developing their human capital compared to formal employees. this results in lower productivity levels. secondly, there is a negative relationship between working hours and self-assessed labour efficiency when one applies measures of individual performance. thirdly, they conclude that there is a negative relationship between informal employee costs and the relative demand for informal employees. in this regard, their arguments are that: • informal employee labour costs are high and these higher costs do not explain much of the variation in relative working hours across firms • employers see recruitment and training costs as obstacles to hiring informal employees • skill levels do not reflect the differences in the relative working hours of informal employees. another school of thought (banes, johnson, kulys & hook, 1999; giannetti & madic, 2007; josten, ng-a-tham & thierry, 2003; mahmood, 2008; nelen, de grip & fourage, 2011; shepard, clifton & kruse, 1996) proposes a positive relationship between informal employment and productivity. these researchers also give three reasons for their position. firstly, they believe that firms with a high proportion of informal employees are more productive than firms with a high proportion of formal employees are. this is especially true of firms that face fluctuations in consumer demand. secondly, they conclude that informal employees spend a large percentage of their working time on demand-related tasks compared to formal employees. therefore, informal employees are more productive than formal employees are in the hours they work. the reason they give is that informal employees have significantly lower perceived work pressure and they call in sick less often than formal employees do. thirdly, they argue that more flexibility in terms of informal employment could contribute to higher productivity levels. these researchers also give reasons why informal employees are more productive than formal employees are, and why informal employment is a more efficient way to use workers. these reasons are that: • fatigue increases as the number of working hours increases, thus reducing productivity • there is a significant negative relationship between formal employment and self-assessed work pressure. the same researchers also conclude that, when controlling for employee characteristics, formal employees take significantly more sick leave than informal employees do. this reduces the productivity levels of formal employees. all the studies are saying that, when one investigates the relationship between informal employment and productivity, one must consider the characteristics of the firms and the employees as well as external factors. de grip and sieber (2005), hellerstein, neuman and troske (1999) and nelen et al. (2011) state that, when one measures the relationship between informal employees and productivity, one should consider: • only heterogeneous employee segments based on the number of hours worked • employee segment contribution to sales • a homogeneous capital outlay amongst firms. nelen et al. (2011) state that fluctuations in consumer demand are also important considerations. their argument is that, because of the flexibility that informal employment offers, more informal employees are expected to be employed at times when consumer demand peaks. job content in this instance is important simply because formal employees spend less time on demand-related tasks compared to informal employees. research design (back to top) research approach the research approach comprises three distinct steps. firstly, the researcher had to specify a suitable econometric estimation model to: • capture all the variables that affect the productivity spill over effects of informal employees • enable him to estimate the sign and magnitude of the productivity spill over effects correctly. secondly, the researcher had to decide on a suitable case study and collect relevant real data from firms. thirdly, the researcher conducted the econometric estimation of the sign and magnitude of the productivity spill over effects of the informal employee segment. research method and procedure in a study on the effect of informal employment on productivity in dutch pharmacies (part of the services industry) in the amsterdam metropolitan area, nelen et al. (2011) used the ilmakunnas and maliranta (2005) model. the researcher decided to use the nelen et al. (2011) version of the ilmakunnas and maliranta model for two reasons. firstly, the nelen model entails an analysis of productivity with a new form of heterogeneity in firms’ employment segments based on the number of hours worked. secondly, it would allow the researcher to compare the results of a south african case study with the results of an international study on the link between productivity and informal employees. the model is an estimated production function that explicitly includes heterogeneous employee segments based on the number of hours worked. the model is also based on the implicit assumption that informal and formal employees are equally productive during the hours they work. the more formal assumptions of the model are that: • the different types of employees are perfect substitutes for each other • the different employee segments may have different marginal productivities • the firms have heterogeneous workforces. it considers two employment segments: • formal employees (fe) • informal employees (ie). the relative productivity of informal employees is expressed as (γie – 1) whilst the relative productivity of formal employees is expressed as (γfe – 1). the quality-adjusted labour input is expressed as: this equation is simplified by following the approximation: this simply means that informal and formal employee segments are directly included in a log form production function (more specifically a cobb-douglas production function). by using l*, the cobb-douglas production function is expressed as: in log form (using the approximation in [2]) we have: where it is assumed in the model that the capital outlay is homogeneous across firms and that the unit sale of output (hereafter referred to as sq) is used to measure the productivity differentials between formal and informal employees. the production function is finally transformed to: where iei and fei denote the firm’s informal and formal employee segments. γ1,ie* = β(γ1,fe – 1) denotes the relative productivity of the informal employee segment compared to the formal employee segment. therefore: it is clear that this equation takes into account deviations from constant returns to scale. the researcher chose a case study from the south african services industry to ensure a sound comparison of the results of a south african case study with international results (more specifically the results of the nelen et al. study of 2011). the researcher decided on the south african motor vehicle tyre-fitting industry (more specifically in the tshwane metropolitan area) to comply with the characteristics of the model and to ensure the availability of the data he required. in addition, the researcher: • used unit sales of tyres fitted per working day to measure productivity • accepted the tyre-fitting (the primary labour function) employee segments (both formal and informal) as substitutes • assumed that the necessary training or skill levels were the same for both formal and informal employee segments • assumed that the firms knew how many hours both employee segments in the sample group worked. with the data he required, it was possible for the researcher to determine the firms’ informal and formal employee segments in terms of unit sales (sq). therefore: the model is an ordinary least square (ols) model. research sample the model required four specific features of data: • homogeneity in capital usage • homogeneity in skill levels • information on the working hours of all the employees in the firms • an unambiguous physical or monetary measure of productivity. the model accepts that employee and firm characteristics influence productivity. with regard to the characteristics of informal employees, the researcher needed to consider the average age of the employees and their tenures. with regard to the characteristics of the firms, the researcher needed to incorporate, in the model, the number of hours informal employees worked, the absentee levels of informal employees and possible excess informal labour the firms needed. the researcher established, through interviews with franchisees, that there were 52 tyre fitment centres in the area he identified for the case study. thirty-seven tyre fitment centres finally participated in the research project and, according to the kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sample adequacy, the researcher concluded that the sample size was statistically significant and more than adequate. the researcher collected data on all the variables over an 18-month period (01 january 2009 – 30 june 2010). he gave the sales or operational manager of each firm an itemised list on which to record real data on the following variables every week: • the number of formal and informal employees • the average age per formal and informal employee segment • the number of tyres each employee segment fitted • the number of hours formal and informal employees worked • the average tenure of formal and informal employees • the percentage absenteeism for both employee categories. therefore, it was possible to construct a time series data set for the sample period for all these variables in order to conduct an econometric estimation. the sales or operational managers supplied data on the average number of tyres their firms fitted or sold for the past five years. the researcher collected data on a three-year variation in the number of tyre fitment centres fitted or sold in the sample geographical area from the different franchisees. statistical analysis the researcher reported the sample statistics below. the average number of tyres fitted (sq) was 1874 per month. the log sq was 3.27 (sd: 0.11). the average percentage share of unit sales the informal employees contributed was 15% (sd: 0.09) whilst the average percentage share the formal employees contributed was 65% (sd: 0.11). the average percentage share that other employees (like managers and administrators) contributed was 20% (sd: 0.11). one can ascribe the difference between the formal and informal employee segments to the fact that informal employees worked an average of 24 hours per month. the average age of the informal employees was 25.5 years (sd: 3.12), whilst that for formal employees was 27.25 (sd: 2.89). the average tenure of informal tyre-fitting employees was 2.2 years (sd: 1.62), whilst that for formal employees was 4.5 years (sd: 1.92). the average number of operating hours per month was 182 hours (sd: 14.12). the estimated average for excess informal labour during the sample period was 2.5% (sd: 5.42). the estimated average absenteeism rate for informal employees was 3% (sd: 0.025). there was a large estimated mean variation of 6.2 (sd: 5.42) in the number of competitors within a 10 kilometre radius. estimation results (back to top) the researcher conducted three estimations. he considered only the employee segments (formal and informal) in the first estimation. the aim of the first estimation was to determine: • whether these employee categories have positive or negative productivity spill over effects • which of the two employee categories created the greatest productivity spill over effects (provided that the two categories showed positive productivity gains) • whether the productivity spill over effects differ when the researcher considered the size of the informal employee segment (the estimation catered for informal employee segments smaller and greater than 15%). table 1 gives the results of the first estimation. table 1: estimation results for employee segments. the researcher included employee and firm characteristics in the second estimation. its aim was to determine whether age, tenure, the number of hours worked, excess informal labour and absenteeism have a positive or negative influence on the productivity spill over effects of the informal employee segment. table 2 gives the results of the second estimation. table 2: estimation results including informal employee and firm characteristics. the researcher included external market factors in the third estimation of the productivity spill over effects of informal employees. these were: • variations in demand for tyres • the amount of competition in the sample area. table 3 gives the results of the third estimation. table 3: estimation results (productivity per sq in logs as the dependent variable) including external market factors. discussion (back to top) from the results of the first estimation (table 1), it is clear that both the formal and informal employee categories have productive inputs (positive estimated coefficients). the informal employee segment has a higher positive productivity spill over effect (0.825 > 0.635). with regard to the size of the informal employee segment, firms with a larger informal employee segment (more than 15%) created greater positive productivity spill over effects. this result contradicts the results of the nelen et al. study (2011), where there was no significant difference in the average productivity between the different employee segments. the results of the second estimation (table 2) clearly indicate that, even when the researcher considered informal employee and firm characteristics, the informal employees still showed greater positive productivity spill over effects compared to the formal employees (0.801 > 0.608). with regard to informal employee characteristics, it is clear from the estimation results that there is a positive relationship between the age of the informal employees and productivity (as expressed in sq). it simply means that older informal employees are more productive than younger informal employees are. a possible explanation is that employees become more efficient in what they do because they use better and more productive ways to perform their duties. the result contradicts those of the nelen et al. (2011) study, which indicated a negative relationship between age and productivity. in their study, they argued that younger informal employees have more up-to-date knowledge that might affect the productivity of other employees positively. secondly, the results showed a positive relationship between informal employee tenure and productivity. the longer the tenure of the informal employees, the higher is the positive productivity spill over effects. a possible explanation is the accumulated job experience. with regard to the characteristics of firms, it is clear from the estimation results that there is a positive relationship between the number of hours informal employees worked and productivity. the more hours the informal employees worked the more positive productivity spill over effects they generated. this result also contradicts the nelen et al. study (2011). it reported no significant relationship between the number of hours the informal employees worked and productivity. secondly, the estimation results showed a negative relationship between an excess informal employee ratio and productivity. it simply means that firms with an excess of informal employees generated fewer positive labour spill over effects. the nelen et al. study (2011) gave a reasonable explanation. this was that too many informal employees decreases the workload per informal employee and affects average productivity. thirdly, the estimation results showed a negative relationship between absenteeism and productivity. the higher the level of absenteeism, the lower is the productivity. the results of the third estimation show even greater productivity spill over effects for the informal employee segment (compared to the formal employee segment) when the researcher added external market factors to the estimation (0.877 > 0.461). a possible explanation for this is an increase in demand during peak periods. this creates a greater demand for informal employees and, in turn, results in greater positive productivity spill over effects. it is interesting to note that the positive relationship between the amount of competition and the productivity spill over effects of informal employees is very weak. the relatively insignificant estimation result shows this. a possible explanation is that the firms in this particular industry knew about the actual and potential competition in their area and that they would have considered it when they decided on the composition of their labour force. conclusions and recommendations the aim of the article was to estimate the sign and magnitude of the productivity spill over effects of informal employees in the services industry of the south african economy. implications for human resource management measuring and monitoring productivity levels should be two very important human resource (hr) management functions because productivity levels will affect the overall efficiency and profitability levels of organisations. this has become an even more critical functional area for hr managers because of the perceived low average productivity levels in the south african economy, the perceived highly restrictive labour legislation and the proposed changes to the current labour legislation (specifically informal labourers and the proposed abolishment of labour brokers). the results of this study clearly show that firms can employ informal employees and that they will improve average productivity levels in organisations. the hr implications of the estimation model and the results of this particular study are twofold. firstly, firms can use this model (or measuring instrument) to determine how to use informal employees more productively. secondly, the model makes it possible to determine a more optimal mix of informal and formal employee segments. given the current debate on informal labour and the possible abolishment of labour brokers, the study clearly shows positive implications for the continued use of informal labourers and labour brokers. the study showed that there is a positive relationship between informal employees and productivity in the services sector of the economy. this is especially true for older informal employees with longer tenures. firms with larger informal employee segments created higher positive productivity spill over effects compared to firms with smaller informal employee segments. it was also interesting to note that the more hours the informal employees worked (combined with their lower levels of absenteeism) emphasised the positive productivity spill over effects they generated. the results of the estimations clearly showed that there is a limit to the positive productivity spill over effects the informal employees generated because excess numbers of informal employees will eventually result in lower productivity spill over effects. including external factors (particularly demand and the amount of competition in the industry) increased the positive productivity spill over effects even further. this was especially true with variations in market demand. the results of the estimations confirmed that greater levels of market demand during certain peak times resulted in a greater demand for informal employees and, eventually, in higher positive productivity spill over effects. suggestions for further research industry and geographical differences in informal employee productivity levels were not part of this particular study. it would be useful to conduct the same study in different industries (like the manufacturing, mining and construction industries) and different geographical regions in order to determine whether there are industry and geographically related differences in the productivity spill over effects that informal employees generate. it would also be useful to develop a measuring instrument to determine the maximum number of informal employees for optimal productivity. references (back to top) anderson, j., grahl, j., jefferys, s., & tasiron, a. (2006). labour market flexibility and sectoral productivity: a comparative study. employment relations research series, 66, 1–26. arvantis, s. (2005). modes of labor flexibility at firm level: are there any implications for performance and innovation? evidence for the swiss economy. ind corp change, 14(6), 993–1016. doi:10.1093/icc/dth087 banes, p., johnson, r., kulys, a., & hook, s. (1999). productivity and the structure of employment. productivity commission staff research paper series, 1–155. canberra: ausinfo. blundell, r., brewer, m., & francesconi, m. (2005). job changes, hours changes and the path of labour supply adjustment. ifs working paper, w05/21, 1–33. institute of fiscal studies. connolly, s., & gregory, m. (2008). moving down: women’s part-time work and occupational change in britain 1991–2001. economic journal, 118(526), 52–76. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0297.2007.02116.x darton, d., & hurrell, k. (2005). people working part-time below their potential. equal opportunities commission, 1–16. manchester. davies, r., & thurlow, j. (2011). formal-informal economic linkages and unemployment in south africa. south african journal of economics, 78(4), 437–459. doi:10.1111/j.1813-6982.2010.01250.x de grip, a., & sieber, i. (2005). the effects of human resource management on small firms’ productivity and employees’ wages. applied economics, 37(9), 1047–1054. doi:10.1080/00036840500092074 giannetti, c., & madic, m. (2007). is there any relationship between the degree of labour market regulation and firm innovativeness. institute for advanced studies imt, 1–23. lucca, italy. hellerstein, j.k., neuman, d., & troske, k.r. (1999). wages, productivity and worker characteristics: evidence from plant-level production functions and wage equations. journal of labor economics, 17(3), 409–446. doi:10.1086/209926 ilmakunnas, p., & maliranta, m. (2005). technology, labour characteristics and wage-productivity gaps. oxford bulletin of economics and statistics, 65(5), 623–645.doi:10.1111/j.1468-0084.2005.00134.x josten, e., ng-a-tham, j., & thierry, h. (2003). the effects of extended workdays on fatigue, health, performance and satisfaction in nursing. journal of advanced nursing, 44(6), 643–652. doi:10.1046/j.0309-2402.2003.02854.x, pmid:14651687 mahmood, m. (2008). labour productivity and employment in australian manufacturing smes. international enterpreneurship & management journal, 4, 51–62. doi:10.1007/s11365-006-0025-9 montgomery, m. (1988). hours of part-time and full-time workers at the same firm. industrial relations, 27(3), 394–406. doi:10.1111/j.1468-232x.1988.tb01015.x nelen, a., de grip, a., & fourage, d. (2011). is part-time employment beneficial for firm productivity? iza discussion paper series, (5423). perontin, v., & robinson, a. (2000). employee participation and equal opportunities practices: productivity effect and potential complementarities. british journal of industrial relations, 38(4), 557–583. doi:10.1111/1467-8543.00180 rosendaal, b. (2003). dealing with part-time work. personnel review, 32, 474–491. doi:10.1108/00483480310477542 shepard, e.m., clifton, t.j., & kruse, d. (1996). flexible work hours and productivity: some evidence from the pharmaceutical industry. industrial relations, 35(1), 123–139. doi:10.1111/j.1468-232x.1996.tb00398.x article information authors: aleeshah nujjoo1 ines meyer1 affiliations: 1organisational psychology section, school of management studies, university of cape town, south africa correspondence to: ines meyer postal address: school of management studies, university of cape town, private bag, rondebosch 7700, south africa dates: received: 28 oct. 2011 accepted: 26 sept. 2012 published: 26 nov. 2012 how to cite this article: nujjoo, a., & meyer, i. (2012). the relative importance of different types of rewards for employee motivation and commitment in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(2), art. #442, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i2.442 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the relative importance of different types of rewards for employee motivation and commitment in south africa in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • problem statement       • key focus of the study       • background to the study, research purpose and trends from research literature       • objectives       • contribution to the field       • what will follow    • literature review       • definition of rewards       • rewards and affective commitment       • rewards and intrinsic motivation • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • reliability and validity of scales    • descriptive statistics    • results related to hypotheses • discussion    • limitations and directions for future research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: employees’ perceptions of rewards are related to their affective commitment and intrinsic motivation, which have been associated with staff turnover.research purpose: the study sought to establish the relationship between intrinsic and different extrinsic rewards with intrinsic motivation and affective commitment. motivation for the study: south african organisations are grappling with employee retention. literature shows that employees who are more motivated and committed to their organisation are less likely to quit. rewards management strategies serve to create a motivated and committed workforce. using the correct types of rewards can thus provide a competitive advantage. research design, approach and method: a cross-sectional, correlational study was conducted. questionnaire data of 399 south african employees were analysed using bivariate correlations and multiple regression. main findings: three main findings emerged. firstly, there is a relationship between all types of rewards investigated and the two outcome variables. secondly, this relationship is stronger for intrinsic than for extrinsic rewards and thirdly, monetary rewards do not account for the variance in intrinsic motivation above that of non-monetary rewards. practical/managerial implications: rewards management strategies should focus on job characteristics and designs to increase staff intrinsic rewards and include non-monetary rewards, such as supportive leadership, to encourage employees’ intrinsic motivation and affective commitment. contribution/value-add: this research demonstrated the important role different rewards, particularly intrinsic non-monetary rewards, play in creating a committed and motivated workforce. the insights gained from this study can promote organisational effectiveness. suggestions of how to expand on and refine the current study are addressed. introduction top ↑ problem statement key focus of the study as a consequence of competitive markets, technological advancements and globalisation, organisations worldwide are facing challenges in retaining their human capital. this is no different in south africa, as research by kinnear and sutherland (2001) has shown. staff attrition is of concern to organisations because of its high associated cost. it is estimated that the total cost of an exempted employee turnover amounts to a minimum of one year’s pay and benefits (ramlall, 2004). in addition to the direct costs, the exit of employees also implies the loss of valuable intellectual capital and thus competitive advantage. in order to retain its staff, organisations often focus on remuneration and other monetary benefits as their main retention strategy although research has long established that employees are unlikely to remain in the employment relationship when incentivised by monetary benefits alone (e.g. herzberg, 1959). this begs the question as to what other types of rewards could be effective in reducing the risk of staff turnover in south african organisations through their relationship with affective commitment and motivation. background to the study, research purpose and trends from research literature rewards management is one of the key strategies used to create a motivated and committed workforce. studies have long shown that employees who are motivated and committed to the organisation are less likely to quit (mowday, 1998; ramlall, 2004). favourable perceptions of rewards, in turn, have been linked to positive human resource outcomes such as employee job satisfaction, work motivation, affective commitment, high levels of performance and organisational effectiveness (bratton & gold, 2007; squires, 2001; ulrich, 1997). the influence of effective rewards management on employees’ affective commitment, motivation and subsequent high organisational performance is clearly reflected in practice examples. google, for instance, is currently ranked 4th in fortune’s top 10 best companies to work for, branding it as one of the most desirable employers worldwide (cnn money, 2011). company reports indicate a high rate of employee satisfaction, low employee turnover and high organisational profitability. google’s employee management and retention strategies incorporate both monetary and non-monetary rewards. on average, google employees receive a salary of £86 800 a year, as compared to an average of £21 500 in the uk private sector (rupert, 2011). furthermore, in line with changing work patterns, google’s reward management strategy includes flexi-time and a work environment that reconciles employees’ work-life balance. google employees are also encouraged to spend 70% of their time on core business tasks, 20% on projects related to the core business and 10% on any pet projects unrelated to the core business (the google culture, 2011). this serves to boost employees’ competitive intrinsic motivation, as well as rewards and job satisfaction. google’s strategy thus follows perkins’ (1988) suggestion that individuals who are intrinsically motivated seek opportunities to solve boundary-pushing challenges, demonstrate high levels of commitment to their organisation and are thus less likely to leave the employment relationship. objectives this study seeks to explore what types of rewards south african organisations could include in retention strategies to make these strategies work most effectively. to this purpose it draws on a sample of south african employees to investigate the relative importance of employee satisfaction with different types of rewards in predicting two factors that make it likely for employees to remain in the employment relationship, namely, intrinsic motivation and affective commitment. contribution to the field whilst there is high workforce mobility throughout the world, retaining employees in south africa is particularly challenging because large numbers of skilled employees leave the country. south african organisations should thus be particularly concerned about finding rewards strategies that are valued by their employees. yet, whilst the literature reviewed in this article shows that elsewhere in the world, particularly in the united states, studies linking different types of rewards to employee motivation and affective commitment peaked from the late 1980s to early 2000s, there is a scarcity of such research in south africa. it is thus likely that south african organisations have chosen to adopt reward management strategies that have been found effective in other countries without considering that management principles might not apply in a cultural context different to the one in which they were developed (greenberg, 2011; huang & van de vliert, 2003). the study described in this article thus closes an important gap by investigating the views from a diverse sample of south african employees working across a wide variety of sectors and employment levels. by revealing which reward strategies are most closely linked to employee motivation and affective commitment, it contributes to assisting organisations in determining which rewards management strategies to focus on in order to increase staff retention and thus organisational effectiveness. what will follow the following literature review develops a classification of different types of rewards which forms the framework for the empirical analyses in this study. it also outlines the empirical relationships found between these rewards and affective commitment as well as intrinsic motivation. following this, the method used in this study is outlined and the results described. the article closes with a discussion of these results including their practical implications. literature review definition of rewards monetary rewards are legal obligations in the employment relationship and are critical incentives to attract and retain employees. however, the relevant literature indicates that rewards transcend monetary boundaries and several reward categorisations have been proposed (chen, ford & farris, 1999; katz & van maanen, 1977; malhotra, budhwar & prowse, 2007; weatherly, 2002). a classic categorisation by porter and lawler (1968) distinguishes between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. porter and lawler defined intrinsic rewards as the satisfaction that a person derives from doing the job and extrinsic rewards as tangible benefits obtained as a result of doing the job, such as pay and promotions. mottaz (1985), on the other hand, differentiated between task, social and organisational rewards. task rewards are intrinsic by nature and refer to the inherent aspects of an employee’s duties such as the responsibility and autonomy he or she is given in completing a task and the importance of the task for the overall organisation. conversely, social and organisational rewards are extrinsic rewards. social rewards refer to non-job related factors such as the interpersonal relationships with colleagues and supervisory support. organisational rewards appertain to visible rewards provided by the organisation such as pay, bonuses and fringe benefits (katz & van maanen, 1977; malhotra et al., 2007; mottaz, 1985). rewards have also been classified as either monetary or non-monetary. monetary rewards refer to tangible objects, such as pay, bonuses, promotions and formal recognitions, whilst non-monetary rewards are non-tangible and include praise and personal recognitions (weatherly, 2002). chen et al. (1999) and weatherly (2002) argue that monetary, as well as some non-monetary rewards, can be considered extrinsic rewards. in this paper a reward taxonomy is used that merges the frameworks presented by chen et al. (1999) and mottaz (1985). whilst porter and lawler (1968) present a simplistic model that only distinguishes between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, both chen et al. and mottaz, consider a more differentiated view. the model presented in this paper considers the task, social and organisational dimensions as well as the intrinsic, extrinsic, monetary and non-monetary nature of rewards. rewards are categorised as intrinsic non-monetary (inmr), extrinsic non-monetary (enmr) and extrinsic monetary (emr) (figure 1). figure 1: taxonomy of different types of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards offered by companies used in this study. intrinsic non-monetary rewards refer to rewards that are inherent to the nature of the job. intrinsic non-monetary rewards can thus be seen as the positive emotional gratifications that an individual gets from his or her efforts at work (porter & lawler, 1968). they can thus be equated to what kallerberg (1977) termed intrinsic job satisfaction. for this reason the terms intrinsic job satisfaction and intrinsic non-monetary rewards are used interchangeably in this study. intrinsic job satisfaction has been related to several occupational and organisational outcomes such as motivation, affective commitment, retention and organisational effectiveness (kallerberg, 1977; selden & brewer, 2000). extrinsic non-monetary rewards refer to external social rewards with respect to the job, such as healthy relationships with colleagues, supervisory support and their verbal praise (katz & van maanen, 1977; malhotra et al., 2007; mottaz, 1985). this particular study will focus on employees’ perceptions of supervisory support. studies have provided empirical evidence that perceptions of supervisory support positively affect employees’ motivation and affective commitment towards the organisation (eisenberger, stinglhamber, vandenberghe, sucharski & rhoades, 2002; randall & o’driscoll, 1997; williams, brower, ford, williams & carraher, 2008). in this study, enmrs are understood in line with gagnon and michael’s (2004) definition of perceived supervisory support which is ‘the degree to which employees feel that they are supported by their supervisor’ (p. 173). extrinsic non-monetary rewards may involve task-oriented and socio-emotional actions such as communication, goal-setting, provision of constructive feedback, showing understanding and expressing concern (amabile, schatzel, moneta & kramer, 2004). extrinsic monetary rewards, as defined in this study, represent organisational rewards such as pay, bonuses, security, formal recognitions and awards and fringe benefits including travel (chen et al., 1999; malhotra et al., 2007; mottaz, 1985; weatherly, 2002). rewards and affective commitment organisational commitment can be categorised into normative, continuance and affective commitment (meyer & allen, 1997). normative commitment refers to employees’ perceived obligation to stay with an organisation whilst employees with continuance commitment choose to stay with an organisation because they have no choice (malhotra et al., 2007; meyer & allen, 1991). in contrast, affective commitment is conceptualised as an emotional attachment and loyalty displayed towards the organisation as a result of rewards obtained (kuvaas, 2006; malhotra et al., 2007). affective commitment is the commitment dimension which has been found to be most strongly related to positive occupational and organisational outcomes such as job satisfaction, motivation and employee retention (buitendach & de witte, 2005). in line with malhotra et al.’s (2007) definition, this paper defines affective commitment as an employee’s emotional attachment, identification and involvement with the organisation as a result of favourable perceptions of tangible and non-tangible benefits.generally, positive relationships have been found between affective commitment and rewards (burke, 2002; kuvaas, 2006; malhotra et al., 2007). malhotra et al. (2007) explain this relationship in terms of an act of reciprocity, according to which employees enter organisations with the expectation of being given the right platform to use their skills and to satisfy their needs and desires. malhotra et al. further claim that when an organisation fulfils employees’ monetary and non-monetary expectations, their affective commitment increases. whilst kuvaas (2006) found that pay and bonuses contribute to employees’ affective commitment, malhotra et al. (2007) established that intrinsic non-monetary rewards are more powerful predictors of affective commitment than monetary rewards (see also eby, freeman, rush & lance, 1999; o’reilly & caldwell, 1980). furthermore, social rewards (i.e. enmrs), help employees develop trust and interest in pursuing organisational goals (burke, 2002). adeyemo and aremu (1999), for example, found that employees who perceived their supervisor as supportive were more affectively committed to their employer. burke (2002) argues that when supervisors are committed to their subordinates and engage in behaviours that support organisational objectives, employees experience emotional gratification and are more likely to respond by developing trust and modelling their supervisor’s behaviours. based on the above arguments and empirical findings, the following hypotheses have been derived: • hypothesis 1: employees show higher affective commitment to their employer the more favourably they perceive the intrinsic non-monetary rewards, extrinsic non-monetary rewards and extrinsic monetary rewards provided. • hypothesis 2: employees’ favourable perceptions of intrinsic and extrinsic non-monetary rewards are more strongly related to affective commitment than perceptions of extrinsic monetary rewards. • hypothesis 3: employees’ favourable perceptions of intrinsic non-monetary rewards are stronger predictors of affective commitment than extrinsic non-monetary rewards. rewards and intrinsic motivation motivation is one of the factors that help employees to perform proficiently (van knippenberg, 2000). research has distinguished between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (frey & jegen, 2001; kuvaas, 2006; melancon, noble & noble, 2010; pierce, cameron, banko & so, 2003). intrinsic motivation is understood as the inspiration which emanates from the inherent nature of the job, whilst extrinsic motivation is the incentive to do a job, driven by external factors, for example, pay and bonuses (amabile, hill, hennessey & tighe, 1994). this study will specifically focus on intrinsic motivation. asad and dainty (2005) found that employees are largely motivated by intrinsic factors and that it is these factors which contribute to their retention.the relationship between intrinsic rewards and intrinsic motivation is well established in the literature (asad & dainty, 2005; deci, 1972; kuvaas, 2006). the more intrinsic satisfaction employees derive from their job, the more intrinsically motivated they are. in contrast, the relationship between extrinsic rewards and intrinsic motivation is contradictory. frey and jegen (2001) conducted an econometric study investigating the effect of monetary rewards in the voluntary sector. participants in this study decreased their volunteering hours when pay was introduced suggesting that monetary rewards decrease intrinsic motivation. this result can be explained using pierce et al.’s (2003) argumentation that when presented with monetary rewards individuals are more likely to shift their internal interests from performing a task (internal attributions) to external attributions (pay), hence causing a decrease in intrinsic motivation. thus, it has been suggested that non-monetary rewards should be used instead to boost employees’ intrinsic motivation (deci, 1972). however, in a paid employment relationship it is possible that emrs enhance intrinsic motivation rather than to decrease it. according to wiley (1995) employees may perceive monetary incentives as being a form of recognition and positive feedback for their performance and competence. deci, koestner and ryan (1999) noted that when rewards were given independently of any task engagement, as is the case with an employee’s salary, and if these rewards were not expected, such as unanticipated bonuses and monetary rewards had a positive association with intrinsic motivation. employees were satisfied and more intrinsically motivated to give a high quality performance. however, as long as non-monetary rewards were absent a high motivation did not translate into actual high quality performance. ryan, mims, and koestner (1983), on the other hand, observed that employees’ favourable perceptions of monetary rewards were related to an increase in intrinsic motivation when rewards were based on high performance. however, this was only the case if the work environment was supportive. other studies have also found a positive relationship between a supportive work environment and intrinsic motivation (brown & sheppard, 1997; skinner & belmont, 1993). brown and sheppard (1997) suggest that employees will successfully fulfil certain work demands if motivated by the supervisor. when supervisors support employees by exhibiting enthusiasm, providing effective guidance, involvement and rewarding desirable behaviour, subordinates’ motivation increases (skinner & belmont, 1993). this claim is also supported by kirkpatrick and locke (1996), who suggest that such extrinsic non-monetary rewards improve the inherent aspects of the job by making it more interesting thereby encouraging intrinsic motivation. based on the above, the following hypotheses are postulated: • hypothesis 4: employees show higher intrinsic motivation the more favourably they perceive the intrinsic non-monetary rewards, extrinsic non-monetary rewards and extrinsic monetary rewards provided. • hypothesis 5: employees’ favourable perceptions of intrinsic and extrinsic non-monetary rewards are more strongly related to intrinsic motivation than perceptions of extrinsic monetary rewards. • hypothesis 6: employees’ favourable perceptions of intrinsic non-monetary rewards are stronger predictors of intrinsic motivation than extrinsic non-monetary rewards. research design top ↑ research approach a correlational research design was employed. the hypotheses were tested using cross-sectional, quantitative data collected via questionnaires. research method research participants non-probability sampling was used for sample selection. questionnaires were distributed electronically and in paper and pencil format to employees in organisations across south africa using the snowballing technique. participation was voluntary and 409 participants responded. seven participants completed less than 75% of the items on several sub-scales in the questionnaire and their responses were discarded from the dataset. despite having reverse-coded some questions, acquiescence and centrality response bias was observed throughout the questionnaire for three additional participants. data of these participants was also deleted. the final sample thus consisted of 399 participants; the majority of which were full-time employees (81.3%) and operated at non-management level (69.3%). on average, participants had been employed in their organisations for 53.7 months (sd = 77.8) and had been reporting to their supervisor for an average of 29.1 months (sd = 44.2). of the overall sample, 211 participants (52.9%) were employed in a large organisation, 118 employees (29.6%) were from a small organisation and 51 employees (12.8%) worked in a medium-sized organisation whilst the rest (4.8%) did not specify the size of their organisations. the majority of participants (72.4%) indicated the presence of a human resource (hr) department in their organisation. of the sample, 165 participants were men (42.1%) and 226 were women (57.7%). the remaining 0.3% did not provide an answer. participants’ ages varied between 20 and 65 years with a mean of 32.8 (sd = 10.1). the majority of participants were between 20 and 39 years old (77.7%) (see table 1 for further socio-demographic sample descriptors).considering the diversity of the south african population, the sample provides a fair representation of the working population, although it needs to be noted that it is slightly skewed towards younger employees. measuring instruments the questionnaire consisted of a total of 89 items and was designed to assess employees’ perceptions of a variety of leadership and hr practices (such as occupational health practices, training and development) and employees’ affective commitment, intrinsic motivation and job satisfaction. it comprised ten subscales and an additional section on participants’ demographic and employer details. responses were provided on a 5-point likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).for this research the following subscales are of relevance: affective commitment, intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction (as an indicator of inmrs), reward and recognition (as an indicator of emrs), and perceived leadership support (as an indicator of enmrs). a description for each of the scales is provided below. affective commitment scale: allen and meyer’s (1990) 8-item affective commitment scale was used in the study. allen and meyer had found adequate reliability for the scale (cronbach α = .87), as well as high construct validity, which they established via factor analysis and correlations with related and unrelated constructs. the wording of three items was slightly adapted and read, ‘i feel like part of the family at my organisation’, ‘i feel emotionally attached to the organisation’ and ‘i feel a strong sense of belonging to my organisation’. the item ‘i think that i could easily become as attached to another organisation as i am to this one’ was reverse-coded so that a high score indicates high affective commitment to the organisation. table 1: descriptive statistics of sample. intrinsic motivation scale: to assess participants’ intrinsic motivation, six items were adapted from wright’s (2001, as cited in wright & rohrbaugh, 2001) motivation sub-scale. the cronbach alpha for the scale reported by wright and rohrbaugh (2001) was .75 and the authors found good convergent and discriminant validity for the scale when correlating participants’ results with other measures. three items had to be reverse-coded (‘it has been hard for me to get very involved in my current job’, ‘i probably do not work as hard as others who do the same type of work’, ‘time seems to drag whilst i am on the job’). a high score on the scale indicates that employees are highly motivated. intrinsic non-monetary rewards scale: all five items for this subscale were adapted from a survey instrument developed by lytle (1994, as cited in kim, leong & lee, 2005). the reliability as measured by cronbach’s alpha was .80 in kim et al.’s (2005) research. although kim et al. provided no indication of the scale’s validity it was chosen because of its high face validity. one item was rephrased as ‘i feel satisfied with my present job’ for clarity. a high score on the scale indicates that an employee experiences a high level of job satisfaction. extrinsic non-monetary rewards scale: the scale comprised of eight items adapted from the 9-item short form of the survey of perceived organisational support (spos) as used by eisenberger, fasolo and davis-lamastro (1990). wayne, shore and liden (1997) reported a cronbach alpha coefficient of .93 for the 9-item scale. wayne et al. conducted a principal component analysis over all items included in their research (comprising different scales) and found that all nine spos items loaded on one component. the items reading, ‘my supervisor/manager shows very little concern for me’ and ‘even if i did my best job possible, my supervisor/manager would fail to notice‘ were reverse-coded. a high score on the scale indicates that employees are satisfied by the support they receive from their supervisor and thus satisfied with their extrinsic non-monetary rewards. extrinsic monetary rewards scale: six items were adapted from spector’s (1997) 36-item job satisfaction survey to measure employees’ perceptions of extrinsic monetary rewards. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the overall scale was .91 in spector’s research, demonstrating high internal consistency. spector was also able to show that the 36-item scale had a satisfactory test-retest reliability of r = .71 and good discriminant and convergent validity. the items ‘i am satisfied with the benefits i have’, ‘i feel my efforts are rewarded the way they should be’ and ‘i feel appreciated by the organisation when i think about what they pay me’ had carried a negative connotation and were rephrased. a high score on the scale means that employees are highly satisfied with the rewards offered by the organisation. table 2: internal consistencies of scales used in this study. research procedure the research project was approved by the university of cape town’s faculty of commerce ethics in research committee. the data was collected by 51 students in a fourth year honours’ programme who had been requested to recruit at least 10 participants each. students forwarded the link to an electronic questionnaire or paper-and-pencil questionnaires to various employees. a cover letter outlining the purpose of the study and addressing issues of confidentiality and anonymity was attached to the correspondence. participants could choose to enter into a lucky draw for a r1000 shopping voucher. statistical analysis all statistical analyses were conducted using the software package for the social sciences (spss), version 18. reliability (cronbach alpha and corrected item-total correlations) and validity analyses (principal component analysis) were conducted to establish the appropriateness of the scales. to test the hypotheses, bivariate correlations and multiple regression analysis were used. results top ↑ reliability and validity of scales scales were considered reliable if their cronbach alpha value reached at least .70 (nunnally, 1978). item discrimination was assessed by examining the item-total correlations.the construct validity of the scales was then explored using principal component analysis. the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) measure and bartlett’s test of sphericity were used to determine the suitability of the data for the procedure. data was considered suitable if the kmo was greater than .50 and bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant. only factors with eigenvalue greater than 1 were taken into account (kaiser, 1970) and factor loadings of greater than .30 were considered significant (kline, 1986). an initial reliability analysis for the affective commitment scale revealed an acceptable cronbach’s alpha coefficient of .88 for the eight items. however, the item-total correlation for one item (‘i think that i could easily become as attached to another organisation as i am to this one’) was non-significant (r = .14) and the item was thus removed from further analyses resulting in a 7-item affective commitment scale. this affective commitment scale, the inmrs scale, enmrs scale and emrs scale demonstrated high internal consistency whilst the intrinsic motivation scale revealed an acceptable level of reliability (table 2). the kmo and bartlett’s tests demonstrated that the data was appropriate for principal component analysis to be employed. each scale had only one emerging component with eigenvalue greater than one and all items loaded significantly on this component (table 3). the expected unidimensionality of each scale was thus confirmed and item responses were averaged into overall scale scores. descriptive statistics the mean scores indicate that participants had relatively high levels of affective commitment, intrinsic motivation, favourable perceptions of inmrs, enmrs and emrs (table 4). results related to hypotheses to test hypotheses 1 and 4, pearson product moment correlation was used. all correlations were significant at the 1% level and moderate, except for the correlations between enmr, as well as emr, and intrinsic motivation, which were weak (cohen, 1988) (table 5). the results thus support hypotheses 1 and 4: the more employees perceive rewards as favourable the more motivated and committed they are to their employer. in addition, a medium correlation was also observed between affective commitment and intrinsic motivation.to test the remaining hypotheses, fisher’s r-to-z transformation was used. it was expected that firstly, inmrs and enmrs would be more strongly related to affective commitment (hypothesis 2) and intrinsic motivation (hypothesis 5) than emr. secondly, it was assumed that inmrs would be more strongly related to affective commitment (hypothesis 3) and intrinsic motivation (hypothesis 6) than enmrs. as expected in hypotheses 2, 3, 5 and 6, inmrs differ significantly from enmrs and emrs such that the relationships between inmrs and both, affective and intrinsic motivation are stronger when assuming a 5% significance level. contrary to hypotheses 2 and 5 no statistically significant difference was observed between emrs and enmrs in the strength of their association with affective commitment and intrinsic motivation (table 6). table 3: structure of the scales used in the study (determined via principal component analysis). table 4: descriptive statistics for the variables under investigation. table 5: inter-correlation matrix for the variables under investigation. table 6: pearson product moment correlation coefficients (r) and the difference (expressed as z-values) between z-transformed correlation coefficients for the different types of rewards with affective commitment and intrinsic motivation. table 7: standardised beta coefficients (â) of predictor variables of affective commitment. table 8: standardised beta coefficiencts (â) of predictor variables of intrinsic motivation. to explore which independent variables best predicted affective commitment and intrinsic motivation further, multiple regression analysis was conducted. the variance inflation factor determined that multi-collinearity amongst the predictor variables was negligible, as vif = 1.42 and thus below 5 (carlsson & lundström, 2002). the overall regression model was significant when using inmrs, enmrs and emrs as predictors for affective commitment (f3, 389 = 123.18, p < 0.01). inmrs, enmrs and emrs predicted 48.3% of variability in the criterion variable (r = .70). all rewards categories were significant predictors (significance level 5%), with inmrs emerging as the strongest predictor (table 7). the regression model was also significant when using inmrs, enmrs and emrs to predict intrinsic motivation (f3, 389 = 48.54, p < 0.05). the regression model accounted for 26.7% of variance in intrinsic motivation scores (r = .52). the standardised beta coefficients (table 8) show that emrs are no longer a significant predictor of intrinsic motivation (p = .16) after controlling for inmrs and enmrs. these results thus indicate partial support for hypotheses 2 and 5. as expected, favourable perceptions of inmrs are more strongly associated with the dependent variables than emrs. however, contrary to assumptions, there was no difference in the strength of association between the two types of extrinsic rewards and the two dependent variables. the multiple regression analysis provided a slightly more differentiated picture: although the bivariate correlations between extrinsic emrs and enmrs with intrinsic motivation indicated a similar strength only enmrs significantly predicted intrinsic motivation. this indicates that when considering intrinsic and the two types of extrinsic rewards together, monetary rewards do not explain unique variance in intrinsic motivation. thus, employee satisfaction with enmrs seem to be more important than satisfaction with monetary rewards in predicting staff motivation. discussion top ↑ the aim of this study was to assess the relationship between employees’ favourable perceptions of rewards, affective commitment and intrinsic motivation. the findings by and large support the proposed hypotheses. the following three main findings were revealed: • the more satisfied employees are with either of the reward types under investigation, the more affectively committed and intrinsically motivated they are. • this relationship is stronger for intrinsic than for extrinsic rewards. • satisfaction with monetary rewards does not predict intrinsic motivation when considered in combination with enmrs and inmrs satisfaction. these results highlight that all types of rewards are relevant in building a motivated and committed workforce. however, the three types of rewards investigated in this study have different relative importance. the satisfaction employees derive from the intrinsic characteristics of their job, such as responsibility and tasks appeal, is more important for intrinsic motivation and emotional attachment to the organisation than external rewards in the form of monetary benefits or supervisory support. these findings are in agreement with the outcomes of past research. melancon et al. (2010) found that intrinsic and extrinsic non-monetary as well as monetary rewards have a positive relationship with affective commitment, but intrinsic rewards, such as role clarity and autonomy, are more strongly associated with affective commitment. similarly, the current results confirm the findings of deci (1972), deci et al. (1999) and brown and sheppard (1997) with regards to intrinsic motivation. whilst all three types of rewards are associated with intrinsic motivation, non-monetary rewards are more strongly related to the latter. the current research provides interesting findings for extrinsic monetary rewards in that, in conjunction with intrinsic and extrinsic non-monetary rewards, monetary rewards predict employees’ affective commitment but not their intrinsic motivation. this can be explained using the norm of reciprocity and perceptions of fairness and equity. when organisations show commitment towards employees and provide substantively fair bonuses and salary packages that are gratifying, employees reciprocate their loyalty in the form of affective commitment (burke, 2002). however, the same does not apply to intrinsic motivation because, being extrinsic in nature, monetary rewards are more likely to lead to extrinsic motivation. the purpose of this research was to explore to what extent types of rewards are related to employee attitudes amongst employees in south african workplaces. this was deemed important because internationally the relationships between rewards and employee attitudes have been extensively investigated but research conducted in the south african context has been scarce. the results of this study demonstrated that by and large the relationships between different types of rewards, and affective commitment and intrinsic motivation were similar to those found in other societies. this is important, as this finding contradicts huang and van de vliert’s (2003) view that employees in poorer countries are satisfied with the basics of the employment relationship, which in south africa include fair monetary rewards. huang and van de vliert argued that employees in economically developed countries, on the other hand, tend to take survival for granted. in those countries values attached to non-monetary rewards such as satisfaction and quality of work-life are perceived as more important than monetary rewards. although south africa is considered an advanced emerging economy (ftse group, 2011), the results of this study are more in line with what huang and van de vliert would expect to emerge in well-developed countries. this could be explained with the particular characteristics of the sample used in this study. the majority of participants were relatively highly educated employees who had at least obtained a first diploma or degree. this indicates that participants in this study were individuals living above the poverty line and thus in circumstances similar to those in economically developed countries. had the sample consisted of a majority of low-skilled or unskilled employees who are representative of the poorer local population, the results might have been different. however, organisations are particular concerned about retaining their highly skilled workforce, as it is more difficult to replace these than a lesser skilled employee. it is thus exactly the demographic group represented in this study that is of most interest to organisations. south african employers thus need to take cognisance of the fact that monetary rewards seem to have less relevance in creating and maintaining a motivated and committed workforce in comparison to non-monetary and in particular intrinsic rewards. this is important, as previous research has established a link between affective commitment and motivation and employees’ intention to quit in that less committed and motivated employees are more likely to leave the employment relationship (mowday, 1998; ramlall, 2004). satisfying employees’ needs and expectations are thus key aspects of retention; that is, organisations that seek to retain their highly skilled workforce need to provide employees with benefits other than those of a monetary nature. the results have shown that for highly educated employees in south africa non-monetary, particularly intrinsic rewards contribute more to creating commitment and intrinsic motivation. employers in south africa should thus place particular emphasis on designing jobs in such a way that employees find them intrinsically rewarding, for example, by ensuring employees are exposed to a variety of tasks and allowing them to challenge their potential. by strategically managing rewards which are more strongly associated with affective commitment and intrinsic motivation, employers can capitalise on the benefits of a committed workforce. limitations and directions for future research despite the significance of its findings this study carries two limitations. firstly, the design followed a correlational approach, meaning that cause and effect between the variables could not be established. it is not clear whether committed and motivated employees perceive their rewards more favourably or whether the favourable perception of rewards leads to an increased commitment and motivation. in interpreting the results it was assumed that the way in which rewards are perceived co-creates commitment and motivation. future research should seek to substantiate this inferred causal effect between the variables empirically.secondly, other potentially relevant variables were not taken into account. tang, kim and tang (2002), for example, suggest that perceptions of rewards may be affected by personality characteristics. for instance, type a employees are characterised by an extreme sense of competitiveness, aggressiveness, ambition and tend to value monetary rewards more than the non-monetary rewards. future research might thus want to examine whether personality variables affect the relationship between rewards and employees’ intrinsic motivation and affective commitment. conclusion the study was conducted to investigate how favourable perceptions of rewards are related to intrinsic motivation and affective commitment in south africa. a rewards taxonomy differentiated between intrinsic non-monetary, extrinsic non-monetary and extrinsic monetary rewards. despite its limitations, this study provides significant insights into understanding the contribution of different types of rewards to employees’ organisational attitudes in south africa. in line with past international literature, this study suggests that it is important for south african organisations to emphasise the value of intrinsic rewards as part of their rewards management strategies. by effectively managing their rewards strategies, organisations are likely to attract, retain and capitalise on the benefits of a loyal and high calibre workforce. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this paper. authors’ contributions the study was conducted by a.n. (university of cape town) as part of her honours in organisational psychology research project at the university of cape town in 2011. i.m. (university of cape town) was a.n.’s (university of cape town) supervisor and edited the work for publication. references top ↑ adeyemo, d.a., & aremu, a.o. (1999). career commitment among secondary school teachers in oyo state, nigeria: the role of biographical mediators. nigerian journal of applied psychology, 5(2), 184–194.allen, n.p., & meyer, j.p. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organisation. journal of occupational psychology, 63, 1–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.x amabile, t.m., hill, k.g., hennessey, b.a., & tighe, e.m. (1994). the work preference inventory: assessing intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations. journal of personality and social psychology, 66(5), 950–967. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.66.5.950, pmid:8014837 amabile, t.m., schatzel, e.a., moneta, g.b., & kramer, s.j. (2004). leader behaviors and the work environment for creativity: perceived leader support. the leadership quarterly, 15, 5–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2003.12.003 amabile, t.m., hill, k.g., hennessey, b.a., & tighe, e. (1994). the work preference inventory: assessing intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations. journal of personality and social psychology, 66, 950–967. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.66.5.950, pmid:8014837 asad, s., & dainty, a.r.j. (2005). job motivational factors from disparate occupational groups within the uk construction sector: a comparative analysis. journal of construction research, 6(2), 223–236. http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/s1609945105000341 bratton, j., & gold, j. (2007). human resource management: theory and practice. (4th edn.). new york: palgrave macmillan. brown, j., & sheppard, b. (1997, august). teacher librarians in learning organizations. paper presented at the annual conference of the international association of school librarianship, canada. retrieved september 22, 2011, from http://eric.ed.gov/pdfs/ed412959.pdf buitendach, j.h., & de witte, h. (2005). job insecurity, extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction and affective organisational commitment of maintenance workers in a parastatal. south african journal of business management, 36(2), 27–37. burke, w.w. (2002). organizational change: theory and practice. sage: thousand oaks. carlsson, f., & lundström, s. (2002). economic freedom and growth: decomposing the effects. public choice, 112(3), 335–344. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1019968525415 chen, c.c., ford, c.m., & farris, g.f. (1999). do rewards benefit the organization? the effects of reward types and the perceptions of diverse r&d professionals. transactions on engineering management, 46(1), 47–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/17.740037 cnn money. (2011). 100 best companies to work for. retrieved september 22, 2011, from http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2011/full_list cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. hillsdale, new jersey: erlbaum. deci, e.l. (1972). the effects of contingent and non-contingent rewards and controls on intrinsic motivation. organizational behaviour and human performance, 8, 217–229. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(72)90047-5 deci, e.l., koestner, r., & ryan, r. (1999). a meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. psychological bulletin, 125(6), 627–626. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.125.6.627, pmid:10589297 eby, l.t., freeman, d.m., rush, m.c., & lance, c.e. (1999). motivational bases of affective organizational commitment: a partial test of an integrative theoretical model. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 72(4), 463–483. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317999166798 eisenberger, r., fasolo, p., & davis-lamastro, v. (1990). perceived organizational support and employee diligence, commitment, and innovation. journal of applied psychology, 75(1), 51–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.75.1.51 eisenberger, r., stinglhamber, f., vandenberghe, c., sucharski, i.l., & rhoades, l. (2002). perceived supervisor support: contributions to perceived organizational support and employee retention. journal of applied psychology, 87(3), 565–573. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.3.565, pmid:12090614 frey, b.s., & jegen, r. (2001). motivation crowding theory: a survey of empirical evidence. journal of economic surveys, 15(5), 589–611. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-6419.00150 ftse (2011). ftse global equity index series country classification: september 2011 update. retrieved september 22, 2011, from http://www.ftse.com/indices/country_classification/downloads/sept 2011/sept_2011_country_classification_update.pdf gagnon, m.a., & michael, j.h. (2004). outcomes of perceived supervisor support for wood production employees. forest products journal, 54(12), 172–177. greenberg, j. (2011). behavior in organisations. (10th edn.). essex: pearson education limited. herzberg, f. (1959). the motivation to work. new york: john wiley & sons. huang, x., & van de vliert, e. (2003). where intrinsic job satisfaction fails to work: national moderators of intrinsic motivation. journal of organizational behavior, 24(2), 159–179. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.186 kallerberg, a.l. (1977). work values and job rewards: a theory of job satisfaction. american social review, 42, 124–143. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2117735 kaiser, h.f. (1970). a second-generation little giffy. psychometrika, 35, 401–415. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf02291817 katz, r., & van maanan, j. (1977). the loci of work satisfaction: job interaction and policy. human relations, 30, 469–486. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001872677703000505 kim, w.g., leong, j.k., & lee, y.k. (2005). effect of service orientation on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intention of leaving in a casual dining chain restaurant. international journal of hospitality management, 24, 171–193. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2004.05.004 kinnear, l., & sutherland, m. (2001). money is fine, but what is the bottom-line. journal of the south african institute of people management, 19(1), 15–18. kirkpatrick, s.a., & locke, e.a. (1996). direct and indirect effects of three core charismatic leadership components on performance and attitudes. journal of applied psychology, 81, 36–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.81.1.36 kline, p. (1986). handbook of test construction: introduction to psychometric design. methuen: london. kuvaas, b. (2006). work performance, affective commitment, and work motivation: the roles of pay administration and pay level. journal of organizational behaviour, 27, 365–385. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.377 malhotra, n., budhwar, p., & prowse, p. (2007). linking rewards to commitment: an empirical investigation of four uk call centres. international journal of human resource management, 18(12), 2095–2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190701695267 melancon, j.p., noble, s.m., & noble, c.h. (2010). managing rewards to enhance relational worth. journal of the academy marketing science, 39(3), 341–362. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11747-010-0206-5 meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1991). a three component conceptualization of organizational commitment. human resource management review, 1, 61–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/1053-4822(91)90011-z meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1997). commitment in the workplace: theory, research and application. thousand oaks, ca: sage. mottaz, c.j. (1985). the relative importance of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards as determinants of work satisfaction. the sociological quarterly, 26(3), 365–385. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1985.tb00233.x mowday, r.t. (1998). reflections on the study and relevance of organizational commitment. human resource management review, 8(4), 387–401. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(99)00006-6 nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory. (2nd edn.). mcgraw-hill: new york. o’reilly, c.a., & caldwell, d.f. (1980). job choice: the impact of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on subsequent satisfaction and commitment. journal of applied psychology, 65(5), 559–565. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.65.5.559 perkins, d.n. (1988). the possibility of invention. in r.j. sternberg (ed.), the nature of creativity, (n.p.). cambridge university press. pierce, w.d., cameron, j., banko, k.m., & so, s. (2003). positive effects of rewards and performance standards on intrinsic motivation. the psychological record, 53, 561–579. porter, l.w., & lawler, e.e. (1968). managerial attitudes and performance. homewood, il: dorsey press. ramlall, s. (2004). review of employee motivation theories and their implications for employee retention within organisations. journal of american academy of business, 5(1), 52–63. randall, d.m., & o’driscoll, m.p. (1997). affective versus calculative commitment: human resource implications. the journal of social psychology, 137(5), 606–617. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224549709595482 rupert, n. (2011, june 10). google staff highest paid workers in technology sector. guardian.co.uk. retrieved september 22, 2011, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jun/10/technology-google ryan, r.m., mims, v., & koestner, r. (1983). relation of reward contingency and interpersonal context to intrinsic motivation: a review and test using cognitive evaluation theory. journal of personality and social psychology, 45, 736–750. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.45.4.736 selden, s.c., & brewer, g.a. (2000). work motivation in the senior executive service: testing the high performance cycle theory. journal of public administration research and theory, 3, 531–550. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.jpart.a024280 skinner, e.a., & belmont, m.j. (1993). motivation in the classroom: reciprocal effects of teacher behavior and student engagement across the school year. journal of educational psychology, 85(4), 571–581. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.85.4.571 spector, p. (1997). job satisfaction: application, assessment, causes and consequences. california: sage. squires, g. (2001). management as a professional discipline. journal of management studies, 38(4), 473–487. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00245 tang, t.l., kim, j.k., & tang, t.l. (2002). endorsement of the money ethic, income and life satisfaction: a comparison of full-time employees, part-time employees and non-employed university students. journal of managerial psychology, 17(6), 442–467. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940210439388 the google culture. (2011). google corporate information. retrieved september 22, 2011, from http://www.google.com/about/corporate/company/culture.html ulrich, d. (1997). human resource champions. boston, ma: harvard business school press. van knippenberg, d. (2000). work motivation and performance: a social identity perspective. international association for applied psychology, 49(3), 357–371. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1464-0597.00020 wayne, s., shore, l., & liden, r. (1997). organizational support and leader-member exchange: a social exchange perspective. the academy of management journal, 40, 82–111. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/257021 weatherly, r.l. (2002). effects of external rewards on internal motivation and job satisfaction. master’s thesis. retrieved n.d., from http://etd.lib.ttu.edu/theses/available/etd-0731200831295017084509/unrestricted/31295017084509.pdf wiley, c. (1995). what motivates employees according to over 40 years of motivation surveys. international journal of manpower, 18(3), 263–280. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437729710169373 williams, m.l., brower, h.h., ford, l.r., williams, l.j., & carraher, s. (2008). a comprehensive model and measure of compensation satisfaction. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 81, 639–668. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317907x248851 wright, b.e., & rohrbaugh, j. (2001, october). antecedents and correlates of organizational commitment: testing the contributions of a four-tier conceptual model. paper presented at the 6th national public management research conference. retrieved n.d., from http:// www.spea.indiana.edu/npmrc6/rohrbaugh.doc 4potgieter.qxd the role of value disciplines in establishing a customer service culture in today’s ever-changing organisational environment, the strategic link to organisational effectiveness and competitiveness is also based on meeting and exceeding the needs and expectations of customers. to enable organisations to do so, they need to understand what the value orientation of their specific customer base is. in simpler terms, what would be perceived as value adding by the customers specific to their sector and product or service? organisations that focus their strategic directions and efforts on the provision of an overarching customer service experience are those that become world-class. in the world competitiveness report (garelli, 1999), south africa was ranked 47th out of 47 participating countries when evaluated in terms of creating customer value. south african organisations can no longer function within time capsules where the isolation of the past has shielded them from worldclass competitive forces. globalisation and the changes in the new economic order have forced south african organisations to become more customer needs driven. treacy and wiersema (1993; 1995) have identified three value disciplines on which organisations should focus. adopting these value orientations and aligning them to the overall strategic direction and functioning of the organisation will enable them to meet and exceed customer expectations and thus add “real” value to the customer’s experience. the three value disciplines are described as follows by different authors: operational excellence means providing customers with reliable products or services at competitive prices and delivered with minimal difficult y or inconvenience (french, 1995; gubman, 1995; treacy & wiersema, 1993; zemke, 1993). customer intimacy means segmenting and targeting markets precisely and then tailoring offerings to match exactly the demands of those niches. companies that excel in customer intimacy combine detailed customer knowledge with operational flexibility so they can respond quickly to almost any need, from customising a product to fulfilling special requests (french, 1995; gubman, 1995; treacy & wiersema, 1993; zemke, 1993). product leadership means offering customers leading-edge products and services that consistently enhance the customer’s use or application of the product, thereby making their rivals’ goods obsolete (french, 1995; gubman, 1995; treacy & wiersema, 1993; zemke, 1993). determining the preferred value orientation of the organisation’s customers is only the starting point. leading-edge organisations not only identif y the unique value they can add to their customers, but they also ensure that they strategically align their processes and people practices around the delivery thereof. in all three of the disciplines described above, the operational model that the organisation is following will include enabling and driving factors around the specifics required by the value adding needs. in operational excellence the main focus will be process and systems based, in customer intimacy it will be relationship management based and in product leadership it will be driven by innovation, research and development (treacy & wiersema, 1993). the strategic planning and management of products, people practices and processes of an organisation should thus be organised into a value delivery system embedded in a customer service cult ure. treacy and wiersema (1995) highlight the fact that business strategies should be looked at from the viewpoint of how/where and what the customer regards as value. this strategic value delivery system should focus the organisation within this required customer preference, while still achieving parit y with industry standards in the other two value disciplines. organisations that want to align their people practices, processes and products (embedded in a customer service culture) strategically need firstly to determine the value orientation of their customer base. to ensure effectiveness in providing the value the customers prefer, organisations need to have the competency profile, enabling processes and organisational a potgieter g roodt gr@ujhb.ac.za department of human resources management rand afrikaans university abstract the purpose of the study was to evaluate a questionnaire for the assessment of a customer intimacy culture in the value discipline context. the main survey was completed by using a convenience sample of permanent employees (n = 200) at line, middle and top management levels of an organisation in the entertainment industry. this sample was taken from staff on structured developmental paths, while attending scheduled training events. the 169 completed questionnaires that were returned were used for the final data analyses. owing to the small sample size, an adapted procedure for firstand second-level factor analyses was used, followed by an iterative item analysis. the preliminary findings suggest that the questionnaire can be applied for assessing customer intimacy cultures. opsomming die doel van hierdie studie was om ’n vraelys te evalueer vir die beoordeling van ’n kliëntintimiteitskultuur in die waardedissipline konteks. die hoofopname is voltooi deur ’n gerieflikheidsteekproef (n = 200) van permanente personeel in lyn, middelen topbestuursvlakke van ’n organisasie in die vermaaklikheidsbedryf te gebruik. dié steekproef is geneem vanuit personeel in gestruktureerde ontwikkelingspaaie wat geskeduleerde opleidingsgeleenthede bygewoon het. die 169 voltooide vraelyste wat terugontvang is, is vir die finale dataontleding gebruik. weens die klein steekproefgrootte, is ’n aangepaste prosedure vir eersteen tweedevlakfaktorontleding gebruik, gevolg deur ’n iteratiewe itemontleding. die voorlopige bevindinge dui daarop dat die vraelys toegepas kan word vir die beoordeling van ’n kliëntintimiteitskultuur. measuring a customer intimacy culture in a value discipline context requests for copies should be addressed to: a potgieter, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 25 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (3), 25-31 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (3), 25-31 systems to achieve the required results (cf. dannhauser & roodt, 2001). thus, organisational focus is best applied if the organisation strives to add maximum value by aligning its core strategies around this preference by means of its supporting culture, processes, methods and structures. each of the three said value disciplines demand a different core organisational capability. these core capabilities are presented in table 1. the ten key people strategies (dimensions a-j) are also presented in the context of each value discipline. these ten people strategies are based on the initial five strategies of a model developed by gubman (1995). the framework presented in table 1 thus serves as the theoretical basis for the development of the comprehensive cult ure assessment questionnaire (caq) focusing on all three value disciplines. the primary objective of the current study is to evaluate the section of the caq that focuses only on the customer intimacy value discipline. table 1 key people strategies in the value disciplines value disciplines operational product customer excellence (oe) leadership (pl) intimacy (ci) core providing providing leading segmenting and organisational reliable products edge products targeting markets capability or services at and services, precisely, and competitive consistently tailoring offerings prices and enhancing the to match exactly delivered with use of the the demands of minimal product/service – those niches. difficulty and making rivals’ customer inconvenience. goods obsolete. sensitivity and flexibility. dimensions a: personnel emphasize provide a “satisfied strategy motivation and comfortable, employees satisf y corporate spirit. positive, creative customers.” rely build teams that environment. on values to deliver costprovide basic shape culture and effective value, needs. remove messages. promote and high quality, them from hr relationship user-friendly policies and building as products and management priority. services. concerns. do not differentiate between people. b: organising teams: project, product customer needs process, product groupings based driven, but can or customer on creative be individual or based. structure – team team based. knowledge is or individual. strong focus on shared. best separate sales relationship practice and creation building. all applications. functions. individuals constantly selling to customers – improving relations. c: personnel criteria: logical, criteria: courage, criteria: highly procurement efficient, cost innovation, responsive, conscious, creativity, high excellent resourceful, technological listening skills, analytical, development, empathetic, following long term focus, consultative, procedures, future focus, perceptive, initiating selfpossibility flexible values growth, shortfocused, pride in driven. good term focus, being first in communication systematic, team product quality, and technical player, good getting it right. skills. able to communicator, assess needs. detail oriented, spontaneous problem solver. problem-solvers, understand motivation. longterm relationship focus. d: development emphasis on emphasis on emphasis on methods technical and organisational learning, team creative training. values, behaviours, research skills, relationship process product skills, management and development and communication control, product, team processes. skills, planning, time and quality knowledge control. sharing, e.g. new products or services. e: achievement measures: hard measures: measures: numbers, results, contribution relationship on time, on made to new and productive budget, project innovative behaviours. new completion and product/service customers gained, quality, cost development. customers reduction. peer revenues from retained and feedback on new products, lateral selling. team behaviours. shipment statistics. f: remuneration strategic rewards not rewards tied to approach. pay for used as a values. based on performance, strategic tool, behavioural, individual and no direct subjective team basis, below differentiation. assessments. market base plus rewards kept profit sharing – incentives. neutral. salaries individual variable and benefits contribution incentives based above market. recognised. broad on organisation, profit sharing – benefit choices. unit or team equal results. profit distribution. sharing. defined benefit plans. g: strategy process and innovation, relationship systems based. research and management development based. based. h: core values reliability, change customer accessibility, sensitivity, centricity and quality, market creativity, focus sensitivity to leadership. on internal value customer adding. expectations. i: core abilities consistency in market leadership customer provision, follow and continuous relationship up and support. benchmarking. building and retention strategies. j: business model structured – flexible – change flexible – people process driven. sensitive. project centred, “flat” functional team groupings. organisation. groupings from table 1 one can also infer that companies adhering to a particular value discipline have different modus operandi in differentiating themselves from other companies in the other two value disciplines. these modus operandi thus serve as the basis for establishing a unique organisational culture. a review of the literature revealed that the construct of ‘organisational culture’ remains one of the most contested areas of academic inquiry in the broader field of organisational studies (cf. du toit, 2003; petkoon, 2003; smith, 2003). organisational culture is characterised by competing definitions, epistemologies and research paradigms. controversies exist about virtually all aspects of this construct, including the mechanics and the extent of its contribution to organisational performance (erwee, lynch, millitt, smith & roodt, 2001). despite these differences, a seemingly widely accepted definition of culture is the one by schein (1985, p. 9): a pattern of basic assumptions – invented, discovered or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration – that has worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems. potgieter, roodt26 prominent researchers such as schein, delisi, kampas and sonduck (2003) have pointed out that organisational culture plays an important role in supporting and executing organisational strategies. if an organisation does not succeed in developing and establishing a supportive culture, the organisation will most probably fail. within the strategic framework of the value disciplines, it becomes imperative that an organisation should develop a culture that will support the selected value discipline. there should be an alignment bet ween the strategic intent and the desired organisational cult ure and this process should be managed consciously and actively. this implies that managers should know the required key characterist ics that they want to foster and grow. organisational culture assessment instruments can play a key role in this process. one way of classif ying organisational culture assessment instruments is to distinguish between objective and subjective organisational culture measures. subjective organisational culture is assessed, based on own personal perceptions, attitudes and experiences. objective organisational culture, on the other hand, is assessed by means of objective organisational characteristics. the instrument (the caq) used in the current study is based on the latter approach. the objective approach has some limitations, as was pointed out by research conducted on a different instrument, the culture assessment instrument (cai) of martins (1989) (cf. du toit, 2003; petkoon, 2003). the underlying theoretical model of the cai (cf. du toit, 2003; martins, 1989; petkoon, 2003) also focused on different organisational sub-systems such as organisational goals and strategies, human-social processes, struct ures, tasks and technologies (comparable to those presented in table 1). the level of assessing these characteristics is normally on the visible first level of schein’s (1985) typology of culture. the benefits of quantitative measures of organisational culture are clear (cf. du toit, 2003; petkoon, 2003), but also have some limitations in the sense that they do not tap into the deeper levels of schein’s typology of culture, that may result in low levels of discriminant validity (the ability to discriminate between the cultures or sub-cultures of organisations). this may also be the case with the caq. the problem of low discriminant validity seems to be that organisations possess systems, procedures and processes that have similar characteristics. there may be a possibility that organisational culture assessment instruments that follow the objective approach are not sensitive enough to register the finer nuances of these differences in organisational structures, processes and systems. this should be kept in mind when designing a culture assessment instrument that will also comply with the requirements of discriminant validity (cf. du toit, 2003; petkoon, 2003). discriminant validit y is an important facet of validity that will enable instruments to distinguish successfully bet ween different organisations’ cultures and sub-cultures based on their key characteristics such as processes, structures and systems (cf. du toit & roodt, 2003; petkoon & roodt, 2004). a recent overview of organisational cult ure research (ashkanasy, wilderom & peterson, 2000) indicates that discriminant validity, as an important facet of validity, was not addressed at all. the secondary objective of the study may shed some light on this aspect of the caq. purpose of the study given the above discussion, the objectives of the study are stated as follows: � the primary purpose of the study is to evaluate a questionnaire (the caq) for the assessment of a customer intimacy culture in the value discipline context. � a secondary objective of the study is to assess whether the instrument could discriminate between culture mean scores of groups created on the basis of selected biographical variables. research design research approach the research approach followed in this study was quantitative and cross-sectional by using a typical, non-random field survey method. the data analysis conducted was correlational and ex post facto (identif ying relationships retrospectively) by nature, using the primary data generated by the survey. the process followed for collecting the data was an anonymous, unlinked, survey conducted among the line, middle and top management levels of the organisation. surveys were completed in a training environment as part of internal developmental sessions over a period of two months at the start of 2003. research methodology the research methodology followed in this study will be discussed under the following four headings: research participants a population of 200 employees of a company in the entertainment industry (adopting a customer intimacy strategy) was targeted for this field survey. a relatively high response rate of about 70% yielded 139 completed questionnaires and therefore forced the researchers to supplement the numbers with about 33 questionnaires obtained through other surveys. a total number of 169 usable questionnaires was included in the final analysis. most of the respondents were under the age of 30 (59,7%) and only 10,7% were over the age of 40. this distribution is typical for this kind of industry. the organisation has only been in existence for four years, but most of these individuals have come from other organisations in the industry and were placed directly into supervisory or management positions based on experience, not performance. this is not unique, as the industry has only been deregulated since 1997 and most of the role players in the industry are relatively new. table 2 respondents’ biographical particulars biographical variable count percentage age up to 30 years 101 59,7% 31 – 40 50 29,6% 41 – 50 11 6,5% 51 years and older 7 4,2% total 169 100% gender male 88 52,1% female 81 47,9% total 169 100% qualifications lower than grade 12 16 9,4% grade 12 67 39,4% higher than grade 12 (tertiary) 86 51,2% total 169 100% level in organisation supervisory level and lower 136 81% middle management 29 16,6% senior management 4 2,4% total 169 100% a customer initimacy culture 27 there is a relatively even distribution between male and female respondents – 52,1% male and 47,9% female. the qualifications were mostly on a grade 12 or a higher level. it was interesting to note that although most of the individuals were functioning at supervisory level or lower (81%), 52% of the individuals who participated had some form of qualification at a level higher than grade 12. the measuring instrument the instrument used in this study is the customer intimacy section of the culture assessment questionnaire (caq) that was developed by gates1. the caq consists of three scales based on the three value disciplines described by treacy and wiersema (1993, 1995). the three scales identif y the presence of a focus towards operational excellence, product leadership and customer intimacy in organisational cultures respectively. only the scale aimed at the measurement of a customer intimacy culture was used in the current study. all the items of the caq were stated in question format while the response scale format was a seven-point intensity scale, on which only the extreme poles were defined. the lowest rating of one indicates a low preference, while the top rating of seven indicates a high preference. the following ten dimensions were included in this scale (refer to table 1 for a description of the dimensions): � dimension a: personnel strategy � dimension b: organising � dimension c: personnel procurement � dimension d: development � dimension e: achievement � dimension f: remuneration � dimension g: strategy � dimension h: core values � dimension i: core abilities � dimension j: business model on average, there were about ten items for each dimension in an attempt to tap into each sub-domain of a particular dimension. there are no known comparative research findings published on the use of this instrument (or any similar instrument) in an organisational context. however, previous research has been completed to consider the measurement of value preferences among customers, and to evaluate empirically the measuring instrument in determining the value orientations of a customer base (cf. dannhauser & roodt, 2001). research procedure the top management structure of the organisation was briefed in advance on the purpose of the study and permission was granted to access its staff on developmental paths, while on scheduled training. during the period in which sampling took place, all the individuals in the organisation at line, middle and top management levels were completing modular training specifically related to their planned individual development plans, thus ensuring that they all had an equal chance of being included in the sample. although all the individuals in the identified sample were briefed on the purpose of the study, participation was voluntary. strict control was maintained over the completed questionnaires. the first author administered all the questionnaires to ensure consistency in the application process. statistical analyses the collation of the data, the analyses thereof and the generation of results were conducted by the statistical consultation service of the rand afrikaans university. the analyses of the data were conducted in two broad phases. the first phase focused on the two levels of factor analyses and the iterative item analyses. the aim is first to determine the suitability of the item intercorrelation matrix for factor analysis. the goal of factor analysis is to determine a smaller number of common factors that help explain these correlations (hair, anderson, tatham & black, 1998). thus, the variables must be related to one another, preferably to a moderate degree, in order for the factor analysis to be appropriate. this may be done by using a variety of methods, including the kaiser-meyer-olkin index or bartlett’s test of sphericity. the kaiser-meyer-olkin index procedure for determining the suitabilit y of the correlation matrix for factor analysis involves the computation of the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy (msa). the kmo is an index for comparing the magnitude of the observed correlation coefficients to the size of the partial correlation coefficients (zillmer & vuz, 1995). bartlett’s test of sphericity is designed to test the null hypothesis, which states that variables in the correlation matrix are not related. as the value of the test increases and the associated significance level decreases, the likelihood increases that the null hypothesis can be rejected and the alternative hypothesis accepted (i.e. the variables that constitute the correlation matrix are related). in contrast, as the value of the test decreases and the associated significance level increases, the likelihood that the null hypothesis is true increases and, in turn, the alternative hypothesis must be rejected. the use of bartlett’s test of sphericity is recommended for analyses where sample size is relatively small (e.g. n = 100) (zillmer & vuz, 1995). in the second phase of the analysis process, anovas and t-tests were performed to determine whether there were any significant differences in culture mean scores for the different age groups, genders, qualification levels or levels in the organisation. results first phase of the data analyses the results of the first level factor analyses are reported next. first level factor analyses owing to the small sample size, an adjusted procedure for the first level factor analyses was used. this procedure entailed the parcelling of items in theoretical dimensions. the corresponding kmo coefficients for each dimension of the caq are reported in table 3 and it seems that they are above and beyond acceptable levels. as displayed in table 3 the obtained bartlett’s test values for each dimension of the caq are all statistically significant. based on the obtained kmo coefficients and bartlett’s test values, item intercorrelations and first level factor analyses followed by iterative item analyses were then performed on these item parcels (dimensions). this procedure of parcelling was followed in order to comply with the requirement of an optimal ratio (1:5) between the number of items and respondents (bryant & yarnold, 1995). owing to limited space, all these calculations will not be reported here. table 3 indicates that even though the overall dimensional representation is not sufficient to make valid decisions on reliability, the reliability analyses provide information needed to proceed with the factor analysis on the second level. thus, from the results of the analyses, it is clear that all the dimensions yielded acceptable cronbach alphas indicating high internal consistencies. second level factor analysis on the second level factor analysis, the sub-scores of the ten dimensions were intercorrelated. this intercorrelation matrix of potgieter, roodt28 1 global assessment tools for excellence in service sub-scores was also tested for the suitability for factor analysis, using the kmo measure of sampling adequacy and bartlett’s test. the obtained values (in table 4) indicate that the matrix is suitable for further factor analysis. table 3 kmo measures of sampling adequacy, bartlett’s tests of sphericity and cronbach alphas per theoretical dimension of the caq theoretical dimension items kaiser bartlett’s cronbach meyer test alphas olkin msa x2 df sig personnel strategy 10 0,677 108,891 3 0,000 0,8607 organising 10 0,500 36,886 1 0,000 0,8334 personnel procurement 12 0,500 68,286 1 0,000 0,8712 development 11 0,500 89,611 1 0,000 0,8887 achievement 11 0,500 84,990 1 0,000 0,9131 remuneration 13 0,500 46,770 1 0,000 0,9075 strategy 13 0,722 180,505 3 0,000 0,9078 core values 13 0,600 150,818 1 0,000 0,9385 core abilities 12 0,600 91,390 1 0,000 0,8972 business model 16 0,741 221,615 3 0,000 0,9295 table 4 kmo measure of sampling adequacy and bartlett’s test for sphericity of the unreduced subscore intercorrelation matrix of theoretical dimensions kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy 0,916 bartlett’s test of sphericity approx. chi-square 970,142 df 45 sig. 0,000 after the sub-scores of the ten dimensions were intercorrelated, eigenvalues were calculated. a single factor was postulated, based on the obtained eigenvalues. the result of this calculation is illustrated in table 5. table 5 eigenvalues of the unreduced subscore intercorrelation matrix of theoretical dimensions initial eigenvalues factor total % of variance cumulative % 1 6,932 69,322 69,322 2 0,807 8,065 77,387 3 0,553 5,531 82,918 4 0,440 4,401 87,319 5 0,339 3,389 90,708 6 0,260 2,603 93,311 7 0,212 2,120 95,431 8 0,180 1,801 97,232 9 0,146 1,459 98,691 10 0,131 1,309 100,000 trace 10,0 extraction method: principal axis factoring table 6 indicates that a single factor was extracted by using principal axis factoring. four iterations were required for the solution to converge. all the dimensions indicate high loadings, varying between 0,88 and 0,75 on the single extracted factor. table 6 unrotated factor matrix of theoretical dimensions theoretical dimensions factor 1 communalities strategy 0,887 0,787 business model 0,852 0,726 organising 0,837 0,701 core abilities 0,836 0,700 achievement 0,813 0,661 personnel procurement 0,809 0,654 development 0,795 0,632 core values 0,770 0,593 personnel strategy 0,761 0,579 remuneration 0,752 0,566 with the extraction of the single factor indicated above, table 7 shows the obtained sub-score means, variances and cronbach alphas. the overall internal consistency of the instrument is an acceptable 0,95. table 7 reliability statistics of the culture assessment questionnaire factor scale mean if scale variance corrected factor– alpha if factor factor deleted if factor deleted total correlation deleted 1 43,6689 62,1649 0,7409 0,9463 2 43,5838 63,0459 0,8162 0,9435 3 44,0506 60,6372 0,7880 0,9444 4 43,7260 61,6909 0,7775 0,9447 5 43,7738 60,5178 0,7927 0,9442 6 43,9274 62,2275 0,7322 0,9467 7 43,9103 60,4041 0,8611 0,9410 8 43,2700 62,3501 0,7433 0,9462 9 43,7352 62,6876 0,8092 0,9436 10 43,5944 62,1393 0,8242 0,9429 alpha = 0,9496 standardised item alpha = 0,9506 the intercorrelations of the different theoretical dimensions are presented in table 8. it is clear that the correlations are fairly high (ranging from 0,53 to 0,84), suggesting that all these dimensions share some common variance. the obtained correlations confirm the convergent validity of the scale, because no specific dimension appears to be unrelated to, or divergent from, other dimensions of the scale. second phase of the data analyses no significant differences were found (not reported here, owing to the non-significant nature of the results and limited space), which may raise questions about the discriminant validit y of the measuring instrument, an important prerequisite (cf. du toit & roodt, 2003; petkoon & roodt, 2004) that is often not dealt with in culture assessment instruments (cf. ashkanasy et al., 2000). a customer initimacy culture 29 discussion the study was conducted in two broad phases. the first phase focused on the factor analyses on two levels – first and second level factor analysis and reliability analysis. the results indicated a robust internal consistency for the questionnaire (0,95) as it clearly displays the necessary elements to measure what it is supposed to measure. furthermore, high intercorrelations between theoretical dimensions provide evidence for the convergent validity of the scale and eliminate any evidence for the divergent validity of any dimension. a first level factor analysis was completed and high internal consistency levels were found on all ten dimensions of the survey. this confirms the factorial validity as well as the face and content validity of the instrument. as the sampling group was relatively small, it was decided to follow a process of parcelling items on the theoretical dimensions and factor analyse dimensions separately to determine the internal reliability of each dimension separately. a second level factor analysis was completed and one factor was extracted leading to a single scale with a reliability coefficient of 0,95. the study indicates that the customer intimacy section of the culture assessment questionnaire (caq) can be used to determine the customer intimacy culture reliably in the value discipline context. these findings support the first objective of the study. the dimensions in the measurement tool correlate directly with the core elements of strategically directed cultures within the organisation (refer to table 1). they can be used to measure reliably the current customer intimacy orientation and to identif y focus areas for change or development interventions. the research of treacy and wiersema (1993; 1995) indicates that total organisational strategic focus (people, process and product/service) is needed to address fully the customer’s value adding requirements. however, the other value disciplines cannot be discarded and should at least be of an industry standard. implications for organisation strategy and culture the strategic link to organisational effectiveness and competitiveness is also based on meeting and exceeding customers’ needs and expectations. to enable organisations to do so, they need to understand what the value orientation of their specific customer base is. more importantly, they also need to focus continuously on the strategic alignment of their people, processes and products to ensure that they create and maintain an organisational strategy and culture that can sustain an achievement of the required value orientation in an everchanging strategic organisational environment. the use of the caq to assess the presence of the customer intimacy value orientation can assist the organisational leadership in their strategic planning and leadership processes in that it indicates the presence of the orientation and identified areas of development/change required for success. additional application areas could also include: � assisting organisations with the identification of problem areas in their customer intimacy orientation and the identification of focus areas for improvement. � assisting in the clarification of overall strategic focus areas in terms of customer service. if more organisations in south africa focused on these areas the perceptions of service delivery in this country could be improved. potgieter, roodt30 table 8 intercorrelations of culture dimensions section a: section b: section c: section d: section e: section f: section g: section h: section i: section j: personnel organising personnel development achievement remuneration strategy core values core abilities business strategy procurement model section a: personnel pearson correlation 1 0,780 0,678 0,586 0,673 0,554 0,625 0,569 0,573 0,638 strategy n 165 158 153 155 155 146 151 152 146 144 section b: pearson correlation 0,780 1 0,721 0,657 0,691 0,605 0,684 0,644 0,700 0,700 organising n 158 163 153 153 154 146 153 151 145 143 section c: pearson correlation 0,678 0,721 1 0,751 0,672 0,561 0,650 0,539 0,657 0,608 personnel n 153 153 158 148 148 140 145 146 142 140 procurement section d: pearson correlation 0,586 0,657 0,751 1 0,801 0,636 0,700 0,534 0,678 0,613 development n 155 153 148 159 155 142 147 147 140 139 section e: pearson correlation 0,673 0,691 0,672 0,801 1 0,633 0,711 0,586 0,647 0,694 achievement n 155 154 148 155 159 144 147 147 141 139 section f: pearson correlation 0,554 0,605 0,561 0,636 0,633 1 0,724 0,682 0,685 0,662 remuneration n 146 146 140 142 144 150 142 142 137 135 section g: strategy pearson correlation 0,625 0,684 0,650 0,700 0,711 0,724 1 0,705 0,813 0,781 n 151 153 145 147 147 142 156 151 145 142 section h: pearson correlation 0,569 0,644 0,539 0,534 0,586 0,682 0,705 1 0,767 0,804 core values n 152 151 146 147 147 142 151 157 146 142 section i: pearson correlation 0,573 0,700 0,657 0,678 0,647 0,685 0,813 0,767 1 0,843 core abilities n 146 145 142 140 141 137 145 146 151 140 section j: pearson correlation 0,638 0,700 0,608 0,613 0,694 0,662 0,781 0,804 0,843 1 business model n 144 143 140 139 139 135 142 142 140 147 correlations are significant at the 0,01 level (2-tailed). � given the results of the world competitiveness report (garelli, 1999), it could become one of the main diagnostic tools used to plan improvements for service delivery. limitations of the study the limitations of this study may be the following: � the study was conducted only in a single organisation in the entertainment industry. � due to the small sample size, an adapted procedure for factor analyses was conducted based on specific assumptions about the relationships between variables. � the findings of this study are not intended to make generalisations about the industry, but are focused on the evaluation of the instrument. � it appears as though the instrument lacks discriminant validity, an issue that needs to be investigated more closely. the above does not however discount the fact that the results of the study indicate that the measurement tool can be used to determine the presence of a customer intimacy value discipline reliably in an organisational context. suggestions for further research it is suggested that further research should be conducted to test the three culture assessment instruments of all three value disciplines where organisations have been identified a priori in terms of their value orientation. the objective of the study would then be to test whether the instruments could classif y the organisations according to their value orientation. organisational leadership should focus strategically on the required customer preference, while still achieving parity in the other two value disciplines. the same study should be repeated, evaluating all three scales in the same environment, as this would provide a more holistic assessment of the presence of, and development areas in, each of the value disciplines. value of the study the results of the study indicate that the instrument can be used to measure culture accurately in the context of the value discipline of customer intimacy. upon further evaluation of the results achieved, the measuring instrument could become a valued tool to be used in preparing the organisation for success in a world of ever-changing customer demands. the tool could even be used as a guideline for human resources development practitioners to identif y the development of the competency profile for the organisation. broader use of the measurement tool could ultimately heighten the focus on the level of customer service in south african organisations, and thus improve south africa’s ranking on the international markets in terms of competitiveness related to customer service. conclusion based on the empirical findings, it can be concluded that the study achieved its objectives. it appears that the instrument can validly and consistently assess a company’s customer intimacy culture. it however appears that the instrument cannot discriminate between culture mean scores of different groups created by categorising groups according to biographical variables. references ashkanasy, n.m., wilderom, c.p.m. & peterson, m.f. (eds.) (2000). handbook of organizational culture and climate. california: sage publications, inc. bryant, f.b. & yarnold, p.r. (1995). principal components analysis and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. in grimm, l.g. & yarnold, p.r. (eds). reading and understanding multivariate analysis. american psychological association books. david, f.r. (1999). strategic management concepts. (7th edition). new jersey: prentice-hall inc. du toit, w.f. (2003). the discriminant validity of a culture assessment instrument: a comparison of company cultures. unpublished d phil thesis. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. du toit, w. & roodt, g. (2003). the discriminant validity of the culture assessment instrument: a comparison of company cultures. sa journal of human resource management, 1 (1), 77-84. erwee, r., lynch, b., millitt, b., smith, d. & roodt, g. (2001). cross-cultural equivalence of the organizational culture survey in australia. journal of industrial psychology, 27 (3), 7-12. exner, j.e. (ed.) (1995). issues and methods in rorscach research. california: sage publications. french, j.e. (1995). value disciplines in community bank management. bankers magazine, january – february, 44-48. garelli, s. (1999). world competitiveness report: 1999. geneva, switzerland: emf foundation. grimm, l.g. & yarnold, p.r. (eds). reading and understanding multivariate analysis. american psychological association books. gubman, e.l. aligning people strategies with customer value. compensation & benefits review, january – february, 15-22. hair, j.f., anderson, r.e., tatham, r.l. & black, w.c. (1998). multivariate data analysis. new jersey: prentice hall inc. howell, d.c. (1995). fundamental statistics for the behavioural science. california: wadsworth publishing company. huysamen, g.k. (1996). methodology for the social and behavioural sciences, south africa: international thomson publishing. martins, n. (1989). organisasiekultuur in ’n finansiële instelling [organisation culture in a financial institution]. unpublished d phil thesis. pretoria: university of pretoria. petkoon, l. (2003). the discriminant validity of a culture assessment instrument: a comparison of company sub-cultures. unpublished d phil thesis. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. petkoon, l. & roodt, g. (2004). the discriminant validity of the culture assessment instrument: a comparison of company sub-cultures. sa journal of industrial psychology, 30 (1), 74-82. schein, e.h. (1985). organisational culture and leadership. san francisco: jossey-bass. schein, e.h., delisi, p., kampas, p. & sonduck, m. (2003). dec is dead, long live dec: the lasting legacy of digital equipment corporation. san francisco: berrett-koehler publishers. smith, s. (2003). an evaluation of response scale formats of the culture assessment instrument. unpublished d. phil. thesis. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. treacy, m. & wiersema, f. (1993). customer intimacy and other value disciplines. har vard business review, february, 84-93. treacy, m. & wiersema, f. (1995). how market leaders keep their edge. fortune, 131 (2), 52-57. treacy, m. & wiersema, f. (1995). the discipline of market leaders. london: harper collins. treacy, m. (1995). you need a value discipline – but which one? fortune, 131 (7), 17. treacy, m. (1998) value leadership, strategic agility and organisational greatness. retrieved from the world wide web on: www.booksinternational.co/micheal_treacy,htm. zemke, r. (1993). creating customer value. training, 30 (9), 45-54. zillmer, e.a. & vuz, j.k. (1995). factor analysis with rorscach data. in j.e. exner (ed.) issues and methods in rorscahch research. california: dage publications. a customer initimacy culture 31 article information authors: richard chinomona1 manilall dhurup1 elizabeth chinomona1 affiliations: 1department of logistics, vaal university of technology, south africa correspondence to: richard chinomona postal address: department of logistics, vaal university of technology, private bag x021, vanderbijlpark 1900, south africa dates: received: 16 apr. 2012 accepted: 08 may 2013 published: 26 aug. 2013 how to cite this article: chinomona, r., dhurup, m., & elizabeth chinomona, e. (2013). does employee perceptions of fit to job, fit to organization and fit to community influence job performance? the case of zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #475, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.475 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. does employee perceptions of fit to job, fit to organisation and fit to community influence job performance? the case of zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • literature review       • the field theory       • fit to job       • fit to organisation       • fit to community       • job performance       • conceptual model and hypothesis development       • fit to job and job performance relationship       • fit to organization and job performance relationship       • fit to community and job performance relationship • research design    • research approach    • research strategy    • research method       • research participants       • measurement instruments       • research procedure • ethical considerations    • potential benefits and hazards    • data collection procedure    • informed consent    • data protection • trustworthiness    • reliability    • validity       • statistical tools used       • results       • model fit, measurement reliability and validity       • structural model assessment • discussion    • outline of the results       • fit to job – job performance relationship testing       • fit to organization – job performance relationship testing       • fit to community – job performance relationship testing    • managerial implications    • limitations and implications for future research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors' contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the influence of the fit components of job embeddedness (fit to job, fit to organization and fit to community) on job performance has not been extensively researched and the relationship is largely unknown. research purpose: this study investigated the influence of the fit components of job embeddedness (employee fit to job, fit to organization and fit to community) on employees’ job performance. motivation for the study: there is a dearth of studies on the fit components of job embeddedness and the relationship with job performance in developing countries especially in southern africa. research design, approach and method: this cross-sectional study made use of a quantitative survey design. the target population comprised employees working in zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector (n = 452). main findings: the results revealed that employee fit to job, fit to organization and fit to community positively influences employees’ job performance. practical/managerial implications: the findings have implications for human resource managers in zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector, who are encouraged to consider the three fit factors of job embeddedness during the job applicants interviewing process as they have a significant potential to influence job performance. contribution/value-addition: the research is one of the primary research papers to investigate the direct effects of the fit components of job embeddedness on employee job performance within the zimbabwean context. it provides a rich platform for further studies and replication in other industry sectors especially within the african context. introduction top ↑ the term, job embeddedness, is relatively new within the realms of human resource management (hrm) literature (chuang & sackett, 2005). increasing attention has been paid to identify what characteristics are vital to job embeddedness and how they exert their influence on organizational outcomes. literature identifies three critical aspects of job embeddedness (mitchell, holtom, lee, sablynski & erez, 2001b). firstly, job embeddedness involves the extent to which people have links to other people or activities. secondly, it entails the extent to which their jobs and communities are similar to or fit with the other aspects in their life spaces. finally, job embeddedness refers to sacrifice or the ease with which links can be broken – what employees would give up if they left, especially if they had to physically move to other cities or homes. the conventional wisdom is that job embeddedness constitutes one of the non-monetary motivators that potentially influence organizational outcomes such as tenure intention and organizational commitment or performance (gregory & albrittton, 2010). a considerable number of researches have investigated the effects of fit, links and sacrifice dimensions of job embeddedness on numerous organizational outcomes (holtom & inderrieden, 2006; holtom & o’neil, 2004; mitchell et al., 2001b; mitchell & lee, 2001). however, what is lacking in existing literature, though, is an understanding of the influence of the fit components of job embeddedness (fit to job, fit to organization and fit to community) on job performance. job performance constitutes an important organizational outcome because of its impact on the performance and growth of firms (kahya, 2009). notably, because of this ostensible importance, research on job performance in hrm literature is extensive (kahya, 2007; werner, 2000; witt, kacmar, carlson & zivnuska, 2002). whilst there has been a large volume of studies that examined job performance (ang, van dyne & begley, 2003; chiang & hsein, 2011; daft, 1995; hochwarter, witt, treadway & ferris, 2006; islam, khan, ahmad & ahmed, 2012; kahya, 2009; kahya, 2009), most of these studies have focused on employee training, job redesigning and organizational support amongst others, as antecedents of job performance (aselage & eisenberger, 2003; borman, 2004; kahya, 2007; podsakoff, whiting, podsakoff & blume, 2009; stamper & van dyne, 2003). since the concept of job embeddedness is fairly new in the hrm literature, the researchers could scarcely find a study that investigated the impact of the fit components of job embeddedness on job performance. except for the study by mitchell, et al. (2001a), that first introduced the concept of job embeddedness, research on the dimensions of job embeddedness have remained scant. even so, the study by mitchell et al. (2001b), focused on the influence of job embeddedness (fit, links and sacrifice) on employee turnover intention. a cross survey of literature by the authors reveal that there is barely a study that has particularly investigated the influence of the fit components of job embeddedness on job performance. according to the job embeddedness theory, an employee’s personal values, career goals, and plans for the future must fit with the demands of his or her immediate job, that is, job knowledge, skills, and abilities, the larger corporate culture and the community environment (holtom & inderrieden, 2006). fit describes an employee’s perceived compatibility or comfort with a community, an organization and job (holtom & inderrieden, 2006; mitchell et al., 2001a); therefore, the greater the fit the more tied to the job, organization and community the employee becomes. given the professed importance of the fit components of job embeddedness as a potential motivator to for instance, employees’ organizational commitment and intention to stay at work, perhaps it is also imperative to examine its influence on job performance. furthermore, a cross examination of the extant literature on job embeddedness and job performance relationship indicates that most of these studies were done in developed countries such as the usa and uk (c.f. chiang & hsein, 2011; chinomona & pretorius, 2011). there is a dearth of studies on job embeddedness that focus on developing countries especially in the african continent. this observed phenomenon is surprising and therefore warrants empirical investigation. in view of the identified research gap, the objectives of this study are to: • examine the effects of the employee fit to job on job performance. • explore the effects of employee fit to organization on job performance. • investigate the effects of employee fit to community on job performance. in particular, this study utilized data collected from zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector in order to investigate the influence of employees’ fit to job, fit to organization and fit to community on their job performance. furthermore, in order to provide a theoretical grounding to the study, the field theory developed from within the sociological domain was exploited. the remainder of the article is organized as follows. a review of the literature and a conceptual framework and hypotheses are provided. these are followed by the discussion of the research design, the results and discussion of the results. finally, managerial implications, limitations and implications for future research directions are provided. literature review the field theory the field theory was presented by lewin (1951). this theory proposes that individuals maintain several interrelated roles that represent different aspects of their lives, that is, at work and home. the vision of field theory is that people have a perceptual life space in which their lives are represented and connected. for instance, employees may derive more meaning in their lives when they fit and connect well with their job requirements, organizational culture and the community environment they reside in. drawing from lewin’s (1951) field theory, this research submits that employees in zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector will likely be motivated to achieve a higher level of performance when they perceive themselves to fit well to their jobs and organizations they work for and community they reside in (gregory & albrittton, 2010). fit to job the desirability of fit to job has long been a research interest in organizational behaviour, industrial psychology and human resource practice (chuang & sackett, 2005). fit to job reflects the compatibility between an individual’s knowledge, skill, and abilities with the demands of the job or the needs or desires of an individual and what is provided by the job (carless, 2005; edwards, 1991; o’reilly, chatman & caldwell, 1991). personal job fit exists as workers’ desires (needs, goals, values, interests, and preferences) are fulfilled by what the job supplies (occupational characteristics and job attributes) and/or as the demands of the job (performance requirements) are met by the employees’ abilities (holtom & inderrieden, 2006). it is posited by researchers that organizational members are more successful in their jobs when the jobs are compatible with their interests, values, and abilities (chuang & sackett, 2005; edwards, 1991; gregory & albrittton, 2010; kahya, 2009). it is conceived that when employees feel adequate on their jobs their psychological burden will be released; therefore, they will be more confident when they are capable of performing higher work achievement. empirically, personal job fit (pjf) was mostly studied in relation to job stress, job performance, and promotion at the workplace. pjf was found to be positively related to performance (caldwell & o’reilly, 1990), and job satisfaction (saks & ashforth, 1997; silverhart & hinchliffe, 1996), and negatively related to job stress (cable & judge 1996; chatman & barsade, 1995). fit to organisation fit to organization can be viewed as the compatibility between the unique qualities of the individual worker and those of the overall organization in which the employee works (gregory & albrittton, 2010). this means that an employee’s personal values, career goals, and plans for the future must fit with the larger corporate culture (carless, 2005). specifically, individuals estimate the match or congruity between their personality, attitudes and values and the organization’s values, goals, structures, processes, and culture (schneider, goldstein & smith, 1995). conceptualized fit to organization as the compatibility of attributes between the individual and the organization which includes beliefs, values, interests, and dispositional traits of the individual, was also highlighted by chan (1996). cable and judge (1996), cable and parsons (2001), and werbel and gilliland (1999) reported that people select jobs based on value congruence. thus, a fit to organization relates to attachments to the organization. in this study, fit to organization is defined as an employee’s perceived compatibility or comfort with an organization (holtom & inderrieden, 2006). fit to community people will consider how well they fit to the community and their surrounding environment (holtom & inderrieden, 2006). according to mitchell and lee (2001), employees consider issues such as the weather, amenities, and general culture of the location in which they reside in addition to outdoor activities, political and religious climates, and entertainment activities (lee, mitchell, sablynski, burton & holtom, 2004). therefore, the better the fit to the community, the higher the likelihood that an employee will feel professionally and personally tied to an organization. in this study, ‘fit to community’ is defined as how well an employee perceives he or she fits the community and surrounding environment in which he or she resides (mitchell et al., 2001b). job performance according to kahya (2009), one of the most important dependent variables in industrial and organizational psychology is perhaps job performance. job performance in this study refers to job related behavioural outcomes, employees’ productivity and the achievement of a company’s expectations and requirements such as efficiency and awareness (babin & boles, 1996). whilst a review of organizational behaviour literature indicates that job performance is sometimes conceptualized to have two distinct dimensions namely, task performance (borman & motowidlo, 1993; van scotter, 2000; witt et al., 2002) and contextual performance (borman, 2004; werner, 2000), the study treats it as a uni-dimensional variable. this is in line with numerous prior studies such as the recent research work by chiang and hsein (2011). conceptual model and hypothesis development drawing from the field theory, the extant literature from human recourses (hr), industrial psychology and organizational behaviour aforementioned, a conceptual model was developed as illustrated in figure 1. the model consists of four constructs, that is, three predictors – fit to job, fit to organization and fit to community and one outcome variable – job performance. conceivably, the employees’ fit to job, fit to organization and fit to community consequently lead to their improved job performance. detailed explanations of the associations between these constructs are provided in the hypothesis developed hereafter. figure 1: conceptual model. the conceptual model and the proposed relationships are reported in figure 1. fit to job and job performance relationship an employee perceives to fit to a job when his or her knowledge, skills, and abilities meet the demands of the job. consequently, it is expected for example, that a match between employee skills to the job requirements reflects an employee’s potential capability to perform a specific job task. more so, according to the field theory, employees derive meaning and life from their job if they perceive to fit well and are connected to the job. such perceptions are likely to motivate them to perform their job tasks better. it can be; therefore, posited that the higher the fit to job, the higher the expected job performance. prior empirical evidence has found a positive relationship between a person’s job fit and performance and hence employee fit to jobs in zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector can be expected to lead to high job performance (carless, 2005; chuang & sackett, 2005) and; therefore, it can be postulated that:h1: employee fit to the job is positively and significantly related to job performance. fit to organization and job performance relationship the congruence between an employee’s values and that of an organization he or she works for is a paramount motivator to excel in a job task (borman, 2004). this is so because a misfit between the values of the employee and that of the organization creates tension in the employee and might dampen the employee’s morale to surpass at the workplace. conversely and in line with the field theory – when the employees’ perceptual life space in which their lives are represented and connected, for instance, – their beliefs and values coincide with those of the organization they work for, the likely resultant behaviour is increased job performance (chiang & hsein, 2011). previous studies have also found a positive linkage between fit to organization, job performance and accordingly, the same can be posited of the fit to organization, and job performance in zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector (gregory & albrittton, 2010; holtom & inderrieden, 2006). drawing from the foregoing arguments, this study hypothesizes that: h2: employee fit to the organization is positively and significantly related to job performance. fit to community and job performance relationship field theory reinforces the importance of an after work life style to an employee when considering a favourable working environment. thus, for example, the availability of recreational amenities of interest to an employee or favourable weather in the community where an employee resides provides comfort whilst factors such as political stability and religious climate might provide a sense of security to an employee (holtom & inderrieden, 2006). it is proposed; therefore, that the greater the fit to community an employee perceives, the higher the sense of comfort and security an employee feels. such a sense of comfort and security is likely to generate a positive attitude towards the employee’s job and consequently enhance job performance. prior studies have also found a positive relationship between fit to community and job performance and accordingly, it is hypothesized of the fit to community and job performance in zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector (holtom & inderrieden, 2006; lee, et al., 2004) is positive. deducing from the field theory and the aforementioned discussion, this study posits that:h3: employee fit to the community is positively and significantly related to job performance. research design top ↑ the study utilised a quantitative research design using a questionnaire. a survey consisted of a predetermined set of questions was given to a sample (terre blanche, durrheim & painter, 2006). through the use of survey research methods, researchers can use techniques of statistical inference applied to data gathered (baruch & holtom, 2008). in this study, a selected sample was extracted from the target population. a good sample selection is important as it allows one to generalize the findings from the sample to the population, which is the whole purpose of a survey research (gall, gall & brog, 2007). research approach in this research a quantitative survey design has been used. primary data were collected from respondents using an adapted structured questionnaire. the design was suitable to solicit the required information relating to employee fit to job, fit to organization, fit to community and job performance. research strategy a survey method to collect the data was used as a strategy in the study. research scales were operationalized mainly on the basis of previous work. proper modifications were made in order to fit the current research context and purpose. the adapted questionnaires were distributed to the sample selected from the population. research method research participants employees from various companies from the manufacturing sector in harare and chitungwiza were invited to participate in the study. the two cities are respectively the largest and third largest in zimbabwe. the sample contained consumable and non-consumable manufacturing companies obtained from the department of trade and commerce in zimbabwe (gono, 2006). a simple random probability sampling technique was used to draw a sample from the sampling frame (list of manufacturing firms). this sampling technique was used because it is expedient and more so, it is one of the probability sampling techniques that are recommended for quantitative survey studies. of the 600 employees that were approached for the study, 460 participated in the survey. eight questionnaires were discarded because of incomplete responses. a total of 452 questionnaires were used for the final data analysis and therefore yielding a response rate of 73.3%. measurement instruments fit to job: five-item scales adapted from lauver and kristof-brown’s (2001) previous work were used to measure fit to job. all the measurement items were measured on a 7-point likert-type scale that was anchored by 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree to express the degree of agreement or disagreement. examples of some of the five measurement items are:• my abilities fit the demands of this job. • i have the right skills and abilities for doing this job. the reliability of these measurement instruments was found to be 0.874 for the chronbach’s alpha value and 0.913 for the composite reliability value. detailed statistics are provided in table 1. table 1: accuracy analysis statistics. fit to organization: four-item scales adapted from previous work of mitchell et al., (2001b) were used to measure fit to job. all the measurement items were measured on a 7-point likert-type scale that was anchored by 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree to express the degree of agreement or disagreement. examples of some of the four measurement items are: • i fit with the organization’s culture. • my values are compatible with the organization’s values. the reliability of these measurement instruments was found to be 0.882 for the chronbach’s alpha value and 0.852 for the composite reliability value. detailed statistics are provided in table 1. fit to community: five-item scales adapted from previous work of mitchell et al., (2001b) were used to measure fit to job. all the measurement items were measured on a 7-point likert-type scale that was anchored by 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree to express the degree of agreement or disagreement. examples of some of the five measurement items are: • i really love the place where i live. • the weather where i live is suitable for me. the reliability of these measurement instruments was found to be 0.870 for the chronbach’s alpha value and 0.878 for the composite reliability value. detailed statistics are provided in table 1. job performance: six-item scales adapted from chiang and hsein’s (2011) previous work were used to measure fit to job. all the measurement items were measured on a 7-point likert-type scale that was anchored by 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree to express the degree of agreement or disagreement. examples of some of the six measurement items are: • i fulfil specific job responsibilities. • i meet performance standards and expectations. the reliability of these measurement instruments was found to be 0.882 for the chronbach’s alpha value and 0.910 for the composite reliability value. detailed statistics are provided in table 1. research procedure research assistants were recruited to directly distribute and collect the questionnaires from the research participants in an ethical manner after appointments and permission were secured from the manufacturing enterprises’ management and their employees. the research participants and their management were respectively assured that their responses would be kept confidential and used for research purposes only. ethical considerations top ↑ the higher degrees committee’s codes of research ethics at the vaal university of technology and faculty of management sciences were adhered to. potential benefits and hazards in this study there were no benefits accruing to or hazards incurred by the research participants who took part in the survey research. data collection procedure an appointment with the companies’ management was made telephonically. after being granted permission, the questionnaires were then distributed to the employees. the employees were then asked to participate in the research by filling in the questionnaires to the best of their understanding and ability. informed consent participation in the study was voluntary and the final sample of respondents was randomly selected from the pool of these volunteers. the respondents were assured that the data collected would be used for research purposes. each questionnaire contained a covering letter outlining the purpose of the study and the approximate time to be taken to complete the questionnaire was provided. data protection ten trained students from tertiary institutions in harare and chitungwiza were recruited to distribute and collect the questionnaires from the respondents under the strict guidance of the researchers. the research assistants were given strict instructions to observe and ensure the research participants’ confidentiality and anonymity in this research. trustworthiness top ↑ reliability the reliability of the measurement instruments is indicated by the chronbach’s alpha value and composite reliability value, which is provided in table 1 and described in the results section. validity the validity of the measurement instruments is indicated by the ‘item to total’ values, item loadings, average variance extracted (ave) values, shared variance and inter-construct correlation matrix, which is provided in table 1 and table 3. statistical tools used to analyse the profile data and to obtain descriptive statistics, the statistical package for social sciences (spss version 17.0) was used. however, to perform structural equation modelling (sem), the analysis of moment structures (amos 7) statistical software was used. structural equation modelling with amos statistical software is a two stage procedure that commence with ‘confirmatory factor analysis’ (cfa) and ends with ‘path modelling’. in the study amos 7 statistical software was particularly used to assess the model fit to the data, to check the reliability and validity of measurement instruments (confirmatory factor analysis) and to test the proposed hypotheses (path modelling). the results for profile data and descriptive statistics using spss are provided in table 2 and table 3, whilst the results for cfa and path modelling (structural equation modelling) using amos 7 are provided in table 1 and table 4 or figure 2 respectively. table 2: sample demographic characteristics. table 3: descriptive statistics and correlations between constructs. table 4: results of structural equation model analysis. figure 2: path modelling results. results table 2 presents the profile of the participants. table 2 show that males dominate the manufacturing sector and constitute 66.8% of the workforce. employees who are single occupy 54% of the workforce and the remainder is married. the profile indicates that 98.9% of the respondents were black people and the remainder was indian people. the profile indicates that more than 62% of the participating manufacturers employ 20 or fewer workers, whilst the remainder employs more than twenty workers. about 66% of the participants have less than 10 years of work experience, whilst the remainder has more than eleven years of work experience. about 59% of the participating manufacturers earn revenues between us$50 thousand and us$350 thousand, and the remainder more than us$350 thousand per annum. the analysis also indicated that consumable and non-consumable goods manufacturers occupy almost equal proportions of the research sample, although the former had a slightly higher share. model fit, measurement reliability and validity the study utilized amos 7 statistical approach to perform confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) and structural equation modelling (sem) to check the reliability and validity of the measurement instruments and to test the posited hypotheses. in accordance with the two-step procedure suggested by byrne (2001), prior to testing the hypotheses, confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) was performed to examine reliability, convergent and discriminant validity of the multi-item construct measures using amos 7. overall acceptable model fit are indicated by goodness-of-fit index (gfi) ≧ 0.800; adjusted goodness-of-fit index (agfi) ≧ 0.800; root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) values ≦ 0.080; incremental fit index (ifi), tucker-lewis index (tli) and comparative fit index (cfi) values ≧ 0.900; and chi-square degrees of freedom ratio (cmin/df) value < 3.000. recommended statistics for the final overall-model assessment show acceptable fit of the measurement model to the data: chi-square value over degrees = 460.271 (156), cmin/df = 2.950; rmr = 0.480; gfi = 0.910; agfi = 0.879; nfi = 0.910; rfi= 0.922; ifi = 0.957; tli = 0.947; cfi = 0.956; rmsea = 0.066. loadings of individual items on their respective constructs are shown in table 1 which provides the measurement accuracy statistics, whilst table 3 shows the inter-construct correlations. the individual item loadings are all above the recommended 0.500 (byrne, 2001). in particular, the lowest item factor loading is 0.707. this indicates an acceptable individual item reliability as more than 70% of each item’s variance is shared with its respective construct. thus, all items converged well on their respective constructs. this study also computed the composite reliabilities (cr) and average variance extracted (ave) for each construct using the formulas proposed by fornell and larcker (1981). the formulas are as follows: crη = (σλyi)² / [(σλyi)² + (σεi)]   [eqn 1] where crη = composite reliability, (σλyi)² = square the sum of the factor loadings; (σεi) = sum of error variances. vη = σλyi² / (σλyi² + σεi)   [eqn 2] where vη = average variance extracted (ave); σλyi² = sum of the squared factor loadings; σεi = sum of error variances. the results of the cr and ave computations are presented in table 1. all the cr values are above 0.852, therefore surpassing the recommended threshold of value 0.700 suggested by hulland (1999). this confirms the internal consistency and reliability of the respective measures used by this study. in addition, the ave values are above the recommended threshold value of 0.500 (byrne, 2001). the results presented in table 1 indicate that the minimum ave value is 0.590. this further confirms acceptable levels of research scale reliability. to assess discriminant validity two approaches were used. firstly, the study checked if the lowest ave values for each multi-item construct were greater than the highest paired shared variance between constructs (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). the lowest ave value of 0.590 is greater than the highest shared variance value between constructs of 0.540. as such, all pairs of constructs reveal an adequate level of discriminant validity (see table 1). secondly, the study checked if the correlations between research constructs were below a unit value (1.000). the maximum correlation value between constructs is 0.736, and therefore; is lower than the value of 0.800 that was recommended by fraering and minor (2006), as evidence of discriminant validity. overall the study provides sufficient evidence that the measurement scales used were reliable and valid. structural model assessment in order to test the direct effects of fit to job, fit to organization and fit to community on job performance, structural equation modelling (sem) was performed. following a two-step model building approach recommended by byrne (2001), the measurement model was assessed prior to testing the structural model. the maximum likelihood estimation (mle) method was used because it has desirable asymptotic properties (e.g. minimum variance and unbiasedness). the results for the model fit are reported in table 4. the model was found to be acceptable in terms of overall goodness of fit measures. acceptable model fit are indicated by cmin/df value < 3.00; rmsea values ≦ 0.080; gfi, tli and cfi values ≧ 0.90. the results indicate acceptable values of cmin/df (2.833); agfi (0.902); ifi (0.939), tli (0.937), cfi (0.949), and rmsea (0.072) which achieved the suggested acceptable thresholds (bentler, 1990; browne & cudeck, 1993; marsh, balla & hau, 1996). this suggests that the model converged well and could be a plausible representation of underlying empirical data structures collected in zimbabwe.after the structural model fit assessment achieved acceptable thresholds, the study proceeded to test the structural paths of the conceptualized research model. figure 2 provides the results for path modelling. the hypotheses testing results, significance levels and hypotheses decision criteria are summarized in table 4. discussion top ↑ outline of the results fit to job – job performance relationship testing the first postulated hypothesis was the relationship between employee fit to job and employee job performance in zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector. a positive association was posited in this relationship. table 4 shows a positive and significant standardized coefficient of 0.575 for the fit to job and job performance relationships. this is consistent with hypothesis one (h1), which indicates that the greater the employee’s fit to job, the higher the levels of job performance in zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector; therefore, employee fit to job is positively associated with job performance and is significant in zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector. on the relationship between job fit and job performance, previous studies found moderate to strong relationships (june & mahmood, 2011; kristof-brown, 2000; li & hung, 2010). for example, li and hung (2010) found that when fit exists between employees and the job that they are doing, they tend to exert more effort in carrying out their duties, which lead to greater job performance. fit to organization – job performance relationship testing the second posited hypothesis was the relationship between employee fit to organization and employee job performance in zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector. again, a positive relationship between employee fit to organization and employee job performance was postulated. the empirical result of this relationship in table 4 indicates a positive and significant path coefficient of 0.367. also in support of hypothesis two (h2), this result indicates that higher levels of employee fit to organization are associated with higher levels of employee job performance. hence, this study submits that employee fit to organization is positively related to job performance and is significant in zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector. a study undertaken by ng and sarris (2009) found that an employee fit to an organization correlated positively to commitment to an organization and their core task performance. the higher the fit of an employee to an organization, the more an employee become embedded in their jobs and more likely that they will go an extra mile in their duties, work activities are done thoroughly, and as a result, become more productive in terms of performance (ng & feldman, 2009). fit to community – job performance relationship testing the last hypothesized relationship is that between employee fit to community and employee job performance. a positive association was posited in this relationship. again as illustrated in table 4, the current study’s empirical results (0.248-path coefficient) are in line with the proposed hypothesis three (h3) and supports the reasoning that higher levels of employee fit to community are associated with higher levels of employee job performance in zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector. it can; therefore, be concluded that employee fit to community is positively linked to employee job performance and is significant in zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector. through the job embeddedness construct some researchers (holton & inderrieden, 2006; lyons & o’brien, 2006; mitchell et al., 2001b; vogel & feldman, 2009) tested the extent to which employees have links to the community (life spaces) through non-work friends, relatives and the community in which they live and their intention to stay and found a positive relationship between the constructs. however, the direct relationship between fit to community and job performance was barely tested in previous research. a closely related finding was undertaken in a study by kieffer, schinka and curtis (2004) that investigated the relationship between person-environment fit, job performance and work quality and they found the person-environment construct to be a predictor of job performance. interesting to note from the current study findings is that employee fit to job has a stronger direct effects on job performance compared to employee fit to organization and fit to the community. perhaps this can be explained by the notion that when seeking employment, employees might consider first if they fit well to the job requirements before they consider their fit to the organization or fit to community. moreover, employees’ fit to job is an indication that employees’ job skills, knowledge or abilities match that of the job requirements. consequently, fit to job may be a plausible reason for the strong relationship to job performance compared to employee fit to organization and fit to community. another important observation from the findings is that employee fit to organization has a stronger direct effect on employee job performance than employee fit to community does. this implies that employees in zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector consider their fit to organization to have a stronger influence on their job performance than their fit to community. perhaps too this could be explained by the notion that the organizational environment, for example, the organizational culture, might have more immediate direct effects on employees’ job performance when compared to the influence of the community environment. this study is the first attempt at evaluating the directs effects of employee fit to job, fit to organization and fit to community in zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector. because zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector plays a crucial contribution to the country’s economic growth (chinomona, lin, wang & cheng, 2010), the findings of this study provide fruitful implications for both hr practitioners and academics alike. on the academic front, this study makes a significant contribution to the hr management literature related to the manufacturing sectors in developing countries of africa. managerial implications within the context of the study findings are elucidated. managerial implications the findings have implications for human resource managers in zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector. in particular, the implications relate to employee selection processes. since this study revealed that fit to job, fit to organization and fit to community significantly (positively) influence job performance, hr practitioners are encouraged to consider all three factors during the job applicants interviewing process. however, in the event that more than needed job applicants’ skills or abilities match the job requirements, the hr practitioners might consider selecting the best applicants on the basis or strength of the fit to organization before considering the fit to community. perhaps too, manufacturing firms should consider providing or sponsoring after work recreational activities such as gymnasiums or any sport favoured by their employees. this might potentially motivate the employees and consequently enhance their job performance at the workplace. based on the relationship between person-job fit and performance, it is necessary for owners and managers of manufacturing companies in zimbabwe to consider person-job-fit in their attempt to hire employees. managers and owners of small and medium enterprises (smes) in zimbabwe can increase off-the job embeddedness (fit to community) by recruiting potential employees with local roots and by providing people with information about the community and social networks (mitchell et al., 2001b). limitations and implications for future research although this study makes significant contributions to both academia and practice, there are some limitations, which open up avenues for further research. firstly, the current study was limited to a sample from the manufacturing industry in zimbabwe. subsequent researchers could replicate the study in broader sampling contexts that include the service industry as well. extending this research to other african countries and testing the conceptualized model might be a valuable future research direction. furthermore, future studies can also extend the current conceptual framework by studying the effects of a larger set of variables. for instance, the influence of other job embeddedness components such as sacrifice or links in organization and community could be investigated. in addition, this study may provide added insights and contribute new knowledge to the existing body of hrm literature in southern africa. conclusion this academic inquiry highlighted the important contribution of employees’ fit to job, fit to organization and fit to community on their job performance. hr practitioners are therefore encouraged to consider all three factors during the job applicants interviewing process. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they had no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions r.c. (vaal university of technology), m.d. (vaal university of technology) and e.c. (vaal university of technology) wrote this article in equal parts. references top ↑ ang, s., van dyne, l., & begley, t.m. (2003). the employment relationships of foreign workers versus local employees: a field study of organisational justice, job satisfaction, performance, and ocb. journal of organisational behavior, 24(5), 561–583. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.202aselage, j., & eisenberger, r. (2003). perceived organisational support and psychological contracts: a theoretical integration. journal of organisational behavior, 24(5), 491–509. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.211 babin, b.j., & boles, j.s. (1996). the effects of perceived co-worker involvement and supervisor support on service provider role stress, performance and job satisfaction. journal of retailing, 72(1), 57–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0022-4359(96)90005-6 baruch, y., & holtom, b.c. (2008). survey response rate levels and trends in organizational research. human relations, 61, 1139. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0018726708094863 bentler, p.m. (1990). comparative fit indexes in structural models. psychological bulletin, 107(2), 238–246. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.107.2.238, pmid:2320703 borman, w.c. (2004). the concept of organisational citizenship. current direction in psychology science. 13, 238–241. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0963-7214.2004.00316.x borman w.c., & motowidlo s.j. (1993). expanding the criterion domain to include elements of contextual performance. in n. schmitt, w.c. borman (eds.). personnel selection in organizations (pp. 71–98). san francisco: jossey-bass. browne, m.w., & cudeck, r. (1993). alternative ways of assessing model fit. in k.a. bollen, j.s. long (eds.). testing structural equation models, (pp. 136–61). newbury park, ca: sage. byrne, b.m. (2001). structural equation modeling with amos: basic concepts, applications, and progrmming. lawrence erlbaum associates publisher, new jersey. cable, d.m., & judge, t.a. (1996). person-organisation fit, job choice decision and organisational entry. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 67, 294–311. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/obhd.1996.0081 cable, d.m., & parsons, c.k. (2001). socialization tactics and person-organization fit. personnel psychology, 54, 1–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2001.tb00083.x caldwell d.f., & o’reilly, c.a. (1990). measuring person-job fit with a profile-comparison process. journal of applied psychology, 75, 648–657. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.75.6.648 carless, s.a. (2005). person-job fit versus person-organisation fit as predictors of organisational attraction and job acceptance intentions: a longitudinal study. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 78, 411–429. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317905x25995 chan, d. (1996). cognitive misfit of problem-solving style at work: a facet of person-organization fit. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 68(3), 194–207. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/obhd.1996.0099 chatman, j.a., & barsade, s.g. (1995). personality, organisational culture, and cooperation: evidence from a business simulation. administrative science quarterly, 40, 423–443. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2393792 chiang, c.f., & hsein, t.s. (2011). the impacts of perceived organisational support and psychological empowerment on job performance: the mediating effects of organisational citizenship behavior. international journal of hospitality management, 31(2), 180–190. chinomona, r., lin, j., wang, m., & cheng, j. (2010). soft power and desirable relationship outcomes in zimbabwe distribution channels. african journal of business, 11(2), 20–55. chinomona, r., & pretorius, m. (2011). sme manufacturers’ cooperation and dependence on major dealers’ expert power in distribution channels. south african journal of economics and management sciences, 12 (2), 170–186. chuang, a., & sackett, p.r. (2005). the perceived importance of person-job fit and person-organisation fit between and within interview stages. social behaviour and personality, 33(3), 209–226. http://dx.doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2005.33.3.209 daft, r.l. (1995). organisational theory and design. st. paul: west publishing. edwards, j.r. (1991). person-job fit: a conceptual integration, literature review, and methodological critique. in c.l. cooper & i.t. robertson (eds.). international review of industrial and organisational psychology, (pp. 283–357)new york: wiley. fornell, c., & larcker, d. (1981). structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. journal of marketing research, 18(1), 39–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3151312 fraering, m., & minor, m.s. (2006). sense of community: an exploratory study of us consumers of financial services. international journal of bank marketing, 24(5), 284–306. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02652320610681738 gall, m.d., gall, j.p., & brog, w.r. (2007). education research: an introduction. (8th edn.). boston: allyn and bacon. gono, g. (2006). developmental sme projects intervention to support the youth, women and other disadvantaged groups: supplement to the first half 2006 monetary policy review statement. harare, zimbabwe: the reserve bank of zimbabwe monetary. gregory, b.r., & albrittton, m.d. (2010). the mediating role of psychological empowerment on the relationships between p-o fit, job satisfaction, and in-role performance. journal of business psychology, 25, 639–647. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9156-7 hochwarter, w.a., witt, l.a., treadway, d.c., & ferris, g.r. (2006). the interaction of social skill and organisational support on job performance. journal of applied psychology, 91(2), 482–489. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.2.482, pmid:16551199 holtom, b., & o’neil, b. (2004). job embeddedness: a theoretical foundation for developing a comprehensive nurse retention plan. the journal of nursing administration, 34(5), 1–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00005110-200405000-00005 holtom, b.c., & inderrieden, e.j. (2006). integrating the unfolding model and job embeddedness model to better understand voluntary turnover. journal of managerial issues, 18(4), 435–452. hulland, j. (1999). use of partial least squares (pls) in strategic management research: a review of four recent studies. strategic management journal, 20(2), 195–204. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-0266(199902)20:2<195::aid smj13>3.0.co;2-7, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-0266(199902)20:2<195::aid-smj13>3.3.co;2-z islam, t., khan, s.u.r., ahmad, u.n.u., & ahmed, i. (2012). does organisational commitment enhance the relationship between job involvement and in role performance? sa journal of human resource management, 10 (2), 460–469. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.460 june, s., & mahmood, r. (2011). the relationship between person-job-fit and job performance: a study amongst the employees of the service sector smes in malaysia. international journal of business, humanities and technology, 1(2), 95105. kahya, e. (2009). the effects of job performance on effectiveness. international journal of industrial ergonomics, 39, 96–104. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ergon.2008.06.006 kahya, e. (2007). the effects of job characteristics and working condition on job performance. international journal of industrial ergonomics, 37, 515–523. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ergon.2007.02.006 kieffer, k.m., schinka, j.a., & curtis, g. (2004). person-environment fit congruence and personality domains in the prediction of job performance and work quality. journal of counseling psychology, 51(2), 168–177. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.51.2.168 kristof-brown, a.l.k. (2000). perceived applicant fit: distinguishing between recruiters’ perceptions of person-job and person-organisation fit. personnel psychology, 53(4), 643–671. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2000.tb00217.x lauver, k. j., & kristof-brown, a. (2001). distinguishing between employee’s perceptions of person-job and person-organisation fit. journal of vocational behavior, 59, 454–490. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2001.1807 lee, t.w., mitchell, t.r., sablynski, c.j., burton, j., & holtom, b.c. (2004). the effect of job embeddedness on organisational citizenship, job performance, volitional absences and voluntary turnover. academy of management journal, 47, 711–722. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/20159613 lewin, k. (1951). field theory in social science, (pp. 346). oxford, england: harper. li, c.h., & hung, c.h. (2010). an examination of the mediating role of person-job-fit in relations between information literacy and work outcomes. journal of workplace learning, 22(5), 306–318. london, m. (1984). toward a theory of career motivation. academy of management review, 8, 620–630. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1983.4284664, http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/258263 lyons, h.z., & o’brien, k.m. (2006). the role of person-environment fit in the job satisfaction and tenure intentions of african american employees. journal of counseling psychology, 53(4), 387–396. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.53.4.387 marsh, h.w., balla, j.r., & hau, k.t. (1996). an evaluation of incremental fit indices: a clarification of mathematical and empirical properties. in g.a. marcoulides and r.e. schumacker (eds.). advanced structural equation modeling, issues and techniques, (pp. 315–353). n.j. lawrence erlbaum associates publishers, mahwah. mitchell, t.r., holtom, b.c., & lee, t.w. (2001a). how to keep your best employees: the development of an effective attachment policy. academy of management executive, 15, 96–108. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/ame.2001.5897929 mitchell, t.r., holtom, b.c., lee, t.w., sablynski, c.j., & erez, m. (2001b). why people stay: using job embeddedness to predict voluntary turnover. the academy of management journal, 44(6), 1102–1121. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3069391 mitchell, t.r., & lee, t.w. (2001). the unfolding model of voluntary turnover and job embeddedness: foundations for a comprehensive theory of attachment. research in organisational behavior, 23, 189–246. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0191-3085(01)23006-8 ng, t.w.h., & feldman, d.c. (2009). occupational embeddedness and job performance. journal of organisational behavior, 30, 863–891. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.580 ng, c., & sarris, c. (2009). distinguishing between the effect of perceived organizational support and person-organisation fit on work outcomes. the australian and new zealand journal of organisational psychology, 2, 1–9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1375/ajop.2.1.1 nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory (3rd ed.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. o’reilly, c. w., chatman, j., & caldwell, d.f. (1991). people and organisational culture: a profile comparison approach to person-organisation fit. academy of management journal, 34, 487–516. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256404 podsakoff, n.p., whiting, s.w., podsakoff, p.m., & blume, b.d. (2009). individualand organisational-level consequences of organisational citizenship behaviors: a meta-analysis. journal of applied psychology, 94(1), 122–141. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0013079, pmid:19186900 saks, a.m., & ashforth, b.e. (1997). a longitudinal investigation of the relationships between job information sources, applicant perceptions of fit, and work outcomes. personnel psychology, 50, 395–426. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1997.tb00913.x schneider, b., goldstein, h.w., & smith, d.b. (1995). the asa framework: an update. personnel psychology, 48, 747–773. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1995.tb01780.x silverhart, t.a., & hinchliffe, r.h. (1996) new selection tool assesses candidate/agency fit. limra’s market facts, 15(3), 4–6. stamper, c.l., & van dyne, l. (2003). organisational citizenship: a comparison between part-time and full-time service employees. cornell hotel and restaurant administration quarterly, 44(1), 33–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0010-8804(03)90044-9 terre blanche, m., durrheim, k., & painter, d. (2006). research in practice: applied methods for the social sciences. cape town: university of cape town press. van scotter, j.r. (2000). relationships of task performance and contextual performance with turnover, job satisfaction, and affective commitment. human resource management review, 10, 79–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(99)00040-6 vogel, r.m., & feldman, d.c. (2009). integrating the levels of person-environment fit. the roles of vocational fit and group fit. journal of vocational behavior, 75, 68–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.03.007 werbel, j.d., & gilliland, s.w. (1999). person-environment fit in the selection process. research in personnel and human resources management, 17, 209–243. werner, j.m. (2000). implications of ocb and contextual performance for human resource management. human resources management review, 10, 3–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(99)00036-4 witt, l.a., kacmar, k.m., carlson, d.s., & zivnuska, s. (2002). interactive effects of personality and organisational politics on contextual performance. journal of organisational behavior, 23, 911–926. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.172 8degouveia.qxd communication can take place in many forms, such as face to face, telephonic, in newspapers, on television, and via email. albeit an essential component of every organisation, communication has its limitations. although it can confidently be said that no business will ever survive without communication, at some stage communication (in the informal sense) can be construed as gossip. office gossip and rumours have for the most part been accepted as part of the work environment with the areas containing the coffee machine and the water-cooler providing seemingly perfect and comfortable settings for gossip. systems such as the internet and email facilitate the quick spreading of undesirable communication. greengard and samuel (2001) state that in today’s malicious society, the nature and intensity of gossip have become more severe. employees will always communicate facts, events and occurrences around them, but when do they cross the line between healthy communication and malicious gossip? in a corporate world where transparency, honesty and openness are encouraged in employees, one wonders to what extent these workplace values could be misconstrued. to what extent are employees required to display honesty? for example, if tom, a corporate manager, communicates to margaret, his co-worker, about an in-office affair between some senior managers, he is clearly being open, honest and transparent in communicating these facts to his co-worker. at some point, however, he may have breached confidentiality or pried into someone’s personal life. values such as these clearly have boundaries. one could speculate on the connection between ethics and workplace gossip. rossouw and van vuuren (2004) explain that ethics is concerned with what is good for the ‘self’ and the ‘other’. it can be said that gossip in the workplace could strain ethical values such as trust, respect and care for others. if this is so, codes of ethics that prohibit gossip would prove essential. if codes of ethics are instruments that guide morally acceptable behaviour in an organisation, the development of such codes could raise the ethical awareness of the negative effects of gossip in the workplace. in addition, codes could have the capacity to prevent unethical behaviour such as that of gossip in the workplace by encouraging desirable conduct. therefore, a clear understanding of this phenomenon and its parameters could assist in the development of codes of ethics that correctly identif y workplace gossip and similarly assist in the promotion of ‘healthy talk’ and the dissuasion of gossip in the workplace. furthermore, one needs to investigate the link between trust and workplace gossip. trust is the foundation of relationships and should be a by-product of the decisions and actions of people carrying out the business of their organisations (reina & reina, 1999). a lack of trust might foster suspicion in a variety of circumstances. such circumstances include situations where perceivers have forewarnings that another might be insincere or untrustworthy, or situations in which their expectations have been violated. in addition to the above, circumstances in which situational cues are recognised or possess contextual information that suggests another person might have ulterior motives could also lead to gossip breaking down trust in an organisation (kramer, 1999). although the phenomenon of gossip is a familiar and obvious part of everyday life, this construct is not necessarily understood, especially in the work context. there is a need to understand this phenomenon because organisations could experience increased staff turnover, premature job resignations, as well as the loss of efficient and effective employees, due to the effects of gossip in the workplace. furthermore, gossip could also undermine an individual, a group or organisation, break down trust between employees, and strain ethical values such as openness, transparency and honesty. consequences such as these could decrease staff morale, motivation and interpersonal respect between employees. the rationale behind this article is to increase awareness in companies that gossip in the workplace can be malicious and detrimental to work relationships, ethical cm de gouveia lj van vuuren a crafford department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract in today’s communication-driven world, informal communication can at some point be construed as malicious gossip. literature shows that certain areas of gossip are insufficiently studied, such as how gossip is defined in the workplace, when communication is construed as gossip, and what characteristics highlight the parameters between healthy communication and gossip. this research is of value because workplace gossip could have direct implications on trust in workplace relationships, might undermine principles espoused by corporate governance and could therefore lead to higher staff absenteeism and turnover. a qualitative research study was undertaken to explore individual constructions surrounding this phenomenon. data was collected from structured individual interviews and the technique of card sorting, and a grounded theory analysis resulted in the formulation of a working definition of the concept, the identification of its parameters as well as the development of a typology of gossip in the workplace. the implications of the findings are discussed. opsomming ’n tipologie van skinder in die werkplek. informele kommunikasie in organisasies neem soms die vorm aan van kwaadwillige skinder. dit word afgelei uit die literatuur dat die verskynsel van skinder – hoe dit in die werkplek gedefinieër, wanneer kommunikasie as skinder beskou kan word, en die eienskappe wat die parameters van gesonde kommunikasie teenoor skinder toelig – tot op datum ontoereikend bestudeer is. die waarde van meer begronde navorsing oor hierdie verskynsel is daarin geleë dat skinder in die werkplek direkte implikasies vir onder andere vertroue in die werkplek mag hê (wat weer die beginsels van korporatiwe beheer mag ondermyn), en kan lei tot afwesigheid en arbeidsomset. kwalitatiewe navorsing is onderneem om individue se konstruksies van skinder as verskynsel te verken. data is versamel deur middel van gestruktureerde onderhoude en die tegniek van kaartsortering, waarna begronde teorie in ’n werksdefinisie vir die konsep, die parameters daarvan, en ’n tipologie vir skinder in die werkplek geresulteer het. die implikasies van die bevindinge word voorgehou. towards a typology of gossip in the workplace requests for copies should be addressed to: lj van vuuren, ljvv@rau.ac.za 56 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (2), 56-68 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (2), 56-68 behaviour and trust. by identif ying a clear and unambiguous understanding of gossip and its parameters there can be general consensus on what really constitutes gossip in the workplace, and when communication is acceptable or unacceptable. the specific outcomes of this article are to develop a working definition for gossip in the workplace, identif y its parameters and develop a typology of gossip in order to provide a bigger and clearer picture of gossip within the realm of informal communication. from a behavioural perspective, these outcomes could prove essential in the scientific and empirical understanding of this phenomenon. research in this area could contribute to better orientation, training and development programmes that could aid managers in identif ying, dealing with and ultimately preventing the effects of gossip in the workplace. the extent to which employees need to display work values such as honesty, openness, fairness and transparency can also be established once there is a clearer understanding of this phenomenon. finally, this research could aid in the development of future strategies to counter gossip in the workplace. gossip in the workplace communication systems consist of formal and informal communication systems. the phenomenon of gossip falls under informal communication systems. therefore, for the purposes of this article, only informal communication systems will be highlighted. figure 1 was developed by the authors to represent informal communication systems graphically. within informal communication systems, there are grapevine communication networks that consist of rumours and gossip. the grapevine is a major informal communication medium in an organisation – rumours are often a rapid form of grapevine communication that spread quickly and uncontrollably, and once initiated are difficult to stop (crampton, hodge & mishra, 1998). kurland and pelled (2000) explain that while the grapevine includes a wide range of informal communication, gossip focuses specifically on information about people. figure 1 shows that rumours and gossip can have both positive and negative effects. one would ideally want to promote the positive effects and avoid the negative ones. figure 1: a pattern of informal organisational communication systems the concept of gossip has traditionally referred to idle chatter and chit-chat (kurland & pelled, 2000). it was only due to religious writings through the years that the concept acquired a somewhat negative connotation. readings from the christian bible such as the following depict the negative connotation and evil tongue associated with gossip: ‘the godless man uses his mouth to destroy his neighbor but the virtuous use their wisdom to save themselves. gossip reveals secrets, but the trustworthy man keeps a secret.’ (proverbs 11: 9, 13) the koran also includes comments on gossip: ‘god has heard the speech of her who wrangled with you about her husband, and complained to god; and god hears your gossip; verily, god both hears and sees.’ (koran sura 58: the pleader of madina) similarly, gossip in hebrew is called ‘lashon harah’, which means ‘the evil tongue’, and the torah outlaws gossip, true or false, about others or even oneself (hecht, n.d). below is a quote from the torah in this regard: ‘thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among thy people.’ (leviticus 19:16) kurland and pelled (2000) explain that these religious writings emphasised the immoral and improper aspects of gossip, and many individuals began to look down upon those who gossiped. more scientific and secular definitions of gossip include a definition by kurland and pelled (2000) who define workplace gossip as informal and evaluative talk in the organisation among a few individuals about another member of the organisation who is not present. evaluative talk refers to the assessment of individuals in terms of their work and personal life. a further definition is provided by barnhart and barnhart (1994) who define gossip as idle talk, which is not always true, about other people and their affairs. for the purposes of this article, the term ‘gossip’ refers to the talk that takes place between employees in a work environment (at any organisational/job level or within any industry) about other people’s personal or non-personal issues. this is the working definition of the concept it may be regarded as provisional until the research findings are discussed in a later section. common aspects of gossip kurland and pelled (2000) propose three dimensions for making distinctions bet ween t ypes of gossip, namely the sign, credibility and work-relatedness. the ‘sign’ refers to the positivity or negativity of the information being related (refer to figure 1). to illustrate this point, assume you were told that a colleague had just established that her daughter had been accepted to university. this information is positively related. however, if it was said that a colleague was getting divorced, this information would be negatively related as it conveys negative information. credibility is the extent to which gossip is seen as truthful, accurate and believable. the assumption here is that the less reliable the information, the less it will be believed and the more the gossiper will be seen as an unreliable source. the last dimension is work-relatedness, which distinguishes between work-related gossip and non-work-related gossip. work-related gossip is information that focuses on the subjects’ work life, job performance and career progression, for example, obtaining a promotion, or being fired or transferred. non-work-related gossip focuses on personal events such as marriage, illness or divorce. it would appear that work-related gossip is typically more readily believed than non-work-related gossip (kurland & pelled, 2000). waddell and laing (2004) point out that in order to be ‘effective’, gossip needs to: (1) travel well, (2) meet the needs of the gossiper, (3) create excitement, (4) appeal to fear, and (5) reflect the wishes and feelings of staff. it is further important to note that gossip could be a complete fabrication, slight variation of the truth, mean spirited or a grotesque distortion of reality. typology of gossip in the workplace 57 as waddell and laing (2004) explain, gossip is seldom pleasant, especially if it is to be remembered for a long time. it can therefore be said that gossip is detrimental to relationships, and in this light negative gossip equals unethical behaviour because it can create high levels of tension and emotional strain. effects of gossip in the workplace the effects of workplace gossip are twofold. there are adverse effects for both the organisation and the individual. effects on the organisation: organisations that suffer the consequences of gossip are generally unable to maintain the status quo and control, and trust between employees is lacking (baker & jones, 1996). burg and palatnik (2003) compare gossip to a virus and indicate that it can affect the bottom line and ultimately kill a business. they go on to say that the harm caused by venomous ‘water-cooler’ talk works steadily and over time affects morale and productivit y, resulting in sick days, resignations and premature job searchers as victims of malicious gossip feel alienated, hurt and embarrassed. effects on the individual: becoming the object of someone’s ridicule means that victims of gossip suffer feelings of victimisation, betrayal, degradation and embarrassment (greengard & samuel, 2001). this hurt and anger mounts until eventually there are consequences, for instance, productivity decreases or the company loses a valuable employee. in their hurt, victims could suffer depression and a lack of self-esteem, and then lose the motivation to perform on the job. individuals’ job satisfaction decreases and in most cases work relationships and trust bet ween employees break down, resulting in a divided workforce. reflecting on the literature review while the literature review provides some information on gossip as far as it can be established, certain areas are not clarified, namely what is gossip in the workplace, when is communication construed as gossip, and what elements or characteristics highlight the parameters between healthy communication and gossip? this phenomenon needs to be understood better because in addition to the effects of gossip mentioned above, gossip in the workplace could (1) have direct implications on trust in workplace relationships, (2) undermine principles espoused by corporate governance, especially transparency, and therefore (3) lead to higher turnover and the loss of efficient and productive employees. workplace gossip could also be linked to the straining of ethical values such as respect and care. the grey areas surrounding this phenomenon make further research essential in order to understand the concept of gossip scientifically. qualitative research was believed to be an appropriate way to yield such an understanding. research design in order to learn more about the phenomenon of gossip and develop a definition and parameters for the concept, qualitative research would be most appropriate as it would allow for the scrutiny of gossip as a social phenomenon in the workplace. the research was approached from a qualitative perspective because this approach allows for research to take place within the natural settings of the social sector, has a descriptive nature and aims to understand and interpret the meaning and intentions that underlie everyday human action (mouton, 1988). a variety of qualitative research paradigms exist such as the classic, modernist and post-modernist traditions (denzin & lincoln, 1994). since we believe that scientific rigour is important in qualitative research, we opted for a modernist qualitative research approach. this approach is characterised by the interpretation of reality by means of formalised qualitative methods and the understanding of rigorous data analysis, for example grounded theory (schurink, 2004). the approach focuses on an interpretive perspective because people are believed to construct meaning and interpret experiences from their own unique perspective (neuman, 2000). in this study, the aim was to understand how people construct the phenomenon of gossip in the workplace. since not much has been written on gossip in general and specifically gossip in the workplace, it was decided that grounded theory would be used as a research strategy. grounded theory provides a consistent set of data collection and analytical procedures aimed at developing theory directly from the data and not from preconceived concepts or hypotheses (strauss & corbin, 1997). this would allow one to identif y the parameters of gossip and begin to develop and expand on the theory of gossip in the workplace. grounded theory is primarily inductive, and beginning with individual cases, incidents and experiences, it allows for the development of more abstract conceptual categories. it allows the analyst to synthesise, explain and understand the data, and to identif y patterned relationships within it (strauss & corbin, 1997). for the purposes of this article, the research design will be discussed in five sections, namely data-gathering techniques, adhering to quality concerns, research participants, research procedure and analysis of data. figure 2 depicts the research design graphically. figure 2: research design data-gathering techniques structured individual interviews as well as the technique of card sorting were the qualitative methods used for this research. the qualitative interview is a uniquely sensitive and powerful method of capturing the experiences and ‘lived’ meanings of subjects’ everyday world (kvale, 1996). it was our belief that by using interviews, we could arrive at the perspectives of how participants create meaning within the realm of gossip. by structuring the interviews, we were able to focus on specific aspects aimed at developing theory on the topic. the card-sorting technique was used in conjunction with the structured interview as a second data-capturing technique. card sorting is a type of structured question aimed at exploring the organisation of an informant’s cultural knowledge, which leads to the discovery and verification of certain terms and concepts (spradley, 1979). this provides a non-invasive way to find out not only what people know, but also how they have organised knowledge, and helps in the ‘unpacking’ of concepts to understand them and their meanings better (spradley, 1979). de gouveia, van vuuren, crafford58 adhering to quality concerns to ensure trust worthy findings, objectivit y, reliabilit y and validit y were considered. although complete objectivit y can never be achieved in an interview, it can be realised to some degree and therefore researchers strive for scient ific object ivit y by developing their own value system. this is referred to as the münchhausen objectivit y developed by smaling (1989), which states that by developing a value system, the researcher can decrease the degree of subjectivit y. this was achieved in the research by allowing the participant to speak and by listening actively in order to do justice to the object of the study. to ensure reliabilit y, triangulation was used and included a structured interview, a card-sorting exercise and participant field notes (written records of analysis related to the formulation of theory). careful consideration was given to issues of sampling (discussed below) and in order to manage the volumes of data generated from the process of grounded theory, datagathering was spread over t wo months to avoid information overload and researcher burnout. to ensure the validit y of the research findings, we remained within the framework of the quest ions posed and kept field notes to capt ure relevant events and the state of affairs. these were studied on a regular basis. in addition to the adherence of the above quality concerns, theoretical sensitivity was considered during the analysis of the data. strauss and corbin (1997) explain that this is the degree of sensitivity that the researcher brings to the study based on experience in the field and previous readings. the literature review ensured theoretical sensitivity during the analysis, which was further achieved through the use of questioning, the analysis of words and phrases, and the use of the flip-flop method of comparison (making a comparison at the extreme of one dimension). theoretical sensitivity was further ensured by acknowledging and incorporating existing literature into the research findings. research participants purposive sampling was used for this research as it allowed for the selection of participants based on the fact that they could provide important information about the topic at hand (potter, 1996). the criteria used for the selection of the research participants were threefold: firstly, participants were selected from environments where they made direct contact with fellow employees on an ongoing basis as this would ensure that the participants might have been exposed to informal communication systems such as gossip, rumours and grapevine communication. secondly, participants were selected from several organisations and industries so as to avoid the organisational culture of a particular setting from swaying the research findings and to increase the applicabilit y of the findings to various contexts and participants. strauss and corbin (1990) explain that the more widespread the sampling, the more conditions and variations that will be discovered and built into the theory, and therefore the greater generalisabilit y of the research findings. thirdly, a mix of people with regard to job positions and careers, level of education, work experience, age, gender and race was achieved. this was to ensure a variet y of views and experiences with regard to gossip in the workplace. fifteen female and ten male participants were interviewed ranging from the ages of 19 to 54 years. on average the participants had six years working experience and came from various industries such as financial, educational, retail, health and beaut y, and medical sectors. in total, 25 part icipants, including t wo pilot st udy participants, were interviewed. potential participants were personally contacted and invited to participate in the research. a brief description was given of the research study as well as what would be required of them. the participants were assured that confidentialit y would be maintained throughout the entire process and that the interview would take no longer than an hour and a half. of the individuals approached, only one declined the offer to participate in the research. those who accepted were telephoned personally in order to set a date and time most suitable to them. interviews took place over t wo months in venues selected by the participants. all the interviews were audiotaped with the permission of the participants. because confidentiality was assured, two agreements were drawn up. the first was a confidentiality agreement stating that the participants’ personal particulars such as name and place of employment would remain confidential throughout the entire research process. the second was a consent agreement to audiotape the interview. the participants were given the option of terminating the interview unilaterally at any time and refraining from answering any questions with which they were not comfortable. this right was exercised by only one participant who asked for the recording to be suspended while he gathered his thoughts. two participants asked that the interview be transcribed by the interviewer personally due to personal and confidentially related details revealed during the interview. the two agreements were explained carefully to the participants before they were required to sign them. research procedure an initial pilot st udy was conducted with the aim of obtaining tentative ideas on what people assume gossip in the workplace to be and to generate case studies to be used as part of the card-sort ing technique during the individual structured interviews. seven participants were asked to share their thoughts on gossip and to share experiences in which they were either involved in gossip or were victims of gossip in the workplace. these participants were interviewed for the purposes of the pilot study only and were not used for the research interview. the information obtained from the pilot study was used in conjunction with on-line gossip stories off the internet and personal work experiences to develop 11 realistic case study scenarios involving the divulgence of information that may or may not be construed as gossip. the cases developed were used for the card-sorting exercise, which is presented in table 1. after the development of the case studies and interview questions, a second pilot study was conducted to assess whether the interview structure would provide sufficient data for understanding gossip in the workplace. during the individual structured interviews, participants were asked to: � perform a card-sorting exercise in which they read and briefly studied 11 case studies; � order the case studies in a sequence from ‘least’ like gossip to ‘most’ like gossip; � explain the criteria they had used to determine their sequence; � rate each case on a scale in terms of the extent to which it could be perceived to be gossip (the four-point scale consisted of: ’not gossip’, ‘slight gossip’, ‘quite a bit of gossip’ and ‘very much gossip’); � answer questions pertaining to each individual case; and � provide a definition of gossip in the workplace. questions pertaining to the authenticity and nature of the information t ypically gossiped about were included, for example: � what kind of information does gossip deal with? � is gossip always true, always false or both? � is hollywood/tabloid information gossip? participants were also asked to describe the types of people that gossip. questions included: � demographically describe the type of people that gossip. � what type of tactics do people use to gossip? typology of gossip in the workplace 59 � what type of information do people gossip about? � why do people gossip? the final questions asked of the participants were: � how does gossip in the workplace affect the organisation? � how would you go about preventing and dealing with gossip in an organisation? table 1 case studies as presented to the participants during the card-sorting exercise case a marie a 32-year-old, single, heterosexual woman, is a top insurance broker who has been working her way up the corporate ladder. it’s taken many years and hard work to get to her current position. the other day, on the way to the photocopy room, she overheard some colleagues talk about her sex life over coffee and doughnuts. as the discussion about her sexual preference continued, someone remarked: ‘i know she is a dyke for sure’. b in the weekly meeting between john and his boss, the boss let it slip that the company was in trouble and that retrenchment was inevitable. all positions would be in jeopardy. john’s boss asked him to keep this confidential until top management decided to bring it to light. during lunch in the canteen, john couldn’t help but tell his colleagues what he had heard. c while sipping on their coffee, jessica remarks to brett that the boss is very late for work as it is already 10:00 am and there is no sign of him anywhere. brett tells jessica that their boss probably wouldn’t be at work due to the loss of his mother the previous evening. one week later while brett is at his table doing some work, the boss calls him into his office and says, ‘brett, i would appreciate it if in future, you keep quiet about my personal life instead of sharing it with the entire office’. d jake, a 57-year-old factory worker, walks into the building on monday morning with a big smile on his face. when you ask him why he is smiling, he tells you that his oldest daughter got engaged over the weekend. during the day, someone remarks that jake looks really happy. you tell them that it’s because of his daughter’s engagement. e sam overheard lyn (a colleague) mention to her husband over the phone that their daughter, mary, was not accepted into university. during the tea break someone mentions their child’s academic achievement. someone else says: ‘i know lyn’s daughter was also waiting to see if she got into university … i wonder if she made it?’ having heard the conversation earlier between lyn and her husband, sam speaks up and says ’no, unfortunately, mary did not get in’. f there are two managers at the store where you work. you are good friends with one of the managers joan. you heard from a reliable source that the other manager and some employees are not registering certain items on the cash register in order to pocket the money. you know that if head office finds, out both managers will be dismissed regardless of who is responsible. over lunch you mention the situation to joan. g matthew’s secretary is going through a messy divorce. as a result, her work performance has decreased. although she has told him about her divorce, she asked that he not mention it to anyone. matthew is in a meeting with his manager, mary a few days later. she remarks that it has come to her attention that matthew’s secretary is ‘slacking’ in her performance, not getting to work on time, taking too many days off and failing to meet deadlines. matthew mentions the fact that he is worried about her and that her lack of performance is due to a pending divorce. h the boss and the new manager are having an affair. paul knows this for a fact because he saw them kissing. while everyone is having tea and talking about days of our lives, paul mentions the company’s very own scandal. i jan had been working in a position for some time, and put in extra effort because of a promotion she was keen to get as executive manager. to her surprise, a colleague’s daughter who has just finished matric got the position. jan is disappointed and angry. when everyone is convened around the coffee machine during lunch, she mentions her disappointment. she heard some time ago that her boss and colleague were romantically involved, and she mentions to the group that that may be the reason for her colleague’s daughter getting the position. j it’s apparent that money and stock have gone missing from the cosmetic store where sarah works. some make-up went missing on saturday. sarah and her team were working over the weekend. when she walked into the storeroom, she saw jack packing containers. she tells the supervisor that he may be responsible for the missing stock. k alex, an administration officer, is photocopying documents. a document catches his eye while sorting through some forms. the document stipulates that due to a loss incurred by the company, the employee pension funds will be decreased by 35%. when alex returns to his desk, he shares the information with the other administration officers. the second pilot study resulted in the refinement of the interview. this was achieved through the re-wording of certain questions and phrases, and the compilation of extra questions and an extra case study (case k). data analysis interviews were transcribed and then analysed with the field notes through the process of open coding. strauss and corbin (1997) explain that coding in grounded theory is the process of breaking down, conceptualising and grouping data together in new ways in order to build theory, give the research vigour, and help the researcher break through biases and assumptions. during open coding analysis, comparisons were made between interviews in order to identif y categories (themes) of gossip in terms of their properties and dimensions. different categories emerged (for example, harmless information, venting/ tattletaling, harmful information, work-related issues and nonwork-related issues) through the analysis of the card-sorting exercise. each category was based on its own properties, for example, harmful information/gossip results in negative consequences and is divulged behind a person’s back. to enhance trustworthiness, the categories emerging from the data were subject to peer examination (in this case, the study supervisors) and a comprehensive register of data was kept. these categories aided in the development of a typology of gossip (discussed below), which in turn aided in the development of a working definition of gossip in the workplace (discussed below). findings the data obtained from the grounded theory analysis of the interviews was used in conjunction with the literature review in order to (1) develop a definition of gossip in the workplace, (2) identif y the characteristics and criteria that highlight the parameters of gossip, and (3) develop a typology of gossip in the workplace. gossip in the workplace: a working definition table 2 illustrates key concepts related to gossip which were identified and defined by the participants throughout the interviews and serve as a glossary of terms. table 2 key concepts related to gossip in the workplace concept definition tattletaling not exactly gossip but the act of ‘telling on’ a person. the information may be unjustified and have no fact or evidence. hearsay/overhearing/ the act of hearing information that is not told to you eavesdropping directly, and divulging this information. it is a type of gossip. rumour divulging information that leads to gossip. organisational/ when work-related information develops into gossip, office politics for example, a colleague is promoted (office issue), and fellow colleagues mention that he/she was not deserving of the promotion. grapevine informal information that cannot be traced back to the original source. ‘skinder’ afrikaans word equivalent to gossip. de gouveia, van vuuren, crafford60 speaking out of turn the divulging of information that is not rightfully yours to divulge. you have no consent or licence to disclose the information. invasion of privacy/ being inquisitive and poking your nose into someone prying else’s business. sensitive information that is generally disappointing, information embarrassing or personal, for example, a daughter who was not accepted into university or a grandfather who is hiv positive. professional office the groups of people within every working gossipers/gossip and environment, who are friendly with everyone, know rumour mongers everyone’s stories and live off spreading these juicy bits after having blown them out of proportion. venting day-to-day ‘blowing off steam’: the intention is not to gossip but rather to get an issue off your chest/voice a frustration. the consequences are not negative. the most common definitions as identified by the participants during the interviews were analysed in detail. it was found that many definitions overlapped and held common themes. the most common elements in the definitions included that gossip information: (1) is disclosed behind the subject’s back, (2) concerns matters that are private or sensitive to the subject and (3) could lead to harm once they are disclosed. the general opinion is that gossip is destructive, particularly so in the breaking down of employee morale. authenticit y and distortion were also identified as important factors, the implication being that if the source is reliable, the information is more likely to be true. distortion implies that the more the message is distorted, the more hurtful it becomes and therefore the more likely it will be construed as gossip. table 3 depicts the most common themes identified by the participants in their definitions of gossip in the workplace. table 3 themes identified from participant definitions of gossip in the workplace identified themes ssupporting extract � talking behind someone’s back ‘you know it’s gossip when the minute the person (you were talking about) walks in and you quickly change the topic to the weather.’ � confidential, sensitive ‘gossip is everything you wouldn’t bring information up in the boardroom.’ � none of your business � blown out of proportion ‘with gossip you start off with a small (authenticity & distortion) bit of information. by the time it gets to the last person, it’s got a head, tail, and is fully clothed ... and all you did was give it a nose ... but now it’s blown completely out of proportion.’ � spreads like wildfire � creates stress/uneasy working ‘gossip is mostly bad. someone always environment gets hurt.’ � negative consequences � making assumptions/fuelling speculation � creates false impressions ‘it’s talking about someone’s personal life without their consent, and adding your two cent’s worth when you don’t even know the person.’ � prying, speaking out of ‘how reliable is the reliable source? did turn, hearsay the source see it or did the source hear it from another reliable source?’ two definitions of gossip in the workplace were provided in the literature review. according to barnhart and barnhart (1994), gossip is idle talk that is not always true about other people and their affairs. kurland and pelled (2000) define workplace gossip as: ‘the informal and evaluative talk in the organisation among a few individuals about another member of the organisation who is not present’. these definitions are rather vague, and therefore the above definitions were used in conjunction with all the definitions presented by the participants, the common themes identified (table 3) as well as the typology of gossip (figure 1), table 2 and the criteria used to determine gossip parameters to develop a detailed working definition of gossip in the workplace. the working definition of the concept is presented below. gossip in the workplace can be defined as: � the spreading or sharing of information that could be � confidential � true/false � handled incorrectly � exaggerated � positive/negative � personal/job related � traumatic � scandalous � unrelated to the crucial functioning of the business (does not affect the employee’s work performance, but adversely affects the employee/others) � information that is disclosed: � between two or more people; � about a situation or a person they may or may not know; � behind his/her back so that the subject is unable to defend him/herself. � information that has no relevance to the gossiper/s � harmful because the disclosure of information could: � have negative and harmful consequences for an individual, group or organisation; � spread like wildfire � reach the wrong ears; and � create uneasy, harmful and emotionally stressful working environments. � knowledge that is not for public consumption and is based on: � speaking out of turn � second-hand information � assumption � rumours � hearsay � prying into people’s lives � derogatory/defamatory information � information that could lead to negative consequences such as: � the undermining of an individual, group or organisation � the breakdown of trust relationships � the straining of ethical values � fuelled speculation � the creation of false impressions the above definition is both detailed and specific. the following is an abbreviated definition of gossip: gossip in the workplace is the spreading of information between two or more people about a situation or person they may or may not know, behind their back, regarding information that is of no relevance to them. the content of the message is not for public consumption and the disclosure of the information leads to undesirable circumstances such as fuelled speculation, false impressions and the breakdown of trust. determining the parameters of gossip in the workplace: criteria and characteristics in the following section, the focus of discussion includes the criteria used to determine the parameters of gossip in the workplace, the characteristics of harmful gossip, the type of information gossiped about and reasons for gossip as identified by the research participants. important to this research are the criteria or parameters used to determine the extent to which information can be construed as gossip. during the card-sorting exercise, participants were asked to name and describe the criteria used to determine the extent to which a particular case study was gossip. fourteen criteria were identified based on the trends that emerged from the research. it is important to note that although not every criterion needs to be considered in order for information to be construed as gossip, some criteria are interrelated. typology of gossip in the workplace 61 the first criterion is that of authenticit y in which the information is judged on the extent to which it is true or false. when asked about the authenticity of gossip information, the participants held different views. some believed that gossip was always false and that anything true could never be construed as gossip as long as the disclosure of the information was not a breach of confidentiality. the majority believed that the information could be true and false, exaggerations of the truth and edited or twisted information. two participants said the following, which was the general opinion of other participants who were in accordance with the fact that gossip information can be true: ‘gossip is normally true. the information starts somewhere with some truth to it but as it moves through the channels it becomes less factual.’ ‘i believe that gossip can be the truth … where there is smoke there is fire!’ in terms of authenticity, how the information was made known needs to be considered, i.e. did you see it yourself or did you hear it from a reliable source? the reliability of the source is very important. if the source witnessed the occurrence, the information can be said to be first-hand information because the information moves from the original source to the recipient. if the reliable source hears it from another ‘reliable' source, this is termed ‘hearing via the grapevine’ and is regarded as secondhand information. second-hand information cannot be verified for authenticity because the origin of the information is unknown and can be dubious. the intention is the next criterion used to determine the extent to which information is gossip. this criterion refers to whether the information was disclosed out of maliciousness, sympathy, sincere concern or the need for the information. if the information was divulged with a hidden agenda as opposed to good intentions, it is more serious in terms of gossip. the context in which the information was divulged and the tone in which the information was disclosed also impact on the intention. the context and tone can imply certain things. if, for example, someone exclaims in a worried tone: ‘i wonder why the boss is late’, it can be deduced that the intention is one of concern, but if it is said in anger, the intention could be annoyance or to cause harm. the consequence or outcome refers to the effect caused by the dissemination of the information. in other words, did anyone benefit from the information being disclosed or was it harmful to the extent of altering people’s perceptions about a certain person/situation and creating false impressions? this criterion marks an important distinction between harmless and harmful information. most of the participants were of the opinion that harmful information always has a negative consequence even though the intention is not always to cause harm. the measurement of the authenticity, intention and consequences is a very important criterion. the participants believed that the authenticity, intention and consequence need to be quantified on a scale in terms of severity in order to determine the extent to which the information is true/false and causes harm. therefore, the more serious the consequences, the more harmful the intention, and the less the information can be verified by evidence, the more it is seen as harmful gossip. the above were the most common criteria identified by the participants. less common criteria include the relationship between the gossiper and the subject who is being gossiped about. one participant explained: ‘if you like someone, whatever information you disclose about them will never be nasty, and when someone else talks badly about someone you like, you tend to turn a blind eye.’ therefore, if the information comes from a friend of the person being talked about, the information is less likely to be construed as gossip than if the same information comes from a person who is known to be on bad terms with the subject. the nature of the information is also a criterion of concern when determining the extent to which the information is harmful gossip. if the information is negative, for example, about a person not deserving a promotion, then this information is more quickly termed as nast y gossip than information about a manager who received a bonus due to his/her hard work and extra effort. therefore, information that is undesirable or negative is more easily construed as harmful gossip than information that is desirable or positive. some part icipants also ment ioned the criterion of considering the number of people who can or would be affected by disclosing the informat ion. a lthough information is equally harmful whether it causes harm to one person or many people, it was mentioned that the seriousness of the divulged informat ion increases if the effect is collective. in other words, when work-related information causes harm to all the employees of an organisation, the implications are more severe than when information only affects a single employee. for example, disclosing confidential information about retrenchments to a group of employees will cause organisation-wide panic. in certain situations, who the information is disclosed to is a criterion that should be considered as it was agreed that when information is disclosed to the correct person, it is not gossip but when information reaches the ‘wrong ears’, it is gossip. disclosing to the supervisor that money has gone missing from the cash register during team a’s shift is not gossip because the supervisor has the right to know this t ype of information. however, if the employee first mentions this informat ion to the employees in team b, which will undoubtedly lead to speculation, then this is gossip because the information has nothing to do with them in the first place. whether there is confidentialit y surrounding the information or consent to disclose the information is another point of consideration. confidential information that is disclosed is more easily construed as gossip than nonconfidential information. confidential information in this sense refers to information of any sort that is bound by some form of confidentialit y (written or verbal) or when you are aware that the person concerned would not want the information to be divulged. one participant defined confidentialit y as: ‘making a promise to keep information to yourself. provided the information is not illegal, then the confidentiality should be honoured.’ it is important to note, however, that confidentiality on its own is not sufficient to determine the extent to which information is gossip and should be considered together with criteria such as the intention, the consequence and who the information is disclosed to. consider case g (table 1), if the manager discloses to the supervisor that the employee is having personal problems (even though the employee asked that this remain confidential), this would not be considered harmful gossip because the intention is noble, i.e. to save the employee’s job, and the information is disclosed to the correct source, i.e. the supervisor who has the right to know. furthermore, disclosing information behind someone’s back without their consent is not seen as harmful if the information is positive or has a positive consequence. the next criterion although important was identified by only half of the participants: the extent to which the information fuels speculation. a message that includes an open-ended question, for example ‘why did she commit suicide?’ tends to fuel speculation and therefore leads to gossip. the ‘why’ question in particular was emphasised by the participants because this word almost always ‘opens a can of worms’. two participants explained: de gouveia, van vuuren, crafford62 ‘the best type of gossip (most harmful) has open-ended questions such as “is she pregnant?” because it allows for debate.’ ‘the “why” question allows for everyone to get involved and offer their “two cents’ worth” on their own version of the matter.’ it was also suggested that the sensitivity of the subject (person being spoken about) is another criterion that needs to be considered. if you know that a particular person is shy, reserved or sensitive about a topic, then the information should not be disclosed even if confidentiality is not mentioned. for example, if an employee lost a close friend who had aids, it would be inappropriate to share this information with someone else, knowing that the employee is reserved when it comes to matters in his/her personal life. again, a criterion like this would be considered in conjunction with criteria such as the nature of the information, the intention and the consequence. the last three criteria should be considered together when determining the extent to which information is gossip and should further be considered in conjunction with the issue of confidentiality. the first is the connection to the workplace, which refers to the extent to which the disclosed information is related to one’s work and could affect an individual’s career, productivity, performance rating and company morale. the consensus is that the most harmful gossip is the information surrounding one’s personal life. this is not to say that workrelated information is never harmful, but work-related issues are less likely to be construed as gossip if they affect one’s working performance and are not disclosed with a malicious intent. a few participants included the criterion of ‘whether the issue would have to be handled by the human resource (hr) department. issues that have to be referred to hr for resolution are termed as more serious and can be viewed as harmful gossip, for example, when an employee is falsely accused of stealing and lays a grievance against the company. closely related to this criterion is the extent to which there are legal implications, for example, an employee who has been falsely accused of theft can sue the company for defamation of character, in which case it can be said that the disclosure of this information is very harmful. from the above, it can be seen that several criteria need to be considered to determine the parameters of gossip. the characteristics of harmful gossip and the type of information with which gossip deals will now be discussed briefly, together with the main reasons why people gossip. all 25 participants agreed that gossip is undesirable and deals with negative information. some went so far as to say that gossip is never a good thing because it always has a negative outcome: ‘when you talk about people and their business behind their back, they get hurt’. still, a few believed that gossip could be harmless in some cases, for example, talking about a wedding or mentioning a colleague’s deserving promotion. the participants were unanimous in saying that gossip concerns both personal and work matters, especially matters of a scandalous nature. as stated by one participant: ‘the juicier the gossip, the better.’ the majority agreed that personal matters were ‘juicier’ and therefore easily construed as more serious gossip than nonpersonal matters. but, when work-related issues have a negative connotation such as an in-office affair, they are also seen as serious gossip. a minority disagreed saying that work-related issues could never be gossip because anything that affects one’s performance at work needs to be communicated. interestingly enough, however, when it came to case h, about an office affair, the same participants rated the case as ‘very much’ gossip. the participants were asked to provide characteristics of harmful gossip. as identified by the participants, in order for information to be construed as harmful gossip, the information must be ‘juicy, exciting, entertaining, addictive and scandalous’. the information also needs to leave room for assumption, i.e. encourage ‘why’ questions. the information must be able to be edited and adapted to suit the gossipers’ own story-telling style. ‘sugar and spice’ are essential to give information enough flavour to ensure that it ‘spreads like wildfire’. finally, if the information can provoke emotional arousal and curiosity, then it is regarded as classic gossip. to summarise the above section, gossip is seen as information that could be conveyed with positive or negative intention, but generally leads to negative consequences because it causes harm and is therefore seen as undesirable. information could be of a personal or work-related nat ure and the more scandalous the information, the better it is in terms of harmful gossip. finally, gossip is seen as information that could be factual, or lies, or variations of the truth with modifications. in order for information to be construed as gossip, it needs to be interesting and adaptable, and arouse curiosity. given the above, one area remains to be analysed: the reason why people gossip. the participants identified many reasons why people gossip, the most common being that gossip is seen as an act of socialising: the coming together of people to share information over a cup of coffee. gossip is also the basis of forming work and social relationships. furthermore, in the monotony of life and work, participants were of the opinion that gossip brings a sense of excitement to people’s lives. therefore, the act of gossiping is believed to be both exciting and entertaining. while some people gossip because they seek popularity and believe this to be a way to gain it, others do it out of jealousy and retribution, and to point fingers. to a large extent, gossip at the office is viewed as a weapon to sabotage someone, normally someone in a higher career position. this form of backbiting or causing harm has made gossip the malicious tool that it is today. when asked to describe the type of people that gossip and the tactics they use, the participants identified a term professional office gossipers (pogs). one participant explained: ‘pogs are the group of people within e ver y working environment who are friendly with everyone, know everyone’s stories and live off spreading these juicy bits after having blown them out of proportion. for some unknown reason, people feel the need to share their life stories with these people, which makes them (the pogs) feel superior in knowing something that others don’t know.’ participants identified ‘gossip or rumour mongers’ as a synonym for pogs. the participants were asked to describe these pogs in terms of their demographics and the tactics they use to gossip. one of the main distinctions highlighted was that of gender. fifteen participants believed that pogs are men and women equally, eight participants were of the opinion that women gossip more and one participant believed that men gossip more. it was the belief of some participants that men and women pogs gossip for different reasons and use different tactics. one participant stated: ‘women gossip to become friends while men establish a friendship first and once there is a foundation for trust, they gossip.’ from the above, it can be said that women open up more easily than men and are more willing to share information. it was the belief of many participants that female friendships are formed and based on office gossip conversation while men first establish a friendship: speaking about cars, sport and motorbikes. only once the relationship is established and the men are sure that they can trust each other do they start to share gossip information. it was also mentioned that men and women pogs gossip about different things. men gossip about a single topic while women can gossip about ‘anything and everything’. this typology of gossip in the workplace 63 means that women will speculate about ‘who said what?’, ‘who ate what for lunch?’ and ‘whose car is parked outside?’. men on the other hand talk about one thing only: namely anything with a sexual connotation. one participant summed it up in the following way: ‘when i hear about an office affair, it always comes from a male. they are always the first to know because they enjoy boasting about their conquests. it is really quite shocking to hear the things that come out their mouths. they are not shy to ask you personal questions and know more details than women.’ a few participants agreed with this statement, leaning towards the notion that men do gossip as much as women, especially when it comes to information of a sexual nature. but it was also mentioned that women tend to be more malicious or nasty when they gossip. one participant said: ‘women use gossip as a conscious tactic to undermine other women in the office who are in higher positions while men use other tactics to undermine. although these tactics are still gossip, men attack a person’s ability directly and to the person’s face instead of behind their back.’ in opposition to the above, other participants mentioned that men gossip just as much, but they are able to hide their maliciousness better. this could be attributed to the fact that women are supposedly more emotional and could therefore find it more difficult to contain themselves in a bout of vicious anger. interestingly enough, the female participants were willing to admit that there were cases where women gossiped more. males on the other hand either said females gossiped more or equally as much as men, but they never mentioned that they themselves could be the pogs or gossip mongers. this means that although perceptions are changing, the common stereotype of women being gossipers still holds even if this research article shows that men and women gossip equally, but about different things. one male participant explained that women gossip more for fun while men do it more for information purposes, emphasising that even when men gossip, they pretend that they are doing something else. it is as if they really do not want to be labelled as gossipers. to support this, a few female participants said that when men gossip they tend to be more structured, rational, logical and objective as if to mask what they are actually doing, but ultimately they are still gossiping. one of the outcomes mentioned earlier was the development of a typology in order to provide a clearer picture of gossip within the realm of informal communication. this typology will be discussed in greater detail below. a typology of gossip in the workplace mouton and marais (1990) define a typology as a conceptual framework in which phenomena are classified in terms of characteristics that they have in common with other phenomena. typologies are found in every discipline in the social sciences and in this case a typology was developed in order to classif y gossip into main and subtypes. although the typology is discussed last in this article, it was the first development to arise during the data analysis phase and was used to develop the working definition of gossip in the workplace. as mentioned, during data analysis the process of open coding led to the identification of categories (themes). as general trends emerged, a typology of gossip was developed. the results of the card-sorting exercise also aided in the development of the typology. table 4 depicts the results of the card-sorting exercise and how each case was rated by the participants. a general sequence is presented below the table, depicting the most common sequence for the card-sorting exercise. the sequences were used to determine how information is categorised into different types according to the properties they possess. table 4 participant ratings for the card-sorting exercises no. of participants rating the case: case not gossip slight gossip quite a bit very much of gossip gossip a 0 0 1 24 b 0 1 12 11 c 12 9 4 0 d 21 4 0 0 e 3 6 10 6 f 13 8 1 3 g 6 7 7 5 h 0 0 4 21 i 0 1 5 19 j 7 5 6 7 k 3 4 7 6 sequence based on the above statistics from least to most gossip: least d f c j g e k b i a h most figure 3: typology of gossip in the workplace information in the informal sense can be viewed in terms of figure 3. information sharing can take place on t wo levels: sharing informat ion that is harmless, and sharing information that is harmful. information that is harmless is basically seen as ‘good gossip’ or information that is not gossip. there was general consensus that fine and definite lines are difficult to determine when it comes to information that is ’not gossip’ and ‘good gossip’ as they seem to overlap. in addition, ‘gossip’ and ’not gossip’ are also closely related concepts that can vary on a scale in terms of their maliciousness or seriousness. it was agreed that although gossip is generally harmful and negative, there are grey areas that yield to the divulgence of information being perceived as less serious. de gouveia, van vuuren, crafford64 good gossip refers to the sharing of information that could have a positive intention, is completely harmless in nature, generally does not have negative consequences and is divulged because it needs to be made known. the main criterion for harmless information is that it does not cause harm. within ‘good gossip’ there are four subtypes (as identified by the participants): (1) information in the public domain, (2) situations that are part of life, (3) ’need to know information’, and (4) day-to-day venting and tattletaling. these will be discussed in more detail. information in the public domain refers to any information that is available to everyone through the media. examples include international news such as the death of the pope. it was enquired whether hollywood/tabloid information would fit into this domain, and 15 participants believed that hollywood information was gossip and potentially harmful gossip. one opinion is given below: ‘you’re speculating on information which may not even be factual. reporters are known to make up stories and, at the end of the day, it is still offensive and damaging to the person who is being gossiped about.’ the nine participants who believed that hollywood information was not gossip or harmless gossip added that the information was available and free to all. the people are not personally known, and being victims of tabloid gossip comes with the territory of being famous. since this issue does not fall directly into the domain of interest in this research, it was not studied further, and is placed in the ’not gossip’ category purely because it is information available to everyone via the media. situations that are part of life refer to two extremes: information that is light-hearted in nat ure (engagements, weddings, birthdays, births and promotions) and information that is ‘darker’ in nature (death and illness). two cases, c and d (refer to table 1), fall into the category of situations that are part of life. case d was rated as ’not gossip’ by 21 participants, while the remaining four participants rated the case as ‘slight/harmless gossip’. the general reasoning was that the case depicted positive and harmless information. a few participants even commented that information of this nature could never be gossip and that it is more difficult for positive information to be construed as gossip (provided that the information is not edited). case c was rated as ’not gossip/slightly harmless gossip’ by 21 participants. the agreement was that the intention in disclosing this information was not harmful. it was explained that: ‘the intention was not to gossip but rather to give an honest account of the boss’s whereabouts.’ ‘death is rarely a source of gossip. people don’t speak badly about people who have passed away.’ those who classified the case as ‘quite a bit of gossip’ were unanimous in saying that the intention was not malicious but that perhaps the employee should have asked the boss’s permission to disclose the information, allowed the boss to disclose the information himself or respected the fact that he may not want anyone to know this information. when asked if it was acceptable to disclose that the supervisor’s mother was brutally murdered or had committed suicide, all the participants were again unanimous in saying that this t y pe of detail was completely inappropriate due to its sensitive nat ure. in situations like this, the participants believed that saying ‘she passed away’ was sufficient because giving further details would lead to speculation and could then develop into gossip. the above case also fits into the next subtype: ’need to know’ information. as the name states, this refers to information that needs to be made known for reasons such as accommodating or helping someone. it was suggested that in circumstances of death in the family, the correct people at work such as colleagues and managers have the right to know so that they can offer support and re-delegate the work of the bereaved to others while they are away. knowing this type of information also ensures that colleagues will not only understand the employee’s behaviour, but will also respond sympathetically towards the employee. case g received mixed reactions: 13 participants believed the case was ’not gossip/harmless gossip’, while 12 participants believed the case to be ‘quite a bit’ to ‘very much’ gossip. what was common, however, was that all the participants were of the opinion that when a situation impacts negatively on one’s work performance and can be detrimental to one’s performance rating, the supervisor has the right to know in order to be accommodating. although the actual reason and details need not be disclosed the supervisor is entitled to know that the secretary is, for example, going through a difficult time or is experiencing personal problems. for this reason, the case was termed ’need to know information’. one participant summed it up as follows: ‘how can you expect people to understand your behaviour and to cut you some slack if you don’t explain to them what is going on?’ the last subtype of harmless information is day-to-day venting and tattletaling. definitions for these terms are given in table 1. although none of the cases were identified to fit into this category, the participants identified that there were situations where information sharing was not gossip but where the dissemination was essential for pure venting purposes. situations falling into this category are generally seen as harmless because the intention is more to vent frustration and not to cause harm or deliberate gossip. an example would be to exclaim annoyingly to a colleague that due to the heavy workload, you will have to come to the office during the weekend and therefore miss out on the weekend rugby on television. harmful information, as the name states, is information that once disclosed causes harm to an individual, a group of people or an organisation. therefore, although the intention of the information disseminator may not be to harm, the consequence is negative and leads to the altered perceptions of other people towards the subject (person/s being gossiped about), ultimately creating false impressions of that person or situation. harmful information was termed as classic gossip by many participants. this type of information is characterised as being malicious and scandalous, and creating speculation and assumption. the information is gained through acts of eavesdropping (overhearing), prying into people’s personal lives, rumour mongering, speaking out of turn and hearing through the grapevine (refer to table 1 for concept definitions). this is the domain of a group of people termed pogs or gossip/rumour mongers, mentioned previously in the article. the classic/harmful gossip domain consists of two subtypes namely work-related gossip and personal-related gossip. a common characteristic of both types of classic gossip is that the information is normally sensitive: ‘information that is generally disappointing, embarrassing or personal, for example, a daughter who was not accepted to university, a rape in the family, or a family member who has aids.’ work-related gossip refers to sit uat ions such as retrenchments, promotions and pension cuts, while personalrelated gossip refers to home or family sit uat ions. organisational/office politics falls within this spectrum of gossip. one participant described office politics as ‘one of the handshakes in gossip’, meaning that office politics goes hand in hand with gossip in the workplace. for instance, when someone is promoted, this is known as an office issue, but the minute people start speculating about the employee not being deserving of the promotion, then it becomes office typology of gossip in the workplace 65 politics. therefore, office politics results from office-related talk, especially when this t ype of talk has negative outcomes. five of the 11 cases presented to the participants dealt with work-related issues. case b was rated as serious, harmful gossip by 23 participants. the main issue was that confidentiality was broken, and that the divulging of this information would affect the collective (all the employees), and lead to unnecessary fear, panic and emotional stress. this case was compared to case c, which was mentioned under ’need to know’ information. what came through strongly is that although both cases dealt with the disclosure of confidential information, in case c, the information was disclosed with a good intention and to save someone’s job or performance rating. it was also stated that the information was disclosed to the correct party, i.e. the supervisor. therefore, this case was not seen as classic gossip. case b was different in that the disclosure of the information affected a whole group of people negatively. it was also mentioned that the company had the right to disclose this type of information to the employees at an appropriate time. case k was viewed as less severe in terms of gossip because there was no confidentiality agreement in place, but the majority still rated it as harmful gossip because of the repercussions it would have on the employees, i.e. it would cause panic and fear. case i was seen as extremely serious in terms of gossip. although nepotism is in no way supported, it was explained that it was not right to disclose this type of information to a group of colleagues as it led to a misperception of an employee and would cause people to treat the employee differently. another issue of concern was the authenticity of the information because it was based on hearsay information. case f also concerns the topic of authenticity. overall, this case was rated as ‘good gossip’ because as an employee, it is one’s ethical responsibility to bring these types of issues to light. the majority of the participants said they would also have disclosed the information so that the innocent manager would not lose his/her job. however, an issue of concern was the reliability of the ‘reliable’ source. a participant said the following, which reflects the views of the other participants: ‘how reliable is the reliable source? did the source see it or did the source hear it from another reliable source?’ the opinion regarding the above case is that if the source witnessed the event and you trust the source, then it is first-hand informat ion as opposed to second-hand information, which is heard via the grapevine and could be dubious, leading to incorrect assumptions. the last case relating to work issues was case j. this was the most debatable case: the participants believed this information to be harmless and stated that because the sit uat ion impacted on the business, it was the leader’s responsibilit y to bring the issue to light. the same participants also said it was not gossip because the information was given to the correct source, i.e. the supervisor and not fellow employees, in which case it would have been more serious gossip. however, 13 participants believed this case to be extremely serious due to the lack of evidence in the allegation that the employee had stolen the stock. the participants believed that this had far-reaching consequences as it was defamatory to that employee’s character and could create false impressions. from a legal perspective, if the employee is not guilt y, he/she could sue for defamation of character, making this case more serious. personal-related gossip may or may not impact on work performance. personal issues that do not impact on one’s work performance are seen as the most malicious of all gossip and tend to be scandalous in nature, for example, talking about affairs (case h), speculating about someone’s sexual preference (case a), or discussing that a colleague’s daughter was not accepted to university (case e). these case studies were rated unanimously as ‘very much’ gossip because they were seen as not relating to the person’s individual performance at work and was generally no one’s business. the issues that could impact on work performance, such as divorces (case g mentioned above), were only seen as serious gossip if the information were disclosed to all the incorrect people, such as fellow employees. however, when the information was disclosed to a supervisor or manager, it was less likely to be perceived as gossip, provided that unnecessary details were not disclosed. discussion and recommendations the research was conducted to develop a typology of gossip in the workplace and to define and identif y its parameters. the research also acquired additional findings such as a greater understanding of the pogs, the tactics they use, the reason they gossip and the type of information they gossip about. given the above, the following is a brief discussion on recommendations for possible organisational interventions for preventing and dealing with malicious gossip in the workplace. gossip can be very serious in an organisation to the point that it can be detrimental: people leave their jobs, motivation and staff morale decrease, causing serious harm to the individual, group or company. greengard and samuel (2001) are of the opinion that malicious gossip can be controlled if a company nurtures a functional and positive culture. some individuals are of the opinion that as serious as gossip is, it cannot be controlled because it is part of what human beings do. below is the response of one participant, which was the general feeling of those who believed it could never be controlled: ‘gossip is part of human nature and professional office gossipers become smarter. they gossip when you are not around. it is hard to give an incentive for people not to gossip.’ other individuals believe that there are ways and means to control gossip to a certain extent. one intervent ion highlights the discussion and explanation of the negative implications of gossip, and the penalisation of employees for gossiping. in this way, a gossip-free working environment with high moral values can be created. a gossip-free culture would have to start with top management leading by example and having an open-door policy for employees to raise issues of concern so that they can be addressed prior to their becoming gossip. organisat ions that inst il values of corporate governance such as fairness, transparency, open communication and trust, can reduce the effects of office polit ics and gossip. telling the truth is of part icular importance as it was mentioned that by telling the truth, employees would not have anything to speculate about. the ‘honest y is the best policy’ theme coincides greatly with the view of many that from a management point of view, certain steps can be followed to ensure that information is not misconstrued. this involves being cautious with whom confidential information is disclosed and being consistent with the delivery of messages. it is believed that when it comes to work-related issues such as retrenchments, restructuring and pension cuts, which affect the organisation as a whole, the company should avoid telling groups of people at a time and rather communicate them to all employees simultaneously. this ‘tell everyone or tell no one’ policy ensures that information is not misconstrued and does not develop into harmful gossip. an ant i-gossip policy could be compiled to counter workplace gossip. the development of such a policy could be aided by clearly stating how the organisation defines gossip and perhaps using the working definition derived in this article. other recommendations include the formulation of de gouveia, van vuuren, crafford66 codes of ethics, increasing awareness of the phenomenon through communication campaigns and the development of training and orientation programmes for new employees. depending on the severit y of malicious gossip in an organisation, workshops dealing with the issues could also be used to educate employees on the possible serious consequences of gossip, for example, the erosion of trust, morale and interpersonal respect. however, to believe that organisations would be willing to budget for such campaigns, training programmes and workshops is unlikely, but the incorporation of gossip awareness as a dimension of other training programmes and workshops could be plausible. by including a sect ion on gossip awareness into a team building workshop, ethical awareness campaign or leadership programme, organisations could raise the awareness of the detrimental effects of malicious gossip and educate employees on how to deal with and avoid it, without having to budget for it as a specific standalone intervention. another way of discouraging and dealing with gossip is to use a procedure used by many organisations, namely confidentialit y agreements. these agreements could be extended to the governing of information that could maliciously hurt employees and/or the company. it is also recommended that hr innovate ways to incorporate this into company policies and procedures. coaching by managers and supervisors could also be used as a device to counter workplace gossip. coaching provides the platform (open forum) for employees in an organisation to vent their anger, frustrations and concerns to one person, the coach, as opposed to people all over the office who could in turn spread the information. the new age movement of appreciative inquiry could be used to mitigate gossip by using positive good-news stories. incorporating appreciative inquiry into organisational systems and policies encourages people to focus on the positive and that which is visionary, instead of the negative. it was explained that: ‘appreciative inquiry is a deliberate way to counter negative stories by bringing people together to design a protocol with positive questions so that people cannot talk about the negative problems…people respect this and don’t undermine something that’s positive. it takes people up a spiral where people start to identify positive themes. if this continues it becomes part of the work culture.’ as mouton and marais (1990) point out, any research involving humans has shortcomings. we encountered the following problems which could have impacted on the research findings. interviews were conducted in venues chosen by the part icipants. some of these venues, particularly those in coffee shops were not conducive to interviewing. the final adjusted interview schedule was only developed after the fifth interview therefore not every single participant received the identical interview which could have impacted on the reliabilit y of the findings. since the accounts presented by some participants could have been influenced by the fact that the interviewer knew them personally, validit y may have been affected. on the other hand, those participants whom were not personally known might have not had complete trust in the interviewer and held back sensitive information. further studies in this domain could include inquiry into the issues of gossip as it transcribes across gender and culture. researchers interested in the phenomenon could also test the above recommendations in order to determine the most effective ways of controlling gossip. conclusion the findings of the research were generally consistent with the literature review in terms of the definition of gossip and the common aspects of gossip. however, the literature available on gossip as far as it could be established was rather limited and vague, and the research findings may have added more substance. in addition, the definition of gossip in the workplace, the identification of criteria essential to determine the extent to which information could be construed as gossip, the development of a typology for gossip in the workplace and a better understanding of the pogs and the tactics they use have complemented existing knowledge of the phenomenon. the formation of the detailed definition of gossip in the workplace could prove useful for organisations that wish to control gossip. it was stated earlier in the article that gossip in the workplace could be defined as ‘the spreading of information between two or more people about a situation or person they may or may not know, behind their back, regarding information that is of no relevance to them. the content of the message is not for public consumption and the disclosure of the information leads to undesirable circumstances such as fuelled speculation, false impressions and the breakdown of trust’. given the working definition, the formation of anti-gossip policies could be useful in stating the parameters of gossip, thereby providing a more detailed understanding of when information can be construed as gossip in the workplace. the working definition could further be used in the formulation of codes of ethics, which might in turn increase ethical awareness pertaining to this phenomenon. references baker, j.s. & jones, m.a. (1996). the poison grapevine. how destructive are gossip and rumors in the workplace? human resource quarterly, 7 (1), 75-86. barnhart, c.l. & barnhart, r.k. (1994). the world book dictionary (vol. 1). chicago: world book. burg, b. & palatnik, l. (2003, january). the gossip threat. security insider, p. 34. christian community bible. (2000). (29th ed). quezon, philippines: claretian. crampton, s.m., hodge, j.w. & mishra, j.m. (1998). the informal communication network: factors influencing grapevine activity. public personnel management, 27 (4), 569-585. denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. (2000). (eds.). handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed). thousand oakes, ca: sage. encyclopedia of the orient (n.d.). retrieved on september 1, 2004 from world wide web: http://i-cias/e.o/texts/koran/ koran058.htm hecht, m. (n.d). what does the torah say about gossip? retrieved september 1, 2004 from the world wide web: http:// www.askmoses.com greengard & samuel (2001). gossip poisons business: hr can stop it. workforce, 80 (7), 24-34. kramer, r.m. (1999). trust and distrust in organisations: emerging perspectives, enduring questions. annual review of psychology, 50, 569-598. kurland, n.b. & pelled, l.h. (2000). passing the word: toward a model of gossip and power in the workplace. the academy of management review, 25 (2), 428-438. kvale, s. (1996). interviews: an introduction to qualitative research inter viewing. california: sage. mouton, j (1988). the philosophy of qualitative research. in ferreira, m., mouton, j., puth, g., schurink, e. & schurink,w. introduction to qualitative research: module 3 (pp. 1-16). pretoria: hsrc. mouton, j. & marais, h.c. (1990). basic concepts in the methodology of the social sciences. pretoria: hsrc. typology of gossip in the workplace 67 neuman, w.l. (2000). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. boston, ma: allyn and bacon. potter, w.j. (1996). an analysis of thinking and research about qualitative methods. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. rossouw, d. & van vuuren, l.j. (2004). business ethics (3rd ed.). cape town: oxford university press. schurink, w. (2004). qualitative research: introducing key features in an interpretive approach to social science research. pretoria: ssrc. smaling, a. (1989). munchhausen objectivity: a bootstrapconception of objectivity as a methodological norm. speech and lashon harah (2004). retrieved september 1, 2004 from the world wide web: http://www.mechon-mamre.org/ jewfaq/speech.html spradley, j.p. (1979). the ethnographic inter view. new york: holt, rinehart & winston. strauss, a. & corbin, j. (1990). a basic qualitative research: grounded theor y procedures and techniques. california: sage. strauss, a. & corbin, j. (1997). grounded theory in action. california: sage. waddell, j.r. & laing, r.d. (2004). you’ll never believe what i heard. super vision, 65 (2), p14. retrieved on may 1, 2004 from the world wide web: http://search.epnet.com/direct. asp?an=12121878&db=buh. de gouveia, van vuuren, crafford68 1pietersen.qxd purpose of the study the increasing presence in the work situation of certain type of behaviours that negatively impact on employees and the organization, which in the extreme manifest itself in incidents of physical assault and violence, is a factor to be reckoned with today by management. there can be little doubt that the occurrence of aggressive behaviour (whether directly or in more subtle forms) in the workplace is detrimental not only to the organization’s effectiveness and ongoing operations, but also to the overall quality of life and peace of mind of its employees. because of the negative impact of workplace aggression on: production costs and lost time (coco, 1998), interpersonal relations (andersson & pearson, 1999), absenteeism, commitment, organizational depart ure, organizational functioning (pearson, andersson & porath, 2000), performance (zohar, 1999) and employee well-being (kaukiainen, salmivalli, bjorkqvist, osterman, lahtinen, kostamo & lagerspelz, 2001) organizations need to deal with the problem. however, before this can happen, management must become aware of and prepare for what kaukiainen et al. (2001, p. 361) labelled “everyday aggression” and what neumann and baron (1998, p.139) defined as “efforts by individuals to harm others with whom they work, or have worked, or the organizations in which they are presently, or were previously, employed”. as a result of the relative novelty of this field of investigation, a uniformly accepted definition of the concept is still lacking. various terms such as workplace incivility (andersson & pearson, 1999), workplace violence (myers, 1996; piturro, 2001) and workplace bullying (sheehan & barker, 1999) are found in the literature. workplace incivility includes acting rudely or showing disregard for others (muir, 2000). workplace violence refers to homicide and violent physical attacks in the workplace (keim, 1999; moore, 1997) and bullying in the workplace manifests as psychological violence (crawford, 1999). these terms denote sub-clusters of aggressive behaviour (baron, 1998). for this reason, what is believed to be a conceptually more inclusive term, namely workplace aggression (see neumann & baron’s definition in the previous paragraph) is adopted in this article. the main purpose of the paper is to introduce a diagnostic framework that can be used as a management tool to identif y problem areas and develop solutions to deal with a range of aggression phenomena in the organization. literature review the study of behaviours, such as different forms of aggression and incivility in the workplace, that are detrimental to employees’ quality of life and organizational effectiveness has been identified as an important research focus for industrial psychologists and human resource specialists during the first part of the t went y first cent ury (schrader, 2004). the importance of the topic is underscored by the fact that legislation in, for example, norway, north america, australia, and finland clearly indicate the organization’s responsibility to manage, for example, workplace bullying (haslam, 2004; höel, 2004; paoli & merillie, 2001; vartia, 2004). south africa lags behind in this regard. the issue needs to be addressed because aggression in the work context is on the increase and an educated management should be able to recognize and limit aggression, mainly through self-corrective action, worker education and efforts to quickly and effectively deal with aggressive behaviours (jekielek, eng & koczorowska, 2000). the mass media tends to focus on noteworthy events such as homicide and suicide in the workplace. however, contrary to the popular press, the majority of aggressive behaviours in the workplace do not involve physical assault rather, they involve aggression that is verbal and covert in nature (kaukiainen et al., 2001). the attention paid to more overt forms of workplace aggression has resulted in numerous publications to help managers deal with the occurrence of workplace homicide, but scant attention has been paid to day-to-day expressions of more covert (and arguably more costly) forms of workplace aggression (pearson et al., 2000). pcharlotte pietersen charlottep@ul.ac.za department of industrial and organizational psychology school of economics and management university of limpopo sovenga abstract workplace aggression is an ever-increasing and multi-faceted phenomenon that managers and human resources professionals worldwide will have to address in the twenty first century. a greater awareness of the presence and negative consequences of human aggression in the workplace and the ability to cope with it will become necessary to maintain an effective organization. the purpose of this article is to present an integrated approach to identif y and measure aggression in the workplace. the results of a preliminary empirical study are used to demonstrate how the framework can be used for effectively managing different manifestations of workplace aggression. opsomming werksplek aggressie is ’n verskynsel wat wêreldwyd aan die toeneem is en deur bestuur en menslike hulpbronbestuur praktisyns aangespreek sal moet word. ’n groter bewuswording van die aanwesigheid en negatiewe gevolge van menslike aggressie in die werkplek, sowel as die vermoë om dit suksesvol te hanteer, word belangrik vir voortgesette organisasie-doeltreffendheid. die doel van die artikel is om ’n ge¿ntegreerde benadering tot die identifisering en meting van aggressie in die werkplek bekend te stel. die resultate van ’n voorlopige studie word gebruik om te demonstreer hoe die raamwerk gebruik kan word om verskillende manifestasies van werkplek aggressie doeltreffend te bestuur. a diagnostic approach to measuring and managing workplace aggression requests for copies should be addressed to: c pietersen, charlotte@ul.ac.za 1 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (1), 1-5 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (1), 1-5 forms of workplace aggression neumann and baron (1998) identified a range of factors that influence different levels of aggression in the workplace. these factors are social, situational, personal, cognitive and attitudinal in nature. a substantial body of research (for instance, andersson & pearson, 1999; awadalla & roughton, 1998; chen & spector, 1992; geddes & baron, 1997; goulet, 1997; moore, 1997; zohar, 1999) suggest that just as personalit y traits may predispose individuals to respond in a particular way, subtle feelings and thoughts may predispose them to particular forms of behaviour, in this instance to behave aggressively or not. however, for the purpose of the present discussion the focus will be on three empirically derived levels of workplace aggression identified by baron and neumann (1996), and not on theoretical issues as such. assessing workplace aggression despite the current interest in workplace aggression a research base is only beginning to accumulate and, with the exception of the neumann and baron model, the theoretical models available have not been empirically tested (glomb & miner, 2000). the literature also shows that very few measures of workplace aggression have been developed, and then mostly for research purposes. another problem with assessing the phenomenon is that the instruments used to measure workplace aggression tend to focus either on covert aggression alone (kaukiainen et al., 2001) or on extreme forms of workplace violence, such as homicide and suicide, instead of a broader spectrum of workplace aggressive behaviours (neumann & baron, 1998). questionnaires have been developed to assess bullying (einarsen, raknes & matthiesen, 1994; quine, 1999). however, bullying is just one form or expression of aggressive behaviour and as such these instruments therefore have limited use. according to byrnes (2003) one of the reasons why managers do not intervene in cases of workplace aggression before it reach a crisis stage is that they do not have the means for assessing its varied nature and severity of impact in their organizations. an influential study on different forms of workplace aggression was conducted by neumann and baron (1998), in which they rated the frequency with which employees experienced 40 different forms of aggressive behaviour. by means of an exploratory factor analysis, they were able to show that 33 of the variables clustered around three dimensions. these three levels of workplace aggression are labelled: expressions of hostility, obstructionism, and overt aggression (baron & neumann, 1996). the three levels of workplace aggression (wa), together with a range of factor loadings, identified by neumann and baron (1998) are outlined in figure 1. level i: expressions of hostility (factor loadings between .45 and .73) � primarily verbal and symbolic behaviour (negative gestures, facial expressions, verbal assault). � most frequent form of wa. level ii: obstructionism (factor loadings between .52 and .69) � actions that impede a person’s ability to perform his/her job. � actions that interfere with the organisation’s ability to meet its goals and objectives. � mostly passive forms of wa (withholding resources and constructive behaviours, sabotage, anti-citizenship behaviours, work slowdowns, failing to respond appropriately, causing others to delay action, showing up late for meetings). � rated as more prevalent than acts of overt aggression in the workplace. level iii: overt aggression (factor loadings between .47 and .74) � acts of workplace violence (attack with weapon; physical assault against persons, personal property and company property; theft). figure 1: three-factor model of workplace aggression the neumann and baron rating scale measures only the frequency of occurrence of different forms of aggressive behaviour in the workplace. although information on the frequency of occurrence of different forms of workplace aggression can be used as a basis for primary intervention, a more productive approach would be to assess workplace aggressive behaviours in a more comprehensive fashion for diagnostic and intervention purposes and to facilitate management action. this can be done by expanding the neumann and baron model to include more than just the assessment of frequency of occurrence of aggressive behaviour in the work context. proposed solution a diagnostic and action framework for managing workplace aggression an assessment instrument, the workplace aggression inventory (wai) was developed by pietersen and pietersen (2004). the inventory incorporates selected and suitably modified items from neumann and baron (1996). it comprises 72 items using four point likert-type rating scales for each of the three levels of: hostile, obstructive and overt aggression behaviours, with 24 items for each of the following applications: perceived frequency of the three levels of workplace aggressive behaviours, intensity of feelings toward (personal impact of) the three levels of workplace aggressive behaviours, and perceived organizational impact of the three levels of workplace aggression behaviours. preliminary analysis of the instrument shows encouraging results. item-scale inter-correlations indicate that wai items cluster according to the three dimensions of neumann and baron’s model and, therefore, suggest the usefulness of the questionnaire. in addition, a principle components analysis (exploratory) produced further support for the three dimensions used in the model, with eigen values of 1.20 to 6.00 and a total variance of 75.65. reliabilit y values (cronbach alpha coefficients) range from 0.78 to 0.94 for items in each of the three main groupings and 0.89 for the overall measure. the instrument was designed to provide information on three interrelated aspects of aggressive behaviour in an organization, namely, its occurrence, its personal as well as perceived organizational impact. the aim is to provide a practical tool that managers can use in a focussed manner to identif y, prioritise and deal with different forms of aggressive behaviours occurring in their organizations. in order to better accomplish these tasks and facilitate the implementation of solutions, another component was added to highlight an active approach to dealing with workplace aggression. for this purpose a standard model of decisionmaking and problem solving in the field of organizational behaviour (stacey, 1993), is proposed (see figure 2). step 1 step 2 step 3 step 4 problem identif y scope identif y actions activate awareness of problem to solve problem solutions figure 2: steps for managing workplace aggression in line with this model, workplace aggression can be managed in four basic steps: step 1: problem awareness. ineffective work operations and critical incidents involving aggressive behaviour can be directed against or involve both the employee in person and/or property. the first step implies that management recognises and acknowledges that workplace aggression is present in the organization. pietersen2 step 2: identify the scope of the problem. the second step involves determining how prevalent the problem is in the workplace. one way to do this is to establish how aware employees are of workplace aggressive behaviours in the organization. this can be accomplished via the proposed diagnostic framework, by, firstly, measuring the frequency with which different forms of workplace aggression occur in the organization; secondly, how strongly employees feel about the different forms of aggressive behaviour in their workplace (attitudinal content); and, thirdly, what perceived impact different forms of workplace aggression have on the overall operations of the company. the reason for an expanded approach to the assessment of workplace aggression is that, jointly considered, perception and attitude have greater behavioural significance for remedial purposes, than information about mere frequency of occurrence. in order for management to effectively deal with workplace aggression information is also required on more than just the personal impact of these types of behaviour. step 3: identifying actions to solve the problem. management, thirdly, needs to choose and implement appropriate corrective and/or proactive actions to minimize the occurrence or recurrence of incidents of aggression in the workplace (pearson et al., 2000). some of the areas of action available for this purpose include: � recruitment and selection. human resources practitioners should employ effective and thorough hiring practices (dunn, 2000; mccune, 1994) to communicate expectations about personal conduct to prospective employees. they also need to identif y applicants who may be predisposed to aggressive behaviour, for example by checking job candidates' references thoroughly, especially regarding signals of previous patterns of workplace aggressive behaviour. � induction. during job orientation expectations (norms) about interpersonal behaviour in the organization should be carefully communicated to new employees. information in the form of written policies and procedures regarding workplace aggression should be made available. � training. an important way to manage aggressive behaviour in the workplace is through training (see also, banner, 2001 and coco, 1998). training should equip employees with the knowledge and skills to deal with aggression. interpersonal skills training (for example, in conflict management, the effective use of emotions, negotiation, dealing with difficult people) can enhance workers' ability to early on become aware of and curtail aggressive behaviour before it spirals (pearson et al., 2000). � employee assistance programs. an eap can be developed to provide counselling to employees – to victims as well as to instigators and witnesses of aggressive behaviour (moore, 1997). step 4: activating solutions. the last step in the proposed framework is the actual implementation and regular monitoring of corrective and/or proactive actions to manage aggressive behaviours. applying the framework: an explanatory example the results of an empirical study serve as an example to illustrate how the diagnostic and action-planning framework can be used in an organization. the organization in question is a security company based in the limpopo province of south africa. step 1. management became aware of and acknowledged that aggression was present in the workplace. step 2. the workplace aggression inventory was administered to employees in the organization. combined rankings for perceived frequency of (freq.), intensity of feelings toward (feel.), and perceived impact (imp.) of different forms of workplace aggressive behaviours on each of the three levels are shown in table 1. the lower the rank, the more important the occurrence of a workplace aggressive behaviour in the organization. table 1 combined ramkings for aggressive behaviours rank rank rank freq. feel. imp. hostility negative eye-contact 5,5 24 24 belittling behaviour 11 21 17.5 silent treatment 9 22 20 negative non-verbal 8 23 22 rumour/gossip 1 15 17,5 ridicule 10 18,5 11 non-denial of rumours 2,5 20 19 verbal sexual harassment 12 4 1 obstructionism failure to respond (calls, memos) 13 18,8 14 causing work delays 18 15 12,5 failure to warn of physical danger 4 15 16 late for meetings 5,5 11 22 work interference 15,5 17 12,5 resource wastage 20 11 15 denial access to resources 17 8 12,5 intentional work slow-downs 7 8 7 overt aggression physical threats 22 2 8 physical assaults 24 11 5,5 failure to protect others 20 8 9 illegal control of resources (theft) 2,5 5,5 4 destroying mail/messages 15,5 5,5 2 harming employer property 14 3 5,5 harming property of fellow employee 20 5,5 10 attack with weapon 23 1 3 in order to help management identif y noteworthy combinations of perceived frequency of, intensity of feelings toward, and perceived impact of workplace aggressive behaviours and to use the information to select and activate solutions (steps 3 and 4 in the diagnostic and action planning framework), the rankings in table 1 were divided into three groups: � rankings 1 to 8 = high importance. � rankings 9 to 16 = medium importance. � rankings 17 to 24 = low importance. the highlighted rankings in table 1 allow one to identif y different forms of aggression, to prioritise the need for and appropriate type of intervention required, and to monitor the situation in the organization. because this is an example to demonstrate how management can use information provided by the instrument, only certain rankings are included for discussion. the noteworthy combinations (perceived frequency of, intensity of feelings toward, and perceived impact) for the three levels of workplace aggression are: hostile behaviours (workplace aggression – level 1) � similar to the neumann and baron (1998) study, the most frequent workplace aggressive behaviour is the occurrence/spreading of rumours. however, despite the finding that this type of behaviour occurred more frequently than any of the other types of aggressive behaviour, the overall intensity of respondents’ feelings toward as well as perceived organizational impact of this type of aggressive behaviour were moderate to low in terms of importance. for a diagnostic approach to workplace aggression 3 interpretive purposes this type of workplace aggressive behaviour, therefore, does not merit special attention by management. � a similar interpretation applies to negative eye contact, negative non-verbal cues, and non-denial of rumours, which seems to occur rather frequently but is not personally or organizationally regarded as of much importance. these behaviours do not need serious attention by management in the present case. � although there is only moderate occurrence of verbal sexual harassment, respondents do have strong feelings about it and regard it as having high organizational impact. this is, therefore, a form of workplace aggression that needs to be monitored by management, as it may become a disruptive force in future. obstructionist behaviours (workplace aggression – level 2) � the following obstructionist behaviours have a high frequency of occurrence, but are not regarded as of any great personal and organizational significance, namely, failure to warn of physical danger and being late for meetings. although these behaviours are not currently high priorit y items for management action, the results should be of concern to the management and organizat ional scient ist who could suspect a rather apathetic and less than optimal organizational culture. the consultant should therefore engage with management in organizational development interventions to bring about appropriate behavioural changes. � much more noteworthy here is the relative high rankings obtained for both frequency of occurrence and perceived personal and organizational impact of intentional work slowdowns. following the interpretive rationale of the diagnostic framework presented in this article, this type of behaviour requires urgent investigation because it directly impacts on work operations and is a strong indicator of low morale, job dissatisfaction and possibly a poor organizational climate. overt aggression (workplace aggression – level 3) � with one exception, instances of overt aggression are seen to be infrequent, although (as should be expected according to the theoretical rationale of neumann and baron’s three-tier model) overt aggression is regarded as a high impact phenomenon for most of the items (table 1). the good news (again with the noted exception) for management is that these behaviours currently occur minimally in the organization. � the exception, of course, is the high frequency of illegal control of resources (theft), with a very high ranking of 2.5. respondents also feel very strongly about the impact (both personally and organizationally) of theft in the organization. needless to say, this finding requires urgent management attention. a range of measures may be utilized, such as: � upgrading staff selection procedures. � developing policies and procedures to report and eliminate theft. � motivating employees to adhere to it. � identif ying responsible individuals to control and distribute resources. � keeping valuable resources securely under lock and key. discussion and recommendations the purpose of the paper was to introduce and demonstrate the value of a well-founded practical approach to the management of workplace aggression. the approach can be used to help managers prioritise and more effectively focus on workplace aggression behaviours in their organizations. it should also enable management to be more proactive in preventing the workplace from deteriorating or work processes becoming disrupted as a result of aggression. it is believed that the proposed diagnostic and action-planning framework can be employed to help managers deal with workplace aggression in a focussed and constructive manner. the model will also be useful to sensitise staff to the existence of a variety of workplace aggressive behaviours detrimental to organizational effectiveness, through their negative impact/influence on work performance and quality of work life. the model can be applied in various settings. future research could also, for instance, include investigating the relationship between workplace aggression and other factors such as psychological well-being, quality of work life, performance and organizational commitment. references andersson, l.m. & pearson, c. (1999). tit for tat? the spiralling effect of incivility in the workplace. academy of management review, 24 (3), 452-472. awadalla, c.a. & roughton, j.e. (1998). workplace violence prevention: the new safety focus. professional safety, 43 (12), 31-35. banner, s. (2001). hell in your hallways. journal of property management, 66 (1), 5256. barron, o. (1998). bullying at work: the distinction between workplace bullying and workplace violence and the ramification for ohs. journal of occupational health and safety, australia and new zealand, 14 (6), 575-580. baron, r.a. & neumann, j.h. (1996). workplace violence and workplace aggression: evidence on their relative frequency and potential causes. aggressive behaviour, 22, 161-173. byrnes, j.d. (2003). the aggression continuum: a paradigm shift. occupational health and safety, 69 (2), 70-71. chen, p.y. & spector, p.e. (1992). relationships of work stressors with aggression, withdrawal, theft and substance use. journal of occupational & organizational psychology, 65 (4), 177-184. coco, m.p. (1998). the new war zone: the workplace. s.a.m. advanced management journal, 63 (1), 15-21. crawford, n. (1999). conundrums and confusion in organizations: the et ymolog y of the word “bully”. international journal of manpower, 20 (1), 86-93. dunn, k. (2000). bullying in the workplace often goes unnoticed. workforce, 79 (4), 28-29. einarsen, s., raknes, b.i. & matthiesen, s.b. (1994). bullying and harassment at work and their relationships to work environment quality: an exploratory study. european work and organisational psychologist, 4 (4), 381-401. geddes, d. & baron, r.a. (1997). workplace aggression as a consequence of negative performance feedback. management communication quarterly, 10 (4), 433-455. glomb, t.m. & miner, a.g. (2000). workplace anger, aggression, and affect: using affective events theory as an interpretive framework. paper presented in the symposium: anger at work: conceptual and methodological extensions second international conference on emotions in organizational life, 10 august: toronto. goulet, l.r. (1997). modelling aggression in the workplace: the role of role models. academy of management executive, 11 (2), 84-86. haslam, i. (2004). welcome to hell's office. community care, 1538, 49. höel, h. (2004). violence and harassment in european workplaces: trends and political responses. keynote address presented at the 4th international conference on bullying and harassment in the workplace, 28-29 june, bergen, norway. jekielek, j., eng, p. & koczorowska, m. (2000). educating management in combating low-le vel aggression in the workplace. xiv world meeting: prevention and control of aggression and the impact on its victims, 9-14 july, university of valencia, spain. kaukiainen, a., salmivalli, c., bjorkqvist, k., osterman, k., lahtinen, a., kostamo, a. & lagerspelz, k. (2001). overt and convert aggression in work settings in relation to the subjective well-being of employees. aggressive behaviour, 27, 360-371. pietersen4 keim, j. (1999). workplace violence and trauma: a 21st century rehabilitation issue. journal of rehabilitation, 65 (1), 16-20. mccune, j.c. (1994). companies grapple with workplace violence. management review, 83 (3), 52-57. moore, l.r. (1997). preventing homicide and acts of violence in the workplace. professional safety, 42 (7), 20-23. muir, c. (2000). can we all get along? the interpersonal challenge at work. academy of management executive, 14 (4), 143-144. myers, d.w. (1996). the mythical world of workplace violence-or is it? business horizons, 39 (4), 31-36. neumann, j.h. & baron, a. (1998). workplace violence and workplace aggression: evidence concerning specific forms, potential causes, and preferred targets. journal of management, 24 (3), 391-420. paoli, p, & merillie, d. (2001). third european sur vey on working conditions 2000, european foundation for the improvement of living and working condition. luxembourg: office for official publication for the european communities. pearson, c.m., andersson, l.m. & porath, c.l. (2000). assessing and attacking workplace incivility. organizational dynamics, 29 (2), 123-138. pietersen, h.j. & pietersen, c. (2004). workplace aggression inventory. unpublished research instrument. university of limpopo: department of industrial and organizational psychology. piturro, m. (2001). workplace violence. strategic finance, 82 (11), 35-38. quine, l. (1999). workplace bullying in nhs community trust: staff questionnaire survey. british medical journal, 318 (7178), 228-232. schrader, b. (2004). industrial/organizational psychology 2010: a research odyssey, chapter 3. retrieved october 18, 2004, from the world wide web: http://teachpsych.lemoyne.edu/ teachpsych/faces/text/ch03.htm sheehan, m. & barker, m. (1999). applying strategies for dealing with workplace bullying. international journal of manpower, 20 (1), 50-57. stacey, r.d. (1993). strategic management and organisational dynamics. london: pitman publishing. vartia, m. (2004). research, practice and increased awareness: the finnish experience. keynote address presented at the 4th international conference on bullying and harassment in the workplace, 28-29 june, bergen, norway. zohar, d. (1999). when things go wrong: the effect of daily work hassles on effort, exertion and negative mood. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 72 (3), 265-283. a diagnostic approach to workplace aggression 5 article information authors: huma van rensburg1 johan s. basson2 nasima m.h. carrim2 affiliations: 1south african board for people practices, south africa 2department of human resource management, university of pretoria, south africa correspondence to: nasima carrim email: nasima.carrim@up.ac.za postal address: private bag x20, hatfield 0028, pretoria, south africa dates: received: 02 nov. 2010 accepted: 23 mar. 2011 published: 30 aug. 2011 how to cite this article: van rensburg, h., basson, j., & carrim, n. (2011). human resource management as a profession in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #336, 15 pages. doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.336 copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) human resource management as a profession in south africa in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • background to the study    • research objective • research design    • research approach    • research strategy    • research method       • research setting       • entrée       • sampling       • data collection       • data capture       • data analysis       • strategies used to ensure quality data • findings    • question 1: how important is the competency of hr professionals in giving the organisation a leading edge?    • question 2: is there an awareness of the importance of the professionalisation of hr?    • question 3: what about accountability and ethical conduct?    • question 4: comment on a vision for hr in south africa?    • survey findings • discussion    • conclusion and recommendations for future research    • limitations of the study • references abstract (back to top) orientation: various countries recognise human resource (hr) management as a bona fide profession. research purpose: the objective of this study was to establish whether one could regard hr management, as practised in south africa, as a profession. motivation for the study: many countries are reviewing the professionalisation of hr management. therefore, it is necessary to establish the professional standing of hr management in south africa. research design, approach and method: the researchers used a purposive sampling strategy involving 95 participants. the researchers achieved triangulation by analysing original documents of the regulating bodies of the medical, legal, engineering and accounting professions internationally and locally as well as the regulating bodies of hr management in the united kingdom (uk), the united states of america (usa) and canada. seventy-eight hr professionals registered with the south african board for people practices (sabpp) completed a questionnaire. the researchers analysed the data using content analysis and lawshe’s content validity ratio (cvr). main findings: the results confirm that hr management in south africa adheres to the four main pillars of professionalism and is a bona fide profession. practical/managerial implications: the article highlights the need to regulate and formalise hr management in south africa. contribution/value-add: this study identifies a number of aspects that determine professionalism and isolates the most important elements that one needs to consider when regulating the hr profession. introduction (back to top) the professional standing of human resource management is in the spotlight worldwide. an example of this is the very recent formalisation of professional human resource management standards in countries like canada and germany. the south african board for people practices (sabpp) drafted the human resource professions bill in 2004 and revised it in 2006. it initiated much discussion about the merits of regulating the human resource (hr) profession. one of the key points raised in these debates is whether one can regard hr management as a profession. losey (1997, p. 147) states that ‘human resource management is a profession’. ulrich and eichinger (1998) maintain that ‘hr must become more professional’. numerous researchers in the hr field (armstrong, 2000; losey, meisinger & ulrich, 2005; ulrich & brockbank, 2005) and various institutions (harvard, cornell, and the american business association) use the term ‘hr professionals’ in their writings. human resource management as a profession in south africa uses huma van rensburg’s (2009) mcom dissertation as its basis. background to the study the researchers describe the background to the study in terms of the factors that affect the basic premise under investigation: that one can regard human resource management as a bona fide profession. this study is set against a backdrop of globalisation and a changing economic environment that have a significant effect on the human resources field. before expounding on the background factors, it is necessary to define the term ‘profession’ and then to explain the concept of ‘professionalisation’. the question that one needs to answer is: ‘what is a profession and what is professionalism in the context of the current study?’ abdulla and threadgold (2010) posit that ‘profession’ is a term that describes a domain of expertise. harrison (2007), on the other hand, argues that there has been much debate and confusion about defining the term. in the past, the term ‘profession’ applied to law, medicine, engineering, business and academics. these days it is used more freely in different contexts. there are many definitions of ‘profession’. an example is: a profession is a vocation … founded upon an understanding of the theoretical structure of some department of learning or science, and upon the abilities accompanying such understanding … applied to the vital practical affairs of man. the practices … are modified by knowledge of a generalized nature and by the accumulated wisdom and experience of mankind … the profession … considers its first ethical imperative to be altruistic to the client. (maudsley & strivens, 2000, p. 535) another definition is: profession means, in its etymological roots, to declare aloud, to proclaim something publicly. on this view professionals make a ‘profession’ of a specific kind of activity and conduct to which they commit themselves and to which they can be expected to conform. the essence of a profession then is this act of ‘profession’ – of promise, commitment and dedication to an ideal. (pellegrino, 2002, p. 379) during the 1970s, freidson said that the term ‘profession’ was founded on independent practice, self-auditing processes, expert knowledge and special value in its work, as well as monopoly and service to the public. around the same time, hall suggested that professions start with a professional model, its accompanying attributes and profession-specific content (williams, onsman & brown, 2009). ‘professionalisation’, on the other hand, is a method of making a developing occupation socially legitimate. in the course of forming and defining itself, an occupational group must construct and maintain occupational boundaries that consist of social or cultural divisions that help to indicate a group’s work, societal roles and legitimacy (lauk & pallas, 2008). the boundary activities consist of defining specific work tasks and normative occupational values, determining professional standards, influencing education and recruiting new members. a professional organisation gets the legal right to control its field and opposes external interference to control the activities of the occupation’s constituents (lauk & pallas, 2008). therefore, professionalisation is the profession’s ability to convince legislators and society that its work is significant (williams, onsman & brown, 2009). according to williams, onsman and brown (2009), professionalisation progresses linearly towards acquiring a number of essential characteristics like codes of ethics, professional associations and specialised skills. professions should move through four stages, in chronological order, during the process of professionalising: • creating full-time occupations • establishing training schools • establishing professional bodies • developing codes of ethics. abdulla and threadgold (2010) and wilensky (1964) summarised the process of professionalising as: • developing the occupation into a full-time one and creating occupational territory • establishing training schools or colleges and linking these to universities • promoting the occupation to national and international parties • obtaining professional licences and accreditation • developing a code of ethics. this article has outlined the stages and processes of professionalising. it now describes the five factors that affect the drive towards professionalising the human resource field in south africa. the first factor is an increased awareness, internationally and in south africa, of the necessity for ethical conduct in business (dixon, 2006; ndlovu, 2006). following the major governance issues the first king report covers, the second report emphasised values, conduct, fairness, accountability, responsibility and transparency in corporate governance. king emphasised regulating the human resource environment in order to ensure compliance with suitable codes of conduct. king saw enforcing codes of conduct as the basic requirement for good practice. the second factor is the current drive towards professionalising human resource management in south africa and the increasing burden of compliance with legislative requirements. it is largely the responsibility of human resource practitioners to implement labour legislation in organisations. this environment requires an understanding and knowledge of the legislation as well as the competence to introduce the correct measures in the workplace. it is an area of hr management that requires specialised and continually updated knowledge, expertise and competence (cohen, 2005). the third factor is the need for a recognised body of knowledge and standards of conduct in the practice of human resource management. this was identified in south africa in the late seventies. paradoxically, the heart of the problem is the professional status of human resource management, which this study tackles. people from all walks of life are practising human resource management. meisinger (2006) stated that many who practise hr management are not hr professionals. this affects the perception of hr management. the number of applications for professional registration the sabpp has received from people with widely diverse backgrounds illustrates this as well. some people practise hr management without any formal training. this does not happen in other major profession, where a qualification is a minimum requirement for entry. companies, which redirect employees who are unsuccessful in other departments into their human resource departments, may create these various entry points from other disciplines. in a recent conversation at a local government seminar in south africa, delegates called this practice ‘dumping’. this has a devastating effect on the general levels of the competence of the people in human resource management and on its perceived lack of stature. the fourth factor that influences this study of human resource management as a profession is a quality management system for education and training for south africa that the south african qualifications authority (saqa) act no 58 of 1995 has introduced. this has raised national awareness of the need for acceptable standards and for measuring or controlling the quality of education and training on a much wider scale than was attempted before in south africa. applicants who have a formal and relevant qualification, together with a number of years of experience at a specified level of practice, are registered as hr professionals in south africa. recognition of prior learning (rpl) is another effective route for registration. the sabpp is the recognised standards body for human resource management. it has been the accredited education and training quality assurance (etqa) body for human resource management and practice, human resource development (hrd) and skills development facilitation (sdf), productivity and disability employment practice since november 2002. reaccreditation until september 2011 has confirmed the status of the sabpp as the professional body and the etqa for human resource management in south africa. the fifth factor is the south african government’s increased awareness of the value of professionalism in increasing productivity and decreasing corruption. the sabpp is currently collaborating with the local government leadership academy working group to promote the professionalisation of human resource management in south africa. research objective the purpose of the study is to establish whether human resource management, as practised in south africa, is a profession. in order to achieve this objective, the researchers: • analysed the original documents of the four widely acknowledged professions in south africa, namely the legal, engineering, medical and accounting professions, to identify the principles of professionalism and ethical conduct of these professions • examined the original documents of the regulating bodies of hr management in three countries, namely the chartered institute of personnel and development (cipd) in the uk, the human resource certification institute (hrci) in the usa and the canadian council of hr associations (cchra) to identify the principles, values and ethical conduct matters they regard as important for establishing hr management as a profession in their respective countries • conducted interviews with selected hr mentors of the sabpp to identify the important conduct matters and values of hr management as a profession in south africa • tested the validity of the information they acquired from registered hr practitioners in south africa. research design (back to top) research approach the ontological approach the researchers used in this study focused on the views of professional bodies and hr professionals about the professional principles and conduct of professions in general and particularly of hr managers in south africa. the researchers were aware that the participants’ contributions were based on their understanding and interpretation of what constitutes principles and professional conduct in hr management. the researchers decided to use the interpretivist approach to understand and verify the dynamics of the challenge in question, which is to make hr management a profession, by identifying, understanding and interpreting the participants’ perceptions of the principles and conduct of hr professionals. research strategy the researchers combined qualitative and quantitative research strategies by using the original documents of professional bodies, semi-structured interviews with mentors and a questionnaire. the researchers achieved triangulation using the techniques that follow. firstly, the study focused on the original documents of the regulating bodies of international and south african medical, legal, engineering and accounting professions and the regulating bodies of hr management in the uk, usa and canada. the researchers did so to identify the principles of professionalism and ethical conduct these professions embrace. secondly, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 mentors from the sabpp to ascertain what they believed were the principles of professionalism and ethical conduct of hr managers in south africa. lastly, the researchers used a questionnaire to verify the information they received in the interviews and from their analysis of documents from the regulating bodies. they sent the questionnaire to hr professionals registered with the sabpp. research method research setting the researchers chose mentors registered as chartered or master hr practitioners with the sabpp to get their views on the current state of hr management in south africa. these mentors are from different provinces in south africa. the researchers also sent questionnaires to hr professionals registered with the sabpp who are from different provinces in south africa. entrée one of the researchers is ceo of the sabpp and knows which senior mentors in this field could contribute to the study. this researcher had access to the contact details of the mentors and had contacted the mentors personally to explain the aim of the study and to obtain permission to interview them. the researchers also had the contact details of the hr practitioners and had emailed the questionnaire to those hr practitioners registered with the sabpp. sampling the researchers used purposive sampling to select the research participants. they chose fifteen mentors (who were chartered or master hr practitioners) for their in-depth knowledge of hr management in south africa. the researchers decided to use the list of hr professionals registered with the sabpp to delineate the group they would use to verify the data they obtained from the original documents of the professional bodies and the information the mentors provided. they received 79 responses. of the responses they received, just more than half (57%) of the respondents were men and 43% were women. data collection the researchers collected data from four sources. these were the original documents of the regulating bodies of the medical, legal, engineering and accounting professions, the sabpp in south africa and the regulating bodies of hr management in the uk, usa and canada. they also collected data from their semi-structured interviews and the verification questionnaire. their data collection methods follow. the researchers decided to obtain original documents from the regulating bodies and the sabpp because they could conduct reliable analyses of these documents to get an in-depth understanding of the values and conduct issues that underpin the different professions and the hr profession in four countries. the researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with senior mentors because they could provide an in-depth understanding of conduct issues and values in hr management in south africa. the researchers sent a questionnaire to hr professionals because the nature of their work meant that they could verify whether the ethical professional issues the researchers identified are relevant and should be a part of the regulating mechanisms of hr professionals in south africa. the hr professionals had to complete questions on a three-point likert scale and indicate whether certain professional conduct issues were ‘essential’, ‘useful but not essential’ or ‘not necessary’ for regulating the hr profession. a panel of experts in the field of hr management developed the research questionnaire titled ‘determining the ethical professional conduct issues in the hr field’. the researchers used it as the third leg of triangulation in the study because the questionnaire already contained many of the conduct and ethical issues they identified from the original documents and semi-structured interviews. the questionnaire covered six categories: • basic personal values • desirable professional qualities • responsibility towards the profession • responsibility towards clients or employers • responsibility towards the public or society • personal work ethics • knowledge and skills to operate as a professional in the field of hr management. data capture the researchers examined documents from the various regulating bodies and the sabpp. they conducted recorded interviews. they sent emails to the participants who were to complete the questionnaire. the reason for this was to get data from participants who were dispersed geographically. the researchers then transcribed the recorded interviews. the participants returned the questionnaires by email. the researchers printed the completed questionnaires and analysed the answers statistically. data analysis the researchers used content analysis to extract themes from the original documents of the regulating bodies and from the semi-structured interviews. content analysis includes coding and classifying data (hancock, 2002). according to trochim (2006), coding is a process of categorising qualitative data and of describing the implications and details of these categories. open coding created new codes for the transcripts and the original documents of the regulating bodies. the researchers had identified a list of categories from the transcripts and initially used open coding to identify certain themes. after the researchers had used open coding for all new themes, they used list-by-codes for all subsequent documents that had the same recurring themes. the researchers also used quick coding as one can use this method for consecutive coding of segments using the same code (muhr, 1997). in their analysis of the data they obtained from the questionnaire, the researchers calculated lawshe’s cvr (1975). the cvr is an item statistic that is useful in rejecting or retaining specific items. using this approach, subject experts (hr practitioners) indicated whether certain professional conduct issues were ‘essential’, ‘useful but not essential’ or ‘not necessary’ for regulating the hr profession. the researchers then used the inputs from the subject experts to compute the cvr. strategies used to ensure quality data when conducting qualitative research, researchers have to ensure the credibility, transferability, confirmability and dependability aspects of the research. according to mackey and gass (2005), because qualitative research can use the assumption of multiple constructed realities, it is vital for qualitative researchers to assure their research peers that their findings are credible. the researchers used semi-structured interviews as well as a questionnaire to add credibility to the study. in terms of transferability in qualitative research, mackey and gass (2005) see the context as important. although one does not really transfer the findings of qualitative research from one context to another, the extent to which one may transfer findings depends on the similarity of the context. when determining the similarity of findings, researchers use rich descriptions. these use several perspectives to explain the insights researchers gain from the research and to consider the viewpoints of the participants. the reason for using rich descriptions is that, if the researchers discuss the findings in enough detail, other researchers will understand the context and be able to compare the research situation with their own and determine which findings they can transfer to theirs. other researchers in a similar context can then use some of the professional and ethical conduct issues the researchers discovered in the current research. confirmability deals with reliable knowledge, checked and controlled, and undistorted by personal bias and prejudice (kvale, 1996). qualitative researchers should give full details of the findings they use to make claims. the reason is that other researchers can confirm, modify or reject the first researchers’ interpretations (mackey & gass, 2005). the current study allowed the subject experts to confirm whether the professional conduct issues the researchers identified are relevant for regulating the hr profession in south africa. dependability emphasises that researchers need to account for the ever-changing context within which research occurs. researchers are responsible for describing the changes that occur in the context and how these changes affect the way the researchers approach the study (trochim, 2006). the asked the participants to review the researchers’ interpretations in the current research. findings (back to top) the researchers reviewed the literature on the engineering, accounting, medical and legal professions and established that all recognised major professions had four core elements in common. figure 1 gives the four pillars of professionalism. figure 1: the four pillars of professionalism. pillar 1: mastery of a complex body of knowledge and skills. professional boards accredit the curricula of training institutions before professionals can register with these boards. therefore, the cornerstone of professionalism is knowledge and skills. each of these professions has specific guidelines for the knowledge and skills people need to have if they want to become professionals. academic and other training institutions use these guidelines when developing their curricula for accreditation by professional bodies. pillar 2: commitment to integrity and morality through a code of conduct. this pillar was vital to all the professions. the emphasis in all the professions was on how professionals should behave in broader society whilst maintaining the integrity of their professions. pillar 3: autonomy in practice and the privilege of self-regulation. this pillar was common to all the professions. it implies that it is essential for professionals to be autonomous in their work. pillar 4: acceptance of a duty to society as a whole. there is a duty to society in all the professions. none of these professions can operate in isolation. the researchers developed and numbered tables from these pillars. table 1 gives an overview of the structure of these professions in south africa and shows how each profession regulates entry. an analysis of the original documents shows that all the professions have regulating bodies, professional titles, requirements for accreditation, for internship, experience and for continuous professional development (cpd), codes of ethics and applicable laws. in all cases, an academic qualification is the starting point of a career. all have a period of training that happens with the supervision the individual bodies require. finally, they require examinations or professional reviews that laws determine. table 1: regulatory frameworks of the legal, engineering, medical and accounting professions in south africa. human resource management has a regulating body, a qualification requirement, an experience component and a professional peer review requirement before registration, a code of conduct and a structured cpd process. no law recognises its professional status at the moment. the researchers recorded the conduct issues (including values) they found in the literature of each of the four professions in table 2 to compile a database of the issues that each of the professions emphasise in their writings and codes. table 2: overarching comparative matrix of conduct issues. the only three values in table 2 that all of the professions hold, although they express them differently, are ‘sound moral character’ (ethical conduct), ‘maintaining the good reputation and prestige of the profession’ (self-regulation) and ‘mastering the particular intellectual skills of the profession acquired by training and education’ (knowledge and skills). this confirms the pillars the researchers identified. other values the professions rate highly imply the fourth pillar (‘acceptance of a duty to society’). they are ‘respect for human dignity’ and ‘confidentiality’. ‘acting as a faithful agent’, ‘adopting responsible behaviour’, ‘respecting the rights of others’ and ‘objectivity’ all imply a concern for the public or clients. professions are clearly sensitive about their reputations. perception plays a major role in how the public and the media view professions. the professions also recognise the importance of updating information, skills and competence continually. finally, the professions rate ‘maintaining confidentiality’ highly as a professional value. from the researchers’ analysis of the original documents of the four professions, the following concerns emerged about professional practice in a modern context: • professions and professionals often have to defend their professional judgements and their positions of independence in the face of corporate greed and require professionals to have inner strength • there is a general concern that a decline in ‘old-fashioned’ mores, like honesty, integrity and honour, might affect professionalism • professionals often have to share their responsibility with other, perhaps less rigorously regulated or ethically sensitised parties, like employers, clients and other stakeholders • self-regulation does fail at times, leaving the public with the perception that professions sometimes protect their members and not the public • there is an increased loss of control over basic professional decisions, that the state, the corporate sector or others have taken over • there is not enough research on compliance with codes of conduct. the researchers qualitatively analysed the core results of the interviews with mentors of the sabpp on their views on present-day hr management. a major theme that emerged from these interviews is a deep concern about the reputation of hr managers. this links directly to incompetent people in practice. professionalising hr management will go some way towards solving many of the issues. an acceptance, by industry, of the standards the professional body sets may help to improve standards of practice even more. the interview questions the researchers posed to the mentors produced, in essence, the answers that follow. question 1: how important is the competency of hr professionals in giving the organisation a leading edge? most respondents believed that the role of hr managers is becoming increasingly important. factors that influence this view were: • international competitiveness • increased productivity requirements • retaining young talent or highly talented practitioners • that knowledge property is becoming the most significant competitive edge • a recurring skills shortage that requires intervention • that governments increasingly require competent and strategic hr services. question 2: is there an awareness of the importance of the professionalisation of hr? the researchers ascertained that professionalising hr management is vital worldwide. the interviewees emphasised that organisations regard hr management more highly these days than they did before. one respondent made the point that, if the hr executive of a company is not truly professional, the rest of the company will follow. a dilemma in the professionalisation of hr management is that there is no consensus amongst hr professionals about the scope of hr management and the practical fields that hr management should include. this contrasts with the agreement that doctors, lawyers and accountants have. question 3: what about accountability and ethical conduct? there was consensus that this was an area of deep concern amongst the respondents. they made these points: • leading hr practitioners who act dishonestly or incompetently do untold damage • accountability is one of the main concerns amongst organisations in south africa • codes of conduct are critical and organisations must internalise them • communication, training and investment are necessary • senior people must ‘walk the talk’. question 4: comment on a vision for hr in south africa? strong views emerged here. senior hr practitioners are clearly passionate and deeply concerned about the role of hr managers. the made these main points: • the hr profession needs regulation of one form or another • hr management has an important contribution to make toward sound corporate governance • organisations should focus on training and development and on retaining talent • organisations should train and develop hr people so that they can function as professionals • universities must become involved in professionalising hr management. from their literature analysis of original documents, the interviews they conducted with mentors of the profession and in the light of the professional pillars they identified, the researchers concluded that hr management is indeed a profession. based on their findings from the current research, the researchers concluded that it is vital that hr management becomes professionalised and that certain areas where problems exist in the process of professionalising are addressed. survey findings the core findings of the survey are that the hr community in south africa also sees the elements, which the researchers identified, as important for building and regulating the hr profession. tables 3–14 contain these results. tables 3 and 4 deal with the basic personal values of professionals. respondents had to consider the importance of each value in the light of what constituted good governance in a profession. table 3: descriptive statistics of basic personal values of professionals. table 4: content validity ratio (lawshe) of basic personal values of professionals. the respondents regarded ‘sound moral character’ and ‘respect for human dignity’ as the most important personal values for an hr professional. this corresponds to the values that all the other professions (see table 2) and the literature (robert, 2004) see as imperative in. king iii confirms that good governance is about ‘responsible leadership, which calls for integrity, transparency and accountability’ (temkin, 2009). related to the personal values of professionals are the qualities that are most desirable in a profession. tables 5 and 6 give these. table 5: descriptive statistics of desirable professional qualities. table 6: content validity ratio (lawshe) of desirable professional qualities. tables 5 and 6 deal with desirable professional qualities. respondents rated all the qualities highly. however, in the current climate, with its heightened awareness of the erosion of moral values, the qualities the respondents valued most are ‘credibility’ and ‘accountability’. this coincides with the results of the qualitative analysis of the four major professions, where ‘a commitment to integrity and morality through a code of conduct’ was a principle (the second pillar) of professionalism. the respondents also valued ‘discretion’, ‘intellectual honesty’ and ‘good judgement’ highly as qualities a professional should have. they correspond to the principle of ‘autonomy of practice and the privilege of self-regulation’ (the third pillar). if professionals work in self-regulated environments, the public will trust them if they show the qualities of discretion, intellectual honesty and good judgement. in a professional environment, ‘independent functioning’ is an indispensable quality and corresponds to the third pillar. the qualitative analysis established that professionals must be able to make independent judgements and defend their viewpoints, in difficult circumstances, in the work environment. the human resource community sees ‘leadership qualities’, ‘understanding obligations’ and ‘confidence’ as vital qualities for professionals. the last three qualities relate, once again, to the principles of ‘autonomy of practice and the privilege of self-regulation’ (the second pillar) and an ‘acceptance of a duty to society as a whole’ (the fourth pillar). leadership qualities and understanding one’s obligations toward one’s profession correspond closely to professionals’ responsibilities towards their profession. tables 7 and 8 give these results. table 7: descriptive statistics of responsibility towards profession. table 8: content validity ratio (lawshe) of responsibility towards profession. tables 7 and 8 cover responsibility towards the profession. the results show that respondents saw ‘always maintaining the highest personal standards’ as a crucial value. in mastering the subject and practising with integrity, in self-regulating and in accepting a duty to society, only the highest personal standards will gain the respect of the community and improve the profile of the profession. this also corresponds to the personal responsibility of maintaining the currency of knowledge and skills – the rapidly changing environment demands continued professional development and links to ‘a mastery of a complex body of knowledge’ (the first pillar). table 8 shows that ‘maintaining the good reputation and prestige of the profession’ is another vital value. because hr management is struggling for recognition as a significant contributor to the economy, it makes this responsibility particularly important. the practice of moving unqualified or incompetent people into hr management, as the qualitative analysis showed, has badly damaged the reputation of human resource managers. table 8 identifies ‘adhering to a common code of values’ (second pillar) as another imperative value. the code of conduct a profession recognises should meet the highest aspirational demands and cover all the important areas of practice. exposing fraud and deception, working to improve the profession, having the right motives and investing in new entrants will enrich the profession significantly and lift the standard of hr management in general. these results show that the hr community understands that building a credible profession requires that individual practitioners set the highest possible standards for themselves. the norms and discipline a profession imposes on its members support general ethical practice in the profession. as hr management aspires towards acknowledgement at the same level as the four major professions, it is clear that it needs to do the same. a profession must set and maintain its own standards whether it has statutory recognition or not. maintaining high levels of responsibility toward clients or employers is imperative, as tables 9 and 10 show. table 9: descriptive statistics of responsibility towards client or employer. table 10: content validity ratio (lawshe) of responsibility towards client or employer. of all the values that correspond to responsibility toward clients or employers, ‘a dedication to providing competent service’ (see tables 9 and 10) is important. it implies ‘a mastery of the complex body of knowledge and skills’ (the first pillar). respondents saw competence as an integral part of being a professional. providing a competent service includes maintaining currency and growing in understanding of the complexities of the modern economy as the role of hr managers broadens and becomes more strategic. this outcome shows that human resource professionals are aware that this is a serious responsibility, as other professionals are (williams, 1997). the second and third values, namely ‘acting in the client’s interest’ and ‘acting as a faithful agent’, link to the fourth pillar of professionalism: ‘acceptance of a duty to society as a whole’. tables 11 and 12 show that respondents see them as significant. there is also a significant link to a commitment to integrity (the second pillar). tables 11 and 12 give low scores for responsibility towards the public or society. this may mean that the hr community sees this as an area for which each manager takes personal responsibility and not as an area for the profession to regulate. table 11: descriptive statistics of responsibility towards the public or society. table 12: content validity ratio (lawshe) of responsibility towards the public or society. this does not imply that responsibility to society is unimportant. on the contrary, in the previous table a dedication to providing competent service to the client, who is also part of the public or society, has the highest value. as with the other professions, however, the hr practitioner acknowledges a responsibility towards the public and society, firstly through a ‘dedication to service’ and secondly by ‘serving, with fidelity, the public, employees and clients’. in this sense, being a professional is synonymous with an attitude of service (lewis, 2001) and a high personal work ethic. tables 13 and 14 show this. table 13: descriptive statistics of responsibility for personal work ethic. table 14: content validity ratio (lawshe) of responsibility for personal work ethic. tables 13 and 14 cover responsibility for a personal work ethic. it is a value that that hr professionals value highly and regard as significant for upholding the profession. the respondents value ‘adopting responsible behaviour’ highly. it corresponds to the fourth pillar, which is ‘acceptance of a duty to society as a whole’. this shows that the hr community understands the importance of serving the public and society with maturity and sound judgement. ‘rendering service in accordance with standards’ is significant because this implies that there are set and recognised standards that the hr community accepts. this correlates with the first pillar, ‘a mastery of a complex body of knowledge and skills’, where a regulating body defines the knowledge and skills. therefore, it is logical to conclude that, unless a profession organises and structures itself and makes decisions about the relevant technical and professional criteria, there will be no standards to provide a measurement. how then will those that reject professional governance even know whether they are meeting the standards? to meet standards, one must surely know what those standards are (robert, 2004). in addition to knowing and meeting standards, the hr practitioner must master skills, be aware of personal shortcomings and continuously update skills. tables 15 and 16 give the results. table 15: descriptive statistics of responsibility for knowledge and skills. table 16: content validity ratio (lawshe) of responsibility for knowledge and skills. tables 15 and 16 cover responsibility for knowledge and skills. it corresponds to the first pillar – ‘a mastery of a complex body of knowledge and skills’. this pillar, on which all professions build, is pivotal. the first pillar the researchers identified also implies that professionals and the profession should recognise and subscribe to this body of knowledge. it is also vital for the health of a profession that industry and government recognise the standards and accreditation of the governing body. with chartered accountants, universal acceptance of the standard that the governing body set means that appointments of cas centre not on their qualifications and experience, but on their registration with the governing body. one can trace many of the woes of the reputation of hr managers back to a lack of universally accepted standards of qualification, experience and peer recognition that come through professional registration. respondents see ‘continued concern for professional competence’ as imperative. here, hr practitioners are not only concerned about their own current knowledge but this value indicates a general concern for the competence of practitioners in the profession. it supports the third pillar – ‘autonomy in practice and the privilege of self-regulation’. respondents regarded ‘continuing to develop knowledge’ and ‘keeping up to date’ highly. therefore, structured and continued professional development is a non-negotiable. professions accept this premise universally. all professions are continually evolving. it is important that currency of knowledge in education, training and continued professional development, as well as new solutions through research, receive constant and vigilant attention. the continued professional development policy of the south african board for people practices describes cpd as ‘the systematic, ongoing structured process that human resource professionals undertake to maintain, develop and enhance skills, knowledge and competence both professionally and personally in order to improve performance at work, throughout their working life’. discussion (back to top) the qualitative and quantitative analyses lead to the main conclusion of this study: that human resource management meets every one of the criteria the researchers identified. therefore, one can regard it as a bona fide profession. the key contribution of this study was that it identified a number of aspects that determine professionalism and isolated the most important elements one should consider when regulating the hr profession. these conclusions emerge from the values and functions of other major professions and the values and functions of similar hr managing bodies in other countries. one finds significant similarities in all these professional bodies. the researchers also reached these conclusions based on the participation and input by human resource practitioners in south africa. the four main pillars of professionalism remain the same for all professions. from the study of four major professions, one can conclude that they have many conduct issues (including values and ethics) in common, although each has unique elements. the times we live in have also made it more difficult than ever to honour professional commitment. there is, for instance, an interesting correlation between the sentiments the medical profession expressed, that social change has not benefitted the profession, and the one the legal profession articulated, that the influence big corporations exert on them has been detrimental to the ethics of the profession. we are living in a rapidly changing environment and the saying ‘adapt or die’ has become the motto of the day. whether professions can maintain the moral fibre of the past is open to question. the researchers have now examined the question of whether human resource management is a profession in the light of their scrutiny of other major professions. the literature study has recorded the views of eminent writers in this field. they have highlighted the evolving and increasingly important role of human resource management globally. the conclusions that follow seem reasonable: • human resource management is practised worldwide and is recognised as an integral part of the business environment • human resource management has formalised its own structures to a greater or lesser extent in the various countries • human resource management has identified its main elements of practice and a relevant knowledge domain • human resource management has defined the roles and functions of human resource managers and organised a method of recognising competence that extends from senior to lower levels. the researchers identified several challenges if hr management is to achieve recognition as a profession: • society is largely uninformed about the nature of human resource management • practising hr professionals were unwilling to present themselves for assessment as a prerequisite for professional registration, possibly because they were afraid they would not achieve an acceptable level • whilst there is a body of knowledge, there is no uniformly or internationally recognised educational path for entry into the profession, as there is with other professions • hr management has diversely educated professionals who have mastered the body of knowledge of related professions and this makes identifying with differently constituted professions, like industrial psychology, labour law and industrial sociology difficult • there are various points of entry into the profession from other disciplines and the borders seem extremely permeable • other disciplines tend to ‘dump’ unsuccessful managers into the human resource field (klimoski, 2001), to the detriment of the reputation of hr managers; one cannot control the quality of entrants without entry requirements • organisations that employ hr practitioners have differing criteria for appointment to hr positions and differing perceptions of the role of hr managers • an obligation to society does not seem to enjoy the same commitment as it does in the four major international professions of law, medicine, engineering and accounting. regulating hr management is necessary. it remains the ideal to self-regulate and work with passionate and totally committed people only. however, this is rarely achievable in a large system. minimum standards for regulation will have a profound effect on the quality of the profession. the professional body should concern itself with continually enforcing minimum standards, informally and formally. the profession should continue to pursue the goal of having legislation passed or obtaining a charter for hr management that has national sanction. the reasons for professionalising include: • ethics. human resource practitioners hold influential positions, are visible and shape the policies that affect every employee from entry to retirement. the leaders in hr management are the architects that facilitate the process of establishing a company’s brand (ulrich & smallwood, 2007). losey et al. (2005, p. 1) argue that ‘if human resource managers do not accurately anticipate the future and do not plan appropriately’ they affect more than plans, machines, sales and numbers. in fact, ‘they touch people’s lives’. mistakes can hardly ever be undone. to put the workforce into the hands of unqualified people is a recipe for disaster. • the effect of human capital on the bottom line. boudreau and ramstad (2007) point out that ‘academics and consulting firms provide a barrage of evidence that hr practices correlate with financial performance’. organisations will increasingly compete by making effective decisions that align with professional practices in the talent market. • the global village. in the future of human resource management, losey et al. (2005) agree that the world is changing in ways that put hr management in the spotlight because of the changing composition of the workforce, rapidly developing technology, increasing globalisation and increased competitiveness. in hr competencies, ulrich et al. (2008) have another list of hr management roles that are emerging: • talent managers or organisation designers • culture and change stewards • strategy architects • operational executors • business allies • credible activists. eminent writers in the hr field have confirmed that hr management is a profession that is increasing in importance (kearns, ulrich, losey, meisinger, boudreau etc.). however, hr managers in the usa and in europe have not taken the final and logical step to fully-fledged professionalism. on the other hand, the uk has given royal charter status to the profession (boudreau & ramstad, 2007). after examining the hr profession internationally, including the work of academics and practitioners, and the work of the south african board for people practices in particular, the researchers conclude that there is already an extensive list of the necessary professional elements for recognising hr management as a fully-fledged profession. the human resource function in south africa has: • international status and recognition • an established body of knowledge • a regulatory body with a track record of stability that is recognised under the south african qualifications authority (saqa) act • heraldic registration • formal registration processes • a career path that provides for entry at various levels • registration levels with detailed competency criteria • post nominal titles for registration levels • a modern and workable code of conduct • disciplinary policies and procedures for deregistration • an electronic cpd process to keep professionals current • an accredited quality assurance process • the will to regulate itself. conclusion and recommendations for future research if one accepts the increasing importance of the hr manager’s role in managing human capital and talent, together with the economic imperative for the effective practice of this function, one can infer that the time has come to formalise the professionalisation of hr management. it is important to note that the saqa act and the national learner records database (nlrd) already list the sabpp as the professional body, and that the saqa act lists it as the statutory quality assurance body for hr management in south africa. extensive consultations with hr practitioners have clearly indicated that there is an awareness and acceptance of the necessity to regulate. more than that, there is an urgency to achieve this recognition as soon as possible. there is also a growing acceptance in business that professional registration is a benchmark of quality. it is also becoming more commonplace to find a requirement for registration when one applies for an hr position. the profession needs the government to endorse the process to make this a national reality. the researchers recommend that the sabpp forges ahead to obtain some form of regulation of hr management in south africa, if not in legislation then by taking the same route as the cipd did to formalise through a gazetted chartered council. the researchers also suggest that human capital managers find a place in the next king report. all listed companies should appoint professionally registered hr practitioners, at least in their top echelons of human capital managers, as a way of ensuring best practice. the researchers believed that establishing a recognised and uniform standard of competence and professionalism will improve good governance. the researchers further propose that these practitioners are at least at chartered hr practitioner level or master hr practitioner level. as with other professions, like accountancy, the practitioners registered at these levels would have qualifications, experience and recognition that their professional body prescribes. they would be accountable, according to a code of conduct, and would need to continue their personal development and to report on this development annually. the researchers also recommend that the institute of people management (ipm) and the sabpp together take the idea of accountability to the international stage and make an argument for rationalising standards. the code of conduct of the sabpp needs to be work-shopped and the board should provide guidance through examples and case studies. this will help the profession to internalise the code. communication that underlines the importance of setting an example and practising at the highest ethical level needs to reinforce accountability constantly. the researchers further recommend that tertiary institutions do far more training on ethics than they do currently. in a constantly changing world, hr managers need to revise and update the content of curricula and check whether the right specialist functions are still acknowledged. hr management functions are constantly being adjusted to fit the environment. the researchers recommend that, in the light of functions that other countries recognise, and new developments in commerce and industry, that the sabpp review the specialist categories it recognises. it is up to hr managers to define their roles clearly and to help society understand exactly what hr managers do to benefit society as a whole. this would lead to recognition of the value of human resource management and will achieve the approval of the broader society. future research can be conducted on the role of managers in informing human resource personnel about the various categories of registration after applicants have obtained tertiary qualifications in the field. the reason is that registration, as a professional in the human resource field, will strengthen the case for professionalising hr management in south africa further. limitations of the study the main limitation of the study is the questionnaire. the researchers did not develop the questionnaire from the literature review. a panel of experts in the field of hr management developed it. for this reason, the researchers did not use it as the primary source of data but as the third leg of the triangulation process. the second limitation was that the response rate to the questionnaire was low. references (back to top) abdulla, z., & threadgold, t. (2010). towards the professionalization of public relations in malaysia: perception management and strategy development. retrieved november 15, 2010, from http://www.bledcom.com/uploads/papers/abdullah_threadgold.pdf armstrong, m. (2000). human resource management practice. london: kogan page ltd. barnhart, p.a. (1994). the guide to national professional certificate programs. amherst, massachusetts: human resource development press. blancero, d., boroski, j., & dyer, l. (1995). transforming human resource organizations: a field study of future competency requirements. retrieved october 18, 2010, from http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1217&context=cahrswp boudreau, j.w., & ramstad, p.m. (2007). beyond hr. boston: harvard business school press. cohen, d.j. (2005). human resource education: a career-long commitment. in m.r losey, s.r. meisinger & d. ulrich (eds.). the future of human resource management, (pp. 63−70). virginia: john wiley & sons. dixon, t. (2006). corporate governance is an antidote to corruption in companies. business day, 5(4), 1−10. drucker, p.f. (1995). managing in a time of great change. usa: truman talley/dutton. hancock, b. (2002). introduction to qualitative research. retrieved december 02, 2008, from www.trentrdsu.org.uk/cms/uploads/qualitative%20research.pdf handy, c. (1997). leader to leader. london: sage. harrison, p. (2007). how does the professional learn to practice? retrieved november 15, 2010, from http://www.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/ejrot/cmsconference/2007/proceedings/whereiscriticalhrm/harrison.pdf hock, d. (1999). birth of the chaordic age. san francisco: berrett-koehler. kvale, s. (1996). interviews: an introduction to qualitative research interviewing. thousand oaks: sage publishers. klimoski, r. (2001, august). cautiously optimistic. paper presented at the academy of management conference, atlanta, georgia. lauk, e., & pallas, a. (2008). early development of estonian journalism as a profession (from late 19th century to 1940). acta historica tallinnesai, 13, 48−67. doi:10.3176/hist.2008.2.03 lawshe, h. (1975). a quantitative approach to content validity. personnel psychology, 28(4), 563–575. doi:10.1111/j.1744–6570.1975.tb01393.x lewis, j.w. (2001). ethics and the learned professions. retrieved october 18, 2010, from www.globalethics.org/files/wp_professions.pdf/20/ losey, m.r. (1997). the future hr professional: competency buttressed by advocacy. human resource management, 36(1), 147−50. losey, m.r., meisinger, s., & ulrich, d. (2005). the future of human resource management. new jersey: john wiley & sons. mackey, a., & gass, s.m. (2005). second language research. methodology and design. london: routledge. maudsley, g., & strivens, j. (2000). promoting professional knowledge, experiential learning and critical thinking for medical students. medical education, 34, 535−544. doi:10.1046/j.1365–2923.2000.00632.x, pmid:10886636 meisinger, s. (2006). 2005–2006 annual report. retrieved october 18, 2010, from www.mercyhigh.org/newsletters/document3_4a7a7f1530e46.pdf muhr, t. (1997). atlas.ti. the knowledge workbench. berlin: scientific software development. ndlovu, n. (2006). good governance simply means to lead by example. the star. retrieved october 18, 2010, from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1g1–152474920.html pellegrino, e.d. (2002). professionalism, profession and virtue. the mount sinai journal of medicine, 69(6), 378−384. pmid:12429956 robert, l.w. (2004). influence of ethical safeguards on research participation: comparison of perspectives of people with schizophrenia and psychiatrists. the american journal of psychiatry, 161, 2309−2311. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.161.12.2309, pmid:15569905 rose, r. (2006). institute plans to introduce title of ‘chartered director’. business day, retrieved october 18, 2010, from http://allafrica.com/stories/200610020711.html temkin, s. (2009). king iii: sets worldwide bar on corporate guidance. business day, retrieved september 03, 2009, from http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/content.aspx?id=80459 transparency international. (2006). ti corruption perceptions index. retrieved october 18, 2010, from http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/global/cpi transparency international. (2007). report on the global corruption barometer 2007. retrieved october 18, 2010, from http://www.ethicsworld.org/publicsectorgovernance/pdf%20links/barometer.pdf trochim, w.m.k. (2006). qualitative measures. retrieved october 18, 2010, from http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/qual.php ulrich, d., & brockbank, w. (2005). the hr value proposition. boston: harvard business school press. ulrich, d., brockbank, w., johnson, d., sandholtz, k., & younger, j. (2008). hr competencies: mastery at the intersection of people and business. virginia: society for human resource management. ulrich, d., & eichinger, r.w. (1998). delivering hr with an attitude. retrieved october 18, 2010, from http://www.kornferryinstitute.com/files/pdf1/hrwithanattitude.pdf ulrich, d., & smallwood, n. (2007). leadership brand. boston: harvard business school press. ungerer, m., herholdt, j., & uys, k. (2006). leveraging knowledge-based assets — the new value equation to create competitive advantage. johannesburg: knowres. van rensburg, a.h. (2009). human resource management as a profession in south africa. unpublished mphil dissertation. pretoria: university of pretoria. wilensky, h.l. (1964). the professionalization of everyone? american journal of sociology, 70. williams, b., onsman, a., & brown, t. (2009). from stretcher-bearer to paramedic: the australian paramedics’ move towards professionalisation. journal of emergency primary health care, 7(4), 1−12. williams, n.s.w. (1997). engineer ethics. engineer mentor: published for engineers-in-training, 1(1), 10−25. article information authors: petrus nel1 ebben van zyl1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology, university of the free state, south africa correspondence to: petrus nel email: nelp1@ufs.ac.za postal address: po box 339, bloemfontein 9300, south africa dates: received: 20 aug. 2014 accepted: 19 mar. 2015 published: 02 june 2015 how to cite this article: nel, p., & van zyl, e. (2015). assessing the psychometric properties of the revised and abbreviated self-leadership questionnaires. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #661, 8 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.661 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. assessing the psychometric properties of the revised and abbreviated self-leadership questionnaires in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • orientation    • purpose    • contribution to the field    • literature review       • self-leadership: conceptual overview       • assessment of self-leadership • method    • research approach    • participants    • measuring process    • measuring instruments    • analysis • results    • revised self-leadership questionnaire    • abbreviated self-leadership questionnaire • discussion    • outline of the results       • psychometric properties of the revised self-leadership questionnaire       • psychometric properties of the abbreviated self-leadership questionnaire    • practical implications    • limitations and recommendations • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: self-leadership is considered to be vital for improved performance in the south african working context. limited research has been done on the psychometric properties of the revised and abbreviated self-leadership questionnaires on a sample of working adults. research purpose: the aim of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the revised (rslq) and abbreviated (aslq) versions of the self-leadership questionnaire for a sample of working adults in south africa. motivation for the study: researchers have not previously published psychometric properties of the rslq and aslq using the original conceptualisation and based on a sample from the south african working context. research design, approach and method: the rslq and aslq were administered to a non-probability sample of 405 working adults in south africa. confirmatory factor analysis was employed to estimate the goodness-of-fit associated with competing conceptualisations of both versions. main findings: the authors found acceptable goodness-of-fit for both the rslq and aslq. more specifically, both the composite (representing self-leadership) and calculated scores (representing subscales of self-leadership) indicated acceptable levels of reliability. however, the rslq is best conceptualised as consisting of a strong general factor. practical/managerial implications: the study found that both the rslq and the aslq have good measurement properties, indicating that these questionnaires can be applied in a variety of settings. contribution/value-add: research has indicated the value of investigating the psychometric properties of the rslq and aslq for a sample of employees in the south african working context. in this study, a bifactor model provided evidence that the rslq consists of a strong general factor (i.e. self-leadership). the aslq also seems to measure a single dimension that is very reliable. utilising the aslq will save time in research and also when applied in the working context. introduction top ↑ orientation according to houghton, dawley and diliello (2012), in these present times of economic uncertainty and fierce competition, many firms are shifting away from a traditional top-heavy leadership paradigm to embrace a new model of leadership that involves empowering employees at all organisational levels to greater responsibility for their own work-related behaviours and actions (houghton et al., 2012). ugurluoglu, saygili, ozer and santas (2013) are of the opinion that, under today's conditions, the most appropriate leader is the self-leader who also leads others towards self-leadership. self-leadership (the process of influencing oneself to perform more effectively) has attracted a significant amount of attention over the past two decades (neck & houghton, 2006), as is evident in the dozens of academic articles written on this issue during this period (e.g. alves, lovelace, manz & matsypura, 2006; d’intino, goldsby, houghton & neck, 2007; dion, 2012; dolbier, soderstrom & steinhardt, 2001; hauschildt & konradt, 2012; ho & nesbit, 2013; javadi, rezaee & salehzadeh, 2013; malmir & azzizadeh, 2013; manz & neck, 1999; neck & houghton, 2006; norris, 2008; prussia, anderson & manz, 1998; sahin, 2008; segon, 2011; turkoz, mutlu, tabak & erdogan, 2013; van zyl, 2008, 2012). houghton et al. (2012) indicate that, initially, most academic articles on self-leadership focused on conceptual research. since the publication of the revised self-leadership questionnaire (rslq; houghton & neck, 2002), however, more empirical studies have been conducted (e.g. sahin, 2008; ugurluoglu et al., 2013). most of these studies were conducted in the usa, europe and asia, whilst only a single study by mahembe, engelbrecht and de kock (2013) was conducted in south africa. this study was applied to young adults studying full time at a south african university, not to working adults. it is, therefore, questionable whether the second-order structure that mahembe et al. (2013) provided in their research would be replicable on a sample of working adults in the south african working context. furthermore, the application of confirmatory factor analysis on the second-order factors of the rslq could confirm the construct validity of the rslq, specifically for research participants in a south african working context (mahembe et al., 2013). another relevant study, by houghton et al. (2012), focused on the development and validation of a nine-item abbreviated version (aslq) of the 35-item rslq. the applicability of this version, however, has not been tested on a south african working population before. purpose the current study focuses on the assessment of the psychometric properties of the revised (rslq) and abbreviated (aslq) versions of the self-leadership questionnaire for a working population in south africa. self-leadership should have a wider socio-economic relevance in developing countries such as south africa, because it is a competency that could prove critical in transformation on an individual, group, organisational and societal level (mahembe et al., 2013). yet, not much south african-related research on self-leadership (especially regarding its measurement within the working context) has been done (van zyl, 2009). furthermore, no research focusing on the applicability of the aslq within any south african context has been done previously. against this background, the primary research aim of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the rslq and aslq for a sample of working adults. more specifically, the following will be evaluated (based on a working population in the south african context): the goodness-of-fit associated with the various conceptualisations of the rslq (35 items) using a sample of working adults. the degree to which the rslq consists of a strong general factor, using a sample of working adults. the goodness-of-fit associated with the various conceptualisations of the aslq (nine items) using a sample of working adults. contribution to the field this study will contribute by closing the gap in research on the psychometric properties of the rslq for a sample of south african working adults. in addition, the presence of a strong general factor has previously been investigated using a higher-order factor structure. however, the current study will employ a bifactor model, which is a more appropriate approach to determine the presence of a strong general factor. furthermore, a need has been identified for research on the psychometric properties of the aslq for a similar sample (south african working adults), because the shorter version will save time when researchers want to assess self-leadership as part of a more extensive study including other variables. both these instruments can help to identify individuals with poor self-leadership skills in the south african working context. by doing so, support can be provided to such individuals to improve their self-influencing (self-leadership) skills which, in turn, could help them to perform more effectively. literature review self-leadership: conceptual overview self-leadership is a process of behavioural and cognitive self-evaluation and self-influence by which people achieve the self-direction and self-motivation needed to shape their behaviours in positive ways in order to enhance their overall performance (houghton et al., 2012, p. 217). more specifically, self-leadership involves strategies and normative actions that will help to enhance performance (houghton et al., 2012; ugurluoglu et al., 2013). self-leadership strategies and actions are usually divided into behaviour-focused strategies, natural reward strategies and constructive thought strategies (norris, 2008). behaviour-focused self-leadership strategies pertain to self-observation, goal setting, self-reward, self-punishment and cues (neck & houghton, 2006). self-observation refers to individuals’ awareness of how, when and why they engage in specific behaviours (d’intino et al., 2007). according to ugurluoglu et al. (2013), self-observation entails that people escalate their awareness of why and when they display certain behaviours. such awareness could help people to overcome the display of effective but unproductive behaviour (ugurluoglu et al., 2013). with accurate information regarding current behaviour and performance levels, individuals can more successfully set effective behaviour-altering goals for themselves (manz & neck, 2004). rewards set by an individual, along with self-set goals, can aid significantly in energising the efforts necessary to accomplish the goals (d’intino et al., 2007). self-rewards could be as simple as mentally praising oneself for a job well done or something more tangible, such as treating oneself to a new outfit or a night at the movies (houghton et al., 2012). self-punishment is an additional strategy for the self-influence of behaviour. however, habitual self-punishment and guilt have, in general, received mixed to negative support as a self-leadership strategy (stewart, courtright & manz, 2011). finally, behavioural rehearsal (cues) prior to actual performance can promote refinement, improvement and corrective adjustments for greater individual effectiveness (stewart et al., 2011). natural reward strategies are designed to enhance the intrinsic motivation that is vital for performance (mahembe et al., 2013). these types of strategy help individuals to build pleasant and enjoyable features into their activities so that the tasks themselves become naturally rewarding (norris, 2008). houghton et al. (2012, p. 218) add that individuals can employ natural rewards also by shifting the cognitive focus to the intrinsically rewarding aspects of the job. focusing on building pleasant and enjoyable features in work tasks will create feelings of intrinsic motivation (d’intino et al., 2007). constructive thought strategies involve visualising successful performance, engaging in positive self-talk and examining individuals’ beliefs and assumptions in order to align cognitions with desired behaviour (ho & nesbit, 2013). through a process of identifying and altering distorted beliefs, individuals can minimise dysfunctional thinking processes and engage in more rational and effective cognitive processes (houghton et al., 2012). positive self-talk and evaluation of existing habits and ways of thinking (for instance, i am an opportunity thinker) can enhance constructive thought patterns (van zyl, 2008). assessment of self-leadership manz (1993) developed a set of initial items to capture elements of both self-management and self-leadership. self-management (manz, 1986; stewart et al., 2011) is conceptualised as strategies for getting oneself to complete difficult but necessary tasks and is assessed by scales capturing self-observation, cueing strategies, self-goal setting, self-reward, self-punishment and practice (stewart et al., 2011). in contrast, self-leadership is conceptualised as more intrinsically motivated and includes scales like building natural rewards into work, choosing pleasant surroundings, building naturally rewarding activities into work, focusing on pleasant aspects of work and focusing on natural rewards rather than on external rewards (meaning rewards outside the work itself; manz & simms, 1991; neck, 1996; stewart et al., 2011, p. 191). mahembe et al. (2013) indicated that, at about the same time, cox (1993) developed and tested a 34-item unpublished self-leadership questionnaire (slq), with eight factors, labelled as self-problem-solving initiative, self-efficacy, teamwork, self-reward, self-goal setting, natural rewards, opportunity thought and self-observation or evaluation (mahembe et al., 2013, p. 4). anderson and prussia (1997) continued to work on the manz scale and subjected it to content validation (stewart et al., 2011). subject matter experts placed the original 90 items into three categories: behaviour-focused strategies, natural reward strategies and constructive thought strategies (stewart et al., 2011, p. 191). houghton et al. (2012) indicated that the 50-item instrument of anderson and prussia is a first step in developing a self-leadership scale, but it was plagued by some inherent reliability and validity problems and, therefore, required additional refinement. houghton and neck (2002) developed the rslq by eliminating or rewriting ineffective questions from anderson and prussia's (1997) slq and adding items from cox's (1993) instrument (houghton et al., 2012). houghton et al. (2012) argue that, although the rslq demonstrates reasonably good reliability and validity across a number of empirical studies (houghton, neck & singh, 2004; neck & houghton, 2006), additional research is needed to further assess the reliability and validity of the rslq (houghton et al., 2012, p. 222). houghton et al. developed and validated a nine-item abbreviated version (aslq) of the 35-item rslq. a confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the aslq is a reliable and valid measure that has inherited the nomological network of associations from the original version of the rslq (houghton et al., 2012, p. 216). a south african study by mahembe et al. (2013) focused on a confirmatory factor analytic study of the rslq. the findings indicated that the rslq demonstrated sufficient factorial or construct validity. the second-order measurement model confirmed that the eight self-leadership factors contributed to an overall self-leadership approach (mahembe et al., 2013). although this research indicated strong psychometric properties, the sample of young adults studying at a south african university cannot be generalised to working adults in the south african context. no south african study to date has attempted to investigate the psychometric properties of the aslq. it is therefore important to also investigate the psychometric properties of the aslq, because using the longer version (rslq) could pose a challenge to researchers when self-leadership is being examined together with other variables. it may however be applied on its own when trying to identify employees with poor self-leadership skills (in the workplace). houghton et al. (2012, p. 222) put it as follows: ‘overall survey length can quickly become unwieldy, leading to rater fatigue, inaccuracy and missing survey data’. method top ↑ research approach in order to execute the research, the current study followed a cross-sectional design with a survey data collection technique. more specifically, the current study investigated competing measurement models representing the three different conceptualisations as suggested by the developers of the rslq. the three competing measurement models were: (1) a hierarchical model of self-leadership, (2) a unidimensional model and (3) a three uncorrelated factors model of self-leadership. in addition, the current study investigated a fourth competing measurement model representing a bifactor structure. this latter model will provide more direct evidence as to whether or not the rslq measures a strong general factor (i.e. self-leadership). a similar approach (i.e. competing measurement models) was followed to investigate the psychometric properties associated with two conceptualisations of the aslq: (1) a three uncorrelated factors model of self-leadership and (2) a unidimensional structure associated with self-leadership. participants a total of 405 working adults participated in the study. women were in the majority (72%). most of the participants came from a designated group (71%) and were in the age group of 26–35 years (81%). most of the respondents were married (64%). accidental sampling was used within different organisations in the financial services sector. measuring process permission for the research was granted by the research committee of the faculty of economic and management sciences and all relevant ethical issues were cleared. the participants were briefed about the aim of the study, their right to voluntary participation and the anonymity of the information they would provide. participants received instructions on how to complete the rslq. they also completed a biographical questionnaire. measuring instruments self-leadership was measured using the rslq, which consists of 35 items. the questionnaire covers three dimensions (behaviour-focused strategies, natural reward strategies and constructive thought pattern strategies). the three dimensions have the following subscales: behaviour-focused strategies: self-goal setting (five items), self-reward (three items), self-punishment (four items), self-observation (four items) and self-cueing (two items). natural reward strategies: focusing thoughts on natural rewards (five items). constructive thought pattern strategies: visualising successful performance (five items), self-talk (three items) and evaluating beliefs and assumptions (four items). the aslq sovers three dimensions, namely behaviour awareness and volition, task motivation and constructive cognition. the three dimensions have the following subscales: behaviour awareness and volition: self-goal-setting (two items) and self-observation (one item). task motivation: visualising successful performance (two items) and self-reward (one item). constructive cognition: evaluating beliefs and assumptions (two items) and self-talk (one item). participants also completed a biographical questionnaire providing information related to age group, gender, home language and marital status. analysis the current study employed lisrel 8.80 (2006) to estimate the goodness-of-fit of each of the competing measurement models associated with both the rslq and aslq. a test of multivariate normality was performed to determine whether the data violated the assumption of normality. the results suggested that the data deviated from normality with regard to skewness and kurtosis. hence, the robust maximum likelihood method of estimation was used to estimate the various models (brown, 2006). several fit indices were used as well, including the satorra-bentler scaled chi-square, root mean square error of approximation (rmsea), standardised root mean square residual (srmr), comparative fit index (cfi) and the goodness-of-fit index (gfi). values close to 0.95 for gfi and cfi are considered indicative of good model fit. hu and bentler (1999) suggest that values close to 0.06 are indicative of acceptable fit for rmsea, whilst values smaller than 0.08 are acceptable for srmr. in addition, akaike's information criterion (aic) is used in the comparison of competing measurement models with smaller values representing a better fit of the proposed model (byrne, 2006). cronbach's alpha (α) was used to estimate the reliability of the dimensions of the constructs being investigated in the current study. reliability estimates of 0.7 and higher are indicative of good reliability. however, estimates as low as 0.6 may be acceptable when conducting exploratory research (hair, black, babin, anderson & tatham, 2006, pp. 137, 778). it should be noted that, in order to facilitate direct comparison with the results obtained by developers of the rslq, the current study used (1) the same indicators and (2) the same conceptualisations of the three competing measurement models (hierarchical model of self-leadership, one-factor model and three uncorrelated factors model). the current study used the same instructions to create item parcels (i.e. composite scores) for eight of nine subscales. in addition, the developers used the three items with the highest factor loadings (items 26, 32, 35) for the natural reward subscale (houghton & neck, 2002, p. 678). results top ↑ revised self-leadership questionnaire from table 1, it is clear that the three measurement models proposed by the developers of the rslq show different levels of fit with regard to cfi, rmsea and srmr. the three uncorrelated factors model has poor fit. in contrast, both the unidimensional and higher-order factor models exhibit acceptable levels of fit when looking at cfi, rmsea and srmr. the bifactor model also seems to fit the data well when considering the value of cfi. together, both the unidimensional and bifactor model results may lend support to the possibility that the rslq measures a general construct (i.e. self-leadership). table 1: goodness-of-fit statistics for the competing measurement models (rslq, n = 405). the developers of the rslq concluded that the ‘behaviour focused, natural rewards, and constructive thoughts factors have a higher-order factor; namely self-leadership’ (houghton & neck, 2002, pp. 679, 681, 685). mahembe et al. (2013, p. 3) claim that the higher-order factor model could provide evidence that the rslq consists of a strong global or general factor. however, this model is not the only or most suitable conceptualisation in determining the presence of a strong general factor. this second-order model states that the target trait (self-leadership) is a second-order dimension that explains why the three primary dimensions (behaviour-focused strategies, natural reward strategies and constructive thought pattern strategies) are correlated. unfortunately, there is no direct relationship between the item and the target trait (self-leadership), but the relationship between self-leadership and each item or parcel is mediated by the primary factor. hence, it models an indirect effect. a more suitable approach to determine the presence of a strong general factor is using a bifactor model (chen, west & sousa, 2006; reise, 2012; reise, moore & haviland, 2010). the latter model allows researchers to determine directly the degree to which items reflect a common trait (e.g. self-leadership) and the degree to which they reflect subtraits (i.e. sub-dimensions of the rslq; reise et al., 2010, p. 546). table 2 shows that the majority of items have higher loadings on the general factor than on the group factors (i.e. dimensions of the rslq). this is indicative of a strong general factor (reise et al., 2010). as per the suggestion of reise et al. (2010), an omega hierarchical reliability coefficient of the general factor of the bifactor model was also obtained, namely 0.90. table 2: standardised factor loadings for the bifactor model (rslq, n = 405). the reliability estimates associated with each of the three dimensions of the rlsq are reported in table 3. it is clear that all the dimensions have acceptable reliabilities that exceed 0.70. table 3: reliability estimates for the three dimensions (rslq, n = 405). table 4 provides the reliability estimates associated with each of the eight subscales of the rslq. it is evident that both the self-cueing and self-goal setting subscales are the most reliable subscales of the rslq. table 4: reliability estimates for the nine subscales (rslq, n = 405). abbreviated self-leadership questionnaire according to table 5, the unidimensional model of the aslq is the better fitting model as evident from the small value of aic. in addition, all the fit indices associated with this model (cfi, rmsea and srmr) are indicative of an acceptable fit. in contrast, the three uncorrelated factors model does not fit the data well. table 5: goodness-of-fit statistics for the competing measurement models (aslq, n = 405). it is clear from table 6 that all three the dimensions associated with the aslq have acceptable estimates of reliability that exceed 0.70. the behaviour awareness and volition dimension seem to be the most reliable of the three. table 6: reliability estimates for the three dimensions (aslq, n = 405). discussion top ↑ outline of the results psychometric properties of the revised self-leadership questionnaire when comparing the goodness-of-fit statistics obtained in the current study with those reported by houghton and neck (2002), the results are encouraging. houghton and neck found that the unidimensional model did not fit the data well. however, the current study found that the unidimensional model did fit the data well. where the developers concluded that the higher-order factor model was the best fitting model, the current study found that both the unidimensional and higher-order models were the best fitting when using the conceptualisations suggested by the developers. both these results may suggest that the rslq measures a strong general factor (i.e. self-leadership). however, only the bifactor model results would be able to support this assumption. the reliability estimates reported by the developers are fairly similar or higher than those obtained by the current study with regard to the following six subscales: self-goal setting (0.84 vs 0.91), self-observation (0.82 vs 0.82), self-cueing (0.91 vs 0.91), focusing thoughts on natural rewards (0.74 vs 0.80), evaluating beliefs and assumptions (0.78 vs 0.87) and visualising successful performance (0.85 vs 0.86). however, the current study obtained lower reliabilities with regard to the following three remaining subscales: self-reward (0.93 vs 0.77), self-punishment (0.86 vs 0.71) and self-talk (0.92 vs 0.71). a recent south african study reported on the psychometric properties of the rslq within a sample of young adults (mahembe et al., 2013). they tested a higher-order factor model consisting of the eight subscales. the results obtained by the current study seem to be fairly similar to those reported by mahembe et al. (2013). specifically, the values of cfi are almost exactly the same for both the three uncorrelated factors model (0.99 vs 0.98) and the higher-order factor model (0.99 vs 0.98). in contrast, the values obtained in the current study are slightly higher (but still acceptable) with regard to the rmsea in both the three-factor model (0.04 vs 0.07) and the higher-order factor model (0.04 vs 0.07). the reliability estimates reported by mahembe et al. (2013) are fairly similar or lower than those obtained by the current study with regard to the following six subscales: self-goal setting (0.84 vs 0.91), self-observation (0.82 vs 0.82), self-cueing (0.82 vs 0.91), focusing thoughts on natural rewards (0.74 vs 0.80), evaluating beliefs and assumptions (0.76 vs 0.87) and visualising successful performance (0.82 vs 0.86). however, the current study obtained lower reliabilities with regard to the following two remaining subscales: self-reward (0.90 vs 0.77) and self-talk (0.87 vs 0.71). unfortunately, mahembe et al. did not include the self-punishment subscale in their study. in short, the psychometric properties of the rslq seem to suggest an instrument that is best conceptualised as measuring a single factor that is also very reliable. presence of a strong general factor: although the results of the current study point to a well-fitting single factor model for self-leadership when using the rslq, this is not sufficient to claim that this instrument measures a strong general factor. in order to determine the presence of a strong general factor, the current study also employed a bifactor model to investigate this possibility. in contrast to the approach followed by mahembe et al. (2013), the bifactor model is a more suitable conceptualisation to investigate the presence of a strong general factor. the current study indeed found evidence of a strong general factor. however, where mahembe et al. tested a higher-order factor structure with the eight subscales (instead of the nine subscales available), both the developers and the current study used the three dimensions associated with the rslq. the current study therefore concludes that, when using the rslq, it is better to use a single composite score representing self-leadership. however, given the high value associated with omega hierarchical, the group factors (i.e. the dimensions of the rslq) do not seem to have any psychometric value. they do not contribute any additional variance already accounted for by the general factor. hence, the use of subscores representing the dimensions associated with the rslq may be overly optimistic. psychometric properties of the abbreviated self-leadership questionnaire the current study found that the one-factor model, associated with the aslq, fitted the data well. as was evident from the results reported for the rslq, the three uncorrelated factors model also did not seem to be a good representation of the aslq. in contrast, houghton et al. (2012) found acceptable levels of fit associated with the three uncorrelated factors model. the developers of the aslq reported a reliability estimate for the total scale (α) of 0.73 (houghton et al., 2012, p. 226). in contrast, the current study found a much higher reliability estimate (α = 0.89). in addition, the reliability estimates associated with each of the three subscales obtained in the current study are fairly similar (task motivation = 0.71) or slightly better (constructive cognition = 0.78, behaviour awareness and volition = 0.85). it can therefore be concluded that it is better to conceptualise the aslq as measuring a single factor (i.e. self-leadership). although the sub-dimensions did exhibit acceptable estimates of reliability, it seems as if their use in future research may not add more theoretical support than what may already be gained from treating self-leadership as a single, strong general factor. practical implications the authors recommend that practitioners and researchers use both the rslq and aslq as a research and development tool. when these questionnaires are applied as a research tool, they can be considered as a valid and reliable measure applicable in the south african working context. both the rslq and aslq can also help in the working context in identifying employees with poor self-leadership skills. in this way, the relevant development actions can be identified and implemented which, in turn, could contribute to improving the situation. keeping in mind low productivity outputs amongst south african employees as indicated by van zyl (2009), improved self-leadership skills in the workplace can influence people to perform more effectively. applying the shorter version (aslq) will save time not only in research (especially when extensive research with many variables is conducted), but also when applied in the working context (especially considering that employees usually have limited time to complete questionnaires). limitations and recommendations although the current study provided some insight into the psychometric properties of self-leadership, the following suggestions are put forward in order to improve on the measurement of the self-leadership construct. firstly, further investigation is needed into the factorial invariance of both the aslq and rslq amongst different language and racial groups in a south african context. it was not possible to validate both these measures in individual language and ethnic groups due to sample size constraints. hence, future researchers should obtain samples with large enough groups representing the various language and ethnic groups to determine the measurement equivalence of the self-leadership construct. secondly, there are more advanced statistical techniques, such as rasch analysis, that should be used to supplement the results obtained in the current study, especially with regard to unidimensionality. the rasch model is the preferred technique to determine the unidimensionality of a construct (such as self-leadership). conclusion top ↑ the current study concludes that both the aslq and rslq have sound psychometric properties and can be applied within the south african working situation. when applying the longer version (rslq), researchers could use a composite score (representing self-leadership) as obtained from the bifactor model. the latter suggests the presence of a strong general factor. the shorter version (aslq), will save time when utilised in research and when applied in the work situation. in summary, the current study concludes that both the aslq and rslq are suitable for use within a south african context amongst working adults. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions p.n. (university of the free state) was the project leader and was responsible for the method, analysis, results and discussion sections. e.v.z. (university of the free state) was responsible for writing the introduction and literature review. both authors collected data for the project, wrote the abstract and contributed to the list of references. references top ↑ alves, j.c., lovelace, k., manz, c.c., & matsypura, k. (2006). a cross-cultural perspective of self-leadership. journal of managerial psychology, 21, 338–359. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940610663123 anderson, j.s., & prussia, g.e. (1997). the self-leadership questionnaire: preliminary preliminary assessment of construct validity. psychological bulletin, 103, 411–423. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.103.3.411 brown, t.a. (2006). confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. new york, ny: guilford press. byrne, b.m. (2006). structural equation modelling with eqs: basic concepts, applications and programming (2nd edn.). mahwah, nj: erlbaum. chen, f.f., west, g.w., & sousa, k.h. (2006). a comparison of bifactor and second-order models of quality of life. multivariate behavioral research, 41, 189–225. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr4102_5 cox, j.f. (1993). the effects of superleadership training on leader behaviour, subordinate self-leadership behaviour and subordinate citizenship. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of maryland, college park, md. d'intino, r.s., goldsby, m.g., houghton, j.d., & neck, c.p. (2007). self-leadership: a process for entrepreneurial success. journal of leadership and organisational studies, 13, 24–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10717919070130040101 dion, m. (2012). are ethical theories relevant for ethical leadership? leadership and organisation development journal, 33, 4–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437731211193098 dolbier, c.l., soderstrom, m., & steinhardt, m.a. (2001). the relationships between self-leadership and enhanced psychological health and work outcomes. journal of psychology, 135, 469–485. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00223980109603713 hair, j.f., black, b., babin, b., anderson, r.e., & tatham, r.l. (2006). multivariate data analysis. (6th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. hauschildt, k., & konradt, u. (2012). a conceptual framework of self-leadership in teams. work and organisational psychology, 13, 1–20. ho, j., & nesbit, p.l. (2013). exploring self-leadership across eastern and western cultures. journal of service science and management, 6, 241–249. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jssm.2013.64027 houghton, j.d., & neck, c.p. (2002). the revised self-leadership questionnaire. journal of managerial psychology, 17, 672–691. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940210450484 houghton, j.d., dawley, d., & diliello, t.c. (2012). the abbreviated self-leadership questionnaire (aslq): a more concise measure of self-leadership. international journal of leadership studies, 7, 216–232. houghton, j.d., neck, c.p., & singh, p. (2004). self-leadership. organizational dynamics, 5, 432–439. hu, l., & bentler, p.m. (1999). cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. structural equation modeling, 6, 1–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 javadi, m.h.m., rezaee, m.s., & salehzadeh, r. (2013). investigating the relationship between self-leadership strategies and job satisfaction. international journal of academic research in accounting, finance and management sciences, 3, 284–289. http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/ijarafms/v3-i3/178 lisrel 8.80 for windows [computer software]. (2006). lincolnwood, il: scientific software international, inc. mahembe, b., engelbrecht, a.s., & de kock, f.s. (2013). a confirmatory factor analytic study of a self-leadership measure in south africa. journal of human resource management, 11, 1–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.520 malmir, a., & azzizadeh, f. (2013). evaluation of self-leadership statue and providing solutions to improve the self-leadership statue. international journal of managing public sector information and communication technologies, 4, 1–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.5121/ijmpict.2013.4101 manz, c.c. (1986). self-leadership: toward toward an expanded theory of self-influence processes in organizations. academy of management review, 11, 585–600. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/258312 manz, c.c. (1993). becoming a self-manager: skills for addressing difficult, unattractive, but necessary tasks. upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. manz, c.c., & neck, c.p. (1999). mastering self-leadership: empowering yourself for personal excellence. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. manz, c.c., & neck, p. (2004). mastering self-leadership: empowering yourself for personnel excellence. (2nd edn.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. manz, c.c., & simms, h.p. (1991). superleadership: beyond the myth of heroic leadership. organisational dynamics, 18, 18–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(91)90051-a neck, c.c. (1996). thought self-leadership: the impact of self-talk and mental imagery on performance. journal of organisational behavior, 17, 445–467. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199609)17:5<445::aid-job770>3.0.co;2-n neck, c.p., & houghton, j.d. (2006). two decades of self-leadership theory and research. journal of managerial psychology, 21, 270–295. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940610663097 norris, e. (2008). an examination of self-leadership. emerging leadership journeys, 2, 43–61. prussia, g.e., anderson, j.s., & manz, c.c. (1998). self-leadership and performance outcomes: the mediating influence of self-efficacy. journal of organisational behaviour, 19, 523–538. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199809)19:5<523::aid-job860>3.0.co;2-i reise, s.p. (2012). the rediscovery of bifactor measurement models. multivariate behavioral research, 47, 667–696. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00273171.2012.715555 reise, s.p., moore, t.m., & haviland, m.g. (2010). bifactor models and rotations: exploring the extent to which multidimensional data yield univocal scale scores. journal of personality assessment, 92, 544–559. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2010.496477 sahin, f. (2008). the interaction of self-leadership and psychological climate on job performance. african journal of business management, 5, 1787–1794. segon, m. (2011). managing organisational ethics: professionalismprofessionalism, duty and hr practitioners. journal of business systems, governance and ethics, 5, 13–25. stewart, g.l., courtright, s.h., & manz, c.c. (2011). self-leadership: a multilevel review. journal of management, 37, 185–222. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206310383911 turkoz, t., mutlu, t.o., tabak, a., & erdogan, m. (2013). examining the levels of self-leadership perceptions of university student-athletes in terms of sociodemographic characteristics. physical culture and sport studies and research, 3, 14–21. ugurluoglu, o., saygili, m., ozer, o., & santas, f. (2013). exploring the impact of personal factors on self-leadership in a hospital setting. the international journal of health and planning, 4, 3–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hpm.2199 van zyl, e.s. (2008). the relation between self-leadership and stress amongst a group of workers working in a state organization. journal of industrial psychology, 3, 14–19. van zyl, e.s. (2009). leadership in the african context. cape town, south africa: juta. van zyl, e.s. (2012). the relationship between self-leadership and certain personality traits among a group of first-line supervisors. journal of social sciences, 31, 159–165. article information authors: doret botha1 freek cronjé2 affiliations: 1school of social and government studies, north-west university, potchefstroom campus, south africa 2bench marks centre for csr, north-west university, potchefstroom campus, south africa correspondence to: doret botha email: doret.botha@nwu.ac.za postal address: private bag x6001, potchefstroom 2520, south africa dates: received: 18 june 2014 accepted: 13 feb. 2015 published: 02 june 2015 how to cite this article: botha, d., & cronjé, f. (2015). occupational health and safety considerations for women employed in core mining positions. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #652, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.652 note: this research formed part of dr botha’s phd thesis at the north-west university. copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. occupational health and safety considerations for women employed in core mining positions in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction and problem statement    • purpose    • literature review       • physical constraints       • pregnancy challenges       • personal protective equipment challenges • method    • research approach    • measures       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • data analysis • results    • descriptive statistics    • factor analysis    • factor correlation matrix    • comparison of the three target groups of the different mines regarding health and safety in the workplace    • health and safety concerns regarding women working in core mining positions       • physical ability       • personal protective equipment       • pregnancy       • dust       • vibration       • high risk for accidents       • night shift • discussion    • outline of the results    • practical implications    • limitations    • recommendations • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: despite various liberalisation and feminisation processes with regard to gender and sex roles, traditionalistic typologies, especially in terms of occupational roles, are seemingly very reluctant to disappear from relevant theoretical discourses, as well as in practice. one of the main issues remains the terrain of physical work. although women all over the world have been involved in mining activities for centuries, the mining industry has not been an obvious career choice for women. in south africa, new mining legislation aims to rectify previous inequalities and disadvantages in the mining sector and specifically provides for the inclusion of women in core mining activities. although well intended, women’s involvement in the core business of mining also exposes them to the various hazards related to mine work. research purpose: this research determined perceptions regarding the health and safety of women working in core mining positions. motivation for the study: currently there is a paucity of published data regarding health and safety challenges pertaining to women employed in the core business of mining. method: quantitative and qualitative research paradigms were used (mixed method research design). quantitative data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire. qualitative data were collected by means of individual interviews and group interviews. main findings: from the literature review and the empirical findings it is evident that various factors (physical work capacity, anthropometry and body composition, personal protective equipment, treatment during pregnancy and security measures) need to be considered to ensure the health and safety of women employed in core mining positions. practical/managerial implications: it is evident from the research that exceptional attention should be given to the promotion of the health and safety of women working in the core business of mines to sustain their involvement in the mining sector. contribution: practical recommendations are made to address health and safety concerns of women employed in core mining activities. these can be implemented and used by various stakeholders in the mining sector. introduction and problem statement top ↑ although women all over the world have been involved in mining activities for centuries, mining has been considered a very masculine industry due to its heavily male-dominated workforce as well as the physicality of mine work. the heavily manual character of mine work together with the dirt and risk associated with mine work makes the male miner the typical labourer (lahiri-dutt & macintyre, 2006, p. 4). in addition, the mining industry has not been an obvious career choice and preferred place of employment for women. in south africa, the mineral and petroleum resources development act (no. 28 of rsa, 2002) (mprda) and the accompanied broad-based socio-economic empowerment charter for the south african mining industry (rsa, 2004) aim to rectify previous inequalities and disadvantages in the mining sector and specifically provide for the inclusion of women in core mining activities. ‘women employed in core mining activities’ implies that women should hold positions equivalent to those of men, in other words, fill positions in mining that include, amongst other activities, mining, metallurgy, engineering and geology (harmony gold mining company, 2008, p. 32). they are also required to do the manual labour associated with mining (burtenshaw, 2005). according to research conducted by the msa group, specialist consultants to the mining industry, approximately 11% of the south african mining industry’s workforce, which includes non-core services, is represented by women (hancock, 2014). eftimie, heller and strongman (2009, p. 9) postulate that it is worldwide extremely rare to find any extractive industry companies with higher than 10% female employment, with many having less than 5%. although well intended, the establishment of gender equality in the male-dominant mining sector remains one of the biggest equity challenges in the country and numerous problems (such as shift work, sexual harassment, acceptance by male co-workers, physical constraints, challenges related to infrastructure facilities and pregnancy) accompany the deployment of women in core mining activities (badenhorst, 2009; fourie, 2009; managing transformation solutions, 2011; women in mining canada, 2010). furthermore, due to women’s involvement in the core business of mining, they are also exposed to the various hazards related to mine work. in addition, women face greater risks to their safety because most supportive infrastructure, such as personal protective equipment (ppe), as well as mining machinery, tools and equipment, is not designed to be used by women (hermanus, 2007, p. 532). the safe placement of women prior to and during pregnancy remains a further challenge to mining companies (badenhorst, 2009, p. 60). the problem under investigation can be outlined as follows: on the one hand, mining companies are obliged to meet the requirements of the south african mining charter by employing 10% women in core mining positions and run the risk of losing their mining licences to operate if they do not adhere to the requirements. on the other hand, the deployment of women in the core business of mining is accompanied by various challenges, not only for management, but also for male co-workers and the women themselves. furthermore, work in the mining sector is categorised as high-risk work and is associated with difficult working conditions; mining is one of the most physically demanding occupations (schutte, 2011, p. 11). therefore, it is of utmost importance that all measures be taken to ensure that the health and safety of the female mine worker are not compromised. against this background and problem statement, the research question to be addressed was: do mining companies in south africa take all relevant measures (such as safeguards, protective clothing and protection during night shift and pregnancy) to ensure the health and safety of female mine workers? purpose the purpose of the article is to, firstly, highlight health and safety challenges for women employed in core mining positions as identified in the literature, secondly, determine perceptions regarding the health and safety of women employed in the core business of mining according to the empirical research and, thirdly, provide recommendations that could be implemented and used by various stakeholders in the mining industry to overcome some of these challenges. literature review work in the mining sector is categorised as high-risk work and falls into the category of perceived hazardous occupations. ‘mining involves hard physical labour under conditions of extreme discomfort, deafening noise, intense heat and humidity and cramped space’ (zungu, 2011, p. 8). the south african mine health and safety act (no. 29 of rsa, 1996b) (mhsa) enforces and promotes the health and safety of persons at work in the mining sector (p. 1). the mhsa (rsa, 1996b) was updated by the mine health and safety amendment act (1997). the act introduced the concepts of risk assessment and occupational health and safety management to the mining industry. great emphasis has been placed on the reduction of mining-related deaths, injuries and diseases. another amendment to the mhsa followed in 2008 and aimed to review and strengthen enforcement provisions, to reinforce offences and penalties and to effect certain amendments necessary to ensure consistency with other laws, particularly the mprda (rsa, 2002). furthermore, the international labour organization’s safety and health in mines convention c176 of 1995 was ratified by south africa on 09 june 2009. it recognises the desirability of preventing any fatalities, injuries or ill health affecting workers or members of the public or damage to the environment arising from mining operations (zungu, 2012, p. 7). the mhsa was reviewed in 2011 and 2012. in october 2013, cabinet approved the publication of the draft amendment bill of the mhsa (2013), in the government gazette, for public comment (sanews, 2013). the bill seeks to amend the mhsa (rsa, 1996b). it aims to improve the health and safety of mine employees and seeks to maintain a healthy and safe mine environment with a positive impact on environmental sustainability and resilience (sanews, 2013). despite the improved efforts from the south african government, and specifically the department of mineral resources, (dmr), to promote health and safety in the mining industry, the safety track record in the south african mining industry continues to be a matter of great concern to the dmr. the loss of life owing to accidents is still a concern, especially in the gold and platinum sectors (vermeulen, 2014). according to south african mineral resources minister ngoake ramathlodi (vermeulen, 2014), rockfall, transport and fire-related accidents are still the major causes of death in the sector. the minister also noted that the number of occupational diseases including silicosis, noise-induced hearing loss and pulmonary tuberculosis (tb) was still excessively high. after india and china, south africa has the third highest number of tb cases (vermeulen, 2014). furthermore, the dmr continues to be concerned about the health and safety of female workers in the mining industry, especially the inhumane treatment of female miners by fellow workers in some of the underground workplaces (vermeulen, 2014). from the above it is evident that mine health and safety challenges are still serious issues in the south african mining sector and, if left unattended, could have serious social and economic implications. moreover, the introduction of women into the core business of mining poses new health and safety challenges to the industry. the section below highlights specific health and safety challenges pertaining to women working in core mining positions. physical constraints due to the physicality of mine work, many jobs require a high degree of physical strength and endurance. some of the work tasks are difficult to perform due to the physical differences that exist between women and men (wynn, 2001, p. 33). the gender-related differences listed below should be considered (van aardt, bendeman, christie, gazi & schutte, 2008, p. 22). physical work capacity: women experience significantly more physiological strain than men when performing mining tasks (schutte, edwards & milanzi, 2012, p. 3). the aerobic capacity (physical work capacity) of women is typically 15% – 30% below the values of their male counterparts (schutte et al., 2012, p. 3). aerobic capacity refers to the maximal oxygen uptake that provides a quantitative measure of a person’s ability to sustain high-intensity physical work for longer than 5 minutes (ashworth, molapo, molefe, schutte & zitha, 2004, p. 34). this means that women work closer to their aerobic capacity than men and are therefore more likely to become fatigued. fatigue is operationally defined as the ‘reduced muscular ability to continue an existing effort’ (ashworth et al., 2004, p. 34). high levels of fatigue can cause reduced performance and productivity in the workplace and increase the risk of accidents and injuries occurring (schutte, 2010, p. 54). mine work also requires manual handling of equipment and tools. these equipment and tools are designed to accommodate the size and strength of men (zungu, 2011). manual tasks can often be related to back injuries and musculoskeletal disorders in workers (badenhorst, 2009, p. 63). in general, the manual material-handling capabilities of women are substantially lower than those of men. these differences may be attributed primarily to differences in muscle strength (ashworth et al., 2004, p. 34). women only have 55% of men’s upper-body strength and 72% of their lower-body or leg strength (van aardt et al., 2008, p. 22). on average, a woman’s lifting strength is 60% – 70% of that of a man (ashworth et al., 2004, p. 34). heat tolerance: women working on mines, and in particular underground, are also exposed to extreme heat. singer (2002, p. 1) states that the underground environment can be defined as dark and damp, and with an increase in temperature relative to an increase in depth. in south african mines, work environments with a wet-bulb temperature higher than 27.4 °c are considered hot and necessitate the introduction of practices to safeguard miners (schutte, 2009). according to ashworth et al. (2004, p. 35), all employees who work under ‘conditions conducive to heat stroke’ should be screened for gross or permanent heat intolerance by means of the standard heat tolerance screening test procedure. heat tolerance screening is done to assess whether an individual can withstand high temperatures whilst doing physically demanding work, with the aim of protecting individuals against the negative consequences of heat exposure, such as heat stroke and heat-related diseases (benya, 2009, p. 56). van aardt et al. (2008, p. 22) postulate that under conditions of high ambient temperature, thermoregulation in women is less efficient than in men. this is also confirmed by the findings of schutte (as cited in van aardt et al., 2008, p. 22), which indicate that female mine workers are less tolerant to heat than their male counterparts. high occupational heat loads can lead to the following problems, amongst others: impaired work capacity, errors of judgement with obvious implications for safety, lethargy and fatigue and complications such as heat stress, which can lead to heat stroke, which is often fatal (schutte, 2009, p. 1). the following personal risk factors, amongst others, may reduce an individual’s tolerance for heat stress: age, obesity, state of hydration, use of medication and drugs, gender and acclimatisation state (zungu, 2011). furthermore, gynaecological conditions and pregnancy could also affect the way in which women handle heat stress (zungu, 2011). anthropometry and body composition: according to van aardt et al. (2008, p. 22), differences exist in the anthropometry and body composition of men and women. the average man is heavier and has a greater lean body mass than the average woman. furthermore, women tend to have more body fat and less lean mass than their male counterparts. therefore, women will have lower maximum oxygen uptake values to transport the same body mass. the design of mining equipment and tools used during mining does not always take into account the anthropometry of the user population (van aardt et al., 2008, p. 22). much of the mining equipment used in south african mines is designed to fit men (badenhorst, 2009, p. 62). when mines started to recruit women, mining equipment was still only suitable for men, but both women and men had to share such equipment. body dimensions are an important concept that should be taken into consideration with the design of mining equipment as well as its efficient operation (campbell, 2007). women face great risks to their safety when using work equipment, machinery and tools designed for men, and this may contribute to women’s work accident risks (badenhorst, 2009, p. 63; hermanus, 2007, p. 532; van aardt et al., 2008, p. 23). according to badenhorst (2009, p. 59), a female employee can do any job that she is qualified to do, provided that she meets the requirements of the specific job. furthermore, an employee should not be employed in a job or conduct tasks for which they are not medically fit or if they do not have the required physical and functional capabilities. emphasis should be placed on worker selection, paying attention to the ergonomic fit of equipment, work tools and tasks to the worker’s physique (van aardt et al., 2008, p. 23). a programme should be established to ensure that minimum medical requirements are met by employees, which include health risk assessment or a health risk profile for each occupation and the establishment of medical standards for each of these occupations based on the risk profiles (badenhorst, 2009, p. 70). furthermore, a test battery to conduct and measure these abilities should be established (badenhorst, 2009, p. 70). pregnancy challenges pregnancy and breastfeeding are two of the major challenges mining companies have to deal with when incorporating women into the mining workforce. pregnant employees are strongly protected under south african legislation. the constitution of south africa (rsa, 1996a), section 9(3), and the employment equity act (eea, rsa, 1998), section 6, explicitly prohibit unfair discrimination against anyone or any employee on the grounds of pregnancy. furthermore, the basic conditions of employment act (bcea, rsa, 1997) forbids employers to require a pregnant employee or an employee who is nursing her child to perform work that is hazardous to her health or the health of her child. it also obliges employers to offer her suitable, alternative employment if the employee is required to perform night work or if her work poses a danger to her health or safety or that of her child. in addition, the code of good practice on the protection of employees during pregnancy and after the birth of a child (israelstam, 2012) aims at protecting pregnant and post-pregnant employees. if a woman falls pregnant, the onus rests on her to inform management of her pregnancy in order to immediately enable them to accommodate her in a safe position (van aardt et al., 2008, p. 23). most women can continue working during pregnancy; however, the nature of the job and the risks associated with the job will determine for how long she will be able to perform the specific requirements of the job. exposure to physical, chemical, ergonomic and biological hazards must be considered potentially dangerous to the health of pregnant women (badenhorst, 2009, p. 69). risk assessment is fundamental to the safe placement of female employees during pregnancy (badenhorst, 2009, p. 60). personal protective equipment challenges because the mining industry was historically viewed as a ‘man’s world’, ppe was designed with men in mind. the design of most of the ppe used at south african mines is based on the anthropometry of male populations from germany, france and the usa (van aardt et al., 2008, p. 23). on average, women’s feet are shorter and narrower than men’s, their bodies are shorter in length, their shoulders are narrower and their hips are usually wider (zungu, 2011). the lack of correctly fitting ppe can affect the way women are protected as well as the way in which they are able to perform their jobs. ill-fitting ppe restricts the ability of employees to move easily and exposes them to environmental hazards associated with mining. as women differ from men in terms of size and shape, their ppe should be adjusted and developed to ensure a proper fit, comfort and protection (badenhorst, 2009, p. 62). from the literature review it is clear that various factors need to be considered to ensure the health and safety of women working in the core business of mines. consequently, the empirical findings of the research are presented. method top ↑ research approach a mixed method research design was followed by applying a quantitative and qualitative research approach. measures research participants the research setting was limited to the following three mines: a copper mine (underground), a phosphate mine (open-cast) and a platinum mine (underground). the mines were selected on an availability basis (convenience sampling). convenience sampling refers to sampling by obtaining people or units that are conveniently available (zikmund, babin, carr & griffin, 2010, p. 396). for the purpose of quantitative research, the study population consisted of management as well as male and female employees working in core mining activities of the three mines. convenience sampling was used to select the participants. in total, 156 responses were received: 68 from the copper mine, 50 from the phosphate mine and 38 from the platinum mine (see table 1). table 1: distribution and response count per mine. purposive or judgemental sampling was used to select participants for the qualitative research. purposive sampling is a type of non-probability sampling in which the units to be observed are selected on the basis of the researcher’s judgement about which ones will be the most useful or representative (babbie & mouton, 2011, p. 184). in total, 12 individual interviews and 19 group interviews (69 participants) were conducted. the researcher aimed to gain information from various operations; therefore, the participants selected varied from various categories of employment and mining disciplines (see table 2). table 2: individual and group interviews conducted at the mines. measuring instruments quantitative data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire. qualitative data were collected by means of individual and group interviews. the interviews were conducted in english. the interviews were semi-structured, as an interview guide was utilised. data collected by means of semi-structured and group interviews were audio and video recorded and written notes were taken. the qualitative approach supported the quantitative approach and aimed to provide more reliable results, because the researcher could ask probing questions of the participants and by so doing avoid misunderstanding of questions and gain better insight into the phenomenon of interest, as recommended by welman, kruger and mitchell (2010, p. 167). in addition, the researcher could gain a deep understanding of the variables that have an impact on women in the mining sector. research procedure the researcher formally requested permission from mine management to conduct research at three mining companies. after permission was granted, a formal appointment was scheduled with mine management to explain the nature and extent of the research. in each research setting (mines), a contact person (human resource officer targeted with women in mining) was allocated to the researcher to provide the necessary assistance and support during the research, which included the following: distributing and collecting the quantitative questionnaires, selecting appropriate participants for the individual interviews as well as group interviews, scheduling interviews and organising underground field trips as well as visits to surface mining operations. most of the individual interviews and group interviews were scheduled between shifts in order not to interfere with the work responsibilities of the participants. ethical considerations, such as voluntary participation, informed consent, privacy, anonymity and confidentiality were taken into account whilst conducting the research, as recommended by babbie and mouton (2011, p. 520). data analysis quantitative data obtained through the questionnaires were analysed with the support and assistance of the statistic consultation service of north-west university. the statistical software program spss 21.0 for windows was used to analyse the data. firstly, descriptive statistics are presented, differentially in terms of the three mines included in the study. descriptive statistics were reported per statement as mean. the benchmark (ideal) in terms of responses for every statement is 4, which indicates that compliance with the specific statement is satisfactory, except for a small number of reversed statements. ratings of 2.5 and lower were regarded as ‘low’ and indicate that compliance with the specific statement is none or very limited. the opposite is applicable to reversed statements. secondly, a factor analysis was conducted to explore the factorial structure of the section. the following values were measured and the results are reported as part of the factor analysis: the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy, the p-value of bartlett’s test of sphericity, pattern matrices, communalities, cronbach’s alpha coefficients and factor means. thirdly, effect sizes were measured. because an availability sample was used, p-values were not relevant and differences between means were examined for practical significance with effect sizes. lastly, qualitative data obtained through the semi-structured interviews and group interviews were analysed by means of conceptual (thematic) analysis. coding choices were made according to the following eight category coding steps indicated by palmquist (cited in babbie & mouton, 2011, p. 492): deciding on the level of analysis, deciding on how many concepts to code for, deciding whether to code for the existence or frequency of a concept, deciding how to distinguish between concepts, developing rules for the coding of texts, deciding what to do with the data that are irrelevant, coding the data and analysing the results. results top ↑ descriptive statistics similar results were obtained for almost all the different indicators across all three mines (see table 3). almost all the indicators calculated a mean of above 2.5 across all three target groups of the three mines, indicating that compliance with these statements is satisfactory. the only negative responses were reported for the following indicator statements: table 3: participants’ perceptions regarding health and safety in the workplace. it is safe for women to work the night shift. this statement calculated a mean below 2.5 for the female research participants of the phosphate (mean = 2.35) and platinum (mean = 2.4) mines. alternative employment is provided for women during early motherhood and breastfeeding. this statement calculated a mean below 2.5 for the female research participants of the copper mine (mean = 2.44) and the management research participants of the phosphate mine (mean = 2.4). factor analysis a factor analysis was conducted on the 10 statements listed in the questionnaire. the results of the kmo and bartlett’s test of sphericity are presented in table 4. table 4: kaiser-meyer-olkin and bartlett’s test of sphericity. the kmo measured 0.650 and indicates that the sample size is still adequate for factor analysis. according to field (2005, p. 640), factor analysis is inappropriate for values smaller than 0.5; however, values between 0.5 and 0.7 are regarded as mediocre. the p-value of bartlett’s test of sphericity returned a value less than 0.05, suggesting that the correlation between statements is sufficient for factor analysis (field, 2005, p. 652). the results for the factor analysis are reported in table 5. table 5: pattern matrix† of health and safety in the workplace. four factors (work environment, motherhood, hiv/aids programme, personal protection) were extracted by kaiser’s criteria (field, 2005, p. 652) to explain 67.50% of the total variance, in the section on health and safety in the workplace. the statements all loaded above 0.3 on the four identified factors. the factor means were calculated to be above 2.5, which indicates a tendency to agree with the statements contained in the identified factors. the work environment factor as well as the motherhood factor has a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.51, which could be regarded as a relatively low reliability. this was probably caused by the low number of statements in the factors (field, 2009, p. 675). the hiv/aids programme factor has a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.79, which is above the required 0.7 and shows high reliability and internal consistency. the personal protection factor has a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.61, which could be regarded as an accepted reliability (field, 2009, p. 675). factor correlation matrix the pearson correlations between the extracted factors for the section health and safety in the workplace are reported in table 6. table 6: factor correlation matrix. factor 1 and factor 2 have a correlation coefficient smaller than 0.3, whilst factor 3 and factor 4 have a correlation coefficient greater than 0.3, indicating that there is a strong relationship between hiv/aids programme and personal protection. however, factor 1 has a small correlation with factors 2, 3 and 4. a small correlation also exists between factor 2 and factors 3 and 4. comparison of the three target groups of the different mines regarding health and safety in the workplace the descriptive statistics together with effect sizes of the different target groups regarding the section health and safety in the workplace are reported in table 7. table 7: comparison of the three target groups of the different mines regarding health and safety in the workplace. the effect sizes for the factors work environment, motherhood and hiv/aids programme indicated that the difference between the means of the different target groups is not practically significant, with the exception of the female versus male target groups of the copper mine (motherhood factor) and the female versus management target groups of the phosphate mine (hiv/aids programme), for which the d-values indicate a medium effect. it could therefore be deduced that on average, the male target group of the copper mine is more in agreement with the statements contained in the motherhood factor than the female target group themselves. furthermore, the management target group of the phosphate mine is more in agreement with hiv/aids programme than the female target group themselves. a large effect is evident from the female versus male target groups of the copper mine and the female versus management target groups of the phosphate mine for the personal protection factor, indicating that on average, the participants from the male and management target groups of the copper mine as well as the management target group of the phosphate mine are more in agreement with personal protection than the female target group themselves. health and safety concerns regarding women working in core mining positions this section presents the findings of the qualitative inquiry. although the participants indicated that the mines take all measures to ensure a safe environment and, in general, they do feel safe at work, some concerns were raised, which are discussed next. physical ability although the female participants indicated that they have the physical ability to do their jobs well, they indicated that the work is tough and not easy to perform, especially underground. the women stated that they do not always have the physical strength, power and stamina required for specific positions. they want to prove themselves and often neglect their bodies to do their jobs well. the following quotes provide an indication of the female participants’ opinions regarding the physical ability of women employed in core mining positions and the constraints experienced: ‘i don’t have the steam to work at the position that i am working at.’ ‘i am not strong enough.’ ‘the job of mine is too hard.’ ‘we are sweating underground.’ (female general, interview, 2011) ‘the loco is like a train, nè? it’s hard to operate. the steering wheel and everything is hard. the brakes. and to be on it every day, yô, it is hard. when you go on period you have some pains. your back it pains. and that thing, it vibrates. i’m on it eight hours every day’. (female loco operator, interview, 2011) personal protective equipment it is evident that some mining companies still provide overalls (shirts and trousers), shoes and gloves that are not women-friendly and are designed with men in mind. moreover, some female participants were not satisfied with the respirators provided at one of the mines included in the study. the following responses reflect women’s need for protective clothing that are designed with women in mind: ‘women, you know, have got curves and we are wearing men’s clothes. sometimes it is difficult for you to know the correct size. because it is male size, you find when you order overalls they are too big. when you order the small it is too small.’ (female lab attendant, interview, 2011) ‘i’m not satisfied with the respirator that is provided to use in the plant. it sometimes feels [as if] i cannot inhale enough oxygen.’ (female electrician, interview, 2011) pregnancy from the interviews and focus group discussions it became clear that different views exist on female employees’ experiences regarding treatment by management of the various mining companies during and after pregnancy (early motherhood and breastfeeding). the data also show that treatment within the same mining company differs. some of the participants indicated that they were treated well from the moment they disclosed their pregnancies and they were employed in alternative positions that require light duty. others indicated that they were not treated well at all and were not given light duty; they had to ask to be moved to work on the surface. the following quote expresses the opinion of a participant that was not treated well during her pregnancy: ‘the mine did not accommodate me when i fell pregnant. i went through hell. there are 21 men and i’m the only woman. i used to be ordered to work where it was not even safe. there is a lot of gas and dust. while i was pregnant no one ever considered that i was. i told my supervisor and everybody knew up to the manager that i was pregnant. from the very first month i was pregnant, the first trimester is the most difficult time of pregnancy, i was ordered “to go to hell and back”. that was when it was very much tough. i fainted the other day when they forced me to work and i told them that i’m not feeling great today.’ (female reverb operator, interview, 2011) according to the participants from the management target group of the copper and phosphate mines, women are removed from working conditions that could have an effect on their pregnancies, for example underground and areas with x-ray machines and related radioactivity. provisions are made for female employees as per the mhsa. dust dust was indicated as a main concern amongst the participants. according to the female participants, dust affects their lungs, eyes and ears. the male participants indicated that women often get a rash from working in dusty areas and sometimes they need to take the next working day off to recover. the female participants felt that the mining company could do more to reduce dust in the work environment. they suggested that dust masks be improved and that water be used to reduce dust in dusty work environments. vibration the female participants indicated that work environments entailing vibration as well as the operating of heavy vibrating equipment and machines, such as locomotives, winding engines, rubber dozers and dump trucks, are not good for women, even if they are not pregnant. it was indicated that vibrating equipment tends to affect their menstruation cycles. furthermore, it was indicated that vibration during pregnancy could enhance miscarriages. high risk for accidents as indicated in the introduction, the mining industry is a high-risk work environment. women are not used to the dangerous work environment and often get scared when accidents occur. the following quotation provides an indication of the participant’s perceptions of mining as a dangerous environment: ‘as women we are very scared. maybe sometimes you think maybe the rock will fall down. … even the cage, just to go down. i remember the first time, i was crying. sometimes the cage get stuck with you in the air for 20 minutes or 40 minutes. just hanging there. not knowing whether you are going to … go down or go up.’ (female loco operator, interview, 2011) night shift some female participants indicated that they do not feel safe when working night shifts. sometimes only one or two women are working with many men during night shifts. although security services are present at the main gates, a need was voiced for more security in each section or shaft. a need was also detected to lighten up areas that are dark at night. discussion top ↑ outline of the results the quantitative responses showed mainly positive results, as on average, the participants across all three mines agreed with the statements contained in the identified four factors: the work environment factor, the motherhood factor, the hiv/aids programme factor and thepersonal protection factor. it can therefore be deduced that, on average, the participants are satisfied with the way the mining companies included in the study apply and implement health and safety measures in the workplace. however, it should be noted that the female research participants of the phosphate and platinum mines indicated concerns regarding their safety when working the night shift. this is also reinforced by the findings of the qualitative inquiry. furthermore, the female research participants of the copper mine voiced serious concerns regarding alternative employment provided for women during early motherhood and breastfeeding. the same sentiment was also shared by the management participants of the phosphate mine. as indicated in the literature review, pregnant employees are strongly protected under south african legislation, including the constitution of south africa (rsa, 1996a), section 9(3), the eea (rsa, 1998), section 6 and the bcea (rsa, 1997), sections 25 and 26. in addition, the code of good practice on the protection of employees during pregnancy and after the birth of a child provides guidelines to employers on how to protect pregnant and post-pregnant employees. employers should abide by the requirements of the mentioned legislation. although positive responses were obtained from the quantitative results for the personal protection factor, the qualitative findings revealed deficiencies and limitations in this regard. it is evident that some mining companies still provide overalls (shirts and trousers), shoes and gloves that are not women-friendly and are designed with men in mind. research conducted by zungu (2012, p. 10) also revealed challenges related to the size and fitting of ppe used by female miners. the female body differs from the male body; therefore, overalls, shoes and gloves designed for men do not secure a perfect and comfortable fit, which could compromise the health and safety of the female employee, as also indicated in the literature review. the south african mine health and safety council also showed its commitment to the safety of women working in the core business of mining by conducting research on ppe issues. the main recommendations stemming from the research include the following: to set minimum standards for providing undergarments for female workers, to set minimum standards for compliance in terms of the provision of ppe for women in mining and to conduct an additional study to facilitate the design of such ppe, as the industry does not currently design ppe for women in mining (chamber of mines of south africa, 2012, p. 4). it is also evident from the qualitative findings that some women experience extreme difficulties in performing mine work that requires physical strength and stamina. this is also in line with the findings of the literature review, which suggest that gender differences exist with regard to physical work capacity, heat tolerance and anthropometry and body composition. therefore, it is not surprising that women often experience significantly more physiological strain than men when performing strenuous physically demanding mining tasks. it is of utmost importance to only employ a woman if she is qualified to do the job, if she meets the requirements (physical and functional capabilities) of that specific job and if she is medically fit for the job (badenhorst, 2009, p. 59), so as not to compromise the health and safety of the female employee. from the research it is evident that the introduction of women in the core business of mining requires commitment and devotion from management and the relevant state departments. moreover, the health and safety of female employees require, amongst others, exceptional attention to the provision of women-friendly ppe, considerations relating to worker selection and the ergonomic fit of equipment, work tools and tasks to the worker’s physique. safety, health and wellness are the responsibility of managers; they should ensure that employees are not unnecessarily endangered and that workers are fully aware of and properly trained and prepared for unusual workplace risks (nel et al., 2011, p. 283). practical implications although the mining companies have improved their efforts to promote health and safety in the workplace, the health and safety of mine workers remain a major challenge. a holistic approach to risk management, which includes consideration of gender implications and ergonomic factors, is needed if the participation of women is to be sustained in mining. limitations a limitation to the study lies in the accessibility of the mining sector as a research setting. past research has shown that it is sometimes extremely difficult to interview employees and representatives of mining companies and to get their members to fill in questionnaires. it was not an easy task to gain access to the mining companies. several visits and correspondence took place before permission was granted for the research. in addition, the platinum mine experienced many difficulties and labour unrest during the time the research was conducted. because of that, several interviews with management were postponed and eventually cancelled. despite numerous attempts from the researcher, no quantitative responses (questionnaires) were received from the management target group of the platinum mine. furthermore, not all participants targeted for the semi-structured interviews and group interviews turned up for the meetings. some of the participants could not stay for the duration of the interviews due to work responsibilities and emergencies. others were drained and tired after shift work and wanted to depart for home as soon as possible to get some rest and take care of their family responsibilities before the start of their next shift. the researcher made use of existing skills, knowledge and networks (such as the study promoter, who has worked extensively in this field, and the bench marks foundation) to overcome some of these problems. recommendations from the literature review and the empirical findings it is evident that specific attention should be given to the promotion of the health and safety of women working in mines. the following recommendations, informed by the literature review and empirical findings, are made to address health and safety concerns of women employed in core mining activities and to contribute to the sustainable deployment of women in the mining sector: it is evident that women have unique needs in terms of ppe provided. ill-fitting ppe can affect the way women are protected as well as the way in which they are able to perform their jobs. therefore, ppe needs to be designed and developed with women in mind to ensure a proper fit and not compromise the health and safety of female employees. continued research on ppe issues should be conducted to reveal limitations and deficiencies. strategies should be employed to address ppe issues. mining companies should abide by the requirements of the bcea in terms of the treatment of women during and after pregnancy. in addition, mining companies should implement the principles of the code of good practice on the protection of employees during pregnancy and after the birth of a child to protect pregnant and post-pregnant employees. furthermore, a risk-assessment flow could be employed to ensure that pregnant and breastfeeding female employees are not exposed to significant risks in the workplace. mining companies should also provide training and support to female employees on pregnancy-related issues, such as emphasising the need to disclose their pregnancies in order not to compromise the health and safety of the pregnant woman as well as her unborn baby. mining companies should enhance their security and safety measures in order to create a safe environment for women that are working the night shift. mining companies should provide training and support focusing on coping mechanisms for women working in the core business of the high-risk mining environment. mining companies should only employ a woman if she is qualified to do the job, if she meets the requirements (physical and functional capabilities) of that specific job and if she is medically fit for the job. conclusion top ↑ the health and safety of mine workers remain a major challenge, not only for the relevant state departments but also for managers. managers should ensure that employees are not unnecessarily endangered and that workers are fully aware of and properly trained and prepared for unusual workplace risks. gender implications should be considered to ensure the health and safety of women employed in core mining positions and to contribute to the sustainable deployment of women in the mining sector. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions d.b. (north-west university) conducted the literature review as well as the empirical research and wrote up the article. f.c. (north-west university) acted as supervisor of the research project, assisted with the statistical analysis and reviewed the article. references top ↑ ashworth, g., molapo, m., molefe, n., schutte, s., & zitha, m. (2004). human and social issues influencing the incorporation of women into the mining workforce. coaltech 2020. retrieved june 17, 2011, from www.coaltech.co.za/…/task%202.8.1%20-%20women%20in%20mining.pdf babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2011). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford university press southern africa. badenhorst, c.j. (2009). occupational health and safety considerations for the employment of female workers in hard rock mines. paper presented at the southern african institute of mining and metallurgy, hard rock safety conference, september, sun city, south africa. benya, a.p. (2009). women in mining: a challenge to occupational culture in mines. ma dissertation. johannesburg: department of sociology, university of the witwatersrand. burtenshaw, j. (2005, august). women miners plunge to new depths. retrieved march 14, 2009, from http://www.sagoodnews.co.za campbell, k. (2007, august 03). woman miners ‘no better industry’, but retaining women after recruiting them seen as challenge. mining weekly. retrieved may 11, 2011, from www.miningweekly.com/…/039no-better-industry039-but-retaining-women-after-recruiting-them-seen-as-challenge-2007-08-03 chamber of mines of south africa. (2012). labour policy digest. retrieved may 02, 2013, from http://www.bullion.org.za/…/labour%20policy%20digest%20-%202%20august%202012.pdf eftimie, a., heller, k., & strongman, j. (2009). gender dimensions of the extractive industries: mining for equity. retrieved march 12, 2012, from http://naturalresourcecharter.org/content/eftimie-heller-k-strongman-j-2009-‘gender-dimensions-extractive-industries-mining-equity’ field, a. (2005). discovering statistics using spss. (2nd edn.). london: sage. field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss. (3rd edn.). london: sage. fourie, j.d. (2009). managerial challenges faced in a south african platinum mine relating to women employment as required by the mining charter. unpublished mini-dissertation, mba, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa. hancock, t. (2014). women entering mining sector but legacy issues persist. retrieved august 25, 2014, from http://www.miningweekly.com/article/women-entering-mining-sector-but-the-door-is-only-slightly-open-as-legacy-issues-persist-2014-08-22 harmony gold mining company. (2008). harmony sustainable development report. retrieved october 20, 2009, from http://www.har.co.za/files/harmony_sd2008.pdf hermanus, m.a. (2007). occupational health and safety in mining – status, new developments and concerns. the journal of the southern african institute of mining and metallurgy, 107, 531–538. israelstam, i. (2012, june 08). labour laws protect new mothers. polity. retrieved may 06, 2013, from http://www.polity.org.za/article/labour-laws-protect-new-mothers-2012-06-08 lahiri-dutt, k., & macintyre, m. (2006). women miners in developing countries: pit women and others. burlington, vt: ashgate. managing transformation solutions. (2011). second annual women in mining conference, 23–25 february. unpublished report. nel, p.s., werner, a., poisat, p., sono, t., du plessis, a., & ngalo, o. (2011). human resources management. (8th edn.). cape town: oxford university press southern africa. republic of south africa (rsa). (1996a). constitution of the republic of south africa, act no. 108 of 1996. pretoria: government printers. rsa. (1996b). mine health and safety act, no. 29 of 1996. pretoria: government printers. rsa. (1997). basic conditions of employment act, no. 75 of 1997. pretoria: government printers. rsa. (1998). employment equity act, no. 55 of 1998. pretoria: government printers. rsa. (2002). mineral and petroleum resources development act, no. 28 of 2002. pretoria: government printers. rsa. (2004, august 13). broad-based socio-economic empowerment charter for the south african mining industry. notice no. 1639 of 2004. government gazette, no. 25899, 6–17. rsa. (2009). mine health and safety amendment act. government gazette, no. 32140. rsa. (2010). amendment of the broad-based socio-economic empowerment charter for the south african mining and minerals industry. retrieved june 27, 2013, from http://www.dmr.gov.za/publications/summary/108-mining-charter-downloads/128-amendedofbbseecharter.html schutte, p. (2009). heat stress management in hot mines. retrieved april 04, 2013, from http://researchspace.csir.co.za/dspace/handle/10204/4447 schutte, p.c. (2010). fatigue risk management: charting a path to a safer workplace. the journal of the southern african institute of mining and metallurgy, 110, 53–55. schutte, p.c., edwards, a., & milanzi, l.a. (2012). how hard do mineworkers work? an assessment of workplace stress associated with routine mining activities. retrieved november 05, 2014, from http://researchspace.csir.co.za/dspace/bitstream/10204/5855/1/schutte_2012.pdf schutte, s. (2011). ergonomics as a practice for safe and healthy mining in south african mines. newsletter on occupational health and safety, 21(1), 11–12. singer, r. (2002, may). south african women gain ground below surface. usa today. retrieved august 15, 2013, from http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2002/05/17/women-miners.htm south african government news agency (sanews). (2013, october). mine health, safety bill out for public comment. retrieved october 15, 2013, from http://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/mine-health-safety-bill-out-public-comment van aardt, i., bendeman, h., christie, c., gazi, s., & schutte, p.c. (2008). exploratory survey of women in mining in the south african mining industry with specific regards to but not limited to occupational health and safety issues: literature review. retrieved november 27, 2014, from http://www.mhsc.org.za/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=110&itemid vermeulen, a. (2014). value of miners’ lives must be recognised – ramathlodi. retrieved november 27, 2014, from http://www.miningweekly.com/article/value-of-miners-lives-must-be-recognised-ramatlhodi-2014-11-18 welman, c., kruger, f., & mitchell, b. (2010). research methodology. (3rd edn.). cape town: oxford university press southern africa. women in mining canada. (2010). ramp-up: a study on the status of women in canada’s mining and exploration sector. retrieved february 25, 2012, from http://0101.nccdn.net/1_5/1f2/13b/0cb/ramp-up-report.pdf wynn, e.j. (2001). women in the mining industry. retrieved june 10, 2011, from http://www.ausimm.com.au/content/docs/wynn.pdf zikmund, w.g., babin, b.j., carr, j.c., & griffin, m. (2010). business research methods. (8th edn.). australia: south-western cengage learning. zungu, l. (2011, october 20). women in the south african mining industry: an occupational health and safety perspective. inaugural lecture. retrieved january 12, 2012, from http://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/5005 zungu, l. (2012). occupational health and safety challenges reported by women in selected south african gold and platinum mines. occupational health southern africa. retrieved may 03, 2013, from http://www.occhealth.co.za/?/viewarticle/1377 abstract introduction research questions research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) reuben george gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa manoj chiba gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa caren b. scheepers gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa citation george, r., chiba, m., & scheepers, c.b. (2017). an investigation into the effect of leadership style on stress-related presenteeism in south african knowledge workers. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a754. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.754 note: this article is partially based on the author’s thesis of the degree of doctor of master of business administration at the gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa, received november 2013, available here: http://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/40595/george_effect_2013.pdf original research an investigation into the effect of leadership style on stress-related presenteeism in south african knowledge workers reuben george, manoj chiba, caren b. scheepers received: 07 sept. 2015; accepted: 20 jan. 2017; published: 28 mar. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: leadership styles influence knowledge workers’ job-stress-related presenteeism (jsrp) and, ultimately, organisational performance. knowledge workers generally work under strict deadlines in fast-paced, stressful environments, and require organisational support. research purpose: the objective of this study was to examine empirically the effect of three leadership styles, namely transformational, transactional and laissez-faire, on job-related-stress presenteeism in knowledge workers across a number of industries in south africa. motivation for the study: absenteeism has been the subject of much investigation but more research is required into the antecedents and consequences of presenteeism, the phenomenon of employees being physically present at work, but not fully functional and therefore unproductive. illness as an antecedent to presenteeism has been studied, but limited attention has been given to presenteeism caused by stress. there are very few studies that investigate leadership styles as antecedents for jsrp and this study therefore sets out to provide quantitative evidence of this relationship. research design, approach and method: the researchers used a cross-sectional quantitative approach within the positivism research philosophy. two questionnaires were administered: the multifactor leadership questionnaire form 6s and the job-related-stress presenteeism questionnaire. descriptive statistics and pearson’s product-moment correlation were used to answer the research questions. the participants (n = 242) were knowledge workers, representing 12 widely categorised industries. the researchers analysed job role descriptions to ensure the respondents were all knowledge workers. main findings: transformational leadership has a higher negative correlation with jsrp than does transactional leadership, whereas laissez-faire leadership has no significant relationship with job stress or jsrp. practical/managerial implications: the research provides a compelling case for investment into transformational and transactional leadership development by showing the preventative effect that transformational leadership and, to a lesser degree, transactional leadership, has on stress-associated presenteeism. contribution/value-add: presenteeism lowers organisational performance even more than absenteeism does, and exists at huge cost to employees’ quality of work-life. this empirical study, the first to use valid, reliable questionnaires to investigate the relationship between transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership on the one hand, and jsrp on the other, suggests that transformational leadership development should be prioritised. introduction today’s dynamic and rapidly changing business environment creates severe challenges for leaders (cao & ramesh, 2008). many organisations are having to operate with lean labour forces, and job demands place excessive pressure on employees (hakanen, schaufeli & ahola, 2008). moreover, volatile market demands, leading to rising job uncertainty, are becoming a substantial stressor for employees (pohling, buruck, jungbauer & leiter, 2016). it is therefore essential that organisations create and manage favourable work environments (cummings et al., 2010); failure to do so negatively impacts long-term organisational performance (schaufeli, taris & van rhenen, 2008). an important trait in creating a favourable working environment is leadership behaviour as leaders motivate, engage and satisfy the needs of their employees (bolden, gosling, marturano & dennison, 2003). one of the challenges for today’s leaders is presenteeism. whitehouse (2005) defines this phenomenon as reduced productivity owing to events that distract employees from full productivity. gosselin, lemyre and corneil (2013) contend that presenteeism is widespread, manifesting itself indiscriminately across occupational groups. this contention is taken into account in this study, which investigates the prevalence of presenteeism across a number of industries. presenteeism is costly for organisations because of a lack of added value to the product or services rendered, or a decrement in employee performance (hemp, 2004; macgregor, cunningham & caverley, 2008; munro, 2007; prochaska & prochaska, 2011). organisations are therefore becoming increasingly concerned about the phenomenon as organisational performance is significantly impacted (puig-ribera, mckenna, gilson & brown, 2008). a number of scholars, specifically zopiatis and constanti (2010), mathieu, neumann, hare and babiak (2014), kara, uysal, sirgy and lee (2013), conclude that leadership behaviour impacts followers’ stress and burnout levels. the current research therefore included leadership as an important variable. globalisation has forced organisations to develop competitive advantage by employing competent, talented and dedicated employees. called ‘knowledge workers’ by drucker (1992) (as cited in joo, 2010, p. 70), they ‘… apply theoretical and analytical knowledge that is acquired through formal education in developing new products or services’. yet, one of the characteristics of knowledge workers is their high turnover rate, with the resulting high costs to the organisations that employ them (scheepers & shuping, 2011). nielsen, randall, yarker and brenner (2008) concluded that a relationship exists between a meaningful work environment, leadership and employee well-being. effective leadership styles are therefore required to develop high-quality work environments that are conducive to knowledge workers’ well-being and which ultimately contribute to achieving organisational goals. knowledge workers are the focus of this study because of their importance to the success of organisations. schaufeli et al. (2008) show that employee well-being is highly correlated with low levels of stress and leads to increased employee productivity. other studies show that stress causes several negative outcomes, including burnout, employee turnover, as well as reduced productivity and well-being (maslach & leiter, 2008; tarafdar, tu, ragu-nathan & ragu-nathan, 2007). these, in turn, lead to stress-related presenteeism, an important construct under investigation in this study. purpose there was therefore strong justification for conducting research in the field of presenteeism. this study set out to add to the body of knowledge about reducing presenteeism, particularly among knowledge workers, who play such an important role in achieving organisational competitive advantage. its purpose was to empirically examine the effect of three leadership styles, namely transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership, on job-related-stress presenteeism in knowledge workers across a number of industries in south africa. although leadership has been extensively researched, it remains difficult to understand the full extent of the complex interrelationships involved in leadership processes (zopiatis & constanti, 2010). leadership style is of particular interest to researchers (ogbonna & harris, 2000) as it impacts both employee and organisational performance. literature review as the main purpose of this study was to analyse the effect of leadership styles on employee job-stress-related presenteeism (jsrp), ‘job-stress-related presenteeism’ and ‘leadership’ are the constructs examined in this review. presenteeism until a few years ago, research focussed on absenteeism in relation to employee efficiency and organisational performance, while presenteeism was largely ignored (gosselin et al., 2013). this trend has changed over the last 3–5 years, however, and the concept of presenteeism has gained credibility among academics and practitioners. munro (2007) suggests that presenteeism is another aspect of absenteeism while prater and smith (2011) believe it is the antithesis of absenteeism. aronsson and gustafson (2005) state that work-related factors cause attendance pressure and define presenteeism as ‘the phenomenon of people who, despite complaints and ill health that should prompt rest and absence from work, are still turning up at their jobs’ (aronsson, gustafsson & dallner, 2000, p. 503). gosselin et al. (2013) advise organisations to manage absenteeism without creating presenteeism. the impact of absenteeism on the bottom line is well documented. for example, macgregor et al. (2008) state that in canada alone, billions of dollars are lost each year owing to absenteeism. baker-mcclearn, greasley, dale and griffith (2010) report that absenteeism is the largest source of lost productivity for businesses in the united kingdom. absenteeism is trackable and it is possible to count its cost, but it is often impossible to tell when, and to what extent, employees are at work but simply not performing (presenteeism). macgregor et al. (2008) report that the cost of sickness presenteeism may be even greater than that of sickness absenteeism. a white paper by the health enhancement research organisation (2014) suggests that presenteeism accounts for three-quarters of the cost of lost employee productivity, while absenteeism accounts for the fourth quarter. demerouti, le blanc, bakker, schaufeli and hox (2009) show that job demands placed on sick employees increase presenteeism and eventually lead to burnout. they say that ‘employees get trapped in a “loss spiral” as symptoms of burnout lead to an accumulation of job demands and less energy to cope with these demands’ (p. 51). this is another example of presenteeism. likewise, chatterji and tilley (2002) report that policies implemented by organisations to reduce absenteeism, such as reductions in sick pay, are more likely to increase presenteeism, which in turn, could lead to more illness and lower productivity. a us survey reported that 56% of employers experienced presenteeism because of some perceived problem in their organisation. presenteeism in small organisations may be less when compared to medium and large organisations, as managers are more likely to regularly request feedback on tasks performed by subordinates (matlay, 1999). employee burnout and lost productivity were found to be 7.5 times greater in cases of presenteeism than absenteeism (baker-mcclearn et al., 2010), while mcgregor, iverson, caputi, magee and ashbury (2014) report that the cost of presenteeism could be fourfold that of absenteeism. several studies focus on sickness as the antecedent for presenteeism (aronsson, gustafsson & dallner, 2000; baker-mcclearn et al., 2010; demerouti et al., 2009), and allergies, rheumatoid arthritis and chronic back pain have been linked to it (munro, 2007). while valuable, these studies are too narrow in approach for a full understanding of presenteeism (gilbreath & karimi, 2012), rooted as they are solely in health-associated matters. job-stress-related presenteeism gilbreath and karimi (2012) assert that: job-stress-related presenteeism is most closely the opposite of rothbard’s (2001, p. 656) conceptualisation of engagement, which focusses on attention – the cognitive availability and the amount of time one spends thinking about a role – and absorption – the intensity of one’s focus on a role. (p. 116) however, presenteeism is more than mere disengagement from, or low engagement in, work. most definitions of engagement (schaufeli, salanova, gonźalez-roma & bakker, 2002) characterise it as pervasive and role-based, whereas presenteeism is considered to be more transitory and situational. the current study focusses on presenteeism as it relates to job stress. jsrp is a construct developed by gilbreath and karamini (2012) as a factor, other than illness, that causes employees to be less focussed on tasks. chae, seo and lee (2011) provide empirical evidence of links between job stress, organisational effectiveness and individual performance, and show that increased job stress results in weaker organisational performance. while karlin, brondolo and schwartz (2003) studied job stress in relation to support from supervisors, their study did not consider the leadership or supervisory styles that may have played an important role in moderating or mediating the relationship. this research, recognising that leadership style is inextricably interwoven into the creation of conducive working environments, sought to expand the work of gilbreath and karimi (2012) on jsrp by providing an understanding of how it is impacted by leadership style. leadership style the literature defines leadership in a number of ways, for example, as the ability to guide followers towards shared goals and as a form of influence (madlock, 2008). kouzes and posner (1987) define leadership as an observable set of skills and abilities. historically, leadership studies tended to focus on characteristics and personality traits, but the focus has shifted towards the perceptions of followers and the contextual nature of leadership (robbins & coulter, 2005). new leadership theories pay greater attention to leaders’ relationships with followers, as these contribute significantly to organisational success. kara et al. (2013) quote a number of studies linking leadership styles to organisational commitment, organisational learning and adaptation, job satisfaction, employee motivation, as well as decreased absenteeism, a phenomenon particularly important to this study. bass’s (1999) ‘full range theory of leadership’ suggests that there are three leadership styles, namely transformational, transactional and laissez-faire. according to bodla and nawaz (2010), transformational leaders are charismatic and motivate employees by inspiring them, considering them individually and stimulating their intellectual needs. bass and avolio (1993) suggest that transformational leadership is close to the prototype of leadership people have in mind when they describe their ideal leader, and that transformational leaders are more likely to be role models with whom subordinates want to identify. transactional leaders, by contrast, specify tasks, monitor performance and provide a reward system. laissez-faire leaders tend to avoid any involvement with their subordinates. numerous researchers have investigated the relationship between these leadership behaviours and various phenomena, such as burnout, stress, job satisfaction and performance (dale & fox, 2008; danish & usman, 2010; failla & stichler, 2008; yang, huang & wu, 2011; zopiatis & constanti, 2010). hetland, sandal and johnsen (2007) studied the effects of leadership style on burnout in a norwegian information technology firm and concluded that each style impacted the level of employee burnout differently. the study described burnout, which results from job stress, as a syndrome consisting of emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and lack of professional accomplishment, and which has detrimental effects for both the individual employee and the organisation. the researchers concluded that high transformational leadership was linked to low levels of burnout whereas high transactional leadership, although also linked to low levels of burnout, had weaker associations than did transformational leadership. high passive-avoidant (laissez-faire) leadership was linked to high levels of burnout. a summary of the results from previous research on transformational leadership shows that it is positively correlated to job satisfaction (nielsen, yarker, randall & munir, 2009; wolfram & mohr, 2009), less stress (bono & meredith, 2007; munir, nielsen & carneiro, 2010) and employee well-being (skakon, nielsen, borg & guzman, 2010). transactional leadership theories are founded on the idea that leader–follower relations are based on a series of exchanges or implicit bargains between leaders and followers (zopiatis & constanti, 2010). research shows a relationship between transactional leadership styles and higher levels of stress in comparison with transformational leadership (lyons & schneider, 2009). other studies have found that transactional leadership is related to lower levels of burnout (kanste, kyngas & nikkila, 2007) and high job satisfaction as well as well-being (morrison, chappel & ellis, 1997), but that these relationships are weaker than those associated with transformational leadership. the skakon et al. (2010) study shows similar results. a laissez-faire leader is one who avoids decision-making or supervisory responsibility and believes in freedom of choice for employees, leaving them alone to do as they want (goodnight, 2004). this leadership style implies failure on the part of the manager to take responsibility for managing. in some studies, laissez-faire leadership was found to be associated with increased psychological distress, a lack of social support and job strain (nyberg et al., 2009). early research by sosik and godschalk (2000), however, found no relationship between laissez-faire leadership on the one hand and stress and burnout on the other. while the above studies provide insight into the effects of leadership style on job stress, they offer limited understanding of how leadership styles affect presenteeism, a particular dimension of job stress. if organisations understood the influence of these leadership styles on jsrp, they could maximise their employees’ potential and performance, which in turn could lead to greater organisational performance. research questions this study addresses the following research questions: research question 1: what is the relationship between transformational leadership and jsrp? research question 2: what is the relationship between transactional leadership and jsrp? research question 3: what is the relationship between laissez-faire leadership and jsrp? research design research approach the researchers used cross-sectional, descriptive and quantitative research to collect primary data to answer the research questions. this approach enabled them to understand whether employees suffered from jsrp and to ascertain employee perceptions of their managers’ leadership styles. this study built on the work of gilbreath and karimi (2012) and therefore adopted a similar approach. instead of investigating positive and negative behaviour, however, it sought to understand the effects of different leadership styles. research participants the sample frame initially consisted of final-year executive masters in business administration (mba) participants registered at a business school in johannesburg, south africa. the researchers deemed this frame appropriate as the focus of the study was on knowledge workers representing a variety of industries and at different levels within organisations. the researchers deemed the characteristics of the initial sample frame appropriate for these criteria. a dual-sampling technique was used. purposive sampling was employed for the initial request for participation, followed by snow-ball sampling when the initial participants forwarded the link to others (saunders, lewis & thornhill, 2012; zikmund, babin, carr & griffin, 2009). these non-probability sampling techniques led to a sample of n = 242 knowledge workers in south africa. their job role descriptions provided information about their work context. they all had direct, face-to-face interaction with their managers. the dual-sampling technique ensured that the three different leadership styles described above were represented in the sample. the participants represented a variety of sectors. a total of 35.1% worked in the financial and insurance sector, 23.6% in the information technology sector and 17.8% in the energy sector. the remaining 23.5% worked in the general consulting services, education, engineering, fmcg, healthcare, law and public sectors. measuring instruments leadership styles to understand participants’ perceptions of their managers’ leadership styles, the multifactor leadership questionnaire (mlq form 6s) adapted from vinger and cilliers (2006) was used. the mlq form 6s is a self-reporting scale consisting of 21 items and three sub-scales: transformational leadership style (12 items, e.g., ‘i feel good to be around my manager’), transactional leadership style (six items, e.g., ‘my manager helps me find meaning in my work’) and laissez-faire leadership style (three items, e.g., ‘my manager does not ask more of me than what is absolutely essential’). a five-point likert scale was used to evaluate the leadership styles. the scale anchors were: 0 – not at all; 1 – once in a while; 2 – sometimes; 3 – fairly often and 4 – frequently. the cronbach’s alpha for mlq form 6s was α = 0.86, greater than the acceptable limit of 0.70 (hair, black, babin, anderson & tatham, 2006). job stress and job-stress-related presenteeism to understand job stress, the researchers adapted the gilbreath and karimi (2012) jsrp scale. the researchers defined job stress in the questionnaire for participants as ‘work-related activities caused by the demands placed on you by your leader’, and it was measured using a two-item scale, for example, ‘my job has been extremely stressful’. a four-point likert scale was used to evaluate job stress, with the scale anchors being: 1 – strongly disagree; 2 – disagree; 3 – agree and 4 – strongly agree. the reliability and validity of the construct job stress were established by gilbreath and karimi (2012), and it is thus an adequate measure to understand job stress. the cronbach’s alpha for job stress was α = 0.909, greater than the acceptable limit of 0.70 (hair et al., 2006). to understand jsrp, the researchers again adapted gilbreath and karimi’s (2012) scale. this construct was measured using a six-item scale, for example, ‘mental energy i’d otherwise devote to my work is wasted on work stressors’. a three-point likert scale was used to evaluate jsrp, with the following scale anchors: 1 – all the time; 2 – sometimes and 3 – never. the reliability and validity of the construct for jsrp were established by gilbreath and karimi (2012). the cronbach’s alpha for jsrp was α = 0.828, greater than the acceptable limit of 0.70 (hair et al., 2006). the reliability and validity of the instrument used to measure job stress were established by gilbreath and karimi (2012) and were acceptable. as the current study builds on their study, the instrument they used to measure job stress was employed in this research. gilbreath and karimi (2012) report a cronbach’s α = 0.80 for job stress. three open-ended questions were included in the questionnaire to understand what employees would like to change in their managers’ leadership styles so that they could be more productive and not engage in presenteeism, for example, ‘what changes in your manager would assist in alleviating stress and improve your performance?’ the instrument was pre-tested prior to the study, to ensure there were no problems in the design (zikmund, 2003). it was administered to 20 randomly selected individuals, as well as an experienced researcher in the field of leadership, to ensure face and content validity. no significant changes were noted. procedure and ethical considerations the questionnaire was distributed, via a link to an online survey, to 160 employees from different service-orientated industries, selected using purposive sampling. snow-ball sampling was then used to gain more respondents as the initial participants were asked to forward the link to individuals within their networks. the exact response rate to the snow-balling sampling was difficult to ascertain; it did, however, allow for the collection of a greater number of respondents than were initially targeted, over the period from june to october 2013. a total of n = 272 responses was received, of which n = 242 responses were complete and retained for the final analysis. ethical clearance was obtained from the university of pretoria’s gordon institute of business science research ethics committee. all respondents were assured of confidentiality and anonymity, with participation being voluntary. data analysis several steps were taken to analyse the data gathered by this study using statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 22. the descriptive statistics (mean, median, mode and standard deviation), as well as skewness and kurtosis, were measured to indicate variation in the sample data collected, which allowed for a thorough study to be conducted on the topic, for example, percentage of males and females that took part in the survey; different respondent age groups; size of the organisation; and respondents’ interactions with their managers. factor analysis using the principle component analysis (pca) method was used to reduce the number of variables that need to be analysed, thus allowing for the grouping of variables to create a single value (field, 2005). the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) index and the bartlett’s test of sphericity ensured that factor analysis was appropriate in this study as a data reduction tool. kmo indices greater than 0.5 and the bartlett’s test of sphericity significant at p < 0.05 are suggested for an acceptable factor analysis (field, 2005). cronbach’s alpha test was conducted to establish reliability of the research instrument in the south african setting. the generally agreed and accepted lower limit for cronbach’s alpha is 0.70 (hair et al., 2006). each of the leadership styles was evaluated according to factors. upon completion of the data-coding process, the numerical value for the questions under each factor was aggregated to create a score for that factor. once the score for each factor was calculated, the final score for the perceived leadership style was the average of the factors, relevant to the leadership style. the same process was followed for all the variables so that each variable had a final score based on the participant’s response. final scores for each of the variables needed to be calculated to evaluate whether a relationship existed between leadership style and jsrp. for example: if a respondent selected option ‘3’ for all the questions in the questionnaire, each factor in the leadership section of the questionnaire had three questions, jobs stress had two and jsrp had six. the score for each factor was aggregated to give a score of 9 (3 for leadership selecting option 3 for all three questions, + 3 for job stress selecting option 3 across both questions, + 3 for jsrp selecting 3 for all six questions) = 9: factor 1 (idealised influence): score 9. factor 2 (inspirational motivation): score 9. factor 3 (intellectual stimulation): score 9. factor 4 (individualised consideration): score 9. factor 5 (contingent reward): score 9. factor 6 (management by exception): score 9. factor 7 (laissez-faire): score 9. factors 1–4 are related to transformational leadership and hence the final score for transformational leadership would be the average of factors 1–4 (factor 1 + factor 2 + factor 3 + factor 4)/4 = (9 + 9 + 9 + 9)/4 = 36/4 = 9. thus, the respondent’s score for transformational leadership would be 9. similarly, factors 5 and 6 are related to transactional leadership, hence the final score for transactional leadership would be the average of factors 5 and 6 (factor 5 + factor 6)/2 = (9 + 9)/2 = 9. factor 7 is related to laissez-faire leadership, hence the final score would be the average of factor 7 (factor 7)/1 = 9/1 = 9. the final score for job stress would be the average between the two questions measuring job stress, and if a participant scored 3 for each of the questions, the final score would be (3 + 3)/2 = 3. similarly, jsrp has six questions, and if a participant scored 3 for each question, the final score would be the average of the scores for each question (3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3)/6 = 3. the same process was followed for all respondents and the overall average was calculated for each of the factors. if the overall average calculated was 2.5 for all the variables, then a score ≤ 2.5 would be categorised as ‘low’ and a > 2.5 would be categorised as high. from the example, the respondent’s score was categorised as high for all the variables to test for associations between them. once the final scores for each respondent for each of the variables were calculated, descriptive statistics were used to categorise the data. the mean for the final score of the three variables was calculated by adding the values of the scores and then dividing them by the number of observations. based on the mean, each respondent’s score on the three constructs was then categorised as ‘high’ or ‘low’. the low and high categories for each variable were compared against each other. to understand if there were differences between the high and low categories, the one-sample t-test was employed. the test also ensured that the sample was representative of the population (field, 2005). the test was applied to each factor to determine if the responses were significantly different, rather than based only on percentage splits. once the researchers were confident that the difference between the high and low categories was significant, they subjected the data to correlational analysis. to answer the research questions, pearson’s correlation tests, chi-square and cross-tabulations were used to establish if there were any associations between factors. the chi-square test is used to find relationships between two variables, while cross-tabulation shows the frequency of joint occurrences between the two variables. for cross-tabulations, two categorical variables were used. the variables were categorised as ‘low’ or ‘high’ based on their final score, as described above. the observed counts and percentages in a cross-tabulation describe the relationship. a 2 × 2 cross-tabulation was performed between two variables and the same two-step process was followed to understand the associations between all the variables. all statistical analyses were performed at a 95% confidence interval, p = 0.05. results a total of 272 responses were received, of which 242 were complete. the sample consisted of 108 female and 134 male respondents. a total of 44 respondents were in the age group of 20–29 years, 124 were aged between 30 and 39 years, 62 were aged between 40 and 49 years and 12 were aged 50 years and above. the sample comprised 12 sectors of the economy, with the largest responses from the finance and insurance (35.1%), information technology (23.6%) and energy (17.8%) sectors. the remaining respondents (23.5%) worked in consulting services, education, engineering, fmcg, healthcare, law, the public sector and ‘others’. a total of 221 respondents were employed in organisations with more than 50 employees and 21 in organisations with less than 50 employees. a total of 138 respondents met with their managers more than once a week, 67 once a week and 37 very rarely. table 1 indicates that pca was appropriate, based on the kmo measures and bartlett’s test of sphericity. table 1: results of principle component analysis, kaiser-meyer-olkin index, bartlett’s test of sphericity, cronbach’s alpha and average score for factors. while the cronbach’s alpha results for laissez-faire leadership were weak, the researchers retained the factor, as this may not show uni-dimensionality of the construct, see table 2. all other measures of reliability were acceptable (hair et al., 2006). table 2: cronbach’s alpha coefficients. a total of seven sub-factors were analysed within the three leadership styles. transformational leadership: four sub-factors (idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration); transactional leadership: two sub-factors (contingent reward and management by exception) and laissez-faire: one sub-factor (no formal structure). table 3 reports on the mean and standard deviation of the leadership sub-scales from the responses. table 3: descriptive statistics of the leadership style sub-factors. there is a good spread of data based on the options selected by the respondents that provide great value in understanding the relationship between leadership styles and jsrp. the summary of the sub-constructs is displayed in table 4. table 4: sub-construct means, standard deviations and t-values. leadership styles the t-test indicated that, with regard to the sub-scales. idealised influence respondents reported that they had faith and trust in their managers and perceived them as role models. there was a significant difference between respondents that reported they had faith and trust in their managers and perceived them as role models and those that did not. the differences in responses were therefore not owing to chance but owing to real differences that could be expected in the population as well. inspirational motivation respondents reported that their managers do not provide a vision for their employees to find meaning in their work. there were no significant differences between respondents who reported that their managers provide a vision for their employees to find meaning in their work, and those who did not. this indicates that the differences observed in response to inspirational motivation were not ‘real’ but owing to chance. intellectual stimulation managers do not provide intellectual stimulation for their employees to find meaning in their work. there was no significant difference between those respondents who reported that their managers provide intellectual stimulation to find meaning in their work, and those who did not. this indicates that the differences observed in response to intellectual stimulation were not ‘real’ but owing to chance. individualised consideration managers show little interest in their well-being. there was a significant difference between respondents who reported that their managers show little interest in their well-being and those who did not. these differences were therefore not owing to chance but reflected real differences that can be expected in the population as well. contingent reward there was a significant difference between respondents who reported that their managers emphasise what is expected from them and recognise their accomplishments, and those who did not. the difference is real and not owing to chance and can be expected in the population as well. management by exception there was also a significant difference between the respondents who reported that their managers inform them about their job requirements and are content with standard performance, and those who did not. these differences are therefore not owing to chance. no formal structure there was no significant difference between respondents reporting that their managers are content with subordinates doing their own thing, and those who reported they were not. therefore, what was observed is not ‘real’ and not applicable to the population. leadership style was considered as a factor contributing to job stress, which in turn caused jsrp. there was a positive moderate correlation between job stress and jsrp, r (240) = 0.529, p < 0.05. once job stress and jsrp were categorised as low or high, a cross-tabulation was conducted to evaluate if low job stress is related to low jsrp, and vice versa. all expected cell frequencies were greater than five, and there was a significant association between high and low job stress and high and low jsrp, χ 2(1) = 37.614, p = 0.000. gilbreath and karimi (2012) established that job stress caused by positive or negative supervisor behaviour results in jsrp. in this study, leadership style was considered to be the main factor that causes job stress, which in turn causes jsrp. for both the job stress and jsrp sections in the questionnaire, the final scores were calculated using the process defined above. pearson’s r correlation test was conducted to assess significant associations between the variables of leadership, job stress and jsrp. cross-tabulation and chi-square tests were also performed to establish if a significant relationship existed between these two variables. as table 5 indicates, there is a moderate positive association between job stress and jsrp, indicating that an increase in job stress increases jsrp. transformational leadership and transactional leadership are significantly associated with jsrp, while laissez-faire leadership is not significantly associated with jsrp, at a 95% confidence interval. for transformational leadership, results indicate a weak negative correlation; jsrp decreases as ‘level’ of transformational leadership increases. for transactional leadership, there is a weak positive relationship; jsrp increases with an increase in the ‘level’ of transactional leadership. table 5: pearson’s correlation and associated chi-square values between leadership styles and job stress and job-stress-related presenteeism. table 5 also shows the chi-square results. there is a significant positive relationship between job stress and jsrp. it is therefore possible to evaluate the relationship between the leadership styles under study and jsrp, as both tests demonstrate a strong association between job stress and jsrp. cross-tabulation tests (table 6) were also performed to establish if there was a significant relationship between the two variables. table 6: cross-tabulation table. results for research question 1 (what is the relationship between transformational leadership and job-stress-related presenteeism?) there is a negative relationship between transformational leadership and jsrp. the cross-tabulation below indicates that 60 (52.6%) of the respondents who perceived their managers as having high transformational leadership style exhibited low jsrp and 85 (66.4%) respondents, whose managers had low transformational leadership style, exhibited high jsrp. in both instances (low and high categories), the results point towards an association between transformational leadership style and jsrp; there is a strong positive association between low transformational leadership style and high jsrp. the pearson’s r statistic for correlation between transformational leadership and jsrp is -0.271. the correlation value is close to 0, indicating that there is a relationship between the two variables, although it is weak. however, it is still significant and thus important. as transformational leadership style value increases, the jsrp value decreases. results for research question 2 (what is the relationship between transactional leadership and job-stress-related presenteeism?) there is a negative relationship between transactional leadership and jsrp. the results from the cross-tabulation indicate that 54 (51.9%) of the respondents who perceived their managers as having high transactional leadership styles exhibited low jsrp. in both instances (low and high categories), the results point towards an association between transactional leadership style and jsrp. the chi-square test results indicate that there is a strong relationship between the two variables, statistically significant at significance level 0.05 (p < 0.05). the pearson’s correlation shows that the correlation is statically significant at 1% significance level as the significance value is 0.002. the pearson’s r statistic for correlation between job stress and jsrp is -0.196. the correlation value shows a weak relationship (close to 0) between the two variables. however, it is still significant and thus important: the change in one variable is correlated with changes in the other variable, in this case transactional leadership style and jsrp. the relationship is negative, which means as transactional leadership style increases, jsrp decreases. both these tests demonstrate an association between the two variables (transactional leadership style and jsrp), but this association is weaker than that between transformation leadership style and jsrp. the transactional leadership style is negatively correlated with jsrp, while transformational leadership style results in lower jsrp. results for research question 3 (what is the relationship between laissez-faire leadership and job-stress-related presenteeism?) there is no relationship between laissez-faire leadership and jsrp. the cross-tabulation results indicate that both high and low laissez-faire leadership styles cause high job stress. there is therefore no relationship between these two variables. the chi-square test result also indicates the lack of a relationship between the two variables as they are statistically insignificant, even at p < 0.05. in addition, the pearson’s correlation shows no correlation between the two variables. figure 1 depicts the findings of the study. overall, a multiple regression was computed to predict job stress from jsrp, transformational leadership, transactional leadership and laissez-faire leadership styles. there was linearity as assessed through partial regression plots and plots against the studentised residuals against predicated values. the durbin–watson was 2118, therefore independent of residuals. no evidence of multicollinearity was noted as tolerance values were less than 0.1. the multiple regression statistically predicted job stress, f(4237) = 3886, p < 0.05, adjusted r2 = 0.046. only jsrp added statistically to the prediction, p < 0.05. regression coefficients and standard errors are presented in table 7. figure 1: illustration of pearson correlation coefficients, t-values and chi-square of stress, job-stress-related-presenteeism and leadership style. table 7: summary of multiple regression analysis. discussion outline of the results presenteeism is a growing concern for organisations (hemp, 2004; macgregor et al., 2008; prochaska & prochaska, 2011). managing stress has become an acutely important skill for leaders today, as increasing job demands burden knowledge workers even further. if not properly managed, knowledge workers could withhold their intellectual capital and take it with them, if and when they choose to leave (pearce, 2007). studies have also revealed the negative impact job stress has on productivity and organisational effectiveness (cummings et al., 2010). the objective of this study was to build on gilbreath and karimi’s (2012) research; to understand the impact and influence of leadership style on presenteeism, thus adding to the body of knowledge on the topic and helping organisations to deal with presenteeism more effectively. in gilbreath and karimi’s (2012) study on jsrp, the sample was drawn from australian hospital employees. the current study took a more holistic approach by focussing on several industries, in the belief that presenteeism is likely to be found in all sectors. this study aimed to provide a thorough analysis of presenteeism, based on leadership styles, across all types of organisations and industries. interactions with managers were measured to ensure that the three leadership styles were covered. the data on interaction was well scattered, from ‘more than once a week’ to ‘rarely meeting with managers’. the demographics of the sample population meant that the data gathered for the study were appropriate to answer the research questions. job stress and job-stress-related presenteeism several researchers (phillips, sen & mcnamee, 2007; schaufeli et al., 2008; skakon et al., 2010) have shown that knowledge workers are subjected to work-related stress on a daily basis owing to leadership behaviour, workload, work–life balance and performance, as well as job security pressures. according to the gilbreath and karimi (2012) study, job stress results in jsrp. to analyse the impact of leadership style on jsrp, the association between job stress and jsrp needed to be validated, and the researchers discovered a strong association. the cross-tabulation also indicates that a high percentage of respondents who experience job stress engage in presenteeism. this suggests that as knowledge worker stress reduces, presenteeism will also be reduced. the results show that job stress causes presenteeism. the results of the tests successfully validated gilbreath and karimi’s (2012) claim that presenteeism is a much broader concept than previously thought, with numerous possible causes. the results also verified the utility and validity of their tool and may prove very useful for further research on understanding the effects of job stress on employees. the results may benefit organisations considerably as they allow them to focus on factors other than sickness to reduce presenteeism. transformational leadership style and job-stress-related presenteeism research on leadership style and job stress by munir et al. (2010) showed that transformational leaders cause less job stress among subordinates. as job stress is significantly associated with presenteeism, measurements of the impact of transformational leadership style on presenteeism are discussed here. the results indicate that 66.4% of the respondents who rated their managers as exhibiting low transformational leadership style engage in high levels of presenteeism. this is a significant result and indicates that transformational leadership style is effective in reducing presenteeism. the average score for idealised influence was noticeably higher than that for the remaining three factors associated with transformational leadership. bass (1999) states that a leader is most likely to be strong on some factors but not all, which was confirmed by the results of this study. however, the results should encourage transformational leaders to develop themselves on all factors. the higher the score for each factor, the better the overall average score for the leader, which may result in reduced presenteeism. associations between the individual factors and presenteeism were not tested, as the variable evaluated was leadership style (derived from the average score of the four factors). the result provides motivation for further research to understand the impact of each factor on presenteeism. although numerous studies (bono & meredith, 2007; munir et al., 2010) have been conducted on the relationship between transformational leadership style and organisational outcomes, the current study is the first to investigate the impact of leadership styles on jsrp. the results suggest that leaders who adopt transformational leadership styles reduce employee presenteeism. organisations may therefore benefit by developing transformational leaders, who are already known to significantly increase organisational effectiveness (nielsen et al., 2008; zopiatis & constanti, 2010). transactional leadership style and job-stress-related presenteeism studies by lyons and schneider (2009) show that transactional leaders cause job stress, as their relationship is based on a series of exchanges or implicit bargains between them and their followers (zopiatis & constanti, 2010). the current study found that 64.5% of respondents who rated their managers as exhibiting low transactional leadership style engage in high levels of presenteeism. the average score for ‘management by exception’ was considerably higher than that for ‘contingent reward’. this means that respondents feel they are not being rewarded for good work, which could be a reason for subordinates to engage in presenteeism. rewards and recognition are important as they motivate subordinates to perform better (danish & usman, 2010). the higher the score for each factor, the better the overall average score for the leader, which may result in reduced presenteeism. this is the first study to measure transactional leadership style in conjunction with jsrp. the systematic review by skakon et al. (2010) on leadership and employee well-being shows that transactional leadership style has positive associations with employee well-being and negative associations with job stress. the results from this study indicate that transactional leadership style is negatively correlated to jsrp. they complement previous studies and suggest that leaders who adopt transactional leadership style reduce employee presenteeism. however, the association is weaker than that found between transformational leadership and reduced presenteeism, a result similar to those of previous studies on other employee outcomes (skakon et al., 2010). leaders that adopt transactional leadership styles can reduce presenteeism but there is incentive to develop the characteristics of transformational leadership style as it has more influence on presenteeism. the combination of both leadership styles may allow organisations to reduce presenteeism significantly. laissez-faire leadership style and job-stress-related presenteeism skakon et al. (2010), in their systematic review of leadership styles of the last three decades, report that skogstad, einarsen, torsheim, assland and hetland (2007) found laissez-faire leadership style and job stress to be related. however, skogstad et al. (2007) also reported that sosik and godschalk (2000) found no relationship between them. the cronbach’s alpha score for the current study did not meet the benchmark score of 0.70. the internal validity of the data for this leadership style is therefore questionable and it might be necessary to revalidate the questions on the mlq form 6s instrument used to measure laissez-faire leadership style. it could be a reason why previous research has not shown conclusive results. the results of this study are similar to the results of the sosik and godschalk’s (2000) study on laissez-faire leadership style and job stress. this study found no statistically significant relationship between laissez-faire leadership style and jsrp. some researchers (lyons & schneider, 2009) mention that laissez-faire leadership style is not actual leadership, which may be true. managerial implications results show the significant influence of transformational leadership style on jsrp. there is evidence to suggest that transformational leaders are more likely to find less presenteeism among their subordinates. furthermore, the results provide evidence that transactional leadership style is also negatively associated with jsrp but that these associations are weaker than those between transformational leadership styles and jsrp. this is consistent with the theories (lyons & schneider, 2009; munir et al., 2010) mentioned earlier about leadership style and job stress. the test results for laissez-faire leadership style and job stress show that there is no relationship between these variables, and similarly between laissez-faire leadership style and jsrp. as there has been only one reported study (gilbreath & karimi, 2012) to measure jsrp, the results of this study add to this body of knowledge. the results confirm that leadership style can be used as a predictor of jsrp and that certain leadership styles may affect the degree to which employees experience jsrp. limitations of the study and directions for future research previous research has focussed mainly on ‘sickness presenteeism’ (demerouti et al., 2009; hansen & andersen, 2008; johns, 2010). it is hoped that the new conceptualisation of presenteeism presented in this study will encourage further research in this field. the objective was to evaluate the effect of leadership style on stress-related presenteeism using the ‘full range theory of leadership’ (bass, 1999; bass & avolio, 2004); future studies into the impact on stress-related presenteeism of other kinds of leadership, such as authentic, situational or servant leadership styles, would be beneficial. one limitation of this study is the lack of industry-specific analysis on stress presenteeism. valuable information could be drawn from the nature, size and type of industry. it will also be important for future studies to focus on the relationship between gender and stress-related presenteeism. prater and smith (2011) show that presenteeism is the antithesis of absenteeism. in future research, it will be important to evaluate if the factors that cause absenteeism also contribute to presenteeism. the study confirmed the relation between job stress and presenteeism, supporting gilbreath and karimi’s (2012) view that presenteeism can have numerous possible causes. it will be important for future research to consider presenteeism as an outcome with a variety of antecedents, and to discover which antecedents are most prevalent and have the strongest effects. conclusion in conclusion, presenteeism has become an important subject of investigation as it has been shown to be even more costly than absenteeism. this study sought to advance the research into this phenomenon by analysing the effect of three leadership styles on employee jsrp. specifically, it attempted to expand the research of gilbreath and karimi (2012) by providing an understanding of how jsrp is impacted by leadership style. this was felt to be vital, as if organisations understood the influence of leadership on jsrp they could maximise their employees’ potential and performance, which in turn could lead to greater organisational performance. the results provide a compelling case for investment into transformational and, to a lesser extent, transactional leadership development. they show the preventative effect that both styles of leadership have on stress-associated presenteeism. laissez-faire leadership, on the contrary, was shown to have no significant relationship with job stress or jsrp. the study suggests that leaders who adopt transformational leadership styles are most successful in reducing employee presenteeism and therefore that this type of leadership development should be prioritised. leaders that adopt transactional leadership styles can also reduce presenteeism, but there is incentive to develop the characteristics of transformational leadership style as it has more influence on presenteeism. the combination of both leadership styles, however, may allow organisations to reduce presenteeism significantly. it is hoped that these findings will prompt organisations to focus their efforts on developing leaders capable of reducing presenteeism which in turn will increase their competitive advantage. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions r.g. was the primary researcher, who collated the data. m.c. was the research study supervisor of r.g. c.b.s. made conceptual contribution at the design phase, assisted in literature review and in compiling the article on research. references aronsson, g., & gustafsson, k. (2005). sickness presenteeism: prevalence, attendance-pressure factors and an outline of a model for research. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 47(9), 958–966. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.jom.0000177219.75677.17 aronsson, g., gustafsson, k., & dallner, m. (2000). sick but yet at work. an empirical study of sickness presenteeism. journal of epidemiology and community health, 54(7), 502–509. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.54.7.502 baker-mcclearn, d., greasley, k., dale, j., & griffith, f. (2010). absence management and presenteeism: the pressures on employees to attend work and the impact of attendance on performance. human resource management journal, 20(3), 311–328. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2009.00118.x bass, b.m. (1999). two decades of research and development in transformational leadership. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 8(1), 9–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/135943299398410 bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1993). transformational leadership and organisational culture. public administration quarterly, 17(1), 112–121. bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (2004). multifactor leadership questionnaire: manual and sampler set. (3rd edn.). palo alto, ca: mind garden. bodla, m.a., & nawaz, m.m. (2010). comparative study of full range leadership model among faculty members in public and private sector higher education institutes and universities. international journal of business and management, 5(4), 208–214. bolden r., gosling, j., marturano, a., & dennison, p. (2003). a review of leadership theory and competency frameworks: edited version of a report for chase consulting and the management standards centre. centre for leadership studies. exeter: university exeter, pp. 1–44. bono, j.e., & meredith, a. (2007). personality and emotional performance: extraversion, neuroticism, and self-monitoring. journal of occupational health psychology, 12(2), 177–192. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.12.2.177 cao, l., & ramesh, b. (2008). agile requirements engineering practices: an empirical study. ieee software, 25(1), 60–67. https://doi.org/10.1109/ms.2008.1 chae, s.w., seo, y.w., & lee, k.c. (2011). an empirical analysis of the effects of it professionals’ emotional dissonance on creativity revelation processes and individual creativity. in uand e-service, science and technology (vol. 264, pp. 168–176). berlin: springer. chatterji, m., & tilley, c.j. (2002). sickness, absenteeism, presenteeism, and sick pay. oxford economic papers, 54(4), 669–687. https://doi.org/10.1093/oep/54.4.669 cummings, g.g., macgregor, t., davey, m., lee, h., wong, c.a., lo, e., et al. (2010). leadership styles and outcome patterns for the nursing workforce and work environment: a systematic review. international journal of nursing studies, 47(3), 363–385. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2009.08.006 dale, k., & fox, m.l. (2008). leadership style and organisational commitment: mediating effect of role stress. journal of managerial issues, 20(1), 109–130. danish, r.q., & usman, a. (2010). impact of reward and recognition on job satisfaction and motivation: an empirical study from pakistan. international journal of business management, 5(2), 159–167. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v5n2p159 demerouti, e., le blanc, p.m., bakker, a.b., schaufeli, w.b., & hox, j. (2009). present but sick: a three-wave study on job demands, presenteeism and burnout. career development international, 14(1), 50–68. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430910933574 failla, k.r., & stichler, j.f. (2008). manager and staff perceptions of the manager’s leadership style. journal of nursing administration, 38(11), 480–487. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.nna.0000339472.19725.31 field, a. (2005). discovering statistics using spss. london: sage. gilbreath, b., & karimi, l. (2012). supervisor behavior and employee presenteeism. international journal of leadership studies, 7(1), 114–131. goodnight, r. (2004). laissez-faire leadership. in g.r. sorenson, g. jones, j.m. burns, (eds.), encyclopedia of leadership (pp. 820–824). thousand oaks, ca: sage. gosselin, e., lemyre, l., & corneil, w. (2013). presenteeism and absenteeism: differentiated understanding of related phenomena. journal of occupational health psychology, 18(1), 75–86. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030932 hair, j.f., black, b., babin, b., anderson, r.e., & tatham, r.l. (2006). multivariate data analysis. (6th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. hakanen, j.j., schaufeli, w.b., & ahola, k. (2008). the job demands-resources model: a three-year cross-lagged study of burnout, depression, commitment, and work engagement. work & stress: an international journal of work, health & organisations, 22(3), 224–241. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802379432 hansen, c.d., & andersen, j.h. (2008). going ill to work – what personal circumstances, attitudes and work-related factors are associated with sickness presenteeism? social science & medicine, 67(6), 956–964. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.05.022 health enhancement research organisation (hero) (2014). white paper on: new findings and realistic solutions to employee presenteeism. retrieved september 05, 2015, from http://hero-health.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/presenteeism_white_paper.pdf hemp, p. (2004). presenteeism: at workbut out of it. harvard business review, 82(10), 49–58. hetland, h., sandal, g.m., & johnsen, t.b. (2007). burnout in the information technology sector: does leadership matter? european journal of work and organizational psychology, 16(1), 58–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320601084558 johns, g. (2010). presenteeism in the workplace: a review and research agenda. journal of organizational behavior, 31(4), 519–542. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.630 joo, b.k. (2010). organisational commitment for knowledge workers: the roles of perceived organisational learning culture, leader-member exchange quality, and turnover intention. human resource development quarterly, 21(1), 69–85. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.20031 kanste, o., kyngas, h., & nikkila, j. (2007). the relationship between multidimensional leadership and burnout among nursing staff. journal of nursing management, 15(7), 731–739. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2934.2006.00741.x kara, d., uysal, m., sirgy, m.j., & lee, g. (2013). the effects of leadership style on employee well-being in hospitality. international journal of hospitality management, 34, 9–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2013.02.001 karlin, w.a., brondolo, e., & schwartz, j. (2003). workplace social support and ambulatory cardiovascular activity in new york city traffic agents. psychosomatic medicine, 65(2), 167–176. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.psy.0000033122.09203.a3 kouzes, j.m., & posner, b.z. (1987). the leadership challenge: how to make extraordinary things happen in organisations. new york: wiley. lyons, j.b., & schneider, t.r. (2009). the effects of leadership style on stress outcomes. the leadership quarterly, 20(5), 737–748. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.06.010 macgregor, j.n., cunningham, j.b., & caverley, n. (2008). factors in absenteeism and presenteeism: life events and health events. management research news, 31(8), 607–615. https://doi.org/10.1108/01409170810892163 madlock, p.e. (2008). the link between leadership style, communicator competence, and employee satisfaction. journal of business communication, 45(1), 45–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021943607309351 maslach, c., & leiter, m.p. (2008). early predictors of job burnout and engagement. journal of applied psychology, 93(3), 498–512. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.93.3.498 mathieu, c., neumann, c.s., hare, r.d., & babiak, p. (2014). a dark side of leadership: corporate psychopathy and its influence on employee well-being and job satisfaction. personality and individual differences, 59, 83–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2013.11.010 matlay, h. (1999). employee relations in small firms. employee relations, 21(3), 285–295. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425459910273125 mcgregor, a., iverson, d., caputi, p., magee, c., & ashbury, f. (2014). relationship between work environment factors and presenteesim mediated by employees’ health. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 56(12), 1319–1324. https://doi.org/10.1097/jom.0000000000000263 morrison, c.m., chappel, t.d., & ellis, w.a. (1997). age of acquisition norms for a large set of object names and their relation to adult estimates and other variables. the quarterly journal of experimental psychology, 50(3), 528–559. https://doi.org/10.1080/027249897392017 munir, f., nielsen, k., & carneiro, i.g. (2010). transformational leadership and depressive symptoms: a prospective study. journal of affective disorders, 120(1), 235–239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2009.03.020 munro, l. (2007). absenteeism and presenteeism: possible causes and solutions. south african radiographer, 45(1), 21–23. nielsen, k., randall, r., yarker, j., & brenner, s.o. (2008). the effects of transformational leadership on followers’ perceived work characteristics and psychological well-being: a longitudinal study. an international journal of work, 22(1), 16–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370801979430 nielsen, k., yarker, j., randall, r., & munir, f. (2009). the mediating effects of team and self-efficacy on the relationship between transformational leadership, and job satisfaction and psychological well-being in healthcare professionals: a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. international journal of nursing studies, 46(9), 1236–1244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2009.03.001 nyberg, a., alfredsson, l., theorell, t., westerlund, h., vahtera, j., & kivimaki, m. (2009). managerial leadership and ischaemic heart disease among employees: the swedish wolf study. occupational and environmental medicine, 66(1), 51–55. https://doi.org/10.1136/oem.2008.039362 ogbonna, e., & harris, l.c. (2000). leadership style, organisational culture and performance: empirical evidence from uk companies. international journal of human resource management, 11(4), 766–788. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190050075114 pearce, c.l. (2007). the future of leadership development: the importance of identity, multi-level approaches, self-leadership, physical fitness, shared leadership, networking, creativity, emotions, spirituality and on-boarding processes. human resource management review, 17(4), 355–359. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2007.08.006 phillips, s., sen, d., & mcnamee, r. (2007). prevalence and causes of self-reported work-related stress in head teachers. occupational medicine, 57(5), 367–376. https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqm055 pohling, r., buruck, g., jungbauer, k.l., & leiter, m.p. (2016). work-related factors of presenteeism: the mediating role of mental and physical health. journal of occupational health psychology, 21(2), 220–234. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039670 prater, t., & smith, k. (2011). underlying factors contributing to presenteeism and absenteeism. journal of business & economics research (jber), 9(6), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.19030/jber.v9i6.4374 prochaska, j.o., & prochaska, j.m. (2011). the well-being assessment for productivity. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 53(7), 735–742. https://doi.org/10.1097/jom.0b013e318222af48 puig-ribera, a., mckenna, j., gilson, n., & brown, w.j. (2008). change in work day step counts, wellbeing and job performance in catalan university employees: a randomised controlled trail. promotion & education, 15(4), 11–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/1025382308097693 robbins, s.p., & coulter, m.k. (2005). management. (8th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson prentice hall. rothbard, n.p. (2001). enriching or depleting? the dynamics of engagement in work and family roles. administrative science quarterly, 46(4), 655–684. https://doi.org/10.2307/3094827 saunders, m.n., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2012). research methods for business students. (6th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: financial times/prentice hall. schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonźalez-roma, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two-sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3(1), 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 schaufeli, w.b., taris, t.w., & van rhenen, w. (2008). workaholism, burnout, and work engagement: three of a kind or three different kinds of employee well-being? applied psychology: an international review, 57(2), 173–203. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2007.00285.x scheepers, c., & shuping, j. (2011). the effect of human resource practices on psychological contracts at an iron ore mining company in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 9(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.302 skakon, j., nielsen, k., borg, v., & guzman, j. (2010). are leaders’ well being, behaviours and style assoicated with the affective well-being of their employees? a systematic review of three decades of research. work & stress: an international journal of work, health & organisations, 24(2), 107–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2010.495262 skogstad, a., einarsen, s., torsheim, t., assland, m.s., & hetland, h. (2007). the destructiveness of laissez-faire leadership behavior. journal of occupational health psychology, 12(1), 80. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.12.1.80 sosik, j.j., & godshalk, v.m. (2000). leadership styles, mentoring functions received, and job related stress: a conceptual model and preliminary study. journal of organizational behavior, 21(4), 365–390. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(200006)21:4<365::aid-job14>3.0.co;2-h tarafdar, m., tu, q., ragu-nathan, b.s., & ragu-nathan, t.s. (2007). the impact of technostress on role stress and productivity. journal of management information systems, 24(1), 301–328. https://doi.org/10.2753/mis0742-1222240109/ vinger, g., & cilliers, f. (2006). effective transformational leadership behaviours for managing change. south african journal of human resource management, 4(2), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v4i2.87 whitehouse, d. (2005). workplace presenteeism: how behavioral professionals can make a difference. behavioral healthcare tomorrow, 14(1), 32–35. wolfram, h.j., & mohr, g. (2009). transformational leadership, team goal fulfillment, and follower work satisfaction: the moderating effects of deep-level similarity in leadership dyads. journal of leadership & organisational studies, 15(3), 260–274. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051808326595 yang, l.r., huang, c.f., & wu, k.s. (2011). the association among project manager’s leadership style, teamwork and project success. international journal of project management, 29(3), 258–267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2010.03.006 zikmund, g.w., babin, b.j., carr, j.c., & griffin, m. (2009). business research methods. (8th edn.). mason, oh: south-western cengage learning. zikmund, w.g. (2003). business research methods. (7th edn.). cincinnati, oh: thomson/south-western. zopiatis, a., & constanti, p. (2010). leadership styles and burnout: is there an association? international journal of contemporary hospitality, 22(3), 300–320. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596111011035927 article information authors: beatrice a. dimba1 robert rugimbana2 affiliations: 1faculty of management and commerce, strathmore university, kenya2faculty of economics and finance, tshwane university of technology, south africa correspondence to: robert rugimbana postal address: private bag x680, pretoria, south africa dates: received: 10 jan. 2012 accepted: 24 apr. 2013 published: 11 sept. 2013 how to cite this article: dimba, b.a., & rugimbana, r. (2013). an assessment of the moderating role of employees’ cultural orientations amongst foreign manufacturing multinational companies in kenya. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #453, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.453 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. an assessment of the moderating role of employees’ cultural orientations amongst foreign manufacturing multinational companies in kenya in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • literature review       • culture and strategic human resource management       • dimensions of national culture    • culture and human resource management in kenya • research design    • research approach    • research method    • research participants    • measuring instruments    • research procedure       • reliability • results    • quantitative data    • qualitative data    • cultural orientations (values)    • cultural orientations (beliefs)       • training and development       • staff appraisal       • compensation systems • discussion • conclusions and recommendations • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: this article investigates the question, of whether culture really matters in implementing international strategic human resource management (shrm) practices.research purpose: specifically, this study sought to investigate the extent to which employee cultural orientations moderate the link between shrm practices and firm performance in large foreign manufacturing multinational companies in kenya. motivation for the study: large foreign multinational companies have generally applied shrm practices without adaptation when trying to improve employee performance even though resource based perspectives argue for the consideration of employees’ cultural orientations. research design, approach and method: shrm practices were conceptualised as independent variables measured through distinct practices. organisational performance as a dependent variable was measured using constructs of image, interpersonal relations, and product quality. cultural dimensions adopted for this study were power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism or collectivism, and masculinity or femininity. the above conceptual framework was tested by the use of both quantitative and qualitative techniques with data from fifty (50) large foreign multinational companies operating in kenya. main findings: findings indicated that the relationship between shrm practices and firm performance depend to a greater extent on employee cultural orientations when power distance is considered. power distance (pd) refers to the extent ofpeople accepting that power in institutions and organisations when distributed unequally. the greater the pd, the greater the acceptance of this inequality. practical/managerial implications: the study supported the notion that the relationship between shrm practices and firm performance is moderated by power distance through motivation but not by the other three bipolar dimensions namely, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity or femininity and individualism or collectivism. contribution/value-add: this is the first large-scale empirical article that has focused on the moderating role of employees’ cultural orientations in large foreign manufacturing companies operating in kenya. introduction top ↑ over the last ten years or so, significant differences of opinion have emerged around two related issues. how to adequately implement strategic human resources strategies to improve firm performance and, whether or not a ‘bundle of hr best practices’ exists that can be applied in all contexts with predictable outcomes. in regards to the first issue, the question of whether a direct link between strategic human resources management (shrm) practices and firm performance exists, the arguments are equivocal. some studies have demonstrated the existence of direct links between shrm practices and firm performance (edwards & wright, 2001). other studies (dimba, 2010; katou & budhwar, 2006) have shown that shrm practices do not lead directly to business performance but rather they influence employee motivation. in other words, it is employee outcomes that ultimately influence performance. with regards to the second issue (named above), two perspectives exist. on the one hand researchers, who embrace the universalist perspective, emphasise the notion of a ‘bundle of best practices’ in relation to human resources (hr) practices. however, on the other hand, there is an opposing viewpoint which disapproves of the notion of a best practices bundle. specifically, gerhart (2005, p. 178) argues that an important concern revolves around the fact that ’… it seems unlikely that one set of shrm practices will work equally well no matter the context‘. this is particularly significant given that contextual variables, chiefly national culture or employee cultural orientations have been found in various studies to have an influence on the choice of hrm strategies (aycan, al-hamadi, davis & budhwar, 2007; nyambegera, daniels & sparrow, 2001). mamman and adeoye (2007) argue that as developing countries are increasingly adopting technologies and expertise that are similar to those of developed countries, foreign multinational companies (mncs) tend to become conduits for transferring host-country shrm practices to their developing host-countries often without making any adaptive changes to these practices. the underlying belief in these practices is that shrm practices in developing countries are seen as converging towards those of developed countries. this belief is not widely accepted, particularly not amongst the growing number of writers who have shown that cultural diversity in societies around the globe tend to retard and even reverse convergence (horwitz et al., 2006). on the basis of the foregoing arguments, there is a need for additional robust and quantitative evidence to support the mncs’ shrm-performance link and investigations from different contexts. thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the question of what is the likely cultural influence on the choice of shrm practices amongst foreign multinationals in kenya. specifically, the research objectives of the study will try to determine: • the relationship between human resources practices and performance, • the relationship between culture and shrm practices, • whether cultural orientation moderates shrm practices and employee motivation and • whether employee motivation mediates between shrm and firm performance. literature review given that shrm practices are not standardised, some scholars (katou & budhwar, 2007) have proposed the use of a mediating model that adopts two systems of shrm practices that are usually present in almost all works, namely, resourcing and development, aiming at attracting and developing human resources, and rewards and relations which aim at retaining and motivating human resources.specifically this study applies motivation as a mechanism by which shrm practices impact upon organisational performance (gerhart, 2005).studies (ryan & deci, 2000) show that motivation, being a translation of effort and strength of behavior, leads to performance. however, specifications of individual and situational attributes are required. people can be motivated because they value an activity or because there is a strong external influence. the issue of people supporting a certain behavior out of their interests and values, or demonstrating it for reasons external to the self, is common across every culture. most studies examining the relationship between shrm practices and organisational performance have been conducted on large manufacturing companies in a few developed countries (the us and the uk); but the question still left unanswered is the influence of shrm practices on human capital or specifically, employee motivation, and organisational performance in varied cultural contexts (katou & budhwar, 2007). viewed from a different perspective, the majority of work in shrm generally adopts the resource-based view (rbv) theory that focuses on the firm’s internal resources (katou & budhwar, 2007). the workplace stresses the role played by employees in enhancing a firm’s competitive capabilities. this implies that firms wishing to succeed in today’s global business environment must make the appropriate hr investment to possess a unique and valuable human pool. organisations emphasising quality goods for instance, must hire, train and reward employees to achieve such goals. studies adopting the rbv theory in foreign mncs, however, tend to neglect the importance of national culture or employee cultural orientations (katou & budhwar, 2007). in the case of kenya, mncs are deemed to be large companies because they have a workforce of 100 and above in this regard kenya has about 50 large foreign manufacturing mncs (kenya association of manufacturers [kam], 2007), and most of them are located in the large urban areas (kenya industrial and research development institute [kirdi], 2005). the mncs owned by foreigners and other larger firms, mainly owned by kenyan asian, enjoy higher market power, are more specialised, and have better access to credit than small firms. firms located in nairobi have a higher export inclination than firms located elsewhere. the informal manufacturing sector which employs more than 85 percent of the manufacturing workforce tends to be smaller, younger, owner-managed, and less productive (national development plan, 2002–2008). the mncs are better placed than many other small companies to appreciate the value of human capital (youndt, snell, dean & lepak, 1996). they have also invested much in production innovations such as advanced manufacturing technologies and machinery. in addition, they are in a position to contribute to the economic growth of development in developing countries because they can transfer and adopt cross-border ‘best practices’ world bank, kippra, csae, oxford (2004). traditionally, both scholars and managers of multinational companieshave assumed the universality of management (hodgetts & luthans, 2000). hence, mncs have a tendency to take the management concepts and techniques that work at home into other countries. even though african countries have received a share of multinational companies’ investments, mncs operating in developing countries face challenges in implementing the western shrm practices (mamman & adeoye, 2007). in this regard the universality perspective of shrm practices, specifically, recruitment, training, staff appraisals, and compensation systems to improve organisational performance needs to be contextualised. although the most extensively used dependent variable in organisational research, organisational performance, still remains vague and loosely defined (rogers & wright, 1998), performance has been traditionally conceptualised in terms of financial measures. some scholars have, however, proposed a broader performance construct that incorporates non-financial measures including, amongst others, market share, product quality, and company image. furthermore, despite the general belief that shrm practices lead to organisational performance, such a one-way line of causation is unsatisfactory (edwards & wright, 2001). there is evidence to show that the relationship between shrm practices and organisational performance is not always one way. in fact in some cases it has been found that high performing firms can generate excellent shrm practices (huselid, 1995) rather that excellent shrm practices leading to high performance in organisations. this has led some scholars to propose the consideration of intermediate linkages between shrm practices and organisational performance. this implicit model assumes that motivation mediates the link between shrm practices and organisational performance. however, only a few researchers (guest, 2001; katou & budhwar, 2007) have measured employee motivation to address its importance. to this end the following hypothesis is proposed: h1: a positive relationship exists between shrm practices and firm performance. culture and strategic human resource management extant literature (aycan et al., 2007; budhwar & debrah, 2004) indicates that the major differentiating factors between developed and developing countries, which have an impact on hrm, are contextual. the factors include economic and historical environments, and socio-cultural characteristics of the workplace and society. research on mncs has indicated that amongst these elements, national culture has generated more interest in the field of comparative hrm because cultures affects people’s behaviors (brewster & hegewisch, 1994). in this regard, multinational companies must be sensitive to the prevailing values and attitudes in the host country. mncs produce and sell goods and services on an international basis, often far from the domestic country (aycan et al., 2007; kirkman, lowe & gibson, 2006). this often calls for the establishment of branches and subsidiaries outside their national boundaries. as a result, multinational companies offer opportunities to people of different cultures to interact. they are playing an increasing role in the global economy as firms continue to increase cross-border investments. as people from different cultures interact, difficulties may be experienced because behaviour is based on different expectations and is the result of different mental programs. mental programs exert a pervasive, yet hidden influence on behavior (hofstede, 1984). as a result of variation in mental programs, people often see situations differently and have different approaches and solutions even to similar problems. even though african countries have received a share of mncs’ foreign direct investments (fdi), most empirical studies that have been undertaken on the management of foreign mncs are based on research carried out in the united states, europe, and asian countries (blunt & jones, 1992; katou & budhwar, 2007). curiously, though, conclusions drawn from such studies have assumed a universal or ecological approach to management even where individual countries differ on the basis of culture. cross-cultural research (hofstede, 1984) shows that certain countries cluster along four specific cultural dimensions. recent research (fang, 2003; ng, lee & soutar, 2007) assumes that the most cited cultural classifications in the social science citation index, is hofstede’s (1980a) culture’s consequences: international differences in work-related values. over two decades have passed since hofstede’s publication, which has inspired thousands of empirical studies and the use of his four cultural dimensions that were derived from his data (hofstede, 1983). dimensions of national culture cultural value dimensions constitute the main criteria by which national cultures differ. in comparing cultures of different countries, cross-cultural researchers have mainly relied on examining cultural value dimensions that were originally developed by hofstede (blunt & jones, 1986; hofstede, 1995). power distance: power distance refers to the extent people accept that power in institutions and organisations is distributed unequally. the greater the power distance, the more accepting a society becomes of these inequalities. most developing countries are associated with high power distance (hpd), whereas most developed countries are associated with low power distance (lpd). employees in hpd countries are generally found to be afraid to question the authority of the managers. research (morris & pavett, 1992) shows that the efficacy of participation in hpd cultures is doubtful. hence such employees are likely to view participatory management with fear, distrust and disrespect. managers who encourage participation in these countries are likely to be seen as weak and incompetent. on the other hand, participation in decision-making is an important dimension of management in countries with lpd. for example, us organisations generally show more employee involvement and are considered to be more efficient and faster growing (denison & mishra, 1995) than those in hpd cultures. hofstede measures power distance in a power distance index (pdi) (hofstede, 1991, p. 26). the values and attitudes found at the national level contrast ‘low-pdi countries’ with ‘high-pdi countries’. uncertainty avoidance: uncertainty avoidance refers to the extent to which a culture programs its members to feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured situations (hofstede, 2001). in hofstede’s study the sampled countries were each given a score on an uncertainty avoidance index (uai) (hofstede, 1991, p. 113). the countries ranked as high uai include greece, portugal, and guatemala, and east africa (kenya). amongst those with low uai are singapore, jamaica, and denmark. individualism or collectivism: individualism represents values in society in which the ties between individuals are loose. everyone is expected to look after him or herself and his or her immediate family. collectivism stands for a society in which people from birth onward are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, which throughout people’s lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty (hofstede, 2001, p. 225). national differences in individualism are calculated in an individualism index (idv) (hofstede, 1991, p. 53). the highest idv scores were found in the united states, australia, and great britain. the lowest idv scores were found in guatemala, ecuador, panama and east africa (kenya). masculinity or femininity: masculinity is a preference for achievement, heroism, assertiveness, and material success. femininity is a preference for relationships, modesty, caring for the weak, and quality of life. surveys on the importance of work goals show that women attach more importance to social goals such as relationships, helping others, and the physical environment, and men attach more importance to ego goals such as resources, careers and money (hofstede, 1991). however, hofstede’s data revealed that the importance respondents attached to such feminine versus masculine work varied across countries as well as across occupations. since the respondents were mostly men, hofstede (1984, p. 54), suggested calling this dimension the masculinity index (mas). generally, developed western countries were found to rank relatively high on the masculinity index (mas) and those from developing countries were found to rank generally low on the mas index. east africa where kenya is situated is amongst the low ranked mas countries. hofstede’s four cultural dimensions have been extensively used in investigations of the role of culture in management practices in different countries (kirkman, lowe & gibson, 2006; mccrae, terracciano, realo & allik, 2008; smith, 2006). to establish generalisability for his studies, hofstede used cross validations with different samples to include a total of 50 nations, amongst them east africa, west africa, and arabic speaking countries (ng et al., 2007) and thefindings showed correlations of variables or indicators with four of his dimensions (hofstede, 2006). even though several researchers (ng et al., 2007) have criticised hofstede‘s dimensions as being derived from old data, lacking generalisability and being too condensed to capture culture, mccrae et al. (2008) have directed the critics to hofstede’s (2000, p. 1356) response that the ibm data were obtained from well-matched samples and that the dimensions found are assumed to have centuries-old roots. only data which remain stable across two subsequent surveys are maintained and this data have since been validated against all kinds of external measurements: recent replications show no loss of validity. in addition, hofstede (2001) notes that 140 non-ibm data studies validated his cultural indexes (ng et al., 2007). this study does not use the other large-scale research programs of global leadership and organisational behaviour effectiveness (globe) (house, hanges, mansour, dorfman & gupta, 2004) and schwartz’s personal value dimensions approach (schwartz, 1994) because the former is a study of organisational leadership in a cultural context whereas the latter is a program on personal values. moreover, recent cross-cultural research (mccrae et al., 2008; peterson & castro, 2006) suggests that the effectiveness of the nine cultural dimensions of large scale research programs of global leadership and organisational behaviour (globe) had serious limitations which the book’s authors have to address before their use in cross-cultural management studies. the other framework built on hofstede’s value dimensions, schwartz’s approach based on personal values (ng et al., 2007), is more appropriate than hofstede’s framework for use in non-work related contexts. schwartz’s approach does not deal specifically with national cultures or with business people. his unit of analysis was schools and the respondents were teachers and students. some cross cultural researchers such as fang (2003) and kirkman et al. (2006) have on the other hand raised questions about the validity and appropriateness of hofstede’s (1991) fifth cultural dimension of long-term vs. short-term orientation for use in different cultural contexts. these researchers argue that confucian values underlying the concept are so chinese that they appear disconcertingly strange not only to many western readers but also to the chinese themselves. on the basis of these concerns, this study only applied hofstede’s (1980a) four cultural dimensions on mncs in kenya to establish the influence of culture on the relationship between shrm practices and firm performance. culture and human resource management in kenya although hofstede’s empirical results have been replicated in different nations (kirkman et al., 2006; mccrae et al., 2008) where his cultural framework has been accepted for describing differences amongst nations, little empirical research has used the hofstede dimensions to investigate the effect of shrm practices on performance in different cultural groups. also research in this area has not been integrated into the possible linkages found in shrm practices, cultural orientations, motivation, and firm performance in mncs in developing countries, particularly kenya. this issue constitutes a gap in knowledge.empirical research (gray & marshall, 1998; nyambegera et al., 2001) indicates that culture influences employees’ reaction to management practices in kenya. for instance, like in many african countries, subordinates receive instructions from their managers and when in doubt, wait for the managers to decide the way out (bate, 1984, 1990). kenyan managers, especially the old ones, like to be called ‘boss’ as an expression of awe and respect (kamoche, 1992). this sense of ‘them and us’ demarcation brings about a dependency attitude. however, whilst such practices may make kenyan employees feel powerless and fearful, those with a subjugated orientation may exhibit greater motivation to be involved in their job (kamoche, 1992). employees in high power distance countries such as kenya may have learned to accept such differences in the firms and attempts by managers in mncs to narrow the gap could impact employees’ motivation negatively. expecting a kenyan employee to participate in a decision-making process in a multinational company where shrm practices promote this behavior may create conflict between cultural values and the motivation to perform. on this basis the following hypotheses are also posited: h2: employee cultural orientations affect the strength of the relationship between shrm practices and employee motivation. h3: employee motivation mediates the relationship between shrm practices and firm performance. this study proposes a novel conceptual model linking these variables by introducing employees’ cultural orientations to mediate the relationship between shrm practices and motivation. a study by mendonca and kanungo (1994) shows that the socio-cultural environment affects employees’ beliefs and values; and hence behavior towards shrm practices. the diagram in figure 1 suggests a direct link between shrm practices and performance as illustrated by arrow 1. most studies hypothesise a direct link between shrm practices and performance (edwards & wright, 2001). however, sound theoretical development that explains how such shrm practices operate is absent (becker & gerhart, 1996). arrow 2 indicates that employees’ cultural orientations mediate the relationship between shrm practices and motivation. studies assert that the socio-cultural environment affects both employees’ and managers’ beliefs and values, and hence behavior towards shrm practices. arrow 3a shows that shrm practices do not directly affect performance, but that there are variables that mediate between shrm practices and organisational performance (dimba & k’obonyo, 2009). motivation is a mediating factor by which shrm practices have an impact on organisation performance (gerhart, 2005) – arrow 3b. figure 1: conceptual model of the relationships amongst shrm practices, employee cultural orientations, motivation and firm performance. the use of this model (figure 1) allows for the incorporation of more recent ideas concerning shrm practices, other related variables and work performance. the model also reflects complexities of interrelationships and how employees’ cultural orientations are linked to shrm practices, employees’ motivation and firm performance. from the literature it is apparent that the relationships between the four variables (shrm practices, cultural orientations, employees’ motivation, and firm performance) in mncs have not been examined within the kenyan context. that is, their combined effect on firm performance has not been previously examined on mncs operating in kenya. research design top ↑ research approach a multi-method empirical approach involving both surveys and interviews was used to decipher the relationship between shrm practices, employees’ motivation and firm performance. this triangulation approach of surveys and interviews provided an opportunity to develop a broad-based understanding of the relationships amongst the key variables used in the study. research method first, a cross-sectional survey of mncs was undertaken to determine specific parameters across the respondents. on the basis of responses to the questionnaire, the researcher selected a sample of six mncs for the interviews. the six mncs were chosen by a simple random method from the twenty seven (27) companies that had completed the questionnaire. research participants the target population was large foreign multinational manufacturing companies operating in kenya, which were members of the kenya association of manufacturers. the main reason for the choice of large foreign mncs was that these firms are likely to have elaborate shrm practices and also be able to transfer those practices to developing countries (mamman & adeoye, 2007). another reason for the choice of mncs was because research on large manufacturing companies in developed countries shows that shrm practices are linked to performance (bae, chen & lawler, 1998; katou & budhwar, 2006, 2007). because of the small number of foreign mncs in kenya, the study took a complete survey and all fifty (50) mncs were included in the study.the respondents included specialist hr managers, line managers (marketing managers and production managers), and three employees who were not in a management position – one from each of the functional departments represented by three managers (six) from each organisation. the respondents totalled 300 from 50 organisations. the inclusion of employees’ perspectiveswas based on the argument that employees are most affected by the way their immediate manager treats them, as this determines their day-to-day experiences (richardson & thompson, 1999). further support for their inclusion is the fact that less research has been done amongst employees as compared to managers and yet employees play a big role in the day to day implementation of strategies (hall, 2004; kamoche, 2001). without knowing how employees interpret shrm practices, a vital link was missing in the research process. the selection criterion used for the employees was years of service in the organisation. a longer serving employee was assumed to have acquired more work experience and was likely to give more relevant responses than a less experienced employee (dessler, 2005). the rationale for choosing management respondents was based firstly on the fact that hr strategies are usually formulated by management and professional employees rather than lower level employees; and secondly, inclusion of other non-hr managers was expected to reduce response bias by gauging alternative perspectives (guest, 2001; wright, mcmahan & mcwilliams, 2001; youndt et al., 1996). measuring instruments this study used the questionnaire developed by both hofstede (1980a) and huselid (1995) and modified by the researcher to collect data. hofstede’s (1980a) instrument had been used previously in west africa, east africa, and arab speaking countries. huselid’s instrument contains measures for shrm practices, motivation and performance and had also been used in the united states in nearly 1000 large firms. some previous studies (bae, chen & lawler, 1998), using similar scales to measure hr practices, found cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients of 0.70 in four areas of hr practices, that is, recruitment and selection, training and development, participation and rewards, whilst other studies (delaney & huselid, 1996) reported alpha coefficients of between 0.70 and 0.91 for different hr practices.regarding the level of the importance of motivation concerning the employees’ job and the organisation they worked for, delaney and huselid (1996), in particular, found positive relationships between shrm practices, motivation and performance. a likert scale of 1 to 5 (appendix ii) was used to measure the level of the problems for most of the cultural values and also the level of general beliefs on cultural issues. such a scale has also been used by hofstede (1980a, 1980b). questions touched specifically on cultural values (measured by power distance), and general beliefs (measured by uncertainty avoidance, masculinity or femininity, individualism or collectivism). research procedure essentially, the study utilised an interview data collection technique that involved oral questioning of respondents.respondents were asked to give information about organisational performance on the quality of product, firm image, and interpersonal relations. in effect this is a perceptual measure of firm performance and previous scales used by huselid (1995) and delaney and huselid (1996) had shown cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients of between 0.75 and 0.88. reliability the measurement scales for hr practices and motivation presented above were adopted with modifications from the instruments that were developed by huselid (1995). for this reason, the researcher tested the scales again for reliability using pilot data from nine respondents from one large foreign manufacturing multinational company operating in kenya. this company was not included in the target population. the cronbach’s alpha coefficients obtained, confirmed the reliability of the measured variables with a coefficient of 0.70. this coefficient is fairly large and one could, therefore, conclude that the measurement scales were reliable. results top ↑ quantitative data the hypotheses were tested using pearson’s product moment correlation and simple regression analyses.h1: a positive relationship exists between shrm practices and firm performance. table 1 shows that amongst the shrm practices, training and development (r = 0.4, at p < 0.01) had the strongest positive correlation (as indicated by ‘r’) between shrm practices and performance. next were the compensation systems (r = 0.3, at p <0.01) and performance appraisal (r = 0.2, at p <0.01), and lastly, flexible work arrangements (r = 0.3, at p <0.05).firm performance was not correlated with recruitment and selection. this implies that if at all there was a link between these shrm practices and performance, it was indirect through another variable which is not part of this study. table 1: results of the correlation analysis for the relationship between shrm practices and organisational performance. the results in table 1 are consistent with those in table 3 where training and development and compensation systems have a significant effect on performance. training and development and compensation systems alone explain up to 20% of variance in firm performance (r2 = 0.2). it is evident in table 3, that a unit increase in training and development, holding compensation systems constant, resulted in a 30% change (increase) in organisational performance; whereas a 20% increase in performance was achieved with every additional unit in compensation, holding training and development constant. these findings lead to the acceptance of the hypothesis that there is a positive relationship between shrm practices and firm performance. table 2: correlations between shrm practices and motivation. h2: employee cultural orientations affect the strength of the relationship between shrm practices and employee motivation.the results are presented in tables 2, 4 and 5. as shown in table 2, all the strategic human resource practices, except recruitment and selection, are positively and significantly correlated with motivation. this suggests that the use of best hr practices in training and development, performance appraisal, compensation and flexible work arrangements has a significant positive influence on employees’ motivation. to test for the mediating effects of employee cultural orientations (measured by power distance) on the relationship between strategic hrm practices and motivation, the coefficient of determination (r2) is obtained when cultural orientations were in the regression equation and when they were not. the two results were compared. the differences were attributed to the mediating influence of employee cultural orientations. the results are presented in table 5. table 3: results of the regression analysis of the effect of shrm practices and motivation, on organisational performance. table 4: regression analysis of factors influencing motivation at work. table 5: regression results for the factors influencing the relationship between shrm practices and motivation at work. it is noted from the table that r2 decreased by 10% from 40% to 30% but remained the same at 40%, respectively, when cultural values and cultural beliefs were introduced into the regression equation. this indicates that the relationship between strategic hrm practices and employee motivation is weakened by cultural values, whilst cultural beliefs did not affect the relationship. therefore, the hypothesis that the relationship between strategic hrm practices and motivation depends on employees’ cultural orientations is accepted for the cultural values but not for the cultural beliefs attribute. h3: employee motivation mediates the relationship between shrm practices and firm performance. as indicated in table 2, all the shrm practices, except recruitment and selection, are positively and significantly correlated with motivation. it is noted from table 3 that motivation alone accounts for 10% (r2 = 0.1) of variation in firm performance. motivation had thus a significant effect on performance (β = 0.3, t = 3.3, p < 0.01). similarly, table 3 shows that the best predictors of firm performance as far as shrm practices were concerned were training and development (β = 0.3, t = 4, p < 0.01 in respect of training and development) and compensation systems (β = 0.2, t = 2.3, p < 0.01 in respect of compensation). these two shrm practices alone explained up to 20% of variance in firm performance (r2 = 0.2). consequently, motivation and shrm practices accounted for 0.30 or 30% of firm performance (0.2 + 0.1). this implies that motivation is a necessary intermediate outcome for the relationship between shrm practices and firm performance as it had contributed 10% of the variation in performance. therefore, the hypothesis that motivation mediates the relationship between shrm practices and firm performance is accepted. qualitative data this section analysed the findings of the interviews with heads of human resource, marketing and production departments, and employees from six firms as a follow-up on issues arising from the questionnaire responses that required clarification from additional data. the interviews expanded the information furnished in the questionnaire on the shrm practices, motivation, and firm performance. minitab for regression, statistical data analysis software, was used to convert qualitative data to quantitative data. the data from the interviews that are relevant to hypothesis 2 are presented in table 7. although these data are solely descriptive in nature, they were used to corroborate the results of inferential statistical tests presented in table 5, which were based on data obtained using the survey questionnaire. firstly, the results were described in respect of cultural values and secondly, with regards to cultural beliefs. table 6: effect of cultural orientations on the motivation of employees of mncs in kenya. cultural orientations (values) as shown in table 6, the relationship between shrm practices and motivation is higher before the cultural orientation or values measured by power distance (pd) isintroduced than after. this is true for all the three nominated shrm practices, namely, training and development (62.50% before and 58.30% after), staff appraisal (83.30% before and 58.30% after) and compensation systems (79.16% before and 58.30% after) thus underlining the importance of power distance (pd) as acultural dimension or cultural value in making these shrm practices more efficient. table 7: the moderating influence of cultural orientations on the relationship between shrm practices and motivation. the descriptive statistics in table 7 and the results of statistical tests in table 5 are consistent. that is, in table 5, r2 declined from 0.4 to 0.3 when cultural orientations were introduced in the relationship between all three nominated shrm practices and motivation. this is consistent with the descriptive results in table 7 where there is a decline from 62.50% to 58.30% in respect of training and development; from 83.30% to 58.30% in respect of staff appraisal; and from 79.16% to 58.30% in respect of compensation systems. cultural orientations (beliefs) in order to interpret the results in table 6 and table 7, the relationship between shrm practices and motivation is considered to be consistent if the majority of the respondents: (1) preferred working for an organisation that is directly concerned with their private life such as family matters; (2) felt that company rules should not be broken even when it is in the company’s best interests; and (3) agreed that competition amongst employees usually does more harm than good. it is noted from table 7, that the relationship between shrm practices and motivation before the introduction of cultural orientations (beliefs) as measured by individualism or collectivism (indcol), uncertainty avoidance (ua), and masculinity or femininity (mf) is consistent with the relationship between the nominated shrm practices and motivation after the introduction of these cultural dimensions. this is true for all shrm practices as demonstrated below. training and development firstly, training and development was rated at 62.5% before cultural orientation or the dimension ofindividualism or collectivism was introduced and at 87.5% after this latter cultural dimensions were introduced; secondly, training and development was rated at 62.5% before cultural orientation or the dimension of uncertainty avoidance was introduced and at 37.5% after this latter cultural dimension was introduced; thirdly, training and development was rated at 62.5% before the cultural dimension of masculinity or femininity was introduced and at 66.7% after this latter cultural dimension was introduced. the implications are that these particular cultural dimensions or orientations do not significantly affect the relationship between the shrm practice of training and development and employee motivation. staff appraisal firstly, staff appraisal was rated at 83.3% before cultural orientation or the dimension of individualism or collectivism was introduced and at 87.5% after this latter cultural dimension was introduced; secondly, staff appraisal was rated at 83.3% before cultural orientation or the dimension of uncertainty avoidance was introduced and at 37.5% after this latter cultural dimension was introduced; thirdly, staff appraisal was rated at 83.3% before the cultural dimension of masculinity or femininity was introduced and at 66.7% after this latter cultural dimension or orientation was introduced. the implications are that these particular cultural dimensions or orientations do not significantly affect the relationship between the shrm practice of staff appraisal and employee motivation. compensation systems firstly, compensation systems wererated at 79.16% before cultural orientation or the dimension of individualism or collectivism (indcol) was introduced and at 87.50% after this dimension was introduced; secondly, compensation systems were rated at 79.16% before cultural orientation or the dimension of uncertainty avoidance (ua) was introduced and at 37.50% after this particular dimension was introduced; thirdly, compensation systems were rated at 79.16% before the cultural dimension of masculinity or femininity (mf) was introduced and at 66.70% after this latter cultural dimension was introduced. from the foregoing analysis, the three cultural dimensions of indcol, ua and mf did not appear to have a significant effect on the relationship between the shrm practice of compensation systems and employee motivation.the descriptive statistics in table 7 and the results of statistical tests in table 5 are consistent. that is, in table 5, r2 remained the same (0.4) before and after the three (3.0) cultural orientation dimensions were introduced in the relationship between shrm practices and motivation. this is consistent with the descriptive results in table 6 where the relationship between shrm practices and motivation showed consistency as explained above. in general, the findings from interview data summarised in table 6 and table 7 corroborate information obtained from questionnaire data in table 5 where (r2) decreased by 10% to 30% but remained the same at 40%, respectively, when the above mentioned cultural orientationswere introduced into the regression equation. overall, the results support the notion that the relationship between shrm practices and motivation is moderated by cultural orientations only when cultural values as measured by power distance were considered; but did not support the view when cultural beliefs (measured by collectivism or individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity or femininity) were introduced into the regression. further implications of this finding are discussed below. discussion top ↑ this study sought to investigate the extent to which employee cultural orientations affect the link between shrm practices and firm performance in large foreign manufacturing multinational companies in kenya. large foreign multinational companies have generally applied shrm practices without adaptation when trying to improve employee performance even though resource-based perspectives argue for the consideration of employees’ cultural orientations. this study instead supports the notion that the relationship between shrm practices and firm performance is distinctly moderated by the cultural dimension of ‘power distance’ through motivation. more specifically, the study addressed three hypotheses as elaborated here-under.the first hypothesis (h1) stated that a positive relationship exists between shrm practices and firm performance. to this end the study found thatamongst the shrm practices, training and development had the strongest positive correlation between shrm practices and performance, followed by compensation systems and performance appraisal and lastly, flexible work arrangements. firm performance is not correlated with recruitment and selection. this implies that if at all there is a link between these shrm practices and performance, it is indirect and perhaps even through another variable which was not part of this study. the second hypothesis (h2) stated that employee cultural orientations affect the strength of the relationship between shrm practices and employee motivation. the study found that a positive relationship exists between shrm practices and firm performance. in fact, the study significantly supports this hypothesis in that it found that the majority of the strategic human resource (shrm) practices save for recruitment and selection, were positively and significantly correlated with employee motivation. the third hypothesis, (h3) stated that employee motivation mediates the relationship between shrm practices and firm performance. this hypothesis is supported, since the most important relationships tested showed that motivation is a necessary intermediate outcome for the relationship between shrm practices and firm performance as it had contributed to more than 10% of the variation in performance. findings indicate that the relationship between shrm practices and firm performance depends to a greater extent on employee cultural orientations (when power distance is considered). this finding is important because it is consistent with earlier works and advocates who disapproves of the notion of a given set of best practices as the only means of assessing shrm practices. for example, gerhart (2005, p. 178) argues that it seems unlikely that one set of shrm practices will work equally well no matter the context. this is also significant given that contextual variables, particularly national culture or employee cultural orientations have been found in various studies to have an influence on the choice of shrm strategies (aycan et al., 2007; nyambegera et al., 2001). the results of this study were expected, based on previous works, the fact that the relationship between strategic hrm practices and employee motivation is weakened only by cultural values, and not by cultural beliefs, presented an interesting departure from expected findings. consequently, this limited the hypothesis that the relationship between strategic hrm practices and motivation depends on employees’ overall cultural orientations. this unexpected finding may lie in the fact that power distance may be the most relevant and pertinent cultural value for kenyans working within organisations that are predominantly predicated on western styles of operation. conclusions and recommendations top ↑ based on the major findings of this study, the following conclusions were made.the applicability of western nations’ models of shrm practices in mncs operating in developing countries does raise important questions, because the relationship between the use of shrm practices and firm performance did not hold across the five bundles of what were considered to be ‘high performance work practices’ (hpwp). in the context of shrm models developed by western nations these include, recruitment and selection, training and development, performance appraisals, compensation systems, and flexible work arrangements (katou & budhwar, 2006, 2007). this study supported the notion that the relationship between shrm practices and motivation is moderated by cultural orientations when cultural values (measured by power distance) were considered; however, this was not the case when cultural beliefs (measured by collectivism or individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity or femininity) wereintroduced into the regression. hence, the results of this study partially corroborated those of previous studies that the relationship between shrm practices and motivation depends on cultural orientations (aycan et al., 2007; horwitz et al., 2006). based on these conclusions, the following recommendation is made: firms should focus on more than the five bundles (recruitment and selection, training and development, compensation systems, staff appraisals and flexible work arrangements) to give a wider scope of practices. a wider scope is necessary, because it could, for instance, help mncs to avoid practices that conflict with traditional practices in the host country. the limitations of this study constrain the interpretation of the findings and point to several issues for future research. firstly, this study only examined cross-sectional differences amongst large manufacturing multinational firms. gaining a clearer understanding of the relationships between shrm practices, cultural influences and motivation would require a longitudinal analysis. secondly, this study explicitly examined the influence of cultural values and beliefs on the relationship between shrm practices, motivation, and firm performance. drawing conclusions from the use of only one variable (culture) may not present the right picture. the difficulty here is finding an appropriate portrayal of the manner in which a nation’s wealth is interwoven with the multitude of other factors that contribute both to cultural stability and cultural change. this study revealed a number of areas for further research. empirical studies are made to examine the applicability of models of shrm practices formulated by western nations in developing countries. hofstede (1993) and brewster et al. (1994) are of the opinion that the dynamic international business environment demands appropriate information and guidance to develop relevant management practices. to obtain more interesting and revealing results of cultural orientations, the longitudinal research design might be used by future researchers. it is suggested that future researchers accommodate other major differentiating factors, such as economic influence (sundaram & black, 1992; van de vliert, 2006). the creation of national cultures must entail reference to historical factors, and must acknowledge wealth as being both a cause and an effect of other elements in a nation’s adaptation to its context. acknowledgements top ↑ the lead author would like to acknowledge the assistance provided by the faculty of management and commerce, strathmore university, kenya in supporting and providing resources for this study. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions b.d. (strathmore university)was responsible for conceiving and conducting the fieldwork that resulted in an earlier draft of this work. r.r. (tshwane university of technology) contributed additional literature and undertook most of the writing including addressing reviewers’ and the copy editor’s concerns. references top ↑ aycan, z., al-hamadi, a.b., davis, a., & budhwar, p. (2007). cultural orientations and preference for hrm policies and practices.the case of oman. international journal of human resource management, 18, 11–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190601068243bae, j., chen, s., & lawler, j. (1998). variations in hrm in asian countries: mnc home country and host country effects. international journal of human resource management, 9(4), 653–670. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/095851998340946 bate, p. (1984). the impact of organizational culture on approaches to organizational problem-solving. organization studies, 5(1), 43–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/017084068400500103 bate, p. (1990). using the culture concept in an organization development setting. the journal of applied behavioral science, 26(1), 83–106. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/002188639002600108 becker, b., & gerhart, b. (1996). the impact of human resource management on organizational performance: progress and prospects.academy of management journal, 39(4), 779–801. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256712 blunt, p., & jones, m. (1992). managing organizations in africa. berlin, germany: walter de gruyter and company. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110850031 blunt, p., & jones, m. (1986). managerial motivation in kenya and malawi: a cross-culturalcomparison. the journal of african studies, 24(1), 165–175. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022278x00006790 brewster, c., & hegewisch, a. (1994). human resource management in europe: issues andopportunities. in c. brewster, & a. hegerwisch (eds.), policy and practice in european human resource management: the price waterhouse cranfield survey. london: routledge. budhwar, p.s., & debrah, y.a. (2004). human resource management in developing countries. london: routledge. pmid:21783596 delaney, j.t., & huselid, m.a. (1996). the impact of human resource management practices on perception of organizational performance. academy of management journal, 39(4), 949–969. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256718 denison, d.r., & mishra, a.k., (1995). toward a theory of organizational culture and effectiveness. organization science, 6, 204–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.6.2.204 dessler, g. (ed). (2005). establishing pay plans: human resource management, pearson prentice hall: upper saddle river, new jersey. dimba, b.a. (2010). strategic human resource management practices: effect on performance. africanjournal of economic and management studies, 1(2), 128–137. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/20400701011073455 dimba, b., & k’obonyo, p. (2009). the effect of strategic human resource management practices on performance of manufacturing multi-national companies in kenya: a moderating role of employee cultural orientations. in s. simon (ed.), repositioning african business and development for the 21st century of 2009. in proceedings of an international academy of african business and development, kampala, uganda, 19–23 may 2009, (pp. 403–408). edwards, p., & wright, m. (2001). high-involvement work systems and performance outcomes: the strength of variable, contingent and context-bound relationships. international journal of human resource management, 12(4), 568–585. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/713769651 fang, t. (2003). a critique of hofstede’s fifth national culture dimension. international journal of cross cultural management, 3, 347–368. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1470595803003003006 gerhart, b. (2005). human resource management and business performance: findings, unanswered questions and an alternative approach. management review, 16, 174–185. gray, k.r., & marshall, k.p. (1998). kenyan and korean management orientations on hofstede’s cultural values. multinational business review, 6(2), 79–88. guest, d.e. (2001). human resource management: when research confronts theory. international journal of human resource management, 12(7), 1092–1106. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190110067837 hall, l. (2004). hrm practices and employee and organizational performance: a critique of the research and guest’s model, department of business and management, manchester metropolitan university, cheshire. hofstede, g. (1980a). culture’s consequences: international differences in work-related value. laguna hills, california: sage publications. hofstede, g. (1980b). wealth of nations: culture and economic growth. in s.d. hunt (ed.), (2002). (a general theory of competition, resources, competences, productivity, economic growth). (marketing for a new century). sage publications, pp. 205–238. hofstede, g. (1983). the cultural relativity of organizational practices and theories. journal of international business studies, 14(2), 75–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490867"> hofstede, g. (1984). motivation, leadership and organization: do american theories apply abroad? organizational dynamics, 9, 42–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(80)90013-3 hofstede, g. (1991). cultures and organizations: software of the mind. london: mcgraw-hill. hofstede, g. (1993). cultural constraints in management theories. in j.t. wren (ed.), the leader’s companion (pp. 253–270). new york: free press. hofstede, g. (1995). cultures and organizations: software of the mind. london: mcgraw-hill. hofstede, g. (2000). cultures and organizations: software of the mind. london: mcgraw-hill. hofstede, g. (2001). culture’s consequences: comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations. thousand oaks, california: sage. hofstede, g. (2006). cultures and organizations: software of the mind. london: mcgraw-hill. hodgetts, r.m., & luthans, f. (2000). international management: culture, strategy, and behavior. mcgraw-hill: new york, new york. horwitz, f.m., heng, c.t., quazi, h.a., nonkwelo, c., roditi, d., & van eck, p. (2006). human resource strategies for managing knowledge workers: an afro-asian comparative analysis. international journal of human resource, 17(5), pp. 775-811. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190600640802 house, r.j., hanges, p.j., mansour, j., dorfman, p.w., & gupta, v. (eds.). (2004). culture,leadership and organizations: the globe study of 62 societies. thousand oaks, california: sage. huselid, m.a. (1995). the impact of human resource management practices on turnover, productivity,and corporate financial performance. academy of management journal, 38, 635–672. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256741 kamoche, k. (1992). human resource management: an assessment of the kenyan case. internationaljournal of human resource management, 3(3), 497–521. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585199200000162 kamoche, k. (2001). understanding human resource management, open university press: buckingham. katou, a. & budhwar, p. (2006). human resource management systems on organizational performance: a test of mediating model in the greek manufacturing context. international journal of human resource management, 19(7), 1223–1253. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190600756525 katou, a., & budhwar, p.s. (2007). the effect of human resource management policies on organizational performance in greek manufacturing. thunderbird international business review, 49(1), 1–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/tie.20129 kenya association of manufacturers [kam]. (2007). directory edition, kenya association of manufacturers, nairobi. kenya industrial and research development institute (kirdi). (2005). kenya directory of manufacturing industries, kenya industrial and research development institute, nairobi. kirkman, b.l., lowe, k.b., & gibson, c.b. (2006). a quarter century of culture’s consequences: a review of empirical research incorporating hofstede’s cultural values framework. journal of international business studies, 37(4), 285–320. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400202 mamman, a., & adeoye, b. (2007). performance management in multinational companies in africa: implications for transferability of human resource management innovation to developing countries. management in development working paper series, paper no. 17, institute for development policy and management, university of manchester. may 2007, pp. 1–32. mccrae, r.r., terraciano, a., realo, a., & allik, j. (2008). interpreting globe societal practices scales. journal of cross-cultural psychology, 39(6), pp. 805-810. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022022108323806 mendonca, m., & kanungo, r.n. (1994). managing human resources: the issue of culture fit. journal of management inquiry, 3(2), 189–205. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/105649269432010 morris, t., & pavett, c.m. (1992). management style and productivity in two cultures. journal of international business studies, 23(1), 169–179. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490264 national development plan (2002–2008). effective management for sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction. kenya government press. ng, s.i., lee, j.a., & soutar, g.n. (2007). are hofstede’s and schwartz’s value frameworks congruent? international marketing review, 24(2), 164–180. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02651330710741802 nyambegera, s.m., daniels, k., & sparrow, p. (2001). why fit doesn’t always matter: the impact of hrm and cultural fit on job involvement of kenyan employees. applied psychology: an internationalreview, 51(1), 109–140. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1464-0597.00050 peterson, m.f., & castro, s.l. (2006). measurement metrics at aggregate levels of analysis: implications for organization culture research and the globe project. the leadership quarterly, 17, 506–521. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2006.07.001 richardson, r., & thompson, m. (1999). the impact of people management practices on business performance: a literature review. london: ipd. rogers, e.w., & wright, p.m. (1998). measuring organizational performance in strategic human resource management: problems, prospects, and performance information markets. human resource management review, 8(3), 311–331. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(98)90007-9 ryan, r.m., & deci, e.l. (2000). self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsicmotivation, social development, and well-being. american psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.68, pmid:11392867 schwartz, s.h. (1994). beyond individualism-collectivism: new cultural dimensions ofvalues. in u. kim, h.c. triandis, c. kagitcibasi, s.c. choi, & g. yoon (eds.), individualismand collectivism: theory, method, and applications (pp. 85–122). thousand oaks, california: sage. smith, p.b. (2006). when elephants fight, the grass gets trampled: the globe and hofstede projects. journal of international business studies, 37, 915–921. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400235 sundaram, a.k. & black, j.s. (1992). the environment and internal organization of multinational enterprises, academy of management review, 17, 267–299. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/258806 world bank, kippra, csae, oxford. (2004). enhancing the competitiveness of kenya’s manufacturing sector: the role of the investment climate. africa private sector group, investment climate assessment, kenya, november, pp. 1–88. wright, p.m., mcmahan, g., & mcwilliams, a. (1994). human resources and sustained competitive advantage: a resource-based perspective. international journal of human resource management, 5(2), 301–326. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585199400000020 youndt, m.a., snell, s.a., dean, j.w., & lepak, d.p. (1996). human resource management: manufacturing strategy and firm performance. academy of management journal, 39(4), 836–866. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256714 van de vliert, e. (2006). autocratic leadership around the globe: do climate and wealth drive leadership culture? journal of cross-cultural psychology, 37, 42–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022022105282294 article information authors: lucas malambe1 mark bussin1 affiliations: 1department of business management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: mark bussin postal address: po box 2334, saxonwold 2132, south africa dates: received: 27 july 2012 accepted: 03 june 2013 published: 21 oct. 2013 republished: 06 feb. 2014 how to cite this article: malambe, l., & bussin, m. (2013). short-term incentive schemes for hospital managers. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #487, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.487 note: article republished with updated author information of mark bussin. copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. short-term incentive schemes for hospital managers in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • literature review • method    • research approach    • research strategy       • sampling       • data collection method       • recording of data       • data analyses       • strategies employed to ensure quality data       • reporting • findings    • the nature of a short-term incentive scheme for hospital managers    • factors other than short-term incentives that motivate hospital managers    • drivers of a short-term incentives policy    • short-term incentive measures    • applicability of private hospital managers’ short-term incentives to the public sector • discussion    • outline of the results    • practical implications    • limitations of the study    • recommendations    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interest    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: short-term incentives, considered to be an extrinsic motivation, are commonly used to motivate performance. this study explored hospital managers’ perceptions of short-term incentives in maximising performance and retention.research purpose: the study explored the experiences, views and perceptions of private hospital managers in south africa regarding the use of short-term incentives to maximise performance and retention, as well as the applicability of the findings to public hospitals. motivation for the study: whilst there is an established link between performance reward schemes and organisational performance, there is little understanding of the effects of short-term incentives on the performance and retention of hospital managers within the south african context. research design, approach, and method: the study used a qualitative research design: interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 19 hospital managers, and a thematic content analysis was performed. main findings: short-term incentives may not be the primary motivator for hospital managers, but they do play a critical role in sustaining motivation. participants indicated that these schemes could also be applicable to public hospitals. practical/managerial implications: hospital managers are inclined to be more motivated by intrinsic than extrinsic factors. however, hospital managers (as middle managers) also seem to be motivated by short-term incentives. a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators should thus be used to maximise performance and retention. contribution/value-add: whilst the study sought to explore hospital managers’ perceptions of short-term incentives, it also found that an adequate balance between internal and external motivators is key to implementing an effective short-term incentive scheme. introduction top ↑ the south african government intends to implement a national health insurance (nhi) system to transform the healthcare funding structure and promote efficiency, equity and access to quality healthcare (department of health, 2011). one of the critical drivers of success in the proposed system is the attraction and retention of high quality hospital managers (department of health, 2011). the proposed nhi system aims to curb the rising costs of providing healthcare (national treasury, 2011). together with perceived declining revenue, the threat of an nhi is resulting in high levels of staff turnover in the healthcare sector (jones, havens & thompson, 2008). it is asserted that learning and transferring best practices from the private sector in the area of motivating and incentivising managers will aid the attraction and retention of talent in the public sector.there is a strong, established link between pay for performance and organisational performance (grigoriadis & bussin, 2007; offstein & gnyawali, 2005). this link, however, does not always have a positive impact (bizjaka, lemmonb & naveen, 2008; brick, palmon & wald, 2006), especially in healthcare, where costs are considered prohibitively high (mcintyre & thiede, 2007). short-term incentives have been successfully implemented for top executives and sales personnel across companies in south africa (grigoriadis & bussin, 2007), but there is no published research on short-term incentives for hospital managers within the context of south africa. this study sought to assess the perception of private hospital managers regarding the efficacy of short-term incentives in their motivation and retention. it also investigated whether such schemes could be transferred to the public hospital sector. there is a growing body of evidence proposing that intrinsic motivators dominate employees’ decisions to stay with (or leave) a company (ederhof, 2011; hlalethoa, 2010; kerr-phillips & thomas, 2009; terblanche & boshoff, 2010; van schalkwyk, du toit, bothma & rothmann, 2010). buetow (2008) suggests that for financial incentives to be a powerful motivator, bonuses must reflect both the intrinsic values of the hospital manager, such as competence and autonomy, and the values of the major stakeholders. investigating short-term incentives that can inspire hospital managers without compromising healthcare delivery will add value to the theory and practice of employee motivation in the hospital industry. in the long run, hospital managers who are motivated to remain in their jobs for extended periods will use their experience and skills to benefit healthcare. the study contributes to the body of knowledge regarding motivation of hospital managers. lessons learnt from the study could be used to stem the loss of experienced managers from the public to the private sector. the study will also add to the scientific knowledge on the application and use of short-term incentives for middle managers. retaining the skills of experienced hospital managers is critical if the department of health is to achieve its new business strategy, as espoused in the national health insurance policy paper. knowing what motivates hospital managers to perform better and stay in their positions for longer periods can be a useful instrument for healthcare policy makers in south africa. literature review there are numerous theories that have been designed and used to explain human motivation. one of the most widely known of these is maslow’s (1943) hierarchy of needs. unlike maslow’s hierarchy of needs, herzberg’s two-factor motivational theory perceives dissatisfaction as playing as crucial a role in demotivating employees as satisfaction plays in inspiring employees to be more productive (herzberg, mausner & snyderman, 1959). paleologou, kontodimopoulos, stamouli, aletras and dimitris (2006) identify four factors referring to intrinsic individual needs and external job-related aspects. table 1 demonstrates how these external and internal motivators link up with job attributes, remuneration, co-workers, and achievement. table 1: four components of individual and external needs. the advancement of employee welfare and future needs such as pension and insurance are related to maslow’s need for safety. a good incentive plan must balance the four main roles that incentive plans serve in organisations, namely motivating effort, directing attention, extracting information, and attracting and retaining highly effective employees (fisher, sprinkle & walker, 2008). failure to adequately align the extrinsic with the intrinsic motivators risks perpetuating inequalities (alshamsan, majeed, ashworth, car & millett, 2010), creating a culture in which managers demand bonuses simply because they are provided elsewhere (gross, elhaynay, friedman & buetow, 2008), or managers engage in opportunistic behaviour to take advantage of the incentive system (mannion, marini & street, 2008).grigoriadis and bussin (2007, p. 52) define short-term incentives as pay for performance schemes ‘where the measurement period is around one year’ and payment is ‘in cash,’ for example, ‘profit share, gains share, commission and bonus’. table 2 outlines the design elements of short-term incentives designed to measure and shape the delivery of healthcare. table 2: key design elements of short-term incentive schemes. for these key design elements to achieve their objectives, they must be properly monitored to prevent unintended consequences (ryan, 2010). table 3 shows seven design features that may greatly enhance the design and effectiveness of short-term incentives in healthcare. table 3: seven design features to improve pay-for-performance programmes. the response of hospital managers to any or a combination of these key design features will be unique to the individual, as these will motivate individuals differently.the world health organisation (who) urges all member countries to move towards achieving universal healthcare coverage; that is, a healthcare financing model providing financial risk protection and ensuring equity (who, 2005). mcintyre, goudge, harris, nxumalo and nkosi (2009, p. 726) postulate that nhi would be ‘a single pool of funds comprising allocations from the general tax revenue and mandatory contributions utilised to acquire quality healthcare from recognised providers’. ensuring that all the key ingredients for the success of nhi are in place will rest on the motivation of public hospital managers and staff (ataguba & akazili, 2010; mcintyre et al., 2009). motivation is vital for performance management practices in hospital industries that have either achieved universal coverage or are moving towards its achievement (dambisya, 2007; peng, pike & roos, 2007). in the long run, hospital managers who are motivated to stay in their jobs for longer and are motivated to perform will use their experience and skills to benefit healthcare. a review of the literature has revealed that few studies in south africa have examined the effect of short-term incentives on middle managers. there is no published research focusing on hospital managers and the use of short-term incentives to drive their performance and increase their retention. the present study therefore sought to explore the perceptions, views, feelings and thoughts of private hospital managers to understand the impact of short-term incentives on their performance and retention. method top ↑ research approach this study was exploratory and followed a qualitative design to understand the perceptions of hospital managers regarding short-term incentives. the qualitative approach allows the researcher to take an ‘insider perspective’ to investigate research questions comprehensively, honestly, and in detail (babbie & mouton, 2010). as part of the interpretive paradigm, the qualitative research design involves taking ‘people’s subjective experiences seriously as the essence of what is real for them (ontology)’ and constructing logic and meaning ‘by interacting with them and listening carefully to what they tell’ researchers (epistemology)’ (terre blanche, kelly & durrheim, 2008, p. 273).terre blanche et al. (2008) conclude that an in-depth understanding of the respondents’ insights can be gained from integrating, linking and matching their points of view to the research questions without losing the context that underpins their perspectives. the present researcher believes that to discover the truth and knowledge is to understand the meaning of the reality that the participants connect to motivation and short-term incentives within the milieu of being a hospital manager. research strategy the population of the study was private hospital managers. the hospital association of south africa (hasa) maintains a database of all known private hospitals in southern africa; this was used as a sampling frame. hasa represents over 95% of private hospitals in south africa.the researcher was employed by the hasa at the time of this study, and had easy access to the hospital managers. this also gave the researcher the advantage of insight into the organisational processes and behaviours in the private hospital industry. after the sampling process, consent to participate in the study was solicited. this was done through a formal letter, followed by a telephone call for confirmation and to set up the interview. in some cases, top management of the hospitals was engaged to give the managers permission to participate in the research. sampling the hasa database, containing 215 private hospitals and approximately the same number of hospital managers, was used as a sampling frame. purposive sampling, a type of judgemental sampling, provided the researcher with a sample that was representative of both the bigger, major hospital groups and smaller, independent hospitals. this minimised ecological fallacy, defined by durrheim (2008, p. 41) as the type of logical error that occurs ‘when a researcher investigates one unit of analysis, and then draws conclusions about a different unit of analysis’. though purposive sampling is suitable in qualitative studies (onwuegbuzie & leech, 2007), there is no widely accepted figure for the sample size (durrheim, 2008). nonetheless, onwuegbuzie and collins (2007, p. 289) note that the size of the sample in qualitative research should not be so small ‘as to make it difficult to achieve data saturation, theoretical saturation, or informational redundancy’, or so big as to make it complicated ‘to undertake a deep, case-oriented analysis’. the present study researched the perceptions of 19 hospital managers in gauteng, north west and mpumalanga, due to proximity to the researcher. data collection method a qualitative strategy using semi-structured interviews was deemed most suitable to provide an in-depth description of hospital managers’ perceptions and experiences, as it is participatory and reduces mistrust between research subjects and researchers (cf. babbie & mouton, 2010). the researcher grouped themes from the responses in order to answer the research questions, namely determining the short-term incentives for hospital managers.data were collected through semi-structured interviews that consisted of flexible and open-ended questions. the literature review was used to compile the guiding themes and questions for the qualitative study. the interviews were conducted from the middle of may 2011 to the end of july 2011. taking between 45 and 60 minutes, the interviews took place at the research participants’ workplaces. each interview began with a confirmation of the objectives of the study. interviewees were then assured of the confidentiality of all data collected. recording of data the researcher requested and was granted permission to record the interviews, using an electronic recording device to ensure accuracy. the researcher also took notes during the interviews. data analyses the unordered raw data were transformed into a data set of meaningful themes that could be easily analysed. the analysed data formed patterns of similarities and differences that were further analysed and interpreted against the major constructs and objectives of the study. johnson and barach (2008, p. 196) note that the aim of this process is to build up a comprehensive ‘representation of the words and actions and hopefully to capture the thoughts behind them’. strategies employed to ensure quality data the researcher followed the suggestion of onwuegbuzie and leech (2007) that the collection and analysis of data be documented meticulously and cautiously to assure reliability. the study provides all the details of the research process, including conceptualisation, sampling, data collection techniques and data analysis processes, to allow the audience to judge the degree to which the research is transferable to other settings. reporting the findings are presented in tables in an objective manner. to capture the essence of the participants’ perceptions, verbatim excerpts from the accounts of the participants are quoted. to ensure participant confidentiality, no reference is made to individual respondents, their locations or the hospitals they manage. findings top ↑ the nature of a short-term incentive scheme for hospital managers all of the respondents (n = 19; 100%) indicated that short-term incentive schemes are used in the private hospital industry to motivate hospital managers. all respondents (n = 19; 100%) mentioned that a bonus is the most common short-term incentive scheme being used to motivate hospital managers. the majority of respondents (n = 14; 74%) also mentioned that a variable compensation scheme or a combination of a bonus and a share scheme is also used in motivating hospital managers.the majority of the respondents (n = 11; 58%) listed a bonus as one of the tools used by their own employers to motivate hospital managers. most of these respondents defined the bonus as ‘calculated as a percentage of basic salary’. six of the respondents work for a company that uses a combination of shares and cash (as a bonus) (n = 6; 32%). however, on further probing, these shares appear to be redeemable only after a period in excess of one year: ‘though the shares are given to you based on your performance for this financial year, you’ll only cash them in in three years time.’ the balance of the respondents (n = 2; 10%) declined to be specific, as they considered their own incentives a private matter. they preferred talking in general terms, and continued to participate in the study. factors other than short-term incentives that motivate hospital managers from responses received, four motivational factors emerged. table 4 shows that most of the respondents indicated ‘results’ or ‘a desire to succeed’ (n = 12; 63%) as what motivates them to work harder. table 4: what motivates you to perform better? the need to succeed was defined in a variety of ways; for instance, ‘the success of the hospital’; ‘bringing the [hospital] to the next level’; and ‘leaving [the hospital] a smooth-running place as compared to the initial state’.from the responses received when participants were asked about the benefits of short-term incentives, the researcher grouped similar comments to formulate themes. table 5 demonstrates that respondents perceived short-term incentives as a motivational tool to improve clinical governance in hospitals (n = 10; 53%), encourage loyalty (n = 6; 32%), improve company performance (n = 6; 32%), improve planning (n = 6; 32%) and boost self-esteem (n = 6; 32%). table 5: emerging themes regarding perceived pay-for-performance benefits. regarding the negative consequences of not implementing pay-for-performance schemes, four themes emerged, as seen in table 6. staff turnover (n = 7; 37%), poor performance (n = 6; 32%) and the demoralisation of workers (n = 4; 21%) were mentioned as the likely consequence of failing to pay a bonus to hospital managers for performance. table 6: emerging themes of likely consequences of not using short-term incentives. drivers of a short-term incentives policy financial performance (n = 10; 53%) was mentioned most frequently as the major driver of the implementation of a policy of providing short-term incentives for hospital managers. respondents also mentioned competition (n = 4; 21%), talent retention (n = 4; 21%), transformation (n = 4; 21%) and clinical governance (n = 4; 21%) as strong drivers of such a policy. respondents who perceived competition to be the major driver mentioned that ‘what happens in the market’ is more important than what happens internally in deciding on the use of short-term incentives.even so, most of the respondents (n = 8; 42%) were content with the way short-term incentives for hospital managers are administered. table 7 shows the gaps in the policy and implementation identified by the participants. the existing gaps point a way to other strategies that the industry could use to improve pay-for-performance schemes. table 7: gaps in the current pay-for-performance by theme. short-term incentive measures respondents mentioned clinical governance and quality of healthcare most frequently (n = 13; 68%) as critical measures of pay for performance for hospital managers. financial performance (n = 9; 47%) and how a manager manages human resources (n = 9; 47%) also emerged as important performance indicators for hospital managers. patient satisfaction, number of patients, performance of the group as well as management of resident doctors and specialists were also mentioned as components of the measurement criteria. applicability of private hospital managers’ short-term incentives to the public sector as seen in table 8, 13 respondents (68%) indicated that applying short-term incentives in the public sector will motivate hospital managers. other respondents were either not sure (n = 3; 16%) or disagreed (n = 3; 16%) with this suggestion.respondents who were not in favour of implementing pay-for-performance schemes in the public sector believe that improving the working conditions in the public sector will be more motivational to hospital managers than paying a bonus. table 8: extrapolation of results from the private to the public hospital sector. discussion top ↑ outline of the results the main objective of the study was to explore the perceptions of hospital managers regarding short-term incentives. the respondents showed an acute awareness of pay-for-performance schemes being used to motivate hospital managers. even though intrinsic factors are key motivators of hospital managers, the absence of extrinsic motivators such as a bonus is demoralising, and may lead to poor performance or cause hospital managers to leave for greener pastures. these findings confirm herzberg’s theory that dissatisfaction plays as crucial a role in demotivating employees as satisfaction plays in inspiring them (herzberg et al., 1959).a bonus, calculated as a percentage of basic salary, emerged as the most common short-term incentive used to motivate hospital managers. some hospitals use a combination of a bonus and shares. even though the shares can only be redeemed after a period in excess of a year, the fact that these are awarded as a result of a manager’s performance in a financial year is in line with grigoriadis and bussin’s (2007) definition of a short-term incentive. the respondents perceived short-term incentives for hospital managers as a tool to improve clinical governance, planning, loyalty, performance and managers’ self-esteem. these benefits support buetow’s (2008) belief that motivation in healthcare is largely intrinsic and should reflect the values of the managers’ need for professional fitness and independence. likewise, the perceptions of the hospital managers show that governance structures are successful in aligning pay-for-performance incentives with the interests of major stakeholders. as seen in table 9, improving clinical governance (as a benefit to the hospital), the desire to see better results (as a motivation for the manager), as well as high staff turnover (as the likely consequence of not implementing the schemes), were all rated highly by the participants. table 9: perceived benefits of short-term incentives for the hospital. these findings suggest that using short-term incentives to enhance both individual and organisational performance must provide a balance between internal and external motivators. building on maslow’s (1943) hierarchy of needs and herzberg et al.’s (1959) theory of motivation, paleologou et al. (2006) also note that job satisfaction and performance respond to both inherent individual needs and external job-related factors. hlalethoa (2010) also confirms that there is an inescapable connection between extrinsic and intrinsic factors motivating an employee’s decision to perform and remain with or leave the organisation.in a study by bussin and huysamen (2004) of remuneration policy drivers, the majority of the respondents listed boosting company financial performance as the major driver of a policy regarding short-term incentives. they also mentioned competition from other hospitals, talent retention, transformation, clinical governance and quality of healthcare as other strong policy drivers. that clinical governance and the quality of healthcare are ranked so highly is indicative that the drivers are linked to areas of implementation. there is no indication that such schemes are used as a control tool, as reported by mcdonald, harrison and checkland (2008). implementing short-term incentives as a response to competition and sagging clinical governance corresponds with the competency-based performance systems outlined by calhoun et al. (2008). most of the respondents were satisfied with the way the short-term incentives for hospital managers are administered in their hospitals, and would not choose to improve any aspects thereof. respondents who perceived gaps in the short-term incentive schemes identified areas of improvement that tied in with what the managers perceived as the benefits of using short-term incentives. these gaps can also be seen as due to a desire for the managers to be measured on factors within their control. for instance, one respondent expressed the frustration that ensues when ‘measured on deliverables that are out of my control’. another bemoaned the impact of a competitor building a new hospital nearby: ‘[a new hospital in the area] will affect me directly, but i’m still expected to perform better than before there was any competition.’ respondents who thought that short-term incentives would not work in public sector deliberated that hospital managers anywhere would respond more to intrinsic than extrinsic motivators. they mentioned that an opportunity to grow in the profession should be enough to motivate managers. a good basic salary and a bonus would motivate public hospital managers just as better working conditions, growth potential and hiring the ‘right people in the right jobs’ would. like those in the private sector, public hospital managers must be expected to show measurable outcomes and efficiency in practising evidence-based healthcare delivery if they are to be incentivised for their competencies and efforts. practical implications based on the findings of the study, the researcher developed a framework for short-term incentives in the public hospital sector. figure 1 indicates that key drivers, design factors and performance measures must be geared to ensure that health conditions, life expectancy, mortality and the general well-being of society are improved. it is therefore imperative to develop a deeper understanding of these factors and learn how they may contribute to a public hospital’s ability to deliver quality healthcare. the framework also suggests that balancing intrinsic and extrinsic motivators must be at the centre of a short-term incentive scheme to address all the aspects that motivate hospital managers.the findings show that the majority of the respondents believed that improving public hospital performance and clinical governance must be the major policy drivers. the respondents cited hospital performance and enhancing clinical governance as critical factors in improving excellence in the public hospital sector. as the centrepiece of the nhi is improving the quality of the country’s health system, motivated public hospital managers are crucial to its success. the respondents also suggested that improving the working conditions of the managers in the public and private sectors, ensuring career growth prospects and incorporating their desire to succeed will enhance both the performance and esteem of public hospital managers. in turn, this will have a positive impact on the healthcare delivery outcomes of public hospitals. furthermore, ensuring a competitive basic salary structure and an adequate bonus as a percentage of annual salary will motivate public hospital managers. as noted by dambisya (2007) and found in the present study, the motivation of hospital managers may be the missing link in making public hospitals centres of excellence, as envisaged by the nhi. the establishment of short-term incentives for public hospitals will be successful, respondents believed, if performance is adequately linked to measurable outcomes and competencies and is closely monitored. for the evidence-based measurement criteria to be perceived as fair and within the control of the manager, the framework must incorporate regular monitoring and evaluation. this means that the framework must be strictly tied to the performance contract targets agreed upon between top officials and the hospital manager. the key elements of the framework would need to be designed in such a way that they enhance health conditions, life expectancy and the general well-being of society, whilst lowering morbidity and mortality, as envisaged by the nhi (department of health, 2011). figure 1: framework for the incentives of public hospital managers. limitations of the study the focus of the study was to explore the use of short-term incentive schemes in the private hospital industry. the study’s approach was qualitative, and relied on the subjectivity of the respondents. there is no conclusive evidence that these perceptions of private hospital managers would be the same as those of public hospital managers. this study provides an insider perspective on the use of short-term incentives in a specific setting, rather than an analysis of the general practice of using short-term incentive schemes. testing the effects of short-term incentives using a quantitative technique could determine the reputation and attractiveness of these schemes across the entire healthcare sector. recommendations focusing on the private sector hospital manager responses, this study infers a value-add to the public sector hospital management of incentives. further studies on the insider perspectives of public hospital managers regarding the implementation of short-term incentives could be the key in motivating managers to improve the quality of healthcare and also in retaining scarce skills in public hospitals, especially now that policymakers are considering implementing an nhi system.important areas here will be improving clinical governance, the quality of healthcare, as well as relationships with human resources and other stakeholders, such as patients and independent doctors and specialists working at the hospitals. it emerged from the study that there are two parallel short-term incentive systems, namely a bonus and a combination of a bonus and share options. a longitudinal study could be useful in establishing the efficacy of the different types of short-term incentives for hospital managers. conclusion this study was conducted at a time when south africa was reviewing the funding structure of the entire health sector and suggesting an nhi system as a strategy to improve access to quality healthcare. short-term incentives and healthcare in the country that can inspire managers to perform better and stay longer in their jobs will contribute to the success of the health system. the research confirmed that providing a proper balance between intrinsic and extrinsic motivators is the key to designing a performance management framework to keep hospital managers motivated.the findings can also be used to cultivate strategies and policies designed to recruit, motivate and retain hospital managers in public hospitals. the study provides a convincing case for both the private and the public sector to review its current reward and incentive strategy in a way that would prevent managers from moving to the private sector. retaining skills in the public sector is critical for the department of health to achieve its new business strategy, as espoused in the national health insurance policy paper. the findings of the study suggest that the framework used to motivate private hospital managers will also be effective in public hospitals. similarly to executives and sales staff, hospital managers (as middle managers) are positively motivated by short-term incentive schemes. bonus payments may not be the major motivator of hospital managers, but they are key in ensuring that managers stay motivated and in their jobs. hospitals’ boards of directors and top management must establish frameworks to guide the process of designing and implementing a motivation strategy for hospital managers. pay for performance motivates hospital managers to improve company results and stay in their jobs. it also makes middle managers feel wanted. furthermore, reflecting on the managers’ need for competence and autonomy, short-term incentives can be used as a planning tool to ensure effective performance management processes. it is recommended that top managers consider reviewing short-term incentive frameworks to better respond to what is happening at the hospital (business unit), rather than at the organisation or group level, as hospital managers are motivated more by areas within their spheres of control. reviewing the implementation of short-term incentives must also take into consideration other gaps identified by the respondents, such as making the framework more flexible (customised), improving basic salary and aligning performance measurement criteria to the business unit’s cash flow. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interest the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions l.m. (university of johannesburg) conducted this research in partial fulfilment of a mcom degree. m.b. (university of johannesburg) was the supervisor. both l.m. and m.b. wrote the article. references top ↑ alshamsan, r., majeed, a., ashworth, m., car, j., & millett, c. (2010). impact of pay for performance on inequalities in health care: systematic review. journal of health service research policy, 15, 178–184. http://dx.doi.org/10.1258/jhsrp.2010.009113, pmid:20555042 ataguba, j.e., & akazili, j. (2010). health care financing in south africa: moving towards universal coverage. continuing medical education, 28(2), 74–78. babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2010). the practice of social research. (south african edn.). cape town: oxford university press, southern africa. bizjaka, j.m., lemmonb, m.l., & naveen, l. (2008). does the use of peer groups contribute to higher pay and less efficient compensation? journal of financial economics, 90(2), 152–168. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2007.08.007 brick, i.e., palmon, o., & wald, j.k. (2006). ceo compensation, director compensation, and firm performance: evidence of cronyism? journal of corporate finance, 12(3), 403–423. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2005.08.005 buetow, s. (2008). pay-for-performance in new zealand primary health care. journal of health organization and management, 22(1), 36–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14777260810862399, pmid:18488518 bussin. m.h.r., & huysamen, d. (2004). factors driving change to remuneration policy and outcomes. sa journal of human resource management, 2(2), 45–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v2i2.40 calhoun, j.g., dollett, l., sinioris, m.e., wainio, j.e., butler, p.d., griffith, j.r., et al. (2008). development of an interprofessional competency model for healthcare leadership. journal of healthcare management, 53(6), 375–391. pmid:19070333 dambisya, y.m. (2007). review of non-financial incentives for health worker retention in east and southern africa. harare: regional network for equity in health in southern africa. pmid:18232269 department of health. (2011). national health insurance: policy paper. pretoria: republic of south africa. durrheim, k. (2008). quantitative research analysis. in m. terre blanche, k. durrheim, & d. painter (eds.), research in practice: applied methods for social sciences, (2nd edn.), (p. 41). cape town: uct press. ederhof, m. (2011). incentive compensation and promotion-based incentives of mid-level managers: evidence from a multinational corporation. accounting review, 86(1), 131–153. http://dx.doi.org/10.2308/accr.00000007 fisher, j.g., sprinkle, g.b., & walker, l.l. (2008). incentive compensation: bridging theory and practice. journal of corporate accounting and finance, 19(3), 35–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jcaf.20383 grigoriadis, c., & bussin, m. (2007). current practice with regard to short-term incentive schemes for middle managers. sa journal of human resource management, 5(1), 45–53. gross, r., elhaynay, a., friedman, n., & buetow, s. (2008). pay-for-performance programs in israeli sick funds. journal of health organization and management, 22(1), 23–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14777260810862380, pmid:18488517 herzberg, f., mausner, b., & snyderman, b. (1959). the motivation to work. new york: wiley. hlalethoa, j.j.r. (2010). reward strategy as a staff retention tool at the financial services board. unpublished dissertation, university of johannesburg, south africa. jones, c.b., havens, d.s., & thompson, pa. (2008). chief nursing officer retention and turnover: a crisis brewing? results of a national survey. journal of healthcare management, 53(2), 89–106. pmid:18421994 johnson, j.k., & barach, p. (2008). the role of qualitative methods in designing health care organizations. environment and behavior, 40, 191–204. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013916507311547 kerr-phillips, b., & thomas, a. (2009). macro and micro challenges for talent retention in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 7(1), 82–92. mannion, r. marini, g., & street, a. (2008). implementing payment by results in the english nhs: changing incentives and the role of information. journal of health organization and management, 22(1), 79–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14777260810862425, pmid:18488521 maslow, a.h. (1943). a theory of human motivation. psychological review, 50(4), 370–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0054346 mcdonald, r., harrison, s., & checkland, k. (2008). incentives and control in primary health care: findings from english pay-for-performance case studies. journal of health organization and management, 22(1), 48–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14777260810862407, pmid:18488519 mcintyre, d., goudge, j., harris, b., nxumalo, n., & nkosi, m. (2009). prerequisites for national health insurance in south africa: results of a national household survey. south african medical journal, 99(10), 725–729. pmid:20128271 mcintyre, d., & thiede, m. (2007). healthcare financing and expenditure (electronic version). south african health review. retrieved august 13, 2010, from http://www.hst.org.za/uploads/files/chap3_07.pdf mehrotra, a., sorbero, m.e.s., & damberg, c.l. (2010). using the lessons of behavioral economics to design more effective pay-for-performance programs. american journal of managed care, 16(7), 497–503. pmid:20645665 national treasury. (2011). medium term budget policy statement. (electronic version). retrieved august 13, 2010, from http://www.treasury.gov.za/documents/mtbps/2011/mtbps/mtbps 2011 full document.pdf offstein, e.h., & gnyawali, d.r. (2005). ceo compensation and firm competitive behavior: empirical evidence from the u.s. pharmaceutical industry. journal of engineering and technology management, 22(3), 201–225. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.jengtecman.2005.06.004 onwuegbuzie, a.j., & collins, k.m.t. (2007). a typology of mixed methods sampling designs in social science research. qualitative report, 12, 281–316. retrieved april 24, 2011, from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/qr/qr12–2/onwuegbuzie2.pdf onwuegbuzie, a.j., & leech, n.l. (2007). sampling designs in qualitative research: making the sampling process more public. the qualitative report, 12, 238–254. paleologou, v., kontodimopoulos, n., stamouli, a., aletras, a., & niakas, d. (2006). developing and testing an instrument for identifying performance incentives in the greek health care sector. bmc health services res, 6, 118–128. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-6-118, pmid:16970823, pmcid:pmc1578561 peng, t.a., pike, s., & roos, g. (2007). intellectual capital and performance indicators: taiwanese healthcare sector. journal of intellectual capital, 8(3), 538–556. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14691930710774902 ryan, a.m. (2010). has pay-for-performance decreased access for minority patients? health services research, 45(1), 6–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6773.2009.01050.x, pmid:19840137, pmcid:pmc2813434 terblanche, n.s., & boshoff, c. (2010). quality, value, satisfaction and loyalty amongst race groups: a study of customers in the south african fast food industry. south african journal of business management, 41(1), 1–10. terre blanche, m., kelly, k., & durrheim, k. (2008). why qualitative research? in m. terre blanche, k. durrheim, & d. painter (eds.), research in practice: applied methods for social sciences, (2nd edn.), (p. 273). cape town: uct press. van schalkwyk, s., du toit, d.h., bothma, a.s., & rothmann, s. (2010). job insecurity, leadership empowerment behaviour, employee engagement and intention to leave in a petrochemical laboratory. sa journal of human resource management, 8(1), 1–7. world health organisation (who). (2005). world health assembly resolution 58.33. geneva: world health organization (electronic version). retrieved october 15, 2011, from http://wwwwhoint/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/wha58/wha58_33-enpdf article information authors: pharny d. chrysler-fox1 gert roodt1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: pharny chrysler-fox postal address: po box 524, auckland park 2126, south africa dates: received: 28 aug. 2013 accepted: 28 may 2014 published: 01 sept. 2014 how to cite this article: chrysler-fox, p.d., & roodt, g. (2014). principles in selecting human capital measurements and metrics. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12(1) art. #586, 13 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.586 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. principles in selecting human capital measurements and metrics in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • literature review       • value proposition of an organisation’s competitive strategy       • value creation logic       • value proposition of the human resource function and workforce       • measurement system • research design    • research approach    • case selection strategy    • research method       • research setting       • entrée and establishing researcher roles       • sampling       • data collection methods       • recording of data       • data analysis       • strategies employed to ensure quality data       • reporting • findings    • theme 1: cascade the business strategy into the organisational subsystems (93)    • theme 2: understand how the business strategy horizontally integrates across the business’s value chain (27)    • theme 3: integrate and support the business value chain with the human resource value chain (58)    • theme 4: human resource practitioners need to understand how the human resource function’s activities contribute to the implementation of the business strategy (7)    • theme 5: create a line of sight (12)    • theme 6: influence and develop the business strategy (21)    • theme 7: focus on measuring relationships (46)    • theme 8: support decisions with the aim of generating profits (12)    • theme 9: people intelligence should be based on an integrated view of the organisation (38)    • theme 10: provide specific information per levels of decision-making (43)    • theme 11: senior management does not value transactional information (33)    • theme 12: use a select number of measurements (10)    • theme 13: qualitative information is of limited value to senior management (22)    • theme 14: conduct external qualitative benchmarking (7)    • theme 15: ensure validity and reliability (31)    • theme 16: undesired behaviours are driven by a lack of clarity in measurement (20)    • theme 17: setting targets presents challenges (11)    • theme 18: indices are problematic (8)    • theme 19: share responsibility for measurements (23) • discussion    • practical implications    • limitations of the study    • suggestions for future research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: physical and natural resources have been surpassed by human capital as a resource of wealth creation. as a result, senior management relies increasingly on appropriate people information to drive strategic change. yet, measurement within the human resource function predominantly informs decisions in support of efficiency and effectiveness. consequently, dissimilar understanding of measurement expectations between these parties largely continues.research purpose: the study explored principles in selecting human capital measurements, drawing on the views and recommendations of human resource management professionals, all experts in human capital measurement. motivation for the study: the motivation was to advance the understanding of selecting appropriate and strategic valid measurements, in order for human resource practitioners to contribute to creating value and driving strategic change. research design, approach and method: a qualitative approach, with purposively selected cases from a selected panel of human capital measurement experts, generated a dataset through unstructured interviews, which were analysed thematically. main findings: nineteen themes were found. they represent a process that considers the centrality of the business strategy and a systemic integration across multiple value chains in the organisation through business partnering, in order to select measurements and generate management level-appropriate information. practical/managerial implications: measurement practitioners, in partnership with management from other functions, should integrate the business strategy across multiple value chains in order to select measurements. analytics becomes critical in discovering relationships and formulating hypotheses to understand value creation. higher education institutions should produce graduates able to deal with systems thinking and to operate within complexity. contribution: this study identified principles to select measurements and metrics. noticeable is the move away from the interrelated scorecard perspectives to a systemic view of the organisation in order to understand value creation. in addition, the findings may help to position the human resource management function as a strategic asset. introduction top ↑ senior and line managers and human resource practitioners (hrps) are experiencing a difference between the demand for and supply of human capital information due to inappropriate measurements. physical and natural resources have been surpassed by human capital as a resource of wealth creation (bassi & mcmurrer, 2006). as a result, management information is essential to support decisions. on the demand side, information supports decisions to drive strategic success (cascio & boudreau, 2011), the allocation of resources (becker, huselid & ulrich, 2001) and investment in people and practices (cascio, 2006; cascio & boudreau, 2011). information, thus, not only drives strategic change (cascio & boudreau, 2011) and financial success (becker et al., 2001), but also focuses attention on value creation, the human resource (hr) function’s credibility and their value as a strategic asset (becker et al., 2001).yet, the supply side presents challenges. becker, huselid and beatty (2009) articulate issues of inappropriate measurements that ‘generate more questions than answers’ (p. 145). measurements rarely drive strategic change (cascio & boudreau, 2011). lawler and boudreau (2009) highlight that measurements are also used to justify investments in hr processes or programmes and to support the utilisation and deployment of resources. these contribute to a limited view of organisation-wide information. in addition, measurements lack sophistication and cannot provide objective evidence (boudreau & ramstad, 2007; burkholder, golas & shapiro, 2007). this leads to hrps facing challenges in selecting suitable measurements. the purpose of this research was to answer the question ‘what are the principles in selecting human capital measurements?’ and the concomitant research objective was to explore and describe themes amongst a selected panel of expert practitioners at executive level (or engaging at executive level) who belong to a community that specialises in human capital measurement, in which they were directly involved, exerted leadership and consulted in the field of human capital measurement. for clarity, human capital refers to collective attributes of employees (the workforce), as opposed to human resource management, which refers to the management practices of human capital. this study employs the term human capital to refer both to employees and the hr function. literature has progressively addressed hr measurement. rooted in kaplan and norton’s (1996) balanced scorecard, measurement has been systemically expanded to focus on the hr function in becker et al.’s (2001) hr scorecard. subsequently, measurement has been done using the people aspect in huselid, becker and beatty’s (2005) workforce scorecard and, more recently, an integration of the three scorecards (becker et al., 2009). these scorecards, to some extent, point to principles to consider in developing strategic workforce measures. however, little empirical work exists on the principles with which to select measurements. the main contribution of the study was to identify descriptive themes around principles to consider in selecting human capital measurements for a measurement system. literature review literature on measurement principles can be considered as an intercept between four elements, namely the value proposition of an organisation’s competitive strategy, the value creation logic, the value proposition of the hr function and workforce and, lastly, the integrated measurement system, as illustrated in figure 1. figure 1: clusters of themes based on the measuring elements. value proposition of an organisation’s competitive strategy this element underscores the centrality of an organisation-specific strategy (becker et al., 2001, 2009; huselid et al., 2005; kaplan & norton, 1996; lawler, levenson & boudreau, 2004). measurements should be strategically valid to answer important strategic questions (becker et al., 2001, 2009; huselid et al., 2005). starting with the measures should be avoided, as there is no inventory of useful best-practice (strategic) measures (becker et al., 2009; boudreau & ramstad, 2007; burkholder et al., 2007; fitz-enz, 2009; huselid & barnes, 2003; huselid et al., 2005). failing to adhere to the above may result in benchmarking. benchmarking implies a common strategy and implementation process for each organisation (becker et al., 2001, 2009; becker & huselid, 2003; singh & latib, 2004), as well as sending wrong messages about what is important (becker et al., 2009) and driving undesired behaviour (becker et al., 2001). to counteract a reliance on benchmarking, hrps need to replace efficiency measures with strategically valid measures to reveal the value of the current strategy (becker et al., 2009). this will allow for identifying logical relationships (boudreau & ramstad, 2007). value creation logic this element, firstly, considers the logic of how value is created within a competitive strategy and, secondly, identifies how the hr function and the workforce can contribute to the creation of value. michael porter’s value chain is an approach to understanding value (becker et al., 2001). however, becker et al. (2001) recommend the strategy map as a representation of a value chain. the strategy map, which is ‘a logical and comprehensive architecture for describing strategy’ (kaplan & norton, 1996, p. 10), aids uncovering of relationships between functions and the financial goal of an organisation and, thus, how value is created (becker et al., 2001). kaplan and norton (1996), in the context of the balanced scorecard, voice that ‘the four perspectives should be considered a template, not a strait jacket. no mathematical theorem exists that four perspectives are both necessary and sufficient’ (p. 43), as is evident in the later development of the hr scorecard and the workforce scorecard. common to the three scorecards are the sequential relationships, in which leading indicators impact a lagging indicator.the strategy map should take into account alignment, intercept, responsibility, systems, relationships and value creation perspectives. alignment between the strategy and management functions provides an understanding of an organisation’s value chain and promotes a shared understanding of what and how value is created (becker et al., 2001). value is created where the hr function and desired workforce behaviours intercept (becker et al., 2001). hrps therefore have the responsibility to indicate those drivers and enablers of hr (becker et al., 2001) and the required workforce behaviours (huselid et al., 2005) in the strategy map. thereafter, the hr system should be aligned to provide the drivers and enablers (becker et al., 2001) in direct support of strategic workforce behaviours (becker et al., 2009; huselid et al., 2005). in addition, attributes (both financial and non-financial, tangible and intangible) should be related, and their impact estimated, to measure the hr function’s impact on organisational performance (becker et al., 2001). these relationships aid the creation of a line of sight (kaplan & norton, 2001). value proposition of the human resource function and workforce the hr scorecard (becker et al., 2001) and the workforce scorecard (huselid et al., 2005), integrated into a strategic workforce architecture (becker et al., 2009), propose leading and lagging perspectives with which to address the previously downsized role of hr and the workforce in the balanced scorecard. in the hr scorecard, a sequence of leading indicators, a high-performance work system and then hr system alignment impact two lagging indicators, namely hr deliverables and hr efficiency measures (becker et al., 2001). thus, the hr function’s departments should be integrated in order to deliver services (fitz-enz, 2007).becker et al. (2001) distinguish between core and strategic metrics to measure hr doables: core metrics refers to significant hr expenditures that make no direct contribution to the organisation’s strategy, as opposed to strategic metrics, which assess the efficiency of hr activities and processes designed to produce outcomes that serve to execute the organisation’s strategy. hr deliverables may include impact measurements, as relationships between deliverables and performance drivers may result in the strategy map (becker et al., 2001). the workforce scorecard consists of perspectives that are leading indicators (i.e. mindset and culture, competencies and leadership and workforce behaviours) that impact a lagging indicator (workforce success). the leading perspectives should be integrated to deliver success of the workforce, which now becomes a leading indicator within the balanced scorecard’s perspectives (see becker et al., 2009, for a discussion on how these three scorecards integrate). these scorecards’ elements influence understanding of value on a strategy map and direct the selection of appropriate measurements (becker et al., 2001, 2009; huselid et al., 2005). measurement system literature (becker et al., 2001, 2009; huselid et al., 2005; kearns, walters, mayo, matthewman & syrett, 2006) presents the importance of measuring relationships, which becomes evident within the value creation logic element. becker et al. (2001) and kearns (2003) recommend measuring the impact of hr decisions linked to the bottom line. huselid et al. (2005) argue that relationships should be considered before the levels (becker et al., 2001) or quantities (huselid et al., 2005). attributes should be related to a strategic outcome, that is, drivers of organisational and financial performance (becker et al., 2001, 2009). similarly, lawler et al. (2004) call attention to impact metrics that demonstrate the link between capabilities and core competencies and the impact on an organisation’s competitive advantage. as such, measuring relationships will have ‘managerial value’ when organisational performance (becker et al., 2001) is included and prevent silo thinking (huselid et al., 2005).as relationships are context specific, benchmarks are misleading and counterproductive, as they prevent insight into value creation processes and limit inferences drawn about important relationships (becker et al., 2001). efficiency measurements that focus on activities encourage benchmarking (boudreau & ramstad, 2007) and thus cannot be used to measure the impact of the hr function on organisational performance (boudreau & ramstad, 2003). effectiveness measurements, in turn, measure outputs (cantrell, ballow & gerkin, 2004). an audience perspective should represent levels of decision-making and the flow of information. d. davis (2005) propounds three levels of decision-making. at a strategic level, predictive information (long term) is needed to stimulate what-if scenarios during planning. at a tactical level, descriptive historical information, current performance information and predictive information (short term) are required to plan and control. this contrasts with a technical level that needs descriptive historical information with the sole purpose of control. burkholder et al. (2007) categorise information based on its flow as ‘managing up’, that is, aimed at hr and executive teams, ‘managing out’, that is, aimed at the line managers whom the hr function serve, and, lastly, ‘managing down’, which refers to intra-hr measurements to optimise the hr function. the emphasis on the strategic context presents challenges to measurement sophistication, in particular trade-offs between strategic validity, quality and pragmatism. one approach favours measurement quality, subject to the context of decision support and strategy, as the strategic context is of more consequence; boudreau and ramstad (2007) refer to this when they say that ‘precision alone is not a panacea’ (p. 195). a second approach argues that ‘it is better to be approximately right than precisely wrong’ (huselid et al., 2005, pp. 133–134): after consideration has been given to the business strategy, the process does not start with the metric itself in isolation. a third approach focuses exclusively on measurement quality, where measurements are debated in detail (including limitations) (burkholder et al., 2007; cascio & boudreau, 2011). additional considerations are: considering a few vital measurements (becker et al., 2001) and ensuring that hr is not taking sole responsibility for measurements, as this can inhibit successful implementation of the strategy (huselid et al., 2005). in conclusion, a dual focus is evident between the business’s competitive strategy and the transactional side of the hr function. at a strategic level, hr takes on a transformational role, not only to co-develop a competitive strategy based on relationships, but also to select strategically valid measures to manage the implementation of the strategy. in contrast, at a transactional level, implementation of the competitive strategy considers effectiveness and efficiency measures. research design top ↑ this section firstly explains the approach in line with the researcher’s scientific beliefs, followed by the strategy and methodology employed. research approach this study could be described as exploratory-descriptive, which produced important categories of meaning due to rich descriptions of underexplored circumstances (marshall & rossman, 1999). this study was embedded in a realist ontology in which an external reality is independent of people’s beliefs (ritchie & lewis, 2004). realism seeks to understand a common reality in which people operate inter-dependently (sobh & perry, 2006). as ontology affects epistemology (guba & lincoln, 1994), this study was rooted in objectivism, in which external facts are outside of the researcher’s influence (bryman & bell, 2003), and, hence, the researcher adopts a distant, non-interactive position, devoid of bias and values, so as to not influence the outcomes (guba, 1990). case selection strategy a multiple case study was carried out, which allows the exploration and description of a contemporary event (mouton, 2001; yin, 2009) without influencing the outcomes (yin, 2009). this strategy allowed for descriptive ‘what?’ questions and a holistic approach to real-life events, which resulted in rich descriptions from multiple data sources (yin, 2009). yin’s (2012) holistic multiple case design, which considers multiple cases with a single unit of analysis, in this case expert individuals, was followed. research method research setting the field setting can be described as members of a group (with expert hrps as the unit of analysis) who specialise in measurement. in particular, the participants were directly involved in measurement, exerted leadership and consulted at executive level in the field of human capital measurement. entrée and establishing researcher roles to achieve entrée, a key informant was first approached; participants were then sampled purposively and then using snowball sampling. in each case, telephonic contact was first established to present the study and enquire about the possibility of participation. snowball-sampled participants were informed that an anonymous participant had referred the researcher to them. next, an email was sent to each participant, which described the purpose of this study, after which interviews were scheduled. sampling consideration was given to a homogeneous sample of experts on the topic of human capital measurement. a homogenous sample allows for the understanding of a focused issue by collecting data from participants of similar backgrounds and experiences (patton, 2002). we employed selection criteria in conjunction with specific sampling strategies to achieve homogeneity. the criteria focused on members in a community who shared a particular interest, in particular expert practitioners at executive level who specialised in human capital measurement and were directly involved with measurement, exerted leadership and consulted in the field of hr measurement. a homogeneous sample may reduce the number of participants needed (compared to a heterogeneous sample) (guest et al., 2006; jette, grover & keck, 2003) and may still yield meaningful findings and interpretations (guest et al., 2006).to gain access to this community, we first approached and interviewed a key informant. this non-probability sampling strategy relies on the identification of experts within a community (strydom & delport, 2011). we then employed snowball and purposive sampling respectively to avoid referral bias (davis, johnson, randolph, liberty & eterno, 2005). with snowball sampling, interviewed participants (babbie & mouton, 2001; brink, van der walt & van rensburg, 2006) and collected data (henning, van rensburg & smit, 2004) pointed to possible participants. purposive sampling relies on the researchers’ knowledge about the topic (henning et al., 2004) and practitioners knowledgeable about the field (brink et al., 2006). seven participants were approached, with one participant being excluded from this study. the participants possessed a doctorate degree, except for one participant. half of the participants were registered industrial psychologists and the remainder were from other academic disciplines. three participants were from an hr function and the remainder were from other functional areas. participants were employed in the financial services, information technology and food and beverages industries. biographically, they were white men, with an average age of 50 (ranging between 41 and 57). data collection methods primary data was generated through unstructured and open-ended interviews to obtain richness and depth. the purpose of this method is to explore and understand people’s experiences and points of view (greeff, 2011). at the beginning of each interview, participation and consent were agreed upon in the context of confidentiality. the taking of field notes was also agreed to. all interviews commenced with the introductory question: ‘what are the principles in selecting human capital measurements?’ the conversations were guided in the direction of interest (eriksson & kovalainen, 2008), specifically by asking probing questions about core (eriksson & kovalainen, 2008) and sensitising (patton, 2002) concepts as noted in the field notes (patton, 2002). the interviews lasted between 26 min and 1 h 23 min. we also included unsolicited secondary data (e.g. participant-authored opinion articles and organisational documentation) during data analysis. secondary data aided the interpretation of participants’ responses through discussions, comments and debate (mouton, 2001). consent was sourced for the use of unsolicited secondary data (mason, 2002). recording of data primary data was recorded and transcribed verbatim. secondary data was reproduced in print and digital format, together with the field notes, and was then digitised and stored. all data was contextually managed, analysed and stored in an atlas.ti hermeneutic unit. data analysis schurink, fouché and de vos (2011) claim that data analysis strategies range from informal to formal strategies, for example, analytical induction and grounded theory. we employed an informal analysis strategy, namely braun and clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis. they argue that thematic analysis reports participants’ meaning and reality when reporting patterns of experiences and, as such, does not connect to a specific theory and thus does not claim to develop a theory. braun and clarke’s approach to thematic analysis consists of six phases, which were applied in the present study as follows: phase 1 focused on data familiarisation by repeatedly reading the data to explore meaning and patterns and referring to field notes (patton, 2002). next, in phase 2, initial codes were generated according to aspects of interest across the data set. we adopted a hybrid coding approach in this study and focused on both latent and semantic (for in vivo) coding. we then sorted codes into potential themes, in phase 3. in addition, relationships were identified between codes, themes and different levels of themes. in phase 4, we reviewed the themes. problematic themes were collapsed into other themes, broken down into separate themes or removed due to a lack of supporting or overly diverse data. considerable time was spent on data analysis, due to the questioning techniques and resulting responses associated with unstructured interviews (patton, 2002). the resultant themes were defined and named in phase 5, considering the essence of the theme and the data it captured. phase 6 consisted of writing the report. strategies employed to ensure quality data we employed four strategies to ensure data integrity. before the study, reflexivity was conducted to safeguard objectivity and avoid researcher bias (taylor, gibbs & lewins, 2005) and in order to be sensitive towards how data is collected, analysed and represented (mays & pope, 2000). to ensure credible data, we employed specific sampling strategies to avoid referral bias. next, the data was transcribed verbatim. lastly, we collected data up to a point of saturation, ensuring data variation was understood and accounted for (morse, 1994). saturation, in light of our concern for meaning and not frequencies (mason, 2010) and attaining breadth and depth (bowen, 2008), was achieved in two parts. firstly, we focused on breadth during coding in phase 2; no new codes emerged after the first five participants. guest, bunce and johnson (2006) argue that saturation is reached at the point where no new codes emerge. secondly, we considered depth within themes during phase 3 and 4 of the data analysis: codes were sorted into themes, and some themes collapsed into other themes, to account for more detail and variation (charmaz, 2006).to ensure credibility and trustworthy findings, we opted for a multiple case study design to improve credibility (yin, 2012), as this facilities triangulation between cases and permits convergence of data (babbie & mouton, 2001; yin, 2009). furthermore, we employed member checks (patton, 2002) through follow-up interviews, email correspondence and peer debriefing during data analysis. negative case analysis was performed to explain an outlier (onwuegbuzie & leech, 2007) by applying data, investigator and theory triangulation, which led to participant 1 being excluded from the data analysis. triangulation with theory and investigators (not part of this study) ensured conformability. to ensure transferability, we provided a rich description of the research setting (guba & lincoln, 1994) and applied purposive sampling (morse, 1994). reporting findings are presented following sparkes’s (2002) realist tale, which is an analytical narrative interspersed with empirical data to report findings. we edited selected quotations to avoid repetition and disjointed interjections, since english was not the first language of most participants. findings top ↑ the following section presents the themes found, showing each theme’s groundedness in the data set in brackets. theme 1: cascade the business strategy into the organisational subsystems (93) all participants advocated the centrality of the business strategy in measurement. organisational subsystems should pursue the business strategy as follows:‘so you need to be clear about your strategy and then you need to make a link somewhere between what people are doing and how that … how that pursues the strategy.’ (participant 2, male, 51) ‘there’s a strategic organisational intent; out of that you need your strategic people framework relative to that.’ (participant 4, male, 57) theme 2: understand how the business strategy horizontally integrates across the business’s value chain (27) participants agreed that the business strategy should be absorbed into the business value chain; in particular they advocated the combination of separate and diverse elements at business level. this necessitates an understanding of the business’s value chain (with roles and activities) and the design of the organisation:‘you would want to understand the context. so where within the greater organisation does this particular enterprise or part of the enterprise fit? … what is its primary contribution to the life of the organisation or the effectiveness or efficiency of the organisation? so it’s almost to understand its … its role in the structure.’ (participant 2, male, 51) participant 3 recommended that measurements should be aligned across and between different functions, and that the application should be consistent, to ensure absorption: ‘you have to have alignment with metrics that go across and by definition in and betwixt all the various different functions.’ (participant 3, male, 47) neglecting such alignment will encourage silo thinking: ‘you can’t just view the world through that one lens; it gives you a jaundiced view and it encourages silo thinking.’ (participant 3, male, 47) theme 3: integrate and support the business value chain with the human resource value chain (58) the integration between the business value chain and the business strategy should be supported by the hr value chain. separate and diverse elements at functional level should be combined to support the business value chain. participants explained: ‘to understand what it is that these guys do on a daily basis. so what is important at a reasonably high level? so you … and this almost ties back into organisational design but it’s um … it’s about understanding where it fits into the value chain.’ (participant 2, male, 51) ‘i don’t believe that you can classify hr as something out over there that the hr function does. that can almost by definition then only be tactical. to me a strategic hr is a fundamental, integral part of any business strategy and as such can never be positioned away or siloed away within an hr function.’ (participant 3, male, 47) theme 4: human resource practitioners need to understand how the human resource function’s activities contribute to the implementation of the business strategy (7) this theme relates the importance of activities to implement the business strategy. in order to do so, participant 2 argued that hrps need to understand the hr function as a subsystem within the organisation:‘[it should be] cascaded vertically down into different parts of the value chain. once that part of the value chain, let’s call it a functional area, like hr, has got it, it can then be decided how to disaggregate it along its own internal value chain. ... so, hr may then have multiple value chains running concurrently, depending on the structure of the business. but each one of those pieces, recruitment or payroll or talent management will have their own value chain, which will have inputs and outputs.’ (participant 2, male, 51) to achieve this, participant 2 argued that hrps’ and the hr function’s roles, responsibilities and how people-related activities integrate within the hr value chain must be understood: ‘fundamentally i’d want to know that an hr department is responsible [and] accountable for attraction, retention, and under attraction you’ve got the recruitment and the pay scales and all the other stuff. … so what is the role that is being performed?’ (participant 2, male, 51) theme 5: create a line of sight (12) this theme underscores the importance of a line of sight, both vertical and horizontal, to the business strategy in order to ensure the operationalisation of the hr strategy and activities and to prevent the challenge stressed in theme 3.participant 3 highlighted two strategies to create a line of sight, namely ensuring a direct link between transactional hr activities and the business strategy and providing a visual representation to allow employees to observe the integration. examples in the dataset are: ‘even if you’re the payroll clerk who’s responsible for making sure all the data’s accurate. ... you’ve got to know that when you’re doing that, you’ve got a direct impact on the share price or on the profitability.’ (participant 3, male, 47) ‘they just do it ... because nobody has bothered to draw the chart or to show them visually how what they do can impact the overall goal of the company. so the metric itself just becomes a box that they live in unless they can see through [it].’ (participant 3, male, 47) theme 6: influence and develop the business strategy (21) this finding relates the need for hr to influence and co-develop the business strategy through people information and to bring about a common desired result. participant 5 argued that people information should be provided to aid more effective competition:‘i’m absolutely, convinced that hr people have got a critical role to play in the development of the strategy of the business. not just influencing the strategy, but helping to develop that.’ (participant 5, male, 48) ‘i want to see metrics that drive business ... and if we can get that link sorted, then hr will become strategically relevant.’ (participant 5, male, 48) three hurdles surfaced that prevent hrps from influencing the strategy with people information. firstly, its current position of isolation is a stumbling block in hr influencing the business strategy. secondly, the appropriateness of information (see theme 10) can hinder the hr function to influence the business strategy, as it is transactional and used to monitor people-related issues. thirdly, people information is not always expressed in numerical terms. theme 7: focus on measuring relationships (46) this theme considers a way of determining relationships. participant 6 described this theme as follows:‘it really becomes an analytical metric if combined with some business measure. it’s either divided, plussed, one leads to the other or statistically related and the two are linked.’ (participant 6, male, 41) measurement experts indicated a systems approach to identifying relationships and revealed new ones to enhance an understanding of performance in relation to the business strategy. exemplary quotes from the dataset are: ‘to actually start putting measures in to look at what you are doing in terms of strategy means you have to look at other measures, new ones. you have say, ”if i want to grow the business, am i growing a new market segment at x percentage so that it will actually replace another market segment.”’ (participant 6, male, 41) ‘and that is really your ultimate measurement. … this is very useful. ... you’ve actually put numerical values onto that chain. ... that is ... the ultimate, because now you can proactively start managing.’ (participant 4, male, 57) theme 8: support decisions with the aim of generating profits (12) the strategic relevance (i.e. contribution, not the role) is stressed. as a primer, hrps should focus on metrics that will make the hr function strategically relevant in driving business. two approaches will make hr metrics strategically relevant, namely a focus on how the hr function contributes to competitiveness and shareholder value:‘think about how you as hr help this business to compete better ... all the metrics that you use help this business to grow market share, to make more money, to sell more merchandise.’ (participant 5, male, 48) as a second approach, consideration should be given to the information needs (related to profitability) of senior management (see theme 11), rather than to the customary provision of transactional hr information: ‘the context of the metrics can’t be hr or ir [industrial relations] strike days minimised, or number of court cases settled. it can’t be. ... why don’t you as hr come and tell me what are the specific metrics linked to talent management that will help me to make decisions about a talent management strategy for the business? ... that’s what i miss with hr practitioners.’ (participant 5, male, 48) therefore hrps need to understand the dependent variable of the business when selecting metrics as explained by participant 5: ‘i miss the context. and the context, if you’re in a world of business, ... the dependent variable, has to be the profits that we generate.’ (participant 5, male, 48) theme 9: people intelligence should be based on an integrated view of the organisation (38) this theme pertains to human resource information systems and business intelligence systems that should be integrated (as opposed to being departmental), to provide a cross-functional, embedded intelligence:‘you have to have a business intelligence system that is not departmental, but is truly enterprise[-wide].’ (participant 3, male, 47) ‘the company has identified all key hr processes, translated them into accessible and meaningful measures and recorded them on sap hr. … this allows for the ongoing trend analysis of hr data, not only by hr professionals, but also by line managers. in so doing, hr’s role of partnering line management is greatly enhanced.’ (participant 4, male, 57) participant 7 argued that automated intelligence should be set up for different levels of analysis. in addition, it should also be considered for multinational organisations in order to obtain a global perspective: ‘we are globalising it. … we’re putting a system across the world. ... now you want to find out about a guy in panama who needs to move to switzerland. well, is he good? the answer isn’t ”yes”. you say, ”well, what is his score on this test? how is his performance rating?”’ (participant 7, male, 54) critical to generating people intelligence is understanding the hr function’s contribution to the multiple value chains and design of the organisation (see theme 3), avoiding the obstructive silo approach (see theme 19), exploring relationships (see theme 7), integrating data across functions and ensuring consensus (face validity) amongst themselves, other functional managers and users of people intelligence (see theme 15). theme 10: provide specific information per levels of decision-making (43) this theme relates to the time aspect of data and its use in decision-making. level 1 (grounded 11 times) considers historical performance data and monitors people and hr delivery through periodic review for the purpose of regulation or control; this should be inclusive of the entire hr value chain:‘to gather, monitor, organise and understand people information [with the] objective ... to manage human capital using systematic, objective and proven methods.’ (participant 4, male, 57) level 2 (grounded 16 times) considers past performance (historical data) to solve (or troubleshoot) performance problems. two approaches, namely informal and formal troubleshooting, as differentiated by sophistication, were found. troubleshooting informed by historical data can be done using lagging indicators (informal approach): ‘the lag indicators are very easy to attribute to … activities within a business. so, if productivity went down i can follow that back into the business, and it was because of trouble, an automated thing, truck or whatever broke down, therefore we had a reduction.’ (participant 2, male, 51) in addition, troubleshooting can involve a predictive relationship based on historical data (formal approach) of variables, which can be used to trace deviations down the chain: ‘it’s one of those multifaceted predictive indicators, which, if [you] go back and look at the possible causes, ... you can then predict [sic] [ascertain] what realistically has been happening within the business.’ (participant 2, male, 51) level 3 (grounded 16 times) considers the future and its aim is to predict. at this level of decision-making, predictive statements are made regarding future events or consequences of actions, by forming an inductive or deductive conclusion based on existing data. this level, in contrast to level 1 and level 2, focuses cognitive efforts from the known to the unknown. a need exists for senior management to consider various approaches before taking a decision. this answers difficult questions, for example the depreciation of talent as an asset over time: ‘does losing somebody after three months have the same weighting as losing someone who’s been with you 10 years?’ (participant 3, male, 47) some participants indicated that prediction can be used to support various questions, for example to predict the hr function’s impact on the business (i.e. its contribution), to test assumptions and to understand investment opportunities. such analytics are directly tied to the business strategy, as it informs the development of the business strategy and identifies weaknesses in the business strategy. useful information should support strategy development with predictive value and should contain predictions. theme 11: senior management does not value transactional information (33) this finding considers the lack in value of transactional information provided to senior managers who are interested in profitability (see theme 8). deductions based on historical data cannot indicate whether a company will be profitable in the future:‘this historical data where you make deductions from, is transactional data … [and] is purely a view on the relative health [of the organisation]. … that still doesn’t give you an idea whether the company will survive in the next five years.’ (participant 6, male, 41) in addition, senior managers do not need information about the hr function’s deliverables to make difficult decisions: ‘on the ir side, ah, we have brought down the number of strike days by 20% or by 15% or 10%. i don’t care about that because that’s your job [and] … hr people care about that.’ (participant 5, male, 48) reporting on compliance (legislative) issues was highlighted as irrelevant to senior management. compliance cannot be a strategic issue, as you cannot change legislation. decisions of a strategic nature should be influenced before it becomes legislation, which emphasises the need to scan the external environment. in contrast, compliance reporting can be used strategically when related to talent management, which impacts transactional hr. participant 4 observed: ‘the strategic part is where you influence the legislation beforehand so that it will allow you to be able to perform under those conditions.’ (participant 4, male, 57) participant 7 explained another strategic approach linking talent management to compliance: ‘equity is a no-brainer, but we divide it according to all the different categories. … that’s then talent composition, at different levels, … we have our performance potential grid … we look at the processes that we use and then we measure things accordingly.’ (participant 7, male, 54) theme 12: use a select number of measurements (10) participant 4 indicated a preference for a small number of measurements for senior management in order to achieve maximum impact. this participant also recommended a trade-off between the complete picture and the optimum number of measurements and that measures should be presented in a visual format that is easily understood:‘what are the 3% measures that you should have that give you the 80% picture? because the problem is if you’ve got too many measures, your data collection does become very tedious. … where we’ve done this type of thing … is, we literally have a one–pager, and when we do a green, a yellow, a red robots.’ (participant 4, male, 57) participant 4 explained: ‘[with] too many measures, your data collection does become very tedious. you produce a report this thick. nobody pays attention to it and that’s why i deliberately use … always use this pilot example.’ (participant 4, male, 57) theme 13: qualitative information is of limited value to senior management (22) qualitative information is of limited value to senior managers because it is difficult to express quantitatively. most participants explained that it is a challenge to express the soft (people) side in numbers; indices remain subjective when qualitative information is converted into quantitative information; lastly, the hr function struggles to compete with other functions (e.g. marketing and finance), especially those that have established quantitative measures and decision sciences. examples in the dataset are:‘but in the people environment you get back into the more subjective stuff: team performance, um morale, culture, … fluffy stuff which is very challenging [to measure].’ (participant 2, male, 51) ‘as soon as they become that [qualitative], we’ll lose the credibility because, again, you are fighting against two or three other sub-disciplines, finance, marketing and so on, which already have clear numerical metrics in a numerical format.’ (participant 7, male, 54) theme 14: conduct external qualitative benchmarking (7) only participant 4 referred to the need for qualitative benchmarking, even though he acknowledged quantitative indicators used by organisations. benchmarking consists of, inter alia, the following:‘[to] find out whether … the hr function was really a business partner and which portions of these roles, as change agent, the people custodian role, the expert role, they were playing, in what combination of roles. and it was quite insightful for them to realise then where they were positioned.’ (participant 4, male, 57) the absence of qualitative benchmarking limits the understanding of leading practices in world-class organisations, as there will not be an answer to the questions: ‘what are the leading practises, how do you compare against that? … do you have world-class people management in your company?’ (participant 4, male, 57) theme 15: ensure validity and reliability (31) participants recommended guidelines to ensure face validity (grounded 19 times); in particular, hrps have to understand the concept to be measured and the exact parameters of a measurement have to be agreed upon and applied in order to ensure a common business vocabulary. meaningful dialogue between hrps and business partners will contribute to face validity:‘make damn certain that you have defined the exact parameters that define the metric. ... you say, “yeah, we want to measure staff turnover.” okay, cool. done. but then you’ve got three or four or five different definitions of what you mean by staff turnover.’ (participant 3, male, 47) ‘my primary consideration would be to engage meaningfully in a debate with my colleagues in other parts of the business. so, when you’re talking to people in sales, for example, your market share or your sales volumes, etcetera, become the subject of discussion. you don’t say to them, “how did sales go this month?” [and] they say, “quite fine.” they say, “we had 3% above budget.” ... we talk in numbers.’ (participant 7, male, 54) a lack of face validity not only creates confusion, but also leads to different ways of measuring the same concept (which is also evident in indices: see theme 18), which results in a lack of rigour, which, in turn, negatively impacts the information gained: ‘but it’s amazing how many different versions there are of what constitutes customer satisfaction or sales performance. you’d think it’s quite simple, but the more you think … the more you uncover dangerous assumptions.’ (participant 3, male, 47) reliability refers to the same observations when the assessment is repeated across various functions. some participants highlighted the importance of reliability (grounded 12 times) and referred to its consistent application across functions as the main determinant of reliability (which prevents silo thinking): ‘you’ve got to have at least some metrics that are the same for each of those functions, otherwise there’s no incentive for them actually to cooperate.’ (participant 5, male, 48) theme 16: undesired behaviours are driven by a lack of clarity in measurement (20) ‘metrics and rewards drive performance and behaviour.’ (participant 4, male, 57)a lack of sophistication and consequent undesired behaviours will negatively impact the culture of an organisation. the participants felt that behaviours should be in support of the business strategy: ‘what do i want and how am i going to drive behaviour that is consistent with where i want to get the business strategically?’ (participant 2, male, 51) participants commented on drivers of undesired behaviour. an understanding of a measurement enables manipulation, resulting in unreliable information. in particular, a lack of specificity would result in the pursuit of targets with non-aligned actions, thus not supporting the overall business strategy: ‘what will it drive? what will it do? so, if i’m driving the talent pool and the executive has said, “in terms of our succession planning, we want 200 people in our talent pool by the end of the year” … we assume that there’s some sort of entry level to that. they have to be reasonably qualified, reasonably experienced, etcetera, but therein lies the devil. what does “reasonable” mean? so, if i’m the talent manager and i’m trying to hit my target, i’ll squeeze people into that pool to make up my 200. and, sometimes, these people won’t be exactly the sort of people that we want, i’ve got an over representation of a certain set of skills … but i’ll push them in there, because i can and i will hit my target.’ (participant 2, male, 51) similarly, inappropriate units of measurement (e.g. monetary value) can corrupt behaviour: ‘i’m not in agreement [that you should express everything in rand value]. ... i don’t think it’s necessarily useful and i think … it can corrupt behaviour. ... say i’m in a caring environment. what do i do with somebody who is a repeat problem? … because in the terms of the perceived profitability of my job expressed in rand terms, i’m going to go for the easier ones, rather than the hard ones. so i think it potentially corrupts my own behaviour seeing it in rand value.’ (participant 2, male, 51) lastly, measuring activities rather than outputs may potentially cause undesired behaviours: ‘but in the absence of an effective output you probably have to go for the input indicators. but i always try quite hard with the clients that i’m working with to get the outputs.’ (participant 2, male, 51) three strategies to influence desired behaviours emanated from the interviews. these were: ensuring face validity of measurements (see theme 15) by consulting with co-responsible line managers (see theme 19), focusing on quality and not always quantity and measuring outputs (see theme 3) where there is uncertainty or a lack of clarity. theme 17: setting targets presents challenges (11) this theme refers to the challenges in setting targets for specific activities in order to implement the business strategy. targets need to be specific, as employees will resort to undesired behaviours to meet targets. failing specificity in targets, the organisation will ultimately suffer:‘there was a wonderful ad just outside the airport, which said ... “we only lose 2% of data” or something along those lines. which 2% would you like to lose?’ (participant 2, male, 51) participant 2 explained that targets can be manipulated by employees who understand their logic (e.g. through professional training). soft measures are also problematic, as they are not only difficult to set, but are also not taken seriously by senior management: ‘target setting in a finance or a process environment tends to be fairly straightforward but it’s almost always fluffed because the guys understand the metrics. … they understand [metrics] and they understand their composition and then they can tweak them. so i think in the hard metrics, target setting is much easier, but it’s quite open to abuse. so it needs to be fairly carefully monitored. in the soft environment they tend to have a much more vague approach.’ (participant 2, male, 51) consequently, people do not bother with soft measures’ targets, as these are difficult to set: ‘if a measure is hard, like a process measure or a rand value measure or a financial metric or something, people think hard about it and they can wrap their heads around it quite easily. the softer stuff they don’t bother with.’ (participant 2, male, 51) theme 18: indices are problematic (8) an index can be described as a value-indicating variation (increase or decrease) of a specified variable. participant 2 warned against two major problems relating to design and data. the first problem relates to the consequences of subjective perception measures (ordinal and nominal data), which make indices complex:‘the risk is that they [hrps] tend to go for qualitative measures … and then they end up putting together some sort of complex index which just doesn’t bloody work.’ (participant 2, male, 51) the second problem refers to indices that are applied out of context (for example, the inability of practitioners to deal with the complexity of organisations), resulting in a worthless index, and weighting based on stakeholder input, all of which make managing an index difficult: ‘where i think guys, including very experienced consults, get stuck is when they lose that logic and they start to see things out of context and they try to create indicators for what are really fundamentally fairly whimsical things, and then they create complex indices and those are notoriously a ****.’ (participant 2, male, 51) theme 19: share responsibility for measurements (23) this theme refers to the state of being mutually responsible for cross-functional measurement and, as such, having a duty towards another person. consensus (reiterating sophistication) is critical in cross-function, shared responsibility and prevents silo thinking:‘we’ve got to get one perspective and one set of perceptions that work for the businessman at the front end, and the support people at the back end.’ (participant 5, male, 48) ‘you don’t want silos. … [they] are all supposed to cooperate towards some form of … common goal.’ (participant 3, male, 47) participants highlighted five strategies to ensure shared responsibility. the first strategy is a shared desired outcome that should drive mutual responsibility, which is brought about by a second strategy, namely a debate regarding the measurements. consequently, the managers in this cross-function partnership should both accept responsibility for the co-measurement as a third strategy. in order to achieve on the above three strategies, hrps, as a fourth strategy, need to understand the hr function’s architecture to contribute to a shared responsibility and take the initiative in facilitating these relationships as the last strategy. discussion top ↑ the purpose of this study was to explore and describe principles in selecting measurements amongst expert practitioners at executive level (or engaging at executive level). this research contributes to human capital measurement literature by identifying 19 principles to consider when selecting measurements, in order to drive and implement strategic change efforts and, consequently, to enhance the position of the hr function to one of a strategic asset.next is a discussion of the themes, clustered in four different measuring elements as in figure 1. considering the element of value proposition of an organisation’s competitive strategy, strategy remains core to driving the selection of measurements during implementation of strategy, but measurements should also be considered to drive its development. a large group of themes (i.e. themes 1–4, 6–9 and 19) emphasise a systemic approach by cascading the business strategy as the main driver of value creation into various organisational subsystems. the strategy as core is consistent with the literature (becker et al., 2001, 2009; huselid et al., 2005; kaplan & norton, 1996; lawler et al., 2004), as is the need for a particular value creation logic (becker et al., 2001; huselid et al., 2005; kaplan & norton, 1996). the importance of co-developing the business strategy is brought to the fore in themes 6–9. the measurement of relationships should support decisions with the aim to generate profits. literature addresses the notion of relationships (e.g. becker et al., 2001, 2009; huselid et al., 2005). however, recent literature (e.g. cascio & boudreau, 2011) has been explicit that hrps should inform the development of the business strategy. the findings of the present study indicate the importance of strategically valid measurements (refer to themes 1–3) (becker et al., 2001, 2009) and not starting with the measurements (becker et al., 2009; boudreau & ramstad, 2007; burkholder et al., 2007; fitz-enz, 2009; huselid et al., 2005). benchmarking is addressed in theme 14, but the focus is on external and qualitative benchmarking, not quantitative benchmarking of activities, as found in the literature (becker et al., 2001, 2009; huselid & barnes, 2003; singh & latib, 2004). the participants’ level of seniority may explain why they did not emphasise benchmarking as supported by theme 11, which relates to the meaninglessness of transactional information at senior management level. the measurement element of value creation logic presents a different view of traditional value creation. themes 2–5, 7, 9 and 19 point to a value-adding logic that governs the selection of measurements. this logic focuses on the integration of multiple value chains of organisational systems (within and across functions). this contrasts with the literature, where cause-and-effect relationships between scorecard perspectives, for example the balanced scorecard (kaplan & norton, 1996), the hr scorecard (becker et al., 2001), and workforce scorecard (huselid et al., 2005), are used to select measurements. despite various authors (becker et al., 2001, 2009; huselid et al., 2005; kaplan & norton, 2001) recommending the use of a strategy map to understand how value is created, it is important to note that none of the participants referred to this term. a possible explanation is the systems-versus-functional approach of the hr function (see jamrog & overholt, 2006, for a discussion). the findings point to a shared responsibility in measurement (theme 19), but do not directly address the responsibility for indicating drivers and enablers of the hr function and the workforce (becker et al., 2001; huselid et al., 2005). this can be attributed to participants’ understanding of vertical and horizontal logic in implementing the business strategy, which is facilitated by partnering between line managers. though theme 7 underscores the measurement of relationships, the literature is more prescriptive regarding measuring relationships between capabilities and core competencies (lawler et al., 2004) and financial and non-financial attributes (becker et al., 2001). theme 9 places an emphasis on integration of the strategy across the organisational subsystems as an additional means to measuring relationships in the context where a systemic approach is preferred to the leading and lagging perspectives of the scorecards. considering the element of value proposition of the hr function and workforce, only participant 2 directly referred to a consideration of leading and lagging indicators within the elements of the hr function and the workforce. the relationships between leading and lagging indicators constitute the underpinning logic of the scorecards (becker et al., 2001; huselid et al., 2005; kaplan & norton, 1996). in a similar vein to relationships (theme 7), the integration of the business strategy, given the preference amongst participants for a systemic approach, may explain the move away from a sequence of leading and lagging indicators. this is supported by the notion of influencing the business strategy based on a systemic view, not one of perspectives. the participants acknowledged the importance of understanding hr activities and, specifically, how they support the implementation of the strategy after the strategy has been cascaded. however, they warned against measuring activities rather than outputs, as this can lead to undesired behaviours. this is in line with the concept of strategic hr activity measures (becker et al., 2001). the measurement element of a measurement system emphasises sophistication and level-appropriate information. themes 15–18 support sophistication, in particular how a lack of validity and reliability results in undesired behaviour. to share responsibility for measurements is seen as an avoidance strategy. this stance aligns with the exclusive focus on measurement quality, as is evident in the literature (burkholder et al., 2007; cascio & boudreau, 2011). this view of sophistication can be explained by the participants’ awareness of the negative consequences, especially at an operational level, where there is a lack of sophistication. a stakeholder approach to level-appropriate management information to support decisions was found (themes 10–14). the findings highlighted different levels of complexity and integration across functions. the flow of information across functions (burkholder et al., 2007) and different levels of decision-making (davis, 2005) was not specifically addressed in scorecard literature (e.g. becker et al., 2001, 2009; huselid et al., 2005; kaplan & norton, 1996, 2001). the findings do not directly address the issue of relevant versus available data, as found in the literature (becker et al., 2001). this could be explained by the participants’ focus on sophistication and the consequences of the lack thereof. selection of measurements is a process embedded in an organisation’s unique context of competitive strategy and functioning and underscores the basic management functions (e.g. plan, lead, organise and control). furthermore, it is systemic, as multiple value chains of business, the hr function and people, and their interrelationships, are considered. the latter necessitates a consultative approach with relevant stakeholders, as required by an integrated approach, and consequently contributes to the sophistication of measurement. hence, to select measurements is not a singular activity of choice, given the plethora of available measurements. it is necessary that hrps understand their organisations (i.e. how the organisational subsystems and architecture create value), to allow for a systemic and integrated view, as facilitated by (establishing) relationships through business partnering to achieve mutual understanding. despite the majority of the principles focusing on implementation (operational and tactical level of decision-making), evidence points to the need for human capital analytics. it is clear that people intelligence stems from analytics that should inform the formulation of the business strategy, as opposed to only implementation of the business strategy. practical implications the study advances an understanding of the selection of appropriate and strategically relevant measurements that will contribute to the credibility of hrps. hrps should formalise a process when selecting measurements. the systems approach has bearing on higher education institutions, which have to deliver hrps who can think systemically and function at various levels of complexity. similarly, senior management should pay attention to leading indicators and how the hr function and workforce behaviours systemically create value and impact the bottom line of the organisation. analytics has become critical in understanding relationships and the formulation of hypotheses in creating additional value and advancing the field of human capital analytics. limitations of the study this study’s limitations, specifically the applicability to a specific context, are due to the research design, despite efforts to ensure dependability and transferability. claims about trends, regularities or distributions to a wider population cannot be made, due to the small samples in qualitative research (willig, 2008). however, this study provides detailed descriptions of the small sample, allowing for high construct validity and in-depth insights (mouton, 2001). suggestions for future research the move from leading and lagging indicators to a systemic view of an organisation to understand value creation deserves further research. management information, also used to inform strategy development, should not be limited to information generated by the implementation of a business strategy. the impact of opportunity costs, in the context of different approaches to quality in literature, should be investigated in predicting future value that will inform strategy development. conclusion the purpose of this study was to identify principles in selecting human capital measurements. through an exploratory-descriptive approach, thematic analysis of the data obtained from six expert practitioners at executive level in human capital identified 19 principles to consider. therefore, this study has met its objective. acknowledgements top ↑ we thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. professor willem schurink is acknowledged for his contributions to the methodology of this study. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions p.d.c.-f. (university of johannesburg) and g.r. (university of johannesburg) were responsible for the overall conceptualisation of this study, whilst the first author executed the study and wrote the article. references top ↑ babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2001). the practice of social research. cape town, south africa: oxford university press southern africa (pty) ltd.bassi, l.j., & mcmurrer, d.p. (2006). beyond employee satisfaction, roi, and the balanced scorecard: improving business results through improved human capital measurement. in r.c. preziosi (ed.), the 2006 pfeiffer annual: human resource management, (pp. 3–15). san francisco, ca: john wiley & sons, inc. becker, b., & huselid, m.a. (2003). measuring hr? benchmarking is not the answer. hr magazine, 48(12), 56–61. becker, b., huselid, m.a., & beatty, r.w. (2009). the differentiated workforce: transforming talent into strategic impact. boston, ma: harvard business press. becker, b., huselid, m.a., & ulrich, d. (2001). the hr scorecard: linking people, strategy, and performance. boston, ma: harvard business school press. boudreau, j.w., & ramstad, p.m. (2003). strategic i/o psychology and the role of utility analysis models. in w. borman, d. ilgen & r. klimoski (eds.), handbook of psychology: industrial and organizational psychology , vol. 12 (pp. 193–203). new york, ny: john wiley & sons. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/0471264385.wei1209 boudreau, j.w., & ramstad, p.m. (2007). beyond hr: the new science of human capital. boston, ma: harvard business school press. bowen, g. (2008). naturalistic inquiry and the saturation concept: a research note. qualitative research, 8(1), 137–142. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468794107085301 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa brink, h., van der walt, c., & van rensburg, g. (2006). fundamentals of research methodology for health care professionals. cape town, south africa: juta & co. bryman, a., & bell, e. (2003). business research methods. oxford, uk: oxford university press. burkholder, n.c., golas, s., & shapiro, j. (2007). ultimate performance: measuring human resources at work. hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons, inc. cantrell, s., ballow, j.j., & gerkin, j. (2004). how smart hr departments win with business intelligence. in a. wharton & p. cheese (eds.), people, performance, profit: maximizing return on human capital investments, (pp. 84–87). san francisco, ca: montgomery research, inc. cascio, w.f. (2006). the economic impact of employee behaviors on organizational performance. california management review, 48(4), 41–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/41166360 cascio, w.f., & boudreau, j.w.w. (2011). investing in people: financial impact of human resource initiatives. (2nd edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson education, inc. charmaz, k. (2006). constructing grounded theory: a practical guide through qualitative analysis. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications ltd. davis, d. (2005). business research for decision making. belmont, ca: thomson brooks/cole. davis, w.r., johnson, b.d., randolph, d., liberty, h.j., & eterno, j. (2005). comparing police drug allegations with enumerations of drug users/sellers. an international journal of police strategies and management, 28(4), 594–608. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13639510510628686 eriksson, p., & kovalainen, a. (2008). qualitative methods in business research. los angeles, ca: sage publications, inc. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9780857028044 fitz-enz, j. (2007). beyond benchmarking: value-adding metrics. college and university professional association for human resource journal, 58(2), 12–16. fitz-enz, j. (2009). the roi of human capital: measuring the economic value of employee performance. (2nd edn.). new york, ny: american management association. greeff, m. (2011). information collection: interviewing. in a.s. de vos, h. strydom, c.b. fouché & c.s.l. delport (eds.), research at grass roots for the social sciences and human service professions, (4th edn.) (pp. 341–375). pretoria, south africa: van schaik publishers. guba, e.g. (1990). the alternative paradigm dialog. in e.g. guba (ed.), the paradigm dialog, (pp. 17–27). newbury park, ca: sage publications, inc. guba, e.g., & lincoln, y.s. (1994). competing paradigms in qualitative research. in n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds.), handbook of qualitative research, (pp. 105–117). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. guest, g., bunce, a., & johnson, l. (2006). how many interviews are enough? an experiment with data saturation and variability. field methods, 18(1), 59–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1525822x05279903 henning, e., van rensburg, w., & smit, b. (2004). finding your way in qualitative research. pretoria, south africa: van schaik publishers. huselid, m.a., & barnes, b.e. (2003). human capital measurement systems as a source of competitive advantage. retrieved september 13, 2010, from http://www.markhuselid.com/pdfs/articles/2003_huselid_barnes_hrmr.pdf huselid, m.a., becker, b., & beatty, r.w. (2005). the workforce scorecard. boston, ma: harvard business school press. jamrog, j.j., & overholt, m.h. (2006). building a strategic hr function: past, present, future. human resource planning, 27(1), 51–62. jette, d.j., grover, l., & keck, c.p. (2003). a qualitative study of clinical decision making in recommending discharge placement from the acute care setting. physical therapy, 83(3), 224–236. kaplan, r.s., & norton, d.p. (1996). the balanced scorecard: translating strategy into action. boston, ma: harvard business school press. kaplan, r.s., & norton, d.p. (2001). the strategy-focused organization: how balanced scorecard companies thrive in the new business environment. boston, ma: harvard business school press. kearns, p. (2003). hr strategy: business focused, individually centred. oxford, uk: butterworth-heinemann. kearns, p., walters, m., mayo, a., matthewman, j., & syrett, m. (2006). what’s the future for human capital? london, uk: chartered institute of personnel and development. lawler, e.e., & boudreau, j.w. (2009). what makes hr a strategic partner? people & strategy, 32(1), 14–22. lawler, e.e., levenson, a.r., & boudreau, j.w. (2004). hr metrics and analytics: use and impact. human resource planning, 27(4), 27–35. marshall, c., & rossman, g.b. (1999). designing qualitative research. (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. mason, j. (2002). qualitative researching. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. mason, m. (2010). sample size and saturation in phd studies using qualitative interviews. forum qualitative sozialforschung/forum: qualitative social research, 11(3). retrieved april 11, 2014, from http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1428/3027 mays, n., & pope, c. (2000). qualitative research in health care: assessing quality in qualitative research. british medical journal, 320(50), 50–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.320.7226.50 morse, j.m. (1994). designing funded qualitative research. in n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds.), handbook of qualitative research, (pp. 220–235). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. mouton, j. (2001). how to succeed in your master’s and doctoral studies: a south african guide and resource book. pretoria, south africa: van schaik publishers. onwuegbuzie, a.j., & leech, n.l. (2007). validity and qualitative research: an oxymoron? quality & quantity, 41, 233–249. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11135-006-9000-3 patton, m.q. (2002). qualitative research and evaluation methods. (4th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. ritchie, j., & lewis, j. (2004). qualitative research practice: a guide for social science students and researchers. london, uk: sage publications, inc. schurink, w.j., fouché, c.b., & de vos, a.s. (2011). qualitative data analysis and interpretation. in a.s. de vos, h. strydom, c.b. fouché & c.s.l. delport (eds.), research at grass roots for the social sciences and human service professions, (4th edn.) (pp. 397–423). pretoria, south africa: van schaik publishers. singh, p., & latib, m. (2004). achieving breakthrough returns on human capital. in a. wharton & p. cheese (eds.), people, performance, profit: maximizing return on human capital investments, (pp. 160–163). san francisco, ca: montgomery research, inc. sobh, r., & perry, c. (2006). research design and data analysis in realism research. european journal of marketing, 40(11/12), 1194–1209. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090560610702777 sparkes, a.c. (2002). telling tales in sport and physical activity: a qualitative journey. champaign, il: human kinetics. strydom, h., & delport, c.s.l. (2011). sampling and pilot study in qualitative research. in a.s. de vos, h. strydom, c.b. fouché & c.s.l. delport (eds.), research at grass roots for the social sciences and human service professions, (4th edn.) (pp. 390–396). pretoria, south africa: van schaik publishers. taylor, c., gibbs, g.r., & lewins, a. (2005). quality of qualitative analysis. retrieved september 13, 2010, from http://onlineqda.hud.ac.uk/intro_qda/qualitative_analysis.php willig, c. (2008). introducing qualitative research in psychology. new york, ny: open university press. yin, r.k. (2009). case study research: design and methods. (4th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. yin, r.k. (2012). applications of case study research. (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. article information authors: kolawole samuel adeyemo1 chika sehoole1 constancia g. cueno2 affiliations: 1department of education management and policy studies, university of pretoria, groenkloof campus, south africa 2quality assurance unit, cavite state university, philippines correspondence to: kolawole samuel adeyemo email: samuel.adeyemo@up.ac.za postal address: po box 5621, pretoria 0001, south africa dates: received: 08 may 2014 accepted: 13 july 2015 published: 28 sept. 2015 how to cite this article: adeyemo, k.s., sehoole, c., & cueno, c.g. (2015). the use of the job enrichment technique for decision-making in higher education: the case of the philippines. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #645, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.645 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the use of the job enrichment technique for decision-making in higher education: the case of the philippines in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • global challenges facing the academic profession and motivation in higher education • the job characteristic model • methodology    • the implications of job enrichment in philippine higher education    • age and decision-making    • gender and decision-making    • experience as an administrator, level of education and the decision-making position    • demographic characteristics of administrators in this study       • age       • gender       • level of education       • field of specialisation       • position       • experience as an administrator       • level of familiarity with the job enrichment technique       • extent of use of the job enrichment technique       • sampling • results and discussion    • administrators’ demographic characteristics    • administrators’ demographic characteristics and the use of the job enrichment technique    • conclusion and recommendations • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: this article provides an explorative analysis of the use of the job enrichment technique for decision-making in higher education in the philippines. research purpose: the profile of administrators in charge of decision-making was investigated in terms of their level of familiarity with, and use of, this technique in achieving the goals of enriching jobs, retaining staff and ensuring job-motivation in higher education. motivation for the study: given the increasingly competitive higher education environment in which higher education employees, including academics, work, the pressure on their performance, and their search for ideal working conditions, it is important to measure the impact of the job enrichment technique on employee and higher education organisations. research design, approach and method: the study used a quantitative method. the respondents of this study consisted of 206 administrators. spearman rank, correlation coefficient, point bi serial and chi-square were used to analyse the relationships between the demographic characteristics and job enrichment technique. multiple regression coefficient was used to predict job enrichment. main findings: the findings suggest that educational attainment and experience are the most important factors for predicting success as an administrator in higher education. practical and managerial implications: job enrichment should not only focus on the knowledge, experience and skills of administrators, but should be extended to encompass the context and working conditions of employees. contribution: in the context of fiscal austerity measures that result in fewer resources becoming available for higher education, it is important to have competent decision-makers who are able to motivate staff. introduction top ↑ global challenges facing the academic profession and motivation in higher education higher education has been faced with complex decisions caused by the increasing challenge of the availability of public resources for higher education. government must strive to meet competing demands that are made on the fiscal sector, and this has led to several changes and reforms in higher education, worldwide. these changes have occurred in different areas that directly and adversely affect the academic profession: terms and conditions of employment have deteriorated and relative salaries have slumped members of the academic staff are older younger staff members are disproportionately non-tenured and, typically, in part-time employment (bundy, 2006, p. 8). these factors compound problems of enrolment, cost containment, budget limitations, restructuring and public pressure for accountability. resource constraints have led to higher education institutions offering their staff members low salaries and providing poor working conditions which, simultaneously, affect both the performance of the staff and higher education. the literature shows that higher education has attempted to cope with the challenges of improving job satisfaction by joining industry in adopting classical or modern management approaches, such as the job enrichment technique, amongst others, to improve administrative and organisational efficiency (valero, 1997). job enrichment is a motivation technique and it is considered useful in boosting morale of employees and for decision-making. the need to boost employee morale as an important part of management and administration is reflected in a study on australian higher education (bexley, james & arkoudis, 2011), which found that in 20 universities academics were dissatisfied with the lack of recognition of teaching in promotion processes, despite efforts by some universities to include teaching performance and achievement in promotion criteria. in australia close to half of the midto late-career staff members indicated that their work was a source of considerable personal stress. there were observable mobility plans amongst australian academics with statistics showing the following trends: 25% intended moving to an overseas institution 26% intended leaving higher education altogether another 21% intended retiring. their most common reason was dissatisfaction with institutional or sectorial culture (bexley et al., 2011). in the us context rhoades (1998) argues that academics are managed professionals who are increasingly subject to management decisions and are more and more stratified. altbach, reisberg and pacheco (2012) suggest that it has become progressively more difficult to recruit ‘the brightest and the best’ to academic careers. this, in part, is resultant from the fact that neither salaries nor conditions of service are as attractive as they once were. similarly, the philippines and a number of its higher education institutions have faced deep-seated organisational problems. as a result, there were 35.526 displaced workers in different occupational categories – notably in the education sector (department of labour and employment, 2011–2013). reccession, because of the replacement of workers, continued to outpace accession, resulting from the expansion of business activities, including those in the education sector (11.30% vs 1.46%). there were more resignations than layoffs in twelve sub-sectors, including education, and employee-initiated separations or resignations (3.35%) exceeded employer-initiated separations or layoffs (2.94%) (dole, 2011–2013, p. 2). a lack of self-motivation or self-satisfaction has contributed to high rates of separation or resignation. the implication of these factors in higher education is that academic staff members who are not happy with their working conditions are more likely to be absent from work and are more likely to quit when better opportunities become available. this has a negative impact on students as less motivated staff members are unlikely to motivate students to excel in their work, and a high staff turn-over from resignations is likely to impact negatively on the students. moreover, continuity in their learning experience may be disrupted because of exposure to different teaching personnel and styles. the challenges which philippine higher education faces have a global resonance. in order to guard against the negative effects of this challenge, the job enrichment technique is a strategy that this article advocates. the main objective of this study is to investigate and analyse the demographic characteristics of selected administrators at higher education institutions in the philippines in terms of the use of the job enrichment technique for decision-making (figure 1). figure 1: the relationship between variables. this study will contribute new ideas on the use of the job enrichment technique in relation to performance in higher education and, particularly, to its administrators in the decision-making process. effective use of job enrichment techniques is considered essential to motivate employees to a higher level of productivity, and is useful for administrators to improve performance and quality of higher education. the job characteristic model top ↑ several factors can influence heightened job satisfaction and the improved performance of staff members (orpen, 2011). the job characteristic model developed by hackman and oldham (see figure 2) assumes that if five job characteristics are present, such as skills variety, task variety, task significance, autonomy and feedback, then three psychological states, such as experiencing meaningfulness of work, accepting responsibility of work outcomes, and acquiring a knowledge of results critical to motivation, can be produced and these will lead to good performance amongst employees. together the combined characteristics can produce positive outcomes, such as internal work motivation, job satisfaction, growth satisfaction, low absenteeism and high quality performance (see kotila, 2001). if these are combined with a good leadership style, all five of the core dimensions of the job characteristic model in a single job should results in job enrichment (uduji, 2013), which allows both administrators and academics to grow and develop. figure 2: job characteristics model. some elements of the job characteristics model are central to the nature of the academic profession, such as autonomy and feedback, accepting responsibility for work and outcomes and academics need to be given space to do their work. as locke and teichler (2007) suggest, academics are a highly select group of people who have succeeded – in most countries and over long periods of history – therefore the governance of their institutions must ensure the highest quality and significance of higher education. without a strong, well-educated and committed professional body, no academic institution or higher education system can be successful (altbach et al., 2012). for this reason, higher education institutions need to provide ideal conditions for the recruitment and retention of their staff members. retention strategies can include the use of the job enrichment technique in a strategic way to support and create enabling conditions for academics to carry out their work. in educational organisations the focus should be on motivating staff members to contribute to the aims and objectives of higher education in a particular context. in order to achieve this, employees should not be treated as raw material (input) but they should rather be seen as a constituent part of the process of providing quality education (output). lunenburg and ornstein (2008) categorise the operation of higher education into three parts, namely: input, transformation process and output. they explain that output includes: employee performance the growth levels of employees employee turn-over employee absenteeism employee-management relations school community relations employee job satisfaction. in order to avoid the negative effects of a lack of output, administrators in decision-making positions should become familiar with the job enrichment technique, and do so efficiently and effectively to achieve the goals of increasing job performance and the retention staff. a long-standing debate concerns whether or not job satisfaction and a high level of morale improve efficiency and performance in a system, such as higher education. therefore, it is important to examine the demographic characteristics of administrators who make decisions in higher education, in order to determine their ability to achieve the goals of increasing job performance and the retention of staff rather than to continuously lose them. methodology top ↑ the study used multivariate analysis of variance to analyse the use of the job enrichment technique, by staff administrators at universities in the cavite province of the philippines, for decision-making at their institutions. a survey questionnaire designed by valero (1997) was adapted to gather the relevant data from 163 administrators using the simple random sampling technique. the items were arranged in different major segments: questions were asked to gather information regarding the demographic characteristics of the respondents, including age, gender, position, experience as an administrator, educational attainment and field of specialisation. further questions on their familiarity with the job enrichment technique were designed in such a way that they would allow for a matrix of multiple responses from the administrators. familiarity was categorised into four possible responses: not familiar somehow familiar (no expertise) somewhat familiar (limited expertise) very familiar (expert in its use). to gather data concerning the extent of the use of the job enrichment technique, an organised matrix table was designed. the columns were labelled in terms of four options: never use occasionally use (irregularly) frequently use (repeatedly) always use (extensively). the data were analysed using the statistical package for social sciences (spss). to ensure the reliability of the data and to reduce chances of bias, the first part of the questionnaire collected demographic information of the administrators, and the other parts dealt with the level of familiarity and extent of use of the job enrichment technique. the aim was to compare the profile of administrators with the answers they supplied in other part of the questionnaire. where there were discrepancies in the information that was supplied, follow-up interviews were conducted to address and clarify these discrepancies. in addition, document analysis of personnel information/appraisal was conducted for triangulation purposes. a literature review was conducted to assess the relevance and applicability of the job enrichment technique in the broader higher education environment – other than the philippines. the implications of job enrichment in philippine higher education there have been prior studies on the use of the job enrichment technique (leach & wall, 2004; niehoff, moorman, blakely & fuller, 2008; uduji, 2013; umstot, bell & mitchell, 1976). however, few of these studies examine job enrichment in relation to performance in higher education and, particularly, to its administrators in decision-making (see, for example, orpen, 2011). hence, we examine the demographic characteristics of administrators who make decisions in order to determine which of these features will assist them in becoming familiar with, and in using, the job enrichment technique efficiently and effectively. making decisions that enhance the job performance of staff at higher education institutions is one of the key roles of higher education administrators. in emphasising this role, the philippine education act of 1985 demands accountability from administrators on decisions taken that are related to the efficient and effective administration and management of their various institutions (sarmiento iii, 2008). the act mandates all administrators to take full responsibility for their decisions, assuming that they have the expertise and experience to occupy dynamic and decision-making positions (adeyemo, 2013). this responsibility includes motivating staff to perform in terms of quality teaching and learning. a benefit of improved job enrichment is a higher level of staff retention which contributes to ensuring that quality service is rendered (riehl, 2000). to achieve the objectives of higher education, job enrichment can be used as a motivating technique whereby employees are given the opportunity to use their abilities (pillai, masood, amoodi, husain & koshy, 2012) and be rewarded accordingly. hence, job enrichment can be seen as a critical determinant of job involvement and, subsequently, impacts on organisational effectiveness and success (govender & parumasur, 2010). the effective use of job enrichment can reverse the effects of boredom, lack of flexibility and employee dissatisfaction (leach & wall, 2004). thus, performance can be enhanced and achieved if employees are motivated and satisfied. however, both employees and organisations need to be assessed and their short-comings addressed before job enrichment can be effective or achieve the expected performance. there is a need to know whether or not employees prefer jobs that involve responsibility, variety, feedback, challenge, accountability, significance and opportunity in order to understand how to motivate them without changing their job classification (cunningham & eberle, 1990). enriching jobs are particularly effective in developing employees, provided that the jobs are truly enriched and that the process does not just increase the amount of work required of them (brown, 2004). similarly, job enrichment should encourage employees to operate more efficiently if they are allowed to take responsibility, learn new skills, and are prepared to advance to a higher position. consequently, the employees’ loyalty can be developed (niehoff et al., 2008) and they are, thus, likely to stay with an employer for longer. it is evident that job enrichment has a positive effect on job performance (umstot et al., 1976). if job enrichment can provide such benefits to staff members in educational organisations, then it is important to pay attention to its effective use in the decision-making process. age and decision-making in terms of age, for instance, queen and hess (2010) argue that there is little difference between young and old when it comes to making sensitive decisions. however, age differences are likely to become more significant when it comes to complex decision-making. they further claim that the effects of age in decision-making are not universal. jennings, hunt and munn (1996) believe that most unethical decisions are made by members of the younger age group. in the philippines the commission on higher education (ched) issued memorandum order no. 6, series of 2009 which pegged the minimum age of applicants for a position at state universities and colleges (suc). for the position of president, chancellor or vice-chancellor, candidates should not be less than 35 years of age and not more than 61 at the time of their application (ched, 2009). adeyemo (2013) reports that many administrators in higher education in the philippines are in their 50s, whilst a report by the rand corporation (1994–2011) asserts that the majority of administrators will not remain in their jobs beyond the age of 55. for instance, only 14.1% and 44.8% of the administrators of this age category were ‘somehow’ (no expertise) and ‘somewhat’ (limited expertise) familiar with the job enrichment technique, respectively, whilst 41.1% of them frequently used it and 9.8% never used it (adeyemo, 2013). however, the frequent use of this technique by administrators has not provided a solution for the problem of a high staff turnover rate in the philippines. these findings do not reveal that older administrators are able to make more effective decisions or that they are very familiar with, or able to apply, job enrichment in decision-making in their various departments or institutions. gender and decision-making in his study bell (1995) suggests that male administrators set the standard for what is valued and that female administrators have to prove themselves as effective leaders. rather than being gender-related manjider and priyan (2009) believe that the relevant education that builds knowledge and broadens continuous and comprehensive experience is important for effective decision-making. essentially, this implies that administrators require relevant training and experience in related fields to perform well in their roles. according to the icfai university (2005), training should not just focus on stimulating diverse thinking but it should also remove mental blocks, such as the fear of failure, the fear of rejection, and the fear of disapproval. this is even more important in a higher education context where academics cherish their autonomy and are more likely to insist on their rights. grogan and andrews (2002) emphasise equal opportunity in assigning positions to employees because poor decision-making comes from a lack of knowledge as well as a lack of experience (jackson & kelley, 2002; knapp, copland & talbert, 2003) and not, necessarily, from gender differences. when applied to academics, poor decision-making can lead to the undermining of, and a lack of respect for, decision-makers. experience as an administrator, level of education and the decision-making position given the complexities and the challenges in higher education for academics, in relation to their working conditions, it is important to examine the experience and level of education of administrators in higher education, with a view to identifying the skills and ideal working conditions which would be relevant for the management of the academics. macdade (2008) explained that administrators in the united states scarcely anticipated their current administrative positions and they had minimal management training. in surveys of secondary and higher education, administrators have indicated their need for qualifications in related fields of management and sufficient administrative experience before moving into senior leadership positions (macdade, 2008). therefore, administrators need both the skills which can be acquired through formal training and experience in order to have complete mastery of all leadership and management roles in an educational organisation. in the philippines, the ched memorandum no. 16, series of 2009 stipulates that applicants for the post of president or chancellor at suc must have at least 5 years of work experience, preferably in an academic field, as president or chancellor, vice-president or vice-chancellor, dean, campus administrator or director. consequently, decision-making positions cannot be assigned arbitrarily or on the basis of age and gender because productivity and performance are linked to evidence of administrators possessing relevant education, training and experience. in other words, performance is an outcome of trained and experienced administrators. because of politics – and for many other discriminatory reasons – leadership positions are occupied by staff members with little or no experience (adeyemo, 2013). this practice has not only contributed to low quality education but it is also responsible for the slow growth and development of many higher education institutions. demographic characteristics of administrators in this study the demographic characteristics of administrators in this study include age, gender, level of education, field of specialisation, position and years of experience as an administrator. age the age of administrators who participated in the study was categorised in terms of establishing whether they were young, middle-aged, old or older. gender gender was categorised as either male or female. level of education level of education was used to determine whether administrators possessed a bachelor's degree or whether master's degree studies were being undertaken or completed, or whether doctoral studies were being undertaken or had been completed. field of specialisation field of specialisation in this context refers to the administrators’ area of specialisation. this was classified into management, medical, science and social sciences. position administrators’ positions were categorised as: administrative executive that includes president, chancellor, school director and vice-president, deputy vice-chancellor for administration administrative operative that includes administrative directors, administrative heads and coordinators. academic executive includes vice-president and vice-chancellor for academic affairs; and dean, chairman, and academic coordinator, which were classified as academic operative positions. experience as an administrator the administrators’ years of experience were categorised as reflected in table 1. table 1: range qualitative description in terms of administrators’ experience. level of familiarity with the job enrichment technique the level of familiarity with the job enrichment technique was classified in terms of whether administrators were ‘very familiar’, ‘somewhat familiar’, ‘somehow familiar’, or ‘not familiar’ with this technique. extent of use of the job enrichment technique the extent of use of the job enrichment technique by administrators was classified in terms of whether administrators ‘always’, ‘frequently’, ‘occasionally’, or ‘never’ used it in their institutions or departments. sampling refer to table 2 for the sampling. table 2: distribution of administrators by population, sample size and actual number of respondents. results and discussion top ↑ the results and discussion are in terms of the administrators’ demographic characteristics and their use of the job enrichment technique. administrators’ demographic characteristics it was found that administrators in the population sample of this study were mostly 50 years and older (31.9%). female administrators were in the majority in academic and administrative positions (57.7%). a master's degree or phd ongoing (39.3%) was the highest educational qualification held by the administrators. many administrators specialised in social science fields (32.5%) and many occupied academic operative positions (47.7%), such as dean, director, chairman, and coordinator. the majority of administrators (52.8%) had less than 5 years’ experience. the majority of the institutions were privately owned and operated. an analysis of the results shows that administrators in management positions were female and much older than other administrative employees, their education qualifications were below the minimum requirement for the role and were not in a related field of management and they had insufficient work experience in the area of higher education. this poor profile of administrators has implications for decisions that are made which can also affect academics. the findings confirm the requirements stipulated in the ched memorandum order no. 6, series of 2009 that the minimum age of applicants for suc presidency must not be less than 35 years and not more than 61 at the time of the application. it is also in line with the report of the rand corporation (1994–2011) that found that there were relatively few principals (administrators) in their positions beyond the age of 55. the results imply that administrators in charge of decision-making are relatively older people, but there is no evidence that age helps older administrators make effective decisions to retain staff or that these administrators are very familiar with – or, indeed, always use – the technique. in terms of the gender, the majority (57.7%) of administrators in this study are female. the findings are similar to those of rodeles (2009), who found that the majority of respondents were female, in his study of environmental conditions at a college of education attached to the de lasalle university-dasmarinas in the philippines in the school year, 2006–2007. it strengthens the statement by sarmiento (2008) that gender is not a requirement, but only that an administrator must be a filipino. the majority of administrators in higher education in the philippines are female and, if the decisions they are making have not significantly impacted on job-motivation or satisfaction of employees, it is questionable whether or not filipino female administrators are really able to perform their roles. it should, therefore, be ensured that male and foreign administrators are also well-represented for skills transfer purposes – a way of internationalising the philippines’ higher education. in terms of educational attainment, the majority of administrators in the sample (39.3%) had a master's degree and were studying towards a doctorate, followed by those with a bachelor's degree (30%) and a doctorate. only 25.8% had completed their doctorate, which is required for a decision-making position in higher education. the study revealed that the majority of administrators in higher education were people who were likely to struggle in making decisions. they would also struggle to integrate people into a work situation that would motivate them to work together productively to achieve the objectives of higher education. the primary duties, of administrators in enriching jobs, are to help employees release and guide their inner drives which they already have in terms of expected performance. this responsibility requires that administrators should have been trained in advanced management and should be experienced in using management-decision tools which require a high-level qualification. this is a fusion process which, simultaneously, serves both personal and organisational objectives (davis, 1997). in terms of field of specialisation, the majority of the respondents in the sample for this study specialised mainly in social sciences (32.5%), followed by management (23.9%) and then medicine (17.2%). the findings contradict sarmiento's (2008) recommendation that administrators should hold appropriate degrees. an appropriate degree is one in a field of specialisation that is relevant to the administrator's prospective or present position in a department or faculty. it is considered relevant for administrators to hold an academic degree in the field of management, and to use job enrichment to achieve the goals of job-motivation and satisfaction. the implications of these results are that administrators are not able to use the job enrichment technique and that the veracity behind the use of decision-making techniques and the management of higher education is not known to them. in terms of the position, the majority of respondents in the sample for this study hold academic operative positions (41.7%), followed by academic executive positions (13.5%). the findings clearly show that administrators are paid to make decisions, as the majority are operative academics, such as deans and heads of department. however, there is no evidence to show the importance of these positions or the quality of output of such decision-making positions, as the majority of the administrators do not qualify academically for their positions and they have not acquired experience to make job-enriching decisions for their employees. with regard to the years of experience of administrators, the majority of the respondents in this sample (52.8%) are newly appointed administrators with less than 5 years of administrative experience in an administrative position – followed by those who had up to 10 years of experience (21.5%). the findings demonstrate non-compliance with section 5 of ched memorandum no. 16, series of 2009 which requires an applicant for the post of suc president, chancellor or vice-chancellor to have at least 5 years of experience – preferably in academic employment as president, vice-president, dean, campus administrator or director. the findings show that the majority of administrators have less than 5 years of experience and this may explain some of the limitations these administrators have in terms of their ability to manage the dynamics of a higher education organisation. in the philippine context, this situation reflects poor working conditions and salaries which also affect academics and lead to a high staff turnover (dole, 2011–2013). one of the signs of deteriorating human relations is the phenomenon known as ‘low morale’. high morale is the hallmark of a well-managed higher education institution, but it cannot be forced into existence or bought. higher education must provide conditions and an environment to make it happen. it is, fundamentally, the result of the good application of the job enrichment technique. administrators’ demographic characteristics and the use of the job enrichment technique the findings, concerning the relationship between administrators’ characteristics and their use of enrichment techniques, reveal that only educational attainment (r = 0.303) in related fields and experience as an administrator can facilitate the use of the job enrichment technique (table 3). this, subsequently, will lead to job-motivation and satisfaction of employees. other demographic characteristics, such as age, gender, and position were found not to be significantly related to the use of the job enrichment technique. however, administrators should have achieved an appropriate level of education to be able to use the job enrichment technique to create job satisfaction and high performance amongst employees and to discourage constant separations or resignations from jobs. this supports the findings of jackson and kelley (2002), and knapp et al. (2003) who maintain that poor decision-making is the result of a lack of knowledge as well as experience. it is, therefore, believed that the limitations of education and experience do affect administrators’ levels of familiarity with, and use of, the job enrichment technique at their institutions. table 3: relationship between administrators’ demographic characteristics and the use of job enrichment technique. without relevant experience and qualifications in job enrichment in the philippines – and in other places – administrators will not be able to manage staff members, as they are not likely to be able to utilise management language for boosting moral, nor are they likely to acquire sound information for effective decision-making. decision-making positions require a sound knowledge of the complex modern human environment in order to enrich employees in their overall performance in the higher education system of any country. there is no magic mirror on which administrators can depend to reflect the attitudes of employees (cavite state university module, 2008). they need to actively interact with staff members and learn about their attitudes. in contemporary higher education organisations, major changes have occurred in employee relations policies which have attracted more unqualified academics and have resulted in losing highly qualified academics who have the potential to improve the organisation system of higher education from the inside. more specifically, there is no guarantee that untrained or inexperienced administrators can fill the gap in making decisions concerning job enrichment and satisfaction. table 4 reflects the predictors of the job enrichment technique. the results show that the attainment of an advanced degree (0.33) is a determinant in the use of job enrichment for effective decision-making. therefore, administrators should have an advanced degree or its equivalent to be familiar with, and to be able to use, the job enrichment and motivation technique. table 4: predictors of job enrichment. the findings suggest that only educational attainment and years of experience as an administrator determine or predict familiarity with the role and the use of the job enrichment technique. although the experience of administrators is important, the level of educational attainment is considered to be more significant in the order of priorities. nevertheless, the philippines’ higher education has called for internal organisational reform, which is not limited to an improved salary structure and good working conditions, but also to the availability of resources to attract and to retain highly qualified staff in terms of job satisfaction and performance. conclusion and recommendations this article provides an explorative analysis of the use of the job enrichment technique for decision-making in higher education in the philippines. it has analysed the impact of this technique on employees and higher education organisations. the profile of administrators in charge of decision-making was investigated in terms of their level of familiarity with, and use of, this technique in achieving the goals of enriching jobs, retaining staff and ensuring job-motivation in higher education. given the increasingly competitive higher education environment in which higher education employees find themselves, the pressure on their performance, and their search for ideal working conditions, it is important to have competent decision-makers who are able to motivate staff. it is recommended that administrators should have a relevant qualification and sufficient experience in working in higher education institutions before assuming supervisory roles at educational institutions. these requirements are strongly recommended for administrators, as past experience has an influence on future performance and determines the outcomes and successes of their institutions. this study further recommends that government regulatory bodies in charge of higher education should examine and place an emphasis and re-emphasise on the administrators’ fields of specialisation, their experience as administrators, and their levels of educational attainment. these should be part of the critical requirements to be considered before any learning institution may be issued with a permit to operate as a higher education institution. this should also apply to the appointment of the head of a higher education institution. finally, job enrichment should not only focus on the knowledge, experience and skills of administrators, but should be extended to encompass the context and working conditions of employees. higher education should also be well-resourced to attract a high calibre of qualified and experienced academic and the job enrichment technique should be used to achieve desired results. the appropriate use of resources, combined with well-trained and qualified decision-makers will go far in developing the capacity to reverse the slump in conditions of employment, such as poor salaries, increased workloads and stress levels, and the compounding challenges of motivating academic staff in terms of efficiency. this, in turn, will result in creating ideal conditions to attract the brightest minds to the academic profession, which is important in an increasingly globalised world where academics should be encouraged and their jobs should be enriched in order for them to perform optimally in the workplace. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions k.s.a. (university of pretoria) was the lead writer and responsible for the research conceptualisation, prepared samples, data collection and interpretation. c.s. (university of pretoria) was responsible for literature review writing and c.g.c. (cavite state university) supervised the research project and the design. references top ↑ adeyemo, k.s. (2013). management techniques for school administrators: decision-making paradigm. philippines: rex publications. altbach, p., reisberg, l., & pacheco, i. (2012). paying the professoriate: a global comparison of compensation and contracts. new york: routledge. bell, m. (1995). the social construction of gender in the superintendency. journal of education policy, 15(3), 93–316. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02680930050030446 bexley, e., james, r., & arkoudis, s. (2011). the australian academic profession in transition: addressing the challenge of reconceptualising academic work and regenerating the academic workforce. retrieved april 08, 2014, from http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/people/bexley_docs/the_academic_profession_in_transition_sept2011.pdf brown, r. (2004). design jobs that motivate and develop people. retrieved august 22, 2013, from http://www.media-associates.co.nz/fjobdesign.html bundy, c. (2006). global patterns, local options: changes in higher education internationally and some implications for south africa, in (che 2006). kagisano, 4 (winter), 1–20. cavite state university (cvsu) module. (2008). strategic human resources management (hrem 215). unpublished cvsu phd module. commission on higher education (ched). (2009). commission on higher education report. retrieved february 15, 2011, from http://202.57.63.198/chedwww/index.php/eng/information/ched-publications/annual-reports cunningham, j.b., & eberle, t. (1990). a guide to job enrichment and redesign. retrieved august 20, 2013, from http://faculty.washington.edu/~janegf/jeguide.pdf davis, k. (1997). human behaviour at work: organizational behaviour. (5th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. deom drez, j. (1999). motivation through needs, job design, and satisfaction. chapter 7, slide 20. retrieved february 14, 2014, from http://www.sui.edu/departments/cola/psyc323/chat07/index.htm department of labour and employment (dole). (2011–2013). bureau of labour and employment statistics. retrieved june 19, 2013, from http://www.bles.dole.gov.ph/publications/current%20labor%20statistics/statistical%20tables/ecls_january.pdf govender, p., & parumasur, s. (2010). evaluating the roles and competencies that are critical considerations for management development. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 1–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.835 grogan, m., & andrews, a. (2002). defining preparation and professional development for the future. educational administration quarterly, 38(2), 233–256. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013161x02038002008 icfai university. (2005). managerial effectiveness: managing the self and others. icfai center for management research. hyderabad: icfai university press. jackson, b.l., & kelley, c. (2002). exceptional and innovative programs in educational leadership. educational administration quarterly, 38, 192–212. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013161x02382005 jennings, d.f., hunt, t.g., & munn, j.r. (1996). ethical decision-making: an extension to the group level. journal of managerial issues, 8, 425–439. knapp, m.s., copland, m.a., & talbert, j.e. (2003). leading for learning: reflection tools for school and district leaders. seattle, wa: center for the study of teaching and policy. kotila, o. (2001). job enrichment. retrieved august 22, 2013, from http://academic.emporia.edu/smithwil/001fmg456/eja/kotila456.html leach, d., & wall, t. (2004). what is job design? retrieved august 22, 2013, from http://www.shef.ac.uk/~iwp/publications/whatis/job_design.pdf locke, w., & teichler, u. (2007). the changing conditions of academic work and careers in select countries. kassel: university of kassel. lunenburg, f., & ornstein, a. (2008). decision making. educational administration: concepts and practices. (5th edn.). thomson brooks/cole. (electronic version) retrieved january 09, 2011, from https://books.google.co.za/books?id=rfkiaaaaqbaj&pg=pt343&lpg=pt343&dq=lunenburg,+f.+and+%26+ornstein,+a.+(2008),&source=bl&ots=prsc-dz_ml&sig=qzngxele76pdxie7nqhw6avvuee&hl=en&sa=x&ved=0cdgq6aewbwovchmigpc7wqgkxwivhekuch2ytwcz#v=onepage&q=lunenburg%2c%20f.%20and%20%26%20ornstein%2c%20a.%20(2008)%2c&f=false macdade, s.a. (2008). higher education leadership development in the marketplace. in a.k. kezar (ed.), rethinking leadership in a complex multicultural, and global environment: new concepts and model for higher education (pp. 213–230). stylus publishing, llc. manjider, k.t., & priyan, k. (2009). higher education: reforms in teacher education. the international journal of research and review, 3, 50. mione, p. (n.d.). job enrichment. retrieved august 22, 2013, from http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/arossett/pie/interventions/jobdesign_1.htm niehoff, b.p., moorman, r.h., blakely, g., & fuller, j. (2008). the influence of employment and job enrichment on employee loyalty in a downsizing environment. organizational research method, 11, 148–159. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1059601101261006 orpen, c. (2011). the effect of job enrichment on employee satisfaction, motivation, involvement, and performance: a field experiment. human relations, 59, 783–814. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001872677903200301 pillai, k.r., masood, a., amoodi, s.s., husain, k., & koshy, r. (2012). factors underlying job enrichment among expatriate employees: a regional perspective. abhigyan: the free library. retrieved june 13, 2013, from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/factors+underlying+job+enrichment+among+expatriate+employees%3a+a...-a0315222381 queen, t.l., & hess, t.m. (2010). age differences in the effects of conscious and unconscious thought in decision-making. psychology and aging, 25(2), 251. pmid: 20545411, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0018856 rand corporation report. (1994–2011). retrieved january 08, 2011, from http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/mr1679/mr1679.ch7.pdf riehl, b. (2000). job enrichment: one avenue to retaining strong staff and providing quality service or they really can do more than interpret. retrieved march 12, 2011, from http://www.pepnet.org/confpast/2000/pdf/riehl.pdf rhoades, g. (1998). managed professionals: unionized faculty and restructuring academic labour. new york: suny press. rodeles, f.o. (2009). the environmental condition of the college of education sy 2006–2007: input to paascu accreditation. the la salle university-dasmarinas journal of education, 2, 139–145. sarmiento iii, u.p. (2008). the manual of regulation for private higher institution (electronic version). retrieved april 16, 2010, from http://www.ched.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/manual-of-regulations-for-private-higher-education.pdf uduji, j.i. (2013). job enrichment: a panacea to the problem of the demotivated marketing executive in the banking industry in nigeria. european journal of business and management, 5, 13. umstot, d.d., bell, c.h., & mitchell, t.r. (1976). effect of job enrichment and task goals on satisfaction and productivity: implication for job design. journal of applied psychology, 61(14), 379–394. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.61.4.379 valero, c.a. (1997). application of qualitative and quantitative techniques of management in administrative/academic decision-making in institution of higher education in virginia. unpublished doctoral thesis, virginia polytechnic institute and state university. retrieved november 12, 2010, from http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/public/etd-65916251972550/etd.pdf article information authors: ruth penfold1 linda ronnie1 affiliations: 1graduate school of business, university of cape town, breakwater campus, south africa correspondence to: linda ronnie email: linda.ronnie@gsb.uct.ac.za postal address: portswood road, green point 8001, south africa dates: received: 09 mar. 2015 accepted: 10 sept. 2015 published: 02 dec. 2015 how to cite this article: penfold, r., & ronnie, l. (2015). peer-to-peer psychological contracts in the south african wine industry. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #701, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.701 note: this article is partially based on the master of business administration degree thesis by ruth penfold, supervised by dr l. ronnie at graduate school of business at the university of cape town, december 2009. copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. peer-to-peer psychological contracts in the south african wine industry in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • purpose    • literature review       • the south african wine industry       • the psychological contract • types of contracts • the role of social cues and social influence • method    • the research context    • data gathering • ethical considerations    • measures    • data organisation, coding, and analysis • findings    • support for the existence of peer-to-peer psychological contracts    • the influence of peer-to-peer relationships on the psychological contract • social hierarchies and peer relationships    • the influence of a facilitated relationship between employee and employer • discussion • conclusion    • future research and limitations • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: very few studies examine the impact of peer relationships on the psychological contract. research purpose: using the backdrop of wine farm workers in the western cape, south africa, the aim of our study was to explore the nature of peer relationships shaping the psychological contract. motivation for the study: the agricultural sector of south africa, in particular the wine farms in the western cape, has undergone radical change in the past decades as a result of labour legislation and changing government structures. it was therefore expected that these changes would influence the psychological contracts held by wine farm workers. research approach, design and method: this qualitative study sampled all 24 full-time employees and 2 managers on the constantia hills wine estate in cape town, south africa. semi-structured interviews were conducted using the critical incident technique in combination with a series of open questions. main findings: our findings showed support for the existence of peer-to-peer psychological contracts and noted the valuable influence of a suitable conduit individual on the relationship between employees and their employer. practical and/or managerial implications: wine farm workers in south africa have a strong need to be consulted after a lifetime of having no voice. in addition to ensuring suitable levels of two-way communication, management must understand the inter-peer contract and the nature of the relationships sustaining it. contribution: whilst literature has suggested that management of the psychological contract lies firmly within the domain of the employer, our findings indicated that ensuring harmonious peer-to-peer contracts was also central to good working relationships. introduction top ↑ purpose various studies have been conducted, using different sample groups, investigating the nature and content of psychological contracts as well as the factors impacting on their formation (bal, chiaburu & diaz, 2011; conway & coyle-shapiro, 2012; eckerd, hill, boyer, donohue & ward, 2013; nadin & williams, 2012). most of these studies have been done in developed countries (hui, lee & rousseau, 2004) with very little focus on the nature and form of employment relationships in the developing world (hipkin, 2000; lee & mohamed, 2006). apart from these studies, there appears to be very little evidence of research on the nature of, and factors influencing, the psychological contract amongst poorly skilled and semi-skilled employees of differing levels of literacy and education. using the backdrop of wine farm workers in the constantia valley, south africa, this article explores the peer relationships shaping the psychological contract of this group of employees. literature review the south african wine industry the agricultural sector of south africa, in particular the wine farms in the western cape, has undergone radical change in the past decade as a result of labour legislation, changing government structures and increasing feminisation of the labour force (du toit, kruger & ponte, 2008; mcewan & bek, 2006). historically, the south african wine industry has employed predominantly local, mixed race labourers who have lived and worked on the farm, often under poor conditions, for low wages and in the shadow of a paternalistic culture (ewert & du toit, 2005; ewert & hamman, 1999; williams, 2005). apartheid restricted these workers’ access to decent education and forced them to be reliant on white farmers for their basic needs such as housing, water and transport. these factors shaped a social identity of dependence, poor self-esteem and powerlessness (ewert & du toit, 2005). the paternalistic culture, in conjunction with these factors, resulted in an exchange of employee submission for employer protection. this paternalistic relationship could therefore be seen as the generic psychological contract within the south african wine industry of the past. this type of employment relationship is unique to the agricultural industry and, surprisingly, was sustained by both parties (du toit, 1993). this is evidenced by the low levels of unionisation in the agricultural industry compared to that of other industries (ewert & hamman, 1999). this also suggests the possibility that not much has changed in the area of the psychological contract amongst mixed race wine farm workers and their traditionally white male bosses, despite the transformation efforts of the government. this article contributes to existing literature on the psychological contract through capturing the nuances and influences of relationships within the workplace. it specifically focusses on the nature of peer relationships shaping the psychological contract as well as on the role and impact of those relationships on the formation of the contract. the study promotes an understanding of the unique nature of this contract amongst wine farm workers and establishes key factors that affect and hold sway over it. this brings insight into potential effective people management strategies that would improve employee engagement and enhance business performance. the psychological contract originally, the psychological contract per se was not defined. instead, it was seen as the mutual expectations existing between the employee and the employer (argyris, 1960). it later became recognised as characterising the expectations of both the employees and employers regarding their symbiotic relationship (hui et al., 2004). rousseau (1989, p. 123) defines the psychological contract as ‘an individual’s beliefs regarding the terms and conditions of a reciprocal exchange agreement between the focal person and another party’, whilst mclean parks, kidder and gallagher (1998, p. 698) refer to it as ‘the idiosyncratic set of reciprocal expectations held by employees concerning their obligations [what they will do for the employer] and their entitlements [what they expect to receive in return]’. a central feature of this contract is the voluntary assent of the individual to make and accept certain promises as he or she understands them (rousseau, 2011). there is a perception of mutualism and agreement even if the understanding of that agreement is not in fact the same for both parties. this idiosyncrasy of the psychological contract is an important aspect to be aware of as it makes it difficult to manage (guest, isaksson & de witte, 2010). the psychological contract has been used to describe the diverse range of contemporary employment relationships (millward & brewerton, 2000; zhao, wayne, glibkowski & bravo, 2007), as well as to predict employees’ attitudes and well-being (de cuyper, rigotti, de witte & mohr, 2008). the key issue emerging from rousseau’ s (1989) research is that the psychological contract is dependent upon the belief that a promise, either implicit or explicit, has been made and that a consideration has been made in exchange for it. this binds the two parties to a set of reciprocal obligations. seeing the psychological contract as merely the expectations of the employee does not capture the fuller, promise-based, reciprocal nature of the psychological contract (coyle-shapiro & kessler, 2002; nadin & williams, 2012). types of contracts top ↑ there are four main types of contracts that impact organisations and fall under the umbrella of social exchange theory: psychological, normative, implied, and social contracts. they are summarised in table 1. the significance of the normative contract in relation to wine farm workers and their individually held psychological contracts is that ‘belief in a shared set of obligations can create social pressures to adhere to those commitments, institutionalising the contract as part of the shared culture of the organisation’ (rousseau, 1995, p. 11). the psychological contract is also perceived as part of the set of normative beliefs that are associated with organisational culture and rewards (coyle-shapiro, shore, taylor & tetrick, 2004; guest et al., 2010). this has implications for the wine industry as, when a normative contract exists, employees associate themselves in comparable ways with both the organisation and with each other (rousseau, 1995). table 1: types of contracts. on most south african wine farms, cellar and farm workers will traditionally work in teams that may hold collective beliefs around the organisation’s commitments to them and their obligations to the organisation. these beliefs are most likely to stem from the subjective internalisation of the meaning of the paternalism system described earlier. this may, in turn, shape the entire team’s behaviour, impacting the organisation positively or negatively depending on the nature of those beliefs and the degree to which the organisation is perceived to have accepted the normative contract. it would also seem that such normative contracts may impact the organisational culture, thus influencing performance and motivation. the role of social cues and social influence top ↑ social cues influence predominantly the psychological contract through social information processing. this is the process whereby employees adopt the attitudes and behaviours of those around them through information obtained from co-workers by direct interaction, observation or both (conway & briner, 2005; ho & levesque, 2005). rousseau (1995) sees this information from co-workers as the most powerful source of organisational information. social cues provide messages for contract creation, impart social pressure, and influence how the messages are decoded. of particular interest in the context of wine farm workers is the role that social cues play in conveying social pressure to conform to the group’s interpretation of terms. reliance on a team to complete activities is a characteristic of the job of wine farm workers. social pressure is thus likely to be an important factor influencing the shaping of their psychological contract (guest et al., 2010; tomprou & nikolaou, 2011). social influence has been found to occur even when objective information is available (klein, 1997). employees are primarily influenced by two sets of social referents. the first is termed ‘relational others’, that is, those persons with whom an employee has direct contact and social proximity. the second group is ‘positionally similar others’. this group may be used as a benchmark for the employee to make judgments around fairness, contract fulfilments and job-specific entitlements (ho & levesque, 2005). the implication is that employees will continually re-assess their psychological contract in order to moderate it relative to the cues of their social referents, making it more similar to theirs over time in addition, having just a general sense of the content of the existing psychological contract amongst some key employees will provide managers with enough information to make reasonable judgments about the expectations of referent others (ho & levesque, 2005). this in turn will aid the understanding and fulfilment of their psychological contract. in the light of this, the aim of our study was to gain insight into the relationships with others that affect the shaping of the psychological contract of wine farm workers as well as the impact of these relationships on the formation of the contract. in investigating these relationships, the research adds to the existing body of knowledge that sheds light on the multiple contract makers in the formation of the psychological contract, the ways in which employees respond and relate to their organisations, and the role of management in becoming more perceptive in their observation of employee interactions and the social hierarchies that exist in organisations if they wish to understand and manage the psychological contract. method top ↑ the research context the study was conducted at the constantia hills wine estate in the constantia valley, south africa. it is well-established as a wine brand both locally and internationally. constantia hills has been producing wine since 1689 and the area is considered to be a key producer of quality wines (van zyl, 2013). sixty eight percent of the employees at constantia hills have been employed on the farm in excess of 10 years in various roles, with 28% exceeding the 15 year service mark. this ensured that the impact of the historical employee-employer relationship was captured in the data collected during the study. the profile of the research participants, all full-time employees at constantia hills, reflected the composition typically found on wine farms in south africa during apartheid: the senior management team and owner were white males, while the entire labour force was mixed race. of the employees, 60% were male and 40% female, with 64% having close relatives also working on the farm. furthermore, 92% of all employees lived in the same township, in houses built for them by constantia hills. this township was also home to many of the employees of the surrounding wine farms. the farm and packaging departments employed the majority of the staff. seventy two percent of all the wine farm workers were 36 years of age and older. thus, most of the employees on constantia hills have had work experience within the old paternalistic employment relationship that characterised agriculture in the apartheid era data gathering all full-time employees and two managers were interviewed. this meant that the entire population of all the farm workers (including cellar staff, packaging staff, general labourers, and farm labourers) was represented and so no issues of representativeness could arise in the data. the management views were sought to gain their overall impression of the existing relationship between themselves and the employees. the employee sample consisted of 19 long-standing and five recently employed permanent staff. almost half the employee participants had no more than a grade 7 education with 20% being illiterate. these indicators are a product of the legacy of apartheid in south africa and clearly reflect the predominance of the older generation amongst the workers of constantia hills. only one employee had completed her formal schooling, and none had completed tertiary education. this was in stark contrast to the two members of the management team who held tertiary qualifications. ethical considerations top ↑ there were two major ethical concerns in the study. the first was that several of the respondents had low levels of literacy. this made them vulnerable to external influence and possible misunderstanding regarding the use of the data they provided. in addition, they traditionally came from an employment relationship where the power differential between them and the employer may be considered very large. it was therefore important to provide full assurance of anonymity and give a comprehensive explanation of the nature and scope of the study verbally, in their home language, prior to the data collection. full assurance of their right to withdraw from the research at any time was also given verbally and their informed consent acquired. secondly, confidentiality issues around the data needed to be addressed with the organisation prior to the data collection. the names of the respondents and the organisation have therefore all been disguised in the study. measures demographic indicators such as age, tenure, job level, race, education and levels of literacy were gathered from the administration officer at constantia hills in order to contextualise the case. semi-structured interviews of between 30 min to an hour were conducted using the critical incident technique in combination with a series of open questions in order to elicit the perceived obligations of each party, rather than rely on those imposed a priori. the critical incident technique is based on work done by flanagan (1954, cited in bryman & bell, 2007) and relies on respondents sharing stories, about a specific situation, that are significant (‘critical’) to them. using four key questions, research participants were asked to recall an incident(s) where an employee or the organisation went beyond or fell short of what could reasonably be expected of them in their treatment of the other party. herriot, manning and kidd (1997, p. 154) reasoned that ‘few employees or managers would be able to provide useful information if asked directly about the implicit obligations governing their employment relationship’. data organisation, coding, and analysis creswell (2013) describes a data analysis spiral that was applicable to qualitative studies and which helped to direct the data handling and analysis process. the first step of organising the data involved transcribing it. the consent of the participants to record the interviews was obtained beforehand and the first author also took brief notes during each interview. the advantage of recording the interview was that the researchers could listen to the interviews afterwards to clarify any language uncertainties. this ensured an accurate, unbiased record. the second and third steps in creswell’ s (2013) spiral involved the researchers reading through the interviews, making preliminary notes and observations, and then beginning the coding process. each transcribed interview was copied into excel and, using thematic content analysis, the critical incidents were identified along with keywords that were reflective of the themes existing in the literature. thereafter, the researchers reread the transcripts. this repetitive studying of the data allowed a vast bank of information to be whittled down into smaller chunks of useful information and surfaced the multiple meanings hidden within the data. themes that we used in the coding of the critical incidents were adapted from previous studies (herriot et al., 1997; hipkin, 2000; lee & mohamed, 2006). emerging themes were discussed by the researchers and revised until consensus was reached. this procedure also improved the validity of the process and contributed to establishing confidence in the findings. drawing a clear line between expectations, obligations and promises was difficult. rousseau and schalk (2000) have previously raised the issue of the feasibility of this process. the key aspects of the psychological contract were identified by first highlighting all the critical incidents shared, applying the aforementioned themes to the relevant critical incidents, and categorising the incident as an employee or organisational obligation. thereafter, the number of each critical occurrence was counted and represented as a proportion of the whole. after screening for conformance and criticality as recommended by butterfield, borgen, amundson and maglio (2005), a total of 302 critical incidents were considered usable. although there is no established rule in this regard, flanagan (1954, cited in bryman & bell, 2007) considered saturation to have been reached when no new categories emerged from the data. our conclusion is that this study met those parameters and the number of critical incidents can be considered sufficient to establish coverage of the psychological contract of constantia hills employees. at this point, interpretation, the fourth step of creswell’ s (2013) data analysis spiral could take place. table 2 reflects the overall number and type of critical incidents regarding the perceived employee obligations, i.e. what the employees considered their obligations to constantia hills were and, in turn, what the managers perceived the employees’ obligations to be. seventy three critical incidents were collected from the employee grouping and 29 from the two employer representatives. our interviews yielded a number of core themes regarding employee obligations including work, responsibility, relationships and hours. organisational obligations are shown in table 3 where the perceptions of the employee and employer about the importance of each of those obligations are presented. there were 172 critical incidents from the employees and 28 from the two managers. the main organisational obligation themes included the environment, relationships, pay and development. these were aspects both parties considered to be the duty and responsibility of constantia hills. both sets of themes are not so very different from those found in similar studies amongst blue-collar workers in south africa (hipkin, 2000; lee & mohamed, 2006). however, whilst broad psychological contract themes may exist amongst this class of employee, it can be argued that the unique components of these are likely to differ. table 4 provides an explanation of the major critical themes identified in the analysis. the theme of relationships represented the obligation of the employee to build positive peer relationships that were supportive and generated a positive employee-employee psychological contract. it also incorporated obligations such as respect for management and recognition of their support. the importance of ‘relationships’ was clearly highlighted in the employees’ perceptions of both their own obligations (n = 14) and that of the organisation (n = 34). given the paucity of research regarding the role of relationships in shaping the psychological contract, the researchers deemed it pertinent to explore the data more explicitly in this regard. table 2: employee obligations that emerged as critical incidents. table 3: organisational obligations that emerged as critical incidents. table 4: explanation of main critical themes. findings top ↑ we report on the findings of our study in three sections: support for the existence of peer-to-peer psychological contracts; the influence of peer-to-peer relationships on the psychological contract; and finally, the influence of a facilitated relationship between the employee and the employer. support for the existence of peer-to-peer psychological contracts various types of employee-employee support surfaced in this study that indicated that support and co-operation were important elements in the work lives of all the farm workers at constantia hills. amongst employees, a pervading sense existed that their colleagues were responsible for meeting a certain accepted level of agreed behaviours and obligations, including a minimum expectation surrounding work quality and load. the following quote observing the problem of employees coming to work hung-over on a monday illustrates these expectations: ‘you can’t trust those people to do the work properly; some [other employees] have to work harder as a result. you get paid to be here, you should pull your weight as far as i am concerned.’ (barbara, female, employee, 42) workers therefore perceived commitment to relationships to have been breached when co-workers did not arrive for work or did not put in a full day’s effort. there also seemed to be a tacit agreement amongst workers that they would protect each other from getting into trouble and self-regulate as a team. this sense was validated through the story of the contract worker who ‘went to the toilet and slept’. denzel described his feelings around the incident as follows: ‘it is a struggle between us because we feel that everyone must do their duty and that man is not doing his duty. he doesn’t earn as much as you but we must all finish the work; it does not matter how much you are paid, you ought to pull your weight.’ (denzel, male, employee, 51) the incident was never reported even though the permanent employees felt that the contract worker had violated their sense of work ethic. other inferences to the existence of a self-regulatory system amongst the workers are evidenced in these quotes: ‘as we work in the vineyards we regulate each other saying “look you are being lazy”; we must help each other.’ (mark, male, employee, 43) ‘we all work hard at work, support each other, and help each other. we must support each other, work as a group.’ (quinton, male, employee, 36) ‘we won’t take daily problems to management; we try to sort them out ourselves.’ (shereen, female, employee, 30) thus it emerges that the psychological contract in the employment setting is more than managing just the expectations between employee and employer. the evidence points towards an employee-employee psychological contract that, when violated, can impact the productivity, happiness and engagement levels of workers. conversely, understanding this inter-peer contract, and the nature of the relationships sustaining it, could allow the organisation to realise important changes to the psychological contract. this includes understanding how key individuals within the group create group expectations that are in line with the organisation’s expectations of their employees. the influence of peer-to-peer relationships on the psychological contract it is the researchers’ belief that the organisational environment provides the context in which the other content elements of the contract are experienced. as such, the context of ‘family’, implying high commitment, high integration and relational interdependency, can realistically be considered an important shaper of the psychological contract at constantia hills. furthermore, the relationships between colleagues were long-standing with the majority of workers at constantia hills having been employed by the organisation for a lengthy period and 90% of employees living next door to each other. rousseau (2001) found that the extent to which individuals have formed stable psychological contracts is related to length of employment and this influences their understanding of the employment relationship. it is her assertion that veterans have psychological contracts that are more difficult to alter. the impact of these long-standing relationships and close domestic proximity is thus likely to be entrenched in the psychological contract and be more resistant to change than in organisations where average tenure is much shorter. the following quote supports this theory: ‘you can see that some of the workers stick to themselves, they cannot adjust to the system, but it goes much better with the new generation. they fit in easier than the old generation.’ (john, male, employee, 28) the high proportion of family living together and working together, as well as the social community in which employees lived, directly impacted the levels of engagement and productivity of employees based on their observation and understanding of the organisation’s treatment of their social referents and family, as this comment from employee freda highlights: ‘the thing that is unhealthy is that if one member of the family is unhappy it gets discussed at home and they form their own perception; and maybe you will work here with a very brilliant worker but he is unhappy about something that happened to his sister’s husband that also works here.’ (freda, female, employee, 44) employees are primarily influenced by two sets of social referents. the first is termed ‘relational others’, that is, those with whom there is direct contact and strong social proximity; the second group is ‘positionally similar others’ in the informal social structure (ho & levesque, 2005, p. 276). pay, recognition and perceptions of fairness were found to be particularly influenced by referent others and social setting. pay was moderated by the knowledge of positionally similar referents’ wages at neighbouring farms whose employees also resided in the same residential area. for those whose referent others earned less, positive feelings towards the organisation’s fulfilment of the financial aspect of the psychological contract was experienced. however, those who appeared to earn less than their referent others were less positive and more inclined to raise their expectations in the light of their observations. thus relationships external to the organisation can also be seen as important mediators of the expectations of employees regarding the organisation’s specific obligations. perceptions of fairness or procedural justice had a significant influence on motivation for those working in a large team where each member’s contribution was vital to achieving the team goals and performance. the following quote underscores this: ‘they are not stupid, they know, they see it. it just takes one incident and then everything is not good. for instance, there is a permanent [employee] in the vineyards that is never at work on a monday so he just doesn’t get paid but he should actually be dealt with but he hasn’t been. this sends out a massive message to the others. it just demotivates you, “why am i here if the work that you do doesn’t get seen?”’ (fred, male, employee, 53) where organisational support was perceived to be lacking, there was a suspension of communication with the organisation and a shift to increased peer communication. as noel (male, employee, 26) notes, ‘they did nothing about this. we don’t complain anymore because nothing happens’. when employees stop communicating with the organisation, the psychological contract is negatively affected over time as employees are left to fill in the missing information about the intents and purposes of the organisations’ future actions and obligations for themselves (bal et al., 2011; coyle-shapiro & kessler, 2002). much of this information is then supplied by social referents whose information may be inaccurate and biased, leading to the entrenchment of a ‘group’ psychological contract that is not understood by management but is embraced by the work team. this group contract would incorporate the employee-employee obligations of the inter-peer psychological contract expounded earlier as well as the perceptions regarding organisational and employee obligations. once formed, the psychological contract resists change making it critical that the organisation take responsibility for creating an environment where concerns are heard and acted upon, thus ensuring consistent, accurate, two-way communication and healthy relationships all round. the large team nature of the work environment at constantia hills influenced the degree to which certain aspects of the psychological contract were embraced by individuals within the team, as well as the degree to which the employer could effectively fulfil his or her obligation of recognition. the ability to foster responsibility was particularly hindered by these large group interactions as members were shielded by others, or conversely gained no recognition for individual efforts as a blanket approach of ‘what i do for one i must do for the other’ often had to be adopted to ensure perceptions of fairness were maintained. equally so, the employer acknowledged that high individual responsibility within a large group was probably an unrealistic expectation as jack, stated: ‘you can’t make one guy responsible in a group of twenty. it is impossible because they will never take responsibility like that.’ (jack, male, manager, 35) furthermore, the degree of acceptance within the group of one member being elevated to a superior position was strongly mediated by the length of the relationships in the group, levels of trust amongst the group members, perceptions of relative worth and contribution and the procedural justice of such an appointment: ‘you see they [the organisation] come and look and see if we finished doing our work as a team, but they don’t see what that one [has done] and what i have done.’ (sara, female, employee, 49) likewise tammy felt unrecognised through the ‘employee of the year’ competition, as this account revealed: ‘last year we all worked together and then the boss came to say he is going to give a certificate to the one who works hard, and then there was some unhappiness because we felt that we all work hard, so why should just one person get a prize?’ (tammy, female, employee, 32) these accounts suggest that monetary reward in terms of good pay rises was a general expectation that constantia hills seemed to exceed. however, more subtle issues – such as a person’s sense of the value they contributed, a comparative sense of how hard they worked – influenced the degree to which employees seemed to feel that constantia hills was fair with regards to the manner in which it gave recognition. here, how much, to whom and for what reason recognition was given was important. tammy’s feelings emphasised that the organisation had to be sensitive about using ‘employee of the year’ type competitions to motivate and raise performance standards. it was perceived as demotivating for those employees who had put in a lot of effort but did not win and so did not have their contribution recognised. this was especially felt in departments where performance was contingent on teamwork. this feeling pervaded despite these competitions being voted on by fellow employees. both maintaining high levels of procedural justice as well as structuring smaller work groups appeared to be key tools in ensuring trustful relationships between colleagues as well as with the organisation: ‘i would just like to have smaller teams … it changes everything … you can have more of a conversation.’ (lydia, female, employee, 34) this, in turn, allows for more open communication within these two sets of relationships, leading to greater opportunity to maintain a positive contract and/or bring about desired change to that contract. guest and conway (2002) support this idea, having found that job related communication had a steady positive relationship with explicit contracts that in turn increase fairness and trust. thus, the level of expectation for pay, increases and benefits is still likely to be strongly influenced by a positionally similar referent. concomitantly, greater trust and communication amongst peers may lead to a strengthening of the inter-employee psychological contract presented earlier. this could assist in entrenching desired aspects such as mutual responsibility and high levels of workmanship as well as slowly creating a forum for the team acknowledgement of high performing members. social hierarchies and peer relationships top ↑ beyond the supervisor versus subordinate dynamic, an array of inter-employee relationships in the form of social hierarchies emerged in this study, including permanent versus contract employee relationships, men versus women, young versus old employees. the following extracts highlight these hierarchies: ‘there is a system down there of domination that you don’t see. the permanent worker will sit and eat her lunch but the contractors are not allowed to go into the [eating area] and eat with the permanents.’ (rod, male, employee, 32) ‘the women just take orders, they really are the bottom of the rung … you still have, “the men are better than the women.”’ (kate, female, employee, 47) ‘the older ones are more dominant. there is a lot of “i have been here for 25 years; you are new, sit back please”. there are little gangs; it is like a “mafia”.’ (sara, female, employee, 23) these social hierarchies influenced the nature of the relationships amongst employees on the farm and thus also the behaviour and views of referent others used by the farm workers to assess different situations. in turn, the expectations of employees regarding elements of the psychological contract were moderated. in the case of contract employees, they were perceived to be inferior and lazy, definitely occupying a lower social rung on the farm in the minds of the permanent employees. the relationship was one of superiority and entitlement. the permanent staff appeared to use the concessions granted to contract employees as a measuring stick against which to assess their own entitlements, which involved more benefits than the contractors as they (the permanent employees) perceived themselves to be reciprocating with a greater work ethic – expressed as doing the work properly, and to the best of their ability – than the contractors. it was also the researchers’ sense that increasingly integrating contract workers into the norms and rituals of constantia hills may have been perceived by permanent employees as a breach of their psychological contract, which included the expectation of employment security. an example of this was the unwillingness of permanent farm workers to give their old rain clothes to the contract workers as described in this story told by doreen: ‘work clothes are given every year to the permanent farm people. jack asked them to bring their old rain clothes back so that he could give them to the contract workers. many refused.’ (doreen, female, employee, 51) this action highlighted permanent workers’ reluctance to allow their superior relationship with the contractors to be diminished by this group assuming the same entitlements as them. reaction to social pressure within these hierarchies appeared to be mediated by the value the employee placed on a particular exchange. in one instance marie, placed high value on learning and having the ability to take on a greater variety of tasks. as such, she chose to offer her trustworthiness and work ethic as a reciprocal commitment in return for training, rather than adhere to the team norm for work that is, she exceeded the norm in terms of quantity and open communication with the organisation. this can be seen by her comment: ‘[my employer] trusts me. i don’t listen to other people. i go and tell him when my work is finished and then he sends me to do more work elsewhere.’ (marie, female, employee, 32) it would appear from this that whilst social cues and peer pressure are usually factors that shape the psychological contract of the workers, when a reciprocal obligation exists between an employee and the employer around an issue of great value to that employee, they are more likely to disregard the influence of social referents. this supports aggarwal, datta and bhargava’ s (2007) claim that employees filter information according to their personal goals and values and may explain some of the more idiosyncratic elements of the psychological contract. the influence of a facilitated relationship between employee and employer it was apparent that certain aspects such as environment, development and recognition present particularly powerful elements that, if fulfilled by the employer, could bring about desired changes in the attitudes of employees towards responsibility and workmanship. this suggests that an important factor in maintaining the psychological contract, or even re-negotiating it over time, is the degree to which specific, highly salient elements of the contract are satisfactorily fulfilled. the question then arises as to how the employer is to ensure that his or her perceptions of the obligations existent between the organisation and the employee are congruent with those of the employee? having a conduit to the employees, in the form of doreen, a long-serving and senior employee, was identified as critical to understanding how the employees understood the terms of the psychological contract and how that understanding changed or remained constant: ‘it is very important that you have a strong leader who can open up to you, like doreen for instance. they will talk to doreen and that information will come to you; it might be a week later but it will get to you. it is important that you get that information to keep your working force up otherwise nothing will happen out there.’ (dirk, male, manager, 39) this single individual relationship impacted both groups party to the psychological contract as the employees identified with her as one of them: ‘they see me as their representative’ (doreen, female, employee, 51). in this case doreen represented someone who had the same background as the employees and so shared an understanding of their cognitive styles and concerns, but also corresponded closely enough with management in terms of her cognitive style to act as a conduit between the two. that doreen is very involved in all the employee committees and forums on the farm is likely to be a significant reason that so few stories of contract violation in the past few years were experienced by the employees. the quality of information to the employee and from the employee had improved as a result of this conduit relationship; this last being important in the maintenance of the psychological contract (guest et al., 2010; rousseau, 2001; tomprou & nikolaou, 2011). discussion top ↑ to a large extent, most of the perceptions of employees at constantia hills were formed by the negative impact of the paternalistic system of the past. these past behaviours shaped their mental models and so today their psychological contract tends to resist change, making developing a culture of responsibility and empowerment potentially difficult and slow. the role of relationships immediately gains greater significance than being only a content element of the psychological contract when the idea of a peer-to-peer psychological contract is entertained. constantia hills’ workforce reflected the traditional composition found on most wine farms in south africa. age, organisational tenure and education all have a unique influence on the existing psychological contract and suggest that difficulties may arise in changing the contract of long-time employees as the farm continues to transform itself into a model more empowered than the historical paternalistic system. the existence of a large proportion of poorly skilled contract labourers seemed to have a moderating impact on the psychological contract of the existing employees and so should not be overlooked as an important factor influencing the formation of the psychological contract of the permanent staff at constantia hills. evidence of an employee-employee psychological contract was found in this study and suggests the importance of management understanding social hierarchies and peer relationships. having a conduit through one significant leader amongst peers may be a highly effective way of ensuring that messages and obligations are both clearly and consistently communicated. where this person has similar cognitive styles of thinking to management with an understanding of the cognitive styles of employees, the chance for incongruence in expectations is greatly reduced. constant, clear communication that does not conflict with actions and reveals the intent of management is critical to the maintenance of the psychological contract. employees at constantia hills have a high need to be consulted after a lifetime of having no ‘voice’ and thus two-way communication is important. the contract maker is definitely a very powerful factor shap­ing the psychological contract of employees and has the greatest potential to bring about changes in their current psychological contract. this is due to the personalised communication and ability to build trust and invoke ownership and commitment through relationship. thus working in smaller groups could greatly help to maintain the psychological contract. suazo, turnley and mai-dalton (2008) found that the more similar the cognitive schemata of the contract maker and the person with whom he or she interacts, the more likely that the psychological contract obligations will be understood in a similar manner. this similarity provides a common frame of reference that promotes the mutual understanding of the terms and conditions of the psychological contract. this study is particularly significant given recent and ongoing events within the farming communities of the western cape in south africa. tensions between farmers and their workforce resulted in the death of three workers and millions of rands of insurance claims (davis, 2013). although constantia hills was unaffected by the farm workers’ industrial action and has made tremendous strides in attempting to bring about more equitable working conditions for their employees, they may not always remain immune unless they attend to the psychological contracts of their employees. however, whilst literature has suggested that management of the psychological contract lies firmly within the domain of the employer (coyle-shapiro et al., 2004; nadin & williams, 2012), our findings indicate that ensuring harmonious peer-to-peer contracts is also central to good working relationships, thus creating a more productive experience for all. this is particularly pertinent within the volatile south african agricultural sector where the historical imbalances created by the apartheid past need urgent redress. conclusion top ↑ this study provides an encouraging insight into the role of the relationships shaping the psychological contract of wine farm workers, an area relatively under-explored to date. the findings suggest that inter-peer relationships play a meaningful role in influencing this contract. wine farm workers in south africa are in the process of attempting to restructure and renegotiate their employment relationships. this empirical study highlights the importance of understanding the needs and expectations of this group of employees. given that the wine industry is a people-intensive one, the findings reiterate the need for farm management to create an environment that generates trust, builds self-worth, and enables ownership. future research and limitations a limitation to this study relates to the context of the investigation. this study focuses on a single, privately owned wine farm in the constantia valley and thus findings cannot be generalised beyond this particular organisation to a broader population. a further limitation of the investigation may be the replicability of the study. the south african wine industry is going through a period of legislative change and transformation that may result in different findings emerging from the same organisation at some point in the future. there is scope for further research around the psychological contract of contracting labourers on wine farms. this study focused on permanent employees only. however, many of the contract employees on constantia hills had been employed for 7–8 years, raising the question of whether they have, over time, adopted the psychological contracts characteristic of permanent employees. the impact of contract employees on the expectations and entitlements that permanent employees perceive is a further topic that has yet to be explored. in the context of south africa, additional research is needed on the role of apartheid in the formation of the psychological contract across racial groups at various employment levels, including previously advantaged as well as disadvantaged groups. examining generational differences in the psychological contract may well aid this. finally, more in-depth research on the impact of different management styles and the personality of the contract maker on the psychological contract would enable organisations to develop managers able to elicit positive employee behaviours through managing psychological contract formation and continuance. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions r.p. (university of cape town) was the main researcher and was responsible for conducting fieldwork, as well as writing up the research. l.r. (university of cape town) supervised the research and made conceptual contributions to the study. references top ↑ aggarwal, u., datta, s., & bhargava, s. (2007). the relationship between human resource practices, psychological contract and employee engagement: implications for managing talent. iimb management review, 19(3), 313–325. argyris, c. (1960). understanding organisational behaviour. homewood, il: dorsey press. bal, p.m., chiaburu, d.s., & diaz, i. (2011). does psychological contract breach decrease proactive behaviors? the moderating effect of emotion regulation. group and organization management, 36(6), 722–758. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1059601111423532 bryman, a., & bell, e. (2007). business research methods. new york, ny: oxford university press. butterfield, l.d., borgen, w.a., amundson, n.e., & maglio, a.-s.t. (2005). fifty years of the critical incident technique: 1954–2004 and beyond. qualitative research, 5(4), 475–497. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468794105056924 conway, n., & briner, r.b. (2005). understanding psychological contracts at work: a critical evaluation of theory and research. oxford: oxford university press. conway, n., & coyle-shapiro, j.a.-m. (2012). the reciprocal relationship between psychological contract fulfilment and employee performance and the moderating role of perceived organizational support and tenure. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 85(2), 277–299. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.2011.02033.x coyle-shapiro, j.a.-m., & kessler, i. (2002). exploring reciprocity through the lens of the psychological contract: employee and employer perspectives. journal of work and organizational psychology, 11(1), 69–86. coyle-shapiro, j.a.-m., shore, l.m., taylor, m.s., & tetrick, l.e. (eds.). (2004). the employment relationship: examining contextual and psychological perspectives. oxford: oxford university press. creswell, j.w. (2013). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. davis, r. (2013, october 28). western cape farm strikes: one year on, still a political football. daily maverick. retrieved december 16, 2013, from http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-10-28-western-cape-farm-strikes-one-year-on​ -still-a-political-football/#.uptl5wthism de cuyper, n., rigotti, t., de witte, h., & mohr, g. (2008). balancing psychological contracts: validation of a typology. international journal of human resource management, 19(4), 543–561. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190801953590 du toit, a. (1993). the micro-politics of paternalism: discourses on management and resistance on south african fruit and wine farms. journal of south african studies, 19(2), 314–336. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057079308708362 du toit, a., kruger, s., & ponte, s. (2008). deracializing exploitation? ‘black economic empowerment’ in the south african wine industry. journal of agrarian change, 8(1), 6–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-0366.2007.00161.x eckerd, s., hill, j., boyer, k.k., donohue, k., & ward, p.t. (2013). the relative impact of attribute, severity, and timing of psychological contract breach on behavioral and attitudinal outcomes. journal of operations management, 31(7), 567–578. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2013.06.003 ewert, j., & du toit, a. (2005). a deepening divide in the countryside: restructuring and rural livelihoods in the south african wine industry. journal of southern african studies, 31(2), 315–332. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057070500109524 ewert, j., & hamman, j. (1999). why paternalism survives: globalization, democratization and labour on south african wine farms. sociologia ruralis, 39(2), 202–222. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9523.00102 guest, d.e., & conway, n. (2002). communicating the psychological contract: an employer perspective. human resource management journal, 12(2), 22–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2002.tb00062.x guest, d.e., isaksson, k., & de witte, h. (eds.). (2010). employment contracts, psychological contracts, and employee well-being: an international study. oxford: oxford university press. herriot, p., manning, w.e.g., & kidd, j.m. (1997). the content of the psychological contract. british journal of management, 8(2), 151–162. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.0047 hipkin, i. (2000). managerial and worker perceptions of the workplace: a case of south african agriculture. south african journal of labour relations, 24(2), 4–22. ho, v.t., & levesque, l.l. (2005). with a little help from my friends (and substitutes): social referents and influence in psychological contract fulfillment. organization science, 16(3), 275–289. hui, c., lee, c., & rousseau, d. (2004). psychological contract and organizational citizenship behavior in china: investigating generalisability and instrumentality. journal of applied psychology, 89(2), 311–321. pmid: 15065977. klein, w.m. (1997). objective standards are not enough: affective, self-evaluative, and behavioral responses to social comparison information. journal of personality and social psychology, 72(4), 763–774. pmid: 9108694, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.72.4.763 lee, g.j., & mohamed, y. (2006). perceptions of workplace issues among blue-collar workers in south africa’s gauteng province. south african journal of psychology, 36(1), 45–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/008124630603600104 mcewan, c., & bek, d. (2006). (re)politicizing empowerment: lessons from the south african wine industry. geoforum, 37(6), 1021–1034. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2006.06.004 mclean parks, j., kidder, d., & gallagher, d.g. (1998). fitting square pegs into round holes: mapping the domain of contingent work arrangements onto the psychological contract. journal of organizational behavior, 19(s1), 697–730. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(1998)19:1+<697::aid-job974>3.0.co;2-i millward, l.j., & brewerton, p.m. (2000). psychological contracts: employee relations for the twenty-first century? international review of industrial and organizational psychology, 15, 1–61. nadin, s.j., & williams, c.c. (2012). psychological contract violation beyond an employees’ perspective: the perspective of employers. employee relations, 34(2), 110–125. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01425451211191841 penfold, r.f. (2009). the psychological contract: workers at a constantia valley wine farm. unpublished master’s thesis, university of cape town, cape town, south africa. rousseau, d.m. (1989). psychological and implied contracts in organizations. employee responsibilities and rights journal, 2(2), 121–139. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/­ bf01384942 rousseau, d.m. (1995). psychological contracts in organizations: understanding written and unwritten agreements. thousand oaks, ca: sage. rousseau, d.m. (2001). schema, promise, and mutuality: the building blocks of the psychological contract. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 74(4), 511–541. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317901167505 rousseau, d.m. (2011). the individual-organization relationship: the psychological contract. in s.zedeck (ed.), apa handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 191–220). washington, dc: american psychological association. rousseau, d.m., & schalk, r. (eds.). (2000). psychological contracts in employment: cross-national perspectives. thousand oaks, ca: sage. suazo, m.m., turnley, w.h., & mai-dalton, r.r. (2008). characteristics of the supervisor-subordinate relationship as predictors of psychological contract breach. journal of managerial issues, 20(3), 295–312. tomprou, m., & nikolaou, i. (2011). a model of psychological contract creation upon organizational entry. career development international, 16(4), 342–363. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620431111158779 van zyl, d.j. (2013). three centuries of cape wine. retrieved from http://www.wosa.co.za/sa/history_3centuries.php williams, g. (2005). black economic empowerment in the south african wine industry. journal of agrarian change, 5(4), 476–504. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-0366.2005.00109.x zhao, z., wayne, s.j., glibkowski, b.c., & bravo, j. (2007). the impact of psychological contract breach on work-related outcomes: a meta-analysis. personnel psychology, 60(3), 647–680. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2007.00087.x article information authors: melinde coetzee1 ingrid l. potgieter2 affiliations: 1department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa2department of human resource management, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: melinde coetzee postal address: po box 392, pretoria 0003, south africa dates: received: 20 may 2013 accepted: 25 feb. 2014 published: 31 july 2014 how to cite this article: coetzee, m., & potgieter, i.l. (2014). the relation of cognitive learning strategies to psychosocial employability attributes amongst black adult learners in the economic and management sciences field. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12(1) art. #554, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.554 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the relation of cognitive learning strategies to psychosocial employability attributes amongst black adult learners in the economic and management sciences field in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • focus of the study    • background to the study    • research purpose    • literature review       • cognitive learning strategies       • psychosocial employability attributes       • potential value-add by the study       • what will follow • research design    • research approach • method    • measures       • participants       • measuring instruments       • procedure and ethical considerations       • statistical analysis • results    • means, standard deviations and internal consistency reliabilities    • correlations    • canonical correlation analysis    • multiple regression analysis • discussion • conclusion    • implications for practice    • limitations and recommendations for future research • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: research provides empirical evidence of the importance employers and employees attach to continuous learning and development opportunities as aspects of employees’ employability, retention and job and career satisfaction.research purpose: the objective of the research was to investigate the relation between adult learners’ cognitive learning strategies (measured by the examination preparation inventory) and their psychosocial employability attributes (measured by the employability attributes scale). motivation for the study: recent research has made important progress in understanding the notions of cognitive learning styles in learning and psychosocial employability attributes in sustaining individuals’ employability in the contemporary world of work. however, research on how adult learners’ cognitive learning strategies influence the psychosocial attributes they need to manage and sustain their employability has been lacking. research approach, design and method: a quantitative cross-sectional survey design was used, involving a stratified proportional random sample of 1102 predominantly early career black female undergraduate level adult learners. the participants were enrolled for distance learning studies in the economic and management sciences field at a south african higher education institution. main findings: canonical correlation and multiple regression analysis indicated the abstract theoretical and factual practical cognitive learning strategies as useful predictors of the participants’ overall level of psychosocial employability attributes and especially their levels of career self-management and proactivity. practical/managerial implications: learning practitioners should strive to integrate cognitive learning strategies in the design of learning and assessment activities in order to foster the psychosocial employability attributes adult learners need to manage their continued employability in the contemporary workplace. contribution: the study contributes new insights to the employability and learning and education literature. the results may potentially inform formal learning and assessment design in order to improve adult learners’ learning performance and employability. introduction top ↑ focus of the study globally, the employability of existing and prospective employees continues to be a matter of major concern for employers (guzman & choi, 2013; savickas, 2011). employability is associated with the notion of lifelong learning in a rapidly changing and technologically advancing knowledge economy (steur, jansen & hofman, 2012; williams, 2012). employers and their employees increasingly realise that in order to flourish in a highly competitive and turbulent business environment they need to invest in the continued education, training and development of their employees (tshilongamulenzhe, 2012). in addition, the south african national skills development legislation emphasises the design of workplace-based training and learning programmes to enhance the employability of employees (coetzee, 2013a; tshilongamulenzhe, 2012). research also provides empirical evidence of the importance employers and employees attach to continuous learning and development opportunities as aspects of the employees’ employability, retention, organisational commitment and job and career satisfaction (joāo & coetzee, 2012; tshilongamulenzhe, 2012; van dyk & coetzee, 2012). learning practitioners involved in training and development initiatives further realise the importance of understanding how individuals’ learning preferences and personality attributes influence their motivation and ability to learn and perform optimally in a learning and assessment environment (choi & jacobs, 2011; kiguwa & silva, 2007). although research indicates that individuals’ learning style preferences drive the actual skills or competencies that they require to optimally and successfully engage in learning and assessment activities (sugahara & boland, 2010), research on how adult learners’ cognitive learning strategies influence the psychosocial attributes they need to manage and sustain their employability has been lacking. understanding the relationship between these variables could potentially bring new insights to the design of formal learning and development programmes and help to further the continued employability of adult learners attending these programmes. background to the study recent research has made important progress in understanding the notions of cognitive learning styles and preferences in workplace-based learning (choi & jacobs, 2011; hosford & siders, 2010; kiguwa & silva, 2007) and psychosocial employability attributes in sustaining individuals’ employability in the contemporary world of work (bezuidenhout, 2011; fugate, kinicki & ashforth, 2004; pool & sewell, 2007; potgieter, 2012). in the context of the present study, the notion of learning strategies is understood as the cognitive-behavioural strategies individuals prefer to adopt when engaging in formal learning and studying activities (williams, rudyk & staley, 2004). learning and studying activities may involve preparing for an examination or any type of formal assessment activity that forms part of the individual’s lifelong learning agenda. adult learners who engage in formal workplace-based training and learning or further their qualifications at a higher education institution are frequently exposed to formal learning and assessment events (coetzee, 2013a; tshilongamulenzhe, 2012). the presence of specific, identifiable learning strategies indicates the likelihood that an individual will engage in certain cognitive behaviours, thereby enabling one to predict the probability of an individual’s preferred cognitive learning behaviours and strengths (williams et al., 2004). research by williams et al. (2004) suggests that individuals are energised or affronted by environmental stimuli that either encourage or discourage the adoption of positive learning behaviours. similarly, some individuals enjoy dealing with abstract-theoretical information whilst others prefer dealing with factual, practical information when engaging in learning activities. some individuals prefer using an analytical, logical approach to organise learning content whilst others prefer to organise learning content based on what they find as personally meaningful. individuals may also be highly organised in their approach to learning or prefer to follow a less organised and more open-ended approach to their learning (williams et al. 2004). research on individual differences further provides evidence in support of the link between cognitive coping and approaches to learning and studying. learning and studying approaches or strategies are viewed as cognitive processes that are grounded in the general coping strategies people adopt to deal with anxiety-creating circumstances (moneta, spada & rost, 2007). preparing for formal learning assessments or examinations and dealing with the uncertainties of future career pathways and more frequent career transitions are known to provoke anxiety (moneta et al., 2007; savickas & porfeli, 2012; williams et al., 2004). as a consequence, the present study was interested in understanding how the cognitive learning strategies of adult learners relate to the psychosocial attributes that are known to influence their employability in the contemporary workplace (bezuidenhout, 2011; fugate et al., 2004; pool & sewell, 2007; potgieter, 2012). the notion of psychosocial employability attributes relates to the positive psychological career resources and capacities that individuals need in the proactive management of their career development (bezuidenhout, 2011; coetzee, 2013b). in an employment environment characterised by uncertainty, fast-changing technological and knowledge advances, more frequent career transitions and blurred career progression pathways, individuals are seen as active agents that need to take ownership of their careers (lent, 2013; savickas, 2011). employees are therefore required to engage in career and learning behaviours that help them to adapt to changing circumstances and develop the skills they need to sustain their employability (lent, 2013; savickas, 2011; savickas & porfeli, 2012). psychosocial attributes are also seen as the positive psychosocial capital that enhances the individual (psychological) and work (social) interface and that makes individuals valued assets to both prospective and current employers (avey, reichard, luthans & mhatre, 2011; fugate et al., 2004). these attributes include, for example, proactive career self-management behaviours, career resilience and adaptability, and core positive self-evaluations such as self-efficacy, self-esteem, proactivity, locus of control, emotional literacy and sociability (bezuidenhout, 2011; fugate et al., 2004). research purpose the objective of the research was to investigate the relation between adult learners’ cognitive learning strategies and their psychosocial employability attributes. in light of the importance of encouraging lifelong learning attitudes and behaviours in today’s employees (tshilongamulenzhe, 2012) and the importance attached to their psychosocial employability attributes (bezuidenhout, 2011; fugate et al., 2004; guzman & choi, 2013) in today’s more turbulent workplace, the present research seems timely and important. both the notion of cognitive learning strategies and psychosocial employability attributes are seen as important positive coping or adaptive resources needed to obtain success in anxiety-provoking situations (bezuidenhout, 2011; fugate et al., 2004; moneta et al., 2007; williams et al., 2004). by investigating the relationship between adult learners’ cognitive learning strategies and their psychosocial employability attributes, the present research endeavoured to contribute to the employability and adult training and learning literature. more specifically, the research was interested in answering the following research question:do the cognitive learning strategies of adult learners significantly explain their psychosocial employability attributes? the classical conservation of resources theory (hobfoll, 1989) posits in this regard that humans have a basic drive towards the maintenance, conservation and accumulation of resources and that these resources act as buffers against and reduce the adverse consequences of stress responses (bakker & demerouti, 2007; tuckey & hayward, 2011). consequently, it was expected that adult learners’ preferred learning strategies (as a set of cognitive coping resources) would strengthen the adaptive capacities represented by their psychosocial employability attributes. moreover, training and educational research emphasises the importance of studying cognitive processes in interaction with motivational and self-regulative behaviours (heikkilä, niemivirta, nieminen & lonka, 2011; rozendaal, minneart & boekaerts, 2001). whereas learning and learning strategies are seen as cognitive processes (rozendaal et al., 2001; williams et al., 2004), psychosocial employability attributes are seen as core self-evaluations and self-regulative behaviours that are metacognitively guided and that are at least partially intrinsically motivated and to some extent strategically employed in the management of one’s employability (bezuidenhout, 2011). literature review cognitive learning strategies the notion of cognitive learning strategies is based on the research conducted by williams et al., (2004) on the behavioural strategies that learners adopt when preparing for formal assessment situations such as, for example, an examination. the cognitive learning strategies framework of williams et al. (2004) is anchored in carl jung’s (1921) theory of psychological type and the personality type theory of myers and briggs (myers, mccaulley, quenk & hammer, 2003), which is an extension of jung’s theory. jung identifies two ways in which the mind functions in processing information (perception) and making decisions (judgment) and two attitudes toward life that create different lifestyles (extraversion and introversion). williams et al. assert that the preferred cognitive learning strategies learners frequently adopt can be related to the inherent tendencies (preferences) underpinning the cognitive functions and attitudes of the personality types described by myers and briggs (myers et al., 2003).individuals can take in or perceive information by preferring to deal with factual, practical information that they obtain through their senses (called sensing) or by intuitively trusting information that they receive from an unconscious processing of the relationship and patterns that arise out of the facts and details (called intuition). in terms of the judging function, individuals may prefer to use the thinking process and be objective and analytical when making a decision. information is also presented in an intellectual manner. individuals may also prefer to make decisions based on what they personally value, like or dislike and believe to be important to themselves and to others (myers et al., 2003). research shows that perceiving types prefer tasks that require the use of the right hemisphere of the brain (going with the flow and working at random), whilst judging types prefer left hemisphere learning tasks and use drills, games, fact retention, goal setting and methodical study to focus on learning content (myers et al., 2003; williams et al., 2004). williams et al. (2004) found that perceiving types may tend to adopt open-ended, spontaneous strategies. adult learners using an open-ended learning approach tend to prefer flexibility and less structured activities such as, for example, exploring ideas and generating options and possibilities, being curious and interested in gathering more information, finding information from a variety of sources, planning as little as possible so as not to miss spontaneous opportunities, adapting easily to changing learning situations and modifying and changing projects as they evolve (williams et al., 2004). perceiving types may also tend to adopt either factual practical learning strategies or abstract, theoretical strategies. learners with a strong preference for factual, practical strategies are drawn to hands-on activities, dealing with real data and facts and finding practical applications for learning. they further prefer to set short-term practical learning goals and build on existing knowledge (williams et al., 2004). on the other hand, learners with a strong preference for abstract theoretical strategies enjoy grasping new ideas and possibilities, integrating information from a variety of sources and learning about theories and models. they tend to persist with complex learning material until they achieve understanding. they focus on organising information conceptually, focusing their learning on generalisations, abstract ideas and concepts and seeing trends and patterns in facts and data. they also prefer setting long-term learning goals and originating and innovating new ways of thinking about learning themes and situations (williams et al., 2004). judging types may tend to prefer organised planned strategies and may be drawn to activities such as, for example, using study time efficiently, seeking order and being methodical, making and following plans and schedules, taking charge, coordinating actions and achieving results, defining manageable, achievable results, seeking clear learning objectives and timelines and deciding and moving forward in the pursuit of getting things done (williams et al., 2004). learners with a judging preference also tend to adopt either analytical, logical strategies or personally valued learning strategies. learners who prefer an analytical, logical learning approach tend to judge information, rather than simply accepting it, and place information into a logical framework to increase understanding. analytical, logical strategies entail examining and evaluating data and data trends, looking for cause and effect relationships, finding logical reasons for learning, debating and critiquing what is learned and considering logical consequences and implications (williams et al., 2004). learners with a strong preference for personally valued strategies demonstrate a subjective and situational cognitive learning approach. they tend to identify personal reasons for learning the material, relate what is being learned to personal situations and needs and ensure the learning will benefit or meet the needs of others. they enjoy learning that requires them to use their unique talents, characteristics or abilities. their personal likes and dislikes also tend to influence the learning process (williams et al., 2004). the lifestyle attitudes relate to the type of environment that individuals find energising (williams et al., 2004). some individuals are energised by external experiences (called extraverts). extraverts are attracted to action-taking and socialising (kummerow & quenk, 1992). on the other hand, some individuals are more energised by internal experiences (called introverts). they are attracted to thoughtful, reflective, intimate activities (myers et al., 2003; williams et al., 2004). research shows that extraverted learners work best when actively involved with external stimuli and that they may be drained by the intense, isolated work that studying requires. they therefore may tend to need breaks that allow them to interact with their environment. introverts, on the other hand, need more quiet and freedom from distraction in order to concentrate (myers et al., 2003). williams et al. (2004) found that extraverted learners adopt environmentally interactive strategies. they prefer to discuss facts or ideas with others and build understanding about something by talking and thinking aloud. learners who prefer environmentally interactive learning strategies tend to act immediately on what is being learned and learn by trying things out, researching information by contacting people and working on more than one thing at a time (williams et al., 2004). on the other hand, learners who prefer an environmentally reflective approach to their learning find it helpful to explore the learning material in depth and use deep reflection when learning. environmentally reflective learning strategies involve getting information as far ahead of time as possible, listening carefully, building understanding by thinking about information, working on one thing at a time, concentrating for extended periods of time and researching information by reading, listening and observing (williams et al., 2004). sternberg (1997) posits in his theory of mental self-government that people tend to have different ways of managing their own activities and that they tend to choose styles they are most comfortable with when they interact with environments or people. the theory of self-government explains why adult learners adopt different cognitive styles when engaging with learning or study activities (liu, magjuka & lee, 2008). research provides evidence that some individuals tend to adopt a global cognitive style featuring broad-ranging global thinking or a local style characterised by detailed, local thinking, which focuses on a narrow range. thinking styles may range from internal styles featuring introverted, task-oriented thinking and preferences for working alone to external styles characterised by extraverted, people-oriented, socially sensitive styles and preferences (liu et al., 2008; sternberg, 1997). research has further shown that cognitive styles and cognitive learning strategies are related to learners’ academic achievement (liu et al., 2008; williams et al., 2004; zhang, 2004). research also provides evidence that learners’ preferred cognitive learning strategies and styles influence their level of achievement and that adult learners differ in terms of their success at taking formal assessments or examinations (holtbrügge & mohr, 2010; naimie, siraj, abuzaid & shagholi, 2010; ng, pinto & williams, 2011). psychosocial employability attributes psychosocial employability attributes are an aspect of individuals’ self-regulatory capacities that promote adaptive cognition, behaviour and affect and enhance an individual’s suitability for appropriate and sustained employment opportunities (bezuidenhout, 2011; potgieter, coetzee & masenge, 2012; fugate et al., 2004). managing one’s continued employability requires a range of attributes (dispositions, values, attitudes and skills) that promote proactive adaptability in changing environments and the likelihood of obtaining career success (hamtiaux, houssemand & vrignaud, 2013). in an attempt to elucidate the psychosocial self-regulatory capacities and self-evaluations individuals require for managing their employability, bezuidenhout (2011) identified eight core psychosocial attributes based on an extensive literature review on the topic. these attributes are labelled as career self-management, career resilience, cultural competence, entrepreneurial orientation, sociability, self-efficacy, proactivity and emotional literacy. career self-management is the individual’s ability to sustain employability through constant learning, problem-solving and decision-making and career planning and management efforts (schreuder & coetzee, 2011). career resilience is a personal disposition that facilitates a high degree of adaptability, flexibility, self-confidence and competence, regardless of adverse career circumstances (bezuidenhout, 2011). chiaburu, baker and pitariu (2006) found career resilience to be positively associated with proactive personality and self-management behaviours. cultural competence is the competence to grasp, reason and behave successfully in culturally diverse circumstances. entrepreneurial orientation is a preference for innovation, creativity and autonomy in exploiting opportunities in the career environment, a propensity to take risks and a need for achievement (bezuidenhout, 2011). sociability (capacity to network with and build social contacts), self-efficacy (the belief in one’s ability to successfully cope in a variety of career environments), proactivity (taking initiative in improving existing circumstances or creating more advantageous ones) and emotional literacy (the ability to accept and express a range of emotions that facilitate career adaptive behaviours) are core positive self-evaluations that are deemed important for sustaining one’s employability (bezuidenhout, 2011; potgieter, 2012).the hypothesised relationship between adult learners’ cognitive learning strategies and their psychosocial employability attributes is approached from the perspective of bandura’s (1978, 1989, 1999) general social cognitive theory and in particular the model of emergent interactive agency (bandura, 1978, 1989). broadly speaking, this model focuses on the interplay between action, cognitive, affective and other personal factors and environmental events. the human mind is seen as generative, creative, proactive and self-reflective. knowledge structures, representing the models, rules and strategies of effective action, serve as cognitive guides for the construction of complex patterns of behaviour (bandura, 1999). individuals are seen to have some active control over both their environments and themselves by drawing on their knowledge and cognitive and behavioural skills to produce desired results (bandura, 1989; converse, pathak, depaul-haddock, gotlib & merbedone, 2012). according to bandura (1999), the cognitive capacities of individuals enable them to profit extensively from learning and life experiences. people’s psychosocial attributes have been related to key self-evaluations and agentic processes and resources that enable them to manage their employability (bezuidenhout, 2011; fugate et al., 2004), control and influence their environment (hobfoll, johnson, ennis & jackson, 2003; rottinghaus, buelow, matyja & schneider, 2012), successfully cope with job demands, attain goals and achieve personal growth and development (demerouti, bakker, nachreiner & schaufeli, 2001) and solve the unfamiliar, complex and ill-defined problems presented by current and anticipated developmental vocational tasks and transitions and traumas in occupational roles (savickas & porfeli, 2012). proactive individuals seem to be oriented toward learning and development (converse et al., 2012) and are more likely to engage in self-enhancing behaviours such as pursuing further education, training and learning in order to advance their careers (seibert, crant & kraimer, 1999) and develop new skills (fuller & marler, 2009). coetzee and botha (2013) also found that adult learners’ cognitive learning strategies significantly predict their sense of self-directedness, success orientation and intrinsic motivation to study and learn. potential value-add by the study hirischi, lee, porfeli and vondraeck (2013) posit that the increased self-directedness of contemporary careers necessitates that employees take charge of their own career development and develop the proactive career management behaviours they need for enhancing their employability. understanding the role of cognitive learning strategies in either enhancing or lowering adult learners’ capacity to demonstrate the psychosocial attributes they need to proactively manage their employability therefore seems to be important. assessing the cognitive learning strategies learners use to prepare for formal types of assessment and how these relate to their psychosocial employability attributes could be invaluable to learning practitioners to help improve the learning performance and employability of adult learners (coetzee & botha, 2013; williams et al., 2004). what will follow in the next section, the research design for this study will be elaborated on and the research approach and method will be covered. the results will then be presented and the findings discussed. the article concludes with a brief outline of the most important conclusions, limitations of the research design and recommendations for possible future research initiatives. research design top ↑ research approach the present study is exploratory in nature as the variables under investigation appear to have commanded little research attention in south africa up to now. a quantitative, cross-sectional survey was utilised to collect primary data, involving adult learners enrolled in further studies in the economic and management sciences field. method top ↑ measures participants a stratified proportional random sample (n = 1102) of undergraduate adult learners at a south african distance learning higher education institution participated in the study. the sample was stratified to proportionally represent the various fields of study in the economic and management sciences per course, level of study (1st−3rd year), school and department. the sample predominantly consisted of black students (92%) between the ages of 18 and 40 years (88%); 63% were female and 57% were employed. measuring instruments cognitive learning strategies were measured by the examination preparation style inventory (williams et al., 2004). the examination preparation style inventory (epi) is a self-report measure that identifies the cognitive-behavioural strategies (115 items clustered into eight subscales) that adult learners use when preparing for formal assessments or examinations. a five-point likert-type scale format is used to measure the respondents’ responses to each item. the eight subscales are: environmentally interactive, environmentally reflective, factual practical, abstract theoretical, analytical logical, personally valued, organised planned and open-ended spontaneous cognitive learning strategies. overall, research by williams et al. (2004) provides supportive evidence of the validity and reliability of the epi as a measure of cognitive learning strategies. test-retest reliability coefficients for the eight scales ranged between 0.70 and 0.87 (williams et al., 2004). the epi shows proven predictive validity with students’ grade point average (gpa). in terms of the present study, cronbach’s alpha coefficients (internal consistency reliabilities) ranging between 0.70 and 0.85 were obtained.psychosocial employability attributes were measured by the employability attributes scale (bezuidenhout & coetzee, 2010). the employability attributes scale (eas) is a self-rated, multi-factorial measure that contains 56 items and eight sub-scales: career self-management (11 items), cultural competence (5 items), self-efficacy (6 items), career resilience (6 items), sociability (7 items), entrepreneurial orientation (7 items), proactivity (7 items), and emotional literacy (7 items). respondents are required to rate each item on a six-point likert-type scale. an exploratory factor analysis (coetzee, 2010) provided evidence that the eas items meet the psychometric criteria of construct validity. cronbach’s alpha (internal consistency) reliability coefficients for each subscale ranged between 0.78 and 0.90 (coetzee, 2010). in terms of the present study, cronbach’s alpha coefficients (internal consistency reliabilities) ranging between 0.81 and 0.90 were obtained. procedure and ethical considerations ethical clearance and permission to conduct the study were obtained from the management and research ethics committee of the higher education institution that participated in the study. questionnaires were mailed to a stratified proportional random sample (n = 4850) of students enrolled for studies in the economic and management sciences field. the sample was stratified by module, level of study, department and school. the survey yielded 1102 useable questionnaires (response rate of 23%). each questionnaire included a covering letter to obtain informed consent from the participants to use their responses for research purposes only. the covering letter explained the purpose of the research, procedure, potential benefits, confidentiality, anonymity, voluntary participation and withdrawal. participants were requested to complete the questionnaires and return them by mail to the researchers using an enclosed return envelope. statistical analysis descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations and cronbach’s alpha coefficients), canonical correlations and standard multiple regression statistical analysis were performed. in line with guidelines by hair, black, babin and anderson (2010), the cut-off criteria for canonical factorial loadings (≥ 0.30) were used to interpret the relative importance of the canonical loadings. the r² type effect size (1–0.λ) was also considered for assessing the magnitude of the overall correlational relationships between the two variates of a canonical function and the practical significance of the predictive ability of the canonical relationship (hair et al., 2010). in terms of the multiple regression analysis, r² values of below 0.12 (small practical effect), between 0.13 and 0.25 (medium practical effect) and above 0.26 (large practical effect) (fp ≤ 0.05) (cohen, 1992) were considered in the interpretation of the results. prior to conducting the various regression analyses, collinearity diagnostics were examined to ensure that zero-order correlations were below the level of concern (r ≥ 0.80), that the variance inflation factors did not exceed 10, that the condition index was well below 15 and that the tolerance values were close to 1.0 (field, 2009). results top ↑ means, standard deviations and internal consistency reliabilities table 1 shows that the participants obtained the highest mean scores for the epi variables associated with the abstract theoretical (m = 3.14; sd = 0.54), factual practical (m = 3.04; sd = 0.54) and organised planned (m = 3.02; sd = 0.52) strategies. the environmentally interactive cognitive learning strategies were the least preferred by the participants (m = 2.83; sd = 0.63). in terms of the eas, the participants obtained the highest mean scores for career self-management (m = 4.80; sd = 0.82) and self-efficacy (m = 4.80; sd = 0.79). the participants obtained the lowest mean scores for sociability (m = 4.27; sd = 0.92). table 1: descriptive statistics: means, standard deviations, internal consistency reliabilities and zero-order correlations. correlations as shown in table 1, the correlations between the epi and eas variables ranged between 0.11 and 0.34 (small to moderate practical effect; p = 0.00). all correlations were in the expected direction (positive). only emotional literacy did not correlate significantly with the open-ended spontaneous cognitive learning strategy. the zero-order correlations were well below the threshold level of concern (r ≥ 0.80) about multicollinearity. canonical correlation analysis canonical correlation analysis was used to further understand the relations between the two sets of zero-order correlations (epi and eas). the canonical correlation analysis (see table 2) assessed the overall statistical relationship between the epi variables (as a composite set of multiple independent variables of the cognitive learning strategies construct) and the eas variables (as a composite set of multiple dependent variables of the psychosocial employability attributes construct). the first function of the canonical model was statistically significant and of relevance to the present research (overall rc² = 0.18; f(p) = 3.98, p = 0.0001; wilks’s lambda: λ = 0.76; p = 0.0001; r² type effect size: 1–0. λ = 0.24; moderate practical effect). overall, the results indicated that the epi cognitive learning strategies were significantly related to the eas psychosocial employability attributes. the wilks’s lambda represents the amount of variance not shared between the variable sets (inverse effect size). the r² type effect size was 0.24 (1–0.λ), which indicates that the full model explained a moderate proportion (24%) of the variance shared between the two variable sets. as illustrated in table 2, the first canonical function contributed 18% (rc² = 0.18; moderate practical effect) of the explained variation. both the epi and eas variables were positively correlated with their respective canonical function. the abstract theoretical (rc = 0.91; coefficient weightc = 0.85) and factual practical (rc = 0.80; coefficient weightc = 0.25) cognitive learning strategies contributed the most in explaining the variance in the cognitive learning strategies construct. the career self-management (rc = 0.94; coefficient weightc = 0.49) and proactivity (rc = 0.90; coefficient weightc = 0.19) attributes contributed the most in explaining the variance in the psychosocial employability attributes construct. table 2: standardised canonical correlation analysis results for the first canonical function variates epi (independent variables) versus eas (dependent variables). the results of the cross-correlations (see table 2) between the cognitive learning strategies (epi) and the psychosocial employability attributes (eas) showed that the abstract theoretical cognitive learning strategies exhibited the highest correlation with the psychosocial employability attributes canonical variate construct and explained 39% (rc² = 0.39; large practical effect) of the variance in the psychosocial employability attributes variate. career self-management correlated the highest with the cognitive learning strategies canonical variate, explaining 40% (rc² = 0.40; large practical effect) of the variance in the cognitive learning strategies variate. overall, the results suggest that the abstract theoretical and factual practical cognitive learning strategies are, relative to the other cognitive learning strategies, the most useful indicators of the participants’ overall level of psychosocial employability attributes. multiple regression analysis as reflected in table 3, the multiple regression analysis on each of the eight eas subscales produced significant predictive models from the epi predictor variables. table 3 reports only the significant epi predictor variables. model 1 shows that the abstract theoretical cognitive learning strategies significantly and positively contributed in explaining the variance in career self-management (β = 0.36; p = 0.001). the open-ended spontaneous cognitive learning strategies significantly and negatively contributed in explaining the variance in career self-management (β = –0.17; p = 0.002). overall, these two variables contributed significantly in predicting the participants’ levels of career self-management (r² = 0.15; medium practical effect; p ≤ 0.001). model 2 shows that the abstract theoretical (β = 0.11; p = 0.002) cognitive learning strategies significantly and positively contributed in explaining the variance in cultural competence. the model explains 8% (r² = 0.08; small practical effect; p = 0.01) of the variance in cultural competence. table 3: significant multiple regression analysis: epi (independent variables) versus eas (dependent variables). model 3 shows that the abstract theoretical (β = 0.11; p = 0.002) and factual practical (β = 0.07; p = 0.01) cognitive learning strategies significantly and positively contributed in explaining the variance in self-efficacy. overall, these two variables contributed significantly in predicting the participants’ levels of self-efficacy (r² = 0.10; small practical effect; p ≤ 0.001). as reflected in table 3, model 4 shows that the abstract theoretical (β = 0.11; p = 0.001) and factual practical (β = 0.06; p = 0.04) cognitive learning strategies also significantly and positively contributed in explaining the variance in career resilience. the open-ended spontaneous cognitive learning strategies significantly and negatively contributed in explaining the variance in career resilience (β = -0.09; p = 0.003). overall, these three variables contributed significantly in predicting the participants’ levels of career resilience (r² = 0.12; small practical effect; p ≤ 0.001). model 5 shows that the abstract theoretical (β = 0.17; p = 0.001) cognitive learning strategies significantly and positively contributed in explaining the variance in sociability. the open-ended spontaneous (β = –0.12; p = 0.002) and environmentally reflective (β = -0.09; p = 0.01) cognitive learning strategies significantly and negatively contributed in explaining the variance in sociability. overall, these three variables contributed significantly in predicting the participants’ levels of sociability (r² = 0.12; small practical effect; p ≤ 0.001). as seen in table 3, in model 6, the abstract theoretical (β = 0.11; p = 0.002) cognitive learning strategies significantly and positively contributed in explaining the variance in entrepreneurial orientation, whilst the open-ended spontaneous (β = -0.06; p = 0.05) cognitive learning strategies negatively contributed in explaining the variance. the model explains 9% (r² = 0.09; small practical effect; p = 0.001) of the variance in entrepreneurial orientation. in model 7, the abstract theoretical (β = 0.20; p = 0.001) and factual practical (β = 0.10; p = 0.004) cognitive learning strategies significantly and positively contributed in explaining the variance in proactivity. the open-ended spontaneous (β = –0.10; p = 0.01) and environmentally reactive (β = -0.06; p = 0.05) cognitive learning strategies negatively contributed in explaining the variance. the model explains 14% (r² = 0.14; medium practical effect; p = 0.001) of the variance in proactivity. finally, in model 8, the abstract theoretical (β = 0.16; p = 0.001) cognitive learning strategies significantly and positively contributed in explaining the variance in emotional literacy. the open-ended spontaneous (β = -0.15; p = 0.001) cognitive learning strategies negatively contributed in explaining the variance. the model explains 9% (r² = 0.09; small practical effect; p = 0.001) of the variance in emotional literacy. discussion top ↑ the objective of the research was to investigate the relation between adult learners’ cognitive learning strategies and their psychosocial employability attributes. overall, the canonical results suggested that the abstract theoretical and factual practical cognitive learning strategies are, relative to the other cognitive learning strategies, the most useful indicators of the participants’ overall level of psychosocial employability attributes, and especially their levels of career self-management and proactivity. the multiple regression analysis further investigated the overall relationship and confirmed the explanatory role of the abstract theoretical learning strategies in terms of the participants’ levels of psychosocial employability attributes. the highest beta weights were also obtained in terms of the career self-management and proactivity attributes. the abstract theoretical and factual practical learning strategies are related to the information-seeking and information-using preferences of the participants (williams et al., 2004). it appears from the results that a preference for abstract theoretical information significantly increased the participants’ proactivity and sense of agency in managing their careers. career self-management entails a sense of autonomy and perceived controllability over one’s life and situation. one easily recognises the skills needed to be successful in one’s career and the actions necessary in order to achieve career goals (bezuidenhout, 2011; schreuder & coetzee, 2011). abstract theoretical learning strategies entail having a preference for setting broad long-term learning goals, integrating information from a variety of sources and organising it conceptually, grasping new ideas and possibilities and generating new ways to think about learning themes and situations (williams et al., 2004). these cognitive learning strategies appear to have strengthened the participants’ drive, proactivity and confidence in conceptually organising the information they need to manage and realise their personal career objectives. coetzee and botha (2013) found that learning strategies relating to the way adult learners gather and use information (abstract theoretical and factual practical) significantly strengthen their sense of self-directedness, success orientation, intrinsic motivation to engage in learning activities and utilisation of learning resources. learners who prefer using abstract theoretical learning strategies also tend to persevere in successfully completing complex learning material (williams et al., 2004). having the confidence and determination to pursue and achieve set career goals and continuously engage in development activities to achieve career goals are also typical of proactive career self-management behaviour (bezuidenhout, 2011; de vos & soens, 2008; schreuder & coetzee, 2011). the results further suggest that the factual practical learning strategies, which entail a preference to engage in hands-on activities, relating information to realities and past information, building on existing knowledge and finding practical application for learning (williams et al., 2004), significantly increased the participants’ self-efficacy, career resilience and proactivity. self-efficacy beliefs help determine how much effort people will expend on an activity, how long they will persevere when confronting obstacles and how resilient they will prove to be in the face of adverse and stressful situations: the higher the sense of self-efficacy, the greater the effort, persistence and resilience (coetzee & oosthuizen, 2013; pajares, 1996). the positive relation between the participants’ factual practical learning strategies and their self-efficacy, career resilience and proactivity may be attributed to the proposition made by dooley, linden and dooley (2005) that learning seems to improve when learners have the opportunity to practise and experiment with what and how they learn. experiential learning increases learners’ levels of active study engagement (robinson, 2006), which, in turn, has been shown to enhance their confidence in their abilities to successfully perform and persevere in complicated situations (coetzee & oosthuizen, 2013). using practical factual information to solve problems and make decisions that apply to real-world situations also increases adult learners’ sense of self-directedness and intrinsic learning motivation (coetzee & botha 2013). self-directed learners are known to take responsibility for their learning and to feel confident about their ability to be successful (botha, 2012; de bruin & de bruin, 2011). fugate and kinicki (2008) found positive self-evaluations to be characteristic of resilient individuals who are also regarded to be highly employable. research by bowling, wang and li (2012) indicates that positive self-evaluations enhance individuals’ general level of initiative and beliefs about their general level of competence. it is interesting to observe that the open-ended spontaneous learning strategies (i.e. preferring flexibility, variety and less structured learning activities) explained lower levels in the participants’ career self-management, career resilience, sociability, entrepreneurial orientation, proactivity and emotional literacy. the findings seem to corroborate research by coetzee and botha (2013) indicating that an open-ended spontaneous learning approach lowers adult learners’ success orientation, that is their confidence and sense of responsibility in resolving learning obstacles (for example workload, obtaining needed information and meeting study or learning deadlines). people with an open-ended spontaneous learning style are generally energised just before examination time which may negatively affect their learning success and performance (williams et al., 2004). the environmentally reflective learning strategies also explained lower levels of proactivity and sociability. learners who prefer these learning strategies are generally more introverted and reflective in nature, and prefer to learn and study on their own and at their own pace (myers et al., 2003; williams et al., 2004), which, in turn, may explain the participants’ lower levels of sociability and proactivity. on the other hand, learners who prefer environmentally interactive learning strategies have been found to act immediately on what is being learned and engage with others to enhance their learning (williams et al., 2004). conclusion top ↑ implications for practice the present study provides new, original insights and knowledge regarding the explanatory power of adult learners’ cognitive learning strategies in terms of their levels of psychosocial employability attributes. overall, it is concluded that the cognitive learning strategies associated with the participants’ preferred way of seeking and using information (abstract theoretical and factual practical) when preparing for an examination or formal type of assessment are most likely to strengthen their psychosocial employability attributes, especially their career self-management and proactivity. however, following an open-ended spontaneous and environmentally reflective approach toward preparing for a formal assessment or examination may significantly lower adult learners’ psychosocial employability attributes. there are several implications that can be drawn from these results regarding the design of formal learning and development programmes.firstly, the results of the study suggest that it will be useful for learning practitioners to integrate cognitive learning styles as one of the factors in designing learning and assessment activities in order to foster the psychosocial employability attributes adult learners need to manage their continued employability in the contemporary workplace. adult learners participating in formal training and development programmes need to develop insight into how their cognitive learning strategies in preparing for an examination or formal type of assessment influence their ability to successfully and proactively manage their employability. secondly, although cognitive learning strategies represent relatively fixed ways of conceptualising and processing information, research evidence suggests that individuals may develop cognitive flexibility to improve their learning and performance (liu et al., 2008; sternberg, 1997; williams et al., 2004). the findings of the present study imply that adult learners should be guided as to how to adopt a balance between the abstract theoretical and factual practical learning strategies when preparing for an examination or formal type of assessment. learning practitioners should further ensure that a programme’s learning and assessment design provides learners with the opportunity to engage in activities that draw on these information-seeking and information-using strategies. such an approach to learning and assessment design may help to strengthen the learners’ capacity for adopting the career self-management attitudes and self-enhancing behaviours they need to enhance their employability. thirdly, adult learners who prefer open-ended spontaneous learning strategies should be made aware of the implications of these approaches for their ability to manage their employability. they should be guided in terms of how to complement their preferred learning approach with a more organised planned approach in preparing for an examination or formal type of assessment. finally, learners who prefer an environmentally reflective approach to their learning should be coached in terms of becoming more proactive in developing the social skills they need to manage their employability. limitations and recommendations for future research the conclusions about the findings of the study need to be considered in light of a number of limitations, each suggestive of promising directions in the area of research into enhancing adult learners’ ability to manage their learning performance and employability. firstly, the study was cross-sectional in nature and thus the causal direction of relations between the variables cannot be ascertained. longitudinal studies are needed to understand how adult learners’ preferred cognitive learning strategies influence the development of psychosocial employability attributes and how these influence their ability to successfully manage their employability over time.secondly, the participants in this study were enrolled as distance learning students at first year to third year level undergraduate studies in the economic and management sciences field at one university. they were mostly early career black and female students. the findings can therefore not be generalised to other educational, occupational, age, race and gender contexts. replication studies, using independent samples drawn from other contexts are recommended. notwithstanding these limitations, the study contributed valuable new information in the light of the paucity of research into the cognitive learning strategies and psychosocial employability attributes of early career black and female adult learners in the south african context. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.c. (university of south africa) conducted the literature research, the data collection and statistical analysis and wrote up the report. i.l.p. (university of south africa) assisted with the literature research and writing up the report. references top ↑ avey, j.b., reichard, r.j., luthans, f., & mhatre, k.h. (2011). meta-analysis of the impact of positive psychological capital on employee attitudes, behaviors, and performance. human resource development quarterly, 22(2), 127–152. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.20070 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2007). the job demands-resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22, 309–328. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 bandura, a. (1978). the self system in reciprocal determinism. american psychologist, 33, 344–358. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.33.4.344 bandura, a. (1989). human agency in social cognitive theory. american psychologist, 44, 1175–1184. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.44.9.1175 bandura, a. (1999). social cognitive theory: an agentic perspective. asian journal of social psychology, 2, 21–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-839x.00024 bezuidenhout, m. (2011). the development and evaluation of a measure of graduate employability in the context of the new world of work. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. bezuidenhout, m., & coetzee, m. (2010). preliminary exploratory factor analysis: student employability scale. unpublished research report, department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. botha, j. (2012). graduateness, self-directedness and employability. in m. coetzee, j. botha, n. eccles, n. holtzhausen, & h. nienaber (eds.), developing student graduateness and employability: issues, provocations, theory and practical guidelines (pp. 385–402). randburg, south africa: knowres. bowling, n.a., wang, q., & li, h.y. (2012). the moderating effect of core self-evaluations on the relationship between job attitudes and organizational citizenship behavior. applied psychology: an international review, 61(1), 97–113. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2011.00458.x chiaburu, d.s., baker, v.l., & pitariu, a.h. (2006). beyond proactive: what else matters for career self-management behaviors? career development international, 11(7), 619–632. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430610713481 choi, w., & jacobs, r.l. (2011). influences of formal learning, personal learning orientation, and supportive learning environment on informal learning. human resource development quarterly, 22(3), 239–257. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.20078 coetzee, m. (2010). preliminary factor analysis of the employability attributes scale. unpublished research report, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. coetzee, m. (ed.). (2013a). practising training and development in south african organisations. (2nd edn.). cape town: juta. coetzee, m. (2013b). a psychological career resources framework for contemporary career development. in m.coetzee (ed.), psycho-social career meta-capacities: dynamics of contemporary career development (pp. 87–122). dordrecht, the netherlands: springer international. coetzee, m., & botha, j. (2013). undergraduate students’ self-directedness in relation to their examination preparation styles in open distance learning. progressio, 35(2), 34–57. coetzee, m. & oosthuizen, r.m. (2013). examining the mediating effect of open distance learning students’ study engagement in relation to their life orientation and self-efficacy. journal of psychology in africa, 23(2), 235–242. cohen, j. (1992). quantitative methods in psychology: a power primer. psychological bulletin, 112(1), 153–159. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155 converse, p.d., pathak, j., depaul-haddock, a.m., gotlib, t., & merbedone, m. (2012). controlling your environment and yourself: implications for career success. journal of vocational behavior, 80, 148–159. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.07.003 de bruin, k., & de bruin, g.p. (2011). development of the learner self-directedness in the workplace scale. south african journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), 926–936. demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., nachreiner, f., & schaufeli, w.b. (2001). the job demands-resources model of burnout. journal of applied psychology, 86, 499–512. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.499 de vos, a., & soens, n. (2008). protean attitude and career success: the mediating role of self-management. journal of vocational behavior, 73, 449–456. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2008.08.007 dooley, k.e., lindner, j.r., & dooley, l.m. (2005). advanced methods in distance education. hershey, pa: information science publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-59140-485-9 field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss. (3rd edn.). london, england: sage. fugate, m., & kinicki, a. (2008). a dispositional approach to employability: development of a measure and test of implications for employee reactions to organisational change. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 81, 503–527. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317907x241579 fugate, m., kinicki, a.j., & ashforth, b.e. (2004). employability: a psycho-social construct, its dimensions and applications. journal of vocational behavior, 65, 14–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2003.10.005 fuller, b., & marler, f.e. (2009). change driven by nature: a meta-analytic review of the proactive personality literature. journal of vocational behavior, 75(3), 329–345. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.05.008 guzman, a.b., & choi, k.o. (2013). the relations of employability skills to career adaptability among technical school students. journal of vocational behavior, 82, 199–207. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.01.009 hair, j., black, w., babin, b., & anderson, r. (2010). multivariate data analysis. englewood cliffs, nj: pearson education. hamtiaux, a., houssemand, c., & vrignaud, p. (2013). individuals and career adaptability: comparing models and measures. journal of vocational behavior, 83, 130–141. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.03. heikkilä, a., niemivirta, m., nieminen, j., & lonka, k. (2011). interrelations among university students’ approaches to learning, regulation of learning, and cognitive and attributional strategies: a person-oriented approach. higher education, 61, 513–529. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10734-010-9346-2 hirschi, a., lee, b., porfeli, e.j., & vondraeck, f.w. (2013). proactive motivation and engagement in career behaviours: investigating direct, mediated, and moderated effects. journal of vocational behavior, 83, 31-40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.02.003 hobfoll, s.e. (1989). conservation of resources: a new attempt at conceptualizing stress. american psychologist, 3, 513–524. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.44.3.513 hobfoll, s.e., johnson, r.j., ennis, n., & jackson, a.p. (2003). resource loss, resource gain, and emotional outcomes among inner city women. journal of personality and social psycholgy, 84, 632–643. holtbrügge, d., & mohr, a.t. (2010). cultural determinants of learning style preferences. academy of management learning & education, 9(4), 622–637. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amle.2010.56659880 hosford, c.c., & siders, w.a. (2010). felder-soloman’s index of learning styles: internal consistency, temporal stability, and factor structure. teaching and learning in medicine, 22(4), 298–303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10401334.2010.512832 joāo, t.f., & coetzee, m. (2012). job retention factors, perceived career mobility and organisational commitment in the south african financial sector. journal of psychology in africa, 22(1), 69–76. jung, c.g. (1921). the basic writings of c.g. jung. new york, ny: the modern library. kiguwa, p., & silva, a. (2007). teaching and learning: addressing the gap through learning styles. south african journal of psychology, 37(2), 354–360. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/008124630703700211 kummerow, j.m., & quenk, n.l. (1992). interpretative guide for the mbti expanded analysis report. palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. lent, r.w. (2013). career-life preparedness: revisiting career planning and adjustment in the new workplace. the career development quarterly, 61(6), 2–14. doi:10.1002/j 2161-0045 2013.00031.x liu, x., magjuka, r.j., & lee, s. (2008). the effects of cognitive thinking styles, trust, conflict management on online students’ learning and virtual team performance. british journal of educational technology, 39(5), 829–846. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2007.00775.x moneta, g. b., spada, m.m., & rost, f.m. (2007). approaches to studying when preparing for a final exams as a function of coping strategies. personality and individual differences, 43, 191–202. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.12.002 myers, i., mccaulley, m., quenk, n., & hammer, a. (2003). mbti manual: a guide to the development and use of the myers-briggs type indicator. palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. naimie, z., siraj, s., abuzaid, r.a., & shagholi, r. 2010. hypothesized learners: technology preferences based on learning style dimensions. the turkish online journal of educational technology, 9(4), 83–92. ng, p., pinto, j., & williams, s.k. (2011). the effects of learning styles on course performance: a quantile regression analysis. academy of educational leadership journal, 15(1), 15–37. pajares, f. (1996). self-efficacy beliefs in academic settings. review of educational research, 66(4), 543–578. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/00346543066004543 pool, l., & sewell, p. (2007). the key to employability: developing a practical model of graduate employability. education and training , 49(4), 227–289. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00400910710754435 potgieter, i.l. (2012). the development of a career meta-competency model for sustained employability. unpublished doctoral thesis, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. potgieter, i.l., coetzee, m., & masenge, a. (2012). exploring employees’ personality attributes in relation to their employability attributes in the business management field. journal of psychology in africa, 22(4), 583–596. robinson, i. (2006). human resource management in organisations. london, england: cipd. rottinghaus, p.j., buelow, k.l., matyja, a., & schneider, m.r. (2012). the career futures inventory-revised: measuring dimensions of career adaptability. journal of career assessment, 20(2), 123–139. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072711420849 rozendaal, j.s., minneart, a., & boekaerts, m. (2001). the influence of teacher perceived administration of self-regulated learning on students’ motivation and information-processing. learning & instruction, 15, 141–160. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2005.04.011 savickas, m.l. (2011). new questions for vocational psychology: premises, paradigms, and practices. journal of career assessment, 19(3), 251–258. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072710395532 savickas, m.l., & porfeli, e.j. (2012). career adapt-abilities scale: construction, reliability, and measurement equivalence across 13 countries. journal of vocational behavior, 80, 661–673. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2012.01.011 schreuder, a.m.g., & coetzee, m. (2011). careers: an organisational perspective. (4th edn.). cape town, south africa: juta seibert, s.e., crant, j.m., & kraimer, m.l. (1999). proactive personality and career success. journal of applied psychology, 84(3), 416–427. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.84.3.416 sternberg, r.j. (1997). thinking styles. new york, ny: cambridge university press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511584152 steur, j.m., jansen, e.p.w.a., & hofman, w.h.a. (2012). graduateness: an empirical examination of the formative function of university education. higher education, 64(6), 861–874. doi 10.1007/s10734-012-9533-4 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10734-012-9533-4 sugahara, s., & boland, g. (2010). the role of cultural factors in the learning style preferences of accounting students: a comparative study between japan and australia. accounting education: an international journal, 19(3), 235–255. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09639280903208518 tshilongamulenzhe, m.c. (2012). an integrated learning programme management and evaluation model for the south african skills development context. unpublished doctoral thesis, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. tuckey, m.r., & hayward, r. (2011). global and occupation-specific emotional resources as buffers against the emotional demands of fire-fighting. applied psychology: an international review, 60(1), 1–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2010.00424.x van dyk, j., & coetzee, m. (2012). retention factors in relation to organisational commitment in a south african medical and information technology services company. south african journal of human resource management, 10(2), art. #433, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.433 williams, k.f. (2012). rethinking learning in higher education: viewing the student as social actor. sheffield, england: equinox. williams, s.b., rudyk, b.p., & staley, d. (2004). manual and interpretation guide: exam preparation inventory. edmonton, canada: psychometrics publishing. zhang, l.f. (2004). revisiting the predictive power of thinking styles for academic performance. the journal of psychology, 138, 351–370. http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/jrlp.138.4.351-370 article information authors: martina kotzé1 petrus nel2 affiliations: 1ufs business school, university of the free state, south africa 2department of industrial psychology, university of the free state, south africa correspondence to: tina kotzé email: kotzem@ufs.ac.za postal address: internal post box 17, po box 339, bloemfontein 9300, south africa dates: received: 21 may 2015 accepted: 26 aug. 2015 published: 04 nov. 2015 how to cite this article: kotzé, m., & nel, p. (2015). the influence of trait-emotional intelligence on authentic leadership. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #716, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.716 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the influence of trait-emotional intelligence on authentic leadership in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • research purpose    • conceptualisation of authentic leadership    • emotional intelligence • research design    • research approach • research method    • research participants       • measuring instruments       • emotional intelligence       • statistical analysis • results    • psychometric properties of the instruments    • correlations between emotional intelligence components and authentic leadership    • emotional intelligence components as predictors of authentic leadership • discussion    • outline of the results    • practical implications    • limitations and recommendations    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: authentic leadership is a relatively new construct that has recently gained increasing attention resulting from challenges faced by organisations relating to ethical meltdowns, corruption and fraud. research purpose: this study seeks to explore the relationship between components of emotional intelligence and authentic leadership. motivation for the study: several authors called for more empirical investigations into the antecedents of authentic leadership. despite the important role that emotions play in leadership, empirical studies were lacking about the influence of different components of emotional intelligence to authentic leadership. research design, approach and method: data were collected, using questionnaires obtained from 341 full-time employed applicants to mba and leadership programmes in a south african business school. relationships between variables were analysed, using pearson product-moment correlations and stepwise multiple regression. main findings: the results indicated that emotional intelligence has positive statistically significant associations with authentic leadership. specifically, those who scored high on all the emotional intelligence components also scored high on authentic leadership. in addition, the emotional intelligence component of empathy was a statistically significant predictor of authentic leadership. practical/managerial implications: initial findings suggest the potential value of recognising and developing the emotional intelligence of leaders to enable them to lead their organisations authentically to desired, successful outcomes. as empathy has been shown to be the most important emotional intelligence predictor of authentic leadership, leaders need to understand when subordinates perceive a leader as displaying empathic emotion. contribution: this study contributes to the literature and empirical research on the antecedents of authentic leadership. introduction top ↑ the challenges faced by public, private and even non-profit organisations relating to ethical meltdowns, corruption, accounting fraud, and ip infringement (price waterhouse coopers, 2014), as well as the growing attention paid to corporate social responsibility (lawler & ashman, 2012), have created a public need for organisational leaders who keep themselves accountable and who can lead with integrity, courage, and transparency (diddams & chang, 2012). leadership has always been more difficult in challenging times (avolio & gardner, 2005) and, in the face of such pressures, people look for organisational leaders of character and integrity to provide direction, to help them find meaning in their work, and to restore confidence, hope, and optimism by relating genuinely to all stakeholders (associates, customers, suppliers, owners, and communities) (avolio & gardner, 2005; gardner, avolio, luthans, may & walumbwa, 2005). this type of leadership has been termed ‘authentic leadership’, referring to genuine leaders who lead by example in fostering healthy ethical climates, and who are not only true to themselves but who, likewise, lead others by helping them to achieve authenticity (gardner et al., 2005). these leaders focus on their own moral compass and internal principles when facing unethical or ambiguous business practices (diddams & chang, 2012). authenticity is seen ‘as a broad psychological construct, reflecting one’s general tendencies to view oneself within one’s social environment and to conduct one’s life according to one’s deeply-held values’ (ilies, morgeson & nahrgang, 2005, p. 376). ‘at more specific levels, authenticity is manifested in concrete aspects of one’s’ behaviour ‘and existence, such as in leading others’. avolio, luthans and walumbwa (2004) describe authentic leaders as: those who are deeply aware of how they think and behave and are perceived by others as being aware of their own and others’ values/moral perspectives, knowledge, and strengths; aware of the context in which they operate; and who are confident, hopeful, optimistic, resilient, and of high moral character. (p. 4) as first referenced in management and organisational literature, authenticity ‘viewed the authentic capacity of a leader as a litmus test of executive quality’ (emuwa, 2013). authentic leadership has been associated with the following: promoting ‘positive outcomes, such as’ extra effort, increased trust, positive emotions, organisational commitment, and organisational citizenship behaviours (dasborough, todorova & qu, 2014; peus, wesche, streicher, braun & frey, 2012) employee creativity and innovativeness (müceldili, turan & erdil, 2013; rego, sousa, marques & cunha, 2012) new venture performance (hmieleski, cole & baron, 2012) follower empowerment, commitment to and satisfaction with supervisors (emuwa, 2013; müceldili et al., 2013) eudaemonic well-being (ilies et al., 2005). research has also indicated ‘that authentic leadership may be particularly beneficial when shared among team members’ within leadership teams (hmieleski et al., 2012, p. 1479). in other words, although shared authentic leadership originates within individuals, it can also manifest as a team ‘level property through members’ common experiences, mutual interactions, and attraction-selection-attrition processes’ (hmieleski et al., 2012, p. 1479). because of the impact of everyday emotions on organisational life and the obvious demands for emotional labour inherent to the leadership role (avolio, gardner, walumbwa, luthans & may, 2004; gardner, fischer & hunt, 2009; humphrey, pollack & hawver, 2008; walter, cole & humphrey, 2011), the role of emotions in leadership cannot be ignored. gardner et al. (2009) state that: although role demands of the leadership position and situational factors may create chronic needs for leaders to regulate emotions, acute events at work have the most immediate impact on a leader’s emotions. (p. 469) subsequently, the role that positive emotions and trust may play in the authentic leadership process has been proposed by several researchers (avolio, gardner, walumbwa, luthans & may, 2004; gardner et al., 2005, 2009; ilies et al., 2005; walter et al., 2011). those leaders who can effectively display and manage emotions, and who can accurately identify and understand others’ emotions, can better observe the spirit of their employees (vläsceanu, 2012). ‘by tapping into the rich information that emotions provide, authentic leaders can often alter followers’ thinking and’ behaviour ‘in ways that allow them to’ negotiate organisational challenges more effectively (avolio, gardner, walumbwa, luthans & may, 2004, p. 812). ‘by working together on daily activities, leaders’ and followers’ emotions and moods converge through the process of emotional contagion’. therefore, ‘if authentic leaders experience more positive affective states (through self-awareness and relational orientation) than inauthentic leaders, their followers will experience more positive affective states’ through emotional contagion (ilies et al., 2005, p. 384). gardner et al. (2009) argue that ‘genuine emotional displays by a leader are positively related to the’ favourability ‘of follower impressions’, and ‘follower perceptions of leader authenticity’. given this fundamental role of emotions in leadership (walter et al., 2011), emotional intelligence (ei) may be crucial in the authentic leadership process (gardner et al., 2009). ‘emotionally intelligent individuals are posited not only’ to ‘be aware of their emotions, but’ also to ‘understand the causes and effects of such emotions on cognitive processes and decision making, and how’ these ‘change over time’. theoretically, ei is expected to influence leadership outcomes through alternative channels, by enabling leaders to manage their own and their followers’ feelings more effectively (walter et al., 2011). individuals with higher ei are likely to exhibit higher self-awareness (ilies et al., 2005), thus: [the] implication for authentic leadership development is that heightened levels of self-awareness will help leaders to understand and take into account their own and others’ feelings, without being ruled by emotional impulses triggered by the moment. (gardner et al., 2005, p. 353) a study by peus et al. (2012) supports empirically the proposition that the development ‘of authentic leadership as perceived by followers is’ related ‘directly to the gaining of self-knowledge by the leader.’ furthermore, the results of their study show ‘that followers evaluate leaders in terms of the consistency with which leaders behave in ways that are consonant with their core values or guiding purposes’ (peus, 2012, p. 343). research relating ei and authentic leadership specifically is basically non-existent (gardner, cogliser, davis & dickens, 2011; kiyani, saher, saleem & iqbal, 2013). excluding the study by kiyani et al. (2013), who examined the mediating effect of the authentic leadership style on the relationship between managers’ ei (total score) and employee outcomes, no empirical studies relating to the direct relationship between components of ei and authentic leadership could be found. walter et al. (2011) explain that, by examining the ei-leadership link, scholars can promote further confidence in the relevance of ei, and contribute new insights that can assist educators, trainers, and management professionals in utilising emotional intelligence more effectively. also, gardner et al. (2011) ‘called for more empirical investigations of the various antecedents’ in authentic leadership, ‘and, specifically, for further research that examines what components and situations develop a deeper understanding of the authentic leader-follower relationships’ (gardner et al., 2011, p. 1140). research purpose in light of the above context, the purpose of the present research is to determine the influence of the various components of ei on authentic leadership. conceptualisation of authentic leadership a variety of approaches and interpretations representing a developing framework within which to understand the concept of authenticity and authentic leadership is evident from the literature (eagly, 2005; lawler & ashman, 2012; liu, cutcher & grant, 2015). ‘the concept that dominates current’ theorising, ‘as well as empirical research, is the one proposed by avolio and his colleagues’ (avolio, gardner, walumbwa, luthans & may, 2004; gardner et al., 2005; gardner et al., 2011; ilies et al., 2005; luthans & avolio, 2003; walumbwa, avolio, gardner, wernsing & peterson, 2008). building on conceptualisations ‘of authentic leadership by avolio, gardner and colleagues’ (avolio & gardner, 2005; gardner et al., 2005) and ilies et al. (2005), walumbwa et al. (2008) ‘define authentic leadership as ‘a pattern of leader’ behaviour ‘that draws upon and promotes both positive psychological capacities and a positive ethical climate, to foster greater self-awareness’, and internalised ‘moral perspective, balanced processing of information, and relational transparency on the part of leaders working with followers, fostering positive self-development’ (walumbwa et al., 2008, p. 94). the above authors propose that authentic leadership consists of four distinct but related substantive components: self-awareness, relational transparency, balanced processing, and internalised moral perspective. in this model of authentic leadership, self-awareness: refers to showing an understanding of one’s strengths and weaknesses and the multifaceted nature of the self, which includes gaining insight into the self through exposure to others, and being cognisant of one’s impact on other people. (walumbwa et al., 2008, p. 54) ‘relational transparency refers to presenting one’s authentic self to others’ and, therefore, promotes ‘trust through disclosures that involve’ sharing ‘openly information and expressions of one’s true thoughts and feelings whilst trying to’ minimise ‘displays of inappropriate’ emotion (walumbwa et al., 2008, p. 95). ‘balanced processing refers to leaders who show that they’ analyse ‘all relevant data’ objectively before coming to a decision; they ‘also solicit views that challenge their deeply-held’ assumptions (walumbwa et al., 2008, p. 95). finally, internalised moral perspective refers to an internalised and integrated form of self-regulation that is ‘guided by internal moral standards’ and values as opposed to group, organisational, and societal pressures. this results in expressed decision making and behaviour that is consistent with these internalised values. according to rego et al. (2012, p. 430), empirical evidence shows that a core authentic ‘factor can emerge from the relationships’ between these four dimensions. these ‘individual factors do not add any meaningful incremental validity beyond the common core higher factor, suggesting that the variance attributable to’ the overall authentic leadership construct ‘is more important than the variance imputable to each individual dimension of the’ authentic leadership construct. in essence, this means that it may be preferable to conceptualise authentic leadership as a unidimensional construct. therefore, considering authentic leadership as a core construct is also conceptually plausible. the four authentic leadership ‘dimensions are self-regulatory processes governed partially’ by ‘leaders’ internal standards and their evaluations of their own’ behaviour. the perspective on authentic leadership advanced by the above researchers recognises and articulates the central role of an internalised moral perspective on ‘authentic leadership and its development. it focuses explicitly on the development of authentic leaders and authentic followers, which’ makes it state-like and ‘ultimately something one can develop in leaders’ (avolio & luthans, 2006; luthans & avolio, 2003; walumbwa et al., 2008). although authentic leadership shows some overlap with, and can incorporate different modern perspectives on, leadership, such as transformational, charismatic, servant, and spiritual leadership (avolio & gardner, 2005; diddams & chang, 2012; kiyani et al., 2013), authentic leadership as a construct is gaining legitimacy in its own right (kiyani et al., 2013). avolio and gardner (2005) stress that authentic leadership is more generic and represents a ‘root construct’ that provides the basis for other forms of positive leadership. avolio and gardner (2005): believe the key distinction is that authentic leaders are anchored by their own deep sense of self; they know where they stand on important issues, values, and beliefs. with that base, they stay their course and convey to others, oftentimes through actions … just words, what they represent in terms of principles, values, and ethics. (p. 329) emotional intelligence the various models of ei are divided into three distinct categories (ashkanasy & daus, 2005; walter et al., 2011). the first category is referred to as the ability model (mandell & pherwani, 2003; van rooy, alonso & viswesvaran, 2005). the ability ei approach was introduced by salovey and mayer (1990), who view emotional intelligence as the ability of individuals to not only discriminate between different feelings and emotions experienced by themselves, but to also be able to monitor these feelings and emotions. subsequently, these individuals use this information to guide their own thinking. this approach employs ability-based ei tests that capture individuals’ performance in solving emotional problems (fiori et al., 2014; walter et al., 2011). the second category also draws on salovey and mayer’s definition, but rather than employing ability-based tests, it uses self-assessments or reports by others of emotional intelligent behaviour (ashkanasy & daus, 2005; walter et al., 2011). the third category is referred to as the so-called ‘mixed models’ (brackett, mayer & warner, 2004) or ‘trait models’ (petridges & furnham, 2001). the trait models of emotional intelligence blend emotional intelligence as an ability with certain traits, competencies, and behaviour (zeng & miller, 2003), ‘and generally include broad arrays of non-cognitive factors, such as personality and motivation’ (brackett et al., 2004; van rooy et al., 2005). this approach regards ei as a dispositional tendency representing a conglomerate of cognitive, personality, motivational, and affective attributes, and usually makes use of self-assessments or other-report measures (fiori et al., 2014; mikolajczak, 2009). both the bar-on model of ei (bar-on, 2000), as well as the emotional competence model of ei (goleman, 1995, 1998; goleman, boyatzis & mckee, 2002) are viewed as mixed models of ei. similar to the bar-on model, goleman’s (1998) model also emphasises ‘non-cognitive intelligence’ (muyia, 2009). goleman’s model is viewed as a ‘performance-based’ model, ‘centered on the emotional development of workplace leaders’. it focuses on four dimensions: ‘self-awareness – the ability to recognize one’s own feelings, abilities, and limitations’ ‘relationship management – the ability to influence others, manage conflict, and inspire others’ ‘social awareness – the ability to read the emotions of others (this also involves empathy)’ ‘self-management – the ability to control one’s own negative emotions and to be trustworthy’ (muyia, 2009, p. 692). the trait ei perspective has been criticised, firstly, for using self-reports which, critics contend, scarcely ‘reflect self-perceptions and therefore constitute unreliable assessments of objective competencies’. secondly, it has been criticised for correlating with existing personality traits too closely to be useful (mikolajczak, 2009). nonetheless, after examining different ei ability and self-report measurement instruments, and exploring the ‘relationships of ei factors with other cognitive abilities and personality dimensions’, barchard and hakstian (2004) conclude that ‘self-report measures are better understood as measures of self-perceptions of abilities than as measures of ei abilities themselves’. self-report measures ‘are not associated with the same factors as maximum-performance tests that putatively measure the same constructs, and they’ correlate ‘with personality dimensions but not with cognitive abilities (barchard & hakstian, 2004, p. 460)’. in support of this argument, davies, lane, devonport and scott (2010) state that self-report measures add value in that they do not contradict the subjective nature of emotions. collecting data relating to self-perceptions may be useful in itself for two reasons. firstly, if a person’s self-concept is accurate, his or her perceived emotional skills and abilities may be predictive of actual skills and abilities (brackett & geher, 2006). secondly, because people tend to act according to their stated beliefs (bandura, 1997), self-reported scores may be predictive of actual performance in a particular context (davies et al., 2010). in response to criticism relating to the unreliable assessments of objective competencies in the case of trait ei, mikolajczak (2009) states that this argument proves to be incorrect, as trait ei does relate to objective criteria. as trait ei has neurobiological correlates, not only does it correlate with the speed of emotional information processing (austin, 2005), but it also predicts objective life-outcomes, such as work performance, income, and cooperation (mikolajczak, 2009). the critique which argues that trait ei correlates too closely with existing personality traits to be useful is also refuted by various studies, such as that of tett, fox and wang (2005), which show that trait ei is distinct from other dispositional domains, such as personality traits. according to these authors, self-reports offer reliable and valid means of assessing trait ei. joseph and newman (2010) confirm these results as their study also showed that trait ei explains additional variance over and above related traits, such as the big five personality factors. research design top ↑ research approach in order to execute the research, the current study followed a cross-sectional design with a survey data collection technique. research method top ↑ research participants a total of 341 aspiring business school students in full-time employment who had applied for mba and leadership programmes participated in the study. males (n = 206) were in the majority (60.4%), compared with 135 females (39.6%). the age of these participants had the following ranges: 25.5% from 31–35 years (the majority age group) 22.9% from 26–30 years 22.0% from 36–40 years 15.0% from 41–45 years 8.8% from 46–50 years 4.7% from 21–25 years 1.2% were older than 50 years. additional information regarding the sample can be found in table 1. table 1: additional biographical information of sample. measuring instruments authentic leadership: al was measured using the authentic leadership questionnaire (alq) (walumbwa et al., 2008). grounded in the perspective of authentic leadership by avolio, gardner, luthans, may, walumbwa and colleagues (avolio & gardner, 2005; gardner et al., 2005). the questionnaire is the instrument most frequently used as a measure of authentic leadership (gardner et al., 2011). the alq consists of 16 five-point items, and measures four dimensions: self-awareness, relational transparency, internalised moral perspective, and balanced processing. items include statements such as ‘seeks feedback to improve interactions with others’ (self-awareness); ‘says exactly what he or she means’ (relational transparency), ‘demonstrates beliefs that are consistent with actions’ (internalised moral perspective) and ‘listens carefully to different points of views before coming to conclusions’ (balanced processing). individuals report the frequency (0: ‘not at all’; 4: ‘frequently, if not always’) with which they adopt the 16 behaviours and attitudes. emotional intelligence ei was measured using the rahim emotional quotient index (reqi). it is a multidimensional measure of trait ei, and was developed using the dimensions of ei proposed by goleman (1995). it is a self-assessment survey for both subordinates and supervisors to evaluate either their own level of emotional intelligence or the emotional intelligence of their supervisors (abas, 2010; rahim et al., 2002). the self-rating instrument requires respondents to provide their opinions about the way they perceive themselves in relation to goleman’s five dimensions of emotional intelligence. these dimensions are (rahim et al., 2002, p. 305): self-awareness: ‘the ability to be aware of which emotions, moods, and impulses one is experiencing, and why’. this dimension is also indicative of an individual’s awareness of the effects his or her feelings have on others. self-regulation: ‘the ability to keep one’s own emotions and impulses in check, and to remain calm and composed in volatile situations, irrespective of one’s emotions’. motivation: ‘the ability to remain focused on goals, despite setbacks. this dimension also indicates an individual who is able to operate from hope for success rather than a fear of failure’. empathy: ‘a person’s ability to understand the feelings conveyed through verbal and non-verbal messages, providing emotional support when needed, and to understand the connection between others’ emotions and behaviour’. social skills: ‘the ability of’ individuals ‘to handle problems without demeaning others who work with them’. this dimension ‘also includes the ability to refrain from letting one’s own negative feelings towards another individual inhibit collaboration, and to handle conflict with tact and diplomacy’. the ‘instrument uses a 7–point likert scale (7 = strongly agree … 1 = strongly disagree …) for ranking each item, a higher score’ indicates a greater dimension of emotional intelligence. examples of statements included in the survey are: ‘i keep my distressing emotions in check’ and ‘i understand the link between employees’ emotions and what they do’ (abas, 2010). statistical analysis the study employed lisrel 8.80 (jöreskog & sörbom, 2006) to estimate the goodness-of-fit associated with each of the two constructs (ei and authentic leadership). to determine whether the data was skewed, a test of multivariate normality should be performed (jöreskog & sörbom, 2006). this test indicated that the data was indeed skewed which required the current study to use the robust maximum likelihood method of estimation (brown, 2006, pp. 65, 347). additionally, several fit indices were used, including the satorra-bentler scaled chi-square, root mean square error of approximation (rmsea), standardised root mean square residual (srmr), comparative fit index (cfi), and the goodness-of-fit index (gfi). values close to 0.95 for gfi and cfi are considered indicative of good model fit. according to hu and bentler (1999, p. 1) a model has acceptable fit when the values for rmsea are close to 0.06, while values smaller than 0.08 are acceptable for srmr. in estimating the reliability associated with the dimensions of the two constructs (ei and authentic leadership), cronbach’s alpha (α) was calculated. estimates exceeding 0.6 are deemed acceptable (hair, black, babin, anderson & tatham, 2006, pp. 137, 778). the pearson product-moment correlation was used to investigate the degree to which the dimensions of emotional intelligence are significantly correlated with authentic leadership. in addition, guilford’s informal interpretation of r was used to interpret the strength of the obtained correlations (tredoux & durrheim, 2002). to determine which of the components of ei are significant predictors of authentic leadership, stepwise multiple regression was used (field, 2005). results top ↑ the results section consists of five tables encompassing the statistical outcomes from the collected data, followed by a short report. table 2 and table 3 report on the psychometric properties (goodness-of-fit statistics and cronbach’s alpha coefficients). table 4 presents the correlations between variables. tables 5–6 show the results of the stepwise multiple regression analysis with ei components as the predictors of authentic leadership. table 2: goodness-of-fit statistics. table 3: reliability estimates. table 4: correlations between components of emotional intelligence and authentic leadership. psychometric properties of the instruments from table 2 it is evident that the reqi shows acceptable levels of fit when considering the rmsea, srmr, and cfi. the authentic leadership questionnaire also exhibits acceptable fit when looking at both the cfi and srmr. the majority of the variables have acceptable reliability estimates – see table 3. however, the balanced processing component of the authentic leadership construct may leave room for improvement (α = 0.43). correlations between emotional intelligence components and authentic leadership it is evident from table 4 that all the components of ei are significantly correlated to authentic leadership. more specifically, empathy has the strongest relationship with authentic leadership whilst motivation has the weakest relationship with authentic leadership. using guilford’s informal interpretation of r, it is clear that the majority of the correlations (0.20 and higher) can be interpreted as low correlations, and definite but small relationships. these results show that those individuals who have higher levels of ei also view themselves as more authentic leaders. emotional intelligence components as predictors of authentic leadership to determine whether or not any of the ei components are significant predictors of authentic leadership, the results of the stepwise multiple regression need to be consulted (see tables 5–6). from table 5 it is evident that three components of ei are significant predictors of authentic leadership. however, the sign associated with the regression coefficient for motivation is reversed. this result was unexpected, given that the bivariate correlation between motivation and authentic leadership is positive. as multicollinearity may be the reason for this, further investigation into the variance inflation factor (vif) as well as tolerance was necessary. evidence of multicollinearity is observed by determining both the vif as well as tolerance (hair et al., 2006). variables with the lowest tolerance and the highest vif may be removed to improve the interpretation of the regression model. hence, after further investigation, the variable motivation was removed from the second stepwise multiple regression model. table 5: stepwise multiple regression. table 6: stepwise multiple-regression (revised). from table 6 it is evident that after the removal of the ei variable motivation from the multiple regression model (resulting from multicollinearity), ei empathy was the only significant predictor of authentic leadership. it explained 6% of the variance (f = 21.63, p = 0.00). discussion top ↑ outline of the results the purpose of the present study was to examine the influence of the various components of ei on authentic leadership. broadly speaking, the results showed that trait ei was positively linked to authentic leadership. six percent of the variance in authentic leadership could be explained by one of the ei components, namely, empathy. empathy showed the strongest relationship to authentic leadership and also contributed the most to authentic leadership. this finding supports both theoretical arguments (butler & chinowsky, 2006; humphrey et al., 2008; mahsud, yukl & prussia, 2010; riggio & reichard, 2008) and prior empirical research (rubin, munz & bommer, 2005; sadri, weber & gentry, 2011) relating empathy to other leadership behaviours and styles. prior research (kellett, humphrey & sleeth, 2006) indicated a significant correlation between empathy and both task-oriented and relations-oriented leadership behaviour. furthermore, a study by sadri et al. (2011) shows that leaders who are rated by their subordinates as engaging in behaviour that signals empathic emotion are perceived as better performers by their bosses. several other studies found a strong relationship between empathy and transformational leadership (butler & chinowsky, 2006; rubin et al., 2005). in light of the above, it makes sense that leaders with high empathy are more able to recognise when different relations behaviours are relevant (mahsud et al., 2010) for example: to know when to be more supportive, encouraging, and helpful if a subordinate is anxious or overstressed by the pressures of the job, or to be able to detect any underlying feelings of injustice and resentment about assignments, rewards, and support from the leader. humphrey et al. (2008) state that an emotionally intelligent leader may be capable of expressing authentic sympathy and support toward frustrated followers, whilst riggio and reichard (2008) argue that emotional sensitivity, originally conceptualised as leader empathy (bass, 1960, 1990) allows leaders to gauge the emotional reactions and general emotional tone of a group. these authors propose that leader emotional sensitivity is positively associated with high quality leader-member relationships, and is also associated with better assessment of negative moods amongst followers. as authentic leadership places a high premium on the fostering of a strong relationship between a leader and individual followers (riggio & reichard, 2008), as well as focusing on understanding those whom they serve (diddams & chang, 2012), the role of empathy in authentic leadership is evident. ei social skills also showed a significant relationship with self-perceived authentic leadership. social skills, as measured in this study, include refraining from one’s own negative feelings towards another individual in order not to inhibit collaboration, and to handle conflict with tact and diplomacy. this finding does not come as a surprise as several researchers have emphasised the relational nature of authentic leadership (avolio & gardner, 2005; eagly, 2005), and the importance of viewing oneself within one’s social environment (ilies et al., 2005). also, the role that positive emotions and trust may play in the authentic leadership process (avolio, gardner, walumbwa, luthans & may, 2004; gardner et al., 2009; walter et al., 2011), as well as the ability of the leader to manage emotions in this relationship with followers (vläsceanu, 2012), relate to these findings. prior research regarding conflict handling and leadership showed a positive relationship between effective conflict management and authentic leadership. a study by maldonado (2012) explored the relationship between leadership style and effective conflict management in healthcare organisations. the results of the qualitative study indicated that the transformational and authentic leadership styles are most effective in implementing approaches to conflict resolution, whilst leaders who have higher ei and better communication skills are more effective in managing conflict. the role of self-awareness, and self-regulation in authentic leadership was also evident. several researchers (avolio & gardner, 2005; dasborough et al., 2014; gardner et al., 2005; walumbwa et al., 2008) emphasised the importance of self-awareness, self-knowledge, and self-regulation in authentic leadership. the results of this study showed that there were statistically significant relationships between self-awareness and authentic leadership, and self-regulation and authentic leadership. these results were expected, as emotional self-awareness is essential in the understanding of one’s self and in the understanding and management of others (hopkins, o’ neil & williams, 2007). peus et al. (2012) examined self-knowledge and self-consistency as antecedents of authentic leadership. the results of their empirical study indicated that both self-knowledge and self-consistency can be regarded as antecedents of authentic leadership. diddams and chang argue that it is not always possible to judge one’s own level of self-awareness. ‘rather than equate self-awareness with extensive self-knowledge alone, they suggest that authentic leaders are also more aware of their own ambiguities, inconsistencies, and limits to self-knowledge’. there should be the realisation that one’s self-knowledge will always be incomplete (diddams & chang, 2012, p. 597). practical implications since ei empathy has been shown to be the most important ei predictor of authentic leadership, leaders need to understand when subordinates perceive a leader as displaying empathic emotion. therefore, in order to develop authentic leaders, it may be meaningful to identify how empathy manifests in the workplace, as no detailed descriptions of empathy behaviour in the workplace exist. this research also suggests that emotional and social skills are both related to authentic leadership, therefore, we suggest that, at a more practical level, emotional and social skills can be targeted for assessment and development, and can be an important component of an authentic leadership development programme. executive coaching can be used to improve interpersonal skills, such as empathy, whilst multisource feedback programmes, including role modelling and leadership training interventions, can be used to increase self-awareness and assist leaders to obtain a deeper understanding of their strengths and weaknesses and improve ‘relations behaviours’. limitations and recommendations the results presented in this article should be understood within the context of the limitations of the study. firstly, ei was measured by means of self-reporting which can be subjected to biases. ‘however, since this study was largely concerned with self-perceptions, the use of such self-reports is not unreasonable’ (schmitt, 1994, p. 393). furthermore, ‘common source bias poses a potential problem in this study, since all variables are based on’ self-assessment. therefore, as further studies have not provided additional support for the influence of ei on authentic leadership, it should not be used to inform selection decisions. ‘in future studies, it may be fruitful to complement data’ with additional data from different sources, such as the perceptions of followers. in terms of future research, it is recommended that perhaps the different components of both ei and authentic leadership can be assessed using the above means, instead of using a composite score for authentic leadership. this may create deeper insight into the relationships between the different components embedded in both these constructs. it is especially important to define the different components of ei measured clearly in order to enable the comparison of the results of different empirical studies. further, qualitative follow-up studies may provide more depth to clarify and discuss the nature of the relationships identified. conclusion little empirical work exists on the antecedents of authentic leadership. this study contributes much-needed empirical evidence in support of various components of ei and its relationship to authentic behaviour. these results support theoretical arguments that authentic leaders are more sensitive interpersonally and, therefore, measure higher on empathy and social skills. it also supports the empirical and theoretical proposals that self-awareness and self-regulation may very well differentiate leaders’ performance in authentic leadership behaviour. this study has provided the first empirical evidence on the components of ei as antecedents of authentic leadership which is particularly important since ‘knowledge about the antecedents of authentic leadership provides a foundation for authentic leadership development’ (peus et al., 2012, p. 332). acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.k. (university of the free state) was responsible for the conceptualisation, literature review, data-gathering, and discussion of the results. p.n. (university of the free state) executed the research design, statistical analysis, and also wrote that section of the article. references top ↑ abas, n.a.h. (2010). emotional intelligence and conflict management styles. unpublished research paper: master of science degree in applied psychology, the graduate school, university of wisconsin-stout, menomonie, wisconsin: united states of america. antonakis, j., ashkanasy, n.m., & dasborough, m.t. (2009). does leadership need emotional intelligence? the leadership quarterly, 20, 247–261. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.01.006 ashkanasy, n.m., & daus, c.s. (2005). rumors of the death of emotional intelligence in organizational behavior are vastly exaggerated. journal of organizational behavior, 26, 441–452. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.320 austin, e.j. (2005). emotional intelligence and emotional information processing. personality and individual differences, 39, 403–414. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2005.01.017 avolio, b.j., & gardner, w.l. (2005). authentic leadership development: getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. the leadership quarterly, 16, 315–338. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.001 avolio, b.j., gardner, w.l., walumbwa, f.o., luthans, f., & may, d.r. (2004). unlocking the mask: a look at the process by which authentic leaders impact follower attitudes and behaviors. the leadership quarterly, 15, 801–823. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2004.09.003 avolio, b.j., & luthans, f. (2006). the high impact leader: moments matter for accelerating authentic leadership development. new york: mcgraw-hill. avolio, b.j., luthans, f., & walumbwa, f.o. (2004). authentic leadership: theory-building for veritable sustained performance. working paper. gallup leadership institute, university of nebraska-lincoln, lincoln ne bandura, a. (1997). self-efficacy: the exercise of control. new york: w.j. freeman. barchard, k.a., & hakstian, a.r. (2004). the nature and measurement of emotional intelligence abilities: basic dimensions and their relationships with other cognitive ability and personality variables. educational and psychological measurement, 64(3), 437–462. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013164403261762 bar-on, r. (2000). emotional and social intelligence: insights from the emotional quotient inventory. in r. bar-on & j.d.a. parker (eds.), handbook of emotional intelligence: theory, development, assessment, and application at home, school and in the workplace (pp. 363–388). san francisco: jossey-bass inc. bass, b.m. (1960). leadership, psychology, and organisational behaviour. new york: harper. bass, b.m. (1990). bass and stogdill’s handbook of leadership. new york: free press. brackett, m.a., & geher, g. (2006). measuring emotional intelligence: paradigmatic diversity and common ground. in j. ciarrochi, j.p. forgas, & j.d. mayer (eds.), emotional intelligence and everyday life (pp. 27–50). new york: psychology press. brackett, m.a., mayer, j.d., & warner, r.m. (2004). emotional intelligence and its relation to everyday behaviour. personality and individual differences, 36, 1387–1402. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0191-8869(03)00236-8 brown, t.a. (2006). confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. new york, ny: guilford press. butler, c., & chinowsky, p. (2006). emotional intelligence and leadership behavior in construction executives. journal of management in engineering, 22(3), 119–125. http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2006)22:3(119) dasborough, m., todorova, g., & qu, y. (2014). the dark side of authentic leadership: leading dissimilar followers through conflict. in l.k. neider & c.a. schrieshein (eds.), advances in authentic and ethical leadership (pp. 95–125), charlotte, nc: information age publishing, inc. davies, k.a., lane, a.m., devonport, t.j., & scott, j.a. (2010). validity and reliability of a brief emotional intelligence scale (beis-10). journal of individual differences, 31(4), 198–208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000028 diddams, m., & chang, g.c. (2012). only human: exploring the nature of weakness in authentic leadership. the leadership quarterly, 23, 593–603. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.12.010 eagly, a.h. (2005). achieving relational authenticity in leadership: does gender matter? the leadership quarterly, 16, 459–474. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.007 emuwa, a. (2013). authentic leadership: commitment to supervisor, follower empowerment, and procedural justice climate. emerging leadership journeys, 6, 45–65. field, a. (2005). discovering statistics using spss. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. fiori, m., antonietti, j-p., mikolajczak, m., luminet, o., hansenne, m., & rossier, j. (2014). what is the ability emotional intelligence test (msceit) good for? an evaluation using item response theory. public library of science one, 9(6), e98827. pmid: 24901541, http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098827 gardner, w.l., avolio, b.j., luthans, f., may, d.r., & walumbwa, f. (2005). “can you see the real me?” a self-based model of authentic leader and follower development. the leadership quarterly, 16, 343–372. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.003 gardner, w.l., cogliser, c.c., davis, k.m., & dickens, m.p. (2011). authentic leadership: a review of the literature and research agenda. the leadership quarterly, 22(6), 1120–1145. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.09.007 gardner, w.l., fischer, d., & hunt, j.g. (2009). emotional labor and leadership: a threat to authenticity? the leadership quarterly, 20(3), 466–482. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.03.011 goleman, d. (1995). emotional intelligence. new york: bantam. goleman, d. (1998). working with emotional intelligence. new york: bantam. goleman, d., boyatzis, r., & mckee, a. (2002) the new leaders. transforming the art of leadership into the science of results. london: time warner books. hair, j.f., black, b., babin, b., anderson, r.e., & tatham, r.l. (2006). multivariate data analysis (6th edn.). new jersey: prentice hall. hmieleski, k.m., cole, m.s., & baron, r.a. (2012). shared authentic leadership and new venture performance. journal of management, 38(5), 1476–1499. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206311415419 hopkins, m.m., o’neil, d.a., & williams, h.w. (2007). emotional intelligence and board governance: leadership lessons from the public sector. journal of managerial psychology, 22(7), 683–700. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940710820109 hu, l., & bentler, p.m. (1999). cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. structural equation modeling: a multidisciplinary journal, 6, 1–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 humphrey, r.h., pollack, j.m., & hawver, t. 2008. leading with emotional labor. journal of managerial psychology, 23(2), 151–168. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940810850790 ilies, r., morgeson, f.p., & nahrgang, j.d. (2005). authentic leadership and eudaemonic well-being: understandingleader–follower outcomes. the leadership quarterly, 16, 373–394. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.002 jöreskog, k.g., & sörbom, d. (2006). lisrel 8.80 for windows [computer software]. lincolnwood, il: scientific software international, inc. joseph, d.l., & newman, d.a. (2010). discriminant validity of self-reported emotional intelligence: a multitrait-multisource study. educational and psychological measurement, 70(4), 672–694. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013164409355700 kellett, j.b., humphrey, r.h., & sleeth, r.g. (2006). empathy and the emergence of task and relations leaders. the leadership quarterly, 17, 146–162. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.12.003 kiyani, k., saher, n., saleem, s., & iqbal, m. (2013). emotional intelligence (ei) and employee outcomes: the mediating effect of authentic leadership style. interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, 5(1), 394–405. lawler, j., & ashman, i. (2012). theorizing leadership authenticity: a sartrean perspective. leadership, 8(4), 327–344. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1742715012444685 liu, h., cutcher, l., & grant, d. (2015). doing authenticity: the gendered construction of authentic leadership. gender, work and organization, 22(3), 237–255. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12073 luthans, f., & avolio, b.j. (2003). authentic leadership development. in k.s. cameron, j.e. dutton, & r.e. quinn (eds.), positive organisational scholarship: foundations of a new discipline (pp. 241–261). san francisco: barrett-koehler. mahsud, r., yukl, g., & prussia, g. (2010). leader empathy, ethical leadership, and relations-oriented behaviors as antecedents of leader-member exchange quality. journal of managerial psychology, 25(6), 561–577. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683941011056932 maldonado, t.m. (2012). managing conflict from the heart: healthcare leaders’ approaches in transforming conflict into better patient care. masters of arts degree. fresno, ca: the graduate faculty of fresno pacific university. mandell, b., & pherwani, s. (2003). relationship between emotional intelligence and transformational leadership style: a gender comparison. journal of business and psychology, 17, 387–404. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1022816409059 muyia, h.m. (2009). approaches to and instruments for measuring emotional intelligence: a review of selected literature. advances in developing human resources, 11(6), 690–702. mikolajczak, m. (2009). going beyond the ability-trait debate: the three-level model of emotional intelligence. journal of applied psychology, 5(2), 25–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.7790/ejap.v5i2.175 müceldili, b., turan, h., & erdil, o. (2013). the influence of authentic leadership on creativity and innovativeness. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 99, 673–681. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.538 petridges, k.v., & furnham, a. (2001). trait emotional intelligence: psychometric investigation with reference to established trait taxonomies. european journal of personality, 15(6), 425–448. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/per.416 peus, c., wesche, j.s., streicher, b., braun, s., & frey, d. (2012). authentic leadership: an empirical test of its antecedents, consequences, and mediating mechanisms. journal of business ethics, 107, 331–348. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1042-3 price waterhouse coopers. (2014). global economic crime survey: confronting the changing face of economic crime. (4th south african edn.). retrieved january 22, 2015, from www.pwc.co.za/crimesurvey rahim, m.a., psenicka, c., polychroniou, p., zhao, j.-h., yu, c.-s., & chan, k.a., et al. (2002). a model of emotional intelligence and conflict management strategies: a study in seven countries. the international journal of organisational analysis, 10(4), 302–326. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/eb028955 rego, a., sousa, f., marques, c., & cunha, m.p.e. (2012). authentic leadership promoting employees’ psychological capital and creativity. journal of business research, 65(3), 429–437. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.10.003 riggio, r.e., & reichard, r.j. (2008). the emotional and social intelligences of effective leadership: an emotional and social skill approach. journal of managerial psychology, 23(2), 169–185. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940810850808 rubin, r.s., munz, d.c., & bommer, w.h. (2005). leading from within: the effects of emotion recognition and personality on transformational leadership behavior. academy of management journal, 48(5), 845–858. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2005.18803926 sadri, g., weber, t.j., & gentry, w.b. (2011). empathic emotion and leadership performance: an empirical analysis across 38 countries. the leadership quarterly, 22, 818–830. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.07.005 salovey, p., & mayer, j.d. (1990). emotional intelligence. imagination, cognition and personality, 9(3), 185–211. http://dx.doi.org/10.2190/dugg-p24e-52wk-6cdg schmitt, n. (1994). method bias: the importance of theory and measurement. journal of organizational behavior, 15, 393–398. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.4030150504 tett, r.p., fox, k.e., & wang, a. (2005). development and validation of a self-report measure of emotional intelligence as a multidimensional trait domain. personality and social psychology bulletin, 31(7), 859–888. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167204272860 tredoux, c., & durrheim, k. (2002). numbers, hypotheses, and conclusions: a course in statistics for the social sciences. lansdowne, cape town: uct press. van rooy, d.l., alonso, a., & viswesvaran, c. (2005). group differences in emotional intelligence scores: theoretical and practical implications. personality and individual differences, 38, 689–700. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2004.05.023 vläsceanu, s. (2012). leadership and emotional intelligence in the context of organisational dynamics. romanian journal of experimental applied psychology, 3(1), 43–50. walter, f., cole, m.s., & humphrey, r.h. (2011). emotional intelligence: sine qua non of leadership or folderol? academy of management perspectives, 25, 45–59. walumbwa, f.o., avolio, b.j., gardner, w.l., wernsing, t.s., & peterson, s.j. (2008). authentic leadership: development and validation of a theory-based measure. journal of management, 34(1), 89–126. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206307308913 zeng, x., & miller, c.e. (2003). examinations of measurements of emotional intelligence. ergometrika, 2, 38–49. article information authors: lena-mari van schalkwyk1 crizelle els2 ian rothmann (jr)3 affiliations: 1school of human resources management, north-west university, south africa 2workwell: research unit for economic and management sciences, north-west university, south africa 3business intelligence, afriforte (pty) ltd., south africa correspondence to: crizelle els email: crizelle.els@nwu.ac.za postal address: private bag x6001, internal box 202, potchefstroom 2530, south africa dates: received: 19 may 2011 accepted: 12 sept. 2011 published: 11 nov. 2011 republished: 11 jan. 2012 how to cite this article: van schalkwyk, l., els, c., & rothmann, s. (jr). (2011). the moderating role of perceived organisational support in the relationship between workplace bullying and turnover intention across sectors in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #384, 13 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.384 note: this article was republished with the correct affiliation for lena-mari van schalkwyk copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) the moderating role of perceived organisational support in the relationship between workplace bullying and turnover intention across sectors in south africa in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study    • research objectives    • trends from the research literature       • workplace bullying       • bullying by superiors       • bullying by colleagues       • bullying and perceived organisational support       • bullying and turnover intention       • perceived organisational support and turnover intention    • the potential value-add of the study    • what will follow • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • descriptive statistics, internal consistencies and correlations • discussion • acknowledgements    • authors’ contributions • references abstract (back to top) orientation: because workplace bullying has detrimental consequences on the profitability, work quality and turnover intention of organisations, this phenomenon should be addressed. perceived organisational support (pos) was explored since factors such as role clarity, job information, participation in decision-making, colleague support and supervisory relationships might act as buffers against workplace bullying, subsequently influencing the turnover intention of the organisation. research purpose: to investigate the role of pos as moderator in the relationship between workplace bullying and turnover intention across sectors in south africa. motivation for the study: workplace bullying is a worldwide concern and it is unclear whether perceived organisational support moderates the relationship between workplace bullying and turnover intention. research design, approach and method: a cross-sectional survey approach with a quantitative research design was used (n = 13 911). the south african employee health and wellness survey (saehws) was administered to explore the experiences of bullying behaviour, pos and turnover intention. main findings: bullying by superiors is more prevalent than bullying by colleagues. a positive relationship exists between workplace bullying and turnover intention. role clarity, participation in decision-making and supervisory relationship moderates the relationship between bullying by superiors and turnover intention. practical/managerial implications: this study creates an awareness of the prevalence of workplace bullying in the south african context so that sufficient counteraction can be encouraged. contribution/value-add: this study contributes to the limited research regarding workplace bullying in the south african context by quantifying the relationships between workplace bullying pos and turnover intention. introduction (back to top) key focus of the study despite the increasing demands of the global world, which constantly generates new technological aspirations, work relationships are still recognised as a central component of workplaces worldwide. workplace bullying by either an individual (sperry, 2009) or multiple perpetrators (namie & namie, 2009) is increasing in the workplace. experiences of bullying behaviour in the workplace are four times more prevalent than illegal forms of workplace harassment such as sexual harassment (namie, 2007). furthermore, bullying in the workplace is recognised internationally (baillien, neyens, de witte & de cuyper, 2009; einarsen, hoel & notelaers, 2009;lutgen-sandvik & sypher, 2009; ortega, høgh, pejtersen & olsen, 2009)and nationally(pieterson, 2007; wright, 2008) as a relevant and destructive phenomenon. most international studies have focused on the development and measurement of workplace bullying (baillien et al., 2009; einarsen et al., 2009; namie & namie, 2009), characteristics of workplace bullying (lutgen-sandvik & sypher, 2009; ortega et al., 2009 )and the different sectors experiencing workplace bullying (bilgel, aytac & bayram, 2006; bloisi & hoel, 2008; mathisen, einarsen & mykletun, 2008). this study will focus on two forms of workplace bullying, viz., experiences of bullying behaviour from superiors and experiences of bullying behaviour from colleagues. furthermore, the study investigated whether perceived organisational support acts as a buffer against workplace bullying and endeavoured to show the relationship between workplace bullying and employee turnover intention. background to the study in the context of industrial psychology, international research has shown a growing interest in workplace bullying(agervold, 2007). conversely, workplace bullying in south africa is still in its infancy. this aggressive behaviour affects personal and professional relationships throughout an individual’s lifespan (lewis, coursol & wahl, 2002)and if not recognised by organisations as a workplace phenomenon, it will increase. workplace bullying occurs between superiors and their staff, and more recently, horizontally, which entails bullying among colleagues (lewis & sheehan, 2003). however, research has shown that abusive superiors have a more profound effect on employee commitment than experiencing abusive behaviour from colleagues (koonin & green, 2004; mccormick, casimir, djurkovic & yang, 2006). nevertheless, if an organisation acts in a professional manner by providing the necessary support to workplace bullying targets, these supportive measures may enable employee coping mechanisms to deal with abusive behaviour in a constructive manner (quine, 1999). similarly, many researchers report that a lack of support is central to the inability of workplace bullying targets to cope with this phenomenon (lewis & orford, 2005; leymann & gustafsson, 1996; matthiesen, aasen, holst, wie & einarsen, 2003). then again, workplace bullying is under-reported and becoming an increasingly silent epidemic because of a lack of perceived organisational support and a fear of retribution (koonin & green, 2004;lewis et al., 2002;macintosh, 2005;strandmark & hallberg, 2007). consequently, the responsibility to cope with and report workplace bullying experiences does not rest only with the employee. it is also the responsibility of the organisation to protect employees against such actions in the workplace. namie (2000) acknowledges that 96% of co-workers are aware of the bullying target’s situation, suggesting that bullying is not a workplace secret. even if co-workers do not witness workplace bullying, 87% of targets tell co-workers about their experiences. however, instead of protesting the bullying behaviour, employees on the sidelines often rally in support of the perpetrator; this is usually done because of a fear of punishment and as a way of self-protection. because of this bullying, targets are incapable to form supportive coalitions with colleagues (namie, 2000). workplace bullying is linked to various physical and psychological costs for the target, as well as organisational and social costs for the workplace. consequences relating to the organisation include compensation for medical expenses (bassman, 1992), and reduced productivity (einarsen, hoel, zapf & cooper, 2003) due to poor work performance. according to einarsen et al. (2003) and rayner and keashly (2005), low-quality work, reduced productivity, high staff turnover and increased absenteeism are among the indirect costs to organisations. targets contemplating strategies to cope with this destructive phenomenon found resignation to be an appropriate solution (björkqvist, österman & hjelt-bäck, 1994;davenport, schwartz & elliott, 1999;namie, 2000; quine, 1999). research objectives the primary objectives of this study were to determine whether perceived organisational support (role clarity, job information, participation in decision-making, colleague support and supervisory relationships) moderate the relationship between workplace bullying (by superiors and colleagues) and turnover intention. trends from the research literature workplace bullying workplace bullying can be regarded as an element of aggressive behaviour that manifests in interpersonal work relationships between two individuals or between an individual and a group (zapf & einarsen, 2001). rothmann and rothmann (2006, p. 14) define bullying as ‘harassing, offending, and socially excluding someone at work to such a level that these actions negatively affect a person’s work tasks’. thus, the label of the bully can be applied when a particular activity, interaction, behaviour or process has occurred repeatedly, frequently and over a period of time (wood, 2008). bullying is an escalating process where the victim experiences systematic negative social acts that lead to inferiority (einarsen et al., 2003). according to rayner (1997), different types of bullying can be categorised as follows: threat to professional status (belittling opinion, public professional humiliation, accusation regarding lack of effort); threat to personal reputation (name-calling, insults, intimidation, devaluing); isolation (preventing growth opportunities, physical or social isolation, withholding information); overwork (undue pressure, impossible deadlines, unnecessary disruptions); and destabilisation (failure to give recognition, assigning of meaningless tasks, removal of responsibility, repeated reminders of blunders and setting the victim up to fail). namie and namie (2003) suggested that 82% of employees who had been bullied left their workplaces, 38% for health reasons and 44% because they were victims of a low performance appraisal manipulated by a bullying superior to show them as incompetent. according to watkins (2007),a person who experiences persistent intimidation might learn to expect bullying behaviour from others and develop a pattern of compliance with the unfair demands of those he or she perceives as stronger. furthermore, baillien et al. (2009) advised that future research should focus on the distinction between different perpetrators of bullying in the organisation, such as superiors and colleagues. workplace bullying superiors are perpetrators of workplace bullying in 60% – 80% of cases (hoel & cooper, 2000;lutgen-sandvik, tracy & alberts, 2007;namie & namie, 2003). both rayner and keashly (2005) and zapf and einarsen (2005) ascertained that, with the exception of scandinavian studies (einarsen, 2000; einarsen & skogstad, 1996; mikkelsen & einarsen, 2002),most studies have consistently found superiors to be involved in 50% – 70% of all bullying cases (cowie et al., 2000; hoel, cooper & faragher, 2001). in a nationally representative survey (namie, 2007), 72% of reported bullies were managers, some of whom had the sponsorship and support of executives, managerial peers, or human resource professionals. thus, it can be assumed that superiors are more likely than colleagues to act as the perpetrators. hypothesis 1: workplace bullying by superiors will be more prevalent in organisations than workplace bullying by colleagues. bullying behaviours also exist because of a ‘white wall of silence’, where the superior often defends the perpetrator (murray, 2007). consequently, the superior can be the bully or even be the second degree perpetrator in a bullying situation where he or she defends the bully. according to ioma (july, 2008), witnesses to workplace bullying believed in 43% of cases that the perpetrator of bullying had the support of one or more senior managers when harassing a victim. similarly, longo and sherman (2007) suggest that superiors manipulate behaviour and often protect the bully instead of the victims. as a result, reporting bullying behaviour is often an unsatisfactory solution, especially since superiors are more likely to be associated with being the ‘support from the organisation’. according to leymann (1990), bullying exists in organisations characterised by deficiencies in work design, leadership and negative social climates. it is argued that where managers avoid taking charge or involving themselves with work and stress or interpersonal conflicts and tensions, there is a breeding ground for bullies (leymann, 1996). consequently, it can be expected that those exposed to bullying will experience their immediate superior as an abusive and tyrannical leader. bullying by colleagues while superiors are the most common perpetrators of workplace bullying (garcia, hue, opdebeeck & van looy, 2002),bullying can involve co-workers ‘mobbing’ other co-workers (einarsen et al., 2003; zapf & einarsen, 2005). in the scandinavian studies, bullying from colleagues was more commonly reported than bullying from superiors (einarsen, 2000; einarsen & skogstad, 1996; mikkelsen & einarsen, 2002). studies have shown that bullying among colleagues has a higher ratio than bullying by superiors. in approximately a third of incidents, victims identified their colleagues or peer groups as the perpetrators, although bullying by colleagues is also interlinked with bullying by superiors. conflict might be the origin of aggressive behaviour between colleagues, and potentially escalates into bullying when the behaviour becomes deliberate and purposeful (strandmark & hallberg, 2007). new or younger employees in the organisation are considered to be particularly vulnerable, as are ethnic minorities, owing to a lack of knowledge regarding their rights and the regulations of the workplace (westhuses, 2004). intimidation and blame in the organisation creates mutually held fears about future job security among employees (vaez, ekberg & laflamme, 2004). job insecurity creates a climate of rivalry when employees see their colleagues as potential rivals for jobs. this may cause feelings of competition and suspicion, factors that are known to be associated with workplace bullying (bjorkqvist et al., 1994). manipulative and inappropriate behaviour from colleagues has led to one in five employees quitting their jobs, creating a substantial staff retention problem for employers. a further 23% of employed people have raised complaints of bullying in the workplace but in two out of three cases, issues remain unresolved or the complaints have failed to affect the bullying campaigns in any way (mason, 2010). bullying and perceived organisational support according to rhoades and eisenberger (2002), perceived organisational support (pos) is founded on the assumption that employees form opinions regarding the extent to which an organisation values their contributions and cares about their well-being; moreover, less workplace bullying has been reported in organisations with a supportive (accommodating, trustworthy and caring) climate (baillien, neyens & de witte, 2004). dimensions of pos have been established as follows: role clarity (eisenberger, rhoades & cameron, 1999;zapf, knorz & kulla, 1996), job information (schat & kelloway, 2003), participation in decision-making (allen, shore & griffeth, 2003), support from co-workers (djurkovic, mccormick & casimir, 2004), supervisory support (settoon, bennett & liden, 1996), which leads to increased job satisfaction (eisenberger, cummings, armeli & lynch, 1997), performance (shanock & eisenberger, 2006), commitment (hochwarter, kacmar, perrewe & johnson, 2003) and reduced turnover (allen et al., 2003; rhoades & eisenberger, 2002). targets as well as observers of workplace bullying suffer from an ill-conditioned work environment (sheehan, ramsay & patrick, 2000) and these ill-conditioned work environments with role conflict, a lack of participation in decision-making processes and a lack of support from superiors emancipate a bullying culture (quine, 2001). role conflict or role ambiguity manifests in work environments where bullying exists. einarsen, raknes and matthiesen (1994) highlight the fact that employees who are uncertain about their job expectations will experience a lack of support from the organisation. moreover, targets of bullying rated the work environment more negatively, particularly with respect to the experience of role ambiguity (vartia, 1996; zapf, 1999). therefore, role clarity can buffer the impact of workplace bullying through providing a sense of perceived support from the organisation. furthermore, one the one hand, clear evidence indicates that negative acts by superiors and colleagues, such as imposing demeaning tasks, excessive monitoring, excessive criticism, withholding of information and exclusion thereof, represent workplace bullying (lewis & gunn, 2007). on the other hand, factors shown to buffer the manifestation of workplace bullying can be justified by supportive management structures (cummings & worley, 1997), and worker involvement and participation in decision-making (marchington, 1995). in addition, studies conducted in the uk and scandinavia have shown that many employees from both public and private sector organisations are frequently subjected to physical and verbal abuse by their colleagues and/or superiors (adams, 1992; leymann, 1990; randall, 1997; wilson, 1991). a lack of social support from colleagues in the work environment places targets in a more vulnerable position and so they become an easier target for bullies (sheehan et al., 2000). the aforementioned information clearly demonstrates that without a supportive culture in the organisation, workplace bullying will lead, directly or indirectly, to targets in the organisation to have an increased intention to resign (djurkovic et al., 2004; keashly, 2001; quine, 2001). hypothesis 2: a negative relationship exists between workplace bullying by superiors and perceived organisational support (role clarity, job information, participation in decision-making, colleague support and supervisory relationships). hypothesis 3: a negative relationship exists between workplace bullying by colleagues and perceived organisational support (role clarity, job information, participation in decision-making, colleague support and supervisory relationships). bullying and turnover intention workplace bullying has been found to be a significant predictor of turnover (begley, 1998), which incurs substantial costs for the organisation (waldman, kelly, arora & smith, 2004). hypothesis 4: a positive relationship exists between workplace bullying by superiors and turnover intention. hypothesis 5:a positive relationship exists between workplace bullying by colleagues and turnover intention. workplace bullying has widespread negative effects on organisations because it affects not only the targets but also those who witness bullying behaviour. because of employers’ costs associated with bullying, such as: productivity loss, costs regarding interventions by third parties, turnover, increased sick-leave, workers’ compensation and disability claims and legal liability employers should logically be motivated to stop workplace bullying (hoel & einarsen, 2010). perceived organisational support and turnover intention researchers have focused significant attention on the concept of pos as a key predictor of turnover intention (maertz, griffeth, campbell & allen, 2007). hui, teo and lee (2007),examined both turnover intention and pos and concluded that pos was negatively related to thoughts of leaving the organisation. conversely, pos was also positively related to staying with the organisation. pos was negatively related to thoughts about quitting a job as a result of negative acts in the workplace. similarly, kinnunen, feldt and makikangas (2008) found that pos was negatively related to the likelihood of leaving an organisation and the frequency of thoughts about leaving the organisation. accordingly, ‘a social network and social support are valuable resources that not only enable individuals to cope with a wide variety of extant stressors but may also facilitate proactive coping efforts’ (aspinwall & taylor, 1997, p. 421). in a longitudinal study of manufacturing workers, moore, grunberg and greenberg (2004) found that greater role clarity was significantly associated with less turnover intention. moreover, role clarity creates a sense of purpose for employees, leading to the retention of employees by the organisation (sümer & van den ven, 2008). in addition, a variety of abusive supervisory behaviours (zellars, tepper & duffy, 2002) and a lack of participation in decision-making intentions (allen et al., 2003) have been identified as situations where the only solution lies in targets quitting their jobs. thus, eisenberger, huntington, hutchison and sowa (1986) argue that targets who perceive greater support from their employing organisation would be more likely to feel obligated to ‘repay’ the organisation (shore & wayne, 1993). to this end, the goal of this study is to add to the research on the existence of workplace bullying in the south african context and how targets of bullying perceive support from the organisation where such a culture prevails. the impact of this phenomenon on turnover intention in organisations should create encouragement to generate transformation. hypothesis 6: a negative relationship exists between perceived organisational support (role clarity, job information, participation in decision-making, colleague support and supervisory relationships) and turnover intention. hypothesis 7: perceived organisational support (role clarity, job information, participation in decision-making, colleague support and supervisory relationships) plays a moderating role in the relationship between workplace bullying (superiors and colleagues) and turnover intention. the potential value-add of the study avoidance by employers and employees to acknowledge the problem of workplace bullying hinders the awareness of the detrimental effects of such bullying on the world of work. by understanding the impact of bullying, organisations might be stimulated to buffer workplace bullying with sufficient support, such as role clarity, sufficient job information, joint decision-making and support from both the supervisors and colleagues of the targets. international research (baillien et al., 2009; einarsen et al., 2009; lutgen-sandvik & sypher, 2009; namie & namie, 2009; ortega et al., 2009) has established the significance of workplace bullying worldwide. consequently, this phenomenon cannot be ignored in the south african context.south africa is still in the exploration phase of how workplace bullying affects a diverse developing country(pieterson, 2007; wright, 2008). hence, this study will not only contribute to a better understanding of workplace bullying trends in south africa and its relationship with employee turnover intention, but will also provide for preventive measures to minimise the risk of bullying behaviour in south african workplaces. contemporary research is essential in determining the influence of workplace bullying on the intention to leave an organisation. however, greater emphasis on the effects of workplace bullying creates more awareness so that organisations and employees can counteract its occurrence. thus, organisations can be alert and prepared to target workplace bullying through interventions, policies and, as this study will reveal, perceived organisational support, in order to counteract this issue. what will follow in the sections to follow the research approach, research participants, measuring instruments, research procedure and statistical analyses are discussed. the results of the study are presented, followed by a discussion of the results. research design (back to top) research approach this article follows a quantitative research approach with a cross-sectional field survey. this approach is conducted by means of questionnaires to measure workplace bullying, turnover intention and pos at a single point in time (trochim & donnelly, 2007). research method research participants the sample group is represented by an availability sample of 13 911 participants gathered over a spectrum of nine provinces and five sectors. the first table presents the biographical characteristics of the participants. table 1: characteristics of the participants. the sample (n = 13 911) embodies a variety of sectors in the south african industry (academic, financial, government, manufacturing, mining and other), in which the mining industry is represented by 5197 (37.4% of the total sample) participants and the academic environment has the lowest representation, with 209 (1.5%) participants. afrikaans-speaking (5486) and xitsonga-speaking (5486) participants make up most of the sample group with 78.8%, while 81 isindebele participants (0.6%) make up the smallest proportion of the language category. there are almost twice as many men, with 9158 (65.8%) participants, as women. married people, represented by 8826 (63.4%) participants, those with tertiary education, represented by 4183 (40%) participants, and 4180 (30%) participants between the ages of 30 and 40 years old, make up most of the sample in each category respectively, while 41 (0.3%) widowers, and 3 (0.0%) participants younger than 20 years old, make up the least of each category respectively. in order from the least to the most participants per race group are: coloured people, 212 (1.5%), indian people, 236 (1.7%), black people, 3659 (26.3%) and white people, 5128 (36.9%). most participants, 6820 (49%), come from the gauteng area while the northern cape, with 23 participants (0.2%), is least represented. measuring instruments a biographical questionnaire was administered in order to document the socio-demographic differences of the participants. characteristics on this questionnaire included gender, age, race, language, marital status, educational level, geographical distribution and industry. the south african employee health and wellness survey (saehws) was administered to gather the data. the saehws is a self-report instrument based on the dual-process model of work-related well-being (rothmann & rothmann, 2006), developed by demerouti, bakker, nachreiner and schaufeli (2001), and is rooted in the assumption that employees’ perceptions and experiences represent imperative information regarding the wellness climate in an organisation. the validity of the factor structures of the saehws is equivalent for different ethnic groups and organisations and is therefore culturally sensitive with no bias against any cultural group (rothmann & rothmann, 2006).south african norms were also developed and rothmann and rothmann (2006) reported that the reliability of the saehws was satisfactory, with a chronbach’s alpha coefficient above 0.70. for the purpose of this study the following sections from the saehws were used: workplace bullying was measured in terms of bullying by superiors and bullying by colleagues to determine the main culprits. the scale for workplace bullying by superiors consisted of a 1–4 (‘never’ to ‘always’) likert scale range with 12 items asking questions such as: ‘how often do you experience unpleasant personal remarks from your superiors?’ (α = 0.87). the scale for workplace bullying by colleagues is also determined by a 1–4 likert scale (‘never’ to ‘always’) where responses to 12 items can be evaluated, with questions such as: ‘how often do you feel that your colleagues are spreading unfair rumours about you?’ (α = 0.86). to determine the role of pos in this study, it was measured, for the sake of accuracy, by utilising the sub-facets of the stated definition (role clarity, job information, participation in decision-making, colleague support and supervisory relationships). therefore, questions will be representative of each sub-facet. all sub-facets will be measured on a likert scale 1–4 (‘never’ to ‘always’) range with three items, including questions relating to the various sub-facets, such as role clarity: ‘do you know exactly what your responsibilities are?’ (α = 0.85); job information: ‘do you receive sufficient information on the results of your work?’ (α = 0.82); participation in decision-making: ‘can you participate in decisions about the nature of your work?’ (α = 0.82); colleague support: ‘if necessary, can you ask your colleagues for help?’ (α = 0.84) and supervisory relationships: ‘do you get on well with your direct supervisor?’ (α = 0.84). to determine the cost to the company, turnover intention was explored. the turnover intention was rated on a 1–6 likert scale (‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’) with five items, where questions like: ‘i would be very happy to spend the rest of my career in this organisation’ were asked (α = 0.86). research procedure the data were gathered in collaboration with afriforte over a period of three years from 2007 to 2010. the data were collected from all nine provinces and specified sectors. participants were requested to follow a link received via e-mail and to complete the computerised questionnaire online. a letter of informed consent was completed by all participants and confidentiality was maintained throughout the research process. statistical analysis the statistical analysis was carried out by means of the spss-programme (spss inc., 2009). descriptive statistics (e.g. means, standard deviations, skewness and kurtosis) were used to analyse the data. cronbach alpha coefficients were used to assess the internal consistency, homogeneity and unidimensionality of the measuring instruments (clark & watson, 1995). the eigen values and screen plot were studied to determine the number of extracted factors. a principal components analysis with a direct oblimin rotation was conducted in the case where factors were related (r > 0.30). a principal component analysis with a varimax rotation was used if obtained factors were not related (tabachnick & fidell, 2001). to specify the relationship between the variables, pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were used in the case of normal distribution, and spearman product-moment correlation coefficients for skew distributions. in terms of statistical significance, it was decided to set the value at a 95% confidence interval level (p ≤ 0.05). effect sizes (steyn, 1999) were used to decide on the practical significance of the findings. the practical significance of correlation coefficients was set with a medium effect (p ≥ 0.30) and a large effect (p ≥ 0.50). logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the proportion of variance in the dependent variable (turnover intention) that is predicted by the independent variable (workplace bullying). a hierarchical regression analysis, as recommended by aiken and west (1991), was performed in order to determine the moderating effect of the moderator variable (pos) on the relationship between the independent variable (workplace bullying) and the dependent variable (turnover intention). to provide a clearly interpretable interaction term and to reduce multicollinearity, the variables were standardised. in step 1, the independent variable (workplace bullying) was regressed with the dependent variable (turnover intention). in the following steps, the dimensions of the moderator variable (pos, i.e. role clarity, job information, participation in decision-making, colleague support and supervisory relationship) were entered. the order of entering these variables depended on the strength of the correlations between the dimensions of the moderator variable (perceived organisational support) and the dependent variable (turnover intention). in the final step, the interaction term (workplace bullying × moderator) was added, and a moderating effect was confirmed if the interaction term was statistically significant and if explained variance (r2) was significantly increased (p < 0.05). results (back to top) descriptive statistics, internal consistencies and correlations table 2 provides the descriptive statistics, internal consistencies (cronbach alpha coefficients) and correlations between workplace bullying, pos (role clarity, job information, participation in decision-making, colleague support and supervisory relationships) and turnover intention. table 2: descriptive statistics, cronbach alpha coefficients and correlation coefficients of the saehws. table 2 represents the satisfactory cronbach alpha coefficients obtained for all the scales which were higher than the guideline of a > 0.70 (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). all the items are normally distributed except for bullying by superiors and colleagues, role clarity and job information. therefore, for these constructs the spearman product-moment correlations will apply. pearson product-moment correlations were used for all the other scales. table 3 indicates that bullying by superiors shows a positive statistically and practically significant correlation (with a large effect) with bullying by colleagues, and a negative statistically and practically significant correlation (with a large effect) with supervisory relationships. also, negative statistically and practically significant correlations were found (with a medium effect) between bullying by superiors and work role clarity, job information and participation in decision-making. a positive statistically significant correlation was found between bullying by superiors and turnover intention. table 3: correlation coefficients between workplace bullying (superiors and colleagues), pos and turnover intention. bullying by colleagues is negatively correlated with all constructs with a statistically significant relationship; however, practically significant correlations with a medium effect were found with colleague support and supervisory relationships. a positive statistically significant correlation was found between bullying by colleagues and turnover intention. table 4: hierarchical regression analysis (role clarity) with turnover intention as dependent variable. role clarity shows a positive statistical significance with all constructs and a practical significance (with a large effect) with job information, supervisory relationships and participation in decision-making. a practical significance (with a medium effect) was found between role clarity and colleague support, whereas a negative practically significant correlation was shown for turnover intention. job information shows a positive statistically and practically significant correlation with all constructs: supervisory relationships and participation in decision-making (large effect) and colleague support, and a negative statistically and practically significant correlation with turnover intention (medium effect). table 5: hierarchical regression analysis (participation in decision-making) with turnover intention as dependent variable. to address the last objective of this research study, a hierarchical regression analysis was conducted in order to determine if pos acts as a moderator in the relationship between workplace bullying (either by superiors or by colleagues) and turnover intention. in step one of the hierarchical regression, role clarity was regressed on turnover intention (β = -0.32, p = 0.00) producing a significant model. the entering of bullying by superiors in step two produced a significant model (β = 0.18, p = 0.00). in the third step the interaction term was entered, producing a significant model (β = 0.03, p = 0.00). thus, role clarity, as one of the defined sub-facets of pos, proves to play a significant role in the relationship between workplace bullying by superiors and the tendency to leave the organisation. a target who has clarity on his or her role might consider staying in the organisation, despite workplace bullying which would usually be serious enough to lead to resignation. table 6: hierarchical regression analysis (supervisory relationship) with turnover intention as dependent variable. figure 1 shows that when bullying by superiors manifests, targets who perceive less support from their organisations (in experiencing role ambiguity) have a much higher tendency to leave the organisation. however, it can also be seen that when targets’ experience of role clarity increases, those targets being bullied by their superiors will, in comparison with those employees who experience low levels of support, be more inclined to stay in the organisations despite the bullying culture. figure 1: interaction of bullying by superiors with role clarity in relation to turnover intention. in step one of the hierarchical regression, participation in decision-making was entered and a significant model was produced (β = -0.37, p = 0.00). bullying by superiors was entered in step two which produced a significant model (β = 0.14, p = 0.00). in the third step the interaction term was entered, producing a significant model (β = 0.03, p = 0.00). this indicates that participation in decision-making, as one of the defined sub-facets of pos, plays a significant role in the relationship between workplace bullying by superiors and the tendency to leave the organisation. if the targets of bullying by superiors feel that they can participate in the decision-making processes of the organisation, this indicates that their perceived support from the organisation is intact. when these targets are bullied by their superiors, having perceived support in the form of participation means that they do not leave the organisation, despite being bullied. on the other hand, when experiencing bullying from a superior while also not being informed or included in the decision-making processes, the target’s final counteraction towards the bullying culture will be to leave the organisation. figure 2 shows that when targets of bullying by superiors experience pos through participation in decision-making, their tendency to leave the organisation will be minimised. however, it can also be seen that when targets experience exclusion from decision-making processes together with being bullied by their superiors, they will be more inclined to leave the organisation because of a lack of support from the organisation. figure 2: interaction of bullying by superiors with participation in decisionmaking in relation to turnover intention. supervisory relationship was entered in step one of the hierarchical regression and a significant model was produced (β = -0.32, p = 0.00). bullying by superiors was entered in step two which produced a significant model (β = 0.14, p = 0.00). in the third step the interaction term was entered, producing a significant model (β = 0.06, p = 0.00). this implies that relationships with a superior play a significant role in the relationship between bullying by superiors and turnover intention. when the targets experience healthy relationships with their superiors they will feel supported by their superiors and, therefore, by the organisation. when bullying by superiors manifests but the perceived support through supervisory relationships exists, the targets of the bullying phenomenon will not be inclined to leave the organisation. however, when the employees have poor working relationships with their superiors while also experiencing bullying from them, the targets will be much more driven to resign than to fight an overwhelming battle. figure 3 indicates that when employees have insufficient support from their organisations due to unhealthy relationships with their superiors, workplace bullying by superiors can easily emerge. conversely, when employees’ pos exists with the focus on healthy relationships with their superiors, being bullied by their superiors will not be enough to drive the targets of bullying by superiors to find their solution in absenteeism leading to resignation. figure 3: interaction of bullying by superiors with supervisory relationships in relation to turnover intention. the aforementioned hierarchical regression analysis reveals that when employees are bullied by superiors, role clarity, participation in decision-making and supervisory relationships (sub-facets of pos) will moderate the relationship between superior bullying and turnover intention. there seem to be no moderating relationships when being bullied by colleagues. discussion (back to top) the main purpose of this study was to explore bullying (by superiors and colleagues), perceived support by employees in the organisation and the influence of workplace bullying on the turnover intention. therefore, pos (role clarity, job information, participation in decision-making, colleague support and supervisory relationships) was investigated as a possible moderator in the relationship between workplace bullying, either by superiors or colleagues, and the intention to leave the organisation. as mentioned in the literature review, little research has been done in the south african context concerning the perpetrators of bullying, the relationship between workplace bullying and turnover intention, and the buffering effect of pos on this relationship. the internal consistency reported that all the constructs were reliable, with a coefficient above 0.7. the reliability coefficients varied between 0.82 and 0.87. all the items were normally distributed except for bullying by superiors and colleagues, role clarity and job information. consequently, the spearman product-moment correlations were utilised. pearson product-moment correlations were used for all the other scales as their distributions were normally distributed. these correlations reported on the type of the relationship and the effect sizes between the variables. when interpreting the results, the first hypothesis, that bullying by superiors is more prevalent than bullying by colleagues, can be confirmed. this has previously been substantiated by the research of hoel and cooper (2000),lutgen-sandvik et al. (2007) andnamie and namie (2003). bullying by superiors has a greater influence than bullying by colleagues on the targets leaving the organisation. the significance of the correlations confirmed hypotheses three and four, namely that workplace bullying by superiors or colleagues has negative relationships with all the sub-facets of pos (role clarity, job information, participation in decision-making, colleague support and supervisory relationships). this implies that when bullying increases, pos will decrease. these findings are consistent with recent studies suggesting that the employees affected by bullying in the workplace experience a lack of role clarity (agervold, 2007; hauge, skogstad & einarsen, 2010), important information will be kept from them on purpose (johnson & rea, 2009), they will have less control over decisions being made in the organisation (notelaers, de witte & einarsen, 2010; quine, 2001), they will experience less support from colleagues and supervisors (notelaers & de witte, 2003; tsuno, kawakami, inoue & abe, 2010). supervisory relationships correlated with a large effect in comparison with the other sub-facets, which indicates the prevalence of poor supervisory relationships in a bullying culture as found in previous research. both bullying by superiors and bullying by colleagues correlated positively with turnover intention (providing support for hypotheses four and five), indicating that when the bullying by either superiors or colleagues increases, the target’s intention to leave the organisation will also increase. this confirms the results of several previous studies that bullying icreases an individual’s intention to leave the organisation (i.e. berthelsen, skogstad, lau & einarsen, 2011; djurkovic et al., 2004; hoel & cooper, 2000). bullying by superiors had a slightly higher correlation with turnover intention than bullying by colleagues, indicating that the influence of bullying by superiors on the intention to leave the organisation is greater than the influence of bullying by colleagues. the pos in the organisation established its significance in the relationship with turnover intention, with a negative association, confirming hypothesis six. this implies that in the presence of the sub-facets of pos (role clarity, job information, participation in decision-making, colleague support and supervisory relationships) the turnover intention in the organisation will decrease, leading to targets not considering leaving the organisation. this result confirms the results of previous studies suggesting that turnover intention is influenced by the extent to which employees experience role clarity (bhuian, menguc & borsboom, 2005; hwang & chang, 2009), have sufficient job information (lambert, 2006), participate in the decision-making process (knudsen, ducharme & roman, 2009), and are supported by their colleagues (brough & frame, 2004; kim & stoner, 2008) and supervisor (lambert, 2006; maertz et al., 2007). hypothesis seven stated that pos (role clarity, job information, participation in decision-making, colleague support and supervisory relationships) plays a moderating role in the relationship between workplace bullying and turnover intention. this hypothesis is partially confirmed. according to the results, pos (role clarity, participation in decision-making and supervisory relationships) acted as moderator in the relationship between workplace bullying by superiors and turnover intention. however, the results indicate that the pos variables job information and colleague support did not moderate the relationship between workplace bullying and turnover intention. similarly, no moderation was found with bullying by colleagues. a study by djurkovic et al. (2004) yielded similar findings of the moderating role of pos in the relationship between bullying and turnover intention, however, in this study the definition used to define pos differed slightly from the definition used in this study. as a result, when superiors bully their subordinates and the targets have a clear understanding of what their roles in the organisation are, these victims will be more inclined to consider not leaving the organisation. similarly, when they have a say in the decisions of the organisation the targets will also remain. furthermore, when employees are bullied by superiors, but have excellent relationships with other superiors, then this will also counteract the effects of workplace bullying on the intention to leave the organisation. there were no sub-facets of pos acting as moderators in the relationship between bullying by colleagues and turnover intention. to conclude, the primary objective of this study was to determine whether pos moderates the relationship between workplace bullying and turnover intention. the results of this study confirm this moderating effect, suggesting that when bullied by supervisors, a lack of pos (more specifically role clarity, participation in decision-making and supportive supervisory relationships) will increase bullying victims’ propensity to leave the organisation. this intensifies the need for organisations to provide a supportive environment for their employees, especially those being targeted by bullies. limitations in this study could be addressed in future research. the first limitation is that longitudinal research can compile more profound evidence of what is being researched, which was not the case with this research study. another limitation is that this study focused on many sectors, which makes the counteraction strategies less specific to any particular sector. a further setback was that there was no satisfactory evidence to prove that pos can act as a moderator in the case of bullying by colleagues, and this could still be an important element in south african research. the findings of this research lay the foundation for further research with regard to workplace bullying in the south african context. whereas this study gave a broad overview of the manifestation of workplace bullying in many sectors in south africa, more in-depth research is necessary in order to provide a framework for the development of preventative interventions or support programmes for those individuals targeted with bullying. longitudinal studies would allow researchers to draw accurate conclusions regarding the development of turnover intentions of individuals being bullied at work. also, more information is needed regarding other organisational factors predicted by bullying in the workplace if a comprehensive model of workplace bullying is to be developed. workplace bullying is a silent epidemic (mcavoy & murtagh, 2003) and will remain so if no counteraction is encouraged through research and implemented in practice. acknowledgements (back to top) the authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to afriforte (pty) ltd. for the use of their data and the assistance with the statistical analyses. authors’ contributions c.e. was the project leader of the study, and l.v.s. and c.e. were responsible for the conceptual contributions. l.v.s. and c.e. wrote the manuscript of which l.v.s. made the largest contribution. i.r. was responsible for the project design and conducted the statistical analyses, which were interpreted by l.v.s. and c.e. references (back to top) adams, a. (1992). bullying at work: how to confront and overcome it. london, uk: virago. agervold, n. (2007). bullying at work: a discussion of definitions and prevalence, based on an empirical study. scandinavia journal of psychology, 48(2), 161–172. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.2007.00585.x, pmid:17430369 aiken, l.s., & west s.g. (1991). multiple regression: testing and interpreting interactions. newbury park, ca: sage. allen, d.g., shore, l.m., & griffeth, r.w. (2003). the role of perceived organizational support and supportive human resource practices in the turnover process. journal of management, 29(1), 99–118. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920630302900107 aspinwall, l., & taylor, s. (1997). a stitch in time: self-regulation and proactive coping. psychological bulletin, 121, 417–436. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.121.3.417, pmid:9136643 baillien, e., neyens, i., & de witte, h. (2004). literature review on physical violence, bullying and sexual harassment at work: the influence of organizational, team-related and task-related characteristics. leuven, belgium: ku leuven department of psychology. baillien, e., neyens, i., de witte, h., & de cuyper, n. (2009). a qualitative study on the development of workplace bullying: towards a three way model. journal of community & applied social psychology, 19(1), 1–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/casp.977 baron, r.a., & neuman, j.h. (1998). workplace aggression the iceberg beneath the tip of workplace violence: evidence on its forms, frequency and targets. public administration quarterly, 21(4), 446–464. bassman, e.s. (1992). abuse in the workplace: management remedies and bottom line impact. westport, ct: quorum books. begley, t. (1998). coping strategies as predictors of employee distress and turnover after an organizational consolidation: a longitudinal analysis. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 71(4), 305–329. berthelsen, m., skogstad, a., lau, b., & einarsen, s. (2011). do they stay or do they go?: a longitudinal study of in and exclusion from working life among targets of work. international journal of manpower, 32(2), 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437721111130198 bhuian, s.n., menguc, b., & borsboom, r. (2005). stressors and job outcomes in sales: a triphasic model versus a linear-quadratic-interactive model. journal of business research, 58(2), 141–150. bilgel, n., aytac, s., & bayram, n. (2006). bullying in turkish white-collar workers. occupational medicine, 56(4), 226–231. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqj041, pmid:16507600 björkvist, k., österman, k., & hjelt-bäck, m. (1994). aggression among university employees. aggressive behavior, 20(3), 173–184. bloisi, w., & hoel, h. (2008). abusive work practices and bullying among chefs: a review of the literature. international journal of hospitality management, 27(4), 649–656. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2007.09.001 brough, p., & frame, r. (2004). predicting police job satisfaction and turnover intentions: the role of social support and police organisational variables. new zealand journal of psychology, 33, 8–16. clark, l.a., & watson, d. (1995). constructing validity: basic issues in objective scale development. psychological assessment, 7(3), 309–319. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.7.3.309 cowie, h., jennifer, d., neto, c., angulo, j.c., pereira, b., del barrio, c. et al. (2000). comparing the nature of workplace bullying in two european countries: portugal and the uk. in m. sheehan, s. ramsay & j. patrick (ed.), transcending boundaries: integrating people, processes and systems, conference proceedings, (pp. 120–125). brisbane, queensland: griffith university. cummings, t., & worley, c. (1997). performance management, in organization development and change. oh: south-western college publishing. davenport, n., schwartz, r., & elliott, g. (1999). mobbing: emotional abuse in the american workplace. ames, iowa: civil society publishing. demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., nachreiner, f., & schaufeli, w.b. (2001). the job demands-resources model of burnout. journal of applied psychology, 86(3), 499–512. djurkovic, n., mccormick, d., & casimir, g. (2004). the physical and psychological effects of workplace bullying on intention to leave: a test of the psychosomatic and disability hypotheses. international journal of organization theory and behavior, 7(4), 469–497. duffy, m., & sperry, l. (2007). workplace mobbing: individual and family health consequences. the family journal, 15(4), 398–404. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1066480707305069 einarsen, s. (2000). harassment and bullying at work: a review of the scandinavian approach. aggressive violent behaviour, 5(4), 379–401. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1359-1789(98)00043-3 einarsen, s., & skogstad, a. (1996). bullying at work: epidemiological findings in public and private organizations. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 5, 185–201. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594329608414854 einarsen, s., aasland, m., & skogstad, a. (2007). destructive leadership behaviour: a definition and conceptual model. the leadership quarterly, 18(3), 207–216. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2007.03.002 einarsen, s., hoel, h., & notelaers, g. (2009). measuring exposure to bullying and harassment at work: validity factor structure and psychometric properties of the negative acts questionnaire-revised. work and stress, 23(1), 24–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02678370902815673 einarsen, s., hoel, h., zapf, d., & cooper, c. l. (2003). bullying and emotional abuse in the workplace: international perspectives in research and practice. london, uk: taylor & francis. einarsen, s., raknes, b.i., & matthiesen, s.b. (1994). bullying and harassment at work and their relationships to work environment quality: an exploratory study. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 4(4), 381–401. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594329408410497 eisenberger, r., cummings, j., armeli, s., & lynch, p. (1997). perceived organizational support, discretionary treatment and job satisfaction. journal of applied psychology, 75(1), 51–59. eisenberger, r., huntington, r., hutchison, s., & sowa, d. (1986). perceived organizational support. journal of applied psychology, 71(3), 500–507. eisenberger, r., rhoades, l., & cameron, j. (1999). does pay for performance increase or decrease perceived self-determination and intrinsic motivation? journal of personality and social psychology, 77(5), 1026–1040. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.77.5.1026 garcia, a., hue, c., opdebeeck, s., & van looy, j. (2002). geweld op het werk, pesterijen en ongewenst seksueel gedrag: eigenschappen en gevolgen voor de mannelijke en vrouwelijke werknemers [violence, bullying and sexual harassment at work: characteristics and consequences for male and female employees]. louvain la neuve: universite catholique de louvain. hauge, l.j., skogstad, a., & einarsen, s. (2010). the relative impact of workplace bullying as a social stressor at work. scandinavian journal of psychology, 51(5), 426–433. hochwarter, w.a., kacmar, c., perrewe, p.l., & johnson, d. (2003). perceived organizational support as a mediator of the relationship between politics perceptions and work outcomes. journal of vocational behavior, 63(3), 438–456. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0001-8791(02)00048-9 hoel, h., & cooper, c.l. (2000). destructive conflict and bullying at work. unpublished report. manchester, united kingdom: manchester school of management, university of manchester institute of science and technology. hoel, h., & einarsen, s. (2010). shortcomings of anti-bullying regulations: the case of sweden. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 16(2), 101–118. hoel, h., cooper, c.l., & faragher, b. (2001). the experience of bullying in great britain: the impact of organizational status. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 10(4), 443–465. holt, s. (2004, 20 december). bullying at work gains visibility. seattle times, p. 1. hui, k.l., teo, h.h., & lee, s.y.t. (2007). the value of privacy assurance: an exploratory field experiment. mis quarterly, 31(1), 19–33. hwang, j.i., & chang, h. (2009). work climate perception and turnover intention among korean hospital staff. international nursing review, 56(1), 73–80. institute of management & administration (ioma). (2008). productivity drain from bullying demands new look. business intelligence at work, 8(7), 13. retrieved april 25, 2010, from http://www.ioma.com/secure johnson, s.l., & rea, r.e. (2009). workplace bulling: concerns for nurse leaders. journal of nursing administration, 39(2), 84–90. keashly, l. (2001). interpersonal and systemic aspects of emotional abuse at work: the target’s perspective. violence and victims, 16(3), 233–68. kim, h., & stoner, m. (2008). burnout and turnover intention among social workers: effects of role stress, job autonomy and social support. journal of administration in social work, 32(3), 5–25. kinnunen, u., feldt, t., & makikangas, a. (2008). testing the effort-reward balance among finnish managers: the role of perceived organizational support. journal of occupational health, 13(2), 114–127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.13.2.114, pmid:18393581 knudsen, h.k., ducharme, l.j., & roman, p.m. (2009). turnover intention and emotional exhaustion ”at the top”: adapting the job demands-ressources model to leaders of addiction treatment organizations. journal of occupational health psychology, 14(1), 84–95. koonin, m., & green, t.m. (2004). the emotionally abusive workplace. journal of emotional abuse, 4(3/4), 71–79. lambert, e.g. (2006). i want to leave: a test of a model of turnover intent among correctional staff. applied psychology in criminal justice, 2(1), 57–83. lewis, d., & gunn, r. (2007). workplace bullying in the public sector: understanding the racial dimension. journal compilation, 85(3), 641–665. lewis, d., & sheehan, m. (2003). workplace bullying: theoretical and practical approaches to a management challenge. international journal of management and decision making, 4(1), 1–10. lewis, j., coursol, d., & wahl, k.h. (2002). addressing issues of workplace harassment: counseling the targets. journal of employment counseling, 39, 109–116. lewis, s., & orford, j. (2005). women’s experiences of workplace bullying: changes in social relationships. journal of community & applied social psychology, 15(1), 29–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/casp.807 leymann, h. (1990). mobbing and psychological terror at workplaces. violence and victims, 5(1), 119–126. leymann, h. (1996). the content of development of mobbing at work. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 5(2), 165–184. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594329608414853 leymann, h., & gustafsson, a. (1996). mobbing at work and the development of post-traumatic stress disorders. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 5(2), 251–275. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594329608414858 longo, j., & sherman, r.o. (2007). leveling horizontal violence. nursing management, 38(3), 34–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.numa.0000262925.77680.e0 lutgen-sandvik, p., & sypher, b.d. (2009). destructive organizational communication. new york: routledge press. lutgen-sandvik, p., tracy, s.j., & alberts, j.k. (2007). burned by bullying in the american workplace: prevalence, perception, degree, and impact. journal of management studies, 44(6), 837–862. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2007.00715.x macintosh, j. (2005). experiences of workplace bullying in a rural area. issues in the mental health nursing, 26(9), 893–910. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01612840500248189, pmid:16203644 maertz, c.p. jr., griffeth, r.w., campbell, n.s., & allen, d.g. (2007). the effects of perceived organizational support and perceived supervisor support on employee turnover. journal of organizational behavior, 28(8), 1059–1075. marchington, m. (1995). involvement and participation. in j. storey (ed.), human resource management: a critical text, (pp. 328–351). canada, usa: routledge. martin, a., & jones, e. (2000). sources of stress and strategies for intervention during organisational change in a hospital environment. in m. sheehan, s. ramsay & j. patrick (eds.), transcending boundaries: integrating people, processes and systems, conference proceedings, (pp. 261–266). brisbane, queensland: griffith university. mason, l. (2010, february). colleagues are the main culprits of workplace bullying. mason media, pp. 1–2. mathisen, g., einarsen, s., & mykletun, r. (2008). the occurrences and correlates of bullying and harassment in the restaurant sector. scandinavian journal of psychology, 49(1), 59–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.2007.00602.x, pmid:18190403 matthiesen, s.b., aasen, e., holst, g., wie, k., & einarsen, s. (2003). the escalation of conflict: a case study of bullying at work. international journal of management and decision making, 4(1), 96–112. mcavoy, b., & murtogh, j. (2003). workplace bullying. british medical journal, 326(7393), 776–778. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.326.7393.776, pmid:12689952, pmid:1125699 mccormick, d., casimir, g., djurkovic, n., & yang, l. (2006). the concurrent effects of workplace bullying, satisfaction with supervisor, and satisfaction with coworkers on affective commitment among schoolteachers in china. international journal of conflict management, 17(4), 316–331. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/10444060610749473 mikkelsen, e.g., & einarsen, s. (2002). basic assumptions and symptoms of post-traumatic stress among victims of bullying at work. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 11, 87–111. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594320143000861 moore, s., grunberg, l., & greenberg, e. (2004). repeated downsizing contact: the effects of similar and dissimilar layoff experiences on work and well-being outcomes. journal of occupational health psychology, 9(3), 247–257. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.9.3.247, pmid:15279519 moss, p.h., & tilly, c. (2001). stories employers tell. race, skill, and hiring in america. new york: russell sage foundation. murray, j.s. (2007). before blowing the whistle, learn to protect yourself. american nurse today, 2(3), 40–42. namie, g. (2000). quick view fact sheet. retrieved january 08, 2011, from http://bullyinginstitute.org/res/surv2000qv.html namie, g. (2007). the workplace bullying institute 2007 u.s. workplace bullying survey. retrieved september 16, 2010, from http://bullyinginstitute.org/wbi-zogby2.html namie, g., & namie, r. (2003). the bully at work: what you can do to stop the hurt and reclaim your dignity on the job. naperville, il: sourcebooks. namie, g., & namie, r. (2009). u.s. workplace bullying: some basic considerations and consultation interventions. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 61(3), 202–219. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0016670 notelaers, g., & de witte, h. (2003). pesten op het werk: omvang en welke gedragingen? [bullying at work: prevalence and types of behaviours?]. over werk, 13, 165–169. notelaers, g., de witte, h., & einarsen, s. (2010). a job characteristics approach to explain workplace bullying. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 19(4), 487–504. nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory. (3rd edn.). new york: mcgrawhill. ortega, a., høgh, a., pejtersen, j. h., & olsen, o. (2009). prevalence of workplace bullying and risk groups: a representative population study. international archives of occupational and environmental health, 82(3), 417–426. pager, d., & quillian, l. (2005). walking the talk? what employers say versus what they do. american sociological review, 70(3), 355–380. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/000312240507000301 pietersen, c. (2007). interpersonal bullying behaviours in the workplace. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 33(1), 59–66. quine, l. (1999). workplace bullying in nhs community trust: staff questionnaire survey. british medical journal, 318(7178), 228–232. quine, l. (2001). workplace bullying in nurses. journal of health psychology, 6(1), 73–84 randall, p. (1997). adult bullying: perpetrators and victims. london: routledge. rayner, c. (1997). the incidence of workplace bullying. journal of community & applied social psychology, 7(3), 199–208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1298(199706)7:3<199::aid-casp418>3.0.co;2-h rayner, c. (1999). from research to implementation: finding leverage for prevention. international journal of manpower, 20(1), 28–38. rayner, c., & keashly, l. (2005). bullying at work: a perspective from britain and north america. in s. fox & p.e. spector (eds.), counterproductive behaviour: investigations of actors and targets, (pp. 271–296). washington, dc: american psychological association. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/10893-011 rayner, c., hoel, h., & cooper, c.l. (2002). workplace bullying: what we know, who is to blame, and what can we do? london, uk: taylor & francis. rhoades, l., & eisenberger, r. (2002). perceived organizational support: a review of the literature. journal of applied psychology, 87(4), 698–714. roscigno, v., garcia, l., & bobbitt-zeher, d. (2007). social closure and process of race/sex employment discrimination. annals of the american academy of political and social science 609(1), 16–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0002716206294898 rothmann, j.c., & rothmann, s. (2006). the south african employee health and wellness survey: user manual. potchefstroom, south africa: afriforte (pty) ltd. schat, a.c.h., & kelloway, e.k. (2003). reducing the adverse consequences of workplace aggression and violence: the buffering effects of organizational support. journal of occupational health psychology, 8(20), 110–122. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.8.2.110, pmid:12703877 settoon, r.p., bennett, n., & liden, r.c. (1996). social exchange in organizations: perceived organizational support, leader-member exchange, and employee reciprocity. journal of applied psychology, 81(3), 219–227. shanock, l.r., & eisenberger, r. (2006). when supervisors feel supported: relationships with subordinates’ perceived supervisor support, perceived organizational support, and performance. journal of applied psychology, 91(3), 689–695. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.3.689, pmid:16737364 sheehan, m. (1999). workplace bullying: responding with some emotional intelligence. international journal of manpower, 20(1/2), 57–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437729910268641 sheehan, m., ramsay, s., & patrick, p. (2000). transcending boundaries: integrating people, processes and systems. australia: the school of management, griffith university. shore, l.m., & wayne, s.j. (1993). commitment and employee behavior: a comparison of affective commitment and continuance commitment with perceived organizational support. journal of applied psychology, 78(5), 774–780. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.5.774, pmid:8253631 sperry, l. (2009). workplace mobbing and bullying: a consulting psychology perspective and overview. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 61(3), 165–168. spss inc, s. (2009). spss 16.0 for windows. chicago, il: spss inc. steyn, h.s. (1999). praktiese betekenisvolheid: die gebruik van effekgroottes [practical significance: the use of effect sizes]. wetenskaplike bydraes – reeks b: natuurwetenskappe nr. 17. potchefstroom: pu vir cho. strandmark, m., & hallberg, l.r.m. (2007). the origin of workplace bullying: experiences from the perspective of bully victims in the public service sector. journal of nursing management, 15(3), 332–341. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2834.2007.00662.x, pmid:17359433 sümer, h., & van den ven, c. (2008). a proposed model of military turnover. technical report. nato research and technology organization (reference number: rto-tr-hfm107). tabachnick, b., & fidell, l. (2001). using multivariate statistics. (4th edn.). new york: harpercollins college publishers. trochim, w., & donnelly, j.p. (2007). the research methods knowledge base. (3rd edn.). mason, oh: thomson learning. tsuno, k., kawakami, n., inoue, a., & abe, k. (2010). measuring workplace bullying: reliability and validity of the japanese version of the negative acts questionnaire. journal of occupational health, 52, 216–226. vaez, m., ekberg, k., & laflamme, l. (2004). abusive events at work among young working adults. relations industries, 59(3), 569–584. vartia, m. (1996). the sources of bullying psychological work environment and organizational climate. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 5(2), 203–214. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594329608414855 waldman, j.d., kelly, f., arora, s., & smith, h.l. (2004). the shocking cost of turnover in health care. health care management review, 29(1), 2–7. watkins, c.e. (2007). protecting against bullies: throughout the life cycle. northern county psychiatric association. retrieved may 09, 2010, from http://www.ncpamd.com/bullying_thru_life_cycle.htm westhuses, e. (2004). work place mobbing in academe. lewiston, ny: edwin mellen press. wilson, c.b. (1991). u.s. businesses suffer from workplace trauma. personnel journal, 70(7), 47–50. wilson, m. (1997). reward systems. in p. boxall (ed.), the challenge of human resource management, (pp. 135–156). new zealand, auckland: longman paul. wood iii, j.d. (2008). bullying cognitions through identification with fictional characters. newberg, or: george fox university. wornham, d.a. (2003). descriptive investigation of morality and victimisation at work. journal of business ethics, 45, 29–40. wright, a. (2008, june 12). abusive behavior is workers’ top ethical concern. hrnews. retrieved on june 11, 2010, from http://www.shrm.org/hrnews_published/articles/cms_025812.asp#p-8_0 zapf, d. (1999). organizational, work group related and personal causes of mobbing/bullying at work. international journal of manpower, 20(1/2), 70–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437729910268669 zapf, d., & einarsen, s. (2001). bullying in the workplace: recent trends in research and practice – an introduction. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 10(4), 369–373. zapf, d., & einarsen, s. (2005). mobbing at work: escalated conflicts in organizations. in s. fox & p.e. spector (eds.), counterproductive work behavior. investigations of actors and targets, (pp. 237–270). washington, dc: american psychological association. zapf, d., knorz, c., & kulla, m. (1996). on the relationship between mobbing factors, and job content, social work environment, and health outcomes. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 5(2), 215–237. zellers, k., tepper, b., & duffy, m. (2002). abusive supervision and subordinates’ organizational citizenship behavior. journal of applied psychology, 87(6), 1068−1076. article information authors: alfeous rundare1 suki goodman1 affiliations: 1section of organisational psychology, university of cape town, south africa correspondence to: suki goodman postal address: section of organisational psychology, university of cape town, rondebosch 7701, south africa dates: received: 05 oct. 2011 accepted: 27 feb. 2012 published: 13 july 2012 how to cite this article: rundare, a., & goodman, s. (2012). an outcome evaluation of a perinatal education programme. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10 (3), art. #424, 8 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i3.424 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. an outcome evaluation of a perinatal education programme in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • background to the study    • trends from the research literature    • context and description of the perinatal education programme    • evaluation questions    • the potential value-add of the study • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analyses • results    • question 1: coverage    • question 2: service delivery    • question 3: knowledge and skill acquisition outcomes    • question 4: organisational support • ethical considerations    • potential benefits and hazards    • recruitment procedures    • informed consent    • data protection • trustworthiness    • reliability    • validity • discussion    • question 1: coverage    • question 2: service delivery    • question 3: knowledge and skill acquisition outcomes    • organisational support    • conclusion    • limitations of the evaluation    • suggestions for future research • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the world health organisation (who) (2005) reported that at least 260 mothers and babies die every day in south africa. most of these deaths are attributed to low standards of maternal and infant care. research has shown that one way of reducing the maternal and infant mortality rates in hospitals is to improve the standard of care.research purpose: the perinatal education programme (pep) has been introduced in the western cape in south africa, and the main aim of this evaluation was to provide information regarding the effectiveness of perinatal training in a single maternity hospital in this province. motivation for the study: there are a few evaluation studies of the pep in different south african contexts. these evaluations have shown that the programme was effective in improving the knowledge of midwives. the current evaluation was motivated by the need for more research on the programme’s effectiveness. research design, approach and method: a quasi-experimental design was used to determine knowledge and skills acquisition of midwives. the sample consisted of 42 midwives. programme records and questionnaire results were used as data. main findings: this evaluation showed that the pep is an effective programme endorsed by participants and supervisors alike. practical/managerial implications: this specific hospital added group facilitation to the self-study mode of the programme. this mode of study produced additional increases in knowledge, skills and group work. contributions/value-add: the evaluation has provided sound evidence for programme managers to increase programme coverage and continue the good work already evident from the results. introduction top ↑ in the light of the high child mortality rates in south africa (sa), this evaluation assessed whether or not a perinatal education programme (pep) delivered its intended short-term outcomes, namely improved knowledge and skills of midwives, in a western cape maternity hospital. background to the study worldwide, approximately 130 million babies are born every year and four million of them do not survive beyond the first seven days after delivery (united nations, 2001). developing countries contributed the greatest proportion of these mortalities. the world health organisation (who) (2005) reported that at least 260 mothers and babies die every day in sa. most of these deaths are attributed to low standards of maternal and infant care.one of the millennium development goals (mdgs) of the who initiative is to reduce the mortality rate of children under five years of age from 95 per 1000 to 31 per 1000 by 2015 (united nations, 2001). the united nation’s children’s fund (unicef) reported improved mortality rates of 60 per 1000 for 2010 but warned that this reduction was not sufficient to comply with the mdg standard for child mortality (unicef, 2011). to attain this mdg, developing countries like sa need to take drastic measures to reduce both child and maternal deaths by improving the standard of care of mothers and their babies (osorno, campos, cook, vela & dávila, 2006; pattinson, woods, greenfield & velaphi, 2005). trends from the research literature research has shown that one means of reducing the maternal and infant mortality rates in hospitals is to improve the standard of care (pattinson et al., 2005; theron, 1999a, 1999b). in order to provide improved care to mothers and their newborn babies, there is a growing need for the continuous professional education and training of midwives (harris, yates & crosby, 1995; kattwinkel, nowacek, cook, hurt & short, 1984; le roux, pattinson, tsaku & makin, 1998; osorno et al., 2006). to meet this need, the perinatal continuing education programme (pcep) was developed at the university of virginia, in the usa, between 1975 and 1978 (osorno et al., 2006). the use of the pcep has not only spread across 43 states in the usa, but it has been translated, adapted and implemented in other countries such as china, poland, indonesia and mexico (cook, 1992; hesketh, zhu & zheng, 1994; kattwinkel et al., 1984; katwinkel et al., 1997; osorno et al., 2006). osorno et al. (2006), evaluated the effect of the pcep in mexico. the population for this evaluation consisted of 1421 doctors, nurses and nursing assistants who were working with pregnant mothers and newborns. the sample consisted of 924 who were enrolled in the programme. sixty-five percent of these programme participants completed the programme. improvement was observed in 14 of 23 evaluated neonatal practices. the participants rated the learning material as clear and useful in practice. in brazil, an evaluation was undertaken which compared the effectiveness of a conventional five-day training programme with a self-directed, five-week learning programme similar to the pcep (suely arruda vidal et al., 2001). a pre-test post-test design was used to measure knowledge acquisition and ward practice. no significant differences were found between the learning outcomes of these two training methods. however, self-directed learning was found to be more cost-effective and the better managed of the two. the pcep has been adapted for south african conditions by a group of experts comprising obstetricians, neonatologists and midwives. it is called the perinatal education programme (pep) (woods, 1999). when adapting the pcep for sa, woods evaluated whether or not midwives understood the content of the training manuals. a group of midwives volunteered to complete different learning units within the training manual. woods found that this group’s knowledge of maternal and newborn care improved by approximately 20%. the feedback provided by the volunteers also enabled the manual designers to make specific improvements to the learning material. theron (1999b) conducted a randomised control trial in three south african towns in the eastern cape, in order to assess whether or not the maternal care manual of the pep was effective in improving the knowledge of midwives. after completion of the pep intervention (i.e. after 12 months), theron found a significant improvement in knowledge acquisition in the experimental group. in their study of three obstetric units in mpumalanga, sa, le roux et al. (1998) showed that pep programme recipients, in two obstetric units, showed a significant improvement in obstetric practice when compared to the control group. from the few evaluations that exist of the pcep and the pep, it seems that these training programmes were effective at improving the knowledge of midwives. the pep has been introduced in the western cape in sa, but no evaluation exists of its effectiveness in this specific province. the current evaluation, conducted at a maternity hospital in cape town, aimed to provide information regarding the effectiveness of perinatal training in this context. context and description of the perinatal education programme the health care system in sa is divided into three levels: primary, secondary and tertiary. most of the training of health personnel, including midwives, occurs at tertiary-level facilities which are located in cities. as is the case in other developing countries, sa is not sufficiently resourced to conduct midwifery training at both primary and secondary-level facilities (theron, 1999a, 1999b; woods, 1999). in addition, the midwives stationed at primary health facilities, located in rural areas, undergo the least training of all because they are the furthest away from training hospitals (davies, hall, harpin & pullan, 2005; theron, 1999b; woods, 1999). the pep was designed to meet some of these training challenges (theron, 1999a; woods, 1999). it is a self-help initiative, which does not require a tutor. students are responsible for their own learning (theron, 1999a) at their own pace within their places of work (woods, 1999). this delivery mode makes the pep cost-effective and easy to manage. the pep consists of the following eight learning manuals: 1. maternal care 2. newborn care 3. perinatal hiv and aids 4. primary new-born care 5. mother and baby-friendly care 6. saving mothers and babies 7. birth defects 8. primary new-born care. each of the eight manuals contains different learning units with specific objectives. before midwives commence with a learning unit, they complete 20 multiple-choice questions (mcqs) in order to assess the current state of their knowledge and skills. midwives mark their own mcqs with the help of an answer sheet. thereafter, they study the unit on their own. a study group, consisting of 5–10 midwives, meets every three weeks to discuss a specific learning unit, to share information and working experiences relating to the unit and to learn from each other. at the end of the group meeting, midwives complete and mark another set of 20 mcqs. this assessment is used to identify any existing deficiencies in knowledge and any sections of the learning material, which need more attention. a coordinator, usually a senior nurse, arranges the group meetings, oversees discussion, assessments, practical demonstrations and administers the final examination. after a whole manual has been completed, a formal examination is administered. a mark of 80% is required to pass the examination. a certificate is awarded to students who successfully complete all the examinations. at the maternity hospital where this evaluation was conducted, the pep was introduced in 2006. at the time of the evaluation, the pep intervention consisted of the maternal care and newborn care manuals. to date, 42 midwives have completed the maternal care manual of the pep. the programme is managed by one of the chief professional nurses. two senior midwives fulfil the role of tutor. they convene discussion groups on a weekly basis and oversee preand post-tests. the meetings are scheduled during normal working hours and attendance is compulsory. evaluation questions kattwinkel et al. (2004) described four components of an evaluation plan that are essential when conducting evaluations of perinatal outreach education programmes:• the first component outlines a clear statement of the purpose of the programme. • the second component identifies the stakeholders. • the third component measures the process of evaluation in terms of programme structure and information delivery, programme activities and participant characteristics. • the fourth component measures the outcomes of the education programme as exhibited by the target population. as regards the first requirement of an evaluation plan, namely a clear statement of purpose, the evaluators have utilised the notion of a programme theory. a programme theory describes ‘… cause-and-effect sequences in which certain program activities are the instigating causes and social benefits are the effects they eventually produce’ (rossi, lipsey & freeman, 2004, p. 168). for the pep, it is assumed that when midwives are exposed to the learning material and process, their knowledge and skills would improve and this would improve the standard of care, which would reduce infant and maternal mortality (see figure 1). figure 1: programme theory of the perinatal education programme. from the programme description provided earlier, it is clear that the stakeholders are the support staff who assist in programme implementation (a chief professional nurse and two senior midwives) and the programme designers (the group of specialists who adapted the pcep). the primary recipients are the midwives and the secondary recipients are the mothers and new-born babies. the following evaluation questions, based on the programme theory and presented in box 1, will be the focus of this evaluation. box 1: evaluation questions based on the programme theory. the potential value-add of the study this evaluation will provide evidence for hospital authorities to make informed decisions on whether or not to increase programme coverage and continue the pep. research design top ↑ research approach a quasi-experimental design (single group pre-test post-test type) was used to determine knowledge and skills acquisition of midwives. research method research participants the pep was introduced in the maternity hospital in cape town in 2006. by 2008, 42 midwives had completed the maternal care manual. of these 42 recipients, three were chief professional nurses, two were senior nurses and 35 were professional nurses. these midwives came from different departments of the hospital (e.g. education, admissions, antenatal, post-birth and neonatal wards or units). at the time of the study, all the midwives had sufficient records of their pre-test and final examinations. apart from programme records, questionnaires were sent to all recipients (42 midwives) and their supervisors (eight supervisors). thirty-seven (88%) midwives responded; the rest had left the employ of the hospital. three midwives were male and 34 female, all between the ages of 30 and 35. all midwives had at least one year’s experience of midwifery. of the eight supervisors, five responded. measuring instruments a paper-based questionnaire consisting of four parts was distributed to collect participant and programme data. part one contained 5–point likert-type questions on coverage, service delivery, knowledge and skills acquisition, and organisational support. part two consisted of two lists of items with yes or no tick boxes. these items focused on adequate theoretical content areas and practical skills. part three had open-ended items dealing with unintended outcomes and other interventions, which could have influenced programme outcomes. the last part of the questionnaire elicited the participants’ demographic details. the questionnaire is available from the evaluators.programme records, kept by the chief professional nurse, were used to obtain information regarding pre-test results, post-discussion results and examination results of midwives. pre-test results consisted of each recipient’s pre-test score for the multiple-choice test before studying the maternal care module. post-test results were the formal examination marks obtained at the end of the programme. the pass mark for the examination was set at 80%. the time interval between the pre-test and the post-test was 12 months. a paper-based questionnaire containing three 5–point likert-type items was developed for supervisors. supervisors had to indicate whether or not they thought that the pep had improved the knowledge and skills of midwives, whether or not the manual was suitable for midwives and whether or not the programme schedule was user-friendly. an open-ended item inviting suggestions for the improvement of the module concluded the questionnaire. research procedure the evaluators obtained ethical clearance from the research ethics committee in the commerce faculty at the university of cape town to conduct the evaluation.the first evaluator then collated the relevant data for each respondent from the programme records. thereafter the questionnaire was distributed to the midwives. statistical analyses descriptive statistics were utilised to analyse the primary data from the questionnaire. inferential repeated measures statistics were used to analyse the secondary data from the programme records. results top ↑ the main objective of this evaluation was to assess whether or not the pep delivered its intended short-term outcomes, namely improved knowledge and skills of midwives in a western cape maternity hospital. such an evaluation will contribute evidence to assist hospital managers to make informed decisions on whether to continue with the pep or not.the evaluation results are presented in terms of the evaluation questions formulated earlier. question 1: coverage a. how many midwives practised at this maternity hospital? b. what was the proportion of midwives who had participated in the pep at this maternity hospital? c. what was the attendance rate for the midwives who are enrolled in the pep? d. what proportion of midwives completed the pep successfully per year?between 2006 and 2008 there were 200 midwives at the hospital of whom 42 had participated in the pep. sixty-two percent of the participants had a median attendance rate of 100%, 35% attended 90% of the meetings and only 3% attended 80% or fewer of the meetings. all those who participated completed the programme successfully. question 2: service delivery a. was the instructional design of the maternal care manual appropriate for midwives and for purposes of improving their knowledge?all participants reported that the manual was appropriate for them. in general, participants rated the instructional design of the programme positively, except for the time allocated to the different modules and the scheduling of the group meetings (see table 1). table 1: participant perception of the programme’s educational activities. four out of the five supervisors indicated that, in their opinion, the scheduling of group meetings suited participants and they strongly recommended that midwives working in their wards attend the programme. b. were the specific content areas contained in the maternal care manual appropriate for the participants’ work context (maternity wards)? most of the participants (89.5%) strongly agreed or agreed that the content of the maternal care manual was applicable to their daily work in the wards. in addition, three of the five supervisors strongly agreed that the maternal care manual was appropriate for the midwives working in the wards. however, one supervisor indicated that the content on asphyxia was too basic. c. were the theoretical and practical aspects of the maternal care manual adequately covered in the manual and facilitated during group sessions? most participants indicated that the theoretical aspects of the pep were adequately described and facilitated. however, a minority indicated that assessment of foetal growth and medical problems during pregnancy could be expanded. this is reflected in table 2. table 2: adequate coverage and facilitation of theoretical aspects. the responses of the midwives suggested that the practical skills of the maternal care manual were adequately covered (see table 3). however, some concerns were expressed about coverage and facilitation of skills such as determining foetal condition or gestational age. table 3: adequate coverage and facilitation of practical aspects. question 3: knowledge and skill acquisition outcomes a. has the pep improved the perinatal knowledge of the midwives? the knowledge acquisition of recipients was measured using the pre-test and examination results. the mean score obtained by the midwives in the pre-test (m = 62.5, sd = 8.61) differed significantly from the mean score in the examination (m = 89.0, sd = 8.15). the t-test for paired means showed a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test means (t [42] = -10.6, p < 0.05). this result demonstrated that there was evidence of improved knowledge. in addition to the comparison of preand post-test results, participants were also asked whether or not they had gained new knowledge. most participants (94%) strongly agreed or agreed that they had experienced improved knowledge, whilst 3% indicated that they were not sure and 3% reported no improvement. b. has the pep improved the perinatal skills of the midwives? the majority of participants (97.1%) indicated that they strongly agreed or agreed with the statement regarding increased skills. four of the five supervisors indicated that their observations led them to believe that recipients of the pep intervention were able to apply their new knowledge and skills in the workplace. c. in general, have midwives benefited from the pep and would they recommend it to others? most participants (96%) indicated that they benefited from the maternal care course. all participants strongly agreed or agreed that they would recommend the pep to other midwives working in maternity wards. d. were there unintended outcomes which could be attributed to the pep? besides the learning outcomes such as the new knowledge and skills, another outcome of the pep included increased team work and cooperation. ninety-five percent of the participants strongly agreed or agreed that participation in the pep has brought about this change. e. what other perinatal learning initiatives had been in place for midwives prior to their enrolment in the pep? in order to establish if interventions other than the programme might have led to knowledge acquisition, midwives were asked whether or not they had attended maternal care courses other than pep. ten percent of the participants attended other maternal care courses in the previous 12 months. these courses included lactation, medication, a perinatal update course and bacillus calmette-guerin (bcg) tuberculosis vaccine training. question 4: organisational support a. was the climate in the maternity wards conducive to applying newly acquired knowledge and skills at work? sixty-two percent of the participants believed that there were organisational factors, which reinforced their newly acquired maternal care knowledge and skills. a thematic analysis of this open-ended question indicated that most of these participants cited their impressions, that the pep was well integrated in the wards as many of the ward procedures were closely linked to the content of the pep. ethical considerations top ↑ the ethics in research committee of the faculty of commerce, university of cape town, approved the evaluation. potential benefits and hazards there were no benefits or hazards for participants who took part in the evaluation. recruitment procedures the chief professional nurse provided the primary evaluator access to the programme records of the midwives and arranged for the distribution of paper-based questionnaires to the midwives and their supervisors. informed consent on the first page of the questionnaire, the purpose, confidentiality of the data and the time it would take to complete were described in detail. data protection the primary evaluator was the only person who had access to the data in the programme documents and the paper-based questionnaires. no participant was identified by name as number codes were used for the data. trustworthiness top ↑ reliability specific evaluation questions listed at the end of the introduction section were used to collect data. validity the evaluation focused on a specific programme and did not seek to generalise the findings to other, similar programmes. discussion top ↑ the main objective of this evaluation was to assess whether or not the pep delivered its intended short-term outcomes, namely the improved knowledge and skills of midwives. the evaluation makes an important contribution to midwifery, as it provides evidence for hospital authorities to make informed decisions on whether or not to increase programme coverage and continue the pep.in summary, the results indicated that the 42 midwives who participated in the pep had a good attendance rate and all completed the module successfully. with regard to service delivery, the participants were of the opinion that the pep manual was appropriate as far as theoretical and practical content was concerned. in terms of outcomes, most of the participants noted that the pep improved their perinatal knowledge and skills, and most of them agreed that they would recommend it to other midwives. finally, the pep had sufficient organisational support and was perceived as a well-organised module, which was closely aligned with the everyday work of the participants. the following discussion, like the results, is organised according to the evaluation questions. question 1: coverage a. how many midwives practised at this maternity hospital? b. what was the proportion of midwives who have participated in the pep at this maternity hospital? c. what was the attendance rate for the midwives who are enrolled in the pep? d. what was the proportion of midwives who successfully completed the pep per year?over the three years during which the pep had been running, 42 midwives out of 200 (21%) completed the maternal care module of the pep successfully. this could be interpreted as coverage of 7% per year, which is quite limited. given the good attendance and success rate of the module, it is recommended that more programme modules should be rolled out to more midwives. the pep could even be implemented in a staggered fashion during the year to utilise instructional resources optimally. question 2: service delivery a. was the instructional design of the maternal care manual the most appropriate for midwives and for purposes of improving their knowledge?in general, participants were of the opinion that the programme was designed in such a way that it was appropriate for them. most of the participants expressed positive reactions towards the user-friendly, easy-to-understand learning material, and the effectiveness of the small group discussions and revision sessions. these findings were similar to those of woods (1999) who concluded that the pep manual was pitched at the appropriate level of understanding. it should be noted that the pep was intended to be a self-study programme. however, in the maternity hospital where the evaluation was undertaken, self-study was supplemented with group sessions. from the results it was clear that this aspect of instructional design contributed to the effectiveness of the programme. all of these results, relating to instructional design, confirmed that the pep module was implemented optimally as a learning intervention. however, approximately a third of the participants indicated that they would have liked more time to absorb and integrate the learning material. it is suggested that the facilitators check understanding at the end of each session. if participants indicate that they are uncertain about some content areas, they could be requested to review the material for the next session. approximately 14% of midwives indicated that the scheduling of the facilitated session did not suit them. a staggered approach, where participants could choose convenient times to attend sessions would solve this problem. b. were the specific content areas contained in the maternal care manual appropriate for the participants’ work context (maternity wards)? most of the participants agreed that the content of the pep was applicable to their daily work in the maternity wards. in terms of adult learning principles, this is a positive finding as adults in general learn better when they perceive that their new knowledge and skills can be applied to their jobs. c.were the theoretical and practical aspects of the maternal care manual adequately covered in the manual and facilitated during group sessions? in general, participants indicated that theoretical and practical skills were adequately covered during sessions of the pep. a small number of participants said that the theoretical aspects of determining foetal condition and gestational age, and the practical aspects of foetal growth and medical problems during pregnancy could be covered in more depth. it is suggested that facilitators design a timetable for the discussion groups to ensure that all theoretical and practical aspects are covered sufficiently. question 3: knowledge and skill acquisition outcomes a. has the pep improved the perinatal knowledge of the midwives? based on comparisons of the mean preand post-test results, it is clear that the pep significantly improved the maternal care knowledge of midwives. subjective self-reports also confirm that midwives were of the opinion that their knowledge had improved. this knowledge increase has been supported by other studies involving the pep (theron, 1999a). however, it should be kept in mind that the preand post-tests used different measures (results based on mcqs and a formal examination). it is unknown whether or not the formal examination was easier than the mcqs and whether or not the knowledge increase could be attributed to this. b. has the pep improved the perinatal skills of the nurses? a high percentage (97%) of participants indicated that their maternal care skills had improved because of the pep. four of the five supervisors who completed a separate questionnaire also confirmed this and reported that they had observed increased skills in pep participants on the wards. this pep-related skill increase was also confirmed in other evaluations (hesketh et al., 1994; le roux et al., 1998; theron, 1999b). in the self-report data of this evaluation there is evidence of improved skills and the application thereof. the evaluators suggest that in future evaluations of the pep, skill acquisition and the application that follows should be measured by means of third-party observations and check lists. this would strengthen evidence of positive skills gain and supplement the results based on the subjective data. c. in general, have midwives benefited from the pep and would they recommend it to others? ninety-six percent of the participants reported that they had benefited from the pep and would recommend the programme to others. this is indeed a strong endorsement for the pep and could be used to market the programme effectively to potential participants. d. are there unintended outcomes which could be attributed to the pep? most participants (95%) mentioned that increased teamwork and cooperation were spin-offs of the pep. it could be speculated that the group sessions may have caused this unintended benefit. e. what other perinatal learning initiatives had been in place for midwives prior to their enrolment in the pep? three participants indicated that they had attended training programmes in lactation, medication, perinatal updates and bcg. even if the results of these three participants were removed from the data set, it would not affect the overall positive effect of the programme significantly. organisational support a. was the climate in the maternity wards conducive to applying newly acquired knowledge and skills at work?approximately two-thirds of the participants reported a perceived alignment of ward practice and procedures with the pep content. in addition, four of the five supervisors indicated their support for the pep and stated that they had recommended it to midwives who reported to them. this supportive climate in the wards is ideal and can only strengthen programme uptake. conclusion in summary, this evaluation showed that the maternal care module of the pep was successfully implemented and endorsed by participants and supervisors alike. the addition of group facilitation to the self-study mode of the programme has produced additional increases in knowledge, skills and group work. the evaluation has provided a positive, sound basis for programme managers to increase programme coverage and continue the good work already evident from the results. limitations of the evaluation only one module of the pep was implemented and evaluated. as the pep consists of eight modules, it might be too soon to conclude that the pep is effective. furthermore, the results of this single module evaluation agree with one another based on self-report data of the participants or observational data of a stakeholder group, namely the supervisors of the participants. most studies that evaluated pep effectiveness did not evaluate skills application in the workplace. the current evaluation is no exception. for future evaluations it is suggested that application of clinical skills should be assessed. the positive and supportive climate in the maternity hospital, where the current evaluation was undertaken, would make such an assessment quite easy to execute. because of limited time and resources, the evaluation could only be conducted at one maternity hospital. this evaluation could have been strengthened by the inclusion of other hospitals that are running the pep. suggestions for future research top ↑ a stronger evaluation design is also possible when comparing participants who are located in hospitals where the pep is running with hospitals where it has not been implemented yet. it would also be interesting to assess whether or not other modules of the pep are as effective as the maternal care module. it would seem as if there are a number of possibilities for future evaluations as far as the pep is concerned. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this paper. authors’ contributions a.r. (university of cape town) completed this evaluation as a requirement for his master’s degree in programme evaluation. s.g. (university of cape town) supervised the evaluation. references top ↑ babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2003). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford university press.cook, l.j. (1992). notes from work in poland with a perinatal education programme. neonatal network, 5, 61–62. davies, h., hall, d.m.b., harpin, v., & pullan, c. (2005). the role of distance learning in specialist medical training. archives of disease in childhood, 90, 279–283. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/adc.2003.048835 , pmid:15723918 harris, j.k., yates, b., & crosby, w.m. (1995). a perinatal continuing education program: its effects on the knowledge and practices of health professionals. journal of obstetric, gynecologic, and neonatal nursing, 24, 829. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1552-6909.1995.tb02567.x hesketh, t.m., zhu, w.x., & zheng, k.h. (1994). improvement of neonatal care in zhejiang province, china through a self-instructional continuing education programme. medical education, 28, 252–259. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2923.1994.tb02706.x, pmid:8035718 kattwinkel, j., nowacek, g., cook, l., hurt, h., & short, j. (1984). perinatal outreach education: a continuation strategy for a basic program. american journal of perinatology, 1, 335. http://dx.doi.org/10.1055/s-2007-1000034, pmid:6518071 kattwinkel, j., nowacek, g., cook, l.j., pietrzyk, j., borkowski, v., karasinska-urbanik, o. et al. (1997). a regionalised perinatal continuing education programme: successful adaptation to a foreign health care system and language. medical education, 31, 210–218. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2923.1997.tb02569.x, pmid:9231141 kattwinkel, j., cook, l.j., nowacek, g., bailey, b., crosby, d., hurt, h. et al. (2004). review: regionalized perinatal education. seminars in neonatology, 9, 155–165. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.siny.2003.08.005, pmid:162567190 le roux, e., pattinson, r., tsaku, w., & makin, j. (1998). does successful completion of the perinatal education programme result in improved obstetric practice? south african medical journal, 88, 180–187. pmid:9542484 noe, r.a. (2005). employee training and development. boston: mcgraw-hill. osorno, l., campos, m., cook, l., vela, g., & dávila, j. (2006). effectiveness of a regional self-study perinatal education programme: a successful adaptation in yucatan, mexico. medical education, 40, 816–823. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2929.2006.02532.x, pmid:16869929 pattinson, r.c., woods, d., greenfield, d., & velaphi, s. (2005). improving survival rates of newborn infants in south africa. reproductive health, 2, 1–4. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1742-4755-2-4, pmid:16095525 rossi, p.h., lipsey, m.w., & freeman, h.e. (2004). evaluation: a systematic approach. (7th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. theron, g.b. (1999a). effect of the maternal care manual of the perinatal education programme on the ability of midwives to interpret antenatal cards and partograms. journal of perinatal, 19, 432–445. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sj.jp.7200225, pmid:10685273 theron, g.b. (1999b). improved cognitive knowledge of midwives practising in the eastern cape province of the republic of south africa through the study of a self-education manual. journal of midwifery, 15, 66–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0266-6138(99)90001-3 united nations. (2001). general assembly, 56th session: road map towards the implementation of the united nations millennium declaration: report of the secretary general. retrieved april 02, 2008, from http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/sgreport2001.pdf?openelement united nations children’s fund. (2011). levels and trends in child mortality. report of the inter-agency group for child mortality estimation. retrieved february 14, 2012, from http://www.childinfo.org/files/child_mortality_report_2011.pdf suely arruda vidal, s.a., ronfani, l., silveira, s.d., mello, m.j., dos santos, e.r., buzzetti, r. et al. (2001). comparacio´ n de dos estrategias de capacitacio´ n para la atencio´ n sencial a recie´ n nacidos en el brasil. [comparison of two training strategies for social care of newborns in brazil]. bulletin of the world health organization, 79, 1024–1031. pmid:11731809 world health organisation. (2005). the who reproductive health library. oxford: update software. woods, d.l. (1999). an innovative training for training maternal and newborn care. seminars in neonatology, 4, 209–216. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1084-2756(99)90090-8 article information authors: jeannette van dyk1 melinde coetzee1 affiliations: 1department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: melinde coetzee postal address: po box 392, university of south africa 0003, south africa dates: received: 17 oct. 2011 accepted: 19 mar. 2012 published: 18 july 2012 how to cite this article: van dyk, j., & coetzee, m. (2012). retention factors in relation to organisational commitment in medical and information technology services. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(2), art. #433, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i2.433 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. retention factors in relation to organisational commitment in medical and information technology services in this original research... open access • abtract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study    • trends from the research literature    • literature review       • retention factors       • organisational commitment    • research objectives    • the potential value of the study • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • descriptive statistics    • correlation statistics    • multiple regression statistics    • significant mean differences: gender    • significant mean differences: age    • significant mean differences: race    • significant mean differences: tenure • discussion    • implications for managers and recommendations    • possible limitations of the study    • suggestions for future research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abtract top ↑ orientation: retaining staff with scarce and critical skills in the medical and information technology (it) industry has become a top priority because of skills shortages.research purpose: the objectives of the study were to investigate empirically: (1) the relationship between employees’ satisfaction with organisational retention factors (measured by the retention factors scale) and their organisational commitment (measured by the organisational commitment questionnaire) and (2) whether gender, age, race and tenure groups differ significantly in terms of these variables. motivation for the study: medical and information technology professionals have specialised and hard to replace skills. they also have strong tendencies to leave their organisations and countries. understanding the retention factors that will increase their organisational commitment may benefit the organisations who want to retain their valuable talent. research design, approach and method: the researchers used a cross-sectional survey design to collect data from a purposive sample of 206 staff members who had scarce skills in a south african medical and information technology services company. correlational and inferential statistics were computed to achieve the objectives. main findings: the results showed that the participants’ satisfaction with retention factors has a significant relationship with their organisational commitment and that the biographical groups differ significantly in terms of the variables. practical/managerial implications: the measured retention factors were all associated with human resource management practices that influence employees’ intentions to leave. contribution/value-add: the results are important to managers who are interested in retaining staff who have scarce skills and provide valuable pointers for designing effective retention strategies. introduction top ↑ key focus of the study retaining staff with scarce and critical skills in the medical and information technology (it) industries has become a top priority for contemporary south african organisations (van dyk, 2011). the study aims to investigate the relationship between staff satisfaction with retention factors in relation to their organisational commitment in a south african medical and information technology services company. background to the study research has shown that medical (hill, 2011; holtom & o’neill, 2004) and it professionals have strong tendencies to leave their organisations (korunka, hoonakker & carayon, 2008) and countries (bezuidenhout, joubert, hiemstra & struwig, 2009; rasool & botha, 2011; statistics south africa, 2005). medical (holtom & o’neill, 2004) and it professionals have specialised and hard to replace skills (mcknight, philips & hardgrave, 2009).although it may be costly to replace and train new employees in these industries, turnover increases the workload of, and demands on, existing staff members. this causes overwork and burnout, which could result in greater turnover (stroth, 2010). in addition, there seems to be consensus that skills shortages are major obstacles to economic growth and job creation in south africa (bhorat, meyer & mlatsheni, 2002; kraak, 2008; rasool & botha, 2011). in the search for solutions to overcome the problem of skills shortages in south african workplaces, it seemed beneficial to gain insight into the relationship between employees’ satisfaction with organisational retention factors and their organisational commitment as well as how employees from different gender, age, race and tenure groups vary in terms of these variables. this knowledge could influence the design of more effective retention strategies for staff with scarce and critical skills in south africa’s multicultural organisational context. trends from the research literature organisational commitment has been the subject of extensive research into retention (neininger, lehmann-willenbrock, kauffeld & henschel, 2010). however, there seems to be little research into the organisational commitment of staff with scarce skills in the south african medical and it services environment (van dyk, 2011). lack of commitment to their organisations may cause employees to seek alternative positions (reed, kratchman & strawser, 1994). despite challenges by some researchers that organisational commitment is less relevant in the contemporary workplace (savickas et al., 2009), recent research has shown that the affective commitment, or psychological attachment, of employees remains important for business leaders if they are to attract, motivate and retain key talent (morrow, 2011). organisational commitment results in positive attitudes to jobs and affects outcomes like employees’ intentions to leave, organisational citizenship behaviour, performance and job satisfaction (neininger et al., 2010). corporate and employee-centred human resource practices like work-life balance, compensation, supervisor support, communication, rewards and recognition, training and development, job characteristics and opportunities to develop careers influence the commitment of employees (döckel, 2003; joāo, 2010; lumley, 2009). therefore, these practices have become important factors for retaining staff (döckel, 2003). literature review retention factors for the purpose of this study, retention factors are the factors that facilitate the retention or departure of employees and their decisions to leave or remain, depending on their priorities (netswera, rankhumise & mavundla, 2005). a south african study that döckel (2003) conducted uncovered six critical retention factors that organisations need to consider if they are to retain employees with high technology skills. these factors are relevant to the present study and include: • compensation • job characteristics • opportunities for training and development • supervisor support • career opportunities • work-life balance. each of these factors is discussed below. compensation includes monetary and non-monetary rewards in return for the work employees do. monetary rewards include basic salaries, incentives and stock options. non-monetary rewards are indirect financial rewards employees receive for their labour (döckel, 2003). salary and financial incentives are direct and indirect precursors of intentions to leave (luna-arocas & camps, 2008). job characteristics include skill variety and job autonomy because highly specialised knowledge workers prefer jobs in which they can use a variety of skills, present challenging assignments and offer job autonomy (spector, 2008). knowledge workers are employees who have critical knowledge about core products and services (coetzee & roythorne-jacobs, 2007). training and development, as well as educational investments, aim to offer opportunities for advancement. employees might perceive that their organisations value them. this gives employees a sense of self-worth and increases their affective commitment (döckel, 2003; meyer & allen, 1997). according to kraimer, seibert, wayne, liden and bravo (2011), opportunities for training and development support employee growth and development. research by joāo (2010) has shown that training and development are important factors for retaining professionally qualified employees. training and development programmes could send important messages to employees that their organisations are investing in them and that their organisations regard them as valuable resources (kraimer et al., 2011). on the other hand, maurer and lippstreu (2008) found that employees with low levels of learning orientation do not respond to development support with greater commitment. supervisor support includes the recognition and feedback that supervisors give to employees. various studies show the importance of recognition and feedback for retaining valuable employees (allen, shore & griffeth, 2003; morrow, 2011). perceived organisational support increases the affective commitment of employees in the long term (morrow, 2011). career opportunities include the internal and external career options that employees have. internal career opportunities could lie in the employees’ current organisations, like promotions or moves to different positions. external career opportunities could mean moving to other organisations (joāo, 2010). research has shown that career growth is important for increasing employees’ affective commitment to their organisations and for reducing their intentions to leave (joāo, 2010; morrow, 2011; neininger et al., 2010; weng, mcelroy, morrow & liu, 2010). kraimer et al. (2011) found that perceived career opportunities significantly predict job performance and turnover. when employees perceive that there are many career opportunities in their organisations, it could result in better job performance and reduce their intentions to leave. joāo (2010) also found that the need for career growth and opportunities for advancement, as well as challenging work, are significant factors that stop professionally qualified employees from leaving their organisations. parkes and langford (2008) describe work-life balance as the ability of employees to meet their work and family commitments as well as other non-work responsibilities and activities. döckel (2003) argues that organisations need to accommodate employees by providing access to telecommuting, childcare centres, referral programmes and employee assistance programmes. employees regard work-life balance policies as organisational care and positively influence employees’ psychological attachment to their organisations (döckel, 2003). the gender distribution in organisations also influences mobility. women who work in male-dominated occupations have more difficulty moving up the hierarchy, presumably because of gender bias (maume, 1999). women may have fewer opportunities for job development and mentoring in male-dominated occupations (lai, lin & leung, 1998; ohlott, ruderman & mccauley, 1994) and could be less committed to their organisations (martins & coetzee, 2007). govaerts, kyndt, dochy and baert (2011) found a positive relationship between age, retention and intentions to stay and a negative relationship between age, retention and intentions to leave. the findings show that younger employees are significantly more likely to leave their organisations than older employees are. older employees have more difficulty finding new jobs, because they suffer from negative stereotyping and age discrimination (posthuma & campion, 2009), than younger ones do. ng and feldman (2009) argue that the relationship between age and turnover might have changed over the last 20 years because of changes in work environments and norms for job mobility. organisational commitment meyer and allen’s (1991) conceptualisation of organisational commitment is relevant to the present study. their multidimensional approach integrates attitudinal and behavioural approaches to commitment in order to create three distinct dimensions of organisational commitment: affective, continuance and normative commitment. affective commitment refers to employees’ commitment through emotional bonds, links to, and engagement in, their organisations. continuance commitment refers to employees’ perceptions of the benefits and advantages they could lose if they leave their organisations. normative commitment refers to employees’ sense of indebtedness to their organisations. employees may feel obliged to stay in their organisations because of social norms (meyer & allen, 1991). affective and normative commitments reflect employees’ attitudinal dispositions whereas continuance commitment shows their behavioural orientations (meyer & allen, 1997). one generally assumes that organisational commitment reduces abandonment behaviours that include tardiness and leaving. in addition, employees, who are committed to their organisations, could be more willing to participate in ‘extra-role’ activities, like being creative or innovative. these frequently guarantee organisations’ competitiveness in the market (katz & kahn, 1978). research by martin (2008) shows that affective commitment influences normative commitment positively and normative and affective commitment influences continuance commitment. affective commitment has a stronger effect than normative commitment does on the intention of employees to continue working in their organisations. affective commitment creates emotional bonds that can cause employees to develop a sense of responsibility and duty (normative commitment) to their organisations. on the other hand, employees cannot behave as they want to because they feel an obligation to their organisations although they are unhappy in them. in addition, normative commitment can also lead to continuance commitment because employees’ emotional involvement in their organisations may lead to a desire to continue (martin, 2008). according to meyer and allen (1991), employees, whose experiences meet their expectations and if their organisations satisfy their basic needs, tend to develop stronger affective attachments to their organisations than do those employees whose experiences are less satisfying. in addition, continuance commitment may develop as employees recognise that they have accumulated investments (becker, 1960) that they could lose if they leave their organisations or if there are limited alternative employment prospects. furthermore, normative commitment develops because of socialisation experiences that emphasise the importance of remaining loyal to their employers (morrow, 2011) or through organisational benefits (like car allowances, medical aids or study leave). research that manetje and martins (2009) conducted suggests that employees, who are affectively committed to their organisations, are more willing to maintain their relationships with their organisations than are those who are normatively and continuance committed. research by coetzee, schreuder and tladinyane (2007) showed no significant differences between the organisational commitment of blacks and whites and between men and women. metcalfe and dick (2002) reported similar findings about the organisational commitment of men and women. with regard to age, bentein, vandenberghe, vandenberg and stinglhamber (2005) found evidence for a linearly declining change in affective commitment and normative commitment over time. research by meyer and allen (1984) showed that older workers become more attitudinally committed to organisations than younger ones do. ferreira and coetzee (2010) also found that older employees are more affectively and normatively committed to their organisations than their younger counterparts are. research objectives the objectives of the study were to investigate empirically: • the relationship between employees’ satisfaction with organisational retention factors and their organisational commitment • whether gender, age, race and tenure groups differ significantly in terms of these variables. the potential value of the study this study contributes to the existing body of theory on staff retention and the organisational commitment of employees in south african multicultural organisations.the literature showed significant relationships between organisational retention factors and employees’ intentions to stay with, or leave, their organisations as well as their levels of organisational commitment. however, researchers have not investigated the relationship between these variables in the south african medical and information technology working environments. in addition, research on the differences between the biographical groups in terms of these variables is limited in the south african workplace. furthermore, because of south africa’s diverse multicultural workforce, organisations need to consider possible differences between the levels of satisfaction that employees have with their organisations’ retention factors and their employees’ levels of commitment when they adopt talent retention strategies. research design top ↑ research approach the researchers used a cross-sectional survey design (shaughnessy, zechmeister & zechmeister, 2003) to achieve their research objectives. they collected their data at one point in time in a south african medical and information technology services company. they used a correlational approach. research method research participants the sampling method the researchers used depended on which skills the senior managers in the human resources division of the company identified as scarce and whether the participants were willing and available to participate in the study. the researchers drew an initial purposive sample (n = 843) from the population of 2170 professional and management level staff in the company and invited them to participate in the study. the participants who voluntarily participated in the study yielded a response rate of 24.44% (n = 206).the sample was skewed towards women (73%) between the ages of 30 and 39 (40%) and between 40 and 49 (30%). most of the participants were married (59%) or single, divorced or widowed (41%). with regard to race groups, 53% were whites and 47% were blacks. africans comprised 13%, coloureds 22% and asian 12% of the latter group. most of the participants had post-school qualifications (77%). most had certificates (12%), diplomas (34%), degrees (18%) or post-graduate qualifications (13%). with regard to tenure, most participants had worked in the company for fewer than five years (45%), 23% had worked for between six and 10 years whilst 21% had worked for between 11 and 15 years. only 11% had been in their current positions for 15 years or more. the participants’ length of employment in their current positions was mainly between three and five years (31%), between one and two years (25%), less than a year (21%), between 6 and 10 years (17%) and more than 11 years (6%). most participants worked at a professional level (69%), whilst 15% worked at management level and 17% at senior management level. measuring instruments the well-established organisational commitment questionnaire (ocq) (meyer & allen, 1997) was used to measure organisational commitment. the ocq is a multi-factor measure for assessing employees’ affective commitment (eight items), continuance commitment (seven items) and normative commitment (seven items) on a six-point likert-type scale.with regard to internal consistency reliability, meyer, allen and smith (1993) reported the following cronbach’s alpha coefficients: affective commitment (.82), continuance commitment (.74) and normative commitment (.83). the median reliabilities for the affective, continuance and normative scales were .85, .79 and .73 respectively. with few exceptions, the reliability estimates exceed .70 (meyer & allen, 1997). the researchers also obtained acceptable (high) internal consistency reliabilities in the present study: affective commitment (.90), continuance commitment (.84) and normative commitment (.70). döckel (2003) developed the retention factor scale (rfs). the researchers used it (with a six-point likert-type scale) to measure the participants’ satisfaction with seven retention factors: • compensation (13 items) • job characteristics (four items) • opportunities for training and development (six items) • supervisor support (six items) • career opportunities (six items) • work-life balance (four items) • commitment to the organisation (three items). a factor analysis on the rfs that döckel (2003) conducted confirmed the construct validity of the questionnaires. with regard to internal consistency reliability, döckel, basson and coetzee (2006) reported the following cronbach’s alpha coefficients: compensation (.90), job characteristics (.41), opportunities for training and development (.83), supervisor support (.90), career opportunities (.76), work-life balance (.87) and commitment to the organisation (.89). the researchers also obtained acceptable (medium to high) internal consistency reliabilities for the present study: compensation (.95), job characteristics (.67), opportunities for training and development (.88), supervisor support (.83), career opportunities (.73), work-life balance (.88) and commitment to the organisation (.89). research procedure with regard to ethics, the researchers obtained clearance to conduct the research from the participating organisation. the researchers asked the selected employees to participate voluntarily in the research by completing the questionnaires. they sent the questionnaires to participants via the company’s internal mail system. a covering letter, which explained the purpose of the study and emphasised the confidentiality of the research project, accompanied the questionnaires. the letter also explained that the researchers would use all information for research purposes only. the participants gave their informed consent to participate in the study. the participants completed the questionnaires anonymously. the participants returned completed questionnaires to the researchers via the external mail system. the researchers were available for any questions and concerns and kept the completed questionnaires secure. they captured the raw data and converted them to an spss dataset. statistical analysis the statistical programme for social sciences (spss, version 17, 2008) was used to analyse the data. descriptive statistics, correlational and inferential statistics were calculated.cronbach’s alpha coefficients were used to assess the internal consistency of the measuring instruments. field (2005) lists four assumptions that one needs to meet for using parametric statistics: normality, homogeneity of variance, interval data and independence. the researchers considered these assumptions before deciding to use parametric statistics. the results of the kolmogorov-smirov and shapiro-wilk tests for the ocq and rfs were not significant (p > .05). therefore, the researchers concluded that the participants were normally distributed. the levene’s test for equal variances showed that all the variables showed homogeneity of variance. the assumptions of interval data and independence require an assessment by the researchers. the researchers concluded that the study met the assumptions adequately and computed parametric statistics. pearson product-moment correlations were calculated to determine the direction and strength of the relationships between the variables. in order to counter the probability of a type 1 error, the significance value was set at the 95% confidence level (p ≤ .05). for the purposes of this study, r-values ≥ than .30 (medium effect) (cohen, 1992) were treated as practically significant. standard multiple regression analyses were performed to identify the rfs variables that predicted or provided the best explanation for the portion of the total variance in the scores of the dependent variables (the ocs variables). a number of independent (rfs) variables had to be considered. therefore, the value of the adjusted r² was used to interpret the results. the f-test was used to test whether there was a significant regression between the independent and the dependent variables. for the purposes of this study, r² values that were larger than .13 (medium effect) were treated as practically significant (cohen, 1992). the t-tests were used to compute the mean differences between the gender groups. analyses of variance (anovas) were performed to test for significant mean differences between the various age, race and tenure groups. cohen’s d and partial eta squared values were computed to assess the magnitude of the differences between the biographical groups. results top ↑ descriptive statistics table 1 gives the means, standard deviations, internal consistency reliability coefficients and inter-correlations for the rfs and ocs variables. the results show that the participants felt moderately committed to the organisation. the participants felt moderately satisfied with their job characteristics (m = 4.53; sd = 1.06); commitment to the organisation (m = 4.38; sd = 1.43); and supervisor support (m = 4.23; sd = 1.17). table 1 shows that the participants felt slightly satisfied with their work-life balance (m = 3.95; sd = 1.41); career opportunities (m = 3.59; sd = 1.00); compensation (m = 3.53; sd = 1.18); compensation (m = 3.53; sd = 1.18); and opportunities for training and development (m = 3.47; sd = 1.30). correlation statistics table 1 shows that, with the exception of work-life balance, the affective and continuance commitment variables correlated positively and significantly with the rfs variables. normative commitment correlated positively and significantly only with the compensation (r = .24; p ≤ .001; small practical effect), career opportunities (r = .13; p ≤ .05; small practical effect) and commitment to organisation (r = .34; p ≤ .001; medium practical effect) rfs variables. not surprisingly, table 1 shows that affective commitment (r = .59; p ≤ .001; large practical effect) and continuance commitment (r = .61; p ≤ .001; large practical effect) had significantly higher correlations with the commitment to organisation variable than with the other rfs variables. continuance commitment had significantly lower correlations with the job characteristics (r = .19; p ≤ .05; small practical effect) and supervisor support (r = .22; p ≤ .001; small practical effect) variables. table 1: means, standard deviations, internal consistency reliability values and intercorrelations for retention factors and organisational commitment (n = 206). table 2: multiple regression analysis with retention factors as independent variables and organisational commitment as the dependent variable (n = 206). table 3: independent samples t-test – significant mean differences (gender). table 4: analysis of variance – significant mean differences between age groups. table 5: analyses of variance – significant differences between race groups. table 6: analyses of variance – significant mean differences between tenure groups. multiple regression statistics table 2 presents the significant results. in terms of multicollinearity, the current study yielded tolerance values close to 1.0 (between ≥ .71 an ≤ .89) and vif values of ≤ 1.41. they are lower than the cut-off of ≥ 2.5 to ≥ 4.0 suggested for small samples. therefore, the researchers concluded that multicollinearity was not a particular concern in the context of the current study, suggesting that they could interpret the beta (β) values with more confidence (field, 2005).table 2 shows that the regression models explained large (r² = 40% – 41%) practical effect percentages of variance in the affective commitment and continuance commitment dependent variables and small (r² = 12%) practical effect percentages of variance in the normative commitment variable at f(p) ≤ .001. table 2 shows that the rfs commitment to organisation variable contributed significantly and positively to the variance in the affective commitment (β = .43; p ≤ .001), normative commitment (β = .40; p ≤ .001) and continuance commitment (β = .50; p ≤ .001) variables. the career opportunities variable contributed significantly and positively to the variance in the affective commitment (β = .20; p ≤ .001) and continuance commitment (β = .23; p ≤ .001) variables. job characteristics (β = .17; p ≤ .01) contributed significantly and positively to the variance in the affective commitment variable whilst the supervisor support (β = -.16; p ≤ .05) variable contributed significantly and negatively to the variance in the normative commitment variable. significant mean differences: gender table 3 gives the results of the independent samples t-test. they provide some support that men and women differ significantly in their levels of satisfaction with retention factors and their organisational commitment. however, although table 3 shows that the men participants scored significantly higher than their women counterparts on affective commitment (m = 4.18 vs. m = 3.90) and satisfaction with career opportunities (m = 3.91 vs. m = 3.91), the size of these differences is small (d ≤ .39; η² ≤ 39%). the researchers observed no significant mean differences for the other rfs and ocq variables. significant mean differences: age table 4 gives the anova results. they provide some support that age groups differ significantly in their levels of satisfaction with retention factors and their organisational commitment. table 4 shows that the participants in the 30–39 age group scored significantly higher than did the participants in the other age groups on job characteristics. the participants in the 17–29 age group years scored significantly lower on the job characteristics variable than the older age groups did. the size of these differences is moderate (d ≤ .66; η² ≤ 45%). the researchers observed no significant mean differences on the other rfs and ocq variables. significant mean differences: race table 5 gives the anova results. they provide some support that race groups differ significantly in their levels of satisfaction with retention factors and their organisational commitment. table 5 shows that the african participants scored significantly lower than the other race groups did on the compensation variable (d = .64; η² = 76%; moderate in size). in terms of the participants’ satisfaction with their job characteristics, the asian (m = 4.78) and white (m = 4.66) participants scored significantly higher than the coloured and african participants did (d = .51; η² = 39%; small in size). the white (m = 3.58) participants scored significantly lower on the work-life balance variable than did the african (m = 4.61), coloured (m = 4.39) and asian (m = 4.11) participants (d = .64; η² = 96%; moderate in size). the researchers observed no significant mean differences on the other rfs and ocq variables. significant mean differences: tenure table 6 gives the anova results. they provide some support that tenure groups differ significantly in their levels of satisfaction with retention factors and their organisational commitment. table 6 shows that the participants, who had worked for the organisation for longer than 11 years, obtained significantly higher scores on the affective commitment, normative commitment, compensation, job characteristics and commitment to organisation variables (d ≥ .26 ≤ .70; η² = 5% – 7%; small to moderate in size). the researchers observed no significant mean differences on the other rfs and ocq variables. discussion top ↑ this study adds to the empirical research that döckel (2003) and döckel et al. (2006) conducted in the south african context. their research revealed that staff satisfaction with retention factors has a significant relationship with their organisational commitment.the present study examined the relationship between the retention factors that döckel (2003) identified and the three-component model of commitment of meyer and allen (1991) in a south african medical and information technology services company and how various biographical groups differed in terms of these constructs. the present study showed that the participants’ intention to stay with or leave their current company (commitment to the organisation) was a highly significant predictor of their affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. the results are in agreement with the findings of döckel et al. (2006). they showed that career opportunities predicted the participants’ affective commitment and continuance commitment significantly. the findings also corroborate research that joāo (2010) conducted. joāo (2010) found that employees, who felt positive about the possibility of career advancement opportunities in their organisations and those who experienced intrinsic job satisfaction were more likely to feel emotionally attached to their organisations. the results of the present study suggest that attending to human resource practices that increase the participants’ overall satisfaction with the intra-organisational career opportunities that are available to them and the nature of their tasks may help to increase their psychological attachment to the organisation (affective commitment). kondratuk, hausdorf, korabik and rosin (2004) suggest that affective commitment increases after a move within or between organisations. a lack of growth opportunities influences employees’ attitudes to their organisations negatively. this, in turn, influences their intentions to leave and leads to turnover behaviour (allen et al., 2003). vallabh and donald (2001) also found that career mobility is a leading factor in decisions to stay with or leave organisations. the current study showed that job characteristics also positively predict the participants’ affective commitment. this contradicts the findings of döckel et al. (2006). according to spector (2000), affective commitment occurs because of job conditions and the expectations that organisations meet. continuance commitment occurs because of the benefits employees accumulate by working for their organisations and because there are no alternative jobs. the current study showed that supervisor support negatively predicts participants’ normative commitment. this also contradicts the findings of döckel et al. (2006). the findings suggest that, the higher the participants’ sense of moral obligation to remain with their organisation because of social norms (meyer & allen, 1991), the lower is the influence of supervisor support as a retention factor. döckel et al. (2006) and lumley (2009) found that supervisor support relates more strongly to affective commitment. supervisor support seems to relate to jobs and the cultures of organisations because it allows employees to make a difference, try out new skills, exercise discretion and receive feedback about their performance (kochanski & ledford, 2001). it is interesting to note that, contrary to the findings of döckel et al. (2006), the participants’ satisfaction with their work-life balance did not relate significantly to their organisational commitment. this is an interesting finding because most of the sample comprised women and married participants. the findings seem to corroborate research that kniveton (2004) conducted. it showed that, although women have a high awareness of, and concern for, their family responsibilities, they see them as things they have to cope with, rather than as things that influence their perceptions of their careers. this suggests that, although companies should be aware of women’s family concerns and responsibilities and their need for stability, benefit packages and flexible work arrangements (coetzee & schreuder, 2008), organisations should take care not to let traditional gender stereotyping influence employees’ need for career development opportunities. with regard to the differences between biographical groups, the results showed that these differences were, in practical terms, small to moderate in size. one can attribute the higher levels of affective commitment and satisfaction with perceived career opportunities, which the men participants indicated, to the belief that most workplaces do not recognise women’s needs for career advancement and emotionally supportive work environments (martins & coetzee, 2007). nabi (2001) also found that women have greater needs for emotionally supportive work environments as sources of career satisfaction. the research findings of kidd and smewing (2001) suggest a positive linear relationship between supervisor support and commitment, particularly for women. with regard to age, the participants in the entry and establishment phases of their lives and careers seemed to be the least satisfied with the nature of their jobs and work tasks. research by coetzee and schreuder (2008) suggests that employees in the early adulthood phase of their lives tend to prefer work situations in which they will be, as far as possible, free of organisational constraints and restrictions and free to develop their professional competence. they also tend to be active learners who require ongoing training and further development opportunities through on-the-job experiences that enable them to sharpen their talents and skills (making it possible for them to influence and lead others in service-orientated work environments). with regard to race groups, the african and coloured participants seemed to be the least satisfied with their compensation and the nature of their job and work tasks. these findings agree with the research of martins and coetzee (2007), who found that black employees were more dissatisfied with their compensation. research shows that compensation is a significant factor for retaining employees (döckel et al., 2006; joāo, 2010; lumley, 2009). research data that keaveny and inderrieden (2000) reported suggest that when jobs are more interesting, provide greater job security and better benefits and opportunities for advancement than elsewhere, their employees are more satisfied with a given level of compensation. these findings are especially important in the light of the current employment equity and affirmative action policies in south african workplaces that strive to attract, develop and retain black employees and women with scarce skills. with regard to work-life balance, the white participants seemed to be the least satisfied with their work-life balance. research by coetzee et al. (2007) also found that whites value work-life balance significantly more than their black counterparts do. the researchers observed no significant differences between the organisational commitment levels of the various race groups. these findings are consistent with those of coetzee et al. (2007), ferreira and coetzee (2010) and lumley (2009). with regard to tenure, the study showed that the participants with longer tenures (11 years and more) had significantly more emotional and normative attachments to the organisation. these participants also seemed to feel significantly more satisfied with their compensation and jobs and indicated less intention to leave the organisation. meyer and allen (1997) suggest that that one can expect employees’ commitment to change over a period and then stabilise with tenure. research by meyer and allen (1984) shows that older workers become more attitudinally committed to their organisations for a variety of reasons. these include greater satisfaction with their jobs, being in better positions and having ‘cognitively justified’ their continuance in their organisations. the findings also seem to corroborate the research of ferreira and coetzee (2010). they found that older employees were affectively and normatively more committed to their organisations than their younger counterparts were. these employees are in the maintenance stage of their careers and may have come to appreciate their continued membership of their respective organisations. implications for managers and recommendations the present study suggests that employees’ satisfaction with retention factors has a significant relationship with their organisational commitment. the retention factors the researchers measured are all associated with human resource management practices that influence employees’ intentions to leave (döckel, 2003). therefore, the associations the researchers observed between these constructs are important for managers who are interested in retaining the staff they have identified as having scarce skills. the research of kochanski and ledford (2001) showed that skills shortages, and a high demand for employees, result in greater opportunities for career mobility. in addition, managers need to note the differences the researchers found between the gender, age, race and tenure groups on some of the retention factors and organisational commitment constructs. although these differences ranged between practically small and moderate in size, the results give useful pointers for retaining diverse groups of employees in the south african multicultural work environment. with regard to specific human resource practices, job motivation, career opportunities and supervisor support were important to all biographical groups (bensin & brown, 2011). these findings suggest that managers need to ensure that all supervisors are well trained and support their workers as well as that all employees have career opportunities. encouraging career development benefits organisations because it facilitates appreciative learning climates and leads to greater productivity in the workplace (govaerts et al., 2011; naris & ukpere, 2010). govaerts et al. (2011) found that employees who experience appreciative learning climates in their organisations are more inclined to stay. according to rodriguez (2008), employees begin to search for external job opportunities once they feel they are no longer growing. echols (2007) also argues that, when organisations combine learning and development with selective promotion and salary decisions, the process can be a strong retention factor. possible limitations of the study despite the strengths of this study and the new knowledge and insights it brings to the field of retention and human resource management, there are aspects that may limit it. the researchers limited the present study to a sample of predominantly white and women participants who worked in a south african medical and information technology services company. therefore, one cannot generalise the findings to other occupational, race, gender and industry groups. furthermore, given the exploratory nature of the research design, this study can yield no statements about causation. therefore, the researchers inferred rather than established the associations between the variables. suggestions for future research researchers need to replicate these findings with broader samples in various occupational, age, race and gender groups as well as economic sectors before one can draw conclusions about the relationship between employees’ levels of satisfaction with organisations’ retention factors and their commitment to their organisations. based on the promising findings of this study, future empirical investigations that relate to retaining scarce and critical skills in the multicultural work context should attempt to corroborate the findings of the present study through longitudinal studies with other measures of retention factors and organisational commitment. conclusion the study contributes valuable new and unique knowledge to the human resources field and practices concerned with retaining diverse groups of staff in the medical and information technology services sector.the present study emphasises the importance of considering the retention factors the study highlights and how they influence employees’ commitment to their organisations. its results emphasise the importance of adopting a pluralistic approach to retention and career development practices to meet employees’ diverse needs in a multicultural society (coetzee & schreuder, 2008). this approach will also help organisations to retain diverse abilities in their workforces. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them when they wrote this paper. authors’ contributions j.v.d. (university of south africa) conducted the research and statistical analyses and assisted with writing the report. m.c. (university of south africa) supervised the research project and assisted with the statistical analysis and writing the report. references top ↑ allen, d.g., shore, l.m., & griffeth, r.w. (2003). the role of perceived organizational support and supportive human resource practices in the turnover process. journal of management, 29, 99–118. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920630302900107becker, h.s. (1960). notes on the concept of commitment. american journal of sociology, 66(1), 32−42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/222820 benson, j., & brown, m. (2011). generations at work: are there differences and do they matter? the international journal of human resource management, 22(9), 1843–1865. bentein, k., vandenberghe, c., vandenberg, r., & stinglhamber, f. (2005). the role of change in the relationship between commitment and turnover: a latent growth modelling approach. journal of applied psychology, 90(3), 468–482. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.90.3.468, pmid:15910143 bezuidenhout, m.m., joubert, g., hiemstra, l.a., & struwig, m.c. (2009). reasons for doctor migration from south africa. sa family practice, 51(3), 211–215. bhorat, h., meyer, j.b., & mlatsheni, c. (2002). skilled labour migration from developing countries: study on south and southern africa. international migration papers (52), international labour office, geneva. retrieved august 10, 2011, from http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/migrant/download/imp/imp52e.pdf cohen, j. (1992). quantitative methods in psychology: a power primer. psychological bulletin, 112(1), 153–159. coetzee, m., & roythorne-jacobs, h. (2007). career counselling and guidance in the workplace: a manual for career practitioners. cape town: juta. coetzee, m., & schreuder, d. (2008). a multi-cultural investigation of students’ career anchors at a south african higher education institution. sa journal of labour relations, 32(2), 1–11. coetzee, m., schreuder, d., & tladinyane, r. (2007). career anchors and its relation to organisational commitment. southern african business review, 11(1), 65–86. döckel, a. (2003). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. unpublished master’s thesis, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. döckel, a., basson, j.s., & coetzee, m. (2006). the effect of retention factors on organizational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 4(2), 20–28. echols, m.e. (2007). learning’s role in talent management. chief learning officer, 6(10), 36–40. ferreira, n., & coetzee, m. (2010). psychological career resources and organisational commitment: exploring socio-demographic differences. south african journal of labour relations, 34(2), 25–41. field, a. (2005). discovering statistics using spss. london: sage publications. govaerts, n., kyndt, e., dochy, f., & baert, h. (2011). influence of learning and working climate on the retention of talented employees. journal of workplace learning, 23(1), 35–55. hill, k.s. (2011). work satisfaction, intent to stay, desires of nurses, and financial knowledge among bedside and advanced practice nurses. the journal of nursing administration, 41(5), 211–217. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/nna.0b013e3182171b17, pmid:21519207 holtom, b.c., & o’neill, b.s. (2004). job embeddedness: a theoretical foundation for developing a comprehensive nurse retention plan. the journal of nursing administration, 34(5), 216–227. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00005110-200405000-00005 joāo, t.f. (2010). the relationship between perceived career mobility, career mobility preference, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. unpublished master’s dissertation. university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. katz, d., & kahn, r. (1978). the social pscyhology of organizations. (2nd ed.). new york: wiley. keaveny, t.j., & inderrieden, e.j. (2000). gender differences in pay satisfaction and pay expectations. journal of managerial issues, 12(3), 363–380. kidd, j.m., & smewing, c. (2001). the role of the supervisor in career and organizational commitment. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 10(1), 25–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594320042000016 kniveton, b.h. (2004). managerial career anchors in a changing business environment. journal of european industrial training, 28(7), 564–573. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090590410549984 kochanski, j., & ledford, g. (2001). ’how to keep me‘: retaining technical professionals. research technology management, 44(3), 31–38. kondratuk, t.b., hausdorf, p.a., korabik, k., & rosin, h.m. (2004). linking career mobility with corporate loyalty: how does job change relate to organizational commitment? journal of vocational behavior, 65, 332–349. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2003.08.004 korunka, c., hoonakker, p., & carayon, p. (2008). quality of working life and turnover intention in information technology work. human factors and ergonomics in manufacturing, 18(4), 409–423. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hfm.20099 kraak, a. (2008). the education-economy relationship in south africa, 2001–2005. human resources development review. cape town: hsrc. kraimer, m.l., seibert, s.e., wayne, s.j., liden, r.c., & bravo, j. (2011). antecedents and outcomes of organizational support for development: the critical role of career opportunities. journal of applied psychology, 96(3), 485–500. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0021452, pmid:21114356 lai, g., lin, n., & leung, s. (1998). network resources, contact resources and status attainment. social networks, 20, 159–178. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0378-8733(97)00012-9 lumley, e.j. (2009). exploring the relationship between career anchors, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. unpublished master’s dissertation. university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. luna-arocas, r., & camps, j. (2008). a model of high performance work practices and turnover intentions. personnel review, 37(1), 26–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00483480810839950 manetje, o., & martins, n. (2009). the relationship between organisational culture and organisational commitment. southern african business review, 13(1), 87–111. martin, s.s. (2008). relational and economic antecedents of organisational commitment. personnel review, 37(6), 589–608. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00483480810906856 martins, n., & coetzee, m. (2007). organisational culture, employee satisfaction, perceived leader emotional competency and personality type: an exploratory study of a south african engineering company. sa journal for human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 5(2), 20–32. maume, d.j. (1999). occupational segregation and the career mobility of white men and women. social forces, 77, 1433–1459. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sf/77.4.1433 maurer, t.j., & lippstreu, m. (2008).who will be committed to an organization that provides support for employee development? journal of management development, 27, 328–347. mcknight, d.h., phillips, b., & hardgrave, b.c. (2009). which reduces it turnover intention the most: workplace characteristics or job characteristics? information & management, 46(3), 167–174. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2009.01.002 metcalfe, b., & dick, g. (2002). is the force still with her? gender and commitment in the police. women in management review, 17(7/8), 392–403. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09649420210451823 meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1984). testing the ’side bet theory‘ of organisational commitment: some methodological considerations. journal of applied psychology, 69, 372–378. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.69.3.372 meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1991). a three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment. human resource management review, 1(1), 61–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/1053-4822(91)90011-z meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1997). commitment in the workplace: theory, research and application. london: sage publications. meyer, j.p., allen, n.j., & smith, c.a. (1993). commitment to organisations and occupations: extension and test of a three-component conceptualization. journal of applied psychology, 78(4), 538–551. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.4.538 morrow, p.c. (2011). managing organizational commitment: insights from longitudinal research. journal of vocational behavior, 79, 18–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2010.12.008 nabi, g.r. (2001). the relationship between hrm, social support and subjective career success among men and women. international journal of manpower, 22(5), 457–471. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/eum0000000005850 naris, n.s., & ukpere, i.w. (2010). developing a retention strategy for qualified staff at the polytechnic of namibia. african journal of business management, 4(6), 1078–1084. neininger, a., lehmann-willenbrock, n., kauffeld, s., & henschel, a. (2010). effects of team and organizational commitment: a longitudinal study. journal of vocational behavior, 76, 567–579. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2010.01.009 netswera, f.g., rankhumise, e.m., & mavundla, t.r. (2005). employee retention factors for south african higher education institutions: a case study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 3(2), 36–40. ng, t.w.h., & feldman, d.c. (2009). occupational embeddedness and job performance. journal of organizational behavior, 30, 863–891. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.580 ohlott, p.j., ruderman, m.n., & mccauley, c.d. (1994). gender differences in managers’ developmental job experiences. journal of applied psychology, 77, 272–279. parkes, l.p., & langford, p.h. (2008). work-life balance or work-life alignment? a test of the importance of work-life balance for employee engagement and intention to stay in organisations. journal of management and organization, 14(3), 267–284. http://dx.doi.org/10.5172/jmo.837.14.3.267 posthuma, r.a., & campion, m.a. (2009). age stereotypes in the workplace: common stereotypes, moderators, and future research directions. journal of management, 35, 158–188. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206308318617 rasool, f., & botha, c.j. (2011). the nature, extent and effect of skills shortages on skills migration in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #287, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.287 reed, s.a., kratchman, s.h., & strawser, r.h. (1994). job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions of united states accountants: the impact of locus of control and gender. accounting, auditing & accountability journal, 7(1), 31–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513579410050371 rodriguez. (2008). learning’s impact on talent flow. chief learning officer, 7(4), 50–64. savickas, m.l., nota, l., rossier, j., dauwalder, j., duarte, m.e., guichard, j. et al. (2009). life designing: a paradigm for career construction in the 21st century. journal of vocational behavior, 75, 239–250. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.04.004 shaughnessy, j.j., zechmeister, e.b., & zechmeister, j.s. (2003). research methods in psychology. (6th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. spector, p.e. (2000). industrial & organizational psychology: research and practice. (10th edn.). new york: wiley & sons. spector, p.e. (2008). industrial and organisational psychology behaviour. (5th edn.). new jersey: john wiley & sons. statistical package for the social sciences (spss). (2008). statistical programs for social sciences (spss): version 17.0. spss inc. statistics south africa. (2005). documented migration. retrieved march 25, 2008, from http://www.statssa.gov.za. stroth, c. (2010). job embeddedness as a nurse retention strategy for rural hospitals. journal of nursing administration, 40(1), 32–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/nna.0b013e3181c47d30, pmid:20010375 vallabh, m., & donald, f. (2001). a comparison of black and white managers on intent to leave and job mobility. journal of industrial psychology, 27(2), 37–42. van dyk, j. (2011). the relationship between organisational commitment, retention factors and perceived job embeddedness. unpublished master’s thesis. university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. weng, q., mcelroy, j.c., morrow, p.c., & liu, r. (2010). the relationship between career growth and organizational commitment. journal of vocational behavior, 77, 391–400. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2010.05.003 article information author: nadia ferreira1 affiliation: 1department of human resource management, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: nadia ferreira postal address: po box 392, unisa 0003, south africa dates: received: 03 oct. 2011 accepted: 19 apr. 2012 published: 26 sept. 2012 how to cite this article: ferreira, n. (2012). hardiness in relation to organisational commitment in the human resource management field. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(2), art. #418, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i2.418 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. hardiness in relation to organisational commitment in the human resource management field in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study    • trends from the research literature    • research objective    • potential value-add of the study    • theory       • hardiness       • organisational commitment       • relationship between hardiness and organisational commitment • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • hypothesis testing       • correlational statistics       • multiple regression analysis: personal views survey ii and organisational commitment scale • ethical considerations • trustworthiness    • reliability    • validity • discussion    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests • references abstract top ↑ orientation: employees’ hardiness is increasingly recognised as an aspect of their well-being and feelings of career success. psychological well-being and feelings of subjective career success have positive implications for the motivation, satisfaction, performance and commitment of young talented staff.research purpose: the study empirically investigated the relationship between an individual’s hardiness (measured by the personal views survey ii [pvs-ii]) and organisational commitment (measured by the organisational commitment scale). motivation for the study: research on an individual’s hardiness profile as an aspect of their career well-being and success and how these attributes influence their psychological attachment to the organisation, is needed to guide human resource career development support practices aimed at retaining valuable staff. research design, approach and method: a quantitative survey was conducted on a convenience sample of predominantly black (92.2%) and female (71%) employed adults (n = 355) at managerial and staff levels in the human resource management field. main findings: correlational and multiple regression analyses revealed a number of significant relationships between the two variables. practical/managerial implications: managers and human resource practitioners need to recognise how people’s hardiness relates to their sense of psychological attachment to the organisation. organisations concerned with the retention and well-being of their equity staff members need to find a way to enhance and develop their hardiness and commitment. contribution/value-add: the research contributes new insights into and knowledge of the factors that influence their employees’ hardiness and how these relate to their organisational commitment. the results may be used to inform career development support interventions that aim to increase employees’ sense of career well-being and success. introduction top ↑ key focus of the study this study focuses on how employees’ hardiness (as an aspect of their general psychological career well-being) relate to their organisational commitment. in the present turbulent times the nature of work and careers are changing constantly and at an increasing rate (sparks, faragher & cooper, 2001). heightened feelings of insecurity have led to higher stress and anxiety levels (avey, luthans, smith & palmer, 2010; meyer & maltin, 2010). organisations concerned about the retention of young talent in times of skills shortages are becoming increasingly aware of how the psychological career well-being and subjective work experiences of their high-performing staff are influencing their organisational commitment, motivation, satisfaction, performance and retention (russ & mcneilly, 1995). background to the study an employee’s psychological well-being has been identified as a predictor of risk behaviour, which in turn affects the individual’s sense of job security and career behaviour (emberland & rundmo, 2010). feelings of job insecurity are likely to trigger anxiety and stress within the individual, which might affect the ability to control and deal with challenging situations within the organisation. research indicates that developing individuals’ hardiness (i.e., their ability to deal resourcefully with challenging and demanding circumstances) may lead to higher levels of performance, a higher ability to deal proactively with stress, and may help employees to be more resilient (maddi, 2006; maddi & khoshaba, 2005). job insecurity, anxiety and stress in the workplace affect employees’ morale, performance and organisational commitment (carr, kelley, keaton & albrecht, 2011; emberland & rundmo, 2010; meyer & maltin, 2010). employees who are highly committed are less likely to leave their organisation when compared to less committed individuals (coetzee, bergh & schreuder, 2010; ferreira, basson & coetzee, 2010; mathieu & zajac, 1990). highly committed individuals might be less absent from work, perform more effectively (meyer & maltin, 2010), and be better organisational citizens (meyer, stanley, herscovitch & topolnytsky, 2002). a further trend in the world of work is that employers are concerned about the organisational commitment of their talented staff (ferreira et al., 2010). current changes, such as globalisation, fast changing technology and the changing nature of psychological contracts in career and organisational contexts are causing individuals to identify diverse goals and expectations concerning their job satisfaction (meyer & maltin, 2010). individuals are increasingly taking on a more active role as the career agent in managing their career development and satisfaction. commitment to the organisation seems to be associated directly with how people experience (positively or negatively) the manner in which they have been treated during times of change (baruch, 2006; holbeche, 1997; hughes & half, 2009). employees who are highly committed to the organisation may be better able to withstand stressors, provided that those stressors do not directly challenge their commitment, motivation and career well-being (meyer & maltin, 2010). therefore, managers or supervisors can perhaps enhance an employee’s career well-being by reinforcing positive forms of commitment and motivation. trends from the research literature the world of work is changing at a very high speed. the technological, economical and societal changes in developing economies are occurring at a faster pace than ever before, and the demand for young, talented staff (especially form previous disadvantaged groups) is increasing. attracting and retaining talented employees is an enormous challenge faced by organisations. however, employees are likely to remain with their current organisation if they have positive work experiences, feel satisfied with their job, and experience a high quality of work life (rathi, rastogi & rangnekar, 2011).employees’ experiences of subjective career success have been associated with their sense of well-being at work (coetzee & bergh, 2009; nabi, 2001; schreuder & coetzee, 2011). the concept of career well-being has been used by kidd (2008) to measure employee’s subjective career experiences as indicated by their positive and negative feelings about their careers. other researchers use more general measures of subjective well-being (including happiness and satisfaction) in the careers context (coetzee & bergh, 2009; gottfredson & duffy, 2008). in order to thrive and to survive in a continuously changing environment, organisations need employees who are in good mental and physical health. individuals’ experiences at work, be they physical, emotional, social or spiritual in nature, affect their well-being in the workplace (hart, 1999; kelloway & barling, 1991; kelloway, innes, barling, francis & turner, 2010). several studies headed by kobasa and colleagues (kobasa, maddi & kahn, 1982; kobasa & pucceti, 1983) have found that hardiness has a comparable protecting effect, as well as a moderating effect on stress that forms part of the well-being of employees. analyses of these investigations have led kobasa (1982) to propose that hardy individuals have a clear sense of direction, a dynamic approach in demanding situations, and a sense of self-belief and control that moderate the intensity of possible threats and dangers (zakin, solomon & neria, 2003) such as career uncertainty in the current and more turbulent career context. commitment to organisations seems to be directly associated with how well people feel about their psychological needs being met, being respected and recognised by organisations (hughes & half, 2009), and what their career goals look like at a specific time within the organisations (baruch, 2006; holbeche, 1997). research objective the present study focused on how individuals’ hardiness influences their psychological attachment or commitment to the organisation. by identifying the relationship between the variables, recommendations can be made for enhancing human resource career development support practices as a critical element of enhancing the career well-being of employees as an aspect of retaining key talent. potential value-add of the study this article extends research on the hardiness attributes that influence people’s psychological attachment (commitment) to their organisations. assessing whether people’s hardiness is related to their organisational commitment may provide valuable information for human resource managers and practitioners concerned with career development support practices for the enhancement of employee well-being. theory hardiness in their original work, kobasa et al. (1982) described hardiness as a collection of personality characteristics that function as a flexible resource during encounters with demanding life events. a number of researchers also adopted this definition of hardiness (breed, cilliers & visser, 2006; kobasa, 1979; kobasa et al., 1982; kobasa, maddi & zola, 1985). individuals high in hardiness tend to actively involve (commit) themselves in (to) whatever they are doing. they also believe and act as if they can influence (control) the events forming their lives, and consider change to be not only normal but also a stimulus (challenge) to development (azeem, 2010; delahaij, gailard & van dam, 2010; hystad, eid, laberg, johnsen & bartone, 2010; kobasa et al., 1985; zhang, 2010).commitment: commitment in terms of the hardiness construct refers to individuals who strongly believe in the certainty, significance, and interest value of who they are and what they are doing. hardy-committed individuals therefore show the tendency to involve themselves fully in a number of life situations, including work, family, interpersonal relationships, and social institutions (kobasa, 1987, p. 6). hardy-commitment engenders feelings of excitement along with a strong sense of community and motivation to remain engaged during difficult times (kobasa, 1982; kobasa, 1985; sheard & golby, 2007). control: control in terms of the hardiness construct refers to an enhanced motivation to engage in effortful coping because it predisposes the individual to view stressors as changeable (kobasa, 1982; maddi, 2002; maddi & kobasa, 1984). hardy individuals feel that attempting to control or change a demanding or undesirable situation (rather than fatalistically accepting the outcome) falls within their scope of personal responsibility. control enables individuals to experience many stressful life events as expected consequences of their own activities and, thereby, guide them in the right direction and appropriate manipulation of the situation (kobasa, 1982, p. 7). when faced with difficulties, individuals with high control are more likely to feel capable of acting effectively on their own. they do not merely take situations at face value: they reflect on how to change situations to their advantage (maddi & kobasa, 1984). challenge: challenge in terms of the hardiness construct refers to a zest for facing up to (or even seeking out) difficult experiences because they are seen as opportunities for personal growth rather than as potential threats to security (maddi et al., 2002). thus, individuals who expect to thrive must learn to embrace the difficulty of ‘authentic living’, drawing strength from difficulties previously faced and overcome successfully rather than looking for ways to avoid stressful events (carr et al., 2011). individuals who thrive in times of challenge are motivated to become catalysts in their environments and to practise responding to the unexpected. they explore their surroundings thoroughly in an ongoing search for new and interesting experiences. as a result, they know where to turn to for resources to aid them in coping with stress. highly challenged individuals are characterised by cognitive flexibility and tolerance for ambiguity. this allows them to integrate unexpected or otherwise stressful events more easily than their colleagues (kobasa, 1982; maddi, 1999). the combination of hardy-commitment, control and challenge constitutes existential courage and motivation within individuals. to tolerate and resolve stressful circumstances, one must see them as, (1) natural developmental pressures rather than catastrophic setbacks (challenge helps here), (2) resolvable rather than unmanageable (control helps here) and (3) worth investing in rather than to be avoided (commitment helps here). together, the three cs (commitment, control and challenge) of hardiness are very close to what existential thinkers, such as tillich (1952), meant by the ‘courage’ to be. according to maddi (2004), the stronger the three cs (commitment, control and challenge) of hardiness, the greater the signs of surviving and thriving on the catastrophic changes that might occur. this means that if an individual has the ability to control change within his or her career, he or she will survive no matter what the outcome might be. hardiness has emerged as an important stress resilience construct that has attracted a high level of continued research attention (maddi & khoshaba, 2005). organisational commitment in the context of this study, organisational commitment is defined as a psychological connection individuals have with their organisation, characterised by strong identification with the organisation and a yearning to contribute towards the accomplishment of organisational goals (meyer & allen, 1997). meyer and allen’s (1991) three-component model of organisational commitments is therefore relevant to this research. meyer and allen (1991) define organisational commitment as reflecting three aspects namely, (1) affective commitment, (2) continuance commitment and (3) normative commitment. organisational commitment therefore reflects an affective attitude to the organisation, acknowledgement of the consequences of leaving the organisations, and an ethical responsibility to stay with the organisations (meyer & allen, 1991). the concept of organisational commitment has attracted considerable interest in an attempt to understand and clarify the intensity and stability of an employee’s dedication to the organisation (mester, visser, roodt & kellerman, 2003). the level of employees’ organisational commitment will possibly ensure that they are better suited to receive both extrinsic rewards (which includes remuneration and benefits) and psychological rewards (which essentalliy includes job satisfaction and associations with fellow employees) related to associations (coetzee & bergh, 2009). organisations appreciate commitment on the part of their staff. it is generally assumed that organisational commitment reduces adandonment behaviours, which include tardiness and turnover. in addition, employees who are committed to their organisations may possibly be more willing to participate in ’extra-role’ activities, such as being creative or innovative, which frequently guarantee an organisation’s competitiveness in the market (barnett & bradley, 2007; katz & kahn, 1978). according to gbadamosi (2003), the more favourable individuals’ attitudes towards the organisation, the greater their acceptance of the goals of the organisation and their willingness to exert more efforts on behalf of the organisation. individuals who are affectively committed or dedicated at an emotional level usually remain with the organisation because they see their individual employment relationship as harmonious; they take ownership of the goals and values of the organisation. affective commitment develops because the individual identifies with the organisation and internalises the principles and standards of the organisation (beck & wilson, 2000). continuance commitment, is an ‘awareness of the costs associated with leaving the organisation’ (meyer & allen, 1997, p. 11). because individuals’ awareness or consideration of expenses and threats are linked to leaving the organisation, continuance commitment is considered to be calculative (meyer & allen, 1997). meyer and allen (1991) also indicated that individuals whose most important connection to the organisation is based on continuance commitment stay because they need to. individuals remain with a specific organisation because of the money they earn in return for the work they do, not because they want to. this differs from affective commitment where individuals remain with an organisation because they want to and because they are familiar with it and its principles. normative commitment can be explained as a sense of responsibility to continue employment with a specific organisation (meyer & allen, 1997). the internalised normative idea of responsibility and commitment allows individuals to value their continued membership of a specific organisation (allen & meyer, 1990). the normative element is seen as the commitment individuals think morally about; regarding their right to remain with a specific organisation, in spite of how much status improvement or fulfilment the organisation provides the individual over the years (march & mannari, 1977). relationship between hardiness and organisational commitment in terms of the present study, it is hypothesised that individuals with high levels of hardiness will be positively and significantly committed to organisations. several studies suggest that hardy people in general appraise stressful events differently and gravitate toward more active coping strategies. hardy individuals report events as less threatening and feel more optimistic about their ability to cope (florian, mikulincer & taubman, 1995; rhodewalt & zone, 1989). hardy people also use adaptive (transformational) controlling strategies such as problem-focused coping and support-seeking, and are less likely to use passive (regressive) controlling strategies such as emotion-focused controlling and distancing (mills, 2000; westman, 1990; wiebe, 1991). according to saks (2006), hardy individuals are likely to be committed and engaged with the people and events that surround them. sezgin (2009) also indicated hardiness as a predictor of all three components of organisational commitment. based on the preceding research findings, the following research hypothesis is made:• hypothesis 1: hardiness is significantly and positively related to an individual’s level of organisational commitment. the hypothesised theoretical relationship between hardiness (commitment, control and challenge) and organisational commitment (affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment) is illustrated in figure 1. figure 1: theoretical relationship between hardiness and organisational commitment. research design top ↑ research approach a quantitative survey design was used to achieve the research objective. research method research participants the participants were a convenience sample of 355 employed adults at managerial and staff levels who were enrolled for a human resource management programme at a distance higher education institution. the sample was predominantly black (92.2%) and female (71%). the single (54.6%) and married (37.7%) participants were mostly in their early adulthood life stage (26–40 years) (63.9%). participants were employed full-time and occupied relatively high-level positions at senior, and middle management level (14%) and staff level (76.1%) in the human resource management field. measuring instruments the personal views survey ii (pvs-ii) (maddi & kobasa, 1984) and the organisational commitment scale (ocs) (meyer & allen, 1997) were used to measure the variables of concern to this study.personal views survey ii (pvs-ii): the pvs-ii (maddi, 1987) is a self-rated multi-factorial measure for hardiness and contains 50 items and three subscales (commitment, control and challenge). a 4-point likert-type scale was used for subject responses to each of the 50 items. factor analysis by maddi (1987) confirmed the construct validity of the pvs-ii. in terms of internal consistency reliability, maddi (1987) reports the following cronbach alpha coefficients: .70 to .75 for commitment; .61 to .84 for control; .60 to .71 for challenge and .80 to .88 for total hardiness. organisational commitment scale (ocs): the organisational commitment scale (meyer & allen, 1997) is a multi-factorial measure for affective commitment (8 items), continuance commitment (9 items) and normative commitment (6 items) on a 7-point likert type scale. the following internal consistency reliability estimates (cronbach’s alphas) are reported for affective commitment (.82), continuance commitment (.74) and normative commitment (.83). studies by coetzee, schreuder and tladinyane (2007), ferreira (2009), lumley (2010) and lumley, coetzee, tladinyane and ferreira (2011) confirmed the reliability and validity of the ocs in the south african context. research procedure the participants attended a three-day study school. the questionnaires were administered in a group session to the participants and collected as soon as they had been completed. each questionnaire included a covering letter inviting subjects to participate voluntarily in the study and assuring them that their individual responses would remain confidential and be used for research purposes only. in terms of ethics, permission for the research was obtained from the institution’s research ethics committee. a total of 396 students attended the study school and a sample of 355 usable questionnaires was returned, yielding a response rate of 89.6%. statistical analysis the data analysis procedures chosen for this research were based on their applicability to the nature of the research design. the rasch analysis was used to evaluate the unidimensionality of the two scales by calculating the infit and outfit chi-square statistics to gain an indication of how well the items measured the underlying constructs. cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated to determine the internal consistency reliability of the two measures. both person and item separation indexes had to be at least 2.00 for an instrument to be regarded as useful (fox & jones, 1998). descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. pearson product-moment correlations and multiple regression analysis were performed to test the research hypothesis.although a cut-off point of p≤ .05 was set, a practical effect size of r ≥ .30 (medium effect, cohen 1992) was also considered for the correlational analyses to be able to interpret the practical significance of the findings. in terms of the multiple regression analyses, the value of adjusted r² was used to determine the proportion of the total variance of the dependent variable (ocs) that is explained by the independent variable (pvs-ii). the f-test was used to test whether there was a significant regression (p ≤ .05) between the independent and dependent variables. results top ↑ table 1 indicates the internal consistency of the measurements in terms of the item and person separation index and reliability index, person reliability in terms of cronbach’s alpha coefficients, the average measure of each dimension per person and item, as well as the infit and outfit statistics for each dimension per person and item infit and outfit statistics for each dimension. table 1: person and item reliability: personal views survey ii and organisational commitment scale. table 1 shows acceptable item reliability for all the dimensions, indicating that these items differentiated well amongst the measured variables (equal to or greater than .80). the item separation for all the dimensions were sufficient compared to the guideline of at least 2.00 as indicated by fox and jones (1998). the person separation index for all the dimensions were somewhat lower than the proposed guideline (> 2.00). cronbach’s alpha coefficients for all the dimensions were acceptable, except for challenge (.59) and affective commitment (.56) that were somewhat lower than the cut-off point of 0.70. the commitment dimension shows the highest person average measure (-.95, sd = .74) and the normative commitment dimension the lowest average measure (.00, sd = .15). the mean item fit and person fit were acceptable. it is evident that, on average, the responses do not underfit or overfit. overall, the two measuring instruments were regarded as useful and reliable in interpreting the results.means and standard deviations for the pvs-ii and ocs variables are shown in table 2. participants obtained the highest mean scores on the pvs-ii challenge variable (m = 3.43; sd = 5.71) and the lowest means core on the control (m = 2.59; sd = 6.47) and commitment (m = 2.31; sd = 6.46) variables. in terms of the ocs, the participants obtained the highest mean scores on continuance commitment variable (m = 4.76; sd = 9.92) and the lowest mean scores on the affective (m = 4.71; sd = 7.28) and normative commitment variables (m = 4.70; sd = 7.55). kurtosis coefficients fell within the normality range, ranging between -.09 and .68. similarly, the skewness coefficients fell within the normality range, ranging between -.19 and .52. table 2: descriptive statistics: personal views survey ii and organisational commitment scale. hypothesis testing hypothesis 1 was analysed by firstly performing pearson product-moment correlations and secondly, by conducting standard multiple regression. correlational statistics pearson’s product-moment correlations are indicated in table 3. with the exception of the pvs-ii challenge variable and ocs normative commitment variable, all the pvs-ii and ocs variables showed significant positive relationships, ranging between r = .11 and .25 (p ≤ .05; r ≤ .30, small practical effect size). table 3: pearson-product moment correlations: personal views survey ii and organisational commitment scale. table 3 shows a significant positive relationship between all three hardiness variables; commitment (r = .20; p ≤ .05 small effect), control (r = .15; small effect; p ≤ .05) and challenge (r = .17; small effect p ≤ .05) and affective commitment. in terms of the hardiness variables, commitment (r = .22; small effect; p ≤ .05), control (r = .25; small effect; p ≤ .05) and challenge (r = .18; small effect; p ≤ .05) relates significantly and positively with continuance commitment. the hardiness variables commitment (r = .11; small effect; p ≤ .05) and control (r = .14; small effect; p ≤ .05) showed a significant and positive relationship with normative commitment. no other significant associations were identified between the challenge and the normative commitment. multiple regression analysis: personal views survey ii and organisational commitment scale multiple regressions are indicated in table 4. table 4: multiple regression analyses: personal views survey ii and organisational commitment scale. table 4 shows that the regression of the pvs-ii variables upon the ocs affective commitment variable produced a statistically significant model (f[264.97; 51.19] = 5.18; p ≤ .001), accounting for r² = 3% (small practical effect) of the variance in the affective commitment variable. only the pvs-ii commitment variable significantly and positively predicted the ocs affective commitment variable (ß = .16; p ≤ .00). the pvs-ii variables regressed upon the ocs continuance commitment variable produced a statistically significant model (f[822.05; 92.21] = 8.92; p ≤ .001), accounting r² = for 6% (small practical effect) of the variance in the continuance commitment variable. only the pvs ii challenge (ß = .19; p ≤ .00) variable significantly and positively predicted the ocs continuance commitment variable. the pvs-ii variables regressed upon the ocs normative commitment variable produced a statistically significant model (f[148.50; 56.21] = 2.64; p ≤ .001), accounting for r² = 1% (small practical effect) of the variance in the normative commitment variable. again, only the pvs-ii challenge variable (ß = .13; p ≤ .00) significantly and positively predicted the ocs normative commitment variable. in this regard, the correlation and regression results provided support for the research hypothesis (hypothesis 1) that a significant and positive relationship exists between hardiness and organisational commitment. ethical considerations top ↑ the procedures followed in the research adhered to all the ethical requirements that are necessary to ensure ethical responsibility.permission to conduct the research was obtained through the department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa. to ensure that the researcher meets the ethical requirements, the following ethical principles were adhered to: • research was conducted within recognised parameters. • approval was obtained from the host institution. • both classical and recent resources were used to analyse and describe the concepts. • experts in the field of research were consulted to ensure a scientific research process. • all the resources used were quoted. • informed agreement was obtained from participants. ethical and employment equity issues have been taken into consideration. anonymity of the participants has been ensured both during the data collection and analyses of data. the employment equity act (no 55 of 1998), requires all psychological tests and other similar assessments to be valid, reliable, fair, as well as not biased against any employee or any specific group of employees. in order to comply with legislation, care was taken in the choice and administration of the psychometric battery. the validity of items were evaluated, a reliable process was followed during data collection and data was analysed, reported and interpreted in a valid, reliable, fair and unbaised manner. trustworthiness top ↑ reliability reliability was ensured by structuring the research model in order to limit the nuisance variables. the research context was respected at all times. the reliability of a literature review is ensured when other interested academics have access to the literature sources and the theoretical views in the literature.reliability of the empirical research is ensured when a truly representative sample is used. in this research, confounding variables were minimised through the sampling procedure and by including instruments of which the reliability has been proven through previous research. validity validity was ensured through the use of appropriate and standardised measuring instruments. the measuring instruments were critically examined for their criterion-related validity (to ensure accurate prediction of scores on the relevant criterion), content validity and construct validity (the extent to which the measuring instruments measure the theoretical constructs they purport to measure). discussion top ↑ the study explored the relationship between individuals’ hardiness and their organisational commitment. the correlational and multiple regression analyses indicated a number of significant and positive relationships between the variables, which provide valuable pointers about the relationship between the variables. overall, the results suggest that participants who experience a sense of control and feel that they are able to handle challenges (hardiness) seem to have a higher level of organisational commitment. the significant relationships observed between the hardy-commitment and affective, continuance and normative commitment components suggest that participants who feel they are highly committed and involved in their doings seem to feel a much stronger emotional bond with the organisation. these participants also appear to feel a high sense of obligation to remain employed in their current organisation. these findings are in agreement with those of sezgin (2009) who found hardiness as a significant predictor of all three components of organisational commitment. the significant relationships between the hardiness variable control and affective-, continuanceand normative commitment components of organisational commitment suggest that participants who are effectively coping with stress (control), are actively involved in their organisation (hardy-commitment) and view change as a tool for their development and growth (challenge), seem more likely to be emotionally attached (affectively committed) to their organistion. these findings are in agreement with maddi, harvey, khoshaba, fazel and resurreccion (2009) and sezgin (2009) who indicate that individuals who are high in hardiness are more likely to experience organisational commitment because they may feel more in control and are actively involved in their organisations, which in turn may ensure that they remain with the organisation. similarly, the significant relationship observed between the hardiness variable challenge and affective and continuance commitment suggests that the participants who face up to difficult experiences because they see them as opportunities for personal growth rather than as potential threats to security, are more likely to be committed to the organisation. moreover, the findings also suggest that those participants who thrive on challenge are motivated to become catalysts in their environment and these participants may be more likely to remain with their current organisation because they regard the costs of leaving the organisation as too high. these findings are in agreement with the findings of kobasa (1982) and maddi (1999), which indicated that high challenged individuals are characterised by cognitive flexibility and a tolerance for ambiguity. the participants were predominantly in the entry and establishment phases of their careers, during which the life structure of young adults become a more stable period as they begin to settle down (super, 1990). individuals also become committed to contribute towards an occupation, a company or a person and start to establish socially supportive networks (greenhaus, callanan & godshalk, 2010). the contention that the young adults’ need for developing expertise to change stressful or challenges into opportunities, rather than venturing out toward new and different organisational contexts, seems to be higher during these particular life stages (coetzee & schreuder, 2009). this may offer an explanation for the participants’ strong sense of affective-, continuanceand normative commitment. as individuals in the early adulthood phase (entry and establishment life or career stages) become more oriented to the importance of work in their lives and learn how to balance job demands with their own needs (super, 1990), they generally find the work role becoming increasingly salient (savickas, 2005). in addition, as shown by the results of the present study, their emotional attachment to the organisation also seems to be stronger. the overall findings of the study add to the employee well-being literature by shedding new light on how hardiness in the human resource management environment relates to their levels of organisational commitment. in practical terms, the new knowledge gained from observing the relationship between hardiness and organisational commitment of the participants may be useful as the study focuses specifically on the south african organisational context. conclusion the findings of this study have implications for managers and human resource practitioners who are responsible for providing career development support, especially in an employee well-being and subjective work experience context. the findings confirm the need to assess the hardiness of employees, as the notion of developing an employees’ hardiness seem to provide valuable information regarding their commitment, control and challenge attributes, which significantly and positively influence their affective-, continuanceand normative commitment. individuals who are exposed to positive career experiences will tend to be much more committed towards the organisation (maddi, 2006). according to sheard (2009), highly motivated (hardy-commitment) individuals get involved rather than withdraw when situations become stressful, seeing this as the best way to turn their environments and whatever they are experiencing into something that seems interesting, worthwhile, and important. hardy individuals control their experiences of events in terms of what they choose to do and how they choose to respond (maddi, 2006). individuals high in hardy-challenge believe that their lives are improved by means of growth through learning that ease comfort and security (maddi, 2006). such individuals may tend to remain with their current organisations seeing that they change their environments and situations to be positive experiences; this in turn will have a positive effect on the well-being of employees. the findings also highlight the need for further research into the relationship between working adults’ hardiness and their organisational commitment, as the percentage variance explained by the prediction model was relatively small in terms of practical effect. however, the practical value of the findings lies in the new knowledge gained with regard to the relationship between the hardiness variables and the factors highlighted as contributing to employees’ psychological attachment to the organisation. the statistics further confirmed that both the measures are useful and reliable within the south african context. since the present study has been limited to participants predominantly employed in the human resources management field in the south african organisational context, the findings cannot be generalised to other occupational contexts, race or gender groups. furthermore, given the exploratory nature of the research design, this study can yield no statements about causation. associations between the variables have thus been interpreted rather than established. these findings therefore need to be replicated with broader samples across various occupational groups and economic sectors before more comprehensive conclusions can be drawn about the relationship between employees’ hardiness and their organisational commitment. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the author declares that she has no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this paper. references top ↑ allen, n., & meyer, j. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organisations. journal of occupational psychology, 63, 1–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.xavey, j., luthans, f., smith, r., & palmer, n. (2010). impact of positive psychological capital on employee well-being over time. journal of occupational health psychology, 15(1), 17–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0016998, pmid:20063956 azeem, s. (2010). personality hardiness, job involvement and job burnout among teachers. international journal of vocational and technical education, 2(3), 36–40. barnett, b., & bradley, l. (2007). the impact of organisational support for career development on career satisfaction. career development international, 12(7), 617–636. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430710834396 baruch, y. (2006). career development in organisations and beyond: balancing traditional and contemporary viewpoints. human resource management review, 16, 125–138. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2006.03.002 beck, n., & wilson, j. (2000). development of affcetive organizational commitment: a cross-sequental examinations of change with tenure. journal of vocational behaviour, 56, 114–136. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1999.1712 breed, m., cilliers, f., & visser, d. (2006). the factor structure of six salutogenic constructs. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 32(1), 74–87. carr, j., kelley, b., keaton, r., & albrecht, c. (2011). getting to grips with stress in the workplace. human resource mangement international digest, 19(4), 32–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09670731111140748 coetzee, m., & bergh, z. (2009). psychological career resources and subjective work experiences of working adults: an exploratory study. sa business review, 13(2), 1–31. coetzee, m., & schreuder, d. (2009). psychological career resources as predictors of working adults’ career anchors: an exploratory study. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 35(1), 1–11. coetzee, m., bergh, z., & schreuder, a. (2010). subjective work experiences: exploring the influence of career orientations, psychological career resources and factors of job/career satisfaction/dissatisfaction. unpublished research report, department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa. coetzee, m., schreuder, d., & tladinyane, r. (2007). career anchors and its relation to organisational commitment. southern african business review, 11(1), 65–86. cohen, j. (1992). statistical power analysis for the behavioural sciences. (2nd edn.). orlando, fl: academic press. delahaij, r., gaillard, a., & van dam, k., (2010). hardiness and the response to stressful situations: investigating mediating processes. journal of personality and individual differences, 49, 386–390. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.04.002 emberland, j., & rundmo, t. (2010). implications of job insecurity perceptions and job insecurity responses for psychological wel-being, turnover intentions and reported risk behavior. safety science, 48, 452–459. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2009.12.002 ferreira, n. (2009). the relationship between psychological career resources and organisational commitment. unpublished master’s thesis, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. ferreira, n., basson, j., & coetzee, m. (2010). psychological career resources in relation to organisational commitment: an exploratory study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), 1–9. florian, v., mikulincer, m., & taubman, o. (1995). does hardiness contribute to mental health during a stressful real-life situation? the roles of appraisal and coping. journal of personality and social psychology, 68(4), 687–695. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.68.4.687, pmid:7738771 fox, c., & jones, j. (1998). uses of the rasch modeling in counceling psychology research. journal of counseling psychology, 45(1), 30–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.45.1.30 gbadamosi, g. (2003). hrm and the commitment rethoric. challenges for africa. management decision, 41(3), 274–280. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ 00251740310475218 gottfredson, g., & duffy, r. (2008). using a theory of vocational personalities and work environments to explore subjective well-being. journal of career assessment, 16(1), 44–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072707309609 greenhaus, j., callanan, g., & godshalk. (2010). career management. new york: harcourt college publishers. hart, p. (1999). predicting employee life satisfaction: a coherent model of personality, work and non-work experiences and domain satisfaction. journal of applied psychology, 84, 564–584. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.84.4.564 holbeche, l. (1997). career development: the impact of flatter structures on careers. great britian: butterworth-heinemann. hughes, l., & half, r. (2009). the war of talent. retrieved may 14, 2009, from http://www.globalexpertbase.com/wp-8-212.html hystad, s., eid, j., laberg, j., johnsen, b., & bartone, p. (2010). academic stress and health: exploring the moderating role of personality hardiness. scandinavian journal of educational research, 53, 421–429. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00313830903180349 katz, d., & kahn, r. (1978). the social psychology of organizations. (2nd edn.). new york: wiley. kelloway, e., & barling, j. (1991). job characteristics, role stress and mental health. journal of occupational psychology, 64, 291–304. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1991.tb00561.x kelloway, e., innes, m., barling, j., francis, l., & turner, n. (2010). loving one’s job: construct development and implications for individual well-being. research in occupational stress and well being, 8, 109–136. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/s1479-3555(2010)0000008006 kidd, j. (2008). exploring components of career well-being and the emotions associated with significant career experiences. journal of career development, 35(2), 166–186. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0894845308325647 kobasa, s. (1979). personality and resistance to illness. american journal of community psychology, 7(4), 413–423. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf00894383, pmid:495583 kobasa, s. (1982). the hardy personality: toward a social psychology of stress and health. in g.s. sanders & j. suls (eds.), social psychology of healh and illness, (pp. 214–219). hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. kobasa, s. (1987). stress responses and personality. in r.c. barnette & l. biener (eds.), gender and stress, (n.p.). new york: the free press. kobasa, s. (1985). barriers to work stress ii: the hardy personality. in w.d. gentry, h. benson & c.j. de wolff (eds.), behavioural medicine: work stress and health, (pp. 181–204). dordrecht/boston/lancaster: martinus nijhoff publishers. kobasa, s., & puccetti, m. (1983). personality and social resources in stress resistance. journal of personality and social psychology, 45(4), 839–850. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.45.4.839, pmid:6631665 kobasa, s., maddi, s., & kahn, s. (1982). hardiness and health: a prospective study. jorunal of personality and social psychology, 42, 168–177. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.42.1.168, pmid:7057354 kobasa, s., maddi, s., & zola, m. (1985). type a and hardiness. journal of behvaioural medicine, 6(1), 41–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf00845275, pmid:6876154 lumley, e. (2010). the relationship between career anchors, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. master’s dissertation, department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa. lumley, e., coetzee, m., tladinyane, e., & ferreira, n. (2011). exploring the job satisfaction and organisational commitment of employees in the information technology environment. southern arican business review, 15(1), 100–118. maddi, s. (1987). hardiness training at illinois bell telephone. in j.p. opatz (ed.), health promotion evaluation: measuring the organizational impact, (pp 101–115). stevens point, wi: national wellness institute. maddi, s. (1999). the personality construct of hardiness i: effect on experiencing, coping, and strain. consulting psychology journal, 51(2), 83–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1061-4087.51.2.83 maddi, s. (2002). the story of hardiness: twenty years if theorizing, research, and practice. conculting psychology journal: practice and research, 54(3), 175–185. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1061-4087.54.3.173 maddi, s. (2004). hardiness: an operationalisation of existential courage. journal of humanistic psychology, 44(3), 279–298. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/ 0022167804266101 maddi, s. (2006). hardiness: the courage to grow from stresses. journal of positive psychology, 1, 160–168. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439760600619609 maddi, s., & khoshaba, d. (2005). relicience at work. new york: amacom. maddi, s., & kobasa, s. (1984). the hardy executive: health under stress. chicago, il: dorsey professional books. maddi, s., harvey, r., khoshaba, d., fazel, m., & resurreccion, n. (2009). the personality construct of hardiness, iv: explressed in positive cognitions and emotions concerning oneself and developmentally relavant activities. journal of humanistic psychology, 49(3), 292–305. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022167809331860 maddi, s., khoshaba, d., persico, m., lu, j., harvey, r., & bleecker, f. (2002). the personality contruct of hardines ii: relationships with comprehensive tests of personality and psychopathology. journal of research in personality, 36, 72–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jrpe.2001.2337 march, r., & mannari, h. (1977). organisational commitment and turnover: a prediction study. administrative science quarterly, 22, 57–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2391746 mathieu, j., & zajac, d. (1990). a review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates and consequences of organisational commitment. psychological bulletin, 108(2), 171–194. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.108.2.171 mester, c., visser, d., roodt, g., & kellerman, r. (2003). leadership style and its relation to employee attitudes and behaviour. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 29(2), 72–82. meyer, j., & allen, n. (1991). a three component conceptialization of organisational commitment. human resource management review, 1, 61–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/1053-4822(91)90011-z meyer, j., & allen, n. (1997). commitment in the wokrplace, theory, reserach and application. california: sage. meyer, j., & maltin, e. (2010). employee commitment and well-being: a critical review, theoretical framework and research agenda. journal of vocational behaviour, 77, 323–337. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2010.04.007 meyer, j., stanley, d., herscovitch, l., & topolnytsky, l. (2002). affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization: a meta-analysis of antecendents, correlates, and consequences. journal of vocational behavior, 61, 20–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2001.1842 mills, l. (2000). evaluation of a model of hardiness and health using meta-analysis and path analysis. unpublished dissertation, university of tulsa, oklahoma, usa. nabi, g. (2001). the relationship between hrm, social support and subjective career success among men and women. international journal of manpower, 22(5), 457–474. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/eum0000000005850 rathi, n., rastogi, r., & rangnekar, d. (2011). quality of work life, organisational commitment, and psychological well-being. a study of the indian employees. international journal of contemporary business studies, 2(4), 2156–7506. rhodewalt, f., & zone, j. (1989). appraisal of life changem depression, and illness in hardy and nonhardy women. journal of personality and social psychology, 56(1), 81–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.56.1.81, pmid:2926618 russ, f., & mcneilly, k. (1995). links among satisfaction, commitment and turnover intentions: the moderating effect of experience, gender and performance. journal of business research, 513, 57–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0148-2963(94)00042-d saks, a. (2006). antecendents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ 02683940610690169 savickas, m. (2005). the theory and practice of career construction. in s.d. brown & r.w. lent (eds). career development and counseling, (pp. 101–108). hoboken, new jersey: john wiley & sons, inc. schreuder, a., & coetzee, m. (2011). careers: an organisational perspective. (4th edn.). cape town: juta. sezgin, f. (2009). relationship between teacher organisatinal commitment, psychological hardiness and some demographic variables in turkish primary schools. journal of educational administration, 47(5), 630–651. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09578230910981099 sheard, m. (2009). hardiness commitment, gender, and age differentiate university adacemic performance. british journal of educational psychology, 79, 189–204. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/000709908x304406, pmid:18466672 sheard, m., & golby, j. (2007). hardiness and undergraduate academic study: the moderating role of commitment. personality and individual differences, 43, 579–588. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2007.01.006 sparks, k., faragher, b., & cooper, c. (2001). well-being and occupational health in the 21st century workplace. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 74(4), 489–509. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317901167497 super, d. (1990). a life-span approach to career development. in d. brown (ed.). (2007). career information, career counselling and career development. ( 9th edn.). united states of america: pearson. tillich, p. (1952). the courage to be. new haven, ct: yale university press. westman, m. (1990). the relationship between stress and performance: the moderating effect of hardiness. human performance, 3(3), 141–155. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup0303_1 wiebe, d. (1991). hardiness and stress moderation: a test of proposed mechanisms. journal of personality and social psychology, 60(1), 89–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.60.1.89, pmid:1995836 zakin, g., solomon, z., & neria, y. (2003). hardiness, attachment stryle, and long term psychological distress among israeli pows and combat veterans. journal of personality and individual differences, 34, 819–829. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0191-8869(02)00073-9 zhang, l. (2010). hardiness and the big five personality traits among chinese university students. journal of learning and individual differences, 1–5. article information author: leon t. de beer1 affiliations: 1workwell: research unit for economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom campus, south africa correspondence to: leon de beer postal address: private bag x6001, potchefstroom 2520, south africa dates: received: 29 mar. 2014 accepted: 18 july 2014 published: 29 oct. 2014 how to cite this article: de beer, l.t. (2014). the effect of presenteeism-related health conditions on employee work engagement levels: a comparison between groups. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12 (1), art. #640, 8 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.640 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the effect of presenteeism-related health conditions on employee work engagement levels: a comparison between groups in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • overview of the literature       • operationalising presenteeism terminology       • operationalising work engagement       • measuring presenteeism and productivity       • back pain, productivity and costs       • allergic rhinitis (hay fever), productivity and costs       • muscle aches and pains (musculoskeletal issues), productivity and costs       • the present study • method    • research approach       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • statistical analysis • results • discussion    • outline of the results    • practical implications    • limitations and recommendations    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests • references abstract top ↑ orientation: awareness of presenteeism-related health conditions is important as the prevalence of these conditions unknowingly influences performance and productivity in organisations.research purpose: the primary objective of this study was to determine the differences in work engagement levels based on groups of presenteeism-related conditions in employees. motivation for the study: awareness of the impact of presenteeism-related conditions on work engagement levels can aid in the crafting of interventions to assist employees who suffer from these conditions, which in turn can boost work engagement levels. research design, approach and method: cross-sectional data was collected from an availability sample of employees in the manufacturing sector (n = 3387). main findings: the results of the multi-group structural equation modelling revealed significant mean differences in work engagement levels between the groups. practical significance tests revealed significant differences between all the groups. the largest difference was between the group who suffered from no presenteeism-related conditions and the group who suffered from all three conditions included in this study concurrently. practical/managerial implications: organisational stakeholders are encouraged to take note of the effects that presenteeism-related health conditions have on work engagement and to consider relevant strategies and interventions to address and alleviate symptoms in order to tend to employee health and obviate the effect on productivity. contribution: this study found that there were clear practical differences between employees who suffer from the presenteeism-related conditions and those who suffer from none of the conditions. furthermore, there was also a clear difference when comparing the ‘no condition’ group to a general random sample in which employees might experience some symptoms but not comorbidity. introduction top ↑ the global economy is still recovering from the recession of 2008. locally, this recovery has been impeded by inter alia labour unrest through unionised strikes, both legal and illegal. due to the slower recovery in south africa, job forecasts have not been as optimistic as they should be and work opportunities are still scarce. given the financial pressure that the everyday person faces, it is not a stretch of the imagination to consider that people could be present at work, but due to injury or various conditions (be they chronic or otherwise) they are not as productive as they could be. several reasons could be postulated for this behaviour, for example the employee is paid by the hour and does not earn otherwise (böckerman & laukkanen, 2010), the employee wants to be a good soldier and be available at work (peterson, 2004), the condition is chronic and will remain a bane whether at home or at work, the employee wants to avoid any possibility of being identified for retrenchment (dekker & schaufeli, 1995; turnbull & wass, 2000), general work pressure (overload or deadlines), and so forth. this act of being present at work but being less productive has been coined ‘presenteeism’ (dew, keefe & small, 2005; johns, 2010). presenteeism differs from absenteeism. when absent, the supervisor or employer knows that the employee is not at work and not working, but in the case of presenteeism, the employee is at work but productivity is affected; this is obviously harder to gauge by the organisation.work engagement is an important organisational concept and is connected to productivity and commitment (bakker & demerouti, 2008; bakker, demerouti & sanz-vergel, 2014; schaufeli & bakker, 2004). it is important from both an organisational and academic perspective that factors that affect work engagement negatively be identified and mitigated. bakker and leiter (2010) indicate that engaged employees report good health and perform well. a healthy work force is a productive work force and organisations have become more attuned to the idea that employee well-being is important for organisational performance, as health and productivity are implicitly entwined (loeppke et al., 2009). it is therefore expected that employees with high work engagement levels would report lower presenteeism-related health conditions as they experience less discomfort and distraction due to the absence of conditions. consequently, there may be important intervention strategies that can be applied by the organisation in order to help offset the influence that presenteeism-related health conditions have on work engagement levels; this will have a triple effect: (1) employee assistance (the moral case), (2) improving desired organisational outcomes (the business case) and (3) occupational health and safety regulations (the legal case). even though presenteeism is not a new concept, research regarding it is relatively sparse (johns, 2010) and even more so within the south african context. studies have found that the financial effect of presenteeism can be estimated to be above and beyond that of normal absenteeism productivity loss for employers (stewart, ricci, chee & morganstein, 2003), yet many organisations remain oblivious to its unseen impact. overview of the literature operationalising presenteeism terminology even though the vast majority of research presents presenteeism as being related to reduced productivity due to health impairment, for example allergies and arthritis (hemp, 2004; schultz & edington, 2007), depression (pilette, 2005) or obesity (gates, succop, brehm, gillespie & sommers, 2008), it is important to mention that other researchers have postulated that there should be no difference in terminology for those impaired by health conditions and others who are inter alia bored, distracted, under-challenged or over-challenged at work, but who do not suffer from any of these health-related conditions as these employees are also present at work but not being productive (cf. d’abate & eddy, 2007; schultz, chen & edington, 2009). with regard to the latter, distinctions have been made in that health-related presenteeism has been referred to as ‘impaired presenteeism’ (for health-related presenteeism) and the other type of presenteeism that is not due to health-related impairment, but is more related to motivational aspects such as boredom, distraction or challenge, is termed ‘motivational presenteeism’ or ‘disengagement presenteeism’ (rothmann & rothmann, 2007). however, all of these conceptualisations remain under the banner of presenteeism, globally. these are apt operational distinctions for researchers and practitioners in this area of research to distinguish between these two presenteeism-related concepts. operationalising work engagement work engagement is classically defined as a ‘positive, work-related state of mind in employees characterised by vigour, dedication, and absorption’ (schaufeli, salanova, gonzález-romá & bakker, 2002, p. 74). however, later research (schaufeli & bakker, 2004) has shown that the core components of work engagement need only to be considered as vigour (an energy component) and dedication (an attitude component); absorption follows as a result of being engaged at work (cf. langelaan, 2007). vigour is characterised by high levels of energy and mental resilience whilst working and dedication by enthusiasm, inspiration, pride and challenge in one’s job (bakker & demerouti, 2008; schaufeli & bakker, 2004, 2010). recent local research (de beer, rothmann & pienaar, 2012; de bruin & henn, 2013; de bruin, hill, henn & muller, 2013) has argued successfully for and operationalised work engagement as a one-factor model, consisting of, at least, vigour and dedication items. therefore, this study also operationalised work engagement as a one-factor model, that is, a one-factor latent variable. measuring presenteeism and productivity there have been important debates surrounding the measurement of presenteeism and also of productivity for research purposes (e.g. goetzel et al., 2004; ozminkowski, goetzel, chang & long, 2004), mainly due to the subjective nature of such ratings when employees rate themselves. some researchers have used objective measures of productivity (e.g. number of calls made or received) (burton, conti, chen, schultz & edington, 2001) to attempt to overcome subjective perceptions by employees when they are rating themselves in a self-report survey. the current study was designed to adopt a novel approach in order to attempt to leapfrog the productivity and presenteeism measurement debate: work engagement was measured as this has been shown to be one of the most important indicators of employee motivation and sustained productivity (richard, 2009). additionally, various other desired organisational outcomes are attributed to engagement (e.g. increased commitment and reduced turnover intention) (bakker et al., 2014; de beer et al., 2012). therefore, the impact of presenteeism on work engagement levels is equally important, if not perhaps more important due to the potential consequences the discomfort and pain of these conditions may have on work engagement level and consequent productivity. three prevalent impaired presenteeism-related conditions were selected as indicators of presenteeism at work. thus, presenteeism was also not measured directly with a self-report measure, but by three physical self-reported indicators that have been shown to be connected to it: back pain, hay fever and musculoskeletal issues (muscle aches and joint pains). back pain, productivity and costs over a period of one year, the prevalence of back pain in germany had been estimated at 70%; this has major economic implications (wenig, schmidt, kohlmann & schweikert, 2009). a similar situation was found in the united states and internationally (dagenais, caro & haldeman, 2008). back pain has also been systematically reviewed in africa (including south africa) and its occurrence has been found to be on the rise as the average lifetime prevalence amongst adults in africa was found to be 62%, which is more than one in every two adults (cf. louw, morris & grimmer-somers, 2007). katz (2006) found that the costs associated with back pain, specifically lower back pain, can be estimated at between $100 and $200 million per annum; two-thirds of this cost is due to impacted wages and diminished productivity (cf. freburger et al., 2009). therefore, it is obvious that back pain is a prevalent presenteeism-related condition that affects productivity, costs and profits. allergic rhinitis (hay fever), productivity and costs allergic rhinitis has been found to be associated with large direct (e.g. medical) and indirect (e.g. absenteeism) costs and therefore also with lost productivity at work (malone, lawson, smith, arrighi & battista, 1997). by means of objective indicators (e.g. time spent on calls in call centres), it has been found that allergy sufferers’ productivity dropped by 7% when compared to co-workers who were not suffering during peak pollen season (hemp, 2004). hay fever is therefore considered to be an important cause of presenteeism at work and its range of symptoms can be identified inter alia by itching noses, sneezing and congestion (cf. hemp, 2004). in terms of work time lost, employees have reported that 2.3 hours per day are spent being unproductive due to symptoms (lamb et al., 2006). lamb et al. (2006) also found in the united states that, in terms of cost, the mean total productivity loss for employees due to absenteeism and presenteeism was pegged at $593 (r5930 at an exchange rate of r10.00 per $1) per employee per year due to hay fever. hay fever therefore has a definite effect on productivity and organisational profits. muscle aches and pains (musculoskeletal issues), productivity and costs research by the european agency for safety and health at work (eu-osha) found that the most prevalent work-related health problem was musculoskeletal disorders (cf. collins & o’sullivan, 2010). musculoskeletal disorders include ‘a wide range of inflammatory and degenerative conditions affecting the muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints, peripheral nerves, and supporting blood vessels’ (punnett & wegman, 2004, p. 13). typical everyday symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders are, inter alia, neck and shoulder pain, hand, wrist and elbow pain, ankle and foot pain and hip pain (osborne et al., 2010). moreover, in a swedish sample of information technology workers, the mean score for lost time (totalled monthly) for individuals who suffered from musculoskeletal issues was found to be 17 hours (hagberg, wigaeus-tornqvist & toomingas, 2002). this is almost equivalent to three full normal working days per month, which can be considered a significant effect on organisational productivity.concerning the economic impact of musculoskeletal disorders, it was found in canada in 1994 that the total cost can be estimated at 3.4% of the gross domestic product (gdp) (cad$25.6 billion) (cf. coyte, asche, croxford & chan, 1998). furthermore, in the united states, the total cost was set at around 0.9% of the gdp at $240 bn, which included indirect costs (e.g. decreased labour force participation rate) of $98 bn (yelin, 2003). in a recent south african study (naidoo, kromhout, london, naidoo & burdorf, 2009), it has been found in a sample of female workers that the incidence of musculoskeletal pain was similar to the incidence of the problem in developing countries, but that it was much higher compared to the situation in developed countries. thus, even though no cost data was found for south africa, it can be expected that musculoskeletal issues would also have significant economic effects in this context. the present study the present study focused on impaired presenteeism (health related) and how it affected work engagement levels, that is, the way work engagement levels might differ between a group of employees with the comorbidity of the conditions (i.e. they report that they do suffer from back pain, hay fever and musculoskeletal problems), a group suffering none of the conditions and a general (random) employee group (see method section below for more detail).given the present literature on impaired presenteeism, the expectation was that as impaired presenteeism symptoms and conditions increase that work engagement levels will decrease. the main research question for this study was therefore whether there was a significant difference in work engagement level between employees who experience none of the impaired presenteeism-related conditions, some of the impaired presenteeism-related conditions and all of the impaired presenteeism-related symptoms under investigation concurrently. the rest of the article is structured as follows: a description of the research design (approach, method, procedures and statistical analysis). results are then presented and discussed, also in the context of literature, and finally implications and recommendations for future research are proposed. method top ↑ research approach a cross-sectional survey design was used in this study. cross-sectional designs provide for the collection of data at a single point in time, after which the data is examined to discover patterns of association (bryman & bell, 2003). this design was thus deemed appropriate for the purposes of this study in order to reach its objectives. research participants a random sample of employees from the manufacturing industry was collected. the mean age of participants was 37 (sd = 12). the majority of participants were male (2230; 65.8%), with female participants making up 34.2% (1160) of the sample, a ratio of almost two to one. this sample makeup was not necessarily unexpected as the participants were from the manufacturing sector. the ethnic composition of the sample comprised black people (1146; 33.8%) and white people (1758; 51.9%). in terms of marital status, 762 (22.5%) participants were single, 66 (2.0%) participants were engaged, 2379 (70.2%) participants were married, 158 (4.7%) participants were divorced and the remaining participants were widowed (25; 0.6%). regarding the 3-month prevalence of the presenteeism-related health conditions in the sample, the following was evident: participants who indicated that they suffered from back pain numbered 902 (26.6%), sufferers of hay fever numbered 812 (24.0%) and sufferers of musculoskeletal conditions (muscle aches and pains) numbered 968 (28.6%).participants were assigned to one of three possible groups: a comorbid group (n = 366; more than 10% of the sample) in which participants indicated that they suffered from hay fever, back pain and musculoskeletal issues during the previous 3 months, labelled the ‘condition’ group. the second group included all the participants who did not report suffering any of the aforementioned conditions during the previous 3 months, labelled the ‘no condition’ group (n = 1238). lastly, the third group, labelled the ‘random’ group (n = 1786), was created to compare with the two groups. this latter group constituted the remaining participants who may have suffered from a condition during the previous 3 months. measuring instruments the south african employee health and wellness survey (saehws) (de beer et al., 2012; rothmann & rothmann, 2007) was used to measure all the aspects of this study (biographical information, presenteeism and work engagement):• biographical information: standard biographical questions were used to capture the age, gender and home language of each of the participants. • presenteeism-related conditions: hay fever (allergic rhinitis), back pain and musculoskeletal problems (muscle aches and joint pains) were measured by simply asking participants whether they were suffering from the condition or not on a yes or no scale: ‘over the last 3 months, have you experienced any of the following conditions?’ work engagement: this was measured by eight items (four vigour items and four dedication items) on a seven-point likert-type scale (never – 0 to always – 6). an example of a vigour item was ‘i am full of energy in my work’ and an example of a dedication item was ‘i am dedicated to my work’. reliability indicators from previous studies have shown acceptable values for this scale (e.g.  = 0.89; de beer, pienaar & rothmann, 2013; de beer et al., 2012). statistical analysis latent variable modelling methods were implemented with mplus 7.11 (muthén & muthén, 2013). a measurement model for work engagement was specified within a multi-group analysis framework with the maximum likelihood estimator. the individual items were the observed variables used to estimate a latent variable for work engagement; no item parcelling or sum scores were used. as per the guidelines discussed in van de schoot, lugtig, and hox (2012), model fit was considered with the following fit indices: comparative fit index (cfi; acceptable values between 0.90 and 0.99), tucker-lewis index (tli; acceptable values between 0.90 and 0.99) and root mean square error of approximation (rmsea; acceptable values between 0.01 and 0.08). furthermore, the measurement model output also contained variances and mean scores for all groups on the estimated work engagement latent variable. as means are being compared between groups, a test for measurement invariance was necessitated as a good practice guideline; standard deviations could be calculated (square root of each variance), which enabled the calculation of effect sizes for the mean difference comparison on work engagement levels in the various groups via cohen’s d with confidence intervals at the 95% level. cohen’s d was interpreted in the following manner: values equal to or greater than 0.20 for a small practical effect, values greater than or equal to 0.50 for a medium practical effect and values greater than or equal to 0.80 for a large practical effect (cohen, 1988). however, these values can be difficult to interpret for readers who are not familiar with quantitative approaches. therefore, cohen’s u3 values were also calculated, which provided a description of the percentage of participants that was above the mean of the participants in the control group. finally, probability of superiority was calculated; this indicated the probability that a random person chosen from a group would have a higher mean level compared to the control group. results top ↑ the results section is structured as follows: firstly the reliability and measurement invariance will be discussed. secondly, the fit of the measurement model will be reported, followed by the variances, means and standard deviations (table 1). this is followed by the calculated effect sizes (cohen’s d) and the discussion of the mean differences, including confidence intervals of 95% (table 2). table 1: variances, means and standard deviations of work engagement in the respective groups. table 2: mean difference effect sizes with confidence intervals at the 95% level. the results showed that the work engagement construct had acceptable reliability (α = 0.91; ω = 0.94) (raykov, 2012; sijtsma, 2009). the test for measurement invariance revealed configural and metric invariance (steenkamp & baumgartner, 1998), which indicated that the pattern of loadings, both salient and non-salient, and scale metrics were similar across groups. furthermore, the fit indices revealed the following regarding the measurement model: cfi of 0.92, tli of 0.92 and rmsea of 0.07. the aforementioned values of all the fit indices were acceptable compared to the guidelines set before analysis and further investigation of the research questions was therefore deemed appropriate (see the statistical analysis section above). as can be seen from the mean values (see table 1), the ‘no condition’ group was used as the reference mean value by the software package in the multi-group analysis (0.000). to the naked eye, both the ‘condition’ group (-0.774), and the ‘random’ group (-0.331) had lower work engagement scores compared to the ‘no condition’ group. but, to provide meaningful communication of practical differences in these mean values, the values were calculated for cohen’s d as presented in table 2. as can be seen, all of the mean differences were practically significant. the largest mean difference was indeed for the ‘condition’ versus the ‘no condition’ group (d = 0.81; 95% ci [0.76, 0.86]). this indicates that there was a large practical difference between the two groups, based on the d-value. this indicates that 79.1% of the ‘no condition’ group had a value that was above the work engagement mean of the ‘condition’ group; if one were to pick a person at random from the ‘no condition’ group, the chances of superiority would be 71.7% that the person would have a higher work engagement score compared to the participants in the ‘condition’ group. both of the remaining comparisons’ cohen’s d-values showed small practical significant differences. firstly, the ‘condition’ group versus the ‘random’ group (d = 0.43; 95% ci [0.39, 0.48]). this d-value indicates that 66.6% of the ‘random’ group had a higher mean value on work engagement compared to the ‘condition’ group and that there was a 62.0% probability that if a participant was chosen by chance from the random group that their work engagement level would be higher compared to the ‘condition’ group. secondly, the ‘no condition’ group versus the ‘random’ group (d = 0.34; 95% ci [0.31, 0.38]) also showed a small d-value difference. this d-value indicates that 63.3% of the ‘no condition’ group’s mean scores on work engagement were above that of the other group and that there was a 59.5% probability that if a person was chosen by chance from the ‘no condition’ group they would have a higher work engagement mean score compared to the ‘random’ group. discussion top ↑ outline of the results the objective of the current research was to investigate the practical differences in work engagement level between employees with presenteeism-related health conditions, those with none of the conditions and a random group of employees who may experience one of the conditions.the research question was answered: there was a large practical significant difference in the work engagement level of the employee group with none of the presenteeism-related health conditions and those who reported comorbidity of the conditions (all of the conditions) over the previous 3 months; in other words, the ‘no condition’ group had the highest work engagement level (large practical effect). this is in line with past research, which indicates that presenteeism can affect productivity (e.g. hemp, 2004; schultz & edington, 2007). the ‘no condition’ group had higher work engagement levels to a large practical degree. moreover, the difference between the random group (one of the conditions) and the comorbid group (all of the conditions) was small but this implication should not be discounted based on this description as there was still a practical difference in work engagement level between employees with none of the conditions and the random sample, indicating that as impairment increases work engagement level decreases, which has the potential to affect productivity. as the literature review revealed, the conditions as described all affect productivity; now, more credence is given to past findings as work engagement is also clearly affected at a practical level in this study. this should be of concern to organisations and relevant stakeholders as productivity is considered an outcome of good work engagement (bakker & demerouti, 2008; bakker et al., 2014; schaufeli & bakker, 2004). various arguments can be presented for the reasons why this effect on work engagement exists. as hay fever is the most common condition affecting employees (fireman, 1997), it is not difficult to imagine that energy and attitude are affected due to experiencing hay fever symptoms whilst working. a potential intervention to address hay fever could be to investigate air quality within work areas and, if it is found to be subpar, to install air purifiers and humidifiers in order to combat potential hay fever antagonists by improving the air quality. for example, it has been found that photo-catalytic air purifiers can be used to supplement indoor ventilation when the majority of pollutants are due to building-related sources (kolarik & wargocki, 2010). furthermore, in their study, wargocki, wyon, baik, clausen and fanger (1999) found that reducing the indoor air pollution load improved the health productivity and comfort of occupants. therefore, such an intervention could have overall benefits for all employees whilst also attempting to address potential hay fever antagonists, especially in manufacturing-type environments. lower back pain can also be classified under musculoskeletal disorders and usually is, but in the current study, lower back pain was included as a separate condition due to the prevalence of the condition, according to literature (cf. louw et al., 2007). the condition was however included in the ‘condition’ group for analysis with musculoskeletal issues so bias was not a concern in this regard. in south africa, it has been found that unnatural posture is significantly associated with musculoskeletal pain at any anatomical site (schierhout, myers & bridger, 1993). a systematic review of longitudinal research has further found higher biomechanical risks for jobs that have excessive repetition, awkward postures and frequent heavy lifting. these are predictive of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (da costa & vieira, 2010). musculoskeletal issues’ impact on work engagement can be due to the musculoskeletal pain in employees suffering from the condition, which puts them in a non-optimal state of functioning compared to employees who may not suffer the condition, and thus productivity is affected (cf. mcdonald, dacosta dibonaventura & ullman, 2011). therefore, it is important for organisations to consider interventions that ensure ergonomic principles are implemented and applied in working areas and that employees are aware of the correct methods of lifting medium to heavy loads (cf. gucer, oliver, parrish & mcdiarmid, 2009). another interesting aspect of the impaired presenteeism discussion that should be presented and addressed is the potential use of medication for these conditions by employees. it has been found that, for example, a large proportion of sufferers of hay fever sufferers do not seek medical treatment (malone et al., 1997). those who do take medication use over-the-counter medications, which usually include sedative antihistamines, which can alter cognitive or motor function. this is concerning because if these functions are affected and impaired it may elevate the risk of a potential health and safety incident in the work place; research has found that there is a greater statistically significant probability of safety-related incidents occurring around those taking such sedative-type treatments (cf. fireman, 1997). similar effects can also be expected for employees who use strong pain medication due to musculoskeletal pain. practical implications presenteeism-related health conditions clearly have an effect on the work engagement levels of employees. as a result, productivity, and therefore the successful obtainment of strategic objectives and profits, can also be affected. thus, presenteeism is a human risk factor that has a negative effect on the realisation of organisational goals. the south african board for people practice (sabpp, 2012), in their human resource (hr) management system standards model for south africa, positioned hr risk managament as a crucial hr business alignment element. therefore, hr risk management activities in organisations should include a measurement of presenteeism-related indicators to build awareness pertaining to these risks and the impact thereof on organisational functioning and performance, for example through an applicable climate survey. given the identified risks, the first step that could be taken is to create an awareness of the problem of impaired presenteeism at work amongst all employees. this awareness should include potential self-help solutions, for example ergonomics or taking short breaks from sitting in front of work stations or performing other types of repetitive work tasks. spending money in order to address the risks of presenteeism within an organisation should be thoroughly considered by employers, as the investment in this area of employee work-related well-being should not be above that of the incurred productivity loss due to presenteeism in the first instance. a study in the united states (lamb et al., 2006) found that the amount per employee was around $593 per year, but no such data could be found for the south african context. these amounts may be hard to estimate accurately, but organisations should ensure that the amount invested will provide them with sufficient returns in terms of productivity, which will be above and beyond the investment. limitations and recommendations the present study was not without limitations. as with all cross-sectional survey designs, the risk of common method variance existed, but research has questioned the real impact of this potential problem (cf. spector, 2006). even so, objective indicators of both work engagement (e.g. performance indicators) and presenteeism-related health conditions (e.g. medical diagnoses) would have strengthened the findings of the study. furthermore, longitudinal data is required in order to ascertain potential causal and reverse causal effects in an autoregressive cross-lagged model with at least two waves of data in the south african context. seasonal data might be interesting in the case of hay fever, for example times when elevated pollen counts are more evident (viander & koivikko, 1978). additionally, the compounding effects of medication use for the presenteeism-related conditions could not be obviated as none of this data was available (carruthers, shoeman, hignite & azarnoff, 1978). other work-related well-being concepts should also be investigated in this context, such as job burnout. conclusion the results of this study clearly show definite practical significant differences between the groups with regard to employee work engagement levels. the work engagement levels of the group that suffered from the comorbidity of presenteeism-related health conditions in this study showed the lowest levels of work engagement compared to those who suffered from none of the conditions, who also had the highest levels of work engagement. put in another way, those with no presenteeism-related health conditions had the highest work engagement levels. these results add to the literature concerning work engagement and (impaired) presenteeism, especially in the south african context. managers and other professionals should consider the potential strategies and interventions that could be applied in organisations to address hay fever, back pain and musculoskeletal issues in order to offset their influence on work engagement levels, which would lead to a more productive workforce. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. references top ↑ bakker a.b., & demerouti, e. (2008). towards a model of work engagement. career development international, 13 (3), 209–223. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430810870476bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & sanz-vergel, a. (2014). burnout and work engagement: the jd–r approach. annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behaviour, 1 , 19.1–19.23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091235 bakker, a.b., & leiter, m.p. (2010). work engagement: a handbook of essential theory and research. new york, ny: psychology press. böckerman, p., & laukkanen, e. (2010). what makes you work while you are sick? evidence from a survey of workers. the european journal of public health, 20 (1), 43–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckp076 bryman, a., & bell, e. (2003). business research methods. oxford, uk: oxford university press. burton, w.n., conti, d.j., chen, c.y., schultz, a.b., & edington, d.w. (2001). the impact of allergies and allergy treatment on worker productivity. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 43 (1), 64–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00043764-200101000-00013 carruthers, s.g., shoeman, d.w., hignite, c.e., & azarnoff, d.l. (1978). correlation between plasma diphenhydramine level and sedative and antihistamine effects. clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, 23(4), 375–382. cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. (rev. edn.). orlando, fl: academic press. collins, j., & o’sullivan, l. (2010). psychosocial risk exposures and musculoskeletal disorders across working‐age males and females. human factors and ergonomics in manufacturing & service industries, 20 (4), 272–286. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hfm.20220 coyte, p.c., asche, c.v., croxford, r., & chan, b. (1998). the economic cost of musculoskeletal disorders in canada. arthritis & rheumatism, 11 (5), 315–325. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/art.1790110503 d’abate, c.p., & eddy, e.r. (2007). engaging in personal business on the job: extending the presenteeism construct. human resource development quarterly, 18 (3), 361–383. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.1209 da costa, b.r., & vieira, e.r. (2010). risk factors for work‐related musculoskeletal disorders: a systematic review of recent longitudinal studies. american journal of industrial medicine, 53(3), 285–323. dagenais, s., caro, j., & haldeman, s. (2008). a systematic review of low back pain cost of illness studies in the united states and internationally. the spine journal, 8 (1), 8–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.spinee.2007.10.005 de beer, l.t., pienaar, j., & rothmann, s. jr. (2013). investigating the reversed causality of engagement and burnout in job demands-resources theory. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39 (1), 1–9. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i1.1055 de beer, l., rothmann, s. jr, & pienaar, j. (2012). a confirmatory investigation of a job demands-resources model using a categorical estimator. psychological reports, 111, 528–544. http://dx.doi.org/10.2466/01.03.10.pr0.111.5.528-544 de bruin, g.p., & henn, c.m. (2013). dimensionality of the 9-item utrecht work engagement scale (uwes–9). psychological reports, 112 (3), 788–799. http://dx.doi.org/10.2466/01.03.pr0.112.3.788-799 de bruin, g.p., hill, c., henn, c.m., & muller, k.p. (2013). dimensionality of the uwes-17: an item response modelling analysis. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 8 pages. dekker, s.w., & schaufeli, w.b. (1995). the effects of job insecurity on psychological health and withdrawal: a longitudinal study. australian psychologist, 30 (1), 57–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00050069508259607 dew, k., keefe, v., & small, k. (2005). ‘choosing’ to work when sick: workplace presenteeism. social science & medicine, 60 (10), 2273–2282. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.10.022 fireman, p. (1997, march). treatment of allergic rhinitis: effect on occupation productivity and work force costs. allergy and asthma proceedings, 18 (2), 63–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.2500/108854197778605482 freburger, j.k., holmes, g.m., agans, r.p., jackman, a.m., darter, j.d., wallace, a.s. et al. (2009). the rising prevalence of chronic low back pain. archives of internal medicine, 169 (3), 251–258. http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archinternmed.2008.543 gates, d.m., succop, p., brehm, b.j., gillespie, g.l., & sommers, b.d. (2008). obesity and presenteeism: the impact of body mass index on workplace productivity. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 50 (1), 39–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/jom.0b013e31815d8db2 goetzel, r.z., long, s.r., ozminkowski, r.j., hawkins, k., wang, s., & lynch, w. (2004). health, absence, disability, and presenteeism cost estimates of certain physical and mental health conditions affecting us employers. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 46 (4), 398–412. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.jom.0000121151.40413.bd gucer, p.w., oliver, m., parrish, j.m., & mcdiarmid, m. (2009). work productivity impairment from musculoskeletal disorder pain in long-term caregivers. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 51 (6), 672–681. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/jom.0b013e31819f1d6e hagberg, m., wigaeus-tornqvist, e., & toomingas, a. (2002). self-report reduced productivity due to musculoskeletal symptoms: associations with workplace and individual factors among white-collar computer users. journal of occupational rehabilitation, 12, 151–162. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1016890527520 hemp, p. (2004). presenteeism: at work-but out of it. harvard business review, 82(10), 49–58. johns, g. (2010). presenteeism in the workplace: a review and research agenda. journal of organizational behavior, 31( 4), 519–542. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.630 katz, j.n. (2006). lumbar disc disorders and low-back pain: socioeconomic factors and consequences. the journal of bone & joint surgery, 88 (2), 21–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.2106/jbjs.e.01273 kolarik, j., & wargocki, p. (2010). can a photocatalytic air purifier be used to improve the perceived air quality indoors? indoor air, 20 (3), 255–262. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0668.2010.00650.x lamb, c.e., ratner, p.h., johnson, c.e., ambegaonkar, a.j., joshi, a.v., day, d. et al. (2006). economic impact of workplace productivity losses due to allergic rhinitis compared with select medical conditions in the united states from an employer perspective. current medical research and opinion, 22, 1203–1210. http://dx.doi.org/10.1185/030079906x112552 langelaan, s. (2007). burnout and work engagement: exploring individual and psychophysiological differences. doctoral dissertation, department of social and organizational psychology, utrecht university, the netherlands. loeppke, r., taitel, m., haufle, v., parry, t., kessler, r.c., & jinnett, k. (2009). health and productivity as a business strategy: a multiemployer study. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 51 (4), 411–428. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/jom.0b013e3181a39180 louw, q.a., morris, l.d., & grimmer-somers, k. (2007). the prevalence of low back pain in africa: a systematic review. bmc musculoskeletal disorders, 8 (1), 105. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2474-8-105 malone, d.c., lawson, k.a., smith, d.h., arrighi, h.m., & battista, c. (1997). a cost of illness study of allergic rhinitis in the united states. journal of allergy and clinical immunology, 99(1), 22–27. mcdonald, m., dacosta dibonaventura, m., & ullman, s. (2011). musculoskeletal pain in the workforce: the effects of back, arthritis, and fibromyalgia pain on quality of life and work productivity. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 53 (7), 765–770. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/jom.0b013e318222af81 muthén, l.k., & muthén, b.o. (2013). mplus user’s guide. (7th edn.). los angeles, ca: muthén & muthén. naidoo, s., kromhout, h., london, l., naidoo, r.n., & burdorf, a. (2009). musculoskeletal pain in women working in small-scale agriculture in south africa. american journal of industrial medicine, 52 (3), 202–209. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajim.20662 osborne, a., blake, c., mcnamara, j., meredith, d., phelan, j., & cunningham, c. (2010). musculoskeletal disorders among irish farmers. occupational medicine, 60 (8), 598–603. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqq146 ozminkowski, r.j., goetzel, r.z., chang, s., & long, s. (2004). the application of two health and productivity instruments at a large employer. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 46(7), 635–648. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.jom.0000131797.52458.c8 peterson, d.k. (2004). the relationship between perceptions of corporate citizenship and organizational commitment. business & society, 43 (3), 296–319. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0007650304268065 pilette, p.c. (2005). presenteeism in nursing: a clear and present danger to productivity. journal of nursing administration, 35 (6), 300–303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00005110-200506000-00006 punnett, l., & wegman, d.h. (2004). work-related musculoskeletal disorders: the epidemiologic evidence and the debate. journal of electromyography and kinesiology, 14 (1), 13–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jelekin.2003.09.015 raykov, t. (2012). scale construction and development using structural equation modeling. in r.h. hoyle (ed.), handbook of structural equation modeling (pp. 472–492). new york, ny: guilford press. richard, m.a. (2009). employee assistance programs: wellness/enhancement programming. springfield, il: charles c thomas publisher. rothmann, s., & rothmann, j.c. (2007). the south african employee health and wellness survey (saehws). user manual. (4th edn.). potchefstroom, south africa: afriforte. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organizational behavior, 25, 293–315. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.248 schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2010). defining and measuring work engagement: bringing clarity to the concept. in a.b. bakker, & m.p. leiter (eds.), work engagement: a handbook of essential theory and research (pp. 10–24). new york, ny: psychology press. schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzález-romá, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two-sample confirmatory factor analytical approach. journal of happiness studies, 3, 71–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 schierhout, g.h., myers, j.e., & bridger, r.s. (1993). musculoskeletal pain and workplace ergonomic stressors in manufacturing industry in south africa. international journal of industrial ergonomics, 12 (1), 3–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0169-8141(93)90033-a schultz, a.b., chen, c.y., & edington, d.w. (2009). the cost and impact of health conditions on presenteeism to employers. pharmacoeconomics, 27 (5), 365–378. http://dx.doi.org/10.2165/00019053-200927050-00002 schultz, a.b., & edington, d.w. (2007). employee health and presenteeism: a systematic review. journal of occupational rehabilitation, 17 (3), 547–579. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10926-007-9096-x sijtsma, k. (2009). reliability beyond theory and into practice. psychometrika, 74 (1), 169–173. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11336-008-9103-y south african board for people practice (sabpp). (2012). hr standards and metrics. retrieved july 04, 2014, from http://www.sabpp.co.za/about/our-projects/hr-standards-and-metrics/ spector, p.e. (2006). method variance in organisational research: truth or urban legend? organizational research methods, 9 (2), 221–232. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1094428105284955 steenkamp, j.b.e., & baumgartner, h. (1998). assessing measurement invariance in cross-national consumer research. journal of consumer research, 25 (1), 78–107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/209528 stewart, w.f., ricci, j.a., chee, e., & morganstein, d. (2003). lost productive work time costs from health conditions in the united states: results from the american productivity audit. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 45 (12), 1234–1246. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.jom.0000099999.27348.78 turnbull, p., & wass, v. (2000). redundancy and the paradox of job insecurity. the insecure workforce. in e. heery, & j. salmon (eds.), the insecure workforce (pp. 57–77). london, uk: routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203446485.ch4 van de schoot, r., lugtig, p., & hox, j. (2012). a checklist for testing measurement invariance. european journal of developmental psychology, 9 (4), 486–492. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2012.686740 viander, m., & koivikko, a. (1978). the seasonal symptoms of hyposensitized and untreated hay fever patients in relation to birch pollen counts: correlations with nasal sensitivity, prick tests and rast. clinical & experimental allergy, 8 (4), 387–396. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2222.1978.tb00474.x wargocki, p., wyon, d.p., baik, y.k., clausen, g., & fanger, p.o. (1999). perceived air quality, sick building syndrome (sbs) symptoms and productivity in an office with two different pollution loads. indoor air, 9 (3), 165–179. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0668.1999.t01-1-00003.x wenig, c.m., schmidt, c.o., kohlmann, t., & schweikert, b. (2009). costs of back pain in germany. european journal of pain, 13 (3), 280–286. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpain.2008.04.005 yelin, e. (2003). cost of musculoskeletal diseases: impact of work disability and functional decline. the journal of rheumatology, 68, 8–11. article information authors: mark bussin1 dirk j. van rooy2 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa2gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa correspondence to: mark bussin postal address: po box 2334, saxonwold 2132, south africa dates: received: 08 nov. 2013 accepted: 03 sept. 2014 published: 10 nov. 2014 how to cite this article: bussin, m., & van rooy, d.j. (2014). total rewards strategy for a multi-generational workforce in a financial institution. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12(1), art. #606, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.606 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. total rewards strategy for a multi-generational workforce in a financial institution in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • problem statement       • key focus       • background       • research purpose       • trends from research literature       • objectives       • contribution to field    • literature review       • differences in generational values and preferences       • total reward programmes • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • ethical considerations • results    • research question 1: does a generation-based preference for reward exist?    • research question 2: does a total reward strategy address the preferences of each of the individual generations?    • research question 3: do generation-specific rewards improve the company’s ability to attract, motivate and retain their employees? • discussion    • research question 1: does a generation-based preference for reward exist?    • research question 2: does a total reward strategy address the preferences of each of the individual generations?    • research question 3: do generation-specific rewards improve the company’s ability to attract, motivate and retain their employees?    • practical and theoretical implications    • limitations of the study    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: different generations may value and perceive employee rewards differently. this impacts on reward strategies in the workplace which have been specifically developed to attract, retain and motivate staff. a one-size-fits-all approach to reward strategy may not achieve the objectives intended, leading to direct and indirect financial implications for businesses.research purpose: this study investigated whether perceptions of reward strategy differed across generations in a large financial institution in south africa. this context was specifically chosen due to the significant competition to attract and retain staff that exists in the financial sector. to contribute to the practical challenges of reward implementation, the study investigated whether specific reward preferences associated with generation exist, and whether offering rewards based on these preferences would successfully attract and retain staff. motivation for study: south african businesses are competing for skilled staff and rely heavily on a total reward strategy to compensate all generations of employees. given the financial incentives to retain and attract the most effective staff, it is essential that reward strategies meet their objectives. all factors impacting the efficacy of reward strategies should be considered, including the impact of generational differences in preference. this is of relevance not only to the financial industry, but to all companies that employ staff across a variety of generations. research design, approach and method: a quantitative survey design was used. a total of 6316 employees from a financial firm completed a survey investigating their experiences and perceptions of reward strategies. statistically significant differences across different generations and reward preferences were considered. main findings: significant differences in reward preferences were found across generational cohorts. this supports international literature. practical/managerial implications: the results indicate that there is an opportunity for businesses and managers to link components of the total reward strategy to specific generations in the workforce by offering a wider variety of reward options to employees. employee perceptions indicate a willingness to have reward strategies tailored to their needs and to have a greater say in their reward strategies. the challenge is in presenting the options in a fair and transparent manner, in providing choice and in tracking long-term retention and motivation based on the reward strategy. contribution: the study found that generations value rewards differently, which will enable management to develop more strategic approaches to reward. this research extends international evidence to include workplaces in emerging economies, which have the additional challenges of high rates of unemployment, but also scarce skills and competition for skilled staff. the findings of this research go some way to support the need to develop more dynamic, flexible and generation-specific reward strategies to support staff retention and attraction. introduction top ↑ problem statement key focus in the south african workplace, organisations are not merely competing against traditional competitors in the war for talent, but also against other high-skill workplaces, a labour market with very low numbers of high-skill and medium-skill people, high levels of mobility amongst the workforce and fewer skills entering the workforce (bussin & moore, 2012). the most explicit means to attract and retain staff, the reward strategy, has traditionally been thought of as linear: the greater the reward offered, the more likely the workplace is to attract the individual. this does not, however, take into account the complexity of the nature of the reward or the individual. rewards can be multifaceted and both financial and non-financial. many features of reward strategies have not been incorporated into a total reward strategy (hayes, 1999; irvine, 2010). in addition, individuals have different sets of values and motivations. one influencing factor that has received prominence in international literature is the effect of the values of different generations in terms of what motivates them from a reward perspective. the argument is that employees from different generations have different needs and perceptions of what constitutes value in reward. the question is whether this trend is evident in an emerging economy, where there are high levels of skills shortages but also high levels of unemployment. background international research advocates for reward strategies that are tailored to specific generational cohorts. this research set out to determine whether this trend is applicable and relevant in south africa, where there are high levels of skills shortages but also high levels of unemployment. to assess the relevance of using generational preferences in reward strategy to attract and retain staff, the research also investigated whether generational preferences towards reward exist in the financial sector in south africa. research purpose international research advocates for reward strategies that are tailored to specific generational cohorts. this research set out to determine whether this trend is applicable and relevant in south africa, where there are high levels of skills shortages but also high levels of unemployment. to assess the relevance of using generational preferences in reward strategy to attract and retain staff, the research also investigated whether generational preferences towards reward exist in the financial sector in south africa. trends from research literature the idea that values and preferences in the workplace differ across generations has been presented for over a decade (codrington, 2008; deal, stawiski, graves, gentry & ruderman, 2013; lyons, 2003), as has the view that workplaces should develop relevant reward and retention strategies to suit multiple needs. reward systems that assist employees to determine and achieve their immediate career objectives are not straightforward (armstrong & murlis, 2007; cummings & worley, 2001). bonuses and commissions may have a transient motivational effect that results solely in temporary adjustments and does not result in lasting commitment (khon, 2002; scott & mcmullen, 2010). recent research from the south african context has found that specific compensation strategies directly impact the retention of generation xers, along with work content, career advancement, work-life balance, security needs, leadership and drive (masibigiri & nienaber, 2011). however, bussin and moore (2012) found no reward preferences amongst generational groups in a sample of 164 employees from two information and communication technology (ict) organisations. objectives based on the above research trends, the current study was undertaken to answer the following research questions:• does a generation-based preference for reward exist? • does a total reward strategy address the preferences of each of the individual generations? • do generation-specific rewards improve the company’s ability to attract, motivate and retain their employees? contribution to field this research contributes to the international literature on generation reward preferences and extends the evidence to include workplaces in emerging economies with the pressure of high unemployment and scarce skills. the findings have direct relevance to the workplace and contribute specific insight into generational preferences in rewards. the workplace will benefit from the findings of this research by using the results to support the definition and customisation of reward packages based on generational theory. literature review differences in generational values and preferences the workplace has changed significantly in the last decade, and the financial sector even more so. the sector is faced with sluggish growth after the great financial crisis of 2008, a slow-down in most economies, increases in technology, greater risk and compliance requirements, higher threats from money laundering and fraud and higher demands on productivity. in order to deal with these changes, the sector relies on the skills of its workforce. this talent management is essential for competitive advantage (bersin, 2008; ellis, 2009; linne, 2009; mohlala, 2011). successful talent management includes being relevant to the needs of the workforce and taking into account the diverse needs of different generation groups.although past research (e.g. masibigiri & nienaber, 2011) has focused on the needs of different generations, the challenge of accurately defining generational cohorts remains. definitions tend to be inconsistent (lancaster & stillman, 2002; shaul, 2007). smola and sutton (2002) take the view that historical and social events shape the lives of specific general cohorts and can be used to define them. these events undoubtedly differ across countries (codrington, 2008; codrington & grant-marshall, 2004) and generational definitions may lose relevance when extrapolated widely across different countries. codrington (2008), however, argues that specific age groups are likely to have similar value systems regardless of their environment. these value systems drive and motivate behaviour, making them an important area of study in work motivation and preference. the most common generational categories linked to age are the following (lancaster & stillman, 2002): • veterans (traditionalists) – (born 1900–1945) • baby boomers (or boomers) – (born 1946–1964) • generation x – (born 1965–1980) • generation y – (born 1981–1999). the challenge is that despite the fact that these categories may not apply to the south african context, they have become part of human resources literature terminology. the definitions of lancaster and stillman (2002) tend to be the least event-defined and are broad in scope. table 1 lists the characteristics of each cohort in the workforce. table 1: summary of workplace generation characteristics. table 1 outlines the views and workplace values from the generational cohorts as outlined by lancaster and stillman (2002). other researchers, such as kane (2013), use the first three categories in the workplace as veterans are not widely represented. a similar under-representation of veterans was also found in the current study. generations differ in personal values, work methods and ethics and communication and socialisation outside of work (kupperschmidt, 2000). orciani (2009) argues that great leaders are able to take advantage of the strengths of each generation. the differences between generations can also lead to conflict. for instance, veterans and younger groups often differ in the value placed on loyalty to an organisation (colon, 2005; hatfield, 2002; zemke, raines & filipczack, 2000), the competitiveness of boomers may be perceived as aggressive by other groups (orciani, 2009) and generation xers value feedback to an extent not understood by older generations (glass, 2007; orciani, 2009; smola & sutton, 2002). according to irvine (2010), the majority of the workforce is now made up of boomers (45%), followed by generation xers (30%). as boomers exit the workforce, managers need to be able to adapt to the needs and values of generation xers, and generation ys. this generational mix requires managers to adapt and reinvent their retention and compensation programmes to take different values, needs and work ethics into account (milgram, 2008). total reward programmes reward is considered a significant tool to attract, motivate and retain employees (boyd & salamin, 2001). ‘total reward’ programmes, however, include both monetary and non-monetary rewards (e-research, 2002). monetary rewards include basic pay, variable pay, share ownership and employee benefits. non-monetary rewards are almost anything else an organisation offers an employee. shaul (2007) has noted that employees focus on monetary reward but, paradoxically, their behaviour is often driven by non-monetary rewards. these non-monetary rewards are part of the psychological contract between employee and employer.worldatwork’s (2006) model of total reward includes five elements (table 2 and figure 1): figure 1: worldatwork (2006) total reward strategy model. table 2: five elements and examples of the model for total reward strategy. • compensation • benefits • work-life • performance and recognition • development and career opportunities. the above five elements are illustrated in figure 1, demonstrating how the total reward elements and the company as a whole combine and influence each other. research design top ↑ research approach a quantitative, survey research design was chosen in order to reach a large portion of participants in a financial institution within a set amount of time provided by the institution. the design was cross-sectional to include a ‘snapshot’ of all generational cohorts at one point in time.the independent variable is generations as defined in ‘differences in generational values and preferences’. the dependent variables include employees’ perceptions and preferences for total reward strategies. research method research participants the participants in this study were from a large financial services company in south africa. participants were identified through convenience non-probability sampling. the organisation has approximately 29 000 employees across south africa. a definitive total number was not available. all employees in south africa (all provinces were included) with internet access were asked to complete a survey via an email with a link to the online survey. this method was used to reach the greatest number of people, across the largest number of locations. the deadline was 2 weeks. the questionnaire was completed by 6316 people, resulting in a 24% response rate overall.the participants in this study fell predominantly in the generation x classification, which reflects the characteristics of the sector in south africa (bankseta, 2010). the participants were 60% generation x, 28% generation y, 12% boomers and only 0.05% veterans (this supports kane’s, 2013, view that the majority of the workplace is made up of the first three groups). table 3 outlines the demographic characteristics of the respondents. the demographic characteristics were determined from the personnel numbers attached to the completed surveys. the limitation of this method was that characteristics such as marital status and specific geographic location were not available. table 3: demographic characteristics of the respondents. no veterans responded to the survey. it is unclear why this was the case. the other generation groups were comparable to the population composition of the organisation. measuring instruments the survey instrument was internet based and was communicated to employees via email. it was part of a larger, company-based survey, thus enabling the use of the workplace process of research. the survey used closed-ended questions, with ratings on a five-point likert-type scale from 1 (extreme negative) to 5 (extreme positive).the survey was designed based on the components from the worldatwork total reward strategy model (worldatwork, 2008). demographic information was determined using the employees’ personnel numbers which they supplied and were linked to their responses. employees were informed of the intention of the research and the need for the inclusion of their personnel numbers. this information was kept confidential, accessed only by the researcher and maintained in a protected database. the survey was piloted on a small group of employees to determine the time taken to complete the survey and to identify any ambiguities or difficulties with the survey. these pilot participants were excluded from the final sample. a cronbach’s alpha score of reliability of 0.82 was obtained for the questions, above the acceptable level of 0.70 (devills, 2003; pallant, 2007). research procedure before administration, the survey was piloted on a small group of employees located in the call centre of the organisation. the survey was finalised using the findings from the pilot group and then sent to all employees in south africa via email. the survey was completed online and the researcher was able to access the final results online. a notice letter reminding the employees of the closing date was sent 1 week after the survey was initially sent out to encourage participation. participation in the research survey was voluntary and no pressure was placed on respondents to participate. once the responses were received, analysis of data using a variety of statistical analysis techniques was performed. statistical analysis the responses from the questionnaire were uploaded to an internet-based survey tool and then exported to an excel spreadsheet. descriptive statistics, frequencies and bivariate cross-tabulations were conducted. inferential statistics included spearman’s correlations, the kruskal-wallis test and bonferoni correction. ethical considerations top ↑ permission to conduct the research was granted by the organisation. participation in the research was voluntary and employees were also explicitly asked for their consent before completing the survey. respondents’ employee numbers were linked to the survey, thus anonymity was not possible. however, the data was kept confidential and only seen by the researcher and supervisor (who performed the statistical analysis). data will be destroyed after 2 years. results top ↑ the following section discusses the statistical analysis performed to answer each research question. research question 1: does a generation-based preference for reward exist? participants were asked to list the rewards they had received in the last 18 months. table 4 outlines the types of rewards and generational preference for them. spearman’s correlations between the generational groups were run. a kruskal-wallis analysis of variance determined significant difference and a bonferroni test indicated which groups differed from one another. table 4: the total reward package that was received by employees. as can be seen from table 4 all three generational cohorts differed on the following rewards they received: long service award, time off work in recognition of hard work and secondment, mentorship and coaching programmes, structured development programmes and flexible working hours. the younger generation x and generation y groups differed from the boomers on receiving rewards such as salary, annual leave commutation, training courses, on-the-job training, external conferences, the company share scheme, the company black economic empowerment (bee) scheme and pleasant working environment. overall, most participants received traditional rewards such as a salary and bonus. the older generation (boomers) had a higher percentage of share ownership. the younger groups of generation xers and generation ys used resources such as gym facilities more, whilst older generations had a higher frequency of long service awards. these relatively predictable results are consistent with existing theory about generational preferences and indicate traditional rewards provided as seniority is achieved (gentry, 2007; nienaber, bussin & henn, 2011). participants were then asked to choose the reward options they would prefer to receive. all groups differed significantly in their preferences. table 5 outlines these preferences. table 5: preferences in rewards amongst respondants. table 5 highlights the fact that generational cohorts differ from each other on all the reward types. table 6 highlights the preferences amongst respondents on a five-point scale from not important to very important. frequencies were run to determine these preference types and a bonferonni test was conducted to determine significance. table 6: preferences in rewards amongst respondents. it is evident from table 6 that each generation preferred different types of financial compensation. when compared to boomers, generation y showed a preference for bonuses. the generation y and generation x groups also preferred more ‘health’ and ‘change the world’ forms of benefits, evidenced in the higher gym and wellness uptake from these groups (moore, 2009). generation xers rated work-life balance very highly. they have a higher preference for ‘flexible working hours’ and a ‘pleasant work environment’ (chan, 2005). in contrast, the boomers preferred ‘long service awards’ which is consistent with their preference for public rewards (bussin & fletcher, 2008). with reference to development and career opportunities, generation ys appeared to be primarily focused on developing themselves and their careers (milgram, 2008). boomers might recognise that they need to continue learning and developing themselves but are not as focused on formal education or development as their younger counterparts, preferring training courses and on-the-job training (orciani, 2009). table 7 presents a summary of the total reward package preference of each generation. table 7: the preferences of the generations towards the components of the total reward package in the company. respondents were asked to select the four most probable rewards they would select, should these rewards be offered by another company, as depicted in table 8. table 8: preferences in benefits if they were offered by another company. table 8 shows that the monetary components of reward strongly impact all decisions made, regardless of generation. there were more differences in other categories; for instance, generation x had a strong preference towards ‘flexible working hours’ (nordenfelt, 1993). interestingly, boomers also rated complete study bursaries as a preference when changing employers, along with the younger generations. research question 2: does a total reward strategy address the preferences of each of the individual generations? table 9 summarises the reward preferences for each group. table 9: preferred reward for the different generations in the company. research question 3: do generation-specific rewards improve the company’s ability to attract, motivate and retain their employees? participants were asked to compare what they received to others’ rewards for similar responsibilities in different companies. table 10 illustrates the different generations’ perceptions of difference. table 10: comparison between employers of reward package received. it is evident from table 10 that a difference between the generations’ perceptions of what they receive as benefits was evident in almost all categories. generation y generally stood out as different from the other groups in their perceptions.table 11 illustrates how the levels of satisfaction with different reward types also differed. table 11: employee satisfaction with reward package received. in order to further probe this finding, participants were asked to rate their employer’s rewards in comparison to other companies. the results are presented in table 12. table 12: the satisfaction levels of employees with regard to rewards received. table 13: preferences in reward if offered by another company. the majority of employees were satisfied with their rewards. in relation to the other generations, generation y was the least satisfied. again, benefits were well rated, except for ‘medical aid’, by generation y. when asked to choose the four benefits with the most appeal and attraction from another workplace, there were no clear pull factors. generation x does appear to favour the work-life environment, whilst generation y rates career development and opportunities highly. discussion top ↑ research question 1: does a generation-based preference for reward exist? the research supports bussin and fletcher’s (2008) study, which found a generational reward preference in south africa. specifically, the research found that boomers preferred reward strategies such as fixed and long-term compensation, long service recognition and career development and training in the form of informal training. generation xers preferred a balance between fixed and variable income and more work-life balance (especially flexible hours). generation ys also preferred a balance between fixed and variable compensation but did show some indication that they would be comfortable with more variable pay. for generation y, non-financial recognition was regarded as highly important, as was training and career development (using all types of training methods).these findings show a distinction between the generations’ preference for reward, especially in terms of the type of monetary reward provided and the ‘quality of work life’ rewards. these reward types all exist in various total reward strategies and can be used to incentivise and motivate staff according to their preference. customisation of the reward model, based on generational preferences, would also better cater for the life stage and associated work stage of individuals; for example, generation y employees are less likely to be interested in long service awards, as their age precludes them from benefiting from these for some time. past research has provided evidence for specific work and reward preferences amongst different generational cohorts. the most common means of describing these cohorts tends to be through the use of the terms generation y, generation x, baby boomers and veterans. generational theory attaches meaning to the terminology used, based on defining events in the collective lives of each cohort. the inherent problem is that these categories, and associated life events, are western concepts. in south africa, the use of the generational cohorts appears to be valuable as they indicate a specific model of age segmentation and similar trends in work preference have been found. for instance, masibigiri and nienaber (2011) found that the retention of south african generation xers depended on issues such as work-life balance and flexible rewards. however, this does not suggest that level of compensation is not important, as the participants in the masibigiri and nienaber study felt that the amount of compensation reflected their value as an asset for the organisation. research question 2: does a total reward strategy address the preferences of each of the individual generations? the company sampled in this study used many of the existing components of the worldatwork total rewards model with their employees. it was clear that each generation, on aggregate, received the rewards they preferred. in this instance, the rewards offered did meet their needs, but it was also clear that there were different requirements amongst the age groups. this supports the findings of other south african research, such as that of masibigiri and nienaber (2011), but may be specific to this sample, as other research has indicated no differences amongst the generations (bussin & moore, 2012). in addition, giancola (2006) has argued that the generation gap between age cohorts is not a sensitive measure of difference. his research does indicate that reward preferences may be linked to specific cohorts, such as retirement planning for boomers and career development for generation y. his argument is that this relates to the period in the person’s career, rather than to their age cohort per se. research question 3: do generation-specific rewards improve the company’s ability to attract, motivate and retain their employees? overall, the generations felt that their company offered rewards that were sufficient and of market value. this demonstrates satisfaction with the rewards offered, but it does not indicate whether the rewards were generation specific or merely fulfilled the needs of the generations. further predictive research into whether the reward offer was an important component in the retention and attraction of staff is required.it should also be noted that this study was conducted during the recovery period following the 2007/2008 recession and economic slowdown. employees may have been more aware and focused on monetary rewards than non-monetary rewards during this time. practical and theoretical implications the current research has contributed to the international literature on generational theory by extending findings on generational differences in reward preferences to a south african context. further investigation into each age cohort would add knowledge on the specific drivers and values of each one. this is especially important as research in this area in south africa does not indicate consistent findings (see bussin & moore, 2012, for instance).non-monetary rewards are becoming increasingly important in total rewards models; this is evidenced in the positive way in which the younger generations value them. organisations could benefit practically from this research by using generational preferences to tailor reward packages for candidates. performance discussions with existing staff offer an opportunity to guide reward strategies to suit their needs. the results from the study can be used to guide the employer’s strategy in their methods of engaging or retaining their key employees. limitations of the study the following limitations need to be considered for this study:• due to time constraints or any other potential reasons for decline, not all employees of the selected financial institution chose to participate in the research and thus the results may not be representative of the population. • the categorisation of generational cohorts used an international definition, which may not be completely applicable to the south african context. • the study only includes the workforce of one company found in the financial services industry. this limits the applicability to other financial institutions and organisations in south africa more broadly. • the age categories did not have the same number of people in them, making the use of parametric statistics impossible. • the exclusion of the veteran (traditionalist) generation due to non-response to the survey caused the data analysis and conclusions drawn to be done without their input. conclusion considering future demographic trends, employees from generation x and generation y will start to dominate the composition of the workforce. employers need to consider the preferences and motivations of these generations in order to attract and retain talent, as well as to increase productivity. reward strategy plays a key role in defining the employee value proposition and, as such, demands the continued attention of employers. one-size-fits-all reward strategies do not take individual preferences into account, but it can be argued that large employers do not have the capacity to customise reward packages at an individual level. the complexity of this type of customisation would lead to significant expense in terms of time and coordination. it is thus beneficial for organisations to find a way to segment the workforce according to reward preference, in a way that provides a balance between individual customisation and organisational efficiency.this research investigated the role of generational theory as a means of segmenting the workforce to understand reward preference. the findings show that there are indeed preferences in reward based on defined generational cohorts (boomers, generation x and generation y). it is suggested that these preferences can be used to enhance the attraction and retention of employees. the use of a total rewards model is advocated in which a mix of financial and non-financial rewards is offered to employees in a manner that is consistent with preferences aligned to age and generation. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.b. (university of johannesburg) was the principle investigator and was responsible for the design and execution of the project and writing the article. d.j.v.r. (university of pretoria) was responsible for fieldwork and writing up the research. references top ↑ armstrong, m., & murlis, h. (2007). reward management: a handbook of remuneration strategy and practice. london, england: kogan page.bankseta. (2010). sector skills plan. retrieved july 20, 2014, from http://www.bankseta.org.za/skills/..%5cdownloads%5cskills%5cbankseta_ssp_update_2009_10.pdf bersin, j. (2008). the business impact of talent management. banking strategies, 84(5), 6. boyd, b.k., & salamin, a. (2001). strategic reward systems: a contingency model of pay system design. strategic management journal, 22, 777–792. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smj.170 bussin, m., & fletcher, s. (2008). managing the generation mix. retrieved july 20, 2014, from http://www.21century.co.za/index.php?option=com_contentandview=articleandid=64:exploring-the-link-between-incentives-and-motivationandcatid=61:articlesanditemid=55 bussin, m. & moore, a. (2012). reward preferences for generations in selected information and communication technology companies. sa journal of human resource management, 10(1), art. #325, 9 pages. chan, d.s. (2005). relationship between generation-responsive leadership behaviors and job satisfaction of generations x and y professionals. unpublished phd dissertation, school of advanced studies, university of phoenix, phoenix, az. codrington, g. (2008, 10 may). generation comparisons? @tomorrowtoday. available from http://www.tmtd.biz/2008/05/10/generation-comparisons/#more-1562 codrington, g., & grant-marshall, s. (2004). mind the gap!, rosebank, south africa: penguin books. colon, e. (2005). the relation between generational differences and conflict management styles in a telemarketing call centre. unpublished phd dissertation, school of advanced studies, university of phoenix, phoenix, az. cummings, t.g., & worley, g.g. (2001). essentials of organisational development and change. cincinnati, oh: south-western college publishing. deal, j.j., stawiski, s., graves, l., gentry, w., & ruderman, m. (2013), motivation at work: which matters more, generation or managerial level? consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 65(1), 1–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0032693 devills, r.d. (2003). scale development: theory and applications. (2nd edn.). california: sage. e-research. (2002). analysis: a guide to total reward, part 1., e-reward.co.uk limited, london. ellis, m. (2009). win the race for talent. retrieved june 30, 2014, from http://www.sbnonline.com/classes gentry, t. (2007). re-engineering recognition. workspan, 02/07, 47–48. giancola, f. (2006). the generation gap: more myth than reality. hr. human resource planning, 29(4), 32–37. glass, a. (2007). understanding generational differences for competitive success. industrial and commercial training, 39, 98–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00197850710732424 hatfield, s.l. (2002). understanding the four generations to enhance workplace management. association for financial professionals (afp) exchange, 22, 72–75. hayes, s. (1999). is your company’s rewards package out of sync?, workforce, december, 115–116. horwitz, f.m., bowmaker-falconer, a., & searll, p. (1996). human resource development and managing diversity in south africa. international journal of manpower, 17, 134–151. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437729610127604 irvine, d. (2010). how to reward a multigenerational and culturally diverse workforce. workspan: the magazine of worldatwork, 4, 63–68. kane, s. (2013). generation y. retrieved july 19, 2014, from http://legalcareers.about.com/od/practicetips/a/generationy.htm khon, a. (2002). rethinking rewards. in harvard business review, on compensation, (pp. 51–76). watertown, ma: harvard business school publishing corporation. kupperschmidt, b.r. (2000). multigeneration employees: strategies for effective management. the health care manager, 19, 65–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00126450-200019010-00011 lancaster, l.c., & stillman, d. (2002). when generations collide. new york, ny: harpercollins. landelahni. (2010). financial services survey. retrieved july 20, 2014, from http://www.hrfuture.net/news/professional-skills-needed-to-fuel-financial-services-sector-renewal.php?itemid=812 linne, l. (2009). obtaining and retaining the best talent. rough notes, 152(6), 32–34. lyons, s. (2003). an exploration of generational values in life and at work. unpublished phd dissertation, faculty of graduate studies, carleton university, ottawa, canada. masibigiri, v., & nienaber, h. (2011). factors affecting the retention of generation x public servants: an exploratory study. sa journal of human resource management, 9(1), art. #318, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.318 milgram, r. (2008). attracting and retaining a multi-generational workforce. the magazine of worldatwork, 6, 1–14. mohlala, j.g. (2011). employee retention within standard bank group it. mba thesis, department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa. moore, a. (2009). reward preferences for generations in selected ict companies. unpublished master’s thesis, department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa. nienaber, r., bussin, m., & henn, c. (2011). the relationship between personality types and reward preferences. acta commercii, 11(2), art. #153, 9 pages. nordenfelt, l. (1993). quality of life, health and happiness. avebury, england:aldershot. orciani, d. (2009). a manager’s perspective on how to effectively manage the multi-generational workforce. the magazine of worldatwork, 7, 79–80. pallant, j. (2007). spss survival manual: a step-by-step guide to data analysis using spss for windows. (3rd edn). mcgraw hill – open university press. scott, d., & mcmullen, t. (2010). the impact of rewards programs on employee engagement. worldatwork. retrieved july 20, 2014, from http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/adimlink?id=39032 shaul, c. (2007). the attitude toward money as a reward system between the age groups corresponding to the boomers, generation x, and generation y employees. unpublished phd dissertation, marshall goldsmith school of management, alliant international university, san diego, ca. smola, w.k., & sutton, c.d. (2002). generational differences: revisiting generational work values for the new millennium. journal of organisational behaviour, 23, 363–382. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.147 worldatwork. (2006). worldatwork total rewards model. retrieved november 15, 2013, from http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/aboutus/html/aboutuswhatis.html worldatwork. (2008). worldatwork total rewards model: a framework for strategies to attract, motivate and retain employees. retrieved november 15, 2014, from http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/aboutus/html/aboutus-whatis.html zemke, r. raines, c., & filipczack, b. (2000). generations at work: managing the clash of the veterans, boomers, xers and nexters in your workplace. new york, ny: amacom. abstract introduction method results and discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) chris w. callaghan division of management and human resources management, school of economic and business sciences, university of the witwatersrand, south africa citation callaghan, c.w. (2016). ‘publish or perish’: family life and academic research productivity. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a727. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.727 original research ‘publish or perish’: family life and academic research productivity chris w. callaghan received: 25 june 2015; accepted: 01 feb. 2016; published: 16 may 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract research purpose: the influence of work-to-family and family-to-work spillovers is well documented in the human resources literature. however, little is known of the relationships between the pressures faced by academics to publish and the potential family life consequences of being a highly productive academic. research design, approach and method: this research sought to investigate these relationships within the context of a large south african university by testing associations between family life variables such as marriage and dependent children against measures of the following specific types of research publication: (1) south african department of higher education and training–accredited journal publications; (2) thompson reuters institute for scientific information (isi) and proquest’s international bibliography of the social sciences (ibss)–indexed journal article publications; (3) conference proceedings publications; (4) conference paper presentations; (5) book chapter publications; (6) book publications; and (7) gross research productivity, reflecting a volume or quantity measure of research publication. main findings: isi and/or ibss journal article publication is found to be negatively associated with dependent children, but only for male academics, and to be negatively associated with female gender over and above the effect of family life variables in testing. practical/managerial implications: human resources managers in universities need to be cognisant of the specific pressures faced by staff that are required to produce ever more research publications, in order to help them achieve work–life balance. contribution: in a global context of increasing pressures for research publication, and for higher and higher numbers of publications, it is necessary to identify the potential costs involved for high-volume–producing academics, particularly in terms of family versus work. introduction a large body of literature exists across different contexts on unequal societal role burdens experienced by the different sexes (cornwall, harrison & whitehead, 2007; faust, 2013; jacobs, 1996; kabeer, 2005; powell, 2005; rao, 2006; rao & kelleher, 2003; smyth, 2007; unterhalter & north, 2011; wendoh & wallace, 2005), as well as in the south african context (geisler, 2000; hassim, 2006; mcewan, 2000; rogan, 2013; seidman, 1993; wood & jewkes, 1997). there is agreement across the literature that differences in societal practices relating to the organising of social relations (ridgeway & correll, 2004) largely underlie these gender differences and that inequality exists in the burden of home-making, childcare and family roles (dilworth, 2004; dilworth & kingsbury, 2005) as well as in the gender differentiation associated with certain roles, such as teaching (hattie & marsh, 1996) and research roles (barbezat, 2006) in universities. purpose this research sought to investigate relationships between family life and research productivity in the context of a large developing-country university. of specific interest to this project were relationships between family life and research productivity for highly productive researchers, and potential family-related costs or consequences associated with being a top researcher in this context. therefore, the objective of the study was to test theory that relates family life to research publications output. the aim of the study was to develop knowledge around work–life balance (wlb) effects. it is argued that this study is important, for the following reasons. firstly, in an increasingly competitive global context, academics are pushed to publish ever-higher numbers of publications (see binswanger, 2014; colquhoun, 2011; keen, 2007; smith, 1990). peer review, typically unpaid, underpins an extensive process of academic publication. some argue that increasing pressures on academics to publish more (keen, 2007) can reduce the quality of science and demoralise staff and can contribute to journal proliferation, including predatory journals, and to the development of a ‘publication for a fee’ industry (beall, 2013; colquhoun, 2011). as the management of universities increase these stipulated ‘numbers’, typically in order to meet the pressures of university ranking systems (binswanger, 2014), the ‘publish or perish’ nature of academic work intensifies, often with a focus on quantity instead of quality (colquhoun, 2011; o’connor, 2010), in some instances also resulting in increased bias (fanelli, 2010). there seems to be little current research in this context explicitly investigating relationships between family life and research publications in the form of different types of publications. therefore, this study is considered important because it can provide knowledge of family life consequences in a context under increasing pressures to publish, given international trends (beall, 2013; colquhoun, 2011; fanelli, 2010; keen, 2007; o’connor, 2010). knowledge of the ‘threshold tolerances’ of publication relating to specific forms of research publications is therefore considered to be important. secondly, some (see smith 1990, n.p.) have argued the ‘publish or perish’ dictum may generate ‘useless research articles’ and lead academic staff ‘away from their students’. this raises the issue of conflict between teaching and research roles, a long-standing issue in university contexts (hattie & marsh, 1996). this study is also significant if it identifies costs associated with high research productivity, given the teaching pressures on academic staff. an analysis of teaching versus research satisfaction is therefore considered important in this context. it is argued that pressures to publish will increase over time, and these pressures need to be considered in relation to their costs and consequences. thirdly, given south africa’s history of endemic inequality (hassim, 2006; ribeiro, bosch & becker, 2013), this study makes a contribution through its explication of the gender dynamic associated with the tensions between high-volume publication and family life. in a society in which many are sincerely committed to reducing inequality, particularly gender inequality, research that contributes knowledge of how inequality can be reduced without imposing costs on others is considered to be particularly important. having offered an introduction to the study and a justification for its significance, the theoretical frameworks of the study are now considered. literature review any research on the potential satisfaction and wlb of staff within a certain industry needs to recognise the relative work-related differences between the industry and others. research has found differences in occupational stress between occupations, with teaching staff in particular reporting higher levels of occupational stress than most other professions, perhaps because of the emotional labour involved (johnson et al., 2005; zembylas, 2004; zhang & zhu, 2008). emotional labour relates to the need to display intense emotions within a job, although work overload is typically also a challenge faced by teachers (hargreaves, 1998; johnson et al., 2005; kokkinos, 2007). teaching is but one dimension of lecturing work, but an important aspect of it. societal practices that relate to the organising of social relations are typically unequal, with different roles ascribed by gender (ridgeway & correl, 2004), and unequal gender roles persist, such as those relating to childcare as well as the tension between work and family roles. it is possible that gender roles are not neutral in terms of shaping the intrinsic preferences of academics for either research or teaching. time spent on teaching has been found to be a negative and significant predictor of research productivity, as measured by total publications (p < 0.01), and male academics typically report spending less time on teaching and more on research than female academics (barbezat, 2006). given that academics need to balance the roles of leader, teacher and researcher, the potential influence of family commitments such as marriage and dependent children might increase the potential for family–work conflict. one aspect of the tension between work and family roles is the potential influence of spillovers, or the negative influences of work, on family life and on working outcomes. working mothers have been found to experience higher levels of negative family-to-work spillover than fathers (dilworth, 2004). family-to-work spillovers have also been found to differ according to generational differences (dilworth & kingsbury, 2005). in terms of bidirectional inter-role conflict, family boundaries have been found to typically be more permeable in that work roles typically intrude more significantly on family roles than family roles on work roles (eagle, miles & icenogle, 1997); however, research highlights the ongoing influence of unequal sex roles (castro, 2012; durbin & tomlinson, 2014; houle, chiocchio, favreau & villeneuve, 2012). numbers of dependent children are considered an important moderator of work–family issues, and therefore wlb (deery, 2008). because of the negative impact of wlb issues on staff retention, some have recommended that governments legislate maximum hours of work. in certain industries, hours of work can be high, such as in hospitality (deery, 2008), accounting (frank & lowe, 2003) and medicine (landrigan et al., 2004) and can be associated with higher levels of occupational injuries and illnesses (dembe, erickson, delbos & banks, 2005). although universities might have relatively flexible working hours compared to other industries, it is possible that increasing pressures on academics can lead to academics working similar hours and taking work ‘home’. critics argue that, on a global basis, academics have been subjected to ever-increasing workloads over time (houston, meyer & paewai, 2006; tight, 2010). this approach has proliferated in the form of ‘artificial contests’ that are intensifying across the world, as higher and higher publication counts are required of academics (binswanger, 2014). this has put academics under pressure to produce increasingly higher numbers of research publications as well as research grants, with a particular focus on volume more than quality. to the extent that basic research is a common good, letting markets decide on research typically neglects basic research, but this has not stood in the way of the global rise of artificial markets in the form of competitive rankings, which coupled university performance to markets along a host of dimensions (binswanger, 2014). however, over time, stakeholders in human resource management (hrm) systems can shape these systems; for example, ‘society may press for changes to improve family life’ (jackson, schuler & jiang, 2014), but academia as an industry seems to be atypical of others, and the trend towards increasing pressures on academics to publish volumes of publications (binswanger, 2014; colquhoun, 2011; smith, 1990) seems to show no signs of abating. the hrm systems of universities typically include formal workload models. however, to some extent, the impact of increasing hours of work that academics need to put in during their own time might not be reflected in typical workload models. academic contexts might be expected to develop into less family-friendly workplaces over time if the trend towards ever-increasing productivity (colquhoun, 2011; smith, 1990) does not level off. although there has been an increasing focus on developing family-friendly workplaces over time, workplace cultures have been more difficult to change (bond, 2004; lewis, 2001). another constraint to policies that seek to improve work–life facilitation is the potential for economic, social or career penalties to be related to the use of these policies, which can take the form of ‘reduced employment participation of women, reduced career opportunities for flexible or part-time workers, and reduced access to preferred roles, tasks and opportunities’ (skinner & chapman, 2013, p. 13). participation in work and/or family programmes has been found to be more likely in the presence of supervisor support and diversity management organisations (kim & mullins, 2014). in terms of family–work spillover, a consideration of gender inequality is also important. given the historical ordering of sex roles and the disproportionate load of work associated with family life borne by women (ridgeway & correl, 2004), it is possible that over time a different gendered career pattern may develop. the deficit model of gender difference highlights the unequal access of women to resources and their exclusion from research networks, which tend to be male-dominated; further, childbearing, caretaking and domestic needs can interfere with research (boshoff & bosch, 2012). publication success typically dictates career progression in academia, particularly in terms of publication in journals indexed in thompson reuters’s institute for scientific information (isi) and proquest’s international bibliography of the social sciences (ibss). conference proceedings publications, conference presentations, book chapter publications and book publications are also important. research is time intensive, and time spent on teaching is a dominant predictor of research publications; a trade-off needs to be made between research, teaching and citizenship roles. certain research suggests that top researchers typically work ‘at home’ and after hours in order to invest the time necessary to publish extensively (callaghan, 2013), which may take time away from family life over the lifecycle of an academic. absent from the literature in this context is knowledge of the specific differences in publication that might result from family–work spillover, or from gender-unequal family task workloads. therefore, this study differentiates between seven different types of research publications and thus offers a more nuanced understanding of the potential consequences of gender role disparity associated with family life influences and of such potential inter-role conflict. inter-role conflict arises when sets of opposing pressures arise from participation in different roles; it is experienced when ‘pressures arising in one role are incompatible with pressures arising in another role’, and role pressure incompatibility exists when ‘participation in one role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in another role’ (greenhaus & beutell, 1985, p. 77). an important form of inter-role conflict is work–family conflict, ‘in which the role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respect’ (greenhaus & beutell, 1985). the historical literature suggests three types of work–family conflict predominate with regard to the work or family domain, namely (1) time-based conflict, which relates to hours worked, inflexible work schedules, shiftwork and the like which typically conflict with family domain factors such as family size and other family pressures; (2) strain-based conflict, relating to role conflict, role ambiguity and boundary-spanning activities which can conflict with family pressures; and (3) behaviour-based conflict, related to work expectations which conflict with family expectations (greenhaus & beutell, 1985). on the basis of the above literature, the central hypotheses tested in this study are (1) hypothesis a, that ‘there is a significant association between dependent children and research productivity’ and (2) hypothesis b, that ‘there is a significant association between marriage and research productivity’. however, literature suggests that relationships related to research productivity, akin to those related to job performance, are complex in nature and need to be modelled through the inclusion of covariate effects. therefore, certain covariates are included in the analysis of the hypotheses derived above. the rationale for inclusion of these factors was based on a preliminary grounded qualitative analysis, as well as justification from the job performance literature. the literature sources of the measures of these factors are reported in the methods section. job satisfaction (muchinsky, 1983), self-efficacy (bandura, 2006) and locus of control (spector, 1988) can be primary determinants of individual performance, according to the job performance literature. these were also identified as core determinants of individual research productivity according to the preliminary qualitative study and were therefore included as covariates in the study. other research in the south african context has found research output of non–research-active academics to be predicted by tangible management mechanism factors, yet by factors other than tangible factors for research-active academics (bosch, 2011). following podsakoff, mackenzie, lee and podsakoff (2003), individual endowments of positive (pa) and negative affect (na) can cause systematic bias in survey responses, and to control for this effect, measures of these were also included. therefore, the measures employed were derived from the literature and were considered appropriate for this study seeking to address the research problem described earlier. having located this research within the broader literature and having derived hypotheses for testing, the methods applied in this study are now discussed. method research approach the study applied a quantitative cross-sectional research design, drawing from the ontological and epistemological tenets of post-positivism (cresswell, 2003). the methods applied in this research were taken to be consistent with the post-positivist paradigm as explicated in the paragraphs that follow. population and sampling the study attempted to apply census sampling. the population of the study comprised approximately 1300 academic staff of a large south african higher education institution. of these, approximately 883 were full-time staff. staff were provided with pre-addressed envelopes that could be returned together with completed questionnaires via the internal mail system. in total, 225 usable responses were received, giving a response rate of about 17% for total staff. a sample size calculation was used to ensure the sample size was sufficient to derive inferential statistics at the 5% level of significance (where the chance of making a type i error, or rejecting a true null hypothesis was equal to making a type ii error, or rejecting a false null hypothesis). anonymity was guaranteed and participation was voluntary. refusals to participate were unconditionally respected. almost half of respondents (46%) reported not having doctorates, about a third (32%) had doctorates but were not associate professors or professors, 14% reported being associate professors, and 8% reported having full professor status. this ratio of staff was taken to support representativeness. further checks of representativeness found over half of academics to report english as a home language (52%), and only a quarter of staff with an african home language (25%). these results are broadly consistent with the demographics of the institution for the period of the study. analysis the data were analysed with spss, version 22. univariate, bivariate and multivariate tests were performed. pearson tests of zero-order correlations and partial correlation analysis were applied to test hypotheses and also for the purposes of further analysis. multiple linear regressions were used to test relationships where covariates were indicated. the assumptions of all the statistical tests were checked, and in addition to this bootstrapped confidence intervals were used to verify results (byrne, 2010). furthermore, chi-squared tests were also used to gain further insight into tested relationships in order to support the depth of the analysis. data were tested for reliability. convergent and discriminant validity was also assessed. careful attention was paid to content, construct and face validity. each form of data, namely ratio, interval and nominal, was identified and the assumptions of each taken into consideration in data analysis. measures in many studies, the underlying rationale for the selection of variables as covariates can be problematic, resulting in bias from omitted variables (heckman & navarro-lozano, 2003). in order to increase the validity of the process of covariate inclusion, the covariate structure was matched with the ‘grounded context’ through the preliminary use of a grounded theory application based on glaser’s (1992) method. in this way, a rationale was used that supported the inclusion of the covariate factors in multivariate testing. it is acknowledged that it was not possible to use instrumental variables to ensure without a doubt that omitted variable bias was not a factor, yet theoretical rationale guided the process, nonetheless. the research therefore followed cresswell’s (2003) understanding of post-positivist research, which acknowledges the weaknesses inherent in any attempt to apply positivist methods and applies a ‘theory-testing’ approach in order to mitigate these limitations. in other words, evidence is used to either accept or reject hypotheses, or arguments, according to popper’s (1963) approach. the following variables were included in the multiple linear regression analysis models: generalised job satisfaction, self-efficacy related to research, negative affectivity, positive affectivity, locus of control, gender, other countries lived in for over a year, full-time work experience, professional associations, the number of people reporting to an individual, number of masters students supervised, dependent children, a preference for quantitative methods, south african origin and english as a home language. job satisfaction was measured using seven-point likert-type scales, broadly derived from the precedent of the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire scales (arvey, bouchard, segal & abraham, 1989; muchinsky, 1983). three items were used to measure job satisfaction. the cronbach alpha obtained for these items was 0.859. the self-efficacy items were derived from the scales developed by bandura (2006). these items were designed to reflect perceived capability, using the word ‘can’ rather than ‘will’, following bandura’s (2006, p. 308) prescriptions. bandura (2006, p. 309) differentiates locus of control from self-efficacy, where locus of control ‘is concerned, not with perceived capability, but with belief about outcome contingencies – whether outcomes are determined by one’s own actions or by forces outside one’s control’ and that high locus of control ‘does not necessarily signify a sense of enablement and well-being’ (bandura, 2006, p. 309). the scales used in this study to measure na and pa were derived from watson, clark, and tellegen’s (1988) affect scales. watson et al. (1988) developed two 10-item mood scales, the positive and negative affect schedule, which have, in previous studies, been found to have high internal consistency, to be largely uncorrelated, and to be relatively stable over 2-month time periods. these factors have emerged from rotated factor analysis as orthogonal dimensions of affect (watson & tellegen, 1985). pa ‘reflects the extent to which a person feels enthusiastic, active and alert’ and high pa ‘is a state of high energy, full concentration, and pleasurable engagement, whereas low pa is characterised by sadness and lethargy’ (watson et al., 1988, p. 1063). na is a: general dimension of subjective distress and unpleasurable engagement that subsumes a variety of aversive mood states, including anger, contempt, disgust, guilt, fear and nervousness, with low na being a state of calmness and serenity. (watson et al., 1988, p. 1063) this study used the 16-measure work locus of control scales developed by spector (1988). the scale has demonstrated validity and reliability in different contexts (spector, 1988) and has been found to correlate with a range of factors that support criterion-related validity as well as being used extensively in locus of control studies across the globe. the items of this scale are in the form of likert-type scales that give respondents a statement and responses that include ‘disagree very much’, ‘disagree moderately’, ‘disagree slightly’, ‘agree slightly’, ‘agree moderately’, and ‘agree very much’. the other demographic variables were sampled using questions that were phrased simply and clearly in the questionnaire. seven measures of research productivity were used (a composite measure of research publication – termed gross research productivity – and six subordinate measures). respondents were asked to indicate how many of these they had been published or presented, including those accepted for publication or presentation. these seven measures were (1) south african department of higher education and training–accredited journal publications; (2) isi and ibss-indexed journal article publications, representing ‘internationally indexed’ journal article publication; (3) conference proceedings publications; (4) conference paper presentations; (5) book chapter publications; (6) book publications and (7) gross research productivity, which, as indicated, is a composite variable, comprising (1), (2), (4) and (5), a composite of ‘same-size’ publications that specifically reflected the quantity of research publication. scales and questionnaire items were tested during piloting. in all methodological processes, precedent was strictly followed and a sampling protocol was adhered to so as to not allow extraneous variance to enter the process. results and discussion the descriptive statistics that relate to these variables are reported in table 1. the univariate, bivariate and multivariate results are reported and discussed in the sections that follow. table 1: descriptive statistics: mean, standard deviation, variance, skewness and kurtosis. univariate analysis results according to the univariate analysis (table 1), women were in the majority in the sample, with 53% representation versus 47% for men. over half of the sample were of south african origin (56%) and had english as a home language (52%). the majority (56.9%) of staff reported being married. respondents reported on average having one child (1.094), with a range of up to a maximum of seven children. the mean age of female respondents was 40.8 years, with a median of 40 and a mode of 35 (58% married with an age range from 22 to 66). the mean age of male respondents was 40.52, with a median and mode age of 40 (with 56% married and an age range from 22 to 72 years). bivariate and multivariate results the results of the bivariate and multivariate testing are reported and discussed as follows. in each case, the tested hypothesis is used as the heading of each section: hypothesis 1: there is a significant association between dependent children and research productivity. according to the zero-order bivariate pearson tests of association, the dependent children variable was found to be positively significantly associated with conference proceedings publication (0.164; p < 0.014). neither were isi and/or ibss journal publications found to be significantly associated with dependent children nor were these relationships significant when age was controlled. however, when age together with gender were controlled, the association between isi and/or ibss journal publication and dependent children was found to be negative and significant (-0.179; p < 0.008), a result supported by the bootstrapped confidence intervals (lower = -0.304; upper = -0.04). when included together with covariate factors in the multiple linear regression analyses, the dependent children variable was also found to be significantly and negatively associated with isi and/or ibss journal article publication (p < 0.035). this might indicate the presence of heterogeneity in the data as a methodological artefact (heckman & navarro-lozano, 2003), which cannot be addressed using bivariate methods, but which can be controlled for using partial correlation and multiple linear regression analysis methods. as a further check, when backward elimination with a statistical (atheoretical) rationale was applied, the dependent children variable was still found to be significantly and negatively associated isi and/or ibss journal article publication. the other variables remaining in the backward elimination model (within the 10% significance level required for inclusion) were self-efficacy relating to isi and/or ibss publications, total work experience and gender (>r>2 = 0.268; adjusted >r>2 = 0.258; standard error = 12.650; >f> = 27.016; p < 0.0001). all the bootstrapped confidence intervals were found to support the significance of the variables in the model. the female gender variable (a dummy measure) was significant and negatively associated with isi and/or ibss journal article publication in both these models, indicating that this effect was significant over and above the associations between dependent children and the other covariates. on the basis of these results, the alternative hypothesis a, that ‘there is a significant association between dependent children and research productivity’ was supported. therefore, the result is taken to suggest that dependent children have a negative association with isi and/or ibss journal article publication over and above the influence of gender. this result may suggest that family-to-work spillovers (dilworth, 2004; dilworth & kingsbury, 2005) might be present in terms of international journal article publications. if there is a cost in terms of a family life versus isi and/or ibss publication trade-off, then such a result would be expected. it is possible that in a context of ever-increasing pressures for publication (binswanger, 2014; colquhoun, 2011; smith, 1990), there may be a threshold above which there is a conflict between family life and research publications. although it is not possible to claim causality on the basis of the tests used, it is nevertheless argued that further research should investigate the possibility that as pressures to publish continue to increase there might be the chance of increasing family life role conflict. the negative association between female gender and isi and/or ibss journal article publication is taken to suggest that female career progression may be constrained in this context. further chi-squared tests were performed on the relationships between gender and membership of different levels of the organisational hierarchy or designation differences. the mr or ms designation (chi-square = 3.140; p < 0.208), doctoral designation (chi-square = 0.495; p < 0.482) and associate professor designations (chi-square = 1.731; p < 0.188) revealed no gender difference, but at a professorial level (chi-squared = 4.951; p < 0.026), men were more prevalent. this result would be expected to reflect a context in which men have an advantage in isi and/or ibss journal publications because promotion to ‘full’ professor typically requires international publications. little evidence here suggests that gender inequality is not present in this context. although an investigation of the cause of this inequality was beyond the scope of this work, it is argued here this cause is no different from that proposed by a relatively large body of international literature (cornwall et al., 2007; faust, 2013; jacobs, 1996; kabeer, 2005; powell, 2005; rao, 2006; rao & kelleher, 2003; smyth, 2007; unterhalter & north, 2011; wendoh & wallace, 2005), as well as south african literature (geisler, 2000; hassim, 2006; mcewan, 2000; rogan, 2013; seidman, 1993; wood & jewkes, 1997) which points to unequal societal role burdens; in other words, societal practices that relate to the unequal organising of social relations (ridgeway & correl, 2004). the burden of home-making and childcare and family roles (dilworth, 2004; dilworth & kingsbury, 2005) is but one dimension of this role differentiation (the gender variable is significant over and above [independent of] the effect of dependent children in the tested equations), and as suggested by hattie and marsh (1996), it is argued here that another role burden in this context is possibly the different gender role ascriptions that relate to teaching roles. in order to further investigate these relationships within the gender samples itself, and thereby to control for the manifest heterogeneity (heckman & navarro-lozano, 2003) discovered in the testing process, a split was applied to the data by gender. for the female sample, none of the measures of research productivity were significantly associated with the dependent children variable. this was taken to suggest that inequality around gender roles may run deeper than reasons associated only with childcare. however, for the male sample, according to zero-order tests, only dependent children were found to be associated with conference proceedings publication, and positively so (r = 0.202; p < 0.039). partial correlation analysis was then applied, but this relationship was not found to be significant when controlled for age. age being controlled for in case this finding was an artefact of age effects, and tests were performed with all the research publication variables. with age controlled, isi and/or ibss journal article publication was found to be negatively and significantly associated with dependent children for male academics (r = -0.195; p < 0.048), ‘yet not for female academics’. whether this reflects an engagement with childcare time constraints by male academics in the form of family–work spillovers is unclear. it is possible, perhaps, that female academics are in fact better in adapting to the pressures of raising children. the notion that male academics with families might be constrained in their career progression (isi and/or ibss journal article publication is typically a requirement for promotion to full professor) is also problematic. it is possible that publication of higher numbers of isi and/or ibss publications requires more time than is available in typical working days; other research suggests that to be top in an academic field might require very large time investments (bosch, 2011; callaghan, 2013). if high levels of isi and/or ibss publication require hours of work or time investments that are in excess of typical working conditions, then further research should perhaps investigate the costs to individuals (and to family life) that might be associated with this. for the female sample, dependent children are found to be associated negatively and significantly with conference presentations (r = -0.217; p < 0.018). for men, this relationship is not significant. it is possible travelling involved in conference presentations has a different gender effect; women may be less likely to sleep over at conferences if they have dependent children. what might be important here is the fact that conference presentations are typically the first step in the development of a research portfolio, as this is a developmental stage in a ladder of research development (callaghan, 2013). these results suggest family-to-work spillover, which has been found to potentially have a negative influence on work productivity (dilworth, 2004; dilworth & kingsbury, 2005) that might be present in this context and that its effects may differ by gender. if family life does constrain the development of female academics through its influence on conference presentations, which is a first, and perhaps necessary, step in academic development, then institutional support and incentives might need to address this. institutional support and incentives might play an important role in addressing gendered constraints to development in this context (boshoff & bosch, 2012): hypothesis 2: there is a significant association between marriage and research productivity. married academics were found to report publishing significantly more department of higher education and training (dohet) articles, (0.194; p < 0.003) but when age was controlled for using partial correlation analysis, this association was no longer found to be significant (0.105; p < 0.118), although the bootstrapped confidence intervals suggested a significant association (lower = 0.023; upper = 0.196). marriage was not found to be significantly associated with isi and/or ibss journal article publication nor conference presentations; neither as zero-order associations nor with age controlled, but was for conference proceedings (zero-order: 0.154; p < 0.021), although not when age was controlled (0.077; p < 0.250). similarly, marriage was not found to be associated with book, book chapter publication, or with gross research publication, in all cases with and without controlling for age. although family-to-work spillover effects might typically have less of an influence than work-to-family effects (eagle et al., 1997), the presence of a negative association between international journal article publication and the number of dependent children of male academics requires further research into what potential ‘family’ costs are associated with highly productive researchers. it is concluded that family-to-work spillovers (which are proxied by the dependent children variable) may not be gender homogenous in this context. the influence of societal culture can manifest strongly in the different family roles that it prescribes in different ways to men and women (emrich, denmark & den hartog, 2004). it is recommended that universities proactively engage with these challenges by providing day-care facilities and other support to parents, as gender role differences might still place a gender-unequal burden on parents (of either sex) who are academics. on the basis of these results, it is recommended that the influences of family-to-work spillovers on male academics are also not neglected. conclusion and recommendations for further research the objective of this study was to test the potential influence of family life spillovers on academic research publication. the findings of this study suggest that male academics with more dependent children publish significantly fewer isi and/or ibss journal articles. little evidence was found to refute predictions in the literature that ever-increasing pressures to publish will be associated with wlb consequences for academic staff (binswanger, 2014; colquhoun, 2011; smith, 1990), and in this instance, it was argued that academics publishing higher numbers of isi and/or ibss journal articles might face a higher chance of family–work role conflict. further research is suggested to build on these findings, preferably using causal methods as well as qualitative research in order to develop causal models of these relationships. female academics, with relatively lower isi and/or ibss publications, might also be constrained in their career progression in this context, but these constraints might exist over and above the influence of family life. although it was not possible to ascribe causality using statistical testing, it was argued that unlike men, who seem to be less productive the more dependent children they have, women seem to have a preference for teaching over research, which might explain certain of these differences. further research should seek to investigate these relationships further and offer a more authoritative perspective on this. to the extent that career progression is a function of international article publication, it was argued that a glass ceiling effect, or unseen barrier to gender career progression unrelated to skills or abilities (cotter, hermsen, ovadia & vanneman, 2001), prevails in this context, termed here a ‘paper ceiling’, relating specifically to the academic context. this notion was supported by further analysis – no significant difference was found between the genders for all the hierarchical levels of designation except for full professors, who were found to be significantly more likely to be men. further, women with dependent children were found to be significantly less likely to make conference presentations, which may have an important developmental role as it is the first step of the research ‘ladder’. it is acknowledged this might be because of unequal sex roles, as women with dependent children might be less likely to sleep over at conferences. on the basis of these findings, it is concluded that it is possible that family–work spillovers may constrain career progression in this context. although the use of causal methods was not possible, further research is recommended in order to replicate this study in other contexts as well as to perhaps apply qualitative methods in order to explore the causal paths that underlie these findings. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. references arvey, r.d., bouchard, t.j., segal, n.l., & abraham, l.m. (1989). job satisfaction: environmental and genetic components. journal of applied psychology, 74(2), 187–192. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.74.2.187 bandura, a. (2006). guide for constructing self-efficacy scales. in f. pajares & t. urdan (eds.), self-efficacy beliefs of adolescents (vol. 5, pp. 307–337). greenwich: information age. barbezat, d.a. (2006). gender differences in research patterns among phd economists. journal of economic education, 37(3), 359–375. http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/jece.37.3.359-375 beall, j. (2013). the open-access movement is not really about open access. triple c, 11(2), 589–597. binswanger, m. (2014). excellence by nonsense: the competition for publications. in s. bartling & s. friesike (eds.), opening science: the evolving guide on how the internet is changing research, collaboration and scholarly publishing (pp. 49–72). cham: springer. bond, s. (2004). organisational culture and work-life conflict in the uk. international journal of sociology and social policy, 24(12), 1–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01443330410790795 bosch, a. (2011). the south african board for people practices (sabpp) woman’s report 2011. african gender institute. retrieved march 15, 2016, from http://agi.ac.za/news/south-african-board-people-practices-sabpp-womans-report-2011-dr-anita-bosch boshoff, n. & bosch, a. (2012). women in south african academia: a statistical profile. in a. bosch (ed.), south african board for people practices women’s report 2012 (pp. 12–20). parktown, south africa: sabpp. byrne, b.m. (2010). structural equation modelling with amos. (2nd edn.). new york: routledge. callaghan, c.w. (2013). psychological globe organisational culture values and research productivity. academy of management conference, 7–10 january, johannesburg, south africa. castro, m.r. (2012). time demands and gender roles: the case of a big four firm in mexico. gender, work and organization, 19(5), 532–554. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2012.00606.x colquhoun, d. (2011). publish-or-perish: peer review and the corruption of science. the guardian. retrieved april 11, 2015, from http://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/sep/05/publish-perish-peer-review-science cornwall, a., harrison, e., & whitehead, a. (2007). gender myths and feminist fables: the struggle for interpretive power in gender and development. development and change, 38(1), 1–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2007.00400.x cotter, d.a., hermsen, j.m., ovadia, s., & vanneman, r. (2001). the glass ceiling effect. social forces, 80(2), 655–681. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/sof.2001.0091 cresswell, j.w. (2003). research design. qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. deery, m. (2008). talent management, work-life balance and retention strategies. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 20(7), 792–806. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09596110810897619 dembe, a.e., erickson, j.b., delbos, r.g., & banks, s.m. (2005). the impact of overtime and long work hours on occupational injuries and illnesses: new evidence from the united states. occupational & environmental medicine, 62, 588–597. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/oem.2004.016667 dilworth, j.e., & kingsbury, n. (2005). home-to-job spillover for generation x, boomers, and matures: a comparison. journal of family and economic issues, 26(2), 267–281. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10834-005-3525-9 dilworth, j.e.l. (2004). predictors of negative spillover from family to work. journal of family issues, 25, 241–261. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0192513x03257406 durbin, s., & tomlinson, j. (2014). female part-time managers: careers, mentors and role models. gender, work & organization, 21(4), 308–320. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12038 eagle, b.w., miles, e.w., & icenogle, m.l. (1997). interrole conflicts and the permeability of work and family domains: are there gender differences? journal of vocational behavior, 50, 168–184. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1996.1569 emrich, c.g., denmark, f.l., & den hartog, d.n. (2004). cross-cultural difference in gender egalitarianism. in r.j. house, p.j. hanges, m. javidan, p.w. dorfman, & v. gupta (eds.), culture, leadership and organizations: the globe study of 62 societies (pp. 343–394). thousand oaks, ca: sage. fanelli, d. (2010). do pressures to publish increase scientists’ bias? an empirical support from us states data. plos one, 5(4). retrieved december 5, 2015, from http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0010271 faust, d. (2013). educate women; change the world. president/educate-women; change the world at ewha womans university. retrieved may 13, 2013, from http://www.harvard.edu/ frank, k.e., & lowe, d.j. (2003). an examination of alternative work arrangements in private accounting practice. accounting horizons, 17(2), 139–151. http://dx.doi.org/10.2308/acch.2003.17.2.139 geisler, g. (2000). women, men and politics in south africa. the journal of modern african studies, 38(4), 605–630. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022278x00003372 glaser, b.g. (1992). basics of grounded theory analysis. mill valley: sociological press. greenhaus, j.h., & beutell, n.j. (1985). sources of conflict between work and family roles. academy of management review, 10(1), 76–88. hargreaves, a. (1998). the emotional practice of teaching. teaching and teacher education, 14(8), 835–854. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0742-051x(98)00025-0 hassim, s. (2006). women’s organizations and democracy in south africa: contesting authority. madison: university of wisconsin press. hattie, j., & marsh, h.w. (1996). the relationship between research and teaching: a meta-analysis. review of educational research, 66(4), 507–542. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/00346543066004507 heckman, j., & navarro-lozano, s. (2003). using matching, instrumental variables and control functions to estimate economic choice models. working paper, no. 2003:4. uppsala: institute for evaluation of labour market and education policy. houle, l., chiocchio, f., favreau, o., & villeneuve, m. (2012). role conflict and self-efficacy among employed parents: examining complex statistical interactions. gender, work & organization, 19(6), 592–614. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2011.00562.x houston, d., meyer, l.h., & paewai, s. (2006). academic staff workloads and job satisfaction: expectations and values in academe. journal of higher education policy and management, 28(1), 17–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13600800500283734 jackson, s.e., schuler, r.s., & jiang, k. (2014). an aspirational framework for strategic human resource management. the academy of management annals, 8(1), 1–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19416520.2014.872335 jacobs, j.a. (1996). gender inequality and higher education. annual review of sociology, 22, 153–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.22.1.153 johnson, s., cooper, c., cartwright, s., donald, i., taylor, p., & millet, c. (2005). the experience of work-related stress across occupations. journal of managerial psychology, 20(2), 178–187. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940510579803 kabeer, n. (2005). gender equality and women’s empowerment: a critical analysis of the third millennium development goal 1. gender and development, 13(1), 13–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13552070512331332273 keen, a. (2007). writing for publication: pressures, barriers and support strategies. nurse education today, 27(5), 382–388. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2006.05.019 kim, t., & mullins, l.b. (2014). how does supervisor support and diversity management affect employee participation in work/family policies? research note. review of public personnel administration, 1–26. kokkinos, c.m. (2007). job stressors, personality and burnout in primary school teachers. british journal of educational psychology, 77(1), 229–243. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/000709905x90344 landrigan, c.p., rothschild, j.m., cronin, j.w., kaushal, r., burdick, e., katz, j.t., et al. (2004). effect of reducing interns’ work hours on serious medical errors in intensive care units. new england journal of medicine, 351(18), 1838–1848. http://dx.doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa041406 lewis, s. (2001). restructuring workplace cultures: the ultimate work-family challenge? women in management review, 16(1), 21–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09649420110380256 mcewan, c. (2000). engendering citizenship: gendered spaces of democracy in south africa. political geography, 19(5), 627–651. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0962-6298(00)00009-3 muchinsky, p.m. (1983). psychology applied to work: an introduction to industrial and organizational psychology. homewood: dorsey press. o’connor, s.j. (2010). what do duplicate publications: self-plagiarism and the monotony of endless descriptive studies signify: publication pressures or simply a collective lack of imagination? european journal of cancer care, 19(3), 281–283. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2354.2010.01192.x podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., lee, j., & podsakoff, n.p. (2003). common method biases in behavioural research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. journal of applied psychology, 88(5), 879–903. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879 popper, k.r. (1963). science: conjectures and refutations: the growth of scientific knowledge. london: routledge. powell, m. (2005). a rights-based approach to gender equality and women’s rights. canadian journal of development studies, 26, 605–617. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02255189.2005.9669101 rao, a. (2006). making institutions work for women. development, 49(1), 63–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.development.1100207 rao, a., & kelleher, d. (2003). institutions, organisations and gender equality in an era of globalisation. gender and development, 11(1), 142–149. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/741954264 ribeiro, s., bosch, a., & becker, j. (2013). women in the workplace. research report 2013. retrieved october 26, 2014, from http://www.uj.ac.za/en/faculties/ecofin/accounting/newsevents/newsandeventsachievements/documents/fefs%20accountancy%20women%20in%20workplace%20keeping%20south%20africa%e2%80%99s%20female%20cas%20in%20public%20practice%20part%202%20and%203.pdf ridgeway, c.l., & correll, s.j. (2004). unpacking the gender system. a theoretical perspective on gender beliefs and social relations. gender and society, 18(4), 510–531. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0891243204265269 rogan, m. (2013). alternative definitions of headship and the ‘feminisation’ of income poverty in post-apartheid south africa. journal of development studies, 49(10), 1344–1357. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2013.812199 seidman, g.w. (1993). ‘no freedom without the women’: mobilisation and gender in south africa, 1970–1992. signs, 18(2), 291–320. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/494794 skinner, n., & chapman, j. 2013. work-life balance and family friendly policies. evidence base, 4, 1–25. smith, p. (1990). killing the spirit: higher education in america. new york: viking penguin. smyth, i. (2007). talking of gender: words and meanings in development organisations. development in practice, 17(4/5), 582–588. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09614520701469591 spector, p.e. (1988). development of the work locus of control scale. journal of occupational psychology, 61, 335–340. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1988.tb00470.x tight, m. (2010). are academic workloads increasing? the post-war survey evidence in the uk. higher education quarterly, 64(2), 200–215. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2273.2009.00433.x unterhalter, e., & north, a. (2011). responding to the gender and education millennium development goals in south africa and kenya: reflections on education rights, gender equality, capabilities and global justice. compare: a journal of comparative & international education, 41(4), 495–511. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2011.581516 watson, d., clark, l.a., & tellegen, a. (1988). development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the panas scales. journal of personality and social psychology, 54(6), 1063–1070. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063 watson, d., & tellegen, a. (1985). toward a consensual structure of mood. psychological bulletin, 98, 219–235. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.98.2.219 wendoh, s., & wallace, t. (2005). re-thinking gender mainstreaming in african ngos and communities. gender and development, 13(2), 70–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13552070512331332288 wood, k., & jewkes, r. (1997). violence, rape, and sexual coercion: everyday love in a south african township. gender and development, 5(2), 41–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/741922353 zembylas, m. (2004). emotion metaphors and emotional labor in science teaching. science education, 88(3), 301–324. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/sce.10116 zhang, q., & zhu, w. (2008). exploring emotion in teaching: emotional labor, burnout, and satisfaction in chinese higher education. communication education, 57(1), 105–122. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03634520701586310 7-vanzyl.qxd the aim of this paper is to present the methodolog y, structure and results of a dual cost-production model where changes in the level of labour productivit y of a firm and an industry can be measured. the analysis is based on the application of the principles of dualit y where co-integrated production functions for each sample time series are derived from dual cost functions in order to derive the marginal efficiency coefficients which measures productivit y changes. the south african motor vehicle manufacturing industry is used as a case study. a decision had to be made whether to estimate a more flexible or a more restricted form of a production function for each chosen time series. a more restrictive form was chosen because it is assumed to be more stable and robust than a flexible form and is thus more suitable for incorporation into a production model, which is utilised for the purpose of this particular analysis (wynn 1974). the dual cost function the opt imal value of the object ive f unct ion of the primal problem is equal to the optimal value of the corresponding dual problem. optimal economic behaviour of business entities is most commonly measured by the principles of profit maximisation and the principle of cost minimisation. the principle of the dualit y theorem thus states that any constrained profit maximisation problem has a dual problem in constrained minimisat ion of cost (salvatore 1996). the max imum product ion out put level is normally expressed as a function of the input base and a certain level of technological know-how (the result of economies of scope and the learning curve effect). in terms of dualit y principles the minimum cost function can be expressed as a function of the combined production output of the firm or industries, the input base, the input prices and the given level of technological know-how. the applicable average cost function is defined as the minimum cost level divided by the given level of manufact uring output. the applicable average cost function is important in determining ret urns to scale for the purpose of the compilation of the dual model (hirschey 1995). the cost minimisation problem is expressed as a constrained optimisation problem where minimum cost is expressed as the sum of input prices plus a lagrange multiplier times the difference bet ween the levels of production output on the one hand and the levels of inputs and technical know-how on the other hand. the first order condit ions for the minimisation of production cost are simply the partial derivatives of the minimum cost function in terms of 1) input prices and 2) the difference bet ween manufacturing output and the level of inputs and technological know-how. the cost function dual to the production function is determined by substituting each level of input combination into the first order derivative of the difference bet ween manufact uring out put and the level of inputs and technological know-how. the optimal levels of inputs are substituted into the cost equation (expressed as the sum of the product of the level of inputs and input prices). the properties of the data used in the estimation an important aspect of data collection is to establish the properties of each data set by analysing each data series thoroughly. properties such as stationarity or the order of integration are important. the following time series are used in the estimation of cost functions for the different sample time series and the consequent derivation of the production functions: g van zyl professor in economics department of economics rand afrikaans university abstract positive real increases in the prices of inputs, as the result of an inefficient level of productivity, can no longer be accepted in competitive markets. the survival and more specifically the competitiveness of businesses and industries is critically dependent on a higher level of cost efficiency and in particular a more productive input base. the aim of the paper is to present the methodology, structure and results of a new dual cost-production instrument where changes in the level of labour productivity can be measured. a scientific derived and well-tested instrument is developed. this instrument should enable human resource managers to monitor productivity changes more effectively and make timely decisions on ways and means that could improve the productivity of labour. opsomming positiewe reële toenames in die pryse van insette as die resultaat van ’n oneffektiewe vlak van produktiwiteit kan nie langer in mededingende markte geduld word nie. die oorlewing en meer spesifiek die mededingendheid van ondernemings en industrieë is krities afhanklik van ’n hoër vlak van koste-doelmatigheid en in die besonder van ’n meer produktiewe inset basis. die doel van die publikasie is om die metodiek, struktuur en resultate van ’n nuwe gelyktydige koste-produksie instrument bekend te stel waarmee veranderinge in die vlak van arbeidsproduktiwiteit gemeet kan word. ’n wetenskaplik-afgeleide en getoetste instrument is ontwikkel. diè instrument behoort personeelpraktisyns in staat te stel om produktiwiteitsveranderinge meer effektief te kan monitor en gevolglik tydige besluite te kan neem oor wyses waarop arbeidsproduktiwiteit verbeter kan word. the cost-production duality approach to the measurement of labour productivity: a dynamic tool for effective human resource management requests for copies should be addressed to: g van zyl, department of economics, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 50 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (1), 50-53 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (1), 50-53 1. the cost of production is expressed as cost of labour plus the cost of capital. the cost of capital is calculated as real capital stock multiplied by real user cost of capital. the user cost of capital is calculated in such a way that it not only includes the acquisition cost of capital but also the return forgone by using capital rather than rent ing it, depreciation and any capital gains/losses associated with holding the particular t ype of capital (maurice 1985). for the purposes of the estimations the user cost is expressed as: user cost of capital = qk(i+�) ; where qk is the acquisition cost of capital stock, i the real rate of interest and d the rate of depreciation. the acquisition cost of capital is deflated by the production price index in order to account for differences in the price level at the time of acquisit ion. the t ime series is transformed to its logarithmic form. the cost of labour for each time period is calculated as labour employed times the real cost of labour. the real cost of labour is calculated as the total wages & salaries paid deflated by the production price index. the time series is transformed to its logarithmic form. after the cost of production is calculated, the time series is transformed into its logarithmic form. 2. manufacturing output at real cost the manufacturing output at factor cost time series is simply transformed into its logarithmic form. 3. a technology know-how index this index is included in the function in order to capt ure changes in technological know-how. the index is expressed as a function of a socio-education index, an energ y index and a labour skills index for the industry. the weight of each of the series in this equation is derived by performing a linear regression of the three indices in the equat ion on manufact uring out put. the est imated coefficients are then used as an indication of the relative importance of each series in the technolog y index. the ultimate choice of the explanatory indices is based on their substantial influence on the efficiency of manufacturing product ion. this index is not transformed into its logarithmic form. 4. the demand for labour this variable is represented by a time series of workers employed in the manufact uring industries per time period. each time series is transformed into its logarithmic form. 5. real fixed capital stock this variable is represented by a time series of real fixed capital stock per time period in the manufact uring industries. the time series is transformed to its logarithmic form. 6. dummy variables the aim of the dummy variables is to avoid bias in the estimation. dummy variables are introduced to firstly cover the period 1982-1993 when it became difficult to import capital stock (as a result to exogenous political restrictions) and secondly to cater for tense labour relations in the period 1987-2001 that resulted in strikes and work stoppages. 7. all the data series are tested for stationarity and the level of integration of each of the variables in the regression for each time period. the tests are performed on the data in their logarithmic form. all variables are tested at 5% level of significance and all the variables are integrated of the order of 1. the empirical estimation of cost functions the empirical function for the cost of production in the industry for each time period is expressed as: cost of production = f (production output, user cost of capital, real cost of labour, technological know-how index) the methodology that is used to estimate the cost functions is to apply a roll-up approach where the first data point of the previous data series is omitted and where a new data point is chosen in a sequential manner for each successive data series. the long-run coefficients of the cost functions are then estimated using ordinary least squares. these functions are estimated with a restriction on the coefficients of the input prices to sum to unity. the restriction follows from economic theory that states that a cost function must be homogeneous of degree 1 in prices, that is, by doubling prices costs should be doubled (maurice 1985:135). the resulting coefficients of the cost estimation per time period are summarized in table 1: table 1 estimation results of the co-integration cost equation per time period independent variable coefficients coefficients coefficients 1975-1999 1976-2000 1977-2001 production output (est (1)) 0.64210 0.61230 0.5960 user cost of capital (est (2)) 0.38120 0.39340 0.4188 real cost of labour (est (3)) 0.61880 0.62960 0.6452 technology index (est (4)) -0.45912 -0.4788 -0.4890 r2 0.9231 0.9324 0.9245 adjusted r2 0.9001 0.9133 0.9167 dependent variable: cost of production source: own estimations the long-run co-integrated cost functions for each time period are as follow: � 1975 – 1999 cost of production = 0.64210*manufacturing output + 0.38120*user cost of capital + 0.61880*real cost of labour 0.45912*technological know-how index � 1976 – 2000 cost of production = 0.61230*manufacturing output + 0.39340*user cost of capital + 0.62960*real cost of labour 0.4788*technological knowhow index � 1977 – 2001 cost of production = 0.5960*manufacturing output + 0.4188*user cost of capital + 0.6452*real cost of labour 0.4890*technological knowhow index the co-integrated cost functions have economic significance in the sense that the signs of the estimated coefficients are as expected. the magnitude of the estimated manufacturing output parameter represents a decreasing degree of decreasing returns to scale. the residuals of the estimated cost function are tested for stationarit y. econometric tests are used to test whether the residuals obtained from the est imated product ion cost regressions are stationary (makridakis 1998). these tests confirm that the residuals are stationary at a 5% level of significance. the error terms of the regressions comeasurement of labour productivity 51 integrated and are confirmed by a correlogram test on the residuals. the conclusion is that these est imated cost functions could be used to derive long-run co-integrated production functions in order to establish the changes in the marginal efficiencies of the inputs and more specifically labour productivit y. the derivation of co-integrated production functions by applying dualit y theory it is possible to derive production functions from the estimated cost functions. the derivation of the long-run production functions is based on the methodolog y and calculations of berndt (1991). from the estimated cost equations it follows that production costs always increases (as indicated by the estimated cost f unct ion) and therefore technolog y in this part icular industry displays decreasing returns to scale. this result was confirmed by using the dualit y methodolog y and calculations of berndt (1991). the calculation for returns to scale is expressed as: r = 1/1+est(1) (where r is the returns to scale and est(1) is the estimated coefficient of production output in the cost function). the estimated returns to scale coefficient for each data series is indicated in the following table 2. table 2 returns to scale coefficient per time period time period returns to scale coefficient 1975 – 1999 1976 – 2000 1977 – 2001 source: own calculations by simply multiplying each of the input price coefficients and that of technolog y by ret urns to scale (r), the coefficients of the inputs (a, b and d) in the production function (production output = ak�l�tei�) are obtained. these calculations are based on the principles of dualit y and are as follows: � = est(2) * r (est(2) = coefficient user cost of capital) � = (1est(3)) *r (est(3) = coefficient for labour cost) � = est(4) * r (est(4) = coefficient for the technology index) the associated constant for the production function is estimated simply by estimating an equation with the calculated coefficients, multiplied with the associated production variables, and a constant as an explanatory variable. the result of the least square estimation is a value for the unknown constant which can be used in the long-run cointegration equation. the calculated coefficients of the inputs (�, �, and �) based on the principles of duality are indicated in the table 3. table 3 calculated values for the production coefficients time period �� �� � 1975 – 1999 0.2322 0.3768 0.2796 1976 – 2000 0.2440 0.3905 0.2970 1977 – 2001 0.2624 0.4043 0.3064 source: own calculations the co-integration production functions when the variables are not used in their logarithmic form are thus: � 1975 – 1999 manufacturing output = 8.0154*real fixed capital 0.2320 demand for labour 0.3768 tei 0.2798 � 1976 – 2000 manufacturing output = 8.7345*real fixed capital 0.2440 demand for labour 0.3905 tei 0.2970 � 1977 – 2001 manufacturing output = 9.3466*real fixed capital 0.2624 demand for labour 0.4043 tei 0.3064 the successful derivation of the production functions is clearly illustrated by acceptable root mean squared errors, mean absolute errors and mean absolute percentage errors. dynamic simulations were performed on the long-run cointegrated production functions as an indication of the goodness of fit of the model. from the dynamic simulations the assumption can be made that each of the estimated production functions delivers a very satisfactory fit and is a stable function. the measurement of changes in the level of productivity the changes in the marginal efficiencies (productivit y) of the various components of the input base are simply calculated as the percentage increase or decrease in the marginal products of these components (a, b, and d) over the specified sample periods. �e in capital efficiency (productivity) = �e in labour efficiency (productivity) = �e in technology efficiency (productivity) = the results of these calculations are summarized in table 4. table 4 percentage changes in the efficiency estimates time period �� �� � 1975 – 1999 +5.082 +3.640 +6.220 to 1976 – 2000 1976 – 2000 +7.540 +3.530 +3.1650 to 1977 – 2001 source: own calculations � � � t t t x�1 100 1 – � � � t t t x�1 100 1 – 1 – 100 1 t t t x+ α α α 1 0.6266 1.5960 = 1 0.6202 1.6123 = 1 0.6090 1.64210 = van zyl52 positive percentage increases in the marginal efficiencies of all the inputs contributed to the improvement in the returns to scale of the industry. it is also clear from table 4 that the improvement in labour productivity is the lowest of all the inputs and that capital is substantially more efficient (productive) than the labour input. the optimal combination of inputs is an important consideration for a firm/industry. the estimated efficiency criterion coefficient (�) enables the decision maker to determine the required changes in input combinations in order to strive for a more optimal (efficient) input base. the results of the calculations on the optimality coefficient (�) are summarized in table 5 (the improvement in the level of technology is taken as a given). table 5 optimality of the input base sample period optimality coefficient � = �(k/l) – �(w/r) 1974 – 1999 -8.215 1975 – 2000 -7.312 1976 – 2001 -7.115 source: own calculations from the table 5 it is clear that in each of the sample periods the optimality coefficient clearly indicates an over-utilisation of labour (albeit at a slower pace). this implies that the greater level of capital efficiency combined with a likely increase in capital stock could push the input mix to a more optimal level. the message to human resource management is clear namely that labour productivity in this particular industry must increase substantially in order to avoid greater levels of capital substitution for the labour input. conclusion a scientific derived and well tested instrument in a managerial, econometric and statistical sense was developed. the instrument measures the changes in the level of productivity of the input base more accurately. it can easily be applied on firm level over weekly and/or monthly sample periods. this instrument should enable management to monitor productivity changes more effectively and make timely decisions that should result in a more optimal usage of resources. references berndt, e.r. (1991). the practice of econometrics; classic and contemporary. new york: addison-wesley. hirschey, m & pappas j.l. (1996). managerial economics. orlando: dryden press. maurice, s.c. & smithson s.w. (1985). managerial economics; applied microeconomics for decision making. homewood: irwin. salvatore, d. (1996). managerial economics in a global economy. new york: mcgraw-hill. wynn r.f. & holden k. (1974). an introduction to applied econometric analysis. new york: wiley & sons. measurement of labour productivity 53 5lombard.qxd the establishment and maintenance of organisational effectiveness has, in contemporary management science, become more complex and dynamic (zeffane, 1996; hudson, 1999; french & delahaye, 1996; weber & weber; 2001, kinnear & roodt, 1998; appelbaum, st-pierre & glavas, 1998). the complexity emerges from greater interdependence among world economies, while the dynamism is a direct result of the information age as well as the global arena organisations operate in. the complex, dynamic and competitive nature of business requires that organisations cannot remain stable for long as constant change external to organisations require constant change within. in fact, it is argued, that organisations are only as successful as their efforts to respond to changes in the environment and adapt accordingly. this requires effective change management at all levels in the organisation, but nowhere is this more important than at the interface with customers and clients. for change efforts to be regarded as truly successful, one cannot only measure how effective the change strategy is or how well it is led, but rather the extent to which the change efforts have led to improved service delivery and increased client satisfaction (appelbaum et al, 1998; moran & brightman, 2001). a critical factor in the provision of excellent service delivery is the first-line manager, as their influence and responsibility extends to operative employees – those people responsible for ensuring high quality service and products. the effectiveness of change interventions in organisations will thus largely be determined by the competence of first-line managers to facilitate the desired change through and with operative employees (moran & brightman, 2001). this view is supported by katzenbach (in appelbaum et al; 1998) who stresses that the most difficult aspect of change efforts lies in changing people and their skills, knowledge and behaviour. this is particularly challenging given the natural tendency of people to resist change. most people are suspicious about the unfamiliar; and are naturally concerned about how to get from the old to the new, especially if it involves learning something new and risking failure (de jager, 2001). the danger however lies in the fact that resistance to change, particularly at operative levels manifests in the delivery of sub-standard outputs, which can drive customers to the competition. it is thus crucial that firstline managers should be able to deal with resistance to change in an effective manner. given the importance of first-line managers and their capacity to manage resistance to change, the focus of this paper is on the identification of competencies required by first-line managers to effectively manage resistance to change. to derive these competencies, it will be necessary to discuss the concept of resistance to change in greater detail as well as consider the requirements for successful change, as these pertain to first-line managers. resistance to change resistance refers to any opposition to a shift in the status quo. in physical terms, resistance means “to slow a process down” or to “put obstacles in the way of goal achievement” (mariotti, 1998, p.140). resistance to change thus refers to an expression of reservation that arises as a response or reaction to change (mabin, forgeson & green, 2001). this response is viewed as natural as change involves unlearning habitual patterns and learning new ways of thinking and feeling which result in new behaviours (claxton, 1999; gratton, 2001). this process is obviously anxiety provoking and hence the resistance (kets de vries, 2002). two terms closely associated with describing resistance to change, are “fear of loss” and “fear of the new” (coker, 2000, p. 24). the aspect of loss is particularly pertinent and the following factors may contribute to a fear of loss (coker, 2000; mabin et al, 2001; kets de vries, 2002; seely, 2000; pheng, 1999): � individual factors (personality factors such as a high need for control, locus of control, need for achievement, etc.; attitudes based on previous experiences of change) � economic loss (loss of job, reduction in earnings or less opportunity for economic growth) � inconvenience (more work for the same pay, more effort for the same output, greater responsibility and no additional rewards) � threats (increased insecurity, anxiety or worry) � power (loss of control and having inferior knowledge or levels of competence) cn lombard a crafford leadership in performance and change programme department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract continuous changes in the needs of markets require effective change management at all levels in organisations. first-line managers are directly responsible for meeting the demands of clients and resistance to change at this level could result in sub-standard outputs. the effectiveness of change interventions will be largely determined by the competence of first-line managers to facilitate the desired change taking into account resistance to change. the purpose of this article is to identif y competencies required by first-line managers to deal with resistance to change. the findings are based on a literature study and functional analysis. opsomming kontinue verandering in die behoeftes van markte vereis effektiewe bestuur van verandering in alle vlakke van organisasies. eerstelyn bestuurders is direk verantwoordelik daarvoor om aan verwagtinge van kliënte te voldoen, want weerstand teen verandering op hierdie vlak kan tot sub-standaard uitsette aanleiding gee. die effektiwiteit van veranderingsintervensies in organisasies sal grootliks afhang van die bevoegdheid van eerstelyn bestuurders om die verwagte verandering te weeg te bring met in agneming van weerstand teen verandering. die doel van hierdie artikel is om bevoegdhede te identifiseer wat eerstelyn bestuurders sal benodig om weerstand te kan hanteer. die bevindinge is gebaseer op ‘n literatuur studie en funksionele analise. competency requirements for first-line managers to deal with resistance to change requests for copies should be addressed to: cn lombard, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 42 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (1), 42-52 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (1), 42-52 � social disruption (group cohesiveness; reduced contact with trusted friends or family) � losing face (the fear of appearing foolish in the face of new demands) resistance to change can furthermore be distinguished at three different levels (mariotti; 1998, maurer, 2000). level 1 resistance is based on a lack of information or on honest disagreement over the facts. level 2 entails personal and emotional resistance and manifests because people are afraid that change may cost them their jobs, reduce their control, or cause them to lose face. finally, level 3 is associated with employee’s managers or what these managers represent. in these situations, people will resist almost any changes that are suggested to them, as they link “change” and “management” with one another. managing resistance to change there are two crucial aspects that underlie the successful management of resistance to change. both an understanding of individuals and the differences that exist between employees together with knowledge of the behaviour underlying the resistance to change are required. george and jones (2001) stressed that change efforts should be focussed on an individual level as change is initiated and implemented by individuals, despite organisations being collective entities. managers interested in successfully managing change must learn how to encourage individuality, and need to legitimate, respect, and value diverse individual experiences (steiner, 2001). this includes being aware of the abilities and strengths of each individual and the capacity to capitalise on these in the context of work team. first-line managers should be able to support employees on an individual basis to deal with the envisaged change (kets de vries, 2002). dealing with the concerns of employees will help identif y the reasons for resistance and enable managers to deal with these proactively (bechtel & squires, 2001; coker, 2000). ignoring people issues can lead to failure in achieving successful change (bechtel & squires, 2001; folger & skarlicki, 1999). in managing resistance to change, first-line managers may also be required to deal with resistant behaviour in the team context, for example group decision-making sessions (george & jones, 2001; mabin et al, 2001). the first-line manager should also have a basic understanding of what underlies and influences employee behaviour in the context of change. it is recognised that human behaviour is complex and the factors influencing it, extensive. nevertheless, it is necessary that the first-line manager be aware of the factors influencing behaviour and learning, as a basis for managing the change process. as stated, change involves learning new ways of thinking and feeling, which result in new behaviours. the relationship between these factors in behaviour and learning is complex and an in-depth analysis is beyond the scope of this article. for this reason, the assumption is made that emotions and cognition interact and mutually influence each other and result in behaviour. (kets de vries, 2002; kotter & cohen, 2002). a brief discussion of each of these factors and their role in the change process follows. cognition is shaped by perceptions as individuals filter and selectively process information from their environments. in this way, people choose from available information that which they would like to believe and may ignore information that challenges the world as they wish to perceive it. an important aspect with regard to change is the degree to which employees perceive the organisation to be ready for change. defined as “the cognitive precursor to the behaviours of either resistance to, or support for, a change effort”, these perceptions can facilitate or undermine the effectiveness of a change intervention (eby, adams, russel & gaby, 2000, p. 419). employees respond to what is happening in their environment and based on their perceptions, make assumptions about the change process. these may be accurate or inaccurate but will influence whether change is resisted or not. for this reason, understanding employees’ perceptions regarding the readiness for change is necessary in dealing with resistance to change. emotions are relatively intense affective states that interrupt ongoing thought processes and behaviours. they arise when discrepancies are encountered that are relevant to one’s personal well-being or goals and objectives. emotions are thus functional and adaptive in that they provide signals of sit uations that are personally relevant and in need of attention. emotions are triggered by thought processes, which in turn motivate cognitive activity and behaviour to deal with the emotion-triggering situation (goleman, 1996; george & jones, 2001). behaviour that manifests itself as resistance to change is thus not only based on what people think, but the feelings they experience during the change process (kotter & cohen, 2002). the afore-mentioned discussion suggests that first-line managers should guide the individual through a cognitive process to ensure an understanding of what the change entails and the impact thereof on the individual. this impact should be defined in terms what the person will need to let go of, what competencies will be required to be effective in the new environment, and what support will be needed to achieve personal success. in addition, the individual must be supported on an emotional level as they confront natural feelings of fear and loss. successful change in addition to understanding resistance to change, it is also necessary to identif y characteristics of successful change efforts as these provide further guidelines in the successful management of resistance to change. successful change can be described as the flexibility that organisations show to be able to proactively respond to changes in the market or external environment (appelbaum et al, 1998). the following characteristics are regarded as crucial in successful change efforts. overcoming managerial resistance to change the misconception exists that managers do not resist change and that resistance only comes from operative employees. van buren and werner (in appelbaum et al, 1998) stated that the resistance of middle and first-line managers is often identified as a major implementation barrier. these managers are afraid of losing their jobs and are threatened because of pressure applied by senior management to redefine their roles from primarily directing to coaching and counselling. it is however crucial that managers are willing, able, allowed and supported in dealing with change first before they attempt to facilitate change in the lower levels of the organisation. first-line managers should have a comprehensive understanding of the envisaged change and not allow their own fears to inf luence the way they communicate change to their areas of responsibility. in doing so, they take personal responsibility for change in their areas of responsibility and influence. business case for change once the triggers for change have been identified, successful change is characterised by a strong business case for the proposed change. in this instance it is important for managers to be able to see the bigger organisational picture to be able determine which success criteria will be most important for their area of responsibility and influence. supporting the business case for change should be the strategic direction of the organisation in the form of a vision and mission (clarke & meldrum, 1999; mabin et al, 2001; bechtel & squires, 2001; corporate executive board, 2001c). although senior competency requirements 43 management develops the organisational business case, first-line managers should be able to cascade change strategies to their areas of responsibility and derive a business case for their area of influence. this should encourage first-line managers to take ownership of the envisaged change. in addition, the first-line managers should also be able to encourage change from the bottom up, as successful change efforts need not always be top-down (zeffane, 1998). organisations would benefit from first-line managers that are able to identify potential areas of change through and with their teams that can improve the product or service delivery of the organisation. focus on the customer organisations that facilitate effective change manage to focus on customers and their needs. they invest in ways to improve sales, provide superior service to clients, and they do not forget that their customers and their needs underlie the organisation’s existence (appelbaum et al, 1998). first-line managers should continuously strive to address the following seven questions in their operational areas of responsibility (rampersad, 2001): � who are my customers? � what do they need? � what is my product or service? � what are my customers’ expectations and measures? � does my product or service meet their expectations? � what is the process for providing my product or service? � what action is required to improve my process? by addressing these questions the first-line manager can identif y opportunities for change and increasing the economic value of products and services. it can also serve as impetus for first-line managers to formulate a business case for change at their level. effective communication a strong business case for change without an effective communication strategy will result in haphazard change efforts (buckingham & coffman, 2001; mabin et al, 2001; bechtel & squires, 2001; corporate executive board, 2001b; seely, 2000; zeffane, 1996). the communication strategy should include information on what will happen, when it will happen, and how it will happen. by describing step-by-step what will take place, management will be more apt to gain support from others and reduce resistance. because change is most effectively facilitated one person at a time (corporate executive board, 2001b; buckingham & coffman, 2001; zeffane, 1996) communication should be cascaded through the organisation to various levels and areas of responsibility. the goal is to ensure that all people receive the communication and to facilitate a process of change, one person at a time (appelbaum et al, 1998; seely, 2000). furthermore, managers need to listen to the views, protests and problems of subordinates who are likely to understand the implications of the changes in their areas of influence. to ensure effective communication, managers should communicate what they know, and assure employees that they will never be intentionally deceived. managers can offer to answer questions and explain why some questions cannot be answered, as the information may not be available (lewis, 1998; kotter, 1996; kotter & cohen, 2002). this implies that first-line managers should be empowered to answer questions on a needs basis and only do so once they fully understand the process. leadership in a study conducted by the corporate executive board (2001a) it was evident that the leadership competencies of relevant people should be at higher than acceptable levels before any attempt to change is made. though the leadership does not always initiate successful change, it should be owned and driven by them (walker, 1999; kotter & cohen, 2002). leadership during times of change requires courage as the leader may be required to do the following (burdett, 1999): � stand alone � take tough decisions � say “no” � stand up against unnecessary bureaucracy � admit to making mistakes � admit that he of she is part of or the source of the problem � overcome fears of making mistakes � lead from the presumption of truth the first-line manager should demonstrate an ability to lead their teams towards goal achievement. in doing so, they will have to live their personal visions of the change and lead their teams through effective communication, motivation and influence. people development the next requirement, individual and team development, is often neglected by organisations in attempting to implement successful change (bechtel & squires, 2001; corporate executive board, 2001a; kotter & cohen, 2002; seely, 2000). change efforts require from individuals new skills and competencies, which can only be developed if the necessary ability, motivation and selfesteem are present. where the challenges posed by the proposed change appear to outweigh the capacity of individuals to develop, resistance to change is likely to occur. for this reason, the first-line manager must be able to identif y and facilitate the development of the requisite skills in the individuals in their team. this should be done on an individual basis, in conjunction with each team member, and should result in a development plan of action that will clearly indicate the commitment of the organisation and the individual to ensure competence. structured implementation of change another requirement for successful change is the application of structured approaches to change implementation. the most effective methods typically integrate attention to human issues (commitment, resistance, follow-through, etc.) with attention to the technical issues usually incorporated into project management methods (hoopes & hale, 1999; seely, 2000). this will require managers to have both excellent human relations and project management skills. they will require a clear understanding of the change supported by project management competencies to implement the change. they will also need to make time allocations for attending to the human issues involved and ensure that all the people dimensions are addressed. effective monitoring and control hoopes and hale (1999) identified the necessity for monitoring and evaluation as a key principle in successful change, to ensure a results-based focus. the aim is to determine the payoffs achieved from the initiative and to learn valuable lessons about implementation that can be used to strengthen future changes. the goal of effective monitoring and control is to develop desirable behaviour and overcome those behaviours that may jeopardise change efforts. the first-line manager is responsible for coaching employees in this regard. crucial in monitoring and control is the perception of fairness as in creating a fair workplace, resistance can be limited (lewis, 1998). structure to support strategy achievement successful change in organisations requires structures that meet the needs of the organisational strategic direction. appelbaum et al (2000), and the corporate executive board (2001a) found that the involvement of employees in determining appropriate structures to facilitate change leads to effective structures that work. this will require first-line managers to design a team that will effectively facilitate change and allocate resources within their area of influence. first-line managers may also advise decision-makers regarding more appropriate organisational structures from their experience of successful change. lombard, crafford44 mutually agreed performance goals managers in successful companies improve performance by achieving agreement or consensus with employees in setting mutually agreeable performance goals. employee suggestions are actively sought and a positive work-group spirit, serves as a basis for enhanced motivation (appelbaum, et al, 1998; seely, 2000). such an approach can also secure ownership for performance goals as it comes from within and is not simply forced from the top. this will require of first-line managers to facilitate group decision-making and problem solving sessions to ensure optimal input and buy-in from team members. deduction of competencies competence is defined as the skills, knowledge, attitudes, attributes and values required in performing a task and the ability to apply them in the work environment (lindsay & stuart, 1997; garavan, barnicle & o’suilleabhain, 1999). for the purpose of the study, competence was viewed based on the framework outlined in figure 1. the deduction of competencies was based on the work of fletcher (1997) and the national examination board for supervisors and management (1998). fletcher (1997) is of the opinion that a functional approach reflects a broader concept of competence. this implies a focus on tasks as well as the way these are organised in the work role and management contingencies. competence-based standards for effective performance are derived through a process of functional analysis. this is a top-down analytical approach of what the target group of employees should be able to do in the work environment and begins with the key purpose of the designated position in an organisation. in the context of this study, the key purpose of first-line managers is to deal with resistance to change. analysis of the key purpose should result in the identification of key work roles, which are derived from the key purpose. key roles are determined by asking the question: ‘what has to happen for the key purpose to be fulfilled?” (national examining board for supervisors and management (nebs & m), 1998, p. 8). this approach will support a clear focus on the roles that should be performed rather than only the “the job” (fletcher, 1997). to formulate the competencies listed in tables 1 to 14, it was necessary to consider the theory of resistance to change and the management thereof as well as the requirements for successful change. the functional analysis of the information from the literature study resulted in the identification of key roles that first-line managers will perform to manage resistance to change effectively. fletcher (1997) suggests that the analytical process continues until “units of competence” are identified. these are described as activities that can be undertaken by one individual that have real meaning in the workplace (fletcher, 1997; nebs & m, 1998). each key role was analysed to determine the units of competence that comprise of specific work activities that are grouped together with other related work activities. to define units of competence, the question “what has to happen for this key role to be achieved?” was asked. the next step in the functional analysis process is the identification of “elements of competence”. elements of competence can be described as detailed steps or descriptions of performance expected to ensure the delivery of a unit of competence (nebs & m, 1998). these are broad steps that can be followed to ensure the achievement of the related unit of competence. stated differently, elements of competence are the things that responsible people should be able to do in the workplace in order to complete functions. in the functional analysis the question is asked: “what has to happen for the unit of competence to be achieved?” to derive the competencies from the elements of competence, a functional analysis was conducted within the framework of a business process to determine the specific inputs required to be successful in the work environment. these inputs are the skills, knowledge, and behaviour (attitudes, attributes and values) that will have to be applied in the work environment to effectively deal with resistance to change. these inputs are, however, not sufficient, as there are organisation specific control guidelines (policies, procedures, rules, legislation, etc) that govern the performance of employees in organisations. there are also tools and equipment that the person should be able to use in the workplace that may be specific to the organisation. of importance is that all applications of the required competencies take place within organisation-specific conditions and circumstances and that no two organisations are the same in this regard. it is evident that the term first-line manager can be used to describe a broad spectrum of people. for the purpose of this paper the term is used to denote those people assigned with a competency requirements 45 figure1 competency framework (©chris lombard, 2002) managerial title and responsibility. the competencies listed will apply to people in this group, but may vary depending on the complexity and diversity of their specific tasks. outcome of the functional analysis during the functional analysis process the following four key roles were identified: � align the change strategy of the area of responsibility with that of the organisation. � ensure personal readiness for change. � minimise resistance to change. � act as a continual catalyst for change. although the four key roles are not in a particular sequence, the second key role (ensure personal readiness for change) should precede the third key role (minimise resistance to change) as one can only manage change in others when one is prepared oneself. it should also be noted that the manifestation of the last key role in organisations would be ideal for any organisation, as this implies that first-line managers and their teams take ownership for continuous improvement of systems and processes to the benefit of customers and clients. in the discussion that follows each key role is highlighted and the units of competence are given. a breakdown of each unit of competence is provided in the tables following each paragraph. the first key role first-line managers should perform is to align the change strategy of their areas of responsibility with that of the organisation. the units of competence that comprise the first key are listed below. the first-line manager should: � obtain a comprehensive understanding of the target state of the envisaged change. � obtain an understanding of customer needs/potential target market. � conduct a strategic plan for personal area of responsibility � facilitate planning to determine best-practice solutions these are reflected in tables 1 – 4. table 1 competencies to obtain a comprehensive understanding of change key role: align change strategy of area of responsibility with that of the organisation unit of competence: obtain a comprehensive understanding of the target state of change elements of competence competencies· � schedule meetings skills with relevant stakeholders that � networking· understand the � identif ying sponsors in organisation envisaged target � scheduling· state· � questioning· � formulate suitable � analytical· questions to obtain � determining trends and tendencies answers to concerns· � obtaining commitment from seniors � facilitate an information session knowledge with relevant stakeholders· � organisational structure � analyse information � stakeholders and their role in the organisation provided· � the core business processes of the organisation � identif y additional gaps in information· behaviour � ensure all questions regarding the � assertive· envisaged change � honest· are answered· � persuasive· � ensure open lines of � resilient· communication for � proactive further enquiries control guidelines · � organisational communication policy conditions and circumstances · � deal with senior decision-makers· � deal with diverse people· � deal with stakeholders that may not interested in sharing information table 2 competencies to obtain an understanding of customer needs/potential targets key role: align change strategy of area of responsibility with that of the organisation unit of competence: obtain an understanding of customer needs/potential target market elements of competence competencies· � formulate own skills understanding of changes in customer � analytical· target market needs· � questioning· � formulate questions � networking· regarding your � scheduling· understanding of the � business writing change in customer � information processing needs· � communication � identif y stakeholders that can provide knowledge solutions to concerns· � schedule meetings � customer needs and requirements with informed � core business processes stakeholders· � clarif y personal behaviour understanding of the envisaged changes· � assertive· � obtain requirements � professional· and suggestions from � persuasive· stakeholders· � attention to detail � document findings � resilient control guidelines· � prescribed company policies and procedures stipulating behaviour when dealing with stakeholders conditions and circumstances · � dealing with people external to the organisation· � dealing with senior decision-makers· � dealing with diverse people· � dealing with demanding people table 3 competencies to conduct a strategic plan for personal area of responsibility key role: align change strategy of area of responsibility with that of the organisation unit of competence: conduct a strategic plan for personal area of responsibility elements of competence competencies � ensure a skills comprehensive understanding of � analytical· intended � conducting a strategic analysis organisational � goal/objective formulation change � resource allocation � ensure a· � networking· comprehensive � determining trends and tendencies understanding of impact of change lombard, crafford46 knowledge in own area of responsibility � outcome of the envisaged change � conduct a strategic· � outputs and standards in own area of analysis to responsibility determine the � definition of own area of influence gap � aspects that you can change and those you � formulate strategic· cannot change in own area of influence during objectives for short, the change process medium and long � strategic analysis techniques term � requirements for effective objective formulation � allocate resources � requirements for resource allocation per strategic objective behaviour � attention to detail· � resilient· � creative· � objective· � realistic equipment · � personal computer control guidelines · � organisational change parameters conditions and circumstances · � work in potentially uncertain conditions· � need to process large quantities of information· � may have to take decisions that will limit or terminate other people’s jobs table 4 competencies to facilitate planning sessions to determine best-practice solutions key role: align change strategy of area of responsibility with that of the organisation unit of competence: facilitate planning to determine best-practice solutions elements of competence skills � formulate the � formulation of a problem statement scope of the change � project scoping (problem statement)· � analytical � confirm accuracy � organising of problem � facilitation statement with � problem solving internal/external � decision-making client· � conflict resolution � analyse the � planning problem statement· � contingency planning � determine all the � drafting project plans elements that � scheduling should be addressed � business communication to solve the problem· � formulation of performance standards � compile a suitable � formulation of responsibilities task team to take � information processing part in the problem � resource allocation solving process· � obtaining commitment from team members � facilitate best � obtaining commitment from seniors practice solutions � listening for each element of the problem knowledge statement· � draft a contingency � client requirements plan for each � group problem solving techniques element of the � conflict resolution techniques problem· � capabilities of team members � draft a project plan to phase in best behaviour practice solutions· � schedule activities· � assertive � formulate � resilient performance � transparent standards for each � objective deliverable· � fair � allocate � responsible responsibilities· � communicate equipment standards and deadlines to the � presentation media people responsible· � allocate resources conditions and circumstances � need to take responsibility for decisions· � deal with diverse people· � deal with conflict note: the group activities are aimed at achieving a high quality and high ownership solution the second key role is to ensure a personal readiness for change. the unit of competence required is to prepare themselves for change, as outlined in table 5. table 5 competencies to prepare for change key role: ensure a personal readiness for change unit of competence: prepare for change elements of competence competencies � ensure a skills comprehensive understanding of the � analytical envisaged change· � introspection � determine how � personal competence analysis change will impact � personal goal setting on self· � networking � determine what � identif ying sponsors in organisation will be required � scheduling to be successful � questioning in the transition � information processing period· � determine how knowledge change will impact on personal life· � target state of change � formulate sacrifices � own capabilities and limitations that need to be made· � personal goals � determine potential � career goals ‘losses”· � competencies required to be effective in � determine the change process competencies that � where to lobby support will be required to be effective in behaviour the changed environment· � attention to detail � obtain � objective organisational � rational· support to facilitate � resilient· competence· � self motivated � draft a plan of � emotionally mature action to ensure � honest with self personal readiness � proactive for change· � commit to change equipment · � personal plan of action conditions and circumstances · � might have to make personal sacrifices to be successful in future· � need to take important career decisions· � might need to develop a whole new range of competencies to be successful· � need to be able to show emotional maturity the third key role is to minimise resistance to change. the units of competence required are listed as follows: � conduct an audit of individual strengths and weaknesses of team members by involving them in the process. � compile individual communication strategies. � compile team communication strategies. � conduct individual information sessions. � compile individual development plans. � facilitate development of team members. � agree on a code of conduct governing behaviour during change. competency requirements 47 these are reflected in tables 6 – 12. table 6 competencies to conduct an audit of individual strengths and weaknesses of team members by involving them in the process key role: minimise resistance to change unit of competence: conduct an audit of individual strengths and weaknesses of team members by involving them in the process elements of competence competencies � analyse each skills team member � managing diversity individually· � assessment of individual strengths and � determine development areas individual strengths � forecasting and development � talent identification areas· � interview preparation � determine potential � determining trends and tendencies individual responses � reflection to ensure trained subjectivity to change· � determine talents knowledge that can be utilised in the facilitation � strengths and development areas of each of change· team member � determine the � performance results of individual team ability of each members individual to � emotional intelligence understand the � feedback techniques envisaged change· � how to deal with different types of � determine responses from people potential emotions that individuals behaviour might experience when change is � trained subjectivity communicated to � honest· them· � fair � determine possible strategies for each equipment individual when communicating � team member analysis sheets change control guidelines · � relevant legislation protecting the individual conditions and circumstances · � need to be objective with regards to all team members· � prepare to deal with emotional responses from team members table 7 competencies to compile individual communication strategies key role: minimise resistance to change unit of competence: compile individual communication strategies elements of competence competencies � consider the skills profiles of each individual· � analytical· � determine the � impact analysis impact that the � developing interview approach strategies change could � questioning have on each � determining trends and tendencies individual· � consider strengths and development knowledge areas· � consider the � strengths and development areas of each potential team member emotions that � personal circumstances of individual individuals team members might experience· � personality traits of team members � determine a � approach strategies for effective feedback individualised � the outcomes of the change process strategy for each � emotional intelligence person to ensure an understanding behaviour of the envisaged change· � objective· � formulate a � fair· structure of � attention to detail questions per � open and honest individual to ensure that each equipment individual discovers the � logbook outcomes of the envisaged change· control guidelines � compile a logbook to document � relevant legislation protecting the rights suggestions and of individuals recommendations to ensure conditions and circumstances successful change � need to be willing to listen and deal with people’s personal circumstances· � need to take firm decisions that can influence a person’s career table 8 competencies to complete team communication strategies key role: minimise resistance to change unit of competence: compile team communication strategies elements of competence · competencies � determine the skills message that should be conveyed to � analytical the team � questioning· � predict potential � forecasting· responses to the � determining trends and tendencies information � communicating with teams � prepare answers � facilitation of team dynamics for potential concerns or questions knowledge � determine a best · strategy to � strengths and development areas of communicate the each team member message to ensure � strong personalities in the team optimum impact � potential responses from dominating members· � personality traits of team members· � approach strategies for effective feedback· � emotional intelligence· � group problem solving and decisionmaking strategies behaviour · � objective· � fair· � attention to detail· � open and honest equipment · � presentation media control guidelines · � relevant legislation protecting the rights of individuals conditions and circumstances · � need to be able to deal with group conflict· � need to facilitate group sessions with diverse people note: the need might arise in teams to obtain information relating to the change in the organisation. this will require of the first-line manager to be able to also be competent in communicating to groups or teams. lombard, crafford48 table 9 competencies to conduct individual information sessions key role: minimise resistance to change unit of competence: conduct individual information sessions elements of competence · competencies � prepare the identified skills strategy per person· � schedule the � scheduling· information session· � interviewing· � determine existing � questioning· levels of � empathetic listening understanding of � communication in english the envisaged � communicating with an interpreter change· (if required) � ask questions to test � analytical· their understanding � determining trends and tendencies of the change· � conflict handling � provide information � problem solving as required per � dealing with emotions individual· � obtaining commitment from people � encourage � coaching· individuals to � individual leadership explore the impact of the change on knowledge themselves· � determine if they � individual strengths and development have solutions or areas· suggestions to � personal circumstances of individuals address their � the envisaged change process concerns· � questioning techniques � facilitate problem � emotional intelligence solving sessions � typical behaviour of people when per individual to confronted with change agree on solutions to concerns· behaviour � allow individuals to express their � assertive· concerns and � objective emotions· � firm· � demonstrate � fair· empathy and � honest· understanding · � patient· � agree to plans � empathy of action equipment · � prepared personal files per individual control guidelines · � legislation protecting the rights of individuals conditions and circumstances · � deal with people who are experiencing their emotions· � give negative feedback to people· � give positive feedback to people· � deal with conflict on a one-on-one basis· � deal with stubborn people· � deal with diverse people table 10 competencies to compile individual personal development plans key role: minimise resistance to change unit of competence: compile individual personal development plans elements of competence · competencies � compare requirements skills of existing roles with that of new roles after � interviewing· the change process assess individual competence � determine potential � identification of competencies to be able competencies that to perform required tasks should be addressed � formulation of learning and development to ensure individual contracts is ready to deal with � questioning· envisaged change· � analytical· � facilitate individual � determining trends and tendencies in discussions with development needs of team members team members· � obtaining commitment from people � agree on best practice solutions to address knowledge competencies· � formulate learning � the structure of tasks in the changed and development environment· contracts· � competencies required to be effective � agree to a plan of � individual levels of competence· action � options for development � obtain commitment behaviour· � development oriented· � assertive· � fair· � objective equipment � learning and development contracts control guidelines· � relevant company policies and procedures· � relevant legislation conditions and circumstances· � deal with stubborn people· � deal with diverse people table 11 competencies to facilitate development of team members key role: minimise resistance to change unit of competence: facilitate development of team members elements of competence · competencies � communicate the skills training and development needs � networking· of team members to � identif ying sponsors in organisation relevant stakeholders � scheduling· in the organisation· � questioning· � obtain commitment � analytical· for the development � determining trends and tendencies in the process· development needs of team members � agree on an � obtaining commitment from people in implementation functional departments strategy· � persuasion· � provide opportunities � resource allocation and support to � team leadership team members knowledge · � organisational structure· � people responsible for training and development behaviour · � development oriented· � assertive · � committed to team members· � proactive equipment · � internal communication channels control guidelines · � relevant company policies and procedures· � relevant legislation conditions and circumstances · � liase across functional departments· � deal with areas outside own area of expertise· � need to obtain commitment from people across departments competency requirements 49 table 12 competencies to agree on a code of conduct that would govern behaviour during change key role: minimise resistance to change unit of competence: agree on a code of conduct governing behaviour during change elements of competence · competencies � facilitate a skills discussion session with team· � facilitation· � identif y the potential � forecasting· concerns from the � conflict resolution· team· � questioning· � agree on acceptable � listening· behaviour to address � analytical· concerns· � obtaining commitment from people � agree on a process � motivation· to address concerns· � team leadership � agree on a strategy to address acceptable knowledge and unacceptable behaviour· � acceptable behavioural standards � obtain commitment � format of a code of conduct· to the code � ethics behaviour · � assertive· � firm· � objective equipment · � presentation media control guidelines · � company performance standards· � company code of conduct conditions and circumstances · � deal with diverse team members note: a code of conduct that would govern behaviour during change will require input from the team members to ensure high ownership. this will require a competency that requires team-related activities. the final key role is to continuously act as a catalyst for change. in order to achieve this, first-line managers should be able to: � understand the rationale for change. � develop a business case for change. these are outlined in tables 13 – 14. table 13 competencies to understand the rationale for change key role: act as a continual catalyst for change unit of competence: understand the rationale for change elements of competence competencies � obtain information skills regarding the envisaged change · � networking· � compare existing � identif ying sponsors in organization state with target state· � questioning· � determine the � analytical· change in behaviour, � determining trends and tendencies process, systems � business communication and/or technology in the organisation· knowledge � determine the change in behaviour, � business processes process, systems and/ � core business or technology in own � client requirements area of influence � company systems and technology � ensure a � own area of responsibility comprehensive � own area of influence understanding of the reasons for behaviour change � communicate � assertive· concerns and/or � attention to detail suggestions to � objective· immediate supervisor � proactive and/or expert � ensure that control guidelines rationale for change is understood � organisational change strategy document conditions and circumstances · � analyse large quantities of information· � need to communicate with senior stakeholders table 14 competencies to develop a business case for botoom-up change key role: act as a continual catalyst for change unit of competence: develop a business case for bottom-up change elements of competence competencies � facilitate regular skills meetings with team members and � facilitation· customers· � networking· � identif y areas for � problem identification potential � problem solving with groups improvement· � decision-making with groups � facilitate problem � conflict resolution in groups solving sessions � business communication with team members � prepare a business case· � obtain commitment � business presentation from team members· � identif ying sponsors in organisation � document suggestions � analyse information to motivate new changes· � determine advantages � obtaining commitment from seniors to the organisation· � build a business case knowledge for change· � present to relevant � organisational processes, systems and decision-makers in technology and behaviour the organisation � client requirements· � market demands· � market trends· � group problem solving and decisionmaking techniques · � group dynamics behaviour · � attention to detail · � accurate· � creative· � assertive· � proactive equipment · � presentation media control guidelines · � core business of organisation· � existing company strategies conditions and circumstances · � suggest solutions to key stakeholders· � need to be able to think on levels more complex than existing level in the organisation note: bottom-up change implies that input comes from the team. this requires teamrelated competencies. in summary, the skills, knowledge and behaviour listed below would be used most frequently in managing resistance to change and should thus be priorities in developing first-line managers. lombard, crafford50 table 15 skills, knowledge and behaviour that appear most frequently in the functional analysis skills knowledge behaviour � analytical � approach strategies � assertiveness � decision-making for providing � attention to � determining trends feedback detail and tendencies � client needs and � fair � effective requirements � firm communication � emotional � open and honest � effective listening intelligence � patient � facilitation � group decision� proactive � interviewing making techniques � resilient � networking � group problem � trained subjectivity � motivation solving techniques � questioning � personal � obtaining circumstances of commitment from team members people � questioning � persuasion techniques � problem solving � strengths and � scheduling limitations of � team leadership individual team members � where to lobby for support in the organisation conclusion in the challenge to ensure the effective management of resistance to change, first-line managers will have to make use of a combination of team as well as individually focused interventions in their areas of responsibilit y. in the process they will have to focus on both the cognitive as well as emotional levels of employees to obtain commitment on an individual and team level. technical competence is therefore not sufficient to facilitate effective change and firstline managers need to develop their understanding of emot ional intelligence and react ions of people when confronted with change. furthermore, first-line managers and their teams can play an important role in identif ying opportunities for change in order to improve product and service delivery. teams will own change initiatives with potentially greater commitment and minimal resistance. first-line managers can therefore contribute to organisational effectiveness and customer satisfaction by persuading decision-makers to implement suggestions from operative employee level. the competencies identified in this study can used to develop outcomes-based interventions to enable first-line managers across various industries to deal with resistance to change within their unique conditions and circumstances. in addition to the developmental value however, an important contribution of the study is to highlight the invaluable role of the first-line manager in implementing effective change interventions. references appelbaum, s.h., st-pierre, n., & glavas, w. (1998). strategic organisational change: the role of leadership, learning, motivation and productivity. management decision, 36 (5), pp. 289 – 301. bechtel, r.l., & squires, j.k. (2001). tools and techniques to facilitate change. industrial and commercial training, 33 (7), pp. 249 – 254. buckingham, m. & coffman, c. first, break all the rules. what the world’s greatest managers do differently. london: simon & schuster business books. burdett, j.o. (1999). leadership in change and the wisdom of a gentleman. participation & empowerment: an international journal, 7 (1), pp. 5 – 14. clarke, m., & meldrum, m. (1999). creating change from below: early lessons for agents of change. the leadership and organization development journal, 20 (2), pp. 70 – 80. claxton, g. (1999). wise up: the challenge of life-long learning. london: bloomsbury. coker, c. (2000). resistance to change and obstacles that can be overcome. business journal: ser ving jacksonville & northeast florida, 15 (17), p.24. corporate executive board, (2001a). change management models and business applications. corporate leadership council fact brief, pp. 1 – 20. corporate executive board, (2001b). communicating corporate change. corporate leadership council fact brief, pp. 1 – 3. corporate executive board, (2001c). preparing for corporate change. corporate leadership council fact brief, pp. 1 – 3. de jager, p. (2001). resistance to change: a new view of an old problem. futurist, 35 (3), pp. 24 –27. eby, l.t., adams, d.m., russel, j.e.a., & gaby, s.h. (2000). perceptions of organisational readiness for change: factors related to employees’ reactions to the implementation of team-based selling. human relations, 53 (3), pp. 419 – 439. fletcher, s. (1997). designing competence-based training. london: kogan page. french, e., & delahaye, b. (1996). individual change transition: moving in circles can be good for you. leadership & organisational development journal, 17 (7), pp. 22 – 28. folger, r., & skarlicki, d.p. (1999). unfairness and resistance to change: hardship as mistreatment. journal of organizational change management, 12 (1), pp. 35 –50. garavan, t.n., barnicle, b., & o’suilleabhain, f. (1999). management development: contemporary trends, issues and strategies. journal of european industrial training, 23 (4/5), pp. 191 – 207. george, j.m., & jones, g.r. (2001). towards a process model of individual change in organisations. human relations, 54 (4), pp. 419 – 439. goleman, d. (1996). emotional intelligence. london: bloomsbury. gratton, l. (2000). living strategy: putting people at the heart of corporate success. london: prentice hall. hoopes, l.l., & hale, s.l. (1999). facing the challenge of change. cpcu journal, 55 (2), pp. 90 – 103. hudson, m.p. (1999). conflict and stress in times of change. library management, 20 (1), pp. 35 – 38. kets de vries, m.f.r. (2002). can ceo’s change? yes but only if they want to. paper presented to the insead alumni at a breakfast meeting at the grace hotel on 4 july 2002. kinnear, c., & roodt, g. (1998). the development of an instrument for measuring organisational inertia. journal of industrial psychology, 24 (2), pp. 44 – 54. kotter, j.p. (1996). leading change. boston: hbs press. kotter, j.p., & cohen, d.s. (2002). the heart of change. boston: hbs press. lewis, b. (1998). managing change is not enough: you must create a culture that embraces it. infoworld, 20 (45), p. 105. lindsay, p.r., & stuart, r. (1997). reconstruing competence. journal of european industrial training, 21 (9), pp. 326 – 332. mabin, v.j., forgeson, s., & green, l. (2001). harnessing resistance: using the theory of constraints to assist change management. journal of european industrial training, 25 (2/3/4), pp. 168 –191. mariotti, j. (1998). the challenge of change. industry week, 247 (7), p. 140. maurer, r. (2000). what blocks support? journal for quality and participation, 23 (3), p. 47. moran, j.w., & brightman, b.k. (2001). leading organisational change. career development international, 6 (2), pp. 111 – 118. national examining board for supervisors and management (nebs & m). 1998. nvq/svq in management level 3. london: crown. competency requirements 51 pheng, l.s. (1999). towards managerial efficacy: back to 2,000year-old guiding principles. the learning organisation, 6 (3), pp. 121 – 131. rampersad, h. (2001). 75 painful questions about your customer satisfaction. the tqm magazine, 13 (5), pp. 341 – 347. seely, c. (2000). change management: a base for knowledgesharing. knowledge management, 3 (4), pp. 24 – 29. steiner, c. (2001). a role for individuality and mystery in “managing” change. journal of organizational change management, 14 (2), pp. 150 – 167. walker, c. (1999). making change work for you. women in business, 51 (4), pp. 51 – 53. weber, p.s., & weber, j.e. (2001). changes in employee perceptions during organisational change. leadership & organisational development journal, 22 (6), pp. 291 – 300. zeffane, r. (1996). dynamics of strategic change: critical issues in fostering positive organizational change. leadership & organisational development journal, 17 (7), pp. 36 – 43. lombard, crafford52 article information authors: alfred w.d. chanza1 robin j. snelgar1 gerrit j. louw1 affiliations: 1department of industrial and organisational psychology, nelson mandela metropolitan university, port elizabeth, south africa correspondence to: alfred chanza postal address: blantyre city council, private bag 67, blantyre, malawi dates: received: 07 jan. 2013 accepted: 03 june 2013 published: 16 aug. 2013 how to cite this article: chanza, a.w.d., snelgar, r.j., & louw, g.j. (2013). the motivational value of rewards amongst malawi’s health professionals. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #517, 14 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.517 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the motivational value of rewards amongst malawi’s health professionals in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • problem statement       • key focus of the study       • background to the study       • trends from research literature       • aim and objectives of the study       • value of the study    • literature review • method    • research approach    • research method       • target population       • sampling       • data collection instrument       • data collection procedure       • data analysis       • development of hypothesised model • results    • confirming reliability and validity of the questionnaire • trustworthiness    • reliability    • validity       • statistical analysis       • hypothesis testing       • the re-specified model • discussion    • summary of the findings       • managerial implications and recommendations    • limitations of the study    • recommendations for future research • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors' contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: reward administrators of malawi’s health sector seem to misunderstand the intrinsic and extrinsic values of financial and non-financial rewards.research purpose: this study focuses on assessing the motivational value of rewards amongst health professionals in malawi’s ministry of health (moh). motivation for the study: malawian studies indicate that malawi’s moh has become dysfunctional largely due to reward-related problems faced by its health professionals. research design, approach and method: this study was a non-experimental design with an explanatory and evaluative approach, utilising both quantitative (questionnaire) and qualitative methods (literature review, interviews and focus group discussions). main findings: the study confirmed the existence of reward-related problems amongst health professionals in malawi’s moh. initially, statistical testing of the hypothesised model collapsed, suggesting that no relationship existed amongst the variables. however, statistical testing of the re-specified model suggests that there is a positive relationship between financial and non-financial rewards. through the structural equation modeling (sem) exercise, an inverse (negative) relationship between financial and non-financial rewards was established. practical/managerial implications: the re-specified model symbolises a pragmatic departure from theoretical claims that financial rewards (salaries or money in general) are not a motivator. the graphic model suggests to managers and policy-makers that both financial and non-financial rewards are very important and valuable in any employment relationship. contribution/value-add: an inverse (causal) relationship between financial and non-financial rewards has been established, graphically demonstrated and scientifically explained. introduction top ↑ problem statement it seems malawi’s moh is failing to attract, motivate and retain adequate health professionals (bowie, mwase & chinkhumba, 2009; muula & maseko, 2005; dovlo, 2003, 2004; gordon, 2008; manafa, mcauliffe, maseko, bowie, maclachlan, normand & chirwa, 2009; ministry of health, 2010; mangham, 2007; muula, 2006; muula & maseko, 2005; paradath, chamberlain, mccoy, ntuli, rowson, & loewenson, 2003; world bank, 2004). various authors claim the following:• health professionals’ perception of rewards is that they are inequitable (gordon, 2008; malawi government, 2007; manafa et al., 2009; mangham, 2007; muula & maseko, 2005; palmer, 2006); • health professionals adopt financial coping strategies in their quest to supplement their monthly financial rewards (bowie et al., 2009; dovlo, 2003, 2004; gordon, 2008; manafa et al., 2009; mangham, 2007; muula & maseko, 2005; tenthani, 2002); • health professionals engage in corrupt practices to supplement their monthly financial rewards (chapalapata, 2011; corruption in the health sector, 2010; dzimbiri 2009; khunga, 2011; mangham, 2007; ministry of development planning and cooperation, 2010; mphande, 2011; munthali, 2011; musa, 2011; mzungu, 2011; njiragoma, 2011); • industrial democracy is eroded in the malawi’s public health sector (mphs) (dzimbiri, 2008; van klaveren, tijdens, hughie-williams & martin, 2009, phiri, 2007; sonani, 2011). whilst the researcher acknowledges the availability of qualitative research reports revealing the existence of these reward-related problems, no comprehensive, quantitative and scientifically informed study has been conducted to substantiate them. key focus of the study various authors (gordon, 2008; manafa et al., 2009; mangham, 2007; mathauer & imhoff, 2006; mcauliffe, bowie, munafa, maseko, maclachlan, hevey, normand & chirwa, 2009; mtazu, 2009; muula, 2006; muula & maseko, 2005; world bank, 2004) claim that shortage of health professionals in malawi’s ministry of health (moh) is very severe even by african standards. this shortage mainly arises from reward-related problems and threatens the realisation of plans for scaling up interventions to control the spread of diseases in malawi. background to the study health care in mphs is highly labour intensive (malawi government, 2007; mangham, 2007; maseko, nkunika & bowie, 2009; mathauer & imhoff, 2006; mcauliffe et al., 2009; ministry of health, 2010; mtazu, 2009; muula, 2006; muula & maseko, 2005). the performance of this sector is critically dependent on worker motivation, defined as the degree of willingness of an individual worker to maintain an effort in his or her quest to achieve organisational objectives and goals; or a set of psychological processes and behaviours resulting from the transaction between individual workers and their work environment (franco, bennett & kanfer, 2002; franco, bennett, kanfer & stubblebine, 2000; franco, bennett, kanfer & stubblebine, 2004). rewards (financial and non-financial incentives that employers offer to workers) are amongst the major determinants of worker motivation in the mphs (franco et al., 2004; grobler, warnich, carrel, elbert & hatfield, 2006; mcauliffe et al., 2009; robbins, 2010). trends from research literature since the hawthorne studies, whose findings demonstrate the importance of ‘human relations’ as a means of motivating employees, industrial and organisational psychologists have sustained an interest in understanding what motivates workers to perform to their greatest potential in the accomplishment of organisational vision, mission and goals (berger & berger, 2000; cole, 2000, 2004; holbeche, 2010; metcalf, 1995). several authors (agnew & redman, 1992; ahlegren, anderson & skold, 2007; ariely, bowey, thorpe & hellier, 1986; armstrong, 1993, 1999; armstrong & murlis, 1998, 2007; carrel, elbert, hatfield, grobler, marx & van der schyf, 1998; dittrich & carrel, 1979; eddy, 2008; swanepoel, erasmus, van wyk & schenk, 2005) assert that to attract, motivate, satisfy and retain workers, business organisations invent (and provide to workers) financial and non-financial rewards in exchange for their efforts and performance in tandem with their respective employment contracts. however, the role psychological contracts play in an employment relationship is unknown. aim and objectives of the study the aim of the study was to assess rewards and their motivational value amongst health professionals in malawi’s moh. the specific objectives of the study were as follows:• to review the existing literature on rewards and motivation for workers with special attention to health professionals in malawi’s public health sector. • to assess the knowledge of a sample of health professionals regarding the rewards system(s) operational in malawi’s moh. • to investigate the perceptions of a sample of health professionals about the efficiency and motivational value of the reward system(s) operational in malawi’s moh. • to investigate the perceptions of a sample of health professionals about the efficiency and motivational value of the financial rewards available in malawi’s moh. • to investigate the perceptions of a sample of health professionals regarding the efficiency and motivational value of the non-financial rewards available in malawi’s moh. • to substantiate the alleged reward-related problems faced by health professionals in malawi’s moh. • to suggest prescriptions for overcoming the reward-related problems faced by health professionals in malawi’s moh. • to determine how well the sample data fits a hypothesised model by using structural equation modelling (sem) as a statistical method. • to suggest a model that will help to bridge the gaps in the existing theories of rewards and motivation. value of the study this research contributes to the theoretical knowledge of reward practices in the public health sector by expanding the body of knowledge about the value of financial and non-financial rewards as a means to attract and retain health professionals in the public health service domain. therefore, various public health sector employers in africa can use this study to guide the implementation of practices that motivate professionals to commit themselves to public health care services. the findings of this study could influence the decision-making processes regarding the introduction of efficient reward systems in the health sector in particular, as well as other public sector organisations in general. literature review rewards are defined as incentives provided by an employer for the time, skills and efforts made available by the worker in fulfilling job requirements aimed at achieving organisational objectives. in the context of this study, rewards are of two basic types. these are extrinsic (financial) and intrinsic (non-financial) rewards. extrinsic rewards cover salary and all financial benefits (bowie et al., 2009; mullins, 1996; muula, 2006; muula & maseko, 2005; swanepoel et al., 2005; torrington, hall & taylor, 2005). intrinsic rewards consist of promotion, training and development, annual leave, maternity leave, sick leave, housing, company car, good working environment, club membership, annual award ceremonies to recognise employees’ contributions, praise, delegation of work, job enrichment, job enlargement, participation in decision making, appreciation for personal contribution, giving employees a new or improved job title, celebrating the anniversary of their joining the company and a handwritten thank you note (koala consulting and training, 2008; manafa et al., 2009; mullins, 1996; muula, 2006; muula & maseko, 2005; snelgar, 2012; swanepoel et al., 2005). several authors claim that an effective reward system (procedures, rules, and standards associated with allocation of benefits and compensation to employees) takes on board both financial and non-financial rewards (ahlegren et al., 2007; armstrong, 1993, 1999; bowey et al., 1986; carrel et al., 1998; eddy, 2008). types of reward systems available to reward administrators are time-based (bowey et al., 1986; carrel et al., 1998; eddy, 2008; luczak, 1998; pearce, branyiczki & bakacsi 1994); competency-based (carrel et al., 1998; eddy, 2008; ledford, 2008; sparrow, 1996); and performance-based (ahlegren et al., 2007; beardwell & holden 2001; bowey et al., 1986; carrel et al., 1998; eddy, 2008; fowler, 1996; mtazu, 2009). a time-based reward system (also known as basic rate system) is commonly used for jobs where workers are rewarded for actual hours worked or by the fraction of an annual rate of pay such as a week or a month (carrel et al., 1998). under a competency-based reward system, workers are paid for competences (knowledge, skills and aptitudes) they gain and apply when discharging their duties (sparrow, 1996). under a performance-based system, workers are rewarded according to their performance (beardwell & holden 2001; fowler, 1996). various authors (armstrong, 1993, 1999; basson, christianson, garbers, le roux, mischke & strydon, 2002; carrel et al., 1998; cherrington, 1995; dyer, schwab & fossum, 1978; ederer & manso, 2010; goldthorpe, 1968; holbeche, 2010; howard, 1997; kanfer, 1992; ledford, 2008; luczak, 1998; pearce et al., 1994; reid 2007; rynes & gerhart, 2001; singh, das & dileep, 2006; swanepoel et al., 2005) explain that the objectives of a reward system are to attract, motivate and retain adequate and highly qualified workers; to comply with legislative regulations including collective bargaining and to compensate workers for the labour services they render to their respective organisations. there are three major schools of thought regarding rewards and motivation which have emerged in the field of industrial and organisational psychology. the first school views financial rewards as a primary motivator (bowey, 1997; feber & nelson, 2009; gellerman, 1963; robbins, 2010; taylor, 1947; weber, 1947). financial rewards are a key in recognising workers’ achievements and aspirations; reinforce desirable work behaviour; are a powerful means of informing workers what is actually valued or not valued in the organisation; are regarded by workers as highly tangible strategies for recognising their worth; and improve the workers’ self-esteem and gain the esteem of others (robbins, 2010). if financial rewards are inadequate, they can be a major source dissatisfaction and migration amongst workers (armstrong, 2010; armstrong & murlins, 2007; duncan, gruenburg & wallis, 1980; greene, caracelli & graham, 1989; greenfield, 1993; holbeche, 2010; podger, 2002; robbins, 2010; stanley & berger, 1965). robbins (2010) argues that the motivational value of financial rewards is greater than that of non-financial rewards because of their potential to meet various human needs advocated by maslow (1943). ‘people may not work for money [financial rewards], but take away the money [financial rewards], how many people would come to work?’ (robbins, 2010, p.180). in other words, financial rewards are a primary motivator in any employment relationship. therefore, organisations have an obligation to use financial rewards to attract, motivate and retain workers. workers use financial rewards to compare job offers since it is easier to compare financial (extrinsic) rewards as opposed to non-financial (intrinsic) rewards. financial rewards play an important role in workers’ decisions to join or leave an organisation (armstrong & murlins, 2007; baron-punda, 2002; caudron, 1993; gellerman, 1963; robbins, 2010; taylor, 1947; weber, 1947; podger, 2002; redmond, 2010). this school is backed up by classical theory which asserts that business organisations that have accepted this theory believe that workers are driven by the desire to earn maximum financial rewards. the theory’s assumption is that workers are motivated primarily by financial rewards and will maximise their work output if they are offered extra financial rewards for any additional work (feber & nelson, 2009; gellerman, 1963; robbins, 2010; taylor, 1947; weber, 1947). the second school of thought supports the argument that the use of non-financial rewards as a primary motivator is important because they are effective when assignments require conceptual and creative thinking. additionally, they are powerful in motivating positive work behaviour and building feelings of confidence and satisfaction amongst workers. furthermore, the motivational value of non-financial rewards is long term and less costly than that of financial rewards (cole, 2004; landy & conte, 2010; robbins, odendaal & roodt, 2005; snelgar, 2012). this school of thought is backed up by herzberg’s (1960, 1966) two-factor theory which describes factors such as achievement, recognition, increased responsibility, growth and development or advancement as motivators. factors such as salary and other forms of financial rewards, company policies and administration, supervision, security, interpersonal relations and working conditions have been described as hygiene factors that do not motivate workers. the third school of thought favours a well-balanced mixture of financial (extrinsic) and non-financial (intrinsic) rewards (depending on the situation and individual reward preferences) as a tool for motivating workers (bowey, 1997; dzimbiri, 2009; white, 1973). this school of thought is backed up by contingency theory, which asserts that reward preferences vary from individual to individual depending on individual differences and needs as well as prevailing forces in the wider environment (blackburn & mann, 1979; bowey, 1997; burns & stalker, 1962; woodward, 1958). franco et al.’s (2004) model, which partly forms the conceptual framework of this study, advocates for the use of both financial and non-financial rewards to bring about health worker motivation. it warns that financial rewards should be used with caution because, if applied excessively, they can lead to distortion in work effort. it also argues that financial rewards should be integrated with non-financial rewards and other interventions to create a more balanced approach to increase motivation, satisfaction and performance. the study focuses on assessing the motivational value of rewards amongst health professionals in malawi’s moh in an effort to support the development of effective systems, practices and strategies that will improve the motivational value of rewards for the ministry’s health professionals. it is theoretically structured around the above reward-related problems (refer to the whole ‘problem statement’), objectives of a reward system and schools of thought (in the ‘reward-motivation’ debate) presented in this section. method top ↑ research approach the study was an explanatory and evaluative hybrid of quantitative and qualitative research approaches. the explanatory approach, which was quantitative in nature, covered the development and testing of hypotheses to explain the relationship amongst variables expressed under sections b2 to e of the data collection instrument. this approach helped to scientifically investigate and explain the reward-related problems faced by health professionals (babbie, 2004, 2005, 2007; babbie & mouton, 2001; collis & hussey, 2003; berry, 2003; burns, 2000; clarke, 1995; cresswell, 1994, 2009; dss research, 2001). the evaluative approach, on the other hand, was qualitative in nature, and covered a literature review, interviews, focus group discussions and administration of section f of the data collection instrument, this approach helped to gain insights into and familiarity with the current ‘reward-motivation’ debate in the researcher’s quest to appraise the application of models and theories of rewards and motivation in malawi’s moh (ader & mellenbergh, 2008; decker, 1997; david & sutton, 2004; alston & bowles, 1998). research method target population for this study, the population (sampling frame) consisted of all health professionals in malawi’s moh. according to mr hillary chimota, controller of human resource management and development in malawi’s moh (personal communication, 09 june 2011), 5707 out of 33 376 health workers in the mphs are health professionals on the ministry’s payroll. these 5707 health professionals formed the population for this study because they belong to the core function or business of malawi’s moh whilst the rest of the workers (27 669) are support staff belonging to the common service (support function) of the whole malawi civil service. sampling ten percent (10%) of the health professionals (i.e. 571 of 5707 of the ministry’s health professionals) were systematically selected and became participants in the study. all (100%) of these research participants completed and returned copies of the self-administered questionnaire. all elements of the population had equal representation in the frame. data collection instrument a structured questionnaire was developed using the data collected from the desk research or literature review, focus group discussions and interviews. the questionnaire had six sections, as follows: • section a contained biographic information of the respondents such as gender, age group, qualifications, registration with professional institutions, status of employment, and length of service (number of years working) with the moh (refer to table 1 for the rating or scoring of each sub-item). • section b1 aimed at assessing the respondents’ knowledge of the reward system(s) (time-based or basic rate or performance-based or competence-based) operational in malawi’s moh. respondents were required to indicate ‘yes’ (with a score of 1), ‘no’ (with a score of 2) or ‘don’t know’ (with a score of 3) respectively, implying that a reward system was operational, not operational or that it was not known whether or not it was operational in malawi’s moh. • section b2 aimed at assessing the knowledge and attitudes of respondents regarding the objectives of the reward system(s) operational in malawi’s moh – whether it is able to attract the right health professionals for the right positions, retain the right health professionals for the right positions, motivate the right health professionals for the right positions, comply with the existing labour laws and policies, and compensate health professionals for services rendered. • section c aimed at assessing the opinions of the respondents regarding the motivational value of financial and non-financial rewards in malawi’s moh. specific issues or items to be assessed were as follows: whether or not the respondents were primarily motivated by financial or non-financial rewards; whether or not the respondents essentially worked for financial or non-financial rewards; whether or not financial or non-financial rewards were adequate; whether or not financial or non-financial rewards were linked to performance; and whether or not current financial or non-financial rewards are able to drive the ministry’s productivity. • section d aimed at assessing the respondents’ positions on the following alleged reward-related problems being faced by health professional in malawi’s moh: the ministry’s failure to attract, motivate and retain adequate health professionals (five items); perception of inequity of rewards amongst health professionals (four items); development of coping strategies by health professionals to supplement their financial rewards (five items); health professionals’ engagement in corrupt practices to supplement their financial rewards (five items); and erosion of industrial democracy in malawi’s moh (five items). • section e aimed at assessing the respondents’ positions on whether or not the suggested strategies under the following headings could help to address the reward-related problems faced by health professionals in malawi’s moh in consonance with section d: to attract, motivate and retain adequate health professionals by malawi’s moh (six items); to ensure equity of rewards (seven items); to effectively manage coping strategies developed by health professionals (seven items); to eliminate corrupt practices (seven items); and to ensure industrial democracy (five items). • section f aimed at getting additional qualitative data from the respondents regarding reward practices for health professionals in malawi’s moh through the following questions: apart from the reward-related problems mentioned in section c, what other reward-related problems do health professionals in the moh experience? what reward-related strategies should be developed and implemented to overcome reward-related problems faced by health professionals in malawi’s moh? comment on the future of malawi’s public health system if the current trend of rewarding health professionals remains unchanged. for sections b2, c, d and e of the questionnaire, statements that were used to measure the factors were scored on a five-point likert-type scale. thus, the scores for the item responses were on a scale of 1 to 5 as follows: strongly agree (with a score of 1), agree (with a score of 2), neutral (with a score of 3), agree (with a score of 4) and strongly disagree (with a score of 5). the questionnaire had not been used before. pilot-studies were therefore conducted (followed by adjustments to the questionnaire) to improve its validity and reliability before administering it to the systematically sampled participants. data collection procedure empirical data were collected through the use a self-administered questionnaire, focus group discussions and interviews. the questionnaire was composed using the data collected from desk research (literature review), focus group discussions and interviews. data analysis descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse quantitative data from the questionnaire. such data were first coded and summarised before being entered into the computer using the statistical package for social science (spss) package (version 16). the package was chosen because of its convenience in analysing and interpreting data (barry, 1998; brace, kemp & snelgar, 2000; bryman & cramer, 1999; george & mallery, 2003; salkind, 2000). the statistical techniques used to analyse the data were item and factor analyses. such analyses helped to determine whether or not items loaded significantly on the factors they were measuring. the analyses further helped to determine the internal consistency levels of the summated factor scores through the calculation of cronbach’s coefficient alphas as displayed in the ‘results’ heading below. the sem technique was also used to test and estimate the causal relations amongst variables and determine the model fit for the hypothesised and re-specified models (bentler, 1980, 1990; hooper, 2008; steven, 1991; stevens, 1996). the qualitative data collected from the questionnaire, supported by the existing literature, focus group discussions and interviews, were analysed manually using the ‘content analysis’ approach as recommended by research experts (denzin & yvonnas, 2005; oliver, 2010; polit & hungler, 1995, 1999). the results derived from the use of qualitative data complemented and/or enhanced the inferences derived from the quantitative statistical analysis of the data. several researchers (babbie, 2004, 2007; burns & grove, 2009; cresswell, 1994, 2009; korb, 2012; mouton, 2009; nicoll & beyea, 1997; oliver, 2010) claim that with the complement of qualitative techniques, descriptive and inferential research techniques are useful in identifying problems with current practices and making judgements. such techniques are also useful in determining what others in similar situations are doing. the findings of a study that has utilised quantitative inferential techniques are generalisable and replicable to the whole target population. development of hypothesised model the relationships between factors were measured through a hypothesised model (a collection of logical relationships amongst variables or factors derived from theories and concepts) (bentler, 1980, 1990; steven, 1991; stevens, 1996). before testing, the model envisaged that objectives of a reward system have a significant mediating effect on the rewards and reward-related satisfaction of health professionals of mphs. it further suggested that there is a good fit between exogenous or independent variables (financial and non-financial rewards) and endogenous or dependent variables (reward-related problems) with ‘objectives of a reward system’ as a mediating variable. the relationships amongst the variables in question are displayed in figure 1. figure 1: hypothesised model of reward categories and their consequences. in this context, an exogenous or independent variable refers to a factor or construct whose values (when manipulated by the researcher) creates effects on a dependent variable; a mediating variable refers to an intervening or intermediary factor or construct which is part of the causal chain; and an endogenous or dependent variable refers to a factor or construct whose value should be observed when an independent variable changes and represents a response, behaviour or outcome the researcher wishes to explain or predict (gorsuch, 1983; kim, 1995; kim & mueller, 1978; losh, 2002; ratner, 2011; routio, 2007). the hypothesised model, which was developed from theory (armstrong, 1993, 1999; bratton & gold, 2007; koala consulting and training, 2008; torrington, hall & taylor, 2005), was statistically tested in the ‘results’ heading below. results top ↑ confirming reliability and validity of the questionnaire reliability and validity of the questionnaire (research instrument) were confirmed as indicated in the following sub-sections. trustworthiness top ↑ reliability an item analysis was conducted in order to assess the reliability of the scores derived from the research instrument. cronbach’s coefficient alphas were calculated to determine the internal consistency of the instrument. all factors reported excellent reliability statistics. cronbach’s alphas, which ranged from 0.96 to 0.99, exceeded the recommended threshold level of 0.70 for acceptable reliability, as displayed in table 1. table 1: item analysis results. thus the item analysis results indicated that all factors had significant cronbach’s alpha values, suggesting very strong reliability and implying that they were all reliable for use in the study (gliem & gliem, 2002). the internal consistency of the instrument was also tested and confirmed during the pilot studies at the following malawian health facilities: chiradzulu, ntcheu and kasungu district hospitals (from 20 may 2011 to 08 july, 2011); thyolo and mulanje district hospital (from 25 august 2011 to 29 august 2011); and queen elizabeth central hospital and mwanza district hospital (from 01 october 2011 to 11 november 2011). the results of the final pilot study produced coefficient alphas ranging between 0.72 and 0.94. validity to determine the validity of the instrument, a factor analysis with an oblique varimax rotation was conducted. the results showed a cumulated proportion of 90.30% which confirmed the validity of the questionnaire for use in this study. the item loadings for each factor were as follows:• factor 1: items b2.1 (0.949), b2.2 (0.924), b2.3 (0.931), b2.4 (0.919) and b2.5 (0.944). this factor confirms a reward system’s objectives of attracting, retaining and motivating workers; complying with the existing labour laws and policies; and compensating workers for the labour services they render to an organisation. • factor 2a: items c1 (0.954), c2 (0.933) and c3 (0.970). this factor confirms the use of financial rewards as motivators in organisations. • factor 2b: items c4 (0.937) and c5 (0.914). this factor also confirms the use financial rewards as motivators in organisations. • factor 3a: items c6 (0.942), c7 (0.948) and c8 (0.965). this factor confirms the use of non-financial rewards as motivators in organisations. • factor 3b: items c9 (0.979) and c10 (0.972). this factor also confirms the use non-financial rewards as motivators in organisations. • factor 4: items d1 (0.957), d2 (0.913), d3 (0.979), d4 (0.897) and d5 (0.975). this factor confirms the failure of malawi’s moh to attract, motivate and retain health professionals. • factor 5: items d6 (0.896), d7 (0.852), d8 (0.876), d9 (0.918) and d10 (0.958). this factor confirms the inequity of rewards amongst health professionals in malawi’s moh. • factor 6: items d11 (0.920), d12 (0.942), d13 (0.924) and d14 (0.958). this factor confirms that health professionals in malawi’s moh develop coping strategies in their quest to supplement their monthly incomes. • factor 7: items d15 (0.909), d16 (0.863), d17 (0.932), d18 (0.886) and d19 (0. 912). this factor confirms the engagement of health professionals in corrupt practices in their quest to supplement their monthly financial rewards. • factor 8: items d20 (0.907), d21 (0.844), d22 (0.897), d23 (0.923) and d24 (0.938). this factor confirms the erosion of industrial democracy in malawi’s moh. • factor 9: items e1 (0.892), e2 (0.950), e3 (0.936), e4 (0.860), e5 (0.950) and e6 (0.862). the implementation of the items in this factor is confirmed in order to attract, motivate and retain health professionals in malawi’s moh. • factor 10: items e7 (0.822), e8 (0.911), e9 (0.938), e10 (0.913), e11 (0.946), e12 (0.942) and e13 (0.961). the implementation of the items in this factor is confirmed in order to overcome the inequity of rewards amongst health professionals in malawi’s moh. • factor 11: items e14 (0.961), e15 (0.976), e16 (0.958), e17 (0.945), e18 (0.954), e19 (0.955) and e20 (0.963). the implementation of the items in this factor is confirmed in order to effectively manage the coping strategies adopted by health professionals in their quest to supplement their monthly financial rewards. • factor 12: items e21 (0.989), e22 (0.971), e23 (0.961), e24 (0.980), e25 (0.971) and e26 (0.946). the implementation of the items in this factor is confirmed in order to eliminate corrupt practices amongst health professionals in malawi’s moh. • factor 13: items e27 (0.968), e28 (0.981), e29 (0.984), e30 (0.962) and e31 (0.975). the implementation of the items in this factor is confirmed to ensure/improve industrial democracy in malawi’s moh in particular and malawi’s public health sector in general. some authors (fabrigar, wegener, maccallum & straham, 1999; wikipedia, 2012) recommend a loading of 0.7 or higher to confirm that an item represents a particular factor in a research instrument. the above results indicate high loadings (of equal to or greater than 0.822) for all items making up each factor confirming validity of the whole research instrument. descriptive statistics for biographical characteristics of the respondents. five hundred and seventy-one (i.e., n = 571) health professionals sampled for the study completed the questionnaire. the figure represents 100% of the selected study sample. for this reason, ‘n = 571’ for every finding in this study. therefore, ‘n = 571’ will not be specified when presenting every finding to avoid unnecessary repetition. descriptive statistics for biographical data included gender, age, qualifications, registration, status of employment and length of service, as displayed in table 2. table 2: biographical characteristics of the respondents. in table 2, approximately 25.74% and 74.26% of the respondents were males and females respectively. thus the study was female-dominated (74.26%). the majority of the female health professionals are in the nursing field (h. chimota, personal communication, 09 june 2011; ministry of health, 2011; national statistical office, 2008). whilst there was no respondent in the age group below 20 years, 139 respondents (24.35%) were between 20 and 29 years. the majority of the respondents (65.67%) were in the ‘30–39 years’ age group. the number of the respondents drastically declined with the increase in age. the ‘40–49 years’ age group had 39 respondents (6.83%) and there were 16 respondents (2.80%) in the ‘50–59 years’ age group. the ‘60 years or older’ age group had two respondents (0.35%) only. all of the respondents (100%) were qualified health professionals. approximately 12.78% and 42.38% of the respondents were degree and diploma holders respectively whilst 44.84% of them had qualifications below diploma level. this finding implies that all respondents were exposed to formal health professional training and were qualified to work in the health facilities under malawi’s moh. furthermore, all of the respondents indicated that they were duly registered with their respective professional institutions: medical council of malawi (54.29%); nurses and mid-wives council (41.68%); and pharmacy, medicines and poisons board (4.04%). the respondents were requested to indicate their status of employment in malawi’s moh (whether they were permanent, temporary, probationary or contract employees). five hundred and twenty-nine (529) respondents (92.64%) were permanent health professionals, 41 respondents (7.18%) were probationers and one respondent (0.18%) was a contract health professional. the respondents were also requested to indicate their length of service with the moh. there was no respondent in the ‘0–1 year’ category; 143 (25.05%) in the ‘2–4 years’ category; 374 (65.50%) in the ‘5–9 years’ category; 38 (6.65%) in the ‘10–19 years’ category; and 16 (2.80%) in the ‘20 years or older’ category. statistical analysis statistical analysis was carried out to test the hypothesised and re-specified models as discussed in the following sub-sections. hypothesis testing one of the hypotheses formulated and tested in this study was that objectives of a reward system have a significant mediating effect on rewards and reward-related satisfaction of health professionals of mphs. this hypothesis suggests that there is a good fit between financial rewards, non-financial rewards and reward-related problems (represented by attraction, motivation and retention; non-corrupt practices; equity of rewards; financial coping strategies; and industrial democracy) when mediated by the reward system’s objectives. in terms of theory (armstrong, 1993, 1999; bratton & gold, 2007; koala consulting and training, 2008; torrington et al., 2005), the objectives of a reward system mediate or strengthen the motivational value of financial and non-financial rewards to counter reward-related problems (mentioned in the ‘problem statement and research objectives’ section). in this study, the researcher’s proposed model (refer to figure 1) was based on theory and tested by means of the sem technique in consonance with former research publications (bentler, 1980, 1990; fan thompson & wang, 1999; hooper, 2008; steven, 1991; stevens, 1996). however, the analysis of the model (through the sem exercise) collapsed suggesting that the sample in this study does not support the measurement model. it could be interpreted that the objectives of a reward system do not have a mediating effect in addressing reward-related problems through financial and non-financial rewards in malawi’s moh. the hypothesis was therefore rejected. consequently, the mediating factor (objectives of a reward system) was omitted when developing and testing a re-specified model, presented below. the re-specified model some researchers (bagozzi, 2012; goldberger, 1972; pearl, 2000) assert that whenever necessary, a model must be modified (re-specified) to improve the fit and estimate the most likely relationships between variables. modifications that improve model fit should be treated as potential changes made to the model. in addition to improvements in the model fit, the modifications (re-specifications) should also make theoretical sense. hooper (2008) and kenny (2011) agree that when a model has been re-specified, any modifications made and correlations (causal relations) between variables must be reported. it is against the professional advice of some researchers (bagozzi, 2012; goldberger, 1972; hooper, 2008; kenny, 2011; kerliger & lee, 2000; pearl, 2000) that the re-specified model (and correlations between the variables) was reported in this study. objectives of the reward system were omitted from the re-specified model and consequently the sem exercise produced significant results from the re-specified model with several explanations. figure 2 displays the re-specified model followed by explanations of the causal relationships amongst the variables. figure 2: the re-specified model displaying corrections between variables. in figure 2, it is clear that there are positive causal relationships (correlations) between financial rewards and reward-related problems faced by health professionals in malawi’s moh. the weakest correlation exists between financial rewards and erosion of industrial democracy. the strongest association (with a coefficient of 0.46) exists between financial rewards and failure to attract, motivate and retain health professionals followed by the correlation between financial rewards and perception of inequity of rewards (with a value of 0.45). the value of the correlation between financial rewards and coping strategies to supplement financial rewards is 0.44, whilst the value of the correlation between financial rewards and engagement in corrupt practices is 0.26. the results confirm that there is a positive relationship between financial rewards and alleged reward-related problems being faced by health professionals in malawi’s moh. these results are statistically significant (p < 0.05) (hooper, 2008) and imply the following:• inadequate financial rewards have resulted in the failure of malawi’s moh to attract, motivate and retain staff. • there is a perception of inequity of rewards amongst health professionals in malawi’s moh. • health professionals develop and use coping strategies to supplement their financial rewards. • health professionals engage in corrupt practices to supplement their financial rewards. • there is an erosion of industrial democracy in malawi’s moh due to inadequate financial rewards. qualitative responses (from both male and female respondents, married and not married within the ‘20 to 49 years’ age range) captured under section f of the questionnaire were reported verbatim as follows: • ‘brain drain will continue to torment malawi’s moh if the malawi government is not serious in managing the hr crisis created by inadequate rewards provided to health professionals’. • ‘health professionals will continue to take up job opportunities in the global market as demand for their expertise rises in high income areas’. qualitative responses captured during interviews and focus group discussions were coded, paraphrased and summarised as follows: • if financial rewards for health professionals are not market-driven, policy-makers should not be surprised with the massive exodus of health professionals from malawi’s ministry of health. • health professionals find it frustrating to receive lower financial reward packages than expatriate technical support staff with the same or lesser qualification and experience. the quantitative findings (supported by the qualitative responses) confirm the motivational value of financial rewards, which is an academic departure from herzberg’s (1960, 1966) two-factor theory which regards financial rewards as a hygiene factor and not a motivator. various researchers (bentler, 1980, 1990; hooper, 2008; steven, 1991; stevens, 1996) advise that when selecting model fit statistics to report, the researcher should simply report the statistics that estimate the best fit. other researchers (fan, thompson & wang, 1999; kerlinger & lee, 2000) caution that several fit statistics must be consulted when evaluating a model fit because fit indices were developed for different rationales. no single fit meets all expectations of an ideal index. in consonance with this advice, a factor analysis was conducted to determine the model fit. consequently, the statistical measures that estimated the reasonable fit between the proposed model and the empirical data were a normed fit index (nfi), (bentler & bonnet, 1980) with a value of 0.86; a non-normed fit index (nnfi) (bentler & bonnet, 1980) with a value of 0.86; and a comparative fit index (cfi), (bentler, 1990) with the value of 0.88. deducing from figure 2, this researcher has established an inverse relationship (negative correlation) between financial rewards and non-financial rewards as graphically demonstrated in figure 3. figure 3: relationship between financial and non-financial rewards. in the graph presented in figure 3, the horizontal axis denotes financial rewards (fr) whilst the vertical axis denotes non-financial rewards (nfr). the nfr-fr line or curve represents the relationship between non-financial rewards and financial rewards.theoretically, the graphic model shows that, ceteris paribus, health professionals with initial financial rewards at fr0 will demand initial non-financial rewards at nfr0 from the employer (i.e., malawi’s moh). if financial rewards are increased by the employer to fr1, demand for non-financial rewards by health professionals will decrease to nfr1. if financial rewards are decreased by the employer to fr2, demand for non-financial rewards by health professionals will increase to nfr2. decreasing financial rewards to 01 by the employer implies the end of the employment contract and demand for non-financial rewards by health professionals disappears. on the other hand, increasing financial rewards to 02 will result in zero demand for non-financial rewards by health professionals. this researcher is of the opinion that the graphic model displayed in figure 3 is a true reflection of what happens in the real world of work especially in developing countries where the frequently cited non-financial rewards have financial implications. these are housing or accommodation or shelter, training opportunities, development opportunities, promotional opportunities, company car, good working environment, club membership and annual award ceremonies to recognise employees’ contributions (armstrong & mullins, 2007; carrel et al., 1998; howard, 1997; michalowicz & male, 2011). this researcher argues that these are regarded as non-financial rewards due to lack of better terminology to describe them. ceteris paribus, demand for so-called non-financial rewards by the workers is likely to increase if they do not get adequate financial rewards from their employers. the employer cannot provide these non-financial rewards to the workers free of charge. it is therefore an economic blunder to think that by providing them to the workers, the employer is avoiding financial implications. if workers get adequate financial rewards from their employers, they can get these so-called non-financial rewards on their own thereby increasing intrinsic motivation. for instance, they can acquire their own accommodation or housing, train and develop themselves and create their own good working environment using financial rewards they get from their respective employers. this researcher concludes that both financial and non-financial rewards are important in the world of work as demonstrated by the graphic model displayed in figure 3. however, the success of an organisation in maintaining the motivational value of both financial and non-financial rewards (whilst improving its performance or productivity) therefore depends on its ability to balance the categories of rewards, including those with no financial implications. these are praise, delegation of work, job enrichment, job enlargement, participation in decision making, appreciation for personal contribution, giving employees a new or improved job title, celebrating the anniversary of their joining the company and a handwritten ‘thank you’ note (michalowicz & male, 2011). discussion top ↑ the aim of the study was to assess the motivational value of rewards amongst health professionals in malawi’s moh. so far, literature reveals that no consensus has been reached regarding the motivational value of financial and non-financial rewards. as a consequence, organisations are applying theories and models of motivation selectively depending on their beliefs, ideological framework of values and assumptions of variations in the relative importance of rewards at their disposal (howard, 1997; torrington et al., 2005). in this study, the hypothesised model was based on theory and tested by means of correlations through the use of the sem technique. as explained above, the analysis deleted the ‘objectives of a reward system’ as a mediating factor. as a consequence, an initial fit of the empirical data on the proposed model was not established. these findings suggest that the objectives of a reward system do not have a mediating effect on the reduction of rewardrelated problems. the re-specified model (figure 2) was also tested using the sem technique and a reasonable fit was established between the re-specified model and empirical data. the statistical measures that estimated the reasonable fit were nfi, nnfi and cfi. the findings of testing the re-specified model suggest that there are positive causal relationships between financial rewards and reward-related problems faced by health professionals in malawi’s moh. these findings imply that if the employer increases financial rewards for health professionals, the probability of eliminating reward-related problems increases as well, and vice versa. the findings displayed in the graphical model (refer to figure 3) suggest that there is an inverse relationship between financial and non-financial rewards. thus if financial rewards are increased by the employer, demand for non-financial rewards decreases and vice versa. the rationale behind this inverse relationship is that in the real world of work, ceteris paribus, workers use financial rewards (if they are adequate) to get their non-financial needs or requirements. if financial rewards are not adequate, demand for non-financial needs or requirements from the employer increases. these findings imply that both financial and non-financial rewards are very important in any employment relationship and signify a paradigm shift in the way the motivational value of rewards has been viewed in the field of industrial psychology. both the re-specified and graphical models symbolise a pragmatic departure from the model of franco et al. (2004), which leans towards the use of non-financial rewards and suggests that financial rewards should be used with caution. the findings of this study suggest that financial rewards are motivators amongst health professionals in malawi’s moh. although behavioural scientists such as herzberg (1960, 1966) downplay the use of financial rewards as motivators, they are critical to work motivation especially in the developing countries where the struggle for basic needs (in order to survive) is a reality (caudron, 1993; robbins, 2010). these findings do not suggest that non-financial rewards should be completely ignored. they imply that arguments or criticisms against rewards (whether financial or non-financial) should be made with caution because reward preferences vary from individual to individual depending on individual differences and needs as well as the prevailing environmental forces or factors, as suggested by franco et al.’s (2004) model and supported by the contingency theory of motivation (blackburn & mann, 1979; bowey, 1997; landy & conte, 2010; white, 1973). therefore, this study is, to the researcher’s knowledge, one of the first studies to assess the motivational value of rewards amongst health professionals in the public health sector. it is unique in the sense that its findings indicate that both financial and non-financial rewards are indispensable in employment relationships. furthermore, in the world of work, no relationship exists between rewards, objectives of a reward system and reward-related problems, as manifested by the collapsing of the hypothesised model when an attempt was made to statistically test it. summary of the findings managerial implications and recommendations the findings of the hypothesised model suggest to managers and/or policy-makers that the objectives of a reward system have no mediating effect between the rewards and reward-related problems faced by health professionals in malawi’s moh. the finding derived from both re-specified and graphical models symbolise a pragmatic departure from theoretical claims that financial rewards (salaries or money in general) are not a motivator (herzberg, 1960, 1966). therefore, although franco et al.’s (2004) model proposes that financial rewards should be used with caution, this researcher’s opinion is that statements about rewards should be made with caution because reward preferences differ from worker to worker amidst various forces operating in the world of work and society as a whole. rewards (as well as their related practices, systems and strategies) are the major cause of dissatisfaction (and resultantly brain drain) amongst the health professionals in malawi’s moh because they are perceived by them to be inequitable, inadequate and unfair. the inverse relationship between financial and non-financial rewards that has been graphically demonstrated in figure 3 is an empirical indication that both financial and non-financial rewards are indispensable in every employment relationship. they are a powerful means of informing workers what is actually valued or not valued in the organisation (amar, 1994; de bruyne, 2001; kapeleta, 2002). managers and policy-makers should always bear in mind that the commitment of health professionals to improving and maintaining quality standards of health care cannot be taken for granted. offering competitive rewards and ensuring that reward systems and practices are efficient, reasonable, fair, consistent and acceptable to all health professionals is a positive step to attracting and retaining them as well as winning their commitment (amar, 1994). limitations of the study the major limitation pertaining to the literature was that there is a massive body of contemporary writing on motivation and rewards. the preferences of the researcher determined the choice of the key texts which, in his view, were relevant to the core theme of the study. for empirical research, behaviour of the respondents, who were systematically sampled for the study, was not directly assessed because the researcher relied solely on the self-administered questionnaire to collect data from them. consequently, the researcher has failed to articulate the behaviour and attitudes of the respondents during the data collection exercise. recommendations for future research the first recommendation for future research relates to the inverse (causal) relationship that has been established between financial and non-financial rewards as demonstrated in a graphic model (figure 3). the graphical model demonstrates that, ceteris paribus, if the employer increases financial rewards, demand for non-financial rewards by workers decreases and vice versa. the researcher is of the view that this model should not be taken lightly by other researchers, scholars, consultants and practitioners since it is not backed up by theory that is mostly founded on western studies. further empirical research is recommended to re-test the model in the public health sectors of developing countries with other samples. the second recommendation relates to the view that financial rewards are of primary importance (compared to non-financial rewards) in any employment relationship in the developing countries since the reciprocity principle of the contract of employment states that workers are entitled to financial rewards when they have placed their labour services at the disposal of an employer (basson et al., 2002; finnemore, 2002). presently there is a pool of empirical research findings that organisations can succeed in motivating their workers and improving their productivity through the use of financial rewards only. however, no empirical evidence is readily available supporting the argument that through the use of only non-financial rewards, organisations can succeed in motivating their workers and improving their productivity. plainly speaking, the motivational value of non-financial rewards has been praised in the context where financial rewards have not been completely ignored (dewhurst, guthridge & mohr, 2009; silverman, 2004). it is therefore recommended further that scientifically informed research should be conducted to bring to light examples of well-established business organisations in developing countries whose workers have only non-financial reward packages governing their contracts of employment. a comparative analysis of performance of the two categories of business organisations (that is those whose workers only have financial reward packages governing their contracts of employment and those whose workers only have non-financial reward packages governing their contracts of employment) should also be done and reported on to end the debate. the third and final recommendation relates to this researcher’s belief that a candle does not lose anything by lighting another candle. the researcher is convinced that ‘praise’ or ‘thank you’ as a form of recognition, positive feedback, participative decision-making, job autonomy, delegation, job enlargement and job enrichment are unquestionably non-financial rewards. however, inspired scientific clarifications should be made (through scientifically informed research) by the proponents of non-financial rewards on how other alleged non-financial rewards (especially career advancement, housing or accommodation or shelter, training and development promotional opportunities, company car, good working environment, club membership, and annual award ceremonies to recognise employees’ contributions) can be provided by an employer without financial implications attached to them. otherwise the researcher is of the view that these non-financial rewards are basically financial rewards offered to health professionals (or any workers) in a disguised form. conclusion top ↑ from the above discussions and debates, it is clear that a lot has been said, written and talked about regarding the motivational value of rewards in the field of industrial and organisational psychology. what is indisputable is that rewards are indispensable in every employment relationship. offering competitive rewards and ensuring that reward systems and practices are efficient, reasonable, fair, consistent and acceptable to all health professionals is a positive step to attracting and retaining them, and ultimately winning their commitment (amar, 1994; dieleman, cuong, anh & martineau, 2003; kapeleta, 2002). acknowledgements top ↑ the research findings reported in this article are the product of a doctoral thesis for alfred w.d. chanza at nelson mandela metropolitan university (nmmu). financial support (in the form of publication fees) from nmmu and permission by national health sciences research committee (nhsrc) to conduct the study in malawi’s moh, are hereby acknowledged. conclusions drawn or opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of nmmu. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.w.d.c. (nelson mandela metropolitan university) conducted the research as part of his doctoral studies and wrote most of the article’s content. r.j.s. (nelson mandela metropolitan university) was the promoter while g.j.l. (nelson mandela metropolitan university) was the co-promoter for the study. the two research experts also made significant contributions in conceptualising, writing and presenting this article. references top ↑ ader, h.j., & mellenbergh, g.s. (2008). advising on research methods: a consultant companion. huizen: johannes van kessel publishing. agnew, j.l., & redman, w.k. (1992). contingency specifying stimuli. the role of rules in organisational behaviour management. journal of organisational behaviour management, 12(2), 67–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/j075v12n02_04 ahlegren, a., anderson, i., & skold, h. (2007). individual versus team-based reward systems. goteborg: school of business economics and law. alston, m., & bowles, w. (1998). research for social workers: an introduction to research methods. sydney: allen & unwin. amar, a.d. (1994). motivating workers in 1990s: reward and recognition. mid-atlantic journal of business – high beam research, june, 1994. arliely, d., greezy, u., lowenstein, g., & major, n. (2005). behavioural economics. boston: federal reserve bank. armstrong, m. (1993). managing reward systems. buckingham: open university press. armstrong, m. (1999). a handbook of human resource management. (7th edn.). london: kogan page. armstrong, m. (2010). amstrong’s handbook on reward management practice: improving performance through reward. london: kogan page. armstrong, m., & murlis, h. (1998). reward management. a handbook of reward strategy and practice. london: kogan page. armstrong, m., & murlis, h. (2007). reward management: a handbook of reward strategy and practice. (5th edn.). london: kogan page. babbie, e. (2005). the basics of social research. (3rd edn.). toronto: thomson wadsworth. babbie, e. (2007). the practice of social research. (11th edn.). london: oxford university press. babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2001). the practice of social research. london: oxford university press. pmid:11247957 bagozzi, r.y. (2012). specification, evaluation and interpretation of structural equation models. journal of the academy of marketing science, 40(1), 8–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11747-011-0278-x baron-punda, m. (2002). modelling and simulation of the labour cost in unit and small batch production. retrieved may 05, 2010, from http://www.stroj.uccsk/journal/eng/papers024-2002pdf barry, c.a. (1998). choosing qualitative data analysis software. retrieved july 15, 2010, from http://www.socreonlineorg.uk basson, a., christianson, m., garbers, c., le roux, p., mischke, c., & strydon, e. (2002). essential labour law. (3rd edn.). houghton: labour law publications. beardwell, i., & holden, l. (2001). human resource management: a contemporary approach. (3rd edn.). englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. bentler, p.m., & bonnet, d.g. (1980). significance tests and goodness of fit in the analysis of covariance structures. psychological bulletin, 88, 588–606. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.88.3.588 bentler, p.m. (1980). multivariate analysis with latent variables: causal modeling. annual review of psychology, 31, 11–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ps.31.020180.002223 bentler, p.m. (1990). comparative fit indices in structural models. psychological bulletin, 107, 238–346. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.107.2.238, pmid:2320703 berger, l.a., & berger, d.r. (2000). the compensation handbook: a state-of-the art guide to compensation strategy. (4th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. berry, d.m. (2003). an evaluation of mentoring to develop a strategy for facilitating the objectives of the employment equity act (act 55 of 1998). unpublished manuscript. bowey, a.m. (1997). motivation at work. london: macmillan. bowey, a.m., thorpe, r., & hellier, p. (1986). payment systems and productivity. london: macmillan. pmid:3804023, pmcid:pmc1433974 bowie, c., mwase, t., & chinkhumba, j. (2009). health workers’ income and expenditure in malawi: an assessment of the relative contribution of incentive schemes to take home pay and the extra living costs of rural posts. blantyre: com. brace, n., kemp, r., & snelgar, r. (2000). spss for psychologists: a guide to data analysis using spss for windows. new york: palgrave. bratton, j., & gold, j. (1999). human resource management theory and practice. (2nd edn.). london: macmillan. bryman, a., & cramer, d. (1999). quantitative data analysis with spss release 8 for windows: a guide to social scientists. new york: routledge. burns, t., & stalker, g. (1961). the management of innovation. london: tavistock. burns, n., & grove, s.k. (2009). the practice of nursing research: appraisal, synthesis and generation of evidence. (6th edn.). st louis: elsevier. burns, r. (2000). introduction to research methods. london: sage. caudron, s. (1993, 15 november). motivating? money’s only no. 2. industry week, p. 33. carrel, m.r., elbert, n.f., hatfield, r.d., grobler, p.a., marx, m., & van der schyf, s. (1998). human resource management in south africa. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. chapalapata, m. (2011, 4 march). civil servants open bank accounts. the daily times, p. 3. chapulapula, t. (2011, 24 march). acb to prosecute creators of ghost workers. the daily times, p. 3. cherrington, d.j. (1995). management of human resources. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. clarke, l. (1995). nursing research: science visions and telling stories. journal of advanced nursing, 21(3), 584–593. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.1995.tb02744.x, pmid:7745215 cole, g.a. (2004). management theory and practice. (6th edn.). london: thomson learning. cole, g.a. (2000). management theory and practice. (5th edn.). london: thomson learning. collis, j., & hussey, r. (2003). business research: a practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate studies (2nd edn.). new york: macmillan. pmcid:pmc1125672 costley, d.l., melgoza, c.s., & todd, r. (2000). human relations in organisations. (5th edn.). new york: west publishing company. david, m., & sutton, c.m. (2004). social research: the basics. london: sage. decker, i. (1997). research sampling. flagstaff, az: northern arizona university. de bruyne, j.w. (2001). a study to identify the factors responsible for job dissatisfaction and low teacher morale. retrieved september 18, 2011, from http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2001 denzin, n.k., & yvonnas, l. (2005). handbook of qualitative research. (3rd edn.). london: sage. pmcid:pmc1088373 dittrich, j.e., & carrel, m.r. (1979). organisational equity, perceptions, employee job satisfaction and departmental absence and turnover rates. organisational behaviour and human performance, 24, 29-40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(79)90013-8 dieleman, m., cuong, p.v., anh, l.v., & martineau, t. (2003). identifying factors for job motivation of rural health workers in north vietnam. retrieved june 18, 2010, from http://www.human-resources-health.com/content dovlo, d. (2004). wastage in the health workforce: some perspectives from african countries. retrieved july 10, 2010, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc1198245/ dovlo, d. (2003). brain drain and retention of health professionals in africa. retrieved april 03, 2011, from http://www.hrhresource.centre.org/note/445 dss research (2001). sampling error. retrieved june 18, 2010, from http://www.dssresearch.com/general/sampling.asp duncan, k.d., gruenburg, m.m., & wallis, d. (1980). changes in working life. london: wiley. dzimbiri, l.b. (2009). organisation and management theories: an african focus. cuvillier verlag gottingen: international scientific publishers. dzimbiri, l.b. (2008). industrial relations in a developing society: the case of colonial, independent one-party and multi-party malawi. cuvillier verlag gottingen: international scientific publishers. dyer, l., schwab, d.p., & fossum, j.a. (1978). impacts of pay on behaviours and attitudes: an update. personnel administrator, 23, 51–53. pmid:10305700/p > eddy, a. (2008). designing a reward system. phoenix, az: axia college of the university of phoenix. ederer, f.p., & manso, g. (2010). is pay-for-performance detrimental to motivation? retrieved may 03, 2011, from http://www.ssrn.com/abstract dewhurst, m., guthridge, m., & mohr, e. (2009). motivating people: getting beyond money. retrieved june 17, 2010, from http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/motivating_people_getting_beyond_money_2460 fabrigar, l.r., wegener, d.t., maccallum, r.c., & straham, e.j. (1999). evaluating the use of exploratory factor analysis in psychological research. journal of industrial psychology, 4, 472–499. fan, x., thompson, b., & wang, l. (1999). estimation methods and model specifications on sem fit indices. psychological bulletin, 6, 56–83. ferber, m.a., & nelson, j.a. (2009). beyond economic man: feminist theory and economics. chicago: the university of chicago press. finnemore, m. (2002). introduction to labour relations in south africa. (8th edn.). durban: butterworth. fowler, a. (1996). how pick a job evaluation system. people management, 2, 42-43. franco, l., bennett, s., & kanfer, r. (2002). health sector reform and public sector health worker motivation: a conceptual framework. social science and medicine, 54(8), 1255–1266. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0277-9536(01)00094-6 franco, l., bennett, s., kanfer, r., & stubblebine, p. (2004). determinants and consequences of health worker motivation in hospitals in jordan and georgia. social science and medicine, 58, 343–355. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0277-9536(03)00203-x franco, l., bennett, s., kanfer, r., & stubblebine, p. (2000). health worker motivation in jordan and georgia. a sythensis of results. bethesda: md partnersips for health reform project. gellerman, s. (1963). motivation and personality. new york: american management association. pmid:14094055 george, d., & mallery, p. (2003). spss for windows step by step: a simple guide and reference. (4th edn.). boston: allyn & bacon. gliem, j.a., & gliem, r.r. (2002). calculating, interpreting and reporting cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient for likert-type scales. columbus: ohio state university. goldberger, a.s. (1972). structural equation models in social sciences. econometrica, 40, 479–1001. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1913851 goldthorpe, j. (1986). the affluent worker. london: cambridge university press. gordon, m. (2008). malawi emergency human resources programme: an overview. lilongwe: dfid. gorsuch, r.l. (1983). factor analysis (2nd edn.). mahwah, nj: earlbaum associates. pmcid:pmc1001136 greene, j.c., caracelli, v.j., & graham, w.f. (1989). towards a conceptual framework for mixed-method evaluation designs. educational evaluation and policy analysis, 11(3), 255–274. greenfield, f. (1993). money: the motivator of the 90s. pretoria: southern book publishers. grobler, p.a., warnich, s., carrell, m.r., elbert, n.f., & hatfield, r.d. (2006). human resource management in south africa. london: thomas learning. pmcid:pmc1422768 herzberg, f. (1966). work and the nature of man. cleveland: world publishing. herzberg, f. (1960). motivation to work. in f. herzberg (1966). work and the nature of man. cleveland: world publishing. holbeche, l. (2010). aligning human resources and business strategy. london: butterworth. pmid:20422809 hooper, d. (2008). statistical equation modeling: determining the model fit. retrieved july 12, 2012, from http://www.hooper/sem/arrow/html howard, f. (1997). keeping the best employees in the 90s. the journal of property management, 62(3), 20–25. kanfer, r. (1992). work motivation: new directions in theory and research. international review of industrial and organizational psychology, 7, 2–53. kapeleta, a.b.k. (2002). human relations. blantyre: staff development institute. unpublished manuscript. kenny, d.a. (2011). re-specification of latent variable models. retrieved july 12, 2012, from http://www.davidkenny/respec.html kerlinger, f.n., & lee, h.b. (2000). foundations of behavioural research (4th edn.). london: thomson learning. khunga, s. (2011, 22 march). government loses k2bn to ghosts. the daily times, p. 1. kim, j.o., & mueller, c.w. (1978). introduction to factor analysis. london: sage. kim, y.y. (1995). cross-cultural adaptation: an integrative theory. in r.l. wisemen (ed). inter-cultural communication theory (pp. 170–194). thousand oaks, ca: sage. korb, k.a. (2012). conducting educational research. retrieved may 11, 2012, from http://www.korbpsychology.com koala consulting and training (2008). reward systems. retrieved february 20, 2010, from http://www.koalacat.com landy, f.j., & conte, j.m. (2010 ). work in the 21st century. an introduction to industrial and organizational psychology. (3rd edn.). new york: john wiley and sons. ledford, g.e. (2008). factors affecting the long-term success of skill-based pay. worldatwork. pmcid:pmc2784638 losh, s.c. (2002). methods of educational research, fall 2002. guide 2: variables and hypotheses. retrieved may 12, 2012, from http://www.mailer.fsu.edu/slosh/methodsguide2.html luczak, h. (1998). arbeitswissenschaft. berlin: springer. pmid:9442046 malawi government (2007). malawi health swap. lilongwe: moh. manafa, o., mcauliffe, a., maseko, f., bowie, c., maclachlan, m., normand, c., & chirwa, m. (2009). retention of health workers in malawi: perspectives of health workers and district management. human resources for health, 10, 7–25. mangham, l. (2007). addressing the human resource crisis in malawi’s health sector: employment preferences of public sector registered nurses. london: esau economic and statistical analysis unit. maslow, a.h. (1943). a theory of human motivation. psychological review, 50, 370–396. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0054346 mathauer, i., & imhoff, i. (2006). health worker motivation in africa. the role of non-financial rewards and human resource management tools. human resources for health, 4, 24–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1478-4491-4-24, pmid:16939644, pmcid:pmc1592506 mcauliffe, e., bowie, c., munafa, o., maseko, f., maclachlan, m., hevey, d., normand, c., & chirwa, m. (2009). understanding job satisfaction amongstst mid-level cadres in malawi: the contribution of organisational justice. human resources for health, 2009, 7–13. metcalf, h. (1995). future skills demand and supply: trends, shortages and gluts. london: psi publications. michalowicz, m., & male, b. (2011). 51 ways to reward employees without money. retrieved august 21, 2012, from http://www.goodnewsaday.worldpress/content/7/1/6 ministry of development planning and cooperation. (2010). malawi millennium development goals report. lilongwe: mepd. ministry of health (2010). human resource crisis in the health sector. towards a solution. lilongwe: moh. mouton, e.b.j. (2009). the practice of social research. oxford: oxford university press. mphande, j. (2011, 17 march). the opportunity cost of ghost workers. the sunday times, p. 7. mtazu, p.s. (2009). evaluating remuneration and reward systems at lobels bread in zimbabwe. pe: nmmu. mullins, l.j. (1996). management and organisational behaviour. (4th edn.). london: pitman publishing. munthali, k. (2011, 22 march). ghost workers drain k2bn per year. the nation, p. 1. musa. m. (2011, 7 march). the new system affects government salaries. daily times, p. 2. muula, a.s. (2006). shortage of health workers in malawi public service system: how do parliamentarians perceive the problem? african journal of health sciences, 13, 124–130. pmid:17348752 muula, a.s., & maseko, f.c. (2005). survival and retention strategies for malawi health professionals. eqinet discussion paper no. 32. retrieved june 11, 2010, from http://www.humanresource.com/content/7/1/6 mzungu, w. (2011, 4 april). fraud hits government clinics. the sunday times, p. 3. national statistical office (2008). population and housing census. zomba: nso. nicoll, l.h., & beyea, s.c. (1997). selecting research instruments to measure the reliability and validity of nursing studies. retrieved may 14, 2012, from http://www.researchinstruments/nicoll/beyea/html njiragoma, w. (2011, 9 may). new system of salary payments. the daily times, p. 4. oliver, p. (2010). understanding the research process. london: sage. palmer, d. (2006). tackling malawi’s human resource crisis. reproductive health matters, 14, 27–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0968-8080(06)27244-6 paradath, a., chamberlain, c., mccoy, d., ntuli, a., rowson, m., & loewenson, r. (2003). health personnel in southern africa: continuing maladistribution and brain drain. harare: equinet. pearce, j.l. branyiczki, i., & bakacsi, g. (1994). person-based reward system: a theory of organisational reward practices in reform communist organisations. journal of organisational behaviour, 15(3), 261–282. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.4030150307 pearl, j. (2000). causality: models, reasoning and inference. london: cambridge university press. phiri, n.a. (2007). does training in surgical skills of clinical officers in the southern region reduce number of surgical referrals from district government and cham hospitals to central hospitals? blantyre: com. podger, m. (2002). performance management. retrieved march 08, 2011, from http://www.apsc.gov.au/publications02/performancemanagement.htm polit, d.f., & hungler, b.p. (1999). nursing research principles and methods. (5th edn.). philadelphia: lippincott company. pmid:10482253 ratner, b. (2011). workforce optimisation. new york: dm stat consulting. redmond, b.f. (2010). needs theories. what do i want when i work? work attitudes and motivation. pennsylvania: the pennsylvania state university world campus. reid, g.j. (2007). public administration salary setting principles and mechanisms for satisfying them. retrieved april 03, 2011, from http://www.site.worldbank.org/administrationsalarysetting.pdf respondanet. (2010). corruption in the health sector. retrieved june 10, 2011, from http://www.respondanet.com/index.php robbins, s.p. (2010). organisational behaviour. (10th edn.). englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. robbins, s.p., odendaal, a., & roodt, g. (2005). organisational behaviour. cape town: prentice hall. routio, p. (2007). models in the research process. retrieved april 17, 2012, from http://www.uiah.fi/projects/methods.html rynes, s.l., & gerhart, b. (2001). compensation in organisations. san francisco: jossy-bass. pmid:11761600 salkind, n.j. (2000). exploring research. (4th edn.). london: prentice-hall. pmid:10773846 silverman, m. (2004). non-financial recognition: the most effective of rewards? brighton: ies. singh, p., das, g.s., & dileep, k.m. (2006). strategies to reduce perceptional gap on reward management system. academic management journal, 54(3), 38–74. snelgar, r.j. (2012). the reward preferences/motivation: paradox and implication for performance and education. port elizabeth: nmmu. sonani, b. (2011, 6 may). dowa district hospital staff strike. the nation, p. 3. sparrow, p. (1996). too good to be true? people management, 22–27. stanley, j.d., & berger, m.c. (1965). employee reward and incentives. london: icwa. steven, w. (1991). model briefing and a definition of science. journal of research in science teaching, 28(1), 73–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/tea.3660280107 stevens, j. (1996). applied multivariate statistics for social sciences (3rd edn.). mahwah, nj: earlbaum associates. swanepoel, b., erasmus, b., van wyk, m., & schenk, h. (2005). south african human resource management: theory and practice. (3rd edn.). cape town: juta. taylor, f.w. (1947). scientific management. new york: harper & row. tenthani, r. (2002). malawi’s civil servants faced gloomy christmas without pay as government funds ran out. retrieved november 10, 2010, from http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?farticleid torrington, d., hall, l., & taylor, s. (2005). human resource management. (6th edn.). london: prentice-hall. van klaveren, m., tijdens, k., hughie-williams, m., & martin, n.r. (2009). an overview of women’s work and employment in malawi: decisions for life mdg3 project country report no. 6. amsterdam: university of amsterdam. weber, m. (1947). the theory of social and economic organisation. glencoe: free press. white, m. (1973). motivating managers financially. london: ipm. wikipedia. (2012). factor analysis. retrieved april 08, 2012, from http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/factor_analysis woodward, j. (1958). management and technology. london: hmso. world bank. (2004). human resources and financing for the health sector. lilongwe: world bank. article information authors: sibangilizwe ncube1 mark h.r. bussin1 lukas de swardt1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: lukas de swardt postal address: po box 101, alberton central 1450, south africa dates: received: 13 feb. 2012 accepted: 04 feb. 2013 published: 22 may 2013 how to cite this article: ncube, s., bussin, m.h.r., & de swardt, l. (2013). confirming theoretical pay constructs of a variable pay scheme. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #464, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.464 note: additional supporting information may be found in the online version of this article as an online appendix: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.464-1 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. confirming theoretical pay constructs of a variable pay scheme in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background    • trends from the research literature    • research objectives    • contribution to the field    • literature review       • theories of motivation       • variable pay methodology       • variable remuneration constructs       • variable remuneration dimensions       • variable pay trends • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instrument       • research procedure       • statistical analysis       • confirmatory factor analysis       • model fit assessment • results    • descriptive statistics    • inferential statistics       • factor analysis • ethical considerations • trustworthiness    • reliability    • validity • discussion    • revised variable pay model    • practical implications       • benefits and applicability of the methodology    • limitations and recommendations for future studies    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: return on the investment in variable pay programmes remains controversial because their cost versus contribution cannot be empirically justified.research purpose: this study validates the findings of the model developed by de swardt on the factors related to successful variable pay programmes. motivation for the study: many organisations blindly implement variable pay programmes without any means to assess the impact these programmes have on the company’s performance. this study was necessary to validate the findings of an existing instrument that validates the contribution of variable pay schemes. research design, approach and method: the study was conducted using quantitative research. a total of 300 completed questionnaires from a non-purposive sample of 3000 participants in schemes across all south african industries were returned and analysed. main findings: using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, it was found that the validation instrument developed by de swardt is still largely valid in evaluating variable pay schemes. the differences between the study and the model were reported. practical/managerial implications: the study confirmed the robustness of an existing model that enables practitioners to empirically validate the use of variable pay plans. this model assists in the design and implementation of variable pay programmes that meet critical success factors. contribution/value-add: the study contributed to the development of a measurement instrument that will assess whether a variable pay plan contributes to an organisation’s success. introduction top ↑ key focus of the study the human resources (hr) function has evolved from an administrative function to the role of strategic business partner (yusoff, 2012). as a strategic partner, hr professionals are expected to design, implement and evaluate programmes that meet organisation’s needs. the focus of this study was to validate an instrument that assesses the effectiveness of variable pay plans on business outcomes.variable pay (incentive) plans are used to motivate employees to achieve and exceed business objectives. over the past two decades, the use of variable pay has increased, as have concerns about its relevance. research conducted by klapow and borlo (2009) highlighted top management’s concerns over the impact of variable pay schemes on companies’ financial results. given that compensation is often an organisation’s biggest expense and therefore impacts profitability, scott, mcmullen and sperling (2006) suggest that senior management should calculate the return on investment of incentive pay plans, health care and welfare benefit programmes. background in the absence of empirically validated variable pay measurement tools, de swardt (2005) conducted research on factors required to build an effective variable pay instrument. he formulated a model that was founded on motivational theories and consisted of three constructs and 11 dimensions that were found to be prerequisites of an outcome-based variable pay plan. his model was backed by further studies in this field on the elements required in any variable pay scheme (greene, 2011; mathis & jackson, 2008). notwithstanding the findings of these studies, de swardt’s (2005) model required further validation prior to rollout and implementation in organisations. trends from the research literature motivation theories have been used to explain the behaviour of people exposed to incentive schemes. theories are grouped into schools of thought, which aid in explaining behaviour from different perspectives. the model developed by de swardt (2005) was an attempt to identify the constructs and dimensions present in effective incentive schemes. since this study appeared, mathis and jackson (2008) postulated a model in which they identified 10 factors, which were clustered into three themes. the themes are organisation fit, behaviour alignment with the intended outcomes and administrative factors. organisational fit consists of factors such as sufficient financial resources, alignment with organisational culture and the objectives of the organisation. behaviour alignment relates to the relationship between performance measures, the link between the measurements and meaningful payouts and the desired behaviour to qualify for incentives. administrative factors include clear communication of the variable pay plan, the understanding of the rules of the plan and the results achieved in terms of the plan. these factors resonate with the constructs and dimensions identified by de swardt (2005).greene (2011) identified seven key issues that guide the creation of an effective variable pay plan. these are: plan objectives, plan types, eligibility, formula to create reward pools, formula to allocate funds, payment timing and administration. these factors again resonate with incentive pay and confirm the findings of previous studies. the latter research was, however, not built into a model that could be used to validate incentive pay schemes. research objectives against the background of existing knowledge on variable pay models, the purpose of this study was to validate de swardt’s (2005) findings of the three constructs, being: (1) congruency, (2) instrumentality and (3) performing and the 11 dimensions namely: (1) external alignment, (2) internal alignment, (3) goal efficacy, (4) understanding and acceptance, (5) continuous improvement, (6) trust, (7) certainty, (8) exclusivity, (9) business risk, (10) performance management and (11) performance culture and also to measure the reliability of the 78 items of the data-collection instrument.the primary research question was: to what extent are the constructs and dimensions identified by de swardt (2005) valid in describing and predicting the outcome of a variable pay plan? the secondary research questions were: • ‘what is the reliability of the 11 dimensions and three constructs?’ • ‘what are the statistical characteristics of the 11 dimensions and three constructs and can they be used to benchmark new variable pay plans?’ • ‘how reliable are the 78 items as test criteria for the 11 dimensions and three constructs?’ contribution to the field there are no known validated variable pay assessment instruments. the value of this research is that it will contribute to the validation of the ‘building blocks’ – the constructs and dimensions of the model. on completion, the instrument will be applied commercially to identify potential flaws in variable pay scheme design, indicate potential problems during the early and the operational stages of a scheme and, finally, allow an assessment of the impact of the pay scheme on the organisation’s performance. literature review hilmarsson (2009, p. 2) defined motivation as the mental force that drives the actions of cognitive beings. in the human context, motivation can be either internal or external. internal motivation stems from an internally generated drive, such as the desire to do well or to work on interesting projects, whilst external motivation is the desire to achieve rewards. variable pay offered by organisations is based on different theories of motivation that try to cast light on what really drives human behaviour. hilmarsson (2009) stated that incentive ideas stem from theories of motivation and can therefore not be fully addressed without understanding motivation; hence, the two concepts of motivation and incentives will be covered simultaneously. this section on literature is structured as follows: firstly, a discussion of the evolution of motivation theories (scientific, behavioural, content and process approaches) and how they have contributed to the design of incentive schemes will be provided. this is reported from the early ideas of motivation to contemporary thinking. secondly, existing knowledge of current models founded on previous studies is explored, with reference to the theories of motivation. theories of motivation one could argue that incentives have been used for a while, whether in the form of the proverbial carrot and/or the stick – the idea of rewarding desired behaviours and/or punishing unwanted behaviours. hilmarsson (2009) remarked that it was during the mid–twentieth century that scientists and scholars began to question what really motivated employees. following numerous arguments based on research in the manufacturing industry regarding what really motivated employees to perform, scientific management emerged. scientific research led to the conclusions that workers are motivated purely by money (turnasella, 2011). according to the scientific management approach, workers are thought to oppose work and would do as little as they can ‘get away’ with. by dividing work into small, easily measurable processes, workers could be paid according to what they produced. this would increase productivity and performance as workers themselves could associate the rewards with hard work (taylor, 1964). around the middle of the twentieth century, psychologists were keen to discover what drove workers’ actions. this led to two main theoretical schools of thought: content and process theories. content theories assume that factors exist within individuals: those energies that direct and sustain behaviour, which, when collectively considered, could answer why human needs change over time and what it is that motivates people. under this main theory fell such theories as the needs theory, the two-factor theory, the x and y theory, and the existence relatedness growth (erg) theory, credited to maslow, hertzberg, mcgregor and alderfer, respectively (hilmarsson, 2009). maslow’s hierarchy of needs describes employees as ‘wanting animals’ (conley, 2007, p.8) who have certain needs that must be fulfilled. the fulfilment of these needs is stacked like a pyramid, with every employee starting at the bottom, fulfilling the most basic needs such as food, air and water, followed by security and shelter and then love and intimacy. in the upper half, there are the needs for self-esteem and self-actualisation. the theory claims that once a set of needs is fulfilled, a person would strive to achieve the next set, with the ultimate aim being happiness and fulfilment in life (maslow, 1954). although maslow’s theory has been criticised, his ideas were the inspiration for much of the research on motivation. when translated to the field of employee motivation and management, this theory suggests that money is only a useful motivator when the person being motivated does not have enough of it. this view is supported by pink (2011), who emphasised that financial rewards, and money in particular, are strong motivators and effective incentives for jobs that are mechanical but not ‘rudimentary cognitive’. pink (2011) stated that once the tasks require cognitive thinking (rudimentary cognitive), money loses its motivational effect and results in less of the desired performance. his research concluded that whilst people must receive sufficient financial rewards, other rewards, such as complexity and autonomy of the task, become more important motivators of improved performance. hertzberg’s two-factor theory (hilmarsson, 2009) claims that motivators can be separated into intrinsic and extrinsic categories, with extrinsic motivators being those that stem from outside the task (referred to as hygiene needs), such as money, and intrinsic being those that reside within the employee, such as sense of accomplishment (referred to as motivator needs). according to herzberg, intrinsic motivators are superior in that they are capable of permanently improving employee behaviour. like that of maslow, hertzberg’s theory (hilmarsson, 2009) has also been widely accepted. when translated to the field of management and validated by pink’s (2011) ideas, hertzberg’s theory implies that money can only keep employees from being dissatisfied, but cannot keep them motivated, meaning that money only motivates to a certain extent, at which point other intrinsic motivators are needed. hiam (2002) stated that factors such as interesting work, autonomy, responsibility, career growth and a sense of accomplishment aid the satisfaction of motivator needs, whilst the physical and psychological contextual factors in which the work is performed can adversely impact intrinsic satisfaction. hygiene needs are satisfied by factors such as pleasant and comfortable working conditions, meaningful pay, job security, favourable relationships with other employees and effective supervision (gellerman, 1963). mcgregor’s theory (hilmarsson, 2009) is strictly work-related and distinguishes between x and y employees. this theory characterises x employees as inherently lazy, wanting only money, whereas y employees find work interesting and demand that organisations offer jobs that match their skills capacity. whereas maslow holds that employees’ satisfaction of needs is hierarchical, alderfer’s theory (gellerman, 1963) groups employees’ needs into three broader classes. alderfer’s classification explains that the satisfaction of employee needs is not necessarily linear. a combination of related needs can be satisfied at any given time. this means that if different employees are motivated by different rewards (not a one-size-fits-all approach), incentive design professionals must identify these factors in order to optimise employee motivation. process theories of motivation describe how behaviour is energised, directed and sustained. lussier and achua (2012) stated that this approach focuses on understanding how people choose behaviours in order to fulfil their needs. this approach to motivation is associated with expectancy theory, goal theory and equity theory, as proposed by vroom, locke and latham and adam, respectively (hilmarsson, 2009). the expectancy theory claims that employee actions are dependent on the desirability of the outcome. the action with the most desirable outcome will be taken; therefore, rather than just answering the question of what motivates employees, this theory attempts to answer the question of to what extent it will motivate (vroom, 1964). locke (1968) proposed the goal theory, which is similar to intrinsic motivation theory. the goal theory holds that workers enjoy challenging tasks that require more thinking and are further motivated by a clear view of how their efforts will lead to goal achievement and reward. the goal theory, when applied to management and incentives, demands that managers and employees set challenging and stretched goals that foster strategic thinking and prompt employees to apply their thought processes to find solutions to problems. adam’s equity theory (stoner & freeman, 1989) is based on the premise that a major factor in job motivation, performance and job satisfaction is the individual’s perception of the equity or fairness of the reward received. an individual’s motivation, performance and satisfaction thus depend on his or her subjective evaluation of the effort–reward ratio in relation to other employees in a similar situation. applied to incentives, this theory is helpful in understanding dissatisfaction, as the theory focuses on people’s feelings of how fairly they are treated in comparison with the treatment received by others (adam, 1963). variable pay methodology de swardt (2005) noted the challenges faced by organisations in designing, implementing and measuring the return on investment in variable pay programmes. he conducted research amongst organisations to understand the considerations required for an effective scheme. his research empirically identified that three constructs (congruency, instrumentality and performing) and 11 dimensions are important building blocks in a variable pay scheme. de swardt’s (2005) study intended to help organisations develop a variable pay methodology that would enable plan designers to better predict the outcome of variable pay. the main objective was to improve the effectiveness of variable pay schemes by predicting features that should be present, as well as practices that might best be avoided.the results of de swardt’s study provide a solution that is founded on accepted motivational theories, as discussed above. as interest in the field of motivation grew and the executives of many organisations noted the prevalence and importance of variable pay, more clarity on the value-add of these programmes was needed. therefore, de swardt’s research addressed the following key issues related to variable pay design and its effectiveness: how does variable pay create value? what are the ‘building blocks’ of variable pay? what role does participant influence play in funding and distribution of rewards? does reward size play a role? how does an organisation diagnose the health of variable pay plans using the variable pay methodology? how can an organisation predict or evaluate plan outcome? what are the most common reasons why variable pay plans fail? (de swardt, veldsman & roodt, 2010, p. 8) the results of the research demonstrated that variable pay is a not a creator of performance, but that it supports organisational performance (de swardt, 2005). figure 1 provides an illustration of the model that summarised the dependent variable (scheme outcome) and independent variables (three constructs and 11 dimensions). figure 1: variable remuneration model. variable remuneration constructs ‘congruency’ refers to the extent and level of understanding, or belief in and practice that behavioural changes leads to achievement of business goals. ‘performing’ is the extent to which the level of effort is determined, not only through rules and policies, but also by a widely supported performance culture, leadership and management practices. ‘instrumentality’ is the extent to which participants believe that they will be rewarded if they perform as agreed. ‘employee involvement’ as a moderating variable refers to the notion that the successful design and implementation of any variable pay plan hinges on active participation by employees in the funding and distribution of payouts (de swardt, 2005). variable remuneration dimensions the following 11 dimensions were identified by de swardt (2005, pp. 256–280) as requirements for a successful variable pay scheme:• performance management, which is defined as ‘the extent to which performance management principles are practised in the business’. • performance culture, which is defined as ‘the extent to which the business is managed and led to deliver successful outcomes’. • external alignment, which is defined as ‘the extent to which the different elements of the business and leadership align with the scheme’. • internal alignment, which is defined as ‘the extent to which the internal scheme elements are aligned’. • communication, which is defined as ‘the extent to which information about the scheme and performance is communicated’. • continuous improvement, which is defined as ‘the extent to which the scheme is continuously reviewed and improved’. • efficacy/goal difficulty alignment, which is defined as ‘the self-belief of participants that they will be able to achieve the contracted goals’. • certainty, which is defined as ‘the extent to which the game rules are certain’. • trust, which is defined as ‘the extent to which a trusting relationship exists between the participants and the custodians of the scheme’. • exclusivity, which is defined as ‘the extent to which participation in the scheme is reserved only for those people who make a material contribution to the outcome of the scheme’. • business risk, which is defined as ‘the extent to which uncontrolled business risks prevent desired scheme outcomes from being attained’. additional research has been conducted by other academics to identify variable pay factors. for instance, greene’s (2011) research identified seven key issues that guide the creation of an effective variable pay plan, notably, plan objectives, plan types, eligibility, formula determining award funds, formula for allocating funds, payment timing and administration. yet, whilst greene’s (2011) research added value to this topic, it failed to propose quantitatively how the presence or absence of any of these seven key elements impacts the success of a variable pay scheme. according to a similar study conducted by mathis and jackson (2008), the success of variable pay plans is affected by a variety of factors. their model highlighted 10 correlated factors, categorised into organisation fit factors, behaviour outcome to plan alignment factors and administration factors. organisation fit factors comprised availability and sufficiency of financial resources, consistency with organisational culture and linkage with organisational objectives. behaviour outcome-related factors comprised linkage between performance results and the meaningfulness of payouts, the extent to which performance is measurable in a fair manner and a relationship between plan design and the desired behaviours. administrative factors comprised clear communication of the variable pay plan, current and updated variable pay results, clear and understandable plan details and a clear separation from base pay. however, whilst mathis and jackson’s (2008) research contributed to the identification of incentive design factors, it failed to quantify the impacts of the said components. variable pay trends research by zingheim and schuster (2007) indicated that variable pay is not new in the corporate environment, although it has lately received much emphasis as organisations continue to be subjected to the post-2008 economic challenges. traditionally, variable pay targeted the upper echelons of the organisation; however, the ease of its administration has led to the inclusion of a greater portion of the workforce (abosch, 2009). there is no doubt that under the prevailing economic conditions, performance, whether individual, team, or organisational, is key to the sustained existence of any organisation.worldatwork (2010) noted that companies are seeing the value of true differentiation in salaries through variable pay rather than traditional guaranteed salary increases, which is a view similar to that of greene (2011), who commented that variable pay has stronger motivation potential with significant advantages for the organisation. research by deloitte human capital advisory services (2012) indicated that many organisations are using variable pay as a significant, controllable element of their total rewards package. according to worldatwork (2010), whilst salaries were being cut and increases were at their lowest in decades, in 2009, the funding for variable pay schemes was at an all-time high and many reasons were cited for this being the case. worldatwork’s (2010) research revealed that the main reason for changing to variable pay is to better align remuneration programmes with the business strategy. abbott and johnson (2010) also revealed that there has been a positive growth in the number of organisations offering some form of variable pay below the executive level. variable pay plans have a number of advantages, given that an organisation must compete for critical skills and cope with a turbulent environment. kovac (2005) stated that variable pay reinforces desired performance, aligns individual goals with organisational goals, enhances productivity, revenue and performance, supports a performance culture enhances competitiveness in the labour market and provides financial protection for the company. overall, there is a common understanding that current trends, as noted by greene (2011), are in favour of the use of variable pay for top performers in order to obtain a competitive advantage. in recent years, companies have tended to focus more closely on the mechanics of incentives, such as performance metrics and goals, pay mix and eligibility criteria. research conducted by ganesan (2012) indicated that companies are now becoming much more focused on evaluating and measuring the effectiveness of their variable pay policy. this trend is expected to continue into the future as more ceos focus on the return on investment in reward (ganesan, 2012). in the research conducted by greene (2011), one of the difficulties associated with administering variable pay was found in measuring the competitiveness of plans. with the increased attention paid to incentive reward programmes, de swardt’s (2005) model contributes towards laying guidelines to successfully address this problem. given the mounting pressure and urgency to justify the continued existence of certain human resource projects, such as incentive schemes, de swardt’s model (2005) can help to address this concern; however, further validation of the model is needed. in the wake of the success and popularity of the balanced scorecard, a performance planning and measurement framework brought to prominence by robert kaplan and david norton, many organisations have taken the step of linking incentives to their own scorecards (wallgren, 2011). the broad acceptance and use of balanced scorecards are largely because of their ‘holistic’ approach to measuring business performance, which considers both financial and a number of non-financial metrics. this approach assumes that performance at an organisational, team, or individual level can be measured through four key perspectives: financial, learning and growth, internal business processes and customers. it stands to reason that the design of an incentive plan should extend beyond implementation to measurements. whether this balanced set of measures is suited to the employee incentive plan’s design depends on the strategy of the organisation. when designing an incentive plan, designers need to consider how success will be measured, that is, whether financial improvements, process changes, people skills changes, or customers will be the key indicators of success (wallgren, 2011). research design top ↑ research approach the research was conducted using quantitative methods. taylor (2005) recommends quantitative research as suitable for understanding phenomena by isolating and examining the interrelationships amongst and between variables in a given setting. research method research participants the target group consisted of employees who participated in variable pay plans managed by various employers. a total of 300 completed questionnaires from a non-purposive sample of 3000 participants in schemes across all industries were received from 23 participating companies, all of which were listed on the johannesburg securities exchange (jse). except for the requirement that respondents should have participated in a variable pay scheme, there was no defined sample selection criterion for participating organisations in terms of age, industry, race or gender, for example. the sampling technique was non-purposive because it depended on the employer accepting the invitation to participate. measuring instrument the instrument used was a five-point likert scale comprising 78 items, designed and validated by de swardt in 2005. this instrument was designed to assess participants’ perceptions and experiences on various factors of an incentive scheme and, as used in the study, was found to be adequately reliable in assessing the variables of an incentive scheme. the instrument was tested using cronbach’s reliability assessment method. the results of the tests proved that the instrument was reliable and measured the intended factors. reliability results are reported in online appendix table 1. only the items of the construct ‘risk’ were reverse-scored for ease of interpretation. table 1: descriptive statistics. research procedure data were gathered using de swardt’s (2005) 78 item questionnaire. the items were grouped under the three constructs, namely congruency, instrumentality and performing. participants were requested to score each item based on their experience of their organisation’s variable pay scheme. survey results were captured, stored and analysed by the university of johannesburg’s statistical consulting services (statkon). the survey link was left open for two months to allow participants sufficient time to complete the questionnaire, as the questionnaire was deemed lengthy. electronic reminders were sent to participants, encouraging them to complete the survey questionnaire and meet the deadline. communication, which included face-to-face sessions, was conducted with the representatives to provide background to the research objectives and expectations of the survey. the questionnaire was designed such that, once completed and submitted, it could not be accessed again. statistical analysis to confirm the structure of the variable pay model’s constructs, dimensions and items, a structural equation modelling (sem) approach was followed. to clarify the nature of the constructs that influenced a set of responses from the participants, exploratory factor analysis (efa) was used. to test whether a specified set of constructs influenced responses in a predictive way, confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) was used. both the efa and cfa were necessary to establish any correlations amongst the study variables. before performing factor analysis, various probability tests (correlation matrix, kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy (kmo-msa) and bartlett’s test of sphericity) were conducted by statkon using the spss software program (version 15) to establish whether factor analysis could be performed and which variables should be included, as recommended by pallant (2007). confirmatory factor analysis in the present study, the objective was to assess whether de swardt’s (2005) findings are still valid under a different sample group. how well the data fit the model was assessed by a variety of tests, including:• normality tests using mardia’s multivariate coefficients to determine or assess kurtosis levels. a normal distribution has a coefficient of less than 5.0, whereas a multivariate non-normal distribution had a coefficient greater than 5.0. • model fit assessment using the sem statistical fit indices: chi-squared test statistics (χ2), relative normed chi-squared test statistics (s-bχ2) with degrees of freedom (df), comparative fit index (cfi), root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) and modification of variables to improve fitness (byrne, 2006). model fit assessment the rmsea statistic measures the discrepancy in terms of the population and not the sample. it indicates how well a model would fit the population covariance matrix and is less affected by the sample size. rmsea values are indicated on a continuum ranging from 0 to 1.00, with a value of 0.08 and below indicating an acceptable fit, values below 0.05 indicating a good fit and values smaller than 0.01 indicating an exceptionally good fit. the acceptable level of confidence (ci) used in rmsea is 90% (maccallum, browne & sugawara, 1996). chi-square (χ2) is the most common method of evaluating goodness of the model fit and discrepancy between the survey feedback and the original model (hu & bentler, 1999). as a guideline, a value of 0.05 (barrett, 2007) or less is indicative of a good fit. the s-bχ2 is used as an alternative when the value is > 0.05. there is a limitation to the χ2 as it is highly sensitive to sample size, especially if the observations are greater than 200 (hair et al., 2003). an alternative evaluation of the χ2 statistic is to examine the ratio of χ2 to the degrees of freedom for the model (wheaton et al., 1977). a small χ2 value relative to its degrees of freedom is indicative of a good fit, whilst values ranging between 2.0 and 5.0 are indicative of a reasonably good model fit. root mean square residual (rmr) and standardised root mean square residual (srmr) are the square roots of the difference between the residuals of the sample covariance matrix and the hypothesised covariance model. the range of the rmr is calculated based upon the scales of each indicator; therefore, if a questionnaire contains items with varying levels, the rmr becomes difficult to interpret (kline, 2005). the srmr resolves this problem and is therefore much more meaningful to interpret. srmr ranges from 0 to 1.0, with well-fitting models obtaining values less than 0.05 (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). however, values as high as 0.08 are deemed acceptable (hu & bentler, 1999). bentler and bonnet’s (1980) cfi can overcome the limitation of sample size. this index is a revised form of the normed-fit index (nfi), which takes into account sample size and performs well, even when the sample size is small (tabachnick & fidell, 2007). a cfi greater than or equal to 0.90 indicates a good fit (hu & bentler, 1999). the purpose of cfa is to establish the difference between the model and a new sample that is tested against the model. the nfi assessed the model by comparing the χ2 value of the model to the χ2 of the null model. the probability of an error in the test is denoted by the alpha (α) value which ranges from 0.0 to 1.0. two levels of significance are used to denote the probability of error. a significance level of 0.05 denotes a 5% chance of being wrong, whereas a level of 0.01 denotes a 1% chance of being wrong. results top ↑ descriptive statistics the overall mean score was 2.3 with some of the scoring concerns related to the mean score being below 1.0, relating to questions a26, a72, a76, a77 and a78 with the following statements:• a26 – ‘to what extent are practical limitations (e.g. feedback on performance) preventing the plan from being effective?’ • a72 – ‘how difficult is it for you to exceed the performance criteria?’ • a76 – ‘to what extent are you able to influence the performance measures that determine the incentive payout?’ • a77 – ‘how much opportunity do you have to influence the performance criteria of the incentive scheme?’ • a78 – ‘to what extent can participants control the factors influencing the incentive scheme outcomes?’ the median and modal scores for the sample data were both 2.0, whereas the variance and standard deviation both fell within the range of 1.0–1.3. the performing construct was negatively skewed, instrumentality had a positive skewedness and congruency had a positive skewedness. a distribution can be mesokurtic, leptokurtic, or platykurtic. in this study, 96% of the item’s kurtosis values were less than zero (k < 0), indicating that the overall kurtosis had a platykurtic distribution (refer to table 1). inferential statistics factor analysis pallant (2007) recommends performing probability tests before assessing the relationship of variables using factor analysis. the correlation matrix, kmo-msa, eigenvalues and bartlett’s sphericity test confirm the probability of conducting factor analysis if the results are: kmo index > 0.600, correlation matrix > 0.300, bartlett’s coefficient < 0.005 and eigenvalues < 1.000. as illustrated in table 2, more than 95% of the factor analysis results confirmed the possibility of conducting factor analysis. the acceptable reliability tests have cronbach’s alpha values interpreted as: > 0.9 great, > 0.8 good, > 0.7 acceptable and at 0.6 borderline (pallant, 2007). the kmo-msa test the relationship strength between variables and a minimum of 0.6 is recommended (blunch, 2008). a further requirement in cfa is an eigenvalue > 1.0 to retain the variable for further testing. table 2: scale reliability tests. comparing the findings of de swardt’s (2005) model with the results of the present study, the reliability of the sub-scales increased after some of the items were omitted. specifically notable were the dimensions of ‘exclusivity’ (three items were added in the questionnaire of which one was omitted in the validation) and ‘risk’ (the direction of the items was reversed). a summary of the factor analysis results, including the various tests has been provided in the online appendix table 2. ethical considerations top ↑ the study posed no potential hazards to participants and the result of the research was to enrich the existing views and knowledge on variable pay schemes in organisations. for the purposes of confidentiality, all questionnaires were accessed through a secure online link, which was accessible only once to a participant to mitigate multiple completion of the assessment. trustworthiness top ↑ reliability the internal reliability of the research questionnaire was measured and a cronbach’s alpha of 0.872 (performing), 0.799 (instrumentality), and 0.971 (congruency) was achieved, indicating that the research instrument was reliable. validity the variable pay building blocks attributed to this study and assigned to the factor analysis are substantially similar to the model developed by de swardt (2005). discussion top ↑ the objective of the research study was to validate whether the constructs, dimensions and items designed in de swardt’s (2005) variable pay model are still a relevant in predicting variable pay scheme outcome. factor analysis was therefore conducted amongst a sample group to compare the study variables, of which the results were subjected to factor analysis, as discussed above. the results of the factor analysis indicated minimal differences between de swardt’s model (2005) with respect to the reliability of the three research constructs (instrumentality, congruency and performing) and 11 dimensions. the following main findings were revealed:• de swardt’s (2005) three constructs and 11 dimensions are still reliable and valid in measuring the effectiveness of the model. • the dimensions and constructs are fairly reliable in the current sample, as they were when the model was initially designed. • the extent to which the 78 item questions test the three constructs and 11 dimensions is still applicable (i.e. reliable). however, some changes were identified that will increase the reliability of the model. following the various tests that were conducted on the 78 items, 11 dimensions and three constructs, 13 items were deleted from de swardt’s (2005) model to improve the instrument’s reliability. items with a test statistics value of less than 0.3 were eliminated as they correlated poorly with other items. in deleting items, it was ensured that the remaining items were adequate to assess the constructs and dimensions. the remaining items are sufficient in evaluating the reliability of the variable pay constructs and dimensions. revised variable pay model as a result of the modifications to the variable pay model, structural changes are evident in the revised variable pay model, illustrated in figure 2. modifications were made to both the constructs and dimensions in order to improve it for future commercial application and testing. overall, the model has been confirmed and improved as an assessment instrument of variable pay plans. the changes highlighted in figure 2 are: figure 2: revised variable remuneration model. • the integration of the ‘internal alignment’ and ‘external alignment’ dimensions to form one dimension ‘alignment’. alignment is made up of items that deal with the relationship between the scheme performance criteria and business results, the behaviour of participants, management support, consistency between daily activity, business objectives and the targets set.• the elimination of the dimension ‘understanding and acceptance’ and the creation of two separate dimensions, ‘understanding’ and ‘transparency’. included under the definition of ’understanding’ are the level of participant understanding of the rules, structure, calculations, purpose and business reasons for the scheme. under ‘transparency’ are the clarity of targets, measurement criteria, assessments, payouts and regular communication and feedback. • a number of items included in some of the dimensions were removed where sem justified it. a total of 13 items were removed, two were added and a number revised to simplify operational assessments. the revised variable remuneration model resonates with the findings of research conducted since the first model was developed (greene, 2011; mathis & jackson, 2008). the synergies between the three studies are reported in online appendix table 3. the present study shows that the consensus about the constructs and dimensions that form variable remuneration plans is growing and that future studies to validate the linear predictive relationship between the uncontrollable variables (the constructs and dimensions and moderator variables) to provide a reliable formula to predict scheme outcomes are now eminent. practical implications the research outcome makes a valuable contribution towards the empirical validation of a variable pay model. the outcome of this research will enable further research validating the multivariate relationships between the constructs, the impact on business results and the prediction of the effect of business outcomes. finally, variable pay plans are one of the most popular methods of determining pay allocation in south africa and continue to receive added focus, particularly at executive levels (seegers, 2012, p. 1). however, some academic and professional observers still regard their use as controversial. the present research will increase the credibility of remuneration models’ impact on the bottom line. benefits and applicability of the methodology de swardt’s (2005) remuneration model was founded on relevant motivational theories and subjected to empirical testing. the outcome of this research will enhance the variable pay model in the following ways:• the instrument (constructs and dimensions) that project whether investment in incentive schemes will affect business results has been strengthened, thereby allowing design professionals to make the necessary design adjustments or completely withdraw the scheme before any commitments are made. • the instrument that provides feedback during the operational life of the variable pay scheme has been strengthened, thereby allowing professionals to rectify any weaknesses before any unjustified payouts are due. • the study assisted with the validation of constructs and dimensions. this provides a reliable platform to study the interaction between independent variables and the dependent outcomes (business results). therefore it will assist in developing an instrument that will improve future governance practices. limitations and recommendations for future studies not all aspects of the model were tested during the present study. the linear prediction between the independent variables and moderator variable (participant involvement) and the scheme outcome were not tested. the research objectives were to validate the constructs and dimensions only. however, this will provide a better platform to test the entire model in future.in quantitative research, the objective is to obtain as much information as possible from the participants; however, there were limitations that impeded the achievement of this objective. the following challenges in this regard were experienced. firstly, it was noted that, because of the number of items in the questionnaire, the reliability of participant feedback was compromised, particularly towards the end of the questionnaire. the effect of this was that the respondent’s response quality deteriorates towards the end of the questionnaire. secondly, although the sampled organisations were representative of various industries, most feedback was obtained from one company. the effect is that the data may be skewed and not as representative of all organisations. from a statistical perspective, although the sem approach was used, the output generated through the spss program is a factor of estimating numbers. the researchers are of the opinion that future studies should be conducted using a wider population group and a wide variety of industries. conclusion the primary aim of the study was to validate the three constructs and 11 dimensions and assess the reliability of 78 items of de swardt’s (2005) variable pay model. this was accomplished through rigorous testing of the components of the model’s constructs and dimensions. this evaluation was performed by subjecting the constructs and dimensions of the model to sem to quantify the fit of the theoretical model to the test data.both exploratory and confirmatory tests were performed, as well as multiple fitness tests, to ensure that, theoretically, factor analysis was possible. feedback received from the research was analysed through statistical tools and techniques – spss and sem (via the eqs program) – by statkon and results were interpreted in relation to the primary model under study. despite differences amongst some of the research constructs and sub-scales, overall, the results confirmed that the theoretical model is still valid when using the present study’s data. the model is therefore fit for its purpose and stable to conduct multivariate analysis and validate its linear predictability. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships, which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the study was conducted under the supervision of m.b. (university of johannesburg) and l.d.s. (university of johannesburg). l.d.s was responsible for the initial study to develop a model to assess the contribution of incentive schemes on business results. s.n. (university of johannesburg) did the fieldwork, the initial interpretation of the results and wrote the manuscript. m.b. and l.d.s. reviewed the conclusions and interpretations. references top ↑ abbott, k., & johnson, r. (2010). developing performance incentives and sustaining engagement in a volatile environment. scottsdale: worldatwork press.adam, j.s. (1963). toward an understanding of inequity. new york: crotonville. abosch, k. (2009). the past, present, and future of variable pay. worldatwork, 7, 26–31. barrett, p. (2007). structural equation modelling: adjudging model fit – personality and individual differences. london: mcgraw-hill. bentler, p.m., & bonnet, d.c. (1980). significance tests and goodness of fit in the analysis of covariance structures. psychological bulletin, 88, 588–606. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.88.3.588 blunch, n. (2008). introduction to structural equation modelling: using spss and amos. los angeles: sage publications. byrne, b.m. (2006). structural equation modeling with eqs. basic concepts, applications, and programming. london: lawrence erlbaum associates. conley, c. (2007). peak: how great companies get their mojo from maslow. san francisco: jossey-bass. deloitte human capital advisory services. (2012). compensation trends survey 2012. new delhi: deloitte touche tohmatsu india private limited. de swardt, l.p.v. (2005). the development and validation of a variable remuneration methodology. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of johannesburg, johannesburg. de swardt, l.p.v., veldsman, t., & roodt, g. (2010). towards an empirical validated pay methodology. variable pay. a collection of articles from worldatwork. scottsdale: worldatwork press. diamantopoulos, a. & siguaw, j.a. (2000). introducing lisrel. london: sage publications. ganesan, s. (2012). making variable pay work. retrieved june 20, 2012, from http://www.shrmindia.org/knowledge-center/compensation-reward-and-recognition/variable-pay/making-variable-pay-work gellerman, s.w.g. (1963). motivation and productivity. new york: american management association. pmid:14094055 greene, r.j. (2011). variable pay: how to manage it effectively. retrieved june 20, 2011, from http://www.shrm.org/multimedia/webcasts/documents/12greene_variablepay.pdf hair, j.f.j., babin, b., money, a.h., & samuel, p. (2003). essentials of business research methods. new york: wiley and sons, leyh publishing, llc. hiam, a. (2002). motivational management: inspiring your people for maximum performance. new york: amacom. hilmarsson, s.t. (2009). the evolution of motivation and incentive systems research: a literature review. retrieved april 16, 2009, from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1965646 hu, l.t., & bentler, p.m. (1999). cut-off criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives, structural equation modelling. london: elsevier. klapow, j.m., & borlo, l. (2009). exploring the frequency and duration of incentives. scottsdale: worldatwork press. pmid:19753952 kline, r.b. (2005). principles and practice of structural equation modelling. new york: guilford press. kovac, j.c. (2005). back to basics: variable pay. worldatwork, 48, 59. locke, e.a. (1968). towards a theory of task motivation and incentives. american institute for research, 3, 157–189. lussier, r.n., & achua, c.f. (2012). effective leadership. emmaus: rodale press. maccallum, r.c., browne, m.w., & sugawara, h.m. (1996). power analysis and determination of sample size for covariance structure modelling. psychological methods, 1, 130–149. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1082-989x.1.2.130 maslow, a. (1954). motivation and personality. new york: harper and row. mathis, r.l., & jackson, j.h. (2008). human resource management. mason: south-western cengage learning. pallant, j. (2007). a step by step guide to data analysis using spss version 15: spss survival manual. new york: mcgraw-hill. pink, d. (2011). drive: the surprising truth about what motivates us. new york: riverhead. scott, d., mcmullen, t.d., & sperling, r.s. (2006). evaluating pay program effectiveness. worldatwork, 16, 47–53. seegers, g. (2012, june 10). south african companies can expect more scrutiny of executive remuneration. retrieved june 10, 2012, from http://www.cover.co.za/governance/south-african-companies-can-expect-more-scrutiny-of-executive-remuneration stoner, a.f.j., & freeman, r.e. (1989). management. upper saddle river: prentice hall. tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2007). using multivariate statistics. boston: pearson education. taylor, f. (1964). scientific management. new york: harper and row. taylor, r.g. (2005). integrating quantitative and qualitative methods in research. toronto: toronto university press. turnasella, t. (2011). variable pay plans. new york: reddy. vroom, v.h. (1964). work and motivation. new york: wiley. wallgren, l.g. (2011). motivation requested. work motivation and the work environment of it consultants. new york: intellecta. wheaton, b., muthen, b., alwin, d.f., & summers, g. (1977). assessing reliability and stability in panel models. sociological methodology. new york: sage. worldatwork. (2010). employers increasing proportion in employee pay programs. retrieved may 03, 2011, from http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/adimcomment?id=39253 yusoff, y.m. (2012). the path from an administrative expert to a strategic partner role: a literature review. interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, 3, 1–10. zingheim, p., & schuster, j. (2007). selecting variable pay goals. the sza total rewards bulletin. retrieved may 03, 2011, from http://www.paypeopleright.com/szatrb_aug_2007_tactics.htm 7hattingh.qxd the start of the 21st cent ury can best be described as challenging, changing, turbulent and unpredictable (baruch, 2002; 2004; gibb, 1995). it requires organisations to be more flexible and innovative, and demands that people develop a different set of skills. in this uncertain and changing world, mentoring provides an excellent option for people to develop themselves in order to keep ahead of the game (baruch, 1999; 2002; burke, mckeen & mckenna, 1994; finkelstein, allen & rhoton, 2003; gibb, 1995). organisations in all industries have long recognised the growing importance of the role mentors can play in offering advice and direction, and in acting as a sounding board for employees (bush & coleman, 1995; cranwell-ward, bossons & gover, 2004; clutterbuck, 2001; clutterbuck & lane, 2005; scandura & williams, 2002). in addition, organisations are increasingly realising how the relationship between mentor and mentee can benefit their business (allen & poteet, 1999; burke et al, 1994; clutterbuck, 2001; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). the traditional approach to mentoring targets specific groups within the organisat ion, such as graduate trainees, historically disadvantaged groups (africans, coloureds, indians and women), new employees or fast-track management candidates (blake-beard, 2001; clutterbuck, 2001; gunn, 1995; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; samier, 2000; sketch, 2001). however, the range of applications and programmes that organisations are developing make it clear that mentoring can be more a state of mind than just a specific activit y for the chosen few (clutterbuck & lane, 2005; cranwell-ward et al, 2004). the more mentoring can be seen as central to an organisation’s functionalit y rather than a minor activit y, the more beneficial it will be in the long term (gibb, 1995; clutterbuck & lane, 2005; cranwell-ward et al, 2004; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). a successful mentoring relationship is one of the most motivating situations individuals can find themselves in as part of their working life. if organisations can harness and tap into the energ y that comes from this motivation, many performancelinked problems can disappear without any further direct involvement of the organisation or indirect use of scarce resources (baruch, 2002; clutterbuck, 2001; clutterbuck & sweeney, 2003; cranwell-ward et al, 2004; finkelstein et al, 2003; hall & kahn, 2002). the context and rationale for mentoring cranwell-ward et al (2004) state that there are a number of external and internal factors that have influenced the rising importance of mentoring as a development tool. tables 1 and 2 summarise these influences. it is evident that economic, organisational and individual elements interact to increase the importance of formal mentoring programmes in organisations (baruch, 1999; 2002; cranwell-ward et al, 2004). today’s work environment demands that employees are ready and able to adapt to an ever-increasing pace of change. managers are under continuous pressure to find new ways to obtain results and working methods that are costeffective and efficient, yet do not compromise qualit y (baruch, 2002; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). to achieve this threefold outcome, many companies realise that substantial investment in employee development is vital. this investment, too, should be cost-effective and speedy, and it should produce high qualit y performance -both now and in the long term. under certain circumstances (for example, depending on the employee’s development needs), mentoring can meet these criteria better than any other training and development method (such as coaching and conventional classroom-based training courses) (baruch, 2002; 2004; hall & kahn, 2002; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). there is no doubt that one-on-one development approaches (such as coaching, networking/facilitation, counselling and guardianship) all have their place in the world of employee learning. however, a significant advantage mentoring has over any of these lies in its integrated approach. a second advantage marina hattingh melinde coetzee dries schreuder department of industrial and organisational psychology college of economic and management sciences university of south africa abstract the objective of this study was to investigate best practices regarding implementing and sustaining formal mentoring programmes in three south african organisations. the purposeful sampling method was used to involve designated representatives responsible for overseeing the implementation and management of the mentoring programmes in each of the three companies in the research. a qualitative content analysis technique was applied to infer meaningful explanations to the research questions. the findings indicate that the three organisations rely on a variety of systems and practices to sustain the effectiveness of their mentoring programmes. the implications of the findings are discussed. opsomming die doel met hierdie studie was om die beste praktyke rakende die implementering en instandhouding van formele mentorskapprogramme in drie suid-afrikaanse organisasies te ondersoek. doelmatigheidsteekproefneming is aangewend om aangewese verteenwoordigers wat verantwoordelik is vir die toesighouding en bestuur van die mentorskapprogramme in die drie maatskappye te betrek by die navorsing. ’n kwalitatiewe inhoudsontledingstegniek is benut om betekenisvolle verklarings vir die navorsingvrae daar te stel. die bevindinge dui daarop dat die drie organisasies van ’n verskeidenheid stelsels en praktyke gebruik maak om die doeltreffendheid van hulle mentorskapprogramme in stand te hou. die implikasies van die bevindinge word bespreek. implementing and sustaining mentoring programmes: a review of the application of best practices in the south african organisational context requests for copies should be addressed to: m coetzee, coetzm1@unisa.ac.za 40 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (3), 40-48 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (3), 40-48 is its capacity for creating individuals who are capable of, and motivated by, managing their own learning on a continuous basis. these two factors enable mentoring to achieve an impact and effectiveness that goes far beyond other one-to-one development approaches (clutterbuck & lane, 2005; clutterbuck & sweeney, 2003; hall & kahn, 2002; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). definition and benefits of mentoring defining mentoring is rather complex, mainly because mentoring is as informal as pairing, as variable as the organisations in which mentors and mentees find themselves, and as distinctive as the people involved (clutterbuck, 2001; clutterbuck & lane, 2005; corporate leadership council, 1999). the term “mentoring” is derived from greek mythology and implies a relationship between a young adult and an older adult, where the more experienced adult helps the younger learn to navigate the adult world and the world of work (kram, 1985). an informal, though more contemporary, definition (provided by cranwell-ward et al, 2004) describes mentors as people who help others to reach their potential. triple creek associates (2004) provide a comprehensive definition of mentorship. they see mentoring as a personal enhancement strategy through which one person facilitates the development of another by sharing resources, expertise, values, skills, perspectives, attitudes and proficiencies. this strategy allows the learner to build skills and knowledge, and provides the experienced party with the opportunity to enhance his or her skills and knowledge. clutterbuck & lane (2005) emphasise the developmental nature of mentoring and therefore views mentoring as off-line help by one person to another in making significant transitions in knowledge, work or thinking. this description of mentoring is also the official definition of the european mentoring centre (clutterbuck, 2001:3). the rationale behind this is as follows: � off-line is appropriate because it is difficult to be fully open in a relationship where one person has authority over the other. � help covers a wide range of resources for which the mentee can turn to the mentor (from direct advice to simply listening). � one person to another. in developmental mentoring, the hierarchy is not important – it is the experience gap that matters. peer mentoring is increasingly common; as is upward mentoring, where the mentor is more junior in terms of the hierarchy. � signif icant transition. mentoring programmes and relationships require some sense of purpose if they are to achieve benefits for the participants. brown (1990) states that mentoring is an inclusive, confidential relationship between two people who have mutual personal growth and corporate success as common goals. henley management college (2000) concurs that mentoring is the creation of possibilities and the provision of guidance and support to others in a relationship of trust that includes facilitating growth, bringing visions to life and enabling people to achieve. parsloe (1992) views the purpose of mentoring as that of helping and supporting people to manage their own learning in order to maximise their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the persons they want to be. although the definitions of mentoring in the literature may vary, they do share general agreement with regard to the feat ures of the mentoring relationship: mentoring is developmental in nature; mentoring is an evolving dynamic relationship between two individuals (namely the mentor and the mentee); mentoring is a partnership between two people, where the mentor works collaboratively with a mentee; mentoring can be mutually beneficial to both mentor and mentee, and also to the organisation; the relationship is one of equality in that the mentor and mentee each brings a different perspective to the process, and both parties are equally accountable for the success of the relationship. it should be noted that a mentoring relationship could start out as coaching, but slowly move towards guiding, directing and developing people rather than focusing on job-related improvement (appelbaum, ritchie & shapiro, 1994; bush & coleman, 1995; clutterbuck, 2001; clutterbuck & lane, 2005; clutterbuck & sweeney, 2003; poe, 2002). this relationship offers a more holistic approach in that the mentees’ achievements are seen in the context of their total development. mentoring best practices 41 table 1 context and rationale for mentoring: external influences (cranwell-ward et al, 2004) external influences description importance of mentoring business environment an environment categorised by large-scale changes, achieving emphasis switches to flexibility rather than specialisation. more with less. globalisation competing in a global marketplace, without boundaries such requires that mentoring takes place electronically; mentoring as countries, cultures and technology. schemes focusing on a range of different cultures. technological advancements changes in the way organisations do business, in the way work support people to take advantage of the available technology. is conducted and the ways of learning. reorganisation of organisations downsizing of organisations to become more competitive and help managers to cope with greater accountability for cost-effective. performance, development of broader business perspective and building the capacity to work across functional boundaries. mergers and acquisitions take over and integration of organisations in response to working across merging companies to help integrate the culture increased competition. of merged organisation. diversity management changes in the demographics of the population, promotion helps to empower mentees and supports the development of of equal opportunities, equality legislation and shortage of skills. leaders that appreciate the value of a culturally diverse environment. changing shape of development management development initiatives are shorter, more directed support managers to gain a broader business focus and direction and more flexible. career wise in order to consolidate learning in the workplace. corporate social responsibility business voluntarily contributes towards building a better offers the opportunity to build bridges between the organisation society and moves away from a bottom line mentality to and the community. managers can practice skills in a safer thinking of environmental and social issues. environment. changing psychological contract absence of employment for life and fewer opportunities support the concept of greater importance of self-development, available for career progression. multi-tasking and self-reliance. managing stress at work affecting the productivity and wellbeing of people. give the opportunity to step back and assess the ways in which work are approached. assist people to deal with change and manage transitions in their careers. work-life balance and flexible encouraging a healthy work-life balance and working support people to feel in control of their lives. help people feel arrangements arrangements that suit both the individual and the organisation. committed to the organisation and part of the team. table 3 benefits of mentoring programmes (bush & coleman, 1995; cranwell-ward et al, 2004; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; poe, 2002; tyler, 1998) mentee � improved self-confidence and self-esteem � confidential coaching � safe learning environment to test ideas � continued support in a changing environment � access to different perspectives and experience � development of transferable skills, including management, leadership, behavioural, professional � sense of value in the organisation � opportunity to broaden networks � help in developing a long-term career, and development goals and plans mentor � improved job satisfaction/revitalised interest in work – be challenged, tested and stimulated � an opportunity to influence the way things are done – passing on own experience, knowledge and skills � increased peer recognition – seen as a role model � new perspectives – challenging own assumptions � an opportunity to question their own views and values � opportunity to influence the next generation of managers and demonstrate their own commitment to the future of the company � self-development – using and improving skills � get/keep in touch with the grass roots level and manage their own team better as a result organisation � increased motivation/retention of employees by investing in their development � helps stabilise and reinforce the organisation’s values and culture � professional standards are maintained � improved communications – both laterally and vertically, and particularly across cultures � productivity gains – mentees working smarter and developing two for the price of one � knowledge capital protection in sharing and retaining valuable knowledge encapsulated in experienced managers � enhances the practice and culture (if continuous learning) � improved succession planning because more information is available � increased speed of change � strengthening of business relationship implementing and sustaining a mentoring programme implementing and managing a mentoring programme involve behind the scenes tasks upon which not only the success of the initiative depends, but also the reputation of mentoring within the organisation for the foreseeable future (blake-beard, 2001; conway, 1998; cranwell-ward et al, 2004; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; tyler, 1998; whittaker & cartwright, 2000). the objectives of the mentoring programme will, in general, determine the particular approach that should be followed in implementing the mentoring programme (klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). the six best practices discussed below come from the literature and are based on the researchers’ practical experiences and lessons learned by the organisations they were involved in. best practices have been developed in order to help navigate the design and implementation of mentoring programmes (appelbaum et al, 1994; conway, 1998; cranwell-ward et al, 2004; forret, 1996; fowler, 1998; gibb, 1995;1999; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; tyler, 1998). best practice 1: preparing the implementation proposal and conducting the necessary research according to klasen and clutterbuck (2002), the purpose of this practice is to evaluate the fit between the organisation and the intended mentoring programme, and to gather evidence that corroborates the argument in favour of the implementation of a proposed mentoring programme. the information acquired during the research phase allows the mentoring champion to assess and express the business consequences of progressing or not progressing with a mentoring programme. preparatory research also provides a framework for the design and implementation of the programme. for example, by researching the needs of employees in the organisation, it is easier to set effective programme objectives and to identify the mentee target group. furthermore, it enables mentoring champions to evaluate the risks to their reputation that are associated with pressing ahead with the mentoring programme. for instance, an organisational readiness analysis that reveals that the organisational culture is not conducive to a mentoring programme will prompt mentoring champions to stop and rethink their efforts. this may save them great potential embarrassment (conway, 1998; forret, 1996; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). according to klasen and clutterbuck (2002), an organisational readiness analysis should provide answers to the questions in table 4. hattingh, coetzee, schreuder42 table 2 context and rationale for metoring: internal influences (cranwell-ward et al, 2004) internal influences description importance of mentoring core building capabilities building the right skills and capabilities of employees to deliver cost-effective way for individuals to develop their skills and the organisation’s strategy. abilities to achieve goals. succession planning preparation of internal high potential employees to be recruited knowledge and skills of senior managers are captured (and from within the organisations for potential future vacant transferred) thorough mentoring programmes before they leave positions. the company. war for talent attraction and retention of the best staff. show future recruits and current employees that their contribution to the organisation is recognised and valued. business performance focus focus on enabling organisational objectives through having the mentoring for new staff helps them to contribute much faster, right people on board to improve business performance. because they understand how to get things done in the system. increased motivation investment in individuals can increase motivation, because the mentoring relationship itself can be motivational, providing they feel valued and recognised by the organisation. support and guidance to the mentee. facilitating teamwork and greater need for working in a range of different teams and mentors can help develop essential leadership and management productivity situations requiring specific leadership skills. skills. change management practices change in terms of culture, strategy, organisational structures, provide support and help people to move forward to manage the processes and procedures. change in the best way possible. knowledge management the acquisition, development and sharing of knowledge are mentoring can assist with the sharing of knowledge, and ensures key components of competitive advantage. that less knowledge is lost when senior managers resign or retire form the organisation. individual development and greater emphasis on individual personal and professional the mentoring philosophy encourages mentees to take continuous improvement growth and development. responsibility for their own learning. table 4 questions to establish organisational readiness for mentoring (klasen & clutterbuck, 2002:195) value attached to human viability of a mentoring programme resources development (hrd) (as opposed to other training and in general? development approaches)? does management view hrd as would a mentoring programme fit in a priority? with the organisational culture? do managers allow time for would top and middle management employees to engage in training and embrace it wholeheartedly, that is development activities, or are other would they act as mentors themselves tasks always more important? and would they support it? are financial resources readily are employees likely to be receptive available for employee to mentoring? will they be interested development? in taking it up or would it not appeal to them? is the management philosophy to does your culture encourage personal grow talent as opposed to buying it? change and development, and value initiative and risk taking? do employees value development would you be able to recruit sufficient opportunities? numbers of volunteer mentors? are the people who develop others will sufficient numbers of off-line recognised for this? mentors be available? are your potential mentors able and willing to persist with the relationship for its entire duration? will you be able to find the right people for the design, implementation and running of the programme? is the organisation generally will it be possible to integrate committed to and supportive of mentoring with the total programme the evaluation of development of employee training and activities? development? best practice 2: identifying key stakeholders and gaining organisational commitment cranwell-ward et al (2004) state that the informed support of the key stakeholders for a mentoring programme is vital to the viabilit y of the programme, because successful mentoring depends on the context and climate in which mentoring occurs. the key stakeholders therefore play a significant part in creating the right setting. organisational commitment depends widely on the core value proposition of the mentoring programme and on how it is positioned in the organisation. clear statements of intent, programme scope, objectives and expectations, practical application and evaluation systems support the justification of such programmes (conway, 1998; fowler, 1998; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; tyler, 1998). best practice 3: marketing the mentoring programme determining the most appropriate way to market and promote a mentoring programme is important because it supports the organisation in gaining interest for mentoring programmes and finding volunteers to participate (appelbaum et al, 1994; clutterbuck, 2001). in organisations that foster a learning culture, mentoring would be a natural fit. however, methods such as distribution of booklets, compiling policy and process documents, mentoring websites on the intranet, internal champions, information workshops and communiqués via email can support potential and interested participants in the programme by helping them to gain a fuller picture of what might be involved (cranwell-ward et al, 2004; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002) best practice 4: mentoring programme design and development the development and design of a mentoring programme starts by defining the key principles that will underpin the mentoring relationship (cranwell-ward et al, 2004). such principles include the values of the organisation, define the target group of the programme, indicate from where mentors will be drawn and provide detailed guidance on how the programme will operate (conway, 1998; forret, 1996; gibb, 1995;1999; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; tyler, 1998). once the overall approach has been defined and outlined, it is important to consider the practical components that will support the process. these may include defining the roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders; resourcing levels necessary to support the proposed size of the programme; determining how technology will be used to promote and administer the programme; defining qualities to look for in mentors and mentees; establishing guidelines on meeting frequency, length and location; suggestions for the first meeting and ongoing discussion topics; determining how matching will be done, what will happen if the relationship does not work and what training will be required (cranwell-ward et al, 2004). as part of the design and planning phase, tyler (1998) suggests that it is useful to generate pro-formas to assist with the information gathering process. best practice 5: maintenance, concluding and further development of the mentoring programme once a mentoring programme is implemented, it is important to address the various hurdles associated with the successful implementation of the programme (forret, 1996; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). an audit by clutterbuck & sweeney (2003) revealed that mentoring programmes that do not deliver results generally share the following failures: � poor planning and preparation. � inadequate education of third parties, such as the learners’ coworkers who are not included in a mentoring programme. � inability of some managers to adopt mentoring behaviours in other than a mechanistic manner. � inadequate training of participants. � low clarity on roles and responsibilities of mentor and mentee – who does what? � too little or too much formality. � inadequate championship from the top. the most successful mentoring programmes are often those where top managers are open about their own beneficial experiences of mentoring and willing to discuss them with others in the organisation. maintenance in the form of support to mentors and mentees, regular contact with participants, setting up formal and informal reviews, sharing success stories, mentoring mentors, additional training of mentors and dealing with difficult personal situations help to keep the programme on track (appelbaum et al, 1994). a mentoring programme has much to offer in terms of increasing organisational effectiveness and competitiveness. however, it requires a planned approach to implementation and ongoing support (clutterbuck & sweeney, 2003). an effective mentoring relationship follows a lifecycle. as the relationship draws to a close, it is vital to conclude it in a proper manner. cranwell-ward et al (2004) uphold that activities such as evaluation of the relationship, termination of the formal mentoring partnership, indication of options available for further development, recognition of achievements, key messages to be taken forward and sharing experiences in a formal way support the conclusion of the mentoring lifecycle in an effective way. a basic mentoring programme that achieved the anticipated objectives can lead to organisations becoming interested in expanding the process further (cranwell-ward et al, 2004; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; tyler, 1998). the programme is therefore able to grow organically, as ex-mentees become the next generation of mentors and champions, and the number of individuals who can help with any or all parts of the process grows (cranwell-ward et al, 2004). mentoring best practices 43 to capitalise on the success of a current programme, organisations can consider extending the programme within the targeted group, targeting another group or opening it up to all employees (gibb, 1995). however, extending and developing a programme can put pressure on resources (people, budget, mentor pool, training requirements). the use of technolog y (use of website, telephone systems to facilitate meetings, e-mail to facilitate communication), alternat ive administrat ion procedures (sof t ware for matching, data capt uring, database management) and peer mentoring (sharing experiences and best practices) facilitate growing a mentoring programme (cranwell-ward et al, 2004; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). best practice 6: evaluation and review of the mentoring programme although mentoring is ultimately a private relationship between the mentor and the mentee, it is not only necessary to have a formal evaluation and review structure in place at the end of the mentoring programme, but also to have an ongoing review process as part of the programme maintenance activities. this enhances the overall evaluation of the programme (appelbaum et al, 1994; cranwell-ward et al, 2004; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). in general, cranwell-ward et al (2004) suggest that an evaluat ion strateg y should use mult iple methods and obtain both quantitative (objective, numerical or hard) data and qualitative (subjective, non-numerical and soft) data that should be in place at the beginning of the programme. therefore stakeholders should be involved in setting success criteria and should build these into the evaluation process from the beginning. in addition, it is vital to obtain baseline data against which any changes can be measured (gibb, 1995; 1999). possible measures will depend on the purpose of mentoring, but may include aspects such as recruitment levels and vacancies, promotion rates, readiness for higher level responsibilit ies, employee skills and competencies, attitudes and motivation of both mentees and mentors, cost of training and development, and public opinion about the organisation. megginson and clutterbuck (1995) report that basic elements for measuring a mentoring programme include evaluat ion on a programme level (processes and outputs) and a relationship level (processes and outputs). the evaluation of a mentoring programme includes people like the mentor and mentee themselves, line managers and other stakeholders, mentoring programme administrators, the programme manager and an objective third part y such as the human resources department (gibb, 1995;1999; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; murray & owen, 1991; segal, 2000). research on mentoring practices in the south african organisational context is limited. the aim of this study was therefore to investigate the practices employed by south african companies to implement and sustain their mentoring programmes. research design research approach according to kerlinger and lee (2000), the main criterion of a research design is that it should adequately answer the research question. a qualitative approach was decided upon, since as this approach is specifically suitable when the research takes place in a natural setting. qualitative research attempts to make sense of and interpret constructs and phenomena in terms of the meanings that people ascribe to them, thus seeking to give meaning to social experience (denzin & lincoln, 1994). silverman (2000) asserts that qualitative studies are commonly believed to provide a deeper understanding of the phenomenon being investigated. since the research questions pertain to understanding and describing a particular phenomenon about which very little is known, the qualitative approach appeared to be the most suitable for gaining insight about respondents’ views on the mentoring practices that contribute to the overall success of the mentoring programme in the company (creswell, 1994). this study was therefore conducted within a qualitative paradigm and the grounded theory method was used to develop an inductively derived theory (strauss & corbin, 1990). this method enabled the researcher to study the phenomenon (the mentoring programme) within its context and facilitated the systematic generation of theoretical principles from, and grounded in, the data regarding the respondents’ viewpoints on the particular mentoring practices within the company. respondents a purposive sample (huysamen, 1994), comprising three designated representatives from three organisations in gauteng who are responsible for overseeing the implementation and management of the mentoring programme in their respective companies, was used for the present study. background information on the three selected organisations is provided in table 5. from table 5 it appears that the participating organisations cover a wide range of different economic activities and represent a wide spread in the number of employees employed by each organisation. table 5 background information: participating organisations organisation industry and type of business employees a financial services: large banking group with 34,000 approximately 650 branches nationally b professional services: small recruitment and 50 selection operation c health care: large provider of health care 600 related services with branches in all the major sectors method of data gathering the study was conducted within a qualitative research paradigm. the qualitative data collection technique in this study included a semi-structured qualitative interview with each respondent. the interview schedule was developed after review of the literature. each interview lasted approximately 60 to 90 minutes and was structured around the two research questions. all interviews were ended with an open question allowing for the respondents to share any information or experience they felt were relevant, and that had not been explored or discussed during the interview. the following t wo open-ended questions were carefully formulated and put to the respondents: � what is the structure of the company’s mentoring programme? � which practices contribute to the overall success of implementing and sustaining the mentoring programme? procedure the three organisations were approached telephonically and invited to participate in the research. the nature of the study was described, an assurance of anonymity was given and a report back on the findings was offered. it was agreed that the details of the report back meeting would be discussed at a future date. arrangements were made to personally interview each designated representative at a convenient time and location. the researcher interviewed each designated representative individually. hattingh, coetzee, schreuder44 data analysis all the data gathered through the interviews were analysed by means of a qualitative, interpretative analysis and (more specifically) a content analysis (berg, 2001). inferences and interpretations were made on inspection of the data gathered. in conclusion, the common themes were interpreted in the light of existing literat ure on the topic, enabling meaningful interpretation of the results. table 6 was designed to illustrate and structure the analyses of the data received in response to the two research questions. table 6 key best practices for implementing and sustaining mentoring programmes organisation best practices: success drivers a � support, commitment and sponsorship of the programme by senior management � a clear value proposition for the programme � programme co-ordination from a head office sponsor working in combination with regional hr consultants that manage operations � use of technology to support knowledge sharing � the mentors are experienced managers � the design of the programme should fit in with the culture of the organisation � training mentors to ensure their expectations are reasonable; how to communicate effectively and strategies to deal with difficult situations � use formal and informal metric systems to evaluate and benchmark the programme b � driven by top management � mentoring used as a vehicle to create a learning organisation to enable development planning � every employee (irrespective of level) should have access to a mentor � there should be an action plan for implementation, which include time, resources, budget and facilities considerations � a mentorship culture should be developed in the organisation � mentorship should be incorporated into performance management c � strong commitment from senior management to encourage participation � have a robust, scalable infrastructure to support the implementation � selection of departmental champions to help implement and administer the programme � strong commitment from mentees to self-direct the mentoring relationship � participation on a voluntary basis is better than forced involvement results the main findings indicated that the purposes for which the mentoring programmes were established included the training and development of junior and high potential leaders; socialisation of new employees, career development and providing assistance and support. the mentoring structures ranged from being formal to less formal. in addition, the implementation approach appeared to be influenced by the overall goal of the mentoring programme. generally, the results suggested that the success of the mentoring programmes could be attributed to the six best practices determined in the literature review. more specifically, the following common elements appeared to be important in all three companies: clear programme objectives; identification of key stakeholders and obtaining commitment from senior managers, mentors and mentees; identification of the target group and guidance on how the mentoring programme will operate; organisational support and coordination to sustain the programme; and formal attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme. as suggested by strauss and corbin (1990), several themes relating to the phenomenon of mentoring practices emerged from the data analysis. in the next section these themes will be discussed. from the themes it was possible to develop responses to the formulated research questions and to link international studies with the results of this study. key best practices: organisation a organisation a has a formal mentoring programme. the organisation plays a central role in establishing mentoring relationships and monitoring the progress and results of the programme. the mentoring programme is targeted at groups of employees and focuses mostly on junior managers and supervisors, with the goal of developing high potential leaders who can fill executive positions in the event of retirement or resignation. mentors and mentees are nominated and selected to participate in the programme, and a total of 50 mentees and mentors are chosen per cycle. a group of specialised human resources employees conduct assessments and interviews with selected participants in order to pair mentors and mentees with each other. a head office programme manager and two programme administrators oversee the overall programme administration, support and evaluation. regional branch human resources consultants ensure the day-today administration of the programme in different regions. the organisation conducts t wo-day introduction orientation programmes for mentoring pairs. executive management displays their commitment to the programme by conducting the opening session of the orientation workshop. the formal duration of the programme is 18 months, and it is advised that meetings take place every four to six weeks. the organisation places much of the responsibility for the pairs’ scheduling meeting on the shoulders of the mentees. the organisation solicits feedback from participants through a formal quarterly review process, during which the head office programme management team conduct individual in-dept interviews with each mentee and mentor. the feedback is used to determine positive and negative aspects of the programme, and is integrated with future programme planning. key best practices: organisation b the mentoring philosophy at organisation b revolves around the holistic development of individuals who are competent in their role but seek growth and development in all aspects of their lives (including work, professional and personal areas). the organisation recently embarked on this mentoring structure and the initial priority is to provide mentors for all experienced and competent labour recruitment learners, new managers and individuals in new positions. once this has been rolled out, mentoring will be offered to the rest of the organisation. the idea behind mentoring is that employees at any level will be mentored by employees at a higher level than themselves. top management in the organisation act as sponsors of the mentoring programme and display their commitment visibly by personally being a mentor. the mentoring programme is voluntary and individuals who are working at the organisation for more than one year can apply to participate in the programme. the organisation identifies three possible mentors and a programme co-ordinator liaises with the identified mentors to assess their willingness to participate as in the programme. after mentoring pairs have been established, workshops are conducted with mentors and mentees. these workshops focus on elaborating on mentor’s responsibilities and their influence on the mentoring process. skills development plans are discussed and the attributes that are required of a mentor are identified and discussed. the programme is informal and mentoring pairs meet on a monthly basis for a period of one year. the organisation conducts “smile sheet” evaluations at the end of the mentoring programme to collect information on the success of the programme. mentoring best practices 45 key best practices: organisation c mentoring at organisation c is structured in a less formal manner, although the organisation supports the programme and exerts some influence upon or authority over the progression of the mentoring relationships. the programme aims to provide participants with the opportunity to be part of a mentoring relationship for the purposes of career development. the organisation employs a self-directed and mentee-driven approach in which a mentee takes personal responsibility for identif ying and recruiting a mentor to act as informal coach and counselor to assist with career development. employees at all levels can participate in the self-directed mentoring programme and programme guidelines, questions and answers, tips, online mentoring induction, toolkits and a list of available mentoring resources are provided on the organisation’s intranet. the guidelines include a definition of the programme, the essential factors for a successful mentoring relationship, roles of the mentor and the mentee, and action steps for the mentee to manage the programme. programme administrators are mostly responsible for keeping the content of the website current and participants are able to tailor the programme to their specific needs. the organisation does not prescribe a specific time period for the mentoring relationship; however, it sees one year as a reasonable time period for a relationship to mature and conclude. the company requires mentors and mentees to formally evaluate the mentoring programme three times a year. evaluations are conducted online and feedback are integrated into the programme content on a continual basis in order to update and increase the success of the programme. discussion as stated, the main purpose of this study was to explore the application of best practices by south african companies in implementing and sustaining mentoring programmes. the data gathered from the respondents’ subjective perspectives of their companies’ mentoring practices will be discussed by relating the views of the respondents to existing empirical findings and relevant abstract theoretical concepts. given the impact of development initiatives in the south african organisational context, mentoring programmes appear to become a popular talent development tool in organisations. however, mentoring programme design and implementation are challenging and complex, and many programmes fail due to a lack of adequate resources and time (blake-beard, 2001; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; poe, 2002). from the investigation of the mentoring programmes practised at the three organisations that participated in the study, it appears that the success of mentoring programmes could be attributed to a strong commitment from senior or executive management (clutterbuck, 2001; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). having the programme formalised created responsibility for and commitment to the mentoring process. in addition, the results suggested that the implementation of mentoring programmes could be sustained through organisational support mechanisms such as the administration and overseeing of the operational process by a programme co-ordinator. it seems that the implementation of mentoring programmes is aided by the use of technology that helps to increase the sharing of knowledge among mentoring participants and which provides administrators with the tools to manage the day-to-day operations more efficiently. the investigation seems to indicate that the design and implementation of a valuable mentoring programme require adequate resources, time, facilities and true commitment from business leaders (klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; scandura & williams, 2002). apart from leadership commitment and resource requirements, it is evident from the invest igat ion that the identification of the purpose, objectives, scope and approach of mentoring programmes require equal deliberation. the purpose of a mentoring programme describes the reason for introducing the programme in the organisation and helps to clarif y the rationale behind the programme (conway, 1998; forret, 1996; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; cranwell-ward et al, 2004). for potential mentors and mentees, programme objectives provide a focus on what should be achieved during the time available for the relationship. the scope of the programme refers to the size and extent of the mentoring programme, while the approach covers elements of formalisation (formal to informal) of the programme (blakebeard, 2001; cranwell-ward et al, 2004; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). in this investigation the purpose and scope of the programmes varied from being used for the development of selected high performing individuals as part of a succession planning strategy to providing general development and growth opportunities to employees on all levels in the organisations. the approach of the programmes implemented by these organisations includes elements of formal, informal and self-directed principles. the results seem to indicate that the purpose and approach to struct uring mentoring programmes depends on the specific needs and strategy of the organisation, and on the context in which the programme is introduced. it is therefore well aligned with best practice. when selecting and pairing mentees and mentors, the approach varies from assigning mentors to mentees through a formal nomination and selection process to volunteer participation from both the mentor and mentee (scandura & williams, 2002). regardless of the method of matching mentees and mentors, it is important to have a formal structure with supporting documentation in place that gives guidelines on what criteria should be used, what will happen if the relationship does not work and how transparent the process should be (clutterbuck, 2001; cranwell-ward et al, 2004; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). ultimately, both mentor and mentee should assess whether they will be able to relate to one another to make the experience a worthwhile one. furthermore, to attain success in the mentoring programme it appears important that mentors and mentees join the programme voluntarily and that making mentors accountable and mentees responsible for their own learning can increase their level of commitment to the relationship ( scandura & williams, 2002). it is evident from the investigation that before embarking on a mentoring relationship, organisations should engage in training or orientation of mentors and mentees. training and orientation sessions help to explain the mentors’ primary role and inform them of the time and energy required for the relationship (klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). the training of mentees seems to be equally important as a means to clarif y their roles and responsibilities, provide career assessments to outline goals and assist with guidance on what is expected from them. it seems that the orientation workshops provide a framework for the mentoring relationship and touch on elements such as the regularity of meetings, agenda and discussion points, practical process, action steps, evaluation and review of the success of the relationship. from a best practice perspective, it seems that less importance is placed on concluding the relationship in an effective manner. in this regard, organisations may consider arranging meetings, parties or events to conclude formal mentoring programmes in an appropriate manner (forret, 1996; cranwell-ward et al, 2004; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). this will give organisations the opportunity to celebrate successes and achievements, and will hattingh, coetzee, schreuder46 enable participants to discuss and share their most memorable experiences and the lessons learned. the organisations profiled in the investigation rely on a variety of systems and practices to evaluate the effectiveness of their mentoring programmes, such as formal evaluation forms, structured interviews with mentors and mentees, and informal feedback from participants (scandura & williams, 2002). it seems that these organisations rely mostly on subjective and non-numerical data to support their evaluation processes. according to best practice, organisations may consider incorporating additional numerical performance measures to link the mentoring programme objectives to tangible, expected results (klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; tyler, 1998). a mentoring programme dashboard with objective and subjective metrics can provide an overview and visual display of the overall effectiveness and success of the programme. it may also be useful to benchmark the components of the mentoring programmes with other organisations in the market to gain an understanding of areas that require improvement (conway, 1998; cranwell-ward et al, 2004). today’s world is changing, turbulent and competitive. it requires people and organisations to change and grow if they want to stay ahead of the game. if development is a key driver for organisational business performance, then mentoring should move towards the centre of the development strategy. implementing and sustaining a mentoring programme require careful consideration and planning. as this st udy has indicated, mentoring can provide enormous benefits to both the individual and the organisation. it is also recommended that organisations offer formal mentoring in partnership with informal mentoring so that mentees can receive the greatest benefits (ragins & cotton, 1999). since formal programmes are less successful than informal mentorship, organisations should encourage employees to form networks with ties to higherlevel managers, peers, employees, and outsiders (scandura & williams, 2002). one of the goals of many formal mentoring programmes is to bring the organisation to the point where the majorit y of mentoring is carried out informally, without the need for substantial, structured support from human resources and others (clutterbuck & sweeney, 2003). the problem in most cases is that completely informal mentoring (where people come together without guidance and without clarit y about the mentoring role) is a hit and miss affair. not only is the qualit y of relationships highly variable, but the pairings tend to exclude people who do not fit the mould by virtue of their gender, race, culture or some other differentiating factor. in general, organisations that have a strong and extensive formal mentoring process seem also to develop many thriving, healthy and inclusive informal mentoring relationships. the key factor appear to be that people, who have experienced effective mentoring (as mentors or mentees) and who have been trained well in their respective roles, are open to a wider range of developmental alliances. in part icular, they appreciate the value of difference and stretch in a learning relationship, and seek out challenging partnerships. however, this is an area for future research because currently no significant research is available and the evidence is largely anecdotal (hay, 1995; clutterbuck & ragins, 2002; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). the qualitative nature of this study had the limitation that it was not always possible to obtain all the detailed information normally required in this type of study. the reason for this is because organisations often regard areas of their programmes as confidential in order to maintain a competitive advantage over adversaries. with regard to follow-up research, an expansion of the sample is highly recommended. this would also lead to a more in-depth study of mentoring in the broader south african context. references allen, t.d. & poteet, m.l. (1999). developing effective mentoring relationships: strategies from the mentor’s viewpoint. career development quarterly, 48, 59-73. appelbaum, s.h., ritchie, s. & shapiro, b. t. (1994). mentoring revisited: an organisational behaviour construct. the international journal of career management, 6 (3), 3-10. baruch, y. (1999). integrated career systems for the 2000s. international journal of manpower, 20 (7), 432-457. baruch, y. (2002). career systems in transition: a normative model for organisational career practices. personnel review, 32 (2), 231-251. baruch, y. (2004). transforming careers: from linear to multidirectional career paths: organisational and individual perspectives. career development international, 9 (1), 58-73. berg, b.l. (2001). qualitative research methods for the social sciences. boston: allyn & bacon. blake-beard, s.d. (2001). taking a hard look at formal mentoring programs. journal of management development, 20 (4), 331-345. brown, t. l. (1990). match up with a mentor. industry week, 239, 1. burke, r.j., mckeen, c. a., & mckenna, c. (1994). benefits of mentoring in organisations. the mentor’s perspective. journal of managerial psychology, 9 (3), 23-32. bush, t. & coleman, m. (1995). professional development for heads: the role of mentoring. journal of educational administration, 33 (4), 60-73. clutterbuck, d. (2001). everyone needs a mentor: fostering talent at work. london: cipd. clutterbuck, d. & lane, g. (2005). the situational mentor. london: gower. clutterbuck, d. & ragins, b.r. (2002). mentoring and diversity: an international perspective. johannesburg: butterworthheinemann. clutterbuck, d. & sweeney, j. (2003). coaching and mentoring. burnham: clutterbuck & associates. conway, c. (1998). strategies for mentoring: a blueprint for successful organisational development. chichester:wiley. corporate leadership council. (1999). mentoring – a theoretical perspective. (report no. 070-238-104). london: corporate leadership council, corporate executive board. cranwell-ward, j., bassons, p. & gover, s. (2004). mentoring. a henley review of best practice. new york: palgrave macmillan. creswell, j.w. (1994). research design: qualitative and quantitative approaches. california: sage publications. denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. (1994). handbook of qualitative research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. finkelstein, l.m., allen, t.d., & rhoton, l.a. (2003). an examination of the role of age in mentoring relationships. group & organisation management, 28 (2), 249-281. forret, m.l. (1996). issues facing organisations when implementing formal mentoring programmes. learning and organisational development journal, 17 (3), 27-30. fowler, a. (1998). how to: mentoring guidelines. people management, october, 48-50. gibb, s. (1995). evaluating mentoring. education + training, 36 (5), 32-39. gibb, s. (1999). the usefulness of theory: a case study in evaluating formal mentoring schemes. human relations, 52 (8), 1055. gunn, e. (1995). mentoring: the democratic version. training, 64-67. hay, j. (1995). transformational mentoring. new york: mcgraw-hill. hall, d.t. & kahn, w.a. (2002). developmental relationships at work: a learning perspective. in c.l. cooper & r.j. burke (eds.). the new world of work: challenges and opportunities, 49-74. oxford: blackwell. henley management college, (2000). e-business management in the new economy. henley management college. huysamen, g.k. (1994). methodology for the social and behavioural sciences. halfwayhouse: southern. kerlinger, f.n. & lee, h.b. (2000). foundations of behavioural research. new york: harcourt college. mentoring best practices 47 klasen, n. & clutterbuck, d. (2002). implementing mentoring schemes: a practical guide to successful programs. london: butterworth-heinemann. kram, k. e. (1985). mentoring at work. development relationships in organisational life. london: scott, foresman and company. megginson, d. & clutterbuck, d. (1995). mentoring in action. london: kogan page. murray, m. & owen, m.a. (1991). beyond the myths and magic of mentoring – how to facilitate an effective mentoring program. london: jossey-bass. parsloe, e. (1992). coaching, mentoring and assessing: a practical guide to developing competence. london: kogan page. poe, a.c. (2002). launching a mentoring program. society for human resource management white paper. available: www.shrm.org (2004, july 4). samier, e. (2000). public administration mentorship: conceptual and pragmatic considerations. journal of educational administration, 38 (1), 83-101. segal, j. (2000). mirror-image mentoring. hr magazine, 45, 157-162. scandura, t.a. & williams, e.a. (2002). formal mentoring: the promise and the precipice. in c.l. cooper & r.j. burke (eds.). the new world of work: challenges and opportunities, 49-74. oxford: blackwell. silverman, d. (2000). doing qualitative research: a practical handbook. london: sage. sketch, e. (2001). mentoring and coaching help employees grow. hr focus, 34, 23. strauss, a. & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research: grounded theory. procedures and techniques. newbury park: sage. triple creek associates. (2004). mentoring guide for mentees. available: http://www.3creek.com (2004, july 3). tyler, k. (1998). mentoring programs link employees and experienced execs. hr magazine, 31, 100-101. whittaker, m. & cartwright, a. (2000). the mentoring manual. london: gower. hattingh, coetzee, schreuder48 article information authors: frederick w. stander1 leon t. de beer2 marius w. stander1 affiliations: 1optentia research focus area, north-west university, vaal triangle campus, south africa 2workwell research unit, north-west university, potchefstroom campus, south africa correspondence to: frederick stander email: ederick.stander@nwu.ac.za postal address: po box 1174, vanderbijlpark 1900, south africa dates: received: 07 dec. 2014 accepted: 07 apr. 2015 published: 03 june 2015 how to cite this article: stander, f.w., de beer, l.t., & stander, m.w. (2015). authentic leadership as a source of optimism, trust in the organisation and work engagement in the public health care sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #675, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.675 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. authentic leadership as a source of optimism, trust in the organisation and work engagement in the public health care sector in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • literature review       • authentic leadership as a leadership style in the public health care sector       • positioning authentic leadership as a job resource in relation to the nomological network       • authentic leadership as a predictor of positive personal and work-related outcomes       • optimism and trust in the organisation as mediators in the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement • method    • research approach       • participants and procedure       • measuring instruments       • statistical analysis • results    • measurement model    • structural model: regression results    • structural model: indirect effects • discussion    • outline of the results    • practical implications    • limitations and recommendations    • future research implications • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the orientation of this study is towards authentic leadership (al) and its influence on optimism, trust in the organisation and work engagement of employees in the public health care sector. research purpose: the objectives of this study were to determine whether the leadership style of al could predict optimism, trust in the organisation and work engagement amongst a large sample of employees from various functions in public hospitals and clinics in gauteng and to establish whether optimism and trust in the organisation could mediate the relationship between al and work engagement. research approach, design and method: a convenience sample of 633 public health employees from various functions within 27 public hospitals and clinics in the province was used in this research. a cross-sectional research design was implemented. structural equation modelling was utilised to investigate the authentic leadership inventory (ali), and the validity and fit of the measurement model, to position al as a job resource within the nomological net and to test its mediating effects. main findings: the statistical analysis revealed that al was a significant predictor of optimism and trust in the organisation and that optimism and trust in the organisation mediated the relationship between al and work engagement. practical/managerial implications: the research results suggested that organisations in the public health care sector should encourage their managers to adopt a more authentic leadership style. this will lead to higher levels of optimism, trust in the organisation and eventually work engagement. this will greatly assist employees in the domain of public health care to manage their demanding working environment. contribution: this study provides evidence that the ali can be used reliably within the south african context and specifically within the public health care sector. it further substantiates for the implementation of al as a leadership style in the south african public health care sector, supporting work that has been done internationally in health care where al has been associated with a number of positive outcomes. finally, the study puts forward two practical suggestions, on both an individual and an organisational level, to facilitate a culture in which al can be translated more effectively into an engaged workforce. introduction top ↑ in a significant strategic mission statement, the department of health (2011) in south africa recently articulated a renewed focus on effective leadership as a vocal point of a government function that fulfils a critical role in the country's development. the health systems trust (2013) describes the public health care sector as a major pillar in the country's democratic societal foundation. the provision of basic health care services is a crucial part of a prospering and flourishing society and provides one of the fundamental prerequisites for a civilisation in which equity prevails (harrison, 2009). in south africa, access to primary health care is a fundamental human right. this being said, the public health care sector has been plagued by a number of very pressing challenges. these include difficulty in implementing institutional policies that direct the public health care sector (pillay, 2009), lack of and ill distribution of resources (christian & crisp, 2012), a national disease burden that is estimated to be four times worse than in developed countries (department of health, 2011) and a workforce that is continuously migrating to the private health care sector where perceived resources and working environment are considered more favourable (ashmore, 2013). in the national department of health (2013) annual report, the minister outlines that glaring differences still exist between the public and private health care sectors, specifically in access and quality of care, and states that this is convoluted by the country's disease affliction (particularly through hiv and/or aids and tb), child and maternal morbidity, lifestyles of certain communities and high occurrence of trauma-related incidents across the entire country and particularly in areas where private health care is not affordable to people. the burden on the south african public health care sector is significant. of the entire population, 83% of people receive all medical care in this domain (blecher, kollipara, dejager & zulu, 2011). because basic primary health care in the public sector is available at no charge, very little funding outside of government budget is available to amply equip the sector with resources (sanders & chopra, 2006). the demand for public health care services has also been immense and continues to significantly surpass supply. for example, according to the health systems trust (2011), in the public health care sector, only 2.2 usable beds are available per 1000 members of the population. this highly complex and severely pressured sector, where a lack of resources and highly overburdening demand for services have been prevalent, has clearly manifested in the form of symptoms amongst its entire workforce. george, atujuna and gow (2013), for example, state that employees in the public health care sector have felt totally overwhelmed by the enormity of the task facing them on a daily basis and have negatively related to the pressures delivered through a large portion of the population who are in need of quality health care but cannot afford private care. von holdt and murphy (2006) comment that public health care workers in south africa experience severe stress and have reported total exhaustion. drastic measures are required to equip public health care workers to effectively deal with a highly challenging work environment, to uphold levels of well-being amongst these individuals and to counter the high rate of turnover of these employees who are leaving the sector due to an environment that becomes too overburdening (george, gow & bachoo, 2013). the need for these measures has been recognised by the department of health, who have introduced the national core standards for health establishments in south africa (department of health, 2011), in which it adopts ‘leadership’ (domain 5) very purposefully as a critical component of its overarching strategy to navigate the challenges of public health care and provide for a healthy workforce who are able to be actively engaged and effective within this environment. the drive for purposeful leadership interventions has not only been recognised by the department of health in south africa, but has long been advocated in academic literature as well. for example, gilson and daire (2011) state that: leadership is a necessary element of strong health systems, and so it is vital that sa nurtures and sustains leaders who can work strategically within their complex environments to develop a rights-based health system that promotes health equity. (p. 69) bamford, wong and laschinger (2013) further highlight the importance of strong leadership to build and sustain healthier work environments to deal with the demands in the health care profession. although the concept of leadership has been widely introduced through the policy direction of the department of health, and literature has been published championing a stronger emphasis on leadership within public health care, very little empirical work exists that explore the value of specific leadership styles in this sector. this represents a major research gap, not only from a scientific perspective but equally so from the pragmatic view of assisting the south african national government in understanding which approaches could be effective in nurturing an engaged workforce within a work environment in public health care that is going to remain highly demanding. this article proposes the leadership style of authentic leadership (al) as a pragmatic approach to be adopted in the public health care sector as a means of creating an engaged workforce. laschinger, wong and grau (2013) state that few empirical studies link authentic leadership with work attitudes and outcomes in health care. literature review authentic leadership as a leadership style in the public health care sector al refers to a leadership style that includes positive leader capacities and a mature organisational leadership culture (luthans & avolio, 2003). this forms the basis of the concept of al as investigated in this paper. as a concept it proposes high levels of self-awareness and positive behaviours on the side of both leader and follower (ilies, morgeson & nahrgang, 2005). it is based on the construct of authenticity, which is described by kernis (2003) as being absolutely true to one's own being in all daily interactions. the authentic leader displays behaviours of inspiring others, motivating followers, stimulating on an intellectual level and giving individualised attention to followers (neider & schriesheim, 2011). in this sense the authentic leader acts as a ‘moral agent’ who introduces transformational leadership to the organisation in which they function (bass & steidlmeier, 1999). al has been proven to be a valuable approach in a number of organisational studies. for example, peus, wesche, streicher, braun and frey (2012) found al to be a predictor of organisational commitment, extra effort and team effectiveness in a sample of business and research organisations in germany. in a sample of employees from telecommunications firms in china, al was positively related to organisational citizenship and work engagement (walumbwa, wang, wang, schaubroeck & avolio, 2010). al comprises four constructs (walumbwa, avolio, gardner, wernsing & peterson, 2008). self-awareness refers to the ability to make sense of one's perceived reality and understand one's strengths and weaknesses. laschinger and fida, (2014) postulate that authentic leaders have a stable sense of self knowledge. relational transparency talks to presenting the true and core self to other people. balanced processing refers to objectively analysing all sets of information about a particular scenario before coming to a particular conclusion. internalised moral perspective refers to the ability of self-regulation as to hold a firm moral position, internally inclined, that can withstand both societal and group pressures. the four al constructs are measured through the authentic leadership inventory (ali), developed by neider and schriesheim (2011). the measure assesses the extent to which a group of followers perceive their leader to display the behaviours associated with the four al constructs. it has been proven to be reliable by neider and schriesheim. although the potential value of adopting an al approach in an organisation has been proven in a number of studies, very little empirical work has been done within south africa and no studies have evaluated the positive effect that al could have as a leadership style within the public health care sector in this country. this is despite international work within broader health care that has linked al to trust and job performance amongst a sample of canadian nurses, pharmacists and physicians (wong & cummings, 2009), to work engagement amongst a sample of registered nurses in the province of ontario in canada (bamford et al., 2013), to job satisfaction amongst a sample of uk nurses (leigh, 2013) and to burnout, mental health and job satisfaction amongst new nurses (laschinger & fida, 2014). this represents an important research gap in the south african literature. it is important to investigate the application of al within south african organisations and, more so, it could be fruitful to apply this leadership style within the domain of the public health care sector. based on the literature and empirical work done internationally it is possible to postulate: hypothesis 1: the ali will be reliable for use in a south african context. hypothesis 2: the ali holds a four-factor structure in a sample of employees from the public health care sector. positioning authentic leadership as a job resource in relation to the nomological network this article postulates that, in the context of the public health care sector in south africa, the leadership style of al will act as a job resource in line with the job demands-resources (jd-r) model. the jd-r model is a strongly established theory within industrial psychology. it holds that all job roles inherently comprise a set of demands and resources (bakker, demerouti, taris, schaufeli & schreurs, 2003). whilst demands constitute those elements of the job that require psychological, physical, social or organisational strain, job resources include capitals that assist individuals to successfully accomplish tasks and be more effective in their job role (bakker & demerouti, 2007). job resources effectively mitigate against the effects of job demands and include physical, social or organisational elements of a job role that allow the role incumbent to more readily achieve desired personal and organisational outcomes (bakker & demerouti, 2008; xanthopoulou, bakker, demerouti & schaufeli, 2009). it is argued here that the leadership style of al can be postulated as a job resource as it has been effectively proven to navigate various challenging organisational cultures and to be associated with desired organisational outcomes. examples of this include wong and cummings (2009), who have found the leadership style of al predicted job performance amongst a sample of canadian nurses, as well as peus et al. (2012), who have established a correlation between al and team effectiveness amongst german employees working in research industries. to substantiate the case for postulating al as a job resource, it is important to investigate its correlation with other, established job resources within the theoretical framework of the nomological net. in this article, al is compared to the job resource of communication and relationships with colleagues. according to van veldhoven, meijman, broersen and fortuin (2002), communication as a resource entails whether an individual has a clear understanding of how processes, decision-making and important procedures work within their organisation. relationship with colleagues refers to whether an individual gets along with, feels comfortable with and can count on colleagues for support in their job role. both communication and relationship with colleagues are measured through the questionnaire on experience and assessment of work, developed in the netherlands and known by its abbreviation vbba (van veldhoven, meijman, broersen, & fortuin, 1997): hypothesis 3: authentic leadership can be postulated as a job resource in the nomological net in relation to communication and relationship with colleagues. authentic leadership as a predictor of positive personal and work-related outcomes laschinger and fida (2014) found that al and psychological capital (psycap) have an impact on personal and job-related outcomes in the nursing environment. adopting the point of departure that al is a job resource in relation to other established job resources in the nomological net, as outlined above, it becomes possible to postulate that this leadership style may lead to positive personal and work-related outcomes. this view is validated when considering the theoretical description, which holds that job resources assists individuals in achieving both personal and work-related goals (xanthopoulou et al., 2009). in this article, the potential of al to predict the personal outcome of optimism, and the work-related outcome of trust in the organisation, is investigated. optimism is a construct that forms part of the collective term psychological capital (psycap) as described by luthans and youssef (2004). psycap can be described as a ‘an individual's positive psychological state of development, characterised by: (1) having confidence (self-efficacy) to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks, (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future, (3) persevering towards goals, and when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to succeed and (4) when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond (resiliency) to attain success’ (luthans, youssef & avolio, 2007, p. 10). although a fairly new concept within psychology, psycap has effectively been proven as a personal resource that assists individuals in attaining goals (luthans, avolio, avey & norman, 2007). laschinger and fida (2014) are of the opinion that psycap, as a personal strength may enable new graduate nurses to proactively manage stressful challenges. the psycap constructs have been established as valid in a south african sample by görgens-ekermans and herbert (2013) through a thorough validation study conducted within the construction industry. it will hence be interesting to further scrutinise this finding by investigating the properties of these constructs within the public health care sector. optimism has been referred to by luthans (2002) as comprising both positive emotion and motivation in life. it refers to an individual's ability and positive psychological developmental state towards having an ascription of being successful, now and in the future (luthans, avolio, avey & norman, 2007). a number of studies have correlated the leadership style of al with psycap. for example, clapp-smith, vogelgesang and avey (2009) established correlation between al and psycap in a sample of employees from the retail industry. rego, sousa, marques and cunha (2012) established that al promoted psycap amongst employees from 33 different organisations in portugal. this is because al is ‘a pattern of leader behaviour that draws upon and promotes both positive psychological capacities and a positive ethical culture, to foster greater self-awareness, an internalized moral perspective, balanced processing of information, and relational transparency on the part of leaders working with followers, fostering positive self-development’ (walumbwa et al., 2008, p. 94). the leadership style of al should also aid the highly demanding public health care environment to promote levels of optimism amongst staff in a process of positive organisational behaviour, considering its value, which has been established through studies in other contexts: hypothesis 4: authentic leadership will promote optimism amongst employees in the public health care sector. following the above hypothesis, this article postulates that al will also predict positive work-related outcomes, in particular the outcome of trust in the organisation, which is the particular focus of this study. trust in the organisation can be described as a sense of confidence in and support towards one's employer (gilbert & tang, 1998). it is the conviction that an individual holds that the organisation that employs them has their best interest at heart (gilbert & tang, 1998). bromiley and cummings (1996) hold that, when employees have trust in their organisation, those employees will invest energy and effort to ensure that organisational objectives are successfully attained. trust in the organisation has been associated with various positive outcomes. this includes work engagement (gillis, 2003), knowledge sharing amongst team members in organisations (ferres, connell & travaglione, 2005), effective leadership (joseph & winston, 2005) and employee performance (paliszkiewicz & koohang, 2013). a culture of trust in the organisation is thus a highly sought-after organisational state. it is postulated here that the leadership style of al will foster greater trust in the organisation, within the domain of the public health care sector. trust in the organisation, in this instance, is selected due to luthans and avolio’ s (2003) observation that al comprises authenticity, embedded into a particular organisational culture. this is because al constitutes authenticity and positive empowering behaviours which will render employees more able and willing to trust their employers. it supports the work of bono and judge (2003) who have outlined the relevance of social and personal identification as part of the leadership process towards attaining positive outcomes. the rationale for this is further supported by avolio, gardner, walumbwa, luthans and may (2004), who stipulate that al allows a realistic social interaction between leader and follower in a culture that supports open communication and free sharing of information. this manifests in a culture of trust within the organisation, as the authentic nature of the leadership style ensures transparency and the sense that the organisation, through the extension of its leadership, has the best interests of employees in mind (gardner, avolio, luthans, may & walumbwa, 2005). from the perspective of this article, trust in the ‘organisation’ is here represented as trust in the public health department, which employs the participants of this study through various hospitals and clinics. in a number of studies, al has been proven as a leadership style that can harness trust in the organisation, particularly in the health care environment. for example, wong and cummings (2009) established that al predicted trust in the organisation amongst a sample of both clinical care and non-clinical (support) staff of canadian health care facilities. this is significant in the context of this study, where the public health care sector as a whole was considered, including both medical practitioners and support staff. in further studies, al was proven to be a source of trust in the organisation in a large sample of malaysian employees in the banking sector (hassan & ahmed, 2011) and a large sample of employees working in the financial services industry (walumbwa, luthans, avey & oke, 2009): hypothesis 5: authentic leadership will promote trust in the organisation in the public health care sector. al is further investigated in this article as being able to predict the positive work-related outcome of work engagement. work engagement is defined by schaufeli and bakker (2004, p. 295) as a ‘positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind characterised by vigour, dedication, and absorption’. of late, only vigour and dedication have been included as core dimensions of work engagement (stander & mostert, 2013). vigour describes an individual's continued positive feelings towards elements of their job role, whereas dedication constitutes an individual's pride in their job (schaufeli, salanova, gonzález-romá & bakker, 2002). work engagement is a highly researched and well-established topic in the literature. it has been associated with such outcomes as motivation amongst employees (sonnentag, 2003), organisational commitment (demerouti, bakker, de jonge, janssen & schaufeli, 2001) and increased performance (bakker, 2011). an engaged workforce is a highly sought-after state of any organisation, as an engaged employee is fully connected to their job role and can thus fulfil such role with higher efficiency and effectiveness (bakker, 2011). in the public health care sector in south africa, an engaged workforce is critical to navigate the challenges associated with a segment that is overburdened by demands and a lack of resources. it is therefore crucial to investigate means as to which work engagement can be fostered amongst both medical and support staff in this sector and al as a leadership style is proposed here as a means of achieving this. it has been proven that al can facilitate work engagement amongst employees. this has been established by wang and hsieh (2013) in a large sample of employees from manufacturing companies in taiwan, by walumbwa et al. (2010) amongst employees from the telecommunications industry in china, by bamford et al., (2013) with a group of registered nurses and by brown (2014) amongst a sample of athletes in the united states. based on this the following hypothesis is postulated: hypothesis 6: authentic leadership will promote work engagement amongst employees in the public health care sector. optimism and trust in the organisation as mediators in the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement following the postulation that al will predict both positive personal and work-related outcomes in the public health care sector, this article will further investigate the indirect relationship that two of the variables have on the relationship between al and work engagement, that is, it will investigate whether favourable personal and work contexts can potentially strengthen the effect of a al leadership style on the level of work engagement of employees in this sector. firstly, from a personal resource perspective, the potential mediating effects of optimism is explored in this article. it is possible to predict that optimism will mediate the relationship between al and work engagement, because optimism forms part of the psycap constructs and should therefore assist employees in the public health care sector to translate the job resources available to them into favourable outcomes. this is because psycap, and optimism by extension, form part of an individual's personal resources and renders that person in a state of positive psychological development (luthans, avolio, avey & norman, 2007). optimism has been proven to be a mediator between various job resources and the outcome of work engagement. xanthopoulou et al. (2009) established that optimism mediated the relationship between the job resources of autonomy, coaching and team culture and work engagement, in a sample of employees from greek restaurants. in a study by tims, bakker and xanthopoulou (2011) optimism fully mediated between a transformational leadership style and work engagement in a large sample of consultants from two organisations in the netherlands. it is thus possible to argue that a positive leadership style will be mediated towards work engagement by a workforce that holds high levels of optimism. this article argues that an individual who is employed in the public health care sector and holds the optimistic view that they will be successful in their endeavours, now and in the future, will be more amply equipped to translate the positive leadership style observed by them through an al approach into a state of work engagement. furthering the research, it is also postulated here that favourable work-related culture of trust in the organisation will mediate between al and work engagement. trust in the organisation creates a culture in which employees believe their employers have their best interest at heart and they will therefore be more willing to invest a full effort to attain organisational goals, within the positive framework provided through an al leadership style (gilbert & tang, 1998). aryee, budhwar and chen (2002) established that trust in the organisation mediated between perceived organisational justice and job satisfaction of employees in the public sector in india. pertaining specifically to work engagement, acosta, salanova and llorens (2011) recognised a full mediating effect of trust in the organisation in the relationship between healthy organisational practices and work engagement of employees from small and medium-sized enterprises in spain. this article will explore the possible mediating effect that trust in the organisation will have between al and work engagement in the public health care sector in south africa: hypothesis 7a: optimism will mediate the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement hypothesis 7b: trust in the organisation will mediate the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement figure 1 presents the research model. figure 1: the research model. method top ↑ research approach to investigate this research a quantitative approach was used. quantitative approaches are usually more structured and collect larger samples of data (struwig & stead, 2001). more specifically, a survey design was used to collect cross-sectional data. cross-sectional data means that the data were collected at one point in time (salkind, 2009). participants and procedure the total sample (n = 633) had an average age of 42.44 years (sd = 12.27) and was drawn from 27 public hospitals and clinics in the province. the majority of the sample was female (79.6%). the home languages with the most participation were sesotho (n = 263; 44.6%) and isizulu (n = 113; 19.2%). furthermore, participation from the english (n = 39), afrikaans (n = 42), setswana (n = 43), and isixhosa (n = 40) language groups were quite similar. the majority of the sample consisted of black people (n = 522; 87.9%) followed by a minority of white participants (n = 49; 8.2%) as the second largest group. this demographic composition is representative of the south african public health sector workforce. in terms of qualifications, 156 participants (29.8%) had a higher senior certificate, 202 (38.5%) had a diploma or tertiary certificate, 122 (23.3%) had a degree and 44 (8.4%) had a postgraduate degree. with regard to function, 94 (7.41%) of the sample indicated management, 65 (12.04%) indicated specialist, 106 (19.63%) indicated administrative and 275 (50.92%) of the sample indicated other. this research was conducted as part of a broader project with the public health department in gauteng, aimed at studying the work-related experiences and well-being of employees in the public health care sector. the research was conducted through a gatekeeper appointed by the department, after a rigorous process of application for ethical clearance was done so as to ensure clearance from the department. the research project leader engaged the respondents through the gatekeeper and distributed the research questionnaires to respondents in pre-arranged time-slots, on site at the hospitals and clinics, in pre-arranged venues, according to department and function. the research project leader was accompanied by research assistants during the data collection process. the project leader explained the aim, nature and detail of the research to the participants, emphasising the voluntary nature of the procedure. participants were also briefed on the confidential nature of their responses, which were to be captured only for research purposes. participants were allowed to ask questions and the project leader was available throughout the process to answer any enquiries the respondents may have had. although it was reasonably foreseen that the research project presented low risk, the added advantage was that the research project leader is a qualified industrial psychologist and could thus adequately attend to any discomfort participants may have experienced during the research process. completed questionnaires were collected by the research project leader and stored for the purposes of safekeeping in a secure storeroom on a university premises. an information letter was also distributed, providing participants with the contact details of the project leader, should any queries arise. measuring instruments a biographical questionnaire was used to obtain information concerning the biographical features of participants (e.g. age, gender, level of qualification and home language). the subsequent measuring instruments were administered. authentic leadership: al was measured through the ali (neider & schriesheim, 2011). the ali contains 14 items. it is scored on a five-point likert scale on which responses vary from 1 (disagree strongly) to 5 (agree strongly). example items are ‘my leader solicits feedback for improving their dealings with others’ and ‘my leader encourages others to voice opposing points of view’. cronbach's alpha coefficients indicated that the scale in general is reliable (α = 0.74 – 0.85; neider & schriesheim, 2011). during the briefing of the participants, it was explained that ‘my leader’ in this context refers to the direct line manager of the employee. job resources: both the job resources of relationship with colleagues and communication were measured by the questionnaire on experience and assessment of work, the vbba (van veldhoven et al., 1997). the vbba is scored on a four-point frequency rating scale, ranging from 0 (never) to 3 (always). van veldhoven et al. (2002) have found sufficient levels of internal consistency (α = 0.87 for relationship with colleagues and α = 0.79 for communication). relationship with colleagues was measured through six items. an example item is ‘do you get on well with your colleagues?’. communication was measured through four items, an example of which is the item ’in your work, do you have access to sufficient data and information?’. optimism: the psycap construct of optimism was measured through the specific optimism items on the 12-item psycap questionnaire (pcq 12; luthans, avolio, avey & norman, 2007). as part of the overall pcq 12, optimism is measured through three items. the items of this measure are scored on a six-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). an example of an optimism item is ‘i always look on the bright side of things regarding my job’. the cronbach's alpha coefficient indicated sufficient reliability for this instrument (α = 0.93; norman, avolio & luthans, 2010). trust in the organisation: the dimension trust in the organisation was measured through the workplace trust survey (wts; ferres & travaglione, 2003). the wts comprises nine items for its trust in the organisation dimension. responses are logged on a seven-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). an example item is ‘i think that this organisation provides a supportive environment’. sufficient levels of internal consistency (α = 0.95) have been reported for this measure (ferres & travaglione, 2003). work engagement: work engagement was measured through the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes; schaufeli et al., 2002), through eight items in this particular study. responses are recorded on a seven-point frequency scale ranging from 0 (never) to 6 (daily). example items are ‘at my work i always persevere, even when things do not go well’ (dedication) and ‘at my job, i feel strong and vigorous’ (vigour). alpha coefficients of the uwes have ranged from 0.68 to 0.91 (schaufeli et al., 2002). in the south african context, storm and rothmann (2003) established cronbach's alpha coefficients of 0.78 for vigour and 0.89 for dedication. statistical analysis latent variables were constructed with structural equation modelling methods in mplus 7.2 (muthén & muthén, 2014). no item parcelling methods were used and each item was therefore an indicator of the latent variable specified. moreover, due to the categorical nature of the data (i.e. likert scale-type data), the weighted least squares (mean and variance adjusted) estimation method was implemented, as per the default option in mplus as it is a more accurate method (rhemtulla, brosseau-liard & savalei, 2012). this is done by estimating thresholds for the response categories, as the distance between, for example, ‘never’ and ‘seldom’ is not the same as between ‘seldom’ and ‘always’ (cf. liang & yang, 2014). first a measurement model was specified (i.e. confirmatory factor analysis). then, regression coefficients were added to the model to constitute the structural model. the following fit indices were considered for model fit in the measurement and structural models: comparative fit index (cfi) and tucker-lewis index (tli) with acceptable values above 0.90 and the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea), the value of which should ideally be below 0.08 (van de schoot, lugtig & hox, 2012). furthermore, bootstrapping methods were implemented with a request for 5000 resampling draws in order to ascertain the possibility of indirect effects in the research model with confidence intervals at the 95% level of confidence (rucker, preacher, tormala & petty, 2011). correlation coefficients were also considered with practical significance (r) being considered at 0.30 or higher for a medium effect and 0.50 or higher for a large effect (cohen, 1988). overall statistical significance for the research was set at the 99% level (i.e. p ≤ 0.01). results top ↑ measurement model as the sample data was categorical in nature and the weighted least squares methodology was implemented, it was not possible to directly compete non-nested measurement models with chi-square difference testing. additionally, it should be stated that authentic leadership as a latent variable could only be estimated as one factor; any other permutation (four-factor model or second-order factor model) resulted in model estimation error with a non-positive definite covariance matrix. confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the overall measurement model, which included all study variables as singular latent variables in one model, was a good fit to the data: the cfi (0.95) and tli (0.94) were both above the lower bound cut-off point of 0.90 and the rmsea (0.06) was below the value of 0.08. table 1 presents the factor loadings for the latent variables. table 1: factor loadings for the latent variables. as can be seen from table 1 the factor loadings of all the items loaded significantly on the corresponding latent factor in the confirmatory factor analysis. the standard errors for each of the standardised estimates were small, indicating accuracy in estimation of these values. table 2 presents the correlation matrix for the latent variables, including their corresponding alpha and omega reliability coefficients. table 2: correlation matrix for the latent variables. the reliability indicators of all the latent variables were acceptable according to the popular guidelines (α & ω ≥ 0.70). al was positively correlated with all of the other latent variables with at least a medium practical significant effect, for example with optimism (r = 0.45), trust in the organisation (r = 0.68), and work engagement (r = 0.42). optimism was practically significantly correlated to work engagement with a large effect (r = 0.60). the correlation between optimism and trust in the organisation was of medium practical significance (r = 0.31). moreover, trust in the organisation and work engagement were also largely practically correlated with each other (r = 0.50). finally, al was practically significantly correlated with both relationships with colleagues (r = 0.41) and communication (r = 0.64). structural model: regression results based on the acceptable measurement model, the structural regressions were added to the model as hypothesised from the literature. the structural model also showed acceptable fit to the data (cfi = 0.92; tli = 0.92; rmsea = 0.07). table 3 shows that the regression relationships were significant at a level of p less than 0.01. authentic leadership positively predicted optimism (β = 0.45; se = 0.04; p = 0.001) and trust in the organisation (β = 0.68; se = 0.02; p = 0.001), but did not predict work engagement (β = -0.07; se = 0.06; p = 0.200). optimism (β = 0.51; se = 0.04; p = 0.001) and trust in the organisation (β = 0.39; se = 0.05; p = 0.001) in turn positively predicted work engagement. table 3: regression paths of the research model. structural model: indirect effects due to the significant regression relationships from al to optimism and trust in the organisation, and their subsequent relationship to work engagement, both potential indirect effects were investigated. feedback is provided in table 4. table 4: indirect effects between authentic leadership and work engagement. results from the bootstrapping resampling implementation revealed that both indirect effects were significant: the relationship from al to work engagement through optimism (0.23; 95% ci [0.16, 0.30]; p ≤ 0.001) and from al to work engagement though trust in the organisation (0.27; 95% ci [0.19, 0.34]; p ≤ 0.001). therefore, the sum of the indirect effects for the total model was 0.494 (p ≤ 0.001). discussion top ↑ outline of the results the objectives of this study were to determine whether the leadership style of al could predict optimism, trust in the organisation and work engagement amongst a large sample of employees from various functions in public hospitals and clinics in gauteng and to establish whether optimism and trust in the organisation could mediate the relationship between al and work engagement. this was done to generate knowledge and understanding to assist the public health care sector to harness an engaged workforce. this proves particularly relevant in the south african public health care sector, which is characterised by severely demanding working conditions and an overall lack of resources (christian & crisp, 2012). the practical value of this study emerges when considering the clear policy direction of the country's department of health, which has indicated through domain 5 of the strategic document known as the national core standards for health establishments in south africa (department of health, 2011), that ‘leadership’ would be a key focus area on harnessing an engaged, vigorous workforce that would be able to deal effectively with the burdening environment that is public health care provision. the sector as a whole was considered and therefore both direct health care professionals and support staff were included in the investigation. the structural model under scrutiny in this paper proposed that al would be an effective leadership style to harness both positive personal and work-related outcomes, specifically optimism, trust in the organisation and work engagement. based on the theory outlined in the literature study, the authors proposed this structural model as a pragmatic way of dealing with pressing issues in the south african public health care sector, such as migration from employees to the private health care sector (george et al., 2013), assisting the workforce in the public health care sector to more effectively deal with stress (von holdt & murphy, 2006) and assisting employees in the sector to more effectively negotiate the various demands they will clearly continue to face on a daily basis (george et al., 2013). the point of departure was to first establish whether al as a concept could be applied reliably to a south african sample and, more specifically, to the south african public health care sector. al is measured through the ali, based on the four al constructs identified by walumbwa et al. (2008): known as self-awareness, relational transparency, balanced processing and internalised moral perspective. although al as a concept has been proven as a leadership style that could unlock great value in health care internationally, in such studies as wong and cummings (2009), who established al to predict work performance amongst canadian health care practitioners, and leigh (2013), who found al led to job satisfaction amongst nurses from the uk, it has largely been un-researched in south africa; no studies have investigated its potential value and application in public health. this represented a major research gap. through psychometric evaluation, the authors established that the ali was reliable for use in a south african context, through both alpha and omega reliability coefficients, rendering hypothesis 1 of this article as accurate. after this was established, the next step was investigation of the factor structure of the ali. based on the theoretical foundations al presented by walumbwa et al. (2008) and various psychometric studies by such authors as neider and schriesheim (2011), the authors postulated through hypothesis 2 that the ali would also hold a four-factor structure in the south african context. competing measurement models were tested through a process of structural equation modelling and the traditional model was compared to a one-factor model for the ali. interestingly, the one-factor produced better model fit, disproving hypothesis 2 and suggesting that south african participants, at least those employed in the public health care sector, perceived al as an overarching leadership style rather than one comprising the four constructs of which the concept is traditionally constituted. before the structural model of the research could be investigated it was important to establish whether al could in fact be positioned as a job resource as per the jd-r model, the theoretical foundation of this article. stander and mostert (2013) hold that theoretical constructs of the same proposed theoretical grouping should be compared to each other in relation with the ‘nomological network’. the nomological network describes a collection of theoretically corresponding concepts and denotes the interrelationship between these constructs (westen & rosenthal, 2003). in this study, al was compared to established job resources of communication and relationship with colleagues. both these constructs have been proven as job resources in various studies and are measured through the vbba questionnaire on experience and assessment of work, developed in the netherlands (van veldhoven et al., 1997). al did prove to fit within the nomological network when compared to these resources, proving hypothesis 3 of this article and delineating that, as a leadership style, it can contribute to the perceived job resources public health care employees will perceive in their job role. hypotheses 4 through 6 were concerned with the structural model proposed in this research and investigated the predicting effect al could have in the public health care sector, both on positive personal and work-related outcomes. firstly, it was proposed that the al leadership style would lead to higher levels of optimism amongst individual employees within the public health care sector. the rationale for this is found in the very essence of al, which is a leadership style that puts forward a number of empowering behaviours that generate a positive inclination with the individual that they will be able to effectively deal with stressors and be successful (walumbwa et al., 2008). the implication of this is that al could be utilised to promote optimism of employees in the public health care sector. it supports studies by clapp-smith et al. (2009), as well as rego et al. (2012), who established that al engendered the psycap constructs. it also supports the findings of laschinger and fida (2014) that al and psycap have a positive impact on nurses’ well-being. hypothesis 5 proposed that al would also lead to a positive work-related outcome, namely trust in the organisation. this was proven in this research. it is thus possible to argue that the organisational culture of authenticity and authentic behaviours exhibited by leaders who lead through al will foster a greater level of trust amongst employees in the public health care sector (bono & judge, 2003). this implies that a culture of al will assist the public health care sector to develop a workforce that is willing to invest real energy and effort to achieve organisational goals, despite the substantial job demands that are associated with the sector (bromiley & cummings, 1996). hypothesis 6 of this article provided an interesting perspective. although the structural model proposed that al would indirectly lead to work engagement through the mediating effects of both optimism and trust in the organisation, the authors were of view that a direct path between al and work engagement would also exist in the public health care sector. this could not be conclusively proven. the authors argue that the very definition of al must be considered here to explain this phenomenon. luthans and avolio (2003) delineate that al requires both positive, authentic leadership capabilities and a positive, mature organisational culture. a possible explanation for the fact that al was not directly promoting of work engagement is the consideration of how the public health care sector in south africa currently looks as an environment and from a culture perspective. the health systems trust (2011) describes this sector as significantly under-resourced. von holdt and murphy (2006) comment that public health care employees work under severely stressful circumstances and george et al. (2013) describe the public health care working environment as one that is overburdening. clearly, these descriptions are in stark contrast to the mature, positive organisational culture that constitutes a part of al as described by luthans and avolio (2003). hence, hypotheses 7a and 7b proved quite significant in the context of this study, as it is now possible to argue that al will not promote work engagement in the public health care sector unless employees are inherently optimistic (hypothesis 7a) or there exists a level of trust (hypothesis 7b) within the organisation. when the above was scrutinised through statistical analysis, both hypotheses were effectively proven. on an individual level, an optimistic individual will be able to translate a culture of al within their organisation more effectively into a state of being engaged at work. the optimistic individual is inclined to be in a positive psychological state, receptive for development and will thus be engaged in a working environment that is characterised by al (luthans, avolio, avey & norman, 2007). hypothesis 7a was thus proven. a significant indirect relationship between al and work engagement through trust in the organisation was also proven in this research, thus rendering hypothesis 7b as accurate. it can thus be argued that the employee who has trust in the organisation will be more receptive for the culture provided through al and be engaged in their job role. thus, when the employees in the public health care sector believe that their employer has their best interest at heart, they will be more engaged to effectively deal with the highly demanding environment that is public health care services provision (avolio, gardner, walumbwa, luthans & may, 2004). practical implications the research reflected that the ali can be utilised with scientific rigour and integrity in a south african sample and specifically in the south african public health care sector, a particularly under-resourced and burdensome workplace (george et al., 2013). this poses well for future studies in the sector in south africa, as al has been associated with a large number of positive outcomes in the health care environment internationally. this research revealed that adopting a leadership style of al will assist the public health care sector to facilitate both positive personal and work-related outcomes. in the context of this study, al was found to predict higher levels of optimism amongst individual employees. thus, by incorporating an approach of al, the public health care sector could ensure individual employees will hold expectations of being successful in their endeavours in future. al further proved to promote trust in the organisation amongst employees. when considering the above, this research suggests that efforts should be directed at promoting a culture of al within the public health care sector and, further, interventions should be introduced that would assist the leadership fraternity of this sector to display behaviours associated with this leadership style. this will lead to both positive personal and work-related outcomes. interestingly, no direct path between al and work engagement within the structural model could be conclusively proven. only when optimism, on individual level, and trust in the organisation, on organisational level, were introduced was al found to promote the levels of work engagement of employees in the public health care sector. this proved an intriguing part of this work and will lay the foundation for further exploration by the authors in future studies. at this stage, however, the explanation offered for this phenomenon is the fact that, for al to be truly effective, an authentic individual leader as well as a conducive and mature workplace culture should be in place. this will enhance positive leader behaviours that will in turn develop employees. at this stage, as reflected in the literature, the south african public health care sector is full of challenges and is not one that can be described as a positive one that will actively promote levels of work engagement amongst employees. the authors believe, however, that this environment is highly unlikely to change in the near future, simply because of the immense demand for public health care services in the country that will continue to burden employees working in this sector (blecher et al., 2011). this article therefore proposes interventions that could support quicker wins and facilitate a culture in which the clear value of al could be more readily facilitated. in the context of this article, both optimism and trust in the organisation appeared to hold the properties that could translate al to work engagement in the public health care sector. hence, interventions should be introduced that promote these constructs. on an individual level, interventions that promote well-being must be considered to bolster the levels of optimism of employees. from an organisational perspective, enhanced trust in the organisation will assist in translating al to a more engaged workforce. possible interventions that will promote this are open communication, clearly articulating to employees in the public health care sector that their interests are important and to consider the direction in which the public health care sector is heading. limitations and recommendations this study employed a cross-sectional design, which poses the potential risk of common method bias. however, spector (2006) has proposed that this is a minor problem in research results. chang, van witteloostuijn and eden (2010) propose a number of approaches that could mitigate for common method bias, such as ensuring economic bottom line indicators are measured during empirical research (e.g. objective data such as performance and other applicable ratings) to relate to the subjective measurements via survey. this study was also implemented across the entire public health care sector in all departments of the participating hospitals and clinics and included both clinical and non-clinical (support) staff. this was done intentionally as to gain a perspective of the overall sector. future studies may benefit from a more focused approach, for example by studying the impact of the variables within a specific target group, such as nurses. a comprehensive study across selected organisations in south africa on the factor structure of the ali can add value to leadership research. a comparative study will also be of value, in which the results of the public health care sector are compared to those of the private health care sector. this will substantiate the suggestion made by the authors in this article that it is the very environment of public health care in south africa that influenced the variables and relationships in this study. finally, future studies will benefit greatly by adopting a longitudinal approach to investigate whether the relationships revealed in this paper change over time and to investigate whether changes in the environment affect the results revealed here. for example, it would be interesting to investigate whether the structural paths between al and work engagement change in the context of a public health care sector that is better resourced than is currently the case, that is, to investigate whether a mature, conducive working environment, which is a prerequisite for al, will yield greater value for levels of engagement. future research implications this research lays the foundation for further exploration of the effect of a culture of al within public health care in south africa. firstly, the research suggested a thorough investigation of the maturity of the organisational culture of public health care as a whole as an important prerequisite for al. following this, this research can also stimulate a renewed focus on the potential of the psycap constructs as a facilitator of indirect effects between job resources and favourable outcomes. this calls for (1) a further exploration of the positioning of al as a job resource within the jd-r model, a suggestion raised by this article and (2) a view of all the psycap constructs and their possible contribution to further leverage a culture of al for positive organisational outcomes. conclusion top ↑ this article suggests the ali can be used with scientific integrity in the south african context and specifically in the public health care sector. the article further suggests that the leadership style of al will promote optimism and trust in the organisation and therefore provides evidence that the public health care sector should actively encourage, promote and develop this leadership style amongst its leadership and management fraternity. lastly, the results of this article indicate that two quick-win strategies can be adopted to create a culture in which al can be effectively translated into an engaged workforce. these strategies include interventions that promote authentic leader behaviour and optimism on an individual level and trust in the organisation. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions f.w.s. (north-west university) was the research project leader and corresponding author. l.t.d.b (north-west university) acted as statistical specialist and co-author. m.w.s. (north-west university) acted in the capacity of subject matter expert and co-author. references top ↑ acosta, h., salanova, m., & llorens, s. (2011). how organizational strategies predict team work engagement: the role of organizational trust. ciencia & trabajo, 41, 125–332. aryee, s., budhwar, p., & chen, z. (2002). trust as a mediator of the relationship between organizational justice and work outcomes: test of a social exchange model. journal of organizational behavior, 23, 267–285. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.138 ashmore, j. (2013). ‘going private’: a qualitative comparison of medical specialists’ job satisfaction in the public and private sectors of south africa. human resources for health, 11(1), 1–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1478-4491-11-1 avolio, b.j., gardner, w.l., walumbwa, f.o., luthans, f., & may, d.r. (2004). unlocking the mask: a look at the process by which authentic leaders impact follower attitudes and behaviors. the leadership quarterly, 15, 801–823. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2004.09.003 bakker, a.b. (2011). an evidence-based model of work engagement. current directions in psychological science, 20(4), 265–269. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0963721411414534 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2007). the job demands-resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22, 309–328. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2008). towards a model of work engagement. career development international, 13(3), 209–223. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430810870476 bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., taris, t., schaufeli, w.b., & schreurs, p. (2003). a multigroup analysis of the job demands-resources model in four home care organizations. international journal of stress management, 10, 16–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.10.1.16 bamford, m., wong, c., & laschinger, h. (2013). the influence of authentic leadership and areas of worklife on work engagement of registered nurses. journal of nursing management, 21, 529–540. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2834.2012.01399.x bass, b.m., & steidlmeier, p. (1999). ethics, character, and authentic transformational leadership behavior. the leadership quarterly, 10(2), 181–217. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(99)00016-8 blecher, m., kollipara, a., dejager, p., & zulu, n. (2011). health financing. in a. padarath, & r. english (eds.), south african health review, 2011 (pp. 29–48). durban: health systems trust. bono, j.e., & judge, t.a. (2003). self-concordance at work: toward understanding the motivational effects of transformational leaders. academy of management journal, 46, 554–571. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/30040649 bromiley, p., & cummings, l. (1996). transaction costs in organizations with trust. in r. bies, r. lewicki, & b. sheppard (eds.), research on negotiation in organizations (pp. 219–247). greenwich, ct: jai. brown, c. (2014). authentic leadership and the effects of trust and positive psychological capital on work engagement in sec football. paper delivered at the clute institute international academic conference, orlando, florida, 02 january. chang, s.j., van witteloostuijn, a. & eden, l. (2010). from the editors: common method variance in international business research. journal of international business studies, 41(2), 178–184. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/jibs.2009.88 christian, c.s., & crisp, n. (2012). management in the south african public health sector: an x-inefficiency perspective. development southern africa, 29(5), 725–737. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0376835x.2012.730972 clapp-smith r., vogelgesang, g.r., & avey, j.b. (2009). authentic leadership and positive psychological capital: the mediating role of trust at the group level of analysis. journal of leadership and organizational studies, 15, 227–240. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1548051808326596 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. (rev. ed.). orlando, fl: academic press. demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., de jonge, j., janssen, p.p.m., & schaufeli, w.b. (2001). burnout and engagement at work as a function of demands and control. scandinavian journal of work environment and health, 27, 279–286. http://dx.doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.615 department of health. (2011). national core standards for health establishments in south africa [adobe digital editions version]. retrieved 2014, from http://www.rhap.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/national-core-standards-2011-1.pdf ferres, n., connell, j., & travaglione, a. (2005). the effect of future redeployment on organization trust. strategic change, 14(2), 77–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jsc.713 ferres, n., & travaglione, t. (2003). the development and validation of the workplace trust survey (wts): combining qualitative and quantitative methodologies. paper presented at apros, mexico, december. gardner, w.l., avolio, b.j., luthans, f., may, d.r., & walumbwa, f. (2005). can you see the real me? a self-based model of authentic leader and follower development. the leadership quarterly, 16, 343–372. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.003 george, g., atujuna, m., & gow, j. (2013). migration of south african health workers: the extent to which financial considerations influence internal flows and external movements. bmc health services research, 13(1), 297–310. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-13-297 george, g., gow, j., & bachoo, s. (2013). understanding the factors influencing health-worker employment decisions in south africa. human resources for health, 10(1), 11–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1478-4491-11-15 gilbert, j., & tang, t. (1998). an examination of organizational trust antecedents. public personnel management, 27(3), 321–338. gillis, t. (2003). more than a social virtue: public trust among organizations most valuable asset. communication world, 20(3), 10–12. gilson, l., & daire, j (2011). leadership and governance within the south african health system. in a. padarath, & r. english (eds.), sahr (pp. 69–80). durban: hst. görgens-ekermans, g., & herbert, m. (2013). psychological capital: internal and external validity of the psychological capital questionnaire (pcq-24) on a south african sample. south african journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1131 harrison, d. (2009). an overview of health and health care in south africa 1994–2010: priorities, progress and prospects for new gain. discussion document commissioned by the henry j. kaiser family foundation to help inform the national health leaders’ retreat. muldersdrift, south africa, january. hassan, a., & ahmed, f. (2011). authentic leadership, trust and work engagement. international journal of social, business, psychological, human science and engineering, 5(8), 172–178. health systems trust. (2011). district health barometer year 2011/12 [adobe digital editions version]. retrieved 2014, from http://www.health-e.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/dhb2011_12lowres.pdf health systems trust. (2013). south african health review 2012/2013 [adobe digital editions version]. retrieved 2014, from http://www.health-e.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/sahr2012_13_lowres_1.pdf ilies, r., morgeson, f., & nahrgang, j. (2005). authentic leadership and eudaemonic wellbeing: understanding leader-follower outcomes. the leadership quarterly, 16(3), 373–394. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.002 joseph, e., & winston, b. (2005). a correlation of servant leadership, leader trust, and organizational trust. leadership and organizational development journal, 26(1/2), 6–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437730510575552 kernis, m.h. (2003). toward a conceptualization of optimal self-esteem. psychological inquiry, 14, 1–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1401_01 laschinger, h.k.s., & fida, r. (2014). new nurses burnout and workplace wellbeing: the influence of authentic leadership and psychological capital. burnout research, 1, 19–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.burn.2014.03.002 laschinger, h.k.s., wong, c.a, & grau, a.l. (2013). authentic leadership, empowerment and burnout: a comparison in new graduates and experienced nurses. journal of nursing management, 21, 541–552. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2834.2012.01375.x leigh, j. (2013). modelling suggests authentic leadership from managers influences structural empowerment, job satisfaction and self-rated performance among nurses. evidence based nursing, 17(2), 55–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/eb-2013-101424 liang, x., & yang, y. (2014). an evaluation of wlsmv and bayesian methods for confirmatory factor analysis with categorical indicators. international journal of quantitative research in education, 2(1), 17–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/ijqre.2014.060972 luthans, f. (2002). the need for and meaning of positive organizational behavior. journal of organizational behavior, 23, 695–706. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.165 luthans, f., & avolio, b.j. (2003). authentic leadership: a positive developmental approach. in k.s. cameron, j.e. dutton, & r.e. quinn (eds.), positive organizational scholarship (pp. 241–261). san francisco, ca: berrett-koehler publishers. luthans, f., avolio, b.j., avey, j.b., & norman, s.m. (2007). positive psychological capital: measurement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. personnel psychology, 60(3), 541–572. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2007.00083.x luthans, f., & youssef, c.m. (2004). human, social, and now positive psychological capital management: investing in people for competitive advantage. organizational dynamics, 33, 143–160. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2004.01.003 luthans, f., youssef, c.m., & avolio, b.j. (2007). psychological capital. new york, ny: oxford university press. muthén, l.k., & muthén, b.o. (2014). mplus user’s guide. (7th edn.). los angeles, ca: muthén & muthén. neider, l.l., & schriesheim, c.a. (2011). the authentic leadership inventory (ali): development and empirical tests. the leadership quarterly, 22(6), 1041–1198. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.09.008 norman, s.m., avolio, b.j., & luthans, f. (2010). the impact of positivity and transparency on trust in leaders and their perceived effectiveness. the leadership quarterly, 21, 350–364. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.03.002 paliszkiewicz, j., & koohang, a. (2013). organizational trust as a foundation for knowledge sharing and its influence on organizational performance. the online journal of applied knowledge management, 1(2), 116–127. peus, c., wesche, j.s., streicher, b., braun, s., & frey, d. (2012). authentic leadership: an empirical test of its antecedents, consequences, and mediating mechanisms. journal of business ethics, 107, 331–348. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1042-3 pillay, r. (2009). retention strategies for professional nurses in south africa. leadership in health services, 2(1), 39–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17511870910928010 rego, a. sousa, f., marques, s., & cunha, m.p. (2012). authentic leadership promoting employees’ psychological capital and creativity. journal of business research, 65, 429–437. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.10.003 rhemtulla, m., brosseau-liard, p.é., & savalei, v. (2012). when can categorical variables be treated as continuous? a comparison of robust continuous and categorical sem estimation methods under suboptimal conditions. psychological methods, 17(3), 354–373. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0029315 rucker, d.d., preacher, k.j., tormala, z.l., & petty, r.e. (2011). mediation analysis in social psychology: current practices and new recommendations. social and personality psychology compass, 5(6), 359–371. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2011.00355.x salkind, n.j. (2009). exploring research. (7th edn.). englewood cliffs, nj: pearson prentice. sanders, d., & chopra, m. (2006). key challenges in attaining health in an inequitable society: the case of south africa. american journal of public health, 96(1), 73–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2005.062679 schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organizational behavior, 25, 293–315. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.248 schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzález-romá, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3, 71–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 sonnentag, s. (2003). recovery, work engagement, and proactive behaviour: a new look at the interface between nonwork and work. journal of applied psychology, 88(3), 518–528. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.3.518 spector, p.e. (2006). method variance in organizational research: truth or urban legend? organizational research methods, 9(2), 221–232. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1094428105284955 stander, f.w., & mostert, k. (2013). assessing the organisational and individual strengths use and deficit improvement amongst sport coaches. south african journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1160 storm, k., & rothmann, s. (2003). a psychometric analysis of the utrecht work engagement scale in the south african police service. south african journal of industrial psychology, 29, 62–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v29i4.129 struwig, f.w., & stead, g.b. (2001). planning, designing and reporting research. cape town: pearson education. tims, m., bakker, a.b., & xanthopoulou, d. (2011). do transformational leader enhance their followers’ daily work engagement? the leadership quarterly, 22, 121–131. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.12.011 van de schoot, r., lugtig, p., & hox, j. (2012). a checklist for testing measurement invariance. european journal of developmental psychology, 9(4), 486–492. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2012.686740 van veldhoven, m., meijman, t.f., broersen, j.p.j., & fortuin, r.j. (1997). handleiding vbba: onderzoek naar de beleving van psychosociale arbeidsbelasting en werkstress met behulp van de vragenlijst beleving en beoordeling van de arbeid [manual vbba: research on the experience of psychosocial workload and job stress by means of the questionnaire on the experience and evaluation of work]. amsterdam, the netherlands: skb. van veldhoven, m., meijman, t.f., broersen, j.p.j., & fortuin, r.j. (2002). handleiding vbba. (2nd edn.). amsterdam, the netherlands: skb. von holdt, k., & murphy, m. (2006). public hospitals in south africa: stressed institutions, disempowered management. in s. buhlungu, j. daniel, r. southall, & j. lutchman (eds.), state of the nation: south africa 2007. cape town: hsrc press. walumbwa, f.o., avolio., b., gardner, w., wernsing, t., & peterson, s. (2008). authentic leadership: development and validation of a theory-based measure. journal of management, 34, 89–126. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206307308913 walumbwa, f.o., luthans, f., avey, j.b., & oke, a. (2009). retracted: authentically leading groups: the mediating role of collective psychological capital and trust. journal of organizational behavior, 32, 4–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.653 walumbwa, f.o., wang, p., wang, h., schaubroeck, j., & avolio, b.j. (2010). retracted: psychological processes linking authentic leadership to follower behaviors. the leadership quarterly, 21, 901–914. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.07.015 wang, d.s., & hsieh, c.c. (2013). the effect of authentic leadership on employee trust and employee engagement. social behavior and personality: an international journal, 41(4), 613–624. http://dx.doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2013.41.4.613 westen, d., & rosenthal, r. (2003). quantifying construct validity: two simple measures. journal of personality and social psychology, 84(3), 608–618. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.84.3.608 wong, c.a., & cummings, g.g. (2009). the influence of authentic leadership behaviours on trust and work outcomes of health care staff. journal of leadership studies, 3(2), 6–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jls.20104 xanthopoulou, d., bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2009). reciprocal relationships between job resources, personal resources, and work engagement. journal of vocational behavior, 74, 253–244. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2008.11.003 article information authors: susanna m. o’neil1 andre l. horne1 affiliations: 1department of human resources management, university of pretoria, south africa correspondence to: andre horne postal address: private bag x20, hatfield 0028, south africa dates: received: 24 feb. 2011 accepted: 11 may 2012 published: 27 sept. 2012 how to cite this article: o’neil, s.m., & horne, a.l. (2012). evaluating the internalisation of core values at a south african public service organisation. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(1), art. #371, 14 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i1.371 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. evaluating the internalisation of core values at a south african public service organisation in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of this study    • background to the study    • literature review       • different approaches to value internalisation    • research objectives    • the value internalisation framework of this study • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instrument       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • descriptive statistics    • comparisons • ethical considerations • trustworthiness • discussion    • identification of the values    • communication of values    • reinforcement of values    • implications for practice    • limitations of the study    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references • footnotes abstract top ↑ orientation: fully entrenched and internalised organisational values have proved a competitive advantage for many leading organisations. the benefits range from higher profit margins to the improvement of employees’ commitment and ethical performance. nevertheless, the process of value shaping is often no more than a management goal. it is rarely truly internalised by the whole organisation.research purpose: this article presents an effort to describe a value internalisation effort within a south african public service organisation as well as the results of a subsequent evaluation to ascertain to what extent those efforts actually led to internalisation throughout the organisation. a set of actions and practices were implemented within the public service organisation; the intent was that they should enhance value internalisation in the organisation. a long-term strategy of value internalisation was followed that focussed mainly on the clear articulation and communication of the values through different communication mediums and platforms, such as road shows and branded value material hand-outs, as well as through extensive value internalisation training. motivation for the study: documentation of value internalisation processes and its evaluation, especially in south african public service organisations is extremely rare.  to ensure that public service organisations do not repeat the same mistakes in their value internalisation practices and implementation processes, proper documentation of these processes in the public and research domains are needed.  the need for the evaluation of value internalisation programmes should also be propagated as in many instances, programmes are implemented, but the subsequent success thereof is never evaluated. research design, approach and method: a survey questionnaire consisting of a 5-point rating scale was developed to measure the extent of value internalisation after the implementation of long-term internalisation strategies. employees at different levels and in different units of the organisation participated in the survey. main findings: results (n = 941) reflected lower than expected mean scores for each value component. in addition, differences in internalisation extent were found between two demographic variables, namely population groupings and organisational units. practical/managerial implications: the results of this study confirmed certain shortcomings in value internalisation processes, such as the way values are identified, communicated and reinforced. knowledge of the latter may help human resource (hr) practitioners to apply more effective value shaping practices. contribution/value-add: this study provides specific guidelines that may enable practitioners to evaluate their own value internalisation practices. these guidelines include creating institutional value parity through employee engagement and encouraging leaders to facilitate both the emotional and cognitive interface of value internalisation efforts. furthermore all leaders in the organisation should be exposed to training and development programmes that address the importance of leaders’ own credibility in efforts to institutionalise values within the organisation. the measurement instrument developed for this study may also provide hr practitioners with a means to evaluate the extent of value internalisation in an organisation. introduction top ↑ key focus of this study organisational values are the principles which govern the behaviour or the people in an organisation. they arise out of a group of shared values and beliefs within the organisation and are the basis for the philosophy and activities of the organisation (askun, oz & askun, 2010; cambra-fierro, polo-redondo & wilson, 2008; serrat, 2010). they drive all behaviour within the organisation (agle & caldwell, 1999; brăinianu & bălănescu, 2008), and there is some evidence that they may even influence behaviour outside the organisation (cambra-fierro et al., 2008). within an organisation, they serve two primary purposes: firstly to motivate employee and organisational behaviour, and secondly to provide a standard against which actions are evaluated (grojean, resick, dickson & smith, 2004; sullivan, sullivan & buffton, 2002). the benefit of clearly articulated and entrenched organisational values has been established in many scholarly articles. they make a significant difference to the lives of employees, as well as to organisational performance (posner, kouzes & schmidt, 1985; posner, 2010; sullivan et al., 2002). shared organisational values result in more effective organisational operations (schein, 1990, p. 84), superior financial results and overall organisational success (van lee, fabish & mcgraw, 2005). schein (1990) as well as gruys, stewart, goodstein, bing and wicks (2008) emphasise profitability as a benefit arising from shared, strong, coherent core values. they are also of the opinion that shared values build onto a strong organisational culture and contribute to increased ethical performance in the organisation. sullivan et al. (2002) mention that values-led companies outperform companies that are not values-led with regard to growth in revenue, rate of job creation, growth of stock price as well as performance growth and lower turnover. organisations that are values-driven are therefore more likely to gain a competitive advantage. all organisations have values by which they operate; these values may be explicit or implicit (brăinianu & bălănescu, 2008). however, to reap the benefits that organisational values bring about, the values need to be clearly articulated as well as integrated in the organisation’s heart and mind. this implies that all the employees within an organisation as well as the management should not only know what the organisational values are, but also demonstrate value alignment through their own actions and behaviour. stated differently, values should be articulated as well as enacted and entrenched in the practices of an organisation (collins & porras, 1994; speculand & chaudhary, 2008). value-driven transformation in an organisation can only occur if the individuals in the organisation have begun to internalise the organisation’s chosen values. values that are solely a management goal are therefore not seen as an asset to the organisation; they remain an empty banner which are articulated by management only, without any enactment by individual employees (and consequently the organisation as a whole). values only become an asset when they are translated into behaviours, and all the employees demonstrate these behaviours in a way that influences organisational performance (van lee et al., 2005). organisational values are usually incorporated into organisation statements, strategic documents and communication media after they had been formulated and defined. portraying values in writing is not difficult; it is the internalisation of organisational values that seems to be the challenge (gruys et al., 2008; speculand & chaudhary, 2008). it is this challenge that is the key focus of this study. the objectives of this study were firstly to describe the value internalisation efforts of a public service organisation in south africa, and secondly to evaluate the extent to which its specific and intensive value implementation efforts contributed to value internalisation within the different levels of the organisation; in other words, whether it actually filtered through to all the different levels within the organisation. this public service organisation falls within the safety and security industry (e.g. emergency personnel, police, sandf). the value internalisation strategy focussed mainly on the clear articulation and communication of the values through different communication mediums and platforms, such as road shows and branded value material, as well as through extensive value internalisation training. the question which remained, and which this study aimed to answer, was whether all these efforts filtered through to all the levels within the organisation. although extensive research has been conducted on the effects and advantages of being a values-driven organisation, little research has focussed on the implementation processes and the actual internalisation of organisational values (morginson, 2009). background to the study organisations face the challenge of establishing congruence between espoused and enacted organisational values. speculand and chaudhary (2008, p. 324) are of the opinion that ‘unfortunately and more often than not, there tends to be a phenomenal gap between identifying organisational values and actually living them’. espoused values are those that are clearly illustrated, stated and communicated as a reference for behaviour and performance (travaglione, mcshane, o’ neill & hancock, 2009). they include the core beliefs, principles and values that the organisation has officially accepted and seeks to act upon in the course of day-to-day actions. although espoused values may be embedded in an organisation’s vision, mission, strategy and core value system, they are often far removed from and inconsistent with behavioural practices observable within the organisation (mcgaw & fabish, 2006; serrat, 2010). they can be rather superficial, having been espoused to make an impression on an audience (fenton & inglis, 2007). as such, organisations’ articulated values will often be contradicted by the behaviour of the employees (chong, 2007). to serve as ’real guidance systems‘, values should firstly be internalised by everyone in the organisation, and secondly be ’reviewed at intervals to maintain relevance in changing contexts‘, both of which rarely happen (serrat, 2010, p. 2). the saying ‘walk the talk’ captures the challenges many organisations face if they are to enact their espoused values (fenton & inglis, 2007). value enactment is in many ways an alignment between the words (espoused values) of an organisation and its deeds (dym & hutson, 2005). this alignment of words and deeds is central to value implementation (fenton & inglis, 2007; travaglione et al., 2009). if values are to be successfully integrated in an organisation, espoused and enacted values must be aligned. espoused values are often no more than a list of values provided by the senior management of an organisation; value enactment, on the other hand, is central to value implementation and requires a deeper level of interpretation and internalisation within the organisation (fenton & inglis, 2007; mcgaw & fabish, 2006). therefore, proper value internalisation within all levels of an organisation is imperative for value enactment. the current study specifically explores the extent of value internalisation at different levels and within different units of an organisation. before the value internalisation framework of this study can be explained, however, it should be contextualised within the value internalisation practices found in the literature. literature review different approaches to value internalisation finding meaningful ways to institutionalise values is a challenge for any organisation that is attempting to put its core values into practice (gruys et al., 2008). although most of the research on organisational values and corporate values focuses on the benefits organisations may reap by being values-driven, little research has been dedicated to explaining the processes of value internalisation (morginson, 2009). those processes that have been found in the literature will be discussed here, as well as some of the important aspects of those processes, such as the roles of management and socialisation (both of which are prominent in the literature). sullivan et al. (2002) discuss the process of becoming a values-led organisation and identify three phases in the process, (1) identifying the organisational values, (2) building ownership of these values within the organisation and (3) aligning the espoused and enacted values. the first phase involves only a small part of the organisation, that is, management teams and sometimes representatives from lower level employee groups. begley and boyd (2000) refer to the use of focus groups of employees. these small subsets of the organisation choose the organisational values. after the values have been identified, it is important that they be tested with a wider group of people within the organisation. this is also the beginning of the second phase of the process which is the process of building ownership of the values within the whole organisation. to build ownership of the values employees need to be given a chance to establish the overlap of their own values with those of the organisation. sullivan et al. (2002) stated: this overlap is important because it enables the individual to behave in ways that are meaningful to them personally and the results in their connecting with, and become committed to, the organisation – while at the same time furthering the company’s aims (p. 250). the overlap of personal and organisational values is referred to as value congruence. it is not sufficient that employees know the organisational values; they should also believe in and internalise them (chong, 2007). value congruence and more specifically its benefits have been documented extensively in the literature. these benefits include a positive work attitude (posner, 2010), increased job satisfaction (edwards & cable, 2009; posner, 2010; verquer, behr & wagner, 2003), increased organisational commitment (posner, 2010; liedtka, 1989), increased organisational trust, intrinsic motivation, higher levels of organisational performance (posner, 2010; ren, 2010) and an increase in the extent to which the employee feels connected to the organisation and its values (bartlet & ghoshal, 1994; valentine, godkin & lucero, 2002). chong (2007) described the way in which organisational congruence gives external stakeholders an experience of the values, which, in turn, leads to an organisation attaining a sustainable competitive advantage. socialisation is the most important method of achieving value congruence as it is the primary method of transmitting and maintaining shared values (cable & parsons, 2001; cazier, shao & louis, 2007; grojean et al., 2004). socialisation ensures that there is continuity in values as it provides employees with a framework of appropriate behaviours in various situations in their work environment (cable & parsons, 2001). a single socialisation event is, however, not sufficient; successful value transmitting requires a number of different socialisation events over time, such as during entry into the organisation, all training and development opportunities as well as regular internal communication opportunities, such as internal company newsletters or magazines (chong, 2007). cable and parsons (2001) argue that specific socialisation tactics increase congruence between employee values and organisational values. sequential and fixed socialisation tactics by which newcomers are oriented with regard to their career progression and the sequence of activities they have to go through in their work situation are successful in producing change in personal value systems. in terms of the social aspects of socialisation, serial and investiture socialisation tactics as opposed to disjunctive and divestiture tactics are more successful in producing change in personal value systems. disjunctive tactics are those that ‘force newcomers to develop their own definitions of situations‘ (cable & parsons, 2001, p. 7) without the help of experienced members of the organisation. divestiture socialisation tactics result in newcomers receiving negative social communication from insiders until they begin to fulfil the expectations implied by the organisation’s values. if serial and investiture socialisation occurs, those who are new to the value systems receive positive social support from and spend time with members who know and have adopted the values. this type of socialisation is common in coaching and mentoring programmes. highly institutionalised socialisation tactics which are systematic and planned by the organisation with the aim or reducing ambiguity in employees are more successful in changing employee values and creating congruence between employee and organisational values (kim, cable & kim, 2004). van maanen and schein (1979) discussed institutionalised role orientation socialisation tactics and individualised role orientation tactics. the former entails teaching individuals to respond in the same way that existing members in the organisation do. this approach relies heavily on obedience and conformity to existing practices. the latter tactic allows individuals to exercise their own creativity and innovation, and to experiment with changing norms and values. the application of these tactics will depend on the organisational context. the socialisation programmes mentioned by sullivan et al. (2002) include making the employees aware of their own and the organisation’s values through a process of discussion, workshops and organisational coaching. employees are given the opportunity to engage with the ‘new’ organisational values so that they may develop an understanding of them. engagement processes must involve activities through which a shared understanding of expected work behaviours is established. activities should be aimed at the intellectual as well as emotional involvement of those present (sullivan et al., 2002). begley and boyd (2000) mention that activities during training or socialisation programmes should not only improve awareness levels but also improve the application of the values. they suggest the use of decision-making exercises in which the values are applied in concrete situations. chong (2007) stresses that communication should be participative in nature and mentions, as an example, discussions which engage participants. aggerholm, anderson, asmuß and thomsen (2009) also focus on organisational socialisation. they emphasise the importance of management communication in the process of value internalisation. for them, management communication is not only a tool for control and information dissemination, but also for the achievement of employee cooperation and for aligning employees values with organisational values. management communication should articulate and actively communicate the company’s values by means of internal communication methods and various types of management conversations. communication does not, however, necessarily lead to enactment. ‘for corporate values to be more than just words, the values portrayed must be integrated in various symbols and in the daily procedures of the organisation‘ (aggerholm et al., 2009, p. 266). for instance, management speeches, reward systems, rituals and ceremonies should all be imbedded in the organisational values. aggerholm et al. (2009) focus specifically on management conversations as a strategy for value integration. management conversations include conversations such as recruitment conversations, job appraisal interviews, sickness leave conversations and dismissal conversations. it is clear from this list that organisational values need to be deeply integrated in management behaviour if they are to be integrated into organisational conversations at this level. in the last phase of the process of becoming a values-led organisation, as described by sullivan et al. (2002), espoused values should be aligned to the behaviour of the individual employees as well as that of the organisation as a whole. in the case of the former, value enactment should always be visible in the behaviour of the management team. many researchers have considered the importance of management in the creation of an organisation’s value system (grojean et al., 2004). sullivan et al. (2002, p. 228) hold that ‘it is crucial that the management be seen to be living the values and actively working on dealing with shortfalls in their own behaviour’. in addition grojean et al. (2004, p. 228) mention that ‘the behaviour of leaders is a powerful communication mechanism that conveys the expectations, values and assumptions of the culture and climate to the rest of the organization’. the behaviour of direct leaders is one of the primary influences on individual employee behaviour (grojean et al., 2004). grojean et al. (2004) discuss various mechanisms by which leaders can transmit organisational values. these include values-based leadership, especially transformation and charismatic approaches; modelling behaviour that are congruent with organisational values; establishing clear expectations through appropriate policies, practices and training and formal socialisation activities; providing feedback on employee behaviour through coaching and mentoring employees; recognising and rewarding value supportive behaviour by employees through both formal and informal measures. the congruence between managers’ and subordinates’ values may be a mediating factor in individual organisational values congruence since the interpersonal congruence between supervisor and subordinates is related to the quality of leader-member exchange (grojean et al., 2004). leaders throughout the organisation should also send consistent messages with regard to their value orientation. this implies a shared cognisance of the organisational values. leader training in this regard, as well as in transmitting the values, may be advantageous to the process of value internalisation. begley and boyd (2000) suggest training for managers and supervisors in small group settings to educate them on the organisation’s values. in terms of the organisation as whole, the processes and systems within the organisation need to be consistent with its values. if there are forces within the organisation, such as different subsystems or departments, which do not share the organisational values, it may cause a negative organisational climate regarding its values. communication, or rather articulation, of these values in a formal and systematic way to ensure an understanding of it throughout the organisation is essential. it is also the first step towards a value-driven organisation (begley & boyd, 2000). according to morginson (2009) any management control system such as e-mail can be used to send regular messages with regard to the values and their meaning within the organisation. other mechanisms that are used to communicate core values include the drafting of credos, mission statements, statements of purpose, policy manuals and similar documents, all of which convey the core values to the organisation by formalising them, making them more visible and reinforcing them. mechanisms which rely on indirect communication may not be taken seriously (morginson, 2009); on the other hand, if values are not yet inculcated, articulation may leave latitude for more than one interpretation (begley & boyd, 2000). a deep level of understanding of and engagement with the organisational values should not be forgotten in the internalisation efforts (simmons, 2002). begley and boyd (2000, p. 11) suggest that when values are articulated there should be a guideline statement for each value which applies the value to specific work domains and will therefore help to instil them through ’patterns that are expected to characterise value-based decision-making‘. the internalisation process as described and discussed by sullivan et al. (2002) is not a once-off process; regular reinforcement and renewal should be implemented to assure that the values stay alive in the minds of the employees. in a case study of singapore airlines, chong (2007) describes the process of communication of its core values as relentless; the company’s core values are communicated when new employees first join, when employees attend training programmes and corporate events, and through internal communication channels such as company magazines and pocket-size copies of the core value statements. furthermore an evaluation system is in place which ensures that employees’ behaviour is consistent with the company’s core values. morginson (2009) refers to the ‘friday afternoon e-mail’ from the chief executive officer (ceo); it contains his views on the progress of value implementation and usually includes reminders of the rationale behind the programme and clarification on its strategic importance. the level of authority of the individuals who implement the internalisation of values is an important factor to consider. serrat (2010) reports that in a study involving the senior management of 365 companies from 30 countries, 85% of the respondents believed that the ceo’s support in reinforcing the values was critical, and 77% were of the opinion that the ceo’s involvement was one of the most important value implementation practices. the value inculcation model (vim) of speculand and chaudhary (2008) also provides some clarification on value internalisation. the authors describe four phases in the process of value internalisation, (1) identifying or renewing organisational values, (2) changing the attitude of the employees, (3) changing the behaviour of the employees and (4) changing the organisational performance. as did sullivan et al. (2002), they stress the importance of the employees’ understanding of the values but add that not only the desired behaviour, but also the desired attitude should be linked to the values. the key focus of their model is changing the employees’ behaviour so that it is consistent with the organisational values. their argument simply rests on the behavioural model which advocates that when employees display the desired behaviour they should be encouraged to repeat the behaviour until it becomes a deeply ingrained habit. encouragement, according to speculand and chaudhary (2008), rests on leaders’ implementing measures to track performance and to provide feedback on and recognition of acceptable behaviour. whilst there is similarity between the vim and the process described by sullivan et al. (2002), hyde and williamson (2000) describe a different approach. they advocate that instead of a small subset of the organisation identifying organisational values and then ‘selling’ them to the rest of the organisation, values should be selected by identifying and describing the values of the employees. identifying values should incorporate a ‘rich process of discussion and debate‘ (p. 12), after which the process of alignment can start. the latter includes an effective selection process to attract and recruit the right staff, value induction and training programmes, providing incentives and rewards for desired behaviour, and imposing penalties and sanctions for non-desired behaviour. posner et al. (1985, p. 305) reflect on similar value related practices, such as programmes to clarify and communicate values, recruitment selection and orientation, training, rewards systems and counselling support to create a value advantage. as did sullivan et al. (2002), hyde and williamson (2000) emphasise ownership of the values by the employees. they agree with vim in that they believe employees should be held accountable for reaching tangible outcomes based on clear performance targets. none of the literature discussed above is specifically dedicated to evaluating internalisation within public service organisations, which is the sector on which the current study focussed. although their approach has not been described in an academic publication, the united states air force (1997) claims that its value implementation practices entail sound horizontal and vertical integration within the organisation, that their approach contributes to a deep level of interpretation and internalisation of value enactment within the organisation, and that it has a top-down, bottom-up and back-and-forth approach. in the top-down approach the leaders make a sincere statement of personal commitment to their core values, educate and train staff with regard to the values at all levels within the organisation, engage immediate subordinates in discussions on the specific roles the values play in the organisation, and consciously include the core values in all feedback and mentoring sessions to subordinates, with special emphasis on operational application. the bottom-up approach includes all the members within the organisation. they have to examine all policies, processes and procedures that may contribute to a culture of compromise. this includes listing circumstances in which members of the organisation are tempted to act in a manner inconsistent with their core values, sharing their feelings with others in the organisation to identify common patterns of potential compromise, and finally identifying possible causes of these recurrent patterns. the back-and-forth approach includes active engagement of all the members of the organisation in wide ranging discussions to find the best ways to internalise the organisation’s core values. this approach is more focussed on the articulation of values and establishing ownership (as described in the process of sullivan et al. [2002]) than on aligning espoused and enacted values (sullivan et al., 2002) or changing employee behaviour (vim). research objectives the aim of this article is two-fold: firstly to offer a description of the value internalisation efforts that were used in a public service organisation in south africa and secondly to report on the findings of an evaluation of the extent to which value internalisation efforts within a specific public service organisation actually led to value internalisation at all levels within the organisation. in the following section the value internalisation framework as well as the efforts that this organisation implemented will be described. since the description of the efforts of the organisation is not part of the empirical study, it will precede the methodology of the evaluation. the value internalisation framework of this study the organisation embarked on a journey to establish an organisational culture of excellence in support of its core business. a new value system was developed to effect organisational change. as this particular organisation is in the safety and security industry (which includes organisations such as the saps, sandf, private security providers and emergency personnel such as paramedics), transformation from a rule-bound culture, characterised predominantly by rigidity, tight procedural and regulatory control and considerable resistance, to a value-driven culture with a strong sense of enthusiasm and commitment, based on the inherent talent, creativity and competence of its people, was necessary (beukman, 2005, p. 159). little is known about how value systems are used to engineer organisational change or how value systems are implemented to this effect (morginson, 2009). to support a culture of excellence, the organisation introduced a newly developed principle-centred value system, promoted as the slogan: ‘integrity, human dignity and excellence in all we do.’ this slogan was to act as the primary vehicle to facilitate the required culture changes. covey (2003) emphasises the importance of aligning values with universal principles to bring about more parity in people’s actions and behaviours. the values that were developed and used by this particular organisation are, of course, not unique to the organisation. they are universal and used by many organisations. integrity, for instance, is one of the most commonly found organisational values (sullivan et al., 2002). it is a core organisational value of the united states air force (1997), the springfield city council (http://www.ci.springfield.or.us) and the united states national park service (serrat, 2010), to name but a few. human dignity is also a core organisation value of many organisations, including, for example, the oil turbo compressor group (http://oilturbocompressor.com) and the seniors home care group (http://www.seniorshomecare.com/). similarly, excellence in all we do was formally adopted as a core value by the united states air force (1997) and the leadership development network (http://www.leadershipdevelopmentnetwork.com) also sees it as one of their core leadership principles. similar values are found in a review of the most prominent organisational values of public sector organisations (van der wal & huberts, 2008). there are a number of organisations who use similar combinations of values (e.g. microsoft, johnson & johnson and hewlett packard). the organisation under discussion chose its core values after the core values of many other organisations had been studied. focus groups, strategic work sessions and brainstorming sessions with senior management were held over a six-month period before the choice of values was finalised. for this organisation, integrity was defined in the most practical terms. it is based on the principle of doing what is right even when nobody is watching over you. integrity is also the cornerstone of trust, an element of leadership that is fundamental for successful relationships. integrity provides the basis for establishing leadership credibility within the organisation. human dignity is based on the principle of treating others the way you would be treated. the behaviours associated with this value reflect how leaders create the conditions in the workplace for their followers to do what needs to be done and to develop them to the highest level of their own potential. these behaviours not only refer to the relationship between leaders and followers, but also indicate how members should interact with one another within the organisation. excellence in all we do refers to the value of being an organisation of excellence. it is directly linked to continuous improvement. if a mindset of continuous improvement is to be created, people’s creative potential must be utilised to enable them to ‘do more with less’. in embracing excellence people within the organisation must be allowed to unleash their full innovative powers and potential through an achievement and performance culture. in order to facilitate the internalisation of these values, an extensive implementation framework consisting of various actions and endeavours by different role players within the organisation was introduced. the actions and endeavours included: • the organisation’s values were set out and explained in a clear belief statement, and this was accompanied by a list of behaviours highlighting the nature and intent of the values. this was aimed at enhancing the understanding and practical application of value-driven practices within the organisation. • the three chosen values were conceptualised and illustrated through references to the behavioural patterns of eagles. branded value material in the form of posters, key rings, cds and dvds was distributed throughout the organisation. the aim of this initiative was to achieve a cognitive and, above all, an emotional connection with the new values so as to bring about higher levels of association with and commitment to the new required behaviour within the organisation. • the senior executive conducted a road show to communicate the importance of these values within the organisation. this was intended to demonstrate a unified, top-down approach to what was expected within the organisation. • all key role players were issued with a framework to aid in the institutionalisation of the values based on a process of socialisation, integration and recognition. this framework was aimed at facilitating the incorporation of the values into existing practices, policies and procedures. this practice was seen as critically important to change behaviour throughout the organisation and was intended to promote horizontal and vertical dialogue on the relevance of value related practices and behaviours. • extensive training interventions took place to aid the understanding and internalisation of the values. approximately 3000 employees were exposed to these interventions. the aim of the training sessions was to create awareness of the new value behaviours required. they were also aimed at facilitating a changed mindset in terms of achieving better congruence and acceptance of the values. those leaders in the organisation who had the greatest responsibility in modelling and shaping the new values of the organisation were required to attend the training. despite the intense nature of the value internalisation efforts, there was no guarantee that they actually led to changed values in the organisation. the remainder of this article describes the methodology used to evaluate the extent to which internalisation did take place as well as the results of the study. research design top ↑ research approach a non-experimental quantitative design was appropriate because of the descriptive nature of the study. a questionnaire was developed to measure the extent of value internalisation at the different levels and in the various units of the public service organisation. respondents completed the questionnaire three months after the conclusion of the internalisation efforts. research method research participants non-probability quota sampling of a cross-section of the population was carried out, taking into account demographically and organisationally distinguishing factors. the sample size was determined by obtaining a quota from each unit of the organisation (table 1). with the initial sample design a 10% sample from each of the 14 units within the entire organisation was planned. this 10% sample size of each unit was also planned to be representative of the respective unit size, compared to the total size of the organisation (11 060 employees). of the 14 units from which samples were obtained, six achieved a sample representation of 10% and higher, three a sample size of between 6% and 9% and five a sample size of less than 5%. table 1: unit representation. in terms of the overall unit of analysis, categories were identified to obtain a suitable sample representation of employees’ gender, race, age, managerial level and experience levels. questionnaires were sent to 1060 employees (out of the total population 11 060 employees). a 89% response rate was achieved (941 questionnaires were returned and were usable for analysis), although the response rate differs per question on the survey if the missing values are taken into account1. of the respondents who completed the survey, 83.28% represented the non-managerial to middle management levels of the organisation (table 2). in terms of age the largest group represented was the age group between 25 and 44 (table 3). seventy-seven percent of the sample was male and 23% female, which replicates the gender distribution in this specific organisation. of the respondents, 36.78% had 11 or more years’ experience and 54.21% had ten years’ or less experience in the organisation (table 4). in terms of race representation, the sample consisted of 25 asian (2.88%), 363 white (41.87%), 138 mixed race (15.92%) and 341 black (39.33%) respondents (table 5). table 2: management level representation. table 3: age distribution of participants. table 4: years experience within the organisation. table 5: racial (population) distribution. of the above mentioned categories a suitable sample representation of certain units, gender, race, age, and experience levels was obtained in terms of the total unit of analysis, with the exception of managerial levels, where lower managerial levels had a significantly higher representation than senior management levels and there were some units with a smaller than 10% sample. the sample obtained served the purpose of a non-probability quota design, namely to obtain a replica of the population, one that represented the population as such as closely as possible. measuring instrument a value inventory (vi) consisting of 43 items was developed specifically to measure whether values had been internalised by the employees. a tailor-made questionnaire was necessary, since existing questionnaires do not measure the underlying values of the organisation and cannot therefore contribute to the process of establishing whether real value internalisation had taken place, which was the aim of the study. items were measured on a 5-point rating scale: 1 (always), 2 (most of the time), 3 (sometimes), 4 (almost never), 5 (never). in the original questionnaire a sixth option, ‘don’t know‘, was included, but as processing the data both with and without the sixth option yielded no significant difference, the sixth option was excluded. a factor analysis was conducted in order to obtain adequate representation of the relevant values. data were subjected to item and factor analysis. since only factor loadings of above 0.3 were considered, 12 items were omitted (kline, 1997, p. 5). the kaiser criterion for factor extraction was used and six factors were identified (table 6). since the kaiser criterion is widely criticised (velicer & jackson, 1990), a scree plot was also applied (costello & osborne, 2005). the scree plot results retained three factors (table 7). table 6: eigenvalue classification. table 7: scree plot. a quartimin (oblique) factor rotation was used to determine a clear pattern of loadings of the factors (table 8). quartimin rotation attempts to maximize the spread of factor loadings for a variable across all factors (field, 2009). table 8: quartimin factor rotation. the results of a factor analysis represented three distinct value components, namely ‘leadership credibility’, ‘people first’ and ‘achievement orientation’, each being relevant to the defined values of the public service organisation. the first factor, leadership credibility, did not measure leadership integrity directly, but it was an important consideration in the value of leadership integrity. leadership integrity from this perspective can be established only if the leader is seen as credible by his or her followers. leadership credibility is that part of the leader’s character that determines his or her integrity. without credibility there is no leadership integrity. the second factor related to the importance of putting people first and underpinned the value of human dignity. putting people first reflected the way in which leaders created conditions in the workplace to maximise their followers’ potential. by putting people first, the organisation upholds people’s dignity by respecting them and valuing their human ability and competence. the third factor reflected the importance of creating a mindset of achievement orientation, thereby supporting the establishment of excellence. excellence can be achieved only if a mindset of achievement is established. this mindset is created if people in the organisation are rewarded and recognised for their efforts and achievements. the questionnaire’s reliability was determined by using cronbach’s alpha coefficient. according to hinton, brownlow, mcmurray and cozens (2004, p. 357) 0.75 reliability is a sensible comprised value to determine reliability. according to the reliability indicators all three factors as well as the overall alpha were above 0.80 (table 9). table 9: questionnaire reliability. research procedure permission to conduct the study was obtained from the public service organisation. three months after the internalisation efforts were rolled out and implemented, organisational culture workshops were conducted at the various units of the organisation. all of employees in the units that were on strength on the day of the workshop attended it. after the workshops the delegates were invited to take part in the study by completing the questionnaire. delegates that volunteered to take part in the study were briefed on the aim of the study, the confidentiality of their responses, voluntary participation and instructions for completing the questionnaire. the respondents had the right to withdraw from the study at any stage. they did not provide their names or personnel numbers on the questionnaires. consent was assumed when the respondents completed the questionnaires. in total 932 questionnaires were completed by means of this process. statistical analysis descriptive statistics were used to measure the degree of value internalisation. analysis of variance (anova) was employed to assess differences in internalisation between demographical groupings and units. this was important for determining the extent of internalisation throughout the organisation. results top ↑ descriptive statistics the overall mean scores for each value component (leader credibility, people first and achievement orientation) indicated average mean scores in comparison to the scale values used. value components 2 and 3 (people first and achievement orientation) had the highest mean scores, 2.82 and 2.89 respectively, and were the closest to the scale value 3 of the survey. at 2.67, leader credibility had the lowest mean score. higher scores indicate higher levels of internalisation and lower scores lower levels of internalisation. the results per unit, gender, race, managerial level, age group and experience levels can be seen in table 10 – table 15. table 10: descriptive statistics for organisational units. table 11: descriptive statistics for gender groupings. table 12: descriptive statistics for race groupings. table 13: descriptive statistics for managerial levels. table 14: descriptive statistics for age groupings. table 15: descriptive statistics for experience levels. comparisons analysis of variance was used to determine whether there were any significant differences within the various independent variables, namely unit, age, population, gender, managerial levels and work experience based on each identified factor (dependent variable). pr > f-values smaller than 0.05 were used to determine whether there were significant differences within groupings. the results based on the anovas indicated that there were significant differences within only two independent variables of the identified value components, namely population (race) and unit (table 16, table 17 and table 18). however, the significant difference for population (race) between black (39.33%) and white staff (41.87%) was reflected only for factor 1, leader credibility (mwhite = 2.504; sdwhite = 2.907; mblack = 2.907; sdblack = 0.767). there were also significant differences between various units in the organisation for all three factors: leader credibility, people first and achievement orientation. the post hoc comparisons showed that three units differed significantly (< .0001) from one another in terms of factor 1: the mobile deployment unit (m = 3.062; sd = 0.775) differed significantly from the advanced training unit (m = 2.120; sd = 0.595), the operational training unit (m = 2.386; sd = 0.705) and the operational test centre (m = 2.276; sd = 0.736). in terms of factor 2, significant differences were evident between the operational test centre (m = 2.353; sd = 0.642) and the main unit 1 (m = 2.929; sd = 0.652), main unit 2 (m = 2.923; sd = 0.760), the advanced training unit (m = 2.402; sd = 0.653), main unit 4 (m = 3.057; sd = 0.769) and the mobile deployment unit (m = 3.039; sd = 0.778). the largest differences were between the main unit 4 and the operational test centre. for factor 3, significant differences were found between the operational test centre and four other units (main unit 1 [m = 3.048; sd = 0.914], main unit 4 [m = 3.324; sd = 0.918], headquarters [m = 3.179; sd = 0.918] and the mobile deployment unit [m = 3.222; sd = 0.985]). table 16: factor 1 (leader credibility): comparison. table 17: factor 2 (people first): comparison. table 18: factor 3 (achievement orientation): comparison. ethical considerations top ↑ permission was given by the organisation for this research to be conducted. there were no risks involved in participation in this study. each respondent was given a brief on their participation in which the focus of the study, their voluntary participation as well as the confidentiality of the data was explained. questionnaires were completed anonymously be voluntary participants. the completed questionnaires were collected by the researcher. trustworthiness top ↑ at the time of this study, one of the researchers was employed in the organisation and was part of the team that developed the new value system. this insider view ensures a detailed description of the value internalisation process. the questionnaire was tailor-made for this specific study and its validity and reliability for the population was established. discussion top ↑ the study set out to describe the value internalisation efforts of a public service organisation in south africa and to assess whether and to what extent value internalisation did take place within the entire organisation and also, more specifically, at the different managerial, unit, gender, age and experience levels. this evaluation was based on the premise that extensive efforts to inculcate newly introduced values such as extensive training, leadership involvement, focussed communication, socialisation and integration tactics should, if applied diligently, contribute to a higher value awareness and changed state (emotional and cognitive). average and lower than expected results were found. the responses obtained with regard to all three value constructs and their tendency to lean more towards scale value 3 (sometimes) indicated that the desired value behaviours were not prominent enough within the organisation. although other factors could have affected these results, it was anticipated that pertinent and focussed newly introduced value related interventions and practices, by their very nature, should have contributed more positively to the internalisation results. because of these lower than expected levels of internalisation, it can therefore be concluded that value congruence had not been achieved. if a critical appraisal is made of the internalisation efforts, the following can be commented on, (1) the identification of the values, (2) communication of values and (3) reinforcement of the values. identification of the values although the values were theoretically sound and relevant to the organisation, they had been developed by a small subset of the organisation. sullivan et al. (2002) and hyde and williams (2000) all highlight the importance of including a large part of the organisation in the value identification phase. in this study the task team who chose the values for the organisation represented senior and top management levels only. when this approach is taken, it is difficult to establish ownership of values; hyde and williams (2000) claim that it is then rather a case of selling the values to the employees than fostering ownership of them. communication of values an effort was made not only to articulate the values, but also to link the values to behaviour. although considerable efforts (such as the ceo’s road show as well as handing out posters, key rings, cds and dvds) were made to disseminate the values and their intent as well as the effect they could have on the organisation, these efforts were a once-off process. more socialisation events over a longer period of time would conceivably have been more effective in firstly establishing ownership of the values and secondly in bringing about congruence between individual and organisational values. if successful integration is to take place, values need to be communicated repeatedly over time (cable & parsons, 2001; chong, 2007; grojean et al., 2004; sullivan et al., 2002). in this study, the internalisation efforts were stopped at some point, implying a once-off process. it did not really allow for employees discovering their own values, as was recommended by sullivan et al. (2002). the importance of continuous and repeated efforts for successful values implementation is stressed in the literature. more engaging and participative efforts aimed at an emotional level of engagement would perhaps have been more successful (begley & boyd, 2000; chong, 2007; sullivan et al., 2002). value congruence is typically established through these kinds of activities and internalisation can then take place. reinforcement of values communicated values need to be reinforced (chong, 2007; morginson, 2009; sullivan et al., 2002). garvin and roberto (2005) in their studies of successful turnarounds found that effective leaders explicitly and constantly reinforced organisational values, using actions to back up their words. they state that the leader’s role is to change behaviour, and not just to apply ways of thinking to bring about change. actions include publicly criticising disruptive and divisive behaviour and reinforcing correct behaviour through recognition and appraisals. although the public service organisation had various formal mechanisms in place to demonstrate such actions during parades, formal ceremonies and prestige events, the results suggest that very little action was taken to reinforce and enact these new values continuously. possibly this approach neglected the vim premise that behaviour change was not necessarily closely associated with the attitude change required.significant differences in terms of dependent variables such as population groups and units within the organisation provided more evidence of a fragmented internalisation. the significant differences between the responses of black and white staff on the leader credibility scale imply that leadership credibility is perceived differently by the two groups. this difference confirms that leadership credibility can be affected not only by managerial fashions and organisational change, as stated by simons (2002), but possibly also by racial differences. hofstede (1984, 1994, 1997, 2001) indicated that cultural differences as well as individual expectations and assumptions about leadership influence leadership behaviour. in a south african context, studies by booysen (2001) and littrell and nkomo (2005) indicated that there were differences between black and white leaders regarding preferred leadership behaviour. although an effort was made to keep the internalisation efforts unified throughout the whole organisation, the results of this study showed significant differences in the degree of internalisation amongst various units (training and operational) regarding all three factors. this can be attributed to possibly different interpretations and institutional approaches throughout the organisation and to the fact that unit managers of the different units may have applied different key value implementation approaches and practices with regard to socialisation, value induction, reinforcement of applicable value behaviour, value process alignment, and selection and orientation. in addition, certain units may have been more committed in their efforts to bring about a behavioural change in support of the values. the lack of unity has a recursive effect on the internalisation of values. the less unity there is across an organisation, the less the values will be internalised successfully. this result confirms the importance and relevance of vertical and horizontal communication throughout the organisation to create a deeper level of value understanding. the results further indicate that many of the initiatives, although well formulated, may have lacked depth and a more aggressive approach to their implementation may have been needed. in efforts to create congruence between the organisation’s implicit values and individuals’ values, it is important to take into account both the cognitive and the affective desires of members of the organisation. with regard to the initiatives and actions taken to achieve socialisation, the results indicate that a mostly cognitive approach was followed. in view of the reported results the organisation’s focus on a cognitive level of internalisation was probably one of the reasons why the interventions did not fully succeed in altering employees’ current schemata (highly subjective mental or cognitive representations). implications for practice the value internalisation efforts described in this article did not include role players from all levels of the organisation, and human resource (hr) practitioners wishing to contribute to more successful value internalisation efforts within a public service organisation should keep this in mind. when institutionalising a value system for an organisation, hr practitioners should attempt to create institutionalised value parity by means of a more integrated approach which involves leading role players from all organisational units as well as representatives of the larger organisation. this is particularly important for enhancing a collaborative effort to achieve a unified corporate culture within a large organisation such as one finds in the public sector. furthermore, efforts should be made to give employees a chance to engage actively with the new values to establish value congruence. another shortcoming of the value internalisation efforts described in this study is that values had not been integrated into the policy and procedures of the organisation. hr practitioners should encourage leaders to facilitate the emotional–cognitive interface of employees to create a heightened state of psychological awareness and readiness to deal with the value change interface towards stronger internalisation. this can be achieved by applying a more intense socialisation framework in which the actions and implications of new value related behaviours are integrated into existing policy and procedures. a single guided value-related denominator such as ’creating a sense of belonging’ as part of the value ‘people first‘ can be incorporated into career and retention management strategies and practices, for example. human resource practitioners have a responsibility to implement human resource practices which are consistent with the enforcement of value related practices. practices could even include promotion for employees who demonstrate high value congruence. the results of his study showed that value integration was not satisfactory for the middle and top management levels in the organisation. in the literature, leadership involvement and more specifically enactment of values have been shown to have a major impact on value internalisation efforts. human resource practitioners should understand and support the importance of building leadership credibility in the organisation to enhance value internalisation. firstly, word–deed alignment should be enhanced through leader participation in a more aggressive and continuous value communication campaign throughout the organisation. when leaders espouse the same values through different mediums and for different audiences, their credibility is reinforced. secondly, public articulation by leaders of value-related interpretations contributes to a deeper level of consciousness, affecting leadership practices such as resource allocation and decision making. thirdly, when leaders enact value behaviours according to their communicated intent, they project a stable and consistent behavioural pattern that allows for follower-leader modelling. key leaders in the organisation can be enrolled for mentorship and coaching programmes to further their credibility. finally, value inculcation can also be reinforced through leadership development and training. human resource practitioners, however, should ensure that these efforts coincide with an intense, practical focus throughout the organisation. human resource practitioners should introduce mechanisms to ensure that the transfer of learning takes place through relevant value-related practices. limitations of the study this study used a quantitative approach which was an appropriate method to discover the breadth of the internalisation of values within the organisation. however, the approach was limited in the instance of this study as it did not supply reasons why the organisation’s efforts failed to reach and affect all the levels within the organisation. this question could easily have been answered by a qualitative follow-up of the quantitative survey. interviews with various role players in the organisation’s efforts as well as some receivers of these efforts would have been informative and would have provided at least some answers. conclusion the process and initiatives described in this article are in many ways similar to initiatives implemented in other public service organisations. a top-down approach was followed, which did not include all the levels and units within the organisation, when values were chosen for the organisation. although a great deal of effort and time may be invested in value internalisation, this effort will not be successful if it is not tailored to the needs of the employees and not coupled with a deeper level of interpretation and internalisation throughout the organisation. the results of this study confirm the shortcomings of the top-down approach that is so often followed in public service organisations when implementing change initiatives: these initiatives do not filter through to all the different levels of the organisation and therefore remain a management goal only. this study has revealed an important consideration for public service organisations intending to embark on efforts to build a strong value-driven organisational culture. formulating and introducing a set of value and related actions and practices do not necessarily contribute to deeper value internalisation and inculcation. organisations that demonstrate a deep sense of belief and conviction in support of their values are committed to far more intensely value-related practices. acknowledgements top ↑ the authors would like to acknowledge rina owen for the statistical analyses of the data. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this paper. authors’ contributions at the time of the study both authors were affiliated with the university of pretoria. s.m. (university of pretoria) was the study leader. a.l. (university of pretoria) conducted the fieldwork. both authors contributed towards the conceptualisation and writing of the article. references top ↑ agle, b.r., & caldwell, c.b. (1999). understanding research on values in business: a level of analysis framework. business and society, 38(1), 326–387. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/000765039903800305aggerholm, h.k., anderson, m.a., asmuß, b., & thomsen, c. (2009). management conversations in danish companies: communicating corporate values and strategies. corporate communications: an international journal, 14(3), 264–279. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13563280910980050 askun, d., oz, e.u., & askun, o.b. (2010). understanding managerial work values in turkey. journal of business ethics, 93, 103–114. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-099-0185-y bartlet, c.a., & ghoshal, s. (1994). changing the role of top management: beyond strategy to purpose. harvard business review, 72(6), 79–88. begley, t.m., & boyd, d.p. (2000). articulating corporate values through human resources policies. business horizons, july–august, 8–12. beukman, t.l. (2005). the effect of selected variables on leadership behaviour within the framework of a transformational organisation paradigm. unpublished doctoral thesis, university of pretoria, pretoria. brăinianu, c., & bălănescu, g.v. (2008). vision, mission and corporate values: a comparative analysis of the top 50 us companies. marketing & management, 3(3), 19–38. booysen, l. (2001). the duality in south african leadership: afrocentric or eurocentric. south african journal of labour relations, 25(3–4), 36–64. cable d.m., & parsons, c.k. (2001). socialization tactics and person-organization fit. personnel psychology, 54(1), 1–23. cambra-fierro, j., polo-redondo, y., & wilson, a. (2008). the influence of an organisation’s corporate values on employees’ personal buying behaviour. journal of business ethics, 81, 157–167. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9486-1 cazier, j.a., shao, b.b.m., & louis, r.d.s. (2007). sharing information and building trust through value congruence. information systems frontiers, 9(5), 515–529. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10796-007-9051-6 chong, m. (2007). the role of internal communication and training in infusing corporate values and delivering brand promise: singapore airlines’ experience. corporate reputation review, 10(3), 201–212. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.crr.1550051 collins, j.c., & porras, j.i. (1994). built to last: successful habits of visionary companies. new york: harper collins. costello, a.b., & osborne, j.w. (2005). best practices in exploratory factor analysis: four recommendations for getting the most from your analysis. practical assessment, research & evaluation, 10(7), 1–9. covey, s.r. (2003). principle-centered leadership. new york: free press. dym, b., & hutson, h. (2005). leadership in nonprofit organizations. thousand oaks, california: sage. edwards, j.r., & cable, d.m. (2009). the value of value congruence. journal of applied psychology, 94(3), 654–677. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0014891, pmid:19450005 fenton, n.e., & inglis, s. (2007). a critical perspective on organisational values. nonprofit management & leadership, 17(3), 335–347. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/nml.153 field, a. (2009). discovering statistics with spss. (3rd edn.). london: sage publications. garvin, d.a., & roberto, m.a. (2005). change through persuasion. harvard business review, february. retrieved february 16, 2005, from http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/hbr/hbrsa/current/0502/article/r0502f.jhtml grojean, m.w., resick, c.j., dickson, m.w., & smith, d.b. (2004). leaders, values, and organizational climate: examining leadership strategies for establishing organizational climate regarding ethics. journal of business ethics, 55(3), 223–241. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-004-1275-5 gruys, m.l., stewart, s.m., goodstein, j., bing, m.n., & wicks, a.c. (2008). values enactment in organizations: a multi-level examination. journal of management, 34, 806. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206308318610 hinton, p.r., brownlow, c., mcmurray, i., & cozens, b. (2004). spss explained. london: routledge. hofstede, g.h. (1984). culture’s consequences: international differences in work-related values. london: sage. hofstede, g.h. (1994). uncommon sense about organizations: cases, studies and field observations. london: sage. hofstede, g.h. (1997). cultures and organizations: software of the mind. new york: macgraw-hill. hofstede, g.h. (2001). culture’s consequences: comparing values, behaviours, institutions and organizations across nations. thousand oaks, california: sage. hyde, p., & williamson, b. (2000). the importance of organisational values, part 3: choosing and implementing organisational values. focus on change management, 68(october), 10–14. kim, t., cable, d.m., & kim, s. (2004). socialization tactics, employee proactivity, and person-organization fit. journal of applied psychology, 90(2), 232–241. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.90.2.232, pmid:15769234 kline, p. (1997). an easy guide to factor analysis. london: routledge. liedtka, j.m. (1989). value congruence: the interplay of individual and organisational value systems. journal of business ethics, 8(10), 805–815. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf00383780 littrell, r.f., & nkomo, s.m. (2005). gender and race differences in leader behaviour preferences in south africa. women in management review, 20(8), 562–580. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09649420510635204 mcgaw, n., & fabish, l. (2006). put your values to work. harvard business update, 11, 3–5. morginson, d. (2009). value systems as a mechanism for organizational change. journal of accounting & organisational change, 5(1), 7–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/18325910910932197 posner, b.z. (2010). another look at the impact of personal and organizational values congruency. journal of business ethics, 97, 535–541. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0530-1 posner, b.z., kouzes, j.m., & schmidt, w.h. (1985). shared values make a difference: an empirical test of corporate culture. human resource management, 24(3), 293–309. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.3930240305 ren, t. (2010). value congruence as a source of intrinsic motivation. kyklos, 63(1), 94–109. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6435.2010.00462.x schein, e.h. (1990). organisational culture. american psychologist, 45, 109–119. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.45.2.109 serrat, o. (2010). a primer on corporate values. knowledge solutions, 87, asian development bank. simons, t. (2002). behavioral integrity: the perceived alignment between managers’ words and deeds as a research focus. organization science, 13(1), 18–35. speculand, r., & chaudhary, r. (2008). living organisational values: the bridges value inculcation model. business strategy series, 9(6), 324–329. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17515630810923630 sullivan, w., sullivan, r., & buffton, b. (2002). aligning individual and organisational values to support change. journal of change management, 2(3), 247. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/738552750 travaglione, t., mcshane, s., o’neill, g., & hancock, j. (2009). the relationship between managerial values enactment, as a construct of behavioural integrity, and employee trust in management. proceedings of the eleventh international conference of the society for global and economic development (sgbed). comenius university, bratislava. united states air force core values. (1997). retrieved december 27, 2003, from http://www.usafa.af.mil/core-calue/cv--mastr.html valentine, s., godkin, l., & lucero, m. (2002). ethical context, organisational commitment, and person-organisation fit. journal of business ethics, 41(4), 349–360. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1021203017316 van der wal, z., & huberts, l. (2008). value solidity in government and business: results of an empirical study on public and private sector organisational values. the american review of public administration, 38(264), 264–285. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0275074007309154 van lee, r., fabish, l., & mcgraw, n. (2005). the value of corporate values. strategy and business, 39, 3–13. van maanen, j., & schein, e.h. (1979). toward a theory of organizational socialization. in b.m. staw (ed.), research in organizational behaviour, vol. 1 (pp. 209–264). greenwich, connecticut: jai press. velicer, w.f., & jackson, d.n. (1990). component analysis versus common factor-analysis – some further observations. multivariate behavioral research, 25(1), 97–114. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr2501_12 verquer, m.l., beehr, t.a., & wagner, s.h. (2003). a meta-analysis of relations between person-organisation fit and work attitudes. journal of vocational behaviour, 63, 473–489. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0001-8791(02)00036-2 footnotes top ↑ 1. if missing values are taken into account, the lowest response rate is 79% (n = 865). abstract introduction methods results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) clement bell department of industrial psychology, university of fort hare, south africa noxolo njoli department of human resources, university of fort hare, south africa citation bell, c., & njoli, n. (2016). the role of big five factors on predicting job crafting propensities amongst administrative employees in a south african tertiary institution. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a702. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.702 original research the role of big five factors on predicting job crafting propensities amongst administrative employees in a south african tertiary institution clement bell, noxolo njoli received: 11 mar. 2015; accepted: 05 nov. 2015; published: 28 apr. 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: personality provides a foundation for understanding employee job behaviours. it determines and reflects how they respond to their work situations. there is a shortage of previous researches that have specifically dealt with the predictive role of personality on job crafting. job crafting is also a significantly new concept in the south african work context. it has both positive and negative consequences on employee job behaviours. research purpose: the present study investigated the role of big five factors on predicting job crafting propensities amongst administrative employees in alice, south africa. motivation for the study: the present study aimed to determine the role of big five factors on predicting job crafting propensities amongst administrative employees. it was premised on previous research that the big five factors are associated with many employee job behaviours. research approach, design and method: the present study employed a quantitative, cross-sectional research design with a sample of 246 administrative employees in alice, south africa. a biographical questionnaire, a big five inventory, and a job crafting questionnaire were used to collect data. main findings: the findings showed that big five factors of conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience and neuroticism play a significant role in predicting job crafting propensities. practical implications: the present study suggests that big five factors of conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience and neuroticism have a predictive role on job crafting behaviours. managers of tertiary institutions can therefore consider these big five personalities to understand and predict the impacts of their job design strategies on administrative employees’ behaviours. contribution: the contribution of the study was significant in that it contributed to research literature representing the influence of the big five factors in understanding job crafting propensities of employees. introduction job crafting is still a new concept even in the south african environment (vreugdenhil, kooij & van veldhoven, 2012). job design on the other hand is a well-researched concept in the field of human resources management. traditionally, managers were tasked to design jobs in organisations, not always taking individual differences into consideration (vreugdenhil et al., 2012). because of employee diversity, it remains a very difficult task for managers to develop an optimal job design to suit the specific needs of all employees (berg, dutton & wrzesniewski, 2007). these challenges experienced by employees have created an urge to assume the managerial responsibilities of job designing. as a result, employees will typically engage in job crafting behaviours in order to meet their diverse competences and needs (tims, bakker & derks, 2012). job crafting is therefore a strategy employed by employees to redesign their jobs (tims, bakker & derks, 2013). they proactively adjust the attributes of their jobs to optimise the balance between the features of the job and their own needs, competences and preferences (tims et al., 2013). these researchers also argued that employees create changes in their jobs for three different reasons. firstly, they redesign their tasks because they want to be satisfied in their jobs. as such, an employee may request for different tasks that need new competences from the supervisor because he or she feels that the job is repetitive and boring. the second reason is that, employees may modify their interpersonal associations they attain when doing their work. the third one is that employees may change their own cognitive perceptions towards their work by positively changing their perceptions towards the attributes of the job (tims et al., 2013). researchers believe that these job changes enable employees to experience more engagement and meaningfulness in their work (tims & bakker, 2010). problem statement the university of fort hare is still in the process of organisational transformation and development. in managing the transformation processes, the university has also revitalised its organisational development department (bell, murugan & nel, 2014, p. 1971). organisational development managers are therefore, heavily involved in redesigning jobs for their employees as part of their functions in the organisation (vreugdenhil et al., 2012). and, as such, employees are passive recipients of positions they occupy (wrzesniewski, lobuglio, dutton & berg, 2013). this development has come with changes in the demands and resources needed in their jobs. however, many employee differences have not been taken into consideration by managers when designing jobs for administrative employees at fort hare university (vreugdenhil et al., 2012). administrative employees represent an important professional group of employees within the university because they create a climate conducive for the organisation to function at the optimal level. previous researchers argued that employees are all very diverse, making it difficult for the university in this instance to design jobs for every unique employee’s needs (berg et al., 2007). in response to this problem, administrative employees would typically engage themselves in crafting their job tasks and responsibilities as indicated in their formal job descriptions, either by increasing or decreasing tasks, changing the type of tasks or adjusting the amount of time, effort and attention given to different tasks (tims et al., 2013). they craft their own jobs to satisfy their competences and needs (tims et al., 2012). when employees find that there is an inequity between the amount of job demands and job resources, they may be motivated to reduce this incongruence by employing four complementary strategies of job crafting. in other words, when the job does not meet employees’ competences or needs, the employees may be motivated to adjust the attributes of the job (tims et al., 2012). they are more satisfied and effective when they are in positions that align well with their personal attributes. scholars argue that job crafting is a proactive behaviour to modify the situation or employee himself or herself to attain more fit between the employees’ personal attributes and the job situation (tims et al., 2013). it is about adjustments that employees make in order to achieve their person–job fit and positive work outcomes (tims et al., 2012). scholars also argue that, because job crafting is directed towards proactively improving the work situation compared to other people, the organisation and the external environment, it has been classified under proactive person–environment fit behaviour (tims et al., 2014). researchers argued that the big five factors are associated with different employee job behaviours (ozer & benet-martinez, 2006). big five factors provide a foundation for understanding the relationship between personality and employee job behaviours (komarraju, karau, schmeck & avdic, 2011). however, there is a scarcity of previous researches that have specifically dealt with the relationship between big five factors and job crafting. previous studies have only focused on proactive personality, self-efficacy and self-regulation as the antecedents in job crafting (tims & bakker, 2010). the present study therefore proposes that the big five traits of employees have a role in either changing job demands or resources, or both of them. research reveals that employees who craft their job resources enjoy their work more and use these positive feelings to increase their work performance (tims, bakker & derks, 2014). objectives of the study the purpose of the present study was to determine the role of the big five factors on predicting job crafting propensities amongst fort hare university administrative employees. literature review theoretical perspectives big five theory: the past 30 years have seen an increase in personality research (funder, 2001). the big five theory is a significant theory that has been extensively used in research of employee work behaviour (mccrae & costa, 2003; mondak, 2010; ozer & benet-martinez, 2006). it has provided the most developed practical use of the big five personality factors to date (costa & mccrae, 1992). the basis of the theory is the notion that personality can be condensed into five critical factors (fincham & rhodes, 2005). the big five factors are conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience and neuroticism (costa & mccrae, 1992). it provides a very important foundation for determining the association between personality and job behaviours (komarraju et al., 2011). job demands–resources model: job attributes that need sustained energy from employees and which are linked with certain costs are called job demands. and the job attributes that add value towards achieving work-related goals, reducing the impact of job demands and associated costs and producing personal growth and development are referred to as job resources (tims et al., 2013, p. 231). according to tims et al. (2013), job crafting involves making adjustments in the job description. it is, therefore, explained by using the types of job attributes offered by the job demands–resources (jd-r) model (bakker & demerouti, 2007): job demands and job resources (tims et al., 2012). the classification enables the researchers to determine which job attributes employees adjust when they craft their jobs. consistent with the jd-r model, job crafters change either the level of job demands, the level of job resources and/or both (tims et al., 2013, p. 231). based on the jd–r model, scholars propose that job crafting has four conceptually different dimensions, namely: increasing structural job resources (istjr), decreasing hindering job demands (dhjd), increasing social job resources (isjr) and increasing challenging job demands (icjd) (tims et al., 2012). person–job fit theory: this theory deals with the degree at which a particular job matches employees’ competences, interest and personalities (greenberg, 2011). in this regard, an employee will be more effective to the extent that there is congruence between him or her and the job attributes. the theory suggests that the less the congruence between employees’ attributes (personalities) and those required in their jobs, the more they may engage in job crafting behaviours in their organisations to achieve a person–job fit (greenberg, 2011). definitions of concepts job crafting: it is defined as the ‘self-initiated change behaviours that employees engage in with the aim to align their jobs with their own preferences, motives, and passions’ (tims et al., 2012, p. 173). it is perceived as a specific type of initiative work behaviour that employees engage in to modify their job tasks to suit their needs, competences and preferences (tims et al., 2013). other scholars also perceived it as: the physical and cognitive modifications that employees make in the job task or interpersonal frameworks of their work which directs attention to the proactive, bottom-up strategies employed by employees to change the task, relational, and cognitive frameworks of their jobs. (berg, wrzesniewsk & dutton, 2010, p. 179) it requires the behaviours that employees engage in to modify their job tasks to promote job satisfaction, job engagement, resilience and work thriving (berg et al., 2007). the main attribute of job crafting in the work environment implies that employees initiate and carry out adjustments in their job tasks from the bottom-up, rather than managers directing changes from the top-down (berg et al., 2007). job crafters can proactively modify the scope of their job by means of four strategies: (tims et al., 2012). increasing structural job resources: it refers to increasing resources of variety, opportunity for development and autonomy (tims et al., 2012). decreasing hindering job demands: it is the situation where employees proactively reduce or lessen their job demands when they perceive them as becoming overwhelming. they introduce initiatives to decrease their level of job demands (tims et al., 2012). increasing social job resources: it is when an employee increases the resources of social support, supervisory coaching and feedback (tims et al., 2012). increasing challenging job demands: it implies that employees develop their competences to achieve more difficult goals in order to increase personal growth and satisfaction in the job (tims et al., 2012). personality: it is defined as the: constellation of psychological attributes and mechanisms within an employee that are organised and relatively stable, and that affects his or her involvement with, and adaptations to, the intrapsychic, physical, and social environments. (larsen & buss, 2010, p. 4) it is a relatively unchanging integration of traits which makes an employee unique and also produces consistencies in his or her thoughts and behavioural actions (fincham & rhodes, 2005). it is also viewed by other scholars as the inner psychological factors that both control and reflect how an employee responds to different work situations. these inner psychological characteristics are therefore, those specific qualities, attributes, traits, factors and mannerisms that separate one employee from another (schiffman & kanuk, 2007). researchers argue that personality traits may affect job behaviours because employees are actively changing their work environments (roberts, kuncel, shiner, caspi & goldberg, 2007). lounsbury et al. (2003) are of the opinion that personality is very critical in explaining variations in job behaviours. conscientiousness and job crafting propensities conscientiousness is defined as the tendency of an employee to show self-discipline and to strive for competence and achievement (greenberg, 2011). this dimension of personality is explained by narrow traits such as being well-organised, careful, self-disciplined, responsible and precise at the high end and being disorganised, impulsive, careless and undependable at the low end. other scholars perceived it as a broad underlying factor that is explained by narrower traits such as obedience, persistence, impulse control, planning and organising, perfectionism and integrity (fincham & rhodes, 2005). moreover, a conscientious employee has a set of emotional control that promotes responsibility and goal-directed work behaviours. there is a shortage of previous research that has linked conscientiousness and job crafting. the attributes of a conscientious employee suggest that this type of employee may have lesser tendencies to engage in job crafting behaviours. however, this type of employee is highly engaged with the job (schaufeli, 2013). the employee is less likely to change the job characteristics in a way that contributes towards achieving work-related goals because he or she adheres to standards set and has a strong and deeply embedded work ethic that developed during his or her childhood (bell & murugan, 2013). as such, a conscientious employee is less likely to change the level of job demands, job resources or both (tims et al., 2013). this type of employee may not engage in job crafting strategies like changing the set of responsibilities and tasks specified by a formal job description, by increasing or decreasing tasks, adjusting the types of tasks or changing the amount of time, effort and attention given to various tasks (tims et al., 2013). these extant arguments therefore suggest the following hypothesis: hypothesis 1: conscientiousness has a nonsignificant role in predicting job crafting propensities. extraversion and job crafting propensities extraversion is defined as the propensity of a person seeking stimulation, and enjoying the association of others (greenburg, 2011). this dimension is explained by narrow traits such as energetic, sober, socially confident and cheerful, enthusiastic, sociable and talkative at the high end, and to retiring, reserved, silent, and cautious, self-contained, serious minded and somewhat aloof at the low end (greenburg, 2011; fincham & rhodes, 2005). scholars argue that an employee who has high extraversion is more inclined towards positive effect and values interpersonal associations more than other employees (matzler, faullant, renzl, & leiter, 2005). currently, there is a shortage of previous researches confirming a link between extraversion and job crafting tendencies. however, the behavioural attributes suggest that there may be involvement on job crafting activities. for instance, because this type of employee values more interpersonal relations and has a greater energy expended on behavioural tendencies of the world (john & srivastava, 1999), the individual may modify the job if it does not satisfy these interpersonal needs. this type of employee may therefore, employ job crafting strategies to harness the needs. as such, the employees may change how, when or the people they interact with when they perform their jobs (berg et al., 2007). these arguments therefore lead to the following hypothesis: hypothesis 2: extraversion has a significant role in predicting job crafting tendencies. agreeableness and job crafting propensities agreeableness is defined as the degree to which an employee is cooperative, forgiving, compassionate, understanding and trusting (fincham & rhodes, 2005). it is, therefore, explained by narrow factors such as being cooperative, altruism, tender-mindedness, trust, modesty caring, sympathetic, kind and affectionate, and likeable (john & srivastava, 1999; mehmetoglu, 2012). currently, there is a shortage of previous researches that have confirmed the link between this personality dimension and job crafting tendencies. however, the behavioural attributes of an agreeable employee suggest that this individual may be less likely to engage in job crafting tendencies. for instance, because the employee is cooperative, understanding and trusting, he or she may be less likely to craft their job tasks (fincham & rhodes, 2005). the employee may not engage in modifying the tasks and responsibilities as they are spelt out in a formal job description, by increasing or decreasing tasks, changing the type of tasks or adjusting the amount of time, effort and attention given to different tasks (tims et al., 2013). as such, the present study proposed the following hypothesis: hypothesis 3: agreeableness has a nonsignificant role on predicting job crafting tendencies. openness to experience and job crafting propensities openness to experience is defined as the breadth, depth, originality and complexity of an employee’s cognitive maps and experiential behaviour (john & srivastava, 1999). it describes employees who are open to change their own perspectives and what they want from others (mondak, 2010). moreover, scholars also see it as an active fantasy, aesthetic sensitivity, attentiveness to emotions and preference for diversity, intellectual curiosity and independence of judgement (costa & mccrae, 1992). employees with a high level of openness are attracted to both what is happening within themselves and in their external worlds. they are keen to accept novel perceptions and unusual values. furthermore, they experience both positive and negative emotions more keenly as compared to employees who are not open (costa & mccrae, 1992). they also show intellectual curiosity, creativity and flexible cognitive structure (dingman, 1990). there is a shortage of previous researches that have confirmed the link between this personality dimension and job crafting tendencies. however, the behavioural attributes of an open employee suggest that the individual may be highly engaged in job crafting behaviours. for instance, because this type of employee has flexible cognitive maps and experiential tendencies, is open to one’s own perspectives and has an active fantasy (john & srivastava, 1999; mondak, 2010; mccrae, 1992), it is highly probable to employ job crafting strategies. as such, this employee may proactively change the ways he or she perceives job tasks and relationships that compose the job (berg et al., 2007). these extant arguments therefore yield to the following hypothesis: hypothesis 4: openness to experience has a significant role in predicting job crafting tendencies. neuroticism and job crafting propensities neuroticism is defined as a predisposition of an employee towards lack of positive psychological adjustment and emotional stability (john & srivastava, 1999). it is therefore associated with instability, stress proneness, personal insecurity and depression (mehmetoglu, 2012). scholars argue that emotionally stable employees are not easily affected by anxiousness, nervousness, sadness and being tensed (john & srivastava, 1999). they act after making a conscious decision about their job behaviour pattern. poor self-regulating potency is the dispositional attribute of neuroticism (larose & eastin, 2002). there is a shortage of previous researches that have confirmed the link between this personality dimension and job crafting tendencies. however, the behavioural attributes of a neurotic or emotional unstable employee suggests that this individual is highly likely to engage in job crafting behaviours. scholars argue that employees who are emotionally unstable sometimes modify their job task to manage their emotions (bosnjak, galesic & tuten, 2007). due to of lack of positive psychological adjustment and emotional stability, high stress proneness, personal insecurity and depression (john & srivastava, 1999; mehmetoglu, 2012), this employee is highly likely to engage in job crafting strategies to manage the emotional weaknesses (bosnjak et al., 2007). these extant arguments therefore lead the following hypothesis: hypothesis 5: neuroticism has a significant role in predicting job crafting tendencies. methods research participants a nonprobability sampling method was employed to select respondents from the population. nonprobability sampling refers to a sampling method through which the choice of elements is not based on the statistical element of randomness (durheim & painter, 2006). as such, a convenience sampling technique was used. it is simply defined as the process where a researcher uses any member of the population who is available during the research process without considering their criteria (welman, kruger, & mitchell, 2005). it involved selecting haphazardly those administrative employees who were easiest to obtain for the sample. the sample selection process continued until the required sample size was achieved. the university of fort hare’s administration has 676 administrative employees. this includes employees from the human resources, finance, registrar, student administration, communications and marketing, examinations, payroll, library, information technology, accommodation, maintenance, and institutional support departments. using the raosoft sample size calculator at 5% margin of error and 95% confidence interval, the sample size for administrative employees was n = 246. this is the minimum recommended sample size by the raosoft sample size calculator (raosoft inc, 2004). however, the researcher distributed 286 questionnaires to the subjects and 246 questionnaires were fully completed. this resulted in a 66.7% response rate. amongst the sample group, 59.35% were female subjects and 40.65% were male subjects. with regards to age, 33.3% were in the age group 20–29; 26.83% were in the age group 30–39; 21.95% were in the age group 40–49; 15.85% were in the age group 50–59 and 2.03% were in the age group 60 and above. also with regards to education levels, 6.91% had a high school qualification, 13.01% had a certificate, 15.45% had a diploma, 36.18% had a degree and 28.46% had a postgraduate degree. lastly, but not least, with regards to home languages, 70.33 indicated that they were xhosa speaking, 6.91 were speaking zulu, 10.57 were speaking afrikaans; 6.91 were speaking english and 5.28 were speaking sepedi. the demographic characteristics of the participants are presented in table 1. table 1: demographic characteristics of the participants. measuring instruments the data collection method for the present study was made up of the big five questionnaire, job crafting questionnaire and a biographical questionnaire, which was developed by the researcher. a biographical questionnaire was only used to collect some demographic information of the participants in this study. as such, this information was collected on gender, age groups, education level and home languages of the participants. big five questionnaire to assess the factors of conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience and neuroticism, the appropriate subscales of the big five inventory adopted from john, donahue and kentle (1991) were used. this is a 44-item scale that was designed to represent the sample definitions created by specialist evaluations and subsequent factor analytic authentication in assessor personality ratings (john & srivastava, 1999). these researchers found the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the subscales of big five factors to be 0.82, 0.88, 0.79, 0.84 and 0.81, respectively. the respondents used a 5-point likert-type scale, which ranged from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). job crafting questionnaire to assess the extent at which employees engage in job crafting behaviours, a scale adopted from tims et al. (2012) was employed. the scale has 21 items that measure the four dimensions of job crafting: istjr, dhjd, isjr and icjd. tims et al. (2012) found the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the job crafting dimensions to be 0.82, 0.79, 0.77 and 0.75, respectively. the respondents used a 5-point frequency scale, which ranged from never (1) to often (5). research design the present study employed a quantitative, cross-sectional research design with a survey research method. quantitative research design strongly makes use of empirical analysis to make conclusions, and it enables the researcher to test hypotheses (hair, wolfinbarger, ortinau & bush, 2008). cross-sectional research design refers to: a criterion groups design in which the different criterion groups are typically comprised of different age groups which are examined in terms of one or more variables at approximately the same time. (huysamen, 1994, p. 98) a quantitative research design was the most preferred research design because the researcher aimed to determine the predictive role of the big five factors on job crafting propensities. research procedure the permission to conduct research on the organisation’s administrative employees was obtained from the human resources director. as such, an informed letter of consent and a sample of the research questionnaire were submitted to the human resources director. furthermore, a meeting between the researchers and the human resources director was organised during which the researchers explained the objectives of the research. the researchers were granted permission to collect research data during a 1-month period. the administrative employees were asked by the researchers to participate in the research on a voluntary basis. employees who were willing to participate in the research were given questionnaires, which included a letter to explain to the employees the purpose of the research, the procedure of participation in the research and issues of confidentiality and anonymity. they were also given an informed consent form before participating in the research. the collection of data took place over a period of a month as it was agreed with the human resources director. this gave the participants enough time to complete the questionnaires at their convenience. the completed research questionnaires were collected by the researchers. statistical analysis to analyse data, the statistical package for the social sciences (spss), version 21, and the statistical analysis software were employed. descriptive statistics were analysed by determining the minimum and maximum scores, standard deviations and means. the skewness was also measured to determine the symmetry of the distribution. cronbach’s alpha reliabilities were calculated to determine the internal consistency and reliability of the scales of the questionnaires. scholars agreed that cronbach’s alpha coefficients should be greater than 0.70 in order to be considered to have an acceptable level of internal consistency (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). an exploratory factor analysis (efa) was performed to examine construct validity. factor analysis is defined as a ‘specialised statistical technique that is particularly useful for investigating construct validity’ (gregory, 2007, p. 135). before an efa was performed on the big five questionnaire, items 2, 6, 8, 9, 12, 18, 21, 23, 24, 27, 31, 34, 35, 37, 41 and 43 were reversed. factor analysis was conducted on the big five questionnaire and the job crafting questionnaire to determine the underlying factors in the scales. the big five questionnaire consists of five subscales, and a job crafting questionnaire consists of four subscales. it was therefore important to assess which factors best represented data in the present study. the analysis of constructs aims to determine whether the constructs are homogeneous, which means that they are able measure one construct (gregory, 2007). inferential statistics were also used to analyse data because inferences were made about the population from its sample. a standard multiple regression analysis was performed to determine whether big five factors had predictive values for job crafting. as such, the hypotheses were accepted and rejected using the multiple regression values. pearson correlation coefficient was used to determine the relationship between the big five factors and job crafting. practically significant relationships were measured to ascertain ‘whether a relationship is large enough to be important’ (steyn, 2002, p. 10). results efa was performed on 41 items of the bfq and 21 items of the jcq. efa was preferred because the present study used a small sample of 246 and was designed to make an additive contribution to the body of knowledge on big five personality and job crafting amongst administrative employees in an institution environment. this information is important for those refining future research in these subjects areas. this is therefore an exploratory and investigative work from which tentative findings can be deducted instead of conclusive patterns. macro-level researches should be conducted to confirm these findings before strong conclusions can be made about a south african environment at large. a principal component analysis was performed on 44 items of the bfq, which revealed that five factors emerged from the data (see table 2). the factors are conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, open to experience and neuroticism. the keizer-meyer-olkin value was 0.71, which exceeds the threshold value of 0.6, and the bartlett’s test of sphericity indicated a statistical significance. a five-component solution explained a total of 100% of the variance, with component one contributing 47.5%, two contributing 21.0%, three contributing 13.4%, four contributing 10.4% and five contributing 7.7% of the total variance. these factor analysis results are also consistent with the findings of john and srivastava (1999) and benet-martinez and john (1998). they found that the big five factors taxonomy is similar across different types of samples. table 2: initial eigenvalues for the total variances explained. in table 2 for the jcq, the results of factor analysis also showed that four factors emerged. the factors that emerged are istjr, dhjd, isjr and icjd. the keizer-meyer-olkin value was 0.60, which exceeds the threshold value of 0.6, and the bartlett’s test of sphericity indicated a statistical significance. a four-component solution explained a total of 100% of the variance, with component one contributing 55.5%, two contributing 24.4%, three contributing 15.0% and four contributing 4.10% of the total variance. tims et al. (2012) also found that job crafting can be measured by four factors. table 3 shows the descriptive statistics of the variables that were studied. the negative skewness values indicate that the distribution is negatively skewed. as such, most scores cluster around high scores on the distribution. these skewness values show that the distribution is normally distributed. cronbach’s alpha coefficients were used to test the reliability of bfq and jcq. according to researchers, cronbach’s alpha coefficients should be greater than or equal to 0.70 to be considered as reliable and acceptable (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the questionnaires and the subscales are also shown in table 3. cronbach’s alpha reliability for the bfq was 0.81, with a conscientiousness dimension recording 0.77, extraversion dimension recording 0.79, agreeableness dimension recording 0.81, openness to experience dimension recording 0.84 and neuroticism dimension recording 0.83. cronbach’s alpha reliability for the jcq was 0.87, with a istjr dimension recording 0.92, dhjd dimension recording 0.88, isjr dimension recording 0.85 and icjd dimension recording 0.83. all the cronbach’s alpha coefficients were therefore greater than a 0.70 standard acceptable. table 3: descriptive statistics and reliability statistics for the scales. table 4 also shows the results of the pearson correlation coefficient analysis. the pearson correlation coefficient analysis was employed to determine the relationship between the big five factors (as measured by bfq) and job crafting (as measured by jcq). conscientiousness was found to have a statistically and practically nonsignificant relationship with job crafting (r = −0.05133; p = 0.4229). for the dimensions of job crafting, istjr (r = 0.02593; p = 0.6857), isjr (r = 0.15202; p = 0.0170) and icjd (r = −0.07045; p = 0.2710), conscientiousness was found to have a statistically and practically nonsignificant relationship as well. however, with dhjd (r = −0.23797; p = 0.0002), conscientiousness was found to have a statistically and practically significant relationship. extraversion was also found to have a statistically and practically significant relationship with job crafting (r = −0.29627; p = 0001). for dhjd (r = −0.45990; p = 0.0001) and isjr (r = −0.24025; p = 0.0001) dimensions, extraversion was found to have a statistically and practically significant relationship as well. however, for istjr (r = −0.04680; p = 0.4650) and icjd (r = 0.07242; p = 0.2578) dimensions, extraversion was found to have a statistically and practically nonsignificant relationship. table 4: correlations matrix between big five factors and job crafting variables. agreeableness was also found to have a statistically and practically significant relationship with job crafting (r = −0.31456; p = 0001). for dhjd (r = −0.25730; p = 0.0001), isjr (r = −0.42933; p = 0.0001) and icjd (r = −0.16752; p = 0.0085) dimensions, agreeableness was found to have a statistically and practically significant relationship as well. however, for istjr (r = −0.01119; p = 0.8614), agreeableness has a statistically and practically nonsignificant relationship. openness to experience was also found to have a statistically and practically significant relationship with job crafting (r = −0.35658; p = 0.0001). for dhjd (r = −0.25353; p = 0.0001), isjr (r = −0.34298; p = 0.0001) and icjd (r = −0.27132; p = 0.0001) dimensions, openness to experience was found to have a statistically and practically significant relationship. however, with istjr (r = −0.14585; p = 0.0221), openness to experience has a statistically and practically nonsignificant relationship. in addition, neuroticism was also found to have a statistically and practically significant relationship with job crafting (r = 0.29981; p = 0.0001). for dhjd (r = 0.56202; p = 0.0001) and icjd (r = 0.25881; p = 0.0001) dimensions, neuroticism was also found to have a statistically and practically significant relationship. however, for istjr (r = −0.00435; p = 0.9459) and isjr (r = 0.00186; p = 0.9768) dimensions, neuroticism has a statistically and practically nonsignificant relationship. furthermore, total big five was found to have a statistically and practically significant relationship with job crafting (r = −0.28658; p = 0.0001). for dhjd (r = −0.25461; p = 0.0001) and isjr (r = −0.35145; p = 0.0001) dimensions, total big five has a statistically and practically significant relationship as well. however, for istjr (r = −0.06409; p = 0.3167) and icjd (r = −0.07763; p = 0.2251) dimensions, total big five has a statistically and practically nonsignificant relationship. table 5 shows the results of a standard multiple regression. a standard multiple regression was used to determine the extent at which the big five factors of conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experiences and neuroticism predicted job crafting. the aim was to find out the unique contributions of each factor on job crafting. as shown in table 4, the regression model accounted for 30.6% of the variance (r2 = 0.306; f = 21.172; p = 0.001). the present study found that conscientiousness was a statistically and practically significant predictor of job crafting (β = 0.299; t = 4.28; p = 0.0001). this finding therefore implies that hypothesis 1 was rejected. agreeableness was also found to be a statistically and practically significant predictor of job crafting (β = −0.283; t = 4.17; p = 0.0001). this finding therefore means that hypothesis 3 was supported. in addition, openness to experience was also found to be a statistically and practically significant predictor of job crafting (β = −0.305; t = −5.50; p = 0.0001). this finding implies that hypothesis 4 was also confirmed. furthermore, neuroticism was also found to be a statistically and practically significant predictor of job crafting (β = −0.327; t = 5.06; p = 0.0001). this finding means that hypothesis 5 was also confirmed. however, extraversion was found to be a statistically and practically nonsignificant predictor of job crafting (β = −0.085; t = -1.26; p = 0.2106). this finding therefore means that hypothesis 2 was rejected. the beta weights coefficients of the big five factors also revealed that neuroticism was the highest predictor of job crafting, followed by openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and lastly, extraversion. table 5: coefficients showing the relative contribution of each of the dimensions of big five factors in predicting job crafting. discussion the purpose of the present study was to determine the role of big five factors on predicting job crafting propensities amongst fort hare university’s administrative employees. big five factors have been found to be associated with many job behaviours (ozer & benet-martinez, 2006). they provide a very important foundation for determining the role of personality on job crafting behaviours (komarraju et al., 2011). the big five factors of personality are conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience and neuroticism (mehmetoglu, 2012). the multiple regression analysis results revealed that conscientiousness has a statistically and practically significant role on predicting job crafting propensities. conscientious administrative employees within a tertiary institution environment engage in job crafting behaviours. this finding is uncommon because the attributes of conscientious individuals are not congruent with job crafting behaviours. moreover, the pearson correlation results of the present study also revealed that conscientiousness and job crafting variables are statistically and practically nonsignificantly related. there is a shortage of previous studies that have been conducted to relate these variables. however, researchers found that conscientious individuals adhere to standards set and have a strong and deeply embedded work ethic that developed when they were still young (bell & murugan, 2013). as such, they are not likely to adjust their formal job descriptions to suit their needs, skills and preferences (tims et al., 2013). the findings of the present study therefore make the study an important one, and more research is needed to confirm the predictive validity of a conscientious personality on job crafting. the multiple regression analysis results also showed that extraversion has a statistically and practically nonsignificant role on predicting job crafting behaviours. extraverted administrative employees within a tertiary institution environment do not engage themselves in job crafting activities. this finding is very unique because the attributes of an extraverted individual are congruent with job crafting behaviours. the pearson correlation results of the present study also showed that extraversion and job crafting are statistically and practically significantly associated. these findings therefore make the present study important. however, there is a shortage of previous studies that have been conducted to link extraversion and job crafting. and more research is also needed to confirm the predictive validity of an extraversion personality on job crafting. researchers found that extraverted individuals value interpersonal relations, and have greater energetic behavioural tendency towards the world (bono, & judge, 2004). as such, extraverted individuals are more likely to craft their jobs if they do not satisfy their interpersonal needs and competences. the multiple regression analysis results also revealed that agreeableness has a statistically and practically significant role on predicting job crafting propensities. agreeable administrative employees within a tertiary institution therefore engage themselves in self-initiated change behaviours with the aim to align their jobs with their own preferences, motives and passions. the pearson correlation results of the present study also found that agreeableness and job crafting are statistically and practically significantly related. there is a shortage of previous studies that have been conducted to link these variables. the results of the present study also make the study a unique one. the attributes of agreeable individuals in general suggest that such individuals are not likely to engage in self-initiated change behaviours on their jobs because they are prosocial and cooperative (fincham & rhodes, 2005). furthermore, the multiple regression analysis results also showed that open to experience has a statistically and practically significant role on predicting job crafting behaviours. openness to experience administrative employees within a tertiary institution environment engage themselves in job crafting behaviours. the pearson correlation results of the present study also found that openness to experience and job crafting are statistically and practically significantly associated. there is a shortage of previous studies that have been conducted to link these variables, and this makes the findings of the present study important. however, the attributes of openness to experience individuals are more congruent with job crafting behaviours. such individuals have a flexible cognitive map and experiential tendencies, are open to their own perspectives and have an active imagination power (mondak, 2010). as such, they could change their job tasks and responsibilities prescribed in their job formal descriptions to satisfy their own needs, competences and preferences (tims et al., 2013). more researches are needed in the south african environment to confirm the predictive validity of openness to experience on job crafting behaviour. lastly, the multiple regression analysis results also indicated that neuroticism has a statistically and practically significant role on predicting job crafting propensities. neurotic or unstable administrative employees within an institution craft their jobs tasks and responsibilities. the pearson correlation results of the present study also showed that neuroticism and job crafting are statistically and practically significantly related. there is a shortage of previous studies that have been conducted to link these variables, and this makes the subject areas worthy of more research. however, the attributes of neurotic or unstable individuals are more congruent with job crafting behaviours. such individuals lack positive psychological adjustment and emotional stability (greenberg, 2011). they have a high level of instability, stress proneness, personal insecurity and depression (mehmetoglu, 2012). as such, they could engage in job crafting strategies to manage their emotional weaknesses (berg et al., 2007; bosnjak et al., 2007). more researches are also needed to confirm the predictive validity of neuroticism on job crafting. practical implications the present study suggests that having knowledge of the predictive role of the big five factors on job crafting may help managers of tertiary institutions to understand the impact of their job design interventions on administrative employees. employees engage in job crafting in response to the ways in which their jobs have been designed for them by managers (tims et al., 2012). the present study may therefore help managers to understand the informal job-related behaviours that administrative employees within a tertiary institution environment engage themselves in as they attempt to achieve a more optimal job functionality (wrzesniewski et al., 2013). this study found that administrative employees within a tertiary institution environment with a conscientious, agreeable, open to experience or neurotic personality engage themselves in job crafting behaviours. as such, they increase structural job resources, decrease hindering job demands, increase social job resources and increase challenging job demands. because this study and other previous studies have confirmed that employees engage in job crafting behaviours, this study suggests that managers of tertiary institutions should involve administrative employees when designing their jobs. they should employ participative management strategies to allow administrative employees to contribute to their job designs. such strategies may enable managers to bridge the differences between their preferences as managers and the administrative employees’ preferences. the present study also suggests that managers of tertiary institutions may formalise job crafting because it improves the well-being of employees. this may be achieved when employees are allowed craft their job demands and resources (tims et al., 2011). limitations of the study several limitations need to be considered when the results of the present study are interpreted. firstly, the sample used was confined to a relatively small group of an institution’s administrative employees. this therefore limits the application of the research results to the populations of different organisations. testing the variables on different organisations may help to make strong conclusions about the predictive validity of big five factors on job crafting. secondly, the present study employed self-reported questionnaires to collect data. this means that participants may have responded to the questionnaires in a socially desirable manner and may therefore not have given accurate responses that reflected themselves and their real situations about themselves. thirdly, the present study used a nonprobability convenience sampling method, which also limits the generalisability of results to other organisations. finally, the cross-sectional nature of the present study limits the nature of data obtained to a specific period of time. recommendations for future research the present study recommends that longitudinal studies should be conducted to elicit better information about the predictive role of big five factors on job crafting over time. there is a shortage of previous studies that have been conducted to link the variables under study. however, previous studies have only focused on proactive personality, self-efficacy and self-regulation as the antecedents on job crafting (tims & bakker, 2010). the present study found that conscientiousness and agreeableness predicted job crafting behaviours, but the attributes of these factors are not congruent with job crafting behaviours. also, the study found that extraversion was a nonsignificant predictor of job crafting behaviours, but the attributes of extraverted individuals are more congruent with job crafting behaviours. the present study therefore needs to be replicated by future researchers to confirm its research findings. macro-scale studies should be conducted in multisites to allow the findings to be generalised beyond the population of the present study. conclusion notwithstanding the weakness of the research design, the findings of the present study contribute new ideas into the theoretical knowledge of job crafting. it also provides empirical evidence in support of big five factors as the predictors of job crafting, as the previous researchers have highlighted that they are associated with many job behaviours (ozer & benet-martinez, 2006). this therefore further supports a proposition by a person–job fit theory that the less the congruence between employees’ attributes of conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience and neuroticism and those required in their jobs, the greater the propensities for them to engage themselves in job crafting behaviours in their organisations to achieve a person–job fit (greenberg, 2011). it is also expected that the present study will stimulate more researches on the predictive validity of big five personalities on job crafting propensities. acknowledgements this research was funded by the govan mbeki research and development centre (university of fort hare, south africa). competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions c.b. was the leader of the project. as such, he was responsible for designing the research methodology, analysing the research data, writing the subject content of the paper, and editing the paper with regards to content, structure, and language. n.n. was responsible for data collection and its procedures that needed to be followed. she also edited the referencing of the paper. furthermore, she was also responsible for editing editor’s final comments. references bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2007). the job demands–resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22, 309–328. bell, c., & murugan, c. (2013). the relationship between conscientiousness, extraversion and leadership effectiveness among local government managers in eastern cape, south africa. african journal of business management, 7, 4386–4397. bell, c., murugan, c., & nel, p. (2014). the impact of participative and directive leadership on organisational culture: an organisational development perspective. mediterranean journal of social science, 5, 2039–2117. benet-martinez, v., & john, o.p. (1998). los cinco grandes across cultures and ethnic groups: multitrait-multimethod analyses of the big five in spanish and english. journal of personality and social psychology, 75, 729–750. berg, j.m., dutton, j.e., & wrzesniewski, a. (2007). what is job crafting and why does it matter? theory-to-practice briefing. regents of the university of michigan, ross school of business: michigan. berg, j.m., wrzesniewsk, a., & dutton, j.e. (2010). perceiving and responding to challenges in job crafting at different ranks: when proactivity requires adaptivity. journal of organizational behaviour, 31, 158–186. bono, j.e., & judge, t.a. (2004). personality and transformational and transactional leadership: a meta-analysis. journal of applied psychology, 89(5), 901–910. bosnjak, m., galesic, m., & tuten, t.l. (2007). personality determinants of online shopping: explaining online purchase intentions using a hierarchal approach. journal of business research, 60(6), 597–605. costa, p.t., & mccrae, r.r. (1992). the five-factor model of personality and its relevance to personality disorders. journal of personality disorders, 6, 343–359. dingman, j.m. (1990). personality structure: emergence of the five-factor model. annual review of psychology, 41(4), 17–40. durheim, k., & painter, d. (2006). collecting quantitative data. in m. terre blanche, k. durheim, & d. painter (eds.), research methods in practice: applied methods for the social sciences, (pp. 132–159). cape town: uct press. fincham, r., & rhodes, p. (2005). principles of organisational behaviour. (5th edn.). new york: oxford university press. funder, d.c. (2001). personality. annual review of psychology, 52, 197–221. greenberg, j. (2011). behaviour in organisations: understanding and managing the human side of work. england: pearson education international. gregory, r.j. (2007). psychological testing: history, principles, and applications. (5th edn.). boston, ma: pearson international edition. hair, j.f., wolfinbarger, m., ortinau, d.j., & bush, r.p. (2008). essentials of marketing research. new york: mcgraw-hill companies, inc. huysamen, g.k. (1994). methodology for the social and behavioural sciences. pretoria: southern book publishers. john, o.p., & srivastava, s. (1999). the big five trait taxonomy: history, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. in l.a. pervin, & o.p. john (eds.), handbook of personality: theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 102–138). new york: guilford press. john, o.p., donahue, e.m., & kentle, r.l. (1991). the big five inventory-versions 4a and 54 berkeley. berkeley, ca: institute of personality and social research, university of california. komarraju, m., karau, s.j., schmeck, r.r., & avdic, a. (2011). the big five personality traits, learning styles, and academic achievement. personality and individual differences, 51, 472–477. larose, r., & eastin, m.s. (2002). is online buying out of control? electronic commerce and consumer self-regulation. journal of broadcasting and electronic media, 46(4), 549–564. larsen, r.j., & buss, d.m. (2010). personality psychology: domains of knowledge about human nature. (4th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. lounsbury, j., loveland, j., sundstrom, e., gibson, l., drost, a., & hamrick, f.l. (2003). career satisfaction. journal of career assessment, 11(3), 287–307. matzler, k., faullant, r., renzl, b., & leiter, v. (2005). the relationship between personality traits (extraversion and neuroticism), emotions and customer self-satisfaction. innovative marketing, 1(2), 9–32. mccrae, r.r., & costa, p.t. (2003). personality in adulthood: a five-factor theory perspective (2nd edn.). new york: guilford press. mehmetoglu, m. (2012). personality effects on experiential consumption. personality and individual differences, 52, 94–99. mondak, j.j. (2010). personality and the foundations of political behaviour. new york: cambridge university press. nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, j. (1994). psychometric theory. new york, ny: mcgraw hill. ozer, d.j., & benet-martinez, v. (2006). personality and the prediction of consequential outcomes. annual review of psychology, 57, 401–421. raosoft, inc. (2004). raosoft sample size calculator. retrieved november 22, 2013, from http://www.raosoft.com/samplesize.html roberts, b.w., kuncel, n.r., shiner, r., caspi, a., & goldberg, l.r. (2007). the power of personality: the comparative validity of personality traits, socioeconomic status, and cognitive ability for predicting important life outcomes. association for psychological science, 4(2), 313–345. schaufeli, w.b. (2013). what is engagement? in c. truss, k. alfes, r. delbridge, a. shantz, & e. soane (eds.), employee engagement in theory and practice. (pp. 1–37). london: routledge. schiffman, l.g., & kanuk, l.l. (2007). consumer behaviour. new jersey: pearson prentice hall. steyn, h.s. (2002). practically significant relationships between two variables. sa journal of industrial psychology, 28(3), 10–15. tims, m., & bakker, a.b. (2010). job crafting: towards a new model of individual job redesign. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(2), 1–9. tims, m., bakker, a.b., & derks, d. (2012). development and validation of the job crafting scale. journal of vocational behaviour, 80, 173–186. tims, m., bakker, a.b., & derks, d. (2013). the impact of job crafting on job demands, job resources, and well-being. journal of occupational health psychology, 18(2), 230–240. tims, m., bakker, a.b., & derks, d. (2014). daily job crafting and the self-efficacy–performance relationship. journal of managerial psychology, 5(29), 490–507. vreugdenhil, h., kooij, t.a.m., & van veldhoven, m.j.p.m. (2012). do older employees use task crafting in order to reduce the perceived misfit with their job: the influence of future time perspective and proactive personality-a diary study? master thesis human resource studies, universiteit van tilburg. welman, c., kruger, f., & mitchell, b. (2005). research methodology. (3rd edn.). oxford: southern africa. wrzesniewski, a., lobuglio, n., dutton, j.e., & berg, j.m. (2013). job crafting and cultivating positive meaning and identity in work. advances in positive organizational psychology, 1, 281–302. article information authors: given r.b. moloto1 lizelle brink1 j. alewyn nel1 affiliations: 1workwell research unit for economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom campus, south africa correspondence to: lizelle brink postal address: private bag x6001, north-west university, potchefstroom 2520, south africa dates: received: 18 july 2013 accepted: 19 nov. 2013 published: 25 feb. 2014 how to cite this article: moloto, g.r.b., brink, l., & nel, j.a. (2014). an exploration of stereotype perceptions amongst support staff within a south african higher education institution. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12(1) art. #573, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.573 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. an exploration of stereotype perceptions amongst support staff within a south african higher education institution in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • problem statement       • background    • literature review       • types of stereotypes       • consequences of stereotypes • research design    • research approach    • research strategy    • research method       • research setting       • entrée and establishing researcher roles       • sampling       • data collection methods       • recording of data       • data analysis       • strategies employed to ensure quality data       • reporting       • findings       • perceived stereotypes about oneself (category 1)       • the experience of stereotypes (category 2)       • perceived stereotypes about others (category 3) • discussion       • practical implications       • limitations of the study    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors' contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: after the 1994 democratic elections, south african organisations had to replace discriminatory policies with new policies to integrate all people and to embrace diversity. as a consequence stereotypes may be more prevalent in diverse working environments. research purpose: the objective of this study was to explore the experience of stereotypes amongst the support staff within a higher education institution. motivation for this study: changes within south african working environments, and specifically higher education institutions, resulted in more diverse management teams and a more culturally diverse workforce. with this in mind, the experience of stereotypes may become more prevalent within south african working environments. many researchers have focused on stereotypes; however, studies on stereotypes within south africa are limited, especially within higher education institutions. research approach, design and method: the research approach was qualitative and a case study design was employed. a combination of both quota and convenience sampling was used. the sample consisted of (n = 30) support staff within a higher education institution in south africa. semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. main findings: the results indicated that the participants do experience stereotypes within their workplace and also hold stereotypes of other people within their workplace. the most prevalent stereotypes mentioned by participants were age, gender, racial and occupational stereotypes. there is also an indication that stereotypes have cognitive, emotional and behavioural effects on the stereotyped. practical/managerial implications: organisations should do away with stereotyping by embracing and managing diversity and dealing with stereotypes, specifically within higher education institutions. when managers are aware of stereotypes and the effects thereof in the organisation, they can make every effort to eradicate the stereotypes and address the impact thereof. contribution: in an environment where there is a diverse workforce, stereotyping is more likely to exist. this study will provide useful information about stereotypes within a higher education institution seeing that there are a limited number of studies on this topic within south africa and within this specific occupation. the results of the study will enlighten the organisation to become more aware of stereotypes and the debilitating impact that they have on the individual and the organisation, thereby providing the organisation with the opportunity to address stereotypes and the impact thereof on employees and the organisation. introduction top ↑ problem statement background according to mayekiso and snodgrass (2008), the political, economic, social and technological landscape in post-apartheid south africa is demanding and challenging. this is because south africa is undergoing a process of transformation since the first democratic elections in 1994. institutions and organisations are fundamentally changed as individuals come into contact with people who think, look and live differently. in addition to the many and varied structural changes occurring in south african institutions of higher education, academic leaders face increasing diversity issues. these issues relate to race, age, gender, marital status, sexual orientation and so forth because of a changing and diverse workforce (mayekiso & snodgrass, 2008). de klerk and radloff (2010) mention that the challenge facing universities is to respond quickly to the national imperative to facilitate transformation, both in terms of day-to-day institutional practices as well as perceptions, attitudes and mindsets. although very elusive and invisible, these are the most powerful determinants of the prospects for success in any efforts to achieve real change.according to bowen, kurzweil and tobin (2005), higher education institutions have become the gatekeepers to full social, economic and political citizenship. yet, they remain a long way from reaching the goal of becoming genuinely inclusive, diverse and democratic. norris (1996) states that although most higher education institutions have changed their admission and recruitment policies, they still do not reflect the demographics of south african society. niemann (2006) states that the education sector in south africa has to be prepared to facilitate diversity to ensure the effective functioning of its institutions. the problem is that managers have to know how to plan for and handle such issues. according to gordon (2001), a diverse workforce also includes people with varying attitudes. people have an array of beliefs, formed in large part from their socio-economic and cultural backgrounds and other experiences and these varying beliefs likely result in different attitudes. niemann (2006) mentions that management teams and employees have to change their attitudes regarding a range of issues, from racial and gender attitudes to attitudes about the disabled. this has to be done in order to comply with south african legislation, and to adjust and effectively manage the different contexts in which institutions or organisations are presently operating. one of the biggest obstacles in dealing with such a diverse workforce is breaking through people’s conceived attitudes about those who are different from themselves (mckinney, 1996). all of these differences can lead to stereotyping, which may result in workplace tension (solovic, 2010). buelens, sinding, waldstrøm, kreitner and kinicki (2011) agree with this by stating that diversity contributes to stereotypes forming in the organisation, which causes conflict and in turn influences the organisational climate. roberson and kulik (2007) suggest that managers should converse with their employees about stereotypes; one manner in which this can be achieved is diversity training that specifically equips managers with the necessary skills and confidence to do so. literature review kassin, fein and markus (2011) define a stereotype as a belief or association that links a whole group of people with certain traits or characteristics. stereotyping refers to a set of assumptions held about an individual or situation based on previous experience or societal norms (sargeant, 2011). according to rake and lewis (2009), once a stereotype is applied to an individual, it is assumed that they will behave in a certain way, in line with a fixed general idea or set of associated images. hinton (2000) states that people use stereotypes, often unconsciously in an unfamiliar situation, in first meetings, which could be one of the reasons why people categorise. schneider (2004) states that stereotypes often seem to be integrally related to the group memberships and to conflict between groups. he further states that people seem to have stronger and more negative stereotypes about groups to which they do not belong (i.e. out-group) than to those to which they do (in-group). kreitner and kinicki (2004) and kassin et al. (2011) state that stereotypes are not always negative and inaccurate; some are more accurate than others. although many stereotypes are based on completely illusory information or perceptions, some do stem from a kernel of truth, and still others may be fairly accurate (kassin et al., 2011). burgess (2003) also states that stereotypes are only a problem when they are inaccurate, especially when those inaccuracies are negative and hostile. sanderson (2010) states that although stereotypes may sometimes be relatively harmless, they can also lead to prejudice, which means hostile or negative feelings about people based on their group membership. according to brotherton (2007), stereotypes can be both causes and consequences of prejudice. stereotypes underlie all prejudice, and pervade acts of violence, segregation and discrimination against minority groups (moore, 2006). dovidio, glick and rudman (2005) point out that the stereotype acts as both a justificatory device for categorical acceptance or rejection of a group, and as a screening or selective device to maintain simplicity in perception in thinking. types of stereotypes there are different types of stereotypes found in literature (falkenberg, 1990; larkin, 2008; plous, 2003). this study focused mainly on the four common types of stereotypes: age, gender, racial and occupational stereotypes. these types of stereotypes appear to exist in many working environments.age stereotypes: sargeant (2011) states that age stereotyping is concerned with associating certain characteristics, or lack of them, with certain ages. robinson, gustafson and popovich (2008) mention that age stereotypes homogenise the particular age group as being all the same rather than recognising any diversity within that age group. age stereotypes reinforce age discrimination because of their negative orientation (kreitner & kinicki, 2004). this type of stereotype is not restricted to older people; it can apply to all ages and age groups (sargeant, 2011). long-standing age stereotypes depict older workers as less satisfied, not as involved with their work, less motivated and less productive than the young workers (kreitner & kinicki, 2004). younger workers are perceived to be more dynamic, enthusiastic and more friendly with regard to information technology (sargeant, 2011). according to kreiter and kinicki (2004), these stereotypes are based more on fiction than fact. gordon (2001) argues that the myths about older workers’ inability to learn, slow speed of response and inflexibility are not true because older workers can demonstrate the same creativity, adaptability and manageability as younger workers. gender stereotypes: kreitner and kinicki (2004) define gender stereotypes as beliefs that differing traits and abilities make men and women well suited to different roles. gender stereotypes tend to be prescriptive as well as descriptive (fiske & stevens, 1993). madden (2011) states that gender stereotypes are pervasive and have an impact on all aspects of women’s and men’s behaviour. prime, jonsen, carter and maznevski (2008) suggest that men’s stereotypes have the potential to undermine women, even when the stereotypes may be seen as positive. research by eagly and karau (2002) finds that women are perceived as modestly more effective in education, government and social services than in other kinds of organisations. women are perceived to be more submissive, emotional, affectionate, talkative, patient and creative than men. men, on the other hand, are perceived to be more assertive, aggressive, courageous, competitive and ambitious than women (kreitner & kinicki, 2004). racial stereotypes: according to pauker, ambady and apfelbaum (2010) individuals are divided into social categories on the basis of their race. stereotypes about racial groups have various negative consequences. according to fiske and taylor (1991) negative racial stereotypes may result in prejudice such that individuals are seen as unsuitable for a specific position because of their race. powell and butterfield (2002) add to this by stating that white men are often viewed as being better suited for high-status positions than individuals of other races. not only do racial stereotypes influence our perceptions, but they also influence our feelings and behaviours towards races different from our own (gordijn, finchilescu, brix, wijnants & koomen, 2006). occupational stereotypes: occupational stereotyping has been defined as a preconceived attitude about a particular occupation, about people who are employed in that occupation, and about one’s own suitability for that occupation (lipton, o’connor, terry & bellamy, 1991). several studies have demonstrated that stereotypes of people in different jobs exist (mclean & kalin, 1994) and that particular traits are deemed more suitable for some jobs than for others (arkkelin & o’connor, 1992). according to larkin (2008), many jobs are still perceived as better suited to women (e.g. nurse, preschool teacher) or men (e.g. construction worker, truck driver). oswald (2003) state that occupational titles associated with men are perceived to be more prestigious than those associated primarily with women. examples of occupational stereotypes include ‘lawyers are liars’ and ‘car salesmen are dishonest’ (basow, 1992). consequences of stereotypes according to singletary, ruggs, hebl and davies (2009), stereotypes about an individual’s group, which can be shaped as either positive or negative, elicit a variety of emotions. negative stereotypes often cause negative responses which can manifest themselves in the stereotyped individual’s reactions, performance on a task, motivation and self-esteem (singletary et al., 2009). research has shown that the threat of being evaluated, judged by or treated in terms of a negative stereotype can cause individuals to perform worse in a domain in which negative stereotypes exist about a group of which they are a member. spencer, steele and quinn (1999) and steele and aronson (1995) term this phenomenon as stereotype threat. stereotype threat exerts its effects through multiple processes (schmader, johns & forbes, 2008). one of these is the triggering of physiological arousal, which may interfere with people’s ability to perform well at the task at hand (ben-zeev, fein & inzlicht, 2005; blascovich, spencer, quinn & steele, 2001; o’brien & crandall, 2003). other negative physical health effects associated with constant exposure to stereotypes are coronary heart disease and hypertension (clark, anderson, clark & williams, 1999; mendes, major, mccoy & blaschovich, 2008). thomas, bardwell, ancoli-israel and dimsdale (2006) also report that other negative physiological effects are difficulty sleeping and constant fatigue. furthermore, gill (2012) mentions that in the corporate world, there is a high price to be paid for stereotyping and that includes litigation, lost employees, poor employee morale, lost sales and customers, difficulty hiring top-level employees, difficulty retaining employees and diminished productivity or profits. gill further mentions that people also suffer personal consequences when people judge other people based on bias, labels and stereotypes. people miss out on valuable experiences, connecting with others on a genuine level, gaining insights and forming sincere relationships. sanderson (2010) mentions that constant exposure to stereotypes is also associated with negative psychological effects. people who perceive discrimination due to racial stereotypes are more likely to report depression, sadness, helplessness, anxiety and substance abuse (branscombe, schmitt & harvey, 1999; gibbons, gerrard, cleveland, wills & brody, 2004; schmitt & branscombe, 2002). stereotype threat can also cause negative thoughts, worry and feelings of dejection, and they can cause individuals to focus more on trying to avoid failure than on achieving success (sanderson, 2010). schmader and johns (2003) also state that stereotype threat impairs the threatened individual’s working memory, which, of course, impairs task performance. from the above it is quite clear that stereotypes are an important topic that warrants further research. various stereotypes are prevalent within literature, and it is also evident that stereotypes have a definite impact on both the individual and the organisation. seeing that south africa is such a diverse country, it is possible that stereotypes are even more prevalent within the country. however, research in this regard is lacking in south africa, and specifically within higher education institutions. therefore, the objectives of this study is firstly to explore the different types of stereotypes that individuals working in a higher education experience themselves, secondly to determine how they experience these stereotypes and lastly to investigate the stereotypes these individuals hold of others within their working environment. research design top ↑ research approach the research approach that is followed in the study is qualitative research from a phenomenological approach. according to salkind (2009) this approach seeks to understand a given research problem or topic from the perspective of the local population it involves. it provides information about the ‘human’ side of an issue. the main goal of the phenomenological approach is to discover universal themes to explain the series of meanings of a phenomenon (lester, 1999). therefore the researchers of this study are focused on determining the description and experience of stereotypes as they experience it themselves. research strategy the case study is used as a design. according to salkind (2009) a case study is a method used to intensely study a person or an institution in a unique setting or situation. the study’s unit of analysis is individual employees working in a higher education institution. therefore several case studies were studied within a higher education institution. research method research setting this research took place at a higher education institution within south africa. the participants were interviewed at their offices for the sake of convenience, so that they could feel comfortable and to ensure privacy. a ‘do not disturb’ sign was put outside their doors to avoid disruptions. the researcher introduced herself in a welcoming and friendly manner to ensure that the participants were at ease. the researcher then clearly explained the context of the interview and, with the permission of the participant, the interview was tape recorded. entrée and establishing researcher roles permission was requested from the authorities of the higher education institution to conduct the research and to conduct interviews with the participants working at the institution. the participants were contacted, and dates and times that best suited them were scheduled. the researcher explained the purpose of the study and the context of the interview. the researcher explained to the participants what was expected of them, the amount of time likely to be required for participation, the fact that their participation was voluntary, that they could withdraw at any time with no negative repercussions and how confidentiality would be ensured. all this information was provided in a language that the participant could understand. permission was requested from the participants to tape record the interview sessions. the participants were requested to sign a consent form after being provided with the above-mentioned information. sampling for this study, a combination of both quota and convenience sampling was used. in quota sampling, the purpose is to draw a sample that has the same proportions of characteristics as the population (bless, higson-smith & kagee, 2006). quota sampling is often more convenient and economical and data can be collected at an arbitrary location (bless et al., 2006). macnealy (1999) states that convenience sampling includes participants who are readily available and agree to participate in a study. the criteria for inclusion in this research was individuals who: (1) were support staff working in the academic environment, (2) were able to speak english, (3) differed according to age, gender and race and (4) were willing to participate in the research and prepared to have a tape-recorded interview with the researcher. the sample consisted of support staff (n = 30) within a higher education institution in south africa. over half of the participants were female (53%). in terms of race, 53% of the sample was black, whilst 20% were white and another 20% were mixed race. only 7% of the participants were indian. with regard to language, 27% were afrikaans speakers, whilst 20% were english speaking and a further 20% were setswana speakers. the majority of the sample group (93%) had a postgraduate degree qualification; the rest had obtained further education and training. data collection methods semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. an interview schedule was developed before conducting the interviews. the interview started with an introduction and an explanation of the purpose of the research. all participants were asked the following three standard questions:• ‘do you associate yourself with any stereotypes within your workplace?’ (do you think there are any stereotypes about yourself within your workplace?) • ‘how do you experience these stereotypes?’ • ‘what stereotypes do you hold of other people in your workplace?’ a pilot study was conducted with three participants from the support and administration staff of the higher education institution in order to ensure that these questions were understood correctly by the participants. each of the participants was requested to complete a short biographical questionnaire (gender, race, etc.) at the end of each interview. recording of data during the interview, the conversation was recorded with a tape recorder then transcribed at a later stage. participants gave consent to have tape-recorded interviews. the identities of participants remained anonymous. transcribed interviews and tape recorders were safely and securely stored. data analysis data was coded and, thereafter, analysed by the use of content analysis. according to kerlinger (2000) content analysis consists of the following steps:• step 1: content analysis is applied to get a collective understanding of the context that must be analysed. all the answers of the participants were defined and categorised. • step 2: sub-units of the analysis were determined, that is words and themes. the researcher examined all the respondents’ notes to attain a clear understanding. subsequently, the researcher examined the notes for the purpose of establishing themes. a continued analysis of the information was carried out until repeated themes were identified. the strong themes that were identified were explored further. • step 3: data was freed from redundant information in order to establish the meaning of sub-units by linking it to the whole picture. strategies employed to ensure quality data guba’s model for qualitative research (guba, 1981; krefting, 1991; lincoln & guba, 1985; terre blanche & durrheim, 1999) was used with the aim of ensuring the trustworthiness of the findings. these included credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability. credibility: according to streubert and carpenter (1999), credibility can be established when participants distinguish the reported research findings as their own experiences. this was done by ensuring that the views of the participants and the reconstruction of these views by the researcher coincided (schurink, fouche & de vos, 2011). transferability: transferability refers to the extent to which the results can be generalised to other contexts and settings (durrheim & wassenaar, 2002). transferability was achieved by richly describing the data. dependability: dependability entails that the research should show the same findings when it is repeated with the same or similar participants in the same context. in order to do this, the researcher documented the research process in a logical and well-structured manner (schurink et al., 2011). conformability: regarding conformability, the researcher remained neutral throughout the study and did not manipulate the research. reporting results were reported in table format. themes and sub-themes were extracted from the interviews and direct quotations were used to confirm results. the researchers only made use of the most descriptive quotations in order to substantiate the results of this study. findings the findings of this study were organised into three major categories and various themes and sub-themes. below, categories and relevant themes and sub-themes will be discussed. the various tables show the themes and sub-themes. direct quotations are also included to support the findings. perceived stereotypes about oneself (category 1) in this category, the participants were requested to give examples of stereotypes that they associate with themselves within their workplace. it was clear that the participants do identify themselves with the stereotypes that are in existence within their workplace. however, a third of the participants indicated that they did not associate themselves with any stereotypes within their workplace.table 1 indicates the broad themes on the perceived stereotypes about oneself, the sub-themes, characteristics as well as the examples of original responses that were analysed. the main perceived stereotypes about oneself included age, gender, occupational, qualifications and racial. examples of the stereotypes that the participants associate with themselves are as follows: table 1: perceived stereotypes about oneself. age: young employees believe that they are perceived to be incompetent by older employees. older employees associate themselves with the stereotype that they are seen to be more mature and professional but on the other hand are seen to be inefficient by younger employees.gender: men perceive themselves to be valuable. women associate themselves with the stereotype that they are inefficient, incompetent and not intelligent. women see themselves as having to work hard to prove themselves, be more assertive to pull rank and they feel they are disregarded as leaders, undervalued and that they are taken advantage of. occupational: human resources personnel perceive themselves to be undermined by other employees. human resources specialists associate themselves with the stereotype that they are conceited and knowledgeable. negotiators believe they are perceived to be untrustworthy. support staff have a perception that they are seen to be not intelligent. subordinates perceive themselves to be disregarded by managers. racial: black people perceive themselves to be stereotyped as being disrespectful, not intelligent, not hardworking, not knowledgeable, incompetent and involved in criminal activities. mixed race people associate themselves with the stereotypes that they are gangsters, drink a lot and are wild and incompetent. indian people are of the opinion that they are viewed as being crooks and materialistic. white people believe that they are stereotyped to be conceited, knowledgeable and racist. expatriates identify themselves with the stereotype that there are limited employment opportunities for them. the most reported perceived stereotype about oneself is the racial stereotype whilst stereotypes about expatriates are the least reported. most of the participants seemed to have negative perceptions about themselves across the different groupings within their workplace. the only group that seemed to have a positive perception about themselves were male participants. the experience of stereotypes (category 2) the participants were requested to give an account of the stereotypes they were confronted with and how they experience them. whilst many participants gave account of their experiences, a number of participants reported that they were not bothered by the stereotypes and that the stereotypes had no effect on them.table 2 indicates the broad themes on the experience of stereotypes, the sub-themes and the examples of original responses that were analysed. stereotypes can have different effects on different people. kreitner and kinicki (2004) provide an explanation of different effects as follows: emotional effect includes the feelings or emotions one has about an object or situation. cognitive effect is the belief or ideas one has about an object or situation. behavioural effect is how one intends to act or behave towards someone or something. the broad themes that were identified include: table 2: experience of stereotypes. behavioural effect: the participants reported that when they are confronted with stereotypes they respond by either, avoiding the person who holds the stereotype, becoming defensive, having to prove themselves or becoming suspicious.cognitive effect: many participants reported that they experience stereotypes to be challenging, discriminating, derogatory, limiting, negative, cynicism, doubting and excluding. emotional effect: the participants reported that they feel frustrated, agitated, irritated, sad and embarrassed when confronted with stereotypes. the theme that included the most sub-themes was cognitive effect with eight sub-themes identified as: challenging, discriminating, derogatory, limiting, negative, cynicism, doubting and excluded. the theme with the least number of sub-themes was behavioural effect. most of the different effects mentioned by the participants were negative. perceived stereotypes about others (category 3) in this category, the participants were requested to give an account of stereotypes that they held of other people. whilst it was evident that some participants did hold stereotypes of other people, a number of participants reported that they do not stereotype as they believe that they are open-minded, exposed to diverse groups and that they could form their own impressions.table 3 shows the broad themes on the perceived stereotypes about others, the sub-themes, the characteristics as well as examples of original responses that were analysed. the main perceived stereotypes about others included: table 3: perceived stereotypes about others. age: older employees perceive young employees to be conceited and technologically advanced. on the other hand, the young employees perceive the older employees to be all-knowing, begrudging and technologically challenged.culture: zulu men are perceived to be polygamous whereas sotho men are seen to be more assertive. gender: men are stereotyped as being valuable. black men are stereotyped to be patronising, ambitious and resistant to change. occupational: human resources employees are perceived to be superior. academics are stereotyped to be conceited, troublesome, undermining, critical, rude and mean. negotiators are seen to be rude. managers are stereotyped to be narrow-minded, intimidating, incompetent and controlling. racial: white people are seen to be conceited, not knowledgeable about other races; however, they are also viewed as not being racist. the theme that had the most number of sub-themes was occupational stereotypes whereas the culture theme had the least number of sub-themes. most participants held negative stereotypes about different groupings within their workplace. discussion top ↑ the aim of this study was to explore the experiences of stereotyping on individuals working within a higher education institution. the first research objective was to determine the stereotypes that the participants associate with themselves in their workplace. the research findings give an indication that the participants associate themselves with the following stereotypes: age, gender, occupational and racial stereotypes. women see themselves as having to overcompensate to prove themselves, be more assertive to pull rank and they feel they are disregarded as leaders, undervalued and taken advantage of. they also associate themselves with the stereotype that they are inefficient, incompetent and not intelligent. literature supports this finding as men are often perceived to be better managers or leaders than women (heilman, wallen, fuchs & tamkins, 2004; still, 2006). coward (2010) states that people are conditioned to expect women to be less competent; therefore, women have to prove to be overly competent to be taken seriously. amble (2005) mentions that women leaders will always be undermined and misjudged, regardless of their talents or aptitudes. the results of this study indicate that the respondents hold more negative stereotypes about themselves. schneider (2004) states that people seem to have stronger and more negative stereotypes about groups to which they do not belong than about those to which they do, which contradicts the findings of this study. with regard to the age stereotype, the research findings give an indication that young people associate themselves with the perception that they are incompetent. older people associate themselves with the stereotype that they are mature and professional but, on the other hand, inefficient. rupp, vodanovich and crede (2006) state that managers with significant age-based bias cited older employees for poor performance more often and more severely than they cited younger employees. however, according to mcgregor (2002) young workers also face prejudice based upon stereotypes. prenda and stahl (2001) mention that even though younger employees may be faster than older employees at certain computer-related tasks, they are not more accurate. the results of this study indicate that, in terms of the occupational stereotypes, human resources personnel perceive themselves to be undermined. human resources specialists see themselves as conceited and knowledgeable. support staff is believed to be not intelligent and managers are perceived to disregard subordinates. according to fein and spencer (1997) individuals negatively stereotype others in order to feel better about themselves, which may also explain the results of this study. in terms of the racial stereotypes, black people believe themselves to be perceived as disrespectful, unreliable, not intelligent, not hardworking, not knowledgeable, criminals and incompetent. people of mixed race think they are viewed as being gangsters, drinking a lot and being wild and incompetent. recent literature has also found that these stereotypes do exist about mixed race individuals (adhikari, 2006; talbot & durrheim, 2012). indians associate themselves with the perception that they are crooks and materialistic. according to blaine (2007), indians are associated with stereotypes that they are timid, sly, conforming and untrustworthy. white people feel they are viewed as being conceited, knowledgeable and racist. according to schneider (2004), white people described themselves as competitive, lazy, intelligent, independent and arrogant, which confirms the study findings. it is evident that most of the stereotypes mentioned were negative. blaine (2007) confirms this by stating that stereotypes of many social groups are predominantly composed of negatively valued qualities. the second research objective was to determine how the participants experience stereotypes that they are confronted with. literature indicates that when confronted with stereotypes, people react differently: stereotypes have different effects on different people. it has been shown that stereotyping with negative images often leads to negative outcomes such as performance decrement (bargh, chen & burrows 1996; cadinu, maass, rosabianca & kiesner, 2005; shih, pittinsky & ambady 1999; steele 1997). the results of the study also indicate that the experiences of stereotypes were mostly negative. stereotypes can have cognitive, emotional and behavioural effects on the stereotyped group (gordon, 2001). such effects were also found in this study. a behavioural effect is a behaviour that occurs as a result of a person’s feeling about a focal person, object or situation (kreitner & kinicki, 2004). the results of this study indicate that most of the participants responded by either avoiding the person who holds the stereotype, becoming defensive, having to prove themselves and becoming suspicious when confronted with stereotypes. a cognitive effect occurs when individuals have beliefs about a certain person, object or situation that they accept as true based on their values and experiences (gordon, 2001). many participants reported that they experienced stereotypes to be challenging, discriminating, derogatory, limiting, negative and resulting in cynicism, doubt and exclusion. an emotional effect refers to the feelings that people have that result from their beliefs about a person, object or situation (kreitner & kinicki, 2004). the participants reported that they feel frustrated, agitated, irritated, sad and embarrassed when confronted with stereotypes. the third research objective was to determine what stereotypes the participants hold of other people within their workplace. it is clearly indicated by the data collected that the participants do hold negative stereotypes of other people within their workplace. according to onwunta and august (2007), most of the stereotypes that one can think of are predominantly negative. the authors further mentioned that it was true that some stereotyping may be positive, but that most of the popular stereotypes are negative and one hardly hears any positive stereotyping, especially about women. however, according to carpenter and hewstone (1996), contact between members of different groups enables discovery of mutual similarities and thereby positively changes stereotypical attitudes towards each other. the common stereotypes that the participants in this study held were stereotypes in terms of age, culture, gender, occupation, qualifications and race. the results of the present study indicate that older people perceive younger people to be conceited and technologically advanced, and young people perceive the older people to be all-knowing, begrudging and technologically challenged. regarding the age stereotype, older workers view older people more favourably than they do younger people (celejewski & dion, 1998; spears, doosje & ellemers, 1997). according to hedge, borman and lammlein (2006) age stereotypes and age norms can have a significant influence on expectations of performance, performance itself and how that performance is evaluated. results of this study also indicate that men are perceived to be valuable. blaine (2007) agrees with this by stating that men are perceived as better, more competent and more valuable people than women (blaine, 2007). in the present study, black men are perceived to be patronising, ambitious and resistant. schneider (2004) stated that black people described white people to be prejudiced, corrupt, mean and selfish, which is somewhat in agreement with the results of this study, where white people are seen to be conceited and not knowledgeable about other races. in terms of the occupational stereotypes, mandy, milton and mandy (2004) stated that stereotypical perceptions exist within certain professional groups. each professional group views itself more positively than it views the other professions (streed & stoecker, 1991); however, this was not the case in the present study. mandy et al. (2004) further state that occupational stereotypes might emerge due to the increased lack of understanding of each other’s professional role. in this study, human resources personnel were seen to be superior. academics were perceived to be conceited, troublesome, undermining, critical, rude and mean. managers were seen to be narrow-minded, intimidating, incompetent and controlling. people with low qualifications were seen to be inexperienced and incompetent. practical implications collins, walker and hamda (2011) state that organisations can do the following to become more aware of stereotypes that exist within the workplace: • challenge stereotypic comments and assumptions when they hear them. • suggest changes in systems and processes to make them more equitable and accessible. • spend time (e.g. meals, breaks) with people who are different from them in a variety of ways. • let people know that ethnic, gender, racial, religious and other jokes of that ilk are off limits. • suggest methods to hold all staff accountable for fair treatment and respectful behaviour. • speak up and educate when you hear a derogatory comment, slur or joke. • suggest resolution strategies when staff has diversity-related conflicts. • challenge your own assumptions and stereotypic thoughts. • give suggestions about ways to make the department more inclusive. • check out the facts before passing on information. for future research it is recommended that additional research designs such as multiple case studies, grounded theory or triangulation be considered to explore stereotypes. a bigger sample should also be used which includes support staff members from academic institutions from other provinces. it is also recommended that future research focus on including other occupational groups and not only focuses on support staff as they do not perform similar jobs. limitations of the study there are some limitations to this study. the method used in the study, the case study design, is not generalisable because it focuses on only a few individuals. the sample size was small, consisting of 30 support staff members only. this could have been extended to the academic staff as well. therefore, the results cannot be generalised for the whole institution. also, data was collected within only one higher education institution in gauteng and may, therefore, not be representative of all support staff within all higher education institutions in south africa. conclusion the findings of this study clearly indicate that stereotypes are indeed prevalent in a south african higher education institution. findings show that participants associate themselves with stereotypes and also hold stereotypes of others. the types of stereotypes that are most prevalent are age, gender, occupational and racial stereotypes. most of the stereotypes that were mentioned were negative in nature. it is also clear that stereotypes do have different effects on the persons being stereotyped, whether the effect is behavioural, cognitive or emotional. to conclude, stereotypes are indeed an important topic to study, considering the different types that are experienced within a diverse south africa, and the potential negative effects they have on individuals and organisations. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions g.r.b.m. (north-west university) collected the data, conducted the data analysis, conducted final integration of the data and wrote the introduction, literature review, research design, findings, discussion and conclusion. she sent the final draft for language editing and made corrections based on recommendations of the language editor. l.b. (north-west university) and j.a.n. (north-west university) reviewed the data analysis, provided feedback on the final integration of data and provided feedback on the final copy of the manuscript. references top ↑ adhikari, m. (2006). ‘god made the white man, god made the black man…’: popular racial stereotyping of coloured people in apartheid south africa. south african historical journal, 55, 142–164. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02582470609464935amble, b. (2005). gender stereotypes block women’s advancement. management issues. retrieved october 12, 2012, from http://www.management-issues.com/2006/8/24/research/gender-stereotypes-block-womens-advancement.asp arkkelin , d., & o’connor, r. jr. (1992). the good professional: effects of trait-profile gender type, androgyny, and likeables on impressions of incumbents of sex-typed occupation. sex roles, 26, 517–532. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf00290007 bargh, j.a., chen, m., & burrows, l. (1996). automaticity of social behavior: direct effects of trait construct and stereotype activation on action. journal of personality and social psychology, 71, 230–244. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.71.2.230 basow, s.a. (1992). gender stereotypes and roles. (3rd edn.). pacific grove, ca: brooks/cole publishing company. ben-zeev, t., fein, s., & inzlicht, m. (2005). arousal and stereotype threat. journal of experimental social psychology, 41, 174–181. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2003.11.007 blaine, b.e. (2007). understanding the psychology of diversity. thousand oaks, ca: sage blascovich, j., spencer, s.j., quinn, d.m., & steele, c.m. (2001). african-americans and high blood pressure: the role of stereotype threat. psychological science, 12, 225–229. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00340 bless, c., higson-smith, c., & kagee, a. (2006). fundamentals of social research methods: an african perspective. (4th edn.). cape town, south africa: juta & company ltd. bowen, w.g., kurzweil, m.a., & tobin, e.m. (2005). equity and excellence in american higher education. charlottesville, va: university of virginia press. branscombe, n.r., schmitt, m.t., & harvey, r.d. (1999). perceiving pervasive discrimination amongst african americans: implications for group identification and wellbeing. journal of personality and social psychology, 77, 135–149. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.77.1.135 brotherton, c. (2007). the social psychology of prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination. journal of community and applied social psychology, 17, 159–167. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/casp.890 buelens, m., sinding, k., waldstrøm, c., kreiter, r., & kinicki, a. (2011). organisational behaviour. (4th edn.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. burgess, h. (2003). stereotypes/characterization frames: beyond intractability. boulder, cl: conflict information consortium, university of colorado. retrieved september 20, 2012, from http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/stereotypes/ cadinu, m., maass, a., rosabianca, a., & kiesner, j. (2005). why do women underperform under stereotype threat? evidence for the role of negative thinking. psychological science, 16(7), 572–578. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.01577.x carpenter j., & hewstone m. (1996). shared learning for doctors and social workers. british journal of social work, 26, 239–257. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjsw.a011082 celejewski, i., & dion, k.k. (1998). self-perception and perception of age groups as a function of the perceiver’s category membership. international journal of aging & human development, 47, 205–216. http://dx.doi.org/10.2190/gl4r-fj7g-xgek-mrr6 clark, r., anderson, n.b., clark, v.r., & williams, d.r. (1999). racism as a stressor for african americans: a biopsychosocial model. american psychologist, 54, 805–816. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.54.10.805 collins, g., walker, m., & hamda, g. (2011). preaching to the choir on cultivating diversity in the workplace. retrieved october 12, 2012, from www.icatt.net coward, l.s. (2010). barriers to women’s progress: psychology as basis and solution. forum on public policy. retrieved october 13, 2012, from http://forumonpublicpolicy.com/vol2010no5/archivevol2010no5/coward.pdf de klerk, v., & radloff, s. (2010). measuring the effect of diversity interventions at a south african residential university. the international journal of diversity in organisations, communities and nations, 10(2), 25–46. dovidio, j.f., glick, p., & rudman l.a. (eds.). (2005). on the nature of prejudice: fifty years after allport. oxford, uk: blackwell publishers. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9780470773963 durrheim, k., & wassenaar, d. (2002). putting design into practice: writing and evaluating research proposals. in m. terre blanche, & k. durrheim (eds.) research in practice: applied methods for the social sciences (pp. 54–71). cape town, south africa: cape town university press. eagly, a.h., & karau, s.j. (2002). role congruity theory of prejudice towards female leaders. psychological review, 10(3), 573–598. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.109.3.573 falkenberg, l. (1990). improving the accuracy of stereotypes within the workplace. journal of management, 16(1), 107–118. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920639001600108 fein, s., & spencer, s.j. (1997). prejudice as self-image maintenance: affirming the self through derogating others. journal of personality and social psychology, 73, 31–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.73.1.31 fiske, s.t., & stevens, l.e. (1993). what’s so special about sex? gender stereotyping and discrimination. in s. oskamp, & m. costanzo (eds.), gender issues in contemporary society: applied social psychology annual, vol. 6, (pp.173–196). newbury park, ca: sage publications. fiske, s.t., & taylor, s.e. (1991). social cognition. (2nd edn.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. gibbons, f.x., gerrard, m., cleveland, m.j., wills, t.a., & brody, g. (2004). perceived discrimination and substance use in the american parents and their children: a panel study. journal of personality and social psychology, 86, 517–529. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.86.4.517 gill, g. (2012, january). avoiding stereotypes in the workplace. hrvoice.org. retrieved july 24, 2012, from http://www.hrvoice.org/avoiding-stereotypes-in-the-workplace/ gordijn, e., finchilescu, g., brix, l., wijnants, n., & koomen, w. (2006). the influence of prejudice and stereotypes on anticipated affect: feelings about a potentially negative interaction with another ethnic group. south african journal of psychology, 38(4), 589–601. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/008124630803800401 gordon, j.r. (2001). organizational behaviour: a diagnostic approach. (7th edn.). boston, ma: prentice hall. guba, e.g. (1981). criteria for assessing the trustworthiness of naturalistic inquiries. educational resources information centre annual review paper, 29, 75–91. hedge, j.w., borman, w.c., & lammlein, s.e. (2006). the aging workforce: realities, myths, and implications for organizations. washington, dc: american psychological association. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/11325-000 heilman, m.e., wallen, a.s., fuchs, d., & tamkins, m.m. (2004). penalties for success: reactions to women who succeed at male gender-typed tasks. journal of applied psychology, 89, 416–427. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.3.416 hinton, p.r. (2000). stereotypes, cognition and culture. east sussex, pa: psychology press. kassin, s., fein, s., & markus, h.r (2011). social psychology. (8th edn.). wadsworth, oh: cengage learning. kerlinger, f.n. (2000). foundations of behavioral research. (4th edn.). new york, ny: holt, rinehart & winston. krefting, l. (1991). rigor in qualitative research: the assessment of trustworthiness. the american journal of occupational therapy, 45(3), 214–222. http://dx.doi.org/10.5014/ajot.45.3.214 kreitner, r., & kinicki, a. (2004). organizational behavior. (6th edn.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill/irwin. larkin, j.d. (2008). stereotypes and decision making: reconciling discrimination law with science. cper journal, 192, 15–24. lester, s. (1999). an introduction to phenomenological research. taunton, uk: stan lester developments. lincoln, y.s., & guba, e.a. (1985). naturalistic inquiry. london, uk: sage publications. lipton, j.p., o’connor, m., terry, c., & bellamy, e. (1991). neutral job titles and occupational stereotypes: when legal and psychological realities conflict. journal of psychology, 125(2), 129–151. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00223980.1991.10543278 macnealy, m.s. (1999). strategies for empirical research in writing. new york, ny: longman. madden., m. (2011). four gender stereotypes of leaders: do they influence leadership in higher education? wagadu, 9, 55–89. mandy, a., milton, c., & mandy, p. (2004). professional stereotyping and interprofessional education. learning in health and social care, 3(3), 154–170. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1473-6861.2004.00072.x mayekiso, t., & snodgrass, l. (2008). managing diversity in transforming institutions of higher education: the case of nelson mandela metropolitan university, south africa. the international journal of diversity in organisations, communities and nations, 8(5), 123–129. mcgregor, j. (2002). stereotypes and older workers. journal of social policy, 18, 163–177. mckinney, g. (1996, november). stereotypes and cultural diversity in the workplace. retrieved september 13, 2012, from http://cobweb2.louisville.edu/faculty/regbruce/bruce//rflct600/genita2.htm mclean, h.m., & kalin, r. (1994). congruence between self-image and occupational stereotypes in students entering gender-dominated occupations. canadian journal of behavioural science, 26(1), 142–162. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0008-400x.26.1.142 mendes, w.b., major, b., mccoy, s., & blaschovich, j. (2008). how attributional ambiguity shapes physiological and emotional responses to social rejection and acceptance. journal of personality and social psychology, 94, 278–291. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.94.2.278 moore, j. r. (2006). shattering stereotypes: a lesson plan for improving student attitudes and behaviour toward minority groups. social studies, 97(1), 35–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/tsss.97.1.35-39 niemann, r. (2006). managing workforce diversity in south african schools. south african journal of education, 26(1), 97–112. norris, b.d. (1996). managing diversity within south african technikons: a strategic management approach. south african journal of higher education, 10, 25–27. o’brien, l.t., & crandall, c.s. (2003). stereotype threat and arousal: effects on women’s math performance. personality and social psychology bulletin, 29, 782–789. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167203029006010 onwunta, i.e., & august, t.h. (2007). stereotyping in communities: a story of the endangered gender in nigeria. practical theology in south africa, 22(2), 139–15. oswald, p.a. (2003). sex-typing and prestige ratings of occupations as indices of occupational stereotypes. perceptual and motor skills, 97, 953–959. http://dx.doi.org/10.2466/pms.2003.97.3.953 pauker, k., ambady, n., & apfelbaum, e.p. (2010). race salience and essentialist thinking in racial stereotype development. child development, 81(6), 1799–1813. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01511.x plous, s. (2003). the psychology of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination: an overview. in s. plous (ed.), understanding prejudice and discrimination (pp. 3–48). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. powell, g.n., & butterfield, d.a. (2002). exploring the influence of decision makers’ ethnicity and gender on actual promotions to top management. personnel psychology, 55, 397–419. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2002.tb00115.x prenda, k.m., & stahl, s.m. (2001). the truth about older workers. business and health, 19, 30–35. prime, j., jonsen, k., carter, n., & maznevski, m.l. (2008). managers’ perceptions of women and men leaders: a cross cultural comparison. international journal of cross cultural management, 8, 171–210. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1470595808091789 rake, c., & lewis, r. (2009). just below the surface: gender stereotyping, the silent barrier to equality in the modern workplace? the fawcett society. retrieved july 24, 2012, from http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/documents/just below the surface.pdf roberson, l., & kulik, c.t. (2007). stereotype threat at work. academy of management perspectives, 24–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amp.2007.25356510 robinson, t., gustafson, b., & popovich, m. (2008). perceptions of negative stereotypes of older people in magazine advertisements: comparing the perceptions of older adults and college students. ageing and society, 28, 233–251. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0144686x07006605 rupp, d.e., vodanovich., s.j., & crede., m. (2006). age bias in the workplace: the impact of ageism and causal attributions. journal of applied social psychology, 36, 1337–1364. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0021-9029.2006.00062.x salkind, n.j. (2009). exploring research. (7th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. sanderson, c.a. (2010). social psychology. new york, ny: john wiley & sons. sargeant, m. (ed.). (2011). age discrimination and diversity: multiple discrimination from an age perspective. new york, ny: cambridge university press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511777196 schmader, t., & johns, m. (2003). converging evidence that stereotype threat reduces working memory capacity. journal of personality and social psychology, 85, 440–452. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.3.440 schmader, t., johns, m., & forbes, c. (2008). an integrated process model of stereotype threat effects on performance. psychological review, 115, 336–356. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.115.2.336 schmitt, m. t., & branscombe, n.r. (2002). the internal and external causal loci of attributions to prejudice. personality and social psychology bulletin, 28, 620–628. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167202288006 schneider, d.j. (2004). the psychology of stereotyping. london, uk: guilford press. schurink, w., fouche, c.b., & de vos, a.s. (2011). qualitative data analysis and interpretation. in a.s. de vos, h. strydom, c.b. fouche, & c.s.l. delport (eds.), research at grass roots: for the social sciences and human service professions (4th edn. pp. 397–423). pretoria, south africa: van schaik publishers. shih, m., pittinsky, t.l., & ambady, n. (1999). stereotype susceptibility: identity salience and shifts in quantitative performance. psychological science, 10, 80–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00111 singletary, s.l., ruggs, e.n., hebl, m.r., & davies, p.g. (2009). literature overview: stereotype threat: causes, effects, and remedies. retrieved september 13, 2012, from http://www.engr.psu.edu/awe/misc/arps/arp_stereotypethreat_overview_31909.pdf solovic, s.w. (2010, may). workplace stereotyping: a silent productivity destroyer. the huffington post. retrieved october 12, 2012, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-wilson-solovic/workplace-stereotyping-a_b_564233.html spears, r., doosje, b., & ellemers, n. (1997). self-stereotyping in the face of threats to group status and distinctiveness: the role of group identification. personality and social psychology bulletin, 23, 528–553. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167297235009 spencer, s.j., steele, c.m., & quinn, d. (1999). stereotype threat and women’s math performance. journal of experimental social psychology, 35(1), 4–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jesp.1998.1373 steele, c.m. (1997). a threat in the air: how stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance. american psychologist, 52, 613–629. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.52.6.613 steele, c.m., & aronson, j. (1995). stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of african-americans. journal of personality and social psychology, 69, 797–811. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.69.5.797 still, l.v. (2006). gender, leadership and communication. in m. barrett & m.j. davidson (eds.), gender and communication at work (pp. 183–210). aldershot, uk: ashgate. streed c.p., & stoecker j.l. (1991). stereotyping between physical therapy students and occupational therapy students. physical therapy, 71, 16–24. streubert, h., & carpenter, d. (1999). qualitative research in nursing: advancing the humanistic perspective. (2nd edn.). philadelphia, pa: lippincott williams & wilkins. talbot, k., & durrheim, k. (2012). the princeton trilogy revisited: how have racial stereotypes changed in south africa? south african journal of psychology, 42(4), 476–491. terre blanche, m., & durrheim, k. (1999). research in practice: applied methods for the social sciences. cape town, south africa: university of cape town press. thomas, k.s., bardwell, w.a., ancoli-israel, s., & dimsdale, j.e. (2006). the toll of ethnic discrimination on sleep architecture and fatigue. health psychology, 25, 635–642. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.25.5.635 article information authors: vincent b. molokwu1 jose barreria1 boris urban1 affiliations: 1graduate school of business administration, university of the witwatersrand, south africa correspondence to: boris urban postal address: po box 98, university of the witwatersrand 2050, south africa dates: received: 04 nov. 2011 accepted: 26 aug. 2012 published: 07 mar. 2013 how to cite this article: molokwu, v.b., barreria, j., & urban, b. (2013). entrepreneurial orientation and corporate governance structures at the firm level in the south african oil and gas industry. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #443, 15 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.443 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. entrepreneurial orientation and corporate governance structures at the firm level in the south african oil and gas industry in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • purpose of study and research objectives    • literature review       • corporate governance systems       • entrepreneurial orientation • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instrument       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results • ethical considerations • discussion    • limitations of the study    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors' contributions • references • appendix: instrument abstract top ↑ orientation: corporate governance systems (cgs) have been observed as one of the most important structures and mechanisms that regulate the relationships between executives and shareholders. by having well-defined and established cgs, company board members and executives are able to shape company vision and increase managerial commitment towards formulating strategies that espouse an entrepreneurial orientation (eo). firms with high levels of eo tend to be innovative and encourage creative initiatives in new products and technology developments. research purpose: in an emerging economy such as south africa, one of the primary goals of an organisation is growth and good governance, which can be achieved through well-governed structures and continuous innovation in the face of challenges. this study identified potential links between the multidimensional constructs of cgs and eo at the firm level in the south african oil and gas industry. motivation for the study: one of the greatest challenges faced by organisations when implementing cgs is to ensure compliance. research design, approach and method: board members and senior decision-makers were surveyed in the south african oil and gas industry, using a structured questionnaire. a series of correlational analyses were used to determine the strength of relationships between the dimensions of eo and cgs. main findings: by drawing extensively on existing theory on eo, this study found that the different dimensions of cgs have a significant and positive relationship with each of the eo dimensions – innovation, risk-taking and proactiveness. practical/managerial implications: corporate boards supportive of entrepreneurship must provide appropriate reward systems, top management support, explicit goals and appropriate organisational values which signal to employees that entrepreneurial behaviour action is desirable. practitioners should scrutinise their governance structures in their organisations to ensure an alignment with eo practices. contribution/value-add: generally, research on eo and governance in africa as a whole may be considered as valuable, as very few empirical studies have been previously conducted which focus on the nexus of cgs and eo. the study is one of the first to conduct empirical research on eo and cgs in an emerging market and unique industry context – the south african oil and gas industry. introduction top ↑ corporate governance in south africa has transformed over time and is recognised as being necessary to the success and revitalisation of the country’s entrepreneurial activities, economic growth and sustainability through the enforcement of stringent regulations and ethical change practices (malherbe & segal, 2001; van tonder, 2006). one of the greatest challenges faced by organisations in today’s growing volatile business environment, when implementing corporate governance systems (cgs), is to ensure compliance. this is particularly relevant in a developing country context, where afro-centric leadership is required (geldenhuys & veldsman, 2011).corporate governance systems have been observed as one of the most important structures and mechanisms that regulate the relationships between executives and shareholders (zahra, 1996). in south africa, the first king report on corporate governance (king i) (institute of directors, 1994) incorporates a code of corporate practices and conduct, the first of its kind which was aimed at promoting the highest standards of corporate governance in south africa organisations (dekker, 2002; iod, 2002; mans, 2011). dekker (2002) observed in his analytical paper on the king ii report (iod, 2002), that organisations have to ‘comply if not, explain’ matters relating to boards’ transparency on take-overs. moreover executives’ responsibilities in setting out controls and monitoring of strategic decision processes that will position the organisation to be economically sustainable are prescribed (esser & dekker, 2008; west, 2006). in the same manner, the king iii report (iod, 2009) extends the duties of boards and executives to be directly involved in strategic decision controls, as well as in the implementation of organisational core competencies. this includes involvement in securing codes of good practices, including but not limited to compliance with legislative, environmental, energy, labour and national occupational health and safety guidelines (miller & meelis, 2005). researchers have documented that organisations can address challenges by scrutinising their cgs and ensuring an alignment with their vision, mission, strategies, objectives and goals through an effective and well-structured board, along with executives that can direct, monitor and support entrepreneurial initiatives (gabrielsson, 2007). by having well-defined and established cgs, company board members and executives are able to shape company vision and increase managerial commitment towards formulating strategies that lead to a sustainable competitive advantage. not only are organisations seeking to re-orientate themselves to become strategically innovative, but previous literature and empirical findings point to entrepreneurial orientation (eo) as an important element in organisational and economic development (kreiser, marino & weaver, 2002). entrepreneurship within organisations is a fundamental posture, instrumentally important to strategic innovation, particularly under shifting external environmental conditions (knight, 1997; urban, 2010). many firms are seeking to transform their organisations (serfontein, basson & burden, 2009) and look to eo as a way of combating the lethargy and bureaucracy that often accompany business size and cultural lock-ins (burns, 2004; morris, kuratko & covin, 2008). the relationship between eo and cgs has long puzzled researchers, where little empirical evidence has been found to support the idea that governance structures relate to any type of entrepreneurial activity at the corporate level (beaver, davies & joyce, 2007; fiegener, 2005). despite the importance of eo to firms, literature on corporate governance has tended to focus on issues relating to the board and executives’ demographics, ownership structure, board size, board composition and organisation performance, without assessing any potential relationships or linkages between entrepreneurship initiatives and different corporate governance mechanisms. several researchers agree that insufficient attention has been paid to the role of how board and executive members may influence the adoption of entrepreneurial activities at their firms (naldi, nordqvist, sjöberg & wiklund, 2007; thyil & young, 2010). purpose of study and research objectives boards, executives and senior decision-makers are involved in various governance roles (fiegener, 2005) in terms of decision control activities that go beyond overseeing management performance (south african petroleum industry association, 2009). as a result of these overarching roles, these board members are able to be directly involved in supporting, championing and sponsoring major entrepreneurial innovative activities at the corporate level (hung & mondejar, 2005). the south african oil and gas industry faces a challenging environment that is required to make capacity additions, innovate regularly as a result of rapid change in technological advancement and also consider new and alternate products which are environmentally friendly (henderson & cool, 2003). these challenges are confirmed by the south african petroleum industry association (sapia), which advocates skills transformation at all levels of the corporate structure whilst, at the same time, acting competitively and responding to ethical and environmental challenges (miller & meelis, 2005). despite these imperatives, firms in the south african oil and gas industry have been relatively unsuccessful in formulating and implementing stringent cgs that will enhance speedy transformation, whilst, at the same time, encourage corporate entrepreneurial activities and attract international investment (rossouw, van der watt & malan, 2002; west, 2006). a deep and thorough understanding of entrepreneurship at the firm level and cgs is important not only for academic purposes but also has salience for practitioners and policymakers. these implications relate to firm profitability and competitiveness, as well as to the overall economic performance of industry and the national economy (bosma & harding, 2006). the critical question this study seeks to address is whether or not there are any significant relationships or links between the various attributes of cgs and levels of eo. the study investigates if there is any significant relationship between the cgs dimensions of board effectiveness, board knowledge and experience, board commitment and board involvement in decision control, with the eo dimensions of innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking. building on existing theoretical and conceptual frameworks, this study has relevance to academics, senior decision-makers, and governance practitioners. the study contributes to existing literature and extends current knowledge of the eo construct by linking it with cgs and applying it to an under-researched context: the oil and gas industry in an emerging market. the study aids in understanding the nexus between the various dimensions of cgs and eo, thereby advancing the knowledge of entrepreneurial practices in this highly capitalised and highly regulated industry. the study starts by briefly reviewing past research on cgs and eo in order to operationalise the constructs under investigation. the research methodology is then delineated, in terms of sampling, instrument design and data analysis best suited to test the hypotheses. the results are scrutinised in terms of previous theory and contextualised from an emerging market perspective. both theoretical and practical implications are drawn from the empirical evidence and recommendations for future research are made. literature review corporate governance systems the importance of corporate governance at both the national and firm level in reshaping economic growth and sustainability, in both developed and developing economies, has been emphasised in recent years (mans, 2011). corporate governance plays a pivotal role in promoting the efficient use of resources both within the organisation and the broader economy, whilst, at the same time, fostering a positive interaction between the organisation and the economy both domestically and globally (haniffa & hudaib, 2006). the oil and gas industry constitutes building blocks at every stage of production and consumption in key sectors of economic life such as petrochemicals, chemicals, agriculture, construction, manufacturing and services industries. human lives have been revolutionised through this industry’s tremendous growth, with the promise of economic sustainability at maturity (mbendi information services, 2008). the south african oil and gas industry has undergone, and is still undergoing, a series of transformations from the industry that served the apartheid era of secrecy and boycotts to one more in line with the democratic and economic needs of south africa (miller & meelis, 2005). the last 10 years has produced a wave of activity in the industry to initiate and invigorate rigorous innovative thinking through eo (sapia, 2009). south africa, as an emerging economy, has adopted international standards in formulating cgs through the series of king reports – king i (iod, 1994), king ii (iod, 2002) and king iii (iod, 2009). these reports on governance codes aim to shape and guide organisations towards sustainable economic growth (wieland, 2005). there has been mounting pressure in transitional and emerging economies for board involvement to be more transparent with greater accountability, specifically in relation to strategic entrepreneurial decision control, so as to ensure innovative growth and sustainability (judge & zeithaml, 1992). growth and sustainability are likely to take shape when entrepreneurial decision control is exercised by top management to encourage entrepreneurial thought and action throughout the organisation (morris & kuratko, 2002). in south africa, board and executive roles and responsibilities are prescribed by the king iii report on corporate governance and codes of best practice (iod, 2009; south african institute of chartered accountants, 2009), where the board and its executives must exercise a skilful approach to governance (okpara, 2010) and have competence and ability to challenge management preferences and monitor performance. through an effective and competent monitoring board, which understands the industry environment, executive members are able to monitor demand and supply, trends and forecasts, and act proactively by carefully considering capacity building in terms of the firms earning potential (henderson & cool, 2003). board involvement in decision controls includes non-routine decision-making, resource allocations and strategic decisions that could affect the long-term performance of the organisation (cutting & kouzmin, 2002). recent studies have focused on the complexities of cgs and board commitment required towards building integrity in order to execute their responsibility (windsor, 2009). consequently, the need to focus on the qualities of governing boards’ and executives’ capabilities, the evaluation of boards and executives professional expertise and qualifications, the experiences and integrity of the directors (rossouw et al., 2002), issues of information provision, transparency, transformation, monitoring, reporting, knowledge and competence (esser & dekker, 2008), as well as the extent of board and executive participation in management controls, in organisations where corporate entrepreneurial activities take place, is pivotal (filatotchev & nakajima, 2010; naldi et al., 2007). in the corporate context, an effective board is one that can efficiently implement its role and responsibilities (nicholson & kiel, 2004), show commitment to the successful execution of the organisations’ entrepreneurial strategic decisions (mustakallio, autio & zahra, 2002), and review and approve strategic plans, risk management, valuation of capital commitment and take complex decisions (kor & sundaramurthy, 2009). the absence of qualified board and executive members may negatively impact the ability of the board to perform effectively, particularly as trends indicate that boards of directors have been grossly undermined by shareholders in terms of appointments and recruitment (allcock & filatotchev, 2010; ensley, pearson & amason, 2002; larcker & tayan, 2011). one of the basic considerations in appointing and recruiting executives is to ensure a high quality and knowledgeable board that understands the organisations’ core competencies and its own distinct roles and responsibilities to achieve long-terms performance (mwenja & lewis, 2009). the knowledge and experience that board and executive members possess has a direct impact on how governance principles are applied and organisational goals achieved (pukthuanthonge & sundaramurthy, 2009). moreover, for boards and executives to effectively perform their duties, they need to have the requisite capabilities, general knowledge and expertise (kor, 2003), which, in turn, will reflect on their ability to position the organisation in terms of adopting an eo. corporate governance and the process of managing, controlling and monitoring of operational activities are diverse in nature and context specific (cutting & kouzmin, 2002). recognising the multifarious nature of corporate governance, the construct is best conceptualised as multidimensional, reflecting the guidelines, as pointed out in king iii report (iod, 2009; saica, 2009), and consisting of the following four dimensions (cutting & kouzmin, 2002; ogbechie, 2009): • board effectiveness and its competence in diagnosing and evaluating events and trends in the larger environment that may present specific entrepreneurial opportunity for the organisation. • directors’ and executives’ knowledge and experience in the organisational strategic issues, such as the organisations’ competitive position in the industry environment and the directors’ and executives’ ability to examine performance and how well the organisation is doing on long-term entrepreneurial goals. • board commitment and recognition of complexities to foster effective decision-making and help reverse failed initiatives and policies. • board involvement in decision controls, such as reviewing and rectifying entrepreneurial opportunities, threats and risks to which the organisation may be exposed. prior literature on gcs has focused on ownership structure, agency-related issues and alternative structures for the board of directors. this narrow focus on traditional issues of cgs does not adequately address how elements of governance structures may support or hinder corporate innovation, risk-taking and proactive behaviour in the face of technological change and environmental uncertainty (core, holthausen & larcker, 1999; cutting & kouzmin, 2002; diochon, 2010; ensley et al., 2002). investigating the oil and gas industry, several researchers (armour & teece, 1978; sapia, 2009) find that a key part of a technological and innovative strategy is the interaction of that strategy with the ventures’ external environment (zahra & bogner, 1999). miller and meelis (2005) report that the period post-1994 introduced changes in south african legislation which had a significant negative effect on this industry. the oil and gas industry is constantly faced with the challenges of technological advancement, capacity expansion, innovation in alternate products, and faces a high degree of market, environmental and regulatory uncertainty (sapia, 2009). when the environment is characterised by complexity and dynamism, firms have to anticipate future scenarios and develop proactive eo strategies to counteract ambiguous and unstructured surroundings (allen & stearns, 2004). moreover, many firms that wish to adopt entrepreneurial behaviour may be negatively affected if the organisations’ cgs do not support eo (henderson & cool, 2003). gabrielsson (2007) finds that an active board and executives can have a strong influence on an organisation’s value-creation ability through their commitment to take an entrepreneurial posture. similarly, drew, kelly and kendrick (2006), propose that researchers adopt an integrated approach to manage corporate risk, which enhances board and executives’ knowledge and competence to handle complexities of risk in meeting strategic organisational goals. entrepreneurial orientation in an emerging economy such as south africa, one of the primary goals of an organisation is growth and this can be achieved by continuously innovating in the face of growing global challenges (urban, 2010). entrepreneurial orientation is one of the prerequisites for organisational success, where fang, yuli and hongzhi (2009) point out that any organisation with high levels of eo tends to be innovative and encourages creative initiatives in new products and service development, particularly in the space of advancement of new technologies and novel ideas. entrepreneurial orientation incorporates firm-level processes, practices and decision-making styles (lumpkin & dess, 1996) where entrepreneurial behavioural patterns are recurring (covin & slevin, 1991; dess & lumpkin, 2005). the theoretical basis of the eo construct lies in the assumption that all firms have an eo, even if levels of eo are very low. the extant organisational research provides theoretical support for the eo construct, in both the fields of entrepreneurship and strategic management. the eo construct is salient not only for large organisations but also for small and medium-sized organisations, under different stages of economic development, in varied cultural contexts (for a detailed review of eo, see urban, 2011). table 1 provides a consolidation of how the entrepreneurship phenomena have been conceptualised in previous studies and is made manifest in organisations. table 1: summary of entrepreneurial phenomena in established organisations. extensive research confirms that eo has three dimensions: innovativeness, risk-taking, and proactiveness (covin & slevin, 1989, 1991, 1997; kreiser et al., 2002; lumpkin & dess, 1996). innovativeness is the fundamental posture of an entrepreneurial organisation in terms of developing new products or inventing new processes (drucker, 1979; schumpeter, 1934). innovativeness as an attribute describes an organisations’ willingness to add newness with added value. consequently, the first hypothesis is formulated to reflect the innovation dimension of eo as it relates to the different dimensions of cgs: • hypothesis 1: the eo dimension of innovation is positively related with the levels of board effectiveness, knowledge, commitment and involvement. risk-taking is associated with the willingness to commit significant resources to opportunities and to take calculated business risks (aloulou & fayolle, 2005). risk-taking, according to voss, voss and moorman (2005), is a commitment to experimentation in the face of uncertainty. the second hypothesis is informed by the risk-taking dimension of eo, where it is expected that: • hypothesis 2: the eo dimension of risk-taking is positively related with the levels of board effectiveness knowledge, commitment and involvement. proactiveness is perseverance in ensuring initiatives are implemented and is concerned with adaptability and tolerance of failure. this leads to the third hypothesis, where: • hypothesis 3: the eo dimension of proactiveness is positively related with higher levels of board effectiveness, knowledge, commitment and involvement. these dimensions have been extensively documented and, according to lumpkin and dess (1996), all the dimensions are central to understanding the entrepreneurial process, although they may occur in different combinations, depending on type of entrepreneurial opportunity the firm pursues. firms can only be labelled as entrepreneurial if they are simultaneously risk-taking, innovative and proactive (covin, green & slevin, 2006). these separate hypotheses are formulated to discern if any associations are significant, based on each of the eo dimensions as well as on an aggregate overall eo score. the formulation of the hypotheses allows for the testing of both one-dimensional and multidimensional levels of these constructs. research design top ↑ research approach this research relies on a quantitative, cross-sectional empirical approach which is based on primary data sources. the context of the study is the south african oil and gas industry. by focusing on a single industry sector, a greater homogeneity of context is achieved which addresses the concerns of broad applicability versus perfect suitability for narrower groups. studies across industries often produce results that apply to all, whilst applying to none at the same time (davidsson, 2004), because they only capture a tiny fraction of each firm’s manifestation of eo. consequently, the focus is on a single industry. the important issue about sampling, in general, is not statistical but theoretical representativeness; that is, the elements in the sample represent the type of phenomenon about which the theory makes statements (davidsson, 2004).a research design involving a web-based self-reporting survey instrument was administered, which was sent to a select sample of board members and executives in the south african oil and gas industry. the survey was distributed via surveymonkey (http://www.surveymonkey.com), which was selected principally because of its functionality and, more importantly, because it was considered suitable for the target population of key company decision-makers who are likely to use online resources regularly. research method research participants the south african oil and gas industry represented the target population for this study. the sampling frame was derived from a dataset collected from international business monitor specialist publishers, who maintain a business information database on global emerging markets in more than 125 countries worldwide. these publications – the south africa oil and gas alliance and vibrant media register – maintain a decision-makers database of organisations across the south african oil and gas industry (sapia, 2009). based on this sampling frame, 425 board members and executives across the oil and gas industry, ranging from executive and non-executive directors, chief executive officers (ceos), company secretaries and the top management team members, were surveyed using non-probability sampling. a total of 173 boards, executives and senior decision-makers responded, representing a response rate of 40.7%. a number of respondents indicated that not all items were applicable to their situation and subsequently these responses were assigned as missing data, rendering a final sample of 119 complete responses. measuring instrument the research survey design was a self-reporting online closed questionnaire consisting of two sections (see appendix). care was taken to ensure clarity in terminology and to ensure that the items of the questionnaire addressed each of the hypotheses. section a of the instrument was designed to reflect the theoretical dimensions of cgs, which included variables on board effectiveness and competence, knowledge and experience, commitment and recognition of complexities, involvement in strategic decision-making processes and monitoring and control, which was made up of 43 items. these items were measured using a seven-point scale, from 1 (strongly agree) to 7 (strongly disagree), with numbers 2 through 6 depending upon their best estimate of an intermediate position (see appendix). section b of the instrument was designed to reflect the eo dimensions of innovation, risk-taking and proactiveness, consisting of nine items. many alternative eo conceptualisations are to be found (brown, davidsson & wiklund, 2001) and have demonstrated some usefulness; however, as davidsson (2004) suggests, using the existing eo measure has the advantage of theoretical backing, a multidimensional construct and theoretically meaningful relationships established in previous studies, thus allowing for more refined knowledge to evolve. consequently, eo was measured along a seven-point bi-polar likert scale, with nine items representing the three dimensions of innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking. respondents had to circle number ‘1 if the statement on the left-hand side of the scale best described their reaction to the question’, or circle number ‘7 if the statement on the right-hand side of the scale best described the reaction to the question’ (see appendix). previous studies (urban, 2010) have established eo scale validity in the south african context; however, eo scale reliability was re-tested for this sample of respondents. consistent with previous studies (wiklund, 1999) control variables included, firm age, firm size in terms of employee numbers, the position currently occupied by the respondent, the respondent’s number of years in current position, and the board size and its composition. in order to ensure the instrument had face and content validity, a preliminary analysis via a pilot test was undertaken. this process allowed the researcher to refine the questionnaire design to maximise responses. this procedure ensured that the respondents had no difficulties in answering the questions and there was no problem in recording the data. research procedure data were collected by means of an online mail survey questionnaire administered to the target sample. a personalised letter accompanied each questionnaire, explaining the aim and objectives of the research and assuring the respondent of the confidentiality of the responses. a follow-up request was sent out approximately two weeks after the initial survey. statistical analysis data analysis was conducted, where descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated using the statistica software system, version 10 (2011).initially, demographic profiles of the respondents were calculated using frequency distributions and corresponding graphs, followed by an examination of the scale reliabilities. descriptive statistics included calculating measures of central tendency (the mean and median values, variability), the standard deviation, range and distribution shape (skewness and frequency distributions) and internal consistency reliability of the scales, by reporting on their cronbach’s alpha values. negative skewness values indicated a clustering of scores at the high-end of the scale. the kolmogorov-smirnov, lilliefors, and shapiro-wilks tests were used to check for normality of data distributions and rendered a significant p-value of 0.000, which revealed that normality assumptions had been violated, which is quite common in large samples. transformations of the score distributions were computed in an attempt (though unsuccessful) to transform the negatively skewed score distribution into normally distributed scale. with a reasonably large initial sample size as used in this study (n = 119), skewness will not make a substantive difference in the analysis (tabachnick & fidell, 2007). consequently, the hypotheses were tested using a pearson correlation analysis, where the corresponding scatter plots were scrutinised. moreover, canonical correlation analysis was also employed as additional analyses, because this technique can accommodate any metric variable without a strict assumption of normality (hair, black, babin & anderson, 2010). canonical correlation analysis allows for multiple measures to be summarised into variates or linear combinations of variables with optimised weighting, extracting maximum variance from the original measures (hair et al., 2010). results top ↑ frequencies and percentages of respondent characteristics are presented in table 2. the table is self-explanatory and reveals a diverse profile of board members from a diverse set of businesses in the oil and gas industry. table 2: profile of the respondents. descriptives were calculated for the content section of the instrument which comprised the cgs and eo scales. each of these scales’ dimensions in terms of values of central tendency, variability, skewness, and internal consistency is shown in table 3. these summary statistics show that the values of the means and medians of all the scales are skewed towards the high end of the 1–7-point likert scale, indicating agreement with the item. thus the responses to these scales are generally positive or very positive, an observation consistent with the skewness of the scales. internal consistency reliability coefficients, as measured by cronbach’s coefficient, are all well within the accepted norm of 0.70 (nunnally, 1978). the average inter-item correlations for the items reflect average to high scores, suggesting that the sub-scales measure the same construct (hair, black, babin & anderson, 2011). table 3: descriptives for corporate governance systems and entrepreneurial orientation scales. to test the hypotheses, the pearson correlations coefficients were calculated for each of the scale dimensions (table 4). all of the correlations are highly significant (p < 0.001), providing support for all of the hypotheses in terms of positive associations between the dimensions of eo and cgs. figure 1 provides the matrix plot in terms of the correlation matrix, where there is a preponderance of observations in the top right corner of each scatter plots. however, these points are not considered to be extreme values or outliers and thus are not considered to have created a spurious correlation as the overall direction of the relation in each case is generally consistent for points across the entire range of each scale. table 4: correlation matrix for corporate governance systems and entrepreneurial orientation dimensions. figure 1: matrix plot for the linear relations between corporate governance systems and entrepreneurial orientation dimensions. in view of the theoretically multivariate nature of both the cgs and eo constructs and, as mentioned, the skewness of these scales, canonical correlation was used to further analyse the hypotheses. canonical correlation analysis is viewed as a logical extension of multiple regressions as the latter involves a single dependent variable (hair et al., 2011). the objective of the canonical analysis was to correlate simultaneously the four dimensions of cgs with the three dimensions of eo. this is achieved via the construction of an optimally weighted linear combination of the four dimensions of cgs and a second optimally weighted linear combination of the three dimensions of eo in a manner that maximises the correlations between the two sets of variables. the value of the canonical correlation is high at r = 0.860 and is interpreted as the simple correlation between the weighted sum of the scales of cgs and eo. the canonical r is the overall multivariate correlation between the two sets of variables (figure 2). moreover, the canonical r-square value of r2 = 0.732, which shows that almost three-quarters of the variance in the two sets of variables have been accounted for by the first canonical root. this is considered substantial as the summary measure has accounted for most of the variance in the two data sets, as delineated by the weighted sum of the scales of cgs and eo. moreover, the variance extracted by all the canonical roots is high for each set of variables (89.73% and 100% for cgs and eo, respectively). figure 2: canonical variance between the weighted sum of the scales of corporate governance systems and entrepreneurial orientation. the factor structures of the first linear combination of the summarised cgs variables show that knowledge, followed by commitment, are the most strongly represented dimensions in the composite measure. the factor structure of the first linear combination of eo shows that innovation, proactiveness and risk-taking contribute similarly and strongly to the composite measure of eo (see table 5). the redundancy indices of 54.78% and 65.61% for cgs and eo, respectively, show that approximately 55.00% of the variance in the set of cgs variables and almost two-thirds of the variance in the set of eo variables can be accounted for by the canonical roots. in an attempt to try reduce the dimensionality of the four sub-scale scores of cgs to their common underlying dimension(s) or factor(s) and, similarly, to reduce the dimensionality of the three sub-scale scores of eo to their underlying common factor(s), factor analysis was employed in conjunction with the canonical correlation analysis. the factor scores – that is, the weighted combinations of the respective scale scores for cgs and eo – were highly correlated. a correlation of r = 0.84 between the cgs factor score and the eo factor score is almost the same as the canonical score of r = 0.86. these results have validated the canonical correlation scores by again showing a correlation of almost identical strength between the factor scores of cgs and eo. these combined results provide support for all of the hypotheses in terms of positive associations between the various dimensions of eo and cgs. table 5: factor structure of the first root of corporate governance systems and entrepreneurial orientation. in summary, the multivariate canonical root analysis and factor analysis can be regarded as having both produced an adequate summary of the two sets of measures. both techniques independently revealed a single dimension underlying the cgs scale and a single dimension underlying the eo scale, with canonical analysis arriving at a factor structure for latent roots and the factor analysis providing a factor structure for the underlying factors. moreover, the results derived from both the canonical analysis and factor analysis reflect highly positive and significant correlations between the hypothesised constructs. ethical considerations top ↑ the research relied on a survey and formal protocols were followed to ensure ethical standards were maintained. no vulnerable categories of participants were surveyed nor were any participants or researchers exposed to any potential risks or harm that they would not otherwise be exposed to. similarly, anonymity was guaranteed in questionnaires, with all data being kept confidential and safe from unauthorised access once it had been collected. participants were informed that they have the right to remain anonymous in the final report. discussion top ↑ the primary focus of this study is to determine if any potential links between the dimensions of eo and cgs exist in a sample of firms in the south africa oil and gas industry. this industry is constantly faced with the challenges of technological advancement and a need for innovation in alternate products, which necessitates robust corporate governance structures. under these circumstances, it is suggested that boards, executives and decision-makers are able, through their effectiveness, commitment, knowledge and involvement, to create and develop initiatives that will allow for stronger linkages to be more entrepreneurially oriented. the results emanating from this study confirm earlier research that boards and executives play a pivotal role in developing and monitoring an organisation’s capacity and ability to be entrepreneurially oriented (naldi et al., 2007). based on the empirical results of this study, all of the hypotheses are fully supported, where significant associations between the dimensions of eo and cgs are found. moreover, the strength of the correlations between the dimensions of eo and dimensions of cgs reveal that board knowledge, followed by commitment, are the most strongly associated with the eo dimensions of innovation, risk-taking and proactiveness. the importance of these variables resonates with previous research, which finds that eo is more advanced where there are high levels of board commitment (cutting & kouzmin, 2002). commitment of time and cognitive energy is required by boards and executives for the effective fostering of eo. pro-entrepreneurship organisational architectures are likely to take shape when there is an entrepreneurial strategic vision endorsed by the board and top management that encourages entrepreneurial thought and action throughout the organisation (morris & kuratko, 2002). a deep and thorough understanding of the association between cgs and eo is important not only for academic purposes but because the subject has salience for practitioners. these implications relate to the profitability and competitiveness of the firm. as opportunities drive strategy, almost any opportunity is relevant to the firm. once an opportunity is identified, resources are needed to exploit it. an entrepreneurial firm attempts to maximise value creation by exploiting opportunities, whilst minimising the resources required to support such entrepreneurial initiatives. the resources are the starting point and only opportunities that relate to existing resources are relevant to the firm. commitment to opportunity is related to strategic action at the board level. research on entrepreneurial behaviours and opportunity is well documented, where opportunity-focused firms are innovative and creative and where the propagation of new ideas is encouraged at this top-management level (kuratko & audretsch, 2009). the present study results confirm that board commitment of resources and control of resources is pivotal to fostering higher levels of eo. furthermore, firms match strategy-making (micro level) with board level strategic dynamics (macro level) to exploit existing core business opportunities or explore potential new growth opportunities (burgelman & grove, 2007). to ensure alignment between eo and cgs, corporate boards supportive of entrepreneurship must institutionalise appropriate reward systems and management support structures and help formulate explicit goals and relevant organisational values which signal to employees that entrepreneurial behaviour is desirable. for eo to become a meaningful conduit for a corporation’s value creation activities, it cannot be confined to a specialist function within the organisation. entrepreneurial orientation needs to permeate the entire organisation, where organisations pursuing eo are likely to exhibit a cascading yet integrated set of entrepreneurial actions at the board, senior, middle, and first-levels of management, with managers across levels being jointly responsible for their organisation’s entrepreneurial actions (hornsby, kuratko, shepherd & bott, 2009). generally, research on eo and governance in africa as a whole may be considered as valuable, as very few empirical studies have been previously conducted which focus on the nexus of cgs and eo. in developing economies, where growth is often the primary goal of organisations, eo in firms can be particularly critical for firm profitability and survival (antoncic & hisrich, 2001). one major characteristic of firms in emerging markets is that established firms are being transformed into market-oriented enterprises. as the economy becomes more market-based, it is necessary for these reformed enterprises to undergo an entrepreneurial transformation at the organisational level in order to adapt to the transitioning institutional environment and maintain competitiveness in both local and global markets. the majority of research in eo and cgs has been conducted in the usa and, with the relevance of international entrepreneurship being recognised (jantunen, puumalainen, saarenketo & kylaheiko, 2005), the importance of further interrogating eo in an emerging country context is important. there is a need for further theorisation and empirical analysis of these different constructs under different contexts. such investigations allow researchers to compare and examine different associations between cgs and eo under different environmental contexts (bosma, stam & wennekers, 2010). limitations of the study a limitation of the article is that a cross-sectional study loses the dynamic aspects of eo, which prevents conclusions about causal relationships from being drawn. the study also has typical survey design limitations, in that data were obtained from a self-administered questionnaire, where self-serving bias may have influenced the responses. in order to reduce social desirability in reporting high levels across questions, the survey instruction emphasised honesty for self-assessment. the results must also be interpreted with the observation that other contingencies are not incorporated in the study, particularly as they relate to measurement issues. future research could examine possible mediating and moderating effects of board size, composition on the relationship between the dimensions of cgs and eo. conclusion the present study links directly into the research pipeline which suggests that eo within organisations is a fundamental posture, instrumentally important to strategic innovation, particularly under shifting external environmental conditions. a contribution is made by extending current knowledge of the eo construct by linking it with different dimensions of a firm’s cgs. the results provide support for the hypotheses that boards, executives and decision-makers are able to link higher levels of firm eo, through the cgs dimensions of effectiveness, commitment, knowledge and involvement. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions b.u. (university of witwatersrand) was the project leader, j.b. (university of witwatersrand) was responsible for project research design and v.b.m. (university of witwatersrand) wrote the manuscript as part of his masters dissertation. references top ↑ allcock, d., & filatotchev, i. (2010). executive incentive schemes in initial public offerings: the effects of multiple-agency conflicts and corporate governance. journal of management, 36(3), 663–686. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206308329962allen, k., & stearns, t. (2004), technology entrepreneurs. in w.b. gartner, k.g. shaver, n.m. carter & p.d. reynolds (eds.), handbook of entrepreneurial dynamics. the process of business creation, (pp. 438–447). thousand oaks: sage publications. aloulou, w., & faylolle a. (2005). a conceptual approach of entrepreneurial orientation within a small business context. journal of enterprising culture, 13, 21–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/s0218495805000045 antoncic, b., & hisrich, r.d. (2001). intrapreneurship: construct refinement and cross-cultural validation. journal of business venturing, 16(5), 495–527. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0883-9026(99)00054-3 armour, h., & teece, d. (1978). organisation structure and economic performance: a test of the multinational hypothesis. bell journal of economics, 9(2), 106–122. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3003615 beaver, g., davies, a., & joyce, p. (2007). leadership boards of directors. business strategy series, 8(4), 318–324. bosma, n., & harding, r. (2006). global entrepreneurship monitor: gem 2006 results. london: babson college and london business school. bosma, n., stam, e., & wennekers, s. (2010). intrapreneurship – an international study. eim research report on intrapreneurship. the hague: dutch ministry of economic affairs. brown, t., davidsson, p., & wiklund, j. (2001). an operationalization of stevenson’s conceptualization of entrepreneurship as opportunity-based firm behavior. strategic management journal, 22, 953–968. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smj.190 burgelman, r.a. (1983). a process model of internal corporate venturing in the diversified major firm. administrative science quarterly, 28, 223–244. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2392619 burgelman, r.a., & grove, a.s. (2007). let chaos reign, then rein in chaos—repeatedly: managing strategic dynamics for corporate longevity. strategic management journal, 28, 965–979. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smj.625 burns, p. (2004). corporate entrepreneurship: building an entrepreneurial organization. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. core, e.j., holthausen, w.r., & larcker, f.d. (1999). corporate governance, chief executive officer compensation, and firm performance. journal of financial economics, 51(3), 371–406. covin, j.g., green, k.m., & slevin, d.p. (2006). strategic process effects on the entrepreneurial orientation–sales growth rate relationship. entrepreneurship theory and practice, january, 57–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2006.00110.x covin, j.g., & slevin, d.p. (1989). strategic planning of small firms in hostile and benign environments. strategic management journal, 10, 75–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250100107 covin, j.g., & slevin, d. (1991). a conceptual model of entrepreneurship as firm behaviour. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 16(1), 7–25. covin, j.g., & slevin, d.p. (1997). high growth transitions: theoretical perspectives and suggested directions. in d.l. sexton & r.w. smilor (eds.), entrepreneurship 2000, (pp. 99–126). chicago: upstart publishing co. cutting, b., & kouzmin, a. (2002). evaluating corporate board cultures and decision-making. corporate governance, 2(2), 27–45. davidsson, p. (2004). researching entrepreneurship, international studies in entrepreneurship. new york: springer. dekker, c. (2002). king ii report on corporate governance for south africa. retrieved december 02, 2010, from http://www.cliffedekkerhofmeyr.com/export/sites/cdh/en/news/publications/2002/corporate/downloads/king-report-on-corporate-governance-2002.pdf dess, g.g., & lumpkin, g.t. (2005). the role of entrepreneurial orientation in stimulating effective corporate entrepreneurship. academy of management executive, 19(1), 147–156. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/ame.2005.15841975 dess, g.g., ireland, r.d., zahra, s.a., floyd, s.w., janney, j.j., & lane, p.j. (2003). emerging issues in corporate entrepreneurship. journal of management, 29, 351–378. diochon, m.c. (2010). governance, entrepreneurship and effectiveness: exploring the links. social enterprise journal, 6(2), 93–109. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17508611011069248 drew, a.s., kelly, c.p., & kendrick, t. (2006). class five elements of corporate governance to manage strategic risk. business horizons, 49(2), 127–138. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2005.07.001 drucker, p. (1979). the practice of management. london: pan books ltd. ensley, m.d., pearson, a.w., & amason, a.c. (2002). understanding the dynamics of new venture top management teams cohesion, conflict, and new venture performance. journal of business venturing, 17(4), 365–386. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0883-9026(00)00065-3 esser, i.m., & dekker, a. (2008). the dynamics of corporate governance in south africa: broad-based black economic empowerment and the enhancement of good corporate governance principles. journal of international commercial law and technology, 3(3), 157–169. fang, n., yuli, z., & hongzhi, x. (2009). acquisition of resources, formal organisation and entrepreneurial orientation of new ventures. journal of chinese entrepreneurship, 1(1), 40–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17561390910916877 fiegener, m.k. (2005). determinant of board participation in the strategic decisions of small corporations. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 29(5), 627–650. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2005.00101.x filatotchev, i., & nakajima, c. (2010). internal and external corporate governance: an interface between an organisation and its environment. british journal of management, 21(3), 591–606. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2010.00712.x floyd, s.w., & lane, p.j. (2000). strategizing throughout the organization: managing strategic renewal and strategic role conflict. academy of management review, 25, 154–177. gabrielsson, j. (2007). boards of directors and entrepreneurial posture in medium-size companies: putting the board demography approach to test. international small business journal, 25(5), 511–537. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0266242607080657 geldenhuys, c.a., & veldsman, t.h. (2011). a change navigation-based, scenario planning process within a developing world context from an afro-centric leadership perspective. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #265, 17 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i.265 guth, w.d., & ginsberg, a. (1990). corporate entrepreneurship. strategic management journal, 11(special issue), 5–15. hair, j.f. jnr, black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2010). multivariate data analysis: a global perspective. (7th edn.). upper saddle river: pearson education. hair, j.f. jnr, black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2011). canonical correlation: a supplement to multivariate data analysis. retrieved june 27, 2011, from http://www.mvstats.com/downloads/supplements/canonical_correlation_7e.pdf haniffa, r., & hudaib, m. (2006). corporate governance structure and performance of malaysian listed companies. journal of business finance and accountancy, 33(7&8), 1034–1062. henderson, j., & cool, k. (2003). corporate governance, investment bandwagons and overcapacity: an analysis of the worldwide petrochemical industry, 1975–95. strategic management journal, 24(4), 349–373. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smj.302 hornsby, j.s., naffziger, d.w., kuratko, d.f., & montagno, r.v. (1993). an interactive model of the corporate entrepreneurship process. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 17(2), 29–37. hornsby, j.a., kuratko, d.f., shepherd, d.a., & bott, j.p. (2009). managers’ corporate entrepreneurial actions: examining perception and position. journal of business venturing, 24, 236–247. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2008.03.002 hung, h., & mondejar, r. (2005). corporate directors and entrepreneurial innovation: an empirical study. journal of entrepreneurship, 14(2), 117–129. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/097135570501400203 institute of directors. (1994). the king report i on corporate governance, johannesburg: institute of directors. institute of directors. (2002). the king report ii on corporate governance, johannesburg: institute of directors. institute of directors. (2009). the king report iii on corporate governance, johannesburg: institute of directors. ireland, r.d., covin, j.g., & kuratko, d.f. (2009). conceptualizing corporate entrepreneurship strategy. entrepreneurship theory and practice, january, 19–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2008.00279.x judge, w.q. jnr, & zeithaml, c.p. (1992). institutional and strategic choice perspectives on board involvement in the strategic decision process. academy management journal, 35(4), 766–794. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256315, pmid:10122320 jantunen, a.k., puumalainen, s., saarenketo, s., & kylaheiko, k. (2005). entrepreneurial orientation, dynamic capabilities and international performance. journal of international entrepreneurship, 3, 223–243. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10843-005-1133-2 knight, g.a. (1997). cross-cultural reliability and validity of a scale to measure firm entrepreneurial orientation. journal of business venturing, 12, 213–225. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0883-9026(96)00065-1 kor, y.y. (2003). experienced-based top management team competence and sustained growth. organisation science, 14(6), 707–719. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.14.6.707.24867 kor, y.y., & sundaramurthy, c. (2009). experienced-based human capital and social capital of outside directors. journal of management, 35(4), 981–1006. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206308321551 kreiser, p.m., marino, l.d., & weaver, m.k. (2002). accessing the psychometric properties of the entrepreneurial orientation scale: a multi-country analysis. entrepreneurial theory and practice, 26, 71–94. kuratko, d.f., hornsby, j.s., & goldsby, m.g. (2004). sustaining corporate entrepreneurship: a proposed model of perceived implementation/outcome comparisons at the organizational and individual levels. international journal of entrepreneurship and innovation, 5(2), 77–89. kuratko, d.f., ireland, r.d., covin, j.g., & hornsby, j.s. (2005). a model of middle-level managers’ entrepreneurial behaviour. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 29(6), 699–716. kuratko, d.f., & audretsch, d.b. (2009). strategic entrepreneurship: exploring different perspectives of an emerging concept. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 33(1), 1–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2008.00278.x larcker, d.f., & tayan, b. (2011). board of directors: selection, compensation, and removal. corporate governance research program. stanford: stanford graduate school of business. lumpkin, g.t., & dess, g.g. (1996). clarifying the entrepreneurial orientation construct and linking the performance. academic of management review, 21(1), 135–172. malherbe, s., & segal, n. (2001). corporate governance in south africa. presented at the policy dialogue meeting on corporate governance in developing countries and emerging economies, organised by the oecd development centre and the european bank for reconstruction and development, at oecd headquarters, paris, 23–24 april 2001. mans, n. (2011). corporate governance, ownership structure and performance of south african firms: impact of the global financial crisis. working paper. st. gallen: oikos pri scholars academy. mbendi information services. (2008). oil and gas in south africa – overview. retrieved september 17, 2010, from http://www.mbendi.com/indy/oilg/af/sa/p0005.htm#5 miller, s., & meelis, t.v. (2005). industrial relations in the oil industry in south africa: sectoral activities programme. working paper. geneva: international labour office. morris, m.h., & kuratko, d.f. (2002). corporate entrepreneurship. orlando: harcourt college publishers. morris, m.h., kuratko, d.f., & covin, j.g. (2008). corporate entrepreneurship and innovation. (2nd edn.). mason: south-western, cengage learning. mustakallio, m., autio, e., & zahra, s.a. (2002). relational and contractual governance in family firms: effects of strategic decision-making. family business review, 15(3), 205–222. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6248.2002.00205.x mwenja, d., & lewis, a. (2009). exploring the impact of the board of directors on the performance of not-for-profit organisations. business strategies series, 10(6), 359–365. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17515630911005646 naldi, l., nordqvist, m., sjoberg, k., & wiklund, j. (2007). entrepreneurial orientation, risk-taking, and performance in family firms. family business review, 20(1), 33–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6248.2007.00082.x nicholson, g.j., & kiel, g.c. (2004). a framework for diagnosing board effectiveness: corporate governance. an international review, 12(4), 442–460. nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory. (2nd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. ogbechie, c. (2009). board characteristics and involvement in strategic decision-making: the nigerian perspective. management research news, 32(2), 169–184. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01409170910927622 okpara, j.o. (2010). perspective on corporate governance challenges in a sub-saharan african economy. journal of business and policy research, 5(1), 110–122. pukthuanthong, k., & sundaramurthy, c. (2009). human capital of the ceo and the corporate board of directors and ipo performance. presented at the financial management association, san diego university, october 2009. rossouw, g.t., van der watt, a., & malan, d.p. (2002). corporate governance in south africa. journal of business ethics, 37(3), 289–302. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1015205511601 schumpeter, j.a. (1934). the theory of economic development. cambridge: harvard university press. serfontein, s., basson, j.s., & burden, j. (2009). mapping a transformation from a traditional to an entrepreneurial organisation: a south african case. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), 1–14. south african institute of chartered accountants. (2009). summary of report on governance for south africa (king iii): king committee on governance. johannesburg: saica. retrieved n.d., from http://www.auditor.co.za/portals/23/king%20111%20saica.pdf south african petroleum industry association. (2009). jet fuel shortages and challenges facing the petroleum industry. presented at the sapia briefing, 25 august 2009. retrieved september 15, 2010, from http://www.pmg.org.za/report/20090825-jet-fuel-shortages-challenges-facing-petroleum-industry-sa-petroleum statistica version 10 [computer software] (2011). tulsa: statsoft, inc. retrieved, n.d., from http://www.statsoft.com tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2007). using multivariate statistics. (5th edn.). boston: pearson education. thyil, v., & young, s. (2010). an empirical investigation of hybrid corporate governance systems in large firms: evidence from india. in ifsam 2010: proceedings of the international federation of scholarly associations of management world congress: justice and sustainability in the global economy, 08–10 july (pp. 1–21). paris: international federation of scholarly associations of management. retrieved september 20, 2010, from http://hdl.handle.net/10536/dro/du:30029852 urban, b. (2010). technology and entrepreneurial orientation at the organisational level in the johannesburg area. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art #212, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i.212 urban, b. (2011). entrepreneurship and strategy. in b. urban (ed.), perspectives in entrepreneurship: a research companion. technopreneurship: book 3, (n.p.). south africa: pearson education. urban, b., & barreira, j. (2010). empirical investigations into firm entrepreneurial orientation and technology orientation. international journal of innovation and technology management, 7(3/4), 1–23. van tonder, c.l. (2006). towards a minimum conceptualisation of ethnic organisational change: the platform provided by the king ii report. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 4(3), 12–21. voss, z.g., voss, b.g., & moorman, c. (2005). an empirical examination of the complex relationships between entrepreneurial orientation and stakeholder support. european journal of marketing, 39(9/10), 1132–1150. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090560510610761 west, a. (2006). theorising south africa’s corporate governance. journal of business ethics, 68(4), 433–448. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-006-9033-5 wieland, j. (2005). corporate governance, values management, and standards: a european perspective. business society, 44(1), 74–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0007650305274852 wiklund, j. (1999). the sustainability of the entrepreneurial orientation-performance relationship. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 24, 37–50. windsor, d. (2009). tightening corporate covernance. journal of international management, 15, 306–316. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2009.02.003 zahra, s.a. (1996). governance, ownership, and corporate entrepreneurship: the moderating impact of industry technological opportunities. academic of management journal, 39(6), 1713–1735. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/257076 zahra, s.a., & bogner, w.c. (1999). technology and software new ventures performance: exploring the moderating effect of the competitive environment. journal of business venturing, 15, 135–173. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0883-9026(98)00009-3 appendix: instrument top ↑ section a: board effectiveness on competence that shapes firm's strategic entrepreneurial direction section a: professional knowledge and experiences section a: board commitment and recognition of complexities section a: board involvement in decision control section b: measurement scales and items for entrepreneurial orientation 2debeer.qxd stewart & sveiby (as cited by bontis, 1998, p.63) wrote that: “intellectual capital has been considered by many, defined by some, understood by a select few, normally valued by a select few, and formally valued by no one”. however, petty & guthrie (2000, p.1) claim that stage one has been completed, i.e. raising awareness. the challenge now is to establish research into intellectual capital (ic) as a legitimate undertaking, and gather robust evidence of its further development and relevance for competitive advantage. corporations devote meticulous attention to the analysis and accounting of tangible assets. but there is no process to measure and analyse investments in knowledge capital. focus is shifting from individual assets to groups of assets where different types of assets co-operate in the production of value. in an information and knowledge society, the main part of these assets are intangible: this is the intellectual capital – synonym of knowledge capital – embodied in the skills, knowledge and experience of people and in organisational procedures, systems and routines. to measure ic however requires metrics that are repeatable and quantitatively definable in monetary terms. this calls for methods that are independently verifiable. knowledge capital has also become the financial communit y’s favourite rationalisation for the stratospheric prices of some stocks. in most markets the ratio of intellectual capital to financial capital is growing rapidly, with the result that organisations dispose of a stock of intangible assets e.g. sales of shares, which far outstrips the tangible. governments are also increasingly taking interest in ic, which becomes evident through all the sponsored research, and expected external financial reporting regulations to be introduced to promote transparency. (bontis, 1998, p.64; balancing accounts with knowledge, 1999, pp. 5 and 19; edvinsson, 2000, p.13; sveiby, 1998, p.1; intellectual capital accounts, 1997, p.7; hitt, ireland, & hoskisson, 1999, p.19). setting of the problem traditionally accepted and applied management doctrines do not provide for ic management; in fact traditional accountancy methodologies do not even know how to measure it, resulting in it being ignored or referred to by non-essential terms such as “goodwill”. goodwill however consists of ic plus other intangible assets (bassi, 1999, p.428). the need to measure ic, make it visible, and influence the total value (stock price) of an organisation, is especially vital for organisations which are contemplating: � listing on the stock exchange � issuing shares � take-overs � mergers � alliance formation � selling out � increasing the value of the organisation � ensuring future competitiveness of their company � aligning their hr strategy with business strategy � gaining transparency of their company’s ic and managing it � developing of skills and competencies in order to influence the stock price of a company, its ic must therefore: � be identified � deliverable (measurable) proof of potential � be valued � be made visible proof of the importance and advantages of addressing ic are in abundance e.g.: � the netherlands study (intellectual capital accounts, 1997, p.3) documented both internal and external advantages that ic accounts can generate. � companies managing their ic outperformed other companies (bornemann et al, as cited by petty & guthrie, 2000, p.165). � pricewaterhousecoopers (pwc) performed an assessment of the benefits of reporting on intangible assets. they reported a reduction in cost of capital and thus an increase in share price. increased transparency also inspired confidence among staff and other stakeholders (1999, balancing accounts with knowledge, report pwc, pp.12 and 25). � the existence of a significant positive relationship of ic with business performance, and those efforts to manage knowledge and develop structural capital, led to higher business performance (pena, 2002, p.181). marius de beer neil barnes programme in leadership perfomance rand afrikaans university abstract the aim of the article is to report on an investigation into ic as portrayed by thought leaders and research groups, against a south african background. an attempt was made to clarif y relevant terminology, develop a model and methodology for south african application, and assess the status of ic within the south africa context through a qualitative methodology using focus groups. results indicated that ic in south africa is still in the infancy stage. however, models and methodologies developed in other continents could with changes be applied in the south african context. opsomming die doel van hierdie artikel is om verslag te doen oor die ondersoek na intellektuele kapitaal (ik) soos voorgestel deur vakkundiges en navorsingsgroepe, teen die agtergrond van die suid afrikaanse situasie. ’n poging is aangewend om tersaaklike terminologie te verklaar, ’n model en metodologie vir suid afrikaanse aanwending te ontwikkel, en dit sowel as die status van ik in die suid afrikaanse omgewing te ondersoek deur middel van ’n kwalitatiewe metodologie, naamlik fokusgroepe. ik in suid afrika is steeds in die kinderskoene. modelle en metodologieë ontwikkel in ander lande kan egter met aanpassings aangewend word vir aanwending in die suid afrikaanse omgewing. the assessment of intellectual capital (ic) in the south african context – a qualitative approach requests for copies should be addressed to: m de beer, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 17 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (1), 17-24 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (1), 17-24 � “the higher a company’s human capital index, the higher its financial performance”, according to one of the big hr consulting companies, watson-wyatt, who have developed a human capital index attempting to correlate economic value with a set of human resource practices (stewart, 2001, pp. 309-310). � the existence of a significant positive relationship of ic with business performance, caused by the organisation’s efforts to manage knowledge and structural capital (bontis et al, 2000, p.85). � “…a close connection between ic accounts and financial results can be documented’ (intellectual capital accounts, 1997, p.18). � according to peppard & rylander (2001, pp. 226-227), the ic perspective has contributed in the following ways: �� providing a holistic view of the company �� focussing on value �� providing a common language �� providing a basis for developing the understanding of the nature of resources in action �� enabling a practical rather than conceptual perspective the importance and relevance of ic, and the necessity to research the phenomena within the south african context became evident from the above. the set goals for this research study were therefore: � to conduct a literature study in an attempt to identif y and confirm all variables and moderators of ic. � to utilize this knowledge to develop an assessment methodology and framework. � to assess the status of ic within the south african context. � to assess the feasibilit y of the proposed model and methodology. current knowledge of the problem it is impossible to start any study without first identif ying thought leaders in the field of ic. verna allee (2000, p.19) for example names first of all karl-eric sveiby, who introduced the concept of intangible assets to managers in northern europe and scandinavia in the mid-eighties. thomas stewart followed with his article in the fortune magazine, and later his popular book “intellectual capital: the new wealth of nations” in 1997. a number of authors proposed new accounting practices to explain, manage and measure these intangible assets e.g. kaplan & norton with their balanced scorecard approach in 1996, and sveiby & edvinsson with their intellectual capital methods in 1997. patrick sullivan (2000, p.2) mentions as far back as 1980 hiroyoki itami’s book “mobilizing invisible assets”. it is however quite obvious how numbers of publications have progressively increased up to the year 2000. other thought leaders are johan & göran roos, annie brooking, gordon petrash, baruch lev, michael malone, nick bontis and hubert saint-onge. methods for the measurement of ic are just as plentiful as the theorists on the subject, which suggests that there is no generally accepted theoretical model for understanding ic (petty & guthrie, 2000, p.160). however, there is an overwhelming consensus as to the need for such instruments. disagreement however prevails about the use of financial rather than nonfinancial parameters. studies, e.g. the malaysian studies (bontis et al, 2000); the danish trade and industry development council’s studies (intellectual capital accounts, 1997); the netherlands’ ministry of economic affairs’ studies (balancing accounts with knowledge, 1999); the organisation for economic co-operation and development (oecd) studies (oecd, 1999); the spanish companies’ “best practices” studies (sanchez et al, 2000); magic (measuring and accounting intellectual capital), the european research and development project and qpr’s scorecard (qpr online, 2002); intellectual capital management (icm) group study (icm group, inc, 1998); and the canadian biotechnology study (cumby & conrod, 2001, p.265), revealed an increasingly popular classification that divides intellectual assets into three categories i.e. � human capital � structural capital � customer capital these are viewed from the following perspectives: � external perspective – forward view in which an assessment of the company’s environment and sector plays a role � internal perspective – past view in which the assessment of the company’s non-valued assets is focussed on. methods of measurement are divided into three main categories, namely: � input related (focus on resources) � process related (focus on value adding) � output related (focus on revenue generation). additional authors that were studied in order to be able to develop an ic organisational model are depicted in table 1 (mcelroy, 2002, pp. 30-31; bontis, 2001, pp. 47,49,54 and 56; stewart, 1997, pp. 226-229; sveiby, 1998, p.4; balancing accounts with knowledge, 1999, p. 9; guthrie & petty, 2000, p.3; pike & roos, 2000, p.10; aberg & edvinsson; 2001, p.7; www.unic.net; m’pherson & pike, 2001, p.248; allee, 2000, p.19; low, pp. 256-262). table 1 ic assessment methodologies methodology author/concept originator 1 the skandia navigator leif edvinsson 2 ic map mark mcelroy 3 citation-weighted patents model gordon petrash 4 tobin’s q james tobin 5 intangible asset monitor karl erik sveiby 6 the mva (market value added) stern stewart 7 evatm (economic value added) stern stewart 8 the holistic value approach (hva) ics 9 the ic-index göran roos 10 the technology broker annie brooking 11 the ic rating™ aberg and edvinsson 12 unic-concept www.unic.net 13 inclusive value methodology – ivmtm professor phillip m’pherson 14 value domains verna allee 15 value creation index (vci) cap gemini ernst and young’s centre for business innovation 16 value added intellectual coefficient pulic (vaictm) 17 the knowledge value-added (kva) drs. thomas j. housel and valerie kanevsky figure 1 depicts the ic determinants derived from the above information. with regards to the figure 1, stewart (1997, p.101) defines ic as “the intellectual material – knowledge, information, intellectual property, experience – that can be put to use to create wealth”. the intellectual capital management (icm) gathering (harrison & sullivan, 2000, p.34) defined ic as “knowledge that can be diverted into profit”. bassi (1999, p.424) summarized the above saying that ic is knowledge that is of value to an organisation and can be segmented into three sub-categories: human capital, structural capital, and customer capital. from the above, the author came to the conclusion that ic represents the experienced difference between the market value of a company and the de beer, barnes18 balance sheet of a company, comprising of strategic intangible assets i.e. data, information, knowledge, experience and intellectual assets, that can be diverted into profit. ic therefore represents the potential of a company to create and extract value through its intangible assets. figure 1: ic determinants a model based on the previous discussion is indicated in figure 2. figure 2: provisional ic model the purpose of this study has been to create an organisational framework (model) of ic. out of the literature surveyed, a model is suggested (see figure 2). the major organisational dimensions would be human resources capital ((individual knowledge, skills, ability, attitudes i.e. technical, analytical, interpersonal, conceptual.), organisation capital ((internal: intellectual property e.g. patents, copyrights and trademarks, information systems, net working systems, infrastruct ure assets, management philosophy, corporate cult ure, management processes, financial relations) and customer capital (external relationships: brands, customers, customer loyalty, company names, franchising agreements, distribution channels, business collaborations, licensing agreements and favourable contracts.) once the dimensions for measuring ic were defined, a methodology to measure ic was developed (see figure 3): figure 3: ic assessment methodology the suggested process for measuring ic is as follows: � do proper strategic planning �� including a thorough environmental analysis, which is essential when comparing (benchmarking) information e.g. competitor information �� develop ic strategy and plan e.g. the reasons and purpose of ic measurement (needs and requirements) � identif y/define ic �� through the normal process of key performance areas and critical performance indicators, identif y critical resources i.e. core competencies that are linked to the competitive strategy of the organisation’s strategy and plan. �� test the relevance of each critical resource/core competency by assessing the value that they add. this can be established by asking the following questions. – adding value does the core competence/critical resource offer a substantial benefit for the majority of customers or offer a substantial cost saving to the company for the foreseeable future, which makes us different from the competition and therefore creates demand? – competitiveness do the minimum of competitors share this particular core competence/critical resource, in which we show superiority and invest substantially more time and money in, that is visible through our trade articles, patents, trademarks etc.? – potential is this core competence/critical resource directly related to the increasing demand for our products/ services, and allow the development of new products and services and entrance to new markets in the future? are there no economic threats (customers, suppliers, competitors) or social threats (regulatory and social), which will adversely affect the use of this competence/resource? – sustainability is this core competence/critical resource scarce in our industry and it would require considerably investments in time and/or money for competitors to master? are components of the competence/resource protected by patents, trademarks and other legal measures, and a combination of a number of intangibles such as skills, knowledge, processes, and assessment of intellectual capital 19 corporate culture, thus making it difficult to copy, and not obtainable through acquisition or from other outside sources? – risk are the group of people that possess the core competence, the technology and it systems, and the endowments this core competence depends on vulnerable? are the values and norms on which this competence is built under pressure, and the primary and management processes, which this competence uses unreliable? �� develop measures for critical resources, core competencies. � measure. �� populate all the above in the ic framework. �� measure by describing the current situation or the “as is”. �� identif y/analyse the gap with the ideal situation or “to be” and plan. � implement �� create and maintain competitive advantage. �� execute plan. �� invest in ic i.e. employees. the above methodology could be applied in practice by creating the following framework. table 2 combines the ic dimensions identified and the ic measurement process as follows: as part of the strategic planning process, the mission, key objectives and critical success factors should be developed/identified. this forms the basis of identif ying critical resources/core competencies in each of the ic dimensions. once the critical resources/core competencies are identified, the value contribution is assessed through the “value test”. relevant performance indicators/measures are then identified and used to create a picture of the current situation and the desired situation (gap analysis). method the following questions were developed to address the specific goals of this study with regard to the assessment of ic in the south african context. � what is the current status in south africa with regard to ic and ic measurement? � what is the extent of demand for ic reporting in the south african market? de beer, barnes20 table 2 ic measurement framework mission: key objectives: critical success factors: critical resources ic measurement core skills, value contribution performance indicators/ “as is” “to be” competencies and (competitiveness, measures current situation” ideal situation strategc capabilities sustainability, potential, risk) human resources capital (individual knowledge, skills, ability, attitudes i.e. technical, analytical, interpersonal, conceptual.) organisational capital (internal: intellectual property e.g. patents copyrights and trademarks, information systems, networking systems, infrastructure assets, management philosophy, corporate culture, management processes and financial relations) customer capital (external relationships: brands, customers, customer loyalty, company names, franchising agreements, distribution channels, business collaborations, licensing agreements and favourable contracts) i n t e l l e c t u a l c a p i t a l � within a south african organisation, who is best positioned to measure and manage ic? � what are the current and anticipated effects of reporting ic in south africa (competitive advantage)? � what are the current problems, difficulties and/or barriers concerning the introduction of ic in south africa? � is gathering information on ic feasible from a cost/benefit perspective? � what are the determinants that affect ic within companies? � what is the most effective methodology for assessing ic within companies? � how might current methods of measuring ic be improved? � what is this study’s relevance to the south african context? to ensure that the validity of the research findings increased, the stages, as proposed by mouton & marais (1992, p.25) were followed: � choosing of the research subject or theme � formulation of the research problem � conceptualisation and operationalisation of the problem focus group interviewing is a qualitative data gathering method with a long history in research, but has been under-used. qualitative measures are typically judgement-based and used when the item to be measured does not lend itself to quantifiable measurement. focus groups research involves organised discussion with a selected group of individuals to gain information about their views and experience of a topic. one qualitative study on ic used focus groups to provide an additional method for obtaining more detailed data. each group consisted of seven to ten people (miller et al as cited by brennen & connel, 2000, p.235). table 3 focus group interview guide type of question question 1 opening question � what is the current status in south africa with regard to ic and ic measurement? � what is the extent of demand for ic reporting in the south african market? 2 introductory question � within a south african organisation, who is best positioned to measure and manage ic? what are the current and anticipated effects of reporting ic in south africa (competitive advantage)? 3 transitional question � what are the current problems, difficulties and/or barriers concerning the introduction of ic in south africa? � is gathering information on ic feasible from a cost/benefit perspective? 4 key questions – seen � what are the determinants that affect ic against the within your companies? background of the � what is the most effective methodology proposed model and for assessing ic within your companies? methodology � how might current methods of measuring ic be improved? 5 ending question � what is this study’s relevance to the south african context? the present study utilised focus groups to verif y and add to the exploration in the process of developing an ic model and measurement methodology. the participants were handpicked according to specified criteria. the author chose a size of between eight and twelve participants, and the three groups each contained eight, eleven and ten persons. the decision on the number of groups was influenced by two factors i.e. availability of participants and their relevance to the study. six groups were aimed for of which three were realised. as was evident because of duplication and new information gathered by the second and third focus groups, three sessions proved to be sufficient. every effort was made to ensure attendance through personalisation of invitations and motivation, however only about half of the people that confirmed, turned up. the interview venue was also selected based on convenience. an interview guide was developed using questions, which were carefully selected and phrased prior to the focus group interviews in order to elicit the maximum amount of information (see table 3). the concept was defined clearly with identified critical questions, based on the research questions. the concepts were broad and limited to five phases. questions were also from more general to more specific (the funnelling process) to enable all the participants to “grow” into the subject, putting them at ease and opening their minds to the subject. in order to gain an understanding of the critical issues, specific follow-up questions and probing were used during the interview. additional information was asked from the interviewees to support information gathered during the focus group interviews to enable more in-depth and meaningful evaluation of the proposed ic model and methodology. results the focus groups revealed that ic and ic measurement in south africa is still in its infancy stage and that companies that do attend to this phenomenon are the exception. the short-term viewpoint of financial capital as the only capital of value is still solidly intact. some audit firms are doing research on how to report by means of notes in financial reports. the big consulting firms have the knowledge and applications internationally obtained. other variables also play an enormous role in south africa. it is believed that companies understand the ic concept in different ways, which contributes to the confusion in determining the real definition of ic and ic measurement. models and concepts do not cater for the south african conditions but are based on models build abroad. the demand for ic reporting is rather insignificant, although a definite interest exists in ic and sharing ic. this need tends to be more significant in knowledge-based companies. ignorance also plays a definite role. companies are not aware of the specific topics/issues, how to define measurement, what to measure, and how to present the results. where there is a need, clients are definitely willing to pay to satisf y it. the suspicion also exists that ic will become a form of “flavour of the month”. a need will be for experts to satisf y the transparency demand and assist with transformation and the transfer and development of knowledge and skills. the question on who would be best positioned to measure and manage ic was quite controversial. focus group participants nominated almost all the functional managers. all the focus groups however agreed that the accountability should lie with the ceo, but ic should be incorporated in the performance agreements of all managers. the necessity to involve an external party for objectivity purposes was also stressed. the general view was that ic and ic reporting can have a considerable impact on south african businesses. its use will lead to ic identification, gap analysis, and more focus on the human capital in most business enterprises. the focus may eventually shift to the non-financial/physical assets of companies, leading to an increase in competitiveness. measuring ic will also bring south africa in line with world practices and possible legislation in future. the disadvantages as mentioned should, however, not be ignored e.g. cost of ic implementation and its vulnerability. the current problems, difficulties and/or barriers concerning the introduction of ic in south africa are first of all the lack of interest/ understanding of the concept. ic is still relatively an unknown in south africa, and difficult to measure. third world issues e.g. survival and basic skills are perceived more important than intangible assets at this stage. the unfriendly view towards qualitative measurement, the non-uniformity and lack of legislation around the issue also has an effect on ic measurement. care should however be taken not to generalise about the above, because evidence of the opposite exists. assessment of intellectual capital 21 the gathering of information on ic from a cost/benefit perspective will be feasible on the long term – as are most initiatives, provided there is executive commitment and it is structured as an integrated part of an ic management program. this again will only happen when companies start to understand and apply ic correctly. the biggest impact may be in the it and service industry, which feels that they can afford the “luxury”. value can be added in any industry that employs human capital and regards their employees as their “most valuable possession”. the determinants that affect ic in companies in the south african environment are mainly the same as projected by the literature reviewed i.e. structural, human and organisational. the relevance of ic for strategy in the process was especially noted. culture and aspects like the social environment and politics also play a major role in influencing ic. methodologies for assessing ic are generally unknown. those linked to known models e.g. the value chain; the excellence model and the balanced scorecard were considered as possible assessment methodologies, linked to strateg y and performance. adding a risk and potential test was also mentioned as an improvement to most available methodologies. the model and methodology as proposed by the authors were in principle accepted. methods to measure ic in south africa are generally unknown. ideally methods must however be standardised and internationally accepted, although one would find that the more progressive enterprises would use it as a management focus to improve performance. the improvement on current methods proposed was to simplif y it for south african conditions. the framework suggested by the author was in general accepted. as far as this study’s relevance to the south african context, it was in general the opinion of the different focus groups that it will create awareness of ic and it could make an academic contribution and stimulate further research. based on the suggestions made by the focus groups, the following changes were made to the ic model. � the position of ic strategy within the proposed model was made more visible. � the depictions of the categorisation of the elements of ic were not done by means of definite partitions e.g. lines, to indicate interrelationships and interactivity. � financial capital was included in the ic model � the role of the external environment was emphasized more. the focus groups in general supported the proposed assessment methodology (process). the third focus group was specifically impressed with the value test, i.e. the test to assess whether the specific ic resource/capability definitely adds value, which forms part of the methodology. the only suggested changes to the ic assessment worksheet as proposed in table 2 were the use of the terms “current situation” and “ideal situation” instead of the terms “as is” and “to be”. important to note is the number of industries represented by the participants of the focus groups i.e. construction, consulting, education, financial/banking/insurance, food, health/ pharmaceutical, it/tc, manufacturing/engineering, mining, power generation, nuclear energy, petro-chemical, public service, public service, research, rubber, telecommunication/electronics and transport. table 4 represents specific feedback from the industries. from the sessions it became evident that ic is still in its infancy in companies in south africa, with some interest and movement occurring in the banking, cellular phones, petro-chemical and transport industries. figure 4: comparison of ic models. table 4 feedback by industry industry specific comments 1 construction/food/ not regarded as problem. majority of power generation/ employees are on lower skilled/artisan level. manufacturing/ work processes and procedures are described engineering/mining/ in detail rubber 2 consulting ic is major problem. companies are required to capture processes and methodologies to ensure continuation/reusability. 3 education/research not attended to at all. they believe ic is captured in educational books. 4 financial/banking/ the major financial institutions are attending insurance to the phenomena. 6 health/pharmaceutical not attended to at all. 7 it/ic/ ic is a major concern, however not yet telecommunications/ addressed as supposed to. electronics 8 nuclear energy no comments. 9 petro-chemical major organisation also attending to ic, more focus however on intellectual property. 10 public service although a major problem with regard to brain drain, generally not attended to. 11 transport major organisation just starting to attend to ic. de beer, barnes22 conclusion through the process of studying thought leaders’ and available research, as well as developing a proposed model and methodology on ic and testing it through the use of focus groups, the author concluded that ic is still in its infancy stage in south africa, if measured against the development thereof in other countries. most ic models and theories were basically developed around 2000 and there are still a lot of issues to be clarified and simplified, especially within the south african context. although an issue is being made about semantic differences between words like measuring, calculating, evaluating and assessing, the authors are of the opinion that measurement is the generic word encapsulating the most important aspect i.e. comparing something against a standard, whether qualitative or quantitative, specific or benchmarked. the difference between book value and market value is another heated topic. it seems however that ic is very similar to (or interchangeable with) intangible assets, core competencies and goodwill. comparing ic management and knowledge management suggests that the latter creates ic, which influences value or profit. the most common categorisation of ic is: � human capital such as individual knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes, which are either technical, analytical, interpersonal or conceptual. � organisational capital such as intellectual property (patents, copyrights and trademarks), information systems, net working systems, infrastructure assets, management philosophy, corporate culture, management processes and financial relations. intellectual property appears to be a subset of intellectual assets, which is a subset of ic. � structural capital relates to brands, customers, customer loyalt y, company names, franchising agreements, distribution channels, business collaborations, licensing agreements and favourable contracts. the depiction of the above categories in a hierarchical format does not give justice to fact that the dimensions of ic are interrelated and interdependent. it was also clear from the literature research that the popular methodolog y of obtaining information by means of a framework can be applied with success with the measurement of ic. this previously lead to the discovery of the major influence the balanced scorecard had on the development of ic and ic methodologies, as well as the problematic use of other frameworks e.g. the value chain, business excellence model, and iso 9002 for measuring ic. ic is a strategic issue for which a ceo of a company should be accountable, supported by his executives. it is also at this level that the reasons and methodology for the management of ic must be clarified. strategic terminology e.g. key objectives, critical success factors, and critical resources/ core competencies, play a major role in identif ying ic. an absolutely compulsory activity is the test of confirming the strategic value of the ic asset through the measurement of added value, competitiveness, sustainability, potential and risk. to keep context, both financial and non-financial measures should be assessed. the meaningfulness of qualitative research has impressed the authors. the amount of relevant information that would never have been accumulated by a questionnaire, plus the amount of control available using the focus groups, supports this fact. the information obtained from the focus groups compared well with the oecd study results, the major difference revealed was in the magnitude or level of current knowledge about the subject in the different hemispheres of the world. in summary, ic in south africa has still a long way to go and there are still a lot of issues to be addressed that will impact on the successful introduction of the concept in south africa. the whole study indicated what was later on proved to be the norm, a general ignorance of ic in south africa and what it entails. the authors’ experience with the subject led to the following recommendations: firstly, to address the issue of ignorance, tertiary institutions should cover ic in their syllabuses, and see to it that some research is directed towards ic, and articles published. secondly, researchers/authors should focus on the simplification and standardisation of terminologies and methodologies. thirdly special focus could be given to the difference or relevance of ic between 1st and 3rd world countries. last but not least qualitative research should also be promoted as a valid and reliable information gathering method. references aberg, d. & edvinsson, l. (2001). the ic multiplier and importance of structural capital. a first investigation of enablers shaping intellectual capital. 1-26. new york university, stern school of business. allee, v. (2000). the value evolution. addressing larger implications of an intellectual capital and intangibles perspective. journal of intellectual capital, 1 (1), 17-32, mcb university press. balancing accounts with knowledge. pilot project by the ministry of economic affairs, the hague, october 1999. bassi, l.j. (1999). measuring knowledge management effectiveness. harnessing the power of intellectual capital. knowledge management yearbook, 1999-2000, j.w. cortada and j.a.woods, butterworth-heineman bontis, n. keow, w.c.c. & richardson s. (2000). “intellectual capital and business performance in malaysian industries”. journal of intellectual capital, 1 (1), 85-100, mcb university press. bontis, n. (2001). assessing knowledge assets: a review of the models used to measure intellectual capital. international journal of management reviews, 3 (1), 41-60. bontis, n. (1998). intellectual capital: an exploratory study that develops measures and models. management decision, 36 (2), 63-76, mcb university press. brennan, n. & connell, b. (2000). intellectual capital. current issues and policy implications. journal of intellectual capital, 1 (3), 206-240, mcb university press. cumby, j. & conrod, j. (2001). non-financial performance measures in the canadian biotechnology industry. journal of intellectual capital, 2 (3), 261-272, mcb university press. edvinsson, l. 2000. some perspectives on intangibles and intellectual capital (2000). journal of intellectual capital, 1 (1), 12-16, mcb university press. guthrie, j. & petty, r. (2000). intellectual capital: australian annual report practices. journal of intellectual capital, 1 (3), 241-251, mcb university press. harrison, s. & sullivan, p.h. (2000). profiting from intellectual capital. journal of intellectual capital, 1 (1), 33-64, mcb university press. hitt, a., ireland, r.d. & hoskisson, r.e. (1999). strategic management – competiveness and globalisation (concepts and cases). third edition. south western college publishing company. (itp). cincinnati. icm group, inc, (1998). “what are companies currently measuring?”. http://www.icmgroup.com/. intellectual capital accounts. reporting and managing intellectual capital. the danish trade and industry development council, copenhagen, may 1997. low, j. (2000). the value creation index. journal of intellectual capital, 1 (3), 252-262, mcb university press. mcelroy, m.w. (2002). social innovation capital. journal of intellectual capital, 3 (1), 30-39, mcb university press. mouton, j. & marais, h.c. (1992). basiese begrippe. metodologie van die geesteswetenskappe. rgn uitgewers. pia. assessment of intellectual capital 23 m’pherson, p.k. & pike, s. (2001). accounting, empirical measurement and intellectual capital. journal of intellectual capital, 2 (3), 246-260, university press. oecd. (1999). symposium on measuring and reporting intellectual capital: experience, issues, and prospects. an international symposium 9-11 june, organised by the oecd with the netherlands ministry of economic affairs and ministry of education, culture and science and the nordic industrial fund. retrieved from (http://www.oecd.org/ dsti/sti/industry/indcomp/act/ams-conf/symposium. htm), august 2002. pena, i. (2002). intellectual capital and business start-up success. journal of intellectual capital, 3 (2), 180-198, mcb university press. peppard, j. & rylander, a. (2001). leverage intellectual capital at apion. journal of intellectual capital, 2 (3), 225-235, mcb university press. petty, r. & guthrie, j. (2000). intellectual capital literature review. measurement, reporting and management. the journal of intellectual capital, 1 (2), 55-176, mcb university press. pike, s. & roos, g. (2000). intellectual capital measurement and holistic value approach (hva). works institute journal (japan), 42, oct – nov, www.works-i.com. qpr online. retrieved from http://www.qpronline.com/ cgi-bin/qpr/qpr.exe? qprportaland* prmavandfmt= candkpbm65uisw23 bynil9r065uis wydbim mivqyomtbqk., august. sanchez, p., chaminade, c. & olea, m. (2000). management of intangibles. an attempt to build a theory. journal of intellectual capital, 1 (4), 312-327, mcb university press. stewart, thomas a. (1997). intellectual capital: the new wealth of nations, doubleday dell publishing group, new york, ny. stewart, thomas a. (2001). the wealth of knowledge. intellectual capital and the twenty-f irst centur y, nicholas brealey publishing, london. sullivan, p.h. (2000). how to convert intangible corporate assets into market value, 238-244, wiley. sveiby, k. (1998). measuring intangibles and intellectual capital – an emerging first standard, internet version, august 5. www.unic.net. retrieved august 2002. de beer, barnes24 article information authors: vuyokazi n. mtembu1 loganathan n. govender2 affiliations: 1graduate school of business and leadership, university of kwazulu-natal, south africa 2school of management, information technology and governance, university of kwazulu-natal, south africa correspondence to: vuyokazi mtembu email: vmtembu@mighty.co.za postal address: 72 jb marks road, unit 5 algwen, glenwood, durban 4000, south africa dates: received: 26 june 2014 accepted: 27 feb. 2015 published: 02 june 2015 how to cite this article: mtembu, v.n., & govender, l.n. (2015). perceptions of employers and unemployed youth on the proposed youth employment wage subsidy incentive in south africa: a kwazulu-natal study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #653, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.653 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. perceptions of employers and unemployed youth on the proposed youth employment wage subsidy incentive in south africa: a kwazulu-natal study in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • literature review       • unemployment in south africa       • causes of unemployment or types of unemployment       • the identified need for a youth wage subsidy in south africa       • research design       • research questions were the following       • research hypotheses       • exploratory and descriptive research       • sampling    • data collection methods       • questionnaires       • semi-structured in depth interviews       • ethical considerations       • data analysis techniques       • validity and reliability of results • results    • results from youth questionnaires: quantitative assessment       • descriptive statistics       • inferential assessment       • chi-square test-perceptions • results from employer questionnaire: qualitative results    • support of wage subsidy    • subsidy's potential to create jobs • discussion of results    • support of youth wage subsidy and its potential as a job creation strategy    • implementation of youth wage subsidy    • practical implications and recommendations       • national youth development agency programmes       • institutions that are mandated to fight and curb youth unemployment in south africa       • legislative framework or prescripts and policies    • limitations • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: south africa has high levels of unemployment and severe problem of youth unemployment. this implies that the country requires a comprehensive strategy to create more jobs for the youth. policymaking is one of the strategies that have been introduced to encourage job creation for the youth. the youth wage subsidy is just one of the strategies proposed and this article unpacks what employers and unemployed youth say and think about this policy directive. research purpose: the main aim of the study was to determine the perceptions of unemployed south african youth and employers on the proposed youth wage subsidy incentive scheme. motivation for the study: youth unemployment is a very important issue and the reality is that it is a concern of every government globally. south africa is therefore not an exception as it is a country that has been experiencing high levels of youth unemployment for the last few decades. in an attempt to curb this pressing challenge of youth unemployment, a proposal to introduce a youth wage subsidy policy was made by government; (since its mention), this idea has been met with a lot of opposing opinions from those against it and applause from those who support it. this has motivated this study to probe the perceptions of the subsidy by those who will be affected by its provisions. method: a triangulated research approach was adopted through the administration of survey questionnaires amongst the unemployed youth and semi-structured interviews with human resource managers and specialists. a sample of unemployed youth was drawn from selected communities within kwazulu-natal. in addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with human resource managers and specialists at selected organisations to determine their perceptions of the proposed scheme and any benefits or limitations they believe it might have. non-probability sampling was used to sample 100 respondents (n = 100), 90% of whom were unemployed youths and 10% of whom were employers. main findings: the overall results indicate that more that 93% of the youth surveyed and more than 90% of employers are in support of the youth wage subsidy. in terms of how it should be structured and implemented, about 80% of respondents in the employer survey preferred the tax rebate and incentive option as most of them stated that it will be an easier process to manage and monitor. more than 50% of employers believed that it will ease the wage burden and ensure business sustainability. on the other hand, 88% of the youth surveyed believed it will increase employment for the youth. findings furthermore reveal that 10% of employers and 28% of the youth were concerned that the subsidy has the potential to exploit older workers (i.e. those who are already in employment) and feared corruption from some employers; otherwise they are in support of its implementation. contribution: this is one of the areas that have not been sufficiently explored; as a result, there is not much information about it in the current body of knowledge. this study will contribute to current knowledge about a current policy initiative critical to the development of the country. this research also culminates in important recommendations and draws conclusions that could contribute to the formulation of guidelines on how the government could embrace the youth wage subsidy incentive scheme as a strategic intervention that could benefit the employers and the youth and at the same time aid in finding a solution to south africa's youth unemployment crisis. introduction top ↑ south africa has a severe problem of youth unemployment, which requires a multi-pronged strategy to raise employment and support inclusion and social cohesion (national treasury, 2011, p. 5). high youth unemployment means that young people are not receiving the skills and experience that are required to drive the economy forward. the high youth unemployment rate inhibits the country's economic development and poses a huge burden on the state to provide social assistance (national treasury, 2011, p. 5). statistics south africa’s (2013) quarterly labour force survey reports that in the first quarter of 2013 the number of unemployed reached 4.6 million; 65.3% had been looking for work for a period of one year or longer and 59.4% of the job seekers did not have matric. the unemployment rate amongst the 15–24 year olds (52.9%) remains the highest amongst all age groups and has been on the increase. the 15–34 year olds accounted for 70.7% of the unemployed persons in the country. the alarming statistics on high youth unemployment ignited an interest to probe and conduct a study on this issue. hence, the main aim of this study is to determine the perceptions of employers and unemployed youth on the proposed youth employment incentive scheme aimed to address this challenge and the epidemic of high youth unemployment in south africa. in light of the findings, the study will recommend and suggest solutions for this national problem. in his inaugural state of the nation address, president jacob zuma stated: the creation of decent work will be at the centre of our economic policies and will influence our investment attraction and job creation initiatives. in line with our undertakings, we have to forge ahead to promote a more inclusive economy. there is growing consensus that creating decent work, reducing inequality and defeating poverty can only happen through a new growth path founded on restructuring the south african economy to improve its performance in terms of labour absorption and rate of growth. (south african government, 2010, n.p.) in putting the president's words into action, to establish a new growth path that will create an environment for economic growth and decent work creation, government, under the leadership of minister ebrahim patel, on 23 november 2010 released the framework of the new economic growth path, aimed at enhancing growth, employment creation and equity. the policy's principal target is to create five million jobs over the next 10 years (south african government, 2010). the new growth path framework document states that: to achieve the step of creating decent work, reducing inequality and defeating poverty, change in growth and transformation of economic conditions requires hard choices and a shared determination as south africans to see it through. the government is committed to forging such a consensus and leading the way by identifying areas where employment creation is possible on a large scale and developing a policy package to facilitate employment creation. (south african government, 2010, n.p.) one of the elements of the policy package referred to is the proposed youth wage subsidy policy, which was highlighted in the medium term budget policy statement in 2009 and formally announced by president zuma in the state of the nation address in february 2010 and whose paper for public comment was released by the national treasury in february 2011. the youth wage subsidy was envisaged to be implemented from 01 april 2012, but due to differences in views from various stakeholders including political parties, business and labour the implementation process has been delayed to date (2013). literature review unemployment in south africa the definition of unemployment according to statistics south africa is: when someone aged between 15 and 64 is without work in the week preceding the interview, but who looks for work and is available to take up employment or open a business. (statistics south africa, 2013, n.p.) statistics south africa’s (2013) expanded definition of unemployment on the other hand includes people who have stopped looking for work, who can be referred to as discouraged work seekers. according to the narrow definition of unemployment, in the first quarter of 2013, south africa's official unemployment was 25.2% from 24.9% in the fourth quarter of 2012; however, in the expanded definition statistics, which include people who have stopped looking for work, the unemployment rate was 36.7% in the first quarter of 2013, the highest since 2008. in principle, unemployment is easy to define. persons are unemployed if they desire employment but cannot find jobs. the unemployment rate is then obtained by expressing the number of unemployed persons as a percentage of the total number of people willing and able to work, the so-called labour force (south african reserve bank, 2013). globally, a country's unemployment is defined as a number of jobless people as a percentage of the total labour force (economically active people). persons are unemployed if they are in an economically active group, would like to be working but are unable to find work. one of the general definitions used in most academic books is the one given by roux (2008), who defines unemployment or the unemployed as: those people who are 15 and older (normally below 65), are currently unemployed, but are available for employment within the next 2 weeks and have taken specific steps during the last 4 weeks to find employment. (p. 56) roux (2008, p. 51) on the challenge of unemployment describes it as ‘one of the major socio-economic problems in south africa, unemployment implies hunger, misery and loss of self-esteem for those who are jobless’. roux continues to describe unemployment as leading to anger and resentment towards a system that has led to people's inability to find a meaningful job. in south africa, unemployment is particularly high. as a result, the potential for socio-economic instability is not only great, but also extremely worrying (roux, 2008, p. 51). the prevalence of service delivery strikes, community unrest and public violence are clear manifestations of the frustration of a jobless south african society living in poverty with no sense of hope. this then gives a strong message to government and other social and economic partners to give this issue priority attention. barker (2007, pp. 172–173) describes unemployment as ‘probably the most severe problem in south africa and is conceivably the root cause of many other problems such as crime and violence’. barker continues to explain why unemployment should be addressed by stating that: the reason why job creation should be the highest policy priority is because unemployment has grave consequences for any country, it not only affects an individual's dignity and self-respect and erodes his or her standard of living, but also affects society as a whole because of high crime rates and frustration leading to unrest and lawlessness. (barker, 2007, pp. 172–173) causes of unemployment or types of unemployment in academic literature, causes of unemployment are usually categorised into the following: structural – overall inability of the economy to provide jobs, owing to structural imbalances sometimes even during periods of economic growth, for example as a result of skills mismatch, rapid growth of labour force and so on. seasonal – due to normal and expected changes in economic activity, for example agriculture and the retail trade. cyclical – demand deficient unemployment, for example during times of recession, demand for labour is low. frictional – arises as result of normal labour turnover in a dynamic economy, time lags involved between re-employment of labour (natrass, wakeford & muradzikwa, 2002, pp. 176–177). parsons (2009) states that: one other reason why the unemployment rate has stayed high in south africa is the structural impediments, as the large part of the population has been immobilised and incapacitated, a number of structural rigidities prevent them from being employed or participating in any form of income generating economic activity. (p. 18) parsons furthermore explains that causes of structural unemployment include: mismatches between skills supplied and demanded, insufficient access to effective education and skills development opportunities, deterioration of skills and motivation of individual jobseekers caused by prolonged period of unemployment, insufficient opportunities for on the job training and lack of mobility as a results of exacerbated transport costs. (parsons, 2009, p. 18) the high rate of youth unemployment is a major problem in the country. according to the national treasury (2011, p. 5) discussion paper, the following are some of the reasons why youth unemployment is still a severe problem in south africa: employers look for skills and experience; they regard unskilled, inexperienced jobseekers as a risky investment. education is not a substitute for skills. schooling is not a reliable signal of capabilities and low school quality feeds into poor workplace learning capacity. given the uncertainty about the potential of school leavers, employers consider entry-level wages to be too high relative to the risk of hiring inexperienced workers. the identified need for a youth wage subsidy in south africa in an desperate attempt to minimise unemployment and its negative consequences many countries in the world have opted for the strategy of wage subsidies, by either subsidising the payrolls of employers who employ groups of people targeted by the subsidy or by giving tax rebates to such employers as a way of encouraging them to employ more people. in order to consider youth wage subsidies as a means to resolving the current challenge, it is important to determine what wage subsidies entail. wage subsidies are usually custom designed to address unemployment challenges facing a certain group of the population, which usually leads to the whole nation being affected by that challenge. this extract from the world bank policy primer publication gives a clear summary of how wage subsidies are structured: wage subsidies come in different forms, pursuing different but related objectives. subsidies can be given to employers to stimulate demand or to employees to provide incentives for re-employment. they can take the form of direct transfers, reductions in social security contributions, or income tax credits. they can be targeted to vulnerable workers or be provided across the board. they can focus on those already employed or only on new hires. choices at all these levels determine their impact on employment and their costs. in the context of the crisis of unemployment, wage subsidies have two main functions: dampening the pace of job destruction in the formal sector, avoiding the depreciation of skills and stimulating hiring and facilitating re-employment. in the first case, the subsidies allow employers to keep workers who would otherwise fill the ranks of the unemployed or move to lower productivity jobs in the informal sector—in both cases risking losing their skills. in the second case, the focus is to increase exit rates from unemployment particularly among unemployed poor and vulnerable workers, thus reducing the destructive persistence of long term unemployment. (world bank, 2009, p. 2) according to baskin (1996): there are many different ways to design a wage subsidy policy, these include wage subsidies that are either targeted or general, targeted wage subsidies are aimed specifically at a particular region or demographic group, when targeted at a disadvantaged subset of the entire potential labour force, they are known as categorical wage subsidies, these might be designed specifically to help unskilled workers, poor families or the youth. (p. 191) wage subsidies often take the form of a tax credit whose downside is the decrease in financial resources, in some cases, the increased levels of employment will produce savings in social insurance programmes, such as unemployment insurance, social grants and other transfer payments which will replenish a portion of the programme's cost. (baskin, 1996, p. 194) the design of a wage subsidy and which group it targets is very important as it can have implications on the cost of the subsidy and its impact in minimising the challenge of unemployment and poverty. according to the world bank (2009): employer-based subsidies can cost less and have a larger social impact if targeted to individuals with lower pay. their main role is to smooth the impact of a temporary downturn. while on the other hand targeted employee-based subsidies linked to other active labor market programs such as training and job counseling can be considered to improve the employability of low-income unskilled workers over the medium-term. (p. 2) one of the first and most comprehensive studies done in south africa on the effect of youth wage subsidies in employment was first conducted in 2011 (sbp, 2013). the study surveyed about 500 small and medium enterprises on their views on the youth wage subsidy. findings of the study indicated that 55% of firms surveyed were in favour of the youth wage subsidy. a majority of firms employing between 10 and 40 people supported the subsidy; this was especially pronounced amongst those employing between 31 and 40 people, a group within which a great deal of business expansion appears to be taking place. around 75% of firms employing between 31 and 40 people supported the subsidy. support for the subsidy was highest in the manufacturing sector (sbp, 2013, p. 31). another study conducted in south africa was a study undertaken by the african micro-economic research unit (ameru) at the university of witwatersrand (rankin & schöer, 2011). the study tracked 4000 unemployed young people aged between 20 and 24 years and more than 600 firms, over a period of 3 years. part of this research included testing the impact of a r5000 hiring voucher allocated to 4000 youth, which was to expire in 6 months. the youth was tasked to find work. if they found work their employers were allowed to claim r5000 from wits university. preliminary results showed that half the sample who received hiring vouchers was likely to find employment as compared to those who had no vouchers (rankin & schöer, 2011). the main findings of the research included the following: young people who were allocated a hiring voucher were up to 25 per cent more likely to be employed than those who were not. this effect persisted 2 years after the hiring voucher was allocated. another finding of this study was that the majority of firms stated they would not substitute older workers for younger ones if there was a youth employment incentive, in part because older workers are more reliable and experienced. (rankin & schöer, 2011) research design in this study, objectives and specific questions were formulated, a systematic system of finding answers was followed with the use of questionnaires distributed to unemployed youth in kwazulu-natal and interviews conducted with human resource managers and specialists in various companies within kwazulu-natal. research questions were the following what are the perceptions of employers and unemployed youth on the youth wage subsidy policy? will the youth wage subsidy be supported or rejected by those affected by its provisions? will the youth wage subsidy increase the chances for the youth to get long-term employment? research hypotheses the research study investigated the following hypotheses: hypothesis 1: ho: employers and the unemployed youth will not support the youth wage subsidy scheme. ha: employers and the unemployed youth will support the youth wage subsidy scheme. hypothesis 2: ho: youth wage subsidy will result in no increase in jobs for the youth. ha: youth wage subsidy will result in increase in jobs for the youth. exploratory and descriptive research a combination of exploratory and descriptive research was used. in this study perceptions and attitudes of south africa's youth and employers towards youth wage subsidies were solicited, as a way to predetermine chances of success or failure if the proposed youth wage subsidy is implemented. literature review confirmed that this area of study has never been comprehensively researched before. the exploratory research was conducted to deeply investigate the problem of youth unemployment and to look at possible options and alternatives that can be considered to deal with the challenge of unemployment. sampling non-probability sampling was used to sample 100 respondents, 90% of whom were unemployed youths and 10% of whom were employers. a combination of convenience, quota and snowball sampling methods was a guiding compass in the selection of relevant respondents. convenience sampling was used as the researcher sampled only the youth who reside in the province of kwa-zulu natal, which is close to the researcher. quota sampling was applied in the sense that only a certain category of the youth was sampled: youth between the ages of 18–29 who are not employed and not studying. snowball sampling came into play as youth members researched were allowed to give references to some of their peers who are in the same situation, who were then also included in the sample. data collection methods questionnaires questionnaires were distributed to respondents who in this case were the unemployed youth (n = 90) between the ages of 18 and 29 in kwazulu-natal. a questionnaire with 15 questions, which were a combination of structured, semi-structured and unstructured questions, was administered to the 90 participating youths. the type of questions was a mix of open and closed ended questions. the closed questions were in the form of a five-point likert scale. semi-structured in depth interviews semi-structured interviews were conducted with employers (n = 10) from small, medium and large companies in kwazulu-natal. the questionnaire comprised seven questions: five open-ended questions and two closed ended. ethical considerations anonymity of responses was ensured as respondents were advised not to disclose their names, and were assured that the information will be used for academic research purposes; in that effect anonymity was therefore guaranteed. participation was voluntary and participants were informed that they can withdraw from the study at any point if they wish to do so. data analysis techniques descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the results from the quantitative data collected from the youth questionnaires. spss version 21 was used to statistically analyse the data collected. thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data collected from employer interviews. validity and reliability of results cronbach's alpha was used to ensure reliability and quality of results. there are a number of different reliability coefficients. commonly used is the cronbach's alpha. the cronbach's alpha can range from 0 to 1. cronbach's alpha was also calculated as part of the reliability test to assess how consistent the results were; all variables were above 0.7 in this study. results top ↑ the overall results indicate that 93% of the youth surveyed and more than 90% of employers are in support of the youth wage subsidy. in terms of how it should be structured on implementation, about 80% of respondents in the employer survey preferred the tax rebate incentive option as most of them stated that it will be an easier process to manage and monitor. more than 50% of employers believed that it will ease the wage burden and ensure business sustainability. ten percent of respondents indicated that their concern is the subsidy's potential to exploit older workers and corruption from some employers; otherwise they are in support of its implementation. results from youth questionnaires: quantitative assessment descriptive statistics descriptive statistics describe a body of data. here we discuss how to determine three things we might want to know about a dataset: points of central tendency, amount of variability, and the extent to which different variables are associated with one another. (leedy & ormrod, 2010, p. 265) in this study, a five-point likert scale was used to scale responses in the youth questionnaires. in terms of youth perceptions, table 1 reflects that the mean for support of wage subsidy was 4.38, which indicates that most respondents fully agreed that they are in support of the youth wage subsidy. for the question on whether it was a good idea for youth employment, the mean was 4.41, which also shows that most respondents fully agreed that it was a good idea for youth employment. on the third question, which asked whether they were against implementation, the mean was very low at 2.33, which indicates that most respondents disagreed with the statement, meaning that they agreed that it should be implemented. the mode under the variable perceptions is 5, which indicates that strongly agree was the dominant response in the four questions that were posed under the perceptions variable. table 1: descriptive statistics perceptions: youth survey. inferential assessment correlation analysis was carried out to determine the relationship between different variables of the perceptions of youth and employers on the proposed youth wage subsidy. the results are shown in table 2. table 2: correlations: hypothesis 1 and hypothesis 2 (perceptions). this correlation relates to hypothesis 1 and hypothesis 2 as these hypotheses look at the support of the youth wage subsidy by employers and youth and the job creation potential of the youth wage subsidy. the correlation coefficient is 0.668, which indicates that there is a moderately positive relationship that exists between these two variables. this relationship indicates that those who are in support of the youth wage subsidy also to some extent believe that this will be an engine for job creation for the youth since a positive relationship means that a change in one variable influences a change in another in the same direction. the two-tailed significance (p) value is 0.000, which is less than 0.05; because of this, we can conclude that there is a statistically significant correlation between the support of youth wage subsidy by employers and youth and the job creation potential of the youth wage subsidy. chi-square test-perceptions chi-square tests are used when a set of observed frequencies is compared with a set of theoretical (expected) frequencies (tustin et al., 2005, p. 609). chi-square tests were used in this study to compare frequencies in observed (empirical) data and theoretical (expected) data on a number of variables that relate to the perceptions of employers and the unemployed youth on the proposed youth wage subsidy scheme. as reflected in table 3, our alpha value is 0.05. if the two-sided asymptotic significance for the pearson chi-square statistic is less than 0.05, there is a relationship between the variables based on the 95% level of confidence. as seen in table 3, the chi-square significance value is 0.000, which is less than our cut-off value of 0.05, which shows that there is a relationship between the support of youth wage subsidy by employers and youth with the idea that it is a good strategy for creating youth employment. table 3: chi-squared test. at 5% (a = 0.05), ho will be rejected if the p-value (asymptotic significance) is less than 0.05. thus, ho is rejected in both of the variables in table 3 and ha is accepted. it is concluded that employers and the unemployed youth support the youth wage subsidy scheme and believe that the youth wage subsidy will result in jobs increase for the youth. cronbach's alpha was calculated as part of the reliability test to assess how consistent the results were (see table 4). a value of 0.7 or higher is a very good value, which means that if the survey was carried out with a larger sample of respondents, the same results would have been arrived at; 0.7 is the reliability, which is acceptable according to cronbach's requirements (coakes & steed, 2007, p. 140). in this study alpha values for all variables were above 0.7. table 4: reliability test. results from employer questionnaire: qualitative results top ↑ themes that came up in the qualitative analysis were: support of youth wage subsidy. subsidy's potential to create jobs. implementation strategy of the subsidy. support of wage subsidy in the question on whether they supported or were against the youth wage subsidy, 9 out of 10 participants indicated that they were in support of the wage subsidy. amongst the reasons given by the 90% who were in support of the subsidy were that they believed it will develop skills for youth, provide work experience, increase youth employment, reduce socio-economic problems especially crime, relieve the wage burden, develop the economy, sustain businesses and avoid retrenchments. one of the participants in emphasising her support even went on to say: ‘i believe this will be a much needed relief to south africa's chronic challenge of high youth unemployment. policies have come and gone, presidents have come and gone many strategies have been devised and tried to deal with this challenge of unemployment most if not all have failed so far, why not give this one a chance as well and see.’ (human resources specialist, employer, female, 25–30 years old) the one participant who was against the introduction of the subsidy stated that it will be poorly implemented and will eventually be a failure; in her own words as she was adamantly against it: ‘umsobomvu now nyda [national youth development agency] is one of the agencies which is mandated to address the challenge of youth unemployment in this country, we have seen these institutions fail, what will make this new initiative to succeed.’ (human resources specialist, employer, female, 30–40 years old) the above statement is very important and it calls for government to be really strategic this time around if they decide to implement the wage subsidy incentive scheme. this they can do by ensuring that perfect planning is in place, expert resources are deployed strategically and accountability is carefully and strictly adhered to. this to ensure that this will not follow in the footsteps of all other previous policies and institutions that have failed to deal with this challenge of youth unemployment in south africa. subsidy's potential to create jobs when asked the question of what they think will be the effect will be of this youth wage incentive for both the unemployed youth and employers and in job creation in the country, the responses were as follows: 50% of the participants mentioned that it will open opportunities for training and skills development for the youth as well as create much-needed employment opportunities for the young. one of the respondents put it this way: ‘companies will be encouraged to employ the youth, by doing so skills will be developed, experience gained, breadwinners will increase and poverty will decrease.’ (labour relations manager, employer, male, 30–40 years old) forty percent of respondents emphasised that this will be beneficial in providing work experience for our youth; one respondent articulated it in this way: ‘as recruiters, in the majority of the job adverts that we publicise one of the main requirements we always want from applicants is work experience, doesn’t matter how long it is, it can be 1, 2 or 10 years work experience but it is guaranteed that work experience is always the main requirement when recruiting in this country. the youth wage incentive i believe will help our youth to gain that work experience.’ (human resources manager, employer, male, 30–40 years old) one respondent also mentioned that they believed it will minimise retrenchments as employers will now have a helping hand from government in terms of wage costs. the one respondent who is against this incentive mentioned that she foresees its failure; she thinks it will benefit only a few urban youth. in answering the specific question on what effects the wage subsidy will have specifically have on employers, 50% of participants mentioned that it will be highly beneficial to employers as it will reduce the wage burden. one respondent put it this way: ‘payroll is the biggest cost and largest expenditure item in any company's budget; if this incentive scheme can be truly realised, it will bring some relief to the wage burden that most south african companies are faced with, especially in this era of radical unionism placing high wage demands on employers.’ (human resources manager, employer, male, 30–40 years old) discussion of results top ↑ support of youth wage subsidy and its potential as a job creation strategy in the youth questionnaire, youth perceptions revealed that the majority were strongly in support of a wage subsidy, 51% strongly agreed that it will be a good idea for job creation and 42% agreed; 7% were not in support of the subsidy. in terms of benefits and limitations, 88% agreed that the youth wage subsidy will bring benefits in terms of increasing jobs for the youth, 13% agreed that there is the possibility of waste of money and a disturbing 28% agreed that though the subsidy could be a good idea for job creation for the youth, the possibility of corruption must not be ignored. in terms of implementation method, a total of 74% (strongly agree and agree) preferred that the subsidy be provided to employers in the form of grants whilst 40% preferred tax rebates (this includes respondents who liked both options). in the employer survey, 90% indicated support of the wage subsidy in this study; this corresponds with rankin and schöer’s (2011) findings in which most small business employers were in full support of the subsidy, as well as the findings from the sme growth index research, which also in its findings mentioned that ‘around 75% of firms employing between 31 and 40 people supported the subsidy, support for the subsidy was highest in the manufacturing sector’ (sbp, 2013). the high support of the subsidy by employers is indicative of what was reiterated many times in this study that the high cost of wages in south africa stifles economic growth and increase in employment; hence, they see the youth wage subsidy as a much-needed relief in this area. implementation of youth wage subsidy in the youth assessment, 62% were in full support of the subsidy's implementation with 17% against subsidy implementation, 15% undecided and 6% were strongly against implementation of the youth wage incentive. in the employer's interviews, 90% of respondents from the interviews agreed with the implementation of the subsidy and 10% were against its implementation. practical implications and recommendations various policies and strategies can be considered in an attempt to address the problem of youth unemployment. according to the national treasury (2011, pp. 18–26), the following are some of the options that government can consider: economic growth: south africa needs growth policies that are conducive to economic growth and labour demand. education: work integrated learning should be emphasised in our curriculum at all levels of our education system. this will ensure that by the time our youth graduate from tertiary level, they will be fully equipped with practical work exposure. labour market policy: south africa has one of the most progressive active labour market policies on paper; they now need to be put in action effectively. training programmes: job preparation strategies such as training programmes play a vital role in economic growth of the country. direct public sector employment: south africa's took one of the right steps in the adoption of expanded public works programmes (epwp) to deal with the challenge of unemployment. national youth development agency programmes the graduate development programme (gdp) and job preparation programme (jpp) aim to enhance the employability of jobless graduates and matriculants. the national youth service assists unemployed youth to acquire skills whilst providing community services. the following strategies need to be considered in the creation of more jobs for the youth (as adapted from national treasury, 2011, pp. 18–26): employment incentives and subsidies: wage or employment subsidies are incentives that aim to accelerate job creation and raise employment. entrepreneurial schemes: entrepreneurship schemes promote skills in young people with the objective of creating and managing sustainable and efficient businesses capable of providing permanent jobs and employment growth. comprehensive approach: finally, there are many examples of countries adopting comprehensive active labour market programmes that implement two or more of the active labour market policies outlined above. the following are some of the other methods and strategies that south africa needs to emphasise and intensify in the fight against youth unemployment: learner-ships, internships, apprenticeships, artisans programmes, mentor­ship programmes, skills training and development and expanded public works programmes. institutions that are mandated to fight and curb youth unemployment in south africa institutions such as the national youth development agency, the small enterprise development agency, youth council, youth employment index, youth chamber of commerce and industry, skills education training authorities (setas) and municipalities, if they work collaboratively to come up with common and progressive strategies, can play a major role in decreasing and further curbing the high youth unemployment rate in the country. a number of government departments such as labour, agriculture, minerals and energy, trade and industry and economic development also need to focus on this issue. legislative framework or prescripts and policies south africa has one of the best legislative frameworks that talks to the issues of youth employment and development of the country in general. the mandates from the following laws and prescripts need to be strongly put into action, enforced and monitored strictly: national youth commission act (no. 19 of 1996) skills development act (no. 97 of 1998) skills development levies act (no. 97 of 1998) human resource development strategy for south africa (2010–2030) national skills development strategy 3 (nsds iii) the 12 outcomes of government national skills accord national small business amendment act (no. 29 of 2004) national development plan new growth path (2011). this should be done to ensure that not only does south africa have attractive laws and prescripts on paper, but also that such prescripts are implemented for the benefit and progress of the nation at large. labour laws need to be relaxed as well to allow employers to comfortably do business in this country and to create much-needed employment without being threatened by rigid labour laws that are mainly skewed in favour of labour. the issue of high wage demands from labour, which makes doing business in this country unsustainable for small to medium struggling enterprises, also needs to be dealt with accordingly. limitations in this area of research at present, locating and sourcing of literature posed serious challenges. further limitations were the lack of comparative studies as south africa is a developing country and most comparisons were done with developed countries where youth wage subsidy policies have been applied. literature from developing countries was mainly written in languages that were difficult to understand, such as spanish. nevertheless, the challenges were overcome by doing a comparison of this study with other studies done in south africa. conclusion top ↑ this powerful statement by nolutshungu (2011) is very fitting to close this study: he states that: tackling the unemployment problem may seem a daunting and insurmountable task. it is going to require statesmanship and fortitude of character as opposed to the opportunism and myopia being practiced by many of our contemporary politicians. but the task is not prohibitively difficult. before the unemployment problem gets worse, some audacious policy measures need to be implemented, for, at the end of the day, it is only the stroke of the statutory pen that is required. (p. 157) acknowledgements top ↑ to god and all who made it happen through their support, thank you. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions v.n.m. (university of kwazulu-natal) was the primary researcher and wrote the manuscript. l.n.g. (university of kwazulu-natal) was the primary researcher's supervisor. references top ↑ barker, f. (2007). the south african labour market: theory and practice. (5th edn.). pretoria: van schaik publishers. baskin, j. (1996.) against the current: labour and economic policy in south africa. johannesburg: ravan press. coakes, s.j., & steed, l.g. (2007). spss: analysis without anguish. singapore: kyodo printing co. leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2010). practical research: planning and design and reporting research. (9th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson education. national treasury. (2011, february). discussion paper for public comment: confronting youth unemployment: policy options for south africa. south africa: government printers. natrass, n., wakeford, j., & muradzikwa, s. (2002). macroeconomics: theory and policy in south africa. (3rd rev. edn.). cape town: david phillip publishers. nolutshungu, t. (2011). jobs, jobs, jobs. sandton: freemarket foundation. parsons, r. (2009). zumanomics: which way to shared prosperity in sa, challenges for new government. pretoria: jacana media. rankin, n., & schöer, v. (2011). youth employment, recruitment and a youth-targeted wage subsidy: findings from a south african firm level survey. university of the witwatersrand, mimeo. roux, a. (2008). everyone’s guide to the south african economy. (9th edn.). cape town: zebra press. sbp. (2013, february). headline report: sbp’s sme growth index – easier, harder for small business in south africa. retrieved june 20, 2013, from http://www.sbp.org.za/uploads/media/sme_growth_index_-_2012_headline_report.pdf south african government. (2010). new growth path: the framework. south africa: government printers. south african reserve bank. (2013). unemployment definition. retrieved june 10, 2013, from http://www2.resbank.co.za/internet/glossary.nsf statistics south africa. (2013). quarterly labour force survey, 1st quarter 2013. retrieved may 06, 2013, from http://www.statssa.gov.za tustin, d.h., ligthelm, a.a., martins, j.h., & van wyk., h.j. (2005). marketing research in practice. pretoria: unisa press. world bank. (2009). employment policy primer, no. 14. washington, dc: world bank. abstract introduction method findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) doret botha school of social and government studies, north-west university, south africa citation botha, d. (2016). women in mining still exploited and sexually harassed. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a753. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.753 original research women in mining still exploited and sexually harassed doret botha received: 28 aug. 2015; accepted: 06 sept. 2016; published: 16 nov. 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: globally, women have become an essential part of the mining workforce. among other jobs, they fulfil management positions, operate heavy machinery and are involved in artisanal mining processes. in south africa, new mining legislation not only prohibits the exclusion of women but requires from companies to actively change the demographic profile of their workforce. mining companies are obliged to also employ women in core mining activities. although well intended, women appointed in core positions work side by side with men, often in isolation, and are frequently at risk of sexual abuse and/or harassment. research purpose: this research determined perceptions regarding the occurrence of sexual harassment among women working in core mining positions. motivation for the study: currently, there is a paucity of published data on the occurrence of sexual harassment in the mining industry. method: a mixed-method research design was used including quantitative and qualitative research paradigms. quantitative data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire. qualitative data were collected by means of individual and group interviews. main findings: from the literature review and the empirical findings, it is evident that women are still exploited and sexually harassed in the mining industry. incidents taking place on a daily basis vary from whistling; name calling; use of vulgar or derogatory language; display of body parts; physical contact, ranging from touching to sexual assault and rape; to the exchange of sexual favours for promotion. practical/managerial implications: it is evident from the research that a holistic approach is required to effectively eradicate sexual harassment in the mining industry, involving the commitment of relevant state departments, human resource managers and labour experts. contribution: practical recommendations are made to effectively address sexual harassment in the mining industry. introduction although few in numbers, women have now globally become an essential part of the mining workforce, mainly because of equal opportunity legislation, which obliged mining companies to actively change the demographic profile of their workforce. currently, women miners play various roles in mining; they fulfil management positions, operate heavy machinery and are involved in artisanal mining processes, among others. in south africa, the newly elected democratic government of 1994 adopted a number of strategies to open up the mining sector to historically disadvantaged south africans, which include women, as part of its economic empowerment policy. among others, new mining legislation, such as the mineral and petroleum resources development act (no. 28 of 2002) (republic of south africa [rsa], 2002) and the broad-based socio-economic empowerment charter for the south african mining industry (the mining charter) (rsa, 2004), was introduced. these pieces of legislation not only prohibit the exclusion of women but also require from companies to actively change the demographic profile of their workforce by setting specific targets to be reached by 2015. core mining activities refer to positions in mining that include, among other activities, mining, metallurgy, engineering and geology (harmony gold mining company, 2008). although well intended, women working in the male-dominated mining environment are facing a range of obstacles, including sexual harassment (badenhorst, 2009; fourie, 2009; managing transformation solutions [mts], 2011; women in mining canada, 2010). women appointed in core positions work side by side with men, often in isolation, and are frequently at risk of sexual abuse and/or harassment. employees working underground in the mine are in very close proximity to one another while being transported from the surface to the workplace underground, which also increases the risk of sexual harassment. furthermore, male colleagues often refuse to provide the necessary support to their new female colleagues, in other words, the informal job induction process, camaraderie and cooperative teamwork that they need to succeed. instead, they regularly ignore, harass and undermine their new female colleagues (hakim, 2004). gender discrimination and sexual harassment could affect women’s psychological health, generating stress-related reactions such as emotional trauma, anxiety, depression, anger and low self-esteem and also affect their physical health, causing stress-related diseases such as sleep disorders, headaches, stomach problems and ulcers (mining safety, 2013). in light of the above background, the problem statement can be outlined as follows: on the one hand, mining companies are obliged to reach the set targets of the mining charter. failing to adhere to the requirements of the charter could result in mining companies losing their licences to operate. on the other hand, the requirement of the mining charter to include more women in the core business of mining broadened employment opportunities for women and therefore contributes to decreasing poverty in south africa. however, at the same time, women are exposed to various challenges and risks, including sexual harassment. purpose based on the problem statement described above, the purpose of the article is, firstly, to operationalise and conceptualise sexual harassment according to the literature; secondly, to provide theoretical explanations for the occurrence of sexual harassment in the mining industry; thirdly, to explore the occurrence of sexual harassment among women in mining according to the literature; fourthly, to determine sexual harassment issues among women in mining at selected mines; and lastly, to provide some recommendations to address sexual harassment in the mining industry. literature review sexual harassment operationalised and conceptualised according to pons and deale (2010) sexual harassment is regarded as ‘unwanted conduct of a sexual nature’ and may include ‘unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct’. physical conduct of a sexual nature refers to all unwanted physical contact, for example, brushing up against a person, touching a person, forced fondling (grobler, wärnich, carrel, elbert and hatfield, 2011) and may also include sexual assault and rape (pons & deale, 2010). verbal forms of sexual harassment include, among others, unwelcome innuendoes, suggestions and hints, comments with sexual overtones (pons & deale, 2010), sexual stories or jokes, whistling and repeatedly asking someone out (grobler et al., 2011). non-verbal forms of sexual harassment refers to unwelcome gestures, including staring at someone, sending email messages of a sexual nature (grobler et al., 2011) and the unwelcome display of sexually explicit pictures and objects (pons & deale, 2010). quid pro quo harassment relates to a situasion where a victim is coerced into acceding to the advances of a superior (employer, supervisor or manager) or co-employee in exchange for work-related benefits (such as promotion, training, discipline, dismissal or salary increment) (grobler et al. 2011; pons & deale, 2010). sexual favouritism refers to a situasion where a superior rewards only those who respond to his or her sexual advances, while other deserving employees who do not submit themselves to any sexual advances are denied promotions, merit rating or salary increases (pons & deale, 2010). sexual harassment can be seen as an abuse of power by which perpetrators use their position to exploit subordinates. sexual harassment occurs in every kind of work setting, but some settings are more prone to sexual harassment than others (wharton, 2006). a strong predictor of sexual harassment is a work setting with a high male-to-female ratio. therefore, women working in a male-dominated workplace, for example, mining, are particularly vulnerable to sexual harassment (haralambos & holborn, 2008; martin, cited in anderson & taylor, 2006; wharton, 2006). although both women and men can be victims of sexual harassment, research suggests that women are more likely to experience sexual harassment than men (wharton, 2006). according to anderson and taylor (2006), most surveys indicate that as many as half of all employed women experience some form of sexual harassment at some time. the authors further assert that there is evidence that women of colour are more likely to be harassed than white women. furthermore, the authors argue that men tend to see sexual harassment as normal and tolerable and do not think of harassment as doing something wrong. women, on the other hand, tend to see harassment as inappropriate behaviour and judge it more severely than men. sexual harassment also appears to be underreported. studies revealed that employees – women as well as men – are unaware of proper channels to report these issues. women are also less likely to report these incidents because they believe nothing will be done to stop the behaviour (anderson & taylor, 2006). a national study undertaken in the united states found that only 5% of women and men who had experienced sexual harassment chose to report it. grobler et al. (2011) cite the primary reasons why the other 95% did not report these incidents as the following: the fear of losing their job, the need for a future job reference, the possibility of being considered a troublemaker, the assumption that nothing would change if the harassment was reported, concern about being accused of inviting the harassment, reluctance to draw public attention to their private lives and the prospect of emotional stress for filing a lawsuit and undergoing long, costly legal procedures. the consequences of sexual harassment can be economic, emotional and physical. by creating a hostile working environment, sexual harassment can influence productivity at work. workers who have been sexually harassed may experience feelings of helplessness, fearfulness and powerless. victims also tend to lose their ambition and self-confidence and experience a negative attitude towards their work (anderson & taylor, 2006). theoretical explanations for the occurrence of sexual harassment because of the contemporary women’s rights movement that began in the late 1960s, much has changed for both women and men in societies globally. however, despite tremendous advancements for women since the 1960s, gender inequality persists and manifests itself in many ways, among others in various discriminative practices, such as sexual harassment (barkan, 2012). a number of theoretical perspectives aimed to provide explanations for the occurrence of sexual harassment in the workplace. the following theoretical perspectives are presented: the natural/biological theory, socio-cultural theory, organisational theory, sex-role spillover theory, the four-factor theory of sexual harassment and feminist perspectives. the natural/biological theory suggests that sexual harassment is not actually harassment and does not have harmful consequences (mcdonald, 2012). sexual advances are not seen as unacceptable behaviour, but rather as a portrayal of the other individual’s true feelings (slabbert, 1994). according to this theory, sexual harassment occurs as a result of the natural attraction between men and women. the theory suggests that because of men’s strong sex drive, they behave in a sexually aggressive manner, also in the workplace (o’hare & o’donohue, 1998). this theory is limited in its application for the following reasons: it assumes that sexual and gender discrimination does not exist in the workplace; it does not consider the effects of harassment on an individual or his or her organisation and therefore it does not recognise the need for procedures to deal with it (joubert, 2009). socio-cultural theories are mainly feminist in orientation. they investigate the wider social and political context in which sexual harassment is created and occurs (pina, gannon & saunders, 2009). the socio-cultural theory posits that sexual harassment reflects the larger society’s differential distribution of power and status between the sexes (tangri, burt & johnson, 1982). sexual harassment is also seen as a mechanism that functions to maintain male dominance over women within the economy and specifically the workplace (tangri et al., 1982). the socio-cultural theory also maintains that men and women are socialised in such a way that this structure of dominance and subordination is maintained (o’hare & o’donohue, 1998). men are socialised to be more aggressive and assertive and women to be passive and sexually attractive and to avoid conflict (tangri et al., 1982). this theory fails to explain the harassment of men by women or harassment of workers from the same gender who are supposed to be similar products of socialisation (joubert, 2009). according to the organisational theory, sexual harassment in the workplace occurs because of power differentials created by hierarchical structures of organisations (tangri et al., 1982). superiors in legitimate positions use their power to intimidate and control their subordinates for their own sexual gratification (o’hare & o’donohue, 1998). a key strength of the organisational theory is that a number of organisational factors are identified to explain the sexual harassment phenomenon (pina et al., 2009). the following organisational characteristics are viewed as contributing factors to the incidence of sexual harassment: contact with the opposite sex on the job, the ratio of men to women in the workplace, occupational norms, job functions, job alternatives and availability of grievance procedures (o’hare & o’donohue, 1998). however, this theory does not consider people’s individual differences and how their everyday behaviour, stereotypes and expectations can influence the occurrence of the phenomenon (pina et al., 2009). the sex-role spillover theory argues that sexual harassment occurs because of the carryover of gender-based expectations into the workplace that are irrelevant to, and inappropriate for, work (o’hare & o’donohue, 1998). therefore, sexual harassment tends to occur in work environments where the sex ratio is skewed in either direction. women’s sex role becomes more prominent when working in male-dominated or female-dominated occupations, thereby facilitating sexual harassment. in male-dominated occupations, women’s gender is noticeable because of their singularity and distinctiveness. in female-dominated occupations, women’s sex role is emphasised, for example, the helper role of administrative assistants, resulting in the job itself acquiring aspects of the sex role (o’hare & o’donohue, 1998). although this theory combines aspects of the organisational and socio-cultural theories, it excludes organisational variables other than sex ratio as well as personal characteristics of the harasser and the victim, which should also be considered in explaining the sexual harassment phenomenon (joubert, 2009). the four-factor theory (o’hare & o’donohue, 1998) of sexual harassment includes key components of the single-factor theories discussed above. the four-factor theory offers one comprehensive model that can be used to explain a wide variety of sexually harassing behaviours (jardim, 2004). the four-factor theory combines individual, organisational and socio-cultural factors (o’hare & o’donohue, 1998). the four-factor theory argues that, in order for sexual harassment to take place, four basic conditions must be present. firstly, the individual must be motivated to harass (e.g. he or she must be driven by any combination of power, control or sexual attraction). secondly, the individual must overcome internal inhibitions not to harass (e.g. viewing sexual harassment as illegal or immoral). thirdly, the individual must overcome external inhibitions to harassment (e.g. explicit grievance procedures and consequences to harassers). fourthly, the individual must overcome the victim’s resistance (e.g. the victim’s ability to recognise and stop predictive behaviour to harassment) (o’hare & o’donohue, 1998; pina et al., 2009). feminist perspectives aim to provide an understanding of the continued ways women are socially disadvantaged by men, by analysing the sexual oppression women suffer and by proposing interpersonal as well as social, political and legal solutions for gender equality (lorber, 2010). ‘feminism refers to the belief that women and men should have equal opportunities in economic, political, and social life’ (barkan, 2012). radical feminism blames patriarchy (male domination) for women’s oppression (barkan, 2012). radical feminist theorists share the viewpoint that ‘men [have] an interest in controlling women’s reproduction and sexuality’ (bilton et al., 2002). they focus on how men exercise power over women at work and protect their own interests by intimidating women and excluding women from senior positions. radical feminists believe that men use sexual harassment as a way to achieve such dominance (haralambos & holborn, 2008). from the above, it is evident that not one single theory or perspective can be singled out to explain the dimensions that may contribute to sexual harassment. the models discussed all attempt to provide some explanations for the occurrence of the sexual harassment phenomenon and hold some elements of truth, but are also subject to limitations. all factors discussed in each theory should be integrated to formulate a better understanding of the occurrence of the sexual harassment phenomenon in the workplace. women in mining and sexual harassment it is evident from research conducted in various countries across the globe that women working in the core business of the mining sector are still viewed as sexual objects and are still subjected to sexual harassment of some kind. main findings of some of the research are discussed below. in canada, research conducted at the international nickel company in the 1970s revealed that female mine workers were subjected to many forms of sexual harassment, such as sexual language, crude jokes, threats and verbal and physical assaults. the research indicated that men used sexual harassment to maintain masculine dominance in the workplace (keck & powel, 2006). in the mid-1990s, suzanne tallichet investigated the world of women miners by spending several months in a west virginia coal-mining community (mercier, cited in lahiri-dutt, 2011). she found that women still faced tremendous challenges in the mining environment, including harassment from male co-workers and bosses and resistance from the community. female miners endured discrimination, harassment and dangerous and demanding labour in order to gain access to mining jobs to enable them to provide and contribute towards more comfortable lives for their families. recent studies, such as the ramp-up study, initiated by women in mining canada, showed that women are still experiencing discrimination and sexual harassment in the mining industry (women in mining canada, 2010). in australia in 1998, pattenden (1998) was commissioned by the australian institution of mining and metallurgy’s wimnet (women in mining network) to undertake in-depth research on employment barriers inhibiting female participation in the industry. pattenden’s research focus was female technical professionals in fields such as geology, mine engineering and metallurgy. the researcher conducted 158 interviews with men and women working in the australian minerals industry across numerous states, companies and commodity groups. the research revealed serious issues of harassment and discrimination (pattenden, 1998). in papua new guinea, macintyre (cited in lahiri-dutt, 2011) conducted research on the experiences of women in the workplace over a period of 8 years, completing 100 surveys and 30 in-depth interviews. from the findings, it was evident that although most of the participants worked in government jobs, a significant group worked in the minerals industry. the research revealed, among other findings, that women face open antagonism, sexual harassment and discrimination in terms of opportunities for promotion, remuneration and in-service training when entering the workplace. in south africa, research conducted by various researchers and institutions revealed serious incidents of sexual harassment (bench marks foundation, cited in kolver, 2013; botha, 2013; fourie, 2009; mts, 2011; rawoot, 2014; the guild, 2014). sexual harassment incidents reported vary from whistling; name calling; use of vulgar or derogatory language; display of body parts; physical contact, ranging from touching to sexual assault and rape; to the exchange of sexual favours for a promotion, taking place on a daily basis. according to shabangu (2012), former south african minister of mineral resources, the number of reported incidents of women miners experiencing harassment and inhumane treatment by fellow workers in their underground workplaces is of particular concern. she emphasises that ‘no woman should experience any sort of intimidation at the workplace that inhibit her to be the best and most productive employee she can be’ (shabangu, 2012, p. 4). addressing sexual harassment in the mining industry in light of the above background, it is of paramount importance that mining companies follow the following steps to ensure a workplace free from sexual harassment (nel et al., 2011; noe, hollenbeck, gerhart & wright, 2008; pons & deale, 2010): a good working sexual harassment policy must be developed. the policy statement must emphasise that sexual harassment in the workplace will not be tolerated. training on the sexual harassment policy must be provided to all employees, old and new. the policy should also explain the procedure that should be followed by employees who are victims of sexual harassment. a mechanism for reporting sexual harassment must be developed. employees must be encouraged to speak out about and report these incidents. sexual harassment complaints must be thoroughly investigated. management must take prompt disciplinary action against those who commit sexual harassment and take appropriate action to protect the victims thereof. the section to follow presents the research methodology that was employed for the research. method the research methodology for this study stemmed from both positivism and phenomenology. a mixed-method research design was followed by applying a quantitative and qualitative research approach. mixed-methods research is thought to enrich the quality of findings and their credibility, validity, generalisability and popularity, among others (sarantakos, 2013). research approach participants the research was conducted at the following three mines: a copper mine (underground), a platinum mine (underground) and a phosphate mine (open-cast). convenience sampling was used to select the mines. zikmund, babin, carr & griffin (2010) refer to convenience sampling as ‘sampling by obtaining people or units that are conveniently available’. participants for the quantitative research were selected by employing convenience sampling. the study population consisted of the management of the three mines as well as male and female employees working in core mining activities. in total, responses were received from 156 research participants: 68 from the copper mine, 38 from the platinum mine and 50 from the phosphate mine. participants for the qualitative research were selected by using purposive or judgemental sampling. purposive (judgemental) sampling is a non-probability sampling technique in which the units to be observed are selected on the basis of the researcher’s judgement about which ones will be the most relevant to the project (babbie & mouton, 2011). at all three mines, the human resource officer assigned to work with women in mining was responsible for selecting participants to be interviewed as well as scheduling the interviews. in total, 69 participants were interviewed in 12 individual interviews and 19 group interviews. the participants selected varied from various categories of employment (for e.g. managers, supervisors and general miners) and mining disciplines (for e.g. engineers, geologists and electricians). measuring instruments quantitative data were collected by means of a self-developed structured questionnaire consisting of open-ended and closed-ended questions. further detail regarding the questionnaire construction is reported under the analysis heading (below) and the empirical findings section. qualitative data were collected by means of individual and group interviews. both the individual interviews and the group interviews were semi-structured. an interview guide was used to direct the conversations and to provide guidance to the interviews. responses were audio recorded and written notes were taken. mixed-method research can enrich the quality and comprehensiveness of findings as well as their validity, generisability and popularity (sarantokos, 2013). by combining the qualitative approach with the quantitative approach the researcher was able to gain better insight into the phenomenon of interest. research process firstly, permission was requested from mine management to conduct research at the three mining companies. after permission was granted, the researcher visited the research settings to explain the details of the research. at each mine, a contact person was assigned to the researcher to provide the necessary assistance and support during the research. these activities include, among others, distributing and collecting the questionnaires, selecting suitable participants for the interviews, scheduling interviews and organising relevant field trips (underground as well as at surface). individual and group interviews were scheduled between shifts in order not to interfere with the work responsibilities of the participants. the following ethical practices were considered: voluntary participation, informed consent, privacy, anonymity and confidentiality (babbie & mouton, 2011). analysis quantitative data obtained through the questionnaires were analysed by the statistical software program spss 21.0 for windows. the frequency analysis is reported per statement as mean and the following ranking for scores was used: not at all/strongly disagree (1); seldom/disagree (2); partially/agree (3) and completely/strongly agree (4). ratings of 4 indicate that compliance with the specific statement is satisfactory, except for reversed statements. on the other hand, ratings of 2.5 and below show that compliance with the specific statement is none or very limited. the opposite is applicable for reversed statements; a statement with a mean above 2.5 could point towards a problem area. conceptual (thematic) analysis was used to analyse the responses obtained through the individual and group interviews. the following coding steps suggested by palmquist (cited in babbie & mouton, 2011) were used: deciding on the level of analysis, deciding on how many concepts to code for, deciding whether to code for the existence or frequency of a concept, deciding how to distinguish between concepts, developing rules for the coding of texts, deciding what to do with the data that are irrelevant, coding the data and analysing the results. strategies employed to ensure the validity and reliability of data reliability relates to the findings of the research and the credibility of the findings. furthermore, reliability refers to the extent to which the obtained scores may be generalised to different measuring occasions, measurement or test forms and measurement or test administrators (welman, kruger & mitchell, 2010). validity refers to the extent to which the research findings accurately represent what is really happening in the situation. it means that an effect or test is valid if it demonstrates or measures what the researcher thinks or claims it does (coolican, cited in welman et al., 2010). triangulation, the use of multiple methods, is considered as one of the best ways to enhance the validity and reliability of research. triangulation can take place according to paradigms, methodologies, methods, researchers and so forth (babbie & mouton, 2011). this research was triangulated by means of the following: a literature study and empirical review were conducted, the quantitative as well as qualitative research paradigms were used and various data collection methods were used. quantitative data were collected through questionnaires, while qualitative data were collected by means of group discussions, semi-structured interviews as well as observations. male and female employees in management positions as well as male and female employees working in the core business of mining were interviewed to obtain different perspectives on various issues that have an impact on women working in the core business of mining. the researcher also visited the different research settings (mines) and experienced the underground environment while spending some time with women working underground. she also visited the smelter, the concentrator and the refinery and spent some time with women working in core activities on the surface. in addition, women in mining conferences were interviewed in order to broaden and deepen the researcher’s insight into the variables that have an impact on women working in the core business of mining. findings the section to follow presents the quantitative and qualitative findings of the participants’ opinions regarding sexual harassment in the workplace. sexual harassment policy questions were included in the survey to determine whether the participants are fully aware of the sexual harassment policy provided by the mining companies (see table 1), to establish whether women working in core mining activities have sufficient knowledge of the content and operational procedures of the sexual harassment policy (see table 2), to verify whether the policy is adequate (see table 2) and to determine gaps in the policy provided (see qualitative findings). the findings are presented differentially in terms of the three mines (see tables 1, 2 and 3). table 1: participants’ awareness of the sexual harassment policy. table 2: participants’ perceptions regarding mining companies’ sexual harassment policies. table 3: participants’ perceptions regarding sexual harassment and sexual favouritism in the workplace. the results in table 1 show that almost all participants across the three mines are aware of the existence of the sexual harassment policy. from the results in table 2, it is evident that a vast majority of the participants (male, female and management target groups) across all three mines hold the opinion that women working in core mining activities have sufficient knowledge of the content and operational procedures of the sexual harassment policy. the mean scores for almost all the target groups across the three mines calculated above 3. although the quantitative findings revealed relatively positive results, the qualitative enquiry (semi-structured interviews and open-ended questions of the questionnaire) revealed loopholes as well as limitations regarding the sexual harassment policy. the main concerns identified were discussed in the subsequent sections. lack of knowledge although the quantitative findings revealed that the female participants working in the core business of mining demonstrate partial to complete knowledge of the content and operational procedures of the sexual harassment policies, a serious need for workshops and continuous training on policies was detected. this statement is reinforced by the following quotations: we don’t have much knowledge of the policies, because we are just operators. we just see things in a distance, we are not close to it, and we do not really know what is happening. (female, operator, copper mine) i think each policy should be discussed at least once to get a good understanding of it. (female, mining engineer, copper mine) lack of transparency a need for transparency was strongly voiced. the participants indicated that policy documents should be available to each and every employee of the mines. the following comment was made by a participant in this regard: the mine is self-centred when [it comes] to some or the majority of the outspoken policies. mine does not do enough for the information to reach employees. there is a loophole between management and employees. (male, safety officer, platinum mine) gaps between policies and policy implementation although the intention of specific company policies is to coordinate and regulate particular aspects of the employment relationship, a gap often exists between policies and the implementation thereof. although policies exist, problems are experienced with the actual implementation and application thereof. the following quotation provides an indication of one of the participants’ opinions regarding the implementation and application of policies: a lot of things looks good on paper, but the application thereof is quite a different thing. (female, fitter and turner, copper mine) the occurrence of sexual harassment and sexual favouritism in the workplace questions were included in the survey to determine whether the female participants had been approached for sex in the workplace in exchange for favours and whether they have ever been sexually harassed in the workplace. the responses to these questions were extremely positive across the mines, as only an insignificant percentage answered ‘yes’, as indicated in figures 1 and 2. figure 1: have you ever been approached for sex in the workplace in exchange for favours? figure 2: have you ever been sexually harassed in the workplace? although the quantitative responses revealed only positive results, the literature review as well as the qualitative enquiry indicates that sexual harassment and sexual favouritism remain major issues in the mining industry. detailed concerns regarding sexual harassment are reported further on in this section. the statements in table 3 aimed to determine the perceptions regarding sexual harassment and sexual favouritism within the mining companies included in the study. from table 3, it is evident that the majority of the participants (all target groups) of the copper mine positively indicated that sexual favouritism is not commonly practised in the mining companies and that sexual harassment is not regarded as a general problem in the workplace. this view was supported by the majority of the participants of the female and management target groups of the phosphate mine, but not by the male target group. positive responses calculated a mean below 2.5 and because these statements are reversed, it does not point towards a problem area. a distressing observation is that a vast majority of the male participants of the phosphate mine (sexual favouritism: 71.4%; sexual harassment: 50%) and the male (sexual favouritism: 80%; sexual harassment: 66.6%) and female (sexual favouritism: 62%; sexual harassment: 71.4%) participants of the platinum mine reported that sexual favouritism and sexual harassment are general problems in the workplace; these (reversed) statements calculated a mean of 2.5 and above. different views were obtained for the indicator the mining company has a committee that investigates sexual harassment issues in the workplace. a vast majority of the participants (all target groups) of the copper mine reacted positively to this indicator. more than 60% of the male and female participants of the phosphate mine supported this opinion, while a split opinion was obtained from the majority of the management participants. the responses from the copper and phosphate mines were positive in the sense that on average, the participants are aware of committees that investigate sexual harassment issues in the mining companies. furthermore, a vast majority of the participants of the copper and phosphate mines (more than 68%) agreed to strongly agreed that the mining company effectively addresses sexual harassment in the workplace. it can therefore be assumed that employees of the copper and phosphate mines are satisfied with the way sexual harassment is addressed in the companies. however, this view was not supported by the male and female participants of the platinum mine. although it was indicated by the majority of the participants of the platinum mine that the mining company effectively addresses sexual harassment in the workplace (male and female participants: 71.4%), a slight majority of the female participants (60%) and only 40% of the male participants reported that the mining company has a committee that investigates sexual harassment issues in the workplace. the mean calculated at 2.4, indicating that compliance with this statement is very limited. the platinum mining company needs to establish a committee if one does not exist or create awareness if there is in fact such a committee. it was evident from the qualitative inquiry that the participants of all three mines included in the study confirmed that sexual harassment is seen as a serious offence and that training and education take place regularly at the mines. furthermore, companies engage in the practices of training sessions for newly recruited employees and regular awareness campaigns on the procedures to follow if sexual harassment occurs. despite these attempts, sexual harassment remains an issue and incidents do occur. the main concerns regarding sexual harassment were raised during the individual and group interviews, discussed in the subsequent sections. afraid to report sexual harassment attempts although the majority of the female participants indicated that they are familiar with the procedure to follow if sexually harassed, there are still women who are unsure of their rights and who are still afraid of reporting sexual harassment attempts or incidents. the following reasons were put forward for why women often remain silent: they are afraid of losing their jobs at the mine, they do not want to put their male co-workers in a ‘bad’ position and they do not find it easy to lodge complaints of harassment with male supervisors. verbal sexual harassment it was indicated that women are exposed to verbal sexual harassment on a regular basis, especially when they are being transported in packed cages. moreover, because of the nature of the mining industry as a male-dominated workplace, men are used to communicating in certain ways and often use ‘bad language’ when carrying out heavy tasks. female co-workers often feel offended by the way men communicate and by the type of language they use. the following quotations illustrate these points: verbal sexual harassment happens almost every day. (female, operator, copper mine) men often called me ‘baby’ or ‘sweetheart’. they feel that they can call me anything. (female, electrician, copper mine) some men can make you feel so small, like maybe you are in the cage, they call you names. some tell you that ‘you are fat, you are wasting our time, let me pass’. so not all men are accepting that women are working on the mine. some things that they say, they think they are funny and you can see that this person doesn’t know he can lose his job. they think sexual harassment is just touching a person, they don’t know if you insult a person it is sexual harassment, so they have still a lot to learn. (female, learner rock breaker, platinum mine) night shift it was reported that working the night shift contributes to the occurrence of sexual harassment incidents, as male co-workers often take advantage of these circumstances. women do not feel at ease and safe when working with so many men during the night: to be honest, we are sexually harassed. they take advantage of us, because we are women and we are working at night with them. it is very uncomfortable. let me just stop right there, because it is very uncomfortable. but what can you do, because it is a small place. (female, operator, copper mine) packed cages it became clear that the cages in which workers are transported are normally packed to maximum capacity and therefore also contribute to the occurrence of sexual harassment incidents. physical contact is inevitable; employees are obliged to press against each other. the following comments were made in this regard: in the cage, they will push us like this and you can’t even breathe and the man is after you, you can feel his whole body pressing against you. then they say like ‘what are you doing here at the mine?’, ‘my woman is at home, you are here at the mine’. (female, general worker, platinum mine) there are too many people in the cage. the big one takes 80 people down, 80 people up. the small one takes 35 people. but these girls who are working there, they don’t count, they can put maybe 100 into the cage. some men take advantage and push against the ladies. (male, development crew, platinum mine) sexual favouritism although discrepancies were evident in the quantitative results (see table 3), it was clearly indicated in the group discussions as well as the interviews that sexual favouritism occurs at the mines. the male participants of the platinum mine were outspoken and indicated that some female co-workers ‘fall in love’ with their supervisors to easily get promotions. it was also suggested that the problem is exacerbated by shift work and working overtime at night. this contributes towards the negative attitude from male employees towards women employed in core mining positions. the female participants, although not so outspoken, indicated that they are aware of sexual favouritism incidents. the following quotations provide an indication of the participants’ opinions regarding the occurrence of sexual favouritism at the mines included in the study: ja, it does happen. like they won’t do it where everybody is looking, but you see that something is going on here and that person will be favoured. but all the promotions that person will get because you know that she did 1, 2, 3 … and it is not nice for other women who are working with that lady, because you know you are not going anywhere because you don’t want to sleep with that guy. (female, learner rock breaker, platinum mine) for them it is easy to get promotion, because they fall in love with the official and they get promotion. i’ve been working 10 years, but no promotion. (male, teamleader, platinum mine) male participants’ response according to the male participants, women often misuse sexual harassment to manipulate men in the workplace, as noted in the following comment: some women have this attitude. i’m working, nobody can touch me, nobody can do me nothing. you touch her, you harass her. if she doesn’t like you, you harass her. slight mistake, you’re gone in mining. and the company is going to follow the procedure of the mine. even the woman can touch me, i can’t say the woman has harassed me. let me touch her, i’ve harassed her. (male, electrical assistant, platinum mine) management’s response it was evident from the qualitative inquiry that sexual harassment is regarded as a serious offence and is also treated accordingly. management of the different mining companies aim to minimise the occurrence of sexual harassment by conducting regular training and education interventions on sexual harassment. the following comment was made in this regard: some form of harassment will always be part of the workplace, but we as management will not tolerate any sexual harassment. if management do not act decisively against it, you will never really get rid of it. it also depends on the behaviour of the woman. she must also act decisively, in other words if it looks like the guys want to tell dirty jokes, she must say ‘no’ beforehand. but i also feel that if you want to work in the mining industry, you should not be faint-hearted. sometimes men use bad language when they are struggling doing a job. they do not mean to talk badly. (female, senior manager, phosphate mine) discussion outline of the findings from the research (literature review, quantitative results and qualitative findings) it is evident that sexual harassment and sexual favouritism remain serious concerns in the mining industry. although sexual harassment is treated as a serious offence by management (of the three mines included in the study) and is not tolerated, sexual harassment incidents take place on a daily basis and in varied forms. it is clear that some mines are faring better than others with regard to the handling of sexual harassment and sexual favouritism in the workplace. the quantitative results suggest that a vast majority of the participants, across all three mines, are aware of the existence of the sexual harassment policy, demonstrate sufficient knowledge of the policy and hold the opinion that the policy is working well. however, the qualitative findings showed that there are still employees who lack knowledge of the content and operational procedure of the policy; a need for transparency was indicated. furthermore, it was also indicated that, although policies exist, problems are experienced with the actual implementation and application thereof. as indicated in the literature review, regular training for old and new employees on the sexual harassment policy is of utmost importance. furthermore, mining companies should also have a business plan in place to facilitate the implementation of the policy (nel, kirsten, swanepoel, erasmus & poisat, 2012). although figures 1 and 2 reveal only positive responses with regard to the questions: have you ever been approached for sex in the workplace in exchange for favours? and have you ever been sexually harassed in the workplace?, the results in table 3 show that on average, the female and male participants of the platinum mine as well as the male participants of the phosphate mine agreed that these practices are common in the workplace. the qualitative inquiry also revealed serious concerns in this regard. it is evident that verbal and physical forms of harassment are still regular occurrences in the mining workplace, as also indicated in the literature review. packed cages and working the night shift are blamed for exacerbating the problem. the findings are also in line with research conducted by benya (2009), botha (2013), mts (2011), scheepers (2013), the guild (2014) and women in mining south africa (wimsa, 2015). recent research conducted by wimsa (2015) revealed that the exchange of sexual favours to achieve advantages is an unfortunate reality in the mining industry. furthermore, the research indicated that reporting systems are not working as they should and a need was voiced for anonymous reporting systems, considerably more management commitment and visible leadership, more women in the labour force (also in management positions) and an independent oversight mechanism. recommendations in the light of the findings of the research, the following recommendations are made: management should show more visible leadership and ongoing commitment in terms of sexual harassment. implementation and operationalisation of the sexual harassment policy as well as relevant mechanisms are required. the content of the policy should be communicated to all employees (male and female employees) on a regular basis via training and workshops. a clear reporting mechanism should be developed. anonymous reporting lines are suggested to protect victims. prompt action on sexual harassment incidents is fundamental. an effective support system (women in mining forum, female representatives at shafts, etc.) for women in mining should be implemented. issues raised should be addressed effectively and speedily. measures such as career counselling should be provided to support women in dealing with sexual harassment issues in the workplace. management should consider appointing more than one woman in a work team to prevent isolation and to make the work environment more conducive to women. companies should engage in regular research interventions to measure progress on sexual harassment incidents and to reveal further issues in this regard. practical implications although mining companies view sexual harassment as a serious offence and treat it accordingly, it is evident that much more needs to be done to minimise and eliminate the occurrences of sexual harassment in the workplace. a holistic approach, which requires input of relevant state departments such as the department of mineral resources and the mine health and safety council, regular training and awareness campaigns on sexual harassment and prompt action by human resource managers and labour experts, is needed. relevant state departments (mentioned above) should be outspoken on the topic and should engage in regular research interventions to measure the status of sexual harassment in the mining industry. they should show visible leadership by assisting mining companies to eradicate sexual harassment in the industry. human resource managers and labour experts should not only develop and implement a sexual harassment policy but also implement prompt disciplinary action. limitations of the study a limitation of the study lies in the accessibility of the mining sector as a research setting. to gain access to the mines was extremely difficult. a number of correspondences took place before permission was granted for the research. the platinum mine also experienced many difficulties and labour unrest during the time the research was conducted. this eventually culminated into the postponement and cancelling of interviews as well as no quantitative responses (questionnaires) from the management target group. the following additional factors also posed challenges to the research: not all participants scheduled for the interviews turned up for the meetings and others could not stay for the duration of the interviews due to work responsibilities, emergencies and tiredness as a result of shift work. conclusion from the research, it is clear that women working in the core business of the mining industry are still exploited and sexually harassed. employment relations practitioners and labour experts should take note of the seriousness of this phenomenon. all necessary measures should be taken to prevent and address sexual harassment complaints and incidents. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that she has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article. references anderson, m.l., & taylor, h.f. (2006). sociology: understanding a diverse society. belmont, ma: thomson learning. babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2011). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford university press southern africa. badenhorst, c.j. (2009). occupational health and safety considerations for the employment of female workers in hard rock mines. paper presented at the southern african institute of mining and metallurgy, hard rock safety conference, 28–30 september, sun city, south africa. barkan, s.e. (2012). a primer on social problems. retrieved june 17, 2016, from http://2012books.lardbucket.org/pdfs/a-primer-on-social-problems.pdf benya, a.p. (2009). women in mining: a challenge to occupational culture in mines. unpublished ma dissertation, university of the witwatersrand, johannesburg. bilton, t., bonnett, k., jones, p., lawson, t., skinner, d., stanworth, m., & webster, a. (2002). introductory sociology. (4th edn.). new york: palgrave macmillan. botha, d. (2013). women in mining: a conceptual framework for gender issues in the south african mining sector. unpublished phd dissertation, north-west university, potchefstroom. fourie, j.d. (2009). managerial challenges faced in a south african platinum mine relating to women employment as required by the mining charter. unpublished mba mini-dissertation, north-west university, potchefstroom. grobler, p.a., wärnich, s., carrell, m.r., elbert, n.f., & hatfield, r.d. (2011). human resource management in south africa. (4th edn.). london: cengage learning emea. hakim, c. (2004). key issues in women’s work: female diversity and the polarisation of women’s employment. (2nd edn.). london: glasshouse press. haralambos, m., & holborn, m. (2008). sociology: themes and perspectives. (7th edn.). london: harpercollins. harmony gold mining company. (2008). harmony sustainable development report. retrieved october 20, 2009, from http://www.har.co.za/files/harmony_sd2008.pdf jardim, l. (2004). the management of sexual harassment in the workplace. unpublished phd dissertation, north-west university, potchefstroom. joubert, p.a. (2009). sexual harassment of academic staff at higher education institutions in south africa. unpublished phd dissertation, north-west university, potchefstroom. keck, j., & powel, m. (2006). women into mining jobs at inco: challenging the gender division of labor. in j.j. gier & l. mercier (eds.), gender in the development of a global industry, 1670 to the present (pp. 280–295). new york: palgrave macmillan. kolver, l. (2013). women still being hassled in male-dominated mining environment. retrieved august 14, 2015, from http://www.miningweekly.com/article/female-mineworkers-still-being-exploited-sexually-harassed-bench-marks-foundation-2013-05-10 lahiri-dutt, k. (2011). gendering the field: towards sustainable livelihoods for mining communities. retrieved february 25, 2012, from http://epress.anu.edu.au/gendering_field_citation managing transformation solutions. (2011). second annual women in mining conference. unpublished report, 23–25 february. mcdonald, p. (2012). workplace sexual harassment 30 years on: a review of the literature. retrieved may 15, 2016, from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00300.x/abstract;jsessionid=bb62b975f0a828009d54ddd759bd74cf.f04t04?userisauthenticated=false&deniedaccesscustomisedmessage= mining safety. (2013). are we doing enough for the safety of female miners? retrieved from http://www.miningsafety.co.za/dynamiccontent/124/are-we-doing-enough-for-the-safety-of-female-miners nel, p.s., kirsten, m., swanepoel, b.j., erasmus, b.j., & poisat, p. (2012). south african employment relations: theory and practice. (7th edn.). pretoria: van schaik. nel, p.s., werner, a., poisat, p., sono, t., du plessis, a., & ngalo, o. (2011). human resources management. (8th edn.). cape town: oxford university press southern africa. noe, r.a., hollenbeck, j.r., gerhart, b., & wright, p.m. (2008). human resource management: gaining a competitive advantage. (8th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. o’hare, e.a., & o’donohue, w. (1998). sexual harassment: identifying risk factors. archives of sexual behaviour, 27, 561–580. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1018769016832 pattenden, c. (1998). women in mining: a report to the “women in mining” taskforce. the australasian institute of mining and metallurgy. retrieved february 25, 2012, from https://www.ausimm.com.au/content/docs/wimreport.pdf pina, a., gannon, t.a., & saunders, b. (2009). an overview of the literature on sexual harassment: perpetrator, theory, and treatment issues. retrieved may 15, 2016, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s1359178909000044 pons, a., & deale, p. (2010). labour relations handbook (revision service 18). cape town: juta. rawoot, i. (2014). mining while female: the perils of marikana. retrieved august 14, 2015, from http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/01/mining-while-female-perils-marikana-20141582421339881.html republic of south africa. (2002). mineral and petroleum resources development act, no. 28 of 2002. pretoria: government printers. republic of south africa. (2004, august 13). broad-based socio-economic empowerment charter for the south african mining industry. notice no. 1639 of 2004. government gazette, 25899, 6–17. sarantakos, s. (2013). social research. (4th edn.). new york: palgrave macmillan. scheepers, a. (2013). overcoming the challenge of occupational culture at the mines. unpublished mba thesis, stellenbosch university, stellenbosch. shabangu, s. (2012, october 26). address by the south african minister of mineral resources, susan shabangu (mp), at the women in mining and development leadership forum, sandton. retrieved may 07, 2013, from http://www.dmr.gov.za/publications/viewdownload/198-minister-speeches-2012/881-address-by-the-south-african-minister-of-mineral-resources-ms-susan-shabangu-mp-at-the-women-in-mining-and-development-leadership-forum-26-october-2012.html slabbert, y. (1994). sexual harassment in the workplace. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of cape town, cape town. tangri, s., burt, r., & johnson, b. (1982). sexual harassment at work: three explanatory models. journal of social issues, 38(4), 33–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1982.tb01909.x the guild. (2014). sexual harassment against women in mines. unpublished report. welman, c., kruger, f., & mitchell, b. (2010). research methodology. (3rd edn.). cape town: oxford university press southern africa. wharton, a.s. (2006). the sociology of gender: an introduction to theory and research. oxford: blackwell. women in mining canada. (2010). ramp-up: a study on the status of women in canada’s mining and exploration sector. retrieved from http://www.0101.nccdn.net/1_5/1f2/13b/0cb/ramp-up-report.pdf women in mining south africa. (2015). wimsa survey results 2015. unpublished report. zikmund, w.g., babin, b.j., carr, j.c., & griffin, m. (2010). business research methods. (8th edn.). australia: south-western cengage learning. article information authors: chengedzai mafini1 nobukhosi dlodlo2 affiliations: 1department of logistics, vaal university of technology, south africa2department of marketing, vaal university of technology, south africa correspondence to: chengedzai mafini postal address: private bag x021, vanderbijlpark 1900, south africa dates: received: 15 dec. 2013 accepted: 16 apr. 2014 published: 29 aug. 2014 how to cite this article: mafini, c., & dlodlo, n. (2014). the linkage between work-related factors, employee satisfaction and organisational commitment: insights from public health professionals. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12(1), art. #616, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.616 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the linkage between work-related factors, employee satisfaction and organisational commitment: insights from public health professionals in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • literature review       • employee satisfaction       • organisational commitment       • person-environment fit       • work-family balance       • perceived job security       • proposed conceptual framework and hypothesis formulation       • person-environment fit and employee satisfaction       • work-family balance and employee satisfaction    • perceived job security and employee satisfaction    • employee satisfaction and organisational commitment • method    • measures       • design       • sample selection and participants       • measuring instruments       • data collection procedures       • reliability and validity of the study       • analysis • results    • sample composition    • extraction of work-related factors    • mean score rankings and standard deviations of factors    • correlation and regression analyses • discussion    • person-environment fit and employee satisfaction    • work-family balance and employee satisfaction    • perceived job security and employee satisfaction    • employee satisfaction and organisational commitment    • strengths, limitations and implications for future research    • conclusion    • managerial implications • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the public health sector in south africa faces a number of human resource–related inundations. solving these challenges requires the provision of empirically derived information on these matters.research purpose: this study investigated the relationship between three work-related factors, person-environment fit, work-family balance and perceived job security, and employee satisfaction and organisational commitment. a conceptual framework that links these factors is proposed and tested. motivation for the study: the prevalence of employee-related challenges involving public health professionals, as evidenced through industrial action and high labour turnover, amongst others, demands further research in order to generate appropriate solutions. research approach, design and method: a quantitative design using the survey approach was adopted. a six-section questionnaire was administered to a stratified sample of 287 professionals in three public health institutions in gauteng, south africa. data was analysed using descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, pearson’s correlation analysis and regression analysis. main findings: job security and person-environment fit both positively correlated with and predicted employee satisfaction. the association between work-family balance and employee satisfaction was weak and showed no significant predictive validity. employee satisfaction was strongly correlated to and predicted organisational commitment. practical/managerial implications: the findings of the current study may be used by managers in public health institutions to improve the level of organisational commitment amongst professionals in the sector, thus preventing further employee-related challenges that negatively affect the provision of outstanding public health services. contribution: the study provides current evidence on how both work-related and human-related factors could contribute to the prosperity of the public health sector, both at micro and macro levels. the study also provides updated insights into the interplay between these factors in the context of south africa, thereby addressing a research gap in this subject. introduction top ↑ as the costs of health services continue to soar in south africa, the heavily subsidised public health sector has emerged as the major health service provider for the greater south african populace (pillay, 2009). however, several challenges, emanating from both the internal and external environment, have mushroomed that tend to inhibit the ability of public health institutions to achieve their goals. in the external environment, a major challenge relates to increasing competition from the private health services providers (george, gow & bachoo, 2013). however, on the internal front, the principal impediment is the increasing number of cases of disgruntlement amongst public health professionals. this is evidenced by episodic industrial action in the sector as well as the high staff turnover amongst health professionals who may be destined for greener pastures in western countries (dhai, etheredge, vorster & veriava, 2011). as suggested by blaauw et al. (2013), public health professionals have the potential to be part of the central government’s solution to key problems within the health-care systems. it is important then, to investigate the significant predictors of employee satisfaction and how the latter may subsequently contribute to the development of organisational commitment. this will clearly contribute to managerial solutions to the problems that are currently entrenched in the public health-care system.in response to various developments in the south african public health sector, a number of fairly recent research projects have been conducted to investigate the dynamics within public health institutions in south africa (e.g. chaiyachati, loveday, lorenz, lesh & larkan, 2013; dhai et al., 2011; george, atujuna & gow, 2013; lehmann & gilson, 2013). a number of studies (appel, 2006; blaauw et al., 2013; george, atujuna & gow, 2013; ludy, 2005; pillay, 2009; ramasodi, 2010; visser, mckenzie & marais, 2012) concentrated on specific aspects of organisational behaviour amongst public health professionals in various regions of south africa. the presence of an array of literature focusing on public health sector employees in south africa provides testimony to the significance of this sector. however, gaps in the literature still exist with regard to the drivers of employee satisfaction and organisational commitment in the public health sector, which gives impetus for further empirical focus on the area. the current study sought to investigate the relationship between three work-related factors, person-environment fit, work-family balance and perceived job security, and employee satisfaction and organisational commitment amongst health professionals in public health institutions. there is an apparent lack of evidence from studies that examined this combination of relationships in the context of south african public health institutions. in view of this, this study proposes a conceptual framework that is yet to receive prior empirical scrutiny within the south african setting. additional impetus is provided to investigate the employees’ reasons to stay satisfied and committed as public health professionals are of strategic importance to the nation. therefore, a need exists to extend empirical research evidence that captures the dynamics surrounding the behaviour of public health professionals in south africa. literature review employee satisfaction researchers vary in their definitions of the concept of employee satisfaction. employee satisfaction may simply be perceived as the feelings of individuals about their jobs (arndta, todd & landry, 2006). sieger, bernhard and frey (2011) conceptualise employee satisfaction in terms of how people feel about their jobs and different aspects of their jobs. in support, ellickson and logsdon (2002) define employee satisfaction as the extent to which employees like their work. as such, employee satisfaction is an assemblage of factors that depend on the interaction of employees (fisher, 2000), their individualistic characteristics such as demography, emotions and personality (cote & morgan, 2002), job values and reward expectations such as salary and promotion, environmental factors (ivancevich & matteson, 2005) as well as other factors that may be specific to the unique nature of work being performed such as autonomy, role stress and teamwork (concha, 2009). for the purposes of this study, the definition by sieger et al. (2011) was adopted, since it acknowledges that employees’ perceptions are not limited to the job only, but they tend to apply to other aspects of the job as well. therefore, employee satisfaction is a highly complex and multifaceted phenomenon that depends not only on the nature of the job but also on the expectation regarding what that particular job will provide for the employee (hussami, 2008).employee satisfaction leads to a number of consequences to health service employees that include, inter alia, increased productivity (best, 2008), high-quality care (al-aameri, 2000) and intent to remain in the organisation (yee, yeung & cheng, 2008). these outcomes pose explicit implications for the effectiveness of employees and, ultimately, the performance of the organisation as a whole (koys, 2001; mafini & pooe, 2013). additionally, employee satisfaction has been found to be an indicator of constructive employee behavioural traits such as organisational citizenship (wegge, schmidt, parkes & van dick, 2007), withdrawal behavioural traits such as absenteeism and turnover (saari & judge, 2004) as well as desirable behavioural traits such as subservience and orderliness (mount, ilies & johnson, 2006). it appears then that employee satisfaction is fundamental to the prosperity of both individual employees and the organisation. organisational commitment organisational commitment has been defined as a psychological state that characterises an employee’s identification, involvement and ultimate relationship with an organisation (paulina, fergusona & bergeronb, 2006). this factor is characterised by the employee’s acceptance of the goals and values of the organisation (identification), the willingness to invest individual effort on behalf of the organisation (involvement) and the importance attached to keeping up the membership in the organisation (loyalty) (boglera & somech, 2004). research evidence indicates that organisational commitment is negatively related to employee turnover, intention to leave (cote & morgan, 2002; griffeth, hom & gaertner, 2000) and role stress (concha, 2009) whilst being positively related to extra-role behaviour, team performance (lavelle et al., 2009) as well as increased work performance as measured by both self-reported measures and objective measures (fedor, caldwell & herold, 2006). within the context of health care, extra job roles include providing extra help to both patients and co-workers (al-aameri, 2000; yoon & suh, 2003), being considerate (fisher, 2000), volunteering for special activities (ahmad & oranye, 2010) and being proactive when emergencies arise at the hospital (coyle-shapiro & morrow, 2006). person-environment fit kristof-brown, zimmerman and johnson (2005) define person-environment fit as the extent to which individual and environmental characteristics match. in other words, person-environment fit may be conceptualised in terms of specific person-situation relations that spell out the equivalence between person and environment dimensions (ostroff & schulte, 2007). examples of person characteristics include, inter alia, an individual’s biological or psychological needs, values, goals, abilities or personality. similarly, environmental characteristics may consist of job demands, cultural values, rewards or various environmental conditions such as shelter, heat and the availability of food (cable & edwards, 2004). this dimension is characterised by three identifiable domains, namely: person-job fit, person-group fit and person-person fit (song & chon, 2012). in addition, antecedents of the person-environment fit comprise of effective performance management (boon & den hartog, 2011) as well as effective employee attraction. moreover, noticeable improvements have been chronicled in terms of recruitment, selection, retention as well as training and development processes in various organisations (chatman, 2011; kristof-brown & guay, 2011). work-family balance although the job-holder and organisational member roles are two important roles, non-work roles (e.g. spouse, family, leisure) have also emerged as an integral part of employees’ lives (allen, herst, bruck & sutton, 2000). work-family balance occurs when work life is synchronised with family life such that there is an absence of conflict between these two dimensions of an employee’s life (cinamon, rich & westman, 2007). according to judge, ilies and scott (2006), work-family balance is defeated when work interferes with family such that the paid work role obstructs the fulfilment of roles in the family domain. in addition, when the family roles and duties of an individual interfere greatly to such an extent that the family roles obstruct role fulfilment in the work domain, conflict is inevitable (subramaniam & mia, 2003). eby, casper, lockwood, bordeaux and brinley (2005) classify the antecedents of work-family balance into three aspects: work domain variables, non–work domain variables and individual as well as demographic variables. on the other hand, work-family balance acts as an index of a number of positive consequences such as satisfaction amongst employees, increased organisational commitment, decreased turnover as well as reduced intention to quit and occupational stress (ford, heinen & langkamer, 2007). work-family balance is highly significant within the health care sector since it largely affects medical professionals who work abnormal hours (shifts) that infringe on their vacation, family and leisure periods. perceived job security perceived job security may be defined as a set of subjective feelings about the future security of an individual’s employment situation (fullerton & wallace, 2007). clark, knabe and rätzel (2010) state that perceived job security exists when an individual remains employed with the same organisation with no diminution of seniority, pay, pension rights and other associated privileges. van praag and ferrer-i-carbonell (2008) further argue that job security occurs when an organisation provides stable employment for employees. employee perceptions of job security are influenced by factors such as education, work experience, job functional area, work industry and work location, all of which perform an important role in determining the need for an individual’s services in the public sector (khan & rehnberg, 2009). in contrast, low perceptions of job security may result from factors such as anxiety emanating from one’s contemplation of the possibility of losing a job, high levels of exposure to various types of work hazards, loss of job control and decreased workplace social support (benach, amable, muntaner & benavides, 2002). proposed conceptual framework and hypothesis formulation the preceding discussion of the literature led to the formulation of the conceptual framework illustrated in figure 1. the conceptual framework outlines the effects of specific work-related variables that comprise of the person element (person-environment fit), situational element (work-family balance) as well as an organisational element (perceived job security). the model assumes that the three identified work-related factors are positively associated with employee satisfaction. in turn, employee satisfaction is taken to be positively related to organisational commitment. figure 1: conceptual framework. person-environment fit and employee satisfaction the person-job match is an important factor when determining the level of satisfaction amongst employees. based on pervin’s (1968, p. 56) theory on best-fit between an individual and the employing organisation, ‘a lack of fit often results in decreased performance, dissatisfaction and stress in the system’. as such, poor person-environment fit has been shown to result in a greater likelihood of undesirable organisational outcomes such as staff turnover and ineffectiveness amongst public hospital employees (kristof-brown & guay, 2011). boon and den hartog (2011) found person-environment fit to be a mediator variable between organisational trust and employee satisfaction. as such, it may be expected that when a match exists between individual characteristics, the environment and the organisation, both performance and satisfaction tend to be high and employee stress will decrease (andrews, baker & hunt, 2011). in addition, a study conducted by gregory, albritton and osmonbekov (2010) concluded that there is a significant positive relationship between person-environment fit and employee satisfaction. drawing from the aforementioned empirical evidence, the following hypothesis is proposed:• hypothesis 1: there is a positive association and a predictive relationship between person-environment fit and employee satisfaction. work-family balance and employee satisfaction allen et al. (2000) suggest that a balance is necessary in order to foster affective feelings associated with staying happy on the job. furthermore, a balanced lifestyle is evidenced by the absence of time competition between family and work roles as well as the absence of strain associated with performing roles in both the family and work domains (hoobler, wayne & lemmon, 2009). such balance also exists in the absence of behaviour-based conflict associated with incompatible roles (byron, 2005). employees who struggle to find balance between their work and family time are likely to experience either work-family conflict or job dissatisfaction (ford et al., 2007). in contrast, employees who easily find greater balance between their work, family and job schedules are likely to experience the pleasure of both pleasant work environments and valuable family time or obligations (reynolds, 2005). it could be expected then that work-family balance and employee satisfaction amongst health professionals are positively related. this leads to the following hypothesis:• hypothesis 2: there is a positive association and a predictive relationship between employee satisfaction and work-family balance. perceived job security and employee satisfaction in both developing and developed countries, it has been found that perceptions of job security are higher in government jobs, education and health-care sectors whilst they are expected to be lower in private sector jobs since the latter favour the use of flexible resources (turnley, bolino, lester & bloodgood, 2003). van praag and ferrer-i-carbonell (2008) suggest that temporary staff have a different psychological contract with the organisation than their permanent counterparts. it is also argued that the former will have a transactional contract, with the emphasis on the economic elements of the contract such as a salary, whilst permanent staff will have a more relational contract, involving commitment to the organisation and an interest in a satisfying job (yea, cardon & rivera, 2012). furthermore, perceived job security is also influenced by the possession of the necessary skills and experience that are in demand by employers, which in turn depend on the prevailing economic conditions and business environment (khan & rehnberg, 2009). it is an important supposition then that individuals whose services are in demand by employers are likely to enjoy higher perceived job security. based on the foregoing empirical evidence, the following hypothesis is put forward:• hypothesis 3: there is a positive association and a predictive relationship between perceived job security and employee satisfaction. employee satisfaction and organisational commitment positive associations have been observed between employee satisfaction and organisational commitment in a number of previous studies (al-aameri, 2000; de witte & na¨swall, 2003). research further indicates that organisational commitment is associated with a number of variables such as leadership (hussami, 2008), job stress (concha, 2009), organisational justice and fair procedures (paulina et al., 2006). interestingly, the aforementioned variables are also known to be significant antecedents of employee satisfaction. a study by lumley, coetzee, tladinyane and ferreira (2011) found positive and significant relationships between employee satisfaction and organisational commitment. this demonstrates that as the degree of employee satisfaction increases, commitment to the employing organisation is also expected to increase. it is logical then to anticipate a positive association and a predictive relationship between employee satisfaction and organisational commitment amongst health professionals in south africa. this notion is encapsulated in the following hypothesis:• hypothesis 4: there is a positive association and predictive relationship between employee satisfaction and organisational commitment. method top ↑ measures design quantitative research designs have been used in a number of previous studies (ahmad & oranye, 2010; bagtasos, 2011; saari & judge, 2004) that examined the relationship between various behavioural constructs amongst health professionals. on that basis, a quantitative design using the survey approach was adopted for the present study. the survey method was deemed appropriate for this study because it facilitates ease of data collection from large populations, making it easier to develop and administer the research questionnaire whilst allowing for generalisation of the research findings (malhotra, 2010). sample selection and participants a total of 500 survey questionnaires were distributed to respondents who were recruited from three public hospitals in gauteng, south africa, using the stratified probability sampling technique. stratified sampling assumes that the data is normal and ensures that all the population elements have an equal chance of being selected (iacobucci & churchill, 2010). the rationale behind the adoption of a stratified technique was to obtain a balanced distribution of responses from a cross-section of public health professionals. hospital databases containing information on the job positions of the professionals formed the basis for sampling strata. this culminated in a five-level stratum: (1) administrative employees, (2) technicians, (3) nurses (certified or registered), (4) general practitioners (medical doctors) and (5) specialists (clinical managers, surgeons, dieticians and physicians included).the sample size was determined using zikmund and babin’s (2009) historical evidence approach, which uses previous related literature sources (in this case, ahmad & oranye, 2010; ramasodi, 2010; siew, chitpakdee & chontawan, 2011) as a nominal anchor. in addition, green’s (1991) rule of thumb was also considered; this prescribes that no less than 50 participants are suitable for multivariate analysis, with the number increasing in line with larger numbers of independent variables. furthermore, the inclusion-exclusion criterion was also adhered to as only public health professionals who were 18 years and older and who had been working at any of the three hospitals for periods not less than 1 year on a full-time basis were included in the sample. measuring instruments a six-section multidimensional questionnaire that was adapted from previous studies was employed. section a determined the demographic profile of the participants. questions in section a were structured on dichotomous, multiple choice and rank-order closed-ended scales. section b contained questions on person-environment fit and included items that were adapted from kristof-brown (1996) as well as the categorical elements that were included under pervin’s (1968) theory on individual-organisation best-fit. in section c, items adapted from studies conducted by greenhaus and beutell (1985) and hofman and woehr (2006) were used to elicit information on work-family balance. section d was composed of job security items that were adapted from buitendach and de witte (2005) as well as de cuyper, notelaers and de witte (2009). section e was an adapted version of the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire, originally designed by spector (1985). section f contained questions on organisational commitment that were based on mowday, steers and porter’s (1979) organisational commitment questionnaire. the questions in sections b–f were placed on seven-point likert scales ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). all items were scored such that a higher score indicated higher standing on the construct being measured. data collection procedures the data used in the current study was collected between january and march 2013. prior to data collection, ethical clearance was granted by the gauteng provincial health department (authorisation number 2013/07/13-4gphd). to ensure randomisation, data was collected at different times and days of the week at each of the three public health institutions. during the collection of data, various ethical considerations such as informed consent, the participants’ right to anonymity and confidentiality were observed. in addition, voluntary participation was encouraged and the respondents were informed that they were able to withdraw from the study at any stage, if they wished to do so. of the 500 questionnaires that were distributed, 287 were returned and considered usable for the current study, giving a 57% response rate. reliability and validity of the study in this study, it was accepted that assessing the validity and reliability of measuring instruments is integral in validating an instrument’s usefulness, as suggested by alumran, hou and hurst (2012). cronbach’s alpha values for the sub-scales were as follows: work-family balance (α = 0.762), person-environment fit (α = 0.805), perceived job security (α = 0.896), employee satisfaction (α = 0.884) and organisational commitment (α = 0.817), which indicate adequate reliability of the sub-scales (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the entire scale was 0.827, which confirms the proficiency of the instrument in effectively capturing the constructs examined in the study. content and face validity of the instrument were ascertained through pilot testing of the questionnaire with a convenient sample of 50 public health professionals. this procedure was conducted to validate the content of the questionnaire in terms of relevance, accuracy and wording. in addition, the questionnaire was also reviewed by three academics who are experts in the field of organisational behaviour. feedback from the pilot study and the panel of experts ensured that the instrument only comprised those questions that would validly capture the aims of the study. discriminant validity was assessed using the exploratory factor analysis procedure. it was necessary to ascertain the discriminant validity since the proposed conceptual framework had not been tested previously. the aim was to establish whether the set of latent variables on the questionnaire were specifically measuring each construct related to the conceptual model. the results indicated that there were no cross loadings (items loading on one factor only) amongst the constructs included in the framework. in addition, there were no cross loadings on the employee satisfaction (mediator) and organisational commitment (dependent variable) constructs, which confirmed the adequacy of discriminant validity in the scale. convergent validity of the study was assessed in two ways. firstly, the high cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the scale (≥ 0.70) reflect the degree of cohesiveness amongst the variables, thereby serving as an indirect indicator of convergent validity (nunnaly & bernstein, 1994). secondly, pearson correlation coefficients indicate the high degree of convergence amongst the constructs linked in the conceptual model. moreover, predictive validity was assessed using regression analysis. two of the three independent constructs were statistically significant, which attests to the acceptable predictive validity of the study. analysis data was analysed using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss version 21.0). initially, demographic data of the subjects, frequencies and the scores of the overall work-related factors as well as measures of central tendency were established. internal consistency estimates were formulated using cronbach’s alpha coefficients. following this, a series of multivariate statistical procedures that included exploratory factor analysis, pearson correlation analysis and linear regression were computed on all the variables. these statistical analysis tools were applied in line with the proposed framework (figure 1) and were therefore the basis for testing the hypotheses. the required level of significance (p) was set at 0.01. results top ↑ sample composition the demographic profile of the respondents is reported in table 1. table 1: demographic profile of the respondents. of the respondents, 64% (n = 184) were male whilst 36% (n = 103) were female. the majority of the respondents were aged between 31 and 40 years (46%; n = 133). approximately 47% (n = 135) of the respondents had been employed in public health institutions for periods ranging between 5 and 10 years. with regard to ethnicity, the majority of the respondents were of african descent (72%; n = 207), which is representative of the racial composition amongst employees at most public health institutions in south africa. in terms of job positions, most respondents were either nurses (47%; n = 134); technicians (25%; n = 73) or administrative personnel and general employees (19%; n = 56). higher-level medical employees such as medical practitioners (7%; n = 19) as well as surgeons, physicians or specialists (2%; n = 5) remained in the minority. in addition, most of the respondents (67%; n = 191) were permanently employed. extraction of work-related factors in the study, exploratory factor analysis using the principal components analysis method and varimax rotation was applied in order to identify the underlying dimensions. an iterative scale purification and refinement procedure was applied during which low factor loadings, cross loadings and low communalities were eliminated with a view to enhancing ’interpretability of the factor structure’ (malhotra, 2010, p. 643). a minimum cut-off of 0.50 was used on the variable loadings. this is consistent with hair et al.’s (2010) suggestion that factor loadings greater than ± 0.30 are considered to meet the minimum levels, loadings of ± 0.40 are considered important and loadings of ± 0.50 and greater are considered more important (also see mafini & dlodlo 2014).the bartlett’s test was significant at less than 0.000, inferring that the data set is not an identity matrix with zero correlations (i.e. variables are correlated). furthermore, the bartlett’s test produced a chi-square value (χ2) of 6728.079 and a kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) value of 0.782 (> 0.50), further confirming the suitability of the data set for factor analysis. the total variance explained by the extracted factors was 66.3%, indicating that the other 33.7% is accounted for by extraneous variables that do not constitute part of this study. the results of the rotated component matrix, percentage of variance explained by each factor, cumulative percentage of variance, eigenvalue criterion and scree plot were assessed. finally, a three-factor structure was developed and the identified constructs were labelled as perceived job security, person-environment fit or work-family balance, which confirms the structure of the conceptual framework that is presented in this study. table 2 reports these findings (also see mafini & dlodlo 2014). table 2: extracted work-related factors, employee satisfaction, organisational commitment and description of dimensions. mean score rankings and standard deviations of factors table 3 reveals the mean score rankings, which were computed with a view to providing a rating of the factors in terms of the level of importance. the minimum and maximum values are based on the lowest and highest values on a seven-point likert scale. the means were calculated by summating the response values of variables that comprised each dimension divided by the number of variables in each dimension. table 3: mean score rankings of the work-related factors, employee satisfaction and organisational commitment. the findings of the study revealed that employee satisfaction (x̄ = 5.689; sd = 3.149) and organisational commitment (x̄ = 5.567; sd = 4.401) had the highest mean score rankings in the overall scale. however, in terms of the identified work-related constructs, perceived job security was rated the most important dimension (x̄ = 5.331; sd = 6.052) followed closely by person-environment fit (x̄ = 5.226; sd = 4.585). work-family balance (x̄ = 5.069; sd = 2.523) scored the lowest mean of the identified factors. these findings reveal that all three work-based dimensions are moderately important in contributing towards the employee satisfaction of public service health employees. correlation and regression analyses pearson correlations were computed in order to identify significant relationships between the three work-related factors and employee satisfaction as well as between employee satisfaction and organisational commitment. the results are reported in table 4. table 4: correlation analysis extracted work-related factors, employee satisfaction and organisational commitment. since the relationship between the identified work-related factors and employee satisfaction showed significant positive correlations, it was necessary to conduct regression analysis in order to test causality. as a preliminary procedure, the correlation matrix was examined for the existence of multicollinearity, that is, if the predictor variables correlate too highly (r > 0.9) with each other (field, 2005). since none of the correlations in table 4 reached a value of greater than 0.9, the data was considered suitable for regression analysis. consequently, the ‘enter’ method of regression was applied to the data set with a view to ascertaining whether any causal relationships exist between the three work-related factors (independent variables) and employee satisfaction (dependent variable). field (2005, p. 349) suggests that if the variance inflation factor (vif) is greater than 10, it implies that the predictor variables are correlated amongst themselves, which makes collinearity a cause for concern. the vif for the three sub-scales in the current study ranged between 1.615 and 2.021, which implies that multicollinearity was not a problem for the current study. the f statistic obtained was 56.849 with 4 degrees of freedom (df). the results are reported in table 5. table 5: regression analysis work-related factors and employee satisfaction. the regression analysis results revealed that the three sub-scales had an adjusted r2 value of 0.412, implying that the independent variables explain approximately 41% of the total variance in employee satisfaction. the other 59% of variability of employee satisfaction can be explained by other factors (non–work-related) that were not explored in this study. employee satisfaction was strongly predicted by person-environment fit and perceived job security. beta values showed perceived job security was the strongest predictor (β = 0.184; t = 2.235; p < 0.01), followed by person-environment fit (β = 0.064; t = 1.722; p < 0.05). an interesting result is the negative and insignificant predictive relationship (β = -0.268; t = -1.159; p > 0.05) between work-family balance and employee satisfaction. the proposed relationship between employee satisfaction and organisational commitment was tested through regression analysis. employee satisfaction was entered into the regression model as the independent variable whilst organisational commitment was entered as the dependent variable. the findings are reported in table 6. table 6: regression model 2 employee satisfaction and organisational commitment. as shown in table 6, employee satisfaction explained approximately 24.1% (r2 = 0.241) of the variation of organisational commitment amongst health professionals. collinearity statistics showed a tolerance value of 0.604 (tolerance > 0.50) as well as a vif value of 3.492 (1.0 ≤ vif ≤ 10.0), thus attesting to the insignificance of the multicollinearity problem within the regression model. discussion top ↑ person-environment fit and employee satisfaction a strong positive association was observed between person-environment fit and employee satisfaction (r = 0.569; p < 0.05). the person-environment fit factor also emerged as a statistically significant predictor of employee satisfaction (β = 0.064; t = 1.722; p = 0.048) in the regression analysis. these findings demonstrate that the employee satisfaction of public health employees increases or decreases in parallel to the degree of person-environment fit. in addition, the degree of person-environment fit reflects the extent to which health professionals are satisfied at work.in line with the abovementioned results, it is widely acknowledged that person-environment fit influences a number of organisational outcomes, all of which are also related to employee satisfaction in one way or another (kristof-brown, zimmerman & johnson, 2005). consequently, employees tend to feel a greater sense of accomplishment, receive more positive evaluations from supervisors and obtain more tangible rewards such as pay increases, promotions and increased responsibility (scroggins, 2007). in turn, these rewards serve to reinforce desirable values and behaviour amongst employees (song & chon, 2012). a number of previous scholars (hofman & woehr, 2006; kristof-brown, barrick & stevens, 2005) found consistent positive relationships between person-environment fit and important workplace attitudes and behaviour such as employee satisfaction, intentions to leave, career success, in-role performance and citizenship behaviour. a study by kristof-brown and guay (2011) identifies person-environment fit as one of the strongest predictors of employee satisfaction. an earlier study by tak (2007) suggests that person-environment fit could explain significant variance in job performance, organisational citizenship behaviour, turnover and employee satisfaction. a meta-analysis by verquer, beehr and wagner (2003) indicates that person-environment fit was related to employee satisfaction and intention to quit amongst nurses. it is not surprising then that there were positive and significant associations between person-environment fit and employee satisfaction in the current study. hypothesis 1 is therefore supported and is accepted in this study. work-family balance and employee satisfaction a positive but weak association (r = 0.182; p < 0.05) was observed between work-family balance and employee satisfaction. however, the regression analysis results revealed that work-family balance is not a statistically significant predictor (β = -0.268; t = -1.159; p = 0.522) of employee satisfaction. these findings illustrate that work-family balance neither triggers any significant increases in nor predicts the employee satisfaction of public health professionals. the results of the current study contradict the established view that work-family balance is positively linked to employee satisfaction. according to zhao and namasivayam (2012), employees who experience high work-family balance have high satisfaction levels, less work-related stress and fewer job resignations. bloom, kretschmer and van reenen (2006) note that a balance between work and family responsibilities amongst employees has a stimulus effect on employee satisfaction and organisational performance. conversely, an imbalance between work and family results in reduced employee commitment (mccarthy & cleveland, 2005), occupational stress (darcy & mccarthy, 2007), decreased employee satisfaction (poelmans & sahibzada, 2004) as well as reduced employee productivity (grady & mccarthy, 2008).the unorthodox result of this study could be attributed to the fact that workers in the health-care profession are expected to work round the clock, due to the life-saving nature of their responsibilities. for instance, doctors can be officially ‘on call’ for 24 h a day or called back to work for emergency purposes at any time. even supporting services such as technicians and administration staff work odd hours to provide full service to patients. health professionals are also expected to be on duty during periods that are normally designated as family time (baldwin & daugherty, 2004; brown et al., 2010). it is possible that when employees are expected to report for duty at any hour, the balance of work and family ceases to be a compelling issue. this is in contrast to professionals in other work disciplines, who work under different job environments. it can be deducted then that although work-family balance is positively associated with employee satisfaction, the relationship between the two factors amongst health professionals in south africa is weak and insignificant. based on these findings, hypothesis 2 is partially accepted in this study and may be considered for further study in future empirical studies. perceived job security and employee satisfaction with regard to employee perceptions of job security, a positive and moderate association (r = 0.420; p < 0.01) was observed between perceived job security and employee satisfaction. in the regression analysis, perceived job security emerged as a statistically significant predictor (β = 0.184; t = 2.235; p = 0.002) of employee satisfaction. these findings disclose that the satisfaction of public health employees increases in line with their perceptions of the level of job security. additionally, the perceived job security of public health professionals serves as an index of their satisfaction at work. these results are in line with previous studies by dawley, andrews and bucklew (2008) and yea et al. (2012) in which similar conclusions were made. smith (2010) found that job security is related to employee satisfaction through reduced intention to quit and lower staff turnover. a study by sverke and goslinga (2003) that focused on health professionals from a number of european countries reveals that a reduction in job security leads to a corresponding decline in satisfaction. another study by de witte and na¨swall (2003) concludes that there is a positive association between job security and both organisational commitment and employee satisfaction. in a number of previous studies (domenighetti, d’avanzo & bisig, 2000; mcdonough, 2000; probst, 2002), it was found that individuals who had high levels of job security were in good health and experienced lower levels of workplace injuries and accidents, leading to high satisfaction levels. ferrie, shipley, newman, stansfeld and marmot (2005) further opine that job security stimulates improved physical and emotional health amongst health-care employees. still, high perception levels of job security are associated with organisational effectiveness, which is also linked to employee satisfaction (de witte & na¨swall, 2003). the literature cited in this discourse tends to add credence to the findings of the current study. therefore, hypothesis 3 is supported and is accepted in this study. employee satisfaction and organisational commitment an analysis of the correlation matrix (table 4) indicates a strong positive association (r = 0.686; p = 0.01) between employee satisfaction and organisational commitment. a further analysis of the regression model (table 6) reveals that employee satisfaction is a significant predictor (β = 0.337; t = 5.412; p = 0.000) of organisational commitment. the results of the correlation analysis demonstrate that an increase in the employee satisfaction of public health professionals leads to an increase in their levels of commitment and vice versa. the result of the regression analysis illustrates that the employee satisfaction of public health professionals is an indicator of their degree of organisational commitment. these results are consistent with previous studies (al-aameri, 2000; siew et al., 2011; tsai & huang, 2007) in which employee satisfaction was found to be related to organisational commitment amongst various health professionals. a meta-analysis by meyer, stanley, herscovitch and laryssa (2002) also shows that that there is a strong positive relationship between employee satisfaction and organisational commitment. a number of scholars (griffeth et al., 2000; martensen & gronholdt, 2001) have found direct predictive interactions between employee satisfaction and organisational commitment. satisfied employees are more likely to exert more effort in their work and provide better services through organisational citizenship behaviour, which attests to their commitment (hom & kinicki, 2001; yoon & suh, 2003). studies by rahman and bullock (2005) and juna, caib and shinc (2006) also conclude that employee satisfaction is arguably the most important determinant of employee commitment to their organisations. yee et al. (2008) found that satisfied employees tend to be more involved in their organisations and demonstrate more dedication towards the delivery of high-quality services. moreover, employee satisfaction leads to client (patient) satisfaction, mainly because satisfied employees are more likely to be motivated and work harder than dissatisfied ones (chi & gursoy, 2009). it is logical then to conclude that the satisfaction of public health professionals is deeply intertwined with their organisational commitment. based on these findings, hypothesis 4 is accepted in this study. strengths, limitations and implications for future research the strength of this study lies in the use of a stratified sample, which presented the study with valid findings that are based on a cross-section of the target population. in addition, data was collected from three public health institutions, rather than a single one, which further enhances the validity of the current study. however, the findings of the study are limited in that they are restricted to only 287 participants who were based in gauteng. this has the potential of limiting the extent to which the findings can be generalised to other contexts. a possible remedy then could be to replicate the study in other provinces. the study is further limited in that it is based on only three work-related factors when it is known that there are other significant factors that may be extended to the current framework. in view of this fact, future studies could focus on these work-related factors as well as other non–work-related constructs that did not form part of this study. in addition, the proposed conceptual framework could further be tested using more robust statistical applications such as path modeling. comparative studies of the perspectives of public health professionals and their counterparts in private health institutions could also be conducted. conclusion the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between three work-related factors, person-environment fit, work-family balance and perceived job security, and employee satisfaction and organisational commitment amongst health professionals in public health institutions. the results of the correlation analysis revealed that there were strong positive associations between employee satisfaction and two work-related factors, person-environment fit and perceived job security. the association between work-family balance and employee satisfaction was weak. however, employee satisfaction and organisational commitment were strongly correlated. results of the regression analysis showed that person-environment fit and perceived job security were both statistically significant in predicting employee satisfaction. in turn, employee satisfaction predicted organisational commitment. work-family balance was insignificant in predicting employee satisfaction.based on the aforementioned results, three conclusions can be made. firstly, the employee satisfaction of public health professionals is strongly related to and is predicted by their levels of person-environment fit as well as perceptions of job security. secondly, work-family balance, in this case, neither strongly influences nor predicts the employee satisfaction of public health professionals. thirdly, the commitment of public health professionals to their organisations is strongly associated with and is predicted by the level of employee satisfaction. managerial implications the results of the current study have managerial implications, which are worth highlighting. these findings could be used as a reference point for managers in public organisations as they seek to enhance the motivation of their workforce, leading to decreased cases of both labour unrest and staff turnover in the sector. more specifically, improvements in the individual factors examined in this study could be made in order to boost the related outcomes. sustained training and development of health professionals may be necessary in order to continuously augment their levels of person-environment fit. such actions may facilitate the further improvement of the skills of health professionals so that they may be in sync with the requirements and demands of their jobs, or to prepare them to make the transition into new ones (boon & den hartog, 2011). it is also necessary to enhance the perceptions of job security amongst professionals in the public health sector. an effective strategy may be to increase the number of permanent job positions within health public institutions. efforts by management in public health institutions to meet the employment needs of professionals may also promote higher levels of job security. overall, in order for public health institution management to maintain the morale of professionals, a balance should be maintained amongst all the factors examined in this study with a view to creating a fulfilling working experience. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions c.m. (vaal university of technology) was responsible for the literature review, the research methodology section and made language revisions to the manuscript. n.d. (vaal university of technology) performed the data analysis and interpreted the results and wrote the results section up to the conclusion. references top ↑ ahmad, n., & oranye, n.o. (2010). empowerment, job satisfaction and organizational commitment: a comparative analysis of nurses working in malaysia and england. journal of nursing management, 8(5), 582–591. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2834.2010.01093.xal-aameri, a.s. (2000). job satisfaction and organizational commitment for nurses. saudi medical journal, 21, 531–535. allen, t.d., herst, d.e., bruck, c.s., & sutton, m. (2000). consequences associated with work-to-family conflict: a review and agenda for future research. journal of occupational health psychology, 5(1), 278–308. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.5.2.278 alumran, a., hou, x., & hurst, c. (2012). validity and reliability of instruments designed to measure factors influencing the overuse of antibiotics. journal of infection and public health, 5, 221–232. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph.2012.03.003 andrews, m.c., baker, t., & hunt, t.g. (2011). values and person–organization fit: does moral intensity strengthen outcomes? leadership & organization development journal, 32(1), 5–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437731111099256 appel, c. (2006). assessment of job satisfaction of environmental officers within a gauteng government department. master’s thesis, faculty of management sciences, tshwane university of technology, south africa. arndta, a., todd, j.a., & landry, t.d. (2006). the effects of polychronic-orientation upon retail employee satisfaction and turnover. journal of retailing, 82(4), 319–330. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2006.08.005 bagtasos, m.r. (2011). quality of work life: a review of literature. business and economics review, 20(2), 1–8. baldwin, d.c., & daugherty, s.r. (2004). sleep deprivation and fatigue in residency training: results of a national survey of firstand second-year residents. sleep, 27(2), 217–223. benach, j., amable, m., muntaner, c., & benavides, f. (2002). the consequences of flexible work for health: are we looking at the right place? journal of epidemiology and community health, 56(6), 405–406. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech.56.6.405 best, r. (2008). employee satisfaction, firm value and firm productivity. retrieved august 23, 2013, from http://ideas.repec.org/p/umn/wpaper/0806.html blaauw, d., ditlopo, p., maseko, f., chirwa, m., mwisongo, a., bidwell, p. et al. (2013). comparing the job satisfaction and intention to leave of different categories of health workers in tanzania, malawi, and south africa. global health action journal, 24(6), 87–92. bloom, n., kretschmer, t., & van reenen, j. (2006). work life balance, management practices and productivity. london, uk: london school of economics. boglera, r., & somech, a. (2004). influence of teacher empowerment on teachers’ organizational commitment, professional commitment and organizational citizenship behavior in schools. teaching and teacher education, 20(1), 277–289. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2004.02.003 boon, c., & den hartog, d.n. (2011). human resource management, person-environment fit and trust. in r. searle & d. skinner (eds.), trust & human resource management, (pp. 109–121). chichester, uk: edward elgar. http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/9780857932006.00013 brown, m., tucker, p., rapport, f., hutchings, h., dahlgren, a., & davies, g. (2010). the impact of shift patterns on junior doctors’ perceptions of fatigue, training, work/life balance and the role of social support. quality & safety in health care, 19(6), 36–51. buitendach, j.h., & de witte, h. (2005). job insecurity, extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment of maintenance workers in a parastatal. south african journal of business management, 36(2), 27–37. byron, k. (2005). a meta-analytic review of work-family conflict and its antecedents. journal of vocational behaviour, 67(1), 169–198. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2004.08.009 cable, d.m., & edwards, j.r. (2004). complementary and supplementary fit: a theoretical and empirical integration. journal of applied psychology, 89(1), 822–834. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.5.822 chaiyachati, k.h., loveday, m., lorenz, s., lesh, n., & larkan, l.-m. (2013). a pilot study of health application for healthcare workers: poor uptake despite high reported acceptability at a rural south african community-based mdr-tb treatment program. plos one, 8(5), 64–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0064662 chatman, j. (2011). matching people and organisations: selection and socialization in public accounting firms. administrative science quarterly, 36(1), 459–484. chi, c.g., & gursoy, d. (2009). employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and financial performance: an empirical examination. international journal of hospitality management, 28(1), 245–253. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2008.08.003 cinamon, r.g., rich, y., & westman, m. (2007). teachers’ occupation-specific work-family conflict. the career development quarterly, 55(1), 249–261. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2007.tb00081.x clark, a., knabe, a., & rätzel, s. (2010). boone or bane? others’ unemployment, well-being and job insecurity. labour economics, 17(1), 52–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2009.05.007 concha, a. (2009). the impact of role stress on workers’ behaviour through job satisfaction and organisational commitment. international journal of psychology, 44(3), 187–194. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207590701700511 cote, s., & morgan, l.m. (2002). a longitudinal analysis of the association between emotion regulation, job satisfaction, and intentions to quit. journal of organizational behavior, 23(1), 947–962. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.174 coyle-shapiro, j.a.m., & morrow, p.c. (2006). organizational and client commitment among contracted commitment among contracted employees. journal of vocational behavior, 63, 416–431. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2005.10.002 darcy, c., & mccarthy, a. (2007). work family conflict: an exploration of the differential effects of a dependent child’s age on working parents. journal of european industrial training, 31(7), 64–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090590710820042 dawley, d.d., andrews, m.c., & bucklew, n.s. (2008). mentoring, supervisor support and perceived organizational support: what matters most? leadership and organization development journal, 29(1), 235–247. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437730810861290 de cuyper, n., notelaers, g., & de witte, h. (2009). job insecurity and employability in fixed-term contractors, agency workers, and permanent workers: associations with job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. journal of occupational health psychology, 14(2), 193–205. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0014603 de witte, h., & na¨swall, k. (2003). objective versus subjective job insecurity: consequences of temporary work for job satisfaction and organisational commitment in four european countries. economic and industrial democracy, 24(1), 149–188. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0143831x03024002002 dhai, a., etheredge, h.r., vorster, m., & veriava y. (2011). the public’s attitude towards strike action by healthcare workers and health services in south africa. south african journal of bioethics and law, 4(2), 58–62. domenighetti, g., d’avanzo, b., & bisig, b. (2000). health effects of job insecurity among employees in the swiss general population. international journal of health services, 30(3), 477–490. http://dx.doi.org/10.2190/b1km-vgn7-50gf-8xj4 eby, l.t., casper, w.j., lockwood, a., bordeaux, c., & brinley, a. (2005). work and family research in io/ob: content analysis and review of the literature (1980–2002). journal of vocational behavior, 66, 124–197. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2003.11.003 ellickson, m.c., & logsdon, k. (2002). determinants of job satisfaction of municipal government employees. state and local government review, 33(1), 173–184. fedor, d.b., caldwell, s., & herold, d.m. (2006). the effects of organizational changes on employee commitment: a multilevel investigation. personnel psychology, 59, 1–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2006.00852.x ferrie, j.e., shipley, m.j., newman, k., stansfeld, s.a., & marmot, m. (2005). self-reported job insecurity and health in the whitehall ii study: potential explanations of the relationship. social science and medicine, 60(1), 1593–1602. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.08.006 field, a. (2005). discovering statistics using spss. (2nd edn.). london, uk: sage publishers. fisher, d. (2000). mood and emotions while working: missing pieces of job satisfaction? journal of organizational behavior, 21(1), 185–202. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(200003)21:2<185::aid-job34>3.0.co;2-m ford, m.t., heinen, b.a., & langkamer, k.l. (2007). work and family satisfaction and conflict: a meta-analysis of cross-domain relations. journal of applied psychology, 92(1), 57–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.1.57 fullerton, a.s., & wallace, m. (2007). traversing the flexible turn: us workers’ perceptions of job security, 1977–2002. social science research, 36(1), 201–221. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2005.09.005 george, g., atujuna, m., & gow, j. (2013). migration of south african health workers: the extent to which financial considerations influence internal flows and external movements. bmc health services research, 13(1), 297–310. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-13-297 george, g., gow, j., & bachoo, s. (2013). understanding the factors influencing health-worker employment decisions in south africa. human resources for health, 10(1), 11–15. grady, g., & mccarthy, a. (2008). work–life integration: experiences of mid-career professional working mothers. journal of managerial psychology, 23(5), 599–622. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940810884559 green, s.b. (1991). how many subjects does it take to do a regression analysis? multivariate behavioral research, 26, 499–510. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr2603_7 greenhaus, j.h., & beutell, n.j. (1985). sources and conflict between work and family roles. the academy of management review, 10(1), 230–258. gregory, b.t., albritton, m.d., & osmonbekov, t. (2010). the mediating role of psychological empowerment on the relationships between p–o fit, job satisfaction, and in-role performance. journal of business psychology, 25, 639–647. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9156-7 griffeth, r.w., hom, p.w., & gaertner, s. (2000). a meta-analysis of antecedents and correlates of employee turnover: update, moderator tests, and research implication for the next millennium. journal of management, 26(3), 463–488. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920630002600305 hair, j.f., black, b., babin, b., anderson, r.e., tatham, r.l., & black, w.c. (2010). multivariate data analysis: a global perspective. new york, ny: pearson education inc. hofman, b.j., & woehr, d.j. (2006). a quantitative review of the relationship between person–organisation fit and behavioral outcomes. journal of vocational behavior, 68(1), 389–395. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2005.08.003 hom, p.w., & kinicki, a.j. (2001). toward a greater understanding of how dissatisfaction drives employee turnover. academy of management journal, 44(5), 975–987. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3069441 hoobler, j., wayne, s., & lemmon, g. (2009). bosses’ perception of family-work conflict and women’s promotability: glad ceiling effects. academy of management journal, 52(5), 939–957. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2009.44633700 hussami, m. (2008). a study of nurses’ job satisfaction: the relationship to organizational commitment, perceived organizational support, transactional leadership, transformational leadership, and level of education. european journal of scientific research, 22(2), 286–295. iacobucci, d., & churchill, g.a. (2010). marketing research: methodological foundations. usa: cengage southwestern publishers. ivancevich, j.m., & matteson, m.t. (2005). organizational behavior and management. chicago, il: irwin. judge, t., ilies, r., & scott, b. (2006). work–family conflict and emotions: effects at work and at home. personnel psychology, 59, 779–814. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2006.00054.x juna, m., caib, s., & shinc, h. (2006). tqm practice in maquiladora: antecedents of employee satisfaction and loyalty. journal of operations management, 24, 791–812. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2005.09.006 khan, j., & rehnberg, c. (2009). perceived job security and sickness absence: a study on moral hazard. european journal of health economics, 10, 421–428. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10198-009-0146-5 koys, d.j. (2001). the effects of employee satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior, and turnover on organizational effectiveness: a unit-level, longitudinal study. personnel psychology, 54(1), 101–114. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2001.tb00087.x kristof-brown, a.l. (1996). person-organization fit: an integrative review of its conceptualisations, measurement and implications. personnel psychology, 49(1), 1–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1996.tb01790.x kristof-brown, a.l., barrick, m., & stevens, c.k. (2005). when opposites attract: a multi-sample demonstration of complementary person-team fit on extraversion. journal of personality, 73, 935–958. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2005.00334.x kristof-brown, a.l., & guay, r.p. (2011). person–environment fit. apa handbook of industrial and organizational psychology, 3, 3–50. kristof-brown, a.l., zimmerman, r.d., & johnson, e.c. (2005). consequences of individuals’ fit at work: a meta-analysis of person–job, person–organization, person–group, and person–supervisor fit. personnel psychology, 58, 281–342. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2005.00672.x lavelle, j.j., brockner, j., konovsky, m.a., price, k.h., henley, a.b., & taneja, a. (2009). commitment, procedural fairness, and organizational citizenship behavior: a multifoci analysis. journal of organizational behavior, 30(1), 337–357. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.518 lehmann, u., & gilson, l. (2013). actor interfaces and practices of power in a community health worker programme: a south african study of unintended policy outcomes. health policy plan, 28(4), 358–366. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czs066 ludy, n. (2005). job satisfaction among employees at a public health institution in the western cape. cape town, south africa: university of the western cape. lumley, e.j., coetzee, m., tladinyane, r., & ferreira, n. (2011). exploring the job satisfaction and organisational commitment of employees in the information technology environment. southern african business review, 15(1), 100–118. mafini, c., & dlodlo, n. (2014). the relationship between extrinsic motivation, job satisfaction and life satisfaction amongst employees in a public organisation. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 40(1), art. #1166, 13 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1166 mafini, c., & pooe, r.i.d. (2013). the relationship between employee satisfaction and organisational performance: evidence from a south african government department. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 39(1), 1041–1090. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i1.1090 malhotra, n.k. (2010). marketing research: an applied orientation. eaglewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. martensen, a., & gronholdt, l. (2001). using employee satisfaction measurement to improve people management: an adaptation of kano’s quality types. total quality management, 12 (7/8), 949–957. mccarthy, a., & cleveland, j.n. (2005). an investigation of work–family conflict in the irish hotel sector. paper presented at the european academy of management (euram) conference, munich, germany, 07 may. mcdonough, p. (2000). job insecurity and health. international journal of health services, 30(3), 453–476. http://dx.doi.org/10.2190/bpfg-x3me-lhta-6rpv meyer, j.p., stanley, d.j., herscovitch, l.h., & laryssa, t. (2002). affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization: a meta-analysis of antecedents, correlates and consequences. journal of vocational behavior, 61, 20–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2001.1842 mount, m., ilies, r., & johnson, e. (2006). relationship of personality traits and counterproductive work behaviors: the mediating effects of job satisfaction. personnel psychology, 59, 591–622. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2006.00048.x mowday, r., steers, r., & porter, l.w. (1979). the measurement of organizational commitment. journal of vocational behaviour, 14, 224–247. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(79)90072-1 nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory. (3rd edn.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. ostroff, c., & schulte, m. (2007). multiple perspectives of fit in organizations across levels of analysis. in c. ostroff & t.a. judge (eds.), perspectives on organizational fit, (pp. 3–69). new york, ny: lawrence erlbaum. paulina, m., fergusona, r., & bergeronb, j. (2006). service climate and organizational commitment: the importance of customer linkages. journal of world business, 59(8), 906–915. pervin, l.a. (1968). performance and satisfaction as a function of individual environment fit. psychological bulletin, 69(1), 56–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0025271 pillay, r. (2009). work satisfaction of professional nurses in south africa: a comparative analysis of the public and private sectors. human resources for health, 7(15), 1–10. poelmans, s., & sahibzada, k. (2004). a multi-level model for studying the context and impact of work–family policies and culture in organizations. human resource management review, 14, 409–431. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2004.10.003 probst, t.m. (2002). layoffs and tradeoffs: production, quality, and safety demands under the threat of job loss. journal of occupational health psychology, 7(3), 211–220. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.7.3.211 rahman, s., & bullock, p. (2005). soft tqm, hard tqm, and organizational performance relationships: an empirical investigation. omega, 33(1), 73–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.omega.2004.03.008 ramasodi, j.m.r. (2010). factors influencing job satisfaction among healthcare professionals at south rand hospital. master’s thesis, faculty of health systems management and policy, university of limpopo, south africa. reynolds, j. (2005). in the face of conflict: work-life conflict and desired work hour adjustments. journal of marriage and family, 67, 1313–1331. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2005.00219.x saari, l.m., & judge, t.a. (2004). employee attitudes and job satisfaction. human resource management, 43(1), 395–407. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20032 scroggins, w.a. (2007). an examination of the additive versus convergent effects of employee perceptions of fit. journal of applied social psychology, 37, 1649–1665. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2007.00231.x sieger, p., bernhard, f., & frey, u. (2011). affective commitment and job satisfaction among non-family employees: investigating the roles of justice perceptions and psychological ownership. journal of family business strategy, 2(1), 78–89. siew, p.l., chitpakdee, b., & chontawan, r. (2011). factors predicting organizational commitment among nurses in state hospitals, malaysia. the international medical journal, 10(2), 21–28. smith, v. (2010). enhancing employability: human, cultural, and social capital in an era of turbulent unpredictability. human relations, 63(2), 279–303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0018726709353639 song, z., & chon, k. (2012). general self-efficacy’s effect on career choice goals via vocational interests and person job fit: a mediation model. international journal of hospitality management, 31(1), 798–808. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2011.09.016 spector, p.e. (1985). job satisfaction: application, assessment, causes, and consequences. london, uk: sage publications. subramaniam, n., & mia, l. (2003). a note on work-related values, budget emphasis and managers’ organisational commitment. management accounting research, 14, 389–408. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mar.2003.07.001 sverke, m., & goslinga, s. (2003). the consequences of job insecurity for employers and unions: exit, voice, and loyalty. economic and industrial democracy, 24(1), 241–270. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0143831x03024002005 tak, j. (2007). antecedents of person–job fit and its relation to intention to leave based on a sample of newcomers. korean journal of industrial and organizational psychology, 20, 459–473. tsai, m.t., & huang, c.c. (2007). the relationship among ethical climate types, facets of job satisfaction and the three components of organizational commitment: a study of nurses in taiwan. journal of business ethics, 80, 565–581. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9455-8 turnley, w.h., bolino, m.c., lester, s.w., & bloodgood, j.m. (2003). the impact of psychological contract fulfilment on the performance of in-role and organizational citizenship behaviours. journal of management, 29(2), 187–206. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920630302900204 van praag, b.m., & ferrer-i-carbonell, a., 2008. happiness quantified. oxford, uk: oxford university press. verquer, m.l., beehr, t.a., & wagner, s.h. (2003). a meta-analysis of the relations between person-organization wt and work attitudes. journal of vocational behavior, 63, 473–489. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0001-8791(02)00036-2 visser, j., mckenzie, a., & marais, d. (2012). job satisfaction of south african registered dieticians. south african journal of clinical nutrician, 25(3), 112–119. vogel, r.m., & feldman, d.c. (2009). integrating the levels of person-environment fit: the roles of vocational fit and group fit. journal of vocational behavior, 75, 68–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.03.007 wegge, j., schmidt, k., parkes, c., & van dick, k. (2007). taking a sickie: job satisfaction and job involvement as interactive predictors of absenteeism in a public organization. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 80(1), 77–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317906x99371 yea, j., cardon, m.s., & rivera, e. (2012). a mutuality perspective of psychological contracts regarding career development and job security. journal of business research, 65, 294–301. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.03.006 yee, r.y.y., yeung, a.c.l., & cheng, t.c.e. (2008). the impact of employee satisfaction on quality and profitability in high-contact service industries. journal of operations management, 26(1), 651–668. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2008.01.001 yoon, m.h., & suh, j. (2003). organizational citizenship behaviors and service quality as external effectiveness of contact employees. journal of business research, 56(8), 597–611. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0148-2963(01)00290-9 zhao, x.r., & namasivayam, k. (2012). the relationship of chronic regulatory focus to work family conflict and job satisfaction. international journal of hospitality management, 31(1), 458–467. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2011.07.004 zikmund, w.j., & babin, b.j. (2009). essentials of marketing research. usa: cengage learning. article information authors: ugochukwu o. madu1 boris urban1 affiliations: 1graduate school of business administration, university of the witwatersrand, south africa correspondence to: boris urban postal address: po box 98, wits 2050, south africa dates: received: 18 sept. 2013 accepted: 18 feb. 2014 published: 14 aug. 2014 how to cite this article: madu, u.o., & urban, b. (2014). an empirical study of desired versus actual compensation practices in determining intrapreneurial behaviour. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12(1) art. #592, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.592 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. an empirical study of desired versus actual compensation practices in determining intrapreneurial behaviour in this orignal research... open access • abstract • introduction • research purpose • importance of research • brief theoretical overview    • intrapreneurship and innovation    • compensation practices    • resource-based theory and compensation    • expectancy theory and compensation    • agency theory and compensation    • hypothesis development • method    • research approach    • research design       • data collection and sampling       • instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • descriptive statistics    • hypothesis testing • discussion    • implications    • limitations of study and future research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: past research recognises that human resources management practices may influence innovative behaviour, particularly as compensation systems can be used as a tool to increase intrapreneurial activity.research purpose: the aim of this study is to determine the relationship between actual versus desired compensation practices and elevated intrapreneurial behaviour. this is in line with research that focuses on how to promote business innovation, rather than merely research whether innovation is desirable for businesses or not. motivation for the study: recognising that entrepreneurial actions are the bedrock of intrapreneurial behaviour and that these behaviours may be critical to the long-term vitality of a firm and economy, it is important to facilitate the empirical study of them in an under-researched, emerging market environment. moreover, compensation such as reward preferences and variable pay schemes remain controversial in terms of their costs versus contributions, and these constructs deserve more empirical research. research approach, design and method: the study employed a quantitative research design, using a cross-sectional and empirical approach with primary data sources. a structured web-based instrument rendered a sample of 209 respondents from a diverse set of businesses. canonical correlational analysis was carried out to test the hypotheses. main findings: the results reveal that a gap exists between an employee’s perception of desired compensation practices and the actual compensation practices. the results further highlight that non-outcome-based measures like pay risk, job risk and expectations of success play a role in determining whether employees decide to be intrapreneurial or not. practical/managerial implications: due to the potential impact rewards have on intrapreneurial behaviour, it is necessary to design relevant compensation systems as part of organisational architecture in order to foster intrapreneurship. contribution: in response to calls to unveil innovation practices in developing countries and in acknowledging a contingency relationship between compensation practices and intrapreneurship, this article is one of the first studies to test the relationship between actual versus desired compensation practices and elevated intrapreneurial behaviour in an emerging market context. introduction top ↑ innovation is often invoked as a strategy for corporate renewal: researchers describe how human resource management (hrm) interventions are used as change levers to support a shift in business strategies (jimenez-jimenez & sans-valle 2008). innovation and entrepreneurship in corporations have been labelled in many different ways, including intrapreneurship, with conceptual roots in innovation entrepreneurship (schumpeter 1934), and innovation management (covin & miles 2007). past research finds that encouraging risk-taking and innovative behaviours must be consistent with individualised performance assessment and compensation (berber et al. 2012; ellis, henry & shockley 2010) particularly as hrm practices can affect intrapreneurship in varied ways. attitudes towards opportunity exploitation and innovative behaviour are significant only when individuals perceive both positive subjective norms and being in high control (de jong 2013). management support and compensation practices promote commitment to innovate on the part of employees (grandori, giordani & hayton 2011). moreover, compensation practices can either be used as a tool to increase innovative activity or they can discourage innovative activity by rewarding other behaviours. research purpose top ↑ by recognising the importance of compensation practices and reward preferences (snelgar, renard & venter 2013) that promote intrapreneurship, this study investigates the relationship between actual versus desired compensation practices and elevated intrapreneurial behaviour. this is in line with research that focuses on how to promote intrapreneurship, rather than merely research whether innovation is desirable for businesses or not (kenworthy & mcmullan 2013). the overall question this study seeks to address is which compensation practices are significantly associated with intrapreneurial behaviour. the study contributes to existing literature and extends current knowledge on the relationship between compensation and intrapreneurship by examining the degree of uncertainty and risk as moderators of intrapreneurial behaviour (hayton 2005; urban 2008). drawing on the resource-based view, expectancy theory and agency theory, various hypotheses are formulated in which the moderating role of risk control is factored into the compensation and intrapreneurship equation. by assembling a sample of more than 200 respondents from a wide range of organisations in a diverse set of industries, this article provides preliminary evidence of differences in compensation practices in an under-researched geographical emerging market area: johannesburg, south africa. importance of research top ↑ innovation and intrapreneurship have been emphasised as key-drivers for emerging economy firms to revitalise, reconfigure resources and transform into market-orientated firms that are ready to compete in the global economy (yiu & lau 2008). recent research demonstrates the importance of how ‘catching up countries’ benefit from innovations in the medium and low technology sectors (rotaba & beaudry 2012). thus far, there has not been much work on intrapreneurship in transition economies and emerging markets, as contrasted with entrepreneurship studies at the individual level. recognising that entrepreneurial actions are the bedrock of entrepreneurial processes and behaviour, and that these behaviours may be critical to the long-term vitality of a firm and economy (stevenson 1983; urban & barreria 2010), it is important to facilitate the empirical study of them in an under researched, emerging market environment. moreover, compensation such as reward preferences and variable pay schemes remain controversial in terms of their costs versus contributions, and these constructs deserve more empirical research (moore & bussin 2012; ncube, bussin & de swardt 2013). in response to the call to unveil innovation and technology management practices in developing countries (cetindamar & pretorius 2012), and in acknowledging a contingency relationship between compensation practices and intrapreneurship, this article is one of the first studies to test the relationship between actual versus desired compensation practices and elevated intrapreneurial behaviour in an emerging market context. brief theoretical overview top ↑ intrapreneurship and innovation in most hrm practices, the basic principle is that practices differing in kind are complementary in sustaining innovation, in particular those infusing powerful individual incentives co-applied with practices infusing team spirit and organisational identification (grandori et al. 2011). consequently, if top management believes that enhancing employees’ innovative behaviour will contribute to fulfilling the organisation’s goals, a compensation system must be designed and supported that will promote entrepreneurship practices (lerner, azulay & tishler 2009).there are various ways to classify innovations (miller & miller 2012); one way to revive innovativeness and create a dynamic dominant logic is to make intrapreneurship the basis upon which the organisation is conceptualised (morris, kuratko & covin 2008; sharma & chrisman 1999). innovation is a multidimensional phenomenon and the development of an innovation is frequently modelled as a process. thus, the process of the development of innovation needs to be managed diligently in order to increase performance. if firms devote substantial resources to the innovation process, but are unable to turn them into innovative offerings, resources are squandered and firm performance suffers. moreover, innovation has to address market needs, and requires entrepreneurship if it is to achieve commercial success (morris et al. 2008). entrepreneurship and innovation are positively related to each other and interact to help an organisation to flourish. likewise, intrapreneurship and innovation are complementary, and a combination of the two is vital to organisational success and sustainability in today’s dynamic and changing environment. additionally, entrepreneurship and innovation are not confined to the initial stages of a new venture; rather, they are dynamic and holistic processes in intrapreneurial and innovative organisations affecting the development of entrepreneurial and innovation behaviour in an organisation (antoncic & hisrich 2001; urban 2008). for the purpose of this study, the term intrapreneurship is used since longstanding literature has conceptualised intrapreneurship as a multidimensional phenomenon that incorporates the behaviour and interactions of the individual, organisational, and environmental elements within organisations (antoncic & hisrich 2001; covin & miles 2007). compensation practices the literature on intrapreneurship suggests that compensation practices are one of the vital structural dimensions promoting innovation and intrapreneurship (hayton 2005). due to the impact rewards have on intrapreneurial behaviour, they are part of the organisational environment for fostering intrapreneurship and increasing performance by intrapreneurs (hornsby et al. 2009). additionally, compensation systems require a person-organisation fit where a needs-supplies approach that assesses the match between individual preferences and pay needs is recommended. this fit is important when considering that key aspects of human capital are vital to explaining search-based discovery and innovative behaviour (marvel 2013).previous research has found that preferred compensation practices related to both the internal venture’s performance and individual performance (outcome-based compensation practices) are best aligned with intrapreneurship initiatives (lerner et al. 2009). consistent with agency theory, outcome-based compensation practices align the preferences of agents and principals because the rewards for both parties depend on the same actions. in contrast, other researchers (monsen, patzelt & saxton 2009) report that getting employees to participate in corporate venturing is not just a matter of financial utility maximisation, but that the other non-outcome-based measures like pay risk, job risk and expectations of success play an important role in determining employee participation. this means that contingent compensation is important in most high-performance work systems and includes aspects of gain sharing, profit sharing, stock ownership, pay for skill or various forms of individual or team incentives (lerner et al. 2009; wood & de menezes 2011). resource-based theory and compensation the resource-based theory postulates that organisations are heterogeneous in terms of the resources they control; these resources include all the assets, capabilities, attributes and knowledge an organisation possesses (barney 1991). even though resource heterogeneity is the most basic condition of resource-based theory, it is not enough for sustainable advantage. for instance, if an organisation has heterogeneous assets that can be easily imitated, such assets will only generate a short-term advantage (alvarez & busenitz 2001). on the other hand, organisations that have the capability to innovate can be expected to generate greater profits than those that are non-innovators. at the same time it seems logical that employees should be compensated more as their innovative efforts increase; as productivity from such innovative efforts increases, there should also be a matching increase in their compensation (barney 1991). expectancy theory and compensation the importance of preferred compensation practices for enhancing desired employees’ behaviour can also be examined through the lens of the expectancy theory. this means that employees act in ways that they believe will result in rewards of some importance to them, such as higher earnings (lerner et al. 2009). such an expectancy premise suggests that managers can positively influence their employees by making pay contingent upon performance; this means that compensation practices should include procedures for influencing an employee’s work and appraising their performance (lerner et al. 2009). similarly, yanadori and marler (2006) note that compensation practices can be connected to strategic objectives by identifying the critical employee groups and choosing an appropriate policy for internal structure, mix of compensation types and the basis for pay increases. agency theory and compensation agency theory is structured around the nature of relationships within organisations, in terms of communications between a principal and an agent, in which the principal delegates work to the agent (roth & o’donnell 1996). the pursuit of innovative initiatives often involves an exposure to the possibility of outcomes involving loss (goodale et al. 2010). subsequently, the performance of employees attracted to a compensation plan may increase in relation to the incentive intensity of rewards, measured as the variable portion of pay (ncube et al. 2013; zenger & marshall 2000). this means that marginal gains in income increase with higher incentive intensity of rewards and if increased effort has physical or psychological costs, employees will choose levels of effort such that the marginal gains from those efforts equal their marginal cost (lerner et al. 2009). therefore, pay plans that are more incentive intensive will drive employees to reach higher levels of effort and may also lure and keep talented employees in the organisation (snelgar et al. 2013). hypothesis development encouraging employees to participate in venturing is not just a matter of financial utility maximisation, but instead non-outcome-based measures like pay risk, job risk and expectations of success also play a role in determining whether employees decide to participate in intrapreneurship activities or not. it is further noted that the positive relationship between profit sharing bonus (outcome-based) and employees’ participation in venturing may be negatively moderated by job risk and pay risk, and positively moderated by an employee’s expectation of success in the new venture (moore & bussin 2012; monsen et al. 2009). in other words, it is important for job risk and pay risk to be low when using a profit sharing bonus to motivate employees to participate in venturing. these types of trade-offs can be achieved where job risk is decreased, for instance through flexible working hours, providing opportunities for growth and job enrichment (wood & de menezes 2011). by drawing on these different theoretical perspectives, hypotheses are formulated in which actual and desired compensation practices are related to increased levels of intrapreneurial behaviour, which then builds on the premise that there is a contingency relationship between compensation practices that support corporate venturing. at the same time this relationship is moderated by the degree of risk or uncertainty associated with intrapreneurial behaviour (hayton 2005; monsen, saxton & patzelt 2007). hypothesis 1: there is a positive relationship between actual compensation practices and elevated intrapreneurial behaviour. hypothesis 2: there is a positive relationship between desired compensation practices and elevated intrapreneurial behaviour. hypothesis 3: the relationship between actual and desired compensation practices and elevated levels of intrapreneurial behaviour is moderated by the perceptions of risk control in the organisation. method top ↑ research approach this study was based on quantitative research design, adopting a cross-sectional and empirical approach using primary data sources. the research was both of a descriptive and explanatory nature in that the hypotheses were statistically tested. a research method involving a web-based self-reporting structured survey instrument was administered to a sample of employees at various companies in the greater johannesburg area in south africa. research design data collection and sampling the first step in data collection was trying to identify samples of firms that exhibit intrapreneurship practices to various degrees (thus minimising the restriction of range problem within the sample). this was challenging as: (1) intrapreneurship strategies may not be robust in firms and (2) firms with highly entrepreneurial strategies may be few in number, as continuously employing entrepreneurial strategies may render these firms vulnerable to collapse (ireland, covin & kuratko 2009). to counteract such sample identification challenges, a sample screen was relied upon focusing on firms with high rankings on industry reputational surveys regarding firm innovation-related matters over an extended period. one such listing is the ‘top 100 companies’ survey which showcases the prowess of south africa’s most successful organisations (financial mail 2010). this listing shows how organisations are judged according to how the firm uses technology and innovation to achieve objectives such as maximising profits, gaining market share, creating niche markets or adding value for stakeholders. several other databases and listings that incorporate innovative organisations, such as the johannesburg chamber of commerce and industry (jcci) (2011) and the database of the south africa business guidebook (2009), served as sampling frames. consistent with previous studies of a similar nature, the sample was composed of various corporate employees and managers (monsen et al. 2007). at least ten permanent individual employees from entry level to managerial level per firm were surveyed using non-probability sampling. initially 671 corporate employees were surveyed with a structured web-based instrument of which a final sample of 209 employees was obtained. additionally, by adhering to stevenson’s (1983) view of entrepreneurship as a management approach relevant to many different types of firms, a diverse range of businesses was sampled. the following sample characteristics emerged from this procedure: over half (56%) of the respondents were men, 62% were in the 26–40 year age group, almost all (89%) were in the entry level to managerial level group of employees, approximately three-quarters (78%) had spent five years or fewer in their current organisation, approximately two-thirds (68%) were in industries other than manufacturing, information technology and telecommunications (some of these other industries included banking, finance, mining and retail) and approximately two-thirds (69%) were in firms with 150 or more employees. based on the relative heterogeneity of the different industry sectors sampled, the generalisability of the study is strengthened (davidsson 2004). instruments the research survey design was a self-reporting online closed questionnaire consisting of three separate sections measuring the concepts under study. care was taken to ensure clarity in terminology and to ensure that the items of the questionnaire addressed each of the hypotheses. existing instruments were scrutinised for suitability and the following scales were used in this study: • items previously used by miller and friesen (1983) to measure risk-taking or aversion propensity; the original overall scale was found to possess an acceptable degree of reliability (α = 0.63). • items originally used by block and ornati (1987) to measure actual and desired incentives for improved venture manager’s performance, based on the satisfactory reliability when used in the intrapreneurship assessment instrument (ceai) (α = 0.73) (hornsby, kuratko & zahra 2002). • items originally used by pearce, kramer and robbins (1997) to measure entrepreneurial behaviour by managers, as based on satisfactory reliability when used in the intrapreneurship assessment instrument (ceai) (α = 0.89) (hornsby et al. 2002). following the literature review, the study variables were operationalised as follows in terms of independent, dependent or moderator variables: • actual compensation practices (acp) and desired compensation practices (dcp) = independent variables (iv). examples of these questions included items such as: (1) variable bonuses based on return on investment of new venture formed from the intrapreneur’s idea, (2) fixed bonuses for milestone achievement and (3) options in parent company equity. • elevated intrapreneurial behaviour (eib) = dependent variable (dv). examples of these questions included items such as: (1) i would get proposed actions through bureaucratic red tape and into practice efficiently and (2) i would display an enthusiasm for acquiring skills. • risk control (rc) = moderator or interaction variable. examples of these questions included items such as: (1) in general, my department have a strong proclivity for low-risk projects, with normal and certain rates of return and (2) in general, my department fosters and encourages a lesser level of business, financial and personal risk-taking. collectively, 44 items were used in a structured questionnaire in which responses were collected using a five-point likert scale: 1 = ‘strongly disagree’ with the statement, whilst 5 = ‘strongly agree’. common method response bias was controlled for to some degree by safeguarding respondent anonymity, as well as ensuring that the questions relating to the dependent variables were located away from the independent and moderator variables in the instrument. prior to testing the study hypotheses, the scales were tested for reliability and validity. in order to ensure the instrument had face and content validity, a preliminary analysis via a pilot test was undertaken. this process allowed the researcher to refine the questionnaire design to maximise responses. moreover, this procedure ensured that the respondents had no difficulties in answering the questions and there was no problem in recording the data. having established content validity, a closer look at the instruments revealed that they were not actually dimensions measuring a construct; rather, they were instruments with a set of different compensation practices. consequently, only instrument reliability was tested; a cronbach’s alpha value above 0.7 was considered adequate for internal consistency (cooper & schindler 2008). the different sections revealed the following values: actual compensation practices scale (α = 0.89), desired compensation practices scale (α = 0.89), elevated intrapreneurial behaviour scale (α = 0.89) and risk control scale (α = 0.79). research procedure the survey was distributed using an online survey system, which was selected principally because of its functionality and ease of use. a personalised email accompanied each questionnaire, explaining the aim and objectives of the research and assuring the respondent of the confidentiality of their responses. a follow-up request was sent out approximately two weeks after the initial survey.data collection was conducted over a four-week period; 266 responses were received of which 57 were discarded because of incompleteness. this resulted in a final sample of 209 employees and a response rate of 31.15%. to test for non-response bias (armstrong & overton 1977), firm size, age and sales growth of responding firms were compared with non-responding firms, using secondary data obtained from a similar technology top 100 survey (financial mail 2010). results of t-tests comparing the mean scores of the responding and non-responding firms revealed no differences (p > 0.10), suggesting that the sample appears to be representative of the population from which it was drawn. ethical issues were taken into consideration by ensuring that the instrument used posed no risk or danger to respondents. the study purpose and benefits to the sample population as well as the participant’s rights and protection was made explicit and explained to the respondents at the start of the data collection process. moreover, full and open information (informed consent) was made available to respondents, to ensure that no form of deception and misrepresentation was used to extract information from the respondents and their privacy and confidentiality was respected at all times. statistical analysis during data analysis, descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated using the statistica software system, version 10 (statsoft 2011). to check for differences between actual and desired compensation practices, t-tests for dependent or related groups were performed. canonical correlational analysis was carried out to test the hypotheses. this method is often used when researchers need to relate one set of variables to other sets of variables or when it is necessary to represent a large data set by several, easy-to-interpret variables (lerner et al. 2009). with this method, the effects of key variables in one data set on all or several of the variables in the other sets can be easily identified. several types of multivariate analyses exist and in the case of two or more data sets, canonical correlation analysis has been successfully used in previous research (tishler et al. 1996). canonical correlation analysis allows multiple measures to be summarised into variants or linear combinations of variables with weighting optimised, extracting maximum variance from the original measures (hair et al. 2010). results top ↑ descriptive statistics descriptive statistics were calculated for each of the sections of the instrument in terms of values of central tendency, variability and skewness. the summary statistics across items indicate that the values of the means and medians of all the scales are skewed towards the high end of the likert scale, indicating agreement with the item. thus the responses to these scales are generally positive or very positive, an observation consistent with the skewness of the scales. this suggests that employees perceive they will act in an intrapreneurial manner despite their concerns about danger and approval issues, in terms of risk control, which also reveals high mean scores across items. to make further sense of the descriptive statistics, a t-test for dependent or related groups was performed to check for differences between actual and desired compensation practices. table 1 reveals that there is a significant difference in all types of compensation practices when comparing mean scores of actual and desired compensation items. this suggests that these employees believe that there is a large gap between actual and desired compensation practices. for instance, the item ‘incidence of options in new venture equity’ was low in terms of actual practice (mean = 1.81), in contrast with its perceived desirability (mean = 4.00). table 1: mean score differences between actual versus desired compensation practices. hypothesis testing to test hypothesis 1, in terms of the expected relationship between acp and eib, canonical correlational analysis was carried out. the overall canonical r-value (0.58) was relatively substantial (statsoft 2011) and highly significant (p < 0.000). this value was the simple correlation between the weighted sum scores in each set of variables, with the weights pertaining to the first (and most significant) canonical root. it is important to note that the maximum number of canonical roots that could be extracted was equal to the smallest number of variables in either set; thus, 17 canonical roots were extracted (statsoft 2011). all 17 canonical roots extracted 100% of the variance from the left set (17 acp items) and 97.00% of the variance in the right set (eib items). the total redundancy for the acp items was 11.75%, whilst that of the eib items was 9.98%. based on this result, only the first canonical root was considered significant and thus used in further analysis. for root factor 1, the variance extracted for acp was 0.042, with a redundancy of 0.014; for eib the variance extracted was 0.026 with a redundancy of 0.008. the second root was statistically non-significant and was excluded from further analysis. the results of the canonical correlational analysis are displayed in table 2. table 2: hypothesis 1: canonical analysis on actual compensation practices and elevated intrapreneurial behaviour. additionally, canonical analysis included calculating the factor structures, which are referred to as canonical loadings or structure coefficients. for acp nine items had low loadings on the first canonical factor, ranging from 0.02 to 0.26, whilst eight items had negative loadings, which means they had a very low correlation with this factor. the other seven acp items revealed low loadings on the first canonical factor, ranging from 0.04 to 0.18, whilst 11 items had negative loadings, indicating a very low correlation with that factor. the first canonical root extracted an average of 4.00% of the variance from the acp items and an average of 3.00% of the variance from the eib items. based on the set of eib items, the first canonical root accounted for about 1.00% of the variance in the acp items (redundancy). based on the set of acp items, the first canonical root accounted for about 0.90% of the variance in the eib items. this set of results suggests that the set of acp items were not predicting the set of eib items; thus, hypothesis 1 cannot be supported by the empirical evidence. to examine hypothesis 2 in terms of the relationship between dcp and eib, the same procedure in terms of canonical analysis was carried out. the results are shown in table 3. the overall canonical r (0.70) was quite substantial (statsoft 2011) and highly significant (p < 0.001). all of the 17 extracted canonical roots extracted 100% of the variance from the left set (17 dcp items) and 97.00% of the variance in the right set (eib items). the total redundancy for the dcp items was 21.08%, whilst that of the eib items was 25.07%. this means that, based on all canonical roots and given the eib items, 21.08% of the variance in the dcp was accounted for, whilst given the dcp items, 25.07% of the variance in the eib was accounted for. these results reveal a poor but significant latent root and suggest a weak overall relationship between items in the two sets of variables. table 3: hypothesis 2: desired compensation practices and elevated intrapreneurial behaviour. in terms of factor structures, only the first canonical root was significant, and further examined. the items for eib ranged from 0.10 to 0.79. the 12 items with the highest loadings ranged from 0.51 to 0.79. of these 12 items, 11 were items measuring innovation and proactivity whilst one item measured risk. therefore, innovation and proactivity are highly representative of eib. the items for dcp had loadings ranging from 0.15 to 0.71. the seven items with the highest loadings were praise and recognition, motivation-based compensation, flexible work hours, job enrichment, variable bonuses for milestone achievement, accelerated promotion and opportunity for growth. these seven items correlated highly with the one factor. of these seven items, six were all non-monetary compensation practices, suggesting that non-monetary compensation practices are the best predictors of the 11 items measuring innovation and proactivity, in terms of eib. the first canonical root extracted an average of 20% of the variance from the dcp items and an average of 32% of the variance from the eib items. these results translate into a significant canonical correlation (0.70) between the items in terms of dcp and eib (based on the first canonical root). the set of items in the dcp variable that best predicted the 11 eib items on innovation and proactivity were the non-monetary compensation practices. thus, hypothesis 2 cannot be fully supported due to a lack of empirical evidence. in terms of hypothesis 3, to examine the potential moderating effect of risk control on the dcp-eib relationship, a multiple regression procedure was executed incorporating the interaction term of ‘risk x dcp’. the first canonical roots of dcp served as the independent variable whilst the first canonical root of eib served as the dependent variable. an interaction term was created for each respondent by multiplying the averages of the responses on the risk control scale with the corresponding first canonical roots of the dcp items. the following values were obtained based on this procedure: r = 0.71, r² = 0.50, adjusted r = 0.49(p < 0.000), standard error of estimate = 0.71 and f (2196) = 99.36. additionally, the summary results are shown in table 4. these values indicate that 50.34% of the variation in the dependent variable (eib) is attributable to variation across the desired compensation practices items. however, the moderation effect of risk control was not statistically significant when risk control was used as a moderator. the p-value for the regression model was not statistically significant at t (196) = -1.7093 (p > 0.050), and suggest that it can be removed from the model. this means that risk control did moderate the dcp-eib relationship. consequently, hypothesis 3 cannot be supported in terms of the empirical evidence. table 4: regression summary for dependent variable (elevated intrapreneurial behaviour 1st canonical root). discussion top ↑ based on the statistical analysis, the results reveal that gaps exist between employees’ perception of the desired compensation practices and the actual compensation practices. in addition, the sample of respondents in this study seem to prefer mostly non-monetary compensation practices, such as job enrichment, opportunity for growth, flexible work hours, motivation-based compensation and accelerated promotion. moreover, the main outcome-based compensation practice preferred by respondents was variable bonuses in terms of ‘milestone achievement’.the findings emanating from this study resonate with similar research which showed that intrapreneurs prefer compensation practices that relate to the performance of the organisation as well as their individual performance (i.e. outcome-based compensation practices). this is an important finding considering that outcome-based compensation practices are necessary to promote the bearing of uncertainty and reduction of opportunism (lerner et al. 2009). consistent with agency theory, outcome-based compensation practices align the preferences of agents and principals because the rewards for both parties depend on the same actions. moreover, the results of this study signify that employees prefer non-monetary compensation practices as well, which could be due to the organisations that were surveyed not having the means, ability or desire to compensate employees in a direct outcome-based compensation manner. it is also plausible that most organisations reserve outcome-based compensation practices for directors and executives who, for personal gains, might not be willing to share such benefits with lower level employees. the results highlight that non-outcome-based measures like pay risk, job risk and expectations of success play a role in determining whether employees decide to be innovative or not. this finding resonates with monsen et al.’s (2009) research which found that employees are reported to participate in intrapreneurial behaviour as a result of job risk and pay risk, and that employee’s expectations are an important moderator. in other words, it is important for job risk and pay risk to be low when using profit sharing bonused to motivate employees to participate in intrapreneurial behaviour. the results confirm that opportunity for growth and job enrichment are strong predictors of elevated intrapreneurial behaviour. this finding is reflected in past studies that show that opportunity for growth and job enrichment are best fostered through on-the-job training to elevate intrapreneurial behaviour. higher levels of internal knowledge sharing relate to stronger intrapreneurial behaviour, and such knowledge sharing in turn results from higher levels of trust and goal congruence (de clercq, dimov & thongpapanl 2013). at the same time however, risk control has a strong positive moderating effect on the relationship between organisational boundaries and innovation performance, and a strong negative moderating effect on the relationship between time availability and innovation performance. the implication of this moderating effect is that desired compensation practices are perhaps only one of the many organisational antecedents that can elevate intrapreneurial behaviour. other organisational antecedents like organisational support, organisational boundaries and time availability are equally important to consider in stimulating intrapreneurial behaviour. in summary, even though the empirical evidence emanating from this study did not support the hypotheses, the results are nonetheless revealing. principally the findings indicate that implementing an intrapreneurship strategy in an organisation is quite challenging due to the failure to appreciate how risk control and other control variables work in conjunction with compensation and other organisational antecedents to facilitate elevated intrapreneurial behaviour. compensation practices need to be connected to strategic objectives by formulating an appropriate mix of compensation types, whilst at the same time mitigating the degree of risk or uncertainty associated with intrapreneurial behaviour. implications essentially the results have contextual relevance: little is known about intrapreneurial behaviour or indeed intrapreneurship in emerging economies (bruton, ahlstrom & obloj 2008). emerging economies are characterised by rapid change and have an institutional and market environment quite different to those in western economies (antoncic & hisrich 2001). currently there is little knowledge on this topic emerging from an efficiency-driven economy like south africa, which shows differences in innovative behaviour, risk profile, compensation practices and culture (bosma, stam & wennekers 2010; urban 2008). in the present day south african socio-economic milieu, compensation practices seem to be insufficient to motivate employees to behave intrapreneurially, especially if the degree of uncertainty in the corporate environment is taken into account. many firms in emerging economies will need to focus on increased innovation in order to compete globally (urban & barreria 2010). relevant to emerging economies is that recent research finds that intrapreneurship and independent entrepreneurship seem to be substitutes at the macro level. large firms in high-income countries tend to display more entrepreneurial behaviour than large firms in low-income countries do (bosma et al. 2010). indeed a tentative positive correlation between intrapreneurship and gdp per capita is possible. thus, it appears that entrepreneurial activities by employees are, as predicted by theory, more prevalent as a country moves towards the more advanced phases of economic development. there is a need for further theorisation and empirical analysis of how different contexts may influence intrapreneurial behaviour. considering that there has been a call for a considerable shift toward a more effective applied research agenda (kenworthy & mcmullan 2013), a multifaceted understanding of compensation practices in the intrapreneurship context is important not only for academic purposes but also because the subject has salience for practitioners and policy-makers. these implications relate to the profitability and competitiveness of the firm as well as to the overall economic performance of industry and the national economy. businesses that incorporate innovation into their vision by relying on entrepreneurial strategies and actions understand that innovation is at the core of an entrepreneurial organisation. it is around this core that other elements of the organisation, such as strategy, management style and structure, are built. the study also provides guidance to innovation specialists and company leaders interested in incentivising their employees to undertake intrapreneurial practices. compensation practices can either be used as a tool to increase innovative activity or it can discourage innovative activity by rewarding non-salient behaviours. due to the potential impact rewards have on intrapreneurial behaviour, it is necessary to design relevant compensation systems as part of organisational architecture in order to foster intrapreneurship. additionally, the results provide direction to employees seeking to engage in intrapreneurship and provide them with a fair indication of what compensation practices they could expect, whilst considering commensurate risks. considering that intrapreneurship is contingent upon individual members undertaking innovative activities (hornsby et al. 2009), management must design incentive contracts that consider both the desired compensation practices and actual deterrents prohibiting intrapreneurial behaviour. limitations of study and future research the present study strictly focused on compensation practices and risk factors but did not take into account different types of rewards, such as team rewards or organisation-level rewards and their potential influence on intrapreneurial behaviour. based on the exploratory nature of this study, future studies need to be replicated with more fine-grained analysis of compensation practices. moreover, due to the cross-sectional nature of the study, any causal relationship between compensation practices and intrapreneurial behaviour is not plausible. a longitudinal study is required to provide further insights into and causal inferences in the relationship between compensation practices and intrapreneurial levels. the representativeness of the sample is questionable, since no database of intrapreneurial firms exists in south africa; furthermore, the selection criteria used for the present study merely serves as a starting point for sample selection. additionally, in terms of its instrument design, the study relied on perceptual data which means data may have been contaminated by perceptual biases and cognitive limitations of respondents. lastly, as a result of using canonical analysis, when the number of variables in one of the data sets is high (as was the case in this study) the weightings obtained by canonical analysis may be unreliable (tishler et al. 1996). much corporate entrepreneurship (ce) research focuses on large corporations yet small and medium enterprises may also involve scope for significant ce; future research could link compensation practices of these firms to intrapreneurial behaviour. additionally, future research could try to unpack not only the nature of rewards but also how compensation systems need to be configured according to the industry life-cycle stage. similarly, by focusing on specific contexts, differences in compensation practices may be revealed according to different sector types. for instance the high technology sector may require unique compensation practices, which could be identified as distinct for that particular sector. there is a need for further theorisation and empirical analysis of different types of organisations and sectors, as well as understanding how different contexts influence intrapreneurial behaviour through compensation practices. similar organisations with similar compensation practices can have different effects in different contexts. consequently, a need exists for a more subtle way to analyse how contextual variables differ in emerging economies and to what degree they shape intrapreneurial behaviours. conclusion the study contributes to existing literature and extends current knowledge by investigating the relationship between desired and actual compensation practices and intrapreneurial behaviour, whilst also examining the degree of uncertainty and risk as moderators of this relationship. by focusing on how to elevate intrapreneurial behaviour, rather than merely researching whether corporate innovation is desirable or not, the study results have direct application to policy-makers and managers. by empirically researching actual and desired compensation practices, as well as deterrents prohibiting intrapreneurial behaviour, managers are able to better understand the contingency relationship between compensation practices and intrapreneurship. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions u.o.m. (university of the witwatersrand) was the project leader and prepared the survey and sample. b.u. (university of the witwatersrand) made conceptual and methodological contributions and wrote the article. references top ↑ alvarez, s.a. & busenitz, l.w. (2001). the entrepreneurship of resource-based theory. journal of management, 27, 755–775. http://dx.doi.org/10. 1177/014920630102700609 antoncic, b. & hisrich, r.d. (2001). intrapreneurship: construct refinement and cross-cultural validation. journal of business venturing, 16(5), 495–527. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0883-9026(99)00054-3 armstrong, j.s. & overton, t.s. (1977). estimating non-response bias in mail surveys. journal of marketing research, 14, 396–402. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3150783 barney, j.b. (1991). firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. journal of management, 17(1), 99–120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700108 berber, n., pasula, m., radosevic, m., ikonov, d. & kocic vugdelija, v. (2012). internal audit of compensations and benefits: tasks and risks in production systems. engineering economics, 23(4), 414–424. http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.23.4.1143 block, z. & ornati, o.a. (1987). compensating corporate venture managers, journal of business venturing, 2(1), 41–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0883-9026(87)90018-8 bosma, n., stam, e. & wennekers, s. (2010). intrapreneurship – an international study. eim research report intrapreneurship. the netherlands: dutch ministry of economic affairs. bruton, g. d., ahlstrom, d. & obloj, k. (2008). entrepreneurship in emerging economies: where are we today and where should the research go in the future. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 32(1), 1–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2007.00213.x cetindamar, d. & pretorius, m.w., (2012). unveiling tm practices in developing countries. international journal of innovation and technical management, 9(5), 1201006-1–1201006-8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/s0219877012010067 cooper, d.r. & schindler, p.s. (2008). business research practices. (10edn.). boston, ma: mcgraw hill. covin, j.g. & miles, m.p. (2007). strategic use of corporate venturing. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 31(2), 183–207. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2007.00169.x davidsson, p. (2004). researching entrepreneurship. (1st edn.). boston, ma: springer science and business media. de clercq, d. dimov, d. & thongpapanl, n. (2013). organizational social capital, formalization, and internal knowledge sharing in entrepreneurial orientation formation. entrepreneurship: theory and practice, 37(3), 505–537. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/etap.12021 de jong, j.p.j. (2013). the decision to exploit opportunities for innovation: a study of high-tech small-business owners. entrepreneurship: theory and practice, 37(2), 281–301. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2011.00459.x ellis, s.c., henry, r.m. & shockley, j. (2010). buyer perceptions of supply disruption risk: a behavioural view and empirical assessment. journal of operations management, 28(1), 34–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2009.07.002 financial mail. (2010). top companies 2010, financial mail, 24 june 2010. retrieved 03 march 2011, from www.fm.co.za/article.aspx?id=112850. grandori, a., giordani, l.g. & hayton, j. (2011). organizing entrepreneurship. routledge: new york, ny. goodale, j.c., kuratko, d.f., hornsby, j.s. & covin, j.g. (2010) operations management and intrapreneurship: the moderating effect of operations control on the antecedents of corporate entrepreneurial activity in relation to innovation performance, journal of operations management, 29, 116–127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2010.07.005 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j. & anderson, r.e. (2010). multivariate data analysis. 7th edin. new jersey: pearson. hayton, c.j. (2005). promoting intrapreneurship through human resource management practices: a review of empirical research. human resource management review, 15(1), 21–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2005.01.003 hornsby, j.s., kuratko, d.f. & zahra, s.a. (2002). middle managers’ perception of the internal environment for intrapreneurship: assessing a measurement scale, journal of business venturing, 17(3), 253–273. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0883-9026(00)00059-8 hornsby, j.s., kuratko, d.f., shepherd, d.a. & bott, j.p. (2009). managers’ corporate entrepreneurial actions: examining perception and position. journal of business venturing, 24(3), 236–247. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2008.03.002 ireland, r.d., covin, j.g. & kuratko, d.f. (2009). conceptualizing intrapreneurship strategy. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 33, 19–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2008.00279.x johannesburg chamber of commerce and industry (jcci). (2011). johannesburg chamber of commerce and industry. accessed 02 march 2011, from http://www.nafcocjcci.co.za/ jimenez-jimenez, d. & sans-valle, r. (2008). could hrm support organizational innovation? international journal of human resource management, 19(7), 1208–1221. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190802109952v kenworthy, t. & mcmullan, w.e. (2013). finding practical knowledge in entrepreneurship. entrepreneurship: theory and practice, 37(5), 983–997. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/etap.12048 lerner, m., azulay, i. & tishler, a. (2009). the role of compensation practices in intrapreneurship. international study of the management organization, 39(3), 53–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.2753/imo0020-8825390303 marvel, m. (2013). human capital and search-based discovery: a study of high-tech entrepreneurship. entrepreneurship: theory and practice, 37(2), 403–421. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2011.00465.x miller, d. & friesen, p.h., (1983). innovation in conservative and entrepreneurial firms: two models of strategic momentum. strategic management journal, 3, 1–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250030102 miller, l. & miller, r. (2012). classifying innovation. international journal of innovation and technology management, 9(1), 1250004-1–1250004-18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/s0219877012500046 monsen, e.w., saxton, t. & patzelt, h. (2007). motivation and participation in intrapreneurship: the moderating effects of risk, effort, and reward. frontiers entrepreneurship research, 27(21), article 1. monsen, e., patzelt, h. & saxton, t. (2009). beyond simple utility: incentive design and trade-offs for corporate employee-entrepreneurs. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 34, 105–130. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2009.00314.x moore, a. & bussin, m. (2012). reward preferences for generations in selected information and communication technology companies. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(1), 55−63 http://dx.doi.org/10.4012/sajhrm.v10i1.325 morris, m.h., kuratko, d.f. & covin, j.g. (2008). intrapreneurship and innovation. cincinnati, oh: thomson/south-western publishers. ncube, s., bussin, m.h.r. & de swardt, l. (2013). confirming theoretical pay constructs of a variable pay scheme. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), art. #464, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.464 pearce, j.a. ii, robertson kramer, t. & robbins, d.k. (1997). effects of managers’ entrepreneurial behavior on subordinates. journal of business venturing, 12, 147–160. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0883-9026(96)00066-3 rotaba, z. & beaudry, c. (2012). how do high, medium and low tech firms innovate? a system of innovation (si) approach. international journal of innovation and technology management, 9(5), 1250034-1–1250034-23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/s0219877012500344 roth, k. & o’donnell, s. (1996). foreign subsidiary compensation strategy: an agency theory perspective, academy of management journal, 39(3), 678–703. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256659 schumpeter, j.a. (1934). the theory of economic development. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. sharma, p. & chrisman, j.j. (1999). reconciling the definitional issues in the field of intrapreneurship. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 23(3), 11–26. snelgar, r.j., renard, m. & venter, d. (2013). an empirical study of the reward preferences of south african employees. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), art. #351, 14 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.351 south africa business guidebook. (2008/2009). your essential a-z business resources with an investment focus. south africa: write stuff publishing. statsoft, inc. (2011). electronic statistics textbook. tulsa, oklahoma: statsoft. available from http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/ stevenson, h.h. (1983). a perspective on entrepreneurship. harvard business school working paper, 9, 384–431. tishler, a., dvir, d., shenhar, a. & lipovetsky, s. (1996). identifying critical success factors of defense development projects: a multivariate analysis. technological forecasting and social change, 51(2), 151–171. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0040-1625(95)00197-2 urban, b. (2008). entrepreneurship orientation in a developing country context: juxtapositions with south africa’s innovation index. journal of developmental entrepreneurship, 13(4), 425–445. http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/s108494670800106x urban, b. & barreira, j. (2010). empirical investigations into firm entrepreneurial orientation and technology orientation. international journal of innovation and technology management, 7(3/4), 1–23. wood, s. & de menezes, l.m. (2011). high involvement management, high-performance work systems and well-being. international journal of human resource management, 22(7), 1586–1610. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.561967 yanadori, y. & marler, j. (2006). compensation strategy: does business strategy influence compensation in high-technology firms? strategic management journal, 27(6), 559–570. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smj.521 yiu, d.w. & lau, c.m. (2008). intrapreneurship’s resource capital configuration in emerging market firms. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 32(1), 37–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2007.00215.x zenger, t.r. & marshall, c.r. (2000). determinants of incentive intensity in group-based rewards. academic management journal, 43(2), 149–163. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1556373 7verrier.qxd the role of executive facilitation has shifted dramatically in recent years following its humble beginnings in the late 1980s. its origins can in fact be traced as far back as the 1960s and 70s, when, according to hudson (1999, p. 4), government and largeorganisation planning was conducted from the top down. upper management made the decisions, while middle management saw to it that the decisions were carried out. but in the 1970s and 1980s, it was realised that more flexibility was needed if organisations were to thrive, and the hierarchical control of employees began to give way to trust and collaboration with employees. widespread training was needed to help every employee think and behave like a leader, but with the emphasis on business performance. then came seminars on teamwork and empowerment, which made the focus more personal, but training was still focused on immediate corporate issues. the use of consultants added to the movement toward facilitation in that they worked with key corporate figures and system interventions. but these approaches to change were flawed, and therefore didn’t last. then it occurred to many people that if organisations were going to make lasting changes, the individuals working in them must change first. stephen covey, author of the seven habits of highly effective people, was a major proponent in the shift from corporate talk to training highly effective persons. so it was that in the late 1980s, corporate facilitation came on the scene – a field promoting continuous resilience and performance in persons and organisations. the idea was for coaches to work over a period of time with both individuals and the systems in which they functioned. some of the new emphases that coaches contributed were visionary leadership training, executive facilitation, renewal facilitation, and transition management. a major need was to help individuals and organisations formulate scenarios for the future, given the complexities and speed of change in today’s world. moving ahead to the present day, it is estimated that 25-40 percent of fortune 500 companies in the u.s. make use of coaches, while in the uk 70 percent of top companies provide facilitation for their staff (palmer, 2003, p. 26). in the u.s. there are close to 100 coach training schools. the international coach federation (icf), the largest non-profit professional association of coaches worldwide, has more than 5000 members spanning 179 chapters in 30 countries. alongside this explosion in popularity, there has also been an elevation of the image of the profession in the wider business and academic community. this has seen the establishment of many successful facilitation companies focused on the corporate sector and the establishment of several facilitation courses in respected universities. it is estimated that between 10-20 percent of ceos of australian companies have utilised the expertise of a coach. in the u.s. this number was 60 percent, including both mentoring and facilitation programmes. over 95 percent of people in these programmes found the process to be of value. in australia today there are over 1000 practicing coaches. defining pipl executive facilitation for the purposes of this study, the term executive refers to the heads of functional units of an organisation, which includes general managers and upper policymakers through the level of executive directors, managing directors, group executives, chief information officers (cio), chief operating officers (coo), and chief executive officers (ceo). the key quality that sets them apart from other employees is perspective. the executive must be able to view the world in a much larger sense than others, envisioning global and long-term consequences of any prospect or alternative. this requires an openness to thinking about the world in new ways, the capacity to deal with the ambiguous and undefined, and a willingness to cope with big issues. finally, executives must possess a strong desire to live and work passionately, to rely on their own judgement, and to exploit their own potential. in the personal, interpersonal and professional leadership (pipl) context, preference is given to “executive facilitation,” rather than “coaching.” they should, however, be interpreted as synonyms. as a result of an extensive literature study, the following is offered as a nutshell definition of what executive facilitation, from a pipl perspective, is about: pipl executive facilitation is an action-learning process that is personalised and developmental in nature, aimed at improving the personal fulfilment and performance of executives through derek verrier dawie smith dpjs@rau.ac.za department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract the focus of this article is to present an empirically-based model of executive facilitation based on the personal, interpersonal and professional leadership (pipl) paradigm. pipl is a holistic, wellness perspective that includes the personal, interpersonal, and professional contexts of one’s life, and considers the anthropological characteristics and certain existential realities that humankind is confronted with. the executive facilitation model is based upon the current pipl theoretical framework, emerging streams of organisational theory, the work of classic management gurus, typical problems of executives, and various current executive facilitation models. opsomming die fokus van hierdie artikel is die aanbieding van ’n empiries-gebaseerde model vir die fasilitering van uitvoerende amptenare gefundeer op die persoonlike, interpersoonlike en professionele leierskapsparadigma (pipl). pipl is ’n holistiese, welstandsperspektief wat die persoonlike, interpersoonlike en professionele kontekste van ’n persoon se lewe insluit en wat oorweging skenk aan die tipies menslike asook bestaansrealiteite waarmee die mens gekonfronteer word. die uitvoerende fasiliteringsmodel is gebaseer op die pipl kennisraamwerk, op organisasieteorie, die werk van klassieke bestuurskenners, tipiese probleme van uitvoerende amptenare, asook op verskeie fasiliteringsmodelle vir uitvoerende amptenare. a personal, interpersonal and professional leadership (pipl) model of executive facilitation requests for copies should be addressed to: dawies@uj.ac.za 51 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (1), 51-60 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (1), 51-60 enhancing being (e.g. purpose, meaning, beliefs, values) and performance (goals, actions, execution). pipl executive facilitation is the art of guiding executives from where they are to where they want to be, creating an awareness of and mastery of the pipl pyramid of leadership and influence through the three c’s, i.e. character, caring and competence. it is aimed at improving executive’s quality of life as well as their quality of work, maximising strengths and minimising weaknesses, and unleashing potential. as such, the science of pipl executive facilitation is aimed at the fulfilment, performance and development of the executive in the context of personal, interpersonal and professional effectiveness. aim and value of the model the aim of this article is to present an empiricallybased executive facilitation model from a personal, interpersonal and professional leadership (pipl) paradigmatic perspective. the model is based upon the existential realities and challenges that confront executives in a south african context. the purpose of such a descriptive model is to organise information and display that information in such a way that the relationships among various elements in some system (in this case executive facilitation) are clarified. the particular uses of the pipl executive facilitation model are to: � provide the pipl executive facilitator with a theoretical framework for undertaking executive facilitation � define the typical existential problems and outcomes of pipl executive facilitation � provide a graphic understanding of executive facilitation that can be used to manage successful facilitation interactions. the pipl perspective the pipl perspective, developed in the mid-1990s by professor dawie smith of what was formely known as the rand afrikaans university, is a relatively new leadership paradigm which acknowledges the holistic nature of human beings. inherent in the pipl model is an element of constructive progression. it includes the interdependent nature and the development from personal mastery to interpersonal and consequently professional mastery. thus, the essence and nature of pipl can be encapsulated in personal leadership, interpersonal leadership, and professional leadership. these three pipl pillars, with all their complexities, form the basis of a person’s natural reality. pipl does not focus primarily on the outer dispositions of a leader (charisma and personality). it strives to discover the essence of an authentic leader and of effective leadership. the personal leadership domain of pipl focuses on authentic selfexpression that creates value (cashman, 2000, p. 20). it proposes a principle-centred, character-based, inside-out approach to change and leadership (covey, merrill & merrill, 1994, p. 42). the pipl perspective reiterates the truth that there are universal laws and principles which govern one’s natural and social existence. these principles are an integral part of every individual. honest y, fairness, dignit y, service and excellence are examples of such principles. personal leadership and change starts with the individual and is based on the philosophy that ‘you’ are the only person which ‘you’ have total control over or can exert control over. so, if change is inevitable, start with yourself, your own attitude and your own (dis)comfort zone. personal leadership in the context of pipl serves as a foundation for interaction with people. enduring and happy interpersonal and professional relationships and ultimately leadership and influence, depend on the degree of personal leadership or personal mastery attained. as covey (1994) says, “it is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving ourselves.” personal leadership requires awareness of and the intention to understand who we really are and what we stand for. it is directed at the discovery of where we want to go. it also includes insight into personal problems of existence and the behaviour and values we choose in coping with these realities. the personal leader is aware of what and how s/he thinks, feels and behaves and how that relates to one’s essential self, one’s temperament and personality, one’s past and present realities, the purpose and meaning of one’s life and harmony in one’s major life dimensions, i.e. spiritual, physical, emotional, mental, social, career and finance. authors such as meyer (1996, p. 2), smith (1994), quinn (1996), pierce and newstrom (2003), manning and curtis (2003), and skiffington and zeus (2003), support the views stated above and add to these that an authentic personal leader should demonstrate: � direction and purpose � proactive behaviour � response-ability, i.e. not to blame, to be a victim or to be reactive � value-driven time and life management � a burning desire and commitment to achieve one’s goals � determined action to realise one’s potential � principle-centred and an inside-out approach to life � a win-win attitude to interpersonal relationships the interpersonal leader would, for example, ask the question: “how can i figure out how to be free to live my life the way i want to live it and still get along well with the people i need?” (glasser, 1998, p. 5). for decades sociologists and psychologists and even mainstream societ y aligned themselves with the notion that self-actualisation was the ultimate in human achievement. pipl however, via its interpersonal and professional wings, embraces the notion of self-transcendence as the pinnacle of optimal fulfilment and achievement. service, caring and altruism constitute the ultimate virt ue in our social realit y. in interpersonal leadership the emphasis is on the essence of effective relationships, how to be a person of influence and on adding value to others (smith, 2005b). professional leadership, in the context of pipl, combines character, caring and a positive attitude with professional competencies. therefore, the pipl view of professional leadership represents a departure from the traditional view of professional effectiveness. traditionally, professional leadership was synonymous with status, power and output (production at all cost). professional leadership in a pipl context is based on the precepts of spiritual fulfilment at work, relationship building, teamwork, mut ual respect, appreciation, empathic listening, commitment towards a common vision, win-win, synerg y, conf lict resolution, professional effectiveness and other related principles and values. in the context of change management, pipl is concerned with change from an outside-in to an inside-out life perspective. this requires a change from a blaming to a personal responsibility attitude, a reactive to a proactive lifestyle, a ‘what’s-in-it-for-me?’ to a ‘how can i add value?’ approach, a ‘want-to-have’ to a ‘want-to-be’ attit ude, a critical to a constr uctive team member, from win-lose to win-win agreements, and lastly from a telling and prescribing to a seeking to listen and understand attitude. hence, a pipl perspective entails a study of the awareness of the fundamental problems facing mankind in the context of their personal realm, their relationships with people, and their professional environment. pipl confirms the ability and potential of all human beings, irrespective of race, colour, gender or creed. humans can excel and succeed, in all dimensions of life – be it spiritually, physically, emotionally, intellectually, or in their relationships with people. their freedom of choice, along with willpower, can unlock inner potential. the source of, and the utilisation of one’s potential, can be viewed from a theocentric or a humanistic perspective. whichever one chooses is a personal choice. pipl operates verrier, smith52 from generic anthropological and universal life principles which are true for all people irrespective of their beliefs or religious views. thus, pipl has very specific and enduring phenomenological, anthropological, psychological, and philosophical foundations. the helping professions can be divided into three broad approaches: � therapy: includes psychiatry, psychotherapy, and trauma counselling. the focus is more on the past and the present, on serious problems, and on the unconscious. it is generally long term and it requires psychiatric or psychological background (the professionals). � counselling (and facilitation): involves well-adjusted people, and uses approaches such as nlp, albert ellis’ rebt, carl rogers’ self theory, the franklin reality model, william glasser’s choice theory, viktor frankl’s logotherapy, and conventional mentoring approaches. � facilitation, among others, is directed at finding purpose, personal growth, potential realisation and qualit y relationships. approaches such as life coaching (mcgraw, 2001) and lifeskills coaching (nelson-jones, 1997) are included in the facilitation approach. the pipl pyramid of leadership with regard to these, pipl concerns itself with facilitation which is primarily a presentand future-oriented form of intervention. the aim of a pipl approach, is: personal mastery: potential realisation, finding purpose and meaning in life, total wellness and balance in one’s life dimensions. interpersonal mastery: understanding and living the essence of sound relationships. professional mastery: finding fulfilment in work, responsibility, commitment, acknowledgement, performance and an effectiveness orientation. the pipl pyramid of leadership and influence shown in figure 1, crystallises into three critical tenets: character, caring and competence the three sequential leadership roles can also be termed personal, interpersonal, and professional leadership. these sequential roles, also expressed as modelling, mentoring and managing result in the fruits of personal responsibility, sound relationships, and return on investment (roi), respectively. personal leaders, being proactive by nature, focus their efforts in the circle of influence. they work on things they can do something about. the nature of their energy is positive, enlarging and magnif ying, causing their circle of influence to increase (covey, 1994, p. 83). reactive people, on the other hand, focus their efforts in the circle of concern. they focus on the weakness of other people, the problems in the environment, and circumstances over which they have no control. smith’s life dimensions model pipl is also based on smith’s life dimensions model. four of these dimensions are internal and four are external. the internal life dimensions are the spiritual, the physical, the emotional and the mental. the external life dimensions are the social, one’s career, finance and the ecological environment. these dimensions of life and wellness define one’s uniqueness, and help us understand who we are. the spiritual dimension is at the centre of a person’s life and totality. as human beings we are alive because the spiritual essence within us is naturally attracted to life in material form (prescott, 2000, p. 37). the quality of life depends on the ability to balance the internal life dimensions of life with the external life dimensions. these life dimensions are of critical importance in developing an individual facilitation model for executives. it will therefore serve a purpose to consider these dimensions separately in order to understand their significance in our lives. it must be pointed a pipl model of executive facilitation 53 figure 1: the pipl model – the pyramid of leadership and influence out that these dimensions are not separate compartments of life, but form part of a highly interrelated whole. � the spiritual dimension can be defined, among others, as a search for purpose, meaning, value, inner wholeness, connectedness, harmony, love, morality, beauty, wisdom, hope, vitality and gratitude (zohar and marshall, 2000; zohar and marshall, 2004; pearsall, 1999; peirce, 1997; frankl, 1984; temple-thurston, 2003; smith, 2005c). our spiritual dimension is considered to be our ultimate, or core dimension. � the physical dimension: this dimension refers to the optimal wellness and health of the physical systems in the body, as well as its effective functioning as an integrated whole. the physical dimension includes physical health, vitality and energy, cardiovascular fitness, muscle strength, endurance and flexibility, a healthy diet and theories of biomarkers of ageing (corbin & lindsey, 1997). � the emotional dimension: this dimension refers to the ability to be aware of and be in control of one’s emotions, to be aware of, understand and be sensitive to others’ emotions and to express one’s feelings in an accountable way (caruso and salovey, 2004; calhoun and solomon, 1984). � the mental dimension: the mental dimension must be distinguished from the intellectual dimension. it, among others, refers to awareness, consciousness and power of thought (murphy, 1993; witz, 1998). � the social dimension: as social beings it is a fundamental need of a person to be with and to have meaningful relationships with other people. a person’s happiness, moods, and self-esteem are all influenced to a large degree by the relationships they hold with others. key elements of relationship mastery, or what could also be called interpersonal leadership, include one’s circle of influence, trust and trustworthiness, communication, doing to others as one would have done to oneself (the golden rule), and empathy. � the lifestyle, finance and career dimension: lifestyle refers to one’s daily patterns of behaviour or ways one typically lives. career is a person’s work life and how it influences one’s daily living. finance is the ability to balance income and expenses, and in the process maintain a respectable meaningful life (robbins, 1992). � ecological environment: as human beings we are living organisms in relation with each other and our environment. the reciprocal impact of human beings on their environment has become a major area of research. human behaviour and wellness can only be understood by considering this factor as central in human endeavour. in addition to the life dimension, the pipl paradigm is also founded, or presupposed, in existential and anthropological realities. existential realities refer to problems of existence and finding ways to cope. anthropological realities refer to that which is typically human. these realities help one better understand the human condition. pipl has roots that go beyond the superficial and the mundane by getting at the root of human nature. besides the mentioned realities there are assumptions that form critical links in the chain defining pipl. two such central, elementary assumptions include: � life has a purpose. as such it is necessary for human beings to detect their unique life purpose, and to develop a strategy that will ensure that they are able to live on that purposeful path. � an increasing number of people experience an existential vacuum: the majority of people, especially in the western world and in big cities, have become disconnected from their spiritual core, and hence experience a pervasive sense of emptiness and meaninglessness. this is where the strength of the pipl executive facilitation model lie and why it has been necessary to develop a new model in the first place – that is why, as victor hugo put it, “it is an idea whose time has come.” pipl is a holistic paradigm that deals with the essence of who and what we are. the model’s existence is underpinned by the fundamentals of human nat ure. and after all, when it comes right down to it, at the core most organisational problems have common roots – misunderstanding human/individual nat ure – i.e. they lack a whole-person paradigm. after all, individual behaviour is merely collectivised in organisations. the key therefore to understanding organisational behaviour is not to st udy organisat ional behaviour, per sé. it is to st udy and understand human nature. for once one understands the fundamentals of human nat ure, one possesses the key to unlock the potential inside of people and organisations (covey, 2004). there are also a number of facilitation approaches that are used by pipl executive facilitators in applying the pipl model when addressing the typical personal issues which they are confronted with in the course of facilitation interventions. some of these approaches are as follows: � systems-centred counselling for individuals (rosenthal, 1998:25) � rational emotive behaviour therapy (rebt) as developed by albert ellis (1999) � reality therapy and choice therapy: reality therapy is based on william glasser’s (1998) “choice theory” that rests on the principle that all of our motivation and behaviour is an attempt to satisf y one or more of our five universal human needs (sur vival; health and reproduction; love and belonging; self-worth/power; freedom; fun and enjoyment), and that we are responsible for the behaviours we generate or choose. the core idea is that regardless of what may have happened to a person, or what they may have done, or how their needs may have been violated in the past, they can re-evaluate their current reality and choose behaviours that will help them to satisf y their needs more effectively now and in the future. � life counselling (richard nelson-jones, 1997) � carl rogers’ person-centred counselling (rogers & sanford, 1985) � viktor frankl’s existential counselling (logotherapy) (havenga, 1974) � the franklin reality model (smith, 1994): similar to rebt, it offers a visual picture of why we behave the way we do. it helps us see a clear connection between our beliefs and our behaviour. it helps us evaluate our beliefs before they affect our behaviour. methodology the methodological approach to this study was primarily non-empirical, but was supported by limited empirical interviews. thus the central approach was “theory building and model building,” described by mouton (2001, p. 176) as one aimed at developing new models and theories to explain particular phenomena. further, a descriptive research strategy was employed in conjunction with a hermeneutic, phenomenological approach. the strategy of inquiry was phenomenological as the ‘essence’ of human experiences concerning facilitation needs, as described by participants in the study has been identified (creswell, 2003, p. 15). a purposeful (convenience) method of sampling was used in this study. purposeful sampling is based on the assumption that “one wants to discover, understand, gain insight; therefore one needs to select a sample from which one can learn the most” (merriam, 1988 p. 48). the subjects were chosen from a specific target group whose opinions and ideas are particularly germane to the study. the initial target for number of interviews was stated as seven, but in getting to a saturation point where it was felt that additional interviews would not have added further value, five interviews were seen as conclusive. verrier, smith54 the research group consisted of five large-organisation executives from both the public and the private sector. all the executives occupied senior positions in their respective organisations, and can hence be considered, using the terminology of charan, drotter & noel (2001), to be either enterprise managers or group managers. in selecting participants, the researchers were mindful of miles & huberman’s (1994) four considerations: the setting (where the research will take place), the actors (who will be interviewed), the events (what the actors will be interviewed doing), and the process (the evolving nature of events undertaken by the actors within the setting). specific research methods that were ut ilised included concept analyses, a literat ure st udy, and one-onone interviews. a concept analysis is used when the meaning of a concept needs clarification or when the different views of experts about the concept are considered (mouton, 2001, p. 175). a literat ure review involves the process of discovering related and relevant previous work from a range of sources such as textbooks, scientific journals, theses, dissertations, magazines and newspapers (melville & goddard, 1996:18). in addit ion to the data collect ion procedures described above, unstruct ured one-onone interviews were also used in the empirical element of the study. results in developing a model for execut ive facilitat ion an attempt was made to find empirical content for it, and if fair enough sat urat ion was found then the most important factors in an executive’s life would have been identified. it is important to reiterate that being a qualitative study, the focus was on the subjective perceptions and experiences underlying people’s behaviour and feelings. the issues identified in executive’s lives, were rated by the study’s participants as a 1, 2, or 3, depending on their own experience of the issue. based on these ratings, those items that appear to be problematic to the sample group (i.e. where t wo or more people experience some difficult y with the issue) are indicated in table 1 by an asterisk (*). the other less critical issues are included because they relate to the pipl paradigm and model and they serve to enrich the theory presented thus far. naturally these issues, and the many others that executives are confronted with, will differ from one executive to another in terms of the degree to which they struggle with them. the results above, relate purely to the small sample group of this study. what’s important is not so much the quantitative ratings that came out of the study, as this could not be generalised to the executive population as a whole, but rather in recognising that there are considerable challenges that may well need to be dealt with one way or another through the various tools that form part of an executive facilitator’s armoury. perhaps also, one should remember that in the executive facilitating arena it is not necessarily about having all the answers to these issues, or about being able to give definitive remedies to resolve them, but rather it’s about the ability to ask the right questions and present alternative perspectives, thereby leading executives to their own wisdom and solutions. with the myriad challenges and dilemmas faced by executives, it is obvious that a facilitator needs to have the tools and be well equipped to deal with them. a sound facilitation process and model are just two such tools that need to be understood and applied when appropriate. such tools need to be capable of bringing about real and deep change in an executive, in situations where deeply-entrenched, self-defeating behaviours have become highly resistant to change. russian writer ivan turgenev wrote in fathers and sons in 1862, “a picture shows me at a glance what it takes dozens of pages of a book to expound.” and this is one of the major benefits of a model. models illustrate the essential details of some system or set of variables in a way that written procedures cannot. when constructed properly, they can replace many pages of words. table 1 the challenges and struggles executives face personal context no. description 1.* self-confidence and assertiveness 2.* continually learning, growing and improving 3.* worry about retirement 4.* spirituality 5.* time management; over-commitment; handling stress and burnout 6. being authentic 7. health problems/wellness 8. depression interpersonal context 9.* relationships and family; balancing life tasks of love, work and friendship 10. communication ability; listening skills 11. building relationships; trust and mutual respect professional context 12.* being strategic in the midst of details (phone, fax, email) 13.* succession planning 14.* managing conflict; dealing with emotions 15.* corporate financial health; organisational performance 16.* delegating and empowering others to solve problems and seize opportunities 17.* letting go of control 18. self-doubt about leadership abilities 19. retaining and developing key contributors 20. developing leaders 21. performance of self and team; mobilising commitment 22. maximising staff effectiveness while avoiding micromanagement 23. balancing work and personal life (balancing head, heart and hand, self-care). 24. helping others to grow; unleashing creativity, resourcefulness and talent of workforce 25. developing and sharing vision 26. building an organisational culture characterised by flexibility and continuous improvement 27. turning a mission statement into a constitution 28. creating team spirit among departments amidst conflicts, politics, and hidden agendas 29. feeling that work is meaningless; job not leading anywhere; nothing to strive for anymore; they ask “is this all there is to life?” the pipl executive facilitation model, shown in figure 2, is based upon a holistic, integrated perspective of the executive arena, beginning with personal mastery, followed by relationship-, managerial-, and organisational mastery (in that order). a pipl model of executive facilitation 55 figure 2: the pipl executive facilitation model discussion interpretation in the private or public sector, in big business or small, a distressed executive, or a healthy effective executive, will create and sustain superior performance and wellness (quality of life) if he or she is facilitated by means of the pipl model at the appropriate place in the facilitation process. the model has various salient features that are as follows: (a) the model indicates the three contexts of leadership that embrace the life of an executive: personal, interpersonal and professional (which in turn has the sub-contexts of the managerial and the organisational). personal being a person’s relationship with himor herself; interpersonal being relationships and interactions with others; managerial being one’s responsibilit y to get a job done with others; organisational being the need to organise people – to recruit them, train them, compensate them, build teams, solve problems, and create aligned structure, strategy and systems (also see table 2). (b)the model espouses the view that effectiveness as a leader in the professional realm has as precondition the “private victory”, which essentially equates to significant growth at a personal level, thereby yielding an abundance of integrity, maturity, character strength and emotional fortitude. as charles dickens once said, “every man, however obscure, however far removed from the general recognition, is one of a group of men impressible for good, and impressible for evil, and it is in the nature of things that he cannot really improve himself without in some degree improving other men.” thus, a leader, whose behaviour and attitude impact upon the lives of many constituents, is compelled to strive for continuous and never-ending improvement in the various facets of his personal life. (c) the essential elements of the personal realm include awareness and progressive mastery in the following areas: spirit ual leadership (sl), physical leadership (pl), emotional leadership (el), and mental leadership (ml) (smith, 2005b). as stated earlier, spirit ual leadership is at the centre of the executive’s life and totalit y, and therefore forms his ultimate or core dimension. for this reason, sl is indicated on the model as the foundation and as a binding and unif ying component of personal mastery. toward that end, the articulation and commitment to a personal value system, mission, and vision are crucial. (d)mastery at the interpersonal, or relationship level, includes an executive’s roles in relationship with: god, the world, spouse, friends, siblings, parents, work colleagues, and self. the very essence of all of these relationships, according to smith (2005a), is: acceptance, authenticity and adding value. facilitation at this level would focus on inculcating these qualities into the character and value system of the executive. (e) facilitation at the first t wo levels, the personal and interpersonal, is concerned primarily with facilitation for being (the inner work) – that is, facilitation for resilience, beliefs, values, self-esteem, courage, purpose, and centering. however, facilitation for being is also important at the other levels, just as facilitation for performance is not exclusive to the upper levels of leadership (hudson, 1999, p. 20). (f) the crux of the managerial level is servant leadership and an associated paradigm of stewardship. servant leadership, which would be a natural and congruent outgrowth of fundamental character strength and internal security, gives a leader the capacity to be open to developing and honing the other skills and competencies necessary at this level (wilson, 1998). (g) credible leadership embodies qualities such as displaying appropriate personality traits and characteristics; displaying appropriate behaviours and attitudes; being principlecentred; being values-centred; having integrit y; being authentic; leaving a legacy, spiritual leadership (smith, 2005b), and managing by walking around (mbwa). peters & austin (1985, p. 31) describe this as being in touch with customers, suppliers, and one’s people. it facilitates innovation, and makes possible the teaching of values to every member of an organisation. it involves listening, facilitating, teaching and reinforcing values. its effectiveness is many times that of a formal speech. verrier, smith56 (h)competent leadership embodies, among others, flexibility in leadership st yle; big picture thinking; value-adding; measuring success (via the balanced scorecard); strategic thinking; fostering creativit y; leading change; leading performance; and valuing human capital (i.e. empowering, delegating, and intrinsically motivating employees) (smith, 2005b). (i) teamwork includes understanding and applying the five teamwork dysfunctions and the five steps to developing a cohesive executive team, as defined by lencioni (2002). (j) the need for a leader to define reality for his people on four levels – events, patterns of behaviour, systemic structures, and a “purpose story” (senge, 1990, p. 353) – is an essential, yet often neglected, element at the managerial level. (k)if one were to reduce each level of leadership seen in table 2 to a fundamental, composite principle (albeit that in realit y each level includes numerous overlapping natural laws), it would be trustworthiness at the personal level, trust at the interpersonal level, empowerment at the managerial level (which translates into ownership), and alignment at the organisational level (covey, 1992). alignment means ensuring that the style of the people and the structures and the systems one sets up are totally in alignment, and that individual mission statements are also aligned with the organisation’s mission statement (e.g. if one says one values innovation, does one reward people for lock-step conformity? if one says one values the long-term, is everything focused upon the short-term?) (verrier, 2002, p. 58). each principle builds upon the one before it – i.e. each is necessary but insufficient – so one will not achieve alignment without first empowering people; one can not empower people without there being a high degree of trust in relationships; and trust will not exist if one or other of the parties is fundamentally untrustworthy. (l) the fruit of getting all of this right by “working” at all four levels and embracing and striving for mastery of the competencies at each level, is a strong and viable corporate culture at the organisational level. if one considers the way in which louis v. gerstner (2002) transformed the culture at ibm in the early 1990s, this point becomes clearer. he observed, “you can’t lead a revolution from the splendid isolation of corporate hq. you can’t simply give a few speeches and write a new credo and expect a new culture a pipl model of executive facilitation 57 table 2 characteristics of the pipl executive facilitation model leadership role fundamental human system(s) overt goals/outcomes covert goals/outcomes overall goals/outcomes composite being coached principle organising alignment work � community � purpose and meaning � perspective � shared mission and vision � security � deep meaning and purpose � passion and commitment � social mindedness and � learning individual and � shared values caring learning organisations � tolerance � life balance � the golden rule � success, significance, � a “vital” culture fulfilment, satisfaction, � close to the customer happiness, fun, security and peace. � integratedness/wholeness � wellness � quality of life � confidence � personal and professional growth � manage stress and resiliency � self-facilitation � lead the organisation – not just preside over it. organising and empowerment work � credibility (managing by � trust teaching walking around – mbwa) � synergy (dialogue) � servant leadership and � team spirit and stewardship development � competency � heightened level of self, � defining reality energy and commitment accurately on 4 levels � execution � balance path-finding, � link to highest future decision-making, and possibilities implementation � ethical decision making � presencing mentoring trust couples � acceptance � trust family and friends � authenticity � synergy community � empathy � connecting colleagues � sharing � love subordinates � affirming � added value managerteam � praying � feeling valued � sacrificing � feeling acknowledged � respect/reciprocity � communication modelling trustworthiness personal care � balance � character � self-examination � maturity � self-awareness � integrity � principle-centredness � emotional fortitude � an abundance mentality � state of being open � sense of personal mission and vision has taken hold. you can’t mandate, or engineer it. you can only create the conditions. you can provide incentives, define market-place realities and goals, but then you have to trust. in the end management doesn’t change culture; management invites the workforce itself to change the culture.” he reduced ibmers to believe in themselves again; that they have the abilit y to determine their own fate and that they already knew what they needed to know. he got them to be hungry, collaborative, self-starters. he needed to get them to listen to him, where they needed to go, to follow him there, but he also needed them to stop being followers. this is not a logical, linear challenge – it is counter-int uitive. it is centred in social cues and emotions, rather than reason. thus, transforming a dysfunctional culture takes at least 5 years. and the ceo has to be a leader – he has to be upfront and outspoken about what he is doing, he has to get the tmt to join him, he has to talk directly about culture, behaviour and beliefs. he can’t be subtle. (m)an integral part of the right culture is creating a sense of intrinsic motivation for employees; meaning that they are energised by the work itself and they feel passionate about it. they see their work as making a significant difference and they believe in what they are trying to accomplish. there is strong evidence of the four intrinsic rewards (i.e. a sense of meaningfulness, choice, competence, and progress), and their associated building blocks, in such a culture (thomas, 2000). (n)the same argument holds for the ability to get things done, or execution. this is another characteristic of effective leaders who have worked at all four levels of the model, who have embarked upon an upward spiral of growth, change, and continuous improvement – they get things done through others. after all, an organisation is nothing more than the collective capacities of its people to create value, and a good leader is able to tap into individual capacities, and integrate them, in pursuit of their company’s “purpose story.” (o)it is essential to work at all four levels of the model. even though it is easy, and sufficient to work at one or two or even three levels, in the long-term it will not take, it will not work. as gandhi once said, “a person cannot do right in one department of life, whilst attempting to do wrong in another department. life is one indivisible whole.” drawing upon this quote, we can see that a balanced, inclusive approach that addresses all “departments” (levels) is needed for real and deep change to occur in individuals and in organisations. as goleman, boyatzis & mckee (2002, p. 291) state, most executive education and leadership development efforts fall far short of the mark, not only because of how they are done, but also because of what they do not do. even the best development processes will not help to change the organisation if they focus only on the person and do not take into account the power of the emotional reality and the culture. (p)indicated in table 2 following the model are the goals (or outcomes) at each leadership level. the goals are classified as being overt, covert or overall. for any goal that is pursued, there must be a clearly articulated strateg y bridging the client with the goal, as well as a clearly articulated action plan bridging each strateg y in turn. there must also be a solution-focus in setting and committing to stretch goals. (q)the overall outcomes of facilitating the pipl model with either a functional or a dysfunctional executive, would include one or more of the following: � giving him new and useful perspectives on things that matter. � a deeper sense of meaning and purpose in life. � becoming a life-long learner in the context of a learning organisation. � an enhanced ability to balance work and personal life. � an enhanced sense of success, significance, fulfilment, satisfaction, happiness, fun, security, and peace. � wholeness, or integratedness of all parts of their nature. � an enhanced sense of wellness. � improved quality of life. � confidence. � to enter a virtuous cycle of personal and professional growth. � resiliency and greater capacity to manage stress. � self-facilitation. � to become a better leader, and not merely a ‘presider’ over a company. conclusion one can see then that the pipl approach deals with the personal side of leadership. pipl recognises that life can be hard. it acknowledges that one must be tough to meet life on its own terms. the role of pipl in business and in public life is to support those who make the important decisions and hold the big accountabilities, those who require the big buttresses in managing the harshness of life – and the need they themselves have to be fortified for making the hard decisions – to defend their hard choices, and to assuage their consciences. koestenbaum (1991, p. 4) distinguishes between the strategic and personal sides of leadership – one masculine, the other feminine; one left-brain, the other right-brain; one toughminded, the other tender-minded. strategic thinking deals with external alliances, product positioning, and organisational structure. strategies are the province of the nat ural, life, and behaviour sciences. the personal side concerns motivation, character, mat urit y, will power, freedom, meaning, creativity, ethics and values, culture, responsibility and accountability, loyalty, commitment, selfsacrifice, love, courage, genius, and other qualities. these virtues are in the province of the humanities (such as philosophy, theology, literature, and the arts). it is, however, important to acknowledge that there has to be an accountability side to the people-orientation advocated by pipl: one needs to measure and be performance-oriented, as a result of mutually high expectations and peer review, rather than from complicated control systems and authoritarian managers. it is the feeling of being needed that produces high expectations and high performance, especially when your peers have those high expectations of you. people like to compare themselves to others, and they also like to perform against standards – especially if they had a role in setting the standard, and if it is achievable (peters & waterman, 1982, p. 240). from the research done in the pipl field and the pipl perspective itself, the evidence is overwhelming that pipl has a significant contribution to make in the executive arena through facilitat ion intervent ions that promote more balanced and better performing leaders. this is self-evident as pipl deals with it all (i.e. there is an ecological element to it). it looks beyond the traditional, parochial, management focus of business (although it acknowledges that that is important too), and focuses on the human issues, as it believes that that is where real and sustainable growth and change lie. but at the same time, it knows its own bounds and recognises those things that it is unqualified to address – topical content taught by experts such as strateg y, marketing, finance, and other abstractions. as important as these academic areas are, none of them add up to transformation of a person or of a company. this can only occur if one adopts an integrated, holist ic approach that permeates every level of the organisation: individuals, relationships, teams, and the organisation’s culture. an important element of the pipl perspective is the psychodynamic influences of leaders. according to nelsonverrier, smith58 jones (1997) the term “psychodynamic” refers to the transfer of psychic or mental energy between the different structures and levels of consciousness within people’s minds. thus, it is about the importance of unconscious influences on how people function and in making the unconscious become conscious. these influences can all have a dramatic impact on organisational performance. they can lead to impulsive decision making, morale problems, inadequate leadership, and untenable strategies and struct ures. organisational consultants and facilitators simply cannot afford to ignore these factors as contributors to the problems that they so often struggle with. specific problems in firms often stem directly from the long-standing intrapsychic problems of their managers. certain measures only address symptoms without getting at their root causes. they are therefore unlikely to be of much use. sometimes the only way to change the organisation’s behaviour is to change the behaviour of its principle actors. just as it is hazardous to be too shallow in diagnosing and treating organisational problems – looking at surface phenomena and ignoring the underlying psychodynamic influences – it is also unwise to go to the other extreme. not all organisational problems have their roots in widespread or complex psychopathology. many problems may be the result of simple ignorance – just the lack of knowledge and competence by key decision makers about the nature of their business. in the final analysis, we have to keep in mind that it is the ability to find simplicit y within complexit y that characterises effective intervention. that is why it is important to try to implement a simple solution first – to address only the objective problems (kets de vries & miller, 1984). “our chief want in life is someone who will make us do what we can.” – ralph waldo emerson references calhoun, c. & solomon, r.c. (1984). what is an emotion? classic readings in philosophical psychology. new york: oxford university press. caruso, d.r. & salovey, p. (2004). the emotionally intelligent manager. san francisco: jossey-bass. cashman, k. (2000). leadership from the inside out. provo: executive excellence publishing. charan, r., drotter, s. & noel, j. (2001). the leadership pipeline: how to build the leadership-powered company. san francisco: jossey-bass. corbin, c.b. & lindsey, r. (1997). fitness and wellness. usa: brown & benchmark. covey, s.r. (1994). the 7 habits of highly effective people: powerful lessons in personal change. new york: simon & schuster. covey, s.r. (1992). principle-centered leadership. new york: simon & schuster. covey, s.r., merrill, a.r. & merrill, r.r. (1994). first things first. london: simon & schuster. covey, s.r. (2004). the 8th habit: from effectiveness to greatness. london: simon & schuster. creswell, j.w. (2003). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. second edition. california: sage publications. ellis, a. (1999). how to control your anger before it controls you. toronto: carol publishing group. frankl, v.e. (1984). man’s search for meaning. new york: simon & schuster. gerstner, l.v. (2002). who says elephants can’t dance? inside ibm’s historic turnaround. usa: harper collins publishers inc (audio). goleman, d. & boyatzis, r. & mckee, a. (2002). the new leaders. great britain: time warner paperbacks. glasser, w. (1998). choice theory. new york: harperperennial. havenga, a.a. (1974). antropologiese onderbou van logoterapie. unpublished d-phil. thesis, pretoria: universit y of pretoria. hudson, f.m. (1999). the handbook of coaching: a comprehensive resource guide for managers, executives, consultants, and human resource professionals. san francisco: jossey-bass publishers. kets de vries, m.f.r. & miller, d. (1984). the neurotic organization: diagnosing and changing counterproductive styles of management. san francisco: jossey-bass. koestenbaum, p. (1991). leadership: the inner side of greatness. san francisco: jossey-bass publishers. lencioni, p. (2002). the five dysfunctions of a team: a leadership fable. san francisco, california: jossey-bass. manning, g. & curtis, k. (2003). the art of leadership. boston: mcgraw-hill. mcgraw, p.c. (2001). self matters. new york: simon & schuster source. melville, s. & goddard, w. (1996). research methodology. cape town: juta & co ltd. merriam, s.b. (1988). case study research in education: a qualitative approach. san francisco: jossey-bass publishers. meyer, p.j. (1996). effective personal leadership. usa: leadership management international, inc. miles, m.b. & huberman, a.m. (1994). qualitative data analysis. second edition. london: sage publications. mouton, j. (2001). how to succeed in your master’s and doctoral studies: a south african guide and resource book. van schaik publishers: pretoria. murphy, j. 1993. the power of your subconscious mind. new york: pocket books. nelson-jones, r. (1997). counselling and helping skills: how to use the lifeskills counselling model. london: cassell. palmer, b. (2003). maximizing value from executive coaching. strategic hr review, sep/oct 2003, (2), 6. pearsall, p. (1999). the heart’s code. new york: broadway books. peters, t.j. & waterman, r.h. (1982). in search of excellence: lessons from america’s best-run companies. new york: warner books. peters, t.j. & austin, n.k. (1985). a passion for excellence: the leadership difference. great britain: william collins. peirce, p. (1997). the intuitive way. oregon: beyond words publishing, inc. pierce, j.l. & newstrom, j.w. (2003). leaders & the leadership process. boston: mcgraw-hill. prescott, s. (2000). realizing the self within. rondebosch: kima global publishers. quinn, r.e. (1996). deep change. san francisco: jossey-bass publishers. robbins, a. (1992). awaken the giant within. new york: simon & schuster. rogers, c.r. & sanford, r.c. (1985). client-centered psychotherapy. in h.i. kaplan, b.j. sadock, & a.m. friedman (eds.), comprehensive textbook of psychiatry (4th ed.) (pp. 1374-1388). baltimore: william & wilkins. rosenthal, h.g. (1998). favorite counseling and therapy techniques. usa: taylor & francis. senge, p.m. (1990). the fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. new york: doubleday/currency. skiffington, s. & zeus, p. (2003). behavioral coaching. new york: mcgraw-hill. smith, d.p.j. (2005a). personal and interpersonal leadership, module 1. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. (unpublished 3-day ppl workbook). smith, d.p.j. (2005b). leadership de velopment portfolio. unpublished manuscript. johannesburg: universit y of johannesburg. smith, d.p.j. (2005c). the nature of the spiritual dimension. unpublished lecture. johannesburg: universit y of johannesburg. a pipl model of executive facilitation 59 smith, h.w. (1994). the 10 natural laws of successful time and life management: proven strategies for increased productivity and inner peace. new york: warner books. temple-thurston, l. (2003). the marriage of spirit. santa fe: corelight publishing. thomas, k.w. (2000). intrinsic motivation at work: building energy and commitment. san francisco: berrett-koehler publishers inc. verrier, d.r. (2002). spiritual fulfilment in a utility company of the city of johannesburg: a phenomenological study. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. (essay – m.phil.) wilson, r.t. (1998). ser vant leadership. physician executive, sepoct 1998, (24), 5. (business source premier database, ref. no. 1081459) witz, p. (1998). one powerful mind. scarborough: prentice hall canada. zohar, d. & marshall, i. (2000). spiritual intelligence. the ultimate intelligence. great britain: bloomsbury. zohar, d. & marshall, i. (2004). spiritual capital. great britain: bloomsbury. verrier, smith60 review panel edition 3.1 prof cb fouché massey university, new zealand prof cj groenewald university of stellenbosch dr denise meyerson management consultants international, australia prof paul moller north west university (potchefstroom campus) dr ag moore dept of national treasury prof zj nel daimler education group, randburg prof c pottas emeritus professor, university of pretoria prof mj terreblanche unisa dr peter whitehead work dynamics, george ms janine whitehead dept of hrm, daimler chrysler dr d wijnbeek clover review panel 61 article information authors: bright mahembe1,2 amos s. engelbrecht1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology, stellenbosch university, south africa2school of economic and business sciences, university of the witwatersrand, south africa correspondence to: bright mahembe postal address: private bag x1, matieland 7602, south africa dates: received: 10 june 2013 accepted: 05 june 2014 published: 04 sept. 2014 how to cite this article: mahembe, b., & engelbrecht, a.s. (2014). a preliminary study to assess the construct validity of a cultural intelligence measure on a south african sample. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslike hulpbronbestuur, 12(1), art. #558, 8 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.558 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. a preliminary study to assess the construct validity of a cultural intelligence measure on a south african sample in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • research purpose    • objectives    • contribution to the field    • literature review       • cultural intelligence theory       • cultural intelligence dimensions       • measurement of cultural intelligence       • the present study • method    • research approach       • research participants       • measuring instrument: cultural intelligence scale       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • preliminary analysis       • missing values       • item analysis       • dimensionality analysis    • confirmatory factor analysis results       • first-order confirmatory factor analysis       • second-order confirmatory factor analysis       • model modification indices (first-order model)    • power assessment    • discriminant validity • discussion    • outline of the research results    • practical implications    • limitations of the study and suggestions for future research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: cultural intelligence is an essential social competence for effective individual interaction in a cross-cultural context. the cultural intelligence scale (cqs) is used extensively for assessing cultural intelligence; nevertheless, its reliability and validity on a south african sample are yet to be ascertained.research purpose: the purpose of the current study was to assess the construct validity of the cqs on a south african sample. the results of the psychometric assessment offer some important insights into the factor structure of the cultural intelligence construct. motivation for the study: the current study sought to provide some practical validity confirmation of the cqs for the effective management of cultural diversity in the south african context. research approach, design and method: the cqs was administered on a non-probability sample of 229 young adults in south africa. item analysis was performed to ascertain reliability. exploratory factor analysis was used to test the unidimensionality of cqs subscales. the first-order and second-order factor structures underlying contemporary models of cultural intelligence were tested using confirmatory factor analysis. main findings: results indicated that the cqs is a reliable and valid measure of cultural intelligence as evidenced by the high internal consistency coefficients in all the subscales. good construct validity for both the first-order and second-order models was obtained via confirmatory factor analysis. practical/managerial implications: the study finds good measurement properties of the cqs in a south african context. the cqs can be confidently used for applications such as selecting, training and developing a more culturally competent workforce. contribution: the study extends the body of knowledge on the reliability and construct validity of the cqs in the south african milieu. it further indicates that cultural intelligence can be represented by a general cultural intelligence factor that drives more specific dimensions of cultural intelligence. introduction top ↑ key focus of the study cultural intelligence is a specific form of intelligence that emphasises an individual’s capability to grasp, reason and behave effectively in situations characterised by cultural diversity (ang et al., 2007; schmidt & hunter, 2000). it is mostly concerned with ways of enhancing effective social interactions amongst individuals from different cultures and backgrounds to avoid potential conflict that can impact on organisational performance. embracing individual differences makes cultural intelligence an extremely important social competence in the ‘globalised’ 21st-century workplace (groves & feyerherm, 2011). thus, cultural intelligence is a multifaceted construct targeted at situations involving cross-cultural interaction arising from, but not limited to, differences in race, ethnicity and nationality.cultural intelligence has been linked to positive outcomes such as better adjustment in diverse cultural situations which, in turn, increase the individual’s effectiveness at the workplace (van dyne & ang, 2005). it fosters effective communication within the work environment, inspires good cultural judgement, cultural adaptation, the enactment of sound decision-making and task performance (ang et al., 2007). it is one of the key tenets of successful transformational leaders (ismail, reza & mahdi, 2012). elenkov and manev (2009) report that cultural intelligence moderates the positive relationship between visionary-transformational leadership and organisational innovation, such that leaders with higher cultural intelligence magnify the positive effect of leadership on innovation. furthermore, the leader’s cultural intelligence is strongly related to leader and team performance (groves & feyerherm, 2011) as well as to leader emergence (rockstuhl, ang, ng, van dyne & lievens, 2009). cultural intelligence has also been reported to have a negative relationship with emotional exhaustion (tay, rossi & westman, 2010), an important psychological outcome given the increased demands on employees in a diverse workplace. in addition, cultural intelligence has been found to increase affect-based trust amongst culturally diverse members of multicultural professional networks (chua & morris, 2009). imai and gelfand (2010) report that negotiators with higher cultural intelligence demonstrate more integrative information behaviours and cooperative relationship management behaviours in the context of intercultural negotiation. cultural intelligence predicts the development of social networks after controlling for international experience, host country language fluency and cultural distance (fehr & kuo, 2008). overall, observed evidence demonstrates that cultural intelligence is crucial for important work outcomes of culturally diverse organisations. research purpose despite the relevance of cultural intelligence for embracing individual differences at work and fostering success in intercultural negotiations, research on its measurement is relatively sparse. the only widely used cultural intelligence measure to date is the cultural intelligence scale (cqs) developed by ang et al. (2007). the measure was developed and validated in the usa, singapore and iran and is still being validated for use in various cultural settings (ang et al., 2007; khodadady & ghahari, 2011). it is also important to evaluate the psychometric properties of the cqs on a south african sample. objectives since most of the studies on the measurement properties of the cqs were carried out in the usa and singapore (for a review, see ang et al., 2007), it was considered important to validate the cqs before its extensive use in south africa. the primary research question of the current study was therefore: is the cultural intelligence scale a reliable and valid measure of cultural intelligence in the south african milieu? stated differently, this study sought to test the reliability and construct validity of the cqs on a south african sample. a secondary aim of the study was to ascertain the fit of the first-order and second-order factor structure of cultural intelligence on a south african sample. contribution to the field the present study sought to validate a measure of cultural intelligence in a south african setting as well as the applicability and appropriateness of the underlying cultural intelligence theoretical model (mahembe, engelbrecht & de kock, 2013). in addition to the potential to facilitate the effective interaction and performance of employees and managers at work, cultural intelligence could have wider socioeconomic relevance in developing countries such as south africa. cultural intelligence is a social competency (fehr & kuo, 2008) that could facilitate the transformation and tolerance of diversity in south africa (de goede & theron, 2010; kamps & engelbrecht, 2011). south africa, in addition, is one of the countries experiencing the challenges of internal african immigration, perhaps receiving the largest number of foreign nationals in the world (united nations high commissioner for refugees [unhcr], 2010). in this respect, south africa has become a centre of cultural confluence for people with different cultural backgrounds. fostering cultural intelligence at various levels is a key aspect of affirming individuals, groups and society. the authors therefore foresee opportunities to utilise the cqs (if it would be able to measure cultural intelligence suitably in the local context) in applications in both work and non-work (e.g. community) settings, including the educational context to improve diversity management.to summarise, the purpose of the present study is to test the cqs in the south african context in order to ascertain its psychometric properties. in the subsequent sections, we provide the theoretical background of the cultural intelligence construct followed by the method, the results and a discussion of the findings; we conclude with recommendations for practice and research. literature review cultural intelligence theory cultural intelligence can be defined as ‘a person’s capability to adapt effectively to new cultural contexts’ (earley & ang, 2003, p. 59). cultural intelligence comprises metacognitive, cognitive, motivational and behavioural cultural intelligence facets that positively influence interaction effectiveness in culturally diverse settings (ang, van dyne & tan, 2011). cultural intelligence theory draws from sternberg and detterman’s (1986) framework, which proposes that intelligence has different ‘loci’ within the person: metacognition, cognition and mental capabilities located within the ‘head’ of the person as well as overt actions manifested in behavioural capabilities. it builds on the growing interest in ‘real-world’ non-academic intelligences that focus on specific content domains such as social intelligence (thorndike & stein, 1937), emotional intelligence (mayer & salovey, 1993) and practical intelligence (sternberg & wagner, 2000) by focusing on a specific domain, namely intercultural settings. it is motivated by the practical reality of globalisation (earley & ang, 2003).according to cultural intelligence theory, the achievement of general cultural intelligence is a function of four primary cultural intelligence dimensions comprising metacognitive, cognitive, motivational and behavioural cultural intelligence (earley & ang, 2003), which will be discussed next. cultural intelligence dimensions metacognitive cultural intelligence: metacognitive cultural intelligence refers to an individual’s level of conscious cultural awareness during cross-cultural interactions and involves higher-level cognitive strategies that enable individuals to develop heuristics and rules for social interaction in novel cultural environments (ng, van dyne & ang, 2012). people with high metacognitive cultural intelligence assess their own cultural assumptions as well as reflect and adjust their cultural knowledge during a cross-cultural interaction (ang et al., 2011). the higher-level cognitive strategies include planning, monitoring and revising mental models of cultural norms for people with different cultural backgrounds (ng et al., 2012).cognitive cultural intelligence: cognitive cultural intelligence reflects knowledge of the norms, practices and conventions in different cultures acquired from education and personal experiences (ng et al., 2012). it includes knowledge of the economic, legal, sociolinguistic and interpersonal systems of different cultures and subcultures (triandis, 2006) and knowledge of basic cultural values, for example as in hofstede’s (2001) cultural framework. individuals with high cognitive cultural intelligence are expected to have an understanding of similarities and differences across cultures (brislin, worthley & macnab, 2006). motivational cultural intelligence: motivational cultural intelligence reflects the drive towards learning about and functioning in diverse contexts (ng et al., 2012). it indicates an individual’s intrinsic interest in understanding and experiencing how the cultures of others are manifested. in cross-cultural situations, individuals with high motivational cultural intelligence direct attention and energy chiefly out of intrinsic interest (deci & ryan, 1985) and high confidence in their cross-cultural effectiveness. behavioural cultural intelligence: behavioural cultural intelligence demonstrates the capability to engage in appropriate verbal and non-verbal actions in a cross-cultural context (ng et al., 2012). behavioural cultural intelligence complements the mental capabilities spelt out in the metacognitive and cognitive cultural intelligences, as well as the motivation manifested in motivational cultural intelligence. individuals with high behavioural cultural intelligence exhibit situationally appropriate behaviours based on their broad range of verbal and non-verbal capabilities, such as culturally appropriate words, tones, gestures and facial expressions (gudykunst, ting-toomey & chua, 1988). measurement of cultural intelligence despite the existence of research findings that cultural intelligence is an essential prerequisite for effective social functioning in a cross-cultural context, its potential contribution is subject to the availability of a reliable and valid measure of the construct (ang et al., 2007). to date, there is only one recent and widely used cultural intelligence measure, namely the cqs (ang et al., 2007). the 20-item cqs was developed by ang et al. (2007) from an initial pool of 53 items with approximately 13 items assessing each of the four cultural intelligence dimensions discussed above. a panel of subject matter experts reviewed the items for clarity, readability and definitional fidelity and retained 10 items for each dimension. the 40-item scale was administered in singaporean samples and the authors eventually deleted items with small standard deviations, extreme means, low item-to-total correlations, high residuals and low factor loadings, resulting in the current 20-item scale. the 20-item scale comprises four items measuring metacognitive cultural intelligence, six items for cognitive cultural intelligence, five items for motivational cultural intelligence and five items for behavioural cultural intelligence. confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated good fit of the four-factor model to the data (goodness-of-fit = 0.92, non-normed fit index = 0.96, comparative fit index = 0.97, standardised root mean square residual = 0.046 and root mean square error of approximation = 0.053) (ang, van dyne & koh, 2006). the cqs has been validated in the usa and singapore (ng et al., 2012). acceptable reliability of the four underlying subscales (0.72–0.86) and factor stability have been confirmed on the usa and singaporean samples. the present study the present study attempted to ascertain the reliability and construct validity of the cqs on a south african sample. the authors also wanted to determine whether or not a second-order model would also fit the data in addition to a first-order model. method top ↑ research approach a quantitative survey design was required in order to conduct confirmatory factor analysis via structural equation modelling. common source bias was not considered a threat in the current study, as the authors measured only a single latent cultural intelligence construct and its manifest variables. research participants by using a non-probability sampling strategy, the study used students studying full time at a south african university. the study initially used an electronic survey method. however, due to a poor response rate, the authors decided to administer 400 hard-copy questionnaires to participants; 229 completed questionnaires were returned. the hard-copy questionnaires were administered in class, with voluntary participation. this sample consisted of 156 female (68.1%) and 73 male (31.9%) respondents. the majority (55.5%) were under 20 years of age. the ethnic distribution in the sample was white (70.7%), mixed race (16.2%); black (10%) and indian (3.1%). the majority (66.7%) of respondents had a matriculation qualification as the highest level of education. measuring instrument: cultural intelligence scale cultural intelligence was measured using the cqs (ang et al., 2007). the cqs contains 20 item statements assessed using a seven-point likert intensity scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). the cqs items comprise four subscales: metacognitive, cognitive, motivational and behavioural cultural intelligence subscales. these subscales are discussed below.metacognitive cultural intelligence: metacognitive cultural intelligence was measured by four items. example items are: • ‘i am conscious of the cultural knowledge i use when interacting with people with different cultural backgrounds.’ • ‘i check the accuracy of my cultural knowledge as i interact with people from different cultures.’ cognitive cultural intelligence: cognitive cultural intelligence was measured by six items. example items are: • ‘i know the legal and economic systems of other cultures.’ • ‘i know the rules for expressing nonverbal behaviours in other cultures.’ motivational cultural intelligence: motivational cultural intelligence was measured by five items. example items are: • ‘i enjoy interacting with people from different cultures.’ • ‘i enjoy living in cultures that are unfamiliar to me.’ behavioural cultural intelligence: behavioural cultural intelligence was measured by five items. example items are: • ‘i change my verbal behaviour (e.g. accent, tone) when a cross-cultural interaction requires it.’ • ‘i change my non-verbal behaviour when a cross-cultural situation requires it.’ previous studies have shown generally acceptable reliability coefficients of the four underlying subscales ranging from 0.89 to 0.92 (imai & gelfand, 2010). research procedure ethical and institutional permission for the study was obtained from the participating institution’s research ethics committee. the ethical guidelines spelt out the aim of the study and participants’ rights. informed consent was required from the participants before completion of the questionnaires. confidentiality of the data obtained was assured. no potential risks to participants were envisaged in the study. statistical analysis the confirmatory factor analysis procedure available in lisrel 8.80 was used to test the first-order and second-order factor structure of the cqs. according to hair, black, babin and anderson (2010), confirmatory factor analysis, a structural modelling technique, provides one of the best multivariate procedures for ascertaining construct validity amongst constructs defined by several manifest variables. the robust maximum likelihood estimation was used to address the lack of multivariate normality in the data (jöreskog & sörbom, 1996; mels, 2003). results top ↑ preliminary analysis missing values the missing values problem was addressed using the multiple imputation method. the main advantage of the multiple imputation method is that estimates of missing values are derived for all cases in the initial sample and no cases with missing values are deleted (du toit & du toit, 2001; mels, 2010). the utilisation of the multiple imputation method culminated in a total sample size of 229 cases (jöreskog & sörbom, 1996). item analysis the spss software reliability procedure was used to perform item analysis on the items of the cqs. the coefficient alpha values of all the subscales were high (α > 0.80), except for one subscale (metacognitive cultural intelligence), which was marginally below the 0.80 level (see table 1) (nunnally, 1978). table 1: reliability analysis, scale mean and standard deviation output for the cultural intelligence scale dimensions. dimensionality analysis a principal axis factor analysis via direct oblimin rotation procedure was conducted to confirm the unidimensionality of each of the four cqs subscales before performing confirmatory factor analysis (williams, vandenberg & edwards, 2009). the number of factors to extract was determined by the ‘eigenvalue greater than 1’ guideline (tabachnick & fidell, 2001). unidimensionality was confirmed for each of the four subscales of the cqs. the resultant factor loadings for each of the four subscales were acceptable (> 0.30) and variance explained in each factor was satisfactory (> 40%) (tabachnick & fidell, 2001). the factor loadings are depicted in table 3. it must be emphasised that exploratory factor analysis was only conducted to determine the unidimensionality of each scale and not to explore the factor structure of the cqs (hair et al., 2010). confirmatory factor analysis results first-order confirmatory factor analysis in the first-order measurement model, the four subscales were postulated to represent the cultural intelligence latent factors that explain the variance in their respective indicator variables. the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) of 0.046 (see table 2) indicated good fit (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000; hair et al., 2010). the p-value for test of close fit (rmsea < 0.05) of 0.714 demonstrates that the cqs first-order measurement model shows close fit. the absolute, relative and comparative indices all pointed towards acceptable model fit: goodness-of-fit (gfi) = 0.89, non-normed fit index (nnfi) = 0.98; normed fit index (nfi) = 0.94, comparative fit index (cfi) = 0.98 (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000; hair et al., 2010).the completely standardised factor loadings (see table 3) were substantial and significant (> 0.5) (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). this provides some support that all items were reasonable indicators of their respective latent factors. table 3: factor loading estimates† for the cultural intelligence scale from confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis. the latent variable correlations amongst the four cqs dimensions (see table 4) reflect the correlations corrected for the attenuating effect of (random and systematic) measurement error. the correlations are within reasonable limits (0.27 < ϕ < 0.58), as high values (> 0.9) may have pointed towards multicollinearity (tabachnick & fidell, 2001). second-order confirmatory factor analysis a second-order confirmatory factor analysis (cfa), where a single cultural intelligence latent factor was postulated to affect the four dimensions of cultural intelligence, was conducted (see figure 1). the findings of the second-order cfa demonstrated that the data fits the model well (rmsea = 0.05) (see table 2). the p-value for test of close fit (rmsea < 0.05) of 0.661 shows that the cqs second-order measurement model indicates close fit. although the value for the standardised root mean residual (srmr) (0.06) marginally missed the 0.05 cut-off (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000) indicative of good fit, the other goodness-of-fit indices (see table 2) indicated good fit of the second-order model with the data (gfi = 0.89, nfi = 0.93, cfi = 0.98). the resulting fit indices suggest that both the first-order and second-order models provide a credible representation of the cultural intelligence construct (ang et al., 2007). figure 1: the cultural intelligence scale second-order confirmatory factor analysis path diagram indicating four first-order factors loading onto a single second-order cultural intelligence factor. table 2: goodness-of-fit indices obtained for the cultural intelligence scale measurement and structural models. the unstandardised gamma matrix (see table 5) is used to determine the significance of the estimated path coefficients (γij,) expressing the level of the influence of the general cultural intelligence factor on the four latent cultural intelligence dimensions. in table 5, the gamma parameters are significant if p < 0.05 (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). from the results it seems that general cultural intelligence has a significant and positive effect on all of its sub-dimensions. table 5: dimension intercorrelations between second-order cultural intelligence and first-order factors (unstandardised gamma matrix). model modification indices (first-order model) modification indices demonstrate the extent to which the chi-square fit statistic decreases when a currently fixed parameter in the model is freed and the model re-estimated (jöreskog & sörbom, 1993). large modification index values (> 6.6349 at a significance level of 0.01) are suggestive of parameters that would improve the fit of the model significantly (p < 0.01) when set free (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000; jöreskog & sörbom, 1993). the modification indices in the current study reflect the number of cross-loadings between items and factors other than those they were designed to measure. for example, model fit would improve if items 5 and 19 loaded on the metacognitive cq dimension and item 4 loaded on the behavioural cq dimension. an inspection of the cqs items identified above indicates that, although the modification indices point to the direction of including the items as indicators of the latent variables that they are also loading on, it does not make theoretical sense to do so; furthermore, the modification indices are only marginally greater than the 6.6349 threshold, as these indices for items 4, 5 and 19 are 6.993; 7.273 and 7.580, respectively (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000; jöreskog & sörbom, 1993). power assessment the power estimates for the tests of exact and close fit were determined via the rweb (1.03) translation of the statistical analysis system (sas) syntax provided by preacher and coffman (2006). using this syntax, power values of 0.99 and 1 were derived for the respective tests of exact fit and close fit indicating that, under the conditions that characterised this study, approximately 100% of incorrect models would be rejected. this increases confidence in the model. discriminant validity discriminant validity was assessed using the method presented by farrell (2010). this method involves comparing the average variance extracted (ave) of each construct with the shared variance between constructs. the ave indicates the average amount of variance in the indicator variables that is explained by the underlying latent variable that the indicator variables represent (diamantopoulos & sigauw, 2000; hair et al., 2010). discriminant validity is supported if the ave for each construct is greater than its shared variance with any other construct (farrell, 2010). in this case, none of the shared variance estimates is greater than the ave estimates for each of the constructs; therefore, discriminant validity is supported (see table 4). the use of 95% confidence intervals utilising an excel macro developed by scientific software international (mels, 2010) also supported the inference that all four cultural intelligence latent variables demonstrate discriminant validity, as none of the confidence intervals approaches unity. table 4: inter-correlations between latent cultural intelligence scale dimensions, average variance extracted and shared variance estimates. discussion top ↑ the objective of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the cultural intelligence scale (ang et al., 2007) by testing the reliability and construct validity of the cqs on a south african sample. outline of the research results with the exception of the metacognitive cultural intelligence subscale, all the subscales had reliability coefficients above 0.80. the relationships between the observed variables comprising the four latent variables of cultural intelligence were confirmed through first-order cfa. the results demonstrate that the cqs indicated sufficient construct validity. the second-order cfa confirmed that the four cultural intelligence dimensions contributed to an overall cultural intelligence construct. thus, the four dimensions form one overall latent variable called cultural intelligence.based on the results of the present study on a south african sample it can be concluded that the cultural intelligence scale demonstrated good reliability, construct and discriminant validity. this outcome is consistent with the results reported in several other studies conducted in different countries, for instance iran (khodadady & ghahari, 2011), as well as on american and singaporean samples (ang et al., 2007). practical implications this study has an important practical implication for cross-cultural management in that it could help human resource professionals in their selection, training and development of a more culturally competent workforce, as well as using the cqs to evaluate the effectiveness of cultural diversity training programmes.the study contributes to practice by confirming the psychometric properties of the cqs in a south african setting. the study also contributes to the legislative requirement that psychological instruments must be reliable and valid before they can be utilised in the south african context, as specified in the employment equity act (no. 55 of 1998). the findings of the present study suggest that the cqs was able to measure cultural intelligence reasonably well on a south african sample. the measure conformed, in this study, to the proposed first-order and second-order structures of cultural intelligence (ang et al., 2007). future studies should replicate the study on other south african population groups to further ascertain its psychometric properties. limitations of the study and suggestions for future research it should be acknowledged that there is a need to replicate the study using a sample made up of employees in the public and private sectors to see whether similar results are obtained.secondly, flowing from the aforementioned weakness, the generalisability of the findings of the study might be limited by the fact that the sample that was used was mostly made up of young adults (under 30 years of age), was not adequately gender balanced and is not representative of the demographic profile of south africans. consequently, more research is needed on the structure of cultural intelligence in a more demographically balanced sample. future studies should determine whether the measurement and structural models fit equally well when different cultural groups are compared; more work on the measurement equivalence or invariance of the cqs on a multicultural south african sample is required. in spite of these recommendations, however, extant findings indicate that the cqs may generalise relatively well across cultures (e.g. ang et al., 2007; khodadady & ghahari, 2011). conclusion in the current study the psychometric evaluation of the cqs demonstrates good reliability and construct and discriminant validity. generally, the results of this study are in line with studies conducted in other international contexts regarding the psychometric properties of the cqs. the study has also confirmed the second-order factor structure of cultural intelligence in which a higher-order cultural intelligence construct explains the variance of cultural intelligence in specific forms, as measured by the dimensions of the cqs.the evidence provided in this study shows that the cqs may be an effective cultural intelligence measure that can facilitate empirical cultural intelligence research and practice. the cqs can be used to promote cultural intelligence as a means to enhance both job and academic performance through enhanced interaction and communication amongst individuals with different demographic backgrounds. acknowledgements top ↑ thank you to prof. dirk j. malan, mrs michelle boonzaier, mr francois van der bank, mr tendai mariri, mr antony otto and ms lindie van der westhuizen for assistance with the data collection. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions b.m. (stellenbosch university) was the project leader responsible for the data collection, statistical analysis and the conceptual write-up of the article, whilst a.s.e. (stellenbosch university) also contributed to the write-up of the article. references top ↑ ang, s., van dyne, l., & koh, c. (2006). personality correlates of the four-factor model of cultural intelligence. group & organization management, 31(1), 100–123. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1059601105275267ang, s., van dyne, l., koh, c., ng, k.y., templer, k.j., tay, c., & chandrasekar, n.a. (2007). cultural intelligence: its measurement and effects on cultural judgment and decision making, cultural adaptation and task performance. management and organization review, 3(3), 335–371. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8784.2007.00082.x ang, s., van dyne, l., & tan, m.l. (2011). cultural intelligence. in r.j. sternberg, & s.b. kaufman (eds.), the cambridge handbook of intelligence (pp. 582–602). new york, ny: cambridge university press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511977244.030 brislin, r., worthley, r., & macnab, b. (2006). cultural intelligence. group and organization management, 31, 40–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1059601105275262 chua, r.y., & morris, m.w. (2009). innovation communication in multicultural networks: deficits in inter-cultural capability and affect-based trust as barriers to new idea sharing in inter-cultural relationships. working paper. boston, ma: harvard business school. de goede, j., & theron, c.c. (2010). an investigation into the internal structure of the learning potential construct as measured by the apil-b test battery. management dynamics, 19(4), 30–55. deci, e., & ryan, r. (1985). the support of autonomy and control of behaviour. journal of personality and social psychology, 53, 1024–1037. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.53.6.1024 diamantopoulos, a., & siguaw, j.a. (2000). introducing lisrel. london, uk: sage. du toit, m., & du toit, s.h.c. (2001). interactive lisrel: user’s guide. lincolnwood, il: scientific software international. pmcid:1729816. earley, p.c., & ang, s. (2003). cultural intelligence. individual interactions across cultures. stanford, ca: stanford university press. elenkov, d., & manev, i. (2009). senior expatriates leadership’s effects on innovation and the role of cultural intelligence. journal of world business, 44(4), 357–369. http://dx.doi.org/10.1916/j.jwb.2008.11.001 farrell, a.m. (2010). insufficient discriminant validity: a comment on bove, pervan, beatty and shu. business research, 63, 324–327. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2009.05.003 fehr, r., & kuo, e. (2008). the impact of cultural intelligence in multicultural social networks. paper presented at the 23rd annual conference of the society for industrial and organisational psychology (siop), san francisco, ca, 10–12 april. groves, k.s., & feyerherm, a.e. (2011). leader cultural intelligence in context. group & organization management, 36(5), 535–566. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1059601111415664 gudykunst, w.b., ting-toomey, s., & chua, e. (1988). culture and interpersonal communication. newbury park, ca: sage. hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2010). multivariate data analysis: a global perspective. (7th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson. hofstede, g. (2001). culture’s consequences: comparing values, behaviours, institutions, and organizations across nations. thousand oaks, ca: sage. imai, l., & gelfand, m.j. (2010). the culturally intelligent negotiator: the impact of cultural intelligence (cq) on negotiation sequences and outcomes. organizational behaviour and human decision processes, 112, 83–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2010.02.001 ismail, a.m., reza, r., & mahdi, s. (2012). analysis of the relationship between cultural intelligence and transformational leadership: the case of managers at the trade office. international journal of business and social science, 3(14), 252–261. jöreskog, k.g., & sörbom, d. (1993). lisrel 8: structural equation modelling with the simplis command language. united states of america: scientific software international, inc. jöreskog, k.g., & sörbom, d. (1996). lisrel 8: user’s reference guide. chicago, il: scientific software international. kamps, j.m., & engelbrecht, a.s. (2011). the influence of emotional intelligence on diversity complexity cognition and the attitude towards diversity. south african journal of business management, 42(3), 37–48. khodadady, e., & ghahari, s. (2011). validation of the persian cultural intelligence scale and exploring its relationship with gender, education, travelling abroad and place of living. global journal of human social sciences, 11(7), 65–75. mahembe, b., engelbrecht, a.s., & de kock, f.s. (2013). a confirmatory factor analytic study of a self-leadership measure in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 11 (1), 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.520 mayer, j.d., & salovey, p. (1993). the intelligence of emotional intelligence. intelligence, 17, 433–442. mels, g. (2003). a workshop on structural equation modelling with lisrel 8.54 for windows. port elizabeth, south africa: university of port elizabeth. mels, g. (2010). structural equation modelling with lisrel 9 for windows. chicago, il: scientific software international. ng, k.y., van dyne, l., & ang, s. (2012). cultural intelligence: a review, reflections, and recommendations for future research. in a.m. ryan, f.t.l. leong, & f.l. oswald (eds.), conducting multinational research: applying organizational psychology in the workplace (pp. 29–58). washington, dc: american psychological association. nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. preacher, k.j., & coffman, d.l. (2006). computing power and minimum sample size for rmsea [computer software]. available from http://quantpsy.org/ rockstuhl, t., ang, s., ng, k.y., van dyne, l., & lievens, f. (2009). cultural intelligence and leadership emergence in multicultural teams. paper presented at the 69th annual meeting of the academy of management, chicago, il, 7–11 august. schmidt, f.l., & hunter, j.e. (2000). select on intelligence. in e.a. locke (ed.), the blackwell handbook of organizational principles (pp. 3–14). oxford, uk: blackwell. spss [computer software] (2011). armonk, ny: ibm corp. sternberg, r.j., & detterman, d. (1986). what is intelligence: contemporary viewpoints on its nature and definition. norwood, nj: ablex. sternberg, r.j., & wagner, r.j. (2000). practical intelligence. in r.j. sternberg (ed.), handbook of intelligence (pp. 380–395). new york, ny: cambridge university press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511807947 tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2001). using multivariate statistics. (4th edn.). needham heights, ma: allyn & bacon. tay, c., rossi, a.m., & westman, m. (2010). international business travellers: inter-role conflicts and moderating effects on emotional exhaustion. paper presented at the annual meeting of the academy of management, montreal, canada, 6–10 august. thorndike, r., & stein, s. (1937). an evaluation of the attempts to measure social intelligence. psychological bulletin, 34, 275–285. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0053850 triandis, h.c. (2006). cultural intelligence in organizations. group and organization management, 31, 154–173. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1059601105275253 united nations high commissioner for refugees (unhcr) (2010). 2010 unhcr country operations profile south africa. retrieved may 05, 2013, from http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/page?page=49e485aa6 van dyne, l., & ang, s. (2005). personality and cultural intelligence: examining discriminant validity and interrelationships. paper presented at the american psychological association, washington, dc, august. williams, l.j., vandenberg, r.j., & edwards, j.r. (2009). structural equation modeling in management research: a guide for improved analysis. the academy of management annals, 3(1), 543–604. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19416520903065683 article information authors: sanet van der westhuizen1 charmaine horn2 alana viljoen3 affiliations: 1department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa 2sgs she pss behaviour transformation, sasol mining, south africa 3employee relations, sgs sasol mining, south africa correspondence to: sanet van der westhuizen email: vdwessc@unisa.ac.za postal address: po box 392, university of south africa 0003, south africa dates: received: 14 apr. 2015 accepted: 18 sept. 2015 published: 30 nov. 2015 how to cite this article: van der westhuizen, s., horn, c., & viljoen, a. (2015). sense of coherence and burnout in the energy and chemicals industry: the moderating role of age. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #705, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.705 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. sense of coherence and burnout in the energy and chemicals industry: the moderating role of age in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • literature review       • age       • sense of coherence and age       • burnout and age       • relationship between sense of coherence and burnout: age as a moderator • research design    • research approach • research method    • participants       • measuring instruments       • analysis       • research procedure • results • discussion    • implications and recommendations for the organisation    • limitations of the study and recommendations for further research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: organisations are accommodating four different social generations in the working environment. this poses a challenge for human resources departments to manage these diverse age cohorts in the workforce, as they are likely to have different needs, values and variables affecting their wellness. research purpose: the objective of the present study was to assess whether various age groups differ with regard to their sense of coherence and burnout, and whether age significantly moderates the relationship between sense of coherence and burnout. motivation for the study: although the literature review suggests that age groups may differ with regard to their sense of coherence and burnout, the findings seem to be somewhat inconclusive in this regard. there also seems to be a paucity of research examining the interaction effect between sense of coherence, burnout and age. research approach, design and method: a cross-sectional quantitative survey approach was used. a nonprobability convenience sample of adults (n = 246) – employed in south africa by an international integrated energy and chemicals company – participated in the study. correlation, analysis of variance (anova) and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed to achieve the objectives of the study. main findings: the results showed that employees between the ages of 51 and 60 years of age experienced higher levels of comprehensibility and lower levels of reduced professional efficacy than their younger counterparts. the relationship between sense of coherence and exhaustion was also stronger for employees between 51 and 60 years old than for younger age categories. practical/managerial implications: the results of the study can be useful when planning human resource interventions to enhance the well-being of employees from different age groups. contribution: the results of the study add new insights to the well-being literature by showing that employees’ age is important to consider when addressing their sense of coherence and burnout levels. introduction top ↑ life expectancy and the average age of the population are increasing (johnson, holdsworth, hoel & zapf, 2013). this demographic change has an impact on the age structures of the working population (boehm & kunze, 2015). it seems that organisations need to accommodate four different social generations (the silent generation, baby boomers, generation x and generation y or millennials) in the working environment (culpin, millar & peters, 2015). it leaves management with unprecedented challenges associated with the diverse age cohorts in the workforce. starting out in a career may involve stressful experiences that include integrating into the social context at work and still being uncertain about one’s knowledge and skills (virtanen & koivisto, 2001). younger employees who start out eagerly in the organisation may become disheartened (e.g. exerting themselves to perform or experiencing transitional shock when starting out) and as a result spiral into burnout (rothmann & malan, 2006). midcareer workers may report work–family conflict as one of their main stressors (culpin et al., 2015). mature workers still want to make a contribution to the organisation and society (dychtwald, erickson & morison, 2013), but may have different health needs. it seems that each of these generations or different age categories has their own set of needs, expectations, values, skills and attitudes that needs to be taken into account when ensuring a productive workforce (culpin et al., 2015). mauno, ruokalainen and kinnunen (2013) investigated the moderating effect of age between various job stressors and well-being indicators. they found that younger employees seemed to be better equipped to handle job insecurity in comparison to their older counterparts. older employees were better able to cope with work–family imbalance and high workload. haley, mostert and els (2013) also found that different job demands and resources seem to predict burnout and work engagement of various age groups. thus, it seems that in addressing the well-being of employees, a greater understanding of age differences might be needed, whilst different stress management interventions might be needed for older and younger employees. in light of this, the aim of this study is therefore to look at the relationship between age, sense of coherence and burnout of employees, and to determine if age moderates the relationship between sense of coherence and burnout. literature review age studying the effects of age in the workplace is not a new phenomenon. ageism and the influence of generations at work are well-researched domains (hansen & leuty, 2012; iweins, desmette, yzerbyt & stinglhamber, 2013). but it seems that organisations will soon have to adapt to an even more age diverse workforce. this seems eminent as a result of a number of trends worldwide like low birth rates, increased longevity and the war for talent which forces organisations to hire older workers (boehm & khunze, 2015). one of the consequences of these trends is that the number of older workers is likely to increase in the future (zaniboni, truxillo & fraccaroli, 2013). organisations are faced with the task to create environments that attract and satisfy workers of all ages (hansen & leuty, 2012). since some disagreement exist regarding what birth years define the various generations, this study will look at differences between age groups and not generational differences per se. this approach is also in line with other researchers that have looked at the influence of age on sense of coherence and burnout (feldt et al., 2011; haley et al., 2013; maslach, schaufeli & leiter, 2001). sense of coherence and age antonovsky (1987) initially coined the term salutogenesis and developed the key construct of sense of coherence (soc) as conceptual anchor to the salutogenic theory. since then, a steady stream of research has been generated to understand wellbeing and adjustment, also specifically in the workplace (barnard, 2013). these studies have shown how soc affects employees’ coping with work–life demands and enhance their performance and goal-achieving ability (barnard, 2013). antonovsky (1987) defined soc as a dispositional life orientation that includes three subcomponents, namely comprehensibility, that enables an individual to see the environment as structured and ordered; manageability, through which individuals perceive that they have adequate resources to manage life demands; and meaningfulness, by which individuals believe that life demands are worth spending energy and effort on. antonovsky (1987) originally believed that soc develops through early adulthood and then stabilises after the age of 30 (this is called the ‘age hypothesis’). this development then also takes place during the first years of employment in which young adults establish a sense of identify and form a world view. subsequent international studies on soc stability over 30 years reveal mixed results, with some concurring the ‘age hypothesis’ (feldt et al., 2011; hochwälder & forsell, 2011), whilst others could not confirm the stability of soc after the age of 30 years (eriksson & lindström, 2005; wainwright et al., 2008). a south african study by van schalkwyk and rothmann (2008) could also not confirm that soc stabilises after 30 years of age. instead, they found that soc steadily increased with 10-year intervals and then levelled off beyond 50 years of age. these findings seem to be in line with the idea that soc can be associated with ‘the progressive and time-related mastering of work and life complexities’ (van schalkwyk & rothmann, 2008, p. 37). looking purely at the differences between age groups, feldt et al. (2011) found that older adults displayed significantly higher soc levels in comparison with their younger counterparts. the mean level of soc did however increase more for the younger adults (barnard, 2013). more recently, mattisson, horstmann and bogren (2014) also found that soc increases with age. a south african study by haley et al. (2013) also found that older employees experienced higher levels of soc. these results guided the researchers to the first research hypothesis to be tested: hypothesis 1: soc levels are higher for older age categories (51–60-year-old age group). burnout and age the incidence of burnout had increased over the past 30 years with dire consequences for organisations’ performance and employees’ health (abdool karrim ismail, coetzee, du toit, rudolph & joubert, 2013). schaufeli and enzmann (1998) defined burnout as: a persistent, negative work-related state of mind in normal individuals that is primarily characterised by exhaustion, which is accompanied by distress, a sense of reduced effectiveness, decreased motivation and the development of dysfunctional attitudes and behaviours at work. (p. 36) more recently, burnout was described as a multidimensional construct that is evident in employees’ ‘experiences of physical and psychological exhaustion, depersonalisation, frustration and reduced sense of personal accomplishment’ (abdool karrim ismail et al., 2013, p. 452). burnout is believed to develop as a result of prolonged exposure to stressors or an imbalance between demands and resources to employees’ disposal at work (storm & rothmann, 2003). south african research conducted by smit (2007) indicated age to be the most consistent demographic variable to be linked with burnout. the theory of burnout seems to suggest that burnout is consistently higher in younger employees than in older employees (maslach et al., 2001). due to the relationship between age and work experience, burnout seems to be more of a threat early in an individual’s career (asiwe, jorgensen & hill, 2014). young employees who are new to the profession may be idealistic and eager to perform and progress professionally (louw, george & esterhuyse, 2011) and, as a result, may exert themselves or experience some transitional shock when just entering the workplace. as a result of less experience in a working environment, younger employees may also lack the coping skills necessary to deal with everyday stressors (haley et al., 2013). nevertheless, research findings with regard to the relationship between age and burnout have not been consistent. brewer and shapard (2004) found a negative relationship between age and burnout in a meta-analytical study. these findings were confirmed by johnson et al. (2013) who found a negative relationship between age on the one hand and emotional exhaustion and cynicism on the other. no relationship was evident between age and reduced professional efficacy. ben-porat and itzhaky (2014) also found older employees to have lower levels of burnout. south african studies are also in alignment with these international findings and indicated burnout to be more prominent for younger employees (haley et al., 2013; jackson & rothmann, 2005; rothmann & barkhuizen, 2008) however, bezuidenhout and cilliers (2011) did not find any relationship between age and burnout levels of female academics, whilst asiwe et al. (2014) found that younger employees had lower fatigue levels than older employees. mousavy and nimehchisalem (2014) also found that older teachers were more burned out than their younger counterparts. the results with regard to the relationship between burnout and age therefore seem inconclusive, but since the theory of burnout suggests that burnout might be more of a threat for younger employees, the researchers formulated the second hypothesis to be tested as follows: hypothesis 2: burnout levels are lower for older age categories (51–60-year-old age group). relationship between sense of coherence and burnout: age as a moderator research indicates overwhelming support for the mitigating impact of sense of coherence on burnout (johnston et al., 2013), even across various age categories (haley et al., 2013). however, there seems to be a paucity of research on the relationship between sense of coherence and burnout, taking the influencing effect of age into account. in investigating age as a moderator, johnson et al. (2013) found limited support for the moderating effect of age between customer stressors and burnout. they did however find that using emotion-focussed and active coping strategies were more beneficial to prevent burnout for older employees when compared with younger employees using the same coping strategies. they regarded lack of life experience as a possible explanation for these results. zaniboni et al. (2013) found that age moderated the relationship between task variety and burnout in that older employees experienced more burnout when task variety increased in comparison to younger employees. you, huang, wang and bao (2015) found age to be a significant moderator for correlations between exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment on the one hand and various personality factors on the other hand. no research could be found that investigated age as a moderator in the relationship between sense of coherence and burnout. the purpose of this study is therefore to determine the relationship between age, sense of coherence and burnout and to investigate the moderating effect of age in the relationship between sense of coherence and burnout. the third hypothesis to be tested in this study is as follows: hypothesis 3: age is a moderator in the relationship between soc and burnout. research design top ↑ research approach a cross-sectional survey design is used to achieve the objectives of this descriptive study. a cross-sectional design is an economical design that allows one to examine different criterion groups at a single point in time (spector, 2003). research method top ↑ participants an availability sample (n = 246) from an international integrated energy and chemicals company in south africa participated in the study. the characteristics of the sample are summarised in table 1. the sample group included mostly male participants (79.3%), which is consistent with the predominantly male population in the participating organisations. participants were between 18 and 60 years of age with most participants falling in the 18–30 year old age category (35%). they were mostly married (67.9%) and 37% of the participants were graduates. table 1: characteristics of participants in the sample. measuring instruments a biographical questionnaire was administered to obtain personal information about the participants such as their age, gender, marital status, qualification and job level. orientation to life questionnaire (olq) (antonovsky, 1987): the olq (antonovsky, 1987) measures sense of coherence as a total score, which is comprised of three dimensions, namely comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness. the questionnaire is a self-completion questionnaire, made up of 29 items that are set up using a seven-point likert scale ranging from 1 to 7. in a south african study to determine the reliability, strümpfer and wissing (1998) reported cronbach alphas ranging from 0.74 to 0.94. the orientation to life questionnaire also shows high test-retest reliability (cilliers & kossuth, 2004). strümpfer and wissing (1998) established the validity of the questionnaire in a range of south african studies. maslach burnout indicator – general survey (mbi-gs) (maslach, jackson & leiter, 1996): the mbi-gs measure the incidence of burnout and can be applied to populations beyond the human services occupations (maslach & leiter, 1997). the mbi-gs contains 16 statements divided into three subscales that assess the various aspects of experienced burnout, namely exhaustion, cynicism and lack of professional efficacy. the mbi is a self-administered questionnaire. the respondent is asked to answer statements regarding their job-related feelings on a scale of 0 to 6, where zero represents never having this feeling about one’s job and six represents having this feeling every day. the professional efficacy scale is reverse scored so that a high score on the scale shows reduced efficacy. maslach et al. (1996) reported high internal consistencies (reliability) with cronbach alpha coefficients ranging between 0.87–0.89 for exhaustion; 0.73–0.74 for cynicism, and 0.76–0.84 for professional efficacy. data on test-retest reliabilities after a period of one year were 0.65 for exhaustion, 0.60 for cynicism and 0.67 for professional efficacy. in recent studies, van jaarsveld (2004) and viljoen (2013) found high internal consistency (reliability) in all three subscales, with cronbach alphas ranging between 0.85 and 0.91. maslach et al. (1996) found evidence to support the construct validity of the mbi-gs. analysis the spss (version 22.0) program was used for the statistical analysis. descriptive statistics, alpha coefficients, correlation and anova were calculated to determine the relationship between age, sense of coherence and burnout. hierarchical multiple regression with the enter method was then used to determine the moderating effects of age on the relationship between sense of coherence and burnout. the data met the standard assumptions with regard to multicollinearity, homoscedasticity and normality of residuals. predictor, moderator, and outcome variables were z-standardised (cohen, cohen, west & aiken, 2003). considering that age is a categorical variable, dummy coding was used to enter it in the hierarchical regression. an interaction term was computed by multiplying the moderator by the independent variable in order to test the moderating effects. the variables were entered in the following order: step 1 contained sense of coherence as predictor; step 2 contained sense of coherence and age as predictors; step 3 contained sense of coherence, age and the interacting terms of the age categories multiplied by soc as predictors. analyses were conducted for the three separate burnout dimensions. cohen’ s (1992) ƒ2 effect sizes were calculated to determine the practical significance of the adjusted r2 values. statistical significance was set at 0.05. research procedure ethical clearance was obtained from unisa to collect the data. the necessary permission was then obtained from the organisation’s senior management as well as human resources department to administer the instruments in the organisation. an electronic link to a web-based survey document was distributed via email, as well as an information sheet and an informed consent document. the consent form provided a brief introduction to the intent and background of the survey. employees were reassured of the anonymity of the questionnaires, as well as the voluntary nature of the research. participants were informed that the research results of the entire group may be shared with the management of the organisation, but that no individuals would be identified. the survey duration (approximately 30 minutes) and the survey procedure were discussed and the necessary permission documents were included. results top ↑ firstly, descriptive statistics, alpha coefficients and correlation were conducted to determine the relationship between sense of coherence and burnout. the results are displayed in table 2. from table 2 it can be seen that all the subscales displayed an acceptable level of reliability ranging from 0.76 (professional efficacy) to 0.91 (exhaustion). according to pallant (2010), a value of 0.70 is acceptable, with higher values indicating greater reliability. furthermore, it can be seen that sense of coherence correlated significantly and in the expected direction with the dimensions of burnout (negatively with exhaustion and cynicism and positively with professional efficacy). table 2: descriptive statistics, alpha coefficients and pearson correlations of the measuring instruments. next, an anova was conducted to determine the degree to which sense of coherence and burnout differed with regard to the various age categories. the results are presented in table 3. table 3: analysis of variance between age categories, sense of coherence and burnout. from table 3 it can be seen that only comprehensibility displayed a statistically significant difference with regard to the age categories. post-hoc analysis revealed that comprehensibility was significantly lower for the 18to 30-year age group than for the 51–60-year age group. although reduced professional efficacy and cynicism displayed nonsignificant differences with regard to the age categories (p = 0.05), post-hoc analysis revealed that the mean difference between the 51–60-year age group and the 18–30-year age group was significant at the 0.05 level with the 51–60-year-old age group experiencing less reduced professional efficacy. the 31–40-year-old age group displayed statistically significantly higher levels of cynicism when compared with the 41–50and 51–60-year-old age groups, respectively. next, the main and interaction effects of sense of coherence and age on exhaustion, cynicism and professional efficacy were tested. in order to eliminate the possibility of multicollinearity, only the sense of coherence total score was included in the regression model. the results are displayed in table 4. table 4: moderated multiple regression with exhaustion as the dependent variable. table 4 shows the regression analysis with exhaustion as dependent variable. from the anova analyses, it follows that the regression model significantly predicted exhaustion at every step (step 1: f[1.236] = 64.44, p = 0.00; step 2: f[4-.233] = 18.89, p = 0.00; step 3: f[7.230] = 13.21, p = 0.00). the proportion variance explained (r2) ranged from 0.48 for step 1 to 0.54 for step 3 and the adjusted r2 were 0.22, 0.23 and 0.27 for steps 1 to 3 respectively. it is clear from table 4 that there were statistically significant main effects for sense of coherence and the age category of 31–40 years old. only one significant interaction term was found between sense of coherence and the age category 51–60 years old. the interaction term accounted for a statistically significant proportion of variance in exhaustion (change in δr2 = 0.04; p = 0.00) and cohen’ s (1992) ƒ2 was found to be 0.04. the moderating effect can therefore be seen as a small practical effect. this significant interaction effect was plotted as indicated in figure 1. figure 1: interaction between sense of coherence and age with exhaustion as dependent variable. figure 1 shows that for a high age group (compared to a lower age group), a low sense of coherence was associated with a higher level of exhaustion. table 5 presents the possible moderation effect of age on cynicism. table 5: moderated multiple regression with cynicism as the dependent variable. from the anova analyses, it follows that the regression model significantly predicted cynicism at every step (step 1: f[1.238] = 133.52, p = 0.00; step 2: f[4.235] = 35.80, p = 0.00; step 3: f[7.232] = 20.30, p = 0.00). the proportion variance explained (r2) were 0.60 for step 1, 0.62 for step 2 and 0.62 for step 3. the adjusted r2 were 0.36, 0.37 and 0.36 for steps 1 to 3, respectively. it is clear from table 5 that there were statistically significant main effects for sense of coherence and the age category of 31 to 40 years old. however, no significant interaction terms were found between sense of coherence and age in predicting cynicism. table 6 presents the hierarchical regression analysis with reduced professional efficacy as dependent variable. table 6: moderated multiple regression with professional efficacy as the dependent variable. from the anova analyses, it follows that the regression model significantly predicted professional efficacy at every step (step 1: f[1.238] = 133.52, p = 0.00; step 2: f[4.235] = 35.80, p = 0.00; step 3: f[7.232] = 20.30, p = 0.00). the proportion variance explained (r2) were 0.19 for step 1, 0.20 for step 2 and 0.23 for step 3. the adjusted r2 were 0.19, 0.19 and 0.20 for steps 1–3, respectively. it is clear from table 4 that there were statistically significant main effects for sense of coherence and the age category of 51–60 years old at step 3. however, no significant interaction terms were found between sense of coherence and age in predicting professional efficacy. discussion top ↑ the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between age, sense of coherence and burnout and to determine if age moderated the relationship between sense of coherence and burnout. hypothesis 1 states that older age categories would have higher soc levels. the current study’s findings partially support hypothesis 1. results revealed that employees in the 51–60-year-old age category experienced higher levels of comprehensibility than employees in the 18–30 year old age category. this seems to be in line with the findings of feldt et al. (2011), haley et al. (2013), and mattisson et al. (2014) who also found that soc increases with age. comprehensibility refers to employees’ perception that their environment is structured and ordered and that this makes it possible to anticipate and find structure in future events (antonovsky, 1987). constant experiences form the basis for the comprehensibility dimension and this result in individuals being able to make sense of stressful life experiences on a cognitive level. in making sense of stressors, individuals learn through their own life experiences to cope more effectively with stressors. the results of this study seems to confirm that the mastering of work and life experiences over a period of time contribute to the development of soc, or comprehensibility specifically in the context of this study. the results also alludes to the fact that younger employees new to the working environment may not be able to make cognitive sense of stressors in their working environment in the same way as older employees who already have a number of years of work experience (haley et al., 2013). hypothesis 2 states that older age categories would have lower levels of burnout. looking only at the results of the anova, it seems that the findings of this study did not support hypothesis 2 and appeared to be in alignment with the findings of bezuidenhout and cilliers (2011) who also did not find any relationship between age and burnout. however, upon inspection of the rest of the results, it seems that although no statistically significant differences could be found between the various age categories and exhaustion, cynicism and reduced professional efficacy, some age categories could be used as predictors of these dimensions in addition to soc. the 31–40-year-old age category significantly predicted exhaustion and cynicism, whilst the 51–60-year-old age category significantly predicted reduced professional efficacy. this seems to be more in line with the findings of previous studies (ben-porat & itzhaky, 2014; brewer & shapard, 2004; haley et al., 2013; jackson & rothmann, 2005; johnson et al., 2013; rothmann & barkhuizen, 2008) that found significant differences between age groups and their burnout levels. it does however need to be stated that the age categories just seem to add a percentage of explained variance each time in addition to the percentage of variance that is already explained by soc. nevertheless, it seem that, apart from an employees’ soc level, being in the 31–40-year-old age category or the 51–60 year old age category, could also be indicative of the degree of burnout that an employee might be experiencing. hypothesis 3 states that age moderates the relationship between soc and burnout. the findings of the current study partially support hypothesis 3 as only one indirect effect was found. the 51to 60-year-old age category moderated the relationship between soc and exhaustion. the interaction showed an enhancing effect. it seems that having a high level of soc were more beneficial to prevent exhaustion for employees older than 51 years of age when compared to younger employees with the same level of soc. these results seem to be in alignment with that of johnson et al. (2013) who also found limited support for the moderating effect of age between coping strategies and burnout. however, the moderating effect was small in practical terms. implications and recommendations for the organisation a practical contribution of this study is an increased understanding of the implications of an age-diverse group of employees when developing and implementing well-being interventions in an organisation. the results of this study seems to confirm that employees that are 51 years and older experience higher levels of well-being and lower levels of burnout than their younger colleagues (haley et al., 2013). if they do experience levels of exhaustion, it seems that increasing their soc might be especially helpful in combating this dimension of burnout. these older employees may therefore act as a source of support and as mentors to younger employees. in order to address the comprehensibility of younger employees, organisations may revisit their induction programs. the latter could be specifically focussed on presenting the organisation in a clear, coherent and consistent manner, pointing out resources that are available to their employees and showing the worth of contributing to the organisation’s overall performance in a meaningful way. employees in the 31–40 year old age category could be specifically targeted for interventions that are aimed at reducing burnout, like revisiting the specific job demands and job resources that this age category has to deal with that could predict their levels of burnout (haley et al., 2013), as well as addressing potential work-family conflict (culpin et al., 2015) that they might experience. limitations of the study and recommendations for further research the first limitation of the study is that it made use of a cross-sectional design when the data were collected. a longitudinal study could indicate causal relationships regarding age, burnout and soc. the nonprobability sample size is also quite small and this limits the generalisability of the results. larger, random samples in other industries could be included in future studies to see if the difference in soc and burnout could be generalised to other populations as well. participants were not asked to indicate their job tenure in the study. because of the relationship between age and work experience, this could have been an important variable to consider in this study and future research could investigate this aspect in more detail. conclusion in conclusion, it seems that employees that are 51 years and older experienced higher levels of comprehensibility, lower levels of reduced professional efficacy and lower levels of exhaustion, especially when coupled with a high soc. on the other hand, it seems that employees between 31 and 40 years old might be more susceptible to exhaustion and cynicism. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions s.v.d.w. (university of south africa) conceptualised the research problem of the current study, conducted the statistical analysis and literature review and wrote up the research article. c.h. (sasol) and a.v. (sasol) collected the data. references top ↑ abdool karrim ismail, h., coetzee, n., du toit, p., rudolph, e.c., & joubert, y.t. (2013). towards gaining a competitive advantage: the relationship between burnout, job satisfaction, social support and mindfulness. journal of contemporary management, 10, 448–464. antonovsky, a. (1987). unraveling the mystery of health. how people manage stress and stay well. san francisco: jossey-bass. asiwe, d.n., jorgensen, l.i., & hill, c. (2014). the development and investigation of the psychometric properties of a burnout scale within a south african agricultural research institution. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 40(1), art. #1194, 14 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1194 barnard, a. (2013). the role of socio-demographic variables and their interaction effect on sense of coherence. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 39(1), art. #1073, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/%20sajip.v39i1.1073 ben-porat, a., & itzhaky, h. (2014). burnout among trauma social workers: the contribution of personal and environmental resources. journal of social work, 15(6), 606–620. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468017314552158 bezuidenhout, a., & cilliers, f. (2011). age, burnout, work engagement and sense of coherence in female academics at two south african universities. south african journal of labour relations, 35(1), 61–80. boehm, s.a., & kunze, f. (2015). age diversity and age climate in the workplace. in p.m. bal, d.t.a.m. kooij, & d.m. rousseau (eds.), aging workers and the employee-employer relationship (pp. 33–55). cham: springer international publishing. brewer, e.w., & shapard, l. (2004). employee burnout: a meta-analysis of the relationship between age or years of experience. human resource development review, 3, 102–123. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1534484304263335 cilliers, f., & kossuth, s.p. (2004). the reliability and factor structure of three measures of salutogenic functioning. south african journal of labour relations, 28(2), 59–76. cohen, j. (1992). a power primer. psychological bulletin, 112(1), 155–159. cohen, j., cohen, p., west, s., & aiken, l.s. (2003). applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences. (3rd edn.). mahwahj: lawrence erlbaum associates. culpin, v., millar, c., & peters, k. (2015). multi-generational frames of reference: managerial challenges of four social generations in the organisation. journal of managerial psychology, 30(1), n.p. http://0-dx.doi.org.oasis.unisa.ac.za/10.1108/jmp-08-2014-0231 dychtwald, k., erickson, t. j., & morison, r. (2013). workforce crisis: how to beat the coming shortage of skills and talent. boston, ma: harvard business school publishing. eriksson, m., & lindström, b. (2005). validity of antonovsky‘s sense of coherence scale: a systematic review. journal of epidemiology and community health, 59(6), 460–466. pmid: 15911640, http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech.2003.018085 feldt, t., leskinen, e., koskenvuo, m., suominen, s., vahtera, j., & kivimäki, m. (2011). development of sense of coherence in adulthood: a person-centred approach. the population-based hessup cohort study. quality of life research, 20, 69–79. pmid: 20686925, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11136-010-9720-7 hansen, j.c., & leuty, m.e. (2012). work values across generations. journal of career assessment, 20(1), 34–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072711417163 haley, l., mostert, k., & els, c. (2013). burnout and work engagement for different age groups: examining group-level differences and predictors. journal of psychology in africa, 23(2), 283–295. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2013.10820625 hochwälder, j., & forsell, y. (2011). is sense of coherence lowered by negative life events? journal of happiness studies, 12, 475–492. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/ s10902-010-9211-0 iweins, c., desmette, d., yzerbyt, v., & stinglhamber, f. (2013). ageism at work: the impact of intergenerational contact and organizational multi-age perspective. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 22(3), 331–346. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2012.748656 jackson, l.t.r., & rothmann, s. (2005). an adapted model of burnout for educators. south african journal of education, 225(2), 100–108. johnson, s.j., holdsworth, l., hoel, h., & zapf, d. (2013). customer stressors in service organizations: the impact of age on stress management and burnout. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 22(3), 318–330. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2013.772581 johnston, c.s., de bruin, g.p., györkös, c., geldenhuys, m., massoudi, k., & rossier, j. (2013). sense of coherence and job characteristics in predicting burnout in a south african sample. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 39(1), art. #1096, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajip.v39i1.1096 louw, d.a., george, e., & esterhuyse, k. (2011). burnout amongst urban secondary school teachers in namibia. south african journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), art. #1008, 7 pages, http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i1.1008 maslach, c., jackson, s.e., & leiter, m.p. (1996). maslach burnout inventory manual. (3rd edn.). palo alto: consulting psychologists press. maslach, c., & leiter, m.p. (1997). the truth about burnout. ca: wiley. maslach, c., schaufeli, w.b., & leiter, m.p. (2001). job burnout. annual review of psychology, 52(1), 397–422. pmid: 11148311, http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397 mattisson, c., horstmann, v., & bogren, m. (2014). relationship of soc with sociodemographic variables, mental disorders and mortality. scandinavian journal of public health, 42, 434–445. pmid: 24662308, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1403494814527188 mauno, s., ruokolainen, m., & kinnunen, u. (2013). does aging make employees more resilient to job stress? age as a moderator in the job stressor-wellbeing relationship in three finnish occupational samples. aging & mental health, 17(4), 411–422. pmid: 23215801, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2012.747077 mousavy, s., & nimehchisalem, v. (2014). contribution of gender, marital status, and age to english language teacher’s burnout. advances in language and literary studies, 5(6), 39–47. pallant, j. (2010). spss survival manual. (4th edn.). ny: mcgraw-hill. rothmann, s., & barkhuizen, n. (2008). burnout of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. south african journal of higher education, 22(2), 439–456. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v22i2.25796 rothmann, s., & malan, m.m. (2006). occupational stress of engineers in south africa. southern african business review, 10(2), 1–16. schaufeli, w.b., & enzmann, d. (1998). the burnout companion to study and practice: a critical analysis. london: taylor & francis. smit, j. (2007). the influence of stressors and coping strategies on burnout and compassion fatigue among health care professionals. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa. strümpfer, d.j.w., & wissing, m.p. (1998). review of south african data on the sense of coherence scale as a measure of fortigenesis and salutogenesis, 8–11 september 1998. cape town: 4th annual congress of the psychological society of south africa. spector, p.e. (2003). industrial and organizational psychology: research and design. (3rd edn.). hoboken: john wiley & sons, inc. storm, k., & rothmann, s. (2003). a psychometric analysis of the maslach burnout inventory – general survey in the south african police service. south african journal of psychology, 33(4), 219–226. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/008124630303300404 van jaarsveld, j. (2004). the relationship between, burnout, coping and sense of coherence amongst engineers and scientists. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of south africa, pretoria. van schalkwyk, l., & rothmann, s. (2008). validation of the orientation to life questionnaire (olq) in a chemical factory. south african journal for industrial psychology, 34(2), 31–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v34i2.725 virtanen, p., & koivisto, a.m. (2001). wellbeing of professionals at entry into the labour market: a follow-up survey of medicine and architecture students. journal of epidemiology and community health, 55, 831–835. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech.55.11.831 viljoen, a. (2013). burnout, coping and sense of coherence in an engineering organisation. unpublished master’s dissertation, unisa, pretoria, south africa. wainwright, n.w.j., surtees, s., welch, a.a., luben, r.n., khaw, k.t., & bingham, s.a. (2008). sense of coherence, lifestyle choices and mortality. journal of epidemiology and community health, 62, 829–831. pmid: 18701735, http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech.2007.066464 you, x., huang, j., wang, y., & bao, x. (2015). relationships between individual-level factors and burnout: a meta-analysis of chinese participants. personality and individual differences, 74, 139–145. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.09.048 zaniboni, s., truxillo, d.m., & fraccaroli, f. (2013). differential effects of task variety and skill variety on burnout and turnover intentions for older and younger workers. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 22(3), 306–317. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2013.782288 article information authors: anton schlechter1 angel hung1 mark bussin2 affiliations: 1school of management studies, university of cape town, south africa2department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: anton schlechter postal address: school of management studies, private bag, rondebosch 7701, cape town dates: received: 14 may 2014 accepted: 25 aug. 2014 published: 27 nov. 2014 how to cite this article: schlechter, a., hung, a., & bussin, m. (2014). understanding talent attraction: the influence of financial rewards elements on perceived job attractiveness. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12 (1), art. #647, 13 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.647 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. understanding talent attraction: the influence of financial rewards elements on perceived job attractiveness in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • problem statement       • key focus       • background       • research purpose       • trends from research literature       • objectives       • contribution to field       • what will follow    • literature review       • remuneration       • employee benefits       • performance and financial recognition • method    • research approach    • measures       • participants       • measuring instruments       • design       • analysis       • validity • results    • demographic characteristics of the sample    • assessing unidimensionality of the job attraction scale       • validity       • reliability    • assessing the total rewards scale       • validity       • reliability    • descriptive statistics       • job attractiveness       • financial reward elements and job attractiveness       • total rewards and job attractiveness    • analysis of variance • discussion    • outline of the results       • total rewards       • financial reward elements and job attractiveness    • practical implications    • limitations and recommendations    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: in order to attract knowledge workers and maintain a competitive advantage, it is necessary for organisations to understand how knowledge workers are attracted to different types and levels of financial rewards.research purpose: this research investigated a set of financial reward elements (remuneration, employee benefits and variable pay) to determine whether knowledge workers perceived them as attractive inducements when considering a job or position. motivation for the study: in south africa there is a shortage of talent, largely due to high rates of emigration of scarce skills (human capital). financial rewards or inducements are necessary to attract talent and it is essential to assess which of these rewards are most successful in this regard. method: a 23 full-factorial experimental design (field experiment) was used. the three financial reward elements (remuneration, employee benefits and variable pay) were manipulated in a fictitious job advertisement (each at two levels). eight (2 × 2 × 2 = 8) different versions of a job advertisement were used as a stimulus to determine the effect of financial reward elements on perceived job attractiveness. a questionnaire was used to measure how participants perceived the attractiveness of the job. a convenience sampling approach was used. different organisations throughout south africa, as well as corporate members of the south african reward association, were asked to participate in the study. respondents (n = 169) were randomly assigned to the various experimental conditions (i.e. one of the eight advertisements). data were analysed using descriptive statistics. a full-factorial analysis of variance was used to investigate if significant main effects could be found. main findings: participants considered high levels of remuneration, the inclusion of benefits and variable pay to be significant job attraction factors within a reward package. remuneration was found to have the largest main effect on job attractiveness of the three. gender, race and age did not have statistically significant main effects on job attractiveness. practical/managerial implications: high levels of remuneration, benefits and variable pay should be incorporated and emphasised in organisational talent attraction strategies as they are attractive for knowledge workers. if organisations want to attract prospective talent they need to offer high levels of remuneration to make their offers appealing and attractive. variable pay and benefits are, further, not sufficient to mitigate a low remuneration offer. contribution: this study adds to the body of social science research as few studies have empirically demonstrated a causal link between financial reward elements and job attractiveness within a controlled laboratory environment. there is also limited empirical research in south africa that highlights the level and combinations of financial reward elements that are attractive for talented knowledge employees. introduction top ↑ problem statement key focus a critical component of talent management is reward management. organisations must consider which rewards (monetary or non-monetary) are valued by employees and determine whether their configuration of total rewards will achieve the desired attraction and retention effects (rumpel & medcof, 2006). this is especially true for attracting and retaining knowledge workers. knowledge workers are considered to be critical to long-term organisational success and integral to an organisations’ intellectual capital (birt, wallis, & winternitz, 2004).financial rewards such as remuneration have traditionally been a defining feature of the employment relationship. in order to attract much-needed knowledge workers and maintain a competitive advantage, it is necessary for organisations to understand whether knowledge workers are attracted to different types and levels of financial rewards. background human capital has become an important strategic resource for competitive advantage as differentiation now rests with the unique talents of the people in an organisation (aguinis, gottfredson & joo, 2012; holland, sheehan & de cieri, 2007). the war for talent is especially prevalent amongst knowledge workers as the economy has shifted from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy. according to aguinis et al. (2012), there are few individuals within each industry who are considered top or scarce human capital. these individuals are often known as knowledge workers. one of the most important activities for organisations is thus the attraction of knowledge workers with scare skills (aguinis et al., 2012; holcombe-ehrhart & ziegert, 2005; tarique & schuler, 2010).according to the african association for public administration and management (aapam), talent scarcity in africa is a result of talented individuals migrating to developed countries. primary reasons for the exodus of skills include poor remuneration, uncompetitive work environments and high levels of crime (aapam, 2008). another reason is that many organisations in developed countries have attractive employer brands and they also offer benefits such as opportunities to become permanent residents or assisting with acquiring citizenship. the positive organisational image and benefits serve as effective attraction tools for hiring talent globally (elegbe, 2010). knowledge workers are highly mobile and recognise that their skills are highly sought-after resources. consequently, a highly mobile workforce and increasingly competitive labour market have highlighted the need to focus on talent management (aiman-smith, bauer & cable 2001; d’annunzio-green, 2008; tornikoski, 2011). research purpose the five elements of total rewards can be categorised into financial and non-financial rewards (armstrong & murlis, 2004). financial rewards include remuneration, benefits, performance and recognition and non-financial rewards consist of work-life balance, development and career opportunities, as well as an array of other non-financial benefits that organisations offer employees. the experiment consisted of two levels of remuneration (low remuneration vs high remuneration), two levels of financial benefits (the presence of benefits vs no benefits) and two levels of variable pay (the presence of variable pay vs no variable pay). the overall purpose of this research was to show a causal link between financial reward elements and the perceived attractiveness of a job for prospective knowledge workers. trends from research literature pregnolato (2010) applied a choice-based conjoint analysis in south africa that required participants to make (psychological) trade-offs in order to identify the ideal mix of reward elements and desired amount of total reward factors that would retain knowledge workers and, more specifically, employees from different race, gender and age groups (n = 361 knowledge workers from a broad spectrum of corporate organisations in south africa).pregnolato (2010) found that of the financial and non-financial reward elements, financial rewards (i.e. monetary benefits, monetary recognition and remuneration) were the most important types of rewards to retain employees from various demographic groups. the current study builds on pregnolato’s study by focusing on the talent attraction aspect of talent management and using an experiment to investigate the causal relationship between these constructs. financial elements have traditionally been a defining feature of an employment relationship and research has found them to be one of the strongest attraction and retention measures (tornikoski, 2011). however, with changing demographics as well as changes in the nature of the workplace (i.e. globalisation, diversification and telecommuting), non-financial reward elements such as workplace flexibility and opportunities for personal development have become increasingly important (bussin, 2003). for example, kearney (2003) has suggested that some employees are willing to forfeit high wages for non-financial rewards such as workplace flexibility. therefore, by focusing only on the financial elements, one can determine whether financial reward elements alone are still relevant and important attributes to attract employees. objectives the primary research objective of this study was to control for the various factors that influence job attraction by using an experiment to determine whether financial reward elements are important to knowledge workers, and to show that the presence and level of these rewards are important when attracting knowledge workers.the following research question was derived: • do the type, levels and presence of financial reward elements influence employees’ perception of the attractiveness of a job? the following proposition was derived from the research question: • proposition 1: financial reward elements (remuneration, benefits and variable pay) have an effect on job attractiveness. contribution to field this study adds to the body of remuneration knowledge. there are limited empirical studies that have used social science research to demonstrate a causal link in the attractiveness of financial reward elements within a controlled or manipulated environment; this study builds on research from pregnolato (2010). furthermore, there is limited empirical research in south africa that highlights the level and combinations of financial reward elements that are attractive for talented knowledge employees (nieuwenhuizen, 2009).the use of full-factorial experiments is limited within the domain of industrial and organisational psychology research. therefore, another contribution lies in the method that was used to determine whether various financial reward elements are causally linked to job attractiveness for knowledge workers. using an experimental approach adds to the body of social science research as limited studies have identified the attractiveness of financial reward elements in a controlled environment, and none have identified causal relationships between financial rewards and the level of perceived attractiveness of a job position (nieuwenhuizen, 2009; pregnolato, 2010). what will follow a review of the literature focusing on the role of financial reward elements in explaining job attractiveness is investigated next. a comprehensive description of the research methodology is then presented, followed by the results and a discussion thereof in the next sections. literature review remuneration remuneration is cash payments provided from an employer to an employee in exchange for the services rendered. the most common form of remuneration is a salary or fixed pay and the amount is usually determined by the organisation’s pay structure (worldatwork, 2011).mitchell and mickel (1999) further propose that money consists of three components, namely affective, symbolic and behavioural components. the affective component suggests that on one end of a continuum there are some people who view money as important and valuable, whilst on the other end some people perceive the value of money as bad and evil. symbolically, money is associated with attributes that most people strive for. these include achievement and recognition, status and respect, freedom and control and power. money is often used to recognise accomplishments; it can provide the luxury of time and autonomy as well as power and access to resources (mitchell & mickel, 1999). the behavioural component focuses on people’s actions such as investing money (mitchell & mickel, 1999). lievens, decaesteker, coetsier and geirnaert (2001) suggest that remuneration policies are malleable and organisations can distinguish themselves from competitors by offering different levels of remuneration. the symbolic component of money is particularly important for attraction purposes as the level of pay is an important organisational characteristic that influences people’s initial assessment of job attractiveness (lievens et al., 2001). the level of pay also acts as a vehicle for satisfying human needs such as status, achievement and recognition (barber & bretz, 2000). in addition, cable and judge (1994) suggest that pay level has a direct effect on employee attraction because it determines the level of purchasing power. the higher the level of pay, the greater the purchasing power. an organisation’s remuneration system may influence the attractiveness of a job because remuneration systems can act as signalling devices that convey information about an organisation’s values, culture, philosophy and practices (rynes, 1987). previous studies have also found remuneration to be one of the most important job attributes that applicants consider when looking for a job (boswell, roehling, lepine & moynihan, 2003; jurgensen, 1978; tornikoski, 2011; van rooy, 2010). therefore, it is accepted that individuals are more attracted to organisations that offer higher levels of pay. employee benefits worldatwork (2011, p. 5) defines benefits as ‘programs an employer uses to supplement the cash compensation that employees receive’. armstrong and murlis (2004) suggest that benefits provide a quantifiable value for employees and they may be deferred or contingent, like pension schemes, health and welfare plans and sick pay, or they may be immediate benefits such as company cars (armstrong & murlis, 2004). employee benefits serve as an attraction tool as they provide for the actual or perceived personal needs of employees such as security and in some cases they also provide assets (e.g. company cars) in addition to pay (armstrong & murlis, 2004). employees view the benefits they receive as the extent to which their organisations value their contributions and care about their well-being (jensen, mcmullen & stark, 2007; rousseau & ho, 2000). an employee attraction and retention survey by worldatwork (2007) found that 95% of the participants rated medical plans as having a moderate to high impact on employee attraction. similarly, more than 90% of the participants indicated that paid vacation has a moderate to high impact on employee attraction and retention. according to dulebohn, molloy, pichler and murray (2009), the renewed interest amongst applicants and employees in benefit packages can be attributed to trends such as the increasing number of women in the labour force and rising costs of benefits such as medical cover. andrew (2012) notes that south africans are paying up to five times more on health care than other nations. performance and financial recognition most managers and employees perceive the performance appraisal process as a means to obtain a salary increase or cash bonuses as a reward for their performance (elegbe, 2010). according to elegbe (2010), this perception is so strong that the performance appraisal processes has become meaningless if it is not linked to pay or rewards. grigoriadis and bussin (2007) suggest that it has become more difficult for organisations to differentiate between high-performing and low-performing employees based on their salaries alone. furthermore, miceli and heneman (2000) suggest that organisations hiring from competitive labour markets are required to offer higher cash incentives in order to attract the best candidates. as a result, many organisations have adopted variable pay schemes, which are aimed at attracting talented individuals, differentiating employees and giving greater monetary recognition to high-performing employees (armstrong & murlis, 2004; grigoriadis & bussin, 2007; jensen et al., 2007). organisations that offer variable pay are more attractive to people who are performance or reward driven and value monetary recognition.sutherland and jordaan (2004) suggest that knowledge workers value independence and individualism; therefore, personal achievement and recognition is an important motivator at work. method top ↑ research approach this study followed a quantitative research approach and a 23 full-factorial experimental design (field experiment) was used to investigate the effect of financial reward elements on employees’ perceptions of job attractiveness. the experiment consisted of two levels of remuneration (low remuneration vs high remuneration), two levels of financial benefits (the presence of benefits vs no benefits) and two levels of variable pay (the presence of variable pay vs no variable pay). the dependent variable was job attractiveness. measures participants a convenience sampling approach was used for this study in order to maximise responses within the logistical and financial constraints. the questionnaire was distributed to companies in cape town and johannesburg, as well as employees who are members of the south african rewards association (sara). two hundred and twenty questionnaires were distributed and 205 questionnaires were returned. thirty-six participants were excluded from the analysis as their responses contained more than 20% missing data. consequently, the data from 169 completed questionnaires were analysed. this equates to a 76% response rate, which is considered to be high given that online surveys typically have a response rate of 7% (bhattacherjee, 2012). the response group consisted of different age, gender, race and job level groups. measuring instruments the questionnaire was self-reported, consisted of two sub-scales, job attraction and total rewards, and contained 32 closed-ended items in total. the mean time to complete the full questionnaire was approximately 10 minutes.job attraction: a five-item organisational attraction scale by highhouse, lievens and sinar (2003) was adapted to measure job attraction. highhouse et al. reported satisfactory reliability for this measure (cronbach’s alpha = 0.88). in addition, the scale consisted of relatively few items (i.e. five items). according to devellis (2003), shorter scales place less of a burden on respondents. the scale was adapted by replacing the word ‘company’ in the original scale with the word ‘job’. a sample item of the original organisational attraction scale is ‘i am interested in learning more about this company’. this item was adapted to ‘i am interested in learning more about this job’. participants were asked to respond to the five items using a five-point likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). total rewards: participants were asked to complete a total rewards questionnaire, which was developed using the worldatwork total rewards model (pregnolato, 2010). the aim of this item set was to determine which total reward elements were considered most attractive. the scale consisted of 20 items which covered the five dimensions of the total rewards model, namely: (1) performance and recognition, (2) work-life balance, (3) learning, (4) career advancement and (5) remuneration and benefits (pregnolato, 2010). the dimensions of total rewards had moderate cronbach’s alpha values that ranged from 0.51 to 0.71, based on the previous study (pregnolato, 2010). participants were asked to respond using a five-point likert-type scale where 1 represented ‘not at all important’ and 5 ‘very important’. demographics and career information: a demographics and career information section was included at the end of the questionnaire. demographic information included age, gender, race and country of origin. career information included length of employment in current organisation, job position and industry. manipulation check: a manipulation check was conducted to determine whether the financial reward manipulations produced the intended effect in the kind of respondents that would participate in the study. the manipulation check consisted of qualitative and quantitative questions. the aim was to verify the difference between the various manipulations. a sample question for remuneration was ‘what do you think would be a high and low salary?’ this included a follow-up question such as ‘do you consider earning below the 50th percentile of the market to be a high or low salary?’ a sample question for benefits and variable pay was ‘what do you consider benefits (or variable pay) to consist of when given as a reward package?’ the qualitative questions were followed by a request to rate the level of attractiveness of the six manipulated financial rewards on a five-point likert-type scale (1 = very unattractive; 5 = very attractive). design eight job advertisements for a fictitious position were designed (23 or 2 × 2 × 2 = 8). the different levels and combinations of financial reward elements were manipulated according to the design matrix illustrated in table 1. table 1: a 23 design showing the eight experimental groups and the mean score for perceived job attractiveness achieved for each. for remuneration, +1 represents remuneration that is above the 75th percentile of the market whilst –1 represents remuneration that is at or below the 50th percentile of the market. for benefits, +1 indicates that benefits are present (offered), which pregnolato (2010) classifies as employer contributes 100% of total retirement fund contribution plus highest level of medical cover, whilst –1 indicates that there are no benefits. for variable pay, +1 indicates that variable pay is present (offered), which is represented by a 13th cheque as well as a performance bonus and share options (pregnolato, 2010), whilst –1 indicates that there is no variable pay. eight different versions of the job advertisement were used as stimuli to determine the effect of financial rewards on perceived job attractiveness. advertisements were chosen to improve external validity as they represent real-life situations. these advertisements were also designed so as not to include any additional information that could influence their attractiveness for some respondents (for example, a brand or reference to other aspects of the employee value proposition on offer). before distributing the advertisements, a manipulation check was conducted to determine whether participants understood the job advertisements in the way that was intended (e.g. low remuneration vs high remuneration as discussed above). the software programme qualtrics was used to randomly assign participants to each experimental group and to so ensure that the groups were homogenous and therefore comparable. random assignment of participants to the eight different conditions (advertisements) meant an even distribution. the groups were found not to be significantly different on any demographic variable, and were therefore considered to be similar and comparable. eight versions of an advertisement for a job position were developed and these were randomly presented to participants when they accessed the survey (random assignment to a condition) using qualtrics. each participant received one advertisement followed by a questionnaire to assess their perception of the level of attractiveness of the advertised position. thereafter participants were asked to complete a second questionnaire (total rewards questionnaire). analysis as part of the manipulation check described above (i.e. prior to administration of the full research questionnaire), a paired sample t-test (n = 12) was conducted to determine if the manipulated financial reward elements produced significantly different job attractiveness scores. this was in fact the case for all three manipulations of the reward elements.descriptive analysis was used to assess the nature of the data whilst a full-factorial analysis of variance (anova) was used to assess the effect of the financial reward elements on perceived job attractiveness. all statistical analyses, including reliability analysis, factor analysis and anova, were performed using spss for windows, version 21. validity principal component analysis (pca) was used to test the unidimensionality of the job attraction scale. the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy and bartlett’s test of sphericity were conducted to determine whether it was appropriate to proceed with pca. according to burns and burns (2008), the kmo measure should be greater than 0.5 and bartlett’s test should be significant in order for factor analysis to be appropriate. a significant bartlett’s test shows that there is some degree of correlation between the variables (burns & burns, 2008). results top ↑ demographic characteristics of the sample the demographic characteristics of the sample are depicted in table 2. table 2: demographic characteristics of the sample. the ages of the respondents (n = 169) ranged from 22 to 66 years (m = 35.4; sd = 10.3). the average number of years of employment was 7.2 years (sd = 5.5). the range of number of years of employment was 6 months to more than 20 years. table 2 indicates a predominately white sample (56%). it is likely that these participants are reflective of the current racial profile of knowledge workers in south africa. according to pregnolato (2010), knowledge workers operate at different levels in an organisation. table 2 indicates that most of the employed participants are in non-managerial roles, with participants in middle management and senior management having nearly equal representation. respondents were drawn from a wide range of industries. the largest response group was from human resources, followed by consulting, mining, banking and financial services and communications and media respectively. assessing unidimensionality of the job attraction scale validity the kmo measure of sampling adequacy was 0.89 and bartlett’s test was significant (χ210 = 754; p < 0.001). it was therefore deemed appropriate to proceed with pca. in terms of selecting the meaningful factors, burns and burns (2008) suggest kaiser’s rule, which is to select components with eigenvalues greater than 1 as they explain more variance than an individual item in the data set. the pca revealed that there was only one factor with an eigenvalue greater than 1 (eigenvalue = 3.98) for the job attractiveness scale and it accounted for 79.7% of the variance. the scree plot, using catell’s scree test, also suggested that there was only one factor as the curve begins to flatten between factors 2 and 3. with regard to the component matrix, factor loadings of less than 0.30 are considered insignificant and are suppressed (burns & burns, 2008).all five items of the job attraction scale loaded significantly on one component (factor loadings = 0.81 < r < 0.93), which was labelled job attractiveness. based on this basket of evidence the scale could be considered unidimensional and the factor it was assumed to measure was the attractiveness of the job. reliability the internal consistency of the job attraction scale was assessed using cronbach’s alpha. the scale consisted of five items and showed satisfactory reliability (cronbach’s α = 0.93). with regard to the corrected item-total correlations, burns and burns (2008) suggest that the rule of thumb is to delete any items with a corrected item-total correlation of less than 0.30. in this case, no items were deleted as all five items had item-total correlations greater than 0.30 (corrected item-total correlations = 0.72 < r < 0.89). the job attraction scale was thus also considered to be reliable. assessing the total rewards scale validity pca was used to determine the underlying factor structure of the total rewards scale. pregnolato (2010) suggests that the factors that make up the total rewards scale are independent. therefore, pca using varimax with kaiser normalisation rotation was selected as varimax is an orthogonal rotation strategy that treats factors as being independent and maintains the uncorrelated nature of the factors with one another (burns & burns, 2008). in addition, varimax increases the interpretability by rotating factors to ensure that there is more discrimination between high and low loading variables (burns & burns, 2008).the kmo and bartlett’s test of sphericity showed that it was appropriate to proceed with pca (kmo = 0.77; χ2190 = 991; p < 0.001). the scree plot, using catell’s scree test, confirmed the presence of four factors (burns & burns, 2008). seven items were removed after the first round of pca as there was evidence of cross-loading (i.e. a difference in factor loadings of > 0.25 on two factors). a repeated pca showed evidence of cross-loading for an additional two items. the third round of pca showed cross-loading for one item and this item was deleted. the fourth round of pca was accepted as the final factor structure as the remaining ten items had factor loadings above 0.30 and there was no evidence of cross-loading. table 3 illustrates the items within the total rewards scale that loaded onto four factors and explained 67.27% of the total variance. three items loaded significantly on factor 1 (eigenvalue = 2.83; explained variance = 28.3%), three items loaded on factor 2 (eigenvalue = 1.51; explained variance = 15.1%), two items loaded significantly on factor 3 (eigenvalue = 1.29; explained variance = 12.9%) and two items loaded on factor 4 (eigenvalue = 1.10; explained variance = 10.9%). table 3: factor analysis for the total rewards scale. the factors were labelled remuneration and benefits, learning and career advancement, work-life balance (practices) and work-life balance (organisational climate) respectively. it should be noted that items that originally were meant to measure work-life balance were divided into two separate sets of items. one set of items (factor 3) reflected the underlying constructs of work-life balance practices such as a balanced lifestyle and flexible work arrangements, whereas factor 4 reflected work-life balance factors such as social friendships at work, which contribute to the organisational climate. reliability the spss item-analysis technique was used to assess the internal consistency of the total rewards scale. reliability analysis was conducted on the pca-derived measurement model. the pca-derived total reward scale comprised of four factors. the remuneration and benefits factor consisted of three items and it showed a cronbach’s alpha of 0.74, which indicated satisfactory reliability. no items were removed as the corrected item-total correlations were all acceptable (r > 0.30). the learning and career advancement factor consisted of three items and it showed a moderate reliability (cronbach’s α = 0.62). the corrected item-total correlations were above 0.30; therefore, no items were removed. the work-life balance (practices) factor included two items and it showed a moderate reliability (cronbach’s α = 0.61). no items were removed as the corrected item-total correlations were all above 0.30. lastly, the work-life balance (organisational climate) factor consisted of two items and showed a cronbach’s alpha of 0.61, which indicated a moderate reliability. no items were removed as the corrected item-total correlations of the items were acceptable. descriptive statistics job attractiveness job attractiveness was measured on a five-point likert-type scale with 5 being the highest score, 3 being the midpoint and 1 being the lowest score. financial reward elements and job attractiveness remuneration that is above the 75th percentile of the market had the highest mean attractiveness score (mean = 3.59, sd = 0.7), followed by benefits present and variable pay present (mean = 3.21, sd = 1.00; mean = 3.14, sd = 0.99, respectively). participants perceived high remuneration (above the 75th percentile of the market) to be more attractive than low remuneration (at or below the 50th percentile of the market) and having benefits and variable pay present as a reward package was more attractive than no benefits or variable pay. a summary of the descriptive statistics are presented in table 4. table 4: descriptive statistics of the manipulated financial reward elements. there was more variability in attractiveness scores for remuneration that is at or below the 50th percentile of the market. the response for lower levels of remuneration was also positively skewed, which suggested that the majority of the participants had low attractiveness scores for remuneration that is at or below the 50th percentile of the market. in contrast, there was less variability on attractiveness scores for remuneration that is above the 75th percentile of the market, as scores were clustered at the high end of the scale. these results are illustrated in figure 1. figure 1: comparison of the means for perceived job attractiveness based on two levels of remuneration. compared to having no benefits, the distribution for benefits present was slightly skewed to the left (negatively skewed). this suggested that the higher frequencies are concentrated towards the high scores and that having benefits was more attractive than no benefits. these results are illustrated in figure 2. figure 2: comparison of the means for perceived job attractiveness based on two levels of benefits. having variable pay had a slightly higher mean than no variable pay. in addition, compared to no variable pay, the scores for variable pay present were relatively clustered towards the high end of the scale which suggested that having variable pay was more attractive than no variable pay. these results are illustrated in figure 3. figure 3: comparison of the means for perceived job attractiveness based on two levels of variable pay. figure 4 shows that a reward package consisting of remuneration that is above the 75th percentile of the market and having benefits present was more attractive than a reward package comprising of remuneration above the 75th percentile of the market but without benefits. figure 4: box plot of a reward package consisting of remuneration and benefits. similarly, a reward package consisting of remuneration that is above the 75th percentile of the market with variable pay was more attractive than having remuneration above the 75th percentile of the market with no variable pay. remuneration at or below the 50th percentile of the market with no variable pay was the least attractive compared to remuneration at or below the 50th percentile with variable pay present. this is illustrated in figure 5. figure 5: box plot of a reward package consisting of remuneration and variable pay. in terms of benefits and variable pay, figure 6 below shows that having both of them as a reward package was more attractive than having benefits only. it is worth noting that having only benefits as a reward was equally attractive as having variable pay only. figure 6: box plot of a reward package consisting of benefits and variable pay. total rewards and job attractiveness mean attractiveness scores for each of the four total reward dimensions are presented in table 5. remuneration and benefits were rated as the most important total rewards in attraction, followed closely by work-life balance (practices) and learning and career advancement. work-life balance (organisational climate) had the lowest rating in terms of its overall importance in attraction. it should be noted that the means, at least for three of the four, were very similar to one another. table 5: descriptive statistics of the total reward elements. analysis of variance a full-factorial anova was used to determine the effect of financial reward elements on job attractiveness. this technique was used as it examines the individual and joint effect of the independent variables (remuneration, benefits and variable pay) on one dependent variable (job attractiveness). bhattacherjee (2012) and simmons, nelson and simonsohn (2011) suggest that each experimental condition or group should have least 20 participants in order to conduct a factorial anova.in this case, experiment group 2, which consisted of remuneration above the 75th percentile of the market, benefits present and no variable pay, had 19 participants. burns and burns (2008) suggest that an anova is a relatively robust technique and having 19 participants is sufficiently close to 20 participants; therefore, it was deemed appropriate to use an anova. according to burns and burns (2008), statistical tests such as an anova should only be used when normality (or close approximations to it) can be assumed. therefore, tests for normality (kolmogorov-smirnov and shapiro-wilk tests) and homogeneity of variance (levene’s tests) were performed in each of the cases to determine whether it was appropriate to proceed with the anova analysis. the sizes of the groups are reflected in table 1. the mean attractiveness scores for each condition are also summarised in table 1. it should be noted that the highest mean attractiveness scores were achieved for the four conditions where high pay (> 75th percentile) was present and were lowest when low pay (< 50th percentile) was present. a reward package consisting of remuneration that is above the 75th percentile of the market and having benefits present (m = 3.62) was more attractive than a reward package comprising of remuneration above the 75th percentile of the market with variable pay present (m = 3.48). a reward package consisting of remuneration that is at or below the 50th percentile of the market without any benefits or variable pay was perceived as the least attractive reward package (m = 1.63), whilst the highest mean score was achieved when presenting remuneration that is at or above the 75th percentile and having benefits and having variable pay (m = 3.91). the normality (or close approximations to it) assumption for the financial reward elements (remuneration, benefits and variable pay) were satisfied. in cases where it was not satisfied, it was believed that an anova was robust enough to deal with deviations from normality. therefore, levene’s test of homogeneity was performed to determine whether the second assumption of an anova was satisfied. the levene’s test was not significant (f7,161 = 1.25; p = 0.28), which showed that the homogeneity of variance assumption for the anova was supported. it was thus appropriate to conduct a factorial anova. the distribution of the residuals was also tested and there were no biases present in the data. in addition, the homogeneity of the groups was tested and they were found to be homogenous. the results of the anova are illustrated in table 6 and revealed that there were significant main effects for remuneration (f1 = 109.56; p < 0.001; partial ɛ2 = 0.41), benefits (f1 = 16.46; p < 0.001, partial ɛ2 = 0.09) and variable pay (f1 = 6.40; p < 0.001; partial ɛ2 = 0.04). in addition, the eta-squared effect sizes and observed power showed that remuneration had the strongest main effect. burns and burns (2008) suggest that measures of effect size complement tests of statistical significance as they provide information about the amount of impact an independent variable has on the observed effect (dependent variable). therefore, measures of effect size can be used to rank several independent variables within an experiment as an indication of the relative importance of each variable. as mentioned above, remuneration had the strongest impact on job attractiveness followed by benefits and variable pay respectively. this result supported the hypothesis that financial reward elements (remuneration, benefits and variable pay) have an effect on job attractiveness. the results further suggested that remuneration was considered to be more important or attractive than benefits and variable pay. table 6: results of full-factorial analysis of variance showing the impact of financial rewards on job attraction. main effects were found for each of the financial reward elements; however, no significant interaction effects were found between remuneration, benefits and variable pay at the 95% confidence level. the three-way interaction effect (remuneration × benefits × variable pay) is significant when applying a 90% confidence level (p = 0.088 or p < 0.1), which, given the small sample size, can be justified. no significant two-way interaction effects were observed. gender, race and age had no significant main effects on job attractiveness. discussion top ↑ outline of the results total rewards the total rewards questionnaire identified which dimensions of the total rewards model are considered important to knowledge workers when deciding on a job position. the results of the total rewards questionnaire showed that the four dimensions of the total rewards model, namely (1) remuneration and benefits, (2) work-life balance (practices), (3) work-life balance (organisational climate) and (4) learning and career advancement, were almost equally important to knowledge workers. remuneration and benefits achieved the highest mean attractiveness score, and work-life balance (organisational climate) the lowest. this suggested that knowledge workers value remuneration and benefits the most and they are likely to respond favourably to any total reward mix offered by organisations. the problem with this approach, however, is that it does not discern between the reward elements. it offers each reward element separately and asks the question of attractiveness, resulting in a case of if offered, people would take all forms of reward at the highest level. this kind of outcome is less useful to organisations when optimising their reward strategies and offerings. financial reward elements and job attractiveness the experiment showed that all three financial reward elements (remuneration, employee benefits and variable pay) significantly caused or influenced perceived attractiveness of a position, with remuneration being by far the most important or influential of the three. furthermore, the three financial reward elements were found to interact with one another. this means that each financial reward had an independent effect on job attractiveness, but also that in combination they influence job attractiveness (but only when all three are present). a possible explanation is that each financial reward element contributes to economic and personal security in different ways. for example, remuneration and variable pay are used to obtain basic needs such as food and clothing whilst benefits are associated with security needs such as medical aid and insurance. given the current economic situation in south africa, where the state is recovering from an economic recession, it is likely that employees value tangible financial rewards in order to fulfil their basic security and economic needs.this study expanded on previous research conducted by pregnolato (2010) and it has made a number of contributions to the attraction and total rewards literature. firstly, there is limited empirical social science research in south africa that highlights a set of specific financial reward elements (remuneration, employee benefits and variable pay) that will attract talented employees. few researchers have also focused on the financial reward elements only; researchers such as van rooy (2010) and pregnolato (2010) focused on the financial as well as non-financial aspects of the total rewards model. the current study found that the financial reward elements deemed important for talent retention (pregnolato, 2010) were also perceived as attractive inducements for talent attraction purposes. this suggests that financial rewards are important strategic resources that can be used in the area of talent management. in addition, the use of full-factorial experiments is limited in the domain of organisational psychology. an additional contribution therefore lies in the method that was used to determine whether various financial reward elements are attractive to knowledge workers. using an experimental approach adds to the body of social science research as no prior studies have identified the attractiveness of financial reward elements in a controlled environment, and causal relationships between financial rewards and the level of perceived attractiveness of a job position have also been explored. this links directly to hertzberg, mausner and snyderman’s (1957) theory, which divides job satisfaction into psychological factors and hygiene factors. it can be argued that if the hygiene factors are removed, it is unlikely that workers will be satisfied. psychological factors constitute elements such as achievement and advancement whilst hygiene factors constitute elements such as organisational policies, quality of supervision, working conditions, salary, relationship with subordinates and peers, status and security. employee engagement has its roots in the seminal work conducted on employee motivation in the form of intrinsic motivation (hertzberg et al., 1957). practical implications the findings of the current study make a practical contribution to organisations concerned with talent scarcity that are searching for effective methods to attract talented candidates. according to elegbe (2010), what employers consider to be attractive inducements may not be attractive to potential employees. the findings of the current study provide organisations with an indication of employees’ perceived level of attractiveness of the three financial reward elements. organisations should consider the levels at which these financial rewards are offered when developing their attraction strategies, particularly in terms of the basic pay that is offered. in addition, organisations may now have greater insight into whether their current attraction strategies are aligned with the financial reward preferences of employees in general. limitations and recommendations even though the experiment controlled for factors that influenced job attraction (such as employer branding and psychological contract), there were still extraneous variables that could not be controlled for. therefore, a limitation of the study may be confounding variables such as the current economic environment and factors such as job stability. financial rewards are usually more appealing during periods of economic instability as they satisfy basic needs such as food and security. therefore, the results may be influenced by the effects of recovering from an economic recession. another limitation may be the fact that elements that could be specifically attractive to knowledge workers such as flexibility were not specifically considered. it is likely that the results would differ if further research was to be conducted during a period of greater economic stability.another confounding variable could be the organisational climate. since a non-random (convenience) sampling method was used, it was not possible to determine the economic status and climate of the organisations each participant belonged to. for example, some organisations may have been experiencing organisational restructuring such as retrenchment or a merger. these activities may influence factors such as job security which could have contributed to employees being more attracted to specific financial rewards during this period. therefore, it is recommended that future research adopt a systematic random sampling method where organisational climate of the sample is known, as it could produce different responses. conclusion winning the war for talent is about the timeless principles of attracting, motivating and retaining talented employees. the current study focused on attracting talent and the aim was to determine whether financial reward elements, including remuneration, benefits and variable pay, are still important for attracting knowledge workers. results showed that all three financial reward elements significantly influenced job attractiveness, with remuneration having the most impact on job attractiveness. in addition, having high remuneration (remuneration above the 75th percentile of the market), benefits (employer contributes 100% of total retirement fund contribution plus highest level of medical cover) and variable pay (13th cheque as well as a performance bonus and share options) was more attractive than having low remuneration (remuneration that is at or below the 50th percentile of the market) and benefits and variable pay. it is also interesting to note that being offered low remuneration and variable pay was less attractive than high remuneration and no variable pay.if organisations are to attract the best talent, they are going to have to offer higher levels of pay. variable pay and benefits add to the attractiveness of a job, but are not enough to stand on their own. one could argue that variable pay and benefits are a necessary but not sufficient condition for attractiveness. also, when attracting talent it would be wise to emphasise the fact that the offer is of a higher level, if that is the case. the study further showed that gender, race and age had no effect on the perceived attractiveness of the financial reward elements. acknowledgements top ↑ the authors acknowledge professor charlene gerber for her guidance and assistance with the research design of this study. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.s. (university of cape town) was the principle investigator, project leader and academic supervisor and was responsible for the design and execution of the project. a.h. (university of cape town) was responsible for fieldwork and writing up the research. professor m.b. (university of johannesburg) contributed to the preparation of the manuscript. references top ↑ african association for public administration and management. (2008). enhancing professionalization of human resource management in the public sector in africa . retrieved february 2013, from http://www.aapam-org/apsl.htmlaguinis, h., gottfredson, r.k., & joo, h. (2012). using performance management to win the talent war. business horizons, 55 , 609–616. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2012.05.007 aiman-smith, l., bauer, t.n., & cable, d.m. (2001). are you attracted? do you intend to pursue? a recruiting policy capturing study. journal of business and psychology, 16 (2), 219–237. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1011157116322 andrew, m. (2012, 07 september). south africa’s healthcare declining. mail and guardian . retrieved february 2013, from http://mg.co.za/article/2012-09-07-motsoaledi-sahealth-care-declining armstrong, m., & murlis, h. (2004). reward management: a handbook of remuneration strategy and practice. (5th ed.). london, england: kogan page limited. barber, a.e., & bretz, r.d. (2000). compensation, attraction and retention. in s.l. rynes, & b. gerhart (eds.), compensation in organizations (pp. 273–310). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass publishers. bhattacherjee, a. (2012). social science research: principles, methods, and practices . usf open access textbooks collection. retrieved february 2013, from http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/oa_textbooks/3 birt, m., wallis, t., & winternitz, g. (2004). talent retention in a changing workplace: an investigation of variables considered important to south african talent. south african journal of business management, 35(2), 25–31. boswell, w.r., roehling, m.v., lepine, m.a., & moynihan, l.m. (2003). individual job choice decisions and the impact of job attributes and recruitment practices: a longitudinal field study. human resource management, 42 (1), 23–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.10062 burns, r.b., & burns, r.a. (2008). business research methods and statistics using spss. london, england: sage publications ltd. bussin, m. (2003). doctor of commerce research report. johannesburg, south africa: rand afrikaans university. cable, d.m., & judge, t.a. (1994). pay preferences and job search decisions: a person-organization fit perspective. personnel psychology, 47 , 317–348. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1994.tb01727.x d’annunzio-green, n. (2008). managing the talent management pipeline: towards a greater understanding of senior managers’ perspectives in the hospitality and tourism sector. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 20 (7), 807–819. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09596110810897628 devellis, f.r. (2003). scale development: theory and applications. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. dulebohn, j.h., molloy, j.c., pichler, s.m., & murray, b. (2009). employee benefits: literature review and emerging issues. human resource management review, 19 , 86–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2008.10.001 elegbe, j.a. (2010). talent management in the developing world: adopting a global perspective. england: gower publishing limited. grigoriadis, c., & bussin, m. (2007). current practice with regard to short-term incentive schemes for middle managers. sa journal of human resource management, 5(1), 45–53. hertzberg, f., mausner, b., & snyderman, b. (1957). the motivation to work. new york, ny: wiley. highhouse, s., lievens, f., & sinar, e.f. (2003). measuring attraction to organisations. educational and psychological measurement, 63 (6), 986–1001. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013164403258403 holcombe-ehrhart, k., & ziegert, j.c. (2005). why are individuals attracted to organisations? journal of management, 31 (6), 901–919. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206305279759 holland, p., sheehan, c., & de cieri, h. (2007). attracting and retaining talent: exploring human resources development trends in australia. human resource development international, 10 (3), 247–262. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13678860701515158 jensen, d., mcmullen, t., & stark, m. (2007). the manager’s guide to rewards. new york, ny: hay group inc. jurgensen, c.e. (1978). job preferences: what makes a job good or bad? journal of applied psychology , 63, 267–276. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.63.3.267 kearney, r. (2003). the determinants of state employee compensation. review of public personnel administration, 23 (4), 305–322. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0734371x03259279 lievens, f., decaesteker, c., coetsier, p., & geirnaert, j. (2001). organizational attractiveness for prospective applicants: a person-organisation fit perspective. applied psychology: an international review, 50 (1), 30–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1464-0597.00047 miceli, m.p., & heneman, r.l. (2000). contexual determinants of variable pay plan design: a proposed research framework. human resource management review , 10(3), 289–305. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(00)00030-9 mitchell, t.r., & mickel, a.e. (1999). the meaning of money: an individual difference perspective. the academy of management review, 24(3), 568–578. nieuwenhuizen, c. (2009). scarcity, requirements and remuneration of applicants with management qualifications in the private-, publicand higher education sectors. journal of contemporary management, 6, 310–324. pregnolato, m. (2010). total rewards that retain: a study of demographic preferences . master’s dissertation, school of management studies, university of cape town, cape town, south africa. retrieved february 2013, from http://hdl.handle.net/ 11180/2509 rousseau, d.m., & ho, v.t. (2000). psychological contract issues in compensation. in s.l. rynes, & b. gerhart (eds.), compensation in organizations (pp. 273–310). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass publishers. rumpel, s., & medcof, j.w. (2006). total rewards: good fit for tech workers. research technology management, 49(5), 27–35. rynes, s.l. (1987). compensation strategies for recruiting. topics in total compensation, 2, 185–196. simmons, j.p., nelson, l.d., & simonsohn, u. (2011). false-positive psychology: undisclosed flexibility in data collection and analysis allows presenting anything as significant. psychological science, 1, 1–8. sutherland, m., & jordaan, w. (2004). factors affecting the retention of knowledge workers. sa journal of human resource management, 2 (2), 55–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v2i2.39 tarique, i., & schuler, r. s. (2010). global talent management: literature review, integrative framework, and suggestions for further research. journal of world business, 45 , 122–133. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2009.09.019 tornikoski, c. (2011). expatriate compensation: a total reward perspective . doctoral dissertation, emylon business school, écully, france, & university of vaasa, vaasa, finland. retrieved february 2013, from http://hal.grenobleem.com/docs/00/67/92/29/pdf/tornikoski_29-06-2011_hal.pdf van rooy, d.j. (2010). total rewards strategy for s multi-generational workforce . master of business administration dissertation, gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. retrieved february 2013, from http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-07232011-130927/ worldatwork. (2007). attraction and retention: the impact and prevalence of work life and benefit programs. scottsdale, az: worldatwork press. worldatwork. (2011). total rewards model . retrieved february 2013, from http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/adimlink?id=28330&nonav=y book information title: a unique migration: south african doctors fleeing to australia book cover authored by: peter c. arnold isbn: 978-0-646-54196-9 publisher: createspace, united states of america; 2011, r590.50* *book price at time of review book review information reviewer: werner havenga1 affiliation: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa email: whavenga@uj.ac.za postal address: po box 524, auckland park, 2006, south africa how to cite this article: havenga, w. (2011). reviewing a unique migration: south african doctors fleeing to australia. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #372, 2 pages. doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.372 copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) reviewing a unique migration: south african doctors fleeing to australia this book, based on a survey done amongst south african doctors in australia, provides a clear and detailed account of all the elements that influenced theirmigration to that country. the book is easy to read and understand. the author has written it from a non-academic perspective. this widens its readership. the flow of the ten chapters in the book is excellent. the beginning of each chapter presents its aim and each chapter concludes with a concise summary. the author has supported the content of the book with ample graphs, figures and tables so that even a layman can read and understand it. the author has succeeded in producing a well-timed book that examines the movement of skilled professional human capital from a third world (or developing) country to a first world (or developed) country. the book looks at south african medical doctors who have left the country. the author has attempted to answer a number of questions. they include: • who are the doctors who have left south africa? • why did they leave south africa? • what work are they doing in australia? • how qualified were they when they left? one can say that this book, based on a thorough scientific survey amongst 469 respondents, gives an overview of this atypical migration. it also shows that oneneeds to analyse the social backgrounds and life circumstances of those who migrated in order to understand their motives for doing so. this publication has much-needed information that the australian and south african governments and health care divisions of these countries can use to retainmedical practitioners intending to migrate to other parts of the world. the fact that south africa has a national health care plan may create new factors that will cause more doctors and other health care workers to emigrate. this is not a textbook for students. however, it may serve as supplementary reading for postgraduate students and researchers in the fields of human resource management (hrm), labour economics, sociology and industrial sociology. it is also highly recommended for health care workers and doctors who intend to emigrate to other countries. chapter one concentrates on the political and social effects of the apartheid era. it covers terminology relevant to the period, the particular levels of a multilayered society into which the apartheid government slotted people, the effects of legally enforced discrimination, the different cultures and their influence as well as theeffects of religion and apartheid. chapter one also covers jewish sensitivities and their flight as educated south africans. there are many references to the migration of jews throughout the book. the chapter also discusses very critically and directly the effects of racial classification on study at medical schools in south africa. chapter two reveals that the ethnic variation in south africa has determined the nature of the emigration of doctors to a significant extent. the author conducted an ethnic analysis and used basic statistical techniques to address a number of issues and to pinpoint race, university of study, religion, location of practice, medical experience and gender. the responses to the author’s survey and his overall analysis of the composition of south african doctors in australia show that it is notfeasible to draw any general conclusions about them. in chapter three, the author examines the reasons why the respondents left south africa closely. the survey groups the respondents’ reasons into four eras. itgives a clear picture of the dissatisfaction with living in south africa. the author also discusses in depth the ethnic differences in emigration, during and after the apartheid era. the findings of the survey confirm the importance of the push as opposed to the pull factors in the move to australia. chapter four covers the question of why doctors from south africa chose to migrate to australia. it shows that the choice of destination relates to each respondent’sbackground. for example, afrikaans-speaking respondents were not keen on migrating to the united states of america (usa) and preferred canada and new zealand, whilst jewish respondents preferred the usa and israel. the main reasons for choosing australia are the attractive lifestyle, having family in australia and job opportunities. for those doctors accustomed to cosmopolitan city life, the four largest cities in australia proved to be the main attraction. the next chapter shows that the major obstacles to emigration have been the approaches the medical registering bodies in the different states in australia have taken. it discusses the tightening of restrictions for registering to practice in australia and their relaxation again in 2006. it also refers to varying examinationdifficulties. the chapter gives special attention to the recognition of specialists. in chapter six, the author deals with the experiences of migrant doctors and addresses the question of what they have done in australia as well as how theaustralians received them. it compares the percentages of respondents in different areas of specialisation with australian doctors. it also addresses the location of the respondents, when they migrated and their ethnicity. the author concludes that, for the vast majority of respondents, the move has been overwhelmingly positive. the objective of chapter seven is to consider the factors that are relevant to the migrant doctors’ families. it became clear from the survey that, apart from language, adapting to a new culture is a concern for older migrants. here again ethnicity plays a major role. the chapter also gives information about the family memberswho accompanied the doctors, those they left behind and relatives who joined them in australia. chapter eight places the movement of health professionals in an international context. it briefly discusses the views of international organisations, like the international labour organisation (ilo), the world health organisation (who) and the world bank. the problems of colonial medical education, medicalemigration from the british colonies and the effect of foreign medical graduates on australia gives a clear picture of international views. south africa has the fourth highest number of medical graduates who emigrate to australia. in the first six pages of chapter nine, the author gives a concise summary of his findings in the previous eight chapters of the book. it highlights the most important points and findings of the study. the very important issue that this chapter raises is that the influx of south african doctors, and what it means for australianpatients, are matters that will need to be revisited some decades from now. the remaining five pages discuss the applicability of migration theory to south african emigrant doctors. it refers to the theories of boyd, massey, faist and castles. the last chapter contains the author’s views on the ‘brain drain’ from developing (third world) countries to developed (first world) countries. he gives the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments and counter-arguments about the phenomenon. the writer has successfully surveyed and analysed the reasons for medical doctors emigrating from south africa to australia. however, the most important limitation of this book is that it offers no solution to stopping it from occurring. from the human resources perspective, the retention of highly skilled labour at the micro level (in a single business or industry) and at the macro level (in the country as a whole) is essential. researching the reasons why doctors leave south africa is commendable. however, we need a separate study to determine what methods we can use to prevent doctors from emigrating. although this was not the objective of arnold’s book, an extension of his study to include methods of preventing the emigration of skilled labour would have helped human resource practitioners to address the problem. article information authors: rina a. smith1 anne crafford1 willem j. schurink1 affiliations: 1centre for work performance, department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: rina smith email: rina.kiewiet@gmail.com postal address: po box 21121, helderkruin 1733, south africa dates: received: 08 sept. 2014 accepted: 06 mar. 2015 published: 02 june 2015 how to cite this article: smith, r.a., crafford, a., & schurink, w.j. (2015). reflections on shifts in the work identity of research team members. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #664, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.664 note: based on the unpublished m.phil. hrd thesis of rina a. smith at the centre for work performance in the department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, 2012. copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. reflections on shifts in the work identity of research team members in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • reflections on shifts in the work identity of research team members    • purpose of the study    • literature review       • defining work identity    • contemplating a guiding framework       • aspect 1: work identity involves our daily tasks       • aspect 2: the social and relational component of work identity       • aspect 3: work identity involves exploring alternative paths • method    • research approach    • research strategy    • research design       • research setting       • entrée and establishing the researcher's role       • sampling       • data-collection method       • data analysis       • strategies to ensure quality of data       • reporting • findings    • work identity case narratives       • participant 1    • participant 2       • participant 3       • participant 4       • participant 5       • participant 6 • themes    • theme 1: compass points guiding our journey    • theme 2: navigating life circumstances    • theme 3: negotiating identity and identification in the workplace    • theme 4: perception of self • discussion    • outline of the findings       • theme 1: compass points guiding our journey       • theme 2: navigating life circumstances       • theme 3: negotiating identity and identification in the workplace       • theme 4: perception of self    • practical implications of the study    • limitations, recommendations and future research • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references • appendix 1: research ethics abstract top ↑ orientation: this study explores shifts in the work identity of individual members of a research team. research purpose: the aim of the study is to explore shifts in work identity experienced by individual research team members during a project wherein they were studying work identity themselves. motivation for the study: this study seized the opportunity to do research on the shifts in work identify experienced by researchers whilst they were studying work identify as part of the south african–netherlands project for alternatives in development. this allowed the researcher the rather novel opportunity of conducting research on researchers and resulted in the project as a whole occurring at a dual level of analysis. research approach, design and method: using thematic analysis methodology in the context of qualitative field research, 10 semi-structured interviews were conducted with five participants, all of them part of the research team who were themselves involved in conducting research on work identity. the sixth member of the research team, who is also one of the authors of this article, presented data related to shifts in her own work identity in her dissertation as an auto-ethnographic account. for purposes of this article, she is referred to as participant 6. given the multiple research team members, each one of whom constituted an individual case, the researcher made use of a multiple case study approach whilst focusing on the intrinsic case. the holistic nature of description found in the case study involved every aspect of the lives of the research team members. analysis was done by means of content analysis. main findings: in exploring the shifts in work identity experienced by individual research team members, it was discovered that finding meaning and purpose in the professional activities participants engaged in was of critical importance. contextual realities and the way in which individuals approached the possibility of shifts also seemed to play a significant role. both these aspects influenced the possibility of engagement with new peer groups, contacts and role models to explore various aspects of self in order to make a transition or shift. the findings lastly emphasised work identity as fluid and as entailing an element of performance. irrespective of their life and career stage, all participants were engaged in processing possible selves. practical/managerial implications: this study has implications for organisations looking to improve productivity through an understanding of work identity. the broader project originated from the premise that work is central to building individual identity and is influenced by job and individual characteristics. it is proposed that these factors could influence work performance and, accordingly, impact on organisational performance. theoretical contribution: an application for shifts in work identity is done by positioning such shifts in a framework proposed by ibarra. the study confirms that the proposed framework is suitable for application to shifts in work identity. introduction top ↑ reflections on shifts in the work identity of research team members this particular study formed part of a research project that was done under the auspices of the south african–netherlands project for alternatives in development (sanpad) in conjunction with the centre for work performance at the university of johannesburg and the vrije universiteit, amsterdam. all sanpad participants had to research predetermined topics and had to work within the parameters of the main research question of the broader project, namely: how does an individual's work identity evolve, establish and stabilise considering the effects of different contextual factors as well as different strategies and tactics? (sanpad, 2006). the sanpad project involved a four-phase approach. phase 1 involved planning, conceptualising and operationalising aspects of the project as well as recruitment of students and capacity workshops to equip students. phase 2 involved the qualitative phase of the project, which included planning workshops between students and study leaders as well as a field trip to the manufacturing company in preparation for the interviews that followed. all students participated in conducting in-depth interviews at the manufacturing company. preliminary results were reported at a workshop at the vrije universiteit, amsterdam, and at the society for industrial and organisational psychology conference (siopsa) of 2008. phase 3 involved the quantitative phase of the project by the two phd students applying results gathered at the manufacturing company to conduct a survey at a telecommunications company. phase 4 involved the dissemination of results by means of publications and seminars: the european association of work and organizational psychology conference (eawop) 2009, which was hosted in spain, and siopsa presentations during 2009 and 2013 in south africa. purpose of the study the purpose of the study, which was concluded in 2011, was to explore shifts in work identity experienced by individual research team members during the sanpad project wherein they studied work identity themselves. this article focuses on aspects within the scope of the sanpad project plan (sanpad, 2006) and does not introduce new discussions on the larger debate on positive organisational psychology or positive organisational studies. literature review work identity changes in varying degrees, sometimes marginally, in an unhurried and almost unnoticed fashion (ibarra, 2004). at other times, a need for change in work identity may be a matter of urgency, leading to radical and even abrupt changes. this defines the particular fluid feature of identity, creating the possibility of shifts in work identity (ibarra, 2004). defining work identity the sanpad project team defined work identity as a multi-identity, multifaceted and multilayered construction of the self that shapes the roles in which individuals are involved in the employment context (lloyd, roodt & odendaal, 2011). according to ibarra (2004), work identity consists of finding identification in one's work domain, in other words in what one does, with whom one engages and how one negotiates the dynamics of change. the following definition of work identity summarises the essence of the concept: work identity involves the creation, positioning and identification of oneself within a work context, through determining preferred activities and identifying communities of practice that are relevant to engagement. work identity is dynamic and fluid, and requires continuous personal scrutiny to determine aspects in make-up that need to be developed to make an impact on a particular work milieu. (agostino, 2004; buche,  2006; du gay, 1996; gini, 1998; ibarra, 2004; kirpal, 2004; lloyd et al., 2011; sveningsson & alvesson, 2003; walsh & gordon, 2008) contemplating a guiding framework ibarra (2004) provides a useful framework for understanding work identity that focuses on the process of career transitions. a career transition involves a complete change in career and thus a fundamental change in work identity. a shift in work identity, however, involves the negotiation of work identity within a current sphere or profession, ranging from slight changes in perspectives to exploring various types of work. ibarra (2004) identifies three important aspects when considering work identity and associated shifts. aspect 1: work identity involves our daily tasks ibarra (2004, p. 18) refers to ‘what we do, the professional activities that engage us’ and to strategies and tactics that are employed to enable us to survive and reach the desired potential. chalofsky  (2010) highlights the importance of ‘the work itself’ and refers to the fulfilment of one's purpose through engaging in activities, often for the greater part of one's waking hours. this includes the mastery of work performance, searching for learning, gaining independence and being empowered. fox (1994, p. 1) supports this view and further states that ‘work touches life itself’. fox (1994) also focuses on the how, and emphasises that attitude determines how professional activities are approached. henry david thoreau said: ‘dwell as near as possible to the channel in which your life flows’ (hakim, 2007, p. 125). aspect 2: the social and relational component of work identity consistent with the basic assumption that identity is relational, ibarra (2004, p. 18) refers to ‘the company we keep, our working relationships and the professional groups to which we belong’. hakim emphasises the importance of collaboration with others and states that ‘working with others is the core of this notion’, using the migratory behaviour of wild geese as an apt example (hakim,  1994, p. 100). the importance of the social dimension is mentioned by swann, johnson and bosson (2009), who state that a sense of ‘connectedness’ through the establishment and maintenance of social connections is an important function of work. wheatley (2006, p. 68) refers to the term ‘ownership’ as: ‘the emotional investment of employees in their work’. chalofsky (2010, p. 142) terms ownership as ‘social capital’, which refers to the ‘connections among individuals, social networks and groupings, within the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness’. according to chalofsky (2010, p. 143), organisations are in fact by their very nature ‘social institutions’. identity depends on social encounters amongst individuals within a specific social, cultural and ethnic context and purpose. religion, status, gender, language and other considerations become relevant and serve to determine position in a community (abma, 1996; creed & scully, 2000; erikson,  1968; goffman, 1961; ibarra, 2004; mcadams, 2003; mcadams, josselson & lieblich, 2006; rainer, 1997; smith & sparkes, 2008; van der ross, 2010). relational identity implies that a society determines whether a story of a life is worth telling. if the story (or life) does not resonate with society, identity is not regarded as significant. stories live or die ‘according to a society's implicit understanding of what counts as a tellable story, a tellable life’ (mcadams, 2003; see also beech, 2008; erikson, 1968; illeris, 2003, 2004). aspect 3: work identity involves exploring alternative paths ibarra (2004) contends that at times in our working lives, we choose to explore alternative paths. this is often triggered by a defining moment and is made possible by the idea of an individual choosing from a range of ‘possible selves’ in redefining and re-inventing work identity. part of the process of redefining ourselves involves making use of the notion of identity as a story. stories have self-making value as the revisiting and retelling of stories and the negotiation of roles attain congruence or ‘fit’ in with continually changing circumstances (ashforth, 2001; baressi, 2006; berger, 1963; bruner, 2003; fivush & buckner, 2003; ibarra, 2004; ibarra & lineback, 2005; jones thomas & schwarzbaum, 2011;mcadams, 2003; raggatt, 2006; svenningsson & alvesson, 2003). chalofsky (2010) supports this notion with maslow's (1971, as cited by chalofsky, 2010) well-known idea of self-actualisation. he mentions maslow's research of individuals who transcended self-actualisation and became ‘devoted to a task, vocation or calling transcending the dichotomies of work and play’ that allowed the expansion of their capabilities of self to ‘virtually unlimited potential’. hakim (2007, p. 19) adds that ‘to create your future, you need to become an explorer with the mission of determining what you know and what you don’t’ (also see bridges, 1994, 1997). having explored the concept of work identity, the next section will provide some insight with regard to the research design and approach with the focus on the research question: reflections on shifts in work identity of research team members. method top ↑ research approach the research was conducted from a social constructionist perspective and entailed a process of co-constructing identity narratives between participants and the researcher (see crotty, 1998; grbich,  2007). the aim was to focus on context-specific factors that influenced the work identity of individual research team members and the meaning attached was shared by the stories told (flick,  2009; smith & sparkes, 2008). research strategy multiple case studies were used, with the focus on the intrinsic case (yin, 2003). this required an evaluation of each case in terms of its own particular background in order to develop what was perceived to be ‘the case's own issues, contexts and interpretations, its thick description’ (stake, 2005, p. 450; also see o’ reilly, 2009). the purpose of a case study is to analyse the context and the process to illuminate theoretical issues (hartley, 2006; also see denscombe, 2003). the research strategy involved the development of themes from the multiple case studies. research design research setting as mentioned previously, the research setting of the study was the sanpad project team. the focus of this study was the four master's degree students (including the researcher) and two phd students. during two sessions, two interviews were conducted with each student totalling 10 interviews. the researcher reported shifts in her own work identity by means of an auto-ethnographic account. entrée and establishing the researcher's role in accordance with the above the researcher of this study formed part of the research team and was also responsible for recording the ‘history’ and ‘lifespan’ of the project. involvement in all endeavours of the research team ensured positive engagement. sampling the initial idea was to include both the students and their study leaders in the study. one phd student withdrew from the project. given the scope of the topic, the volume of data gathered exceeded the requirements for a master's degree study. owing to the detailed analysis required by the case study design, a smaller sample was selected by the project manager and the two study leaders of the researcher. this sample included only the six students who had completed their degrees. data-collection method the topic required an approach that valued detailed descriptions about the setting, context, frame of reference of each participant, explorations of their lived experience and the meaning they attached to their experiences (marshall & rossman, 2006, p. 114; also see babbie & mouton, 2001). shifts in work identity may be subtle and only involve slight changes in perspectives; however, shifts may be more profound and result in exploring various types of work and actual career changes. the brief of the researcher was to report on shifts in the work identity of the participants whilst they were studying work identity themselves. interviews and integrating participant observation, given the involvement of the researcher in all the endeavours of the research team, were used to collect data. semi-structured interviews with team members were conducted on two occasions. an interview protocol was used to assist in focusing attention. the first round of interviews involved exploratory discussions relating to personal identity matters, contextual factors and work identity experiences. a second set of interviews were conducted approximately 12 months later to confirm shifts that may have occurred, emerging themes, to investigate unexplored areas and to ensure trustworthiness of the research. shifts in work identity were determined throughout the data-gathering process by comparing initial findings with the most recent data gathered in the second interview. interview data was utilised to craft a story for each participant: storytelling was the strategy used to present the individual case studies. the research participants’ stories were embedded in the interview content and narrative analysis could be used for ‘crafting a story from the events in the setting … a way of presenting data’ (bailey, 2007, p. 162). as previously mentioned, the involvement of the researcher in all endeavours of the research team ensured building of rapport with participants and allowed an opportunity for participant observation. data analysis thematic analysis formed part of the data analysis. bailey (2007, p. 158) proposes that ‘storytelling incorporates thematic analysis’, a process in which researchers meticulously and carefully need to read and reread through transcriptions and other data (rice & ezzy, 1999). open coding was applied by asking particular questions relating to shifts in the data collected. repetitive codes were identified by comparing the various interviews and by continuously revisiting the collected data. bailey (2007, p. 127) argues that ‘qualitative researchers actively create the final product that they believe adequately represents their observations and interactions’. four themes were identified as indicated in the abstract. strategies to ensure quality of data peer debriefing and member checking actions were conducted when participants had the opportunity to review and comment on the representation and interpretation of the data gathered (flick, 2009; schwandt, 2007). reporting reflexivity as a process of self-discovery and personal mastery to determine how beliefs, viewpoints, perceptions and imperfections might influence the study, as well as the reporting, need to be emphasised. reflexivity informs the reader about the point of departure of the researcher and enables us to determine ‘what is known as well as how it is known’ (etherington, 2004, p. 37). in this study the researcher made use of a variety of writing styles. findings top ↑ the multiple case study design implies that each participant's work identity needs to be considered contextually as a separate ‘case’. the findings will be discussed in two sections: work identity case narratives and themes in work identity shifts. table 1 provides a summary of the biographical particulars of participants and also sets the context of each of the six participants. it further includes relevant quotes indicating catalysts and realisations that influenced shifts in work identity. table 1: biographical particulars and contextualising participant stories and realisations or catalysts relating to shifts in work identity. work identity case narratives each participant derives meaning from different things and is driven by a particular set of values (compass points) informing their reactions to events and influencing shifts in work identity. shifts in work identity can be plotted on a continuum. on the one end of the continuum, a shift may be profound and may manifest itself in a pronounced change such as a career change or move and on the opposite side a shift may be a nuance only, a subtle alternation. participant 1 participant 1 regards family and relationships as a critical part of her life and is constantly striving to attain a sense of what she describes as ‘equilibrium’ between her different identities. in reflecting on her own work identity, triggered by engaging with her master's study, she learned what was important to her and now has an awareness regarding work identity and the dynamics that are at play in an organisational context. the realisation that her career in organisation a was not providing a challenge or adequate development opportunities culminated in a shift. her subsequent move to organisation b made her realise that an industry can also provide a sense of identity. organisation b offered her the opportunity for an internship that is required for registration as an industrial psychologist. she subsequently completed her master's degree and internship which were important on her journey to become a professional industrial psychologist. the move to organisation b resulted in a situation where she became disenchanted with the organisational culture. she experienced a shift from a previous positive experience (organisation a) and had to find alternative means of identification, which in her case proved to be her work group (organisation b). she assessed herself and her own competence in terms of that of her work group. the focus on performance enhancement was critical to remain competitive. thus, her workgroup played an important role in defining her work identity which related to the notion of work identity as relational and multifaceted. she needed a mentor to guide her in her development and professional growth and probably in making sense of what she called a ‘mean-spirited’ organisation. her shift in this regard emphasised the relational component of work identity, the necessity to engage with colleagues and communities of practice and in establishing networks of people from whom one can benefit. this notion is consistent with the ibarra (2004, p. 18) framework, which refers to ‘the company we keep, our working relationships and the professional groups to which we belong’. this is consistent with the basic assumption of identity as relational. after joining organisation b, participant 1 had to acknowledge that motherhood was accompanied by compromises in terms of career opportunities and possibilities and she had to make a shift in her approach to career options. she adopted a practical approach to her circumstances, she consciously shifted her focus and decided to adopt a philosophical view. her strategy was to focus on aspects at work that mattered and to diminish the aspects that didn’t. regarding motherhood, participant 1 compiled a compre­hensive list of requirements for a new environment in order to accommodate personal lifestyle realities and her value system. she realised that her role as mother added a lot of complexity to her work identity and that she could not deal with work in isolation, since other identities impacted on her work identity. participant 2 participant 2 is restless and focuses on continuous professional development and growth opportunities. this is evident from her deliberate and conscious management of her career progression. she finds meaning in her involvement in her spiritual community and draws her strength from that. throughout the research she experienced several defining moments that acted as catalysts for her subsequent shifts. prior to becoming involved in the research project, participant 2 was subjected to victimisation in her work environment. disillusionment with the organisation and rank orientation hastened her departure. she was forced to make a mind shift from an environment in which individuals were defined by rank and position to pursue a career in an environment in which she was defined by her profession and competence in a specific area of expertise. she was no longer defined by rank or position. she stated that ‘i now define myself’. she experienced a shift in her work identity and found application value for her studies in her workplace whilst dealing with a corporate retrenchment process. the death of her mother forced her to lead a more balanced life by working more reasonable hours and allocating time for personal activities. this indicated a shift in taking a deliberate stance on balancing personal identity versus work identity. in time she reached her peak in the semi-state organisation and became an entrepreneur. in this process, her spiritual focus, as compass point, provided her with an anchor. having experienced all the facets of being an entrepreneur, she proved to herself that she had become a truly independent being. becoming an entrepreneur was the ultimate step in a developmental process. this compelled her to move from a rigid, highly institutionalised context to an entrepreneurial context in which she was able to set her own parameters and largely define her own work identity. eventually participant 2 moved back to the corporate environment owing to the realisation that she had accomplished the ultimate quest in proving her autonomy. security and greater opportunities prompted her shift to a more secure corporate environment. participant 3 participant 3 locates meaning in relationships and in building a network amongst colleagues and others. participant 3 enjoys opportunities to explore foreign countries and seeks exposure, personally and as a young academic. he strongly identifies with being an industrial psychologist and establishing himself in his career of choice. he has a need to add value and bring ‘something back to the organisation’. participant 3 would also like to establish himself within the research community. in doing his internship at a large company, he became aware that they were not transforming and were not dealing with affirmative action as they should. the lack of a diversity focus in industry inspired him to utilise his career in becoming a change agent. what he found to be lacking in the industry he wanted to address as part of his postgraduate studies in cross-cultural psychology. another defining moment was prompted by participant 3's panel review, which led him to question whether he had a future in his particular field. a review by peers of his work signified a shift regarding the perception of his role and approach to his vocation, as well as his perception of his colleagues. it forced him to reflect on his career, the organisation and his alignment and associations with colleagues. given that relationships were important to him, the review experience strongly influenced his work identity. participant 3 acknowledged that he did not identify with his organisation, but with his professional identity and that he considered himself to be an educator. he experienced a shift in emphasis from organisational identification to regarding himself as an ‘educator’. he located his work identity in this shift. participant 4 participant 4 finds meaning in being able to account well, not only for her talents, but also for her strong spiritual drive to share and to show ‘dividends’ in providing guidance to individuals entrusted to her. she derives strength and meaning from her spiritual beliefs that spill over in a drive to share. in her case, development is about sharing all she has learned. she experienced a shift regarding roles to be fulfilled and moved from lecturing to research. participant 4 was required to engage and network with foreign counterparts. being inexperienced, she joined an initiative that equipped individuals to perform the required tasks. she is now able to identify with a profession and consciously identifies role models to emulate. her approach was evidence of a conscious shift in her work identity and equipped her to fulfil a leadership role. she experienced an additional shift whilst visiting other countries and coming into contact with other cultures as part of work-related endeavours. this triggered an awareness of others and a shift occurred in the way in which she not only perceived others, but also herself. participant 4 acknowledged an internal struggle with being different in a diverse work environment and also has perceptions regarding the image of an ‘academic’. her own perception regarding a professional image now extends to include her unique persona and appearance in her field. participant 5 participant 5 finds meaning in adding value to the work and personal lives of young professionals. he functions as a committed, loyal employee of his organisation and, as an expert, acts in an advisory capacity. in contrast with the much younger team members, participant 5 reflects on his career and the path he has followed. he is not merely in pursuit of position, but he is an individual who finds meaning by investing time and energy, not only in a work context, but also in engaging with fellow students and researchers. participant 5 is excited by the opportunity to make theory practical. that he is regarded as an expert in his field at work provides meaning to him. prior to completing his doctorate he became aware that colleagues and supervisors were viewing him in a new light, namely that of a trusted advisor. he has entered a new social dimension and experiences this as fulfilling, both in his contact with colleagues and fellow students. given his introverted nature, presenting at an international conference posed a challenge to participant 5. this forced him to explore new territory by addressing the one aspect that was lacking in his armour, namely that of public speaking. participant 6 whilst all participants have been faced with challenges during the project, participant 6, the researcher in this particular study, was confronted with the reality of disliking her story of work identity. finding meaning in work was important to participant 6, but her work environment did not provide this satisfaction and her personal circumstances made it undesirable to effect work-related changes. she moved to another city and was transferred within her organisation. she was disillusioned, as the new work environment did not measure up to her expectations. she experienced a profound shift in her work identity from engaging in meaningful training-related tasks to what she regarded as menial, administrative functions. this caused her work identity to shift and to become almost non-existent. she became disengaged, lacked work identification and failed to find identification with her work. she only found purpose and meaning in the context of her family and study endeavours, which guided and anchored her. in time participant 6 realised that she was no longer identifying with the organisation and had no wish to be part of the management establishment. she could not relate to the way organisational members were dealing with her and one another. she had to acknowledge that in the long run her work would have no meaning or significance. participant 6 experienced a major shift in embarking on her master's degree as this made her dissatisfaction and lack of meaning more pronounced. she was constantly confronted with other participants’ stories, literature and study leaders, which resulted in immense discomfort and incongruence. participant 6 became an example of a disintegrated individual work identity, being the result of a work life that lacked meaning and purpose. themes top ↑ theme 1: compass points guiding our journey the ability to engage with a meaningful task on a daily basis is critical to work identity. this theme focuses on aspects that provide meaning and hope in life. the term ‘compass points’ relates to aspects that are central to providing direction, purpose and meaning in the lives of participants. additionally, compass points are central in triggering shifts in work identity and the constant search for meaningful work and life. whatever form this may take, it leads to negotiating aspects of work identity which in turn leads to shifts. defining moments occur when life circumstances are negotiated. defining moments can trigger a shift in work identity. the contextual reality of the participants proved critical in this study, as this determined their individual meaning. the search for meaning is ongoing and appears to be influenced by life and career stage. life and career stage involves the testing and finding of a viable work identity, searching for role models to guide career development and progression or finding whether a participants may be in a position to assist others based on their own experience. should an individual find no meaning in their work (participant 6), disintegration of the person's work identity may ensue. in such cases the focus on other meaningful facets, such as family, personal relationships, study endeavours and hobbies, may be vital. constant reflection regarding meaning is essential. this will result in a balanced perspective and sound decision-making skills. theme 2: navigating life circumstances this theme refers to the contextual realities within which work identity is negotiated. work identity is in a constant relationship with other facets of identity. ‘navigating’ implies searching for the best possible route to follow. in negotiating work identity, we are confronted with personal, social and career choices, which determine the type of demands we have to negotiate whilst working. the theme on navigating life circumstances focuses on how participants deal with demands associated with work roles, accommodating children and family, personal roles, the importance of support systems and coping strategies and compromises required in negotiating work identity. a significant contextual factor influencing work identity is motherhood as an aspect of personal identity. two of the participants in the study are mothers and both highlighted this contextual factor as critical in negotiating work identity. owing to their motherhood they were willing to make compromises regarding career options and progression, opting for shifts in work identity. additionally, attempting to balance personal and work identity required a sound support system. life circumstances thus served as a constraining factor in terms of possible shifts. the ability of an individual to engage in change is dependent on the perception of contextual factors. theme 3: negotiating identity and identification in the workplace this theme signifies where and with whom the individual identifies. work identity refers to certain aspects of identification and various aspects of identification emerged. these were the job, peer groups, the organisational culture, broader identifications such as professional identity, that of ‘the educator’ and the entrepreneur. where one aspect of identification was lacking, shifts were made to alternative foci of identification. in the case of participant 2, alternative foci of identification were a very individualistic approach, not allowing the organisation to ‘claim’ her. in the case of participant 3, alternative identification resulted in anchoring himself within his chosen profession, that of an industrial psychologist and ‘an educator’. participant 1 located her work identity (in organisation a) within the organisational culture, even though the work was not meaningful. in organisation b, she struggled to identify with the culture and shifted her identification to her profession as industrial psychologist, the industry within which she worked and her work group. participant 4 experienced a subtle shift in work identity, initially identifying with some aspects of her roles associated with her field, but has been exposed to the many facets of her profession and has begun to identify with these facets. as indicated, work identity is a social phenomenon. the negotiation of work identity is done in consultation with others and implies a process of collaboration. it may well be that the implication for work identity is that participants assess themselves by making comparisons, as in the case of participant 1 and participant 3. a positive comparison will act as a motivator and a negative comparison may be demotivating or become an area that requires further development. in dealing with their respective work environments, young professionals need to find strategies that work for them. in executing a shift, young professionals should be aware that they may find themselves in a new position or in a state of isolation. young professionals expressed the need to have access to a dynamic system of knowledge management and contact with experienced professionals who are capable of sharing and transferring competence in certain areas. participant 1 mentioned the need for professional role models and participant 3 and participant 4 highlighted the positive impact of development initiatives in their work environment in their own development of work identity. that participant 5's guidance and support of younger colleagues has been met with a positive response is also testimony to its importance. theme 4: perception of self this particular theme focuses on the perception of self within a work context and its implications for work identity. in the context of the study, perception of self involved a specific representation of oneself, in order to establish and maintain a particular image. in terms of this particular theme this study involves an extension of the ibarra (2004, p. 60) notion of ‘trying on new identities’ to include ‘trying on new images and looks’ as a performance within a workplace and the significance of that for an individual work identity. for some participants ‘perception of self’ appeared to be related to own perceptions of professionalism. personal appearance adds an additional dimension to who i am at work and what i do. this includes not only how i do what i do, but also how i look and the perception others form of me when i do what i do. an academic and a consultant may consciously adopt different identities to portray a specific image to add new dimensions to their work identity. personal perceptions appear to inform behavioural patterns regarding individual attempts to be assimilated into a work situation, in portraying personal perceptions of what will be an acceptable image and to be seen as being professional. discussion top ↑ outline of the findings in reflecting on the above-mentioned themes the researcher and her study leaders identified relationships amongst the themes. theme 1: compass points guiding our journey the stories of participants suggest the critical importance of finding meaning and purpose in the professional activities they are engaged in. this is consistent with the work of chalofsky (2010), who highlights the importance of fulfilling one's purpose through the work one does. whilst signature strengths refer to both ‘character traits and values most central to who we are’, the compass points in this study, seemed to resemble the ‘value’ or ‘virtue’ component of signature strengths (ulrich & ulrich, 2010). where participants no longer find meaning in what they do, there is a process of dis-identification, one likened to identity malaise highlighted by sveningsson and alvesson (2003). theme 2: navigating life circumstances the stories of participants suggest that contextual realities play an important role in how they negotiate life and work. these realities differ from participant to participant. ibarra (2004) emphasises the significant role of contextual realities and the way in which individuals approach the possibility of shifts. in the case of our participants, context proved relevant in that participants had to negotiate a variety of context-specific challenges on which they based their decisions to execute shifts or not. ibarra (2004) makes reference to defining moments; these were experienced to a greater and lesser degree by all participants. defining moments, catalysts and significant contextual factors contributed towards a required shift in work identity amongst the participants. in the cases of participant 1 and participant 6, catalysts were experienced that suggested that a shift was required. however, when executing the shift they did not anticipate negative consequences. this suggests that ibarra’ s (2004) advice, to be cautious and to explore whether personal preferences, competencies and values are aligned with those of the new organisation prior to engaging with a new work environment, is sound. otherwise one would have to tolerate the outcome of a decision that may be ill-informed. work identity can never be considered in isolation, as personal life circumstances play a role in facilitating or constraining the negotiation of work identity. theme 3: negotiating identity and identification in the workplace none of the participants experienced radical career transitions. the flexibility of the work identity concept as highlighted by ibarra (2004) was clearly evident. individual emphasis on various facets of work identity (or identification) at various times is dependent on contextual factors. this is consistent with ibarra (2004), as she highlights the importance of context in understanding career transitions (for our purpose shifts). the shifts are determined by the meaning and purpose various aspects of work provide (theme 1) and are impacted by the navigation of life circumstances (theme 2). this facet of a shift is similar to ibarra’ s (2004) notion of engaging with new peer groups, contacts and role models to explore various aspects of the self in order to make a transition. it is the fluidity of work identity that enables these shifts at various times and enables people to grow and develop within their chosen work identity. with this in mind, the importance of mentorship in the development of work identity was also confirmed. participants 1, 2 and 4 are more or less of the same age (30–40) and are in the process of establishing themselves in their respective careers with the view of reaching their potential. all of them expressed the need for a mentor or coach. participant 3 (25–30) and participant 6 (30–40) are disengaged and need to craft work identities that are congruent with who they are. in contrast to the other participants, participant 5 (50+) is at ease with himself and those around him within his work identity. this is consistent with his life and career stage in his capacity as an expert. he is still willing to explore possible selves in order to extend his repertoire of skills. theme 4: perception of self for purposes of this study, ibarra’ s (2004, p. 60) notion of ‘trying on new identities’ includes ‘trying on new images and looks’ as work identity entails an element of performance. in this study, irrespective of their life and career stage, all participants were engaged in processing possible selves. engaging in such a process is consistent with the notion of identity and work identity as fluid and with ibarra’ s (2004, p. 19) portrayal of work identity as a ‘lifelong process of questioning and affirming the relationship between who we are and what we do’. ibarra’ s (2004, p. 87) observation that ‘our customary mind-set about who we are and what others expect undermines us in myriad subtle ways’ was evident in this study. participants 1, 4 and 6 were confronted with their own perceptions in terms of their physical appearance in a work context as opposed to how they might be viewed by others. these participants experienced tension regarding the presentation of self which undermined their sense of self prior to coming to terms with these perceptions. in this article, irrespective of their life and career stages, all participants were engaged in processing possible selves. engaging in such a process is consistent with ibarra’ s (2004, p. 19) portrayal of working identity as a ‘lifelong process of questioning and affirming the relationship between who we are and what we do’. practical implications of the study the study emphasised the need experienced by individuals to engage with meaningful tasks on a daily basis. human resource (hr) professionals need to engage with employees on a continuous basis to determine what provides them with meaning. this will ensure retention of employees and result in the design of appropriate strategies towards this objective. the study highlighted factors relating to identification within an organisation which in turn will impact on turnover intentions of employees. employees need to feel valued and experience a sense of identification. hr professionals must engage with employees to determine how to craft strategies that enhance and optimise the value of employees. the study contributes towards emphasising the necessity of accommodating contextual realities of employees. it highlighted that a natural phenomenon like pregnancy in the workplace needs to be addressed by employers. an important finding is the acute need of young professionals for adequate role models. it is suggested that hr professionals implement effective mentorship programmes. this study indicated that young professionals aspire to grow and fulfil professional requirements. creating internship opportunities within an organisation and treating internship candidates well and in a professional manner may well be a mechanism to attract and retain talent. a final contribution of the article lies in acknowledging the impact that a range of contextual factors can have on shifts in work identity. the study furthermore confirms that ibarra’ s (2004) framework is suitable to apply. her approach, despite being focused on career transitions, also provides a suitable framework for considering shifts in work identity. limitations, recommendations and future research a conventional research process was not followed, since the researcher only joined the research team 7 months after the study had commenced, to replace two students who had to withdraw from the project owing to personal circumstances. being a novice researcher, despite the guidance of two study leaders, a process of trial and error in some instances prevailed. the two study leaders were familiar with the participants. this posed its own challenges since both supervisors had insight into the dynamism of the institution and had personal perceptions regarding these participants. an additional 10 interviews that were conducted with the more experienced study leaders and one student who withdrew from the project were not used owing to the detailed analysis required by the case study design. it would have been insightful to have included the data supplied by the older study leaders. the issues and challenges of the younger research team members predominated and influenced the nature of the themes that were generated. the following topics may present interesting possibilities for future research directions: the impact of ethnicity and affirmative action within a workplace may be explored and how that relates to negotiating shifts in work identity. the relationship between the work identity of professional or white-collar occupations in relation to blue-collar or technical occupations. a survey may be conducted where the researcher provides a calendar or diary (timeline follow back), in which respondents record how often they contemplate career moves over a specified period, note triggering events and attempt to record the intensity of considering moves (belli, stafford & alvin, 2009). conclusion top ↑ in contextualising the stories of the participants, it became evident that a story of a life is not static. fluidity became evident in the way in which those who needed to execute a shift tended to ‘hover’ in a holding space for a while, until they were able to make the actual shift. in this holding space, where the person yearned for professional fulfilment, they relied on hope to keep the possibility alive. dealing with work identity proved to be an ongoing negotiation. the discussion attempted to provide an interpretation that would undoubtedly have changed over time as new experiences and realities intersected the pathways and journeys of the participants. acknowledgements top ↑ the research reported in this article is the product of a collaborative research project between the university of johannesburg and the vrije university, amsterdam. financial support from sanpad for conducting this research is hereby acknowledged. conclusions drawn or opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of sanpad. the first author further acknowledges professor gert roodt for providing the opportunity and privilege to be part of the sanpad project, dr anne crafford and professor willem schurink for exceptional guidance during the research process and dr adri uys for her invaluable guidance and support in completing this article. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions r.a.s. (university of johannesburg) conducted the research and wrote the manuscript. a.c. (university of johannesburg) acted as primary study leader and made substantive intellectual contributions to the study. w.j.s. (university of johannesburg) acted a secondary study leader and made substantive intellectual contributions to the study. references top ↑ abma, t. (1996). powerful stories – the role of stories in sustaining and transforming professional practice within a mental hospital. in r. josselson & a. lieblich (eds.), making meaning of narratives, vol. 6 (pp. 169–193). thousand oaks, ca: sage. agostino, j. (2004). workplace identity. doctor of business administration dissertation. victoria, australia: swinburne university of technology. ashforth, b.e. (2001). role transitions in organizational life: an identity-based perspective. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum publishers. babbie, e.r., & mouton, j. (2001). the practice of social research. oxford, uk: oxford university press. bailey, c. (2007). a guide to qualitative field research. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: pine forge press. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412983204 baressi, j. (2006). the identities of malcolm x. in d.p. mcadams, r. josselson, & a. lieblich (eds.), identity and story-creating self in narrative (pp. 201–220). washington, dc: american psychological association. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/11414-009 beech, n. (2008). on the nature of dialogic identity work. organization articles, 15(1), 51–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1350508407084485 belli, r.f., stafford, f.p., & alwin, d.f. (2009). calender and time diary-methods in life course research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. berger, p.l. (1963). invitation to sociology: a humanistic perspective. garden city, ny: anchor. bridges, w. (1994). jobshift. how to prosper in a workplace without jobs. london, uk: nicholas brealey publishing. bridges, w. (1997). creating you & co. be the boss of your own career. london, uk: nicholas brealey publishing. bruner, j. (2003). self-making narratives. in r. fivush & c.a. haden (eds.), autobiographical memory and the construction of a narrative self (pp. 209–223). london, uk: lawrence erkbaum associates, publishers. buche, m. (2006). gender and it professionals work identity. houghton, mi: michigan technological university. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-59140-815-4.ch068 chalofsky, n.e. (2010). meaningful workplaces – reframing how and where we work. san francisco, ca: jossey – bass. creed, w.e., & scully, m.a. (2000). songs of ourselves: employees’ deployment of social identity in workplace encounters. journal of management inquiry, 9(4), 391–412. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/105649260000900410 crotty, m. (1998). the foundations of social research – meaning and perspective in the research process. los angeles, ca: sage. denscombe, m. (2003). the good research guide for small scale research projects. (2nd edn.). maidenhead, uk: open university press. du gay, p. (1996). organising identity: entrepreneurial governance and public management. in s. hall & p. du gay (eds.), questions of cultural identity (pp. 151–169). london, uk: sage. erikson, e. (1968). identity – youth and crisis. london, uk: faber & faber. etherington, k. (2004). becoming a reflexive researcher – using ourselves in research. london, uk: jessica kingsley publishers. fivush, r., & buckner, j.p. (2003). creating gender and identity through autobiographical narratives. in r. fivush & c.a. haden (eds.), autobiographical memory and the construction of a narrative self (pp. 149–164). london, uk: lawrence erlbaum publishers. flick, u. (2009). an introduction to qualitative research. (4th edn.). london, uk: sage. fox, m. (1994). the reinvention of work – a new vision of livelihood for our time. san francisco, ca: harper. gini, a. (1998). work, identity and self: how we are formed by the work we do. journal of business ethics, 17(7), 707–714. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1017967009252 goffman, e. (1961). encounters. indianapolis, in: bobbs-merrill. grbich, c. (2007). qualitative data analysis – an introduction. thousand oaks, ca: sage. hakim, c. (1994). we are all self-employed – the new social contract for working in a changed world. san francisco, ca: berrett – koehler publishers. hakim, c. (2007). rethinking work – are you ready to take charge? mountain view, ca: davies-black publishing. hartley, j. (2006). case study research. in c. cassell & g. symon (eds.), essential guide to qualitative methods in organisational research (pp. 323–333). thousand oaks, ca: sage. ibarra, h. (2004). working identity – unconventional strategies for reinventing your career. boston, ma: harvard business school press. ibarra, h., & lineback, k. (2005). what's your story? harvard business review, january, 65–71. illeris, k. (2003). learning, identity and self-orientation in youth. youth – nordic journal of youth research, 11(4), 357–376. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/11033088030114004 illeris, k. (2004). a model for learning in working life. the journal of workplace learning, 16(8), 431–441. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13665620410566405 jones thomas, a., & schwarzbaum, s.e. (2011). culture and identity – life stories for counsellors and therapists. los angeles, ca: sage. kirpal, s. (2004). researching work identities in a european context. career development international, 9(3), 199–221. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430410535823 lloyd, s., roodt, g., & odendaal, a. (2011). critical elements in defining work-based identity in a post-apartheid south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 37, 2–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i1.894 marshall, c., & rossmann, g.b. (2006). designing qualitative research. (4th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. mcadams, d.p. (2003). identity and the life story. in r. fivush & c.a. haden (eds.), autobiographical memory and the construction of a narrative self (pp. 187–202). london, uk: lawrence erlbaum publishers. mcadams, d.p., josselson, r., & lieblich, a. (2006). introduction. in d.p. mcadams, r. josselson, & a. lieblich (eds.), identity and story – creating self in narrative (pp. 3–9). washington, dc: american psychological association. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/11414-000 o’reilly, k. (2009). key concepts in ethnography. los angeles, ca: sage publications. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446268308 raggatt, p. (2006). multiplicity and conflict in the dialogical self: a life-narrative approach. in d.p. mcadams, r. josselson, & a. lieblich (eds.), identity and story – creating self in narrative (pp. 15–33). washington, dc: american psychological association. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/11414-001 rainer, t. (1997). your life as story. new york: penguin putnam. rice, p., & ezzy, d. (1999). qualitative research methods. south melbourne, australia: oxford university press. sanpad. (2006). project plan. johannesburg, south africa: university of johannesburg. schwandt, t. (2007). the sage dictionary of qualitative inquiry. (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. smith, b., & sparkes, a.c. (2008). contrasting perspectives on narrating selves and identities: an invitation to dialogue. qualitative research, 8(1), 5–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468794107085221 stake, r. (2005). qualitative case study. in n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds.), handbook of qualitative research (pp. 443–466). thousand oaks, ca: sage. sveningsson, s., & alvesson, m. (2003). managing managerial identities: organisational fragmentation, discourse and identity struggle. human relations, 56(10), 1163–1193. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00187267035610001 swann, w.b., johnson, r.e., & bosson, j.k. (2009). identity negotiation at work. research in organisational behavior, 29, 81–109. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2009.06.005 ulrich, w.,& . ulrich, d. (2010). the why of work. new york: mcgraw-hill. van der ross, r. (2010). a blow to the hoop – the story of my life and times. newlands, south africa: ampersand press. walsh, k., & gordon, j.r. (2008). creating an individual work identity. human resource management review, 18, 46–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2007.09.001 wheatley, m. (2006). leadership and the new science – discovering order in a chaotic world. (3rd edn.). san francisco, ca: berrett-koehler publishers. wolcott, h. (2005). the art of fieldwork. (2nd edn.). walnut creek, ca: altamira. yin, r. (2003). applications of case study research. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. appendix 1: research ethics top ↑ at the commencement of this study the research team was briefed by the project manager prof. gert roodt in terms of this particular research as a special building block within the broader sanpad project. by implication, the research team members had no choice but to participate and the normal written permission process was not followed. none of the research participants voiced their opposition or concern at the time or during the interviews. it was an advantage that the research participants conducted interviews at the manufacturing company and were conversant with the procedures involved, including the use of audio recording devices. transparency ensued in the course of the study and a balance had to be maintained between the needs of research participants and information required by the researcher to complete the study. building rapport with participants most certainly aligned with the wolcott (2005) concept of this process as one of the ‘darker arts’ of participant observation. as previously mentioned, peer debriefing and member checking actions were conducted when participants had the opportunity to review and comment on the representation and interpretation of the data gathered (flick, 2009; schwandt, 2007). article information author: md. zohurul islam1 affiliation: 1assistant professor, institute of governance studies, brac university correspondence to: md. zohurul islam postal address: bpatc, savar, dhaka-1343, bangladesh dates: received: 20 apr. 2012 accepted: 03 may 2013 published: 02 aug. 2013 how to cite this article: islam, m.z. (2013). what matters for organisational change? evidence from depz, bangladesh. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur 11(1), art. #476, 13 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.476 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. what matters for organisational change? evidence from depz, bangladesh in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • background to the study    • research questions    • the dhaka export processing zone context    • literature review and hypotheses development       • organisational change       • leadership       • organisational behaviour       • human resource management • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • sample organisations       • measuring instruments       • research procedure • results    • analysis of variance with type of dhaka export processing zone enterprises    • post hoc test for type of enterprise in the dhaka export processing zone       • links of all independent variables with organisational change in dhaka export processing zone enterprises • discussion    • managerial implications    • suggestions for future research    • research limitations • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the role of leadership and human resources (hrm) at the managerial level in the economic zones to implement organisational change have been well described in developing countries although they are often not well documented. research purpose: the purpose of this article is to investigate the relationship between leadership, organisational behaviour and hrm in dhaka export processing zone (depz) enterprises. motivation for the study: this study has given a direction for implementing organisational change in depz organisations, where leadership, organisational behaviour and hrm have significant effects on organisational change. research design, approach and method: the author completed a survey using a structured questionnaire on 53 enterprises in the depz. the sample size was 216. the author tested the research hypotheses by using statistical tools like step-wise multiple regression analysis. the author also used pearson correlations, a t-test, an anova and a radar diagram in this study. main findings: the results provide evidence that leadership behaviour, organisational behaviour factors and hrm practices have direct relationships with organisational change. in short, it requires high level of leadership ability, employee motivation and commitment, recruitment, performance appraisal and reward to bring about effective organisational change. practical/managerial implications: the results show that organisational learning, transformational and transactional leadership, compensation and unionisation practices reinforce organisational change at depz enterprises. contribution/value-add: the results of this study show that organisational change requires integration with leadership ability, organisational behaviour and hrm practices, which are useful for developing companies, industries and the national economy. introduction top ↑ background to the study customer and consumer demands and preferences have changed rapidly. this has made businesses more competitive in the global market (abrahamson, 2004; rodrik, 1997). the dhaka export-processing zone (depz) is one of the largest economic zones in terms of its export allotment, employment generation and volume of investment, especially foreign direct investment. to meet customer demands and to compete globally, the depz needs to exploit its human and material resources. the depz has an influence with its foreign direct investment and employment generation. the role of human resources management (hrm) is very important for linking employees’ capabilities with depz performance because it is a requirement of good business. consistent with human resources (hr) policy, the bangladesh export processing zone authority (bepza) has produced manual instructions i and ii for regulating epz enterprises. nevertheless, there are some irregular activities occurring in enterprises and within as well as outside of the epz. as a result, they have had negative effects on investors’ confidence. workers are dissatisfied. layoffs occur in organisations and productivity as well as performance are low (eusuf, faraque & rahman, 2007). businesses in the depz, with its different enterprises and different countries of origin, are facing ongoing internal and external forces for change. in the depz, there are both local and expatriate enterprises with local and expatriate personnel at the operational and management levels. these enterprises interpret the circumstances according to their own frames of reference that their own perceptions and senses direct (harigopal, 2001; oecd, 2002). where leadership abilities and organisational behaviours (like organisational culture, organisational learning, motivation, values and rituals) have direct effects on organisational performance (davis, 1984; keller, 2007), employee behaviour differs from one employee to another. therefore, business leaders or managers need to understand it. the organisational behaviours this study covers human behaviour, change, team or group, leadership, human relationship and so on. these components have direct or indirect relationships with organisational change. researchers have conducted a number of studies on socioeconomic issues, empowerment, export performance and gender issues, whereas issues like hrm practices, leadership abilities and organisational behaviour remained almost untouched (aggarwal, 2005; eusuf et al., 2007; zohir, 2001, 2007). the studies reported that bepza has banned trade unionisation in the epz because it might have negative effects on its enterprises’ production. however, the reports noted that trade unions have positive effects on wages and employment in manufacturing enterprises (aggarwal, 2005; bhattacharya, 1998; eusuf et al., 2007; hossain, 2002; zohir, 2001, 2007). bangladesh has also ratified international labour organisation (ilo) convention 1948 (no. 87) and national collective bargaining 1949 (no. 98) for workers’ rights. in addition, the industrial relations ordinance xxii of 1969 has supported and protected employment conditions. the bepza has banned trade unions in the epz because it is a threat from investors’ points of view (eusuf et al., 2007). however, zohir (2007) asserted that unionisation could play a role for workers rights. finally, the bangladesh government has approved trade unionisation in the epz through a decision of parliament (government of bangladesh [gob], 2010). however, there have been very few studies to investigate the whole approach of hrm and industrial relations in manufacturing enterprises in south asian countries, especially the depz in bangladesh. research questions the main research question of this study is whether the success of organisational change depends on organisational behaviour, leadership and hrm practices at depz manufacturing enterprises. the specific research questions of this study follow: • do leadership abilities link with organisational change? if they do, to what extent? • are organisational behavioural components associated with organisational change in depz manufacturing enterprises? if they are, to what extent? • what are the effects of hrm practices on organisational change at depz manufacturing enterprises? therefore, this study identifies the relationship between leadership abilities, organisational behaviour and hrm practices for organisational change in depz and their effects. finally, the study provides some managerial implications as key factors for fostering organisational change at depz manufacturing enterprises. the article is in six parts. the first part describes the depz context. the second part presents a literature review and its hypotheses as they relate to: • leadership. • organisational behaviour (like organisational culture, organisational learning and employee motivation). • hrm practices (like recruitment and selection, performance appraisal, unionisation and compensation practices) in the depz. the third part of this article covers the research method, procedure, sample organisations and questionnaire development. the fourth part of the article covers analysis and findings. the fifth part presents a discussion of the results. finally, the study covers the managerial implications, research limitations, future research suggestions and conclusions. the dhaka export processing zone context the economic zone, called the export-processing zone, houses enterprises that vary in their patterns as well as their ownership by countries from across the world. business investors want to invest their capital where it is safe. this increasing trend toward special economic zones has created a large number of jobs. currently 66 million people are engaged in economic zones from 130 countries that 3500 such zones all over the world cover (ilo, 2007). the ilo report highlights that, of 66 million people, about 55 million people work in more than 900 zones in asia alone, especially in china and bangladesh. the main objective of establishing export-processing zones in bangladesh was to attract foreign direct investment (fdi). because of establishing export-processing zones, about 230 000 people have found employment directly and about 400 000 people receive indirect benefits. in particular, the depz alone has generated employment for 75 769 people through its 97 enterprises (government of bangladesh [gob], 2009). in bangladesh, there are 292 enterprises in operation and 205 are under construction. hrm practices in the depz are widely used in terms of labour-management relationships, wage level determinations, methods of recruitment and other non-financial issues like labour union or welfare issues. depz enterprises follow bepza manual instructions i and ii, 1989 (government of bangladesh [gob], 1989) that deal with minimum wages, working hours, overtime benefits and others. researchers have reported that workers may not go to court to resolve grievances. even lawyers may not look after export-processing zone issues and trade unions were prohibited from operating in export-processing zones before 2010 (hossain, 2002; bhattacharya, 1998; zohir, 2007). pressure from investors also prevented trade unions from operating inside export-processing zones. hossain (2002), zohir (2007), bhattaacharya (1998) and murayama and yokota (2009) have stated that, in the globalised competitive world, congenial working environments and mutual labour management are necessary to increase productivity. the present government has opened up trade unions and given them legitimate authority (government of bangladesh [gob], 2010). shankar gopalakrishhan (2007) conducted a study titled in the name of growth: the politics and economics of india’s special economic zones. a quotation gives the reaction from workers’ points of view: appointment letters, pay slips, are not given. minimum wages are not implemented. workers are employed on contract basis. overtime is compulsory but overtime wages are not paid. on the other hand, wages are deducted if the workers fail to meet the high production targets fixed unilaterally by the employers. safety equipment or apparels are not provided, as that would increase production costs and reduce the speed and output. women are made to work in night shifts without providing proper conveyance to their residences. they are not given maternity leave. on the other hand, women found to be pregnant are removed from service. crèches are not provided. young and unmarried women are only preferred. the use of toilets is controlled by issuing tokens. sexual harassment is very common (p.47). bangladesh’s export-processing zones and the depz were operating similar hrm practices. as a result, there was unrest in the export-processing zones and the workers were dissatisfied (eusuf et al., 2007; zohir, 2007). therefore, the export-processing zones need good hrm practices, organisational behaviours and leadership to reduce dissatisfaction, improve the conditions of workers and improve the performance of enterprises through organisational change. literature review and hypotheses development organisational change in the rapidly expanding business world, change has become a constant factor. to combat external forces, efficient and effective strategic initiatives are required to cope with change (chew & choo, 2008). ulrich (1997) stated that adapting to change in organisations needs regular environmental scanning. in particular, the identified change trends are globalisation, information technology and managerial innovation (brown & harvey, 2006; chew & choo, 2008). technological development has contributed to changing customer preferences in the competitive business world. this competitiveness has forced firms to revise their business strategies and employee work behaviours to sustain their competitive edge. bangladesh has an open market economy and it has attracted foreign investment to improve its export growth and generate employment. the export-processing zones have proved to be a way of reaching those targets (cao, clarke & lehaney, 2000; oecd, 2002; eusuf et al., 2007). the causes of organisational change include external and internal factors. some common external factors are technological innovations, political dynamics, economic changes, governmental issues and customer preferences. some internal factors are organisational dynamics, inadequate administrative processes, individual expectations, structureand person-focus (harigopal, 2001; kreitner & kinichi, 2001; mcshane & glinow, 2000). since the 1990s, organisational change, in the form of restructuring, downsizing and reengineering, has been a crucial management issue across the globe (world bank, 1996). therefore, organisations have to cope with changes in technology and other areas in order to maintain their competitive advantage. firms survive and grow to their highest level of performance if they can effectively attract and retain the best human resources available (arthur, 1994; collins & smith, 2003; delery, 1998; martinez, vela-jimenez & de-luis-carnicer, 2008; youndt, snell, dean and lepak, 1996). wright, mcmahan and mcwilliams (2001) have argued that interaction, behaviours, employees’ motivation and effective hr practices influence the performance of firms. furthermore, a number of hr practices have direct positive influences on organisational performance. therefore, there are relationships between hr practices and organisational performance (arthur, 1994; huselid, 1995; pfeffer, 1994; youndt et al., 1996). pfeffer (1994) has stated that people are the most important assets organisations have for achieving their goals. leadership in the 21st century, leadership is an important factor for coping with new challenges for business competitors (kotter, 2007; oecd, 2001). good leadership can lead followers and motivate employees to overcome resistance to change (kotter, 1998). enterprises also need leadership and best hrm practices for efficient and effective management to improve their performance. furthermore, leadership plays an important role as a social influence to help organisations prepare for expanding globalisation. leadership has to focus on two orientations. the first is task orientation. it includes goal setting, scheduling, directing, coordinating, setting standards and supervising the performance of workers. the other dimension of leadership is relationship orientation. this deals with empathy, feelings, trust, appreciation and allowing subordinates to participate in making decisions (house, 1971, 1996; lewis, goodman & fandt, 2001). more specifically, bower and seashore (1996) have found, in their empirical study using the data they obtained from 40 insurances agencies, that there are four dimensions of leadership. these are ‘support’, ‘interaction’ ‘facilitation’, ‘goal emphasis and work facilitation’. these leadership dimensions influence organisational outcomes in many ways. leadership and management are equally important for company performance, where leadership plays an integrating role amongst various hrm components. they are leaders, followers and interaction between the groups (bass, 1990; dansereau, yammarino & markham, 1995). effective leadership always considers followers’ perceptions, recognition and other determining factors that create high performance organisations (chen & meindl, 1991; kets de vries, 1996). in the global business environment, enterprises need visionary leadership if they are to adapt effectively to changes (vera & crossan, 2004). adapting to change depends on leadership behavioural patterns and leader-follower relationships. transformational leadership behaviours can play vital roles in organisational change through followers’ motivation. castro, perinan, and bueno (2008) have stated that transformational leadership has a relationship with followers’ work attitudes and it influences the behaviours of followers. along with castro et al. (2008), other researchers have reported that transformational leadership has a positive effect on followers’ job satisfaction, work commitment and psychological empowerment (jung, berson, avolio & bass, 2003). furthermore, organisational performance depends on the role clarity and commitment of employees. therefore, transactional leadership is effective in ensuring that employees perform because it clarifies their roles, tasks and fulfils their social needs. pawar (2003) has asserted that this type of leader is hardworking, fair minded and tolerant and has a sense of commitment to organisations. however, empirical studies suggest that transformational leadership and transactional leadership are the most comprehensive leadership theories used in political as well as organisational contexts (bass, 1985; burns, 1978). in the organisational context, transactional leadership develops as an exchange process between leaders and subordinates. for example, employees receive rewards in exchange for performance (eisenbach, watson & pillai, 1999). transformational leadership motivates followers to identify with leaders’ visions and to sacrifice their own interests for those of their organisations (bass, 1985). furthermore, transformational leadership has a role in communicating how organisational changes will lead to better organisational performance and benefits for all (kotter, 1995). on the other hand, transactional leadership is more about setting goals, as the path-goal theory suggests (house & mitchell, 1974). here employees do what their leaders tell them to do. to strengthen organisations, transactional leaders use strategy, structure and culture. therefore, one can call it the contingent reward system, which is consistent with expectancy theory (avolio, bass & jung 1999; gerhardt, 2004). therefore, the author hypothesises that: h1: there is a relationship between transformational leadership and organisational change. h2: there is a relationship between transactional leadership and organisational change. organisational behaviour organisational behaviours create employees’ values, assumptions, legends, rituals and the stories that people tell in organisations (keller, 2007). organisations can use values and beliefs as guides of employees’ behaviours to achieve better performance (o’toole, 2002; rashid, sambasiva & johari, 2003). leadership is central to organisational culture, which plays a key role as creator of the culture’s underlying assumptions (reimann & oedewald, 2002). these sets of behavioural components guide employees’ attitudes and behaviours in organisations (davis, 1984; denison, 1990; kotter & heskett, 1992; o’reilly & chatman, 1996; wilson, 2001). organisational culture plays an important role in organisations because it adds customer value, introduces flexibility and change and sets employees’ value (daft, 2003). in depz enterprises, local and foreign employees worked side by side. therefore, there was a mix of national and international cultures. there are also different races in the national culture. it is easy to understand that, to make organisations effective, there must be friendly relationships and shared goals amongst their people (goffee & jones, 2006). therefore, adapting shared knowledge and skills for coping with changing environments is necessary for organisational learning processes, which include acquiring knowledge, distributing and interpreting information and retaining personnel (schermerhorn, hunt & osborn, 2005). furthermore, effective communication is vital for implementing organisational change. depz managers are in key catalytic positions for implementing change in their organisations. furthermore, organisational change does not depend only on top managers. it is the total effort of all members in the organisations. eventually, lower level workers become equally important. individual behaviours, tasks, motivation and communication are equally important and integral parts of organisational change (robertson, roberts & porras, 1993). behavioural scientists have found that effective motivation has positive effects on organisational performance in manufacturing enterprises (rao, 2005). organisational performance depends largely upon workers’ commitment and engagement. to get better productivity from them, firms need employees’ abilities and their intrinsic motivation and commitment. motivation and commitment are personal characteristics that help employees to work better (karatepe & uludag, 2006). furthermore, in today’s global business environment, change is a way of conducting better business where organisational culture guides and influences employees towards the change process (lewis et al. 2001). rashid et al. (2003) have asserted that organisational culture plays an important role in the change process and in determining the relationship between organisational change and employees’ attitudes towards the change. organisational learning is another important factor for implementing organisational change. schermerhorn et al. (2005) asserted that organisational learning is acquiring knowledge, distributing and interpreting information and adapting organisations successfully in the changing circumstances. goh and richards (1997) identified some attributes for leadership. these are: • leadership commitment. • the amount of freedom employees have to get the work done and the freedom to take risks. • the degree to which employees have a clear idea of the visions and missions of their organisations. • the extent to which employees know how they can help their organisations to achieve their goals. therefore, the author formulated the three hypotheses below. h3: employee motivation has a relationship with organisational change. h4: organisational culture has a relationship with organisational change. h5: organisational learning has a relationship with organisational change. human resource management wright et al. (1994) have identified some major hrm practices in their study upon which organisations can depend for their success. these are recruitment and selection, training and development, reward and compensation, and unionisation. hrm practices and functions play a pivotal role in high levels of employees’ performance, flexibility and commitment to organisational change (francis, 2003). the harvard model agrees with francis (2003) that good hrm practices help to improve employee commitment, which ultimately contributes to successful change programmes. the harvard model (edger & geare, 2005) mentions five generic hrm practices that all organisations share. these are selection processes, placement processes, appraisal processes, reward processes and development processes. therefore, good hrm practices are critical to maintaining competitive edge in order to align hrm with business goals and to stay relevant by embracing changes when and as required. zheng, morrison and o’neill (2006) examined the effect of hrm practices in 74 chinese small and medium enterprises (smes) and identified four dimensions of hrm practices. these are performance-based pay, participatory decision-making, free market selection and performance evaluation. based on the regression analyses, they found that good hrm practices make a positive contribution to organisational performance. the study of huselid (1995) stated that hrm practices are influential for organisational change as well as for improving productivity and company performance. one can identify hrm as acquiring personnel, hr planning, recruitment and selection, training and management development, performance appraisal, reward or compensation, employee benefits and employee satisfaction (edger & geare, 2005; nawaz, 2005). therefore, researchers have concentrated on examining the links between hrm and organisational performance. they have found that hrm links to organisational performance and is effective for maintaining competitive advantage (becker & huselid, 1998; bowen & ostroff, 2004; harris, cortvriend & hyde, 2007). bowen and ostroff (2004) asserted that there are two perspectives on hrm and organisational performance. one is a system approach and the other a strategic one. recently, the theme of hrm has shifted to a ‘new style’ of hrm designed to achieve high employee performance (jean-marie, 1996). hrm practices have direct relationships with organisational policy and company performance issues, whilst in the past it was traditional personnel management (arthur, 1994; bach & sisson, 2000; francis, 2003; huselid, 1995). given their global challenges, organisations need to acquire qualified employees through effective hrm practices, like recruitment and selection. bohlander and snell (2004) stated that recruitment is the process of locating potential applicants and stimulating them to apply for jobs. noe, hollenbeck, gerhar and wright (2006) state that the selection process is identifying the candidates with skills, knowledge, ability and some other characteristics that will help organisations to achieve their goals. hossain (2002) asserted that depz enterprises recruit with notice board advertisements and interview short-listed candidates. how well employees are doing their jobs to make suitable decisions is important for hrm (thang, 2004). stone (2002) has asserted that, in the competitive world, organisations need to improve performance to survive. where employee behaviours and organisational culture influence organisational performance, previous studies have suggested that performance-related rewards are conducive for ensuring high performance. therefore, measuring employee performance is important for individual and organisational development. however, performance appraisal links to employee recruitment, selection, training and development, career planning, compensation and benefits as well as industrial relations. noe et al. (2006) identified that performance appraisal is the central part of management, that is, evaluation by supervisors, review by peers, subordinates and managers. according to bohlander and snell (2004), direct compensation comprises wages, salaries, incentives, bonuses and commissions. later on, organisations can offer non-monetary benefits like flexible work time, recognition, reward for work and working environment. therefore, compensation and reward can be powerful tools for getting the efforts organisations want from employees to reach their organisational goals (thang, 2004). noe et al. (2006) stated that compensation includes pay structure decisions, employees’ contributions and employees’ benefits. empirical research findings suggest that unionised firms have higher wages and productivity than non-unionised firms do (siengthai & bechter, 2001). to face the challenges of globalisation and privatisation in bangladesh, organisations need increased productivity. hossain (2002), eusuf et al. (2007) and zohir (2007) have yielded results that contradict this view: that the bepza ban on trade unions in export-processing zones is the most prudent approach given that export-processing zone trade unions are irresponsible and not production-orientated. however, the object of unionisation is job security. once employees have secured work, unions fight to improve wages, working hours, working conditions and so on. unions have a role in hrm activities. they include recruiting, selecting, compensating, promoting, training, collective bargaining and discharging employees (dessler, 2003; chen, 2007; gooderham, parry & ringdal 2008). therefore, the author formulated four hypotheses. h6: effective recruitment and selection practice relates to organisational change. h7: performance appraisal practice relates to organisational change. h8: compensation or reward practice has a relationship with organisational change. h9: there is a relationship between unionisation and organisational change. research design top ↑ this research followed a quantitative approach using a structured questionnaire survey. this is a study where the author measured in-depth understandings of human behaviour and organisational change, hrm practices, organisational behaviour and leadership competencies using different items and a likert scale as a measuring tool. therefore, to answer the formulated research questions, the author used a qualitative research method. research approach in order to answer the three research questions, this study used primary data the author collected from a questionnaire survey. the author used scale variables to get primary data related to organisational change, organisational behaviours, leadership competencies and hrm practices. the author used the variables’ relationship and their coefficient regression, along with a post-hoc analysis method, to answer the questions. the author also conducted a cronbach alpha test to identify the reliability of the variables. research method research participants the author used 216 participants in this study. they were managers of manufacturing enterprises from 53 enterprises. the respondents comprised 189 (86.10%) males and 27 (13.90%) females. of these, 64.4% were managers and 35.6% were assistant managers. most participants (98.60%) had higher levels of education. the managers had worked in their current positions for a significant number of years (mean = 7.80, sd = 2.45). the author found that the survey organisations were members of practicing workers’ unions. only 58.49% worked at top management level. seniority at workers’ unions was through selection (83.02%) rather than election (16.98%). sample organisations the author drew participants for this study from three types of enterprises. of the enterprises, 53 (62.27%) were foreign investor-owned (a-type) enterprises, 13.20% were from jointly owned (b-type) enterprises and 24.53% were local-investor owned (c-type) enterprises in the depz. there were 137 (63.40%) participants from foreign investor-owned enterprises, 28 (13.00%) participants were from joint venture enterprises and 51 (23.60%) were from local investor-owned enterprises. the author used simple random sampling for this study. measuring instruments the author used a five-point likert (1932) response scale for this study except when gathering demographic and enterprise information. the scale ranged from ‘1’ (strongly disagree) to ‘5’ (strongly agree) and from ‘1’ (not at all) to ‘5’ (very well).dependent variable. the author measured organisational change using 13 items. the author measured all the items using a 5-point likert scale. organisational change items included organisational structure, present pay system or pay scale, team culture activities, labour-management relations, adapting new technology, new work processes, new information technology (it) systems, employee participation and openness to change. independent variables. the author measured organisational behaviours (ob) with some selective components or variables like organisational culture, organisational learning and employee motivation. this group of variables contained 23 items. several other researchers, like parker and bradely (2000), robbins (2003), andrew (1998), koskosas, charitodui and louta (2008), schein (1992), tsang (1997), senge (1990), pedler, burgoyne and boydell (1991), thomas, sussman and henderson (2001) have used the measured items. the author measured the items using a likert 5-point scale (stroh, brett, baumann & reilly, 1996). it ranged from ‘1’ (strongly disagree) to ‘5’ (strongly agree). the leadership (transformational and transactional leadership) inventory contains 16 items. of the 16 items, the author used five for transformational leadership and five for transformational leadership. the author adapted the list from other studies (bass, 1985, 1990; burns, 1978; podsakoff, mackenzie & bommer, 1996; das, 2006) and measured them using a likert 5-point scale that ranged from ‘1’ (not at all), ‘2’ (to some extent), ‘3’ (average), ‘4’ (well) and ‘5’ (very well). hrm. in this study, there are 20 items of core hrm practices. many scholars, like huseild (1995) and datta, guthrie and wright (2005), developed the items. they include recruitment and selection, training and development, appraisal and compensation and employees’ trade unions for collective bargaining about their welfare and development. research procedure the author gathered the data of this study using field surveys he conducted during january 2008 to july 2008 using structured questionnaires. the author distributed the structured questionnaires to the 512 manager-level officers in 53 enterprises. with prior telephonic communication, the author used simple random sampling to select the enterprises. the author collected 216 completed questionnaires from these 53 sample firms. the response rate was 42.18%. this is satisfactory and statistically acceptable (babbie, 2004). the author was directly involved in the process of collecting field data and received good cooperation from the hr managers of the sample firms in the depz. results top ↑ the descriptive statistics in table 1 show the means, standard deviations, the pearson correlations and cronbach’s alpha reliability. table 1: descriptive statistics of means, standard deviations, correlation coefficients and cronbach's alpha. the author computed pearson correlations to determine the relationships between all the variables in depz enterprises and the strengths of their relationships for organisational change. the results provide an understanding of direct relationships between employee motivation, organisational learning, organisational culture, transactional leadership, transformational leadership, recruitment and selection, performance appraisal, unionisation, compensation or reward and organisational change. table 1 also reports the values of cronbach’s alpha. the author found that the values do not support all the variables, as hair, anderson, tatham, black and babin, (2006) recommends, but all of them are above the 0.50 level, as nunnally (1978) requires. table 2 gives the results of the hypotheses testing. the author ran step-wise multiple regressions to measure variables like transformational leadership, transactional leadership, unionisation, recruitment and selection, organisational learning, compensation or reward, employee motivation, organisational culture and performance appraisal for organisational change. table 2: regression model of demographic and independent variables with organisational change. the regression results in model 3 reveal that there is a positive relationship between the independent and dependent variables. the correlation coefficient is 0.838. the r2 adjusted is 0.682. therefore, the model, which comprises the specified variables of employees’ motivation and commitment, organisational learning, organisational culture, transformational leadership, transactional leadership, recruitment and selection, performance appraisal, compensation or reward and unionisation explains about 68.2% of the total variation in organisational change. the result is also statistically significant at the 0.05 level. on the other hand, model 2 was significant. it comprises the hypothesised variables. the adjusted r2 explained 69.5% of the total variance. of the three regression models, model 1 is not significant. in table 2, the regression model 3 also illustrates the coefficients for compensation or reward, organisational learning, transformational leadership and transactional leadership behavioural abilities, which are positive and have a significant relationship with organisational change. the author found that bun ionisation has a negatively significant relationship with organisational change in depz enterprises. specifically, organisational learning has a positive and significant relationship and explained 13% of total variance in organisational change. transformational leadership has a highly positive significant relationship with organisational change. this explained 29.8% of the total variance. transactional leadership also has a positive and significant relationship with organisational change. this explained 18% of the total variance. compensation or reward practices have positive and significant effects on organisational change. this explained 18.9% of the total variance. furthermore, table 2 shows that the recruitment and selection, performance appraisal, organisational culture and employee motivation and commitment variables have positive relationships with organisational change, although the relationships were not significant. the significance level was 0.05. to determine the group variable effect on organisational change, the author entered group variables like gender and position (manager and assistant manager) and ran compared means by using spss statistical software. table 3 reveals that there was no significant difference between groups on organisational change. therefore, there is no mean difference between males and females or between managers and assistant managers on organisational change. table 3: t-test – organisational change based on gender and position. the author later ran a post hoc test on the respondents’ education levels and type of enterprises on which they work to determine the comparative results and their effects on organisational change. therefore, the author entered the respondents’ education levels (bachelor, master of business administration [mba] or masters) and type of enterprises (a, b and c type) and ran comparative means. table 4 reveals that bachelor and master degrees have no significant effects on organisational change. on the other hand, mba has positive and significant effects on organisational change at depz manufacturing enterprises. therefore, respondents with business administration degrees have positive and significant effects on organisational change whilst other education degrees do not. table 4: post hoc test for organisational change – education and type of enterprises. table 5 reveals that the overall anova is significant. therefore, the population means are not equal. anova significant test results recommend a least significant difference (lsd) post hoc test. the results showed that there are significant mean differences for organisational change in depz manufacturing enterprises. again, the type of enterprises has a significant effect on organisational change in depz manufacturing enterprises. table 5: anova test for type of enterprise in the depz. analysis of variance with type of dhaka export processing zone enterprises there were three types of enterprises in the depz. these were ‘a’ (foreign owned enterprises), ‘b’ (joint venture enterprises) and ‘c’ (locally owned enterprises). each type has 216 observations or cases (n = 216).table 5 gives a one-way analysis of variance (anova). it shows that the means differ significantly with organisational change in depz enterprises. post hoc test for type of enterprise in the dhaka export processing zone the overall anova is significant (see table 5). therefore, the population means are not equal. the anova significance test results recommend a lsd post hoc test run. the results revealed that there are significant means differences for organisational change in depz manufacturing enterprises. the type of enterprise (foreign owned, joint venture and locally owned enterprise) has a significant effect on organisational change in depz manufacturing enterprises. links of all independent variables with organisational change in dhaka export processing zone enterprises the radar diagram (figure 1) shows the variables’ links with organisational change in depz manufacturing enterprises. the graphical presentation includes overall leadership abilities, organisational behaviours and hrm practices. this radar diagram is a descriptive and graphical presentation to examine the link between independent variables and organisational change in depz. this figure uses the mean value of all variables. therefore, the shape of the diagram denotes how leadership abilities, organisational behaviours and hrm practices link or associate with organisational change and its effect on organisational change. figure 1: radar diagram for independent variables. the figure shows that all the variables are very close to the upper limit of the radar, whilst unionisation is a little further away from the others. discussion top ↑ this study tries to investigate the relationships between variables like leadership abilities, organisational behaviours and hrm practices with organisational change in depz manufacturing enterprises at managerial level. furthermore, this study tries to determine the relationship between the variables and their effects on organisational change. however, based on the regression analyses, the author found that only five independent variables had a statistically significant relationship with organisational change. these are organisational learning, transformational leadership, transactional leadership, compensation or reward and unionisation. for this study, the author measured organisational learning using items like ‘acquiring and sharing knowledge’, ‘commitment to continuous learning’ and ‘team autonomy (huber, 1991; senge, 1990; stata, 1989) in making decisions about behavioural change in competitive businesses’. managers are the key drivers of organisational change and their approaches to nurturing organisational learning through shared vision, personal mastery, mental models, team and system learning (dibella, nevis & gould, 1996; senge, 1990) are critical. alas, vadi and sun (2009), dumphy, turner and crawford (1997) and gravin (1993) have treated organisational learning as outcomes. this study result confirms the measuring items (a = 0.71) (nunnally, 1978) and supports the previous findings. it also confirms that organisational learning has positive and significant relationships with organisational change (b = 0.13, p < 0.05). according to the transformational leadership approach (bass, 1985; podsakoff et al., 1996), leaders have positive attitudes about their followers with regard to organisational vision (o’regan & ghobadian, 2007). depz performance depends mostly on leader-follower relationships. here, transformational leadership has a positive effect (b = 0.298, p < 0.01) on organisational change. in the same vein, transactional leadership has an effect on subordinates’ relationship with contingent reward practices. therefore, transactional leadership has a positive effect (b = 0.18, p < 0.05) on organisational change. transactional leadership can satisfy subordinates. in terms of the employment conditions of the depz, as mentioned in instructional manuals i and ii, enterprise workers must receive non-financial and financial benefits, although zohir (2007) reports some doubts about those compensations as incentive packages. this study confirms that the instructional manual (compensation package) also has a positive effect on, and significant relationship with (b = 0.189, p < 0.05), organisational change. for increasing production volumes, and to reduce production costs, depz entrepreneurs do not want unionisation in the depz. investors’ pressure is another factor. unionisation in depz is the cause of lower production and leads to threats of plants or factories closing down. therefore, trade unions have been banned in the depz. bhattacharya (1998), hossain (2002), zohir (2007), siengthai and bechter (2001), islam and siengthai (2009), kleiner and lee (1997) and the united states government have found contradictory results. the empirical results of this study have shown that unionisation has a negative relationship with organisational change (b = -0.10, p < 0.05). in depz enterprises, there are more females (64%) than males. in managerial-level jobs, males dominate the field. study results revealed that there is no mean difference between males and females in terms of organisational change. there was also no mean difference between manager and assistant manager job levels for organisational change. depz enterprises are considering mba degrees for managerial jobs rather than other degrees. the post hoc results found that mba degrees have a significant effect on depz organisational performance as well as organisational change. in addition, types of enterprises (foreign owned, locally owned and joint ventures) have mean differences and significant effects on organisational change. the radar diagram results confirmed that the variables the author measured for organisational change have closer relationships. in conclusion, one can say that, for organisations to introduce change to cope with the ongoing changes in the global environment, the firms operating in the depz need to manage their organisational learning and communication and improve their transformational and transactional leadership. at the same time, with regard to hrm, compensation or reward is a very significant factor in organisational change. finally, labour welfare forum unionisation influences and leads organisational change for improving productivity. managerial implications depz factories do not carry out research and development activities. it should emphasise the provision of skilled personnel and of supplying quality products with competitive prices, thereby satisfying customers and investors. to prevent unrest within depz enterprises, management teams should take initiatives to provide good incentive packages and good working environments. furthermore, they must ensure and monitor good hrm practices because good hrm and leadership can promote the performance of organisations through organisational change. in this study, the author found that transformational leadership has a significant effect on organisational change. therefore, simply providing a good working environment and good salaries for good work would not be sufficient or effective for organisational change. leaders should be able to inspire their people in the change implementation process. suggestions for future research in this study, the author drew the sample from depz manufacturing enterprises at managerial level jobs. the author drew the sample from three types of enterprises (foreign owned, locally owned and joint venture enterprises). however, this study did not conduct comparative analysis to investigate type-wise effects on organisational change. furthermore, similar factories are operating just outside the depz premises. therefore, this study could have extended beyond depz manufacturing enterprises to investigate the leadership abilities, organisational behaviours and hrm practices for organisational change. this study has not considered enterprises outside the depz. therefore, researchers need to conduct future studies on manufacturing enterprises that are in the depz as well as outside it to investigate the effects of, and relationships between, the set of variables the author used in this study. even though there are eight economic and industrial zones operating in bangladesh, the author did not draw the sample from all of the zones. therefore, future studies could extend their scope to all the export-processing zones. research limitations the author conducted the study using a questionnaire survey. he drew the sample from organisations that operated inside the dhaka export processing zone, although there are similar organisations outside the depz.the author selected the respondents from only the managerial levels of employees, although there are many others who could have provided valuable information. therefore, considering the scope of this study, one could say that a study with a wider sample would have been more comprehensive and yielded more reliable research findings. the findings have shown that there are significant positive relationships between some of the independent variables (like organisational learning, compensation, unionisation, transformational leadership and transactional leadership) with organisational change. on the other hand, the author did not find that some of the independent variables (like recruitment and selection, performance appraisal, organisational culture and employee motivation) correlated positively with organisational change. the author suggests that longitudinal case studies and observations, which use ethnographic approaches, could improve our understanding of leadership, hrm and their relationships with organisational change. conclusion top ↑ in the process of economic development, the depz plays a significant role in generating employment, accelerating export and motivating local and foreign investors. the organisational behavioural components (like employee motivation and learning) and leadership (like abilities, knowledge, skill and hrm) are playing very important and crucial roles for the growth of depz enterprises. this study aimed to identify the relationships between leadership, organisational behaviour variables, hrm and organisational change. one measures organisational behaviours by measuring organisational culture, organisational learning, employee motivation and commitment. one measures leadership by measuring transformational and transactional leadership. one measures hrm by measuring recruitment and selection, performance appraisal, compensation and unionisation. all the independent variables had a relationship with the dependent variable (organisational change) in the expected direction. based the empirical data analyses, the author found that only five independent variables had significant relationships with organisational change. they are organisational learning, transformational leadership, transformational leadership behaviour, compensation or reward and unionisation. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. references top ↑ abrahamson, e. (2004). change without pain. boston: harvard business school press. aggarwal, a. (2005). performance of export processing zones: a comparative analysis of india, sri lanaka and bangladesh. indian council for research on international economic relations, new delhi. alas, r., vadi, m., & sun, w. (2009). impact of work-related values upon attitudes toward changes and organisational learning in chinese organization. chinese management studies, 3(2), 117–129. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506140910963620 andrew, b. (1998). organisational culture. prentice hall, (2nd eds.), england. arthur, j.b. (1994). effects of human resource systems on manufacturing performance and turnover. academy of management journal, 37(3), 670–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256705 avolio, b.j., bass, b.m., & jung, d.i. (1999). re-examining the components of transformational and transactional leadership using the multifactor leadership questionnaire. journal of operational and organisational psychology, 72(4), 441–462. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317999166789 babbie, e. (2004). the practice of social research. ca: wadsworth/thomson learning. bach, s. & sisson, k. (2000). personnel management in perspective. in bach, s. and sisson, k. (eds), personnel management, a comprehensive guide to theory and practice, (3rd edn.). blackwell, oxford, pp. 3–42. bass, b.m. (1985). leadership and performance beyond expectation. free press, new york, ny. bass, b.m. (1990). bass and stogdill’s handbook of leadership: theory, research and managerial applications, (3rd edn.). free press, new york, ny. becker, b.f., & huseild, m.a. (1998). high performance work systems and firm performance: a synthesis of research and managerial implications. research in personnel and human resource bhattacharya, d. (1998). export processing zones in bangladesh: economic impact and social issues, multinational enterprises programme. working paper no. 80. geneva, ilo. bohlander, g., & snell, s. (2004). managing human resources. (13th ed.). usa. thomson south-western. pmcid:321764 bowen, d.e., & ostroff, c. (2004). understanding hrm-firm performance linkage: the role of the ‘strength’ of the system’. academy of management review, 29(2), 203–221. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.2004.12736076, http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/20159029 bower, d.g., and seashore, s.e. (1966). predicting organisational effectiveness with a four-factor theory of leadership. administration science quarterly, 11, 238–263. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2391247 brown, d.r., and harvey, d. (2006). an experimental approach to organisation development (7th edn.). nj: prentice-hall burns, j. m. (1978). leadership. harper and row, new york, ny. cao, g., clarke, s., & lehaney, b. (2000). ‘a system view of organisational change and castro, c.b, perinan, m.m.v., & bueno, j.c.c. (2008). transformational leadership and followers’ attitudes: the mediating role of psychological empowerment. the international journal of human resource management, 19(10). chen, c.c., and meindl, j. r. (1991).the construction of leadership images in the popular press: the case of donald burr and people express. administrative science quarterly, 36, 512–551. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2393273 chen, s.-j. (2007). human resource strategy and unionization: evidence from taiwan. international journal of human resource management, 18(6), 1116–1131. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190701321948 chew, y. t., & choo, s. m. (2008). a study of the change management and challenges in a bank. research and practice in human resource management, 16(2), 100–118. collins, c., & smith, k. (2003). strategic human resource practices, top management team social network and firm performance: the role of human resource practices in creating organisational competitive advantages. academy of management journal, 46(6), 740–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/30040665 daft, l. (2003). management, south-western, (6th edn.). australia. dansereau, f., yammarino, f.j., & markham, s.e. (1995). leadership: the multiple-level approaches. leadership quarterly, 6(2), 97–109. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/1048-9843(95)90030-6 das, a. (2006). leadership competencies and total quality management. phd dissertation, thailand: school of management, asian institute of technology. datta, d.k., guthrie, p.j., & wright, p.m. (2005). human resource management and labour productivity: does industry matter? academy of management journal, 48(1), 135–145. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2005.15993158 davis, s. (1984). managing corporate culture. balinger, cambridge, ma. delery, j. (1998). issues of fit in strategic human resource management: implications for research. human resource management review, 8(3), 289–309. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(98)90006-7 denison, d.r. (1990). corporate culture and organisational effectiveness, john willey & sons, new york, ny. dessler g. (2003). human resource management. (9th edn.), prentice-hall of india. dibella, a., nevis, f., & gould, j. (1996). understanding organisational learning capability. journal of management studies, 33(3), 361–379. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.1996.tb00806.x dumphy, d., turner, d., & crawford, m. (1997). organisational learning as the creation of corporate compentencies. journal of management, 16(4), 232–249. edger, f., & geare, a. (2005). hrm practice and employee attitudes: different measures – different results. personnel review, 34(5), 534–549. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00483480510612503 eisenbach, r., watson, k., & pillai, r. (1999). transformational leadership in the context of organisational change. journal of organisational change management, 12(2), 80–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09534819910263631 eusuf, m.a., faruque , a.b.m., & rahman, a. (2007). institution for facilitating fdi: issues for bepza. bangladesh. ippg program office, idpm, school of environment & development, university of manchester, uk. francis, h. (2003). hrm and the beginnings of organisational change. journal of organisational change, 16(3), 309–327. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09534810310475541 gerhardt, p.l. (2004). transformational and transactional leadership in retail. retrieved october 01, 2009, from http://www.google.co.th/search?hl=en&rlz=1w1ggll_en&q=transactional+leadership+and+organisational+change&start=10&sa=n goffee, r., & jones, g. (2006). why should anyone be led by you? harvard business school press. government of bangladesh (gob), (01 august, 2010). bangladesh gazette, dhaka, bangladesh parliament. government of bangladesh (gob), (2009). bangladesh economic review, ministry of finance, dhaka, bangladesh. government of bangladesh (gob), (1989). bepza instructional manual i and ii, dhaka, bangladesh. goh, s., & richards, g. (1997). benchmarking the learning capability of organizations. european management journal, 15(5), 575–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0263-2373(97)00036-4 gooderham, p., parry, e., & ringdal, k. (2008).the impact of bundles of strategic human resource management practices on the performance of european firms’, international journal of human resource management, 19(11), 2041–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190802404296 gopalakrishnan, s. (2007). in the name of growth: the politics and economics of india’s special economic zones. a study prepared for council for social development. new delhi: council for social development, india. pp.1–110. retrieved september 18, 2010, from http://casi.ssc.upenn.edu/iit/rjenkins gravin, d.a. (1993). building a learning organization. harvard business review, 71(4), 78–91. hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., anderson, r.e., & tatham, r.l. (2006). multivariate data analysis, (6th ed.). pp.102–103. harigopal, k. (2001). management of organisational change, sage publication india pvt. ltd, new delhi. harris, c., cortvriend, p., & hyde, p. (2007). human resource management and performance in healthcare organizations. journal of health organization and management, 21(4/5), 448–459. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14777260710778961 noe, r. a., hollenbeck, j.r., gerhart, b., & wright, p.m. (2006). human resource management. mcgraw-hill, irwin. hossain, i. (2002). export processing zones in bangladesh and industrial relations. in muqtada, m., singh, a.m., rashid, m.a. (1st ed.). bangladesh economic and social challenges of globalisation, the university press limited, dhaka, pp.169–191. house, r.j. (1971). a path-goal theory of leader effectives. administrative science quarterly, 16, 321–339. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2391905 house, r.j. (1996). path-goal theory of leadership: lessons, legacy, and a reformulated theory. leadership quarterly, 17(3), 323–352. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(96)90024-7 house, r.j., & mitchell, t.r. (1974). path-goal theory of leadership. journal of contemporary business, 3(4), 81–97. huber, g.p. (1991). organisational learning: the contributing process and the literatures. organisational science, 2(1), 88–115. http://doi.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2.1.88 huselid, m.a. (1995). the impact of human resource management practices on turnover, productivity and corporate financial performance. academy of management journal, 38, 635–672. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256741 ilo. (2007). sectoral activities programme. ilo database on export processing zones. working paper, no. 251, geneva, april, 2007. islam, m.z., & siengthai, s. (2009). quality of work life and organisational performance: empirical evidence from dhaka export processing zone, paper presented in ilo conference on ‘regulating for decent work’, geneva, july 07–10, 2009. jean-marie, (1996). the impact of human resource management on organisational performance: theory and research. european management journal, 14(6), 628–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0263-2373(96)00059-x jung, d.i., berson, y., avolio, b.j., & bass, b.m. (2003). predicting unit performance by assessing transformational and transactional leadership, journal of applied psychology, 88(2), 207–218. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.2.207, pmid:12731705 karatepe, o.m. & uludag, o. (2006). conflict, exhaustion, and motivation: a study of frontline employees in northern cyprus hotels. international journal of hospitality management, early published. (online) elsevier. keller, r. (2007).sustainable improvement requires a culture change. continuous improvement. april 12, 2007, from www.industrweek.com kets de vries, m. (1996). leaders who make a difference. european management journal, 14(5), 486–493. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0263-2373(96)00042-4 kleiner, m.m., & lee, y.m. (1997). works councils and unionisation: lessons from south korea. industrial relations, 36, 1–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/0019-8676.381997001 koskosas, i.v., charitodui, g., & louta, m. (2008). the role of organisational cultures in information-systems security management: a goal-setting perspective. journal of leadership studies, 2(1), 7–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jls.20042 kotter, j.p. (1995). leading change: why transformational efforts fail. harvard business review, march/april, pp. 59–67. kotter, j.p., & heskett, j.l. (1992). corporate culture and performance. the free press, new york, ny. kotter, p.j. (1998). what leaders really do? harvard business review on leadership, harvard business school press, usa. pmcid:1722610 kotter, p.j. (2007). leading change: why transformation efforts fail. harvard business review, 85(1), 96. kreitner, r. & kinicki, a. (2001). organisational behaviour, fifth edition, new york: mcgraw-hill. lewis, p.s., goodman, s.h., & fandt, p.m. (2001). management: challenges in the 21st century. (3rd edn.), south-western. likert, r. (1932). a technique for the measurement of attitudes. new york: archives of psychology. murayama, m., & yokota, n. (2009). review of labour economic and political weekly, may 30, june 5, 2009, 44(22), 73. martinez-sanchez, perez-perez, m., vela-jimenez, m.j., & de-luis-carnicer, p. (2008). telework adoption, change management, and firm performance. journal of organisational change management, 21(1), 731. mcshane, s.l., & von gilnow, m.a. (2000). organisational behaviour. mcgraw-hill, new york, ny. nawaz, a.s.m. (2005). model of human resource management: a critical review of their impact on organisational effectiveness. the cost and management, 33(4), 56–62. noe, r. a., hollenbeck, j.r., gerhar, b., & wright, p.m. (2006). human resource management: gaining a competitive, advantage, (5th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill irwin. nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory, mcgraw hill book company. new york. o’regan, n., & ghobadian, a. (2007). leadership and its impact on the use of process technologies and management practices in the manufacturing sector. international journal of business performance management, 9(4), 419–433. http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/ijbpm.2007.013363 o’reilly, c.a., & chatman, j.a. (1996). culture as a social control: corporations, culture, and commitment, in b. m. staw and l.l. cummings (eds.), research in organisational behaviour, 18, 157–200. greenwich, ct: jai press. o’toole, m. (2002). the relationship between employees’ perceptions of safety and organisational culture. journal of safety research, 33, 231–243. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0022-4375(02)00014-2 oecd, (2002). organisational change and firm performance. industry issues. oecd, (2001). public sector leadership for the 21st century. parker, r., & bradley, l. (2000). organisational culture in the public sector: evidence from six organizations. international journal of public sector management, 13(2), 125–141. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513550010338773 pawar, b.s. (2003). central conceptual issues in transformational leadership research. leadership and organisational journal, 24(7), 397–402. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437730310498596 pedler, m., burgoyne, j., & boydell, t. (1990). the learning company: a strategy for sustainable development. london: mcgraw-hill. pmid:2115050, pmcid:502450 pfeffer, j. (1994). competitive advantage through people. california management review, 36, 9–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/41165742 podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., & bommer, w.h. (1996). transformational leader behaviours and substitutes for leadership as determinants of employee satisfaction, commitment, trust, and organisational citizenship behaviour. journal of management, 22(2), 259–298. rao, p., y.v.s.s.s.v. (2005). motivation model for improving productivity in a manufacturing unit – a success story. international journal of productivity and performance management, 55(5), 430–436. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17410400610671453 rashid. a., sambasiva m., & johari, j. (2003). the influence of corporate culture and organisational commitment on performance. journal of management development, 22(8), 708–728. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02621710310487873 reimann, t., & oedewald, p. (2002). the assessment of organisational culture: a methodological study, vtt research notes, finland. pmcid:1462267 robbins, s.p. (2003). organisational behaviour. prentice hall (10th eds.), england. robertson, p.j., roberts, d.r., & porras, j.i. (1993). dynamics of planned organisational change: assessing empirical support for a theoretical model. academy of management journal, 36(3), 619–634. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256595 rodrik, d. (1997). has globalization gone too far? washington, dc: institute for international economics. schein, e. h. (1992). organisational culture and leadership. (2nd edition), jossey-bass, schermerhorn, j., hunt, j., & osborn, r. (2005). organisational behaviour. john wiley & sons, inc., ninth edition, usa. senge, p. (1990). the fifth discipline: the art & practice of the learning organization, new york: doubleday. siengthai, s. & bechter, c. (2001). strategic human resource management and firm innovation. research and practice in human resource management, 19(1), 35–57. stata r., (1989). organisational learning – the key to management innovation. sloan management review, spring, pp. 63–73. stroh l.k., brett, j.m., baumann, j.p., & reilly, a.h. (1996). agency theory and variable pay compensation strategies. academy of management journal, 39(3), 751–767. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256663 stone j. raymond. (2002). human resource management. (4th edition), john wiley & sons. australia, ltd. pp. 572–868.. thang, l. c. (2004). managing human resources in vietnam: an empirical study of an economy in transition. doctoral dissertation, no. sm-04-07. thailand: school of management, asian institute of technology. thomas, j.b., sussman, s. w., & henderson j.c. (2001). understanding ‘strategic learning’: linking organisational learning, knowledge management, and sensemaking. organization science, 12(3), 331–345. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.12.3.331.10105 tsang, e.w.k. (1997). organisational learn and the learning organization: a dichotomy between descriptive and prescriptive research. hunan relations, 50(1), 73–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001872679705000104 ulrich, d. (1997). human resource champion, the next agenda for adding value and delivering results, harvard business school press, boston. vera, d., & crossan, m. (2004). strategic leadership and organisational learning. academy of management review, 29(2), 222–240. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.2004.12736080, http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/20159030 wilson, a.m. (2001). understanding organisational culture and the implication for corporate marketing. european journal of marketing, 35(3/4). http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090560110382066 world bank. (1996). bangladesh government that works: reforming the public sector, university press ltd, dhaka. july, 1996. report no. 15182 bd. wright, p.m., mcmahan, g. c., & mcwilliams, a. (1994). human resources and sustained competitive advantage: a resource based perspective. international journal of human resource management, 5(2), 301–326. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585199400000020 youndt, m., snell, s., dean, j., & lepak, d. (1996). human resource management, manufacturing strategy and firm performance. academy of management journal, 39(4), 836–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256714 zheng c., morrison, m., & o’neill, g. (2006). an empirical study of high performance hrm practice in chinese smes. international journal of human resource management, 17(10), 1772–1803. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190600965282 zohir, c.s. (2001). gender balance in the epz: a socio-economic study of dhaka export processing zone in bangladesh, research report, bangladesh institute of development studies, dhaka. pmcid:3333237 zohir, c.s. (2007). role of dhaka export processing zone: employment and empowerment, research report, no. 181, bangladesh institute of development studies, dhaka. article information authors: jani oosthuizen1 karina mostert1 frieda e. koekemoer1 affiliations: 1school of human resource sciences, workwell: research unit for economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom campus, south africa correspondence to: karina mostert email: karina.mostert@nwu.ac.za postal address: private bag x6001, internal mailbox 202, potchefstroom 2520, south africa dates: received: 31 jan. 2011 accepted: 25 aug. 2011 published: 10 nov. 2011 how to cite this article: oosthuizen, j., mostert, k., & koekemoer, f.e. (2011). job characteristics, work-nonwork interference and the role of recovery strategies amongst employees in a tertiaryinstitution. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #356, 15 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v9i1.356 note: this research was conducted as part of the first author’s master’s degree, completed at the north west university, potchefstroom, south africa. the material described in this article is based on work supported by the national research foundation under reference number ttk2007052400034. copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) job characteristics, work-nonwork interference and the role of recovery strategies amongst employees in a tertiary institution in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • literature review       • work-nonwork role interference       • job characteristics and the relationship with work-home interference       • effort-recovery and recovery experiences • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • descriptive statistics and product-moment correlations    • multiple regression analysis • discussion    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • authors’ contributions • references • footnote abstract (back to top) orientation: although work characteristics and recovery strategies are associated with work-family interference, the influence on specific types of work-nonwork interference (w-nwi) has not been investigated. research purpose: the aim of this study was to investigate the impact of work characteristics and recovery strategies on four types of w-nwi. motivation for the study: it is clear from the literature that job characteristics and w-nwi have adverse effects on employees’ health and well-being. it is therefore important to identify work characteristics and recovery strategies associated with w-nwi. research design, approach and method: a cross-sectional survey design was used in this study. the target population was married employees with children working at a tertiary education institution (tei) in the north west province (n = 366). main findings: work pressure and emotional demands significantly predicted all the work-nonwork role interference dimensions. a lack of autonomy predicted work-parent interference and work-religion and/or spirituality interference, whilst a lack of development possibilities predicted work-religion and/or spirituality interference. relaxation and mastery recovery experiences significantly predicted lower work-parent interference. a lack of psychological detachment and relaxation were significantly associated with lower work-spouse interference. relaxation and control significantly predicted lower work-domestic interference, whilst psychological detachment significantly predicted lower work-religion and/or spirituality interference. practical/managerial implications: the results give managers insight into the specific work characteristics and recovery experiences that play a role in w-nwi, upon which interventions can be based to address these issues. contribution/value-add: this study provides information on the relationship between work characteristics, recovery experiences and the effect on different types of w-nwi. introduction (back to top) the interference between work and the different roles in personal life is a widely studied topic in occupational health psychology, mainly because of increased stressors, high job demands and/or a lack of job resources that employees experience in organisations today (eby, casper, lockwood, bordeaux & brinley, 2005; geurts & demerouti, 2003). on an individual level, using the appropriate recovery strategies to convalesce from high demands that lead to interference between work and nonwork is crucial (e.g. de croon, sluiter, blonk, broersen & frings-dresen, 2004; geurts, kompier, roxburgh & houtman, 2003; nýlen, melin & laflamme, 2007). studies show that the interference between the work and nonwork domain holds negative outcomes for organisations and those they employ (bellavia & frone, 2004; boyar, maertz, mosley & carr, 2008). work-nonwork interference (w-nwi)1 is associated with work-related outcomes such as absenteeism (väänänen et al., 2004), decreased job satisfaction, lower levels of organisational commitment and labour turnover intentions (allen, herst, bruck & sutton, 2000; duxbury, 2004;grandey & cropanzano, 1999), as well as with individual outcomes such as decreased life satisfaction, marital dissatisfaction, burnout, psychosomatic complaints, depression and fatigue (demerouti & geurts, 2004; demerouti, geurts & kompier, 2004; koekemoer & mostert, 2006; mostert, 2008; peeters, de jonge, janssen & van der linde, 2004; peeters, montgomery, bakker & schaufeli, 2005; van hooff et al., 2005). w-nwi is also a reality for employees working in tertiary education institutions (teis), where south african teis find themselves in a turbulent and stressful environment (barkhuizen & rothmann, 2008a, 2008b; coetzee & rothmann, 2005; jackson, rothmann & van de vijver, 2006). according to demerouti and geurts (2004), jobs that have high demands and low resources are considered to be the worst working environment for individuals. when employees are confronted with too many demands at work they often lack the energy and motivation to invest time and effort into the nonwork domain (geurts & demerouti, 2003). as a result one’s functioning in different nonwork roles (e.g. parental, spousal, domestic and religious or spiritual) may be affected(koekemoer & mostert, 2010a). when interference from the work to the nonwork domain increases, it is very likely that the need for recovery from increased load reactions will also increase (jansen, kant, kristensen & nijhuis, 2003). if an individual does not recover sufficiently from the strain developed through the working day, it can have implications for his or her health (geurts et al., 2005; geurts, rutte & peeters, 1999) and can affect overall well-being (sonnentag & zijlstra, 2006).insufficient recovery is also associated with high absenteeism (meijman & mulder, 1998; sonnentag & zijlstra, 2006), low job performance (fritz & sonnentag, 2005; sonnentag & geurts, 2009) and lower productivity (moncrieff & pomerleau, 2000). although the relationship between demands and a lack of resources with work-home interference (whi) has been researched in the south african context (e.g. koekemoer & mostert, 2006; mostert, 2008, 2009; mostert & oosthuizen, 2006; oldfield & mostert, 2007; tshabalala, 2007; van aarde & mostert, 2008), the relationship with specific non-work roles has not yet been investigated (see koekemoer & mostert, 2010a, 2010b; koekemoer, mostert & rothmann, 2010). inaddition, research on recovery strategies that are significantly related to work interfering with different nonwork roles, specifically in the higher education sector, is also lacking. in light of the aforementioned discussion, the main objectives of this research were to determine, (1) which demands and resources are significant predictors of w-nwi and (2) which recovery experiences are significant predictors of w-nwi. w-nwi included work-parent interference, work-spouse interference, work-domestic interference and work-religion and/or spirituality interference. a sample of employees working in a tei in the north west province was used. literature review work-nonwork role interference according to the role identity theory (stryker, 1968), roles provide individuals with a sense of meaning and purpose. roles are attached to statures, which are defined as a position a person holds in society (noor, 2004). when individuals hold a status, multiple roles will be associated with that status, which means that they have multiple role identities (noor, 2004; reitzes & mutran, 1994; thoits, 1995). thoits (1995, p. 72) defines an identity as ‘a position occupied in the social structure, which is enacted in role relationships with others and viewed as descriptive of oneself’. furthermore, burke (1980) is of the opinion that the self is made up of a collection of identities that are linked to an individual’s role relationships. these identities may be related to a work role (geurts et al., 2005; wiley, 1991), a parental role (geurts et al., 2005; simon, 1992), a spousal role (geurts et al., 2005), a domestic role and a religious and/or spiritual role (wilensky, 1960). because individuals have multiple roles, it is to be expected that some roles are more important to an individual than others. this is called ‘role salience’, and refers to the subjective importance that individuals attach to the various roles that they view as describing themselves (thoits, 1995). role identities that are viewed by an individual as more important will therefore be more salient and will result in greater commitment to that specific role (thoits, 1995; wiley, 1991). if various roles are salient, it is likely that conflict will arise between certain roles – specifically between the work role and other salient roles in the nonwork domain. w-nwi therefore occurs when participation in one role (e.g. the work role) makes it difficult to participate in another role (e.g. the parental or spousal role) (greenhaus & beutell, 1985). strain, or w-nwi, inevitably develops when individuals participate in multiple roles with high salience (demerouti et al., 2004; greenhaus & beutell, 1985). w-nwi can be defined as ‘the extent to which one’s functioning in one domain (e.g. work) is influenced (negatively or positively) by demands from the other domain (e.g. home, nonwork) and vice versa’ (greenhaus & beutell, 1985). the definition suggests that either work can influence an individual’s private life or an individual’s private life can influence his or her work. a substantial amount of research has been carried out on the negative impact of work on the home or family domain in general (for overviews, see byron, 2005; eby et al., 2005; mesmer-magnus & viswesvaran, 2005). however, research concerning the impact of the work role on specific nonwork roles is limited (aryee, 1992; day & chamberlain, 2006; small & riley, 1990). recently, a new work-nonwork interference instrument was developed for employees in a tei (koekemoer & mostert, 2010b; koekemoer et al., 2010), where w-nwi is defined as a process in which the involvement of an individual in one domain (or social role) interferes with the functioning or involvement in another domain (role), where the interference affects the way in which the worker’s self-identity is influenced by external stimuli to such an extent that it results in an inadequate performance of behaviour to conform to one or more highly-salient identities or roles (koekemoer & mostert, 2010a). the interference between work and four social roles (i.e. parental, spousal, domestic and religious and/or spiritual roles) was measured in this study. depending on the roles that work interferes with, individuals might experience work-parent interference (wpi), work-spouse interference (wsi), work-religion and/or spirituality interference (wri) or work-domestic interference (wdi). job characteristics and the relationship with work-home interference according to the job demands-resources model (demerouti, bakker, nachreiner & schaufeli, 2001), job characteristics consist of two broad categories, namely job demands and job resources. demerouti et al. (2001) define job demands as ‘physical, social or organisational aspects of a job that require sustained physical or mental effort and are therefore associated with certain physiological and psychological costs’. job demands such as workload (bellavia & frone, 2004; rothmann & essenko, 2007), time pressure (van den tooren & de jonge, 2010), long working hours (grzywacz & marks, 2000), role ambiguity, role stress and stressful events (schaufeli &bakker, 2004) are some of the demands reported within a stressful working environment. when employees experience job demands, it is of the utmost importance that they have adequate resources at work to overcome these demands. job resources are those aspects of a job that are required to decrease demands, achieve work goals and objectives, and to help an individual grow and develop (demerouti et al., 2001). job resources exist in the task itself (such as performance feedback, skill variety or autonomy) as well as in the context of the task (for instance organisational resources such as career opportunities or job security, and social resources such as supervisor or colleague support) (demerouti et al., 2001; schaufeli & bakker, 2004). the relationship between job demands, job resources and work-home interference has been reported in several studies (frone, russel & coopers, 1997; geurts & demerouti, 2003; janssen, peeters, de jonge, houkes & tummers, 2004; montgomery, peeters, schaufeli & den ouden, 2003; parasuraman, purohit, godshalk & beutell, 1996). these studies all found evidence that job demands and job resources are indeed related to negative whi. in most research, negative whi was attributed to high job demands and a lack of resources (montgomery, panagoplou & benos, 2006). previous research also found that job demands and job resources are important predictors of health outcomes (bakker & geurts, 2004; demerouti et al., 2001; peeters et al., 2005). according to bakker and geurts (2004), job demands and job resources are two aspects of work that cause a process where health impairment leads to negative whi. high job demands and a lack of resources havebeen found to be related with exhaustion, somatic complaints, anxiety and insomnia, and in turn are related to a negative interference between the work and home domain (bakker & geurts, 2004; geurts et al., 2003). between job demands and job resources, it seems that job demands are associated more with negative whi (demerouti & geurts, 2004). more specifically, work pressure, work overload and time demands predict negative whi (bakker & geurts, 2004; geurts et al., 2003; janssen et al., 2004; montgomery et al., 2003). job resources are needed to help employees cope with job demands (bakker & geurts, 2004; demerouti et al., 2001), but a lack of resources such as job control, social support (kinnunen & mauno, 1998), autonomy, supervisor support and role clarity also predict negative whi (bakker & geurts, 2004; janssen et al., 2004; montgomery et al., 2003). several studies concerning the relationship between job demands, job resources and whi have also been conducted in south africa (mostert & oosthuizen, 2006; oldfield & mostert, 2007; van aarde & mostert, 2008). significant relationships were found between job demands and negative whi (mostert & oosthuizen, 2006;oldfield & mostert, 2007; van aarde & mostert, 2008). in these studies, it was found that high time demands (e.g. working overtime) (mostert & oosthuizen, 2006) work overload (e.g. having excessive work to do, having too little time to complete tasks) (van aarde & mostert, 2008), high work pressure (e.g. working very hard, or working very fast or intense concentration on a task for a long period of time) (mostert & oosthuizen, 2006; oldfield & mostert, 2007; van aarde & mostert, 2008)and poor working conditions (e.g. working in dangerous and unsafe conditions, exposure to high security risks) (oldfield & mostert, 2007) contribute to elevated levels of negative whi. significant relationships were also found between the lack of job resources and negative whi (mostert & oosthuizen, 2006; van aarde & mostert, 2008). it was found that a lack of role clarity (e.g. experiencing role conflict such as receiving incompatible requests from different people), a lack of colleague support (e.g. cannot count on colleagues when faced with difficulties at work, cannot ask colleagues for help), a lack of supervisor support (e.g. do not have a good relationship with your supervisor, feel unappreciated by your supervisor, cannot count on your supervisor when faced with work-related problems) and a lack of autonomy (e.g. no freedom in carrying out your own work activities, no freedom in deciding for yourself on the amount of time you wish to spend on a task)predicted negative whi (mostert & oosthuizen, 2006; van aarde & mostert, 2008). demands that employees in teis are confronted with include a high work overload, excessive time demands, role ambiguity, work pressure, administration, working overtime, managing a large amount of learners and dealing with social issues (jackson et al., 2006; montgomery, mostert & jackson, 2005; rothmann & essenko, 2007). teis also experience resource shortages, including poor performance feedback, job control, hampered autonomy and lack of support (demerouti, bakker & voydanoff, 2010; jackson et al., 2006; schaufeli & bakker, 2004). the lack of resources that employees face can cause them to have greater difficulty in managing the many demands they are confronted with in their jobs. the relationships discussed thus far focus on the relationship between job demands and/or job resources and whi. however, studies have not yet been conducted on the relationship between specific job demands and/or job resources and interference between different roles (e.g. work role, parental role, spousal role, domestic role and religious or spiritual role). nonetheless, the following hypotheses can be formulated based on the above mentioned literature findings: • hypothesis 1a: job demands will be significantly related to high levels of all four types of work-nonwork interference. • hypothesis 1b: available job resources will be significantly related to lower levels of all four types of work-nonwork interference. effort-recovery and recovery experiences according to nýlen et al. (2007), recovery refers to strategies or techniques that reduce tension and stress caused by everyday demands. a useful model to explain the importance of recovery is the effort recovery (e-r) model of meijman and mulder (1998). according to this model, the effort spent in responding to stressors (e.g. job demands) results in short-term physical and psychological costs or depletion of a person’s available resources. these costs accumulate and can develop into serious physical and psychological strain when sufficient recovery does not occur. normally these costs are reversible – when recovery occurs, spent resources can be recouped. therefore, high workload will not have negative consequences as long as recovery is sufficient during and after work. the essence of recovery is that aperson’s psychobiological systems that were activated whilst working should be restabilised and return to a homeostatic state in which no demands are present. another assumption of the e-r model is that when an individual develops strain during the working day, it does not necessarily hold health implications for him or her, as long as recovery is sufficient during the nonworking hours (meijman, 1989). when an individual no longer has to deal with job demands, load reactions are released and recovery can begin (meijman & mulder, 1998). however, when demands at work require too much effort, negative load effects build up that spill over to the nonwork domains and thus hamper one’s functioning in the domain. increasing job demands make it difficult for individuals to balance their work and nonwork lives, and the blurring between the two domains becomes more evident (jansen et al., 2003). in a review of several studies, geurts and demerouti (2003) state that high job demands do interfere with an individual’s private life. therefore, when employees are confronted with too many demands at work they do not have the energy and motivation to invest time and effort into the nonwork domain (geurts & demerouti, 2003) and recovery is hampered. evidence shows that high job demands (high effort expenditure) and lack of recovery are associated with high levels of w-nwi (e.g. de croon et al., 2003; eby et al., 2005; geurts et al., 2003). the insufficient recovery from the incompatible pressures within both domains can have serious implications, such as an impact on an individual’s well-being (sonnentag & zijlstra, 2006) and health problems, which can be severe or become chronic (geurts et al., 1999; geurts et al., 2005). recovery refers to the process where an individual’s psychological and physiological stimulation returns to his or her pre-stressor level after a stressful experience (meijman & mulder, 1998). accordingly, recovery is the opposite of the strain process – it is a process of unwinding (geurts & sonnentag, 2006; sonnentag &fritz, 2007). sonnentag and fritz (2007) recently developed the recovery experience questionnaire. they labelled the mechanisms that assist in recovery ‘recovery experiences’ and identified four recovery experiences that could be measured (sonnentag & fritz, 2007): • psychological detachment: psychological detachment refers to gaining mental distance from one’s job. it goes beyond the physical absence from the workplace – being physically away from one’s job does not mean that recovery necessarily takes place (sonnentag & fritz, 2007). for this recovery strategy to be sufficient, it is important for an employee not to be involved in any work-related activities such as reading e-mails, taking work-related telephone calls, etc.(sonnentag & bayer, 2005; sonnentag & kruel, 2006). this means an individual has to be completely mentally disengaged from work. according to the questionnaire development study of sonnentag and fritz (2007), psychological detachment correlates positively with variables such as emotion-focused coping (attempts to manage cognitions or emotions directly, without changing the environment), emotional stability (having good emotional adjustment to various events) and life satisfaction (the judgment of a person’s quality of life). • relaxation: relaxation is commonly associated with leisure activities and is characterised by a state of low activation and increased positive affect (sonnentag & fritz, 2007). relaxation can occur on a physical or mental level. on a physical level, relaxation can occur through reading a book, listening to music or taking a quiet walk (fritz & sonnentag, 2006). on a mental level, relaxation can, for example, be achieved through meditation (sonnentag & fritz, 2007). relaxation therapies calm an individual and reduce increased sympathetic responses such as accelerated heart rate and high blood pressure in order to minimise harmful effects caused by stress (stein, 2001). relaxation is important for recovery, as prolonged activation caused by stressful work should be reduced in order to restore an individual’s pre-stressor state (brosschot, pieper & thayer, 2005). sonnentag and fritz (2007) found positive correlations between relaxation and emotion-focused coping, emotional stability and life satisfaction. • mastery: mastery experiences refer to activities that act as a challenge for an individual or that provide new skills that can be learnt (sonnentag & fritz, 2007). the mastery experience should be a challenge, but should not in any way overtax the person’s capabilities. examples of mastery experiences include learning a new language, playing an instrument or going on a mountain climbing expedition (fritz & sonnentag, 2006). taking up mastery experiences requires self-regulation, thus exerting control over the chosen activity by practising or attending classes (sonnentag & fritz, 2007). mastery experiences may seem to place additional demands on the individual. however, these experiences are expected to result in recovery, because they help to build up new internal resources (e.g. skills, competencies and self-efficacy) (bandura, 1997). sonnentag and fritz (2007) found that mastery experiences correlated positively with job control (anindividual’s own discretion to determine timing and working method), problem-focused coping (includes problem-solving behaviours and aims at resolving the stressor), emotion-focused coping, openness to experience (an individual’s creativity, flexibility and willingness to take risks), conscientiousness (an individual’s self-discipline and achievement orientation), emotional stability and life satisfaction. • control during leisure time: according to sonnentag and fritz (2007), control is a person’s ability to choose an action from two or more options. furthermore, control refers to an individual having the choice of the activity he or she wants to pursue during leisure time and when and how he or she would like to pursue the activity. an individual’s well-being can be increased when he or she feels in control of certain life domains (bandura, 1997). the experience of control during leisure time may increase an individual’s self-efficacy and feelings of competency, which can enhance well-being (sonnentag & fritz, 2007). therefore, control may act as an external resource that enhances recovery from work during off-work time. in addition, control during leisure time gives an individual the chance to choose an activity to pursue and this may be especially supportive for the recovery process (sonnentag & fritz, 2007). sonnentag and fritz (2007) found positive correlations between control during leisure time and job control, problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, emotional stability and life satisfaction. studies on the relationship between recovery experiences and interference between work and specific nonwork roles have not yet been conducted. the reasonis that recovery questionnaires are scarce. recently, sonnentag and fritz (2009) developed a new questionnaire for the measurement of recovery. however, this questionnaire has not yet been used to measure the relationship between recovery experiences (psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery and control) and w-nwi. according to eden (2001), adequate recovery from work pressure is needed to minimise or avoid negative health effects; however, limited studies in the work-home literature focus on recovery-related concepts (moreno-jiménez et al., 2009). sonnentag and kruel (2006) conducted a study on the relationship between job stressors (i.e. workload) and psychological detachment. their results showed anegative relationship between high work pressure and psychological detachment. sonnentag and fritz (2007) conducted a study on recovery experiences and potential predictors (e.g. work situation variables, coping and personality) as well as potential consequences (e.g. psychological well-being). they found that three of the four experiences were related to job stressors. a rather high negative correlation existed between time pressure and psychological detachment. relaxation was related to quantitative workload but not to job stressors. job stressors were not related to mastery experiences, and job control was not related to psychological detachment, relaxation or mastery. furthermore, they found mostly non-significant and generally low correlations between coping measures and recovery experiences. in addition, generally low correlations were found between personality and recovery experiences. recovery experiences were related to most of the psychological well-being indicators. fox, tange and perez (2008) also conducted a study that examined the potential interaction between job stressors (i.e. work pressure) and recovery experiences to see if these experiences buffer the negative effects of stressful job demands and health. they found significant interactions between interpersonal conflict and mastery, which predicted physical symptoms. there was also an interactive effect between conflict and mastery in predicting gastrointestinal problems and headaches, as well as between workload and mastery in predicting gastrointestinal problems. moreno-jiménez et al. (2009) conducted a study that linked work-family conflict and family-work conflict with the concept of recovery. they also studied psychological detachment from work as moderators between the relationship of these two types of conflict with two indicators of well-being, namely psychological strain and life satisfaction. they found that psychological detachment from work lessens some of the negative effects of work-family conflict on employees’ wellbeing. in addition, psychological detachment from work moderates the relationship between work-family conflict and psychological strain, and the relationship between family-work conflict and life satisfaction. in addition, siltaloppi, kinnunen and feldt (2009) conducted a study on the direct and moderator roles of the recovery experiences in the relationship between psychosocial work characteristics (i.e. time demands, job control and justice of the supervisor) and occupational well-being (i.e. need for recovery, job exhaustion and work engagement). the results showed that psychological detachment and mastery are protective mechanisms against an increased need for recovery in a situation where there was a lack of job control. relaxation protected against increased job exhaustion under high time demands. furthermore, psychological detachment and mastery in particular had direct associations with occupational well-being. the general findings of this study showed that recovery experiences play an important role in maintaining overall well-being at work. based on these findings, the following hypotheses can be formulated with regards to the relationship between recovery strategies and w-nwi: • hypothesis 2a: psychological detachment will be significantly related to lower levels of all four types of w-nwi. • hypothesis 2b: relaxation will be significantly related to lower levels of all four types of w-nwi. • hypothesis 2c: mastery will be significantly related to lower levels of all four types of w-nwi. • hypothesis 2d: control will be significantly related to lower levels of all four types of w-nwi. research design (back to top) research approach a cross-sectional survey design was used. with a cross-sectional survey design researchers are able to assess interrelationships amongst variables within a population (struwig & stead, 2001). cross-sectional designs entail the collection of data on more than one case at a single point in time, after which the data is examined to detect patterns of association (bryman & bell, 2003). with cross-sectional designs there is no time ordering to the variables; it is thus only possible to examine relationships between variables, which make this design suitable for this study. research method research participants a cross-sectional survey research design was conducted. because the four dimensions of the w-nwi scale are of particular relevance for married employees with children (two of the four scales measure interference between work and the role of spouse and parent), only married parents and partners living together with children were included. these employees were employed by a tei in the north west province. a total of 650 questionnaires were distributed, of which 366 were returned (response rate = 56%). the majority of the participants were white (80.35%), whilst 14.75% were african, 3% were coloured and 0.80% were indian. almost two-thirds of the participants were women (65%), whilst 34.70% were men. in terms of the position the participants fulfilled at work, 26.77% were administrative assistants, 9.84% were secretaries and 16.678% were administrative officers. of the academic staff, 9.84% were lecturers, 11.46% were senior lecturers, 6.56% were associate professors and 7.10% were professors. measuring instruments the following measuring instruments were used in the empirical study: job demands: three job demands were measured, namely work pressure, emotional demands and cognitive demands. all items were scored on a four-point likert scale ranging from 0 (‘never’) to 3 (‘always’). work pressure was measured with a three-item scale developed by bakker, demerouti and schaufeli (2003a). an example of an item is: ‘how often does it happen that you have to work extra hard in order to meet your deadlines?’. emotional demands were measured with the five-item scale developed by bakker et al. (2003b). an example of an item is: ‘how often does it happen that your work is emotionally draining?’. cognitive demands were measured with the four-item scale developed by peeters et al. (2005). an example of an item is: ‘how often does it happen that your work requires you to concentrate continuously?’. reliable cronbach alpha coefficients larger than 0.70 (nunnally & bernstein, 1994) were found in these studies: work pressure, α = 0.76; emotional job demands, α = 0.74; and cognitive job demands, α = 0.89 (bakker et al., 2003b; peeters et al., 2005). job resources: three job resources were measured, including autonomy, social support and job developmental possibilities. autonomy was measured with the scale developed by bakker, demerouti and verbeke (2004) and included three items (e.g. ‘how often does it happen that you have freedom in carrying out your work-related duties?’). social support was measured with a scale developed by bakker et al., (2003c) with three items (e.g. ‘how often does it happen that you ask your colleagues help if necessary’). job developmental possibilities were assessed by items that were conceptually mirrored from existing scales of home developmental possibilities developed by demerouti et al. (2010). three items were used to assess job developmental possibilities (e.g. ‘how often does it happen that you can develop yourself sufficiently in your work?’). all these items were rated on a four-point likert scale ranging from 0 (‘never’) to 3 (‘always’). cronbach alpha coefficients reported ranged between 0.68 and 0.74 for autonomy and between 0.81 and 0.85 for social support (bakker et al., 2004; bakker, demerouti & euwema, 2005). work-nonwork interference: a newly developed instrument by koekemoer et al. (2010) was used to measure interference between work and four nonwork roles.work-parent interference was assessed with three items (e.g. ‘how often does it happen that your work keeps you from your child(ren) more than you like?’). work-spouse interference was assessed with four items (e.g. ‘how often does it happen that your marriage or relationship with your spouse or partner suffers because of your work?’). work-domestic interference was assessed with three items (e.g. ‘how often does it happen that because of your work arrangements, you find it difficult to fulfil your domestic obligations?’). work-religion and/or spirituality interference was assessed with four items (e.g. ‘how often does it happen that your work interferes with your religion or spirituality?’). all items were rated on a four-point likert scale ranging from 0 (‘never’) to 3 (‘always’). functioning of the items was tested with rasch analyses, and the construct validity, discriminant validity and convergent validity were confirmed (koekemoer et al., 2010; koekemoer & mostert, 2010b). reliable cronbach alpha coefficients were also obtained for the four scales: work-parent interference (α = 0.88); work-spouse interference (α = 0.88); work-domestic (α = 0.91); and work-religion and/or spirituality interference (α = 0.86). recovery: the ‘recovery experiences questionnaire’ of sonnentag and fritz (2007) was used to measure the four recovery experiences: psychological detachment (three items, e.g. ‘i forget about work’), relaxation (three items, e.g. ‘i take time for leisure’), mastery (four items, e.g. ‘i do things that challenge me’); and control (four items, e.g. ‘i determine my own schedule’). items were rated on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (‘i do not agree at all’) to 5 (‘i fully agree’). the following alpha coefficients were obtained from the cross-validation sample of sonnentag and fritz (2007) for the four recovery experiences: psychological detachment (α = 0.85); relaxation (α = 0.85); mastery (α = 0.85); and control (α = 0.85). mostert and els (in press) also confirmed the validity and reliability of the survey in a sample of employees in a tei. research procedure permission was obtained from the ethics committees of the participating institutions to distribute the questionnaires amongst the employees who fit the criteria. lists of married employees with children were obtained from various faculties and departments. deans of the different faculties were approached for permission to conduct the study in their faculties and the participation of their personnel was requested. questionnaires were distributed to participants with the help of field workers. when the questionnaires were handed out, a collection date was arranged with the participants. participants could choose how they wanted to return the questionnaire (e.g. internal post, personal collection or personal delivery). these options were given in order to ensure anonymity and confidentiality. participants were allowed two to three weeks to complete and return the questionnaires. included in the questionnaires was an information letter explaining the purpose of the survey, the assurance of anonymity and confidentiality, and details on how information would be dealt with in order to ensure privacy. statistical analysis the statistical analysis was conducted with the spss program (spss inc., 2009). descriptive statistics (e.g. means and standard deviations) and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. cronbach alpha coefficients were used to assess the reliability of the constructs. pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were used to specify the relationship between the variables. in terms of statistical significance, it was decided to set the value at a 95% confidence interval level (p ≤ 0.05). effect sizes were used to decide on the practical significance of the findings. a cut-off point of 0.30 (medium effect) and 0.50 (large effect) (cohen, 1988) was set for the practical significance of correlation coefficients. hierarchical multiple regression analysis were carried out to determine the percentage variance in the dependent variables (the four w-nwi dimensions) that were predicted by the independent variables (e.g. job demands, job resources and the four recovery experiences) and to determine which recovery experiences are significant predictors of w-nwi. results (back to top) descriptive statistics and product-moment correlations the descriptive statistics and cronbach alpha coefficients of the measuring instruments as well as the product-moment correlation coefficients between the constructs are reported in table 1. from the results in table 1 it can be seen that the cronbach alpha coefficients of all the measuring instruments were considered acceptable compared to the guideline of α ≥ 0.70 (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). furthermore, table 1 provides the correlation coefficients of the study variables. work-parent interference, work-spouse interference and work-domestic interference were statistically and practically related, with a large effect, to work pressure, emotional demands, relaxation and control. work-parent interference and work-spouse interference were statistically and practically significantly related, with a medium effect, to autonomy and psychological detachment. work-parent interference and work-domestic interference were also statistically and practically related, with a large effect, to mastery. work-religion and/or spirituality interference was statistically and practically related, with a medium effect, to work pressure, psychological detachment and control, but statistically and practically related, with a large effect, to emotional demands. work-domestic interference was statistically related to cognitive demands, work autonomy, support and developmental possibilities. work-religion and/or spirituality interference was statistically related to cognitive demands, work autonomy, support, relaxation and mastery. work-parent interference and work-spouse interference were statistically related to cognitive demands and developmental possibilities. table 1: correlation coefficients between job demands, job resources, recovery experiences and work-nonwork interference. multiple regression analysis to determine which recovery experiences predict the four types of w-nwi, four hierarchical multiple regression analyses, using the enter method, were performed. it was decided to control for demographic characteristics in the first step of each regression. job demands were entered in the second step, job resources in the third step, and recovery experiences in the fourth and final step of each regression. the results are reported in table 2, 3, 4 and 5. table 2 summarises the regression analysis with year of birth, gender, job demands, job resources and recovery experiences as predictors of work-parent interference. as can be seen, the final model was statistically significant (f= 24.64; p < 0.00) accounting for approximately 46% of the variance in work-parent interference. more specifically, it seems that work pressure (β = 0.19; t = 3.58; p ≤ 0.05), emotional demands (β = 0.29; t = 5.81; p ≤ 0.05), work autonomy (β = -0.12; t = -2.39; p ≤ 0.05), relaxation (β = -0.16; t = -2.43; p ≤ 0.05) and mastery (β = -0.14; t = -2.49; p ≤ 0.05) predict work-parent interference. table 3 summarises the regression analysis with year of birth, gender, job demands, job resources and recovery experiences as predictors of work-spouse interference. the final model was statistically significant (f = 28.33; p < 0.00) accounting for 50% of the variance in work-spouse interference. more specifically, it seems that work pressure (β = 0.21; t = 4.04; p ≤ 0.05), emotional demands (β = 0.40, t = 8.43; p ≤ 0.05), psychological detachment (β = -0.09; t = -2.06; p ≤ 0.05) and relaxation (β = -0.15; t = -2.31; p ≤ 0.05) predict work-spouse interference. table 4 summarises the regression analysis with year of birth, gender, job demands, job resources and recovery experiences as predictors of work-domestic interference. again, the final model was statistically significant (f = 27.61; p < 0.00) accounting for 49% of the variance in work-domestic interference. more specifically, it seems that gender (β = 0.09; t = 2.15; p ≤ 0.05), work pressure (β = 0.34; t = 6.50; p ≤ 0.05), emotional demands (β = 0.21; t = 4.43; p ≤ 0.05), relaxation (β = -0.13; t = -2.06; p ≤ 0.05) and control (β = -0.14; t = -2.50; p ≤ 0.05) predict work-domestic interference. table 5 summarises the regression analysis with year of birth, gender, job demands, job resources and recovery experiences as predictors of work-religion and/or spirituality interference. the final model was statistically significant (f = 13.45; p < 0.00) accounting for 32% of the variance in work-religion and/or spirituality interference. more specifically, it seems that work pressure (β = 0.14; t = 2.37; p ≤ 0.05), emotional demands (β = 0.28; t = 5.02; p ≤ 0.05), work autonomy (β = -0.17; t = -2.99; p ≤ 0.05), developmental possibilities (β = 0.13; t = 2.17; p ≤ 0.05) and psychological detachment (β = -0.11; t = -2.15; p ≤ 0.05) predict work-religion and/or spirituality interference. based on these results, partial support was found for hypothesis 1 and 2. table 2: multiple regression analysis with work-parent interference as dependent variable. table 3: multiple regression analysis with work-spouse interference as dependent variable. table 4: multiple regression analysis with work-domestic interference as dependent variable. table 5: multiple regression analysis with work-religion and/or spirituality interference as dependent variable. discussion (back to top) the objective of this study was to determine which demands and resources are significant predictors of w-nwi of employees working in a tei, and which recovery experiences are significant in dealing with high levels of w-nwi caused by high demands and a lack of resources. the results indicate that work pressure and emotional demands were the two job demands that significantly predicted all the work-nonwork role interference dimensions. of the included job resources, autonomy predicted work-parent interference and work-religion and/or spirituality interference, whilst development possibilities predicted work-religion and/or spirituality interference. based on these results, it seems that employees from the tei who experience high work pressure (i.e. working very hard with not enough time to complete tasks or concentrating intensely on tasks for long periods) and high levels of emotional demands (i.e. being in emotional stressful situations at work) have difficulties in combining their work and nonwork roles and thus experience negative interference from the work domain to the nonwork domain. therefore, when demands are high, employees’ relationships with their child(ren), spouse, home life and religion suffer. however, employees who have autonomy in their jobs (i.e. freedom in carrying out own work activities, freedom in deciding the time spent on a task) experience significantly less work-parent interference and work-religion and/or spirituality interference. interestingly, employees who have high developmental possibilities (i.e. the opportunity to develop strong points and to learn new things) experience less work-religion and/or spirituality interference. autonomy and development possibilities are therefore important resources that could assist employees in spending more quality time with their children and on religious and/or spiritual activities. the results are consistent with previous research, which found that job demands and a lack of job resources are important predictors of negative whi (dikkers et al., 2007; geurts & demerouti, 2003; mostert, 2009; mostert & oosthuizen, 2006; peeters et al., 2005; van aarde & mostert, 2008). with regard to the relationship between recovery experiences and the four work-nonwork interference dimensions, the results showed different patterns of relationships. specifically, it seems that the relaxation and mastery recovery experiences significantly predicted lower work-parent interference. relaxation is a state of low activity and it increases positive emotions (stone, kennedy-moore & neale, 1995). thus, when an individual relaxes, positive emotions will help decrease negative emotions resulting from job demands (frederickson, 2000; sonnentag & fritz, 2007). it can therefore be assumed that a relaxed parent will be less stressed and frustrated, and will be able to spend more quality time with his or her child(ren) and also have more patience with his or her child(ren). the employees’ workwill thus interfere less with the relationship between them and their child(ren) if the person relaxes adequately by using different methods, such as reading a book or taking a walk (fritz & sonnentag, 2006). furthermore, mastery experiences during off-job time will also increase positive mood (parkinson & totterdell, 1999). when an individual is engaged in mastery activities, he or she builds new internal resources such as skills, competencies and effectiveness (bandura, 1997), which could help the individual to recover more effectively from job stress caused by high demands. parents who build more skills, competencies and self-efficacy could feel that they are more reliable parents because of the internal resources they have developed and promoted. in terms of different work-family conflicts that exist (geurts & demerouti, 2003), relaxation and mastery experiences will also reduce strain-based conflict. when an individual faces high job demands that create tension, anxiety, fatigue, irritability, and so forth, it makes it difficult for the individual to fulfil family demands (geurts et al., 1999), and more specifically the demands that the parental role requires. therefore, when an individual recovers adequately through relaxation and mastery experiences, the tension that spills over to the children will be decreased. psychological detachment and relaxation were the recovery experiences significantly associated with lower work-spouse interference. employees who detach psychologically from work avoid stress related to work by focusing on other types of activities and thoughts different from work issues (parkinson & totterdell,1999; sonnentag & fritz, 2007). psychological detachment from work could therefore result in a better mood and less fatigue after work (sonnentag & bayer, 2005). thus, when an individual detaches psychologically from work during leisure time, he or she can engage in meaningful activities with his or her spouse. because fatigue levels are decreased, more time can be spent together in the evenings when most people tend to have free time (moreno-jiménez et al., 2009; sonnentag &bayer, 2005). it could further imply that an individual can also concentrate on a conversation with a spouse instead of having thoughts about work, and can therefore reconnect with his or her spouse (sonnentag & fritz, 2007). if an employee frequently has to attend to business issues during family time or constantly thinks about work when he or she is supposed to spend time with family it can negatively influence the nonwork domain, specifically the employee’s spouse, who’s reaction will more than likely be negative (moreno-jiménez et al., 2009). being psychologically detached from work will thus result in an employee experiencing less interference between the work and spousal domain, because of the mental availability to the spouse. similarly, relaxation increases positive affect and decreases the effects of negative emotions (frederickson, 2000; sonnentag & fritz, 2007). thus, if an individual is relaxed, he or she can spend more quality time with his or her spouse on a relaxed and positive level. strain-based conflict will therefore be decreased if an employee psychologically detaches from work and relaxes, resulting in being a more attentive spouse (geurts et al., 1999). relaxation and control significantly predicted lower work-domestic interference. many people relax through participating in activities that put few social demands on them, that require little or no intellectual and physical effort and that are not a challenge for them (tinsley & eldredge, 1995). many people experience relaxation through performing domestic chores. furthermore, having control in off-job time means that an individual has a choice which domestic actions he or she would like to carry out, as well as how and when to pursue the preferred action (sonnentag & fritz, 2007). thus, whilst performing the preferred domestic actions, individuals get the opportunity to re-evaluate potential stressful situations, which can lead to higher psychological well-being and lower stress levels (lazarus, 1966). having control is associated with positive affect and happiness (burger, 1989; larson, 1989) and an individual’s well-being is increased when he or she feels in control of significant life domains (bandura, 1997). a study carried out by griffin, fuhrer, stansfeld and marmot (2002) showed that women who experienced low control at home had higher levels of depression over a period of time than women with high control at home. similarly, men who experienced low control at home showed higher levels of depression and anxiety than men with high control at home. when an individual experiences control, it satisfies the urge of wanting to be in control because of promoted self-efficacy and feelings of competence; this in turn increases well-being (sonnentag & fritz, 2007). it can therefore be assumed that strain-based conflict will be decreased through relaxation and control recovery experiences, because if an employee recovers adequately, fatigue will be reduced, giving an individual more energy for domestic activities. from the results in this study, it also seems as though individuals who exert control in off-job time experience less interference between the work and domestic domain. psychological detachment also significantly predicted lower work-religion and/or spirituality interference. as previously said, psychological detachment implies that an individual disengages mentally from work (sonnentag & fritz, 2007). by doing so, an individual will be able to spend more time on religious activities without having work-related thoughts and tasks interfering with activities that are meant to be sacred. it is therefore important for individuals who want to engage in religious and/or spiritual activities after hours to mentally forget about work, distance themselves from work and not think about work at all. this will most likely enhance the quality of their religious and/or spiritual experiences. recovery refers to experiences that reduce tension and stress caused by everyday demands (nýlen et al., 2007). according to the e-r model, load reactions build up in an employee who experiences high job demands (i.e. high work pressure and emotional demands) and a lack of resources (i.e. autonomy), and thus interference between the work domain and nonwork domain will develop (meijman & mulder, 1998). based on this principle of the e-r model, the results of this study suggest that employees who face high job demands and a lack of resources to effectively deal with the demands do indeed build up negative load reactions that will spill over to the nonwork domain. therefore, employees need to recover from the tension and stress caused by demands and a lack of resources, otherwise they will experience w-nwi, which could eventually have an effect on their health (geurts et al., 2005; geurts et al., 1999) and overall well-being (sonnentag & zijlstra, 2006). however, recovery from high demands is needed to decrease the load reactions that develop in the work domain and are carried over to the nonwork domain (de croon et al., 2004; eby et al., 2005, geurts et al., 2003). certain recovery experiences have been shown, in this study, to alleviate interference between certain work and nonwork domains. limitations of this study should be highlighted. the first limitation of this study was the use of a cross-sectional design, which implies that causal relationships could not be determined amongst the variables. a longitudinal design or diary approach could have demonstrated stronger causal relations and conclusions. the second limitation was that only self-reported questionnaires were used to obtain research. this may lead to common-method variance. this is problematic because the phenomenon under investigation becomes hard to differentiate from measurement artefacts (avolio & bass, 1991; hufnagel & conca, 1994). the last limitation of this study was that the sample focused mostly on white employees in the tei (because they consitute the majority of employees in this institution), which can have an effect, as the sample did not represent various races. not with standing the limitations, various recommendations can be made for the individual as well as the tertiary institution and human resources (hr) manager. it is important for both the employee and the hr manager to understand the extent of the high demands and lack of resources that cause w-nwi and the impact that recovery experiences have on employees to help them cope, as both parties are affected by its implications. in terms of alleviating work pressure and promoting w-nwi, primary interventions should be put in place. in order to do this, the hr manager can re-examine employees’ job descriptions to ensure realistic staff-workload ratios. possible reasons for the perceived high work pressures could be explored and possible solutions which will result in the decrease of work pressure should also be investigated by the hr manager. hr managers can address high work pressure issues with employees in their work performance meetings, determining where the problem areas are and giving it the necessary attention. by developing employees’ self-management techniques, w-nwi can also be decreased. in terms of the high emotional demands, it is crucial that possible reasons in the workplace should also be investigated and primary interventions should be in place to prevent aspects that cause emotional demands. on a secondary and tertiary level, training with regard to emotional aspects such as emotional intelligence and/or coping with emotions could be implemented. the development of employees’ abilities, competencies and skills can help them cope with their emotional demands, ultimately not only improving their work performance but also their w-nwi. work-family facilities, for instance professional and affordable childcare facilities on the premises and flexible working hours could also be provided, which will help employees balance their work life and nonwork life (de klerk & mostert, 2010). other managerial actions such as revision of policies concerning flexible working times and childcare facilities could be developed. with regard to the job resources, autonomy and developmental possibilities predicted the decrease in negative interference between the work and nonwork domains. managers could therefore give employees more freedom in doing their work, deciding how much time they want to spend on a certain activity and give employees the opportunity to be creative and innovative in their work. job developmental possibilities can be increased or ensured, by performance management taking place on a regular basis throughout the year to monitor the performance and effective and sufficient work of employees, putting them in line for incentives such as bonuses. management should also communicate the development opportunities that exist (e.g. promotions or support for further studies). this can motivate employees to be more engaged and make them feel more valued. with regard to recovery strategies, hr managers can, for instance, arrange counselling and recovery leave for employees who are at risk of burnout or health implications. on an individual level, the recovery experiences (psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery and control) that are significantly related to w-nwi could be explained and promoted. organisations as well as the individual should understand how important it is to recover from work. employees should be made aware of the importance of recovery, the recovery process and the different strategies and experiences that exist to promote and implement recovery. the following recommendations can be made for future research. firstly, it is recommended that the study be expanded to other occupations, in other words, other than the employees of a tei. every occupation has its own challenges, advantages and disadvantages which influence not only the interference between the work and nonwork, but also the level of recovery that is required. in terms of recovery experiences, future research may show that different experiences are needed in different occupation groups in order to recover. various perspectives of individuals who are involved in the work-family dyad can also be taken into consideration. the current study focused only on the individuals’ own opinions and perspectives. it can give added insight when the spouse’s or child(ren)’s perspectives are known, as organisations only tend to view the work and the individual as the unit of analysis (de klerk & mostert, 2010). organisations can further examine the crossover effect of spouses and families in work-nonwork interference as a unit of analysis as this can increase our understanding of the complexities of multiple roles in different domains. the use of longitudinal research designs or diary studies is recommended for future research. longitudinal designs are used to study change on the same units over a period of time, or repeatedly (e.g. individuals, groups, organisations) (ployhart & vandenberg, 2010) and diary studies assess data over a period of time (e.g. seven days).thus, longitudinal designs may be used to validate the hypothesised causalities of the relationships further and to determine if the relationships hold true over time. also, the current study focused exclusively on the negative interference between the work and nonwork domains. however, it is also important to investigate the positive interaction between the work and nonwork domains. individuals who experience positive work-nonwork interference are more engaged with their work and experience less burnout (montgomery et al., 2003; mostert, 2006; mostert, cronje & pienaar, 2006), resulting in higher productivity (moncrieff & pomerleau,2000) and less absenteeism (väänänen et al., 2004). thus, positive interaction between the work and the nonwork domain has advantages for the individual as well as for the organisation. conclusion the general objective of this study was to investigate the impact of work characteristics and recovery strategies on four types of work-nonwork interference. a cross-sectional survey design was used with a population of 366 married employees with children working at a tertiary education institution (tei) in the northwest province. the results showed that work pressure and emotional demands significantly predicted all four of the work-nonwork role interference dimensions. of the job resources, lack of autonomy predicted work-parent interference and work-religion and/or spirituality interference, whilst a lack of development possibilities predicted work-religion and/or spirituality interference. recovery experiences also played a significant role in predicting work-nonwork interference. relaxation and mastery recovery experiences significantly predicted lower work-parent interference. a lack of psychological detachment and relaxation were significantly associated with lower work-spouse interference. relaxation and control significantly predicted lower work-domestic interference, whilst psychological detachment significantly predicted lower work-religion and/or spirituality interference. acknowledgements (back to top) authors’ contributions j.o. gathered the data, prepared the sample and wrote the manuscript. k.m. was the project leader and was responsible for the experimental and project design, statistical analyses and supervision in the writing of the article. she was also involved in conceptual contributions of the article. f.e.k. coordinated data gathering, made conceptual contributions and assisted with the interpretation of the results. references (back to top) allen, t.d., herst, d.e., bruck, c.s., & sutton, m. (2000). consequences associated with work-to-family conflict: a review and agenda for future research. journal of occupationalhealth psychology, 5, 278–308. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.5.2.278, pmid:10784291 aryee, s. (1992). antecedents and outcome of work-family conflict among married professional women: evidence from singapore. human relations, 45, 813–837. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001872679204500804 avolio, b.j., & bass, b.m. (1991). identifying common methods variance with data collected from a single source: an unresolved sticky issue. journal of management, 17, 571–587. bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & euwema, m.c. (2005). job resources buffer the impact of job-demands on burnout. journal of occupational health psychology, 10(2), 170–180. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.10.2.170, pmid:15826226 bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2003a). the socially induced burnout model. in a.m. columbus (eds.), leading edge research in cognitive psychology, (pp. 46–62). new york: nova science publishers. bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2003b). dual processes at work in a call centre: an application of the job demands-resources model. european journal of work andorganizational psychology, 12, 393–417. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594320344000165 bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., taris, t., schaufeli, w.b., & schreurs, p. (2003c). a multi-group analysis of the job demands-resources model in four home-care organizations.international journal of stress management, 10, 16–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.10.1.16 bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & verbeke, w. (2004). using the job demands-resources model to predict burnout and performance. human resource management, 43, 83–104. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20004 bakker, a.b., & geurts, s.a.e. (2004). toward a dual-process model of work-home interference. work and occupations, 31(3), 345–366. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0730888404266349 bandura, a. (1997). self-efficacy: the exercise of control. new york: freeman. barkhuizen, n., & rothmann, s. (2008a). occupational stress of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. south african journal of psychology, 38(2), 321–336. barkhuizen, n., & rothmann, s. (2008b). burnout of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. south african journal of higher education, 22(2), 439–456. bellavia, g., & frone, m.r. (2004). work-family conflict. in k. barling & m.r. frone (eds.), handbook of work stress, (pp. 113–147). thousand oaks, ca: sage. boyar, s.l., maertz, c.p., mosley, d.c., & carr, j.c. (2008). the impact of work/family demand on work-family conflict. journal of managerial psychology, 23, 215–235. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940810861356 brosschot, j.f., pieper, s., & thayer, j.f. (2005). expanding stress theory: prolonged activation and perseverative cognition. psychoneuroendocrinology, 30, 1043–1049. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2005.04.008, pmid:15939546 bryman, a., & bell, e. (2003). business research methods. (2nd edn.). new york: oxford university press. burger, j.m. (1989). negative reactions to increases in perceived personal control. journal of personality and social psychology, 56, 246–256. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/00223514.56.2.246 burke, p.j. (1980). the self: measurement requirements from an interactionist perspective. social psychology quarterly, 43(1), 18–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3033745 byron, k. (2005). a meta-analytic review of work-family conflict and its antecedents. journal of vocational behavior, 67, 169–198. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2004.08.009 coetzee, s.e., & rothmann, s. (2005). occupational stress, organisational commitment and ill-health of employees at a higher education institution in south-africa. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 31(1), 47–54. cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioural sciences. (2nd edn.). orlando, fl: academic press. day, a.l., & chamberlain, t.c. (2006). committing to your work, spouse and children: implications for work-family conflict. journal of vocational behavior, 68, 116–130. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2005.01.001 de croon, e.m., sluiter, j.k., blonk, r.w.b., broersen, j.p.j., & frings-dresen, m.h.w. (2004). stressful work, psychological job strain and turnover. a 2-year prospective cohort studyof truck drivers. journal of applied psychology, 89, 442–454. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.3.442, pmid:15161404 de klerk, m., & mostert, k. (2010). work-home interference: examining socio-demographic predictors in the south african context. sa journal of human resource management/satydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), 1–10. demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., nachreiner, f., & schaufeli, w.b. (2001). the job-demands resources model of burnout. journal of applied psychology, 86, 499–512. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.499, pmid:11419809 demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., & voydanoff, p. (2010). does home life interfere with or facilitate job performance? european journal of work and organisational psychology, 19(2),128–149. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594320902930939 demerouti, e., & geurts, s.a.e. (2004). towards a typology of work-home interaction. community, work & family, 7(3), 285–309. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1366880042000295727 , pmid:2576907 demerouti, e., geurts, s.a.e., & kompier, m.a.j. (2004). positive and negative work-home interaction: prevalence and correlates. equal opportunities international, 23(1), 6–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02610150410787837 dikkers, j.s.e., geurts, s.a.e., kompier, m.a.j., taris, t.w., houtman, i.l.d., & van den heuvel, f. (2007). does workload cause work-home interference or is it the other way around?stress & health, 23, 303–314. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smi.1151 duxbury, l. (2004). dealing with work-life issues in the workplace: standing still is not an option. the don wood lecture in industrial relations. canada: industrial relations centre. eby, l.t., casper, w.j., lockwood, a., bordeaux, c., & brinley, a. (2005). work and family research in io/ob: content analysis and review of the literature (1980-2002). journal of vocational behavior, 66(1), 87–97. eden, d. (2001). vacations and other respites: studying stress on and off the job. in c.l. coopers & i.t. robertson (eds.), international review of industrial and organisationalpsychology, (vol. 16, pp. 121–146). new york: wiley. fredrickson, b.l. (2000). the undoing effect of positive emotions. motivation and emotion, 24, 237–258. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1010796329158, pmid:21731120, pmcid:3128334 fritz, c., & sonnentag, s. (2005). recovery, health and ob performance: effects of weekend experiences. journal of occupational health psychology, 10(3), 187–199. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.10.3.187, pmid:16060723 fritz, c., & sonnentag, s. (2006). recovery, well-being, and performance-related outcomes: the role of workload and vacation experiences. journal of applied psychology, 91, 936–945. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.4.936, pmid:16834516 frone, m.r., russel, m., & coopers, m.l. (1997). relation of work-family conflict to health outcomes: a four-year longitudinal study of employed parents. journal of occupationaland organizational psychology, 70, 325–335. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1997.tb00652.x fox, m.l., tange, a., & perez, l. (2008). conflict, workload and health: the moderation effects of recovery experiences. proceedings presented at the midwest academy ofmanagement conference, 2–4 october 2008. st louis, missouri. geurts, s.a.e., & demerouti, e. (2003). work/non-work interface: a review of theories and findings. in m. schabracq, j. winnubst & c.l. cooper (eds.), handbook of work and health psychology, (pp. 279–312). chichester: wiley. geurts, s.a.e., kompier, m.a.j., roxburgh, s., & houtmann, i.d. (2003). does work-home interference mediate the relationship between workload and well-being? journal of vocational behavior, 63, 532–559. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0001-8791(02)00025-8 geurts, s.a.e., rutte, c., & peeters, m. (1999). antecedents and consequences of work-home interference among medical residents. social science and medicine, 48, 1135–1148. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0277-9536(98)00425-0 geurts, s.a.e., & sonnentag, s. (2006). recovery as an explanatory mechanism in the relation between acute stress reactions and chronic health impairment. scandinavian journal of work, environment & health, 32(6), 482–492. pmid:17173204 geurts, s.a.e., taris, t.w., kompier, m.a.j., dikkers, j.s.e., van hooff, m.l.m., & kinnunen, u.m. (2005). work-home interaction from a work psychological perspective: development and validation of a new questionnaire, the swing. work and stress, 19(4), 319–339. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02678370500410208 government of western australia, department of health (2007). achieving work-life balance: retention and attraction strategies for wa health. retrieved february 16, 2011, from http://www.health.wa.gov.au/worklifebalance/docs/retention_strategies_may_2009.pdf grandey, a., & cropanzano, r. (1999). the conservation of resources model applied to work-family conflict and strain. journal of vocational behavior, 54, 350–370. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1998.1666 greenhaus, j.h., & beutell, n.j. (1985). sources of conflict between work and family roles. academy of management review, 10(1), 76–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1985.4277352 griffin, j.m., fuhrer, r., stansfeld, s.a., & marmot, m. (2002). the importance of low control at work and home on depression and anxiety: do these effect vary by gender and socialclass? social science and medicine, 54, 783–798. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0277-9536(01)00109-5 grzywacz, j.g., & marks, n.f. (2000). reconceptualizing the work-family interface: an ecological perspective on the correlates of positive and negative spillover between work andfamily. journal of occupational health psychology, 5(1), 111–126. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.5.1.111, pmid:10658890 hufnagel, e.m., & conca, c. (1994). user response data: the potential for errors and biases. information system research, 5, 48–73. jackson, l.t.b., rothmann, s., & van de vijver, f.j.r. (2006). a model of work-related well-being for educators in south africa. stress & health, 22, 263–274. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smi.1098 jansen, n., kant, i., kirstensen, t.s., & nijhuis, f.j. (2003). antecedents and consequences of work-family conflict: a prospective cohort study. journal of occupational andenvironmental medicine, 45(5), 479–491. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.jom.0000063626.37065.e8, pmid:12769054 janssen, p.p.m., peeters, m.c.w., de jonge, j., houkes, i., & tummers, g.e.r. (2004). specific relationships between job demands, job resources and psychological outcomes and themediating role of negative work-home interference. journal of vocational behavior, 66, 411–429. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2003.09.004 kinnunen, u., & mauno, s. (1998). antecedents and outcomes of work-family conflict among employed women and men in finland. human relations, 51, 157–177. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001872679805100203 koekemoer, f.e., & mostert, k. (2006). job characteristics, burnout and negative work–home interference. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 32(3),87–97. koekemoer, f.e., & mostert, k. (2010a). an exploratory study of the interaction between work and personal life: experiences of south african employees. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 36(1), 1–15. koekemoer, f.e., & mostert, k. (2010b). work-nonwork interference: preliminary results on the psychometric properties of a new instrument. sa journal of industrial psychology/satydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 36(1), 1–13. koekemoer, f.e., mostert, k., & rothmann, s. jr, (2010). interference between work and nonwork roles: the development of a new south african instrument. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 36(1), 1–14. larson, r. (1989). is feeling “in control” related to happiness in daily life? psychological reports, 64, 775–784. http://dx.doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1989.64.3.775, pmid:2748778 lazarus, r.s. (1966). psychological stress and the coping process. new york: mcgraw-hill. meijman, t.f. (1989). mentale belasting en werkstress: een arbeidspsychologische benadering. assen: van gorcum. meijman, t.f., & mulder, g. (1998). psychological aspects of workload. in p.j. drenth, h. thierry & c.j. de wolff (eds.), handbook of work and organizational psychology, (pp. 5–3).hove, uk: psychology press. mesmer-magnus, j.r., & viswesvaran, c. (2005). convergence between measures of work-to-family and family-to-work conflict: a meta-analytic examination. journal of vocational behaviour, 67, 215–232. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2004.05.004 moncrieff, j., & pomeleau, j. (2000). trends in sickness benefits in great britain and the contribution of mental disorders. journal of public health medicine, 22(1), 59–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/22.1.59 montgomery, a.j., mostert, k., & jackson, l.t.b. (2005). burnout and health of primary school educators in the north-west province. south african journal of education, 25(4),266–272. montgomery, a.j., panagopolou, e., & benos, a. (2006). work-family interference as a mediator between job demands and job burnout among doctors. stress & health, 22, 203–212. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smi.1104 montgomery, a.j., peeters, m.c.w., schaufeli, w.b., & den ouden, m. (2003). work-home interference among newspaper managers: its relationship with burnout and engagement. anxiety, stress & coping, 16, 195–211. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1061580021000030535 moreno-jiménez, b., mayo, m., sanz-vergel, a.i., geurts, s.a.e., rodríguez-munoz, a., & garrosa, e. (2009). effects of work-family conflict on employees’ well-being: themoderating role of recovery strategies. journal of occupational health psychology, 14(4), 427–440. mostert, k. (2006). work-home interaction as partial mediator between job resources and work engagement. southern african business review, 10(1), 53–74. mostert, k. (2008). time-based and strain-based work-family conflict in the south african police service: examining the relationship with work characteristics and exhaustion. acta criminologica, 21(3), 1–18. mostert, k. (2009). the balance between work and home: the relationship between work and home demands and ill health of employed females. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 35(1), 1–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v35i1.743 mostert, k., cronje, s., & pienaar, j. (2006). job resources, work engagement and the mediating role of positive work-home interaction of police officers in the north westprovince. acta criminologica, 19, 64–87. mostert, k., & els, c. (in press). recovery experiences of employees in a higher education institution: psychometric properties of the recovery experience questionnaire. sa journal of human resources. mostert, k., & oosthuizen, b. (2006). job characteristics and coping strategies associated with negative and positive work-home interference in a nursing environment. south african journal of economic management sciences, 9(4), 429–443. noor, n.m. (2004). work-family conflict, workand familyrole salience and women’s well-being. the journal of social psychology, 144(4), 389–405. http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/socp.144.4.389-406, pmid:15279329 nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory. (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. nylen, l., melin, b., & laflamme, l. (2007). interference between work and outside-work demands relative to health: unwinding possibilities among full-time and part-timeemployees. international journal of behavioral medicine, 14(4), 229–236. oldfield, g., & mostert, k. (2007). job characteristics, ill health and negative work-home interference in the mining industry. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif virbedryfsielkunde, 33(2), 68–75. parasuraman, s., purohit, y.s., godshalk, v.m., & beutell., n.j. (1996). work and family variables, entrepreneurial career success, and psychological well-being. journal of vocational behavior, 48, 275–300. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1996.0025 parkinson, b., & totterdell, p. (1999). classifying affect-regulation strategies. cognition and emotion, 13, 277–303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/026999399379285 peeters, m.c.w., de jonge, j., janssen, p.p.m., & van der linden, s. (2004). work-home interference, job stressors, and employee health in a longitudinal perspective. international journal of stress management, 11(4), 305–322. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.11.4.305 peeters, m., montgomery, a.j., bakker, a.b., schaufeli, w.b. (2005). balancing work and home: how job and home demands are related to burnout. international journal of stress management, 12, 43–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.12.1.43 ployhart, r.e., & vandenberg, r.j. (2010). longitudinal research: the theory, design, and analysis of change. journal of management, 36(1), 94–120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206309352110 reitzes, d.c., & mutran, e.j. (1994). multiple roles and identities: factors influencing self-esteem among middle-aged working men and women. social psychology quarterly, 54(4),313–325. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2787158 rothmann, s., & essenko, n. (2007). burnout of support staff in a higher education institution in the north west province. south african journal of psychology, 37, 135–152. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organizational behavior,25(3), 293–315. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.248 siltaloppi, m., kinnunen, u., & feldt, t. (2009). recovery experiences as moderators between psychosocial work characteristics and occupational well-being. work & stress, 23(4),330–348. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02678370903415572 simon, r.w. (1992). parental role strains, salience of parental identity and gender differences in psychological distress. journal of health and social behaviour, 33, 25–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2136855, pmid:1619256 small, s.a., & riley, d. (1990). toward a multidimensional assessment of work spillover into family life. journal of marriage and the family, 52, 51–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/352837 sonnentag, s., & bayer, u. (2005). switching of mentally: predictors and consequences of psychological detachment from work during off-job time. journal of occupational healthpsychology, 10(4), 393–414. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.10.4.393, pmid:16248688 sonnentag, s., & fritz, c. (2007). the recovery experience questionnaire: development and validation of a measure assessing recuperation and unwinding at work. journal of occupational health psychology, 12, 204–221. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.12.3.204, pmid:17638488 sonnentag, s., & geurts, s.a.e. (2009). methodological issues in recovery research. in s. sonnentag, p. perrewe & d. gangster (eds.), research in occupational stress and wellbeing: current perspectives on job-stress recovery, (pp. 1–36). bingley, uk: jai press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/s1479-3555(2009)0000007003 sonnentag, s., & kruel, u. (2006). psychological detachment from work during off-job time: the role of job stressors, job involvement, and recovery-related self-efficacy. europeanjournal of work and organizational psychology, 15(2), 197–217. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594320500513939 sonnentag, s., & zijlstra, f.r.h. (2006). job characteristics and off-job activities as predictors of need for recovery, well-being and fatigue. journal of applied psychology, 91(2),330–350. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.2.330, pmid:16551187 spss inc. (2009). spss 12.0 for windows. chicago, il: spss inc. stein, f. (2001). occupational stress, relaxation therapies, exercise and biofeedback. in f. stein & s. cutler (eds.), psychosocial occupational therapy: a holistic approach, (pp.235–245). albany, ny: delmar. stone, a.a., kennedy-moore, e., & neale, j.m. (1995). association between daily coping and end-of-day mood. health psychology, 14, 341–349. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/02786133.14.4.341, pmid:7556038 struwig, f.w., & stead, g.b. (2001). planning, designing and reporting research. cape town: pearson education. stryker, s. (1968). identity salience and role performance: the relevance of symbolic interaction theory for family research. journal or marriage and the family, 30, 558–564. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/349494 thoits, p.a. (1995). identity-relevant events and psychological symptoms: a cautionary tale. journal of health and social behaviour, 36(march), 72–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2137288, pmid:7738329 tinsley, h.e.a., & eldredge, b.d. (1995). psychological benefits of leisure participation: a taxonomy of leisure activities based on their need-gratifying properties. journal of counseling psychology, 42(2), 123–132. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.42.2.123 tshabalala, s. (2007). home and work demands and resources, social support and work-home interaction of potchefstroom educators. unpublished master’s dissertation, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa. väänänen, a., kevin, m.v., ala mursula, l., pentti, j., kivimäki, m., & vahtera, j. (2004). the double burden of and negative spillover between paid and domestic work: associationswith health among men and women. women and health, 40(3), 1–18. van aarde, a., & mostert, k. (2008). work-home interaction of working females: what is the role of job and home characteristics? sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrifvir bedryfsielkunde, 34(3), 1–10. van hooff, m., geurts, s.a.e., kompier, m.a.j., taris, t.w., houtman, i.l.d., & van den heuvel, f. (2005). disentangling the causal relationships between work-home interferenceand employee health. scandinavian journal of work, environment & health, 31, 15–29. pmid:15751615 van den tooren, m., & de jonge, j. (2010). the role of matching job resources in different demanding situations at work: a vignette study. journal of occupational andorganizational psychology, 83, 39–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317909x462257 wilensky, h.l. (1960). work, careers and social integration. international social science journal, 12, 543–560. wiley, m.g. (1991). gender, work, and stress: the potential impact of role-identity salience and commitment. the sociological quarterly, 32(4), 495–510. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1991.tb00150.x footnote (back to top) 1.a similar and closely related term is ‘work-home interference’, which has close similarities to the term ‘work-nonwork interference’. since work-nonwork interference encompass the interference between work and all aspects of the private life (not only the home domain), this term will be used in the current study. article information authors: jessie banks1 cynthia j. patel1 mohammed a. moola1 affiliations: 1school of psychology, howard college campus, university of kwazulu-natal, south africa correspondence to: cynthia patel postal address: school of psychology, university of kwazulu-natal, king george v avenue, durban 4041, south africa dates: received: 07 july 2011 accepted: 14 mar. 2012 published: 13 july 2012 how to cite this article: banks, j., patel, c.j., & moola, m.a. (2012). perceptions of inequity in the workplace: exploring the link with unauthorised absenteeism. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(1), art. #402, 8 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i1.402 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. perceptions of inequity in the workplace: exploring the link with unauthorised absenteeism in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • background to the study    • trends from the research literature    • adams’ equity theory    • absenteeism and other forms of withdrawal behaviour    • empirical review       • absenteeism and perceived inequity    • aim and hypothesis of the study • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instrument       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results • discussion    • perceived inequity and unauthorised absenteeism    • perceived inequity and behavioural intentions    • recommendations    • limitations of the study • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the focus of this study was the relationship between perceptions of inequity and specific withdrawal behaviours. research purpose: the purpose of the investigation was to explore possible relationships between workers’ perceptions of inequity in the workplace, intentions toward withdrawal behaviour and unauthorised absenteeism. motivation for the study: there is very little south african research on the correlates of perceived inequity in the workplace. this study attempted to address the gap by exploring specific withdrawal behaviours as possible correlates of perceived inequity. research design, approach and method: using a small-scale survey design, the researchers measured intentions towards withdrawal behaviour and recorded rates of absenteeism in a sample of 110 employees from a variety of automotive manufacturing companies in the kwazulu-natal area. main findings: the researchers did not find a relationship between perceptions of inequity and unauthorised absenteeism but did find one between perceptions of inequity and future withdrawal behaviours. practical/managerial implications: the high levels of perceptions of inequity amongst the workers and the finding that workers were more likely to engage in withdrawal behaviours in the future if they perceived unequal treatment in the workplace are worrying issues for the companies involved. contribution/value-add: the scale that the researchers developed to measure perceptions of inequity shows preliminary evidence of construct validity. the results suggest that employers need to monitor levels of perceived inequity especially in relation to future withdrawal behaviour. introduction top ↑ background to the study employees are likely to take action if they feel that their employers are treating them unfairly compared to others in the workplace. in his equity theory, adams (1965) proposed that employees compare what they invest in their work (inputs) with the rewards they receive (outcomes) with those of their fellow workers. if they perceive the ratio of inputs to outcomes as unequal, especially when they claim unfairness, workers could use negative strategies in their attempts to restore equity. they may avoid the aversive work conditions by resorting to absenteeism (de boer, bakker, syroit & schaufeli, 2002), other behavioural ‘withdrawal’ responses like arriving late at work (blau, 1994) or leaving work early.estimates of absenteeism in south africa are that it costs organisations billions of rand every year (johnson, 2007; stokes, 2008). this represents a considerable loss to any organisation in terms of its effect on service delivery, loss of revenue, health and safety and the additional pressure on the staff members who are present at work (munro, 2007). trends from the research literature riggio (2009) distinguishes between voluntary and involuntary forms of absenteeism. whereas involuntary absenteeism refers to situations beyond the workers’ control (like illness), voluntary absenteeism refers to the ‘unauthorised’ absence of workers. de boer et al. (2002) refer to voluntary absenteeism as employees’ avoidance of work.whilst absenteeism in general has received a great deal of research attention, studies on unauthorised absence have been rather limited. it is reasonable to expect that employees who have positive feelings about their jobs will be less likely to stay away than those with negative attitudes will be. whilst there may be several causes of employee dissatisfaction at work, perceptions of inequity are particularly significant in south africa given its history of apartheid. although south african society and institutions have undergone significant transformation in recent years, unfair discrimination and inequalities remain deeply engrained in social structures, practices and attitudes (van wyk, 2002). according to van yperen, hagedoorn and geurts (1996), the relationship between employees’ perceptions of inequity, turnover and absenteeism has been a consistent finding in the literature. however, arnold et al. (2010) point out that much of this research is out of date and researchers need to conduct further research. the studies conducted over the last two decades, which focused on absence in relation to perceived inequity (de boer et al., 2002; geurts, schaufeli & rutte, 1999; van yperen et al., 1996), have not distinguished between authorised and unauthorised absence. apart from the van yperen et al. (1996) study, the investigations have not included adam’s comparison in their measures of unfairness or inequity. bolino and turnley (2008) emphasise the need to examine how other parts of the world apply equity theory, which originated in the united states of america (usa). because of the shortcomings of past studies and the need to examine adam’s equity model amongst workers outside of the usa, the researchers designed the present study as an exploration of the relationship between perceptions of inequity, with specific reference to a ‘comparison other’, unauthorised absenteeism and intended withdrawal behaviours. these withdrawal behaviours include employees’ intentions to stay away, to arrive late at work and to leave early when faced with inequity. in line with adam’s equity theory, the researchers developed a scale that measures perceptions of inequity for the purpose of this study. adams’ equity theory adams’ equity theory (adams, 1965) is a model of motivation that explains how people strive for fairness and justice in social exchanges. this theory proposes that perceived inequity is a motivational force. the conditions that are necessary to produce equity or inequity use an employee’s perceptions of inputs and outcomes as their basis. the ratio of inputs to outcomes becomes a process of social comparison in which each employee compares his or her inputs and outcomes to those of another employee (weller, 1995). adams (1965) describes this other person as the ‘comparison other.’ there are usually several inputs. they include acceptance of responsibility, job knowledge, experience, education, personal involvement with work, dedication, age, effort, seniority, time, skill and performance. outcomes usually consist of rewards or benefits like pay, promotional opportunities, praise, prestige, recognition, interpersonal relations with supervisors and co-workers, status, increases in salary and fringe benefits (mckenna, 2000; northcraft & neale, 1994). when inputs are commensurate with outcomes, the employee sees the situation as equitable. in this equitable (fair) situation, the employee is content and will not take any action to achieve equity. however, when a situation is inequitable, an employee perceives that he or she is receiving fewer outcomes than the ‘comparison other’ is receiving for his or her inputs even though both are contributing the same inputs (adams, 1965; northcraft & neale, 1994). the characteristics (age, gender, race, tenure and educational level) of the employee who perceives a situation (cohen-charash & spector, 2001) may also influence his or her perceptions of inequity. when he or she perceives inequity, the employee will usually experience a state of cognitive dissonance (or feelings of psychological discomfort). this motivates the employee to reduce the discomfort (weller, 1995). the tension this cognitive dissonance causes varies. the greater the tension, the greater is the motivation to act in order to reduce it and achieve equity (adams, 1965; geurts et al., 1999). slocum and hellriegel (2009) list possible responses to perceived inequity: • modify one’s inputs or outcomes • distort or modify perceptions of the self or of the ‘comparison other’ • change the ‘comparison other’ • move to a new reference group • change the outcomes • get the ‘comparison other’ to change his or her inputs and outcomes • leave the organisation. initially, ‘leaving the place of employment’ meant resigning from the organisation. however, it includes withdrawing through absenteeism. the literature (aldag & brief, 1981; geurts, buunk & schaufeli, 1994; geurts et al., 1999; northcraft & neale, 1994; van yperen et al., 1996) supports the option of temporary withdrawal from the organisation in response to perceived inequity. absenteeism, as a withdrawal reaction to perceived inequity, is a withdrawal from work obligations and from the organisation in order to reduce the employee’s inputs and weaken the exchange relationship with the organisation (de boer et al., 2002). blau’s (1994) finding of a relationship between chronic lateness, unauthorised absence, leaving work early, poor work involvement and job satisfaction supports the pattern of withdrawing from work. because the literature sees workers’ perceptions of inequity as an antecedent to (low) job satisfaction (khalifa & truong, 2010), one expects that it also relates to the withdrawal behaviours mentioned above. although adam’s equity theory has received some criticism, it is one of the most significant theories in the field of organisational behaviour (bolino & turnley, 2008). absenteeism and other forms of withdrawal behaviour absenteeism is disruptive. it relates to non-attendance when employees are expected or scheduled to be at work. according to riggio (2009, p. 226), one associates absenteeism with organisational commitment because employees who have positive feelings about their jobs and organisations ‘should be less likely to be absent from work’ than are those with negative attitudes about their jobs. if employees perceive an inequitable situation in the workplace, they are motivated to take behavioural and/or cognitive actions to restore equity to the situation (adams, 1965). therefore, it is possible that the employees with negative feelings about their jobs because of their perceptions of inequity will resort to ‘unauthorised absence’.for the purposes of this study, voluntary or unauthorised absenteeism is ‘the non-attendance of employees for scheduled work when they are expected to attend’ (huczynski & fitzpatrick, 1989, p. 3). this excludes absenteeism because of personal illness, family death, weather or transport problems. there are other forms of employee disengagement from the work situation. an example is employee lateness (blau, 1994). however, very few studies have examined it in relation to perceived inequity. most companies do not keep accurate records of employee lateness. therefore, the researchers examined it as an intended behavioural option if employees perceived unfairness in the workplace. therefore, in addition to actual unauthorised absenteeism, the present study examined withdrawal intentions like reporting late for work, leaving work early and taking unauthorised leave in the face of perceived unfairness. empirical review absenteeism and perceived inequity as arnold et al. (2010) noted, researchers conducted most of the studies on equity theory in the 1960s and 1970s. from the review of the relevant literature, which links equity theory to withdrawal behaviours in the workplace, one can see that much of the research is out of date and there have been very few studies in recent years.dittrich and carell (1979) examined whether job satisfaction and/or perceptions of inequitable treatment relate to employee behaviours like absenteeism and turnover. they found that employee perceptions of inequitable treatment were stronger predictors of absence and turnover than low job satisfaction was. geurts et al. (1999) used a sample of health care professionals to focus on perceived inequity in relation to turnover and absenteeism. their finding of a direct link between inequity and absenteeism is relevant to the present study. they concluded that one could regard absenteeism as a direct withdrawal reaction to perceived inequity. however, their measure of inequity in the employment relationship dealt with employees’ perceptions of the correspondence between their rewards (outcomes) compared to their investments (inputs) and did not include reference to the ‘comparison other’ when assessing inequity. hirschfeld, schmitt and bedeian (2002) used a similar measure in which they asked civil service clerical employees to rate their perceptions of the correspondence between their performance on the job and their reward expectations. they found that the employees, who thought they received especially low performance rewards and who thought that their jobs required a variety of high skills and important tasks, were likely to be absent more often. van yperen et al.’s (1996) measure of inequity required participants to compare themselves to fellow workers on 14 aspects of their jobs. however, it consisted of a single question that asked participants to rate their feelings about their jobs compared to those of other employees in the company. their argument for using this strategy was that there is a strong relationship between an overall assessment of inequity and specific aspects of jobs. their findings revealed a significant relationship between perceived inequity and absenteeism in their sample of dutch blue-collar workers. however, some employees who perceived that their co-workers were intolerant about absenteeism were less likely to report being sick, despite their perception of inequity in the workplace. the scale that de boer et al. (2002) used to assess distributive fairness in their study of security guards in belgium was more consistent with adam’s model because it incorporated the element of a ‘comparison other’ in estimating perceived unfairness on issues of ‘workload’, ‘effort invested at work’ and ‘willingness to help a colleague’. the authors found that perceived unfairness at work was a significant factor that linked to future absence behaviour. however, they did not find evidence to support a direct relationship between perceived unfairness and absence frequency. they explained this inconsistent finding by pointing to the possible influence of belgium’s strict absence policy and the unique nature of the exchange relationship between the workers and the organisation. in general, these studies support the equity theory claim that, when employees perceive an inequitable situation, it causes cognitive dissonance. in order to restore equity, employees could use the response of being absent from work. however, because none of the studies distinguish between ‘voluntary’ and ‘involuntary’ absence, it is difficult to infer that one can expect the same pattern of behaviour in the face of perceived inequity. researchers have suggested other withdrawal behaviours that deal with perceived unfairness. however, there has been no research that specifically examines unauthorised absenteeism and other withdrawal responses, like arriving late and leaving early. although researchers have conducted several studies that investigate the relationship between absenteeism and perceived inequity in the workplace, more research is necessary. bolino and turnley (2008), note that it is important to examine how one can apply equity theory, an idea that originated in the usa, to other parts of the world. the literature review did not reveal any south african studies that specifically explored the relationship between adams’ equity theory and absenteeism in the workplace. therefore, it is necessary to research equity theory and its propositions in south africa’s diverse and complex workforces. according to stepina and perrewe (1991), areas that require further research involve the theory’s major components about feelings of inequity and their subsequent employee reactions. it is also important to measure inequity with specific reference to the ‘comparison other’ in adam’s theory. in response to the lack of previous research on distinguishing between voluntary and involuntary absence, this study sets out to explore the relationship between the perception of inequity and unauthorised absenteeism in a specific setting. the researchers designed this study to investigate whether the actual and intended responses of absenteeism link to levels of perceived inequity in the workplace. in the context of an unstable economy, the researchers chose the automotive industry, which has experienced a number of job losses and has threatened to downsize (beires, n.d.), as the site for this study. aim and hypothesis of the study the main aim of the study was to explore the relationship between perceived inequity and unauthorised absenteeism. the researchers hypothesised that the greater the workers’ perceptions of inequity, the greater was the likelihood that they would resort to unauthorised absence from work. research design top ↑ research approach the researchers used a small-scale cross-sectional survey design for this study. it followed the quantitative tradition in which they measured variables (perceptions of inequity and absenteeism) and looked for relationships between them. research method research participants of the 18 component manufacturing companies in kwazulu-natal, a province of south africa, which the researchers approached, 11 agreed to participate in the study. the researchers asked each organisation to select 10 employees randomly from the unskilled, semi-skilled and lower-skilled categories. this yielded a sample of 110 workers. fifty-seven men (52%) and 53 women (48%) made up the sample. there were 72 (70%) workers in the 20 to 40 age group. of the sample, 40 (36%) were black, 21 (19%) were coloured, 32 (29%) were indian, and 17 (16%) were white. most (71%) had a secondary school education and 66% had been in the company’s employ for fewer than five years. measuring instrument the questionnaire the researchers developed for this study consisted of two parts. section a contained biographical data about age, gender, ethnic group, number of years employed in the company and level of education. section b consisted of two parts. part 1 (10 items) aimed to identify workers’ perceptions of their inputs (five items) compared to those of their fellow workers and their outcomes (five items) compared to those their fellow workers received for similar work they performed at their places of work. an example of an input item was ‘i put in more effort for the work i do for my organisation than my co-workers’. an example of an outcome item was ‘i receive less recognition (appreciation, thanks and acknowledgement) from my supervisor than my co-workers who perform similar tasks’. the researchers drew the content of the items mainly from adam’s equity theory and gordon’s (1987) suggestions on how one should address inequity. the researchers modified and adapted the items they included in the questionnaire from the experiential exercise that gordon (1987) developed. the original scale consisted of 14 items, but the researchers reduced them to 10 after their pilot study uncovered four problematic items. whilst this measure does not use the ratio of the outcomes to the inputs of employees compared to ‘comparison others’ (adams, 1965), the researchers designed it to determine the extent to which employees perceive inequity or equity in the workplace by comparing their inputs and outcomes to those of the ‘comparison others’. the response format ranged from 4 (strongly agree) to 1 (strongly disagree). the researchers reverse coded responses to the outcome items. therefore, the higher the scores on this scale, the greater were the perceptions of inequity. part 2 contained three items that measured behavioural intentions (to come late to work, to leave work early or to stay away from work) in the event of perceived unfair treatment in the work place. research procedure the researchers received ethical clearance from the higher degrees committee of the faculty of humanities, development and social science (hdss), university of kwazulu-natal, before administering the questionnaires. because they drew their sample from across kwazulu-natal, it was necessary to post questionnaires, together with detailed instructions, so that human resource managers could administer the questionnaires to the selected workers. the first author administered the questionnaires personally in the companies closer to central durban.after completing the questionnaires, the participants either handed them back to the first author on the same day or sent them back to the first author by post. all participants had to sign an informed consent form before participating in the study. the researchers computed the participants’ rates of absenteeism for a period of three months before the study from employees’ absenteeism records. they developed four categories: sick leave, official leave, compassionate or family leave and unauthorised absence. statistical analysis the researchers used spss version 15 to analyse the data. although a preliminary analysis of the distribution of the item responses for the sample yielded a skewed distribution, the researchers attempted an exploratory analysis of the underlying structure of the items. according to tabachnick and fidell (2007), the requirement of normality need not apply if the aim of the factor analysis is to describe the summarised relationship between a set of variables.although the distribution was not normal, the analysis could have some value. therefore, the researchers subjected the 10 items of the instrument they constructed to measure perceptions of inequity, in terms of inputs and outcomes, to an exploratory principal components analysis using varimax orthogonal rotation. they used kaiser’s criterion, of retaining those items with eigenvalues greater than 1, to extract the two factors. they accounted for 61% of the variance. the researchers used steven’s (1986) recommendation to assess the significance of the item loadings. this involves multiplying the critical value of r by 2 in order to arrive at a more stringent level of significance. because the critical value for a sample of about 120 is .236 (p < .01), the adjusted critical value is .472. the researchers retained only the items with factor loadings that exceeded the adjusted critical value. table 1 presents the significant factor loadings. table 1: factor loadings of items that measure perceptions of inequity. factor 1 (five items) refers to the input items whilst factor 2 consists of the four output items. the researchers found that the last outcomes item had common variance for both factors. therefore, they excluded it from further analysis. they treated the two factors as subscales in the subsequent analyses. they analysed the items to determine their internal consistency. this examination yielded promising results. the input subscale yielded an alpha of .80, the outcomes subscale an alpha of .83 and the internal consistency index for the total was .87. the three items that measured behavioural intentions yielded an alpha of .87. the researchers used pearson r to examine the correlations between perceived inequity, absenteeism and withdrawal intentions. results top ↑ the researchers present the descriptive statistics for the measures of perceived inequity, for the items that measure intended withdrawal behaviour and the employees’ rates of absenteeism. the correlations between the variables follow.table 2 gives the means and standard deviations for the inputs and outcomes subscales. table 2: descriptive statistics for the ‘inputs’ and ‘outcomes’ subscales. the highest possible score on the inputs subscale is 20. this means that the mean (15.28) for the sample is relatively high. this shows that the sample as a whole indicated that, compared to their fellow workers, they spend more time, energy and effort at work and have better skills and more experience. on the outcomes subscale, the mean of 12.33 is relatively high given the highest possible score of 16. the workers report that they receive fewer rewards and recognition for the work that they do compared to their fellow workers. table 3 presents the results on the ‘intended withdrawal’ items. table 3: responses to the items that measure intended withdrawal behaviours. the researchers combined the agree and strongly agree responses into an agree category and the disagree and strongly disagree responses into a disagree category. more than two-thirds of the sample disagreed that they would choose the strategy of arriving late at work or leaving work early and just under two thirds agreed that they would stay away from work if they felt their organisation was treating them unfairly compared to their co-workers. table 4 contains the absenteeism rates for the three months before the study. table 4: unauthorised absenteeism rates for the sample for a three-month period. table 4 shows that more than two-thirds (67.3%, n = 74) of the sample had not taken any unauthorised days off from work in the three months before the study. however, for the rest of the sample (n = 36), the total number of days of unauthorised leave the employees took was 118 days. this is an average of 3.28 days per worker. to achieve the aims of the study, the researchers correlated the inputs and outcomes subscale scores with the number of days of unauthorised absence and the individual items of the ‘intended withdrawal’ subscale. table 5 presents the results. table 5: correlations between inputs, outcomes, intended withdrawal behaviours and unauthorised absenteeism. table 5 shows that the researchers found no significant relationship between perceptions of inequity, as measured by the inputs and outcomes subscales, and unauthorised absence. however, they did find significant positive relationships between unauthorised absence and each item of the behavioural intention scale. this means that the greater the agreement that the employees would engage in withdrawal behaviours (arriving late, leaving early or taking unofficial days off) if they perceived unfairness, the greater was the likelihood that they would actually stay away from work. the researchers found that the inputs and outcomes subscales had a significant positive correlation with the items of the behavioural intentions scale. discussion top ↑ the main aim of the study was to explore the relationship between perceived inequity and unauthorised absence from work in a sample of automotive workers. because there has been very little research on this topic in south africa, the researchers hoped that this study would provide the impetus for further investigation. perceived inequity and unauthorised absenteeism although the respondents reported high levels of inequity in the workplace, both in terms of their perceptions of the inputs and outcomes compared to their fellow workers, there was no relationship between this perceived inequity and actual unauthorised absence from work. these findings were inconsistent with those of geurts et al. (1999) and van yperen et al. (1996), who found a link between perceptions of inequity and absenteeism. however, de boer et al. (2002) also failed to find a relationship. unlike these investigations, the present study distinguished between unauthorised absenteeism and sick leave in an attempt to isolate voluntary absenteeism. more than two-thirds of the sample (n = 74) had not been absent from work (unauthorised absence) in the three months before the study. seventeen per cent (n = 19) had been away for one or two days, whilst the rest (n = 17) had taken unauthorised leave for between three and eight days. given the unstable economic situation and the difficulty with finding employment, especially for lower-skilled workers, this pattern is not surprising. it is possible that most of them choose to endure the differential treatment that they feel that they receive compared to their colleagues rather than risk jeopardising their employment by staying away. beires (n.d.) has cautioned about the high probability of even more job losses in the automotive industry in the future. taylor, moghaddam, gamble and zellerer (2001) suggest that passive acceptance is one of the broad characteristics of a group response to perceived inequality. the authors suggest that, where group members perceive unfairness (as with the present sample), they have low status and feel that they have limited control. therefore, they tend to feel helpless and accept their situation. another explanation for the finding, that most employees have not resorted to withdrawal behaviours in the form of unauthorised absence, is that it could link to companies’ levels of tolerance in their absence policies, as de boer et al (2002) suggested. it is possible that those who have not stayed away work for companies that have strict rules about absence whilst those who have taken unauthorised leave may work for companies that are more lenient. although more than two-thirds of the sample (67.3%) were not absent from work in the three months before the study, the unauthorised absenteeism rate of the remaining 36 workers is a definite cause for concern. these workers were absent for a total of 118 days during the three-month period. factors other than perceptions of inequity may be operating in their work environments and may explain their unauthorised absence. de boer et al. (2002) noted that previous studies have reported links between work dissatisfaction and low work commitment with absenteeism. perceived inequity and behavioural intentions the researchers did not find a relationship between employees’ actual absence during this time and their reports of inequity. however, the employees’ stated intention to withdraw by arriving late, leaving early and staying away from work suggests that this could be a source of concern for the future in the automotive companies involved in the study. the more employees perceived levels of inequity, the greater was their agreement that they would consider engaging in withdrawal behaviours by staying away, leaving work early or coming to work late. the researchers found significant correlations between employees’ perceptions of inequity, both in their inputs and their outcomes, and each of these intended withdrawal behaviours. the more employees felt that they were investing a greater amount of time and effort in their work than their colleagues were, the more likely were they to engage in withdrawal behaviours if they felt their organisation was treating them unfairly. therefore, whilst it may be tempting to conclude that most employees have adopted a passive acceptance of the inequitable situation by not resorting to unexcused absence, their intended actions suggest different outcomes in the longer term. researchers need to investigate whether these levels of disenchantment about perceived unfairness in the work situation may link, in the short-term, to other negative outcomes like reduced productivity, ‘go-slow’ strategies and increased interpersonal conflicts in the work situation. they may resort to other tactics as a way of expressing their dissatisfaction and perceptions of unfairness in order to maintain a level of equilibrium. various studies (de boer et al., 2002; geurts et al., 1999; joshi, 1989; khalifa & truong, 2010) report that employees can display negative reactions to inequity. these could include theft, reduced productivity, low levels of motivation and job satisfaction, high levels of employee burnout and turnover. in the current economic climate, it is possible that the reason employees do not use unauthorised absence, as a way of dealing with perceived inequity, is that they have no choice. they must accept the inequity or lose their jobs. levels of involvement in the work situation may have a moderating effect on actual behaviour (van yperen et al., 1996). de boer et al. (2002) pointed out that it is important to assess workers’ relationships with their organisations. if workers feel that their employers are failing to fulfil their end of the psychological contract, then it is likely that they will develop negative attitudes. in the context of the present study, the stated withdrawal intentions of almost 40% of the sample to arrive at work late and leave work early, together with almost 60% who indicated that they would stay away from work, are examples of negative reactions that link to perceptions of inequity. recommendations the findings of this study do not support the main hypothesis that there is a relationship between perceptions of inequity and unauthorised absenteeism. nevertheless, the study highlights the high levels of unfairness that workers seem to perceive. future research needs to consider other factors (personal, economic and contextual) that mediate the relationship between perceived inequity and actual withdrawals. these may include worker commitment, the absence policies of the companies involved or the lack of alternative work options. the tendency for workers to admit that they would adopt withdrawal behaviours in the context of inequity is a source of some concern. in this regard, de boer et al. (2002) emphasise the importance of communication between workers and their managers to identify and address the imbalance between workers’ investments and outcomes or rewards. this could be through one-on-one discussions with workers or routine surveys of employees’ concerns. johnson’s suggestion (2007), that companies adopt a return-to-work policy in which workers must report to their supervisors as soon as they return to work after sick leave could also be applied to unauthorised absence. this could identify problem issues. organisations could follow these up with appropriate interventions that aim to maintain the well-being of workers and their organisations. whilst the results of the factor analysis offer some evidence for the construct validity of the items the researchers used in the study, and whilst the internal consistency of the items appears to be good, further research is needed to test the reliability and validity of the instrument. limitations of the study the period of three months that the researchers used in the study may be too short and may not have allowed them to observe absenteeism thoroughly as a possible response to perceived inequity. this was a once-off cross-sectional study. it is likely that transient issues influenced the participants’ responses. longitudinal studies, where researchers track employees over a longer period, will allow them to assess whether perceptions of inequity persist and whether these attitudes link to unauthorised absence from work. one needs to consider the possibility that the items that measured perceptions of inequity were suggestive or leading in the way they were phrased and resulted in biased answers. the limited sample was another issue that makes it difficult for one to generalise the findings beyond the present group. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them when they wrote this paper. authors’ contributions this paper used the short dissertation that j.b. (university of kwazulu-natal) completed in partial fulfilment of her master’s degree in industrial psychology as its basis. m.a.m. (university of kwazulu-natal) supervised the dissertation. c.j.p. (university of kwazulu-natal) conducted the statistical analysis. j.b. (university of kwazulu-natal) prepared the first draft whilst c.j.p. (university of kwazulu-natal) was chiefly responsible for further revisions of the manuscript. m.a.m. (university of kwazulu-natal) assisted with the process. references top ↑ adams, j.s. (1965). inequity in social exchange. in l. berkowitz (ed.), advances in experimental social psychology, (pp. 267–299). new york: academic press.aldag, r.j., & brief, a.p. (1981). managing organisational behaviour. minnesota: west publishing. arnold, j., randall, r., patterson, f., silvester, j., robertson, i., cooper, c. et al. (2010). work psychology: understanding human behaviour in the workplace. london: prentice-hall. beires, l. (n.d.). should the south african automotive sector receive a government bailout? research and development unit. dept. of economic development and tourism. retrieved march 26, 2011, from http://www.kznded.gov.za/portals/0/should%20the%20motor%20industry%20receive%20a%20bailout.pdf blau, g. (1994). developing and testing a taxonomy of lateness behaviour. journal of applied psychology, 79(6), 959–970. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.79.6.959 bolino, m.c., & turnley, w.h. (2008). old faces, new places: equity theory in cross-cultural contexts. journal of organizational behavior, 29, 29–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.454 cohen-charash, y., & spector, p.e. (2001). the role of justice in organizations: a meta-analysis. journal of organizational behavior and human decision processes, 86(2), 278–321. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/obhd.2001.2958 de boer, e.m., bakker, a.b., syroit, j.e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2002). unfairness at work as a predictor of absenteeism. journal of organizational behavior, 23(2), 181–191. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.135 dittrich, j.e., & carrell, m.r. (1979). organizational equity perceptions, employee job satisfaction and departmental absence and turnover rates. organizational behavior and human performance, 24, 29–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(79)90013-8 geurts, s.a., buunk, b.p., & schaufeli, w.b. (1994). social comparisons and absenteeism: a structural modeling approach. journal of applied social psychology, 24, 1871–1890. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1994.tb00565.x geurts, s.a., schaufeli, w.b., & rutte, c.g. (1999). absenteeism, turnover intention and inequity in the employment relationship. work and stress, 13(3), 253–267. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/026783799296057 gordon, j.r. (1987). a diagnostic approach to organizational behaviour. (2nd edn.). massachusetts: allyn and bacon. hirschfeld, r.r., schmitt, l.p., & bedeian, a.g. (2002). job-content perceptions, performance-reward expectancies, and absenteeism among low-wage public-sector clerical employees. journal of business and psychology, 16(4), 553–564. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1015450218211 huczynski, a.a., & fitzpatrick, m.j. (1989). managing employee absence for a competitive edge. london: pitman publishing. johnson, j. (2007). absenteeism trends in south african companies – the biggest cause of absenteeism. human capital review. retrieved march 26, 2011, from http://www.humancapitalreview.org/content/default.asp?article_id=578&articlep joshi, k. (1989). the measurement of fairness or equity perceptions of management information systems users. mis quarterly, 13(3), 343–358. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/249010 khalifa, m.h.e., & truong, q. (2010). the relationship between employee perceptions of equity and job satisfaction in the egyptian private universities. eurasian journal of business and economics, 3(5), 135–150. mckenna, e. (2000). business psychology and organisational behaviour: a student’s handbook. (3rd edn.). new york: psychology press. munro, l. (2007). absenteeism and presenteeism: causes and solutions. the south african radiographer, 45(1), 21–23. northcraft, g.b., & neale, m.a. (1994). organizational behavior: a management challenge. (2nd edn.). fort worth: harcourt brace college. riggio, r.e. (2009). introduction to industrial/organisational psychology. new jersey: prentice hall. slocum, j.w., & hellriegel, d. (2009). principles of organizational behaviour. south-western: cengage learning. stepina, l.p., & perrewe, p.l. (1991). the stability of comparative referent choice and feelings of inequity: a longitudinal field study. journal of organizational behavior, 12(3), 185–200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.4030120303 stevens, j. (1986). applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum. stokes, g. (2008). managing sick leave. retrieved june 18, 2010, from http://www.fanews.co.za/article.asp? front_page_features;25;straight_talk;1146,managing _sick_leave tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2007). using multivariate statistics. new york: allyn and bacon. taylor, d.m., moghaddam, f.m., gamble, i., & zellerer, e. (2001). disadvantaged group responses to perceived inequality: from passive acceptance to collective action. journal of social psychology, 127(3), 259–272. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1987.9713692 van wyk, m.w. (2002). conceptions of equality and social justice: a philosophical overview with reference to south africa. southern african business review, 6(2), 42–51. van yperen, n.w., hagedoorn, m., & geurts, s.a. (1996). intent to leave and absenteeism as reactions to perceived inequity: the role of psychological and social constraints. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 69, 367–372. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1996.tb00622.x weller, d.l. (1995). the equity factor: a vital part of the quality equation. quality assurance in education, 3(4), 44–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09684889510098186 article information authors: annelize botha1 mark bussin1 lukas de swardt1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: mark bussin email: drbussin@mweb.co.za postal address: po box 2334, saxonwold 2132, south africa dates: received: 03 june 2011 accepted: 15 sept. 2011 published: 14 nov. 2011 how to cite this article: botha, a., bussin, m., & de swardt, l. (2011). an employer brand predictive model for talent attraction and retention. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #388, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.388 copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) an employer brand predictive model for talent attraction and retention in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study    • purpose of the study    • trends from the research literature    • problem statement and research objectives    • value-add of the study    • an outline of the structure of the rest of the article    • current theoretical perspectives       • needs       • a differentiated employer value proposition       • people strategy       • brand consistency       • communication       • metrics • research design    • research approach    • research method       • targeted body of literature       • gathering the data       • analysis of the data       • presentation of the data • results    • research findings       • target group needs       • differentiated employer value proposition       • people strategy       • brand consistency       • communication of the employer brand       • human resources employer branding metrics • discussion    • summary of findings       • target group needs       • differentiated employer value proposition       • people strategy       • brand consistency       • communication       • metrics    • employer brand predictive model    • managerial implications    • limitations of the study and recommendations for future research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract (back to top) orientation: in an ever shrinking global talent pool organisations use employer brand to attract and retain talent, however, in the absence of theoretical pointers, many organisations are losing out on a powerful business tool by not developing or maintaining their employer brand correctly. research purpose: this study explores the current state of knowledge about employer brand and identifies the various employer brand building blocks which are conceptually integrated in a predictive model. motivation for the study: the need for scientific progress though the accurate representation of a set of employer brand phenomena and propositions, which can be empirically tested, motivated this study. research design, approach and method: this study was nonempirical in approach and searched for linkages between theoretical concepts by making use of relevant contextual data. theoretical propositions which explain the identified linkages were developed for purpose of further empirical research. main findings: key findings suggested that employer brand is influenced by target group needs, a differentiated employer value proposition (evp), the people strategy, brand consistency, communication of the employer brand and measurement of human resources (hr) employer branding efforts. practical/managerial implications: the predictive model provides corporate leaders and their human resource functionaries a theoretical pointer relative to employer brand which could guide more effective talent attraction and retention decisions. contribution/value add: this study adds to the small base of research available on employer brand and contributes to both scientific progress as well as an improved practical understanding of factors which influence employer brand. introduction (back to top) key focus of the study why would someone really good at their job want to join your company? and how will you keep them for more than a few years? against the background of these contemporary questions, and at a time when seeking talent in the ever shrinking global talent pool has become an international crusade, companies are uncertain as to what talent attraction and retention decisions they should be making (armstrong, 2007; bussin, 2007; crous, 2007; leonardi, 2007; minchington, 2006). a growing body of research evidence supports the relationship between employer brand and the attraction and retention of talent (cheese, thomas & craig, 2007; crous, 2007; minchington, 2010; willock, 2005). even though it is fairly customary amongst larger companies to use employer brand to attract and retain talent (dell, ainspan, bodenberg, troy & hickey, 2001), companies are ineffective in developing, maintaining or realigning their employer brand efforts correctly thereby losing out on a powerful talent attraction and retention tool (cheese et al., 2007; minchington, 2006). most employer brand research focuses on the possible relationship between various employer brand concepts and talent attraction and retention, with limited attempts to build a coherent employer brand model that can successfully predict talent attraction and retention. the key focus of this study is to integrate relevant employer brand concepts, or employer brand building blocks, in an employer brand predictive model that can be empirically validated to predict talent attraction and retention. background to the study in an era where skills and knowledge of employees are amongst the main competitive enablers, organisations cannot ignore the significance of attracting and retaining talented people (hallén, 2007; minchington, 2010; mohaptra, 2005; prinsloo, 2008).the new economy is characterised by a volatile talent demand–supply equation set against erratic attrition trends and boundless cutthroat competition, and organisations have never had a tougher time in finding, managing and nurturing talent (cheese et al., 2007; mohaptra, 2005). the impact of talent shortage obstructs organisational efforts to execute against growth strategies thereby rendering sustainability threats to organisations and straining economic growth (boshard & louw, 2010; charest, 2011; ingham, 2006; prinsloo, 2008). corporate leaders and their human resource functionaries are moving towards placing a high premium on employer brand as a critical success factor for companies striving for competitive advantage in the talent war (cheese et al., 2007; crous, 2007; minchington, 2006). this observation is confirmed in a recent global survey by deloitte llp (2010) who found that the importance of employer brand appears to have the attention of companies with retention plans as more than seven in ten (72%) will increase their focus on their employer brand in the year to come. purpose of the study against the background explained earlier, the intent of this study is to provide managers and human resource functionaries an employer brand model to guide more effective talent attraction and retention decisions that could augment overall business performance, whilst the qualitative model-building approach of this article is aimed at bringing conceptual coherence to the employer brand domain thereby adding value to scientific progress. trends from the research literature the transition from the industrial era to the knowledge era has changed the employer–employee relationship paradigm, and the supply and demand curve for talent is becoming increasingly favoured towards the talented employee. the quest to win the talent war confronts companies around the world to realign their employer brand efforts in a bid to mitigate talent limitations (deloitte llp, 2010; minchington, 2006).employer brand is associated with an organisation’s differentiated attractiveness in terms of functional, economic and psychological benefits (ambler & barrow, 1996; corporate leadership council, 2007; donath, 2001; minchington, 2006) and a strong employer brand acts as an enticement for talent in the current marketplace (rosethorn, 2009; willock, 2005). talent refers to an individual’s differentiated potential or ability to execute against the organisation’s growth strategy and is a term that is much talked about in the contemporary era, however, effective talent attraction and retention remains an elusive business feat (boshard & louw, 2010; charest, 2011; cheese et al., 2007; leonardi, 2007; personnel today, 2008; prinsloo, 2008). although research evidence supports the relationship between employer brand and the attraction and retention of talent, limited attempts have been undertaken to identify employer brand concepts in the format of an employer brand model, that predicts talent attraction and retention (armstrong, 2007; backhaus & tikoo, 2004; crous, 2007; dell et al., 2001; jenner & taylor, 2007; martin, 2007; minchington, 2010; willock, 2005). these trends highlighted the need for empirically validated employer brand models that can predict effective talent attraction and retention efforts, and provide a coherent view that explains employer brand concepts contributing to talent attraction and retention. problem statement and research objectives a research of current literature has revealed that the global talent pool is shrinking and organisations are uncertain as to what talent management decisions they should be making (armstrong, 2007; bussin, 2007; crous, 2007; leonardi, 2007b; minchington, 2006). research evidence confirms the relationship between employer brand and the attraction and retention of talent (crous, 2007; dell et al., 2001; minchington, 2010; willock, 2005), however, minchington (2006) claims that many organisations are not developing or maintaining their employer brand correctly, and talent shortages can render organisations vulnerable in terms of competitive sustainability (boshard & louw, 2010; charest, 2011; prinsloo, 2008). what are the key building blocks of an employer brand predictive model that can be empirically validated to effectively predict talent attraction and retention, and contribute to both favourable positioning in the quest for talent as well as competitive sustainability? this is the main question that this article aims to address. the secondary objectives, derived from the problem statement, are to describe the theory that constructs each building block, and integrate these building blocks to form a conceptual coherence that depicts employer brand relative to talent attraction and retention. value-add of the study the quest to win the talent war has expanded to employer brand issues deemed to be related to the attraction and retention of talented staff (bussin, 2007; crous, 2007; dell et al., 2001; hallén, 2007; lawler, 2000; minchington, 2010; prinsloo, 2008; zingheim & schuster, 2000). the impact of persistent talent shortage could render organisations incapable of growth, and detract from their efficacy in gaining or sustaining a winning edge, thus ultimately jeopardising their survival (boshard & louw, 2010; charest, 2011; prinsloo, 2008). the collapse of organisations adversely affects the macroeconomic environment as it counters sustainable economic growth, which in turn negatively influences a better quality life for all.the need for employer brand models, which could be empirically tested to successfully predict talent attraction and retention, motivated this study. benefits of models are underscored by mouton (2001) who states models allow one to make predictive claims under certain conditions, and bring conceptual coherence to a domain of science thereby simplifying our understanding of the world. thus, models limit, isolate, simplify and systematise the domain that is investigated, and provide explanation sketches and the means for making predictions (jordaan, 2007). the aim of this study is to present an employer brand predictive model with building blocks that denote an integrated approach which shapes and influences the total employer brand process relative to talent attraction and retention. it is hoped that this employer brand predictive model will provide managers and human resource functionaries guidance on more effective employer brand decisions that will mitigate talent limitations and bolster overall business performance. an outline of the structure of the rest of the article the remainder of the article is structured as follows: a brief literature review is followed by the research design, the results of the research are presented under findings, and a discussion features the last section of the article. current theoretical perspectives based on a critical review of current literature which searched for linkages between theoretical concepts, the following employer brand concepts are isolated due to referenced researchers’ significance attributed to these concepts in relation to talent attraction and retention. needs research findings by milkovich and newman (2008) confirm that job candidates are attracted to companies with benefits that fit their inherent preferences or needs, whilst research findings by the corporate leadership council (2002) emphasise the alignment between the employee value proposition (evp) and employee needs constitutes an offer fit. employee or target group needs include functional, economic and psychological preferences (minchington, 2010; moroko & uncles, 2009; sartain & shumann; 2006). these findings are supported by maslow’s theory of human motivation and mcclelland’s acquired-needs theory that claim a person’s motivation is shaped by needs and people are attracted to a source that could fulfil their needs (armstrong, 2007; mcclelland, 1961). the application of market segmentation techniques are recommended as the most optimal way to segment the employee population, and determine the most appropriate employer value that will differentiate the employee offering and address the needs of the target population (kotler, 2007; minchington, 2010; moroko & uncles, 2009; walker, 2007). market segmentation allows for targeted marketing of stakeholders based on insight into their specific needs and are segmented in geographic segments, demographic segments, psychographic segments and behaviouristic segments (kotler, 2007; walker, 2007).it thus seems probable that insight into the target group’s needs and preferences could add impetus to the attractiveness of the employer brand; such insight could enhance alignment between functional, economic and psychological benefits on offer and the needs of the target group but should also enhance ethics and fairness and mitigate possible perceived discrimination: proposition 1: the target group’s needs, relative to business strategy, influences employer brand. a differentiated employer value proposition a differentiated employer value proposition (evp) adds impetus to the employer brand; it describes a desired future state relative to the company’s strategic objectives and preferred culture (kochanski, 2004), and is informed by a thoughtfully designed total rewards strategy (armstrong, 2007; blanchard, 2007; bussin, 2007; corporate leadership council, 2007; deloitte consulting llp, 2008; lawler, 2000; worldatwork, 2007; zingheim & schuster, 2000). differentiated evps leverage core differentiating talent attraction aspects, and allows for targeted employer brand marketing efforts (corporate leadership council, 2002; kochanski, 2004; minchington, 2010; purkayastha, 2006; sartain & schumann, 2006). a differentiated evp provides a succinct and clear distillation of what sets a company apart as an employer, and is defined as the unique set of attributes and benefits that will motivate target candidates to join a company and current employees to stay (sartain & schumann, 2006). the evp is unique and based within a human capital strategy or people strategy, which is aligned to business strategy (kochanski, 2004), and is informed by five main elements, namely: work environment and affiliation (this includes values, culture, quality of colleagues, managers and leaders), work content including challenging work and work–life balance, benefits including development and career growth (indirect financial reward), and remuneration (direct financial reward), (corporate leadership council, 2002; michaels, handfield-jones & axelrod, 2001; munsamy & bosch venter, 2009; sartain & schumann, 2006). according to munsamy and bosch venter (2009), organisations are at risk of turnover when their evp is perceived less competitive than that of other organisations. from an overview of the literature it seems plausible that a differentiated evp plays a role in employer brand success: proposition 2: a differentiated evp influences the employer brand. people strategy employer branding relates to the application of branding principles to human resource management and successful employer branding is defined as an employer’s targeted people management strategy to deliver on the employer brand promise (backhaus & tikoo, 2004; glen, 2007; minchington, 2006; tüzüner & yüksel, 2009). employer branding encompasses an organisation’s values, systems, policies and behaviours towards the aim of attracting, motivating and retaining current and potential employees (wilden, gudergan & lings, 2006). the delivery on the employer brand promise requires alignment with the identified needs of the specific target population, as well as alignment with the corporate and consumer brand (barrow & mosley, 2005; kotler, 2007; milkovich & newman, 2008; walker, 2007).both the employer brand employee platform as well as the employer brand strategic platform informs the people strategy to deliver on the employer brand promise (minchington, 2010). the employer brand employee platform refers to aspects such as recruitment and induction, remuneration and benefits, career development, research, reward and recognition, communication, work environment and performance management (minchington, 2010). the employer brand strategic platform encompasses aspects such as mission, vision, values, corporate reputation and culture, policies, leadership and management competence and innovation (minchington, 2010). any gap in the organisation’s ability to deliver on the employer brand promise will negatively impact the employer brand and the organisation as a whole (backhaus & tikoo, 2004; barrow & mosley, 2005; deloitte llp, 2010; minchington, 2006). from the initial literature review it seems plausible that both the employer brand employee platform as well as the employer brand strategic platform should inform the people management strategy to ensure an organisation can deliver on its employer brand promise: proposition 3: a people strategy informed by the employer brand employee platform as well as the employer brand strategic platform influences the employer brand. brand consistency the total portfolio of brands needs to be aligned in organisational strategy as each brand subset has an impact on the other, and the essence of the corporate and consumer brand should be reflected in the essence of the employer brand to ensure consistency in delivery on the portfolio of brand promises (barrow & mosley, 2005; fraser, 2009; mckinsey, 2005; minchington, 2010). organisations with superior employment offerings are those whose employer brand matches their corporate and consumer brand(s), and where the value proposition the business articulates is reflected by the actions of all people, at all levels of the business, at all times (fraser, 2009; minchington, 2010). based on the initial literature review it is postulated that one of the key components of a great employer brand is consistency in delivery on the portfolio of brand promises: proposition 4: consistency in the portfolio of brands influences the employer brand. communication the aim of employer brand communication, or employer brand voice, is to create an understanding of the employer brand, and the employer brand voice must be consistent with all organisational marketing efforts in order to be effective (duraturo, 2010; edwards, 2005; lloyd, 2002; minchington, 2010; rosethorn, 2009; willard, 2010). employer brand communication is defined as honest and authentic employer brand messages about employment promises which could be delivered upon through an organisation’s employer branding (people management) practices (backhaus & tikoo, 2004; minchington, 2010). the importance of coherent employer brand communication efforts is encapsulated in minchington’s (2010) observation that when internal communication, marketing and human resources (hr) departments fail to collaborate on the company’s employer brand strategy, the result is often nothing more than a hr project that burns cash and creates employee cynicism. various online, as well as off line communication channels could be applied to convey targeted employer brand messages to the target audience; these channels should enable instant connectivity with organisations, as well as rapid response from organisations (duraturo, 2010; mckinsey, 2005; minchington, 2010). from the initial literature review the significance of communication relative to employer brand converges, and the following proposition is made: proposition 5: communication influences the employer brand. metrics it is not one of the aims of this study to determine the influence of employer brand measurement on the effectiveness of employer brand. one of the intensions is to rather investigate the measurement of hr employer branding (people management) efforts as a possible influencer of employer brand. higgins (2010) and lockwood (2006) claim that meaningful and value adding metrics has the potential to support delivery on the employer brand promise as it measures hr employer branding (people management) efforts (backhaus & tikoo, 2004; barrow & mosley, 2005; edwards, 2005; minchington, 2010). higgins (2010) from the watson wyatt group suggests that employer branding could be measured by populating the hr scorecard with employer brand metrics relevant to people management practices which will deliver on the evp. research design (back to top) research approach the research paradigm adopted for this study is nonempirical and a model building approach was followed. this approach has been adopted based on the fact that this study proposes an employer brand predictive model which represents key building blocks associated with employer brand that influence talent attraction and retention. a key benefit of conceptual model building is its potential to accurately represent phenomenon through a set, or sets, of statements (mouton, 2001; torraco, 1997; welman & kruger, 2001). in this positivist assumption research approach phenomena are explained by identifying main concepts from theory construction, and by searching for linkages between concepts, which according to cooper and schindler (1998) and mouton (2001), allows one to make predictive claims and bring conceptual coherence by explaining links between propositions. an inductive form of theory construction was applied whereby sets of postulates or propositions were formulated about the phenomena. theoretical propositions were inductively derived from the sets of postulates until comprehensive sets of theoretical propositions were developed which can be tested empirically. research method the research method is presented under the following subheadings: targeted body of literature, gathering the data, analysis of the data and presentation of the data. targeted body of literature this study aims at developing a new model to be tested in future research for causal links between relative employer brand propositions. in order to build the model the unit of analysis was quantitative and textual data relating toemployer brand issues were accessed through literature searches. data were found in text books which are located in academic libraries of the university of johannesburg (uj), university of pretoria and the university of south africa (unisa), and in journals located in various databases such as emerald, ebscohost and saepublications. these databases were selected based on their accessibility and relevant coverage of multidisciplinary business, hr and management data, and were accessed through web portals, for example, http://www.uj.ac.za/library. the uj web portal was also used to trace and extract relevant data from electronic master’s theses and doctorate dissertations. database searches of professional organisations such as corporate leadership council (clc), deloitte llp, employer brand international (ebi), and collective learning australia (cla) were also conducted. the targeted literature was mainly restricted to english textual data found in research theses and/or dissertations, journal articles and text books relative to employer brand issues published between 2002 and 2011. the selected date range coincides with the onset of the awareness of talent shortage, the high premium that organisations have placed on employer brand as a competitive advantage in the talent war during recent years and the dissemination of relevant textual data during this period. gathering the data keywords derived from the isolated employer brand concepts identified in the initial literature survey, served as guidance to narrow down the textual data search to identify articles of relevance. these keywords include employer brand, target group needs and/or segmentation, differentiated evp, people management strategy and/or delivery on the employer brand promise, brand consistency, employer brand communication, and employer branding metrics and/or measures. the selection criteria for relevant data consisted of published research articles and studies, related to the keywords that were written in english from 2002 to 2011. the aim was to focus and isolate data that indicated descriptions and/or correlations between variables which were applied in formulating postulates or propositions. relevant data were isolated in a tabular tracking sheet, as well as data that were eliminated as their content proved no relevance to the problem definition and the purpose of the study. analysis of the data a total of 129 manuscripts were reviewed by means of the keywords to identify data of relevance. the location of relevant textual data was accurately noted and recorded to ensure that the results could be replicated by accessing the same data bases. data were analysed by means of a thematic analysis approach whereby 24 research articles were selected and summarised in a tabular format detailing the author, study purpose, sample and setting, method of analysis and key findings. these 24 research articles were selected based on their research findings that indicated correlations and/or descriptions between keywords. the data sets of variables relative to the keywords that demonstrated a coherent linkage between theoretical concepts were analysed through inductive thematic analysis to derive at theoretical propositions which are postulated for purpose of further empirical research. presentation of the data the findings of the research will be presented under keyword headings derived from the relevant employer brand concepts that were identified in the literature review. results (back to top) research findings the research review findings are discussed under the following headings. target group needs target group needs are defined as the differentiated needs of the target population (minchington, 2010; walker, 2007) that would require marketing segmentation techniques to provide insight into the differentiated needs (moroko & uncles, 2009; sartain & schumann, 2006) enabling companies to offer benefits in alignment with these needs and execute attraction and retention strategies more effectively (corporate leadership council, 2002; milkovich & newman, 2008; moroko & uncles, 2009).four studies were found to be relevant. moroko and uncles (2009) findings suggested that the application of marketing segmentation techniques enhances employer branding efforts and boosts the effectiveness of the strategy as a whole. tüzüner and yüksel (2009) found that turnover increased and job satisfaction decreased where no attention was paid to various needs of employees whilst mortensen (2010) found that employer brand and talent attraction and retention can be augmented when organisations segment prospective talent needs. berthon, ewing and hah (2005) observed that successful employer branding relied on understanding factors contributing toward employer attractiveness, and cross-cultural differences influenced diverse ways in which employer attractiveness was perceived. differentiated employer value proposition for the purpose of this study a differentiated employer value proposition (evp) is defined as the distinctive total employment experience (kochanski, 2004; minchington, 2010; purkayastha, 2006; sartain & schumann, 2006), or unique financial and nonfinancial offering (corporate leadership council, 2007) provided by an organisation in return for skills, capabilities and experiences an employee brings to the organisation (minchington, 2006); it helps to establish a differentiated positioning relative to other employers (mckinsey, 2006; minchington, 2006; sartain & schumann, 2006) by adding impetus to the employer brand (kochanski, 2004).one study demonstrated a linkage relative to investigating the impact of a differentiated evp. the findings of knox and maxwell (2009) reflect that employees in five different organisations consider different evp attributes to be attractive; thereby confirming the importance of a distinctive evp which could add impetus to an organisation’s employer brand. people strategy within the context of this study the people strategy is informed by the employer brand platforms (minchington, 2006), and relates to the application of branding principles to human resource management to enable the organisation to deliver on the employer brand promise (backhaus & tikoo, 2004; glen, 2007; minchington, 2006; tüzüner & yüksel, 2009). eight relevant studies were identified regarding selection. punjaisri and wilson (2007) observed a significant need for the coordination of marketing and hr practices within an organisation to establish and reinforce the alignment of employees’ behaviours with the brand values. these practices include recruitment and induction, communication, and training. findings by hodes (2006) validated the importance of building the employer brand from the inside out to ensure delivery on the employer brand promise and that the delivery on the employer brand promise is embedded in all hr activity, strategy and outputs. these findings of hodes (2006) were reiterated by research findings of kgobe (2010) who found employer branding practices close gaps between what employees expect and what the organisation delivers. studies by schumann (2006) confirmed prospective employees are attracted to employer brands they associate with, and expect the company to deliver on the anticipated employer brand promise, or on the ‘what’s in it for me’ (i.e. what is in it for the employee). schumann (2006) concludes that the employer brand must be articulated in an organisation’s actions and values which are embedded in people management practices driven from the inside out. research results by boyd and sutherland (2005) confirmed the importance of a people strategy with clearly articulated people management practices that will obtain employees’ commitment to living the employer brand and delivering on the employer brand promise. based on an extensive literature review the article by hughes and rog (2008) concluded that the inclusion of an employer brand and a differentiated evp was important for the successful implementation of talent management, and that internalisation of the employer brand would depend on the organisation’s people management practices. research conducted by deloitte llp (2010) and by careerbuilder (2008), which involved the analyses of 265 000 respondents, confirmed that in order for companies to attract and retain talent, they must be able to continuously deliver on the employer brand promise. research findings by minchington (2010) and sutherland and karg (2002) verified the importance of considering both the employer brand employee platform, as well as the employer brand strategic platform when implementing employer of choice people management (employer branding) practices. these studies confirmed that a culture of career growth and innovation, challenging work, pay for performance, and a values driven organisation are attributes which knowledge workers view as important when looking for the ideal employer. brand consistency for the purpose of this study brand consistency refers to a coherent relationship between the employer brand, corporate brand and consumer brand where the total portfolio of brands are aligned to ensure clarity in strategic positioning and consistency in the delivery on the portfolio of brand promises (barrow & mosley, 2005; fraser, 2009; minchington, 2010). four relevant studies were found. findings by freeman and knox (2006) confirmed a correlation between an attractive employer brand image and likelihood to apply for a job, and the importance for an integrated approach between internal marketing and external marketing to develop a more congruent employer brand. research by king and grace (2008) confirmed that the alignment of the evp, or ‘what’s in it for me’ as an employee, with the business or customer brand enhanced employee engagement, and commitment to the business or customer brand. gapp and merrilees (2006) found misalignment between external brand (the promise) and internal brand (delivering on the promise) damaged the trust between employees and senior management, and resulted in discord between strategic plans and operational activities. mosley’s (2007) article presented two key conclusions: firstly, the practice of managing the links between brand, culture and customer experience has evolved significantly over recent years; employer brand should be consistent to the overall brand message, and the notion of employer brand management completes a journey that began with a disciplined approach to managing the total brand experience. secondly, through an application of the same principles to service brands and customer management, employer brand should be managed during touch points on the employer brand employee platform, and during actual experience of the employer brand strategic platform. communication of the employer brand within the framework of this study communication of the employer brand refers to an employer brand voice (duraturo, 2010) that reflects honest and authentic employer brand messages (backhaus & tikoo, 2004; barrow & mosley, 2005; minchington, 2010) which are consistent with all organisational marketing efforts (duraturo, 2010; minchington, 2010; willard, 2010) and channelled effectively to reach the target audience (bhattacharya, 2009; duraturo, 2010; minchington, 2010). five relevant studies were found. kapoor (2010) found communication of key employer brand messages remained one of the top three challenges in managing an employer brand whilst bowd (2006) observed the communication of employer brand messages was key in order to positively impact employer brand perception. research findings by watson wyatt (2005) indicated that organisations that are highly effective communicators experienced strong employer brand strength, high levels of engagement and 20% lower turnover rates than their peers. organisations with excellent communications performance had metrics in place to gauge the impact of their communications programmes. knox and bickerton’s (2008) findings emphasised the importance of clearly communicating the brand proposition, and also ensuring that these communications are reinforced by organisation behaviours and supported by processes which deliver on the promise. a conceptual model building approach by miles and mangold (2004) illustrated the importance of consistently delivering the employer brand message at all the employee touch points (recruitment, orientation, communication, shared services, performance and development, reward and recognition), and that employees should experience employer brand through every day behaviours, values, management competencies and leadership competencies. human resources employer branding metrics within the context of this study human resources (hr) employer branding metrics refer to the measurement of hr employer branding (people management) efforts (fernon, 2008; higgins, 2010) which are informed by both the employer brand employee platform and the employer brand strategic platform (minchington, 2010) to ensure people management practices deliver on the evp and employer brand promises (higgins, 2010; lockwood, 2006). no significant employer branding metrics research results were found. only one article was found to be of relevance given the context of this study. an article by higgins (2010) underscored the importance of measuring hr employer branding efforts to ensure delivery on the employer brand promise by designing an hr scorecard which is context specific. both leading and lagging indicators should be included in employer branding measures to ensure business is supplied by relevant and useful knowledge rather than historical information, and delivery on the employer brand promise. discussion (back to top) at a time when seeking talent in the ever shrinking global talent pool has become an international crusade (armstrong, 2007; bussin, 2007; crous, 2007; leonardi, 2007; minchington, 2006), the quest to win the talent war has expanded to hr best practice, employer brand, reward, recognition and benefits – all issues related to the attraction and retention of talented staff (crous, 2007). employer brand is defined as the organisation’s differentiated attractiveness in terms of functional, economic and psychological benefits that are identified with the image of the employing company (ambler & barrow, 1996; corporate leadership council, 2007; donath, 2001; minchington, 2006). although a growing body of evidence supports the relationship between employer brand and the attraction and retention of talent (crous, 2007; dell et al., 2001; minchington, 2010; willock, 2005), limited attempts to build an employer brand model to predict talent attraction and retention has been undertaken (armstrong, 2007; backhaus & tikoo, 2004; jenner & taylor, 2007; martin, 2007). the purpose of this study was to explore the current state of knowledge about employer brand and to determine the key building blocks of an employer brand predictive model that can be empirically validated to effectively predict talent attraction and retention. the benefit of the study’s model building approach systemises the employer brand domain and brings conceptual coherence to a domain of science. another contribution of the study is providing managers and human resource functionaries an integrated approach which shapes and influences the total employer brand process relative to talent attraction and retention. the following discussion synthesises linkages in literature between theoretical concepts and explains causal links between propositions. summary of findings this section starts by synergising the findings and the premise of this study is explored by detailing whether the literature review reiterates, or differs from, the findings. the propositions are set in the discussion and mirror the flow of the employer brand predictive model which is depicted in the latter part of this section. this section concludes by suggesting theoretical implications and practical implications, presenting limitations as well as suggestions for future research. target group needs research findings indicated that the target group needs dimension had a positive relation to employer attractiveness, employer brand efforts and the augmentation of talent attraction and retention (berthon, ewing & hah, 2005; moroko & uncles, 2009; mortensen, 2010; tüzüner & yüksel, 2009). the aforementioned finding was reiterated by target group needs related literature that found people are attracted to a source that could fulfil their needs (armstrong, 2007; minchington, 2010; walker, 2007), and that segmentation tools and techniques assist in adapting the talent brand message for each segment based on insight into the target group’s needs and preferences (moroko & uncles, 2009; sartain & schumann, 2006). research studies done by the corporate leadership council (2002) and milkovich and newman (2008) reveal job candidates are attracted to companies with a good offer fit and benefits that fit their inherent preferences. however, the application of market segmentation to the employer brand context is not without limitations. there are, for example, legal barriers to segmenting current and potential employees on the base of race, gender, age, ethnicity or disability; this potential barrier could be negated if companies invest in the gathering, holding and analysis of quality employee needs data that informs segmentation approaches within the context of fairness and the broader company strategy (moroko & uncles, 2009). the synthesis in linkage between research findings and the literature review supports the first proposition (p1) of this study which postulates that target group’s needs, relative to business strategy, influences employer brand. differentiated employer value proposition research findings by knox and maxwell (2009) reflected that employees in five different organisations considered different employer value proposition (evp) attributes to be attractive; and confirmed the importance of a unique and distinctive evp which added impetus to the employer brand. the aforementioned research finding was reiterated in relevant literature that suggests the evp helps to establish a differentiated positioning relative to other employers (deloitte llp, 2010; mckinsey, 2006; minchington, 2006; sartain & schumann, 2006). kochanski (2004) cites the importance of a distinctive evp in the best places to work lists. a distinctive evp adds impetus to the employer brand (kochanski, 2004), and leverages core differentiating talent attraction aspects by enabling targeted employer brand marketing efforts (kochanski, 2004; purkayastha, 2006). a differentiated evp motivates target candidates to join a company and current employees to stay (brand learning, 2009). the linkage between relevant findings supports the second proposition (p2) and implies that a differentiated evp influences the employer brand. people strategy within the context of this study the people strategy relates to the application of branding principles to hr management to enable the organisation to deliver on the employer brand promise (backhaus & tikoo, 2004; glen, 2007; minchington, 2006; tüzüner & yüksel, 2009). empirical research findings indicated that delivery on the employer brand promise was embedded in all hr activity, strategy and outputs (hodes, 2006; kgobe, 2010), and the internalisation of the employer brand depended on the organisation’s people management practices (boyd & sutherland, 2005; hughes & rog, 2008; punjaisri & wilson, 2007; schumann, 2006) which were informed by elements of both the employer brand employee platform as well as the employer brand strategic platform (sutherland & karg, 2002). literature suggests that an organisation’s people strategy delivers on the employer brand promise where the value proposition that the organisation articulates is reflected by the actions of all people (backhaus & tikoo, 2004; barrow & mosley, 2005; careerbuilder, 2008; glen, 2007; minchington, 2006). according to minchington (2010), both the employer brand employee platform as well as the employer brand strategic platform should inform the people strategy to ensure the implementation of people management practices which will abet delivery on the employer brand promise. the reiteration in linkage between empirical research findings and relevant literature sustains the third proposition (p3) and suggests that a people strategy, informed by the employer brand employee platform and the employer brand strategic platform impacts on employer branding practices which consecutively influences the employer brand. brand consistency research findings by freeman and knox (2006) confirmed the importance for an integrated approach between internal marketing and external marketing to develop a more congruent employer brand, whilst king and grace (2008) found that the alignment of the evp with the business and/or customer brand enhanced employee engagement, and commitment to the business and/or customer brand. the finding of gapp and merrilees (2006) confirmed that misalignment between external brand (the promise) and internal brand (delivering on the promise) damaged the trust between employees and senior management, and resulted in discord between strategic plans and operational activities. all of the mentioned findings correspond with mosley’s (2007) conclusion that employer brand should be consistent to the overall brand message to ensure delivery on the employer brand promise.literature affirmed that an organisation with a superior employment offering is one whose employer brand matches their corporate and consumer brand(s) (fraser, 2009; minchington, 2010). minchington provides compelling reason for such alignment in claiming that the total portfolio of brands needs to be aligned in organisational strategy as each brand subset has an impact on the other, and the essence of the corporate and consumer brand should be reflected in the essence of the employer brand to ensure consistency in delivery on the portfolio of brand promises. such consistency, according to barrow and mosley (2005), is essential for a brand as this helps to deliver trust and confidence for the relevant stakeholder as well as clarity of purpose and positioning. the synthesis in linkage between research findings and the literature review supports the fourth proposition (p4) and suggests consistency in the portfolio of brands influences the employer brand. communication research findings indicated that the communication of employer brand messages was key in order to positively impact employer brand perception (bowd, 2006; knox & bickerton, 2008), however, remained one of the top three challenges in managing employer brand (kapoor, 2010). watson wyatt (2005) found that organisations who are highly effective communicators experienced strong employer brand strength, high levels of engagement and 20% lower turnover rates than their peers. the mentioned findings are affirmed by miles and mangold (2004) whose conceptual model illustrated the importance of consistently delivering the employer brand message at all the employee touch points. the aforementioned findings were reiterated in the literature which found that the employer brand communication should reflect honest, authentic and consistent employer brand messages about employment promises which could be delivered upon through an organisation’s employer branding (people management) practices, and that the channelling of the employer brand message should be carefully considered to ensure messages attract targeted talent (backhaus & tikoo, 2004; bhattacharya, 2009; duraturo, 2010; minchington, 2010). reiteration in the linkage between research findings and relevant literature supports the fifth proposition (p5) and proposes that communication influences the employer brand. metrics based on the implementation of an hr scorecard in a large organisation, higgins (2010) found the measuring of hr employer branding efforts are required to ensure an effective employer brand that delivers on the employer brand promise.the above mentioned finding was reiterated in literature that found value adding metrics has the potential to support delivery on the employer brand promise (fernon, 2008; lockwood, 2006; minchington, 2010). the synthesis in linkage between the study and the literature review supports the sixth proposition (p6) and suggests that employer branding metrics influence the employer brand. employer brand predictive model the purpose of this study was to explore the current state of knowledge about employer brand and to identify employer brand building blocks that can be integrated in an employer brand predictive model that will predict talent attraction and retention after being empirically validated. during the initial literature overview key employer brand concepts were isolated due to researchers’ significance attributed to these concepts in relation to talent attraction and retention. these employer brand concepts were refined to the following keywords: target group needs and/or segmentation, differentiated evp, people management strategy, brand consistency, employer brand communication and hr employer branding metrics. these keywords were used to inform a comprehensive literature review that resulted in six propositions. thereafter these same keywords were applied to guide research that would either support or reject the propositions. given the fact that the research findings reiterated the stated propositions, these propositions served as a guide to determine the following building blocks of an employer brand predictive model that can be empirically validated to effectively predict talent attraction and retention, and contribute to favourable positioning in the quest for talent: • target group needs • evp differentiation • people strategy • brand consistency • employer brand communication • employer branding metrics. figure 1 depicts an employer brand predictive model. the model is informed by the aforementioned employer brand building blocks based on their significance relative to employer brand which in turn influences talent attraction and retention. figure 1: employer brand predictive model theoretical implications. the model presented in figure 1 is theoretical in nature and a form of inductive reasoning, or conceptual explication, was used to search for linkages between theoretical concepts. even though there is criticism of inductive reasoning because of its qualitative nature, it remains one of the most powerful methods to construct conceptual models and build new theories, without which science cannot make progress (mouton, 2001). as stated in a previous section of this study, theoretical models allow one to make predictive claims under certain conditions, and bring conceptual coherence to a domain of science thereby simplifying our understanding of the world (mouton, 2001). the employer brand predictive model limited, isolated, simplified and systematised the employer brand domain that was investigated, thereby adding value to scientific progress though the accurate representation of a set of phenomena, and propositions, which can be empirically tested. managerial implications even though the true practical contribution of the study will reveal itself once the effect of the employer brand predictive model on talent attraction and retention has been empirically validated, it is suggested that the employer brand predictive model (figure 1) serves as an operational management model. the model provides a pointer relative to employer brand, and could guide managers and human resource functionaries in more effective talent attraction and retention decisions that could ultimately influence overall business performance. the model contributes value in that it addresses key related employer brand building blocks; these building blocks represent an integrated approach which shapes and influences the total employer brand process. limitations of the study and recommendations for future research this study set out to conceptually investigate building blocks of an employer brand predictive model, and to understand how these building blocks integrate to form a conceptual coherence that depicts employer brand relative to talent attraction and retention. given the aim of this study, three main limitations have been identified, each of which provides opportunities for further research in this area. these are as follows.firstly, keywords used to guide the extraction of relevant research could have contributed to omitting published research. secondly, a selective approach to data location could have also limited data gathering as additional research data may have been found by considering data sources other than emerald, ebscohost and saepublications, academic libraries, database searches including professional organisations such as clc, deloitte llp, employer brand international (ebi) and collective learning australia (cla), as well as the uj web portal that was used to trace and extract relevant data from electronic research journals including master’s theses and doctorate dissertations. a last limitation of this study is that the presented model has not been subject to empirical testing. different propositions as diagrammatically depicted in figure 1 suggest relationships between variables. these propositions can be assessed and empirically tested during future research. as stated previously in this article, there is relatively little scientific research available on employer brand practices relative to talent attraction and retention. the quest to win the talent war and remain sustainable in a shrinking global economy necessitates further studies to expand the depth of empirical theory on this topic and on the predictive capacity of the presented model. conclusion this study was embedded in the search for linkages between theoretical concepts, and allowed the researcher to make predictive claims and bring conceptual coherence by explaining links between propositions. the aim was to determine building blocks of an employer brand predictive model and understand how these building blocks integrate to form a conceptual coherence that depicts employer brand relative to talent attraction and retention. the research results reiterate the initial literature review findings. based on the research which was obtained through various data sources, the results of this study emerged with six building-blocks that have linkages to employer brand, as well as talent attraction and retention. the results imply that the employer brand process requires an integrated approach where all of the building blocks are considered equally important when shaping the employer brand, or the organisation’s differentiated attractiveness, in an effort to attract and retain talent acknowledgements (back to top) competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.b. conducted the review of the literature and wrote the article as part of her master’s thesis. l.d.s. was the co-supervisor who guided a.b. during the research. m.b. was the supervisor who ultimately took accountability for the successful production of the article. references (back to top) ambler, t., & barrow, s. (1996). the employer brand. journal of brandmanagement, 4(3), 185–206.armstrong, m. (2007). employee reward management and practice. london: kogan page limited. backhaus, k., & tikoo, s. (2004). conceptualizing and researching employer branding. career development international, 9, 501–517. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430410550754 barrow, s., & mosley, r. (2005). the employer brand: bringing the best of brand management to people at work. new york: john wiley & sons. berthon, p., ewing, m., & hah, l. (2005). captivating company: dimensions of attractiveness in employer branding. international journal of advertising, 24(2), 151–172. bhattacharya, p. (2009). do you know your employer brand? retrieved september 05, 2010, from http://www.employerbrandingonline.com/articles/strategy/124-do-you-know-your employer-brand.html blanchard, m. (2007). the next generation of workers. san diego, california: the ken blanchard companies. boshard, d., & louw, a. (2010). talent – trends impacting its availability and what business should do about it. retrieved march 11, 2011, from http://www.humancapitalreview.org/content/default.asp?article_id=943 bowd, w. (2006). hudson employment branding. australia, brisbane: hudson. boyd, g., & sutherland, m. (2005). obtaining employee commitment to living the brand of the organisation. south african journal of business management, 37(1), 9–20. brand learning. (2009). employee value propositions: a key marketing tool for talent management. retrieved october 05, 2010, from http://www.brandlearning.com/uploadeddocuments/employee-value-propositions.pdf bussin, m. (2007). new employee retention challenges. finweek, 40, 46. careerbuilder. (2008). employment branding: defining and delivering your employment promise. retrieved january 19, 2011, from http://img.icbdr.com/images/jp/content/whitepapers/wpr-0026_branding2.pdf charest, j. (2011). global talent risk – seven responses. retrieved february 18, 2011, from http://3.weforum.org/docsps_wef_globaltalentrisk_report_2011.pdf cheese, p., thomas, r.j., & craig, e. (2007). the talent powered organization: strategies for globalization, talent management and high performance. london: kogan page limited. cooper, p.s., & schindler, d.r. (1998). business research methods. (7th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. corporate leadership council. (2002). employee preferences survey. washington dc: the corporate advisory board. corporate leadership council. (2007). leveraging total rewards to attract and retain in-store employees. retrieved april 20, 2010, from http://www.corporateleadershipcouncil.com crous, s. (2007). talent makes the rules now. corporate research foundation, 33, 4–7. dell, d., ainspan, n., bodenberg, t., troy, k., & hickey, j. (2001). engaging employees through your brand. the conference board, research report no. 1288-01-rr, new york. deloitte consulting llp. (2008). 14th annual top five total rewards priorities survey. washington dc: deloitte llp. deloitte consulting llp. (2010). talent edge 2020: blueprints for the new normal. retrieved august 11, 2011, from http://www.deloitte.com/assets/dcom-unitedstates/local%20assets/documents/imos/talent/us_talentedge2020_121710.pdf donath, b. (2001). branding works for internal audience too. marketing news, 35, 7. duraturo, c. (2010). employer branding step 3: communication. retrieved august 02, 2010, from http://www/carloduraturo.com/2010/01/employer-branding-step-3-communication.html edwards, m. (2005). employer branding: hr or pr? (4th edn.). oxford: blackwell. fernon, d. (2008). maximising the power of the employer brand. admap, 4, 49–53. fraser, t. (2009, october). wits business school open day presentation: the role of leadership in the delivery of the brand promise. johannesburg: wits university. freeman, c., & knox, s. (2006). measuring and managing employer brand image in the service industry. journal of marketing management, 22, 695–716. http://dx.doi.org/10.1362/026725706778612103 gapp, r., & merrilees, b. (2006). important factors to consider when using internal branding as a management strategy: a healthcare case study. journal of brand management, 14(2), 162–176. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.bm.2550058 glen, c. (2007). fostering talent opportunity: getting past first-base. strategic direction, 23(10), 3–5. hallén, h. (2007). finding the right kind of talent. wealth management: second quarter, 11–15. higgins, n. (2010). what gets measured gets done: developing a hr scorecard. retrieved july 07, 2010, from http://www.watsonwyatt.com/europe/ hodes global network. (2006). global employer brand study: a two-phase research initiative among hr professionals from 25 countries. new york: bernard hodes group. hughes, j., & rog, e. (2008). talent management: a strategy for improving employee recruitment, retention and engagement within hospitality organisations. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 20(7), 743–757. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09596110810899086 ingham, j. (2006). closing the talent management gap. strategic hr review, 5(3), 20–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14754390680000877 jenner, s., & taylor, s. (2007). employer branding – fad or the future for hr? chartered institute of personnel and development. retrieved august 05, 2010, from http:// www.cipd.co.uk/nr/rdonlyres/56c8377f-256b-4556-8650-8408b0e07576/0/empbrandlatfad.pdf jordaan, w. (2007). the generation of scientifically sound knowledge objects. capacity building workshop: 09 june, 2007. presented by professor wilhelm jordaan at the university of johannesburg, south africa. kapoor, v. (2010). employer branding: a study of its relevance in india. the iup journal of brand management, 7, 51–75. kgobe, f.h. (2010). exploring the significance of employer brands in the attraction and retention of talent for south african organisations. unpublished mba thesis, gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa. king, c., & grace, d. (2008). internal branding: exploring the employee’s perspective. journal of brand management, 15(5), 358–372. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.bm.2550136 kotler, p. (2007). marketing management. (12th edn.). new jersey: prentice hall publishers. knox, s., & bickerton, d. (2008). the six conventions of corporate branding. european journal of marketing, 37(78), 998–1016. knox, s., & maxwell, r. (2009). motivating employees to live the brand. journal of marketing management, 25, 893–907. kochanski, j.t. (2004). how business operating models drive talent development. world at work journal, third quarter, 26–33. lawler, e.e. (2000). rewarding excellence. san francisco: jossey-bass publishers. leonardi, c. (2007a). skills management becomes a key strategic imperative. gordon institute of business science review, 10, 1–4. leonardi, c. (2007b). global business is playing talent management catch-up. gordon institute of business science review. retrieved april 05, 2008, from http://www.gobs.co.za/home.asp lloyd, s. (2002). branding from the inside out. brw, 24(10), 64–66. lockwood, n. (2006). maximizing human capital: demonstrating hr value with key performance indicators. retrieved november 10, 2010, from http://www.brock.dk/ fileadmin/user_upload/brock/pdf/kursusafd/shrm/maximizing_human_capital.pdf martin, g. (2007). employer branding – time for some long and ‘hard’ reflections. chartered institute of personnel and development. retrieved august 05, 2010, from http://www.cipd.co.uk/nr/rdonlyres/56c8377f-256b-4556-8650-8408b0e07576/0/empbrandlatfad.pdf mcclelland, d.c. (1961). methods of measuring human motivation. new york: van nostrand. mckinsey quarterly. (2005). using branding to attract talent. retrieved august 10, 2011, from http://mkqpreview2.qdweb.net/marketing/branding/using_branding_to_attract_talent_1645 mckinsey quarterly. (2006). making talent a strategic priority. retrieved april 05, 2010, from http://www.psycheselling.com/talent.pdf michaels, e., handfield-jones, h., & axelrod, b. (2001). the war for talent. boston: harvard business school press. miles, s., & mangold, g. (2004). a conseptualization of the employee branding process. journal of relationship marketing, 3(2/3), 65–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/j366v03n02_05 milkovich, g.t., & newman, j.m. (2008). compensation. new york: mcgraw-hill/irwin. minchington, b. (2006). your employer brand. torrensville: hyde park press. minchington, b. (2010). the employer brand manager’s handbook: torrensville: collective learning. mohaptra, d. (2005). kicking retention strategies into high gear. retention strategy journal tata group, 29, 1–6. moroko, l., & uncles, m. (2009, march). employer branding. wall street journal, r7–r8. moroko, l., & uncles, m. (2009). employer branding and market segmentation. retrieved october 05, 2010, http://www.palgrave-journals.com/bm/journal/v17/n3/.../bm200910a.html mosley, r.w. (2007). customer experience, organisational culture and the employer brand. journal of brand management, 15(2), 123–132. mortensen, r.m. (2010). employer branding & talent relationship management. unpublished master’s thesis, aarhus school of business, a arhus university, denmark. mouton, j. (2001). how to succeed in your master’s and doctoral studies: a south african guide and resource book. pretoria: van schaik. munsamy, m., & bosch venter, a. (2009). retention factors of management staff in the maintenance phase of their careers in local government. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), 1–9. personnel today. (2008). talent management defined for today and tomorrow: a guide to talent management for now and 2010. retrieved april 05, 2008, from http://www. personneltoday.com/articles/2008/01/25/44093/getfeedback-3t-report-talent-management.html prinsloo, k. (2008). managing people for competitive advantage. master’s curriculum in leadership, performance and change. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. punjaisri, k., & wilson, a. (2007). the role of internal branding in the delivery of the employee brand promise. journal of brand management, 15(1), 57–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.bm.2550110 purkayastha, f.r. (2006). sabmiller’s human capital proposition: institutionalizing a performance culture. case study: icfai center for management and research. retrieved february 05, 2010, from http://www.aabschools.com/case_studies/476.html rosethorn, h. (2009). the employer brand – keeping faith with the deal. farnham: gower publishing limited. sartain, l., & schumann, m. (2006). brand from the inside: eight essentials to emotionally connect your employees to your business. san francisco: jossey-bass. schumann, m. (2006). you are how you brand. communication world. july – august, 29–31. sutherland, m., & karg, r. (2002). employer of choice branding for knowledge workers. south african journal of business management, 33(4), 13–20. torraco, r.j. (1997). theory-building research methods. in r.a. swanson & e.f. holton iii (eds.), human resource development: research handbook (pp. 114–137). san francisco: berrett-koehler. tüzüner, v.l., & yüksel, c.a. (2009). segmenting potential employees according to firm’s employer attractiveness dimensions in the employer branding concept. journal of academic research in economics, 1, 46–61. walker, p. (2007). how to develop an effective employer brand. people management, 13(21), 44–45. watson wyatt. (2005). maximizing the return on your human capital investment. human capital index report. retrieved july 07, 2010, from http://www.watsonwyatt.com welman, j.c., & kruger, s.j. (2001). research methodology. cape town: oxford university press. wilden, r.m., gudergan, s., & lings, i.n. (2010). employer branding: strategic implications for staff recruitment. journal of marketing management, 26(1), 56–73. willard, j. (2010). activating brand culture: rethinking the internal communications platform. retrieved july 08, 2010, from http://www.hrmreport.com/article/activating-brand-culture-rethinking-theinternal-communications-platform/ willock, r. (2005, 17 may). employer branding is key in fight for talent. personnel today, p. 4. worldatwork. (2007). the worldatwork handbook of compensation, benefits and total rewards. hoboken, new jersey: john wiley & sons, inc. zingham, p.k., & schuster, j.r. (2000). pay people right. san francisco: jossey-bass publishers. article information authors: karolyne beets1 suki goodman1 affiliations: 1section of organisational psychology, university of cape town, south africa correspondence to: suki goodman postal address: section of organisational psychology, university of cape town, rondebosch 7701, south africa dates: received: 05 oct. 2011 accepted: 27 feb. 2012 published: 13 july 2012 how to cite this article: beets, k., & goodman, s. (2012). evaluating a training programme for executive coaches. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(3), art. #425, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i3.425 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. evaluating a training programme for executive coaches in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study: programme description    • literature review    • evaluation question    • the potential value-add of the study • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical and other analyses • results    • success cases       • what knowledge, skills and attitudes were applied from the training?       • what results were achieved as a consequence of the programme?       • what good has the training done?       • what has helped trainees to apply the knowledge, skills and attitudes that they acquired on the programme?       • what barriers prevented successful application of the coach training knowledge, skills and attitudes?       • how could the coaching training programme be improved? • ethical considerations    • potential benefits and hazards    • recruitment procedures    • informed consent    • data protection • trustworthiness    • reliability    • validity • discussion    • the scope of the success of the training intervention    • worthwhile results from the training    • suggestions for improving the programme    • environmental factors that hindered and helped the successful application of knowledge, skills and attitudes    • conclusion    • limitations    • suggestions for future research • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the evaluation of training programmes provides methodological and logistical challenges to evaluators and human resource (hr) managers. the training of executive coaches is no exception in this regard. research purpose: the study aimed to investigate one particular aspect of the results of an executive coach training programme, and the extent to which knowledge, skills and attitudes acquired during the programme were applied in practical settings. motivation for the study: too little is known in south africa about the effectiveness of training programmes, including executive coach training programmes. there is a need to demonstrate methodological approaches that would provide valid and reliable data. research design, approach and method: the success case method (scm) was used to guide the study, consisting first of a survey of 80 participants in the training programme, followed by eight interviews to compare successful with less successful cases of skills transfer. main findings: all six successful coaches were applying the proximal outcomes from the training with good results, with several valuable consequences resulting from the training. barriers to successful implementation included personal circumstances and unfulfilled expectations of the programme content. practical/managerial implications: aspects of the training programme that could be improved included: the buddy selection system, more individualised feedback about self-development, closer supervision, and more support from programme managers. contribution/value-add: this evaluation contributes to the evaluation literature by providing a documented exploration of a systematic application of the scm. it also contributes to the coach training literature by providing a systematic evaluation of a coach training intervention in south africa. introduction top ↑ key focus of the study executive coaching is a rapidly growing field in management. its practices are expanding and it is associated with an extensive quantity of literature. in this article we describe a training programme for executive coaches, and examine whether or not trainees report their use of the assumed benefits in their work. there is a substantial range of methods available to evaluate training programmes and, in this article, we utilise an innovative method to assess the successful and non-successful application of learning. background to the study: programme description the coach training programme (ctp) runs over six months and its target population is defined as people who want to become professional coaches. qualified and experienced facilitators run the programme. two philosophies underlie the programme: integral coaching and andragogy. integral coaching refers to coaching that takes into account all aspects of a person’s life (not just work) (flaherty & handelsman, 2004). andragogy is an adult educational philosophy which encourages learners to become autonomous and self-directed (bedi, 2004; ozuah, 2005; zemke, 2002). the programme content can be categorised into two developmental pathways: personal development, and the development of coaching skills and competencies. theoretical coaching content and skills are inculcated during three training sessions (86 hours in total). interspersed between these three sessions, the trainees engage in self-development exercises, which could consist of readings, writing personal letters or written assignments. briefly, the programme content comprises the following activities presented in sequence: • a two-day introductory course on coaching • pre-course work for the six-month-long ctp • a first session dealing with the outcomes and underlying assumptions of coaching • homework relating to personal development • a second session aimed at designing a coaching intervention and implementing it • homework relating to personal development • a third session focused on complex coaching interventions and understanding people • a final session based on a reading assignment and a personal development letter. at the end of the programme the facilitators assess the competence of the trainees and decide whether to award a certificate or not. the programme activities of the ctp focus on building knowledge, skills and attitudes (ksas) for coaching, plus the fostering of personal development through increased self-awareness. figure 1 presents the impact model for the coach training programme, extracted from personal communications with programme staff and programme records. figure 1: impact model of coach training programme. in table 1, the proximal outcomes of deepened coaching skills and expanded self-awareness are mapped. table 1: proximal outcomes of coach training programme. literature review executive coaching originated in the usa and has become a rapidly developing and a fast growing industry (international coaching federation [icf], 2007; upton, 2006). in south africa, executive coaching has come to the fore as a development tool over the past six years (rostron, 2006). as with all new knowledge domains it has attracted its fair share of contesting groupings, from academics, to ‘professional’ coaches, to unscrupulous practitioners. in south africa, executive coaching is not a statutory profession and there is little agreement regarding definitions, theories, models, constructs, standards and practice guidelines within the domain (bluckert, 2006; executive coaching forum, 2004). a body called the coaches and mentors of south africa (comensa) was formed in 2004 to regulate coaching, develop credibility and awareness of coaching, empower the consumer and standardise the skill requirements for coaches (comensa, 2007a). unit standards for coaching were registered on the national qualifications framework (nqf), in the field of education, training and development, in 2003 (south african quality authority [saqa], 2007) and, comensa‘s standards of professional competence were developed in 2006 (comensa, 2007b).to date, no research has been conducted to ascertain whether or not coaching delivers the intended results described on websites and in advertisements for coaching training. by employing a rigorous method, the current evaluation sought to answer two questions: how does executive coaching training work; and does it work? evaluation question the ctp is popular with a diverse group of recipients. we were interested in what the trainees were achieving with the ksas and self-awareness that they attained on the programme, and we decided to focus the evaluation on the following question: to what extent are the trainees using the intended proximal outcomes to enhance or develop their coaching practice? the potential value-add of the study training and development practitioners often firmly believe that what they are achieving is worthwhile and valuable, but they lack the methods to provide credible and valid evidence of the impact of their efforts. in this article we demonstrate the use of one method that could assist in this regard, namely the success case method (scm), developed by brinkerhoff (1983, 2003, 2005, 2006a, 2006b). the scm was used to evaluate the ctp described above, and provided practically useful, and reliable information about the programme. research design top ↑ research approach the scm follows a mixed method approach: a sample of success and non-success cases was selected by means of a quantitative questionnaire and then interviewed to find the reasons for their success or lack thereof. the findings of the interviews are reported as qualitative data.according to brinkerhoff (1989) the real value of a training intervention lies in the application of the ksas presented during the training. the scm is designed to answer the following evaluation questions: a. what has actually happened since the intervention? (i.e. who is using the training in their work; what aspects of the training are being used; who is successfully using the training; who is not using the training successfully?) b. what results are being achieved post-intervention? (i.e. what outcomes are being achieved; are these outcomes associated with the original programme objectives; are there any unintended results?) c. what is the value of the results? (i.e. has the training produced meaningful business results?) d. how can the training be improved? (i.e. what aspects of the training are working well and what areas need to be changed; what barriers prohibit learning transfer; how can one increase the percentage of successful cases?) according to brinkerhoff (2003, 2006a) the scm evaluation process begins, firstly, by identifying the focus of the evaluation and mapping out the evaluation plan. secondly, an impact model is designed that represents the intended outcomes of the training intervention for the trainees. thirdly, once the impact model has been defined, and approved by different stakeholders, the evaluator designs a short survey aimed at identifying success and non-success cases. this is generally a succinct document containing a limited number of questions related to the intended outcomes of the programme, as defined in the impact model. fourthly, the respondents who scored the highest (success cases) and lowest (non-success cases) on the survey are then selected for in-depth interviews. the interviews explore the nature of the interviewees’ experiences post-training and aim to develop a coherent picture of how the training was used, what results were achieved, as well as which factors supported and which barriers inhibited successful training transfer. research method research participants for the first stage of the research, a purposive sampling strategy was employed (trochim, 2006). the entire population of 80 participants who completed the ctp in 2005 (n = 32) and 2006 (n = 48) were contacted to complete a survey. the final sample consisted of 55 accredited coaches, ranging in age from 32 to 61 years with an average age of 45. forty-six percent of the sample was female and 53% was male. on average, coaches were well educated (64% had postgraduate degrees, 20% had first degrees, and the rest had diplomas or school leaving certificates). participants were in job positions that they referred to as coaching positions (38.2%), or management positions (31%) or they were business owners (11%). eighteen percent stated that they were in other positions than those mentioned above. of the 55 respondents, 55% were coaching full-time and 44% were using coaching skills as part of their job. most recipients completed the coach training with the intention of becoming full-time coaches (58%), whilst 47% indicated that they intended to apply the coaching skills as part of their current job. in line with the guidelines for the scm, the survey was followed by interviews of success and non-success cases. of the 55 respondents who completed the survey, 20 indicated that they were applying the training outcomes and obtaining positive results. six of them were chosen for the high success case interviews, based on the highest survey scores, contact details supplied and the number of clients coached. initially, three respondents were chosen as low success cases, but one had to be discarded as a brief telephone interview revealed moderate rather than low success. measuring instruments a survey instrument, based on the proximal outcomes in table 1, was designed to identify success and non-success cases. the survey included three sections: applications of specific proximal outcomes of the training, questions of general interest and a demographics section (a copy of the survey is available from the evaluators). the six success cases and two low success cases were interviewed by means of a protocol conceptual model (brinkerhoff, 2003, 2006a) of ‘filling buckets’. each bucket represented a specific category of information. for high success cases people were asked: • what was used? • what results were achieved? • what good did it do (value)? • what helped? • suggestions? low success cases were simply asked about barriers to using the training, and suggestions for improvement. research procedure an online survey was sent to all participants who had completed the 2005 and 2006 coaching programmes. each interviewee was informed via e-mail of the upcoming interview and given information about the content that would be covered during this process. all interviews were conducted by telephone and the length of the success interviews ranged between 30 minutes to 50 minutes. low success interviews were more focused and typically lasted 20 minutes. all interviews were digitally recorded and then transcribed. statistical and other analyses the survey responses on the section, application of proximal outcomes, were scored according to the format presented in table 2. table 2: response format and scoring in the survey. survey scores were used to select highest and lowest success cases. the interview data were reduced by means of naming codes, and these codes were further reduced by using themes (miles & huberman, 1994). results top ↑ table 3 presents the percentage of respondents who indicated that they had applied the course outcomes in the workplace with clear and positive results. the majority of respondents attained positive results with all the proximal training outcomes. table 3: percentage of respondents scoring outcome measures with highest success. success cases the qualitative data analysis revealed that all six success case coaches were successfully applying the proximal outcomes from the training. they saw the results and the value of this training. furthermore, they were able to identify the aspects that helped and that hindered the results during the application of the knowledge, skills and attitudes (ksas) and they could make suggestions for improving the training. this is summarised in figure 2. figure 2: themes from qualitative data analysis. the results are reported in terms of the six themes that emerged from the data analysis of the interviews. what knowledge, skills and attitudes were applied from the training? all six coaches reported that they were using the process to successfully design and conduct coaching programmes. they also referred to applying structured coaching conversations as taught during the programme. this rigorous structure separates a coaching conversation from just another ‘pleasant conversation’ and helps to move the clients closer to their intended outcomes. five coaches described how applying assessment models had helped them to make grounded assessments of where ‘the individual actually is’. three success cases pointed to the usefulness of understanding and applying language as imparted on the programme. this quotation below illustrates how this outcome was used: my powers of observation are significantly higher and … i now see language, i feel language, whereas before perhaps i just heard, it’s more three dimensional now for me, and that is the power of observing. (success case 6) two of the coaches highlighted the usefulness of the integral coaching paradigm: because it is ontological coaching … it looks at you as a whole human being … i’m absolutely committed to having an integrated approach to how i deal with people. (success case 6) what results were achieved as a consequence of the programme? all six success case coaches claimed that they experienced significant personal development as a result of the programme. the following quotations illustrate this:the personal development aspect was very different from other training and studying that one does, because lots of the work that is assigned is to help one, as a coach-in-training, to develop greater self-awareness. that level of self-awareness becomes absolutely key in working well with people, to encourage them to develop a greater level of self-awareness. i think somebody made the comment ‘what you don’t observe you’re unable to change’. (success case 2) … it’s meaningful for me to be exposed to this type of … personal growth opportunity and … the consequence is i help myself to grow. (success case 6) five success cases indicated that the insight they gained from the programme had improved their interactions with other people and specifically with their clients. they mentioned the skills of listening in a different way, being non-judgmental, using open-ended questions and refraining from having the last word. the following quotations illustrate these results: i have better relationships with people…the ability to listen differently to people, that … makes an impact on my clients…and the relationship with my clients is conducted in a new way. (success case 1) i had always taken on everyone’s stuff and woes … which is really sapping. [the training] gave me a new set of skills for dealing with people and so i would use the coaching way of being in interactions … and i didn’t take on their issues anymore. (success case 3) two of the success cases indicated that their practices had benefited from their link with the training provider. another success case explained that the training had led to increased business opportunities. three success cases mentioned shifts within their own careers, which they attributed partly to the training. one of these success cases changed jobs: from an information technology position to one in human resources. this move was attributed mainly to the personal development process experienced during and after the training. an unintended consequence of the training for three of the success cases was the ability to use the ksas from the coach training as a leadership style. this involved a shift in managing people. this shift was described as follows: i think it’s quite different … coaching as leadership style versus leading without having been exposed to all the concepts [on the training programme]. it’s … a different way of … [leading] … it elicits … more open conversations and generates new possibilities. (success case 6) one of the success cases recommended that all managers should be exposed to one of the short coaching workshops, which the service provider offered in order to improve their people management skills. what good has the training done? all six success cases reported that, when applying the ksas from the training programme, they had observed positive changes in their clients. the following examples illustrate this:they achieved their objectives and their performance improved. (success case 3) you can see other people’s lives changing as a result of being coached. (success case 1) you see a change in clients’ motivation, how they [present themselves] and the responsibility that they take for their own behaviour … (success case 3) all six success cases indicated that they aim to assist their clients to become ‘self-correcting, self-generating, long-term excellent performers’. these are important outcomes of the training. two success cases reinforced this idea by mentioning the career changes that their clients made. the following quotation illustrates this: his whole dream was to go into a different division at work and he got the job he wanted … it was a great feeling of success from a coaching point of view with him because he really grew … and that was the whole focus of our coaching. (success case 4) all six success cases confirmed that their own observations of shifts in clients’ behaviour, documented coaching conversations, feedback from clients and feedback from clients’ colleagues provided evidence of the good that the training programme had done. five of the six success cases reported that the training encouraged them to further their studies. for four of them this meant undertaking the next level of the coach programme, whilst for one of them it involved a decision to begin postgraduate studies. this success case said: the way that [he] does the training, it just makes you curious to want to learn more and that’s been a wonderful gift for me because that’s what set me on the path of doing my thesis. (success case 5) all six success cases reported that the training improved their credibility as coaches. they indicated that this credibility was related to the accreditation of the programme: i think the training provides discipline and rigour in a market where entry [requirements] are very low and there are lots of people out there who call themselves coaches … we follow a structured, disciplined approach with a framework with models that have been quite extensively validated around the world and that differentiates us from other people [who] may not have done those things. (success case 2) two success cases highlighted how the training had led to important networking opportunities. they met like-minded people on the programme, with whom they have remained in contact. what has helped trainees to apply the knowledge, skills and attitudes that they acquired on the programme? all six interviewees indicated that a background in a business-related field was advantageous for successful application of the programme’s ksas. however, it was stressed that such knowledge was not a prerequisite:i think personally, if i didn’t have the industrial [psychology] background, i would [have experienced] a lot of gaps. it’s not that i couldn’t bridge the gaps. i think if you’re serious about being a coach, you will bridge those gaps. (success case 1) two success cases were of the opinion that a business-related background was more useful than a clinical psychology background: [clinical psychologists] don’t have a feel for the corporate stresses, politics, hierarchies and structures. that’s a huge part of what causes people stress in their job and that you need to deal with it. i think if you got a sense of those kinds of stresses politics, hierarchies and structures … i think it helps … (success case 4) five of the six coaches discussed how reading coaching-related and personal development books had helped them develop as coaches. not only did these readings improve their knowledge, but they also served as reference texts: when you’re working with someone you know a little switch flicks in your brain: oh, hang on, i think this might be good and you go and have a look at it and say ok, that will work well here. i’ve got a library practically of my own … (success case 3) five of the success cases referred to the supervision provided during the programme as being helpful to maintain objectivity, or to provide benchmarks of excellence: coaches can get caught up in our own structures of interpretation. (success case 5) one of the things about coaching is you can only go as far as you’ve been personally, and you only get to go places through personal development and experience and through seeing things in a different way which a [supervisor] will provide for you, so it’s critical. (success case 6) two success cases mentioned that the support they received from their managers to apply the coaching ksas back at work, was ‘beneficial’ and ‘critical’. what barriers prevented successful application of the coach training knowledge, skills and attitudes? one low success case had not found the opportunity to apply the ksas to any meaningful extent as a result of personal circumstances. she reported that the training was useful, but that other priorities had taken precedence since the course. the second low success case had expected that the training would be specifically tailored for working in a corporate environment, as she had understood from the promotional material. the coach expected to leave the programme feeling confident to enter the corporate world as a coach, but found that she had not gained this confidence: i know how to work with people. i’m not a business person; that is not my background. i wanted to leave this course feeling like i could go and work in corporates easily and i don’t feel that. (non-success case 2) having already had extensive training in psychology, she found that she was familiar with the material presented on the programme. this low success case would have chosen a different training intervention had she known of the overlap with her past training and the lack of corporate-related content to meet her learning needs. this low success case preferred an eclectic style, and also reported that she does not use integral coaching in its purest form, although she does make use of the coaching conversation structure and tools offered by the programme: i have seen results from coaching, but not that i would attribute directly to the [programme]. i certainly don’t think that i would ever want to be a pure integral coach because there’s its one theory … [whilst there exists] a multitude of theories about what coaching should look like. (non-success case 2) how could the coaching training programme be improved? improvement suggestions for the ctp were made by all six success and the two low success cases. for this sub-section of the results, these improvements will be reported for all eight participants.four of the eight participants reported having disappointing experiences with the buddy coaching system (a pairing of participants to practise skills), mainly because of personality clashes. they did not suggest how buddy selection could be improved. three participants indicated that more individual attention and detailed feedback during the contact sessions would have been valuable. this could be done by means of more one-on-one coaching or supervision by the programme presenters: with high costs, it’s necessary for people to feel that they have had some individual attention and individual reflection on what they are doing right. (non-success case 1) two coaches reported that learning pods (small groups created for shared learning, communication of coaching experiences and project work) were not effective, because the pod degenerated into a social rather than a learning event. they suggested that a pod mentor might help to direct the group dynamics towards a learning experience. the following suggestions were made by single participants: • reading material should be provided at the start of the programme to enable recipients to prepare for the learning pods • the coaching forum should be more effectively organised and opened to coaches who received different coach training programmes • the administration of the programme should be improved (professionalising the programme, smaller class sizes, more detailed assignment feedback, formalising of assignment process, and the course outline should be communicated more effectively at the beginning of the programme). • more individual customisation of coaching techniques should be undertaken • an opportunity should be created to watch a coaching programme unfold through its different stages • provision should be made for more ksas for handling psychological issues. ethical considerations top ↑ the ethics in research committee of the faculty of commerce, university of cape town, approved the evaluation. potential benefits and hazards there were no benefits or hazards for participants who took part in the evaluation. recruitment procedures the primary evaluator contacted all participants in the 2004 and 2005 coaching programmes and requested that they complete an electronic questionnaire. success and non-success cases were identified from the questionnaire results and contacted by e-mail to explain the purpose and content of the telephonic interview that was to follow. participants had to agree to the telephonic interview before the primary evaluator contacted them. informed consent on the first page of the questionnaire the purpose, confidentiality of the data and the time that it would take to complete the questionnaire were described in detail. the e-mail sent to the success and non-success cases requesting a telephonic interview contained similar information. data protection the primary evaluator was the only person who had access to the questionnaire and telephone data. both success and non-success cases were promised anonymity and were not identified by the evaluators. trustworthiness top ↑ reliability the questionnaire items and transcripts of the telephone interview are described in the method section. validity the evaluation focused on a specific programme and did not seek to generalise the findings to other similar programmes. discussion top ↑ the scm aims to discover what is working or not working in a training programme. it identifies best practices, produces results to motivate future participants and is a practical way to evaluate the success of an intervention (brinkerhoff, 2003, 2006a). however, brinkerhoff (2003, 2006a) clearly indicates that the scm does not make an overall summative judgment. instead its usefulness and value lie in describing what a training intervention can achieve. the scm does this by capturing the specific and personal ways the training has been used to achieve successful results. what brinkerhoff demands of an scm evaluation is that the results provide sufficient evidence for a convincing argument that the training has been applied in the work place. this argument is framed in terms of the scope of the success of the training, worthwhile results achieved, suggestions for improving the programme and environmental factors which have hindered successful application. this framework is utilised below. the scope of the success of the training intervention most of the trainees reported high levels of successful application of the proximal outcomes of the training. even the low success cases reported relatively high application levels. self-report data provided by the participants showed that the programme has had a positive influence on them and that their clients had also benefited indirectly from the training. thus, it can be concluded that this cohort of 2005 and 2006 recipients was successful in applying the proximal programme outcomes in the workplace. worthwhile results from the training from the results it is clear that the objectives have been achieved, namely to develop or enhance coaching skills, and self-awareness (see figure 1). this dual outcome structure constituted the impact theory of the programme. furthermore, the trainees were successfully applying the programme’s ksas in conducting coaching programmes with clients. all the high success cases indicated obtaining positive results from applying the following proximal outcomes: using the assessment models; eliciting a client’s structure of interpretation; employing distinctions; developing practices; overcoming clients’ resistance; building relationships with clients; establishing mutual trust, respect and freedom of expression; tackling one’s own barriers to coaching; keeping in condition to coach; and enabling clients to become self-correcting, self-generating, long-term excellent performers. the programme appeared to have influenced participants in areas of personal development. personal development is considered to be a critical competency in coach training that helps the trainee coach to develop ‘psychological mindedness’ (bluckert, 2005; lee, 2003). bluckert (2005, 2006) suggests that personal development of trainee coaches is as important as coaching theory and skill training and should be given equal weight in the training process. reports from the participants also indicated behaviour changes, over time, in their clients. this distal outcome is important and needs to be examined further, as client change is often cited as a mediating variable between the programme and organisational benefit (olivero, bane & kopelman, 1997). all six success case coaches reported that they aim to help their clients become self-correcting, self-generating, long-term excellent performers, that is they are working towards the distal outcomes described in the programme literature. in this way, the participants are using a coaching intervention as a tool for client empowerment (eggers & clark, 2000). the success case coaches reported several valuable consequences from the training (e.g. studying further, career shifts, networking, building a more successful coaching business and enhancing their credibility as coaches). the quality of the coaching service offered (bluckert, 2005) and self-regulation of the profession (hamlyn, 2004) are often raised in this regard. research (icf, 1999a, 1999b) has indicated that clients regarded training as important when selecting a coach and that certification was important. an unintended consequence of the training was how participants used the ksas for a specific coaching leadership style in their jobs. the recipients were applying the ksas more broadly than the intervention intended by shifting their leadership styles. goleman (2000) identified six distinct leadership styles, one of which is a coaching leadership style, which necessitates empathy and self-awareness in order to encourage others to improve and develop long-term-strengths. he indicated that this leadership style was used least often, because leaders reported that they did not have the time in their high-pressured environments to help people to develop. suggestions for improving the programme the evaluation results provided evidence that the 2005 and 2006 coach training was effective, but several participants made suggestions for improving the training that offer valuable feedback to the programme staff. the evaluators are supporting these suggested improvements with further evidence from social science literature. as part of a coach training intervention, bluckert (2006) recommends that participants should receive coaching themselves. taking up the role of a client will enable the trainee coach to empathise with future clients regarding their feelings of vulnerability. however, four recipients found the programme’s buddy coaching system ineffective, which was a consequence of personality clashes and resulted in conflict that they considered to hamper their learning experience. we would like to suggest an improved buddy selection system, clear instructions about the intended outcomes of the buddy system, and explicit behavioural guidelines for buddies. the revolving triad method (two buddies and an observer who gives feedback about the process) could also be implemented. bluckert (2006) recommends that trainee coaches should be part of an ongoing experiential group to enhance self-reflection and growth. the pod meetings were supposed to fulfil this function, but two participants suggested that pod mentors should be introduced to ensure that these meetings retain a learning function and not deteriorate into social events. furthermore, three other participants suggested that more individual attention and interactive supervision should be provided during the contact sessions. all these suggestions indicate a need for more individualised feedback about self-development. some of the other suggestions from the trainees might help in this regard. class size has been shown to affect learning (kokkelenberg & dillon, 2002) and the addition of small group interventions could satisfy the need for individual attention. one coach suggested that the programme could offer more demonstrations of different types of coaching conversations. these could capture the development of a coaching relationship over time and the challenges that emerge for coaches. video clips or multi-media training material could illustrate these high-level ksas (noe, 2003). environmental factors that hindered and helped the successful application of knowledge, skills and attitudes all six success cases found that a business-related background was important in helping them carry out their coaching. washylyshyn (2003) reported that business experience was one of the top three criteria reported by clients when selecting a coach (the others being training in psychology and the coach’s reputation). a lack of corporate experience could be a problem, as is the case when clinical psychologists enter the field without any business training (filipczak, 1998; lowman, 1998; somerville, 1998). garman, whiston and zlatoper (2000), in a review of coaching skills, reported that 15% of coaches had psychology backgrounds and 15% had business backgrounds, whilst the remainder was not reported. they found that the psychological skill set was usually (61% of the time) referred to as a unique skill base, separate to the coaching skill set. in 45% of these articles, the psychological skill set was thought to add clear value. we suggest that participants are made aware of this debate regarding the different skill sets. closer supervision was mentioned as a need by the participants. bluckert (2006) recommends that coaching supervision continues throughout the career of trained coaches, because it is important to provide the opportunity to reflect on one’s own coaching methods and experiences with a senior colleague in order to improve one’s coaching practice. participants pointed out how important it was to have management support when conducting coaching programmes with in-house clients. brinkerhoff and montesino (1995) found that management support facilitated the transfer of ksas from training to the work environment. noe (2003) also describes the importance of managerial support in the transfer of training. the two low success cases reported that it was not environmental factors, but rather personal circumstances and choices that hindered the application of the programme’s ksas. the one low-success case indicated that information on the programme website led her to believe that together with improved coaching skills, she would develop basic business-related skills. it is suggested that the programme managers examine the website and scrutinise the intended outcomes mentioned there. if the target population for the training programme is those who already have a business background, it should be stated unambiguously. alternatively, the programme staff could provide additional reading to those who do not have a business background. a critical question here is: is business-related knowledge a knowledge component of the programme or not? if so, the evaluators recommend that it is included in the programme activities. conclusion we conclude that the scm proved to be a useful and practical evaluation tool for conducting this evaluation. its main value is providing focused and realistic evaluation questions, such as whether or not ksas are applied in the workplace? it equipped the evaluators with an evaluation tool that provided a robust structure for the evaluation process. for instance, the ‘buckets’ used in the interviews were particularly useful to conceptualise the interview process. these assisted the evaluators to create a detailed picture of the elements associated with the application of the training and its results. finally, the scm is a user-friendly method with a sensible design, which provided the programme staff with information that could be useful for refining the programme. nevertheless, we have to acknowledge limitations to the method. the first phase of the scm, the sampling phase, produces extreme groups (success and low success cases) of recipients. the average participants are not selected. brinkerhoff (2003, 2006a) argues that the average participant might not exist. however, if he or she does, he or she may misrepresent the reality of a training intervention. brinkerhoff is of the opinion that a few extreme cases can reveal much about the applicability of a training intervention. the scm is indeed a practical, user-friendly evaluation method. it works well in a single organisation (or several similar organisations) where participants attend training programmes which are mandatory or have perceived value for the organisation. it is not recommended for evaluating training programmes with participants who come from diverse organisations or who are self-employed (see the point on proximal outcomes below). it also does not work well where the participants are a self-selected group who already ‘believe’ in the positive outcomes of the training. as this evaluation showed, these ‘believers’ do not generate sufficient low success cases and thus the opportunity for suggesting sufficient programme improvements might be lost. limitations the evaluation itself had a number of shortcomings. for a start, it focused on the application of proximal and not distal outcomes. as the participants of the programme were self-employed or employed by different organisations, it was not feasible to focus on distal outcomes of the training. in order to establish the merit of coach programmes, evaluators would need to know whether or not the clients benefited from the coaching, and not just whether or not trainees applied the ksas of the training. the danger of examining proximal outcomes only could very well result in premature conclusions about the merit of the programme. this evaluation concluded that the programme worked for the trainees. we do not know, however, whether or not the programme and application of the programme ksas changed client behaviour and benefited organisations. the data for this evaluation consisted of self-reported data. the evaluators assumed that the data collected via this method were credible. using more objective measures, such as client feedback of coaching experiences, would have been useful, but they were beyond the scope of this evaluation. despite these short-comings, this evaluation contributes to the evaluation literature by providing a documented exploration of a systematic application of the scm. in addition, it contributes to the coach training literature by providing the first systematic evaluation of a coach training intervention in south africa. suggestions for future research the scm cannot be used to determine whether or not a specific training programme, and not anything else, caused the results obtained. the best evaluation designs in which causality can be inferred are experimental or quasi-experimental designs with random assignment (graziano & ravlin, 2000) and these were not practical to apply in this context. as such, it cannot be asserted with confidence that the coach training programme caused all the results discussed above, but it can be reported that the participants attributed the results to the training. we need to determine which other evaluation methods could be applied successfully in a coach training context. for example, it could be beneficial to conduct an experiment in which a cohort of participants, who have been through the programme, is compared to a group who has not yet been trained. such an evaluation would provide causal evidence for the effects of the training and not rely solely on self-reported data provided by participants. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this paper. authors’ contributions k.b. (university of cape town) completed this evaluation as a requirement for her master’s degree in programme evaluation. s.g. (university of cape town) supervised the evaluation. references top ↑ bedi, a. (2004). an andragogical approach to teaching styles. education for primary care, 15, 93–97.bluckert, p. (2005). the foundations of a psychological approach to executive coaching. industrial and commercial training, 37, 171–178. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00197850510602060 bluckert, p. (2006). psychological dimensions of executive coaching. maidenhead: mcgraw-hill, open university press. brinkerhoff, r.o. (1983). the success case: a low-cost, high-yield evaluation. training and development journal, 37, 58–61. brinkerhoff, r.o. (1998). an integrated evaluation model for hrd. training and development journal, 42, 66–68. brinkerhoff, r.o. (2003). the success case method: find out quickly what’s working and what’s not. san francisco: berrett-koehler publishers. brinkerhoff, r.o. (2005). the success case method: a strategic evaluation approach to increase the value and effect of training. advances in developing human resources, 7, 86–101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1523422304272172 brinkerhoff, r.o. (2006a). telling training’s story. san francisco: berrett-koehler publishers. brinkerhoff, r.o. (2006b). getting real about evaluation. training & development, 60, 24–25. brinkerhoff, r.o., & montesino, m. (1995). partnerships for training transfer: lessons from a corporate study. human resource development quarterly, 6, 263–274. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.3920060305 coaches and mentors of south africa. (2007a). about comensa. retrieved march 03, 2007, from http://www.comensa.org.za/dotnetnuke/aboutus/tabid/72/default.aspx coaches and mentors of south africa. (2007b). standards of professional competence. retrieved march 04, 2007, from http://www.comensa.org.za/comensastandardsofprofessional competence.htm eggers, j.h., & clark, d. (2000). executive coaching that wins. ivey business journal, 65, 66–70. executive coaching forum. (2004). the executive coaching handbook: principles and guidelines for a successful coaching partnership. retrieved 25 april, 2007, from http://www.executivecoachingforum.com flaherty, j., & handelsman, a. (2004). integrating rigor, compassion and creative design. the promise of coaching and new venture west’s professional coaching course. in organisational psychology master’s programme handbook. unpublished manuscript, university of cape town. filipczak, b. (1998). the executive coach: helper or healer? training, 35, 30–36. garman, a.n., whiston, d.l., & zlatoper, k.w. (2000). media perceptions of executivecoaching and the formal preparation of coaches. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 52, 201–205. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1061-4087.52.3.201 goleman, d. (2000). leadership that gets results. harvard business review, 78, 78–90. graziano, a.m., & ravlin, m.l. (2000). research methods: a process of inquiry. (4th edn.). new york: pearson education company. hamlyn, j. (2004). executive personal coaching: a key driver to sustainable business success. hr future, 28–29. retrieved february 20, 2007, from http://www.comensa.org.za/comensacommunity.htm international coaching federation. (1999a). core competencies. retrieved february 28, 2007, from http://www.coachfederation.org/downloads/docs/credentialing/icf_core_competencies.pdf international coaching federation. (1999b). corporate survey results: analysis of the 1999 survey on coaching incorporate america. retrieved july 18, 2007, from http://www.coachfederation.org/icf/for+current+members/member+resources/research/research+repository/corporate+survey+results/ international coaching federation. (2007). icf global coaching study: executive summary. retrieved may 16, 2007, from http://www.coachfederation.org/nr/rdonlyres/257ce43d-c730-4556-9d4b-f8b53061aa56/6809/executivesummaryfinal.pdf kokkelenberg, e.c., & dillon, m. (2002). the effects of class size on student achievement in higher education: applying an earnings function. retrieved december 06, 2007, from http://buoir.binghamton.edu/papers/class_size_ md2002.pdf lee, g. (2003). leadership coaching: from personal insight to organisational performance. london: chartered institute of personnel and development. lowman, r.l. (1998). consulting to organizations as if the individual mattered. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 50, 17–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1061-4087.50.1.17 miles, m.b., & huberman, a.m. (1994). qualitative data analysis. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks: sage. noe, r.a. (2003). employee training and development. new york: mcgraw-hill. olivero, g., bane, k.d., & kopelman, r.e. (1997). executive coaching as a transfer of training tool: effects on productivity in a public agency. public personnel management, 26, 461–469. ozuah, p.o. (2005). first there was pedagogy and then came andragogy. einstein journal of biology & medicine, 21, 83–87. rostron, s.s. (2006). business coaching in south africa. business coaching worldwide. retrieved february 22, 2007, from http://www.wabccoaches.com/bcw/2006_v2_i2/feature.html south african qualifications authority. (2007). registered unit standard: 113909. retrieved may 03, 2007, from http://regqs.saqa.org.za/showunitstandard.php?id=113909 sommerville, k. (1998). where is the business of business psychology headed? consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 50, 237–241. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1061-4087.50.4.237 trochim, w.m.k. (2006). introduction to evaluation. research methods knowledge base. retrieved april 03, 2007, from http://anatomyfacts.com/research/researchmethodsknowledgebase.pdf upton, p. (2006, august 10). sport can learn from business. finweek, pp. 48–49. washylyshyn, k.m. (2003). executive coaching: an outcome study. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 53, 94–106. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1061-4087.55.2.94 zemke, r. (2002). a pocket guide to useful learning theories. training, 39, 90–91. inmemoriam.qxd professor barend lessing 1941 – 2005 ‘try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value …’ – einstein, albert the sa journal of human resource management sadly notes the passing away of the former chairperson of the department of human resource management, professor barend lessing on 11 january 2005. he was employed by the former rand afrikaans university (rau) – firstly as senior lecturer, later as professor. lessing served as chairperson of the department rau from 1995 to july 2003. under his leadership the department flourished and experienced significant prosperity and was acknowledged as one of the foremost departments of human resource management/industrial psychology in south africa. he stepped down to become actively involved in the transformation of the university as chairperson of the human resources task team for the incorporation and merging process of the university, and as project leader for the implementation of a new performance management system for the university in august 2003. acknowledged for his fundamental contributions to the former r au and in south africa towards the status of and academic capacity building in human resource management, human resource development and in distance education, lessing pioneered the establishment of training management as a new discipline in south africa in the early 1980s. he was been a major driving force in the implementation of extracurricular and distance education courses in human resource development at r au – an accomplishment that opened up high-quality higher education opportunities in this field to thousands of previously disadvantaged south african students. under his leadership, the training management discipline (currently referred to as human resources development (hrd)) was transformed into a widely-acknowledged and prestigious academic programme with a variety of courses. he elevated the field of human resources development at rau from being viewed as a functional discipline within organisations, to that of a science worthy of academic study. praised for his initiative, intellectual capacity and creativity, lessing networked constructively as founder and first programme leader of the hrd programme with international colleagues to find the most beneficial way of stimulating and promoting departmental initiatives and research. despite the difficult political situation in south africa and international boycotts in the early 1980s, he succeeded in making contact with international academics for benchmarking purposes and obtained relevant study material. lessing is listed in who's who in the world. the institute of people management presented him with the presidential award in 1977 and the hrd person of the year award in 1991. he was also honoured in austin (texas) in march 2004 when he was inducted in the international adult and continuing education hall of fame as member of the class of 2004. the hall of fame acknowledges those who have made distinguished contributions to the field of adult and continuing education. a wall plaque, commemorating some of the major accomplishments of each of the inductees, is being displayed at the university of okahoma’s center for continuing education. the current chairperson of the department, prof kobus slabbert, paid tribute to him as a man who had become so much a part of the department that it is difficult to imagine it without him. he praised him for his impartiality towards academic and administrative staff, his christian values, loyalty and modesty. he was valued and admired by former colleagues and friends for the qualities he displayed: namely integrity, commitment, loyalty and dedication to the task at hand. in memoriam article information authors: mariette coetzee1 jo-anne botha1 affiliations: 1department of human resource management, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: mariette coetzee postal address: po box 392, pretoria 0002, south africa dates: received: 19 oct. 2011 accepted: 26 sept. 2012 published: 06 dec. 2012 how to cite this article: coetzee, m., & botha, j. (2012). the languishment of employee commitment in the light of perceptions of fair treatment in the workplace. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10 (2), art. #436, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i2.436 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the languishment of employee commitment in the light of perceptions of fair treatment in the workplace in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • problem statement       • key focus       • background       • research purpose    • literature review       • employee commitment       • commitment and work behaviour       • organisational citizenship behaviour       • the relationship between perceptions of fair treatment and commitment • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instrument       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • principal factor analysis    • factor 1: obedience (conscientiousness)    • factor 2: job satisfaction    • factor 3: participation (civic virtue)    • factor 4: loyalty    • descriptive statistics    • correlation statistics    • t-tests and analysis of variance       • gender       • ethnicity       • marital status       • staff category • ethical considerations • discussion    • outline of the results    • factor 1: obedience    • factor 2: satisfaction    • factor 3: participation    • factor 4: loyalty    • treatment of employees in the workplace    • practical implications    • limitations of the study    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: this article reports on the behaviours displayed by committed employees and the influence of perceptions of fair treatment in the workplace on employees’ commitment.research purpose: the objective of the study was to identify organisational behaviours that are indicative of employee commitment and whether perceptions of fair treatment in the workplace influence employees’ commitment. motivation for the study: employees are emotionally attached to organisations and treating employees in a fair manner plays a huge role in building commitment. research design, approach and method: this study made use of a quantitative approach and a questionnaire was developed to collect data on employees’ biographical details, their work behaviour and perceptions of how fairly they believe they were treated in the workplace. a disproportionate, stratified sampling method was used and a sample of 349 employees from a leading bank in south africa participated. factor analysis, correlations, t-tests and analysis of variance statistics were computed to achieve the objectives. main findings: the factor analysis identified the following four factors relating to employee commitment: obedience, job satisfaction, participation and loyalty. the results of the t-tests revealed that biographical factors do not have a practical significant effect on employee commitment, whereas treatment in the workplace does have a significant effect on employee commitment. practical/managerial implications: committed employees engage in specific behaviours and if they do not, managers need to pay attention to the way employees are treated in the workplace. contribution/value-add: this study contributes to a better understanding of the dimensionality of employee commitment in the light of perceptions of fair treatment. introduction top ↑ in considering the increase in unrest and protest marches against poor service delivery, the following question inevitably comes to mind: do employees simply no longer care or take pride in providing a good service or are there other factors, such as the unfair treatment of employees, responsible for south africa’s reputation for poor service delivery? according to the global competitiveness report for 2010–2011, south africa ranks 97th out of 139 in labour market efficiency, 135th for inflexible hiring and firing practices and 132nd for poor labour-employer relations. problem statement organisations in today’s competitive world can perform at peak levels only if each employee is committed to the organisation’s objectives and all employees perform as effective team members. it is no longer sufficient for employees to come to work faithfully every day and to do their jobs independently. in the past, organisations secured the loyalty of their employees by guaranteeing job security. recently, however, many organisations have responded to competitive pressures by downsizing, restructuring and transformation, and this has fostered a less secure organisational climate. a growing number of employees, therefore, feel that they are victims of broken promises. one of the challenges facing modern organisations is to maintain employee commitment in the current business environment. anjani and dhanapal (2012) reported on the importance of having committed employees to carry out the day-to-day business transactions of an organisation and to enable the organisation to deal with changes emerging from the environment. key focus organisations are faced with ever-increasing competition and as they prepare for new challenges one of the key components of survival is the existence of a workforce that engages in certain types of behaviours. according to yaniv, lavi and siti (2010), employee behaviour deemed to be essential for organisational effectiveness includes employees (1) entering and remaining with the organisation, (2) meeting specific role requirements and (3) engaging in innovative and spontaneous activity that goes beyond role prescriptions. behaviour that goes beyond role prescriptions is referred to as organisational citizenship behaviour and plays a crucial role in promoting the effective functioning of the organisation (parayitam & guru-gharana, 2011). the appointment of good workers is critical but of even greater significance is the organisation’s ability to create a committed workforce (coetzee & schreuder, 2010), hence the need for managers to understand the concept of commitment – what it is, how it operates, and most importantly, how to create a committed workforce. background the importance of employee commitment is evident if one considers prior research into the relationship between commitment and other organisational phenomena such as the following:• organisational change (elias, 2009) • career outcomes (bergeron, shipp & furst, 2011) • transformational leadership (hill, seo, kang & taylor, 2011) • trust in and loyalty to the leader (deluga, 1994) • retention (döckel, basson & coetzee, 2006; van dyk & coetzee, 2012) • transformational leadership (walumbwa, orwa, wang & lawler, 2005) • person-environment fit (greguras & diefendorff, 2009). however, hardly any research has been conducted to determine the relationship between commitment and perceptions of fair treatment in the workplace. research purpose one of the objectives of this research was to identify the typical behaviours that committed employees engage in. further objectives were to determine to what extent employee characteristics and perceptions of fair treatment influence their commitment. the literature review on commitment will use meyer and allen’s three-component model of commitment as a framework (meyer & allen, 1997). perceptions of fair treatment will be discussed from an organisational justice perspective. literature review employee commitment zeffane and al zarooni (2012) regard employee commitment to be at the centre of a web made up of behaviours and attitudes. according to these authors, commitment refers to the person’s loyalty and intent to stay with the employer on the basis of a sense of duty and responsibility, and this extends beyond a purely personal interest in employment. murtaza, shad, shahzad, shah and khan (2011) refer to commitment as the bond a person has with the entire organisation. according to meyer and allen (1991), the concept of commitment is multi-dimensional and organisational commitment reflects at least three general themes: affective attachment to the organisation, the perceived costs associated with leaving the organisation and the obligation to remain with it. these three dispositions towards attachment to the organisation are referred to as affective, continuance and normative commitment: • affective commitment refers to the employee’s emotional attachment to, identification with and involvement in the organisation. employees with a strong affective commitment continue employment with the organisation because they want to (qaisar, rehman & syffyan, 2012). • continuance commitment refers to an awareness of the costs associated with leaving the organisation. the potential costs of leaving an organisation include the threat of wasting the time and effort spent acquiring non-transferable skills, losing attractive benefits, giving up seniority-based privileges or having to uproot family and disrupt personal relationships. apart from the costs involved in leaving the organisation, continuance commitment also develops as a function of a lack of alternative employment opportunities. employees whose primary link to the organisation is based on continuance commitment remain because they need to (qaisar et al., 2012). • normative commitment reflects a feeling of obligation to continue employment. employees with a high level of normative commitment feel that they ought to remain with the organisation (qaisar et al., 2012). common to these three dispositions is the view that commitment is a psychological state that characterises employees’ relationship with the organisation and has implications for their decision to continue membership of it. these psychological states also have different implications for work-relevant behaviour. affective commitment will result in employees who are prepared to go the extra mile and display organisation citizenship behaviour. in continuance commitment, employees do not contribute beyond what is needed to keep their jobs. these employees have higher absenteeism rates and greater resistance to change (katono, manyak, katabaasi & kisenyi, 2012). normative commitment will result in employees being loyal and fulfilling their duties but will not result in the kind of behaviour that will give the organisation a competitive advantage (khalili & asmawi, 2012). commitment and work behaviour research conducted in the past few decades has focused on the importance of employee commitment for performance (jaramillo, mulki & marshall, 2005; mathieu & zajac, 1990; suliman & iles, 2000). it is interesting to note that of the studies that have reported positive correlations between commitment and performance, most have used measures of affective commitment (coetzee & schreuder, 2010). allen and smith (1987) and meyer and allen (1984) found that measures of work behaviour correlated positively with measures of affective and normative commitment but not with continuance commitment. research by randall, fedor and longenecker (1990) revealed that affective commitment contributed significantly to the prediction of concern for quality, sacrifice orientation and willingness to share knowledge. normative commitment contributed only to the prediction of sacrifice orientation, and continuance commitment did not add significantly to the prediction of any of these behaviours. from the findings on the correlation between commitment and performance it is clear that the three components of commitment have different implications for work-related behaviour. organisations need employees who are willing to go beyond the call of duty and engage in extra-role behaviours. hence, research continued to examine the link between the three components of commitment and a multi-dimensional measure of work behaviour known as organisational citizenship behaviour. organisational citizenship behaviour work behaviour that is in some way beyond the reach of traditional measures of job performance but holds out the promise of long-term organisational success is receiving increasing attention. the challenge of global competition, which highlights the importance of organisational innovation, flexibility, productivity and responsiveness to changing external conditions, requires work behaviour that goes beyond the call of duty. organisational citizenship behaviour represents individual behaviour that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognised by the formal reward system and that promotes the effective functioning of the organisation (bergeron et al., 2011). organisational citizenship behaviour, therefore, refers to both in-role and extra-role work behaviour that contributes to organisational effectiveness. katz (1964) identified a third type of behaviour displayed by employees – performing tasks beyond the call of duty known as extra-role behaviour. however, it was only in the 1980s that researchers such as organ (1998) and smith, organ and near (1983) focused more on extra-role behaviour. smith et al. (1983) presented two measures of organisational citizenship behaviour (ocb): altruism and general compliance (conscientiousness). organ (1998) subsequently added three more measures: sportsmanship, courtesy and civic virtue, whilst podsakoff, mackenzie, paine and bacharach (2000) added another two: organisational loyalty and self-development.according to inkeles (van dyne & graham, 1994), the organisational citizenship behaviour construct consists of the following three categories: • obedience involves respect for orderly structures and processes. it reflects employees’ acceptance of the necessity for and desirability of rational rules and regulations governing organisational structure, job descriptions and personnel policies. • loyalty involves serving the interests of the community as a whole and the values it embodies. in an organisation, loyalty is identification with and allegiance to the organisation’s leaders and the organisation as a whole, transcending the interests of individuals, work groups and departments. it also includes defending the organisation against threats, contributing to its good reputation and co-operating with others to serve the interests of the whole. • participation entails active and responsible involvement in community self-governance and keeping oneself well-informed about issues affecting the community, as well as exchanging information and ideas with other people. in an organisational context, it refers to interest in organisational affairs and taking responsibility for organisational governance. it also includes attending non-obligatory meetings, sharing informed opinions and new ideas with others and being willing to combat groupthink. when an employee engages in obedience, loyalty and participation activities as outlined above, he or she displays commitment to the organisation. not only does such a person do more than what is expected of him or her but he or she does not expect to be rewarded for it. extra-role behaviours are vital for performance because organisations cannot forecast through stated job descriptions the entire spectrum of subordinate behaviours needed for achieving goals. in order to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage, an organisation is dependent on employees’ willingness to do more than what their official job descriptions outline (javadi & yavarian, 2011). it is well-recognised that organisations reap significant benefits from having employees who are willing to go above and beyond their required role behaviour. there may be situations, however, in which it is desirable to have employees broadly conceptualise their jobs so that they engage in certain organisationally functional behaviours without feeling that they are doing something extra. it becomes problematic when supervisors have to depend on employees’ willingness to engage in extra-role behaviour. supervisors need employees who see helping others as their duty so that consistent performance can be achieved. according to morrison (1994), a key management function may be to reduce the perception that a particular job does not fall within a designated job description with respect to activities that are critical but not formally enforced. however, this is not an easy task because employees and their managers have different ideas on defining various behaviours as either in-role or extra-role, and consequently, how broadly they define the employees’ job responsibilities. coetzee and schreuder (2010) state that one determinant of how broadly employees define their jobs is affective commitment. instead of believing that affective commitment leads employees to exceed their job requirements, coetzee and schreuder (2010) propose that affective commitment changes the way in which employees define the scope of their job. in such a case, extra-role behaviour is more likely to be seen as in-role behaviour and part of one’s job. in business, as in personal relationships, commitment is a two-way street. if employers want committed employees, they need to be committed employers. a study by aon consulting in canada in 2000, which looked at the effectiveness of various organisational practices for building employee commitment, identified the following five key areas: (1) safety and security, (2) rewards, (3) affiliation, (4) growth and (5) work/life harmony (madigan & dorrell, 2000). these organisational practices relate to employees’ need for self-expression, prestige, challenges, responsibilities, career advancement, recognition and sense of personal importance (gong, law, chang & xin, 2009). whilst a great deal of attention has been focused on the concept of work/life harmony, which is generally recognised by employers as important, employers need to review and adjust all practices in such a way that employees’ personal needs are met. treating employees fairly and justly is one way of interacting with employees on a personal level. discussing treatment in the workplace without reference to justice is impossible. according to research by greenberg in 1987, organisational justice has three components (murtaza et al., 2011): • distributive justice refers to the perceived fairness of the outcomes or allocations that an individual receives. • procedural justice refers to fairness issues concerning the methods, mechanisms and processes used to determine outcomes (cropanzano, 2001). in an organisational context, it refers to the methods or processes used to make a selection decision or to decide who should be promoted. • interactional justice refers to the way people are treated. in their research on workplace spirituality, katono et al. (2012) identified trust, respect, meaningful work, dignity and honesty as essential for fair interactions. keeping the principles of fairness in mind, fair treatment would mean that any decision or action taken by an employer should be based on valid reasons, proper procedures and sound interpersonal interactions. the relationship between perceptions of fair treatment and commitment the concern for fairness is reinforced by the presence of a fairness heuristic at work in peoples cognitions of their relationships to organisations. people need to make decisions about the extent to which they will constrain their own interests for the sake of the organisation’s interests and welfare. people inevitably rely on judgemental heuristics to determine whether to entrust their interests and identity to the organisation and align their goals and behaviour with the organisation (van dijke, mayer & de cremer, 2010). of the factors affecting this decision, fairness concerns appear to function pre-eminently. research by zhou and george (2001) revealed that no matter how strong an individual’s positive emotions, if he or she is not fairly treated, job satisfaction and positive work behaviours will decline (coetzee & schreuder, 2010). fairness suggests to people that their membership of the organisation is valued and that the organisation respects them, thereby making commitment to the organisation a viable way of maintaining one’s identity and fulfilling one’s interests. fair treatment indicates to people that they are being respected as ends in themselves, and not merely as a means to achieving the ends set by others. research on workplace interactions has indicated that support (rhoades & eisenberger, 2002), justice (cohen-charash & spector, 2001) and trust (tyler, 2003) are essential for employees to perceive their treatment as being fair. judgements about fairness are formed quickly and constitute a key heuristic basis on which decisions are made about an individual’s co-operation with and support for an organisation. a fairness judgement is a far more powerful basis than economic concerns (van den bos, lind & wilke, 2001).according to a study conducted by moorman (1991), which examined the relationship between perceptions of fairness and commitment, it is interesting to note that interactional justice was the strongest source of justice found to relate to commitment. one possible reason for this is that distributive and procedural justice refer to the organisation as a whole, whilst interactional justice focuses on the degree to which the supervisor’s behaviour enacts the formal procedures fairly. employees’ impressions of the fairness of their interactions with their supervisors communicate more information about trust and equity than the presence or absence of fair procedures. the supervisor’s actions are probably the most effective and compelling communicator of an employee’s value. if supervisors wish to increase employee commitment, they should work to increase the perceived fairness of their interactions with employees. these findings are supported by khan and rashid’s (2012) research which showed that when employees perceive their leader as being fair, which is shown in terms of the reward behaviour, they are more inclined to be satisfied with their supervisor and will remain committed to the organisation and display citizenship behaviour. similarly, the research of reychav and sharkie (2010) revealed that trust, psychological support and opportunity for employee participation contribute to perceptions of fair treatment. one of the objectives of this research was to identify the typical behaviours of committed employees. further objectives were to determine to what extent employee characteristics and perceptions of fair treatment influence employee commitment. managers should, therefore, be able to determine, by observing employees’ behaviour, how committed they are. an understanding of how perceptions of fair treatment influence employees’ commitment will assist managers in treating employees in an interactionally fair manner. research design top ↑ research approach this study adopted a quantitative approach and a questionnaire was developed to collect data on employees’ biographical details, their work behaviour and perceptions of how fairly they believe they were treated in the workplace. because there is only limited research on the relationship between perceptions of fair treatment in the workplace and commitment, a complete new set of questions had to be developed in respect of fair treatment and commitment. research method research participants the population consisted of 29 688 employees at a leading bank in south africa and a sample of 1720 was used. a disproportionate, stratified sampling method was used. the population was separated into sub-groups referred to as ’strata‘, and a sample was drawn randomly from each stratum. in this study, the sub-groups were determined according to ethnicity, gender and staff category. with regard to ethnicity, employees from population groups other than white people (i.e. black, coloured and asian people) were treated as a single component of ethnicity. regarding staff category, employees from top management, middle management and supervisory level were treated as a single component. once this process was completed, a list of employees was drawn from each group. table 1 provides a representation of the grouping of employees, the population and sample size of each employee group, as well as the response and response rate.regarding the low response rate (10%) of mail questionnaires, various statisticians state that the representivity of the population in the response rate is of greater significance than the general response percentage (aaker, kumar & day, 1995; saunders, lewis & thornhill, 2009). this principle is especially important when a stratified sampling method is used. the response is in line with the composition of the sample, hence the response rate of 20% in this study was satisfactory. table 1: population, sample and resonse rate of each group. measuring instrument the purpose of this study was to identify organisational behaviours that are indicative of employee commitment and to determine whether employees’ perceptions of fair treatment in the workplace influence commitment. a complete new questionnaire comprising the following three sections was developed: biographical details (13 items), commitment (37 items) and perceptions of fair treatment (26 items). the study made use of a six-point likert-type scale with anchors ranging from 1 (do not agree at all) to 6 (agree to a great extent) in respect of the sections on commitment and perceptions of fair treatment. the items were determined by referring to the literature on commitment, workplace behaviour and fairness principles. although meyer and allen (1997) developed a qustionnaire on commitment, this questionnaire was not used and questions on commitment were developed based on the literature on commitment. further inputs for the development of the questionnaire were obtained from the human resource manager of the bank, human resource experts, trade union officials and employees from different ethnic groups and genders. the assistance of a statistician was also obtained before the questionnaire was finalised. research procedure the human resource (hr) manager of the bank provided a list of personnel categorised according to ethnicity, gender and job category. the size of the sample was determined by the extent to which important cross-classifications had to be made. according to welman and kruger (2001), the size of the sample should be in proportion to √n, with n representing the size of the stratum. the bank had a workforce of 29 688 employees and a sample size of 770 would have been required. a total of 1720 questionnaires were distributed to make provision for the possibility of a poor response rate. a total of 349 employees completed and returned the questionnaire, which provided a 20% response rate. a list of all permanent employees, categorised according to ethnicity, gender and job category, was obtained from the human resource manager at the bank and questionnaires were posted to the employees. upon receipt of the completed questionnaires, each questionnaire was edited and questionnaires that could distort the data were discarded. the questions were coded and the spss program for windows statistical package, release 11 and 12.5, was then employed to generate diagnostic information.the bank provided ethical clearance for the study and the human resource manager of the bank authorised the questionnaire to ensure that the questions complied with ethical considerations. statistical analysis a number of statistical techniques were used to analyse the data. the statistics that were used for nominal data included the mode, frequencies and coefficients of associations. the statistics that were used for interval data included factor analysis, correlations, t-test statistics (for two groups) and one-way analysis of variance (for more than two groups). in this study, principal factor analysis with varimax rotation was performed for employee commitment. principal factor analysis was used because it seeks the least number of factors which can account for the common variance (correlation) of a set of variables and it does not consider unique variances. the eigenvalue for a given factor indicates the variance in all the variables of that factor. for the purposes of this study, all factors with eigenvalues lower than one were ignored. varimax rotation was used because it yields results that make it easy to identify each variable with a single factor. the name of the factor was determined by the items with the highest factor loadings. this study considered factor loadings higher than or equal to .40 as significant. whenever an item showed a high loading on two or more factors, the researcher decided which factor the item should belong to. in order to determine which variables to keep, this study considered the factor loadings, the cross-loading of items on more than one factor, and the reliability and importance of a variable according to the theory. the cronbach alpha coefficient and inter-item correlation coefficients were used to assess the internal consistency of the measuring instruments. the cronbach alpha coefficient was above .70 for all the factors identified, thereby indicating that all the items measured the same attribute. descriptive statistics (e.g. means, standard deviations, skewness and kurtosis) were used to analyse the distribution of the values of each item included in the different factors. two types of statistics, namely parametric and non-parametric, are available when deciding on the most appropriate statistical method. a parametric test is appropriate when the population score is normally distributed, the variances of the groups are equal and the dependent variable is an interval scale. in order to determine whether a factor is normally distributed, the skewness and kurtosis should not be more than 2.5 times the standard error of skewness and kurtosis (saunders et al., 2009). table 3 provides the descriptive statistics and the results of the reliability analysis. pearson product-moment correlations were calculated to determine the direction and strength of the relationships between the variables. to avoid a type 1 error, the significance value was set at the 95% confidence level (p ≤ .05). the practical significance levels were set at a cut-off point of d ≥ .50 (medium effect). comparative statistics test for differences between groups by making use of t-tests when an independent variable has two categories and a continuous dependent. analysis of variance (anova) was used to test for significant mean differences between a single interval dependent and one independent variable with three or more categories. results top ↑ principal factor analysis table 2 outlines the rotated factor matrix for employee commitment. four factors in respect of employee commitment were identified. table 2: rotated factor matrix for employee commitment. factor 1: obedience (conscientiousness) this factor consists of ten items with factor loadings higher than .40. obedience refers to the way employees adhere to rules and procedures and behave according to group norms. the elements of this factor include the following: • treating bank property with care • obeying bank rules and regulations • being concerned about the bank’s image • keeping the workplace clean and tidy • being punctual and not taking unnecessary long breaks • helping others with heavy workloads • staying informed about the bank • preventing problems with colleagues • having valid reasons for staying away from work. factor 2: job satisfaction this factor consists of three items with factor loadings higher than .40. job satisfaction refers to employees’ satisfaction with their jobs. according to this factor, employees are satisfied with their jobs when they: • enjoy working • have a pleasant work environment • experience a sense of personal satisfaction when they perform well. factor 3: participation (civic virtue) this factor consists of three items with factor loadings higher than .40. an important aspect of employees’ commitment is the extent to which they participate and are involved in work-related issues. the elements of this factor include: • the opportunity employees are afforded to share ideas or make suggestions on new projects or changes • whether they attend and participate in bank meetings. factor 4: loyalty this factor consists of four items with factor loadings higher than .40. loyalty plays a vital part in employees’ commitment and is often measured by their attitudes towards remaining with the organisation. according to this factor there are various reasons why employees remain with the organisation:• they feel they have an obligation not to resign. • they like their job. • they cannot afford to resign because the costs are too high. resigning would, in such instances, mean losing accumulated leave days and retirement contributions. descriptive statistics table 3 provides the means, standard deviations, skewness, kurtosis and internal consistency reliability coefficients and inter-correlations for the employee commitment variables. the results show that the reliability of the factors, as measured by alpha, are all above .70, which confirms the internal consistency of the items in a factor. in order to determine whether a factor is normally distributed, the skewness and kurtosis should not be more than 2.5 times the standard error of skewness and kurtosis. in this case, the skewness of a factor should be less than .32 and the kurtosis should be less than .65 to be regarded as normally distributed. a closer look at the skewness and kurtosis of factor 1 (obedience), factor 2 (satisfaction) and factor 3 (participation) indicated that the skewness and kurtosis did not meet these requirements, hence these factors were not normally distributed and non-parametric statistics were used. table 3: descriptive statistics and reliability analysis in respect of employee commitment. correlation statistics this study also made use of correlational statistics to determine the relationship between employees’ perceptions of fair treatment in the workplace and commitment. as indicated in table 4, there is a significant relationship between the way employees are treated and their commitment. the correlation coefficients in table 5 indicate that there is a positive and significant relationship (r > 30) between the treatment of employees and commitment. according to this table, the autonomy employees receive, plays a major role in their commitment when it comes to obedience (r = .34), satisfaction (r = .40) and participation (r = .40). there is also a positive and significant relationship (r > .30) between respect shown and obedience (r = .35), satisfaction (r = .39) and participation (r = .35). employees appear to be more satisfied (r = .37), obedient (r = .30) and participative (r = .33) when the employer has realistic expectations of them. table 4: correlations between perceptions of fair treatment in the workplace and commitment. t-tests and analysis of variance table 5 provides an analysis of the relationship between employee demographic characteristics of gender, marital status and staff category and employee commitment. the most important findings include the following. table 5: students’ t-test – comparison of mean scores of gender, marital status and staff category in respect of employee commitment. gender men and women differ, although not of practical significance (d ≤ .50), with regard to obedience (p ≤ .05) and loyalty (p ≤ .05). according to the mean scores, women are more inclined to adhere to rules and regulations and display greater loyalty towards the bank. ethnicity this research indicated that there were no significant differences between the various ethnicity groups regarding their commitment. marital status married and single employees differ with regard to work satisfaction (p≤.05) and participation (p≤.05). married employees are more satisfied and more participative than single employees. these differences, however, are not of any practical significance (d ≤ .50). staff category there are significant differences between management and clerical staff in respect of satisfaction (p ≤ .05) and participation (p ≤ .05). management appear to be more satisfied and more participative than clerical staff. clerical staff, however, are more loyal than managerial staff although this difference is not of practical significance (d ≤ .50). ethical considerations top ↑ the selected employees were asked to participate voluntarily in the research by completing the questionnaire. questionnaires were sent to the employees via the normal postal services. a covering letter, which explained the purpose of the study and emphasised the confidentiality of the research project, accompanied the questionnaire. this letter was co-signed by the human resource manager of the bank. the letter also explained that the researchers would use all information for research purposes only. the participants gave their informed consent to participate in the study.the participants completed the questionnaire anonymously. the participants returned the questionnaires to the researcher via the postal service. the researcher was available for any questions and concerns and kept the completed questionnaires secure. discussion top ↑ outline of the results the objective of the study was to identify organisational behaviours that are indicative of employee commitment. a further objective was to determine to what extent perceptions of fair treatment in the workplace influence employees’ commitment. this study made use of a completely new questionnaire to identify behaviours indicative of commitment. by means of factor analysis, the following four factors relating to commitment were extracted: factor 1: obedience, factor 2: satisfaction, factor 3: participation and factor 4: loyalty. these factors relate to the model on commitment developed by meyer and allen (1991). obedience relates to continuance commitment. employees who are very obedient do so because they need to, which relates to meyer and allen’s component of continuance commitment (qaisar et al., 2012). satisfaction and participation refer to positive feelings about the organisation and relates to meyer and allen’s component of affective commitment. loyalty reflects a feeling of obligation to continue employment. according to meyer and allen’s model, loyalty forms part of normative commitment (qaisar et al., 2012). factor 1: obedience this factor referred to employees’: • willingness to treat bank property with care • to adhere to rules • promote the bank’s image • keep the workplace clean and tidy • be punctual without taking unnecessary long breaks • help others with their work • stay informed about the bank • prevent problems with colleagues and avoid absenteeism. the results revealed that the difference in obedience between men and women was not significant. research by khalili and asmawi (2012), however, showed that women have a greater level of normative commitment than men. factor 2: satisfaction employees’ satisfaction was measured by the extent they enjoyed their jobs, worked in a pleasant work environment and had a sense of personal satisfaction. regarding marital status and staff category, married employees and members of management were slightly more satisfied than their counterparts but this difference was not of any practical significance. factor 3: participation employees’ commitment in terms of participation included their willingness to share ideas for new projects, make suggestions to improve operations, and attend and participate in bank meetings. regarding marital status and staff category, married employees and members of management were slightly more participative than their counterparts but this difference was not of any practical significance. factor 4: loyalty questions on employees’ loyalty referred to a decision to remain with the bank:• on account of an obligation • because the employee liked his job • because resigning did not cross the employee’s mind • because a resignation would have resulted in too high a cost. regarding gender, marital status and staff category, there were no differences in respect of loyalty. consistent with the findings of previous research by coetzee, schreuder and tladinyane (2007) and metcalfe and dick (2002), employee demographics such as gender, ethnicity, marital status and staff category do have an influence on employees’ commitment, but the differences are not of any practical significance. according to research by allen and meyer (1990) and mathieu and zajac (1990), factors such as age and job tenure tend to vary with an individual’s position in the organisation and relate positively to continuance commitment (khalili & asmawi, 2012). contrary to the findings of this research that revealed ethnicity does not influence commitment, vallabh and donald’s (2001) research on white and black managers suggests that black managers tend to report significantly higher job satisfaction than white managers. according to coetzee and schreuder (2010), black managers appear to have a significantly lower commitment level than white managers. the contrasting findings on whether ethnicity does have an influence on commitment could be a result of differences in the conceptualisation of commitment. treatment of employees in the workplace another aim of this study was to determine whether perceptions of fair treatment influence employees’ commitment in respect of obedience, satisfaction, participation and loyalty. the way employees are treated has an impact on their commitment (work behaviour). according to coetzee (2004), fair treatment in the workplace involves: • giving employees autonomy • treating them with respect • giving them responsibility • having expectations of employees. this study shows that perceptions of fair treatment are positively correlated with commitment (obedience, satisfaction, participation and loyalty). hill et al. (2011) confirm that the treatment of employees has an influence on employee commitment. practical implications regarding employee characteristics, the research identified three biographical factors that influence employees’ commitment (although not significantly), namely, gender, marital status and staff category. organisational commitment, however, is also affected by numerous other factors, including the type and variety of work, the autonomy involved in the job, the level of responsibility associated with the job, the quality of the social relationship at work, reward and remuneration, and chances for promotions and career advancement in the organisation (riggio, 2009). managers should therefore not make any assumptions about the commitment of employees on the basis of their membership of a particular employee group. this study indicated that treatment in the workplace in terms of task autonomy, respect, responsibility and expectations are crucial components of fairness. not only does it convey a message of importance and value to an employee but it also encourages an employee to move from being an ordinary employee to being a committed one. limitations of the study overall, the results suggest that the measures of commitment are sufficiently reliable and valid to capture the behaviours associated with employee commitment. however, elements that influence employee commitment may depend on various personal, situational and organisational factors and support greenberg’s (1987) concerns about the context sensitivity of behaviour and attitudes. not limiting the sample to a single organisation could have resolved some of the problems relating to the context sensitivity. the commitment behaviours that were investigated represent a subset of the many types of behaviours found in organisations. perceived injustices produce a range of responses including psychological distress, sabotage, withdrawal and theft (greenberg, 1987), hence the need for future research to explore contextual moderators in order to improve the measurement of employees’ commitment. the researcher feels that better items could have been selected for the questionnaire. this may explain why the distribution of scores of the factors for commitment was not normal and did not yield significant results. this is also reflected in the low practical significance values (effect sizes) of the multiple regression models. more significant results might have been obtained if clarification about the meaning of commitment had been provided in the questionnaire. conclusion this study identified four categories of behaviour displayed by committed employees, namely, obedience, satisfaction, participation and loyalty. when employees do not engage in these kinds of behaviours, managers should investigate the lack of commitment. one possible explanation could be the manner in which employees perceive their treatment in the workplace to be fair. this study did support previous research findings in that biographical factors such as gender, ethnicity or age do not influence commitment significantly. one could not, for example, argue that men are less or more committed than women. however, the results did reveal that perceptions of fair treatment in the workplace do have an influence on the commitment of employees. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that no financial or personal relationship(s) would have inappropriately influenced them in writing this paper. authors’ contributions m.c. (university of south africa) was responsible for the statistical analysis, findings and results and j.b. (university of south africa) conducted the literature review. references top ↑ aaker, d.a., kumar, v., & day, g.s. (1995). marketing research. (5th edn.). new york: wiley.allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization. journal of occupational psychology, 63, 1–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.x allen, n.j., & smith, j. (1987, june). an investigation of extra-role behaviours within organizations. paper presented at the annual meeting of the canadian psychological association, vancouver, british columbia. anjani, p.k., & dhanapal, d. (2012). impact of employee commitment on readiness for change in banking sector in salem district. global management review, 6(3), 24–34. bergeron, d.m., shipp, a.j., & furst, s.a. (2011). organisational citizenship behaviour and career outcomes: the cost of being a good citizen. journal of management, n.p. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206311407508. coetzee, m. (2004). the fairness of affirmative action: an organisational justice perspective. doctoral dissertation. university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. coetzee, m., & schreuder, d. (2010). personnel psychology: an applied perspective. cape town: oxford university press southern africa. coetzee, m., schreuder, d., & tladinyane, r. (2007). organisational commitment and its relation to career anchors. southern african business review, 11(1), 65–86. cohen-charash, y., & spector, p. (2001). the role of justice in organizations: a meta-analysis. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 86(2), 278–321. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/obhd.2001.2958 cropanzano, r. (2001). justice in the workplace. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. deluga, r.j. (1994). supervision trust building, leader-member exchange and organisational citizenship behaviour. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 67(4), 315–327. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1994.tb00570.x döckel, a., basson, j.s., & coetzee, m. (2006). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 4(2), 20–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v4i2.91 elias, s.m. (2009). employee commitment in times of change: assessing the importance of attitudes toward organisational change? journal of management, 35(1), 37–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206307308910 gong, y., law, k.s., chang, s., & xin, k.r. (2009). human resources management and firm performance: the differential role of managerial affective and continuance commitment. journal of applied psychology, 94(1), 263–275. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0013116, pmid:19186911 greenberg, j. (1987). a taxonomy of organisational justice theories. academy of management review, 12, 9–22. greguras, g.j., & diefendorff, j.m. (2009). different fits satisfy different needs: linking person-environment fit to employee commitment and performance using self-determination theory. journal of applied psychology, 94(2), 465–477. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0014068, pmid:19271801 hill, n.s., seo, m., kang, j.h., & taylor, m.s. (2011). building employee commitment to change across organisational levels: the influence of hierarchical distance and direct managers’ transformational leadership. organization science, 23(3), 758–777. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1110.0662 inkeles, a. (1969). participant citizenship in six developing countries. american political science review, 63, 1120–1141. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1955075 jaramillo, f., mulki, j.p., & marshall, g.w. (2005). a meta-analysis of the relationship between organizational commitment and salesperson job performance: 25 years of research. journal of business research, 58, 705–714. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2003.10.004 javadi, m.h.m., & yavarian, j. (2011). effect of organizational identity and commitment on organizational citizenship behaviour (case study: educational department of isfahan province). interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, 3(2), 100–112. katono, i.w., manyak, t.g., katabaazi, a., & kisenyi, v. (2012). organization commitment and organization cititzenship behaviour: the moderating role of workplace spirituality. international journal of business research, 12(2), 114–125. katz, d. (1964). the motivational basis of organisational behaviour. behavioural science, 9, 131–133. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bs.3830090206, pmid:5888769 khalili, a., & asmawi, a. (2012). appraising the impact of gender differences on organizational commitment: empirical evidence from a private sme in iran. international journal of business and management, 7(5), 100–110. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v7n5p100 khan, s.j.k., & rashid, m.z.a. (2012). the mediating effect of organizational commitment in the organizational culture, leadership and organizational justice relationship with organizational citizenship behaviour: a study of academicians in private higher learning institution in malaysia. international journal of business and social sciences, 3(8), 83–91. madigan, m.d., & dorrell, k. (2000). commitment@work. benefits canada, 24(9), 71–73. mathieu, j.e., & zajac, d.m. (1990). a review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates and consequences of organizational commitment. psychological bulletin, 108(2), 171–194. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.108.2.171 metcalfe, b., & dick, g. (2002). is the force still with her? gender and commitment in the police. women in management review, 17(7/8), 392–403. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09649420210451823 meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1984). testing the ‘side-bet’ theory of organisational commitment: some methodological considerations. journal of applied psychology, 69, 372–378. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.69.3.372 meyer, j.p., & allen. n.j. (1991). a three-component conceptualization of organisational commitment. human resource management review, 1, 61–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/1053-4822(91)90011-z meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1997). commitment in the workplace: theory, research and application. thousand oaks, caz: sage. moorman, r.h. (1991). relationship between organisational justice and organisational citizenship behaviours: do fairness perceptions influence employee citizenship? journal of applied psychology, 76(6), 845–855. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.76.6.845 morrison, e.w. (1994). role definitions and organisational citizenship behaviour: the importance of the employee’s perspective. academy of management journal, 37(6), 1543–1568. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256798 murtaza, g., shad, i., shahzad, k., shah, m.k., & khan, n.a. (2011). impact of distributive and procedural justice on employees’ commitment: a case of public sector organization of pakistan. european journal of economics, finance and administrative sciences, 29, 73–80. organ, d.w. (1998). organisational citizenship behaviour: the good soldier syndrome. lexington, ma: lexington books. parayitam, s., & guru-gharana, k.k. (2011). the relationship between organizational performance and performance ratings of in-role and extra-role behaviours. academy of strategic management journal, 10(1), 123–135. podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., paine, j.b., & bacharach, d.g. (2000). organisational citizenship behaviours: a critical review of the theoretical in empirical literature and suggestions for future research. journal of management, 26(3), 513–563. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920630002600307 qaisar, m.u., rehman, m.s., & suffyan, m. (2012). exploring effects of organizational commitment on employee performance: implications for human resource strategy. interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, 3(11), 248–255. randall, d.m., fedor, d.b., & longenecker, c.o. (1990). the behavioural expression of organisational commitment. journal of vocational behaviour, 36, 210–224. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(90)90028-z reychav, i., & sharkie, r. (2010). trust: an antecedent to employee extra-role behaviour. journal of intellectual capital, 11(4), 227–247. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14691931011039697 rhoades, l., & eisenberger, r. (2002). perceived organizational support: a review of the literature. journal of applied psychology, 87, 698–714. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.698, pmid:12184574 riggio, r.e. (2009). introduction to industrial/organizational psychology. london: pearson education. saunders, m.n.k., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2009). research methods for business students. (5th edn.). london: pitman. smith, c.a., organ, d.w., & near, j.p. (1983). organisational citizenship behaviour: its nature and antecedents. journal of applied psychology, 68, 653–663. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.68.4.653 suliman, a., & iles, p. (2000) is continuance commitment beneficial to organizations? commitment-performance relationship: a new look. journal of managerial psychology, 15(5), 407–422. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940010337158 tyler, t. (2003). trust in organizations. personnel review, 32, 556–568. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00483480310488333 vallabh, m.a., & donald. f. (2001). a comparison of black and white managers on intent to leave and job mobility. journal of industrial psychology, 27(2), 37–42. van den bos, k., lind, e.a., & wilke, h.a.m. (2001). the psychology of procedural and distributive justice viewed from the perspective of fairness heuristic theory. in r. cropanzano (ed.), justice in the workplace: from theory to practice (vol. 2). mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. van dijke, m., mayer, d.m., & de cremer, d. (2010). the role of authority power in explaining procedural fairness effects. journal of applied psychology, 95(3), 488–502. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0018921, pmid:20476828 van dyk, j., & coetzee, m. (2012). retention factors in relation to organisational commitment in medical and information technology services. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(2), 1–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v1012.433 van dyne, l., & graham, j.w. (1994). organisational citizenship behaviour: construct redefinition, measurement, and validation. academy of management journal, 37(4), 765–803. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256600 walumbwa, f.o., orwa, b., wang, p., & lawler, j.j. (2005). transformational leadership, organisational commitment, and job satisfaction: a comparative study of kenyan and u.s. financial firms. human resource development quarterly, 16(2), 235–256. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.1135 welman, j.c., & kruger, s.j. (2001). research methodology for the business and administrative sciences. oxford: oxford university press. yaniv, e., lavi, o.s., & siti, g. (2010). person-organisation fit and its impact on organisational citizenship behaviour as related to social performance. journal of general management, 36(2), 81–89. zeffane, r., & al zarooni, h.a.m. (2012). empowerment, trust and commitment: the moderating role of work-unit centrality. international journal of management, 29(1), part 2, 332–351. zhou, j., & george, j.m. (2001). when job dissatisfaction leads to creativity: encouraging the expression of voice. academy of management journal, 44, 682–696. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3069410 article information authors: leanri cunniff1 karina mostert1 affiliations: 1research unit for economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom campus, south africa correspondence to: karina mostert postal address: private bag x6001, internal mailbox 202, potchefstroom 2520, south africa dates: received: 28 nov. 2011 accepted: 15 mar. 2012 published: 21 sept. 2012 how to cite this article: cunniff, l., & mostert, k. (2012). prevalence of workplace bullying of south african employees. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(1), art. #450, 15 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i1.450 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. prevalence of workplace bullying of south african employees in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • background to the study    • trends from the research literature       • theoretical framework for workplace bullying       • prevalence of workplace bullying       • manifestations of workplace bullying       • workplace bullying and socio-demographic characteristics    • research objectives • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results • ethical considerations • discussion    • dimensions of workplace bullying    • bullying by supervisors and colleagues    • race and workplace bullying    • gender and workplace bullying    • age and workplace bullying    • education and workplace bullying    • industry and workplace bullying    • sense of coherence and workplace bullying    • bullying and diversity experience    • statistical significance of the findings    • conclusion    • possible limitations of the study    • recommendations and implications for managers • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: workplace bullying has negative physical and psychological effects on employees and several negative effects on organisations. research purpose: the purpose of the research was to determine the prevalence of workplace bullying in south africa and whether there are differences in employees’ experiences of bullying with regard to socio-demographic characteristics, sense of coherence (soc) and diversity experiences. motivation for the study: this study intended to draw attention to the implications and negative effects of workplace bullying and to determine whether employees with certain socio-demographic characteristics, soc levels and diversity experiences experience higher levels of bullying than others do. research design, approach and method: the researchers used a cross-sectional field survey approach. they used an availability sample (n = 13 911). they computed frequencies to determine the prevalence of workplace bullying and used a multivariate analysis of variance (manova) and analyses of variance (anovas) to determine the differences between the groups. main findings: the results showed that 31.1% of the sample had experienced workplace bullying. the researchers found significant differences between all the socio-demographic groups. participants with higher levels of soc, and who experienced diversity positively, reported lower levels of workplace bullying. practical/managerial implications: employers need to realise that workplace bullying is a common problem amongst south african employees and should ensure that they have the necessary prevention methods. contribution/value-add: this study contributes to the limited research on the prevalence of workplace bullying and its relationship with soc and diversity experiences in the south african workplace. introduction top ↑ background to the study workplace bullying has devastating physical and psychological effects on employees. it also has negative effects on the bottom line of organisations (hood, 2004). workplace bullying manifests in a wide variety of behaviours. they include: • public humiliation and criticism • verbal abuse • social exclusion • intimidation • inaccurate accusations • spreading rumours • ignoring people for long periods • undermining victims’ professional status (einarsen, hoel & notelaers, 2009; escartin, rodriquez-carballeira, zapf, porrúa & martin-peña, 2009). research has shown that bullying affects people all over the world. its consequences include: • intentions to leave the profession • physical effects like sleep and eating disorders • psychological effects like anxiety, depression and lowered self-esteem (matthiesen & einarsen, 2001; vessey, demarco, gaffney & budin, 2009). however, these are not the only physical and psychological consequences of bullying. bullying also affects companies because it hinders group communication and creates hostile work environments that is characterised by distrust, apprehension, anger and suspicion (djurkovic, mccormack & casimir, 2008; frost, 2003). researchers all over the world agree that bullying occurs frequently in the workplace (hoel, cooper & faragher, 2001; zapf, einarsen, hoel & vartia, 2003). this makes it a phenomenon worth investigating in south africa. the researchers could find only one study in south africa that investigated the prevalence of workplace bullying on the web (worktrauma.com). this study (that the work dignity institute conducted in 2000) found that approximately 77.8% of south africans had experienced workplace bullying. however, no recent studies on the prevalence of workplace bullying in the south african context are available. furthermore, only a few studies examined how socio-demographic groups differ in their experiences of workplace bullying. this is important because of the multicultural and multiracial composition of the south african workforce as well as socio-demographic factors like race, gender, age, level of education and type of industry. researchers should investigate these factors to determine whether there are differences in the experiences of workplace bullying. international research has focused on the possibility that different race groups experience different levels of workplace bullying (archer, 1999; dinsdale, 2006; fox & stallworth, 2005; lewis & gunn, 2007). however, the researchers could not find any studies that focused on the possible differences between race groups in south africa. gender differences in the experience of workplace bullying have also received some attention in international research. however, the results of these studies have been inconclusive (cortina, magley, williams & langhout, 2001; ólafsson & jóhannsdóttir, 2004; ortega, høgh, pejtersen & olsen, 2009). there have been only two studies so far in south africa that investigated whether one gender group experiences more workplace bullying than the other does (pietersen, 2007; steinman, 2003). however, the studies focused only on the health and academic sectors. this limits the generalisation of their results to other sectors. the researchers found contradictory results for age and workplace bullying in international research. most studies found that younger employees experience more workplace bullying than older employees do (einarsen & rakness, 1997; magerøy, lau, riise & moen, 2009). however, other studies found no significant differences between age groups (cortina et al., 2001; ortega et al., 2009). researchers have also investigated differences between groups with higher and lower levels of education. only two international studies found significant differences based on education (niedhammer, david & degioanni, 2007; ortega et al., 2009). currently, there is no literature in south africa regarding differences in the experience of workplace bullying based on age or education. it is also important and interesting to note how the experience of workplace bullying differs between industries. international literature has shown that there are higher levels of workplace bullying in the health and public sectors than there are in other industries (niedhammer et al., 2007; ortega et al., 2009). workplace bullying studies in south africa focus mainly on the health sector. however, there are no studies comparing the experiences of workplace bullying in different industries. although it is important to investigate whether there are differences in the experience of workplace bullying between socio-demographic groups, it is also important to keep in mind factors like personal resources that can cushion the experience of workplace bullying. several studies have shown that different people handle stress differently and that personal resources can act as a buffer against the effects of stress (glasø, matthiesen, nielsen & einarsen, 2007; vessey et al., 2009). one such personal resource is sense of coherence (soc). studies have shown that people with high levels of soc cope better with stressful external stimuli (diraz, ortlepp & greyling, 2003; du toit, 2002). therefore, it is possible that people with higher levels of soc are more resistant to workplace bullying because of their ability to better cope with stressful external stimuli and would report lower levels of workplace bullying than people with lower soc would. there is currently no literature available in south africa that compares the experiences of workplace bullying between people with high and/or low soc. in south africa, legislation is forcing organisations to integrate their workforces to reflect the country’s demographics better. this will create diverse workgroups who have to work together to reach their organisations’ goals. managers are looking to diverse workgroups to find solutions to organisational problems because the ability to work together in diverse workgroups results in a higher morale amongst employees because of the groups’ ability to overcome obstacles in their search for efficiency (jehn, northcraft & neale, 1999). these workgroups can experience diversity positively or negatively depending on their perceptions of status and power in the groups. if they experience diversity issues negatively, it could cause them to experience higher levels of workplace bullying (ely & thomas, 2001; heames, harvey & treadway, 2006). to date there is no literature that compares positive and negative diversity experiences and workplace bullying. trends from the research literature theoretical framework for workplace bullying the psychologist heinz leymann (1996) first identified workplace bullying in the 1980s. leymann (1996, p. 165) called bullying ‘… mobbing others at work’ and described workplace bullying as conflict that lasts for a long period, occurs regularly and where the victims are not able to defend themselves because of the unequal distribution of power between the victims and the perpetrators. for the purpose of this study, bullying is:repeated actions and practices that are directed to one or more workers, which are all unwanted by the victim, which may be done deliberately or unconsciously, but clearly cause humiliation, offence, and distress, and that may interfere with job performance and/or cause an unpleasant working environment. (rothmann & rothmann, 2006, p. 14) the main question that arises when one studies workplace bullying is why some people experience bullying when others do not. tajfel’s social identity theory (sit) could provide some insight (tajfel & turner, 1979). the theory proposes that, in order for people to achieve positive self-images, they use the process of categorisation. they categorise other people into inor out-groups (where they are members of the in-group). in order to maintain positive self-images, people compare these groups (duffy, 2004). they maintain positive identities if they favour the in-group above the out-group. however, should they find the out-group more favourable, the in-group members could choose to compete with the out-group in order to achieve a positive distinctiveness. this tends to cause in-group favouritism, group polarisation, stereotyping, discrimination and minority influence (duffy, 2004). therefore, it is possible that prejudice and discrimination (that manifests in bully-like behaviour) derives from the desire of people to identify with the social groups they regard as superior to other groups in order to increase their self-esteem and shared identity (haslam & reicher, 2006). it is important to note that the term ‘group’ does not necessarily refer only to ethnicity or racial orientation. it could result in men teaming up against women (or vice versa), older against younger employees, or people with higher education feeling superior to unskilled employees and engaging in bullying behaviour. this research focuses specifically on the experiences of bullying amongst these different groups in the workplace. prevalence of workplace bullying for the purpose of this study, the researchers will use the term prevalence in the same context as that given in the definition of the free dictionary (2011, http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/prevalence): ‘the total number of cases of a disease in a given population at a specific time’. therefore, this study will report on the total number of employees who reported frequent experiences of workplace bullying. in scandinavia, between 1% and 5% of the workforce has experienced some form of workplace bullying (zapf et al., 2003), whereas in the united states of america (usa) and the united kingdom (uk) the prevalence is in the range of 10% – 30% (hoel et al., 2001). research that curtis, bowen and reid (2007) conducted showed that the prevalence of bullying in australia is between 50% and 57%. in south africa, the internet survey that the work dignity institute conducted in 2000 reported that 77.8% of south africans feel bullied in the workplace. based on these findings, the researchers expect that employees will report frequent experiences of workplace bullying. manifestations of workplace bullying according to ross (1996), one can divide bullying behaviours into two broad categories: direct and indirect (relational) bullying. direct bullying is behaviour that happens on a face-to-face, interpersonal level. it includes acts of verbal abuse like belittling remarks, public humiliation, criticism, inaccurate accusations as well as threatening behaviour and intimidation (einarsen et al., 2009; escartin et al., 2009). indirect bullying is more subtle. it aims to harm people on an emotional level and to manipulate relationships intentionally (björkqvist, lagerspetz & kaukiainen, 1992). acts include: • gossiping • spreading rumours • excluding victims from social events • not informing victims of decisions that directly influence their departments or people • intentionally sitting as far away from the victims as possible • manipulating the information victims receive • neglecting the working conditions of victims (einarsen et al., 2009; escartin et al., 2009). in the workplace, both direct and indirect bullying behaviour can be displayed by the victims’ colleagues and/or supervisors. they represent the hierarchy of the organisation and refer (in broad terms) to the top, senior, middle and junior management levels (department of labour, 2010). the skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers follow, allowing for clear dividing power relations within the organisation. how these power relations play out has important consequences for organisations because bullying by supervisors can be devastating to maintaining trust (hodson, roscigno & lopez, 2006). however, it seems that supervisors might not be the main culprits. studies have found that co-workers comprise 3.4% to 71.5% of the aggressors (free press release, 2010; ortega et al., 2009). acts of humiliation, sarcasm, rudeness, practical jokes, isolation and gossiping are the types of bullying behaviour that colleagues practise (farrell, bobrowski & bobrowski, 2006). based on these findings, the researchers expect to find that indirect bullying is more prevalent than direct bullying and that bullying by colleagues will be more prevalent than bullying by supervisors. workplace bullying and socio-demographic characteristics race: most research into workplace bullying focuses on its effects on different race or ethnic groups in organisations and explores how these differences might relate to the bullying (giga, hoel & lewis, 2008; hoel & cooper, 2000; quine, 2002).the consensus in most of the literature is that there is often a direct relationship between a minority ethnic group and the likelihood that that group will experience bullying (pryor & fitzgerald, 2003). fox and stallworth (2005) found that ethnic minority groups in the workplace reported higher levels of specific racial or ethnic bullying than their majority counterparts did. it seems that, if people of a certain ethnic group work in an environment in which they are the minority, they could become easy targets for bullying (lewis & gunn, 2007). archer (1999) confirms this and notes that, if a person belongs to a minority group (either gender or race), the likelihood of being bullied increases radically. based on the literature, the conclusion is that, in south africa, minority groups are more likely to experience bullying than majority race groups are. in 2010, the indian (or asian) and coloured race groups were in the minority whilst blacks were the largest group (statistics south africa, 2010). therefore, according to the sit framework and the findings of previous research, the researchers expect the indian (or asian) and coloured race groups to experience higher levels of workplace bullying: • hypothesis 1: employees of indian or coloured ethnicity will experience higher levels of workplace bullying than black and white employees will. gender: together with race or ethnicity, the researchers investigated the relationship between gender and experiences of bullying (grainger & fitzner, 2007; quine, 2002). researchers agree that women are easy targets for bullies (cortina et al., 2001; grainger & fitzner, 2007; namie, 2003; niedhammer et al., 2007; quine, 2002), whilst one study found men were the likelier victims (ólafsson & jóhannsdóttir, 2004). some studies suggest that there are no significant differences between the levels of workplace bullying experiences of men and women (ortega et al., 2009). researchers agree that men and women experience different types of bullying. men tend to suffer physical abuse and women, especially in the nursing profession, experience verbal abuse (farrell et al., 2006). women and men experience workplace bullying differently because of different interpersonal styles and the male-dominated work environment (rayner & cooper, 1997). the results of two studies in south africa contradict each other. pietersen (2007) found no significant difference between the workplace bullying experiences of men and women, whereas steinman (2003) reported that south african women were more vulnerable to workplace bullying than men were. based on this information, the second hypothesis follows: • hypothesis 2: women will experience higher levels of workplace bullying than men will. age: researchers all over the world are undecided about the effect of age on the experiences of workplace bullying. einarsen and rakness (1997) found that the younger the employees, the higher were their chances of experiencing harassment and bullying. cortina et al. (2001) and ortega et al. (2009) could find no significant relationship between age and the experience of workplace incivility. in a study conducted with american navy personnel, bullying experiences were higher in the younger age group (34 and younger) (magerøy et al., 2009). currently, there is no literature in south africa that investigates whether bullying is more prevalent in younger or older employees. the third hypothesis follows: • hypothesis 3: the victims of workplace bullying are younger. education: current research seems to suggest that the lower the skill level, the higher is the chance of exposure to workplace bullying (niedhammer et al., 2007; ortega et al., 2009). previous studies have found that employees with lower academic qualifications, as well as unskilled workers, reported higher levels of workplace bullying than their managers and supervisors did. however, magerøy et al. (2009) found no significant differences in the experience of workplace bullying of employees with lower levels of education: • hypothesis 4: employees who report higher levels of workplace bullying have lower levels of education. industry: researchers seem to agree that workers in some industries (like information technology, academics, the public sector, telecommunications as well as the health and military sectors) might be susceptible to different levels and manifestations of workplace bullying (escartin et al., 2009; magerøy et al., 2009; niedhammer et al., 2007; steinman, 2003). employees who work in the public sector seem to be more at risk than employees in the private sector are (hoel & faragher, 2004). the focus in south africa has been on the health and academic sector (pietersen, 2007; steinman, 2003). however, researchers have not conducted a study that compares several different sectors. the researchers’ next hypothesis follows: • hypothesis 5: employees who report higher levels of workplace bullying, work in the public sector. workplace bullying and sense of coherence: workplace bullying can be highly stressful as it could lead to people becoming more anxious and easily upset (glasø et al., 2007). soc is about people’s orientation to the world. people with high soc experience a persistent, long-term sense of self-confidence. they understand, and can cope with, the external stimuli to which they are exposed (du toit, 2002). antonovsky (1979) developed the soc construct and defined it as: a global orientation that expresses the extent to which one has a pervasive, enduring, thought dynamic feeling of confidence that one’s internal and external environments are predictable and that there is a high probability that things will work out as well as can reasonably be expected. (p. 132) for the purposes of this study, the researchers will see soc as an indicator of resilience. it could have both direct and indirect effects on people’s well-being because it influences their perceptions of their coping-abilities (rothmann & rothmann, 2006). researchers have found that soc moderates stress (diraz et al., 2003). it should be relevant to the effects of bullying as the experiences create stress for the victims (vessey et al., 2009). in a multicultural society like south africa, managers with a high soc have a high degree of self-reflection, awareness, self-confidence and acknowledge conflict (like experiences of direct bullying) as normal parts of life (mayer, 2011). therefore, people with high soc could have a better understanding of different cultural systems, appear to cope better and manage stressors at work (mayer, 2011). riedel, wiesmann and hannich (2011) suggest that a higher soc might also be a resource during the acculturation process of organisations’ members. one should note that the organisational environment affects employees’ health and well-being. therefore, the well-being of employees and their organisations are strongly inter-related (grant & mack, 2004). consequently, it is important for organisations to focus on promoting health, especially in multicultural environments, because the components of soc (predictable requirements, the ability to adapt to change and to achieve their collective objectives) can characterise healthy organisations (mayer & krause, 2011). the conclusion the researchers drew from the literature is that people with a low soc tend to be less able to manage stressful experiences (like workplace bullying) and will report higher levels of workplace bullying than people with a higher soc will. therefore, the researchers formulated hypothesis 6: • hypothesis 6: people with a higher soc will experience lower levels of workplace bullying. workplace bullying and diversity experiences: in the light of the study’s theoretical framework, one can describe diversity experiences as individual perceptions and experiences of values and cultures. one can measure diversity experiences in terms of race or ethnic discrimination (negative) and race or ethnic diversity appreciation (positive). these aspects have discrimination, prejudice, understanding, respect and socialisation across groups as their roots (rothmann & rothmann, 2006). when organisations place members of different ethnic, social and cultural groups in one workgroup, either a pool of resources or a breakdown in performance can result. breakdowns in performance can cause conflict and tear employees apart (ely & thomas, 2001; greenberg, 2004; spataro, 2002). the resulting behaviour will depend on the employees’ experiences of diversity. employees and workgroups can see these diversity experiences positively or negatively. if they view them negatively, they might display behaviour like discrimination and prejudice towards other group members. this will result in a negative diversity experience for all concerned. one can associate the manifesting behaviour with workplace bullying, thereby increasing the experience of workplace bullying during negative diversity experiences. south africa is one of the most diverse countries in the world and south african organisations are becoming more and more aware of the differences between employees (maier, 2002). researchers have found that intolerance for these differences leads to conflict, hurt, competition and resentment amongst employees (cilliers & may, 2002). employees often react to attempts to address these differences in the workplace with fear and bewilderment (motsoaledi, 2009). south africa’s history of apartheid and the existing legislation on affirmative action and employment equity plays an important role in how employees perceive each other. research suggests that, if employees experience the diversity in african organisations positively, harmony and effectiveness could result (nyambegera, 2002). departments in organisations that are willing to work with diversity show cooperation and a more positive attitude towards overcoming these differences (motsoaledi, 2009). the researchers formulated their last hypothesis: • hypothesis 7: employees who experience more positive diversity practices than their co-workers do will experience lower levels of workplace bullying. research objectives the objectives of this research were to determine the prevalence of workplace bullying in south africa and to see whether there are differences in the experiences of bullying of groups that differ in socio-demographic characteristics, soc and diversity experiences. socio-demographic characteristics include race, gender, age, education and industry. in order to answer these questions, the researchers asked south african employees, who vary in age, gender, race, and level of education, from six different industries to participate in this study. the researchers compared these groups to see whether there were significant differences. research design top ↑ research approach the researchers used a quantitative research design. they used a cross-sectional survey design and collected the data at a single point in time (trochim & donnelly, 2006). they used a correlational approach to analyse the data. research method research participants the population for this study consisted of employees who worked in six sectors in south africa: financial, mining, government, manufacturing, academic and call centres. the researchers used a convenience sample (n = 13 911) because of the availability of the employees to participate in the study. table 1 presents some of the characteristics of the participants. table 1: characteristics of the participants. the participants lived in all nine provinces in south africa and consisted primarily of whites (36.9%) and blacks (26.3%). coloureds (1.50%) and indians (1.70%) were the smallest of the race groups. most of the participants were men (65.8%) and married (63.4%). the participants were mostly between the ages of 30 and 49 (59.1%) and lived in gauteng province (49%). of the participants, 48.2% had completed grade 12 whilst 30% had tertiary qualifications. measuring instruments the measuring instrument that the researchers used is part of the south african employee health and wellness survey (saehws). it is a self-report instrument. the saehws has been validated for south africa. it provides cut-off norms, is culturally sensitive and not biased against any cultural group in south africa. a predictive model, which allows for human capital risk prediction and the proactive management of risks and work-related wellbeing of employees, teams and areas of operation supports the saehws. the internal consistencies are also acceptable because the cronbach alpha coefficients fall above the cut-off point of .70 (rothmann & rothmann, 2006). the researchers used the scales that follow.workplace bullying: the researchers measured experiences of bullying at work using four dimensions: • direct bullying by supervisors (seven items, like ‘how often do you feel that you are unfairly criticised by your superiors in the workplace?’) • indirect bullying by supervisors (four items, like ‘how often do you feel that your superiors are spreading unfair rumours about you?’) • direct bullying by colleagues (12 items, like ‘how often do you experience unpleasant personal remarks from your colleagues?’) • indirect bullying by colleagues (12 items, like ‘how often do you feel that your colleagues are spreading unfair rumours about you?’). the researchers rated all items using a likert response scale. it ranged from 1 (never) to 4 (always). rothmann and rothmann (2006) reported cronbach alpha coefficients for workplace bullying that varied between .81 and .86. sense of coherence: the researchers measured soc by means of 13 items. they used a likert scale response of 0 (never) to 6 (always), with a chronbach alpha coefficient of .78. a typical question is ‘do you have the feeling that you don’t really care about what goes on around you?’ during the statistical analysis, the researchers confirmed a three-factor model (rothmann & rothmann, 2006). however, the researchers used a higher order one-factor model for this study. diversity experiences: in order to determine the perceptions of the participants about the diversity in their organisations, the researchers used six items. again, they scaled the responses from 1 (never) to 4 (always). the items included questions like ‘do employees from different racial or ethnic groups show prejudice towards each other at work?’ the cronbach alpha coefficient was .72 (rothmann & rothmann, 2006). research procedure the researchers collected their data using self-administered, self-reporting questionnaires. all the questionnaires were in english and participants completed them online on a secure website. the researchers gave respondents a detailed description of the purpose of the study and assured them of the confidentiality of their responses before they completed the questionnaires. the respondents gave informed consent and had 20 minutes to 30 minutes to complete the questionnaires. the respective organisations gave permission to use the data anonymously for research purposes. before administering the questionnaires, the researchers informed the workforce of the purpose of the research. they distributed the questionnaires to participants, who willingly completed the survey. statistical analysis the researchers conducted their statistical analysis using the spss programme (spss inc., 2009). they used cronbach alpha coefficients to calculate the reliability of the constructs they measured in this study. descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) were used to describe the data and product-moment correlations to determine the relationships between the variables. they used frequency tables to determine the prevalence of workplace bullying. the researchers decided to determine the prevalence of workplace bullying in terms of the definition: those repeated actions and practices that are directed to one or more workers, which are all unwanted by the victim, which may be done deliberately or unconsciously, but clearly cause humiliation, offence, and distress, and that may interfere with job performance and/or cause an unpleasant working environment. (rothmann & rothmann, 2006, p. 14) the layman’s interpretation of workplace bullying suggests that bullying behaviour is a consistent, concrete action directed towards a person. it need not consist of a combination of behaviours, as frequent subjection to one type of bullying behaviour, like verbal abuse, creates the experience of workplace bullying. therefore, the researchers used frequency tables to determine the percentage of the participants who answered always or often to any of the workplace bullying questions, even if the test item implied only one type of bullying behaviour. if participants indicated that they always or often experienced any of the described behaviours, it would constitute frequent bullying behaviour. in order to compare groups within soc and diversity experiences, the researchers performed a median split on each of the two groups. this divided soc into higher and lower groups and diversity experiences into positive and negative groups. they decided that median splits would be the most appropriate for the study because this is common practice when one uses analysis of variance (anova) and multivariate analysis of variance (manova) to analyse statistical data (aiken & west, 1991). the researchers used manova to determine the significance of the differences between the levels of bullying in the different socio-demographical groups, sense of coherence and diversity experiences. manova is at its best when the assumptions are met and when there is a substantial correlation between the dependent variables (kerlinger & lee, 2000). manova is the counterpart of anova methods. it covers cases where there is more than one dependent variable and where one cannot simply combine the dependent variables. one also uses it to identify whether changes in the independent variables have a significant effect on the dependent variables. the researchers used wilk’s lambda to test the likelihood that the population mean vectors are equal for all groups against the likelihood that the population mean vectors are identical to those of the sample mean vectors for the different groups. when an effect was significant in manova, the researchers used anova to discover which dependent variables had been affected. anova reflects the expression of the hypothesis tests of interests in terms of variance estimates (muller & fetterman, 2002). the researchers made a bonferroni-type adjustment for inflated type 1 errors. they used the games-howell procedure to determine whether there are statistically differences between the groups (field, 2009). results top ↑ table 2 gives the descriptive statistics, reliabilities and correlations between the dimensions. table 2: descriptive statistics, cronbach’s alpha coefficients and correlations of the south african employee health and wellness survey. table 2 shows that there were acceptable cronbach alpha coefficients for all the scales. all the coefficients were higher than the guideline of a > .70 (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). all the scales also had statistically significant relationships. sense of coherence was the only scale that had a negative correlation with bullying. the researchers then reported the prevalence of bullying. in order to provide a more detail description of the different types of bullying, they divided the scales into the categories that follow: • overall bullying, which includes all four dimensions of workplace bullying (direct and indirect bullying by supervisors, direct and indirect bullying by colleagues) in order to gain a global perspective of the current prevalence of workplace bullying in south africa • direct bullying, which includes direct bullying by supervisors and colleagues, to determine the prevalence of direct workplace bullying behaviour • indirect bullying, which includes indirect bullying by supervisors and colleagues, to determine the prevalence of indirect workplace bullying behaviour • bullying by supervisors (direct and indirect) to determine the prevalence of supervisor-related workplace bullying behaviour • bullying by colleagues (direct and indirect) to determine the prevalence of colleague-related workplace bullying behaviour. the researchers also showed the prevalence of the four bullying dimensions separately. table 3 gives the results. table 3: prevalence of workplace bullying. it seems that people experience frequent overall bullying (4% reported being bullied often whilst 31.1% reported being bullied always). the results also show that direct bullying was more prevalent than indirect bullying was (28.4% reported being bullied directly compared to the 23.8% who reported being bullied indirectly). bullying by supervisors was more prevalent than bullying by colleagues was (30.5% reported being bullied by their supervisors compared to the 15.7% who reported being bullied by their colleagues). the results showed that direct bullying tactics by supervisors were more prevalent than indirect tactics were (26.7% reported direct bullying by their supervisors compared to the 17% who reported indirect bullying by supervisors). finally, indirect bullying by colleagues was more prevalent than direct bullying by colleagues was (14.1% reported being bullied indirectly by colleagues compared to the 6.1% who reported being bullied directly by their colleagues). the researchers then used manovas to determine the differences between socio-demographical groups, soc and diversity experiences with regard to bullying. table 4 gives the results. table 4: multivariate analysis of variance – differences in bullying levels based on socio-demographic characteristics, sense of coherence and diversity. in an analysis of wilk’s lambda values, the researchers found statistically significant differences (p < .05) for the bullying dimensions for all the variables. they analysed the relationships between the variables further using anova. because of different sample sizes, they used the games-howell procedure to determine whether the differences were statistically significant. they labelled the groups a, b, c, et cetera in order to see more easily which groups differed significantly. they displayed the labels (a, b, c, etc.) of the groups that differed significantly from a particular group next to their means. table 5 gives the results of the anova based on race. table 5: analysis of variance – differences in workplace bullying dimensions based on race. table 5 shows that there were statistically significant differences between the race groups on all four bullying dimensions. it seems that blacks experienced a higher level of workplace bullying compared to the other race groups on all four dimensions of workplace bullying. these results do not support hypothesis 1. therefore, the researchers rejected it. table 6 gives the results of the anova based on gender. table 6: analysis of variance – differences in workplace bullying based on gender. according to table 6, men and women experience statistically significant differences (men scored higher than women did) on all the bullying dimensions, except when the bullying is indirect and comes from colleagues (p > .05). therefore, the researchers rejected hypothesis 2. table 7 gives the results of the anova based on age. table 7: analysis of variance – differences in workplace bullying based on age. table 7 shows that the 20–29 age group experienced the highest levels of bullying on all four dimensions. it is clear that older employees experience statistically significant lower levels of bullying on all four dimensions. therefore, the researchers accepted the third hypothesis. table 8 gives the results of the anova based on education. table 8: analysis of variance – differences in workplace bullying based on education. after the researchers had analysed the data for the differences in education, the wilk’s lambda values showed that there is a statistically significant difference between employees with secondary and tertiary levels of education. participants with secondary education experienced statistically significantly higher levels of bullying on all four bullying-dimensions. these results confirmed the fourth hypothesis. table 9 gives the results of the anova based on industry. table 9: analysis of variance – differences in workplace bullying based on industry. according to table 9, the researchers only found statistically significant differences between sectors for direct bullying (by supervisors and colleagues). it seems that the highest levels of direct bullying by supervisors were in government, followed by the mining industry. these two sectors differed statistically from the financial, manufacturing and academic sectors. the researchers discovered that direct bullying by colleagues was the highest in the mining and manufacturing industries. the results partly confirmed the fifth hypothesis. table 10 gives the results of the anova based on soc. table 10: analysis of variance – differences in workplace bullying based on sense of coherence. the results in table 10 confirm that participants with a lower soc reported statistically significantly higher levels on all of the bullying dimensions (p < .05). all dimensions reported an effect size of medium to large. the results supported the seventh hypothesis because employees with a higher soc will experience lower levels of bullying than employees with a lower soc will. table 11 gives the results of the anova based on diversity experiences. table 11: analysis of variance – differences in workplace bullying based on diversity experience. according to table 11, the researchers found statistically significant differences on all four bullying dimensions with regard to diversity experiences (p < .05). the effect sizes range from medium to large. this suggests large differences between the groups (specifically for direct and indirect bullying by colleagues). therefore, the results support the seventh hypothesis. ethical considerations top ↑ the researchers executed the project according to fair and ethical standards. they considered issues like voluntary participation, informed consent, doing no harm, confidentiality and privacy. they also subjected the project to the approval of an ethics committee of the university. the researchers did not identify any potential risks to participants because participation in the study was voluntary and anonymous. the researchers explained the purpose of this study to all participants and obtained their informed consent before the participants completed the questionnaire. discussion top ↑ the objectives of this research were to determine the prevalence of workplace bullying in south africa and whether there are differences in how employees experience bullying according to their socio-demographic characteristics, soc and diversity experiences. socio-demographic characteristics include race, gender, age, education and industry. dimensions of workplace bullying because research in south africa on workplace bullying is scarce, this study adds to the research on this topic and aims to create awareness amongst employers and employees. to determine the prevalence of workplace bullying, the researchers decided to divide workplace bullying into the dimensions that follow: • overall bullying • direct bullying • indirect bullying • bullying by supervisors or colleagues • direct bullying by supervisorsv • indirect bullying by supervisors • direct bullying by colleagues • indirect bullying by colleagues. overall bullying gave an indication of the frequency with which the sample reported any type of workplace bullying behaviour. direct and indirect bullying separated the sample in terms of reporting specific direct or indirect bullying experiences. direct bullying suggests that the victims experience threatening behaviour on an interpersonal level. it includes acts like verbal abuse, belittling remarks and intimidation (einarsen et al., 2009; escartin et al., 2009). indirect bullying is more subtle but just as damaging because the victim experiences stress on an emotional level (björkqvist et al., 1992). behaviour that constitutes indirect bullying includes spreading rumours about colleagues or subordinates, neglecting the workplace conditions of victims and gossiping (einarsen et al., 2009). the researchers attributed these behaviours to colleagues or supervisors in order to determine the prevalence of workplace bullying that either colleagues or supervisors commit. this study showed that 31.1% of the sample reported frequent experiences of overall workplace bullying in their organisations. this finding is consistent with previous research that rayner and cooper (1997) conducted. they reported that between 7.8% and 50% of their participants had experienced workplace bullying. the implication that 31.1% of the workforce experiences workplace bullying can be devastating to organisations’ productivity because workplace bullying decreases the performance of employees, could lead to increases in violent incidents, to more employees who want to leave their jobs and increases in recruiting costs because of vacancies (mayhew et al., 2004). bullying by supervisors and colleagues the researchers found that direct workplace bullying and bullying by supervisors was more prevalent than indirect bullying and bullying by colleagues. this finding is similar to those of namie (2003), who stated that more than 71% of workplace bullies outrank their victims. the positions of supervisors could be a reason for the bullying behaviour. it suggests victim-perpetrator structures and could explain why so many supervisors bully their subordinates (salin, 2003).according to the 2001 report of the health and safety authority (hsa), ireland (hsa, 2001), bullies abuse the existing power structure because of the professional or personal power they have over their victims. victims tend to wait for prolonged periods (sometimes up to 22 months) before reporting bullying behaviour. as a result, workplace bullying tends to be underreported and inadequately managed (namie, 2007). research also found that bullying by supervisors tends to be more hurtful than bullying by colleagues (deniz & ertosun, 2010). this may be because supervisory bullying behaviour tends to be out in the open and in front of other colleagues, is more often of a verbal nature and includes acts like swearing, name-calling and threatening the safety of the victim (workplace bullying institute, 2007). the researchers’ next objective was to determine whether there are significant differences between socio-demographic groups. race and workplace bullying the researchers first investigated differences between race groups. the literature suggests that employees from a minority race group should experience higher levels of workplace bullying (archer, 1999; pryor & fitzgerald, 2003). however, the results of the current study showed that black employees, compared to minority groups like white, coloured and indian employees, experienced the highest level of workplace bullying. one could explain the results in terms of a study that steinman (2003) carried out. she found that the largest ethnic group experienced more violence in the workplace, whereas minority ethnic groups reported a higher incidence of sexual harassment. however, the significance of her findings was that the prevalence was not related to race because the largest ethnic group in the country could well be the smallest in a particular organisation (steinman, 2003). blacks are the largest political and race group. however, compared to other race groups, blacks remain the economically disadvantaged group in south africa and the minority ethnic group in organisations. furthermore, according to the commission for employment equity, white men remain the dominant supervisory group. they make up 54% of top managers and 46% of senior managers (commission for employment equity, 2010). gender and workplace bullying with regard to gender, the researchers found statistical significant differences between the experiences of men and women. men reported statistically significantly higher levels of workplace bullying than women did, more direct and indirect bullying from supervisors, as well as more direct bullying from colleagues. these findings contradict those of the studies that pietersen (2007) and steinman (2003) conducted. pietersen (2007) found no statistically significant differences between the genders and steinman (2003) found that women reported higher levels of workplace bullying than men did. international research suggests that gender-related experiences of workplace bullying could be country-specific. cortina et al. (2001) found that american women reported more workplace bullying experiences than men did. niedhammer et al. (2007) came to the same conclusion about france, whilst ólafsson and jóhannsdóttir (2004) found that men experienced more workplace bullying in iceland than women did. ortega et al. (2009) found no significant differences between danish men and women. furthermore, namie (2003) found that the perpetrators of the 62% of american men who experienced bullying were men. workplace bullying incidents tend to be same-sex harassment, which laws and employer policies generally ignore (namie, 2003). men predominate in management positions in south africa. they are also the most economically active gender (commission for employment equity, 2010). one can explain the current findings about gender workplace bullying in the study that namie (2003) conducted. they found that workplace bullying seems related to the gender of the perpetrators. the workplace bullying & trauma institute (as cited in itstime.com, 2005) confirms this. it reported that men bullies tend to use public screaming, verbal tactics, calling people names and threats of job losses as well as all behaviour related to direct workplace bullying. it found that direct workplace bullying was the most prevalent behaviour that supervisors used. man-on-man bullying accounts for 62% of bullying incidents (namie, 2003). age and workplace bullying the results confirmed that younger employees experienced higher levels of workplace bullying than their older counterparts did. the results are similar to those that deniz and ertosun (2010) found. they found that employees younger than 30 experienced more bullying than their older counterparts did. einarsen and rakness (1997) as well as magerøy et al. (2009) support these findings.one can explain these results in the research that cortina et al. (2001) and salin (2003) conducted. they found that young entrants to organisations (usually between 20 and 29) have low status in terms of pay and job security. this creates a power imbalance that is conducive to bullying. relational powerlessness tends to be a core cause for victimisation (roscigno, lopez & hodson, 2009). education and workplace bullying the researchers examined the data to determine whether employees with different levels of education experience different levels of bullying. the results confirmed the hypothesis that employees with a lower education experience higher levels of workplace bullying than do employees with higher levels.this is consistent with the findings of niedhammer et al. (2007) and ortega et al. (2009), who found that employees with lower skills reported more bullying experiences than did their managers and supervisors. this trend is based on the assumption of occupational categories, where people in low status jobs (like clerks) with low levels of decision-making power had a greater risk of workplace bullying than did their more professional counterparts, like managers (niedhammer et al., 2007). industry and workplace bullying the results showed that employees in mining, manufacturing and government are most likely to experience direct workplace bullying. the results confirm the findings of international studies that workplace bullying prevails in most industries. however, it varies in the types of bullying behaviour that manifest in organisations (escartin et al., 2009; magerøy et al., 2009; niedhammer et al., 2007).the literature suggests that bullying is more prevalent in large organisations, which men dominate, and which practise a bureaucratic leadership style where the lack of social support is the main cause of workplace bullying (einarsen, 2000; hsa, 2001). studies that einarsen and skogstad (1996) carried out confirmed that men tend to be the main culprits of workplace bullying. according to statistics south africa (2011), the manufacturing industry employs approximately 1.3 million people in south africa. this makes it the second largest industry in the country. men employees account for 79% of the workforce (commission for employment equity, 2010). in the mining industry, men workers outnumber women employees by 8:1 (commission for employment equity, 2010). sense of coherence and workplace bullying previous studies have aimed at determining whether personality characteristics play a role in identifying victims (glasø et al., 2007). therefore, this study investigated the resiliency-factor of sense of coherence and aimed to determine whether employees with a higher soc would report lower levels of workplace bullying. consistent with arguments in the current literature, the findings confirmed that employees with a higher soc reported lower levels of workplace bullying than those with a lower soc did. one can argue that soc influences employees’ emotional responses to stress because soc is a mechanism to cope with stressful situations (antonovsky & sagy, 1985; du toit, 2002). prolonged exposure to workplace bullying creates stressful situations. they could lead to employees becoming more worried, distraught and anxious (glasø et al., 2007). research that antonovsky and sagy (1985) conducted supports this finding. people with a higher soc had lower anxiety traits, thereby confirming that people with a higher soc view the world with its stimuli as predictable, manageable and meaningful. they have the personality disposition to react with less anxiety in the face of stressful situations. this is also consistent with previous research, which shows that people with low soc tend to have difficulty in adapting to change and tend to view the world in more negative, and ultimately stressful, ways (rothmann & rothmann, 2006). soc also tends to influence thinking styles. lustig and strauser (2002) found that a higher soc relates to thinking that is more functional. therefore, it seems that people with a high or strong soc react to stressful situations in rational and emotionally stable ways. strümpher (1990) suggests that, if one modifies employees’ soc, they can strengthen their self-concepts, accelerate their personal growth and create opportunities for change. therefore, employees with high soc seem able to cope better with the negative and stressful consequences of workplace bullying. this is consistent with other findings on soc – employees with strong soc cope better with secondary trauma (ortlepp & friedman, 2001), are less likely to experience burn out (levert, lucas & ortlepp, 2000) and are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs (pretorius & rothmann, 2001). bullying and diversity experience because national labour legislation is forcing changes to the south african work environment, organisations are becoming more diverse than ever. for the purpose of this study, the researchers measured diversity experiences in terms of racial or ethnic discrimination (negative diversity experiences) and appreciation of racial or ethnic diversity (positive diversity experiences) (rothmann & rothmann, 2006). discrimination, prejudice, understanding, respect and socialisation across groups were the constructs the researchers used to determine the participants’ diversity experiences. consistent with previous findings (ely & thomas, 2001; greenberg, 2004; spataro, 2002), this study showed that employees with positive diversity experiences reported lower levels of workplace bullying. the behaviour of members in diverse workgroups depends on their diversity experiences. they result either in a pool of resources or in conflict that tears employees apart (ely & thomas, 2001; greenberg, 2004; spataro, 2002). consequently, employees who report negative diversity experiences have more experiences of workplace bullying. according to the social identity theory, group members attempt to establish a positive social identity. however, discrimination and prejudice tend to disrupt group interaction (jehn et al., 1999). heames et al. (2006) suggest that, if employees’ diversity characteristics like gender, values, ethnicity and age are similar to those of the rest of the members of workgroups or organisations, and that individual feelings of satisfaction lead to functional group behaviour, they will ultimately lead to group performances that have positive effects on job satisfaction and group cohesiveness. they argue that employees who experience diversity positively are more likely to show appreciative behaviour towards their colleagues and reduce the incidence of the negative acts that constitute bullying behaviour. organisations that reinforce positive behaviour, trust-building and group identity create effective teams and reduce this behaviour (einarsen, rakness & matthiesen, 1994). when organisations encourage diversity management, they motivate employees to perform to the best of their abilities. this results in the effective implementation of policies, higher productivity and returns on investment (greenberg, 2004). this finding has certain implications for managers because diverse workgroups are becoming more prevalent because of the changing workforce in south african organisations. statistical significance of the findings the findings on socio-demographic differences were statistically significant. however, the partial eta squared values were small. therefore, one must consider the practical significance of the results (thompson, 1994). the implications are that, although the mean differences of the socio-demographic sampling groups are valid and statistically significant, it is questionable whether the effect sizes could really be useful to practitioners. for the purpose of this study, the researchers calculated the partial eta squared cut off points for practical significance at .10 (small), .30 (medium) and .50 (large). manova showed that none of the socio-demographic characteristics reported a cut off point of .01 (see table 4). unlike the differences in socio-demographic characteristics, the findings on soc seemed to be practically significant (partial eta squared = .13). this suggests that employees with higher soc tend to be more resistant to workplace bullying. researchers and practitioners should note this finding. the findings also showed that workplace bullying by colleagues had the largest effect on diversity experiences (partial eta squared = .39). the practical significance of this finding is the highest of all the findings in this study (medium effect). this shows that negative diversity experiences in south african organisations could account for experiences of workplace bullying. conclusion in conclusion, a relatively large percentage of the participants reported that they had experienced workplace bullying. the researchers found significant differences for race, gender, age, education and industry groups. participants with higher levels of soc experience lower levels of workplace bullying and participants who reported positive diversity experiences in their organisations experienced lower levels of workplace bullying. possible limitations of the study the main limitation of this study is the use of self-report measures. according to razavi (2001), using self-report measures of dependent and independent variables can create concerns about the validity of casual conclusions because participants either overor under-emphasise problems. this makes it difficult to distinguish the measurement artefacts (hufnagel & conca, 1994). this is ‘common method variance’ or ‘nuisance’. the severity of this phenomenon is still under discussion because spector (1987) found little evidence of common method variance in self-reporting measures. crampton and wagner (1994) conducted a meta-analysis and found that, even though self-reporting measures caused bias in some instances, method effects do not have the serious and pervasive consequence that critics originally aired. it is also important to bear in mind that few other methodologies offer to deal with important sources of accurate information about employees’ unique work situations (frese & zapf, 1999). one can consider other objective measures. the ratings of most observers appear to be good alternatives. however, they present problems of their own (like observer bias, halo and stereotyping effects). using cross-sectional data prevents strong inferences about changes over time. the researchers suggest a longitudinal study on workplace bullying in order to capture the development of workplace bullying in south africa over time. recommendations and implications for managers research on workplace bullying in south africa is still in its infancy. research on this phenomenon emerged only in 1998, as marais-steinman (pietersen, 2007) reported. one can argue that it is necessary to create an awareness of workplace bullying through national legislation. although section 6 of the employment equity act protects employees from harassment, it seems that employees without knowledge of labour law or the effects of workplace bullying are unable to distinguish it from workplace bullying. therefore, they are unaware that they can report this behaviour to managers. managers in organisations should investigate and address the phenomenon of workplace bullying. workplace bullying costs organisations money (giga et al., 2008; harbison, 2004) and employers could be held liable for employees’ safety and for not protecting them from harassment (namie, 2003). this study has identified workplace bullying as a prevalent problem in the south african organisations the researchers included in the study. therefore, it is increasingly important for employers to be educated on the manifestations and effects of workplace bullying in order to combat this phenomenon effectively. furthermore, it is important for organisations to realise that workplace bullying can lead to absenteeism and high staff turnover (djurkovic et al., 2008). organisations need policies to regulate workplace conduct because it is clear that supervisors tend to be the perpetrators of workplace bullying. this makes it difficult for employees to stand up to them if there is no formal platform available. steinman (2003) found that 50.6% of participants were unaware of any policies that manage workplace violence. therefore, policies need to clearly identify the teams and staff members who drive the programmes as well as the reporting structures to enable employees to report on bullying (steinman, 2003). this study and previous literature emphasise the implications of a poor psychosocial work environment, organisational chaos, role conflict and poor management. they all create an ideal environment in which the workplace bully can thrive. by encouraging workplace diversity, inspiring and motivating employees to foster a culture of regard will go a long way to combating workplace bullying (olender-russo, 2009). organisational indicators like ‘transparency’ (we will address bullying behaviour and not sweep it under the rug), ‘accountability’ (bullying-behaviour will have negative ramifications for the perpetrator) and ‘capacity’ (to motivate and control employees’ behaviour through rules and standards) will go a long way toward creating working environments where bullying is less prevalent (hodson et al., 2006). it might be worth investigating whether factors outside of the organisations influence diversity experiences in them and their effects on the occurrence of workplace bullying, especially when one considers aspects like national legislation and the political environment. with regard to future research, longitudinal studies on the prevalence of workplace bullying in south africa should add further insight into the phenomenon. longitudinal studies will yield better measurements of the prevalence of workplace bullying. this should control for single negative acts that one could interpret as bullying during a cross-sectional study. findings on the experiences of workplace bullying on socio-demographic groups showed that black employees, men and employees of a younger age and lower education reported higher levels of workplace bullying. researchers should conduct further research into racial tensions, especially into the finding that black people experience more workplace bullying than other racial groups do. studies should also investigate the relationship between youth, skills and the reasons for workplace bullying in certain sectors. acknowledgements top ↑ this research was part of the first author’s master’s degree she completed at the north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa. the authors thank afriforte for the opportunity to work with their data. they thank specially dr ina rothmann for her assistance in making the data available and ian rothmann jr for his assistance in analysing the statistics. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them when they wrote this paper. authors’ contributions l.c. (north-west university) wrote the manuscript as part of her master’s dissertation. k.m. (north-west university) was the project leader and was responsible for the experimental and project design. k.m. (north-west university) supervised the writing of the article and assisted with interpreting the results. references top ↑ aiken, l.s., & west, s.g. (1991). multiple regression: testing and interpreting interactions. newbury park, ca: sage.antonovsky, a. (1979). health, stress and coping. san francisco, ca: sage publishing. antonovsky, h., & sagy, s. (1985). the development of a sense of coherence and its impact on responses to stress situations. the journal of social psychology, 126(2), 213−225. archer, d. (1999). exploring bullying culture in the para-military organisation. international journal of manpower, 20(1/2), 94−105. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437729910268687 björkqvist, k., lagerspetz, k.m.j., & kaukiainen, a. (1992). do girls manipulate and boys fight? developmental trends in regards to direct and indirect aggression. aggressive behaviour, 18, 117−127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/1098-2337(1992)18:2<117::aid-ab2480180205>3.0.co;2-3 cilliers, f., & may, m. (2002). south african diversity dynamics: reporting on the 2000 robben island diversity experience: a group relations event. south african journal of labour relations, 26(3), 42−68. commission for employment equity. (2010). tenth commission of employment equity annual report. retrieved july 11, 2011, from http://www.polity.org.za/article/tenth-commission-or-employment-equity-annual-report-july-2010-2010-07-29 cortina, l.m., magley, v.j., williams, j.h., & langhout, r.d. (2001). incivility in the workplace: incidence and impact. journal of occupational health psychology, 6(1), 64−80. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//1076-8998.6.1.64, pmid:11199258 crampton, s.m., & wagner, j.a. (1994). percept-percept inflation in microorganisational research: an investigation of prevalence and effect. journal of applied psychology, 79, 67−76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.79.1.67 curtis, j., bowen, i., & reid, a. (2007). you have no credibility: nursing students’ experiences of horizontal violence. nurse education in practice, 7, 156−163. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2006.06.002, pmid:17689439 deniz, n., & ertosun, o.g (2010). the relationship between personality and being exposed to workplace bullying or mobbing. journal of global strategic management, 7, 129−142. department of labour. (2010). employment equity reports. retrieved may 04, 2010, from http://www.labour.gov.za/documents/forms/employment-equity/form-eea2-employment-equity-report dinsdale, p. (2006). non-white nurses twice as likely to experience bullying at work. nursing standard, 21(7), 9. diraz, t., ortlepp, k., & greyling, m. (2003). the relationship between inter-role conflict, life satisfaction and sense of coherence in a sample of working mothers. south african journal of psychology, 33(3), 191−194. djurkovic, n., mccormack, d., & casimir, g. (2008). workplace bullying and intention to leave: the moderating effect of perceived organisational support. human resource management journal, 18(4), 405−422. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2008.00081.x du toit, f.s. (2002). the relationship between sense of coherence, learned resourcefulness and personality type among technical personnel. master’s dissertation. pretoria: university of south africa. retrieved march 12, 2012, from http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500 /1114/dissertation.pdf?sequence=1 duffy, a.l. (2004). bullying in schools: a social identity perspective. doctoral dissertation. nathan: griffith university. retrieved june 30, 2010, from http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/uploads/approved/adt-qgu20070131.112422/public/02whole.pdf einarsen, s. (2000). harassment and bullying at work: a review of the scandinavian approach. aggression and violent behaviour, 5(4), 379−401. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1359-1789(98)00043-3 einarsen, s., hoel, h., & notelaers, g. (2009). measuring exposure to bullying and harassment at work: validity, factor structure and psychometric properties of the negative acts questionnaire-revised. work & stress, 23(1), 24−44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02678370902815673 einarsen, s., & raknes, b.i. (1997). harassment in the workplace and the victimisation of men. violence and victims, 12, 247−263. pmid:9477540 einarsen, s., raknes, b.i., & matthiesen, s.b. (1994). bullying and harassment at work and their relationships to work environment quality: an exploratory study. european work and organisational psychologist, 4, 381−401. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594329408410497 einarsen, s., & skogstad, a. (1996). bullying at work: epidemiological findings in public and private organisations. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 5(2), 185−201. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594329608414854 ely, r.j., & thomas, d.a. (2001). cultural diversity at work: the effects of diversity perspectives on work group processes and outcomes. administrative sciences quarterly, 46, 229−273. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2667087 escartin, j., rodriquez-carballeira, a., zapf, d., porrúa, c., & martin-peña, j. (2009). perceived severity of various bullying behaviours at work and the relevance of exposure to bullying. work & stress, 23(3), 191−205. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080./02678370903289639 farrell, g.a., bobrowski, c., & bobrowski, p. (2006). scoping workplace aggression in nursing: findings from an australian study. journal of advanced nursing, 55(6), 778−787. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2006.03956.x, pmid:16925626 field, a.p. (2009). discovering statistics using spss. london, england: sage. fox, s., & stallworth, l.e. (2005). racial/ethnic bullying: exploring links between bullying and racism in the us workplace. journal of vocational behaviour, 66, 438−456. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2004.01.002 free press release. (2010). colleagues are main culprits of corporate bullying. retrieved july 23, 2010, from http://www.free-press-release.com/news-colleagues-are-main-culprits-of-corporate-bullying-1266400732.html frese, m., & zapf, d. (1999). on the importance of the objective environment in stress and attribution theory: counterpoint to perrewe & zellars. journal of organizational behavior, 20, 761–765. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199909)20:5<761::aid-job951>3.0.co;2-y frost, p.j. (2003). toxic emotions at work: how compassionate managers handle pain and conflict. boston: harvard business school press. giga, s.i., hoel, h., & lewis, d. (2008). a review of black and minority ethnic (bme) employee experiences of workplace bullying. retrieved november 02, 2010, from http://scholar.google.co.za/scholar?hl=en&oe=ascii&q=workplace+bullying+and+race&as_sdt=2000&as_ylo=2000&as_vis=1 glasø, l., matthiesen, s.b., nielsen, m.b., & einarsen, s. (2007). do targets of workplace bullying portray a general victim personality profile? scandinavian journal of psychology, 48, 313−319. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.2007/00554.x grainger, h., & fitzner, g. (2007). the first fair treatment at work survey. employment relations research series no. 63. london: dti. grant, j.m., & mack, d.a. (2004). preparing for battle: healthy leadership during organisational crisis. african newsletter, 11(3), 58. greenberg, j. (2004). diversity in the workplace: benefits, challenges and solutions. retrieved july 29, 2010, from http://ezinearticles.com/?diversity-in-the-workplace:-benefits,-challenges-and-solutions&id=11053 harbison, g. (2004). fmla is serious business. industrial management, 46, 28–31. haslam, s.a., & reicher, s. (2006). stressing the group: social identity and the unfolding dynamics of response to stress. journal of applied psychology, 91(5), 1037−1052. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.5.1037, pmid:16953766 heames, j.t., harvey, m.g., & treadway, d. (2006). status inconsistency: an antecedent to bullying behaviour in groups. international journal of human resource management, 17(2), 348−361. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190500404952 hodson, r., roscigno, v.j., & lopez, s.h. (2006). chaos and the abuse of power: workplace bullying in organizational and interactional context. work and occupations, 33(4), 382−416. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0730888406292885 hoel, h., & cooper, c.l. (2000). destructive conflict and bullying at work. unpublished report. university of manchester: institute of science and technology. hoel, h., cooper, c.l., & faragher, b. (2001). the experience of bullying in great britain: the impact of organisational status. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 10(4), 443−465. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594320143000780 hoel, h., & faragher, b. (2004). bullying is detrimental to health, but all bullying behaviours are not necessarily equally damaging. british journal of guidance & counselling, 32. hood, s.b. (2004). workplace bullying. canadian business, 77(18). hsa (health and safety authority, ireland). (2001). dignity at work – the challenge of workplace bullying. report of the task force on the prevention of workplace bullying. dublin: stationary office. hufnagel, e.m., & conca, c. (1994). user response data: the potential for errors and biases. information systems research, 5(1), 48−73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/isre.5.1.48 itstime.com. (2005). bullying in the workplace. retrieved may 05, 2010, from http://www.itstime.com/jul2005.htm jehn, k.a., northcraft, g.b., & neale, m.a. (1999). why differences make a difference: a field study of diversity, conflict, and performance in workgroups. administrative science quarterly, 44(4), 741−763. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2667054 kerlinger, f.n., & lee, h.b. (2000). foundations of behavioural research. (4th edn.). ca, usa: wadsworth, cengage learning. levert, t., lucas, m., & ortlepp, k. (2000). burn-out in psychiatric nurses: contributions of the work environment and sense of coherence. south african journal of psychology, 30(2), 36−43. lewis, d., & gunn, r. (2007). workplace bullying in the public sector: understanding the racial dimension. public administration, 85(3), 641−665. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.2007.00665.x leymann, h. (1996). the content and development of mobbing at work. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 5(2), 165−184. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594329608414853 lustig, d.c., & strauser, d.r. (2002). the relationship between sense of coherence and career thoughts. career development quarterly, 51, 2−11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2002.tb00587.x magerøy, n., lau, b., riise, t., & moen, b.e. (2009). association of psychosocial factors and bullying at individual department levels among naval military personnel. journal of psychosomatic research, 66, 343−351. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2008.10.009, pmid:19302893 maier, c. (2002). leading diversity – a conceptual framework. bamberg: difo-druck. matthiesen, s.b., & einarsen, s. (2001). accounts of workplace bullying: the role of the organisation. european journal of work and occupational psychology, 10, 467−484. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594320143000753 mayer, c.-h. (2011). the meaning of sense of coherence in transcultural management. internationale hochschulschriften series. münster: waxmann. mayer, c.-h., & krause, c. (2011) (eds.). promoting mental health and salutogenesis in transcultural organisational and work contexts. international review of psychiatry, 23(6). mayhew, c., mccarthy, p., chappell, d., quinlan, m., barker, m., & sheehan, m. (2004). measuring the extent of impact from occupational violence and bullying on traumatised workers. employee responsibility and rights journal, 16(3), 117−134. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/b:errj.0000038648.08568.46 motsoaledi, l.s.p. (2009). executive coaching in diversity from a system psychodynamic perspective. doctoral thesis. pretoria: university of south africa. retrieved march 12, 2012, from http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/3888/thesis_motsoaledi_l.pdf?sequence=1 muller, k.e., & fetterman, b.a. (2002). regression and anova.cary: sas publishing. namie, g. (2003). workplace bullying: escalated incivility. ivey business journal, 68(2), 1−6. namie, g. (2007). the challenge of workplace bullying. employment relations today, 34(2), 43−51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ert.20151 niedhammer, i., david, s., & degioanni, s. (2007). economic activities and occupations at high risk for workplace bullying: results from a large-scale cross-sectional survey in the general working population in france. international archives for occupational and environmental health, 80, 346−353. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00420-006-0139-y, pmid:16944191 nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory. (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. nyambegera, s.m. (2002). ethnicity and human resource management practice in sub-saharan africa: the relevant of the managing diversity discourse. international journal of human resource management, 13(7), 1077−1090. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190210131302 ólafsson, r.f., & jóhannsdóttir, h.l. (2004). coping with bullying in the workplace: the effect of gender, age and type of bullying. british journal of guidance & counselling, 32(3), 319−333. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03069880410001723549 olender-russo, l. (2009). creating a culture of regard: an antidote for workplace bullying. creative nursing, 15(2), 75−81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1891/1078-4535.15.2.75, pmid:19507768 ortega, a., høgh, a., pejtersen, j.h., & olsen, o. (2009). prevalence of workplace bullying and risk groups: a representative population study. international archives of occupational and environmental health, 82, 417−426. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00420-008-0339-8, pmid:18584195 ortlepp, k., & friedman, m. (2001). the relationship between sense of coherence and indicators of secondary trauma stress in non-professional trauma counsellors. south african journal of psychology, 31(2), 38−45. pietersen, c. (2007). interpersonal bullying behaviours in the workplace. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 33(1), 59−66. pretorius, m., & rothmann, s. (2001). die verband tussen koherensiesin, lokus van beheer, selfdoeltreffendheid en werkstevredenheid. [the relationship between sense of coherence, locus of control, self-efficacy and job satisfaction]. journal of industrial psychology, 27(1), 25−31. pryor, j.p., & fitzgerald, l.f. (2003). sexual harassment research in the united states. in s. einarsen, h. hoel, d. zapf & c.l. cooper (eds.), bullying and emotional abuse in the workplace: international perspectives in research and practice, (pp. 79−100). london: taylor and francis. quine, l. (2002). workplace bullying in junior doctors: questionnaire survey. business management journal, 324, 878−879. rayner, c., & cooper, c. (1997). workplace bullying: myth or reality – can we afford to ignore it? leadership and organization development journal, 18, 211−214. razavi, t. (2001). self-report measures: an overview of concerns and limitations of questionnaire use in occupational stress research. retrieved july 08, 2011, from http://ideas.repec.org/p/fth/sotoam/01-175.html riedel, j., wiesmann, u., & hannich, h.j. (2011). an integrative theoretical framework of acculturation and salutogenesis. international review of psychiatry, 23(6), 555−564. http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/09540261.2011.637912 roscigno, v.j., lopez, s.h., & hodson, r. (2009). supervisory bullying, status inequalities and organisational context. social forces, 87(3), 1561−1589. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/sof.0.0178 ross, d.m. (1996). childhood bullying and teasing: what school personnel, other professionals, and parents can do. alexandria, va: american counselling association. pmid:15525252 rothmann, j.c., & rothmann, s. (2006). the south african employee health and wellness survey: user manual. potchefstroom: afriforte (pty) ltd. salin, d. (2003). ways of explaining workplace bullying: a review of enabling, motivating, and precipitating structures and processes in the work environment. human relations, 56(10), 1213−1232. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00187267035610003 spataro, s. (2002). not all differences are the same: the role of informal status in predicting reaction to demographic diversity in organisations. yale school of management working paper series ob, working paper no.3. cornell university: samuel curtis johnson graduate school of management. spector, p.e. (1987). method variance as an artifact in self-reported affect and perceptions at work: myth or significant problem? journal of applied psychology, 72, 438–443. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.72.3.438 spss inc. (2009). spss 18.0 for windows. chicago, il:ibm. statistics south africa. (2010). mid-year population estimates 2009. retrieved july 06, 2010, from http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/statsdownload.asp?ppn=p0302 &sch=4437 statistics south africa. (2011). annual financial statistics 2010. retrieved november 11, 2011, from http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/p0021/p00212010.pdf steinman, s. (2003). workplace violence in the health sector. country case study: south africa. retrieved july 25, 2011, from http://www.who.int/entity/ violence_injury_prevention/violence/interpersonal/en/wvcountrystudysouthafrica.pdf strümpher, d.j.w. (1990). salutogenesis: a new paradigm. south african journal of psychology, 20(4), 265−276. tajfel, h., & turner, j.c. (1979). an integrative theory of intergroup conflict. in w.g. austin & s. worchel (eds.), the social psychology of intergroup relations, (pp. 33–47). monterey, ca: brooks/cole. the free dictionary. (2011). retrieved april 25, 2011, from http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/prevalence thompson, b. (1994). the concept of statistical significance testing. retrieved march 15, 2012, from http://www.ericdigests.org/1995-1/testing.htm trochim, w., & donnelly, j.p. (2006). the research methods knowledge base. (3rd edn.). cincinnati, oh: atomic dog publishing. vessey, j.a., demarco, r.f., gaffney, d.a., & budin, w.c. (2009). bullying of staff registered nurses in the workplace: a preliminary study for developing personal and organizational strategies for the transformation of hostile to healthy workplace environments. journal of professional nursing, 25(5), 299−306. workplace bullying institute. (2007). us workplace bullying survey. retrieved march 15, 2012, from http://workplacebullying.org/multi/pdf/wbisurvey2007.pdf worktrauma. (2010). workplace bullying in south africa. retrieved july 06, 2010, from http://www.worktrauma.org/survive_bully/bullying_in_sa.htm zapf, d., einarsen, s., hoel, h., & vartia, m. (2003). empirical findings on bullying in the workplace. in s. einarsen, h. hoel, d. zapf & c.l. cooper (eds.), bullying and emotional abuse in the workplace. international perspectives in research and practice, (pp. 103–126). london/new york: taylor and francis. unpacking the meaning of sense of coherence in transcultural management book title: the meaning of sense of coherence in transcultural management author: c. mayer isbn: 978-3830925538 publisher: waxmann publishing company, 2011, 30.00€* *book price at time of review review title: unpacking the meaning of sense of coherence in transcultural management reviewers llewellyn e. van zyl1, marius w. stander2 affiliations: 1department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa; 2department of industrial psychology, school for behavioural science, north-west university, vaal triangle campus, south africa postal address: 3-78 ajh van der walt, university of south africa, muckelneuk, 0003, south africa how to cite this book review: unpacking the meaning of sense of coherence in transcultural management. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #543, 2 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.543 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. book review open access dr. claude-helene mayer’s new book, titled the meaning of sense of coherence in transcultural management, explores the nuances of managerial stressors and coping mechanisms within the south african business environment. her unique contribution to the field of human resource management stems from interpreting these nuances from a salutogenetic approach. antonovsky (1987), the father of this approach, defined salutogenesis as a paradigm centred on human health and the individuals’ ability to positively cope with life challenges. in this book, the author aims to examine managers’ perceptions of identity, organisational culture, transcultural conflict and sense of coherence from this approach. the focus lays on understanding how managers can increase their ability to activate and optimise internal resources in order to cope with daily work-related demands. the book follows a doctoral thesis chapter structure, starting with an introduction and orientation, presenting the research context, elaborating on the research design, presenting the findings and ending with conclusions and recommendations. although each chapter is expertly written and adds value to the field, the layman might find it difficult to navigate their way through the vast amounts of knowledge and insight presented in this book. the book is positioned as a specialist book aimed at academics, researchers and practitioners working in the field of salutogenesis and managerial development. as a specialist book, this work presents interesting insights into understanding the nature of managerial dynamics within the south african context. in essence, the author aims to answer two research questions through mixed method research: (1) how are sense of coherence, values and identity, transcultural conflict and organisational culture interlinked within the south african business environment? (2) how could managers be assisted to increase their ability to activate resources and develop a sense of coherence in challenging transcultural organisational settings? each chapter is aimed at drawing the reader closer to an answer for the aforementioned research questions. chapter 1 aims to provide context to the research problem and provide a theoretical overview of the individual and group-related salutogenetic behaviours and the implications associated with managerial functioning. this chapter provides context to the rest of the book as it provides an overview of how the book is structured and which methodology is followed. building on the foundation laid in the previous chapter, chapter 2 succeeds in providing a solid theoretical overview of the south african managerial environment. the author highlights the various struggles that south african businesses are facing (such as bee compliance, the financial crisis, affirmative action, corporate governance, etc.) with specific reference to the demands being placed on managers. the author’s investigation into these aspects presents an interesting context for investigating salutogenetic functioning of managers who have to face these challenges every day. chapter 3 and 4 draws from the problems presented in the previous chapter and attempts to provide a theoretical understanding of not only salutogenetic functioning but also of the internal managerial competencies required to manage and cope with the aforementioned work-related demands. furthermore, the author investigates various strategies implemented by organisations to assist managers to cope with these demands. these strategies include: skills training (such as conflict management, salutogenetic and transcultural training), counselling, coaching, mediation, mentoring and supervision. the author links these interventions to various positive work-related outcomes, such as general health and positive organisational behaviours. she also mentions the practical implications and effectiveness of each strategy within the south african context. although insightful and practically viable, some of these strategies have been empirically tested within the south african environment, which produced mixed results (jorgensen, 2009; spangenberg & orpen-lyall, 2008). the next chapter is centred on the research design and methodology followed to attempt to answer the research questions. although not very useful to the practitioner, both academics and researchers may find chapter 5 interesting. in this chapter, the author describes the research design and methodology followed in this study. the author discusses and presents a solid argument for the use of mixed methods (both quantitative and qualitative) to attempt to understand the internal dynamics of managerial functioning. she describes how a mixed method approach, comprised of in-depth interviews and surveys, provides insight into the psyche of the south african manager. for the quantitative methods, she describes the various instruments (schwartz value survey; the life orientation questionnaire; and the organisational culture profile) used to sample individual and work-related behaviours. qualitatively, she elaborates on the triangulation and interpretative methods used to analyse and interoperate the qualitative data obtained from the interviews. this chapter is highly technical and provides an excellent overview of the utilised research strategy used to obtain the results used in the following chapters. chapters 6 and 7 focus on the presentation and interpretation of the author’s results. these chapters provide a glimpse into the lives, psyches and daily realities of managers within south africa. the results present interesting findings relating to managerial identity and overall well-being. it would seem, although not explicitly reported by the author, that managerial identity is context bound and is influenced by the individual’s perception of self and their ability to cope with the work-related demands. her results also indicate that there is still cultural sensitivity, yet cultural segregation, within the south african business environment. this is similar to the findings and interpretations presented by cilliers and coetzee (2003) as well as cilliers and kossuth (2002) in different south african contexts. her results also indicate that affirmative action and bee place extreme pressures on managers and on the financial wellness of the organisation. further, the results indicate that organisational culture may have an impact on an individual’s ability to manage transcultural conflicts as well as impact on their general health. the author presents various theoretical and interpretative models relating to sense of coherence and managerial functioning. although these models aren’t empirically validated, they do prove relevant to the south african business environment. the final chapter is centred on the interpretation of the results and presenting various recommendations for future research. although this review cannot do justice to all the findings, the author presents an interesting case for transcultural management. her results (and models) emphasise the importance of relationships, fairness, equality and transparency in transcultural management. she argues that healthy organisations should focus on building an organisational culture that presents equal opportunities, is supportive, changes or challenges gender structures, develops active conflict management culture and has discipline. similarly, the author presents useful mini-intervention-like strategies to aid in the development of high-sense-of-coherence managers. she suggests that interventions be focused on both an organisational and individual level, to ensure and sustain the well-being of managers. this argument has also been suggested and validated by various other south african authors (see jorgensen, 2009; spangenberg & orpen-lyall, 2008; van zyl & rothmann, 2012). to conclude, this book provides the reader with an interesting read and suggests various strategies that can be utilised by the specialist practitioner to develop healthy organisations through focusing on the development of high-sense-of-coherence managers. her results build upon the work of professor deo strümpher regarding psychofortology and salutogenetics within the south african context and are a welcome edition to south african literature. this book is an excellent companion for specialist practitioners, researchers and academics working within the field of salutogenesis. however, the layman practitioner might find little use for it in his or her daily practice. references antonovsky, a. (1987). unravelling the mystery of health how people manage stress and stay well. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass publishers.cilliers, f., & coetzee, s.c. (2003). the theoretical-empirical fit between three psychological wellness constructs: sense of coherence, learned resourcefulness and self-actualisation. south african journal of labour relations 27(1), 4–24. cilliers, f., & kossuth, s.p. (2002). the relationship between organisational climate and salutogenic functioning. south african journal of industrial psychology 28(1), 8–13. jorgensen, l.i. (2006). work-related well-being among police members on the north-west province. unpublished doctoral thesis, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa. spangenberg, j., & orpen-lyall, m. (2008). stress and coping strategies in a sample of south african managers involved in post-graduate managerial studies. sa journal of industrial psychology, 26(1), 6–10. van zyl, l.e., & rothmann, s. (2012). beyond smiling: the development and evaluation of a positive psychological intervention aimed at student happiness. journal of psychology in africa, 22(3), 104–119. article information author: ingrid potgieter1 affiliation: 1department of human resource management, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: ingrid potgieter postal address: po box 72798, lynwood ridge 0040, south africa dates: received: 03 oct. 2011 accepted: 08 feb. 2012 published: 25 apr. 2012 how to cite this article: potgieter, i. (2012). the relationship between the self-esteem and employability attributes of postgraduate business management students. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(2), art. #419, 15 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i2.419 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the relationship between the self-esteem and employability attributes of postgraduate business management students in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study    • trends from the research literature       • employability attributes       • self-esteem    • research objectives    • potential value-add of the study    • what will follow • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • testing the hypotheses       • correlational statistics       • multiple regression analysis: culture free self-esteem inventory and employability attributes scale       • categorical regression analysis: culture free self-esteem inventory and employability attributes scale       • independent t-test: culture free self-esteem inventory and employability attributes scale • discussion    • conclusions    • possible limitations of the study and suggestions for future research • acknowledgements    • competing interests • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the effects of challenges (like decreased employment opportunities, increased personal responsibility to keep up with changes, current skill shortages and of retaining talented and skilled staff) have led to an emphasis on career meta-competencies to improve employability attributes.research purpose: the objectives of the study were to determine the relationship between self-esteem (as the culture free self-esteem inventory measures it) and employability attributes (as the employability attributes scale measures it); to determine whether people’s biographical details significantly predict their self-esteem and employability attributes; and whether men and women differ significantly in their self-esteem and employability attributes. motivation for the study: there seems to be a paucity of studies that investigate how people’s self-esteem relates to their employability attributes in south africa’s multi-cultural context. research design, approach and method: the researcher conducted a quantitative survey on a convenience sample of 304 employed adults enrolled for an honours degree in business management in a higher education institution. she used correlational statistics, multiple regression analyses, categorical regressions and independent t-tests to analyse the data. main findings: the researcher found a number of significant relationships between the participants’ self-esteem and employability. the results showed that biographical details significantly predicted participants’ employability attributes. practical/managerial implications: career counsellors and human resource practitioners need to recognise how people’s self-esteem and their biographical details influence their employability attributes. contribution/value-add: the findings add to the literature on the skills, abilities and biographical information that influence employability and give valuable information that organisations can use during career development support and career counselling practices in the contemporary world of work. introduction top ↑ key focus of the study in today’s challenging world of work, technical skills and academic knowledge are no longer enough for a person to find work (fallows & steven, 2000; savickas et al., 2009). the 21st century requires young adults, who are entering the world of work, to be employable and to sustain their employability (marock, 2008; pool & sewell, 2007). research has shown that career meta-competencies are important for sustained employability (coetzee, 2008; fugate, kiniciki & ashforth, 2004). background to the study this study focuses on the changing nature of careers that require people to take ownership of their careers and to develop and sustain their employability. career counsellors and human resource practitioners have been concerned for a long time about employees’ psychological career resources or career meta-competencies that enable them to take ownership of their careers and be proactive in managing their careers and improving their employability (baruch, 2004; coetzee, 2008; fugate et al., 2004; sinclair, 2009). as a result, current research has focused on career meta-competencies, like self-esteem and emotional literacy, as important psychological career resources. self-esteem can predict employability significantly (fugate et al., 2004; hewitt, 2002; kerka, 1998). however, there seems to be a lack of research in south africa on how people’s self-esteem relates to their employability attributes, especially in south africa’s multi-cultural context. another trend is the increasing diversity in workplaces. it requires employers to understand how people’s biographical characteristics (age, race, gender, marital status and employment status) influence their employability attributes (sullivan, 1999). given the current skills shortages and concerns about attracting and retaining young talent in south african organisations, the secondary aim of this study was to investigate whether people’s age, race, gender, marital status and employment status significantly predict their self-esteem and employability attributes. young adults entering the world of work for the first time deal with many challenges. amongst them are unemployment, decreased employment opportunities, diminished job security and quickly changing technology. they also have an increasing personal responsibility to keep up with these changes, to improve their skills and to sustain their employability (marock, 2008; pool & sewell, 2007). the increased concerns about the employability of young adults, especially in south africa, has led to more emphasis on employability and helping people to increase their employability (marock, 2008). in the traditional career context, the organisation took responsibility for a person’s career. however, in the new world of work, the responsibility shifted to individuals. they now had to market themselves and increase their employability skills (de vos & soens, 2008; forrier & sels, 2003; hall, 2004; raabe, frese & beehr, 2007). mcquaid and lindsay (2005) also believe that the responsibility for employability has now shifted from the organisation to the employee. this means that the main responsibility now lies with employees for their growth and continued professional development. the new relationship between the worker and the world of work has made it necessary to develop career counselling and development interventions. these will help people to take ownership of their careers and be proactive in managing them whilst reflecting on their career meta-competencies as key resources for sustaining their employability (baruch, 2004; coetzee, 2008; fugate et al., 2004; savickas et al., 2009). fugate et al. (2004) argue that it is the responsibility of employees to find information about careers. they also need to develop their skills and capabilities as well as other abilities, which current and potential employers require, in order to sustain their employability. employability refers to the ability of people to enter the workplace, adjust to it and be dynamic there. it also refers to their ability to perform consistently, find or create work through the best possible use of occupation-related and career meta-competencies (coetzee & roythorne-jacobs, 2007; hall & chandler, 2005; herr, cramer & niles, 2004; van der heijde & van der heijden, 2006). therefore, people need a set of skills and abilities to make them more employable in the new world of work (acci, 2002). career meta-competencies refer to a set of psychological resources that are critical for career development (coetzee, 2008). these psychological resources include attributes and abilities like behavioural adaptability, self-knowledge, career orientation awareness, sense of purpose, self-esteem and emotional literacy. they allow people to be self-sufficient learners and agents in managing their own careers (coetzee, 2008; briscoe & hall, 1999; coetzee & roythorne-jacobs, 2007; hall & chandler, 2005; herr et al., 2004). people who have a wide range of psychological career resources are generally more able to adapt to changing career circumstances and tend to have higher levels of employability attributes (fugate et al., 2004; griffen & hesketh, 2005). therefore, self-esteem is a career meta-competency that influences people’s employability (baruch, 2004; coetzee, 2008; fugate et al., 2004; sinclair, 2009). trends from the research literature employability attributes the concept of employability has recently been emphasised as a key contributor to career satisfaction and success in an increasingly unstable and chaotic global business environment (coetzee & beukes, 2010). according to marock (2008), there is no agreement about how one should define employability. hillage and pollard (1998) suggest that employability is the ability to find and keep rewarding work and to move self-sufficiently in the labour market to realise ones potential through sustainable employment. in the context of the present study, an employability attribute is a psychosocial construct that describes career-related characteristics. it promotes adaptive cognition, behaviour and affect. it also improves a person’s suitability for appropriate and sustainable employment (bezuidenhout, 2010; coetzee, 2011; fugate et al., 2004; yorke & knight, 2007). therefore, employability is an attribute that includes self-directedness or personal agency for retaining or securing a job or form of employment. it uses a range of personal career-related attributes that are generally regarded as alternatives to job security in an unstable world of work (rothwell, jewell & hardie, 2009; schreuder & coetzee, 2011). various authors have found that self-perceived employability increases feelings of being in control of one’s career and confident to secure a suitable position in the labour market (de cuyper, bernhard-oettel, berntson, de witte & alarco, 2008). furthermore, employability is valueand identity-driven – it relates to a person’s own attributes and biography (tomlinson, 2007). mcardle, waters, briscoe and hall (2007) suggest that career identity and adaptability are vital aspects of a person’s self-perceived employability. according to bandura (1997), van der velde and van den berg (2003), self-perceived employability depends on a person’s self-efficacy. kanfer, warnberg and kantrowitz (2001) found that self-efficacy has a positive relationship with employment outcomes. employability is also beneficial for present performance on the job and for career and business outcomes (van der heijde & van der heijden, 2006). bezuidenhout (2010) and coetzee (2010) developed an employability attributes framework specifically for students in the south african higher education context. it consists of eight core career-related employability attributes that are important for increasing a person’s chances of securing and sustaining employment (bezuidenhout, 2010; coetzee, 2011). career self-management: this refers to a person’s ability to sustain employment through career planning, continuous learning and career management (schreuder & coetzee, 2011). the set of attributes that follows is associated with career self-management: • the ability to reflect on one’s career aspirations and have a clear sense of what one wants to achieve in one’s career • the ability to recognise the skills one needs to be successful in one’s career and the actions one needs to take to achieve one’s goals • the confidence and determination to pursue and achieve one’s career goals • continuous engagement in development activities in order to achieve one’s goals. cultural competence: this refers to a person’s meta-cognitive ability to understand, act and interact effectively in diverse cultural environments. the set of attributes that follows is associated with cultural competence: • knowing the customs of other cultures and understanding their beliefs and values • having the confidence to communicate with people from other cultures and finding it easy and enjoyable to do so • being able to initiate and maintain relationships with people from diverse cultures. self-efficacy: this refers to people’s perceptions of the level of difficulty of career-related or performance-related tasks that they believe they are going to attempt and their perceptions of how well they will be able to carry out the required actions. in addition, it refers to the extent to which their perceptions will persist despite obstacles (schreuder & coetzee, 2011). self-efficacy also refers to the estimate that people make of their ability to cope, perform and thrive (bezuidenhout, 2010). the set of attributes that follows is associated with self-efficacy: • being able to function independently of others • being able to make decisions • having the confidence to achieve one’s goals • being persistent with challenges • enjoying the discovery of creative new solutions • keeping oneself up to date with the newest developments in one’s job and career. career resilience: this refers to a person’s ability to adapt to changing situations by accepting changes in one’s job and organisation, looking forward to working with different and new people, the willingness to take risks as well as having self-confidence (schreuder & coetzee, 2011). bezuidenhout (2010) described career resilience as a personal disposition that facilitates a high level of adaptability, self-confidence, competence and confidence, irrespective of difficult situations. the set of attributes that follows is associated with career resilience: • having a high regard for one’s personal qualities • being open to feedback from others about one’s strengths and weaknesses • being confident about one’s accomplishments • being open to, and being able to adapt to, changes in one’s environment. sociability: this refers to the ability to be open to and to establish and maintain social contacts as well as to use formal and informal networks to advance one’s career (bezuidenhout, 2010). the set of attributes that follows is associated with sociability: • being able to build a network of friends that could advance one’s career • being able to use networks in order to search for and find new job opportunities • being able to look for feedback from other people in order to progress in one’s career • being willing to take risks • being self confident • being able to adapt to various social situations by changing non-verbal behaviour in different socio-cultural situations. entrepreneurial orientation: this refers to a person’s preference for innovation and creativity, a tendency to take risks, a need for achievement, a tolerance for uncertainty as well as a preference for autonomy when exploiting opportunities in the working environment and when creating something valuable (bezuidenhout, 2010). the set of attributes that follows is associated with entrepreneurial orientation: • being interested in, and continuously undertaking, new business opportunities • being open to new ideas • having a positive attitude to the implications of change in one’s workplace or studies • being comfortable in unfamiliar situations • being able to accept responsibility for the success of failure of one’s career. proactivity: this refers to a person’s willingness to engage in active roles that lead to future orientated and self-initiated action in order to change oneself and one’s situation (bezuidenhout, 2010). the set of attributes that follows is associated with proactivity: • being able to take accountability for one’s decisions • being able to set challenging targets for oneself • being able to identify opportunities before others do • being able to improve one’s knowledge and skills in order ensure career progress • being able to adapt to changing situations • being able to persist despite difficult career circumstances. emotional literacy: this refers to people’s ability to use emotions adaptively and their ability to read, understand and control their own and other people’s emotions (bezuidenhout, 2010; coetzee, 2010). the set of attributes that follows is associated with emotional literacy: • being able to understand one’s emotions and feelings • being able to manage one’s moods and emotions • being able to identify the emotions of others • being able to defuse emotionally explosive situations • being able to cheer up sad people. self-esteem self-esteem (as a career meta-competency) is the central element of any person’s daily experiences and is, therefore, an essential psychological construct. it refers to the way people feel about themselves. it reflects and affects their dealings with the environment and the people with whom they come into contact (kernis, 2003). rosenberg (1965) described self-esteem as the positive or negative attitudes that people have about themselves. high self-esteem means that people feel that they are good enough whereas a low self-esteem means that they feel that they are not. baumeister (1997) describes self-esteem as the evaluative dimension of the self-concept. battle (2002) describes self-esteem as the perception that people have of their self-worth. it develops gradually and becomes more differentiated with adulthood and because of interaction with others. gray-little and hafdahl (2000) refer to self-esteem is a predictor of human behaviour and an indication of how people could react to certain events. they also regard self-esteem as an indication of psychological wellbeing. the self-esteem model of battle (1992) is relevant to this study because its underlying principles allow researchers to study the self-esteem construct in a socially embedded context (like the workplace). furthermore, self-esteem is a multi-dimensional construct and battle (1982; 1992) supports the multi-dimensional theoretical approach to defining the construct of self-esteem. he proposes that self-esteem consists of general self-esteem, social or peer self-esteem and personal self-esteem. general self-esteem refers to people’s overall perceptions of, and feelings about, their worth. social self-esteem is the aspect of self-esteem that relates to people’s perceptions of, and feelings about, the quality of their relationships with their peers. personal self-esteem relates to people’s most innate perceptions and feelings of self-worth. general self-esteem, social self-esteem and personal self-esteem combined make up people’s overall self-esteem. in addition, each of these components of self-esteem consists of various factors. battle (1982) focused on the cognitive factors (self-evaluations and sense of self-efficacy), the affective factors (subjective feelings and mood) and the interpersonal needs (social acceptance from others). according to maslow (1970), people need a positive self-esteem (feeling good about themselves), need esteem from others and need to belong (so that others also feel positive about them and that the group accepts them). to develop a positive self-esteem, people strive for achievement and mastery of their socio-cultural environment (coetzee, 2005). in order for the group to accept them and to gain respect from others, they behave in ways that will lead to recognition, appreciation and prestige. people tend to feel confident, competent, strong, useful and needed when they have satisfied their needs for self-esteem. on the other hand, when people have not satisfied their need for self-esteem, they tend to feel inferior, anxious, worried, depressed, weak and helpless (coetzee, 2005). therefore, identifying, measuring, improving and sustaining high self-esteem have become important issues for educators, teachers, trainers and career counsellors. helping people to improve and sustain a healthy and positive self-esteem is a practical application of the knowledge currently available about it (coetzee, 2005). brockner and guare (1983) and kerka (1998) found that people with low self-esteem are more likely to perform poorly and achieve less compared to people with high self-esteem. in addition, baumeister (1997) found that people with low self-esteem do not seem to have a clear sense of who and what they are and are not confident that they will succeed in what they try. therefore, it seems that people with low self-esteem are less likely to have well developed employability skills compared to people with high self-esteem. various authors found that one could improve low self-esteem through training (brockner & gaure, 1983; fugate et al., 2004; smoll, smit, barnett & everett, 1993). therefore, one can conclude that training will help graduates and people who are looking for work to develop self-esteem. using these research findings, the researcher formulated the hypothesis that follows for objective 1: • hypothesis 1: self-esteem has a significant positive relationship with employability attributes. the aims of this article also cover differences in biographical details. therefore, the researcher conducted a literature review of significant differences. orth, robins and trzesniewski (2010) found that middle-aged people have a slightly higher self-esteem than older adults do. however, other studies have failed to show any significant age differences (brandstadter & greve, 1994; demo, 1992). orth et al. (2010) suggest that gender moderates the trajectory of self-esteem across the lifespan. it seems that gender differences are larger in adolescents and young adults, but that the average trajectories of men and women converge in old age. however, xu, farver, yu and zhang (2009) reported no gender differences in self-esteem. furthermore, orth et al. (2010) found that blacks have higher self-esteem than whites do at younger ages. however, these trajectories cross at some point in adulthood and blacks show a much steeper decline in self-esteem than whites do in old age. van rooy, alonso and viswesvaran (2005) found a positive relationship between age and employability. many older employees find themselves in the same position as new job applicants because of rapid changes in the market environment. this results in retrenchments and job changes (van rooy et al., 2005). de armond et al. (2006) and van der heijde and van der heijden (2006) found that employability decreases with age, especially when a person moves into a new field or to a higher position. de armon et al. (2006) found that older workers are less likely to search for new challenges, are less flexible, have less desire for variation in their work and are less motivated to learn new skills. these common stereotypes have a negative effect on their employability when they look for new employment. on the other hand, lee (2001) argues that graduates face discrimination because of their age. their lack of practical experience when applying for new positions leads to this perception. various authors have reported that women are less employable than men are. in other words, women tend to have lower employability compared to men (clarke, 2008; lee, 2001; scandura & lankau, 1997). they explained that many organisations discriminate against women because of gender stereotypes and family responsibilities. in addition, organisations tend to perceive women as less committed to their careers and organisations. alfrassa (2001) confirms that men are more likely to find work than women are after graduating. clarke (2008) reported that women still face the glass ceiling and are disadvantaged because of their gender. there are contradictory findings about the influence of race on employability. rothwell et al. (2009) found no significant differences between self-perceived employability and ethnicity. lee (2001) and mancinelli, massimiliano, piva and ponti (2010) reported that high levels of education have positive effects on the advancement of previously disadvantaged groups (africans, coloureds, indians and women). as a result, they are more likely to find satisfying jobs, earn higher incomes and have better career prospects. using these research findings, the researcher formulated the hypotheses that follow: • hypothesis 2: age, gender, race, marital status, job level, current employment status and employability satisfaction significantly predict self-esteem and employability attributes. • hypothesis 3: men and women differ significantly in self-esteem and employability attributes. research objectives the present study aims to determine the relationship between people’s self-esteem and employability attributes; to determine whether people’s age, gender, race, marital status, job level and employment status significantly predict their self-esteem and employability attributes; and to determine whether men and women differ significantly in their self-esteem and employability attributes. potential value-add of the study assessing whether people’s self-esteem has a relationship with their employability attributes may provide valuable information for human resource managers and career counsellors concerned with career counselling and career development practices to improve employability attributes and skills.in addition, the study could add new knowledge and insight that might help to improve career development support practices. it could also assist career-counselling practitioners to help young adults, who are entering the world of work, to improve their employability attributes. what will follow the next section of the article will elaborate on the research design. it covers the research approach and method. a presentation of the results and a discussion of the findings follow. the article concludes with a brief synopsis of its main conclusions, its implications for practice and recommendations for future research. research design top ↑ research approach the researcher used a quantitative survey design (shaughnessy & zechmeister, 2003) to achieve the objectives of this study. research method research participants the participants comprised a convenience sample of 304 adults who were studying for an honours degree in business management at a higher distance education institution. the participants attended a three-day study school. the sample comprised blacks (48%), whites (30%), coloureds (8%) and indians (14%). furthermore, the sample comprised women (64%), whilst men comprised only 36%. the sample consisted of single (58%) and married (35%) participants. most (84%) were in the early adulthood life stage (26–40 years). most participants were middle managers (25%), first level supervisors (21%) or members of the general staff (28%). this corresponds to the profile of the sample, where 71% of the sample had fulltime employment. measuring instruments the researcher used the culture free self-esteem inventory (cfsei2-ad) (battle, 1992) and the employability attributes scale (eas) (bezuidenhout, 2010; coetzee, 2010) to measure the variables that were relevant to this study.culture free self-esteem inventory: the cfsei 2-ad (battle, 1992) is a self-reporting inventory developed over a course of several years’ work with students and adult clients. the cfsei2-ad, which measures a person’s perceptions of self-worth and achievement compared to those of others, has been valuable because it offers greater insights into clients’ subjective feelings and their psychological states of wellbeing. it consists of four sub-scales. they are general self-esteem (16 items), social or peer self-esteem (eight items), personal self-esteem (eight items) and lie or defensiveness items (eight items). the lie subtest measures defensiveness. people who respond defensively to self-esteem items refuse to admit that they have characteristics of a generally valid but socially unacceptable nature. for the purpose of this study, the researcher measured participants’ responses using a six-point likert-type scale. battle (1992) has found evidence of the validity of the cfsei2-ad. the factor analysis of battle (1992) confirms the construct validity of the cfsei2-ad. in terms of reliability, battle (1992) reports test-retest correlations of between .79 and .82. internal consistency reliability coefficients ranged between .79 and .92 for all the subscales (battle, 1992). employability attributes scale: the employability attributes scale (bezuidenhout, 2010; coetzee, 2010) has been developed for the south african higher education context to measure students’ self-perceived employability attributes. the eas (bezuidenhout, 2010; coetzee, 2010) is a self-rated, multi-factorial measure that contains 56 items and eight sub-scales. they are career self-management (11 items), cultural competence (five items), self-efficacy (six items), career resilience (six items), sociability (seven items), entrepreneurial orientation (seven items), proactivity (seven items) and emotional literacy (seven items). respondents must rate each item on a six-point likert-type scale. the higher the number, the more true that item is to the respondent. an exploratory factor analysis (coetzee, 2010) and inter-item correlational analyses showed that the eas items meet the psychometric criteria of construct validity. in terms of reliability (internal consistency), cronbach’s alpha coefficients range between .78 and .90 for each subscale (coetzee, 2010). the biographical questionnaire contained an additional item that measured participants’ perceptions of their level of ‘employability satisfaction’ on a four-point scale. it ranges from ‘very dissatisfied’ to ‘highly satisfied’. in the context of the present study, employability satisfaction is the self-perceived levels of satisfaction people have in terms of their beliefs that they have the attributes, skills, knowledge, experience and occupational expertise to create or attract employment easily (schreuder & coetzee, 2011). research procedure the researcher gave information about the aim of the study, the confidentiality of the responses and instructions for completing the questionnaire to the respondents during the study school after receiving ethical clearance from the managers of the higher education institution. the researcher handed the cfsei2-ad and eas to all respondents who attended the study school. she administered the questionnaires in the group session and collected them as soon as the participants had completed them. each questionnaire included a covering letter inviting subjects to participate in the study voluntarily. it assured them that their responses would remain confidential. the covering letter stated that completing the questionnaires and returning them meant that the participants agreed that the researcher could use the results for research purposes only. five-hundred respondents attended the study school and they returned 304 usable questionnaires. this is a response rate of 61%. statistical analysis the researcher chose the data analysis procedures for this research because of their applicability to the exploratory nature of the research design.the researcher conducted a rasch analysis to determine the item and person reliability of the two measuring instruments. she also used the rasch analysis to evaluate the one-dimensionality of the two scales by calculating the infit and outfit chi-square statistics to get an indication of how well the items measure the underlying constructs. the researcher also calculated cronbach’s alpha coefficients to determine the internal consistency reliability of the two measures. both person and item separation indices should be at least 2.00 for an instrument to be useful (fox & jones, 1998). the researcher used descriptive and inferential statistics to analyse the data. she computed pearson product-moment correlations and conducted categorical regression, stepwise multiple regression analysis and independent t-tests to test the research hypotheses. although the researcher set a cut-off point of p ≤ .05, she also considered a practical effect size of r ≥ .30 (medium effect, see cohen, 1992) for the correlational analyses in order to interpret the practical significance of the findings. in terms of the multiple regression analyses, she used the adjusted r² to determine the proportion of the total variance of the dependent variable (eas) that the independent variable (cfsei2-ad) explains. she used the f-test to test whether there was a significant regression (p ≤ .05) between the independent and dependent variables. results top ↑ table 1 gives the internal consistency of the measurements for the item separation index and reliability, the person separation index and reliability, the person reliability in terms of cronbach’s alpha coefficients, the average measure of each dimension per person and item as well as the infit and outfit statistics for each dimension. table 1: person and item reliability – culture free self-esteem inventory and employability attributes scale. table 1 shows acceptable item reliability (≥ .80) for all dimensions. this indicates that these items are well differentiated amongst the variables. the item separation for most dimensions was sufficient compared to the guideline of > 2.00 (fox & jones, 1998). the person fit for most of the self-esteem variables was lower that the proposed guideline (> 2.00). the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for all the dimensions were acceptable (cut-off point of .70). however, social or peer self-esteem (.66) and the lie items (.63) were lower. the proactivity dimension showed the highest person average (1.67, sd = 1.14) and the items of self-esteem showed the lowest average measure (-.24, sd = .46). it is clear that the mean item and person fit were acceptable and that the responses do not underfit or overfit. in general, the researcher regarded the two measuring instruments as useful and reliable for interpreting the results. table 2 shows the means, standard deviations, skewness and kurtosis for the variables of interest. table 2: descriptive statistics – culture free self-esteem inventory and employability attributes scale. in terms of self-esteem, participants obtained the highest mean scores on the cfsei2-ad variable of general self-esteem (m = 5.52; sd = 11.11) and the lowest mean score on the lie items (m = 3.20; sd = 5.95). in terms of employability attributes, participants obtained the highest mean scores on the eas variables of career self-management (m = 4.75; sd = 8.14) and self-efficacy (m = 4.75; sd = 4.07) and the lowest mean score on sociability (m = 4.14; sd = 5.90). all variables (except for the lie items in the cfsei2-ad) have a distribution that skews to the left. most values concentrate on the right of the mean with extreme values to the left (skewness < 0). the lie items have a distribution that skews to the right. most values concentrate on the left of the mean, with extreme values to the right (skewness > 0). all the variables have a platykurtic distribution, where the values have a wider spread around the mean. table 3 shows that approximately 19% of the respondents were ‘highly satisfied’ with their current employability levels, whilst approximately 64% of the respondents were ‘satisfied’ with their current employability levels. table 3: frequency distribution – employability satisfaction. testing the hypotheses the primary aim of this study was to assess empirically whether people’s self-esteem has a relationship with their employability attributes.the researcher analysed hypothesis 1 firstly by computing pearson product-moment correlations and, secondly, by conducting standard multiple regressions. hypothesis 1 proposed that self-esteem (the cfsei2-ad variables) had a significant positive relationship with employability attributes (the eas variables). the second aim of this study was to assess empirically whether age, gender, race, marital status, job level, employment status and employability satisfaction significantly predict the participants’ self-esteem and employability attributes. the researcher analysed hypothesis 2 by using categorical regressions and hypothesis 3 by using independent t-tests to test for differences. correlational statistics the pearson product-moment correlations allowed the researcher to identify the direction and strength of the relationships between each of the variables. table 4 shows that the researcher observed a number of significantly positive relationships between the cfsei2-ad and eas variables. the significant correlations range between r = .12 and .41 (p ≤ .05; r ≤ .30, ≤ .49 – medium practical effect). table 4: pearson-product moment correlations – culture free self-esteem inventory and employability attributes scale. table 4 shows significant positive relationships between all subscales of the two variables. general self-esteem had a significant relationship with: • career self-management (r = .32, medium effect, p ≤ .05) • cultural competence (r = .16; small effect, p ≤ .05) • self-efficacy (r = .22; small effect, p ≤ .05) • career resilience (r = .41; medium effect, p ≤ .05) • sociability (r = .31, medium effect, p ≤ .05) • entrepreneurial orientation (r = .28, small practical effect, p ≤ .05) • proactivity (r = .36, medium effect, p ≤ .05) • emotional literacy (r = .32, medium effect, p ≤ .05). social or peer self-esteem had a significant relationship with: • career self-management (r = .23, small effect, p ≤ .05) • cultural competence (r = .18, small effect, p ≤ .05) • self-efficacy (r = .12, small effect, p ≤ .05) • career resilience (r = .32, medium effect, p ≤ .05) • sociability (r = .27, small effect, p ≤ .05) • entrepreneurial orientation (r = .17, small effect, p ≤ .05) • proactivity (r = .28, small effect, p ≤ .05) • emotional literacy (r = .24, small effect, p ≤ .05). personal self-esteem had a positive correlation with: • career self-management (r = .21, small effect, p ≤ .05) • cultural competence (r = .15, small effect, p ≤ .05) • career resilience (r = .33, medium effect, p ≤ .05) • sociability (r = .24, small effect, p ≤ .05) • entrepreneurial orientation (r = .24, small effect, p ≤ .05) • proactivity (r = .28, small effect, p ≤ .05) • emotional literacy (r = .29, small effect, p ≤ .05). it is interesting to note that personal self-esteem was the only variable that did not correlate significantly with self-efficacy. the lie items (as measured by the cfsei2-ad) revealed a negative significant relationship between all variables of the employability attributes. therefore, the lie items had negative relationships with: • career self-management (r = -.15, small effect, p ≤ .01) • cultural competence (r = -.16, p ≤ .01, small effect) • self-efficacy (r = -.16, p ≤ .01, small effect) • career resilience (r = -.28, p ≤ .00, small effect) • sociability (r = -.27, p ≤ .00, small effect) • entrepreneurial orientation (r = -.21, p ≤ .00, small effect) • proactivity (r = -.23, p ≤ .00, small effect) • emotional literacy (r = -.24, p ≤ .00, small effect). multiple regression analysis: culture free self-esteem inventory and employability attributes scale table 5 shows that the regression model explained a small (r² ≤ .12) and medium (.13 ≥ r² ≤ .25) practical percentage of variance (cohen, 1992). the regression of the self-esteem variable on the career self-management variable produced a statistically significant model [f(545.98; 59.84) = 9.12; p ≤ .001] and accounts for 10% (small practical effect) of the variance. general self-esteem (ß = .31; p ≤ .01) contributed significantly to explaining the percentage of variance in career self-management (r² = 10%, small practical effect). the regression of the self-esteem variable on the cultural competence variable produced a statistically significant model [f(83.09; 21.30) = 3.90; p ≤ .001] and accounts for 4% of the variance. social self-esteem (ß = .14; p ≤ .05) contributed significantly to explaining the percentage of variance in cultural competence (r² = 4%, small practical effect). table 5: multiple regression analyses – culture free self-esteem inventory and employability attributes scale. the regression of the self-esteem variable on the self-efficacy variable produced a statistically significant model [f(86.07; 15.66) = 5.50; p ≤ .000] and accounts for 6% (small practical effect) of the variance. the variables that follow contributed significantly to explaining the percentage of variance in self-efficacy (6%, small practical effect): general self-esteem (ß = .32; p ≤ .001) and personal self-esteem (ß = -.19; p ≤ .05). the beta-weights showed that general self-esteem makes the biggest contribution to explaining the variance in the self-efficacy variable. the regression of the self-esteem variable on the career resilience variable produced a statistically significant model [f(262.18; 15.04) = 17.44; p ≤ .000] and accounts for 18% (medium practical effect) of the variance. general self-esteem (ß = .26; p ≤ .01) and social or peer self-esteem (ß = .15; p ≤ .05) are variables that significantly contribute to explaining the percentage of variance of career resilience (r² = 18%, medium practical effect). according to the beta-weights, general self-esteem was the variable that contributed most towards explaining the career resilience construct. the regression of the self-esteem variable on the sociability variable produced a statistically significant model [f(347.31; 30.58) = 11.36; p ≤ .000] and accounts for 12% (small practical effect) of the variance. social or peer self-esteem (ß = .15; p ≤ .05) and the lie items (ß = -.17; p ≤ .01) contributed significantly towards explaining the percentage of variance in sociability (r² = 12%, small practical effect). the regression of the self-esteem variable on the entrepreneurial orientation variable produced a statistically significant model [f(171.09; 23.28) = 7.32; p ≤ .000] and accounts for 8% (small practical effect) of the variance. general self-esteem (ß = .19; p ≤ .05) explains the percentage of variance for entrepreneurial orientation (r² = 8%, small practical effect). finally, the regression of the self-esteem variable on the proactivity variable produced a statistically significant model [f(280.77; 22.43) = 12.52; p ≤ .000] and accounts for 13% (medium practical effect) of the variance. general self-esteem (ß = .23; p ≤ .01) and social or peer self-esteem (ß = .12; p ≤ .05) contribute significantly to explaining the percentage of variance of proactivity (r² = 13%, medium practical effect). the beta-weights indicate that general self-esteem is the biggest contributor to explaining the variance in the proactivity variable. in terms of the collinearity statistics, the variance inflation factor (vif) values were lower than the cut-off of > 4.0 for multi-collinearity concerns. these values suggest that the researcher could rule out multi-collinearity when she interpreted the results. the results showed that the relationships the researcher measured were statistically significant in most of the relationships she tested. therefore, it supports hypothesis 1 that self-esteem has a significant positive relationship with employability attributes. categorical regression analysis: culture free self-esteem inventory and employability attributes scale table 6 shows that the regression models explained a small (r² ≤ .12) practical effect percentage of variance (cohen, 1992). the regression of biographical information on the career self-management variable produced a statistically significant model [f(2.15; .93) = 2.32; p ≤ .002] and accounts for 8% (small practical effect) of the variance. table 6: categorical regression analysis – employability attributes scale. the variables that follow contributed significantly to explaining the percentage of variance in career self-management (r² = 8%, small practical effect): race (ß = .22; p ≤ .001), marital status (ß = .13; p ≤ .01), job level (ß = .17; p ≤ .001), employability satisfaction (ß = .15; p ≤ .01) and current employment status (ß = .18; p ≤ .001). the beta-weights showed that race contributed the most to explaining the variance in the career self-management variable. the regression of biographical information on the sociability variable produced a statistically significant model [f(2.26; .92) = 2.46; p ≤ .001] and accounts for 9% (small practical effect) of the variance. the variables that follow contributed significantly to explaining the percentage of variance in sociability (r² = 9%, small practical effect): race (ß = .20; p ≤ .001), age (ß = -.21; p ≤ .05), marital status (ß = .16; p ≤ .001), job level (ß = .22; p ≤ .001), employability satisfaction (ß = .22; p ≤ .001) and current employment status (ß = .16; p ≤ .001). the beta-weights showed that the participants’ own employability satisfaction (‘satisfied’ or ‘not satisfied’) contributed most to explaining the variance in the sociability construct. the regression of biographical information on the entrepreneurial orientation variable produced a statistically significant model [f(1.82; .95) = 1.91; p ≤ .03] and accounts for 6% (small practical effect) of the variance. the variables that follow contributed significantly to explaining the percentage of variance in entrepreneurial orientation (r² = 6%, small practical effect): race (ß = .19; p ≤ .001), job level (ß = .23; p ≤ .001) and current employment status (ß = .20; p ≤ .001). job level is the most significant contributor to entrepreneurial orientation. the regression of biographical information on the proactivity variable produced a statistically significant model [f(2.48; .90) = 2.75; p ≤ .000] and accounts for 10% (small practical effect) of the variance. the variables that follow contributed significantly to explaining the percentage of variance in proactivity (r² = 10%, small practical effect): race (ß = .25; p ≤ .001), gender (ß = .10; p ≤ .05), marital status (ß = .16; p ≤ .05), job level (ß = .22; p ≤ .001) and current employment status (ß = .17; p ≤ .001). the beta-weights showed that race contributed most to explaining the variance in proactivity. the categorical regression analysis for self-esteem revealed no statistically significant positive relationships with race, gender, age, marital status, job level, employability satisfaction or current employment status. therefore, it did not provide sufficient support for hypothesis 2 (that age, gender, race, marital status, job level, current employment status and employability satisfaction predict self-esteem). independent t-test: culture free self-esteem inventory and employability attributes scale the independent t-test results and mean scores (see table 7) showed that the men participants obtained a significantly higher mean score than did their women counterparts on the eas career self-management variable (m = 453.41; sd = 7.97). the women participants obtained slightly higher mean scores on the lie items of the self-esteem construct (m = 26.32; sd = 5.95). table 7: independent t-test – differences in gender scores on the measurement dimensions. the researcher observed no other significant gender differences for any of the other self-esteem and employability attributes variables. the results provided some support for hypothesis 3 (men and women differ significantly in self-esteem and employability attributes). discussion top ↑ the effect of challenges, like fewer employment opportunities and reduced job security, increased personal responsibility to keep up with changes, current skill shortages and demands for retaining talented and skilled staff, have led to an emphasis on career meta-competencies to improve employability attributes (coetzee, 2008; fugate et al., 2004). career counsellors and human resource practitioners have been concerned for a long time about employees’ psychological career resources or career meta-competencies that enable them to take ownership of their careers and be proactive in managing their careers and improving their employability (coetzee, 2008; fugate et al., 2004).the significant relationship the researcher observed between self-esteem and employability attributes suggests that people with higher self-esteem will have higher employability attributes. these findings agree with those of fugate et al. (2004) and those of griffen and hesketh (2005). the significant relationship the researcher observed between general self-esteem, social or peer self-esteem, personal self-esteem and career self-management showed that people who believe in themselves and feel good about themselves are more likely to take proactive steps to develop and manage their own careers. marock (2008) suggested that people should take responsibility for managing their careers and posits that people who have higher levels of psychological career resources are generally more able to manage their careers and adapt to changing circumstances. as a result, they showed higher levels of employability (fugate, et al., 2004; griffin & hesketh, 2005). bezuidenhout (2010) associates confidence with achieving one’s career goals, and persistence in doing so, with efficient levels of career self-management. any person who has high confidence should have a high level of general, social or peer and personal self-esteem. therefore, people with high self-esteem should be able to manage their careers efficiently. similarly, the significant relationship the researcher found between general, social or peer and personal self-esteem as well as cultural competence seems to suggest that people with high levels of self-esteem will be able to understand, act and interact effectively with diverse cultural environments. this study confirms bezuidenhout’s (2010) view of cultural competence, where confident people find it easy (and enjoyable) to communicate inter-culturally and are able to initiate, interact and maintain relationships with people from diverse cultures. baumeister (2005) confirms that people who are able to initiate and maintain relationships generally have higher levels of self-esteem. therefore, one can conclude that people with high self-esteem will show higher levels of cultural competence. the relationship the researcher observed between general self-esteem and social self-esteem with self-efficacy showed that people with high self-esteem keep up to date with the latest developments in their jobs and careers. in addition, the findings showed that people with high self-esteem are able to function independently, make their own decisions and are confident about accomplishing their career goals. kerka (1998) confirms these findings. he states that people with high self-esteem are generally more able to make career decisions and achieve their goals. therefore, participants with high self-esteem showed higher levels of self-efficacy. the results showed that people with high general, social or peer and personal self-esteem have significantly higher levels of career resilience. according to schreuder and coetzee (2011), career resilience refers to the ability to adapt to changing circumstances by welcoming job and organisational changes, looking forward to working with new and different people, having self-confidence and being willing to take risks. the researcher found that people with high levels of self-confidence and high self-esteem influence each other significantly. therefore, participants with high self-esteem may have higher career resilience. the significant relationship the researcher observed between general, social or peer and personal self-esteem with sociability suggest that people with high self-esteem will be open to establishing and maintaining social contacts and using formal and informal networks to advance their careers. bezuidenhout (2010) also noted that sociability implies having self-confidence and that high self-confidence also suggests high overall self-esteem. participants with high self-esteem may appear more sociable. similarly, the relationship the researcher found between general, social or peer and personal self-esteem and entrepreneurial orientation showed that people with high self-esteem would exploit career opportunities in the career environment. bezuidenhout (2010) noted that entrepreneurial orientation includes a positive feeling about the implications of change in the workplace and feeling comfortable in uncertain situations. one generally measures self-esteem against positive or negative feelings (maslow, 1970). therefore, participants with high self-esteem will be more orientated towards becoming entrepreneurs as they feel positive about themselves and will show high levels of self-confidence and ability to adapt to changing circumstances. the researcher also found that general, social and personal self-esteem have significant relationships with proactivity. according to bezuidenhout (2010), people with high proactivity will typically initiate self-improvement and accept responsibility for their decisions. people who have high career meta-competencies (like self-esteem) are generally more able to adapt to changing circumstances, take risks, initiate self-development and make career decisions more easily (fugate et al., 2004; griffen & hesketh, 2005). participants with high self-esteem seem more proactive compared to participants with low self-esteem. general, social or peer and personal self-esteem have significant relationships with emotional literacy. people with high emotional literacy are able to use emotions adaptively, read, understand and manage their own emotions as well as the emotions of others. several authors suggest that emotional literacy and self-esteem have close relationships with each other and that people with high self-esteem and emotional literacy show high levels of overall employability (briscoe & hall, 1999; coetzee, 2008; coetzee & roythorne-jacobs, 2007; hall & chandler, 2005; herr et al., 2004). therefore, participants with high self-esteem are more emotionally literate than are those with low self-esteem. the researcher found no significant relationships between age, gender, race, marital status, job level, current employment status and employability satisfaction or self-esteem. therefore, it is not necessary to consider these variables during career development support practices and career counselling sessions that aim to improve self-esteem. however, these findings contradict those of brandstadter and greve (1994), demo (1992), orth et al. (2010) and xu et al. (2009). the significant relationships the researcher observed between age, gender, race, marital status, job level, current employment status and employability satisfaction showed that one should consider these variables during career development support practices and career counselling interventions that aim to improve employability attributes. the study revealed that the men participants seem to be slightly better at managing their careers than the women participants are. therefore, they showed slightly higher employability attributes. these results agree with the studies of clarke (2008), lee (2001) as well as those of scandura and lankau (1997). they also found that men are slightly more employable than women are. one needs to consider these differences during career development support practices and career counselling interventions that aim to improve employability attributes. therefore, one should introduce interventions that are more extensive to improve the employability attributes of women. race, marital status, job level, current employment status and employability satisfaction showed a significant relationship with career self-management. however, researchers need to conduct further studies on which race, marital status and job level groups display higher levels of career self-management. the results showed that race, age, marital status, job level, current employment status as well as employability satisfaction have significant relationships with sociability. it seems that these factors predict the level of sociability of a person. race, job level and current employment status significantly influence entrepreneurial orientation, whilst race, marital status, job level and current employment status influence proactivity. it is clear that race, job level and current employment status are the most important factors that influence employability attributes. however, researchers need to conduct further research to determine which race, job level and employment status levels most significantly influence employability attributes. one should consider all the influencing factors during career development support practices and career-counselling interventions that aim to improve the employability attributes of people. conclusions the world of work and work contexts have changed dramatically during the 21st century (amundson, 2006; blickle & witzki, 2008; burke & ng, 2006; hall & chandler, 2005; jones & defillipi, 1996; luthans, luthans & luthans, 2004; richardson, 2002). as a result, careers have also changed and moved away from the traditional career context to boundaryless careers. the skills and abilities required from young adults who are entering the world of work have also changed. several essential factors determine a person’s occupational interests and abilities. they include a person’s background and social demographic status (like age, gender and race), personal characteristics (like self-esteem, self-awareness, decision-making ability, personality preferences, emotional intelligence and employability attributes), experience (like work, academic experience and hobbies) and initial skill levels (like cognitive abilities, technical skills and interpersonal skills) (beukes, 2010; feldman, 2002). current career-counselling practices face challenges because of the radical changes in lifestyles, the technological advancement and information explosion of the 21st century (maree & beck, 2004). for people to stand the best chance of finding jobs in which they will be satisfied and successful, education in career self-management and career development learning is important (coetzee & beukes, 2010; pool & sewell, 2007). career development learning typically includes activities to help people become more self-aware. it allows them to do the things that they are interested in, enjoy doing and that motivate them. in addition, people need to learn how best to present themselves to prospective employers, how to behave in interviews and in jobs and how to make careful decisions about their careers (coetzee & beukes, 2010). therefore, it is important to help people to improve their employability skills. the findings of this study confirmed that career meta-competencies (like self-esteem) do influence employability attributes significantly. therefore, one should address them during career development support practices and career-counselling interventions that aim to improve employability attributes. in addition, this study confirmed that biographical details (like age, gender, race, marital status, job level, current employment status and employability satisfaction levels) also predict employability attributes. one needs to consider these differences when one aims to improve employability attributes. the findings highlight the need for further research to explore the relationships between career meta-competencies, biographical predictors and employability attributes. the practical value of the findings is the new knowledge they yielded about the relationships between these variables and the factors they highlight as contributors to improving self-esteem, acknowledging diversity and improving employability attributes. possible limitations of the study and suggestions for future research the researcher limited the present study to participants who were studying for an honours degree in business management in a south african higher education institution. therefore, one cannot generalise the findings to other occupational contexts. furthermore, given the exploratory nature of the research design, this study can make no statements about causation. therefore, the researcher has only inferred that there are associations between the variables but has not established any. consequently, one needs to replicate these findings with broader samples in different occupational groups and economic sectors before one can draw comprehensive conclusions about the relationships between people’s self-esteem and their employability attributes. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the author declares that she has no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced her when she wrote this paper. references top ↑ acci. (2002). employability skills – an employer perspective. getting what employers want out of the too hard basket. kingston: australian chamber of commerce and industry.alfrassa, t. (2001). student level factors that influence the employability of tafe graduates over time: a partial least-squares analysis. adelaide: office of vocational educatio and training. amundson, n. (2006). challenges for career interventions in changing contexts. international journal for educational and vocational guidance, 6, 3–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10775-006-0002-4 bandura, a. (1997). self-efficacy: the exercise of control. new york: freeman. baruch, y. (2004). transforming careers: from linear to multidirectional career paths. organizational and individual perspectives. career development international, 9(1), 58–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430410518147 battle, j. (2002). culture-free inventories examiner’s manual. (3rd edn.). austin, tx: pro-ed. battle, j. (1992). culture-free self-esteem inventoriess for children and adults. texas: pro-ed. battle, j. (1982). enhancing self-esteem and achievement. seattle: special child publications. baumeister, r. (1997). identity, self-concept and self-esteem. case western reserve university, usa: academic press. baumeister, r. (2005). rethinking self-esteem: why nonprofits should stop pushing self-esteem and start endorsing self-control. stanford: stanford innovation review. beukes, c. (2010). the relationshp between employability and emotional intelligence. unpublished research report. department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa. bezuidenhout, m. (2010). the development of an instrument to measure employability of students: a pilot study. unpublished draft research proposal. department of human resourcse management, university of pretoria. blickle, g., & witzki, a. (2008). new psychological contracts in the world of work: economic citizens or victims of the market? society and business review, 3(2), 149–161. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17465680810880071 brandstadter, j., & greve, w. (1994). the aging self: stabilizing and protective processes. developmental review, 14, 52–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/drev.1994.1003 briscoe, j., & hall, d. (1999). grooming and picking leaders using competency frameworks: do they work? an alternative approach and new guideline for practice. organisational dynamics, 28(2), 37–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0090-2616(00)80015-7 brockner, j., & gaure, j. (1983). improving performance of low self-esteem individuals: an atributional approach. academy of management journal, 26, 642–656. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/255912 burke, r., & ng, e. (2006). the changing nature of work and organizations: implications for human resource management. human resource management review, 16, 86–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2006.03.006 clarke, m. (2008). understanding and managing employability in changing career contexts. journal of european industrial training, 32(4), 258–284. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090590810871379 coetzee, m. (2008). psychological career resources and subjective work experiences of working adults: a south african survey. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 34(2), 32–41. coetzee, m. (2010). psychological career resources of working adults: a south african sruvey. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 34(2), 10–20. coetzee, m. (2005). the relationship between personality preferences, self-esteem and emotional competence. unpublished doctoral dissertation. university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. coetzee, m. (2011). exploring distance learning students’ graduateness in relation to their employability. unpublished research article, department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, pretoria. coetzee, m., & beukes, c. (2010). employability, emomtional intelligence and career preparation support satisfaction among adolescents in the school-to-work transition phase. journal of psychology in africa, 20(3), 439–446. coetzee, m., & roythorne-jacobs, h. (2007). career counselling and guidance in the workplace. cape town: juta. cohen, j. (1992). quantitative methods in psychology: a power primer. psychological bulletin, 112(1), 153–159. de armond, s., tye, m., chen, p., krauss, a., rogers, d., & sintek, e. (2006). age and gender stereotypes: new challenges in a changing workplace. journal of applied social psychology, 36(9), 2184–1716. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0021-9029.2006.00100.x de cuyper, n., bernhard-oettel, c., berntson, e., de witte, h., & alarco, b. (2008). employability and employees’ well-being: mediation by job security. applied psychology: an international review, 57(3), 488–509. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2008.00332.x de vos, a., & soens, n. (2008). protean attitude and career success: the mediating role of self-management. journal of vocational behavior, 73, 449–456. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2008.08.007 demo, d. (1992). the self-concept over time: research issues and directions. annual review of sociology, 18, 303–326. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.18.080192.001511 fallows, s., & steven, c. (2000). building employability skills into the higher education curriculum: a university-wide initiative. education and training, 42(2), 75–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00400910010331620 feldman, d. (2002). work careers: a developmental perspective. san fransicsco: wiley and sons. forrier, a., & sels, l. (2003). the concept of employability: a complex mosaic. international journal of human resource development and management, 13(2), 102–124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/ijhrdm.2003.002414 fox, c., & jones, j. (1998). uses of the rasch modeling in counceling psychology research. journal of counseling psychology, 45(1), 30–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.45.1.30 fugate, m., kinicki, a., & ashforth, b. (2004). employability: a psycho-social construct, its dimensions and applications. journal of vocational behaviour, 65, 14–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2003.10.005 gray-little, b., & hafdahl, a. (2000). factors influencing racial comparisons of self-esteem: a quantitative review. psychological bulletin, 126(1), 26–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.126.1.26, pmid:10668349 griffen, b., & hesketh, b. (2005). adaptable behaviours for successful work and career adjustment. australian journal of psychology, 55(2), 65–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00049530412331312914 hall, d. (2004). the protean career: a quater-century journey. journal of vocational behaviour, 65(1), 1–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2003.10.006 hall, d., & chandler, d. (2005). psychological success: when the career is a calling. journal of organizational behavior, 26, 155–176. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.301 herr, e., cramer, s., & niles, s. (2004). career guidance and counselling through the lifespan. london: prentice hall. hewitt, j. (2002). the social construction of self-esteem. handbook of positive psychology, 135–147. hillage, j., & pollard, e. (1998). employability: developing a framework for policy analysis. lodon: department for education and employment. jones, c., & defillippi, r. (1996). back to the future in the film: combining industry and self-knowledge to meet the career challenges of the 21st century. academy of management executive, 10(4), 89–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/ame.1996.3145322 kanfer, r., & klimoski, r. (2002). looking back to the future. new york: jossey-bass. kanfer, r., wanberg, c., & kantrowitz, t. (2001). job search and reemployment: a personality-motivational analysis and meta review. journal of applied psychology, 86, 837–855. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.5.837, pmid:11596801 kerka, s. (1998). career development and gender, race and class. clearinghouse on adult, career and vocational education, 199. kernis, m. (2003). toward a conceptualizations of optimal self-esteem. psychological inquiry, 14(1), 1–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1401_01 lee, h. (2001). defining and measuring employability. quality in higher education, 7(2), 97–109. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13538320120059990 luthans, f., luthans, k., & luthans, b. (2004). positive psychology capital: beyond human and social capital. business horizons, 47(1), 45–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2003.11.007 mancinelli, s., massimiliano, m., piva, n., & ponti, g. (2010). education, reputation or network: evidence on migrant workers employability. the journal of socio-economics, 39, 64–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2009.08.002 maree, j., & beck, g. (2004). using various approaches in career counselling for traditionally disadvantaged (and other) learners: some limitations of a new frontier. south african journal of education, 24(1), 80–87. marock, c. (2008). grappling with your employability in south africa. pretoria: human sciences research council. maslow, a. (1970). motivation and personality. new york: harper & row. mcardle, s., waters, l., briscoe, j., & hall, d. (2007). employability during unemployment: adaptability, career identity and human and social capital. journal of vocational behavior, 71, 247–264. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2007.06.003 mcquaid, r., & lindsay, c. (2005). the concept employability. urban studies, 42(2), 197–219. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0042098042000316100 orth, u., robins, r., & trzesniewski, k. (2010). self-esteem development from young adulthood to old age: a cohort-sequential longitudinal study. journal of personality and social psychology, 98(4), 645–658. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0018769, pmid:20307135 pool, l., & sewell, p. (2007). the key to employability: developing a practical model of graduate employability. education and training, 49(4), 227–289. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00400910710754435 raabe, b., frese, m., & beehr, t. (2007). action related theory and career self-management. journal of vocational behavior, 70, 297–311. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2006.10.005 richardson, m.s. (2002). a metaperspective for counselling practice: a response to the challenge of contextualism. journal of vocational behaviour, 61, 407–423. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2002.1883 rothwell, a., jewell, s., & hardie, m. (2009). self-perceived employability: investigating the responses of post-graduate students. journal of vocational behaviour, 75, 152–161. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.05.002 rosenberg, m. (1965). society and the adolescent self-image. princeton, nj: princeton university press. savickas, m., nota, l., rossier, j., dauwalder, j., duarte, m., guichard, j. et al. (2009). life designing: a paradigm for career construction in the 21st century. journal of vocational behavior, 75, 239–250. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.04.004 scandura, t., & lankau, m. (1997). relationships of gender, family responsibility and flexible work hours to organizational commitment and job satisfaction. journal of organziational behavior, 18, 377–391. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199707)18:4<377::aid-job807>3.0.co;2-1 shaughnessy, j., & zechmeister, e. (2003). research methods in psychology. new york: mcgraw-hill. schreuder, a., & coetzee, m. (2011). careers: an organisational perspective. cape town: juta. sinclair, v. (2009). experiencing career satisfaction and career success over the life span. retrieved february 02, 2010, from http://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/counselloradvice98889.html smoll, f.l., smith, r.e., barnett, n.p., & everret, j.j. (1993). enhancement of children’s self-esteem through social support for youth sport coaches. journal of applied psychology, 78(4), 602–610. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.4.602, pmid:8407704 sullivan, s. (1999). the changing nature of careers: a review and research agenda. journal of management, 25, 257–484. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920639902500308 tomlinson, m. (2007). graduate employability and student attitudes and orientations to the labour market. journal of education and work, 20(4), 285–304. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13639080701650164 van der heijde, c., & van der heijden, b. (2006). a competence-based and multidimensional operationalisation of employability. human resource management, 45(3), 449–476. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20119 van der velde, m., & van den berg, p. (2003). managing functional flexibility in a passanger transport firm. human resource management journal, 13(4), 45–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2003.tb00104.x van rooy, d., alonso, a., & viswesvaran, c. (2005). group differences in emotional intelligence scores: theoretical and practical implications. personality and individual differences, 38, 689–700. xu, y., farver, j., yu, l., & zhang, z. (2009). three types of shyness in chinese children and the relation to effortful control. journal of personality and social psychology, 97(6), 1061–1073. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0016576, pmid:19968419 yorke, m., & knight, p. (2007). evidence-informed pedagogy and the enhancement of student employability. teaching in higher education, 12(2), 157–170. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13562510701191877 abstract introduction method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) mpho makhubela faculty of commerce and administration, north-west university, south africa petrus a. botha faculty of commerce and administration, north-west university, south africa sonia swanepoel faculty of commerce and administration, north-west university, south africa citation makhubela, m., botha, p.a., & swanepoel, s. (2016). employees’ perceptions of the effectiveness and fairness of performance management in a south african public sector institution. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a728. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.728 original research employees’ perceptions of the effectiveness and fairness of performance management in a south african public sector institution mpho makhubela, petrus a. botha, sonia swanepoel received: 01 july 2015; accepted: 26 july 2016; published: 16 nov. 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the implementation of performance management systems (pmss) and performance appraisals (pas) by public managers remains a challenge and necessitates an investigation into employees’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the pms and the fairness of pa. research purpose: this study investigated the association between employee involvement, performance-oriented culture, management commitment and the effectiveness of a pms. six factors that determine and influence employees’ perceptions of pa fairness were also investigated. motivation for the study: employees’ experiences of the implementation and practice of pmss and pas by public managers may differ from what is intended. the motivation for this study was to quantify employee perceptions of the effectiveness of a pms and the fairness of pa to establish if there is a discrepancy between what is intended and how they are implemented and practiced. research approach, design and method: this cross-sectional study conducted a census on a total population of 140 employees in a public sector institution. a questionnaire comprising three sections was used to collect data: section a contained biographical questions, section b comprised questions on the contextual factors that measure the perceived effectiveness of the pms while section c comprised questions related to the perceived fairness of pa. main findings: the results show that employees perceive their pms to be ineffective and their pas to be unfair. the mean perception scores for pa fairness for the assets and facilities department were significantly lower than those of the human resources department. this is indicative of some deficiencies in the appraisal process in the assets and facilities department. respondents occupying general positions returned significantly lower mean scores for pa fairness compared to those in managerial and professional positions, which indicates serious shortcomings in their appraisal process. practical/managerial implications: the findings reveal that employees were not involved in the development of the pms. also, the results indicated a lack of employee participation in the pa process, that pas were not conducted for development purposes, performance feedback sessions were not undertaken on a regular basis and employees were not involved in goal setting. a training programme should address these organisational and managerial deficiencies. contribution: this research study contributes to the body of knowledge by quantifying the perceptions of employees regarding the organisational factors that influence the effectiveness of the pms and the six factors, namely appraisers’ knowledge, employee participation, clear goal establishment, employee development, goal establishment, appraisal follow-up and goal discussion that influence pa fairness. introduction key focus this study focuses on employees’ perceptions of the effectiveness and fairness of performance management. public managers are perceived as lacking the knowledge and skills to implement performance management effectively. comprehensive research is needed to fully understand the effectiveness of performance management systems (pmss) in organisations, especially from employee perspectives (sharma, sharma & agarwal, 2016). this article reports on a study conducted among employees in a south african public sector institution to measure the impact of employee involvement, performance-oriented culture and management commitment to the effectiveness of the pms. also, employees’ perceptions of the fairness of performance appraisals (pas) were measured on six factors, namely appraiser’s knowledge, employee participation, employee development, goal establishment, appraisal follow-up and goal discussion. there are various factors that can be used to measure employees’ perceptions of performance management system effectiveness (pmse), but there seems to be a lack of clarity among researchers on how to define the construct effectiveness in the context of performance management and what indicators to use to measure employees’ perceptions. in their study, sharma et al. (2016, p. 225) used two constructs namely, accuracy and fairness to measure pmse. their most significant contributions are the theoretical development of the construct of effectiveness and the validation of an accuracy and fairness scale. only four factors, namely personal development, employees’ personal performance, informed about the performance management and development system and management support, were used to measure pmse in a study conducted by ramulumisi, schultz and jordaan (2015). however, one of the factors, namely informed about performance management and development system, was unreliable and excluded from the analysis. dewettinck and van dijk (2013) assessed the pmse in a public sector institution in the netherlands using dewettinck’s (2008) motivational effect of performance review scale. the limitation of their study is that the scale focuses only on performance reviews, which is only one phase in pms. haines and st-onge (2012) studied pmse using a scale that measures positive performance management outcomes. research in pmse is characterised by measurement inconsistencies and lack of theoretical groundings for the construct of effectiveness in the pms context. employees’ perceptions of pmse has not been adequately conceptualised and operationalised in previous research. the different scales developed to measure pmse failed to include all the different phases of performance management. the main problems are that public service employees’ have negative perceptions of the effectiveness and fairness of the pms because of deficiencies in organisational factors and the manner in which line managers implement and practice performance management. the objectives of this study are firstly to provide an empirical analysis of the association between three organisational factors, namely employee involvement, performance-oriented culture and management commitment, and the effectiveness of the pms. secondly, the study investigates the factors that determine employees’ perceptions of pa fairness. measuring perceptions of the effectiveness of the pms and pa fairness allow for the exploration of employee experiences of the pms practices that are implemented by line managers in a public sector institution. this study contributes to the body of knowledge in the effectiveness of the pms by providing a theoretical framework of the factors that influence the effectiveness of performance management and quantifying employees’ perceptions regarding the organisation and pa factors that influence the effectiveness and fairness of the pms. the knowledge of the employees’ perceptions of the pms in the public sector institution will assist public managers to implement such a system more effectively. the research questions that were investigated include the following: what are employees’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the pms? what are employees’ perceptions of the fairness of pa? is there a difference in the mean perception scores for the effectiveness of the pms and the fairness of pa between male and female employees and employees of different age groups, departments and positions? is there a correlation between the mean perception scores of the effectiveness of the pms and the fairness of pa? in the following sections of this article, the researchers outline the literature review and research design followed by a presentation of the results. finally, they discuss the results, highlight the practical implications, outline limitations and make recommendations for areas of future research. literature review deb (2008, p. 25) defines a pms as a tool that comprises interrelated parts, which together form an independent whole where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and which strives to maintain equilibrium. armstrong (2009, p. 618) defines performance management as a systematic process for improving organisational performance by developing the performance of individuals and teams and getting better results by understanding and managing performance within an agreed upon framework of planned goals, standards and competency requirements. swanepoel, erasmus and schenk (2009, p. 368) define pa as a separate but central subset of overall performance management. it is simply the process of formally evaluating work performance, making decisions on the effective utilisation of rewarding and motivating staff, rectifying substandard performance and providing feedback to individual employees. pas are a core element of human resource management because the results of appraisals are used as the foundation for many human resource decisions. pas are done for various purposes, such as career development and accountability and are linked to recognition and compensation. they are also used in disciplinary procedures and decisions regarding salary increment and promotion (ahmad & azman ali, 2004, p. 49). in public management, performance measurement and management systems are key elements in improving government performance and accountability. the public sector is increasingly devoting more time to performance management, measurement and evaluation. performance measurement is not synonymous with pms. performance management is viewed more broadly as a management tool that aims to improve the performance of an organisation while performance measurement focuses more narrowly on the metrics used to determine how an organisation is performing (goh, 2012, p. 32). according to mcadam, hazlett and casey (2005, p. 258), the objectives of performance management are rationalism in terms of size, cost and functions; greater transparency in the operation of public institutions; the upgrading of the skills base in the public sector and modernisation of its functional principles, procedures and systems; and the development of a realistic remuneration policy based on performance. verbeeten (2008, p. 430) states that performance management can serve four purposes for public managers. firstly, it helps define clear missions, objectives and targets, which assist individuals in understanding what is expected of them. secondly, by measuring performance regarding objectives, politicians and public managers can account to the public on how taxpayers’ money is spent. thirdly, public sector organisations can use performance measurement to improve performance, and lastly, the pms can serve as a basis for the compensation of government employees. sole (2009, p. 4) developed a management model for public organisations to better understand performance measurement and pmss. the model distinguishes between three organisational levels, namely the strategic level, the operational level and the team or individual level. the focus of this study is on performance management at an individual level. the process of managing individual performance is similar to managing performance at the organisational level, and the process starts at the top of the organisation with management developing a performance management policy. managers control performance by influencing outputs and the feedback provided by outputs. the ultimate goal of a performance management process is to align individual performance with organisational performance and should indicate to employees the organisation’s goals, priorities and expectations and how well they contribute to these (selden & sowa, 2011, p. 252). a typical performance management process consists of five phases, namely performance planning, ongoing feedback, employee input, performance evaluation and performance review (pulakos, 2004, p. 4). however, gruman and saks (2011, pp. 127–128) propose a new model that begins with performance agreement; engagement facilitation; performance and engagement appraisal; and feedback, employee engagement and improved performance. in the public sector institution, where this study was conducted, performance management is known as the integrated performance management system (ipms). their regulatory framework is guided by the ipms directive (2011), which serves to establish and sustain a standardised system of performance management. according to the human resources directive (2011), individual performance management should include the following: performance planning – performance contracting of members performance agreement – formal interview to be conducted with every member by line manager in his or her span of control at the beginning of the performance cycle performance agreement interview – interview shall be conducted before the end of april each year or within 1 month after appointment pa – based on performance agreement and shall serve to provide a member with feedback from the supervisor about his or her performance performance cycle – shall be aligned to the financial year and it shall extend from 01 april to 31 march of the following calendar year performance categories – unacceptable (20% – 29%), needs improvement (30% – 49%), satisfactory (50% – 69%), above average (70% – 84%) and outstanding (85% – 100%) management of unsatisfactory performance integrated performance management (ipm) rewards management of performance in exceptional cases performance enhancement – personal development plan shall be compiled. the development of the policy and practice guidelines for an individual pms is a human resource management function. however, line managers enact performance management, including pas. employees’ satisfaction with the pms and pas are a good indicator of the effectiveness and viability (culbertson, henning & payne, 2013, p. 189). however, employees’ experiences of the pms may differ from what is intended. employees’ acceptance of and satisfaction with the pms and pa are vital for their optimal effectiveness. these perceptions are formed by the manner in which these practices are implemented by line managers. effectiveness factors for performance management systems and appraisal fairness researchers have investigated the factors that influence the effectiveness of pmss and the fairness of pas. haines and st-onge (2012) studied the mutual influence of practice and context on performance management effectiveness in both public and private sector organisations in canada. their results indicate a positive relationship between performance management practices, such as performance training and employee recognition, and performance management effectiveness (haines & st-onge, 2012, p. 1165). furthermore, their results identify three contextual variables that are positively associated with performance management effectiveness, namely organisational culture, employee relations climate and strategic integration of human resource management (haines & st-onge, 2012, pp. 1165–1168). the key features of a successful pms are the alignment of the pms with the existing systems and strategies of the organisation; leadership commitment; a high-performance culture; stakeholder involvement; and continuous monitoring, feedback and dissemination of and learning from results (fryer, antony & ogden, 2009, p. 480). sole (2009, pp. 7–8) distinguishes between external and internal factors that influence pms. he identifies the internal factors to be leadership and internal management commitment, investment of internal resources, performance-oriented culture, employee engagement and maturity of the pms. the external factors he identifies are citizen support and support of elected officials, labour union involvement and compliance with legal requirements. apart from the abovementioned internal factors, tung, baird and schoch (2011, p. 1292) identify the link between performance and rewards as an additional internal critical success factor. brown, hyatt and benson (2010) investigated the relationship between employees’ experiences of the quality of pas, job satisfaction, organisational commitment and intention to quit in a large public institution in australia. their results show that low-quality experiences of pas are associated with lower levels of job satisfaction. they also found a significant negative relationship between low-quality experiences of pa and organisational commitment. low-quality experiences of pa are significantly positively related to intention to quit (brown et al., 2010, pp. 389–390). therefore, the impact of low-quality experiences of pa results in lower job satisfaction and organisational commitment and higher intentions to quit. the research findings of tuytens and devos (2012) indicate that employee participation, charismatic leadership of evaluators, positive perceptions of procedural justice and positive experiences of feedback all have a positive effect on the perceived fairness of pas. also, the results of a study conducted by ahmed, ramzan, mohammad and islam (2011, p. 18) show a positive and significant relationship between the perceived fairness of pa and organisational commitment. this study focuses on three internal organisational factors that influence the effectiveness of the pms, namely employee involvement, performance-oriented culture and management commitment. the questionnaire that was developed and validated by mansor, chakraborty, yin and mahitapoglu (2012) was used for this study. employee involvement martin and davis (2001) argue that the level of employees’ involvement and motivation may have a great impact on the success of a pms and encourages employees to be accountable and to contribute to solutions. employees need to be actively involved in the designing of a pms. most organisations design the workplace approach to ensure that employees are committed to their goals and values and are, on the one hand, highly motivated to ensure the success of their organisations and, on the other hand, to ensure that they enhance their own sense of well-being. performance-oriented culture organisational culture is another critical factor for improving the effectiveness of performance management. sole (2009) states that: culture can be determined by people’s total beliefs, ideologies, behaviours and values that are prevalent in the organisations, and which can influence organisation power relationships and their response to change. (p. 8) the main factors characterising a performance-oriented culture are a focus on the end result for users and citizens employees’ empowerment in taking responsibility without fear of blame and a positive approach to performance management by considering it to be a tool for improvement and not merely a form-filling exercise. management commitment sanger (2008, p. 77) argues that an effective pms require a committed leader who has considerable skills, who is willing to provide significant managerial investment and rewards and willing to design and deploy effective performance measurement and management systems. poister (2008) also highlights that the involvement of senior executives and managers is a necessary part of successful performance measurement and management systems. in particular, internal management commitment brings a formality to the performance management reviews that could influence employees’ commitment to achieving targets and improving performance. performance appraisal fairness the literature suggests that employees will only be satisfied with a pa process if criteria of ‘fairness’ are expressed regarding organisational justice. furthermore, training in the pa process that causes discrepancies between expected and actual performance assessments contributes to dissatisfaction with the system. according to messer and white (2006), employees’ perceptions of fairness can affect their behaviour, especially regarding their contribution to organisational goals. in this case, perceived unfairness and ineffectiveness of the pms can result in employees not being productive and showing some negativity towards the system. employees’ perceptions of pa are critical in determining the system’s effectiveness. some authors have applied organisational justice theory to pa. perceptions of the fairness of pa are determined by the feelings expressed by both management and employees about the existence of a formal appraisal system, the knowledge of the supervisor about the performance of the subordinate, the existence of action plans to improve performance weaknesses and the frequency of evaluations (ahmed et al., 2011, p. 15). narcisse and harcourt (2008, p. 1152) and vasset, marnburg and furunes (2010, p. 31) postulate that employees’ perceptions of the fairness of the appraisal system are influenced by distributive, procedural and interactional justice. distributive justice focuses on the fairness of the evaluations received about the work performed (greenberg, 1986, p. 340). employees expect outcomes to be commensurate with inputs in the form of experience, ability and effort. procedural justice refers to the fairness of the evaluation procedures used to determine the ratings (greenberg, 1986, p. 340). interactional justice refers to people’s concerns regarding the quality of the interpersonal treatment and communication they receive. it is important to mention that interactional justice focuses on how formal agents of the organisation treat those who are subject to their authority, decisions and actions. according to rowland and hall (2013, p. 196), interactional justice is sometimes divided into interpersonal justice (how people are treated) and informational justice (how people are informed of the reasons why outcomes are distributed and why particular procedures are used). the manner in which a line manager performs the appraisal process (procedural justice) and the personal communication between the line manager and employee during this process (interactional justice) influence how fair the employee believes the appraisal process to be (farndale & kelliher, 2013, p. 880). palaiologos, papazekos and panayotopoulou (2011, pp. 832–834) postulate that the administrative purpose of pa is related to distributive justice and procedural justice. if organisations use the data recorded during a pa to make decisions regarding payroll, increases in fringe benefits, promotion and employment termination, they create a positive impression about the fairness of both the procedure and its outcomes. their results also indicate that the development purpose of pa is related to interactional justice and shows a positive relationship between employees’ personal development and good interpersonal relationships. furthermore, their results show that employees’ perceptions of the various criteria (goals they need to attain, their behaviour in the execution of their duties, their competencies, their personal characteristics and level of control over their work) used for pa are positively related to procedural justice. employees’ satisfaction with ratings was positively related to distributive justice and a positive relationship between interactional justice and satisfaction with the latter. they have also found a significant relationship between distributive justice and satisfaction with feedback. brown and benson (2003, p. 76) conducted a study among employees in a large public sector research institution in australia to investigate the relationship between procedural justice, distributive justice and performance ratings. their results indicate that both distributive and procedural justice are negatively and statistically related to emotional exhaustion while higher ratings by supervisors are associated with higher levels of emotional exhaustion. the results indicate that pa systems that are perceived to have fair processes and that generate fair outcomes are associated with lower emotional exhaustion. kavanagh, benson and brown (2007, p. 133) investigated the role of employees’ participation, attitudes towards the supervisors and knowledge of the pa system in promoting employees’ perceptions of pa fairness. their results show that higher levels of two-way communication and involvement in the setting of objectives have a significant and positive effect on pa fairness. the perceived neutrality in the conduct of the pa by the supervisor has a significantly positive effect on pa fairness. lastly, knowledge of the appraisal system was measured using three variables, namely the levels of clarity, understanding and acceptance of objectives of the pa system. each of these variables has a positive and significant influence on perceived fairness. the study by dewettinck and van dijk (2013, p. 816) revealed the following: more frequent formal appraisal reviews have a positive effect on pm effectiveness; the frequency of informal performance reviews is positively related to pms effectiveness; performance reviews that focus more on employee development are associated with higher levels of pms effectiveness than performance reviews that focus more on performance evaluations; and positive relationships exist between high levels of participation and the pms effectiveness. the factors that are considered to influence the fairness of the appraisal system are appraisers’ knowledge, employee participation, clear goal establishment, employee development, goal establishment, appraisal follow-up and goal discussion. these factors are based on the questionnaire developed and validated by evans and mcshane (1988). appraiser’s knowledge saeed and shahbaz (2011, p. 58) identify an important additional factor that influences the perceived fairness of the appraisal system. this factor relates to employees’ knowledge of how they are doing, their dread at receiving appraisals and managers who may despise assessing them. according to them, this factor will result in the system failing because it forces ranking and pits people against each other, which ultimately results in damage to teamwork and the achievement of the broader group goals. also, the system mixes monetary and other rewards with development improvement goals, therefore creating conflicting objectives (do i want to get the highest rating or acknowledge skills gaps that i could improve on in the future). managers need ample training to set realistic goals and provide meaningful feedback and coaching (smither & london, 2009, p. 73). armstrong (2009, p. 631) found that many employees feel that their managers are not skilled enough to discuss their performance and coach them on how to improve their performance and that the attitudes of managers and employees result in poor performance management. furthermore, armstrong (2009, p. 631) indicates that it is sometimes difficult for managers to give their employees a bad rating during the appraisal interview because they are unable to justify their criticisms, which may be an experience that managers do not want to go through. therefore, it is much easier for managers to simply give an average rating on the scale and hope the employee will improve somehow. however, this strategy can lead to rating drift, where managers are happy to raise the rating of their employees but never reduce the ratings, even when justified. nel et al. (2011, p. 418) support these findings and mention that performance evaluations are fraught and dangerous because employees become optimistic knowing that increases, career progress and peace of mind may well rest on how they are rated. unclear standards will always create problems in performance management. managers should receive training in supervision skills, coaching and counselling, conflict resolution, setting performance standards, linking the system to pay and how to provide feedback to subordinates (appelbaum, roy & gilliland, 2011, p. 573). employee participation narcisse and harcourt (2008, p. 1160) found that ‘employee participation in setting standards is highly uncommon’, as many participants in their study complained that standards were lacking and wanted more involvement in standard setting. employee participation in such discussions means that each employee knows what the standards are, and performance limitations are taken into consideration when setting realistic targets. pettijohn, pettijohn, taylor and keillor (2001) postulate that pas can be used to improve employees’ levels of job satisfaction, organisational commitment and work motivation, but only if there are perceptions of fairness and participation. according to messer and white (2006), employees’ perceptions of fairness can affect their behaviour in contributing to organisational goals. in this regard, perceived unfairness and ineffectiveness of the pa process can result in employees not being productive and showing some negativity towards the system. vasset, marnburg and furunes (2011) further explain that many organisations are unable to examine the importance of participation in pa and that there are mixed effects because they fail to recognise the complexity of the phenomenon. researchers indicate that managers must support their subordinates in self-determination and must understand and acknowledge their needs, feelings and attitudes. employee development boachie-mensah and seidu (2012, p. 73) state that employees are likely to embrace and contribute meaningfully to a given pa system if they perceive it to be an opportunity for promotion or an avenue for personal development. they may also perceive it to be a chance to be visible and demonstrate skills and abilities, as well as an opportunity to network with others in the organisation. the authors’ further outline that pas will be effective if the process is clearly explained and agreed upon by the people involved. also, a successful appraisal is based on employee motivation, attitude and behaviour development; communicating and aligning individual and organisational aims; and fostering positive relationships between management and employees. clear goal establishment and discussion during the goal-setting stage, individuals should be informed of and understand the organisational goals and objectives and should determine their own goals within this context (gruman & saks, 2011, p. 128). the organisational goals should be cascaded down to departmental and individual goals. gruman and saks (2011, p. 128) argue that goals be extremely important for initiating the employee engagement process, because, they say, goals always stimulate energy and allow employees to focus and develop feelings of being engaged. the findings of a study conducted in public sector institutions in the netherlands indicate that the definition of clear and measurable goals is positively associated with both quantity performance (efficiency, production targets) as well as quality performance (accuracy, innovation, employee morale) (verbeeten, 2008, p. 442). locke and latham (2002) state that goals drive performance because they affect employees’ direction, effort and persistence. this means that where there is direction, employees will focus their attention on the action that will bring about goal establishment. similarly, goals will lead employees to adjust and persist in their efforts and stimulate the development of task strategies to attain the goals. goals should be specific and not difficult. in other words, a specific and challenging goal lead to higher performance than general goals such as ‘do your best’. it may be presumed that participating in goal setting enhances its effectiveness, and goal setting is likely to be more effective when people participate in setting goals than when goals are assigned to them (seijts & latham, 2005). managers and employees must set performance standards and targets that are smart (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-limited) (stredwick, 2005, p. 297). appraisal follow-up aguinis (2009, p. 226) explains that follow-up or feedback to pa is a very challenging stage during which many supervisors who manage performance often feel uncomfortable, especially about performance reviews, because managing performance requires that they judge and coach at the same time. the results of a study conducted by culbertson et al. (2013, p. 191) reveal that positive feedback is positively related to pa satisfaction while negative feedback is negatively related to pa satisfaction. furthermore, aguinis (2009, p. 226) mentions that performance reviews are very important as they allow employees to improve their performance through the identification of performance problems and their solutions. when standards and targets are set, there will be a differentiation between good and bad performance. however, if pa gaps are found in the employee’s goals and actual performance, this should be discussed and feedback must be given to the employee. the manager must be able to find the root causes of performance gaps. it is important to maintain this pattern of give-and-take with the employee because it will lead to the identification of the source of the problem. identifying the source of the performance gaps will, in most cases, create an atmosphere of objectivity in which both parties can contribute in positive ways. nel et al. (2011, p. 301) suggest that when problems are being identified in assessing performance standards, specific goals and timetables should be established for improvement. they are of the view that employees should be given the opportunity to respond to negative appraisals and to give their version of the facts. this may minimise complaints and will help employees to participate in the pa process. employees must also be given the opportunity to appeal their ratings to ensure a fair system and be provided with a real opportunity to respond to their ratings. method research approach most research on the effectiveness of pmss followed a quantitative approach. therefore, a quantitative research approach was used for this study. quantitative research is used to answer questions about the relationships among measured variables with the purpose of explaining, predicting and controlling phenomena (leedy & omrod, 2005, p. 94). quantitative research is concerned with the responses of participants. therefore, an explanatory design was used to find answers to the research questions. a cross-sectional survey design was used to gather primary data from the participants to achieve the objectives of the study. according to babbie (2004, p. 89), a cross-sectional survey is defined as a study based on observations representing a single point in time. this study was conducted using a quantitative explanatory paradigm enabling the researchers to generate statistical analysis to investigate the objectives of this study. various other studies have also opted to follow a quantitative survey design approach to measure employees’ perceptions of the effectiveness and fairness of performance management (dewettinck & van dijk, 2013; hanes & st-onge, 2012; ramulumisi et al., 2015; sharma et al., 2016). research design research participants the population in this study comprised 140 permanent and fixed-term contract employees in the department of training at a south african public institution in mahikeng, north-west province. a census was done on the total population. in total, 140 questionnaires were distributed and 81 responses were received from the population of 140. this is a response rate of 58%. the age group that provided the largest response was between the 35and 44-year group (48.1%), 59.3% of the responses were women, 56.8% were employed between 5 and 9 years, 42.5% were from the assets and facilities department and 54.3% occupied a general position. measuring instruments two constructs were consequently measured, namely the effectiveness of the pms and fairness of the pa. the questionnaire was divided into three sections, namely: section a: biographical information, section b: performance management system effectiveness and section c: performance appraisal fairness. performance management system effectiveness questionnaire the pmseq (performance management system effectiveness questionnaire) was compiled from three organisational factors that influence the effectiveness of pms. the questionnaire focused on three organisational factors and consisted of 12 items that measure the effectiveness of the pms, namely employee involvement, performance-oriented culture and management commitment. the instrument was validated in a study by mansor et al. (2012, p. 588). the cronbach’s alpha values in their study were as follows: factor 1 (employee involvement), 0.84; factor 2 (performance-oriented culture), 0.81; and factor 3 (management commitment), 0.81. cronbach’s alpha values > 0.70 showed that all the items were statistically reliable and that the entire test was internally consistent. the pmseq reported the following cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the subscales of the instrument used in this study, namely employee involvement (0.732), performance-oriented culture (0.204) and management commitment (0.704) (see table 1). table 1: cronbach’s alpha for three subscales of the effectiveness of the performance management system scale. the performance-oriented culture construct was found to be unreliable and was excluded from the data analysis. this performance management system effectiveness scale reported a cronbach’s alpha of 0.616 for the instrument’s reliability. the performance management system effectiveness questionnaire contains the following components: employee involvement (five items) performance-oriented culture (four items) management commitment (three items). a 5-point likert scale was utilised to measure participants’ perceptions of the pmse ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). performance appraisal fairness questionnaire this instrument aims to measure the employee’s perceptions of the fairness of pa. the instrument was validated by a study done by evans and mcshane (1988). in their study, the cronbach’s alpha values for the six variables ranged from 0.64 to 0.88, thus confirming that the items used for the different factors were reliable and valid. the performance appraisal fairness questionnaire (pafq) used in this study reported the following cronbach’s alphas for the subscales: appraiser knowledge (0.746), employee participation (0.857), employee development (0.637), goal establishment (0.828), appraisal follow-up (0.886) and goal discussion (0.617). this performance appraisal fairness scale reported a cronbach’s alpha of 0.917 for the instrument’s reliability (see table 2). table 2: cronbach’s alpha for the six subscales of the performance appraisal fairness scale. the pafq contains the following components: appraiser’s knowledge (five items) employee participation (five items) employee development (four items) goal establishment (three items) appraisal follow-up (two items) goal discussion (two items). thus, the pafq consists of 21 close-ended questions. the employees’ perceptions of the appraisal fairness were indicated on a 5-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). to prevent response bias, the wording of four items have been negatively worded and was reversed scored. research procedure the primary researcher was granted permission by the director-general to distribute questionnaires to all employees of the public sector institution. the questionnaires were distributed via email. the completed questionnaires were returned to the researcher by hand and via the intranet. the questionnaires have been circulated to participants with an attached letter of consent explaining the purpose of the study. the letter of consent included a description of the research, protection of confidentiality and voluntary participation, the importance of participation, potential benefits and contact information for the researcher. the general instructions on how to complete the questionnaire were also included. the collection of data took place over a period of 3 weeks. this allowed participants with enough time to complete questionnaires at their convenience. statistical analysis data were analysed using the statistical package for social sciences (spss – version 22). descriptive statistics were analysed by determining the minimum and maximum scores, means and standard deviations (sds). cronbach’s alpha reliabilities were analysed to determine the internal consistency and reliability of the questionnaires. an independent t-test was conducted to compare the mean perception scores on the effectiveness of the pms and pa fairness between the male and female employees. analysis of variance (anova) was conducted to compare the mean perception scores of employees’ of the effectiveness of the pms and pa fairness between age groups, departments and positions occupied. the pearson product–moment correlation coefficient was used to measure the strength of the relationship between perceptions of employees on the effectiveness of the pms and pa fairness. results four control variables were included in the analysis: gender was included as a dichotomous variable; age group was measured on a 5-point scale ranging from less than 25–55 years and over; department was measured on a 5-point scale based on the actual number of departments and position was measured on a 3-point scale based on the actual job titles. descriptive statistics (the overall mean and sd) for each of the two organisational factors are depicted in table 3. table 3: means and standard deviations for the two organisational factors and average mean for the performance management system scale. the mean score for employee involvement (1.72) was lower than the mid-point of the range, suggesting that employees were not involved with or engaged in the pms. the mean score for management commitment (2.88) was slightly higher than the mid-point of the range, indicating that on average employees perceived management commitment to be moderately effective. the mean score for the effectiveness of the pms (2.33) was slightly lower than the mid-point of the range indicating that on average the employees assessed their pms to be ineffective. the following mean scores were returned on the subscales for the six factors related to pa fairness: appraiser’s knowledge, 2.50; employee participation, 2.10; employee development, 2.35; goal establishment, 2.09; appraisal follow-up, 1.80; and goal discussion, 2.32 (see table 4). the overall mean score for the scale was 2.19. except for the appraiser’s knowledge subscale all the subscales and scale obtained mean scores that were lower than the mid-point of the range indicated that, on average, the employees perceived their pa to be unfair. table 4: means and standard deviations for the six factors and mean score for the performance appraisal scale. an independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare the mean perception scores for the effectiveness of the pms with the fairness of the appraisal process between men and women. there were no significant differences in the perception scores for either the pms effectiveness or pa fairness between men and women. one-way between-groups anovas were conducted to explore the impact of different age groups, departments and positions on the perceptions of the effectiveness of the pms and pa fairness. there were no statistically significant differences in the mean scores of the four age groups, departments and positions regarding the perception levels of the pms. however, there was a statistically significant difference at the p < 0.05 level of the pa fairness scores between the five departments (f [4, 76] = 4.7, p = 0.002). post hoc comparisons using the scheffe test indicated that the mean score for the human resources department (m = 2.75, sd = 0.64) was significantly different from the assets and facilities department (m = 1.91, sd = 0.68). there was also a statistically significant difference at the p < 0.05 level of the pa fairness scores between the three positions (f [2, 78] = 9.15, p = 0.000), where the mean score for the manager position (m = 2.62, sd = 0.43) was significantly different from the general position (m = 1.94, sd = 0.64). the mean score for the professional position (m = 2.46, sd = 0.53) was also significantly different from the general position (m = 1.94, sd = 0.64). the relationship between the mean perception scores for the effectiveness of the pms and pa fairness was investigated using the pearson product–moment correlation coefficient. there was a small positive correlation between the two variables (r = 0.204, n = 81, p < 0.001) with lower levels for the perception scores on the effectiveness of the pms associated with lower levels for the perception scores on pa fairness. discussion outline of results the results of the study point to serious shortcomings in the implementation of the pms and the pa process. the purpose of the first research question was to measure employees’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the pms. the perceived effectiveness of the pms was measured regarding two organisational factors, namely employee involvement and management commitment. the low mean perception score for the employee involvement subscale revealed that employees are not involved in the development of the pms. the results from tung et al. (2011, p. 1296) also show low employee participation levels in the pms and reveal that top management support is associated with the effectiveness of the pms. the employees perceived top management support and commitment to be moderately effective. however, the average mean score of the scale indicated that employees assessed their pms to be ineffective. the second research question sought to measure employees’ perceptions of the fairness of their pas. the mid-point mean score for appraiser’s knowledge of pa indicated that employees’ perceptions were neutral. the lower than mid-point mean scores for the employee participation, employee development, goal establishment and appraisal follow-up subscales and total scale indicated that there was a lack of participation in the pa process. also, pas were not done for development purposes, and performance follow-ups or feedback sessions were not conducted on a regular basis. furthermore, employees were not involved in goal setting. the low overall mean score for the scale indicated that employees’ perceived their pas to be unfair. the third research question aimed to investigate if there is a difference in the mean perception scores of the effectiveness of the pms and pa fairness between men and women, and different age groups, departments and positions. the control variables gender, age group, department and position showed no significant difference in the mean perception scores for the effectiveness of the pms. however, the mean perception scores for pa fairness for the assets and facilities department were significantly lower than those of the human resources department. this is indicative of some deficiencies in the appraisal process in the assets and facilities department. respondents occupying general positions returned significantly lower mean scores for pa fairness compared to those in managerial and professional positions, which indicates serious shortcomings in their appraisal process. the fourth research question sought to establish if there is a correlation between the mean perception scores for the effectiveness of the pms and pa fairness. there was a small positive correlation between the two variables, with low perception scores for the effectiveness of the pms associated with low perception scores for pa fairness. the pms includes pas as a subset. therefore, pms cannot be effective if the appraisal process is perceived to be unfair. practical implications this study has identified significant deficiencies in the implementation and practice of the pms and pa fairness by line managers. the findings of this research show that managers should improve employee involvement to ensure the effectiveness of the pms. the findings also revealed shortcomings regarding how managers conduct pas such as a lack of participation in the pa process, pas did not contribute to the development of employees, feedback was not given on a regular basis and employees were not involved in goal setting. these shortcomings should be addressed to ensure that employees perceive the pa process to be fair. limitations and recommendations regarding future research, it is recommended that employee perceptions from other public sector institutions be studied to obtain a more representative sample. future research should also focus on additional organisational factors that may influence the effectiveness of the pms, such as performance training, employee recognition, stakeholder involvement, internal resources and the link between performance and rewards. future research should also include the influence of other factors, such as communication and interpersonal relations between line managers and employees, self-efficacy of line managers, charismatic leadership, procedural justice, distributive and interactional justice and trust in line managers especially concerning the perceived fairness of pa. conclusion line managers in public sector institutions need to understand their roles and responsibilities in the implementation and practice of pmss and pas. the findings showed that employees perceived the pms to be ineffective. employees should be involved with and engaged in the design of the pms. the lack of employee participation in the appraisal process, the fact that appraisals are not conducted with a developmental goal, the absence of clear performance standards and goals and the fact that the determination of organisational and individual objectives is not based on agreement between managers and employees all contribute to employees’ perceptions that the pa process is unfair. the results indicate that employees seem to be informed of and knowledgeable on the performance management directive and view the pms as a suitable tool to evaluate the performance of individuals. therefore, the pms policy and practical guidelines are perceived to be effective, but the implementation and practice by line managers are characterised by significant shortcomings. the aims of the current study were to provide an empirical analysis of the association between two organisational factors (namely employee involvement and management commitment) and the effectiveness of the pms and to investigate the factors that determine employees’ perceptions of pa fairness. the results indicate that employees perceive their pms to be ineffective and their pas to be unfair. this research study adds to the body of knowledge by quantifying the perceptions of employees regarding the two organisational factors that influence the effectiveness of the pms and the six factors that influence pa fairness. the quantification of these perceptions will enable line managers to develop and implement remedial strategies to ensure the effectiveness of the pms and fairness of the pa process. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions p.a.b. was the academic supervisor and responsible for the design of the project and wrote this article. m.m. was the principle investigator responsible for the fieldwork. s.s. was responsible for the literature review. references aguinis, a. (2009). performance management. (2nd edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson prentice hall. ahmad, r., & azman ali, n. (2004). performance appraisal decision in malaysian public service. international journal of public sector management, 17(1), 48–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513550410515565 ahmed, i., ramzan, m., mohammad, s.k., & islam, t. (2011). relationship between perceived fairness in performance appraisal and ocb: mediating role of organizational commitment. international journal of academic research, 3(5), 15–20. appelbaum, s.h., roy, m., & gilliland, t. (2011). globalization of performance appraisals: theory and applications. management decision, 49(4), 570–585. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00251741111126495 armstrong, m. (2009). armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. (11th edn.). london: kogan page. babbie, e. (2004). the practice of social research. (10th edn.). walworth, wi: thomson learning inc. boachie-mensah, f.o., & seidu, p.a. (2012). employee’s perception of performance appraisal system: a case study. international journal of business and management, 7(2), 73–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v7n2p73 brown, m., & benson, j. (2003). rated to exhaustion? reactions to performance appraisal processes. industrial relations journal, 34(1), 67–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2338.00259 brown, m., hyatt, d., & benson, j. (2010). consequences of the performance appraisal experience. personnel review, 39(3), 375–396. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00483481011030557 culbertson, s.s., henning, j.b., & payne, s.c. (2013). performance appraisal satisfaction. journal of personnel psychology, 12(4), 189–195. http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/1866-5888/a000096 deb, t. (2008). performance appraisal and management concepts, antecedents and implication. new dehli: excel printers. dewettinck, k., & van dijk, h. (2013). linking belgian employee performance management system characteristics with performance management system effectiveness: exploring the mediating role of fairness. the international journal of human resource management, 24(4), 806–825. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.700169 evans, e.m., & mcshane, s.l. (1988). employee perceptions of performance appraisal fairness in two organizations. canadian journal of behavioural science, 20(2), 177. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0079926 farndale, e., & kelliher, c. (2013). implementing performance appraisal: exploring the employee experience. human resource management, 52(6), 879–897. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21575 fryer, k., antony, j., & ogden, s. (2009). performance management in the public sector. international journal of public sector management, 22(6), 478–498. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513550910982850 goh, s.c. (2012). making performance measurement systems more effective in public sector organizations. measuring business excellence, 16(1), 31–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13683041211204653 greenberg, j. (1986). determinants of perceived fairness of performance evaluations. journal of applied psychology, 71(2), 340. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.71.2.340 gruman, j.a., & saks, a.m. (2011). performance management and employee engagement. human resource management review, 21(2), 123–136. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2010.09.004 haines, v.y., iii, & st-onge, s. (2012). performance management effectiveness: practices or context? the international journal of human resource management, 23(6), 1158–1175. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.561230 human resources directive (hrd.11). (2011). integrated performance management system (ipms). kavanagh, p., benson, j., & brown, m. (2007). understanding performance appraisal fairness. asia pacific journal of human resources, 45(2), 132–150. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1038411107079108 leedy, p.n., & ormrod, j.e. (2005). practical research. (8th edn.). upper saddle river, new jersey: pearson merrill prentice hall. locke, e.a., & latham, g.p. (2002). building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: a 35-year odyssey. american psychologist, 57(9), 705. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.57.9.705 mansor, n.n.a., chakraborty, a.r., yin, t.k., & mahitapoglu, z. (2012). organizational factors influencing performance management system in higher educational institution of south east asia. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 40, 584–590. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.03.234 martin, s., & davis, h. (2001). what works and for whom? the competing rationalities of ‘best value’. policy & politics, 29(4), 465–475. http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/0305573012501477 mcadam, r., hazlett, s.a., & casey, c. (2005). performance management in the uk public sector: addressing multiple stakeholder complexity. international journal of public sector management, 18(3), 256–273. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513550510591542 messer, b.a., & white, f.a. (2006). employees’ mood, perceptions of fairness, and organizational citizenship behavior. journal of business and psychology, 21(1), 65–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10869-005-9018-x narcisse, s., & harcourt, m. (2008). employee fairness perceptions of performance appraisal: a saint lucian case study. the international journal of human resource management, 19(6), 1152–1169. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190802051451 nel, p.s., werner, a., poisat, p., sono, t., du plessis, a., & ngalo, o. (2011). human resource management. (8th edn.). cape town: oxford university press. palaiologos, a., papazekos, p., & panayotopoulou, l. (2011). organizational justice and employee satisfaction in performance appraisal. journal of european industrial training, 35(8), 826–840. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090591111168348 pettijohn, c., pettijohn, l.s., taylor, a.j., & keillor, b.d. (2001). are performance appraisals a bureaucratic exercise or can they be used to enhance sales-force satisfaction and commitment? psychology & marketing, 18(4), 337–364. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.1011 poister, t.h. (2008). measuring performance in public and nonprofit organizations. san francisco, ca: john wiley & sons. pulakos, e.d. (2004). performance management: a roadmap for developing, implementing and evaluating performance management systems. alexandria, va: shrm foundation. ramulumisi, t.v., schultz, c.m., & jordaan, c.j. (2015). perceived effectiveness of a performance management system. journal of contemporary management, 12, 517–543. rowland, c.a., & hall, r.d. (2013). perceived unfairness in appraisal: engagement and sustainable organizational performance. euromed journal of business, 8(3), 195–208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/emjb-06-2013-0034 saeed, m.k., & shahbaz, n. (2011). employees’ perceptions about the effectiveness of performance appraisals: the case of pakistan. siu journal of management, 1(1), 58–59. sanger, m.m. (2008). from measurement to management: breaking through the barriers state and local performance. public administration review, 68(1), 70–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2008.00980.x seijts, g.h., & latham, g.p. (2005). learning versus performance goals: when should each be used? the academy of management executive, 19(1), 124–131. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/ame.2005.15841964 selden, s., & sowa, j.e. (2011). performance management and appraisal in human service organizations: management and staff perspectives. public personnel management, 40(3), 251–264. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/009102601104000305 sharma, n.p., sharma, t., & agarwal, m.n. (2016). measuring employee perception of performance management system effectiveness: conceptualization and scale development. employee relations, 38(2), 224–247. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/er-01-2015-0006 smither, j.w., & london, m. (eds.). (2009). performance management: putting research into action (vol. 21). san francisco, ca: john wiley & sons. sole, f. (2009). a management model and factors driving performance in public organizations. measuring business excellence, 13(4), 3–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13683040911006747 stredwick, j. (2005). an introduction to human resource management. (2nd edn.). london: elsevier ltd. swanepoel, b.j., erasmus, b.j., & schenk, h.w. (2009). south african human resource management theory and practice. (4th edn.). cape town: juta & co ltd. tung, a., baird, k., & schoch, h.p. (2011). factors influencing the effectiveness of performance measurement systems. international journal of operations & production management, 31(12), 1287–1310. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01443571111187457 tuytens, m., & devos, g. (2012). importance of system and leadership in performance appraisal. personnel review, 41(6), 756–776. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00483481211263692 vasset, f., marnburg, e., & furunes, t. (2010). employees’ perceptions of justice in performance appraisals: frøydis vasset and colleagues present a research study into the perceptions of justice in performance appraisals by nurses and auxiliary nurses in norway’s municipal health service. nursing management, 17(2), 30–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.7748/nm2010.05.17.2.30.c7727 vasset, f., marnburg, e., & furunes, t. (2011). the effects of performance appraisal in the norwegian municipal health services: a case study. human resources health, 9(1), 1–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1478-4491-9-22 verbeeten, f.h. (2008). performance management practices in public sector organizations: impact on performance. accounting, auditing & accountability journal, 21(3), 427–454. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513570810863996 6stephen.qxd the problem until 1989, south african tertiary institutions were developed to meet the needs of particular race groups. a quota system allowed a maximum of 8% of “other” race groups than white to register as students. once this quota was abolished, there was a significant influx of other race groups, especially to the historically white institutions. while in some cases white enrolments dropped (committee of technikon principals, 1998), there was a rapid increase in black enrolments, such that fourie and naude-de jager (1992) predicted that by 2010, 81% of higher education students would be black. this sudden demographic change led to a variety of problems for which most institutions appeared to be unprepared (zaaiman, van der flier and thys, 1998). a major concern in this regard was the unacceptably high failure rate of these new students. indeed, compared to an ideal average of about 33%, south africa produced an average graduation rate of 15% – and cost taxpayers r1,3 billion in subsidies (anstey, 2003). the wastage in time, effort and money is such that this cannot be allowed to continue. neither can the high dropout rates and the readmission of students who take five or six years to complete a three year qualification. it became obvious that many of these students had little potential for academic success (huysamen, 1996; huysamen & raubenheimer, 1999), and simply clogged up the system. to make matters worse, the nonpayment of fees put extra financial stress on institutions (stuart, 1998). it was also obvious that, while the pass rates for all race groups could be much improved, the black students’ pass rates were by far the worst. in 1998 the examination committee of the tertiary institution reported a 77,4 % pass rate for white students, compared with a 47,8 % pass rate for black students. the results of the indian and “coloured” students fell somewhere between these figures. this then begs the question: how did these students gain entry to institutions of higher education, and what must be done to ensure that only candidates with reasonable potential for academic success are admitted. it is the perception of the writers that high levels of english language proficiency are a critical factor in achieving academic success. file (1986, p. 28) stated that” academic ability and performance are massively affected by class”, while blacquierie (1989) hypothesises that because of their impoverished backgrounds, especially black students, particularly in english language proficiency (specifically reading speeds and levels of understanding of subject content) “have missed out on the academic experiences which are necessary to develop some of the concepts and schema they need to deal with tertiary studies”. in effect, white, wealthy, urbanised english-speaking students tend to obtain the best results, and black, poor, rural students the worst. in addition, english first language students consistently outperform their english second language counterparts (miller, bradbury & wessels, 1997). while the transition from school to higher education is fairly traumatic, it is probably more traumatic for black students, as it represents a transition into a comparatively alien socio-economic environment (fraser, 1992; badenhorst, foster & lea, 1993); one in which the tuition, the text books, the tests and examinations are all in english – yet the students are english second language students (parsons, 1993). if a student has difficult y understanding the language of instruction, the potential for academic success is at best circumscribed. thus it is hypothesised that for black students in higher education to succeed academically, higher levels of english language proficiency are required. indeed, “language proficiency pervades every area” (cummins, 1984, p. 132), and language proficiency “is the most important single moderator of test performance” (van den berg, 1996, in van eeden, de beer & coetzee, 2001, p. 171). the trouble is that, while academic staff may consider english as a major cause of academic difficulties, students often feel that they experience few problems with english language (dunstan & frescura, 2001). this indicates that many students have a low awareness of their specific problems in this regard. background to the problem traditionally, entry to south african higher education institutions has been through the possession of a matriculation school-leaving certificate. in general, subject grades are awarded points and, if sufficient points are obtained and, in some cases, specific subject pass requirements are met, then there is a high potential for acceptance. the use of matric symbols appears to df stephen jc welman wj jorda an department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract the aim of this investigation was to ascertain the impact of english language proficiency on academic success of first-year black and indian students in human resources management at a tertiary institution. students enrolled for the period between 1996 and 2002 were included in the study. statistical tests of differences between means were conducted. significantly, the indian group exhibited superior english language proficiency levels, compared to their black counterparts. the hypothesis that english language proficiency is associated with academic success appears to be substantially correct. opsomming die doel van die ondersoek was om die impak van engelse taalvaardigheid op akademiese sukses van swart en indiese eerstejaarstudente in menslike hulpbronbestuur aan ’n tersiêre instelling te ondersoek. studente wat vir die periode tussen 1996 en 2002 ingeskryf was, is in die studie betrek. statistiese toetse vir verskille tussen gemiddeldes is toegepas. die indiese groep het beduidend beter taalvaardigheid as hulle swart eweknieë openbaar. die hipotese dat engelse taalvaardigheid met akademiese sukses verband hou, blyk substantief korrek te wees. english language proficiency as an indicator of academic performance at a tertiary institution requests for copies should be addressed to: df stephen, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 42 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (3), 42-53 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (3), 42-53 be a controversial topic, with different researchers providing somewhat different results. this is a traditional system which has been used successfully for many years, “a surprisingly excellent indicator of subsequent academic success” ((badenhorst, foster and lea, 1990, p. 40; potter & van der merwe, 1993; jawitz, 1995). however, it is a less than consistent predictor for black students (welman, 2000), and it is suggested that in their case “matriculation cannot be taken as a true reflection of their academic potential” (skuy, zolezzi, mentis, fridjohn & cockcroft, 1996, p. 110). similarly the use of psychometric testing is mired in controversy (miller, 1992; huysamen 1996; huysamen 1997; goldstein, 2001). following the downward trend in matriculation results (to a low of 47% in 1997 – bissetty, 2001), there has been a steady increase in pass rates but, once again, the “wealthier” provinces appear to obtain better results. even these improved results mask the fact that black pass rates in mathematics and science in government schools are low (13% and 14% at standard grade respectively), thus precluding the majority of students from entering most commerce and science courses. the improved pass rates have also been criticised by professor jonathan jansen, who suggested that standards may have been modified (jansen, 2003; oliver, 2003), resulting in many academically poor and under-prepared students gaining access to higher education. the school environment is all too often not conducive to learning. frequently under-resourced and lacking properly trained teachers – many of whom exhibit low morale – mismanagement and high crime levels are all simply negative factors (maluleke, 2002; ngidi, 2002), and in too many instances the culture of learning has been discarded (barnard, 1997). those who survive this system lack career guidance and as a result often do not register for courses suited to their needs or academic strengths: yet the objective of many is to obtain a qualification – any qualification – for which they can gain entry (nolte, heyns & venter, 1997). no commentary on the education system in south african can be complete without mentioning the effects of hiv/aids. the debilitating effects of this illness on teachers must affect their ability to be productive and contribute to the lowering of teaching standards. aids related deaths will cause ever greater shortages amongst specialist subject teachers – e.g. mathematics and sciences. in the kwazulu natal province an estimate (bisetty, 2003) put the infection rate of teachers at 35%. amongst students, an infection rate of one in four students tested in 1998 at the university of durban-westville (govender, 1999) was reported – by now it is probably higher. infected students have lowered vitality and increased failure potential, thus increasing their time of study and decreasing the length of their post-qualif ying careers. each highly skilled individual who dies of aids will cost an estimated r250 000 to replace (taitz, 2000). while it is easy to regard black students as victims, and in many cases they are, it must be remembered that many of these students were extremely militant, especially immediately pre and post 1994. they brought with them a carry-over from disruptive township schools and a culture of entitlement to higher education. demonstrations and “demands” were quite commonplace. these attitudes were often not well received by staff. in one case, the situation at one university was such that the (then) president mandela severely criticized their actions (vapi, 1998). many students suffer from feelings of alienation (keating, 1987), which impacts negatively on their learning: many come to lectures with a “you owe me something” attitude, and do not respond to questions or interact with staff (goduka, 1996). many black students are resentful of their inabilit y to cope with their courses (kilfoil, 1999), and blame the lecturing staff (ruth, 2000). they do not accept personal responsibilit y for their failure, and want everything handed to them on a place (goduka, 1996). most appear more interested in passing examinat ions than in acquiring knowledge (ruth, 2000). these attitudes are generally not well received by staff. to make matters worse, in most universities and technikons there were rapid increases in class size (ferreira, 1995), thus precluding the abilit y of lect uring staff to provide personalized attention to students in need. lecturers were generally slow to adapt their lect uring st yles, were increasingly forced to become good teachers (moulder, 1995), and in many cases put research on the back burner (barron, 1996; financial mail 2000), as they were forced to spend more time teaching under-prepared st udents information they should have learned at school. to meet the problem of under-prepared students, many institutions have initiated bridging programmes. their effectiveness is “spotty”: some have succeeded (de villiers & rwigema, 1998), while others suggest little or no positive outcomes (ferreira, 1995). it appears that such courses have greater potential for success if they are not “add on” courses, but are an integral aspect of courses offered (wood, 1997) in order to overcome student resistance and lack of commitment (kasanga, 1999). central to these bridging courses is english comprehension, leading to the ability to transfer skills from one discipline to another (kilfoil, 1996). it is also necessary to identif y students “at risk” as early as possible, so that remedial action can be taken. potter and van der merwe (1998) suggest that first year assessment tests are excellent indicators, while pantages and creedon (1978) and coen, reichgott and spencer (1991) suggest that the best indicators of future success are the first semester examinations. factors influencing student success academic success is not purely the application of intellectual capacit y. many factors directly or indirectly affect academic success. in this section influencing factors, especially as they apply to either black or english second language students, will be considered. a schematic diagram indicating the various inf luencing factors and how they inter-relate is provided in figure 1. non-completion rates appear to be of universal concern: pantages and creedon (1978) indicate 50% dropout rates in the usa; in canada, johnson and buck (1995) report that even after an additional year of study, 42% of students still fail to complete their qualification, while in the united kingdom, johnes and taylor (1989) found significant variations in completion rates of up to 22%. there appears to be agreement that social and academic integration is critical to success (tinto, 1997; blustein, judd, krom, viniar, padilla, widemeyer & williams, 1986; johnson & buck, 1995), which has a direct influence on levels of persistence and motivation (stage & williams, 1990). the better the people/environment fit, the greater the potential for success (pascarella, terenzini & wolfle, 1986). these factors would appear to be critical in relation to black south african students, given the considerable dislocation they encounter when entering higher education and the high levels of alienation often felt by these students. in many cases poor school leaving results and poor first test results simply reinforce a downward spiral of discouragement , often leading to dropout (king, 1995). english language proficiency 43 the main moderating factors include: english language proficiency of english second language (esl) students vinke and jochems (1993) indicate that the lower the level of english proficiency, the more important it becomes in defining academic achievements, while barker (1988) indicates that while students may be able to speak english, they still do not operate at maximum capacity because of the language barrier. in australia, holder, jones, robinson and krass (1999) state that most esl students lack literacy skills for successful university study. the critical impact of english proficiency cannot be underestimated: most black st udents have problems pertaining to reading and writing abilit y. most read at 174 words per minute with 62% understanding, compared with 240 words per minute and 70% understanding for students (blacquierie, 1989). craig and kernoff (1995) are more pessimistic, indicating that only 2% of blacks read at the independent level (60% comprehension or better), while 67% scored at the frustration level (less than 40% comprehension); the rest (37%) required assistance. intelligence high levels of intelligence are prerequisites for academic success. in the united states of america, the grade point average (gpa) – the student’s school leaving average – is regarded as an exceptional indicator of academic success (blustein, et al, 1986; jones 1990). in europe, van overwalle (1989) and in england, johnes and taylor (1980) also found that school leaving results are the best indicator of fut ure academic success. however, ‘minorit y’ (black) students do not appear to perform well in this area and in the united states of america, routinely score one standard deviation below their white counterparts (shochet, 1994; linn, 1990; huysamen & raubenheimer, 1999). note that many of these (black) students are from lower socio-economic backgrounds, thus the similarities to black students in south africa are obvious. degree of urbanisation little attention appears to have been given to this topic. in the usa, pantages and creedon (1978) and spady (1971) indicated that high dropout rates were associated with st udents from rural areas/small towns, while in australia, stevens and walker (1996) agreed, indicating that st udents from rural communities found universities a “lonely and alienating place” where considerable social support was required. in south africa, both dawes, yeld and smith (1999) and miller (1989) note the differences between rural and urban studentsand made the point that urban, high socio-economic groups out-perform low income rural groups of students. family circumstances this factor appears to exert significant impact on student survivabilit y. in general, the lower the socio-economic background, the greater the potential for dropout/failure (pascarella, terezini and wolfle, 1986). the education of parents appears to be a signficant factor: highly educated parents’ children appear to have greater success/survivability potential (pantages & creedon, 1978). in lower socio-economic areas where less social integration with other races and culture groups takes place, afro-americans especially had considerable difficult y ‘fitting into’ university culture (loo & rolinson, 1986). this phenomenon is not confined to the usa – in ghana, the children of educated, successful urban dwellers had five times the success potential of their rural, agricult ural contemporaries (huysamen, 1996). the impact of these influences on the success potential of black students in south africa is obvious. last school attended in general, there appears considerable evidence to support the thesis that good schools produce good universit y students, as the students are better prepared for the jump to higher education (johnes & taylor 1989; pantages & creedon 1978). the link between family circumstances and the type of school attended is obvious. parents of high socio-economic class can send their children to better schools, with smaller class size, better teachers, etc. and obtain better academic scores (huysamen, 1996; zaaiman, van der flier & thuys, 1998). file (1986) found that matric results were highly stratified along class lines and socio-economic background. the school attended reflects the degree of ‘westernisation’ to which the student is exposed: access to first-world culture, print-rich environments (von gruenewald, 1999), television (smit, 1991; lyons, 1992), are all existing in a favourable learning environment. stephen, welman, jorda an44 figure 1: some factors possibly influencing tertiary institution academic performance consequent upon english language facility factors influencing english language proficiency according to van eeden, de beer and coetzee (2001, p. 171),“reading proficiency is the most important moderator of test performance”. however, for the majority of (especially black) students, “the reading situation in south africa constitutes a national educational crisis” (pretorius 2002, p. 170). most black students pass matriculation english as a second language, often at standard rather than higher grade level. jansen (2003, p. 19) states that black students “receive marks for simply writing their names on the examination paper”, thus pushing through marginal students into higher education. as many of these students have to decode english into their mother tongue and then reinterpret their thoughts into english, considerable potential for misinterpretation occurs (mavundla & motimele, 2002). to this is added an inability to clearly express their thoughts in written form, all of which translates into high failure potential. such students need assistance to improve their literacy skills (holder, robinson & krass, 1999) in order to understand the ‘rules’ and conventions of academic discourse (amos & quinn, 1997). unless these deficits are assessed prior to entry, their potential for success is limited (farnill & hayes, 1996). weak english proficiency translates into a weak understanding of the subject content which, together with poor writing skills simply exacerbates the potential for failure (amos & quinn, 1997) as they are trapped in a vicious cycle of inadequacy. while they may be able to engage adequately in social conversation, the reading maturity levels of black students in south africa is extremely low. pretorius (2002), quotes, inter alia, only 18% functional literacy levels for gauteng technikons in 2000, and 95% applicants for a teacher’s training college reading at below grade 8 level. the problem appears to be especially acute in rural areas, where grade 8 students (average age 14,4 years) have the reading age of children aged 7,6 years. a study by starkey (1998) at a tertiary institution indicated that over 90% of black students lacked comprehension skills for successful completion of their courses. this doubtless translates into low examination pass rates (47,8% in 1997 – examinations committee the tertiary institution, 1998) and high levels of dropout, non-attendance of lectures, and early recognition of failure (maxwell, 1998). english language proficiency is inhibited by a variety of factors. these include: 1. rural environment. in some rural areas, english is almost a foreign language. where english proficiency exists as a literal rather than an inferrential level and where meaning interaction (souter, archer & rochford, 1992) with english is rare (jackson, 2000). 2. school teacher english proficiency. most black teachers are young, frequently inexperienced, and often under-qualified. although they are taught pedagogics, once in the classroom, they revert to the inefficient rote learning systems in which they were taught (nyamapfene & letseka, 1995). this approach results in high levels of student passivit y. questions are discouraged (blacquierie, 1989). once students from such an environment enter higher education, they are disadvantaged and often unable to adapt to the discourse-based environment in which they find themselves (wallace & adams, 1989; pickworth, 2001). to make matters worse, many rural teachers themselves have low levels of english proficiency and many operate only at the literal level. although they are required to teach in english, they teach in the vernacular and hand out summaries and notes in english which the students are required to (rote) learn (jackson, 2000). unless teacher english language proficiency improves, this situation is unlikely to improve as students have little to learn from their teachers. 3. cultural influences. many third-world students lack critical analytical reasoning power, given their background of rote learning, under-trained teachers, etc. not all speak english confidently (farnill & hayes, 1996). compared to their white counterparts, they are out of their depth in an alien culture. the situation in south africa is exacerbated by the orality of bantu languages: especially in an academic context, english is based more on the written word. orality, especially when reinforced by rigid learning and reasoning st yles (jordaan, 1995) hampers cognitive functioning in theoretical discourse: students have difficulty moving from a “right or wrong” to a “better or best” approach to problems (craig & kernoff, 1995). to compound an already inadequate situation, different cultural groups classif y information in different ways and produce different learning styles (van dyk & van dyk, 1993; de winter hebron, 1991). white, westernised students’ cultural background is appropriate to that found in textbooks: for the cultural milieu of the average black (especially rural) student, these texts are simply inappropriate. 4. learning and memorising strategies. in order to overcome the problems of inadequate english comprehension, many black students in order to survive, resort to rote learning strategies. although they may have been adequate for the school situation, these strategies are totally inappropriate to the higher education environment. rote learning results in a superficial approach – the ability to regurgitate information while frequently lacking in understanding or insight of what has been memorised, when what is needed is a deeper approach which requires the understanding and application of information (mji, 1999; pickworth, 2001). it is very difficult to wean students from years of passive learning, especially if students using this method are able to regurgitate huge chunks of information in order to avoid failure (meyer, dunn & sass, 1992). 5. problems regarding verbal comprehension. although black students use vernacular language for social situations, they recognise english as the language of education and commerce: thus it is the most practical choice as a medium of instruction (lazenby. 1996). while many black students are able to engage in general conversational english (to a greater or lesser degree), they lack the ability to express themselves in written form, or to handle the technicalities of subject matter (jiya, 1993). verbal comprehension is an essential prerequisite for written competency. if this is lacking, students either require an interpreter or simply withdraw and become uncooperative. in many cases, they feel overwhelmed by an environment in which everything is in english (jackson, 2000). 6. problems regarding transferability of language skills. on average, while it is possible to become reasonably proficient in social conversation in about two years, it takes five to seven years to become competent in verbal-academic skills (cummins, 1984). while some aspects of language are transferable to other languages – proficiency in one language facilitates proficiency in another as the basics of grammar, etc. have already been learned – an additional problem is that many black students have not become proficient in their home language (nyamapfene & letseka, 1995) and thus have little basic language skills on which to build. often illiterate in their own language (kilfoil, 1999), they regard english as just another subject to be learned and passed. thus they do not concentrate on developing english proficiency and are surprised when they cannot cope with the level of english proficiency required of them at post-school level. 7. problems regarding reading prof iciency. the ability to read rapidly and understand content is critical for academic success, yet south africans routinely perform poorly compared to the other countries (bohlman & pretorius, 2002). they suggest that the reason for this situation is english language proficiency 45 poor language proficiency. poor reading ability reduces comprehension levels. indeed, starfield (1990) indicates that declining english standards affect black students’ ability to cope in other school subjects. many black students ‘read the line’ with little comprehension or ability to draw inferences or conclusions from what has been read (souter, et al, 1992). this means that most black students read at the lowest level of reading – the frustration level (less than 90% decoding accuracy and 60% or less comprehension) when they should be operating at a minimum of instructional level and preferably at the independent level (ie: be skilled readers). bohlman and pretorius (2002) found that about half of the students in their study had less than 20 books in their homes and 40% didn’t read much beyond their study requirements. yet most were unaware of the low reading levels and that they were reading considerably below their instructional level. until this attitude changes, little can be done to improve the situation and such students will continue to regularly miss vital clues in texts, keep ‘missing the point’ of texts, and have problems with visual information (bohlman and pretorius, 2002). indeed, students may read a passage three or four times and still lack understanding (jiya, 1993). 8. problems related to written english. poor english language spoken and reading skills will impact adversely on english writing skills: these factors are inter-related. it is possible to be fairly fluent in spoken english but be inadequate in writing, and especially academic writing skills as two different types of skill are required. conversation skills are relatively undemanding and contextembedded: continuous, rapid feedback is provided to the speaker. these skills are known as basic interpersonal communication skills or bics. by comparison written academic language is cognitively demanding and context reduced. this is known as cognitive-academic language proficiency, or calp. despite high oral fluency (bics), black students are unlikely to be successful academically because they have inadequate calp skills (cummins, 1980 & 1984). miller, bradbury & wessels (1997) found that such students perform better on multiple choice questions (which rely on rote learning) rather than essay questions which require different skills – those of being able to present coherent, organised arguments, and the ability to distinguish between vital and trivial arguments. consequently, student inadequacies in writing coherent, organised assignments or essays frequently drives markers of such essays to distraction (orr, 1995; paxton, 1995; miller, 1996). calp skills must be formally developed and integrated as part of any post-school course if this situation is to be improved. research design having perused the literature and identified a variety of factors impacting on academic performance levels of first year students in the diploma: human resources management at a tertiary institution, the following research questions were identified. � to what extent is english language proficiency a predictor of academic success? is there a relationship between english language proficiency and academic success amongst black first year students of human resources management? � to what extent is english language proficiency influenced by a variety of personal and social factors? these factors include inter alia intelligence and family background. research methodology the aim of the investigation was to ascertain factors which are critical to academic success, and which may be utilised in the selection process to identif y students with high academic success potential. sample selection the research focussed on the academic success of students in the first year of study for the national diploma: human resources management at a particular campus of a tertiary institution. participants were only those who entered the diploma as fulltime students, usually straight from school. students who were repeating their first year of study or who entered the course via another diploma or through the bridging course were excluded, as were part-time students and students currently engaged in other diplomas, as the entry requirements for these groups are often different. the main emphasis was on black (bantu) students. following violent st udent demonstrations by militant st udents in 1995, enrolment for the human resources course became almost exclusively black for several years: further enrolments of (the previous majorit y) white st udents to all intents and purposes ceased. there were also withdrawals from the course of white students who were already in their second and third years of st udy as a result of these demonstrations. thus it was not possible to compare academic progress with other race groups. however, in 2000 a few indian students enrolled, but it was only in 2001 and 2002 that sufficient numbers enrolled to provide a statistically adequate size sample for use as a comparison group. research procedure and data collection the research procedure was as follows: � to obtain a benchmark for comparison with present students, data pertaining to 54 black students who enrolled in 1996 and who met the criteria for inclusion in the study, was collected. this group was chosen as they had six years in which to complete their studies – thus they had to have completed their studies in 2001. this made them the most up to date group for comparison. � a group of 68 black and 43 indian students, who entered for the course in the 2001 and 2002 enrolment period and who met the criteria were also selected. � comparisons were made between the 1996 and 2001/ 2002 black intakes to ascertain the degree to which these groups were statistically similar, and to ascertain the extent to which the success rates of the 1996 group could be used to predict probable academic success of the present black intake. � comparisons between the black and indian groups were made to ascertain the extent to which these two groups were statistically similar/different. in addition, these two groups were compared on “soft” issues through the completion of a student inventory. finally, an english second language proficiency test was used to ascertain present levels of english language proficiency for the first year black 2002 student intake. � comparisons were also made by combining differing groupings of students (black and indian) to identif y common factors across the full spectrum of students. data was collected from two sources: � academic data from student records, after which the information was coded and collated, and a variety of statistical analyses applied. in addition to descriptive statistics – i.a. frequency tables, arithmetic means – inferential statistics such as spearman’s rank order correlations, t-tests, regression analysis and analysis of varations and assumptions of correctness were applied. � non-academic data was obtained from the self-report student nventory. more specifically, data was obtained for the following academic variables. stephen, welman, jorda an46 � english proficiency; measured by the english matriculation results and coded as per table 1. the english point allocation was doubled. the doubling of matriculation subject marks is not uncommon, nor is it applied solely to english. the doubling of subject marks is discretionary, and is based on the perception that high levels of proficiency in a particular subject is necessary for successful completion of the course, however this decision has to be ratified by the senate of the tertiary institution. table 1 point allocation of matriculation results for entry to the national diploma: human resource management matric symbol result higher grade (hg) standard grade (sg) a 8 6 b 7 5 c 6 4 d 5 3 e 4 2 f 3 1 � academic success: measured by the number of subjects passed and the performance level in each subject. points were awarded according to table 2. table 2 academic success: points awarded for the final mark for each subject percentage for each subject points awarded 70% or better 5 points 60 – 69% 4 points 0 – 59% 3 points 40 – 49% 2 points 30 – 39% 1 point less than 30% 0 points � intelligence: matriculation results were taken as an indirect measure of intelligence as in the past this was regarded as a good measure of general scholastic ability, and hence also general intelligence. a minimum of 30 points is required for entry to the course. points were allocated as per table 1. with regard to non-academic variables, the following data was obtained on the assumption that academic success is not entirely due to academic influences alone. these influences are reflected in figure 1. � degree of urbanisation: measured by the population size and degree of development of the area in which the individual usually resides. the more developed the area, the greater the potential for contact with english language. points allocated according to table 3. � family circumstances: the domestic environment of the family. higher income families are perceived to be more fluent in english language and have more contact with english language via various media sources. allocated points as per table 4. table 3 degree of urbanisation of students: descriptive characteristics of area of family residence points description 5 points permanent residence in a large town/city – e.g. durban, pietermaritzburg. high potential for regular and ongoing contact with both spoken and written english. 4 points permanent residence on the periphery of large town/city – e.g. outlying suburb. potentially less daily/ongoing contact with spoken and written english. 3 points permanent residence on the periphery of large town/city, but in an undeveloped area – e.g. typically squatter camp/informal settlement. little potential for regular contact with written or spoken english. 2 points permanent residence in a small town – e.g. harding. predominantly rural/agricultural community. limited access to written or spoken english. 1 point permanent residence in a rural/agricultural community. little or no developed infrastructure. little potential for contact with spoken or especially written english. table 4 indicators of family circumstances as indicated by the type of employment of parent(s) points description 4 points one or both parents in professional/managerial/technical job. 3 points one or both parents in administrative/higher clerical/lower management type job. 2 points one or both parents in routine low-level clerical/supervisory type job. 1 point one or both parents in unskilled/low skilled operator type job. � last school attended: the type of school attended – e.g. exmodel c; rural schools. also indicated is the school pass rate for matriculation. points allocated as per tables 5a and 5b. table 5a type of school attended by the students points description 4 points old model “c” school or equivalent. tuition in english wellresourced, with smaller class sizes and more individual tuition 3 points predominantly/entirely black student body in government school in large town/city. 2 points predominantly/entirely black student body in government school in small town. 1 point rural school. probably under-resourced, low level of english tuition, large class sizes. table 5b school matriculation pass rates points description 4 points 80 – 100% pass 3 points 60 – 79,9% pass 2 points 40 – 59,9% pass 1 point 20 – 39,99% pass 0 points 0 – 19,99% pass english language proficiency 47 results and discussion as anticipated, the 1996 intake showed high rates of both failure and persistence. of the 54 students in this group, 40,74 either “dropped out” or were refused readmission, the majority (31,48%) doing so at the end of the second year of study. two students completed the course in the required minimum of three years; another four did so in four years. the remainder (48,14%) took two to six years to complete the course. high levels of repeating of subjects occurred: there were 14 subjects in the course, and nearly a third had to write 20 or more subject examinations to pass. a comparison of the 1996 and 2001/2002 black intakes is shown in table 6, and they are essentially similar in profiles. table 6 longitudinal comparisons of marks 1996 and 2001/2002 black intakes variable group arithmetic means p-values english at school 1996 10,78 0,138 2001/2 10,28 final mark at school 1996 32,82 0,793 2001/2 33,05 english at technikon 1996 53,6 0,125 2001/2 51,2 final mark at technikon 1996 15,07 (first year of study) 0,018 2001/2 12,79 a comparison of means, by applying the t-test statistic across the t wo groups’ academic profiles revealed that there was no significant difference between the two groups in three of the four test results, as the results did not reach the critical p-value of 0,05. however, the final year end mark yielded a p-value of 0,018, which was statistically significant: the 1996 intake exhibited significantly better results than the present group of students. this is surprising, given that the present group had slightly better matriculation symbols and first test results. this then suggests that jansen’s (2003) comments pertaining to matriculation mark manipulation might be appropriate. if this is the case, then the use of matriculation results as a predictor of academic success must, at the very least, be reconsidered. given that the two groups are statistically similar, it suggests that the present (2001/2002) intake will also experience high levels of dropouts and extended re-enrolments. with regard to the 2001/2002 black student intake, an examination of subjects passed and english passed reveals a high relationship: those who passed their end of year examinations in english language tended to do well in other subjects. the relationship is shown in table 7. comparisons of the 2001/2002 intake reveal considerable differences bet ween the black and indian cohorts. this information is shown in table 8, and indicates that the indian group routinely out-performs their black contemporaries. when comparison of the group means of black and indian students (by applying the t-test statistic) was done, it became obvious that the two groups were statistically different, and that the indian group consistently out-performed their black contemporaries. this information is presented in table 8a. table 7 english siccess/failure rates – 2001/2002 intakes subjects passed fail english pass english 5 – 19 4 1 11 3 3 5 2 7 5 1 3 3 0 8 0 table 8 indian/black 2001/2002 intakes compared eligibility black indian intelligence (matric marks) 33,05 35,07 english proficiency (matric english marks) 10,28 12,52 academic progress black indian academic success (pass rates) 12,79 19,37 first test results 13,68 21,3 english first test 3,6 4,26 english year end mark 4,26 4,71 no distinctions 87% 9,4% 1-2 distinctions 13% 84,4% more than 2 distinctions – 6,2% numeracy based subjects taken at matric level 37% 93% demographics black indian % female enrolment 77,6% 92,0% urbanisation – city and surrounding suburbs 45,5% 86,0% small town/rural 45,5% 14,0% family circumstances: low/unskilled 61,5% 30,4% clerical/admin etc. 23,1% 47,8% managerial 15,4% 14,0% exposure to media 24,59% 26,76% table 8a comparisons of marks: black and indian students variable race arithmetic means p-values english at school black 10,5 0,000 indian 12,51 final mark at school black 32,94 0,012 indian 35,07 english at technikon black 52,32 0,000 indian 66,19 final mark at technikon black 13,9 (first year of study) 0,000 indian 19,37 a significant factor that emerged from this analysis is that all members of the indian group did english as a first language subject in matric, and used english as a home language. the majority of the black group did english as a second language at stephen, welman, jorda an48 matric and only 2,6% reported speaking only english at home. the remainder spoke vernacular. a series of correlations between the various groups was calculated. this information is presented in table 9. whenever the indian group was included in the correlations, they showed reasonable levels of predictability indicating that the traditional selection systems of matriculation english and matriculation final marks were appropriate. however, once the indian students were withdrawn, the predictability of these traditional measures declined. only the indian group consistently related to the traditional success indicators. for none of the black groups could success be predicted from traditional selection methods. indeed, for the 2001/2002 black st udents, the school matric pass rates presented a negative relationship with final technikon marks. for the black student groups, the best predictor for academic success is that of technikon english – i.e. the student has to be in the system before reasonably accurate predictors regarding success can be made. this factor was also a good predictor for the indian group. in an attempt to improve predictability of the key variables, a regression analysis was conducted. in all cases, the r2 values were higher for the indian than for the black groups, and explains a higher proportion of the variability in the dependent variable, which is academic success. essentially, the results were as follows: for predicting final technikon mark: indian students (r2 = 0,758) and black students (r2 = 0,244). for predicting final english mark: indian students (r2 = 0,768) and black students (r2 = 0,384). while these are, statistically speaking, good predictors for indian students, this is much less the case for the black students. it is significant that for the indian group, as english marks progress, the marks obtained become an increasingly powerful predictor of academic success – viz: matriculation english: r2 = 0,204; technikon first test: r2 = 0,529; technikon english mark r2 = 0,730. tests for assumptions of correctness for the predictive models created above were carried out. only the indian group was considered as the black group correlations and regression analyses were relatively weak indicators. applying the shapiro-wilk test for normalit y, it was found that a p-value of 0,62 occurred, indicating that the model was acceptable as a predictor for technikon marks. with regard to testing the technikon english marks, once a significant outlier had been identified and deleted, this too met the test for normalit y (p-value of 0,115), which means that as the requirements for a good predictor have been met, they could be considered as part of the st udent select ion process for this group. in addition, the black 2002 intake was requested to complete the proficiency test english second language advanced level, devised by the human sciences research council. there was considerable resistance to this, and only 27 responses were forthcoming. while the number or responses is low, it does provide an indication of the proficiency level of english of this group compared to their peers throughout the country. this information is indicated in table 10 and shows that no-one scored above stanine 7. the results were heavily skewed and indicate a below average english proficiency. for a supposedly elite group, this result is disturbing. english language proficiency 49 table 9 correlations between the various groups overall black 1996 blacks blacks overall indians 2001/2002 2001/2002 corr p corr p corr p corr p corr p final tech mark with final eng mark 0,691 0,00 0,487 0,00 0,513 0,00 0,532 0,00 0,893 0,00 final tech mark with eng test mark 0,396 0,00 0,407 0,00 0,253 0,01 0,717 0,00 final tech mark with final school mark 0,266 0,00 0,191 0,04 0,338 0,03 final tech mark with eng school mark 0,340 0,00 0,425 0,00 0,497 0,00 final school mark with school eng mark 0,468 0,00 0,467 0,00 0,465 0,00 0,454 0,00 0,565 0,00 final school mark with tech eng mark 0,242 0,00 0,535 0,00 tech eng mark with tech first eng test 0,550 0,00 0,483 0,00 0,488 0,00 0,424 0,00 0,738 0,00 school eng mark with tech first eng test 0,296 0,00 0,423 0,00 school eng mark with tech eng mark 0,445 0,00 urbanization with tech first eng test 0,362 0,02 urbanization with tech eng mark 0,169 0,04 black lang prof with tech first eng test 0,243 0,02 0,320 0,03 0,243 0,02 black lang prof with tech final mark 0,355 0,01 black lang prof with final school mark 0,219 0,03 0,338 0,02 0,219 0,03 school attended with final tech mark 0,245 0,03 school attended with tech eng mark 0,350 0,00 school attended with school eng mark 0,285 0,01 school matric pass with final tech mark (0,277) 0,03 (0,321) 0,049 (0,321) 0,049 family circum with tech eng mark 0,299 0,02 comment: ( ) indicates negative values. p values rounded to 2 decimals sample size: 167 54 68 122 43 table 10 english language proficiency: 2002 first year student intake english aptitude test stanine description % of testees t.n. student % of group response 9 very good 4 – 8 good 7 – 7 above average 12 1 3,70 6 high average 17 1 14,82 5 average 20 5 29,63 4 low average 17 7 25,93 3 below average 12 8 18,52 2 poor 7 4 3,70 1 very poor 4 1 3,70 100,0 non-academic aspects the following three aspects were considered as potential areas of influence on student academic performance. degree of urbanisation the indian group represented a much more urbanised group than their black cohorts: 86% of the indian group were classified as residing in a city and surrounding suburbs, compared to only 45% of black students. family circumstances while there was a spread for both groups along the socioeconomic spectrum, the majority of the black responses (61%) reported their family circumstances as being in the low/unskilled category. this was twice as many as the response for the indian group in this category. the bulk of the indian group (48%) appeared to be in the clerical/administrative sector. both groups reported approximately equal percentages of parents (14%) in the managerial group. the differences between the two groups showed indirectly in their response to their reading patterns: the indian group indicated greater regularity in reading newspapers, magazines and books than did the black group (refer to table 12). school attended both groups almost entirely attended government schools catering mainly for their respective race groups. in both cases they appeared to be those schools which produced the best matriculation results – i.e. 80% or better pass rates. thus there was little to choose between the groups. reference to table 9 indicates that only one of the above three factors (i.e. urbanisation) has any significant influence on the results of the indian students. for the black groups, there appeared to be differences between the 1996 and the 2001/2002 intakes as to the extent to which these factors exert a significant influence, although there appears to be a spill-ver effect when the various groups are combined. it is of interest to note that the school matriculation pass rate correlates negatively with the black 2001/2002 intake, but not with the black 1996 intake. this could indicate that an intervening variable has occurred for the new intakes, as jansen (2003) suggests – namely that black matriculation marks may have been manipulated. while the “non-core” non-academic variables individually appear to exert little predictive influence, it was decided to combine the variables to ascertain whether their combined influence could significantly impact on academic performance. to this end, a new variable comprising four non-core variables was established, and computed as follows: family circumstances + school type + urbanisation + a converted media score 4 spearman’s rank order correlation method was applied, resulting in the following p-values: � technikon final first year mark = 0,084 � technikon english mark = 0,008 � matriculation mark = 0,334 � matriculation english mark = 0,024 while the matriculation result did not provide a statistically significant correlation with the combined variable, the combined variable appears to be a good predictor for english at both school and technikon level. if it can predict english marks, which in turn predict final year-end marks, this variable could have potential for inclusion in the selection process, and could be investigated in further research for a larger and more diverse sample. as it is, the predictor for technikon final first year marks (p=0,084) approximates to the 90% confidence level predictor. the results for some additional non-academic factors showed an interesting pattern. these aspects were investigated via the st udent inventory questionnaire and was an attempt to ascertain what possible problem areas exist as perceived by students and which could impact on their academic success. it was completed only by the 2002 intake, and comprised 17 indian and 39 black first year students. obviously, the small numbers undermined a proper analysis. the results are tabulated in tables 11 and 12. table 11 perceived problem areas: 2002 intake problem areas black % indian % english comprehension 10,3 – too much work 18,0 11,8 assignments 38,5 52,9 understanding lectures 15,4 5,9 tests 5,1 5,9 other 12,7 23,5 reference to table 12 indicates that differences between the two groups are considerable in certain areas. as examples, the black students found that technikon life was different from their expectations, although they felt that they were well prepared for becoming a student. although many felt the standard of work was too high, most felt they had enough time to keep up to date with their work. these statements are essentially contradictory. there was considerable agreement that improved english and extra lectures could improve marks, but there appeared to be some concern about passing at the end of the year. overall, the indian group appeared to have a better appreciation of their position. the open-ended questionnaire provided a wide range of responses. a notable area of difference between the two groups was that of exposure to various media sources. except for access to radio, the indian group had consistently higher levels of exposure to media than their black counterparts. exposure to media inf luences is considered a significant factor in improving english proficiency. the fact that the indian group stephen, welman, jorda an50 outperformed the black group is perhaps understandable, given that they were significantly more urbanised and in better family circumstances than the black group (refer to table 12). it is disturbing that 23,7% of blacks never read a newspaper and that 42,1% never/rarely read books. while both groups appeared to be avid tv/radio enthusiasts, the indian group always used english as the medium of communication: the black group used both english and one of the vernacular languages. table 12 response to student inventory questionnaire question black % indian % 3. advice received on enrolling for this course 71,8 88,2 4. technikon is different from expectations 64,1 47,1 5. preparedness for becoming a student: well prepared 71,8 54,9 reasonably well prepared 23,1 45,1 unprepared 5,1 – 6. i would re-enrol for this course 74,4 82,4 11. standard of work: too high 46,2 29,4 about right 51,3 70,6 too low 2,6 – 12. i have enough time to keep up to date: totally agree 18,0 5,9 tend to agree 51,3 47,1 neither agree or disagree 12,8 17,7 tend to disagree 10,3 29,4 totally disagree 7,7 – 13. need for extra lectures: yes 69,2 35,3 no 30,8 64,7 14. improved english will improve my marks: agree 71,8 17,7 neutral 23,1 70,6 disagree 5,1 11,8 15. visit library: regularly 38,5 29,4 for assignments 12,8 29,4 occasionally 45,6 41,2 never 5,1 – 17. self-evaluated potential for passing year end exams: all 41,0 94,1 most 46,1 5,9 about half 12,8 fail most – fall all – 18. if i need help i can go to: lecturers 41,0 47,1 friends 20,5 29,4 family 25,6 17,7 don’t need help – – no one 12,8 5,9 conclusions the hypothesis that english language proficiency has a significant impact on black student success rates appears to be substantially correct. the indian group consistently out-performed the black groups: the indian english proficiency levels are consistently better than those of the black, as were their examination marks. on average, the indians performed 20% better at matric and 40% better at technikon than did their black counterparts. the high performing indian groups’ profile relates well to the traditional selection criteria. with the black group, not only are they more diversified, but, as english second language students, they have a built-in disadvantage vis-à-vis their indian contemporaries. it would appear that the black students tend to regard english as ‘just another subject to be passed’ and fail to recognise the centrality of high levels of english proficiency as a prerequisite for academic success. the student inventory clearly shows that the milieu in which these students exist is such as to provide little encouragement to improve english proficiency levels. most black st udents have significantly inferior matric entry points compared to their indian counterparts: they start out with an academic deficit and, in most cases, a socio-economic deficit. however, the size of the deficit appears to be masked, firstly by the fact that nearly threequarters take english as a second language, and secondly, that there appears to be a considerable difference between matric results and technikon marks. it could be that jansen’s (2003) comments pertaining to a decline in black matric standards could be pertinent, given that although the present groups of black students have slightly better matriculation symbols, they perform slightly worse than the 1996 group who obtained their matrics before the present ‘tinkering’ with marks began, thus allowing inferior students into the system. as the present system cannot be allowed to continue, either the introduction of an appropriate english proficiency test such as the international english language testing system (ielts) should be implemented or the entry requirements be radically revised. references amos, t.l. & quinn, l. (1997). management education and training: the role of integrated language development. south african journal of higher education, 11 (1), 186–191. anstey, gillian. (2003, august 24). shame of s.a.’s university dropouts. sunday times, p. 12. badenhorst, f.d. foster, d.h. & lea, s.j. (1990). factors affecting academic performance in first-year psychology at the university of cape town. south african journal of higher education, 4 (1), 39-45. barker, d. (1988). diagnostic tests and examination results. assessment and evaluation in education, spring 13 (1), 1-15. barnard, f. (1997). knowledge expectations in teaching. south african journal of higher education 11 (1), 79-84. barron, c. (1996, june 23). academics too poor and too tired to keep up. sunday times, p. 7. bissetty, k. (2001, december 27). kzn matric results jump five percent over 2000. daily news. retrieved on july 25, 2002 from the world wide web: http://iol.co.za/general/ newsview.php?art.id . bissetty, k. (2003, march 24). 35% of kzn teachers infected. mercury, p. 3. blacquierie, a. (1989). reading for survival: text and the second language student. south african journal of higher education, 3 (1), 73-81. blustein, d.l., judd, t.p., krom, j., viniar, b., padilla, e., widermeyer, r. & williams, d. (1986). identif ying predictors of academic performance of community college students. journal of college student personnel, 27 (3), 242–249. bohlman, c.a. & pretorius, e.j. (2002). research report on reading skills for mathematics. alru, unisa. coen, l.g., reichgott, m. & spencer, r.k. (1991). a performancebased method for early identification of medical students at a risk of developing academic problems. academic medicine 66 (8), 486-488 committee of technikon principals (ctp) (1998). facts and figures. education for the world of work brochure. private bag x 680, pretoria, 001 craig, a.p. & kernoff, r.j. (1995). development of textual interpretation by under-prepared students. south african journal of higher education, 9 (1), 23–29. english language proficiency 51 cummins, j. (1980). the construct of language proficiency in bilingual education. georgetown university round table on languages and linguistics washington, pp. 81–103. cummins, j. (1984). bilingualism and special education: issues in assessment & paedagogy. avon, u.k.: multilingual matters. dawes, p., yeld, n. & smith, m.j. (1999). access, selection & admission to higher education: maximising the use of the school leaving examination. south african journal of higher education, 13 (3), 97–103. de villiers, j. & rwigema, h. (1998). the effect of a bridging year on the graduation success of educationally disadvantaged commerce students. south african journal of higher education, 12 (1), 103–108. de winter hebron, c. (1991). some aspects of cognitive and affective dimensions in cross-cultural education. south african journal of higher education, 5 (1), 129–134. dunstan, l.v. & frescura, m. (2001). academic difficulties experience by first-year psychology students at the university of the western cape. retrieved from the world wide web: http://www.ru.ac.za/academic/adc/papers/dunstan%20andf rescura.html. examinations committee of technikon natal (1998, september 16). minutes of meeting. mimeo. farnill, d. & hayes, s. (1996). do nesb university students with poor english skills make rapid linguistic gains in mainstream studies? higher education research & development, 15 (2), 261-264. ferreira, j.g. (1995). transition from school to university. south african journal of higher education, 9 (1), 154–159. file, j. (1986). the politics of excellence: university education in the south african context. social dynamics, 12 (1), 26–42. financial mail (2000, july 21). academic visibility: a case of don’t publish and be damned, pp. 44-45. fourie, c.m. & naude-de jager, s.j. (1992). die identifiseering van risikostudente. south african journal of higher education, 6 (3), 17–20. fraser, w.j. (1992). common denominators for teacher training in a multi-cultural society. south african journal of higher education, 6 (2), 103–108. goldstein, m. (2001). the senior aptitude test. retrieved from the world wide web 21.04.2001on http://www.org.za/ sat.htm. goduka, i.n. (1996). challenges to traditionally white universities: affirming diversity in the curriculum. south african journal of higher education, 10 (1), 27-35. govender, p. (1999, april 25). shock aids test result at varsity. sunday times, p. 1. holder, g.m., jones, j., robinson, r.a. & krass, i. (1999). academic literary skills and progression rates amongst pharmacy students. higher education research & development, 18 (1), 19-29. huysamen, g.k. (1996). fair and unbiased admission procedures for south african institutions of higher education. south african journal of higher education, 10 (2), 199-207. huysamen, g.k. (1997). potential ramifications of admission testing at south african institutiona of higher education. south african journal of higher education, 11 (1), 65-71. huysamen, g.k. (199). psychometric explanations for the poor predict ability of the tertiary academic performance of educationally disadvantaged syudents. south african journal of higer education, 10 (1), 205-208. huysamen, g.k. & raubenheimer, j.e. (1999). demographicgroup differences in the prediction of tertiary-academic performance. south african journal of higher education, 13 (1), 171-177. jackson (2000). students’ learning needs in an english language foundation course. retrieved on april 21, 2001 from the world wide web: http://www.ru.ac.3/academic/adc/papers/ jackson/html. jansen, j. (2003, january 3-9). on second thoughts. mail & guardian, p. 19. jiya, z. (1993). language difficulties of black bsc students. south african journal of higher education, 7 (1), 80-88. johnes, j. & taylor, j. (1989). undergraduate non-completion rates: differences bet ween u.k. universities. higher education, 18, pp. 209– 225. johnson, g.m. & buck, g.h. (1995). students personal and academic attributions of university withdrawal. canadian journal of higher education, xxv (2), 53–77. jones, b. (1990). use of non-academic factors to predict academic performance on freshman medical students. college and university year 65, pp. 287–297. jordaan, j.j. (1995). affirmative action: excellence versus equity. south african journal of higher education, 9 (1), 53 – 63. jordaan, w. & jordaan, j. (1990) (2nd ed) man in context. johannesburg, lexicon. jordaan, w. & jordaan, j. (1998) (2nd ed) people in context. johannesburg, heinemann. kasanga, l.a. (1999). lecturers’ varying interpretating and expectations of students responses to writing prompts: a small scale study. south african journal of higher education, 13 (3), 125–130. keating, b.r. (1987, october). reducing classroom alienation: applications from theory. teaching sociology, 15, pp. 407 – 409. kilfoil, w. (1996). academic support progarmmes: a review article. south african journal of higher education, 10 (1 ), 205208. kilfoil, w.r. (1999). the linguistic competence of science students. south african journal of higher education, 13 (1), 46– 54. king, j. (1995). learning styles and absenteeism: is there a connection? journal of the freshman year experience, 7 (1), 67– 82. laganparsad, m. & morane, m. (2001, december 26) kzn pass rate up by 8 percent. mercury. retrieved from iol on 25.07.2002: http//iol.co.za/general/newsview.php?art_id. lazenby, k. (1996). how to achieve mobility in south african higher education. south african journal of higher education, 10 (2), 30–35. linn, r.l. (1990) admissions testing: recommended uses, validit y, differential prediction and coaching. applied management in education, 3:4, pp. 297-318. loo, c.m. & rolinson, g. (1986) alienation of ethnic minority students at a predominantly white university. journal of higher education, vol 57 no.1, pp. 58–77. lyons, p.j. (1992) education in south africa: the impact of technology. south african journal of higher education, 6 (1), 51–54. maluleke, j. (2002, january 29) exodus from schools! the citizen, p. 5. mavundla, t.r. & motimele, m.p. (2002) issues of maltilingualism (sic) facing qualitative researchers when using focus group inter views as a research technique in a distance learning institution. mimeo: email mavundlatsa.co.za. maxwell, m. (1998, september 23) get ready for an academic shake up. scene: technikon natal staff newsletter, 1 (7). meyer, j.h.f., dunne, t.t. and sass, a.r. (1995). impressions of disadvantage: 1 – school versus university study orchestration and consequences for academic support. south african journal of higher education, 24, 291-316. miller, r. (1989). conceptual issues in theorising about cognition. south african journal of higher education, 3 (1), 154-159. miller, r. (1992) double, double, toil and trouble: the problem of student selection. south african journal of higher education, 6 (1), 98-104. miller, r. (1996). mark my words part i: tecahers. south african journal of higher education, 10 (2), 13-14. miller, r., bradbury, j. & wessels, s.l. (1997). academic performance of first and second language students: kinds of assessment. south african journal of higher education, 11 (2), 70-79. mji, a. (1999) understanding learning: a survey of undergraduate mathematics students. perceptions. south african journal of higher education, 13 (3), 155-163. moulder, j. (1991) remedial education programmes: miracle or failure. south african journal of higher education, 5 (1), 5-10. stephen, welman, jorda an52 moulder, j. (1995). universities and “africanisation”. south african journal of higher education, 9 (1), 7-8. ngidi, t. (2002, january 18) schools wilderness. sunday tribune, p. 5. nolte, l.; heyns, p.m. & venter, j.a. (1997) building blocks for bridging programmes. south african journal of higher education, 11 (1) 167-176. nyamapfene, k. & letseka, m. (1995) problems of learning among first year students in south african universities. south african journal of higher education, 9 (1), 159-167 oliver, l. (2003, january 12) dean slams matric pass rate. sunday tribune, p.1. orr, m.h. (1995). teaching writing at university: an academic literacy programme. south african journal of higher education, 9 (2), 189-197. pantages, t.j. & creedon, r. (1978). studies in college attrition 1950-1975. review of education research, 48 (1), 49-101. parsons, p.g. (1993) students at risk. south african journal of higher education, 7 (1), 24-32. pascarella, e.t., teterenzini, p.t. & wolfle, l.m. (1986) orientation to college, and freshman year persistence and withdrawal decisions. journal of higher education, 57 (2) (march/april), 155-173. paxton, m. (1995). tutor responses to student writing. south african journal of higher education, 9 (1), 189-198. pickworth, g. (2001) developing an instrument to identif y mbchb students’ approaches to learning. south african journal of higher education, 15 (2), 140-145. potter, c & van der merwe, e. (1993) academic performance in engineering. south african journal of higher education, 7 (1), 33-40. pretorius, e.j. (2002) reading ability and academic performance in south africa: are we fiddling while rome is burning? language matters, 33, 169-196. ruth, d. (2000) who are we teaching? a first year class at the university of the north. south african journal of higher education, 14 (3), 186-195. shochet, i.m. (1994) the moderator effect of cognitive modifiability on a traditional under-graduate admissions test for disadvantaged black students in south africa. south african journal of psychology, 24 (4), 208-215. skuy, m., zolessi, s., mentis, m., fridjohn, p. & cockroft, k. (1996) selection of advantaged and disadvantaged south african students for university admission. south african journal of higher education, 10 (1), 110–118. smit, a.j. (1991) review of proceedings. south african journal of higher education supplement, 5 (1), 40-46. souter, c.w.; archer, m. & rochford, k. (1992) literal and inferential reading and comprehension skills. south african journal of higher education, 6 (3), 30-35. spady, w.g. (1971) dropouts from higher education towards an empirical model. interchange, 2 (3), 38-62. stage, f.k. & williams, p.d. (1990) students’ motivation and changes in motivation during the first year of college. journal of college student development november, 31, 516-522. starfield, s. (1990) science and language: a new look at some old issues. south african journal of higher education, 4 (2), 84-89. starkey, a. (1998) interim report on the english language project. (internal mimeo) technikon natal. stevens, c.d. & walker, b.m. (1996) how residential college students adjust socially and emotionally to first-year university. higher education research & development, 15 (2), 201-220. steward, r.j., jackson, m.r. & jackson, j.d. (1990) alienation and interactional styles in a predominantly white environment: a study of successful black students. journal of college student development. november, 31, 509-515. stuart, b. (1988, october 6). s.a. students owe campuses r600m. the citizen, p.1. taitz, l. (2000, july 9) young, gifted and dead. sunday times, p. 1. tinto, v. (1997) classrooms as communities. journal of higher education, 68 (6), 599-623. van dyk, p.j. & van dyk, a.c. (1993) student achievement: a hierarchical classification as predictor. south african journal of higher education, 7 (3), 239-245. van eeden, r., de beer, m. & coetzee, c.h. (2001) cognitive ability, learning potential and personality traits as predictors of academic achievement by engineering and other science and technology students. south african journal of higher education, 15 (1), 171-179. van overwalle, f. (1989) success and failure of freshmen at universities – a search for determinants. higher education, 18, 287-308. vapi, x. (1998, june 6) mandela comes down on students. saturday star. i.o.l. accessed 22.10.2003. vinke, a.a. & jochems, w.m.g. (1993) english proficiency and academic success in international postgraduate education. higher education, 26, 275-285. von gruenewaldt, j.j. (1999) achieving academic literacy in a second language: south african educational predi-cament. south african journal of higher education, 13 (1), 205-211. wallace, b. & adams, h.b. (1989) assessment and development of potential of high school pupils in the third-world context of kwazulu natal. south african journal of higher education, 3 (1), 83–94. welman, johannes christiaan. (doctor litterarum et philosophiae in sielkunde in die faculteit lettere en wysbegeerte and die randse afrikaanse universiteit). (2000). die afstandsonderriggereedheid van technikonstudente. wood, t. (1997) revisiting language in education: the semantics of understanding. south african journal of higher education, 11 (1), 41-47. zaaiman, h., van der flier, h. & thys, g.d. (1998) selecting south african higher education students: critical issues and proposed solutions. south african journal of higher education, 12 (3), 96-101. english language proficiency 53 abstract introduction research method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) nicolaas w.h. smit workwell research unit, north-west university, potchefstroom campus, south africa leon t. de beer workwell research unit, north-west university, potchefstroom campus, south africa jaco pienaar workwell research unit, north-west university, potchefstroom campus, south africa citation smit, n.w.h., de beer, l.t., & pienaar, j. (2016). work stressors, job insecurity, union support, job satisfaction and safety outcomes within the iron ore mining environment. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a719. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.719 note: this article is based on the author’s mini-dissertation of the degree of magister commercii in industrial psychology at the potchefstroom campus, north-west university, south africa, with supervisor prof. j. pienaar and co-supervisor dr l.t. de beer, received november 2014, available here: http://dspace.nwu.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10394/15554/smit_nwh_2014.pdf?isallowed=y&sequence=1 original research work stressors, job insecurity, union support, job satisfaction and safety outcomes within the iron ore mining environment nicolaas w.h. smit, leon t. de beer, jaco pienaar received: 28 may 2015; accepted: 01 june 2016; published: 19 aug. 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the study of work stressors, job insecurity and union support creates opportunity for iron ore mining organisations to manage job satisfaction and safety motivation and behaviour more effectively. research purpose: the objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between work stressors, job insecurity, union support, job satisfaction and safety motivation and behaviour of a sample of iron ore mine workers in south africa. motivation for the study: the mining industry in general is often faced with hazardous and physically demanding working environments, where employees work under constant pressure. work stressors, job insecurity, union support and job satisfaction are considered key variables when investigating effective means of managing safety. research design, approach and method: a cross-sectional survey design was utilised to collect the data. a convenience sample of employees in the iron ore mining industry of south africa (n = 260) were included. structural equation modelling and bootstrapping resampling analysis were used to analyse the data. main findings: work stressors and job insecurity were found to be negatively associated with job satisfaction. conversely, perceived union support was positively associated with job satisfaction and safety motivation and behaviour. furthermore, job satisfaction mediated the relationship between union support and safety motivation and behaviour. practical/managerial implications: mining organisations can, by placing the focus on reducing work stressors, and promoting job security and union support, achieve higher levels of safety motivation and behaviour through job satisfaction. contribution/value-add: a great deal of independent research on work stressors, job insecurity, union support, job satisfaction as well as safety motivation and behaviour has already been done. to date, very little empirical research exists that simultaneously considers all these constructs. this study brought together these lines of research. introduction south africa is one of the world’s leaders in the mining industry, known for its rich mineral resources, and contributing significantly to both world production and reserves. the mining industry of south africa is a dominant force globally and locally a large contributor to gdp. according to the chamber of mines, the mining industry provides approximately one million jobs – spending r 78 billion in wages and salaries (smit, 2013) and accounting for about 18% of gdp. in 2012, the mining industry contributed r 468 billion to south africa’s economy, accounting for over 16% of the formal sector employment (kumo, rielander & omilola, 2014). therefore, it is evident that mining plays a pivotal role in the south african economy. however, of concern is the poor safety record and number of fatalities within the south african mining industry. total fatalities were 221 in 2007, 168 in 2008, 169 in 2009, 128 in 2010, 123 in 2011 and 112 in 2012, the lowest ever recorded (department of mineral resources, 2013). even though an improvement in the fatality rate has been evident over the last couple of years, mining is still regarded as one of the most dangerous and hazardous occupations in south africa (le roux, 2005; paul & maiti, 2005). employees are exposed to several job demands every day. these workplace demands entail continuous physical and psychological effort, which in turn may have important physiological and psychological implications (bakker, demerouti & schaufeli, 2003; demerouti, bakker, nachreiner & schaufeli, 2001). the manifestation of job demands has been associated with increased levels of burnout and decreased job performance (e.g. bakker et al., 2003). in high-risk work environments, such as the mining environment, challenging physical and cognitive job demands as well as exposure to hazardous materials are present. these job demands have the potential to cause very negative consequences, such as workplace accidents, injuries and fatalities. fortunately, the workplace also provides employees with job resources, to enable them to cope with the demands they face (crawford, lepine & rich, 2010). according to demerouti et al. (2001), job resources diminish job demands and their associated physiological cost. resources have also been shown to increase employee engagement, performance and job satisfaction (bakker & demerouti, 2007; rich, lepine & crawford, 2010). therefore, if employees are faced with insufficient job resources, they may not be able to efficiently deal with challenging demands which may have undesired consequences, such as not adhering to safety rules and regulations (probst & brubaker, 2001). in research conducted on workplace safety, emphasis has been placed on the role of the work environment when considering safety in the workplace (ghosh, bhattacherjee & chau, 2004). literature consistently shows a negative relationship between work stressors and various outcomes, such as a lack of job satisfaction, lower organisational commitment, decreased job performance and increased turnover (gilboa, shirom, fried & cooper, 2008; karsh, booske & sainfort, 2005; podsakoff, lepine & lepine, 2007; yousef, 2002). work stressors, such as performance pressure, time constraints and targets that have to be reached within strict deadlines, may encourage employees to take shortcuts, thereby putting themselves at risk by jeopardising safety rules and regulations. the alleviation of excessive work stressors is a great challenge for employees, considering the deleterious effect work stressors can have on their health and organisational outcomes such as organisational commitment, job satisfaction and the occurrence of workplace fatalities and accidents (gyekye, 2005). these findings generally demonstrate that increased work stressor levels have a negative effect on the safety compliance of employees. likewise, job insecurity is regarded as a major concern in the mining industry and a demanding aspect of work. restructuring and organisational downsizing are realities feared by many employees. studies have shown that employees who reported experiencing job insecurity were less likely to experience job satisfaction (blanchflower & oswald, 1999; chirumbolo & areni, 2005). additionally, they suffered negative physical health consequences (richter, 2011) and showed a lack of compliance with safety regulations (probst & brubaker, 2001). in the south african mining industry, strikes and industrial actions (both legal and illegal) are some of the major threats. this has been particularly problematic because of the increase in radicalism of trade unions (and militant workers) as well as the influence of political factions (seseane, 2014). for example, the 5-month-long strike in the platinum sector resulted in a catastrophic loss for both mine investors and mining workers, with an estimated total loss of r24 bn. now the platinum sector is considering retrenchments to try and recover some of the losses (marrian, 2015; steyn, 2014). furthermore, the double-edged sword of technology (automation) in the industry could have an additional impact on future employment numbers (begley, 2013) – indicating the potential for further job losses. although the impact of job insecurity on employee attitude and behaviours as well as important organisational outcomes has been well explored, research regarding the implications of job insecurity on employee safety is still relatively unexplored within the mining environment of south africa (masia & pienaar, 2011). as mentioned earlier, the workplace ought to provide employees with resources to cope with the ever increasing demands they are faced with. union support may be regarded as such a job resource, insofar as unions protect their workers from potential unethical treatment and ensure they are treated in a fair and humanistic way (goslinga & sverke, 2003; hellgren & chirumbolo, 2003). unions may play a critical role in the enforcement and updating of safety policies, occurring through formal training and monitoring labour sites (i.e. the employees’ working environments). a tendency exists for union representatives to exercise their right by inspecting these policies and procedures more often than non-union members (weil, 1999). this happens in conjunction with the health and safety representatives of different sections where there are more than 20 employees per section. managers at union sites are thereby encouraged to comply with occupational health and safety regulations and other additional safety practices (masia & pienaar, 2011; ringen, englund, welch, weeks & seegal, 1995). in a south african study conducted by masia and pienaar (2011) in the gold mining environment, job satisfaction was found to be a predictor of safety compliance. job satisfaction is known to be an accurate indicator of workers’ feelings towards their job, duties and work environment (sverke et al., 2004). according to dunbar (1993), job dissatisfaction has a negative impact on employees’ use of protective equipment. another study found that one of the consequences of job dissatisfaction among employees may lead to decreased effort, thereby increasing error rate culminating in higher incident and fatality rates (probst, 2002; salminen, 1995). job dissatisfaction may have several undesirable outcomes, including a lack of compliance with safety rules and regulations, consequently contributing to the number of accidents and incidents in the workplace. the objective of this study was to assess the relationship between work stressors, job insecurity, union support and outcomes, such as job satisfaction, safety motivation and behaviour. the results are important in aiding organisations towards identifying factors that can increase job satisfaction and safety motivation and behaviour, as well as factors that may impede these desired outcomes. literature review work stressors the term work stressor is used to describe the pressure employees experience as a result of organisational and job-specific factors in the form of demands and constraints that are placed on them at work (kahn, wolfe, quinn, snoek & rosenthal, 1964). three of the most examined types of work stressors are role conflict, role clarity (ambiguity) and role overload (balducci, cecchin & fraccaroli, 2012; rizzo, house & lirtzman, 1970), indicating the use of these constructs for more than four decades. role conflict can be described as the inconsistent and conflicting expectations between colleagues where interferences within one another’s work areas complicate work completion (katz & kahn, 1978). rizzo et al. (1970) are of the opinion that role conflict is demonstrated in numerous ways: (1) through workers’ internal values and expected job behaviours; (2) through time, resources or skills and abilities of workers; (3) through workers fulfilling numerous roles which may lead to incompatible behaviour; and finally (4) through inconsistent expectations and organisational demands. role clarity can also be, conversely, referred to as role ambiguity, indicating that the individual has ambiguous or indefinite expectations regarding his or her roles and responsibilities (kahn et al., 1964; katz & kahn, 1978). plenty of research has shown that role stressors may contribute largely to work attitudes and strain (balducci et al., 2012; o’driscoll & beehr, 1994; stordeur, d’hoore & vandenberghe, 2001). various studies of role stressors have established that role conflict and role clarity have a significant influence on employees’ level of job satisfaction, anxiety, emotional exhaustion and organisational commitment (fried, shirom, gilboa & cooper, 2008; jackson & schuler, 1985; örtqvist & wincent, 2006). role overload can be described as the amount of work an employee is required to do within an expected time frame (cooper, dewe & o’driscoll, 2001). role overload occurs when employees’ work tasks entail more time and effort than they have available to adequately perform their expected roles. results from literature yielded that role overload is associated with increased levels of strain, in addition to poor job performance, increased turnover and decreased levels of job satisfaction (cooper et al., 2001; griffeth, hom & gaertner, 2000; judge, thoresen, bono & patton, 2001; mathieu & zajac, 1990). role overload is a crucial factor in the mining industry because workers are expected to be productive, work overtime and to maintain high levels of work engagement (pienaar, sieberhagen & mostert, 2007). job insecurity the subcontracting of labour and the significant impact thereof on job security have received growing recognition in the mining industry over the last few decades (kenny & bezuidenhoud, 1999). job insecurity is defined by greenhalgh and rosenblatt (1984) as a ‘sense of powerlessness to maintain desired continuity in a threatened job situation’ (p. 438) and was consequently measured as a unidimensional phenomenon; however, hellgren, sverke and isaksson (1999) distinguished between quantitative and qualitative job insecurity. quantitative job insecurity refers to employees’ concerns regarding the prospects of the present job, whereas qualitative job insecurity refers to employees’ fear of reduced quality in the work relationship (concerning aspects such as features of the job, career progression and salary increases). according to hellgren et al. (1999), job insecurity is subjective, and therefore, although employees are exposed to similar situations, they may react in different ways when uncertainty about the future occurs. research revealed that the anticipation of potential job loss can be regarded as a work stressor, which can have short-term negative effects on employees’ work attitudes, that is, job satisfaction and turnover intention, while in the long term it may affect employees’ overall well-being and health (cheng & chan, 2008; de witte, pienaar & de cuyper, 2016; sverke, hellgren & näswall, 2002). union support traditionally, the role of a union is to establish a workplace where members’ rights for fair treatment and a safe work environment are protected (cregan, 2005; kochan, katz & mckersie, 1986). employees often join unions in the belief that the presence of a union will improve their working conditions (hartley, jacobson, klandermans & van vuuren, 1991). in a study conducted by greenhalgh and rosenblatt (1984), they found that the role of the union is to minimise the feeling of helplessness when it comes to job insecurity; employees feel more secure because of the power and negotiating position in aiding them to retain their jobs. furthermore, sverke et al. (2004) found that union members have different experiences in terms of job insecurity, job satisfaction and organisational commitment as compared to non-members. another example of these differences includes borjas’ study (borjas, 1979) in which it was found that union support has a positive relationship with job satisfaction. in the light of the roles unions occupy, shore, tetrick, sinclair and newton (1994) describe perceived union support as ‘members’ global beliefs concerning the extent to which the union values their contributions and cares about their well-being’ (p. 971). the effect of union support can be explained on the basis of the social exchange theory, suggesting that when members feel they receive support from their unions, they may in turn feel an obligation to be devoted and dedicated towards their union (goslinga et al. 2005). job satisfaction job satisfaction is defined as ‘a pleasurable emotional state that results from the appraisal of one’s job as achieving or facilitating one’s job values’ (locke, 1969, p. 317); whereas job dissatisfaction is defined as ‘the unpleasable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job as frustrating or blocking the attainment of one’s values’ (locke, 1969, p. 317). researchers such as weiss, nicholas and daus (1999) distinguished between job satisfaction as being either an emotional reaction or an attitude employees hold about their job. job satisfaction, according to spector (1997), simply refers to the degree to which employees like or dislike their jobs. therefore, it is clearly evident that job satisfaction is a strong indicator of employees’ feelings regarding their job. job satisfaction is often a direct reaction towards immediate working conditions. in a study done by vandenberghe, panaccio, bentein, mignonac and roussel (2011), for example, they found that employees who experienced high levels of role conflict and role overload tend to experience low levels of job satisfaction. it is evident that role conflict and role overload limit employees from being effective in their work tasks, consequently decreasing satisfaction derived from their job. thus, empirical literature confirms that job satisfaction is directly associated with employees’ working conditions and that increased work stressors are related to decreased levels of job satisfaction (acker, 2004; orgambídez-ramos, borrego-alés & mendoza-sierra, 2014). safety motivation and -behaviour in the mining industry, productivity, pressure and strict deadlines are emphasised creating a tendency among many workers to engage in unsafe behaviours (janssens, brett & smith, 1995). neal and griffin (2006) describe safety motivation as an employee’s preparedness to exert effort to enact safety behaviours as well as the eagerness linked to those behaviours (neal & griffin, 2006). employees who perceive their work environment to be safety conscious have the tendency to be more motivated to partake in safety activities and are more likely to comply with safety rules and regulations – thus exhibiting safety behaviour (griffin & neal, 2000). evidence to support this statement is provided in a longitudinal study conducted by probst and brubaker (2001), in which the effect of safety motivation has a prolonged impact on safety compliance up to 6 months later. furthermore, it has been argued that theories of work performance offer a valuable foundation for conceptualising the relationship between safety climate and safety behaviour (griffin & neal, 2000). borman and motowidlo (1993) distinguish between two types of safety behaviour, namely: compliance and participation. neal and griffin (2006) describe safety compliance as the essential behaviours employees need to adhere to in order to maintain safe working conditions. these crucial behaviours include following standard work policies and procedures, as well as wearing protective gear. safety participation, on the other hand, describes behaviours that are not directly linked to individuals’ personal safety, but rather to develop safe working conditions (griffin & neal, 2000). these behaviours comprise taking part in voluntary safety activities, assisting fellow workers with safety-related matters and attending safety meetings. south african research has found that management commitment plays a vital role in safety contexts, especially where there is tension regarding production deadlines and safety procedures (bosak, coetsee & cullinane, 2013). the relationship between work stressors and job satisfaction work stressors have been identified as a concern that manifests itself in employee absenteeism, turnover and reduced productivity (karasek & theorell, 1990). similarly, a variable closely associated with work stressors is job satisfaction. numerous researchers have shown that job satisfaction plays a vital role in an organisation, because of its significant relationships with important organisational outcomes such as job insecurity, intention to leave and safety behaviour (paul & maiti, 2005; probst & brubaker, 2001; saks, 2006). work stressors, in particular role conflict, role clarity and role overload, have previously been classified as organisational factors associated with burnout and lower levels of job satisfaction (acker, 2004, carlson, kacmar & williams, 2000). the multiple stressors employees experience in the workplace can lead to risky decisions in completing their work tasks because of limited time. stress in the workplace is known to be caused by role conflict, role clarity and role overload that negatively influence job satisfaction suggesting that the less work stressors employees perceive, the more job satisfaction they should report (kahn et al., 1964; rizzo et al., 1970): hypothesis 1a: work stressors will be negatively related to job satisfaction. the relationship between work stressors and safety motivation and behaviour organisations are constantly striving to increase production, without taking into account that employees may often neglect safety procedures in an attempt to reach their performance targets (probst & brubaker, 2001). these findings seem to be consistent with other research which has found that work stressors have a negative impact on employee safety motivation and behaviour (hofmann & stetzer, 1998). a possible explanation for these results may be found in a study where the researchers emphasise that an overload of employee tasks and responsibilities, impracticality of their job demands and a lack of awareness may have a significant impact on employees’ safety motivation and behaviour and should be considered during accident investigation (ashworth & peake, 1994): hypothesis 1b: work stressors will be negatively related to safety motivation and behaviour. the relationship between job insecurity and job satisfaction one of the most consistent findings in literature is that job insecurity is closely associated with job satisfaction (delp, wallace, geiger-brown & muntaner, 2010; de witte, 1999; näswall & de witte, 2003; ouyang, sang, li & peng, 2015; sverke & hellgren, 2002). kaiser (2002) investigated the job satisfaction of employees with several types of contracts, such as full-time permanent, full-time fixed-term, part-time permanent, part-time fixed-term, and self-employment. it was found that permanently employed and part-time workers expressed less job insecurity and more job satisfaction than those employees who were either employed fixed-term or self-employed. it is therefore evident that workers’ job insecurity influences their level of job satisfaction: hypothesis 2a: job insecurity will be negatively related to job satisfaction. the relationship between job insecurity and safety motivation and behaviour research has indicated that job insecurity is negatively correlated to the utilisation of protective equipment (dunbar, 1993). therefore, job insecurity negatively impacts compliance with safety policies, rules and regulation and consequently gives rise to potential accidents and safety-related incidents in the workplace (ashford, lee & bobko, 1989; probst & brubaker, 2001). these findings can be explained in the light of the social exchange theory, which states that employees have beliefs regarding the degree to which they are valued, treated fairly and cared about by their organisation (eisenberger, huntington, hutchinson & sowa, 1986). in turn, employees may demonstrate positive attitudes towards the organisation, exhibiting more satisfaction and more commitment (rhoades & eisenberger, 2002). therefore, employees who experience less job insecurity may perceive more organisational concern and support, consequently generating more secure, motivated and committed employees: hypothesis 2b: job insecurity will be negatively related to safety motivation and behaviour. the relationship between union support and job satisfaction unions also have an impact on management practices focused on examining a range of workplace policies, such as work hours, wages, subcontracting (cf. bolton et al., 2007). among the positive effects of unions, slichter, healy and livernash (1960) emphasise improved communication and a better balance between management and workers’ interests. unions aim to improve members’ working life by improving workplace conditions through negotiation, collective bargaining and the successful handling of grievances. thus, it is expected that a positive relationship exists between union support and job satisfaction (lillydahl & singell, 1993): hypothesis 3a: union support will be positively related to job satisfaction. the relationship between union support and safety motivation and behaviour differences have been found between union members’ and non-union members’ responses to the topic of safety in the workplace, that is, union members have been found to perceive their supervisors as being more concerned with their safety than non-union members (gillen, baltz, gassel, kirsch & vaccaro, 2002). furthermore, it has been found that union workers are more aware of dangerous work practices and participate more frequently in regular job safety meetings; unionised workplaces also seem to have the tendency to offer additional training and other formal systems, such as safety policies (verma, 2005). because unions play a vital role in establishing safety standards and enforcing better reporting systems, they are expected to have a positive association with workplace safety (spigener & hodson, 1997). finally, verma (2005) pointed out that workplaces represented by a union are more likely to have labour inspections than non-unionised workplaces, even when the health and safety legislation is applied to both union and non-unionised workplaces (weil, 1992): hypothesis 3b: union support will be positively related to safety motivation and behaviour. the relationship between job satisfaction and safety motivation and -behaviour probst and brubaker (2001) found noteworthy evidence that job satisfaction is an important predictor of safety motivation and knowledge. this finding suggests that labourers who are satisfied with their work are more likely to comply with safety rules and regulations, thus exhibiting safety behaviour. therefore, it is possible that higher levels of job satisfaction may bring about higher overall safety motivation and compliance. these findings are confirmed in previous studies (ashworth & peake, 1994; hayes, perander, smecko & trask, 1998; probst & brubaker, 2001). other researchers have also indicated that job satisfaction is important in relation to the perceptions of the safety climate (barling, kelloway & iverson, 2003; gillen et al., 2002; paul & maiti, 2005). once again, the social exchange theory can be used to explain this relationship. according to this theory, when employees feel valued by their organisations, they feel an obligation to respond positively in return. therefore, when employees experience satisfaction at work, they often also feel satisfied with workplace conditions and may in turn feel a need to react in a way that will be beneficial for the organisation (blair, 1999). likewise, when employees are dissatisfied at work, they may allow conditions to deteriorate. this may include reduced effort as well as an increased error rate, which may lead to higher safety incident rates (probst & brubaker, 2001): hypothesis 4: job satisfaction will be positively related to safety motivation and behaviour. potential indirect effect(s) and mediation job satisfaction plays a vital role in workplace attitudes and behaviours (orgambídez-ramos et al., 2014). considering the negative impact of low levels of job satisfaction, it is crucial to investigate factors that may influence job satisfaction, as well as programmes that address job satisfaction, and, in turn, reduce negative work behaviours. previous research identified job satisfaction as a mediator between the external job demands (stressors such as role conflict, ambiguity and overload in the climate) and work-related outcomes (such us safety behaviour) (ashworth & peake, 1994; paul & maiti, 2005; probst & brubaker, 2001): hypothesis 5: job satisfaction mediates the relationship between work stressors, job insecurity, union support and safety motivation and behaviour. research method research approach for this study, a quantitative approach was followed. according to struwig and stead (2001), quantitative research is based on larger samples of participants and structured, to a certain extent, by measuring the constructs of the study utilising a questionnaire. an electronic questionnaire was used, as well as pen-and-paper surveys. the questionnaire consisted of items measuring the constructs that were introduced in the literature study. the different constructs were measured simultaneously and at one specific time, which makes the broader approach cross-sectional in nature (salkind, 2009). participants for the purpose of this study, 320 employees were approached in a mining environment, such as shift bosses and supervisors who deal hands-on with unions and safety behaviour of their employees on a daily basis. the participation rate was 81.25% (n = 260) furthermore, the sample included a combination of two mines from the same organisation, one in the gauteng province and the other in limpopo province. the sample group represented the iron ore open cast mining industry of south africa. the characteristics of the participants are displayed in table 1. table 1: characteristics of the participants. measuring instruments biographical questionnaire the biographical questionnaire consisted of questions relating to age (year of birth), gender, education, employment status and union membership. work stressors it was scored as a composite variable measured by items from role conflict, role overload (quantitative), role overload (qualitative) and role (goal) clarity scales. other researchers have also applied this strategy as an indication of work stress (e.g. masia & pienaar, 2011). the role conflict scale contained items based on how the employee thinks he should do the work compared to how his supervisor and superiors tell him the work should be done. this scale was originally invented by rizzo et al. (1970). an example item of this construct was ‘i receive incompatible requests from two or more people’; measured on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). the role overload scale comprised seven items (three qualitative and four quantitative), measured on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). the quantitative role overload scale was based on how the employees experience their work load (beehr, walsh & taber, 1976). work load is typically measured against their time, for example, not enough time compared to their amount of work. an example item of this construct is ‘i am given enough time to do what is expected of me in my job’, whereas the qualitative role overload scale contained items based on how the employees experience the difficulty of their job and whether it is too demanding (sverke, hellgren & öhrming, 1999). an example item of this construct is ‘i feel unreasonable demands in my work’. the role clarity scale (rizzo et al., 1970) contained items regarding the clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of the employee, for example, ‘i know exactly what is expected of me on a daily basis’, measured on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). previous reliability for a composite scale has been deemed acceptable (α = 0.71; masia & pienaar, 2011). job insecurity the job insecurity scale was developed by hellgren et al. (1999). the questionnaire consisted of seven items (three qualitative and four quantitative), measured on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). the quantitative items measured future uncertainty and worry of employees regarding their employment. an example item of this construct is ‘i am worried about being able to keep my job’, whereas the qualitative job insecurity scale focuses on worries relating to losing important aspects in one’s job. an example item of this construct is ‘i worry about getting less stimulating work tasks in the future’. here a combined job insecurity factor was also used as in previous research that has utilised the same scale (e.g. masia & pienaar, 2011). previous reliability for this scale has been deemed acceptable (α ≥ 0.70; masia & pienaar, 2011). union support the union support scale is an adapted version of the scale of shore et al. (1994) and consisted of five items. an example item of this construct is ‘i can always call upon my union with questions or problems’, measured on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). job satisfaction the job satisfaction scale is based on three items and was developed by hellgren, sjöberg and sverke (1997). an example item of this construct is ‘i am satisfied with my job’, measured on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). previous reliability for this scale has been deemed acceptable (α = 0.75; masia & pienaar, 2011). safety motivation and behaviour the safety motivation and behaviour scales were developed by neal, griffin and hart (2000). the two scales were combined in this study because of an almost perfect correlation between the two estimated latent variables, indicating that participants did not fully discriminate between the items of the two separate constructs. safety motivation was measured by four items and investigated the extent to which employees believe health and safety are important issues in the workplace. an example item of this construct is ‘i believe that workplace health and safety is an important issue’, measured on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). previous reliability for this scale has been deemed acceptable (α = 0.85; neal et al., 2000). safety behaviour was measured by three items that measured safety behaviour and compliance. an example item of this construct is ‘i carry out my work in a safe manner’, measured on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). previous reliability for this scale has been deemed acceptable (α = 0.72; vinodkumar & bhasi, 2010). research procedure the research proposal was approved by the faculty research committee as part of the first author’s master’s degree at the north-west university. permission was obtained to implement the project at the mining locations. at first, an email regarding the importance of the study was sent to the participants, explaining what the research was about, confidentiality regarding the assessment, assurance that participation would be free and fair and that withdrawal from the project would be without any negative consequences. the questionnaires were sent electronically to the shift bosses and supervisors who participated in the study, although participation was still voluntary. statistical analysis to calculate the reliability of constructs (i.e. internal consistency), alpha coefficients are normally utilised (cronbach, 1951). however, because of its inaccurate estimate of internal consistency and in some cases a gross overestimate of the correlation between test scores (revelle & zinbarg, 2009), other alternatives such as the omega coefficients with 95% confidence intervals have been proposed and it has been requested to abandon alpha (peters, 2014). the authors of this study heeded that call and calculated omega coefficients. furthermore, structural equation modelling (sem) methods were implemented with mplus 7.2 (muthén & muthén, 2014), that is, confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) was used to constitute a measurement model. all latent factors were constructed with their corresponding individual items as observed indicators. thus, no item parcelling, mean score or sum score methods were used in this study. only after the measurement model had been estimated and considered would regressions be added to the model to establish the structural model for the study. the estimation method used to investigate the model was the mean and variance-adjusted weighted least squares approach (wlsmv estimator), which is more suited to data that are categorical in nature, and this estimator is also robust against the potential of data non-normality. the following model fit statistics were considered to ascertain model fit: comparative fit index (cfi), tucker-lewis index (tli) and the root-mean-square error of approximation (rmsea) (van de schoot, lugtig & hox, 2012). for the cfi and tli, values of 0.90 and above are generally considered acceptable (van de schoot et al., 2012) and for the rmsea values below 0.08 are generally considered acceptable, but models should only be rejected if the rmsea value is ≥ 0.10 and when other fit indices are acceptable (van de schoot et al., 2012). statistical significance levels were set at the 95% confidence level (p ≤ 0.05), and the effect sizes for correlation coefficients were considered to be small (r ≤ 0.29), medium (r ≥ 0.30) or large effects (r ≥ 0.50) (cohen, 1988). even though mediation models are more suited to longitudinal studies in addressing the issue of time (selig & preacher, 2009), the hypothesised relationships were deemed to be of such a nature that potential indirect effects could be evident, even in cross-sectional data. thus, to be completely thorough in this study, it was decided to investigate these potential effects. this was done with the model indirect function in mplus and using the bootstrapping method with a request for 5000 resampling draws and confidence intervals at the 95% lower and upper level for the indirect effects (muthén & muthén, 2014; rucher, preacher, tormala & petty, 2011). results model fit results from the cfa revealed that the measurement model fit the data. more specifically, the following values were generated for the considered fit indices: cfi (0.93), tli (0.93), and rmsea (0.06). the regression paths were then added to the model in order to specify the structural model (see figure 1). the results of the structural model revealed that this model also fitted the data well: cfi (0.91), tli (0.90) and rmsea (0.07). based on the acceptable fit criteria, it was deemed appropriate to continue interpreting the results of the correlation matrix, the structural regressions and any potential indirect effects that might be evident in the model. figure 1: structural model with the significant regression results. correlations and omega reliability table 2 presents the omega reliabilities with 95% lower and upper confidence intervals and the correlation matrix for the latent variables. table 2: omega reliabilities and correlation matrix of the latent variables. the omega reliabilities of all the scales were acceptable (ω > 0.70), implying that all the scales used in this study were reliable. the correlation matrix revealed that only union support was statistically significantly positively correlated with all the other variables, but only to a practical degree with job satisfaction (r = 0.41; medium effect). the largest correlation was between job satisfaction and safety motivation and behaviour (r = 0.60; large effect). it is evident that job insecurity was negatively related to both job satisfaction (r = -0.30; with a medium effect) and safety motivation and behaviour. furthermore, data in table 2 indicate that role stressors were negatively related to job satisfaction and safety motivation behaviour. additionally, a positive relationship (with medium effect; r = 0.41) was found between union support and job satisfaction. lastly, the results indicate that union support and safety motivation and behaviour are positively correlated (with medium effect; r = 0.41). structural paths table 3 presents the structural relationships of the hypothesised model. table 3: structural relationships of the hypothesised model. the regressions of the structural model indicate that role stressors had a significant negative predictive relationship with both job satisfaction (β = -0.33; p = 0.01) and safety motivation and behaviour (β = -0.27; p = 0.01). furthermore, it was found that job insecurity had a negative relationship with job satisfaction (β = -0.20; p = 0.03), but no significant relationship with safety motivation and behaviour (β = 0.19; p = 0.08). union support had a positive relationship with both job satisfaction (β = 0.50; p = 0.01) and safety motivation and behaviour (β = 0.23; p = 0.01). finally, it is evident that job satisfaction had a significant positive relationship with safety motivation and behaviour (β = 0.46; p = 0.01). indirect effects concerning the indirect effects of the model, bootstrapping mediation analysis revealed that only one of the indirect effects was significant, that is, the mediating effect of job satisfaction between union support and safety motivation and behaviour: 0.26, 95% confidence interval (0.13; 0.39). furthermore, as the direct effect from union support to safety motivation and behaviour was also statistically significant, this mediating effect can be classified as a complementary mediation as per the guidelines of zhao, lynch and chen (2010) – as there was not only an indirect effect (which would indicate an indirect-only mediation) but also a direct path that was significant. discussion the primary purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between work stressors, job insecurity, union support, job satisfaction and safety motivation and behaviour in the iron ore mining industry. to accomplish the above-mentioned aims, confirmatory factor analysis, sem and indirect effects were implemented and estimated. the first objective of the study was to determine the relationship between role stressors and job satisfaction. results revealed that role stressors were negatively related to job satisfaction, confirming hypothesis 1a. recent research reported by ling, bahron and boroh (2014) also found that work stressors had a negative relationship with job satisfaction. this further reinforced previous research in that the higher the role stress, the lower the job satisfaction (karatepe, yavas, babakus & avci, 2006; koustelios, theodorakis & goulimaris, 2004; morley & flynn, 2003; zeffane & mcloughlin, 2006). the second objective was to determine the relationship between work stressors and safety motivation and behaviour. it was anticipated that these constructs would be negatively related. the results confirmed this relationship, providing evidence for hypothesis 1b. this finding can be explained in the light of workers’ tendency to engage in unsafe behaviour when confronted with stressful work situations. this may include taking short-cut methods, or otherwise compromising safety compliance that may cause injuries and accidents. these findings suggest that employees’ compliance with safety rules and regulations reduces proportionately to their increased levels of stress at work (ashworth & peake, 1994; hofmann, jacobs & landy, 1995). the next objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between job insecurity and job satisfaction. it was hypothesised that job insecurity is negatively related to job satisfaction, and the result confirmed hypothesis 2a. previous empirical research also directly linked high levels of job insecurity to dissatisfaction with one’s job (näswall & de witte, 2003; sverke & hellgren, 2002). in a more recent study conducted by delp et al. (2010), also it was found that employees who experience job security are more likely to experience job satisfaction than those without this security. although it was predicted that employees’ safety motivation and behaviour would be significantly impacted when their job security was threatened, a non-significant relationship was found between employees’ perceived job insecurity and their safety motivation and behaviour. hypothesis 2b is therefore rejected. this finding can be explained in the light of a study done by probst (1998), stating that a direct relationship between job insecurity and safety motivation is unlikely. it is rather expected that job insecurity leads to job dissatisfaction and, as a consequence, negative outcomes such as a lack of safety motivation and behaviour occur. a similar finding by emberland and rundmo (2010) also yielded no correlation between job insecurity and possible risk behaviour. the next objective was to determine the relationship between union support and job satisfaction. as anticipated, a positive correlation and regression coefficient were found between union support and job satisfaction, substantiating hypothesis 3a. delp et al. (2010) provided evidence that employees who regarded union membership as important were more likely to experience job satisfaction than those who did not. bender and sloane (1998) emphasised that the aim of unions is to change working conditions that are poor, consequently engendering job satisfaction among employees. according to porter and steers (1973), the theory of need/value fulfilment suggests that the inconsistency between workers’ needs and the degree to which their job meets their needs are negatively correlated to job satisfaction. therefore, when unions address discrepancies, such as salaries and poor working conditions, employees may often feel their union is supporting them. when employees’ needs are met, increased levels of job satisfaction can be expected (probst & brubaker, 2001). furthermore, a positive relationship between union support and safety motivation and behaviour was confirmed (hypothesis 3b). this finding can be explained by previous studies conducted on unionisation and workplace safety (cf. dedobbeleer, champagne & german, 1990; ringen et al., 1995; suruda, whitaker, bloswick, philips & sesek, 2002). various ways in which unions aim to promote safety in workplace have been recorded. therefore, unions play a crucial part in educating members about on-the-job hazards, providing them with incentives to be more cautious in the workplace, attracting more safety-conscious employees, encouraging workers to diminish known hazards, increasing supervisory inspections and developing safety-related innovations (morantz, 2009). as expected, strong evidence was found for the relationship between job satisfaction and workers’ safety motivation and behaviour, which confirmed hypothesis 4. this is congruent with research suggesting that employee satisfaction is often associated with decreased safety incident rates (rossouw & bews, 2002). dunbar (1993) also found a negative relationship between job insecurity and job dissatisfaction and employees’ use of protective gear. in line with these findings, robbins (1998) found that one of the ways employees may express job dissatisfaction could be to let conditions deteriorate, which may include reduced effort and increased error rate. such actions, in turn, may relate to increased safety incident rates. the last objective, which was to investigate the mediating role of job satisfaction between job insecurity, role stressors, union support and safety motivation and behaviour, was investigated by their indirect effects. it was anticipated that job satisfaction will mediate the relationship between job insecurity, role stressors, union support and safety motivation and behaviour. results revealed that there was only a significant indirect effect of job satisfaction between union support and safety motivation and behaviour. thus, hypothesis 5 was only partially confirmed. because the aim of unions is, among others, to change poor working conditions, actively engaged union members may experience unions as a basis of emotional support and a way to exert their power over decisions, consequently resulting in job satisfaction (bender & sloane, 1998). previous empirical studies have suggested that employees who showed high levels of job satisfaction also tended to have positive perspectives on the safety climate. contrastingly, dissatisfied employees tended to have negative perspectives (gyekye, 2005). managerial implications results indicated that mining organisations need to consider the implications of work stressors, job insecurity and union support on job satisfaction. the implication that job insecurity and union support can hold potential complications for employees’ safety motivation and behaviour should be noted. organisations need to take cognisance of the relationships between role stressors, union support, job satisfaction, safety motivation and behaviour. specifically, from the management’s side, it is important to consider strategies to address role stressors and job insecurity and to enhance antecedents of job satisfaction in order to offset negative implications for safety outcomes. this could be done by gauging employee well-being levels and associated demands on a yearly basis with a valid and reliable measurement implemented in cooperation with the necessary professionals. additionally, job satisfaction is also important for employee performance and health (judge et al., 2001; sverke et al., 2002). work stressors can be addressed by ensuring fair demands in a feedback-rich environment for all employees and ensuring the clarity of roles and responsibilities in teams (lang, thomas, bliese & adler, 2007; whitaker, dahling & levy, 2007). in terms of addressing union support – which showed a positive effect on job satisfaction – it is more complicated as union and management goals may often be opposed. engaging in constructive negotiations could prove fruitful, especially in light of possible retrenchments, which could add to existing job insecurity. however, union representatives may take note of this finding and ensure that their support of employees is communicated in clear fashion. as such, communicated support may contribute to enhanced job satisfaction. limitations and recommendations certain limitations are worth mentioning. firstly, the use of a cross-sectional research design has restricted the study from confirming causal relationships about the expected relationships between variables. furthermore, the present research study was conducted among a sample consisting exclusively of workers in a specific type of mine in the mining industry, even though it was the aim of the study. likewise, the majority of the sample comprised black males. as these results cannot be generalised to the general population, it is suggested that future studies consider more heterogeneous samples in different unionised industries. a non-probability, convenience sampling method was utilised in this research study. consequently, participants partaking in the study varied across two mining organisations in different geographical locations. issues regarding the self-report questionnaires that were utilised in this study include accessing subjective factors, which may be influenced by a variety of factors and can play an essential role in the obtained results. moreover, the variables of a self-report questionnaire could lead to common method variance between predictor variables and outcome variables (malhotra, kim & patil, 2006), although the means of addressing this problem are restricted (salkind, 2009). the current study adopted a more general view of trade unionism, and did not consider the type of unions, that is less or more militant and/or associated political affiliations. these aspects are important to consider for future research, also considering the union member exchange relationship. furthermore, the study posited the social exchange theory as its theoretical foundation, but this theory is not without limitations. specifically, the reciprocity of the exchange relationship may not be equal, as employers, employees and unions all have different power in their complex relationships. other factors that could potentially be investigated are the relationship of union support with trust in the organisation and managerial-level variables such as management style and supervisor support, in the context of organisational support. the complexity of the relationship, wherein management and union objectives may often be antagonistic, needs to be explored where union support is additionally considered as having a positive and negative slant. conclusion this study showed that work stressors and job insecurity were negatively associated with job satisfaction. conversely, perceived union support was positively associated with job satisfaction and safety motivation and behaviour. furthermore, job satisfaction mediated the relationship between union support and safety motivation and behaviour. mining organisations can, by placing the focus on reducing work stressors, and addressing job security and the role of union support, achieve higher levels of safety motivation and behaviour through job satisfaction. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions this publication was based on the master’s dissertation of n.w.h.s. l.t.d.b. was the co-supervisor of the project, acted as corresponding author, and performed the statistical analyses. j.p. was the supervisor for the research project and provided valuable inputs to the article. references acker, g.m. (2004). the effect of organizational conditions (role conflict, role ambiguity, opportunities for professional development, and social support) on job satisfaction and intention to leave among social workers in mental health care. community mental health journal, 40(1), 65–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/b:comh.0000015218.12111.26 ashford, s., lee, c., & bobko, p. (1989). content, causes, and consequences of job insecurity: a theory-based measure and substantive test. academy of management journal, 32, 803–829. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256569 ashworth, s.g.e., & peake, a.v. (1994). assessment of the dominant circumstances and factors giving rise to accidents in the gold and platinum mining industries. pretoria, south africa: simrac. bakker, a., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w. (2003). dual processes at work in a call centre: an application of the job demands–resources model. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 12(4), 393–417. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594320344000165 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2007). the job demands-resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22, 309–328. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 balducci, c., cecchin, m., & fraccaroli, f. (2012). the impact of role stressors on workplace bullying in both victims and perpetrators, controlling for personal vulnerability factors: a longitudinal analysis. work & stress, 26(3), 195–212. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2012.714543 barling, j., kelloway, e.k., & iverson, r.d. (2003). high-quality work, job satisfaction, and occupational injuries. journal of applied psychology, 88(2), 276–283. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.2.276 beehr, t.a., walsh, j.t., & taber, t.d. (1976). relationship of stress to individually and organisationally valued states: higher order needs as a moderator. journal of applied psychology, 61, 41–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.61.1.41 begley, p. (2013). automation drives workers out of mining jobs. retrieved n.d., from http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/automation-drives-workers-out-of-mining-jobs-20130726-2qph4.html bender, k., & sloane, p. (1998). job satisfaction, unions, and exit-voice revisited. industrial and labor relations review, 51, 222–240. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001979399805100204 blair, e. (1999). behavioral safety: myths, magic & reality. professional safety, 44(8), 25. blanchflower, d., & oswald, a. (1999). well-being, insecurity and the decline of american job satisfaction. working paper. university of warwick, uk. bolton, d., bagraim, j.j., witten, l., mohamed, y., zvobgo, v., & khan, m. (2007). explaining union participation: the effect of union commitment and demographic factors. sa journal of industrial psychology, 33(1), 74–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v33i1.254 borjas, g.j. (1979). job satisfaction, wages and unions. journal of human resources, 14, 21–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/145536 borman, w.c., & motowidlo, s.j. (1993). expanding the criterion domain to include elements of contextual performance. in n. schmitt, & w.c. borman (eds.), personnel selection in organizations (pp. 71–98). san francisco: jossey-bass. bosak, j., coetsee, w.j., & cullinane, s.j. (2013). safety climate dimensions as predictors for risk behavior. accident analysis & prevention, 55, 256–264. carlson, d.s., kacmar, m.k., & williams, l.j. (2000). construction and validation of a multidimensional measure of work–family conflict. journal of vocational behavior, 56(2), 249–276. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1999.1713 cheng, g.h.l., & chan, d.k.s. (2008). who suffers more from job insecurity? a meta-analytic review. applied psychology: an international review, 57, 272–303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2007.00312.x chirumbolo, a., & areni, a. (2005). the influence of job insecurity on job performance and absenteeism: the moderating effects of work attitudes. sa journal of industrial psychology, 31(4), 65–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v31i4.213 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. (2nd edn.). hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum. cooper, c.l., dewe, p.j., & o’driscoll, m.p. (2001). organizational stress: a review of critique of theory, research, and applications. thousand oaks, ca: sage. crawford, e.r., lepine, j.a., rich, b.l. (2010). linking job demands and resources to employee engagement and burnout: a theoretical extension and meta-analytic test. journal of applied psychology, 95(5), 834–848. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0019364 cregan, c. (2005). can organizing work? an inductive analysis of individual attitudes toward union membership. industrial and labor relations review, 28(2), 282–304. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001979390505800207 cronbach, l.j. (1951). coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. psychometrika, 22(3), 297–334. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf02310555 dedobbeleer, n., champagne, f., & german, p. (1990). safety performance among union and non-union workers in the construction industry. journal of occupational medicine, 32(11), 1099–1103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00043764-199011000-00009 delp, l., wallace, s.p., geiger-brown, j., & muntaner, c. (2010). job stress and job satisfaction: home care workers in a consumer-directed model of care. health services research, 45(4), 922–940. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6773.2010.01112.x demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., nachreiner, f., & schaufeli, w.b. (2001). the job demands-resources model of burnout. journal of applied psychology, 86(3), 499–512. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.499 department of mineral resources. (2013). annual report for 2012/2013. retrieved november 15, 2015, from http://www.dmr.gov.za de witte, h. (1999). job insecurity and psychological well-being: review of the literature and exploration of some unresolved issues. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 8(2), 155–177. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/135943299398302 de witte, h., pienaar, j., & de cuyper, n. (2016). review of 30 years of longitudinal studies on the association between job insecurity and health and well-being: is there causal evidence? australian psychologist, 51(1), 18–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ap.12176 dunbar, e. (1993). the role of psychological stress and prior experience in the use of personal protective equipment. journal of safety research, 24, 181–187. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0022-4375(93)90029-m eisenberger, r., huntington, r., hutchison, s., & sowa, d. (1986). perceived organizational support. journal of applied psychology, 71, 500–507. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.71.3.500 emberland, j.s., & rundmo, t. (2010). implications of job insecurity perceptions and job insecurity responses for psychological well-being, turnover intentions and risk behavior. safety science, 48, 452–459. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2009.12.002 fried, y., shirom, a., gilboa, s., & cooper, c. (2008). the mediating effects of job satisfaction and propensity to leave on role stress–job performance relationships: combining meta-analysis and structural equation modeling. international journal of stress management, 15, 305–328. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0013932 ghosh, a.k., bhattacherjee, a. & chau, n. (2004). relationships of working conditions and individual characteristics to occupational injuries: a case-control study of coal miners. journal of occupational health, 46, 470–478. http://dx.doi.org/10.1539/joh.46.470 gilboa, s., shirom, a., fried, y., & cooper, c. (2008). a meta-analysis of work demand stressors and job performance: examining main and moderating effects. personnel psychology, 61(2), 227–271. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2008.00113.x gillen, m., baltz, d., gassel, m., kirsch, l., & vaccaro, d. (2002). perceived safety climate, job demands, and coworker support among union and non-union injured construction workers. journal of safety research, 33(1), 33–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0022-4375(02)00002-6 goslinga, s., hellgren, j., chirumbolo, a., de witte, h., näswall, k., & sverke, m. (2005). the role of union support in coping with job insecurity: a study among union members from three european countries. sa journal of industrial psychology, 31(4), 72–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v31i4.215 goslinga, s., & sverke, m. (2003). atypical work and union membership: union attitudes and union turnover among traditional vs. atypically employed union members. economic and industrial democracy, 24(2), 290−312. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0143831x03024002007 greenhalgh, l., & rosenblatt, z. (1984). job insecurity: toward conceptual clarity. academy of management review, 3, 438–448. griffeth, r.w., hom, p.w., & gaertner, s. (2000). a meta-analysis of antecedents and correlates of employee turnover: update, moderator tests, and research implications for the next millennium. journal of management, 26(3), 463–488. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920630002600305 griffin, m.a., & neal, a. (2000). perceptions of safety at work: a framework for linking safety climate to safety performance, knowledge, and motivation. journal of occupational health psychology, 5, 347–358. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.5.3.347 gyekye, a.s. (2005). workers’ perceptions of workplace safety and job satisfaction. international journal of occupational safety and ergonomics, 11, 291–302. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2005.11076650 hartley, j., jacobson, d., klandermans, b. & van vuuren, t. (1991). job insecurity. coping with jobs at risk. london, uk: sage publications. hayes, b.e., pernader, j., smecko, t., & trask, j. (1998). measuring perceptions of workplace safety: development and validation of the work safety scale. journal of safety research, 29(3), 145–161. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0022-4375(98)00011-5 hellgren, j., & chirumbolo, a. (2003). can union support reduce the negative effects of job insecurity on well-being? economic and industrial democracy, 24, 271–289. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0143831x03024002006 hellgren, j., sjöberg, a., & sverke, m. (1997). intention to quit: effects of job satisfaction and job perceptions. in f. avallone, j. arnold, & k. de witte (eds.), feelings work in europe (pp. 415–423). milano, italy: guerini. hellgren, j., sverke, m., & isaksson, k. (1999). a two-dimensional approach to job insecurity: consequences for employee attitudes and well-being. european journal of work and organization psychology, 8, 179–195. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/135943299398311 hofmann, d.a., jacobs, r., & landy, f. (1995). high reliability process industries: individual, micro, and macro organisational influences on safety performance. journal of safety research, 26, 131–149. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0022-4375(95)00011-e hofmann, d.a., & stetzer, a. (1998). the role of safety climate and communication in accident interpretation: implication from negative events. academy of management journal, 41, 644–657. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256962 jackson, s., & schuler, r. (1985). a meta-analysis and conceptual critique of research on role ambiguity and role conflict in work settings. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 36, 16–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(85)90020-2 janssens, m.j., brett, j.m., & smith, f.j. (1995). confirmatory cross-cultural research: testing the viability of a corporation-wide safety policy. academy of management journal, 38, 364–382. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256684 judge, t.a., thoresen, c.j., bono, j.e., & patton, g.k. (2001). the job satisfaction–job performance relationship: a qualitative and quantitative review. psychological bulletin, 127(3), 376–407. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.127.3.376 kahn, r.l., wolfe, d.m., quinn, r.p., snoek, j.d., & rosenthal, r.a. (1964). organizational stress: studies in role conflict and ambiguity. new york: wiley. kaiser, l. (2002). job satisfaction: a comparison of standard, non-standard, and self-employment patterns across europe with a special note to the gender/job satisfaction paradox. epag working paper 27, colchester: university of essex. karasek, r.a., & theorell, t. (1990). healthy work: stress, productivity and the reconstruction of working life. new york: basic books. karatepe, o.m., yavas, v., babakus, e., & avci, t. (2006). does gender moderate the effects of role stress in frontline service jobs? journal of business research, 59, 1087–1093. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2006.08.004 karsh, b., booske, b.c., & sainfort, f. (2005). job and organizational determinants of nursing home employee commitment, job satisfaction and intent to turnover. ergonomics, 48(10), 1260–1281. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00140130500197195 katz, d., & kahn, r.l. (1978). the social psychology of organizations. (2nd edn.). new york: wiley. kenny, b., & bezuidenhoud, a. (1999). contracting, complexity and control: an overview of the changing nature of subcontracting in the south african mining industry. the journal of the south african institute of mining and metallurgy, 99(4), 185–192. kochan, t.a., katz, h.c., & mckersie, r. (1986). the transformation of u.s. industrial relations. new york: basic books, inc. koustelios, a., theodorakis, n., & goulimaris, d. (2004). role ambiguity, role conflict and job satisfaction among physical education teachers in greece. the international journal of educational management, 18(2), 87–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513540410522216 kumo, w.l., rielander, j., & omilola, b. (2014). south africa: 2014. retrieved october 10, 2015, from http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/fileadmin/uploads/aeo/2014/pdf/cn_long_en/afrique_du_sud_en.pdf lang, j., thomas, j.l., bliese, p.d., & adler, a.b. (2007). job demands and job performance: the mediating effect of psychological and physical strain and the moderating effect of role clarity. journal of occupational health psychology, 12(2), 116–124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.12.2.116 le roux, a. (2005). mine fatalities down, but still too high. mining weekly. retrieved may 15, 2016, from http://www.miningweekly.co.za/min/features/health/?show=66581 lillydahl, j.h., & singell, l.d. (1993). job satisfaction, salaries and unions: the determination of university faculty compensation. economics of education review, 12(3), 233–243. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0272-7757(93)90006-3 ling, a.w., bahron, a., & boroh, r.p. (2014). a study on role stress and job satisfaction among bank employees in kota kinabalu, sabah. international journal of research in management & business studies, 1(2), 19–23. locke, e.a. (1969). what is job satisfaction? organisational behaviour and human performance, 4, 309–336. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(69)90013-0 malhotra, n.k., kim, s.s., & patil, a. (2006). common method variance in is research: a comparison of alternative approaches and a reanalysis of past research. management science, 52(12), 1865–1883. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1060.0597 marrian, n. (2015). job losses are social threat, says mantashe. retrieved december 10, 2015 from http://www.bdlive.co.za/economy/2015/07/28/job-losses-are-a-social-threat-says-mantashe masia, u., & pienaar, j. (2011). unravelling safety compliance in the mining industry: examining the role of work stress, job insecurity, satisfaction and commitment as antecedents. south african journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), 1–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i1.937 mathieu, j.e., & zajac, d.m. (1990). a review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of organizational commitment. psychological bulletin, 108(2), 171–194. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.108.2.171 morantz, a. (2009, january). the elusive union safety effect: toward a new empirical research agenda. 61st annual meeting (p. 130). labor and employment relations association: champaign, il. morley, m.j., & flynn, m. (2003). the relationship between work-role characteristics and intercultural transitional adjustment domain patterns among a sample of us and canadian expatriates on assignment in ireland. cross cultural management, 10(3), 42–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13527600310797630 muthén, l.k., & muthén, b.o. (2014). mplus user’s guide. (6th edn.). los angeles, ca: muthén and muthén. näswall, k., & de witte, h. (2003). who feels insecure in europe? predicting job insecurity from background variables. economic and industrial democracy, 24(2), 189–215. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0143831x03024002003 neal, a., & griffin, m.a. (2006). a study of the lagged relationships among safety climate, safety motivation, safety behavior, and accidents at the individual and group levels. journal of applied psychology, 91(4), 946–953. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.4.946 neal, a., griffin, m.a., & hart, p.m. (2000). the impact of organizational climate on safety climate and individual behavior. safety science, 34, 99–109. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0925-7535(00)00008-4 o’driscoll, m.p., & beehr, t.a. (1994). supervisor behaviors, role stressors and uncertainty as predictors of personal outcomes for subordinate. journal of organizational behavior, 15, 141–155. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.4030150204 orgambídez-ramos, a., borrego-alés, y., & mendoza-sierra, i. (2014). role stress and work engagement as antecedents of job satisfaction in spanish workers. journal of industrial engineering and management, 10(1), 360–372. http://dx.doi.org/10.3926/jiem.992 örtqvist, d., & wincent, j. (2006) prominent consequences of role stress: a meta-analytic review. international journal of stress management, 13, 399–422. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.13.4.399 ouyang, z., sang, j., li, p., & peng, j. (2015). organizational justice and job insecurity as mediators of the effect of emotional intelligence on job satisfaction: a study from china. personality and individual differences, 76, 147–152. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.12.004 paul, p. s., & maiti, j. (2005). development and test of a sociotechnical model for accident/injury occurrences in underground coal mines. journal of south african institute of mining and metallurgy, 105(1), 43–55. peters, g.j.y. (2014). the alpha and the omega of scale reliability and validity. the european health psychologist, 16(2), 54–69. pienaar, j., sieberhagen, c.f., & mostert, k. (2007). investigating turnover intentions by role overload, job satisfaction and social support moderation. sa journal of industrial psychology, 33(2), 62–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v33i2.378 podsakoff, n.p., lepine, j.a., & lepine, m.a. (2007). differential challenge stressor-hindrance stressor relationships with job attitudes, turnover intentions, turnover, and withdrawal behavior: a meta-analysis. journal of applied psychology, 92(2), 438–454. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.2.438 porter, l.w., & steers, r.w. (1973). organizational work, and personal factors in employee turnover and absenteeism. psychological bulletin, 80, 151–176. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0034829 probst, t.m. (1998). antecedents and consequences of job insecurity: development and test of an integrated model, doctoral dissertation, university of illinois at urbana champaign. probst, t.m. (2002). layoffs and offs: production, quality, and safety demands under the threat of a job loss. journal of occupational health psychology, 7, 211–220. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.7.3.211 probst, t.m., & brubaker, t.l. (2001). the effects of job insecurity on employee safety outcomes: cross-sectional and longitudinal explorations. journal of occupational health psychology, 6(2), 139–159. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.6.2.139 revelle, w., & zinbarg, r.e. (2009). coefficients alpha, beta, omega, and the glb: comments on sijtsma. psychometrika, 74, 145–154. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11336-008-9102-z rhoades, l., & eisenberger, r. (2002). perceived organisational support: a review of the literature. journal of applied psychology, 87(4), 698–714. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.698 rich, b.l., lepine, j.a., & crawford, e.r. (2010). job engagement: antecedents and effects on job performance. academy of management journal, 53(3), 617–635. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.51468988 richter, a. (2011). job insecurity and its consequences: investigating moderators, mediators and gender. stockholm university, sweden. ringen, k., englund, a., welch, l., weeks, j.l., & seegal, j.l. (1995). why construction is different. occupational medicine, 10, 255−259. rizzo, j.r., house, r.j., & lirtzman, s.i. (1970). role conflict and ambiguity in complex organizations. administrative science quarterly, 15, 150–163. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2391486 robbins, s.p. (1998). organizational behavior. (5th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice-hall inc. rossouw, d., & bews, n. (2002). the importance of trust in a changing business environment. management today, 18(2), 26–27. rucher, d.d., preacher, k.j., tormala, z.l., & petty, r.e. (2011). mediation analysis in social psychology: current practices and new recommendations. social and personality psychology compass, 5(6), 359–371. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2011.00355.x saks, a.m. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169 salkind, n.j. (2009). exploring research. (7th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson. salminen, s. (1995). does pressure from the work community increase risk taking? psychology report, 77, 1247–1250. http://dx.doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1995.77.3f.1247 selig, j.p., & preacher, k.l. (2009). mediation models for longitudinal data in developmental research. research in human development, 6, 144–164. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15427600902911247 seseane, t., jr. (2014). south african unions vie for control of militant workers. retrieved march 19, 2015, from https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/02/20/safr-f20.html shore, l.m., tetrick, l.e., sinclair, r.r., & newton, l.a. (1994). validation of a measure of perceived union support. journal of applied psychology, 79, 971–977. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.79.6.971 slichter, s.h., healy, j.j., & livernash, e.r. (1960). the impact of collective bargaining on management. washington, dc: brookings institution. smit, c. (2013, december). the role of mining in the south african economy. kpmg. retrieved march 20, 2015, from http://www.sablog.kpmg.co.za/2013/12/role-mining-south-african-economy/ smith, n.w.h. (2014). assessing work stressors, union support, job satisfaction and safety outcomes in the mining environment. unpublished mini-dissertation, north-west university, potchefstroom, south africa. spector, p. (1997). job satisfaction: application, assessment, causes and consequences. thousand oaks, ca: sage. spigener, j., & hodson, s. (1997). are labour unions in danger of losing their leadership position in safety? professional safety, 42(12), 37–39. steyn, l. (2014, 27 june). tsunami mining strike changes landscape. mail & guardian. retrieved september 09, 2014, from http://mg.co.za/article/2014-06-26-tsunami-mining-strike-changes-landscape stordeur, s., d’hoore, w., & vandenberghe, c. (2001). leadership, organizational stress, and emotional exhaustion among hospital nursing staff. journal of advanced nursing, 35, 533–542. http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2001.01885.x struwig, f.w., & stead, g.b. (2001). planning, designing and reporting research. cape town, za: pearson education. suruda, a., whitaker, b., bloswick, d., philips, p., & sesek, r. (2002). impact of the osha trench and excavation standard on fatal injury in the construction industry. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 44(10), 902–905. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00043764-200210000-00007 sverke, m., & hellgren, j. (2002). the nature of job insecurity: understanding employment insecurity on the brink of a new millennium. applied psychology: an international review, 51(1), 23–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1464-0597.0077z sverke, m., hellgren, j., & näswall, k. (2002). no security: a meta-analysis and review of job insecurity and its consequences. journal of occupational health psychology, 7, 242–264. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.7.3.242 sverke, m., hellgren, j., näswall, k., chirumbolo, a., de witte, h. & goslinga, s. (2004). job insecurity and union membership: european unions in the wake of flexible production. brussels: p.i.e.-peter lang. sverke, m., hellgren, j., & öhrming, j. (1999). organizational restructuring and health care work: a quasi-experimental study. in p.m. le blanc, m.c.w. peeters, a. bussing, & w.b. schaufeli (eds.), organisational psychology and health care: european contributions (pp. 15–32). munchen, germany: rainer hampp verlag. vandenberghe, c., panaccio, a., bentein, k., mignonac, k., & roussel, p. (2011). assessing longitudinal change of and dynamic relationships among role stressors, job attitudes, turnover intention, and well-being in neophyte newcomers. journal of organizational behavior, 32(4), 652–671. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.732 van de schoot, r., lugtig, p., & hox, j. (2012). a checklist for testing measurement invariance. european journal of developmental psychology, 9, 486–492. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2012.686740 verma, a. (2005). what do unions do to the workplace? union effects on management and hrm policies. journal of labor research, 26, 417–451. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12122-005-1013-5 vinodkumar, m.n., & bhasi, m. (2010). safety management practices and safety behaviour: assessing the mediating role of safety knowledge and motivation. accident analysis & prevention, 42(6), 2082–2093. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2010.06.021 weil, d. (1992). building safety: the role of construction unions in the enforcement of osha. journal of labor research, 13(1), 121–132. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf02685455 weil, d. (1999). are mandated health and safety committees substitutes for or supplements to labor unions? industrial & labor relations review, 52(3), 339–360. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001979399905200301 weiss, h.m., nicholas, j.p., & daus, c.s. (1999). an examination of the joint effects of affective experiences and job beliefs on job satisfaction and variations in affective experiences over time. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 78, 1–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/obhd.1999.2824 whitaker, b.g., dahling, j.j., & levy, p. (2007). the development of a feedback environment and role clarity model of job performance. journal of management, 33(4), 570–591. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206306297581 yousef, d.a. (2002). job satisfaction as a mediator of the relationship between role stressors and organizational commitment: a study from an arabic cultural perspective. journal of managerial psychology, 17(4), 250–266. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940210428074 zeffane, r., & mcloughlin, d. (2006). cooperation and stress: exploring the differential impact of job satisfaction, communication and culture. management research news, 29(10), 618–631. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01409170610712326 zhao, x., lynch, j.g., & chen, q. (2010). reconsidering baron and kenny: myths and truths about mediation analysis. journal of consumer research, 37, 197–206. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/651257 article information authors: doris n. asiwe1 carin hill2 lené i. jorgensen1 affiliations: 1workwell, research unit for economic and management sciences, north-west university, potchefstroom campus, south africa 2department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: lené jorgensen email: 10094598@nwu.ac.za postal address: private bag x6001, internal box 114, potchefstroom 2520, south africa dates: received: 13 feb. 2014 accepted: 28 nov. 2014 published: 26 mar. 2015 how to cite this article: asiwe, d.n., hill, c., & jorgensen, l.i. (2015). job demands and resources of workers in a south african agricultural organisation. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #634, 16 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.634 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. job demands and resources of workers in a south african agricultural organisation in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • literature review       • job demands and job resources       • job demands and resources in different organisations       • measuring job demands and resources       • job demands, job resources and demographic variables • method    • research approach    • measures       • research participants       • measuring instrument       • research procedure    • analysis       • ethical considerations • results • discussion    • outline of results    • practical implications    • limitations    • recommendations    •conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: understanding the job demands and resources experienced by workers in an agricultural organisation. research purpose: the objective of this study was to examine the validity and reliability of the adapted job demands and resources scale (ajdrs) as well as to establish prevalent job demands and resources of employees in an agricultural organisation. demographic differences were also investigated. motivation of the study: the agricultural sector of any national economy plays a very important role in the overall welfare of the country. identifying the prevalent job demands and resources in an agricultural organisation is therefore of paramount importance since the negative consequences of employees experiencing very demanding jobs with few resources have been well documented in stress literature. research approach, design and method: a cross-sectional survey design was used. the sample consisted of 443 employees in an agricultural organisation. the ajdrs was used to measure the research variables. main findings: the findings of this research show evidence for the factorial validity and reliability of the ajdrs. statistical differences were found with regard to the job demands and resources experienced by employees in different positions. practical/managerial implications: interventions to improve the perceived job demands and resources in the organisation should focus on physical resources (equipment). contribution/value-add: this study contributes to knowledge concerning the job demands and resources that are prevalent in an agricultural organisation in south africa. introduction top ↑ the workplace has undergone tremendous changes over the last few decades. organisations must survive in highly competitive local and global economies. the extent to which an organisation is able to attain organisational goals and objectives through the dedication of its workforce is an important factor in the organisation's ability to remain in business (fay & buhrmann, 2004). whilst most organisations now expect employees to put in extra time, effort, skills and to be flexible with regard to working hours, these organisations are not ready to offer these employees opportunities to grow, continued employment and job security (cooper, dewe & o'driscoll, 2001; maslach, schaufeli & leiter, 2001). employees experience increased workloads and intense pressure to perform, as well as decreased job control (häusser, mojzisch, niesel & schulz-hardt, 2010). these organisational changes also have an impact on individuals’ jobs and could possibly influence workers’ safety, health and well-being (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). consequently, the once predictable and controlled work environment has become complex and unpredictable, impacting employees’ energy and motivational levels, physical health and well-being (bakker & demerouti, 2007; french, du plessis & scrooby, 2011; nelson & simmons, 2003; rothmann & jordan, 2006; schaufeli & bakker, 2004; welthagen & els, 2012). the above discussion concurs with rothmann, mostert and strydom (2006) that it is of paramount importance to investigate employees’ experiences of the demands and resources in their work. the objective of this study was to investigate the job demands and resources of workers in a south african agricultural organisation. specifically, the study aimed to (1) assess the validity and reliability of the adapted job demands and resources scale, (2) to establish the prevalent job demands and resources of employees in an agricultural organisation and to (3) investigate differences in employees’ job demands and resources that may exist based on the employees’ demographic variables. literature review job demands and job resources different models have been propounded to explain the interaction between the demands of a job and the resources available to the employee. these models include the job characteristics model (hackman & oldham, 1976, 1980), the job demands control model (karasek, 1979), the person-environment fit model (lazarus & folkman, 1984) and the job demands-resources model (demerouti, bakker, nachreiner & schaufeli, 2001), to name a few. the job characteristics model of hackman and oldham (1976, 1980) suggests that enriched or complex jobs are principally linked with employees’ positive disposition to work and the work environment. these positive dispositions result in positive organisational outcomes such as increased job satisfaction, motivation and work performance. the job demands control model of karasek (1979) was developed in order to better understand job stress. the central assumption of this model is that the negative consequences of job stress could be moderated by an employee's total control over all aspects of their job, especially with regard to decision-making (karasek & theorell, 1990). according to this model, employees experience satisfactory control and job responsibility when they participate in organisational decision-making and have control of work conditions, the work setting and the amount of work (mueller & mccloskey, 1990). another model of work-related stress is the person-environment fit model, which was developed by lazarus and folkman (1984). this model views stress as resulting from a misfit between the requirements of the job (e.g. demands and resources) and the values, skills and traits of the individual (cooper et al., 2001; winefield et al., 2003). implicit in this model is the assumption that such misfit may or may not take place depending on the person's ability to handle or cope with the situation. a fourth model of job stress is the job demands-resources model, which extends previous job stress models (karasek, 1979; siegrist, 1996) by incorporating ideas regarding different demands and resources, irrespective of the professional group being considered (hakanen, bakker & demerouti, 2005). according to the developers of the job demandsresources model (demerouti et al., 2001), every working condition can be categorised into two broad components, labelled job demands and job resources. job demands refer to aspects of the job that could possibly cause strain in situations where they surpass the individual's adaptive skills (rothmann et al., 2006). job demands are therefore those physical, social or organisational aspects of the job that require sustained physical or mental effort and are associated with certain physiological and psychological costs (demerouti et al., 2001; schaufeli & bakker, 2004). quantitative job demands refer to the amount of work required and the available time frame, whilst qualitative workload concerns the employees’ affective responses to their jobs (cooper et al., 2001). work overload or high demands may also occur if an individual does not have the necessary skills, abilities and support to meet these demands. therefore, individuals who are overloaded with work could experience stress (demerouti et al., 2001; karasek, 1979; schaufeli & bakker, 2004). examples of excessive quantitative job demands that employees may be exposed to include feeling overwhelmed by perceived time pressures and deadlines, excessive work demands and informational overload (montgomery, peeters, schaufeli & den ouden, 2003). job resources refer to the degree to which individual employees are offered career or growth opportunities by their jobs (rothmann et al., 2006). job resources refer to those physical, psychological, social or organisational aspects of the job that may be functional in achieving work goals, reducing job demands, and the associated physiological and psychological costs, and stimulating personal growth and development (bakker & demerouti, 2007; demerouti et al., 2001; schaufeli & bakker, 2004). job resources include social support (supervisory and collegial), job enhancement opportunities in the form of increased control, participation in decision-making, reinforcement (richardsen & burke, 1993), as well as recognition, opportunities for growth and rewards (rothmann, 2002). according to rothmann et al. (2006), job resources exist at the following levels within an organisation: (1) at the organisational level (growth opportunities, remuneration, job security), (2) at the level of the organisation of work role (role clarity, participation in decision-making), (3) at the interpersonal level (team climate, supervisory and collegial support) and (4) at the task level (task significance, task performance feedback, task identity). job demands and resources in different organisations work-related stress research in the south african context indicates that different organisations experience different types of job demands and job resources (rothmann, 2005). previous researchers in south africa have identified specific job demands and resources which could be potential causes of stress in different occupations. specific professions and industries studied include emergency workers (naudé & rothmann, 2003), quantity surveyors (bowen, cattell & edwards, 2013), local government (rothmann, jackson & kruger, 2003), engineering (rothmann & malan, 2004), mining workers (hodgskiss & edwards, 2013), educators (jackson & rothmann, 2005; de witt & lessing, 2013), insurance (coetzer & rothmann, 2006), reformed church ministers (buys & rothmann, 2010), the south african police service (pienaar & rothmann, 2006; rothmann, kleyn, louw & makgala, 2003), nursing (rothmann, van der colff & rothmann, 2006), pharmacists (rothmann & malan, 2007) and academics (rothmann & barkhuizen, 2008; rothmann et al., 2006). most of these research studies highlighted the most prevalent job demands as being work overload, excessive paperwork, insufficient time to meet deadlines, performing tasks not in their job description (role ambiguity), working long hours and having little control over their work; meanwhile, insufficient remuneration, lack of recognition, lack of growth and advancement opportunities, poorly motivated staff members, colleagues not doing their jobs, staff shortages, job insecurity, lack of control and lack of organisational, managerial and collegial support were identified as problems in terms of job resources (cf. barkhuizen & rothmann, 2008; coetzer & rothmann, 2006; jackson & rothmann, 2005; naudé & rothmann, 2003; pienaar & rothmann, 2006; rothmann, 2005; rothmann, kleyn, louw & makgala, 2003; rothmann & malan, 2004). the agricultural sector: the agricultural sector of a country is important in providing food and revenue for its populace as well as raw materials and fibre for a variety of industries. agriculture also provides the opportunity to assure food security for the poor and to contribute to a climate of low inflation (zuma, 2008). according to the alliance for commodity trade in eastern and southern africa (actesa, 2013) it is vital that the agricultural sector of south africa functions optimally since it contributes to the economy of the nation. apart from farmers and farm workers, the agricultural sector also includes agricultural organisations whose primary objective is to promote all agricultural-related sectors through research and technological development (agricultural research council [arc], 2007). researchers in agricultural research continue to strive for excellence in their pursuit of scientific solutions aimed at improving people's quality of life (moephuli, 2008). however, they also face many challenges, such as the fact that the recruitment and retention of skilled scientists has become increasingly difficult for research institutes. there is also evidence of a decline in the number of applicants to research posts, leading in some cases to an inability to appoint scientists (arc, 2008). the main factors contributing to difficulties in recruiting and retaining scientists include remuneration (the agricultural institutions offer low pay levels in comparison with other science councils, universities, government departments and the private sector), competitors remaining the main contributors, a shrinking pool of scientists from which to draw, competition from other employers, poor retention policy, inadequate recognition and appreciation, lack of fit with company culture and inappropriate fit for the role (arc, 2008). another challenge in agricultural research includes the presence of unforeseen crisis situations such as attempting to modernise some of the laboratories and equipment so that new crops and animals and new techniques can be researched (arc, 2005). in order to achieve organisational goals, teams or work groups need adequate equipment (robbins, 2005). according to guest (2004), advances in technology lead to the speeding up of the world of work. thus, speed and flexibility of response form a vital basis for having a competitive advantage (guest, 2004). according to a recent report by an agricultural research institution, the allocation of funds for infrastructure renewal and equipment replacement remains highly inadequate and presents a challenge for the relevant workers (arc, 2013). this lack of adequate equipment could place high levels of physical and psychological demands on the workers, which may potentially predispose them to strain and consequently affect their performance on the job. however, to date no research studies have investigated these job demands and resources experienced by workers in the agricultural sector in south africa. research studies have mostly focused on stress and to date the research population has been mostly farmers (deshpande & shah, 2007). this finding is indicative of the importance of investigating job demands and resources in this sector as the negative effects of demands and lack of resources have clearly been demonstrated in the stress literature and have serious implications for the employees’ well-being as well as that of the organisation. measuring job demands and resources south african studies have reported results in support of the job demands resources model (bakker & demerouti, 2007; demerouti et al., 2001; schaufeli & bakker 2004). these results suggest that different work characteristics can be grouped into two categories, corresponding to the theoretical categories of job demands and job resources, in different organisations. studies by fourie (2003), jackson, rothmann and van de vijver (2006), koekemoer and mostert (2006), rothmann and jordan (2006), rothmann et al. (2006), rothmann and jorgensen (2007), and barkhuizen and rothmann (2008) all yielded two-factor structures, suggesting that job demands and job resources are characteristics of work environments. however, rothmann et al. (2006) state that more research is needed in order to develop a valid measure that could be used in a wide variety of contexts. this research needs to focus specifically on job demands and resources in different occupations and organisations in south africa and is necessary in order to allow for comparisons between different occupations and organisations (rothmann et al., 2006). jackson and rothmann (2005) developed the job demands and resources scale (jdrs) for educators. the scale consists of seven reliable factors, namely organisational support, insecurity, reward, overload, growth opportunities, control and relationship with colleagues (jackson & rothmann, 2005). hill, mostert and de bruin (2012) adapted the instrument for use with police members in the north west and found it to be reliable. the following definitions of the factors provided by jackson and rothmann (2005) were adopted for this study: organisational support is defined as the employee's relationship with their supervisor, receiving information on their work, communication and participation in decisions about the nature of their work. insecurity refers to a person's uncertainty about the future. reward refers to whether the employee can live comfortably on their pay, whether the employee thinks they are paid enough for the work and whether the job offers opportunities for the employee to progress financially. overload refers to physical, mental and emotional demands, time pressure, pace and amount of work. growth opportunities refers to having access to opportunities for personal growth and development, including learning on the job. control implies having opportunities for independent thought and action, taking part in planning activities, freedom in carrying out work and making a significant contribution to the organisation. relationship with colleagues refers to availability of colleagues to help, contact possibilities with colleagues, whether the employee can count on colleagues and whether the employee gets on well with colleagues. other south african studies have obtained similar results to those reported by jackson and rothmann (2005). these studies provide support for the following constructs: organisational support (barkhuizen & rothmann, 2008; hill et al., 2012; phale, 2008; rothmann & jordan, 2006; rothmann et al., 2006; rothmann & jorgensen, 2007), job insecurity (barkhuizen & rothmann, 2008; bosch, ribeiro & becker, 2012; hill et al., 2012; rothmann et al., 2006), reward (hill et al., 2012; jackson & rothmann, 2005), overload (barkhuizen & rothmann, 2008; bosch et al., 2012; hill et al., 2012; phale, 2008; rothmann et al., 2006), growth opportunities (barkhuizen & rothmann, 2008; jackson & rothmann, 2005; phale, 2008; ribeiro, bosch & becker, 2013; rothmann & jordan, 2006; rothmann et al., 2006; rothman & jorgensen, 2007) and control (jackson & rothmann, 2005). in order to determine the nature of the job demands and resources experienced in the agricultural organisation, the jdrs was adapted specifically for the agricultural sector. subsequently, the following hypotheses were formulated regarding the adapted jdrs (ajdrs): hypothesis 1a: the ajdrs is a valid instrument for use in a sample of agricultural workers in south africa. hypothesis 1b: the ajdrs is a reliable instrument for use amongst a sample of agricultural workers in south africa. job demands, job resources and demographic variables agricultural workers are not a homogeneous group of employees. it would therefore be inappropriate to examine the job demands and resources of the employees in an agricultural organisation without taking cognisance of their demographic differences. vokic and bogdanic (2007) have drawn attention to the fact that the stress process is not a simple phenomenon, but rather a complex process that results from the interaction of various variables. previous researchers have examined the differences between various demographic groups in terms of how they perceive their job-related occupational stressors and resources. variables that have been studied include: (1) gender (e.g. antoniou, polychroni & vlachakis, 2006; bonke, deding & lausten, 2009; fotinatos-ventouratos & cooper, 2005; sverke, hellgren, näswall, chirumbolo, de witte & goslinga, 2004; vakola & nikolaou, 2005; van zyl, 2005), (2) age (e.g. antoniou et al., 2006; buitendach, 2004; buitendach, oosthuyzen & van wyk, 2005; marinaccio et al., 2013; rannona, 2003; vakola & nikolaou, 2005), (3) race, nationality and ethnic background (e.g. bosch et al., 2012; buitendach et al., 2005; pienaar & rothmann, 2006; lu, cooper, kao & zhou, 2003; ribeiro et al., 2013), (4) hierarchical level or rank (e.g. barkhuizen, 2005; coetzer & rothmann, 2006; naudé & rothmann, 2003; pienaar & rothmann, 2006; ribeiro et al., 2013; winefield et al., 2003; winter, taylor & sarros, 2000), (5) educational level (e.g. barkhuizen & rothmann, 2008; buitendach, 2004; buitendach et al., 2005; marinaccio et al., 2013; näswall & de witte, 2003; vakola & nikolaou, 2005), (6) marital status (e.g. bosch et al., 2012; marinaccio et al., 2013; ribeiro et al., 2013) and (7) number of years in a position (e.g. buitendach et al., 2005; winefield et al., 2003). with regard to gender, researchers have found that men and women working in the same job level differ significantly in their perception of work stressors and resources. antoniou et al. (2006) and fotinatos-ventouratos and cooper (2005) found that female employees experienced higher levels of occupational stress than their male counterparts. there have been conflicting findings concerning the perceived job insecurity of men and women. van vuuren (1990) distinguishes between affective insecurity, which refers to the employee's subjective interpretation of a situation, and cognitive insecurity, which refers to uncertainty about the future. sverke et al. (2004) found that women experienced higher levels of job insecurity than men. in addition, a stronger correlation was identified between the resultant stress due to insecurity and its adverse effects for men than for women. sverke, hellgren, näswall and chirumbolo, de witte and goslinga (2001) attribute this to the fact that men are likely to experience more strain in relation to job insecurity because they traditionally bear the burden of supporting their families financially. however, buitendach et al. (2005) and van zyl (2005) found no difference in the insecurity levels of women and men. women tend to report greater job satisfaction with regard to job resources such as pay and career opportunities than men (bonke, deding & lausten, 2009; clark, 1997), possibly considering the intrinsic characteristics of the job and work-life balance as higher priority than pay and career opportunities (bender, donohue & heywood, 2005; clark, 1997). additionally, job resources such as control and peer support were more prevalent amongst men than amongst women (marinaccio et al., 2013). in relation to age, de witte (1999) found that employees between the ages of 30 and 50 years are more likely to experience strain at the likelihood of job loss than younger and older employees. this may be due to the fact that younger employees have fewer financial obligations and better chances of finding alternative employment than their older colleagues. in relation to older employees, it is possible that employees over the age of 50 are already preparing for retirement and are therefore less concerned with job security. however, research by rannona (2003), buitendach (2004) and buitendach et al. (2005) found that older employees do experience high levels of job insecurity, frequently related to the fact that they are often the first victims of downsizing in any organisation. concerning the prevalence of job resources amongst different age groups, marinaccio et al. (2013) found that older employees (> 50 years) experienced higher levels of job control than the younger employees (< 30 years). pienaar and rothmann (2006) found that race had an impact on the experience of occupational stress. in their study on the south african police service (saps), race impacted significantly on the experience of occupational stress, with white and indian employees experiencing stress more intensely than their black and mixed-race counterparts. in their study of the mining industry, buitendach et al. (2005) found evidence of differences in the job insecurity of white and black employees, with white employees experiencing higher levels of cognitive job insecurity than their black colleagues. these authors speculated that the differing levels may be due to the implementation of the employment equity act (no. 55 of 1998), which created more employment opportunities for black employees than for their white and mixed-race counterparts. these findings differ from those reported by manski and straub (2000) and elbert (2002), who found that fear of possible job loss was higher for black persons than white persons. according to jacobson (1991) these conflicting findings may be due to the fact that although insecurity is a perceptual phenomenon (which varies between employees working in the same organisation, because of the different ways in which people perceive things due to circumstantial factors and personal traits), employees do not exist in isolation, and so an employee's understanding of a situation will be shared by other employees in an organisation. with regard to work overload bosch et al. (2012) found significant differences in the work overload experiences of female chartered accountants in relation to race, with white participants feeling the most overload, followed by asian, black, mixed race and indian participants. however, in terms of reward and growth opportunities, female white chartered accountants reported higher levels of financial advancement and career growth opportunities than black female chartered accountants (ribeiro et al., 2013). this may be due to the fact that white qualified chartered accountants previously experienced advantages from exposure to client and job experience (ribeiro et al., 2013). these previous experiences have primed them to exploit growth and development opportunities and consequently these employees rate their current and future earning potential in their organisation higher than their black counterparts. however, these black employees may well be more highly paid as a result of motivational packages aimed at retaining them in the organisation (ribeiro et al., 2013). in terms of job resources, ribeiro et al. (2013) found differences between the white and black research participants in terms of reward and growth opportunities, with white participants reporting higher levels of financial advancement and career growth opportunities than black participants. this perception may be due to the fact that white participants previously experienced advantages from exposure to client and job experience, preparing them to utilise growth and development opportunities and causing them to rate their current and future earning potential in their organisation higher than their black counterparts, although in reality black employees may well be more highly paid as a result of motivational packages aimed at retaining them in the organisation (ribeiro et al., 2013). barkhuizen (2005) and winter et al. (2000) investigated the effects of rank on employees’ perceived strain. they found that rank impacted significantly on job demands. in the study by winefield et al. (2003) it was found that academics differed in terms of the level of job demands associated with rank, with associate professors experiencing higher levels of job demands than junior lecturers and lecturers. in addition, the study found that working hours for associate professors and professors increased in relation to occupational level (winefield et al., 2003). similarly, pienaar and rothmann (2006) found that rank impacted significantly on the experience of occupational stress in the police. constables experienced lower degrees of stress in relation to job demands and a lack of support than other police members. constables also experienced stress less often because they were not exposed to the demands and lack of support to the same degree and duration as other police members (pienaar & rothmann, 2006). other studies have found that, as people's age, experience and rank within their organisation increase, they tend to take on more responsibility and as a result experience an increase in job demands (osipow, doty & spokane, 1985). this is in keeping with the findings reported by sager (1990), who suggested that the particular extra job responsibilities of managers in comparison to those of salespeople should be considered stress factors. according to roskies and louis-guerin (1990), managers might react more negatively than their employees to the threat of job loss, because they are more likely to feel guilt, self-doubt and despair when they experience career setbacks. with regard to growth opportunities, trainee chartered accountants reported lower levels of opportunity for growth than qualified chartered accountants (ribeiro et al., 2013). in explaining this finding ribeiro et al. (2013) suggest that trainees function in apprentice roles and are therefore likely to be overcome by feelings of lack of confidence in their ability to grow, possibly as a result of the amount of work they have to complete. in addition, trainees have limited opportunities for promotion whilst in training and only qualified chartered accountants are able to attain senior management positions. coetzer and rothmann (2006) found that, when compared with professional and managerial staff, clerical staff scored significantly higher on stressors associated with resources and communication, work relationships, control, overload and job characteristics. naudé and rothmann (2003) also found that emergency workers and management reported higher levels of job demands than medical specialists and support services. differences have been found recently in terms of job resources and rank or job position: employees in manager or high seniority positions tend to score lower on job resources such as job control, positive work relationships and supervisory support, whilst scoring high on growth opportunities and role clarity (marinaccio et al., 2013; ribeiro et al., 2013). in relation to the connection between education and workers’ perception of stress, dua (1994) reported that academics with a 5-year to 7-year degree experienced higher levels of job demands than their colleagues with lower qualifications. these results suggest that level of education is related to the level of perceived job demands. however, this finding was not supported in a study by barkhuizen and rothmann (2008). according to näswall and de witte (2003), educational level plays a vital role in an employee's perception of job insecurity as it may determine the employee's chance of finding alternative employment. employees with higher levels of education are considered better equipped with the necessary expertise needed for employment. buitendach et al. (2005) also found level of education could impact perception of job insecurity, with employees with lower than grade 12 certificates showing higher levels of affective job insecurity than those with at least a degree. however, employees with a degree experienced higher levels of cognitive job insecurity. this result was confirmed in a study conducted by buitendach (2004). these results may be due to the fact that highly educated employees may struggle to find alternative employment due to being overqualified or expecting high levels of remuneration (buitendach et al., 2005). lastly, in terms of job resources and education, marinaccio et al. (2013) found that employees with a post-school education tend to have more positive perceptions and scores on job control than those with only a school qualification. the reason for this could be adduced to the fact that whilst their rank increases, workers are more likely to attain higher levels of autonomy (marinaccio et al., 2013). marital status has also been found to be significantly related to perceived occupational stress levels. married people, possibly because of their work-home conflict, experience higher levels of stress than single people (vokic & bogdanic, 2007). this was confirmed in a research study conducted by bosch et al. (2012), who found significant differences in the work overload levels of employees based on marital status. in this study, female accountants who were either married or in a relationship experienced more work overload than their single colleagues. ribeiro et al. (2013) found that qualified chartered accountants who were in a relationship reported greater satisfaction with their remuneration than what was reported by their single colleagues. this may be due to the fact that individuals in a relationship share costs with their partners (ribeiro et al., 2013). in addition, chartered accountants in relationships reported higher levels of growth opportunities than those reported by their single colleagues. according to ribeiro et al. (2013), this could be attributed to the fact that the employees in a relationship ‘are more comfortable and feel more able to access growth opportunities’ (p. 24). marinaccio et al. (2013) also found that married employees perceived higher levels of job autonomy and role ambiguity than unmarried counterparts, ascribing the results to the closer societal integration and acceptance of married individuals over unmarried individuals. researchers have also identified number of years spent in a workplace as an important variable in relation to employees’ perceptions of stress. this is because new employees first have to understand the organisational structures and ethics, then understand the organisational expectations in relation to performance and then find a balance between various workplace demands (sorcinelli, 1994). based on the age of employees osipow et al. (1985) conclude that younger academics are less likely to cope with occupational stressors than their older counterparts. however, older academics tend to have more responsibilities and frequently report increasing pressure and work overload (winefield et al., 2003). however, a study by buitendach et al. (2005) found no evidence for differences in insecurity based on tenure amongst employees in the mining industry. with regard to job resources, marinaccio et al. (2013) found that employees with more than 5 years in their current job reported more negative perceptions of relationships, peer and managerial support. based on the aforementioned, the following hypothesis is presented: hypothesis 2: there are significant differences in the perceived job demands and resources of employees in an agricultural organisation based on differences in demographic variables. method top ↑ research approach for the purposes of the adaptation phase of the measuring instrument, a quantitative methodological design was used. in this approach, the researcher is interested in the development of new methods (such as questionnaires, scales and tests) of data collection (mouton, 2001). in order to test the research hypotheses, an explorative research design was used. the exploratory research approach was deemed relevant to this study because it allowed for the generation of insight into the reliability and validity of the adapted measuring instrument (see durrheim, 2007). it also allowed for the identification of prevalent job demands and resources as well as the investigation of differences in the perceived job demands and resources of different demographic groups of workers in an agricultural organisation. measures research participants a survey design, specifically a cross-sectional design, in which a sample is drawn from the target population at a particular time (shaughnessy, zechmeister & zechmeister, 2006), was used to achieve the research objectives. the sample consisted of employees from a south african agricultural organisation based in various locations across south africa. participation was voluntary. employees from all departments, job groups and educational levels were included. the biographical characteristics of the participants are presented in table 1. table 1: biographical information of participants (n = 443). table 1 illustrates that an almost equal number of men (49.9%) and women (49.0%) participated in the survey. more than half of the participants (55.8%) were african and 52.4% were married. most of the participants’ first language was an african language (53.8%), whilst 37.2% indicated afrikaans as their first language. a total of 62.3% participants were between the ages of 31 and 50 and 19.4% had a master's degree. the majority of the sample (n = 356) were employed as research assistants, research technicians or researchers and had been in their current position as well as in the organisation for mostly between 1 and 5 years. missing cases were present due to incomplete biographical questionnaires. measuring instrument the jdrs (jackson & rothmann, 2005) was adapted for use in this study and was used to measure the job demands and resources of employees in an organisation within the agricultural sector. the jdrs was originally developed to measure the job demands and resources of educators (jackson & rothmann, 2005). the scale consists of 48 items measuring pace and amount of work, mental load, emotional load, variety in work opportunities to learn, independence in work, relationship with colleagues, relationship with immediate supervisor, ambiguities about work, information, participation, contact possibilities, remuneration and career possibilities. jackson and rothmann (2005) found that the dimensions of the jdrs consisted of seven reliable factors, namely organisational support (α = 0.88), growth opportunities (α = 0.80), overload (α = 0.75), job insecurity (α = 0.90), relationship with colleagues (α = 0.76), control (α = 0.71) and rewards (α = 0.78). adaptation of the jdrs: in adapting the jdrs for the purposes of the current study, the word ‘children’ was consistently replaced by the word ‘clients’ because the organisation deals with clients and not children, as is the case of educational settings. in addition, the words ‘education department’ were replaced by ‘organisation/institute/division’ and ‘school’ was replaced by ‘organisation/institute’. seven original jdrs items were rephrased to better suit the sample environment. an additional 12 items were added in order to access more information concerning job demands and resources within the agricultural sector. the final instrument consisted of 60 items and the questions were rated on a seven-point scale ranging from 1 (never) to 7 (always). research procedure a south african agricultural organisation was approached and asked to participate in the study. once the researcher received written permission from the director of human resources of the organisation to conduct the research, the research procedure commenced. the research procedure consisted of two phases: (1) adaptation of the jdrs and (2) data collection. in order to adapt jackson and rothmann's (2005) jdrs, interviews were conducted with employees in the organisation. the goal of these interviews was to obtain information concerning the job characteristics of employees within the organisation. this information was used to adapt the jdrs items and to write additional, context-relevant items to add to the jdrs. following the adaptation of the jdrs a letter requesting participation in the survey was emailed to the employees within the organisation. the letter explained the objective of the survey, which was to investigate work-related well-being in the agricultural sector, with specific reference to levels of wellness and the ways in which employees personally evaluate different aspects of their work and work environment. the data was collected by means of convenience sampling. convenience sampling involves selecting participants primarily on the basis of their willingness and availability to participate in the research (fink, 2009). paper-and-pencil questionnaires were distributed to 511 participants who indicated their willingness to participate in this project. the participants were given a 6-week period to complete the questionnaires. at the end of this period the questionnaires were collected by the researcher. a total of 472 questionnaires were collected, resulting in a 92% response rate. however, 29 of the 472 questionnaires collected were either not properly completed or were incomplete. subsequently, 443 questionnaires were used for statistical analysis. analysis the statistical analysis was carried out with the statistical package for the social scientist (spss; 2011). descriptive statistics (e.g. means, standard deviations, skewness and kurtosis) were used to determine the distribution pattern of the data. to ensure that the data were normally distributed, a cut-off point of 2.00 was set for skewness (finch & west, 1997) and 4.00 for kurtosis (field, 2009). a skewed variable is a variable whose mean is not in the centre, whilst a kurtosed variable indicates the presence of clustering of scores (tabachnick & fidell, 2001). tabachnick and fidell (2001, p. 73) state that it is necessary to examine the skewness and kurtosis of scores before analysis as ‘solutions from analysis are usually degraded if the variables are not normally distributed’. exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine the construct validity of the ajdrs. firstly, a simple principal component analysis was conducted on the items of the ajdrs and the eigenvalues and scree plot were studied to determine the number of factors to extract. kaiser (1960) recommends extracting factors with eigenvalues higher than 1.00. additionally, the scree plot can also be used to determine the number of factors. cattell (1966) advises that the point of inflection of the scree plot be considered. secondly, a maximum likelihood analysis with a direct oblimin rotation was conducted and the pattern matrix was inspected to analyse the possible factor solutions. the following criteria were considered in deciding which factors to retain: (1) as a rule of thumb, item loadings had to be more than 0.32; (2) an item was not allowed to load on more than one factor as this was considered to indicate that the item either tapped more than one factor (poor item) or that there was an overlap of factors or components; (3) a factor needed to have at least three substantive item loadings and (4) the retained factor needed to make theoretical sense (field, 2009; tabachnick & fidell, 2001). the reliability of the obtained factors was investigated using the cronbach's alpha coefficient. nunnally and bernstein (1994) recommend a guideline of 0.70 as an acceptable cut-off point. the obtained factors were consequently used as input in a second-order factor analysis. varimax rotation was used in extracting the factors because the factors were not correlated (r < 0.30). multivariate analysis of variance (manova) was used to determine differences between demographic groups with regard to job demands and resources. the demographic variables included were gender, race, marital status, language, age, education, unit, position, years in organisation and years in position. manova is the multivariate equivalent of analysis of variance (anova) methods, and is used in instances where there is more than one dependent variable and where the dependent variables cannot simply be combined (see pallant, 2010). it is also used to ascertain whether changes in the independent variables have a significant effect on the dependent variables. according to pallant (2010), when conducting a manova preliminary assumption, testing should be conducted to check for normality, linearity, univariate and multivariate outliers, homogeneity of variance-covariance and multicolinearity. manova is at its best when these assumptions are met and also when there is a substantial correlation between the dependent variables (kerlinger & lee, 2000). wilks's lambda was used to test the likelihood of the data under the assumption of equal population mean vectors for all groups, against the likelihood under the assumption that the population mean vectors are similar to those of the sample mean vectors for the different groups. when an effect was significant in manova, one-way analysis of variance was used to discover which dependent variables had been impacted. the bonferroni adjustment was used to prevent inflated type 1 error, which is the possibility of finding a significant difference when there is actually none (pallant, 2010). according to pallant (2010, p. 295), ‘a bonferroni adjustment in its simplest form, involves dividing your original alpha level of .05 by the number of analysis that you intend to do’. therefore, because there were eight dependent variables in this study, the level of significance was set at 0.006. the games-howell procedure was used to determine whether there were any statistical differences between the groups. this procedure was chosen because sample sizes were different (field, 2009). although the p value demonstrates whether an effect actually exists, it does not disclose the size of the effect; therefore, it is imperative to report both the statistical significance and the substantive significance (effect size) (sullivan & feinn, 2012). according to cohen (1988), when determining statistical significance the following guidelines should apply: a value between 0.10 and 0.50 indicates a small effect, a value between 0.50 and 0.80 indicates a medium effect and a value above 0.80 indicates a large effect. in terms of the current study, a cut-off point of 0.50 (medium effect) was set for the practical significance of the differences between group means. according to kirk (1996), statistical significance determines whether research results are attributable to chance or sampling variability, whilst practical significance determines whether the results can be used within real life. due to this reasoning, only results that are both statistically and practically significant will be reported. ethical considerations ethical aspects attended to included obtaining written permission from the organisation as well as from the individual participants. participation in the study was voluntary and participants were assured of confidentiality. the objectives of the study were explained to the participants at their place of work and each questionnaire and consent form was accompanied by a letter explaining the rationale of the study and indicating the participant's voluntary participation in the research. results top ↑ in order to examine the distribution pattern of the scores, descriptive statistics (means, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis) were used to explore the data on the initial 60 items of the ajdrs (see table 2). table 2: descriptive statistics of the initial 60 adapted job demands and resources scale items (n = 443). the results indicated that three items (16, 27 and 31) displayed kurtosis exceeding 4.00. this suggested that these items deviated from the normal distribution and indicated the presence of clustering of scores. these items were therefore removed from further analysis. the remainder of the items presented data that was fairly normally distributed. a principal component analysis was conducted on the remaining 57 items to determine the number of factors that could be extracted. an initial analysis of the eigen values (larger than 1) suggested that 14 factors could be extracted, explaining 68% of the variance. however, the scree plot (see figure 1) suggested that only seven factors (explaining 52% of the variance) should be extracted. figure 1: scree plot of the adapted job demands and resources scale items. a maximum likelihood factor analysis with a direct oblimin rotation was then conducted on the proposed 14-factor solution. after investigating various factor solutions, a decision was taken to retain eight factors based on the criteria set out in the statistical analysis section of this article. five items did not load on any of the factors (e.g. ‘do you have enough time to complete your work?’) and three items had double loadings (e.g. ‘does your job give you the opportunity to be promoted?’). in addition, item 42 (‘do you have direct influence on your institute's/organisation's decisions?’) was also removed as it lowered the cronbach's alpha of the factor and did not match the rest of the items on the scale. these items were all excluded from further analysis. the results of the factor loadings and communalities of the retained items are presented in table 3. table 3: factor loadings and communality of items (n = 443). the remaining 50 items represented the eight extracted factors well. these items were labelled organisational support (13 items), job insecurity (four items), financial rewards (four items), work overload (11 items), work-related resources (three items), growth opportunities (three items), control, (six items) and relationship with colleagues (four items). the factor loadings for the eight ajdrs factors ranged between 0.33 and 0.95, with communalities ranging between average (0.42) and high (0.83). the descriptive statistics, reliabilities and pearson's product moment correlation coefficients of the obtained factors are presented in table 4. table 4: descriptive statistics, reliabilities and pearson's correlations of the factors. table 4 shows that all the factors obtained from the ajdrs were reliable when using nunnally and bernstein's (1994) guideline of α values above 0.70, ranging between 0.77 and 0.92. the results also indicated that organisational support was practically and significantly related to work-related resources, growth opportunities, relationship with colleagues (medium effect) and control (large effect). financial rewards was practically and significantly related to work-related resources and growth opportunities (medium effect). work-related resources correlated practically and significantly with growth opportunities (medium effect). growth opportunities were practically and significantly related to control (medium effect). finally, control was practically and significantly related to relationship with colleagues (medium effect). all the reported correlations were statistically significant at the p values over 0.010 level (two-tailed). next, the factors were subjected to a second-order factor analysis. principal component analysis showed that two factors, which accounted for 50% of variance, could be extracted. oblimin rotation showed that the two factors were not related (r = 0.08) and varimax rotation was therefore used to extract the factors. table 5 shows that five factors (organisational support, financial rewards, work-related resources, growth opportunities and control) loaded on the first factor, which was labelled job resources. two factors (job insecurity and work overload) loaded on the second factor, which was labelled job demands. the eighth factor, relationship with colleagues, loaded substantially on both job resources and job demands. hypothesis 1b is therefore accepted. table 5: second-order factor loadings of the obtained adapted job demands and resources scale dimensions. to test hypothesis 2, manova was then used to determine differences between demographic groups with regard to job demands and job resources. firstly, preliminary assumption checking was conducted to check for normality, linearity, univariate and multivariate outliers, homogeneity of variance-covariance matrices and multicollinearity. no serious violations were noted with regard to the above criteria. the demographic groups included were gender, race, marital status, language, age, education, position, years in organisation and years in position. the results of the manova analysis are presented in table 6. table 6: multivariate analysis of variance – differences in job demands and job resources of demographic groups. an analysis of wilks's lambda (see table 6) showed statistically significant differences in education (f = 1.48; p = 0.012) and position (f = 1.60; p = 0.019). however, when the results for the dependent variables were examined separately using a bonferroni adjusted level of 0.006, none of the dependent variables for education recorded a significance value less than the cut-off value. the p values for organisational support (p = 0.028) and growth opportunities (p = 0.039) exceeded the adjusted level of 0.006. this suggests that no significant difference exists with regard to the educational level of the workers. however, when the dependent variables for position were examined, the p value for job resources was below the adjusted level (p = 0.002). this implies that there was a significant difference with regard to the position of the employees. lastly, an anova was performed to further investigate the relationship between the dependent variable (job resources) with regard to the position of the employees (see table 7). table 7: analysis of variance – differences in resources in relation to position. a one-way between-groups anova was conducted to explore the impact of position on the perceived job resources as measured by the ajdrs. participants were divided into five groups according to their position in the organisation (research assistants, research technicians, researchers, programme managers or specialist scientists and support staff). there was a statistically significant difference at the p less than 0.05 level in resources scores for the groups based on position [f (4.429) = 4.7; p = 0.001]. however, despite the fact that the results were statistically significant the actual difference in mean scores between the groups was relatively small. the effect size, which was calculated using eta-squared, was 0.04. post-hoc comparison using games-howell indicated that the mean score for research technicians (m = 13.85; sd = 4.13) was significantly different from that of research assistants (m = 15.03; sd = 5.14) and support staff (m = 15.29; sd = 3.46). discussion top ↑ outline of results this study aimed to investigate the validity and reliability of the ajdrs as well as to identify the job demands and resources that are prevalent amongst employees in an agricultural organisation. additionally, the possible existence of differences related to various demographics was also investigated. with regard to the first objective of the study, the results indicated that an eight-factor solution fitted the data best, explaining 54.58% of total variance. the eight factors were labelled organisational support (f1), job insecurity (f2), financial rewards (f3), overload (f4), physical resources (equipment) (f5), growth opportunities (f6), control (f7) and relationship with colleagues (f8). the main difference between this study and jackson and rothmann's (2005) study was the identification of an additional factor in this study, which was labelled physical resources (equipment). although this factor was not identified in jackson and rothmann's initial study using a sample of educators, it has been identified in various subsequent studies, including studies by rothmann and malan (2007, 2011), which made use of samples of hospital pharmacists. the presence of a factor relating to physical resources might be due to the fact that the majority of the participants in the present study (85.3%) were employed as research staff. in order to effectively discharge their duties, these categories of employees require specific equipment (such as planting, harvesting and storage implements and facilities) that needs to be both modern and functional (arc, 2009). this finding clearly confirms that each organisation has its unique job demands and resources as pointed out by rothmann et al. (2006). a second-order factor analysis was carried out using the eight observed factors and resulted in a two-factor structure. the first factor was labelled job resources (organisational support, financial rewards, physical resources, growth opportunities and control), whilst the second factor was labelled job demands (overload and job insecurity). these findings are in accordance with findings reported by research on the job demands-resources model (bakker & demerouti, 2007; demerouti et al., 2001; schaufeli & bakker 2004) as well as with the results of other south african studies (barkhuizen & rothmann, 2008; fourie, 2003; jackson et al., 2006; koekemoer & mostert, 2006; rothmann & jordan, 2006; rothmann et al., 2006; rothmann & jorgensen, 2007). these results indicate that the ajdrs is a valid instrument for use in a sample of agricultural workers in south africa, confirming hypothesis 1a. in the current study, relationship with colleagues loaded on both the job demands and job resources factors. this dual finding is supported by the literature. literature (see demerouti et al., 2001; schaufeli & bakker, 2004) suggests that support from a colleague, especially within a team climate (such as the one in the agricultural organisation under investigation), could be instrumental in an employee achieving work goals. in this case support from colleagues would be viewed as a job resource. however, relationship with colleagues has also been identified as an interpersonal stressor (basson & van der merwe, 1994), which could place demands on the employee. it appears that in the current study the participants perceived relationship with colleagues to be both a job resource and a job demand. this could mean that whilst relationship with colleagues could provide a participant with the necessary support in the working environment (job resource), the maintenance of good collegial relationships could place unnecessary demands on a participant. the internal consistency of the ajdrs was assessed using the cronbach's alpha coefficient test for reliability. the items of each of the obtained eight factors were analysed for reliability. in previous research by jackson and rothmann (2005), the jdrs showed good internal consistency for all the subscales. the results of the reliability tests for the current study suggest that the ajdrs is also a reliable instrument, confirming hypothesis 1b. next, the differences within groups based on various demographic variables were examined. manova was used to determine these differences with regard to job demands and resources. the demographic groups included were gender, race, marital status, language, age, education, position, years in organisation and years in position. the results from the study provide partial support for hypothesis 2, which was to examine differences in the perceived job demands and resources. no significant differences were found in the perceived job demands and resources of the employees based on gender, race, marital status, language, age, education, position, years in position or years in organisation. although it initially seemed that there was significant difference in perceived organisational support based on education, no statistically significant difference was observed when the results for the dependent variables were examined separately using a bonferroni adjusted level of 0.006. this result indicates that all the employees perceived organisational support in the same way. the mean score of the employees with regard to organisational support showed that the employees often experience organisational support. the organisation under investigation communicates with its employees through a centralised email system and strives to ensure that employees are aware of all developments in the organisation as well as in the various institutes. employees are also given written job descriptions, thus ensuring that all employees are aware of their responsibilities. finally, the management of the organisation places a premium on good employee relations and provides a good environment to bring out the best potential of all its employees. the results of the manova showed a significant difference in the perceived physical resources (equipment) of research technicians, research assistants and support staff, with research technicians perceiving lower levels of physical resources than research assistants and support staff. this may be due to the fact that support staff generally have the resources they need to work with (e.g. computer, printer, fax machines) and research assistants generally perform jobs that do not require sophisticated equipment. in contrast, research technicians require sophisticated equipment which may not be readily available or in good working condition. in terms of resources, the organisation faces challenges in relation to modernising some of the laboratories and equipment in order to effectively research new crops and animals as well as new techniques. practical implications firstly, work characteristics within the agricultural sector can be measured reliably and in a valid manner using the ajdrs. also, physical resources (i.e. equipment) are deemed to be very important within the agricultural sector not only because literature (see arc 2005) indicates the need for agricultural organisations to keep abreast with modernisation of equipment but also considering the significant differences in the mean score between groups (i.e. research technicians on the one hand and research assistants as well as support staff on the other hand) found in this current research. the necessity of appropriate physical resources should therefore be taken into account when developing interventions aiming to improve the perceived job demands and resources in the organisation. limitations the major limitation of this study is that it made use of a cross-sectional survey design for data collection. the disadvantage of this type of design is that it does not allow the researcher to examine how variables manifest on different occasions. the results were also obtained only from self-report questionnaires and this increases the probability of contamination of reported relationships. recommendations it is recommended that future research studies further examine the reliability and validity of the ajdrs in other agricultural organisations in south africa. it is also recommended that research be conducted on the construct equivalence of the ajdrs, as this could not be undertaken in the present study because of the limitations in terms of the demographic makeup of the participants. furthermore, it is recommended that the ajdrs be used in research studies with other samples of agricultural organisations outside of south africa in order to provide a point of reference for comparison of the job demands and resources of agricultural organisations worldwide. in addition, based on the fact that the items in the relationship with colleagues subscale loaded on both job demands and job resources, it is recommended that this factor be refined in future studies. these studies should examine the relationship between job demands and resources and other well-being variables such as burnout and work engagement. refinement of the relationship with colleagues subscale could involve rephrasing the items to better reflect the individual employee's experience of relationship with colleagues as either a demand or a resource. future research studies should also involve a diary study of the job demands and resources of employees within a south african agricultural organisation in order to establish how workers’ experiences of job demands and job resources vary over time. it is also recommended that the findings of this research study be utilised by agricultural organisations and managers in relation to job design. conclusion the job demands-resources model suggests that two vital processes at work are caused by job demands and resources, which is of relevance in the industrial psychology profession especially: (1) jobs that are poorly designed (i.e. high demands including overload) could deplete mental and physical resources, which could ultimately result in exhaustion of energy and ill health in the workplace and (2) jobs that have high job resources could reduce the experience of job demands and enhance goal achievement. the results of this study should therefore be used to assist managers in agricultural organisations in ensuring that employees in every category have sufficient resources to cope with the job demands of their positions so as to ensure that all employees are engaged in their work. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions d.n.a. (north-west university) was the lead author, wrote up the article and was responsible for data collection and data analysis. c.h. (university of johannesburg) was the associate postgraduate supervisor of the lead author and provided data analysis and editorial input. l.i.j. (north-west university) is the postgraduate supervisor of the lead author and gave editorial input. references top ↑ alliance for commodity trade in eastern and southern africa (actesa). (2013). how agriculture can be promoted in south africa. retrieved october, 2013, from http://www.comesa.int antoniou, a.s., polychroni, f., & vlachakis, a.n. (2006). gender and age differences in occupational stress and professional burnout between primary and high-school teachers in greece. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 682–690. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690213 agricultural research council (arc). (2005). agricultural research council strategic plan, 2005-2008. pretoria, rsa: arc. agricultural research council (arc). (2007). agricultural research council annual report, 2006-2007. pretoria, rsa: arc.agricultural research council (arc). (2008). agricultural research council annual report, 2006-2007. pretoria, rsa: arc. agricultural research council (arc). (2009). agricultural research council annual report, 2007-2008. pretoria, rsa: arc. agricultural research council (arc). (2013). agricultural research council annual report, 2006-2007. pretoria, rsa: arc. bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2007). the job demands-resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22, 309–328. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 barkhuizen, e.n. (2005). work wellness of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. unpublished doctoral thesis, industrial psychology department, north-west university, potchefstroom, rsa. barkhuizen, n., & rothmann, s. (2008). occupational stress of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. sa journal of psychology, 28, 321–336. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/008124630803800205 basson, c.j., & van der merwe, t. (1994). occupational stress and coping in a sample of student nurses. curationis, 17(4), 35–43. bender, k.a., donohue, s.m., & heywood, j.s. (2005). job satisfaction and gender segregation. oxford economic papers, 57(3), 479–496. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oep/gpi015 bonke, j., deding, m., & lausten, m. (2009). time and money. journal of happiness studies, 10(2), 113–131. bosch, a., ribeiro, s., & becker, j. (2012). keeping south african female chartered accountants in public practice: the impact of job demands. women in the workplace research report. johannesburg, rsa: university of johannesburg. bowen, p., cattell, k., & edwards, p. (2013). workplace stress experienced by quantity surveyors. acta structilia, 20(2), 1–29. buitendach, j.h. (2004). job insecurity and job satisfaction of employees in selected organisations in south africa. unpublished doctoral thesis, industrial psychology department, north-west university, potchefstroom, rsa. buitendach, j.h., oosthuyzen, a., & van wyk, c. (2005). predicting job insecurity from background variables. sa journal of industrial psychology, 31(3), 70–78. buys, c., & rothmann, s. (2010). burnout and engagement of reformed church ministers. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 36(1), art. #825, 11 pages. cattell, r.b. (1966). the scree plot for the number of factors. multivariate behavioural research, 1, 245–276. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr0102_10 clark, a.e. (1997). job satisfaction and gender: why are women so happy at work? labour economics, 4(4), 341–372. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0927-5371(97)00010-9 coetzer, w.j., & rothmann, s. (2006). occupational stress of employees in an insurance company. south african journal of business management, 37(3), 29–39. cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioural sciences. (rev. edn.). orlando, ca: academic press. cooper, c.l., dewe, p.j., & o’driscoll, m.p. (2001). organisational stress: a review of critique of theory, research and application. thousand oaks, ca: sage. demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., nachreiner, f., & schaufeli, w.b. (2001). the job demands-resources model of burnout. journal of applied psychology, 86, 499–512. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.499 deshpande, r.s., & shah, k. (2007). agrarian distress and agricultural labour. indian journal of labour economics, 50(2), 257–272. de witt, m.w., & lessing, a.c. (2013). teachers’ perceptions of the influence of learners’ undisciplined behaviour on their working life and of the support of role-players. koers – bulletin for christian scholarship, 78(3), art. #458, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/koers.v78i3.458 de witte, h. (1999). job insecurity and psychological well-being: review of the literature and exploration of some unresolved issues. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 8, 155–177. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/135943299398302 dua, j.k. (1994). job stressors and their effects on physical health, emotional health and job satisfaction in a university. journal of educational administration, 32, 59–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09578239410051853 durrheim, k. (2007). research design. in m. terre blanche, k. durrheim, & d. painter (eds.), research in practice: applied methods for the social sciences (pp. 33–59). cape town, rsa: uct press ltd. elbert, j. (2002). job insecurity and psychological strength of service workers in a parastatal. unpublished master’s dissertation, humanities department, potchefstroom university for christian higher education, vaal triangle campus, rsa. fay, d., & buhrmann, h. (2004). current themes in organizational change. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 13(2), 113–119. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594320444000029 field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss. (4th edn.). london, uk: sage. finch, j.f., & west, s.g. (1997). the investigation of personality structure: statistical models. journal of research in personality, 31, 439–485. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jrpe.1997.2194 fink, a.g. (2009). how to conduct surveys: a step-by-step guide. thousand oaks, ca: sage. fotinatos-ventouratos, r., & cooper, c. (2005). the role of gender and social class in work stress. journal of managerial psychology, 20(1), 14–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940510571612 fourie, l.a. (2003). burnout and work engagement of nonprofessional counsellors in south africa. unpublished doctoral thesis, industrial psychology department, potchefstroom university for che, potchefstroom, rsa. french, h., du plessis, e., & scrooby, b. (2011). the emotional well-being of the nurse within the multi-skill setting. health sa gesondheid, 16(1), art. #553, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hsag.v16i1.553 guest, d.e. (2004). the psychology of the employment relationship: an analysis based on the psychological contract. applied psychology: an international review, 53, 541–555. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2004.00187.x hackman, j.r., & oldham, g.r. (1976). motivation through the design of work: test of a theory. organisational behavior and human performance, 16, 250–279. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(76)90016-7 hackman, j.r., & oldham, g.r. (1980). work redesign. reading, ma: addison-wesley. hakanen, j.j., bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2005). how dentists cope with their job demands and stay engaged: the moderating role of job resources. european journal of oral science, 113, 479–487. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0722.2005.00250.x häusser, j.a., mojzisch, a., niesel, m., & schulz-hardt, s. (2010). ten years on: a review of recent research on the job demand–control (-support) model and psychological well-being. work & stress, 24(1), 1–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02678371003683747 hill, c., mostert, k., & de bruin, g.p. (2012). job characteristics and work-home interaction: does race moderate the relationship for south african police members? policing: an international journal of police strategies & management, 35(3), 566–592. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13639511211250802 hodgskiss, j.l., & edwards, a.l. (2013). job strain in the south african mining industry: original research. occupational health southern africa, 19(5), 8–10. jackson, l.t.b., & rothmann, s. (2005). work-related well-being of educators in a district of the north west province. perspectives in education, 23(3), 107–122. jackson, l.t.b., rothmann, s., & van de vijver, a.j.r. (2006). a model of work-related wellbeing for educators in the north west province. stress and health, 22, 263–274. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smi.1098 jacobson, d. (1991). toward a theoretical distinction between the stress components of the job insecurity and job loss experience. research in the sociology of organisations, 9, 1–19. kaiser, h.f. (1960). the application of electronic computers to factor analysis. educational and psychological measurement, 20, 141–151. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001316446002000116 karasek, r.a. (1979). job demands, job decision latitude and mental strain: implications for job redesign. administrative science quarterly, 24, 285–308. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2392498 karasek, r., & theorell, t. (1990). healthy work, stress, productivity and the reconstruction of working life. new york, ny: basic books. kerlinger, f.n., & lee, h.b. (2000). foundations of behavioural research. (4th edn.). orlando, fl: harcourt college publishers. kirk, r.e. (1996). practical significance: a concept whose time has come. educational and psychological measurement, 56(5), 746–759. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013164496056005002 koekemoer, f.e. & mostert, k. (2006) job characteristics, burnout and negative work-home interference in a nursing environment. sa journal of industrial psychology, 32(3), 87–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v32i3.441 lazarus, r.s., & folkman, a.s. (1984). stress, appraisal and coping. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. lu, l., cooper, c.l., kao, s.-f., & zhou, y. (2003). work stress, control beliefs and well-being in greater china – an exploration of sub-cultural differences between the prc and taiwan. journal of managerial psychology, 18(6), 479–510. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940310494359 manski, d.f., & straub, j.d. (2000). worker perceptions of job insecurity in the mid-90s. journal of human resources, 35, 447–479. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/146388 marinaccio, a., ferrante, p., corfiati, m., di tecco, c., rondinone, b.m., bonafede, m. et al. (2013). the relevance of socio-demographic and occupational variables for the assessment of work-related stress risk. bmc public health, 13, 1157–1165. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-1157 maslach, c., schaufeli, w.b., & leiter, m.p. (2001). job burnout. annual review of psychology, 52, 397–422. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397 moephuli, s.r. (2008). message from the president and ceo: arc annual report 2007–2008. pretoria, rsa: arc. montgomery, a.j., peeters, m.c.w., schaufeli, w.b., & den ouden, m. (2003). work-home interference among newspaper managers: its relationship with burnout and engagement. anxiety, stress and coping, 16(2), 195–211. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2003.10382973 mouton, j. (2001). how to succeed in your masters and doctoral studies: a south african guide and resource book. south africa: van schaik publishers. mueller, c.w., & mccloskey, j.c. (1990). nurses’ job satisfaction: a proposed measure. nursing research, 39(2), 113–116. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00006199-199003000-00014 näswall, k., & de witte, h. (2003). who feels insecure in europe? predicting job insecurity from background variables. economic and industrial democracy, 24(2), 189–215. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0143831x03024002003 naudé, j.l.p., & rothmann, s. (2003). occupational stress of emergency workers in gauteng. south african journal of industrial psychology, 29(4), 92–100. nelson, d.l., & simmons, b.l. (2003). health psychology and stress: a more positive approach. in j.c. quick, & l.e. tetrick (eds.), handbook of occupational health and psychology (pp. 97–117). washington, dc: american psychological association. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/10474-005 nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory. (3rd edn.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. osipow, s.h., doty, r.e., & spokane, a.r. (1985). occupational stress, strain and coping across the life span. journal of vocational behavior, 27, 98–108. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(85)90055-7 pallant, j. (2010). spss survival manual a step by step guide to data analysis using spss program. (4th edn.). berkshire, uk: mcgraw hill. phale, m.b. (2008). work-related well-being of employees in a south african parastatal. unpublished doctoral thesis, industrial psychology department, north-west university, potchefstroom, rsa. pienaar, j., & rothmann, s. (2006) occupational stress in the south african police service. south african journal of industrial psychology, 32(3), 72–78. rannona, m.v. (2003). the relationship between job insecurity, job satisfaction and organizational commitment in a mining organisation. unpublished mini-dissertation, humanities department, north-west university, vaal triangle campus, rsa. ribeiro, s., bosch, a., & becker, j. (2013). keeping south african female chartered accountants in public practice: the impact of job resources. women in the workplace research report. johannesburg: rsa: university of johannesburg. richardsen, m. & burke, r.j. (1993). occupational stress and work satisfaction among canadian women physicians. psychological reports, 72, 811–821. robbins, s.p. (2005). essentials of organisational behaviour. (8th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. roskies, e., & louis-guerin, c. (1990). job insecurity in managers: antecedents and consequences. journal of organizational behavior, 11, 345–359. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.4030110503 rothmann, s. (2002, november). burnout and engagement: a fortigenic perspective. inaugural lecture presented at the north-west university, potchefstroom, rsa. rothmann, s. (2005, may). work engagement in south african organisations: relations with job and person factors. in w.b. schaufeli (chair), engagement and burnout: conceptual and measurement issues. symposium conducted at the meeting of the 28th european work and organization psychology congress, istanbul, turkey. rothmann, s., & barkhuizen, n. (2008). burnout of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. south african journal of higher education, 22(2), 439–456. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v22i2.25794 rothmann, s., jackson, l.t.b., & kruger m.m. (2003). burnout and job stress in a local government: the moderating effects of sense of coherence. south african journal of industrial psychology, 29, 52–60. rothmann, s., & jordan, g.m.e. (2006). job demands, job resources and work engagement of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. sa journal of industrial psychology, 32, 87–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v32i4.247 rothmann, s., & jorgensen, l.i. (2007). a model of work-related well-being for police members in the north west province. acta criminologica, 20(4), 73–84. rothmann, s., kleyn, e., louw, e.j., & makgala, d. (2003). occupational stress, job satisfaction and burnout in the south african police service in the north west province. potchefstroom, rsa: north-west university. rothmann, s., & malan, m.m. (2004). occupational stress of engineers in south africa. southern african review, 10(2), 1–16. rothmann, s., & malan, m. (2007). occupational stress of hospital pharmacists in south africa. international journal of pharmacy practice, 15, 235–242. http://dx.doi.org/10.1211/ijpp.15.3.0011 rothmann, s., & malan, m. (2011). work-related well-being of south african hospital pharmacists. sa journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), 1–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i1.895 rothmann, s., mostert, k., & strydom, m. (2006). a psychometric evaluation of the job demands-resources scale in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 32(4), 76–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v32i4.239 rothmann, s.i., van der colff, j.j., & rothmann, j.c. (2006). occupational stress of nurses in south africa. curationis, 29(2), 22–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/curationis.v29i2.1069 sager, j.k. (1990). reducing sales manager job stress, the journal of consumer marketing, 7(4), 5–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/eum0000000002584 schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organizational behaviour, 25, 293–315. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.248 shaughnessy, j.j., zechmeister, e.b., & zechmeister, j.s. (2006). research methods in psychology. (7th edn.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. siegrist, j. (1996). adverse health effects of high effort-low reward conditions. journal of occupational health psychology, 1, 27–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.1.1.27 sorcinelli, m.d. (1994). effective approaches to new faculty development. journal of counselling and development, 72, 474–479. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.1994.tb00976.x spss for windows version 20.0 [computer software] (2011). chicago, il: spss inc. sullivan, g.m., & feinn, r. (2012). using effect size—or why the p value is not enough. journal of graduate medical education, 4(3), 279–282. http://dx.doi.org/10.4300/jgme-d-12-00156.1 sverke, m., hellgren, j., näswall, k., chirumbolo, a., de witte, h., & goslinga, s. (2001). european unions in the wake of flexible production: technical report on the data set used in a saltsa project, saltsa report 2000:1. stockholm, sweden: national institute of working life and saltsa. sverke, m., hellgren, j., näswall, k., chirumbolo, a., de witte, h., & goslinga, s. (2004). job insecurity and union membership: european unions in the wake of flexible production. bruxelles, belgium: peter lang. tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2001). using multivariate statistics. (4th edn.). boston, ma: allyn and bacon. vakola, m., & nikolaou, i. (2005). attitudes towards organizational change – what is the role of employees’ stress and commitment? employee relations, 27(2), 160–174. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01425450510572685 van vuuren, t. (1990). met ontshg bedreigd. werknemers in onzekerheid over hun arbeidsplaatz bu veranderingen in de organisiate [threatened with dismissal. job insecurity among workers during organizational change]. amsterdam, the netherlands: vu uitgeverij. van zyl, y. (2005). job insecurity, burnout, work engagement, general health and job satisfaction in selected organisations in the vaal triangle. unpublished doctoral thesis, humanities department, north-west university, vaal triangle campus, rsa. vokic, n.p., & bogdanic, a. (2007, february). individual differences and occupational stress perceived: a croatian survey. zagreb, croatia: working paper series 07-05 february. welthagen, c., & els, c. (2012). depressed, not depressed or unsure: prevalence and relation to well-being across sectors in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 38(1), art. #984, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v38i1.984 winefield, a., gillespie, n., stough, c., dua, j., hapuararchchi, j., & boyd, c. (2003). occupational stress in australian university staff: results from a national survey. international journal of stress management, 10, 51–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.10.1.51 winter, r., taylor, t., & sarros, j. (2000). trouble at mill: quality of academic work life issues within a comprehensive australian university. studies in higher education, 25, 279–294. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/713696158 zuma, j. (2008). anc: zuma. address to the congress of grain sa, delivered by sight administrator. retrieved march 14, 2008, from http://www.polity.org.za 7harris.qxd within our highly competitive, global business environment, information and communication technology (ict) has been widely viewed as a silver bullet for achieving competitive advantage. celebrated anecdotes highlight the key role ict can play in continuously developing more flexible and innovative products and customer’s services. technology has probably therefore become the most critical enabling resource in bringing about quantum jumps in organisational performance, extending a company’s possible future, and enabling the actualisation of a different chosen future. very often technological innovation makes a life or death difference for an organisation (veldsman, 2002, p. 184). not surprisingly the growing imperative for all businesses to innovate and enhance quality while containing costs has prompted massive expenditures on ict. yet companies are not fully realising the foreseen benefits as highlighted in a survey conducted by sauer and yetton (1998) between 1995 – 1997 covering over 3000 projects. between 25 to 75 percent of technology innovations failed to achieve their goals. the study conducted by johnson in 1995 as quoted by carlopio (1998, p. 2) suggests that 31% of technology projects were cancelled before completion, 53 percent had overrun their costs and budgets and had impaired functionality, and only 12 percent of the 3682 projects in 365 countries surveyed were on time and on budget at the time of the survey. some of the reasons cited why benefits are not been realised are: � the implementation of technology is heavily biased towards technolog y and lacks human and humane attention (charlton, 2001). � the process of implementing innovation organisational change has been “too linear and rationalistic” and seen as a single event (carlopio, 1998, p. 7), rather than an evolving process. � many people seem to assume that change, or the adoption of an innovation, is a static event. organisational change is a social process taking place over a period of time during which people and systems must undergo significant change, learning, adaptation and growth (chowdhury, 1999). this research attempts to determine why users are not fully adopting technology, which results in companies not realizing the benefits of their ict investment. this research journal covers the following; the opinions of other researchers regarding innovative technology adoption, the research design, the research findings, discussion of findings and further research and conclusions. change is a process, not an event traditional ways of thinking about technological change have their roots in lewin’s three-stage organisational transition model of “unfreezing”, “change,” and “refreezing” (ottoway, 1983, p. 366). unfreezing – is about making people within an organisation ready for change by making them aware of the need for change and dissatisfied with the existing ways of working. it is about creating the readiness for change among the workforce at all levels from senior managers downwards. according to bux (2002), change is a difficult experience for both organisations and their employees when adopting change. moving – is the implementation of the needed changes through the selected range of levers and mechanisms. refreezing – involves embedding the changes throughout the organisation to ensure members do not relapse into old patterns and behaviour. according to lewin’s model, the organisation prepares for change, implements the change, and then strives to regain stability a soon as possible. the change is treated as an event with a specified period. this may have been appropriate for organisations that were relatively stable and bounded and whose functionality was sufficiently fixed to allow for detailed specification. today, however, given more turbulent, flexible, and uncertain elaine harris karel stanz jannie za aiman thomas groenewald department of human resource management rau university abstract the aim of this study is to determine whether users move through stages of concern when adopting technology and whether certain demographical characteristics; age, the department the employees operate in and the length of using the innovative technology affects the stage of technology adoption. the sample which were drawn from the oil industry, consisted of 25 finance employees from company a and 32 customer service centre and 22 logistics employees from company b. in terms of the gathered statistics on the stages of concern, users reached either stages 1/2 (information/personal) or 4/5 (consequences/collaboration). no statistical significance was found in terms of age, department and length of using the innovative technology. opsomming die doel van hierdie studie was om te bepaal of gebruikers deur verskillende fases van aanvaarding beweeg wanneer nuwe tegnologie ingebruik geneem word, en of sekere demografiese eienskappe soos byvoorbeeld ouderdom, die spesifieke afdeling waarin die individu werksaam is asook die duur van die gebruik van die tegnologie, die fase van aanvaarding van nuwe tegnologie affekteer. die steekgroep het bestaan uit werknermers in die oliebedryf, naamlik 25 finansiele werknemers van organisasie a, en 32 kliente dienssentrum werknemers asook 22 werknemers van die logistieke afdeling van organisasie b. resultate het gewys dat die meerderheid van gebruikers, fase 1/2 of fase 4/5 bereik het. geen statisties beduidende verband tussen, ouderdom, afdeling en duur van gebruik van nuwe tegnologie is gevind nie. the stages of users’ concern when adopting new technology requests for copies should be addressed to: e harris, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 54 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (3), 54-61 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (3), 54-61 organisational environmental conditions, such a model is becoming less appropriate. in order to manage current levels of change it is required that our current way of thinking about change must be unprecedented, uncertain and open-ended to accommodate the complex and flexible nat ure of the technologies and organisational initiatives involved (anderson & anderson, 2001; orlikowski & hafman, 1997). the individual process of change individuals like organisations also undergo a transition, which is the gradual, psychological reorientation process that takes place within people in order to change. according to bridges (1999, p. 10) individuals move through three phases of transition; ending, neutral zone and new beginning. these three phases described by bridges are: � ending, when we disengage from old ways of doing things and let go of who we were in the old situation; � neutral zone, when we find ourselves in a confusing in between state, when we are not who and where we were, but not yet who and where we are going to be; � new beginning, when we grow familiar with and accept (although not necessarily) the new reality change brings. according to anderson and anderson (2001) organisational change managers have in the past managed the transition in organisations from the current to the future state by applying the lewin’s model to organisational transition and bridges’ model to personal transition, see figure 1. figure 1: organisational & individual change process kurt lewin anderson and anderson (2001) also indicate that there are three types of change occurring in organisations, each requiring different leadership strategies. figure 2 graphically portrays the three t ypes of change; development, transitional and transformational change. change management supports t wo of these t y pes, developmental and transitional change. however it does not suffice for today’s breed of complex change transformation, which integrated technolog y innovation requires. according to anderson and anderson (2001) the implementation of “integrated technolog y innovat ion” requires transformational change. transformation is unique in t wo critical ways. first, the future is unknown at the start of the change process and can only be created by forging ahead with the intent to discover it. without having a clear goal to manage to, leaders are forced to proceed into the unknown, dependent on broader sources of information and support to formulate a new future and put it into place. because the future state is not clear at the beginning, the process for gett ing there cannot be clear either. a t ime-bound predetermined plan, which most technolog y implementation follow, is therefore not possible (carlopio, 1998, p. 14). since the change process cannot be “managed” a new way of leading is needed. figure 2: three types of change secondly, the future state is so radically different than the current state that a shift of mindset is required to invent it, let alone implement and sustain it. this fact triggers enormous human and cultural impacts. leaders and employees alike must transform their mindsets, behaviour and ways of working together. this strategy for the change must therefore focus on how to accomplish organisational as well as personal change across the organisation. according to anderson and anderson (2001, p. 42) these t wo attributes of transformation make both the process and the human dynamics much more complex, unpredictable and uncontrollable than in either developmental or transitional change. in developmental and transitional change leadership t ypically engage in very little strategic thinking about how to handle the change. instead they delegate to lower level change mangers that immediately begin implementing planning using traditional project management or change management approaches. in transformational change leaders themselves must be involved in putting together an integrated change strateg y (anderson & anderson, 2001, p.43) which includes; 1) correctly positioning the effort within all of the organisational priorities, 2) identif y the most catalytic levers for mobilising act ion toward the f ut ure state, 3) set up appropriate participation by all stakeholders in the emergent design of the f ut ure and its implementat ion, 4) clarifies comprehensive change infrastructures and leadership roles, 5) creates effective acceleration strategies and conditions and 6) sets a realistic pace for the change. another researcher in 1974, adamson (conner, 1992, p. 132) developed the seven phase transition curve model, which was based on the kubler – ross, 5-stage model, see figure 3. this model also illustrates that in order to change, people move through seven different stages in order to change: shock, individual initially experience shock when they encounter the need for change and dip in their self-confidence due to the need for them to undertake personal change and do things differently. for example when users in organisations are required to use a new technology. adopting new technology 55 denial, is a stage when individuals try to rationalise the changes as not really involving a significant change for themselves. individuals try to convince themselves that they do not need to use the new technology. as a result their self-confidence goes back up again, however this denial however prevents them from moving forward. users deny the fact that they too will need to use the technology innovation. awareness incompetence, individuals need to develop recognition of the need for personal change. this awareness is created by discussions with others, presentations regarding the change /technology innovation or recognising that the old ways of doing things no longer works. this realisation also results in a drop in confidence as individuals become aware of their inadequacy to fulfil this new role. acceptance, individuals will be able to move forward when they accept the need to let go of the past and let go of the ‘old’ system, old attitudes and behaviour and adopt new ones. testing, identif ying and testing out technology innovation and behaviours perhaps as a result of training. as new behaviours start to enable individuals to perform more adequately in their new role, the user’s confidence starts to build. search for meaning, the individual at this stage assimilates learning from their previous successes and failures in using innovative technology and starts to understand why some behaviours worked and others do not. integration is marked by an integration of new behaviours of using the technology innovation into that everyday way of working by individuals. the gap between an individual’s perceived ability to perform and the expectations placed on that individual ceases to be. figure: the transition curve change a highly personal experience organisations and individuals not only experience change as a process but also a highly personal process. hord, rutherford, huling-austin and hall (1998, p. 32) cited that the world around us is complex and it is therefore not humanly possible to focus on all the many stimuli and conditions that surround us. as a result we place higher priorit y on some specifics aspects of our world. the way we perceive things is dependent on the unique and multifaceted persons we are as well as the characteristics of the issue, idea, or thing. our past history, personalit y dynamics, motivations, needs, feelings, education levels, roles, stat us, our entire social psycho being in relation to our experiences and knowledge shape how we perceive and, in our minds, contend issues, object or problem at hand. the reason for attention to be focused on a particular issue may be external, influenced by others, by a thing or an idea, or the demands may be internal, coming from within us, or there may be a combination of internal and external stimuli at work. the composite representation of the feeling, preoccupation, thought, and consideration given to a particular issue or task is called, a concern. concern, is the mental activity composed of questioning, analysing, and re-analysing, considering alternative actions and reactions, and anticipating consequences, (hord et al., 1998, p. 33). it is also an aroused state of personal feeling and thought about a demand is, as the individual perceives it. depending on one’s closeness to and involvement with an innovation, one’s concerns will be different in type, as well as in intensity. many types, or levels, or concerns can be experienced concurrently, however, there are normally differential degrees of arousal. for each person, certain demands of the innovation are perceived as being more important than others at a given time. thus the degree of arousal (intensity) of the different types of concern will vary. concerns will vary depending on the amount of one’s knowledge about and experience with the innovation. according to researchers from the texas research and development centre, s. m. hord, w.l. rutherford and l.l. huling in 1987 who adapted the stages of concern questionnaire (socq) based on the original concept of g.e. hall, l. huling-austin and l. dorsett in 1987, there appears to be a predictable pattern to the movement of intensity of concern across types. table 1 identifies the stages of concern, the description of the concerns and the behavioural indices of the different levels of concern. table 1 stage of concern, the stage description and behaviour indices stages of description of the stage behavioural indices concern of level of user stage 0: state in which the individual has no action is being non-use little or no knowledge of the taken with respect to innovation, no involvement with it the innovation and is doing nothing toward becoming involved. stage 1: there is general awareness of the the user is seeking out information/ innovation and an interest in information about the orientation learning more about it. the person innovation seems not to be worried about self in relation to the innovation. the interest is, in a selfless manner, in substantive aspects of the innovation such as general characteristics, effects, and requirements for use stage 2: individual is uncertain about the the user is preparing personal demands of the innovation, personal to use the change adequacy to meet those demands, and his or her role with the reward structure of the organisation. there is also uncertainty about decision making and consideration of the potential conflicts with existing structures or personal commitments. financial or status implication of the program for self and colleagues may also be reflected. stage 3: attention is focused on the the user is using the management processes and tasks of using the change in a poorly mechanics innovation and the best use of co-ordinated manner information and resources. issues and is making userrelated to efficiency, organisation, orientated changes management, scheduling, and time demands are utmost. stage 4: attention focuses on the the user is making impact/ innovation’s impact on associates changes to increase consequences in the individual’s immediate sphere outcomes of influence. the focus is on relevance of the innovation for associates; evaluation of associate outcomes, including performance and competencies; and the changes needed to increase associate outcomes harris, stanz, za aiman, groenewald56 stage 5: the focus is on co-ordination and the user is making collaboration co-operation with others regarding deliberate efforts to use of the innovation co-ordinate with others in using the change stage 6: the focus is one of exploration of the user is seeking refocusing the more universal benefits from the more effective innovation, including the possibility alternatives to the of major changes or replacement established use of the with a more powerful alternative. change the individual has definite ideas about alternatives to the proposed or existing form of the innovation adapted by hord, rutherford, huling-austin, and hall, 1987 based on the original concept of hall, wallace and dossett (1973). though the stages of concern are represented sequentially, they frequently overlap. all people are not at the same stage of concern at the same point in time. change facilitators have to therefore steer a critical mass of people through the stages in order to implement the innovation and bring about organisational change (veldsman, 2002). according to meyers (1994) the basis of organisational change is a desire for different behaviour to lead to better results. approaches to change tend to focus on the individual or organisational level. at individual level, researchers have examined ways to change behaviours by addressing psychological factors and individual capabilities. psychological factors such as motivation, attitudes and mental models, explain a person’s emotional reaction to change. an individual’s level of skill (e.g. technical, interpersonal), capacities (e.g. resilience), and capabilities (e.g. ability to learn) contribute to his or her competence to deal with the consequences of change. a comprehensive change strategy has therefore three equally important components; content, people and process (sauer and yetton, 1997). the content of change includes the new business direction and its subsequent structural, systems products and technology changes. in terms of people, traditional change management focuses on overcoming resistance and increasing communication and training. the focus of this approach is to influence people to change from the outside in. however in terms of transformation change organisation’s need to encourage people to chose to change themselves from the inside out to ensure real and lasting change. in order to do this the organisational change strategy has to encourage people to change their mindset and the way in which they behave (anderson & anderson, 2001). process is how the change will be implemented so that the organisation discovers and accomplishes its business while meeting its people and cultural requirements. to ensure the sustainability of an innovative technology through users adopting the technology and exploiting the technology innovation the change management strategy must focus on how to accomplish this level of personal change across the organisation, chowdhury (2001). hord et al. (1998) indicated that one of the key factors in the change process is the people who will be most affected by the change. certainly, the innovation itself and the organisation into which it is to be incorporated are important variables, but they are secondary in importance to the people who are the intended innovation users. change is developmental growth in feelings and skills as highlighted above people move through stages of concern and feelings in order to master change. this process of mastering the change includes learning and development as depicted in the learning to change ladder (charlton, 2001). see figure 4, the learning to change ladder which indicates that we move from the unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence of the new skills. this learning process includes gathering information regarding the change, being taught the new skill, practising the new skill and then using the technology to do their work. this process of learning must be actively facilitated to ensure the user learns how to use the technology innovation and that the skill is reinforced by means of performance measurements to ensure users do not return to the “old” way of carrying out their work. figure: 4 learning to change ladder as previously discussed the studies document by hord et al. (1998) showed that the stage or stages where concerns are more (and less) intense will vary as the implementation of change progresses. these variations in intensity mark the developmental nature of individual concerns. while the change typically progresses through the stages in a developmental manner, the progression is not absolute and certainly does not happen to each person in a like manner. everyone will not move through the stages at the same pace nor have the same intensity of concern at the various stages. for this reason the researcher is of the opinion that this may be one of the reason’s which lead to the failure of a number of ict projects. from the researchers experience of having worked on ict projects for the last eight years, most ic projects generally allow for between three to ten days for users to be trained how to use the new technology. the training time does not taken into account learners who may be slower than others and allow sufficient time for the user to practice and to develop their confidence in using the new skill. hypotheses the principal aim of this study was to determine whether there are significant differences between certain characteristics such as; age groups, department and year’s experience using the innovative technology, sap (systems, applications and products in data processing) in terms of the different stages of concern users were at, when adopting innovative technology. in the light of the stated objectives of this study, four hypotheses have been formulated. h01: there are no differences between the means for users with different levels of experience. h02: there are no differences between the means for users from different age groups. h03: there are no differences between the means for users from different departments. the t-test compares the means of answers to questions relating to each stage by users from the two companies a and b. h04: there is no difference between the means for users from different companies (µa-µb = 0) adopting new technology 57 research design sample two large oil companies were selected in which the researcher had worked in. both companies had implemented innovation technology, sap during the last 3 years and the population sample used sap more than once a day. the total population of company a, financial (38 users) and company b, customer service (32 users) and logistic (22 users) were requested to fill in the questionnaire. measuring instrument the questionnaire selected to conduct the survey was the states of concern questionnaire (socq), hord et al (1987, p. 5). the aim of the soc questionnaire is to probe at what stage of concern people are at to use resources and learning interventions which can assist the new user to adopt the technology innovation. the soc questionnaire is based on the concerns based adoption model (cbam), which has the following assumptions regarding change; it is a process, not an event, it is made by individuals first, then organizations, it is a highly personal experience and involves a developmental growth in feelings and skills. the soc questionnaire used was developed to provide a quick – scoring measure of the different stages of concern. it was validated over a three year period, proceeded by ten years of measurement development and research by frances fuller and others as they studied the concerns of teachers about teaching, (hall, archie & rutherford, 1998, p. 9). the resulting soc questionnaire was tested for estimates of reliability, internal consistency, validity with several different samples and eleven different innovations. the reason for selecting the soc questionnaire, is that it is still currently been used by schools, school administrators and researchers in australia, belgium, canada, england, france, germany, italy, japan and the netherlands to carry out research and facilitate change in schools to adopt innovative technolog y, (hord et al., 1998, p. 7). in addition, theo veldsman, one of the leading industrial psychologists in south africa refers to the “stages of concern” model in terms of technological innovation and impact on performance in his book, “into the people effectiveness arena” (2002, p. 208). the soc questionnaire which was adopted in its original form consists of an introductory page, demographics (department, age, qualification, length of use and frequency of use and then the survey questions, 35 items on two pages to which people respond by marking each item on a 7-point likert scale (1 to 7) according to how true it is that the item describes a concern felt by the individual at the present time. an additional category, 0, is provided at the end of the scale to be marked for items that are completely irrelevant to the individual. procedure the soc questionnaire was conducted with the selected sample of users in the following manner: � a briefing was held with each department manager and employees to highlight the aim of the survey and confidentiality of the employee’s responses. � employees were then asked to fill out the soc questionnaire voluntary and to return the questionnaire in a sealed envelope to the survey administrator. employees who however wanted to receive feedback in terms of the stage of concern they were at and wanted to know what initiatives were required to move to the next stage could fill their name in. statistical analysis of the data statcon at rau did the statistical analysis of the data, which included: � calculating the relative intensity of answers to determine to what extent users felt the different stages applied to them. the possible answers are on a scale of 0 (statement considered irrelevant) to 7 (agree completely with statement). � conducting correlations between the different stages to see whether a linear progression takes place from stage 1-6. � carrying out the anovas and t-tests to determine the differences between the groups of respondents in terms of age, year’s experience using the innovative technology (sap), department and company. results the results of the study are reported first in terms of biographic and demographic characteristics and then of the analysis. although the questionnaire was voluntary a good response rate of 80% was achieved. table 2, shows that there were 25 respondents for company a and 42 respondents for company b. table 2 respondents per company company count % company a 25 37,3% company b 42 62,7% table 3, shows that from company a, 25 respondents were received from the finance department and company b 22 respondents from the customer service department and 20 respondents from the logistics department. table 3 respondents per department department count % company a finance 25 37,3% company b customer service centre 22 32,8% logistics support analysts 20 29,9% table 4, presents the age of the respondents, 16 respondents between the ages 18-25 years, 21 respondents between 26-35 years old, 15 respondents between ages 36-45 years and 15 respondents between 46 and above years old. the age of the respondents are evenly spread within the age categories used. table 4 number of respondents per age category age years count % 18-25 17 24,3% 26-35 21 31,8% 36-45 14 21,2% 46 + 15 22,7% harris, stanz, za aiman, groenewald58 table 5, indicates the respondent’s length of period in using the innovative technology (sap). five respondents have between 03 months experience, three respondents between 4 to 6 months experience, 12 respondents with 6 months to 1 year experience, 28 respondents between 2 to 5 years experience and 19 respondents with 6 to 10 years experience. most of the respondents have been using the innovative technology for a number of years. table 5 respondents level of sap experience sap experience count % 0-3 months 5 7,5% 4-6 months 3 4,5% 6 months 1 year 12 17,9% 2-5 years 28 41,8% 6-10 years 19 28,4% table 6, indicates how frequently the respondents are using the innovative technology 1,5 % at least once a month, 4.5% at least once a day and 94% twice or more times per day. it seems that most respondents use the innovative technology on a daily basis to do their work. table 6 frequency at which respondents use the innovative technology sap frequency count % once a month 1 1,5% once a day 3 4,5% twice or more a day 63 94,0% the statistical results in terms of relative intensit y of answers per stage were calculated and are represented graphically in figure 5. this shows that the respondents feel that stages 1-2 (information/personal) and 4-5 (consequence/collaboration) are applicable to them, with users most in agreement with stage 5 (collaboration). the sample population is split bet ween respondents seeking information and concerned about the impact of technolog y on them personally whilst on the other hand the other group has moved past their own personal concerns and are concerned about the impact of the technolog y on others. as most of the users have been using the innovation for a number of years the researcher expected that a large sample of users would have reached a high stage of technolog y adoption, which in this instance is stage 5. in addition, lessons learnt from workshops conducted at both companies a and b have indicated that a high level of co-operation bet ween users and the users understanding of the impact of what they do in the system leads to a higher level of user accuracy and users carrying out actions in the system, timorously. in terms of the linear progress, figure 6 shows that the strongest correlation is bet ween stages 1 and 5 (information/ collaboration), 4 and 5 (consequences/collaboration). the correlation bet ween 4 and 5 was expected according to the model developed by hord et al. (1998), which indicated this progression. the correlation bet ween 1 and 5 however was not expected. stage 1 relates to gathering information regarding the technolog y innovat ion and stage 5, collaborating to manage the concerns of the technolog y innovation. the researcher is of the opinion that perhaps the reason for this is that at both stages indicate a desire to gather more information in terms of stage 1, how the technolog y will impact the person personally and stage 5, how the technolog y will impact others in an attempt to assimilate the new technolog y. figure 5: relative intensity of responses to the different questions figure 6: correlation between stages the anova tests carried out presents a comparison of the means of the description characteristics, age, length of use and department the users operates in. where if a p value is less than 0.05 it means there is evidence to infer that there is a difference in at least t wo of the factors, keller & warrack (2000). table 7, the anova results presents no significant difference bet ween respondents groups in terms of the length of using the innovative technolog y; 0 – 1 year, 2-5 years and 6 to 10 years. the anova results in terms of age, table 8 indicates that there is no significant difference between the different age groups, accept a statistically significant difference at a 10% level at stage 3 (management) between the mean of the different age groups, where for ages 18-25 years the mean is 1.25, for 26-35 years the mean is 1.59, ages 36-35 has a mean of 2.20 and 46 years and above has a mean of 1.69. adopting new technology 59 table 7 anova results – the length of time the user has been using the technology innovation sum of df mean f sig. squares square stage 0 between groups ,359 2 ,180 ,275 ,761 within groups 41,829 64 ,654 total 42,189 66 stage 1 between groups 1,841 2 ,921 ,479 ,611 within groups 123,073 64 1,923 total 124,915 66 stage 2 between groups 2,724 2 1,362 ,763 ,471 within groups 114,307 64 1,786 total 117,032 66 stage 3 between groups 3,250 2 1,625 1,615 ,207 within groups 64,393 64 1,006 total 67,643 66 stage 4 between groups ,061 2 ,031 ,020 ,981 within groups 99,995 64 1,562 total 100,056 66 stage 5 between groups ,510 2 ,255 ,141 ,869 within groups 115,897 64 1,811 total 116,407 66 stage 6 between groups ,226 2 ,113 ,102 ,903 within groups 71,163 64 1,112 total 71,390 66 table 8 anova results – the respondent age groups sum of df mean f sig. squares square stage 0 between groups 2,129 3 ,710 1,105 ,354 within groups 39,810 62 ,642 total 41,939 65 stage 1 between groups ,259 3 ,086 ,044 ,988 within groups 122,027 62 1,968 total 122,287 65 stage 2 between groups 3,448 3 1,149 ,631 ,598 within groups 112,890 62 1,821 total 116,338 65 stage 3 between groups 6,890 3 2,297 2,406 ,076 within groups 59,178 62 ,955 total 66,078 65 stage 4 between groups 6,181 3 2,060 1,378 ,258 within groups 92,710 62 1,495 total 98,890 65 stage 5 between groups 3,931 3 1,310 ,745 ,529 within groups 109,010 62 1,758 total 112,941 65 stage 6 between groups ,728 3 ,243 ,218 ,883 within groups 68,950 62 1,112 total 69,678 65 the anova results relating to the department the respondents are operating in, table 9 indicates that there is no significant difference bet ween respondents operating in different departments except in terms of stage 3 (management), where the mean for the finance department is, 1.93 for the customer service centre it is, 1.19 and logistics, 1.78. customer service centre has a lower mean than the finance and logistics departments. the researcher is of the opinion that the reason for this may be that the customer service centre staff have strong management who take care of managing the activities of staff in terms of using the technology innovation compared to the finance and logistics departments, whose staff are responsible for managing their own workload and use of the innovative technology. table 9 anova results – department sum of df mean f sig. squares square stage 0 between groups ,757 2 ,379 ,585 ,560 within groups 41,431 64 ,647 total 42,189 66 stage 1 between groups 2,046 2 1,023 ,533 ,589 within groups 122,869 64 1,920 total 124,915 66 stage 2 between groups ,665 2 ,332 ,183 ,833 within groups 116,367 64 1,818 total 117,032 66 stage 3 between groups 6,902 2 3,451 3,636 ,032 within groups 60,741 64 ,949 total 67,643 66 stage 4 between groups 5,604 2 2,802 1,899 ,158 within groups 94,452 64 1,476 total 100,056 66 stage 5 between groups 1,084 2 ,542 ,301 ,741 within groups 115,323 64 1,802 total 116,407 66 stage 6 between groups ,963 2 ,481 ,437 ,648 within groups 70,427 64 1,100 total 71,390 66 a t-test was done to compare the mean of answers to questions relating to different stages for users from different companies. t-tests are done where the variance of a population is unknown. at each stage of concern, two t-tests were done; one assuming that the population variances are equal, and one not assuming equal population variances. in both cases, the only statistically significant differences emerged at stage 3 (management). discussion the principal aim of this study was to determine whether various defined user characteristics such as age, department and length of using the innovative technology influenced users at different stages of concern when adopting innovative technology. according to the statistical analysis respondents were found to have reached different stages of concern in terms of technology adoption. this supports the assumptions of the cbam developed by ford et al. (1998, p. 33) that users go through different stages of concern whilst adopting technology. conner (1992), a change specialist, also identified that people need to move through stages of change commitment (preparation, acceptance and commitment) in order to bring about major change i.e. innovative technology adoption. harris, stanz, za aiman, groenewald60 in terms of the null hypothesis h01, no significant difference was found. in terms of the h02 no significant difference was found accept a statistically significant difference at a 10% level at stage 3 (management). in terms of the h03 there were no significant differences with the exception of 1, stage 3 relating to customer services. therefore, with the exception of stage 3, all the p values were > 0,05 which implies that the null hypotheses is not rejected and therefore the stage of adoption is not dependent on user characteristics investigated. this supports the assumption of the cbam developed by hord et al. (1998), that individuals are different and that people do not behave collectively. change is a highly personal experience and therefore each individual reacts differently to change. this is also supported by veldsman (2002) who believes that people conceive, convey, respond to and modifies ideas through and within their interpretative framework, which is very individualistic. considering the amount of time and money companies spend on implementing new technology, determining underlying reasons for failing to reach the full potential of these technologies is a crucial exercise. this study shows a way in which the reasons for employees struggling to adopt a new technology can be investigated by using the soc questionnaire. the results of the questionnaire will indicate what type of interventions need to be implemented to enable the user to move towards the next stage of concern. a couple of questions and suggestions emerged. firstly, it is interesting that the only statistically significant differences between users were found at stage 3 (management). the reasons for this warrants further investigation. it may be that the trust users have in their direct management plays a crucial role in their trusting the new technology. secondly, because users were from different departments in the different companies, it is difficult to determine whether differences are due to differences between departments or company. for future studies, it is suggested that surveys be conducted in different companies and involve people from similar departments to enhance the conclusions drawn from the results. thirdly, the options for users to indicate the frequency of use of the new technology was limited, with 94% indicating that they use the new technology twice or more per day. for future studies, a greater choice in frequency indication is suggested, which could make the influence of this aspect easier to determine. the researcher suggests that a survey such as this one should be a standard tool used when implementing new technology. however, the soc questionnaire should be modified to better reflect the south african circumstances and problems specific to implementation of ict systems. a further suggestion based on the aim of the soc questionnaire is to carry out the soc questionnaire on a sample of users who are involved in implementing technology innovation. design interventions based on the results of the questionnaire to assist users move to the next level of concern. then to re-test the group of users a month after the interventions have been implemented to see whether different results are achieved. references anderson, l.a. & anderson, d. (2001). awake at the wheel: moving beyond change management to conscious change leadership. od practitioner, 33 (3). bridges, w. (1999). transition: the crucible of creativity. hrm magazine, april 1999. carlopio, j. (1998). implementation: making workplace innovation and technical change happen. australia: mcgraw-hill. charlton, g. (2001). human habits of highly effective organisations. pretoria: van schaik. chowdhury, s. (1999). management 21c: someday we'll all manage this way. london: prentice hall. conner, d.r. (1992). managing at the speed of change: how resilient managers succeed and prosper where others fail. new york: random house. hall, g.e. (1979). the concerns – based approach to facilitating change. educational horizons, 57 (4). hall, g.e., archie, a. g. & rutherford, a.l. (1998). measuring stages of concern about the innovation. austin, tex.: south west educational development laboratory. hord, s.m. rutherford, w.l., huling-austin, l. & hall, g.e. (1998). taking charge of change. austin, tex.: southwest educational development laboratory. keller, g. & warrack, b. (2000). statistics for management and economics. 5th edition. london: duxbury. meyers, p.s. (1994). the theory and practice of managing organisational change. working paper from ernst & young centre for business innovation. orlikowski, w.j. & hafman, j.d. (1997). an improvisational model for change management: the case of groupware technologies, sloan management review, winter 1997, 38 (2). ottoway, r.n. (1983). the change agent: a taxonomy in relation to the change process. human relations, 36 (4), 361-392. sauer, c. & yetton, p.w. & associates (1997). steps to the future: fresh thinking on the management of it-based organization change. san francisco: jossey-bass. veldsman, t. (2002). into the people effectiveness arena. navigating between chaos and order. randburg: knowledge resources. adopting new technology 61 reviewer acknowledgement open accesshttp://www.sajhrm.co.za page 1 of 1 sa journal of human resource management recognises the value and importance of the peer reviewer in the overall publication process – not only in shaping the individual manuscript, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank all reviewers who participated in shaping this volume of sa journal of human resource management: adèle bezuidenhout amos engelbrecht anita bosch venter antoni barnard bennie linde billy boonzaier boris urban carolina henn chris le roux christoff botha claude-helene mayer dawie p.j. smith debbie-ann mortinson dries schreuder elrie botha frans cilliers gert roodt herman pietersen ikhlas altarawneh ingrid potgieter johann burden johanna (joey) buitendach kengatharan navaneethakrishnan leon jackson letitia van der merwe lize van hoek madia levin magda bezuidenhout mandla ndlangamandla we appreciate the time taken to perform your review successfully. marius pretorius martina kotzé melanie bushney michael routledge michelle may michiel buys miemsie de jager nadia ferreira nasima m.h. carrim nico martins noel pearse paul kariuki penny abbott pierre joubert pieter grobler pieter loedolff richard chazuza ruan van der walt rudolf oosthuizen salome vosloo stella nkomo suki goodman sumari o’neil tapal babu willie du toit willie t. chinyamurindi willlem schurink yvonne du plessis zoharah omar in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for sa journal of human resource management, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on www.sajhrm.co.za for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a reviewer. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at http://www. sajhrm.co.za 2. in your ‘user home’ [http://www.sajhrm. co.za/index.php/sajhrm/ user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest. 3. it is good practice as reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to sa journal of human resource management. please do not hesitate to contact me if you require assistance in performing this task. margo martens submissions@sajhrm.co.za tel: +27 (0)21 975 2602 fax: +27 (0)21 975 4635 sajhrm sa journal of human resource management article information authors: queen omoruyi1 crispen chipunza2 michael o. samuel3 affiliations: 1public further education and training college, king williams town, south africa 2department of human resource management, central university of technology, bloemfontein, south africa 3department of industrial psychology, university of fort hare, south africa correspondence to: michael samuel email: msamuel@ufh.ac.za postal address: private bag x1314, alice 5700, south africa dates: received: 07 dec. 2010 accepted: 15 may 2011 published: 22 july 2011 how to cite this article: omoruyi, q., chipunza, c., & samuel, m.o. (2011). perceptions of justice and extra-role behaviours of survivors after organisational restructuring at a consolidated bank in nigeria. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), art. #344, 14 pages. doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.344 copyright notice: © 2011. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this work is licensed under the creative commons attribution license. issn: 1683-7584 (print) issn: 2071-078x (online) perceptions of justice and extra-role behaviours of survivors after organisational restructuring at a consolidated bank in nigeria in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • overview of downsizing at the commercial bank in nigeria (2005–2006) • literature review    • organisational justice theory and perceptions    • organisational citizenship behaviour    • theoretical foundations of organisational citizenship behaviour    • affective commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour    • organisational justice and organisational citizenship behaviour • research design    • research strategy    • research method       • participants       • measuring instrument       • data collection       • data analysis • results    • descriptive statistics    • relationship between survivors’ perceptions of justice and the extent to which they are engaging in organisational citizenship behaviour       • paired correlations of derived variables    • regressing organisational citizenship behaviour • discussion    • recommendations    • limitations of the study    • suggestion for further research • acknowledgements    • authors’ contributions • references abstract (back to top) orientation: perception of justice amongst survivors of organisational downsizing is crucial for extra-role engagements. researchers have recorded extra-role behaviours because they are important for organisational efficiency and success. research purpose: the main objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between employees’ perceptions of justice and their organisational citizenship behaviour (ocb) after organisations downsize. motivation for the study: many organisations that are downsizing do not seriously consider the unintended consequences of downsizing on the behaviour of survivors. this study intends to draw the attention of organisations that are downsizing to this oversight. research design, approach and method: the researchers used a quantitative research design and survey method for the study. they distributed a self-administered questionnaire to 130 employees from a population of 180 survivors at the head office of a commercial bank that recently downsized in lagos, nigeria. main findings: the research results showed that there was no fairness in the downsizing exercise. this resulted in low morale amongst survivors and unwillingness to engage in extra-role behaviours. practical/managerial implications: it is important for organisations that are downsizing to use a participative approach in order to achieve organisational efficiency and improve productivity after restructuring. contribution/value-added: the results of the study will give the managers of organisations, which are planning to downsize, a useful insight into how to plan the exercise, how to implement the plans, and how to manage the employees they will retrench and those they will retain after concluding the downsizing exercise. introduction (back to top) the study of employees’ perceptions of workplace justice and the extent to which these perceptions affect job-related attitudes (like commitment and organisational trust) and behaviours (like organisational citizenship behaviour and intention to leave) have become very interesting to organisational behaviour researchers. they have become particularly interested in the fairness of organisations when they restructure and in the citizenship behaviour of employees who survive organisational restructuring. many organisations are facing problems of global competition, economic instability and changing technologies today. these problems demand organisational change strategies that will allow organisations to remain competitive at lower cost. a strategy that many organisations use to manage these problems is to downsize. downsizing, according to robbins (2005), is reducing an organisation’s workforce and unused assets in order to reduce costs and to improve efficiency, productivity and competitiveness. some features that one commonly associates with downsizing are the uncertainty, anxiety and frustration that will have long-term effects on the dismissed workers as well as on the survivors of restructuring (samuel, osinowo & chipunza, 2009). the survivors in restructured organisations are particularly concerned about the extent of fairness (or justice) managers show. this concern could shape employees’ work behaviours and attitudes positively or negatively. organisational justice and its relationship with extra-role behaviour are the basic and important objectives of successful organisations in the competitive world of business. achieving organisational justice, chegini (2009) argues, is a kind of fulfilment in all activities, behaviours and tendencies of organisations and individuals. chegini further argues that organisational justice is a basis for strategic thinking and value management and is the basis of all organisational values and principles. injustice, according to chegini, threatens organisational permanence and growth, the goals of organisations. therefore, the established relationship between organisational justice, employee citizenship behaviour and organisational success has made the subject a compelling study for organisational practitioners and academic researchers. overview of downsizing at the commercial bank in nigeria (2005–2006) the reform of the banking industry (commonly called the consolidation exercise) that the central bank of nigeria (cbn) carried out between 2005 and 2006 has left an indelible mark on the landscape of the banking industry in nigeria. the exercise ‘consolidated’ about 89 operating banks in nigeria into 25 at the end of 2006 (oluba, 2008). the main reason for the consolidation exercise, oluba explains, was the belief that banks in nigeria were not vigorously and suitably ‘performing the traditional and modern day responsibilities expected of them as banks’. the consolidation exercise aimed to increase the strength, reliability and diversity in the banking system (oluba, 2008). this, according to oluba, would guarantee the depositors’ money and create the enabling financial environment for the banks to contribute more actively to the economic development of nigeria. in order to make itself more efficient and competitive, the commercial bank the researchers studied merged with another commercial bank and acquired a third bank to form a bigger banking entity in 2005 (greef, ajiboye & adekeye, 2007). with this merger, it became necessary for the bank to downsize its workforce. according to adegboye (2008), the bank used two criteria to downsize the bank. the first criterion was to give long-serving employees the option to resign voluntarily. the bank terminated the appointments of others and dismissed others outright without using any clear criteria. the bank’s managers prohibited employees from joining labour unions. this breaches article 20(1) of the universal declaration of human rights, which states that ‘everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association’. nevertheless, the prohibition made the summary dismissal of employees possible. this clearly violates the principles of good labour practice. the downsizing exercise affected the employees of the newly acquired bank most. some employees left the consolidated bank willingly because they believed that their future in the new bank was bleak. the bank downgraded those who remained to lower positions (adegboye, 2008). the bank excluded these employees from the bank’s annual performance appraisal exercise, thus effectively making their promotion impossible for that financial year (adegboye, 2008). therefore, adegboyega noted, the managers of the bank created a demoralised workforce, whether intentionally or not. the perceptions of justice, of all the survivors of the downsizing, became a critical determinant of their willingness to engage in extra-role behaviour. the procedures the bank used to downsize on the one hand, and considerations about distributive and relational justice for the survivors on the other, caused this. clay-warner, hegtvedt and roman (2005) contend that, although downsizing affects its victims more than it does the employees that remain (in terms of their attitudes, perception, and future choices of employment) it also affects the survivors. clay-warner et al., (2005) argue that, although the survivors keep their work and wages, their sense of job security and hope of reimbursement decreases. in other cases, the fear of job loss will make the survivors less committed to their work. this causes lower productivity and more resistance to change (noronha & d’cruz, 2006). previous research findings (like those of barrett-howard & tyler, cited in clay-warner et al., 2005, p. 89) show that employees are better motivated and express more feelings of satisfaction when they feel that their employers have treated them fairly. coyle-shapiro, kessler and purcell (2004) note that ‘employees who believe they have been treated fairly respond to change initiatives within the work environment with behaviours that reflect effort beyond the call of duty.’ these behaviours, according to coyle-shapiro et al., are organisational citizenship behaviours. the consolidated bank needed these behaviours, according to imasuen (2008), because of the low morale of employees before and after the downsizing exercise. in the light of these perspectives about the restructuring exercise at the consolidated bank, the research questions this study addresses are: • what are the perceptions of survivors about the managers’ use of procedural and distributive justice strategies during downsizing? • what effect do the survivors’ perceptions have on their organisational citizenship behaviours (ocbs)? the objectives of the study are to: • determine the perceptions of the survivors about the managers’ use of procedural and distributive justice during downsizing • measure the extent to which the survivors engage in ocb • analyse the relationships between the survivors’ perceptions of justice and the extent to which they engage in ocb. the findings of this study will provide a basis for comparative studies on the downsizing process with regard to the effective use of organisational justice to reduce some of the elements that hinder survivors’ engagement in ocb. this will add significantly to the existing literature on organisational downsizing. the sections that follow give a theoretical review of perceptions of justice and ocb in relation to organisational downsizing, present the research methodology, research findings and discussion and state the limitations of the study. the article makes recommendations to organisations that are downsizing and gives suggestions for further research into perceptions of organisational justice and ocb as they relate to organisational downsizing. literature review (back to top) organisational justice theory and perceptions perceptions of justice have been considered explanatory variables in organisational research (nadiri & tanova, 2010). organisational justice is a kind of fulfilment in all activities, behaviours and tendencies. it is the basis of all organisational values and principles (chegini, 2009). injustice threatens organisational performance and growth, the goals of organisational life. according to koopmann (2006), one can trace the theory of organisational justice back to adams’ (1965) equity theory, the basis of social comparison. similarly, organisational justice theory, as thornhill, lewis, millmore and saunders (2000, p. 262) express it, provides a useful explanation of people’s reactions to the things they receive (outcomes) and the means through which they achieved these outcomes (procedures). adams’ equity theory (1965) posits that employees assesses their job inputs against their job outputs and then compare the ratio of their inputs to outputs with other employees’ ratios of inputs and outputs (schultz, bagraim, potgieter, viedge & werner, 2003, p. 64). in other words, employees measure the effort they contribute to a job against the outputs (or rewards) they get for the effort they contributed. they then compare them with the effort other employees expend and what they get as a reward. we can locate the implications of this theory in the procedures organisations use when they reward, punish, promote and dismiss employees. schultz et al. (2003) contend that the survivors of organisational downsizing will always consider the procedures an organisation used when retrenching their fellow colleagues. survivors then react negatively if they regard the procedures as unfair. according to steiner and bertolino (2006, p. 63), the survivors’ perceptions of inequity create tension and this tension will motivate the survivors to reduce input in proportion to the unfairness they perceive. the researchers’ findings in the current study are consistent with the literature. these findings show a significant drop in morale amongst survivors and their willingness to engage in extra-role activities because of the injustice they perceived in the procedures organisations used during downsizing and when distributing rewards afterwards. organisational behaviour researchers (like kickul, lester & finkl, 2002; robbins, odendaal & roodt, 2004; steiner & bertolino, 2006) have identified three types of organisational justice: distributive, procedural and interactional. ismail (2007) defines distributive justice as ‘the perceived fairness of the amount and allocation of rewards amongst individuals’. clay-warner et al. (2005) define the basis of distributive justice theory as the fairness of the outcome of a decision. this predicts how survivors will react to the outcome of allocating and distributing rewards to the victims of downsizing. clay-warner et al. (2005) contend that the basis of the survivors’ perception of distributive justice is how the expected outcomes and agreed rules compare with the actual outcomes. distributive justice has many interesting elements that help us to understand why survivors of downsizing may not see the methods organisations use to distribute outcomes as fair. thornhill, lewis, millmore and saunders (2000) posit that survivors will see unfairness if the criteria the organisations used seem to promote organisational needs, like performance and efficiency, at the expense of workers. robbins, odendaal and roodt (2004) note that distributive justice influences employees’ satisfaction more than procedural justice does. the fairer the outcomes, the more satisfied employees will be. therefore, this suggests that managers must ensure transparency in how they make decisions about downsizing in order to improve job satisfaction and ocb (robbins, odendaal & roodt, 2004, p. 79). the researchers’ analysis in the present study supports these authors. the variable selection procedure suggests that the survivors’ perceptions of breaches of psychological contracts and the methods of rewarding victims were the most important predictors of ocb. robbins, odendaal and roodt (2004, p. 140) refer to procedural justice as ‘the perceived fairness of the process used to determine the distribution of rewards’. according to steiner and bertolino (2006), employees will see a process as fair when they can participate in the deliberations that lead to the decisions that affect them. this increases mutual trust and commitment to their organisations. in other words, involving employees in decision-making processes increases their feeling of self-worth because they believe that their employers are treating them in a dignified and respectful manner. furthermore, they will be more willing to accept the outcomes that have emerged from the participative processes. in addition to accepting the outcomes, dayaram (2005) notes that, when survivors perceive that their organisations make fair decisions that lead to the downsizing outcomes, they are likely to engage in extra-role behaviour to reciprocate the fair treatment from their managers. clay-warner et al., (2005) observe that employees see procedures as fair when the means organisations use to reach decisions, when downsizing, eliminate bias and allow for consistency in treating employees. eliminating bias reflects the opinions of the affected people, guarantees the accuracy of information and the methods the organisations use to rectify wrong decisions, and ensures compliance with moral and ethical standards. they increase the survivors’ perceptions of procedural fairness, loyalty, productivity and commitment to the organisation. losing a friend, or friends, because of downsizing has a great effect on the attitudes and behaviours of the survivors. shah (2000, p. 103) states that the outcomes of downsizing become more painful to the survivors if they see their former colleagues suffering. this statement is consistent with the views of robbins, odendaal and roodt (2004, p. 262), who assert that ‘the reactions of survivors are determined by the process used in selecting those that were affected and how they were treated’. the survivors’ perception that organisations have treated their colleagues unfairly will, as robbins, odendaal and roodt (2004) infer, result in negative survivors’ attitudes and behaviours towards the organisation. procedural justice is important to survivors because of its implications for their own futures. in addition to distributive and procedural justice, interactional justice is one of the components of organisational justice. interactional justice, according to aquino, griffeth, allen and hom (1997), is the assessment of the genuineness, objectivity and value an authority has given employees during times of change. the focus in the literature on interactional justice is on the employees’ feelings about the fairness of the ways their organisations treated them and others during downsizing exercises (thornhill et al., 2000, p. 264). in a brief explanation of the meaning of interactional justice, steiner and bertolino (2006, p. 66) posit that it is ‘the communication criterion of fairness’. according to steiner and bertolino (2006), people respond to the quality of interpersonal encounters they experience during the implementation of organisational procedures. interactional justice, in the context of downsizing, is important because communication helps to explain why people feel unfairly treated even though they think the procedures and outcomes of decisions were fair. for example, survivors will judge an organisation’s future interaction with them based on how fairly it has treated the employees it has dismissed. in a similar explanation, othman (2008) relates interactional justice to interpersonal interactions between employees and their managers. the main contention of othman (2008) and steiner (2006) is that employees must see the interpersonal interaction or communication that happens during downsizing as truthful, respectful and justified. therefore, one can conclude that interactional justice affects the organisational citizenship behaviour of survivors and that this depends on how they evaluate the genuineness, propriety and objectivity of the communication process managers used during downsizing processes. organisational citizenship behaviour the less traditional types of job behaviour are better avenues to follow to discover the relationship between perceptions of fairness and employee behaviour (moorman, 1991, p. 845). these nontraditional behaviours are on-the-job behaviours that traditional job descriptions do not usually capture. therefore, they are more likely to fall under one’s personal control (moorman, 1991, p. 845). one example of nontraditional job behaviour is organisational citizenship behaviour. rafferty, maben, west and robinson (2005) define organisational citizenship behaviours as those special employees’ work behaviours that benefit the organisation. they are optional, not directly or openly acknowledged in the formal reward system, and promote the effective running of the organisation. ocbs are beneficial and desirable from an organisational perspective. however, managers have difficulty eliciting their occurrence or punishing their absence through contractual arrangements and formal rewards because they are voluntary (nadiri & tanova, 2009). ocb includes employees spending time to assist coworkers to complete tasks, volunteering to do things that their jobs do not really require but that benefit the organisation, readiness to adjust to change and courtesy. ocb is very important for the success of any organisation. here, robbins, odendaal and roodt (2004) submit that organisations, which have employees who do more than the organisations require, are efficient and will out-perform those organisations whose employees do not. this is consistent with koopmann (2006), who noted that the presence of ocb will help organisations to become more successful because there will be low turnover rates and dedicated workers. it will lead to greater productivity. in reporting on the general situation of the survivors of the downsizing in the nigerian banking sector, imasuen (2008) concludes that the merger created many problems that required immediate solutions. it remains to be seen what immediate solutions the bank could use to arrest the general sense of disillusionment amongst the banking staff. this ‘general sense of disillusionment’ (imasuen, 2008) will prevent the banking sector in nigeria from developing the stable working environment necessary to reap the benefits of ocb. organ (1990) identified and described the five dimensions of ocb: • conscientiousness, which means that employees perform well beyond the minimum required levels • altruism, which means helping others • civic virtue, which suggests that employees participate responsibly in the political life of the organisation • sportsmanship, which states that people do not complain but have positive attitudes • courtesy, which means treating others with respect. research shows that helpful behaviour (altruism) is an important dimension of ocb (ishak, 2005; jahangir, akbar & haq, 2004; podsakoff, mackenzie, paine & bachrach, 2000). the definition of helpful behaviour that most scholars, like lievens and anseel (2004); podsakoff et al. (2000); ishak, (2005); jahangir et al. (2004), most commonly accept is that it is a voluntary behaviour of selfless concern for the welfare of others. it involves helping others voluntarily, like helping those who are absent or helping to prevent work-related problems and helping others to prevent unforeseen problems. sportsmanship behaviour is another important component of ocb that is crucial to organisational success. according to lievens and anseel (2004), sportsmanship is being able to tolerate more than is usual. it is a person’s ability or willingness to endure an annoying situation without complaining. one of the features associated with organisational downsizing include work overload, role ambiguity and burnout. after downsizing, survivors may feel uncertain of their roles. managers may assign them new positions that are very different from what they previously did or what they were trained to do. this may affect their feelings of job insecurity, as they will be unsure of their performance in the new role. the study of fried, ben-david, tiegs, avital and yeverchyahu (1998) revealed the effect of role clarity on performance. their results showed that job performance increased over time when roles are clearer. employees require sportsmanship behaviour in these conditions. ishak (2005) also emphasises this attribute. ishak states that the ability of an individual to endure an unfavourable situation without grumbling is sportsmanship behaviour. podsakoff et al. (2000) went on to assert that sportsmanship goes beyond not grumbling when coworkers cause uncomfortable situations. it includes remaining positive when things are not going according to plan. conscientiousness is another discretionary behaviour that goes beyond the minimal requirements of organisations (tayyab, 2005). operating beyond the minimum behaviour levels organisations require will go a long way to improving organisational effectiveness and increasing productivity. employees, who arrive early at work and leave late, avoid unnecessary breaks or take short lunch periods, make constructive suggestions and complete tasks before they are due will certainly add to organisational effectiveness and help organisations to achieve their goals. this behaviour, tayyab observes, is the conscientiousness dimension of ocb. jahangir et al. (2004) and ishak (2005) refer to this behaviour as personal initiative and it includes the optimum use of time. examples are being punctual and having high attendance rates. however, podsakoff et al. (2000, p. 517) argue that one can regard individual initiative as ocb only if the people willingly decide to do more than organisations formally require of them. employees are conscientious when they voluntarily suggest ideas and innovative designs that will enable them to be more effective in performing their duties, put more interest, time and determination into completing tasks effectively, willingly undertake extra work and encourage others to follow suit. werner (2007) describes courtesy as another discretionary act of thoughtfulness and considerate behaviour that prevents work-related problems for others. notifying employers if employees will be arriving late for work, notifying colleagues before they do things that might affect their jobs or informing coworkers of delays in work progress, especially in inter-related work schedules where one employee’s input depends on another’s output, are all courtesy behaviours. they allow for effective work coordination and planning, which are essential to achieving predetermined organisational goals. lievens and anseel (2004, p. 300) define civic virtue as extra participation and being more concerned about the success of organisations. some of these behaviours include voluntarily serving on committees and attending functions that improve the image of organisations (dipaola & tschannen-moran, 2001, p. 432). podsakoff et al. (2000, p. 525) define civic virtue as the ‘willingness to participate actively in organisational governance such as, attending meetings, engage in policy debate, and express one’s opinion about what strategy the organisation ought to follow’. they extend civic behaviour to monitoring organisations’ environments for threats and opportunities and keeping up with changes in the industry that might affect them. employees who ensure their organisations’ best interests by reporting hazards or suspicious activities and locking doors after work (even at great personal cost) are engaging in civic virtues (podsakoff et al., 2000, p. 525). podsakoff et al. (2000) enlarge the traditional dimensions of ocb to include organisational loyalty. this means that employees are consistently faithful to their organisations. accordingly, they define organisational loyalty as: • being supportive and protective of their organisations at all times • being committed to their organisations always • defending and promoting their organisations at all times. this presupposes that employees promote and protect their organisations by presenting their good image to the community. farh, zhong and organ (2004) summarise this behaviour as ‘allegiance to an organisation and promotion of its interests’. another dimension of ocb that podsakoff et al. (2000, p. 517) identified is organisational compliance. these are attributes that enable employees to adhere to their organisations’ rules and procedures always. this suggests that employees obey the rules and regulations of their organisations even when they are not being watched or monitored. a study by podsakoff et al. (2000) shows that organisational compliance is what smith (1983) calls generalised compliance. graham (1991) calls it organisational obedience. podsakoff et al. (2000) call self-development another dimension of ocb. according to them, it is the employees’ choice to participate in activities to improve their skills, knowledge and abilities to benefit their organisations. it is common practice for employees to participate freely in advanced training programmes, to attend professional conferences and workshops, to remain current about research findings relevant to their professions and to acquire new skills in order to improve their contributions to the success of their organisations. theoretical foundations of organisational citizenship behaviour the bases of ocb are some assumptions, like social exchange theory. according to greenberg and colquih (2005), eisenberger, armeli, rexwinkel, lynch and rhoades (2001) and aryee, budhwar and chen (2002), the first thing that will motivate people to help each other is reciprocity. this means people will feel compelled to help those who have helped them in the past (eisenberger et al., 2001, p. 42). the simple reason for this is that, in order to maintain a healthy and continuous relationship, it is proper and appropriate to reciprocate help. the motivation for both in-role and extra-role job performance, according to greenberg and colquih (2005, p. 359) is reciprocity. that is, ‘for in-role performance, the reward system provides motivation to reciprocate job performance’. for extra-role performance, they state that the motivation to reciprocate is not reward, but the perceived socio-emotional outcomes like trust, fair treatment, support and respect. this, amongst others, explains the reason that employees are willing to go the ‘extra mile’ for their organisations if they feel their organisations are treating, or have treated, them fairly. another argument greenberg and colquih (2005, p. 359) raise about social exchange theory is based on the research findings of blau (1964). they assert that blau did not agree that the fundamental driving force of all kinds of exchange is reciprocity. blau states that social exchange, according to aryee et al. (2002, p. 267), is ‘the voluntary actions of individuals that are motivated by the returns they are expected to bring and typically do in fact bring from others’. this suggests that people may feel obliged to reciprocate a good gesture because of self-interest. the importance of blau’s finding is in the link it creates between ocb and reciprocation (greenberg & colquih, 2005). aryee et al. (2002) and greenberg and colquih (2005) contend that employees may engage in ocb to reciprocate benefits because they want them to continue. thus, greenberg and colquih (2005) posit that, when employees see their exchange relationship as social, they will feel obliged to reciprocate the benefits they received or to reciprocate through ocb. aryee et al., 2002, p. 268, state that the ‘social exchange in an employment relationship may be initiated by an organisation’s fair treatment of its employees’. that is, if employees believe that they are receiving fair treatment from their employers they are obliged to pay back the fair treatment in order to reciprocate. according to eisenberger, et al. (2001, p. 42), employees are motivated to reciprocate beneficial treatment by engaging in behaviours (like ocb) that will be valuable to their organisations. greenberg and colquih (2005, p. 361) note that the relationship between organisational justice, social exchange and ocb is the perception that fair treatment is a benefit. jahangir et al. (2004, p. 80) suggest that employees’ perceptions of fairness is based on how equitable they perceive organisational decisions and the procedures organisations use to reach them. research suggests that the perception of fairness, in the distribution of outcomes and the processes organisations use to make these decisions during downsizing, is an important determinant of survivors’ commitment. for example, williams (2004) states that survivors’ commitment to organisations after downsizing depends mainly on the perceived fairness of the downsizing process. williams further states that, for organisations to survive after downsizing, they need employees with high affective commitment. affective commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour various researchers (like jahangir et al., 2004; mcshane & von glinow, 2008) regard affective commitment as important to employees’ engagement in ocb. rafferty, maben, west and robinson (2005) suggest that employees with high affective commitment are willing to do more than their duties require for the benefit of their organisations. affective commitment to organisations happens with little or no influence from formal incentives. mcshane and von glinow (2008) assert that employees with high effective commitment want to do more for their organisations. as a result, they tend to be absent from work less frequently and display more motivation and organisational citizenship. affective commitment amounts to self-sacrifice that, although organisations do not impose or demand it, contributes to their smooth operation (brown, mowen, donavan & licata, 2002). similarly, jahangir et al. (2004) note that the survival and prosperity of organisations depend largely on the willingness of employees to act as good citizens by exhibiting behaviours that exceed their call of duty. further research on organisational behaviour has revealed determinants of ocb other than the social and economic exchange relationship. cardona, lawrence and bentler (2004, p. 220) carried out one of these studies. it revealed that other organisational experiences that influence ocb do not use social exchanges as a basis. for example, the work scope and job perceptions, which are also determinants of ocb, use individual job attributes rather than social exchanges as their bases. according to cardona et al. (2004), work exchange relationships, like social exchange relationships, are based on implicit agreements, unlike economic exchanges that are based on explicit agreements. this suggests that employers cannot specify all the expected behaviours they require employees to exhibit in a contract. therefore, (brown et al., 2002) state that ‘mutual expectations defining a work exchange evolve as the relationship matures and social norms changes’. they also contend that, although social and work exchanges are based on implicit agreements, this does not make them the same. the difference between the two is that work exchanges are specific to work activities whilst social exchanges involve undefined social interactions (cardona et al., 2004, p. 224). organisational justice and organisational citizenship behaviour organ (1988a, 1988b, 1990) suggests that one can describe the empirically supported relationship between job satisfaction and ocb as one that reflects a relationship between perceptions of fairness and ocb. drawing from organ’s arguments, moorman (1991), greenberg and colquih (2005) conclude that, if one measured job satisfaction and perceptions of fairness, then perceptions of fairness, and not job satisfaction, would relate to ocb. moorman further argues that, if job satisfaction comprises a large fairness component, then why should fairness relate to ocb. in providing an answer to this question, organ (1988b, 1990) suggests two reasons why fairness could predict citizenship behaviour. firstly, adams (1965) proposes in equity theory that conditions of unfairness will create tension in people that they will attempt to resolve. organ (1988a) suggests that one should consider ocb as an input for one’s equity ratio and that raising or lowering one’s level of ocb could be a response to inequity. organ (1988b) went on to point out that changing ocb could be the strategy of choice because ocb is discretionary and lies outside formal role requirements. therefore, a change in ocb, in response to inequity, would probably be safer than trying to change behaviour to bring it in line with formal role requirements. if it were not safer, at least it would fall directly under personal control (moorman, 1991, p. 846). a second reason why perceptions of fairness could relate to ocb originates from blau’s (1964) definition of the difference between economic and social exchanges (moorman, 1991, p. 846). organ (1988b) believes that perceptions of fairness may influence ocb by prompting employees to define their relationship with an organisation as one of social exchange. the exchanges become ambiguous because social exchanges exist outside strict contracts. this allows discretionary and prosocial acts from employees (moorman, 1991). according to organ (1988b, p. 553), ‘the inherent ambiguity of such a system frees the individual to contribute in discretionary fashion without thinking that this will be acquiescence to exploitation’. therefore, if employees consider themselves to be in conditions of social exchange, they may be more likely to exhibit ocb (moorman, 1991). aryee et al. (2002, p. 267) suggest that employment relationships are exchange relationships that could be social or economic. greenberg and colquih (2005) state that social relationships are based on the exchange of benefits between two parties, like employers and employees. this, in other words, means that if employees see their organisations’ fair treatment as benefits, they will be motivated to reciprocate. one way of reciprocating, according to greenberg and colquih (2005), is by doing more than their jobs require. there is recorded empirical support for the influence of perceptions of fairness on ocb. the studies of dittrich and carroll, scholl, cooper and mckenna (as cited in moorman, 1991) found that perceptions of job and pay equity correlated significantly with extra-role behaviour. in addition, konovsky and folger (1991) present preliminary evidence to support relationships between procedural justice and altruism. furthermore, farh, podsakoff and organ (1990) studied the relationship between fairness, job satisfaction and ocb specifically. although they measured fairness indirectly from reports of leader contingent reward behaviour, leader supportiveness and participative leadership behaviour, they found that fairness was a two-factor model of ocb (moorman, 1991). research design (back to top) the researchers chose quantitative research for this study because its findings are mainly the products of the statistical summary and analysis that shaughnessy and zechmeister (1997) described. one of the advantages of quantitative research design, according to blanche, durrheim and painter (2006), is that ‘the findings are generalisable and the data are objective’. the researchers chose a quantitative design for this study because of its primary strengths. see blanche et al. (2006). research strategy the researchers collected information using the survey research method. this involved administering structured questions, in a questionnaire, to a sample of respondents they selected from a population (ghauri & gronhaug, 2005). research method participants the researchers drew the sample for this research from the 180 employees at the head office of a commercial bank that recently downsized in lagos, nigeria. the sample for the study comprised 130 survivors of the downsizing exercise. the researchers selected the sample randomly using probability sampling. the participants represented all categories of employees in the bank. measuring instrument the researchers measured organisational justice using the scale that mansour-cole and scott (1998) developed. they measured ocb using the scale robinson and morrison (2000) developed. sections b and c of the measuring instrument consist of three and five questions respectively. the questions in both sections measured the survivors’ perceptions of the employers’ breaches of psychological contracts. section e of the measuring instrument consists of 10 questions that measured perceptions of procedural and interactive fairness. sections f and g consist of seven questions each. the researchers used them to measure perceptions of distributive justice and the survivors’ willingness to engage in ocb. the researchers used a five-point likert scale to measure all the questionnaire items. the researchers tested the reliability of the measuring instrument using cronbach’s alpha coefficient (see table 1). data collection the researchers sought and obtained permission from the head of human resources at the bank’s head office in lagos, nigeria. the bank appointed a human resources officer as contact person. the researchers, with the assistance of the contact person, delivered 130 questionnaires to the research participants. after several phone calls and personal visits to the participants, the researchers received 92 completed questionnaires. this is a 71% return rate, which is adequate for the study. data analysis the researchers analysed the data using the statistical package for social sciences (spss version 15.0). they used spearman’s correlation coefficient to determine the relationship between the variables of procedural justice, distributive justice and ocb. according to mcdonald (2009), researchers use spearman’s correlation coefficient when measuring two variables and one ‘hidden’ nominal variable or ranked variables. mcdonald (2009) further states that researchers use the nominal variable to group items into pairs in order to determine the relationship between the variables. the researchers used descriptive statistics, like frequency distributions, to analyse the data. these distributions give the frequency of responses and the percentages for each of the questions in the questionnaire. they determined statistical significance for all the tests at the 0.05 level of significance. results (back to top) descriptive statistics the following tables give the descriptive statistics for each section of the measuring instrument. the questions in this table assessed the extent to which employees knew about the downsizing. the scale ranges from 1 (‘not at all’) to 5 (‘completely informed’). the median for all the questions was 2. this shows that the bank gave little information to employees. this means that more than half of the survivors felt that they received very little or no information. the mean of 1.86 supports this. this suggests that employees did not receive enough information about the downsizing exercise. these variables deal with the bank’s decision-making methods. the researchers used them to measure procedural justice. the researchers assessed the employees’ answers using a five-point likert scale. the scale ranged from 1 (‘strongly agree’) to 5 (‘strongly disagree’). the median for all the responses was 4, with the exception of item c4, which had a median of 3. these medians show disagreement and neutrality respectively. the median of 4 implies that more than half of the respondents disagreed with the decision-making methods. the means are also close to the medians, indicating that the survivors generally disagreed with the downsizing approach the bank used. employees’ disagreement with the decision-making methods could be because of their lack of involvement in the process. their responses, which suggested their involvement in the downsizing process, made this clear. the researchers measured the survivors’ perceptions of breaches of psychological contracts and trust in managers using the statements in table 4. they recorded the responses using a five-point likert-scale. the scale ranged from 1 (‘mostly nondescriptive’) to 5 (‘very descriptive’). the mean scores fell between 2.4 and 2.7. the mean scores represent nondescriptive to somewhat descriptive responses. this indicates that survivors had very little trust in their managers. that is, their perception is that the managers had failed to honour psychological contracts. these perceptions, according to robinson and morrison (2000), reduce survivors’ trust, job satisfaction, intentions to remain, sense of obligation and extra-role performance. the findings of rinkwest (2003) also show that, once survivors’ perceive that their job security is threatened, their job performance and productivity will suffer. the survivors’ commitment to the organisation could also change because of broken promises. the mean of between 1 and 2 shows that, on average, the survivors’ thought that the treatment they got from managers was unfair. the study that kickul et al. (2002) conducted shows that the survivors’ interpretation of how fairly managers treated victims can moderate the behaviour of survivors’ after perceived breaches of psychological contracts. this is because survivors assess the organisation using its processes and the assistance that managers gave to the victims. therefore, the issue of fairness, like perceptions of fair treatment, is an important factor that determines survivors’ commitment. lal, srinivas and varma (2003) suggest that perceptions of legitimacy, personal benefits, procedural and distributive justice are some of the ways to manage downsizing effectively. the current study showed that managers implemented none of the suggestions of lal et al. (2003). table 1: cronbach’s alpha coefficient for testing the reliability of the questionnaire. table 2: descriptive statistics for survivors’ perception of the amount of downsizing information (section b). table 3: descriptive statistics for survivors’ perceptions of the bank’s decision-making methods (section c). table 4: survivors’ perceptions of breaches of psychological contracts and trust in managers (section d). relationship between survivors’ perceptions of justice and the extent to which they are engaging in organisational citizenship behaviour the researchers computed paired correlations of the derived variables to determine the strength and direction of the relationship between the survivors’ perceptions of justice and the extent to which they were engaging in ocb. table 6 gives spearman’s correlation coefficients in a correlation matrix. table 5: descriptive statistics for survivors’ perceptions of procedural and interactional fairness when downsizing (section e). table 6: paired correlations of derived variables. paired correlations of derived variables all the paired correlations in table 6 were statistically significant except for the one between the amount of information the bank provided and ocb (b and g). table 6 shows that: • no significant linear relationship between b and g, that is, between the amount of information and ocb (r = -0.14, p = 0.191) • ocb (g) had a positive correlation with (c) managers’ decision-making methods (r = 0.4, p = 0.0001) and (f) the methods of rewarding victims (r = 0.62, p < 0.0001) • ocb (g) had a negative correlation with (e) procedural and interactive fairness (r = -0.25, p = 0.0194) and trust in managers (r = -0.6, p < 0.0001). these results are broadly consistent with previous research on the effects of distributive justice on survivors’ ocb. as expected, survivors’ perceptions of managers’ decision-making methods (interactive and procedural justice) and perceptions of the methods of rewarding victims (distributive justice) had negative correlations with ocb. they are consistent with kickul et al.’s (2002) findings. kickul et al. (2002) state that survivors’ anger and frustration increase in situations where, apart from breaches of psychological contracts, there are also perceptions of unfair procedures and treatment. this will result in survivors’ negative attitudes and behaviour, which will hinder their willingness to engage in ocb. the reason for this, according to noronha and d’cruz (2006), is that survivors use the manner in which organisations handle the downsizing exercise as a reference point to determine the organisations’ culture and values. this, in turn, affects their ocb. this also agrees with the maxim of reciprocity and social exchange: survivors’ perceptions of unfairness will make them reciprocate with reduced input. similarly, lack of trust in managers (see d 10 in table 4) and lack of procedural fairness also correlated negatively with ocb. although this study shows no significant correlation between the amounts of information and survivors’ ocb, information is still the foundation for building trust between managers and employees. this helps to explain the survivors’ lack of trust in managers, because according to tourish and hargie (2004), communicating with employees builds up trust and credibility, which are beneficial to organisations. in the same vein, robbins, odendaal and roodt (2004) reveal that transparency about how organisations make decisions about downsizing will improve survivors’ attitudes, job satisfaction and perceptions of fairness. these, in turn, influence other behaviours like ocb. in other words, lack of information will result in dissatisfaction. the present study supports these findings. this study shows that the amount of downsizing information: • correlated negatively with the survivors’ perceptions of the managers’ decision-making methods (r = -0.34, p = 0.0010) and the methods of rewarding victims (r = -0.50, p < 0.0001) • correlated positively with trust in managers (r = 0.43, p < 0.0001) and procedural and interactive fairness (r = 0.49, p < 0.0001). this means that little information about downsizing is associated with disagreement with the managers’ decision-making methods, disagreement with the methods of rewarding victims, less trust in managers and little management-employee interaction. the need for employees’ participation in the downsizing process is also important for the survivors’ trust in managers and the perceived fairness of the procedures and outcomes. this study found that negative perceptions of the managers’ decision-making methods were associated with low trust in managers, the perception of a lack of procedural and interactive fairness and disagreement with the methods of rewarding victims. this supports the research findings of steiner and bertolion (2006). they show that employees will see processes and outcomes as fair only when they are involved in the deliberations leading to the decisions. according to conner (2003), another factor that might affect the survivors’ perceptions of fairness is their perception of whether they can influence the process. the respondents in this study saw the decision-making methods as unfair because they were not involved in the process. this is consistent with the findings of paterson and cary (2002). they show that employees’ commitment increases when the processes of change, like downsizing, allow employees to express their views, participate in the decision-making processes and to appeal against unfair decisions. processes like these increase the self-esteem and job satisfaction of survivors and, consequently, affect their ocb. this study also found that comparing the distribution of rewards, based on the theory of equity, was also true. the results show that distributive justice is an important determinant of survivors’ ocb. conner found that distributive justice is associated with traditional equity theory, which involves perceptions of the fairness of distributing outcomes (conner, 2003). based on this theory, survivors will be more willing to engage in ocb if they perceived that organisations rewarded victims fairly. this, according to corner (2003), shows that ‘survivors define fairness or equity based upon the use of the ”equity rule” or the notion of input to outcome ratio comparisons’. looking at the correlations between ocb and all the other variables, the coefficients of determination (r2) are all less than 0.4. this shows that the variables explain no more than 40% of the variability in ocb. this suggests that these variables, individually, do not explain a lot of the variability in organisational behaviour. regressing organisational citizenship behaviour the researchers regressed organisational citizenship behaviour to the other derived variables in order to determine the pattern and magnitude of their effects. they used three variable selection procedures (forward, stepped and backward) to select the most important predictors and the best model to use. table 7 presents a summary of the variable selection processes for each procedure. the forward-selection procedure suggested a model with the rest of the derived variables as predictors. however, in this model bd, dd and ed were not statistically significant, as reflected in p-values greater than the 0.05 significance level. the variables cd and fd together explain 47.3% (model r-square) of the variability in the ocb. fd explains most of it (42.7%) whilst cd explains only 5% (partial r-square). this variable selection procedure suggests that, of all the potential predictors the researchers used in this analysis, fd is the most important predictor of ocb. this concurs with the statement of robbins et al. (2005), that distributive justice influences employees’ satisfaction more than procedural justice does and the fairer the outcomes the more satisfied the employee will be. bd, cd, ed, fd and gd are the derived variables that correspond to sections b, c, d, e, f and g of the questionnaire. there has been a breach of a psychological contract breach when either the employer or the employee thinks that the psychological contract has not been fulfilled. cd denotes survivors’ perceptions of managers’ decision methods and survivors’ perceptions of breaches of psychological contracts. c(p), f and pr denote the degree of the relationship between cd. the stepped-selection procedure entered the variables in the same way as the forward-selection procedure did and produced the same results. the difference with forward selection is that stepped selection suggests excluding cd as a potential predictor of ocb. variable fd remains the most important predictor of ocb. the backward selection procedure also suggested excluding the variable cd as a predictor of ocb. finding fd as the most important predictor of ocb confirms ‘the personal outcomes model’ of clay-warner et al., 2005. this states that employees’ evaluation of personal outcomes, like job satisfaction, uses the fairness of distributing outcomes mainly (clay-warner et al., 2005). according to this model, distributive justice is the most important predictor of job satisfaction. table 7: regression of organisational citizenship behaviour (summary of forward-selection procedure). table 8: regression of organisational citizenship behaviour (summary of stepped-selection procedure). discussion (back to top) the main objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between perceptions of justice and employees’ engagement in ocb after organisations downsize. this evaluation will provide the managers of organisations, which are planning to downsize, with useful insights into planning, implementing their plans and managing the victims and survivors of downsizing. the results of this study will also add significant value to the theoretical evaluation of perceptions of organisational justice and of employee extra-role engagements during and after downsizing. this study shows that there were flaws in the process of downsizing, particularly in the procedures the bank used and how it distributed rewards. this caused low morale amongst survivors and affected their unwillingness to engage in citizenship behaviours. most survivors saw the procedures the bank used whilst downsizing, and in distributing rewards afterwards, as unfair. the results support the research findings of levitt, wilson and gilligan (2008). they conclude that organisations often do not achieve their objectives of downsizing because survivors: • no longer feel a sense of team or purpose • put limited effort into their work • operate at high stress levels • feel little job satisfaction • distrust the organisation • feel no loyalty. the study also revealed that the bank did not involve employees before and after the downsizing exercise. this created an atmosphere of job insecurity for survivors and made them negative about extra-role behaviours. the researchers make the recommendations that follow. recommendations in order to motivate employees to engage in ocb, especially after downsizing, managers need to develop both proactive and reactive strategies to manage the process of downsizing. it is important for managers to involve employees in the process of downsizing from the planning stage to the end of the exercise. this participative approach will tell employees how much managers value them and will demonstrate how fair the exercise is. positive perceptions of justice will motivate employees to reciprocate by engaging in extra-role behaviours. communication becomes important here. communication should be two-way in order to get the commitment and support of the employees. transparent communication increases the trust survivors have in managers. it increases their loyalty to the organisation and their willingness to engage in ocb. organisations that downsize should ensure that they are fair when distributing rewards amongst survivors. managers should prioritise the welfare, especially the psychological welfare, of survivors through trauma programmes like counselling, assistance programmes, training and development to increase their sense of belonging. for example, counselling will enable the survivors to deal with the psychological trauma of downsizing exercises. proactive training of the survivors will prepare them for new tasks ahead. survivors need to be reassured about their jobs in organisations because a sense of job insecurity decreases their willingness to engage in ocb. limitations of the study the respondents in this study were unable to express their ideas freely because the questions in the questionnaire used a likert scale. this, to some extent, limited the respondents who might want to express opinions other than those the investigators gave in the questionnaire. the researchers conducted the research at the bank’s head office. they did not survey other branches of the bank or other banks that downsized in nigeria. therefore, one should be careful about generalising the findings of this study to the whole of the banking sector in nigeria. suggestion for further research this study shows that all the variables the researchers considered accounted for only 51% of the variability in ocb. this suggests that other factors account for the rest of the variability in ocb. the current study failed to capture these. therefore, the researchers recommend that future research should establish other variables that affect ocb because 49% of the variables the researchers measured here did not predict survivors’ ocb. this research should be replicated in all the banks that restructured because of the consolidation exercise. the results of this research can be used as generalisable empirical evidence from the nigerian banking sector. acknowledgements (back to top) authors’ contributions crispen chipunza, the principal investigator, collaborated with the authors on this research. omoruyi designed the empirical study. samuel provided the theory and adapted the article for publication in the journal. references (back to top) adams, j.s. (1965). inequity in social exchange. in l. berkowitz (ed.), advances in experiential psychology (vol.2, pp. 267–299). sandiego, ca: academic press. adegboye, b.r. (2008). reflecting voices from within. unpublished term paper. auchi polytechnic, auchi, nigeria. aquino, k., griffeth, r.w., allen, d.g., & hom, p.w. (1997). integrating justice constructs into the turnover process: a test of referent cognitions model. academy of management journal, 40(5), 1208–1227. doi:10.2307/256933 aryee, s., budhwar, p.s., & chen, z.x. (2002). trust as a mediator of the relationship between organizational justice and work outcomes: test of a social exchange model. journal of organizational behavior, 23, 267–285. doi:10.1002/job.138 blanche, m.t., durrheim, k., & painter, d. (2006). research in practice. 2nd edn. cape town: university of cape town. blau, p. (1964). exchange and power in social life. new york: wiley. brown, t., mowen, j., donavan, d., & licata, j. (2002). the customer orientation of service workers: personality trait determinants and effects on self-and supervisor performance ratings. journal of marketing research, 39, 110–119. doi:10.1509/jmkr.39.1.110.18928 cardona, p., lawrence, b.s., & bentler, p.m. (2004). the influence of social and work exchange relationships on organisational citizenship behaviour. group and organisation management, 29(2), 219–247. doi:10.1177/1059601103257401 chegini, m.g. (2009). the relationship between organisational justice and organisational citizenship behaviour. american journal of economics and business administration, 1(2), 173–176. doi:10.3844/ajebasp.2009.173.176 clay-warner, j., hegtvedt, k.a., & roman, r. (2005). procedural justice, distributive justice: how experiences with downsizing condition their impact on organisational commitment. social psychology quarterly, 68(1), 89–102. doi:10.1177/019027250506800107 conner, d.s. (2003). socially appraising justice: a cross-cultural perspective. social justice research, 16, 29–39. doi:10.1023/a:1022922010184 coyle-shapiro, j.a.m., kesler, i., & purcell, j. (2004). exploring organisationally directed citizenship behaviour: reciprocity or ‘it’s my job’? journal of management studies, 41(1), 85–106. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6486.2004.00422.x dayaram, k. (2005). navigating complexity: the dynamics of organisational culture during a merger. research and practice in human resource management, 139(1), 71–84. d’ cruz, p. (2005). downsizing older employees: a study of india’s public sector banks. korean journal of industrial relations, 15(2), 1–33. dipaola, m.f., & tschannen-moran, m. (2001). organisational citizenship behaviour in school and its relationship to school climate. journal of school leadership, 11, 424–447. eisenberger, r., armeli, s., rexwinkel, b., lynch, p.d., & rhoades, l. (2001). reciprocation of perceived organisational support. journal of applied psychology, 86(1), 42–51. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.86.1.42, pmid:11302232 farh, j., podsakoff, p.m., & organ, d. (1990). accounting for organisational citizenship behaviour: leader fairness and task scope versus satisfaction. journal of management, 16, 705–722. doi:10.1177/014920639001600404 farh, j., zhong, c., & organ, d.w. (2004). organisational citizenship behaviour in the people’s republic of china. organisational science, 15(2), 241–253. doi:10.1287/orsc.1030.0051 fried, y., ben-david, h.a., tiegs, r.b., avital, n., & yeverchyahu, u. (1998). the interactive effect of role conflict and role amboguity on job performance. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 7(1), 19–28. ghauri, p., & gronhaug, k. (2005). research methods in business studies. dorset: prentice hall. chegini, m.g. (2009). the relationship between organisational justice and organisational citizenship behaviour. american journal of economics and business administration, 1(2), 173–176. doi:10.3844/ajebasp.2009.173.176 graham, j. (1991). an essay on organizational citizenship behaviour. employee responsibilities and rights journal, 4, 249–270. doi:10.1007/bf01385031 greenberg, j., & colquih, j.a. (2005). handbook of organisational justice. new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates. greeff, p., ajibove, a., & adekeye, j. (2007). global credit rating company. fidelity bank plc. retrieved november 11, 2008, from http://www.globalratings.net imasuen, t. (2008). human resource melt down in nigerian banks. unpublished article, imasuen hr consulting services, benin city, nigeria. ishak, n.a. (2005). promoting employees’ innovativeness and organisational citizenship behaviour through superior-subordinate relationship in the workplace. research and practice in human resource management, 13(2), 16–30. ismail, a. (2007). relationship between pay distribution systems, distributive justice and work attitudes and behaviours within malaysian institutions of higher learning. unitary ejournal, 3(1), 1–22. jahangir, n., akbar, m.m., & haq, m. (2004). organisational citizenship behaviour: its nature and antecedents. brac university journal, 1(2), 75–85. kickul, j., lester, s.w., & finkl, j. (2002). promise breaking during radical organisational changes: do justice interventions make a difference? journal of organisational behavior, 23(4), 69–488. doi:10.1002/job.151 konovsky, m.a., & folger, r. (1991). the effects of procedural and distributive justice on organisational citizenship behaviour. unpublished manuscript, a.b freeman school of business, tulane university. koopmann jr, r., & tafalla, r. (2006). the relationship between perceived organisational justice and organisational citizenship behaviours: a review of the literature. retrieved july 03, 2008, from http://www.uwstout.edu/rs/uwsjsr/koopmann.pdf lal, j.b., srinivas, e.s., & varma, a. (2003). employee perceptions of organisation during downsizing: a field study. retrieved march 23, 2009, from http://www.jgxysx.net/daom/o34_jaydeepbiharilal.pdf levitt, k., wilson, t., & gilligan, e. (2008). corporate downsizing: an examination of the survivors. journal of global issues, 2(2), 1–10. lievens, f., & anseel, f. (2004). confirmatory factor analysis and invariance of an organisational citizenship behaviour measure across samples in a dutch-speaking context. journals of occupational and organisational psychology, 71, 299–306. doi:10.1348/0963179041752727 mansour-cole, d.m., & scott, s.g. (1998). hearing it through the grapevine: the influence of source, leader–member relations, and legitimacy on survivors’ fairness perceptions. personnel psychology, 51, 25–54. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.1998.tb00715.x mcdonald, j.h. (2009). handbook of biological statistics. baltimore: spark house publishing. mcshane, s.l., & von glinow, m.a. (2008). organisational behaviour, 4th edn. ny: mcgraw hill. moorman, r.h. (1991). relationship between organisational justice and organisational citizenship behaviours: do fairness perceptions influence employee citizenship? journal of applied psychology, 76(6), 845–855. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.76.6.845 nadiri, h., & tanova, c. (2010). an investigation of the role of justice in turnover intentions, job satisfaction, and organisational citizenship behaviour in hospitality industry. international journal of hospitality management, 29(1), 33–41. doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2009.05.001 noronha, e., & d’cruz, p. (2006). a necessary evil: the experiences of manager implementing downsizing programme. the qualitative report, 11(1), 88–112. oluba, m.n. (2008). basic thoughts on reversing the trend of financial exclusion in nigeria. retrieved n.d. from http//www.martinoluba.com organ, d.w. (1988a). organisational citizenship behaviour: the good soldier syndrome. lagos: lexington books. organ, d.w. (1988b). a restatement of the satisfaction-performance hypothesis. journal of management, 14, 547–557. doi:10.1177/014920638801400405 organ, d.w. (1990). the motivational basis of organisational citizenship behaviour. in b.m. staw & l.l. cunnings (eds.), research in organisational behaviour (vol. 12, pp. 43–72). greenwich, ct: jai press. othman, r. (2008). organisational politics: the role of justice, trust and job ambiguity. retrieved april 03, 2008, from http:www.enotes.com/singapore-management-revial-journals/174010301 paterson, j.m., & cary, j. (2002). organisational justice, change anxiety, and acceptance of downsizing: preliminary tests of an aet-based model. motivation and emotion, 26(1), 83–103. doi:10.1023/a:1015146225215 podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., paine, j.b., & bachrach, d.g. (2000). organisational citizenship behaviours: a critical review of the theoretical and empirical literature and suggestions for future research. journal of management, 26(3), 513–563. doi:10.1177/014920630002600307 rafferty, a.m., maben, j., west, e., & robinson, d. (2005). organisational citizenship behaviour what makes a good employer? international council of nurses journal, 3, 47–51. rinkwest, s.l. (2003). the interrelationships among job insecurity, locus of control, sense of coherence and organisational commitment of survivors of downsizing. unpublished masters degree dissertation, university of the western cape, bellville, south africa. robinson, s.l., & morrison, e.w. (2000). the development of psychological breach and violation: a longitudinal study. journal of organisational behaviour, 21, 525–546. doi:10.1002/1099-1379(200008)21:5<525::aid-job40>3.0.co;2-t robbins, s.p. (2005). essentials of organisational behavior. new jersey: pearson. robbins, s.p., odendaal, a., & roodt, g. (2004). organisational behaviour (global and southern african perspectives). cape town: pearson education. saughnessy, j.j., & zechmeister, e.b. (1997). research methods in psychology. singapore: mcgraw-hill. samuel, m.o., osinowo, h.o., & chipunza, c. (2009). the relationship between bank distress, job satisfaction, perceived stress and psychological well-being of employees and depositors in nigeria’s banking sector. african journal of business management, 3(11), 624–632. schultz, h., bagraim, j., potgieter, t., viedge, c., & werner, a. (2003). organisational behaviour. a contemporary south african perspective. pretoria: van schaik publishers. shah, p.p. (2000). network distribution: the structural implications of downsizing. the academy of management journal, 43(1), 101–112. doi:10.2307/1556389 smith, c.a., organ, d.w., & near, j.p. (1983). organisational citizenship behaviour: its nature and antecedents. journal of applied psychology, 68, 653–663. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.68.4.653 steiner, d.d., & bertolino, m. (2006). the contribution of organisational justice theory to combating discriminating. retrieved february 02, 2009, from http://urmis.revues.org/index223.html tayyab, s. (2005). organisational citizenship behaviour: validating factor structure and invariance amongst employees. journal of the indian academy of applied psychology, 31(1-2), 49–64. the universal declaration of human rights. (1948). retrieved may 04, 2011, from www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml thornhill, a., lewis, p., millmore, m., & saunders, m. (2000). managing change (a human resource strategy approach). harlow: prentice hall. tourish, d., & hargie, o. (2004). the communication consequences of downsizing trust, loyalty and commitment. key issues in organisational communication. retrieved march 03, 2009, from http://www.questia.com/pm.qst?a=o&d=104258524 werner, a. (2007). organisational behaviour, a contemporary south african perspective, 2nd edn. pretoria: van schaik. williams, g.c. (2004). maintaining organisational commitment during downsizing. mer program. newfoundland: memorial university. article information authors: linda blignaut1 leona m. ungerer1 affiliations: 1department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: linda blignaut postal address: 73 cambridge street, farrarmere, benoni 1501, south africa dates: received: 19 nov. 2013 accepted: 25 july 2014 published: 29 oct. 2014 how to cite this article: blignaut, l., & ungerer, l.m. (2014). personality as predictor of customer service centre agent performance in the banking industry: an exploratory study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12 (1), art. #607, 16 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.607 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. personality as predictor of customer service centre agent performance in the banking industry: an exploratory study in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • potential value-add    • background to the study    • research objective    • literature review       • call centres versus contact centres • personality and job performance    • personality traits    • five-factor theory of personality    • job performance    • concerns about the role of personality measures in predicting job performance    • performance criteria    • situational moderators    • social-level demands    • trait interactions    • trends from research literature • method    • research approach    • research design       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • job performance ratings       • criterion measures       • research procedure       • statistical analysis strategy • results    • results of exploratory analysis on the six performance criteria and the combined performance criterion    • results of analysis on the occupational personality questionnaire 32r personality trait scores and the calculation of parsimonious measures of personality traits: the idea of big five measures    • exploratory factor analysis    • relationship between performance criteria, personality trait scores and big five personality trait scores    • deductions regarding performance-personality relationships and dependencies • discussion    • conclusion    • limitations of the study    • recommendations for future research • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: since service quality is an important differentiator in the banking industry, it is essential to select suitable customer service centre staff, particularly those who are responsible for handling queries from clients who hold significant lifetime value in this industry.research purpose: the aim of the study was to identify personality traits, as measured by the occupational personality questionnaire 32r (item response theory scored version), including the more parsimonious big five personality traits, that may act as job performance predictors for customer service centre (csc) agents in the banking industry. motivation for the study: this study provides an exploratory investigation of whether specific personality traits differ amongst csc agents in the banking industry, based on their job performance. no published research in this field could be identified. research design, approach and method: purposive sampling was used to collect data from the entire csc agent base of a particular banking group (n = 89). responses were analysed by means of quantitative techniques. main findings and practical/managerial implications: results indicate that parsimonious traits of personality, expressed as the big five personality traits, predict job performance. the importance of carefully selecting suitable job performance criteria for a specific environment, however, emerged as a critical issue in performance prediction. contribution: the study focuses attention on the importance of csc agents’ performance as frontline staff in the banking industry and identifying valid criteria for selecting the most suitable agents. providing a one-contact point of service such as a csc is a fairly new approach in the south african banking industry and this study provides an initial investigation of personality traits that may serve as job performance predictors in this environment. introduction top ↑ key focus of the study the valuation of customers is gaining importance in the retail banking industry (haenlein, kaplan & beeser, 2007). this development supports a central idea in customer relationship management, namely that since customers vary in terms of their needs and the value they generate for a firm, they may have to be managed accordingly. clients who hold significant lifetime value in the banking industry warrant special consideration, and since staff interacting with them may require distinctive qualities, this need to be considered in selecting suitable frontline staff members who deal with them. a number of meta-analyses substantiate the value of personality measures in selection (tett & burnett, 2003), whilst additional meta-analyses suggest that personality measures may predict job performance quite well in particular settings (e.g. barrick & mount, 1991; salgado, 1997).as far as could be determined, limited research has investigated the personality requirements of staff manning a customer service centre (csc) in the banking industry. no relevant published research on the relationship between csc agents’ personality and their job performance within the south african banking industry could be found, pointing to a need for the current study. it serves as an exploratory investigation of whether specific personality traits differ amongst csc agents in the banking industry, based on their job performance. potential value-add sawyer, srinivas and wang (2009) recommend investigating the relationship between personality factors and performance in the context of a customer relations management call centre environment in more depth. huysamen (2002) also suggests ongoing research on assessment tools within the south african context. to this end, the researchers set out to investigate the relationships between the personality traits of csc agents and their job performance in the banking industry using a well-established personality measure in south africa: the occupational personality questionnaire 32r (opq32r).this research particularly contributes to an area of research related to call centre work that has received minimal research attention, namely the relationship between the individual characteristics of call centre employees (for instance, their personality characteristics) and their job performance (sawyer et al., 2009). the selection of suitable staff or staff whose personality types meet the job requirements can potentially reduce absenteeism and turnover and have a positive link to customer service delivery (o’hara, 2001). ones, dilchert, viswesvaran and judge (2007) indicate that future research should continue exploring the potential for self-report ratings of personality in personnel selection, placement and promotion decisions. identifying the personality characteristics of individuals who are successful in its csc environment may assist the banking group to create a better fit between employees and the requirements of this type of environment. this, in turn, may improve organisational outcomes through improving the quality of the organisation’s customer service and reducing the financial and human costs associated with poor service performance, poor attendance rates, high turnover rates and the cost of ineffective assessments. background to the study service quality is a critical factor for survival in the banking industry since it enhances customer satisfaction, improves customer retention and establishes a favourable overall image for financial institutions. it further significantly improves financial performance in terms of interest margins, return on assets, profit per employee and capital adequacy (ladhari, 2009).ladhari (2009) advises that bank managers should recognise the crucial role that frontline employees play in establishing and maintaining a competitive position for their institutions. in light of their extensive influence, these employees should be recruited carefully, properly trained and motivated and supported by means of suitable recognition and incentive schemes. customers’ perceptions of companies are especially determined by the quality of their interaction with the companies’ frontline employees in call centres (mattila & mount, 2003; subramaniam, 2008). the banking group in which this study was conducted made the transition from a call centre to a contact centre or, as termed in the organisation, a csc. the csc caters exclusively for the needs of business and corporate clients whose annual turnover reaches billions of rand and who typically fulfil an essential role in the long-term success of a banking group. client segment teams in the csc respond to incoming calls and emails from clients who are grouped according to their annual expenditure with the banking group. each team provides technical information, solutions and support on a number of products, such as internet banking, to their particular client segment. the csc agents assist clients at two help desks. the outputs of these help desks are the same; more experienced agents are simply promoted to help desk 2 when they are believed to be ready for this process. the better performing agents employed at help desk 2 are regarded as senior csc agents and they assist high expenditure clients in the particular banking group. the csc staff turnover rate in the participating banking group was 29% during 2009, dropping slightly to 27% in 2010. according to barnes (2001), the high turnover rate that is endemic in the call centre industry is exacerbated by recruiting staff with the wrong personality type or whose personality types do not meet job requirements. o’hara (2001) further points out that selecting suitable staff or staff whose personality types meet job requirements may reduce high absenteeism and turnover rates and enhance service delivery. research objective the objective of this study is to explore the relationship between csc agents’ personality and their job performance in the banking industry. if parsimonious measures of personality (e.g. big five traits) can be derived from the opq32r scores in this exploratory study and statistically significant personality trait to performance criteria relationships may be identified for csc agents, these relationships may be investigated in more depth in extended studies in the banking industry. literature review call centres versus contact centres call centres have emerged due to a changing world of work and the need to improve efficiency and customer service delivery. in a call centre, according to holman (as cited in janse van rensburg, boonzaier & boonzaier, 2013), the use of computer and telephone-based technologies enables the effective distribution of incoming and outgoing calls amongst available staff. since call centre agents use display screen equipment to instantly access and capture information, customer-employee interaction takes place concurrently. two traditional types of call centre exist. inbound call centres typically handle incoming calls, responding to matters such as customers’ complaints, requests and questions. outbound call centres mainly focus on establishing contact with customers, supporting organisations in the sales of products or services.the traditional call centre role, however, is shifting from being a cost centre to becoming a strategic business unit (merchants, 2006). a systematic integration of multiple communication channels led to call centres merging into contact centres, serving as service centres to both customers and other organisational stakeholders (langley, fjalestad, fichtner & hart, 2006). contact centres particularly generate value by building relationships with customers, driving business processes, promoting the image of companies and building brand (adria & chowdhury, 2004). contact centres play an essential role in modern organisations, responding to inbound requests and performing outbound sales and marketing over multiple channels. contact centres often function as the sole points of contact between organisations and their stakeholders (mainly customers), playing a vital role in influencing customers’ experience and promoting company culture. the top strategic issues for contact centres are currently customer satisfaction, quality and process improvements and technology strategy (merchants, 2006). there are several differences between a conventional call centre and the csc operating at the bank where the current study was conducted. the contact centre industry has adopted first call resolution as a key performance indicator, representing efficiency and competence in satisfying inbound customer requests (merchants, 2006). the particular csc provides a one-contact experience to clients and a particular client’s problem or request should be resolved during one interaction. instead of merely using the call duration recorded and how efficiently an agent dealt with call requirements in the shortest time period, csc team leaders also consider clients’ experiences in terms of satisfactory problem or query resolution as measure of agents’ job performance. it is essential to attract and retain high-performing contact centre employees, and it is therefore of importance to a banking group to determine valid selection criteria for csc agents. personality and job performance top ↑ personality traits the personality measure used in the present study, the opq32r, was developed based on the trait theory of personality.although personality traits are central constructs in psychology, they are defined in various ways. tett and guterman (2000, p. 398, as cited in tett & burnett, 2003) describe personality traits as ‘intra-individual consistencies and inter-individual uniquenesses in propensities to behave in identifiable ways in light of situational demands’. according to tett and burnett (2003), this definition reflects five fundamental ideas underlying personnel selection and performance prediction: • since most people show a degree of intra-person consistency, it is possible to predict their future behaviour based on their past behaviour. • human uniqueness reflects consistent inter-person differences, creating the need to describe particular traits and leading to some people being hired instead of others. • personality traits are covert and it is essential to understand what activates them in order to understand the role of personality in work behaviour. • traits are inferred from overt behaviour. • the expression of traits tends to be context dependent, and relevant situational features need to be considered in this regard. five-factor theory of personality a fundamental issue in personality research is how many dimensions describe individual differences in personality (van der linden, te nijenhuis & bakker, 2010). researchers address this matter by identifying hierarchical models consisting of higher-order clusters incorporating relevant behavioural measures. a widely accepted example of such a hierarchical model is the big five (digman, as cited in van der linden et al., 2010), which includes the following dimensions: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. the five-factor theory is based on the idea that personality consists of a number of relatively independent dimensions that form a taxonomy by which individual differences can be explained (visser & du toit, 2004).the above five factors explain and predict individual differences in a number of areas including mental health, job satisfaction and job performance (barrick & mount, 1991; judge, heller & mount, 2002). job performance campbell (1990, p. 704) defines job performance (the dependent variable in this research) as ‘those actions or behaviours relevant to the organisation’s goals’. he also distinguishes between performance (the behaviours), effectiveness (the evaluation of the results of performance) and productivity (the cost of getting to certain levels of effectiveness).job performance is an individual level variable, that is, performance is something a single person does (campbell, 1990). job performance consequently is the total expected value to the organisation of the individual behavioural episodes over a standard period of time (motowidlo, 2003). motowildo, borman and schmit (1997) describe job performance as a behavioural construct and state that behaviour, job performance and results are not the same. behaviour is what people do whilst at work. performance is behaviour with an evaluative component; it is viewed as behaviour that can be evaluated as positive or negative for individual or organisational effectiveness. results are states or conditions of people or things that are changed by performance and consequently either contribute to or detract from organisational goal accomplishment. results are the route through which an individual’s performance helps or hinders an organisation in reaching its goals, and this is what makes it appealing to focus on results when considering individual performance (motowildo et al., 1997). concerns about the role of personality measures in predicting job performance the suitability of personality measures in predicting job performance has been debated for decades. doubts about their aptness largely were based on mixed validity evidence, varying views about the underlying structure of personality and concerns about appropriate performance criteria (skyrme, wilkinson, abraham & morrison, 2005).improved meta-analytic techniques and the establishment of the big five model of personality, however, renewed interest in personality as a selection measure (penney, david & witt, 2011). the big five model particularly served to organise research findings and formulate research hypotheses (skyrme et al., 2005). despite a considerable body of empirical evidence indicating that the big five model explains significant variance in job performance criteria, some concern exists about low reported validities. researchers such as tett and christiansen (as cited in penney et al., 2011), for instance, suggest that trends such as low reported validity and concerns about possibly faking responses prohibit the use of personality tests in selection contexts. a meta-analysis of research on the relationship between personality and job performance, however, suggested that personality measures are valid predictors of diverse job-related criteria and typically do not have an adverse impact on disadvantaged employees who may not be test-wise or familiar with assessment situations (barrick & mount, 1991; hogan, hogan & roberts, 1996). tett and christiansen (2007) and ones et al. (2007) further emphasise that personality measures may enhance fairness in personnel decisions. all in all, the relationship between people’s personality traits and their job performance appears to be well established (barrick & mount, 1991; sawyer et al., 2009), but contradictory views about this relationship are evident in the literature. to explain the fairly low validities associated with the big five and to contribute towards an understanding of the relationship between personality and behaviour, penney et al. (2011) focus on three areas, namely the need to properly define the criterion domain, to consider situational moderators of the personality-performance relationship and to consider the impact of varying levels of a particular trait. performance criteria to empirically validate the big five, it is essential to accurately define job performance criteria. this requirement incorporates both measurement and conceptual issues. criterion measures should be reliable and valid and they should fully reflect essential performance requirements of the particular job (penney et al., 2011).campbell, gasser and oswald (as cited in penney et al., 2011) recommend that job performance should reflect both global measures of job performance and specific dimensions or facets of performance. penney et al. (2011) point out three broad dimensions of overall job performance: task performance, contextual performance and counterproductive behaviour. relationships between the big five traits and all three job performance dimensions have been established in existing research. the big five, however, more validly predict job performance when combined than separately (judge, heller, & mount, as cited in penney et al., 2011). penney et al. (2011) highlight three trends escalating the need for expanding job performance criteria: an increase in service jobs (and the related need for interpersonal effectiveness), the increased necessity of teamwork in accomplishing tasks and an increasingly complex, changing modern workplace. employees’ personalities may determine their ability to adapt both behaviourally and psychologically to changing situations. the validity of the big five in predicting job performance may therefore be enhanced by incorporating performance measures that reflect service and adaptive behaviours and not merely broad job performance measures. situational moderators tett and burnett (2003) recommend enhancing the suitability of personality measures in selection by considering theoretical bases of personality trait-performance linkages. theoretical links between the traits and demands of a particular job should be investigated based on a job analysis (tett et al., as cited in penney et al., 2011).tett and burnett (2003) further point out an occasionally overlooked trend in barrick and mount’s (1991) meta-analytic study (which identified trait-performance relations for a variety of job families based on the big five). situational specificity is evident right through barrick and mount’s groups, even in cases where the mean validity was quite high. the direction of validity may further vary in trait-job combinations and bi-directionality especially points to situational specificity. if estimates of true positive and true negative population values are averaged as in standard meta-analysis, validity may be underestimated because of the direct cancellation of effect sizes (tett et al., as cited in tett & burnett, 2003). the trend that differences in terms of the strength and direction of personality-job performance relations are evident across situations suggest that situational moderators should be carefully scrutinised (tett & burnett, 2003). the theory of trait activation, for instance, states that if trait-relevant situational cues are present, they will more strongly determine the expression of a trait than the strength of a particular situation (tett & burnett, as cited in penney et al., 2011). situational cues operate at task, social and organisational levels (tett & burnett, as cited in penney et al., 2011). task-level demands reflect the characteristics of particular job tasks and requirements. penney et al. (2011) believe that the job demand of emotional labour especially warrants further research. employees facing this demand directly interact with clients and have to adjust their emotional displays based on formal job requirements. the types of interactions that employees typically have with clients may also impact on validity estimates, including positions where employees often encounter negative experiences with clients or the public, as in service positions. finally, the duration of employees’ relationship with clients or customers may also impact on the validity of the big five in predicting job performance. in service relationships, customers and service providers interact continually, whilst service encounters are interactions where customers and service employees typically do not expect interacting in future (gutek, bhappu, liao-troth & cherrym as cited in penney et al., 2011). the collective impact of being responsive and courteous to customers may particularly play a role in long-term relationships, and traits such as conscientiousness and agreeableness may be particularly important in the performance of employees who maintain service relationships such as those in the csc context in the banking industry. social-level demands barrick, mount and judge (as cited in penney et al., 2011) propose that different personality traits are important in jobs where cooperation with coworkers is necessary, compared to jobs that require competition. conscientiousness, agreeableness and emotional stability, for instance, imply proper socialisation, indicating a person’s ability to be level-headed, self-disciplined and to get along with others (digman, as cited in penney et al., 2011).according to tett and burnett (2003), organisational culture and climate serve as some indication of work demands at an organisation level and people will probably perform better in organisations with cultures that match their personality. other organisational climate variables that may affect the validity of the big five traits are work environments that are unfair, complex or stressful. trait interactions scholars commonly accept that personality traits do not exist in isolation, but as part of a collection of traits. however, personality-performance relationships have often focused on bivariate relationships between a specific personality facet dimension and core or global job performance (arthur, woehr & graziano, as cited in penney et al., 2011). to fully explain job performance, the joint impact of multiple traits should be explored (hogan, hogan & roberts, as cited in penney et al., 2011). despite research demonstrating the validity of the big five circumplex (pairs of big five traits are presented in circular models, allowing the investigating of intersections between specific trait combinations), few studies have empirically examined the interaction of the big five traits in relation to job performance (judge & erez, as cited in penney et al., 2011). trends from research literature the validity of the big five personality factors in predicting job performance has indeed been evaluated for various job groups such as managerial, sales, customer service, skilled and semi-skilled roles (barrick & mount, as cited in skyrme et al., 2005).support for the use of the big five in selection comes from a number of meta-analyses (barrick, mount & judge, 2001) that have consistently identified relationships between the big five and various performance measurements (supervisor ratings, training proficiency, attendance and productivity). for example, salgado (1997) found that conscientiousness and emotional stability explained 12% and 7%, respectively, of variance in performance ratings beyond that of cognitive ability (skyrme et al., 2005). salgado’s (1997) findings demonstrate the usefulness of personality as a selection tool to complement cognitive ability in predicting performance. salgado (2003) provides further support for the use of the big five personality factors in selection. he found that instruments designed around the five-factor model of personality had greater criterion validity than non-five-factor model personality instruments. these two studies underscore the potential usefulness of the big five in selection contexts (skyrme et al., 2005). in terms of specific dimensions, considerable research found that the five-factor model (ffm) personality dimension of conscientiousness is one of the best predictors of job performance (salgado, 1997). conscientiousness tends to be the only personality trait that correlates with performance across all categories of jobs, including cscs. however, other ffm personality dimensions such as agreeableness and emotional stability may also be important, particularly in jobs that involve a significant degree of social interaction (mount, barrick & stewart, 1998). given the nature of csc work with its emphasis on providing quality customer service, it is likely that the characteristics associated with conscientious individuals (as pointed out earlier) should serve them well when engaging in this type of work. skyrme et al. (2005) found that the ffm personality dimensions of conscientiousness, agreeableness and emotional stability were positively related to employee performance. the ffm personality dimension of agreeableness is associated with behaviours such as tolerance, good nature and flexibility (judge, higgins, thoresen & barrick, 1999). taylor (1998) termed the demands made on call centre staff ‘emotional labour’, because call agents have to both manage their feelings and attitudes and possess product knowledge. managing their feelings and attitudes is particularly important in providing suitable levels of service (both in terms of quality and quantity) to enhance customer satisfaction. skills such as controlling one’s feelings are associated with emotional stability; the ffm personality dimension of emotional stability has been positively related to job performance (mount et al., 1998; skyrme et al., 2005). in terms of the ffm personality dimension of extraversion, sawyer et al. (2009) found that whether or not staff members are characterised as being extraverted or introverted does not seem to have any bearing on their performance in call centres. emotionally stable individuals appear to function well in a call centre environment, because they are able to cope with high levels of emotional exhaustion and particularly because they tend not to leave the job. furthermore, given the restrictive nature of call centres, with scripts and work monitoring, call centre agents who are creative and who seek new experiences (the ffm personality dimension of openness to new experience) may not be well suited to call centre work. fort (2010) found facets of conscientiousness, self-reported achievement and dependability to be predictors of job performance, which would be expected since they are components of one broader domain. similarly, implicit achievement and dependability were also found to be predictors of job performance, suggesting that these two measures may be components of implicit conscientiousness which relates to the ffm personality dimension of conscientiousness. the participants were employees of a contact centre company that provides services to the education industry. both achievement and dependability have been shown to be related to performance in numerous studies (dudley, orvis, lebiecki & cortina, 2006). nicholls, viviers and visser (2009) found structured and results oriented as moderately strong predictors of performance. baron, hill, janman and schmidt (1997) report a principal component analysis which showed that structured, results oriented, analytical, detail conscious and conscientious loaded onto the ffm personality dimension of conscientiousness. little academic research has been conducted on south african contact centres; most of it focused on agents’ behaviour. nel and de villiers (2004) found that the job performance of call centre agents was significantly positively related to their emotional intelligence scores. moller, crous and schepers (2004) investigated the personality traits of agents satisfied with call centre work and identified a self-assertive personality type that was dissatisfied with the variety of work available. the general aim of this study was to determine, firstly, whether personality traits of csc agents – as measured by the opq32r questionnaire – could be expressed in terms of parsimonious personality traits (the big five model) and, secondly, whether these dimension-reduced personality traits could be linked to csc staff members’ job performance. in this way, csc staffs members’ personality traits could be used to predict job performance. more specifically, the following research questions guided this research: • does the big five model of personality traits fit the opq32r personality evaluation data of csc staff members in a particular banking group? • does the big five personality trait model derived from opq32r personality measures impact the performance of csc staff members as evaluated against their job performance criteria? method top ↑ research approach the study followed the quantitative tradition and was a non-experimental study. primary data were used as the researcher gathered all data first-hand. a correlation approach was followed in the data analysis. research design research participants this research focused on the individual as the unit of analysis. purposive sampling was used because the entire csc agent base of the participating banking group, consisting of 89 csc agents, served as the sample.the ages of the participants ranged between 20 and 57 years with a mean age of 27 years and a standard deviation of 5.80 years. all participants were proficient in english and 36% reported english as their home language. most (98%) had obtained a grade 12 or higher qualification, and women made up just over half (57%) of the sample. in terms of ethnic group, participants were african (52%), mixed race (14%), indian (21%) and white (2%). the mean total work experience of the sample was 5.91 years and their mean length of service in their current role was 1.66 years. upon joining the csc, agents are required to have basic computer literacy, some experience in using the internet to assist with web-based product solution generation and some call centre experience. measuring instruments occupational personality questionnaire 32r: the opq32r was developed based on the trait theory of personality. the opq32r uses an occupational model of personality, which describes 32 dimensions or factors of an individual’s preferred style of behaviour at work (shl, 2013).even though the opq was not developed specifically to fit the ffm model, a subset of the 32 narrowband scales map onto the ffm of personality. the opq32r, however, measures a broader personality domain than the ffm. the opq32r further measures elements that are not apparent in the big five classification such as energy, drive and interests. applying the ffm allows for validity generalisation and comparison with other personality instruments and previous research findings (bartram, 2005). standardisation of the occupational personality questionnaire 32r: shl (2013) describes the opq32r as an item response theory (irt)-scored forced-choice version of opq32 that measures the same constructs as in earlier versions, but it more efficiently circumvents response bias and score distortion. in an earlier study of bias (n = 13 523), no practically significant differences were found between cultural and gender groups in south africa (joubert & venter, 2013). the biggest differences were found between african and white cultural groups, although these differences were mostly small. only one scale, forward thinking (d = 0.54), obtained a medium effect size. the effect sizes for the gender comparisons ranged between 0.02 and 0.36 (joubert & venter, 2013). visser and viviers (2010) investigated the construct equivalence of the opq32n between black and white people in south africa. they used structural equation modelling to compare scale inter-correlations between the two groups. the comparison of the covariance matrices indicated a good fit, partially supporting structural equivalence between the two groups. a comparative fit index (cfi) value of 0.942 and a root mean square error of approximation of 0.048 were obtained (visser & viviers, 2010). to ensure the fairness of opq32r scores, group comparison analyses were conducted on several large datasets, including an international general population sample (n = 118 324). gender differences were found on a number of scales, but these differences were typically small (shl, 2013). scores across ethnic groups were compared using the opq32r uk general population norm sample (n = 22 612), but differences, again, were typically small. when scores across different ethnic groups were compared using a us sample (n = 2473), the same tendency was evident. in a study in the usa, uk and the west indies, the internal consistency of each opq scale was determined by calculating cronbach’s coefficient alpha (n = 518). the participant group consisted of 68.9% women and 30.3% men (0.8% did not indicate their gender). their ages ranged between 18 and 55 years. only 57% of the participants indicated their ethnicity. of these, 36% were white and 48% were black. the alpha coefficients ranged between 0.74 and 0.91 (shl, 2009). joubert and venter (2013) reported south african composite reliabilities on the opq32r. the sample consisted of 186 candidates (87 men and 99 women). in terms of ethnic composition, the sample included 59 african, 36 mixed race, 14 indian and 71 white participants. the reliabilities were comparable with reliabilities found in international studies and ranged from 0.69 to 0.93 with a median reliability of 0.85. considerable evidence supports the validity of the opq32, both internationally and locally. various south african studies, for instance, support both the construct and criterion-related validity of the opq32 (bartram, warr & brown, as cited in shl, 2013). an international concurrent validity study (n = 853) was conducted across europe, asia pacific, and north, central and south america, using the opq32r as a predictor of performance in terms of managerial competencies. the median correlation of composite personality predictors was 0.32 for the opq32r. best validities for opq32 predictions reach as high as 0.29 (short irt-scored) for managers, 0.30 (short irt-scored) for colleagues and 0.27 (short irt-scored) for direct reports (shl, 2009). a number of studies have confirmed the internal and external construct validity of the opq32r. in one of these, which included a calibration sample (n = 518) and the uk general population norm sample (n = 22 612), scale inter-correlations and results of exploratory factor analysis (efa), for instance, confirmed the normative data structure of the opq32r scores (shl, 2013). since the opq32r pattern of scale inter-correlations was found to be comparable in other language versions, the 32 constructs may be cross-culturally applicable. when structural equation modelling was used to investigate the level of equivalence in comparing scale inter-correlation matrices of 29 individual countries and regions against those of the uk and us versions of the opq32r (n = 118 324), a high level of construct equivalence was evident (shl, 2013). in terms of criterion-related validity, four recent concurrent validation studies showed statistically significant relationships between predicted opq32r scales and line managers’ ratings of performance. in all these studies, the empirically determined relationships were stronger than non-hypothesised ones. in one study, the opq32r was used to predict management competence in a development setting. data included opq32i responses that were re-scored to opq32r-equivalent scores and 360-degree ratings of the participant’s competencies. opq32r composite scores were applied to predict specific leadership competencies and the composite validities were as high as 0.29 for manager ratings, 0.30 for colleagues and 0.27 for direct reports (corrections were not made for range restriction and the possible un-reliability of the criterion) (shl, 2013). corporate executive board (ceb) (shl, 2011) developed 92 opq32r norms, covering 24 languages and 37 countries. two of these norms were developed for south africa: a managerial and professional norm (n = 1267) and a general population norm (n = 4880). since then, three opq32r norms (a general population norm, a managerial and professional norm and a graduate norm) have been created, derived from data collected from more than 118 324 people across 43 countries (including south africa) and 23 languages (shl, 2013). job performance ratings a further measure used in this study was the ratings csc agents obtained during their bi-annual performance assessment discussion. agents, as well as their supervisors, determined these ratings, and the following sources were consulted to assess the agent’s job performance on their key result areas:• the customer-interaction quality inspection results: the team leader and agent randomly chose calls and emails on a monthly basis and together analysed them according to certain agreed steps and standards as specified by the checklists used in the organisation. each csc agent’s bi-annual performance rating on customer-interaction quality was based on the average of these ratings for the particular 6-month period. • 360-degree feedback: this type of feedback is used to assess agents’ personal, interpersonal and team behaviour. their rating was based on bi-annual feedback from colleagues, customers and supervisors to ensure objectivity during measurement and to avoid rater errors. • balanced scorecard (bsc) performance ratings: these ratings were based on csc agents’ monthly performances based on the bsc measurements. this performance measurement incorporated the customer-interaction quality inspection results (mentioned earlier) to determine the overall performance rating scale for the individual during the month. the bsc measurement also included financial losses due to agents’ negligence, lack of process adherence, and actual call case logging procedures. each agent’s bi-annual performance rating consisted of the average rating that the person obtained during the 6-month period under investigation. criterion measures the performance appraisal rating was determined by assessing each agent’s performance against their key result areas (kras), which are determined from csc agents’ outputs as derived from their job description. the following kras were used:• email or call quality: call answered immediately, greeting, introduction, client’s details captured, addressing customer, handling mistakes, listening, acknowledging, questioning, ensured understanding, problem identification, informing of actions, taking ownership, answering, offering assistance, identifying complaint and escalating call ending. • deliver a world-class service and adhere to internal processes and decision tree: utilising systems and resources effectively, following internal processes, providing reasoning, communicating service level agreement and addressing multiple issues. • emails or calls versus cases ratio: number of calls received compared to the number of reference numbers on system. • active team participation: attendance and participation in recognition, team meetings and training. • self-development: development plan in place, progress on development plan and other achievements indicated on development plan. • adhere to and live values: adherence to company values and rules pertaining to absenteeism, late coming and time management and no disciplinary actions recorded. the ratings csc agents obtained in their performance appraisal served as the criterion measure for job performance in this research. a five-point scale was used with descriptions ranging from standards or outcomes not being met (1) to significantly exceeding all outcomes and standards (5). a rating of 3.5 indicates that all outcomes and standards have been met. the target population of the study was csc staff members assisting clients at two help desks. the job descriptions, client needs, service requests and staff attributes for both desks are similar. more experienced csc staff members, however, assist the bank’s more discerning clients at help desk 2. research procedure ethical approval for the study was obtained from the higher education institution before the measuring instruments were distributed. the research purpose and intended use of the data were explained to all participating agents and managers. the researcher undertook to assist participants in case any adverse consequences resulted from their participation in the research. the banking group also has an employee wellbeing programme that could provide psychological assistance if necessary.during the recruitment procedures, participants were informed that they had the right not to participate in the study at all. furthermore, they could withdraw from the study at any time without any penalty or prejudice. they further had the right to refuse responding to any questions that formed part of an interview or the questionnaire. the research purpose and intended use of the data were explained to all participating agents and managers. prior to starting the assessments, all participating csc agents received an informed consent form that they could complete if they wished to do so. csc agents completed the opq32r in paper-and-pencil format. to ensure consistency, the guidelines on the opq32r administration card were followed strictly during each test administration session. all participants completed the questionnaire in the same venue and in equally sized groups over 15 consecutive days. in terms of the criterion measure for the research, the csc agents’ supervisors were requested to provide the most recent bi-annual performance rating details for each participant. on completion, to ensure data protection, the opq32r tests were scored by the test developer and are presently (for a period of 3 years) stored in a secure location. individual results have not been shared with anyone except the participants. group results have only been shared as explained on the consent form. to ensure trustworthiness, the reliability and validity of the opq and big five constructs were determined as discussed in the ‘results’ section below. statistical analysis strategy exploratory analysis in this study consisted of descriptive statistics calculated for the six sets of job performance rating scores and the 32 sets of opq32r personality traits (courtesy shl). this analysis provided an overview of csc staff’s personality traits and their performance. correlation matrices were further conducted on the scores of the 32 sets of opq32r personality score, as well as on the combination of job performance criteria scores (six) and personality trait scores (32), and on the combination of performance criteria scores (six) and the big five personality trait scores (courtesy shl). this analysis served as one way of describing relationships between a csc agent’s personality and their job performance.efa was also performed on the correlation matrix of the 32 opq32r personality trait scores to determine which personality traits group together to describe broader measures of personality traits such as the big five classification. finally, regression analysis was conducted to describe the nature of established personality-performance relationships in more detail. results top ↑ in the sections that follow, general findings on the initial exploratory analysis of the six performance criteria are firstly provided, followed by a corresponding discussion of the 32 personality trait measurements. the discussion of the personality traits (opq32r) analysis introduces the idea of a more parsimonious measure of personality characteristics, based on literature in this regard.the idea of a more parsimonious set of measures of personality traits stems from an exploratory investigation of the 32x32 correlation matrix of personality trait scores, recommendations from literature and a technical report by shl (2013) on the big five personality characteristics. preliminary factor analysis investigating the possibility of personality trait dimension-reduction is then discussed. the results of the preliminary, most appropriate factor analysis are consequently compared to literature and the technical report of the shl opq32r (shl, 2013). the discussion then focuses on the issue of determining the relationship between personality and performance. this discussion will report on the results of three approaches to investigating possible performance-personality relations. these include (1) deductions derived from the correlation matrix of the scores of the six performance criteria against the scores of the 32 personality traits, (2) deductions derived from the correlation matrix of the scores of the six performance criteria against the scores of five parsimonious measures of personality, namely the big five scores and (3) a linear regression between a performance and personality measure that correlate statistically significantly to describe the nature of the relationship in more detail. conclusions that can be derived from the analysis results will be briefly discussed, as well as possible explanations for the findings of the empirical research. results of exploratory analysis on the six performance criteria and the combined performance criterion the rating scale for job performance consisted of a five-point rating scale with a value of ‘1’ indicating that ‘outcomes were not met’ and a value of ‘5’ indicating that ‘performance significantly exceeds expected outcome’. as such, the means of the descriptive analysis on these criteria (the summary table on the exploratory analysis is not included in the article) seem overall satisfactory with mean criteria scores (and standard deviations) of 3.57 (0.63), 3.54 (0.26), 3.24 (0.70), 3.59 (0.24), 3.44 (0.46) and 3.44 (0.24) for the criteria of email and call quality, deliver a world-class service and adhere to internal processes and decision tree, emails or calls versus cases ratio, team participation, self-development and adhere to and live values respectively. these seem to describe a workforce that ‘meets all standards’. however, it should be noted that the measures of skewness (and kurtosis) of -0.87 (1.32), 0.24 (4.51), -0.92 (1.02), 1.65 (6.01), -3.18 (13.30) and 0.79 (2.82) for the above criteria indicate that analysis results (still to be discussed) had to be considered carefully. an overall measure of performance was also calculated. the mean value and standard deviation for this measure were 20.83 and 1.30 respectively (with a minimum value of 17.82 and a maximum value of 26.4).the issue of whether the performance criteria adequately measure performance might be suggested by skewness and kurtosis deviations, as will be discussed in a later section. results of analysis on the occupational personality questionnaire 32r personality trait scores and the calculation of parsimonious measures of personality traits: the idea of big five measures the researchers felt that the 32 mean scores, as reflected in table 1, did not present an easily interpretable picture of the general personality trait status of the 89 csc staff members. the researchers therefore considered the idea of reducing the dimensionality of the 32 personality trait measurements into fewer, but more comprehensive, measures of personality characteristics. initially the 32x32 correlation matrix of personality traits (courtesy shl) were studied for possible suggestions regarding subsets of traits that group together and which would possibly measure fewer, but more comprehensive, personality traits. as a next step in investigating the possibility of a parsimonious personality trait model, a number of exploratory and tentative factor analyses were conducted on the correlation matrix of the 32 sets of opq32r personality trait scores. these analyses were regarded as purely exploratory because the sample size of 89 was quite small in terms of factor analytic standards. this approach followed the argumentation of barrick et al. (2001), salgado (1997) and penney et al. (2011). these results are now briefly discussed. table 1: descriptive statistics of the occupational personality questionnaire 32r and performance criteria. exploratory factor analysis a few exploratory factor analyses were conducted on the 32-trait personality correlation matrix provided courtesy of shl. (the factor analyses would be regarded as exploratory or provisional given that the sample size of 89 respondents was relatively small for the purpose of a factor analysis, but these analyses were strictly regarded as another angle to explore the idea of more parsimonious personality measures.)maximum likelihood factor analyses, using a promax rotation, were conducted on the correlation matrix of the scores of the 32 personality traits. factor analyses with respectively two, three, and up to seven factors extracted in the various models were run. (analyses were conducted using the statistical analysis system software package, version 9.2.) to motivate the choice of factor analysis model (number of factors extracted) for this study, a summary of various criteria for the seven factor analyses are included in table 2. table 2 contains the result of the maximum likelihood factor analysis, with the promax rotation, performed on the correlation matrix of the 32 opqr personality trait scores. table 2: factor analysis criteria for factor analyses with two, three, four, five, six and seven factors extracted. a comparison of the criteria reported in this table, the scree plot criterion, and the interpretability of the extracted factors all contributed towards the decision of a ffm as model of best fit for the data of the present study. the model shows that: • the greatest reduction in the following criteria is regarded as criteria of an appropriate model: the chi-square statistic without bartlett’s correction, the akaike information criterion, and the schwarz basian criterion. • the tucker lewis reliability coefficient which best approaches 1.0 is also regarded as an indicator of a suitable factor model. • furthermore, the model that declares the largest proportion of the total of all the eigenvalues measured to the total of eigenvalues included in the factor model also serves as indicator of the most appropriate number of factors to include in the factor model. • lastly, the interpretability of the factors generated in the various analyses also serves as guideline as to which model is most appropriate for the study (appropriate number of factors to extract). the rotated factor pattern for the ffm regarded as most appropriate in this exploratory analysis is presented in table 3. table 3: rotated factor pattern (standardised regression coefficients) for five-factor model (maximum likelihood with promax rotation). once the issue of the model of best fit was decided, the naming of the factors (describing the more comprehensive personality traits) was guided by comparing the traits within each factor of this analysis to the literature studies mentioned (bartram & brown, 2005; nyfield, gibbons, baron & robertson, 1995; visser & du toit, 2004) and results on the big five model discussed in the shl opq32r technical manual (shl, 2013). a comparative table is presented in table 4. table 4: comparison of the sets of personality traits of the big five factors to literature references – the shl occupational personality questionnaire 32r technical report and the five-factor model calculated for the service desk data. it was argued that if agreement between subsets of personality traits of the above factor analysis could be established with the literature and the shl opq32r technical report, such correspondence would confirm the idea of composite personality trait measures. it was argued that positive findings in this regard would justify the use of composite personality measures similar to the big five measures. table 4 reports on the comparison between the factors of the three literature references, the opq32r technical report and the tentative five-factor analysis findings of the service desk study. the subsets of personality traits identified in the present study generally correspond to the big five dimensions identified in literature. the comparison also indicates good agreement with the opq32r big five. personality traits that were included in any of these factors in the present study which seemed to differ from the shl report are indicated in bold italics. closer inspection of the correlation matrix of the 32 personality trait scores indicated that statistically significant correlations between these mentioned service desk personality traits and opq32r personality traits of the big five factors could be verified. the personality traits that correlate with the opq32r big five personality traits appear in bracketed italics. the efa thus served to establish personality trait measures that are more parsimonious that the original 32 personality measures and verified agreement between big five personality measures of independent studies and opq32r with the results of the present study. relationship between performance criteria, personality trait scores and big five personality trait scores the applicability of the big five personality measures for this study was thus confirmed. the relationship between, firstly, the six performance criteria and the big five personality traits and, secondly, between the performance criteria and the 32 personality traits were next investigated by means of correlation matrices to investigate personality-performance relations and dependency.analysis provided by shl, which included the correlation matrix of the scores of the performance criteria measures (six criteria) against the scores of the 32 personality trait measures, served as initial indicator of personality-performance relationships. however, comparison of the 32x6 correlation coefficients became unwieldy and somewhat confusing (the matrix is not included in this article). this situation again strengthened the conviction that composite personality measures, such as the established (although tentatively) big five personality measures for this study, would provide a more readily interpretable picture of the personality-performance relationship issue. table 5 presents the correlation matrix of the six performance criteria against the big five personality trait scores (courtesy shl). table 5: correlation matrix# of big five personality scores against performance scores of the six service desk performance criteria. table 6: linear regression# of big five agreeable personality trait (independent variable) scores on emails and calls versus cases ration performance scores (dependant variable). deductions regarding performance-personality relationships and dependencies of particular interest in table 5 is the fact that a statistically significant relationship is reported between emails or calls versus cases ratio and the big five personality trait of agreeableness. a statistically significant relationship between the performance criterion of adhere to and live values and the big five personality trait of openness is also reported. a general measure of performance (reported in table 5) was additionally calculated to investigate whether a combined measure of performance would more effectively describe the relationship between performance and big five personality traits, as recommended by judge, heller and mount (cited in penney et al., 2011). however, statistical significance was only reported for the relationship between the big five personality trait of agreeableness and the overall performance score. agreeableness therefore seems to be the composite personality trait that predicts performance, and more specifically emails or calls versus cases ratio. the nature of the relationship between the performance criterion of emails or calls versus cases ratio and the big five personality trait of agreeableness was further investigated in a regression analysis. (similar regression analyses that were performed on the remaining performance criteria scores proved to be non-significant and these analyses are not reported on.) the results confirm the statistical significance of the agreeable personality trait on emails or calls versus cases ratio performance score, and furthermore describe a positive relationship (slope = 0.22) between agreeableness and emails or calls versus cases ratio performance. however, only 8% (adjusted r-squared value of 0.08) of the total variation in the data was explained by this relation. discussion top ↑ the aim of this study was to determine whether opq32r personality traits of csc staff can be expressed in terms of the big five personality traits, whether personality-performance relationships can be identified (by means of the big five personality traits and performance criteria set by the particular banking group) for csc agents and whether these relationships can be applied in predicting csc agents’ job performance according to their personality traits.a number of researchers (fort, 2010; nicholls et al., 2009; salgado, 1997; skyrme et al., 2005) found that the ffm personality dimension of conscientiousness is one of the best predictors of job performance. this finding was not replicated in the current study. as indicated earlier, sawyer et al. (2009) found that the fact that an individual is extraverted or introverted did not have any bearing on performance in call centres. this finding was replicated in the current study since no statistically significant relationship between the big five personality trait of extraversion and performance criteria was reported in this study. sawyer et al. (2009) found that emotionally stable individuals appear to function well in a call centre environment, because they are able to cope with high levels of emotional exhaustion and seem to have lower turnover rates. skyrme et al. (2005) found the ffm personality dimension of emotional stability to be a significant predictor of job performance. this finding was not replicated in the current study: no statistically significant relationship between emotional stability and performance criterion was reported. skyrme et al. (2005) and judge et al. (1999) further found that the ffm personality dimension of agreeableness was positively related to employee performance. this finding was indeed replicated in the current study. sawyer et al. (2009) also found that given the restrictive nature of call centres, with scripts and work monitoring, those individuals who are creative and who seek new experiences (the ffm personality dimension of openness to new experience) may not be suited for call centre work. an indication of such a trend was reported for this study with a statistically significant correlation coefficient (0.22) reported between openness and adhere to and live values scores. (the score values of the adhere to and live values performance criterion were, however, highly centralised, with a standard deviation of 0.24; this relationship was not investigated further.) this finding was thus replicated in the current study. conclusion the question might be raised why stronger indications of relationships between performance and personality were not found in the present study. on the one hand, the applicability of the big five factors as personality measures was extensively investigated and these personality measures appear to be appropriate measures of personality in this study. on the other hand, however, the performance criteria used in this study appear to be problematic. the job performance criteria used to measure csc agents’ success may not appropriately measure job performance in this context. csc agents’ job performance may not have been measured correctly, the criteria may not measure critical performance aspects in a csc context in the banking industry, and it may have been advisable to more intensively consider situational specificity (tett & burnett, 2003).significant levels of skewness and kurtosis were further reported for some of the performance criteria: self-development exhibited both excessive kurtosis (13.30) and skewness (-3.18), whilst the deliver a world-class service criterion and team participation exhibited excessive kurtosis (4.51 and 6.01 respectively). although kurtosis is sample size dependent, the excessive kurtosis and skewness could signal that the performance measures and the way evaluation is conducted require further investigation. limitations of the study since such a limited sample was used, findings may not be generalisable across the banking industry. the csc agents who participated in this study further comprised only one job family and, thus, generalising results beyond this population would be questionable.an implicit assumption in research using self-report surveys, as in the current study, is that respondents provide accurate responses. an inherent limitation of self-report surveys, however, is that this may not be the case. the possibility of bias in personality trait evaluation for both the opq32r and big five traits therefore always exists. the relatively small sample size (n = 89) and the possibility that the performance criteria could potentially be weak may further have influenced the analysis results. the cross-sectional research design limits the possibility of drawing conclusions about the causal nature of the relationships. because this study was exploratory in nature and involved only a purposive sample of participants (representing the target population from a particular banking group) the generalisation of findings to the broader banking industry may be limited. a final concern that presents in virtually all studies that investigate job performance as an outcome is the issue of range restriction. only a limited number of applicants will be appointed. as the entire population served as the sample, it was not possible to compare standard deviations within the sample against those of the normal population to correct the analysis for attenuation if needed. the absence of information on applicants that were not selected for a particular position tends to reduce the distribution and the identified effect sizes will probably be lower than population effect sizes. considering this trend, the correlations reported in this study may be attenuated (o’boyle, humphrey, pollack, hawver & story, 2011). recommendations for future research a number of areas for future research emanate from the present study. further investigation of personality traits (as measured by the opq32r) that may act as job performance predictors for csc agents in the banking industry appears warranted. it would, however, be advisable to employ larger sample sizes than in the current study.the measures of job performance in the current study mainly focused on task performance. a more holistic view of the job performance of csc agents in the banking industry in future research may result in a more nuanced understanding of the relations between their personality traits and job performance. penney et al.’s (2011) recommendation that the job criterion domain should be expanded to include internal and external service-oriented behaviour, as well as adaptive performance, may be particularly relevant in a service environment. it may be worthwhile investigating whether the degree of emotional labour or the duration of client relationships affect the validity of the big five traits in a csc context in the banking industry. the validity of personality traits in predicting job performance may not only be affected by the external work environment, but also by an individual’s other personality traits. investigating the interaction amongst traits instead of merely focusing on main effects may considerably improve the ability to predict job performance. penney et al. (2011) further recommend research investigating whether the personality composition of workgroups is related to other dimensions of individual and group performance. tett and burnett (2003) believe it to be commendable to apply the big five in classifying validities according to job and trait categories. situational specificity, however, may play a part in these categories. the nature of work situations and the psychological processes mediating trait-performance linkages therefore have to be considered in more depth. finally, since the expression of traits in job-related behaviour depends on situational cues, penney et al. (2011) recommend the development of a comprehensive taxonomy of situational factors that may impact on the personality-performance relationship (including the validity of the big five traits) in predicting job performance. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions l.b. (university of south africa) conducted this research in partial fulfilment of a mcom degree. l.m.u. (university of south africa) was the supervisor. both l.b. and l.m.u. wrote the article. references top ↑ adria, m., & chowdhury, s. (2004). centralization as a design consideration for the management of call centres. information and management, 41, 497–507. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0378-7206(03)00087-9barnes, p. (2001). people problems in call centres. management services, 45(7), 30–31. baron, h., hill, s., janman, k., & schmidt, s. (1997). customer contact manual and user’s guide. surrey, uk: shl. barrick, m.r., & mount, m.k. (1991). the big five personality dimensions and job performance: a meta-analysis. personnel psychology, 44, 1–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1991.tb00688.x barrick, m.r., mount, m.k., & judge, t.a. (2001). personality and performance at the beginning of the new millenium: what do we know and where do we go next? international journal of selection and assessment, 9, 9–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00160 bartram, d. (2005). the great eight competencies: a criterion-centric approach to validation. journal of applied psychology, 90 (6), 1185–1203. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.90.6.1185 bartram, d., & brown, a. (2005). five factor model (big five) opq32 report: opq32 technical manual supplement. thames ditton, surrey, uk: shl group. campbell, j.p. (1990). modelling the performance prediction problem in industrial and organizational psychology. in m.d. dunnette, & l.m. hough (eds.), handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (2nd edn.) (pp. 687–731). palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. dudley, n.m., orvis, k.a., lebiecki, j.e., & cortina, j.m. (2006). a meta-analytic investigation of conscientiousness in the prediction of job performance: examining the intercorrelations and the incremental validity of narrow traits. journal of applied psychology, 91, 40–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.1.40 fort, t.r. (2010). personality predictors of job performance: implicit association tests versus self-report measures. doctoral thesis, department of psychology, walden university, minneapolis, usa. haenlein, m., kaplan, a.m., & beeser, a.j. (2007). a model to determine customer lifetime value in a retail banking context. european management journal, 25 (3), 221–234. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2007.01.004 hogan, r., hogan, j., & roberts, b.w. (1996). personality measurement and employment decisions: questions and answers. american psychologist, 51, 469–477. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.51.5.469 huysamen, g.k. (2002). the relevance of the new apa standards for educational and psychological testing for employment testing in south africa. south african journal of psychology, 32 (2), 26–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/008124630203200203 janse van rensburg, y., boonzaier, b., & boonzaier, m. (2013). the job demands-resources model of work engagement in south african call centres. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11 (1), art. #484, 13 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.484 joubert, t., & venter, n. (2013). occupational personality questionnaire (opq). in s. laher, & k. cockcroft (eds.), psychological assessment in south africa: research and applications (pp. 277–291). johannesburg, south africa: wits university press. judge, t.a., heller, d., & mount, m.k. (2002). five-factor model of personality and job satisfaction: a meta-analysis. journal of applied psychology, 87, 530–541. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.3.530 judge, t.a., higgins, c.a., thoresen, c.j., & barrick, m.r. (1999). the big five personality traits, general mental ability, and career success across the life span. personnel psychology, 52 (3), 621–652. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1999.tb00174.x ladhari, r. (2009). assessment of the psychometric properties of servqual in the canadian banking industry. journal of financial services marketing, 14 (1), 70–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/fsm.2009.2 langley, s., fjalestad, e., fichtner, b., & hart, m. (2006). contact centre performance: in pursuit of first call resolution. management dynamics: journal of the southern african institute for management scientists, 15(4), 17–28. matthews, g., stanton, n., graham, n.c., & brimelow, c. (1990). a factor analysis of the scales of the occupational personality questionnaire. personality and individual differences, 11 (6), 591–596. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(90)90042-p mattila, a.s., & mount, d.j. (2003). the role of call centres in mollifying disgruntled guests. cornell hotel and restaurant administration quarterly, 44(4), 142–150. merchants. (2006). merchants global contact centre benchmarking summary report 2006. south africa: dimension data. moller, y., crous, f., & schepers, j.m. (2004). ’n ondersoek na die persoonlikheidseienskappe van inbelsentrumkonsultante [an investigation into the personality characteristics of call centre consultants]. south african journal of industrial psychology, 30(2), 74–84. motowidlo, s.j. (2003). job performance. in w. borman, d. ilgen, & r. klimoski (eds.), handbook of psychology 12 (pp. 39–53). hoboken, nj: john wiley and sons, inc. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/0471264385.wei1203 motowildo, s.j., borman, w.c., & schmit, m. (1997). a theory of individual differences in task and contextual performance. human performance, 10 (2), 71–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup1002_1 mount, m.k., barrick, m.r., & stewart, g.l. (1998). five-factor model of personality and performance in jobs involving interpersonal interactions. human performance, 11, 145–165. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08959285.1998.9668029 nel, h., & de villiers, w.s. (2004). the relationship between emotional intelligence and job performance in a call centre environment. south african journal of industrial psychology, 30(3), 75–81. nicholls, m., viviers, a.m., & visser, d. (2009). validation of a test battery for the selection of call centre operators in a communications company. south african journal of psychology, 39 (1), 19–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/008124630903900102 nyfield, g., gibbons, j.p., baron, h., & robertson, i. (1995). the cross-cultural validity of management assessment methods. surrey, uk: saville & holdsworth. o’boyle, e.h., humphrey, r.h., pollack, j.m., hawver, t.h., & story, p.a. (2011). the relation between emotional intelligence and job performance: a meta‐analysis. journal of organizational behaviour, 32 (5), 788–818. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.714 o’hara, a. (2001). how to develop a retention-orientated agent recruiting and selection process. in call centre recruiting and new hire training: the best of all call center management review (pp. 21–25). annapolis, md: call centre press. ones, d.s., dilchert, s., viswesvaran, c., & judge, t.a. (2007). in support of personality assessment in organizational settings. personnel psychology, 60 (4), 995–1027. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2007.00099.x penney, l.m., david, e., & witt, l.a. (2011). a review of personality and performance: identifying boundaries, contingencies, and future research directions. human resource management review, 21 (4), 297–310. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2010.10.005 rothstein, m.g., & goffin, r.d. (2006). the use of personality measures in personnel selection: what does current research support? human resource management review, 16 (2), 155−180. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2006.03.004 salgado, j.f. (1997). the five factor model of personality and job performance in the european community. journal of applied psychology, 82 (1), 30–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.82.1.30 salgado, j.f. (2003). predicting job performance using ffm and non-ffm personality measures. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 76 (3), 323–346. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317903769647201 sawyer, o.o., srinivas, s., & wang, s. (2009). call centre employee personality factors and service performance. journal of services marketing, 23 (5), 301–307. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/08876040910973413 shl. (2009). development and psychometric properties of opq32r. supplement to the opq32 technical manual. uk: shl group plc. shl. (2011). opq32r technical manual. thames ditton, uk: shl group plc. shl. (2013). opq32r technical manual. thames ditton, uk: shl group ltd. skyrme, p., wilkinson, l., abraham, j.d., & morrison, j.d. (2005). using personality to predict outbound call centre job performance. applied hrm research, 10(2), 89–98. subramaniam, l.v. (2008). call centres of the future. i.t. magazine, 48–51. retrieved may 29, 2011, from http://lvs004.googlepages.com/callcentres.pdf taylor, s. (1998). emotional labour and the new workplace. in p. thompson, & c. wurhurst (eds.), workplaces of the future (pp. 84–103). london, uk: macmillan. tett, r.p., & burnett, d.d. (2003). a personality trait-based interactionist model of job performance. journal of applied psychology, 88 (3), 500–517. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.3.500 tett, r.p., & christiansen, n.d. (2007). personality tests at the crossroads: a response to morgeson, campion, dipboye, hollenbeck, murphy, and schmitt (2007). personnel psychology, 60 (4), 967–993. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2007.00098.x van der linden, d., te nijenhuis, j., & bakker, a.b. (2010). the general factor of personality: a meta-analysis of big five intercorrelations and a criterion-related validity study. journal of research in personality, 44 (3), 315–327. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2010.03.003 visser, d., & du toit, j. (2004). using the occupational personality questionnaire (opq) for measuring broad traits. sa journal of industrial psychology, 30 (4). http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v30i4.176 visser, d., & viviers, r. (2010). construct equivalence of the opq32n for black and white people in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36 (1), 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.748 article information authors: zelna van niekerk1 john van der merwe2 affiliation: 1department of human resource management, university of south africa, south africa2department of training and development, north-west university, south africa correspondence to: zelna van niekerk postal address: po box 392, unisa 0003, south africa dates: received: 06 mar. 2012 accepted: 21 jan. 2013 published: 29 apr. 2013 how to cite this article: van niekerk, z., & van der merwe, j. (2013). participation opportunities for persons with disabilities in training interventions in the dti and cipro. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #466, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.466 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. participation opportunities for persons with disabilities in training interventions in the dti and cipro in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • problem statement       • key focus       • background to the study       • research purpose       • trends from the research literature       • research objectives of this study       • contribution to field       • what will follow    • literature review       • understanding disability       • the status of disability       • disability and training       • training and career advancement       • persons with disabilities per educational level • research design    • research approach    • research strategy    • research method       • research setting       • entrée and establishing researcher roles       • sampling       • data collection methods       • recording of data       • data analyses       • strategies employed to ensure quality data       • reporting • findings    • possibilities for career advancement    • accessibility    • equality    • training and development opportunities    • nominations    • training and development reports • ethical considerations • trustworthiness    • reliability    • validity • discussion    • career advancement    • accessibility    • equality    • opportunities for training and development    • the need for nominations    • training and development report evaluation    • practical implications    • limitations of the study    • suggestions for future research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors' contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: persons with disabilities (pwd) face daily barriers which often hinder them in fully participating in society or reaching their full potential. they often have little or no exposure to formal education and only are employed at entry-level positions. when employed, they are often not trained or developed.research purpose: the purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which pwd in a public service department were exposed to training and development opportunities valuable for career advancement. motivation for the study: the primary researcher is living with a disability and has not only experienced discrimination but has also witnessed it throughout her career in the public service. research design, approach and method: the researchers followed a qualitative research design using semi-structured interviews and document analysis. a non-probability, purposive sampling technique was used given the limited number of pwd employed and seven interviews were conducted in the organisations. main findings: the perceptions of the participants were that they were mainly exposed to repetitive, low-level training leading to little or no career advancement. a document analysis of the number of pwd trained and employees without disabilities trained, showed an unequal distribution. practical/managerial implications: the organisations need to address the unfairness through their policies, ensuring increased and equally valuable training and development opportunities for pwd. contribution/value-add: the findings of this study provide an understanding of the exposure of pwd to valuable training and development opportunities and show that inequality still exists and needs to be addressed. introduction top ↑ problem statement key focus i exhort all of you here today to see yourselves as pioneers who wear the cloak of audacity, not only to transform the public service, but to turn it into a powerful agent for development so that the people are able to access what is rightfully theirs and which for too long they were unjustly denied. (fraser-moleketi, 2008, p. 1)the main objectives of the above statement, issued by ms geraldine fraser-moleketi in her capacity as minister of the department public service and administration (dpsa), were to introduce a new era for persons with disability (pwd) in the south african context and to create opportunities for the public service to treat pwd as equal to those without disabilities. today, more than five years later, the question remains whether there have been any positive changes in this regard. background to the study the workplace should take every action to address the historical inequalities suffered by pwd as intended by the bill of rights (republic of south africa [rsa], 1996), which stresses equal treatment for all. equality should help pwd to become socially and economically independent and to reach self-actualisation (ngwena, 2004). according to the jobaccess strategic framework (department of public service and administration [dpsa], 2008a), pwd are one of the most disadvantaged groups in society, with less likelihood to obtain educational qualifications or to be employed. it also indicates that pwd face communication and transport barriers and are likely to have lower or no income and fewer financial resources than people without disabilities (pwod) (dpsa, 2008a). in addition to this, public attitudes to disability have a negative impact on pwd. this widespread ignorance, fear and stereotyping have caused unfair discrimination against pwd in society and a lack of employment, training and development opportunities for them (dpsa, 2008a).the world report on disability reiterates this for developing countries (world health organization [who], 2011), where pwd are not given equal opportunities in the educational sector or labour market. the united nations convention on the rights of pwd (united nations [un], 2008) states that these members of society all around the world are still denied equal participation which is a direct violation of their human rights. although this research project and article focused on the south african context, it is clear from the above that equal opportunities for pwd are still lacking all over the world. research purpose the purpose of this research study was to determine the extent to which pwd at the department of trade and industry (dti) and the companies and intellectual property registration office (cipro) were exposed to training and development opportunities and whether these interventions in any way prepared them for career advancement. it is important to assess whether the previous disadvantaged position of pwd is being addressed. the employment equity act (ee act) (act no. 55 of 1998) (rsa, 1998a) is intended to redress the disadvantages in employment experienced by designated groups, including pwd.the target for the employment of pwd in the public service was 2.00%, originally set by cabinet in the white paper on the transformation of the public service (rsa, 1995). according to research conducted in 2008 by the dpsa (2008b), pwd constituted only 0.16% of the total number of employees in the public service by december 2005. according to the 2010 annual report of the commission for employment equity (cee) (2012), the representation of pwd in the public service was 0.60% and in 2012 it was 0.80% for the whole labour force. this clearly shows that there has been very little progress towards meeting the 2.00% employment target. furthermore, the researchers also considered whether the training offered to pwd in the dti and cipro contributed to career advancement. vila, pallisera and fullana (2007) stressed the importance of skills and qualifications to integrate pwd into the workplace and improve their career advancement opportunities. trends from the research literature the handbook on reasonable accommodation for pwd in the public service (dpsa, 2007) specifies that departments should implement measures to ensure equitable representation of suitably qualified people from designated groups in all occupational categories, their retention and development as well as the implementation of appropriate training measures, in terms of the skills development act (act no. 97 of 1998) (rsa, 1998b). the services sector education and training authority (seta) (2006), in their training toolkit on the employment of pwd, mentioned that the development of pwd through learnerships or workplace mentoring and coaching, as well as accelerated training programmes that can make them eligible for promotion, should be seen as part of any organisation’s affirmative action interventions. research objectives of this study the general aim of the research was to determine to what extent the dti and cipro, as members of the public service, have been successful in offering equal and valuable training and development opportunities to pwd in their departments. at the time of the study in 2010, cipro was still an agency of the dti, but since 2011 it has been known as cipc, the companies and intellectual property commission, reporting to its own commissioner rather than the minister of the dpsa. although both the dti and cipro have successfully employed pwd, this article sheds more light on whether these pwd were equally exposed to training interventions, compared to their counterparts without disabilities, and therefore whether they were equally advanced in terms of skills development, as mentioned in the jobaccess strategic framework (dpsa, 2008a).the objectives of the research were to: • explore to what extend pwd employed by the dti and cipro perceive that they are equally advanced in terms of skills development when compared with pwod. • through document analysis, verify to what extent pwd were exposed to training interventions in the dti and cipro in comparison to pwod. • make recommendations to the management of the dti and cipro regarding the empowerment of pwd in terms of training and development opportunities when compared with pwod. contribution to field during this study, the lack of research regarding education, training and development (etd) of pwd was apparent. this study intended to add some insight into whether pwd are as equally exposed to training interventions as their non-disabled counterparts and therefore are as equally advanced in terms of skills development addressing their previously disadvantaged position. the researchers also hoped to create a greater interest in this research topic. future studies at other government departments and/or the private sector could provide an even better understanding of the extent to which pwd are exposed to training and development interventions. what will follow the article will subsequently look at the research approach, data collection and analysis techniques the researchers used during this study, followed by an examination of the data collected during the interviews with the voluntary participants in the dti and cipro and the findings made based on these data. these data and the analysis thereof lead to certain conclusions that were made and which will also be discussed later in the article. literature review understanding disability the united nations convention on the rights of pwd defines pwd as:… those who have long term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder their full and effective participation in society on equal basis with others. (un, 2008, p. 4) in south africa, the ee act (rsa, 1998a, p. 7) defines pwd as ‘people who have a long-term or recurring physical or mental impairment which substantially limits their prospects of entry into, or advancement in, employment’. ‘long-term’ denotes a recurrent impairment that lasts for more than 12 months and includes progressive conditions that develop, change or recur over a period of time (e.g. degenerative conditions such as multiple sclerosis). different types of impairments are classified in the act as disabilities, for example, ‘a physical impairment refers to a partial or total loss of a bodily function or part of the body’ (rsa, 1998a, p. 7) and it includes in its definition sensory impairments such as hearing or visual disabilities (rsa, 1998a). the second type is mental impairments, which are clinically recognised conditions affecting a person’s thought processes, judgement or emotions. the act’s definition indicates that these impairments must be substantially limiting in terms of a person’s ability to perform the essential functions of the job for which considered or employed (rsa, 1998a). therefore, pwd will not be able to perform all the usual core job functions and might need the workplace or the job function to be adapted to ensure full participation in the workplace. this is usually achieved through reasonable accommodation measures and disability management (department of labour [dol], 2003). however, in their report on disability equity in the public service, the public service commission (2008) found that defining disabilities in terms of ‘physical or mental impairments’ confused both employers and employees and failed to indicate when an impairment could be considered as substantially limiting. the definition included in the jobaccess strategy (dpsa, 2006) provides a more encompassing definition in an effort to provide a clearer understanding of ‘disability’. the definition states: the loss or elimination of opportunities to take part in the life of the community equitably with others that is encountered by people having physical, sensory, psychological, developmental, learning, neurological, or other impairments, which may be permanent, temporary or episodic in nature, thereby causing activity limitations and participation restriction with the mainstream society. these barriers may be due to economic, physical, social, attitudinal and/or cultural factors. (dpsa, 2006, p. 44) in addition to understanding the definition of disability, it is also important to understand the different types of disabilities. figure 1 provides an overview of the different categories of disabilities, which include physical, mental and sensory disabilities. the disabilities mentioned in figure 1 are however not exclusive. figure 1: categories of disabilities. the status of disability in order to determine the equal treatment of pwd in terms of training and development (perceived and substantiated), which forms part of the objectives of this study, it is important to consider the status of disability in south africa. the ee act (rsa, 1998a) mainly prohibits unfair discrimination in employment whilst introducing affirmative action. the act places specific emphasis on ensuring equity, the right to equal protection and benefit of the law, inter alia, for pwd (rsa, 1998a).kleynhans and kotzé (2010) indicate that the general negative attitude of managers towards pwd limits their opportunities for employment, career advancement and/or training. according to ngwena (2004), the treatment of pwd in the workplace raises difficult questions about how to secure full enjoyment of human dignity, equality and freedom for such a marginalised minority and it is suggested that all steps must be taken to curb this marginalisation. in the 2001 national census (statistics south africa [statssa], 2003), it was estimated that there were 2.25 million south africans living with disabilities. this figure represented 5.03% of the total south african population, decreasing from 5.03% to 4.00% in 2007 (statssa, 2007). to consider the more recent 2011 census statistics, the following should be noted: ‘questions on disability were replaced by general health and functioning questions. due to change in question, 2011 results are not comparable with previous censuses 1996 and 2001’ (statssa, 2012, p. ii). this is because the questions used in the 2011 census referred to persons with difficulty instead of disability, as per suggestions by the washington group (wg). the 2011 census report mentions that: many countries that adopted the wg questions believe that this approach of measuring disability provides adequate estimates compared to the traditional approach where only severe disabilities are measured, leading to underestimation of pwd. (statssa, 2012, p. 39) therefore the latest census results only indicate that more than 90% of south africans experienced no difficulty in conducting their daily functions. in the 2010 annual report of the cee (2010a), the acting chairperson, ms mpho nkeli, indicated that with reference to all designated groups, very little progress had been made in the labour force which could lead to young, qualified people still not finding suitable employment. this emphasises the slow transformation in this particular area and reinforces the fact that south africa still has a long way to go in terms of affirmative action involving all designated groups, including pwd. disability and training according to the disability in the workplace: company practices report compiled by the international labour organization (ilo):pwd represent an untapped source of skills and talent, including technical skills if they have access to training, and transferable problem‐solving skills developed in daily life. people who develop disabilities while working often have valuable skills and experiences learned on the job, in addition to their formal skills qualifications. (ilo, 2010, p. 1) this stresses the importance of developing pwd which can be very valuable in organisations. for this research project, it was important to review available research about the relationship between pwd and the extent to which they were exposed to training and development opportunities, as well as the perceptions and relevant documented proof that exist. according to the promotion of equality and prevention of unfair discrimination act (act no. 4 of 2000) (rsa, 2000): … no person may unfairly discriminate, directly or indirectly, against an employee in any employment policy or practice, on one or more grounds including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, family responsibility, ethnic or social origin, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, hiv status, conscience, belief, political opinion, culture, language or birth. (rsa, 2000, p.8) therefore, discriminating against pwd in terms of etd is clearly in contravention of the abovementioned act. the services seta toolkit (2006) views intentionally denying pwd equal access to training and career advancement as direct discrimination. kleynhans and kotze (2010) state that organisations and managers often avoid the training of pwd as they feel there will be disproportionally high costs associated with the training of these employees. however, they found that in reality this cost is often minimal and therefore managers should reconsider their negative attitudes. the national skills development strategy iii (nsds iii) (department for higher education and training [dhet], 2010) reports the following on the progress regarding the development of pwd: despite commitments from nsds i and ii to increase opportunities for training and skills development for pwd, we are still far from achieving our goals in this regard. therefore, nsds iii aims to significantly open up opportunities for skills training for people experiencing barriers to employment caused by various forms of physical and intellectual disability. (dhet, 2010, p. 8) cassim (2005) stresses that although south africa has considerable legislation, including the ee act (rsa, 1998a) and the skills development act (rsa, 1998b), in place to ensure that more pwd receive employment as well as training and development, progress in both the public and private sector in south africa remains unsatisfactory. the perception that exists with regards to pwd being less skilled and qualified is also reflected in the cee annual report for 2010 (cee, 2010b) when 24 608 of the 38 781 pwd in the south african labour market were at the semi-skilled and unskilled levels. in 2012 we found a positive trend in this regard, as not only did the numbers of pwd increase to 40 550, but 16 130 pwd against the 14 173 of 2010 were now skilled (cee, 2012). training and career advancement the nsds iii stresses that:this strategy represents an explicit commitment to encouraging linking of skills development to career paths, career development and promoting sustainable employment and in-work progression. (dhet, 2010, p. 5) pwd must be able to make inputs on their career advancement possibilities. according to the technical assistance guidelines on the employment of pwd (dol, 2003), decisions need to be made on where the pwd are and where they anticipate going with their career, as well how they will get there. this plan should also identify the training the employee will need in order to reach these career goals. as part of the implementation of this career plan, all effort must be made to ensure that the training facilities and material will be accessible and suitable for pwd. according to vila et al. (2007), the training institutions, as well as how these facilities influence the training of pwd, must be considered, as this influences the career and work life development of pwd. engelbrecht (2010) states that employers who commit themselves to career advancement of pwd and develop strategies to this effect will become employers of choice for pwd. just as pwod want job satisfaction and the chance to have a career with opportunities to advance, pwd have the same needs (lengnick-hall, gaunt & kulkarni, 2008). persons with disabilities per educational level the world report on disability (who, 2011) reported statistics which were collected during a 2002 – 2004 survey conducted in 51 countries. in all categories, in both low-income and high-income countries, pwd completing primary school were around 10% lower than their non-disabled counterparts (as shown in table 1). table 1: education outcomes for disabled and not-disabled respondents in 2002–2004. the 2001 census (statssa, 2003) found that 10.5% of pwd had no education, 3.9% had completed secondary school and 3.0% of pwd graduated from tertiary institutions in 2001. according to crous (2004), who conducted a survey amongst 751 students at three south african universities, only 0.5% of the students enrolled at these universities had impairments. it follows that increasingly more south africans with disabilities are left to find employment with low levels of education. when the primary researcher looked at the educational status of pwd in other countries, she found that in a study by hergenrather, rhodes, turner and barlouw (2008), in which the respondents were 577 americans with disability, 32.9% had a high school diploma. in 2006 in canada, 24.5% of pwd had a high school education (statistics canada, 2006). education directly influences the chances of employment, advancement and training of pwd. in the 10th annual cee report (2010a), the commission indicated that although there was some representation of pwd at all occupational levels, the majority of these employees were still employed at the lower levels, with only 17.5% of all employed pwd being employed as middle and senior management. research design top ↑ in this study, the data collected had to be interpreted in a manner that would add to the understanding of the training and development opportunities received by the pwd in the dti and cipro. the researchers decided to follow a qualitative research approach. as stated by leedy and ormrod (2005), the purpose of qualitative research is to obtain a better understanding of a phenomenon or situation. therefore, it was considered the most suitable approach to explore the experiences, perceptions and feelings of pwd in the dti and cipro regarding training and development opportunities offered to them. research approach an interactive approach was followed to collect the qualitative data in this project through one-on-one semi-structured interviews with voluntary participants. the departmental workplace skills plans (wsps) and annual training reports (atrs) for 2009 and 2010 were also collected for analysis in an attempt to verify the data collected during the interviews. research strategy as part of a qualitative research approach, the researchers used a case study method where a single case (the dti and its agency cipro) were used to study how pwd perceive their training and development opportunities and then, in an effort to support or negate the perceptions of the case study participants, document analyses of official departmental reports were conducted. as an output of the case study, the researchers then made recommendations to the relevant managers on the research findings. a case study, according to leedy and ormrod (2005), is an in-depth qualitative study of a single event or case to create a better understanding of it. therefore the researchers found this to be a suitable methodology to understand the training and development opportunities of the pwd in this case better. research method research setting qualitative data were collected through seven individual semi-structured interviews with employees with declared disabilities in accordance with the ee act (rsa, 1998a) in the organisations. all employees with declared disabilities were identified by the disability managers in the organisations and then had the choice to participate in the study. the interviews were conducted on the same day at the dti campus and lasted between 30 minutes and 45 minutes. interviews were used in an attempt to gather first-hand data whilst ensuring confidentiality in a safe environment where interviewees could be honest and at ease. participation was voluntary, participants were informed that they could withdraw from the project at any time and they completed the consent form accordingly.the wsps and atrs compiled by the two offices, in line with requirements of the public service sectoral education and training authority (pseta), were sourced as official annual training statistics in an effort to support or negate the data collected during the interviews. entrée and establishing researcher roles initially, the primary researcher applied for permission to conduct the research in five different public service national departments, but only received feedback and consequent permission from the director general of the dti to conduct the research. next, the primary researcher contacted the disability managers at these two offices in order to make contact with the employees with declared disabilities through an introduction letter, after which written consent was obtained from those employees willing to participate. finally, the reports used during the document analysis (wsps and atrs) were requested from pseta. sampling non-probability, purposive sampling was used in the study. given the limited number of pwd formally employed, and the fact that the study focused only on the dti and cipro, as mentioned above, the primary researcher contacted the persons with declared disabilities, in terms of the ee act definition (rsa, 1998a), in these organisations with the help of the relevant disability managers and an introduction letter. the final research sample consisted of seven participants with disabilities employed by either the national office of the dti (four employees) or cipro (three employees) (table 2). table 2: demographical information of study participants. data collection methods data were collected through individual, semi-structured interviews personally conducted by the primary researcher. this afforded the researcher the opportunity to interact directly with the participants, to put them at ease, build trust and prompt participants in order to collect as much information as possible. the statistics reflected in the relevant departmental wsps, atrs and employment equity statistics for both the dti and cipro were analysed to determine to what extent the proposed training for pwd has been achieved. the wsps reflect the proposed training for a financial year, whilst the atrs reflect the actual training conducted.the following questions were included in the qualitative interview questionnaire: 1. to what extend do you believe does the dti or cipro support the development of pwd? 2. have you attended any training courses in the past financial year? 3. did you ask to attend this course or did your manager nominate you for the course? 4. was the course you attended applicable to your work or do you feel that it made you a better employee for the dti or cipro? 5. how long have you been in the public service? 6. have you been in the dti or cipro for the whole period or have you been in other public service departments also? 7. in your service record with the dti or cipro have you ever been promoted? 8. how do you feel about the dti’s or cipro’s approach to pwd in the general workplace? 9. do you think the dti or cipro treat pwd differently or do you think they give these employees equal opportunities? the questions focused whether the pwd attended work-related training (questions 2 and 4), whether the training contributed to their career management (nomination) (question 3) and career advancement (questions 5–7) and on determining whether the participants experienced equal developmental and workplace opportunities (questions 1, 8 and 9). the literature review included, but was not limited to, academic books and scientific journal articles, policy documents, legislation and additional departmental documents reflecting relevant statistical training data. the analysis of the relevant wsps and atrs provided information on the number of pwd that took part in training and development interventions in the dti and cipro. recording of data all the interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim for future referral and the primary researcher also observed the participants during the interviews and made field notes for referral purposes. data analyses the researchers considered the various data analysis methods and decided that grounded theory and content analysis would be the most suitable for this study. although content analysis also played a big role in the data collected during the individual interviews, the researcher focused more on the grounded theory approach. ratcliff (2002) proposed the identification of indicators of categories in events and behaviour which are then named and coded. this helped the researchers to compare the codes in order to find consistencies and differences; the consistencies were used to identify different categories. these categories became saturated when no new codes related to the specific category could be found. in this research study, the researchers identified similarities and consequent categories and themes that became apparent during the individual interviews with the pwd. the researchers then studied these themes and categories to create a better understanding of issues related to training and development of pwd. this coding process helped the researchers to identify similar feelings and themes from the responses of the participants. these themes formed the basis for the findings that are discussed later.as mentioned above, the researchers also used content analysis in this study. stemler (2001, p. 1) defines content analysis as ‘a systematic, replicable technique for compressing many words of text into fewer content categories based on explicit rules of coding’. this entails working through large amounts of data and extracting meaning from them by grouping and interpreting the information. in this study, content analysis was used not only during the literature review but also in analysing the departmental solicited documents, where large amounts of data and statistics were analysed. firstly, the data reflected in the 2009 and 2010 atrs were compared with the planned training reflected in the relevant wsps of both the dti and cipro. the primary researcher then compared her findings based on the document analysis to those made from the individual interviews to support or negate the perceptions of the interviewed participants. this was part of the process of triangulation used by the researchers to verify the different findings. stemler (2001) states that triangulation increases the credibility of a study and its findings because multiple sources of data, methods, investigators or theories are used to verify the data and subsequent research findings. strategies employed to ensure quality data in addition to the triangulation method described above, the primary researcher ensured quality data were obtained by conducting the interviews in a conference room on the dti premises, albeit separate from the general office buildings. the venue was easily accessible to all participants but also chosen in an effort not to jeopardise the anonymity of the participants at any time. to improve the quality of the analysed primary data during the coding process, the data were coded by the primary researcher as well as a co-coder, who identified areas (themes) of common interest in the interviews. the quality of the solicited documents were not under the influence of the researchers, but, to ensure the best possible quality, the statistics used were of legally required documents sourced after departmental sign-off and official submission to the pseta. reporting the findings are reported in terms of the themes identified supported by verbatim examples of participant responses. a table (see table 3), summarising the relevant information from the wsps and atrs, is provided in order to easily compare it with the finding of the participant interviews. a short discussion of the compared findings of the interviews and document analysis follows, to report whether the statistics supported or negated the participant experiences. table 3: training statistics for the department of trade and industry and the companies and intellectual property registration office (2009–2010). findings top ↑ career advancement, accessibility, equality, training and development opportunities and the training nominations were identified as general themes, which, along with the document analysis findings, are discussed in this section. the themes address the aim of the study and were common in the responses of participants. the accessibility theme was identified additionally, as it was a general theme that was mentioned by all participants in different questions during the interviews. possibilities for career advancement although the majority of the participants were promoted during their career in the public service, it was clear from their reactions that it was not always a positive and motivating experience. a participant explained this paradox as follows: ‘… he [my manager] was not willing to promote me because he thought i would not manage to work properly […] he was not really, ehh, happy before but then eventually i got promoted.’ (participant 5, female, physical disability) another participant stated: ‘the fear is the moment that they develop you, then there is a question of losing you or that it places you in a position that they can maybe not even afford; it’s not due to monetary restraints; it’s the keeping me down, the pulling down syndrome.‘ (participant 4, male, physical disability) furthermore, one of the participants indicated that he experienced problems with his automatic rank promotion, which was general practice in the public service before 2001: ‘rank promotion […] so after four years you automatically qualify. which i did not, apparently to them at that stage. they did reimburse me about five or six years back pay at a later stage.’ (participant 1, male, physical disability) accessibility when considering accessibility to training courses, there were a few positive responses from the participants, for example:‘so far, so good. i didn’t experience any problem; whatever […] i ask for i get […] assistance.’ (participant 5, female, physical disability) ‘i can see that there [are] people that need more help. fortunately, from my side, i don’t think there’s too much things that i need for them to support me, but some do.’ (participant 2, male, sensory disability) however, this experience was not shared by all. one participant, for example, expressed the following misgivings: ‘yes, they provide training to dti employees. the only problem for me i can say is that even though on their forms they say identify if you need something for your disability but when you go there and attend the training they don’t make sure they accommodate [you].’ (participant 7, female, sensory disability) and another participant responded with the following: ‘i don’t know if people with disabilities will ever be respected as part of the society and especially in cipro. even in training the idea of making special arrangements to accommodate pwd just seems too much and they [would] rather not nominate you than take the responsibility to accommodate you.’ (participant 4, male, physical disability) concerns were raised regarding the general accessibility of the dti and cipro offices where in-service training and some formal training takes place. a participant shared the following experience: ‘ek sukkel om deure oop en toe te kry, want ons het vreeslike deure wat vreeslik moeilik oop en toe maak, dis swaar deure […] veral as jy iets vashou, en jy moet dan nog iets doen en jy moet ’n kaart “swipe” en die deur oopmaak, ek kan nie dit doen nie. [i have difficulty opening and closing doors due to the heavy doors that open and close with difficulty, they are heavy doors […] especially if you are carrying something and have to do something else and also scan your card and open the door, i can’t do this.]’ (participant 6, female, physical disability) equality there were some positive responses regarding equality in the dti. one participant stated:‘the dti is doing by all means [everything in its power] to accommodate everyone and not because they want to reach their number, but because of my qualification and the input and the experience that i can provide for the department as compared to other departments.’ (participant 7, female, sensory disability) another participant’s response regarding equality was: ‘ek dink hulle gee gelyke kanse vir almal. [i think they provide equal opportunities for all.]’ (participant 6, female, physical disability) however, there were also negative responses. a participant referred to inequality between different public service departments: ‘why do you not give that person this support? but i feel like someone who’s not in that situation [and] does not know what the issues are, i feel like, i feel like it needs to change.’ (participant 2, male, sensory disability) whilst other participants observed: ‘i’ve seen many pwd because we differ with disabilities, so i must say they were undermined most of the time, and they were not recognised and they will say this is not for them, this is for us.’ (participant 3, male, physical disability) ‘[once] we had a person in a wheelchair that the building was inaccessible to him; we had sort of a fight and a semi arrangement but ahh, not a real solution.’ (participant 1, male, physical disability) concerns relating to employment were also raised: ‘another thing is like you find that even the employment of the disabled people is […] is still very low.’ (participant 2, male, sensory disability) ‘… the enforcement of the employment equity act as by the department of labour, i see it as a, some kind of a, let me say askew. it’s just letting people know that it does exist but the actual implementation of it, this is including the act, is not happening, therefore in whatever level or whatever way, if there could be anyway where this people can be conscientised that these persons with disability are real people and these people need real attention including skills, eh, including their development, then i think that will be best.’ (participant 4, male, physical disability) training and development opportunities with reference to the training and development opportunities provided, a participant stated:‘… they are trying, they are really trying, it’s just that i don’t think that they know exactly, they are still not organised to prioritise persons with disability, but they are still trying.’ (participant 5, female, physical disability) other participants made the following positive remarks: ‘i attended a number of good training [sessions …] since i joined cipro, i got training. i got the skills i need.’ (participant 2, male, sensory disability) ‘ja ek word gestuur op training so ek het nie wat training aanbetref ’n probleem nie. [yes, i get sent on training and therefore i do not have a problem as far as training is concerned.]’ (participant 6, female, physical disability, [authors’ own translation]) a participant commented on improvement in terms of training: ‘for the past 10 years or so there was no support given to persons with disability. only now recently [have] they started giving support […] for the past two years there is support for persons with disability.’ (participant 3, male, physical disability) other participants expressed concern that, when training is requested, it is perceived as irrelevant to the employee’s position and that managers become oversensitive if he or she persists with the request: ‘… but like i say, what they normally say is that they are not relevant to your position. and then they become tender.’ (participant 4, male, physical disability) ‘indeed there was courses [sic] interested, and that is why i say it is window dressing. i’ve been fighting with management for the past year, 2 years to put me on a emdp course and they eventually did and i’m now busy with it […] as a result of my persistence and not due to their perception that i am going to be a good leader in the next 5 to 10 years.’ (participant 1, male, physical disability) there were the following frustrations expressed by some participants: ‘… while i am here at cipro, my job is only specialising on one component of it which, maybe you focus on 2% of what you’re supposed to do and the 90% on whatever. in the end it’s a little frustrating if you do so much for something and in the end you cannot perform it.’ (participant 2, male, sensory disability) ‘not specifically, most of the things i’ve learned were basically general knowledge to me.’ (participant 1, male, physical disability) as well as: ‘nowadays you know that a person needs to be computer literate to fit into, eh, to fit into the developments of technological advancement but if you keep on doing [an] entry course, entry course all the way it does not serve a purpose.’ (participant 4, male, physical disability) nominations two participants felt that they only attended training by pressurising management. participant 7 stated that training followed ‘out of my own request’ and participant 1 indicated attendance was ‘a result of my persistence’. another identified the needs as part of the public service performance management and development system (pmds), in line with their performance gaps and career aspirations:‘… in terms of our personal development we need to identify the courses that we need, […] so most of the courses i do i choose myself, but then it’s up to my manager to approve it or not.’ (participant 7, female, sensory disability) training and development reports as stated, the researchers conducted a literature review and also made deductions from statistical training data collected. this analysis stated the number of pwd that took part in training and development interventions in the dti and cipro and served to verify the deductions made from the data collected during the semi-structured interviews with the participants. comparing the atrs with the relevant wsps also revealed to what extent the proposed training for pwd had been achieved. table 3 presents a summary of the statistics reflected in the 2009 and 2010 wsps and atrs for both the dti and cipro. from the data in table 3, it is clear that, in 2009, both the dti and cipro trained more pwd than they had planned. in 2010, cipro trained the same number of pwd as planned, whilst the dti trained none of the 21 pwd planned for and employed by them in 2010. the reports analysed did not reflect what training was given or why a certain group was not trained. this contradicts the comments from participants that the dti train pwd, whilst those in cipro felt they received fewer opportunities: ‘yes they provide training to dti employees. the only problem for me i can say is that even though on their forms they say identify if you need something for your disability but when you go there and attend the training they don’t make sure they accommodate.’ (participant 7, female, sensory disability) ‘the fear is the moment that they develop you then there is a question of losing you or that it places you in a position that they can maybe not even afford, it’s not due to monetary restraints, it’s the keeping me down, the pulling down syndrome.’ (participant 4, male, physical disability) the analysed data from the wsp and atr therefore do not tally with the comments made by the participants regarding the issue of not being exposed to equal training opportunities. more of the dti participants indicated that, in their experience, the dti exposed them to training equal to that of their able-bodied collegues. however, this was not always reflected in the atr. in the 2009 atr (dti, 2009) it was indicated that six pwd received training. although this figure was higher than the planned one employee with a disability, it was still a very small percentage compared to the staff complement of 1079 employees. the 2010 atr (dti, 2010) showed that no pwd employed by the dti had received any training compared to the 21 pwd they planned to train in this period according to their wsp. for cipro, the 2009 atr (cipro, 2009) reflected that five pwd were trained, compared to the two that were planned for 2009. in 2010, the atr (cipro, 2010) reflected that two of the pwd were trained in line with the two planned for that year; however, this still only represented 0.40% of the full staff complement (502 employees). the number of pwd grew from eight in 2009 to 11 in 2010, but only two of them received training in 2009. ethical considerations top ↑ the primary researcher applied for ethical approval to conduct the study from the north-west university and also obtained approval from the director general of the dti to conduct the research there. furthermore, she wrote an introductory letter explaining the aims, methods and reporting of the study to all relevant employees and subsequently obtained informed consent forms from them indicating their willingness to participate. the primary researcher attempted, at all times, to respect the participants, allowing them to expand on their answers as they saw fit and adhering to their right to make their own choices in whether they would participate in the project by giving them an opportunity to withdraw at any time (national commission for the protection of human subjects of biomedical and behavioral research, 1978). neither the primary researcher nor any of the participants received any financial benefits for this study. trustworthiness top ↑ reliability during the data analysis, the primary researcher had to substantiate the coding of certain words or concepts and therefore clear rules had to be developed, ensuring that she, and other researchers afterwards, code exactly as intended. the primary researcher had to guard against subjectivity when setting these rules and it was important to ensure that specific themes were identified; otherwise it could damage the credibility of the research study. to counter this, the primary researcher involved a co-coder to ensure that the same themes were seen as the most common. during the coding process, specific words (manifest coding) were counted, such as ‘discrimination’, ‘equality’, ‘sensitisation’, et cetera, and the implied meanings of what participants say (latent coding) were also considered. the latter was important because, although the participants were fluent in english, it was not be their first language, which influenced how they expressed themselves. validity in this research study, validity was ensured by interviewing the candidates individually in the same environment. although all interviews were conducted on the dti campus, they were not conducted in the normal day-to-day office space of the participants. rather, an interview room on the campus, accessible to all participants and conducive to the interviews (quiet, comfortable, non-threatening environment), was used. the interviews were also conducted anonymously in order to encourage open and truthful responses. the validity of the data analysis process was ensured by verifying the responses of the interviews with information gathered during the literature and document review and by using a co-coder during the coding process. discussion top ↑ in essence, the importance of this study was to determine whether pwd are indeed treated equally when looking at training and development opportunities. in an effort to attain this, three objectives were identified, as described in the ‘research objectives of this study’ subsection of the ‘introduction’. the following discussion points were drawn from those objectives and the above findings. career advancement these responses show that, according to the participants, they experienced problems during their attempts to get promoted. these problems were the result of the perceptions or attitudes of others towards their ability or potential to advance to the next level. this confirms lagadien’s (1993) findings that the attitudes of others are the main barrier to pwd and from the participant responses it is still evident today. if society has an open mind towards pwd and refrained from stereotyping them, many of the other barriers they face would not exist, because the decision-makers would consider their needs when drawing up policies and legislation. this was again confirmed by kleynhans and kotze (2010), who indicate that negative attitudes often keep pwd from promotion opportunities, which was clear in the interview with participant 5. accessibility in research by thomas (2006), it was found that disability is the ee aspect for which there has been the least progress in south africa – little has been accomplished to make structures and buildings more accessible or to understand the needs of pwd better. this is confirmed by the remarks of the research participants who experience physical challenges in the buildings, as well as the accessibility of training material to participant 7. equality two participants indicated that they think the organisations are trying to ensure equality and engelbrecht (2010) supports this, stressing that a lot of companies do accommodate pwd as equally as possible, whilst benefiting from these employees’ skills and abilities. however, it is the view of the participants – as evidenced by the five negative responses in this regard – that either the training, employment, or the physical workplace of pwd are still not ‘equal’. cassim (2005) states that ensuring equality and democracy in the workplace is dependent on providing equal training and development, career advancement, retaining pwd and ensuring a generally healthy work environment for all employees. opportunities for training and development the majority of the participants indicated that they were exposed to training and development opportunities; however, five negative responses indicated that the training offered was either not applicable to their work, functioned merely as ‘window-dressing’ or was seen as repetitive, low-level training. ngwena (2004) reiterates this by observing that the stereotyping of pwd by employers who consider them incompetent, as well as their low levels of education and skills development, hinder their entrance into, and growth within, the labour market. therefore, developing people only through low-level, repetitive training, for example, will serve no purpose in preparing them for better careers. the need for nominations participants felt they were only given the opportunity to attend career-orientated training through their own persistence, or if the need was identified as part of the pmds process. engelbrecht (2010) stressed that organisations will only become employers of choice for pwd if they provide training that contributes to the career advancement of pwd. whilst kleynhans and kotze (2010) confer that managers are hesitant to nominate pwd for training because it is seen as coming at a higher financial cost. training and development report evaluation from the interview data collected, as well as the statistics used during the document review, it is clear that, although the dti and cipro are taking steps to employ more pwd and, especially the dti, are taking focused steps to accommodate the needs of their pwd, both departments can improve their attempts to equally develop their pwd. their present treatment not only limits their career advancement opportunities but, as is clear from their employment levels, their disadvantaged position is not being improved, by virtue of the discrimination they suffered in the past.thus, it was found that, compared with the employees without disabilities, the pwd in the two organisations are not equally exposed to etd interventions, especially those interventions that can lead to career advancement. the skills development targets as envisaged by the jobaccess strategic framework (dpsa, 2008a) and the white paper on affirmative action (rsa, 1998c) were therefore not met. practical implications in the interest of ensuring equal participation opportunities for pwd in the training interventions offered by the dti and cipro, it is recommended that both ensure that all supervisors and managers undergo disability sensitisation and management training. their policies and especially recruitment and training practices have to be updated in order to prevent discrimination on the grounds of disability. furthermore, the policies and employment equity plans should include active measures and targets to ensure the employment and development of pwd through training and development interventions. pwd should be nominated for training related to their work, as well as for training that can lead to career advancement, for example, supervisory or management training.it is also recommended that pwd receive fair representation during the compilation of the wsp and the planning for training interventions. a good guideline may be to ensure that at least 2% of the planned training will involve pwd, in line with the 2% employment target set by government. limitations of the study the small sample of participants as a result of the limited numbers of pwd employed in south africa – only 0.6% of the formal labour force in 2010 (cee, 2010a) – and the fact that the study was only conducted in the dti and cipro, complicates the generalisation of the findings of this study. future studies that extend to other government departments or the private sector could provide a better understanding of the extent to which pwd are exposed to training and development opportunities. suggestions for future research according to the world bank (2012), in sub-saharan africa it was found that for social issues, and especially the alleviation of poverty of pwd, research is very limited, clearly stressing the need for research in this field. future studies on the equal treatment of pwd will contribute to this research field which needs more exposure. similar studies in other government departments and the private sector can contribute valuable information on the equal treatment of pwd and identify areas for improvement. research into the types and levels of courses attended by pwd can also provide information to managers to plan better for appropriate training, which could lead to higher levels of performance and career advancement. conclusion from the above discussion, it was clear that pwd still experience problems with attending training and getting promoted as a result of the prejudiced mindset of managers towards pwd and their potential to be successful in more senior positions. the participants also experienced discrimination from colleagues and felt that other staff members have to be sensitised on issues of disability to understand it better. concerns on the implementation and enforcement of the ee act (rsa, 1998a) in terms of reasonable accommodation and the employment of pwd were also raised.whilst some participants indicated that training and development opportunities were offered, they had negative perceptions of these opportunities as they felt that they were low-level courses or that they did not teach them any new skills. these participants felt that those opportunities offered to them contributed little to their career advancement, possible promotion or career growth. furthermore, they mentioned that during training sessions, facilitators and other participants were not sensitised to pwd and that their special needs were not accommodated. in 2011, during his state of the nation address, president zuma (2011) declared 2011 ‘a year of job creation through meaningful economic transformation and inclusive growth’. one can only hope that this will also lead to higher levels of employment and growth for pwd in the future and provide an end to the marginalisation of this group of our population in the democratic south africa, awarding equal human rights and opportunities to all. acknowledgements top ↑ the authors wish to thank the dti and cipro for allowing the researcher to conduct this project at their offices. the authors acknowledge the valuable comments of two anonymous referees on an earlier draft. all remaining errors remain the sole responsibility of the authors. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions j.v.d.m. (north-west university) supervised z.v.n. (north-west university), who conducted this project as part of her magister educationis in training and development dissertation. z.v.n. was responsible for the research design and the collection of the data, whilst j.v.d.m. made further conceptual contributions to the analysis. all authors contributed to writing the dissertation. references top ↑ cassim, k. (2005, 18 april). addressing the disability issue at work. the star, p. 3.commission for employment equity. (2010a). annual report: part 1. pretoria: government printer. commission for employment equity. (2010b). annual report: part 2. pretoria: government printer. commission for employment equity. (2012). annual report. pretoria: government printer. companies and intellectual property registration office. (2009). workplace skills plan and annual training report. pretoria: cipro. companies and intellectual property registration office. (2010). workplace skills plan and annual training report. pretoria: cipro. crous, f. (2004). the social needs and problems of higher education students with impairments. acta academica, 36(2), 200–220. department of higher education and training. (2010). national skills development strategy iii. pretoria: dhet. department of labour. (2003). technical assistance guidelines on the employment of pwd. pretoria: dol. department of public service and administration. (2006). jobaccess 2006–2010: one strategy, different paths. pretoria: dpsa. department of public service and administration. (2007). handbook on reasonable accommodation for pwd in the public service. pretoria: dpsa. department of public service and administration. (2008a). jobaccess strategic framework on the recruitment, employment and retention of pwd in the public service. pretoria: dpsa. department of public service and administration. (2008b). jobaccess implementation guidelines and plan on recruitment, employment and retention of pwd. pretoria: dpsa. department of trade and industry. (2009). workplace skills plan and annual training report. pretoria: the dti. department of trade and industry. (2010). workplace skills plan and annual training report. pretoria: the dti. engelbrecht, a. (2010). disabled employees: reasonable accommodation in the workplace. enterprise risk, february, 25. fraser-moleketi, g.j. (2008). foreword. in department of public service and administration, jobaccess strategic framework on the recruitment, employment and retention of pwd in the public service, (pp. 1–2). pretoria: dpsa. hergenrather, k.c., rhodes, s.d., turner, a.p., & barlouw j. (2008). pwd and employment: application of the self-efficacy of job-seeking skills scale. journal of rehabilitation, 74(3), 34–44. international labour organization. (2010). disability in the workplace: company practice. working paper no. 3. geneva: international labour organization printing offices. kleynhans, r., & kotzé, m. (2010). managers’ and employees’ attitudes towards people with physical disabilities in the workplace. tydskrif vir geesteswetenskappe, 50(3), 404–417lagadien, f. (1993). the power of potential of people with disabilities. retrieved march 22, 2011 from http://www.independentliving.org/docs4/lagadien.html leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2005). practical research: planning and design. (8th edn.). upper saddle river: pearson. pmcid:1895012 lengnick-hall, m.l., gaunt, p.m., & kulkarni, m. (2008). overlooked and underutilized: pwd are an untapped human resource. human resource management, 47(2), 255–273. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20211 national commission for the protection of human subjects of biomedical and behavioral research. (1978). belmont report: ethical principles and guidelines for the protection of human subjects of research. washington, d.c.: national institutes of health. ngwena, c. (2004). equality for pwd in the workplace: an overview of the emergence of disability as a human rights issue. journal for juridical science, 29(2), 167–197. ratcliff, d. (2002). qualitative data analysis and transforming moment. transformation, 25(2), 116–133. republic of south africa. (1995). white paper on the transformation of the public service. pretoria: government printer. republic of south africa. (1996). the constitution of the republic of south africa (act no. 108 of 1996). pretoria: government printer. republic of south africa. (1998a). the employment equity act (act no. 55 of 1998). pretoria: government printer. republic of south africa. (1998b). the skills development act (act no. 97 of 1998). pretoria: government printer. republic of south africa. (1998c). white paper on affirmative action. pretoria: government printer. republic of south africa. (2000). the promotion of equality and prevention of unfair discrimination act (act no. 4 of 2000). pretoria: government printer. services sector education and training authority. (2006). employing and managing pwd. parktown: services seta. statistics canada. (2006). participation and activity limitation survey 2006: analytical report. retrieved june 15, 2010, from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-628-x/89-628-x2007002-eng.htm statistics south africa. (2003). 2001 national census report. pretoria: statssa. statistics south africa. (2007). community survey report. pretoria: statssa. statistics south africa. (2012). 2011 national census report. pretoria: statssa. stemler, s. (2001). an overview of content analysis. practical assessment, research & evaluation, 7(17), 137–146. thomas, d.r. (2006). a general inductive approach for analysing qualitative evaluation data. american journal of evaluation, 27(6), 237–246. united nations. (2008). united nations convention on the rights of pwd. new york: un. vila, m., pallisera, m., & fullana, j. (2007). work integration of pwd in the regular labour market: what can we do to improve these processes? journal of intellectual & developmental disability, 32(1), 10–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13668250701196807, pmid:17365363 world bank. (2012). disability in africa region. retrieved march, 28, 2012, from http://web.worldbank.org/wbsite/external/topics/extsocialprotection/extdisability/0,,contentmdk:20183406~menupk: 417328~pagepk:148956~pipk:216618~thesitepk:282699,00.html world health organization. (2011). world report on disability. geneva: who library cataloguing in publication data. zuma, j. (2011). press release: state of the nation address. pretoria: government printer. article information authors: faith oluwajodu1 derick blaauw2 lorraine greyling1 ewert p.j. kleynhans2 affiliations: 1department of economics and econometrics, university of johannesburg, south africa 2school of economics, north-west university, potchefstroom campus, south africa correspondence to: ewert kleynhans email: ewert.kleynhans@nwu.ac.za postal address: private bag x6001, potchefstroom 2520, south africa dates: received: 23 july 2014 accepted: 17 dec. 2014 published: 16 apr. 2015 how to cite this article: oluwajodu, f., blaauw, d., greyling, l., & kleynhans, e.p.j. (2015). graduate unemployment in south africa: perspectives from the banking sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1) art. #656, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.656 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. graduate unemployment in south africa: perspectives from the banking sector in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction • the rationale for studying unemployed graduates    • literature review on graduate unemployment • method    • research participants    • research approach       • research instruments       • data collection procedure       • data sorting process       • data analysis • results    • graduate group: unemployed and recently employed graduates (supply side)       • demographic characteristics       • choice of university and degree       • skills amongst graduates       • expectations versus reality    • human resource group (demand side) • discussion • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: south africa is experiencing growth in its graduate labour force, but graduate unemployment is rising with the overall unemployment rate. graduate unemployment is problematic, because it wastes scarce human capital, which is detrimental to the economy in the long run. research purpose: this study explores the perceived causes of graduate unemployment from the perspective of the south african banking sector. motivation for the study: researchers have conducted various studies on graduate unemployment in south africa and across the globe, but few studies have been conducted on the causes of graduate unemployment. there appear to be some gaps in the literature; therefore, other problems and solutions to graduate unemployment have to be explored. research approach, design and method: the researchers followed a survey design. questionnaires and face-to-face interviews were used as research instruments to identify the perceived causes of graduate unemployment in the banking sector of south africa. research participants were unemployed graduates, recently employed graduates and graduate recruitment managers in the banking sector. main findings: the study shows that several factors are perceived to be the causes of graduate unemployment in the south african banking sector. these include: skills, institution attended by graduate and differences in expectations from employers and graduates. practical/managerial application: the findings have implications for educational institutions and companies that are encouraged to consider possible solutions to resolving the causes of graduate unemployment. contribution/value-add: this study is one of the first papers to investigate the causes of graduate unemployment in the south african banking sector. it provides a rich platform for further studies and replication in other sectors, especially within the african context. introduction top ↑ unemployment is a socio-economic challenge, with economic costs and many other challenges. it reduces economic welfare, reduces output and erodes human capital. these costs make unemployment a high priority in countries such as south africa. the south african economy has been experiencing rising unemployment over many years. in 2011, the unemployment rate was at 24.2% and in 2013 it had increased to 25.2% (statistics south africa, 2014). at the same time, there was a structural change observed in labour demand trends shifting towards high-skilled workers (bhorat & jacobs, 2010). this structural change has led to the conclusion that the unemployment problem in south africa is structural, in the sense that the poorly educated workers, who constitute the vast majority of the labour supply, cannot find employment due to insufficient demand for low-skilled resources (pauw, bhorat & goga, 2006). the youth faces even higher rates of unemployment when compared to older members of the labour force all around the world. since the global financial crisis this is even more pronounced (levinsohn, rankin, roberts & schöer, 2014). in the case of south africa, this phenomenon is particularly acute. young south africans, who are defined as those within the age group of 15–34 years (department of basic education [dbe], 2011), have, however, become better educated over the last decade. this trend can be observed in the increasing enrolment rate at tertiary educational institutions. according to broekhuizen and van der berg (2013), 57.9% of the labour force has completed their education at a tertiary level. this implies that the size of the graduate labour force is increasing in accordance with the structural change in demand for high-skilled workers (daniel, 2007). however, unemployment amongst young south africans is still very high and is increasing. it furthermore displays significant differences across racial lines (levinsohn et al., 2014). levinsohn et al. (2014) further indicate that in the second quarter of 2012, the broad unemployment rate for those between 20 and 24 years of age was higher than 60%. in the case of africans in this category the figure is even higher (almost two-thirds). this rate increased by more than ten percentage points between 2008 and 2012. this is in stark contrast with the less than 20% in the white racial category for the same age group. given the increasing level of both youth unemployment and graduate unemployment in particular, the current study investigates unemployment amongst graduates in the south african banking sector. the rationale for studying unemployed graduates top ↑ despite the growth in the graduate labour force, graduate unemployment in south africa appears to be rising together with the overall unemployment rate. although graduate un-employment only accounts for 5.9% of the changes in overall unemployment from 1996 to 2012, the actual unemployment rate for this education group has increased from 5.4% during 1995 to 7% in 2012 (broekhuizen & van der berg, 2013). although the absolute size is small, this increase shows that graduate unemployment has increased over time. it is important to improve the understanding of the reason for this phenomenon. in addition to the statistics highlighted, graduate unemployment is also an important area of study because theory suggests that the south african economy experiences severe skills shortages, whilst the economy is unable to generate sufficient job opportunities for graduates. this seems to contradict studies suggesting that the higher a participant's education level, the higher the probability of finding employment (oosthuizen, 2005). it is therefore important to identify the necessary requirements for graduates to become employed. in this study, a graduate is defined with reference to degree holders, including postgraduate degrees. unemployed graduates will be denoted as recently graduated youths (16–35 years) without employment. studying graduate unemployment is important as the ages 20–24 are the ages when the trajectory of labour market involvement and outcome are shaped (levinsohn et al., 2014). obtaining initial work experience is a key objective of young graduates in this age category. failing to do so may lead to undesirable outcomes which may be irreversible in many cases. banerjee, galiani, levinsohn, mclaren and woolard (2008) suggest that previous work experience is correlated with whether one has a job currently or not. therefore, finding a first job is fundamental for people's lifetime work trajectory (levinsohn et al., 2014). graduate unemployment is also an important area of study because unemployment amongst graduates is potentially damaging to the economy. the south african government is aware of this problem and has used different policies in an attempt to address this problem. one of the strategies that were designed to solve the problem of graduate unemployment is known as the joint initiative for priority skills acquisition (jipsa). its strategy proposes the implementation of special training programmes, bringing back retirees or expatriates to work in south africa and attracting new immigrants (pauw et al., 2006). this strategy has been able to provide some solution to the problem of graduate unemployment. it has, however, not been able to decrease graduate unemployment, because there are more graduates searching for jobs (pauw et al., 2006). various researchers have conducted studies on this kind of unemployment. naong (2011), for example, analysed the reason why graduates struggle to find employment and found that most graduates struggle to find employment because they have chosen the wrong field of study and because of other weaknesses in the south african educational system. he proposed the promotion of an entrepreneurial culture in schools to solve the problem. sha (2006) studied graduate unemployment amongst graduates with degrees in computer science in malaysia. conclusions on reasons for graduate unemployment were based on the perspectives of both graduates and employers. the results revealed that graduates are of the opinion that employers are to be blamed for their being unemployed, whilst employers perceive the attitude of computer science graduates towards work as negative. this makes employers reluctant to hire new graduates. although these and other studies have been able to analyse the graduate unemployment situation in south africa and elsewhere, there appear to be some gaps in the literature. most of the solutions to graduate unemployment are centred on education, whilst education is not the only cause of graduate unemployment in south africa (lie, 2007). as a result, other problems and solutions to graduate unemployment need to be explored. not many studies have been conducted recently on graduate unemployment in south africa, keeping researchers and policymakers uninformed. this study on graduate unemployment will also explore other possible causes of graduate unemployment and its solution. in order to contribute to the body of literature on graduate unemployment, the objective of the study is to investigate the labour market for graduates in south africa with a focus on the banking sector. the focus is on the banking sector because it is one of the largest employers of labour with various higher qualifications and skills in south africa. standard bank, for example, has 52 000 employees. the banking sector is also considered amongst the top contributors to long-run economic growth (bankseta, 2011). the study will explore the supply side of the labour market, which consists of unemployed graduates and recently employed graduates, as well as the demand side, represented by employers in the banking sector. this research intends to study the basic aspects that are often overlooked or overstated when addressing graduate unemployment. literature review on graduate unemployment various explanations are provided for the causes of graduate unemployment. some ascribe it to the lack of employment that is caused by a lack of employability, type of qualification obtained as well as field of study, quality of secondary school education, quality of tertiary education, high expectations, job search and work experience. various authors have offered definitions for employability. weligamage (2009) and sha (2006) agree, however, that employability relates to the skills and attributes needed to gain employment and progress in an industry. a survey conducted on graduates by griesel and parker (2009) highlighted four main categories of skills and attributes that employees look out for when recruiting graduates. basic skills, intellectual ability, workplace skills, applied knowledge and interactive skills were regarded as most important. south african graduates are often unsuccessful in the recruitment phase, because they lack some of the required skills. pauw et al. (2006) argue that many of these students who lack the required skills come from historically black institutions where they did not develop these skills or acquire work experience. as a result, graduates become disadvantaged because the skills they learned are not required in the working environment. lie (2007) argues that graduates should not be entirely blamed for the unemployment condition. graduates, employers, government and universities are all involved. graduates are more academically oriented and lack awareness of the latest developments and applicable skills. graduates generally believe that their education and skills are sufficient and universities consider their graduates to be well prepared for the workplace. at the same time, employers perceive graduates to lack the vital skills for employment. such perspectives must be addressed to enhance the employability of graduates. the quality of secondary education was also highlighted as another reason for graduate unemployment. according to mlatsheni (2005), fewer students who matriculated passed with exemption and students are regarded as functionally illiterate. this means that an average grade 12 student who has just matriculated does not possess adequate writing, mathematical and communication skills to perform at university level because the quality of secondary school education is low. as students are not prepared to enter and succeed in further higher learning, high dropout rates are experienced (pauw et al., 2006). differences in the quality of tertiary institution also lead to graduate unemployment. these institutions can be grouped into historically white institutions (hwis) and historically black institutions (hbis). graduates from hwis have much better employment prospects than those from hbis. hwis graduates are absorbed into the labour market faster after obtaining degrees (bhorat & visser, 2010). another reason why hwis graduates are more employable than those from hbis relates to the fact that hbis enrol students in fields of study with low employment prospects. employers are biased towards employing students who have graduated from certain universities because of their perception of the universities’ educational standards and culture. generally, employers have the perception that ‘hbis are much poorer in ensuring success in the labour market for their client base than hwis’ (bhorat & visser, 2010, p. 5). graduate unemployment may also be due to graduates’ unrealistically high expectations. they usually assume that their qualifications must ensure high salaries and managerial positions immediately (l.m. luan, personal interview, 24 october 2012). sirat and shuib (2012) found that many graduates expect to be paid high salaries, but have a bad attitude towards work. they do not understand the importance of the process of gaining work experience over time. with such expectations, no graduate would wish to start at a low level. consequently, they select jobs and prefer to remain unemployed until they get their dream employment (pauw et al., 2006). from the employer's perspective, they view graduates as new entrants with a degree, but lacking the required soft skills and experience to work effectively in the workplace (l.m. luan, personal interview, 24 october 2012). employers, therefore, pay less and train the graduates according to the needs and demands of the workplace. high expectations amongst graduates will therefore increase graduate unemployment if the graduates’ perceptions persist. another reason for high graduate unemployment relates to job search activities. moleke (2010, p. 93) defines job search as a ‘normal occurrence which work seekers use as a form of investment to enhance their position in the labour market’. job search is therefore seen as an activity that requires time and effort to achieve a goal, which in this case is a job. for graduates, the process of searching for a job takes longer, because graduates are seen as new entrants without working experience. they therefore need to go through job advertisements, complete application forms, write psychometric tests in some cases, attend interviews and write a formal assessment before a permanent offer is made (l.m. luan, personal interview, 24 october 2012). moleke confirms this. he found that over half of the unemployed graduates had been searching for employment for more than a year and that african graduates search longer, some having searched for more than 2 years (l.m. luan, personal interview, 24 october 2012). exploring the possible reasons for this observation is an important research agenda going forward. method top ↑ this section describes the research method followed in this study. research participants the population from which the sample was drawn was divided into two groups, namely: the graduate group (the unemployed graduates and recently employed graduates) and the human resource (hr) group (graduate recruitment managers). graduate recruitment managers were selected for the hr group because they play a significant role in recruiting, managing and training graduates. they were selected from the four biggest banks in south africa, namely absa, nedbank, first national bank and standard bank of south africa. these four banks were chosen because they are the largest employers of graduates in the banking sector. each bank annually employs between 100 and 200 graduates (l. ntuli, personal communication, 28 october 2012). graduates with diverse qualifications are employed, ranging from engineering, mathematics, history, economics and finance. these four banks were therefore ideal areas of investigation for possible causes of graduate unemployment in the south african banking sector. for the second group, the graduate recruitment managers, the study made use of the purposeful sampling method. the purposeful sampling method was selected based on the fact that, due to their key position in the recruitment cycle, the graduate recruitment managers will assist in providing information that is important to the study (greener, 2008). the unemployed graduates were selected from the south african graduate development association (sagda) database. sagda's database was used because it contains information such as the names of graduates, age, gender, qualification, major subjects, location of an individual and institution. their database also has 2405 records of unemployed graduates (z. ngewu, personal communication, 28 october 2012). all this information assisted in the compilation of an unbiased sample of unemployed graduates and postgraduates with diverse qualifications. a sample size of 400 unemployed graduates and 400 recently employed graduates (total sample of 800) was envisaged for the research. this study used a stratified random sampling method for the first group, the graduates, to determine the sample units, because the total population is divided into groups that differ along selected characteristics such as academic qualifications and types of institutions. the sampling was done by separating each graduate group into qualifications offered by universities and selecting a simple random sample from each group. according to previous conversations with graduate recruitment managers (r. tshidi, personal interview, 10 september 2012), 50% of graduates employed by the banks have bachelor of commerce (bcom) qualifications, 40% of graduates have bachelor of science (bsc) degrees, whilst 10% of the graduates employed by the banks have bachelor of arts (ba) qualifications. based on the percentages of recruitment by qualification, 50% of the sample in the graduate group (unemployed and recently employed graduates) were bcom graduates, 40% of the graduate group were bsc graduates and 10% of the graduate group were ba graduates. the authors of this study acknowledge that different qualifications have various subjects and in order to account for the subjects, this study randomly selected students with different subjects in each qualification group. for example, students with a major in economics, marketing or finance will be randomly selected from the bcom group. because their qualifications theoretically enable them to be employed in various sectors, the respondents’ endeavour to be employed in the banking sector as well was specifically tested by including a question in the survey instrument to verify that the person did apply at one or more of the banks included in this study. recently employed graduates were selected from the particular banks. they were selected because they have passed through the process of applying for a job as a graduate and were able to assist in identifying possible requirements to gain employment as a graduate and to prepare for the workplace. research approach for this investigation, the researchers applied a survey-based approach. the survey was based on questionnaires distributed to employed candidates who had recently graduated and unemployed graduates, as well as face-to-face interviews conducted with graduate recruitment managers of the banks. the intention was to gain an understanding of the perceived causes of graduate unemployment in the banking sector. research instruments this research utilised survey questionnaires that varied according to the groups. closed and open-ended online and manual questionnaires were designed for the graduate group, unemployed and recently employed graduates, whilst open-ended and face-to-face interview questionnaires were used for the hr manager group. the questions were drawn from the literature on the causes of graduate unemployment and an understanding of the banking sector. the survey questionnaire used in the case of unemployed graduates consisted of five separate sections. the first was designed to collect demographic data for cross-sectional analysis. next followed questions relating to the choice of university and degrees, followed by two sections on the application and job search process and the final section considered the causes of graduate unemployment. the survey questionnaire used in the case of recently employed graduates was designed in the same way, except for the sections focusing on the transition to the workplace and their expectation versus reality. the questionnaire also consisted of five separate sections, starting with demographic and eductional sections designed in the same way as described above. in addition, candidates were asked about the number of job offers received and the time period from application to offer. section d asked candidates about their experience from study to employment, whether the skills that they had acquired during their period of study were adequate and whether their employers had the same views about their skills. the last section compared the expectations of graduates before they were employed to their experience in the workplace. the graduate manager survey questionnaire was unstructured. the questions formulated in this questionnaire considered the company's intention to hire graduates and the importance of recruitment strategies, such as the graduate recruitment programme annually designed for graduates. the next questions focused on the selection process when hiring graduates as well as the post-selection process. this covers what happens after graduates are hired, the cost involved after graduates are hired, the skills level of the graduate before and after the graduate has been hired, the retention rates of graduates and the incentives offered to retain graduates. data collection procedure for the unemployed and recently employed graduates, an online survey questionnaire was created with the help of an online research website known as question pro. the link to the survey was customised and posted on the sagda website (sagda, 2012). an online survey was chosen because it is easily accessible. for those who did not have access to the internet, the survey was manually printed and distributed to a list of graduates, which was made available by sagda. the hr managers were also approached to administer the survey during the training of graduates, when they felt it would be most convenient. for the graduate recruitment managers, questions were sent via email and contact details were collected during a south african graduate recruitment association's (sagra) conference. meetings were booked in order to conduct face-to-face interviews. data sorting process from the original 800 completed surveys, 170 were scrapped due to incompleteness and cases where the unemployed subsequently obtained employment. the survey on the graduate recruitment managers was easier to conduct, as the survey was interview based. in total, the remaining sample comprised 300 unemployed graduates, 330 recently employed graduates and four graduate recruitment managers. data analysis the responses to each of the survey questions for the unemployed graduates and recently employed graduates were compiled in a comparative table to understand the common views, the disagreements of the graduates and the perceived changes in graduate unemployment. content analysis, which is a form of analysis that focuses on actual content and information (stemler, 2001), was used to analyse the results derived from the graduate recruitment managers. results were in the form of written responses and notes from the interviews. each question in the interview was analysed in comparison to the responses from the four banks. after a within-group comparison the results of both groups (i.e. graduates and recruitment managers) were compared. areas of disagreements and common interests between the groups were analysed to understand the dynamics of the graduate labour market. the results were then used to offer tentative policy recommendations about a possible solution to the causes of graduate unemployment. results top ↑ graduate group: unemployed and recently employed graduates (supply side) demographic characteristics even though the survey was sent to both men and women, there was a slightly higher response rate from men. approximately half of the unemployed graduate respondents were in the age bracket 21 to 24. based on age, the assumption could be made that many people graduate in the age bracket 21 to 24, but are unemployed. of the recently employed graduates, 36% fell between the ages of 25 and 30. based on these findings, another assumption is that more graduates between the ages of 25 and 30 gain employment in the banking sector. these assumptions are in line with altbeker and storme's (2013) findings that younger graduates are more likely to be unemployed than older graduates, because employers are more reluctant to hire younger graduates. the view that there seems to be a change in graduate unemployment in the banking sector in terms of race is confirmed in table 1. the banking sector now hires more black graduates, indicating a directional hiring change from hiring white graduates to hiring other races (altbeker & storme, 2013). taking the opposing view, moleke (2010) argues that racial discrimination might be a cause of graduate unemployment as there are still more white graduates in the banking sector than there are black graduates. the findings of the current study did not support this. the modern economy, especially the banking sector, now hires any race as long as the graduate possesses the required skills and knowledge. the following statistics provide examples of this trend. in 2013, africans’ share in junior management positions in one of the big four banks in south africa rose to 72% from 68% in 2011 (barclays africa group limited, 2013); 80% of all new appointments are also from this group. as a result of higher demand for africans in the banking industry turnover of african staff is slightly higher than the company's average as well (barclays africa group limited, 2013). table 1: race distribution of sample (%). choice of university and degree the highest concentration of respondents in the unemployed graduate group came from the university of fort hare, followed by the university of zululand, university of the free state (ufs) and university of limpopo. graduate recruitment managers regard these universities as access universities that do not carry out regular career exhibitions or any form of graduate recruitment (l.m. luan, personal interview, 24 october 2012). on the other hand, most of the recently employed graduates studied at the university of johannesburg (uj), university of cape town (uct), university of the witwatersrand (wits) and university of south africa. according to employers, these universities are visited regularly in terms of career awareness programmes, counselling and recruitment, because of their reputation of high educational standards, facilities and equipment. it then becomes easier for graduates from the non-access universities to gain employment and develop their careers. the majority of the graduate group respondents were undergraduates and honours degree graduates, whilst very few possess master's degrees, as indicated in table 2. educational qualification alone is not the most important criterion for gaining employment, since the majority of the recently employed graduates are undergraduate degree holders. the sample of recently employed graduates showed that 32% have honours degrees, offering candidates a better chance to gain employment. it seems that a degree is not enough to gain employment. there are possibly other factors that qualify a graduate in the banking sector for employment. results show that most of the recently employed graduates have part-time, internship and voluntary work experience, which gave them an advantage. this may provide another explanation for the observation from the data, which shows more employability from age 25 onwards when additional work experience is more likely. this is therefore not merely a case of workplaces who do not want to appoint younger candidates. table 2: educational level of respondents (%). skills amongst graduates the kinds of skills perceived to be acquired by both groups during their period of study are illustrated in table 3. the majority of recently employed graduates felt that they had acquired communication, research and computer literacy skills during their period of study. the majority of the unemployed graduates felt that they had acquired the same set of skills as the recently employed graduates, and yet they are still unemployed. it is important to note that most of the skills ticked by the graduates during the survey were based on their feelings of the kind of skills they possess and not based on employers’ perceptions. therefore, graduates can be confident about their perceived set of skills, but this may be in contrast to the reality of the employers’ experience. table 3: perceived skills acquired (%). expectations versus reality most of the unemployed graduates and recently employed graduates expected to earn a salary within the salary bracket of r275 000–r300 000, as indicated in table 4. this salary range does not differ from what the banks are currently paying graduates. the interviews with the graduate recruitment managers confirms that graduates are paid between r250 000 and r320 000 annually. unemployed graduates’ salary expectations are therefore not different from what employers offer, and sirat and shuib's (2012) argument about salary expectations could be questioned. higher salary expectations, as suggested by sirat and shuib, do not necessarily hinder graduates from gaining employment in the case of the banking sector, as they desire what the industry offers. table 4: annual salary expectations. human resource group (demand side) the survey revealed that all banks have the same intention to hire graduates, which relates to a successful supply of suitable candidates and the development of special skills to suit the needs of the company. the fact that graduates are recruited every year emphasises that banks are willing to employ graduates. banks’ intentions to hire graduates are also illustrated by their development graduate programmes that enable the recruitment of new graduates every year. the survey results indicated that banks mainly visit uct, uj, the university of pretoria, wits and the university of kwazulu-natal during their graduate selection and recruitment process. these universities are regarded as the top universities in south africa, with sound reputations and high quality of education. most important is that the banks had employed a number of graduates from these universities in the past and they were excellent performers. another important factor that determines which universities should be visited or which graduates should be recruited is cost. it was found that banks spend a large amount of money on career exhibitions and career awareness programmes to entice graduates every year. the cost of hiring a graduate involves career exhibitions at universities, which cost r180 000 plus the training cost of hiring a graduate, which is between r300 000 and r650 000 per graduate when training is outsourced to a third party. in addition to the training cost, a graduate's salary ranges between r250 000 and r320 000 and the salary scales annually increase by 6.9%. these costs restrict the number of graduates employed every year and the number of universities visited. the research concluded that banks prefer to employ slightly older graduates rather than younger graduates. younger graduates are assumed to be too inexperienced and immature for the challenges of the working world (biavaschi et al., 2013) and special recruitment and training programmes are expensive. this may again be linked to the notion that the somewhat older graduate may have acquired additional skills beyond ones linked to the degree itself. it was also found that a graduate's qualification is regarded as an entry point of consideration, but it is not a guarantee for employment as a graduate needs more than academic training to function effectively. during the recruitment process, employers search for required skills and if it is sensed that a graduate lacks these required skills, the graduate will be declined. it can be deduced that graduates who rely exclusively on their qualifications tend to remain unemployed. discussion top ↑ the purpose of this study was to investigate possible causes of graduate unemployment in the banking sector through surveys of graduates and human resource managers. it was found that slightly older graduates are more likely to be employed in the banking sector than younger graduates. employers regard older graduates as more mature and experienced. it is therefore concluded that age might be a cause of graduate unemployment in the banking sector. the researchers do, however, consider the sample size as being insufficient to generalise in the affirmative. in terms of race, south africa is producing more black graduates every year and their unemployment rates are declining, compared to past years where more white graduates than black graduates were hired. this confirms l.m. luan's (personal interview, 24 october 2012) findings. in other words, there has been a directional change in hiring white graduates to hiring other races. there has also been a move towards equality, as the focus has shifted to the required skills and knowledge that graduates possess. the results suggest that the kind of institution that a graduate attends and the perception of employers about those institutions leads to higher levels of graduate unemployment amongst graduates from access universities. with the exception of the ufs, these are all hbis. graduates from the so-called non-access universities are preferred to those from hbis because of employers’ perceptions about these universities and the fact that they do not engage with employers to understand the right skills needed to be successful. when cost is taken into consideration, employers would rather spend their resources on candidates from non-access universities, as the cost involved in recruiting is expensive and it will only make sense to invest these large costs in candidates with the adequate skills. the information provided by hr managers raises the question of endogeneity in terms of industry perceptions of top-class universities and the choice of where career exhibitions are held. the question is whether the existing perception of where top universities are located determines where career exhibitions are held. the exhibitions foster good relationships with those institutions, but at the same time this practice marginalises other institutions and thereby perpetuates the existing perceptions of them not producing good candidates. the cost factor and the fact that the universities with whom good relationships exist fulfil the demand for graduates may put candidates from other universities at a disadvantage. one way of overcoming this is for good graduates from other institutions to pursue postgraduate studies in the bigger centres where the perceived good quality institutions are situated. this may in itself reinforce the notion of these institutions providing top candidates. this aspect also requires further research and decomposition of the origin of postgraduate students at these preferred institutions. the results have shown that educational qualification alone is not the only criterion for gaining employment in the banking sector. advanced qualifications do, however, make candidates more likely to be employed. the survey shows that employers demand work experience, skills and certain qualifications based on their particular needs. this in itself can be a problem as the industry then does not contribute towards the building of experience. in terms of labour demand, as the economy changes organisations change their business requirements, and changes in business requirements lead to changes in the qualifications and skills needed to suit the needs of the organisation. a graduate without a qualification or skill that is needed by the organisation will therefore remain unemployed and will have to wait until their qualification is in demand. it can be concluded that changes in business requirements will lead to changes in the demand for labour (in this case graduates) in banking. the issue of skills was also identified as a possible cause of graduate unemployment in the banking sector. the survey showed that employers require certain skills such as leadership skills, soft skills, management skills and cultural fit. a graduate without these skills might therefore not be employed. the results also suggest that employers do not regard university-based skills as sufficient. university-based skills might be too academic or not job related. they must therefore be supplemented with other skills. finally, it can also be deduced that although differences in expectations from employers and graduates could be a reason for graduate unemployment, higher salary expectations do not necessarily hinder graduates from gaining employment, as they usually aim for what the sector is offering. the economy is driven towards graduates who place value on their skills and what they have to offer; therefore, higher salary expectations might not necessarily be the cause of graduate unemployment. the authors realise the danger of generalisation from a sample of 630 respondents and believe that this study should be repeated continuously to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of graduate unemployment in the banking sector over time. however, the study draws on actual primary data and therefore adds valuable perspectives on the perceptions of graduate unemployment in the banking sector. the results of this study have several implications for universities, managers and policymakers. most important is the realisation that graduate unemployment is detrimental to the economy in the long run. this study suggests a number of recommendations to reduce graduate unemployment. in the first place, it is recommended that the skills shortage be addressed by organisations and educational institutions working together towards the implementation of appropriate programmes that would provide graduates with the necessary skills that are required in practice. professional bodies have a role to play here. they usually interact with universities and play a role in the accreditation of programmes. the appropriate body in the banking industry can play an important role in this regard. given that graduates are drawn from different degree groups, this envisaged engagement around skill requirement needs to be particularly structured. organisations and educational institutions can also work together to provide career guidance to graduates to ensure a selection of employable choices of subjects and courses. working together can also assist in improving the quality of the so-called ‘soft skills’ that are also needed for graduates to successfully contribute to the productivity of organisations. these skills include team work skills, ethics in business interpersonal relationships, public speaking, meeting conduct and even time management skills. government can help by providing graduate recruitment subsidies to improve the options of finding employment for young graduates. the work done by sagda is potentially of significance here. sagda was hired by the department of trade and industry (dti) to implement and monitor their unemployed graduate work experience placement programme. the programme aims to enhance graduates’ employability by placing them in internship programmes. the programme assists graduates to gain relevant work experience through a 12-month internship programme in private sector companies. the dti sources internship placements for unemployed graduates from companies that are receiving incentives from the dti as well as those that are interested in the programme (dti, 2014). the programme's vision is to provide relevant work experience to at least 1200 unemployed graduates over three intakes in the next 2 years from 2014 onwards. national skills fund within the department of higher education and training has approved funding to the value of r71 million over a 2-year period for monthly stipends of placed graduates, which will be managed by the dti (dti, 2014). conclusion top ↑ in final conclusion, the broader problem of graduate unemployment cannot be separated from the macro-economic picture of persistent long-run unemployment in south africa. unemployment in general also impacts graduates, although those leaving school early are even more adversely affected. unless the national development plan's roadmap to reduce unemployment in south africa is successfully implemented and yields sufficient results, unemployment in general and graduate unemployment, as a subset thereof, will exhibit the same persistency as is the case at the moment. the broader problem of graduate unemployment can only be solved in the long run if the overall problems in south africa's schooling and educational system receive the attention they deserve. this will require the vision and will of dedicated leadership on a political and social level. only then will the mass of unemployed graduates be replaced with a workforce that productively contributes to the south african society everyone desires. acknowledgements top ↑ the authors are grateful for the valuable comments and suggestions received from anonymous reviewers from the journal. all mistakes and omissions remain our own. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions f.o. (university of johannesburg) did most of the literature study and processing of the survey data and recording of the primary findings. d.b. (north-west university) formulated the original concept and assisted with the interpretation as well as the writing up of the results. l.g. (university of johannesburg) assisted in the interpretation of the results and improvements on the first draft of the written work, whilst e.p.j.k. (north-west university) assisted with the final interpretation of the findings, the drafting of the final manuscript and technical processing and publication. references top ↑ altbeker, a., & storme, e. (2013). graduate unemployment in south africa. a much exaggerated problem, compiled by the centre for development and enterprise. retrieved june 26, 2014, from http://www.cde.org.za/index.php/component/content/article/83-jobs-and-growth/403-graduate-unemployment-in-south-africa-a-much-exaggerated-problem banerjee, a., galiani, s., levinsohn, j., mclaren, z., & woolard, i. (2008). why has unemployment risen in the new south africa?the economics of transition, 16(4), 715–740. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0351.2008.00340.x bankseta. (2011). sector skills plan update: 2010–2011. retrieved august 08, 2012, from http://www.bankseta.org.za/downloads/bs_annual_report_fa_webversion.pdf barclays africa group limited. (2013). bee report for the south african operations of barclays africa group limited. retrieved september 27, 2014, from http://www.barclaysafrica.com/deployedfiles/assets/richmedia/pdf/reports/2013/barclays_africa_group_bee_report_2013.pdf bhorat, h., & jacobs, e. (2010). an overview of the demand for skills for an inclusive growth path. retrieved february 10, 2012, from http://www.dbsa.org/research/higher%20education%20 bhorat, h. & visser, m. (2010). student graduation, labour market destinations and employment earnings. pretoria, south africa: employment and economic policy research programme, human sciences research council. biavaschi, c., eichhorst, w., giulietti, c., kendzia, m.j., muravyev, a., pieters, p. et al. (2013). youth unemployment and vocational training. background paper for the world development report 2013. washington, dc: world bank. broekhuizen, h., & van der berg, s. (2013). how high is graduate unemployment in south africa? a much needed update. resep (research on socio-economic policy), department of economics. university of stellenbosch. daniel, r.c. (2007). skills shortages in south africa: a literature review. development policy research unit. retrieved march 14, 2012, from http://www.commerce.uct.ac.za/research_units/dpru/?q=node/158 department of basic education (dbe). (2011). south african country report: progress on the implementation of the regional education and training plan. pretoria, south africa: dbe. department of trade and industry (dti). (2014). government to launch the internship programme for unemployed graduates. retrieved september 29, 2014, from http://www.dti.gov.za/editmedia.jsp?id=3007 greener, s. (2008). business research methods. retrieved june 05, 2012, from http://kosalmath.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/introduction-to-research-methods.pdf griesel, h., & parker, b. (2009). graduate attributes: a baseline study on south african graduates from the perspective of employers. south africa: hesa press. levinsohn, j., rankin, j., roberts, g. & schöer, v. (2014). wage subsidies and youth employment in south africa: evidence from a randomised control trial. stellenbosch economic working papers 02/14. retrieved november 05, 2014, from http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_237088.pdf lie, k. (2007). employer perception on graduate literacy in higher education in relation to the workplace. retrieved june 26, 2014, from http://www.esp-world.info/articles_20/doc/koo_vp_employer_journal18oct09.pdf mlatsheni, c. (2005). the youth labour market: what does it take to succeed? retrieved june 26, 2014, from http://www.ijr.org.za/publications/pdfs/ta_2005_complete.pdf moleke, p. (2010). the graduate labour market. cape town, south africa: employment and economic policy research programme, human sciences research council. naong, m. (2011). promotion of entrepreneurship education: a remedy to graduates and youth unemployment. journal of social science, 28(3), 181–189. oosthuizen, m. (2005). the post-apartheid labour market: 1995–2004. cape town, south africa: development policy research unit, university of cape town. pauw, k., bhorat, h., & goga, s. (2006). graduate unemployment in the context of skills shortages, education and training: findings from a survey. retrieved june 26, 2014, from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=961353 south african graduate development association (sagda). (2012). sagda database. retrieved september 12, 2012, from http://www.sagda.org.co.za sha, n. (2006). are graduates to be blamed? unemployment of computer science graduates in malaysia. retrieved march 10, 2012, from http://aabss.org/perspectives2008/aabss2008article6norshimazshah.pdf sirat, m. & shuib, m. (2012). employability of graduates in malaysia. bangkok, thailand: asian and pacific regional bureau for education, unesco. statistics south africa. (2014). quarterly labour force survey. quarter 1, 2014. statistical release p0211. pretoria, south africa: statistics south africa. retrieved june 26, 2014, from http://beta2.statssa.gov.za/publications/p0211/p02111stquarter2014.pdf stemler, s. (2001). an overview of content analysis. retrieved june 26, 2014, from http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=7&n=17 weligamage, s. (2009). graduates’ employability: evidence from literature review. retrieved june 26, 2014, from http://www.kln.ac.lk/uokr/asaihl/subthemea8.pdf 2kilfoil.qxd mergers and higher education mergers have become an established part of life, particularly in the corporate environment (brousseau, 1989). ‘mergers – the cisco system’ (2002, p. 25) reports that in the year 2002 there were 4 363 mergers and acquisitions in the united states of america. however, mergers are not unknown in higher education. in australia, for instance, many of their current public institutions are the result of a long history of mergers; for example, deakin university was the result of a number of mergers of technical institutions and teacher education colleges and now offers a wide range of professional, business and industry qualifications and research across five campuses (hay et al., 2002). this article describes the merger between the university of south africa (unisa), technikon south africa (tsa) and the distance education campus of vista university (vudec) as a background to a discussion of the merger between two departments from the former unisa and tsa: the bureau for learning development (bld) and the centre for courseware design and development (ccdd) respectively. the unit of analysis is therefore the merged department not the whole university. the purpose of documenting the merger is to describe and analyse a real life context in which change interventions occurred, the interventions themselves and their impact. the study is thus primarily descriptive in nature. the issue to be addressed was the need for deliberate change management in a merger situation. change management could have a significant impact on staff morale – positive or negative – and affect the pace and success of the merger. the central questions were: what impact would the implementation of change management principles and practices have? how could it help to meet current demands while preparing for long term strategic goals – the university’s and the department’s? the methodolog y used change management approaches in previously documented theory as the basis for constructing some generic principles. this process was initiated by the director of the merged department. the success of the implementation was later tested using an evaluation instrument to assess the performance of the director. in addition, focus group interviews were used to explore the success of the communication strategies. several propositions underpinned the change management strateg y. the first proposition was that relationship building and participation would lead to greater buy-in and facilitate the merger by building trust. a second was that effective communication was essential. a third was that effective, inclusive planning would help people to reconceptualize their roles in the department and speed up the merger. the evidence sources used were universit y merger documentation, documents produced by the merged department that is the focus of this article – the institute for curriculum and learning development (icld) – (the way forward research document, the strategic plan, the key performance areas), the results of a questionnaire evaluating the director of the icld at the end of 2004, focus group interviews in the department in mid-2005 and participant observation. impetus for institutional mergers clearly one would like to be able to say that the mergers between technikons and universities were the result of educational imperatives but that does not appear to have been the case. in the south african context a political decision was made to alter the higher education landscape. the national plan for higher education (south africa, 2001, p. 75) states that “the purpose may be that of overcoming the racial fragmentation of the higher education system”. in respect of distance education, the motivation was to create ‘a single dedicated distance education institution’ able to maximize ‘economies of scale and scope’ and take advantage ‘of the rapid changes in information and communications technology’. wendy r kilfoil kilfowr@unisa.ac.za institute for curriculum and learning development university of south africa thomas groenewald tgroenew@unisa.ac.za directorate tutorial ser vices & work-integrated learning university of south africa abstract the transformation of the south african higher education landscape resulted in, among other things, the merger of three distance education institutions: unisa, vudec and tsa. the macro level of the merger will no doubt be studied in detail. this article explores a micro level process for two departments merged by a top-down decision that did not take cognisance of their dissimilar functions and structures. the result was both a merger and a demerging process. the two departments first had to confront the realities of their different functions and structures before a reconfiguration could occur, including the emergence of a strategic plan focusing on aspects such as specific contribution, drivers, objectives and structure. the change management principles adopted to ensure the success of the process are outlined, analysed and reflected upon. opsomming die gedaanteverandering van die hoëropvoedkundigelandskap in suid-afrika het, onder andere, die samesmelting van drie afstandsonderriginstansies, naamlik unisa, vudec en tsa tot gevolg gehad. die makrovlak van die samesmelting word uiteraard noukeurig bestudeer. hierdie artikel ondersoek egter hoofsaaklik die mikrovlakproses vir twee departemente wat op grond van ’n besluit wat van bo afgedwing is, met mekaar moes saamsmelt, sonder enige inagname van hul ongelyksoortige funksies en strukture. die resultaat was een van beide samesmelting en ’n proses van ontbinding. die twee departemente moes eers hul onderskeie realiteite van uiteenlopende funksies en strukture konfronteer, alvorens herstrukturering kon plaasvind om uiteindelik ’n strategiese plan daar te stel wat op unieke bydrae, dryfvere, doelwitte en strukture fokus. die veranderingsbestuursbeginsels wat ingespan is om die sukses van die proses te verseker, word uiteengesit, ondersoek en oor gereflekteer. mergers and change management at the micro level: a case study requests for copies should be addressed to: t groenewald, tgroenew@unisa.ac.za 11 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (2), 11-18 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (2), 11-18 once the decision had been made, preparation and implementation were left to the various merging partners and it has proved a complex task. duck (2001) makes two important points about mergers that do not emerge clearly from the way the merger proceeded at the dedicated distance education institution: � for a change inititative to succeed, the emotional and behavioral aspects must be addressed as thoroughly as the operational issues (xii). � change unfolds in a reasonably predictable and manageable series of dynamic phases, known as the change curve (xii). mergers are characterized by heightened emotions, fears of losing one’s job, having to move sites, changes to conditions of service that might be unfavourable and so on. attention to human issues, good communication and speedy resolution of issues can reduce the stress. in this article an attempt by the director of two merged departments from the former unisa and tsa to address the softer issues in contrast to the institution’s focus on operational and structural issues is detailed. the activities described in the article are placed along the change curve although the change is far from reaching ‘fruition’. duck labels the change curve phases as ‘stagnation, preparation, implementation, determination, and fruition’ (2001, p. 9). preparation for merging once the decision was made, the top management members of the institutions were most involved with the preparation phase, a typical pattern. in the unisa-tsa-vudec merger, after some initial opposition – including legal proceedings against the minister of education – top management members and councils began to communicate, negotiate and plan. there was a ministerial injunction that it was a merger of equals but unisa was actually five times the size of tsa and twenty times larger than vudec in terms of student numbers. a poll of staff members at the three instit utions resulted in the new university retaining the name of the university of south africa although the new institution was to be re-branded. the main impact of the preparation phase for the majority of staff was at an operational level with a freezing of projects, appointments, etc. until after the merger, which caused understandable frustration. it is essential that leaders collect accurate information and share it with all stakeholders as the basis for facing facts and getting people to change. much of the pre-merger preparation in 2003 focused on stocktaking of the ‘as is’ situation in the three institutions although the resulting data was not widely shared in the institution, which led to rumours, an ‘us’ and ‘them’ culture and a general climate of mistrust. considerable work was done in this phase but it will not be detailed here as it is not the focus of the article. implementation at macro level: 3 to one on 1 january 2004 unisa merged with tsa to form the new comprehensive university of south africa. on 2 january the new institution incorporated vudec. during 2004 the billboard slogans on the campuses read: ‘3 to one, the countdown has begun to comprehensive distance education for the nation’. duck makes an interesting remark about the nature of the implementation phase: ‘everything has changed, but nothing has really changed – yet’ (2001, p. 26). this was certainly the perception in early 2004 and possibly it remains a reality for some people as change happens at different rates for different people. it was after january 2004 that the focus expanded from the macro to the micro level and the majority of individual departments at the new institution started to be intensively involved in the merger. a number of cross-functional task teams were also established to harmonize policies and focus on the core business of the new comprehensive university. unisa’s management estimated that it would take three years to fully implement the merger. the launch of the new branding identity took place on 30 march 2005, fifteen months after the legal merger. marshall (1999, p. 13) suggests that: ‘if people are aligned in a common strategic direction and trust each other’s motives, then all will move faster’. it was difficult in the first half of 2004 to align all people and departments with a strategic vision and mission as the university’s 2004 business plan had only an interim vision and mission, and the branding was also interim. the vision and mission – entitled unisa 2015: an agenda for transformation – was finalized in august 2004. trust takes time to build and a great deal of communication and interaction towards a common goal. the geographical distances separating the main pretoria and florida campuses, as well as the even greater distances separating the regions from the main campuses, made personal interaction difficult. as duck points out (2001, p. 156), ‘in mergers, scale and complexity are the dominant factors’. when an institution is involved in massive, system-wide change, it does not allow for a quick win; when one needs to integrate the whole system, one does not always have the freedom to focus on the greatest need. systems integration has proved a real problem in the new unisa because of the physical location of the main campuses and its regional offices as well as the types of technology chosen by the three institutions originally. the ways of dividing and grouping functional areas in the different institutions made one-to-one mergers between departments almost impossible and people clung to turf. underlying all the structural and procedural issues was the human factor and elements such as entrenched interests or conflict of interests; fear of change or comfort zone and welllearned skills; perceptions of unfairness; fear of losing benefits of current position; additional responsibility and more time and energ y needed; possible retrenchment; tools needed to accomplish change not provided. two-way communication is important in all phases and the scope of communication must be proportional to extent of the change. in the case of the merger of unisa, tsa and vudec the change was huge. the joint institution had nearly 5 000 employees and in 2004 the enrolment exceeded a quarter of a million students. pollack (2003) recommends a communication plan that shows what information is needed and/or should be shared in each phase and through what methods/media. a merger brings increased workload, executives are busier than ever, they have less time to communicate, but it is more important than ever that they do so. one has to conclude that the new management had no communications plan, based on perceptions of poor performance in this area. implementation at micro level the rest of the article deals with the merger of the two departments – the bureau for learning development (bld) and the centre for courseware design and development (ccdd) into the institute for curriculum and learning development (icld). the structures and functions of the two departments did not overlap, except in one area: instructional design. the bld was a professional support department whose staff were education specialists. they worked with lecturers to develop curricula and then learning experiences and environments that enabled students to engage with the content and construct a sound knowledge of the discipline. in addition, the bld staff members conducted continuing professional learning sessions with groups of academics on topics such as assessment or writing for open distance learning (odl). they also conducted joint research with lecturers. the ccdd was a cost centre run strictly on project management principles. it included instructional designers – whose work overlapped to some extent with the design function of the learning developers, editors, graphic designers, pre-press staff such as electronic kilfoil, groenewald12 originators, project managers and coordinators, a marketing officer, a financial officer and some publishing information technolog y (it) support staff. processes were largely standardized and documented. the ccdd had a limited number of internal clients – because lecturers were not compelled to use their services, since they charged marketrelated prices – and some outside clients. besides the instructional design, the other functions in the ccdd were performed by separate departments at the pretoria campus, such as editorial and unisa press. bld and ccdd were placed in the learner support portfolio of the new comprehensive unisa although, in fact, they worked with lecturers not students. the vice principal: learner support asked each of the six departments in his portfolio to prepare a research document for presentation to a restructuring committee. departments that were meant to merge had been holding discussions for some time and most could present a joint research document. bld and ccdd had had little contact prior to january 2004 or since and had certainly not engaged in an analysis of their respective functions or in joint planning. the result was that the two departments submitted separate research documents. certain perceived weaknesses and threats were stressed in the bld research presentation to the restructuring committee in march 2004 and carried over into the way forward document in may 2004. the bld document indicated in its swot analysis that the merger and the way it was being handled constituted a major threat for the following reasons: � no principles were established in advance. � top down decision-making was not informed by a deep understanding of open and distance learning (odl). � there was no communication from top management. � the misalignment between bld and ccdd philosophically, functionally and structurally did not make for a successful merger. � allocating bld to the learner support portfolio cut the bureau off from information from the academic portfolio, and lecturers are the bureau’s main client. as part of the merger process, a placement exercise was established to determine which of the two heads of merging departments should be appointed as interim head of department. only after the director of bld was made interim head of the joint department in may 2004 did the management committee members of each department get together to start discussing the way forward. this happened at a breakaway session arranged by the vice principal for all the departments in his portfolio at an off-campus venue in an attempt to accelerate the merger process. collins (2001, p. 65) entitles one of his chapters in good to great: ‘confront the brutal facts’. duck (2001, p. 57) talks about ‘helping people see the truth’ because it makes it easier ‘to mobilize them in the cause of change’. the combined bld-ccdd was starting from behind the other departments at the breakaway and spent the best part of t wo days just laying their cards on the table, describing processes, sharing job descriptions, etc. it seemed impossible that they could, by the third morning, complete the way for ward document required by the vice principal. on the second day they broke into groups to discuss three scenarios: the fox scenario, the hedgehog scenario and the mouse scenario. the first t wo were based on a statement in collins (2001, p. 90) related to a parable: ‘the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing’. in other words, the one group had to consider the value of remaining a mult i-f unct ional department such as the ccdd (the fox) and the other had to consider the advantages and disadvantages of focusing on curriculum and learning development only (the hedgehog). the mouse scenario was a non-starter so it will not be discussed. the fox and hedgehog groups presented their ideas passionately. however, another truth had to be faced: bldccdd could not compete with the big editorial and product ion departments on the pretoria campus for mainstream st udy materials production. they would be engaged in a competitive situation that would probably result in a win-lose situation and endanger jobs. the solution was to split the ccdd into functional units and merge them with existing bigger departments so that structure followed function. the instructional designers would merge with bld as would the project managers and coordinators. based on this consensus, they managed to complete most of the document required by the vice principal, except for the detailed strategic planning information such as vision, mission, goals, and actions. principles to guide the way forward one of the items of the vice principal’s research and planning agenda document required detail on procedures for change management. it was impossible, in march 2004, to put down concrete actions when bld had not even had a single meeting with their counterparts, ccdd. instead, the director of bld drew up the generic guidelines presented in table 1 below. table 1 generic change management principles put principles, people and culture first; structures last: � build a shared philosophy. � be inclusive: � adopt a participative approach to decision-making. � practise relationship-based approaches. � deal with affective issues: � nurture employees as the valuable intellectual asset and source of strength that they are. � actively involve people to the extent possible. � build consensus. � avoid creating ‘losers’ from the change; work for win-win. � offer choices wherever possible to combat anxiety. � create capacity: � schedule time and work through the process to reach consensus otherwise you will only get compliance. � provide the necessary support, whether emotional or in terms of resources. � provide the tools and training needed to accomplish change. � manage diversity. � deal with resistance: � answer the question: what’s in it for me? � provide recognition, incentives and benefits. � anticipate and address conflicts openly, flexibly and promptly. � focus less on things and more on processes. communicate, communicate, communicate! � share information and facts the leadership sees so that people share the same perspective. � help people see the bigger picture. � minimize surprises: give people warning about new requirements. � clarif y expectations, standards and requirements. plan well: � focus on key priorities. � divide big changes into manageable steps. � minimize amount of time in transition zone. the director attempted to build a shared philosophy through strategic planning exercises and joint meetings. although no university policy mandated that a department should appoint a management committee, the bld and ccdd had management committees. because of prior histories on both campuses, there was initially a lack of trust in these committees. however, transparency in terms of circulating all minutes and having a standing item on the staff meeting agenda to address issues arising from management committee meetings seemed to overcome this distrust. capacity building began in 2004 and formal training was a priority in the budget for 2005. it will continue to be so in 2006. training was also organized for the new management committee mergers and change management 13 early in 2005. there was a deliberate mechanism for ensuring diversit y in terms of race and gender on the management committee and it remained a focus in the activities of the department. communication was seen as central from the beginning. demers, giroux & chreim (2003) agree that communication is crucial in a merger and emphasize the need to send the proper messages to employees. applebaum et al. (2001, p. 3) state: ‘there is a strong need for employees to constantly be on the receiving end of information (greenhaigh, 1983). information overload does not apply in these times’. the information should not be contradictory or seem to hide anything and it should give a realistic picture, even when it is bad news. it should also be shared as soon as it is known. duck (2201, pp. 27-8) also emphasizes the importance of communication: communication is always critical but never more so that when you’re trying to get others to see and do things differently. so often formal communication focuses on telling people what to do – handing out assignments and required actions – rather than on answering why or explaining how decisions came to be made. people need to understand the thinking that went into decisions. this was exemplified at a middle management training session at unisa in april 2005 when a member of management expressed surprise that academic heads of departments could simultaneously complain of lack of communication and of receiving too many communications that required them to do more work. many people confuse telling/speaking with communication, completely ignoring listening as an essential component. that is why duck, among others, advises that faceto-face communication is an essential part of a communication plan in addition to e-mails, intranet and print. giving people the facts also defuses rumours. not communicating fully does not stop people talking; it merely means that management is not participating in the conversation (duck, 2001, p. 143). although the director did not draw up a communication plan, she did try to implement the principles contained in table 1. accurate information was elicited as the basis for facing facts. a regular schedule of visits to the florida campus (location of former tsa) was arranged, usually two days a week there, so the director could talk to staff, become familiar with people and their feelings and skills. regular dates were set for management and general departmental meetings. individual and group interactions were followed up with regular updates on e-mail. a schedule for joint management committee meetings was drawn up with participants to meet alternatively on one of the campuses. a ‘merger’ item was placed on the agendas of the management and staff meeting agendas. after each portfolio meeting the director summed up the main points and distributed them electronically to the staff. from the beginning of 2005 she sent our regular monday updates. in addition, although there is no performance management system in place yet, the director scheduled performance consultations three times in 2004 and twice in 2005 to keep in touch with each individual. in dealing with the ‘demerging’ of ccdd, the following principles were given priority: take care of the people, reduce uncertainty and provide choice where possible. taking care of the people applebaum et al. (2001, p. 3) claim that in a merger ‘employees are actually the victims of this situation’. there are many natural emotional reactions to change, which can follow a fairly predictable pattern: shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing and acceptance (pollack, 2003, p. 16). it is important to legitimize feelings, to make it easy for the person to express feelings and to listen with understanding. it is essential to train managers to deal sympathetically and flexibly with the staff in their care, especially if they tend to be more task-oriented. managers are considered to be key in staff satisfaction and retention (buckingham & coffman, 1999). initially, people were assured of their jobs in the short term; moving to correct functional alignment could ensure medium to long-term securit y. an advantage of an early line management change for members of ccdd other than the instructional designers was designed to produce a sense of belonging and playing a meaningful role in shaping their fut ure if the new managers created opport unities for involvement. the eventual success of the merger probably depends on how well change, integration and attitudes are managed to give people a sense of belonging to the new departments and the new institution. marshall (1999) in his book building trust at the speed of change: the power of the relationship-based corporation argues that one must build trust first: give people attention and support and communicate all the relevant data honestly. putting a face on the merger helps to build trust: people must meet their counterparts; leaders and managers must be visible and accessible. this pragmatic approach must be underpinned by values, integrity and ethics to build trust. marshall sees the most important business challenge as achieving a position ‘based on trust, relationships, and collaboration’ (1999, p. x/xi). he believes we must ‘let go of the past’ and accept that people are our most valuable asset and a significant variable in business success. we must ‘accept that what people want and need at work is to be trusted, respected, honoured, and acknowledged’ (marshall, 1999, p. xi). he maintains: a relationship-based corporation is a framework for leading and managing a business that honors the fundamental needs of the individual, builds trust-based relationships, and creates a work environment that can tap into the full potential, intellectual capital, and energy of the workforce, so they are able to produce breakthrough results (marshall, 1999, p. 5). he identifies two drivers for 21st century: firstly, ‘rebuilding trust after years of change experiments’ (marshall, 1999, p. 10); secondly, ‘the need for speed’ (marshall, 1999, p. 12). higher education in south africa is reeling as a result of massive changes in the system since 1994: demands from saqa and the departments of educat ion and l abour. people are tired of change and now the mergers have been imposed. however, the more people resist and force the universit y to stay in implementation mode, the greater the stress. we need to move quickly but the speed at which we can reach meaningful determination and fruition depends on how effective the universit y’s leaders and managers are at building trust. reducing uncertainty if ccdd were to be ‘demerged’, it would be better to have a single change of line management immediately rather than one change in early 2004 and then another at the beginning of 2005. on this principle, and in consultation with other line managers, recommendations were made to human resources through the vice principal for the immediate placement of staff in relevant departments that matched their functional expertise. in some cases additional negotiation was undertaken on behalf of staff and the director was present at initial meetings bet ween new line managers and staff where necessary. the director tried to provide a ‘safety net’ by checking up on feelings and progress in the new environment. she was available on campus every week to share information and uncertainties and to address concerns and fears, as well as to manage the department. it might seem strange to suggest that sharing uncertainties will reduce uncertainty but it does in that it shows that answers are not yet available or that people need to work together to resolve issues. kilfoil, groenewald14 giving choice where possible mazaar (1999), in his publication global trends 2005, states that choice is important in combating anxiety. leaders and managers need to empower staff through constructive engagement and create opportunities for people to participate in decision-making. in this process some people had little choice as they had a definite skill such as typesetting. editors had the option of being placed in editorial or in unisa press. the marketing officer had options within the vice-principal’s portfolio, but also in corporate communications and marketing or within unisa press. having a choice gives one a sense of control over one’s destiny. achieving closure pollack (2003, p. 11) advises: ‘allow expressions of nostalgia and grief for the past; then create excitement about the future’. applebaum et al. (2001, p. 4) state that ‘money should be spent on managing separation as a process’ during the merger and then on team building after the merger. the director organized an official closing function for ccdd. the programme included a facilitated session to focus on emotions around closure. after this change management exercise, staff members had lunch and a ‘fun’ programme to end the day. creating a new reality from the first meeting held by the t wo management committees, shortly before the breakaway in may 2004, issues were flagged. the breakaway was followed by a strategic planning session facilitated by two members of organizational development and a specialist in strategic planning from the unisa’s graduate school of business leadership. at this session the staff members arrived at a name for the new department that would comprise the instructional designers from the former ccdd and the staff members of the bld. they did not want to use either ‘bureau’ or ‘centre’ and eventually settled on institute for curriculum and learning development. one of the learning developers had done some research and was able to inform her colleagues that academic units often described themselves as ‘institutes’ and that suited people’s idea of who they are, who their clients are and what they do. a new vision was drafted: the institute for curriculum and learning development will lead in creating and sustaining an enabling open distance learning (odl) environments in africa. the institute is committed to excellent and innovative curriculum and learning development, thereby contributing to educational transformation. this was shortened in 2005 to transforming teaching and learning in odl contexts in africa. a variety of strategies was selected to fulfil the institute’s purpose: ‘competencies, innovation, effectiveness and efficiency’. in the strategic plan they state: ‘we shall build our reputation internally through excellent work in curriculum and learning design and development and externally through our papers, publications, contributions to policies, service on committees, work for external clients, etc.’ of course, the department had to align itself to the university’s interim goals, as state in the unisa business plan 2004: establish the universit y as a comprehensive institution; provide quality teaching and learning; provide relevant and quality learner support – which includes ‘creating learning development capacity’, which is explained in the unisa business plan as: define the process of curriculum development, define instructional design, its process and principles, develop internal and client capacit y to engage in learning development processes, develop instruments to assist the learning development process, facilitate the process of designing and developing learning process and materials linked to specific qualit y criteria, introduce relevant, effective and efficient telematic mechanisms, develop relevant integrated courseware; provide quality research; actively engage unisa’s external communities; value the unisa communit y; maintain and enhance unisa’s acknowledged academic stature, reputation and reach as a mega universit y; maintain and enhance efficient and effective service delivery. the strategic planning session generated a number of objectives that later guided the activity-based budget for 2005: conducting research into odl, collaborating on curriculum and learning development, undertaking continuing professional learning, assuring quality and developing a departmental culture. however, they were unable to arrive at a definitive structure at the strategic planning meeting and thus had a follow-up session. the resulting structure was flat, with a single line manager, the director. the coordinators and college convenors were to be elected every second year and operate within a matrix structure, not as line managers. marshall (1999, p. 6) points out that in the past organizations were characterized by the ‘politics of power and the need to control’ and, consequently, hierarchical in structure and culture with no shared vision. the present tendency is to have flat and networked structures and to encourage a sense of ownership. the university’s human resources department would favour additional line managers under the director because of span of control issues; however, the new institute was allowed pilot this flat structure for 2005. if the director coped with performance management for over 40 people, the structure would become permanent. the learning developers are highly educated, professional people who work independently across the university in cross-functional teams with academics, editors, graphic designers and so on. they take responsibility for their own work and do not need constant supervision and micro-management. the democratically arrived at structure therefore had a good chance of succeeding. however, the university’s performance management system was not yet in place in 2005 so it is difficult to judge the additional burden it would put on the director as indications are that there would be four performance management meetings a year. task teams were initiated to address the issues that were flagged along the way; for instance, writing up the key performance areas (kpas). the teams were composed on the principle of each having equal numbers of bld and instructional designers from ccdd to ensure that the minority ccdd voice was not swamped (the former ccdd members comprise about 25% of the instit ute). this arrangement meant that instructional designers sat on twice as many teams, though, but it was preferable to silencing them through under-representation. during 2005 additional workshops took place around curriculum development, instructional design and quality assurance of materials, among other things. these workshops were useful in moving staff members towards a common understanding of the core business of the institute. the director wanted learning developers and instructional designers to work together on new projects to observe each other’s methods and move closer to consensus about how to conduct their business. the dominant methodolog y was supposed to be that of the campus at which the lecturer was located. this collaboration started to reveal interesting learning points for the new comprehensive instit ution related to programmes. the process also uncovered further misalignments bet ween structures and functions: the failure to ascertain the functions of departments across the t wo campuses in the ‘as is’ analysis and to align them accurately has led to tensions. unfort unately, having t wo people working on a project and observing the methodolog y of the host campus did not achieve its goal. many of the projects mergers and change management 15 were on the florida campus but the old bld methodolog y seemed to take over for a variet y of reasons so mutual learning did not occur and methodologies and paradigms have not merged. reflection and discussion the following quotation from anderson and anderson (2004, p. 1) struck such a chord that it is used to structure much of the reflection on the change management process below: transforming is a very uncertain and unpredictable process that requires a new leadership approach: 1) the outcome is unknown at the start and must be figured out as you proceed; 2) this ‘figuring it out’ process requires constant course correction; 3) this journey is only semi-controllable and largely erratic; and, 4) given the magnitude of uncertainty, people get mentally and emotionally triggered with feelings of fear, anger, and confusion. the statement epitomizes the experiences icld has had since the merger. the outcome is unknown at the start and must be figured out as you proceed another comment by anderson and anderson (2004, p. 2) – ‘tell the truth about the change: what is happening and what is known. of equal importance, share what is not happening and is not known about the change.’ – exemplifies how the institute had to operate. the director often had to say ‘ask your questions but we won’t always have the answers’. a drawback is that rumours arise in this situation and it is of the utmost importance to defuse them immediately. the different competencies of the new department were listed in the mission and menu of services in the strategic plan in 2004 and in the kpa document, but what looked like consensus on the issues might just have been compliance. despite opportunities and training it is still not clear that everyone will become equally competent in all areas either because they are reluctant to move out of their comfort zones or because they are genuinely incapable of acquiring the competencies. this ‘figuring it out’ process requires constant course correction they started with an imprecise understanding of the environment on both campuses so they made missteps and had to correct their course. for example, they included the project managers in the new institute but later separated them out into a project management office located in the office of the executive director in the vice principal’s portfolio. this journey is only semi-controllable and largely erratic inevitably, when one is part of a larger system, one has a limited area of control. because the merger involved systemic change, the impact of changes in one area affected planning and operations in others. or the institute would proceed cautiously but quickly and the system had not yet developed to accommodate their plans; for example, the placement procedures had not been determined for placements below the level of director but they wanted to facilitate one line management change. they decided to have a separate institute for curriculum and learning development and project management office for 2005 and drew up different budgets for both new departments but the new structures had not yet been approved so the budgets had to be reintegrated. given the magnitude of uncertainty, people get mentally and emotionally triggered with feelings of fear, anger, and confusion initially fear and anger were most noticeable among the ccdd members. as the merger process developed after the breakaway there was increasing confusion and anger on the part of the bld staff as it became clear that they would have to work with their new colleagues to create a new vision and it would not be business as usual. even when the institute achieved a small success by creating an area of certainty, the larger uncertainty around the future of the campuses remained a threat and potentially undermined these efforts. in this situation it was important for the manager to be there and listen again and renegotiate; in other words, to provide a ‘safety net’. the universit y had a change management team with a representative in the learner support portfolio to which bld and ccdd were allocated but no structured, systematic interventions or counselling were provided on an individual or group level. considering the magnitude of the change for ccdd and the displacement of its director, the staff members behaved with restraint, courtesy and cooperation. however, there was evidence of demotivation and stress. some people in bld and ccdd indicated that they would be willing to take a voluntary package if offered. there was one resignation from bld in 2004 (not merger related) and four from ccdd (only one instructional designer, clearly merger related). leaders and managers have to be aware of the human side of the merger all the time and address uncertainties through the strategies discussed in this article. they have to do the best they can for their staff, serve the universit y’s and department’s core business and keep the end in the mind: a single, comprehensive dedicated distance education instit ution operating effectively and efficiently to serve the needs of its students, its employees, society and the broader enterprise of generating and distributing new knowledge. conclusions the following criteria could be used to evaluate the impact of the deliberate use of change management principles in the new icld: staff morale; staff retention; levels of absenteeism; diversity profile of management committee; staff satisfaction with director’s performance; staff satisfaction with communication; increased levels of competence in core business; planning processes and frameworks, and where the institute is in the merger process. staff morale seems fairly high most of the time: levels of absenteeism due to ill health or taking unofficial time off work are not noticeable judging by sick leave forms and availability of staff; after the initial staff losses in ccdd, only one of them an instructional designer, no other staff members have resigned, in contrast to rather attrition in some other sections of the universit y. the instit ute management committee (imc) is perhaps too big but the aim is participatory management. it includes the director, her pa, the office manager, the project service manager, four elected coordinators and five elected college convenors. there is thus a significant level of participation in management and planning for the department. of the thirteen people, six are women, one black; seven are men, five black. the gender and race balance is thus equitable. a survey was conducted on the director’s performance at the end of 2004, which gives data to evaluate some of the change management strategies and the director’s perceptions that progress has been made. staff satisfaction averaged 3,52 out of four on 30 items, dealing with planning, organizing, leading and monitoring, with the lowest score 3,09. clearly there was room for improvement but this was not a bad rating. one can relate the qualitative comments to one of the original propositions, that ‘relationship building and participation would lead to greater buy-in and facilitate the merger by building trust’. four comments show that there are perceptions that the strategies have not completely succeeded: ‘always behave transparently and make the information that led to decisions visible’, ‘build faith/ trust’, ‘give fair and equal treatment to all staff members regardless of location, race or history’ and ‘have a stronger democratic and more inclusive kilfoil, groenewald16 approach’. there was also a perception in the evaluation that the director had not succeeded in dealing effectively with affective issues. for instance, one comment stated: ‘consider all facts and personalities before making decisions. take the feelings and sensitivities/ interpersonal intelligence of staff members into account’, while another urged ‘be more peopleoriented, listen to problems, be more approachable’ and a third enjoined her to ‘recognize trends of unhappiness and disagreement in the department and react positively and proactively’, a very tall order. a second proposition stated that ‘effective communication was essential’. however, the evalutation revealed that another area in which the director needed to improve was in the area of interpersonal communication and giving recognition, as the following comments show: ‘talk more to staff about their performance and progress’, ‘give more regular feedback on individual performance to the person’, ‘spend more time with ordinary learning developers outside meetings’ and ‘give frank feedback on strengths and limitations in confidence’. quality circle research into the relationship between well-being and communication in mid 2005 resulted in a series of focus group interviews, another source of data. questions were specifically designed with an appreciative enquiry slant, asking what was working, but nonetheless perceptions of problems around communication, some personal, some systemic, were revealed. the observations were not about the director but about general communication in the institute. it was felt that people do not listen. the director had actually identified this issue during a team meeting earlier in the year and had tried to improve the understanding of communication in the whole department by sending out a short article on the subject. another problem identified was that communication is not two way. while the director often sends out information, there is not enough time and space for discussion. people also put different interpretations on communication. the director had also identified earlier in the year that people tend to lash out instead of checking for understanding. that dysfunctional type of communication was also addressed in the short article. the data from the focus group interviews are still being analysed and interpreted and will therefore not be addressed in any further detail. positive feedback comes from individual anecdotal evidence. the capacity building in 2005 has resulted in increased competence in core business including curriculum development, instructional design, planning of assessment, outcomes-based education, evaluation of material, using e-learning and writing for publication. staff members have expressed their feelings of greater confidence as a result of the training. the first strategic and action planning cycle in 2004 laid a firm foundation for the 2005 plan for 2006. the imc monitors and evaluates the action plan for the year every three months to see if objectives are being achieved. the director, who was a newcomer to departmental management in 2004, has also learnt how to use the planning as a framework for an activity based budget. the most honest conclusion is that the change management strategy has succeeded to some extent but that it could have been executed more efficiently and effectively. duck has two pertinent comments: it is wishful thinking to believe that plunging into action will solve underlying conflicts and eradicate lingering doubts. for example, don’t assume that once a person knows he or she has a job, and what it is, he will be fully engaged and loyal to the new organization’ (2001, p. 156) and ‘intention does not equal effect. a person may intend one thing and yet cause a totally different response in someone else’ (2001, p. 181). the director has had experience of communication being misinterpreted; not only because of different cult ures between former departments but as a result of individual cultural differences including language, gender and race. also, some actions are well meant, such as allowing staff members a great deal of autonomy as a demonstration confidence, but not they are always perceived that way: some people believe that guidelines need to be in place. once again this is a cultural issue based on the degree of independence, structure and scope previously experienced at the former institutions. different cultures are one of the most difficult issues to resolve along with differences in beliefs about teaching and learning in odl contexts and a commitment to a transformative approach. the director has a strong suspicion that some people in the institute may be in premature ‘determination’ before important cultural, operational and philosophical issues have been resolved: in this phase, people ask themselves the hard questions about their current place and their future within the organization. can i do this job? do i want to do this job? do i trust our leader? do i like where the company is heading? how does my new life compare to my old one? what is my future here? am i being adequately compensated, rewarded, and recognized for the seemingly endless pain and hassle we have been through – and may still have to go through? would it be easier/ faster/ smarter to start over somewhere else? would i be better off in a totally different situation? as the reality of the changes sinks in, people gradually (or sometimes, suddenly) understand that their working lives have been profoundly altered and things will not return to ‘normal’ or to the way they ‘used to be’ (duck, 2001, pp. 197-8). others are operating within former paradigms as if nothing changed in the merger; the difficulty with merging or recreating beliefs and practices mentioned earlier. the distance between the campuses continues to make it particularly difficult to develop new, common understandings and practices; conversely, it allows people (on both campuses) to cling to old practices without being too visible. the change management strategy has kept staff informed of progress in the merger at the macro level through constant communication; the focus on participation and training has increased capacity and kept staff turnover low. the enhanced capacity has added greater value to the institute’s services to the academics and in many cases bolstered confidence, flexibility and morale. where teams are working across campuses, after some initial storming, there is exciting synergy. the director continues to monitor progress and plans to build further capacity in 2006. the article started by asking t wo questions: what impact would the implementation of change management principles and practices have? how could it help to meet current demands while preparing for long term strategic goals – the universit y’s and the department’s? the implementation of change management principles worked to a great degree in the icld merger, reducing stress, absenteeism, etc. and increasing trust but change management principles and practices need to be systemic in a merger to have the most impact. mergers, it is clear, place an almost impossible strain on all concerned but the stress can be alleviated through careful planning and an excellent communication plan. putting principles first, such as caring for employees, helps to ensure that the merger does not falter through lack of cooperation. attention to attitude and culture is essential. working towards a win-win situation also pays dividends. training line managers with change management skills would pay off. it is the preparation phase that ensures success as well as perserverance in the implementation phase. spending time on human issues to meet current demands might slow the process somewhat initially but lays a solid foundation to achieve future strategic goals whether at departmental or institutional level. mergers and change management 17 references applebaum, s.h., gandell, j., shapiro, b.t., belisle, p. & hoeven, e. (2001). anatomy of a merger: behavior of organizational factors and processes throughout the preduringpoststages (part 2). management decision, 38 (10), 1-11. anderson, l.a. & anderson, d. (2004). how to be a strong leader in the face of uncertainty. retrieved july 13, 2004 from http://www.workinfo.com/newsletter. brousseau, k.r. (1989). navigating the merger transition. journal of organizational change management, 2 (1), 72-78. buckingham, m. & coffman, c. (1999). first, break all the rules: what the world’s greatest managers do differently. london: free press. collins, j. (2001). good to great: why some companies make the leap and others don’t. new york: harperbusiness. demers, c., giroux, n. & chreim, s. (2003). merger and acquisition announcements as corporate wedding narratives. journal of organisational change, 16 (2), 223-242. duck, j.d. (2001). the change monster: the human forces that fuel or foil corporate transformation and change. new york: three rivers press. hay, r., lowe, d., gibb, d. & anderson, b. (2002). breaking the mould: deakin university, the first twenty-five years. geelong: deakin university. marshall, e.m. (1999). building trust at the speed of change: the power of the relationship-based corporation. new york: amacom. mazaar, m.j. (1999). global trends 2005. new york: palgrave. mergers – the cisco system, secrets of us computer giant’s success. (2002). strategic direction, 20 (7), 25-27. ottoway, r.n. (1983). the change agent: a taxonomy in relation to the change process. human relations, 36 (4), 361-392. pollack, l. (2003). leading organizational change. seminar: the pennsylvania state universit y, office of human resources. south africa. (2001). department of education. national plan for higher education. pretoria. retrieved on september 30, 2005 from http://education.pwv.gov.za/content/documents/ 706.pdf. tellis, w. (1997). application of a case study methodology. the qualitative report, 3 (3). retrieved june 21, 2005 from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/qr/qr3-3/tellis2.html. kilfoil, groenewald18 abstract introduction research method results discussion acknowledgements references footnote about the author(s) barbara m. seate department of logistics, vaal university of technology, south africa raborale i.d. pooe department of business management, university of johannesburg, south africa richard chinomona department of marketing, university of witwatersrand, south africa citation seate, b.m., pooe, r.i.d., & chinomona, r. (2016). the relative importance of managerial competencies for predicting the perceived job performance of broad-based black economic empowerment verification practitioners. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a696. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.696 original research the relative importance of managerial competencies for predicting the perceived job performance of broad-based black economic empowerment verification practitioners barbara m. seate, raborale i.d. pooe, richard chinomona received: 02 mar. 2015; accepted: 08 dec. 2015; published: 28 apr. 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: there is a need for the growing broad-based black economic empowerment (b-bbee) verification industry to assess competencies and determine skills gaps for the management of the verification practitioners’ perceived job performance. knowing which managerial competencies are important for different managerial functions is vital for developing and improving training and development programmes. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to determine the managerial capabilities that are required of the b-bbee verification practitioners, in order to improve their perceived job performance. motivation for the study: the growing number of the b-bbee verification practitioners calls for more focused training and development. generating such a training and development programme demands empirical research into the relative importance of managerial competencies. research approach, design and method: a quantitative design using the survey approach was adopted. a questionnaire was administered to a stratified sample of 87 b-bbee verification practitioners. data were analysed using the statistical package for social sciences (version 22.0) and smart partial least squares software. main findings: the results of the correlation analysis revealed that there were strong and positive associations between technical skills, interpersonal skills, compliance to standards and ethics, managerial skills and perceived job performance. results of the regression analysis showed that managerial skills, compliance to standards and ethics and interpersonal skills were statistically significant in predicting perceived job performance. however, technical skills were insignificant in predicting perceived job performance. practical/managerial implications: the study has shown that the b-bbee verification industry, insofar as the technical skills of the practitioners are concerned, does have suitably qualified staff with the requisite educational qualifications. at the same time, from the present study the industry can now determine the priority skills. contribution: the study identified the needed skills as managerial skills, standards and ethics and interpersonal skills, in that order. the verification agencies will now be in a better position to know where they should focus their training and development. introduction organisations seem to have always battled to define their competency models and thus find the implementation of skills management problematic (homer, 2001). the ability to assess competencies and determine skills gaps is critical as it enables organisations to manage individual and team performance better. knowing which managerial competencies are important for different managerial functions is vital for developing and improving training and development programmes. as the scope of the modern organisation, which tends to be flatter and less hierarchical changes, competencies which managers considered important in the past may no longer be relevant today (gentry, harris, baker, & leslie, 2007). the study investigated 87 broad-based black economic empowerment (b-bbee) verification practitioners, all employed by verification agencies registered with the association of bee verification agencies. the aim of the study was to determine the relative importance of their managerial competencies in light of their influence on the perceived job performance. the article is organised as follows. the next section provides a brief background of the b-bbee landscape, followed by a review of literature in the areas of managerial competencies and hypotheses development. this is followed by a section on the research methodology and the results. finally, the article reflects on the limitations of the study and the study’s implications and concludes with recommendations for future research direction. background through the b-bbee legislative framework, it has become imperative in south africa for a company to have an acceptable level of the b-bbee status if it is to conduct business with government or its agencies (ernest & young, 2013). the b-bbee legislative framework aims to restructure the economy with a view to empower those who had been historically marginalised by apartheid and its legacy (department of trade and industry [dti], 2007; levin, 2011; rubushe, 2009). from its inception, the b-bbee policy framework has not been without challenges. for example, in 2007 it became necessary to adopt and implement the codes of good practice in order to deal with some challenges relating to the implementation of the bee policy, including the lack of uniform framework for the recognition and measurement of bee, extensive delays in bee implementation because of differences in interpretation, lack of underlying economic substance to many bee transactions and fronting due to lack of implementation guidelines (dti, 2007). in the meantime, there were rating agencies that assisted companies develop their own scorecards reflecting the companies’ level of b-bbee compliance. the codes of good practice (codes) introduced the b-bbee scorecard, which measures the degree of compliance to b-bbee (dti, 2007). this process would result in the issue of a certificate indicating a company’s degree of compliance to b-beee, thereby giving a company a competitive edge in bidding for any kind of business with government or its agencies (pooe, 2013). no sooner had the codes been adopted, than some difficulties became evident in the implementation thereof. lack or absence of common standards and criteria for assessing the b-bbee status emerged as a major problem (gomez & premdas, 2013). in order to overcome this problem, the dti appointed the accreditation body, south african national accreditation system to develop a set of accreditation criteria by which would be verification agencies could be assessed (dti, 2007). the role of a verification agency is to audit the scorecard with a view to ensure the factual correctness of the information provided to the verification agency (econobee, 2009). following the release of the first draft of the codes in 2004, the number of verification agencies increased rapidly (business report, 2008), thus necessitating some form of regulation. to this end, in july 2008 the government published the verification manual for the creation of universal, transparent and coherent standards applicable in the verification industry. the aim of the manual was to set acceptable minimum standards and ethical codes of conduct underpinning the responsibilities of verification agencies to perform verification and reporting on the b-bbee scorecard (dti, 2008). furthermore, the manual was to outline the responsibilities of the verification agency to its client in respect of quality control and also set the requirements based on the key measurement principles and calculations of b-bbee policy (dti, 2008). an auditing model was adopted as a framework for the b-bbee verification process (jack, 2007). verification is defined as the confirmation through the provision of objective evidence that specified requirements have been fulfilled (haeckel & püntmann, 2001). in the context of b-bbee, verification means the process and activities conducted by a verification agency to assess, verify and validate that the score awarded to a measured entity is a result of individual scorecard elements supplied by a measured entity and to evaluate b-bbee transactions in order to provide an indicative b-bbee score and certification based on the principles of the b-bbee codes (dti, 2008). for the past few years, there has been a growing emphasis within the verification industry of the need to develop and improve the performance of b-bbee verification practitioners in order to meet the increasing demands placed on the industry by both its clients and government (econobee, 2011). marais (2012) pointed to the need to enhance the competence of the industry. developing and improving the performance of the verification industry would require of the industry and government to develop competencies of the practitioners. table 1 identifies some of the key role players in the verification process. table 1: key role players in the verification process. the b-bbee-approved registered auditor provides a limited assurance that, based on the work performed, the scores determined for the measured entity’s b-bbee scorecard and the resultant b-bbee status of the measured entity are not materially misstated (independent regulatory board of auditors [irba], 2012). the south african standard on assurance engagements (sasae) 3502 assurance engagement on b-bbee verification certificates and the isae 3000 require that both assurance standards and guidance for b-bbee verification by all approved registered auditors and professional accountant harmonise with the fundamental principles of auditing in terms of the international ethics standards board for accountants (iesba) code. these principles include integrity, objectivity, professional competence, due care, confidentiality and professional behaviour. furthermore, other pronouncements of the international auditing and assurance standards board set out international standard on quality control (isqc) to deal with a firm’s responsibilities for its system of quality control for audit and reviews of financial statements and related service engagements (isqc, 2012). because b-bbee verification is considered as a related service engagement, it should be read in conjunction with isqc (irba, 2012). literature review and hypotheses development managerial competencies according to armstrong (2001), a competence is a work-related concept that defines the areas of work in which a person needs to be competent. it is also described as a general description of the underlying knowledge, skills and attributes that people need to deliver worthy job performance (stevens, 2013). steward and brown (2009:134) define competencies as ‘traits and abilities that people need to achieve success in professional tasks’. a competency is also described as a composite of the knowledge, skills and attributes that lead to worthy job performance (brits & veldsman, 2014). competencies capture the range of procedures, skills and abilities, attitudes, beliefs and values, dispositions and personal characteristics, self-perceptions and motivations that enable a range of work demands to be met effectively (rubin et al., 2007). competencies should take into consideration not only job descriptions but also best practices and recent trends in the industry as well as the organisation’s own strategy (martone, 2003). thus, a competency framework should consist of a set of ‘generic’ competency areas, with each competency area to be composed of a limited number of competencies that would be relevant, to different degrees for every concerned job position (lucia & lepsinger, 1999). furthermore, research by mansfield (1999) shows that a competency relates to characteristics that result in effective performance. these are variously defined in terms of those essential personal traits, skills, knowledge and motives of the employee that are related to superior performance (dainty, cheng & moore, 2003). thus, competencies can be seen as sets of related behaviours or the required knowledge, skill and ability to perform a task or role. if managers have a certain set of competencies, then they will be successful in enhancing organisational performance (mohd-shamsudin & chuttipattana, 2012). whilst scholars have categorised competencies into different groups (mohd-shamsudin & chuttipattana, 2012), the aim of the present study is concerned with the identification of critical managerial competencies and how they relate to perceived job performance for b-bbee verification practitioners. several typologies of managerial competencies have been studied over time. for example, katz (1974) identified three types of skills, technical, human and conceptual, indicating that the latter is the most critical for top leaders. christensen, andrews and bower (1978) proposed a typology of managerial skills with respect to types of leadership according to which taskmasters, mediators, motivators and leaders should possess human, sensitivity and administrative ability; personal leaders need to hold persuasion and articulation skills; and architect leaders need creativity skills, intellectual ability and conceptual ability (carmeli & tishler, 2006). the studies by castanias and helfat (1991) and bailey and helfat (2003) determined the following four types of skills constituting managerial competency: (1) generic skills, which are transferable across sectors and organisations; (2) sector-related skills; (3) organisation-specific skills and (4) ‘industry-related’ skills. scullen, mount and judge (2003) identified the following dimensions of managerial competence: (1) technical skill; (2) administrative skill; (3) human skill and (4) citizenship behaviour. this study has adopted scullen et al. (2003) typology of managerial competencies and seeks to determine the relative importance of these to the job performance of b-bbee verification practitioners. administrative skill subsumes areas such as planning, organising, delegating and coordinating. it overlaps with managerial skill in this study. human skill is concerned with a manager’s ability to interact and work effectively with team members. in this study, human skill overlaps with interpersonal skill. finally, citizenship behaviour is referred to as upholding standards and ethics. because there are no existing managerial competencies for b-bbee verification practitioners, the competency list that contains items established by internal auditor competency framework (iacf) (2010) was deemed to be the closest for the purposes of this study and the items were accordingly used. the iacf competency list includes technical skills, interpersonal skills, management skills and the upholding of standards and ethics – dimensions similar to those identified by scullen et al. (2003) as stated above. however, to make sure that the competency list was applicable to the context of the study, it was verified by three senior b-bbee verification practitioners deemed to be best qualified to determine baseline competencies for the b-bbee verification practitioners. technical skills and perceived job performance according to yukl (2002), technical skills include knowledge about methods, processes and equipment for conducting the specialised activities of the managers’ organisational unit. technical skills also include factual knowledge about organisation (rules, structure, management systems and employee characteristics), and knowledge about the organisation’s products and services (technical specifications, strengths and limitations). this type of knowledge is acquired by a combination of formal education, training and job experience. technical skill refers to a manager’s proficiency in specific methods or techniques related to that manager’s functional area (tonidandel, braddy & fleenor, 2012). hysong (2008) conceded that the relationship between technical skill and managerial performance is neither simple nor direct. technical skills are critical for first-tier managers, serving several important functions such as communicating effectively with subordinates, verifying the soundness of the decisions they make and making programme-level decisions based on subordinates’ suggestions (badawy, 1995; hysong, 2008). hysong (2008) found that technical skill did not significantly increase managerial skill’s predictive power. yet, technical skill was found to be predictive of subordinate perceptions of managerial performance, over and above managerial skills’ non-significant contribution. that said, this study hypothesises that: hypothesis 1: there is a positive and significant relationship between the technical skills possessed by the b-bbee verification practitioners and their perceived job performance. interpersonal skills and perceived job performance interpersonal skills (also called ‘social skills’) include knowledge about human behaviour and group processes, ability to understand the feelings, attitudes and motives of others and the ability to communicate clearly and persuasively (yukl, 2002). interpersonal skills such as empathy, social insight, charm, tact and diplomacy, persuasiveness and oral communication ability are essential to develop and maintain cooperative relationships with subordinates, superiors, peers and outsiders (northouse, 2004). these skills are concerned with a manager’s ability to interact and work effectively with team members (tonidandel et al., 2012). interpersonal skills concern communicating supportively, gaining power and influence, managing conflict and motivating employees (mckenna, 2004). these skills also include the ability to lead, delegate, communicate, negotiate, develop people and manage conflict (al-madhoun & analoui, 2002). recent work, however, suggests that not only is a theory of interpersonal relationships lacking, but that interpersonal skills training for managers has a negligible impact overall (hunt & baruch, 2003). a study by bambacas and patrickson (2008) demonstrated that some good interpersonal skills on the part of the managers are considered to be important in enhancing employee commitment, whilst al-madhoun and analoui (2002) found that interpersonal skills constitute the most important category for the increased effectiveness of managers, irrespective of their position within the organisation. in part, the present study seeks to find a relationship between self-reported interpersonal skills and job performance. in light of this, the following hypothesis is postulated: hypothesis 2: there is a positive and significant relationship between the interpersonal skills possessed by the b-bbee verification practitioners and their perceived job performance. managerial skills and perceived job performance management skills consist of ‘identifiable sets of actions that individuals perform and that lead to certain outcomes’ (mckenna, 2004:665; whetten & cameron, 2002). managerial skills are not universal phenomena able to be defined and measured in a clear and objective way. instead, these skills are particularistic, situated, contextual, and socially constructed (billsberry & birnik, 2010; chia, 1996; mckenna, 2004). bergenhenegouwen (1996) argued that in a managerial context, managers must possess a range of competencies to perform effectively. in this regard, cheng, dainty and moore (2005) hold that performance management is a core strategic human resources management activity to which competence and competency frameworks can be applied. more recently, a study by tonidandel et al. (2012) found that overall managerial capability was the most important predictor of a manager’s effectiveness. carmeli and tishler (2006) concede that even though there is agreement about the multi-dimensional nature of performance, there remains little empirical work relating managerial skills to such performance measures. furthermore, de waal, van der heijden, selvarajah and meyer (2011) believe there is a need for academically grounded leadership research into the effectiveness characteristics of managers. hence, the following hypothesis is postulated: hypothesis 3: there is a positive and significant relationship between the management skills possessed by the b-bbee verification practitioners and their perceived job performance. compliance to standards and ethics and perceived job performance ethical sensitivity is the ability to identify and recognise ethical issues when they arise and moral reasoning judgement relate to how and why ethical decisions are made (jackling, cooper, leung & dellaportas, 2007). sullivan (2004) conceptualised knowledge of ethics as members’ knowledge of a set of ethical principles and statements issued by the professional body to regulate its members. he further states that as professionals, auditors are expected to have sufficient knowledge of ethics and understand what the codes of ethical standards comprise. according to zakaria, haron and ismail (2010), the purpose of the code is to enhance members’ knowledge and guide them in recognising ethical problems and thus formulating ethical judgement. the codes of ethics are designed to ensure that the ethics of the professional group are the ethics internalised by the individual practitioner. codes mitigate against individuals applying the expertise of the profession to ends that are not the ends deemed good by the professional body (williams, 2010). as professionals, auditors are expected to have sufficient knowledge of ethics and to understand what the codes of ethical standards comprise. the underlying reason is that the accounting professional body requires the auditors to apply similar standards in which ethical judgements are laid down in the profession’s ethical code (zakaria et al., 2010). in fact, prior research has found that auditors with higher levels of moral development rely more on judgement and less on technical standards for problem resolution (sweeney & roberts, 1997). according to jackling et al. (2007), the problem for professionals is that ethical issues are often hidden and they often lack the ethical sensitivity to recognise ethical dilemmas when they arise. a study by okpara and wynn (2007) found that favourable organisational ethical climates encourage commitment and job satisfaction: hypothesis 4: there is a positive and significant relationship between compliance to standards and ethics by the b-bbee verification practitioners and their perceived job performance. research method design, sampling and data collection a quantitative design using the survey approach was adopted for the present study. the survey method was deemed appropriate for the study because it enables data collection from large populations, making it easier to develop and administer the research questionnaire whilst allowing for generalisation of the research findings (malhotra, 2010). a total of 200 questionnaires were distributed to the verification practitioners employed by a full population of 80 verification agencies in south africa. of these questionnaires, 87 were completed and deemed usable for further processing, thereby yielding a response rate of 43.5%. similar studies (awad & alhashemi, 2012; shetach & marcus, 2013) were based on samples of 85, 104 and 107 respondents. a list of all verification agencies was obtained from the south african national accreditation system website. each survey was accompanied by a cover letter that explained the purpose of the study and also ensured confidentiality of participants’ responses and their right to anonymity. respondents were reminded of their voluntary participation and that they reserve the right to withdraw from the study at any stage, should they so wish. this was underscored especially considering an inherent risk of common source bias in self-reports. yet, self-reports were clearly the most appropriate considering the aim of the study. in this regard, conway and lance (2010) concur that whilst other types of measures might be appropriate or even superior, self-reports are appropriate for job satisfaction and many other private events. another argument for using self-reports was advanced by shalley, gilson and blum (2009), who argued that in certain cases, employees are best suited to self-report because they are the ones who are aware of the subtle things they do or need in their jobs. thus, in the present study self-reports were deemed appropriate because it was about professionals identifying the relative importance of their managerial competencies in the enhancement of their own perceived job performance. measuring instrument because there are no existing managerial competencies for b-bbee verification practitioners, the competency list that contains questionnaire items established by iacf (2010) was used to measure managerial competency. however, to make sure that the competency list was applicable to the context of the study, it was verified by three senior b-bbee verification practitioners deemed to be best qualified to determine baseline competencies for the b-bbee verification practitioners. section a determined the demographic profile of the participants. sections b to e were adapted from the iacf (2010) questionnaire, which contained questions on technical skills, interpersonal skills, management skills and standards and ethics. section f contained items to measure job performance that were adapted from chiang and hsieh (2011). all items were scored such that a higher score indicated higher standing on the construct being measured. a 5-point likert scale was used, where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. results data were analysed using the statistical package for the social sciences (version 22.0) and smart partial least squares software. demographic data of the subjects, frequencies and the scores of the factors as well as measures of central tendency were established. internal consistency estimates were formulated using cronbach’s alpha coefficients. further statistical procedures that include the pearson correlation analysis and linear regression analysis were used as bases for testing the hypotheses. sample composition table 2 presents the sample profile characteristics. table 2: sample profile characteristics. the data indicate that 13.8% of respondents were people aged from 20 to 25 years, 35.6% were aged between 26 and 35 years, another 35.6% were respondents aged between 36 and 45 years, 13.8% were aged between 46 and 55 years and 1.1% were 56 years and above. the number of female respondents (54%) exceeds their male counterparts (46%). table 3 presents the professional profile of the respondents. table 3: professional profile of the respondents. table 3 shows that 66.7% (27.6% + 39.1%) of respondents, representing the majority, hold either a degree or a postgraduate academic qualification, with most in possession of the latter qualification. nearly half [49.4% (35.6 + 13.8)] of the respondents function at a managerial level, whilst the other half function at the technical (21.8%) and verification analyst (27.6%) levels. the sample seems to represent the population of the verification practitioners. reliability and validity of the instrument the reliability of the measuring instrument was assessed, and table 4 reflects the results for each variable. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient of at least 0.7 confirms the reliability of the instrument in effectively capturing the variables examined in the study (chin, 1998). content and face validity of the instrument were ascertained through the review by three senior b-bbee verification practitioners deemed to be best qualified to determine baseline competencies for the b-bbee verification practitioners. their feedback ensured that the instrument only comprised those questions that would validly capture the aims of the study. convergent validity of the measurement scale was assessed in two ways. firstly, the high cronbach’s alpha coefficients, ranging from 0.946 and 0.989 (≥ 0.70) reflect the degree of cohesiveness of the items contained within the variable measures, thereby serving as an indirect indicator of convergent validity (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). secondly, pearson correlation coefficients indicate the high degree of convergence amongst the constructs linked in the conceptual model. the model provides relatively poor evidence of discriminant validity as a result of fairly high inter-correlation factors. in this regard, tabachnick and fidell (2013) caution that a factor correlation that equals or exceeds 0.85 is often used as the cut-off criterion for problematic discriminant validity. table 4: inter-construct correlations. according to farrell (2010), whenever there are high construct inter-correlations, there is a need to assess discriminant validity, in order to have confidence in subsequent research findings. in this regard, the technique proposed by fornell and larcker (1981) to assess discriminant validity was used. according to fornell and larcker (1981), for any two constructs a and b, the average variance extracted (ave) for a and the ave for b both need to be larger than the shared variance (i.e. square of the correlation) between a and b. that is, both ave estimates have to be greater than the shared variance estimate. hair, jr., black, babin, anderson and tatham (2006, p. 778) support using this technique for assessing discriminant validity and accordingly note that ‘the variance extracted estimates should be greater than the squared correlation estimate’. at the same time, the factors should have an ave of more than 0.5 (chin, 1998). it can be seen from tables 4 and 5 that the values for ave all exceed 0.5 and are all greater than their respective shared variance estimates, thereby confirming the existence of discriminant validity of the measurement used in this study. table 5: accuracy of analysis statistics. correlation and regression analyses pearson correlations were computed with a view to ascertain relationships between the independent variables, namely, technical skills, interpersonal skills, management skills and compliance to standards and ethics on the one hand and the dependent variable, namely perceived job performance, on the other. table 4 reports on the correlation results between the variables. as can be seen from table 4, the relationship between the management competencies (technical, interpersonal, standards and ethics as well as managerial skills) and perceived job performance show significant positive correlations. a strong positive association was observed between technical skills and perceived job performance (r = 0.621; p < 0.05). a positive and strong association was found between interpersonal and perceived job performance (r = 0.830; p < 0.05). regarding managerial skills, a positive and strong association (r = 0.809; p < 0.01) was also observed between managerial skills and perceived job performance. a positive and strong association was observed between compliance to standards and ethics and perceived job performance (r = 0.801; p < 0.05). the next step was to determine the extent to which these variables predict perceived job performance. to this end, multiple regression analysis was computed. table 6 presents the regression model summary results. table 6: regression model summary results. table 6 provides the r and r2 values. the r value of 0.897 indicates a high degree of correlation, whilst the r2 or adjusted r2 value indicates how much of the total variation in the dependent variable, perceived job performance, can be explained by the independent variables (technical skills, interpersonal skills, standards and ethics, and managerial skills). the adjusted r2 is a modified version of r2 that has been adjusted for the number of predictors in the model (frost, 2013). in this case, 79.4% of the perceived job performance of the b-bbee verification practitioners can be explained by the management competencies, which is very large. the other 20.6% of variability of job performance can be explained by other factors not explored in this study. table 7 is the analysis of variance table, which reports how well the regression equation fits the data (i.e. predicts the dependent variable). table 7: analysis of variance. table 7 shows that the regression model is statistically significant at p = 0.000 (p < 0.001). this indicates that, overall, the model applied can statistically significantly predict the dependent variable, namely perceived job performance, thereby indicating that the data are suitable for the next step, namely, regression analysis. table 8 provides the necessary information to predict perceived job performance from managerial competencies (technical skills, interpersonal skills, standards and ethics, and managerial skills) as well as determine whether independent variables and managerial competencies contribute statistically significantly to the model. table 8: regression analysis: managerial competencies and job performance. an important assumption of proceeding with multiple regression analysis is to ensure that there is no multi-collinearity, a situation in which the predictor variables correlate too highly (r > 0.9) with each other (field, 2005). yet, some of the observed correlations, including correlations corrected for reliability as per table 4, did not touch the 0.9 mark. that said, the data were considered suitable for regression analysis considering that it was well within the range of tolerance and the variance inflation factor (vif), which was used to test multi-collinearity. in the present study, tolerance was between 0.167 and 0.288. field (2009) posits that if the vif is greater than 10, it implies that the predictor variables are correlated amongst themselves, which makes collinearity a cause for concern. whilst the data in the present study have not reached these levels, the multi-collinearity is considered to be moderate. the vif for the four subscales in the current study ranged between 3.472 and 5.987, which indicates no problem of multi-collinearity. consequently, the ‘enter’ method of regression was applied to the data set with a view to ascertaining whether any correlations exist between the four managerial competencies (independent variables) and job performance (dependent variable). furthermore, the beta values in table 8 show that managerial skills is the strongest predictor of job performance (β = 0.451; t = 4.863; p < 0.05), followed by standards and ethics (β = 0.384; t = 3.636; p < 0.05) and interpersonal skills (β = 0.245; t = 2.045; p < 0.05). an interesting result is the negative and insignificant predictive relationship1 (β = −0.148; t = −1.621; p > 0.05) between technical skills and perceived job performance, given that other predictors in the model are held constant. discussion the purpose of the study was to determine the managerial capabilities that are required of the b-bbee verification practitioners, in order to improve their perceived job performance. this study reveals several findings that merit further discussion. this study tested the hypotheses that technical skills, interpersonal skills, managerial skills and compliance to standards and ethics have a positive and significant influence on the perceived job performance of the b-bbee verification practitioners. the data supported the three hypotheses. technical skills and perceived job performance the finding of the negative and insignificant predictive relationship between technical skills and perceived job performance seems to be consistent with some studies, which found technical skill is unnecessary for managerial performance (hysong, 2008). the finding is also supported by some models of management, which propose that at best, technical skill is a peripheral competency of management (boyatzis, 1982) whilst others loosely suggest that technical skill could be a hindrance to good management (hysong, 2008). this finding could be explained by the fact that, as noted in table 3, two-thirds [66.7% (27.6 + 39.1)] of the respondents possess degrees and postgraduate qualifications. this figure shows that more than 80% of respondents with diplomas are included, making it an industry with highly qualified technical staff at the moment. another plausible explanation could be in line with some studies which, having observed activities performed by managers, found a low incidence of activities requiring technical expertise (beauvais, 1992; dunning, 1993). this is perhaps the reason why developing themselves in the technical aspects is the least of their concern. interpersonal skills and perceived job performance as noted earlier, interpersonal skills emerged as a statistically significant predictor of perceived job performance in the regression analysis, albeit the least significant when compared to managerial skills and compliance to standards and ethics. these findings seem to find alignment with a study by al-madhoun and analoui (2002), which found that of the three skills, namely self-rated (managerial), people skills (interpersonal skills) and task (technical skills), the majority of participants rated in this order managerial skills, interpersonal skills and technical skills as skills they wish to develop. based on these findings, hypothesis 3 is supported. managerial skills and perceived job performance as observed in the regression analysis, managerial skills emerged as the most statistically significant predictor of perceived job performance. these findings reveal that the managerial skills are the most important predictor of perceived job performance. interestingly, of all the four competencies, the study found managerial skill to be the best predictor of perceived job performance by the b-bbee verification practitioners. in line with these findings, a study by carmeli and tishler (2006) found that the ability to lead the organisation to meet its goals rests on the integration of the managerial skills and that managerial skills are positively related to firm performance. analoui (1990) also found that senior officials who have already gained substantial knowledge and skills about the technical aspects of their job tend to place more emphasis on their own development, thus viewing institutional development as a direct consequence of their own. furthermore, tonidandel et al. (2012) found a ‘unique contribution’ made by managerial skills in managerial evaluations. based on these findings, hypothesis 3 is supported and accepted. standards and ethics and perceived job performance compliance to the standards and ethics variable also emerged as a statistically significant predictor of perceived job performance in the regression analysis. in fact, the present study found compliance to standards and ethics is the second most important predictor of perceived job performance for the b-bbee verification practitioners. this finding is noteworthy and shows how important compliance to standards and ethics are in this environment and how much the respondents feel the need for this skill in the execution of the duties. the need for the ethics education could well reflect an observation that a lack of attention has been given to the ethical and professional values of honesty, integrity, objectivity, due care and the commitment to the public interest before one’s own interests (jennings, 2004; parker, 2005). in a study by jackling et al. (2007), professional bodies acknowledged that ethics is capable of being taught other than in the workplace, thus supporting the idea that social and behavioural skills linked to ethics education can be learnt in educational programmes (earley & kelly, 2004). overall, the findings of this study are consistent with the expectations of ethical management theories and the ethical behaviour of managers (okpara, 2002). the findings are also in line with previous findings in ethics studies (deshpande, 1996; koh & boo, 2001). thus, hypothesis 4 is supported and is accepted in this study. limitations and direction for future research some limitations to the study should be noted. first, the competencies of the managers were self-reported, rather than independently assessed (or assessed by their supervisors). whilst it has been argued that people are not always good self-assessors (kevin & glenn, 2008; kim & chiu, 2011), the argument was made why this was deemed appropriate for the present study. as discussed in the research method section, whilst every effort was made to mitigate the effects of the common source bias, it could not be ruled out completely. another limitation of the study is a relatively small sample that was studied. thus, the findings of the study are limited in that they are restricted to only 87 participants, who are the current cohort of the b-bbee verification practitioners, thereby limiting the extent to which the findings can be generalised to other cohorts with different profiles. although discriminant validity was assessed and supported, the relatively high inter-factor correlations remained a cause for concern. future studies could consider using other more objective measures. finally, as noted earlier, the study considered only one typology, amongst the many, of managerial competencies. future studies could consider other typologies with a view to prioritise the skills accordingly. furthermore, a similar study could be conducted with auditors who are performing b-bbee verification services to determine if there are similarities or differences with the main findings from this study. conclusion and managerial implications the purpose of the study was to determine the managerial capabilities that are required of the b-bbee verification practitioners, in order to improve their perceived job performance. the results of the correlation analysis revealed that there were strong and positive associations between technical skills, interpersonal skills, compliance to standards and ethics, managerial skills and perceived job performance. results of the regression analysis showed that managerial skills, compliance to standards and ethics and interpersonal skills were statistically significant in predicting perceived job performance. however, technical skills were insignificant in predicting perceived job performance. these findings suggest that whilst the current cohort of verification practitioners have the necessary technical expertise to perform their tasks well, they, however, view managerial skills as the most important area of their work if they are to improve their perceived job performance. this is understandable in light of the fact that, as noted earlier, half of the respondents currently function as technical signatories and verification analysts and not as managers yet. however, many of these might already be performing some managerial functions for which they require training. it is also likely that many who are now managers were promoted into those positions on the basis of their technical competence. these are the ones who seem to feel a strong need to be developed managerially. just after managerial skills are standards and ethics, which are also strong predictors of job performance. this is also understandable because b-bbee is the arena for the contestation of business in the form of contracts and tenders. thus, very likely there might be a tendency for the verification practitioners to find themselves in ethically compromising positions as a result of pressure from the companies to want to attain or maintain competitive b-bbee ratings. indeed, whilst the verification practitioners do not want to neglect improving their interpersonal skills, the need to enhance their skills in the areas of managerial skills and standards and ethics would be a matter of priority. in view of the above, any training and development programme aimed at enhancing the perceived job performance of b-bbee verification practitioners should be investigated with a view to address the competencies discussed. managerially, the study has shown the b-bbee verification industry, that insofar as the technical skills of the practitioners are concerned, it does have suitably qualified staff with the requisite educational qualifications. at the same time, from the present study the industry can now determine the priority skills. the study identified the needed skills as managerial skills, standards and ethics and interpersonal skills, in that order. the allocation of credit for a training and development programme would also need to be in that order. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions b.m.s. collected data and contributed with some literature review and data analysis. r.i.d.p. was responsible for the literature review, article write-up and some data analysis and r.c. made some data analysis contributions. references al-madhoun, m., & analoui, f. (2002). developing managerial skills in palestine. education and training, 4 (8/9), 431–442. analoui, f. (1990). managerial skills for senior managers. international journal of public sector management, 3(2), 26–38. armstrong, m. (2001). a handbook of human resource management practice. london: kogan page. awad, t.a., & alhashemi, s.e. (2012). assessing the effect of interpersonal communications on employees’ commitment and satisfaction. international journal of islamic and middle eastern finance and management, 5(2), 134–156. badawy, m.k. (1995). developing managerial skills in engineers and scientists: succeeding as a technical manager, (2nd ed.). new york, ny: van nostrand reinhold. bailey, e.e., & helfat, c.e. (2003). external management succession, human capital and firm performance: an integrative analysis. managerial and decision economics, 24(4), 347–369. bambacas, m., & patrickson, m. (2008). interpersonal communication skills that enhance organizational commitment. journal of communication management, 12, 51–72. beauvais, l.l. (1992). the effects of perceived pressures on managerial and non-managerial scientists and engineers. journal of business and psychology, 6(3), 333–47. bergenhenegouwen, g.j. (1996). competence development – a challenge for hrm professionals: core competences of organizations as guidelines for the development of employees. journal of european industrial training, 20(9), 29–35. billsberry, j., & birnik, a. (2010). management as a contextual practice: the need to blend science, skills and practical wisdom. organization management journal, 7, 171–178. boyatzis, r.e. (1982). the competent manager: a model for effective performance. new york: john wiley & sons. brits, d.w., & veldsman, t.h. (2014). a global central banker competency model. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–14. business report. (2008). bee progress shocking. editor. keith ross, 24 august. carmeli, a., & tishler, a. (2006). the relative importance of the top management team’s managerial skills. international journal of manpower, 27(1), 9–36. castanias, r.p., & helfat, c.e. (1991). managerial resources and rents. journal of management, 17(1), 155–71. cheng, m., dainty, a.r.j., & moore, d.r. (2005). what makes a good project manager? human resource management journal, 15(1), 25–37. chia, r. (1996). organizational analysis as deconstructive practice. berlin and new york: walter de gruter. chiang, c.f., & hsieh, t.s. (2011). the impacts of perceived organizational support and psychological empowerment on job performance: the mediating effects of organizational citizenship behaviour. international journal of hospitality management, 31(1), 180–190. chin, w.w. (1998). issues and opinion on structural equation modelling. mis quarterly, 22(1), 7–16. christensen, c.r., andrews, k.r., & bower, j.l. (1978). business policy: test and cases, 4th (ed.). homewood, il: richard d. irwin, inc. conway, j.m., & lance, c.e. (2010). what reviewers should expect from authors regarding common method bias in organizational research. journal of business psychology, 25, 325–334. dainty, a.r.j., cheng, m.i., & moore, d.r. (2003). redefining performance measures for construction project managers: an empirical evaluation. construction management and economics, 21(2), 209–218. department of trade and industry (dti). (2007). broad-based black economic empowerment codes of good practice. pretoria: government printers. department of trade and industry (dti). (2008). verification of and reporting on broad-based black economic empowerment framework in terms of the codes of good practice verification manual. pretoria: government printers. deshpande, s.p. (1996). the impact of ethical climate types on facets of job satisfaction. journal of business ethics, 15, 655–60. de waal, a.a., van der heijden, b.i.j.m., selvarajah, c., & meyer, d. (2011). characteristics of high performing managers in the netherlands. leadership & organization development journal, 33(2), 131–148. dunning, t. (1993). accurate methods for the statistics of surprise and coincidence. computational linguistics, 19, 61–74. earley, c.e., & kelly, p. (2004). a note on ethics educational interventions in an undergraduate auditing course: is there an ‘enron effect’? issues in accounting education, 19(1), 53–62. econobee. (2009). gain a competitive edge. retrieved 21 may, 2013, from http://www.econobee.co.za/bee-articles-and-information/econobee-newsletters/ econobee. (2011). verification capacity slows compliance. retrieved 15 november, 2012, from http://www.econobee.co.za/bee-articles-and-information/ecobee-newsletters/ ernest & young. (2013). broad-based black economic empowerment. retrieved 09 november, 2015, from www.ey.com/publication/vwluassests/boroad-based farrell, a.m. (2010). insufficient discriminant validity: a comment on bove, pervan, beatty and shiu (2009). journal of business research, 63, 324–327. field, a. (2005). discovering statistics using spss. london, uk: sage publishers. field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss. (2nd edn.). london, uk: sage publishers. fornell, c., & larcker, d.f. (1981). evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. journal of marketing research, 18(1), 39–50. frost, j. (2013). multiple regression analysis: use adjusted r-squared and predicted r-squared to include the correct number of variables. retrieved 13 august, 2015, from http://blog.minitab.com/ gentry, w.a., harris, l.s., baker, b.a., & leslie, j.b. (2007). managerial skills: what has changed since the late 1980s? leadership & organization development journal, 29(2), 167–181. gomez, e.t., & premdas, r. (2013). affirmative action, ethnicity, and conflict. london and new york: routledge. haeckel, r., & püntmann, i. (2001). validation of measurement procedures, in vitro veritas [online] retrieved 17 april, 2013, from http://www.acclc.es/invitroveritas/vol2/art20.html hair, jr., j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., anderson, r.e., & tatham, r.l. (2006). multivariate data analysis (6th ed.). new jersey: pearson-prentice hall. homer, m. (2001). skills and competency management. industrial and commercial training, 33 (2), 59–62. hunt, j., & baruch, y. (2003). developing top managers: the impact of interpersonal skills training. journal of management development, 22(8), 729–752. hysong, s.j. (2008). the role of technical skill in perceptions of managerial performance. journal of management development, 27(3), 275–290. independent regulatory board of auditors (irba). (2012). south african standards on assurance engagement (sasae) 3502. retrieved 09 april, 2013, from http://www.irba.co.za/index.php/b-bbee-verification-assurance internal auditor competency framework (iacf). (2010). sydney, australia: institute of internal auditors. international standard on quality control (isqc). (2012). retrieved 02 may, 2013, from http://www.ifac.org/sites/default/files/publications/files/smp-tipsonapplyingisqc1article-july.pdf jack, n. (2007). broad-based bee: the complete guide. northcliff: frontrunner publishing. jackling, b., cooper, b.j., leung, p., & dellaportas, s. (2007). professional accounting bodies ‘perceptions of ethical issues, causes of ethical failure and ethics education. managerial auditing journal, 22(9), 928–944. jennings, m.m. (2004). incorporating ethics and professionalism into accounting education and research: a discussion of the voids and advocacy for training in seminal works in business ethics. issues in accounting education, 19(1), 7–26. katz, r.l. (1974). skills of an effective administrator. harvard business review, 52(5), 90–102. kevin, w.e., & glenn, r. (2008). ‘i’ll never play professional football’ and other fallacies of self-assessment. journal of continuing education in the health professions, 28(1), 14–19. kim, y., & chiu, c. (2011). emotional costs of inaccurate self-assessments: both self-effacement and self-enhancement can lead to dejection. american psychological association, 11(5), 1096–1104. koh, h.c., & boo, e.h. (2001). the link between organizational ethics and job satisfaction: a study of managers in singapore. journal of business ethics, 29, 309–324. levin, r.m. (2011). broad-based empowerment or dependent accumulation? the state and development in south africa. in d. plaatjies (ed.). future inheritance: building state capacity in democratic south africa, (pp. 162–183). auckland park: jacan media (pty) ltd. lucia, a.d., & lepsinger, r. (1999). the art and science of competency models: pinpointing critical success factors in organizations. san francisco: jossey-bass/pfieffer. malhotra, n.k. (2010). marketing research: an applied orientation. eaglewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. mansfield, r. s. (1999). what is ‘competence’ all about? competency, 6(3), 24–28. marais, p. (2012). b-bbee (on-line). retrieved november 16, 2012, from http:www.fm.co.za/fm/2012/05/03/bbbee-yessiree? martone, d. (2003). a guide to developing a competency-based performance-management system. employee relations today, 30 (3) 23–32. mckenna, s. (2004). predispositions and context in the development of managerial skills. journal of management development, 23 (7), 664–677. mohd-shamsudin, f. & chuttipattana, n. (2012). determinants of managerial competencies for primary care managers in southern thailand. journal of health organization and management, 26(2), 258–280. northouse, p. (2004). leadership: theory and practice. (3rd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory. (3rd ed.). new york: mcgraw-hill. okpara, j.o. (2002). the influence of ethical climate types on job satisfaction of it managers: implications for management practice and development in a developing economy. san jose, ca: paper presented at the meeting of the academy of business and administrative sciences. okpara, j.o., & wynn, p. (2007). the impact of ethical climate on job satisfaction, and commitment in nigeria. journal of management development, 27(9), 935–950. parker, l.d. (2005). corporate governance crisis down under: post-enron accounting education and research inertia. european accounting review, 14(2), 383–394. pooe, d. (2013). theoretical perspectives and the implementation of the bbbee policy framework. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 14(14), 635–642. rubin, n.j., leigh, i.w. nelson, p.d., smith, i.l., bebeau, m., lichtenberg, j.w. portnoy, s., & kaslow, n.j. (2007). the competency movement within psychology: an historical perspective. professional psychology: research and practice, 38(5), 17–34. rubushe, m. (2009). trade union investment schemes: a blemish on the social movement unionism outlook of south african unions?. unpublished master’s thesis, rhodes university. scullen, s.e., mount, m.k., & judge, t.a. (2003). evidence of the construct validity of developmental ratings of managerial performance. journal of applied psychology, 88(1), 50–66. shalley, c., gilson, l., & blum, t. (2009). interactive effects of growth need strength, work context, and job complexity on self-reported creative performance. academy of management journal, 52, 489–505. shetach, a., & marcus, o. (2013). the critical managerial capabilities of medical and nursing managers in an israeli hospital. evidence-based hrm: a global forum for empirical scholarship, 3(1), 81–102. stevens, g.w. (2013). a critical review of the science and practice of competency modeling. human resource development review, 12(86), 86–107. steward, g. l., & brown, k.g. (2009). human resources management. linking strategy to practice. usa: john wiley & sons inc. sullivan, g.r. (2004). enhancing public trust in the accounting professional judgment rather than personal judgment in resolving accounting ethics dilemmas. doctoral dissertation, virginia beach, va: regent university. sweeney, j.t., & roberts, r.w. (1997). cognitive moral development and auditor independence. accounting, organizations & society, 22(3/4), 337–353. tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2013). using multivariate statistics, (6th ed.). new jersey: pearson education inc. tonidandel, s., braddy, p.w., & fleenor, j.w. (2012). relative importance of managerial skills for predicting effectiveness. journal of managerial psychology, 27(6), 636–655. tonidandel, s., & lebreton, j.m. (2011). relative importance analysis: a useful supplement to regression analysis. journal of business psychology, 26, 1–9. whetten, d.a., & cameron, k.s. (2002). developing management skills (5th ed.). new jersey: pearson-prentice hall. williams, p.f. (2010). the focus of professional ethics: ethical professionals or ethical profession? research on professional responsibility and ethics in accounting, 14, 15–35. yukl, g.a. (2002). leadership in organizations, 5th (ed.). englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. zakaria, m., haron, h.h., & ismail, i. (2010). knowledge of ethics, perceived ethical problems and ethical judgments. journal of financial reporting and accounting, 8(1), 50–64. footnote 1. these beta values should be interpreted with caution as the relatively high inter-correlations of the predictor variables result in biased estimates of the standard errors in the model (tonidandel & lebreton, 2011). article information authors: cherylene de jager1 anton muller1 gert roodt1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: cherylene de jager postal address: po box 6508, cresta 2118, south africa dates: received: 09 oct. 2012 accepted: 08 apr. 2013 published: 08 may 2013 how to cite this article: de jager, c., muller, a., & roodt, g. (2013). developing creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills in a financial services organisation. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #502 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.502 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. developing creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills in a financial services organisation in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • problem statement       • key focus of the study       • background to the study       • research purpose       • trends from the research literature       • objectives       • contribution to the field       • what will follow    • literature review • research design    • research approach    • research strategy    • research method       • research setting       • entrée and establishing researcher roles       • sampling       • data collection methods       • recording of data       • data analyses       • strategies employed to ensure quality data       • reporting • findings • ethical considerations    • potential benefits and hazards    • recruitment procedures    • informed consent    • data protection • trustworthiness    • reliability    • validity • discussion    • outline of the results    • practical implications    • limitations of the study    • recommendations    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: an important evaluation function is to determine whether creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills can be developed through training and to assess whether these skills, on their own, are sufficient to ignite innovation in organisations.research purpose: the evaluation question that the present study aimed to address is whether employees in a corporate context, such as a financial services organisation, can develop creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills through an intervention such as a workshop. motivation for the study: a financial services organisation commissioned the primary author of this article to design a workshop with the intent to develop the creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills of their employees in order to ignite innovation and competitiveness. research design, approach and method: this study employed mainly qualitative research. utilisation-focused evaluation (ufe) was employed and findings from the literature review, questionnaires, pen-and-paper tests and interviews were used. the unit of analysis was a niche business unit in a south african financial services organisation. main findings: from this study’s point of view, the most critical finding related to the confirmation that individuals can acquire creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills. the acquisition of these skills, however, is not sufficient on its own to establish a culture supportive of creativity and sustainable innovation. practical/managerial implications: the development of creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills of employees is not sufficient on its own to support sustainable innovation. managers should consciously establish determinants on an organisational as well as an individual level to create an environment supportive of sustainable innovation. contribution/value-add: the present study indicated how a workshop can assist individuals to develop creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills. the acquisition of these skills is not sufficient on its own to ignite sustainable innovation. introduction top ↑ problem statement retailers and unexpected competitors, such as telecommunication role players, have begun to enter the traditional financial services domain. subsequently, a financial services organisation has realised that they are losing valuable customers and decided that innovative ways of doing business are required to ensure future sustainability. this led to the following questions: can individuals develop creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills by means of a workshop? can the acquisition of these skills ignite innovation that can ensure the long-term competitiveness of the organisation? key focus of the study in this article we examine whether or not employees in a financial services organisation can acquire creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills by means of a workshop to ignite innovation. if they can, could the financial services organisation then use this strategy to remain competitive? background to the study a specific financial services organisation in south africa came to the realisation that they had to join the innovation revolution in order to remain commercially competitive in the twenty-first century. with retailers and other competitors, such as the telecommunication role players, entering the traditional financial services domain, financial services organisations were losing customers and revenue. the organisation realised that they had to create a new business model in order to ‘create new value for customers, provide rude surprises for competitors, and create new wealth for investors’ (hamel, 2000, p. 18).consequently, the financial services organisation commissioned the primary author of this article to design a creativity and innovation workshop to improve the creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills of their employees. research purpose the current focus of the literature review indicates a definite shift towards a more systemic understanding of innovation because ‘… innovation has gone through a crisis of credibility in many organisations’ and many organisations have simply concluded: ‘we tried innovation. it didn’t work!’ (skarzynski & gibson, 2008, p. 15). although the focus has shifted towards a more systemic approach, the recurrent emerging trends continuously revert back to the individual as the nucleus from which innovation ultimately emanates.the focus has also been extended from the internal individual (the employee), to the external individual (the customer) (hamel, 2000; prahalad & krishnan, 2008). the promotion of creativity and innovation in an organisational context is well supported and well documented, as is confirmed by the literature review below, although the issues around creativity and innovation are not necessarily related to financial services organisations. prahalad and krishnan (2008) briefly mention the role of innovation in financial services but there is little literature available on how the acquired skills could be applied in a highly regulated environment. this lack of research confirms the need for the study and creates an opportunity for the researchers to make an original contribution to the field of knowledge. trends from the research literature the development of creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills is crucial for the survival of organisations in the twenty-first century (hamel, 2000; levesque, 2001; skarzynski & gibson, 2008). organisations have no option but to innovate. to achieve this, they have to design a strategy that is able to convert creativity into innovation (allison, 2005; cook, 1998; krippendorff, 2008). man (2001) and prahalad and krishnan (2008) argue that a valuable degree of creative skill can be acquired by anyone that sets out to acquire such skills. training in the field of creative problem solving is generally found to be most effective when organisations wanted to equip employees with creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills (de bono, 1995; williams, 2001). the environment plays a crucial role in enhancing creativity and innovation (de bono, 2005; krippendorff, 2008). the research indicates that creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills can be acquired by means of a workshop but that they are not sufficient on their own to ignite sustainable innovation. objectives prahalad and krishnan (2008) briefly mention the role of innovation in financial services but there is little literature available on how the acquired skills could be applied in a highly regulated environment. this lack of research confirms the need for the study and creates an opportunity for the researchers to make an original contribution to the field of knowledge. the first objective of this study is therefore to determine the extent to which creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills can successfully be taught. the second objective is whether these skills can be applied in a highly regulated environment where very few determinants supportive of innovation are present. the third objective is how to address the abovementioned challenges. contribution to the field the most critical finding relates to the acknowledgement that individuals can acquire creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills as advocated in the literature research and affirmed here by the empirical data. the acquisition of these skills, however, is not sufficient on their own and is dependent on a spectrum of determinants to ignite and sustain innovation. the study confirms the above statements. what will follow this article has four parts. firstly, it reviews the current thinking on creativity and innovation, its role in business and what content to incorporate into the design of a workshop. secondly, the research methodology is presented and data collection and analysis techniques are discussed. thirdly, the findings are discussed and summarised and, lastly, the article is concluded with recommendations, managerial implications and directions for further research. literature review the concepts of ‘creativity’ and ‘innovation’ had to be defined as a point of departure for the intended intervention. some authors are of the opinion that innovation needs to be distinguished from creativity (middleton-kelly, 2006; skarzynski & gibson, 2008), whilst others advocate the interchangeable use of the two concepts (couger, 1995; krippendorff, 2008; man, 2001). the authors are the opinion that the context determines the use of these two concepts. the concept of ‘creativity’ is well defined and explored in the literature. various authors have offered definitions for creativity. however, baron (1969, 1990) and guilford (1975, 1986) agree that creativity should result in something new. various authors identify different phases an individual has to go through to be creative and it is evident that a process is required to reach a creative goal (lessem, in henry, 1991; wallas, in lytton, 1971). cook (1998) argues that an idea without commercial application is irrelevant. if creativity is viewed in an organisational context, the evaluation and application should focus on a commercial outcome. ford and gioia (1995), martins and terblanche (2003) and wallace and gruber (1989) are of the opinion that creativity should be measured in context. from the above it is evident that a number of factors have to be considered when attempting to define creativity. this information, as well as the different views and definitions of creativity, were used to formulate the following definition of creativity for the purpose of this study: creativity is the accomplishment of new developments as a result of the interaction between an individual and his or her environment, or groups and their environment with commercial intent. schumpeter (as cited in fonseca, 2002, p. 15) defines innovation very broadly as ‘all ways of doing things differently’, whilst robbins (1979) and west and farr (1996) attempt more detailed definitions. hamel (2000) focuses on the creation of wealth and kelley (2001, p. 5) argues that innovation is a blend of ‘methodologies, work practices, culture and infrastructure’. grulke (2002, p. 8) defines innovation as ‘the change into something new, the introduction of novelties and the alteration of what is established’. although each researcher has their own interpretation of innovation, most researchers commonly view the central and key concepts as follows: innovation starts with a new idea and in organisations with characteristics that allow individuals to assume the role of entrepreneurs, a process or a blend of methodologies is followed that brings about a change that can be implemented for commercial gain. the same themes that emerged during the discussions of the creativity definitions are evident in the definitions of innovation. these themes are extended to include the thoughts pertaining to the creation of wealth. innovation, for the purpose of this research, can therefore be defined as: the accomplishment of something new or the change of something that already exists, as a result of the interaction between an individual and the environment, or a group with their environment with the sole purpose of commercial intent in the attempt to create wealth. ford and gioia (1995), hamel (2000), kelley (2001) and krippendorff (2008) agree that interventions should be designed in order to develop a culture of creativity and innovation. they concur that a specific relationship exists between creativity, innovation and culture. successful organisations also change their strategy and structures firstly to enable innovation, secondly to support the intervention with a well-planned change management process and, thirdly, to choose a methodology or guideline to guide them through the change (hamel, 2000; kelley, 2001). organisations that successfully establish a culture supportive of creativity and innovation find creative solutions to the barriers of innovation, sanction actions to empower innovators, set boundaries for innovation, tolerate risk and create structures that facilitate innovation (hamel, 2000; kelley, 2001; krippendorff, 2008). it is evident from the literature review that innovative organisations focus on organisational and individual levels to enable and establish creativity and innovation. most researchers are able to identify the characteristics of organisations that successfully lead the innovation revolution. these organisations enable and encourage their employees to think creatively and produce innovative ideas and solutions. the challenge for organisations that would like to become more innovative is how to unleash the creative potential of their employees to generate those ideas that can be channelled into innovative business opportunities. this could be achieved by developing the creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills of individuals in their organisations. de bono (1992), man (2001) and prahalad and krishnan (2008) argue that a valuable degree of creative skill can be acquired by anyone that sets out to acquire such skills. creativity is not limited to artists, musicians and marketing people; it is a tangible and abundant wellspring that everyone can tap into (arenofsky, 2000; levesque, 2001; von oech, 1983). the researchers support this view and the premise underlying the selection of the workshop content is that everybody is creative and that creativity can be developed. the following themes were used as guidelines for the selection of the workshop content. creativity and innovation have to be defined in context (couger, 1995; man, 2001; martins & terblanche, 2003). couger (1995) propagates the need for both divergent and convergent thinking. allison (2005), couger (1995), hamel (2000) and prahalad and krishnan (2008) discuss barriers to creativity and innovation. krippendorff (2008), prahalad and krishnan (2008) and skarzynski and gibson (2008) support the importance of an environment that sustains and enables creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills. ford and gioia (1995), henry (1991) and lucas (2003) support the theory that the brain consists of a left side and a right side and that each side has distinct functions and qualities. kelley (2001), levesque (2001) and plompen (2005) are of the opinion that co-operative teams do have an influence on the degree to which creativity and innovation occur in organisations. as stated, the financial services organisation in question commissioned the primary author of this article to design a workshop to develop the creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills of their employees. some of the design features and the distinctive characteristics of the workshop content taken from the literature were as follows. the commissioned workshop approach is based on adult learning principles and the design incorporated a variety of learning styles and training techniques (lucas, 2003; piskurich, 2000). the most effective activities were selected and their utility and practicality had to be evaluated. the ideal group size appears to be 12 people (lucas, 2003). amabile (2003) adds that when selecting participants for the workshop, their skill in the domain, potential creative thinking skills, as well as intrinsic motivation, should be considered. rapid instructional design represents an eclectic approach with a flexible choice of techniques based on the nature of the instructional objective, the characteristics of the participants and the context of training (thiagarajan, in piskurish, bechshi & hall, 2000). the final workshop design incorporated the addie (analyse, design, develop, implement and evaluate) process (beckshi & doty, in piskurich et al., 2000), as requested by the client. as the focus of this study is contained within the training arena, it lends itself to the use of the kirkpatrick evaluation framework (kirkpatrick & kirkpatrick, 2006). it is evident from the literature review that the kirkpatrick four level model (level one: reaction, level two: learning, level three: behaviour and level four: results) has prevailed and is still used despite its shortcomings (coetsee, 1998). owing to the time constraints of this study, the evaluation was limited to levels one and two. some tentative information regarding level three evaluations was obtained. furthermore, it was impractical to do a pre-test and post-test because of the subjective nature of the subject matter. a specific body of prior knowledge is required to be able to facilitate the workshop. the process combined sound theoretical information with experiential activities that supported the transfer of learning and retention of information. thought leaders acknowledge the interdependency of both individual determinants and organisational determinants for the establishment of an environment conducive of creativity and innovation (hamel, 2000; krippendorff, 2008; prahalad & krishnan, 2008; skarzynski & gibson, 2008). the environment plays a crucial role in enhancing creativity and innovation (de bono, 2005; filipczak, 1997; joubert, 1993; krippendorff, 2008; maas, de coning & smit, 1999; wallace & gruber, 1989; west & farr, 1996). training in the field of creative problem solving was generally found to be the most effective when organisations wanted to equip employees with creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills (de bono, 1995; von oech, 1990; williams, 2001). the commissioned workshop was therefore designed with the intent to develop the creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills of the employees of a financial services organisation. thus as stated above, the objectives were, firstly, for the employees to develop these skills and, secondly, to assist them to apply these skills in a highly regulated environment. research design top ↑ research approach the first motivation for the choice made is that the central research question and problem can only be answered by means of the research design and models found in programme evaluation literature. the present study was, in essence, evaluation research. furthermore, the design had to be informed by the fact that a qualitative research approach had been considered most relevant, if not mandatory given the nature of the research problem and question. utilisation-focused evaluation (ufe) enabled the researcher to address both the evaluation need and the qualitative research approach. in addition, ufe was very apt, because it allows the shift from research project conceptualisation right through to an evaluation of the impact and utility or practical value of the intervention being evaluated, namely the workshop to train employees in a financial services organisation to become more innovative and creative in their daily task execution in the interest of the sustainability and continued competitiveness of the organisation. the research design allowed us (albeit in a limited way because of the time constraints of the study) to attempt to answer the ultimate evaluation question, namely how useful the intervention was beyond the individuals who had participated in the training, as the training is not an end in itself; it should ultimately be instrumental in benefiting the financial services organisation as well in the short, medium and longer term. ufe as a research design enabled the researcher to attempt to answer (evaluative) questions related to the immediate impact of the workshop and its longer-term effect. in that sense it was a very productive and heuristic research design for this study. research strategy in general, the strategy for evaluation research involves getting clarity about the reason for the evaluation, identifying stakeholders and respondents, defining what needs to be evaluated, developing the research approach design and methods, collecting data and producing the report. in this study, evaluation research was used to determine the merit or worth of the programme (the workshop format and content), to improve the programme and to generate knowledge about the expected impact of the programme on the individual and on business competitiveness. patton (1997) developed a relatively comprehensive approach to programme assessment that provides an overall framework within which the individuals involved can proceed to develop an evaluation design with built-in utilisation of the unique circumstances they encounter. the financial services organisation insisted that the results had to be utilised. according to patton (1997), ufe starts off with the premise that evaluation initiatives should be judged by their level of utility and actual use. therefore, in facilitating and designing the process, an evaluator should carefully consider from the outset how every activity that is undertaken will affect the utilisation of the initiative by real people or stakeholders in the real world. it should be clear that ufe is not only highly personal but is also situational. the evaluators developed a working relationship with intended users in order to assist them in deciding on the type of appropriate evaluation for their situation which will address their needs optimally. patton (1997) believes that ufe should not promote any particular evaluation content, model, method, theory or use. in his view, this approach rather represents a process through which the evaluator should assist primary intended users to select the most appropriate content, techniques, methodologies and use for their situation. from the above exposition, it transpires that ufe rests on two fundamental requirements. firstly, the intended evaluation users should be identified and organised – real, visible, specific and caring human beings; not ephemeral, general and abstract audiences, organisations or agencies. secondly, evaluators should work actively, reactively and adaptively with these specific stakeholders to realise all other decisions about the evaluation – decisions about focus, design, methods, analysis, interpretation and dissemination. research method research setting one of the key features that distinguishes qualitative research from quantitative research, as identified by babbie and mouton (2001), places the main thrust of this study in the qualitative research paradigm, namely that the research takes place in the natural setting of the social actors, which, in this study, was a niche business unit in a large financial services institution in south africa. this business unit comprises 72 highly creative employees and they agreed to the intervention. fifty-one of the employees attended the workshops. eleven of them were interviewed. entrée and establishing researcher roles cultural and other forces shape and surround the researcher. it is therefore crucial for a researcher to be competent in exploring his or her own personal perspectives (babbie & mouton, 2001; o’leary, 2005). the researcher should have a: … prolonged engagement with the study to ensure the investment of sufficient time to achieve certain processes; learning the culture [of the participants], testing for misinformation introduced by distortions, either of the self or of the respondents, and building trust [with the participants]. (lincoln & cuba, cited in oka & shaw, 2000, n.p.) the primary researcher in this study had a prolonged engagement with the financial services organisation in question and a trust relationship between them was established prior to the research being conducted. this author designed and developed the workshop, designed the evaluation questionnaires and pen-and-paper tests, facilitated the workshop, designed the structured interviews, conducted the structured interviews and integrated the results from the questionnaires, pen-and-paper tests and interviews. the second author acted and supervisor and the third author as co-supervisor. sampling as babbie and mouton (2001) and grinell (1993) indicate, sampling within the qualitative paradigm is almost always by means of purposeful sampling, as is the case here. the niche business unit volunteered and agreed to the intervention. a total of 51 employees out of a possible 72 attended the workshops, which constitutes a 70% response rate and which reflects 8% of the division’s population. there were 25 male and 26 female participants. fourteen were between the ages of 20 and 30 years, 28 between the ages of 31 and 40 years, seven between 40 and 50 years and two between 51 and 60 years. most participants were english-speaking. fifteen participants had diplomas, seven had bachelor degrees, 13 had honours degrees and six had masters degrees. data collection methods it is rare to find a study that is based on only one method of data collection; rather, the norm is to employ a range of data-collection techniques (clarke & dawson, 1999). firstly, different instruments are used to collect different types of data. secondly, these serve as a means of triangulating data and improving authenticity and validity of findings. as clarke and dawson (1999, p. 86) remark: ‘using more than one reference point enables greater accuracy of measurement’. the measuring instruments used for the purpose of this research were questionnaires, pen-and-paper tests and interviews.questionnaires are one of the most frequently used data-collection instruments in evaluation research (clarke & dawson, 1999). for the purpose of this study, questionnaires were used to collect formative data about the satisfaction of participants with various aspects of the delivery of the programme and also the key design features and characteristics of the intervention or workshop. pen-and-paper tests were designed in accordance with kirkpatrick and kirkpatrick’s (2006) level two evaluation requirements. the pen-and-paper tests determined what knowledge was gleaned, what skills were developed or improved and what attitudes were changed (kirkpatrick & kirkpatrick, 2006). all stakeholders who participated in the intervention were required to complete the questionnaires and the pen-and-paper tests. conducting an interview is another frequently used data-collection method in qualitative research (babbie & mouton, 2001; clarke & dawson, 1999). in this study the primary researcher conducted all the interviews. structured individual interviews were conducted in order to obtain information regarding the contents and design features of the creativity and innovation workshop, as well as to discover how participants attending these workshops experienced the workshops. managers (more senior) were interviewed on their perception of change achieved and to assess the nascent impact on organisational development. recording of data the participants in the programme were surveyed about their satisfaction with the creativity and innovation programme using questionnaires and interviews, as described above. the interviews were recorded and then transcribed. the information obtained from the pen-and-paper tests was integrated and compared with information from the questionnaires, as well as individual interviews where additional comment was invited. data analyses the analysis of the questionnaires, pen-and-paper tests and the interviews was based on pattern identification. the data were coded by making use of frequency counts and trend identification. the data collected from the questionnaires and interviews of the participants were examined to identify patterns indicating the impact of the implementation of creative and innovative decisions in the division in the organisation. the data collected from the structured interviews conducted with senior and executive management were used to corroborate employee perceptions of the impact on the individual and on the organisation. strategies employed to ensure quality data the questionnaires were processed by statcon at the university of johannesburg. the pen-and-paper tests were assessed by the primary researcher. they were moderated by an internal learning and development resource in the financial services organisation. the interviews were recorded and transcribed. the information obtained from the interviews was integrated and correlated with the findings of the questionnaires and pen-and-paper tests. reporting this final part of ufe entails the making of decisions about the dissemination of the evaluation report. for the purpose of this study, the evaluation is in the form of the present article, which followed the submission of a thesis for degree purposes. it incorporates all the views from the intended users and senior management. findings top ↑ the study findings are presented on a sequence of selected tables (see tables 1, 2 and 3). the most important objective was to determine whether creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills can be acquired by means of a workshop. the second objective was to determine whether or not the acquisition of these skills is sufficient to ignite sustainable innovation. the results from the questionnaires clearly indicated that the awareness was raised that creativity can be developed, the content of the creativity workshop achieved its objectives and, most important of all, that the workshop enhanced the participants knowledge with regards to creativity and problem-solving techniques. table 1: the creativity workshop raised my awareness that creativity can be developed. table 2: the content of the creativity workshop achieved the objectives. table 3: the content of the creativity workshop enhanced my knowledge with regards to creative thinking and problem-solving techniques. the questionnaire contained the open-ended question: ‘please write down what actions you think can be taken by the leaders in your division to support innovation’, to which some 36 responses were recorded. nine participants did not answer this question. two participants indicated that this question was not applicable to them. in summary, the participants answering this question suggested that the leaders should take action to create a culture supportive of creativity and innovation; that the leaders should support innovation by making time for innovation questions, listening to new ideas, be more open-minded and ensure that everyone attends the workshop.the results of the questionnaires, the pen-and-paper tests, as well as the information obtained during the interviews, clearly indicated that creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving techniques can be taught in a financial services organisation. it is evident from the responses of the interviewees that the workshop participants were eager to apply the creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills in the workplace: ‘yes, there are some indications that our participants of the workshop are using the techniques we explored during the workshop.’ (executive sponsor 1, hereafter referred to as es with corresponding numbers) ‘err, with most of the people who spoke around the workshop had thoroughly enjoyed it and the content was actually applicable.’ (research participant 2, hereafter refer to as rp with corresponding numbers) ‘i have specifically used them [the techniques] in finalising the architecture in the site of the company for the new website.’ (rp4) the responses indicated that the factors that influenced the application of the creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving techniques are a lack of time because of the fast pace of the business environment, pressing deadlines and changes in staff, for example new recruits, staff turnover and restructuring. this was deduced from the following statements made during the interviews: ‘… we haven’t really had the time to put into practice everything that we learned and some of the skills that we picked up.’ (rp4) ‘… our work is very repetitive and very pressured so uhm just to get it done quickly, you cannot always revert back (laughing) to the next under pressure.’ (rp5) ‘i think one of the biggest factors we faced at the particular time is that we had a higher turnover rate, so a lot of our people left so some of the stuff was not implemented, another part of it was probably time constraints these people had giving the big projects that we working on at the moment and the fact that as much as they enjoyed doubling around with the innovative side of things and coming up with new ideas we don’t always have a budget to implement them.’ (rp6) ‘… there is new people coming and leaving and with the economic condition there are budget constraints uhm so i think people would have loved more time to spend on this to actually implement this properly.’(rp7) the two executives responsible for the intervention and who commissioned and sponsored the workshops not only attended the workshops, but they also viewed the workshops to form part of their future strategic intent. the sponsors are committed to create and establish an environment supportive of creativity and innovation. the following comments made by them support this: ‘… was to make sure we create an environment that supports it ...’ (es1) ‘… there is a continuous need to share the message ...’ (es1) ‘… how much innovation is in our blood uhm fo [sic] hence my sort of saying this is a process which is core to our business.’ (es1) ‘… the workshops that you ran would have likely helped most people in this area in the different area to help put some structure on how they go about the innovation process forth.’ (es2) the main conclusion was reached by the creation of a framework derived from the literature review and the empirically engendered data. the most critical findings relate to the acknowledgement and confirmation of the fact that individuals in a financial services organisation can acquire creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills. however, the conclusion had to be extended (muller, 2004). it was evident that the acquisition of these skills is not sufficient on its own. it is dependent on a spectrum of determinants on both an organisational and individual level that is a prerequisite, to allow for the sustainable and practical application of these acquired skills. the extension of the conclusions may have no logical connection to the data or the evidence presented (babbie & mouton, 2001). they are derived as a result of the primary researcher’s own interpretation of the findings regarding the impact of the workshop intervention in the financial services organisation. the researcher is very familiar with the financial services organisation as a result of a longstanding strategic partnership and association. it can be derived from the information obtained from the literature review that the financial services organisation only partially displayed the characteristics associated with innovative organisations and that only some of the determinants required on both an organisational and individual level to support creativity and innovation were present. ethical considerations top ↑ potential benefits and hazards the benefit to be derived from participation in this intervention was the acquisition of skills. there were no hazards involved. recruitment procedures participation was voluntary. informed consent written and verbal permission was obtained to conduct the research as part of the primary author’s completion of her ph.d thesis. data protection the data published herein was approved by the executive sponsors. trustworthiness top ↑ reliability the results of the questionnaires and pen-and-paper tests were consistent and hence were seen as reliable indicators. validity for the purpose of this research, only internal validity or the ability of the research instrument to measure what it is purported to measure is used. the evaluation focused on a specific programme and did not seek to generalise the findings to other, similar programmes because of the time constraints imposed on the intervention. discussion top ↑ outline of the results the first objective was to determine the extent to which creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills can successfully be taught. the results presented in table 1 indicate that most participants are of the opinion that creativity can be developed. the results in table 2 reflect that the creativity workshop achieved the objectives. the results in table 3 concur that the participants are of the opinion that the content of the creativity workshop enhanced their knowledge with regards to creative thinking and problem-solving techniques. the responses from the interviews indicate that the participants are using some of the skills in the workplace. the above results support the views expressed by de bono (1992, 1995), krippendorff (2008) and man (2001) that a valuable degree of creative skill can be obtained by anyone who sets out to do so. the second objective was whether these skills can be applied in a highly regulated environment where very few determinants supportive of innovation are present. the participants were asked to write down what actions they thought could be taken by the leaders in their division to support innovation. the participants suggested that the leaders should take action to create a culture supportive of creativity and innovation; that the leaders should support innovation by making time for innovation questions, listen to new ideas, be more open-minded and ensure that everyone attend the workshop. the responses from the interviews indicated that other factors that influence the application of the skills in the workplace are: fast pace of the business environment, pressing deadlines, staff turnover and constant restructuring. the highly regulated environment also inhibits and impacts on creativity and innovation. these findings support the views expressed by thought leaders who acknowledge the interdependency of both individual determinants and organisational determinants for the establishment of an environment conducive of creativity and innovation (hamel, 2000; krippendorff, 2008; skarzynksi & gibson, 2008). in organisations that are able to unleash the creative potential of their employees to produce ideas, turn these ideas into innovative business opportunities and implement them for successful commercial gain, the determinants, as depicted in figure 1, are all present and operate in synergy. the temporary establishment of the required conditions in the niche business unit of the financial services organisation, where the research was conducted, temporarily created an environment supportive of innovation for the duration of the intervention. the workplace application of the required skills succeeded to some degree whilst these conditions prevailed. the application of the acquired skills was compromised when the required conditions ceased to exist. figure 1: an integrated overview of the determinants required to support creativity and innovation. practical implications given the acknowledgement that the acquisition of creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills is not sufficient on its own in ensuring the sustainable success of the intervention, the business unit has to be made aware and be informed that certain prerequisite determinants are required prior to the implementation of the intervention.the organisation has to realise that the trained individual is the unit through which the acquired creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills permeate into the organisation. it is recommended that certain managerial actions should be taken to establish the determinants needed to support the individual in their ability to apply these acquired skills in practice in order to ultimately benefit the organisation. the following actions can be taken by management: • training opportunities can be useful – participants should exhibit some readiness to benefit from participation. • stimulate debate and exchange of ideas. • be prepared to tolerate more risk. • contain organisational factors that inhibit creative and innovative contributions from staff members. • be prepared to enhance strategies to manage creative individuals. • find a balance between the compliant climate in a financial services organisation and the room to manoeuvre what creativity and innovation require. the literature review and the opinions expressed during the interviews identified common inhibitors of creativity and innovation. the practical realities of the statutory and regulatory constraints, as well as the highly pressured and deadline driven financial services environment, are not conducive to creativity and innovation. temporary conditions conducive to creating an environment supportive of creativity and innovation should be negotiated between the stakeholders participating in an innovation intervention for the duration of such an intervention. limitations of the study this section reviews the main shortcomings of the study and how these might have been avoided (babbie & mouton, 2001). the limitations are related to the literature, as well as to the empirical phases of the study. literature limitations pertain to the fact that some few cited references did not conform to the chronology-driven notion of ‘recency of information and research’. the researchers attempted to source the original or primary reference in all the cases where the reference was cited. the primary reference was used when available. some of the references could not be sourced and the cited train of thought, as well as the extended argument of the author who cited the author, was used.the implementation of a number of workshops (in different contexts) was envisaged. similar organisations are competitors, making work across contexts impossible. the decision of the organisation limited the scope of the intervention to three workshops in a niche business unit. as mentioned before, the quality of the data obtained compensated for the quantitative lacunae and the richness of the data obtained facilitated the realisation of the intended objectives. the transferability of the workshop could therefore not be determined adequately. the organisation decided to allocate limited human resources, time and budget to the intervention to first establish the feasibility of such a workshop intervention prior to considering implementation throughout the organisation. recommendations the proposition for further research is derived from the notable lack of coverage in the literature on the management of creative and innovative employees or individuals. prahalad and krishnan (2008, p. 240) illuminate some of the current challenges managers face by arguing as follows: ‘managers need to cope with new tensions in managing seemingly opposing capabilities such as flexibility and efficiency in their business’. a number of authors (hamel, 2000; krippendorff, 2008; prahalad & krishnan, 2008) are able to identify the managerial skills required for managing creative and innovative people; however, they all fail to provide guidelines on how to acquire and implement these skills.proposed for further research therefore, is the development of a flexible management approach towards creativity that allows for flexibility, but, at the same time, contains enough guidelines to realise strategic goals. the challenge is not so much in the development of flexible management practices, but in the implementation of such practices. further research is required to develop a management model for creativity and innovation interventions. conclusion the literature review and the empirically engendered data conclude that employees in a corporate context, such as a financial services environment, can develop appropriate creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills by means of a creativity and innovation workshop. the findings reflected that these skills can be taught.furthermore, it is evident that the acquisition of these skills is not sufficient on its own to establish an environment conducive to creativity and innovation. the ufe approach was used to realise the objectives. the findings from the questionnaires and interviews support the latter statements. these skills are furthermore dependent on a kaleidoscope of determinants on both an organisational and an individual level to exert and sustain the required influence. organisations can create the required conditions on a temporary basis in order to initiate the intervention. actions should be taken to establish a sustainable culture supportive of creativity and innovation. future research should aim to develop a flexible management model to allow creatives controlled freedom. once organisations understand that their long-term survival depends on the ability to continually create innovative, novel products and services to ensure business competitiveness, their commitment to innovation will result in sustainable idea generating initiatives. successful commercialisation of novel services and products will ultimately ensure a sustainable future and satisfactory shareholder wealth creation. indeed, as the great french poet, novelist and dramatist, victor hugo, once wrote, ‘greater than the thread of mighty armies is an idea whose time has come’. acknowledgements top ↑ thank you to professor melinda coetzee for her guidance and assistance. it is highly appreciated. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.m. (university of johannesburg) was the project leader. a.m., c.d.j. (university of johannesburg) and g.r. (university of johannesburg) were responsible for the project design. a.m. directed most of the learning and development best practice designs. g.r. was pivotal in the development of the research strategy. c.d.j. was instrumental in formulating the ideas behind the concepts. c.d.j. and a.m. wrote the manuscript. g.r. edited the manuscript. references top ↑ allison, k. (2005). secrets from the innovation room. new york: mcgraw-hill.amabile, t.m. (2003). motivation in software communities: work environment support. seminar held at the harvard business school, boston. arenofsky, j. (2000). how to put creativity into your work life. career world, 29(1), 24–28. babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2001). the practice of social research. new york: oxford university press. baron, f. (1969). creative person and creative process. new york: holt, rinehart and winston, inc. baron, f. (1990). creativity and psychological health: origins of personal vitality and creative freedom. buffalo: creative education foundation. clarke, a., & dawson, r. (1999). evaluation research: an introduction to principles, methods and practice. london: sage publications. coetsee, w.j. (1998). an evaluation model for human resource development interventions. doctoral dissertation, rand afrikaans university, johannesburg. cook, p. (1998). the creativity advantage – is your organisation the leader of the pack? industrial and commercial training, 30(5), 179–184. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00197859810225652 couger, j.d. (1995). creative problem solving and opportunity finding. colorado springs: boyd and fraser publishing company. de bono, e. (1992). serious creativity. new york: harper collins publishers. de bono, e. (1995). parallel thinking. london: penguin books. de bono, e. (2005). the six value medals. parktown: random house (pty) ltd. filipczak, b. (1997). it takes all kinds: creativity in the workforce. training, 34(5), 32–40. fonseca, j. (2002). complexity and innovation in organisations. new york: routledge publishing. ford, c.m., & gioia, d.a. (1995). creative action in organisations. london: sage publications. grinell, r.m. (1993). social work research and evaluation. itasca: f.e. peacock publishers. pmid:8434599, pmcid:1682095 grulke, w. (2002). lessons in radical innovation. harlow: prentice hall. guilford, j.p. (1975). creativity: a quarter century of progress. in i.a. taylor & j.w. getzels (eds.), perspectives in creativity, (pp. 37–59). chicago: aldine. guilford, j.p. (1986). creative talents: their nature, uses, and development. new york: barely limited. hamel, g. (2000). leading the revolution. boston: harvard business press. henry, j. (1991). creative management. london: sage publications. joubert, s.j. (1993). kreatief-begaafde studente se belewing van universiteits-kultuur: ’n dubbelgeval studie [creativity – the gifted student’s experience of the university culture: a case study]. doctoral dissertation, rand afrikaans university, johannesburg:. kelley, t. (2001). the art of innovation. london: harper collins publishers. kirkpatrick, d.l., & kirkpatrick, j.d. (2006). evaluating training programs: the four levels. san francisco: berrett-koehler publishers, inc. krippendorff, k. (2008). the way of innovation. avon: platinum press. levesque, l.c. (2001). breakthrough creativity. palo alto: davies black publishing. lucas, r.w. (2003). creative training idea book. new york: amacom books. lytton, h. (1971). creativity and education. london: routledge and kegan paul ltd. maas, g.j.p., de coning, t.j., & smit, e.v.d.m. (1999). identifying indicators than can play a meaningful role in promoting creativity in smes – a south african study. the south african journal for business management, 30(2), 39–45. man, j. (2001). creating innovation. work study, 50(6), 229–233. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/eum0000000006035 martins, e.c., & terblanche, f. (2003). building organisational culture that stimulates creativity and innovation. european journal of innovation management, 6(1), 64–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14601060310456337 middleton-kelly, e. (2006). a complexity approach to co-creating an innovative environment. world futures, 62, 223–239. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02604020500509553 muller, a. (2004). resource pack for post-graduate students. johannesburg: twr faculty of business management. o’leary, z. (2005). researching real-world problems: a guide to methods of inquiry. london: sage publications. oka, t., & shaw, i. (2000). qualitative research in social work. retrieved april 17, 2007, from http://pweb.sophia.ac.jp/oka/papers/2000/qrsw/ patton, m.c. (1997). utilization-focused evaluation. the new century text. (3rd edn.). thousand oaks: sage publications. piskurich, g.m. (2000). rapid instructional design. san francisco: jossey-bass/pfeiffer. pmid:11101876 piskurich, g.m., beckshi, p., & hall, b. (2000). the astd handbook of training design and delivery. new york: mcgraw-hill. pmid:11101876 plompen, m. (2005). innovative corporate learning. new york: palgrave macmillan. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9780230288799 prahalad, c.k., & krishnan, m.s. (2008). the new age of innovation. new york: mcgraw-hill. robbins, s.p. (1979). organisational behaviour. san diego: prentice hall international, inc. skarzynski, p., & gibson, r. (2008). innovation to the core. boston: harvard business press. pmcid:2736714 von oech, r. (1983). a whack on the side of the head. new york: warner brothers, inc. von oech, r. (1990). a whack on the side of the head: how you can be more creative. london: thorsons. wallace, d.b., & gruber, h.e. (1989). creative people at work. new york: oxford university press. west, m.a., & farr, j.l. (1996). innovation and creativity at work. new york: john wiley & sons. williams, s. (2001). increasing employees’ creativity by training their managers. industrial and commercial training, 33(2), 63–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00197850110385642 2smith.qxd the shif t from industrialised economies and nat ural resources to intellectual capital, have forced executives to reexamine the role knowledge plays in organisations and how it is used. the management of knowledge has increasingly surfaced to become a leveraging mechanism, providing an important competitive edge within organisations. the key purpose of knowledge management (km) is supporting continuous learning within the organisation in order to improve the abilit y to cope with constant changes in the market. consequently km is seen as an intent ional approach aimed at elicit ing required knowledge from knowledgeable people, sharing it with appropriate people at the right time and putting that knowledge into action to improve organisat ional performance. km entails a complex process affected by several variables both within and outside the organisation. finally, for km to be effective, a holistic approach needs to be followed supported by a strong and aligned foundation of enablers, inter alia human resources (hr). however, at the outset, informat ion technolog y overshadowed hr in respect of km in the organisation, almost claiming the role of sole driver. in spite of huge sums of money being spent on it systems and infrastructure, an insignificant correlation bet ween an organisation’s it expenditure and its financial performance was found thus far (davenport, 2000). the reason for this is a general disregard of the human side of the information equation in most it programmes that "take little account of what information people want or need and how they use it" (davenport, 2000, p. 9). experience has since proved that knowledge is created via the interaction of humans using certain tools or mediums. according to boshyk, "the concepts of knowledge management are essentially peoplefocussed and technology enabled, not technology driven” (2000, p. 52). even though people hold the key to valuable knowledge, this linkage of people to knowledge is not generally realised or applied. the study strives to obtain new insight into the phenomenon of organisational km and the supportive role hr could play in this regard. the primary focus of this study is what role hr could play in augmenting access to knowledge via knowledge holders (employees). it goes almost without saying that if an organisation could be positioned to unleash the knowledge already in its midst, its position would be strengthened substantially. research design research methodology research setting and participants to focus the study and execute it within time and financial constraints, only selected individuals sit uated in south africa’s gauteng province was included. the study’s unit of analysis was individuals, via knowledge managers in organisations or individuals knowledgeable on the topic. the sample was relatively small due to the limited number of individuals knowledgeable on the topic and organisations who have attained success in this area. english and afrikaans speaking participants of both gender groups participated in the study. all participants held post-graduate qualifications and have had extensive exposure to the corporate world, both nationally and internationally. participants were either selfemployed or occupied senior positions in companies within the private sector. data collection method to determine the viability of the study a pilot study was conducted and literature on the topic studied to obtain clarity on the relevant terminology. three preliminary interviews were conducted during the viability study, followed by seven focussed interviews for the main st udy. the qualitative selection procedure was theoretical sampling and the method of sampling employed was snowball or chain sampling, where cases of interest were identified “from people who know people who know what cases are information rich” (denzin & lincoln, 1994, p. 28). multimethods were employed in the research, with unstructured in-depth interviews as the principal method helena smith willem schurink willems@acc.co.za department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract the aim of the study is to obtain new insight into the phenomenon of knowledge management (km) in modern day organisations and the role human resources (hr) may play in facilitating access to knowledge via knowledge holders with the intention of contributing to theoretical and practical use within the south african context. a qualitative methodology, specifically the grounded theory approach was followed in developing the theory. the importance of organisational knowledge, management of knowledge and linking people to share knowledge were found particularly prominent in influencing the role hr plays in relation to and in support of km in organisations. this triad formed the foundation for the theory revealing the changed role of hr to create opportunities for and linking people with one another to share knowledge. opsomming die studie het ten doel om binne die suid afrikaanse konteks nuwe praktiese en teoretiese insig te bekom rakende kennisbestuur in moderne organisasies en die rol wat die menslike hulpbron (mh) funksie kan speel in die fasilitering van toegang tot kennis deur middel van werknemers. daar is van ’n kwalitatiewe metodologiese benadering, meer spesifiek die begronde teorie gebruik gemaak in die ontwikkeling van die teorie. die belangrikheid van organisasie-kennis, kennisbestuur en die byeenbring van mense om kennis te deel het ’n betekenisvolle invloed op die rol wat mh speel ten opsigte van en ter ondersteuning van kennisbestuur. hierdie drietal het die basis vir die teorie gevorm wat die veranderde rol van mh uitwys synde gerig op die fasilitering van kennisdeling deur die byeenbring van mense en die skepping van geleenthede. the interface between knowledge management and human resources: a qualitative study requests for copies should be addressed to: w. schurink, willems@acc.co.za 6 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (1), 6-13 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (1), 6-13 of data collection supported by participant observation. the study took place in the actual/natural work setting of the participants where rich insider data was solicited in order to explore, describe and comprehend the dynamics of the situation and the meanings attributed to it. short notes were made during the interviews and field-notes compiled after each interview. these, as well as audio tape recordings were analysed, stored and safeguarded. execution qualitative research methods were used in the study to discover, describe and move towards an understanding of the participants’ social construction of km and hr. the tradition of grounded theory (gt) was employed being “a qualitative research method that uses a systematic set of procedures to develop an inductively derived grounded theory about a phenomenon” (strauss & corbin, 1990, p. 24). the gt approach consists of data collection, note taking, coding, memoing, sorting and report writing and the objective is to intimately link the research to the reality of the participants and to allow the findings to emerge from the words spoken by the participants. the approach does not test a hypothesis; it sets out to find which theory accounts for the research situation as it is. data analysis was performed following the constant comparative method (glaser & straus, 1967) being a set of struct ured and systematic procedures that involves the concurrent collection and analyses of data. coding strategies were utilised to break down the qualitative data that were grouped into meaningful units and labelled in order to generate concepts. these concepts were grouped into descriptive categories or themes and re-evaluated for meaningful interrelationships and recurring themes which led to the evolving of gradually higher order categories necessary for theory construction. ethical and professional considerations were adhered to and decisions taken complied with the existing rules governing the relationship bet ween the researcher and his or her research participants and the entire research process. this in part icular refers to the researcher’s “obligations or responsibilities towards the practice of science (professional ethics), society, the subjects of science and the environment” governing the study (mouton 2002, p. 239). as far as data analysis is concerned, the gt approach provided a set of clearly defined steps that was followed in order to gather data on the participants’ construction of realit y as well as to reach an understanding thereof. trustworthiness of the study was established by providing a detailed overview, examples and excer pts of the applicat ion of the gt approach1. to avoid undue subjectivit y, personal discipline was exercised together with rigorous examinat ion for personal bias at each stage of the research process. the discussion of the results is based on the interview data and provides an authentic synopsis on how the participants viewed the concepts and ensures that the emerging theory can indeed be traced back to the data. results as depicted in figure 1, three themes namely that of the organisation, human resources and knowledge management were found relevant in the role hr plays in relation to and in support of km in the organisation. categories developed from each of these themes were the importance of organisational knowledge and knowledge must be managed, for the current and future existence of the knowledge organisation. link people to share knowledge surfaced as the core category (the category that appears central) in the study. the various categories and their links to the core category provided the theory. figure 1: emerging categories and properties from the data analysis the organisational context although the study focused on the areas of hr and km, it soon became clear that these two areas could not be disengaged from the bigger environment, vide that of the organisation. from the interview data, it is clear that the organisational context plays a critical role in providing the environment and shaping the application of both hr and km. the following six concepts were elicited: � organisational strategy. the importance of strategic planning was reiterated and furthermore that km in an organisation should be linked to and support the overall organisational strategy. this strategic intent and business focus of the organisation would require the availability of specific and current knowledge as well as dictating what knowledge is required to sustain the intended strategy in future. the more effectively organisational knowledge is harnessed and utilised, the better it can support the organisational strategy, necessitating the development and implementation of a knowledge strategy. � organisational culture. km is about sharing and everybody in the organisation should be involved in the application and practicing thereof. by incorporating km as part of the business process, it becomes an essential part of the way things are done in a particular organisation and are infused in the overriding culture, but if there is no cooperative and sharing culture, knowledge will pass unrecognised and under-utilised. � management involvement. successful km is reliant on senior management’s understanding of the benefits of internal knowledge and how they see it unfolding in the organisation. from management’s side a common vision in relation to km needs to be conveyed, and their commitment to, support of and involvement in the km process visually displayed. � organisational structure. an organisation’s knowledge base should be seen as a valuable asset and managed accordingly, influencing organisational structures and affecting organisational change and development. this requires different approaches, as well as structural, paradigm and behavioural changes in people and the organisation where each business unit should take ownership of the knowledge in their midst and optimally manage it to improve performance. the work environment needs to be restructured and reorganised to ease access to and link employees with one another to provide for knowledge sharing. the creation and implementation of units of work, projects, teams and communities of practice are aimed at connecting people to share information and best practices. � the knowledge organisation. knowledge/modern organisations are confronted with constant and rapidly changing circumstances underscoring the concept of the learning organisation, continuous development and innovation. the knowledge management and human resources 7 1 for a comprehensive exposition of gt, interested readers are requested to consult smith (2004). knowledge organisation also opened a new and different working environment, requiring different skills, behaviour and expectations from employees and management alike. � organisational knowledge. an organisation’s knowledge is the hub where knowledge is contributed to and accessed to execute business processes as well as current and future strategies. organisations need to know what knowledge resides in the organisation and it requires the identification and ‘mapping’ of knowledge and knowledge holders. organisations should decide on the essential knowledge required for core business processes and in support of the organisation’s strateg y and refrain from capt uring unnecessary knowledge. the human resources context from the interview data, ten concepts came to the fore. one concept that stood out as the linchpin is a ‘sharing culture within a trusting environment’. this finding is not surprising since the presiding culture and environment where sharing takes place form the basis for and inform all other activities. the relationships bet ween the concepts are dynamic and interconnected, event ually functioning as a system in symbiosis. optimal functioning within the hr context will be limited when there is no synergy between the various hr concepts as well as with the other t wo related themes (organisational and km contexts). � role and function of hr. knowledge and knowledge workers have become the most important resource or asset in the knowledge intensive organisation. this focus on knowledge changed the role and position of hr from personnel administrator to one of strategic role player and asset manager. however, hr principles remained the same, hr is still responsible for human resource/capital management in the organisation. � people (human capital) management. accompanied by the rise in the modern economy, a new/different focus on the employee and its value to the organisation has arrived. knowledge workers have to be managed differently and in such a manner that access to the knowledge asset can be secured. knowledge workers also have different needs, and opportunities should be availed for innovative and independent thinking and individualism should be encouraged. � recruitment. knowledge organisations need workers with different skills and perspectives, resulting in different recruitment and selection strategies. the focus is on the employment of ‘smart’ and resilient people who are innovative and curious and have the ability to work in teams or groups with the aim of sharing expertise. � retaining knowledge and knowledge workers. hr has an important role to play in developing strategies, measures and policies to retain particular knowledge workers and their knowledge. a challenge is the creation of an intellectually stimulating and challenging working environment, focussing on continuous learning, innovation and the intellectual growth and development of employees. another challenge is implementing effective knowledge transfer methods e.g. mentorship and pre-retirement programs. � measuring and managing performance. the measuring of especially tacit knowledge is difficult and measurement tools should be organisation specific, linked to the overall organisational strategy and knowledge requirements, and specified in the individual’s job description and performance agreement. financial rewards are not necessarily the best choice as knowledge workers tend to value non-financial incentives e.g. overt recognition as important. � sharing culture within a trusting environment. knowledge sharing does not come naturally, but within a safe and trusting environment, the spontaneous sharing of knowledge will occur more readily, thereby establishing an alignment between the overriding culture and the behaviour of sharing. time, opportunities, structures, policies, and procedures need to be established and aligned with the aim to connect people and encourage them to start talking to one another. due to the volume of knowledge, it needs to be extracted and validated and this should ideally take place within a setting where people trust one another. � training and development. knowledge organisations are focussed on continuous learning, development and innovation, this requires developing and training workers for a different working environment. workers furthermore require different skills in the knowledge organisation and need to be trained and developed in inter alia what, when, how and where to share, access and use knowledge. km involves continued learning from other either via observation, learning from experience (sharing of lessons learned and best ways of task performance), learning from experts, mentorship programs and storytelling. � change management. km and the concept of knowledge sharing necessitate a change in the familiar ways of doing, i.e. management perspectives, behaviour as well as mind and paradigm adjustments. hr notably plays an important role in managing the change surrounding the implementation of a km approach, not only to address the people issue, but also to redesign processes and procedures to assist the organisation in utilising its assets optimally. � processes (course or progress) and procedure (way things are done). processes and procedures have to be developed to connect people with one another to enable knowledge sharing and to ensure that km eventually becomes part of organisational business processes, requiring the optimal alignment of people, technology and business processes. � policies. hr as driver of organisational policies has an important role to play in the development of km related policies and in ensuring process alignment and adherence to policies and procedure. the knowledge management context three concepts emanated from the interview data. striking is the increased focus on intangibles i.e. knowledge that replaced tangible assets and that has to be unlocked, optimised and actively managed. � understanding the concept ‘knowledge management’. km is neither information nor document management and its measurement is difficult. km is still a novelty in some organisations and there is a need for practical lessons learned. the term ‘knowledge management’ is limiting and not descriptive since knowledge cannot be managed; only the people possessing it. km infused new organisational processes and practices and had an impact on organisations’ functioning and social aspects. � km’s function in organisations. organisations that are serious about km require the development and implementation of an integrated km strategy with a definite focus that is linked to the organisational strategy and organisational processes. km should be part of the organisation’s everyday functioning where everyone understands its importance and takes ownership of it. the identification of organisational knowledge also includes locating knowledge experts and all of this has to be captured and customised according to the organisation’s strategic needs and circumstances. � km and the employee. km becomes a collective responsibility not only to share and contribute to the knowledge base, but also to utilise it. km should be linked to bigger business processes and form part of each employees’ role and function and formalised in e.g. job descriptions and performance agreements. discussion knowledge and the knowledge organisation global competition and competing economies forced many organisations to change their accustomed ways of doing, demanding a focussed strategy and innovative thinking and processes to remain in the forefront (o’driscoll, 2001, gratton, smith, schurink8 2003). due to a scarcity in natural resources, modern or knowledge organisations increasingly depend on the knowledge contained in the organisation to succeed and remain competitive (boshyk, 2000, davenport & prusak, 2000, o’driscoll 2001 & gratton, 2003), necessitating the sharing of knowledge across boundaries and between different cultures (andrew, 1999a, brelade & harman, 2000). modern organisations have become highly knowledge-intensive with km becoming an essential function in modern and big organisations. knowledge, and subsequently managing it, should have a broad impact on the organisation and for this reason it needs to be either integrated with the organisation’s strategic direction, or take the existing strategy in a new direction. in addition to collecting knowledge, knowledge should also be converted into action since knowledge and information are of limited value unless purposefully applied – “action or the ability to take action is what makes knowledge valuable” (rumizen, 2002, p. 6 & p. 8). this shifts the focus beyond the mere sharing of knowledge towards the creative and innovative use of internal knowledge. the creative use of knowledge requires a reevaluation of the manner in which the organisation utilises information and knowledge, moving towards applying knowledge in innovative ways, breaking away from traditional and outdated habits, structures, processes, procedures and prescriptive intellectual paradigms. managing knowledge production and application, necessitates the coordination of a variety of processes and procedures, the involvement and support of management as well as the co-operation and buy-in of employees. the role of technology in facilitating km practices, technology is used as an enabler to ensure that relevant information is widely available with minimum delays in time and cost. the use of technology particularly as recording medium comes into play since “between 60 to 80 percent of an enterprise’s information is non-structured, generated during a business process but unrecorded” (de klerk, 1999, p. 13). this underscores the importance of capturing, structuring and packaging corporate brainpower in a structured data environment from where it could be made more widely accessible to employees; hence enhancing knowledge sharing, enabling knowledge retention, allowing collective knowledge growth, the shortening of lead times and improving productivit y. this again emphasises the necessit y of a technology component linked to km, e.g. data warehouses, workstations, networks, databases, search engines, browser access to back-end systems, and software application tools. such a database ought to be developed to ease access to knowledge experts, capture knowledge, contain knowledge that is of strategic value and beneficial to the organisation’s business, and improve services and processes. in addition knowledge must be updated continually. it is important to bear in mind that the focus of technology should not be on storage per se, but on connecting people with one another, e.g. knowledge maps or corporate yellow pages. it is furthermore advisable that a uniform and standardised set of desktop applications is implemented to enhance the exchange of documents and communication. when organisations decide to apply km principles, they have to consider their current it infrastructure and particularly the level of it literacy. in investigating and considering means to share tacit knowledge, organisations need to become innovative and should develop methods to unlock such knowledge without suppressing it with complex technology neither understood nor applied. the role of hr in relation to km the present study acknowledges the fact that km is crucial in the knowledge/modern organisation and that knowledge originates and resides in human beings. it is therefore a “misnomer to say that we manage knowledge. we cannot manage what happens in people’s brains, and it is presumptuous to say we can manage people’s thought processes” (koulopoulos & frappaolo, 2000, p.18). these assumptions represent the starting-point for hr, namely the effective management of people so that their knowledge is made available to the organisation. the aim should be to encourage the extraction and sharing of knowledge by creating dynamic connections and using technology to link knowledge and people within the working environment. in this respect the focus is not as such on the management of knowledge per se, but on creating an enabling environment with optimal circumstances and mechanisms that could facilitate the generation and flow of knowledge throughout the organisation. this represents a continuous circle where each part plays an important role and therefore the need to integrate km and hr management initiatives within the organisation, and more importantly, to identif y and understand the role hr can play in strengthening the organisation’s knowledge. literature and interview data acknowledge that human capital (the combined talents/mindsets, skills and knowledge of employees to provide customer solutions (saint-onge, 1996, stewart, 2001)) have become a pivotal role player in knowledge organisations. this leads to hr’s role and function becoming the steward of human capital, entrusted with the responsibility of managing and optimising the human asset component in knowledge organisations. to give effect to this role, hr has to perform various roles including that of strategic partner, knowledge facilitator, hr management expert and change agent. hr as strategic partner the change from industrial to modern/knowledge organisations has caused a paradigm shift on all conceivable levels. not only has it influenced organisations, labour and employees, but on hr as well. nowadays hr is increasingly recognised as a proactive and strategic role player in the organisation (becker & huselid, 1999). additionally, as implementer of the organisational strateg y and being guided by it, hr is unquestionably linked to the organisation’s strategy and future intent, “human resources (increasingly) has to take on a more strategic role moving away from its focus on exclusively people and talent to helping line management building capabilities to grow the business” (ulrich, 2002, p. 12). hr has progressed from an administrative function, typically regarded as a cost centre, to become a pro-active and strategic role player that has to ensure that the organisation is equipped with the right ‘assets’ (employees). hr has to turn into a business partner adding value by building and unleashing employee capabilities to develop the business. this calls for a review of hr’s mandate, an expansion of its traditional boundaries, and its subsequent acceptance of a new role. focusing on business level outcomes, hr requires a fundamental understanding of the organisation’s asset base as well as the ability of identif ying unexploited assets which may very well limit its capability in achieving business goals. implementing its strategic partnership role requires innovative practices on the part of hr practitioners. hr practitioners need to be competent not only in functional human resource management (hrm) expertise, but also conversant with the organisation’s strategy, business dynamics, systems, processes, change management and km. although the term ‘employees are our biggest asset’ has been omnipresent for some time, it has become all the more pertinent, not because of what employees can do but for the knowledge they possess. to comply fully with the role as asset manager, it has become essential that hr should form part of strategic management teams in order to understand the direction in which organisations are moving and to position itself to meet both present and future staffing needs. to address staffing needs at the appropriate time, hr not only knowledge management and human resources 9 smith, schurink10 has to latch on to organisations’ vision and strategy, but also has to appreciate and be fully acquainted with the various businesses and processes. this requires hr to familiarise itself with existing organisational knowledge/skills bases, being conversant with the knowledge required by them, being informed on the availability of and accessibility to the possessors of this knowledge and where to locate them. this role involves more than mere forecasting, staffing, maintenance, training and development. it also entails a strategising and advisory function, e.g. when the organisation plans to move in a new direction, hr in particular has to advise on the feasibility of such a step, based on their inherent knowledge of the internal knowledge base, the external knowledge market and the availabilit y of specialised knowledge sources. acknowledging the importance of knowledge and employees as strategic assets in organisations undeniably changes the manner in which employees are viewed and managed. this has undeniably changed the role of and how the employee is viewed and managed, which, in turn, requires that hr practices need to change and adapt in order to build an employee value proposition. knowledge workers have diverse needs and prefer an environment that best suits their way of working and particular style. such an environment concentrates on employee satisfaction where a challenging job, exposure to new technology, career opportunities, work environment and on-thejob training are rated more important than money (andrew, 1999b). this has implications for both management principles and practices since “the knowledge economy has drastically changed many traditional business and human resource management concepts and we are beginning to see the evolution of new and different management styles to accommodate the new work environment” (andrew, 1999b, p. 64). furthermore, this could include a clear sense of purpose, caring management, flexible benefits, open communications, an enjoyable work environment, performance management, reward, recognition, training and development (probart, 2002). hr as knowledge facilitator reaching those who have the necessary knowledge and willingness to share it is certainly one of the biggest challenges facing hr. one of the most prominent roles of hr in knowledge organisations is subsequently that of knowledge facilitator. the crux of knowledge sharing and transfer strategies does not entail the collection and dissemination of information, but rather the creation and maintenance of an enabling environment as well as linking knowledge workers with one another to share knowledge. creating a stable and trusting internal working environment, accompanied by low fear and high trust levels, could improve knowledge sharing and validation, whether in a one-on-one relationship or within groups. the level of trust in an organisation represents a major factor that not only determines the extent of knowledge sharing, but also the prospect of value creation (saint-onge, 1996). mutual trust is at the heart of knowledge exchange and no knowledge market can operate effectively without it. “trust can defeat other factors that positively affect the eff iciency of knowledge markets. without trust, knowledge initiatives will fail, regardless of how thoroughly they are supported by technology and rhetoric and even if the sur vival of the organization depends on effective knowledge transfer” (davenport & prusak, 2000, p. 34). relationships will therefore not flourish in organisations infused with untrust worthy behaviour, mistrust, env y, competition amongst employees, and negative attitudes. trust is not developed instantly and must be demonstrated in a visible and direct manner. employees must witness trust in the acknowledgement of knowledge sharing, which should commence from top management level and flow downward through the organisation. in karl-erik sveiby’s words: “trust is the bandwidth of communication” (van der westhuizen, 1999, 52). evidence from both the literature and the interviews underscores that employee commitment and trust levels are not likely to emerge unless “employees are treated with respect and are provided with job security, a share of the economic benefits, significant opportunities for skills development and substantive participation in decisions” (porth, mccall & bausch, 1999, p. 216). subsequently trust has replaced traditional binding and employment-enforcing contracts, which now need to be reflected in organisational policies and procedures. we foresee trust becoming an even more important factor in future business. trust and personal contact are intimately related and for this reason it is important to establish how individuals respond to and interact with fellow employees. in order to optimise the fine balance between individuals, organisations need to return to and instil basic humaneness – being more caring and co-operative towards one another, and more inclined to share knowledge with others. von krogh, ichijo and nonaka (2000) regard care as the essence of knowledge enabling and this requires a new generation of managers where ‘care’ becomes part of their agendas. more specifically, hr needs to understand when, why, where, and how people interact with each other and they should create opport unities to foster empathy and care in organisational relationships. the importance of integrating km and more specifically knowledge sharing as part of the overall organisational culture is underscored by both literature and interview data. the management of culture is one of the additional hrm practices and “hr professional need to understand that they are the keepers of the culture and that their impact reaches well beyond their functional boundaries” (becker, huselid & ulrich, 2001, p. 160). a collaborative and sharing cult ure is not established overnight and naturally has to be sustained. “cultural factors usually entail long-term change, and probably will hinge on the types of people a company hires and the reasons they come to work there in the first place. in the short term, however, a firm can begin to foster a knowledge culture in part through such means as education, incentive programs and management example” (davenport & prusak, 2000, p. 115). in such a culture, a sense of mutual obligation reigns where employees help one another with these efforts eventually becoming a self-perpetuating cycle. a sharing culture is inter alia enhanced when employees have a positive orientation towards knowledge and are intellectually curious. this is linked clearly to the type of employees attracted, recruited, appointed, and retained by organisations. such employees are furthermore eager, and should be encouraged to explore new knowledge within a learning and flexible atmosphere where they can examine and share ideas. management also needs to acknowledge employees’ knowledge-creating activities by means of a fair and consistent incentive and reward system/program. additionally, care should be taken that the effect are minimised of possible factors that could inhibit the sharing of knowledge, e.g. imprudent downsizing and hostile mergers and/or acquisitions shown to have inhibited knowledge sharing (von krogh et al., 2000). human resource management in knowledge organisations effective km subsequently calls for the successful management of an organisation’s human resources. organisations that value innovation as a growth factor have instilled rigorous selection processes, supported by internal career opportunities, formal training systems, appraisal measures, employee involvement, and secure employment (gratton, 2003). there is general agreement that knowledge-driven organisations can increase their potential value through equipping themselves with not only the most suitable, but also the right candidate. the role of hr in the staffing process has become significant not only in who should be appointed but also as to how recruitment needs to take place within knowledge organisations. this is implemented by marketing the organisation in order to attract desirable candidates, ensuring that the right knowledge workers are recruited and placed within a suitable work environment, thus encouraging them to share their knowledge with their colleagues. “the financial investment in the recruitment of new human capital can return immediate value if you are able to recruit staff who possess knowledge that does not already reside in the organisation” (gray, 2001, p. 38). this will also lead to a more flexible recruitment process, where the urge is no longer on filling jobs, but “to hire people who already have the needed skills” (foley curley & kivowitz, 2001, p. 58). this process requires the identification of the required skills and knowledge gaps and then establishing a program that will attract committed people with desirable competences, and place them in the right places, for the right duration and at the right cost (walker & perrin, 2001). consequently, the primary focus should be on employing open-minded employees who display lateral thinking, have the ability to work in teams or groups and are willing to share their knowledge and expertise. to keep pace with the changes in the working environment, knowledge workers should show a willingness to grow and develop, as well as the need to be f lexible, innovative, and creative in their thinking. furthermore, they must apply knowledge in task execution, have the capacity to learn new skills continuously and adapt to a variety of circumstances and cultures. the recruitment and selection of the desired employees should be supported by initiatives and measures to retain knowledge workers, to utilise their skills and knowledge optimally and to expand on existing knowledge levels. knowledge workers have a different view of work and the organisation with an increased “strive for quality of life, community, self fulfilment and higher order values” (verwey, 2003, p. 9). in accommodating and retaining them, alternatives need to be found which would enable individuals to meet their personal aspirations as well as to make choices that would suit their personal life styles, which vary according to different life stages (probart, 2002, verwey, 2003). retention programs aimed at addressing individual employee requirements are becoming increasingly important with a change in working environment as well as management styles. this could open up various changes in hr practices, processes, and procedures, e.g. greater flexibility in work schedules, pleasant working conditions, changes in psychological contracts and job descriptions. therefore, in retaining organisational knowledge, particular attention should be paid to succession planning, pre-retirees, downsizing and retrenchments. in order to address these strategic staffing/knowledge needs, hr practitioners need to be conversant with the organisation’s strategy and business as well as understand the justification for specific recruitment and retention needs. knowledge organisations depend on knowledge sharing and for that reason should encourage, acknowledge and recognise those employees who contribute to and use its knowledge base. this necessitates that tools and measures employed to assess performance should be objective, trustworthy and have a clear link with both strategy and valued knowledge. organisations should be aware that various employees view rewards differently, placing high value on being recognised as a knowledge expert. thus, to support effective km, performance management should include both financial and non-financial rewards. more specifically, performance management should tie in with the sharing and learning culture where the focus is on continuous improvement, innovation and creativity. in cases where experimentation and discovery give rise to new ideas and products, the development of exploratory learning should be encouraged. these steps would entail that organisations and management tolerate mistakes and failures as part of a learning process. “appraisal systems need to measure not only outcomes but also the modus operandi of the new idea originators and de velopers” (narasimha, 2000, p. 129). knowledge creation and sharing of course, do not count for much if the knowledge that an employee harnesses is not manifested in behaviour. for this reason performance management systems should focus on “what is learned and how that learning is applied” in reaching individual as well as organisational objectives (narasimha, 2000, p. 130). measuring tacit knowledge, although difficult, can be conducted by evaluating explicit demonstrations in the form of contributions made to knowledge sharing and assessing the degree to which employees succeed in exploiting their knowledge competence in terms of breadth, depth, diversity, and innovation. clearly, hr has an important role to play not only with regard to designing and developing performance management systems, but also in equipping management to assess knowledge workers’ performance. the role and responsibilities of hr regarding both formal and informal training and development have increased in knowledge organisations where skills and competencies of workers require continual expansion and improvement to maintain set levels of performance and productivity. training initiatives have for a number of years focussed primarily on individuals in a formalised setting. within knowledge organisations, the focus has shifted to continual learning. this implies that training interventions have to be adapted in order to provide for other means of acquiring skills emphasising communal learning. in knowledge organisations, learning, either by means of mentorship, on-the-job-training, or in communities of practice, has become a communal activity where knowledge and information is exchanged between employees in a more informal environment or within the work environment (walker & perrin, 2001, wenger, mcdermott & snyder, 2002). partnerships, communities of practice, peer assistance, mentoring, or apprenticeship relationships are regarded as effective ways to enable people to talk and listen to each other. organisations should realise that opportunities for knowledge creation are lost when space for appropriate learning activities is not created. in spite of tight workschedules, official time should be made available for knowledge workers to impart what they know, utilise knowledge and/or search for what others know. it can be accepted that knowledge workers will barely contribute to a system if they have to do this in their ‘own’ time. “time is the main enemy of knowledge management, followed closely by fears of abuse, and, at a distance, by the more common desire to retain power” (snowden, 2003, p. 25). consequently, learning becomes part of everyday organisational processes, with a higher onus being placed on employees taking responsibility for their own learning. this obviously requires a paradigm shift by employees, management and hr that has always been regarded as the primary provider of training in the organisation. furthermore, employees need to learn how to locate, extract and use knowledge optimally. in particular, they should learn what knowledge has to be captured in the knowledge base and how this should be done to ease future access. hr as change agent km and the concept of knowledge sharing have instilled a new approach and practices in organisations. therefore, not only will processes and procedures need to be changed, but behavioural and paradigm adjustments will have to be made. van der westhuizen is of the opinion that km should be seen as a ‘change management term’ where it is regarded as a “messenger that brings us tiding of a new era of organisational design, an era where vague outlines may already be seen” (2002, p. 94). due to hr’s strategic position and influence it can either be a hindrance or enabler of rapid organisational change. therefore it is important that hr is not only positioned as part of organisational strategy, but also of organisational change initiatives. the need for continuous innovation and creativity clearly demands a change both in management st yles and the working environment to provide for, encourage, and recognise knowledge management and human resources 11 different thinking st yles. meeting this need necessitates different managerial approaches, since strict command and control approaches will only restrain explorative thinking. in addition provision needs to be made for an environment that fosters the discussion of ideas, innovative thinking, experimenting with new ideas, and even providing room for trial and error. one such solution is communities of practice where employees could not only collaborate to share and validate knowledge, but also enhance the organisation’s knowledge base. it is reasonable to expect that increasingly one will witness a change in organisational struct ures, working environments and employee demographics to accommodate skilled knowledge workers. additionally it can be expected that knowledge workers would consequently require and be granted more freedom as to how they arrange and accomplish their work life. conclusion this study stresses the importance of the relationship between and dependence of km on human resources in business organisations. this is in agreement with davenport and prusak who note: “one of the heartening things we have recently obser ved is the increased interest in knowledge management among human resource managers. we interpret this as a sign that organizations are realizing the vital connection between knowledge-oriented behaviour and overall employee performance” (2000, p. xiii). although we find it inspiring to note that hr as important and strategic role player is now at last starting to get the recognition it deserves in south africa, we believe that a level of ignorance remains regarding the value of human knowledge and the role hr can play in this regard. we therefore recommend that the basic principles of hrm be included as subject matter in the curriculum of and training of km practitioners and vice versa. furthermore, since knowledge has become the crux for organisational performance, we suggest that km be included in all management and leadership training courses and studies. the fact that a few local academic institutions are moving in that direction is welcomed. while we highlighted the importance of hr’s in relation to km, it is not clear whether hr sufficiently adjusted to this role and function, and more importantly, whether it has enhanced knowledge sharing and enabling in knowledge organisations. additionally it may be argued that accepting a role is one thing, being equipped to perform it is quite another. in knowledge organisations hr practitioners are no longer implementers of instructions, but have become process owners who have to identif y, locate, and enhance asset bases in organisations. this implies that hr, and specifically hr practitioners, can no longer be trained only in and exposed to hr specific theory and principles; their academic background should be extended to include broader business, strategic, organisational development and change management issues. the findings of the study touch upon a variety of disciplines and should have some implications for inter alia future working environments, management practices and organisational culture. while various areas for future research can certainly be identified, we want to stress that the role of management in the knowledge organisation should receive further investigation. this has certain implications for the training and appointment of managers, where an open-minded view, flexibility in approach and the ability to relate to and manage diverse people will become discerning factors. if one looks at the demands placed on knowledge organisations and knowledge workers, in particular thinking abilities, one can predict, with relative certainty that the need for creative and innovative thinking will increase in future. we believe that this claim entails distinct implications for the development of such skills and requires a change in education on primary, secondary and tertiary levels, placing more emphasis on fostering innovative and creative thinking. furthermore, this requires more in-depth study of the most feasible methods and practices to develop such skills. this leads us to the knowledge worker, who has a certain value and worth to offer but also demands a balance in his/her work and life. flexibility in processes and procedures needs to be instilled in order to accommodate the needs of knowledge workers, with the crux centring on product delivery and not so much being present at the office. this we believe will demand organisations adapting their perceptions of employees as valuable assets and to a lesser extent as mere workers. the knowledge worker conversely has to ensure that his/her inherent worth remains valued, necessitating continuous upskilling and development. knowledge workers should understand that employment can no longer be guaranteed and that they have become the custodians of their own careers and progression. they also need to realise that they are recruited based on their intrinsic knowledge which they have to share with others, necessitating abilities to share and collaborate with others and requiring a change in the behavioural patterns of people who hoard knowledge. due to time and financial constraints the study was conducted in gauteng province only. a wider array of participant viewpoints could have been collected if a bigger sample could have been included in the study. due to the complexity of the gt approach it is advisable that future researchers should have experience of and exposure to this approach and demonstrate certain qualities e.g. interview skills before embarking on this approach. within the knowledge organisation, hr and km portray significantly common characteristics with both focussing on harnessing available knowledge assets, optimally utilising them, and preventing them from flowing out of the organisation. until organisations recognise the fact that they are literally sitting on a goldmine, knowledge, we believe km and subsequently the role that hr plays in this regard will not receive the attention it deserves. those organisations that were smart enough to recognise this value and utilise it, are already, and deserve to be reaping the benefits of their foresight! references andrew, b. (1999a). developing human potential. knowledge management, 1 (4), pp. 60-64. andrew, b. (1999b). what knowledge management means for us as individual. knowledge management, 2 (2), pp. 62-64. becker, b.e. & huselid, m.a. (1999). overview: strategic human resource management in five leading firms. human resource management, 38 (4), pp. 287-301. becker, b.e., huselid, m.a. & ulrich, d. (2001). the hr scorecard. linking people, strategy and performance. boston: harvard business school press. boshyk, y. (2000). beyond knowledge management: how organisations mobilize experience. in d.a. marchand, t.h. davenport & t. dickson (eds.). mastering information management. london: prentice hall. brelade, s. & harman, c. (2000). using human resources to put knowledge to work. knowledge management review, 3 (1), pp. 26-29. davenport t. h. (2000). putting the i in it. in d.a. marchand, t.h. davenport & t. dickson (eds.). mastering information management. london: prentice hall. davenport, t.h. & prusak, l. (2000). working knowledge. how organizations manage what they know. boston: harvard business school press. de klerk, d. (1999). capture knowledge on the run. knowledge management, 2 (2), p.13. denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. (1994). handbook of qualitative research. london: sage publications. smith, schurink12 foley curley, k. & kivowitz, b. (2001). the manager’s pocket guide to knowledge management. canada: hrd press glaser, b.g. & strauss, a.l. (1967). the discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. chicago: aldine. gratton, l. (2003). putting people at the heart of strategy. management today, 19 (4), pp. 4-6. gray, d. (2001). intellectual capital. measuring and enhancing the true value of your business. london: prentice hall. koulopoulos, t.m. & frappaolo, c. (2000). smart things to know about knowledge management. oxford: capstone publishing. mouton, j. (2002). how to succeed in your masters and doctoral studies. pretoria: van schaik. o’driscoll, t.p. (2001). what does knowledge management (km) mean for your organisation? training, 38 (2), p. 28. porth, s.j., mccall, j. & bausch, t.a. (1999). spiritual themes of the “learning organization”. journal of organizational change management, 12 (3), pp. 211-220. probart, r. (2002). in search of international trends in hr management. management today, 18 (9), pp. 32-33. rumizen, m.c. (2002). the complete idiot’s guide to knowledge management. indianapolis: alpha books. saint-onge, h. (1996). strategic capabilities shaping human resource management within the knowledge-driven enterprise. retrieved 5 september 2003 from the world wide web: http://www.saint-onge.com. snowden, d.j. (2003). the knowledge you need, right when you need it. km review, 5 (6), pp. 24-27. stewart, t.a. (2001). the wealth of knowledge. london: nicholas brealey. straus, a. & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research. grounded theory procedures and techniques. london: sage publications. ulrich, d. (2002). human resources has to create real business value. management today, 18 (3), pp. 12-18. van der westhuizen, j. (1999). from collection to connection. traditional hr set to change. knowledge management, 2 (1), pp. 50-55. van der westhuizen, j. (2002). building horizontal companies: the job km has come to finish. convergence, 3 (3), pp. 92-95. verwey, a. (2003). why is leadership suddenly such a big issue? management today, 19 (8), pp. 8-9. von krogh, g., ichijo, k. & nonaka, i. (2000), enabling knowledge creation. new york: oxford press. walker, a.j. & perrin, t. (2001). web-based human resources. the technologies and trends that are transforming hr. new york: mcgraw-hill. wenger, e., mcdermott, r. & snyder, w.m. (2002). cultivating communities of practice. boston: harvard business school press. knowledge management and human resources 13 article information authors: portia j. jordan1 amanda werner2 danie venter3 affiliations: 1department of nursing science, nelson mandela metropolitan university, south africa 2department of human resource management, nelson mandela metropolitan university, south africa 3unit for statistical consultation, nelson mandela metropolitan university, south africa correspondence to: portia jordan email: portia.jordan@nmmu.ac.za postal address: po box 77000, nelson mandela metropolitan university, port elizabeth 6031, south africa dates: received: 27 apr. 2015 accepted: 04 sept. 2015 published: 02 dec. 2015 how to cite this article: jordan, p.j., werner, a., & venter, d. (2015). achieving excellence in private intensive care units: the effect of transformational leadership and organisational culture on organisational change outcomes. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #707, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.707 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. achieving excellence in private intensive care units: the effect of transformational leadership and organisational culture on organisational change outcomes in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • literature review       • healthcare in south africa       • transformational leadership       • organisational culture       • organisational change outcomes       • proposed conceptual framework and hypothesis formulation • method    • research approach    • sampling and study participants       • measuring instruments • ethical considerations    • data collection procedure    • reliability and validity of the study    • data analysis • results    • demographic characteristics    • prevalence of transformational leadership, organisational culture and organisational change outcomes    • pearson correlation analysis    • multiple linear regression analysis • discussion    • transformational leadership    • organisational culture    • organisational change outcomes    • implications for practice    • limitations and recommendations for future research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: organisational change outcomes in private intensive care units are linked to higher patient satisfaction, improved quality of patient care, family support, cost-effective care practices and an increased level of excellence. transformational leadership and fostering a positive organisational culture can contribute to these change outcomes. research purpose: the study determined whether transformational leadership and a supportive organisational culture were evident in six private intensive care units in the eastern cape, south africa. a conceptual framework to investigate the relationship between transformational leadership, organisational culture, and organisational change outcomes, was proposed and tested. motivation for the study: the prevalence of transformational leadership, a positive organisational culture and their effect on organisational change outcomes in private healthcare industries require further research in order to generate appropriate recommendations. research design, approach and method: a positivistic, quantitative design was used. a survey was conducted using a questionnaire which, in previous studies, produced scores with cronbach’s alpha coefficients greater than 0.80, to collect data from a sample of 130 professional nurses in private intensive care units. main findings: transformational leadership and a positive organisational culture were evident in the private intensive care units sampled. a strong, positive correlation exists between transformational leadership, organisational culture, and organisational change outcomes. this correlation provides sufficient evidence to accept the postulated research hypotheses. innovation and intellectual stimulation were identified as the factors in need of improvement. practical or managerial implications: the findings of the study may be used by managers in intensive care units to promote organisational change outcomes, linked to transformational leadership and a positive organisational culture. contribution: the study provides evidence of the way in which transformational leadership and a positive organisational culture affect organisational change outcomes in the context of private healthcare in south africa, thereby addressing a research gap in this area. introduction top ↑ organisational culture is often seen as either the key issue or the most significant element in organisational change efforts. a positive organisational culture in healthcare industries has a significant impact on the quality of care, patient safety, teamwork, innovation and professional development of healthcare professionals (alharbi, olsson, ekman & carlström, 2014; korbangyang & ussahawanitchakit, 2009; kwahk & lee, 2008). organisational culture should, however, not be viewed in isolation. in fact, organisational culture and leadership are seen as intertwined. the relationship between the two concepts represents an on-going interplay in which the leader shapes the culture and is in turn shaped by the culture. effective leaders make cultures, and their fundamental role is to affect others and to make changes that increase organisational efficiency and performance (birinci & yıldırım, 2013). in healthcare, transformational leadership is identified as the leadership style that can lead to change, guide good clinical decision-making, encourage innovation, enhance patient-centred care and ultimately lead to organisational effectiveness and change. the south african healthcare industry comprises private and public healthcare institutions. although the ultimate focus of both types of institution is to be a service provider for patients admitted to and treated at the institutions, the operations of the two sectors differ. owing to the drive for cost-effective care, increased customer satisfaction and the need for financial performance, the private healthcare industry has different objectives, and therefore requires a different leadership style and organisational culture than the public healthcare sector. the first phase of the study focussed on the private healthcare sector, and therefore this article will only report on the findings as derived from the data collected in the private healthcare sector. data findings from the public sector will follow in a future article. healthcare comprises different levels of care, for instance, acute care, rehabilitative care, emergency care or outpatient clinics. due to the extent of these different units, it was decided to focus only on the intensive care units. the research focused on the prevalence of the relationship between organisational culture, transformational leadership, and organisational change outcomes, in private intensive care units in the eastern cape province. literature review healthcare in south africa the healthcare system globally, as well as in south africa, is constantly changing, complex and turbulent. such a climate is characterised by a costand time-constrained work environment, a shortage of healthcare workers, increased patient acuity, a quest for evidence and best practices, and the challenge of achieving desired patient outcomes (casida & pinto-zipp, 2008). leaders in healthcare must have innovative strategies in order to motivate staff members to go beyond their self-interest for the good of the patients and to improve the organisation and staff performance. these innovative strategies might include the use of clinical practice guidelines, the use of information technology or new policies guiding patient care decisions. despite these difficulties, these strategies must result in high quality, cost-effective patient care, accompanied by high levels of patient satisfaction. improvement of patient services is regarded as one of the goals of leadership in a healthcare organisation. leaders should focus on a leadership style that promotes innovation, where best-demonstrated practices can be adopted to help healthcare practitioners to work smarter, faster and better (thakur, hsu & fontenot, 2012). utilising a transformational leadership style and having an effective organisational culture are strategies that can assist healthcare managers in achieving these goals, as well as addressing the challenges of the current healthcare climate (tourangeu & mcgilton, 2004). private healthcare organisations are continuously adopting new programmes, and changing their existing practices in order to improve effectiveness and efficiency in patient care and service delivery (mitchell, 2013). if change is not adopted, especially in private healthcare institutions, business performance, competitive advantage, patient care, customer satisfaction, and the attraction and retention of customers, may be negatively influenced and can be detrimental to the profitability and sustainability of the business (jandaghi, martin & farjarmi, 2009; korbangyang & ussahawanitchakit, 2009). the rising cost of healthcare treatment, shortages of healthcare professionals, advances in healthcare sciences, technology demands, economic pressure, the need for cost-effective and quality care, and the need to harness and maintain the competitive advantage, are factors that encourage leaders to reflect on and change practices where needed in healthcare organisations (craig & smyth, 2012; gilley, mcmillian & gilley, 2009; mitchell, 2013). in order to achieve excellence in such an environment, leaders continuously need to review their leadership style and the organisational culture (mitchell, 2013; parmelli et al., 2011; wong & cummings, 2007). healthcare systems are being challenged to provide quality and cost-effective care to the population of the world. south africa is no different, but it has the added problem of a dual healthcare system. the public sector comprises government healthcare institutions which provide free healthcare to a mostly impoverished population, whilst the private sector consists of profit-seeking organisations and individuals who serve a population that can either afford medical insurance or are self-paying (klopper, coetzee, pretorius & bester, 2012). the private healthcare sectors are large industries, providing employment for many people and facilitating significant economic activity, which affects many more patients and role players directly participating in the use and provision of private health services (econex, 2013). for these reasons it is important that the organisational culture and leadership are optimised, in order to promote productivity, performance, and change. there appears to be a paucity of literature available on transformational leadership, organisational culture and change, related to the south african private healthcare industry. it is therefore important to investigate the prevalence of transformational leadership and culture, and whether there is a relationship between these variables and organisational change outcomes in private intensive care units. this study focused on intensive care units, which are specialised areas in a healthcare organisation, where critically ill patients are admitted and cared for (craig & smyth, 2012; robbins & davidhizar, 2007; urden, stacy & lough, 2014). transformational leadership transformational leadership is defined as a leadership approach that triggers change in individuals and social systems. in its ideal form, transformational leadership creates valuable and positive change in followers, with the end goal of developing followers into leaders. transformational leaders expose a new route for improvement and progress by generating new ideas and perspectives. they change their followers, empower them to develop, and create new needs, tendencies and values, which encourage followers to grow, develop and change into a new generation of leaders. in order to optimise transformational leadership, innovation should be the core focus (bass & riggio, 2006; hough, arthur, thompson, strickland & gamble, 2011; jandaghi et al., 2009). according to bass and avolio (2000), transformational leadership has four dimensions: idealised influence of charisma inspirational motivation individualised consideration intellectual stimulation. idealised influence of charisma involves the formulation and articulation of visions. a vision is defined as the future strategic course, or the direction in which the individual or company is heading (hough et al., 2011). inspirational motivation is the way that leaders motivate and inspire followers to commit to the vision of the organisation. leaders with an inspirational motivation foster strong team spirit as a means for leading team members towards achieving the desired goals (bass & riggio, 2006). individualised consideration refers to the leaders paying special attention to each individual’s need for achievement and growth by acting as a coach or mentor. intellectual stimulation refers to the way leaders motivate and inspire their followers to be innovative and creative (bass & riggio, 2006). transformational leadership should be regarded as an important aspect to transform and change care delivery outcomes in the healthcare industry (robbins & davidhizar, 2007). in a study conducted in 1300 hospitals across the united states and europe, it was found that well-managed hospitals with clinically qualified leaders produced a higher standard of patient care, thus emphasising the importance of good leadership (dorgan et al., 2010). workforce surveys amongst healthcare workers in the united kingdom have shown that the higher the leadership quality of senior managers (as rated by staff), the higher the rate of organisational performance and the lower the number of patient complaints (care quality commission, 2011). having a transformational leadership style in the healthcare industry is pivotal because it will ultimately contribute to quality patient care and improved organisational outcomes, especially in private healthcare where quality and efficient care are cost drivers (jandaghi et al., 2009). organisational culture organisational culture is an important aspect to consider in any organisation. a universally adopted definition provided by schein (1997) is that organisational culture is a pattern of shared basic assumptions that were learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration. culture can be viewed as a lens through which an organisation can be understood and interpreted (parmelli et al., 2011). werner et al. (2012) concur in stating that ‘organisational culture’ refers to a system of shared assumptions or meanings held by members that distinguishes one organisation from others. organisational culture in healthcare is important as it helps healthcare professionals to establish a learning environment that promotes professional development and enhances teamwork. the culture in healthcare must promote teamwork and values, and supports team members and their opinions. furthermore, excellence and quality patient care is promoted, change enabled, and smoother implementation of change processes are allowed, which are critical for the success of healthcare organisations (acar & acar, 2012). a study done by carney (2011) found that excellence in patient care delivery that is allied to positive value systems and utilising strategic involvement were the most important organisational cultural influences required for optimum effectiveness in quality care delivery. acar and acar (2012) observe that organisational culture has increasingly been seen as an important consideration in healthcare reform. they argue that ultimately innovation and organisational change cannot happen unless there is a culture conducive to change. an innovative culture promotes learning, (either by means of in-service learning, or professional development) and encourages innovative care practices, or care practices. organisational change outcomes there is a significant relationship between organisational culture and organisational change outcomes, such as increased financial performance, gaining a competitive advantage, organisational performance, improved patient care delivery and satisfaction, more efficient and cost-effective care practices, and enhanced family support (acar & acar, 2012). organisational change outcomes can include enhanced innovation, engaged employees, increased motivation and confidence, encouragement of employers to think creatively and reflectively, improved problem-solving abilities, and a positive approach to learning innovative practices (hsiao, chang & tu, 2012; yildirim & birinci, 2013). werner et al. (2012) indicate quality, efficiency and effectiveness, and customer and employee satisfaction as outcomes of organisational change. transformational leadership and organisational culture can assist in pioneering change and establishing positive change outcomes. caldwell, chatman, o’ reilly, ormiston and lapiz (2008) concur that effective leadership that focuses on transformation contributes to positive change outcomes which are linked to higher patient satisfaction and ultimately improved patient care. effective leadership is also associated with support for change and change readiness. hence, it can be concluded that transformational leadership and a positive organisational culture contribute to organisational change outcomes that are beneficial for organisations, including those in the healthcare industry. proposed conceptual framework and hypothesis formulation against the background of the preceding literature, a conceptual framework was developed (figure 1). the conceptual framework illustrates the relationship between the independent variables, namely transformational leadership and organisational culture, and the dependent variable, namely organisational change outcomes. the model assumes that the two independent variables are positively associated with organisational change outcomes. the research hypotheses derived from the model are as follows: figure 1: theoretical model. hypothesis 1: there is a significant positive relationship between transformational leadership and organisational change outcomes. hypothesis 2: there is a significant positive relationship between organisational culture and organisational change outcomes. hypothesis 3: there is a significant positive relationship between organisational culture, transformational leadership and organisational change outcomes. the hypothesised relationships are depicted in figure 1. method top ↑ research approach a positivistic, quantitative research design was used in the study. sampling and study participants the research population consisted of 180 professional nurses in the six intensive care units in the private hospitals in the eastern cape. a convenience sampling method was used, where the most readily accessible persons were asked to participate in the study (burns & grove, 2013). all professional nurses who worked in the adult intensive care units and who were willing to participate in the study, were included. see table 1 for a layout of the population. table 1: population of professional nurses in private intensive care units in nelson mandela bay and buffalo city. of the 180 questionnaires distributed, 130 were completed and returned, showing a response rate of 72%. measuring instruments data was collected by means of a questionnaire, which included open-ended as well as fixed-response items with a 5 point likert scale ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree. the questionnaire items, specifically the terminologies related to healthcare were adapted for the purpose of the study. the questionnaire measured the following: demographic data: four items assessed the demographic profile (age, gender, position and years worked in the intensive care unit) of the participants, using nominal and ordinal scales. organisational culture: fourteen items were based on data derived from studies that explored organisational culture in healthcare (carney, 2011; hsiao et al., 2012; scott, mannion, davies & marshall, 2003). the constructs derived from the literature and used in the questionnaire included teamwork, innovation, patient care and professional development and was specifically contextualised to organisational culture in healthcare. transformational leadership: a 12-item measurement was based on the transformational leadership model of bass and alvoloi (2000). transformational leadership has four dimensions: (1) idealised influence of charisma; (2) inspirational motivation; (3) individualised consideration; and (4) intellectual stimulation. organisational change outcomes: a 15-item measurement based on the frameworks of ramachandran (2013), weiner (2009) and werner et al. (2012) was used. patient, family and staff related issues, as well as organisational care practices were the constructs used in the questionnaire. these constructs were based on the change outcomes that should be evident in healthcare if transformational and organisational cultures are prevalent. ethical considerations top ↑ prior to data collection, ethical clearance was granted by the institutional academic ethics committee (h14-bes-hrm-058). in order to ensure that ethical principles were adhered to, ethical clearance was requested. permission was also granted by the healthcare ethics committees and hospital and unit managers where the study was conducted. participant consent was obtained prior to commencing with the study. data collection procedure questionnaires were distributed by the researcher, with the assistance of three trained fieldworkers, at the beginning of each day and during night shift. where practically possible, the researcher remained in the unit for 10–15 min at the beginning of the data collection process. the researcher collected the questionnaires, which were placed in a sealed box, at a pre-arranged time and date, by the unit managers. the data collection process continued over a period of 5 weeks, may – july 2014, which enabled the professional nurses on all the shifts to be included in the study. reliability and validity of the study the cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to calculate the internal consistency of the measuring scales. the results are reported in table 2. from these results it can be concluded that the scores derived from the instrument were very reliable, as a score of 0.80 or higher was obtained for all the factors, with transformational leadership obtaining the highest score of 0.97. table 2: cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the factors or subscales. validity refers to the extent to which a questionnaire measures what it is supposed to measure, by obtaining data relevant to the constructs being measured. content validity concerns the representativeness of the questions used in the data instrument (scott & mazhindu, 2014). questionnaires were submitted to four experts in the field of critical care and management in health, and they confirmed that the questionnaire had the required content validity. face validity was obtained by asking a critical care healthcare practitioner to assess the questions for accuracy. the statistician reviewed the questionnaire in terms of its format, layout, and whether the type of questions were suitable for statistical analysis. a pilot study with five participants was conducted to further ensure the validity and reliability of the questionnaire. no changes to the measuring instrument were indicated by the pilot study participants. data analysis statistica version 12 was used to analyse the data. descriptive statistical analyses by means of frequency distributions were used to analyse the demographic data. pearson’s product-moment correlations were calculated to quantify the relationships between the scales and subscales of the dependent and independent variables. multiple linear regression analysis was done to investigate the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. the statistical analysis tools provided a basis for testing the hypotheses. the required level of statistical significance (α) was set at 0.05. results top ↑ demographic characteristics the sample group consisted of mostly females (94%), between 31 and 50 years of age (63%), with less than ten years’ work experience in intensive care units (65%) and permanently employed (84%). table 3 presents the demographic profile of the sample group. table 3: demographic profile of the sample group. prevalence of transformational leadership, organisational culture and organisational change outcomes the findings of the study, as illustrated in table 4, revealed that organisational culture had the highest mean score (m = 3.99; sd = 0.63) followed by leadership (m = 3.86; sd = 0.96) and organisational change outcomes (m = 3.85; sd = 0.61). the mean scores for these three variables are all in the positive range (3.4–4.2) of the 5-point likert scale that was utilised in the questionnaire. the results showed that transformational leadership, organisational culture and organisational change outcomes were prevalent in the private intensive care units. table 4: measures of central tendency and dispersion – transformational leadership, organisational culture and change outcomes. although the subscales results were positive, it should be noted that the following scored the lowest: innovation (m = 3.83; sd = 0.73). intellectual stimulation (m = 3.73; sd = 1.00). organisational effectiveness (m = 3.74; sd = 0.70). pearson correlation analysis pearson’s product-moment correlations (table 5) were calculated in order to identify significant relations between scales and subscales for transformational leadership, culture, and organisational change outcomes. correlations were all significant (both statistically because all r > 0.172 and practically because all r > 0.300) and positive, ranging from 0.428 to 0.976 with 84 out of 91 correlations (92.3%) being strong correlations (r > 0.500). smallest value is 0.428 with most of the relationships that can be described as strong (r > 0.50). table 5: pearson product-moment correlations – organisational culture (oc), leadership (l) and organisational change outcomes (oco) subscales and scales. the results suggest a significant and positive relationship between transformational leadership, organisational culture, and organisational change outcomes. multiple linear regression analysis multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to investigate the multivariate relationship between independent variables, namely transformational leadership, organisational culture and dependent variable namely organisational change outcomes in private intensive care units. the linear regression model tested was: oco = α + β1oc + β2 tl + ε where: oco is organisational change outcomes; oc is organisational culture; and tl is transformational leadership. the results are summarised in table 6. table 6: multiple linear regression analysis results. table 6 shows that the multiple r2 of 0.526 indicates that 52.6% of the variation in organisational change outcomes was accounted for by variation in organisational culture and transformational leadership. the relationships were statistically significant as the t-test p values were all less than 0.05. the positive coefficients imply that positive organisational culture and transformational leadership results in positive organisational change outcomes in an organisation. the results provide proof of a significant relationship between organisational culture and transformational leadership, and organisational change outcomes in private intensive care units in the eastern cape. discussion top ↑ transformational leadership the findings suggest that transformational leadership is prevalent within private intensive care units in the eastern cape. however, it should be noted that the subscale on intellectual stimulation scored the lowest within this domain. transformational leadership has strong positive correlations with organisational culture (r = 0.781; p < 0.05) and organisational change outcomes (r = 0.658; p < 0.05). transformational leadership is also a statistically significant predictor of organisational change outcomes (β = 0.2624; t  = 2.67; p = 0.008). the positive and significant correlation between transformational leadership and organisational change outcomes therefore supports the acceptance of hypothesis 1 in this study. transformational leaders are seen as charismatic, optimistic and open to the viewpoints of others. they help to formulate and articulate the vision of the organisation, they are willing to take risks, and demonstrate high standards of ethical and moral conduct. transformational leaders have an inspirational motivation that fosters a strong team spirit. these leaders encourage subordinates and acknowledge individual differences in the team, so that team members can take on more responsibility, become empowered and are able to share work-related knowledge. these leaders give supportive leadership and are able to recognise individual achievements. transformational leaders in healthcare contribute to the quality of patient care delivery, enhanced patient safety, increased patient and family satisfaction and organisational effectiveness (dubrin, 2013; eisenbeiss & boerner, 2013; garci’ a-morales, llore’ ns-montes & verdú-jover, 2008; malloy & penprase, 2010; wong & cummings, 2007). transformational leadership within intensive care units can thus contribute to achieving excellence in healthcare. intellectual stimulation (lowest scored subscale) refers to the way leaders inspire innovation and creativity amongst their followers. transformational leaders encourage followers to question their assumptions, try out new approaches or methods to solve old problems, and to be innovative in new treatment options, technology or other care modalities (bass & riggio, 2006). based on the findings, it is recommended that leaders should encourage intellectual stimulation amongst the nurses in the intensive care units, as it can strengthen the current leadership present. organisational culture the findings suggest that organisational culture is prevalent within the private intensive care units in the eastern cape. however, it should be noted that the subscale on innovation scored the lowest within this domain. a positive correlation (r = 0.706; p < 0.05) exists between organisational culture and organisational change outcomes. organisational culture is also a statistically significant predictor of organisational change outcomes (β = 0.5063; t = 5.16; p = 0.0005). the positive and significant correlation between organisational culture and organisational change outcomes therefore supports the acceptance of hypothesis 2 in this study. organisational culture is directly linked to increased organisational effectiveness, performance and positive change outcomes (hough et al., 2011). furthermore, organisational culture has a direct and indirect influence on patient care delivery, cost-effective care, professionalism and professional development of healthcare professionals. an organisational culture that promotes teamwork, values and supports team members and their opinions and promotes excellence and quality patient care, enables change and allows for the implementation of change processes to be easier (acar & acar, 2012). carney (2011) found that patient care delivery that is aligned with positive value systems and strategic involvement is the most important organisational cultural factor in achieving excellence. innovation (the lowest scored subscale) is defined as the ability to develop and apply not only new products, processes or designs, but also new operation and business models (gü ndoğdu, 2012). innovation is viewed as an integral part of business strategy in boosting operational performance. strong leadership, shared and clear objectives, task orientation, participative team spirit, increased patient safety, reflective team practices, active internal marketing, motivation and participation of personnel, lack of stress, and sufficient resources (financial, instrumental, and personal) all seem to be positively related to innovation in healthcare organisations (gunday, ulusoy, kilic & alpkan, 2011). although transformational leadership and an organisational culture exist in the private intensive care units, the application of innovation might just enable the organisation to have a competitive advantage. it will attract and retain more customers, increase the business performance, and to become the leading intensive care unit in the country. organisational change outcomes the results signify that organisational change outcomes were prevalent at the sampled intensive care units. the results from the regression analysis confirm the positive, significant relations between organisational culture, transformational leadership and organisational change outcomes (r = 0.730; r2 = 0.533; f =71.35; p < 0.0005). jandaghi et al. (2009) found that transformational leadership, in combination with a positive culture, has a definite effect on organisational change, success and performance. they suggest that transformational leadership and culture are important factors in making behavioural and structural changes in an organisation, and are essential for survival in a competitive environment. weiner (2009) asserts that an organisational culture with transformational leadership that embraces innovation, risk-taking, and learning, supports organisational readiness for change and enhances positive change outcomes. the existence of organisational change outcomes in the sampled intensive care units is viewed as positive, and can contribute towards achieving excellence in private healthcare. a strong positive correlation was found between organisational culture and organisational change outcomes (r  = 0.706; p < 0.05). strong positive correlations were also found between transformational leadership and organisational change outcomes (r = 0.658; p < 0.05) and between organisational culture and transformational leadership (r = 0.781; p < 0.05). hypothesis 3 is therefore supported and accepted. implications for practice based on the results, it is recommended that transformational leaders in the intensive care units encourage intellectual stimulation, as it was the lowest scored domain. intellectual stimulation can be developed and encouraged amongst team members in order to create an organisational culture of learning and innovation, thus contributing positively to change. the leaders can stimulate team members to think about traditional healthcare practices in a new way. they can also provide team members with new ways of solving challenging patient situations. reflective discussion on patient scenarios and other management issues are methods to stimulate intellectual stimulation in the intensive care units. applying these strategies to enhance intellectual stimulation can contribute towards achieving excellence in private intensive care units. innovation, which was the domain with the lowest score, needs to be encouraged and supported by leaders in the intensive care units. leaders should be encouraged to sharpen and improve an organisational culture, thus avoiding traditional and ritualistic practices, but where innovation is encouraged. short learning programmes can be developed and presented to managers in order to enhance their skills and knowledge regarding ways to improve innovative care practices. leaders and managers can be taught how to embrace and facilitate reflective practice sessions in order to discuss care delivery and innovation in healthcare. managers should introduce innovations, procedures and organisational processes that are new and better than those which are currently accepted or employed in a specific setting. these may include new therapies or diagnostic procedures that have proved their worth in well-designed clinical trials. innovations may also include the use of clinical practice guidelines based on a systematic review of the scientific literature, a new procedure to prevent medication errors, or a checklist procedure in surgery. innovation can also include new forms of care management of patients with disease conditions that are common in the intensive care units, for example, the management of blood glucose levels in a critically ill patient. the use of information technology, especially in the intensive care unit where monitoring systems, devices and machines are used, should be introduced as part of innovative practices. limitations and recommendations for future research the geographical location of the intensive care units in the east london area necessitated the use of trained field workers to assist with data collection, which might have influenced the lower response rate from that area. intensive care units are specialised, and generally deliver a small population size. however, a good overall response rate (72%) was attained. similar research can be replicated in intensive care units in the public healthcare industry. because the research was only conducted in private intensive care units, it is recommended that the study be replicated in public intensive care units and other healthcare units. based on the results of the study, it is evident that an improvement in all of the investigated factors needs to be encouraged. an intervention study could be undertaken where innovative care practices are implemented and a post-test study is conducted, to explore its impact on organisational change outcomes. conclusion the delivery of quality care in healthcare organisations, especially in intensive care units where critically ill patients are admitted, is of the utmost importance. quality healthcare is dependent on continuous improvement and change. leaders play an important role in creating such a culture of innovation as they create conditions for employees to think critically about existing practices and provide them with the right conditions to improve care practices and the quality of patient care. it is evident that transformational leadership and organisational culture are associated with desired change outcomes through teamwork, professional development, patient care, and innovation. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests this study was financially supported by the national research foundation (nrf) of south africa for the grant, 87924. any opinion, finding and conclusion or recommendation(s) expressed in this article is that of the author(s) and the nrf does not accept any liability in this regard. authors’ contributions p.j.j. (nelson mandela metropolitan university) was the project leader. p.j.j. was responsible for the project design, collected, analysed and interpreted the data and made the conceptual contributions. a.w. (nelson mandela metropolitan university) was responsible for the design of the questionnaire, and made conceptual contributions. d.v. (nelson mandela metropolitan university) assisted in drafting the questionnaire, conducted the data analyses and assisted in interpreting and presenting the data. references top ↑ acar, a.z., & acar, p. (2012). the effects of organisational culture and innovativeness on business performance in healthcare industry. procedia social and behavioural sciences, 58(2), 683–692. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.1046 alharbi, t.s.j., olsson, l.e., ekman, i., & carlström, e. (2014). the impact of organisational culture on the outcome of hospital care: after the implementation of person-centred care. scandinavian journal of public health, 42(1), 104–110. pmid: 23960157, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1403494813500593 bass, b.m., & avoloi, b.j. (2000). mlq multifactor leadership questionnaire technical report. thousand oaks: sage publication. bass, b., & riggio, r.e. (2006). transformational leadership. mahwah: lawrence erlbaum. burns, n., & grove, s.k. (2013). the practice of nursing research: appraisal, synthesis and generation of evidence (7th edn.). st louis: elsevier saunders. caldwell, d.f., chatman, j., o’reilly, c.a., ormiston, m., & lapiz, m. (2008). implementing strategic change in health care system: the importance of leadership and change readiness. health care management review, 33(2), 124–133. pmid: 18360163, http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.hmr.0000304501.82061.e0 care quality commission (cqc) (2011). previous nhs staff surveys. retrieved may 14, 2014, from http://www.cqc.org.uk/aboutcqc.howwedoit carney, m. (2011). influence or organisational culture on quality of healthcare delivery. international journal of health care quality assurance, 24(7), 523–539. pmid: 22204086, http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09526861111160562 casida, j., & pinto-zipp, g. (2008). leadership-organisational culture relationship in nursing units of acute care hospitals. nursing economics, 28(1), 7–15. pmid: 18389837. craig, j.v., & smyth, r.l. (2012). the evidence-based practice manual for nurses (3rd edn.). elsevier: churchill livingstone. dorgan, s., layton, d., bloo, n., homke, r., sadun, r., & van reenen, j. (2010). management in health care: why good practice really matters. retrieved march 13, 2014, from http://cep.lse.ac.uk/textonly/new/research dubrin, a.j. (2013). principles of leadership (7th edn.). south-western cengage learning. cincinnati oh, usa. econex (2013). the south african private healthcare sector: role and contribution to the economy. south african private practitioner forum and healthman. south africa. eisenbeiss, s.a., & boerner, s. (2013). a double-edged sword: transformational leadership and individual creativity. british journal of management, 24(1), 54–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2011.00786.x garci’a-morales, v.j., llore’ns-montes, f.j., & verdú-jover, a.j. (2008). the effects of transformational leadership on organizational performance through knowledge and innovation. british journal of management, 19(4), 299–319. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2007.00547.x gilley, a., mcmillian, h.s., & gilley, j.w. (2009). organizational change and characteristics of leadership effectiveness. journal of leadership and organisational studies, 16(1), 38–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1548051809334191 gunday, g., ulusoy, g., kilic, k., & alpkan, l. (2011). effects of innovation types on firm performances. international journal of production economics, 133(2), 662–676. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2011.05.014 gündoğdu, m.c. (2012). re-thinking entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship and innovation: a multi-concept perspective. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 41, 296–303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.04.034 hough, j., arthur, a., thompson, j.r., strickland iii, a.j., & gamble, j.e. (2011). crafting and executing strategy (2nd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. hsiao, h., chang, j., & tu, y. (2012). the influence of hospital organisational culture on organisational commitment among nursing executives. african journal of business management, 6(44), 10888–10895. jandaghi, g., martin, h.z., & farjarmi, a. (2009). comparing transformational leadership in successful and unsuccessful companies. international journal of social studies, 4(3), 200–220. klopper, h.c., coetzee, s.k., pretorius, r., & bester, p. (2012). practice environments, job satisfaction and burnout of critical care nurses in south africa. journal of nursing management, 20(5), 685–695. pmid: 22823225, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2834.2011.01350.x korbangyang, s., & ussahawanitchakit, p. (2009). change readiness and performance of health care service business in thailand: mediator role of service excellence, resource exploitation and business competitiveness. international journal of business research, 9(5), 109–124. kwahk, k.y., & lee, j.n. (2008). the role of readiness for change in erp implementation: theoretical bases and empirical validation. journal information and management, 45(7), 474–481. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2008.07.002 malloy, t., & penprase, b. (2010). nursing style and psychosocial work environment. journal of nursing management, 18(6), 715–725. pmid: 20840366, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2834.2010.01094.x mitchell, g. (2013). selecting the best theory to implement planned change. nursing management, 20(1), 31–37. pmid: 23705547, http://dx.doi.org/10.7748/nm2013.04.20.1.32.e1013 parmelli, e., flodgren, g., beyer, f., ballie, n., schaafsma, m.e., & eccles, m.p. (2011). the effectiveness of strategies to change organisational culture to improve healthcare performance: a systematic review. implementation science, 6, 33. http://www.implementationscience.com/content/6/1/33 ramachandran, s. (2013). the significance of organisational development. middle-east journal of scientific research, 16(12), 1912–1914. robbins, b., & davidhizar, r. (2007). transformational leadership in healthcare today. the health care manager, 26(3), 234–239. pmid: 17938591, http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.hcm.0000285014.26397.e7 schein, e. (1997). organisational culture and leadership. san francisco: jossey-bass. scott, t., mannion, r., davies, h.t.o., & marshall, m.n. (2003). implementing culture change in healthcare: theory and practice. international journal of quality in healthcare, 15(2), 111–118. pmid: 12705704, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzg021 scott, i., & mazhindu, d. (2014). statistics for healthcare professionals: an introduction (2nd edn.). london: sage publications. thakur, r., hsu, s.h.y., & fontenot, g. (2012). innovation in healthcare: issues and future trends. journal of business research, 65(1), 562–569. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.02.022 tourangeu, a.e., & mcgilton, k. (2004). measuring leadership practices of nurses using the leadership practice inventory. nursing research, 53(3), 182–189. pmid: 15167506, http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00006199-200405000-00005 urden, l., stacy, k., & lough, m. (2014). critical care nursing: diagnosis and management (7th edn.). missouri: elsevier mosby. weiner, b.j. (2009). a theory for organisational readiness for change. implementation science, 4(1), 4–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-4-67 werner, a., bagraim, j., cunningham, p., pieterse-landman, e., potgieter, t., & viedge, c. (2012). organisational behaviour. a contemporary south african perspective. pretoria: van schaik publishers. wong, c.a., & cummings, g.g. (2007). the relationship between nursing leadership and patient outcomes: a systematic review. journal of nursing management, 15(5), 508–521. pmid: 17576249. yildirim, n., & birinci, s. (2013). impacts or organisational culture and leadership on business performance: a case study acquisition. procedia-social and behavioural sciences, 75(3), 71–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.04.009 9goosen.qxd in recent years the question of business ethics has been discussed on many forums in south-africa, as well as internationally. it seems therefore that this topic has drawn particular attention and the question is how did this apparent state of affairs develop? early speculations on the cause for organisational interest in business ethics indicated that the initial interest in business ethics was driven by a desire in the usa to avoid business scandals (de george, 1987). although this was the initial cause of the interest in business ethics, it is no longer an adequate explanation for the current surge in organisational interest in business ethics. a number of other factors have since become prominent. the realisation of the cost of immorality to organisations on the one hand, and of the competitive advantage that ethical performance affords organisations on the other, may be the driving force behind this ongoing academic and organisational concern with business ethics (rossouw & van vuuren, 2003). in order to investigate the impact of business ethics in organisations, it is necessary to firstly define the term ethics. “ethics concerns itself with what is good or right in human interaction”, (rossouw, 2002, p. 3). in rossouw’s opinion ethics is centred on three basic concepts, namely the good, the self and the other. (rossouw, 2002. p. 3). an initial investigation into the term business ethics revealed a wide range of definitions. rossouw (1994) defines business ethics as: “the specific application of this general principle (what is good or right for human beings) to business activities. to act morally within the business environment means ensuring that the consequences of business actions are not detrimental to others. alternatively, to put it more positively: ensuring that business activities contribute towards personal well-being, the well-being of others and the societies who are influenced by these actions” (p. 2). according to rossouw and van vuuren (2003), there is sufficient empirical evidence that a stage has now been reached where organisational interest in business ethics is moving beyond mere talk to overt organisational commitment to managing business ethics. in this new phase, the emphasis is no longer on the 'why' of business ethics, but rather on the 'how' of business ethics. the business environment is extremely competitive and this threat to competitive advantage has become so important that organisations can no longer afford not to attend to business ethics. in this regard van vuuren (2002) states, “the strategic focus of organisations should consist of systematically embedding ethics in the corporate purpose and values, as well as in strategic planning” (p. 1). it is therefore apparent that business ethics has been elevated to a strategic level. to address business ethics only on the strategic level and in the boardrooms may, however, be a necessary but not sufficient intervention to ensure corporate ethical practices. a business consists of various sub-systems. to implement ethics into one sub-system, e.g. sales, whilst ignoring other sub-systems such as manufacturing, will limit the impact of integrating ethical behaviour into the entire organisation, as this could create tension at the interface between the systems. it is therefore crucial that a 'holistic' systems approach should be followed. to achieve this, business ethics must be fused with the strategic plans, processes, management, communication, and culture of organisations. various processes to institutionalise business ethics have been researched and established. ethics committees, codes of ethics, selecting employees with integrity and ethics training are examples. an ethical organisation is one that is managed in such a manner that the concepts of the good, the other and the self are in a harmonious relationship to each other, as to the process that organisations use to go about its economic activities (rossouw & van vuuren, 2004). currently ethics in business seems to be based on an over-dependence and reliance on rules and regulations. the above may foster a compliance mentality that give ethics management endeavours a mechanistic and superficial feel. it can be argued that, of course depending on the stage of development of the organisation and its particular activities, it x goosen lj van vuuren department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract the phenomenon exists that organisations do not do much to ensure the institutionalisation of business ethics in general, and more specifically, to facilitate employees’ ethical behaviour. the possibility that mentoring may be utilised as a vehicle to institutionalise corporate ethical practices is proposed as a possible solution to the aforementioned problem. by means of a qualitative study, interviews were conducted to determine whether mentoring is used to institutionalise business ethics, and if not, how it can be utilised. an integrated model of mentoring in the institutionalisation of business ethics was generated. it highlighted the compatibility of the mentoringand institutionalisation of ethics processes. the implications are discussed. opsomming die verskynsel bestaan dat organisasies nie veel doen om te verseker dat besigheidsetiek in die algemeen geïnstitutionaliseer word nie, en meer spesifiek, dat die etiese dimensie van werknemers gedrag nie plaasvind nie. die moontlikheid dat mentorskap gebruik kan word as ’n instrument om korporatiewe etiese praktyke te institusionaliseer word voorgestel as ’n moontlike oplossing vir voorgenoemde problem. ’n kwalitatiewe studie (onderhoude) is uitgevoer om te bepaal of mentorskap aangewend word om besigheidsetiek te institusionaliseer, en indien dit nie aangewend word nie, hoe dit wel kan geskied. ’n geïntegreerde model van mentorskap in die institusionalisering van besigheidsetiek is gegenereer om die versoenbaarheid van die mentorskapen institusionalisering van besigheidsetiekprosesse te beklemtoon. die implikasies hiervan bespreek. institutionalising ethics in organisations: the role of mentoring requests for copies should be addressed to: m coetzee, coetzm1@unisa.ac.za 61 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (3), 61-71 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (3), 61-71 may be more conducive for organisations to build cultures of value and integrity. the above refers to the integrity approach to institutionalising business ethics (hartman, 2000). the creation of a culture of ethics does, however, not exclude any formal compliance initiatives. as formal compliance structures, e.g. corporate governance guidelines, increasingly become part of the local and international regulatory environment, organisations cannot afford to negate processes that ensure formal adherence. it is, however, crucial that organisations do not succumb to a minimalistic or legalistic tick-box approach to corporate ethics management. along with creating formal compliance structures, organisations need to nurture cultures that provide the ethical commitment necessary to turn formal compliance into effective, but voluntary and self-regulatory compliance. ethics therefore is not merely a marketing tool, but needs to be made part of the everyday functioning of an organisation. it involves the interests of all stakeholders, internal and external, and it requires proactive ethics management. for the purpose of this study, the focus is specifically on the internal stakeholders of the organisation, i.e. the employees. institutionalisation of business ethics on a systems level in the previous section, attention was given to ethics management on the strategic level. it is evident that the process of institutionalisation should not end at the strategic level. as stated in rossouw and van vuuren (2004, p. 231), “designing and implementing ethics management systems are crucial to ensuring that the vision and strategy for ethics are made real throughout the organisation”. ethics management systems should be in place to provide for the introduction of ethics into various aspects of the organisation. some of these systems are ethics communication systems (e.g. employee help-lines and newsletters), adopting integrity as a criterion in making selection decisions, utilising induction/orientation programmes to convey the ethics message, including ethical decision-making as a key performance area in performance management systems, build managerial ethics competence through training and development programmes, disciplinary procedures, as well as systems for monitoring and evaluating ethical performance and reporting on this to stakeholders. institutionalisation of business ethics on an operational level rossouw and van vuuren (2004, p. 242), explain that the “key to the operational level of institutionalising business ethics, is to ensure that ethical behaviour manifests itself in all jobs and interpersonal interactions.” bennis (1996) asserts that it is the job of every manager in the organisation to set the climate for ethical behaviour based on mutual respect. in an environment where interpersonal relations are built on mutual respect people will be more open to talk about ethics. managers should be role models to other employees regarding ethical thought, decisionmaking and the actions they take. managers should obviously have a sufficient understanding of the processes and people that they have to manage. they are thus in a position to make a difference to organisational behaviour both at the individual and collective levels. this can be achieved through interventions where they apply their knowledge and utilise techniques and processes as well as material and symbolic resources to achieve the desired change in organisational behaviour. moral behaviour in business is significantly influenced by the way in which managers use their managerial ability to influence moral behaviour in the organisational setting. mentoring is often used in organisations, not only to nurture and develop young talent, but to also give (especially) younger employees a sense of worth and unambiguous perceptions of what the organisation stands for and what the organisational culture (“the way we do things around here”) is all about. the question can then be posed as to whether and to what extent mentoring can be utilised to convey the ethical component of the organisat ion’s cult ure to employees. once clarit y is obtained on the above question, an approach can be suggested by which ethics could be institutionalised though mentoring. mentoring mentoring is defined by cohen (1999) as a formally structured, non-reporting relationship used to enhance professional practice, personal knowledge and organisational development. guest (2001) suggests that mentoring is about achieving personal growth and development that is effected by a confidential, one-to-one relationship in which an individual uses a more experienced, usually more senior person as a sounding board and for guidance. it is also a protected, nonjudgemental relationship, which facilitates a wide range of learning, experimentation and development. mentoring can therefore facilitate professional development by promoting the capacity to cope with difficulties and develop new competencies at the personal, interpersonal, and institutional levels. hudson (1999) defines mentoring as “a supportive learning relationship between a caring individual who shares knowledge, experience and wisdom with another individual who is ready and willing to benefit from this exchange, to enrich their professional journey”. this definition includes all the relevant components linked to mentoring, and will for the purpose of this paper be used as a working definition. the above definitions indicate that the mentoring relationship is the foundation of mentoring. to understand this interactive relationship between mentors and their protégés, one first needs to investigate the meaning of the terms mentor and protégé, where after the dynamics of the relationship will be explored. a mentor, according to the oxford dictionary, is a “trusted advisor”. a mentor is a person with expertise in a variety of areas of interest, who is willing to share his or her wisdom. young (2003). bell, in (harshman and rudin, 2000), describes mentors as leaders who engage in deliberate actions aimed at promoting protégés’ learning. many people use the terms “advisor” and “mentor” interchangeably. however, a mentor is more than an advisor. mentors guide protégés towards growth and development – they become trusted allies and guide protégés through their careers. according to bell (1998), a mentor is someone who helps someone else learn something the learner would otherwise have learned less well, more slowly or not at all. a mentor should provide support and encouragement, assist protégés to learn from their mistakes, demonstrate personal integrity and provide protégés with meaningful information and direction. a protégé, as defined by wickman & sjodin (1997, p. 2), “is the mentor’s student, generally a younger person interested in learning all that the mentor has to offer”. the protégé is someone the mentor regards highly enough to consider worthy of his or her time. mentoring relationships have proven to be key to a number of desirable outcomes in organisational life. the mentoring relationship is built over time and not a once-off occurrence. mentoring is not an all-or-nothing relationship, nor is it static in nature. some or all of the roles may be provided and they change since the purpose of the relationship is to enable the protégé to acquire new knowledge, skills and standards of competence. it is believed that mentoring relationships will be positively associated with performance, citizenship behaviours and individual intent. mentoring involves a partnership where the point is to share and transfer knowledge, expertise and skills. it must be an intervention with the aim of building capacity to meet future leadership challenges and demands. according to bell (1998), the role of the mentor is to stimulate the person being mentored, to facilitate the ability to reason goosen, van vuuren62 and be self-aware, to enhance the objective analysis of situations and the application of insights to the workplace, to unlock an individual’s own potential to maximise their performance and to influence another to achieve important goals or outcomes. mentoring relationships may vary bet ween being highly informal relationships that develop naturally and are of unspecified duration on one hand, and relationships that form part of an organisational development programme that requires formally structured and non-voluntary relationships on the other hand. this paper focuses on the formally structured and non-voluntary type of mentoring relationship. three principles guide formalised mentoring in process and outcome. firstly, mentoring allows individuals to build reciprocal relationships. protégés who develop a firm foundation of appropriate social interactions are less at risk to develop social and behavioural difficulties. guetzloe (1997) suggested that mentoring provides a framework for positive social net works and relationships. secondly, mentoring relationships are important for individuals to engage in for purposes of completing tasks or achieving outcome goals rockwell (1997). thirdly, according to miller and townsel (1997), mentoring could be a tool to reinforce and build appropriate social values and norms from the business community’s perspective. as part of the community’s perspective, norms and values, such as honesty, sharing, and empathy can thus be modelled and reinforced through mentoring. it stands to reason then that mentoring could be used to entrench organisational ethical principles on a one-on-one basis throughout the organisation. ethical behaviour might then be a logical outcome of formalised mentoring initiatives. mentoring is a powerful tool to convey information, expertise, beliefs and change of behaviour, either formally or informally, throughout all levels of the organisation. it is about a relationship between people in which skills, knowledge and attitudes are transferred from a trusted advisor to a protégé and incorporate the notion that senior members of the organisation will provide wisdom and guidance to junior members. according to kuo (2000), mentoring happens in many ways. sometimes it occurs as a direct one-on-one relationship of involvement, and at other times it takes the form of a philosophy or methodology instilled in an organisation. kuo states further that growing an organisation requires the philosophical approach to mentoring, but that this must be combined with practical “things to do” in order for the idea to take hold. instilling a mentoring mindset within an organisation takes both time and perseverance. mentoring is thought to facilitate professional development by promoting the capacity to cope with difficulties and develop new competencies at the personal, interpersonal, and institutional levels. having a mentor has been identified as a positive factor in retention, promotion, and advancement (blackwell, 1989; ezell & odewahn, 1980; kram, 1985; manoleas & carrillo, 1991; zunz, 1991). if mentoring is used by an organisation as a tool to institutionalise business ethics, business ethics as such must be a primary area of focus during mentorship. the mentor should thus receive training regarding personal and organisational values. since behavioural change is the ultimate goal of the mentoring programme; mentors must know what motivates protégés and what they truly value. mentors can work with protégés to discover, unearth and clarif y their core values. having discovered and clarified personal values, it is important that these be in harmony with those of the organisation. peak performance is more likely to occur if there is a match between personal values and those of the organisation (skiffington, 2002). butler (2000) states that the foundation is set for future organisational success, when mentors convey the goals and values, of the organisation. generic ethical organisational values could include dimensions of honesty, integrity, individual respect, fairness, consistency, transparency, etc. it is proposed that mentoring relationships may be ideal vehicles for the transfer of ethical principles such as these. furthermore, it is suggested that mentors could also play an active role in the following areas: creating an awareness of the importance of ethics in business; bestowing an ethical sensitivity on protégés; providing opportunities for protégés to acquire ethical reasoning and decision-making skills and being sensitive for the ethical consequences of such decisions; aligning protégés’ behaviour to that required by the organisation’s code of ethics; facilitating protégés’ interpretation and application of the code of ethics; and equipping protégés with the courage to openly discuss ethics and to stand up for ethical stances adopted and decisions made. from the above it is clear that mentoring seems to be a wellsuited vehicle to disseminate the ethics message in organisations and to facilitate ethical behaviour. in further answering the question phrased earlier, namely whether and to what extent mentoring can be utilised to convey the ethical component of the organisation’s culture to employees, an empirical dimension is added to this study to investigate how ethics is or could be conveyed through formal mentoring processes. thereafter a model depicting the dynamics between mentoring and ethics institutionalisation could be derived and presented. methodology research design the crux of any research assignment is the statement of the problem: it is with the formulation of the research question that research can begin in that specific field. contained within the stated problem, the area of study is demarcated thereby ensuring that the research remains focused and manageable. for the purpose of this study, the research question is to investigate the extent to which mentoring can be utilised as a vehicle to institutionalise corporate ethical practices. the research question guides the researcher in determining the aim of a study. the aim of this study is therefore to conduct an analysis of the extent to which mentoring can be utilised as a vehicle to institutionalise corporate ethical practices. once the research question and the sub-questions have been formulated and stated in clear and precise terminology, the next step in the research process requires that the objectives of the inquiry be stated. the research objectives can be stated as follows: � to analyse the extent to which organisations make use of mentorship to institutionalise corporate ethical practices. � to investigate whether mentoring is an appropriate tool to utilise in the institutionalisation of corporate ethical practices. � to gain an understanding of how organisations institutionalise corporate ethical principles, using mentoring. � to answer the question as to whether mentoring can be used as a means to institutionalise corporate ethical practices, and if so how. once the aim, the question and sub-questions, and the objectives of the research have been established, the researcher needs to design a vehicle (research design) to execute the above mentioned. a research design has two basic purposes (kerlinger, 1986:280). it is (i) the exposition of how the researcher plans to approach the finding of an answer to the research question that has been presented in the inquiry, and (ii) to control any variance that mentoring and ethics 63 could occur. thus, the term ‘research design’ can be understood as “a set of guidelines and instructions to be followed in addressing the research problem (question)” (mouton, 1996:107). these guidelines and instructions are the presentation of the systematic account of how the research process was conducted. in planning the research design, determinants such as the collection and interpretation of the data, the paradigm, the context, time and labour is taken into consideration. the next logical step in the research process is selecting a paradigm that would effectively and appropriately meet the requirements of the research as described in the research objectives. for the purpose of this study, the qualitative and quantitative paradigms were analysed from a naturalistic perspective. since the research question pertains to understanding and describing a particular phenomenon about which very little is known, the qualitative paradigm would appear to be most suitable for this inquiry. this inquiry is a process of discovery and learning lofland (in merriam, 1991) as the focus of the investigation is directed at the understanding of the situation from the participant’s subjective perspective (krefting, 1990; mouton & marais, 1990, field & morse 1985). furthermore, the study involves a specific group of people who are asked questions particular to their experience of a mentoring programme patton (in merriam, 1991; crabtree & miller, 1992) as they have specific knowledge pertaining to the phenomenon being investigated (field & morse, 1985). the qualitative approach allows the researcher the opportunity to explore meanings, variations and perceptual experiences of the phenomenon from a rich and in-depth perspective of the subjects as observed and recorded through their words, actions, behaviours and practices (crabtree & miller 1992, patton 1990). this method provides adequate information, appears to be cost effective and shows sensitivity towards the settings and resources (marshall & rossman, 1995). as the aim of this study involves the exploration and description of social and human phenomena, the researcher proceeds to analyse exploratory and descriptive methods of inquiry. the exploratory method of inquiry allows the researcher new ideas and possibilities without being led astray or influenced by predetermined ideas and existing hypotheses (mouton & marais, 1990) pertaining to concepts of mentoring, business ethics and the institutionalising thereof. the exploratory method is thus used to gain insight and understanding into the social and human phenomena, for example ethical behaviour. in descriptive research, the researcher aims at presenting the phenomenon under investigation as accurately as possible (merriam, 1991; dane, 1990) and at discovering new facts (abdellah & levine, 1979). according to schatzman and strauss (in wilson 1987), descriptive research is conducted in two ways namely, straight or analytical. in straight description, the analyst researcher may use categories or organisational schemes that are already existent in the literature pertaining to the inquiry. in analytical description, the inquirer attempts to create new categories when inspecting and coding the data. the new categories or classes will allow the researcher “to accurately and even insightfully characterise” the particular group under investigation (wilson, 1987). in this inquiry, the researcher applied the analytical description because the objective was to gain insight into and about ethics in mentoring relationships, of a particular group of people. secondly, the inquirer presented a diverse account of findings, therefore having to create new categories to compliment the findings. from the investigation the researcher came to the following conclusions that guided the researcher in the design and execution of this research. this research study is conducted from the naturalistic perspective and the qualitative paradigm appears to be most suitable. this research focuses on exploring and describing the phenomena in question, therefore exploratory and descriptive research is conducted. within the qualitative research paradigm a phenomenological approach was adopted. this method of data collection is most frequently used in exploratory and descriptive inquiries. secondly, the phenomenological approach allows the researcher to study the subject’s experiences as he/she has experienced them (omery, 1983). the researcher envisaged the development of a picture of the lebenswelt (kvale, 1983) of the participants through inductive interviews, rather than to study cause-and-effect relationships of the phenomenon (creswell, 1994). in other words, the aim of the phenomenological approach, as in this study, is to try to understand the social and psychological phenomena from the subject’s point of view (huysamen, 1994). these direct experiences of the participants would thus be taken at face value (cohen & manion, 1994; field & morse, 1985). given the nature of the approach adopted, the research could at best be described as exploratory and descriptive. the research elements and findings are presented below, after which the findings are used to construct a theoretical model (from here on referred to as “the mentoring for ethics model” to explain how mentoring could be utilised to convey organisational ethical values. participants the st udy was conducted at a johannesburg securities exchange listed holding company. this company manages businesses in the electronics and low-voltage electrical engineering sectors supplying value-added products, systems and solutions to local and international growth markets. during 2003, this company introduced a mentoring programme, which took the form of a developmental process aimed at guiding less experienced employees by other, more experienced employees, or mentors. purposeful sampling implies that only information-rich cases are selected and studied in depth. phenomenologists depend on indepth interviews to obtain their information, and it is therefore important that the participants who participate in the interviews are purposively selected (depoy & gitlin, 1994). as patton in (leedy, 1997) contends, purposive sampling is applied as it helps to “increase the utility of information obtained from small samples”. only those subjects who had been exposed to mentorship relationships were approached to participate. purposive, convenience sampling was therefore used to select the participants in this study. members of the sample group had to have been involved in a mentoring programme for more than six months. although it was a multi-cultural sample, all the interviews were conducted in english. considerations such as gender, age and religion were not taken into account. interviews were conducted with five mentors and their protégés (therefore 10 interviews in total). procedure in order to collect and analyse data for this study, the researcher had to gain access to the site, select a sample for this study, choose a data collection method, and analyse and code the data gathered. permission to conduct the study was obtained from the human resource development (hrd) manager of the company where interviews were conducted. an appointment was made with the hrd manager to discuss the research to be conducted. secondly, the researcher acquired convenient dates for the interviews to commence. thereafter the first author took it upon herself to make contact, and arrange appropriate times and locations for the interviews to take place. the first contact between the respondents and researcher was on the day a particular interview was conducted. the respondents were briefed on the reason and format of the interview by means of goosen, van vuuren64 a short introduction. they were given the opportunity to decline participation in the study. none of the respondents declined participation. each respondent then signed a letter of consent. once all these formalities were attended to, the interviews commenced. data collection methods in naturalistic research, the inquirer “draws on and combines a variety of data collection strategies” (depoy & gitlin, 1994:216). examples of these include phenomenological interviews (wolcott, 1994, p. 10), document analyses, consultations with experts, literature control in order to obtain a rich description, and a deep understanding of the phenomena being investigated. through the combination of these datacollection strategies, the qualitative researcher describes the “viewpoint of the person under study” (schmidt in krefting, 1990, p. 214). for the purpose of this study phenomenological interviews, literature review and peer debriefing were used as data collection methods. literature review the literature review consists of information published and unpublished, which relates closely to the area of inquiry. both primary and secondary sources will be included in the literature review. the literature control was undertaken for the following reasons: firstly, it is very useful to conduct a literature review prior to the investigation because it enabled the researchers to know what research has been conducted relating to the issue under investigation (morse in holloway & wheeler, 1996). secondly, to explore existing knowledge and practices, and thirdly, to ensure that effective questions were developed for the interviews. phenomenological interviews there are various methods of data collection in naturalistic inquiries: participant observation, interviews, the studying of materials prepared by others relating to the field of inquiry (wolcott, 1994), researcher-designed instruments, as well as content analysis of human artefacts (lecompte & preissle, 1993). the utilisation of the interview, and more specifically, the phenomenological interview, was selected for this study. ackroyd and hughes (in schurink, 1988, p. 136) describe phenomenological interviews as the most “important data collection instrument in the social sciences ...” they point out that phenomenological interviews are repeatedly used in exploratory and descriptive studies. this type of interview allows the researcher the opportunity to try to gain direct access “to what is inside a person's head.” tuckman in (cohen & manion, 1994, p. 273). it also affords the researcher and the respondent the opportunity to move “back and forth in time, reconstruct the past, interpret the present and predict the future” (lincoln & guba in erlandson, harris and associates, 1993, p. 85). this type of interview could therefore be a powerful method to gain an understanding of the phenomenon being investigated from a participant's perspective (denzin & lincoln, 1994). furthermore, participants were allowed to express themselves in their own natural language and at the same time express themselves from within their own unique paradigms (guba & lincoln, 1988), without any reservation and/or interference from the inquirers. the phenomenological interviews were therefore applied as “a conversation with a purpose” (dexter, 1970, p. 136). the researchers took it upon themselves to guide and direct the inquiry towards the specific topic of research as recommended by field and morse (1985). the interviews were of a semi-structured nature. such an interview format is more flexible and open. the semi-structured format also seems to be of value when the subjects included in the inquiry consist of a purposively selected group who are familiar with the research topic. this format allows the inquirer to explore more fully the opinions and behaviours of respondents and for “more and varied detail” (dane, 1990, p. 129) in the accounts of the life-world of the subjects (huysamen, 1994, p. 174). although the research problem governs the questions asked, the researcher decides on the content, sequence and wording. the format allowed the researchers the opportunity to pose a few predetermined questions, whilst simultaneously allowing for a considerable amount of “flexibility concerning follow-up questions”, as suggested by merton, fiske and kendell in dane (1990, p. 129). this, in turn, gave the researchers the opportunity to clarif y any misunderstandings that could arise during the questioning. furthermore, this approach created the opportunity to take each respondent through the same set of questions in a systematic fashion. several open-ended questions were formulated that could guide participants on the topic being investigated, in order to learn about their beliefs, attitudes, reported behaviours, or prevalent experiences. two sets of interviews were conducted. five interviews were conducted with mentors, with a set of questions, and five interviews were conducted with their protégés, with their (slightly different) set of questions. the questions asked were directed towards the collection of information relating to the topic of investigation. researcher should be aware that factors such as speech, status, dress, grooming, age, race and frame of mind can affect and influence responses of the participants (krathwohl, 1993, p. 198). special attention was paid to the aforementioned and the necessary precautions were taken to attempt to counteract any negativity. the interviewers were aware that their perspectives and biases may affect the outcome of the interview. therefore, when interviewing commenced, the researchers attempted to suspend all forms of biases. data analysis the purpose of data analysis is to transform the acquired data obtained from the phenomenological interviews into rich descriptions of the findings. an analysis involves not only the translation of the information but also the interpretation thereof. data analysis is the means by which a researcher brings “order, structure and meaning to the mass of collected data” (marshall & rossman, 1995, p. 111). in the qualitative research approach, the analysis of data is an interactive process, and not linear (crabtree & miller, 1992, p. 71). researchers make use of one of the methods of analysis as described by abdellah and levine (1979, p. 357); merriam (1991, pp. 158-159) and patton (1990, p. 384), namely the computer analysis or the hand method. the analysis consists mainly of words. in this study, the analysed results contain words and/or phrases obtained from the raw data. these words and/or phrases are arranged into themes, categories and subcategories to illustrate and substantiate the findings of the inquiry. since data analysis is an eclectic process (tesch, 1990 in cresswell 1994, p. 53), this inquiry adopted transcriptbased analysis methods. a transcript-based analysis infers that data analysis can only begin once the audio taped recordings have been verbatimly transcribed. the verbatim transcriptions of the recordings forms an essential part of the data analysis, as the researcher tried to incorporate and include all meanings and nuances of the subjects. verbat im transcript ions of the interviews provide rich forms of data. the entire verbatimly-transcribed descriptions of the questions presented to the respondents were analysed to obtain a sense of whole. the interviews were read again with the purpose of identif ying the major units of analysis. all categories and mentoring and ethics 65 subcategories that were not considered meaningful were eliminated, while the remaining categories were counted and assigned to various themes. the researcher analysed the transcribed interviews using marginal notes to capt ure frequently recurring words, ideas and phrases relevant to the study. field and morse (1985, p. 137) argue that the identification of such elements aids the identification and analysis of the underlying patterns in the data. this in turn helps develop categories, which will elucidate and fit the acquired data (bryman, 1995). once all the data from the interviews were collected and transcribed, the next stage entailed the coding. the verbatim transcripts were read through several times in order to try to obtain a sense of the whole. during the above process, the researcher once again used notes, comments and queries in the margins. results primarily through the process of data analysis, as suggested by kerlinger (1986), the captured data from the 10 interviews was analysed and subsequently interpreted. key-phrases-in-text were utilised as the units of analysis and categories, themes and subthemes were identified on the basis of similarit y and dissimilarit y. the process was initiated without any preconceived ideas about categories, themes or sub-themes and a grounded theory approach was followed throughout. data generally appeared to cluster within two main categories: (i) mentoring and (ii) ethics in mentoring. themes and subthemes emerged within each of these categories. the number of responses did not determine whether a category, theme or subtheme would be included; inclusion depended solely upon the relevance of the response to the study. it also has to be made clear that categories, themes and sub-themes should not be seen as exclusive: a degree of overlap existed in most instances and a holistic (gestalt) approach was followed in the final interpretation to illuminate important links and relationships between different concepts. for the sake of clarity, the two categories will be discussed separately. thereafter an integrated view will be presented. within the first category (mentoring) three themes were identified: � formal mentoring programme: (five sub-themes were identified) a sub-theme 1: content of the formal programme b sub-theme 2: participants’ experience of the formal programme c sub-theme 3: pairing of participants d sub-theme 4: goal for the formal mentoring programme e sub-theme 5: training of mentors three important aspects were noticed from the responses: (i) it was particularly apparent that the pairing process followed a rather coincidental path. this is in contrast to the conventional wisdom reported in the literature review that suggested organisations consider established informal mentoring relationships when pairing candidates for a mentoring programme. it was argued that the dynamics of ‘forced pairing’ relationships might be incompatible, and may lead to mentoring being unsuccessful. it is possible for informal mentoring relationships to exist before entering a formal relationship. (ii) it was also noticeable that even if the organisation had a goal for the formal mentoring programme, neither mentors nor protégés were well aware of it. (iii) another important aspect of the formal mentoring programme that was not addressed by participants was any form of evaluation of the mentoring programme. the literature overview argued strongly for some form of evaluation (formative and summative) of such an intervention. certain outcomes need to be set for such a programme and a measuring tool should be used to determine whether these outcomes were met. in order to present an integrated model of mentoring for ethics (figure 2), responses regarding a formal mentoring programme was re-phrased and summarised under the following headings (table 1), to cover all of the important aspects believed to be relevant. table 1 aspects related to a formal mentoring programme � purpose of a formal mentoring programme � outcomes of a formal mentoring programme � pairing of candidates in a formal mentoring programme � content of a formal mentoring programme (e.g. a module related to codes of ethics) � evaluation of a formal mentoring programme � benefits of a formal mentoring programme � mentoring relationships: (four sub-themes were identified) a sub-theme 1: pre-requisites and characteristics of mentoring relationships b sub-theme 2: relationship development c sub-theme 3: mentors role in mentoring relationship d sub-theme 4: protégés experience of mentoring relationship the mentoring relationship was regarded by most as the ‘golden thread’ that runs through the mentorship process. the implied implication was clearly that, without a mentoring relationship, mentoring could not take place. it also seemed that effective t wo-way communication was regarded as a prerequisite for a mentoring relationship to be successful. in this study, most participants indicated that their mentors followed an open-door policy, and that they have informal discussions on a regular basis. what distinguishes these informal discussions from the training in the formal mentoring programme is that ‘theory’ is applied in the first whereas informal mentors tend to use real life situations to assist them in solving problems and making decisions. it was further noted that the forming of a mentoring relationship is a natural process. it is a process where a senior person in an organisation gives advice, assist and model jobrelated and personal ‘know-how’ to a junior employee. if a protégé chooses a mentor in an informal mentoring relationship, it would be someone that the protégé looks up to, feels comfortable interacting with, is willing to assist, and finds trustworthy. the mentor need not necessarily be the protégé’s direct supervisor, but can be any person in the organisation, depending on the aim of the organisation’s mentoring programme. these responses from the participants were mostly in line with the ideas from the literat ure review reported earlier which suggests that the mentor should be a good example with regard to interpersonal relations, decisionmaking and conf lict management. it was also argued that these informal relationships could possibly continue when a formal mentoring relationship is established and that organisations should consider when the pairing of mentors and protégés takes place. an alternative scenario might be when a new mentor is assigned to a protégé. mentors and protégés interviewed for this study were also goosen, van vuuren66 of the opinion that a mentor would have a better understanding of the role if he/she had been a protégé in a mentoring relationship. because the formal mentoring programme continues for approximately one year, participants felt that they were ‘forced’ to persist in the mentoring relationship for at least that period of time. participants indicated that they often initially did not feel comfortable within the relationship, but that the relationship grew over time. to assist in the development of the mentoring for ethics model later in the discussion, the following headings were considered to cover all that needs to be taken into consideration when considering effective mentoring relationships (table 2). table 2 aspects related to mentoring relationships � pairing of mentor and protégé � process of relationship building � prerequisites for effective mentoring relationships � characteristics of mentor for a successful mentoring relationship � characteristics of protégé for a successful mentoring relationship. � benefits of mentoring: (three sub-themes were identified) a sub-theme 1: benefits of mentoring for the organisation b sub-theme 2: benefits of mentoring for the mentor c sub-theme 3: benefits of mentoring for the protégé from the responses one has to assume that either very little thought had gone into the benefits an organisation could derive from mentoring, or the respondents had limited knowledge in this regard. although mentoring focuses on developing protégés, it appears as if mentors also benefit from mentoring in various ways. mentors felt that if they mentor a protégé effectively, their own workload can reduce meaningfully. protégés do not make as many mistakes, and they are better at problem-solving and decision-making. therefore, mentors have a vested interest in the success of their protégés. mentoring gives mentors an added benefit of feeling good about themselves, as they play an integral role in the holistic development of their protégé. most of the mentors interviewed for this study, indicated that they feel good because of what they contribute to the lives of their protégés. lastly, mentoring contributes to the mentor’s learning curve, as it is not only the protégé that has developed, but also the mentor. from the interviews, it was clear that protégés benefit most from mentoring. the protégé is holistically developed. this means that the protégé does not only acquire jobrelated skills, but gains skills, knowledge and expertise in his/her personal and work life. thus, personal and career growth takes place. the protégé is developed by means of a transfer of knowledge and skills from the mentor to the protégé. the mentor takes personal interest in the protégé, and provides him/her with advice and assistance. it was made clear that mentoring is a positive experience for protégés that leads to increased confidence, increased problem-solving abilit y, increased self-esteem, increased self-worth and independence. mentors assist and guide protégés in developing their decision-making and problemsolving capabilities. as was done in earlier sections of the discussion the following headings were considered relevant for inclusion in a final explanatory model to cover all aspects related to the benefits of mentoring. (table 3) table 3 aspects related to the benefits of mentoring for the organisation: � competent staff � efficient staff � knowledgeable staff for the mentors: � adds to mentors learning curve � reduces mentors problem-solving lead � vested interest in protégés success � added benefit of feeling good about him/herself for the protégés: � mentor takes personal interest � advice, assistance � transfer of knowledge and skills � holistic development of protégé � leads to increased confidence· increased selfesteem, self-worth � gain experience, independence � personal and career growth � increased problem-solving ability � within the second category (ethics in mentoring) four themes were identified: a concept of ethics from the interviews it was clear that the perception of the term ethics is not uniform. most participants though were of the opinion that ethics is “what’s right and wrong.” one would have expected that all the participants, because they are employees of the same holding company, should have been informed of the same set of ethical principles applicable throughout of the company. although all employees were, to some extent, aware of the existence and importance of business ethics, most were of the opinion that unethical behaviour is present in all organisations. some participants were of the opinion that it is basically impossible to change a person’s personal value system, whereas other participants felt strongly about the fact that it is of utmost importance to change employees’ personal value systems to ensure a change in ethical behaviour within the organisation itself. b codes of ethics and organisational transfer 1. sub-theme 1: code of ethics 2. sub-theme 2: organisational transfer for ethical transfer to take place, it was generally believed that top management must be committed and seen to be ‘living’ the organisation’s code of ethics. the participants were further of the opinion that an ethical top management does not necessarily ensure an ethical workforce, the reason being that there are often somewhat impersonal relationships bet ween top management and staff and limited communicat ion bet ween members from the different organisational levels. for the effective transfer of business ethics to take place, well-established one-on-one relat ionships need to exist bet ween supervisors and employees (or mentors and protégés). the conviction was expressed that appropriate ethical behaviour should be part of the everyday life of all employees. in the specific organisation studied, it was believed that a zero tolerance stance towards unethical behaviour was maintained despite the fact that the consequences of unethical behaviour might not have been formally communicated to employees. it was generally argued that the top management of this organisation does not manage ethics at all. top management were expected to support and commit to the process if success were to be expected. the formulated code of ethics needed to be communicated to all employees. from the above discussion, it should be clear that the organisational context creates the setting for ethical transfer to take place in an organisation. figure 1 below reflects this notion. mentoring and ethics 67 figure 1: context for organisational transfer of code of ethics c ethics training in the formal mentoring programme most participants of this study were of the opinion that formal ethics training of employees needs to take place. during training, the employees should be informed of what the organisation stands for in terms of expected (and rejected) ethical (unethical) behaviour. ethics training could address the organisation’s code of ethics as well as universal concepts like honest y, integrit y and interpersonal conduct. from the interviews conducted it was evident that formal ethics training alone does not ensure a corporate culture of ‘living’ the code of ethics. it is therefore imperative that the organisation implements processes on the operational level to ensure the institutionalisation of ethical behaviour. participants of this study were of the opinion that the formal mentoring programme could serve as a platform for ethics training. in this regard, mentors should be trained on the code of ethics, to enable them to transfer ethics knowledge and skills to their protégés. apart from the theoretical training on ethics, the mentoring relationship makes it possible for mentors to use everyday examples, to illustrate appropriate and inappropriate behaviour. from the interviews conducted, it was clear that the organisation does not formally make use of mentoring to transfer ethical principles. little attention is given to ethics in the formal mentoring programme. the programme consists of various modules, and in only one of the modules, (‘knowing yourself’) values are addressed to some extent. this module makes it easier to talk about ethics as the mentoring relationship develops. the mentors interviewed, were of the opinion that the formal mentoring programme would be the ideal platform to address ethical issues (in particular the code of ethics). certain concepts needed to be covered during ethics training. these concepts are summarised below (table 4). table 4 aspects related to ethics training in the formal mentoring programme � formal ethics training in terms of code of ethics � formal ethics training in terms of organisational values � formal ethics training for mentors and protégés � training with regard to code of ethics, organisational values, organisational culture and interpersonal conduct � training with regard to excepted and rejected ethical behaviour � should address consequences of unethical behaviour d ethics in the mentoring relationship 1. sub-theme 1: the ethics within the mentoring relationship 2. sub-theme 2: the organisational ethics transferred by means of mentoring relationship participants confirmed that for ethics to be transferred, a solid mentoring relationship should have been established. two factors were identified namely, (i) the ethics within the mentoring relationship and then (ii) the organisational ethics transferred by means of mentoring. in terms of the first factor (ethical relationship) participants indicated that a mentoring relationship should be built on ethical principles for them (protégés) to feel comfortable to talk about ethics. thus for mentoring to be effective, and ethics to be conveyed, an ethical mentoring relationship needs to exist. the relationship should be built on ethical principles like trust, honesty and integrity. protégés are of the opinion that they need to see their mentors as ethical people for the mentoring relationship to be effective. the mentor should therefore be an ethical role model and example to his/her protégé. related to the second factor, participants indicated that mentors need to build a relationship with protégés to be able to address (talk about) ethics. it appears that the stronger the mentoring relationship, the easier it becomes to talk about ethics. very little talk about ethics can take place if a one-on-one relationship does not exist. according to participants, this one-on-one relationship can create a better person (protégé) that believes in organisational ethics. a shared mindset regarding the organisation’s ethics is a prerequisite for effective ethics transfer within the mentoring relat ionship. if a mentoring relat ionship exists, talking about ethics comes nat urally and is ent wined in all aspects of that relationship. a holistic approach to ethics should be followed, and therefore ethics is not just an add-on topic that needs to be addressed. mentors lead by example and therefore act as role models. protégés need to see their mentors as ethical persons, for ethics to be conveyed. if a problem arises, the mentor addresses it in terms of ethical behaviour, and the consequences thereof. the mentor assists his protégé in work-related as well as personal ethical dilemmas. the organisation where interviews were conducted does not expect of mentors to formally discuss organisational ethics, however mentors do discuss ethics informally. mentors agreed that it should be done and that it is important. ethics as a formal topic is not discussed, but appropriate and inappropriate behaviour is discussed on an informal basis. if a problem of inappropriate behaviour occurs, the mentoring relationship is used as a platform to discuss ethics. informal ethics talk is important but mentors and protégés need a code of ethics as a guideline for these discussions. ethics talk therefore mainly takes place within the mentoring relationship, although the researcher is of the opinion that training and discussions on organisational ethics should also be addressed within the formal mentoring programme. for the transfer of ethics to take place, the mentoring relationship needs to meet certain requirements. these requirements are summarised below (table 5). the above sections dealt with mentoring and ethics on an individual basis, but to serve the purpose of this study, it is of importance to integrate these t wo processes. from the information identified during the analysis of the interviews conducted (tables 1 – 5 and figure 1) and related literature study, the following model (see figure 2) is proposed to aid understanding of the usefulness of mentoring as an intervention to institutionalise business ethics. goosen, van vuuren68 table 5 aspects related to the ethics in the mentoring relationship � ethical mentoring relationship � informal ethics talk and share ethical experiences � create ethical awareness � transfer ethical principles � discuss consequences of unethical behaviour � build a one-on-one relationship � follow holistic approach to ethics � ethical relationship makes ethics talk easier � mentor is an ethical role model � transfer of organisational ethical principles in everyday working life insert figure 2. development of the mentoring for ethics model the model consists of an integration of tables 1 – 5 and figure 1. however, it was believed that certain aspects of this approach were still lacking and therefore information from the literature study was used to complete the model. the model was built on the systems approach. on the input side is the protégé with his/her knowledge, skills and attitudes regarding organisational ethical principles when entering the mentoring relationship. as a result of exposure to the formal mentoring process (programme and relationship) the expected output is a protégé with (i) an attitude which portrays ethical awareness (ii) skills which include a thorough knowledge of organisational ethics (organisations’ codes of ethics) and principles as set out in the corporate governance codes and guidelines (e.g. the king ii report (see iod, 2002)) (iii) skills that will make him/her competent to take decisions, solve problems and interact within the expected ethical standards of that particular organisation. the formal mentoring programme normally takes place on a monthly basis and continues for a period. (in the case of the organisation studied the time period was one year). the core of the mentoring process is the mentoring relationship that has developed. mentors should be well chosen in terms of their suitability to convey ethical messages. mentors and protégés should also be compatible in terms of personality, thus enabling ethics talk to take place within the mentoring relationship. organisations need to ensure that the organisational context is conducive to the development of such a relationship as well as for business ethics to be institutionalised. to create such an environment organisations need to have a code of ethics, a plan to institutionalise business ethics in all levels of the organisation and a culture of integrity. the above all takes place within the organisational context. the formal process as well as the mentoring relationship needs to be monitored and evaluated throughout the mentoring process. this would give the person responsible for ethics management in the organisation an indication of the extent to which the mentoring process enhances the institutionalisation of ethics within that particular organisation. it would furthermore indicate possible improvements that organisations can make in terms of the mentoring process. (e.g. the pairing of participants, the training of mentors and protégés and the content of the formal mentoring programme). the outcome of mentoring as discussed previously in this section would largely be determined by the mentoring intervention. if this intervention is well planned, implemented and evaluated, it can lead to numerous benefits to the organisation, mentors and protégés, including the opportunity to make protégés aware of codes of ethics, ethics-related issues in the organisation and to provide them with skills to deal with such issues. recommendations recommendations for organisations implementing mentoring programmes the results of this study clearly indicate that mentoring can play a significant role in the institutionalisation of organisational ethics. a proviso is, however, that the organisation actually has a code of ethics that serves as an ethical guideline to all employees. mentoring should be a well-planned and implemented process. mentors should be formally trained on the company’s code of ethics as well as the ethical requirements of a mentoring relationship. the pairing of mentoring participants is of utmost importance. ethical transfer will take place if the protégé perceives his/her mentor as ethical. the mentoring process consists of the formal mentoring programme and the more informal mentoring relationship. during the mentoring programme formal ethics training will create and awareness of the organisation’s code of ethics, as well as the ethical expectations they have of their employees. on the other hand, a one-on-one mentoring relationship that develops between a protégé and an ethical mentor over time, would pave the way for the transfer of ethical principles to occur. introducing a mentoring programme in an organisation should be a process that is well thought through and well-planned. mentoring offers numerous benefits to organisations of all sizes, if it is correctly implemented and followed through. mentoring is addressed in literature, which should enable organisations to plan such an intervention effectively. in terms of ethics, the literature is clear on the importance and necessity thereof. although the institutionalisation of ethics in organisations is a fairly new focus of attention in organisations, it has been investigated in some detail. from the literature as well as the empirical study conducted, it is evident that these t wo interventions implemented by organisations to improve their effectiveness, are typically not integrated. the objective of this study was to highlight the role of mentoring in institutionalising business ethics. this intervention takes place on the operational level of the institutionalisation process. organisations that already implement mentoring programmes may very well consider using mentoring for creating an ethical awareness, educating employees on ethics in general as well as the organisation’s ethical code, and through the mentoring relationship ensure that employees incorporate business ethics in their everyday work life. mentoring and ethics 69 recommendations for designers of mentoring programmes designers of mentoring programmes can now possibly design these programmes not only as interventions for career advancement, but also to assist organisations in the institutionalisation of their business ethics. in the planning process, certain elements of the ethical transfer need to be built in. the formal mentoring programme should make provision for the training of mentors on the organisation’s code of ethics, how ethical transfer takes place, and what their role is in this transfer process. ethics is not just another add-on module in the mentoring programme, but should be integrated in all aspects of mentoring. protégés need to be trained to create an awareness of ethics as well as to familiarise protégés with the content of the code of ethics. an important component of the mentoring process is the mentoring relationship. this is where the institutionalisation takes place. if designers of mentoring programmes are involved in the pairing of mentors and protégés, attention should be given, as the choice of mentoring pair is the basis for the mentoring relationship. designers should lastly incorporate evaluation interventions when planning a mentoring programme to ensure that ethical transfer takes place. recommendations for tertiary institutions involved in management training given the significance of business ethics in modern organisations, organisational ethics should ideally be part of every student’s syllabus when studying towards a managerial qualification. subject content would have to cover ethics and the institutionalisation thereof extensively. on the operational level, mentoring could then be added as a possible method to assist organisations in ensuring effective institutionalisation. the integrated model as proposed earlier could possibly facilitate understanding of the role mentoring can play in the institutionalisation process. conclusion in conclusion it is appropriate to make certain recommendations for further research: (i) the further exploration of the extent to which the descriptive and interpretative material yielded herein could be applicable to mentorship relationships in organisations generally, (ii) an evaluation of the nature of implementation and the impact of mentoring as an organisational ethics intervention, (iii) the development of an integrated curriculum (at graduate and post-graduate levels) in the training of managers with regard to the role of mentoring in the institutionalisation of business ethics. in the area of research, limitations necessarily apply. in the case of this specific research, the following restrictions were noted. this study focused on qualitative research only. triangulation, i.e. qualitative and quantitative research, might have been an alternative. the interviews conducted were done with a specific component. ideally, a random selection of employees who had undergone mentoring, in a variety of organisational sectors, could have been interviewed. another option could have been to conduct a comparative analysis pertaining the impact of mentoring on organisational ethical behaviour. limited information was gained about the true dynamics of a mentoring relationship in terms of ethics, and in retrospect could have received more attention in this study. a more comprehensive analysis could be considered for further research. as depicted in this study, business ethics has to become an integral part of any organisation. it should be a planned, participative and well-communicated process that takes place from strategising right through to the operational level of any given organisation. on an operational level, business ethics need to become part of each employees working life to ensure institutionalisation. from this study, it became apparent that mentoring could be used effectively to enhance the institutionalisation of business ethics on the operational level. mentoring is not a new concept and much research has been conducted on this topic. the reasons for organisations implementing mentoring in their organisations might differ, but most organisations find the mentoring process – if well-planned, implemented and followed through – to be beneficial. well-documented research on the process, content, advantages and disadvantages are available to prospective researchers. the fact remains that depending on the organisation’s goal for introducing a mentoring programme, each mentoring programme needs to be tailor-made for that specific organisation and participants. it is thus possible for organisations to make use of mentoring as an intervention and to ensure that their employees are aware of ethics. it creates a platform for ethics talk to take place. an ethical mentoring relationship paves the way for senior staff (mentors) to transfer ethical principles, as well as being role models in this regard. this type of transfer takes place formally and informally. as the respondents of this study commented, more effective ethical transfer takes place in the setting of a one-on-one relationship with an ethical trusted advisor (mentor). what remains to be seen is whether organisations realise the true value of institutionalising business ethics. only when top management become committed and ethical themselves, can it be expected of their employees to follow suite. hopefully this study may add to the intervention possibilities that are at the disposal of those committed to and responsible for ethics management in organisations. references abdellah, f.g. & levine, e. (1979). better patient care. a thorough nursing research. new york: macmillan. bell, c. r. (1998). managers as mentors: building partnerships for learning. san francisco: berrett-koehler. bennis, w.g. (1996). beyond leadership: balancing economics, ethics and ecology (2nd ed.). new york: blackwell. blackwell, j. (1989). mentoring: an action strategy for increasing minority faculty. academe, 74 (5), 7-14. bryman, a. (1995). quantity and quality in social research. london: routledge. butler, r. (2000). the ideal work environment. armed forces comptroller, 45 (i3), 49-61. cohen, n. (1999). effective mentoring. amherst, ma: hrd press. cohen, l. & manion, l. (1994). research methods in education (4th ed.). london: routledge. crabtree, b.f. & miller, w.l. (1992). doing qualitative research. beverly hills, ca: sage. creswell, j.w. (1994). research design. qualitative and quantitative approaches. beverly hills, ca: sage. dane, f.c. (1990). research methods. monterey, ca: brooks/cole. de george, r.t. (1987). the status of business ethics: past and future. journal of business ethics, (6), 201-211. denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. (1994). handbook of qualitative research. beverly hills, ca: sage. depoy, e. & gitlin, l.n. (1994). introduction to research. st. louis: mosby. dexter, l.a. (1970). elite and specialised inter viewing. evanston: northwestern university press. erlandson, d.a.; harris, e.l.; skipper, b.l. & allen, s.d. (1993). doing naturalistic inquiry. a guide to methods. beverly hills ca: sage. ezell, h. & odewahn, c. (1980). an empirical inquiry of variables impacting women in public service organisations. administration in social work, 4 (4), 45-60. field, p.a. & morse, j.m. (1985). nursing research – the application of qualitative approaches. london: chapman and hall. guba, e.g. & lincoln, y.s. (1988). effective evaluation. san francisco: jossey – bass. goosen, van vuuren70 guest, a.b. (2001). organisational mentoring. the coaching & mentoring network. guetzloe, a. (1997). the power of positive relationships: mentoring programs in the school and communit y. preventing school failure, 41 (3), 100-104. harshman, e.m. & rudin, j.p. (2000). corporate mentoring programs: legal landmines. journal of employment discrimination law, 1 (2), 135-142. holloway, i. & wheeler, s. (1996). qualitative research for nurses. oxford: blackwell sciences. hudson, f. m. (1999). the handbook of coaching. san francisco: jossey-bass. huysamen, g.k. (1994). methodology for the social and behavioural sciences. halfway house: thomson. iod (2001). king report on corporate governance for south africa. johannesburg: institute of directors (iod). kerlinger, f.n. (1986). foundations of behavioral research (3rd ed.). chicago: holt, rinehart and winston. kram, k.e. (1985). mentoring at work: developmental relationships in organisational life. glenview, illinois: scott, foresman. krathwohl, d.r. (1993). methods of educational and social science research – an integrated approach. new york: longman. krefting, l. (1990). rigor in qualitative research: the assessment of trustworthiness. the american journal of occupational therapy. 45 (3), 214-222. kuo, k. (2000). the power of mentoring. educause review. 35 (2), 8-11. kvale, s. (1983). the qualitative research interview: a phenomenological and a hermeneutical mode of understanding. journal of phenomenological psychology. 14 (2), 171-196. lecompte, m.d. & preissle, j. (1993). ethnography and qualitative design in educational research (2nd edition). new york: academic press. leedy, p.d. (1997) practical research. planning and design. new jersey: von hoffman. manoleas, p. & carrillo, e. (1991). a culturally syntonic approach to the field education of latino students. journal of social work education, (27), 135-143. marshall, c. & rossman, g.b. (1995). designing qualitative research. beverly hills ca: sage. merriam, s.b. (1991). case study research in education – a qualitative approach. oxford: jossey-bass. miller, d. (1997). mentoring structures: building a protective community. preventing school failure, 41 (3), 105-109. mouton, j. (1996). understanding social research. pretoria: van schaik. mouton, j. & marais, h.c. (1990). metodologie van die geesteswetenskappe: basiese begrippe. pretoria: rgn. omery, a. (1983). phenomenology: a method for nursing research. advances in nursing science, 5 (2), 49-63. patton, m.q. (1990). qualitative evaluation and research methods (2nd ed.). beverly hills ca: sage. rockwell, s. (1997). mentoring through accessible, authentic opportunities. preventing school failure, 41 (3), 111-114. rossouw, g.j. (1994): business ethics. a southern african perspective. halfway house: southern. rossouw, g.j. (2002). business ethics in africa (3rd ed.). cape town: oxford university press. rossouw, g.j. & van vuuren, l.j. (2003). business ethics as a strategic imperative for organisations: the business case for business ethics. management dynamics, 12 (1), 2-11. rossouw, g.j. & van vuuren, l.j. (2004). business ethics (3rd ed.). cape town: oxford university press. schurink, w.j. (1988). the methodology of unstructured inter viewing. (in mouton, j. introduction to research. module 3). pretoria: hsrc. skiffington, s. & zeus, p. (2002). the complete guide to coaching at work. new york: mcgraw-hill. townsel, k.t. (1997). mentoring african american youth. preventing school failure, 41 (3), 125-127. van vuuren, l.j. (2002). institutionalising business ethics: a multi-level strategy. management dynamics, 11 (2). wickman, f. & sjodin, t. (1997). mentoring. new york: mcgraw-hill. wolcott, h.f. (1994). transforming qualitative data. beverley hills, ca: sage. young, t. (2003) www.etrainingcenter.org. zunz, s.j. (1991). gender-related issues in the career development of social work managers. affillia, 6 (4), 39-52. mentoring and ethics 71 prof c bester university of the free state dr j bosman north west university prof j buitendach north west university dr m coetzee unisa prof jj de beer university of pretoria ms e du toit north west university dr ltb jackson north west university dr c jonker north west university mr m meyer unisa mr a moerdyk rhodes university dr c pietersen university of limpopo prof amg schreuder unisa review panel72 article information authors: lynette louw1 noel j. pearse2 jateen dhaya1 affiliations: 1department of management, rhodes university, south africa 2rhodes business school, rhodes university, south africa correspondence to: noel pearse postal address: po box 94, grahamstown 6140, south africa dates: received: 24 mar. 2011 accepted: 17 june 2012 published: 01 oct. 2012 how to cite this article: louw, l., pearse, n.j., & dhaya, j. (2012). the role of experience in the development of social competencies. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10 (1), art. #376, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i1.376 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the role of experience in the development of social competencies in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • social competencies    • the development of social competencies    • the role of experience in developing competencies • research design    • research approach    • research strategy    • research method       • research setting       • entrée and establishing researcher roles       • sampling       • data collection methods       • recording of data       • data analyses       • strategies employed to ensure quality data       • reporting • findings    • social competencies identified    • experiences that contributed towards the development of the identified social competencies    • social competency cache development process • ethical considerations • discussion    • limitations of the study    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the role of experience in the development of managers’ social competencies has been analysed in this research.research purpose: the primary purpose of this study was to develop an understanding of the process through which experience contributed towards the development of service-oriented managers’ social competencies. motivation for the study: understanding the contribution of experiences to the development of competencies may have important implications for the selection and development of managers within service industries. research design, approach and method: following a multiple case study design, face-to-face interviews with service-oriented managers were held, based on the critical incident technique. data were analysed using the open coding procedures of grounded theory. main findings: experience was found to contribute to the development of service-oriented managers’ social competencies, through a process that established an awareness of unfamiliar social competencies, or a reinforcement of the effects of familiar effective social competencies. practical/managerial implications: the proposed process, the social competency cache development (sccd) process, is the practical outcome of the research which offers a tool to facilitate the development of social competencies through conscious leveraging of an individual’s experiences. contribution/value add: the sccd process is recommended as a new avenue to leverage and thereby develop social competencies. introduction top ↑ the effective development of the social competencies of managers is critical to the success of enterprises operating within the hospitality industry. competencies represent the synthesis of a variety of skills, technologies, and knowledge streams (naquin & holton iii, 2006) that generate a competitive advantage for an organisation (jauhari, 2006). in general, the performance of managers is related to their possession and utilisation of competencies (burgoyne, 1989 in moore, cheng & dainty, 2002; murray, 2003; stuart & lindsay, 1997). in the delivery of services in particular, social competencies are essential. this is because the service orientation in the hospitality industry is underpinned by service encounters, which are perceived to be ’social in nature, because the personal mode of delivery is intertwined with the provision of the tangible thing that initiated the encounter‘ (chapman & lovell, 2006, p. 79). previous research by brophy and kiely (2002), kay and russette (2000), lockwood and jones (1989, in jauhari, 2006) and tas (1988, in jauhari, 2006), all view social competencies as essential managerial competencies required in the hospitality industry.this research study is located in the hospitality industry with a specific focus on the bar and pub sector. according to the restaurant association of south africa (2007, p. 2), a pub is an organisation that sells alcohol and light meals or snacks. the tobacco products control act 1993 (act no. 83 of 1993) (tshabalala-msimang, 2000: government gazette number 21610), which is the legislation controlling the smoking of tobacco products in public areas, defines bars and pubs as ’a public place where the primary business of the place is to sell alcoholic beverages to the general public, for consumption on the premises‘. these definitions suggest that bars and pubs are primarily involved in the sale of alcoholic beverages to the general public for consumption on the premises. in rendering this service, managers of bars need to have social competencies, and should also be prepared to develop such skills. it is therefore important for management practitioners and researchers alike to have an understanding of how these competencies would naturally develop, as a foundation for the deliberate development of these competencies through formalised organisational interventions. competencies can be developed by both formal and informal learning methods (svensson, ellström & åberg, 2004). kor (2003) suggests that managerial experience may shape managerial knowledge, confidence and competence, but few studies seem to have examined how competencies develop through experience. cheetham and chivers (2001) have investigated the informal learning methods of professionals. paloniemi (2006) conducted research to examine the relationship of experience to the development of the job-competence of employees in the workplace. mumford (1995) conducted research into the approaches that senior executives follow to learn from experience. only a few studies have investigated informal learning methods of competency development and, thus, looking specifically within the hospitality industry, there is a dearth of research. the main purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of the process through which their experience contributed towards the development of service-oriented managers’ social competencies. the objectives of the study were, firstly, to identify the key social competencies that were required to deal with incidents that were critical to managerial success, in a socially challenging hospitality environment. secondly, the objectives were to explore how these social competencies had developed through the individual interviewees’ work-based and personal experiences. this research study is set in the south african hospitality industry and specifically in the bar and pub sectors of this industry. in these service-orientated environments bar managers must deal with many situations of a social nature which are particularly challenging. the social competencies and the methods applied to develop such competencies will firstly be defined. thereafter, experience and competency development will be explored, followed by the research design. finally the findings and discussion will be presented, focusing on the social competency cache development (sccd) process, its implications and its potential application. social competencies as mentioned above, competencies can be defined as a ’combination of observable and applied knowledge, skills and behaviours that create a competitive advantage for an organization‘ (jauhari, 2006, p. 123). brophy and kiely (2002, p. 167) define them as ’the skills, knowledge, behaviours, and attitudes required to perform a role‘. a competency ’therefore describes a feature of a person’s ability to perform their job effectively‘ (brophy & kiely, 2002, p. 167). according to wickramasinghe and de zoyza (2009), a competency is considered to be a measurable characteristic of a person that is related to his or her effective performance in a specific job, organisation or culture. these characteristics are defined in terms of behaviour, and because competencies are behavioural, they can be developed.according to katz (1955), who is a seminal author on the topic of managerial skills, in order to be effective, managers require technical skills, human skills and conceptual skills. human skills are considered to be the equivalent of social skills or competencies. social competencies are considered as ’knowing and managing emotions in others‘, as well as the ability to work effectively with others (cherniss & goleman, 2001, p. 29). social competencies may also be defined as the ’ability to work with people‘ (smit & de j cronjé, 2002, p. 17), and they include communication skills, social awareness, conflict resolution and motivating people (cherniss & goleman, 2001; mckenna, 2004). for bardzil and slaski (2003), social competencies comprise communication skills, empathy and emotional labour. in their emotional intelligence framework cherniss and goleman (2001) highlight social competence as an element in the form of social awareness and relationship management. social awareness can be explained as empathy, organisational awareness and service orientation (ramo, saris & boyatzis, 2009), whilst relationship management is evident in competencies such as influencing others, conflict management, teamwork and communication (cherniss & goleman, 2001). the development of social competencies competencies are developed by both formal and informal learning methods (svensson et al., 2004). formal learning methods are structured and include professional development programmes and educational programmes, whilst informal learning methods include the incidental experiences that individuals utilise to develop competencies (cheetham & chivers, 2001). garavan and mcguire (2001) are of the opinion that formal learning methods, such as individual training structures and workplace learning activities, are the dominant sources of competency development. it is important to recognise that whilst competency development may be facilitated through structured formal learning methods, such as formal education and training programmes, informal learning methods may also be utilised to develop competencies (svensson et al., 2004). incidental informal learning methods relate to the reference of experience to facilitate development (cheetham & chivers, 2001).the informal learning method of social competency development is highlighted in the realm of experiential learning. experiential learning is founded on the concept that ideas are continuously being formed and reformed by life experiences (cheetham & chivers, 2001). thus, learning in the experiential sense seems to be a ’continuous process grounded in experience‘ (cheetham & chivers, 2001, p. 256). this suggests that experiences represent a basis for learning and development. experiential learning indicates that ’some things can be taught in a formal way, such as data‘, whilst other aspects ’have to be learned by experience‘ (barnett, chambers & longman, 1985, p. 4). more specifically, morris’s continuum of learning suggests that concrete knowledge is learned in a formal manner whereas social and interpersonal skills are learned through experience (barnett et al., 1985). hence, experience is a source of potential development. role of experience in developing competencies for the purpose of this research, an individual experience is defined as the process of successively construing the ’replications of events‘ (kelly, 1955, p. 72). the combination of various individual experiences is then thought to represent the broader concept of experience. firstly, this definition suggests that an experience is an active process (mcknight & sechrest, 2003). accordingly, this process is perceived to be ’unceasing‘ in the sense that individuals are constantly being exposed to events (mcknight & sechrest, 2003, p. 433). consequently, reconstruction of these events may be added to existing constructs of previous and related interpretations (dale, 1998). secondly, for an experience to occur, an individual must have the opportunity to reconstruct and interpret events (mcknight & sechrest, 2003). mcknight and sechrest (2003) give the example of a person who has slept during an earthquake. the person does not have the opportunity to reconstruct the events that took place whilst the earthquake occurred and therefore has not experienced the earthquake. the process of reflection facilitates the development of ’repertoires of solutions‘ (cheetham & chivers, 1998, p. 267) and these are followed to reframe difficult problems into more comprehensible situations (cheetham & chivers, 1998). thirdly, an experience, requires that individuals recognise events and reconstruct them into a broader and more extensive schema or framework, based on a series of events that have previously occurred, and then act in response to the reinterpretation of the event currently being experienced (mcknight & sechrest, 2003; weil & mcgill, 1989). repeated exposure to additional similar events allows individuals to constantly reinterpret events that are seen to be relevant in future, to refine and reconstruct their interpretations, which in turn leads to a change in behaviour for future tasks (cheetham & chivers, 1998; mcknight & sechrest, 2003; mumford, 1995). whilst a cognitive perspective has been adopted to explain competency development through experiences, behavioural approaches cannot be ignored. when behaviour has a rewarding consequence, it is reinforced and more likely to recur (tennant, 1997). this implies that the knowledge gained from an experience, including the reinterpretation of previously held constructs, may contribute towards changes in individual behaviour, as this behaviour is reinforced and therefore repeated if the consequences of the behaviour are viewed as positive. in the context of this research study, positive or rewarding behaviour is seen as managerial behaviour that contributes to the successful development of social competencies. success in displaying the developed social competencies is suggested to lead to improved employee and consumer satisfaction. paloniemi’s (2006) research linked work experience to the construction of competence. however, the employees interviewed noted that their work experience alone was insufficient for the development of their competencies (paloniemi, 2006), and emphasised the accumulation of a variety of experiences needed for development. in the context of this research study, ’experience‘ is deemed to refer to the collection of experiences that service-oriented managers have accumulated throughout their lives, and not only to the experiences gained in their role as managers. the rationale behind this is that experience occurs throughout one’s life and, thus, to limit experience to that which occurs whilst employed as a manager would constrain the idea of accumulating experiences in a similar context, but in alternative roles, such as being a student, patron or a non-managerial employee. dale (1998) describes the cognitive aspects of competency development through kolb’s learning cycle, which describes how experiences are grasped and transformed. once concrete experiences or abstract conceptualisations are grasped, they are reflected upon through a process of consideration to draw new implications based on that which was experienced (kolb, boyatzis & mainemelis, 2001). these cognitive processes, used to reinterpret constructs, are associated with short-term memory and long-term memory (nicholas, 2003). the reflection process is employed by individuals to recover information from long-term memory into short-term memory (nicholas, 2003), based on its relevance to future behaviours and tasks (mcknight & sechrest, 2003). the retrieved information is then used comparatively (dale, 1998), to facilitate the reconstruction of constructs. long-term memory is of particular importance as it is the repository of experiences, and is ultimately composed of explicit and implicit memory (nicholas, 2003). in contrast to explicit memory, implicit memory cannot be consciously brought to mind (nicholas, 2003). implicit memory includes procedural memory, which represents the knowledge of skills or procedures (nicholas, 2003). procedural memories are typically acquired consciously and with practice and development of the competence, become less deliberate or consciously performed actions (nicholas, 2003). the conscious competence learning matrix (thomson & van solms, 2006) integrates both the cognitive and behavioural aspects associated with competency development that have been described above. this matrix links the levels of competence with degrees of consciousness (leigh, 2003). it suggests that individuals proceed through four stages in developing their competencies or skills (thomson & van solms, 2006), namely ’unconscious incompetence‘, ’conscious incompetence‘, ’conscious competence‘ and finally ’unconscious competence‘. the matrix highlights the role of cognitive ability, reflection and practice in moving through the four stages so that a competence becomes ’second nature‘ (thomson & van solms, 2006, p. 12). furthermore, the transfer of competencies to the subconscious, as second-nature competencies, suggests that competency development is related to the repertoire of solutions built by experience. in summary, cognitive and behavioural learning theory offers a theoretical explanation for the development of social competencies through the accumulation of, and reflection on experiences. however, relatively few empirical studies have been conducted (see cheetham & chivers, 2001; kor, 2003; mumford, 1995; paloniemi, 2006) to examine its applicability to managerial competence development, and no studies were reported that examined the hospitality industry. of interest in this study is the investigation of how social competencies have developed in bar managers, who operate in a particularly socially challenging part of the hospitality industry. the study seeks to investigate how these competencies develop through the accessing and processing of the individual’s accumulated experiences, both work-based and personal. research design top ↑ research approach a qualitative approach is followed in this research study, and is phenomenological in nature as ’it is concerned with understanding human behaviour from the participant’s own frame of reference‘ (collis & hussey, 2003, p. 53). it recognises that the data is not presented in the form of external objective facts, but rather is a subjectively experienced construct that is mutually constructed during the social interaction between the researchers and the research participants (mottier, 2005). it values a highly personal and local contextualist approach to knowledge, rather than one which seeks to generalise laws or principles across all situations (aram & salipante, 2003). this approach is aligned with practical rationality theories, which value the investigation of how actors or practitioners constitute and enact the logic of their organisational practices, and views such accounts as valid (sandberg & tsoukas, 2011). this approach is appropriate, given that the purpose of the study is to understand the role of managers’ personal experiences in the development of their social competencies. this research study employed a qualitative approach similar to that of chell (2004) and cope and watts (2000). the aim of the critical incident technique (cit), as utilised by chell (2004, p. 48), was to ’gain an understanding of the incident from the perspective of the individual, taking into account cognitive, affective and behavioural elements’. research strategy a multiple case study method was employed in this research (chell, 2004). the cases consisted of six managers working in bars or pubs in grahamstown. their ages ranged from 22 to 48 years of age. five were male and one was female. all were white people, with the exception of one black man. most had received some formal management training and their years of experience as managers ranged from 18 months to 20 years. research method research setting the bars and pubs that the managers worked in are public facilities located in grahamstown, in close proximity to the university, and have a diverse range of clientele. the establishments typically opened for business before lunch and remained open until after midnight. during the day, they resembled restaurants with a quieter environment, but steady trade. in the evenings there was usually a brisk trade with a much larger client base consisting mainly of students, who came primarily to drink socially, rather than for a meal. managers therefore must be able to adapt the way that they interact with these diverse clients, and typically face more challenging situations later in the night towards the end of a work shift. entrée and establishing researcher roles interviews were arranged and conducted by one of the authors. these were held when the manager was off duty. sampling purposive sampling (welman, kruger & mitchell, 2005) was applied to identify interviewees who had a minimum of one year’s experience of managing a bar, and who were currently employed as managers in pubs or bars in grahamstown. this ensured that the sample had sufficient working experience relevant to the study’s focus on bars, and that they were acquainted with the grahamstown context in this regard.a total of six bar managers participated in the study. according to ritchie and lewis (2003, p. 83) qualitative samples are usually small in size as there is no requirement to ’determine statistically significant discriminatory variables‘. cope and watts (2000) previously interviewed six respondents to explore the learning process of entrepreneurs in relation to their personal and business development in tandem, and indicated that the respondents provided a wide range of experiences and knowledge. given the premise that the critical incident technique that was to be applied in this study would offer a ’rich source of information‘ (chell, 2004, p. 56), it was anticipated when planning this study, that interviewing six participants in-depth should generate sufficient data for meaningful analysis. data collection methods semi-structured, in-depth interviews (welman et al. 2005) were held with the six managers. the cit (cope & watts, 2000) was followed to frame the interviews. the cit is defined as a ’qualitative interview procedure‘ that ’facilitates the investigation of significant occurrences‘, events or incidents that are identified by the respondent as being relevant to relate to the interviewer (chell, 2004, p. 48). flanagan (1954) originally developed and applied the cit as a quantitative approach (chell & pittaway, 1998) but, more recently, it has been applied in a wide range of disciplines (gremler, 2004), and as a qualitative method. chell (2004, p. 47) suggests that the cit should be consulted to guide the conducting of interviews ’to capture the thought processes, frame of reference and the feelings about an incident or set of incidents, which have meaning for the respondent’. recording of data all interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and then checked by one of the authors. the transcripts were used as a basis for analysis. both the original recording and transcripts were stored for easy access at a later date, if further analysis, re-analysis or checking was required. data analyses data were analysed using the open coding procedures of grounded theory (chell, 2004). ’open coding‘ is the ’process of breaking down, examining, comparing, conceptualizing, and categorizing data‘ (strauss & corbin, 1990, p. 61). in other words, open coding represents the portion of data analysis ’that pertains specifically to the naming and categorizing of phenomena through close examination of the data‘ (strauss & corbin, 1990, p. 62). strategies employed to ensure quality data the phenomenological approach emphasises ’the subjective aspects of human activity by focusing on the meaning, rather than measurement, of social phenomena‘ (collis & hussey, 2003, p. 53). consequently, qualitative approaches employ credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability (riege, 2003) as quality benchmarks. these measures are seen as comparable to validity and reliability in quantitative research (riege, 2003).credibility relates to the endorsement of research findings by the research participants (riege, 2003). the credibility of the study was improved by giving feedback to participants of the analysed data and then receiving feedback from these interviewees on the degree to which their views had been captured accurately (creswell, 1994). corrections were made if required. merriam (1988, in creswell, 1994, p. 158) notes that the ’intent of qualitative research is not to generalize findings, but to form a unique interpretation of events‘. this research study is therefore not concerned with the generalisation of findings, but the transferability of the research findings. transferability is parallel to the function of external validity and is achieved ’when the researcher shows similar or different findings of a phenomenon amongst similar or different respondents‘ (riege, 2003, p. 81). the transferability of the research results was ensured through cross-case analysis, which was carried out in the data analysis phase of the research study to allow for comparisons between multiple cases (miles & huberman, 1994, in riege, 2003). dependability in qualitative research is equivalent to reliability in quantitative research (riege, 2003). dependability seeks to ensure ’stability and consistency in the process of inquiry‘ (riege, 2003, p. 81). this was improved by ensuring that the researcher was aware of and safeguarded against his own theoretical position and biases (hirschman, 1986). additionally, consistency within the inquiry process was ensured by using a tape recorder to record all interview data (riege, 2003). lastly, confirmability is concerned with the interpretation of data, ’ensuring that it is drawn in a logical and unprejudiced manner‘ (riege, 2003, p. 81). confirmability was improved through the retention of all transcribed material on a compact disc (cd) to facilitate reanalysis (riege, 2003). reporting the main themes generated through open coding are summarised, and then a more conceptual presentation of the findings is presented in the form of the sccd. unfortunately the length restriction of this article does not provide room to provide a more detailed presentation of the findings of the study that would have also incorporated thick descriptions. findings top ↑ social competencies identified the participants in the study, in this case bar managers, displayed four categories of social competencies to deal effectively with the identified critical incidents and thereby fulfil their managerial duties. these are, namely:• emotionally laden social competencies • power-based social competencies • dispute-handling social competencies • information-handling social competencies. firstly, emotionally laden social competencies involved responses in which the participants related to others on an emotional level. this included showing concern and understanding, motivating others, and forming or strengthening relational partnerships. the participants utilised these competencies to address critical incidents relating to problematic employee behaviour, problematic consumer behaviour, service complaints by consumers, and work and personal problems faced by employees. secondly, the powerbased social competencies entailed the participants’ interaction with others based on their positions of authority. this included asserting authority and issuing commands. the managers used their power-based social competencies to handle critical incidents concerning problematic employee behaviour, problematic consumer behaviour and service complaints by consumers. dispute-handling social competencies were implemented to deal with critical incidents relating to problematic employee behaviour and problematic consumer behaviour. these competencies involved the participants’ interaction with others to resolve disputes. thirdly, they employed their informationhandling social competencies to address critical incidents pertaining to problematic employee behaviour, problematic consumer behaviour, service complaints by consumers, and problems that employees faced. the information-handling social competencies involved the participants’ interaction with others to receive or give information. experiences that contributed towards the development of the identified social competencies the experiences recollected by the participants were either single specific experiences or multiple compounded experiences. through the recollection of events that were considered single specific experiences, they implied that solitary events contributed to the development of social competencies. these solitary experiences related to events that they viewed as influential and therefore critical in their lives. solitary experiences such as authoritative experiences, drunken dilemma experiences and supportive experiences were highlighted by the participants as the experiences that contributed towards the development of their social competencies.the participants recalled experiences that occurred in a variety of contexts, including home, school, university, work and ’watering hole‘ contexts. this implies that social competencies may be developed through experiences that include more than work experiences, and ultimately suggests that experiences related to a broad range of contexts contribute to the development of social competencies. the experiences that the managers recollected were based on either their own past responses or the responses of other people whom they had observed. the findings of this research study also imply that formal learning methods may be followed to develop social competencies. for example, one manager highlighted a formal camera-training course in the development of his social competencies, which suggests that formal learning methods also contributed to the development of social competencies. social competency cache development process in further analysing how the variety of experiences noted above, were contributing to the development and honing of the social competencies, the sccd process was formulated as an explanatory model. as figure 1 indicates, the sccd process is an ongoing process that focuses on the development of the social competencies located within the cache or reserve of responses referred to as the ’personal repertoire of responses‘. the social competencies represent responses to social situations. the personal repertoire of responses, which is the storage point for social competencies, represents an accumulation of compounded and reinterpreted responses. within the context of this research study, the personal repertoire of responses indicates an accumulation of effective responses which participants have developed through a variety of experiences. the experiences that the bar managers described occurred in home, school, university, employment or work, and ’watering hole‘ contexts. for instance, one respondent indicated how a teacher had instilled social etiquette in him by regularly instructing pupils to be the first to greet senior or elderly people, thereby teaching him the habit of initiating social contact. another indicated that he had often counselled his friends when they had personal problems, whilst yet another described how a sales training course that used simulations that were filmed on camera and then reviewed, had made him acutely aware of his typical behavioural style and its impact, as well as training him in more effective ways to interact with customers. the personal repertoire of responses therefore represents the pool of social competencies and experiences that the participants drew on when addressing social situations. this repertoire of responses was then applied in social situations to assist the participants to fulfil their managerial duties that were associated with ensuring employee and consumer satisfaction. figure 1: the social competency cache development process. as illustrated in figure 1, the sccd process encompasses several phases, including (1) the situation phase, (2) an assessment and selection phase, (3) the response phase, (4) the results phase and (5) the observation and reflection phase. the situation phase of the sccd process refers to the critical incident or event that warrants a response. this relates to the social situation in which the bar participants would find themselves, or the event to which the participants were exposed. such situations included an employee confronting the manager about his pay in front of other employees and clients, a customer who alleged that her belongings had been stolen whilst she was at the pub, and customers getting into an argument, or even a physical fight. managers would then assess the situation and select an appropriate response from the social competencies located in their personal repertoire of responses. examples of responses included clarifying the situation or expectations, solving problems by asserting authority, obtaining information, issuing instructions, explaining the consequences of actions, encouraging others by listening to them, giving them personal attention, and motivating them. the selected response is then physically implemented in the response phase. the results phase indicates the outcomes of implementing the selected responses. this was the successful resolution of the critical incident that the respondent had selected to talk about. typical outcomes included strengthened relationships, motivated people, resolved disputes and an established common understanding. the observation and reflection phase is then executed to facilitate reinterpretation of previous responses and social competencies, by which the participants compared the outcomes of implementing the social competencies with the effectiveness of previous responses. these reinterpretations are then integrated with existing social competencies and compounded into the personal repertoire of responses. the process is continual in that the compounded personal repertoire of responses is followed to address subsequent social situations, and is continually shaped by the outcomes of implementing the reinterpreted responses and social competencies. ethical considerations top ↑ research participants were informed of the voluntary nature of the research, and their consent to participate was obtained before the interview was conducted. the identity of the research participants was disguised by making use of pseudonyms rather than their real names, and the establishments where they were employed were kept confidential. discussion top ↑ the main purpose of this study was to develop an understanding of how personal experience contributed towards the development of the social competencies of service-oriented managers. little empirical evidence exists in this area, and so it was anticipated that the findings would shed light on these developmental processes. in turn, understanding this process could contribute to the more effective selection of managers within the highly competitive service industries in general, and in the hospitality sector in particular, where the ’personal mode of delivery‘ (chapman & lovell, 2006, p. 79) is particularly integral to the provision of quality service, and therefore business success. furthermore, it could identify the developmental priorities of bar managers, which could be developed through formal job training, in combination with deliberately exposing them to certain types of situation. from the analysis of the data, it would appear that bar managers required four categories of social competencies to be able to deal effectively with the identified critical incidents and thereby fulfil their managerial duties. these are, namely:• emotionally laden social competencies • power-based social competencies • dispute-handling social competencies • information-handling social competencies. whilst these competencies are also required by managers in other contexts (see for example brophy & kiely, 2002; chapman & lovell, 2006; kay & russette, 2000; murray, 2003; stuart & lindsay, 1997), their significance to dealing with critical incidents that arise in this part of the hospitality industry, were clearly evident. the findings indicated that participants recollected both significant and discrete single events, as well as multiple, compounded experiences. the recollection of a series of almost indistinguishable multiple compounded experiences would appear to strengthen the conclusion, offered by mcknight and sechrest (2003), that repetitive exposures are required for the reinterpretation of constructs. furthermore, the fact that experiences were compounded over time suggests that repeated exposure to an event may contribute to behavioural modifications, which is a requirement for the development of competencies (civelli, 1998; paloniemi, 2006; tennant, 1997; thomson & van solms, 2006). the fact that experiences based on the responses of other individuals were noted as contributing factors in the development of social competencies, suggests that interaction with other individuals may represent a key element in the development of social competencies. this would also be consistent with social learning theories such as vicarious learning (bandura, 1977, 1995). given the nature of social competencies in social situations, it is not surprising that the participants’ observation of their social interactions with other individuals represented a source of learning. in this study, the sccd process illustrates how experience could contribute to the development of the participants’ personal repertoire of responses through a process of reflection. consistent with the literature (dale, 1998; kolb et al., 2001; mcknight & sechrest, 2003; tennant, 1997), respondents explained how their experiences and reflections seem to have assisted in developing their social competencies, by promoting the addition of new social competencies or through the reinterpretation and modification of existing social competencies. the sccd process could therefore, possibly be utilised by service-oriented organisations, such as bars and pubs, as a framework for training that could leverage the unique experiences of managers. essentially, the value of the sccd process is in encouraging conscious and intentional effort from individuals, to recognise the relevance of past experiences and to link them to the current situation, in order to facilitate an optimal response from them, or develop their social competencies. in other words, it forces individuals to consciously evaluate the potential value of past experiences. limitations of the study the limitations of this study are acknowledged, particularly in terms of its limited geographic context and the small number of respondents interviewed, whose experiences may prove to be atypical of pub and bar managers employed in other contexts. further research could explore the applicability of the sccd process model to other bar managers and to other contexts within the service industry. the sccd process itself needs to be critiqued and investigated in further depth. in particular, research is needed to explore the contextual and sub-conscious triggers which may prompt individuals to make the link between their past experiences and the current events to which they are exposed. finally, there is a need to further investigate the relative contribution of, and interaction between, learning that arises from the experience of others versus personal experiences. conclusion this study set out to develop an understanding of the process through which experience contributed towards the development of service-oriented managers’ social competencies. the sccd process was developed to explain this contribution, describing a process that established an awareness of unfamiliar social competencies, or alternatively reinforced the effects of familiar effective social competencies and encouraged an intentional effort from individuals, to link past experiences to the current situation. further research was recommended to explore the contextual and sub-conscious triggers which may prompt individuals to make this link, and to compare the effects of personal versus vicarious experience. acknowledgements top ↑ an earlier version of this paper was presented at the 22nd annual conference of the southern african institute of management scientists, hosted by rhodes university in september 2010. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this paper. authors’ contributions j.d. (rhodes university) carried out the research as a masters student under the supervision of n.j.p. (rhodes university) and l.l. (rhodes university). this manuscript was prepared by n.j.p. (rhodes university) and l.l. (rhodes university). all authors were at rhodes university at the time of making their contribution. references top ↑ aram, j.d., & salipante, p.f. (2003). bridging scholarship in management: epistemological reflections. british journal of management, 14, 189–205. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00374 bandura, a. (1977). self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. psychological review, 2, 191–215. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.84.2.191, pmid:847061 bandura, a. (1995). self-efficacy in changing societies. new york: cambridge press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511527692 bardzil, p., & slaski, m. (2003). emotional intelligence: fundamental competencies for enhanced service provision. managing service quality, 13(2), 97–104. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09604520310466789 barnett, c., chambers, r., & longman, k. (1985). youth education and training innovators – learning from experience: a training manual in personal effectiveness. basingstoke: macmillan education. brophy, m., & kiely, t. (2002). competencies: a new sector. journal of european industrial training, 26(2/3/4), 165–176. chapman, a.j., & lovell, g. (2006). the competency model of hospitality service: why it doesn’t deliver. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 18(1), 78–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09596110610642000 cheetham, g., & chivers, g. (1998). the reflective (and competent) practitioner: a model of professional competence which seeks to harmonise the reflective practitioner and competence-based approaches. journal of european industrial training, 22(7), 267–276. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090599810230678 cheetham, g., & chivers, g. (2001). how professionals learn in practice: an investigation of informal learning amongst people working in professions. journal of european industrial training, 25(5), 247–292. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090590110395870 chell, e. (2004). critical incident technique. in c. cassell & g. symon (eds.). essential guide to qualitative methods in organizational research (pp. 45–60). london: sage publications. chell, e., & pittaway, l. (1998). a study of entrepreneurship in the restaurant and café industry: exploratory work using the critical incident technique as a methodology. international journal of hospitality management, 17(1), 23–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0278-4319(98)00006-1 cherniss, c., & goleman, d. (2001). the emotionally intelligent workplace: how to select for measure, and improve emotional intelligence in individuals, groups, and organizations. san francisco: jossey-bass. civelli, f. (1998). personal competencies, organizational competencies, and employability. industrial and commercial training, 30(2), 48–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00197859810207652 collis, j., & hussey, r. (2003). business research: a practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. (2nd edn.). basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. cope, j., & watts, g. (2000). learning by doing – an exploration of experience, critical incidents and reflection in entrepreneurial learning. international journal of entrepreneurial behaviour and research, 6(3), 104–124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13552550010346208 creswell, j.w. (1994). research design: qualitative and quantitative approaches. london: sage publications. dale, m. (1998). developing management skills: techniques for improving learning and performance. (2nd edn). london: kogan page limited. flanagan, j.c. (1954). the critical incident technique. psychological bulletin, 51(4), 327–358. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0061470, pmid:13177800 garavan, t.n., & mcguire, d. (2001). competencies and workplace learning: some reflections on the rhetoric and the reality. journal of workplace learning, 13(4), 144–163. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13665620110391097 gremler, d.d. (2004). the critical incident technique in service research. journal of social research, 7(1), 65–89. hirschman, e.c. (1986). humanist inquiry in marketing research: philosophy, method and criteria. journal of marketing research, 23(3), 237–249. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3151482 jauhari, v. (2006). competencies for a career in the hospitality industry: an indian perspective. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 18(2), 123–134. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09596110610646673 katz, r.l. (1955). skills of an effective administrator. harvard business review, 33(1), 33–42. katz, r.l. (1986). skills of an effective administrator. harvard business review, 64(2), 198–198. kay, c., & russette, j. (2000). hospitality-management competencies. cornell hotel and restaurant administration quarterly, 41(2), 52–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001088040004100217 kelly, g.a. (1955). the psychology of personal constructs: volume one. new york: w.w. norton and company inc. kolb, d.a., boyatzis, r.e., & mainemelis, c. (2001). experiential learning theory: previous research and new dimensions. in r.j. sternberg & l.f. zhang (eds.), perspectives on thinking, learning, and cognitive styles, (pp. 227–247). mahwah: lawrence erlbaum associates. kor, y.y. (2003). experience-based top management team competence and sustained growth. organization science, 14(6), 707–719. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.14.6.707.24867 leigh, e. (2003). a practitioner researcher perspective on facilitating an open, infinite, chaordic simulation: learning to engage with theory while putting myself into practice. unpublished doctoral thesis, sydney, university of technology. mckenna, s. (2004). predispositions and context in the development of managerial skills. journal of management development, 23(7), 664–677. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02621710410546669 mcknight, p., & sechrest, l. (2003). the use and misuse of the term ’experience‘ in contemporary psychology: a reanalysis of the experience-performance relationship. philosophical psychology, 16(3), 431–460. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0951508032000121814 moore, d.r., cheng, m., & dainty, a.r.j. (2002). competence, competency and competencies: performance assessment in organizations. work study, 51(6), 314–319. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00438020210441876 mottier, v. (2005). the interpretive turn: history, memory, and storage in qualitative research. forum: qualitative social research, 6(2), art 33. mumford, a. (1995). four approaches to learning from experience. industrial and commercial training, 27(8), 12–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00197859510791567 murray, p. (2003). organisational learning, competencies, and firm performance: empirical observations. the learning organisation, 10(5), 305–316. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09696470310486656 nicholas, l. (2003). introduction to psychology. landsdowne: uct press. naquin, s.s., & holton iii, e.f. (2006). leadership and managerial competency models: a simplified process and resulting model. advances in developing human resources, 8(2), 144–166. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1523422305286152 paloniemi, s. (2006). experience, competence and workplace learning. journal of workplace learning, 18(7/8), 439–450. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13665620610693006 ramo, l.g., saris, w.e., & boyatzis, r.e. (2009). the impact of social and emotional competencies on effectiveness of spanish executives. journal of management development, 28(9), 771–793. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02621710910987656 restraurant association of south africa. (2007). the gauteng liquor act 2003 and regulations. retrieved march 13, 2007, from http://www.restaurant.org.za/?p=gautengliquoract riege, a.m. (2003). validity and reliability tests in a case study research: a literature review with ’hands-on‘ applications for each research phase. qualitative market research: an international journal, 6(2), 75–86. ritchie, j., & lewis, j. (2003). qualitative research practice: a guide for social science students and researchers. london: sage publications. sandberg, j., & tsoukas, h. (2011). grasping the logic of practice: theorizing through practical rationality. academy of management review, 36(2), 338–360. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.2011.59330942 smit, p.j., & de j cronjé, g.j. (2002). management principles: a contemporary edition for africa. (3rd edn.). cape town: juta & co ltd. strauss, a., & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques. newbury park: sage publications. stuart, r., & lindsay, p. (1997). beyond the frame of management competencies: towards a contextually embedded framework of managerial competence in organizations. journal of european industrial training, 21(1), 26–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090599710156410 svensson, l., ellström, p.e., & åberg, c. (2004). integrating formal and informal learning at work. the journal of workplace learning, 16(8), 479–491. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13665620410566441 tennant, m. (1997). psychology and adult learning. (2nd edn.). london: routledge. thomson, k.l., & van solms, r. (2006). towards an information security competence maturity model. computer fraud and security, 2006(5), 11–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1361-3723%2806%2970356-6 tshabalala-msimang, m.e. (2000). notice relating to smoking of tobacco products in public places, government gazette number 21610, notice number 975. sabinet online, government gazette database. [on-line]. retrieved february 15, 2007, from http://search.sabinet.co.za/webz/fetch?sessionid=01-36111-522199638&recno=2&resultset=15&format=f&next=html/t2/full.html&bad=html/t2/error/badfetch.html&&entitytoprecno=2&entitycurrecno=2 weil, s.w., & mcgill, i. (1989). making sense of experiential learning: diversity in theory and practice. milton keynes: open university press. welman, j.c., kruger, s.j., & mitchell, b. (2005). research methodology. (3rd edn.). cape town: oxford university press southern africa. wickramasinghe, v., & de zoyza, n. (2009). a comparative analysis of managerial competency needs across areas of functional specialisation. journal of management development, 28(4), 344–360. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02621710910947371 article information authors: daphna s. horowitz1 rené van eeden2 affiliations: 1peac solutions, johannesburg, south africa 2department of psychology, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: daphna horowitz email: daphna@peacsolutions.co.za postal address: 11 study rd, glenhazel, johannesburg 2192, south africa dates: received: 07 oct. 2013 accepted: 03 dec. 2014 published: 25 june 2015 how to cite this article: horowitz, d.s., & van eeden, r. (2015). exploring the learnings derived from catalytic experiences in a leadership context. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #598, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.598 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. exploring the learnings derived from catalytic experiences in a leadership context in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • purpose    • literature review       • catalytic experiences       • personal leadership       • the relationship between catalytic experiences and personal leadership • method    • sample    • procedure    • data collection technique    • data analysis strategy • findings    • the ‘doing’ of leadership    • the ‘being’ of leadership    • interpersonal relationships    • meaning and purpose • discussion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: personal leadership comprises self-awareness, authenticity, inspiration and passion. the concept of personal leadership was explored together with its relationship with leadership-related learnings derived from a catalytic experience. research purpose: the objective of the study was to explore the leadership-related learnings derived from a catalytic experience and any connection between these learnings, personal leadership and leadership in an organisational context. motivation for the study: measurement of leaders’ performance remains largely focused on the results achieved. the importance of personal leadership in the corporate environment is often ignored and even questioned. recognising that there is a relationship between personal leadership and professional leadership enables leaders to connect who they are being and what they are doing. this can enhance their leadership. research design, approach and method: the study was conducted using a qualitative approach, specifically narrative enquiry. the sample comprised seven leaders who have had catalytic experiences in their lives. in-depth interviews were conducted and thematic analysis was used to identify themes on the leadership-related learnings gained from the leaders’ catalytic experiences. main findings: elements of personal leadership and the processes involved in the development of personal leadership were identified. it was furthermore shown that challenging experiences serve as learning opportunities and that time for reflection is essential in this learning process. practical/managerial implications: leadership lessons are best learnt through experience. using challenging experiences as learning opportunities may assist leaders in their growth and development. contribution: leadership effectiveness and organisational effectiveness may be enhanced by a more holistic view of leadership that includes elements of personal leadership. introduction top ↑ leadership is complex and cannot be bound by a single definition. definitions of leadership include references to influence, inspiration and action and yet leadership is generated from within (cashman, 2008). this is referred to as personal leadership (hirzel, 2004). personal leadership comprises self-awareness, authenticity, inspiration and passion. it refers to the characteristics unique to the individual and encompasses the ‘being’ aspects of leadership. professional leadership refers to the characteristics associated with the individual's role in the organisation, thus encompassing the ‘doing’ aspects of leadership. the former resides within each leader; it is this concept that the study explores on a deeper level together with the relationship between personal leadership and leadership-related learnings derived from a catalytic or life-changing experience that alters the individual's self-concept. purpose leaders are often identified by what they do and the results they achieve. cashman (2008, p. 22) is of the opinion that ‘we tend to view leadership as an external event. we only see it as something that we do’. however, it is increasingly recognised that this external view of leadership is not enough to understand the full picture. leadership competencies, skills and actions are often researched in relation to leadership excellence and there is a lack of recognition of the significance of personal leadership as a valued aspect of leadership within organisations (badarocco, 1998; cashman, 2008; smith, 2009). the present study aimed to address this apparent lack of attention to this essential component of leadership. organisations would benefit from shifting their focus to personal leadership aspects such as personal characteristics that are crucial for leadership, personal mastery, self-awareness and personal growth (badarocco, 1998; cashman, 2008; harle, 2005). leaders could be helped to understand that there is a natural progression from personal leadership to interpersonal leadership through to professional leadership (smith, 2009; verrier & smith, 2005), which establishes the connection for leaders between who they are and what they are doing in order to enhance their leadership. the study furthermore approached the topic from a unique point of view by exploring the life experiences contributing to personal growth in a leadership context. it thus expands the research in this field. leadership and personal development are inseparable; leadership is an ‘intimate expression of who we are’ (cashman, 2008, p. 22). this encompasses the personal characteristics of leaders that drive what they do and thus drive their tangible outcomes. personal leadership refers to the qualities and characteristics of leadership that are unique to that leader. leaders who develop their personal leadership profile through a process of self-awareness and continue to evolve their profile by revisiting it regularly are more likely to be successful (ulrich & smallwood, 2007). our experiences in life shape who we are and how we behave in various situations. integrating these experiences in order to create a meaningful context that is unique to the individual underlies the development of personal leadership. cashman (2008, p. 34) supports the view that ‘personal mastery involves appreciating the rich mixture of our life experiences and how they dynamically form our unique existence’. self-awareness is often enhanced through personal experiences and challenges. the assumption underlying this study was that if people can take their life experiences and derive learning from them, then they are likely to create something more meaningful in their lives as a result of these experiences. this idea was extrapolated to include learnings related to personal leadership in an organisational context (horowitz, 2012). the personal growth experiences were specified as catalytic experiences. this assumption served as guideline in forming the research question and in designing the study. the core research question was: ‘what are the learnings gained from a catalytic experience and how do these learnings relate to leadership in an organisational context?’ the research objectives were to (1) describe the learnings from the catalytic experiences, (2) identify the relationships between the learnings, personal leadership and leadership in an organisational context and (3) distil guidelines or recommendations for leadership development in organisations. literature review catalytic experiences the literature does not refer to catalytic experiences per se but rather mentions turning points (gerus & brydges, 2006; mcadams, 2006), defining moments (badarocco, 1997), crucible moments (bennis & thomas, 2002) and life-changing events (boyatzis & mckee, 2005). the choice of the term catalytic experience for the purpose of this study was based on a desire to indicate that this is an experience that forms a catalyst in an individual's life so that the individual is personally transformed as a result of it. a shift is created in the individual's level of self-awareness and in how they define themselves on a being level going forward. catalytic experiences shape, transform or catalyse an individual to do something different, think differently or be different. mcgraw (2002) identifies some themes relating to defining moments. a defining moment is an experience or event that shapes a person's self-concept so that they are changed in some way. the experience may be positive or negative. the significance of a defining moment is determined by the person who experienced the moment, regardless of how trivial the same experience may be to someone else. these defining moments affect self-concept so that the latter is altered for an individual's remaining lifetime. once an individual experiences this, there is a shift that could be permanent and the results put the individual on an entirely different path of action, behaviour and achievement. finally, an individual may experience more than one defining moment in their life and each one is significant in terms of the learnings drawn from it. personal leadership there is a large diversity in terms of the definitions of ‘lead’ and ‘leader’ (allen, 1990). nicholls (1988) suggests that we embrace the diversity in definitions of leadership rather than continually search for the one definition that satisfies all views. a common thread in the literature is the word influence. the way leaders influence has evolved over time and there has been a shift in leadership theories from task orientation and transactional leadership to people orientation and transformational leadership (bass & avolio, 1994; cengage, 2006). servant leadership has taken the evolution a step further by focusing on being of service (stone & patterson, 2005). throughout the process of evolution, leadership qualities have also evolved from a focus on what the leader does to who the leader is. this is referred to as an inside-out approach to leadership, emphasised by personal leadership (cashman, 2008). four leadership frameworks that include the concept of personal leadership have emerged from transformational leadership theory and servant leadership theory. each has a slightly different interpretation of personal leadership, but they all include the significance of personal mastery and self-awareness in a leadership context. smith (2009) identifies three categories of leadership, namely professional leadership, interpersonal leadership and personal leadership. personal leadership relates to aspects of personal mastery and meaning and comprises four inner life dimensions, namely spiritual, physical, mental and emotional dimensions. interpersonal leadership is defined as the study of relationships and relationship building and includes the social life dimension, whilst professional leadership refers to the importance of work and includes the three outer life dimensions, namely financial, career and ecological dimensions. both interpersonal and professional leadership develop from personal leadership through personal growth and personal mastery. cashman's (2008) ‘leadership from the inside out’ looks at two aspects of leadership: inner and outer leadership. inner leadership refers to personal leadership and considers the ‘being’ of leadership together with having a sense of meaning. personal leadership is achieved through personal mastery, the latter requiring a process of growth. authenticity is regarded as the basis for personal mastery and the most important, yet challenging leadership principle. outer leadership relates to the ‘doing’ of leadership and interpersonal relationships. covey's (2004) whole person approach to leadership describes leadership in terms of two broad categories, namely character and competence. character refers to personal leadership and self-awareness whereas competence refers to performance. essential character traits are integrity (sense of commitment to oneself and others), maturity (balance between courage and consideration) and an abundance mentality (a mindset of ‘there is plenty for everybody’). these are the components of personal mastery and hence personal leadership. the final leadership framework considered was senge's (1990) servant leadership. this framework does not exclude the need to perform as a leader, but it specifically seeks to explore the ‘being’ aspects or personal leadership. senge (1990) emphasises the development of personal mastery as a lifelong learning process. the preceding theories emphasise personal mastery as a foundation for personal leadership. personal mastery is the process that allows leaders to build themselves from the inside out. this means paying conscious attention to who we are being as leaders, through self-awareness, and realising that this is as important as what we are doing as leaders (cashman, 2008). by knowing ourselves more deeply, we can begin to manage our behaviours, emotions and expressions (goleman, 2004). the relationship between catalytic experiences and personal leadership there is a body of research on leadership styles related to the personal leadership concept such as transformational leadership and servant leadership. these studies are mainly quantitative and show support for a relationship between personal characteristics (including self-efficacy and emotional intelligence) and leadership styles (pillay, viviers & mayer, 2013; ramchunder & martins, 2014). the latter in turn was related to various desired outcomes such as organisational commitment, team commitment and team effectiveness and the job satisfaction and performance of subordinates (mahembe & engelbrecht, 2013; mclaggan, bezuidenhout & botha, 2013; mokgolo, mokgolo & modiba, 2012). there is, however, a dearth of qualitative studies in this field (beaty, nkomo & kriek, 2006) and specifically studies related to the development of the characteristics associated with personal leadership. shannon and van dam (2013) discuss a leadership development programme that seems to centre on professional and interpersonal leadership concepts (as defined earlier in the present article). a personal leadership theme is, however, also included and a qualitative analysis of the effect of the programme indicated that confidence and self-efficacy were, amongst others, outcomes of the programme. the present study specifically considered the role of significant experiences in leadership development. george (2007) studied what can be termed as successful leaders and identifies the important contribution of their unique life stories to their motivation and success. bennis and thomas (2002) and mcadams (2006) also emphasise the catalytic role of experience in developing effective leadership qualities. those participants who were able to create meaning from significant experiences were able to engage with their leadership role and saw themselves as capable of shaping a future based on what they have learned. attributing meaning is often as a result of reflection on the experience. it can be suggested that in the organisational context, characterised by a continuous need for transformation, change in itself would act as a catalyst. geldenhuys and veldsman (2011, p. 1) refer to the ‘hyper turbulent context’ in which organisations function. leadership plays an important role in such an environment (eustace & martins, 2014) and de jager, cilliers and veldsman (2003) refer to the need to develop change leaders. a catalytic experience generates a process in an individual. the self-concept is re-examined and perceptions of reality up to that point are questioned. emerging from such an experience with a sense of learning, strength and growth empowers people from a life and leadership perspective (bennis & thomas, 2002). a catalytic experience generates a new level of awareness within an individual that starts a journey of self-discovery. badarocco (1998) applies this idea to leadership by creating the link between a defining moment and self-awareness. three questions result from a catalytic experience: who am i? who are we? who is the organisation? asking these questions enhances the leader's understanding of the impact of the defining moment on their level of self-awareness and therefore on their personal leadership. this leads to more effective leadership. these questions solidify a sense of self-awareness that may not have been there before the experience of the defining moment. in the hero's journey, as depicted by greenleaf (1977), the hero embarks on a journey and along the way he battles challenges and obstacles, defeats the dragon and returns home transformed. this story is used as a metaphor for the journeys of self-discovery that most people can identify themselves as having gone through at some point in their life. in figure 1 the authors propose a model to illustrate the development process as described in the literature. a catalytic experience is shown as one way in which self-awareness can be created and meaning enhanced. both self-awareness and meaning in turn contribute to personal mastery and thus to personal leadership. the latter is defined in terms of the theories as previously discussed. this model served as basis for the research methodology but at the same time the findings of the present study could provide support for this model. furthermore, the leadership theories served as interpretive framework for the findings but the authors remained open to any new themes that might emerge or novel ways in which themes might emerge. figure 1: the literature review journey. method top ↑ a qualitative approach using narrative inquiry was followed in the present study. the aim was to explore leaders’ stories of their catalytic experiences in order to understand the leadership-related learnings gained from these experiences. sample the first author has a coaching practice that specialises in leadership development in the corporate environment. business contacts and present and past clients were contacted for referrals to leaders who could serve as potential research participants. this is consistent with snowball sampling or chain-reference sampling (e.m. schurink, 1998). present coaching relationships may have affected objectivity during the interview and it was decided not to use the current client base of leaders as participants for the research, but only as an access point to other leaders that could become research participants. past clients that had completed the coaching relationship at least two years prior to the start of the study were considered as potential research participants. participation in all cases remained voluntary. once leaders were identified as potential research participants, they were contacted directly via email to explain the nature of the research and to determine whether the leaders had in fact had a catalytic experience that they felt comfortable speaking about. leaders further had to hold a senior position in a corporate environment. this choice was based on the level of complexity that leadership in these positions requires. this is in line with purposive sampling ‘which is subjective since the researcher relies on his or her experience and judgment’ (guarte & barrios, 2006, p. 277). the focus is on the exploration of the research question rather than representativeness in terms of a pre-specified population. this has implications for the generalisability of the results. demographic data for the seven participants are given in table 1. table 1: demographic data. procedure participants were contacted telephonically to set up an interview date. unstructured, in-depth interviews were conducted with each of the seven participants; the interviews were taped with their permission. field notes were used together with the transcribed, recorded interviews and a reflective research journal to capture the data throughout the research process. transcriptions and notes were stored in a manner that allowed access to the researchers only. when data are collected through in-depth interviews, the researcher influences what is reported and how it is reported (fontana & frey, 2005; fourie & van eeden, 2010). the confessional tale style is used (sparkes, 2002) and the findings are contextualised in terms of the research objectives and the research question (poggenpoel, 1998). the results of the thematic analysis of the participants’ reflections on the catalytic experiences were reported together with the researcher's interpretation of the leadership-related learnings derived from these experiences. in accordance with the informed, written consent given by the participants, anonymity and confidentiality were ensured in the manner in which the data were captured, stored, retrieved and thereafter utilised in the final write-up. the interviews were private, data were safely stored and no identifying information was published. data collection technique narrative enquiry reflects an interest in the biographical story as narrated by the person living it. chase (2005, p. 653) defines the actual narrative as ‘oral or written and may be elicited or heard during fieldwork, an interview or a naturally occurring conversation’. each in-depth interview began with a definition by the interviewer of a catalytic experience. the catalytic experience may be one event or more, it could be positive or negative and personal or work-related experiences could be shared. from that point, the leaders were requested to share their stories in the manner that they found most comfortable. the focus was on the description of the catalytic experience, the personal growth resulting from it and the learnings derived in a leadership context. it was left up to the participants to share their stories in any way that they wished and they could choose to tell their life story or a specific incident within it. the interviewer limited the guidance and direction given in terms of the manner in which participants told their story resulting in narratives (squire, andrews & tamboukou, 2008). the life story of participants was regarded in terms of its relevance to the goals of this research; the aim was not to understand their full biographical history (plummer, 2001). the interview ended with a check of the interview guide to ensure that the salient focus areas mentioned above were covered. the guide contained six broad questions (e.g. what have you learnt about yourself in the context of being a leader? what are the factors arising from the experience that have shaped your learning?), but these were only asked if a focus area was not already discussed by the participant. data analysis strategy the transcripts of the taped interviews were re-read numerous times to make sense of the stories, to identify patterns and relationships and to draw out emerging themes. this is recommended when narrative material is involved (w. schurink, 2009). a variation on tesch's approach, as described by poggenpoel (1998), was utilised, resulting in the identification of a number of main themes and subthemes on leadership-related learnings gained from the catalytic experiences. each narrative was read to form an idea of the nature of the catalytic experience and the learnings derived from the experience. a list of these learnings was compiled for each narrative. thereafter similar topics were clustered together across the interviews, resulting in main themes and subthemes. the data collection, recording and analysis supported the reliability of the inferences drawn from the data (e.g. recording and transcribing the interviews). the research context and process were described in detail to determine the degree of similarity with other contexts (and thus the transferability of the findings) and to enable replication of the study (denzin & lincoln, 2005; mackey & gass, 2005). the results can only be generalised to another context if this context is similar in terms of the sample (amongst other elements) as described in the present study. future replication of the study would require a process similar to that described here (also see horowitz, 2012). findings top ↑ the participants described catalytic experiences that occurred over time (e.g. working for an abusive manager) or focused on specific catalytic experiences (e.g. a move to another country or the birth of a child). the types of experiences varied and were related to work, health, political influences, financial circumstances and personal circumstances. although the majority of the experiences were described in terms such as ‘challenging’ or ‘traumatic’, there were experiences that were seen as positive. it is, however, important to note that the catalytic experiences described by the participants were highly individualised and the focus is not on the experiences per se, but on the common themes in terms of leadership learnings that could be identified. the themes and subthemes that were identified are summarised in table 2. table 2: themes and subthemes. these themes are illustrated below and in each instance reference is also made to the catalytic experience or experiences that an individual experienced. it is, however, important to note that the attribution of the leadership learnings to these events was already made by the participants themselves and the aim of the thematic analysis was the categorisation of the learnings. the ‘doing’ of leadership an important aspect of a leader's role is reflected in performance or action. this is a feature of the leader's role that is considered to be more tangible and therefore measureable. in the findings of the present study, this aspect was identified as the theme relating to the ‘doing’ of leadership. when the leaders in the study were asked to think about their catalytic experiences, they focused on what they do as leaders and how they could link their leadership actions to their catalytic experiences. one such area of focus was creating and following a vision. a second area of focus dealt with taking responsibility and a third with drive and hard work. these three focus areas formed the subthemes for the main theme: the ‘doing’ of leadership. considering the first subtheme, vision, it was referred to by some leaders as ‘big picture thinking’, ‘goals’ and ‘objectives’. most leaders believed that an important part of their leadership-related learnings comprised clarity on what their vision is, communicating this vision and bringing people along to achieve it. part of their leadership role is to direct people and guide them towards an important outcome for the business. in the words of leader 6, ‘i now carry the company's vision and say “guys, this is the vision”. i get passionate about it and in that moment, i believe it’. this leader regarded various events as significant in terms of personal growth and development as a leader. these included working overseas and being exposed to an environment where excellence is valued. interestingly, leader 4 struggled to define her work role until coaching helped her to realise that a personal vision is as important as a company vision: ‘at the same time [creating] a vision for myself’. from the leaders’ stories about the catalytic experiences it became clear that these experiences resulted in an inclination to take responsibility (the second subtheme). leader 5 spoke about having a ‘valence’ to step into a crisis and sort it out, creating order from the chaos. this leader explained that valence is a psychological term for a predisposition within one's self. it is a natural, instinctive response. leader 5 felt that his valence stemmed from the first time he took responsibility in a crisis as expressed in his retelling of a financial crisis that he regarded as a catalytic experience. this leader said: ‘my valence would be to move in whenever there is a crisis. now i get triggered unconsciously because i've got a subconscious need … that attracts that stuff in me’. responsibility as a leader includes the importance of letting go, delegating or not holding on to too much, taking responsibility for actions without blaming others, having an influence over people and making tough decisions. in the words of leader 3, ‘you can't be a good strong leader without making some tough strong decisions along the way’. every leader interviewed for the study spoke about drive, ambition, excellence and hard work as essential components of their leadership. this was the basis for the third subtheme in this category. some of the terms used to describe this sense of drive were: ambition, commitment, focusing on one thing and getting good at it, moving forward without letting the negatives derail from goals, being a perfectionist, requiring a high quality of delivery from themselves and their staff, working late hours and focusing on the things that they can change or influence more than the things that are outside of their control. ‘taking action’ and ‘moving forward’ were concepts that appeared repeatedly in the leaders’ reflections on their learnings from their catalytic experiences. leader 5 expressed the element of perfectionism as ‘everything i do is 100%’. this is closely related to the concept of leading by example and the participants believed that the best way that they could teach others to be leaders is to show leadership through their own actions and by setting an example that others would want to follow. leader 1 expressed this as ‘walking the talk’. in reaction to experiences related to the political situation in south africa, he decided to learn to lead rather than assuming the role of victim. the ‘being’ of leadership the second theme identified in the study related to the ‘being’ aspects of leadership. this theme was identified in the literature as aspects relating to personal leadership. when leaders ask themselves ‘who are we as leaders?’ aspects relating to personal leadership or ‘being’ help them to come up with answers. the subthemes identified within this theme relate to character, self-awareness and personal development. leader 1 gave much thought to how character is shaped. he told the story of a sculptor who would spend hours gazing at a rock before beginning to sculpt. when asked why he did this, the sculptor responded that he needed to spend time looking at the elephant that is already in the rock. only when he has the picture clearly in his mind, can he just chip away what is not necessary from the elephant. it has already been mentioned how leader 1 decided to use his politically related experiences in a constructive manner and in the case of leader 3 a destructive relationship with a superior taught him what to avoid in his own leadership style. essential leadership qualities were identified by the leaders, as follows: humility in terms of ability to admit mistakes. integrity relating to honesty and ‘walking the talk’. authenticity, which they reflected on as understanding who they are and being comfortable with themselves. resilience in terms of withstanding hardship, not letting the negatives derail you and persevering through these. courage to do the right things, make the sometimes tough decisions and to be a survivor. charisma, which was also referred to as energy and passion. ‘trusting your gut’. having patience and being calm. the second subtheme that emerged from the study was that of self-awareness. self-awareness is essential to answer the question ‘who am i as a leader?’ every leader spoke about self-awareness as being key to leadership-related learnings from their catalytic experiences. understanding weaknesses and being aware of areas of strength are crucial aspects of being self-aware. as a result of their catalytic experiences, participants felt that they became more aware of their own and others’ emotions. they also became more caring about how others feel and were able to express how they feel more easily than before. these traits resemble the concept of emotional intelligence which is considered a crucial leadership skill (goleman, 2004). leader 7 explained: ‘you start wanting to know more about psychology, … and get a lot of that eq involved because previously i really wasn't like that’. a successful business gave him a sense of achievement but eventually resulted in an experience of burnout. self-containment or managing their own self by maintaining boundaries and not losing their sense of identity through their work was highlighted as being critical to leadership. leader 7 stated it simply as: ‘i am who i am … i've completely redefined myself in terms of my identity so my identity is no longer work … that mirror that gets held up when you just look at yourself’. in this case the birth of a child served as the catalyst. leader 4 experienced a coaching process as enabling her to separate her personal identity from her role at work. the latter became her primary identity due to personal problems including a handicapped child and the family's financial circumstances. a common theme for the leaders was that of continuing their personal journey of self-exploration and reflection. they identified this as necessary in order to remain ‘okay’ even through some tough experiences. leader 1 described this as follows: ‘you lead through self. you've got to live it and become it’. leader 2 referred to his personal journey as ‘an understanding of where i can take myself personally to a completely new level’. despite having had a difficult childhood, there were at various stages in his life mentors who saw his potential and helped him in developing this potential. several leaders also brought up the personal reflection space and its importance in self-awareness. the third subtheme was that of self-development. self-development was seen to include all aspects of learning and growth. learning was described by some as a curiosity to learn more about how their business works, through reading, experience or observation of other leaders. the ability to see things from a different perspective followed from the catalytic experiences together with an appreciation for new experiences. as leader 6 stated, ‘as a leader you need to go out and get experience. don't be scared to do new stuff’. various events in her life (amongst others resolving issues related to her sexual identity and the deaths of people close to her) created an awareness of her need to express her own individuality in how she lives. as leader 5 put it: ‘i also believe that a good education is important. so development of skills is important irrespective of the adversity or challenges you face as is providing opportunities for people to develop themselves’. despite the financial crisis in his life, he continued his studies at university. growth in this theme is closely linked to learning. leader 2 expressed this as follows: ‘i've always looked to those other people that can teach you, so for me it's your environment as a great teacher and the people environment … and hopefully that is the culture we start creating more and more in the business’. the role mentors played in his life has already been referred to. interpersonal relationships the third theme identified in the findings was the theme of interpersonal relationships. a leader achieves results mainly through the contribution of the people who work for them. therefore, interpersonal relationships become a crucial aspect of fulfilling a leadership role. the two subthemes identified in this theme were effective communication and developing people. effective communication is characterised by openness and honesty. listening and questioning emerged from the leaders’ responses as a required leadership skill. the importance of regular feedback also emerged from the catalytic experiences. leader 4 stated that ‘the one thing i learnt out of my experience was to give feedback. so get feedback and give feedback’. she found herself in a position at work where the expectations were not clearly defined resulting in feelings of incompetence. effective communication is a prerequisite for building relationships. leaders specifically mentioned trust, being inclusive, connecting with people, being part of a team and managing conflict as aspects that enhance the quality of interpersonal relationships. all these are facilitated by effective communication. some leaders saw that in order to achieve their objectives as leaders, they needed to bring people along rather than tell them what to do. in the words of leader 1, ‘leadership is about relationships’. it is furthermore critical for leaders to embrace diversity and be open in relating to different kinds of people and ways of thinking. leader 6 emphasised this by stating that ‘you had to learn to communicate across diversity’. again, her overseas experiences are reflected in this learning. participants also identified developing people as a core component of the leadership role and this is the second subtheme in the theme of interpersonal relationships. when looking at the support element of developing people, leaders reflected on the importance of a genuinely caring approach to people, showing support for your staff when they are battling with their work and treating them well. leader 6 referred to the need to take the time to teach her staff by showing support and patience: ‘why do we have so much patience with children but none with adults?’. however, there has to be a balance between supporting and challenging others. the need to challenge people in order to encourage their growth implies that people have to be stretched in order for them to be stimulated to fulfil their potential. developing people was associated with transformation, career development and ensuring that staff is encouraged to fulfil their potential. as leader 2 said: ‘my intent is to grow and develop people primarily … i can challenge people and push them hard for their own good … but i think in the essence i can see other people experience that and that empathy is there’. upon reflecting on what helped the leaders to grow and develop in their own careers, they found that having a mentor or role model helped significantly to move them further in their careers. some actively sought out mentors to look up to and learn from and continue to do so. in the words of leader 2: ‘i think the other very important thing for me is that i've always had role models and i have always have had people that i've looked up to … and had the ability to form relationships with people who have wanted to mentor me’. leader 7 expressed a desire to mentor others so that they can benefit from a mentoring relationship the way that he had benefited, by stating his intention as follows: ‘i want to be a mentor and i want to guide this person in their personal growth’. meaning and purpose the fourth theme identified in the study was that of meaning and purpose. most of the leaders in telling their stories referred to ‘having a sense of purpose’ or ‘meaning’. all the leaders alluded to meaning and purpose either directly or indirectly. the leaders in the study either saw it as an integral part of their work as leaders or as a way of making a contribution outside of their work environment. for example, one leader described charity work that he gets involved in from a company perspective whereas another described the work that he does in drug rehabilitation which has no direct relationship to his career. the common theme for the leaders interviewed was that each leader described a sense of purpose through ‘making a difference’, having a ‘cause’, ‘self-sacrifice’ or attributing meaning to their life experiences. the coaching process helped leader 4 to realise she was responsible for improving the quality of her life: ‘when you've got a fundamental values difference, then you've actually got to say, “why are you here?”’ whereas the birth of a child forced leader 7 to not just accept the feelings of burnout he was experiencing in his work but to redefine the meaning of his life: ‘what am i on this earth for and how can i get more potential out of myself than really just for business?’ having passion for your work and enjoying your leadership role were related to a sense of meaning and purpose. leader 4 commented that ‘if i'm passionate about something i'll give it my all to make it work’. discussion top ↑ the broad aim of this study was to explore the leadership-related learnings derived from a catalytic experience and any connection between these learnings, personal leadership and leadership in an organisational context. the study contributes by showing the value of a more holistic approach that emphasises the importance of personal leadership in leadership selection and development. the findings form the basis for recommendations on interventions that will facilitate the relationship between personal experience, self-awareness and leadership. the first objective of the study was to describe the leadership learnings that emerged from the catalytic experiences. four main categories of learnings were identified, namely: the ‘doing’ of leadership, the ‘being’ of leadership, interpersonal relationships and meaning and purpose. these themes and the related subthemes can be contextualised in terms of the second objective, namely to identify the relationships between the learnings, personal leadership and leadership in an organisational context. consideration was given to the theoretical frameworks emphasising personal leadership and the development of personal mastery through self-awareness. the importance of attributing meaning to life experiences was also explored. the third objective was to distil guidelines or recommendations for leadership development in organisations. the learning process as it relates to the leadership role enabled leaders to get through their catalytic experiences and draw meaning from them. the opportunity created by this study for a time of reflection was also of value. the four themes uncovered in the findings concur with the leadership frameworks. smith (2009) identifies three categories of leadership that speak directly to the first three themes in the findings, namely professional leadership corresponding to the ‘doing’ of leadership, personal leadership corresponding to the ‘being’ of leadership and interpersonal leadership corresponding to interpersonal relationships. the fourth theme from the findings, meaning and purpose, is included in smith's description of personal leadership. cashman's (2008, p. 15) ‘leadership from the inside out’ looks at two aspects of leadership: inner and outer leadership. these align with the research findings by considering inner leadership as corresponding to the two themes of leadership the ‘being’ of leadership and meaning and purpose. outer leadership corresponds to the remaining two themes from the findings, the ‘doing’ of leadership and interpersonal relationships. similarly covey's (2004) whole person approach to leadership describes leadership in terms of two broad categories, character and competence, that relate to the themes of the ‘being’ of leadership and meaning and purpose and the themes of the ‘doing’ of leadership and interpersonal relationships respectively. the final leadership framework considered was senge's (1990) servant leadership. servant leadership includes leadership aspects relating to leadership of self and others. it does not exclude the need to be a leader in terms of the ‘doing’ of leadership but the framework specifically seeks to explore the ‘being’ aspects of leadership together with meaning and purpose and interpersonal relationships. senge's servant leadership corresponds to these three themes of the research findings, namely the ‘being’ of leadership, interpersonal relationships and meaning and purpose. the characteristics of personal mastery identified from these leadership frameworks were also identified in the present study. within the theme of the ‘being’ of leadership there are three subthemes relating to character, self-awareness and self-development. the personal mastery aspects aligned to this theme are authenticity, integrity and character, as part of the subtheme of character, self-knowledge corresponding to the subtheme of self-awareness and growth, maturity and learning corresponding to the subtheme of self-development. in the theme of interpersonal relationships, there are two subthemes: the first is developing people and the second is communication and building relationships. the corresponding personal mastery aspects are abundance and potential (corresponding to developing people) and trust (corresponding to communication and building relationships). the final personal mastery aspect of service corresponds to the theme of meaning and purpose. self-awareness was identified in the literature review as a key component contributing to personal mastery (hattingh, 2000) and it was also a prominent feature of the learnings in the present study. in all the frameworks, meaning and purpose can be considered as part of the ‘being’ of leadership. leadership learnings relating to meaning and purpose came out strongly in the findings of the study. what enabled all the leaders to pull through their challenging catalytic experiences was the fact that they had a reason to push through. this gave them a strong sense of purpose. based on frankl's (1984) work, it is the people who can centre their work on a strong sense of meaning and purpose who eventually find the will and determination to carry on despite the challenges. every leader in the study did this to a greater or lesser extent in order to get through their challenging catalytic experience. whether this sense of purpose related to survival, responsibility in providing for the family or establishing an autonomous identity, the sense of purpose was strongly grounded in their experience. every leader was able to get through and survive their experiences and then to draw learnings from them because of their ability to relate the challenging experience to a sense of meaning and purpose. the findings provide support for the proposed influence of catalytic experiences in the development of the characteristics underlying personal leadership. the combination of themes and subthemes that emerged was unique to this group of participants and their experiences, but these themes and subthemes could be contextualised in terms of the theoretical framework, thus providing support for and adding to the latter. the proposed process of reflection leading to self-awareness and attribution of meaning was recognised together with the concepts underlying the higher order constructs of personal mastery and personal leadership. in addition to the theoretical contribution, these findings can also be implemented at an organisational level to improve the link between personal experience and leadership. firstly, a holistic view of leadership that brings together the ‘doing’ and ‘being’ aspects of leadership will contribute to leadership and organisational effectiveness. both the ‘doing’ and the ‘being’ of leadership were reflected in the factors that helped participants get through the catalytic experiences and derive a sense of meaning from these experiences. the themes that were identified would be beneficial in planning any leadership development intervention within an organisation. participants mentioned: external factors such as goal setting, intrapersonal factors related to character building and self-awareness and interpersonal factors including self-development through coaching and therapy as well as the development of others. this indicates that resources for dealing with difficult situations can come from an internal and external perspective. leaders who have access to both may be helped in processing the experience more quickly and effectively. this is linked to the whole person approach to leadership (covey, 2004). secondly, opportunities for reflection could be created and sought out. the leaders who used coaching and therapy found these modalities to be helpful in drawing out the learnings and deriving meaning from their experiences. the opportunity for reflection provided by the interview process, as part of the research study, was particularly valuable for some participants. it was the first time that they became aware of the extent of the impact that the catalytic experience had had on them. before the interview, they understood that they needed to push through, move on or survive. looking back and spending time talking about it and reflecting on their past experiences helped them realise the significance of the experience and that it had a considerable influence on who they are, as leaders, today. the study was based on self-reporting by the leaders with no corroboration of their leadership-related learnings and the impact on their leadership style by other parties that may have been involved. in future research it may be valuable to include feedback reflecting the observations of others. a 360-degree feedback process will imply self-reports and observations by others. reliance on a once-off interview also limits opportunities for insights gained with time and further prompting. aspects raised by the participants could be followed up in further studies. this includes a potential relationship between values and personal leadership as well as how leadership is driven by personal valence. a quantitative research design can furthermore be considered. now that the major themes have been identified, one can embark on a large-scale study that shows how leaders view their learnings in terms of the themes identified. objectivity is this type of study can be enhanced by means of a team approach. the key learning from this study is to recognise the internal treasure chest that is inherent in each individual. it will help people become good leaders if they look deep inside themselves to understand themselves better and recognise the deep sense of purpose and meaning in their lives. it is the unique qualities and experiences that people have that contribute to their leadership journey and it is through life experiences and challenges that people develop and grow. even a small learning and shift from within can have a far-reaching impact. if leaders continue to seek meaning and learnings from these experiences, they will discover everything they need in order to be true leaders. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions d.s.h. (peac solutions) conducted the research as a part of her master's dissertation. r.v.e. (university of south africa) was the supervisor for this study. both authors contributed to the writing of the article. references top ↑ allen, r.e. (ed.). (1990). the pocket oxford dictionary of current english. (7th edn.). oxford, uk: oxford university press. badarocco, j. (1997). defining moments: when managers must choose between right and right. boston, ma: harvard business school press. badarocco, j. (1998). the discipline of building character. harvard business review, 76(2), 115–124. bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1994). improving organizational effectiveness through transformational leadership. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. beaty, d., nkomo, s., & kriek, h.s. (2006). management theory-building trends in south africa: an archival analysis. management dynamics, 15(2), 2–9. bennis, w.g., & thomas r.j. (2002). geeks and geezers: how eras, values and defining moments help shape leaders. boston, ma: harvard business school press. boyatzis, r., & mckee, a. (2005). resonant leadership: renewing yourself and connecting with others through mindfulness, hope and compassion. boston, ma: harvard business school publishing. cashman, k. (2008). leadership from the inside out. california: berret-koehler. cengage, g. (2006). leadership theories and studies. in m.m. helms (ed.), encyclopedia of management [electronic version]. available from http://www.enotes.com/leadership-theories-studies-reference/ chase, s.e. (2005). narrative inquiry: multiple lenses, approaches, voices. in n.k. denzin, & y.s. lincoln (eds.), sage handbook of qualitative research (pp. 651–679). thousand oaks, ca: sage. covey, s.r. (2004). the 8th habit. london, uk: simon & schuster. de jager, w.j., cilliers, f., & veldsman, t. (2003). leadership development from a systems psychodynamic consultancy stance. south african journal of human resource management, 1(3), 85–92. denzin, n., & lincoln, y. (2005). introduction: the discipline and practice of qualitative research. in n.k. denzin, & y.s. lincoln (eds.), sage handbook of qualitative research (pp. 1–32). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. eustace, a., & martins, n. (2014). the role of leadership in shaping organisational climate: an example from the fast moving consumer goods industry. south african journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), art. #1112, 13 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1112 fontana, a., & frey, j.h. (2005). the interview: from neutral stance to political involvement. in n.k. denzin, & y.s. lincoln (eds.), sage handbook of qualitative research (pp. 695–727). thousand oaks, ca: sage. fourie, a.s., & van eeden, r. (2010) the conceptualisation of psychological empowerment in a south african work context. south african journal of labour relations, 34(1), 7–30. frankl, v.e. (1984). man’s search for meaning revised and updated. new york, ny: washington square press. geldenhuys, c.a., & veldsman, t.h. (2011). a change navigation-based, scenario planning process within a developing world context from an afro-centric leadership perspective. south african journal of human resource management, 9(1), art. #265, 17 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.265 george, b. (2007). true north: discover your authentic leadership. california: jossey-bass. gerus, c., & brydges, r. (2006). leadership moments: turning points that changed lives and organisations. canada: arc leadership group. goleman, d. (2004). what makes a leader? harvard business review, 82(1), 92–102. greenleaf, r.k. (1977). servant leadership: a journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. (25th anniversary edn.). new jersey: paulist press. guarte, j.m., & barrios e.b. (2006). sampling theory: estimation under purposive sampling. communications in statistics: simulation and computation, 35(2), 277–284. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03610910600591610 harle, t. (2005). serenity, courage and wisdom: changing competencies for leadership. business ethics: a european review, 14(4), 348–358. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8608.2005.00416.x hattingh, l. (2000). self-awareness as a condition for personal leadership. unpublished research essay, rand afrikaans university, johannesburg, rsa. hirzel, r.c. (2004). leadership characteristics for quality performance. quality management forum, 30(1), 3–5. horowitz, d.s. (2012). learnings from a catalytic experience in the context of leadership. unpublished master's dissertation, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, rsa. mackey, a., & gass, s. (2005). second language research: methodology and design. new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates. mahembe, b., & engelbrecht, a.s. (2013). the relationship between servant leadership, affective team commitment and team effectiveness. south african journal of human resource management, 11(1), art. #495, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.495 mcadams, d. (2006). the redemptive self: stories americans live by. oxford, uk: oxford university press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195176933.001.0001 mcgraw, p. (2002). self matters: creating your life from the inside out. london, uk: pocket. mclaggan, e., bezuidenhout, a., & botha, c.t. (2013). leadership style and organisational commitment in the mining industry in mpumalanga. south african journal of human resource management, 11(1), art. #483, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.483 mokgolo, m.m., mokgolo, p., & modiba, m. (2012). transformational leadership in the south african public service after the april 2009 national elections. south african journal of human resource management, 10(1), art. #334, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i1.334 nicholls, j. (1988). leadership in organisations: meta, macro and micro. european management journal, 6(1), 16–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0263-2373(88)90005-9 pillay, m., viviers, r., & mayer, c. (2013). the relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership styles in the south african petrochemical industry. south african journal of industrial psychology, 39(1), art. #1109, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i1.1109 plummer, k. (2001). documents of life 2: an invitation to a critical humanism. london, uk: sage publications. poggenpoel, m. (1998). data analysis in qualitative research. in a.s. de vos (ed.), research at grass roots: a primer for the caring professions (pp. 334–353). pretoria, rsa: van schaik publishers. ramchunder, y., & martins, n. (2014). the role of self-efficacy, emotional intelligence and leadership style as attributes of leadership effectiveness. south african journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), art. #1100, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1100 schurink, e.m. (1998). designing qualitative research. in a.s. de vos (ed.), research at grass roots: a primer for the caring professions (pp. 252–264). pretoria, rsa: van schaik publishers. schurink, w. (2009). qualitative proposal writing training module for drtp programme for 2009. unpublished lecture notes, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, rsa. senge, p.m. (1990). the fifth discipline: the art & practice of the learning organisation. new york, ny: doubleday. shannon, e.a., & van dam, p. (2013). developing positive leadership in health and human services. south african journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), art. #1134, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1134 smith, d.p.j. (2009). the pipl perspective. johannesburg, rsa: university of johannesburg. sparkes, a. (2002). telling tales in sport and physical activity: a qualitative journey. illinois: human kinetics. squire, c., andrews, m., & tamboukou, m. (2008). introduction: what is narrative research? in m. andrews, c. squire, & m. tamboukou (eds.), doing narrative research (pp. 1–21). london, uk: sage publications. stone, a.g., & patterson, k. (2005). the history of leadership focus: servant leadership research roundtable. unpublished conference proceedings. available from http://www.regent.edu/acad/sls/publications/conference_proceedings/servant_leadership_roundtable/2005/pdf/stone_history.pdf ulrich, d., & smallwood, n. (2007). five steps to building your personal leadership brand. harvard business review, 85(7), 45–49. verrier, d., & smith, d. (2005). a personal, interpersonal and professional leadership (pipl) model of executive facilitation. south african journal of human resource management, 3(1), 51–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v3i1.53 abstract introduction method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) caren b. scheepers gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa sarah l. elstob gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa citation scheepers, c.b., & elstob, s.l. (2016). beneficiary contact moderates relationship between authentic leadership and engagement. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a758. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.758 original research beneficiary contact moderates relationship between authentic leadership and engagement caren b. scheepers, sarah l. elstob received: 01 oct. 2015; accepted: 28 apr. 2016; published: 29 july 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: beneficiary contact moderates the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement. research purpose: the objective of this study was to examine the moderating effect of the breadth, depth and frequency of employee interaction with the beneficiaries of their work on the positive impact of authentic leadership on work engagement. motivation for the study: investigating the boundary conditions of the relationship between leaders and followers is vital to enhance the positive effect of leadership. authentic leadership has not previously been examined with respect to beneficiary contact as a specific situational factor. the researchers therefore set out to ascertain whether beneficiary contact has a strengthening or weakening effect on the impact of authentic leadership on work engagement. research design, approach and method: the researchers administered the authentic leadership questionnaire (alq), the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes-9) and grant’s scale on beneficiary contact. main findings: the findings showed that beneficiary contact had a weakening effect on the positive relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement. practical/managerial implications: ideally, organisations create environments conducive to work engagement in which leadership plays an important role. this study found that one factor in the work environment, namely beneficiary contact, might have an adverse effect on the positive relationship that authentic leadership has on work engagement. leaders should therefore take organisational contextual realities into account, such as regular, intense interaction of employees with the beneficiaries of their work. this situation could create strain for individual employees, requiring additional organisational support. contribution/value-add: organisations need to recognise the impact of beneficiary contact on the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement. the researchers propose further studies on the influence of contextual variables on the relationship between leaders and followers. introduction authentic leadership has a positive impact on followers, particularly when it comes to work engagement (avolio & gardner, 2005; ilies, morgeson & nahrgang, 2005). leader-follower relationships, however, are not cultivated in a vacuum (porter & mclaughlin, 2006). investigating the conditions of the relationship is therefore vital to understanding how to enhance the effect of authentic leadership in the work environment. in this regard, cooper, scandura and schriesheim (2005) as well as gardner, cogliser, davis and dickens (2011) encourage research into the role of moderators in the relationship between authentic leadership and followers’ attitudes and performance. this is in line with contingency theories (house, 1971) which suggest that leaders need to adjust to situational factors. investigating the impact of individual situational factors in the work environment is instrumental in increasing the effectiveness of leadership practices. authentic leadership has been examined quite extensively with regard to situational leadership factors. it has not, however, been investigated with regard to beneficiary contact, or the extent to which employees are exposed to interaction with the beneficiaries or customers, of their work outputs. grant (2012) recommends research into whether beneficiary contact has a moderating role in leadership styles other than transformational leadership. in grant’s studies, the effect of transformational leadership on employees’ performance was strengthened through beneficiary contact (grant, 2012). in contrast, other studies on interaction with beneficiaries reveal that emotionally intense exchanges could lead to negative consequences, like strain and ultimately burnout (grant & parker, 2009). this study therefore focused on ascertaining if beneficiary contact has a strengthening or weakening impact. another key construct in this study was employee engagement as it increases employee performance (anitha, 2014; salanova, agut & peiró, 2005) and results in several other positive outcomes (burke & el-kot, 2010), such as profitability, customer satisfaction and loyalty (gallup, inc., 2013; harter, hayes & schmidt, 2002) and organisational citizenship behaviour (rich, lepine & crawford, 2010) and results in competitive advantage for the organisation (shuck, reio & rocco, 2011). work engagement, rather than performance, was selected for this study because of this wider scope of benefits. although increasing levels of engagement is beneficial for organisations, studies have shown worldwide engagement levels to be low (gallup, inc., 2013; towers watson, 2012). organisations need to invest in leadership development (avolio, reichard, hannah, walumbwa & chan, 2009; avolio, walumbwa & weber, 2009; george, 2003) because of the negative impact of destructive leadership (padilla, hogan & kaiser, 2007). most studies revolve around the leader-member exchange (yukl, o’donnell & taber, 2009), yet leader-follower relationships are embedded within organisational contexts (pawar & eastman, 1997) that can be conducive or detrimental to effective leadership (padilla et al., 2007). porter and mclaughlin (2006) ask whether: researchers adequately investigate the relationship between organisational context components and leadership? or, like with the weather, many are talking about it, but few are doing much about it, insofar as empirical research is concerned. (porter & mclaughlin, 2006, p. 559) avolio (2007) also promotes a change in the focus of leadership development and research, from individual leaders’ characteristics to leadership as a complex social dynamic construct. lord and hall warned as far back as 1992 against research on complex issues of leadership using simple bivariate correlations. researchers have established that organisational factors influence positive leadership specifically, leading to an inclusive, strength-based climate (gardner, avolio, luthans, may & walumbwa, 2005; gardner, cogliser, davis & dickens, 2011) or organisational structure (porter & mclaughlin, 2006) and context also influences charismatic leadership (shamir & howell, 1999). in 1991 tosi advised researchers in ‘the leadership quarterly’ to focus leadership research on the organisation as context for leadership theory and bass reiterated this in 1999 (bass, 1999). porter and mclaughlin (2006) proclaimed a resounding ’yes’ to the question of whether research was neglecting the organisation as the context for leadership. they reported that only 16% of 373 peer-reviewed articles had taken the organisational context into account. koene, vogelaar and soeters (2002, p. 194) warned that, ‘there is a lack of empirical information on the moderating effect of the organisational context on leadership effectiveness’. although walter and bruch’s (2010) research did emphasise that organisational design choices, like centralisation in decision-making, create conditions for the emergence of transformational leadership behaviour, most leadership studies that investigate moderators examine task interdependence, task competence and task complexity (day, gronn & salas, 2004). uhl-bien, marion and mckelvey (2007) emphasises that leadership is embedded in a complex interplay of numerous interacting forces and warns not to underestimate the complexity of the context in which organisations must function and adapt. against the background of these recent findings, this study opted to investigate a particular contextual dynamic, namely the moderating effect of employees’ exposure to the people affected by their work (in other words, their beneficiaries). interestingly, in a number of studies, beneficiary contact increased persistence behaviour (belle, 2012; grant, 2007). parker and axtell (2001) find beneficiary contact results in stronger commitments and, in their later studies, a greater tendency to take the customer’s perspective (axtell, parker, holman & totterdell, 2007). an alternative view, the emotional labour and burnout perspective, shows negative outcomes of beneficiary contact, such as strain, stress and burnout (grandley & diamond, 2010; grant & parker, 2009). purpose against this background the purpose of this research was to answer the research question: ‘what is the strengthening or weakening (moderating) effect of beneficiary contact on the impact of authentic leadership on work engagement?’ literature review authentic leadership authenticity involves both owning one’s personal experiences and acting in accordance with one’s true self (gardner et al., 2005; leroy, palanski & simons, 2012). interest in authentic leadership emanated from a proposition that transformational leaders are pseudo versus authentic (bass & steidlmeier, 1999). pseudo transformational leaders can be branded as immoral, whereas authentic transformational leaders ‘expand the domain of effective freedom, the horizon of conscience and the scope for altruistic intention’ (bass & steidlmeier, 1999, p. 211). authentic leaders are, however, not necessarily transformational leaders, ’the key distinction is that authentic leaders are anchored by their own deep sense of self, they know where they stand on important issues, values and beliefs’ (avolio & gardner, 2005, p. 329). in this study, four subconstructs of authentic leadership were investigated. the first was balanced processing, that refers to: listening to multiple sources and stakeholders before making a decision; second, internalised moral perspective refers to being guided by internal moral standards that are used to self-regulate one’s behaviour; third, relational transparency refers to presenting one’s authentic self through openly sharing information and feelings as appropriate for situations; and fourth, self-awareness refers to demonstrated understanding of one’s strengths, weaknesses and the way one makes sense of the world. (avolio, walumba & weber, 2009, p. 424) research has shown evidence of a positive relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement, and that investment in developing authentic leaders is therefore essential (avolio, gardner, walumbwa, luthans & may, 2004; gardner et al., 2011; hassan & ahmed, 2011; ilies et al., 2005; shamir & eilam, 2005). this research study formulated the following hypothesis to determine whether the data of this study supports the outcomes of previous studies: hypothesis 1: authentic leadership has a linear relationship with work engagement. work engagement engagement is an important focus of the research into positive psychology (schaufeli, bakker & salanova, 2006; seligman & csikszentmihalyi, 2000). four major strands of engagement research have emerged concerning personal engagement, burnout, employees with an energetic connection and employee perceptions. the first, personal engagement, relates to individuals who ‘employ and express themselves physically, cognitively and emotionally’ (kahn, 1990, p. 694). later researchers confirmed kahn’s study and that psychological meaningfulness or employees experiencing a return on investment of their work performance were an important condition for personal engagement (simpson, 2009). the original burnout to engagement scale of maslach, jackson and leiter (1996) suggests that engagement lies at the opposite end of the scale to burnout (demerouti, mostert & bakker, 2010; maslach, leiter & jackson, 2012). the third strand involves work engagement, where ‘employees have an energetic connection with their work and employee engagement’ (schaufeli et al., 2006, p. 702) and the fourth, employee engagement, involves measures of employee perceptions of work characteristics (attridge, 2009; harter et al., 2002; saks, 2006). in this study, the researchers focused on the third strand of engagement, namely work engagement. scholars such as llorens, bakker, schaufeli and salanova (2006) established work engagement, for example, as a mediator of the relationship between the job resources available to employees and their organisational commitment, whereas van den heuvel, demerouti, bakker and schaufeli (2013) and xanthopoulou bakker, demerouti and schaufeli (2012) also emphasised the role of contextual and personal job resources. other scholars paid attention to identifying the organisational antecedent conditions that result in engagement. these findings focus managerial efforts on fostering engagement in the workplace. a number of scholars investigated the influence of job resources and job demands (bakker & demerouti, 2007) but came up with conflicting findings (crawford, lepine & rich, 2010). another organisational factor was suggested by grant (2007). he identified a relationship between the level of engagement that employees experience towards their work and the extent to which they were exposed to the beneficiaries of their work. the researchers therefore included this variable in their study: hypothesis 2: beneficiary contact has a moderating effect on the impact of authentic leadership on the individual constructs of work engagement, (1) vigour, (2) dedication and (3) absorption. beneficiary contact beneficiary contact is: the degree to which jobs and tasks are relationally structured to provide employees with opportunities for exposure to and interactions with the living, breathing human beings affected by their work. (grant, 2007, p. 398) it allows employees to see their organisation’s goal being achieved when they serve the beneficiaries of their work (grant et al., 2007) and it greatly enhances their persistence, output, productivity and vigilance (belle, 2012). in job design research, the capacity of beneficiary contact to enhance employee motivation has received extensive recognition (grant et al., 2007). three empirically distinct dimensions of the contact with beneficiaries were investigated in this study, namely contact frequency, breadth and depth. contact frequency: represents how often the job provides opportunities to regularly interact with beneficiaries, second, contact breadth – the degree to which the job provides opportunities to interact with a variety of different beneficiaries, and third, contact depth is the degree to which the job provides opportunities for meaningful interactions with beneficiaries. (grant, 2008, p. 22) the researchers, therefore, formulated the following hypothesis: hypothesis 3: the individual constructs, (1) frequency, (2) breadth and (3) depth of beneficiary contact have a strengthening effect on the impact of authentic leadership on work engagement. two competing perspectives on beneficiary contact have emerged in recent literature. the first is the emotional labour and burnout (el) perspective, which holds that frequent, direct, emotionally intense interactions with clients, customers and patients are likely to cause strain, stress and burnout (bennett & barkensjo, 2005; grant & parker, 2009). a vast array of negative personal impacts is likely to involve unpleasant contact and internal conflict (grandley & diamond, 2010; grandley, kern & frone, 2007). the second, the relational job design perspective, argues that: when jobs are structured to provide employees with contact with beneficiaries, employees can empathise, identify with and take the perspective of beneficiaries and thereby develop stronger affective commitments to them. (grant & parker, 2009) the more frequent the communication, the lower the role ambiguity and the higher the perceived task significance (humphrey, nahrgang & morgeson, 2007). given these research findings and grant’s studies revealing the strengthening effect of beneficiary contact on the impact of transformational leadership on employees’ performance (grant, 2012), the researchers proposed that the relationship between authentic leadership and employee engagement would be strengthened by beneficiary contact. method research approach this study examined causal relationships between the independent variable, authentic leadership; the moderator, beneficiary contact; and the dependent variable, work engagement. original survey data was required on these constructs (saunders & lewis, 2012). the researchers chose existing questionnaires to ensure validity of the measures. measures research participants the target population and unit of analysis of the study included all full-time employees in specific business units of two financial services companies: company a and an outsourced administration company, company b. the population was composed of 127 employees from company a and 298 employees from company b. the number of respondents from company a was 93 (73% response rate) and 12 responses were incomplete. company b had 35 respondents (12% response rate) with 12 incomplete responses. only 81 of the company a responses were deemed reliable and included in the study. the majority of these respondents had been working for the company for 0–4 years (16 had tenure of 0–2 years and 21 had tenure of 2–4 years), whereas a large proportion of respondents had tenure of 10 years or more. of the 81 respondents, there were 47 females (58%) and 34 males (42%). measuring instruments the instruments all used the likert-type scale, featuring five anchors, from strongly agree to strongly disagree with the statement. authentic leadership the researchers used the ‘16-item’ authentic leadership questionnaire (copyright© 2007 authentic leadership questionnaire alq) by avolio, gardner and walumbwa (2007) distributed by mind garden inc. (walumbwa, avolio, gardner, wernsing & petersen, 2008). the researchers obtained written permission for use of the alq from the creators, mindgarden. an example of the statements is, ‘my leader says exactly what he/she means’. work engagement the researchers measured work engagement using the ‘9-item’ utrecht work engagement scale (uwes-9) (schaufeli et al., 2006) (schaufeli, salanova, gonzalez-roma & bakker, 2002). examples of statements include, ‘i am immersed in my work’ and ‘to me, my job is challenging’. beneficiary contact the researchers used grant’s three 3-item scales (grant, 2008). morgeson’s questionnaire (morgeson, 2006) was considered but as it does not measure the dimensions individually, grant’s 2008 measurement was considered more appropriate. an example from his scales is, ‘my job allows frequent communication with the people who benefit from my work’. following a pilot survey conducted for this study by five employees, as suggested by rothgeb (2008), the researchers explained the term ‘people who benefit from your work’ more clearly in the introduction to the survey. design line managers provided the names and email addresses of employees. the researchers invited them, via email, to voluntary participate in the study. data was collected via a web-based survey, accessed via a hyperlink included in the email. the first section of the survey collected biographical data and the second section consisted of a questionnaire combining the three questionnaires described above. data analysis the researchers chose moderator regression models to examine relationships between the variables. a variance inflation factor (vif) was calculated, to test for collinearity or ensure that the prediction of the outcome was independent (enders, 2008). the results confirmed that all the vifs were below 10 and that therefore there was no multicollinearity problem in terms of the explanatory variables being correlated with each other. the data was analysed by first conducting an analysis of variance test to examine the overall fit of the model for each hypothesis (lewis-beck, bryman & futing liao, 2004). the researchers used the r-square measures to test the predictive power of the regression and expressed them as percentages. results the main and subconstructs of authentic leadership had a high cronbach’s alpha of 0.94 and the subconstructs were therefore reliable, as per definition of gushta and rupp (2010). the levels of authentic leadership, work engagement and beneficiary contact were all higher for males than females of the 81 responses and the higher level of work engagement for males is in line with previous findings where males have been found to have a higher work engagement than females on the uwes-9 (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). there were varying levels of beneficiary contact across the tenure categories and there was no discernible pattern of relationships between tenure and authentic leadership, or with work engagement. these results are in line with the study by xu and thomas (2011) which found no relationship between tenure and work engagement. males showed higher authentic leadership than females, in line with the findings of other studies (monzani, hernandez bark, van dick & peiró, 2014). mean scores of authentic leadership, work engagement and beneficiary contact across different business units indicated that levels of beneficiary contact were fairly similar across all of them. the mean, standard deviation and cronbach’s alpha are offered in table 1. table 1: means, standard deviations, reliabilities (cronbach’s alpha) and pearson’s correlations for all variables. linear relationship and moderating effect of beneficiary contact the measurement of hypothesis 1, that there is a linear relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement, resulted in the r-square confirming that 27.35% of the dependent variable, work engagement, was explained by the explanatory variable, authentic leadership. the parameter estimate of the authentic leadership variable was significant and illustrates that if authentic leadership increased by 1 standard deviation, work engagement would increase by 0.49 standard deviations. as the analysis of variance test determined a significant p value (less than 0.05), the researchers concluded that the overall fit of the model was significant. the r-square value confirmed that 51.73% of the dependent variable, work engagement, was explained by authentic leadership together with the moderating effect of beneficiary contact. all the p values in this model were significant. the parameter estimate of the authentic leadership variable illustrated that if authentic leadership increased by 1 standard deviation (beneficiary contact was at the mean value, bc = 0), work engagement would increase by 0.45 standard deviations. the parameter estimate of the beneficiary contact variable illustrates that if beneficiary contact increased by 1 standard deviation, work engagement would increase by 0.48 standard deviations. in contrast to what was expected, the moderating effect of beneficiary contact had a negative β value of -0.17. as the p value of the moderator variable was significant, the researchers concluded that beneficiary contact had a moderating effect on the impact of authentic leadership on work engagement, and this moderating effect was negative. in order to assess the moderating effect of beneficiary contact at different levels in this model, table 2 illustrates the moderating effect at higher and lower levels to the mean value of 0.45. table 2: linear relationship and moderating effect. this section describes the results of the moderator effect of the conditions of beneficiary contact, as discussed under hypothesis 3. table 3 offers a summary of this hypothesis testing on the conditions of beneficiary contact. as the analyses of variance tests concluded significant p values (less than 0.05) for the frequency, breadth and depth of beneficiary contact, the researchers determined that the overall fit of the models was significant. the r-square values confirmed that 42.22%, 52.73% and 51.54% respectively of the dependent variable, work engagement, were explained by these models of the explanatory variable, authentic leadership, together with the moderating effects of frequency, breadth and depth of beneficiary contact. the researchers concluded that frequency of beneficiary contact has no moderating effect on the impact of authentic leadership on work engagement, whereas depth and breadth p values were significant. table 3: results of moderator regression analysis on beneficiary contact’s effect on individual scales of authentic leadership and work engagement. the researchers investigated the individual constructs of work engagement as discussed under hypothesis 2 and this section provides the results. table 3 summarises these results. as analyses of variance tests concluded significant p values (less than 0.05), the researchers inferred that the overall fit of the model was significant. the r-square value confirmed that 46.37% of the dependent variable, vigour of work engagement, 49.57% of dedication and 27.99% of absorption were explained by the model of the explanatory variable, authentic leadership, together with the moderating effects of beneficiary contact. beneficiary contact had no moderating effect on the impact of authentic leadership on vigour. interestingly, in the cases of dedication and absorption, the moderating effects were significant. the researchers illustrated the results of the investigation around the beneficiary contact as a moderator on the impact of authentic leadership on work engagement in figure 1. figure 1: illustration of results on individual constructs investigated in this study. discussion this study examined three hypotheses around the moderator effect of beneficiary contact on the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement. the results supported the outcomes of previous studies, where authentic leadership had a linear relationship with work engagement (gardner et al., 2005; ilies et al., 2005; shamir & eilam, 2005). the implication for management is that developing authentic leaders will improve the work engagement of their employees. the theoretical contribution of the study contributes the contingency theory notion of ‘one size does not fit all’. the researchers asked whether the relationship between authentic leadership and work engagement would be universal, or be affected by situational variables, such as a job design allowing for frequency, breadth and depth of relational exchange with the beneficiaries of work. the moderator effect was indeed determined to be statistically significant. it was confirmed that, for the sample group, beneficiary contact weakened the positive effect of authentic leadership on work engagement, as illustrated in figure 2. figure 2: graphical depiction of the moderating effect of beneficiary contact on the impact of authentic leadership on work engagement. at the authentic leadership level al0 the level of work engagement is we0. beneficiary contact has the effect of shifting the line to the left and decreasing work engagement from we0 to we1 at the same level of authentic leadership, al0. this finding is in line with kenny’s (2013) declaration that classically, moderation implies a weakening of a causal effect. the implications of this weakening effect means that leadership studies should take note of moderator effects and be careful of making claims about the universality of leaders’ impact on followers’ engagement. leadership theory building should therefore expand its focus from leader-follower exchanges to include exchanges between followers and the beneficiaries of their work. two competing perspectives on the effect of beneficiary contact were discussed earlier in this article’s literary review. the first is the emotional labour and burnout perspective that frequent and emotionally intense interactions with customers and clients are likely to cause strain, stress and burnout (bennett & barkensjo, 2005). second is the job design perspective which holds that beneficiary contact allows employees to identify with, empathise with and understand beneficiaries. the results of this study support the emotional labour perspective, where higher levels of beneficiary contact decrease the positive impact of authentic leadership on work engagement. the results revealed that affective communications, such as rude or hostile customer feedback, may have the effect of reducing motivation or performance (grandley & diamond, 2010). the sample was composed of employees working in the financial services sector, which could be classified as an emotional labour occupation as customer interactions are a critical part of the job and customers may be more likely to act in a verbally abusive manner (grandley et al., 2007). grant, fried, parker and frese (2010) emphasise that contemporary knowledge workers are exposed to challenging cognitive demands as well as an increase in emotional and interpersonal tasks in service work. the implications are that companies need to assess job roles, in terms of whether beneficiary contact results in higher or decreased levels of work engagement, and then design levels of beneficiary contact accordingly. for example, they could rotate employees between higher and lower levels, or between types of contact, such as frontline and back office roles. outline of the results the individual constructs of beneficiary contact: breadth, depth and frequency the results of the data analysis in this study endorsed two of the individual constructs, breadth and depth of beneficiary contact, as having a moderating effect on the impact of authentic leadership on work engagement. the dimension of frequency was not statistically significant. the literature suggests that those employees that interact with beneficiaries frequently have a lower role ambiguity, as well as higher perceived task significance (grandley & diamond, 2010). however, the results indicate that a higher frequency of beneficiary contact does not have a significant moderating effect. the literature does not provide evidence of the effect of breadth of beneficiary contact, whereas the results of this study indicated that if jobs are designed to have a variety of interactions with different beneficiaries, the impact of authentic leadership on work engagement will be decreased for this sample. grant characterises depth of contact to be likely in service jobs, such as those of physician or counsellor (grant, 2008) and it could be proposed that deep contact would be rare in the financial services industry. thus, if jobs are designed to have opportunities for emotionally intense interactions with beneficiaries, the impact of authentic leadership on work engagement will be decreased. leaders would need to adapt to these situations by purposefully increasing their authentic leadership, especially relational transparency and self-awareness to compensate for the difficulties that their followers are experiencing. moderating effect on the individual constructs of work engagement the study substantiated some elements of hypothesis 2, that beneficiary contact has a moderating effect on the impact of authentic leadership on the individual constructs of work engagement. beneficiary contact did not have a significant effect on vigour. this ties in with the literature, where work engagement (vigour) and burnout (exhaustion) do not form opposite sides of the same continuum and were found to represent independent dimensions (demerouti et al., 2010). for the sample group in this study, beneficiary contact decreased the impact of authentic leadership on dedication. this ties in with the literature, where work engagement (dedication) and burnout (cynicism or disengagement) were not considered to be each other’s opposite (demerouti et al., 2010), and the emotional labour and burnout focus of this dimension is confirmed. dedication is an identification dimension, where emotional experiences, such as hostile or rude feedback, could affect enthusiasm and pride. beneficiary contact also decreased the impact of authentic leadership on absorption. this could be explained by negative experiences with beneficiaries resulting in the employee losing self-confidence and enthusiasm (bennett & barkensjo, 2005), and therefore concentration. being happily engrossed in one’s work is decreased. practical implications leaders could increase work engagement in situations where clients are demanding by focusing on developing their followers’ confidence and pride, as well as reinforcing their achievements and celebrating successes. it is not always possible to design jobs with lower levels, or varying levels, of beneficiary contact, and thus the organisation will need to find alternative means to counter this negative effect. strain, stress and burnout are possible outcomes, and employees need to be trained on how to deal with difficult clients, and handle the stress of negative encounters. management needs to be mindful of the potential for lower work engagement, and should implement other measures to increase work engagement, such as providing additional job resources (bakker & demerouti, 2008), supporting employees to use their strengths (van woerkom, bakker & nishii, 2016), cultivating shared group identity (steffens, haslam, kerschreiter, schuh & van dick, 2014) and increasing general organisational support (rich, lepine & crawford, 2010). leadership development could benefit from this wider perspective, rather than focusing exclusively on increasing individual leaders’ interpersonal skills. without changing the structures within which these relationships are embedded, the return on leadership development investment might not be optimised. in line with contingency theories like the path-goal of house (1971), leaders need to adjust to situations in which their followers have intense exchanges with the beneficiaries of their work and make an extra effort to engage them under these circumstances. limitations and recommendations the researchers ultimately restricted the sample to one financial services company and therefore the findings might be limited for use as a guide for financial services companies. the research was conducted as a cross-sectional study, which does not provide the depth of analysis of a longitudinal study. the research was limited to the focus on authentic leadership, and did not provide an analysis of the impact of various leadership styles. the research did not examine the other causal factors that influence work engagement, such as job resources or personality traits of employees. the study was limited to one financial services company and future studies should include a larger number of employees, across a variety of organisations, to examine consistency of results. future research should address the role of different types of beneficiaries and investigate the moderating role that they have on work engagement. further research should manipulate and measure the other leadership constructs, such as empowering leadership and transformational leadership, in this model. further studies could investigate the moderating impact of numerous other organisational context variables, such as culture or climate, on authentic leadership. conclusion this study focused on ascertaining whether beneficiary contact had a moderating effect on the impact of authentic leadership on work engagement, and drilled down into the variables within the individual constructs with the same objective. the moderating effect of beneficiary contact was concluded to be a negative effect, although not all of the results were deemed significant. the researchers proposed that the reason for beneficiary contact having a negative moderating effect, and thus decreasing the impact of authentic leadership on work engagement, was that beneficiary contact had an emotional labour and burnout focus, where emotionally intense interactions with beneficiaries were likely to cause strain, stress and burnout (grant & parker, 2009). the following quote illustrates the negative effect that beneficiary contact possibly had on the sample group in this study: in the public world of work, it is often part of an individual’s job to accept uneven exchanges, to be treated with disrespect or anger by a client, all the while closeting into fantasy the anger one would like to respond with. (hochschild, 1983, p. 86) the study revealed how the impact of authentic leadership was contingent upon different types of beneficiary contacts. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions c.b.s. made conceptual contributions and was the research supervisor of the project. s.l.e. was responsible for performing the empirical study and c.b.s. was responsible for compiling the article. references anitha, j. (2014). determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance. international journal of productivity and performance management, 63(3), 308–323. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-01-2013-0008 attridge, m. (2009). measuring and managing employee work engagement: a review of the research and business literature. journal of workplace behavioural health, 24, 383–398. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15555240903188398 avolio, b.j. (2007). promoting more integrative strategies for leadership theory-building. american psychologist, 62, 25–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.62.1.25 avolio, b.j., & gardner, w.l. (2005). authentic leadership development: getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. the leadership quarterly, 16, 315–338. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.001 avolio, b.j., gardner, w.l., walumbwa, f., luthans, f., & may, d.r. (2004). unlocking the mask: a look at the process by which authentic leaders impact follower attitudes and behaviors. the leadership quarterly, 15, 801–823. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2004.09.003 avolio, b.j., reichard, r.j., hannah, s.t., walumbwa, f.o., & chan, a. (2009). a meta-analytical review of leadership impact research: experimental and quasi-experimental studies. the leadership quarterly, 20, 764–784. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.06.006 avolio, b.j., walumbwa, f.o., & weber, t.j. (2009). leadership: current theories, research, and future directions. the annual review of psychology, 60, 421–449. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163621 axtell, c.m., parker, s.k., holman, d., & totterdell, p. (2007). enhancing customer service: perspective taking in a call centre. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 1–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594320600989583 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2007). the job demands-resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22(3), 309–328. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2008). towards a model of work engagement. career development international, 13(3), 209–223. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430810870476 bass, b.m. (1999). two decades of research and development in transformational leadership. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 8(1), 9–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/135943299398410 bass, b.m., & steidlmeier, p. (1999). ethics, character, and authentic transformational leadership behaviour. leadership quarterly, 10(2), 181–217. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(99)00016-8 belle, n. (2012). experimental evidence on the relationship between public service motivation and job performance. public administration review, 73(1), 143–153. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2012.02621.x bennett, r., & barkensjo, a. (2005). internal marketing, negative experiences, and volunteers’ commitment to providing high-quality services in uk helping and caring charitable organization. voluntas: international journal of voluntary and nonprofit organizations, 16(3), 251–274. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11266-005-7724-0 burke, r.j., & el-kot, g. (2010). work engagement among managers and professionals in egypt. african journal of economic and managament studies, 1(1), 42–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/20400701011028158 cooper, c.d., scandura, t.a., & schriesheim, c.a. (2005). looking forward but learning from our past: potential challenges to developing authentic leadership. the leadership quarterly, 16, 475–493. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.008 crawford, e.r., lepine, j.a., & rich, b.l. (2010). linking job demands and resources to employee engagement and burnout: a theoretical extension and meta-analytic test. journal of applied psychology, 95(5), 834–848. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0019364 day, d.v., gronn, p., & salas, e. (2004). leadership capacity in teams. the leadership quarterly, 15, 857–880. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2004.09.001 demerouti, e., mostert, k., & bakker, a.b. (2010). burnout and work engagement: a thorough investigation of the independency of both constructs. journal of occupational health psychology, 15(3), 209–222. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0019408 enders, f. (2008). encyclopedia of epidemiology. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. gallup, inc. (2013). state of the american workplace: employee engagement insights for us business leaders. washington, dc: gallup, inc. gardner, w.l., avolio, b.j., luthans, f., may, d.r., & walumbwa, f. (2005). ‘can you see the real me?’ a self-based model of authentic leader and follower development. the leadership quarterly, 16, 343–372. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.003 gardner, w.l., cogliser, c.c., davis, k.m., & dickens, m.p. (2011). authentic leadership: a review of the literature and research agenda. the leadership quarterly, 22, 1120–1145. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.09.007 george, b. (2003). authentic leadership: rediscovering the secrets to creating lasting value. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. grandley, a.a., & diamond, j.a. (2010). interactions with the public: bridging job design and emotional labor perspectives. journal of organizational behavior, 31, 338–350. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.637 grandley, a.a., kern, j.h., & frone, m.r. (2007). verbal abuse from outsiders versus insiders: comparing frequency, impact on emotional exhaustion, and the role of emotional labour. journal of occupational health psychology, 12(1), 63–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.12.1.63 grant, a.m. (2007). job design and the motivation to make a prosocial difference. academy of management, 32(2), 393–417. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.2007.24351328 grant, a.m. (2008). designing jobs to do good: dimensions and psychological consequences of prosocial job characteristics. the journal of positive psychology, 3(1), 19–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439760701751012 grant, a.m. (2012). leading with meaning: beneficiary contact, prosocial impact, and the performance effects of transformational leadership. academy of management journal, 55(2), 458–476. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.0588 grant, a.m., campbell, e.m., chen, g., cottone, k., lapedis, d., & lee, k. (2007). impact and the art of motivation maintenance: the effects of contact with beneficiaries on persistence behavior. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 103, 53–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2006.05.004 grant, a.m., fried, y., parker, s. & frese, m. (2010). putting job design in context: introduction to the special issue. journal of organizational behaviour, 31, 145–157. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.679 grant, a.m., & parker, s.k. (2009). redesigning work design theories: the rise of relational and proactive perspectives. the academy of management annuals, 3(1), 317–375. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19416520903047327 gushta, m.m., & rupp, a.a. (2010). encyclopedia of research design. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. harter, j.k., hayes, t.l., & schmidt, f.l. (2002). business-unit-level relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: a meta-analysis. journal of applied psychology, 87(2), 268–279. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.2.268 hassan, a., & ahmed, f. (2011). authentic leadership, trust and work engagement. international journal of human and social sciences, 6(3), 164–170. hochschild, a.r. (1983). the managed heart: commercialization of human feeling. berkeley, ca: university of california press. house, r.j. (1971). a path goal theory of leader effectiveness. administrative science quarterly, 16, 321–338. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2391905 humphrey, s.e., nahrgang, j.d., & morgeson, f.p. (2007). integrating motivational, social, and contextual work design features: a meta-analytic summary and theoretical extension of work design literature. journal of applied psychology, 92, 1332–1356. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.5.1332 ilies, r., morgeson, f.p., & nahrgang, j.d. (2005). authentic leadership and eudaemonic well-being. the leadership quarterly, 16, 373–394. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.002 kahn, w. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 33, 692–724. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256287 kenny, d. (2013). moderator variables: introduction. retrieved november 20, 2014, from http://davidakenny.net/cm/moderation.htm#go koene, b.a., vogelaar, a.l., & soeters, j.l. (2002). leadership effects on organizational climate and financial performance: local leadership effect in chain stores. the leadership quarterly, 13, 193–215. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(02)00103-0 leroy, h., palanski, m.e., & simons, t. (2012). authentic leadership and behavioural integrity as drivers of follower commitment and performance. journal of business ethics, 107, 255–264. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1036-1 lewis-beck, m.s., bryman, a., & futing liao, t. (2004). the sage encyclopedia of social science research methods. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. llorens, s., bakker, a.b., schaufeli, w., & salanova, m. (2006). testing the robustness of job demands-resources model. international journal of stress management, 13(3), 378–391. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.13.3.378 lord, r., & hall, r. (1992). contemporary views of leadership and individual differences. the leadership quarterly, 3, 137–157. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/1048-9843(92)90030-j maslach, c., jackson, s.e., & leiter, m. (1996). maslach burnout inventory: manual. (3rd edn.). palo alto, ca: consulting psychological press. maslach, c., leiter, m.p., & jackson, s.e. (2012). making a significant difference with burnout interventions: researcher and practitioner collaboration. journal of organizational behaviour, 33, 296–300. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.784 monzani, l., hernandez-bark, a., van dick, r., & peiró, j.m. (2014). the synergistic effect of prototypicality and authenticity in the relation between leaders’ biological gender and their organizational identification. journal of business ethics, 132, 737–752. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2335-0 morgeson, f.h., & humphrey, s.e. (2006). the work design questionanaire (wdq): developing and validating a comprehensice measure for asessing job design and the nature of work. journal of applied psychology, 91(6), 1321–1339. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.6.1321 padilla, a., hogan, r., & kaiser, r.b. (2007). the toxic triangle: destructive leaders, susceptible followers, and conducive environments. the leadership quarterly, 18, 176–194. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2007.03.001 parker, s., & axtell, c. (2001). seeing another viewpoint: antecedents and outcomes of employee perspective taking. academy of management journal, 44(6), 1085–1100. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3069390 pawar, b.s., & eastman, k.k. (1997). the nature and implications of contextual influences on transformational leadership: a conceptual examination. academy of management review, 22(1), 80–109. porter, l.w., & mclaughlin, g.b. (2006). leadership and the organisational contex: like the weather? the leadership quarterly, 17, 559–576. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2006.10.002 rich, b.l., lepine, j.a., & crawford, e.r. (2010). job engagement: antecedents and effects of job performance. academy of management journal, 53(3), 617–635. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.51468988 rothgeb, j.r. (2008). encyclopedia of survey research methods. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. saks, a. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169 salanova, m., agut, s., & peiró, j.m. (2005). linking organizational resources and work engagement to employee performance and customer loyalty: the mediation of service climate. journal of applied psychology, 96(6), 1217–1227. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.90.6.1217 saunders, m., & lewis, p. (2012). doing research in business and management: an essential guide to planning your project. essex: pearson education limited. schaufeli, w., & bakker, a. (2004). uwes: utrecht work engagement scale prelimenary manual, 1.1. utrecht: occupational health psychology unit utrecht university. schaufeli, w., bakker, a., & salanova, m. (2006). the measurement of work engagement with a short questionnare. education and psychological measurement, 66(4), 701–716. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013164405282471 schaufeli, w., salanova, m., gonzalez-roma, v., & bakker, a. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a confirmatory analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3, 71–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 seligman, m., & csikzentmihalyi, m. (2000). positive psychology: an introduction. american psychologist, 55, 5–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.5 shamir, b., & eilam, g. (2005). ‘what’s your story?’ a life-stories approach to authentic leadership development. the leadership quarterly, 16, 395–417. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.005 shamir, b., & howell, j.m. (1999). organizational and contextual influences on the emergence and effectiveness of charasmatic leadership. leadership quarterly, 10(2), 257–283. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(99)00014-4 shuck, b., reio, t., & rocco, b. (2011). employee engagement: an examination of antecedent and outcome variables. human resource development international, 14(4), 427–445. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2011.601587 simpson, m.r. (2009). engagement at work: a review of the literature. international journal of nursing studies, 46, 1012–1024. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2008.05.003 steffens, n.k., haslam, a., kerschreiter, r., schuh, s.c., & van dick, r. (2014). leaders enhance group members’ work engagement and reduce their burnout by crafting social identity. german journal of research in human resource management, 28(1–2), 173–194. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/239700221402800110 tosi, h.l. (1991). the organization as a context for leadership theory: a multilevel approach. the leadership quarterly, 2, 205–228. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/1048-9843(91)90011-p towers watson. (2012). 2012 global workforce study. london: towers watson. uhl-bien, m., marion, r., & mckelvey, b. (2007). complexity leadership theory: shifting leadership from the industrial age to the knowledge era. the leadership quarterly, (18), 298–318. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2007.04.002 van den heuvel, m., demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., & schaufeli, w.b. (2013). adapting to change: the value of change information and meaning-making. journal of vocational behavior, 83, 11–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.02.004 van woerkom, m., bakker, a.b., & nishii, l.h. (2016). accumulative job demands and support for strengths use: fine-tuning the job demands-resources model using conservation of resources theory. journal of applied psychology, 101(1), 141–150. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/apl0000033 walter, f., & bruch, h. (2010). structural impacts on the occurrence and effectiveness of transformational leadership: an empirical study at the organizational level of analysis, the leadership quarterly, 21, 765–782. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.07.006 walumbwa, f.o., avolio, b.j., gardner, w.l., wernsing, t.s., & petersen, s.j. (2008). authentic leadership: development and validation of a theory-based measure? journal of management, 34(89), 89–126. http://doi.org/10.1177/0149206307308913 xanthopoulou, d., bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2012). a diary study on the happy worker: how job resources relate to positive emotions and personal resources. european journal of work & organizational psychology, 21(4), 489–517. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2011.584386 xu, j., & thomas, h.c. (2011). how can leaders achieve high employee engagement? leadership and organization development journal, 32(4), 399–416. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437731111134661 yukl, g. (1999). an evaluation of conceptual weakness in transformational and charismatic leadership theories. the leadership quarterly, 10, 285–305. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(99)00013-2 yukl, g., o’donnell, m., & taber, t. (2009). leader behaviors and leader member exchange. journal of managerial psychology, 24(4), 289–299. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940910952697 article information authors: chris w. callaghan1 elmarie papageorgiou2 affiliations: 1school of economic and business sciences, university of the witwatersrand, south africa2school of accountancy, university of the witwatersrand, south africa correspondence to: chris callaghan postal address: private bag x3, university of the witwatersrand 2050, south africa< dates: received: 17 dec. 2013 accepted: 24 may 2014 published: 06 nov. 2014 how to cite this article: callaghan, c.w., & papageorgiou, e. (2014). the use of human resources literature regarding the relationship between affect and student academic performance. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12 (1) art. #617, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.617 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the use of human resources literature regarding the relationship between affect and student academic performance in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • purpose    • literature review       • the structure of affect       • affect as a substantive versus a nuisance variable       • affect and potential student performance • method    • measures    • participants    • analysis • results and discussion    • univariate findings    • bivariate and multivariate findings       • hypothesis 1: affect represents a two-factor structure       • hypothesis 2: affect is significantly associated with student performance    • bivariate results: positive affect    • bivariate results: negative affect    • limitations and recommendations    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: in human resources literature affect, or affectivity, has been identified as contributing, either negatively or positively, to different forms of performance in a range of different contexts.research purpose: the aim of the study was to empirically test theory that predicts that affect can influence performance; in this case the academic performance of students in the south african higher education context. motivation for the study: human resources job performance theory seems to offer important insights when extended into other contexts of individual performance. the specific potential influence of affect on student performance is unclear in this context. research design, approach and method: a non-probability comprehensive sample of all students registered for first-year accountancy (n = 719) was used. confirmatory factor analysis, exploratory factor analysis and bivariate tests of association were used to empirically test theory predicting relationships between affect and student academic performance. main findings: in general the findings support the predications derived from affect theory, that negative affect is negatively associated with student performance and that positive affect is positively associated with student performance. yet, the results suggest that affect might not, in this context, reflect the two-dimensional theoretical structure. in particular, negative affectivity might better be considered as a three-dimensioned construct. practical/managerial implications: these results suggest that proactive measures may need to be taken by higher education institutions to support first-year students affectively. student advisors or counsellors should be appointed, with a specific focus on providing support for student anxiety and other contextual frustrations to which individuals with higher levels of negative affect might be particularly vulnerable. contribution: these findings provide new insights into the importance of extending human resource theory into different contexts. knowledge of the specific potential constraints posed by affect to student performance is provided. introduction top ↑ over time, a dominant tension in the affect literature is reflected in the arguments of certain theorists (brief, burke, george, robinson & webster, 1988; podsakoff, mackenzie, lee & podsakoff, 2003) who have argued that negative affect poses a methodological threat in research as a ‘nuisance’ variable (through an indirect influence), and the arguments of spektor, zapf, chen and frese (2000), who argue that affect has a substantive influence and should be treated as an important causal variable in its own right (with a direct influence).from the literature, the potential influence of affect within the context of first-year accounting students is limited. it is argued in this research that negative and positive affect have a direct and substantive influence on the performance of first-year students in this context. this article seeks to contribute to the human resources literature by offering insight into these relationships. in doing so, implications for theory and practice are derived. recommendations are made for how to support and empower students and their academic performance. affect, or affectivity, represents a mood or emotional, dispositional orientation that reflects substantive, or theoretically predicted, individual differences (luo & bao, 2013). affect is comprised of two separate dimensions: negative affect (na) and positive affect (pa) (luo & bao, 2013). na is a: general dimension of subjective distress and unpleasurable engagement that subsumes a variety of aversive mood states, including anger, contempt, disgust, guilt, fear and nervousness, with low na being a state of calmness and serenity. (watson, clark & tellegen, 1988, p. 1063). pa ‘reflects the extent to which a person feels enthusiastic, active and alert’; high pa is associated with ‘a state of high energy, full concentration, and pleasurable engagement, whereas low pa is characterised by sadness and lethargy’ (watson et al., 1988, p. 1063). over time, however, what is absent from the affect literature is the nature of its potential influence, as a substantive effect, on student performance. more specifically, there seems to be no previous research on the potential influence of affect on student performance in the south african higher education context. na has been found to potentially constrain different dimensions of performance through a range of different effects, for example through its negative influence on creativity at a point in time (bledow, rosing & frese, 2013), its constraint to proactive responses to challenges (parker, johnson, collins & nguyen, 2013) and its association with higher turnover likelihood (vandenberghe, panaccio & ayed, 2011) and workplace deviance (chen, chen & liu, 2013). the influence of affect on performance, however, is not immutable. in experimental conditions, pa has also been shown to increase, and na to decrease, when tasks are more meaningful (schutte, searle, meade & dark, 2012). according to bledow et al. (2013), creativity, or the development of new and useful ideas, in students can be increased through the management of their affectivity, through the facilitation of positive affect. according to these perspectives, affect can be managed. knowledge of the specific dimensions of affect that are associated with student performance may make it easier to support and empower students in this context. high na individuals typically focus more on negative aspects of themselves and circumstances, accentuating the negative, and are more likely to experience distress (watson & clark, 1984). high pa individuals typically reflect characteristics opposite to these, but low na does not necessarily correspond with pa; these are separate constructs (watson & clark, 1984). although our understanding of the influence of affect on a range of different work performance outcomes has improved over time, questions still remain as to the role of affect in other domains of performance. one particular performance domain that seems to not have received sufficient attention to date is that of student performance. the purpose of this study is to address this gap in the literature. according to the world economic forum’s (2012) global competitiveness report, south africa currently has the fifth lowest-rated education system in the world. it is possible that appropriate research can provide insight to improve educational outcomes in this context. this research seeks to argue that support given to tertiary-level students should also take the form of affectivity support. empirical evidence is presented in this article in support of this argument and recommendations are derived from these findings. purpose the objective of this research is to test theory that relates affect to student academic performance. the research question posed in this study is: to what extent does affect potentially constrain, or enable, student academic performance? it is argued that this investigation can make a significant contribution to the literature by identifying the potential influence of certain affective states on student performance, in a context in which improved performance can ultimately result in fundamentally improved employment prospects and other positive externalities for individual students.this study therefore undertakes a confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) of the measurement model structure of affect in this context, followed by a test of the structural model of the relationships between individual affect items, together with the latent variables positive and negative affect, and student academic performance. bivariate analysis and exploratory factor analysis (efa) are also employed in order to test theory that relates affect to student performance. on the basis of the results, implications are highlighted and recommendations are made. this article is structured as follows. firstly, the theoretical framework of the study is introduced, drawing on theory that relates to the influence of affectivity in the job performance literature. then, the methodology applied in the research is discussed. after this, the results of the study are discussed and implications for theory and for practice are derived. the article concludes with a summary of the findings and recommendations for further research. literature review the structure of affect as discussed above, affect represents a mood or emotional, dispositional orientation that is theoretically comprised of two separate dimensions: negative and positive affect (watson & clark, 1984). as already defined, na ‘subsumes a variety of aversive mood states, including anger, contempt, disgust, guilt, fear and nervousness’ and low na is associated with ‘a state of calmness and serenity’ (watson et al., 1988, p. 1063). this dimension is considered substantively different from pa, which, as already discussed, is associated with ‘a state of high energy, full concentration, and pleasurable engagement, whereas low pa is characterised by sadness and lethargy’ (watson et al., 1988, p. 1063).a thorough analysis of the relationships around affect first requires this theoretical prediction (that affect is comprised of two dimensions) to be verified in this context. pa has been found to comprise different component categories. research by lowe and reckers (2012) found pa to load on two factors that accounted for 61.35% of the variance in their analysis: a factor termed ‘enthusiastic/aroused’ and another factor categorised as ‘happiness’ (comprised of the variables happy, pleased, optimistic and content) (lowe & reckers, 2012). however, other studies in different contexts support a two-factor model comprising na and pa as component categories (crawford & henry, 2004; ebesutani, okamura, higa-mcmillan & chorpita, 2011; lonigan, hooe, david & kistner, 1999). the theoretical prediction that affect presents as a two-dimensional structure (watson et al., 1988) in this context is therefore tested; hence, the testing of hypothesis 1: that affect represents a two-factor structure. affect as a substantive versus a nuisance variable as also indicated in the previous section, a dominant tension in the affect literature exists between (1) the arguments of brief et al. (1988) and podsakoff et al. (2003), who argue that negative affect poses a methodological threat to associations as a ‘nuisance’ variable (and should routinely be partialled out, particularly in stress-related research) and (2) the arguments of spektor et al. (2000), who argue that affect has a substantive influence, should be treated as an important causal variable in its own right and should not be controlled for.for brief et al. (1988), na can obscure tested relationships between other variables. examples of such obscured relationships are the zero-order relationships between job stress and job strain and between job stress and somatic complaints at work, which reduce in significance when na is controlled for using partial correlation analysis (brief et al., 1988). other research has also supported the potential role of na in measurement contamination of substantive variables (williams, gavin & williams, 1996). brief et al. (1988, p. 196) argue further that other forms of stress-related associations might also be ‘contaminated’ by na, which should therefore not be ignored as an underlying methodological nuisance factor. however, for spektor et al. (2000, p. 79), if na ‘has a substantive role, one should not partial it as this can lead to removing the effects of the very variables one wishes to study’. other research also supports a substantive role for na, rather than a confounding or nuisance role (moyle, 1995). spektor et al. (2000) argue that na can directly influence intrinsic relationships through six causal mechanisms: • the perception mechanism, which relates to the tendency of high na individuals to perceive phenomena in a negtive way. • the hyper-responsivity mechanism, which relates to the tendency of high na individuals to respond to stimuli more intensely than others do (an effect which has been found to have a causal negative influence on job satisfaction). • the selection mechanism, related to the relatively higher presence of high na individuals in jobs with lower autonomy and job scope, which might reflect their relatively poorer performance in job selection interviews found in certain laboratory studies. • the stressor creation mechanism, related to the propensity of high na people to, through their behaviour, create job stress for themselves, often through conflicts with others or through relatively lower levels of work performance. (according to the literature, neurotic or depressive behaviours also typically elicit negative reactions from others.) • the mood mechanism, in which the transitive mood component of affect (which has been found in some cases to have a larger influence than the stable component) can influence relationships between intrinsic variables in a stronger way than the trait of na itself, although job conditions themselves can also influence mood and, indeed, also influence na itself. (hence, mood should also not be treated as a nuisance variable but rather as a substantive influence.) • the causality mechanism, which relates to the potential influence of job circumstances and context upon na itself, particularly the influence of job satisfaction on na; individuals that are dissatisfied with their jobs are typically more likely to become higher in na. spektor et al. (2000) therefore stress that the role of na is typically substantive and that partialling, or controlling for the influence, of variables should not be undertaken purely on the rationale that that ‘nuisance’ variables need to be controlled for; it cannot be assumed that correlations between work variables are inflated by an na bias. other research offers examples where na is found to have a substantive influence in tested relationships rather than to be a nuisance variable (bledow et al., 2013; george & zhou, 2002; storbeck, 2013). such partialling ‘is a dangerous procedure because of the potential to remove substantive effects rather than bias’; partialling can be used, but not purely ‘for the purpose of controlling nuisance variance’, because a variable first needs to be conclusively demonstrated to be a bias variable, and only a bias variable, before it qualifies for this treatment (spektor et al., 2000, p. 90). in other words, a bias variable would need to be related to different variables and also would need to be shown to not have substantive effects before it would warrant this treatment (spektor et al., 2000). it is, however, possible for na to act as a bias variable, but it has also been shown to have substantive effects and therefore should not typically be assumed to be a nuisance variable (spektor et al., 2000). what, then, are the conditions under which affect might potentially act as a bias variable? when theoretical overlap exists between certain variables and affect, or where construct measures comprise an affective tone, the potential biasing effect of na might be more likely to exist (spektor et al., 2000). > affect and potential student performance in other literature, affect has recently been studied in relation to its potential influence on a range of different and diverse intrinsic job-related relationships, for example its influence on creativity in student populations (bledow et al., 2013), the mechanisms by which it typically decreases with age (shallcross, ford, floerke & mauss, 2013), its influence related to ethical behaviours (lowe & reckers, 2012) and other research that is considered below.a tension, however, is also present in the affect literature as to its precise influence on performance. on the one hand, negative affect has been found to be positively associated with supervisor ratings of creativity, as long as it is present together with positive affect within a supportive context (bledow et al., 2013). similarly, na in the form of mood has also been found to be positively related to creative performance when ‘perceived recognition and rewards for creative performance and clarity of feelings’ are high, perhaps because na elicits effort and counteracts the influence of complacency (george & zhou, 2002). on the other hand, most studies typically report negative or no relationships between negative affect and creativity; at any point in time it inhibits creativity (bledow et al., 2013). positive affectivity has been found to be positively and linearly related to creativity in organisations (amabile, barsade, mueller & staw, 2005). however, positive affectivity in the form of mood has also been found to be negatively related to creative performance when higher perceived recognition and rewards for creativity and clarity of feelings are present, possibly due to complacency effects (george & zhou, 2002). in certain instances, unethical behaviours have been found to potentially trigger pa (ruedy, moore, gino & schweitzer, 2013). bledow et al. (2013) argue that changes from negative affective states to positive affective states are causally related to increases in creativity. a positive characteristic of na is that it can provide a focus on challenges and on the investment of effort required to address these (bledow et al., 2013). other research, however, presents a negative perspective of the relationships between na and job performance. na has been found to moderate the effect of job designed support on task performance (parker et al., 2013). individuals higher in na have been found to react more strongly to stressors (o’brien, terry & jimmieson, 2008). na has also been found to be associated with an increased likelihood of employee aggression towards customers (wegge, van dick & von bernstorff, 2010). individuals with higher na are found to use structural support to protect themselves from resource loss, whereas those with higher positive affect are found to ‘accumulate further resources by expanding their skill utilisation and/or by engaging in proactive work behaviour’ (parker et al., 2013, p. 870). according to their findings, parker et al. (2013) argue that individuals with high na are typically more concerned with protecting themselves than with accumulating new resources in work situations. individuals in negative and positive affective states have also been found to encode memories in different ways (storbeck, 2013). affect also has psychophysiological dimensions: relief from pain has been found to reduce negative affect and stimulate positive affect (franklin, lee, hanna & prinstein, 2013). negative affectivity has also been shown to potentially increase the intensity of job stress and job strain in work contexts (brief et al., 1988). na has been found to be related to two dominant motivational systems in individuals. research indicates that na typically mediates the relationships between reward responsiveness and gambling severity (atkinson, sharp, schmitz & yaroslavsky, 2013). atkinson et al. (2013) tested reinforcement sensitivity theory, which predicts that two motivational systems drive the emotional responses of individuals: the appetitive or approach system associated with behaviour activated towards rewards (behavioural activation system [bas]) and the defensive or withdrawal system approach (behavioural inhibition system [bis]), associated with the inhibition of behaviour associated with punishment. bis is found to typically be associated with negative affect and bas is found to be inversely associated with negative affect (atkinson et al., 2013). given differences between individuals in the extent to which either of these motivational systems proposed by atkinson et al. (2013) is present in an individual, students with bas motivations might be expected to perform better because of their higher levels of proactiveness. na might be expected to constrain student performance according to this dimension. affect can also have an influence on decision-making. decision-making does not typically occur using cognition alone; affect is inextricably involved (lowe & reckers, 2012). the literature typically differentiates between two components of affect on the basis of their duration: emotions, which are typically considered to be short term, and mood, which is associated with the longer term (lowe & reckers, 2012). a further differentiation offered by the literature is that mood states lack the ‘trigger’ or ‘triggering event’ that emotions have (lowe & reckers, 2012). in work contexts, high na individuals with different job continuance commitment profiles have been found to have higher turnover likelihood (vandenberghe et al., 2011). co-incidence of high na and high social inhibition in an individual has been found to be associated with a condition, termed type d personality, which can be related to heart disease (denollet, 2005). affect has, however, also been shown to be amenable to efforts to manage it. in experimental conditions, pa has been shown to increase, and na to decrease, when tasks are more meaningful (schutte et al., 2012). similarly, increases in job satisfaction have been found to influence affect. relationships between affect (na and pa) and both job performance and turnover have been found to be moderated by the influence of job satisfaction (bouckenooghe, raja & butt, 2013). high na employees have been found to be significantly more likely to reciprocate customer incivility across contexts (walker, van jaarsveld & skarlicki, 2014). na has been found to be positively associated with workplace deviance (chen et al., 2013). however, the rules climate, or the strength of a regime of rules in an organisation, has also been found to moderate and reduce the relationship between na and workplace deviance (chen et al., 2013). pa has been found to influence behaviour, with a range of different effects. examples of these effects are seen in findings that suggest that pa can act as a moderator of transformational leadership (gilmore, hu, wei, tetrick & zaccaro, 2013), that it can influence beliefs, such as those related to procedural justice (lucas, 2009), that it can mediate citizenship behaviour (jain, malhotra & guan, 2012) and that it is strongly associated with global job satisfaction (bowling, hendricks & wagner, 2008). pa has also been found to be negatively associated with emotional dissonance (wegge et al., 2010). however, the primary motivational mechanism associated with pa that predicts a positive association between pa and student performance seems to be the bas motivational system (atkinson et al., 2013), although this mechanism primarily relates to the extent to which pa and na are related: the common portion, or shared variance between them. according to bledow et al. (2013), creativity, or the development of new and useful ideas, in students can be increased through the management of their affectivity, through the facilitation of pa. in contrast, george and zhou (2002) have argued that pa can lead to complacency and lower levels of creative performance. nevertheless, before the management of affect can be considered, knowledge is needed as to what its potential influence is. this article therefore seeks to identify the potential influence of affect on student performance. despite the different causal mechanisms that the literature suggests might account for a positive relationship between pa and student performance, the identification of a dominant causal mechanism from these findings is beyond the scope of this research. this research seeks only to specifically test this body of theory which, on the whole, predicts a positive relationship between pa and student performance and a negative relationship between na and student performance. method top ↑ the study used a cross-sectional associative research design. the research locates itself within the postpositivist paradigm (cresswell, 2003). ontologically and epistemologically, this paradigm recognises objective relationships between phenomena and an objective reality that underlies these relationships (cresswell, 2003). theory was therefore derived from the literature for empirical testing. measures the general positive and negative affect schedule (panas) scales developed by watson et al. (1988) were used. previous research findings indicate that these scales have high internal consistency and are stable over time (crawford & henry, 2004; watson et al., 1988). test-retest reliability for these scales is also high; the ‘stability coefficients of the general ratings are high enough to suggest that they may in fact be used as trait measures of affect’ (watson et al., 1988, p. 1065). this scale remains a staple of contemporary affect research (bledow et al., 2013; lowe & reckers, 2012). negative affect was therefore measured using the following ten items: upset, guilty, hostile, ashamed, distressed, afraid, irritable, nervous, jittery and scared; positive affect was measured by the following ten items: interested, excited, mentally strong, enthusiastic, alert, inspired, determined, attentive, active and proud (watson et al., 1988). participants the sampling frame of this study included all students registered for the first-year accounting programme at a large south african university. the university is a research-oriented university. a purposive comprehensive sampling process was applied. despite a few refusals and incomplete submissions, a response rate of 91% (n = 719) was achieved from the total number of students sampled (790).ethics clearance was obtained from the university’s ethics committee. the unit of analysis was the individual. anonymity and confidentiality were assured, in that results were only reported at the grouped level of analysis, not at the individual level. most of the sample was african (65%). white students made up 14% of the sample. asian students comprised 12% and students of mixed race comprised 3% of the sample. about 5% of students classified themselves as ‘other’. about 91% of the respondents reported being born in south africa. analysis the data were analysed using spss 20, and its structural equation modelling (sem) programme, amos. cfa was used to test the factoral structure of the panas scales. a structural model was then tested. post hoc tests were then applied in order to suggest a model specific to this context that offered an improved fit to the data. bivariate tests were also conducted in order to provide further insight into bivariate relationships. bootstrapping was used in order to check the confidence levels of the findings. results and discussion top ↑ in this section, the univariate findings are first reported and discussed. bivariate and multivariate results are then reported and discussed. univariate findings the univariate statistics for the affect items are reported in table 1. the mean value for student marks is 55.34%, with a standard deviation of 14.6, a skewness value of -0.574 and a kurtosis measure of 0.026. the highest responses were obtained for the determined variable, followed by the mentally strong item. the lowest responses related to ashamed, followed by the guilty item. in order to improve the normality of the distribution of the affect variables, transformation of certain of the variables was applied. the univariate statistics of these items are shown in table 1. variables with a negative skew were transposed prior to transformations. items with skewness of between 0.8 and 1.5 were transformed using square root transformations (one item was transformed in this category: upset). items with skewness of between 1.0 and 2.0 were transformed using natural log transformations (transformed variables in this category included the following: guilty, hostile, ashamed and determined). items with skewness of between 3.0 and 4.0 were earmarked for transformation using an inverse function but none was found with this level of skewness. once these transformations were performed, the levels of skewness were found to be substantially reduced. these variables were then used for the cfa process, the results of which are diagrammatically represented in figure 1. table 1: univariate statistics for the affect items. figure 1: the tested measurement model – confirmatory factor analysis model for the testing of the positive and negative affect schedule scale as a two-dimensional construct in this context. bivariate and multivariate findings hypothesis 1: affect represents a two-factor structure the panas (watson et al., 1988) model hypothesises that responses can be explained by two factors: negative affectivity and positive affectivity. the measurement model for the panas scales was therefore tested. this hypothesis was tested in order to understand if this model was a valid fit with data from this context.the model (figure 1) has 230 distinct sample moments, 61 distinct parameters to be estimated and 169 degrees of freedom (n = 719). the minimum was achieved, with a chi-squared value of 1024.757 (p < 0.0001). although the coefficient values might be difficult to read, the decision was made to show them on this diagram. as an absolute fit index, the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) value (0.084) is just over the cutoff value of 0.05 or 0.08. hair, black, babin and anderson (2010, p. 667) stress that although ‘previous research had sometimes pointed to a cutoff value of 0.05 or 0.08, more recent research points to the fact that drawing an absolute cutoff for rmsea is inadvisable’. the comparative fit index (cfi) value was 0.859, which was just short of the 0.9 value, indicating a good model fit (hair et al., 2010). the tucker-lewis value for the model (0.825) and the normed fit index value (0.837) also indicate that the model’s fit is just short of what is typically regarded as a good fit. similarly, the parsimony normed fit index of the model is 0.673, also indicating that the fit of the model might be less than adequate. further, hoelter’s statistic for the model is 141 (at 0.05) and 151 (at 0.01), further suggesting that the model might not adequately reflect the sample data (byrne, 2010). the hypothesis was therefore not taken to be supported on the basis of these tests. these results are interpreted to contest the findings of watson et al. (1988) that these scales form a two-factor structure, at least in this context. further paths between pa and na measures were suggested by the modification indices (mi) statistics, which were taken to contest the theoretical structure of affect as two-dimensional in this context. it is possible that affectivity in this context might be better represented by a second-order structure. further investigation into the factor structure of affectivity and the way in which the data matched the theory in this context was therefore undertaken. hypothesis 2: affect is significantly associated with student performance in order to test this hypothesis, different tests were applied. firstly, a structural equation model was tested, comprising both measurement and structural components, with student marks as the dependent variable measure of student performance. this multivariate test of the relationships was expected to take into account the entire model of associations. next, an efa was undertaken. bivariate tests were then performed on the relationships between each of the individual observed affect items and student performance. the results were then discussed holistically.the structural equation model, shown in figure 2, has a chi-squared value of 1105.362 (p < 0.0001; df = 188; cfi = 0.850; rmea = 0.082; expected cross-validation index [ecvi] = 1.659). model fit issues were found to be present. the bootstrapped regression weight from negative affectivity to student performance (β = -12.126; confidence interval [ci] = -19.333[l]; -5.137[u]) was significant (p < 0.004). however, the regression weight from positive affectivity to student performance was not (β = 1.346; ci = -0.409[l]; 3.0001[u]; p < 0.206). the standardised equivalent statistics (β) for these two paths were -0.111 (ci = -0.169[l]; -0.047[h]; p < 0.005) for na and 0.055 (ci = -0.016[l]; 0.125[u]; p < 0.203) for pa. the bootstrapping tests utilised 5000 iterations. figure 2: the preliminary tested model with measurement model and structural model components. post hoc tests were then conducted in order to improve the fit of the model, and also to determine which individual affect items might better, according to the data, be considered direct predictors of student performance in this context. an inspection of the mi indicated the presence of a range of relatively high values for certain regression weights and covariances between error terms. one at a time, paths were freed up. all of these adjustments met the substantive requirements for adjustment (byrne, 2010). in each case, the model fit statistics were found to improve. one path, from positive affectivity to student performance, was not significant and was deleted. the final model, shown in figure 3, shows the paths that were freed up on account of the mi values. this model (chi-squared = 402.991; df = 159; cfi = 0.96; rmsea = 0.046; ecvi = 0.762) was taken to represent an acceptable fit with the data. the model is shown without the coefficients in figure 3, for the sake of clarity. figure 3: the final model, showing the model specifically fitted to the data in this context. in the final model, four paths are significant predictors of student marks: (1) the path between negative affect (the latent variable) and student marks, with an unstandardised parameter value of -11.008 (ci = -18.854[l]; -3.510[u]; p < 0.016) and a standardised parameter of -0.099 (ci = -0.161[l]; -0.03[u]; p < 0.018), (2) the path between determined and student marks, with an unstandardised parameter of -5.756 (ci = -7.933[l]; -3.622[u]; p < 0.0001) and a standardised parameter of -0.182 (ci = -0.248[l]; -0.115[u]; p < 0.0001), (3) the path between upset and student marks, with an unstandardised parameter of -3.298 (ci = -5.743[l]; -0.795[u]; p < 0.029), and a standardised parameter of -0.083 (ci = -0.145[l]; -0.02[u]; p < 0.029) and (4) the path from active to student marks, with an unstandardised parameter of -2.154 (ci = -3.069[l]; -1.188[u]; p < 0.0001) and a standardised parameter of -0.147 (ci =-0.208[l]; -0.081[u]; p < 0.0001). it is acknowledged that these results cannot indicate causality. further, it is acknowledged that these results cannot identify which particular causal mechanisms underlie the negative associations between na and student performance. nonetheless, it is argued that these results support certain theory that predicts this negative relationship between na and performance, whether it is based on the potential constraints on student creativity posed by na (bledow et al., 2013), the potential constraints posed by na on proactive behaviour (parker et al., 2013), potential differences in cognitive processes such as memory processing associated with na (storbeck, 2013) or through causal mechanisms related to the influence of na on stress and the way individuals cope with it (brief et al., 1988). the significance of na as a negative predictor of student performance also supports the arguments of spektor et al. (2000), who argue that affect, and particularly na, has a substantive influence on performance relationships. the literature suggests that pa, through its inverse association with na (through its shared variance component), might be associated with proactive behaviour that derives from an appetitive or approach system (a bas) underpinned by motivation related to rewards (atkinson et al., 2013). to some extent it might be possible that these items, ‘determined’ and ‘active’, reflect this particular motivational system structure and its predicted positive association between pa and performance in different contexts. the negative associations between student performance and both the na and the ‘upset’ variable also support atkinson et al.’s (2013) prediction that na is typically associated with lower levels of performance in different contexts. atkinson et al. (2013) predict that na is associated with behaviours geared towards the avoidance of negative stimulus: a defensive or withdrawal system of motivation (a bis). this is but one plausible explanation for this relationship. these results might also support the predicted potential differences in decision-making styles for individuals that may be associated with different endowments of affectivity (lowe & reckers, 2012), or the potential negative influence of na on perseverance (vandenberghe et al., 2011) and on physical wellbeing (denollet, 2005). further research is recommended, in order to establish which of these, or other, causal mechanisms may underlie these findings or, indeed, the relative contribution of each of these causal mechanisms to student performance in these and similar contexts. at this point in the analysis, an efa was applied. because the structure of affect in this context did not necessarily reflect a two-dimensional factor structure, the efa was used to understand how many dimensions might underlie affect in this context. the kaiser-meyer-olkin value for the model was 0.859 (approximate chi-square = 6181.422). the bartlett sphericity test value was significant (p < 0.0001; df = 190). these measures were taken to suggest the sampling adequacy of the model was acceptable. table 2 shows the rotated component matrix of the affect variables. table 2: factor analysis rotated component matrix of the affect variables. the first component category comprises all the pa variables: interested, excited, mentally strong, enthusiastic, alert, inspired, attentive, active, proud and determined. this factor is categorised as ‘engagement’. this factor is similar to the ‘enthusiastic/aroused’ factor previously identified by lowe and reckers (2012), the dominant factor in their principle components analysis of positive affect. in their analysis, this factor, together with another termed ‘happiness’ (comprised of the variables happy, pleased, optimistic and content), contributed 61.35% of the variance. the second component category is comprised of the variables guilty, afraid, nervous, jittery and scared. this factor is categorised as ‘anxiety’. this factor is similar to the factor ‘fear’ found by lowe and reckers (2012) to be their second of two factors (in their analysis this factor comprised the negative affect items nervous, afraid, worried and scared). the third component category comprises the variables upset, distressed, irritable and jittery, with the latter variable shared with factor two. factor three is therefore termed ‘upset’.factor four comprises the variables hostile and ashamed, and is named ‘hostility’. this factor bears some resemblance with lowe and reckers’s (2012) primary factor in their analysis of na variables, termed ‘frustrated’, which comprised the items frustrated, upset, jittery, irritated, unhappy, hostile and angry. having investigated the underlying commonalities in the structure of affect in this context, a bivariate analysis of the associations of each of the individual affect items with student performance was applied. bivariate results: positive affect although pa, as a latent variable, was not found to be significantly associated with student performance according to the spearman rho bivariate tests, certain of the individual pa items were found to be. as reported above, all the subordinate pa items were found to load on one component category. this category was termed ‘engagement’. of these variables, according to the bivariate tests, the mentally strong variable (0.089; p < 0.017) and the determined variable (0.132; p < 0.0001) are each positively and significantly associated with student performance. these results provide support for the notion that engagement might be a dimension along which positive affect items may contribute to student performance. these results support findings that suggest that positive affectivity can influence performance (bouckenooghe et al., 2013). these results support the notion that pa (or that component of pa that is inversely associated with na) can be associated with a bas, or a behavioural activation system, based on rewards or positive stimuli (atkinson et al., 2013), in that this motivational system is related to proactive engagement with tasks, which might result in higher levels of performance in activities. however, as stressed above, this is but one of the dimensions along which the literature suggests a positive relationship between pa and performance. in contrast to the multivariate testing, the bivariate association for the mentally strong variable is significant rather than the bivariate association for the active variable. both of these variables, however, fall into the engagement component category identified as the primary factor (component category one) of the efa. the implication of the change in the significance of the associations of the variables is perhaps that when other relationships in the model are taken into account, the active variable is a more appropriate reflection of the relationship.in any event, these positive associations specifically support the argument of bledow et al. (2013): that positive affect can contribute positively to academic performance. bledow et al. (2013) found that positive affect is positively related to creativity, particularly in student populations. however, as previously indicated, the analysis of the causal mechanisms that underlie these associations are beyond the scope of this work. the specific relationships between creativity and student performance are beyond the scope of this research, but it is acknowledged that further research might offer more insight into this as a potential causal mechanism that might underpin these net results found here. lowe and reckers (2012) found individuals categorised into their ‘enthusiasm/arousal’ factor were less likely to potentially acquiesce to unethical behaviours. this finding is relevant because it indicates that substantive differences in behavioural intentions, of some sort, have been found to be associated with this factor grouping. aggregate pa (the average of the pa observed items) is not, however, found to be significantly associated with student performance (0.046; p < 0.214). this suggests that the relationships between positive affect and student performance might need to be related to more specific affective dimensions. further qualitative research might better be able to surface the specific causal mechanisms that underlie these findings. bivariate results: negative affect of the category two variables which loaded as the ‘anxiety’ factor, according to the spearman tests, all of the component variables were found to be negatively and significantly associated with student performance: guilty (-0.118; p < 0.001), afraid (-0.157; p < 0.0001), nervous (-0.142; p < 0.0001); jittery (-0.122; p < 0.001) and scared (-0.118; p < 0.001). this factor was found to share characteristics with lowe and reckers’s (2012) ‘fear’ factor, which in their research was found to have no relationship to potential acquiescence to unethical practices.of the category three variables (the ‘upset’ category), the upset variable (-0.133; p < 0.0001) and the distressed variable (-0.119; p < 0.001) are negatively and significantly associated with student marks. lowe and reckers’s (2012) ‘frustrated’ factor shares some commonalities with this dimension; in their research individuals in this category were found to be more likely to potentially acquiesce to unethical practices. although this previous research does indicate that differences in behaviour between these categories can exist, the causal mechanisms that underlie these differences remain unclear. at the aggregate level, na is found to be significantly and negatively associated with student performance. according to bledow et al. (2013), creativity might be inhibited by na, although it might have a role in creativity by providing a priori conditions for pa to facilitate increased creativity. it is possible that the potential positive influence of na on creative performance through its effect of increasing effort investments and reducing complacency (george & zhou, 2002) is not a dominant effect in this context. as discussed above, the relationships between creativity and student performance are beyond the scope of this study. however, it is acknowledged that this might be one dimension of the causal structure that underlies these findings. these results are consistent with other findings that indicate that different behaviours are expected of individuals according to differences in affectivity, which can impact on the performance of tasks (parker et al., 2013). if higher levels of na are associated with behaviours that are focused less on proactive approaches to challenges and more on protection, or on the reduction of potential loss (parker et al., 2013), then it is plausible that student performance might be constrained by na related to this as another potential causal mechanism. on the basis of these results, it is argued that affectivity may have an influence on student performance. if the literature has shown that, under experimental conditions, pa can be increased, and na can be decreased, when tasks are made to be more meaningful (schutte et al., 2012), then it is argued that further research should investigate the extent to which students can be affectively supported. if creativity can be managed through affective support given to students (bledow et al., 2013), then attempts should be made to support and empower students to increase their performance; support given to tertiary-level students should also take the form of emotional and affectivity support. limitations and recommendations a limitation of this research is that it offers a cross-sectional perspective of the associations of affect, at a point in time. further longitudinal research is recommended, in order to verify if these effects persist over time. the harmon test indicates no evidence of common method bias. however, a major limitation of this research is that it uses quantitative methods, which cannot ascribe causality. further research is recommended, that builds on these findings by exploring the causal mechanisms that might underlie these results.further research is recommended into the potential influence of na and pa on creativity, and the further influence of creativity on student performance in this context. such research might offer more insight into this as a causal structure suggested by bledow et al. (2013). if na and pa are mutually inhibitory (bledow et al., 2013) then this might have implications for student performance. according to bledow et al. (2013), although creativity is related to affect, studies also need to take into account the wider spectrum of affect, including anxiety, frustration and distress. qualitative research might offer causal insights that are beyond the capability of empirical work. affect regulation can be used ‘as potential leverage for increasing creativity and innovation’ (bledow et al., 2013, p. 446). further research might also offer insights into how practical measures can be used to support affect regulation. if students with higher na might be more concerned with loss aversion than proactive approaches to problem solving (parker et al., 2013) then it might be necessary to provide affective support for students. encouraging students to be part of extracurricular activities that are designed to provide a positive climate of support may be particularly important in this context for first-year students. in experimental conditions, pa has been shown to increase, and na to decrease, when tasks are more meaningful (schutte et al., 2012). the implication of this past research is that affectivity can be managed (schutte et al., 2012). lecturers at this level should perhaps attempt to increase the meaningfulness of learning activities, however this might be enabled. according to the seminal na literature, there are certain causal mechanisms that might underlie the way na may constrain performance (spektor et al., 2000). it is recommended that student advisors be appointed amongst the staff of higher educational institutions in this context, with a specific focus on supporting first-year students. based on spektor et al.’s (2000) proposed causal mechanisms, it is suggested that students be supported and encouraged to frame learning tasks in a positive way, that their levels of anxiety are reduced through engagement and support and that learning tasks are well articulated and supported so that contextual experiences do not influence levels of na themselves. conclusion this research sought to (1) investigate the factor structure of affectivity in the context of south african higher education and to (2) investigate the potential relationships between student performance and the affectivity dimension of positive and negative affectivity.on the basis of a cfa and, subsequently, an efa, it was concluded that affectivity does not necessarily reflect a two-dimensional construct, but might better be represented by a model with more than two dimensions in this context. sem analysis suggested that the latent variable na is a negative predictor of student performance, together with one subordinate na item. the latent variable pa was not found to be significantly associated with student performance but two of its subordinate items were. subordinate affectivity items that comprised component categories derived from the efa were found to be significantly associated with student performance. all the pa items loaded on the primary component category, termed ‘engagement’, and two of these items were found to be positively associated with student performance. the na items loaded onto three component categories, termed ‘anxiety’, ‘upset’ and ‘hostility’. according to bivariate testes, all of the subordinate na items that loaded on the ‘anxiety’ component category were found to be negatively associated with student performance. of the ‘upset’ category, two variables were found to be negatively associated with student performance. on the basis of these results, it was concluded that different bodies of theory that predicted a negative association between na and student performance and a positive association between pa and student performance were supported. despite a range of predicted mechanisms that might underpin these results, it is acknowledged that this study does not offer a specific test of these specific mechanisms. however, on the basis of these findings, it is argued that students may benefit from support interventions to reduce their anxiety and other dimensions of na and to encourage the meaningfulness of their experience, which might improve levels of pa in this cohort of students, particularly in their first year of studies. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions c.w.c. (university of the witwatersrand) was responsible for the conceptualisation of the article, the development of the research design and the statistical analysis. e.p. (university of the witwatersrand) was also responsible for the intellectual conceptualisation and development of the article and ran the project from its start to its completion, including the processes related to data collection and administration. on balance, each author contributed about half of the work involved in this project. references top ↑ amabile, t.m., barsade, s.g., mueller, j.s., & staw, b.m. (2005). affect and creativity at work. administrative science quarterly, 50, 367–403. http://dx.doi.org/10.2189/asqu.2005.50.3.367atkinson, j., sharp, c., schmitz, j., & yaroslavsky, i. (2013). behavioral activation and inhibition, negative affect, and gambling severity in a sample of young adult college students. journal of gambling studies, 28, 437–449. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10899-011-9273-x bledow, r., rosing, k., & frese, m. (2013). a dynamic perspective on affect and creativity. academy of management journal, 56 (2), 432–450. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.0894 bouckenooghe, d., raja, u., & butt, a.n. (2013). combined effects of positive and negative affectivity and job satisfaction on job performance and turnover intentions. journal of psychology, 147 (2), 105–123. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2012.678411 bowling, n.a., hendricks, e.a., & wagner, s.h. (2008). positive and negative affectivity and facet satisfaction: a meta-analysis. journal of business & psychology, 23, 115–125. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10869-008-9082-0 brief, a.p., burke, m.j., george, j.m., robinson, b.s., & webster, j. (1988). should negative affectivity remain an unmeasured variable in the study of job stress? journal of applied psychology, 73 (2), 193–198. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.73.2.193 byrne, b.m. (2010). structural equation modeling with amos. new york, ny: taylor and francis. chen, c., chen, m.y., & liu, y. (2013). negative affectivity and workplace deviance: the moderating role of ethical climate. international journal of human resource management, 24 (15), 2894–2910. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.753550 crawford, j.r., & henry, j.d. (2004). the positive and negative affect schedule (panas): construct validity, measurement properties, and normative data in a large clinical sample. british journal of clinical psychology, 43, 245–265. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/0144665031752934 cresswell, j.w. (2003). research design. qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. denollet, j. (2005). ds14: standard assessment of negative affectivity, social inhibition, and type d personality. psychosomatic medicine, 67, 89–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/01.psy.0000149256.81953.49 ebesutani, c., okamura, k., higa-mcmillan, c., & chorpita, b.f. (2011). a psychomeric analysis of the positive and negative affect schedule for children-parent version in a school sample. psychological assessment, 23 (2), 406–416. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0022057 franklin, j.c., lee, k.m., hanna, e.k., & prinstein, m.j. (2013). feeling worse to feel better: pain-offset relief simultaneously stimulates positive affect and reduces negative affect. psychological science, 24 (4), 521–529. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797612458805 george, j.m., & zhou, j. (2002). understanding when bad moods foster creativity and good ones don’t: the role of context and clarity of feelings. journal of applied psychology, 87 (4), 687–697. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.687 gilmore, p.l., hu, x., wei, f., tetrick, l.e., & zaccaro, s.j. (2013). positive affectivity neutralizes transformational leadership’s influence on creative performance and organisational citizenship behaviours. journal of organizational behavior, 34 (8), 1061–1075. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.1833 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2010). multivariate data analysis. a global perspective. (7th edn.). new jersey: pearson education. jain, a.k., malhotra, n.k., & guan, c. (2012). positive and negative affectivity as mediators of volunteerism and service-oriented citizenship behavior and customer loyalty. psychology and marketing, 29 (12), 1004–1017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mar.20582 lonigan, c.j., hooe, e.s., david, c.f., & kistner, j.a. (1999). positive and negative affectivity in children: confirmatory factor analysis of a two-factor model and its relation to symptoms of anxiety and depression. journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 67 (3), 374–386. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-006x.67.3.374 lowe, d.j., & reckers, p.m.j. (2012). an examination of the contribution of dispositional affect on ethical lapses. journal of business ethics, 111, 179–193. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1200-7 lucas, t. (2009). justifying outcomes versus processes: distributive and procedural justice beliefs as predictors of positive and negative affectivity. current psychology, 28, 249–265. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12144-009-9066-x luo, p., & bao, z. (2013). affectivity, emotional exhaustion, and service sabotage behaviour: the mediation role of rumination. social behavior & personality: an international journal, 41 (4), 651–661. http://dx.doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2013.41.4.651 moyle, p. (1995). the role of negative affectivity in the stress process: tests of alternative models: summary. journal of organizational behavior, 16 (6), 647–668. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.4030160705 o’brien, a., terry, d.j., & jimmieson, n.l. (2008). negative affectivity and responses to work stressors: an experimental study. anxiety, stress, & coping, 21 (1), 55–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10615800701529504 parker, s.k., johnson, a., collins, c., & nguyen, h. (2013). making the most of structural support: moderating influence of employees’ clarity and negative affect. academy of management journal, 56 (3), 867–892. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.0927 podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., lee, j.y., & podsakoff, n.p. (2003). common method biases in behavioural research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. journal of applied psychology, 88, 879–903. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879 ruedy, n.e., moore, c., gino, f., & schweitzer, m.e. (2013). the cheater’s high: the unexpected affective benefits of unethical behaviour. journal of personality and social psychology, 105( 4), 531–548. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0034231 schutte, n.s., searle, t., meade, s., & dark, n.a. (2012). the effect of meaningfulness and integrative processing in expressive writing on positive and negative affect and life satisfaction. cognition and emotion, 26 (1), 144–152. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2011.562881 shallcross, a., ford, b.q., floerke, v.a., & mauss, i.b. (2013). getting better with age: the relationship between age, acceptance, and negative affect. journal of personality and social psychology, 104 (4), 734–749. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0031180 spektor, p.e., zapf, d., chen, p.y., & frese, m. (2000). why negative affectivity should not be controlled in job stress research: don’t throw out the baby with the bath water. journal of organizational behavior, 21, 79–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(200002)21:1<79::aid-job964>3.0.co;2-g storbeck, j. (2013). negative affect promotes encoding of and memory for details at the expense of the gist: affect, encoding and false memories. cognition & emotion, 27 (5), 800–819. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2012.741060 vandenberghe, c., panaccio, a., & ayed, a.k.b. (2011). continuance commitment and turnover: examining the moderating role of negative affectivity and risk aversion. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 84, 403–424. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317910x491848 walker, d.d., van jaarsveld, d.d., & skarlicki, d.p. (2014). exploring the effects of individual customer incivility encounters on employee incivility: the moderating roles of entity (in)civility and negative affectivity. journal of applied psychology, 99 (1), 151–161. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0034350 watson, d., & clark, l.a. (1984). negative affectivity: the disposition to experience aversive emotional states. psychological bulletin, 96, 465–490. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.96.3.465 watson, d., clark, l.a., & tellegen, a. (1988). development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the panas scales. journal of personality and social psychology, 54 (6), 1063–1070. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.1063 wegge, j., van dick, r., & von bernstorff, c. (2010). emotional dissonance in call centre work. journal of managerial psychology, 25 (6), 596–619. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683941011056950 williams, l., gavin, m.b., & williams, m.l. (1996). measurement and nonmeasurement processes with negative affectivity and employee attitudes. journal of applied psychology, 81 (1), 88–101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.81.1.88 world economic forum. (2012). the global competitiveness report . retrieved january 30, 2013, from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/wef_globalcompetitivenessreport_2012-13.pdf article information author: mpho m. pheko1 affiliation: 1department of psychology, university of botswana, botswana correspondence to: mpho pheko postal address: po box 202438, bontleng, gaborone, botswana dates: received: 14 nov. 2011 accepted: 14 oct. 2013 published: 21 may 2014 how to cite this article: pheko, m.m. (2014). batswana female managers’ career experiences and perspectives on corporate mobility and success. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12(1) art. #445, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.445 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. batswana female managers’ career experiences and perspectives on corporate mobility and success in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • research purpose    • literature review       • strategies that enable females to enter into and succeed in elite positions       • challenges faced by women in organisations       • consequences of success for female managers • research design    • research approach    • research strategy    • research method       • sampling       • entrée and establishing research roles       • data collection methods       • recording of the data       • data analysis       • strategies employed to ensure data quality and reporting • findings    • theme 1: strategies that enable females to enter into and succeed in elite positions    • theme 2: challenges faced by women in organisations    • theme 3: consequences of success for female managers • discussion    • limitations of the study    • suggestions for future research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests • references abstract top ↑ orientation: corporate mobility remains elusive for female managers.research purpose: to investigate batswana female managers’ strategies for entering and succeeding in managerial positions, the challenges they face and the consequences of success. motivation for the study: there is a lack of research into the way batswana female managers obtain management positions, as well as their experiences as female managers. research approach, design and method: an interpretive approach using a case study strategy was employed. semi-structured interviews were conducted which were shaped by the objectives of the study. a sample of female employees (n = 10), representing different organisations and professions, was obtained from various organisations in botswana. main findings: findings revealed that female managers do experience a number of challenges. various factors were identified that accounted for their career advancement as well as the consequences of success. the consequences of success were identified as being both positive and negative. practical/managerial implications: the current study is important as the strategies for success that were identified can be used to assist interested women to obtain management-level positions. furthermore, the challenges identified may assist both researchers and practitioners to design interventions that help to mitigate the challenges, in turn enabling the inclusion and advancement of women in leadership or managerial positions. contributions: the current study may contribute new knowledge as past research conducted in botswana seems to have focused mainly on the impact of regulatory and legislative challenges on women’s advancement. such a focus ignores the other aspects of female managers’ experiences, which are addressed by the current study. introduction top ↑ gender equality, ‘… as measured by comparable decision-making power, equal opportunity for education and advancement, and equal participation and status in all walks of human endeavours’ (lopez-claros & zahidi, 2005, p. 2), is still a challenge for most countries, and botswana is no exception. this disparity is even more apparent in organisations, as women remain under-represented in managerial and leadership positions (haslam & ryan, 2008; international labour organization, 2004; meng & miller, 1995; shein, 2001; sümer, 2006), especially the top-most positions such as senior management and chief executive officer (ceo) positions (grant thornton, 2012, 2013). the discrepancy is not surprising because whilst the actual numbers of female managers have almost doubled worldwide (scott & brown, 2006), most women tend to get stuck in middle management positions (cheung & halpern, 2010). the continuing gender disparity may also be a result of the notion that patriarchy reproduces organisational structures that give dominance to men and traditional male values (morgan, 2006). others, such as sümer (2006), have described the current status as the most direct evidence of the differential treatment of men and women in the world of work. the extent of the unbalanced representation of men and women in certain professions and in decision-making positions varies from country to country. generally, most of the research on gender equality, gender development and gender advancement has concentrated on explaining why women are reluctant to enter certain types of career (e.g. kelan, 2007), on the challenges experienced by women in leadership and managerial positions (e.g. eagly & karau, 2002; kelan, 2008a, 2008b; lyness & thompson, 1997; sampson & moore, 2008), on the number of women leading nations (e.g. davies-netzley, 1998; uneca, au & afdb, 2008) and on wage gaps (e.g. agesa, agesa & dabalen, 2008; casale & posel, 2010; kolev & robles, 2010). two recent studies by grant thornton (2012, 2013) revealed that in 2012, 39% of senior management roles in botswana were held by women, whilst in 2013, 32% of senior management roles in botswana were held by women. whilst the 2013 statistics reveal a drop from the numbers reported in 2012, they are still encouraging as the statistics position the country as one of the top 10 countries with the most women in senior management positions. the same study also revealed that in both years, (i.e. 2012 and 2013), only 3% of the ceo positions in botswana were held by women, revealing a misalignment between the number of female senior managers and ceos. because most batswana (i.e. the people of botswana) are employed in the civil service, one shortcoming of the report is that it only presented statistics from listed and privately held business. the statistics presented by grant thornton are nonetheless encouraging especially in view of the fact that since the 1995 beijing platform for action, the government of botswana has instituted a policy environment that promotes gender equality (pheko & selemogwe, 2008). however, despite the headway made by listed and privately held business, the grant thornton findings confirm that botswana has not yet reached 50% gender parity in wage employment (uneca et al., 2008). furthermore, the drop in the number of women in senior management positions between 2012 and 2013 indicates that the country may still experience challenges in reaching the 50% gender parity in wage employment, thereby making research in this area an issue worthy of investigation. in botswana, research seems to focus mainly on the impact of socioeconomic challenges and the existing legislation on gender development and gender equality (e.g. mookodi, n.d., 2005; rathapo, 2000; uneca et al., 2008; women’s affair department, 1995, 1998) and on wage gaps (e.g. siphambe & thokweng-bakwena, 2001). however, some research findings suggest that societal norms and values might have more impact on an individual’s career than the legal framework (pheko, 2013a, 2013b). in this regard, peus and traut-mattausch (2008) reveal that if the laws designed to support working parents are not well aligned with cultural values, they may fail to help achieve the intended objectives. therefore, in order for research investigating the legislative and regulatory framework to produce the intended results, the research output on gender issues needs to be more diverse and more inclusive of all the factors that may facilitate or inhibit the career progression of women. research purpose the main purpose of the current study was to investigate both the positive and the negative experiences of female managers in botswana, thereby expanding the existing literature on career barriers faced by women locally and even globally. to the knowledge of the author, empirical research that considers what female managers in botswana think about their positions is virtually non-existent. accordingly, in an attempt to close this gap in the research, and in line with the recommendations by ragins, townsend and mattis (1998), the views of female managers and executives were sought on the following issues:• the strategies that have enabled female managers and executives to enter and succeed in middle management positions and above • the challenges female managers face • the consequences of their achievements. to the knowledge of the author, the current study is the first attempt to examine both the positive and the negative experiences of women in managerial positions in botswana. such research is important because although laws have been enacted to prevent discrimination against women, female managers still face some obstacles in reaching the highest positions in their respective organisations (dennis & kunkel, 2004; sabharwal, 2013). studying women who have been able to shatter the glass ceiling offers a unique perspective on women as ‘outsiders on the inside’ (davies-netzley, 1998). in addition, the research findings may help researchers to understand whether gender differences commonly found at the lower levels of organisations exist at the higher levels of organisations as well (lyness & thompson, 1997). the focus may also enable organisations and policymakers who seek to create an enabling environment for the inclusion, development, retention and advancement of women (pheko & selemogwe, 2008) to understand both the positive and the negative experiences of women in managerial and leadership positions. subsequently, an understanding of these may enhance the organisational policies on gender equity and gender development. for example, reid, allen, armstrong and riemenschneider (2010) indicate that, in organisations, the mere presence of mentorship programmes is not sufficient; mentors need to understand the range and complexity of the issues that female employees regard as challenges. the findings of the current study may reveal strategies that other women interested in management and leadership can implement when attempting to progress in their careers. the findings of the current study may also encourage organisations to reconsider and reorganise organisational cultures, succession plans, training and development policies and programmes, and general management or leadership development programmes to align them to the objective of facilitating female employees’ career advancement. literature review according to ragins et al. (1998), dismantling the glass ceiling requires understanding the barriers women face in their advancement and the career strategies used by women who have successfully overcome the barriers to advancement. they further maintain that dismantling the glass ceiling requires an accurate understanding of the organisational climate in which female employees find themselves and ceo understanding of the subtle and overt barriers women face in their advancement (ragins et al., 1998). the glass ceiling has generally been defined as the invisible barriers that exclude the majority of women from senior management positions by enabling women to see but not reach elite corporate positions (federal glass ceiling commission [fgcc], 1995; heilman, 2001). whilst there is vast literature examining the concept of the glass ceiling, and other concepts such as gender discrimination, gender stereotypes and mentorship, a thorough review of such literature is beyond the scope of the current study. the current study also does not seek to answer the question of why the percentage of female managers in botswana is low. the literature review is organised according to the three areas of investigation (i.e. strategies that have enabled the women to enter and succeed in middle management positions and above, the challenges that female managers face and the consequences of their achievements). strategies that enable females to enter into and succeed in elite positions according to lyness and thompson (1997, 2000), whilst much has been written about barriers to women’s career advancement, there is less information available about women who have passed through the glass ceiling to attain executive positions and the factors that have facilitated their advancement. therefore, in the current study, women were asked certain questions that were intended to provide an understanding of some of the factors that have facilitated their success. a number of researchers have used person-centred approaches (riger & galligan, 1980) to explain the absence or presence of women in elite positions. such approaches reveal that the need for power (jenkins, 1994), a self-serving achievement style (offerman & beil, 1992), warmth, friendliness, competence and directiveness (carli & eagly, 2001) are some factors that may facilitate women’s success. specifically, carli and eagly (2001) advise that for women to be influential, they must balance agentic (i.e. the capacity for human beings to make choices and to impose those choices on the world) qualities with communal qualities. further, research suggests that women who succeed in traditionally male-dominated fields such as management are perceived to have fewer stereotypical female attributes and have been placed in a sub-category characterised by attributes traditionally associated with men and less with women (heilman, block, martell & simon, 1989).owing to the fact that individuals do not always have complete control over their working lives, some researchers have also highlighted factors that are external to women as important in facilitating their advancement. for example, factors such as developing good relationships (lyness & thompson, 2000), receiving training, choosing organisations with appropriate cultures (apospori, nikandrou & panayotopoulou, 2006) and having a mentor (anderson 2005; apospori et al., 2006; burke & mckeen, 1990, 1997; lyness & thompson, 2000; mccauley, 2005) have been proven to be instrumental in women’s advancement. mentors can expose their protégées to opportunities for career advancement by providing exposure, visibility, coaching and challenging assignments (anderson, 2005). mentors can also help the protégées increase job satisfaction (mccauley, 2005) and enhance their personal growth by building their self-confidence (anderson, 2005). in addition, having a good track record of accomplishments (lyness & heilman, 2006; mainiero, 1994; ragins et al., 1998) is another factor that is likely to predict career advancement for women. lyness and heilman (2006) report that women are more likely than their male counterparts to have received higher performance ratings prior to a promotion, showing that women’s promotions could be more closely tied to job performance compared to those of men. challenges faced by women in organisations there is no shortage of research investigating why women are not equitably represented in decision-making and leadership positions (e.g. eagly & karau, 2002; haslam & ryan, 2008; snizek & neil, 1992). chovwen (2003) notes that, whilst the twentieth century experienced an increase in the number of women in management positions, such increase did not afford women the opportunity to fully utilise their potentials. this is because most female managers reported a variety of challenges facing them within their roles and when they try to access higher positions of authority in organisations (e.g. arvey, rotundo, johnson, zhang & mcgue, 2006; eagly & karau, 2002; hewlett & luce, 2005; haslam & ryan, 2008). some researchers have used the glass ceiling metaphor to explain why there is a disproportionately low presence of women in top levels of management (elacqua, beehr, hansen & webster, 2009; elliott & smith, 2004; fgcc, 1995; international labor organization, 2004). whilst the glass ceiling allows women to enter low positions of authority, it prevents women from entering the top positions of authority (elliott & smith, 2004; fgcc, 1995). some have explained this phenomenon by saying that the glass ceiling is based on attitudinal or organisational bias (ragins et al., 1998); accordingly, it can be viewed as a natural consequence of gender stereotypes (heilman, 2001).research suggests that employees who are mentored are more likely to have expectations of promotion and are also more likely to be promoted (allen, eby, poteet, lentz & lima, 2004). despite such benefits of mentorship, some have reported that the role of managers as mentors in organisations can produce differential treatment of men and women (elacqua et al., 2009) and can hinder female managers’ performances (davies-netzley, 1998). for this reason, although both men and women need mentors, women have to overcome greater barriers when acquiring a mentor than do men (apospori et al., 2006; catalyst, 2003) and, consequently, women are not able to take equal advantage of the mentor–protégée relationship (catalyst, 2003). some researchers have blamed the existence of the so-called old boys’ network, as it enables men even in the lower ranks to have friends amongst the upper echelons of organisations (elacqua et al., 2009). others have indicated that the informal manner in which most mentoring relationships are built makes them less available to women (anderson, 2005). other challenges that have been proposed include sexual discrimination (e.g. agars, 2004; lyness & thompson, 1997). according to lyness and thompson (1997), the underlying cause of sexual discrimination is likely to be gender stereotypes. these stereotypes influence people’s judgement and the way events are interpreted (agars, 2004). in the context of organisations, men are regarded as possessing the qualities that are associated with managers and leaders, whilst women are not (lyness & thompson, 1997; schein, 2007). schein, mueller, lituchy and liu (1996) describe this sex-typing as the ‘think manager–think male’ attitude. consequences of success for female managers according to heilman: [w]omen, quite simply, are not supposed to excel at jobs and tasks that are designated for males in our culture … their success may be hindered by the disapproval their competence evokes because it violates prescriptive norms. (2001, p. 667) furthermore, women’s careers have been characterised by assumptions about their commitment and capabilities (durbin & tomlinson, 2010). so what happens when women do succeed in management and leadership jobs and tasks? according to marshall (1995), women who persist in spite of opposition have experienced challenges. even after female workers have been promoted, male senior managers may still hold stereotypical perceptions about their skills and ambitions, which may negatively affect their career progression (haslam & ryan, 2008; smithson & stokoe, 2005). a study conducted in germany and the united states by peus and traut-mattausch (2008) reveals that balancing a managerial career with the demands of a family remains very difficult for women in both the usa and germany. this lack of work, life and family balance is challenging for both employers and employees because it is almost impossible for organisations to optimise employee satisfaction without considering non-work influences (ford, heinen & langkamer, 2007). the theoretical arguments discussed above and the related empirical evidence prompt the following question: do batswana female managers encounter similar experiences and challenges? in view of the lack of empirical research conducted amongst women employees in botswana, firstly to understand how they have managed to advance in their careers and secondly to understand some of the challenges that they face as a result of their career advancements, finding the answer to this question is challenging. the objective of the current study was therefore to close this apparent gap in research and to offer insights into this phenomenon. research design top ↑ research approach a qualitative approach was chosen for this study because this type of approach, by its nature, allows for the discovery of new variables and relationships, illustrates the influence of the social context on the chosen subjects (shah & corley, 2006) and yields rich information on the underlying meaning of the data (gable, 1994). various approaches exist within the qualitative research framework (atkinson, coffey & delamont, 2001) and the researcher’s worldview may also influence the way in which insight into people’s worlds is gained. the current study used interpretative phenomenological analysis (ipa: smith, jarman & osborn, 1999) to provide guidelines for data collection and data analysis (smith, 2004) and to explore the way participants make sense of their experiences (chapman & smith, 2002). this approach generally attempts to provide understanding through the meanings that people assign to a phenomenon, giving explicit recognition to the world of humanly created meanings (ngwenyama & lee, 1997). smith (2004) further explains that the ipa approach is not prescriptive as it allows the researcher to select and adapt the methods to suit the context of the project. according to fade (2004), ipa is both phenomenological (i.e. it allows the researcher to seek an insider perspective on the experiences of individuals) and interpretative. the approach also takes into account the fact that an individual’s experience is always interpretive and that the experiences of the researcher may somewhat influence the manner in which the data are interpreted (chapman & smith, 2002; fade, 2004; willig, 2001). bearing the above definition of interpretive research in mind, the current study can be classified as an interpretive field study (klein & myers, 1999). research strategy the criteria for selection for the study were that the respondent had to be a woman and had to be at least a middle manager. using schuck and liddle’s (2004) definition, middle managers were conceptualised as individuals who oversee the work of others, report to higher-level managers and implement plans consistent with higher-level managers. it can therefore be stated that the study focused on a small number of batswana women who have broken through the glass ceiling. the study offers a qualitative analysis of the women’s experiences and their perspectives on corporate mobility and success in corporate botswana. whilst arbitrary, in the context of organisations success may be viewed as the individual’s ability to use available resources to achieve both personal career goals and certain organisational goals within a specified time frame. multiple cases were used in this study and 10 employees from six organisations were interviewed. table 1 summarises the characteristics of the respondents. table 1: the characteristics of the respondents. research method all interviews were conducted face to face in the offices of the interviewees. the employees’ work settings were the conventional modern workplaces where employees worked in either open or closed workspaces. as a result of their rank (i.e. middle management and above), all the participants had been allocated a closed workspace in which they were interviewed. sampling potential interviewees were identified by means of a combination of personal contacts, referrals from interviewees’ friends and employers’ networks. this technique, commonly referred to as the purposive snowballing technique, has been used successfully by other researchers to take advantage of social networks and allowing identified respondents to provide a researcher with a list of potential contacts (thomson, 1997; vogt, 1999). the participants were between the ages of 30 and 50; seven of the interviewees had master’s degrees and three had at least a bachelor’s degree. two of the interviewees were in middle management, six were in senior management and two were in executive management. five of the interviewees were married, two were engaged, one was divorced and two were single. moreover, all of the interviewees had at least one child. the characteristics of the respondents are summarised in table 1. entrée and establishing research roles access to the organisations was gained by asking managers for permission for the researcher to interview people in their organisations. access was also gained by sending letters of invitation to participate in the study to personal contacts as well as referrals from interviewees’ friends and co-workers. thereafter, potential interviewees were sent brief descriptions of the research project and, subsequently, 10 agreed to participate. data collection methods face-to-face interviews were used in the current study. in the main, open-ended questions were asked, focusing on the respondents’ education, qualifications and training, career experiences and aspirations, as well as the female managers’ perspectives on corporate mobility and success. accordingly, the following open-ended questions were asked to understand the strategies that the female managers use to enter and succeed in elite positions: (1) what do you think helped with your career development? (2) are there any specific strategies that you have employed to aid in your advancement? secondly, to investigate the challenges faced by women in corporate botswana, the interview respondents were asked the following questions: (1) would you say that there have been any barriers to your career advancement? (2) what would you say are some of the challenges of working at a managerial or leadership level? the third purpose of the current study was to understand the consequences of success for the female managers, and this was achieved by asking the following questions: (1) what have been the consequences of your career advancement? (2) how has your life changed since your career advancement? recording of the data the interviewer recorded the responses and asked follow-up questions about the interviewees’ strategies for entering and succeeding in elite positions; the challenges faced as managers and the consequences of achievement were also inquired about. the researcher recorded the interviews by making notes and, to ensure accuracy in recording the responses, the researcher also verified with the interviewees that she had understood them correctly. data analysis data analysis involved grouping responses under one of three themes, following the ipa guidelines for data analysis (biggerstaff & thompson, 2008). the first step entailed organising and transcribing the data in ms word after each interview. thereafter all the responses were organised and compiled in a table. specifically, all the interview questions were noted in the first column and the remaining columns were headed respondent a to respondent j, with all the responses being recorded under the relevant respondent and alongside the specific question. the second step entailed reading all the data, identifying related and recurring responses and then grouping and merging all the related responses into themes. strategies employed to ensure data quality and reporting in line with the goals of other qualitative studies (field & morse, 1985; shenton, 2004) the goal for each interview was to allow the interviewee to accurately and comfortably describe her experiences. therefore, each interviewee was given informed consent, which entailed informing the participants that their individual responses will not be shared with their management or their organisation and encouraging the participants to be frank and honest. this was done to ensure that the data collection sessions involved only those who were genuinely willing to take part and prepared to offer data freely. during the interview the interviewer took notes to record the responses. after the interview, all the interview scripts were numbered and the interviewer typed up the responses using the handwritten notes to confirm that the responses were accurately reflected. findings top ↑ the main purpose of the current study was to explore the positive and negative experiences of female managers in botswana. interviews were conducted to identify key themes and patterns in the experiences of the women and the results were grouped according to the following themes: (1) strategies that enable females to enter into and succeed in decision-making positions, (2) the challenges faced by the women and (3) the consequences of success for female managers. theme 1: strategies that enable females to enter into and succeed in elite positions the first observation was that whilst none of the interview respondents in the current study mentioned attaining further education as a strategy for success, the biographical data gathered indicated that seven of the interviewees possessed master’s degrees and three had at least a bachelor’s degree. whilst it appeared that education had been a requirement for entry into management positions for these women, all of them were oblivious to that requirement. in responding to the two questions stated above about strategies that enable females to enter into and succeed in elite positions, the interviewees revealed that hard work, intelligence and ambition were the key factors accounting for their achievements. for example, the majority of the interviewees explicitly mentioned hard work as a strategy for success. the importance of aligning hard work with goals and achievement was also mentioned by many of the interviewees. for example: ‘when you are a hard worker, you understand your individual role, you understand the collective purpose and mission of your organisation, and you also understand your industry.’ (respondent f: engaged, bachelor’s degree, human resources middle manager) certain of the interviewees indicated that at the beginning of each year they deliberately designed structured career and performance plans, whilst others made sure that their organisation’s strategic plan became their guiding tool for performance throughout the year. hence, for these women it would appear that the attainment of success was about having a career vision and working towards the vision. another strategy that was mentioned by some of the interview respondents was the importance of developing and using the same career strategies as their male counterparts. the following extracts are indicative of how some of the women used this strategy: ‘i also knew that it is about attitude, i have been willing to make tea as well as play football. … the problem with some women is that they do not want to play football.’ (respondent a: single, bachelor’s degree, information technology senior manager) ‘ceos are men; at times, it feels like they just want to surround themselves with others just like them, so you need to know the boys’ way of doing things.’ (respondent b: divorced, postgraduate degree, finance/auditing senior manager) ‘i do not understand why women want to be treated like ladies in the boardroom. they need to understand that the ‘ladies first’ concept works only at the dinner table.’ (respondent c: married, postgraduate degree, human resources, executive manager). ‘women need to be able to rise to the occasion when the need requires. men are able to do this better than us.’ (respondent d: married, postgraduate degree, finance/auditing senior manager) ‘i am the only woman in a family of five … this has taught me to be tough and strong. … some people express that i am quite masculine, but it does not bother me.’ (respondent e: married, postgraduate degree, finance/auditing senior manager) several respondents also highlighted the need to convert challenges into opportunities for growth. for example, a woman who was overlooked for a promotion stated: ‘they overlooked me and promoted a much more under-qualified and incompetent man. instead of feeling sorry for myself, i earned an mba and was later hired for an even higher position by my former employer’s competitor.’ (respondent c: married, postgraduate degree, human resources executive manager) the last strategy mentioned by several women was the importance of establishing work relationships and understanding the value of the collective in achieving organisational goals. some of them mentioned that they have great concern for their co-workers and their subordinates’ welfare. for example, one respondent stated: ‘while i am intolerant of non-performance from my direct reports, i always try to engage them in decision-making as i believe that every human being has something to offer. … i also ensure that i give credit to the right individuals.’ (respondent j: married, bachelor’s degree, human resources senior manager) theme 2: challenges faced by women in organisations some of the respondents indicated that there are no challenges that are specific to women, whilst others did mention some challenges. one respondent, who maintains that there are no challenges specific to women, reflected: ‘i do not like playing a cry baby … for me, it seems that batswana women have mental limits that they set for themselves.’ (respondent c: married, postgraduate degree, human resources executive manager) when asked the question about the challenges of working at a managerial or leadership level one respondent stated: ‘yes, there are challenges, but they have nothing to do with gender; women like blaming industry-specific challenges on gender, it is exhausting.’ (respondent e: married, postgraduate degree, finance/auditing senior manager) in responding to the question about barriers to career advancement, a respondent provided the following response: ‘in my case, i have been blocked by other women, not men … maybe these women want to be the only ones at the top.’ (respondent j: married, bachelor’s degree, human resources senior manager) for those who had experienced challenges, these included difficulty in attaining work, family and life balance. others mentioned the ‘old boys’ network’ as one of the challenges they deal with. the following excerpts are examples of responses to the question: what would you say are some of the challenges of working at a managerial or leadership level? ‘as you go up the ladder, all you see is men. so for you to succeed, you have to do it their way.’ (respondent g: single, postgraduate degree, information technology middle manager) ‘at times i feel like i do not get the required support and buy-in because i do not drink with the boys.’ (respondent i: engaged, postgraduate degree, human resources executive manager) whilst the interviewees did not explicitly mention the lack of female mentors as a challenge to their progression, some of the responses given by the women indicated that this was a key challenge for female managers. for example: ‘it is easier for the men to progress because even some of my subordinates are friends with the big bosses, so they obviously know some of the things before me.’ (respondent i: engaged, postgraduate degree, human resources executive manager) another respondent, who expressed similar concerns, stated: ‘relationships with the right individuals at the top matters a lot, because for women, at times, it feels like having necessary knowledge and abilities is not enough.’ (respondent g: single, postgraduate degree, information technology middle manager) theme 3: consequences of success for female managers almost half of the interviewees expressed their views on the positive consequences of career advancement. several women reported that since their advancement they had received more respect from their peers, family and friends. one respondent noted:‘it has been mostly positive; suddenly, my opinion, views, and contributions matter.’ (respondent h: single, postgraduate degree, information technology middle manager) other interviewees indicated that they were better able to take care of their families, and put their children in better schools, whilst some mentioned that they were now able to live the type of lifestyle they had always desired. some of those who discussed the negative consequences spoke of jealousy and resentment, especially from other women. one respondent stated: ‘yes, you will get blocked by other women more than men … i think it is because other women see you becoming what they cannot be.’ (respondent j: married, bachelor’s degree, human resources senior manager) some respondents mentioned having to deal with the negative stereotypes of successful women, such as: ‘some people have negative stereotypes of successful women and they will try to treat you like you are displaying the stereotypic behaviourss.’ (respondent j, married, bachelor’s degree, human resources senior manager) there was evidence that female managers have to prove their worth even more as they advance to higher positions. such reflections are indicated in the following quotes: ‘the “prove your worth” game never stops. it is like, the more i advance, the more i have to prove my competency.’ (respondent i, engaged, postgraduate degree, human resources executive manager) ‘for a woman, it will get tougher, it feels like having necessary requirements is not enough.’ (respondent j, married, bachelor’s degree, human resources senior manager) several mentioned even more difficulties balancing work, family and life. the following extracts are indicative of the challenges inherent in striking a work family and life balance: ‘an eight-hour day is already difficult for any working mom. but when you go up the ladder, you have to put in more hours, so just imagine.’ (respondent d: married, postgraduate degree, finance/auditing senior manager) ‘my children have been the most impacted. one day i came home to a note from my son asking me to change my job.’ (respondent j: married, bachelor’s degree, human resources senior manager) ‘looking at the family and work role expectations, it is easier for a husband than a wife to work and 10–15 hours a day that an executive role requires … this is especially so for someone like me who is not an advocate for a man doing house work.’ (respondent c: married, postgraduate degree, human resources executive manager) discussion top ↑ in line with the objectives to investigate female batswana managers’ strategies for entering and succeeding in managerial positions and the challenges and consequences of success, the findings were presented. these findings provide empirical evidence that the challenges faced by female managers across the world might be more similar than different since women across the world have also reported gender stereotypes (agars, 2004), sex discrimination (agars, 2004; lyness & thompson, 1997), as well being disproportionately represented (elacqua et al., 2009) as some of the challenges they face. in addition, and similar to other studies, the overall findings show that most women interviewed valued education as many of them had earned a master’s degree. the findings further support the views that female managers seem to depend more upon formal and objective procedures for promotion (daley, 1996; lyness & thompson, 2000). similar to other studies, for example mainiero (1994) and muhr (2011), hard work, intelligence and ambition were also identified as key factors for career advancement by most of the interview respondents. hard work as a strategy for career advancement was emphasised by most respondents in the current study. in this regard, various researchers have offered diverse explanations for why women might need to work harder than their male counterparts. firstly, it is a fact that women may require maternity leave as a result of their responsibilities as child bearers and primary caregivers. therefore, when they get back to work, they may need to work harder than their male counterparts to catch up (mainiero, 1994). the challenge of keeping up with male colleagues may also be more pronounced for women with families, as research suggests that they are more likely to retreat from the labour market than single women (verbakel & de graaf, 2008). furthermore, their roles as primary caregivers and the competing demands of family and work may disadvantage women more than men particularly looking at research that suggests that for married couples, the husband’s career is still commonly regarded as being of primary and greater importance than the wife’s career (bartley, blanton & gilliard, 2005; rogers & amato, 2000). others have argued that gender socialisation and gender stereotypes have led to a situation where traditional male qualities or tendencies such as assertiveness, material success, toughness, ambition and independence (hofstede, 2001; wood & lindorff, 2001) are associated with effective leadership. owing to this association, women may need to work harder than their male counterparts to gain the same recognition and respect as leaders or to be promoted into leadership positions (mainiero, 1994; muhr, 2011). unlike in other studies, in the current study only one respondent attributed her success to factors such as organisational culture, organisational structures and specific programmes such as mentorship programmes. research has generally highlighted the benefits of mentorship programmes for career advancement for women (anderson, 2005; apospori et al., 2006; burke & mckeen, 1990, 1997; catalyst, 2003; gordon & whelan-berry, 2004; lyness & thompson, 2000; mccauley, 2005). the findings of mainiero (1994) also suggest that accurately identifying the company’s values can help female executives use their firm’s corporate culture as a survival strategy. the design of the current study did not allow the researcher to establish whether the organisational factors did or did not have an impact on women’s career development or advancement. particularly because directly investigating the impact of organisational culture, structures, programmes and policies was not within the scope of the current research. therefore, future research may be designed to specifically investigate organisational factors and their impact on batswana women’s advancement and development. the challenges identified were found to be similar to the challenges commonly reported in the literature. for example, respondents mentioned the glass ceiling, lack of access to the ‘old boys’ network’ and work-family-life imbalance as some of the challenges they face as female managers. these findings could therefore be explained by the view that patriarchy reproduces organisational structures that give dominance to men and the traditional male values (morgan, 2006), consequently leading to what cheung and halpern (2010) refer to as a ‘culture of gender’. research conducted on senior-level professionals from a variety of professions in china, hong kong and the united states by halpern and cheung (2008), as cited in cheung and halpern (2010), showed that despite socio-political differences between the three societies, the ‘culture of gender’ and its related gender role expectations exerted a stronger impact on women (cheung & halpern, 2010). cheung and halpern (2010) define the ‘culture of gender’ as the pan-cultural gender role norms that create opportunities and constraints for all women leaders. other researchers have also reported that across many parts of the world, people tend to hold dissimilar beliefs about leaders and women, whilst they hold similar beliefs about leaders and men (bosak & sczesny, 2011). this might consequently expose women leaders across different countries to similar stereotypes (cheung & halpern, 2010). furthermore, it has been suggested that these socialised gender roles spill over into organisational roles (eagly & karau, 2002), consequently creating some challenges for women. it was also interesting that none of the women used words such as discrimination or gender stereotypes. however, many of women indicated that in order for them to advance, they had to learn how men operate and to copy the success strategies used by their male counterparts. past research also suggests that for women to fit into certain organisational cultures and structures, they might need to ‘manage gender’ (ranson, 2005; rubin, 1997), which may include aligning oneself with men, ‘working as a conceptual man’, or indirectly positioning oneself as ‘one of the boys’ (ranson, 2005). these suggestions are in line with research that has shown that women who succeed in male gender-typed jobs or positions are commonly perceived as having attributes traditionally associated with men (heilman et al., 1989). the findings are also consistent with research suggestions that in organisations, because of the stereotypical belief that women might be less successful in managerial positions (heilman, 2001; offerman & beil, 1992), women in managerial positions are forced to develop managerial styles that are acceptable to male colleagues, supervisors and subordinates (powell, 2011; ragins et al., 1998). such stereotypical beliefs may negatively affect the way female managers’ performance is evaluated and this may in turn negatively influence women’s subsequent career success (lyness & heilman, 2006). the reported findings may also be understood in the light of the role congruity theory and the lack of fit model. according to the role congruity theory (eagly & karau, 2002; eagly, wood & diekman, 2000), people tend to hold dissimilar beliefs about leaders and women, whilst they hold similar beliefs about leaders and men (bosak & sczesny, 2011). heilman’s (2001) ‘lack of fit’ model also explains that expectations about how successful a person will be in a given position are a driving force underlying personnel decisions, such that the perceived fit between one’s attributes and the specific skills and abilities can determine performance expectations. both theories therefore explain how being a woman leader might elicit thoughts of incongruence for some individuals, including people who are responsible for recruiting top management. other factors that have been identified as a challenge for women seeking advancement, or working as managers and leaders, include certain personality characteristics, age and even child-bearing. similar to the views expressed by freeman (1990) and kelan (2007), some of the women interviewed minimised the impact of gender on career advancement. kelan explains that claiming to be gender-egalitarian should be understood as part of the construction of a preferred identity, as being a victim of sexism may no longer be viewed as desirable. such lack of reference to gender might also be explained from the perspective of social identification: people who identify strongly with a group such as a management group may also espouse the group’s accepted goals, attitudes, intentions and expected behaviours. for example, tajfel and turner (1986) suggest that individuals are more likely to identify themselves in terms of a salient social group. this may mean that the female executives identify more with being managers than with being women. whilst it was anticipated that the setswana culture and its role expectations could be highlighted as some of the inhibitors of female career success, only one woman indicated that she is traditional in her gender role orientation. indeed none of the other women specifically mentioned culture as a source of challenge or as a barrier to success. omar and ogenyi (2004) indicate that in nigeria, cultural and social traditions may play a bigger role in determining who becomes a manager. the nigerian culture may be similar to the setswana culture, such that the two cultures are collectivistic and traditional in their gender role orientation. in the setswana culture, it is commonly accepted that a woman is not supposed to lead a group (mookodi, 2005; pheko, 2009). furthermore, women in traditional cultures are expected first to be daughters, wives and mothers and to obey their male counterparts (cheung & halpern, 2010). whilst culture may define social expectations in respect of men’s and women’s roles (cheung & halpern, 2010), it is also common knowledge that culture is dynamic. therefore, it could be expected that one’s cultural orientation or gender role orientation may be affected by the work experience education, marital status or tenure of the individual concerned (pheko, 2013b). furthermore, because organisations also have their own cultures and expectations of success, female employees may feel compelled to adapt their cultural orientations to work expectations (pheko, 2013b). limitations of the study whilst the importance of the current research has been mentioned, the research nonetheless has limitations. firstly, because of time and cost constraints, only ten women were interviewed. it was also difficult to find more women middle managers who were willing to be interviewed. it is believed that the research could have benefited more from a larger pool of female managers. the study could have also benefited from reviewing other archival organisational data, such as past performance reviews of the interviewees, or even interviewing other people who have worked with the interviewees to obtain a richer perspective of the factors that can explain the managers’ success and the related challenges. suggestions for future research it is recommended that other researchers should carry out similar research using different designs that may allow for the inclusion of more respondents and for more variables. it is also recommended that for comparative purposes, future researchers should interview both men and women. this would allow researchers to understand whether the strategies used and the challenges faced by women are unique to women. further, women with similar profiles (i.e. educational backgrounds, years of experience, performance reviews) who have not been able to climb the corporate ladder could be interviewed in order to establish whether they used similar strategies for success. conclusion since the 1995 beijing platform for action, botswana has taken significant measures to create a policy environment that promotes gender equality and the country has since made headway in terms of the number of women in decision-making positions (grant thornton 2012, 2013; pheko & selemogwe, 2008). however, as confirmed by the grant thornton (2012, 2013) study, no country in the world has yet reached the 50% gender parity in wage employment as pointed out by uneca et al. (2008). furthermore, the sudden drop reported by grant thornton (2013) in the number of women in senior management in botswana suggests that the environment might still be unstable for female leaders and managers. grant thornton’s (2013) findings further support assertions that after a woman manages to break the glass ceiling, her position and reputation might be much more vulnerable (czarniawska, 2008; haslam & ryan, 2008). the findings from this study and the grant thornton reports may also support assertions that whilst the country’s policies and laws do not discriminate on the basis of gender, women may still face discrimination because of institutional practices and social attitudes (pheko & selemogwe, 2008) and expectations regarding the role and status of women within the community (republic of botswana & united nations, 2004). the challenges identified above highlight the need for research that explores the reasons for such discrepancies. as noted in the preceding sections of this document, related research in botswana has primarily investigated regulatory and legislative challenges. whilst such studies are worthwhile and very important, in order to address the evident gap in existing research more research is needed, using different research aims and objectives, in different organisational settings and with varying research designs, as such a variety might serve different purposes. the findings from the current study may therefore help to achieve this objective by: (1) helping researchers and practitioners understand some of the career development challenges faced by women in botswana, (2) providing policy-makers with strategies and interventions that may be used to assist other women with similar ambitions, and (3) by providing other researchers with some research ideas, as well as (4) research questions and objectives. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the author declares that she has no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article. references top ↑ agars, m.d. (2004). reconsidering the impact of gender stereotypes on the advancement of women in organizations. psychology of women quarterly, 28(2), 103–111. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2004.00127.x agesa, r.u., agesa, j., & dabalen, a. (2008). changes in wage distributions, wage gaps and wage inequality by gender in kenya. journal of african economies, 18(3), 431–460. allen, t., eby, l., poteet, m., lentz, e., & lima, l. (2004). career benefits associated with mentoring for protégés: a meta-analysis. journal of applied psychology, 89(1), 127–136. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.1.127 anderson, d. (2005). the importance of mentoring programs to women’s career advancement in biotechnology. journal of career development, 32(1), 60–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0894845305277039 apospori, e., nikandrou, i., & panayotopoulou, l. (2006). mentoring and women’s career advancement in greece. human resource development international, 9(4), 509–527. http://dx.doi/org/10.1080/13678860601032627 arvey, r.d., rotundo, m., johnson, w., zhang, z., & mcgue, m. (2006). the determinants of leadership role occupancy: genetic and personality factors. the leadership quarterly, 17(1), 1–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.10.009 atkinson, p., coffey, a., & delamont, s. (2001). a debate about our canon. qualitative research, 1(1), 5–21. bartley, s.j., blanton, p.w., & gilliard, j.l. (2005). husbands and wives in dual-earner marriages: decision-making, gender role attitudes, division of household labor, and equity. marriage & family review, 37(4), 69–94. biggerstaff, d.l., & thompson, a.r. (2008). interpretative phenomenological analysis (ipa): a qualitative methodology of choice in healthcare research. qualitative research in psychology 5, 173–183. bosak, j., & sczesny, s. (2011). exploring the dynamics of incongruent beliefs about women and leaders. british journal of management, 22(2), 254–269. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2010.00731.x burke, r.j., & mckeen, c.a. (1990). mentoring in organisations: implications for women. journal of business ethics, 9, 317–332. burke, r.j. & mckeen, c.a. (1997). not every managerial woman who makes it has a mentor. women in management review, 12(4), 136–139. carli, l., & eagly, a. (2001). gender, hierarchy, and leadership: an introduction. journal of social issues, 57(4), 629–636. casale, d., & posel, d. (2010). unions and the gender wage gap in south africa. journal of african economies, 20(1), 27–59. catalyst. (2003). the catalyst connection: tips for finding a mentor. retrieved january 2, 2011, from http://www.cpa2biz.com/career/tips+for+finding+a+mentor.htm chapman, e., & smith, j.a. (2002). interpretative phenomenological analysis and the new genetics. journal of health psychology, 7, 125–130. cheung, f.m., & halpern, d.f. (2010). women at the top: powerful leaders define success as work and family in a culture of gender. american psychologist, 65(3), 182–193. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0017309 chovwen, c.o. (2003). experience above the glass ceiling: a study of female executives. ife psychologia: an international journal, 11(1), 138–146. czarniawska, b. (2008). femmes fatales in finance, or women and the city. organization, 15, 2, 165–86. daley, d.m. (1996). paths of glory and the glass ceiling: differing patterns of career advancement among women and minority federal employees. public administration quarterly, 20(2), 143–162. davies-netzley, s. (1998). women above the glass ceiling: perceptions on corporate mobility and strategies for success. gender & society, 12(3), 339–355. dennis, m., & kunkel, a. (2004). perceptions of men, women, and ceos: the effects of gender identity. social behaviour & personality: an international journal, 32(2), 155–171. durbin, s., & tomlinson, j. (2010). female part-time managers: networks and career mobility. work, employment and society, 24(4), 621–640. eagly, a.h., & karau, s.j. (2002). role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders. psychological review, 109(3), 573–598. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.109.3.573 eagly, a.h., wood, w., & diekman, a.b. (2000). social role theory of sex differences and similarities: a current appraisal. in t. eckes, & h.m. traunter (eds.), the developmental social psychology of gender (pp. 123–174). mahwah, nj: erlbaum. elacqua, t.c., beehr, t.a., hansen, c.p., & webster, j. (2009). managers’ beliefs about the glass ceiling: interpersonal and organisational factors. psychology of women quarterly, 33(3), 285–294. elliott, j.r., & smith, r.a. (2004). race, gender, and workplace power. american sociological review, 69(3), 365–386. fade, s. (2004). using interpretative phenomenological analysis for public health nutrition and dietetic research: a practical guide. proceedings of the nutrition society, 63, 647–653. http://dx.doi.org/10.1079/pns2004398 federal glass ceiling commission (fgcc). (1995). glass ceiling commission – good for business: making full use of the nation’s human capital. washington, dc: us glass ceiling commission. field, p.a., & morse, j.m. (1985). nursing research: the application of qualitative approaches. rockville, md: aspen systems. ford, m.t., heinen, b.a., & langkamer, k.l. (2007). work and family satisfaction and conflict: a meta-analysis of cross-domain relations. journal of applied psychology, 92(1), 57–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.1.57 freeman, s.j.m. (1990). managing lives: corporate women and social change. amherst, ma: university of massachusetts press. gable, g. (1994). integrating case study and survey research methods: an example in information systems. european journal of information systems, 3(2), 112–126. grant thornton (2012). women in senior management: still not enough. grant thornton international business report 2012. retrieved august 13, 2010, from http://www.grantthornton.co.nz/assets/documents/pubseminars/ibr-2012-women-in-senior-management.pdf grant thornton (2013). women in senior management: setting the stage for growth. grant thornton international business report 2013. retrieved august 13, 2010, from http://www.grantthornton.ie/db/attachments/ibr2013_wib_report_final.pdf gordon, j., & whelan-berry, k. (2004). it takes two to tango: an empirical study of perceived spousal/partner support for working women. women in management review, 19(5), 260–273. halpern, d.f., & cheung, f.m. (2008). women at the top: powerful leaders tell us how to combine work and family. new york, ny: wiley/blackwell. haslam, s.a., & ryan, m.k. (2008). the road to the glass cliff: differences in the perceived suitability of men and women for leadership positions in succeeding and failing organizations. leadership quarterly, 19, 530–546. heilman, m. (2001). description and prescription: how gender stereotypes prevent women’s ascent up the organisational ladder. journal of social issues, 57(4), 657–674. heilman, m.e., block, c.j., martell, r.f., & simon, m.c. (1989). has anything changed? current characterizations of men, women, and managers. journal of applied psychology, 74(6), 935–942. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.74.6.935 hewlett, s., & luce, c. (2005). off-ramps and on-ramps. harvard business review, 83(3), 43–54. hofstede, g.h. (2001). culture’s consequences: comparing values, behaviors, institutions and organizations across nations. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. international labour organization. (2004). breaking through the glass ceiling: women in management, good for business: making full use of the nation’s human capital: the environmental scan. jenkins, s. (1994). need for power and women’s careers over 14 years: structural power, job satisfaction, and motive change. journal of personality and social psychology, 66(1), 155–165. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.66.1.155 kelan, e.k. (2007). ‘i don’t know why’: accounting for the scarcity of women in ict work. women’s studies international forum, 30(6), 499–511. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif. 2007.09.003 kelan, e.k. (2008a). gender, risk and employment insecurity: the masculine breadwinner subtext. human relations, 61(9), 1171–1202. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0018726708094909 kelan, e. k. (2008b). emotions in a rational profession: the gendering of skills in ict work. gender, work and organisation, 15(1), 49–71. klein, h.k., & myers, m.d. (1999). a set of principles for conducting and evaluating interpretive field studies in information systems. mis quarterly, special issue on intensive research, (23)1, 67–93.kolev, a., & robles, p.s. (2010). addressing the gender pay gap in ethiopia: how crucial is the quest for education parity? journal of african economies, 19(5), 718–767. lopez-claros, a., & zahidi, a. (2005). women’s empowerment: measuring the global gender gap. geneva: world economic forum. lyness, k.s., & heilman, m.e. (2006). when fit is fundamental: performance evaluations and promotions of upper-level female and male managers. journal of applied psychology, 91(4), 777–785. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.4.777 lyness, k.s., & thompson, d.e. (1997). above the glass ceiling? a comparison of matched samples of female and male executives. journal of applied psychology, 82(3), 359–375. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.82.3.359 lyness, k.s., & thompson, d.e. (2000). climbing the corporate ladder: do female and male executives follow the same route? journal of applied psychology, 85(1), 86–101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.85.1.86 mainiero, l.a. (1994). getting anointed for advancement: the case of executive women. academy of management executive, 8(2), 53–67. marshall, j. (1995). gender and management: a critical review of research. (special issue). british journal of management, 6(6), 53–62. mccauley, c.d. (2005). the mentoring tool. advances in developing human resources, 7, 443-445. meng, x., & miller, p. (1995). occupational segregation and its impact on gender wage discrimination in china’s rural industrial sector. oxford economic papers, 47(1), 136–155. mookodi, d. (2005, december). situating the legal status of women in development processes: the case of botswana. paper presented for the 11th codesria general assembly, maputo, mozambique. mookodi, g. (n.d.). gender and resources: some macro and micro level considerations. retrieved january 27, 2007, from http://www.codesria.org/links/conferences/gender/mookodi.pdf morgan, s. (2006. introduction: writing feminist history: theoretical debates and critical practices. in s. morgan, (ed.), the feminist history reader (pp. 1–48). london, uk: routledge. muhr, s.l. (2011). caught in the gendered machine: on the masculine and feminine in cyborg leadership. gender, work and organization, 18 (3), 337-357. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2010.00529.x ngwenyama, o.k., & lee, a.s. (1997). communication richness in electronic mail: critical social theory and the contextuality of meaning. mis quarterly, 21(2), 145–167. offermann, l.r., & beil, c. (1992). achievement styles of women leaders and their peers: toward an understanding of women and leadership. psychology of women quarterly, 16(1), 37–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1992.tb00238.x omar, o., & ogenyi, v. (2004). a qualitative evaluation of women as managers in the nigerian civil service. international journal of public sector management, 17(4), 360–373. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513550410539839 peus, c., & traut-mattausch, e. (2008). manager and mommy? a cross-cultural comparison. journal of managerial psychology, 23(5), 558–575. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940810884531 pheko, m.m. (2009). strategies to ensure that no motswana female leader ‘starts from behind’ by giving young batswana girls a head start at primary schools. the international journal of learning, 16(6), 569–581. pheko, m.m. (2013a). the impact of resource loss and resource gain among botswana employees: a test of the conservation of resources theory. international journal of business and social science, 4(4), 151–164. pheko, m.m. (2013b). a test of the culture-performance related distress hypothesis among employees in a collectivistic culture, international journal of development and sustainability, 2(2). pheko, m.m., & selemogwe, m.m. (2008). making women empowerment a national agenda: botswana case study. in d. amat sapuan, k.k. jain & m.s. sandhu (eds.), leadership in a changing landscape (pp. 105–124). kuala lumpur, malaysia: cert publication. powell, g.n. (2011). the gender and leadership wars. organizational dynamics, 40(1), 1–9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2010.10.009 ragins, b., townsend, b., & mattis, m. (1998). gender gap in the executive suite: ceos and female executives report on breaking the glass ceiling. academy of management executive, 12(1), 28–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/ame.1998.254976 ranson, g. (2005). no longer ‘one of the boys’: negotiations with motherhood, as prospect or reality, among women in engineering. canadian review of sociology and anthropology, 42(2), 145–166. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-618x.2005.tb02459.x rathapo, s.b. (2000). the state of gender information in botswana. libri, 50(4), 302–308. reid, m.f., allen, m.w., armstrong, d.j., & riemenschneider, c.k. (2010). perspectives on challenges facing women in is: the cognitive gender gap. european journal of information systems, 19(5), 526–539. republic of botswana, & united nations (2004). botswana millennium development goals status report 2004: achievements, future challenges and choices. retrieved january 02, 2011, from http://www.undp.org.bw/docs/mdg_status_report_2004.pdf riger, s. & galligan, p.j. (1980). women in management: an exploration of competing paradigms. american psychologist, 35, 902–910. rogers, s., & amato, p. (2000). have changes in gender relations affected marital quality? social forces, 79, 731–753. rubin, j. (1997). gender, equality and the culture of organizational assessment. gender, work and organization, 4(1), 24–34. sampson, s.d., & moore, l.l. (2008). is there a glass ceiling for women in development? nonprofit management and leadership, 18(3), 321–339. sabharwal, m. (2013). from glass ceiling to glass cliff: women in senior executive service. journal of public administration research and theory advance, june, 01–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mut030 schein, v.e. (2001). a global look at psychological barriers to women’s progress in management. journal of social issues, 57(4), 675–688. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00235 schein, v.e. (2007). women in management: reflections and projections. women in management review, 22(1), 6–18. schein, v.e., mueller, r., lituchy, t., & liu, j. (1996). think manager – think male: a global phenomenon? journal of organizational behavior, 17(1), 33–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199601)17:1<33::aid-job778>3.0.co;2-f schuck, k., & liddle, b.j. (2004). the female manager’s experience: a concept map and assessment tool. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 56(2), 75–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1061-4087.56.2.75 scott, k.a., & brown, d.j. (2006). female first, leader second? gender bias in the encoding of leadership behaviour. organizational behaviour and human decision processes, 101(2), 230–242. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2006.06.002 shah, s. k., & corley, k.g. (2006). building better theory by bridging the quantitative–qualitative divide. journal of management studies, 43(8), 1821–1835. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2006.00662.x shenton, a.k. (2004). strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research projects. education for information, 22, 63–75. siphambe, h.k., & thokweng-bakwena, m. (2001).the wage gap between men and women in botswana’s formal labour market. journal of african economies, 10(2), 127–142. smith, j.a. (2004). reflecting on the development of interpretative phenomenological analysis and its contribution to qualitative research in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 1(1), 39–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1478088704qp004oa smith, j.a., jarman, m., & osborn m. (1999). doing interpretative phenomenological analysis. in m. murray, & k. chamberlain (eds.), qualitative health psychology: theories and methods (pp. 218–240). london, uk: sage. smithson, j., & stokoe, e.h. (2005). discourses of work-life balance: negotiating ‘gender blind’ terms in organizations. gender, work & organization, 12(2), 147–168. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2005.00267.x snizek, w.e., & neil, c.c. (1992). job characteristics, gender stereotypes and perceived gender discrimination in the workplace. organization studies, 13(3), 403–427. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/017084069201300305 sümer, h.c. (2006). women in management: still waiting to be full members of the club. sex roles, 55(1–2), 63–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-006-9059-2 tajfel, h., & turner, j.c. (1986).the social identity theory of intergroup behavior. in w.g. austin, & s. worchel (eds.), the social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 7–24). chicago, il: nelson-hall. thomson, s. (1997). adaptive sampling in behavioural surveys. nida research monograph, 167, 296–319. uneca, au, & afdb. (2008). report of the sixth african development forum vi. action on gender equality, women’s empowerment and ending violence against women: from commitment to delivery. 19–21 november 2008. addis ababa, ethiopia. verbakel, e., & de graaf, p.m. (2008). resources of the partner: support or restriction in the occupational career? developments in the netherlands between 1940 and 2003. european sociological review, 24(1), 81–95. vogt, w.p. (1999). dictionary of statistics and methodology: a nontechnical guide for the social sciences. london, uk: sage willig, c. (2001). qualitative research in psychology: adventures in theory and method. buckingham: open university press. women’s affairs department. (1995). policy on women in development. gaborone, botswana: government of botswana. women’s affairs department. (1998). report on a review of all laws affecting the status of women in botswana. gaborone, botswana: government of botswana. wood, g.j., & lindorff, m. (2001). sex differences in explanations for career progress. journal women in management review, 16(4), 152–162. article information authors: lindsey joseph1 kate emmett1 joha louw-potgieter1 affiliations: 1section of organisational psychology, university of cape town, south africa correspondence to: joha louw-potgieter postal address: room 4.32, leslie commerce building, university of cape town, rondebosch 7701, south africa dates: received: 05 oct. 2011 accepted: 25 jan. 2012 published: 13 july 2012 how to cite this article: joseph, l., emmett, k., & louw-potgieter, j. (2012). a formative evaluation of a pay-for-performance system. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10 (3), art. #426, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i3.426 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. a formative evaluation of a pay-for-performance system in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the evaluation    • background to the evaluation    • trends from the research literature       • elements of pay-for-performance systems       • standard requirements for implementing pay-for-performance systems       • pay-for-performance systems and non-management employees    • evaluation objectives    • introduction of a pay-for-performance system at a south african university    • evaluation questions    • the potential value-add of the evaluation • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • question 1: training coverage    • question 2: resources    • question 3: short-term training outcomes    • question 4: longer-term outcomes • ethical considerations    • potential benefits and hazards    • recruitment procedures    • informed consent    • data protection • trustworthiness    • reliability    • validity • discussion    • question 1: training coverage    • question 2: resources    • question 3: short-term outcomes    • question 4: longer-term outcomes    • i receive guidance from my line manager in setting my performance objectives    • i receive guidance from my human resources adviser on how to set the performance objectives that are relevant to my job    • i receive regular informal advice from my line manager about how to improve my job performance    • there are adequate training opportunities in my department to enable me to achieve my objectives    • human resource’s additional role in a pay-for-performance system    • conclusions    • suggestions for future research • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: pay-for-performance (pfp) systems emerged during the 1980s as performance improvement tools. however, research findings have shown contradictory evidence as to whether these systems motivate employees to improve their performance. research purpose: the main aim of this evaluation was to assess whether a pfp system, which a south african university introduced for administrative employees, improved their performance. a secondary aim was to examine whether the university implemented the system as it intended to. motivation for the evaluation: the motivation for this evaluation was to add to the social science literature on the effectiveness of pfp systems. there are many contradictions in the literature and further exploration of whether these systems deliver their intended outcomes seemed overdue. research design, approach and method: the evaluators used a descriptive design. they administered a customised questionnaire, to which 391 university staff members responded. of these, 129 were line managers and 262 were administrative staff. main findings: the administrative staff, whose working lives the pfp system affected, thought that it did not improve their performance. both line managers and administrative staff indicated that the pay aspect of the system did not differentiate between poor and excellent performance. practical/managerial implications: the evaluators made practical recommendations for improving the implementation of the system. contribution/value-add: this evaluation contributed to the social science literature on the effectiveness of pfp systems by showing that poor implementation rather than poor design often lies at the root of a system that does not deliver its intended outcomes. introduction top ↑ key focus of the evaluation the main aim of this evaluation was to assess whether the pay-for-performance (pfp) that at a south african university system introduced for administrative employees improved their performance. a secondary aim was to examine whether the university implemented the system as it intended to. background to the evaluation pay-for-performance systems emerged during the 1980s as the way to motivate employees and improve organisational performance (cannell & wood, 1992; dowling & richardson, 1997). however, research shows contradictory evidence as to whether pfp systems are effective motivational and performance improvement tools (armstrong, 2006; dowling & richardson, 1997). it seems that organisational contexts influence the effectiveness of these systems (armstrong, 2003; belcher, 1996; gomez-mejia, wiseman & dykes, 2005). according to bruns (1996), pfp systems are most effective when implemented in organisations which foster trust between management and employees, do not have strong trade unions which oppose pfp systems and have an entrepreneurial or performance culture. research also shows that pfp systems are less effective in improving team performance because pfp measurement tends to be individualised (armstrong, 2003; belcher, 1996; bruns, 1996; reilly, 2003; wright, 2004). trends from the research literature elements of pay-for-performance systems according to ulrich and brockbank (2005), two elements are the basis of pfp systems: measurement and pay. measurement consists of formal assessment and the ratings of managers. the main functional requirements for the measurement element of a pfp system are to distinguish good from bad performance and to separate past from future performance. records of past appraisals determine past performance whereas employees’ development plans define future performance (armstrong, 2003). furthermore, the people the system affects need to perceive the measurement element of pfp systems as fair if it is to fulfil its motivational function (armstrong, 2003; edwards, scott & raju, 2003). doran (2008) reinforced this idea and suggested that the employee ratings managers give should undergo independent moderation so that employees will see rating decisions as less subjective and discriminatory. the pay element of pfp systems shows what and who organisations value (holbeche, 2004). in addition, this element should reinforce positive employee behaviour so that employees can achieve their goals and improve their performance (henderson, 2006). this element of pfp systems is most effective when it links visibly to performance, when it gives employees feedback soon after they achieve outstanding performance and when it deducts pay if the recipients do not continue to perform (eichinger, lombardo & ulrich, 2004; rosenthal, landon, howitt, song & epstein, 2007). the pay element of pfp systems should provide an adequate pay incentive (doran, 2008; rosenthal et al., 2007). according to henderson, reward-related pay made in lump sums is more effective than percentage increases because lump sums have a more positive effect on employees’ motivation and, therefore, on improved performance. in addition, armstrong (2003) states that percentage increases do have a positive effect on employees’ motivation and performance as long as the increase is between 10% and 15%. human resources (hr) publications rarely explore the pay element of pfp systems. one may attribute this to the fact that hr does not exclusively control the pay function of pfp systems. quite often, finance departments are responsible for the pay element. in these cases, hr has focused on the measurement element. this could be problematic because it could separate the pay and measurement elements in pfp systems. organisations need to align both of these elements to produce effective pfp programmes. standard requirements for implementing pay-for-performance systems the essential requirements for implementing pfp systems successfully are: • the commitment of managers to the system • a focus on the implementation process rather than on designing the systems • support from key stakeholders • clear communication about the systems (armstrong, 2003; rosenthal et al., 2007). streib and nigro (1993) emphasised the importance of process training for the effective implementation of pfp systems because it guides employees how to set clear and realistic performance objectives. it also helps employees and their managers to go about interacting and collaborating in the process. in addition, process training shows employees how systems link pay to performance. this understanding is important because linking pay to performance is the main motivating mechanism for employees. pay-for-performance systems and non-management employees organisations use pfp systems mainly for employees at management level (armstrong, 2003; belcher, 1996; pennings, 1993; reilly, 2003; schwab & olson, 1990; wright, 2004). they seldom target administrative and support employees for this type of pay system because they do not produce a specific product or service. their work is usually task-related and they often work in small work groups instead of on their own. research shows that trade unions could hinder the implementation of pfp systems for their members (reilly, 2003; white & druker, 2000; wright, 2004). pfp systems reward employees individually, whilst trade unions prefer to increase pay equally for all employees (doran, 2008; reilly, 2003; white & druker, 2000; wright, 2004). trade unions often resort to collective bargaining to compress the range of pay for performance. compressed pay ranges lead to decreases in the discretionary amounts available for distribution to employees, increased perceptions of the unfairness of systems and decreased motivation (doran, 2008; wright, 2004). trade unions also influence the level of rewards, the structure of rewards, the reward systems organisations choose and all procedures concerned with managing rewards (white & druker, 2000). because of the wide-ranging influence trade unions have on pfp systems, these systems may not suit unionised environments because they reduce the functionality of the systems (reilly, 2003; white & druker, 2000; wright, 2004). evaluation objectives the main aim of this evaluation was to assess whether a pfp system, which a south african university introduced for administrative employees, improved their performance. a secondary aim was to examine whether the university implemented the system as it intended to. introduction of a pay-for-performance system at a south african university in 2001, a south african university introduced a pfp system for administrative staff. most of the staff belonged to unions. according to the performance development resource guide (university of cape town, 2006), which the university provided, and from interviews with key stakeholders, the new pfp system aimed to improve administrative employees’ performance and help them to clarify their roles. it also intended to increase their skills, knowledge and abilities for growth and future performance. the system intended to achieve these goals through a two-fold process. the first process, performance management, intended to assess employees’ performance against agreed outcomes and then reward employees for excellent performance. the second process, performance development, aimed to identify development opportunities so that the university could develop employees’ skills for future performance. according to the university’s salary assessment resource guide (university of cape town, 2006), the university deliberately separated the performance management and development discussions. this was to ensure that the performance management discussion, with its concerns about assessment and pay, did not cloud the development discussion. although the university dealt with them separately, both processes used a single set of performance objectives that employees would develop. the objectives would link to the university’s strategic objectives. these objectives were the link between the performance management and development processes. the link the objectives provided between the performance management and development processes also created a performance development cycle. this cycle contains six steps: • agree on objectives • assess performance against objectives • construct a development plan • review performance against objectives • review development needs continuously • review objectives formally. the activities in this cycle involve continuous collaboration between line managers and employees. during the final step, the formal review of objectives, line managers assess and rate employees’ performance. they relate performance to pay by placing the employees in appropriate performance categories that range from ‘significantly exceed job requirements’ to ‘do not meet job requirements’. the university introduced its pfp system in 2004. it affected all administrative employees in the bargaining unit. a half-day workshop, presented over a three-month period, gave administrative staff and their line managers the necessary knowledge to use the system. attendance at these workshops was voluntary. human resource advisers offered the workshops to each department and provided a performance development resource guide to all employees who attended the workshops. administrative employees and line managers attended different workshops. the administrative employees’ workshop focused on how the pfp system was going to affect them and how their performance levels would determine their pay. it also trained them to set objectives. the line managers’ workshop trained line managers in the performance development process, to review their employees’ performance, to provide constructive feedback and to rate employees’ performance. based on discussions with the programme managers, the short-term outcomes of an effective pfp system would be cooperation between line managers and administrative staff to produce performance objectives and a development plan. see figure 1. at this stage of the evaluation, the evaluators did not know which variables would mediate between the programme and its short-term outcomes. evaluation questions according to scriven (1991), a formative evaluation is one that guides programme improvement. the evaluators formulated the evaluation questions in box 1 to improve the pfp system. the potential value-add of the evaluation the evaluation seeks to contribute to the social science literature on the effectiveness of pfp systems by examining whether these systems work. if they do not, the evaluators seek to find out why. figure 1: diagram of an effective pay-for-performance programme. box 1: questions the evaluators formulated to improve the pay-for-performance system. research design top ↑ research approach the evaluators used a descriptive design. they collected primary quantitative and qualitative data to answer the evaluation questions. research method research participants of the 391 university staff members who responded to the questionnaire, 129 were line managers and 262 were administrative staff. there were 1769 administrative employees at the university in 2007. the evaluators could not ascertain the number of line managers from the relevant department. measuring instruments the evaluators used a questionnaire that dowling and richardson (1997) developed. it examined whether a specific pfp worked for the current employees. table 1 presents it.question 1 offered 24 options, questions 2, 3 and 4 offered ‘yes’ or ‘no’ options, question 5 offered four options and the rest of the questions had a 5-point likert format. research procedure the evaluators distributed the questionnaire electronically to participants. the questionnaire was available on-line for a period of two months and the evaluators sent two reminders to participants during that period. statistical analysis the evaluators used descriptive statistics to analyse the data for evaluation questions 1–9. for questions 10 and 11, the evaluators performed a reliability analysis, a factor analysis, a linear regression and a stepwise discriminant analysis. results top ↑ the evaluators reported their results in terms of the evaluation questions. question 1: training coverage a. how many staff members received training? b. were the trainees mainly line managers or administrators? seventy-two per cent of line managers and 60.7% of administrative staff indicated that they had received training since the introduction of the system. the main reasons for non-attendance were: • unaware that training had been scheduled (15% of line managers and 26% of administrative staff reported this) • lack of time to attend training (7.8% of line managers and 10% of administrative staff reported this) • perceptions that the training would not be useful (7% of line managers and 8.4% of administrative staff had these perceptions). question 2: resources a. were there sufficient human and physical resources for implementing the new performance management system?there was no significant difference between the answers of line managers and those of administrative staff about the helpfulness of hr advisers during the implementation process. thirty per cent of both groups indicated that the hr resource was very helpful. the line managers also rated other resources in terms of their helpfulness. they indicated that they found their senior managers (33%), colleagues (28%), training manuals (23%) and training workshops (20%) very helpful. question 3: short-term training outcomes with regard to the short-term training outcomes, the evaluators focused mainly on how well the two groups of trainees understood various aspects of the system and how skilled they thought they were in some aspects of the measurement part of performance management. table 1: questionnaire for collecting data from administrative employees. table 2: understanding the aspects of the pay-for-performance system. understanding: a. did the line managers and administrative staff understand the main components of the system after the training? table 2 shows that the line managers understood these aspects better than the administrative staff did. skills: b. did line managers and administrative staff have the necessary participative skills to implement parts of the system after the training? line managers and administrative staff should cooperate when setting performance objectives for administrative staff. the evaluators compared the two groups with regard to their perceived skill for this task. line managers rated themselves as more skilled in setting objectives than administrative staff did (line managers m = 4.09, administrative staff m = 3.87; t = 2.40, p < .017). when the evaluators compared the managers’ ratings with the self-ratings of administrative staff on setting skills objectively for administrators, there was a significant difference (line managers’ ratings of administrative staff m = 3.33, administrative staff members’ self-ratings m = 3.87; t = -5.137, p < .000). c. did line managers have the necessary skills to implement specific aspects of the system? the evaluators also assessed the line managers’ perceptions of their own performance management skills for implementing specific aspects of the system. table 3 shows that line managers regarded themselves as generally skilled in these tasks. plans: d. did line managers have the necessary skills to implement specific aspects of the system? e. how many administrative staff had these plans? administrative staff did create development plans after the training. in 2005, 74% of the administrative staff had plans. this increased to 81% in 2006. table 3: self-rating of performance management skills (line managers). table 4: longer-term perceived outcomes of the performance management system (line managers). table 5: longer-term perceived outcomes of the performance management system (administrative staff). question 4: longer-term outcomes a. after two implementation cycles, how did line managers and administrative staff rate the outcomes of the system? table 4 reports the line managers’ perceived longer-term outcomes of the performance management system. table 5 reflects the perceptions of the administrative staff after two implementation cycles. the evaluators added an open-ended question to the questionnaire. it required all respondents to comment on the potential advantages and disadvantages of the pfp programme. two major themes emerged from the comments. these were the lack of meaningful rewards (mentioned by 45% of line managers and 15.6% of administrative staff) and non-procedural evaluation by line managers (mentioned by 36.4% of line managers and 35% of administrative staff). b. did the pfp system at the university work for some administrative staff and not for others? c. are there interventions or variables that can predict for whom the system would work? in order to answer these two questions, the evaluators conducted three analyses. firstly, they subjected all items that relate to the administrative staff’s perceptions of the pfp system to a reliability analysis. secondly, they reduced these items to three factors using factor analysis. thirdly, they conducted a linear regression and a step-wise discriminant analysis to ascertain for which administrative staff the pfp system worked. they discuss each of these steps below. the evaluators used cronbach’s alpha to identify the internal consistency of items 6 to 22 in the administrative employees’ questionnaire. cronbach’s alpha = .91, which suggested a high internal consistency reliability of the 17 item scale (pallant, 2007). they also used item total statistics to show the correlation of each item with the overall interval scale. there were no items with an item-total correlation below .3. therefore, items 6 to 22 all measured the same construct (employees’ perceptions of the pfp system), and the evaluators did not need to delete any of the items (pallant, 2007). in order to reduce the data of the interval scale items into separate independent variables, the evaluators conducted an exploratory factor analysis (efa) on items 6 to 22 (they excluded item 12, the dependent variable) of the questionnaire for the administrative staff. the kaiser-meyer-olkin value was .86. this exceeds the recommended value of .6. bartlett’s test of sphericity was statistically significant as its p value was 0.00 (< 0.05) (pallant, 2007). therefore, the evaluators confirmed that it is appropriate to conduct an efa with the interval items from the administrators’ questionnaire. a principal component analysis revealed the presence of three factors with eigenvalues that exceed 1. this explained 62% of the cumulative variance. in addition to this, the pattern matrix confirmed that all the items had loaded onto the three factors. however, items 10, 11 and 15 loaded onto more than one factor. the difference between these cross-loading items was smaller than .25 (pallant, 2007) and the evaluators removed them. table 6 presents the three distinctive and coherent factors. the evaluators labelled the first factor ‘guidance, support and training’. it consisted of items 13 (‘i receive guidance from my line manager in setting my performance objectives’), 14 (‘i receive guidance from my hr adviser on how to set the performance objectives relevant to my job’), 16 (‘i agree on clear deadlines with my line manager for achieving my objectives’), 17 (‘i receive regular informal advice from my line manager about how to improve my job performance’) and 18 (‘there are adequate training opportunities in my department to enable me to achieve my objectives’). these items show that there is a robust support system for administrative employees on performance management. the factor contributed 42% variance of the scale. the evaluators labelled the second factor ‘employees’ understanding’ (of the pfp system). it consisted of items 6 (‘please indicate the extent to which you are skilled in setting performance objectives’), 7 (‘i have a clear understanding of what the primary goals of the pfp system are’), 8 (‘i understand how the pfp system works’) and 9 (‘i understand how the performance assessment links to the pfp system’). this factor contributed 12% of the total variance of the scale. the evaluators called the last factor ‘employees’ motivation to work harder’. it included items 19 (‘i consciously work harder because of the pfp system’), 20 (‘the financial rewards i receive reflect my individual contributions’), 21 (‘the pfp system contributes significantly to my receiving the credit and recognition i deserve’) and 22 (‘the financial incentive of the pfp system increases my determination to achieve my objectives’). this factor contributed 10% of the total variance of the scale. the cumulative variance of these three factors was 64%. to measure the relationship between the three independent variables the evaluators identified in the efa and the dependent variable (item 12: ‘i participate with my manager in setting my performance objectives’ – that they labelled ‘cooperative objective setting’), they used a linear regression. table 6: pattern matrix and communalities of the three-factor solution of administrative employee perception scale items. the evaluators first used collinearity diagnostics to assess whether there was a possibility of multi-collinearity. the variance inflation factor (vif) and tolerance posed no problem of multi-collinearity because the vif for all the scores was smaller than 10 and the tolerance scores were larger than .10 (pallant, 2007). table 7 shows this. the evaluators entered all three of the independent variables (guidance, support and training; employees’ understanding; and employees’ motivation to work harder) into the regression model. upon evaluating the regression model, they found that the model explained 49.3% of the variance of cooperative objective setting. they also found that this model reached statistical significance because the analysis of variance (anova) p value was 0.00 (p < .005). see pallant (2007). guidance, support and training made the strongest unique contribution to explaining cooperative objective setting when the evaluators controlled for all the other variables in the model. this variable had the highest beta value. it also made a statistically significant contribution to predicting cooperative objective setting. when the evaluators scanned the part correlation coefficients, they found that guidance, support and training explained 32.8% of the variance in the dependent variable. employees’ understanding and employees’ motivation had p values larger than 0.05. therefore, they did not make a statistically significant contribution to explaining cooperative objective setting (see table 7). the evaluators conducted a step-wise discriminant analysis to investigate whether the three independent variables (guidance, support and training; employees’ understanding; and employees’ motivation to work harder) could be predictors of the dependent variable: the existing development plan (item 3: ‘i had a performance development plan for 2006’). of the 262 administrative employees, 213 had a performance development plan. table 8 shows the uni-variate anovas of all three independent variables. there was a statically significant difference between all the grouping variable means because the p values for all the variables were smaller than 0.05. the evaluators identified only a single step for this analysis. the only variable they entered was guidance, support and training. this variable had the lowest wilks’ lambda value of 0.93 and the highest f value of 19.43. the tolerance value of this variable was 1.00. this suggests that this variable contributed strongly to the analysis (pallant, 2007). the evaluators found that step 1 accounted for 100% of the variance of whether employees had an existing performance development plan in 2006. in addition, this discriminant function was statistically significant because the p value was 0.00 (p < 0.05). see pallant (2007). the evaluators also found a canonical correlation of 0.26 and an eigenvalue of 0.75. table 9 shows which criterion groupings have the most accurate classifications when the evaluators used the discriminant functions they developed in the analysis. the analysis was more likely to classify accurately predicted group membership of employees who did not have an existing development plan compared to the employees who did have one. ethical considerations top ↑ the ethics in research committee of the faculty of commerce, university of cape town, approved the evaluation. potential benefits and hazards there were no benefits or hazards for participants who took part in the evaluation. recruitment procedures the evaluators distributed the questionnaire electronically to all participants. informed consent on the first page of the questionnaire the purpose, confidentiality of the data and the time it would take to complete were described in detail. data protection the webmaster stripped the data of all identifiers and downloaded the data onto a spreadsheet. the first two evaluators were the only people who had access to the data. table 7: linear regression analysis for variables that predict cooperative objective setting. table 8: discriminant analysis for variables that predict the existing development plan. table 9: classification of results to determine the accuracy of predicted group membership. trustworthiness top ↑ reliability the reliability of the measuring instrument is described on page 6. validity the evaluation focused on a specific programme and did not seek to generalise the findings to other, similar programme. discussion top ↑ the main aim of the evaluation was to assess whether a pay-for-performance (pfp) system, which a south african university introduced for administrative employees, improved their performance. a secondary aim was to examine whether the university implemented the system as it intended to. this evaluation will contribute to the social science literature on whether pfp systems work, and if they do not, why.in general, the results showed that there was a discrepancy between the perceptions of the line managers and those of the administrative staff about the pfp system. the line managers tended to be more positive about the system outcomes than the administrative staff were. the evaluators structured the discussion according to the evaluation questions they set earlier. question 1: training coverage at first glance, the number of staff who received training seems adequate. however, one has to question whether it is acceptable that approximately 40% of administrative staff, who had to complete the complex task of developing measurable objectives, had not had any training. the evaluators recommend that the university presents more training workshops in order to increase the skill levels of administrative staff. question 2: resources it seems that there were adequate resources for implementing the system. for line managers, senior managers emerged as the resource that was most often helpful. these managers could be involved in the training the evaluators suggest. question 3: short-term outcomes understanding: a. did the line managers and the administrative staff understand the main components of the system? from the results, it was clear that line managers understood the system’s goals, operation, measurement and the link between pay and performance better than the administrative staff did. this is quite problematic, as the administrative staff members were the recipients of the system and experienced its consequences. when the university presents follow-up training courses, it should clarify these aspects of the system to the administrative staff. skills: b. did the line managers and administrative staff have the necessary participative skills to implement parts of the system after training? again, line managers rated themselves as more skilled than the administrative staff did in setting performance objectives. line managers also questioned whether the administrative staff had adequate skills for setting objectives. in the evaluators’ experience, it is fatal simply to prescribe specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, timely (smart) objectives in a manual (the performance development resource guide, university of cape town, 2006) without practising how to set these objectives. the evaluators recommend that any additional training should include the clear guidelines of kettner, moroney and martin’s (1999) for setting measurable objectives. c. did line managers have the necessary skills to implement specific aspects of the system? line managers’ self-ratings of their skills showed that they thought they had mastered how to develop a performance management plan and how to give constructive feedback. although more than 70% indicated that they were skilled or highly skilled in rating performance and in differentiating between different levels of performance, additional training in these two aspects might provide better coverage for all skills. plans: d. did administrative staff apply the training to create development plans? at face value, the answer to this question is that they did. in 2005, 74% of administrative staff had plans and this percentage increased to 81% in 2006. however, hr performed a quality check of these plans in 2005 and found that in only eight of 21 departments were the plans satisfactory or good. there was no intervention to improve the quality of the development plans. the evaluators noted earlier that, in the training manuals, the performance objectives of administrative staff did not link to the strategic objectives of the university or the job descriptions of the staff members. one can easily group administrative jobs into job categories (like departmental secretary or finance officer) where there is considerable overlap in performance objectives. one can strengthen the perception that measurement is consistent by clarifying the link between objectives and job descriptions and by emphasising the similarities between objectives in a job category. question 4: longer-term outcomes a. after two implementation cycles, how did line managers and administrative staff rate the effectiveness of the system?too many line managers agreed or strongly agreed that performance management is an administrative task with little pay-off (34.1%) and that it was a lengthy, time-consuming task (54.3%). the clear link between performance objectives and job description or category could change this perception significantly. this link would reduce the number of irrelevant objectives that administrative staff members often create because there are clear parameters for setting objectives. in any event, the evaluators suggest that administrative staff do not set more than between seven and nine objectives. these objectives should focus on the key performance areas of their jobs. essential objectives rather than irrelevant detail should drive performance measurement. of even more concern is the perception of inconsistency in implementing the system, endorsed by 83% of line managers. this poses a threat to the credibility of the system. again, job categories with comparable objectives might reduce the notion that each person’s objectives and their measurement are unique or arbitrary. on the positive side, the results showed that line managers reported high commitment to staff development and the required skills to implement pay-for-performance in their departments. however, when the evaluators compared these opinions, about the availability of training for performance improvement, to those of administrative staff members (see table 5) a different picture emerges. only 34.7% of administrative staff agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that there are adequate training opportunities for improving performance. administrative staff members indicated that, in their opinion, the pfp system had little value. research on the standards required for effective pfp systems showed that the recipients should see the system as fair (barnes-farrell & lynch, 2003), perceive a link between performance and pay (holbeche, 2004; ulrich & brockbank, 2005) and perceive differential rewards for poor and excellent performance (ulrich & brockbank, 2005). the results of the evaluation showed that if one took 50% of administrative staff as an arbitrary cut-off point, one could conclude that more than half of the administrative staff: • did not see the system as fair • did not work harder because of the system • felt that the rewards did not reflect their performance • felt that they did not get credit and recognition for their performance • felt that financial incentives did not increase their motivation to achieve their objectives. where staff had more control over the outcomes of the system, their perceptions were more positive. more than half of them strongly agreed or agreed that their performance objectives were clear enough to show what they were supposed to achieve (58.7%) and that they had agreed on realistic deadlines with their line managers to achieve their objectives (51.6%). these results showed that the recipients of the system were not well disposed towards it. this could jeopardise the whole pfp endeavour. the evaluators recommend an intervention to change these perceptions. they also recommend that the university creates a clear link between objectives and job descriptions or categories in order to introduce the notion of consistency and reinforce perceptions of fairness. thereafter, line managers should receive follow-up training in performance-rating skills. clear performance categories and criteria (standards) are available in current manuals and additional training will strengthen line managers’ confidence in their performance judgements. addressing the link between pay and performance seems to be relatively easy. to date, the university has not implemented the pfp as it intended to. in 2005 (a year after the evaluation), the university committed itself to a pfp system but set the lowest end of the range at a 5% increase. in other words, the poorest performers still received a 5% increase. the upper limits of the range depended on the job class, with the highest job class in the bargaining unit getting the highest possible increase, namely 13.4%. in 2006, the university introduced a major pay correction for administrative staff based on salaries in the national job market. the pfp portion of the total increase all but disappeared with this adjustment. in 2007, the first time the university implemented the pfp performance system as it intended to, it fixed the ranges at between 6.2% and 7% (please note that the evaluation did not cover this period). this range is problematic, as there is too little differentiation between poor and excellent performers. therefore, it undermined one of the main goals of the system. the university managers need to revisit the uneasy alliance between collective bargaining and pfp, taking into account the tendency for unions to compress pay structures in these systems (white & druker, 2000). according to holbeche (2004), the pay element of pfp systems shows what and who organisations value. in the open-ended questions, too many line managers and administrative staff questioned whether the system delivered meaningful rewards and whether there were fair performance decisions. these results do not hold great promise for one to regard the system as effective: recipients and appraisers alike questioned whether pay showed which employees and behaviours the university valued. they also questioned the fairness of the system. these doubts go to the heart of any performance management system. the university needs to address them to improve the system. b. did the pfp system at the university work for some administrative employees and not for others? c. are there interventions or variables that can predict for whom the system would work? figure 1 presented the outcome variables of an effective pfp system. these are cooperative objective setting and existing development plans. using the results they obtained from the evaluation, the evaluators completed the diagram. figure 2 shows that the system worked for administrative employees who had guidance, support and training. this variable consisted of four items. the evaluators discuss each one below. figure 2: programme theory for an effective pay-for-performance system for administrative employees. i receive guidance from my line manager in setting my performance objectives guidance from line managers in setting objectives is important and should aim at defining objectives, in task and behavioural terms, developing observable objectives and setting clear deadlines for achieving these objectives (eichinger et al., 2004; harper, 2003). to ensure that line managers are fully competent when they guide their employees to set objectives, they should receive training in how to set objectives and how to guide their employees effectively. in addition to this, the evaluators recommend that this training focuses on guiding employees to set objectives that satisfy the current and future needs of the university (eichinger et al., 2004). therefore, the evaluators propose that hr educates line managers in how to turn the university’s strategic goals into practical and measurable objectives for administrative employees (lawler, 1990). i receive guidance from my human resources adviser on how to set the performance objectives that are relevant to my job there is little research on the role of hr in supporting or guiding employees in pfp processes. the lack of this research is because of the notion that some hr professionals believe that their role is strategic and not participative when it comes to implementing pfp systems (brown & purcell, 2007). furthermore, there is often an understanding that hr is responsible for designing programmes, whilst line managers are accountable for implementing programmes. because of this split in responsibilities, line managers often find themselves in situations where they have insufficient time or financial resources to implement the pfp system effectively (brown & purcell, 2007). therefore, support and guidance from hr is vital for implementing reward systems (brown & purcell, 2007). this is consistent with the results of this evaluation because the evaluators found that the pfp system worked for administrative employees who received guidance from their hr advisers on how to set objectives that are relevant to their jobs.according to streib and nigro (1993), this type of process training guides employees to set clear and realistic performance objectives. it also defines the roles and responsibilities of managers and employees when they set performance objectives (purcell & hutchinson, 2007). process training can also provide clear guidelines on how employees and their managers should be contributing to, and interacting in, the process of setting objectives. this will improve the implementation of the system (streib & nigro, 1993). the university’s performance development resource guide (university of cape town, 2006) implied that hr advisers should help administrative employees to set their objectives during the formal training sessions. the evaluators suggest that this supporting role includes assessing the quality of the development plans (armstrong, 2006). although hr identified the poor quality of existing development plans during a previous round of implementation, there were no interventions to rectify this. the effectiveness of process training and quality assurance are not the only aspects that need attention. another is training coverage. only 40% of administrative staff indicated that they attended process training. voluntary attendance is not an option when it comes to understanding a new pfp system. the evaluators also suggest that the university communicates information about training workshops clearly and explicitly to administrative staff because the main reason that they did not attend was that they were unaware of the time or place of the workshops. i receive regular informal advice from my line manager about how to improve my job performance receiving regular informal advice from line managers on how to improve performance was another of the items that contributed to the successful functioning of the pfp system at the university. according to armstrong (2003), regular performance feedback is one of the most important aspects of effective pfp systems. this feedback reinforces perceptions about the fairness of the system (armstrong, 2003).the evaluators recommend that this informal feedback process extends to training for line managers. it could include how to distinguish between good and bad performance, how to give appropriate feedback according to performance and how frequently to give informal feedback (armstrong, 2003). there are adequate training opportunities in my department to enable me to achieve my objectives it is the responsibility of hr and line managers to ensure that employees have access to adequate training opportunities. hr ought to ensure that the training is appropriate for developing administrative ability. line managers should provide opportunities for administrative staff to attend training programmes during work time and to practise what they have learned at work (armstrong, 2003). however, only 34.7% of administrative staff members agreed that there were adequate training opportunities for improving performance. appropriate training, access to this training and opportunities to practise, as well as to apply, the new skills or knowledge in the workplace could change the perception that there are insufficient opportunities to develop. human resource’s additional role in a pay-for-performance system it is clear that the four items the evaluators have discussed are associated with line managers’ support and guidance. however, enabling and eliciting this support from managers is not simple. line managers often point out that it is difficult to provide the necessary support because of conflicting priorities, heavy workloads as well as lack of training and support (brown & purcell, 2007). therefore, in order to ensure that managers support their employees properly, the evaluators suggest that managers themselves receive support from their hr department. hr’s support should involve training and regular communication between the two parties, shared accountability for implementing pfp processes as well as giving feedback to line managers about any on-going monitoring processes (brown & purcell, 2007). conclusions in conclusion, the administrative staff whose working lives the pfp system affected had a low opinion of its effectiveness. with regard to the goals of the system, which are to improve the performance of employees and to reward excellence, one must conclude that the university has not achieved them. administrative staff members stated unambiguously that they did not work harder because of the system. line managers and administrative staff members felt that the reward part of the system did not distinguish between poor and excellent performance. however, there are positive results that the university could use to improve the system. line managers seemed to be confident about their understanding and skills to implement the system. a clear link between job description, or category, and performance objectives as well as reducing the number of performance objectives would address line managers’ current perceptions of the amount of time the exercise of setting objectives takes. after training, line managers could also clarify the range of performance standards and the link between these standards and payment to administrative staff. three factors made implementing the pfp system difficult at this university. firstly, after decades of incremental increases, administrative staff found themselves in the unfamiliar territory of performance scrutiny. secondly, a major salary adjustment in 2006 masked the effects of the pfp system. thirdly, the university introduced the system in a unionised environment where collective bargaining sets pay parameters. it will take more time to stabilise the system and attend to the unfavourable perceptions of the recipients. with a few more interventions to improve the system, the university could achieve its goals of improving the performance of employees and of rewarding excellent work. the literature and the findings of this evaluation confirm that guidance, support and training are vital for the pfp system to work at the university. this factor relates directly to programme implementation and its importance. it seems that the pfp system at the university was ineffective because of poor implementation rather than poor design. the evaluators mentioned earlier that line managers and hr often disagree and deny their responsibilities when implementing the pfp system. as a result, implementing the system usually suffers. implementers often ignore the human dynamics of implementation. therefore, most of the recommendations this evaluation makes relate to issues of interaction and communication between administrative employees, line managers and hr. these recommendations are practical and will clarify roles as well as improve implementation. better implementation seems to be the key to an effective pfp system at the university. suggestions for future research the university used the recommendations in this evaluation to improve the implementation of its pfp system in 2009. the evaluators suggest that the university conducts a systematic process and outcome evaluation to assess whether the system is now achieving its intended outcomes. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them when they wrote this paper. authors’ contributions l.j. (university of cape town) and j.l.-p. (university of cape town) completed the first part of the evaluation as contractors. k.e. (university of cape town) completed the second part of the evaluation as a requirement for her master’s degree in programme evaluation. j.l.-p. (university of cape town) supervised the evaluation. references top ↑ armstrong, m. (2003). employee reward. london: chartered institute of personnel and development. armstrong, m. (2006). a handbook of human resource management practice. london: kogan page. barnes-farrell, j.l., & lynch, a.m. (2003). performance appraisal and feedback programs. in j.e. edwards, j.c. scott & n.s. raju (eds.), the human resources program-evaluation handbook, (pp. 155–176). thousand oaks: sage. belcher, j.g. (1996). how to design and implement a results-orientated variable pay system. new york: amacom. brown, d., & purcell, j. (2007). reward management: on the line. compensation and benefits review, may, 28–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0886368707302649 bruns, w.j. (1996). performance measurement, evaluation, and incentives. boston: harvard business school press. cannell, m., & wood, s. (1992). incentive pay: impact and evolution. london: ipd and nedo. doran, t. (2008). lessons from early experience with pay for performance. journal of disease management & health outcomes, 16, 69–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.2165/00115677-200816020-00001 dowling, b., & richardson, r. (1997). evaluating performance-related-pay for managers in the national health service. international journal of human resource management, 8, 348–366. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/095851997341685 edwards, j.e., scott, j.c., & raju, n. (2003).the human resources program-evaluation handbook. thousand oaks: sage publications. eichinger, r.w., lombardo, m.m., & ulrich, d. (2004). 100 things you need to know: best people practices for managers and hr. minneapolis: lominger limited. gomez-mejia, l., wiseman, l.m., & dykes, b.j. (2005). agency problems in diverse contexts: a global perspective. journal of management studies, 42, 1507–1517. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2005.00554.x harper, c.s. (2003). adding purpose to performance reviews. journal of training and development, september, 53–55. henderson, i.r. (2006). compensation management in a knowledge-based world. (10th edn.). new jersey: pearson education. holbeche, l. (2004). aligning human resources and business strategy. amsterdam: elsevier. kettner, p.m., moroney, r.m., & martin, l.l. (1999). designing and managing programs. an effectiveness-based approach. (2nd edn.). london: sage publications. lawler, e.e. (1990). strategic pay: aligning organizational strategy and pay systems. san francisco: jossey-bass. pallant, j. (2007). spss: survival manual. (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw hill. pennings, j.m. (1993). executive reward systems: a cross-national comparison. journal of management studies, 30, 261–280. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.1993.tb00304.x purcell, j., & hutchinson, s. (2007). front-line managers as agents in the hrm-performance causal chain: theory, analysis and evidence. human resource management journal, 17, 3–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2007.00022.x reilly, p. (2003). new approaches in reward: their relevance to the public sector. journal of management studies, 30, 245–253. rosenthal, m.b., landon, b.e., howitt, k., song, h.r., & epstein, a.m. (2007). climbing up the pay-for-performance learning curve: where are the early adopters now? journal of health affairs, 26, 1674–1682. http://dx.doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.26.6.1674 , pmid:17978386 schwab, d.l., & olson, c.a. (1990). merit pay practices: implications for pay-performance relationships. industrial and labor relations review, 43, 237–253. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2523581 scriven, m. (1991). evaluation thesaurus. (4th edn.). newbury park: sage. streib, g., &. nigro, l.g. (1993). pay for performance in local governments: programmatic differences and perceived utility. public productivity & management review, 17, 145–159. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3380510 ulrich, d., & brockbank, w. (2005). the hr value proposition. boston: harvard business school press. university of cape town. (2006). salary assessment resource guide. rondebosch: cape town. university of cape town. (2006). performance development resource guide. rondebosch: cape town. white, g., & druker, j. (2000). rewards management: a critical text. london: routledge. wright, a. (2004). reward management in context. london: chartered institute of personnel and development. article information authors: michael ochurub1 mark bussin1 xenia goosen1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: mark bussin postal address: po box 524, auckland park 2006, south africa dates: received: 03 june 2011 accepted: 04 apr. 2012 published: 20 sept. 2012 how to cite this article: ochurub, m., bussin, m., & goosen, x. (2012). organisational readiness for introducing a performance management system. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(1), art. #389, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i1.389 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. organisational readiness for introducing a performance management system in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study    • research objectives    • trends from the research literature       • performance management systems       • the importance of change readiness when introducing a new business system       • pre-conditions and key factors to consider before introducing performance management systems    • statement of the problem and specific research objectives    • the potential value of the study • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • reliability of the change readiness inventory instrument       • validity of the change readiness inventory instrument       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • clear communication of purpose    • clear vision and commitment    • working environment    • training    • organisational structure and policies    • change leadership and interventions    • attitudes and feelings about introducing a performance management system    • willingness of employees to be part of a change process • ethical considerations • discussion    • recommendations    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the successful introduction of performance management systems to the public service requires careful measurement of readiness for change. research purpose: this study investigated the extent to which employees were ready for change as an indication of whether their organisation was ready to introduce a performance management system (pms). motivation for the study: introducing system changes in organisations depends on positive employee preconditions. there is some debate over whether organisations can facilitate these preconditions. this research investigates change readiness linked to the introduction of a pms in a public sector organisation. the results add to the growing literature on levels of change readiness. research design, approach and method: the researchers used a quantitative, questionnaire-based design. because the organisation was large, the researchers used stratified sampling to select a sample from each population stratum. the sample size was 460, which constituted 26% of the total population. they used a south african change readiness questionnaire to elicit employee perceptions and opinions. main findings: the researchers found that the organisation was not ready to introduce a pms. the study identified various challenges and key factors that were negatively affecting the introduction of a pms. practical/managerial implications: the intention to develop and introduce performance management systems is generally to change the attitudes, values and approaches of managers and employees to the new strategies, processes and plans to improve productivity and performance. however, pre-existing conditions and attitudes could have an effect. it is essential to ensure that organisations are ready to introduce performance management systems and to provide sound change leadership to drive the process effectively. this study contributes to the body of knowledge about the challenges and factors organisations should consider when they introduce performance management systems. contribution/value-add: this research adds to the knowledge about aspects of change readiness, change management and introducing change initiatives. introduction top ↑ key focus of the study a growing body of research reveals that systematic and thorough workplace diagnosis and documents will provide the real basis for improving performance at organisational, process and worker levels (swanson, 1996). the council of the organisation the researchers selected for this research realised that it was necessary to improve its efficiency and effectiveness in delivering services and hoped to change fundamentally how its organisation operated. to improve efficiency and effectiveness, the council thought that it was essential that the organisation was ready to ensure the successful introduction of change initiatives. an assessment of organisational readiness should lead to the development of a model of the preconditions necessary to introduce performance management systems appropriately to organisations, with greater emphasis on employee buy-in, involvement in the process and proper communication of the change process (karve, 2009). all the previous attempts to design and introduce a performance management system (pms) to the organisation had failed. therefore, the key focus of this study was to conduct a diagnosis to determine the readiness of the organisation to introduce one. background to the study the researchers conducted this study in a large public organisation in namibia. before 1998, the organisation had a performance appraisal (measurement) system in place. the organisation used it to measure staff performance annually. the system had weaknesses because it did not set performance standards and was very open to bias, nepotism and favouritism during the performance appraisal process. as a result, the organisation suspended the performance appraisal system in 1998. since then, the organisation has not introduced an institutional mechanism to improve, measure, monitor or evaluate its staff and the performance of the organisation. all municipalities are subject to administrative and operational changes to improve their performance and productivity, as well as to achieve broader organisational objectives (kok, 2007). in a response to the lack of a pms, the city council decided to design and introduce a functioning pms as part of a change process. the present research aimed to investigate the level of readiness of the organisation to introduce a pms. the rationale for this is that organisations cannot introduce performance management systems successfully without the buy-in and involvement of all employees and a strategy to develop human resources so that everyone has a clear understanding of the change initiatives and their benefits to employees and their organisations. therefore, it is crucial to unearth the key factors or pre-conditions for introducing performance management systems and to determine and evaluate the attitudes and feelings of employees about doing so. research objectives the aim of this study was to report the results of the organisational diagnosis the researchers conducted to determine the readiness of the organisation to introduce a pms. the primary objective was to determine the levels of change readiness that might affect its introduction. the secondary objective was to determine the challenges and factors that would probably accompany introducing a pms. trends from the research literature organisations operate in complex and changing environments. they grow in productivity, activities and profitability, which pose greater challenges to them and require changes in the way they operate (carnall, 2007). all these challenges and increasing demands from external environments might mean that they have to cultivate a performanceand achievement–orientated culture (armstrong, 2006; kaplan & norton, 1996; kates, marconi & mannle jr., 2001; swanson, 1996). introducing a pms to an organisation is a strategic change and one of the most fundamental ways of improving productivity, efficiency and effectiveness and, ultimately, increasing revenue (nelongo, 2011).change readiness is the best early indicator of what lies ahead. the scars that successful and unsuccessful initiatives have left are others (bridges, 2010). the key to change readiness is whether the employees are ready to do their jobs in new environments (madsen, miller & john, 2005). introducing performance management systems as change initiatives is pivotal to the strategies of organisations and they should ensure organisational readiness before doing so (canterucci, 2008). when organisational readiness for change is high, the employees are more likely to initiate change, exert greater effort, show greater persistence and display more cooperative behaviour (armenakis & harris, 2002). all over the world, local governments are under pressure to modernise, transform and become accountable to their communities. one way they are achieving this is by introducing performance management systems (williams, 2006). however, implementing these systems requires change and the success of these changes depends on the readiness of the organisations. organisations need to manage change in order to reduce resistance to it by, for example, introducing performance management systems. change management coordinates a transition to achieve lasting change in organisations (jones, jimmieson & griffiths, 2005). organisations often present it as a process and use tools and techniques to manage people in order to achieve the required business outcomes (nickols, 2006; robbins, odendaal & roodt, 2003). a key starting point is to determine when organisations are ready to change. change readiness includes the management strategies that organisations use to address any resistance in their workforces to the new initiatives (stratman, 2002). organisations’ readiness for change depends on the level of employees’ commitment to the change and whether they believe the change can happen (weiner, 2009). performance management systems managing performance is essential for any organisation. it creates a framework that offers encouragement, support and guidance and helps to establish a performance-orientated culture (dixon, 2004; walters, 1995). olve, roy and wetter (2004) argue that performance management systems create organisational cultures of personal responsibility for business and personal improvement. other research has argued that a pms improves service delivery through a culture of performance dialogue, improves performance against specific organisational goals, improves employees’ understanding of the link between performance and organisational goals and leads to positive behaviour to achieve them (armstrong, 2006; decenzo & robbins, 2005; dixon, 2004; hale, 2004; kates et al., 2001; poister, 2003; worldatwork, 2006).however, these writers assume that a pms is already in place or that is an acceptable innovation to the organisation. being able to develop a pms has its own challenges and cultural resistance. organisations need to be ready for the change and need to manage the change to performance management systems. robbins et al. (2003) argue that employees may feel threatened, in terms of their interests and job security, if organisations just introduce new performance management systems. on a systemic level, it is important that one recognises that organisations need to be ready for the new system. this includes the fact that employees need to understand what their organisations will achieve by introducing performance management systems, why they need the systems, how they will implement the changes and who will drive them (robbins et al., 2003). the importance of change readiness when introducing a new business system change readiness is the best early indicator of how organisations will respond to the introduction of new business systems, like performance management systems. the types of performance systems that organisations have tried in the past will affect the responses. therefore, it is crucial that change agents, and those who drive change initiatives in organisations, should consider the extent to which employees are committed to the change and whether they believe that their organisations are able to change (weiner, 2009). when organisational readiness for change is high, employees are more likely to be part of the change process (armenakis & harris, 2002; madsen et al., 2005). on the other hand, when organisational readiness for change is low or non-existent, employees are likely to resist the change, put less effort into its implementation and persevere less in the face of implementation challenges (weiner, amick & lee, 2008). therefore, it is essential for managers to investigate the level of change readiness of their organisations before introducing new systems. failure to do so may result in wasted finances and resources on systems that employees do not accept and may undermine. van tonder (2004) argues that organisations need to identify and analyse their ‘self-concepts’, or the views they have of themselves. they should also analyse how other stakeholders see them (bacal, 2007; rogan, 2002). other features of successful change in organisations include having clear change architectures (bunker & alban, 1996; carnall, 2007; jacobs, 1994), the buy-in and acceptance of stakeholders (keet, 2005), clear overviews of the goals and directions of the change processes and the roles people will play (hale, 2004). it is also essential to be open to hearing frustrations, engaging in dialogue and managing expectations (ainsworth, smith & miller, 2002). leaders must create a sense of urgency in their organisations, build teams that can guide the change processes, continually communicate the need for change and then empower people to carry out the required change efforts (allio, 2005; amanto, 2009; bennis, 2006; stensgaard, 2007). poor leadership during the change process can mean that organisations become dysfunctional (stacey, 2003). jones et al. (2005) assessed the effects of change readiness about introducing a new computer system to a state department. the authors found that readiness for change was associated with a positive organisational culture. this readiness was also associated with the successful introduction of the system. interestingly, attempts to develop change readiness cultures may not lead to successful introductions of new systems. abdinnour-helm, lengnick-hall and lengnick-hall (2003) investigated a programme to develop positive pre-implementation attitudes about an enterprise resource planning system. the authors found that length of time with the firm and position had a bigger effect on acceptance of the system than did any attempt to develop positive attitudes beforehand. pre-conditions and key factors to consider before introducing performance management systems certain pre-conditions need to exist before organisations introduce performance management systems. managers must mobilise their organisations, communicate the roles and responsibilities of those involved in the change processes and ensure that the processes are inclusive, participatory, transparent, simple, realistic, fair, objective, developmental and non-punitive (amatayakul, 2005; hardison, 1998; kok, 2007; o'connor & fiol, 2006; walters, 1995; williams, 2002).canterucci (2008) argues that performance management systems, as change initiatives, are pivotal to the strategies of organisations and they should ensure that they are ready. d’ambrosio (2007) proposed that organisations should structure the planning to include logical thought processes that will address the external and internal environments and look at the past, present and future. in the current research, the managers of the organisation felt that the changing internal and external environments (social, political, technological and competitive) made it essential to develop a pms (costello, 1994; weiss & hartle, 1997; williams, 2002). statement of the problem and specific research objectives the council of the organisation became increasingly concerned about the quality of service it was delivering to its clients. however, they were also aware that it is difficult to measure and address the performance of staff members properly without a well-designed and successful pms. the question was whether the organisation was ready to introduce a pms. in addition, the organisation needed to identify what factors it should consider before doing so, and to determine the attitudes and feelings of employees about introducing a pms.the current study aimed to determine the key factors or pre-conditions for introducing a pms in order to ensure successful implementation. the researchers also determined and evaluated the attitudes and feelings of the employees about a pms. the potential value of the study this research contributes to the theoretical knowledge of change readiness by expanding the body of knowledge about the readiness of organisations before introducing performance management systems. therefore, various employers in the public sector can use this study to prepare their organisations for change and the successful introduction of change initiatives.the findings of this study will influence the decision-making processes about introducing a pms effectively as part of a change process for the selected organisation. it will also serve as a guideline for determining the change readiness of other municipalities. research design top ↑ research approach the researchers used a questionnaire-based, quantitative design (kuhn, 2009). they used a south african inventory to assess employees’ perceptions about an organisation’s readiness for introducing a pms. research method research participants the organisation had 1740 employees (see table 1). the researchers used stratified random sampling to select a separate simple random sample from each population stratum (levy & lemeshow, 2011). table 1: total number of employees. there were ten departments in the organisation: • office of the chief executive officer • finance • transportation • city police and emergency management services • economic and community development • planning, urbanisation and environment • infrastructure and waste management • information communication and technology • electricity • human resources. there were seven groups, or strata, of employees in these departments (see table 1): • strategic executives • middle managers • supervisors or specialists • skilled workers • semi-skilled workers • unskilled workers • contract workers (hitchcock & hughes, 1995; parsons, 1984; salant & dillman, 1994). the researchers defined the study population and then determined the sample size. given the questionnaire and nature of the questionnaire, they regarded a sample of more than 20% as appropriate (salant & dillman, 1994). the researchers distributed questionnaires to 460 employees. they included 300 (65.2%) semi-skilled and unskilled employees at a-b bands, 155 (33.7%) skilled employees at e-c bands and five (1.1%) employees who had contracts. this final sample constituted 26% of the total population. the stratified random sampling technique meant that every employee in each stratum had an equal chance of selection and ensured a representative sample of the population (plant & douglas, 2006). however, employees completed and returned only 432 questionnaires. this number constitutes 25% of the total population. measuring instruments the researchers chose the change readiness inventory (cri), which roodt and kinnear (2007) designed, to develop the questionnaire for the study.the cri uses an integrated theoretical model of inertia-related concepts or inertia contributory factors that numerous authors have identified (roodt & kinnear, 2007). the cri enables users to identify a number of specific organisational change facilitating or inhibiting factors, which they can group into two broad categories: transformational and transactional variables. the questionnaire for the study consisted of five questions based on biographical information and used 58 multiple-choice questions. all the questions in sections 2–13 came from the cri, which its designers developed strictly for use in an organisational (corporate) setting for research and for diagnostic (consulting) purposes (roodt & kinnear, 2007). given that the questionnaire has a corporate and consulting slant, not all questions applied to a parastatal. the researchers excluded these questions. they acknowledge that this could affect the reliability of the questionnaire. an example of the scale is shown in table 2. table 2: example of the scale used. reliability of the change readiness inventory instrument van rooyen (2007) reports a cronbach alpha (internal consistency) of .98 on the inertia scale and .89 on the ’external change forces, change strategy and imposed personal demands‘ scale of the cri. these figures come from an initial study that roodt and kinnear (2007) conducted on 617 employees from junior to senior management in different industries.other researchers report similar reliability scores. for example, researchers found a cronbach’s alpha of .99 in a group of 340 managers in australia and a cronbach’s alpha of .78 for a group of 347 trainees who worked for a state organisation. the internal consistency reliabilities for the twelve dimensions varied between .677 and .896 with only two reliabilities below .80 (van rooyen, 2007). validity of the change readiness inventory instrument van rooyen (2007) argued that the process followed in constructing the questionnaire was consistent with the generally accepted test construction procedures that schepers (1992) and foxcroft (2005) suggested. this ensured that the questionnaire would have content validity with a high degree of face validity. the factor analytical procedures that iterative item reliability analyses follow shows that the instrument also has structural validity (factorial validity) based on the first robust factor extracted in the reported studies. van rooyen (2007) maintains that high item-total score correlations also show that the items measure the same larger construct, namely organisational change readiness or inertia. research procedure the researchers distributed 155 (33.7%) questionnaires via email to the strategic executives, the divisional or sectional heads and employees in the c bands as well as five (1.1%) questionnaires to employees on contract. they arranged with the divisional or sectional heads and other supervisors to meet 300 (65.2%) semi-skilled and unskilled employees during lunch or after working hours in the boardroom. they reviewed all the questions with the participants to ensure that they understood them. the employees completed and returned the questionnaires immediately after they had completed them.the researchers allowed some participants (10%), who needed more time to think about specific questions, to take questionnaires home and complete them at their own pace, as munn and drever (1995) suggested. these participants returned the completed questionnaires the next day via their divisional heads and supervisors. statistical analysis the researchers analysed the questionnaires using descriptive statistics. the researchers explored and presented the individual variables to show specific values, to show the highest and lowest values, trends, proportions and distribution values (saunders, lewis & thornhill, 2003). they compared the variables to show specific values and interdependence as well as the trends and proportions (cohen, manion & morrison, 2000). results top ↑ a synopsis of the biographical data is reflected in table 3. table 3 also shows that 432 employees completed the questionnaire. however, only 424 respondents indicated their genders. the number of respondents the researchers selected from each department varies according to its size. the table also categorises the different job levels into strategic executives (se), middle management (mm), supervisors or specialists (ss), skilled staff (sk), semi-skilled staff (ssk), unskilled staff (usk), and temporary staff on contracts (con) and gives the number of respondents in each category. most of the respondents had worked for the organisation for more than two or three years. table 3a: gender distribution of respondents, number of respondents from each department and job levels. table 3b: the respondents’ number of years worked for the organisation. clear communication of purpose the responses related to clear communication of purpose and understanding of the purpose of a pms is given in table 4. the results show that 46.9% of respondents did not understand the purpose of introducing a pms. in addition, 46.4% of the participants were not familiar with the content of a pms. respondents attribute the failure to introduce a pms to a poor work climate, poor communication, negative personal images, poor change leadership and no buy-in or support from employees. table 4: clear communication of purpose. clear vision and commitment the respondents’ responses to questions about a vision and commitment are given in table 5. the results suggest that participants did not believe that the top managers had a clear vision of the proposed change. employees did not have confidence in the ability of the top managers to manage the implementation of change initiatives. the participants also indicated that the top managers did not show commitment to the change initiatives and that they did not always communicate the proposed initiatives to the employees. table 5: clear vision and commitment. working environment respondents’ responses related to the work environment are given in table 6. participants indicated that the working environment was not conducive to making suggestions for improvement and that there was uncertainty about whether the organisation considered the ideas of employees for change initiatives. of the participants, 58% indicated that the employees were not encouraged to make suggestions about introducing a pms. most of the respondents (68%) indicated that employees in their respective work units did not encourage each other to support the change processes because they did not see them as positive. they also believed it would not be easy for people to make changes to the content of their jobs once the organisation introduced the pms. table 6: work environment in the organisation. training respondents’ responses relating to training are given in table 7. the results show that the most significant problem was that employees do not receive training to cope with new job requirements and that they fear that they will not cope with increased job variety. most of the respondents (58.9%) felt that the change would not bring about new challenges in employees’ jobs. table 7: training provided by organisation. organisational structure and policies the respondents’ responses that relate to organisational structure and policies are given in table 8. the respondents revealed the weakness of the organisation’s structure because 41.9% of the respondents stated that the structure of the organisation was not conducive for introducing a pms. of the participants, 38.2% stated that they were uncertain, whereas the remaining 19.9% participants indicated that the structure was conducive for introducing a pms. table 8: organisational structure and policies. change leadership and interventions the responses relating to change leadership and interventions are given in table 9. the respondents indicated that:• the most influential people in the organisation did not champion the introduction of change initiatives • the organisation did not always plan the change initiatives well • the organisation did not consider all the components of the business when it planned the change initiatives • the organisation did not involve the employees, who are affected by change, in drafting the change plans. these responses could explain why employees were not committed to change initiatives in the organisation. table 9: change leadership and interventions. attitudes and feelings about introducing a performance management system respondents’ attitudes and feelings about introducing a pms are given in table 10. the findings show that employees would not commit to achieving the objectives of a pms and that they did not believe that introducing a pms would improve the performance of the organisation. most respondents did not believe that introducing a pms would have a positive effect on their earnings and they were not sure whether introducing a pms would improve the relationships between staff members and their supervisors. respondents did not see introducing a pms as fair to employees. instead, they saw it as an additional stress factor at work. table 10: attitudes and feelings about introducing a performance management system. willingness of employees to be part of a change process the responses relating to the willingness of employees to be part of a change process are given in table 11. most respondents indicated that they:• would willingly choose to be a part of a change process (79.5%) • were likely to change the way they work because of the change process (71.9%) • were likely to focus on improving the current situation rather than pursuing the change process (56%) • were unlikely to take the blame when the change process or its elements failed (48.1%) • were willing to provide support for the rest of the change process (63.1%). table 11: the willingness of employees to be part of a change process. ethical considerations top ↑ all participation was voluntary and participants could withdraw at any stage. the researchers did not ask for personal details and did not know the identity of respondents. this voluntary process did not infringe on the rights of any respondents. discussion top ↑ the results showed that employees were not ready for a new pms. of primary importance was the fact that many employees did not understand what a pms was. this basic level of knowledge is required before organisations introduce new systems. it suggests that organisations need to improve communication and training levels before introducing new systems.the finding that employees felt that top managers did not show any commitment to the change initiatives is significant. without organisational buy-in and leadership from the top, a new system is unlikely to succeed. these findings show that the work climate was not conducive for the change process at the time. most participants argued that: • people in their respective work units did not encourage each other to support the change process (68%) • people did not see the change as positive for their respective work units (59%) • the people the organisation selected to act as change agents were not fully trained (54%) • there is no counselling available to people who suffer from the emotional effects associated with the change initiative (64%). these intra-personal and inter-personal features would hinder support for the change process and might undermine it. organisations need adequate preparation, education, communication and leadership to create the positive preconditions for change. one of the most fundamental aspects for change to be successful is the motivation of employees to change. it reduces resistance to change and ensures greater buy-in from employees. however, it emerged from the data the researchers collected that people were not looking forward to the introduction of a pms and that a pms would not benefit them. of the respondents, 74% indicated that employees were not committed to achieving the objectives of a pms. the study also considered the feelings of the employees about the change initiative. most of the respondents indicated that they did not see the introduction of a pms as fair to employees. the study found that most of the respondents had a negative perception of a pms because they see the introduction of a pms as an additional stress factor at work. most also did not feel that a new pms would be different from the previous unsuccessful efforts. the drawbacks and negative experiences of the previous system might have caused this situation. the findings showed that employees did not have a clear understanding of the change process. in this context, hale (2004) noted that employees should have a conceptual understanding of what a change initiative entails and how they can benefit from such a new system. kok (2007) and van tonder (2004) echoed this view and contended that, without communication, change cannot happen and employees should understand that communication would enable them to see change as valid and relevant. lorenzi and riley (2000) contended that better communication about change initiatives in organisations would ensure continuous dialogue between managers, or supervisors, and subordinates. werner and asch (2007) and kim (2009) supported this view and stated further that dialogue should be open, direct, and respectful, and should use shared change responsibility and new ideas as its basis. it is clear from the data the researchers collected that employees lacked motivation and that this was because they lacked confidence in the leaders of the organisation. thach and thompson (2007), as well as kelman (2005), emphasised a climate of trust between the leader and the rest of the team because trust brings hope for a better future and makes it much easier to cope with drastic change. the data the researchers collected showed that the organisation did not encourage employees to make suggestions about introducing a new pms. amanto (2009) contended that the best way to involve employees in a change process is by empowering and encouraging them to share and provide new ideas and to make sure that organisations communicate the reasons for the changes well and that all member of groups understand them easily. the literature the researchers reviewed emphasised the proper planning of the change process, the timing of the introduction, the commitment of employees and leaders as well as consideration of various business components like structure, culture, vision, strategy and mission (leighton holdings limited, 2010; sparrow, 2008; su, baird & blair, 2009; witcher & chau, 2008). the researchers identified all of these factors as challenges in this study. they also regarded the period for making the change as unrealistic. it was also clear that the organisation had not planned the change initiative well. the findings showed that employees did not receive training to cope with their new job requirements and that they would not cope with the increased job variety. the fear of some respondents (58%), who argued that people would not reach their potential after the organisation introduced the pms, also supported this. this is quite possible given the absence of adequate training. the researchers established that the participants were sceptical as to whether introducing a new pms would improve relationships between staff members and their supervisors. nelongo (2011) identified poor relationships as one of the main causes of poorly implemented performance management systems because peer groups, with their social structures, elicit more response from employees than the incentives and controls of managers do. recommendations the researchers make the recommendations that follow.because of the lack of knowledge and communication about performance management systems, organisations should manage their stakeholders and conduct a stakeholder impact analysis to address the concerns, challenges and assumptions of the stakeholders before introducing a pms. organisations should develop communication strategies to ensure that the information they provide aligns with the project goals, organisational objectives as well as their visions and missions. organisations should indicate the success factors for introducing performance management systems and conduct workshops with the relevant stakeholders to give them, and those concerned with the change processes, a clear understanding of the visions, missions and strategies as well as the outcomes the change processes will achieve. it is vital for organisations to build a case for change (cfc) for introducing performance management systems. it should be based on preparing the change visions, developing them and understanding the changes. organisations should allocate sufficient personnel to serve as change agents and develop them so that they can facilitate the change processes. they should conduct change impact assessments in order to identify risks and the effects of change on people and business, and subsequently develop action plans to manage the effects of change. organisations should develop leadership and build capacity to enable and encourage strong change leadership in order to ensure that line managers drive the change initiatives and that the most influential people in the organisations champion them. organisations should develop and implement workforce-transitioning plans. they would include identifying skill and competency gaps, training, education, competency feedback, results and developing continuity plans conclusion this study investigated the extent to which employees of a selected organisation were ready for a new pms. the researchers used a quantitative, questionnaire-based design. a sample of 460 employees completed a change readiness questionnaire to elicit perceptions and opinions about change readiness and the introduction of a new pms. the most important principles of successful change management and implementation are communication, involvement and inclusion. this means that people change when they understand the need for change, when they are involved in the process and when they are empowered. the researchers found that the organisation was not ready to introduce a new pms and that the employees had negative attitudes and feelings about a new pms. there is no doubt that the employees were willing to be a part of the change process if the organisation had planned, managed and communicated it to ensure that all employees understood and bought into it. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them when they wrote this paper. authors’ contributions the authors contributed equally to the conceptual development and supervision of this research. references top ↑ abdinnour-helm, s., lengnick-hall, m.l., & lengnick-hall, c.a. (2003). pre-implementation attitudes and organizational readiness for implementing an enterprise resource planning system. european journal of operational research, 146(2), 258–273. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0377-2217(02)00548-9ainsworth, m., smith, n., & miller, a. (2002). managing performance managing people: understanding and improving team performance. australia: prentice hall. allio, r.j. (2005). leadership development: teaching versus learning. management decision, 43(7/8), 1071–1077. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00251740510610071 amanto, m. (2009). change leadership skills. retrieved december 14, 2010, from http://changeleadership.com amatayakul, m. (2005). ehr? assess readiness first. healthcare financial management, 59, 112–113. armenakis, a.a., & harris, s.g. (2002). crafting a change message to create transformational readiness. journal of organisational change management, 15, 169–183. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09534810210423080 armstrong, m. (2006). performance management: key strategies and practical guidelines. (3rd edn.). london: kogan page. bacal, r. (2007). change management. retrieved 06 july, 2010, from http://www.work911.com/articles/leadchange.htm bennis, w. (2006). leadership and change: becoming a leader. retrieved 13 december, 2010, from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadchg.html bridges, w. (2010). managing transitions: 3 guidelines to successful change management. retrieved 20 september, 2010, from http://www.williambridges.com bunker, b.b., & alban, b.t. (1996). large group interventions: engaging the whole system of rapid change. san francisco: jossey-bass. canterucci, j. (2008). change, leadership and growth. retrieved 30 january, 2011, from http://www.corpchange.com/resources/articles/lackofchangereadinesscancostmillions.aspx carnall, c.a. (2007). managing change in organisations. (5th edn.). united kingdom: pearson education limited. cohen, l., manion, l., & morrison, k. (2000). research methods in education. london: routledge falmer. costello, s.j. (1994). effective performance management – the business skills express series. new york: mcgraw-hill. d’ambrosio, c. (2007). catalysing change: a turnaround success. retrieved october 26, 2009, from http://www.isixsigma.com/library/content/c030505a.as decenzo, d.a., & robbins, s.p. (2005). fundamentals of human resource management. (8th edn.). usa: john wiley & sons. dixon, r. (2004). the management task. (3rd edn.). new york: esevier butterworth-heinemann. foxcroft, c. (2005). developing a psychological measure. in c. foxcroft & g. roodt (eds.), an introduction to psychological assessment in the south african context. (pp. 46–56). cape town: oxford university press southern africa. hale, j. (2004). performance-based management: what every manager should do to get results. san francisco: john wiley & sons ltd. hardison, c. (1998). readiness, action, and resolve for change: do health care leaders have what it takes? quality management health care, 6, 44–51. pmid:10178159 hitchcock, g., & hughes, d. (1995). research and the teacher. (2nd edn.). london: routledge. jacobs, r.w. (1994). real time strategic change. san francisco: berrett-koehler. jones, r.a., jimmieson, n.l., & griffiths, a. (2005). the impact of organisational culture and reshaping capabilities on change implementation success: the mediating role of readiness for change. journal of management studies, 42, 361–386. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2005.00500.x kaplan, r.s., & norton, d.p. (1996). the balance scorecard: translating strategy into action. boston: harvard business school press. karve, v. (2009). implementation and change management: force field analysis. retrieved september 16, 2010, from http://www.vikramkarve.sulekha.com kates, j., marconi, k., & mannle jr., t.e. (2001). developing a performance management system for a federal public health programme: the ryan white care act titles i and ii. evaluation and programme planning, 24, 145–155. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0149-7189(01)00005-2 kelman, s. (2005). unleashing change. washington, dc: the brookings institute press. keet, r. (2005). city of windhoek – office of the chief executive officer: draft strategic management report (revision 2). south africa: corporate renaissance group. kim, p. (2009). a case for performance management for political appointees. public personnel management, 38(4), 1–18. kloot, l. (2009). performance measurement and accountability in the australian fire service. international journal of public sector management, 22(2), 128–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513550910934538 kok, l.j. (2007). practical integrated performance management. local government implementation. south africa: louis jacobus kok. kuhn, m. (2009). quantitative research. usa: mcgraw-hill companies, inc. leighton holdings limited. (2010). eastern distributor operations and maintenance. retrieved june 16, 2011, from www.leighton.com.au/about_us/projects/eastern_ distributor_motorway_operations__maintena.html/company/6972 levy, p.s., & lemeshow, s. (2011). sampling of populations: methods and applications. new jersey: john wiley & sons. lorenzi, n.m., & riley, r.t. (2000). managing change – an overview. journal or the american medical informatics association, 7(2), 116–124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jamia.2000.0070116, pmid:10730594 madsen, s.r., miller, d., & john, c.r. (2005). readiness for organisational change: do organisational commitment and social relationships in the workplace make a difference? human resource development quarterly, 16, 213–233. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.1134 munn, p., & drever, e. (1995). using questionnaires in small-scale research: a teacher’s guide. great britain: scre publication. nelongo, j. (2011, 14 february). effective performance management. new era newspaper. nickols, f. (2006). distance consulting: change management 101. retrieved june 20, 2009, from http://home.att.net/~nickols/change.htm o'connor, e.j., & fiol, c.m. (2006). creating readiness and involvement. physician exec, 32, 72–74. olve, n., roy, j., & wetter, m. (2004). a practical guide to the balanced scorecard: performance drivers. england: john wiley & sons ltd. parsons, d. (1984). employment and manpower surveys: a practitioner’s guide. aldershot: gower press. plant, t., & douglas, j. (2006). the performance management continuum in municipal government organisations. performance improvement, 45(1), 43–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pfi.2006.4930450109 poister, t.h. (2003). measuring performance in public and non-profit organisations. san francisco: jossey-bass. robbins, h. (2010). business coaching and change management. retrieved september 15, 2010, from http://www.harveyrobbins.com robbins, s.p., odendaal, a., & roodt, g. (2003). organisational behaviour. global and southern african perspectives. south africa: pearson education. rogan, m. (2002). the transformation of bp. london: london business school. roodt, g., & kinnear, c. (2007). change readiness inventory (cri) manual. johannesburg: jopie van rooyen & partners sa (pty) ltd. salant, p., & dillman, d.a. (1994). how to conduct your own survey. john wiley & sons, inc. saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2003). research methods for business students. (3rd edn.). england: pearson education limited. schepers, j.m. (1992). toetskonstruksie: teorie en praktyk. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. sparrow, p. (2008). performance management in the uk. in a. varma, p.s. budwar & denisi (eds.), performance management systems: a global perspective. new york, ny: routledge. stacey, r. (2003). strategic management and organisational dynamics. harlow: pearson prentice hall. stensgaard, a. (2007). challenges of change leadership. retrieved december 13, 2010, from http://www.ameinfo.com/60938.html stratman, r. (2002). enterprise resource planning (erp) competence constructs: two-stage multi-item scale development and validation. decision sciences, 33(4), 601–628. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5915.2002.tb01658.x su, s.x., baird, k., & blair, b. (2009). employee organizational commitment: the influence of organizational and cultural factors. the international journal of human resource management, 20(12), 2494–2516. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190903363813 swanson, r.a. (1996). analysis for improving performance: tools for diagnosing organisations and documenting workplace experience. san francisco: berrett-koehler publishers. thach, e., & thompson, k.j. (2007). trading places – examining leadership competencies between for-profit vs. public and non-profit leaders. leadership & organisation development journal, 28(4), 356–375. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437730710752229 van rooyen, j. (2007). change readiness inventory (cri) manual. johannesburg: jopie van rooyen & partners sa (pty) ltd. van tonder, c.l. (2004). organisational change. theory and practice. pretoria: van schaik publishers. walters, m. (1995). the performance management handbook. london: institute of personnel and development. weiner. b.j. (2009). a theory of organisational readiness for change. retrieved january 25, 2011, from http://www.implementationscience.com/content/4/1/67 weiner, b.j., amick, h., & lee, s.y. (2008). conceptualisation and measurement of organisational readiness for change: a review of the literature in health services research and other fields. retrieved january 30, 2011, from http://www.implementationscience.com/content/4/1/67 weiss, t.b., & hartle, f. (1997). reengineering performance management: breakthrough in achieving strategy through people. florida: st lucie press. werner, r.m., & asch, d.a. (2007). clinical concerns about clinical performance measurement. annals of family medicine, 5, 159–163. http://dx.doi.org/10.1370/afm.645, pmid:17389541 williams, r.s. (2002). managing employee performance – design and implementation in organisations. australia: thomson learning. williams, q.w. (2006). implementing performance management at local government level in south africa: a case study on the impact of organisational culture. unpublished master's thesis, rhodes university, south africa. witcher, b.j., & chau, v.s. (2008). strategic and performance management balanced scorecards at edf energy and tesco. strategic change, n.p. worldatwork journal. (2006). society of certified professionals performance management: strategy, design and implementation. course gr5. scottsdale. 3-murray.qxd the world is moving from an industrial age into an information age. this statement is supported by authors such as drucker (2002), waitley (1995), senge (in gibson, 1998), hamel (2000), toffler (1990), handy (in gibson, 1998), bennis (in gibson, 1998) and prahalad (in gibson, 1998). this trend is irrevocable and undeniable – a shift in the very fabric of human society and of business that has forever changed the rules within which we live and work. as hamel & prahalad (1994 p.29) state “we are standing on the verge, and for some it will be the precipice, of a revolution as profound as that which gave birth to modern industry. it will be … the information revolution”. the information revolution is already here, shaping our lives from day to day. with the explosion in the availability of information via the internet and world wide web, work has evolved from the physical to the mental, from manual, linear, mechanistic contributions to intellectual, virtual and continuously evolving synergies (toffler, 1990; senge, in gibson, 1998). drucker (2002 p.129) expands on this transformation when he states “the emergence of knowledge work and of the knowledge worker – let alone their emergence as the ‘capital’ of a knowledge-based society and knowledge-based economy – is as profound a change as was the industrial revolution 250 years ago, perhaps an even greater one”. toffler (in gibson, 1998) reminds us that the invention of agriculture provided the human race with a new way to convert the earth’s resources into wealth, and almost everywhere launched a ‘first wave’ of change in civilization. similarly, the industrial revolution triggered a ‘second wave’ of change that gave us a factory-based system for wealth creation. until very recently, most of what we taught in management texts reflected ‘second wave’ thinking. today’s knowledge has launched a gigantic ‘third wave’ of economic, technical and social change. this is forcing business to operate in radically new, continually shifting ways that stand second wave notions on their head. probst, raub & romhardt (2000 p.2) confirm this by saying “the revolution in communications technology has brought economic changes which enhance the importance of knowledge. in modern industrial nations, knowledge-intensive industries are responsible for a steadily increasing proportion of the national net product. this trend naturally affects the f inancial success of individual companies, prompting more of them to recognize the fundamental importance of knowledge as a resource”. given that the world of work has changed, the rules required to lead in the workplace and to succeed in the workplace must also change. this view is supported by drucker (1982 p.9), when he predicted that the information age would bring with it “… a period of change … in the knowledge needed to govern and to manage …”. the implications are, amongst others, that traditional general management theory which has its roots in the industrial age, will need to be revised and updated on the basis of a new philosophical ideology of what “management” and “leadership” means in the information age. traditional linear thinking that shaped the nature of management in an industrial age and which weaved its essence around the authoritarian and mechanistic principles of planning, organizing, directing and controlling, will need to be balanced by a focus on the importance of vision, values, continuous people development and stimulation of innovation and the creation of intellectual capital. drucker (2002 p.124) expands on this by stating that “increasingly the success, indeed the sur vival, of every business will depend on the performance of its knowledge workforce. the only way an organization in a knowledge-based economy and society can excel is through managing its knowledge workers for greater productivity. it is, to repeat an old saying, ‘to make ordinary people do extraordinary things”. in the challenge to “make ordinary people do extraordinary things”, the workforce must become a formidable knowledge asset able to convert knowledge into innovative products and services, thereby contributing significantly to the bottom-line. to achieve this objective, it is important for organizations to be fully aware of the current management and leadership paradigms that govern their organizations. the concept of “paradigm” becomes a central aspect that needs to be identified by the research study. as drucker (2002 p.3) states, “basic assumptions about reality are the paradigms of a social science, such as management. they are usually held subconsciously … yet those assumptions largely determine what the discipline … assumes to be reality … it is subject to continuous change. and this means that assumptions that were valid yesterday can become chantelle murray anton verwey dept of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract the objective of this research was to determine the current dominant management paradigm in a transport parastatal. the transformation from the industrial age to the information age has necessitated a corresponding transformation from management to leadership paradigms. sixty two managers within the organization completed questionnaires to indicate which paradigm they currently perceive to be dominant within their relationship with their direct manager and the organization as a whole. a paradox emerged. transition towards a leadership paradigm is perceived within the relationship with the direct manager, whilst a management paradigm is perceived to be dominant in the organization as a whole. opsomming die doelwit met die navorsing was om die huidige dominante bestuur paradigma in ’n semi-staat vervoer onderneming te bepaal. verandering vanaf die industriële na die informasie era het ’n gepaardgaande verandering vanaf ’n bestuur na leierskap paradigma genoodsaak. twee-en-sestig bestuurders vanuit die organisasie het ’n vraelys voltooi om hul waarneming van die dominante paradigma in terme van hul verhouding met hul direkte bestuurder sowel as die organisasie as geheel uit te wys. skynbare teenstrydigheid het te voorskyn gekom. oorgang na ’n leierskap paradigma is waargeneem in die verhouding met die direkte bestuurder, terwyl ’n bestuur paradigma waargeneem word as dominant in die organisasie as geheel. the dominant management paradigm in a transport parastatal requests for copies should be addressed to: c murray, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 16 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (1), 16-25 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (1), 16-25 invalid, and indeed, totally misleading in no time at all”. therefore, the paradigms or assumptions we hold to be true, influence our behavior. it is the management and leadership paradigms which inform behavior within organizations that either unlock the knowledge potential of a workforce, or stifle the potential that exists. charlton (1992 p.9) confirms this by saying “it is the competence of managers, and in particular, leaders of people that determines, in large part, the returns that organizations realize from their human capital, or human resources”. these managers and leaders are the individuals who shape and lead the organizations through vision, mission, strategy, structures, systems and culture. this research study therefore makes the fundamental assumption that leadership is integral to the success of any organization within the information age. toffler (in gibson, 1998 p.viii) suggests that “not since the dawn of the industrial revolution have managers had more to learn (and unlearn) about the art of business leadership”. the challenge for managers today is to transform the competencies and mindsets of yesterday into those needed for today and tomorrow. at this juncture, the following question may also be posed: how equipped are south african organizations, and in particular south african managers, in the management/leadership skills required to cope with the demands of the information age? according to the management development world competitiveness yearbook, there is cause for concern. south africa is ranked 38th out of 46 countries in terms of competitiveness and the list of lowest ranking factors are substantial. they include the following: � productivity growth (41st); � international experience of managers (43rd); � relations between managers and their employees (45th); and � application of quality management principles (40th). according to the results there is also a strong correlation between management competence and the overall ranking of the world’s most competitive nations. the results therefore speak for themselves. south african managers still have a long way to go to transform their paradigms and their leadership abilities in order to “lead from the front” in the new world of business. as bennis states (in gibson, 1998 p.50) “… the major challenge for leaders in the twenty first century will be how to release the brainpower of their organizations. i think it’s the essential challenge, and it’s quite different from the challenge that faced twentieth century leaders”. against this challenging context, managers will have to rise above the traditional technical competencies of the management function – that of planning, organizing, directing and controlling – to also inspire, lead, nurture and empower the people around them. technical management competencies alone are no longer enough. this need for managers and leaders to develop additional skills is further supported by waitley (1995 p.6) when he says “the new global leaders will be people who can transmit knowledge and power to each member of an organization. they will be those who can accept the challenge and responsibility of using this new empowerment to build empires in their minds… thus, the competitive edge will belong to those who know how to inspire productivity and excellence from each individual”. “in the traditional workforce, the worker ser ves the system; in a knowledge workforce the system must ser ve the worker” (drucker, 2002 p.125). leadership is described as follows by gibson (1998 p.11) when he states that the new leaders will be scanning the landscape; spotting emerging trends and opportunities; using technology to have a real-time connection to the marketplace; obtaining continual feedback from all sectors of the organization and the marketplace; leading through a combination of fact and intuition; decentralizing power and democratizing strategy; capitalizing on discontinuity; embracing change; fostering creative collaboration amongst people and leading through vision, passion and aspiration. given the evidence provided by south africa’s low ranking in the instit ute for management development’s world competitiveness yearbook, it is possible that current south african management paradigms could be hampering south africa’s quest to compete on a global economic stage. this study will focus exclusively on the management paradigms that exist within south africa and in particular, within one parastatal. the assumption is that if management skills and actions within the private sector are contributing to low ratings in the management development world competitiveness global survey, the public sector, and specifically parastatals could be even further behind in their rating level. the reason why parastatals may have a longer road to travel to transform themselves lies in the fact that parastatals were largely closed, self-sustaining systems that were traditionally supported by the state. only recently, in a more open and aggressive market and with less state intervention, have parastatals started to experience the forces of deregulation, increased competition and the weaknesses of their traditional business models. given the fact that management within open business systems in the private sector have lagged behind, it is feasible that management within the previously closed “cocoons” of the parastatals have an even greater challenge to bring their management paradigms in line with global demands. this research study will add to the body of knowledge available on this issue by identif ying and describing the perceived dominant management and/or leadership paradigm within a transport parastatal in south africa. problem statement from the background to this study, the following questions are relevant in understanding the current state of management/ leadership paradigms within the chosen context: � which management/leadership paradigms are conducive to negotiating the challenges of the information age; and � which management/leadership paradigms currently dominate within the area being researched? these are key questions that need to be answered because the traditional model that management within organizations has used for the last two hundred years is a “command and control” model (bennis, 1996). the basic idea is that the individual should carry out orders, and orders start from the top. all intelligence, all wisdom, resides at the top of the organization. everybody else is the “spear-carrier” who does the actual work. what is needed is a very different mode of operating. hammer (in gibson, 1998 p.97) states that “we need ways of operating in which decisions are made by those much closer to the work. we need a model in which people at the front lines are given a lot of autonomy and responsibility for deciding things on their own. a model where management exists, not to direct and control or to super vise, but rather to facilitate and enable”. charlton (1992 p.9) supports this with the following statement “sur vival is dependent on the quality of an organization’s leaders and their ability to optimize human resources”. research objectives to contribute to the existing body of knowledge and information regarding the challenging realities facing managers dominant management paradigm 17 in south africa, and in particular, the transport parastatal environment, the aim of the research is: � to identif y the dominant management/leadership paradigm that exists within a transport parastatal in south africa. to achieve this objective, the study aims to answer the following specific questions: � what constitutes the typical management paradigm of an industrial age? � what constitutes the typical management paradigm within the information age? � what is the current dominant management paradigm amongst managers within the target organization? to answer these research questions, the following are the objectives for this study: � describing the t ypical management paradigm of the industrial age. � describing the t ypical management paradigm of the information age. � identif ying and describing the current dominant management paradigm that exists within the area being researched. management and leadership paradgims in this section, the first two objectives of the study will be addressed. a review of literature will be used to describe the key characteristics of the two paradigms. industrial age and management paradigm management in the industrial age was largely characterized by three principles: control, order and predict (bennis, 1996). these principles were appropriate in a stable environment where one could control, order and predict. however, in the twenty-first century, we are experiencing increasingly rapid change. the industrial age was a much more linear world in which organizations were hierarchical and bureaucratic. as bennis (in gibson, 1998 p.150) illustrates with an analogy “it was somewhat similar to the early notion of computing, in which you simply feed information into the system and it disgorges a solution”. toffler (in gibson; 1998 p.ix) refers to the industrial age as a ‘second wave’ of change that gave us a factory-based system for wealth creation. he goes on to state that “based on assumptions of linearity and equilibrium, the dominant management paradigm paralleled mechanistic assumptions of western economics ... industrial faith in such things as vertical integration, economies of scale, hierarchical command-and-control organizations …”. to use another analogy, industrial age organizations revolved around assembly-line thinking and struct ures in which employees had very narrowly defined and specialized areas of skill. hammer (in gibson, 1998 p.97) expands on this concept as follows “we’ve traditionally started with the assumption that people are limited and simple. this means that we have had to design very simple tasks and jobs for them to do. this, in turn, has led to complex, organizational processes and systems, because when all the work that is being done is fragmented, atomistic and small scale, then we need a lot of overhead to tie it all together. we would also need a lot of managers/super visors to ‘tie it all together”. industrial age management revolved around making policies, practices and procedures that would keep the cogs turning in the machine of business. these managers focused on achieving greater efficiency, and how to control their systems and struct ures more effectively. in a stable environment, this may be possible, but in the times of rapid change as witnessed within the information age, this can no longer yield the same results. this is summarized by sumantra ghushal, holder of the chair of strategic leadership at london business school, as follows: “you cannot manage third generation strategies through second generation organizations with first generation managers” (charlton, 2000 p. 19). information age and leadership paradigm toffler (in gibson, 1998 p.viii) explains that “every shred of industrial-era thinking is now being rescrutinized and brilliantly reformulated. as the third wave system for wealth creation spreads, marked by hyper-competition, successive technological revolutions, and social dislocation and conflict, it is creating high unpredictability and non-linear conditions”. given this backdrop of world-wide economic and social transformation, management has to develop the additional dimension of leadership. management on its own is no longer enough to cope with the various demands and challenges in the workplace. “… the close of the twentieth century might be said to represent the end of a whole order of things. the end of the industrial paradigm. the end of management” (gibson, 1998 p.3). to have a clear understanding of the kind of leadership required in the information age, it is necessary to first have a picture of what the future might bring. “up ahead we see a world of chaos and uncertainty. a world of accelerating change. a world where economies are not based on land, money or raw materials but on intellectual capital. where competition will be fierce and markets will be merciless. where small companies will outsmart giant corporations on a global scale. where customers will have infinite access to products, ser vices and information. where networks will be more important than nations”(toffler, 1990 p.viii-ix, 3, 255). management is sufficient for stable times and predictable scenarios, and it is focused on maintaining the status quo. however, leadership is required to navigate the magnitude of this unpredictable global landscape and to recreate itself, as the environment does, over and over again. “in the twenty-first century, the winners will be those who stay ahead of the change cur ve, constantly redefining their industries, creating new markets, blazing new trails, reinventing the competitive rules, challenging the status quo” (gibson 1998). to use handy’s words, it will be those who ‘invent the world’ rather than respond to it (1995). the concept of leadership needs to be still more closely described and unraveled. “not traditional leadership, but twentyf irst centur y leadership” (gibson, 1998 p.10). tomorrow’s successful leaders will be what bennis (1996) calls ‘leaders of leaders’. “they will decentralize power and democratize strategy by involving a rich mixture of different people from inside and outside the organization in the process of reinventing the future. they will be comfortable with discontinuity and will understand how to use it to create opportunities” (gibson, 1998 p.11). according to bennis (in gibson, 1998 p.11) they will gather people around them who have the ‘future in their bones’, and they will be adept at fostering creative collaboration amongst people – achieving what gary hamel (2000) calls a ‘hierarchy of imagination’. it therefore becomes clear that the leaders required for the information age have a natural ability to work through and with people, and that they have the power to convert the knowledge of people into intellectual assets for the organization. corresponding to these changes, the very nature of work is changing. “work used to mean having a job with an employer. but today, it increasingly means working for yourself and by yourself. in the near future, half of the workforce of the developed world will be working ‘outside’ the organization. traditional organizations now employ only 55 percent of the workforce on a full-time basis. the rest are temporary, part-time or contractual workers” (handy, 1995). this shift is perfectly aligned to the shift from physical work to knowledge work and the introduction of the “knowledge worker” (drucker, 2002 p.24). therefore, the ability to tap into and unleash the knowledge of people and to transform this creative force into innovative intellectual assets for the organization is the pivotal role of leaders for the information age. furthermore, murray, verwey18 given the changing nature of work and the shifting role of the knowledge worker, leaders must have an ability to work within networks and to elicit the best from people even within virtual organizations. a whole variety of intraand interpersonal skills become essential in achieving this leadership responsibility. the skills required by leaders today are predominantly focused on those that will lead, motivate, empower and inspire those around them to be willing followers. in this sense, competencies that revolve around intra/interpersonal skills and personal mastery – a thorough understanding of self – have never been so important. goleman, boyatzis & mckee’s (2002) research has indicated that whilst iq and technical skills are important, emotional intelligence is the key element in leadership. he emphasizes the importance of self-management through self-awareness, selfregulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. management and leadership paradigm comparison the core differences or shifts between management and leadership are summarized in the following table. table 1 core differences or shifts between management and leadership category management leadership change � peacemaker (conflict � pacemaker (conflict avoided) risked as inevitable to growth) � focus on stability/ � emphasis on change/ conservation acceptable risk � administers � innovates � maintains status � develops people quo focus � does things right � does the right things (implementer) right (combines thinking & doing) � thinks of today � thinks of the day after (present) tomorrow (future) � focus on events � focus on patterns underlying events interpersonal � relies on systems � relies on people � low level of � high level of involvement involvement � task-oriented � process/people oriented � intellect/ rational � balance between dominates intellect & emotional intelligence power � win/lose orientation � win-win, “expandable � relies on external pie” controls � internal self-managed � positional power control emphasized � competence � premise that others emphasized are incompetent � trust in innate (mechanistic view) desire of people to excel/learn. motivation � extrinsic – threat/ � intrinsic – creating a external rewards sense of “extra-mile” purpose � responds to meaning � creates meaning for self & others self-management � externalizes � assumes responsibility. responsibility to change � tendency to blame � active attitude to � tendency to be influencing at passive and wait different levels & see role � you serve me � steward – i serve you � implementer � designer & implementer � expectations (“you � aspirations (“i/we owe me”) can create”) (adapted from charlton, 2000 p. 55-56). it is clear that the shift from management to leadership is a significant one in which the locus of control and responsibility moves from the external to the internal, and in which the choice is between responding reactively to events or actively creating them. this is the kind of leadership needed to adapt to the new rules of the business game in the unpredictable information age. it must be acknowledged at this point that management as a discipline with the tradit ional emphasis on planning, organizing, directing and controlling cannot be discarded. these technical competencies are crit ical components in ensuring the successful operations of a business. this study only argues that management within the information age must be supplemented by leadership as an additional dimension. “… management is a fundamental part of leadership. the skills of organizing, delegating and controlling resources need to complement leadership activity” (charlton, 2000 p.111). as mentioned previously, global changes shifts the emphasis from the planning and control of strateg y, assets, infrastruct ure to the empowerment of people and the unleashing of their knowledge potent ial. the discipline of management must therefore be complemented by the visionary and human aspects of leadership. “it is important to point out that the leadership/management debate is not an either/or. both activities are necessar y. howe ver, if organizations do not have suff icient leaders in addition to managers, they will simply not sur vive … why? because leadership is the central ingredient to the way progress is created and to the way organizations de velop and sur vive in a changing environment” (charlton, 1993 p.23). the t wo paradigms – management and leadership – are different. however, they must both be developed and utilized if businesses are to be led in a visionary and holistic manner into an unpredictable future. “too many of today’s organizations are overmanaged and underled … the people at the top need to create a compelling, overarching vision. we are going to need leaders … who have a dream, a mission, a strategic intent … and who are able to impart it to the whole organization” (bennis, in gibson, 1998 p.155). clearly, the rules of the business game have changed. by describing the management paradigm of the industrial age and the leadership paradigm of the information age respectively, this section addressed the first two objectives of the study. in the next section, the third objective will be explored, this being which of the t wo paradigms are dominant within the organization being researched. the dominant paradigm in the transport parastatal with the first two objectives achieved, the study turns its focus to identif ying the dominant management paradigm in the transport parastatal. the question to be asked is: is the dominant paradigm that of management assumptions and behavior typical of the industrial age, or are there signs that managers are transforming their paradigms into the leadership required for the information age? the rest of the study will endeavor to answer this question. the research model the leadership competence model of bennis & nanus (1985), emanating from comprehensive research involving ninety effective leaders in the usa, was used as a basis for this research study. bennis & nanus (1985) identified four common dominant management paradigm 19 observable criteria for effective leaders – vision, communication, trust and self-management. charlton (1992; 2000) used the bennis framework as a guideline for a research questionnaire administered to over 40 000 leaders across the political, business, organizational, sporting and religious spectrums in south africa. the aim of this research was to identif y critical competencies that distinguish excellent from average leaders. the results of this research confirm the validity of the bennis & nanus model. charlton, however, identified an additional competence. the five leadership competencies as formulated by charlton (2000 p.60) are: � capturing people’s attention through an inspiring vision of the future. � constantly communicating this vision in creative, understandable ways, which motivates people to go the extra mile and provides synergy and co-ordination of effort. � inspiring trust in the leader and what he/she is trying to accomplish – as well as the leader trusting other people to do what needs to be done. � these are dependent on the leader’s ability to manage him/herself. this involves diagnosing inappropriate/ ineffective actions and independently assuming responsibility and becoming a visible role model. � lastly, the leader needs to create an empowering environment where people are willing (intrinsically motivated), able (trained and confident) and allowed (given responsibility and authority) to learn and perform to their potential. therefore, the bennis & nanus model (1985), supplemented by the additional dimension discovered by charlton (1992; 2000), serves as a reliable and relevant framework from which to assess leadership effectiveness. this research study uses the five dimensions of leadership as identified by charlton to determine what the dominant management/leadership paradigm within the transport parastatal is. the rationale is that positive scores on each of the five dimensions is evidence of a transition to the leadership paradigm, whilst negative scores on each of the five dimensions would indicate the prevalence of a management paradigm. what is important to mention at this point, is that the questionnaires used in this study were given to the ‘followers’ of the manager, and not to the actual manager him/herself. charlton (2000 p.63) goes on to indicate in his study that some leaders rated themselves highly, whilst their followers rated them poorly – this illustrated that “some leaders are out of touch with themselves and the people they ser ve – and that positional power is no guarantee of effectiveness …”. also, it is important to note that self-assessment is often skewed due to a halo effect or biased notions. having said this, according to blank (1995 p.10), in the case of leadership, it is truly the perceptions and opinions of followers that matter most – they are the ones being led and in order to be led, they need to be willing followers. using the five dimensions of leadership as identified above, a questionnaire was developed to assess the perception of the presence of a leadership versus management paradigm amongst formal leaders in the organization. the questionnaire was completed by middle, senior and executive managers. each respondent completed the questionnaire on the basis of how he/she perceived their direct manager in terms of the five leadership dimensions. over and above the respondents’ percept ion of the dominant paradigm of his/her direct manager, it was also deemed important to gauge their percept ions of the management paradigm within the organizat ion as a whole. the rationale for this inclusion was the fact that although respondents may have a positive and empowering relat ionship with their direct manager, this may not necessarily be ref lect ive of the general management paradigm within the entire organization. therefore, section a of the questionnaire focused on the perceived dominant paradigm of the direct manager, whilst section b focused on the perceived dominant paradigm across the entire organization. research methodology the st udy is exploratory and descriptive in nat ure and has only one of three possible outcomes. these are that the current paradigms are either predominantly that of (1) management (industrial age) or (2) leadership (information age), or (3) that it is in a state of transition between the two. the study is exploratory because the existing management paradigms within the transport parastatal have not previously been identified and described in either a formal or informal study or enquiry. the questionnaire this research study made use of a structured questionnaire as the data-gathering instrument for identif ying the current dominant paradigm across the three levels of management in the parastatal – middle, senior and executive management. the questionnaire was structured to address the five dimensions of leadership, as defined by bennis & nanus (1985), and supplemented by charlton (1992; 2000). therefore, the five dimensions of the questionnaire, as incorporated in section a, were as follows: � dimension one : the management of attention (vision) � dimension two: the management of meaning (communication) � dimension three: the management of trust � dimension four: the management of self (personal mastery) � dimension five: the management of the empowerment of others dimensions four and five – the management of self and the empowerment of others were combined into one section in the questionnaire. the rationale for this was based on the fact that both dimensions address intra-and interpersonal competencies. finally, the last dimension of the questionnaire, as incorporated in section b, was: � the general perception of management within the transport parastatal in section a – relationship with direct manager – the questionnaire contained the following number of items per dimension: � section one: management of attention – 15 items � section two: management of meaning 4 items � section three: management of trust – 27 items � section four: management of self and empowerment of others – 21 items. in section b – general perception of management in the organization – there were 26 items in total. respondents were given a range of statements that “unpacked” each of these dimensions in more detail (these statements are attached in the annexure a) and they were then allowed a choice of responses on a likert type scale for each item. this scale ranged from 0-4 and the detailed scale comprised the following: � 0 – not at all � 1 – once in a while � 2 – sometimes � 3 – fairly often � 4 – frequently, if not always murray, verwey20 questionnaire reliability a cronbach alpha coefficient analysis was conducted to determine the reliabilit y of each of the five dimensions of the questionnaire. guilford & fruchter (1978 p. 429) state that “… all internal consistency formulas that depend upon a single administration of a test, tend to underestimate the reliability of a test”. however, a desirable reliabilit y coefficient would usually fall in the range of 0.8 to 0.9 (anastasi, 1976). the alpha coefficients obtained in this study are more than acceptable by this criterion, ranging bet ween 0.86 and 0.97. the reliabilit y coefficients are shown in table 2. table 2 cronbach-alpha scores per dimension section dimension cronbach-alpha a management of attention 0.9718 management of meaning 0.8734 management of trust 0.9775 management of self & empowerment 0.9741 of others b general perception of management 0.9103 in organisation this questionnaire can therefore be regarded as sufficiently reliable for use in this study. the sample the respondents comprise a convenience sample as they were taken from a database of middle, senior and executive managers who were selected as high potential individuals within the organization and who are embarking upon management and leadership development initiatives. this group (as provided on the database) comprised a total of 130 managers. however, 62 of these managers submitted completed questionnaires upon conclusion of the research process. therefore, the total sample size in this study constitutes 62 respondents representing the middle, senior and executive management levels within the organization. in terms of age, 9.7% of respondents were between the ages of 20-30 years, 61.3% of respondents were 31-40 years, 25.8% were 41-50 years and 3.2% were over the age of 50 years. this is also shown in figure 1. figure 1: age analysis of sample in terms of the gender breakdown of the sample group, 37 respondents were male (59.7%) and 25 respondents were female (40.3%). this breakdown is reflected in table 3 and figure 2. table 3 gender analysis of sample group gender number (n) percentage of sample male 37 59.7% female 25 40.3% total sample 62 100% figure 2: gender analysis of sample in terms of the management level of the sample group, 6 respondents (9.7%) were on executive management level, with 22 respondents (38.7%) on senior management level and 31 respondents (51.6%) on middle management level. this distribution is reflected in table 4 and figure 3. table 4 grading/management level analysis of sample group management level number (n) % of sample executive management 6 9.7% senior management 22 38.7% middle management 31 51.6% total sample 59 59 figure 3: management level analysis of sample the sample also contained a spread of respondents in terms of years of employment within the organization. this is shown in table 5 and figure 4. dominant management paradigm 21 table 5 years of service of sample years of service number (n) percentage of sample less than 5 yrs 30 50% 5-10 yrs 18 30% more than 10 yrs 12 20% figure 4: years of service of sample group note: the sample sizes (n) reported in tables 1-4 is based on the number of valid responses and is therefore not identical across all items. furthermore, visual inspection of the sizes of sub-samples across the biographical items indicates that with the exception of gender, comparisons of sub-samples are not feasible due to the small number of respondents within such sub-samples. research results the objective of this part of the study is to identif y whether the organization being researched is perceived to have either a predominantly management or a leadership paradigm. as such, scores located in the likert scale that range from 0 to 2 (lower scores) are regarded as indicating the dominance of a management paradigm. scores that range from 3 to 4 (higher scores) on the likert scale indicate the dominance of a leadership paradigm. the logic for this is that higher ratings for leadership dimensions indicate their presence, whilst lower ratings indicate their absence and therefore, a predominance of a management paradigm. the research results indicate a definite and pronounced schism or conflict between section a and section b. the pattern in section a indicated that the respondents generally perceive a leadership paradigm with their direct manager. the following table is a summary of the research results in each of the five dimensions of section a. table 6 responses according to likert scale dimension percentage percentage total response response percentage scale 0-2 scale 2.1-4 management of attention 41.4% 55.9% 100% management of meaning 40.3% 59.7% 100% management of trust 30.3% 69.7% 100% management of self & 41.4% 58.6% 100% empowerment of others general perception of 70.9% 29.1% 100% management in the organization however, in section b, a significant reversal of this paradigm was indicated and the scores reflect the perception that a management paradigm still dominates within the organization as whole. in order to explain this paradox it is necessary to delve more closely into the research results for each dimension. dimension scores to determine the dominant paradigm the means of the total scores per dimension for section a of the questionnaire was calculated after reflection of item responses where the scale was inverted. these means are shown in the following table and chart. table 7 total mean calculated per dimension section dimension mean score a management of attention 2.2595 management of meaning 2.3934 management of trust 2.5921 management of self & empowerment of others 2.3943 b general perception of management in organization 1.7374 figure 5: chart of total mean per dimension to determine whether or not there are differences between various sub-groups of the sample, the means of the total scores for the dimensions of the questionnaire were also calculated. specifically, the management level and years of service were used as categorization variables to construct these subsets. it needs to be kept in mind that these subsets are not sufficiently large to use statistical procedures to indicate the significance of possible differences between each subset. the differences are therefore reported on an interpretive level rather than on a statistical level. from the data it is apparent that all three management levels exhibited the same pattern with regards to their scoring on each of the five dimensions. in all instances, there is a distinct decline in the mean scores for section b of the questionnaire – general perception of management within the organisation. it is also clear that successively higher levels of management show a higher perception of the presence of a leadership paradigm than lower levels of management. murray, verwey22 table 8 mean per dimension per management level questionnaire dimensions grading level mean section a: executive management 2.8222 dimension one: management of attention senior management 2.0321 middle management 2.3108 dimension two: executive management 2.9167 management of meaning senior management 2.2188 middle management 2.4000 dimension three: executive management 2.9977 management of trust senior management 2.4082 middle management 2.6235 dimension four & five: executive management 2.8968 management of self and the senior management 2.1456 empowerment of others middle management 2.4694 section b: executive management 2.1173 general perception of senior management 1.6029 management in the middle management 1.7725 organisation figure 6: mean per dimension per management level figure 7: mean per dimension per management level – less than five years of service for the analysis of years of service, the data indicates generally the same pattern. executive management displays a higher mean score for the five dimensions of leadership compared to the other two levels of management within the organization. this reinforces the deduction that successively higher levels of management show a higher perception of the presence of a leadership paradigm than the lower levels of management. an interesting pattern to note is that senior management perceives a more pronounced perception of a management paradigm than their middle management counterparts. figure 8: mean per dimension per management level – 5-10 years of service figure 9: mean per dimension per management level – more than 10 years of service in figure 9, no respondents from the executive level have been employed in the organization for longer than 10 years. results the following are the key results from the research conducted. � executive managers indicated higher mean scores over the five dimensions, illustrating their perception that a leadership paradigm exists within the organization. in comparison, the mean scores for the middle and senior management levels were lower. senior management had the lowest mean scores of all three management levels indicating their perception of a management paradigm. � the respondents’ indicated lower mean scores per dimension the longer they remained in the organization. respondents who have been employed in the organization for 5 years or less, had a more pronounced perception of a leadership paradigm than those respondents employed for 5-10 years and 10 years or more. refer to figure 7 in comparison to figures 8 and 9. interpretation overall, the mean scores for all five dimensions fell into a category between 2.2 and 2.5 (refer to table 6). however, the question that arises from these results is whether this is enough given the level of transformation and innovation required within the parastatal environment, and the challenges of the information age. although the results from the five dimensions indicate that there are signs of a transition from the management paradigm to a leadership paradigm, particularly in the direct manager/employee relationship, the overall pattern indicates dominant management paradigm 23 mean scores barely exceeding 2 on the scoring scale. referring to the scoring scale of the questionnaire, this indicates that the critical leadership behaviors identified by bennis & nanus (1985) and supplemented by charlton (1992; 2000), are only exhibited on a ‘sometimes’ or irregular basis (annexure b contains a detailed analysis of scores achieved for each question within each of the five dimensions). in the information age, in which the leadership paradigm is essential for survival and growth, respondent answers should ideally have yielded a consistent mean score between 3 and 4 on the scoring scale. this would have indicated tangible evidence that a leadership paradigm exists within the organization on a frequent or consistent basis. the significant contrast in the mean scores between section a and b of the questionnaire needs to be examined in greater detail. clearly, there is a disparity or paradox between the perceptions of direct managers versus perceptions of management within the organization as a whole. it can be argued that the perception of management within the organization as a whole may be grounded in the experiences of respondents over a longer period of time and across different business units within the parastatal. in a sense therefore, the negative scores from respondents may be a reflection of the past and not necessarily of the present or the future. handy (in gibson, 1998 p.24) says “… in order to recreate themselves for the future, organizations must be prepared to let go of the past. other wise they’ll just get locked into their present cur ve and sooner or later they will come to an end. the trick is not to let go of the past all at once. you can’t abandon the f irst cur ve until you have built the second one. so, for a time, the past and the future have to coexist in the present. and that’s the pathway through the paradox”. therefore, with the paradox revealed bet ween section a and section b of the questionnaire, the conflicting results between relationships with the direct manager and perceptions of management in the organization as whole may be a product of the ‘edge of chaos’. handy (in gibson, 1998 p.27) elaborates as follows: “this is a term scientists use to describe times of great turbulence when new life is born out of the decaying of the old. when complexity and confusion gel into some kind of new order. and when you are at that place on the ‘edge of chaos’ there is great potential for creativity, but it’s also by definition a very troubled, very diff icult time and place”. the transport parastatal environment has implemented significant affirmative action initiatives at all levels of the organization over the last eight years. affirmative action appointments were made at all three management levels. “a critical component of the organizations “balanced scorecard” is its support for black economic empowerment (bee) and the transformation of the organization’s workforce. these transformation targets have been supported by appropriate policies and by retention, recruitment and training strategies” (annual report , 2002 p.26). table 9 employment equity statistics – 2002 management level % targets black managers – executive 65% black managers – senior management 50% black managers – middle management 40% extracted from the organization’s annual report; 2002 p. 48 this may be a key factor in understanding the positive executive management results and the fact that the years of service does not exceed the ten year period. at the middle management level, respondents are also more positive in their mean scores across all five dimensions, particularly if they have been in the organization for less than five years. this may reflect the positive aspirations and perceptions of new black middle managers within the organization. in defining the third objective of this study, namely to identif y the dominant paradigm, it was stated that one of three possible outcomes are possible. the results would seem to indicate that although the leadership paradigm may not be as entrenched and established as may be considered ideal, there is a transition from a management towards a leadership paradigm. concluding remarks & recommendations the transport parastatal is showing signs of letting go of the old and building the new. it is showing signs of incorporating the leadership paradigm into its management paradigm. it is showing signs of moving beyond the technical aspects of management traditionally used in the industrial age, to empowering people as a means to an end within the information age. this fundamental paradigm shift has been an objective of the organization and is confirmed in the managing director’s 2001 annual report when he states “… the organization has embarked on the design of new structures, systems, job profiles and roles and managerial leadership style necessary to support the proposed future organization and culture” (2001 p.9). specifically, during 2003 the organization has launched a series of leadership development programs at executive, senior and middle management level. the objective of this strateg y is “to de velop managers to become transformational leaders. the leadership competencies that are being addressed in these development programs are: providing direction; empowering – motivating people, de veloping and retaining talent; interpersonal and intrapersonal skills” (extracted from the organization’s leadership development strategy document, 2003). these are all positive development steps in encouraging the transition from a management to a leadership paradigm. these are interventions that may nurture a tangible and pronounced leadership ethos so that future research within the same context will yield mean scores that range between 3 and 4 on the same scoring scale. “... you can’t walk into the future looking over your shoulder. you can’t stumble backwards into the future. if you go into business and it has a display of its history, you should be worried. on the other hand, if you go into a business and it has a display of what the future might be, you should be excited” (handy, in gibson, 1998 p.32). as indicated by the research results, the leadership paradigm required to negotiate the information age is still in its fledgling stages within the transport parastatal. it is undeniable that the first signs of transformation from a management to a leadership paradigm are being revealed. it is imperative that this paradigm shift spreads through the entire organization in a definite and consistent manner, rather than infrequently in the relationships between employees and their direct managers. however, to paraphrase handy’s quote in conclusion, “it is a display of what the future might be …” (in gibson, 1998 p.32). recommendations for similar future research similar research could possibly benefit by taking some or all of the following recommendations into account. � a larger sample of respondents from all three levels of management would enable factor analyses in order to validate questionnaire construct validity. � a larger sample would also enable a comparison between the various subsets in terms of significance of differences. � it would be interesting to conduct this research across both the private and public sectors. this will yield results that will ascertain whether the private sector has, in fact, transformed towards a murray, verwey24 comprehensive leadership paradigm, and whether it is indeed more innovative than the public sector due to its “open-system” interaction with the national and international environment. � a longitudinal research study linking paradigm predominance to organisational performance could also provide results that would indicate whether transformation towards a pervasive leadership paradigm does yield superior performance results as compared to that of the management paradigm. references anastasi, a. 1976. psychological testing. new york: macmillan. bennis, w. g. & nanus, b. 1985. leaders: the strategies for taking charge. united kingdom: harpercollins. bennis, w.g. 1996. organizing genius: the secrets of creative collaboration. united states: addison-wesley. bennis, w.g. 1998. becoming a leader of leaders. in gibson, r. (ed). rethinking the future. london: nicholas brealey publishing, pp.149-162. blank, w. 1995. the nine natural laws of leadership. new york: amacom. charlton, g. 1992. leadership – the human race. kenwyn: juta & co. ltd. charlton, g. 2000. human habits of highly effective organisations. pretoria: van schaik. drucker, p. f. 1982. the changing world of the executive. london: heinemann. drucker, p. f. 2002. management challenges for the 21st century; oxford: butterworth heinemann. drucker, p. f. 2002. managing in the next society. oxford: butterworth heinemann. gibson, r. ed. 1998. rethinking the future. london: nicholas brealey publishing. goleman, d., boyatzis, r., & mckee, a. 2002. primal leadership. boston, massachusetts: harvard business school press. guilford, j.p. & fruchter, b. 1978. fundamental statistics in psychology and education. tokyo: mcgraw-hill kogakusha, ltd. hamel, g. 2000. leading the revolution. boston, massachusetts: harvard business school press. hamel, g. & prahalad, c.k. 1994. competing for the future. boston, massachusetts: harvard business school press. hammer, m. 1998. beyond the end of management. in gibson, r. (ed). rethinking the future. london: nicholas brealey publishing, pp 95-104. handy, c. 1985. the future of work. oxford: basil blackwell ltd. handy, c. 1998. finding sense in uncertainty. in gibson, r. (ed). rethinking the future. london: nicholas brealey publishing, pp. 17-32. international institute for management development. 2002. world competitiveness yearbook. lausanne prahalad, c.k. 1998. strategies for growth. in gibson, r. (ed). rethinking the future. london: nicholas brealey publishing, pp. 63-74. probst, g., raub, s. & romhardt, k. 2000. managing knowledge. west sussex, england: john wiley & sons ltd. senge, p. 1998. through the eye of the needle. in gibson, r. ed. rethinking the future. london: nicholas brealey publishing, pp.123-145. toffler, a. 1990. powershift. new york: bantam books. toffler, a. 1998. foreword. in gibson, r. (ed). rethinking the future. london: nicholas brealey publishing, pp viii-x. waitley, d. 1995. empires of the mind. new york: nicholas brealey publishing. dominant management paradigm 25 article information authors: solomon m. semakula-katende1 erik d. schmikl2 theuns g. pelser1 affiliations: 1graduate school of business and government leadership, north-west university, mafikeng, south africa2cranefield college, pretoria, south africa correspondence to: theuns pelser postal address: private bag x2046, mmabatho 2745, south africa dates: received: 27 mar. 2013 accepted: 27 june 2013 published: 09 oct. 2013 how to cite this article: semakula-katende, s.m., schmikl, e.d., & pelser, t.g. (2013). reward and attitudes: the unintended outcomes of an effective performance appraisal. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydksrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur 11(1), art. #545, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.545 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. reward and attitudes: the unintended outcomes of an effective performance appraisal in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • problem statement       • the key focus of the study       • background of the study       • research purpose       • objective of the study    • literature review       • trends from research literature       • definitions       • the epmds       • determinants and outcomes of performance appraisals       • appraisal effectiveness for organisational success       • employee commitment in appraisal effectiveness • method    • research approach    • research method       • research method rationale       • research participants and sampling       • measuring instrument       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results • trustworthiness    • reliability    • validity • discussion    • outline of the results       • is reward a determinant of performance appraisal effectiveness?    • practical implications    • limitations of the study    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors' contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: focus was on the role of reward and attitudes as major determinants in enhancing the effectiveness of performance appraisal systems.research purpose: to develop a structural model from the qualitative and quantitative findings from which to address the identified gaps in order to improve the effectiveness of appraisals. motivation for the study: the attention that role players tended to give to the rewarding of employees during the appraisal process made it appear as the only important determinant of an appraisal’s success. in appraisals in many public institutions, reward has been given unnecessary prominence over other drivers, such as management and development. that led most key role players (leaders, managers and employees) to perceive the current employee performance management and development system (epmds) to be purely for monetary (salary increments and cash bonuses) and non-monetary (promotion) purposes, which, in turn, compromised its effectiveness. research design, approach and method: structural equation modelling (sem) was utilised as a statistical technique for testing and estimating causal relations using a combination of statistical data and qualitative causal assumptions. this allowed both confirmatory and exploratory modelling to be undertaken, which is suited to both theory testing and theory development. a triangulation of quantitative (questionnaire) and qualitative (interview) study was conducted. a total of 300 questionnaires were distributed to nine government hospitals in the free state province, namely mofumahadi manapo mopeli, dihlabeng, and boitumelo regional hospitals, as well as elizabeth ross, thebe, phekolong, mpumelelo, reitz and ficksburg district hospitals. there was a high response rate of 96 per cent, a total of 287 completed questionnaires. respondents ranged from top executives, middle management, line management, to employees of all categories. main findings: reward and attitudes were found to the unintended outcomes of an effective performance appraisal. practical/managerial implications: remunerative rewards should be part of a holistic appraisal approach and not simply a one-sided approach. contribution/value-add: this article addressed the void or the wrong perception regarding the role of reward and attitudes in appraisals, and established that they were outcomes, and not determinants, of appraisal effectiveness. introduction top ↑ problem statement this study presents the evidence of a research effort exposing the performance management experience in public government hospitals, which by implication reflects recent issues in the south african public service. in many organisations, including public institutions, performance appraisal systems remain some of the great paradoxes of effective human resource management, according to rudman (2004). countries in the developing world, including south africa, have made strides in advancing corporate administrative systems to improve the performance of employees in the public service (sangweni, 2003). performance appraisals provide valuable performance information to a number of critical human resource activities, such as the allocation of rewards – merit pay, promotions – feedback on development, assessment of training needs, evaluation of other human resource systems, such as selection predictors, and performance documentation for legal purposes (cleveland, murphy & williams, 1989). the key focus of the study this study addresses the key factors that influence performance appraisal in achieving its intended purpose. specifically, the focus is on the role of reward and attitudes in the success of appraisals in public government hospitals. performance appraisals offer much potential for enhancing organisational effectiveness through human resource decisions. they can also help to improve and satisfy the needs of employees for performance and feedback (fisher, schoenfeldt & shaw, 2003; fletcher, 1993; fletcher & jones, 1993; goodge, 2005; ilgen, fisher & taylor, 1979; pfeffer & veiga, 1999). background of the study performance appraisal is an organisational system comprising deliberate processes for determining how to improve staff effectiveness, according to winston and creamer (1997). there is evidence that the entire subject of performance appraisal remains a practical challenge to the academics who designed it, to researchers, and to the leaders, managers and practitioners who use it (freeman, 2002). this is, in part, owing to the role ambiguity of the key role players, which necessitates identification and clarification of the roles of the different players from the onset, specifically those of leaders, managers and employees. this would ensure that ambiguity of roles is eliminated and teamwork and active participation are encouraged, which will influence attitudes, motivation and expectations of employees; this is necessary for the successful administration of reward (semakula-katende, 2012).performance assessment and management performance are crucial links in the human resource management (hrm) process (hutchinson & purcell, 2003); they are the functions that organisations use in order to assess their employees’ performance on all levels and determine appropriate rewards or remedial actions. the role of hrm in performance appraisal and management was mainly one of working with line managers to establish performance standards, the performance dimensions to be measured, as well as the appraisal procedures to ensure accuracy of the outcomes. research purpose in this study, the authors, however, argued that if reward was a determinant, it should have been considered alongside other key determinants, notably leadership succession, employee development and productivity, and management competency. these should be treated in the same manner as other outcomes, such as productivity, development and sustained performance, since they are not in fact determinants as they were earlier thought to be. objective of the study the objective of the study was to establish why the employee performance management and development system (epmds) was largely ineffective in achieving its intended objectives and to identify the factors influencing its implementation. the objective of the epmds was then to provide a corporate framework to manage and secure effective and efficient organisational performance in meeting internal and external customer needs and expectations. it was aimed at optimising individual excellence and achievement, in order to contribute to the overall achievement of the organisational goals to improve service delivery (free state provincial government, 2003, 2007). the epmds as a policy was applicable to all jobholders on salary levels 1–12, who were appointed in terms of the public service act (republic of south africa, 1994) (as amended) within the free state provincial government (fspg) on permanent and contracted appointments. this instrument was also designed to make informed decisions regarding probations, rewards (pay progression and cash bonuses) and skills development of jobholders. literature review performance appraisals are widely used in hrm and are also the subject of extensive critique. despite their drawbacks, performance appraisal systems seem to offer so much potential for employees’ performance, feedback and reward, which are central to hrm decisions. the prominence of reward in the appraisal process remains a challenge that this study hoped to address. trends from research literature the cost of implementing appraisals has been escalating at a rate organisations are finding they are unable to match. organisations are forced to embrace innovative re-engineering by making service less cumbersome through the introduction of a legislative framework that curtails costs. banks and murphy (1985) reiterate that organisations continue to express disappointment in performance appraisal systems, despite advances in appraisal technology and the new tools being developed (kaplan & norton, 2005; neely, adams & kennerley, 2002; ulrich, 1997; ulrich, smallwood & sweetman, 2008). there have been previous studies done in the public health sector locally (blanche, durrheim and painter, 2006; bless & higson-smith, 2000; cameron & stone, 2007), specifically focusing on performance appraisal, but they treated employee attitudes and reward as one of the key drivers of the system. definitions by definition, performance appraisal (pa) is a formal system of measuring, evaluating and influencing the job-related attributes, behaviours and outcomes of an employee (rudman, 2004). pa aims to determine how productive an employee is and whether the productivity of the employee can be improved (renton, 2000). performance appraisal, also known as employee appraisal, is that portion of a performance assessment in which the contribution of the employee to the goal attainment of the organisation during a specified period of time is assessed. this is usually evaluated in terms of quality, cost and time, according to hutchinson and purcell (2003). performance feedback (pf), informs employees about how well they have performed in comparison with the standards of the organisation (hill & jones, 2001) and what is expected from them. without a structured appraisal system, there is little chance of ensuring that the judgments made are lawful, fair, defensible and accurate (karl & wexley, 1989). margulies (2004) maintains that performance appraisal systems begin as simple methods of income justification. thus, appraisal is used to decide whether the salary or wage of an individual employee is justified. the process is firmly linked to material outcomes (fisher et al., 2003): if the performance of an employee is found to be less than ideal, a cut in pay or demotion follows. on the other hand, if the employee’s performance is seen to be better than the supervisor expected, a pay rise or promotion is given. little consideration, if any, is given to the developmental component of appraisal (wolff, 2005). the epmds the epmds is an appraisal system of the fspg hrm (fspg, 2003, 2007), introduced in 2003. it was developed by the department of public service and administration (dpsa) as a framework for voluntary use by national and provincial departments (fspg, 2003), with the choice of implementation on a permanent basis. the epmds was aimed at improving performance by directing attention to the key areas of activity, which were identified through strategic planning processes. that established clear links amongst organisational development and culture change, the delivery of quality services and the personal and professional development of jobholders at work. the instrument was also designed to allow for informed decisions regarding probations, rewards (pay progression and cash bonuses), and skills development of jobholders. the policy viewed performance on an individual level and linked it to the performance of both the service unit and the organisation in a performance and development management cycle over a one-year period (fspg, 2007). its introduction presented specific challenges to every manager throughout the organisation to create a working environment in which jobholders were developed and motivated to deliver the best performance possible (saunders, lewis & thornhill, 2007). the epmds, as a framework for voluntary use by national and provincial departments, was aimed at planning, managing and improving employee performance, and managing administration of rewards (fspg, 2003, 2007). almost a decade after its inception, the epmds appears to have been ineffective in meeting these objectives. in addition, within the epmds assessment there is still some uncertainty regarding the implementation phase. for instance, the allocation of scores over 150% instead of 100% and the guiding of supervisors on making the correct score allocations are still not clear (fspg, 2007). leaders and managers are also not well prepared for the responsibility of ensuring that the specific operational plans are available and are in line with the departmental objectives. the epmds linked organisational goals into employees’ attitudes and expectations to ensure that the plans for rewarding and personal development were developed simultaneously. reward, however, appears to have been given more attention (mcevoy, 1990). this has impeded the effectiveness of the epmds in the attainment of organisational goals and performance appraisal, as is stipulated in the fspg hrm business plan (fspg, 2008). in this study, it is argued that other factors and constructs have the potential to influence the successful, sustained use of employee performance appraisals. determinants and outcomes of performance appraisals the objective of this study was to establish the gap in the existing literature surrounding the successful, sustained application of a performance appraisal system in addressing the prominence of reward in performance appraisals. this entailed identifying the major determinants or drivers and the outcomes expected of an effective appraisal. twenty factors were identified as drivers of performance appraisal. these were reduced to 12 by factor analysis: (1) leadership process, (2) organisational culture and climate, (3) human motivation, (4) selection and placement of talent, (5) communication, (6) conducting and managing appraisals, (7) management of expectations, (8) resources, (9) responsibility and accountability, (10) reward, (11) attitudes and (12) managing diversity in the workplace (semakula-katende, 2012). addressing these factors was envisaged to make the current ineffective epmds work successfully to enhance organisational effectiveness within the department of health in south africa. in addition, this study tries to explore the extent to which those determinants, specifically rewards and attitudes, predicted different dimensions of the current effectiveness of the employee performance (gillen, 2007). this was necessary for the organisation to attain intended outcomes (goals and objectives), namely leadership succession, teamwork, employee development and empowerment and effective communication. the epmds was grossly misunderstood and incorrectly implemented. consequently, the epmds implementation was not smooth sailing. the epmds had many hitches, bearing in mind that different categories of stakeholders had a variety of skills, expectations, experiences and motives (davis, 2001). employees, like leaders and managers, have varied expectations that they hope to be met during appraisal (davis, 2001). for some, reward is central to the effectiveness of appraisals, whilst for others, it is the opportunity to have a tangible say in workplace affairs, such as employee appraisal, motivation, training and development (forsyth, 2004). for the unions of workers, employers, and other stakeholders, different expectations were anticipated which resulted in numerous conflicts of interest. appraisal effectiveness for organisational success according to boyatzis (1982), effective performance occurs when the critical components (job demands, individual competencies and organisational environment) of his model are consistent. quinn (1988) and quinn, faerman, thompson and mcgrath (1996) differ; they argue that the contributions of managers determine organisational effectiveness, thereby supporting the proposition that the different perspectives of the roles of managers are actually closely related. hutchinson and purcell (2003) support these views. quinn’s (1988) competing values framework accounts for the non-routine cognitive complexity associated with all managerial jobs; it perceives organisations as social structures that are created to continuously support the collaborative pursuit of specific goals. in semakula-katende’s (2012) research study, the empirical evidence confirms that appraisal effectiveness is influenced by the competency of key individual role players. in view of the perception that role players have about performance appraisal, an analysis of empirical evidence with regard to their experience in the use of performance appraisals in south africa was undertaken, so as to enhance in leaders, managers and employees a greater understanding of what truly constitutes an effective performance appraisal and how it really works. key determinants were identified and aligned with the role players, in order to enhance organisational effectiveness. links were provided between organisational effectiveness and successful employee performance appraisals, which were then investigated in terms of the task and contextual performance of employees. an attempt was made to organise the concepts, constructs, dimensions and measures into partially integrated links for an effective appraisal system. the complete final integration, however, was presented in the doctoral study after the major determinants had been identified. thus, the integration and alignment of those factors were completed only after the literature review to ensure firm grounds on which to build a normative model. that model ought to benchmark any empirical analysis to examine the degree of good-fit or mismatch. the mismatch or poor-fit between the normative model and the empirical research findings that emerged from the research led to the opportunity to develop a new modified performance evaluation model which it is hoped will lead to strategies for overcoming the shortcomings of its predecessors (semakula-katende, 2012; david & sutton, 2004). employee commitment in appraisal effectiveness employee commitment is inseparable from a successful hrm activity such as performance appraisal, as evidenced in semakula-katende’s (2012) research study. in that study, development was established as the construct responsible for discovering and developing employee potential, and selecting and placing talent for effective utilisation. this was in line with tucker, mccarthy and benton (2002) and kaplan and norton (2005), who distinguished development as another key construct or component of successful performance appraisals; they argue that the outcome goals of appraisals ought to be objective, quantifiable and measurable. this view concurs with kaplan and norton’s (2005) four-perspective balanced scorecard, in which they specifically emphasise employee initiatives and the learning component in order to enhance the effectiveness of the appraisal system. this, in turn, augments the representativeness of the normative model, in order to improve the overall success of the organisation (wolff, 2005). the development of the new model was meant to ensure that the elements and standards missing in the epmds were incorporated, including the performance plan, in order to comply with regulatory requirements of the department of health (fspg, 2008). firstly, the aim was to measure some kind of productivity and to motivate employees to work harder (cropanzano & wright, 2001). next was to link this to both the needs of employees and organisational effectiveness, as well as with people having to achieve targets around performance measures (goals or objectives or key performance areas). this gave rise to systems thinking and the development and attempt to create integrated organisational and management performance or employee performance appraisal systems (boyatzis, 1982; quinn, 1988). method top ↑ research approach this study used triangulation to overcome the potential bias and sterility of a single-method approach (collis & hussey, 2009). saunders et al. (2007) argue that data ought to be collected through methods such as self-administered questionnaires and personal interviews. these were the methods employed in this study to collect data from a sample of employees of eastern free state public institutions. a triangulation of data collection via scheduled collection, a methodology of quantitative and qualitative approaches, and interdisciplinary theories were employed (easterby-smith, thorpe & lowe, 1994). structural equation modelling (sem) was utilised as a statistical technique for testing and estimating causal relations using a combination of statistical data and qualitative causal assumptions. this allowed both confirmatory and exploratory modelling to be undertaken, which is suited to both theory testing and theory development. the research method was primarily quantitative in nature with statistical analysis of data collected by survey questionnaires, which provided for the collection of large amounts of data. this was supplemented with a qualitative technique, interviews conducted with 65 of the respondents, to enhance the quality of data collection and to validate the data. that option was necessary because there was limited secondary data on the identity and effects of the determinants of the effectiveness of performance appraisals, specifically the epmds, in order to gain insights into the appraisal dilemma. a questionnaire was used, and was complimented by qualitative personal interviews with a selected number of employees, as advocated by winberg (1997). consequently, triangulation ensured that the quantitative approach compensated for the weakness found in the qualitative methods, and vice versa (amaratunga, baldry, sarshar & newton, 2002). due to the aforementioned, only a representative sample was taken for use in the study. research method research method rationale the method of data triangulation was employed in the research study to overcome the potential bias and sterility of a single-method approach. methodological triangulation culminates in the diverse collection of data from different sources using various techniques such as questionnaires and interviews, or surveys and field studies, which can then be juxtaposed to analyse data in a credible manner (easterby-smith et al., 1994). research participants and sampling this study employed both probability (random) and non-probability (purposive-judgemental) sampling procedures to enhance data collection and interpretation (blanche et al., 2006; cooper & schindler, 2008; west, arnold, corbett & fletcher, 1992). this was necessary to ensure efficiency, because some of questionnaires and interviews were conducted simultaneously. purposive sampling was used to improve data collection because it was based on the judgement and skills of the researcher, in line with the argument of bless and higson-smith (2000). purposive sampling was also used to select the leaders, managers, and employees who participated in the personal interviews. a total of 300 questionnaires were distributed to nine sampled government hospitals in south africa. there was a high response rate of 96%, a total of 287 completed questionnaires (see table 1). table 1: response rate for the survey. the hospitals participating in this study had been using the epmds since its inception in 2003, as recommended by carroll and hannah (2000). they were, therefore, conversant with the problems associated with the system. the high response rate may be attributed to the level of enthusiasm the participants had, their desire to have something to say about the ineffective process, and the data collection methods that afforded every respondent optimal privacy and anonymity. similarly, responses from the 15-minute interviews were immediately dispatched together with the questionnaire. measuring instrument data was collected through the methods of a self-administered questionnaire and personal interviews on a sample of employees of the eastern free state public health institutions. see table 2 for the technical details of the empirical research. table 2: technical details of the empirical research. research procedure formal protocol in the free state provincial health industry was observed. permission to conduct the study was granted by the head of health and the nine participating ceos and executive committees. several preparatory visits were made to set the schedule and venue for the questionnaires and interviews. this was followed by email and telephonic contacts to plan and schedule the survey (questionnaire and interview) appropriately and conveniently. three hundred questionnaires (see table 3) were administered in proportion to the level of service or employment as follows: 30% to the district and 70% to the regional hospitals. there were three regional hospitals and seven district ones, a total of nine participating hospitals. ten interviews were conducted for each of regional hospitals and five for each district hospitals; these lasted 15 min each. the questions for the questionnaire and interviews were formulated to address the objectives of the study. the questionnaires and interviews were conducted on the same day for each hospital to facilitate data collection and limit disruption to service. table 3: distribution according to number of employees. voluntary participation and the strict observation of ethical guidelines (such as anonymity, privacy and confidentiality) were ensured. a request was made to administer questionnaires in single sittings to reduce the survey time and the disruption of services. in each participating hospital, it was required that one hour was set aside for the questionnaires in one sitting. fifteen minutes were needed for each of the 65 interview nominees from the nine participating hospitals. a total of 300 questionnaires and 65 interviews were conducted.in this study, caution and some degree of common sense were exercised so as not to undermine the rights to privacy, confidentiality and anonymity of participants. participation in the study by employees – managers and workers – was purely voluntary. participating institutions and employees were required to agree, without coercion, to take part in the study, some on the condition that they remained anonymous in published materials from the study. they were made aware of the sensitive nature of the study. the researcher’s desire for additional data was balanced by the interests of participating leadership, management, employees and organisations. in this study, data was collected from individual human beings, employees of the south african government department. prior approval was obtained from relevant committees and officials in accordance with the north-west university ethics committee guidelines (north-west university, 2007). this was critical in determining compliance with academic and ethical considerations in terms of structural equation modelling, validity, reliability and dimensionality. participants were informed about their right to withdraw their participation at any time without providing reasons and that such a decision would be honoured. furthermore, it was explained to participants that no benefits of any sort were expected besides sharing in the findings and recommendations. statistical analysis in this study, analysis of data was undertaken using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss), version 10.1, and structural equation modelling (sem) using microsoft windows eqs 6.1, as recommended by other scholars (bentler, 1995; blanche et al., 2006; byrne, 2001; collis & hussey, 2009). these were employed to compare and contrast the hypothesised relationships in the structural model and to verify the construct validity of the scales employed. the research findings were organised and presented in tabular form. table 3 reflects the descriptive statistics of the moderation construct (demographic variables), specifically the frequency and percentages. these entailed analysing statistics of the level of responsibility, the service level, gender, age, race, education and experience, in terms of the mean, standard deviation, variance and skewness, as displayed in the table. they, however, exhibited no statistical significance, besides the high response rate, to augment the results, as shown in table 4. some subsamples had lowest mean values, gender (1.69) and responsibility level (1.35), supporting the fact that challenges of the epmds equally affected both sexes and both management and employees. table 4: descriptive statistics of demographics of the epmds effectiveness. the empirical findings of this study in terms of moderation impact on appraisal effectiveness were indifferent; however, findings from qualitative data (interviews) appear to suggest indirect impact through leadership, management and communication.table 5 and table 6 capture the correlations among the 12 determinants in terms of range, means, minimums, maximums and variances for the leadership, administration, development, information and management competency subsamples of the sample (n = 291). table 5 reveals no statistical significance. table 5: descriptive statistics of determinants of the epmds effectiveness. table 6: descriptive statistics of key determinants of the epmds. the discrepancy between the subsamples in the five themes may be attributed to the perception the employees had about these factors in relation to the epmds process. generally, the respondents in the sample strongly agreed that leadership (v1 – mean = 16.45), organisational/performance culture and climate (v2 – mean = 12.91), communication (v5 – mean = 8.51) and rewards (v10 – mean = 10.20) had as much impact on the effectiveness of appraisals as training managers to manage appraisals (v6 – mean = 8.59), expectations (v7 – mean = 8.59) and resources (v8 – mean = 8.59). the research findings support leadership, communication and management as key determinants of the effectiveness of appraisals, whilst there was less support for moderation, despite the employee perception emanating from the interview results. table 6 displays the means, standard deviations, variances and skewness of the determinants, the lack of major differences in which suggests that those variables were appropriately placed and addressed the purpose as intended. similar sampling has been maintained, although employees involved in this study were demographically diverse in a number of ways, namely level of management, location, age, gender, race, education and experience. this analysis assisted in establishing the generalisability of the measurement instrument and contributed to the existing empirical base of what constitutes an effective employee performance appraisal system. results top ↑ the results in this study have been generated by means of descriptive and inferential statistics. descriptive statistics were applied to determine the summated mean scores, which related to the various stages of the development of the model. inferential statistics used in this study are illustrated in table 7, table 8 and table 9. sem techniques were applied to the data to obtain various factor analyses and third generation model and fit indices as examined already. table 7 displays the model fit measure indicators. table 7: model fit measures' indicators. table 8 displays some empirical results of the study. table 8: test statistics for the confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) report. table 9 depicts the measures that were found appropriate for this study, according to the recommendations of byrne (2001) and hair, anderson, tatham and black (1998). the indices used present a more realistic view based on the large sample size, in order to achieve acceptable cut-off values. table 9 summarises measurements of reliability and validity of key constructs, including cronbach alpha coefficients. table 9: alpha coefficients and items for constructs of the study. all cronbach’s (1984) alpha coefficients for leadership, administrative, developmental and informative constructs were found to be above the reliability threshold value of 0.70 (nunnally, 1978), ranging from 0.702–0.852, which suggests that the construct selected and their corresponding determinants were both reliable and valid for the purpose intended. this means that the four constructs had internal reliability of 0.702, 0.705, 0.736 and 0.796, all ≥ 0.70 and therefore acceptable in social science studies (price & mueller, 1986). however, the cronbach alphas of the other two constructs – management competency and moderation – were slightly lower, but were retained, with a reliability of 0.640 and 0.667 respectively (holmes-smith, 1998). a large number of the items used in the analysis of the six key constructs displayed acceptable levels of reliability and convergent validity of statistical significance to this research. trustworthiness top ↑ the data in this study was subject to reliability and validity testing, to ensure compliance with requirements of trustworthiness. reliability principal component analysis (pca) was conducted using the 65 variables of the six functional constructs or themes of the study; this was done to test whether the data collected in this study possessed satisfactorily construct reliability and validity, based on the measurement items determined in the pilot study. on the pca, the key constructs scored as follows: leadership ≥ 0.750, management competency ≥ 0.780, administration ≥ 0.760, development ≥ 0.740, information ≥ 0.760, and moderation ≥ 0.740. these values confirm their reliability and validity for this research. this was in support of the qualitative results from the interviews and demographic analysis, as alluded to earlier. most of factors had loadings ≥ 0.70, and could not be removed from the final analysis. table 9 summarises the measurements of reliability and validity of key constructs of this study using statistics, including cronbach alpha coefficients. validity validity was addressed by using squared correlations between two constructs with their respective average variance (ave) extracted, as illustrated in table 10. in this study, ave and cronbach’s alpha values for the leadership construct were compared across the construct variables, and alpha values for each item of leadership were found to be higher than the ave. this result establishes the achievement of discriminant validity criterion for the leadership construct as statistically significant. the comparisons of the other constructs (administration, development, information and management competency) achieved similar results; this verifies the attainment of discriminant validity for all constructs. table 10: comparison of cronbach's alpha and ave across leadership construct. discussion top ↑ outline of the results the purpose of this research was to remind the leadership and management within organisations that performance appraisal systems, as a tool, were originally designed to focus more on employee development, but gradually the focus has shifted to reward. the modified structural performance appraisal model (mspam) framework offers leadership and management a new opportunity to identify and locate the determinant(s) that may be responsible for the appraisal’s ineffectiveness and to implement remedial actions. it was the intention of this article to attempt to address this anomaly. the outcome of this study has been the development of an mspam incorporating the six identified constructs and their 12 determinants into an effective framework. in mspam, employees’ reward and attitudes, identified in the findings of the study as outcomes, have been relocated to the outcome component. it had, however, to be established in the study whether and how effective reward was as a determinant of performance appraisal. is reward a determinant of performance appraisal effectiveness? semakula-katende (2012) identified 12 major drivers or determinants (v) of performance appraisals, which were systematically clustered into six themes or constructs (t). the determinants included:• leadership (t1)    » leadership process (v1)    » organisational culture or climate (v2) • administrative (t2)    » managing resources (v8)    » reward (v10) • development (t3)    » developing potentials and placement of talents (v4)    » aligning them with organisational goals (v3) • information (t4)    » communication and mis (v5) • management competency (t5)    » managing appraisals (v6)    » diversity in the workplace (v12)    » acknowledgment of high performers (v4) • moderation (t6)    » human motivation (v3)    » human attitudes (v11)    » demographics in this study it was also found that two factors initially perceived as determinants, reward and attitudes, were actually outcomes of an effective performance appraisal. this was supported by empirical evidence from the statistical analysis of the questionnaire data, and the qualitative findings from the interviews. the personal interviews included an open-ended item, which afforded respondents an opportunity to share their own opinions on what they thought was the best solution to the epmds problem. the majority of them, 78%, opted for development of a new tool, because the present one was career sensitive and could not be applied broadly without compromising its effectiveness. furthermore, two new determinants were identified, namely alignment of goals and acknowledgement of performers. these factors were also found to have a direct, positive and significant influence on certain factors, specifically reward, attitudes, productivity and teamwork, as outcomes of an effective performance appraisal. this finding was supported by qualitative (interview) and empirical (questionnaire) research findings. table 11 provides a summary of statistical analysis of these two factors. importantly, it was noted that employee attitudes and rewards were not determinants, as earlier postulated, but rather part of the outcome domain of appraisal systems. both the cronbach alpha and scm values of reward and attitudes support their reliability as factors of an effective appraisal system. these variables, however, were identified as outcomes during factor analysis. table 11: density graph of reliability analysis of reward and attitudes. practical implications in most of the earlier studies, reward was given more prominence than other drivers, such as leadership succession, performance sustainability and development. there was a theoretical gap that this study attempted to address, in order to bring other purposes of appraisal to an equal level with reward. this in turn would improve the effectiveness of performance appraisals and organisations at large. addressing this gap will hopefully be of value to non-private sector organisations and also add to the existing body of knowledge.the findings have a number of interesting implications for hrm practices. to change people’s perception so that they start regarding reward as an outcome will require retraining and re-skilling of key stakeholders. reward as an outcome ought to be treated as no more important than others, such as leadership succession, performance sustainability, productivity, teamwork, empowerment and commitment. the number of key determinants remains 12; however, alignment and acknowledgement now replace reward and attitudes, which have been moved to the outcome category. it may be argued that, through addressing those factors and possibly developing a new performance evaluation model built with the incorporation and recognition of those factors in mind, an effective performance appraisal, the mspam, has emerged. it is hoped mspam will allow organisations to achieve greater success (semakula-katende, 2012). limitations of the study this article presents the evidence of a research effort exposing the performance management experience in public government hospitals, which by implication reflects recent issues in the south african public service. the research findings made a general contribution to the knowledge of how performance appraisals were conducted and the management and employee issues associated with this process in organisations. however, the findings are specifically applicable to public government hospitals and further research to expand the generalisability of the findings is needed. conclusion the purpose of this study was to address the prominence of reward in performance appraisal. as a determinant, reward is supposed to be treated equally with the other 11 determinants. however, it has been receiving more attention than the others. the evidence presented in this article has established that contrary to the previous perception held by many role players (leaders, managers and employees), reward and attitudes were found to be unintended outcomes of an effective performance appraisal. this was supported by both qualitative findings from the personal interviews, and empirical evidence generated from statistical analysis of the data from the survey questionnaire. in conclusion, the establishment of reward as an outcome is critical for the planning and implementation of a performance appraisal system. it is equally important that the development of training programmes should address stakeholders’ perceptions to enhance performance appraisal effectiveness. developers of training and promotion programmes for leaders, managers and employees should include mechanisms to address the aspect of reward and attitudes as outcomes of the performance appraisal. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions s.m.s-k. (north-west university) collected the data, e.d.s. (cranefield college) was the project leader and t.g.p. (north-west university) compiled the manuscript. references top ↑ amaratunga, d., baldry d., sarshar m., & newton, r. (2002). ‘quantitative and qualitative research in the built environment: application of “mixed” research approach’. work study, 51, 17–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00438020210415488 banks, c.g., & murphy, k.r. (1985). toward narrowing the research-practice gap in performance appraisal. personnel psychology, 38, 335–345. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1985.tb00551.x bentler, p.m. (1995). eqs: structural equations program manual. encino, ca: multivariate software. pmid:8527346 blanche, m.t., durrheim, k., & painter, d. (2006). research in practice: applied methods for the social sciences. cape town: uct press. boyatzis, r.e. (1982). the competent manager: a model for effective performance. new york: john wiley and sons. bless, c., & higson-smith, c. (2000). fundamentals of social research methods: an african perspective. cape town: juta education (pty) ltd. byrne, b.m. (2001). structural equation modelling with amos – basic concepts, applications and programming. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. cameron, r.g., & stone, a.b. (2007). serving the public. a guide for practitioners and students. pretoria: van schaik. carroll, g.r., & hannan, m.t. (2000). the demography of corporations and industries. princeton, nj: princeton university press. cleveland, j.n., murphy, k.r., & williams, r.e. (1989). multiple uses of performance appraisal: prevalence and correlates. journal of applied psychology, 74, 130–135. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.74.1.130 collis, j., & hussey, r. (2009). business research: a practical guide for undergraduate and post graduate students. hampshire: palgrave macmillan. cooper, d.r., & schindler, p.s. (2008). business research methods. (10th edn.). boston: mcgraw-hill. cronbach, l.j. (1984). essentials of psychological testing. (4th edn.). new york: harper and row. cropanzano, r., & wright, t.a. (2001). when a ‘happy’ worker is really a ‘productive’ worker: a review and further refinements of the happy-productive worker thesis. journal of consulting psychology, 53, 180–205. david, m., and sutton, c.d. (2004). social research: the basics. london: sage publications ltd. davis, j.s. (2001). approaches to performance appraisal in student affairs. college student affairs journal, 21, 92–100. easterby-smith, m., thorpe, r. & lowe, a. (1994). management research: an introduction. london: sage eckes. pmid:7713541 fisher, c.d., schoenfeldt, l.f., & shaw j.b. (2003). human resource management. (5th edn.). boston: houghton mifflin company. fletcher, c. (1993). appraisal: an idea whose time has gone? institute of personnel management, september, 34–37. fletcher, b. & jones, f. (1993). a refusal of karasek’s demand-discretion model of occupational stress with a range of dependent variables. journal of organisational behaviour, 14, 317–340. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.4030140404 forsyth, p. (2004). how to motivate people: learn the key skills; get best results; and develop, appraise, empower. london: kogan page limited. freeman, j. (2002). how to improve the effectiveness of performance management and appraisal by overcoming the root cause of the problem. the hrm guide network. retrieved december 05, 2002, from www.hrmguide.com/performance free state provincial government (fspg). (2003). policy framework: performance and development management systems for levels 2-12. bloemfontein: provincial government printers. free state provincial government (fspg). (2007). human resource management circular no. 15. pretoria: government printers. free state provincial government (fspg). (2008). human resource management, business plan. pretoria: government printers. gillen, t. (2007). performance management and appraisal. (2nd edn.). cipd toolkit. london: chartered institute of personnel and development. goodge, p. (2005). how to link 360 degree feedback and appraisal. people management, 11, 46–47. hair, j.f.j., anderson, r.e., tatham, r.l., & black, w.c. (1998). multivariate data analysis. new york: maxwell macmillan international. hill, c.w.l., & jones, g.r. (2001). strategic management. houghton: mifflin. holmes-smith, p. (1998). introduction to structural equation modelling using lisrel and amos. school research, evaluation, and measurement services. brisbane: qld. hutchinson, s., & purcell, j. (2003). bringing policies to life: the vital role of front line managers in people management: executive briefing. london: chartered institute of personnel and development. ilgen, d.r., fisher, c.d., & taylor, s.m. (1979). consequences of individual feedback on behavior in organisations. journal of applied psychology, 64, 349–371. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.64.4.349 karl, k.a., & wexley, k.n. (1989). patterns of performance and rating frequency: influence on the assessment of performance. journal of management, 15, 5–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920638901500102 kaplan, r.s., & norton, d.p. (2005). the balanced scorecard: measures that drive performance. harvard business review, 83, 174–180. margulies, j. (2004). ‘performance appraisals’. retrieved january 18, 2009, from http://www.bnabooks.com/ababna/eeo/2004/eeo55.pdf mcevoy, g.m. (1990). public sector managers’ reactions to appraisals by subordinates. public personnel management, 19, 201–212. neely, a., adams, c., & kennerley, m. (2002). the performance prism: the scorecard for measuring and managing business success. london: business success, financial times. north-west university. (2007). research and ethical guidelines. mafikeng: north-west university press. nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory. (2nd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. pfeffer, j., & veiga, j.f. (1999). putting people first for organisational success. academy of management executive, 13, 37–48. price, j.p., & mueller, c.w. (1986). handbook of organizational measurement. marshfield, ma: pitman. quinn, r.e. (1988). beyond rational management: mastering the paradoxes and competing demands of high performance. san francisco: jossey-bass. quinn, r.e., faerman, s.r., thompson, m.p., and mcgrath, m.r. (1996). becoming a master manager: a competency framework. new york: john wiley. renton, m. (2000). increase productivity through effective performance management. people dynamics, 18, 41. republic of south africa. (1994). public service act 103. pretoria: government printer. rudman, r. (2004). performance planning and review: making employee appraisals work. (2nd edn.). australia: allen and unwin. pmcid:pmc2047329 sangweni, s.s. (2003). performance management as a leadership and management tool. service delivery review, 2, 20–23. saunders, m., lewis p., & thornhill, a. (2007). research methods for business students. (4th edn.). englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. semakula-katende, s.m. (2012). an evaluation of performance appraisal and management in ten institutions of the free state provincial government. mafikeng: north-west university press. tucker, m.l., mccarthy, m.a., & benton, d.a. (2002). the human challenge: managing yourself and others in organisations. new jersey: prentice hall. ulrich, d. (1997). human resources champions. cambridge: harvard business school press. ulrich d., smallwood, n., & sweetman, k. (2008). the leadership code: five rules to lead by. boston: harvard business press. west, m., arnold, j., corbett, m., & fletcher, b. (1992). understanding about behaviour at work. journal of organisational psychology, 65, 1–3. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1992.tb00479.x winberg, c. (1997). learning how to research and evaluate. cape town: juta. pmcid:pmc508199 winston, r.b., & creamer d.g. (1997). improving staffing practices in student affairs. san francisco: jossey-bass. wolff, c. (2005). appraisals: not living up to expectations. irs employment review, 828, 9–15. article information authors: abofele khoele1 preeya daya1 affiliations: 1graduate school of business, university of cape town, south africa correspondence to: preeya daya postal address: po box 404, la lucia 4159, south africa dates: received: 27 june 2013 accepted: 16 apr. 2014 published: 28 aug. 2014 how to cite this article: khoele, a., & daya, p. (2014). investigating the turnover of middle and senior managers in the pharmaceutical industry in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12(1), art. #562, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.562 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. investigating the turnover of middle and senior managers in the pharmaceutical industry in south africa in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • purpose    • literature review • method    • research approach    • design and participants    • analysis • findings • discussion    • outline of results       • practical implications: industry factors       • practical implications: organisational factors       • practical implications: personal factors    • limitations and recommendations    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references • footnotes abstract top ↑ orientation: today, knowledge is a commodity and thus skilled knowledge workers, particularly in management positions, are vital for organisations’ success; their increased turnover has an adverse effect on productivity and profitability. high staff turnover is a cause for alarm, not only because of the costs associated with recruitment, selection and training, but also due to the increasing scarcity of experienced talent.research purpose: this research investigates the reasons for the turnover of middle and senior managers in the pharmaceutical industry in south africa in order to identify the possible reasons and formulate solutions to address the issue. motivation for the study: in south africa, employment, retention and turnover occur against the backdrop of a history of discrimination and inequality and attempts by government and organisations at redress. the significance of this background cannot be underestimated. research approach, design and method: this study was qualitative and inductive to allow dominant themes to emerge from the raw data. data was collected through in-depth, semi-structured one-on-one interviews as well as a review of company turnover reports and employment equity reports. main findings: the study found that in the sampled organisations, employee turnover averaged almost 22% per annum between 2007 and 2010. reasons for the turnover include a range of industry, company and personal factors. practical/managerial implications: the overall turnover rate remains high, particularly amongst black knowledge workers, the attraction, recruitment and retention of whom is as important for addressing historical inequities in the local industry as it is for ensuring the diversity that companies need to reach a bigger market and gain a competitive edge. further, as government is a significant purchaser of pharmaceutical goods and services, companies must ensure that the required black economic empowerment (bee) rating level is achieved so they can continue to win government business. contribution: the research found that it is important that the turnover rate of knowledge workers in the south african pharmaceutical industry be reduced through addressing the personal, organisational and industry factors that the workers themselves view as important, rather than giving consideration only to what human resource managers perceive as important. in particular, sufficient significance must be placed on personal factors. introduction top ↑ employee turnover is experienced by all organisations at one point or another, with reported rates varying from country to country, between industries, as well as between and within companies (mobscot corporation, 2011). the common nature of staff turnover does not underscore its importance and the deleterious effects that high turnover can have on organisations (glebbeek & bax, 2004), particularly when it involves knowledge workers. in an age where knowledge is a commodity, skilled knowledge workers, particularly in management positions, are the competitive advantage that organisations depend on for future success (samuel & chipunza, 2009) and their increased turnover has an adverse effect on productivity and profitability (chiboiwa, samuel & chipunza, 2010). across the globe, high staff turnover is a cause for alarm (morris, 2010), not only because of the costs associated with recruitment, selection and training, but also due to the increasing scarcity of experienced talent to replace that which is lost (selome, 2008).in south africa, employment, retention and turnover occur against the backdrop of a history of discrimination and inequality and attempts by government and organisations at redress. the employment equity act (republic of south africa, 1998) and the black economic empowerment act (bee) (republic of south africa, 2003), together with the sectoral charters, outline the various bee targets for particular industries in order to facilitate transformation. it is argued by many that the high demand for specialised skills, together with key pieces of legislation that aim to address the demographic imbalances in the corporate landscape in south africa, has resulted in an increase in staff turnover, particularly amongst knowledge workers (kotze & roodt, 2005; vass, 2010). further, inequality in the quality of education as a result of apartheid has caused a shortage of skilled black professionals, resulting in increased demand and high mobility of these individuals (robinson, 2004). it is perceived that this high mobility further slows the rate of transformation in companies (wocke & sutherland, 2008). researchers and popular media alike have suggested that the regulations and skills shortages have jointly had a negative influence on the economics of the labour market in south africa (heymann, 2010), providing an unfair advantage to the designated groups1, further perpetuating high turnover amongst these groups. globalisation has introduced many multinational players to the south african business context, who bring with them international practices and global mobility for knowledge workers. in a survey of major south african companies, turnover as a result of global mobility was the cause in 21% of the total turnover (bennet, 2003). purpose the pharmaceutical industry in south africa is saturated, with multiple players in the field (the economist intelligence unit, 2010). most of the multinational organisations found in large markets around the world have a presence in south africa, with only four local companies being listed on the johannesburg stock exchange (jse, 2011). the sector is knowledge intensive, requiring senior employees not only to be technical experts in a given field, but also to have the ability to manage often complex situations (n. guliwe, personal communication, 02 march, 2010). these positions are critical in that they are the ones that execute strategy and ensure the smooth running of operations. however, the skills required to fill these positions are scarce (van zyl, 2009), resulting in an intense war for talent and increased staff turnover (sanofi-aventis, 2010). the critical nature and the low availability of this talent often means that vacancies remain open for long periods of time with companies absorbing the costs and loss of revenue associated with the vacancies (b. letsoalo, personal communication, 07 april, 2011). there is also an under-representation of black people at management levels in the pharmaceutical industry: less than 20% of senior management are black (pharmaceutical task group, 2010). the turnover of black professionals in particular is thus of serious concern to human resource managers.there was therefore a need to investigate the turnover of middle and senior managers in the pharmaceutical industry in south africa in order to identify the possible reasons for the turnover and to formulate solutions that businesses could apply to address the issue. literature review employee turnover refers to the number of individuals that permanently vacate positions within an organisation; it can be classified into voluntary (resignation) or involuntary (dismissal or retrenchment) turnover (capelli, 2004). voluntary turnover can further be classified into functional, which is beneficial to the organisation – resignation of a poor performer – or dysfunctional – departure of a productive worker – which is detrimental to the organisation.many commentators have described a variety of determinants of employee turnover. organisational environment, defined as an enduring characteristic of an organisation which embodies the members’ collective perceptions of their organisation (moran & volkwein, 1992), has been frequently associated with employee turnover (kim, price, meuller & watson, 1996; kotze & roodt, 2005; samuel & chipunza, 2009). however, work by morrell, loan-clarke and wilkinson (2001) suggests that any individual’s mobility is tempered by prevailing economic climate and industry conditions, what lee and mitchell (1994) have described as market-related pull factors. this view is supported by grobler and warnich (2006), who determined that during economic upswings, the availability of jobs is high due to the prevailing conditions. personal factors, which ultimately have the biggest impact on employee well-being, have also been highlighted as important drivers of employee turnover (meyer & allen, 1991). knowledge workers of the 21st century display occupational, rather than organisational, commitment, possess skills that are in high demand and are characterised by high mobility (horwitz, heng & quazi, 2003). friedman, hatch and walker (1998) opine that the idea of ‘a job for life’ has become an ‘oxymoron’. the situation has changed so much in recent years, that capelli (2000) has described this change in retention as moving from tending a dam to managing a river: ‘the aim is not to prevent water from flowing, but to control its direction and speed’ (p. 104). this mobility is of great concern to organisations, as tangible and intangible knowledge and assets walk out the door with the worker when they leave (kinnear & sutherland, 2001). turnover of knowledge workers, regardless of how it is classified, can thus affect the prosperity and competitiveness of an organisation (samuel & chipunza, 2009). it is a commonly held belief that job-hopping for increasingly more lucrative salaries is widespread amongst black professionals as a result of companies needing to comply with employment equity regulations and bee targets (khanyile & maponga, 2007). this perception that black professionals are always seeking ‘greener pastures’ is perpetuated by anecdotes, such as the comment from the previous south african reserve bank governor, tito mboweni, who expressed his exasperation at recruiting competent black people, because ‘no sooner have we trained them than they leave’ (oliphant, 2006) for other jobs and ‘charge a premium for their services’ (robinson, 2004). however, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests that black professionals are not primarily motivated to change jobs by higher salaries (consumer insight agency, 2006; cruz, 2006; khanyile & maponga, 2007). booysen (2007) advances a range of reasons for the high turnover rates amongst black professionals (table 1). these findings are echoed by khanyile and maponga (2007), who found that discrimination and negative experiences are key challenges that face black professionals and are major contributors to the push factors that result in them changing companies. these are similar to reasons for employee turnover identified by international research, where lack of an inclusive environment and barriers to advancement are promoters of high turnover. this research proposes to add to the body of knowledge on the reasons why professionals choose to stay with or leave their organisation within the pharmaceutical industry in south africa, with particular consideration being given to black professionals. table 1: reasons for turnover amongst black professionals. table 2: sample demographics. table 3: themes emerging from industry factors. table 4: themes emerging from organisational factors. table 5: themes emerging from personal factors. table 6: number of responses by major code. method top ↑ research approach this research aimed to study an area that has received little attention from south african researchers. the nature of the subjective and detailed data collected did not lend itself to quantitative examination, though future studies may seek to use quantitative methods to validate the conclusions from this study. this study was therefore qualitative and cross-sectional in nature, with a general inductive approach being employed to allow for findings to emerge from the frequent, dominant or significant themes inherent in the raw data, without the constraints imposed by structured methodologies (thomas, 2003). data was collected through in-depth, semi-structured one-on-one interviews as well as a review of company turnover reports and employment equity reports. ethical approval for the research was granted by the university of cape town graduate school of business’s ethics committee. design and participants six mid-sized and large pharmaceutical companies operating in south africa were analysed. interviews were undertaken with 18 individuals who had left organisations (‘leavers’) and 10 who had remained with their organisations (‘stayers’) to gain a better understanding of the factors that led to their decision. in order to be better able to access the leavers, employees who had recently joined the organisation (in the previous 18 months) were approached to respond as leavers of their previous organisation. those interviewed included employees who had been with the company for more than 3 years (stayers) and those who had joined the company within the previous 18 months (leavers) in various roles, including human resources, sales, marketing, medical, scientific, regulatory, finance, information technology, legal and supply chain, at middle and senior management levels (table 2). the companies were randomly selected from a predefined group of organisations that are part of the broader pharmaceutical industry of south africa. criteria for selection were size of organisation, geographic location of offices, and availability and willingness of the organisation and employees to participate in the study.the snowball sub-type of non-probability sampling was utilised. in non-probability sampling, the researcher selects the sample from the population using subjective judgement, rather than random selection (probability sampling) (doherty, 1994). snowball sampling is a technique of non-probability sampling in which a subject who is identified as meeting the criteria for inclusion in the study is requested to identify and recommend others who may be eligible for inclusion (doherty, 1994). this is a useful technique to use when subjects may be difficult to locate, for instance recently appointed knowledge workers in the pharmaceutical industry, and when time and cost are important considerations (cooper & schindler, 2011). analysis qualitative research results in a large volume of data that is often detailed and contextual. miles and huberman (1994) describe three concurrent flows of activity during qualitative data analysis: data reduction, data display and reaching a conclusion. however, the inductive approach, which was utilised in this study, calls for data to be collected prior to codes being induced (savenye & robinson, 2002). this study followed the process of data collection, transcription and reduction, coding and analysis (miles & huberman, 1994). the software that was used in the analysis of the data is atlas.ti version 5.0 (a software package useful for the systematic analysis of unstructured qualitative data, assisting with coding, co-occurrency and mind-mapping). findings top ↑ from the review of company data, this study found that in the sampled organisations, employee turnover rate averaged almost 22% per annum between 2007 and 2010. although there had been a steady decline since 2007, the overall rate remained high, particularly amongst black knowledge workers.the results from interviews were coded into industry, company and personal factors that impacted employee turnover (see tables 3–5). table 6 shows a comparison of how these factors impacted on the retention or turnover of white and black employees. industry factors that affect employee turnover are factors that are intrinsic to the operating environment of all the companies in the pharmaceutical industry and that were deemed to play a role in individuals wanting to stay with their organisations or move on to another. the industry factors highlighted by the respondents included the economic climate, job security, skills shortage and transformation (table 3). organisational factors that impact employee turnover are factors unique to an individual company or subset of companies within the industry that through their presence or absence have an effect on turnover and retention. manager relationship emerged as an important factor determining employee turnover in the sampled population. this factor was followed by organisational culture, dissociation between management and workers, unfavourable work environment and diversity (table 4). personal factors that influence turnover are those determinants specific to individuals and could relate to non-work aspects. these include dynamics such as career growth and progression, remuneration and distance from home to work (table 5). in terms of the factors that influence retention (stayers) and turnover (leavers), the research (table 6) revealed that although industry and organisational factors were important, personal factors were the critical determinants of turnover. individuals reported being able to tolerate some negative organisational factors, but if the personal factors were not adequately addressed, they would leave the organisation even in unfavourable market conditions. overall, black employees emerged as the group with the highest turnover in the sample investigated, whilst white employees were the group with the highest retention rate. black employees were largely driven to leave by negative organisational factors and appealing industry factors. retention was positively impacted by white employees who were threatened by industry factors (such as employment equity and transformation) despite a negative perception of their organisations. in contrast, human resource managers were unanimous in their perception that the main factor causing employee turnover, particularly amongst generation x2 knowledge workers, was money. in their view, the materialism that is prevalent in the south african society is fuelling the constant demand for higher salaries, a situation that is exacerbated by the skills shortage. consequently, companies are cornered into paying top dollar for the talent. they did not see race or gender as a factor as the rarity of skilled talent makes selectivity a luxury. from the review of exit interview reports and aggregated analyses, five areas emerged as being important determinants of turnover in the companies reviewed (figure 1). in the majority of the reports examined, leavers cited money as the primary reason for leaving their organisation for another company. a composite of other variables such as avoidance of disciplinary hearings, restructure or acquisition and discontentment with strategy, values or environment made up 15% of the determinants in the data reviewed. lack of future prospects and relationship with the direct manager were also important reasons why people left. figure 1: determinants of turnover from exit interview reports. discussion top ↑ outline of results the turnover of middle and senior managers in the south african pharmaceutical industry was found to be high. the turnover of knowledge workers in the pharmaceutical industry in south africa is higher than that of other workers in the same industry, other knowledge workers in other sectors in south africa and also knowledge workers in the pharmaceutical industries of developed markets. the sample turnover rate of 22% amongst knowledge workers was significantly higher than the industry average of 15% in a deloitte study (aspen pharmacare, 2011). this observation is supported by horwitz et al. (2003), who argue that knowledge workers tend to have a higher turnover rate than non-knowledge workers because of their unique attributes. although the average employee turnover of knowledge workers in the pharmaceutical industry has been on a downward trend, the rate remains high – and is increasing – amongst black knowledge workers. practical implications: industry factors respondents in the research highlighted several industry-related factors, such as economic climate, skills shortage and industry interactions, as being key determinants of staying or leaving, quite independent of what was going on within the organisation or their personal lives.the economics of the labour market dictate that when demand is low, as was the case in the recent economic downturn, employee turnover is also low. however, when the economic environment was juxtaposed with the skills shortage prevalent in south africa, the picture that was seen was one of decreased, but not low, staff turnover. this highlights that in the pharmaceutical sector, the economic climate does play a role in the individual’s decision to remain with or move from their organisation, but to a lesser extent than in industries where there is a greater supply of skills. this finding is corroborated by the work of kotze and roodt (2005) and morrell et al. (2001), who posit that labour supply and demand, job search theory and job mobility are functions of the prevailing market conditions. south africa is experiencing a general skills crisis, especially in relation to the retention of knowledge workers (kerr-phillips & thomas, 2009). scarcity of skills stimulates the open competition for talent (capelli, 2000) and drives turnover higher. in order to entice knowledge workers from other organisations, companies are required to present meaningful proposals to the would-be targets, which usually includes a high salary package and other non-financial benefits. the human resource managers interviewed during this research process stressed that the growth of the industry was being hamstrung by the lack of appropriately skilled individuals. however, it also emerged that the organisations involved in the research were doing very little to address this issue and instead resorting to stealing each other’s high potential candidates. the uniqueness of investigating employee turnover in the south african context is in the history of the country and the various pieces of legislation that have been enacted in an attempt at redress. apartheid era labour laws disrupted the market dynamics in favour of the white minority, whilst the current equity laws (taken in totality) aim to do the same to advantage the black majority (thomas & jain, 2004). this pendular change in legislation to favour black people came through very strongly from white respondents, one of whom said: ‘there is a demand for black employees because of equity laws. the rest of us have no chance, even if i am a woman.’ (female, white, 41) employment equity has impacted the different race groups differentially (wocke & sutherland, 2008). it has instilled fear of discrimination and limited career prospects in white employees, and stirred the anger of black employees at the slow pace of change, resulting in increased employee turnover, defeating the purpose that the laws were intended to achieve. the differences in views between black and white people can lead to latent discontent and tension (thomas, 2003). these polar sentiments were well illustrated by the respondents in this study, with white interviewees expressing despondency, and sometimes anger, at current equity policies, whilst black respondents felt betrayed by the lack of will to implement policies appropriately. in their papers, khanyile and maponga (2007) and cruz (2006) also highlight hostile environments as a key driver of employee turnover, whilst frost (2002) puts forward the idea that employment equity legislation is causing an imbalance in the economics of the labour market by inflating the demand for people from designated groups, fuelling the war for talent and the turnover rate. the effects of these laws on employee turnover are appreciated by the human resource managers and employees alike. however, it seems that organisations are not doing enough to educate their employees on the necessity and benefits to industry and society of addressing the past imbalances; that could be an important starting point to ensuring that fears and anger are not factors that unduly influence turnover. practical implications: organisational factors organisational factors that emerged as important themes in the turnover decision of knowledge workers during this research were culture, transformation and manager relationship.organisational culture is defined as a pattern of shared basic assumptions that are learnt by the group, that work when applied in problem solving and are taught to new members as the correct way to interact and solve problems (schein, 1992). positive organisational culture has been found to have a significant positive correlation to commitment and decreased turnover (lok & crawford, 1999). this is supported by the findings of the study where a respondent noted that: ‘if i didn’t like the culture, i’d (leave).’ (male, white, 32) company culture has been found to be as important as, if not more important than, money in improving retention and decreasing turnover (logan, 2000).the effect of organisational culture on turnover is well illustrated in veldman’s model (figure 2) (kotze & roodt, 2005), in which culture is described as the macro-environment in which the employee is expected to conduct their daily tasks. if this is found to be lacking, there cannot be a long-lasting employer-employee relationship. whilst it is important to have a culture that is conducive to retaining talent, it is equally important to ensure that the culture is aligned to the company values and that there is shared meaning and experience of the organisation’s culture from the top to the very bottom. this can only occur if the company culture involves open and candid communication. where this is not the case, it comes across as: ‘a great divide between what management says and what actually happens.’ (male, black, 39) the lack of open communication, shared meaning and common experience of company culture is implicated by burton (2006) in over 80% of turnover decisions. transformation of organisations and of the south african pharmaceutical industry is based on legislation that is aimed at addressing the imbalances of an unjust past and is closely related to organisational culture and diversity (booysen, 2007). diversity of an organisation is important in sustaining the momentum of transformation. a study by ng and burke (2005) found that the lack of ‘similar’ individuals in positions of authority resulted in their continued exclusion in organisations. also, high potential candidates from under-represented groups are more likely to join companies that are known to embrace diversity than those that do not, increasing the pool of talent in diverse organisations, as illustrated in a comment from an interview respondent: ‘it is relatively important for me not to be the only black person in the group. i don’t want to be the odd one out.’ (male, black, 28) wocke and sutherland (2008) describe social identities in the workplace, through which people identify and group themselves and others in the work setting. they propose that if one finds oneself in an extreme minority, this has a significant disruptive effect on the psychological contract, with the outcome being employee turnover. more and more, individuals are choosing which organisation to work for: ‘partly for their diversity.’ (female, black, 35) as the team becomes more diverse, the management becomes more diverse, resulting in a well-functioning, diverse and transformed organisation (robinson & dechant, 1997). this is of particular importance in the south african context as local business leaders will need to develop skills to effectively manage a multicultural and multi-ethnic workplace, divorcing it from the eurocentric environment that is perceived as hostile by black employees (prime, 1999). many black respondents reported the lack of diversity and transformation as an important factor that led them to leave their organisations. employee relationship with the manager surfaced during the interviews as an important variable that determines turnover. in the interviews, it came out clearly that, ultimately, it is the managers who determine whether an employee has a pleasant experience in the organisation or leaves for another organisation. dobbs (2001) asserts that a knowledge worker’s length of stay in an organisation is determined by the relationship with their manager. this causal relationship was demonstrated by a respondent who commented: ‘i hated my boss. that’s why i left.’ (male, black, 30) mayo (1933) takes this further, positing that not only do they impact on turnover and retention, but friendly teams and supportive supervisors also result in employees outperforming their peers with less supportive manager environments. respondents who had changed jobs as a result of a poor relationship with their manager reported poor communication, lack of direction and feedback and lack of agreement on development goals. these are in line with what heathfield (2008) found to be frequent employee complaints regarding their managers. figure 2: veldman’s employee commitment model. practical implications: personal factors during the interview process, personal factors were noted as the most important aspects that individuals consider in their decision to remain with their organisation or move on to another. after coding, career opportunities, personal values and remuneration emerged as areas that required consideration.knowledge workers are continually searching for knowledge and new skills and they want opportunities to advance within their organisations in order to apply and develop these skills. the advancement may be upward or lateral, but what has been made clear from this research is that if knowledge workers cannot advance within their organisations, they will move to one where their expectations will be met. opportunities to advance their careers emerged as an important factor to stay for those who had stayed, or to leave, if the opportunities were absent. it is well documented in literature that a work environment that fosters growth and development is critical to reducing turnover rates (benson, 2006; jamrog, 2004). many of the respondents who had remained with their companies quoted experience, ahead of anything else, as a key motivator to continue employment at a particular organisation. in their paper, birt, wallis and winternitz (2004) note that advancement opportunities are one of the five most important intrinsic factors for retention. this is supported by other local research, which has demonstrated that in south africa, development of a long-term career is a major driver of employee loyalty (markinor south africa, 2003). kinnear and sutherland (2000) concur, proposing that a lack of career advancement is a leading cause of employee turnover. all respondents in this study considered career development and advancement as key, as exemplified in the comment: ‘for me the move was a career-motivated decision. staying there any longer did not make much sense, especially as there was no benefit to my career to stay there much longer.’ (female, black, 37) kerr-phillips and thomas (2009) have identified a complex relationship between intention to resign and unmet career expectations. as highlighted by some of the respondents, failure of the organisation to fulfil promises that were made at recruitment, particularly pertaining to advancement, can have a deleterious impact on the employer-employee relationship. individuals will not seek external challenges and opportunities for advancement if their organisation plays an active and participatory role in their career development (rosenwald, 2000). this is particularly true for high potential employees who do not leave their jobs for money, but will seek opportunities to rapidly develop their careers (brocksmith, 1997; glen, 2006). one of the defining characteristics of knowledge workers is that they develop their careers independently of their organisations through education, rather than through company training and career development programs (despres & hiltop, 1995). so when the organisation does not support efforts to study further, these individuals do not hesitate to change employment: ‘i was also promised that i can pursue further studies, and when the time came, there were issues, so i couldn’t do that. also, i was not happy with the environment at the time, and opportunities came up, and i left.’ (male, black, 33) the pharmaceutical industry is involved in the healthcare value chain. unsurprisingly, the people employed within the industry feel that their work must have purpose and meaning, and should be directed towards the betterment of human life. this was highlighted by a number of the respondents, even those who were not directly involved with patients or product. the importance of this desire for meaning is emphasised by moses (2000) as a critical factor in retention and turnover as people want to feel that their work has a purpose and that their activities are adding value to the company. further to meaning and purpose, an individual’s values are of importance in determining employee turnover. in what has been termed ‘person-organisation fit’, the congruence of the values and expected behaviours at an organisation with those of the individual is essential to ensuring a lasting relationship. cited in ng and burke (2005), murray (1938) notes that where there is a disconnect between organisational and personal values, personal fulfilment will be stifled, resulting in a decision to exit the organisation. the process of defining person-organisation fit begins during the course of application and recruitment, a point that is often lost on both the applicant and the employer (ng & burke, 2005). this awareness seems to be increasing, with a number of respondents reporting that value congruence is on the checklist of non-negotiable items when they seek out new organisations: ‘i wouldn’t say i am deep or anything, but the company vision, mission and values have to talk to me.’ (male, black, 35) ‘i also look at the company values, to see if they are in line with mine.’ (male, black, 30) the reason that most people engage in employment is to earn a living so as to support their lifestyles and families. however, literature indicates that despite this, money is not a key factor for many knowledge workers (brocksmith, 1997; glen, 2006; griffeth, hom & gaertner, 2000). this has been substantiated by respondents in this research, who consider money important, but not primary to the engagement with their employer: ‘i won’t work for nothing.’ (male, black, 37) although some local literature has proposed that high turnover, particularly amongst black professionals, is fuelled by a desire for better pay (biyela, 2007; maisela, 2001; selome, 2008), this has not been borne out in this research. in fact, the findings from this study show overwhelmingly that money does not have a decisive role in the retention and turnover of knowledge workers in the pharmaceutical industry. however, data from exit interviews indicates that leavers single out money as a reason to leave in over 60% of cases. when one respondent (male, black, 40) was questioned about this, he stated that he was guilty of reporting money as the primary reason for his departure, as he was uncomfortable informing his previous employers that he was leaving due to the lack of transformation and the open hostility that he felt. there was a notable difference in perception and thinking between respondents who were younger than 40 and those who were older than 40, particularly in their attitude to employee turnover. the younger cohort was more focused on their careers and ensuring that there is career development and growth and so were not afraid to change jobs to guarantee this, whilst the older cohort was concerned with job security and pension funding and thus had extended tenure in their companies. this difference is illustrated in the variation in the age demographic between the two groups: the average age of the total sample was 38.3 years (range 28–59), the leavers cohort had a mean age of 34.5 years as opposed to the 45.2 years of the stayers cohort. although in their paper, healy, lehman and mcdaniel (1995) found no correlation between age and turnover, werbel and bedeion (1989) and price (1977), as cited by sahu and gupta (1999), found that age has a powerful independent effect on retention and turnover, with older employees tending to stay whilst younger ones moved there also seems to be a relationship between tenure and propensity to stay within the organisation. the longer that an individual was with an organisation, the more likely they were to remain, whilst the leavers also had shorter tenures at previous employers. findings by sahu and gupta (1999), gerhart (1990) and price (1977, cited in sahu & gupta, 1999) illustrate a direct positive relationship between tenure and intention to stay. this was borne out in the findings of this research. limitations and recommendations the limitations of this study include the sampling methodology, which was non-probability sampling. this sampling technique cannot claim representivity of the population with certainty. also, qualitative research by its nature depends on subjective interpretation either of the questions asked or the answers given, which can limit the vigour of the findings. lastly, subjective judgement, rather than statistical methods, was used in sample size determination.this study has highlighted important areas of concern that will require further investigation. future research could explore larger sample sizes and quantitative methodologies in order to measure and compare the effects of these factors on employee turnover in the pharmaceutical industry. prospective studies could also investigate causal, dependency and other relationships between the factors identified in this research. scope also exists to expand this type of research into other sectors that depend on knowledge workers, as well as to look at smaller organisations where some of these factors and their effects may be amplified. conclusion this research set out to investigate the reasons for the turnover of knowledge workers in middle and senior management positions in the pharmaceutical industry in south africa. an initial literature review suggested that black knowledge workers had a higher turnover than their white counterparts, that money played a central role in the turnover decision and that employment equity legislation had a major influence on the economics of the labour market and consequently, on employee turnover.this study found that many of the factors that influence turnover in south africa are similar to those found in other parts of the world. these include prevailing economic conditions, organisational culture, manager relationship, personal values and career growth. however, other uniquely south african factors such as transformation and skills shortages emerged as important determinants of turnover. from the study, there is a difference in perceptions with regard to transformation as a factor causing turnover between black, white and human resource management respondents. this difference itself can lead to increased turnover if not appropriately managed. unlike other local studies, this study did not find money to play a major role in the turnover decision of respondents. from this research, it can be concluded that there is a complex relationship between industry, organisational and personal factors and how these come to play to cause an individual knowledge worker to reach a decision to leave or remain with their organisation. however, of these, personal factors are regarded as the most important by knowledge workers. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.k. (university of cape town) conducted the research as part of his master of business administration (mba), which was supervised by p.d. (university of cape town). references top ↑ aspen pharmacare. (2011). aspen pharmacare group annual financial report. johannesburg, south africa: aspen pharmacare holdings.bennet, j. (2003, 16 march). employers have ther work cut out. business times, p. 1. benson, g. (2006). employee development, commitment, and intention to turnover: a test of ‘employability’ policies in action. human resource management, 173–192. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2006.00011.x birt, m., wallis, t., & winternitz, g. (2004). talent retention in a changing workplace: an investigation of variables considered important to south african talent. south african journal of business management, 25–31. biyela, b. (2007). factors affecting retention of black professionals in the south african financial institutions industry. unpublished mba dissertation, gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. booysen, l. (2007). barriers to employment equity implementation and retention of blacks in management in south africa. the south african journal of labour relations, 31(1), 47–71. brocksmith, j. (1997). passing the baton: preparing tomorrow’s leaders. in f. hesselbein, m. goldsmith, & r. beckhard (eds.), the organization of the future (pp. 251–258). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. burton, s.k. (2006). without trust, you have nobody: effective employee communication for today and tomorrow. the strategist, 12(2), 32–26. capelli, p. (2000). a market-driven approach to retaining talent. havard business review, jan/feb, 103–111. capelli, p. (2004). why do employers pay for college? journal of econometrics, 121(1), 213–241. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2003.10.014 chiboiwa, m., samuel, m., & chipunza, c. (2010). the examination of employee retention strategy in a private organisation in zimbabwe. african journal of business management, 4(10), 2103–2109. consumer insight agency. (2006, 04 september). it’s no longer about the money for black talent in south africa. retrieved may 01, 2011, from http://www.bizcommunity.com/pressoffice/pressrelease.aspx?i=656&ai=11516 cooper, d., & schindler, p. (2011). business research methods. singapore: mcgraw-hill/irwin. cruz, c. (2006). what drives black talent in south africa. management today, 22(6), 24–25. despres, c., & hiltop, j. (1995). human resource management in the knowledge age: current practices and perspectives on the future. employee relations, 17(1), 9–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01425459510146652 dobbs, k. (2001). knowing how to keep your best and your brightest. workforce, april, 57–60. doherty, m. (1994). probability versus non-probability sampling in sample surveys. the new zealand statistics review, march, 21–28. friedman, b., hatch, b., & walker, d. (1998). delivering on the promise. new york, ny: the free press. frost, l. (2002). finding the top people. hr future, 1(3), 30–32. gerhart, b. (1990, june). voluntary turnover, job performance, salary growth, and labor market conditions. retrieved september 28, 2011, from http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1376&context=cahrswp glebbeek, a., & bax, e. (2004). is high employee turnover really harmful? an imperical test using company records. the academy of management journal, 2, 277–286. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/20159578 glen, c. (2006). key skills retention and motivation: the war for talent still rages and retention is the high ground. industrial and commercial training, 38(1), 37–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00197850610646034 griffeth, r., hom, p., & gaertner, s. (2000). a meta-analysis of antecedents and correlates of employee turnover: update, moderator tests and research implications for the next millenium. journal of management, 26(3), 463–488. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920630002600305 grobler, p., & warnich, s. (2006). human resource management in south africa. london, uk: thomas learning. healy, m., lehman, m., & mcdaniel, m. (1995). age and voluntary turnover: a quantitative review. personnel psychology, 48(2), 335–345. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1995.tb01760.x heathfield, s. (2008). training and development for employee motivation and retention. retrieved november 17, 2011, from http://www.about.com heymann, m. (2010). the impact of demographics on voluntary labour turnover in south africa. unpublished mba dissertation, gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. horwitz, f., heng, c., & quazi, h. (2003). finders, keepers? attracting, motivating and retaining knowledge workers. human resource management journal, 13(4), 23–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2003.tb00103.x jamrog, j. (2004). the perfect storm: the future of retention and engagement. human resource planning, 27(3), 26–33. jse. (2011, 01 august). main board listed companies. retrieved august 01, 2011, from http://www.jse.co.za/how-to-list/main-board/main-board-listed-companies.aspx kerr-phillips, b., & thomas, a. (2009). macro and micro challenges for talent retention in south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 7(1), 82–91. khanyile, n., & maponga, r. (2007). the rolling stones -exploring the job-hopping phenomenon amongst the black professionals. johannesburg, south africa: tns research surveys. kim, s., price, j., meuller, c., & watson, t. (1996). the determinants of career intent among physicians at a us air force hospital. human relations, 49(7), 947–976. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001872679604900704 kinnear, l., & sutherland, m. (2000). determinants of organisational commitment amongst knowledge workers. south african journal of business management, 31(3), 106–112. kinnear, l., & sutherland, m. (2001). money is fine, but what is the bottom-line? people dynamics, 19(1), 15–18. kotze, k., & roodt, g. (2005). factors that affect the retention of managerial and specialist staff: an exploratory study of an employee committment model. south african journal of human resource management, 3(2), 48–55. lee, t., & mitchell, t. (1994). an alternative approach: the unfolding model of voluntary employee turnover. the academy of management review, 19(1), 51. logan, j. (2000). retention tangibles and intangibles: more meaning in work is essential, but good chair massages won’t hurt. training & development, 54(4), 48–50. lok, p., & crawford, j. (1999). the relationshop between commitment and organisational culture, subculture, leadership style and job satisfaction in organizational change and development. leadership and organisational development journal, 20(7), 365–374. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437739910302524 maisela, j. (2001). success factors for attracting and retaining highly skilled black professionals. johannesburg, south africa: university of the witwatersrand. markinor south africa. (2003, september). south african employee relationship survey. retrieved august 31, 2011, from http://www.markinor.co.za/downloads/err.doc mayo, e. (1933). the human problems of anindustrial civilization. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. meyer, j., & allen, n. (1991). a three component conceptualisation of organisational commitment. human resource management review, 1(1), 61–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/1053-4822(91)90011-z miles, m., & huberman, a. (1994). qualitative data analysis: an expanded sourcebook. thousand oaks, ca: sage. mobscot corporation. (2011). retention management and metrics. retrieved august 01, 2011, from http://www.nobscot.com/about/turnover_statistics.cfm moran, e., & volkwein, j. (1992). the cultural approach to the formation of organizational climate. human relations, 45(1), 19–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001872679204500102 morrell, k., loan-clarke, j., & wilkinson, a. (2001). unweaving leaving: the use of models in management of employee turnover. international journal of management review, 3(3), 219–244. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2370.00065 morris, s. (2010). human performance improvement industry trends. retrieved april 28, 2011, from http://www.missionfacilitators.com moses, b. (2000). give people belief in the future: in these cynical times, hr must assure employees that faith and work can coexist. workforce, 79(6), 134–139. murray, h. (1938). explorations in personality. new york: oxford university press. ng, e., & burke, r. (2005). person-organization fit and the war for talent: does diversity management make a difference? international journal of human resource management, 16(7), 1195–1210. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190500144038 oliphant, l. (2006, 07 october). i’ll stick with my afrikaners -mboweni. retrieved may 01, 2011, from http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/i-ll-stick-with-afrikaners-mboweni-1.296657 pharmaceutical task group. (2010). insights into the high-level financial contribution of the pharmaceutical industry in south africa. johannesburg, south africa: deloitte. prime, n. (1999). cross-cultural management in south africa: problems, obstacles and solutions in companies. pretoria, south africa: van schaik publishers. republic of south africa. (1998). employment equity act, no. 55 of 1998. government gazette. cape town, south africa: government press. republic of south africa. (2003). broad-based black economic empowerment act, no. 53 of 2003. government gazette. cape town, south africa: government press. robinson, g., & dechant, k. (1997). building a business case for diversity. the academy of management executive, 11(3), 21–31. robinson, s. (2004, 11 april). the second revolution. retrieved may 01, 2011, from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,610026,00.html rosenwald, m. (2000, 15 october). working class: more companies are creating corporate universities to help employees sharpen skills amd learn new ones. boston globe, p. h1. sahu, a., & gupta, m. (1999). an empirical analysis of employee turnover in a software organization. indian journal of industrial relations, 35(1), 55–73. samuel, m., & chipunza, c. (2009). employee retention and turnover: using motivational variables as a panacea. african journal of business management, 3(8), 410–415. sanofi-aventis. (2010). best employers 2010/2011 south africa. retrieved july 29, 2011, from http://www.bestemployers.co.za/linkclick.aspx?fileticket...tabid=5319 savenye, w., & robinson, r. (2002). qualitative research issues and methods: an introduction for educational technologists. retrieved august 15, 2011, from http://www.aect.org/edtech/ed1/pdf/40.pdf schein, e. (1992). organizational culture and leadership: a dynamic view. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. selome, g. (2008). the relationship between diversity climate perceptions and turnover intentions. unpublished mba dissertation, gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. the economist intelligence unit. (2010). south africa: health and pharmaceuticals report. retrieved august 01, 2011, from http://www.eiu.com/index.asp?layout=ib3article&article_id=87377993&pubtypeid=1152462500&country_id=1660000166&category_id=775133077&rf=0 thomas, a., & jain, h. (2004). employment equity in canada and south africa: progress and propositions. international journal of human resources management, 15(1), 36–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0958519032000157348 thomas, d. (2003). a general inductive approach for qualitative data analysis. auckland, new zealand: university of auckland. van zyl, r. (2009). sectors and skills: the need for policy alignment. cape town, south africa: human science research council press. vass, j. (2010). hsrc review. retrieved july 31, 2011, from http://www.hsrc.ac.za/hsrc_review_article-182.phtml werbel, j.d., & bedeion, a.g. (1989). intended turnover as a function of age and job opportunity. journal of organizational behaviour, 10(3), 275–281. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.4030100307 wocke, a., & sutherland, m. (2008). the impact of employment equity regulations on psychological contracts in south africa. international journal of human resource management, 19(4), 528–542. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190801953525 footnotes top ↑ 1. designated groups are those identified by legislation (black people, women and people with disabilities) for preferential selection and employment to address historical disadvantages. 2. generation x (or gen x) is generally considered to refer to people born between 1965 and the early 1980s. article information authors: magda bezuidenhout1 anton grobler1 elizabeth c. rudolph1 affiliations: 1department of human resource management, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: magda bezuidenhout postal address: po box 392, unisa, pretoria 0003, south africa dates: received: 08 aug. 2012 accepted: 03 june 2013 published: 24 july 2013 how to cite this article: bezuidenhout, m., grobler, a., & rudolph, e.c. (2013). the utilisation of a career conversation framework based on schein’s career anchors model. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #491, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.491 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the utilisation of a career conversation framework based on schein’s career anchors model in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • research problem       • key focus of the study       • background to the study       • trends in the research literature       • research objectives       • potential value-add of the study    • literature review       • career anchors and their categories       • the rather static nature of career anchors       • the impact of demographic variables (age, gender and race) on career anchors       • differences between primary and secondary career anchors       • career conversations and the use of career anchors • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instrument       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • differences between the groups in terms of their career anchors in the short term (1 to 3 years) and medium term (4 to 10 years)    • differences between the career anchors in the short and medium term • discussion    • differences between the groups in terms of their career anchors in the short term (1 to 3 years) and medium term (4 to 10 years)       • difference between the groups in terms of their career anchors in the short term and medium term: race group       • difference between the groups in terms of their career anchors in the short and medium term: gender group       • difference between the groups in terms of their career anchors in the short and medium term: age group       • are there any dominant and/or secondary career anchors for employees?    • limitations of the study    • suggestions for future research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interest    • authors' contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: this study constituted and reported on the outcomes of a structured career conversation framework based on schein’s eight career anchors in an open distance and e-learning (odel) university in south africa. research purpose: the purpose of the research was to report on the utilisation of a structured career conversation framework based on schein’s career anchors model. motivation for the study: the rationale for the study was the paucity of studies investigating career anchors in south africa’s multicultural organisational context. research design, approach and method: a quantitative approach was adopted in the study. the population consisted of 4200 employees at a university in south africa. statistical analysis was performed using one-way analysis of variance (anova) as well as a scheffe post hoc test. main findings: the findings of this study suggest that career conversation has a dynamic nature (i.e. it changes) over a period of time. consequently, career development interventions in the workplace need to approach the workforce holistically. practical/managerial implications: the findings and results will assist managers, practitioners and career development specialists in the practical implementation of the career anchor concept. contribution/value-add: the career conversation framework based on schein’s career anchors has expanded the existing theory to find the right balance between career conversations and career anchors to keep people motivated to perform optimally in an organisation. introduction top ↑ research problem schein (1978:1) states that the problem for society and organisations is to match individual needs with those of the organisations throughout their entire career. participants in a study by coetzee and schreuder (2009) were predominantly employed in the south african service industry, which means that their findings cannot be generalised to an open distance e-learning (odel) environment. to retain talented employees in an odel environment, it is important to understand their aspirations, in both the short and long term, and perceptions of career anchors. therefore, there is a need to explore the following research questions:• do demographic variables (age, gender and race groups) play a significant role in the short and medium term regarding career anchors within a sample of respondents from a south african odel university work context? • are there significant differences between the career anchors for the short and medium term? (does the change have dynamic or stable characteristics?) • are there any dominant and/or secondary career anchors for employees? coetzee and schreuder (2009:118) argue that different types of careers offer different types of rewards and opportunities to satisfy work and career needs. no previous research has been conducted on the outcomes of a career conversation framework, based on schein’s eight career anchors in an odel university environment in south africa. it is therefore essential to review existing approaches to dialogue between line management and employees by means of career conversations. furthermore, limited research has previously been done on the significant differences between career anchors in different demographic groups, and in the short and medium term. key focus of the study the use of career development interventions in the workplace has attracted attention in the fields of business, psychology and counselling psychology. because human capital is one of the primary resources used by businesses to stay competitive in the global economy, the notion of ‘career’ has changed. thus, in this article we intended to use a career conversations framework based on schein’s career anchor model and to determine the differences across demographic groups, and whether there is a dynamic change over a period of time in employees’ career anchors. background to the study to date, limited research has been done on career anchors in the south african multicultural organisational context. a vital indicator of the emergence of a quality culture is capacity-building efforts made by odel universities through continuous staff development opportunities (jung, 2005:90). although organisations no longer expect individuals to develop a hierarchical career in a single organisation, organisations are intensely competitive, and the ones that retain the greatest number of their employees tend to emphasise continuous learning for employees (byrne 1999, as cited in tan & quek, 2001:527). given the strong emphasis on human capital, this study attempted to understand the fit of individuals’ internal career needs (aspirations) in their jobs, based on schein’s career anchors. as a result, the odel organisation realised the importance of using career conversations as an intervention method to identify, formulate and escalate career development plans within employees’ career portfolios. consequently, schein’s career anchors were used to support the structure of using career conversations to determine the career aspirations of employees within an odel environment. trends in the research literature career conversations (between managers and employees) are considered to be a method of career development (butterfield, lalande & borgen, 2009) that may lead to a greater understanding of employees’ specific expectations. accordingly, in an effort to ensure lasting competitiveness, career development could result in attracting and retaining human capital. in the process of looking after human capital, the function of career anchors is to organise individuals’ experiences, identifying the long-term contributions of individuals and establishing criteria for success against which individuals can measure themselves (coetzee, schreuder & tladinyane, 2007). furthermore, coetzee et al. (2007) assert that career anchors are a key determinant of an individual’s choice of a career or workplace. in this respect, schein also emphasises that a stable career identity is structured by combining an individual’s interests with their abilities and values (schein, 1993, 1996; feldman & bolino, 1996). it is here that the importance of career anchors is felt, and the right balance between career conversations and career anchors may go a long way towards keeping people motivated to perform optimally in an organisation. research objectives the aim of the present study was to report on the outcomes of a career conversation framework based on schein’s eight career anchors in an odel university environment in south africa. furthermore, to retain talented employees in an odel environment, it is important to understand their aspirations, in both the short and long term, and perceptions of career anchors. the objectives of the study were to investigate:• the significant role of demographic variables (age, gender and race groups) in the short and medium term regarding career anchors within a sample of respondents from a south african odel university work context; • the significant differences between career anchors for the short and medium term, and whether the change has dynamic or stable characteristics; • whether dominant and/or secondary career anchors exist for employees within the organisation. potential value-add of the study career development in today’s economy requires a dynamic reciprocal process in which the employee is willing to engage in career development and the employer is willing to allocate the resources to encourage it. however, despite the advantages career development provides, few career development services, such as career conversations, are available for employees in higher educational institutions. this study could add new knowledge and insight to improve career conversation practices that will have a positive influence on the bottom line of a business for managers and employees alike. literature review during the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, schein’s work introduced the operationalisation of the multi-dimensional use of career anchors and their relationship to career success (coetzee & schreuder, 2009; singh, bhattacharjee & kodwani, 2009). organisations are dependent on the performance of their employees, and employees are dependent on organisations to provide jobs and career opportunities (schein, 1978:1). feldman and bolino (1996) suggested alternative methodologies for measuring and analysing career anchor data; they also explored the implications of career anchor research for managing careers in organisations. feldman and bolino were of the opinion that career anchor theory has focused mainly on adults in their 30s and 40s, and its implications for university placement centres have been largely ignored. coetzee and schreuder (2009) found valuable new knowledge that can be used to inform organisational career development support practices as well as career counselling and guidance services within a south african context. career anchors and their categories after 1978, edgar schein’s work led to the development of the following eight career anchors that guide the career decisions of employees (schein, 1990:4–11): (1) security, stability or organisational identity, (2) autonomy and independence, (3) creativity and entrepreneurship, (4) technical or functional competence, (5) managerial competence, (6) sense of service or dedication to a cause, (7) pure challenge, and (8) lifestyle integration. schein (1985:1) argues that a career anchor is a person’s self-image, indicating what they excel in and their wants and values. feldman and bolino (1996:89) reconceptualised the nature of schein’s eight career anchors into the following three career enabler groupings: (1) talent-based anchors, (2) value-based anchors and (3) need-based anchors. scholars differentiate between (and do not necessarily concur about the relative importance of) two dimensions of career anchors, namely internal and external careers (schein, 1980, 1987; tan & queck, 2001; hassan et al., 2012). added to this, schein (1993) points out that, for future decision-making purposes, individuals need to clearly understand their orientation towards work, their motives, their values and their self-perceived talents. schein (2006) further argues that successful organisational performance and productive, satisfying careers are ultimately a process of matching the ever-changing needs of an organisation and those of the individual. consequently, schreuder and coetzee (2006:221) gave an integrated overview of the concept of career anchors and career enablers by allocating characteristics to them (see table 1). wils, wils and tremblay (2010:236) concur with schein that an individual progresses through their career as a result of the interaction between the individual and the workplace (wils et al., 2010:236). table 1: characteristics of the eight career anchors. the rather static nature of career anchors owing to the ‘ever-changing’ nature of the needs of organisations and individuals, schein (2006) contends that early in a person’s career, they value many things and do not yet know what they would hold on to if forced to make a choice. schein maintains that the further into a career a person progresses, the greater the likelihood of there being only one anchor. however, weber and ladkin (2009) found (from a small sample size) that a multitude of career anchors guide industry professionals’ careers, regardless of whether there is a single dominant or a multiplicity of anchors. the impact of demographic variables (age, gender and race) on career anchors coetzee et al. (2007) (with a sample of 157 part-time students at a university) reported significant differences between the career anchors of males and females, as well as a number of significant differences between two variables (only 0.03% of the commitment variance, while the commitment variables explained 0.40% of the career anchors variance). coetzee and schreuder (2009:117) explored the relationship between the psychological career resources and career anchors of a sample of 2997 working adults at predominantly managerial and supervisory levels in the service industry. the psychological career resources inventory and the career orientations inventory were applied and their findings indicated dimensions of psychological career resources as significant predictors of participants’ career anchors. singh et al. (2009) conducted a study in a large engineering company with 1433 executives, across all age groups and different cultural backgrounds. service orientation, technical competence and lifestyle surfaced as the dominant anchors for the majority of respondents in their study. furthermore, hassan et al. (2012:61) argue that individuals with a higher level of competence tend to avoid decisions that lead to managerial jobs and attempt to remain in their interested technical groups. no specific literature was found regarding the impact of race on career anchors. differences between primary and secondary career anchors the main assumption underpinning schein’s (1985) career anchors is that there can only be one career anchor. scholars further differentiate between (and do not necessarily concur about the relative importance of) two dimensions of career anchors, namely internal and external careers. ituma and simpson (2006) suggested the existence of multiple career anchors. career anchors evolve only as one gains occupational and life experience. schein (2006:15) is convinced that once the self-concept has been formed, it functions as a stabilising force – an anchor – and can be regarded as the values and motives a person will not relinquish if forced to make a choice. however, it is essential to be aware of career anchors so that wise career decisions can be made. this suggests that individuals will seek job opportunities that strengthen an anchor rather than undermine it (ituma & simpson, 2006:980). consequently, coetzee et al. (2007:69) argue that schein’s own empirical evidence suggested that individuals can strongly hold more than one career anchor. schein (2006) argues that change is possible, and that there are instances of this, but that the odds are against change for several reasons. schein further states that the development of self-insight in a person provides security and direction and leads to the unknown becoming known. schein (2006) further maintains that the more people know about themselves as they age, the more stable they become and the more they wish to remain stable. consequently, this study attempted to stimulate career conversations between employees and line management based on a framework according to the eight career anchors of schein. further, the study attempted to capture and give meaning to the important human resource function to develop an intervention framework as part of career management within an odel environment. career conversations and the use of career anchors ramsey (1998) posits that managers can change perceptions, actions and relations by ‘managing within conversation’. hence, dialogue between line management and employees may instil meaning and mutuality to enhance decision making, group functions and overall productivity (walsh & fisher, 2005). de vos and hauw (2010) argue that it is not sufficient for organisations merely to provide a series of training, on-the-job learning and career development practices. the chartered institute of personnel development’s (cipd’s) managing employee careers survey shows that the majority of organisations expect employees to take responsibility for their own careers, but recognise that employees need support and training for this (cipd 2005). kidd, hirsh and jackson (2004) dispute the contention that organisations need to reposition the responsibility for presenting career support to employees in the context of a face-to-face discussion (conversation). to compete in today’s rapidly evolving global economy, people need to find out what their career anchors are in order to make smart future plans (schein, 2006). organisational commitment is one of the factors that can influence career anchors of employees. therefore, hassan et al. (2012) examined the relationship between career anchors and organisational commitment among faculty members at the university of urmia. their empirical study was based on a sample of 70 faculty members. the findings indicate that there was a positive relationship between career anchor components and organisational commitment components among members of the study group. technical functional competence, general managerial competence, autonomy/independence, pure challenge and lifestyle were found to be significant predicators of organisational commitment. feldman and bolino (1996:90) argue that, if an individual has to make decisions about what jobs to pursue and how to balance their personal and work life, career anchor functions remain a constraining force. furthermore, coetzee et al. (2007:81) suggest that career anchors are not significant predictors of organisational commitment. tan and queck (2001:528) posit that career anchors function as stabilising forces in guiding future career directions and decisions and can be regarded as the values and motives that an individual will not relinquish if forced to make a choice. ituma and simpson (2006:980) state that it is unlikely that schein’s us-based framework, which gives a reflection of a unique set of social structures and organisations, will fully capture the career orientations of individuals in different national contexts, because of the likely impact of societal organisations and national culture. consequently, a career conversation framework was developed by the human resource department of the above mentioned south african odel, using schein’s eight career anchors, to explore the career orientations of the employees (considering demographic factors such as age, gender and race). the word ‘career’ has different connotations for different people. schein (2006:5) argues that organisations realise the importance of satisfying careers and that these are ultimately the product of a good process of matching the ever-changing needs of organisations with the ever-changing needs of an individual’s career. it is seen in the context of (1) how society perceives an individual’s journey through their work life, (2) advancement in their professional life and (3) how the individual evolves with their work experience over time (singh et al., 2009:51). therefore, organisations have to face the challenge of retaining their best and most talented staff by means of career conversations. additionally, this article facilitates career planning and conversations and enables both the individual and the organisation to fulfil their needs. the next section of the article will elaborate on the research design, approach and method that was adopted in this study. this is followed by the results and a discussion of the findings. the article concludes with a brief synopsis of the main conclusions, implications for practice and recommendations for future research. research design top ↑ research approach for this explorative and descriptive study, a quantitative survey research approach was used to achieve the research objectives (babbie & mouton, 2007). research method research participants the participants were drawn from a population of 4200 employees: a sample of 1383 employees (from different departments: professional, support and academic) in an open distance e-learning university in south africa were interviewed. daniel 2006 (cited in latchem et al., 2006:221) define odel universities as distance education organisations with enrolments of over 100 000 that have increased participation while markedly reducing costs. table 2 indicates the demographic characteristics of the respondents. table 2: characteristics of the study population. the results in table 2 show that a total of 1392 valid datasets were received and analysed. of the respondents, 53.6% were african people, 38.9% white people, 4.0% of mixed race and 3.5% indian people. all race groups were represented and approximately one-third of the population responded (34.4%). a more or less even distribution in terms of gender was reported, with 54.5% of the respondents being women and 45.5% men. furthermore, the academic management and primary support categories were best represented, with 90.9% and 46.5% respectively. the academic core and the institutional support categories had smaller representation, with 19.7% and 20.2% respectively. the average representation across the categories was 38.8%. the majority of respondents were in the 26 to 35 age group (46.2%) with a normal distribution across the categories. table 2 also shows that the professional and support categories of the university had a significantly higher response rate with 38.3% of the population, while 20.1% of the academic population participated in the career conversations. of the respondents, 43.7% were studying further, while 51.6% indicated that they were not. a total of 66 respondents did not complete this field. it is evident from the results that all the demographic groups were well represented in this study, including the race, gender, age, broad personnel category, further studies and detailed human resource category. measuring instrument an element of qualitative data was included through structured interviews (conversations) with employees (silverman, 2010). the respondents were allowed to make comments during the structured interview. however, the focus in this article is not to report in depth on the comments collected. the interview measured eight career preferences (see table 2 for the eight career anchors). the career planning conversation framework was used by each line manager and comprised the three sections. section 1 focused on the employee’s current goals (to determine whether the individual would like to make a vertical or horizontal career move), while section 2 included a ‘career preference’ (based on schein’s career anchors) table. the line managers were requested to determine the three top career preferences of each employee (to be used during the career conversations). section 3 focused on the role of the line manager and included a career preference table, with a ‘possible actions’ column and an ‘agreed actions’ column. the career conversation framework made provision for choosing between the three career enablers, but the focus of the analysis was on schein’s eight career anchors. research procedure the results were captured and consolidated by means of an electronic system, administered by the directorate of organisation development via personalised email messages to all line managers. the line managers were requested to use a career conversation framework (structured interviews with clear guidelines) and to record and capture the responses on the electronic system. biographical data were obtained from the university’s human resource information system.the demographical factors of the instrument included variables such age, race, gender, language and highest qualification, as well as an indication of whether the respondent was busy with further studies. statistical analysis the statistical analysis was conducted by means of statistica version 10, a statistical program. descriptive statistical data analysis (means, skewness and kurtosis) was used. a statistical analysis was performed using one-way analysis of variance (anova). when the overall anova showed significant differences between groups, a scheffe post hoc test was used to determine the pairs of groups that were different. the accepted level of significance was p < 0.05. the practical significance of differences in means between the groups was determined (ravid, 2010:150). cronbach’s alpha coefficients and interim correlations were used to determine the validity and reliability of the constructs measured in the career conversations framework. the cronbach alpha determines the internal consistency of a test or scale and is articulated as a number between 0 and 1 (tabachnick & fidell, 2007). adequate measuring values of the cronbach alpha range from 0.70 to 0.95 (tabachnick & fidell, 2007). the career conversations survey was consistently used and hence was seen as reliable indicators (see table 3). table 3: descriptive statistics and cronbach alpha coefficient of the career anchors. results top ↑ the results of the study relate to the research questions, which were based on the career conversations that took place in the university. differences between the groups in terms of their career anchors in the short term (1 to 3 years) and medium term (4 to 10 years) significant statistical differences were determined between the different groups and are indicated in terms of the short and medium term (see tables 4 to 9). statistically significant differences are reported in table 4 in terms of race and career anchors in the short term. the african group measured significantly higher than the white group on the technical/functional and general managerial career anchors. the white group measured significantly lower than all other race groups on the general managerial career anchor. the security or stability career anchor was significantly more important to the white group than the african group. lifestyle was also significantly more important to the white group compared with the african and indian groups. table 4: career anchors and race in the short term (1 to 3 years). table 5 indicates that the white group measured significantly lower than the african and mixed race groups on the general managerial anchor and lower than the african group on the entrepreneurial creativity anchor in the medium term. the white group measured significantly higher than the african group on the lifestyle anchor. table 5: career anchors and race in the medium term (4 to 10 years). table 6 indicates that the technical/functional, autonomy/independence and lifestyle career anchors were significantly more important to the female group than the male group in the short term, while the general managerial anchor was more important to the male group than the female group in the short and medium term. the male respondents also measured significantly higher on the self-transcendence and self-enhancement career enablers. table 6: career anchors and gender in the short term (1 to 3 years). table 7 indicates that the male group measured significantly higher on the general managerial anchor in the medium term compared with the female group. table 7: career anchors and gender in the medium term (4 to 10 years). the importance of the technical/functional career anchor in the short term decreased significantly with age (see table 8), with the 18 to 20 age group rating it the highest and the 56 to 65 age group the lowest. the general managerial career anchor measured significantly higher for the 21 to 25 age group than the other age groups and the 26 to 35 age group was higher than the 36 to 55 age group which in turn was higher than the 56 to 65 age group. no significant differences were reported on the other career anchors. table 8: career anchors and age in the short term (1 to 3 years). table 9 shows that the 56 to 65 age group measured significantly lower than the other age groups on the technical/functional, general managerial, entrepreneurial creativity, sense of service/dedication to a cause and pure challenge career anchors in the medium term. there was a general trend of a significant decrease in scores as age increased on the general managerial, entrepreneurial creativity and pure challenge career anchors. the 26 to 35 age group measured significantly higher on the sense of service/dedication to a cause career anchor compared with the 56 to 65 age group. lifestyle in the next ten years was significantly more important to the 21 to 25 age group than the 36 to 55 age group. table 9: career anchors and age in the medium term (4 to 10 years). the primary and secondary career anchors of the respondents are discussed in the section below. differences between the career anchors in the short and medium term table 10 indicates that the technical/functional career anchor seems to be the most common primary career anchor in the short term at the university with a 45.6% prevalence, followed by the general managerial anchor at 23.2%. the rankings of the lifestyle, entrepreneurial creativity and pure challenge anchors were low in comparison with those two. since the technical/functional anchor was chosen by nearly 46% of the respondents as their primary career anchor, the distribution was more even in terms of the secondary career anchors (see table 10), with the general managerial, technical/functional and autonomy/independence anchors at 20.3%, 16.0% and 15.6% respectively. table 10: primary and secondary career anchors in the short term (1 to 3 years). the difference between the overall distribution for the short and medium terms was significant (as indicated in table 11) in that the predominant primary career anchor was general managerial in the medium term, followed by the technical/functional anchor. security/stability, entrepreneurial creativity, pure challenge and lifestyle measured slightly higher in comparison with the primary career anchors measured over the short term. table 11: primary and secondary career anchors in the medium term (4 to 10 years). discussion top ↑ as stated earlier, the purpose of the present article was to report on the outcomes of a career conversation framework based on schein’s eight career anchors in an odel university in south africa. an attempt was also made to report on how the study could help organisations to retain talented employees in an odel environment by understanding their aspirations in the short and long term and their perceptions of career anchors. differences between the groups in terms of their career anchors in the short term (1 to 3 years) and medium term (4 to 10 years) difference between the groups in terms of their career anchors in the short term and medium term: race group the study shows a significant difference between the african and white groups in terms of their career anchors in the short and medium term. in the short term, the results of the african group show that they would rather focus on technical/functional and general managerial career anchors. it is therefore assumed that although the african group appeared to have a great need to develop as managers, they indicated that they would prefer to have the necessary technical/functional skills in the short term. however, in the short term, the white group indicated that they would rather focus on the security/stability and lifestyle career anchors. interestingly, in the medium term, the african group indicated that they would like to focus on their entrepreneurial creativity anchor, but still had a need to focus on the general managerial anchor. in the medium term, the white group’s focus was on the lifestyle anchor. one could therefore infer that both the african and the white group kept their focus on one career anchor (either general managerial or lifestyle) between the short and the medium term. singh et al.’s (2009) study on different cultural backgrounds found that the dominant career anchors were service orientation, technical/functional and lifestyle. these results make a significant contribution to the literature because they indicate a significant difference between the predominant career aspirations of the african and white groups in the short and medium term. difference between the groups in terms of their career anchors in the short and medium term: gender group the female group preferred to focus in the short term on the technical/functional, autonomy/independence and lifestyle career anchors, whereas the male group preferred to focus only on the general managerial anchor in the short term. in the medium term, only one career anchor, general managerial, stood out above the other career anchors. however, the male group did measure significantly higher on the general managerial anchor compared with the female group. it would thus appear as if the career anchor for the male group remained the same. the results for the short-term period concur with those of coetzee et al.’s (2007) study, namely that there is a significant difference between the gender groups. however, it should be noted that the only career anchor that indicated a significant difference between the gender groups was the general managerial anchor. it can thus be assumed that some respondents in the female group changed their focus from technical/functional, autonomy/independence and lifestyle career anchors to a general managerial anchor in the medium term. this seems to indicate that there was a small dynamic change in the nature of the career aspiration of the female group between the short and medium term. the dynamic nature of change in the career aspirations of the female group appears to concur with the results of the study of feldman and balino (1996) regarding the constraining force of career anchors on work or life balance. difference between the groups in terms of their career anchors in the short and medium term: age group the results of the study in the short term indicate that the importance of the technical/functional career anchor appears to decrease as employee’s age. in addition, the 21 to 25 age group demonstrated a great need for the general managerial career anchor. however, in the medium term, the focus of the career anchors changed. the technical/functional, general managerial, entrepreneurial, service/dedication and pure challenge career anchors measured significantly lower for the other age groups in the medium term. the 21 to 25 age group seems to prefer focusing on the career anchor lifestyle, whereas the 26 to 35 age group appears to opt for service/dedication. it is interesting to note that these results add extra value to the literature on schein’s career anchors because age appears to impact on employees’ decisions about the career anchors on which they would like to focus. this seems to concur with ituma and simpson’s (2006) research that multiple career anchors evolve as a person gains occupational and life experience. are there any dominant and/or secondary career anchors for employees? the results indicate that the respondents’ dominant career anchors fluctuated between either technical/functional or general managerial. however, in the medium term a significant difference was evident between the primary and secondary career anchors. the primary anchors were predominantly the general managerial and the technical/functional career anchor (i.e. more or less the same as in the short term). however, the secondary career anchors changed for the respondents towards a focus on the autonomy/independence, service/dedication, pure challenge and lifestyle career anchors in the medium term. hence, although the dominant career anchor appears to be general managerial, in this study the results clearly show that the respondents in this study had multiple career anchors. these results thus concur with the results of the study by feldman and bolino (1996), namely that multiple career anchors do exist. limitations of the study the present study was limited to a population in a south african odel environment and cannot be generalised to other industries. the structured nature of the interviews limited in-depth information and no reporting was done on the qualitative data of the study. suggestions for future research the findings contribute new knowledge to the field of career psychology and human resource management. in order to generalise the results, future research on this study would be required in different industries. if an organisation wishes to promote career development for specific diverse groups, different career advancement strategies should be considered. the findings of this study highlight the need for debates on the process of matching the ever-changing needs of an organisation and of the individual. hence the use of schein’s career anchors in a career conversation framework creates a dialogue between management and employees to ensure a better fit between the needs of the organisation and those of the individual. conclusion the main requirement for organisations is to remain competitive, which necessitates effective communication of expectations between employees and employers (discussions about needs, values and career orientations). career paths can be structured and mapped using schein’s career anchors in a constructive succession plan at the highest levels of the organisation. although the main responsibility for an individual’s career success is in their own hands, the organisation as the employer needs to create an enabling environment to achieve success (further research will follow based on feldman and bolino’s [1996:89] theory). this has implications for organisational staff policies. in terms of the ever-changing nature of the needs of organisations and individuals, schein (2006:15) contends that a person values many things early in their career and does not yet knows what they would hold on to if forced to make a choice. schein (2006) maintains that as a person progresses further in their career, they are more likely to have only one anchor. however, the results of this study contradict schein’s argument regarding the likelihood of having only one anchor. demographic factors influence whether the change in career anchors in an individual’s career is static or dynamic between the short and medium term. in conclusion, an organisation’s intervention processes need to visualise a clear dynamic career conversation between line management and the employee. in terms of the research questions, the statistical analysis suggests that the career anchor results in the short term (1 to 3 years) and medium term (4 to 10 years) indicate a dynamic change in the career anchors over time. owing to the fact that south africa’s workforce is so diverse, organisations need to adopt a holistic perspective towards their career development interventions. further research is therefore needed to develop this holistic view. the dynamic nature (change) over time between the different groups was clear. the researchers concluded that schein’s career anchors could be a useful tool in the use of career conversations. businesses and psychologists should approach career conversations holistically (i.e. consider demographic variables, such as the age, gender and race of the employee). acknowledgements top ↑ competing interest the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.g. (university of south africa) was the primary researcher and project leader, assisted by m.b. and e.c.r. (university of south africa). references top ↑ babbie, e., & mouton, j., 2007, the practice of social research, oxford university press, cape town.butterfield, l., lalande, v., & borgen, b., 2009, career conversations literature review, report no. 5, canadian research working group, viewed 06 june 2012, from http://www.crwg-gdrc.ca/crwg/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/report-5-cc-literature-review3.pdf coetzee, m., schreuder, a.m.g. & tladinyane, r., 2007, ‘organisational commitment and its relation to career anchors‘, south african business review, 11(1), 65–86. coetzee, m., & schreuder, d., 2009, ‘psychological career resources as predictors of working adults’ career anchors: an exploratory study’ south african journal of industrial psychology, 35(1), 117–127. de vos, a., & hauw, s., 2010, linking competency development to career success: exploring the mediating role of employability, vlerick leuven gent management school, viewed 06 june 2012, from http://public.vlerick.com/publications/41770ac2-6aa9-e011-8a89-005056a635ed.pdf feldman, d.c., & bolino, m.c., 1996, ‘careers within careers: reconceptualising the nature of career anchors and their consequences’ human resource management review, 6(2), 89–112. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(96)90014-5 hassan, g., azizollah, a., peyman, y., vahid, s., solmaz, i., & narges, s., 2012, ‘relationship between career anchors and organizational commitment among faculty members’ journal of studies in education, 2(1), 58–70, viewed 04 march 2012, from http://www.macrothink.org/journal/index.php/jse/article/view/1439 ituma, a., & simpson, r., 2006, ‘moving beyond schein’s typology: individual career anchors in the context of nigeria’, personnel review 36(6), 978–995, viewed 3 march 2012, from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm jung, i., 2005, perspectives on distance education lifelong learning and distance higher education, commonwealth of learning/unesco publishing, paris, viewed 05 june 2012, from http://www.mononeurona.org/files/userfiles/aarkerio_165.pdf#page=89 kidd, j.m., hirsh, w., & jackson, c., 2004, ‘straight talking: the nature of effective career discussion at work’, journal of career development, 30(4), 231–245. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/b:jocd.0000025113.48212.75 latchem, c., özkul, a.e., aydin, c.h., & mutlu, m.e., 2006, ‘the open education system, anadolu university, turkey: e-transformation in a university’, open learning, 21(3), 22–235. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02680510600953203 ramsey, c., 1998, ‘managing within conversation: influencing for change’, career development international, 3(7), 293–299. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620439810240755 ravid, r., 2010, practical statistics for eduators, 4th edn., university press of america, lanham, md. schein, e.h., 1978, ‘individual careers’, in j. lorsch (ed.), handbook of organizational behaviour, pp. 155–171, prentice-hall, englewood cliffs, nj. schein, e.h., 1980, organisational psychology, 3rd edn., prentice-hall, englewood cliffs, nj. pmcid:1279231 schein, e.h., 1985, career anchors: discovering your real values, university associates, san diego. pmcid:1977195 schein, e.h., 1987, ‘individual and careers’, in j. lorsch (ed.), handbook of organisational behaviour, prentice hall, englewood cliffs, nj. pmcid:299361 schein, e.h., 1990, career anchors: discovering your real values, pheiffer, san diego. pmcid:1002566 schein, e.h., 1993, career anchors: discovering your real values, pfeiffer, london. pmcid:2423672 schein, e.h., 1996, ‘career anchors revisited: implications for career development in the 21st century’, academy of management executive, 10(4), 80–88. schein, e.h., 2006, career anchors: facilitator’s guide, 3rd edn., pfeiffer, san francisco. schreuder, a.m.g., & coetzee, m., 2006, careers: an organisational perspective, 3rd edn., juta, cape town. pmcid:1809664 silverman, d., 2010, doing qualitative research: a practical handbook, 3rd edn., sage, los angeles. singh, m., bhattacharjee, v., & kodwani, a.d., 2009, ‘mapping career anchors in a large engineering company: a study’, paradigm, xiii(2), 51–56. tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s., 2007, using multivariate statistics, 5th edn., pearson education, boston. pmcid:2724990 tan, h., & queck, b., 2001, ‘an exploratory study on the career anchors of educators in singapore’, the journal of psychology, 135(5), 527–545. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00223980109603717, pmid:11804006 the chartered institute of personnel development (cipd), 2005, career discussions at work: practical tips for hr, managers and employees, viewed 12 march 2012, from http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/practical-tools/career-discussions-tips.aspx walsh, k., & fisher, d., 2005, ‘action inquiry and performance appraisals: tools for organizational learning and development’, the learning organization, 12(1), 26–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09696470510574241 weber, k., & ladkin, a., 2009, ‘career anchors of convention and exhibition industry professionals in asia’, journal of convention and event tourism, 10, 243–255. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15470140903356411 wils, l., wils, t., & tremblay, m., 2010, ‘toward a career anchor structure: an empirical investigation of engineers’, industrial relations, 65(2), 236–256. http://dx.doi.org/10.7202/044301ar review of executive salaries in south africa book title: executive salaries in south africa: who should have a say on pay? authors: kaylan massie, debbie collier and ann crotty isbn: 978-1-4314-1012-5 publisher: jacana media (pty) ltd, 2014, r239* *book price at time of review review title: review of executive salaries in south africa reviewer: magdalena l. bezuidenhout1 affiliation: 11department of human resource management, university of south africa, south africa email: bezuiml@unisa.ac.za postal address: po box 392, muckleneuk 0001, south africa how to cite this book review: bezuidenhout, m.l. (2015). review of executive salaries in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #698, 4 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.698 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. book review open access introduction top ↑ in this book chief executive officer (ceo) remuneration pay packages (during 2012) of 50 major south african listed companies are analysed. included in the study are four state-owned entities (soes) as well as a semi-privatised soe. this book is a follow-up to a study by crotty and bonorchis (2006) in which they anticipated that without government intervention, executive remuneration packages would continue to increase. disappointingly, these forecasts have come true, despite employment equity measures and changes to corporate governance requirements in the king iii code of governance principles (2009). this book reveals that the average cash and benefits packages of the 50 ceos studied amounted to approximately r13.1 million during 2012. after gains made on investing and exercise of share incentives are included, the amount rises to almost r49 million. during 2005, on average, executives received more than r15 million in guaranteed package, bonuses and gains on share options, all included. unlike in the 2005 study, the figures reported in the 2012 study take account of restraint-of-trade and termination-related payments. termination-related payments are an important element of executive remuneration and account for a small portion of the increase. for example, once termination and restraint-of-trade payments were left out of the equation, the average cash and benefits package of the 50 ceos came to over r12.3 million instead of the r13.1 million mentioned above. the authors also mention some improvements from the 2005 study. in the 2005 study, all the ceos whose remuneration packages were studied were male. in the 2012 study, seven of the 50 were female and almost a quarter of the ceos were black. however, the substantial packages revealed in this book are still paid to white males. written with the south african context in mind, executive salaries in south africa provides a clear and detailed account of especially executive remuneration and income equality in south africa. this text also touches on international perspectives regarding executive remuneration. it looks at possible ineffectiveness and growth-limiting characteristics of excessive executive remuneration and the size of the disparity between the pay of affluent executives and that of the salaried underprivileged. south africa’s increasing income inequality and its history of discrimination, poverty and social unrest call for something more that needs to be done to reverse this trend. in this book, the authors consider the following questions: what will it take for companies to restrain excessive executive remuneration? how do we increase the shareholders’ say on pay to ensure that the board of directors responsible for determining pay take into account various stakeholder interests? should a court of law, the department of labour, employees, income tax or the remaining 99% of the public have a say on what the 1% are being paid? how do we amend corporate governance standards, the tax code and labour legislation to achieve these goals? how do we turn shareholders into activists and empower the workforce? is change only possible if a more important modification in attitudes is achieved? the authors address these ongoing matters and consider likely methods to curb excessive executive remuneration. the authors are of the opinion that without these interventions, south africa will remain on a path of unpredictability and unrest, whilst the ‘rich get richer and the poor become poorer’. although the authors titled their book executive salaries, they are concerned not only about executive salaries, but with all forms of executive remuneration (or executive pay). they also offer several probable solutions towards a more equal salary structure throughout south africa. these include using the king iii code’s (2009) directive to remunerate directors ‘fairly and responsibly’. the authors moreover present a convincing case for a national minimum wage as ‘a basic floor at subsistence level to prevent the exploitation of labour’. general overview top ↑ this book follows an eight-chapter structure and starts with a foreword by pravin gordhan, the minister of finance in 2014. mr gordhan calls for a new business culture rooted in empathy and one that goes the extra mile ‘to enhance the lives of the poor and contribute to the transformation of our economy and society’ (p. vx). mr gordhan expresses his opinion that the private sector has an enormous role to play in the rebalancing of access to opportunities (ensor, 2014). in chapter 1, the authors consider the different components of remuneration packages paid to the 50 executives examined in the book. they examine the top 15 executives and the diverse forms of remuneration the ceos receive. what makes this study unique is that the authors investigate the highest value of share incentives agreed to during the year, revealing the top 15 long-term incentive packages awarded in 2012. in addition, the authors compare the packages of executives in soes to those of other jse-listed companies. they also study the size of the increase in cash and benefits packages paid between 2005 and 2012, as well as the extent of wage differentials within these companies. the conclusion in chapter 1 is that for many of the companies studied in this book, there is some link between pay and performance. on the other hand, for a number of companies, no such link exists. the authors, nonetheless, caution that the existence of this link ‘does not and cannot justify the overall levels of pay being doled out to most company ceos’ (p. 29). in chapter 2 both the global and local perspectives on shareholder value creation are explored. the global perspective focuses primarily on the united states and the united kingdom. this chapter also explores the question of whether present remuneration structures provide exorbitant incentives to executives to take part in value-destructing behaviour. the south african practice of ‘share buy-backs’ is also discussed. share buy-backs are a practice where companies buy back their own shares from shareholders with the intention to grow the share price. this is regularly performed at a time when executives are selling their own shares on the market. chapter 2 covers solutions to these problems, as well as suggestions for reform. the next chapter deals with the prevailing south african corporate governance perspective associated with executive remuneration. this includes corporate law and the 2009 king iii code. the measures that are in place to align the interests of boards, executives and shareholders when it comes to the issues of executive remuneration are considered. moreover, the following are discussed: the obligations of directors to act in the best interest of the organisation. the amount and type of disclosure on remuneration required by law. the accessibility and value of the shareholders’ say on pay through the non-binding shareholders advisory vote on a company’s remuneration policy. a number of court proceedings that could be used by shareholders to impose these corporate governance standards. the conclusion in this chapter is that regardless of all of the regulations in place within south africa, executive pay levels have continued to climb sharply. the authors conclude that it is clear that regulation by itself is not sufficient to overcome the agency problems discussed in this chapter. they maintain that executives still retain power over the board to influence pay decisions and that board members still lack motivation to ensure that the decisions they make are in the best interests of shareholders. in chapter 4, the global landscape is reviewed. the purpose here is to ascertain which corporate governance practices overseas could give direction towards improving south africa’s corporate governance standards. the authors discuss trends from the united states, the european union, the united kingdom, australia and switzerland associated with the objectivity and role of remuneration committees, remuneration disclosure standards and shareholders’ say on pay. the effectiveness of these regulations at linking executive remuneration to executive performance is also discussed. this chapter finishes off with a concise summary of developments in switzerland. chapter 5 provides ideas on how to enhance south africa’s corporate governance criteria of executive remuneration. these recommendations are based on lessons that can be learned from the international governing experience. with regard to paying executives and linking pay to performance, the authors suggest that south africa could make various amendments to the jse listing requirements, the companies act (act no. 71 of 2008) as well as the king iii code (2009). the authors believe that these amendments would be beneficial in many ways. for example, it would increase disclosure relating to remuneration by companies in their annual reports, improve the independence and role of remuneration committees as well as improve shareholders’ say on pay. this chapter concludes with the finding that south africa’s corporate governance regulations trail behind their global peers when it comes to pay practices. chapter 6 covers the different remuneration practices in soes. the numerous pieces of legislation, regulations and government policies linked to executive remuneration in soes are explained. the authors go on to discuss corporate governance and remuneration practices in soes and briefly touch on the findings of the presidential review committee on soes. in this chapter the authors point out that part of the problem with executive remuneration is the ‘fragmented regulatory framework for soes and non-compliance with existing protocol and guidelines’ (p. 133). areas are suggested where government policy could be reformed and made uniform. this is first of all to ensure that soe executives are remunerated consistently across soes and secondly to consider the vital role that soes have in transforming south african society. the authors further recommend that legislative provision be made for ‘the establishment of a central remuneration authority, which will set guidelines and standards for remuneration of boards and executives in soes’ (p. 133). this recommendation is in line with the recommendations from the presidential review committee on state-owned entities (2013). the influence of south african tax regulations on executive remuneration is discussed in chapter 7. of particular interest in this chapter is the discussion on how executives and companies are currently taxed in south africa on executive remuneration packages. in the latter part of chapter 7, the authors consider whether any of the regulations applied abroad should be adopted in south africa to ensure that tax laws are used as a more effective method of regulating executives’ take-home pay. this chapter concludes with suggestions for reforming the south african tax landscape. the objective thereof is, for example, to reduce after-tax income inequality in south africa. chapter 8 explores features of south africa’s existing labour law that govern income inequality and excessive executive remuneration. also discussed is the principle of equal pay for work of equal value. the company’s responsibility to report and address income differentials that maintain historical discrimination is also discussed. this chapter furthermore explores opportunities that exist to provide employees with a say on pay, including collective bargaining. suggestions are also made on how to improve the say on pay granted to employees at all levels of the company. chapter 8 ends with a summary of potential forms of regulatory intervention. the authors conclude their book with a chapter called ‘conclusion: a way forward’. they begin the chapter with a brief summary of the archetypal executive remuneration practices, more specifically how executive remuneration is structured. the rest of the chapter focuses on the formulation of practical policy interventions. in essence, this final chapter provides an outline of possible forms of regulatory interventions that may move south african society a step closer toward the goal of an objective sharing of returns. the authors quite rightly state (p. xix) that: it is important that analysis of executive pay takes place. companies play a critical role in society, providing not only goods and services to society but also income to employees and investors. economic growth depends on company activity. (p. xix) overall impression and conclusion top ↑ massie and colliers’ discussions throughout the book are appropriately supported with empirical findings on executive pay and income equality in south africa. throughout the book the authors make suggestions that could help rein in excessive levels of remuneration. the aim of their suggestions are also to promote unbiased and responsible remuneration policies. what sets this book apart from various other studies is that it includes share-based payments. the book reveals that the value of an annual remuneration package can be overshadowed by gains on share options awarded in long-term incentives (crotty, 2014). although it is normal practice in south africa to avoid share-based payments, the exclusion of share awards not only understates the level of generosity, but also makes comparisons misleading, especially with international figures (crotty, 2014). this book is a value-add and delivers a comprehensive study of executive remuneration in south africa. it is a worthwhile read for all human resource professionals, organisations, remuneration committee members and shareholders that are concerned about executive remuneration. this is especially true considering the fact that the link between pay and performance has for some time now come under increased scrutiny, not only in the popular press, but also from an academic perspective (crafford, 2012; nicely, 2009). although this is not a textbook for students, it may act as additional reading for postgraduate students and researchers in the field of human resource management, labour economics and finance. it is also highly recommended for business leaders and shareholders alike who want to demonstrate good leadership, responsibility and fairness in developing remuneration policies. moreover, the book is considered valuable to researchers as they will be able to build on the research presented in this book. the business report describes crotty and bonorchis’s book of 2006, executive pay in south africa: who gets what and why?, as: a probing study of executive pay in south africa. … it sets out to understand the reasons behind the rapid increase of executive remuneration levels over the past few years and to provide an insight into the facts, figures and issues around the subject. in a country desperate to overcome the inequalities of the past, this book is important for what it reveals and for what it suggests might be done to better deal with remunerating chief executives. (n.p.) i concur with the above statement when it comes to massie and collier’s executive salaries in south africa: who should have a say on pay? these words are as relevant today as they were in 2006. references top ↑ crafford, d. (2012). soe remuneration and wage gap analysis. position paper. retrieved february 26, 2015, from http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/electronicreport/downloads/volume_3/strategic_management_operationala_effectiveness/remuneration_policies_of_soes_taking_into_account_wage.doc crotty, a. (2014, december 31). pwc gives ceo pay a pass, but the devil’s in the detail. business times. retrieved february 26, 2015, from http://cached.newslookup.com/cached.php?ref_id=71&siteid=2060&id=7097908&t=1405236988 crotty, a., & bonorchis, r. (2006). executive pay in south africa: who gets what and why? cape town, south africa: juta and company ltd. ensor, l. (2014). gordhan calls for business culture rooted in empathy. business day live. retrieved february 20, 2015, from http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/2014/05/01/gordhan-calls-for-business-culture-rooted-in-empathy massie, k., & collier, d., with & crotty, a. (2014). executive salaries in south africa: who should have a say on pay? johannesburg, south africa: jacana media (pty) ltd. nicely, l.j. (2009). a study of the relationship between organisational performance and executive compensation. phd dissertation., capella university, united states. presidential review committee on state-owned entities. (2013). volume 1: executive summary of the final report. retrieved october 20, 2014, from http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/electronicreport/downloads/volume_1/volume_1.pdf 5gilmore.qxd political, economic, technological and cultural changes are having a profound impact on the world of work and are bringing new challenges to the management of people in the workplace, particularly the planning and managing of careers. organisations worldwide are increasingly staffed by diverse groups of employees (aryee & debrah, 1993; baruch, 1999; 2002; 2004; furnham, 2000; greenhaus, callanan & godshalk, 2001). in the south african context, historically disadvantaged south africans (africans, coloureds, indians and women) are climbing the corporate ladder and it is clear that only effective management of the diverse workforce will ensure a competitive edge (grobler, warnich, carrell, elbert & hatfield, 2002). mentoring is a valuable resource for individual and organisational learning, and for coping with an unstable and dynamically changing workplace (kram & hall, 1996; siegel & reinstein, 2001). to cope effectively with change requires a different process of learning – one that mentoring can provide. kram and hall (1989) assert that mentoring helps to ease stress during times of “corporate trauma” when an organisation is downsizing, for example. mentoring can also be used to help employees to take ownership of their careers and thereby navigate their careers successfully (baruch, 1999; hay, 1995). according to clutterbuck and sweeney (2003), very few people now have linear career paths – that is, where it is possible to see several steps ahead. the reality for most people is that they need to both maximise the potential for learning in the job they have now, and constantly be alive to opportunities to gradually move into new roles. managing both the major and the minor transitions becomes a lot easier when one has a dispassionate but well-disposed mentor, who can take a broader view and help one to think through the options and implications of each opportunity. a mentor is often described as a senior, experienced employee who serves as a role model, and who provides support, direction and feedback to the younger employee in terms of career plans and interpersonal development (baruch, 1999: 441; finkelstein, allen & rhoton, 2003:249; noe, 1988:458). although older mentors paired with younger mentees may still be the norm, changes encompassing today’s workplace, such as multiple lifetime career paths and a protean approach to career development (baruch, 2004; hall & mirvis, 1995), will likely increase the occurrence of similar-age (that is, peer mentoring) and reverse-age (that is, mentor younger than mentee) mentorships (allen, mcmanus & russell, 1999; finkelstein et al., 2003; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; kram, 1996). mentoring appears to work best when the need is the acquisition of wisdom. clutterbuck and sweeney (2003) refer to wisdom as the ability to relate what has been learnt to a wide spectrum of situations, and to achieve insight into and understanding of the issues discussed. in this regard, mentoring is regarded as one person’s off-line help of another towards making significant transitions in knowledge, work or thinking (clutterbuck, 2001). the mentor is a person who has greater experience than the mentee, but may not necessarily be superior in status. the mentor acts in a nondirective manner, helping the mentee develop his or her own wisdom, rather than imposing his or her own. the relationship is primarily mentee-driven as the aim of the relationship is to develop the mentee’s self-reliance and remove the need for a mentor. the benefits of mentoring for the mentee can include faster career progress, increased confidence, assistance with working through difficult issues when dealing with other people, having a sounding board to try out ideas, and being able to draw on someone else’s experience. mentoring opens the mentee up to new issues and adds layers of thinking by developing new insights. in the organisational context, this may mean demonstrating appropriate patterns of thinking (through behaviour or understanding, or both) which usually convinces superiors that the individual is ready and able to take on new and/or larger tasks (clutterbuck, 2001; clutterbuck & sweeney, 2003; schuitema, 1998). the organisation benefits in terms of increased staff retention, especially among new recruits, when a mentor helps them fit in more easily and rapidly. other benefits include passing on best practice, raising the quantity and quality of self-managed learning, and generally reinforcing a development culture (baruch, 1999; clutterbuck & sweeney, 2003; daloz, 1999; hay, 1995; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). for the mentee, negative features arise mostly from poor selection or training of mentors (klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). identification is a key process that guides the mentor’s selection of the mentee, and vice versa. for mentors, the nelise gilmore melinde coetzee dries schreuder department of industrial and organisational psychology college of economic and management sciences university of south africa abstract the purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences of mentors and mentees with regard to the mentoring relationship in the south african organisational context. a convenience sampling method was used to involve mentors and mentees as participants (n = 10). qualitative methods were used to collect and analyse data on the respondents’ experiences of the mentoring relationship. it was found that both mentors and mentees tend to prefer informal mentoring relationships because of the factors that contribute to the quality of the relationship. the implications of the findings are discussed. opsomming die doel met hierdie studie was om die aard van die ervaringe van mentors en mentees aangaande die mentorverhouding in die suid-afrikaanse organisatoriese konteks te ondersoek. gerieflikheidsteekproefneming is aangewend om mentors en mentees (n = 10) as navorsingdeelnemers te betrek. kwalitatiewe metodes is benut om data omtrent die respondente se ervaring van die mentorverhouding te versamel en te ontleed. daar is bevind dat beide mentors en mentees neig om die informele mentorverhouding te verkies weens die faktore wat die gehalte van die verhouding verhoog. die implikasies van die bevindinge word bespreek. experiences of the mentoring relationship: a study in a mining company requests for copies should be addressed to: m coetzee, coetzm1@unisa.ac.za 27 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (3), 27-32 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (3), 27-32 development of the relationship serves an intrinsic development need that is guided, in part, by their identification with the mentee (clutterbuck & ragins, 2002). research indicates that mentors choose mentees who are viewed as being similar to themselves (allen, poteet & burroughs, 1997) and that satisfaction with the relationship increases with perceived similarity (ensher & murphy, 1997). to the extent that mentees select mentors, identification may also guide the mentee’s selection of the mentor. mentees may choose mentors who are viewed as competent role models; the mentor represents what the mentee wants to become (clutterbuck & ragins, 2002; ragins, 2002). diversity in mentoring relationships although mutual identification guides the development of mentoring relationships, development of diversified relationships is affected by the availability and sheer number of mentors from a specific race or gender group. in most south african organisations, the higher the rank the fewer the number of women and africans, coloureds and indians. white males are still predominantly occupying higher positions and are also the more experienced in terms of the various race and gender groups. legislation on employment equit y and skills development requires that mentoring practices are based on the formation of cross-cultural and cross-gender mentoring relationships in the south african organisational context. given the mutual identification processes underlying the development of mentoring relationships, diverse mentoring relationships clearly pose many challenges to both mentors and mentees (clutterbuck & ragins, 2002; linehan & walsh, 1999). however, identification may still occur in diverse relationships, although this identification may be based on similarities in values, backgrounds, personalities and interests. according to ragins (2002), perceived diversity in mentoring relationships is affected by differences based on group memberships, as well as deeper, individually based differences. individual diversit y is inf luenced by group diversity since the values, beliefs and attitudes of mentors and mentees are affected by their group memberships. while mentors and mentees may objectively differ on group membership or individual characteristics, these differences may or may not be viewed as important by the members of the relationship (ragins, 2002; ragins & mcfarlin, 1990). mentors and mentees in diverse relationships may find they have much in common, but this discovery takes time and a deeper level of interaction. mentoring relationships that are homogeneous may thus be easier to initiate than those that are diverse (clutterbuck & ragins, 2002; finkelstein et al., 2003; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). mentors and mentees may initially connect on the basis of perceived similarities or group diversity, but over time may find other even more important, individual similarities that help create a successful mentoring relationship. proper training, support, communication and patience may help optimise the diversity in the relationship while the mentor and mentee are finding common ground in terms of values, interests, hobbies, families or background. however, the opposite may also be true: mentors and mentees may develop relationships based on similarity of group membership, but with time they may find that they have little else in common (ragins, 2002). this has important implications for mentoring programmes. programmes that pair mentors and mentees solely on the basis of gender or race may find that members connect on the basis of these group memberships and the important experiences associated with being historically disadvantaged or being a woman in the organisation and the society, but they may or may not connect on other, deeper levels of diversity that define their inner values and sense of self (athey, avery & zemsky, 2000; ragins, 2002). organisational context plays a key role in saliency perceptions. race differences in a mentoring relationship may be less salient to the members of the relationship when they work within groups or organisations that are racially and ethnically diverse, compared with those who work in homogeneous settings (athey et al., 2000). against this background, it appears that saliency of differences and social identit y of members moderate the relationship between objective and perceived differences. according to the social identity theory (ashforth & mael, 1989; tajfel & turner, 1986), individuals classif y themselves according to social categories that shape their identities and allow them to define themselves in relation to their social environment. mentors and mentees have multiple social identities, and some identities may be more important than others in developing a sense of self and establishing the common basis for the mentoring relationship (ragins, 2002). informal mentoring relationships may develop naturally on the basis of shared social identities and group memberships, but formal relationships are typically matched by third parties (ragins, cotton & miller, 2000). a mentoring programme coordinator does not automatically know which social identities are salient and important to the members of the relationship and may, therefore, match members based on his or her perceptions of shared group membership, rather than the perceptions of the members of the relationship. it may thus be advisable to ask members of the formal relationship about their social identities, needs and preferences before making the match (ragins, 2002). formal and informal mentoring relationships the nature of a mentoring relationship is influenced by the degree of formality espoused by the mentoring programme which, in turn, influences the degree of formality present in a mentoring relationship. the degree of formality present in the mentoring relationship appears to influence the dynamics and outcomes of the relationship (fagenson-eland, marks & amendola, 1997; ragins & cotton, 1999). formal mentoring programmes and relationships are planned, implemented and managed by the organisation in a highly structured manner, involving various control mechanisms. this contrasts with a very informal mentoring programme, and equally informal mentoring relationships which develop spontaneously (klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). research by chao, walz and gardner (1992), kram (1983) and ragins and cotton (1999) indicate that informal mentoring appears to engender more satisfied mentees who perceive their mentors as more effective and more motivated, with better communication and coaching skills. frequent, open and honest discussion seems to help create a trusting, encouraging and open atmosphere that helps release the mentee’s potential and motivation. the nature of the mentoring relationship resembles that of a professional friendship. it is a voluntary relationship in which the mentor functions as the trusted friend who listens, guides and enables through skilful questioning and, if appropriate, making direct suggestions (chao et al., 1992; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; kram, 1983; ragins & cotton, 1999). informal mentoring also appears to mainly benefit the mentee (klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). formal mentoring, on the other hand, seems to promote a more equal balance between organisational and individual benefits. table 1 summarises the perceived organisational and individual benefits of formal mentoring. formal mentoring programmes provide a structure that can enable individuals who might otherwise find it difficult to access influence networks to overcome tacit or explicit barriers to commencing mentoring relationships. this contrasts strongly with informal mentoring, which has a tendency to be highly selective. according to klasen and clutterbuck (2002), mentors tend to pick only successful individuals as mentees. those gilmore, coetzee, schreuder28 mentees in greater need are then often denied an important development opportunit y. this kind of self-regulation unfortunately creates perceptions of unfairness amongst employees. clutterbuck (2001) has observed that, left to their own devices, mentees will seek mentors who are either easy for them to get on with, or high-flyers who may provide a career towrope for their mentees. table 1 organisational and individual benefits sought through formal mentorin organisational benefits individual benefits retention career development best use of talent opportunities for learning and gaining experience performance skills development knowledge sharing knowledge acquisition safety valve for key staff to work having a sounding board and/or through concerns counsellorto promote career moves (klasen & clutterbuck, 2002:128) obviously mentoring associations will vary as to the degree of satisfaction experienced by mentor and mentee. at one extreme, there might be dissatisf ying or even dysfunctional relationships, while at the other extreme there might be highly satisfied pairs. ragins and cotton (2000) find that satisfaction with the mentoring relationship has a stronger impact on career attitudes such as career commitment, job satisfaction, organisational commitment and intention to quit than the issue whether the mentoring was formal or informal. studies by kogler-hill and bahniuk (1998) also suggest that there are no differences between the formal and informal mentoring relationship in terms of the fulfilment of psychosocial functions. however, overall, informal mentoring appears to fulfil greater career functions than formal mentoring. research and literature within the south african diverse context regarding mentors’ and mentees’ experiences of the mentoring relationship seem to be limited. this study is motivated by the lack of knowledge and understanding about the factors that contribute to the quality of the mentoring relationship in the south african organisational context. the purpose of this study is therefore to gain an in-depth understanding about mentors’ and mentees’ subjective experiences of the mentoring relationship. more specifically, the aim was to answer the following research questions: � what are mentors’ and mentees’ subjective experiences of the mentoring relationship? � what are the key factors which contribute to the quality of the mentoring relationship? research design research approach merriam (2002) recommends that a qualitative approach be used when the research objectives are exploratory and descriptive. qualitative researchers assert that the social world can only be understood if its social context is taken into consideration (bogdan & biklen, 1998). the main objective of qualitative research is therefore to understand the dynamics of human meaning in its natural setting, with minimal interference from the researcher. since the research questions pertain to understanding and describing a particular phenomenon about which very little is known, the qualitative approach seems the most suitable for gaining insight about participants’ subjective experiences of the mentoring relationship in their work setting. qualitative research enables a researcher to understand the participants’ experience when trying to understand situations from a particular perspective (creswell, 1994). this study was therefore conducted within a qualitative paradigm and the grounded theory method was used to develop an inductively derived theory (strauss & corbin, 1990). this method enabled the researcher to study the phenomenon of the mentoring relationship within its context and facilitated the systematic generation of theory from, and grounded in, the data regarding the factors that contribute to the quality of the mentoring relationship. respondents the study was conducted at a large mining company in north west province. a convenience sample (huysamen, 1994) comprising four mentors and six mentees (n=10) were approached for the present study. the sample included four white male mentors, three white male mentees and three african female mentees. of the four mentors, two were involved in an informal mentoring relationship and two were involved in a formal mentoring relationship. four of the six mentees were involved in an informal mentoring relationship, while two mentees were involved in a formal mentoring relationship. selection of the respondents was based on their participation in the company mentoring programme within the last year. qualitative methodologies attempt to access a richness of diverse information from a few participants and frequently regard participant sizes of less than 10 to be sufficient (schurink, 2003). a brief background of the company mentoring programme the mining company has a mentoring programme in place that is open to all employees. this is applicable to informal and formal mentoring relationships. the purpose of the company mentoring programme is to provide guidance in respect of the company’s approach to its people development process, to facilitate the development or accelerated development of the company’s young professionals and the employment equit y talent pool, as well as to guide the implementation of mentoring as a human resource development (hrd) system. informal mentoring relationships may come about through the mentee assessing a personal need for mentoring or through a friendship that has evolved into a mentoring relationship. provision has been made for a company register of trained mentors in order to provide access for all employees (who feel the need for an informal mentorship relationship) to trained mentors. according to company policy, mentoring is voluntary. both the mentees and mentors reserve the right to accept or decline the opport unit y presented to participate in the mentoring relationship, whether informal or formal. provision is made for numerous mentoring relationships involving multiple mentors or mentees at a time. however, a guideline mentee ratio of not more than 5:1 is recommended. it is stipulated that participants in the programme will participate in mentoring training and that records of all mentoring sessions be kept for auditing purposes. the supporting documentation stipulates guidelines on criteria for mentoring, the roles and responsibilities of the mentors, the identification of mentees for the mentoring system, the identification of developmental needs, mentorship training, how to choose a mentor/mentee, the mentoring relationships, the training needs analysis identified within the mentoring relationship, the updating of information systems to keep records and the continuous monitoring of the relationship. a procedural document prescribes the detail required to implement the policy document. the programme is formalised through agreements signed by both parties (mentee and mentor). mentoring relationship 29 methods of data gathering the study was conducted within a qualitative paradigm (huysamen, 1994). the qualitative data collection technique in this study included semi-structured face-to-face interviews. the interviews were structured around the two research questions. all interviews were ended with an open question allowing for respondents to share any information or experience they felt relevant that had not been explored or discussed during the interview. the following t wo open-ended questions were carefully formulated and put to the respondents: � how do you experience your mentoring relationship? � what are the key factors which contribute to the quality of your mentoring relationship? procedure firstly, permission was obtained from the human resource manager of the company where the interviews were conducted. thereafter the researcher contacted the mentors and mentees telephonically to establish their availability and willingness to participate in the research study. the respondents were briefed on the reason and format of the interview by means of a short introduction. they were given the opportunity to withdraw from participation in the study. interview appointments were then arranged with each respondent. data analysis based on the suggestions of strauss and corbin (1990) and creswell (1994), data analysis was conducted systematically whereby the researcher keeps track of emerging themes during the data gathering process, and develops concepts and propositions to make sense of the data. underlying themes were deduced followed by a coding process, during which sections of the data collected were labelled as being of relevance to one or more of the identified themes. the themes that emerged were interpreted in light of existing literature on the topic, enabling meaningful interpretation of the results. results overall, mentoring was regarded as a valuable experience for both mentors and mentees. however, the main findings indicated that both mentors and mentees found the informal mentoring relationship more positive than the formal mentoring relationship. as suggested by strauss and corbin (1990) and cresswell (1994), several themes relating to the phenomenon of a mentoring relationship emerged from the data analysis. in the next section these themes will be discussed. from the themes it was possible to develop responses to the research questions. experiences of the mentoring relationship the body language of the respondents and the tone of the interviews were generally positive and encouraging. mentees involved in informal mentoring relationships perceived the relationship as “worth it”, whereas the mentees involved in formal mentoring relationships did not perceive the relationships as satisf ying. although the mentors perceived the mentoring relationship as valuable, it was indicated that they preferred the informal to the formal mentoring relationship. one of the mentors summed it up: “i have never liked the formal mentee-mentor relationship, although experience has proved to me that there is little difference. at the end of the day, mentoring is the most important, whether done formally or informally.” the mentee respondents viewed the potential benefits of the mentoring relationship as that of increasing their technical and behavioural competence, facilitating the achievement of their career goals, having a wider network of influence or learning resources, and increasing their confidence. the mentoring relationship was also viewed as a mechanism to facilitate promotional opportunities within the company. negative experiences regarding the mentoring relationship evolved around communication and the perceived commitment of the mentor. it was evident that the nature of communication between the mentors and mentees involved in the informal mentoring relationships was more positively experienced than was apparent in the formal mentoring relationships. mentors in the informal mentoring relationship were perceived to be more committed than those involved in formal mentoring relationships. factors influencing the quality of the mentoring relationship overall the mentee respondents who were engaged in an informal mentoring relationship said they were satisfied with the mentoring relationship because they had been allowed to choose their own mentors. mentors were chosen on the basis of sharing a similar value system with the mentee. respect for the mentor’s success in the company was also viewed as a factor that contributed to the perceived quality of the relationship. although all the mentees had only white male mentors, none of the respondents reported challenges regarding cross-gender or cross-cultural relationships. mentor-mentee commitment and communication were regarded as ways to improve both the informal and formal mentoring relationship. the perceived commitment of the mentors was attributed to mentor characteristics such as showing interest in the mentees’ career progress, mentoring expertise and status of the mentor, sharing similar values, giving direction and structure to the mentoring relationship, a positive attitude and excellent communication skills. the respondents involved in formal mentoring relationships expressed dissatisfaction with the relationships and suggested improvements regarding interaction and frequency of communication. respondents involved in an informal mentoring relationship appeared to communicate on a more personal level (either face-to-face or telephonically). they reported communicating as and when required rather than on a formal monthly or quarterly basis, as was apparent with the mentors and mentees involved in a formal relationship. the mentee respondents regarded career development support in setting goals and targets as important factors that contribute to the quality of the relationship. although the informal nature of the mentoring relationship was preferred, respondents expressed the need for a formal structure that allowed goals, objectives and targets to be met within the framework of the relationship. none of the mentors reported that they had followed the mentoring training offered by the company and one mentor responded by saying that “mentoring relationships develop naturally and not necessarily according to rules laid down in training”. discussion the data gathered from individuals’ subjective experiences of the mentoring relationship will subsequently be discussed in terms of the aims of this study, namely to clarify how the respondents experienced the mentoring relationship and what they perceived to be the factors contributing to the quality of the mentoring relationship. to clarify the particular social makeup of the respondents, experiences and views will also be related to existing empirical findings and relevant abstract theoretical concepts. while mentors and mentees may objectively differ on group membership or individual characteristics (as in the case of the african female mentees who were matched with the white male gilmore, coetzee, schreuder30 mentors), these differences were not viewed as important by the members of the relationship (ragins, 2002; ragins & mcfarlin, 1990). the results suggest that being allowed to choose one’s own mentor based on one’s personal preferences was regarded as more important and led to the perceived satisfaction with the mentoring relationship (klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; ragins, 2002). sharing similar value systems and having respect for the mentor’s success in the company appear to be important matching selection criteria when assigning mentees to mentors. this is in line with the research findings of clutterbuck (2001) and klasen and clutterbuck (2002). the findings of the study suggest that factors contributing to the emotional outcomes of the mentoring relationship also improved the perceived quality of the relationship. these included having a reflective space through frequent communication and interaction with the mentor, as well as career development support in setting goals and targets. both formal and informal mentoring relationships appear to benefit from a formal structure that accommodates the mentees’ career goals, and which includes regular reviews and formalised discussions (clutterbuck, 2002; megginson & clutterbuck, 1995). the mentor’s commitment and communication competencies were regarded as important characteristics in improving the quality of the relationship. mentors must be volunteers, interested in the programme and effective one-on-one communicators. furthermore, mentors must be able to foster self-reliance and selfconfidence within the mentee. they should also enable mentees to identify their development needs and goals and be able to help mentees solve problems by analysing, reflecting and enhancing their self-awareness (clutterbuck, 2002). informal mentoring appears to be regarded as more valuable than the formal mentoring relationship. research by chao et al. (1992), kram (1983) and ragins and cotton (1999) also indicates that informal mentoring appears to engender more satisfied mentees who perceive their mentors as more effective and more motivated with better communication and coaching skills. according to clutterbuck (2001), one of the goals of a formal mentoring programme should be to bring the organisation to the point where most mentoring is carried out informally, without the need for substantial, struct ured support by human resources. however, informal mentoring relationships should still provide structure and guidance about mentor and mentee roles. the findings of the study suggest that the success of the mentoring relationship lies within the voluntary nature of the relationship between two individuals in which the mentor functions as the trusted friend who listens, guides and enables through skilful questioning (chao et al., 1992; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; kram, 1983; ragins & cotton, 1999). ragins, cotton and miller (2000) also find that the quality of the mentoring relationship has a greater impact on mentees’ work and career attitudes than the type of relationship (formal or informal) or even the design of the mentoring programme. mentees with high-quality, formal mentors have a more positive work and career attitude than mentees with marginal, informal mentors. in this regard then, getting the best from a mentoring programme involves building in the best features of both the formal and the informal approaches. a formal structure is essential because it provides meaning and direction for relationships and support where necessary. however, individual relationships will flourish best when allowed to operate as informally as possible. successful formal relationships very frequently go on to become successful informal ones (clutterbuck, 2001). clutterbuck (2001) notes that the absence of struct ure, measurement and control that characterises the informal mentoring relat ionship also makes it difficult for the company to exert any influence on the nat ure and qualit y of the mentoring relat ionship. discussions with informal mentoring pairs who had experience of both formal and informal mentoring indicated that the key is to create an environment where effective mentoring can flourish. such an environment would contain some elements of structure, in the form of support available, but require no third part y intervention in pairings. in conclusion, this study suggests that particularly informal mentoring is regarded as a valuable career development and personal growth mechanism. the qualit y of the mentoring relationship appears to be influenced particularly by the frequency of interaction bet ween the mentor and mentee, the characteristics of the mentor and the structure and direction provided by the mentor. as a result of the sampling strateg y the findings of the study are limited to the respondents in the sample and cannot therefore be applied to all gender and race groups involved in mentoring relationships. more qualitative research with a broader representation of all gender and race groups is required to better illuminate mentors’ and mentees’ experiences of the mentoring relationship. quantitative research (for example culture/climate surveys) could be launched to measure the magnitude of the key perceptions of mentors and mentees. the present study only looked at the recent experiences of mentors and mentees in one company. ongoing and, in particular, longit udinal st udies across various industries could make a valuable contribution to the body of knowledge concerned with mentoring relationships in the diverse south african organisational context. references allen, t.d., mcmanus, s.e. & russell, j.e.a. (1999). newcomer socialization and stress: formal peer relationships as a source of support. journal of vocational behaviour, 54, 453-470. allen, t.d., poteet, m.l. & burroughs, s.m. (1997). the mentor’s perspective: a qualitative inquiry and future research agenda. journal of vocational behavior, 51, 70-89. ashforth, b.e. & mael, f. (1989). social identity theory and the organisation. academy of management review, 14, 20-39. aryee, s. & debrah, y.a. (1993). a cross-cultural application of a career planning model. journal of organisational behavior, 14, 119-127. athey, s., avery, c. & zemsky, p. (2000). mentoring and diversity. american economic review, 90, 765-786. baruch, y. (1999). integrated career systems for the 2000s. international journal of manpower, 20 (7), 432-457. baruch, y. (2001). employability-substitute to loyalty. human resource development international, 4 (4), 543-566. baruch, y. (2002). career systems in transition: a normative model for organisational career practices. personnel review, 32 (2), 231-251. baruch, y. (2004). transforming careers: from linear to multidirectional career paths: organisational and individual perspectives. career development international, 9 (1), 58-73. baruch, y. & rosenstein, e. (1992). career planning and managing in high tech organisations. international journal of human resource management, 3 (3), 477-496. bogdan, r. & biklen, s.k. (1998). qualitative research for education: an introduction to theory and methods. boston: allyn & bacon. chao, g.t., walz, p.m. & gardner, p.d. (1992). formal and informal mentorships: a comparison on mentoring functions and contrast with nonmentored counterparts. personnel psychology, 45, 619-636. clutterbuck, d. (2001). everyone needs a mentor: fostering talent at work. london: cipd. clutterbuck, d. (2002). building and sustaining the diversitymentoring relationship. in d. clutterbuck & b.r. ragins (eds.), mentoring and diversity: an international perspective, 87-113. oxford: butterworth-heinemann. mentoring relationship 31 clutterbuck, d. & ragins, b.r. (2002). mentoring and diversity: an international perspective. johannesburg: butterworthheinemann. clutterbuck, d. & sweeney, j. (2003). coaching and mentoring. burnham: clutterbuck. creswell, j.w. (1994). research design: qualitative and quantitative approaches. california: sage. daloz, l.a. (1999). mentor: guiding the journey of adult learners (2nd ed.). san francisco: jossey-bass. dreher, g.f. (1997). substitutes for career mentoring: promoting equal opportunity through career management and assessment systems. journal of vocational behavior, 51, 110-124. ensher, e.a. & murphy, s.e. (1997). effects of race, gender, perceived similarity, and contact on mentor relationships. journal of vocational behavior, 50, 460-481. fagenson-eland, e.a., marks, m.a. & amendola, k.l. (1997). perceptions of mentoring relationships. journal of vocational behavior, 51, 29-42. finkelstein, l.m., allen, t.d. & rhoton, l.a. (2003). an examination of the role of age in mentoring relationships. group & organisation management, 28 (2), 249-281. furnham, a. (2000). work in 2020: prognostications about the world of work 20 years into the millennium. journal of managerial psychology, 15 (3), 242-254. greenhaus, j.h, callanan, g.a. & godshalk, v.m. (2001). career management. new york: dryden grobler, p.a., warnich, s., carrell, m.r., elbert, n.f. & hatfield, r.d. (2002). human resource management in south africa. canada: thomson. hall, d.t. & mirvis, p.h. (1995). the new career contract: developing the whole person at midlife and beyond. journal of vocational behavior, 47, 269-289. hay, j. (1995). transformational mentoring. new york: mcgrawhill. huysamen, g.k. (1994). methodology for the social and behavioural sciences. halfway house: southern. klasen, n. & clutterbuck, d. (2002). implementing mentoring schemes: a practical guide to successful programs. london: butterworth-heinemann. kogler-hill, s. & bahniuk, m.h. (1998). promoting career success through mentoring. review of business, 19, 4-7. kram, k.e. (1983). phases of the mentoring relationship. academy of management journal, 26, 608-625. kram, k.e. (1996). a relational approach to career development. in d.t. hall (ed.), the career is dead: long live the career (pp. 132-157). san francisco: jossey-bass. kram, k.e. & hall, d.t. (1989). mentoring as an antidote to stress during trauma. human resource management, 28 (4), 493-510. kram, k.e. & hall, d.t. (1996). mentoring in a context of diversity and turbulence. in s. lobel & e. kossek (eds.), human resource strategies for managing diversity (pp. 108-136). london: blackwell. linehan, m. & walsh, j.s. (1999). mentoring relationships and the female managerial career. career de velopment international, 4 (7), 348-352. megginson, d. & clutterbuck, d. (1995). mentoring in action: a practical guide for managers. oxford: kogan page. merriam, s.b. (2002). qualitative research in practice: examples for discussion and analysis. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. mirvis, p.h. & hall, d.t. (1994). psychological success and the boundary-less career. journal of organisational behavior, 15, 365-380. noe, r.a. (1988). an investigation of the determinants of successful assigned mentoring relationships. personnel psychology, 41, 457-479. ragins, b.r. (2002). understanding diversified mentoring relationships: definitions, challenges and strategies. in d. clutterbuck & b.r. ragins (eds.), mentoring and diversity: an international perspective, 23-53. oxford: butterworthheinemann. ragins, b.r., cotton, j. & miller, j. (2000). marginal mentoring: an examination of the effects of type of mentor and program design on work and career attitudes. academy of management journal, 47, 1177-1194. ragins, b.r. & mcfarlin, d. (1990). perception of mentor roles in cross-gender mentoring relationships. journal of vocational behavior, 37, 321-339. schreuder, a.m.g. & theron, a.l. (2001). careers: an organisational perspective. cape town: juta. schuitema, e. (1998). leadership: the care and growth model. cape town: ampersand press. schurink, w.j. (2003). qualitative research in management and organisational studies with reference to recent south african research. sa journal of human resource management, 1 (3), 2-14. siegel, p.h. & reinstein, a. (2001). an exploratory study of mentor relationships in large cpa firms. scandinavian journal of management, 17, 421-436. strauss, a. & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research: grounded theor y: procedures and techniques. newbury park: sage. tajfel, h. & turner, j.c. (1986). the social identity theory of intergroup counsellors. in s. worchel & w.g. austin (eds.), psychology of intergroup relations, 7-24. london: nelson-hall. gilmore, coetzee, schreuder32 article information authors: anton schlechter1 charl faught1 mark bussin2 affiliations: 1school of management studies, university of cape town, south africa2department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: anton schlechter postal address: school of management studies, private bag, rondebosch 7701, south africa dates: received: 14 may 2014 accepted: 19 aug. 2014 published: 27 nov. 2014 how to cite this article: schlechter, a., faught, c., & bussin, m. (2014). total rewards: a study of artisan attraction and retention within a south african context. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur , 12(1), art. #648, 15 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.648 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. total rewards: a study of artisan attraction and retention within a south african context in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • problem statement       • key focus       • background       • research purpose       • trends from research literature       • objectives       • contribution to the field       • what will follow    • literature review       • employee retention (total rewards model)       • financial reward for artisans       • non-financial reward for artisans • method    • research approach    • measures       • participants       • measuring instruments       • design       • analysis • results    • focus groups       • questionnaire 1 (total rewards)       • exploratory factor analysis       • questionnaire 2 (conjoint task) • discussion    • outline of the results       • rewards that retain employment equity candidates       • rewards that retain employees of different age groups    • practical implications    • limitations and recommendations    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the shortage of artisan skills remains a serious challenge in south africa and is forcing employers to investigate which total reward factors contribute to the attraction and retention of this critical skills segment, as undifferentiated retention strategies are no longer useful or even appropriate.research purpose: the aim of this study was to further develop understanding of the total reward factors and the ideal combination and relative amount of total rewards that attract and retain artisans, including artisans from various race groups and age cohorts, using a novel approach. motivation for the study: limited research is available on the total reward factors and the ideal combination and relative amount of total rewards that attract and retain artisans. further knowledge in this area will allow organisations to develop reward models that better attract and retain artisans. method: the study followed both a quantitative and qualitative research approach, whilst adopting a descriptive research design. using this mixed method, primary data were collected from individuals by means of two focus groups discussions: (1) a group of human resource and remuneration managers (n = 4) and (2) a group of artisans (n = 7). these results were used to develop two questionnaires that were distributed to artisans (n = 143). data from questionnaire 1 were analysed using descriptive statistics and factor analysis. conjoint analysis was employed to identify an ideal total rewards composition based on responses from questionnaire 2. main findings: the results of the choice-based modelling (conjoint analysis) revealed that three total rewards attributes were consistently deemed to be important in the retention of artisans. these were (in order of priority): environment (work-life balance), compensation (level) and compensation (variable). environment (work-life balance) was considered 14.64% more important than compensation (level) within the overall sample as well as within the race and age cohorts. practical/managerial implications: the identification of both the combination and relative amount of total rewards that attract and retain artisans will allow organisations to create differentiated retention strategies. contribution: the current study succeeded in identifying the total rewards and the ideal composition of total rewards that attract and retain artisans, including artisans from various demographic groups (race and various age cohorts). this was done using a method that assessed the psychological trade-offs people make when choosing between options rather than just asking them how desirable each of these factors are. this novel approach and the outcomes thereof add to the body of literature on total reward and talent management. introduction top ↑ problem statement key focus the retention of artisans is becoming an increasingly difficult task for organisations to manage. the attrition of scarce skills is viewed as a major cause of the so-called war for talent which is characterised by a scarcity of skills where demand outweighs supply (hay group, 2002). in a study by adcorp, the artisan job family was identified as the number one category of concern when filling vacancies in south africa. an ageing workforce, negative perceptions regarding this job family due to the nature of the blue-collar work environment, a decline in apprenticeship student numbers, the closure of artisan training centres, poaching of artisans from rival companies, international recruitment of artisans and the overall training cost to obtain a successfully qualified artisan all have to be creatively managed in order to address the current shortage and the limited short and medium term supply of artisans (joint initiative on priority skills acquisition [jipsa], 2008). background there are hundreds of thousands of job vacancies in south africa and yet the country has a 25% unemployment rate, indicating a mismatch in the demand and supply of skills (centre for development and enterprise [cde], 2011). although the official unemployment rate (the number of unemployed people expressed as a percentage of the labour force) is high by international standards, it understates the magnitude of the crisis because it includes only those adults who are not employed and are actively looking for work. given the poor state of the job market, millions of adults who want to work have given up looking for jobs and are therefore not counted as unemployed. a more revealing statistic is that only 41% of the population of working age (everyone aged 16–64) have any kind of job, both in the formal and informal sectors of the economy (cde, 2011).technical skills shortages remain a serious constraint in south africa, even though increasing amounts of public and private resources are being committed to address the needs of infrastructure projects due to a growing economy and a growing population (hall & sandelands, 2009). a critical component of competitiveness is having the appropriate skills complement across a range of occupations and professions as well as the skills to drive economic growth and organisational success (bussin, 2011). it is imperative that south africa becomes globally competitive. the world competitiveness report listed south africa 53rd in a ranking of the competitiveness of 144 nations, a decline from previous years (imd, 2008). over the past 10 years, economic growth has relied heavily on rapid growth in government spending, which is unsustainable in the long run. local markets are relatively small which means that accelerated economic growth will require a dramatic increase in exports, supported by the fact that industry will need to have the appropriate skills complement to meet the current and future demand (cde, 2011). since the 1980s organisations across the globe have been focusing on increasing profitability. this has been accomplished by increasing throughput on existing investments and by decreasing costs. the reduction in costs often focused on the reduction of fixed costs which led to a decrease in the training and skills development budget of organisations as well as in some cases, retrenchments (food and beverage sector education training authority [foodbev seta], 2011). due to the laying off of staff, a surplus of artisans was available in south africa, which meant that new artisans no longer needed to be trained. this led to the discontinuation of established training programmes for artisans (jordaan & barry, 2009). since there was an oversupply at the time, organisations also did not have to increase artisan salaries to keep up with inflation, in order to retain artisans. in the past two decades the environment in south africa has changed dramatically. a significant increase in the cost of living has forced many skilled artisans to find other employment prospects (jordaan & barry, 2009). artisan skills are rapidly becoming so scarce that organisations will go to extraordinary lengths to keep artisans. south african organisations in 2007 already began to pay artisans salaries of up to r30 000 per month in an attempt to retain them (kleynhans, 2007). large firms are no longer making meaningful contributions to skills development in the industry; instead they are being accused of poaching trained artisans (ogbeifun, 2011). a low apprenticeship graduation rate further contributes to the current shortage of artisans. one can expect the demand for artisans to increase in the future as fewer new graduates come through the system. the industry wide demand for artisans also sees the shift of artisans to higher paying sectors of the economy. a continuation of this trend may lead to the need to import artisans in the future. such a strategy is, however, often characterised by high cost (morris & reed, 2008). the under-supply of artisans is compounded by an ageing workforce. in one report it was estimated that more than 70% of currently employed artisans will exit the labour force over the next 5–6 years, and that the average age of artisans is 54 (erasmus, 2008). furthermore, jipsa (2008), a high-level task team initiated by government, stated that south africa produced about 5000 artisans a year, and that this figure would have to rise to 12 500 a year for the next 4 years to meet demand for a projected increase of 30 000 over the period 2007–2010. in jipsa’s view this was both a conservative estimate of needs and a stretch target in terms of south africa’s capacity to produce artisans. it is therefore important to conceptualise and understand artisan scarcity and to investigate and interpret which attributes of the artisan value proposition will hopefully lead to the successful attraction and retention of artisans. research purpose the aim of this study was to further develop an understanding of the total reward factors and the ideal combination and relative amount of total rewards that attract and retain artisans, including artisans from various race groups and age cohorts. trends from research literature according to the centre for development and enterprise (cde, 2007), an artisan is any person who works as a millwright, electrician, plumber, boilermaker, mechanic, fitter and turner, pattern maker or injection moulder.previous research has identified a variety of rewards as being successful in the retention of employees in general (hay group, 2002). however, developing and implementing a total rewards approach that recognises individual differences may be difficult, but highly beneficial (armstrong & murlis, 2004). the benefits of a total rewards approach that focuses on an individual’s needs and preferences include: • deeper impact: the combined effect of financial and non-financial rewards could have a positive impact on the motivation and commitment of employees, enhancing the employee relationship. • increased engagement as part of the process: involving people in their own reward package design gives them strong positive messages about the organisation and its values. • flexibility to meet individual needs: relational rewards may bind individuals more strongly to the organisation because they recognise and can answer special individual needs. • winning the war for talent: relational rewards help to deliver a positive psychological contract. the organisation can become an employer of choice, thus attracting and retaining the artisans it needs. objectives the successful retention of artisans in the workplace has been affected by extensive changes in workforce demographics, as organisations are required to manage diverse groups. in particular, changes in the age profile of artisans have emerged. the introduction of employment equity legislation in south africa has exacerbated the difficulties organisations face in retaining black employees in particular. in an effort to meet equity targets, companies often seek quick fix solutions, such as poaching equity candidates, resulting in these employees being highly marketable and mobile (mauer, 2000).the empirical objective of the study was to identify the ideal composition and the desired amount of total rewards that attract and retain artisans from various race groups and age cohorts within the context of the south african workplace. the research questions that were answered include: • what is the ideal rewards composition that will attract and retain artisans? • what is the ideal rewards composition that will attract and retain artisans from various age cohorts? • what is the ideal rewards composition that will attract and retain artisans from various race cohorts? the research questions were based on an integrated artisan retention model (see figure 1), which is proposed as an approach that attempts to provide a framework for the current study. figure 1: integrated artisan retention model. contribution to the field limited research is available on the total reward factors and the ideal combination and relative amount of the factors of total rewards that attract and retain artisans. the current study succeeded in identifying the total rewards and the ideal composition of total rewards that retain artisans, including artisans from various demographic groups (race and various age cohorts). this was done utilising choice-based conjoint analysis, which assesses the trade-offs people make when having to choose between factors and their relative levels rather than assessing the desirability of each factor and level in isolation, as is typically done in survey research. the results of the study based on this approach do not support previous research, which found financial reward to be the most important retention factor for artisans. in contrast, the current research found environment (work-life balance) to be the most significant determinant of retention across race and age cohorts in the sampled population. what will follow a review of the literature follows in which the role of financial and non-financial reward elements in explaining artisan attraction and retention is investigated. a comprehensive description of the research methodology is then presented, followed by the results and a discussion thereof. literature review employee retention (total rewards model) employee retention entails a combination of activities that, when they work well together, result in employees choosing to stay with the organisation for a long time (hendricks, 2006). according to hendricks (2006), employee retention efforts should focus on both attracting employees to join the organisation through focused recruitment and ensuring that employees with crucial skills who are already in the organisation stay. for this to be successful there need to be underlying policies and structures that support employee retention. some of the crucial retention factors that have been identified are that there should be clear and well-defined human resource planning, recruitment and selection processes (berger, 1991).the number of organisations implementing specially designed retention mechanisms is increasing. the need for organisations to adopt a purposeful attraction and retention strategy is therefore becoming increasingly imperative, specifically for engaging artisans to deliver maximum discretionary effort (ngobeni & bezuidenhout, 2011). the hay group (2002) developed a total rewards model based on retention (see figure 2), which describes not only the transactional and relational elements of reward, but also focuses on what employees defined as a compelling, high performance workplace. this total rewards model comprises six key elements, namely: quality of work, work and life balance, inspiration and values, enabling environment, future growth and opportunity and tangible rewards. the inspiration and values cluster followed by the future growth and opportunity cluster are what employees value most, with tangible rewards coming third or fourth in priority. figure 2: the hay model. financial reward for artisans rampfumedzi (2009) found that the primary reason artisans leave organisations is dissatisfaction with remuneration. in addition, jordaan and barry (2009) found that, across industries, salary levels for artisans are perceived to be low and that salary level is the most important retention factor for artisans.many mining houses in south africa have allocated significant amounts of money to artisan retention strategies in order to try and retain those skills within their organisations. these retention strategies usually take the form of sign-on bonuses that are contingent on the employee committing to stay for a certain period of time. many companies also pay a scarcity allowance. (rampfumedzi, 2009). the general benchmark is based on 10–12 years’ experience for which the allowance is approximately r3000. in some cases it is based on a sliding scale (rampfumedzi, 2009). bussin (2011) identified a remuneration treatment for scarce skills that included: • base pay (guaranteed pay): in order not to distort the salary scales within an organisation, employees with scarce skills should be paid within the applicable grade range. the guaranteed portion should be in line with the appropriate levels of employees within the same grade. • variable pay: this part of the employee’s total remuneration includes variable pay components such as a performance incentive scheme or a reward and recognition scheme. measurable targets should be in place and pay-outs of these schemes should be in line with the rest of the organisation’s remuneration policy. • market premiums and allowances: a scarce skill premium may be paid over and above the guaranteed pay. market premiums are not guaranteed. the premium is usually expressed as a percentage of the midpoint of the organisation’s pay scale and the same level of premium is paid to individuals irrespective of their position within that scale. bussin and spavins (2009) further highlight the point that remuneration should not be based on a one-size-fits-all strategy and that there should be flexibility in the structuring of the pay for different employees. they investigated employees of different age groups and established how they would like their pay to be structured. the results are presented in table 1 below. the table summarises the responses (on a response scale of 1 to 7) of the various age cohorts. table 1: ranking of remuneration preferences by different age groups. table 2: focus group of remuneration and human resource managers. from table 1 it can be seen that different age groups value different remuneration structures. although base pay is considered to be important for all age cohorts, variations between the age cohorts are evident, for example variable pay is considered to be important for the age cohort 18–29 years but not so for the age cohort over 55 years. one explanation for this variation could be that employees in the age cohort of over 55 years are nearing retirement and value stability of income more as this would optimise their financial planning capability (bussin & spavins, 2009). with benefit cost absorbing up to 40% of total payroll cost, employers are revaluating their total benefit packages. there also needs to be an alignment between compensation and benefits for employees. however, many retention packages do not include non-financial elements or needs, and for this reason these retention packages have little effect on employee retention (grobler, wärnich, carrell & elbert, 2002). non-financial reward for artisans jordaan and barry (2009) attempted to identify non-financial needs and found that most artisans were not preparing themselves for career advancement by obtaining formal qualifications or training. employers were seemingly not encouraging artisans to become better skilled, as evidenced by the general lack of personal development plans. similarly, rampfumedzi (2009) found that the reasons that artisans leave organisations include the lack of career advancement.loughlin and barling (2001) postulate that changes in the workplace and emerging issues of importance to the youth will shape future research agendas in management and organisational practices. these emergent issues include: • non-standard work and work quality: globally the proportion of non-standard jobs (temporary, part-time or contract positions) has continued to rise. • leadership: the information age, intense global competition and the need to manage an increasingly diverse workforce are all placing new demands on leadership in organisations. • workplace safety and health: young people are inexperienced and eager to please. they are typically given little or no on-the-job training and are vulnerable. • work-family conflict: the challenge of the coming decade is how best to meet the multiplicity of needs that includes organisational practices, policies and programmes as well as a philosophy that actively supports employees’ efforts to be successful within and outside the workplace. engaging artisans on their financial and non-financial needs could further enable the understanding of the total reward factors and the ideal combination and relative amount of total rewards that attract and retain artisans. this information can then in turn be used to plan and implement reward models that attempt to deal with the critical shortage of artisans. method top ↑ research approach the study followed both a quantitative and a qualitative research approach whilst adopting a descriptive research design. using this mixed method, primary data were collected from individuals by means of two focus group discussions and two questionnaires. a key feature of mixed methods research is its methodological pluralism or eclecticism, which frequently results in a holistic research approach, as opposed to mono-method research. in addition, it allows researchers to mix and match design components that offer them the best chance of answering their specific research questions (johnson & onwuegbuzie, 2004).choice-based modelling, also referred to as conjoint analysis, was utilised to address the research question. choice-based modelling is one of many techniques for analysing situations in which a decision-maker has to deal with options that simultaneously vary across two or more attributes (green, krieger & wind, 2001). in a typical choice-based study respondents are asked to choose an alternative from a set of alternatives (a choice set), each of which is a different combination of levels of a set of various attributes (desarbo, ramaswamy & cohen, 1995). each attribute is therefore made up of various levels or specific values describing a factor or attribute. attributes are general features of a concept, product or service. conjoint analysis captures the predicament of choice: the perfect combination is rarely available, but lesser alternatives are. conjoint analysis is a technique typically used to assess the different contributions aspects of a product or service make to individuals in the purchasing decision. in this study it was used to determine how artisans would choose between reward factors and various levels of these factors and the trade-offs they would make amongst them. conducting choice-based modelling necessitates two phases: a first phase in which the attributes and levels are identified, and a second in which conjoint tasks are designed. in this second phase, random combinations of attributes and levels are presented to respondents and they are repeatedly asked to choose one combination out of a series of combinations. measures participants the artisan target population was defined as any person who worked as a millwright, electrician, plumber, boilermaker, mechanic, fitter and turner, pattern maker or injection moulder (cde, 2007) within an identified holdings limited company within the fast moving consumer goods (fmcg) environment, as well as any qualified artisan who at one stage during 2011 or 2012 applied for any artisan vacancy at the identified company.a non-probability sampling method, namely judgement sampling, was used. also known as purposeful sampling, this is a sampling technique in which the researcher actively selects the most productive sample to answer the research question (marshall, 1996). measuring instruments focus group discussions: a focus group discussion was held with a sample of remuneration and human resources managers from a holdings limited company within the fmcg industry (n = 4). the purpose of the focus group was to elicit expert opinion on remuneration practices and the ideal rewards composition for the attraction and retention of artisans. a second focus group discussion was held with a sample of artisans to elicit their opinions on remuneration practices and the ideal rewards composition for artisans (n = 7). information from both of these focus group discussions was used to determine the attributes and levels to be used in the conjoint analysis software questionnaire (questionnaire 2).the duration for each of the focus group discussions was on average 3 hours and the results and definition for each of the five attributes were decided by a democratic vote. questionnaire 1 (total rewards): the first questionnaire was developed using principles of the hay model and the worldatwork total rewards model, and was designed to determine which of the total rewards elements respondents deemed most important when deciding whether to stay with or leave their current organisation (hay group, 2002; pregnolato, 2010). responses were recorded on a five-point likert-type response scale where 1 represented ‘not at all important’ and 5 ‘very important’. the scale comprised 20 questions covering six total rewards elements, namely: (1) quality of work, (2) work-life balance, (3) future growth opportunities, (4) tangible rewards, (5) inspirational values and (6) environment. questionnaire 2 (conjoint task): the second questionnaire contained the computer-generated conjoint tasks, which was used to assess the trade-offs respondents make and so establish employee preferences for the ideal composition of total rewards. design two electronic questionnaires were developed and used to develop the choice-based conjoint task in questionnaire 2. conjoint tasks were initially presented followed by 20 likert-type scale questions (questionnaire 1). demographic information was captured in a separate section at the end of the questionnaire and consisted of eight items covering race, age, qualification confirmation, job title, number of years with current employer and division in which artisans were employed.both questionnaires were submitted to the university of cape town’s commerce faculty ethics in research committee and ethical approval was granted. the questionnaires were subsequently presented to the executive and human resources managers of a holdings limited company within the fmcg environment and consent was granted to distribute both questionnaires. a hyperlink to the electronic questionnaire was placed in an email and distributed to divisional human resources managers at the fmcg company with a request for them to forward this to the artisans within their respective divisions. simultaneously the questionnaire was distributed via email to artisans who during 2011 and 2012 applied for artisan vacancies with the fmcg company. instructions for completion were included in the body of the questionnaire and directed respondents to click on the hyperlink embedded in the email. given that online surveys are prone to low response rates (often below 7%) an incentive to participate was offered. a lucky draw was used to encourage participants to complete the survey. to participate in the lucky draw respondents were required to capture their personnel number on the questionnaire. confidentiality was maintained by ensuring that the respondent’s personnel number was not linked to the response data and was only used for the purpose of the lucky draw. the questionnaire was administered over an 8-week period and took approximately 18 minutes to complete. analysis for analysis purposes the total sample of responses (n = 154) was cleaned, resulting in a clean sample of 143 completed questionnaires. the outcomes of questionnaire 1 were analysed using descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analysis. the outcomes of questionnaire 2 were analysed using conjoint analysis software. the utilities and part-worths calculated from the estimation process formed the basis of the data analysis. these were used to assess the attractiveness of the various attribute level combinations in order to ultimately determine the ideal total rewards composition for artisans. results top ↑ focus groups details of the (1) remuneration and hr manager focus group sample and (2) artisan focus group sample are provided in tables 2 and 3.responses provided by focus groups were combined and the results for each of the five attributes were interpreted, as shown in table 4. table 3: focus group of artisans. table 4: conjoint task for artisans. questionnaire 1 (total rewards) descriptive statistics: the race distribution of the sample is summarised in table 5. table 5: categorisation of race of sample. the following groups were combined to ensure a more balanced sample: african, mixed race and indian employees were combined to form one category – black employees – to indicate race (i.e. creating a black comparison group); see table 6. table 6: re-categorisation of race sample into black artisans and white artisans. age groups were combined into adult life development cohorts as defined by levinson (1986), namely cohort 29 and younger, cohort 30–39, cohort 40–49 and cohort 50+. details of the age cohorts of the sample are provided in table 7. table 7: re-categorisation of age sample into adult life development cohorts. the means and standard deviations of each of the 20 questions across the different demographic groups were assessed and the univariate sample measures of skewness and kurtosis were used. these statistics are generalised to test a hypothesis of multivariate normality. results suggested that the responses were not normally distributed, describing negative skewness. the kolmogorov-smirnov test for goodness of fit and the shapiro-wilk test were conducted. results of the tests led to the rejection of the null hypothesis (hypothesis 0 = data was normally distributed for all items), due to the fact that p was less than 0.01 and there was support for the alternative hypothesis (hypothesis 1 = data was not normally distributed). the overall results from the descriptive statistics indicate that artisans regard all the elements within the total rewards composition as important (see figure 3). the research purpose was to further develop the understanding of the total reward factors and the ideal combination and relative amount of total rewards that attract and retain artisans. in doing so, choice-based modelling (conjoint analysis) was conducted to determine the factors (called attributes in conjoint analysis) and the attribute levels that are most important for artisan retention. figure 3: means of total rewards for demographic groups. exploratory factor analysis exploratory factor analysis was performed to establish the underlying factor structure of the questionnaire that was based on the hay group total rewards model as well as the worldatwork total rewards model (questionnaire 1). factor analysis is used to discover patterns amongst the variations in values of several variables. this is done through the generation of factors that correlate highly with several of the real variables and that are independent of one another (babbie, 1995). in order to conduct a factor analysis the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy should be greater than 0.6 and the bartlett’s test of sphericity should be significant (pallant, 2004). the kmo measure of sampling adequacy for the factor analysis was 0.83 and the bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (p < 0.01). these results therefore indicated that it was appropriate to conduct an exploratory factor analysis on this data.in order to determine how many factors should be extracted, only those factors with an eigenvalue greater than 1 were selected (the so-called kaiser criterion). most of the strategies that have been proposed to determine the number of components that account for the most variation in a principal components analysis of a correlation matrix rely on the analysis of the eigenvalues and on numerical solutions. cattell’s scree test is a graphical strategy with a non-numerical solution to determine the number of components to retain. like kaiser’s rule, this test is one of the most frequently used strategies for determining the number of components to retain (pallant, 2004). using both kaiser’s rule and an inspection of the scree plot, using catell’s scree test, confirmed the presence of three factors. the inclusion criteria used for the factor analysis were that factor loadings needed to be greater than 0.400; if the difference in factor loadings across factors was less than 0.25 then the item was considered to have cross-loaded. if an item did not meet these criteria it was excluded, and thereafter a new round of factor analysis was conducted. considering the inclusion criteria, after the first round items q11 (‘the opportunities offered to you by your company for training within your current job, e.g. skills training’), q1 (‘recognition provided to you by your employer, e.g. financial recognition such as a cash, paid travel’), q20 (‘the provision of recognition via non-financial means, e.g. certificates of recognition’) and q16 (‘your employer’s provision of employee health and wellness programmes, e.g. employee assistance programmes, counselling services, fitness centres’) were removed as they did not meet the inclusion criteria. after the second round q10 (‘having supportive and like–minded colleagues’) was deleted. the third round of exploratory factor analysis was accepted as the final factor structure. table 8 summarises the items within the scale that loaded on three factors and explained 56.56% of the total variance: factor 1 (eigenvalue = 5.11) explained 34.12% of the variance, factor 2 (eigenvalue = 1.78) explained 11.89% of the variance and factor 3 (eigenvalue = 1.47) explained 10.51% of the variance. the factors were labelled: job-related factors, remuneration-related factors and work-life–related factors. table 8: factor analysis for total rewards scale. a one-way analysis of variance (anova) was then used to assess the statistical differences between the means of the three factors for race and age groups. results for race are depicted in table 9 and results for age are depicted in table 10. table 9: analysis of variance: race groups. table 10: analysis of variance: age cohorts. the results of the one-way anova indicated that no statistically significant difference existed between the means for the different demographic groups (race) with respect to job-related factors [f(2, 139) = 1.666; p = 0.161], remuneration-related factors [f(2, 139) = 0.036; p = 0.997] or work-life–related factors [f(2, 139) = 0.869; p = 0.484]. using the composite black and white groups (reported in table 6) no significant differences were found when comparing the means for the two groups using independent samples t-tests. the results of the anova indicated that a statistically significant difference exists between the means for the different demographic groups (age cohorts) with respect to remuneration-related factors [f(2,141) = 5.444; p = 0.005]. to determine where the significant difference was positioned, the tukey honestly significant difference (hsd) post-hoc test was used. this entails finding the difference between the means of all the groups and comparing the difference in scores. the post-hoc test results indicated that remuneration-related factors were considered significantly more important for age cohort 30–39 and the age cohort 50+ (mean difference = 0.43946; p < 0.01). no other significant differences were found. the overall results indicated that artisans regarded all the elements within the total rewards composition as largely equally important. this suggested that researchers would learn more by conducting a conjoint analysis to determine the reward elements (called attributes in conjoint analysis) that were most important for artisan retention. questionnaire 2 (conjoint task) choice-based modelling was used to determine which combination of total reward attributes would attract and retain artisans. the results of the choice-based modelling are outlined in the three sections below. the first section provides an overview of the reliability of the conjoint model whilst the second section outlines details of the validity of the model. the third section provides an overview of the relative attribute importance. the ideal composition of total rewards is then identified via the attribute level with the highest utility. these results are presented on an overall basis as well as per demographic group.reliability of the conjoint model: a method of assessing the reliability of the conjoint model is to determine the goodness of fit of the estimation model, which in this study is the multinomial logit (mnl) model. logit analysis is an iterative procedure to find the solution that is most likely to fit the mnl model to the data. for each iteration, the log-likelihood is reported together with a value of root likelihood (rlh). this is a measure of how well the model fits the choice data (pregnolato, 2010; sawtooth software, 2008). a respondent who answers inconsistently will have a low rlh value. the best possible value is 1.0, which means that all choices can be explained by the preference estimates. the worst value for this model would be 0.25 meaning that with four choice sets, a random model would predict 25% of the choices correctly (eggers, farsky & gerber, 2009). an rlh below 0.25 was reported for one respondent. all other respondents were above this value with 0.92 being the highest rlh value. this indicates that there was a high level of reliability for this model. validity of the conjoint model: since one must measure and control many variables in order to validate conjoint results, the validation process relies on hold-out stimuli. a typical hold-out task consists of two or more alternatives from which respondents must choose one. hold-out stimuli must be designed to ensure that one choice does not dominate in that the characteristics of the task resemble marketplace choices as far as possible (hair, anderson, tatham & black, 1987). in the current study validity was established by comparing the actual choice for each respondent in the hold-out task with the predicted choice. the ratio of correctly predicted choices is called the hit rate, which is a common validity measure. the hit rate was determined by using the estimation model to predict the actual choices in the hold-out stimuli, which were identical for each respondent and not used for estimation. the first step in this process entailed calculating the utilities of the three choices (four with the ‘none’ option) by summing up the utilities of each level within the task. for example: alterative 1: util (average market-related base pay) + util (one and a half [1.5] times the average market-related base pay) + util (twice [two times] the average market-related base pay) + util (none of these offerings is more attractive than my current employment). the predicted choice is the alternative with the highest utility. the ratio of correctly predicted choices is represented by the hit rate (eggers et al., 2009; pregnolato, 2010). the hit rate for the conjoint model in this study was 66.4%, which means that the model was able to produce 66.4% correct predictions from the hold-out set. with four alternatives in the hold-out set, a chance model would have resulted in 25% of predictions being correct. as such, a 66.4% hit rate is considered to be good. relative attribute importance overall and per demographic group: the range of utilities within each attribute was calculated using the difference between the highest and lowest utilities per attribute, divided by the sum of the ranges across all attributes. each attribute’s utility range was expressed as a percentage of the sum of the utility ranges across all attributes. these percentages provided an indication of the importance artisans attach to the various total reward attributes in their ability to retain (martins, loubser & van wyk, 1996). overall results indicated that three total rewards attributes were consistently deemed to be important in retention. these are: environment (work-life balance), compensation (level) and compensation (variable). the environment (work-life balance) was considered 14.64% more important than compensation (level) within the overall sample, as well as in all the demographic groups, as the relative importance of environment (work-life balance) was on average 37.90% whilst compensation (level) was on average 23.26%. variations of the relative importance of attributes can be noted across demographic groups. the race groups indicated differences in the relative importance ascribed to attributes. the environment (work-life balance) was noted as highest for both black respondents (37.23%) and white respondents (38.62%) in terms of its relative importance in attraction and retention. few differences were noted across utilities, compensation (level) and compensation (variable), with black respondents indicating relative importance of compensation (variable) (23.75%) as opposed to compensation (level) (22.75%). white respondents indicated relative importance of compensation (level) (23.81%) as opposed to compensation (variable) (21.54%). in addition, few differences were noted across utilities, opportunities for growth and environment (physical), with black respondents indicating relative importance of opportunities for growth (10.34%) as opposed to environment (physical) (5.93%). white respondents indicated a relative importance of environment (physical) (9.17%) as opposed to opportunities for growth (6.86%). the age group cohorts indicated differences in the relative importance ascribed to attributes. the environment (work-life balance) was noted as highest for age cohort 29 and younger (40.74%), age cohort 30–30 (39.11%), age cohort 40–49 (32.85%) and age cohort 50+ (41.88%) in terms of its relative importance in retention. few differences were noted across utilities, compensation (level) and compensation (variable), with age cohort 50+ indicating relative importance of compensation (variable) (36.32%) as opposed to compensation (level) (12.52%). all other age cohorts indicated relative importance of compensation (level) as opposed to compensation (variable). in addition, few differences were noted across utilities, opportunities for growth and environment (physical), with the age cohort 30–39 indicating relative importance of opportunities for growth (12.33%) as opposed to environment (physical) (5.40%). all other age cohorts indicated relative importance of environment (physical) as opposed to opportunities for growth. the results are summarised in table 11. table 11: ranked attributes overall and per demographic group. the ideal composition of total rewards overall and per demographic group: to determine the total reward composition that was most preferred, the levels of attributes were evaluated for desirability by respondents (smith & albaum, 2005). utilities were recalculated across levels 1–3 for each attribute. the level with the highest utility per attribute was regarded as the most preferred option in terms of its ability to retain. once the highest utility had been identified, the ideal composition emerged per grouping. the results indicated the following overall preference with respect to the ideal total rewards composition. level 3 produced the highest utilities for the following attributes: environment (work-life balance): regular work hours (8–5) excluding weekends, compensation (level): twice (two times) the average market-related base pay, opportunities for growth: supervisory, management and leadership training, environment (physical): safe technology and advanced and ergonomically designed factory. level 1 produced the highest utilities for the following attribute: compensation (variable): 13th cheque. variations of the ideal total rewards composition can be noted across demographic groups. the race groups indicated differences for black respondents in relation to level 3. they preferred level 2 for attribute environment (physical): safe work environment with the best tools available to do the work. the age cohort groups indicated differences for some age cohorts in relation to level 3. age cohort 50+ preferred level 2 for attribute compensation (level): one and a half (1.5) times the average market-related base pay. age cohort 29 and younger preferred level 2 for attribute opportunities for growth: bursaries for further studies towards a qualification. age cohort 30–39 and age cohort 50+ both preferred level 2 for attribute environment (physical): safe work environment with the best tools available to do the work. the results are summarised in table 12. table 12: ranked levels of reward attributes overall and per demographic group. discussion top ↑ outline of the results in the current study choice-based modelling produced an ideal composition of total rewards in which three reward elements were consistently classified as highly valued and important in the retention of artisans. the results indicated that environment (work-life balance) is perceived as most important for artisans (37.90%), followed by compensation (level) and then compensation (variable). in particular, 8–5 work hours and not working on weekends was consistently ranked highest across all cohorts.these findings are not consistent with the findings of jordaan and barry (2009) and van rooyen, du toit, botha and rothmann (2010), who found remuneration to be the most important factor for artisan retention. according to the corporate leadership council (2012), there have been major shifts in the drivers of attrition and retention during the last few years and employees are citing compensation much less. according to chew (2005), traditional approaches that rely heavily on competitive remuneration often have limited success in employee retention in the medium to long term. compensation (level) as presented in the conjoint task was considered to be the second most valued reward element in the total rewards composition, except for the black and 50+ groups, who chose compensation (variable) (i.e. 13th cheque). the groups chose the highest salary level (twice the average market salary) as the preferred level of the attribute. these findings partially support the literature, especially the findings of jordaan and barry (2009), who found that the salary levels for artisans across industries are perceived to be low and that salary levels are perceived to be an important employment factor that is linked to the retention of artisans. the results of the current study could be ascribed to a number of factors, the first being the current economic recession in south africa, which has been characterised by growing levels of unemployment and increasing numbers of retrenchments across various industries, leaving a workforce whose job stability is threatened. in this environment, it is likely that artisans may value those rewards that are tangible and sustain basic or life needs. secondly, artisan skills are rapidly becoming so scarce that organisations will go to extraordinary lengths to attract and retain them. anecdotal data suggests that artisans know that they are in demand and continuously shift to higher paying sectors in the economy. compensation (variable) as presented in the conjoint task was considered to be the third most valued reward element in the total rewards composition for all groups except the black and 50+ groups. these findings partially support the literature, especially the findings of the hay group’s 2010 report (hay group, 2010), which found that variable pay programmes contributed significantly to employee commitment. bussin (2011) also identified variable pay as a key component of a remuneration treatment for scarce skills that includes pay components such as a performance incentive scheme or a reward and recognition scheme. despite various offerings defined within the compensation (variable) context of the conjoint task, the results of the study indicated that artisans prefer a 13th cheque above short-term variable performance-related or long-term retention bonuses. the results of the current study could also be ascribed to the current economic recession in south africa where it is likely that artisans may value those rewards that are tangible and sustain basic or life needs. overall, opportunities for growth as presented in the conjoint task were considered to be the next most valued reward element in the total rewards composition. these findings partially support the literature, especially the findings of the corporate leadership council (2012), which ranked future career opportunity as the number four employee value proposition driver of attraction in their south african workforce insight 2012 report. this is contrary to much of the literature, for example the towers perrin (2003) report, which indicated that career advancement opportunities were amongst the top two reward elements that retained employees. lastly, overall the environment (physical), as presented in the conjoint task, was ascribed the least importance in the overall total rewards composition. these findings partially support the literature of van rooyen et al. (2010), who in their study on artisan retention also found the work environment to be the fifth ranked reward element. mccarthy and schreyer (2000) state that employees want to work in clean, comfortable surroundings and that they are much happier and more satisfied if their surroundings are neat, orderly and clean. kaye and jordan-evans (2002) found that a better working environment was important and that it is a factor worthy of investigation by organisations. differences in the various cohorts were observed in terms of the fourth and fifth ranking of the attributes opportunities for growth and environment (see table 11). in addition, differences for cohorts were observed in terms of the levels of these attributes (see table 12). rewards that retain employment equity candidates the drive to address employment equity in south africa and thereby redress past imbalances has increased the need to retain artisans from designated groups (bussin, 2011). in the current study, the conjoint task produced an ideal composition of total rewards (graphically represented in figure 4) for black artisans. figure 4: the ideal composition of total reward elements for black artisans. the race groups indicated differences in the relative importance ascribed to attributes. the environment (work-life balance) is noted as highest for black respondents (37.23%) in terms of its relative importance in retention. few differences were noted across utilities, compensation (level) and compensation (variable), with black respondents indicating relative importance of compensation (variable) (23.75%) as opposed to compensation (level) (22.75%). these findings partially support the study of reward elements drawn from the worldatwork (2007) model, which indicated that black employees deemed performance and recognition (compensation, variable) to be more important in their retention than white employees. black respondents also preferred level 2 for attribute environment (physical): safe work environment with the best tools available to do the work, as opposed to level 3 for environment (physical): safe technology and advanced and ergonomic designed factory. previous studies of total rewards that attract and retain black artisans in relation to work environment factors in south africa could not be found to compare these results. rewards that retain employees of different age groups the emphasis on work-life balance, as opposed to career advancement in the 29 and younger age cohort may be a result of the change in psychological contract that occurred in the post-1980’s trends of recessions, downsizing and reorganisation. the current contingents of generation y employees are likely to have witnessed their parents being loyal to an organisation and placing their career first to the detriment of other aspects of their life. generation y employees may therefore wish to adopt a different work ethic to that of their parents (pregnolato, 2010). in addition, hershatter and epstein (2010) emphasise the value that generation y place on work-life balance and confirm that it comes from a societal shift towards more focus on families, which could be linked to the social environment.the current literature corroborates levinson’s theory in that the artisan during this period of their life development is in the process of establishing a niche in adult society in the areas of life, namely (1) family, (2) work and (3) leisure. opportunities for growth were considered to be the fourth most valued reward element in the total rewards composition for this age cohort. however, the percentage allocated to this attribute (12.33%) is the highest of all the age cohorts and partially supports the literature on career advancement. in addition, bussin and spavins (2009) investigated employees of different age groups and established that this age group cohort valued base pay or compensation level to be the second most important element in a total reward composition, which supports the current literature. the findings of the current study support previous research, which indicates that generation x employees value work-life balance as a retention tool (gursoy, maier & chi, 2008). the current study also corroborates the findings of the towers perrin (2003) survey, in which base salary and variable pay were identified as factors that retained generation y employees (bussin, 2002). artisans within the 50+ age cohort placed different importance on the various rewards, relative to those in other career stages. with age, factors such as health, outside interests, family and other responsibilities may have a greater and more diverse effect on individual motivation than in earlier years. greller and simpson (1999) and near (1984) examined the extent to which older individuals may develop a greater orientation towards improved work-life balance, the role played in this by spouses, particularly in relation to establishing a retirement date, and the role of external responsibilities and obligations such as providing financial support and care for older dependants or grandchildren. compensation (variable) was considered to be the second most valued reward element in the total rewards composition for the 50+ age cohort. these findings are not consistent with the findings of bussin and spavins (2009), which were that compensation (variable) is to be considered less important for this age cohort as opposed to compensation (level). consistent with the current research, a study by warr and fay (2001) found that older employees exhibited less education initiative than younger ones. whilst it has traditionally been held that older managers must keep developing in order to remain promotable this may not act as a motivator for individuals if they perceive themselves as already plateaued or destined to soon become so (warr & fay, 2001). practical implications the identification of both the combination and relative amount of total rewards that attract and retain artisans will allow organisations to create differentiated retention strategies. the findings of this research provide guidance to companies with respect to those factors that should be incorporated into differentiated retention strategies catering for the needs of specific demographic groups (race and age cohorts). limitations and recommendations in terms of future research, it is recommended that artisans from various organisations and in different industries be studied in order to obtain a more representative sample. future research should focus on the various cohorts as defined by the hay model within the attribute environment (work-life balance) to better understand how these cohorts will impact on the total rewards composition. conclusion managers need to understand and incorporate individual differences in the workplace as these differences collide at the core elements of managing, recruiting and retaining the best employees, setting performance standards and expectations, motivating employees and constructing reward systems. it is no longer sufficient to approach the retention of artisans using one standardised retention strategy. when engaging with artisans, employers may find that these employees do not truly desire certain costly financial benefits and may rather have a greater need for non-financial benefits that may be less expensive (grobler et al., 2002).the aim of the current study was to develop an understanding of the total rewards composition that attract and retain artisans across different demographic groups, including race and age cohorts within a south african context. the results of the study indicated that environment (work-life balance) is perceived as most important for artisans, followed by compensation (level) and then compensation (variable). this research study adds to the body of knowledge by further facilitating differentiated retention strategies, which provide an indication as to the amount and the type of reward elements that are perceived to be most valued by artisans within a total rewards composition derived from a novel and useful method. this method is based on a more realistic approach, which has higher fidelity compared to the traditional approaches used to study this research question. acknowledgements top ↑ the authors acknowledge dr felix eggers for his assistance with research design and providing the choice-based modelling software. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.s. (university of cape town) was the principle investigator and was responsible for the design and execution of the project, c.f. (university of cape town) was responsible for fieldwork and writing up the research and m.b. (university of johannesburg) contributed to the preparation of the manuscript. references top ↑ armstrong, m., & murlis, h. (2004). reward management. a handbook of remuneration strategies and practices. (5th edn.). london, england: kogan page.babbie, e. (1995). the practice of social research. (7th edn.). california: wadswoth publishing company. berger, l. (1991). trends and issues for the 90’s. creating a viable framework for compensation designs. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. bussin, m. (2002). retention strategies: remuneration answers. johannesburg, south africa: knowledge resources. bussin, m. (2011). the remuneration handbook of africa. randburg, south africa: knowres publishing (pty) ltd. bussin, m., & spavins, r. (2009). engaging talent: why retention and remuneration is one of the top issues in hr . retrieved march 22, 2012, from http://www.workinfo.com/free/downloads/222.htm/ centre for development and enterprise. (2007). the skills revolution. are we making progress? johannesburg, south africa: cde. available from http://www.cde.org.za/ centre for development and enterprise. (2011). a fresh look at unemployment, june 2011 . johannesburg, south africa: cde. available from http://www.cde.org.za/ chew, y.t. (2005). achieving organisational prosperity through employee motivation and retention: a comparative study of strategic hrm practices in malaysian institutions. research and practice in human resource management, 13(2), 87–104. corporate leadership council. (2012). south africa workforce insight report: h1 2012 . retrieved august 09, 2012, from http://www.clc.executiveboard.com desarbo, w.s., ramaswamy, v., & cohen, s.h. (1995). market segmentation with choice-based conjoint analysis. marketing letters, 6 (2), 137–147. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf00994929 eggers, f., farsky, m., & gerber, c., (2009). monetary assessment of brand positioning. unpublished manuscript, university of stellenbosch, south africa. erasmus, j. (2008). scarce and critical skills verification report: project 4.1: a multiple source identification and verification of scarce and critical skills in the south african labour market. pretoria, south africa: hsrc/department of labour. food and beverage sector education training authority (foodbev seta). (2011). sector skills plan for the food and beverage manufacturing sector 2011–2016. johannesburg, south africa: foodbev seta. green, p.k., krieger, a.m., & wind, y. (2001). thirty years of conjoint analysis: reflections and prospects. marketing engineering, 31(3), 56–73. greller, m.m., & simpson, p. (1999). in search of late career: a review of contemporary social science. research applicable to the understanding of late career. human resource management review, 9 (3), 309. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(99)00023-6 grobler, p.a., wärnich, s., carrell, m.r., & elbert, r.d. (2002). human resource management in south africa. (2nd edn.). london, england: thomson learning. gursoy, d., maier, t.a., & chi, c.g. (2008). generational differences: an examination of work values and generational gaps in the hospitality workforce. international journal of hospitality management, 27 (3), 448–458. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2007.11.002 hair, j.f., anderson, r.e., tatham, r.l., & black, w.c. (1987). multivariate data analysis. (3rd edn.). new york, ny: maxwell macmillan. hall, j., & sandelands, e. (2009). addressing south africa’s engineering skills gaps. education training, 51 (3), 215–219. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00400910910960759 hay group. (2002). engage employees and boost performance. london, england: hay group. hay group. (2010). the changing face of reward. london, england: hay group. hendricks, s. (2006, august). recruitment and retention of appropriately skilled people for the public service to meet the challenges of a developmental state. paper delivered at the 55the conference of senior managers of the free state provincial government, local authorities and the business sector, thaba nchu, south africa. hershatter, a., & epstein, m. (2010). millennials and the world of work. journal of business psychology, 25 , 211–223. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9160-y imd. (2008). word competitiveness yearbook . retrieved november 18, 2008, from http://www.worldcompetitiveness.com/ joint initiative on priority skills acquisition. (2008). annual report 2008. johannesburg, south africa: helene perold & associates. johnson, r.b., & onwuegbuzie, a.j. (2004). mixed methods research: a research paradigm whose time has come. educational researcher, 33(7), 14–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/0013189x033007014 jordaan, n., & barry, m. (2009). investigating the reasons for lack of skilled artisans in south africa: the perspective of artisans. south african journal of industrial engineering, 20(1), 173–184. kaye, b., & jordan-evans, s. (2002). retention in tough times. training and development, 56(1), 32–37. kleynhans, j. (2007, august). memorandum to the chamber of mines . retrieved march 20, 2008, from http://www.solidaritysa.co.za/home/wmview.php?artid=387 levinson, d.j. (1986). a conception of adult development. american psychologist, 41 (1), 3. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.41.1.3 loughlin, c., & barling, j. (2001). young workers’ work values, attitudes, and behaviours. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 74(4), 543–558. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317901167514 marshall, m.n. (1996). sampling for qualitative research. family practice, 13 , 522–525. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/fampra/13.6.522 martins, j.h., loubser, m., & van wyk, h.d.j. (1996). marketing research: a south african approach. (1st edn.). pretoria, south africa: university of south africa press. mauer, k.f. (2000). psychological test use in south africa. pretoria, south africa: university of south africa. mccarthy, j., & schreyer, r. (2000). recruit and retain the best. manassas park, va: impact publications. morris, m., & reed, l. (2008). a sectoral analysis of skills gaps and shortages in the clothing and textile industry in south africa. report for the human sciences research council. retrieved march 20, 2012, from http://www.labour.gov.za/dol/downloads/documents/research-documents/clothing and textile industry_dol_report.pdf near, j.p. (1984). reactions to the career plateau. business horizons, 27(4), 75–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0007-6813(84)90062-4 ngobeni, e.k., & bezuidenhout, a. (2011). engaging employees for improved retention at a higher education institution in south africa. african journal of business management, 5(23), 9961–9970. ogbeifun, e. (2011). training artisans on-site. australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (3), 82–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v11i3.2234 pallant, j. (2004). spss survival manual. (2nd edn.). new york, ny: open university press, mcgraw hill education. pregnolato, m. (2010). total rewards that retain: a study of demographic preferences. cape town, south africa: university of cape town. rampfumedzi, l. (2009). retention strategy for miners and artisans at tshikondeni coal mine. research report, stellenbosch, university of stellenbosch. sawtooth software. (2008). cbc v6.0 (technical paper series). retrieved september 02, 2013, from http://www.sawtoothsoftware.com/download/techpap/cbctech.pdf smith, s., & albaum, a.s. (2005). fundamentals of marketing research. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications inc. towers perrin. (2003). working today: understanding what drives employee engagement. the 2003 towers perrin talent report u.s. report . retrieved march 15, 2013, from http://www.towersperrin.com/tp/getwebcachedoc?webc=hrs/usa/2003/200309/talent_2003.pdf van rooyen, l., du toit, d.h., botha, e., & rothmann, s. (2010). artisan retention in an organisation in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 8(1), 1–8. warr, p., & fay, d. (2001). age and personal initiative at work. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 10 (3), 343. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594320143000717 worldatwork. (2007). attraction and retention: the impact and prevalence of work-life and benefit programs. scottsdale, az: worldatwork. article information authors: wilmien smit1 karel stanz1 mark bussin2 affiliations: 1department of human resource management, university of pretoria, south africa 2department of industrial psychology and human resource management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: mark bussin email: drbussin@mweb.co.za postal address: po box 2334, saxonwold 2132, south africa dates: received: 22 sept. 2014 accepted: 22 june 2015 published: 06 aug. 2015 how to cite this article: smit, w., stanz, k., & bussin, m. (2015). retention preferences and the relationship between total rewards, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor support. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #665, 13 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.665 note: questionnaire is available on request. copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. retention preferences and the relationship between total rewards, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor support in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus    • background    • trends from literature    • research objectives       • contribution to the field       • what will follow    • literature review       • retention and reward       • generations • research design    • research approach • research method    • research participants    • measuring instruments       • total reward questionnaire       • survey of perceived organisational support       • survey of perceived supervisor support    • research procedure    • statistical analysis • results    • aim 1: to determine the reward factors that are currently being used the most to retain employees    • aim 2: to determine the most important total reward factors to retain employees    • proposition 1: there is a significant difference in preference for total reward factors between managers and employees    • proposition 2: different generation groups prefer different total reward factors    • proposition 3: age, gender, race, qualification industry, job level, years with company and years remaining at company play a mediating role in the relationship between total reward and pos as well as that between total reward and pss    • proposition 4: a direct positive relationship exists between the employee’s total reward and pos    • proposition 5: a direct positive relationship exist between the employee’s total reward and pss    • proposition 6: a direct positive relationship exists between pos and pss • discussion    • current reward factors used in retention of employees    • reward factors that employees consider to be most important    • proposition 1: there is a significant difference in preference for total reward factors between managers and employees    • proposition 2: different generation groups prefer different total reward factors    • proposition 3: age, gender, race, qualification industry, job level, years with company and years remaining at company play a mediating role in the relationship between total reward and pos as well as between total reward and pss    • proposition 4: a direct positive relationship exists between the employee’s total reward and pos    • proposition 5: a direct positive relationship exists between the employee’s total reward and pss    • proposition 6: a direct positive relationship exists between pos and pss • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: currently there is much debate whether modifying traditional reward packages to focus on the preferences of multi-generations would be essential in attracting, motivating and retaining talent. total reward factors, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor support are distinct but related concepts, all of which appear to influence an employee's decision to stay at an organisation. research purpose: the objective of this study was to identify the different total reward components that multi-generations prefer as most important for retention. in essence, the study aims to establish possible relationships between multi-generations’ total reward components, perceived organisational support, and perceived supervisor support. motivation for the study: this study is useful as it conducts a contemporary retention exploration that considers both the emerging demographic workforce shift and the new paradigm shift towards talent management. research methodology: a quantitative, cross-sectional research design was applied to gather data from employees (n = 303) from different industry sectors in south african organisations. main findings: the results showed that performance management and remuneration are considered to be the most important retention factors amongst multi-generation groups. differences between total reward preferences and demographical variables, which include age, gender, race, industry and job level, were found. practical/managerial implications: organisations should design their reward packages by taking employees preferences into account. more specifically, organisations should focus on remuneration, performance management and development opportunities in order to retain scarce skills. contribution/value additions: the results of the study can assist managers to design effective retention strategies, whilst also providing crucial information for the retention and motivation of employees. introduction top ↑ key focus ‘the right total reward strategy can deliver the right amount to the right people at the right time, for the right reasons’ (gross & friedman, 2004, p. 10). the adapted quote illustrates that the most effective reward strategy could provide valuable factors that ultimately motivate and retain talented employees. some of the main challenges that organisations, especially south african organisations, are confronted with are skill scarcity and reducing turnover of talented employees (ashton & morton, 2005; ready & conger, 2007; robert & börjesson, 2006). kerr-phillips and thomas (2009, p. 1) record that south africa is undergoing an overall skill difficulty with regard to the recruitment of its leading talent or ‘knowledge’ employees. these knowledge employees could be perceived to be the key talent or upcoming talent in the organisation. the search for proficient employees, talent and intellectual capital is even more significant for strategic organisational success and increase in the organisation's overall financial performance (lawler, 2008; michaels, handfield-jones & axelrod, 2001; reindl, 2007; van rooyen, du toit, botha & rothmann, 2010). the focus of this study was to understand the total rewards options for the multi-generation workforce in south african organisations in order to identify whether different generations prefer different total reward components. the link between perceived organisational support (pos) and perceived supervisor support (pss) and total reward was also investigated. an enriched understanding of retention preferences that influences organisational commitment may benefit the organisation that wants to retain its valuable talent. background lawler (2008) explains that the definition of talent offers a characterisation of what it can preserve, a declaration of what is missing and a proposal of actions needed to be implemented. numerous nations and organisations are now engaged in the war for best talent (ferguson & brohaugh, 2009; frase, 2007; human capital institute & vurv technology, 2008; kontoghiorghes & frangou, 2009; lawler, 2008). retention factors such as pos and pss impact employees’ job satisfaction, job performance, commitment and turnover (allen, shore & griffith, 2003; dawley, andrews & bucklew, 2008; du plessis, 2010; riggle, edmondson & hansen, 2009; tuzun & kalemci, 2011). in other words, pos and pss are negatively associated with judgements to quit the organisation (hui, wong & tjosvold, 2007; van schalkwyk, els & rothmann, 2011). longenecker and scazzero (2003) indicate that intent to leave correlates with job opportunity elsewhere, more money, a poor supervisor, lack of appreciation or inability to get time off from work. therefore, effective consideration of pos and pss components can assist in attracting, motivating and retaining employees. over the last few years, organisations have had difficulty facing the changing financial setting that has challenged the conventional reward procedures and plans (briscoe, schuler & claus, 2009; deloitte development llp, 2009; guthrie, 2007; rubino, 2006; snelgar, renard & venter, 2013; zingheim & schuster, 2008). more specifically, research has shown that the different types of rewards employers offer to employees affect the recruitment and retention of top talent (bussin 2007, 2012; cox, brown & reilly, 2010; gratton 2004; guthrie, 2007; lawler, 2008; moore & bussin, 2012; mucha, 2004). in order to allow an organisation to respond effectively to employees’ demands, the reward preferences of the multi-generational workforce should be investigated and understood (giancola, 2009; linkow, 2006; martson, 2003; worldatwork, 2007). there are various reward and compensation methods other than payment that managers should seriously consider (armstrong, 2006; deloitte, 2011; kaliprasad, 2006). furthermore, a highly effectual reward policy and practices will aid in attracting, motivating and retaining top talent available, whether globally or locally. trends from literature previous research has emphasised that the impact that generational differences have on, for example, communication styles, equipment needs, professional growth preferences, remuneration, benefits, desired leadership and effective reward and recognitions systems can have a significant and profound effect in the work environment (haeberle, herzberg & hobbs, 2009; nienaber, bussin & henn, 2011). however, if organisations do not cater for the generational preferences, especially for generation x and generation y, it may lead to the downfall of the organisation, as these two generations can be seen as the future leaders within any organisation. generation x and generation y will lead the workplace in the upcoming years and management needs to consider the preferences and motivation of these generations to ensure an engaged and motivated workforce. karp, fuller and sirias (2002) add that policies are generally formulated by baby boomers and consequently neglect the needs and preferences of generation x and generation y. this may lead to reward policies that are based on baby boomers’ preferences, neglecting any other generational preferences. the focus of relevant retention research has thus far been focused on: the relationship between total reward components amongst different generations (haeberle et al., 2009). the employee's perception of supervisor and organisational support (eisenberger, singlhamber, vandenberghe, sucharski & rhoades, 2002). in recent years south africa has focused much on organisational diversity that resulted from employee and cultural diversity; however, less attention has been given to generational differences within organisations. as can be expected, for many years only one generation was predominant; presently, there are four discrete generations prevalent in the working place, namely veterans, baby boomers, generation x and generation y. the understanding of these different generations has become increasingly important for organisations (dawn, 2004; du plessis, 2010; glass, 2007; lancaster & stillman, 2002; mcguire, todnem & hutchings, 2007; reynolds, 2005; sherman, 2006; smola & sutton, 2002; zemke, raines & filipczak, 2002). research objectives the primary objective is to determine whether, in south african organisations, generations prefer different total rewards options and what the relationship is between total reward, pos and pss. more specifically, two research aims were compiled, namely to determine which reward factors employees rate as most important and to determine which factors are currently used to retain employees. in addition, the following six propositions were formulated from the literature: proposition 1: there is a significant difference in level of importance of total rewards components between managers and employees. proposition 2: different generation groups prefer different total reward factors. proposition 3: age, gender, race, qualification, industry, job level, years with company and years remaining at company play a moderating role in the relationship between total rewards and pos, as well as that between total reward and pss. proposition 4: a direct positive relationship exists between the employee's total reward components and pos. proposition 5: a direct positive relationship exists between the employee's total reward components and pss. proposition 6: a direct positive relationship exists between the pos and pss. contribution to the field south africa has a very high unemployment rate, which is currently established to be 23.9% (statistics south africa, 2012), and one would expect that organisations would be enthusiastically recruiting employees. however, this is not the case, due to limited skills available, employee mobility and the pending retirement of baby boomers (hall & sandelands, 2009; masibigiri & nienaber, 2011). talent management has the potential to be the reason for an organisation demise or the reason for its continuous success. an organisation's ability to retain talent holds economic benefits for the organisation, both through cost containment (decreasing replacement costs) and income generation (through efficient application of talent). this study provides significant value in the form of pointers for organisations and human resource (hr) departments in the process of attracting, recruiting and most of all retaining high-calibre talent. more specifically, this study is helpful for managers who are concerned with retaining personnel with scarce skills and provides noteworthy suggestions for effective hr policies and retention strategies in order to retain a competent workforce. in addition, research on total reward and retention preferences for multi-generation groups is limited in the south african workplace. in addition to its practical relevance, this study can also greatly contribute on an academic level. what will follow in the subsequent section of this article, the researchers outline the research design, followed by a presentation of the results. finally they discuss the results, highlight the implications of the study, outline limitations and make suggestions for areas of future research. literature review cascio (2003) describes the term retention as actions or plans engaged by management in order to keep employees from exiting the organisation; this includes aspects such as effectively rewarding employees, maintaining interactions, ensuring organisational-person fit and providing a secure, healthy work setting. subsequently, it is vital that when organisations attain the appropriate skilled employees, they implement retention strategies to prevent them from leaving (frank, finnegan & taylor, 2004; heneman & judge, 2003; kaye & jordan evans, 1999; lockwood, 2006; wright, 2010). döckel’s (2003) and van dyk and coetzee’s (2012) south african studies revealed six vital retention factors, whilst bussin and fletcher (2008) and van rooy (2010) as well as deloitte (2011) found that different generations favour different rewards. thus, organisations need to investigate their reward schemes and their ability to address the requirements and expectations of these employees, since the costs of major benefits are on the increase (arnold & venter, 2008; breihan, 2007; chiang, 2005; corby, palmer & lindop, 2009; costello, 2010; de lange, 2010; dencker, joshi & martocchio, 2007; dulebohn, molly, pichler & murray, 2009; giancola, 2007; gray, 2008; gross & friedman, 2004; heneman, 2007; hill & tande, 2006; longenecker & scazzero, 2003; muteswa & ortlepp, 2011; nienaber et al., 2011; sung & todd, 2004; swanepoel, erasmus & schenk 2008). retention and reward total rewards is a term used to explain the support reward elements in the work environment. this can include financial, non-financial, indirect as well as direct, intrinsic and extrinsic rewards that are offered to an employee (armstrong, 2006; bussin, 2012; cable & judge, 2002; costello, 2010; hiles, 2009; worldatwork, 2010). according to the corporate leadership council advisory board, approximately 25% of the decision whether to stay at an organisation relates to remuneration (bussin, 2012). this raises the question of whether higher compensation will in fact motivate talented employees to stay at the organisation. tang and west (1998) add that when employees receive adequate remuneration, they will concentrate more on inherent needs such as acknowledgement, appreciation, training and development and achievement. reward models are used by many organisations as a starting point from which to design their own unique total reward model (bussin, 2012; nienaber et al., 2011). such models include: the worldatwork (2007) total rewards model, the armstrong (2006) total reward model, the zingheim and schuster (2008) total reward model, the towers perrin (2011) model of total reward, the corporate leadership council (2007) components of total rewards, the armstrong and thompson (2002) total rewards model and aon hewitt's (2012) reward model. generations members of a generation group share a special history and these shared incidents or experience shape a generation's attitudes, perceptions and behaviours as they grow up together (codrington & grant-marshall, 2004; du plessis, 2010; sullivan, forret, carraher & mainiero, 2009; yang & guy, 2006). however, giancola (2008) argues that there are no distinct generations but rather that differences are related to individual life cycle and career stages. for this purpose of the study, the guidelines for multi-generations were based on the dates given by lancaster and stillman (2002), reynolds (2005) and zemke et al. (2002); these were identified as: veterans (born 1922–1945), baby boomers (born 1946–1964), generation x (born 1965–1980) and generation y (born 1981–1999). the gi generation (born 1900–1921) was excluded, as most people who were born before 1920 do not participate actively in the workplace any more. each generation has its own features and values and attitudes toward work-based events; more specifically, employees’ requests and preferences change over time (dwyer, 2009; gross & friedman, 2004; jenkins, 2008; kapoor & solomon, 2011; meyer & kirsten, 2012; netswera, rankhumise & mavundla, 2005; orciani, 2009; smola & sutton, 2002; snelgar et al., 2013; van der merwe, 2012). on a practical note it is impossible to compile unique reward profiles for large to medium-sized organisations as it would be difficult to manage and administer these profiles, as indicated by nienaber et al. (2011). a resolution to this issue is, for instance, propositions of diverse rewards for different employee groups, based on characteristics such as job level, business unit, life cycle, geographic location, generation, age, family size, occupation, education level or religion (du toit, erasmus & strydom, 2007; mercer, 2008; snelgar et al., 2013). some previous literature indicated that the most appreciated rewards for veterans, baby boomers, generation x and generation y do in fact differ (bussin, 2012; metha, anderson & dubinsky, 2000; nujjoo & meyer, 2012; reynolds, 2005; society for human resource management, shrm, 2009; zingheim & schuster, 2008). however, jorgens (2003) and noble and schewe (2003) and in south africa moore (2010) as well as nienaber et al. (2011) have found that different generations do not have different reward preferences. pos: employees develop an outlook or a worldwide belief about the degree to which their organisation appreciates their contribution and cares about their general well-being, which is known as their pos, as defined by eisenberger et al. (2002). thus, it can be argued that individuals who perceive that organisational support is very high are less likely to seek and undertake alternative employment (allen et al., 2003, armstrong-stassen & ursel, 2009; dawley et al., 2008; du plessis, 2010; harris, harris & harvey, 2007; hui et al., 2007; jawahar & hemmasi, 2006; riggle et al. 2009; van schalkwyk et al., 2011; van vuuren, 2006). pss: employees develop overall insights about the degree to which their supervisors appreciate their contributions and are concerned about their well-being (eisenberger et al., 2002). an employee's satisfaction with their direct supervisor and their perception of their supervisor's willingness to care for them has been shown to reduce intended turnover and improve the employee's commitment (dawley et al., 2008; du plessis, 2010). various studies have investigated the positive relationship between pos and pss. however, very few studies have investigated the direction of the correlation between pos and pss (du plessis, 2010; eisenberger et al., 2002) or the mechanisms responsible for this association. it could be argued that pss is a foundation or precursor of pos (allen et al., 2003; dawley et al., 2008; rhoades & eisenberger, 2002; shanock & eisenberger, 2006; zagenczyk, scott, gibney, murrell & thatcher, 2010). the proposed path of the relationship between these constructs is demonstrated in figure 1 and provides the contextual framework for the study. figure 1: integrated conceptual model. research design top ↑ research approach a quantitative research approach was used for this study. quantitative research looks at numbers and statistical interpretation of the data gathered from questionnaires as opposed to looking at processes and meanings as in qualitative research (creswell, 2007). quantitative research is concerned with the facts or responses of participants. moreover, a non-experimental design was used. this is the most widely used method and aims to describe and explore certain research topics (maree, 2010; o’ neil, 2010). a cross-sectional design was used to gather the data in order to achieve the specific aims of this study. this study was conducted using a quantitative exploration paradigm, enabling the researcher to generate statistical analysis to investigate the research objectives of this study. various other studies have also opted to follow a quantitative survey research design approach during their exploration of possible relationships between an employee's pos and pss (chew & wong, 2008; dawley et al., 2008, deconinck, 2010; eisenberger et al., 2002; jawahar & hemmasi, 2006; shanock & eisenberger, 2006). this study was conducted electronically, distributing a self-administered questionnaire through a web survey tool, namely the surveymonkey website. research method top ↑ research participants population refers to the complete set of cases or members (saunders, lewis & thornhill, 2009). the chairperson of 21st century pay solutions group (pty) ltd made their database available, which enabled the use of the sample population of 5000 organisations and individuals in south africa. a total of 318 responses were received from the population of 5000. after cleaning the data, only 303 responses could be used. this is a response rate of 4.3%. of the 303 responses, the age group that provided the largest response was between the 48–66 years group (44.2%), 51.5% of the responses were from women, 72.9% of the responses came from white respondents and respondents with an honours degree provided 34.3% of the responses; the majority of the respondents were from the producer services sector (36.05%) and 33.7% of the respondents are in general or executive management positions. respondents were grouped according to the length of time that they wished to remain at their current organisation. the group from which the largest number of responses came was intent to remain at the organisation for more than 5 years (55.8%). measuring instruments three constructs were consequently measured, namely: total reward components (which included the biographical questions), perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor support. total reward questionnaire the total reward questionnaire was compiled from the seven retention factor scale and the worldatwork reward model's five main components. the total reward instrument used by moore (2010) showed a cronbach's alpha of 0.821. döckel (2003) developed the retention factor scale (rfs) in order to measure participants’ satisfaction with the following seven retention factors: compensation, job characteristics, opportunities for training and development, supervisor support career opportunities, work-life balance and commitment to the organisation. this rfs reported a cronbach's alpha of 0.80 for the instrument's reliability. the total rewards model questionnaire contains the following components: compensation (five items) benefits (12 items) work-life balance (eight items) performance management and recognition (five items) development and career opportunities (seven items). thus, the total rewards questionnaire consists of 37 closed-ended questions. two separate scales were used to determine current utilisation and level of importance. current utilisation was indicated on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (no extent) to 5 (very great extent), whilst the level of importance was indicated on a six-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (not important at all) to 5 (extremely important), with a not applicable option (6). question 6b of the total reward questionnaire consisted of a ranking question where the participant could rank the five main components in order of importance according to their preference. survey of perceived organisational support the survey of perceived organizational support (spos) measures the employee's perception of the organisation's attitude towards them (shore & tetrick, 1991). as a result one can conclude that the spos aims to measure the pos of the employee. the shortened version of the spos consists of six items that require the respondent to indicate the extent of their agreement with each statement on a five-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). du plessis’s (2010) study indicated a 0.863 cronbach's alpha coefficient, which indicates that the spos is highly reliable and can consistently measure pos in a recruitment organisation. survey of perceived supervisor support this instrument aims to evaluate the employees’ perception that their supervisor values their input and is concerned about their welfare. as a result one can conclude that the survey of perceived supervisor support (sopss) aims to measure the pss of the employee. in order to assess this, it was adapted from the spos in the same manner as used by eisenberger et al. (2002) and shanock and eisenberger (2006). they replaced the word organisation with the term supervisor throughout the sopss in order to determine the employees’ pss. the questionnaire consequently also consists of eight items and requires the respondents to score their answers on a seven point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). du plessis’s (2010) study indicated a 0.886 cronbach's alpha coefficient, which indicates that the sopss is highly reliable. research procedure a draft copy of the questionnaire was sent to five respondents randomly chosen for a pilot study. the final questionnaire was emailed to the potential respondents only after essential alterations indicated in the pilot study had been implemented. the researcher obtained ethical clearance from the chairperson of 21st century pay solutions group to make use of the database available. an orderly and systematic manner was followed to ensure that objectivity was maintained at all times and no comments or answers were imposed on the respondents. the primary researcher was available if any questions or concerns arose and data was recorded on the researcher's personal laptop as well as on a backup flash drive. no financial or non-financial incentives were used to encourage participation. statistical analysis in this case, the data were extracted from the surveymonkey website and transcribed into an excel file. this format made it possible to upload the data to a statistical software package. analysis of the data was performed using the statistical programme for the social sciences (spss) program. frequency tables represent the easiest kind of data analysis according to hill and lewicki (2007). this type of analysis was used due to descriptive nature of the study. factor analysis refers to a technique used to take a large set of variables and reduce or summarise the data using a smaller set of factors or components (pallant, 2011). in this study factor analysis was used to determine how each sub-component of the total reward questionnaire loaded onto the five factors identified by worldatwork (2007). the most general measure of reliability analysis is the cronbach's alpha coefficient (saunders et al., 2009). a cut-off point of 0.7 was used as a guideline for acceptable reliability (field, 2009). pearson product-moment correlation was calculated as the analysis of the relationship between measured variables was obtained (field, 2009). multiple regression analysis was conducted to analyse the relationship between the total reward components and the variables, namely pos, pss and biographical variables. in this case the t-test analysis was conducted to determine the significant differences in mean scores for gender group in terms of total reward preferences, pos and pss. anova calculations were used to determine if significant differences existed between the different generations’ total reward and biographical variables. a confidence interval level of 95% was used to determine statistical significance where p was less than 0.05 (pallant, 2011). results top ↑ the results and discussion thereof are reported according to the stated research aims and propositions. table 1 shows that the five total reward components are ranked or preferred as follows in order of importance: compensation, work-life balance, benefits, career development and opportunities and lastly performance management and recognition. table 1: mean statistic of total reward components in order of importance for sample. aim 1: to determine the reward factors that are currently being used the most to retain employees the results of the gap analysis, which compared the means for current utilisation as well as level of importance of each factor under total reward, showed unique results. the study investigated seven main categories for total reward, namely compensation, communication work enabler, life convenience, benefits and safety, work-life balance, performance management and recognition as well as career development and opportunities. more specifically, the study highlighted the following sub-points that are currently utilised to retain employees: base salary, provident or pension fund, comfortable work environment, performance support and training opportunities. aim 2: to determine the most important total reward factors to retain employees in addition to current utilisation, the study also investigated the level of importance of the five main categories of total reward, namely compensation, benefits, work-life balance, performance management and recognition and career and development opportunities. the overall mean statistics for all the respondents were also analysed. the results showed the total rewards in order of importance are, according to the study: compensation, work-life balance, benefits, development and career opportunities and performance management and recognition. more specifically, under compensation the subcomponent market-related salary was rated the highest in terms of importance; under benefits provident or pension fund was rated highest, under work-life balance the highest-ranked component was community contribution and under performance management and recognition it was leadership style. lastly, under development and career opportunities the sub-component organisational climate was rated the highest in terms of level of importance for participants. proposition 1: there is a significant difference in preference for total reward factors between managers and employees to investigate this proposition, the mean differences and anova analysis for the three main job level groups were analysed. the job level groups were general or executive managers, managers and staff. the three most important factors rated for general and executive managers (group 1) were compensation, performance management and development and career opportunities. junior and senior managers (group 2) rated compensation, performance management and benefits and safety as most important to retain them, whilst staff, specialists, technicians and other, (group 3) rated performance management, development opportunities and benefits and safety as the top three factors to retain them. these results indicate that there are differences in retention preference factors between manager and employees. proposition 2: different generation groups prefer different total reward factors to investigate this proposition, the mean differences for the three main generation groups were analysed. the generation groups were determined according to age: generation y (aged 31 and younger), generation x (32–47 years old) and baby boomers and veterans (47 and older) (lancaster & stillman, 2002; reynolds, 2005; zemke et al., 2002). a mean represents the arithmetic average of a group of scores; table 2 shows that for generation y the top three most important total reward components are performance management, development and benefits and safety. for generation x, performance management, development opportunities and compensation are important to retain them, whilst for baby boomers and veterans the top three total reward components are compensation, performance management and benefits and safety. overall, the different generation groups prefer more or less the same total reward components; therefore this proposition was rejected. table 2: generation group differences and the level of importance for the seven total reward categories. proposition 3: age, gender, race, qualification industry, job level, years with company and years remaining at company play a mediating role in the relationship between total reward and pos as well as that between total reward and pss in order to test this proposition, the study used hierarchical regression and anova analysis and the t -test. from the regression analysis only age, gender, race industry and job level showed significant results, indicating that only those biographical variables play a mediating role between total reward and pos as well as between total reward and pss. proposition 4: a direct positive relationship exists between the employee’s total reward and pos this study investigated the pearson product-moment analysis for this proposition; it revealed a strong significantly positive relationship between total reward and pos. this supports findings by dawley et al. (2008), du plessis (2010), harris et al. (2007) jawahar and hemmasi (2006) and riggle et al. (2009) that an employee's total reward are an originator or foundation for pos. this could be explained by the fact that an employee's perception of retention factors is supportive of the perception of how the organisation appreciates their input and is concerned about their general happiness. the findings from table 3 indicate that there is a strong practically significant positive correlation [r(df = 237, p > 0.001) = 0.298, medium effect] between total reward components and pos: high levels of total reward components are associated with an increase in pos. table 3 further indicates that there is a strong practical significant positive relationship [r(df = 233, p > 0.001) = 0.250, medium effect] between total reward and pss: high levels of total reward components are associated with high levels of pss. table 3: correlation table between total reward, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor support. table 3 portrays a large practically significant positive correlation [r (df = 230, p > 0.001) = 0.662, large effect] between pos and pss in this study. this indicates that an increased perception of organisational support can be associated with an increased perception of supervisor support. more specifically, the correlation between total reward's seven subscales and pos as well as these seven subscales and pss is illustrated in table 4. table 4: correlation table between total reward subscales, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor support. from table 4, one can derive that each of the total reward subscales correlates significantly and positively with pos and pss. however, between life convenience and pos there was no significant correlation nor was there correlation between life convenience and pss. this is also true for benefits and safety and pss, which shows a non-significant positive relationship. thus, proposition 4, 5 and 6 were accepted. proposition 5: a direct positive relationship exist between the employee’s total reward and pss the results of the pearson product-moment correlation analysis displayed a medium practically significant positive correlation between employees’ total reward and pos and between total reward and pss. proposition 6: a direct positive relationship exists between pos and pss pearson product-moment analysis was conducted and revealed a strong practically significant relationship between pos and pss: high levels of pos are related with high levels of pss. the confirmation and strength of the various relationships are illustrated in figure 2. figure 2: integrated conceptual model. discussion top ↑ the objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between total reward, pos and pss. more specifically, the researchers sought to determine the reward factors that would retain employees in each of the four generations. current reward factors used in retention of employees these results are in accordance with the literature (nienaber et al., 2011), which shows performance and career management, work-life balance and variable pay are currently used to retain talent. the results are also in agreement with other literature of total reward models (aon hewitt, 2013; armstrong, 2006; armstrong & thompson, 2002; corporate leadership council, 2007; towers perrin, 2011; worldatwork, 2007; zingheim & schuster, 2008) which explain financial and non-financial aspects of total rewards. all of these models are starting points from which organisations can design total rewards packages specific to their organisation's needs. reward factors that employees consider to be most important the results match previous research (armstrong, 2006; bussin & fletcher, 2008; döckel, 2003; haynes, 2002; hiles, 2009; metha et al., 2000; muteswa & ortlepp, 2011; parker & wright, 2001; shrm, 2009), which has stated that employee rewards important to retain high-calibre talent include financial and non-financial rewards. on the other hand, these results are is in contrast with other research (chew & chan, 2008; mahaney & lederer, 2006; rynes, gerhart & minette, 2004; tang, luna-aroca, sutarso & tang, 2004), which recognises that pay is known to be a possible precursor to lack of organisational commitment and intention to stay, but that payment alone will not be adequate to counter this. for instance, low payment might motivate an employee to leave, but high payment might not necessarily retain them. thus, intrinsic rewards are equally important as pay; these include achievement, performance, challenging work, variety, responsibility and professional growth. the results confirm previous studies that employees still regard compensation and remuneration as the most important factor to retain them at their respective organisations (bussin, 2012; eskom, 2009; muteswa & ortlepp, 2011; parker & wright, 2001). this contradicts numerous researchers who argue that promotion, career development and non-physical and intrinsic motivation factors are more important for employees than just compensation or remuneration (deloitte, 2011; mahaney & lederer, 2006; shrm, 2009; tang et al. 2004; towers perrin, 2011). metha et al. (2000) highlight that younger employees tend to prefer more physical rewards such as medical aid, maternity or paternity leave whilst older employees may value standard options or contributions to their retirement plans. proposition 1: there is a significant difference in preference for total reward factors between managers and employees it can be deduced that managers prefer compensation and performance management as they are already established in their careers, whilst staff, specialists, technicians and other, prefer development opportunities, benefits and safety as they see stability and professional growth as essential in their careers. proposition 2: different generation groups prefer different total reward factors this research shows that there are some differences amongst generation preferences, especially total reward, which supports and corresponds to previous studies (bussin, 2012; deloitte, 2011; reynolds, 2005; zingheim & schuster, 2008). as shown by jorgens (2003), noble and schewe (2003) and in south africa by moore (2010) as well as nienaber et al. (2011), different generations do not have different reward preferences. thus these previous studies differed from this study's results, which revealed that there are small differences in generational retention preferences. moreover, these results are in contrast with research done by giancola (2008), which states that there are no distinct generational differences and that differences in preferences correspond rather to individual life cycles and career stages. it can be deducted that baby boomers and veterans would choose compensation, work-life balance and benefits as the top three components that would convince them to stay at their respective organisations, as they place high value on hard work, obeying rules, dedication and military principles (colon, 2005; gesell, 2010; hahn, 2011; jacobson, 2007; orciani, 2009; zemke et al., 2001). the rating of benefits as the third most important was surprising as it was expected that preference for this reward would increase as the employee gets older. employees from generation x are willing to develop their skills and take on challenges and are perceived to be very adaptive in the changing business world. therefore, work-life balance, benefits, development and career opportunities as well as performance management and recognition are important to them in level of importance after compensation. they are excellent at multi-tasking and working on projects simultaneously and place high value on work-life balance (gursoy, maier & chi, 2008). jacobson (2007) agrees with this statement and adds that generation x employees view their jobs as temporary and themselves as free agents. in contrast, generation y employees placed emphasis on compensation, work-life balance, and development and career opportunities as the top three total reward components. generation y employees favour teamwork and choose to follow orders; they prefer to work flexible hours in order to successfully complete their tasks in their own way (dawn, 2004; dwyer, 2009; gesell, 2010; gursoy et al., 2008; iyer & reisenwitz, 2009). employees in this generation use the information channels that exist to familiarise themselves with the environment and display a constant need for knowledge. in addition, it can be believed that generation y employees seek challenges and learning and development opportunities in order to grow in their respective careers as they are open-minded and goal-orientated. proposition 3: age, gender, race, qualification industry, job level, years with company and years remaining at company play a mediating role in the relationship between total reward and pos as well as between total reward and pss the results in terms of these relationships are in accordance with previous studies by twenge, campbell, hoffman and lance (2010), lawton and chernyshenko (2008), chiang and birtch (2006), gorman (2000), hedge, borman and lammlein (2006), nienaber et al. (2011) and snelgar et al. (2013), which showed that reward preferences may differ according number of children, age, race job level, qualifications, years of service, marital status and gender. in terms of age, this is explained in the discussion on proposition 2. there was a statistical significant difference identified for gender, with different scores for men and women in the work-life balance, performance management and development and career opportunities reward categories. this could mean that women have a higher preference for broader total rewards packages, as opposed to packages consisting of financial components only, which is in accordance with the literature (chiang & birtch, 2006; nienaber et al., 2011; snelgar et al., 2013), which found that women have stronger preferences for remuneration and benefits as well as a conducive work environment. for race groups, there were statistical significant results mostly for black, indian and white employees. this supports previous research that culture and background play a role in preferences (nienaber et al., 2011). a history marked by being ignored could explain why black and indian employees have different total reward preferences. these feelings could potentially extend to employment practices. in terms of industry group, there was also statistical significant difference between all the industry groups, especially for communication work enabler and work-life balance total reward components. this could be due to organisational differences and preferences. for job level, statistical significant differences were explained in the discussion on proposition 1. proposition 4: a direct positive relationship exists between the employee’s total reward and pos this confirmation of this proposition is an important finding, since most evidence in the relevant literature shows that the impact of the employee's perception of retention factors and pos correlate. similarly, findings from research shows that pos is harmfully connected to judgements of employees exiting the organisation (hui et al., 2007; van schalkwyk, els & rothmann, 2011). equally, pos was also positively linked to remaining with the organisation. proposition 5: a direct positive relationship exists between the employee’s total reward and pss one would expect a correlation between these two concepts due to the unique total reward and support from supervisors. supervisors are leader implementers of total reward practices and consequently they are associated with the employees’ perception of the organisation's total reward practices. the employee's perception that the organisation's total reward practices improve talent retention will result in the perception that their supervisor values their input and cares about their general welfare. this does affirm discoveries by allen et al. (2003) and knight-turvey and neal (2003) that supportive hr practices that demonstrate an organisation's willingness to invest in its talent will enhance talent retention. if organisations comprehend total reward practices, dedication of resources to these practices will lead to the acquisition and retention of top talent, as suggested by giancola (2007), heneman and judge (2003), nienaber et al. (2011) and sung and todd (2004). it can therefore be concluded that high levels of pos can be linked to an increased decision to stay at the organisation concerned. this confirms the positive relationship between an employee's perception that a supervisor is willing to care for them and support them and the employee's intention to leave the organisation, as established by dawley et al. (2008). proposition 6: a direct positive relationship exists between pos and pss the results confirm proposition 6 and numerous other studies that have already established a positive relationship between pos and pss (allen et al., 2003; dawley et al., 2008; deconinck, 2010; du plessis, 2010; eisenberger et al., 2002, rhoades & esienberger, 2002; shanock & eisenberger, 2006; zagenczyk et al., 2010). however, the direction of the relationship between pss and pos is still debated, given that both directions have been confirmed in previous explorations. the extent to which employees perceive that their supervisors are concerned about their well-being and support them will therefore influence their perception that the organisation also cares about and supports them. this implies that a supervisor is a representative of the organisation through total reward practices and accordingly becomes a personification of total reward practices. on the other hand, one can argue that an employee's perception that the organisation values their contribution and cares for their overall well-being will direct them to believe that their supervisors are also positively inclined towards them. despite this study providing relevant insights into total reward amongst different generation within south africa organisations, it is expected that this study has the usual limitations of questionnaire research. the sample of this study was a sample of convenience. the literature reviewed the perceptions and preferences of the generations regarding reward or remuneration packages. an effort should be made to investigate aspects such as organisational maturity or organisational life cycle. in terms of this study, a few methodological suggestions can be made. the six-point likert current utilisation scale applied in the total reward questionnaire should be further defined to improve the reliability and validity of responses. another recommendation is that the age groups could be divided into intervals of 10 years. it is recommended that qualitative approaches and methods such as interviews or focus groups should be applied to complement the questionnaire. organisations should encourage developing a culture of research and this must be supported by top management in order to encourage employees to participate in research studies. future research should either focus on organisations in a bigger variety of industries or merely on different organisations in one specific industry to ensure that results can be easily generalised. possible gaps for future research opportunities to explore include total reward, pos and pss and their relation to performance of the organisation or talent management practices. conclusion top ↑ the study of total reward and, specifically, different generation groups’ perceptions regarding this field is ever changing and transformation still exists in the essence of knowledge. talent management is a comprehensive, multidimensional concept with a myriad of perceptions that influence its effectiveness. it holds the potential to influence talent retention amongst different generations of employees. this potential ability of talent management to unlock capital has been the driving force behind it becoming a popular field of study. the effect of work prospects and preferences on turnover intentions changes consistently, which implies that enriching employees’ expectations of a ‘brighter tomorrow’ in their jobs can improve the probability of retention. so too does the present study propose that there is still much more to discover about the dynamic complex relationship between multi-generations’ reward preferences and their perceived organisational or supervisor support. the key to attracting and most of all retaining excellent employees is based on an improved diverse total reward model that is a vital foundation for the employee value proposition. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions k.s. (university of pretoria) was the academic supervisor and was responsible for the design of the project. m.b. (university of johannesburg) helped with the data collection and contributed to the preparation of the manuscript. w.s. (university of pretoria) was responsible for the research and fieldwork and wrote this article. references top ↑ allen, d.g., shore, l.m., & griffith, r.w. (2003). the role of perceived organizational support and supportive human resource practices in the turnover process. journal of management, 29(1), 99–118. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920630302900107 aon hewitt. (2013). total rewards survey: transforming potential into value. retrieved july 15, 2013, from http://www.aonhewitt.com armstrong, m. (2006). a handbook of human resource management practice. (10th edn.). cambridge: cambridge university press. armstrong, m., & thompson, p. (2002). a guide to total reward: part 1. e-reward fact sheets, no. 31, march. e-reward.co.uk.research report. retrieved april 29, 2012, from http://www.sara.co.za armstrong-stassen, m., & ursel, n.d. (2009). perceived organizational support, career satisfaction, and the retention of older workers. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 82, 201–220. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317908x288838 arnold, c.a., & venter, d.j.l. (2008). the strategic importance of motivation rewards for lower level employees in the manufacturing and retailing industry. south african journal for industrial psychology, 33(3), 15–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v33i3.390 ashton, c., & morton, a. (2005). managing talent for competitive advantage: taking a systematic approach to talent management. performance improvement solutions, 4(5), 28–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14754390580000819 breihan, a.w. (2007). attracting and retaining a diverse student body: proven, practical strategies. journal of public affairs education, 13(1), 87–101. briscoe, d., schuler, r., & claus, e. (2009). international human resource management. (3rd edn.). london: routledge. bussin, m. (2007). components of remuneration enter the 5th dimension. retrieved march 27, 2012, from http://21stcentury.co.za/index.php?option=comcontent&view=article&id=64:expl-oring-the-link-between-incentives-and-motivation&catid=61:articles&itemid=55 bussin, m. (2012). the remuneration handbook for africa: a practical and informative handbook for managing and recognition in africa. (2nd edn.). randburg: knowres publishing. bussin, m., & fletcher, s. (2008). managing the generation mix. retrieved march 27, 2012, from http://www.21stcentury.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article& id=64:exploring-the-link-between-incentives-and-motivation&catid=61:articles&itemid=55 cable, d.m., & judge, t.a. (2002). pay preferences and job decisions: a person-organization fit perspective. personnel psychology, 47, 371–348. cascio, w.f. (2003). managing human resources. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. chew, j., & chan, c. (2008). human resource practices, organizational commitment and intention to stay. international journal of manpower, 29(6), 503–522. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437720810904194 chew, y.t., & wong, s.k. (2008). effects of career mentoring experience and perceived organizational support on employee commitment and intentions to leave: a study among hotel workers in malaysia. international journal of management, 25(4), 692–700. chiang, f. (2005). a critical examination of hofstede's thesis and its application to international reward management. international journal of human resource management, 16, 1545–1563. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190500239044 chiang, f.f.t., & birtch, t.a. (2006). an empirical examination of reward preferences within and across national settings. managements international review, 46(5), 573–596. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11575-006-0116-4 codrington, g., & grant-marshall, s. (2004). mind the gap! rosebank: penguin books. colon, e. (2005). the relation between generational differences and conflict management styles in a telemarketing call centre. unpublished phd thesis, school of advanced studies, university of phoenix, phoenix, az. corby, s., palmer, s., & lindop, e. (2009). trends and tensions: an overview. in s. corby, s. palmer, & e. lindop (eds.), rethinking reward (pp. 3–20). new york, ny: palgrave. corporate leadership council. (2007). leveraging total reward to attract and retain in-store employees. retrieved february 11, 2013, from http://www.corporateleadershipcouncil.com costello, r. (2010). communicating total rewards: spotlight on the employee value proposition. aon consulting, 2(7), 1–3. cox, a., brown, d., & reilly, p. (2010). reward strategy: time for a more realistic reconceptualization and reinterpretation? thunderbird international business review, 52(3), 249–260. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/tie creswell, j.w. (2007). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. london: sage. dawley, d.d., andrews, m.c., & bucklew, n.s. (2008). mentoring, supervisor support, and perceived organizational support: what matters most? leadership & organization development journal, 29(3), 235–247. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437730810861290 dawn, s. (2004). from one generation to the next. nz business, 18(1), 40–51. deconinck, j.b. (2010). the effect of organizational justice, perceived organizational support, and perceived supervisor support on marketing employees’ level of trust. journal of business research, 63(12), 1349–1355. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2010.01.003 de lange, r. (2010, 28 march). net salaris is nie genoeg om werkers te hou [salary alone is enough to retain employees]. beeld. retrieved july 22, 2011, from http://152.111.1.87/argief/berigte/citypress/2010/03/29/lb/1/rlrapportretain.html deloitte. (2011). talent edge 2020: building the recovery together-what talent expects and how leaders are responding. managing talent in a turbulent economy survey. retrieved april 02, 2012, from http://www.deloitte.com/assets/dcom-unitedstates/local20%assets/documents/imos/talent/us_talent_talentedge2020employee_042811.pdf deloitte development llp. (2009). under pressure: compensation and retention during a turbulent economy. retrieved march 11, 2013, from http://www.deloitte.com/assets/dcom-austria/local20%assets/documents/studien/hc/019_2009_under%20pressure.pdf dencker, j.c., joshi, a., & martocchio, j.j. (2007). employee benefits as context for intergenerational conflict. human resource management review, 17, 208–220. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2007.04.002 döckel, a. (2003). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. unpublished master's thesis, department of human resource management, university of pretoria, pretoria. dulebohn, j.h., molly, j.c., pichler, s.m., & murray, b. (2009). employee benefits: literature review and emerging issues. human resource management review, 19, 86–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2008.10.001 du plessis, l. (2010). the relationship between talent management practices, perceived organisational support, perceived supervisor support and intention to quit amongst generation y employees in the recruitment sector. masters’ thesis, department of human resource management, university of pretoria, pretoria. du toit, g.e., erasmus, b.j., & strydom, j.w. (2007). employee benefits as context for intergenerational conflict. human resource management review, 17(2), 208–220. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2007.04.002 dwyer, r.j. (2009). prepare for the impact of the multi-generational workforce! transforming government: people, process and policy, 3(2), 101–110. eisenberger, r., singlhamber, f., vandenberghe, c., sucharski, i.l., & rhoades, l. (2002). perceived supervisor support: contributions to perceived organization support and employee retention. journal of applied psychology, 87(3), 565–573. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.3.565 eskom. (2009). employment value proposition intelligence report. johannesburg, south africa: eskom. ferguson, r., & brohaugh, b. (2009). the talent wars. journal of consumer marketing, 26(5), 385–362. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/07363760910976619 field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss. (3rd edn.). london: sage publications. frank, f.d., finnegan, r.p., & taylor, c.r. (2004). the race for talent: retaining and engaging workers in the 21st century. human resource planning, 27(3), 12–25. frase, m.j. (2007). stocking your talent pool. hr magazine, 52( 4), 76–74. gesell, i. (2010). how to lead when the generation gap becomes your everyday reality. the journal for quality and participation, 1, 21–24. giancola, f. (2007). employee engagement: what you need to know. workspan, 10(7), 57–59. giancola, f. (2008). should generations’ profiles influence reward strategy? employee relations law journal, 34(1), 56–68. giancola, f. (2009). the generation gap: more myth than reality. human resource planning, 29(4), 32–37. glass, a. (2007). understanding generational differences for competitive success. industrial & commercial training, 39(2), 98–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00197850710732424 gorman, e.h. (2000). marriage and money. work and occupations, 27(1), 64–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0730888400027001004 gratton, l. (2004). more than money. people management, 29(23), 97–102. gray, w.d. (2008). cognitive architectures: choreographing the dance of mental operations with the task environments. human factors, 50(3), 497–505. http://dx.doi.org/10.1518/001872008x312224 gross, s.e., & friedman, h.m. (2004). creating an effective total reward strategy: holistic approach supports business success. benefits quarterly, 20(3), 7–12. gursoy, d., maier, t., & chi, c. (2008). generational differences of work values: an examination of work values and generational gaps in the hospitality workforce. international journal of hospitality management, 27, 448–458. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2007.11.002 guthrie, j. (2007). remuneration pay effects and work. in p. boxall, j. purcell, & p. wright (eds.), the oxford handbook of human resource management (pp. 6–10). oxford: oxford university press. haeberle, k., herzberg, j., & hobbs, t. (2009). leading the multi-generational workforce. healthcare executive, 24(5), 62–77. hahn, j.a. (2011). managing multiple generations: scenarios form the workplace. nursing forum, 46(3), 119–127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6198.2011.00223.x hall, j., & sandelands, e. (2009). addressing south africa's engineering skills gap. education and training, 51(3), 251–219. harris, r.b., harris, k.j., & harvey, p. (2007). a test of competing models of the relationships among perceptions of organizational politics, perceived organizational support and individual outcomes. the journal of social psychology, 147(6), 631–655. http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/socp.147.6.631-65 haynes, d. (2002). assessing existing remuneration strategies of medical representatives in south africa. unpublished mba thesis, gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, johannesburg. hedge, j.w., borman, w.c., & lammlein, s.e. (2006). the aging workforce: realities, myths and implications for organizations. washington, dc: american psychological association. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/11325-000 heneman, h.g., & judge, t.a. (2003). staffing organization. (4th edn.). boston, ma: mcgraw-hill. heneman, r.l. (2007). implementing total rewards strategies: a guide to successfully planning and implementing a total rewards system. retrieved august 14, 2012, from http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/benefits/documents/07rewardsstratreport.pdf hiles, a. (2009). through time demand focus-total rewards strategy. benefits quarterly, 25(4), 44–47. hill, b., & tande, c. (2006). total rewards: the employment value proposition. workspan, 10(06), 19–22. hill, t., & lewicki, p. (2007). statistics methods and applications. ok: tulsa. hui, c., wong, a., & tjosvold, d. (2007). turnover intention and performance in china: the role of positive affectivity, chinese values, perceived organizational support and constructive controversy. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 80, 735–751. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317906x171037 human capital institute & vurv technology. (2008). the role of hr in the age of talent. human capital leadership excellence journal, 1(6), 12–15. iyer, r., & reisenwitz, t.h. (2009). differences in generation x and generation y: implications for organization and marketers. marketing management journal, 19(2), 91–103. jacobson, w.s. (2007). two's a company, three's a crowd and four's a lot to manage: supervising in today's intergenerational workforce. popular government, 73(1), 18–23. jawahar, i.m., & hemmasi, p. (2006). perceived organizational support for women's advancement and turnover intentions. women in management review, 21(8), 643–661. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09649420610712036 jenkins, j. (2008). strategies for managing talent in a multigenerational workforce. employment relations today, 34(4), 19–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ert.20172 jorgens, b. (2003). baby boomers, generation x and generation y: policy implications for defence forces in the new modern era. foresight, 5(4), 41–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/146336680314094753 kaliprasad, m. (2006). attracting, retaining and motivating capable people. cost engineering, 48(6), 20–26. kapoor, c., & solomon, n. (2011). understanding and managing generational differences in the workplace. worldwide hospitality and tourism themes, 31(1), 308–318. karp, h., fuller, c., & sirias, d. (2002). bridging the boomer xer gap creating authentic teams for high performance work. palo alto: ca.davis-black publishing. kaye, b., & jordan evans, s. (1999). love ’ e or lose ’em: getting good people to stay. san francisco, ca: berrett-koehler publishers. kerr-phillips, b., & thomas, a. (2009). macro and micro challenges for talent retention in south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 7(1), 1–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.157 knight-turvey, n., & neal, a. (2003). high commitment human resource practices, affective organisational commitment, and employee level outcomes: the role of perceived organisational support. australian journal of psychology, 55, 134. kontoghiorghes, c., & frangou, k. (2009). the association between talent retention, antecedent factors and consequent organizational factors. sam advanced management journal, 74(1), 29–58. lancaster, l.c., & stillman, d. (2002). when generations collide. who they are. why they clash. how to solve the generational puzzle at work. new york, ny: harper collins. lawler, e.e. (2008). talent: making people your competitive advantage. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. lawton, k.e., & chernyshenko, o.s. (2008). examining determinants of employee benefit preference: joint effects of personality, work values, and demographics. asia pacific journal of human resources, 46(2), 220–240. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1038411108091759 linkow, p. (2006). winning the competition for talent. workspan, 10(6), 29–32. lockwood, n.r. (2006). talent management: driver or organizational success. hr magazine, 51(6), 1–11. longenecker, c., & scazzero, j. (2003). the turnover and retention of it managers in rapidly changing organizations. information system management, 9(2), 59–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1201/1078/43203.20.1.20031201/40085.8 mahaney, r.c., & lederer, a.l. (2006). the effect of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards for developers on information systems project success. project management journal, 37(4), 42–54. maree, k. (2010). first steps in research. pretoria: van schaik publishers. martson, c. (2003). generational challenges in the workplace today and tomorrow. florida countries magazine, 21(1), 7–9. masibigiri, v., & nienaber, h. (2011). factors affecting the retention of generation x public servants: an exploratory study. south african journal of human resource management, 9(1), 2–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.318 mcguire, d., todnem, r., & hutchings, k. (2007). towards a model of human resource solutions for achieving intergenerational interaction in organisations. journal of european industrial training, 31(3), 592–608. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090590710833651 mercer. (2008). mercer snapshot survey: total rewards us reports. retrieved june 25, 2013, from http://www.imercer.com/uploads/us/pdfs/mercer_us_total_rewards_survey_sept2008.pdf metha, r., anderson, r.e., & dubinsky, a.j. (2000). the perceived importance of sales managers’ rewards: a career stage perspective. journal of business and industrial marketing, 15(7), 507–524. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/08858620010351779 meyer, m., & kirsten, m. (2012). introduction to human resource management. pretoria: van schaik. michaels, e.d., handfield-jones, h., & axelrod, b. (2001). the war for talent. watertown, ma: harvard business press. moore, a. (2010). reward preferences for generations in selected ict companies. unpublished master's thesis, department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg. moore, a., & bussin, m. (2012). reward preferences for generations in selected it companies. south african journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(1), 1–9. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i1.325 mucha, r.t. (2004). the art and science of talent management: organization development journal, 22(4), 96–100. muteswa, r., & ortlepp, k. (2011). contributing factors to potential turnover in a sample of south african management-level employees. acta commercii, 11, 13–26. netswera, f.g., rankhumise, e.m., & mavundla, t.r. (2005). employee retention factors for south african higher education institutions: a case study. south african journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 3(2), 36–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v3i2.64 nienaber, r., bussin, m., & henn, c. (2011). the relationship between personalities types and reward preferences. acta commercii, 11(2), 56–79. noble, s.m., & schewe, c.d. (2003). cohort segmentation: an exploration of its validity. journal of business research, 56(12), 979–987. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s014829639(02)00268-0 nujjoo, a., & meyer, i. (2012). the relative importance of different types of rewards for employee motivation and commitment in south africa. south african journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(2), 1–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.442 o’neil, s. (2010). basic research methodology reader. pretoria: department of human resource management, university of pretoria. orciani, d. (2009). a manager's perspective on how to effectively manage the multi-generational workforce. the magazine of worldatwork, 7(9), 79–80. pallant, j. (2011). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using spss. (4th edn.). berkshire: allen & urwin. parker, o., & wright, l. (2001). the missing link: pay and employee commitment. ivey business journal, 65(3), 70–79. ready, d.a., & conger, j.a. (2007). talent factory. harvard business review, 85(6), 69–77. reindl, r. (2007). growing talent at edwards lifesciences. training & development, 61(2), 38–41. reynolds, l.a. (2005). communicating total rewards to the generations. benefits quarterly, 21(2), 13–17. rhoades, l., & eisenberger, r. (2002). perceived organizational support: a review of the literature. journal of applied psychology, 87(4), 698–714. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.87.4.698 riggle, r.j., edmondson, d.r., & hansen, j.d. (2009). a meta-analysis of the relationship between perceived organizational support and job outcomes: 20 years of research. journal of business research, 62, 1027–1030. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2008.05.003 robert, m., & börjesson, m. (2006). company incentives and tools for promoting telecommuting. environment and behaviour, 38(4), 521–549. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013916505283422 rubino, j.a. (2006). the new total rewards model: how to attract, retain and motivate the best and brightest. paper presented at the south african reward association. retrieved march 22, 2012, from http://sara.co.za/libraryeventdocuments/eventdocuments2006/saracon06/john%20rubino.pdf rynes, s., gerhard, b., & minette, k. (2004). the importance of pay in employee motivation: discrepancies between what people say and what they do. human resource management, 43(4), 381–394. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20031 saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2009). research methods for business students. (5th edn.). essex, england: pearson education limited. shanock, l.r., & eisenberger, r. (2006). when supervisors feel supported: relationships with subordinates’ perceived supervisor support, perceived organizational support, and performance. journal of applied psychology, 91(3), 689–695. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.3.689 sherman, r. (2006). leading a multigenerational nursing workforce: issues, challenges and strategies. online journal of issues in nursing, 11(2), 1–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.3912/ojin.vol11no02man02 shore, l.m., & tetrick, l.e. (1991). a construct validity study of the survey of perceived organizational support. journal of applied psychology, 76(5), 637–643. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.76.5.637 smola, k.w., & sutton, c.d. (2002). generational differences: revising generational work values for the new millennium. journal of organizational behavior, 23, 363–382. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.147 snelgar, r.j., renard, m., & venter, d. (2013). an empirical study of the reward preferences of south african employees. south african journal of human resource management, 11(1), 2–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.351 society for human resource management (shrm). (2009). 2009 employee job satisfaction: understanding the factors that make work gratifying. alexandria, va: shrm. spss 20.00 for windows [computer software]. (2012). chicago, il: spss incorporated. statistics south africa (statssa). (2012). statssa library cataloguing-in-publication (cip) data. (vol. 1). pretoria: statssa. retrieved february 27, 2013, from http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/sastatistics/sastatistics2012.pdf sullivan, s.e., forret, m.l., carraher, s.m., & mainiero, l.a. (2009). using the kaleidoscope career model to examine generational differences in work attitudes. career development international, 14(3), 284–302. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430910966442 sung, a., & todd, e. (2004). line of sight: moving beyond the catch phrase. workspan, 10(04), 65–69. swanepoel, b.j., erasmus, b.j., & schenk, h.w. (2008). south african human resources management: theory and practice. (4th edn.) cape town: juta. tang, t., luna-aroca, r., sutarso, t., & tang, d. (2004). does the love of money moderate and mediate the income-pay satisfaction relationship? journal of management policy, 19(2), 111–135. tang, t.l., & west, w.b. (1997). the importance of human needs during peacetime, retrospective peacetime, and the persian gulf war. international journal of stress management, 4(1), 47–62. towers perrin. (2007). using total rewards to build an effective employee value proposition. retrieved april 28, 2012, from http://www.towersperrin.com towers perrin. (2011). 2011/2012 staying@work survey report: a pathway to employee health and workplace productivity. retrieved december 2012, from http://www.towersperrin.com tuzun, i.k., & kalemci, r.a. (2011). organizational and supervisory support in relation to employee turnover intentions. journal of managerial psychology, 27(5), 518–534. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683941211235418 twenge, j.m., campbell, s.m., hoffman, b.j., & lance, c.e. (2010). generational differences in work values: leisure and extrinsic values increasing, social and intrinsic values decreasing. journal of management, 36(5), 1117–1142. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206309352246 van der merwe, s. (2012). remuneration ’s role in the evp decision-making process. unpublished master's dissertation gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, pretoria. van dyk, j., & coetzee, m. (2012). retention factors in relation to organisational commitment in medical and information technology systems. south african journal of human resource management, 10(2), 1–11. http://dx.doi/sajhrm/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.433 van rooy, d.j. (2010). total rewards strategy for a multi-generational workforce. unpublished master's dissertation, gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, pretoria. retrieved march 03, 2013, from http://www.upetd.ap.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-07232011-130827/unrestricted/dissertation.pdf van rooyen, l., du toit, d.h., botha, e., rothmann, s. (2010). artisan retention in an organisation in south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 8(1), 1–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.300 van schalkwyk, l., els, c., & rothmann, i. (2011). the moderating role of perceived organisational support in the relationship between workplace bullying and turnover intentions across sectors. south african journal of human resource management, 9(1), 1–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.384 van vuuren, m. (2006). why work? the contribution of value perceptions and efficacy expectations to organisational commitment. doctoral thesis, industrial engineering and business information systems university of twente, enschede. worldatwork. (2007). the worldatwork handbook of compensation, benefits and total rewards. new york: ny: john wiley & sons, inc. worldatwork. (2010). the relative influence of total rewards elements on attraction, motivation and retention. retrieved march 03, 2012, from http://www.worldatwork.org wright, t.a. (2010). the role of psychological well-being in job performance, employee retention and cardiovascular health. organizational dynamics, 38(1), 13–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2009.10.009 yang, s., & guy, m.e. (2006). gen xers versus boomers: work motivators versus management implications. public performance and management review, 29(3), 267–284. http://dx.doi.org/10.2753/pmr1530-9576290302 zagenczyk, t.j., scott, k.d., gibney, r., murrell, a.j., & thatcher, j.b. (2010). social influence and perceived organizational support: a social networks analysis. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 111, 127–138. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2009.11.004 zemke, r., raines, c., & filipczak, b. (2002). generations at work: managing the clash of veterans, boomers, xers and nexters in your workplace. toronto: amacon. zingheim, p.k., & schuster, j.r. (2008). managing total compensation to achieve multiple objectives. mworld, 7(1), 37–40. 4pinho.qxd the changing organisational context of careers has received an enormous amount of attention (feldman, 2002). careers have become repositories of information, knowledge, skills, expertise and relationship networks acquired through an evolving sequence of work experiences over time (baruch, 2004). national legislation such as the employment equity act and the skills development act has given rise to a situation where people now have greater choice, greater flexibility, more opportunities and a better quality of life, but also experience less job security, stability and certainty during their careers due to a constantly changing and uncertain workplace (coetzee & stone, 2004). in a world of greater volatility, uncertainty, change, and ambiguity, the need for continuous learning has never been greater. as such, developmental relationships, as for example mentoring, are increasingly becoming a source of meaningful feedback, psychological safety, stability and continuous professional growth (hall & kahn, 2002). against this background, formal mentoring programmes are being seen as a way to establish learning relationships that enable the continuing development of employees. in the south african context formal mentoring programmes have also become a tool for promoting the growth and development of junior employees and people from historically disadvantaged groups (young & perrewe, 2004). research findings indicate that mentoring may increase job satisfaction, career attainment and organisational commitment (scandura & williams, 2002). mentoring is also associated with lower intent to leave the job and reduced role stress (baugh, lankau & scandura, 1996). organisations often encourage mentoring through formal programmes, since mentoring may play a role in increasing performance and improving work attitudes (murray, 1991; scandura & williams, 2002). many formal programmes, however, have encountered problems as members report discomfort and mentees appear to receive fewer benefits than mentees in informal mentoring relationships (scandura & williams, 2002). unrealistic expectations may be held for mentors, while problems with matching individuals, and in identif ying potential mentors may also be encountered (klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; scandura, 1998). mentoring has been around for many generations and, although the definition and type of mentoring may have been adapted during various eras, the essence has remained the same (klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; gibb, 1994). the aristocratic era was characterised by feudal fathers providing knowledge and guidance to their eldest sons (clawson, 1996). however, as population growth began to soar in the industrial era, mentoring provided a way in which senior people could connect with the next generation as more than boss or supervisor. thus mentoring provided a way for the new generation to receive more personalised guidance in their progress upwards (wickman & sjodin, 1997). the contemporary organisational context is characterised by flatter, net worked struct ures utilising a diverse yet empowered workforce (clawson, 1996). mentoring in the contemporary context provides the opportunity for people to connect in a meaningful way with older people, to learn about the management of the business and about life, and to balance the two (higgins, 2000). mentoring is a dyadic relationship in which an older, more experienced member of the organisation fosters the growth and development of a junior employee to a point where he or she becomes a competent professional (scandura & williams, 2002). mentoring is also viewed as a dynamic, developmental relationship between two individuals, based on trust and reciprocity, leading toward the enhancement of junior members’ psychological growth and career advancement and toward achieving mutual benefits for the mentor, mentee and organisation (appelbaum, ritchie & shapiro, 1994; johnson, geroy & griego, 1999; kochan, 2002; seibert, 1999). a developmental relationship is characterised by douglas and mccauley (1999) as a relationship that motivates individuals to learn and grow through exposure to new opportunities and the provision of needed support. research suggests that mentoring involves vocational or career development, psychosocial support, and role modelling (dreher & ash, 1990; scandura, 1992; scandura & williams, 2002). career development functions comprise sponsorship, exposure to advantageous projects, protection and coaching (young & perrewe, 2004) whereas psychosocial functions are more oriented toward a support function that aids in the formation of sonia d c pinho melinde coetzee dries schreuder department industrial & organisational psychology college of economic and management sciences university of south africa abstract the purpose of this study was to investigate the expectations and perceived challenges of mentees and mentors regarding a formal mentoring programme within the south african work context. the convenience sampling method was used to identif y respondents (n = 12). qualitative methods were used to collect and analyse data on the respondents’ views on the formal mentoring programme. the results suggest that male and female mentees differ in terms of their expectations and the challenges they perceive in the formal mentoring relationship. the expectations of mentees also appear to be different from those of mentors regarding the formal relationship. opsomming die doel met hierdie studie was om die verwagtinge en beskouing van mentees en mentees omtrent ’n formele mentorprogram binne die suid-afrikaanse werkskonteks te ondersoek. gerieflikheidsteekproefneming is aangewend om respondente (n = 12) te identifiseer. kwalitatiewe metodes is benut om die respondente se standpunt aangaande die mentorverhouding te versamel en te ontleed. die resultate dui ’n verskil aan in die verwagtinge en sieninge van manlike en vroulike mentees. die verwagtinge van mentees blyk ook te verskil van mentors se verwagtinge rakende die formele verhouding. formal mentoring: mentee and mentor expectations and perceived challenges requests for copies should be addressed to: m coetzee, coetzm1@unisa.ac.za 20 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (3), 20-26 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (3), 20-26 one’s self-concept (mullen, 1998). psychosocial functions include acceptance, role modelling, confirmation and friendship (higgins, 2000; seibert, 1999). formal mentoring the mentoring relationship can be either formal or informal (appelbaum et al, 1994; chao, walz & gardner, 1992; johnson et al, 1999; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). cunningham (1993) describes formal mentoring programmes as those in which the organisation assigns or matches mentors and mentees, provides them with top management support, an extensive orientation programme, clearly stated responsibilities for each part y, established duration and contact, and emphasised realistic expectations regarding the relationship. informal mentoring is characterised by a more relaxed environment in which the mentoring relationship develops spontaneously (ragins & cotton, 1999; wickman & sjodin, 1997). it is viewed as a relationship which, according to young and perrewe (2004), is continually negotiated bet ween t wo partners. ragins and cotton (1991) noted that women might be more likely to seek formal mentoring programmes as substitutes for informal mentorships since they face greater barriers than men in their efforts to establish informal relationships with mentors. while research on both formal and informally initiated mentoring relationships has emphasised the associated benefits, there is increasing recognition of the potential that formal mentoring relationships have for becoming dysfunctional relationships (scandura, 1998; scandura & williams, 2002). eby, mcmanus, simon and russell (1998) describe dysfunctional mentoring relationships in which mentees reported having dissimilar attitudes, values, and beliefs in assigned mentoring relationships. formal mentors are often selected by mentees based on their competence and there is less likely to be the mutual respect, friendship, and mut ual attraction that might be found in an informal mentoring relationship (ragins & cotton, 1999). mismatches do occur in formalised mentoring and may result in relationships being characterised by discontent, anger, jealousy, resentment, sabotage, deception or harassment (scandura & williams, 2002). in an informal mentoring relationship there may be greater levels of commitment to the relationship by both parties because of mutual interest. informal relationships will also be more likely to involve the vocational, psychosocial, and role-modelling elements of mentoring (scandura & williams, 2002). however, since the purpose of many formal mentoring programmes is to advance task-oriented and career-oriented goals for mentees, the time spent together tends to be less than in informal mentoring relationships with resultant reduced psychosocial support and role modelling (gray, 1988; scandura & williams, 2002). on the negative side, the development of formal, facilitated mentoring programmes may involve considerable time, effort and cost on the part of the organisation (seibert, 1999). appelbaum et al (1994), which may also indicate why few formal mentoring programmes have succeeded in organisations due to the matching process, which is often perceived as a forced pairing. further identified problems include unrealistically high expectations on the part of mentees, the excessive amount of time spent on the relationship, and the incompetence and lack of training of mentors (rigsby, siegel & spiceland, 1998). despite the potential for dysfunctions in formal mentoring relationships, there is also evidence that the formal mentoring process can work effectively for mentees, mentors and organisations, particularly in cases where the matching process has been guided, formal mentoring has been offered in partnership with informal mentoring and mentors and mentees have been trained to engage in the mentoring relationship (scandura & williams, 2002). reasons for the formation of mentoring relationships mentoring offers mentees a sense of career security and allows them to feel that their careers are more effectively and efficiently directed (clutterbuck, 2001; higgins, 2000; koglerhill & bahniuk, 1998). this gives rise to increased career commitment (appelbaum et al.1994). mentoring provides learning benefits on the part of mentors (hale, 2000) as well as a way for them to redirect their energies, gain respect and even fulfil generativity needs, which may in itself be rewarding (scandura, manuel, werther & lankau, 1996). as the mentee learns from the mentor, the growth and learning potential inherent in the relationship decreases. on the other hand, the mentee’s achievement potential increases and the relationship moves on to one of co-learning (parsloe & wray, 2000; scandura et al, 1996). according to mullen (1998), mentees tend to be attracted to mentors whom they perceive as interpersonally competent, and mentors are also drawn to mentees they perceive as being competent. furthermore, mentors select mentees with characteristics similar to theirs and their perception that the mentee is a stereotype of an effective subordinate (clutterbuck & ragins, 2002; hale, 2000). however, johnson, geroy and griego (1999) warn that when a mentee is selected on the basis of perceived similarity there is a tendency toward homogeneous reproduction, and mentors tend to mould an image of their own characteristics. if mentees are selected on the basis of a rich amount of differences, this could possibly result in a dysfunctional relationship due to a mutual inabilit y to empathise. it was suggested by hale (2000) that the selection of mentees be based on their talent, eagerness to learn and willingness to participate in the mentoring programme. the greater the hierarchical distance between mentor and mentee, the greater the communication gap and the less the interaction (clutterbuck & lane, 2005; mullen, 1998), hampering both mutual trust and obligation (scandura et al, 1996). challenges of mentoring various factors influence the nature and quality of the mentoring relationship. some of these factors are external to the mentoring association, such as the objectives of the formal mentoring programme and time issues. for example, the nature of mentoring relationships will be very different in an organisation that is downsizing as opposed to one that is expanding. in the former, the focus of the relationship should be on coping with the change, whilst in the latter case, the focus might be on developing employees for new roles. time issues relate to potential limitations that may result from mentor or mentee work and life demands, costs or simply scheduling problems. other factors are internal to the relationship, such as personality, gender, the personal style of the mentor and the needs of the mentee (klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). negative mentor behaviour also occurs and is common when mentors overwork their mentees and take credit for their accomplishments, spend more time in impression management and self-promotion (eby, mcmanus, simon and russell, 2000). dealing with negative relationships is but one of the many challenges faced within the mentoring relationship. there is also the challenge of ensuring that formal mentors do not become overly dominant, causing the mentees to lose their sense of selfsufficiency (rigsby et al, 1998). caution needs to be taken in instances where mentees put the needs of their mentor ahead of their own as a career strategy (scandura et al., 1996). mentoring relationships can, according to scandura and williams (2002), become dysfunctional in terms of overdependence, resentment, deception or harassment. the mentoring relationship may often be viewed as negative in terms of fairness because colleagues and peers will see it as a means of “getting ahead” (scandura et al, 1996). this aspect is especially sensitive in cross-gender and cross-race relationships where mentoring programmes are seen as being remedial for females mentor and mentee expectations 21 and blacks (eby et al, 2000). according to blake-beard (2001), it is important that both mentors and mentees in cross-race and cross-gender relationships consider impeding factors such as the unrealistic expectations of mentees, lack of mutual attraction or mentoring opportunities, unskilled management and an unbalanced focus on the mentee by the mentor. there are also several external factors which may influence the mentoring relationships for females. these include the threat managers may feel that their management style is under scrutiny and the power they have to retract the availability of resources (blake-beard, 2001). additional aggravating factors for females include the perception of sexual innuendos, rumours, overprotection and paternalism (eby et al, 2000; kochan, 2002). despite the potential for dysfunctions in formal mentoring relationships, the literature indicates that the process can work effectively for mentees and mentors (klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; scandura & williams, 2002). however, perspectives on mentee and mentor experiences of the challenges encountered in the formal mentoring relationship are under-researched in the south african organisational context. the purpose of this study was therefore to gain an understanding of mentors’ and mentees’ subjective views on the formal mentoring relationship. more specifically, the aim was to answer the following research questions: � what are mentors’ and mentees’ expectations of the formal mentoring relationship? � what are the key challenges of the formal mentoring relationship as perceived by mentors and mentees? research design research approach a qualitative approach was decided upon, since this approach is specifically suitable when the research takes place in a natural setting. qualitative research attempts to make sense of and interpret constructs and phenomena in terms of the meanings that people ascribe to them, thus seeking to give meaning to social experience (denzin & lincoln, 1994). merriam (2002) also recommends that a qualitative approach be used when the research objectives are exploratory and descriptive. since the research questions pertain to understanding and describing a particular phenomenon about which very little is known, the qualitative approach appeared to be the most suitable for gaining insight into respondents’ expectations of and their views on the challenges of the formal mentoring relationship in their work setting (creswell, 1994). this study was therefore conducted within a qualitative paradigm and the grounded theory method was used to develop an inductively derived theory (strauss & corbin, 1990). this method enabled the researcher to study the phenomenon (the formal mentoring relationship) within its context and facilitated the systematic generation of theoretical principles from, and grounded in, the data regarding the respondents’ expectations of and views on the challenges of the formal mentoring relationship. respondents the study was conducted in a south african global pulp and paper manufacturer. six (6) mentees and 6 mentors (n=12) formed a convenience sample (huysamen, 1994) for the present study. respondents from the sample of mentees constitute 3 white females, 1 coloured female, 1 african male and 1 indian male. the respondents from the mentor sample constitute 5 white males and 1 white female. table 1 provides an overview of the pairing relationship between the gender and race groups. overall, this st udy focused on six relationships as indicated in table 1. these six relationships are in 3 cases cross-gender relationships (3 white female mentees and 3 white male mentors); in 1 case a cross-race relationship (1 indian male mentee and 1 white male mentor) and in 2 cases cross-gender and cross-race relationships (1 coloured female mentee and 1 white male mentor; 1 african male mentee and 1 white female mentor). the selection of the respondents was based on their involvement in the formal mentoring programme of the company. table 1 pairing relationship: mentors and mentees mentee mentor coloured female white male white female white male white female white male white female white male african male white female indian male white male total: 6 total: 6 a brief background to the formal mentoring programme the organisation has implemented a formal mentoring programme which is used as part of the learnership/internship programme, succession planning and management development, that is, it has been implemented as a compulsory requirement for the leadership academy. mentoring is voluntary for mentors and the main aim is to provide growth and development. in addition, the organisation plans to use mentoring as a mechanism to assist the company to meet its employment equity objectives. the focus is on short-term relationships, which are purely developmental. the selection of a mentor can be either assisted or non-assisted, in which case the mentee approaches the human resource development (hrd) practitioner who assists in identif ying a suitable match in a mentor. there is no standard guideline which the hrd practitioner follows to match individuals. a yearly survey is sent to all mentoring pairs as a means of evaluating the effectiveness of the programme and, to date, feedback has been positive. once individuals have been matched, they undergo a formal training programme to learn about the mentoring programme and the challenges and benefits characteristic of a mentoring relationship. struct ured guidelines are provided to the mentoring pairs. it has been identified that those pairs which have used the structured guides to assist in their mentoring relationship claim to have learned more compared to those who follow the more unstruct ured approach. this is in line with research conducted by clutterbuck (2001). method of data gathering the st udy was conducted within a qualitative research paradigm. the qualitative data collection technique in this study included a semi-structured qualitative interview with each respondent. each interview lasted approximately 30 minutes and was structured around the two research questions. all interviews were ended with an open question allowing for the respondents to share any information or experience they felt were relevant, that had not been explored or discussed during the interview. the following t wo open-ended questions were carefully formulated and put to the respondents: � what are your expectations of the mentoring relationship? � what are the key challenges you have to deal with in the mentoring relationship? pinho, coetzee, schreuder22 procedure firstly, permission was obtained from the human resource manager of the company where the interviews were conducted. thereafter the researcher contacted the mentors and mentees telephonically to establish their availability and willingness to participate in the research study. the respondents were briefed on the reason and format of the interview by means of a short introduction. they were given the opportunity to decline participation in the study. interview appointments were accordingly arranged with each respondent. analysis of the data the data was analysed utilising a qualitative content analysis process. by the end of the data collection and transcription process, a preliminary understanding of the data was achieved. next, underlying themes were deduced, which indicated organising principles that naturally underscored the data (creswell, 1994; strauss & corbin, 1990). this was followed by a coding process, during which sections of the data were labelled as being of relevance to one or more of the identified themes. in conclusion, the themes were interpreted in the light of existing literature on the topic, allowing for meaningful interpretation of the results. results the findings suggested that male and female mentees differ in terms of their expectations and the way they perceive challenges experienced in the formal mentoring relationship. it appeared that the male mentees were looking for career development and advancement opport unities, whilst the female mentees were more focused on the relationship as providing guidance, direction and psychosocial support (for example balancing work-family life and gaining confidence in career decision making). establishing trust in the formal mentoring relationship appeared to be the predominant challenge to both mentors and mentees. as suggested by strauss and corbin (1990) and cresswell (1994), several themes relating to the phenomenon of a mentoring relationship emerged from the data analysis. in the next section these themes will be discussed. from the themes it was possible to develop responses to the formulated research questions. mentee expectations of the formal mentoring relationship according to the respondents’ responses, the expectations of the male and female mentees differed. the male mentees formed a mentoring relationship after becoming aware of the opportunity during their induction into the organisation. as the organisation is using mentoring as a means to address employment equity, the male mentees joined the programme as a compulsory requirement in conjunction with their learnership or internship. joining the mentoring programme was viewed by the male mentees as being purely for career development purposes with the aim of increasing their career knowledge and visibility in the firm. the female mentees entered into a formal mentoring relationship because it was suggested by their line management that they join the mentoring programme. furthermore, the female mentees joined the programme for psychosocial reasons such as “balancing work-family life”, “gaining confidence in making career decisions”, “dealing with personality conflicts” and “learning how to build trust and confidence”. the results also suggested that the mentoring relationship was influenced by the matching of each of the mentees to a mentor. both the mentees and the mentors identified specific criteria on which they based their selection. these criteria were generally linked to the expectations both mentors and mentees had of the formal mentoring relationship. all the mentees expressed high expectations of the mentoring programme from the outset. the female mentees indicated that their expectations were not stable but rather dynamic and constantly changing, whereas the two male mentees had clear expectations and career objectives they wanted to achieve. these expectations were established at the onset of the relationship and were reviewed on a regular basis. overall, mentee expectations included: � becoming more marketable � career development and advancement � gaining business knowledge � being supplied with high level information � getting organisation tips � receiving sound advice � gaining a broader perspective, different viewpoints � being offered direction and a clear vision � receiving support in balancing work and family issues � establishing clear career objectives and targets � regular discussions and progress reviews � guidance and emotional support � self-empowerment to make own career decisions the findings indicated that the mentees generally selected their mentors in view of their expectations. other factors that played a role in their choice of a mentor included sharing similar values; having respect for the mentor; characteristics of the mentor such as openness, honesty, good knowledge of the industry; and having substantial experience. on the other hand, none of the white male mentors indicated that they had approached the mentees. this could be a reflection of the business struct ure where top management is still predominantly composed of white males. although the mentors were approached by the organisation, all indicated that they enjoyed mentoring and were not coerced into the relationship but opted voluntarily to join. the mentors indicated that they chose their mentees on the basis of characteristics such as competence; independence; a willingness to work hard and to learn; being able to apply their minds and sharing similar values. the mentors also expected a reciprocal relationship in which the mentee had to take responsibility for his or her personal development and learning, with guidance and support from the mentor. the mentors viewed the formal mentoring relationship as an opport unit y to assist individuals to progress through a learning curve in a controlled and structured environment. they also viewed the formal mentoring relationship as an opport unit y for self-ref lection and sharing their own experiences with the mentees. perceived challenges of the formal mentoring relationship the results indicated five key themes regarding the challenges mentees and mentors were facing in terms of the mentoring relationship. these included establishing trust; cross-gender and cross-race issues; mentee dependency and mentor style; dealing with time constraints and dealing with colleague jealousy. generally both the mentors and mentees suggested that trust was the driving factor in establishing and maintaining a reciprocal relationship. the establishment of trust appeared to be influenced by cross-gender and cross-race issues. the african male mentee found it difficult to develop trust with the white female mentor. he indicated that he did not trust his female mentor sufficiently to discuss any issues other than those necessary for the completion of his learnership programme. the coloured female mentee who was referred to her mentor (white male) by her manager had not established a relationship based on trust even after being with the mentor for just under two years. the coloured female mentee described her relationship with the mentor as being a “father-child” relationship. the three white female mentees had established careers and viewed the mentoring relationship as being between equals. trust in the relationship was based on a form of friendship. mentor and mentee expectations 23 cross-race and cross-gender issues were also indicated by a remark from the african male mentee that he had previously identified a suitable white male mentor with good business knowledge but had refrained from approaching the individual as he seemed to “hide” business information, “perhaps due to negative racial feelings”. one of the white female mentees also made a comment that she would not be mentored by a black male because the cultural differences would not allow her to develop the trust to discuss any issue pertaining to her career, personal and professional development. the mentor of the coloured female found it a challenge to maintain a purely professional relationship with the mentee. he felt almost responsible to protect or shield her from the environment. mentors also felt that the mentees did not always know how to reciprocate, and that the relationship always started as a one-sided giving approach. the challenge to ensure that the relationship became interdependent rather than dependent was often addressed through a process of guidance and challenging the mentees to reflect on their own knowledge and solutions. some mentors found it particularly difficult to avoid assuming a leading role, especially when mentees were very junior. the preferred mentoring styles included those of coaching, guiding, counselling and allowing for the development of insight. time was also identified as the greatest obstacle within the mentoring relationship due to mentor unavailability. overall, the mentees found it difficult to schedule time with their mentors. finally, the mentees generally believed that being part of the formal mentoring programme created jealousy among colleagues, as it was perceived as a means of getting ahead. discussion as stated, the main purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of mentees and mentors regarding their expectations of the formal mentoring relationship and the challenges they have to deal with. in order to facilitate illumination of the social construction of the respondents, their views will also be related to existing empirical findings and relevant abstract theoretical concepts. mismatches between mentor and mentee expectations are quite common and often underestimated (clutterbuck, 2002). the results of this study suggested that mentors expected the mentees to take charge of the relationship, to be self-sufficient and to use them as sounding boards, whilst the mentees expected to have a sponsor, who would tell them what to do, create career advancement opportunities for them and be a counsellor who would provide them with socioemotional support and help them build their self-confidence in career decision making. female mentees also tended to expect a higher level of psychosocial support than their male counterparts (jossi, 1997). junior mentees often suffer from low self-esteem and an inability to envision a realistic future for themselves and they are therefore unlikely to take the lead in the mentoring relationship (clutterbuck, 2002). although the mentors in this study were predominantly white males, research by thomas (1999) suggests that blacks are more likely to form mentoring relationships with whites than with other blacks. first, because there are more whites in managerial ranks, blacks have little choice but to form cross-race mentoring relationships. second, because whites have more experience in organisations, blacks are at a disadvantage unless they have a mentoring relationship with a white senior person (ragins, 1997). the pairing process in formal mentoring programmes is critical to the development of mentoring relationships (scandura & williams, 2002). if mentors select mentees, mentoring may be more effective than if mentees alone initiate. a survey conducted by scandura & williams (2002) indicated that when both parties are involved in the matching process (that is, both initiate the relationship), the most effective relationships develop. the most beneficial method of pairing may be by facilitating interaction and familiarity that allows mentors and mentees to select each other (scandura & williams, 1998). clutterbuck (2002) notes that the purpose of the relationship plays an important role in the matching process. if the goal is advancement, it may be best to pair the mentee with a white male. if the goal is building selfesteem and self-efficacy, a homogeneous pairing might be preferable. the results suggested that the expectations of the mentees and particularly the differences between male and female mentee expectations were not considered in the forming of the formal relationships. the lack of trust suggested by the respondents could be due to factors such as the mentor-mentee selection criteria and cross-race/cross-gender issues that inf luenced the formal mentoring relationship. formal mentors are often selected by mentees on the basis of their competence, stat us, experience and there is less likely to be mutual respect, trust, friendship, and mutual attraction than might be found in an informal mentoring relationship (ragins & cotton, 1999). race and gender composition also appeared to have posed challenges to the formal mentoring relationships. programmes that pair mentors and mentees solely on the basis of gender or race may find that members connect on the basis of these group memberships, but they may or may not connect on other, deeper levels of diversit y that define their inner values and sense of self (athey, avery & zemsky, 2000; ragins, 2002). furthermore, the results suggested that diversified mentoring relationships involve less of a comfort zone than homogeneous relat ionships. mentoring those who are different (in terms of race and gender) may lead to discomfort, self-censorship and a lack of trust (ragins, 2002). while many mentoring relationships involve some degree of closeness and friendship, self-censorship and discomfort with diversit y may lead to emotional and relational distance in the mentoring relationship (ragins, 2002). this in turn makes it difficult to establish trust and openness in the formal mentoring relationship. although the results suggested a form of paternalism in the cross-gender and cross-race relationships, it generally occurs only in a small percentage of relationships (eby et al, 2000). instead, it seems that the quality and actions of mentors matter more than their race or gender. as long as mentors are able to encourage mentees to feel secure within their own cultural identit y and engage in activities that enhance mentees’ knowledge, while remaining aware of the cultural baggage they bring to the relationship, racial similarity appears to become less consequential (ragins, 2002; rhodes et al, 2002). the findings also suggested a form of marginal mentoring, that is, the scope and degree of the mentoring functions appeared to be less than those encountered in the informal mentoring relationship (scandura & williams, 2002). the core purpose of the formal mentoring relationship was to advance the taskoriented and career-oriented goals for mentees. the time spent together in formal mentoring relationships was generally less than would have been in an informal mentoring relationship, resulting in less psychosocial support and mentoring (gray, 1988; scandura & williams, 2002). however, time spent together is also important for the developmental relationship because it allows the mentor and mentee to tackle work-related assignments together. this in turn promotes trust, understanding and learning (scandura & williams, 2002). however, mullen (1998) reports that time spent together is not necessarily a success predictor of either the formal or the informal mentoring function. the quality rather than the quantity of time spent together are often reported to be of greater importance to both mentors and mentees (ragins, cotton & miller, 2000). pinho, coetzee, schreuder24 as with all research, this study has limitations. it must be noted that, because of the qualitative nature of the study and the sampling strategy, the findings cannot be generalised to all formal mentoring relationships. future research into mentoring and particularly into the effects of diversity in the south african work context, is required owing to the changing demographic profile of the workforce. continuous qualitative and quantitative research with a broader representation of all gender and race groups is required to enhance the existing body of knowledge on diversified formal mentoring relationships. ongoing research into particularly the mentoring needs of a younger generation entering an unstable and unpredictable workplace is recommended. references appelbaum, s.h., ritchie, s. & shapiro, t. (1994). mentoring revisited: an organisational behaviour construct. journal of management development, 13 (4), 62-72. athey, s., avery, c. & zemsky, p. (2000). mentoring and diversity. american economic review, 90, 765-786. baruch, y. (2004). transforming careers: from linear to multidirectional career paths: organizational and individual perspectives. career development international, 9 (1), 58-73. baugh, s.g., lankau, m.j. & scandura, t.a. (1996). an investigation of the effects of protégé gender on responses to mentoring. journal of vocational behavior, 49, 309-323. blake-beard, s.d (2001). taking a hard look at formal mentoring programs: a consideration of potential challenges facing women. the journal of management development, 20 (4), 331-345. chao, g.t., walz, p.m. & gardner, p.d. (1992). formal and informal mentorships: a comparison on mentoring functions and contrast with nonmentored counterparts. personnel psychology, 45, 619-636. clawson, j.g. (1996). mentoring in the information age. leadership and organisational development journal, 17 (3), 6-15. clutterbuck, d. (2001). everyone needs a mentor: fostering talent at work. london: cipd. clutterbuck, d. (2002). building and sustaining the diversitymentoring relationship. in d. clutterbuck & b.r. ragins (eds). mentoring and diversity (pp. 87-113). johannesburg: butterworth-heinemann. clutterbuck, d. & lane, g. (2005). the situational mentor. london: gower. clutterbuck, d. & ragins, b.r. (2002). mentoring and diversity: an international perspective. johannesburg: butterworthheinemann. coetzee, m. & stone, k. (2004). learner support: toward learning and development. knowres: randburg. creswell, j.w. (1994). research design: qualitative and quantitative approaches. california: sage publications. cunningham, j.b. (1993). facilitating a mentorship program. leadership and organisation development, 14, 15-20. denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. (1994). handbook of qualitative research. thousand oaks, calif: sage. douglas, c.a. & mccauley, c.d. (1999). formal developmental relationships: a survey of organisational practices. human resource development quarterly, 10 (1), 203-220. dreher, g.f. & ash, r.a. (1990). a comparative study of mentoring among men and women in managerial, professional and technical positions. journal of applied psychology, 75, 539-546. eby, t.l., mcmanus, s.e., simon, s.a. & russell, j.e.a. (1998). does every cloud have a silver lining? a study of dysfunctional mentoring experiences. proceedings of the southern management association meeting. new orleans: la. eby, t.l., mcmanus, s.e., simon, s.a. & russell, j.e.a. (2000). the protégés perspective regarding negative mentoring experiences: the development of a taxonomy. journal of vocational behaviour, 57, 1-21. feldman, d.c. (2002). work careers: a developmental perspective. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. gibb, s. (1994). inside corporate mentoring schemes: the development of a conceptual framework. personnel review, 23 (3), 47-60. gray, a.a. (1988). developing a planned mentoring programme to facilitate career development. career planning and adult development journal, 4, 9-16. hale, r. (2000). to match or mismatch? the dynamics of mentoring as a route to personal and organisational learning. career development international, 5 (4/5), 223234. hall, d.t. & kahn, w.a. (2002). developmental relationships at work: a learning perspective. in c.l. cooper & r.j. burke (eds.). the new world of work: challenges and opportunities (pp. 49-74). oxford: blackwell. hegstad, c.d. (1999). formal mentoring as a strategy for human resource development: a review of research. human resource development quarterly, 10 (1), 383-391. higgins, m.c. (2000). the more, the merrier? multiple development relationships and work satisfaction. the journal of management development, 19 (4), 277-296. huysamen, g.k. (1994). methodology for the social and behavioural sciences. halfway house: southern. johnson, s.k, geroy. g.d. & griego, o.v. (1999). the mentoring model theory: dimensions in mentoring protocols. career development international, 4 (7), 384-391. jossi, f. (1997). mentoring in changing times. training, 34, 50-54. klasen, n. & clutterbuck, d. (2002). implementing mentoring schemes: a practical guide to successful programs. london: butterworth-heinemann. kochan, k. (2002). the organisational and human dimensions of successful mentoring programs and relationships. connecticut: information age. kogler-hill, s. & bahniuk, m.h. (1998). promoting career success through mentoring. review of business, 19, 4-7. lankau, m.j. & scandura, t.a. (2002). an investigation of personal learning in mentoring relationships: content, antecedents and consequences. academy of management journal, 45 (4), 779-790. merriam, s.b. (2002). qualitative research in practice: examples for discussion and analysis. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. mullen, e.j. (1998). vocational and psychosocial mentoring functions: identif ying mentors who serve both. human resource development quarterly, 9 (1), 319-331. murray, m. (1991). beyond the myths and magic of mentoring: how to facilitate an effective mentoring programme. san francisco: jossey-bass. nielson, t.r, carlson, s.d. & lankau, m.j. (2001). the supportive mentor as a means of reducing work-family conflict. journal of vocational behaviour, 59, 364-381. parsloe, e. & wray, m. (2000). coaching and mentoring: practical methods to improve learning. london: kogan page. ragins, b.r. (1997). diversified mentoring relationships in organisations: a power perspective. academy of management journal, 22, 482-521. ragins, b.r. (2002). understanding diversified mentoring relationships: definitions, challenges and strategies. in d. clutterbuck & b.r. ragins (eds). mentoring and diversity: an international perspective (pp. 23-53). oxford: butterworthheinemann. ragins, b.r. & cotton, j.l. (1991). easier said than done: gender differences in perceived barriers to gaining a mentor. academy of management journal, 34, 939-951. ragins, b.r. & cotton, j.l. (1999). mentor functions and outcomes: a comparison of men and women in formal and informal mentoring relationships. journal of applied psychology, 84, 529-550. ragins, b.r., cotton, j. & miller, j. (2000). marginal mentoring: an examination of the effects of type of mentor and program design on work and career attitudes. academy of management journal, 47, 1177-1194. mentor and mentee expectations 25 rhodes, j.e, reddy, r, grossman, j.b. & lee, j.m. (2002). volunteer mentoring relationships with minority youth: analysis of same-race versus cross-race matches. journal of applied psychology, 32 (10), 2114-2133. rigsby, j.t, siegel, p.h. & spiceland, j.d. (1998). mentoring among management advisory services professionals: an adaptive mechanism to cope with rapid corporate change. managerial auditing journal, 13 (2),107-116. scandura, t.a., manuel, j.t, werther, w.b. & lankau, m.j. (1996). perspectives on mentoring. leadership and organisation development journal, 17 (3), 50-56. scandura, t.a. (1992). mentorship and career mobility: an empirical investigation. journal of organizational behavior, 13, 169-174. scandura, t.a. (1998). dysfunctional mentoring relationships and outcomes. journal of management, 24, 449-467. scandura, t.a. & williams, e.a. (1998). initiating mentoring: contrasting the reports of protégés in assigned and informal relationships. proceedings of the southern management association meeting. new orleans, la. scandura, t.a. & williams, e.a. (2001). an investigation of the moderating effects of gender on the relationships between mentorship initiation and protégé perceptions of the mentoring function. journal of vocational behaviour, 59, 342-363. scandura, t.a. & williams, e.a. (2002). formal mentoring: the promise and the precipice. in c.l. cooper & r.j. burke (eds.). the new world of work: challenges and opportunities, 49-74. oxford: blackwell. seibert, s. (1999). the effectiveness of facilitated mentoring: a longitudinal quasi-experiment. journal of vocational behaviour, 54 (1), 483-502. strauss, a. & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research: grounded theory. procedures and techniques. newbury park: sage. thomas, d.a. (1999). beyond the simple demography-power hypothesis: how blacks in power influence white-mentorblack-protégé developmental relationships. in a. murrell, f.j. cosby & r. ely (eds). mentoring dilemmas: developmental relationships within multicultural organisations, 157-170. lawrence erlbaum. thomas, d.a. (2001). the truth about mentoring minorities: race matters. har vard business review, 79 (4), 98-111. wickman, f. & sjodin, t. (1997). mentoring. new york: mcgrawhill. young, a.m. & perrewe, p.l. (2004). the role of expectations in the mentoring exchange: an analysis of mentor and protégé expectations in relation to perceived support. journal of managerial issues, 16 (1), 103-127. pinho, coetzee, schreuder26 article information authors: penny abbott1 xenia goosen1 jos coetzee1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: penny abbott postal address: 4a birnam road, forest town, johannesburg 2193, south africa dates: received: 07 sept. 2011 accepted: 18 may 2013 published: 18 sept. 2013 how to cite this article: abbott, p., goosen, x., & coetzee, j. (2013). the human resource function contribution to human development in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #408. 14 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.408 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the human resource function contribution to human development in south africa in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • critical evaluation of the literature       • human development       • development of hrm       • south african economic development and hrm • research design    • research approach    • research strategy    • research method       • research setting       • entrée and establishing researcher role       • data collection methods       • recording of data       • data analyses       • reporting • findings    • the impact of the environment    • attitudes to transformation    • the contribution that hr work can make to society    • what needs to happen to enable hr practitioners to make a better contribution? • discussion    • outline of the results    • limitations of the study    • suggestions for further research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors' contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: this article discusses the extent to which human under-development in south africa and the consequent societal problems of poverty and inequality are addressed by the work of hr practitioners.research purpose: the purpose of the study was to provide empirical evidence of the appropriateness of current hr practice in south african socio-economic conditions and to make suggestions for improvement. motivation for the study: societal problems caused by human under-development are impacting more and more on organisations in south africa. it is currently not known to what extent and in what way hr work contributes to the improvement of this situation. research design and method: an interpretive approach was adopted. qualitative methods within a basic qualitative study strategy were used, including interviewing and a focus group. a sample of 50 individual hr practitioners at various organisational levels was interviewed. data were analysed by means of thematic analysis. main findings: societal problems caused by human under-development impact tremendously on the daily work of hr practitioners. many hr practitioners do play an employee advocate role within the workplace but do not see this role as extending further to any degree. some role models of more strategic responses were found. practical/managerial implications: hr practitioners would better fulfil their mandate to work for the success of their organisation if they took pro-active steps to accelerate human development outside their organisations. contribution/value-add: empirical evidence is presented to support efforts to broaden the focus of hr work to human development. this linkage has not previously been researched. introduction top ↑ almost by definition, the role of hr practitioners is concerned with people development. it may, however, be asked whether they can achieve success in this area if their organisations are situated in a society with generally low levels of human development. more than 15 years ago, ulrich and researchers at the university of michigan (ulrich, 1997) said that one of the key roles of an hr practitioner was that of employee champion; it was later changed to that of employee advocate. this article will explore whether the time has come in south africa to reaffirm the importance of that role and redefine it to that of people advocate, so that it refers to people both inside and outside the organisation: if successful, the hr professional has the opportunity to become central to the effectiveness not only of their organisation but to also have an impact on the social and economic environment in which they operate. if there was ever a time in the sun for hr that time is now (boninelli & meyer, 2011, p. 446). seventeen years after the first democratic elections in south africa the indicators of quality of life for the large majority of the population of the country show that insufficient progress has been made in reducing inequality, poverty and quality of life (undp, 2010a). although the economic status of the country is, in international comparative terms, described as ‘upper middle income’, large numbers of extremely poor people have little opportunity to participate in and benefit from the economy (npc, 2011). south africa is a divided and unequal society (npc, 2011), but, as ramphele (2009) pointed out, we have only one economy and it is the distribution of the benefits that divides society. human resource (hr) practitioners work almost exclusively in the formal sectors of the economy (including the public sector), and in organisations of 150 employees or more. they therefore interact with, or impact on, considerably fewer than the 9.2 million people employed in the formal sector (18% of the population). much modern hr work has to do with sophisticated hr practices aimed at engaging knowledge workers in order to drive organisational success in a modern, global business world (boninelli & meyer, 2011). can it therefore be said that hr work is elitist and that hr practitioners work in splendid isolation, oblivious of the inequalities of society and the ravaging effects of the poverty around them? little attention has been paid to the linkage between hr work and human development in the country. some influential hr commentators in south africa introduced the idea in 2009 that hr practice rooted in the developed world was not appropriate in the specific context of developing countries in general and south africa in particular (crous, 2010; sibiya, 2010). the purpose of this research study, carried out during 2010 and 2011, was to investigate whether this was true and, if it was true, to find ways in which south african hr practice could be developed so as to be more appropriate in the south african context. there are few references in the literature to the linkage between hrm (human resource management) and human development. researchers in the contextual paradigm of hrm (e.g. brewster, 2007) have emphasised the interaction between societal institutions, national and local culture and hrm, but have not specifically discussed the interaction of the level of human development in a society and hrm practice. in a series of research studies conducted after 1997 ulrich, brockbank, johnson, sandholtz and younger (2008) made the first mention of the necessity for hr practitioners to interpret social context in relation to the organisation’s hr strategy. in south africa, commentators such as nel (2010) and bernstein (2010) discussed the role of business in societal development, but make no specific mention of hrm in this role. the research problem for the research study was that hrm as practised in south africa was not aligned to its socio-economic context. the research objectives included exploration of hr practitioners’ perceptions of the appropriateness of what they did in their work relative to the socio-economic context; the construction of a framework for more appropriate practice; and an exploration of factors which would influence the implementation of such a framework. at present there is little academic work based on empirical evidence which explores the linkage between hr work and human development. insights and knowledge gained from this study can help to inform education and training institutions, individual hr practitioners and hr professional bodies about the linkage and about ways to work with that linkage to improve human development and therefore, ultimately, the success of organisations and society. the next section presents a review of the literature in fields relevant to the research. the research design chosen to meet the research objectives is then presented, followed by the research findings relevant to this article. the article ends with a discussion, conclusions and recommendations. critical evaluation of the literature the literature is explored firstly by working from concepts of human development to concepts of the development of hrm, and secondly by looking at literature linking the two fields, which is the specific focus of this research. human development the concept of human development is explored in the discipline of development economics which evolved during the 20th century. some economists realised that countries which had not been industrialised by the mid-1950s would not be able to follow the same path of economic development as the older industrialised countries because the world had changed since those countries had become industrialised (todaro & smith, 2006). the philosophy of economic development was debated and a school of thought evolved according to which human development was the primary purpose of economic development. in other words, economic development should not aim simply at improving the material aspects of human life, but also the quality of that life in broad terms. amartya sen, the 1998 nobel laureate in economics, was a pioneer of this school of thought. he developed the ‘capability approach’, which is concerned with the ability or non-ability of a poor person to function and live as a decent human being (evans, 2002; todaro & smith, 2006). the national development plan adopted by the south african government in 2012 is based on this capability approach, which emphasises the freedom of individuals to exercise social choices and choose what they value. the capability approach is the basis of modern methods of measuring human development, such as the human development index (hdi) (undp, 2010b). the hdi measures progress towards three end products of development: longevity (life expectancy at birth); knowledge (adult literacy and years of schooling); and standard of living as measured by real per capita income. a more recent and even broader measurement of human development is the gross national happiness index, which measures psychological well-being, time use, community vitality, culture, health, education, environmental diversity, living standard and governance (gnhi, 2011). a report for the undp in 2010 stated that: … the correlation between economic growth and changes in the non-income components of human development over their period of study [1970–2009] is nearly zero. these results suggest that the oft-repeated dictum that growth is a necessary condition for increasing human development is simply not true (rodriguez, 2010). this would imply that improved human development is more dependent on policy choices and intervention implementation than on economic growth. development of hrm simultaneously to the developments in this school of economic theory there were profound changes in the world of work, brought about by the advent of the knowledge and information economy. the globalisation of the world’s economy and businesses also led to massive changes in the way companies were managed (pugh & hickson, 2000). in parallel to these changes in the world of work and management approaches, the evolution of human resource management (hrm) followed a path described by toulson and defryn (2007) as leading from welfarist (looking after employee interests) to technicist (looking after employee efficiency) and by other researchers as leading from operational to strategic (ulrich, 1997). authors such as jackson (2004) had misgivings about the trend of this evolution, believing that the underlying values of organisations were moving from a humanistic value system to an instrumental value system, to the detriment of the people employed by organisations. however, most hrm research has promoted the move of hrm in the direction of becoming more strategic. ulrich (1997) and his co-researchers have expressed this trend in various models of the roles of hr practitioners and the competencies required to enact those roles successfully. ulrich originally proposed four roles for hrm, all of which had to be held in balance with one another in order to produce successful organisational outcomes. these four roles were revised in ulrich and brockbank (2005) in a model which emphasised the integration of all four roles in the hr leader’s role. the competencies required to fulfil these roles have been variously described by these researchers, with the latest model being published in ulrich et al. (2008). the models are summarised in figure 1. figure 1: evolution of multiple role models of hrm (a) phase 1 of the hrm role model, (b) phase 2 of the hrm role model, (c) phase 3 of the hrm role model. the message that these models was intended to convey, that hr work is complex but all aspects need to be held in balance, has been somewhat submerged by the concept of hr as a business partner. this concept emerged through work led by ulrich, which began to focus on the deliverables of hrm rather than the work itself (ulrich & brockbank, 2010). these authors originally intended that hr practitioners would be equal partners, bringing knowledge of organisational behaviour to the implementation of business strategy, being ‘partners to the business as they work to create value for employees, customers, shareholders, communities, and management’ (ulrich & brockbank, 2010, p. 2). however, in many cases hr practitioners have interpreted this to mean that they must only address problems raised by line managers, rather than bring their own observations and expertise to the discussion, thereby subordinating the hr agenda to the line managers’ agenda. this subordination has left some hr practitioners feeling that their professionalism has been diminished.a further concept important for the purposes of this article is that of the competing paradigms of universalist versus contextual hrm. these paradigms have been elucidated in the work of researchers such as brewster (2007). the paradigms emerged in response to the globalisation of the world’s economy which saw the entry of increasing numbers of companies into foreign markets. the question asked in this type of research has been: is it appropriate to assume that hr practices from the home country can be exported without adaptation to the new market? persuasive conclusions from this research are that conditions in different countries differ to such an extent that hr practices have to be tailored to suit local conditions. these conditions may include variations in culture, institutions and labour market functioning (brewster, 2007). there is evidence that, when compared over time, hr practices in different countries are sometimes on a diverging path, sometimes on a converging path and sometimes ‘cross-verge’ (that is, they influence one another and end up with a new adaptation of practice) (mcgaughey & de cieri, 1999). ulrich et al. (2008) discovered significant differences in hr practice in china compared to the rest of the world and remarked that these differences probably reflected the early stages of development of the hr function in that country. his discovery introduced maturity of the hr function itself as another variable in hr practice. ulrich, brockbank, younger and ulrich (2012) have since explored differences across the world to determine how the hr function adds value to organisations. south african economic development and hrm south africa faces severe social and economic problems. the levels of unemployment and inequality in the country are much higher than they should be, given the country’s level of resources, and contribute negatively to almost every index of comparison with other countries (bernstein, 2010; npc, 2011; turok, 2008). south africa is, like any less-developed country, unique (todaro & smith, 2006). economic development in this country has been influenced not only by global economic trends, but also by the distortions in the economy that occurred under colonial and apartheid governments during the 20th century (turok, 2008). this resulted in an economy unprepared in many ways for its re-entry into the globalised economy after 1990. today south africa attempts to compete with other countries on the basis of an under-developed socio-economic infrastructure. unfortunately there is little consensus between major institutions in the country as to the appropriate route to improved human development in south africa. the policies of the government have emphasised macro-economic stability and growth as the basis from which to fund improvements in human development (turok, 2008), but the development funded by these macro-economic policies has not occurred on a scale to meet either the needs or the expectations of the majority of the population (npc, 2011). the indicators of human development in south africa deteriorated markedly between 1990 and 2006 and have since recovered only slightly; whilst in other developing countries the indicators have improved considerably (see figure 2). figure 2: human development index trends. business, as an institution, has not been effective in adopting a useful approach to human development, nor a sound basis for engagement with the government on this matter. the business lobby maintains the ‘trickle-down’ approach and blames the lack of development on poor delivery by government. recently, influential authors and business leaders have been saying that business will have to find new approaches to both of these issues (bernstein, 2010; mills, 2010). in addition, corporate governance worldwide has realised that the sustainability of business depends on better corporate citizenship, and this has effectively ended the debate about the role of business in society. the king iii report (iod, 2009) and the companies act (republic of south africa, 2008) both emphasised that a company must play a pro-active and large role in relation to its social context. conditions prevailing in this social context were summarised in the diagnostic overview by the national planning commission (npc, 2011). this report indicated that, unless action was taken, the markets as well as human and social capital available to organisations would not in the future be of a quality to ensure organisational success. the challenges of transformation in south africa go beyond economic development to issues about how people interact with one another and cooperate to the good of society as a whole (nel, 2010; npc, 2011; ramphele, 2008). since 1994 an enormous amount of legislation has been passed to change employment practices and to force companies to act constructively to bring about both social and economic transformation. these transformation imperatives set a major part of the agenda for hr practice in south africa, and if these imperatives are seen in combination with the global issues impacting on the workplace, such as the global talent shortage, global labour mobility, the impact of technology and generational differences, it becomes clear why the hr agenda is overcrowded (boninelli & meyer, 2011). however, the contribution actually made by hr practitioners to human development in south africa may be restricted to their work within the organisation and even then their contribution may be insignificant. there is little direct information available on the extent to which hr practitioners make a contribution to human development but there is a considerable body of evidence on deficiencies in areas falling within the scope of hr work. examples include the fact that skills development has been lagging badly (temkin, 2010; turok, 2008) and the fact that industrial relations structures appear to be unable to deliver the constructive relationships necessary for industrial peace (thompson, 2011). employment equity advances are also not happening as fast as they should, and here a shocking example is the lack of improvement in the employment of disabled people (ee commission, 2010). nel (2010) reported that his surveys since 1985 on transformational leadership practices within south african businesses showed that towards the end of the 2000s more than half the managers he surveyed believed that their organisations were still largely untransformed. the broad-based black economic empowerment (bbbee) policy approach recognises that companies must play a more constructive role in transforming the economy and society. corporate social investment (csi) requirements are built into the bbbee approach. however, bbbee and csi are often not incorporated into the hr function of a business organisation and it has been the author’s personal experience that the hr function is often not even involved in any way in the organisation’s csi programmes. regarding contributions by hr practitioners to improve pipelines of educated and skilled people, no such contributions have been documented at the time of writing this article. nel believed that: business is not only an extraordinarily powerful influence in society, but it enjoys almost unparalleled capacity to exercise constructive influence in society. in the early 1990s south african leaders proved they had the imagination and wherewithal to develop historic breakthroughs in driving the thinking and later action that delivered our political transformation. the ‘class of 2010’ has to now step up to the mark and get things moving along a road of long-term sustainable solutions. (2010, p. 190) research design top ↑ research approach this study adopted an interpretive approach, which is suitable for developing an insightful understanding of hr practitioners’ perceptions. the meanings that hr practitioners may attach to their work are individual and subjective. the interpretive approach does not search for universal truths but brings to light individual hr practitioners’ subjective perceptions of the current and future role of hr.the research objectives were exploratory in nature, as the study did not start from a position of having a theory to test. instead, the aim was to develop a framework from ideas and insights formulated during an exploration of the topic. the author as researcher was playing an insider role, having been an hr practitioner for many years, and could therefore use insights based on her experience to interpret the research findings. these factors led the researcher to choose the interpretive approach. research strategy in order to explore the research problem thoroughly, data were collected from a wide variety of settings and from a large number of people. using an approach elaborated by caelli, ray and mill (2003), a basic qualitative research strategy was chosen. the advantages of this type of strategy were enumerated by merriam (1998, p. 11) and one of these is the fact that it allows the researcher to ‘discover and understand the perspectives and worldviews of the people involved.’ the strategy involves description, interpretation and understanding.within this strategy, the form of study chosen was a cross-sectional design, the units of analysis being individual hr practitioners in organisations. bryman and bell (2003) described the typical form of a cross-sectional design as interviews at a single point in time with the aim of identifying patterns of association. in qualitative research the chosen strategy may lead to a literature review being conducted prior to or after the collection of data, depending on the theory approach chosen. the researcher chose to conduct a literature survey prior to commencing the collection of data in order to frame the topic on some basic theories of human development and hrm. additional literature was consulted after data collection in order to provide a theoretical basis for insights derived from the data. research method research setting this research study focused only on hr practitioners in positions providing hr services to employees of the organisation, and therefore excluded consultants, recruitment agencies and training providers. the setting of the research was within organisations. data were initially collected from many kinds of organisations, including private; public and non-government (ngo) sector organisations. at the data analysis stage, however, it was found that the issues reported in the public sector differed markedly from those from other kinds of organisations, and the decision was made to exclude data from the public sector in order to maintain focus on the research objectives.an additional focus of the study, not discussed in this article, was to examine the hr profession as a whole in south africa. entrée and establishing researcher role phase 1 of the research involved collecting data from a set of informed commentators (people knowledgeable about hr work, but not practising currently, except in one case) about their views on hr practice. access to these commentators was gained directly by the researcher, sometimes from her own network and in a few cases by referral from other contacts. an explanation of the purpose of the research and an invitation to participate were sent to the participants by e-mail. permission was obtained from them for their views to be attributed.phase 2 of the research involved approaching practitioners directly to collect data about their perceptions and experiences. the total population of hr practitioners in south africa is unknown. there is a known population of practitioners who are registered with the south african board for people practice (sabpp) or are members of other professional associations in the field, but according to estimates in the profession, these people represent a minority of hr practitioners in south africa. access to participants of the study was therefore obtained through gatekeepers holding data-bases of e-mail addresses obtained from other sources. these included two universities (for access to their post-graduate hrm students) and a large retailer of business books, conferences and training courses in south africa. an e-mail was sent out through those gatekeepers to invite participation in telephone interviews on the topic, which was briefly explained. participation in this part of the research was therefore voluntary and self-selected. a focus group met in the final phase of the research to discuss whether some of the early findings were resonating with them. the research and the focus group were announced at a conference of hr executives held in march 2011 by the gatekeeper (the organiser of the conference) and volunteers were requested. sampling: purposeful sampling was used for the first group of commentators, and a maximum variation sampling strategy was used (patton 2001). when this strategy is used, a sample is chosen from which common themes can be derived even from participants who vary widely on chosen dimensions. participants were chosen who could give views based on different fields of interaction with hr work: consultants, academics, a government policy adviser, organised business groups, hr professional body office holders current and past, and ex-hr practitioners now in other business capacities. a total of 17 interviews were held with this group of participants. for the main group of hr practitioner participants, a target sample size of 50 was set as being able to give reasonable coverage of a diversity of work settings but at the same time be manageable within the resources of the researcher. the sampling approach was convenience sampling because purposeful sampling strategies were not possible with this widespread and completely unknown population. the gatekeepers’ address lists could not be filtered to fit only this research study’s targeted population and hence the e-mailed invitation was sent to more than 25 000 recipients. however, the e-mail did set out clear inclusion criteria, and as people responded data quality was addressed through an initial screening of the volunteers. this ensured that they met the basic selection criteria discussed in the section on the research setting. within seven days 76 people who met the criteria had volunteered, at which point no further volunteers were accepted. anticipating that some interviews would fail to happen, the first 63 were scheduled for interviews and the others, with their consent, put onto a reserve list. some of these scheduled interviews could not take place and in the end 50 interviews were completed. although no attempt was made to structure the sample on any demographic basis, a very diverse sample was obtained, measured on the basis of organisational level, gender, racial background, company size and industry sector. a total of 19 executive-level, 23 professional-individual-level and eight junior-level hr practitioners participated in the research. companies in which they worked ranged from seven small companies (fewer than 150 employees), nine medium companies (150 to 1000 employees) and 19 large companies (1000 to 5000 employees) to 15 very large companies (more than 5000 employees). many sectors of the economy were included, such as agriculture and timber, mining, manufacturing, construction, entertainment and hospitality, fishing and food, health, retail, financial and other services, telecommunications, state-owned enterprises, and higher education. gauteng, western cape, durban, and rural and small town locations were represented. work settings were extremely diverse, and included the giant corporate headquarters of financial service companies, a timber mill deep in a forest, a small cell-phone tower construction company, a large fishing company, a power station, a university, a small computer services company and a large-scale catering company. the focus group of volunteer hr executives included five people from companies that provided pharmaceutical services, utility services, consulting services, financial services and technical research. data collection methods all data were collected in person by the researcher from november 2010 to march 2011. individual face-to-face interviews of up to one hour were conducted with 14 of the informed commentators in phase 1 of the study and telephone interviews of the same length with the other three, for geographic reasons. the interviews were semi-structured, and an interview protocol prepared from the literature review was used. the protocol was developed further as the interviews proceeded. interviews were exploratory and non-directive and differed according to the field of expertise of the participant. the interviews during phase 2 were semi-structured and based on issues emerging from the phase 1 interviews. two pilot interviews were conducted, one face to face and the other by telephone, and as a result the interview protocol was adapted slightly. of the main group of interviews, two were conducted face to face and 46 by telephone. interviews were scheduled for 40 to 60 minutes, at a time which was convenient for the participant, and generally lasted for that length of time. variations in the scope and length of the interviews occurred, depending on factors such as the availability of the participant, brevity of responses and depth of reflection. data quality at this stage was ensured by using follow-up questions based on the researcher’s in-depth knowledge of the field. the method used in the focus group was a discussion facilitated by the researcher and based on a short presentation of early findings of phases 1 and phase 2 of the research. specific questions were addressed to the group, and a free-ranging discussion ensued. recording of data all the interviews as well as the focus group discussion were recorded on a digital recorder and transcribed verbatim by the researcher. backups were kept of both the electronic data and the transcriptions. no loss of data occurred during the research study. data analyses the main data analysis method used in this research study was a thematic analysis according to the guidelines laid down by braun and clarke (2006) and henning (2004). braun and clarke, recognising that thematic analysis was widely used but poorly demarcated, set out some detailed guidelines for conducting such an analysis in a rigorous way, as well as some criteria for assessing the quality of the analysis. the term ‘theme’ is therefore used in the sense of ‘a level of patterned response or meaning within the data set’ (braun & clarke, 2006, p. 82). the general outline of the phases of a thematic analysis is to move from an overview to the generation of initial codes to a searching for themes. these themes are then reviewed, defined and named. finally the report is produced by selecting extract examples and relating the analysis to the research objectives and literature. braun and clarke discussed various approaches to theme identification. some of the themes in this research study were identified in a data-driven way (they became manifest from participants’ answers to questions) and some were derived from a theoretical framework based on the literature study. also, some of the themes were identified on an explicit or semantic level (directly from what the interviewee actually said) and some on a latent level (only becoming apparent from an examination of underlying assumptions held by the interviewee). what might be termed a contingent approach to theme identification was therefore used. patton (2001) stated that a description of the data must be separated from an interpretation of the data. therefore extracts from the interviews were grouped into broad themes before attempts were made to interpret them. in some cases, straightforward presentation of the data was possible from this grouping, for example, ideas on making a difference to the education system. in other cases, the topic was complex and data had to be interpreted and compared to other data before insights could be constructed. an example of these is attitudes to the contribution that hr work can make to society. the integrity of the data analysis and interpretation was addressed, in view of the possibility of researcher bias, by using an independent co-researcher. this researcher, who has experience in qualitative analysis, reviewed all the phase 2 interview transcripts and presented her independent analysis on some core issues. this was then discussed by the researchers. the ‘golden thread’ of argument arrived at by the principal researcher was reviewed by the co-researcher and she agreed that it was a valid interpretation of the data. reporting the research study produced a considerable amount of data. this article deals with a sub-set of the research objectives and therefore only findings related to the topic of this article will be presented here. the research findings are reported by theme, using interview extracts and quotations where appropriate, to provide a clear and rich description of the perceptions of the participants. findings top ↑ the impact of the environment in order to understand the extent of the impact of the external environment on the work of hr practitioners, the researcher asked phase 2 participants in the study to estimate how much of their work was impacted by each of the following: ‘specifically south african issues’; ‘generic hr work demands’; and ‘industry-specific or competitiveness or world class issues’. the term ‘south african issues’ was deliberately not defined, as the follow-up question asked the participant to name issues he or she thought would fall under that heading. the most prevalent view (18 responses) was that generic hr work demands had the biggest impact on their work, but 13 of the participants felt that ‘south african issues’ constituted a major impact on their work and 15 felt that ‘south african issues’ constituted perhaps around one third of the impact on their work. the responses were highly influenced by level of employment, and the executives mostly felt that south african issues were highly significant. most of the individual contributors felt that at least one third of their work was highly impacted, whilst none of the junior participants felt the impact of south african issues. the executive responses indicated a strategic view, for example: ‘if you look at the political situation impact, the economic situation, unemployment, to a large extent, i mean it’s huge, everything that we do is impacted by the events within the country’ (participant 6, male executive). the ‘south african’ issues that were considered to have an impact on hr work included, in order of frequency of mention: education or skills development, legislation in general, employment equity, social and/or family problems, hiv and aids and wellness, labour relations, debt and financial issues, bbbee, crime, politics, the economy, transformation, inequality, and social responsibility. there were no obvious differences in frequency of mention of the different issues between the levels of participants. many participants commented on the fact that employees brought their social problems to work with them and that this affected productivity, relationships at work and employee morale. attitudes to transformation attitudes to transformation were explored in order to understand whether this was resisted, tolerated or welcomed by hr practitioners. participants were positive about transformation and bbbee requirements and felt that these national programmes helped them to promote transformation within their organisations:‘i feel strongly that, because certain groups of people in our society were denied educational opportunities, we will afford people those opportunities, even if they don’t contribute to the company itself, but it’s good for south africa for us to do that’ (participant 29, male executive). hr practitioners did, however, feel that business has been dragging its feet for years, and that the legislation was a good way to enforce change. this view was captured by two of the participants: ‘if i use ourselves as an example, the bee scorecard accelerated the implementation of the intentions, whereas before it was not executed at the rate that it would be. it becomes actually quite clear where it’s best to invest in order to improve your score and that’s what i’m saying is happening now’ (interviewee 36, male executive). ‘why is it that we’re in the position we’re in if we really believe that these things needed to be transformed. so to make it very concrete – some of these organisations sit with pdi representation at 30% and even if we just take the issue of our democracy – that’s been 16 years, and why are we not seeing the kind of progress that we would expect if these things were readily embraced’ (interviewee 2, male executive). the contribution that hr work can make to society do hr practitioners actually believe that their work can make a difference in society at large or do they believe the impact of their work is purely internal? the most common view (15 out of 34 responses) was that hr work did have an impact, but that its impact was limited to a ‘ripple effect’, for example:‘you find that people that are in employment are supporting a whole lot of unemployed family members and in some way, we’re helping them to be resilient, that they then are able to influence the rest of the family because they in fact hold the family together’ (interviewee 47, female professional). a minority (8) felt that their work had little or no impact, for example: ‘i wouldn’t say hr per se, is having an impact, our companies have an impact on greater society but not hr per se’ (interviewee 37, female professional). however, about one-third (12 people) felt that their work could have a significant impact on society. this view was more prevalent at the executive level (7 out of the 13 who discussed this point) and rare at individual contributor level (3 out of 18) and junior level (1 out of 5). the response of one executive demonstrates this line of thinking: ‘i think it’s quite vast really, and i can think about it from a macro and a micro level, because just looking at the hr work all down the line: generation of employment opportunities; wellness and wellbeing of people; literacy training and capacity building; how you engage people in the workplace which impacts their role and function in society; and change management affects interaction in society. so you might tend to think that you are doing something because it’s your kpi but the impact of what you’ve done in the workplace actually has far-reaching implications on society’ (interviewee 25, female executive). it seems that professional background makes a difference to whether hr practitioners view their work as contributing to society. the participants with a psychology or social worker background tended to have a narrower view of the impact of hr work on society than participants with an hrm or sociology qualification. this effect was stronger at individual contributor level than at executive or junior levels. hr practitioners seemed to ‘walk the talk’ about helping people. voluntary community work where they used their professional skills was prevalent amongst hr practitioners, and about two-thirds of the people who were asked this question did undertake such work. most of those who did not do voluntary work (one-third of the participants) said they would like to, but felt they had not identified suitable opportunities. examples of voluntary work included: participation in faith-based organisations’ social programmes, mainly hiv-related; advising people on labour law matters; career counselling in schools; mentoring small businesses on hr related matters; and mentoring young people. what needs to happen to enable hr practitioners to make a better contribution? the informed commentators interviewed in phase 1 of the research felt strongly that hr practitioners were not as forceful and independent as they should be (and as they used to be in the 1980s):‘hr gets 2/10 on supporting, promoting, being activists to social policy issues. part of sa’s problem is the hr fraternity – it must move from a mindset of pessimism to a mindset of optimism, get excited, try to make a difference, every little bit can help’ (phase 1: participant 7, male executive). ‘hr often now don’t think it’s their place to care – that’s for legislation and the unions – so hr is passive it used to be different, they used to be persistent upfront change agents – they would come back bruised and go and fight again’ (phase 1: participant 6, male executive). some phase 2 participants agreed that great courage was required to make a difference: ‘it takes a hell of an argument at board level but people are basically good-hearted, so debate with them and let them see the link and what you’re trying to achieve. link society to business, that’s the challenge of hr in this country – you have to have a fundamental awareness of the socio-economic dynamics around us and act on them – don’t just have the awareness, but act on it but there is a lack of courage’ (participant 12, male executive). ‘i suppose hr has for so long been told to become a business partner that hr has become maybe immune to those kinds of issues and hr wants so very badly to become a partner that we have abdicated that hr role to being called one of the boys’ (participant 12, female executive). however, the chairperson of the sabpp, interviewed in phase 1 of the research, was adamant that the role of business partner was in no way contradictory to that of an activist, and said that when you talked people issues, you were talking business issues: you need to have the strength of mind to say what is the goal, where are we going. it’s scary, it’s very uncomfortable. but i’d rather be uncomfortable with you than uncomfortable with me. that’s a choice i’ve made. i always say, if you want to be popular, don’t be in hr. you have to keep your self-esteem, your self-worth, intact. if your locus of control is external, you’re going to struggle. phase 2 participants made various suggestions as to why a better contribution was not made, and these included structural issues (hr resources were limited); approach issues (people did not see it as important and did not have the courage to raise the issue); and thinking skills: ‘i think the hr community is so into their companies and the reason is that the majority of companies would like to operate with a very small hr structure, and therefore those individuals just have to get on and do their job for that company and that limits any ambition or need to try and do more than that because they are already stretched’ (interviewee 1, female executive). ‘most hr people, we look at business and we say that we’re business people doing hr as opposed to being south african people in business doing hr’ (participant 3, male executive). ‘hr people need to develop more spine, they have to be able to go to the ceo and say no, you are wrong, this is not the way to do it, and take the heat for it. senior hr people see themselves as corks on life’s ocean, their time is not their own’ (participant 11, female executive). ‘people are really not there, are really not thinking at a higher level. if you start thinking about levels of systemic thinking and levels of work, a lot of hr people, even at executive level, they’re still at individual contributor level whereas they need to start moving more towards strategic intent’ (participant 25, female executive). there are various channels through which hr can make a contribution, but it would seem that in many cases these channels are blocked. for example, it is common practice for the csi function not to be part of the hr function or for the hr function to have no linkages at all with csi. this prevents the linkage between, for example, building recruitment pipelines and helping to develop better science teaching in schools. another instance where practice could be more appropriate is in involvement in skills development. the extent of investment in learnerships varied widely amongst participants’ companies and was seemingly independent of the size of the companies. no learnerships at all, discontinued learnerships and very limited learnerships were common occurrences. only one participant mentioned that the company ran a learnership for disabled people. few companies, even the large and very large, involved their staff in the governance structures of sector education and training authorities and even fewer got involved with further education and training colleges. some people felt that hr was too functional and narrow and was not responding to the imperatives of transformation. one participant lamented: ‘i think we lack soul in hr, the human touch has gone, the social conscience is lost, it’s a mean type of philosophy’ (participant 41, male professional). but transformation is a strategic issue as much as a people-centred issue. this phase 1 participant strongly believed that the strategic view is critical: ‘hr people, when considering strategy, should bring in the social context for discussion – they need to be aggressive, spell out the realities out there, spell out the impact of certain policies and strategies – how they contribute to or alleviate social issues, force the debate – are we here for the long term – if so – we must contribute to society. maybe this is a widening of the employee champion role’ (phase 1: participant 4, male academic and consultant). some examples of ideas and current good practices in linking hr work to human development in society were forthcoming, although many phase 2 participants had difficulty in thinking of practical ways in which these linkages could be made. sufficient ideas were contributed during phases 1 and 2 of the research to enable the construction of possible frameworks for action. discussion top ↑ the main objective of the study was to explore the linkage or alignment of hr practice in south africa with its socio-economic context and therefore with human development in this country. since this is a topic on which no empirical research has been done, this study makes an initial contribution towards understanding how the linkages can be made and how hr practice can be improved. it is hoped that through this work the contribution of hr practice to the development of the quality of life for all south africans can be enhanced.if human development is to be measured more comprehensively than simply by means of economic progress, as discussed in the literature review of this article, then hr practitioners need to consider to what extent they can contribute, and are contributing, to the various factors of human development. findings on the impact of the socio-economic environment on hr work makes it clear that hr practitioners cannot isolate themselves from this environment. if they ignore the effects of social problems and the lack of human development they will be trapped in a spiral of ill-effects on the capabilities of future employees and they will continue to try to create productive, world-class organisations in an environment increasingly incapable of fostering such organisations. participants in this research differed in their views on whether their work could make a difference in society. this shows that it cannot be taken for granted that individual hr practitioners, including executives, will see a need to make a difference and/or that they will feel able to take action to make a difference. hr education and training often prepare people to fulfil their internal, functional roles and do not sufficiently emphasise the need to impact on the environment. this was recognised by an hr academic interviewed in phase 1 of the research, who said, ‘up to now we’ve been training […] gofers – compliant functionaries. we don’t develop hr people who have a social consciousness. even strategic thinking is about the business.’ teaching on the role of hr would typically include the work of ulrich, whose work was discussed in the literature review. ulrich’s original conceptualisation of the role of employee champion was that it would be an internal role, seeking to balance demands on employees with improving the capability (resources) of employees to cope with those demands (ulrich, 1997). the researchers subsequently developed the role to that of employee advocate, but still cast it as an internal role. ulrich and brockbank (2005) described the role as caring for, listening and responding to employees; ensuring inclusion of employee-related issues into management discussions and strategy debates; creating a culture supportive of diversity; and at the same time being tough on holding people accountable. the participants in this research in general raised points that supported ulrich and brockbank’s view, but also felt that it was simply not possible to confine their attention to purely internal matters because of the symbiotic nature of the connections between an organisation’s internal and external environment. ulrich et al. (2008) were the first to describe this interconnectedness in their work and they identified several related competencies in their competency model (see figure 3), thereby acknowledging the contextual paradigm. interestingly, these competencies are grouped in the ‘business’ dimension rather than the ‘people’ dimension of their model; maybe this underlines the fact that business is a social institution. figure 3: views on hr's contribution to society. figure 4: competencies required by hr practitioners to connect appropriately with the socio-economic context. the interviews with thoughtful hr executives who viewed the field of hrm strategically revealed that they do in fact demonstrate these competencies, but there were several hr executives who did not see a wider role for hr and confined themselves to their internal role, albeit at a strategic, business level. the narrow, internal view demonstrated by the majority of individual contributors may not indicate a serious problem, because they are not expected to think strategically, but criteria for promotion to executive level may usefully be adapted to include some demonstration of understanding the connection between internal role and external impact. the root of the problem may be the dynamics of hrm development south africa since the 1980s, which has been driven extensively by economic and political forces. the development of hrm can be characterised by the following stages, as discerned by the researcher from personal experience and from the research interviews. • 1980s: there was a tremendous expansion of hr influence and its strategic role, particularly in the large corporate and multi-national companies in south africa. it was driven largely by labour relations and the socio-political developments of the transition to democracy. the 1980s were a period of great political unrest and the trade unions played a strongly political role, leading the opposition to apartheid. the workplace became one of the main battlegrounds for power. the response of employers, led by their hr heads, was to evolve sophisticated conflict resolution mechanisms to create and maintain peace in the workplace and in the surrounding communities in which their employees’ families lived. these hr heads were often involved in the peace committees, where they contributed their knowledge of conflict resolution. • 1990s: the strategic role of hr was diminished as the new government passed comprehensive employment legislation and the imperative became compliance. the reaction of business to the new government was partly one of relief, and business took a more passive approach to social reform, leaving it to the government to sort out. the emergence of organisation transformation functions centred on affirmative action, and the need to implement bee diverted attention from the need to transform people. a tidal wave of global competition hit south african business as it emerged from international sanctions and a protected era, leading to a concentration on competitive issues, which were not seen as involving people development issues. at the same time, rapid technological advances caused the pace of change to accelerate and the world of work to become increasingly complex. • 2000s: a divergence occurred in hr between: » hr functions which became more strategic as businesses realised the centrality of people engagement to business competitiveness and the importance of sustainability. » hr functions which became less strategic, bogged down in compliance issues and the difficulties of achieving significant changes in the demographics of their organisations (they ran out of ‘quick wins’). • this divergence may have deepened because of a shortage of experienced hr executives, which sometimes led to the appointment of people with insufficient experience. • 2010s: corporate governance developments are now raising the bar on hr practice. this coincides with a realisation in south african society that the role of civil society needs to be regenerated to achieve real socio-economic transformation. a debate has therefore emerged within hr (as seen in the interviews for this research study) as to its ability to address these major issues of the times. those hr functions which have over time become less strategic and bogged down in compliance issues will find it even more difficult to take on the new challenges. the skills gaps and lack of depth at senior hr levels, which were discussed by participants in this study, will also undermine the ability to respond. the net effect of the recent decades has been that hr work has become much more focused on internal matters. the strategic role of hr is increasingly accepted, but organisations expect this strategic role to be exercised in relation to internal people issues. however, the changing nature of corporate governance demands that business pay more conscious attention to the socio-economic context in which it operates. hr practitioners will need to find ways to respond to these demands if they wish to remain at the forefront of developments. the extent of the need to respond will probably depend on the levels of human development in a particular country. in more developed countries with high levels of human development, the external role of hr, although still present, will probably be less significant than in countries with low levels of human development. also of importance, as ulrich et al. (2008) discovered, is the level of maturity of the hr function itself – until the function has laid a sound foundation of people management practices inside an organisation, it cannot turn its attention to the external environment. the relationship of these factors is shown in figure 5. in china, for example, the hr function has not yet matured and is still focusing on the basics of hrm. it is therefore unlikely that chinese hr executives will have a basis from which to play a socially activist role. the hr function in south africa, however, is generally mature and sophisticated, and hr executives should therefore be in a position to play such a role. figure 5: relative importance of the people advocate role. the range of factors impacting on human development can be wide, as has been seen. even if a fairly narrowly defined measure such as the hdi is taken as a basis, there are a number of nested cause-and-effect relationships on the factors of longevity, knowledge and income. if the gnhi is taken as a measure, many more factors are involved. this research study has not attempted to draw direct linkages between each factor of human development and hr work, but at a more aggregated level two frameworks of possible hr actions have been developed from the study. the first framework is for strategic use in an organisation and the second for individual hr practitioners. these frameworks are a preliminary formulation of what could be possible, and are offered for debate and further development. the two frameworks are shown in figures 6 and figure 7. figure 6: possible elements of a response at a strategic level in an organisation. figure 7: possible elements of a response at an individual hr practitioner level. outline of the results this research study has been a journey of exploration and discovery in the lived reality of contemporary hr practice in south africa. the researcher has been able to move towards linking the problems of lack of human development in our society to the realities of hr practice in the workplace. it has become clear that at present hr practitioners seldom put in place strategies and programmes to deal with these problems. to this extent, current hr practice can be considered as elitist. however, hr practitioners do not work in isolation because the effects of the lack of human development in south african society impact heavily on their daily work. a reformulated role for hr practitioners, adapted from the original employee advocate role put forward by ulrich and brockbank (2005), is proposed – that of people advocate. this role works both internally and externally alongside that of human capital developer, which takes on a wider meaning and covers human capital in the pipelines and the general societal context, as well as within the company. in this new formulation the other two roles in the 2005 model, functional expert and strategic partner, remain unchanged and within the organisational context (see figure 8). figure 8: roles of the hr leader. the hr leader is the point of intersection of the organisation and its wider societal context, as the leader must focus the societal context for the company context, but this positioning of the people advocate and human capital developer roles for all hr practitioners could give more meaning to their work. these roles can be based on the idea that ‘human resources is a crucial point of intersection between the broader society and business’ (researcher’s emphasis) (capelli & yang, 2010, p.1). several participants in the study felt concerned because topics of this nature were seldom discussed within the profession and expressed the hope that this research study would be the beginning of a more thoughtful approach in this area.the main recommendation emerging from the study is that the research report, which contains many sub-recommendations, be tabled and discussed at the sabpp. it is hoped that more research will be done in this area and clear policies and guidelines laid down for the hr profession. incorporation of human development issues into the curriculum of tertiary education in the field of hr would also support a broader view on the part of hr practitioners. it is further recommended that more academic work and books on relevant aspects of human development be published within the hr field to enhance awareness of the issues involved. limitations of the study the aim of this study was to explore the topic using qualitative methods and seek to understand some of the issues involved. the self-selection of phase 2 participants may have biased the responses towards social activism, and the lack of inclusion of other stakeholders such as line managers, boards of directors, and communities may have resulted in missing some of the issues involved. however, the responses given by the participants, and the insights gained from them, will be recognisable to a wide range of hr practitioners and it is therefore hoped that the study will ignite further discussion of the issues relevant to hr and human development. suggestions for further research research is suggested under the auspices of the sabpp to develop the frameworks proposed in this article and to compile a feasible index of human development, containing factors that hr practitioners can contribute to directly. from such research it may be possible to draw a system diagram of the linkages between hr work and human development. this would allow tracking to be done and interventions in this area to be managed. conclusion there is a groundswell of concern in south africa that our social system is failing to deliver acceptable progress on improving the quality of life of the majority of our population. the national development plan of 2012 provides a framework within which the part that organisations, whether private sector, public sector or ngos, need to play is clearly set out. this can provide hr practitioners with the opportunity to take a lead in integrating their workplace with the society around them and in so doing, provide meaningful programmes to improve the human capital value chain both within and outside their organisations. taking up the employee advocate role will not be easy, but it could be one of the most meaningful steps for any hr practitioner to take. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions this article was written equally by p.a. (university of johannesburg) and reviewed by j.c. (university of johannesburg) and x.g. (university of johannesburg). references top ↑ bernstein, a. (2010). the case for business in developing economies. johannesburg: penguin books.boninelli, i., & meyer, t. (2011). human capital trends – building a sustainable organisation. randburg: knowres publishing. braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3, 77–101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa brewster, c. (2007). comparative hrm: european views and perspectives. international journal of human resource management, 18(5), 769–787. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190701248182 bryman, a., & bell, e. (2003). business research methods. oxford: oxford university press. caelli, k., ray, l., & mill, j. (2003). ‘clear as mud’: toward greater clarity in generic qualitative research. international journal of qualitative methods, 2(2), 1–13. capelli, p., & yang, y. (2010). who gets the top job? changes in the attributes of human resource heads and implications for the future. retrieved january 02, 2011, from http://www.pwc.com/en_us/us/people-management/assets/hr-leader-attributes.pdf crous, w. (2010, january). challenges to the hr fraternity: 2010 and beyond. paper presented at the university of johannesburg study school, johannesburg. ee commission (2010). commission for employment equity report 2009–2010. retrieved july 20, 2011, from http://www.labour.gov.za/documents/annual-reports/commission%20for%20employment%20equity%20report/2009-2010/commission-for-employment-equity-report-2009-2010/?searchterm=employmentequityreport2009 evans, p. (2002). collective capabilities, culture and amartya sen’s development as freedom. studies in comparative international development, 27(2), 54–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf02686261 gnhi (2011). gross national happiness index. retrieved january 03, 2011, from http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com/gnhindex/intruductiongnh.aspx henning, e. (2004). finding your way in qualitative research. pretoria: van schaik. iod (2009). iodsa king iii report. retrieved january 04, 2011, from http://www.iodsa.co.za/products_reports.asp?catid=150 jackson, t. (2004). management and change in africa: a cross-cultural perspective. abingdon: routledge. mcgaughey, s.l., & de cieri, h. (1999). reassessment of convergence and divergence dynamics: implications for international hrm. international journal of human resource management, 10(2), 245–250. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/095851999340530 merriam, s.b. (1998). qualitative research and case study applications in education. san francisco, ca: josey bass. mills, g. (2010). why africa is poor and what africans can do about it. johannesburg: penguin group nel, c. (2010). transformation without sacrifice – the urgency of social, economic and organisational justice in south africa. cape town: village of leaders products. npc (2011). diagnostic overview. retrieved july 10, 2011, from http://www.thepresidency.gov.za patton, m.q. (2001). qualitative research and evaluation methods. (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. pugh, d.s., & hickson, d.j. (2000). great writers on organizations. (2nd omnibus edn.). brookfield, vt: ashgate. ramphele, m. (2008). laying ghosts to rest: dilemmas of the transformation in south africa. cape town: tafelberg. pmid:18352944 republic of south africa (2008) companies act, no. 71 of 2008. retrieved july 19, 2011, from http://www.thedti.gov.za rodriguez, f.r. (2010). trends in human development. on-line paper for the united nations development programme. retrieved april 30, 2010 from http://hdr.undp.org/en/mediacentre/lets-talk-hd/ sibiya, b. (2010, march). emerging market economies – the opportunities, challenges & responsibilities for human capital management. paper presented at the knowledge resources human resources directors conference, johannesburg. pmcid:pmc3031840 temkin, s. (2010, 19 october). shortage of artisans ‘playing a key role in poor service delivery’. business day, p. 3. thompson, c. (2011, 11 july). state and unions trapped in adversary roles. business day, p. 9. todaro, m.p., & smith, s. c. (2006). economic development. 9th edn. harlow: pearson education. pmcid:pmc2631550 toulson, p.k., & defryn, m.k. (2007). the development of human resource management in new zealand. new zealand journal of human resource management, 7, 75–103. turok, b. (ed.). (2008). wealth doesn’t trickle down: the case for a developmental state in south africa. cape town: new agenda: south african journal of social and economic policy. ulrich, d. (1997). human resource champions: the next agenda for adding value and delivering results. boston, ma: harvard business school press. ulrich d., & brockbank, w. (2010). the business partner model: past and future perspectives. human capital review. november, 2010. ulrich, d., & brockbank, w. (2005). the hr value proposition. boston, ma: harvard business school press. ulrich, d., brockbank, w., johnson, d., sandholtz, k., & younger, j. (2008.) human resource competencies: mastery at the intersection of people and business. alexandria, ma: society for human resource management. ulrich, s., younger, j., brockbank, w., & ulrich, m. (2012). hr from the outside in. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. united nations development programme (undp). (2010a). rankings on the hdi. retrieved april 30, 2010, from http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/data/ united nations development programme (undp). (2010b). the human development concept. retrieved march 01, 2010, from http://hdr.undp.org/en/humandev/ united nations development programme. (2011). human development report. retrieved july 06, 2011, from http://hdr.undp.org/en/data/explorer/ 1liebenberg.qxd if one could spend some time in the environment in which higher education institutions function, it would be quite clear that the relatively calm waters of a few years ago are becoming more stormy. in an attempt to transform and streamline the higher education system, the minister of education, professor kader asmal, has embarked on a process that will see a reduction in the number of higher education institutions in south arica. a number of the universities and technikons will merge, leaving a smaller number of institutions to render the service to the learners in south africa. in addition to the vision of the minister of education, more and more privately owned institutions, and institutions from the international arena, are seeking business opportunities and ways of extending their market share in south africa (annual report of the che, 1999). in a recent survey conducted by the human sciences research council (hsrc), the factors that affect learners’ choice with regard to higher education were investigated (cosser & du toit, 2002). one of the factors that was assessed was whether or not learners would like to continue their studies at private or public institutions. it is interesting to note that 9,6% of the learners intended to continue with their studies at private institutions (cosser & du toit, 2002). in terms of the total number of learners furthering their studies, it may not seem to be such a high figure, but its significance lies in the fact that learners are considering private institutions above the public institutions. one wonders whether this figure will increase in the future. if that is the case, then it will be an indictment against the higher education institutions in south africa, for not being able to render the required service that the customer (learner) seeks. some of the reasons for this decision by the learners is that the private institutions will prepare them better for the labour market, have better reputations in their field of study, and better reputations than the public institutions (cosser & du toit, 2002, p. 5). the competition is, however, not limited to the “outsiders”. amongst the traditional institutions, the competition is strong. when visiting the various websites, such as those of stellenbosch university and potchefstroom university, it is clear that there is a concentrated focus on branding and marketing those institutions. the radio is also used as a medium for marketing and for reaching potential customers for the next academic year. this means that the market share of the public institutions is being reduced or at least competed for. with the unlimited possibilities of the information era (peters, 2002) and free access through the internet, students are now in a position to continue their studies at any institution in the world, without leaving their own homes. this development is making the business of higher education extremely competitive. the higher education act, 1997 (act no. 101 of 1997), made provision for the establishment of the council on higher education (che). in terms of this act, the council on higher education (che) is a stat utory body that provides independent, strategic advice to the minister of education on matters relating to the transformation and development of higher education in south africa. this will include the management of quality assurance and quality promotion in the higher education sector. the che arranges and coordinates conferences, publishes information regarding developments in higher education, including an annual report on the state of higher education, and promotes the access of learners to higher education institutions. the focus of the che is therefore the promotion of quality in higher education. this is not a unique situation, since there are many other countries in the world that have these types of structures in place. for example, promotional activities are well established and common in higher education institutions in great britain (annual report, che, 1999). it would even be safe to say the concept may have been borrowed from them. although the focus is, for the moment, on the quality of academic programmes and the accreditation of the various institutions’ programmes, there must be room for better service delivery to the customer (in this case, the customers are predominantly learners, but also include the employers in the country and the broader society). it would also be fair to argue that quality is not only limited to the content of the academic programmes, the nature and the level of research or the number of articles published by the institution. quality also relates to the levels of service that the customer receives. cheales (1994) refers to king and the concept of excellent service. according to king, excellent service is a jacques liebenberg neil barnes department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract the higher education environment is experiencing significant changes, and the focus is moving to competitiveness and customer care. the role of organisational culture and job satisfaction in the delivery of quality customer service was investigated in this study. the indications are that a relationship should exist between organisational culture and learner satisfaction, but it transpired that the relationship between staff members’ job satisfaction and learner satisfaction was not significant. an evaluation of a proposed learner-satisfaction model revealed interesting dynamics influencing relationships between the core dimensions studied. opsomming die hoëronderwysomgewing is besig om betekenisvol te verander, en die fokus is besig om na mededingendheid en kliëntesorg te verskuif. die rol van organisasiekultuur en werksbevrediging in die lewering van hoëgehaltekliëntediens is in hierdie studie ondersoek. daar is aanduidings dat daar ’n verband tussen organisasiekultuur en leerdertevredenheid is, maar dit het geblyk dat daar nie ’n betekenisvolle verband tussen werksbevrediging en leerdertevredenheid is nie. ’n evaluering van ’n voorgestelde leerdertevredenheidsmodel het interessante dinamika wat die verhouding tussen die kerndimensies van die studie beïnvloed, aan die lig gebring. factors influencing a customer-service culture in a higher education environment requests for copies should be addressed to: j liebenberg, department of human resource management, rau, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 1 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (2), 1-10 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (2), 1-10 judicious blend of factors; the main one being added value. the suggestion here is that if one wants customers to come back for more, you have to reward them. you must give them something they will not find elsewhere. cheales (1994, p. 4) makes the point that “the vital elements of [product] qualit y, namely design, welding expertise, paint application, manufacturing technique and fine attention, no longer provide the competitive edge ... ”. according to him, the competitive advantage is in the overriding philosophy that the customer is the first priorit y, since, if the customer does not return, one does not have a reason to continue with one’s activities. the question is, however, whether any of this relates to the sector of higher education. the answer is affirmative – the che has the mammoth task of ensuring quality in higher education, but, apart from that, is there another reason why the higher education sector should have this debate? slabbert, prinsloo, swanepoel and backer (1998) argue that organisations must be mindful of the environment where they function, promote their business, or render any services. the authors see the environment as “... the aggregate of all conditions, events and influences that surround and affect it”. in the survey conducted by the hsrc, interesting information was gathered on preferred institutions for continued learning. to a certain extent, this could be seen as the potential market share the various institutions have, compared to the rest of the sector. according to the results of the survey, 16,6% of the learners indicated technikon pretoria as first choice where they would like to continue their st udies. the closest competitor was technikon witwatersrand with 4,9% (cosser & du toit, 2002). cosser & du toit are of the opinion that the reason for this is the perception of customers that quality products and services are delivered. according to the survey, the most important factor inf luencing the choice of institution is the reputation of the institution, and the reputation of the school, faculty or department recommended by a friend. although there are other factors, such as fees, sport facilities, accommodation and the alma mater of relatives, which influence the choice, it is clear that what the institution offers in terms of quality and the total package is of paramount importance. it would, therefore, be reasonable to argue that the higher education sector in south africa will increasingly be forced to conduct its business in a manner similar to that of its private sector neighbours in order to survive and retain its market share. in order to succeed, more attention should be paid to the customer. in addition to the above, key environmental variables can be identified at both an external and an internal level. at the external level, the variables are listed as the increased levels of competition by both the local and international public institutions, the increase in the competition by private institutions, the changing policy of the new government with regard to the higher education environment and its attempts to ensure quality, which will be the task of the che, and access to higher education for all south africans. at the internal level, the internal programmes to promote qualit y in the organisation in terms of processes and procedures, the quality of the academic programmes, service delivery to learners, service delivery to employees in the execution of their task, and the sport and accommodation facilities are all aspects that should contribute to the promotion of the customer service and will impact on an institution’s ability to compete effectively. before one embarks on a study of this nat ure, the need for the st udy should be established. as indicated in the introduct ion, the environment of higher educat ion is dramatically, changing. higher education institutions will have to come to terms with the fact that they have to be competitive. if they are not successful, their very existence may be in the balance. the vision of the minister of education is a clear signal of what the expectation for higher education institutions is. in f ut ure, there will be more and more pressure on institutions to become world-class and competitive, and to facilitate an effective educational process that will deliver the high-qualit y manpower that will meet the needs of the south african labour market. if higher education institutions are not successful in this area, they will lose their market share. the question will be: why do we keep these institutions if they do not meet the expectations? the biggest contribution an instit ution can make towards the economic growth and social upliftment of south africa is to deliver highqualit y manpower. underpinning this total effort is the level of customer service that is rendered to the client, and, more specifically, the learner. quality customer service is one of the fundamental elements of being world-class, and one of the major elements that influence quality customer service may be the culture of an organisation. it could therefore be argued that those elements (customer service and culture) should be studied in the context of the higher education environment in order to develop a strategy that could assist in meeting the expectations set for higher education institutions. current level of knowledge of the problem in the following section, attention will be given to the current level of knowledge with regard to the problem. in addressing this problem there are essentially three elements that stand out. the first is customer care or service, the second is the corporate culture that exists within the organisation, and the third is job satisfaction of staff members. customer care and its relevance at the beginning of this article, the point was argued that there is a link to be found in the levels of customer care and market share. admittedly the information that was cited in the introduction does not necessarily represent all possible elements that may influence the choice of students. it does however, give an indication of the basic thinking in this regard and does warrant further investigation. in this section the focus will be on the relevance and importance of customer care. gitomer (1998, p. 45) is of the opinion that the challenge for the 21st century is not just serving the customers “... it is understanding the customer, being prepared to serve customers, helping an angry customer immediately, asking the customer for information, listening to customers, being responsible for your actions when a customer calls, living up to your commitments, being memorable, surprising customers, striving to keep customers for life and getting unsolicited referrals from customers ... regularly.” he feels strongly that the focus should not only be on delivering a good service to the customer, but also to generate loyalty in the customer so that the customer would continue to do business with the organisation. one should ask the question “why is good customer care so important?” to be competitive and successful in the globalised world, where the information era forms part of reality, requires that an organisation functions at a level that can be regarded as world-class. according to hodgetts, luthaus & lu (1994) and belohov (1996), being worldclass should be regarded as a prerequisite for being successful in a globalised market. liebenberg, barnes2 in support of the argument, maybe more in a south african context, slabbert et al. (1998) argue that “... if we don’t succeed in making our organisation more competitive in the international arena, in becoming ‘world-class’, there are very few chances of creating meaningful job opportunities and of escaping the path towards social-economic decay and eventually becoming ‘just another lost african country’.” although this represents a harsh perspective, it is a true reflection of the realities that a country such as south africa is faced with. in order to be successful in the international economy, an organisation should be world-class. what, however, is the definition of a world-class organisation? hodgetts et al. (1994:1) define a world-class organisation as “... the best in its class or better than its competitors around the world at least in several strategically important areas.” therefore, a world-class organisation is an organisation that is not only the best, but also remains ahead of its competitors. hodgetts et al. (1994) point out a variety of characteristics that are to be found in all world-class organisations. the characteristics of a world-class organisation can be summarised as follows (steudel & desruelle, 1991, pp. 3-8) and (olson 1990, pp. 6-19): � customer-care-driven � leadership/visionary leadership � participation � some type of remuneration system � prevention rather than correction � a long-term focus � partnership development � a new culture of thoughts and goals � worker participation and people development � shared values � performance evaluation � flatter organisational structures although hodgetts et al. (1994), supported by steudel & desruelle (1991, pp. 3-8) and olson (1990, pp. 6-19), list various characteristics of a world-class organisation, the characteristic that stands out is the aspect of customer care. dannhauser & roodt (2001, p. 8) are of the opinion that: “in the present highly competitive and global market-environment, an increased emphasis is placed on organisations to adopt a new corporate paradigm, i.e. a value orientation towards delivering total quality customer service”. this notion is supported by tersine, harvey and buckley (1997, p. 47). they are of the opinion that the “... global market has brought about a renewed emphasis on the customer as being the focal point of business activities. in a buyer’s market, being customer-centric is paramount”. therefore, it can be argued that the ability of an organisation to deliver a high-quality customer service is a requirement for being regarded as world-class and competing effectively in the global market. from the above it is clear that good customer service is a requirement for any organisation today. it is, however, easy and simple to say what needs to be done, but the question is “how is it done?” and “what are the things you need to do to get the desired effect?”. there must a model that can be used to guide us and lead the way. obviously it is not a matter of following a “ten steps to success” situation. heskett, jones, loveman, sasser and schlesinger (1994) provide a model in the form of the “service-profit chain” (see figure 1). according to them, this model provides a framework that can be used to operationalise the strategies that will enhance the current levels of customer care to a level equal to that of meeting the world-class demands. employee satisfaction the service-profit chain deals with a variety of issues, the main ingredients being customer and employee satisfaction. because of the very nature of the concept of customer care, customer care is not something that can be delivered or provided by machines. technology may enhance the process and assist in the delivery of better customer care, but, ultimately, customer care is delivered by people. the people’s behaviour in the organisation must enforce the values of the organisation (gubman, 1995, p.16). tersine et al. (1997, pp. 46-49) take this line of thought a step further in arguing that the behaviour of the people within the organisation should not just only enforce the value, but rather that an organisational culture should be established that can act as the driving force behind the customer care. pete peterson, vice-president of human resources of hewlettpackard, supports this notion: “everyone will tell you that people are important, but we put our words into action. good people management is the very key to our overall environment. we believe that if we hire topnotch, creative, dedicated people and if we provide the proper environment, they will succeed” (verespay, 1990, p.23). therefore, if you want to succeed as an organisation, you need the best people and you need to create an environment that will make them want to stay and an environment that is conducive to productivit y and performance. grant-marshall (2002), underpins this principle in more detail. she is of the opinion that “... smart companies are the ones who are making workplaces great places”. this comment is based on the financial mail’s top 100 companies and other best companies to work for. in the article concerned, factors influencing a customer-service culture 3 figure 1: the links in the service-profit chain (harvard business review, march – april, 1994) she investigates why the various organisations are regarded as the best companies to work for. the companies that were listed were hollard insurance, cell c, vodacom group, discovery health, deutsche bank, investec bank and hbd capital venture. the reason why these companies were included in the list is because of the way in which they manage and deal with employees. time and money are spent on employees. training and development and a good working environment appear to be high on the priority list of the management. thus, work becomes fun and the employees work productively. it is also safe to say that those companies are doing well in the area of economic performance. heskett et al (1994); and herselbein, goldsmith and blanchard (1997, p. 35) also bring the concept of customer care and employee satisfaction together in the concept of the “serviceprofit chain”. bearing in mind the link between corporate culture and employee satisfaction, they argue that the role of the employee in the process of customer service should not be underestimated. if you want to keep the customers happy, you need to ensure that the employees are satisfied and that the employment relationship is managed in such a way that it is conducive to the promotion of good customer service, and customer service is a prerequisite for being successful in the international market. what is corporate culture? schein (1999), explains that the biggest danger in dealing with and understanding culture is to oversimplif y it. he regards corporate culture as a multi-level concept that should be analysed at every level before it can be understood. he defines corporate culture (1999, p. 24) as “... the learned, shared, tactical assumptions on which people base their daily behaviour”. in line with the thought that culture is multi-levelled, schein (1999, pp. 25-26) identifies three levels of culture, viz. that “culture is deep” – if you treat it as a superficial phenomenon, if you assume that you can manipulate it and change it at will, you are sure to fail; “culture is broad” – as a group learns to survive in its external and internal relationships; and “culture is stable” – the members of a group want to hold on to their cultural assumptions, because culture provides meaning and makes life predictable. sadri & lees (2001) see corporate culture as “an intangible concept, it clearly plays a meaningful role in corporations, affecting employees and organisational operations throughout a firm.” they go even further and are of the opinion that culture not only determines the success or failure of the organisation, but that a positive culture can be a competitive advantage over competing firms or organisations. in addition to this point of view of sadri & lees (2001), bliss (1999) believes that corporate culture is very important, since it is the total sum of the values, virtues and accepted behaviours, which includes the good and not so good. bliss agrees with the viewpoint that the success that the organisation achieves is strongly influenced by its culture. ogbor (2001), however, adopts a more cynical approach to corporate culture and to what it is. contrary to schein (1999) and sadri & lees (2001), ogbor sees corporate culture as “... managerial control and a whole-hearted acceptance of the means through which employees in an organisation are repressed.” he argues further that corporate culture “... remains an ideology, which is socially constructed to reflect and legitimize the power relations of managerial elites within an organisation and society at large”. payne (1991), also discusses the issue of corporate culture and, more specifically, “what is corporate culture?”. he is of the opinion that it is “... the pattern of all those arrangements, material or behavioural, which have been adopted by a society (corporation, group, team) as the traditional ways of solving problems of its members; culture includes all the institutionalised ways and the implicit cultural beliefs, norms, values and premises which underline and govern behaviour.” in his definition of culture he goes further and distinguishes implicit and explicit culture. according to payne, explicit culture refers to “... typical and distinctive behaviour of people and the typical and distinctive artefacts they produce”, and implicit culture refers to the “... total set of cultural beliefs, values, norms and premises which underlies and determines the observed regularities in behaviour making up the explicit culture”. it is therefore clear that corporate culture is a very complex issue. it would also appear from the work of payne that corporate culture impacts on employee satisfaction. this notion is supported by the work of treacy & wiersema (1993) with their concept of the value discipline model, and the work of heskett et al. (1994) in their service-profit chain model. these models and the work of payne will be used to identif y the various factors influencing corporate culture, and this will assist in the development of a framework that can provide a strategy for higher education. irrespective of what one’s point of view on culture is and whether it is positive or negative, the reality is that corporate culture does exist within every organisation, and according to sadri & lees (2001) and bliss (1999), corporate culture plays a significant role in the success or failure of an organisation and cannot be divorced from the concept of customer service. wiersema (1998:162) confirms this point of view. he is of the opinion that “... the culture of a customer-intimate company – with its distinctive behaviours, beliefs and mind-set – is the single most important underpinning of successfully adopting the customer-intimate discipline.” proposed model based on the above, the model as set out in figure 2 can be proposed as a framework for the study and research. this model illustrates the suggested relationship between the variables and how culture and job satisfaction impact on the level of learner satisfaction. figure 2: the relationship between corporate culture, job satisfaction and value of the research (higher education environment – technikon pretoria) when the study has been completed, there will be a better understanding of the various factors that inf luence the establishment of a corporate cult ure that promote the delivery of qualit y customer service in a higher education environment. as indicated earlier, the position of the higher education institutions has changed, and the minister of education and the external environment now demand a different approach. the focus is ultimately on having the ability to function at a world-class level, being competitive and retaining and expanding market share, as in the case of the private sector. liebenberg, barnes4 with the emphasis on the levels and quality of customer service, an organisation cannot claim that it is functioning on a world-class level and is competitive if it does not make an aggressive attempt to ensure customer service. customer service is synonymous with world-class. similar to the private sector, the major ingredient that makes the difference between one organisation and the next is the people within the organisation. the levels of employee satisfaction and the nature of the corporate culture in the organisation do have an impact on the level and the quality of the customer service that is rendered to customers. once a better understanding has been created, a strategy can be developed for improving the levels of customer service. this will enable the institutions to meet the expectations and demands of the environment which they function in. the aim of the study the aim of this study can be summarised as follows: � to determine the association between corporate culture and employee satisfaction. � to determine the association between employee and learner satisfaction. � to establish what the association is bet ween learner satisfaction and corporate culture. method the organisation selected for the study was a large higher education institution. owing to the limited nature of this study, a non-probability approach was selected. the sample was constituted of the following groups: � lecturing employees at the peromnes post levels 5 to 9 in all faculties. � academic administration employees at the peromnes post levels 5 to 19. � financial administration employees at the peromnes post levels 5 to 19. � accommodation and catering employees at the peromnes post levels 5 to 19. � student affairs employees at the peromnes post levels 5 to 19. � library employees at the peromnes post levels 5 to 19. � building and estates and logistical services employees at the peromnes post levels 5 to 19. the reason for selecting this sample was that these groups of employees spent the majority of their day interacting with learners. these employees also represent the majority of the total number of full-time employees and were in the best position to provide an opinion on corporate culture and employee satisfaction. from this group of 1 112 employees, a 20% convenience sample was drawn to participate in the study. the sample was stratified in terms of lecturing/non-lecturing, post level, and faculty/directorate. the focus was on the senior learners. the learners in this group have adapted to the new higher education environment and are also typically involved in the various organisational structures and leadership bodies available to learners. they also enjoy representation on the council of the institution; have had the benefit of being part of the higher education experience and should have an informed opinion. a convenience sample was drawn per faculty, stratified according to department, race and gender. the division for statistical support assisted with the sampling plan and the data-capturing process. measuring instruments/data gathering in this study, three already developed measurement instruments were used. the first instrument focussed on the measurement of corporate culture, the second made an assessment of job satisfaction, and the third and last instrument focussed on the satisfaction levels of learners. the three instruments are discussed below. organisational culture measurement instrument to assess the organisation’s culture, the organisation culture questionnaire (ocq), as developed by van der post, de coning & smit (1997), was used. van der post et al. (1997) developed the ocq by following an extensive process, including a literature review and an evaluation panel consisting of human resource experts. from this process the 15 subdimensions were formulated. the ocq was also developed in the south african environment. in this study various roles and culture carriers were identified from the literature review that correlated with the subdimensions of the ocq. the subdimensions are: � conflict resolution � culture management � customer orientation � disposition towards change � employee participation � clarity of goals � human resources orientation � identification with the organisation � locus of authority � management style � organisation focus � organisation integration � performance orientation � reward orientation � task structure based on the studies done by van der post et al. (1997), the reliability coefficients for each of the cultural dimensions varied between 0,788 and 0,939. in the study by van der post et al. (1997) in was not possible to employ external criteria to determine the validit y of the instrument, however, the construct validity was tested using factor analysis. in terms of validity van der post et al. (1997) reported that a high to moderate factor loading on each of the subdimensions were obtained, that is between 0,840 and 0,391 that suggests an acceptable level of construct validity. in a study by sempane, reiger and roodt (2002), the reliability of the ocq was supported by a cronbach coefficient of 0, 987 that was obtained. thus, the questionnaire appeared to meet the standards of good scientific practice. in order to facilitate the opinions of the participating employees in the study, a seven-point likert scale (1 = completely disagrees, 2 = mostly disagrees, 3 = slightly disagrees, 4 = undecided, 5 = slightly agrees, 6 = mostly agrees, 7 = completely agrees) was implemented with this questionnaire. job satisfaction questionnaire the questionnaire to be used to determine the level of job satisfaction amongst employees, is a shortened version of the minnesota job satisfaction questionnaire (mjsq), developed by weiss, dawis, england and lofquist (1967). the motivation for the use of the mjsq is to be found in the reported validity of the instrument as reported by jewell, beavers, kirby and flowers (1990). (the content validity of the instrument was critiqued by a panel of experts). jewell et al. (1990) also reported a high level of stability in testing and retesting, and cronbach alpha coefficient of 0,89. bodur (2002) reported that the internal consistency of the questionnaire was 0,849, obtained by using the cronbach alpha coefficient. in a further study a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0,92 was obtained by sempane et al. (2002). this measuring instrument is fairly simple and straightforward. it contained twenty items covering a variety of issues that are related to the work experience. these items included the factors influencing a customer-service culture 5 meaningfulness of the task or job ethics, opportunities to utilise abilities and skills, conditions of employment, rewards for performance, management style and team relations. all items were stated in the positive and were phrased in simple and easily understood language. respondents were required to record their responses on a five-point likert scale (1 = very dissatisfied, 2 = dissatisfied, 3 = not satisfied or dissatisfied, 4 = satisfied and 5 = very satisfied). this questionnaire was submitted to employees with the organisational culture questionnaire, to ensure that the questionnaires did not get lost or mixed up with any other respondent’s responses, and to assist with and streamline the surveying process. learner satisfaction questionnaire this questionnaire had originally been developed in australia based on qualitative analysis of 60,000 comments written by graduates on australia’s course experience questionnaire. this questionnaire asks respondents to rate the items on importance as well as performance. the instrument is thus a self-validating tool (personal communication with g. scott, university of technology sydney, 2004). according to scott (2004) research on what engages students in productive learning in post-secondary and higher education indicates that it is the total experience of university, not just what happens in the traditional classroom that influences learning, and the current research done in australia with successful graduates has confirmed the sub-scales covered in the questionnaire. in addition the student satisfaction survey was benchmarked with a survey used by another australian university when first administered in 1994 (scott; 2004). the above information supports the validity of the instrument. the reliability of the instrument as applied to technikon pretoria will be tested once the results of the study are obtained. through a cooperation agreement between technikon pretoria and the australian universities of technology network (autn) a project was initiated to apply the student satisfaction survey (sss) at technikon pretoria. after a limited pilot study was done, the questionnaire was adapted for the south african higher education environment. the only dimension that was added was one relating to the student newspaper, taxi, which is unique to the learners of technikon pretoria (genis, comments during a personal interview, 3 february 2004). this and the abovementioned confirms that this questionnaire poses an acceptable level of reliability and validity. for this study eighty-seven statements, divided into seven subdimensions, were presented to learners. the learners had to respond with regard to the importance of the item and the level of satisfaction (performance). for the purpose of this study the focus was on the level of satisfaction. the following subdimensions were tested: � programme quality and content (academic students) � outcomes of the study programme � administration � access to facilities � study assistance � student services � general student facilities � student representative council � taxi, a student publication all items were stated in the positive and were phrased in simple and easily understood language. respondents were required to record their responses on a five-point likert scale (1 = very dissatisfied, 2 = dissatisfied, 3 = not satisfied or dissatisfied, 4 = satisfied and 5 = very satisfied). reliability analysis in order to justif y the use of the instruments, reliability analyses were performed. for the culture survey, a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0,773 was obtained. for the job satisfaction instrument, a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0,91 was obtained, and a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0,978 was obtained for the learner satisfaction instrument. thus high reliability levels were achieved for all three instruments. research methodology the identified group (sample) of participants was exposed to the structured questionnaire. the questionnaires were forwarded to the individuals (employees) via the offices of the deans and directors of various faculties and directorates in the institution. with regard to the learners, the questionnaires were distributed via the internal communication systems of the respective faculties. statistical analysis keeping in mind that the research problem was to identif y cultural issues influencing customer-service culture in a higher education institution, and in order to obtain meaningful results from the data-gathering process, the following statistical analyses were done: � descriptive statistics on variables of a quantitative nature in the questionnaire. � frequency analyses on questionnaire items to evaluate the corporate culture. � rank-order correlations to establish the relationship between culture, employee job satisfaction and learner satisfaction. results table 1 employee sample data faculty/directorate number of number of % employees in employees faculty/ returning the directorate questionnaire arts faculty 85 18 21 faculty of economic sciences 82 10 12 faculty of engineering 97 10 10,3 faculty of social development studies 59 8 14 faculty of natural sciences 86 14 16 faculty of agriculture, horticulture 52 8 15 and nature conservation faculty of health sciences 82 14 17 faculty of information and 52 11 21 communication technology 595 93 15,6 library 52 16 31 operations buildings and estates 67 8 12 accommodation and catering 42 8 20 logistical services 173 53 31 282 69 25 student affairs sport development 11 2 19 student development 11 3 27 academic support 17 9 52 financial support bureau 7 4 57 46 18 39 registrar (finance) 64 8 39 registrar (academic) 73 22 30 total 1 112 231 21 table 1 indicates employee sample data. the sample included only the permanent employees at post levels 5 – 19 (peromnes post grading system) who deal directly liebenberg, barnes6 with learners. in this sample, both academic and administrative employees were included. it is important to note that all the faculties are included in the sample. from table 1 it should be noted that 231 employees responded of a total of 1112 employees. of the 595 academic employees (possible respondents), 93 (15,6%) returned their questionnaires. two faculties, the arts faculty and the faculty of information and communication technology, both returned 21% of their questionnaires, which would be regarded as sufficient. the faculty of engineering had the lowest rate, namely 10,3%, while the faculty of economic sciences had a 12% rate. the support sections, namely library services, operations, st udent affairs, finances and academic administration, responded well. the lowest response (20%) came from finances and the highest response (39%), came from student affairs. other responses from the library (31%) academic administration (30%) and operations (25%) contributed the study. table 2 learner sample data faculty/directorate number of number of % learners in learners faculty returning the questionnaire arts 1 572 337 21,4 economic sciences 5 631 1 275 22,6 engineering 2 838 435 15,3 social development studies 2 016 208 10,3 natural sciences 1 672 519 31,0 agriculture, horticulture and 2 002 44 2,1 nature conservation health sciences 1 487 329 22,1 information and communication 1 883 48 2,5 technology (ict) total 19 101 3 195 16,7 table 2 indicates learner sample data. the majorit y of the learners in the various faculties responded well to the st udy. the outstandingly high responses came from nat ural sciences (31%), economic sciences (22,6%), health sciences (22,1%) and arts, with a response of 21,4%. responses obtained from information and communications technolog y and agricult ure, horticult ure and nat ure conservation, were 2,5% and 2,1% respectively. the average response of the faculties mentioned was 16,7%. culture questionnaire results table 3 provides a macro view of how the various subdimensions were rated by the respondents. the subdimensions that were rated the highest were customer orientation, followed by disposition towards change, identification with institution, performance orientation and human resource orientation. on the lower end of the spectrum, task structure was rated the lowest, followed by locus of authority, management style, conflict resolution and employee participation. table 3 ranking of means of the subdimension in culture culture subdimension ranked per mean customer orientation 5,26 disposition towards change 4,90 identification with the organisation 4,77 performance orientation 4,75 human resource orientation 4,59 culture management 4,53 organisational focus 4,52 organisation integration 4,38 clarity of goals 4,27 reward orientation 4,24 employee participation 4,21 conflict resolution 4,17 management style 4,06 locus of authority 4,01 task structure 3,57 table 4 job satisfaction percentages item percentages being able to keep busy all the time 82.3 the chance to work alone on the job 81.4 the chance to do different things from time to time 75.4 the chance to be “somebody” in the community 68 the way my senior handles his/her staff members 63.3 the competence of my supervisor in making decisions 61.4 being able to do things that don’t go against my conscience 71.5 the way my job provides for steady employment 79.4 the chance to do tings for other people 81.1 the chance to tell people what to do 66.3 the chance to do something that makes use of my abilities 74.6 the way company policies are put int practice 55.9 my pay and the amount of work i do 44.5 the chances for advancement on this job 38.7 the freedom to use my own judgement 60.5 the chance to try my own methods of doing the job 65.4 the working conditions 60 the way my co-workers get along with each other 63.8 the praise i get for doing a good job 58.9 the feeling of accomplishment i get from the job 74.2 results for the job satisfaction questionnaire are shown in table 4. the strengths were: being busy all the time (82%), the chance to work alone (81,4%), the chance to do things for others (81,1%) and the job provides steady employment (79%). the weaknesses were: the way company policies are put in to practice (55,9%), my pay and the amount of work i do (44,5%), chances of advancement on the job (38,7%) and the amount of praise people get for doing a good job (58%). factors influencing a customer-service culture 7 table 5 ranked means scores for the learner satisfaction questionnaire subdimension ranked means scores for the learner satisfaction questionnaire outcome of studies 3,68* academic programme 3,62 access and study assistance 3,44 taxi 3,37 administration 3,31 student services 3,31 general facilities 3,18 src 2,83 (* likert scale of 1-5 was used here) table 5 shows learner satisfaction results. the strengths were (based on a likert scale of 1-5): outcome of studies (3,69), academic programme (3,62) and access and study assistance (3,44). the areas of weaknesses were: administration (3,32), student services (3,32), general facilities (3,19) and student representative council (2,84). from a learner perspective, the src achieved the the lowest level of satisfaction. table 6 rank order correlation matrix: culture x job satisfaction x learner satisfaction culture job satisfaction learner satisfaction culture 1 0,07 0,43 job satisfaction – 1 -0,05 learner satisfaction – – 1 table 6 indicates the relationship between organisational culture, job satisfaction and learner satisfaction. not all of the departments could be used for the rank order correlations, because data was not available for the learners (operational departments). however, the eight academic faculties could be compared, and eight pairs were acceptable for the rank order correlation. an examination of the results showed that there were no significant correlations between the variables at the significance level p < 0.10 however, the correlation between culture and learner satisfaction approached significance. discussion the results did not support a relationship between the culture and job satisfaction. in view of the literature that had been studied, a strong relationship between corporate culture and job satisfaction could be expected. the relationship between culture and learner satisfaction was not significant, but there was a much strong tendency displayed. this tendency might be explained by the fact that the institution places a high premium on quality service delivery to learners and that the learners are important to the institution. customer orientation was the dimension in the questionnaire that received the highest rating. the relationship between staff job satisfaction and learner satisfaction also did not approach significance. in view of the service-profit chain model, it could have been expected that a significant relationship would exist between job satisfaction and customer (learner) satisfaction. bearing in mind these results, the model developed by the authors was subjected to an evaluation. firstly, positive factors which could influence the relationships between culture, employee satisfaction and learners satisfaction and ultimately learner retention were assessed, and an attempt was made to explain the results. figure 3a suggests that cultural strengths such as a strong customer orientation, a strong disposition to change, a strong identification with the organisation, a strong performance orientation, and human resource orientation might have related to higher levels of learner satisfaction found in the areas of outcome of st udies, academic programme and access to st udy assistance. the cult ure factors appear to be essentially “out ward looking” and could also be related to enhanced learner retention and market share. strengths identified in the employee job satisfaction area eg, being busy all the time, the chance to work alone, the chance to do thing for others, and steady employment appear to be mostly “inward looking”, and perhaps not related to learner satisfaction, and with the broader culture issues within the organisation. secondly, figure 3b examines weaknesses within corporate culture, employee job satisfaction, and learners satisfaction. culture weaknesses discovered were: less satisfaction with management st yle, locus of authorit y, task struct ure, conf lict resolution, and employee participation. these negative aspects could relate to weaker service delivery issues expressed by learners such as dissatisfaction with the general facilities, the src, st udent services, and administration. as previously suggested, the culture issues appear to be “outward looking”, thus possibly relating to learner satisfaction and retention. areas of staff dissatisfaction lay in chances for advancement, poor pay and heavy work load, the way company policies were put in practice and the amount of praise people received for doing a good job. these appear to be “inward looking” and not related to broader culture and learner satisfaction issues. it seems, on reflection that, the relationship and interaction between the lecturers (employees) and the learners (customers) may not be the same as in the case of the normal business environment. the learner is not only the customer, but also the “product”, suggesting that there could be leadership and mentoring relationships that bring a new dimension to the delivery of pure customer service. it would also seem that employees and learners did not move in the same circles and employees obtained their satisfaction from different things than learners. the results suggested that the culture of the institution is one where the customer is perceived to be important. excellence was important and people knew what they had to do to be successful, but with this strong focus on performance, other aspects that would promote a stronger culture might have been weakened, such as worker participation, reward orientation, management style and conflict resolution. the relationship between the employees and learners could be developed more. that should contribute to the enhancement of learner satisfaction and retention. liebenberg, barnes8 references annual report of the council on higher education for 1998/1999: (1999). pretoria. bliss, w.g. (1999). why corporate culture is important. workforce extra, february, 8-9. bodur, s. (2002). job satisfaction of health care staff employed at health centres in turkey. society of occupational medicine, 52 (6), 353-355. cheales, p. (1994). your sur vival kit for world class customer delight. struik publishers south africa. cosser, m. & du toit, j. (2002). student choice behaviour project: phase one. pretoria: hsrc. dannhauser, z. & roodt, g. (2001). value discipline: measuring customer preferences. industrial psychology, 27 (1). gitomer, j.h. (1998). customer satisfaction is worthless, customer loyalty is priceless. texas: bard press. grant-marshall, s. (2002). companies to die for, style magazine, september, 32-38. gubman, e.l. (1995). aligning people strategies with customer values, compensation & benefits review, january/february, 15-22. herselbein. f., goldsmith, m. & blanchard, r. (1997). the organisation of the future. san francisco: jossey-boss publishers. heskett, j.l., jones, t.o., loveman, g.w.,sasser, w.e. & schlesinger, l.a. (1994). putting the service-profit chain to work, har vard business review, march/april. higher education act , 1997 (act no.101 of 1997) (as amended). government gazette. pretoria. hodgetts, r.m., luthaus, f. & lu, d.m. (1994). new paradigm organisations: from total quality to learning to world-class, organizational dynamics, 22 (3), 5-19. jewell, j.r., beavers, k.c., kirby, b.j.m. & flowers, j.l. (1990). relationships between levels of job satisfaction expressed by north carolina vocational agriculture and their perception towards the agricultural education teaching profession, journal of agricultural education, spring, 51-57. national work groups: report on higher education, department of higher education, february 2002. ogbor, j.o. (2001). critical theory and the hegenomy of corporate culture, the journal of organisational change management, 14 (6), 590-608. olson, j. (1990). competing in world-class manufacturing: america’s 21st century challenge. hanewood, usa: business one irvan. payne, r.l. (1991). taking stock of corporate culture, personnel management, july, 26-29. peters, t. (1988). restoring american competitiveness: looking for new models of organisations. tac communications, usa. sadri, g. & lees, b. (2001). developing corporate culture as a competitive advantage, the journal of management development, 20 (10), 853-859. schein, e.h. (1999). corporate culture: sur vival guide. san francisco: jossey-boss inc. publishers. scott, g. (2004). student satisfaction sur vey, uts. sempane, m.e., reiger, h.s. & roodt, g. (2002). job satisfaction in relation to organisational culture, sa journal of industrial psychology, 2002, 28 (2), 23-30. factors influencing a customer-service culture 9 figure 3a: the learner satisfaction model – corporate strengths figure 3b: the learner satisfaction model – corporate weaknesses slabbert j.a., prinsloo j.j., swanepoel, b.j. & backer, w. (1998). managing employment relations in south africa. south africa: butterworths. steudel, h.j. & desruelle, p. (1992). manufacturing in the nineties: how to become a mean, lean, world-class competitor. new york: van nostrand. tersine, r., harvey, m. & buckley, m. (1997). shifting organizational paradigms: transitional management, european management journal, 15 (1), january, 46-49. treacy, m. & wiersema, f. (1993). customer intimacy and other value disciplines, harvard business review, january/february, 84-93. van der post, w.z., de coning, t.j. & smit, e. (1997). an instrument to measure organisational culture, south african journal for business management, 28 (4). verespy, m.a. (1990). world-class organisations: where people come first, industry week, july, 22-28. weiss, d.j., dawis, r.v., england, g.w. & lofquist, l.h. (1967), mannual for minnesota satisfaction questionnaire. minneapolis: university of minnesota. wiersema, f. (1998). customer intimacy: pick your partners, shape your culture, win together. london: harper collins publishers. liebenberg, barnes10 article information authors joy mohlala1 geoff a. goldman1 xenia goosen2 affiliations 1department of business management, university of johannesburg, south africa2department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: geoff goldman postal address: po box 524, auckland park 2006, south africa dates: received: 20 oct. 2011 accepted: 30 jan. 2012 published: 17 may 2012 how to cite this article: mohlala, j., goldman, g.a., & goosen, x. (2012). employee retention within the information technology division of a south african bank. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(2), art. #438, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i2.438 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. employee retention within the information technology division of a south african bank in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • an overview of relevant literature       • employee retention strategy trends in the information technology industry • research design    • research approach    • research strategy    • research method       • research setting       • entrée and establishing researcher roles       • sampling       • data collection methods       • recording of data       • data analysis       • strategies employed to ensure quality data       • reporting • findings    • situational factors       • not having a retention strategy in place (organisational)       • not honouring promises (organisational)       • inappropriate management style (organisational)       • senior managers are not empowered to manage salary issues (organisational)       • ability to attract but not retain technical skills (organisational or industry)       • continuous restructuring (industry or organisational)    • information technology people–specific challenges       • employees not having an interest in a job for life       • old type of technology is not appealing to youngsters       • unattractive salaries or reward and recognition • discussion    • restating the purpose of the study    • main contributions of the study    • relating the results to the research question    • relating main findings to literature    • conclusion    • limitations of the study    • avenues for future research • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the information technology industry is faced with a shrinking pool of skilled employees causing demand to increase for these employees. this places organisations under pressure to devise retention strategies to retain these employees. this study was conducted in the information technology division of a south african bank.research purpose: to understand the challenges faced by the bank’s information technology leadership team to retain employees. motivation for the study: to understand the challenges faced in attracting and retaining information technology professionals, and how this can serve as input for reducing skills shortages in information technology divisions. research design, approach and method: an interpretive approach employing a case study strategy and qualitative methods was employed. semi structured interviews were conducted with thirteen senior managers and four directors of the bank’s information technology division, who were selected on a purposive basis. data were subjected to creswell’s four stage data analysis process. main findings: findings indicate that employee turnover is the main contributor of skills shortages within the studied division. the lack of a retention strategy is making it difficult for leadership to identify crucial skills that must be retained. practical/managerial implications: evidence suggests that this bank, although they would like to retain information technology professionals, is not creating an environment conducive to do this, as little attention is paid to the unique demands of this group of employees. contribution/value-add: this study investigates a specific group of employees for which a unique retention strategy does not exist. in understanding the challenges that impact on attracting and retaining information technology professionals, this study can contribute to the development of a retention strategy for these employees. introduction top ↑ the ability of most modern organisations to use information technology efficiently significantly contributes to their success. along with this, the availability and performance of the organisation’s information technology employees is crucial. most organisations regard information technology as mission–critical and information technology employees as strategic resources (mcconnell, 2004). organisations utilise information technology professionals to plan, develop, maintain and integrate the systems used in these organisations. this dependency on information technology employees could be devastating to a business if some of the key employees were to leave. the business impact may include loss of corporate memory, disrupted projects that may over–run on defined schedules and budgets and quality issues.it is commonly speculated that the shrinking pool of information technology professionals, currently faced by the information technology industry, is attributed to the rapidly advancing technological markets, which have resulted in a widened gap between the availability and demand of information technology professionals. in mcgee’s (2005) interview with companies, gagné reports that 53% of respondents were experiencing a shortage of information technology employees. turnover was the main reason for the shortage (46%), followed by difficulty finding specific skills (33%) and company growth (31%). gagné explains that employers were only focusing on attracting and retaining information technology employees with critical skills and experience, and not those with less critical skills. this increasing demand for skilled information technology employees has put organisations under pressure to start devising retention strategies, in order to retain the targeted employees. in order to stay abreast of this decline, technologically advanced organisations are increasingly on the lookout for highly skilled workers, whilst the labour market is dominated by individuals with limited skills (dpru, 2006, p. 1). an overview of relevant literature there are different views available in the existing literature about the definition of employee retention, the type of employees to be retained, and what approach to follow when defining a retention strategy. browell (2003, p. 5) defines employee retention as ’keeping those members of staff that one wants to keep and not losing them from the organisation for whatever reason, especially to the competitors‘. browell (2003) further explains that key employees are those who hold positions that are critical for the success of the organisation, for example, technical positions. these are the types of positions that are seen as a source of competitive advantage.mckeown (2002) expands on browell’s view about employee retention by mentioning that retention should be aimed only at top performing employees, and not those with a lower performance. he defines a top performing employee as the type of staff member who (mckeown, 2002, p. 8) ’adds value, contributes to the organisation overall and inspires others’. mckeown’s (2002) view is that there is no precise definition of employee retention because the manager’s perception of retention varies. mckeown (2002, p. 2) further explains that some managers view employee retention as ’reducing the employee turnover figure to an acceptable level‘ whilst others think retention is about ’compensation and benefits‘, moreover, some think of it as ’a component of culture‘, that is, how people are treated within the organisation. research indicates that one can identify certain factors that impact employee retention within the information technology industry. these factors are: • not defining desirable perks: research (browell, 2003; cio update staff, 2006; foote partners, 2005; mcgee, 2005) reveals that employers implemented very creative retention strategies to keep critical information technology employees on board in the escalating talent wars. for an organisation to remain competitive, it must employ the most talented people available. this means that an organisation’s success is dependent on its ability to attract and retain the most talented employees (kaye & vultaggio, 2004). therefore, being able to retain the most talented employees is one of the highest critical success factors for the organisation’s survival (ibid.). • lack of employee development: the lack of employee development has led to a major debate in the information technology industry. the topic of skills shortages has created conflicting views with information technology experts about whether or not the skills shortages is a genuine problem in the industry or results from a lack of training. experts who oppose the view of skills shortages state that the existing skills gap problem can be attributed to employers not being willing to train their employees. dubie (2008) explains that one of the contributing factors to information technology skills shortages is that organisations are not willing to invest time and money to train their employees. this results in advances in business and technology outpacing the ability for information technology professionals to keep up. the type of skills needed in the industry change dramatically from time to time (ibid.). this means that as the market shifts, the set of skills that were once marketable and recognised as specialised skills, are seen as common skills. • advancing technology: according to the gartner group (cited in gaylard, sutherland & viedge, 2005), the life span of information technology knowledge is approximately 2.5 years, and is rapidly decreasing all the time. this decrease is the result of advancing technology that is now used to store, organise and easily retrieve existing information. hira (2008) raises the concern that skills shortages must not be confused with the shortage of unique skills required to support the emerging technologies, because these skills, by definition, will always be in short supply. • high employee turnover: employee turnover has also been identified by information technology experts as one of the reasons that a retention strategy is needed. according to fheili (2007), employers need to focus on the causes of employee turnover in an attempt to eradicate the effect thereof. these are typically a lack of an interesting and challenging work environment, the absence of effective two–way communication, the scarcity of opportunities to grow, and the lack of appropriate payment and compensation. research conducted by the chartered institute of personnel and development (cipd) (2006) revealed that the turnover of skilled employees can be problematic because recruitment is often costly as it can take several weeks to fill the available position. the cipd stresses that it is important for the organisation to measure the costs incurred from employee turnover. measuring these costs helps an organisation to understand the impact that employee turnover has on their budget. once these costs are identified they are a powerful tool to encourage line managers to pay more attention to people management activities that will result in employee retention, and reduce employee turnover. the cipd advises that providing the tangible cost of employee turnover to the executive level of an organisation is very important, especially when building a business case for an effective recruitment and comprehensive employee retention strategy. employee retention strategy trends in the information technology industry the factors discussed above have helped create certain trends that have developed in the information technology industry. when an organisation decides to define its own employee retention strategy, one of the challenges it faces is to decide on the factors to consider as the foundation for that retention strategy. mckeown (2002) suggests that an organisation must start by looking at the main trends that impact employee retention in the industry. mckeown suggests the following as the prominent concepts that organisations must consider: • core competencies: in the current thinking on employee retention, the first concept to be discussed is that of ‘core competencies’. mckeown (2002, p.12) explains his definition of core competencies as ’a bundle of skills and technologies that enables a company to provide a particular benefit to customers‘, which he bases on hamel and prahalad’s (1990) definition. dobson, richards & starkey (2004) expand on the concept of core competencies and focus strongly on how to think about competitive advantage. dobson et al. (2004) also use the hamel and prahalad definition of core competencies, that ’it’s the collective learning in the organisation especially how to co-ordinate diverse production skills and integrate multiple streams and technologies‘ (hamel & prahalad, 1990, p. 81). defining the core skills will help to identify the type of employees the organisation must retain. identifying the types of core skills that are critical to the organisation will help in defining the types of employees that require more attention and additional reward schemes. the ability to retain employees with core skills will help the organisation to perform at its peak and maintain its competitive advantage. • the rise of free agents: mckeown (2002, p. 17) defines free agents as ’people who have become consultants or self–employed in order to gain more control over their future‘. kinnear and sutherland (2001, p. 15) define free agents as ’the type of employees who aim not to be committed or loyal to the organisation for life, but they believe in being able to shape their own destiny‘. peters (2005, p. 33) terms this concept of shaping one’s destiny as ’brand you‘. the ‘brand you’ concept is the idea that an individual who works for an organisation must always behave as if he or she were the ceo of the organisation. peters (2005) further explains that the concept of the ‘brand you’ is about the attitude or some key traits that the individual possesses that identify or differentiate him or her from other employees. in an interview conducted by peters, pink (2005), explains how this concept came into existence. pink states that, previously, organisations and employees used to play different roles. the organisations offered employees security and employees offered organisations loyalty. this bargain ceased to exist in the late 1980s and early 1990s when organisations started to lay off employees. employees decided to take charge of their careers, leading to the origination of the concept of ‘free agents’. pink further explains that this does not mean that employees are no longer loyal, but the type of loyalty that now exists is no longer of a vertical nature, from individual to the organisation. instead, loyalty now happens in multiple horizontal connections. employees are loyal to their teams, their projects, their colleagues, and also to their families. • war for talent: mckeown (2002) states that the concept of the ‘war for talent’ encompasses the acquisition, retention and performance management of the employees. he further explains that this concept gained its most exposure when mckinsey and company issued a report titled ‘the war for talent’. this report was based on the survey undertaken by mckinsey, involving 77 companies. the report revealed that the concept of ‘war for talent’ suggests that there are a limited number of high calibre individuals who can perform the core competencies of an organisation. the war for talent is therefore based on the fact that different organisations are at war fighting over these individuals, trying to attract and retain them. the increasing global demand for information technology services has resulted in this ’war for talent’. the brics countries – brazil, russia, india, china and south africa – are of major and growing importance in the provisioning of information technology services (saxena, 2007). information technology services talent is in high demand, therefore it is important to leverage labour arbitrage. at the same time a capability play is occurring because the developed countries simply do not possess enough qualified information technology professionals to keep up with this growth (world bank, 2007). to meet today’s challenging growth targets, recruitment and retention are of key importance to all service providers (fisher, schoenfeldt & shaw, 2005; robertson, 2007). • employer of choice: mckeown (2002) states that the ‘employer of choice’ concept is a variation of the war for talent. the ‘employer of choice’ concept investigates and adopts the best practices followed in retention strategies. this concept stresses that the success of employee retention can be driven through an employee management, development and reward system, all of which are necessary to develop the ‘employee value proposition’. horwitz (in delport, 2004) states that the concept of ‘best employer’ or ‘employer of choice’ is about the employer brand or organisation bias. horwitz stresses that internal processes and culture are not sufficient for an organisation to be considered as an employer of choice if an organisation has not projected a successful external image of its ‘employee value proposition’. johnson (2002, p. 23) advises that an organisation that wants to be identified as an employer of choice must have work–life balance programmes that meet the needs of its employees, it must have professional and development opportunities for all employees, it must have an employee friendly and cultural environment, and it must have business that is responsible to the community as a whole. • aging work force: in an interview with kempaiah and bullen (2008); luftman (2008) mentions that the u.s. bureau of labour statistics predicts information technology related professions to be the fastest growing profession by 2016, with more than a million jobs added between 2004 and 2014. during the interview with kempaiah and bullen (2008); luftman (2008) cited research by the u.s. bureau of labour statistics, which predicts an expected knowledge loss from the baby–boomers (individuals born between 1946 and 1964) who will retire by 2015. this confirms that organisations have already started to feel the impact caused by the skills shortage. these skills shortages can be attributed to the short supply of information technology skills required by organisations (ibid.). golden (2006), reporting on a survey conducted by accenture, highlights the importance of having a plan for transferring knowledge from the soon–to–retire information technology employees to younger information technology employees. most of the respondents involved in this survey reported that their companies had no plan in place. golden suggests that spending time planning and preparing for these soon–to–be–available vacancies can lessen the impact of losing the employees who will retire. preparation for these vacancies can be started by grooming younger employees for these positions, which can also serve as a good retention strategy for younger employees. this can be accomplished by pairing retiring information technology employees with younger employees who are less experienced in their career, serving, as golden suggests, the dual purpose of knowledge transfer and career development. • brain drain: in an interview with dychtwald and erickson, melymuka (2006) advises that organisations should start preparing for the brain drain that is soon to hit the information technology industry, when the baby–boomers retire. she explains that although most of the baby–boomers will retire by 2015, the surveys that have been conducted indicate that most of them would like to continue working even after their retirement. she advises that organisations capitalise on this opportunity and will start to develop strategies to re-integrate retired employees into organisations. melymuka (2006) recommends that organisations can start working on their strategies by defining what she terms a ‘retiree return programme’. however, retiring–baby boomers are not the only challenge in terms of skills leaving the information technology sector in south africa. immigration of skilled workers to europe, the usa, australia and new zealand has impacted on technology driven industries, and this presents a serious challenge to both retention and recruitment of information technology professionals. from the above, the problem is found that organisations are heavily reliant upon information technology professionals. it is also apparent that south african organisations are experiencing a shortage of these highly skilled employees. therefore, the purpose of this study is to understand the challenges facing the understudied bank’s information technology leadership team when retaining employees with knowledge and skills, that are considered core to the bank’s purpose of existence and continued success. resultant from the abovementioned problem and purpose statement, the question this study endeavours to answer is, what are the challenges faced by an organisation’s leadership team in retaining information technology professionals? research design top ↑ research approach this study employed an interpretive research approach applying qualitative methods. this approach was chosen on its ability to capture the lives of the participants in order to understand and to interpret the meaning thereof. walliman (2006) explains that interpretive research is based on the view that a person can only experience the world through his or her perceptions, which are influenced by preconceived ideas and beliefs, rather than alternative forms of experiencing the world. when a researcher conducts interpretive research, he or she does not view the world externally, but from within the situation that is being studied (ibid.). this research approach, therefore, attempts to understand the phenomena being studied through the meaning and interpretations that individuals assign to them. this study is descriptive in nature, as is aims to understand the challenges faced by an information technology leadership team, in terms of retaining information technology professionals. as such, the interpretations of this information technology leadership team, and the information technology professionals themselves, are crucial in attempting to reach the desired level of understanding. research strategy this study was conducted as a single case study. payne and payne (2004, p. 31) define a case study as ’a very detailed research enquiry into a single example (of a social process, organisation or collective) seen as a social unit in its own right and as a holistic entity‘. payne and payne (ibid.) further explain that the social unit is usually located in a physical place and differentiates between the people forming that social unit and other people who are not part of it. by definition, a case study will not compare two or more social areas. payne and payne’s definition also identifies one key characteristic of a case study, that the social unit selected is a single example in its own right and of unique importance. this example is not treated as a sample, but the ideas gathered from studying this single unit can be reconsidered by other researchers and treated as contributing to knowledge.the information technology division of a south african bank was selected as the case for study. within these parameters, insights were solicited from various levels and functions within this division. as this study focuses on the leadership team, their perceptions and experiences, participants were selected from managerial echelons within the information technology division. research method following from an interpretive research approach, qualitative research methods were employed in this study. strauss and corbin (1998, p. 10) define qualitative research as ’any kind of research that produces findings not arrived at by means of statistical procedures or other means of quantification‘; thus the qualitative methods were decided upon as they helped to uncover the deeper understanding of this particular bank’s environment. research setting this study was conducted in the information technology division of a leading south african bank, which relies heavily on its information technology employees for its day–to–day operations. the challenge faced by this bank is that it has not drafted a retention strategy that is useful to ensure that these employees are retained. individual leaders devise their own strategies within their departments. this becomes problematic as there is no uniformity in defining the type of resources that should be retained, the reasons for retaining them and the incentives that can be used to retain those targeted individuals. this has resulted in high employee turnover within this bank’s information technology division. entrée and establishing researcher roles one of the researchers was employed at this particular banks’ information technology division and obtained permission from the employer to conduct this study on the proviso that the bank remain anonymous. as one of the researchers was employed by this bank, access to the participants had already been established. potential participants were identified by the researcher. these candidates were approached individually to request their participation. none of the approached candidates had any objection to participate in these interviews. sampling the sample for this study was selected using purposive (and therefore non-probability) sampling. what flick (2006) terms ‘case sampling’ was employed here, by deciding on the type and level of participants to be interviewed. the participants interviewed emanated from the ranks of senior managers and the directors of the bank’s information technology division. the sample comprised of four directors and thirteen senior managers. data collection methods data were collected through the use of qualitative, semi-structured interviews. interviews provide a way of generating data by talking to people about what they do in their everyday life (miller & brewer, 2003). the interviewer’s main function in the interview is to provide a framework where respondents can express their views verbally (ibid.). qualitative researchers use this type of instrument with the aim of understanding how the interviewees feel about the topic of concern. qualitative interviews focus on gathering more in–depth information from fewer respondents (ibid.). all interviews were conducted personally by the researcher and lasted up to one hour. the researcher limited herself to one interview per day as these were transcribed (also by the researcher) directly after each interview. notes and memo’s taken during interviews were incorporated into the transcripts. interviews were conducted according to an interview guide where the researcher discussed a range of themes relevant to the study with the participants. all interviews were recorded onto a voice recorder for the aim of transcription and future referrals. recording of data data were recorded onto a digital voice recorder. this allowed the source data to be saved in electronic format on cd-rom. also, the researcher took notes of non-verbal cues during interviews and also reflected on interviews after they had been conducted. as mentioned, these notes and memos were incorporated into the transcripts to compliment the spoken word. data analysis data analysis was performed according to creswell’s (2003, p. 190) 4 stage process for conducting qualitative data analysis.step 1. organise and prepare data: for this study, all the recorded data were transcribed onto microsoft word. the transcription was typed at the completion of each interview and not at the end of all of the interviews. step 2. read through all data: a pass was made through the transcripts with the aim of gaining an overall understanding of the views of the bank’s leadership team with regard to staff attraction and retention. data were classified and grouped into themes, based on the views resulting from the data. step 3. begin a detailed analysis with a coding process: in this step the emphasis shifted from memoing to describing, classifying and interpreting loop. this loop is where the coding process began. within this step, the researcher started to move from memoing to describing, classifying and interpreting loop. this loop is where the researcher began the coding process, using the following steps: • the researcher read each transcript of the interview document, and wrote down the topics or themes that came out of each transcript. • the researcher then compiled a list of topics that were discovered from all the transcripts, and grouped similar topics together. a table was then created by the researcher that captured and grouped these topics. these groups were made up of common topics, unique topics and leftovers. • the researcher then identified the descriptive words from the transcripts, which could be used for the created topics, and turned them into categories. the researcher then started to focus on reducing the list of categories by regrouping and merging the topics that related to each other. • the last step of the coding process involved finalising the list of the categories, and then performing the preliminary analysis. step 4. use a coding process to generate a description for the case study: this step displays the generated data, based on the themes appearing as major findings of the case study. this was performed by interpreting what the data uncovered. this interpretation was based on the understanding that was derived from the collected data, as well as the literature on the topic of employee attraction and retention. coding entailed careful inspection of the data with the goal of breaking down the data into units of meaning (or categories) (burden, 2006). this occurred through close examination of the data and ascribing labels (that constitute categories) to concepts as they present themselves in the data (babbie & mouton, 2004). data were put back together by making connections between the categories (neuman, 2003). thus, categories are continually being developed, but this development extends beyond dimensions and properties (strauss & corbin, 1998), it also entails linkages and relationships with other categories. strategies employed to ensure quality data for qualitative research to be deemed of good quality, trustworthiness needs to be considered according to four criteria (lincoln & guba, 1985):• credibility: this study used the whole leadership team of the information technology division, and observation was persistent, as the researcher was involved in recording the interviews, taking notes and memos, transcribing the data and eventually coding the data. furthermore, all interviews were preserved on cd to ensure referential adequacy of the data. • transferability: in this study the idea was never to illuminate further than the context of the particular bank, so transferability here pertains to how the findings are extrapolated to the entire population. in this case they can be extrapolated to the entire population as the entire population was included in the study, allowing for very thick description of data. • dependability: assurance must be sought that applying the research to the same or similar research subjects in the same or similar contexts will produce similar results. thus, if credibility is ensured, dependability is also ensured. • confirmability: cd back-ups of raw data and notebooks (containing field notes and memos) leave an adequate trail of how conclusions, interpretations and recommendations can be traced to their source. furthermore, all individuals who participated in this study did so on a voluntary basis. no coercion of participants took place. participants were aware of the procedures followed during interviews, and gave their consent to participate with the knowledge that they could opt out of an interview at any stage if they felt uncomfortable. the participants were assured of their anonymity to those who were not directly involved in this study and all information provided in the interviews was treated confidentially. reporting as this study produced a myriad of findings, this article aims to provide a bird’s eye view of the retention of information technology professionals. findings are structured according to themes emergent from the interview process. excerpts from the interviews conducted were used to provide rich descriptions of the perceptions of the participants involved in this study. findings top ↑ the interviews conducted with the management team revealed that the inability to retain the type of employees with skills, that are essential to the organisation, was one of the major challenges facing this organisation. these challenges are categorised as situational factors and information technology people–specific factors. both situational factors (consisting of industry and organisational factors) and information technology people–specific factors, influence the retention of information technology professionals. the leadership team identified the following challenges as the inhibitors to employee retention. situational factors not having a retention strategy in place (organisational) the non-existence of an employee retention strategy was one of the issues that were raised by of the interviewees during the data collection. the interviewees indicated that the information technology division has not implemented a proper strategy to which managers can refer for recruiting and retaining employees with the right type of skills. as a result, the division ended up having an uncontrollably high employee turnover rate. interviewee (b) said:my view is that i don’t think this bank has a proper strategy in terms of employing the right people for the job and also in order to retain those people. (interviewee b) interviewee (b) stated that the bank should implement a strategy that will provide guidelines for the management team about the type of people who should be attracted to and retained by the bank. interviewee (g) stated: what i think the bank needs to do is a proper retention strategy. something that is specific to various levels of performance and key skills and knowledge that we need to keep. (interviewee g) interviewee (g) suggested that the strategy must provide guidance on the type of skills and knowledge that is critical to the organisation and must be retained. this suggestion also concurs with mckeown’s view (2002) that organisations need to identify the types of positions and roles that are critical as a part of defining the retention strategy. this finding can be seen as one of the main contributing factors for the unique situation in which the bank’s information technology division finds itself. literature purports that a clear retention strategy is crucial to retain employees with scarce skills (oehley & theron, 2010, p. 4). not honouring promises (organisational) another issue raised by the interviewees as a contributing factor to high employee turnover was that of not honouring promises. interviewee (i) said:… we told the staff members we are going to re-look at their salaries. the next minute we had psa, and the next minute we stopped the salary survey. that specific incident to me did a lot of harm. (interviewee i) interviewee (i) mentioned that the employees were promised that their salaries would be reviewed, but this never happened. instead the ’psa‘ exercise was conducted. this exercise basically involved the retrenchment of some of the employees. interviewee (i) indicates that the ’psa‘ exercise and the salary reviews that were not conducted did much harm. interviewee (h) indicated that some employees were leaving the organisation because promises were made to them upon joining the organisation and these were not kept. these promises usually relate to an employee’s career growth – that is, opportunities available in the organisation that help the employee grow in his or her career. interviewee (h) stated: when one joined you are normally told that this is what you will do; your career growth and all that. but few months down the line there is another structure, new management, and new ways of doing things. what you were promised when you initially started is no longer there. (interviewee h) literature concurs that it is a basic tenet of sound hr practice that if an organisation does not deliver on what it has promised to staff members, those staff members will search for employment elsewhere (hassan, 2011, p. 362). inappropriate management style (organisational) the issue of the inappropriate management style used to manage the employees was also identified as a contributing factor to high employee turnover. interestingly enough, the comments within this section were raised by the directors of this bank. interviewee (o) said:i think that the old saying that says people don’t leave organisation, they leave managers. so our key challenge is to ensure that we have the right leadership and management in place to encourage people to stay with the organisation. (interviewee o) comments made by the directors in this section and the comments that were made by the senior managers in the previous sections (that is senior managers are not empowered to manage salary issues), indicated that there was finger pointing between the directors and the senior managers. none of the parties was willing to take the responsibility. the finger pointing also indicated that it was critical for this bank to implement a retention strategy, because that would assist in confirming the roles that must be performed by each party concerning the employee retention strategy. the requirement for clarification of roles was also confirmed by some of the comments that were made by the interviewees when asked to identify the person who is responsible for the retention of employees. the following answers were given by the interviewees: interviewee (b) said, ‘it’s the line manager’s function with the support of hr’ (interviewee b); interviewee (c) said, ‘line manager’ (interviewee c); interviewee (j) said, ‘it’s a collective effort, but the overall responsibility lies with the director and the line manager’ (interviewee j). once again, basic confusion about roles and responsibilities creates a belief amongst subordinates that support from their line managers is lacking, which in turn heightens feelings of alienation toward the organisation, as is also seen in the study of kahumuza and schlechter (2008, p. 17). senior managers are not empowered to manage salary issues (organisational) when looking at the comments made by the interviewees, it became clear that senior managers of this bank considered themselves not to have enough authority when rewarding their employees. interviewee (f) said:… there are only two periods that we are allowed to do promotions. increases are part of that but are seldom looked at. it becomes difficult to match income bracket if the person is behind … we are trying, our hands are tied. (interviewee f) the comment raised by interviewee (f) indicates that management believed they were not empowered to offer employees the salaries they deserve. this can leave staff feeling disengaged. creating engaged employees, on the other hand, can increase productivity and also reduce the likelihood of staff seeking alternative employment, as corroborated by mostert and rathbone (2007, p. 48–49). ability to attract but not retain technical skills (organisational or industry) the bank committed much time and money travelling to road shows across the country, recruiting graduates from different institutions, and much money was spent acquiring technical resources. interviewee (c) confirmed this by saying:attracting skills we are good at it but retaining current skills we are not good at that. the skill we are able to retain is more managerial rather than technical skills, especially for group it where the key skill is technical skill. we are unable to retain that particular skill, but we are able to attract it from outside. (interviewee c) this comment by interviewee (c) is cause for concern because it suggested that the bank invested more effort in retaining managerial resources compared to retaining technical resources. some information technology experts have indicated that one of the factors contributing to high employee turnover and skill shortage, in the information technology industry, is lack of employee development. dubie (2008) argues that organisations are not willing to invest time and money to train their employees. with the industry shifting so quickly, the advances in business and technology outpace the ability for information technology professionals to keep up with it. this change in the environment indicates that organisations need to continuously improve the skills of their employees in order to keep up with the industry. the lack of skills improvement results in the technical resources leaving organisations. continuous restructuring (industry or organisational) concern about continuous restructuring also came up several times during the interviews. interviewee (a) also said: ‘… we need to settle the area, restructure quickly and finish and let the folks get to work’ (interviewee a).interviewee (f) indicated that the restructuring is often associated with employee retrenchments, and this causes instability in the working environment. interviewee (f) said: ... if you have one [retrenchment] that’s fine, but if you’ve had multiple the people become unsettled and they start to leave because they are not prepared to go through that amount of stress anymore. (interviewee f) restructuring is synonymous with the banking sector in south africa. however, this constant state of flux and the inability of the organisation to create anything lasting as far as structure, roles and responsibilities are concerned, creates added stress and pressure on employees, as pointed out by goldman (2008, p. 305–306). information technology people-specific challenges employees not having an interest in a job for life one of the interviewees pointed out that the average length of time that the graduates stay at the bank is a good example of employees not being interested in having a job for life within the bank. interview (m) indicated that the average time graduates work at the bank is approximately one to two years. interviewee (m) said: … i think where the problem is, is retaining talent. we’ve seen that with the graduates, we do acquire them and after a year or so we tend to lose them. they are not looking for a job for life; they are looking to move quickly. (interviewee m) interviewee (m) raised several important points. the issue of being unable to retain graduates is a high risk for the bank when looking at the trends currently operating in the industry. experts have predicted that the information technology industry will soon be hit by a wave of aging employees in their workforce. therefore, organisations need to devise plans to transfer knowledge from the soon–to–retire information technology employees to the younger information technology employees (golden, 2006). as a retention strategy, organisations should start grooming younger employees to fill the positions of the soon–to–retire information technology employees. interviewee (m) also indicated that the bank additionally needed to look at how the graduates are positioned in areas that will be of interest to them. old type of technology is not appealing to youngsters interviewee (i) also indicated that it is difficult to retain the younger generation in an environment where old technology is used. interviewee (i) said:it’s difficult in the it environment to retain [younger] staff. they want a challenge, they want to work on newer technology and if you do give them that opportunity to work on newer technology, you again must bring in a newer person to train and after 2 yrs they also want to leave. so it’s a viscous circle. (interviewee i) the issues raised by interviewee (i) highlight that employees want to be challenged and also to work with newer technology. one of the reasons for their preference for newer technology is the increasing demand that goes with it. brandel (2007) states that information technology talent shortage is only applicable to individuals with the right type of skills. in most cases the industry prefers to hire employees with the type of skills based on newer technology. newer technology is preferred because information technology knowledge has a short life span. gartner group (cited in gaylard et al., 2005) indicates that the information technology knowledge life span is between two and five years and this life span is rapidly decreasing all the time. this decrease happens because of the advancing technology that is used to store, organise and easily retrieve existing information. for this reason, the younger generation in the information technology industry are reluctant to work with old technology that is used by the legacy systems. unattractive salaries or reward and recognition richardson (2007) identifies the unattractive pay and working conditions as one of the reasons that contribute to the unhappiness of the employees. literature indicates that these reasons eventually cause employees to become disengaged, demoralised, less committed to their work and ultimately to leaving their organisations (kahumuza & schlechter, 2008; oehley & theron, 2010). interviewee (l) concurred with this by stating:we are not rewarding the people who are sticking and stay to the bank and living the passion and the bank’s values the way they are and the way they should be done. when you are not rewarding those people as a result the other banks are poaching those people. we need to take care of the people who are here. (interviewee l) interviewee (l) stated that this bank was not rewarding its employees for their hard work and their loyalty. this comment indicated that the bank did not show appreciation for their employees whom they have employed for a longer period. as a result these employees are poached by the competitors for the skills and experience that the employees have acquired over the years. there were different forms of reward and recognition that were used in the bank. some of the interviewees indicated that these recognition initiatives have not been good enough on their own, and that employees also needed monetary reward and promotion to higher levels. interviewee (i) said: pay the people, recognise the people. i think we’ve gone a long way with recognition, but sometimes that is also not enough they don’t want the pat on the back they want money. (interviewee i) interviewee (e) also agreed that there were employees who had moved to other organisations and were offered more money than they were earning in their present jobs. he also confirmed that the salary bands that are fixed within the defined grading makes it difficult to offer competitive salaries to those employees who have been offered better salaries. interviewee (e) confirmed this by saying: ’… some people have moved for quite a bit more than what the bank is paying’ (interviewee e). all views mentioned above were correct, but the relevance of each view was dependent on the retention definition that would be used in the division. having a retention strategy in place would help to define the different roles that must be played by these parties. as mentioned earlier, most managers believed that their hands were tied when handling some of the employee issues such as salary negotiations or making counter offers to employees who were being head hunted. discussion top ↑ restating the purpose of the study the purpose of this study was to understand the retention challenges faced by the leadership team of this bank’s information technology division. retaining information technology professionals with appropriate knowledge and skills are considered core to the bank’s purpose of existence and continued success. main contributions of the study skills shortage is one of the ’hot topics‘ currently debated by different stakeholders in government and in the private sector in south africa. the results of this study can be used as evidence to prove that skills shortages are extant, especially within the information technology industry. day–to–day practical solutions came forth as the management team of this bank continuously encountered skills shortages. this study became a ‘platform’ where the interviewed managers could think aloud and voice their opinions. the researcher believes that various initiatives will be born from the data that were generated from this study, and that the findings of this study will serve as a basis to develop a retention strategy for this bank. relating the results to the research question when reviewing the research question of this study (what are the challenges faced by an organisations’ leadership team in retaining information technology professionals?) two types of challenges were forthcoming. these are, firstly, situational challenges that are further disaggregated into:• not having a retention strategy • not honouring promises • inappropriate management style • managers not empowered to deal with salary issues • ability to attract but not retain information technology professionals • and continuous restructuring. secondly, the these involve information technology people–specific challenges that are disaggregated into: • no interest in a job for life • unappealing technology • and inappropriate rewards and recognition. relating main findings to literature the input provided by the management team of the understudied bank revealed that it was important for the organisation to implement a detailed employee retention strategy. this strategy must provide details on the types of employees who should be retained in the organisation. the purpose of the retention strategy was to provide direction to the management team about how to retain and look after these employees. this included defining how these employees will be managed, developed and rewarded. interviewees wanted the strategy to provide guidelines, about how to retain key employees who want to leave the organisation for reasons relating to salaries or careers, or who are stagnating from lack of development. the interviewees suggested that the strategy must also provide guidance about the type of employees who needed to be offered counter packages when poached by competitors. such a retention strategy must provide guidance or identify scenarios in which managers may make counter salary offers. experts have offered several views in existing literature on the types of employees to be retained in organisations. browell (2003) suggests that employee retention must focus on retaining the employees who hold the type of positions that are critical to the success of the organisation. these employees are seen to be critical and the organisation cannot afford to lose them to their competitors. in contrast, mckeown (2002) suggests that retention should be aimed only at top performing employees, and not those who perform at lower levels. these are the type of employees who add value to organisations and inspire other employees. both of these criteria suggested by browell (2003) and mckeown (2002) were also raised by the interviewees. views provided by this bank’s management team and those cited from the literature, revealed that organisations that have no retention strategy in place, end up loosing their key resources, and as a result fail to deliver on their strategic business goals. figure 1: challenges impacting the retention of information technology professionals. conclusion the findings of the study suggest that the retention of information technology professionals is a function of both situational challenges (which consists of interplay between industry and organisational challenges) and information technology people–specific challenges, as are seen from figure 1. in this study, not having a retention strategy, not honouring promises, inappropriate management style, managers not empowered to deal with salary issues, the ability to attract but not retain information technology professionals, and continuous restructuring were seen as situational challenges. no interest in a job for life, unappealing technology and inappropriate rewards and recognition were viewed as information technology people–specific challenges. figure 1 indicates that information technology people–specific challenges also indirectly affect the retention of information technology professionals (the dotted arrow). in this regard, an information technology people–specific challenge such as unappealing technology can contribute to a situational challenge such as the ability of the banking sector to attract but not retain information technology professionals.on a more detailed level, the findings allude to the notion that the bank does not identify the unique demands of information technology staff succinctly. this is seen from the evidence provided, suggesting that the bank can attract but not retain staff. it must be borne in mind that information technology professionals are highly mobile, as their skills are fervently sought after. furthermore, information technology professionals do not ascribe to a ’work–for–life ethic‘ and, as a rule, move between jobs rather frequently. it would seem as though information technology staff are motivated primarily by the salary and benefits they receive. therefore, at this bank, it would seem as though they attract information technology staff, but fail to live up to the expectations for which these staff members hope (especially regarding salary and benefits), which deters them, ultimately, from retaining top information technology staff. although south african banks are typified by a state of constant restructuring, this lack of stability in the working environment results in promises not being honoured toward staff. this is because managers have no freedom to take decisive action, or a firm stance on issues when their whole environment is constantly in a state of flux. this, in turn, leads to the perception that managers cannot make decisions on salary issues, for example, and that there is no sense of accountability amongst managers. this overall dissatisfaction with managers further detracts from an organisation retaining information technology professionals. the evidence that suggests that information technology professionals at this bank work with old technology, which in turn leads them to disinterest in their jobs, further underscores the unique nature of the information technology professional as an individual. being the proverbial ’computer nerd‘, they derive a sense of purpose in their work through engaging with the latest technology. as an information technology professional, the expectation is to have the latest technology and to upgrade this technology whenever something better, faster and more powerful is available. outdated and obsolete technology makes it exceedingly difficult for an information technology professional to perform their vocational tasks properly, which in turn leads to frustration and feelings of dissatisfaction in the workplace, which is a deterring factor when organisations strive to retain top information technology professionals. the evidence strongly suggests that the bank, although it would like to retain information technology professionals, is not creating an environment conducive to the retention of these professionals, as little attention seems to be paid to the unique demands of this group of employees, which, at times, is a rather demanding group of employees. although this study focuses on a very specific category of employee, its strength lies in its endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges involved to retain information technology professionals in a corporate setting. over the past few decades, information technology professionals have risen in prominence in organisations. irrespective of whether or not information technology, as a function of the organisation, is the proverbial tail wagging the dog, the fact of the matter is that information technology staff have a prominent and powerful role in organisations. it is well known that information technology staff are non-conformists. as such, there are bound to be numerous aspects within a corporate setting that they will be at loggerheads with, as the corporation represents convention. this study, thus, reiterates the requirement for a customised outlook toward hr management in general. put quite simply, this study supports the notion that different people should be treated differently in an organisational setting. secondly, this study also suggests that the retention of staff depends on a host of variables that emanate from different sources. as such, employers have a responsibility to ensure that staff turnover, of information technology professionals and other job categories, exhibits a downward trend. this is not always as easy as merely offering staff a better remuneration package. a total benefits package needs to be sought that includes benefits other than remuneration. very often, improvement of certain organisational factors is more beneficial than a big salary increase. in addition, the study has shown that the factors that impact on retention of information technology professionals are overwhelmingly situational factors. it is interesting to note that the majority of interview subjects were senior managers and directors, and notwithstanding, situational factors outweighed information technology people–specific factors by 6 to 3. as banks strive to become more technology driven, it would appear from the forthcoming evidence, that the outlook is still far removed from that which typifies technology driven companies such as microsoft or google. stated differently, if banks want to operate at the forefront of technology, they need to create an environment where the ’technology worker‘, the information technology professional, feels comfortable, driven and valued. after all, the more technology driven banks become, the more reliant they will be on information technology professionals for their prosperity. limitations of the study the case study research strategy that was followed could be seen as a limitation, as it produces results, applicable to a singular context, that are not necessarily applicable to other settings. however, many hr issues are highly contextualised and warrant methods of inquiry that take cognisance of the specific context.further limitations included aspects such as availability of targeted participants and the time limit placed on interviews. although the targeted research participants all agreed to be interviewed, the actual setting up and conducting of interviews was problematic as the participants’ had tight schedules. with the said limited availability of participants, interviews did not exceed one hour. thus, certain topics could not be dealt with in as much detail as expected. avenues for future research it is recommended that further research be undertaken in areas other than information technology, to determine whether organisations experience the same challenges with the retention of professionals in these other areas or not. further work needs to be undertaken to establish whether or not industries, other than the banking industry, find it difficult to retain their information technology staff. this study focused on the opinions of the leadership team of the understudied bank. if the debate on the challenges of the retention of information technology professionals is to be moved forward, the opinions of the information technology professionals also require consideration. different methodologies should be considered when future research is begun on this topic as it might yield valuable additional results. acknowledgements top ↑ the authors would like to thank the reviewers for their diligent and constructive feedback in finalising this article. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this paper. authors’ contributions j.m. (university of johannesburg) was a masters’ student at the university of johannesburg. as such, she conducted the fieldwork and wrote the dissertation upon which this article is based. x.g. (university of johannesburg) and g.a.g. (university of johannesburg) were supervisor and co-supervisor respectively. they were also equally responsible for converting the dissertation into this article, with the due consent of j.m. (university of johannesburg). references top ↑ babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2004). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford university press.brandel, m. (2007). irresistible it skills. computer world, 41(32), 36–37. browell, s. (2003). staff retention in a week. great britain: hodder & stoughton. burden, f.j. (2006). the development of an organisational redesign model: a south african case study. unpublished doctoral thesis. university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa. cio update staff. (2006). smart strategies for it. (n.d.) retrieved july 05, 2007, from http://www.hrmguide.net/canada/ commitment/smartretention.htm chartered institute of personnel and development. (2006). employee turnover and retention. (n.d.) retrieved february 07, 2007, from http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjecs/hrpract/turnover/empturnretent.html?issrchres=1 creswell, j.w. (2003). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed approaches. thousand oaks: sage publication. delport, r. (2004). best companies to work for. cape town, south africa: corporate research foundation publishing. dobson, p., richards, j., & starkey, k. (2004, july). the future of strategy: competence and responsibility. management today, p. 1–9. dpru. (2006). graduate unemployment in the face of skills shortages: a labour market paradox. retrieved april 28, 2008, from http://www.commerce.uct.ac.za/research_units/dpru/dpruconference2006/papers/kpauw_graduate_unemployment.pdf dubie, d. (2008). tales of skills shortage untrue say unemployed it professionals. retrieved april 27, 1998, from http://www.exchangemagazine.com/morningpost /2008/week17/wednesday/042305.html fheili, m. (2007). employee turnover: an hr risk with firm–specific context. journal of operational risk, 2(3), 69–84. fisher, s., schoenfeldt, l., & shaw, j. (2005). human resources management. new york: cengage learning. flick, u. (2006). an introduction to qualitative research. london: sage publication. foote partners. (2005). creative it retention strategies found in new study. (n.d.) retrieved july 05, 2007, from http://www.footepartners.com gaylard, m., sutherland, m., & viedge, c. (2005). the factors perceived to influence the retention of information technology. retrieved july 06, 2007, from http://search.sabinet.co.za/images/ejour/busman/busman_v36_n3_a8.pdf golden, c. (2006). planning for brain drain. retrieved june 30, 2007, from http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm06611.pdf goldman, g.a. (2008). academics’ experience of a merger in higher education. unpublished doctoral thesis, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa. hamel, g., & prahalad, c.k. (1990). the core competence of the corporation. harvard business review, 68(3), 79–87. hassan, s.z. (2011). building a global it company in a developing country through innovation – the case of netsol from pakistan. in proceedings of the 20th imda world business congress, 3–7 july 2011 (pp. 359–366). poland: poznan. hira, f. (2008). is there a tech talent shortage? retrieved june 20, 2008, from http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2008/01/14/3209201.htm johnson, m. (2002). how to become a talent magnet: getting talented people to work for you. london: prentice hall. kahumuza, j., & schlechter, j.f. (2008). examining the direct and some mediated relationships between perceived support and intention to quit. management dynamics, 17(3), 2–19. kaye, b., & vultaggio, p. (2004). the development minded manager. retrieved april 08, 2008, from http://www.hr.com/.../the–development–minded–manager_ead179wf.html kempaiah, r., & bullen, c. (2008). skills famine? retrieved april 06, 2008, from http://www.informationweek.com/news/management/compensation/showarticle.jhtml;jsessionid=o5hji0z3liovcqsndlpskh0cjunn2jvn?articleid=206903580&_requestid=224355 kinnear, l., & sutherland, m. (2001). money is fine, but what is the bottom – line? journal s.a. institute people manage, 19(1), 15–18. lincoln, y.s., & guba, e.g. (1985). naturalistic inquiry. newbury park: sage. luftman, j.n. (2008). key issues for it executives. mis quarterly executive, 7(2), 12–20. mcconnell, t. (2004). retention for it professionals. retrieved july 02, 2007, from http://www.mcconnellhrc.com/assets/article/retention strategies for it professionals.pdf mcgee, m.k. (2005). retention tension. retrieved july 02, 2007, from http://www.informationweek.com/news/showarticle.jhtml?articleid=173403018 mckeown, l.j. (2002). retaining top employees. retrieved june 30, 2007, from http://www.briefcasebooks.com/mckeown01.pdf melymuka, k. (2006). work force crisis – ready or not it talent crunch is coming. how to prepare. retrieved november 08, 2007, from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/insight/viewpdf.jsp?filename=html/ output/published/emeraldfulltextarticle/pdf/0060321102.pdf miller, r.l., & brewer, j.d. (2003). the a–z of social research. london: sage publications. mostert, k., & rathbone, a.d. (2007). work characteristics, work–home interaction and engagement of employees in the mining industry. management dynamics, 16(3), 36–52. neuman, w.l. (2003). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. boston: allyn & bacon. oehley, a.m., & theron, c.c. (2010). the development and evaluation of a partial talent management structural model. management dynamics, 19(3), 2–28. payne, g., & payne j. (2004). key concepts in social research. london: sage publication. peters, t. (2005). essentials – talent: develop it, sell it, be it. united kingdom: dorling kindersley limited. pink, d.h. (2005). a whole new mind: why right–brainers will rule the future. usa: riverhead books. richardson, s. (2007). what is a skill shortage? retrieved april 27, 2008, from http://eric.ed.gov/ericdocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/ 80/28/06/09.pdf robertson, i. (2007). factors influencing vocational teacher’s use of online functionalities in australia. australasian journal of educational technology, 23(3), 371–389. saxena, a. (2007). bric: india executive market watch. q1 june 2007. framingham, ma: international data corporation. strauss, a., & corbin, j. (1998). basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. london: sage publications. walliman, n. (2006). social research method. london: sage publications. world bank. (2007). global economic prospects, managing the next wave of globalization. washington dc: the world bank. article information authors: nadia breytenbach1 michelle renard1 robin j. snelgar1 affiliations: 1industrial and organisational psychology department, nelson mandela metropolitan university, south africa correspondence to: michelle renard postal address: po box 77000, nelson mandela metropolitan university, port elizabeth 6031, south africa dates: received: 02 may 2012 accepted: 29 jan. 2013 published: 29 apr. 2013 how to cite this article: breytenbach, n., renard, m., & snelgar, r.j. (2013). the level of organisational identification amongst students at a post-merged south african university. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #477, 14 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.477 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the level of organisational identification amongst students at a post-merged south african university in this ... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background and research purpose    • literature review       • organisational identification       • importance of organisational identification for students and universities       • demographic variables that influence organisational identification       • organisational identification factors • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • qualitative research findings       • students’ comments on whether they are proud to be associated with the university       • factors that would increase students’ levels of organisational identification       • factors that would decrease students’ levels of organisational identification       • students’ opinions on involvement in societies       • students’ perceptions on why certain universities in other provinces are seen as prestigious    • quantitative research results       • descriptive statistics       • analysis of variance       • discussion of hypotheses • ethical considerations    • potential benefits and hazards    • recruitment procedure    • informed consent    • data protection • trustworthiness    • reliability    • validity • discussion    • outline of the results    • practical implications    • limitations of the study    • implications for future research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: organisational identification (oi) refers to individuals perceiving that they belong to and are one with their organisation. limited research has been conducted on university students’ levels of oi within the south african context.research purpose: the aim of the study was to determine the level of oi amongst students at a post-merged university in the eastern cape province of south africa. motivation for the study: levels of oi amongst students at a post-merged university could be low, as a result of students not yet adopting the values of the merged university. yet, no such study has been undertaken at this university since the merger. research design, approach and method: mixed methods were used in this study, consisting of qualitative research (n = 16) for which focus group discussions were used, as well as quantitative research (n = 603) for which an online questionnaire was sent to the student sample. main findings: the level of oi amongst the students was found to be high. furthermore, students’ race, campus, university tenure and residence have a significant influence on students’ levels of oi. black students identified more with the university than other races and students who studied longer at this university had lower levels of oi. residence students had a greater level of oi than those who stayed off-campus. practical/managerial implications: students should be encouraged to adopt the core values of this university to ensure that oi levels increase. in order to improve oi, university management should implement action plans for those student segments who have exhibited low levels of oi. contribution/value-add: this research contributes to the current body of knowledge concerning oi which is under-researched within a post-merged university context. introduction top ↑ key focus of the study university students’ performance has an impact on the economy of the country in which it is situated (bloom, canning & chan, 2005). for this reason, it is important for universities to deliver quality graduates. according to taylor (2010), universities are one means by which organisations can be provided with the labour market they require to ensure future success. in order to provide such quality graduates, universities require motivated and engaged students (griesel & parker, 2009). research has shown that students’ levels of pride towards their university affects their levels of motivation and engagement (winn & green, 1998). these authors continued to state that by engaging students and simultaneously involving them in the decision-making of their education programmes, their level of pride towards the university can be enhanced. through encouraging students to actively partake in their academic success, universities can instil pride in students towards their university. according to bartels (2006), this sense of pride towards a group or institution is a result of organisational identification (oi). organisational identification is traditionally defined as ‘the perception of oneness with, or belongingness to an organisation’, where an employee recognises him or herself as a part of the organisation in which he or she works (mael & ashforth, 1992, p. 104). oi, although initially conceptualised to refer to employees within organisations, can also be interpreted within the university context, because employees identify with their organisation in a similar way to how students identify with their university as an institution. indeed, according to bartels (2006), oi is not only important for ‘profit organisations’, but also for non-profit organisations, such as hospitals and universities. he states that non-profit organisations are becoming service orientated and further explains that universities, for example, need to take into account the student as a ‘customer that is affected by the organisation’s actions’ and who is evaluated on these organisational actions (bartels, 2006, p. 2). kim, chang and ko (2010) state that because oi leads to a sense of belonging to an organisation, students with high levels of oi towards their university will form an emotional bond with the university. these authors go on to state that students are the future support system (alumni) of the university and research has shown that students who identify with their university are more likely to support the university in the future. for example, students who indentify with their university are more likely to donate to the university, become a lecturer or send their children to that specific university (caboni & eiseman, 2003). the reason for this is because when students identify strongly with their university, the university’s success reflects on them (kim et al., 2010). more importantly, these authors explained that by ensuring a high level of student identification with their university, students will be more willing to change their behaviour to suit the desired behaviour that is expected from the university’s management. this can include students’ behaviour toward their academic work, participation in university activities and their social behaviour. students will be less likely to participate in activities or events that will harm the reputation of the university when identifying strongly with their university (kim et al., 2010). background and research purpose based on the above understanding of oi, the researchers undertook the present study in order to ascertain the level of oi amongst students at a university in the eastern cape province of south africa. owing to this university undergoing a merger between three different institutions in the last decade, it is likely that levels of oi will be low, as it is possible that students have not yet adopted the new values that the merged university have promoted in the last few years. this could possibly be the result of influence by parents and community members, who still refer to the university by its old name and might still focus on its old values or reputation. certainly, from the perspective of academic staff members, it has been found that oi decreases in a post-merger environment (beelen, 2007). if this is the case from a student perspective in the post-merged university under study, then such low levels of oi would need to be addressed by university management. this study thus aims to investigate the level of oi amongst students at a post-merged university in south africa. particularly, it seeks to determine whether certain demographic characteristics influence the level of oi amongst students at this university. the literature review to follow will discuss oi in general, the importance of oi for students and the factors that need to be considered when dealing with students’ levels of oi. literature review organisational identification tajfel and turner (1979) were the first to introduce the concept of oi. these authors state that people classify all individuals, including themselves, into various groups. beelen (2007) states that when individuals identify with a group, the group can have an influence on the self-esteem of the individual. beelen (2007) further explains that when a group’s norms influence the individual, they identify strongly with the group and become one with it. foreman and whetten (2002) agree by stating that individuals use the group to define themselves. to elaborate on this, albert, ashforth and dutton (2000) explain that oi is a process that individuals go through not only to be a part of a group, but also to determine who they are personally.dutton, dukerich and harquail (1994, p. 39) explain that oi is a subgroup of social classification, which is defined as a process in which ‘individuals define themselves through a sense of oneness’ or identification with a particular group. according to bartels (2006), these groups can include age, gender, race, sport teams and political movements. this author continues to state that when individuals identify with their particular group, they would defend their group when it is criticised by others. foreman and whetten (2002, p. 1) raised the question as to why individuals or members identify with an organisation. according to these authors, identification occurs because of a ‘cognitive comparison’. members assess whether their values and beliefs ‘fit’ with those of the organisation (foreman & whetten, 2002, p. 3) and this will either lead to a ‘fit’, which increases oi, or no ‘fit’, which will lead to a decrease in the strength of oi. dutton et al. (1994), on the other hand, believe that each individual identifies differently with his or her organisation and that the image that is held of the organisation is unique, compared to those of other individuals. this ‘identity comparison’ between employees and their organisation (foreman & whetten, 2002) can occur in two ways. firstly, asforth and mael (1989) explain that the employees can evaluate their own identity relative to that of the organisation for which they work. alternatively, they can compare their view of the organisation’s current identity to what the members want the organisation’s identity to be (reger, gustafson, demarie & mullane, 1994). albert et al. (2000) state that identification provides an answer to a question that all individuals ask in their lives, namely who they are in relation to others. it is in each individual’s nature to ask where he or she belongs and, for this reason, oi contributes towards such a sense of belonging (albert et al., 2000) if he or she shares the same values as the organisation. van knippenberg and sleebos (2006) explain that identification is therefore a reflection of the way in which individuals define themselves. importance of organisational identification for students and universities universities should consider the benefits to them when managing students’ levels of oi. for example, according to porter, hartman and johnson (2011, p. 3), high levels of oi will lead to student behaviours that ‘support, maintain, and promote the success of the university’. similarly, kim et al. (2010) state that when students’ levels of oi are high, their behaviour towards the university could be changed to support the behaviour that is encouraged by the university. these authors suggest that students with a strong identification with their university will become emotionally attached to that university. they will therefore increase the ‘time and effort’ that they put into their work, share in the university’s accomplishments and failures as if they are a part of their own and become so attached to the university that the ‘university’s actions will reflect on them and their actions will reflex on the university’ (kim et al., 2010, p. 14). understanding student oi can assist university management in improving student–university relations. students will put more effort into their work if they identify strongly with the university, which will result in better quality graduates and an increased international reputation for the university, amongst other factors. high levels of oi can also result in future donations from alumni students (beelen, 2007).frenkel, restubog and bednall (2012) explain that employees who have a strong identification with the organisation will feel that they are a part of the organisation and, the stronger that individuals identify with a particular organisation’s attributes, the more they will use the same attributes to define themselves (dutton et al., 1994). furthermore, a positive attitude towards an organisation and consensus with decisions made is a result of members identifying strongly with the organisation (van riel & fombrun, 2008). the same principle can be applied to students. when students identify strongly with their university, they will be more willing to wear university-sponsored clothing in public and increase positive word of mouth in their communities toward the university (bartels, 2006). van knippenberg and sleebos (2006) explain that higher levels of oi will result in an increase in organisational values, norms and interest. this will result in a member remaining with a particular organisation for longer periods of time. this is also true for universities. students who identify with their university are more likely to undertake their postgraduate studies at the same university (kim et al., 2010). demographic variables that influence organisational identification it is important at this stage to clarify whether demographic variables have an influence on levels of oi. as previously mentioned by bartels (2006), individuals can identify with any particular group. examples of such groups to which individuals can associate themselves include age, gender, race, political movements and sport teams. in this line, chavous, rivas, green and helaire (2002) explain that it is easier for individuals to identify with groups that have similar characteristics as themselves. in the university setting, first-year students will adapt readily to their new environment when they can identify, for example, with a group of the same race (chavous et al., 2002). therefore:• hypothesis 1: race influences the level of oi amongst students. based on bartels (2006) and chavous et al.’s (2002) insights above, the researchers hypothesise that two other groups with which students can identify within a university setting include their respective faculty and campus. therefore: • hypothesis 2: faculty influences the level of oi amongst students. • hypothesis 3: campus influences the level of oi amongst students. according to a study conducted by mael and ashforth (1992), there is a positive correlation between organisational tenure and employee oi. the longer an employee stays at an organisation, the more intertwined he or she becomes in the organisation. in the same line, rusbult and farrell (in maurer, 2007) state that an individual’s level of oi could increase with time. thus in a university setting, it can be hypothesised that the longer a student studies at one single university, the higher his or her oi levels will be. therefore: • hypothesis 4: university tenure has an influence on the level of oi amongst students. maurer (2007) explains that students who live in on-campus residences have a higher possibility to identify more strongly with their particular university. the reason for this is that students who stay on the campus of their university are more likely to be involved in the activities of their university and therefore are more satisfied with their university experience. this results in high levels of identification with the university (maurer, 2007). therefore: • hypothesis 5: residence has an influence on the level of oi amongst students. organisational identification factors numerous factors influence an individual’s level of oi. the following factors of oi were derived by caboni and eisemen (2003) and arpan, raney and zivnuska (2003). organisational identification (renamed ‘emotional attachment’): the researchers of this study renamed the first factor listed by caboni and eisemen (2003) (i.e. ‘organisational identification’), as ‘emotional attachment’. this is because of the fact that the instrument as a whole which was used by these authors measured organisational identification, yet one of the subscales in this instrument was named ‘organisational identification’. the researchers thus changed the name of this subscale to ‘emotional attachment’ as this better represents the items in the subscale and prevents confusion. to illustrate the relationship between oi and emotional attachment, bartels, peters, de jong, pruyn and van der molen (2010) state that oi is associated with an employee’s emotional attachment to a group, rather than an affiliation of pride (dutton et al., 1994). cole and bruch (2006, p. 585) agree with bartels et al. (2010) and dutton et al. (1994) by stating that oi ‘examines the process whereby an individual’s identity becomes psychologically intertwined with the organisation’s identity’. tajfel (1982) explains this emotional attachment as classical identification, which is defined as the emotional value and meaning of an individual’s membership within a group and how cognitively aware such individuals are of this membership. when students have an emotional connection to the university, they will feel obligated to stay and support their current university (kim et al., 2010). according to bartels et al. (2010), oi decreases turnover and is therefore likely to retain students at universities. it is made clear by ciftciogiu (2010) that in order for identification to take place, membership is required, otherwise it can lead to inadequate socialisation and therefore the emotional connection with the organisation will not form. hartel, ashkanasy and zerbe (2006) state that there are two ways in which employees can attach themselves to the organisation. firstly, there is a social desire to be accepted by society and, secondly, there are the organisation’s actions which enhance the employees’ perceptions that they and their well-being are valued by the organisation (hartel et al., 2006). from a student perspective, sperlich and spraul (2007) mention that it is important to engage students in order to participate actively in their education. these authors indicate that active participation of decision-making by students can increase their attachment to the organisation. involvement: astin (1999, p. 518) defines student involvement as ‘the amount of physical and psychological energy that the student devotes to the academic experience’. astin identifies a number of factors that would influence student involvement, which will be discussed as follows. firstly, student–faculty interaction and student involvement in student government activities have a positive effect on their involvement with the university (astin, 1999). students who meet with university staff members on a regular basis will have an increased sense of belonging and therefore experience an increase in their level of oi, according to astin. this author further explains that students who participate in student governance activities have an opportunity to interact amongst their peers and make a difference in the university experience. this increases the power given to students and can give them a sense of belonging and a feeling that they matter to the student body, increasing their level of oi. however, maurer (2007) found that psychological investment is necessary to ensure involvement, as opposed to only attending the activities. according to ciftciogiu (2010), student involvement and engagement are necessities for learning, with engagement, involvement and attachment all having a relationship with one another. student engagement is defined by natriello (in ciftciogiu, 2010, p. 14), as taking part in the various activities that school programmes offer to students. this can relate to students’ willingness to partake in regular activities at school as well, such as attending class and submitting the required work following a teacher’s directions. furthermore, student engagement can be viewed as students’ sense of belongingness and attachment to their particular university (archambault, janosz, fallu & pagani, 2009, p. 652). in finn’s (in ciftciogiu 2010) participation-identification model of school withdrawal, lack of oi leads to withdrawal and disengagement, which, as a result, can lead to school dropout. perceived educational effectiveness: clayson (2009) states that the effectiveness of teaching has become increasingly important as a result of universities wanting to ensure that they attract and retain the best students. the way in which lecturers present their lectures and the way in which they interact with their students can influence students’ level of oi. therefore students’ perceptions of educational effectiveness are important to consider when measuring oi. delaney, johnson, johnson and treslan (2010) mention that students in higher education perceive their education to be effective when instructors are respectful of students, knowledgeable, approachable, engaging, communicative, organised, responsive, professional and humorous. delaney et al. (2010) also found that these characteristics were not dependent on the method of teaching. feldman (1976) evaluates various factors that are perceived by students to influence their educational effectiveness. feldman’s findings identify three clusters according to which students perceive educational effectiveness. these three clusters include instructor presentation of material, facilitation of learning and the regulation of learning. the cluster concerning how the lecturer presents the material is influenced by how effectively the lecturer stimulates students’ interest, how enthusiastic the lecturer is about the subject and how knowledgeable the lecturer is with regard to the specific subject (feldman, 1976). feldman states that facilitation of learning is determined by the preparedness of the lecturer, sensitivity to students’ progress and encouragement toward students. the regulation of learning is dependent on the encouragement of open discussions in class, opportunities for students to be intellectually challenged and how frequently feedback is received (feldman, 1976). perceived institutional prestige: social identification and social categorisation theories have given insight into the fact that an employee’s positive perception of his or her organisation’s prestige can lead to a positive self-esteem of the individual and a positive assessment of one’s self-image (ciftciogiu, 2010). therefore, various researchers agree that the more positive the external perception of employees is, the greater the self-esteem of the employees and, as a result, the greater the employees’ loyalty (riketta, 2005; van knippenberg & sleebos, 2006). additionally, cialdini et al. (1976, p. 366) state that if the members of an organisation believed that the organisation to which they belong is seen in a positive light, then these members will ‘bask in the glory’ of that organisation. in this manner, as ciftciogiu (2010) states, individuals usually want to be a part of the best or be associated with excellence. it is said that a tertiary university will make use of this desire of students to attract them to that particular university (ciftciogiu, 2010). porter et al. (2011) mention that universities which are more selective will be seen as prestigious. the enhanced perceived institutional prestige will increase the students’ identification, because they want to belong to that particular university (porter et al., 2011). university image: according to kazoleas, kim and moffit (2001, p. 205), service organisations’ success is highly dependable on the image they portray. this organisational image is perceived as a collection of images from the receiver’s point of view, as opposed to a construct that the organisation determines and controls (kazoleas et al., 2001). universities as service organisations are therefore dependent on the image that they portray to students and the greater public. in arpan et al.’s (2003) study on university image, they view a university as an organisation. they stated that various factors influence an organisation’s image and therefore make the concept of organisational image a multidimensional concept. arpan et al. (2003) go on to list some of the factors that influence organisational image as: the size of the organisation’s profitability, degree of diversification, familiarity of the organisation, perceived nature of the community, employee relations, social responsibility efforts, perceived quality of the organisation’s product and services and, lastly, the intensity of its marketing campaigns. arpan et al. (2003, p. 99) refer to kazoleas et al.’s (2001) study, in which they identify that students do make a comparison between universities with regard to specific attributes which include ‘high quality undergraduate programmes, a faculty committed to providing quality education, and commitment to providing good services to students’. kazoleas et al. (2001, p. 207) state that these attributes are ‘separate images that contribute to the overall image of the university’. furthermore, universities have different departments and even professors in certain subject areas that influence the image of the organisation (kazoleas et al., 2001). different departments lead to different images of the organisation. these authors believe that these results indicate that a university can have multiple images and sometimes these images can be in conflict with one another. it sometimes happens that a university has an overall strong image and that reputation is what attracts students to that particular university. research design top ↑ research approach a mixed method approach of both qualitative and quantitative research techniques were utilised in this study, with the quantitative research being of central importance and supported by the qualitative research findings. the quantitative component of this study was of primary significance to the researchers in order to statistically measure and analyse the oi levels of the students under study. however, this could only be conducted once the qualitative research component of the study was carried out, as the qualitative feedback received served to ensure that the instrument used by caboni and eisemen (2003) was appropriate for the university setting in which this study was to be conducted. additionally, the qualitative study provided the researchers with in-depth information that could be used to formulate recommendations to improve oi once the quantitative study was complete. research method research participants the majority of students that participated in both the qualitative and quantitative components of this study had enrolled after the university had merged. however, the postgraduate students included in the study might have begun studying at this university prior to the merger occurring. the qualitative research design was executed by means of two focus group discussions conducted at the university under study. two focus groups were held to provide the researchers with optimal opinions from the respondents (babbie, 2010). from table 1, it can be seen that 18 students participated in the focus group discussions. the majority of the students were female and over half of the participants were completing their second year of studies. the focus groups assisted the researchers in determining which factors influenced the level of oi amongst students. in terms of the quantitative research, table 2 illustrates that although a relatively even distribution of genders was obtained, the sample was heavily weighted towards students in the 18 – 22 age group, those living off-campus, as well as black students. a total of 603 students fully completed the online questionnaire, indicating a response rate of 2.31%. for the exploratory purpose of this study, the response rate has been deemed sufficient (maholtra, 2007). table 1: the descriptive statistics for gender and year of study of the focus group discussions. table 2: the demographic profile of the quantitative research. measuring instruments for the qualitative study, questions were asked to stimulate discussion based on the four factors that influence students’ levels of oi, as identified in caboni and eiseman’s (2003) study. these included the extent of the students’ emotional attachment to the university, their perception of the university’s educational effectiveness, students’ perception of the university’s prestige and the involvement of the students in university activities (caboni & eiseman, 2003). the researchers made use of a voice recorder, with the consent of the participants, to record both focus group discussions. the findings from the qualitative study confirmed that the instrument used by caboni and eiseman (2003) was appropriate for use in the quantitative component of this study. the original instrument had inconsistent items and was therefore adapted for the south african context for this study based on results obtained from the focus groups. the results from the focus group discussions indicated that university image also plays a role in the level of oi amongst students. therefore, the researchers included a fifth factor to the instrument, namely university image. the items used for this factor were adapted from the study conducted by arpan et al. (2003). the final factors measured in this study were thus emotional attachment (factor 1), involvement (factor 2), perceived educational effectiveness (factor 3), perceived institutional prestige (factor 4) and university image (factor 5) (see tables 3 and 4). the items in the questionnaire were measured using a five-point likert scale. the questionnaire consisted of two sections. the first section contained five items per factor, for a total of five factors (i.e. those listed above). the second section, demographic variables, consisted of seven categories, namely gender, age, year of study, residence, campus, race and faculty. cronbach coefficient alphas were used to determine the reliability of the instrument. according to maholtra (2007), a coefficient alpha of less than 0.60 is unsatisfactory and therefore the factor is unreliable. all of the factors had a cronbach coefficient alpha of above 0.60, therefore the reliability measures of the instrument can be deemed satisfactory. emotional attachment had a cronbach coefficient alpha of 0.74, involvement 0.83, perceived educational effectiveness 0.84, perceived institutional prestige 0.84 and university image a score of 0.67. content validity was ensured by linking the instrument’s content to the literature component through ensuring that the items in the instrument reflect the literature available. research procedure the study was performed during an 8-month period: march 2011 to october 2011. the qualitative data were collected during may 2011 and the quantitative data during september 2011. convenience, non-probability sampling was used for the focus group discussions. the researchers made use of structured questions and guided the discussion accordingly. the questions used in the focus group sessions were derived from the instrument used by caboni and eiseman (2003) for the purpose of establishing whether the questionnaire would be relevant to the university students under study, as explained previously. in the quantitative research design, the researchers made use of a structured questionnaire which was distributed to students by means of purposive, non-probability sampling. in line with the rules pertaining to ethical clearance at the university under study, the researchers applied for ethical clearance due to the sample being comprised of students. ethical clearance was thereafter granted. in the qualitative research sessions, the researchers read the informed consent document to the students, who had the opportunity to leave at any time if they so wished. in the quantitative study, an electronic survey method was used to collect the data. the e-mail that was sent to respondents included a consent letter and the link to the online questionnaire. statistical analysis the focus group discussions were recorded, which enabled the researchers to accurately capture the qualitative results. thereafter, the researchers explored whether any factors emerged other than the four factors suggested by caboni and eiseman (2003). this was achieved using content analysis, in which students’ responses were grouped into themes.data analysis for the quantitative component of the study was conducted by using descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. the raw data were automatically captured in microsoft excel by the university’s online survey tool, thus eliminating manual data capturing errors. inferential statistics were generated by using the statistical package statistica version 10 (2011). t-tests were used in order to determine whether a statistically significant relationship existed between residence and oi. the use of analyses of variance (anovas) enabled the researchers to determine whether there is a relationship between year of study, faculty, campus, race and residence with the level of oi amongst students. this was performed in order to successfully indicate whether these variables influence students’ levels of oi. post-hoc scheffé’s tests were used to determine the statistical significance of differences within groups that had more than two levels, such as campus and race. cohen’s d statistic was calculated where statistically significant differences were found, to determine practical significance. a cohen’s d of greater than 0.20 and less than 0.50 is accepted as a small effect, whilst greater than 0.50 and less than 0.80 is understood as a medium effect and a score greater than 0.80 implies a large practical significance (cohen, 1988; d. venter, personal communication, 24 september 2011). results top ↑ qualitative research findings the qualitative findings from the focus group discussions were used to determine whether the factors in caboni and eiseman’s (2003) instrument were applicable to this university. the researchers found that the students referred to university image as an additional factor to those of caboni and eiseman and therefore added this as a fifth factor. the qualitative findings were also used to develop recommendations to the university as to how to increase oi levels amongst students. these recommendations will be discussed in the ‘conclusion’ section of this article. students’ comments on whether they are proud to be associated with the university the majority of students stated that they are proud to be associated with this university. some reasons given for their pride in the university include:• higher educational standards compared with other south african universities. • diversity week (where students are encouraged to wear traditional clothing and various cultures are celebrated through song, dance and culinary experiences). • the ‘one day without shoes’ campaign, an annual international initiative supported by this university that encourages students to spend a day without wearing shoes to identify with those living in poverty ( http://www.onedaywithoutshoes.com). • support from classmates in postgraduate classes. • professional and approachable lecturers. • accessible study opportunities being made available to them. however, not all students had consensus in this regard. some of the reasons why students are not proud to be associated with this university include: • administrative burdens and bureaucracy. • the university not being well known to international students. • a lack of ‘rag party opportunities’. rag stands for ‘remember and give’. it is a non-profit organisation, which, in conjunction with the campus life festival held at this university, hosts numerous activities for students in order to raise funds for charity organisations. • a perception of inconsiderate lecturers. • racial issues coming to the fore between students. factors that would increase students’ levels of organisational identification students stated that a higher quality of education would increase their level of oi. it was mentioned that certain faculties are known by their students for their quality. students that study in faculties with reputations for quality might therefore identify stronger with the university than students from other faculties. the participants agreed that recognition for their hard work will also increase their levels of identification. students believe that the bureaucracy in administration needs to be reviewed and streamlined. factors that would decrease students’ levels of organisational identification the participants felt that lecturers’ teaching skills do not represent their qualification and experience. students felt that certain lecturers at this university have the necessary qualifications, but do not have the teaching skills required to pass that knowledge on to them. this leads to these students not identifying with the university. it was mentioned that certain lecturers focus so much on their own research that they are not adequately prepared for their role as lecturer. the researchers noted that this could imply that students do not understand the link between an academic’s own research and his or her role as lecturer and thus might not comprehend the vital interplay between these two roles in broadening the knowledge base of students.some participants felt that certain lecturers are maintaining a much higher standard than other universities, therefore decreasing the students’ possibilities to transfer to other universities because of their resultant low marks. it is believed by students that higher standards lead to lower results and students do not perceive these high standards as sufficient reason for giving students poor marks in relation to other universities. the researchers thus observed that students often do not grasp the benefit of high tertiary educational standards, which equip them to compete effectively in the global marketplace. students’ opinions on involvement in societies the participants in the focus groups agreed that involvement in societies gives them the opportunity to meet other students and experience different cultures. this establishes new bonds between students. other students believed that involvement in societies gives them the opportunity to have extra responsibilities. students also mentioned that the red tape that is involved at this university made it difficult to host activities in societies and therefore members became frustrated. this can lead to a decrease in oi. students’ levels of identification increased with involvement in communities for practical application as part of their curriculums. students feel motivated when they are given the opportunity to apply the skills that they learn in their studies by giving back to the community. it is therefore believed that involvement in societies will increase students’ levels of oi. however, there is no society that the students under study felt appealed to them personally. other students stated that they stay in areas that are far away from the university’s campuses and therefore find it difficult to travel to the university solely to participate in extracurricular activities. students’ perceptions on why certain universities in other provinces are seen as prestigious participants mentioned two western cape universities as being perceived to be prestigious. reasons included that these universities are known internationally and are perceived to produce good quality graduates. students mentioned that south african universities that have been ranked highly in relation to overseas universities have higher statuses than other south african universities. however, their quality of education is not perceived as different from that of the university under study. the students felt that individuals from the western cape are naturally proud to be associated with the geographical location of the universities. individuals from the eastern cape do not share the same perceived status. quantitative research results descriptive statistics table 3 illustrates that students perceive the researched university’s education standards to be effective (factor 3) – this factor had the highest mean score of 4.27. the lowest mean is that of perceived institutional prestige (factor 4). the students believe that the perceived institutional prestige of their university is the weakest of the five factors. jorgensen (2006) and d. venter (personal communication, 24 september 2011) explained that scores from a five-point likert scale can be categorised as ‘low’ when falling between 1.00 and 2.59, with a neutral score falling between 2.60 and 3.40 and a high score falling between 3.41 and 5.00. emotional attachment, involvement, perceived educational effectiveness and university image all obtained high scores, according to these categories. on the five-point likert scale, the total level of oi for this university is 3.81, with a standard deviation of 0.56. the researchers have no indication from previous literature as to what level of oi can be perceived as being high or low in comparison to other universities. however, according to the statistically derived categories, a score of 3.80 is seen as a high level of oi amongst students. table 3: the descriptive statistics for each of the five factors and factor t. analysis of variance table 4 illustrates that there is a statistically significant relationship between factor 1 and year of study, residence, campus and race, because all the p-values for these variables were less than the significance level of 0.01. at a significance level of less than 0.01, factor 2 showed a statistically significant relationship with faculty, year of study, campus and race. the anova showed that factor 3 had a statistically significant relationship with year of study, residence, campus and race at a significance level of less than 0.01. factor 4 had a statistically significant relationship with year of study, residence and race at a significance level of less than 0.01. at a significance level of less than 0.01, factor 5 had a statistically significant relationship with year of study, campus and race. at a significance level of less than 0.05, factor 5 had a statistically significant relationship with faculty. for the purpose of this study, the research only focused on the demographic variables that influence the total oi of the students investigated, as this relates to the set of hypotheses of the study. at a significance level of less than 0.01, a statistically significant relationship existed between factor t (total oi) and year of study, residence, campus and race. this implied that only year of study, residence, campus and race had an influence on students’ levels of oi. these demographic variables are discussed in more detail in the next section. table 4: the analysis of variance that determined the relationships between demographic variables and each of the factors. discussion of hypotheses hypothesis 1: owing to the small number of respondents from indian and asian racial groups, the researchers made the decision to include these groups in the ‘mixed race’ group. table 2 indicates that black students had the highest mean score of 3.96 and a standard deviation (sd) score of 0.54. this implied that black students have higher levels of oi than the mixed race group and white students. in table 4, it is illustrated that at a significance level of less than 0.01, a statistically significant relationship existed between race and oi. scheffé’s tests were conducted because the anova identified significant differences for race and oi. according to table 5, the cohen’s d for black students and white students had a large practically significant difference of 0.84, whilst black students and mixed race students had a medium practically significant difference of 0.50 and white students and mixed race students had a small practically significant difference of 0.38. thus, because race has an influence on students’ level of oi, hypothesis 1 is accepted. hypothesis 2: table 4 indicates that there was no statistically significant relationship between faculty and students’ level of oi. this implied that faculty has no influence on the level of oi amongst students. therefore, hypothesis 2 is rejected. hypothesis 3: from table 2, it is evident that campus 6 has the highest level of oi amongst students because of its mean score of 4.12. no responses were gained from campus 1. table 4 indicates that at a significance level of less than 0.01, a statistically significant relationship existed between campus and students’ level of oi. according to table 6, a large practically significant difference existed between campus 5 and campus 6 because the cohen’s d (0.81) was greater than 0.80. a medium practical significance existed between campus 2 and campus 6, because the cohen’s d value (0.78) was greater than 0.50 and less than 0.80. all other relationships between the various campuses were found to have had a small practical significance. owing to the statistically and practically significant relationship between campus and students’ levels of oi, hypothesis 3 is accepted. hypothesis 4: university tenure refers to the length of time a student spends studying at one particular university. table 2 shows that the mean scores decrease as a student continues studying at this university. this implied that the relationship between oi and year of study decreased the longer a student studies. a reason for this can be because of the merger of this university, as previously mentioned. postgraduate students who study at this university could still be associating themselves with one of the institutions that existed prior to the merger rather than with the recently merged university, because they began studying here before the merger took place. a statistically significant relationship existed between students’ year of study and oi, because the p-value was less than a significance level of 0.01 (table 4). according to table 7, there was a large practically significant difference between first-year students’ levels of oi and postgraduate students’ levels of oi, because cohen’s d was larger than 0.80. a medium practically significance difference existed between first-year students and fourth-year students, second-year students and postgraduate students, as well as third-year students and postgraduate students’ levels of oi, with a cohen’s d of between 0.20 and 0.50. all of the other combinations held a small practically significant difference. students’ levels of oi thus decrease with university tenure and, for this reason, hypothesis 4 is accepted. hypothesis 5: the mean score for both on-campus and off-campus residents was high according to the categories mentioned previously, with a mean score of 3.96 and 3.77, respectively (table 2). according to the anova analysis in table 4, a statistically significant relationship existed between oi and residence because the p-value was less than 0.01. cohen’s d in table 8 indicated a small practically significant difference of 0.34. thus, residence has an influence on oi and hypothesis 5 is accepted. table 5: the practical significance of the impact of race on organisational identification. table 6: the practical significance of the impact of campus on organisational identification. table 7: the practical significance of the impact of year of study on organisational identification. table 8: the practical significance of the impact of residence on organisational identification. ethical considerations top ↑ the researchers were required to process the proposal through the necessary ethical clearance procedure required by the tertiary institution under study. an ethics clearance number (h 2011 bus iph 12) was received from the institution’s research ethics committee (human) in order to go ahead with the study. potential benefits and hazards the measurement instrument utilised in this study posed no risk or danger to participating respondents. the data collected from the empirical study were stored safely and only the researchers had the required access to the data. the respondents can only benefit from this study if the tertiary institution implements the study’s recommendations. recruitment procedure it was emphasised to all respondents and participants in both phases of the empirical investigation that their responses would be kept confidential. the researchers also ensured that all respondents were aware that participation was voluntarily. respondents could withdraw from the research at any stage if they so wished. respondents were recruited for both empirical methods through the use of electronic invitation. in the case of the qualitative study, respondents were electronically invited to attend the focus group discussion and it was made clear that the discussions were voluntary. the electronic invitation to partake in the survey included a description of the study with a hyperlink that would provided participants access to the questionnaire. informed consent students were introduced to the topic of organisational identification and the purpose of the study. the researchers clearly outlined the objectives of the study and encouraged respondents to ask questions when they were unsure or concerned. data protection the electronic notes and recordings of the focus group discussions, as well as the responses of the questionnaires, which were electronically captured, were stored in password-protected files accessible only to the researchers. trustworthiness top ↑ reliability focus group discussion reliability was ensured by using the same group facilitator for both the discussions, as well as the use of structured questions in the discussions. the responses to the electronic questionnaire were kept confidential and respondents were able to answer the questionnaire in their own time, thus eliminating bias. additionally, reliability measures such as cronbach alpha, item to total correlation and inter-item correlations determined the questionnaire to be reliable. validity the validity of the empirical study was improved by adapting and applying the empirical method outlined for an instrument that had already been used by previous authors. face validity was ensured by the instrument being acceptable to an expert in the field of oi. additionally, content validity was ensured by linking the instrument content to the literature. valid interpretations of statistical results were obtained by utilising standardised techniques. discussion top ↑ the objective of the study was to determine the level of oi amongst students at a post-merged university and establish which demographic factors particularly influence oi. the study holds importance because the oi level of students at a post-merged university might be low because they might not yet identify with the values of such a university. to the researchers’ knowledge, such research has not been undertaken in a post-merged university context. therefore, this research contributes to the current body of knowledge concerning oi because a high level of oi was found amongst the students at this post-merged university. students’ race, campus, university tenure and residence furthermore have an influence on students’ level of oi. outline of the results according to bartels (2006), identification can occur amongst different groups such as age, gender and race. hypothesis 1 was accepted as race does influence the level of oi amongst students. however, age and gender had no influence on the level of oi amongst the students investigated. identification therefore did not occur in all group situations. it was indicated that black students have a higher level of oi than mixed race students and white students, whilst white students have the lowest level of oi. this was supported by the qualitative research study, as the majority of the black student respondents indicated that they are proud to be associated with this university. a probable reason for this relationship can be because the on-campus residents are more culturally homogeneous. ashforth and mael (1989) agree by stating that members of a group identify with groups that have similar values as to what they have. therefore it is likely that members of the same race will identify more easily with each other (chavous et al., 2002).hypotheses 2 and 3 also emulated from bartels’ (2006) view that oi can differ amongst different groups. however, hypothesis 2 was rejected as faculty had no influence on the level of oi amongst students. hypothesis 3 was accepted as a practically significant relationship was found between campus and students’ levels of oi. this implies that the campus on which students study influences their levels of oi, but not the particular faculty in which they study. one possible reason for the higher level of oi amongst campus 6 students may be that the majority of students enrolled at campus 6 are black students. campus 6 is therefore a more racially homogenous group, which implies that they will identify more easily with each other and the campus. the fact that oi differed across campuses could also indicate that the university under study must work towards unifying the various geographical campuses through continuing to emphasise the core values of the university. according to maurer (2007), employee’s oi will increase with organisational tenure. thus, the researchers’ fourth hypothesis was that students’ levels of oi would be expected to increase with university tenure. however, the opposite was found to be true for the students investigated in this study, as the findings indicated that oi decreases with university tenure. the students who are at postgraduate level may associate themselves with the university prior to the merger, rather than the ‘new’ post-merged university. another reason for the decrease in oi can be the students’ experiences with the university and its activities. in the focus group discussions, the postgraduate students were those students who complained the most about this university. these students might realise the university’s faults after four to five years there, as they are given more autonomy in their decision-making and come into more frequent contact with university policies and procedures. hypothesis 5 was accepted as a practically significant relationship between residence and oi was found. this relationship was expected, as students who stay on campus have increasingly more opportunities to participate in university activities and are encouraged to develop a special bond with fellow residence students and the university. this is confirmed by astin (1999), who states that one of the factors that could influence student involvement is residence. a possible reason for this is that for the majority of the year, this university is their home. as previously mentioned in the literature review, student involvement is ‘the amount of physical and psychological energy that the student devotes to the academic experience’ (astin, 1999, p. 518). by staying on campus, students spend the majority of their ‘energy’ on campus activities. this increases their involvement in the university and therefore can influence their level of oi. the qualitative and quantitative results contained both similarities and contradictions. in terms of similarities, students stated in the focus group discussions that they do not perceive this university to be prestigious. in line with this, perceived institutional prestige (factor 4) scored the lowest, with a mean score of 3.00. the qualitative results agreed that students were not satisfied with the reputation of the university. they felt that the university does not advertise their accomplishments nationally and this is the reason why the university is not as well-known as it could be. this indicates that students’ perceptions of the university reputation are based on outsiders’ perceptions of the university. lievens, van hoye and anseel (2007) state that individuals’ perceptions of an institution, to some extent, can be influenced by outsiders’ opinions. another similarity is that postgraduate students in the qualitative research indicated that their level of oi has decreased as they stayed at the university under study. this was confirmed by the quantitative results. despite the fact that both the qualitative and quantitative research indicated that oi decreased with university tenure, the literature review on the other hand revealed that the opposite would be true, namely that university tenure will increase students’ levels of oi (rusbult & farrell in maurer, 2007). the quantitative and qualitative research results contradicted each other with regard to perceived educational effectiveness and involvement in university activities. the quantitative results indicated that students perceived the educational effectiveness of the university to be high, with a mean score of 4.27. however, students who participated in the focus groups stated that they do not believe the level of education received is on the same standard as other south african universities and that the lecturers’ abilities to teach are not at their desired standard. factor 2 (involvement) scored a mean of 4.00. clearly these results indicate that the students feel that they are participating in the various activities that the university offers. however, in the qualitative study, the students indicated that there are not enough activities to their liking and therefore they do not partake in the university’s activities. these contradictions in findings can be ascribed to the fact that the qualitative study only represented a small sample of respondents, providing the researchers with limited opinions. practical implications the fact that the level of oi amongst the students investigated is high (with a score of 3.81) is against the expectations of the researchers, who expected to find that students are in the early stages of developing a stronger identification with the post-merged university under study. clearly, these students are identifying strongly with the university already. however, this does not correlate with the results from the qualitative study, as the majority of students who participated in the qualitative research stated that they do not identify with this university.the researchers recommend that because race, campus, university tenure and residence influence students’ levels of oi, this university should investigate implementing action plans to address the impact of these demographic variables, in order to employ effective interventions that will increase students’ levels of oi. the students that participated in the qualitative research study suggested that they would enjoy more activities in which they can take part on a social capacity. some of the examples given by the students included diversity programmes where they can learn from one another, social responsibility projects and more rag parties. however, the researchers noticed that all of the examples given by the students were activities that would be considered fun and that would not expect students to step out of their comfort zones. for example, they would rather go without shoes for one day in support of poverty than go to poor communities to provide practical assistance to those in need. the lack of sufficient accommodation for students on campus makes it unattractive for students to apply to stay on campus. the violent activities and the rumours about what happens in residences contribute to students not applying to stay on campus. the management of this university needs to improve the conditions on campus and market on-campus residences to other races, as the majority of residence students are black. safety is another concern for most students. the on-campus residences provided by this university are not perceived to be safe by the respondents under study. if management were to address these cultural and safety issues, they could enhance the level of oi for students living on campus. management should have equal distribution of races in on-campus residences. students’ levels of oi at this university decrease with university tenure, so management needs to ensure a stronger identification with students who have been studying there for longer periods of time. the management of the university under study can enhance this by ensuring that they deliver quality and accredited courses on a postgraduate level. they should host more prestigious functions for these students, for example formal reward evenings. postgraduate students are primarily responsible for upholding the reputation of this university in the workplace. if their identification decreases as they continue studying, then they will portray the lack of loyalty to this university and this will subsequently result in a decrease of the reputation of the university. postgraduate students are also those students who conduct research and, for this reason, if this university’s management focuses on improving these students’ levels of oi, they may be more willing to build the reputation of the university, especially internationally. additionally, universities should ensure that accredited courses of a high quality be offered that would be internationally recognised. the university should consistently focus on building a reputation of excellence, as well as ensure that administration becomes less bureaucratic and that qualified lecturers are appointed to instil the values of the university. limitations of the study owing to the fact that oi changes over time and this study was conducted within a 1-year time period, it can be noted that the results of this study merely provide insight into the levels of oi at this university at a specific point in time. this study is also only applicable to students from an eastern cape university and thus cannot necessarily be generalised to all universities in south africa.in the qualitative research, it was difficult to encourage students to participate in the focus group sessions. although these students were diverse in terms of race and gender, they were all from the same campus and mostly from the same faculty. the qualitative findings therefore cannot be generalised to all university students. however, the qualitative findings were useful in achieving the aim of the qualitative component of this study, as the findings assisted the researchers in establishing the appropriateness of the instrument used in the quantitative component of the study. upon designing the questionnaire, one of the campuses was incorrectly omitted and the questionnaire was sent out to respondents with this error. this error was rectified by including the sixth campus as soon as possible after the questionnaire was sent out to the respondents. therefore, the first 357 questionnaires could not be used for the analysis of the oi levels amongst the different campuses. the researchers also had no respondents from one campus in particular. when reading these results, the reader should bear these limitations in mind. implications for future research in the literature review, it was stated by kim et al. (2010) that students who have a high level of oi will increase the effort and time that they put into their studies. this should be investigated empirically. van knippenberg and sleebos (2006) state that when strong levels of identification are experienced by employees then it is likely that they redefine themselves according to those particular organisations’ values. the researchers recommend that a study be conducted on whether this is true in a university context; that is, whether students will redefine their values according to those of their university, if they experience high levels of oi. future research can be conducted into those factors that influence students’ levels of oi, in order to determine what specific factors influence the relationship between race, campus, university tenure, residence and the overall level of oi. for example, because the oi level of students on campuses is most likely influenced by the extent to which the campus is culturally homogeneous, this implies that culture is a factor that influences the level of oi in students. thus, variables such as the influence of culture on the level of oi amongst students, as well as the role of race in influencing the level of oi, should be investigated in more detail. the relationship between the five factors should be explored, to determine whether a correlation exists between these factors. additionally, it has already been stated that few studies have been conducted on the influences of oi on university students. future research should thus also attempt to investigate solutions to address low levels of oi amongst university students and how to effectively manage the levels of oi amongst these students. the researchers believe that it will be insightful to understand how students’ levels of oi in this study compare to other students’ levels of oi amongst other major south african universities. a similar study should thus be conducted to investigate the levels of oi amongst south african university students and how they compare to one another. conclusion the aim of this study was to determine the level of oi amongst students at a post-merged university in south africa. it was found that students’ levels of oi are influenced by race, campus, university tenure and whether they stay on or off campus. students at this university do believe that the university is trying to change for the better. change and flexibility is indeed needed to ensure that the university achieves its vision; however, this change will be a long-term process and a university has to be unified in order for successful change to occur. oi can assist in increasing the unification of a student body. there are various benefits of ensuring that high levels of oi are achieved amongst university students. these benefits include support behaviour from students in the future (kim et al., 2010), for example, through financial support in the form of donations from alumni students (caboni & eiseman, 2003). furthermore, students will increase their ‘time and effort’ that they put into their work and will feel the university’s accomplishments and failures as if their own, with the university’s actions being projected onto their own lives (kim et al., 2010). oi can thus be used to influence students’ behaviour such that they act in the best interest of the university (kim et al., 2010). organisational identity can also assist universities to attract and retain students to ensure that they produce high quality graduates. students can become committed to the university through strong levels of oi. committed and loyal students can enhance the reputation of the university. therefore, it is important for universities to consider the implications of having students with high levels of oi, as this can be beneficial through building a university that has an international reputation (kim et al., 2010). from a tertiary educational perspective, universities are faced with numerous challenges, for example to motivate and engage students in order to graduate successfully. oi principles have proved to be an effective way in which these challenges can be addressed. thus, in order for a university to become cutting edge, it is recommended that they consider the implications of oi and how to effectively improve such levels within their student body. acknowledgements top ↑ the researchers extend their heartfelt gratitude to the students who were involved in the study, for their time and effort put into focus group sessions and questionnaire completion. furthermore, the researchers are grateful to the university involved in the study, as well as for the ethics clearance that was granted by its research ethics committee (human) that allowed the research to take place. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions n.b. (nelson mandela metropolitan university) completed this research for her honours treatise in partial fulfilment of her bcom honours degree in industrial and organisational psychology. m.r. (nelson mandela metropolitan university) was her primary supervisor, with r.j.s. (nelson mandela metropolitan university) providing co-supervision. n.b. was responsible for the research, compiling the literature review and conducting the research amongst the university students. m.r. and r.j.s. assisted with the resultant data analysis, discussion of results, overall editing and co-writing of this manuscript. references top ↑ albert, s., ashforth, b.e., & dutton, j.e. (2000). organisational identity and identification: charting new waters and building new bridges. academy of management review, 25(1), 13–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.2000.2791600 archambault, i, janosz, m., fallu, j.s., & pagani, l.s. (2009). student engagement and its relationship with early high school dropout. journal of adolescence, 32, 651–670. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2008.06.007, pmid:18708246 arpan, l.m., raney, a.a., & zivnuska, s. (2003). a cognitive approach to understanding university image. corporate communications: an international journal, 8(2), 97–113. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/1356328031047535 ashforth, b.e., & mael, f.a. (1989). social identity theory and the organization. academy of management review, 35, 232–344. astin, a.w. (1999). student involvement: a developmental theory for higher education. journal of college student development, 40(5), 518–529. babbie, e. (2010). the practice of social research. (12th edn.). melbourne: wadswoth cengage learning. bartels, j. (2006). organizational identification and communication: employees’ evaluation of internal communication and its effects on identification at different organisational levels. unpublished masters thesis, university of twente, the netherlands. bartels, j., peters, o., de jong, m., pruyn, a., & van der molen, m. (2010). horizontal and vertical communication as determents of professional and organisational identification. personnel review, 39(2), 210–226. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00483481011017426 beelen, p. (2007). organisational and professional identification: a social identity study of a post merger south african university. unpublished masters thesis, university of twente, the netherlands. bloom, d., canning, d., & chan, k. (2005). higher education and economic development in africa. retrieved may 13, 2011, from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/education/resources/2782001099079877269/5476641099079956815/higher ed_econ growth_africa.pdf caboni, t.c., & eiseman, j. (2003, november). oi and the voluntary support of higher education. paper presented at the annual meeting of the association for the study of higher education, portland. pmid:14611171 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioural science. (2nd edn.). hillside: erlbaum. cole, m.s., & bruch, h. (2006). organizational identity strength, identification and commitment and their relationships to turnover intentions: does organizational hierarchy matter? journal of organisational behaviour, 27, 585–605. chavous, t., rivas, d., green, l., & helaire, l. (2002). role of student background, perception of ethnic fit, and racial identification in the academic adjustment of african american students at a predominantly white university. journal of black psychology, 28(3), 234–260. cialdini, r.b., borden, r.j., thorne, a., walker, m.r., freeman, s., & sloan, l.r. (1976). basking in reflected glory: three football field studies. journal of personality and social psychology, 34(3), 366–375. ciftciogiu, a. (2010). the relationship between perceived external prestige and turnover intention: an empirical investigation. corporate reputation review, 13(4), 248–263. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/crr.2010.22 clayson, e.d. (2009). student evaluation of teaching: are they related to what students learn: a meta-analysis and review of the literature. journal of marketing education, 31(1), 16–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0273475308324086 delaney, j., johnson, a., johnson, t., & treslan, d. (2010, august). students’ perceptions of effective teaching in higher education. paper presented at the 26th annual conference on distance teaching & learning. madison, wisconsin. dutton, j.e., dukerich, j.m., & harquail, c.v. (1994). organisational images and member identification. administrative science quarterly, 39, 239–263. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2393235 feldman, k.a. (1976). the superior college teacher from the students’ view. research in higher education, 5, 243–288. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf00991967 foreman, p., & whetten, d.a. (2002). members’ identification with multiple-identity organisations. organizational science, 13(6), 618–635. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.13.6.618.493 frenkel, s., restubog, s.l.d., & bednall, t. (2012). how employee perceptions of hr policy and practice influence discretionary work effort and co-worker assistance: evidence from two organisations. the international journal of human resource management, 23, 1–18. griesel, h., & parker, b. (2009). graduate attributes: a baseline study on south african graduates from the perspective of employers. retrieved may 13, 2011, from http://www.saqa.org.za/docs/pubs/general/graduate_attributes.pdf hartel, c.e.j., ashkanasy, n.m., & zerbe, w.j. (2006). individual and organisational perspectives on emotional management and display. retrieved may 18, 2011, from http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/eserv.php?pid=uq:13598&dsid=zerbe_ashkanasy_hartel_overview_roeio_2nded.pdf jorgensen, l.l. (2006). rural high school principals’ perception of organisational changes needed to retain rural teachers in north dakota. ann arbor: umi dissertation publishing. kazoleas, d., kim, y., & moffit, m.a. (2001). university image: a case study. corporate communications: an international journal, 6(4), 205–216. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/eum0000000006148 kim, t., chang, k., & ko, k.j. (2010). determinants of organisational identification and supportive intentions. journal of marketing management, 26(6), 413–427. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02672570903485022 lievens, f., van hoye, g., & anseel, f. (2007). organisational identity and employer image: towards a unifying framework. british journal of management, 18, 45–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2007.00525.x mael, f., & ashforth, b.e. (1992). alumni and their alma mater: a partial test of reformulated model of organizational identification. journal of organizational behaviour, 13, 103–123. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.4030130202 maholtra, n.k. (2007). marketing research: an applied orientation. (5th edn.). upper saddle river: pearson. maurer, s. (2007). the relationship between college student involvement, investment, and satisfaction. unpublished master’s dissertation, hanover college, indiana. porter, t., hartman, k., & johnson, j.s. (2011). books and balls: antecedents and outcomes of college identification. research in higher education journal, 14, 1–14. reger, r.k., gustafson, l.t., demarie, s.m., & mullane, j.v. (1994). reframing the organisation: why implementing total quality is easier said than done. academy of management, 19(3), 565–584. riketta, m. (2005). organisational identification: a meta-analysis. journal of vocational behaviour, 66, 358–384. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2004.05.005 sperlich, a., & spraul, k. (2007). students as active partners: higher education management in germany. the innovation journal: the public sector innovation journal, 12(3), 1–19. statistica version 10 [computer software] (2011). tulsa: statsoft, inc. retrieved april 15, 2011, from http://statistica.software.informer.com/10.0/ tajfel, h. (1982). social psychology of intergroup relations. annual review of psychology, 33, 1–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ps.33.020182.000245 tajfel, h., & turner, j. (1979). an integrative theory of intergroup conflict. in w.g. austin & s. worchel (eds.), the social psychology of intergroup relations, (pp. 33–47). monterey: brooks/cole publishing company. taylor, s. (2010). resourcing and talent management. (5th edn.). london: charted institute of personnel and development. van knippenberg, d., & sleebos, e. (2006). oi versus organisational commitment: self-definition, social exchange, and attitudes. journal of organisational behaviour, 27, 571–584. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.359 van riel, c., & fombrun, c. (2008). the essentials of corporate communication: experimental approach. london: rutledge. winn, r.c., & green, r.s. (1998). applying total quality management to the educational process. international journal of engineering education, 14(1), 24–29. article information authors: talat islam1 saif ur rehman khan1 ungku n.u. ahmad1 ishfaq ahmed1 affiliations: 1faculty of management and human resource development, universiti teknologi malaysia, johor campus, malaysia correspondence to: talat islam postal address: e-2-04, jalan pulai perdana, 2/7 taman sri pulai perdana, skudai, johor bahru 81110, malaysia dates: received: 24 jan. 2012 accepted: 26 sept. 2012 published: 30 nov. 2012 how to cite this article: islam, t., khan, s.u.r., ahmad, u.n.u., & ahmed, i. (2012). does organisational commitment enhance the relationship between job involvement and in-role performance? sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(2), art. #460, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i2.460 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. does organisational commitment enhance the relationship between job involvement and in-role performance? in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • objectives of the study    • literature review       • job involvement and in-role job performance       • affective commitment       • the mediating role of organisational commitment • research design    • research approach    • research strategy    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results • ethical considerations    • potential benefits and hazards    • recruitment procedures    • informed consent    • data protection • trustworthiness    • reliability    • validity • discussion    • practical implication    • limitation and future direction    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: job involvement is essential for the performance of employees. prior researchers have found a weak relationship between job involvement and job performance, but dimensions of commitment have been considered as a mediator to enhance the relationship.research purpose: this research is aimed at discovering the role of organisational commitment as a mediating variable between the relationship of job involvement and performance. motivation for the study: the aim of organisations today is to outperform each other in every respect. in order to realise this, the role of employees is crucial. to elicit the best from employees requires much attention from organisations. this research is focused on this specific issue, namely, increasing employees’ performance. research design, approach and method: the researchers have used structured questionnaires using the quantitative approach. a similar research methodology using the survey method was applied by the researchers to make the results comparable. the simple random sampling technique was used. data was evaluated on the basis of 208 completed questionnaires. main findings: findings of the study indicate that there is a relationship between job involvement and in-role performance. affective and normative commitment can act as mediator. however, continuance commitment is not a mediator in this relationship. practical/managerial implications: it is important for organisations that want to gain a competitive edge over its rivals to enhance the level of involvement of its employees. contribution/value-add: the results of this study will provide a new dimension for managers on how to gain a competitive advantage over rival firms with regard to performance by increasing the level of job involvement. introduction top ↑ job involvement has received substantial attention because of its role in generating positive organisational outcomes, for example, employee commitment (ahmed & islam, 2011; ketchand & strawser, 2001; mathieu & zajac, 1990; meyer, paunonen, gellatly, goffin & jakson, 1989), employee motivation (hackman & lawler, 1971), job satisfaction (gerpott, 1990; mathieu & farr, 1991; paterson & o’driscoll, 1990; shore et al., 1990), in-role performance (brown, 1996; brown & leigh, 1996; cron, 1984; dubinsky & hartley, 1986; mohsan et al., 2011) and organisational citizenship behaviour (diefendorff, brown, kamin & lord, 2002; mohsan et al., 2011).kanungo (1982) has defined job involvement as a psychological identification or commitment with the job. furthermore, paullay, alliger and stone–romero (1994) added to this definition by stating that it is the degree to which one is cognitively anxious about, engaged with and concerned about ones present job. those individuals who are more involved in their job consider their work to be a vital part of their lives and their feelings are closely connected with their performance at work (lodahl & kejner, 1965). thus, employees with high job involvement have greater work focus and make it an essential part of their personal life (hackett, lapierre & hausdorf, 2001). job involvement, to some extent, is similar to organisational commitment because both constructs are concerned with the employee’s recognition at work. however the difference between both constructs is that job involvement is concerned with the current or latest job of the employee (brown, 1996), whilst organisational commitment is the willingness of an employee to be a part of the organisation in the future (uygur, 2004). thus, it is possible for an employee to be highly involved in his or her job, but not to be committed to the organisation (blau & boal, 1987). job involvement is the outcome of two factors, namely, personal and organisational factors (sekeran, 1989; sekeran & mowday, 1981). personal characteristics such as age, gender, work experience and education are closely associated with job involvement (rabinowitz & hall, 1977). organisational factors, such as the characteristics of the job, also positively influence job involvement (brown, 1996). existing literature on the association between job involvement and in-role performance demonstrates a weak association of constructs, which requires an in-depth investigation. as brown and leigh (1996) suggest, this weak relationship may be caused by the presence of other constructs. taking this into consideration, this study is an attempt to explore the relationship between job involvement, commitment and in-role performance. objectives of the study the objectives of the study are:• to determine the relationship between job involvement and in-role job performance • to determine the mediating role of organisational commitment between job involvement and in-role job performance • to determine the mediating effect of affective, continuance and normative commitment between the relationship of job involvement and in-role job performance. literature review job involvement and in-role job performance according to borman and motowidlo (1997), in-role job performance relates to the activities an employee’s formal role requires. researchers have found that job involvement has a positive impact on the employee’s motivation and efforts (hackman & lawler, 1971), which leads to a high level of in-role job performance (brown, 1996). earlier studies supported this relationship (i.e. diefendorff et al., 2002; mohsan et al., 2011; rotenberry & moberg, 2007). for instance, brown and leigh (1996) found a positive and weak relationship between job involvement and in-role job performance, whilst the relationship with the mediation role of efforts was non-significant. the literature has shown that few researchers try to explore the relationship between job involvement and in-role job performance. results provided by the researchers clearly indicate a weak but significant relationship between job involvement and in-role job performance. for example, diefendorff et al. (2002) found a small relationship (i.e. r = .19, p < .05), rotenberry and moberg (2007) found a weak but significant relationship (i.e. r = .15, p < .05), whilst the study conducted by mohsan et al. (2011) also found a weak but significant relationship (i.e. r = .32, p < .03): • hypothesis 1: there is positive and significant relationship between job involvement and inrole job performance. affective commitment in the literature, organisational commitment is widely considered an affective or emotional attachment to the organisation, such that the strongly committed individual is involved and enjoys membership of the organisation (allen & meyer, 1990). employees who have high levels of organisational identification have enhanced feelings of belonging to their organisation and are more psychologically attached to it (lee & peccei, 2007). thus, employees with strong affective commitment remain with the organisation because they want to do so (allen & meyer, 1996). affective commitment tends to correlate more strongly with any given outcome variable, including the focal behaviour (meyer & herscovitch, 2001). organisational-based psychological ownership is concerned with the individual member’s feelings of possession and psychological connection to the organisation as a whole, including organisational culture and climate, attitudes of senior management, corporate goals and vision, reputation of the organisation, and corporate policies and procedures (mayhew, ashkanasy & dan gardner, 2007). thus, developing affective commitment should focus on work experiences and job characteristics such as autonomy, task significance, task identity, skill variety, supervisory feedback and organisational dependability, all of which have been identified as significant antecedents of affective commitment (jaros, 1997). porter, steers, mowday and boulian (1974, p. 606) further characterises affective commitment according to the following three factors:(1) belief in and acceptance of the organization’s goals and values, (2) a willingness to focus effort on helping the organization achieve its goals, and (3) a desire to maintain organizational membership. (p. 606) the mediating role of organisational commitment today’s organisations have to compete globally with their competitors and each organisation attempts to gain a greater advantage over its rivals. to attain this advantage organisations are trying to win the trust of their key employees along with their commitment level (rotenberry & moberg, 2007). as argued by feldman and moore (1982), more committed employees try their best to uplift the organisation they work for and this provides these organisations with a competitive edge over their rivals. organisational commitment can be defined as the willingness of the employee to belong to the organisation, participate in the work of the organisation and identify with the organisation (allen & meyer, 1990). this definition of organisational commitment involves three basic elements, namely (1) acceptance of all the goals of the organisation, (2) willingness to perform with complete commitment for the organisation and (3) desire to remain with the organisation (agarwal, decarlo & vyas, 1999; allen & meyer, 1990; chen, tsui & farh, 2002; uygur, 2004). meyer and allen (1991) introduce the three dimensions of organisational commitment, namely (1) affective commitment refers to the employee’s emotional attachment and involvement with his or her organisation (meyer, allen & smith, 1993). (2) continuance commitment is the employee’s willingness to be a part of the organisation because of non-transferable investment (reichers, 1985) and (3) normative commitment relates to the employee’s feelings of obligation to his or her work (bolon, 1997). organisational commitment is beneficial from both the employee’s and the organisation’s point of view. shore and martin (1989) found that organisational commitment leads to the overall performance of the organisation and this also helps organisations achieve their targets. on the other hand, when discussing organisational commitment from the employee’s perspective, meyer, paunonen, gellatly, goffin and jakson (1989) found that greater organisational commitment increases the employee’s in-role job performance which ultimately benefits the overall organisation. thus, we hypothesised that: • hypothesis 2: there is positive and significant relationship between organisational commitment and in-role job performance. in earlier studies, a weak relationship was found between job involvement and in-role job performance. brown and leigh (1996) argued that one reason for the weak and significant relationship between these two variables (i.e. job involvement and in-role job performance) may be that job involvement is more likely to influence in-role job performance in the presence of certain other variables (indirectly). thus, keeping this argument in mind, this study is an attempt to find this relationship in the presence of organisational commitment because of the positive and significant relationship identified by the literature between job involvement and organisational commitment (brown, 1996; janis, 1989; loui, 1995). this positive relationship indicates that all employees who are involved with their jobs are also committed to their organisations. similarly, the researchers have found a positive relationship between organisational commitment and the performance of employees (konovsky & cropanzano, 1991; meyer et al., 1989). this finding revealed that employees who are more committed to their employing organisations make a great effort to achieve their organisation’s goals by performing their tasks better. by considering the preceding argument as a whole, it was hypothesised that: • hypothesis 3: organisational commitment mediates the relationship between job involvement and in-role job performance. previous studies have explored the relationship between dimensions of organisational commitment (affective, normative and continuance commitment) and job involvement, but no research to date has been conducted in which these dimensions have been used as a mediator between job involvement and in-role performance. as allen and meyer (1996) have noted, employees with higher ethical levels are not only more involved in their jobs, but also have strong normative commitment. some other researchers also found a positive and significant relationship between normative commitment and job involvement (i.e. ahmed & islam, 2011; carmeli, 2005; meyer & allen, 1997). in their separate studies, zajac (1990), carmeli (2005), ahmed and islam (2011), argued that there is a positive and significant relationship between affective commitment and job involvement. on the other hand, most researchers have discovered a weak but significant relationship between continuance commitment and job involvement (e.g. ahmed & islam, 2011; ketchand & strawser, 2001; kuruu¨zu¨m, ipekc, etin & irmak, 2008; zajac, 1990). similarly, researchers have also explored the relationship between dimensions of organisational commitment and in-role job performance. for example, meyer et al. (1989) found a positive relationship between affective and normative commitment with in-role job performance. they also found that continuance commitment is negatively related with employee performance. another researcher caruana, ewing and ramaseshan (1997), explored the relationship between organisational commitment and performance and noted that affective commitment has a positive impact on performance, whilst normative and continuance commitment have no impact on performance. likewise, angle and lawsan (1994) also found a positive relationship between affective and normative commitment and performance, whilst continuance commitment had no impact on performance. from the preceding discussion, it was hypothesised that: • hypothesis 4: affective, continuance and normative commitment mediates the relationship between job involvement and in-role job performance. research design top ↑ in the present study a quantitative research design was employed using the questionnaire. a survey is ’a method for gathering information from a sample of individual’s’ (scheuren, 2004, p. 9). the main idea of survey research is ’to collect information from one or more people on some set of organizationally relevant constructs‘ (bartlett, 2005, p. 99). moreover, the present study attempted to measure phenomena that was not directly observable which required a survey. this is considered to be an appropriate way to capture the findings from a large population at one time (gall, gall & brog, 2007). figure 1: research model showing mediating role of organisational commitment. research approach in this research the quantitative approach has been used. the main reason for choosing this method was that the variable used in this study can be easily measured quantitatively. on the other hand, according to terre blanche, durrheim and painter (2006), quantitative study is beneficial because the findings are more generalisable when using this approach. research strategy most of the studies on management use the survey method to collect the data. the same strategy has been used in the present study. this survey involved adapting questionnaires from the studies of different researchers. these questionnaires were distributed to the sample selected from the population (ghauri & gronhaug, 2005). research method research participants this study was conducted on the banking sector of pakistan. there are approximately 207 banks registered with the web of the central bank of pakistan. out of these, 10 listed banks were selected on the basis of a simple random sampling technique. this technique was used because this gives equal chance to each member of the population to be chosen. two-hundred and fifty questionnaires were distributed amongst the employees of selected banks, out of which 208 responded back, representing 83.2% of the total number of questionnaires. measuring instruments job involvement: twenty three questions were used to measure the job involvement level of employees. these twenty-three questions were taken from the study of knungo (1982) developed on the 5-point likert scale varying from 5 (strongly agree) to 1 (strongly disagree). examples of the questions used are:• ‘i like to spend most of my time at work.’ • ‘every morning i go to work enthusiastically.’ • ‘when there are things to do, i leave home earlier to go to work.’ the reliability of these questions was found to be 0.88. organisational commitment: fifteen questions were used to measure the commitment level of the employees. these questions were developed by mowday, steers and porter (1979) on a 5-point likert format whereby the highest point represented stronger commitment and vice versa (e.g. 5 strongly agree, 4 agree, 3 neutral, 2 disagree and 1 strongly disagree). furthermore, the same questions were used to measure the normative, continuance and affective commitment level of the employees. examples of these questions are: • ‘i can comfortably tell people that the institution is a great place to work in.’ • ‘i can see that my values are very similar to those of the institution.’ • ‘it was certainly a mistake to have decided to work in this institution in the first place.’ the reliability of these questions was 0.92. in-role job performance: five questions on in-role job performance were developed after extensive study of different books and of earlier researchers. these questions were developed on a 5-point likert scale, varying from 5 (strongly agree) to 1 (strongly disagree). examples are: • ‘i am doing well with my job.’ • ‘i am completely aware of my work.’ • ‘i can efficiently complete my tasks.’ the reliability of the questions was measured at 0.84. research procedure a direct method of distribution and collection of questionnaires was applied. firstly, permission was obtained from the managers of the banks. secondly, respondents were requested to be very fair and honest with their responses and they were assured that their responses would be kept confidential and used for research purposes only. statistical analysis to analyse the data, statistical package for social sciences (spss version 17.0) was used. pearson’s correlation was used to determine the relationship between job involvement, organisational commitment (e.g. affective, normative and continuance) and in-role job performance. to measure the mediation effect of organisational commitment between job involvement and in-role performance judd and kenny’s (1981) approach was used.descriptive statistics was also used to measure the mean and standard deviation of all the variables. significance of the correlation was also found at a 0.05 level of significance. results top ↑ table 1 shows the mean and standard deviation of the variables along with the correlation amongst the independent and dependent variables. the mean score of the respondents answer to the questions indicates that most of the respondents are very near to neutral in giving their views regarding job involvement (m = 2.906), commitment (m = 3.106), in-role job performance (m = 3.639), affective commitment (m = 3.136), normative commitment (m = 3.209) and continuance commitment (m = 2.951). table 1: mean, standard deviation, cronbach and correlation. figures in the table also indicate that correlation results of variables, namely, job involvement and in-role job performance were positively correlated with each other, but the relationship between them was not strong (r = .286, p < .01). the literature also supports the weak relationship between job involvement and in-role job performance (e.g. diefendorff et al., 2002; mohsan et al., 2011). job involvement and organisational commitment are positively related with each other (r = .594, p < .01), but the relationship is moderately strong. organisational commitment is also positively associated with in-role job performance (r = .289, p < .01), but the relationship is found to be slightly weak. when all the dimensions of organisational commitment were compared with job involvement, they demonstrated positive and significant results. this was also the case with affective commitment (r = .659, p < .01), normative commitment (r = .255, p < .01) and continuance commitment (r = .223, p < .01). the results were also interpreted to determine the relationship between dimensions of commitment with in-role job performance. two dimensions of commitment (i.e. affective and normative) positively correlated with performance, for example, affective commitment (r = .322, p < .01) and normative commitment (r = .214, p < .01), but there was a negative and insignificant relationship found between continuance commitment and in-role job performance (i.e. r = .008, p > .05). the literature also revealed a negative or no relationship between continuance organisational commitment and in-role job performance (caruana et al., 1997). to access the mediation effect of organisational commitment between job involvement and in-role job performance, three equations were examined according to the procedure given by judd and kenny (1981) (see table 2). in the first equation, job involvement (independent variable) was regressed with organisational commitment (mediator). here the relationship was found to be significant (β = 0.581, p < .01). in the second equation, the dependent variable (in-role job performance) was regressed with the independent variable (job involvement). once again, the relationship was found to be significant (β = 0.361, p < .01). in the third and last equation both the independent variable (job involvement) and mediator (organisational commitment) were used as independent variables and regressed with the dependent variable (in-role job performance), and the relationship was again found to be significant (β = 0.233, p < .01). thus, all judd and kenny’s (1981) conditions for mediation were met, namely (1) there is significant relationship between independent and mediator variable, (2) there is significant relationship between independent and dependent variable, (3) there is significant relationship between mediating and dependent variables and (4) the effect of dependent variable is greater on mediating variable and the value of beta is greater in equation two then in equation three. judd and kenny’s (1981) method was once again used in table 3 to access the mediation effect of affective commitment between job involvement and in-role job performance. in the first equation, job involvement (independent variable) was regressed with affective commitment (mediator) and the relationship was significant (β = .859, p < .01). in the second equation, the independent variable (job involvement) was regressed with the dependent variable (in-role job performance) and the relationship was significant (β = 0.361, p < .01). in the third equation, both the independent variable (job involvement) and the mediator (affective commitment) were regressed with in-role job performance, and the relationship was significant. moreover, the value of bets in equation two (β = 0.361) was greater compared to the value in equation three (β = 0.165). so, affective commitment is the mediator between job involvement and in-role job performance. judd and kenny’s (1981) method was once again used in table 4 to access the mediation effect of normative commitment between job involvement and in-role job performance in the first equation, job involvement (independent variable) was regressed with normative commitment (mediator), and the relationship was significant (β = 0.363, p < .01). in the second equation, the independent variable (job involvement) was regressed with the dependent variable (in-role job performance), and the relationship was significant (β = 0.361, p < .01). in the third equation, both the independent variable (job involvement) and the mediator (normative commitment) were regressed with in-role job performance and the relationship was significant. moreover, the value of bets in equation two (β = 0.361) was greater compared to the value in equation three (β = 0.312). thus, affective commitment is the mediator between job involvement and in-role job performance. judd and kenny’s (1981) method was also used in table 5 to access the mediation effect of continuance commitment between job involvement and in-role job performance. in the first equation, job involvement (independent variable) was regressed with continuance commitment (mediator), and the relationship was significant (β = 0.315, p < .01). in the second equation, the independent variable (job involvement) was regressed with the dependent variable (in-role job performance) and the relationship was significant (β = 0.361, p < .01). in the third equation, both the independent variable (job involvement) and the mediator (normative commitment) were regressed with in-role job performance, and the relationship was insignificant. moreover the value of bets in equation two (β = 0.361) were not greater compared to the value of beta in equation three (β = 0.382). here, the last condition of judd and kenny (1981) was not met. thus, it was inferred that continuance commitment does not mediate the relationship between job involvement and in-role job performance. table 2: mediation effect for organisational commitment. table 3: mediation test for affective commitment. ethical considerations top ↑ the ethics in research committee of the faculty of management and human resource development, universiti teknologi manaysia, approved the evaluation. potential benefits and hazards there were no benefits or hazards for participants who took part in the evaluation. recruitment procedures firstly, permission was obtained from the branch managers to conduct the questionnaires from their employees. when the permission was granted, all the employees were requested to participate in the research by filling in the questionnaires to the best of their knowledge and belief. informed consent on the first page of the questionnaire the purpose, confidentiality of the data and the time that it would take to complete the questionnaire were described in detail. data protection the primary evaluator was the only person who had access to the questionnaire. both success and non-success cases were promised anonymity and were not identified by the evaluators. trustworthiness top ↑ reliability the questionnaire items are described in the method section. validity the evaluation focused on a specific programme and did not seek to generalise the findings to other similar programmes. discussion top ↑ this study is an attempt to find the relationship between job involvement and in-role job performance along with the mediation effect of overall organisational commitment and its dimensions. the results of the study indicate that job involvement is positively and significantly related with in-role job performance. however, a weak relationship was found between them which concurs with the results of earlier researchers (i.e. brown & leigh, 1996; diefendorff et al., 2002; mohsan et al., 2011; rotenberry & moberg, 2007). this significant relationship might indicate that people who are highly involved in their jobs perform better. table 4: mediation test for normative commitment. table 5: mediation effect of continuance commitment. the results of the study also revealed that all the dimensions of organisational commitment were positively related with job involvement. however, the relationship between affective commitment and job involvement was found to be greater amongst all other dimensions of commitment. these results concur with the study of earlier researchers (i.e. agarwal et al., 1999; ahmed & islam, 2011; carmeli, 2005; chen et al., 2002; meyer & allen, 1990, 1991, 1997; uygur, 2004). these findings might reveal that employees who are more involved in their jobs feel a greater connection with their organisation and wish to continue with their present jobs because they enjoy their work.organisational commitment and its two dimensions are also found positively related with in-role job performance. these results concur with the results of previous researchers that found that affective and normative commitments had a positive impact on the performance of employees (angle & lawsan, 1994; caruana et al., 1997; meyer et al., 1989), whilst the relationship between continuance commitment and the in-role performance of employees was found to be negative (angle & lawson, 1994; caruana et al., 1997). looking at the relationship between the dimensions of commitment and job involvement, an interesting relationship can be seen between affective commitment and job involvement. this relationship indicates that all employees that are highly involved in their jobs have a greater connection with their organisation, whilst on the other hand the relationship between continuance commitment and involvement is relatively low, but significant. the findings of the study also revealed that job involvement, not only directly but also indirectly (in the presence of organisational commitment), affects the in-role job performance of employees. to enhance the study, dimensions of organisational commitment were also observed to mediate the relationship and the results indicated that affective and normative commitment mediate the relationship between job involvement and in-role job performance. this means that all employees that are involved with their jobs and have an ethical and emotional attachment with their organisation might perform better as compared to those employees who are only involved with their jobs. on the other hand, continuance commitment is not a mediator between them. the reason may be that the literature and the results of the present study found no relationship between continuance commitment and in-role job performance. practical implication the findings of the present study were very helpful for management as well as for organisations. the results state that job involvement is one of the vital weapons with which to increase the in-role job performance of the key employees of an organisation. in addition to this, previous researchers found that job involvement also affected other attitudinal and behavioural outcomes, for example, organisational commitment (ahmed & islam, 2011; brown, 1996) absenteeism (harrison & martocchio, 1998) and turnover (huselid & day, 1991). a low level of job involvement creates a less competitive position for the organisation relative to rival firms. thus, fostering high levels of job involvement is one of the available tools managers can use to enhance the competitive position of their organisations. the crucial question is how managers can increase the level of job involvement amongst the employees of their organisation? various researchers have explored this question and attempted to find answers to it. one option is to redesign the job by entrenching characteristics such, as autonomy, task identity, task significance and feedback. the job can also be made more interesting for the employee (knoop, 1986; rabinowitz & hall, 1977; saal, 1978). in the present study organisational commitment and its three dimensions show different results with job involvement and in-role job performance. organisational commitment was found to be the mediator between job involvement and in-role job performance. this finding will reveal to managers that job involvement is not sufficient for eliciting performance from employees. ethics and the emotional attachment of employees’ to their organisation are also necessary. with regard to the dimensions of organisational commitment, a positive influence on performance was found between affective commitment and normative commitment (i.e. affective and normative commitment are mediating variables between job involvement and in-role performance), whilst continuance commitment is not a mediator between job involvement and in-role performance. one of the reasons for this might be that previous studies have found a negative and no relationship between continuance commitment and performance (angle & lawsan, 1994; caruana et al., 1997). in summing up, by increasing normative and affective commitment along with job involvement, the performance of employees can be enhanced to uplift the organisation. limitation and future direction this study was an attempt to find the mediating effect of organisational commitment between job involvement and in-role job performance in the banking sector. there is a need to explore the same relationship in other sectors as well. in this study only one dependent variable (in-role job performance) was used. in future, other dependent variables such as job satisfaction and organisational citizenship behaviour (ocb) should be kept in mind. researchers have explored the relationship between job involvement ocb and job satisfaction, but no one has conducted such types of study using commitment as a mediator. in the present study, questionnaires were conducted on employees only. the same questions should be conducted on supervisors of employees to determine their views on employees’ performance. conclusion this study was conducted to find the mediation effect of organisational commitment along with its dimensions, namely, affective, normative and continuance commitment, on-job involvement and in-role job performance. this is the first issue discussed in this study and has not been discussed earlier by other researchers. this study concluded that job involvement and in-role job performance are positively related with each other and that organisational commitment enhances their relationship through a mediation effect. when looking at the dimensions of organisational commitment, normative and affective commitment perform the role of a mediating variable between them. however, continuance commitment is not a mediating variable between them. affective and normative commitment were also found to have a positive correlation with job involvement and in-role job performance simultaneously, whilst a negative and insignificant relationship was found between continuance commitment and the in-role job performance of employees. the present study is a contribution to the knowledge of the relationship between job involvement and the in-role performance of employees and that the indirect variable, organisational commitment increases the relationship between them. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this paper. authors’ contributions t.i. (universiti teknologi malaysia) completed this evaluation as the requirement for the ph.d degree in the field of management. i.a. (universiti teknologi malaysia) helped in data collection procedure. s.u.r.k. (universiti teknologi malaysia) and u.n.u.a. (universiti teknologi malaysia) supervised the evaluation. references top ↑ agarwal, s., decarlo, t.e., & vyas, s.b. (1999). leadership behavior and organisational commitment: a comparative study of american and indian salespersons. journal of international business studies, 30(4), 724–741. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490836ahmed, i., & islam, t. (2011). decoding the relationship between employee’s jobs related behaviors: a study of the telecom sector of pakistan. international journal of business and social science, 2(8), 245–252. allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1990). organisational socialization tactics: a longitudinal analysis of links to newcomers’ commitment and role orientation. academy of management journal, 33, 847–858. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256294 allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1996). affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organisation: an examination of construct validity. journal of vocational behavior, 49(3), 252–276. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1996.0043 angle, h.l., & lawson, m.b. (1994). organisational commitment and employees performance ratings: both type of commitment and performance count. psychological reports, 75, 39–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1994.75.3f.1539 bartlett, k.r. (2005). survey research in organisations. in r.a. swanson & e. holton (eds.), research in organisations: principles and methods of inquiry, (pp. 97–113). san francisco: berrett-koehler. blau, g.j., & boal, k.b. (1987). conceptualising how job involvement and organisational commitment affect turnover and absenteeism. the academy of management review, 12, 288–300. bolon, d.s. (1997). organisational citizenship behavior among hospital employees: a multidimensional analysis involving job satisfaction and organisational commitment. hospital & health services administration, 42(2), 221–241. pmid:10167456 borman, w.c., & motowidlo, s.j. (1997). task performance and contextual performance: the meaning for personnel selection research. human performance, 10, 99–109. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup1002_3 brown, s.p. (1996). a meta-analysis and review of organisational research on job involvement. psychological bulletin, 120, 235–255. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.120.2.235 brown, s.p., & leigh, t.w. (1996). a new look at psychological climate and its relationship to job involvement, effort and performance. journal of applied psychology, 81, 358–368. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.81.4.358, pmid:8751453 carmeli, a. (2005). exploring determinants of job involvement: an empirical test among senior executives. international journal of manpower, 26(5), 457–472. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437720510615143 caruana, a., ewing, m., & ramaseshan, b. (1997). organisational commitment and performance: the australian public sector experience. school research series, school of marketing, curtin university, perth. chen, z.x., tsui, a.s., & farh, j.l. (2002). loyalty to supervisor vs. organisational commitment: relationships to employee performance in china. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 75, 339–356. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317902320369749 cron, w.l. (1984). industrial salesperson development: a career stages perspective. journal of marketing, 48, 41–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1251509 diefendorff, j., brown, d., kamin, a., & lord, b. (2002). examining the roles of job involvement and work centrality in predicting organisational citizenship behaviours and job performance. journal of organisational behaviour, 23, 93–108. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.123 dubinsky, a.j., & hartley, s.w. (1986). a path-analytic study of a model of salesperson performance. journal of the academy of marketing science, 4, 36–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf02722111 feldman, a.s., & moore, w.e. (1982). labor commitment and social change in developing areas. connecticut: grenwood press publishers. gall, m.d., gall, j.p., & brog, w.r. (2007). education research: an introduction. (8th edn.). boston: allyn and bacon. gerpott, t.j. (1990). intracompany job transfers: an exploratory two-sample study of the buffering effects of interpersonal support. prevention in human services, 8, 113–137. http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/j293v08n01_09 ghauri, p., & gronhaug, k. (2005). research methods in business studies. (3rd edn.). london: ft. prentice hall. hackett, r.d., lapierre, l.m., & hausdorf, p.a. (2001). understanding the links between work commitment constructs. journal of vocational behavior, 58, 392–413. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2000.1776 hackman, j.r., & lawler, e.e. (1971). employee reactions to job characteristics. journal of applied psychology, 55, 259–286. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0031152 harrison, d.a., & martocchio, j.j. (1998). time for absenteeism: a 20-year review of origins, offshoots and outcomes. journal of management, 24, 305–350. huselid, m.a., & day, n.a. (1991). organisational commitment, job involvement and turnover: a substantive and methodological analysis. journal of applied psychology, 76, 380–391. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.76.3.380 janis, n.a. (1989). organisational commitment, career factors and career/life stage. journal of organisational behaviour, 10, 247–266. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.4030100305 jaros, s.j. (1997). an assessment of meyer and allen’s (1991) there-component model of organizational commitment and turnover intention. journal of vocational behavior, 51, 319–337. judd, c.m., & kenny, d.a. (1981). process analysis: estimating mediation in treatment evaluations. evaluation review, 5, 602–619. kanungo, r.n. (1982). measurement of job and work involvement. journal of applied psychology, 67, 341–349. ketchand, a.a., & strawser, j.r. (2001). multiple dimensions of organisational commitment: implications for future accounting research. behavioral research in accounting, 13, 221–253. http://dx.doi.org/10.2308/bria.2001.13.1.221 knoop, r. (1986). job involvement: an elusive concept. psychological reports, 59, 451–456. http://dx.doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1986.59.2.451 konovsky, m.a., & cropanzano, r. (1991). perceived fairness of employee drug testing as a predictor of employee attitudes and job performance. journal of applied psychology, 76, 698–707. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.76.5.698, pmid:1960142 kuruu¨zu¨m, a., ipekc, i.c., etin, e., & irmak, s. (2008). path analysis of organisational commitment, job involvement and job satisfaction in turkish hospitality industry. tourism review, 64(1), 4–16. lee, j., & peccei, r. (2007). perceived organizational support and affective commitment: the mediating role of organization-based self-esteem in the context of job insecurity. journal of organizational behavior, 28(6), 661–685. lodahl, t., & kejner, m. (1965). the definition and measurement of job involvement. journal of applied psychology, 49, 24–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0021692, pmid:14279757 loui, k. (1995). understanding employee commitment in the public organisation: a study of the juvenile detention center. international journal of public administration, 18, 1269–1295. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01900699508525052 mathieu, j.e., & farr, j.l. (1991). further evidence for the discriminant validity of measures of organisational commitment, job involvment, and job satisfaction. journal of applied psychology, 76, 127–133. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.76.1.127 mathieu, j.e., & zajac, d.m. (1990). a review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of organisational commitment. psychological bulletin, 108(2), 171–194. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.108.2.171 mayhew, m.g., ashkanasy, n.m., & dan gardner, j. (2007). a study of the antecedents and consequences of psychological ownership in organizational settings. journal of social psychology, 147(5), 477–500. meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment. journal of occupational psychology, 63, 1–18. meyer, j., & allen, n. (1991). a three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment. human resource management review, 1, 61–89. meyer, j.p., & herscovitch, l. (2001). commitment in the workplace: toward a general model. human resource management review, 11(3), 299–326. meyer, j.p., allen, n.j., & smith, c.a. (1993). commitment to organisations and occupations: extension and test of a three-component conceptualization. journal of applied psychology, 78(4), 538–552. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.4.538 meyer, j.p., allen, n.j., & smith, c.a. (1993). commitment to organizations and occupations: extension and test of a three-component conceptualization. journal of applied psychology, 78(4), 538–551. meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1997). commitment in the workplace. thousand oaks, ca: sage. meyer, j.p., paunonen, s.v., gellatly, i.r., goffin, r.d., & jakson, d.n. (1989). organisational commitment and job performance: it’s the nature of commitment that counts. journal of applied psychology, 74, 152–156. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.74.1.152 mohsan, f., nawaz, m.m., khan, m.s., shaukat, z., islam, t., aslam, n. et al. (2011). impact of job involvement on organisational citizenship behavior (ocb) and in-role job performance: a study on banking sector of pakistan. european journal of social sciences, 24(4), 494–502. mowday, r., steers, r., & porter, l. (1979). the measurement of organisational commitment. journal of vocational behavior, 14, 224–247. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(79)90072-1 paterson, j.m., & o’driscoll, m.p. (1990). an empirical assessment of kanungo’s (1982) concept and measure of job involvement. applied psychology an international review, 39, 293–306. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.1990.tb01055.x paullay, i., alliger, g., & stone-romero, e. (1994). construct validation of two instruments designed to measure job involvement and work centrality. journal of applied psychology, 79, 224–228. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.79.2.224 porter, l.w., steers, r.m., mowday, r.t., & boulian, p.v. (1974). organizational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover among psychiatric technicians. journal of applied psychology, 59(5), 603–609. rabinowitz, s., & hall, d.t. (1977). organisational research on job involvement. psychological bulletin, 84, 265–288. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.84.2.265 reichers, a. (1985). a review and reconceptialitzion of organisational commitment. the academy of management review, 10(3), 465–476. pmid:10300307 rotenberry, p.f., & moberg, p.j. (2007). assessing the impact of job involvement on performance. management research news, 30, 203–215. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01409170710733278 saal, f.e. (1978). job involvement: a multivariate approach. journal of applied psychology, 63, 53–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.63.1.53 scheuren, f. (2004). what is a survey? alexandria, va: american statistical associaton. sekaran, u. (1989). paths to the job satisfaction of banking employees. journal of organisational behaviour, 10, 347–359. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.4030100405 sekeran, u., & mowday, r.t. (1981). a cross cultural analysis of the influence of individual and job characteristics on job involvement. international review of applied psychology, 30, 51–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.1981.tb00979.x shore, l.m., & martin, h.j. (1989). job satisfaction and organisational commitment in relation to work performance and turnover intentions. human relations, 42(7), 625–638. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001872678904200705 shore, l.m., newton, l.a., & thornton, g.c. (1990). job and organisational attitudes in relation to employee behavioral intentions. journal of occupational behavior, 11, 57–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.4030110108 terre blanche, m., durrheim, k., & painter, d. (2006). research in practice: applied methods for the social sciences. cape town: university of cape town press. uygur, a. (2004). örgütselbaglılıkveisgörenperformansı.türkiyevakıflarbankası ankara, _stanbulve_zmirilisubelerineyönelikalanarastırması.yayımlanmamısdoktoratezi. hacettepe üniversitesi, sosyalbilimlerenstitüsü. zajac, e.j. (1990). ceo selection, succession, compensation and firm performance: a theoretical integration and empirical analysis. strategic management journal, 11, 217–230. 6white.qxd keywords: effective call centre agent, competencies of call centre agents, call centre, customer satisfaction. a call centre is an operation, consisting of as little as three people, which conducts business telephonically (rademeyer, 1995). dawson (1997) says “a call centre is a physical location where calls are placed, or received, in high volume for the purpose of sales, marketing, customer service, telemarketing, technical support or other specialised business activity” (p.1). over the past few years, the call centre-concept has experienced rapid growth. houlihan (2001) states that “the call centre processes are increasingly emerging in more specialist areas such as legal advice, psychological support, recruitment, market research and public sector communications" (p.1). call centres are thus becoming increasingly important, both as an interaction channel as well as an important source of customer-related information. as call centres reach new levels of importance for customer relationship management, call centre agents become increasingly central within the link between companies and customers (burgers, de ruyter, keen & streukens, 2000; grobbelaar, roodt & venter, 2004; houlihan, 2001). two types of call centres exist namely an inbound and an outbound call centre. inbound call centres refer to centres where the customer phones the call centre whereas outbound call centres require that the call centre agent phones the client (rademeyer, 1995). inbound call centres handle customer service in general by solving problems, handling queries or answering questions about products or services. the outbound call centre can be divided into sales and research outbound call centres. the sales outbound call centre deals with the selling of products and/or services, whereas the research outbound call centre gathers information regarding customer satisfaction, consumer behaviour or perceptions regarding products or services. this research focuses specifically on the research outbound call centre. the perceptions of customers regarding the qualit y of service provided by the call centre are dependent on the performance of the individual agents within the call centre (burns, 1995). when customers are delighted with the performance of the call centre agent, they will, as a result, continue their relation with the given organisation, which in turn impacts on business competitiveness (stauss & mang, 1999). call centre agents act as a contact point bet ween the customer and the company, and can therefore be regarded as the “source of differentiation” (burgers et al., 2000, p.2). as a result, effective call centre agents can create a competitive advantage (stauss & mang, 1999). in order for call centre agents to create this competitive advantage, they need to be competent. kravetz (1997, p.23) states that “having the right person in the right position at the right time is critical to organisation success”, as these personal competencies will result in behavioural success, which is the desired outcome. to ensure that individuals fit the required profile, it is essential to identif y the key competencies and characteristics necessary for success within a particular position at a particular point in time (kravetz, 1997). a study of women's employment in european call centres indicated that “feminine” social skills, such as communication and interpersonal skills, are considered central to an effective call centre agent (belt, richardson & webster, 2002). key elements of competencies include “skills, capabilities, knowledge, learning, coordination, organization and relationships” (sanchez, 2004, p.519). core competencies could then refer to either the assets within a person, the repeatable pattern of actions in applying the assets, as well as the skills embedded in individuals or teams that result in successful outcomes (sanchez, 2004). core competencies do not deteriorate over time, but are enhanced if they are applied and shared (prahalad & hamel, 1990). the aim of this article is to identif y effective agents’ competencies (personal attributes as well as skills), through customers’ and management’s perceptions. these identified competencies can be used in appointing call centre agents or when training agents that are lacking the necessary skills. christine white chwhite@deloitte.co.za research psychologist vera roos psgvr@puk.ac.za faculty of health sciences school for psycho-social behaviourial sciences: psychology north-west university abstract call centre agents are becoming increasingly important in the call centre context. they act as a contact point between the customer and the company. call centre agents should have certain competencies to perform their duties sufficiently. identif ying competencies, required to be effective agents, will ease the task of training and recruitment. due to the interrelatedness of the call centre agent, the management of a call centre and customers, all relevant role players’ perceptions were taken into account. by using qualitative analysis to analyse the data, various competencies needed to function effectively in a call centre were identified. opsomming oproepsentrumagente word toenemend belangriker in die oproepsentrumkonteks. hulle tree op as die kontakpunt tussen die kliënt en die maatskappy. oproepsentrumagente behoort oor sekere bevoegdhede te beskik ten einde hulle take bevredigend te verrig. die identifisering van bevoegdhede nodig om doeltreffend as agente te funksioneer, sal die taak van opleiding en werwing vergemaklik. vanweë die interverwantskap tussen oproepsentrumagente, bestuur van ’n oproepsentrum en kliënte, is alle betrokke rolspelers se persepsies in aanmerking geneem. die data is kwalitatief ontleed en verskeie bevoegdhede is geïdentifiseer wat nodig is vir agente om doeltreffend in ’n oproepsentrum te funksioneer. core competencies of a call centre agent requests for copies should be addressed to: v roos, psgur@puk.ac.za 41 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (2), 41-47 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (2), 41-47 research design research approach qualitative research methodology is an appropriate approach to address the different, interrelated processes of a call centre (bryman, 1988; miles & huberman, 1994; ruben, 1983; senge, 1990; strauss & corbin, 1998). focus groups and telephonic interviewing were used to obtain data. the data obtained using the above-mentioned methods, were verified. verification serves the trustworthiness of the study (guba in creswell, 1997). the steps that were incorporated to verif y the study are included in table 1. table 1 steps to verify the study verify the results in this study two methods, namely focus groups and through trianguinterviews, were used to gather data. according to lation (creswell, silverman (1993), triangulation can show how 1997; jordan, van multiple but different qualitative measures might rooyen & strümpfer, simultaneously be true. results were further verified neuman, 1997. by comparing results with previous research done regarding service representatives in general. competent insider at the time that the research was conducted, the performance researcher was a ‘research specialist’. this, amongst (neuman, 1997) other, entailed dealing with the call centre agents and management on a daily basis. the research specialist had to programme the telephonic questionnaire into a programme called ronin in order for the agent to read the script to the respondent electronically. the researcher had very close contact with the call centre agents, giving briefings and getting feedback from them with regards to questionnaire design or general complaints. due to the researcher being a part of the organisation, it was possible to interact effectively as a member and build trust with agent, management and customer groups. the researcher took a reflective position in this qualitative study. doing member the results were conveyed to call centre agents and checking (creswell, management who then judged the adequacy of the 1997; neuman, competencies identified. the participants recognised 1997) and understood the researcher’s description as reflecting their call centre. providing a rich, the researcher described the participating participants hick description in detail. this rich description of the participants will (creswell, 1997; miles allow the information to be transferred to other & huberman, 1994) settings because of shared characteristics. keeping a register notes of relevant events and the state of affairs were of data (miles & made and regularly studied while analysing the data. huberman, 1994) providing a detailed a detailed description of how the project was description of the conducted was provided. this involved a precise process (miles & description of the selected subjects, the concepts used, huberman, 1994; theoretical ideas and research methods. neuman neuman, 1997). (1997) refers to this as the natural history of the project. outsiders reading the study can see and follow the researchers’ actions exactly. auditing for future the research report was sufficiently detailed for a researchers (jordan, secondary researcher to arrive at similar conclusions van rooyen & by using the original data. strumper, 2002; miles & huberman, 1994). the mechanisation another measure to verif y the data was to use tape of registration recordings, which were transcribed, in order to ensure (neuman, 1997) correct reporting of results. context of research the call centre used in this specific study was established in 1994 as a one-woman operation at home and has now grown to include a staff of 72 people. there are 30 permanent call centre agents and five temporary agents. computer aided telephone interviews (cati) is the nerve of the company and process up to 5000 interviews per day. the function of the centre is to conduct research by means of telephonic interviews. the aim of the interviews is to determine amongst other things customers’ satisfaction and consumer behaviour, to gather valuable product information and to perform internal culture and climate st udies. the agents call the customers, ask questions and record their answers. as the call centre under discussion does not contact their own customers, but rather their clients’ customers whom they call participants, the call centre agents play a very important role in customer satisfaction as customers associate the research call centre agent with the organisation the research is being done for. the research organisation’s customers’ customers thus also become the research organisation’s customers. participants different types of sampling were used to select participants for the different groups. for the management focus group, all six managers were invited to participate in the management focus group. to select eight call centre agents out of the 30 call centre agents in this specific call centre, simple random sampling was used (babbie, 1989; neuman, 1997; mcburney, 1994). the ten customers were selected by using simple random sampling. ten customers were interviewed telephonically for the purpose of this study. the ages of the customers varied between 20 and 45. five of the participants were female and five were male. all the customers have completed high school or a higher qualification. each customer in the database of the call centre who had been contacted within the previous month was numbered. these customers were selected because the interview was still fresh in their memories and they could give valuable responses to the questions. again after numbering all the elements in the sampling frame, a random number table was used to decide which elements to select (babbie, 1989; neuman, 1997; mcburney, 1994). to ensure that the participants’ rights were protected during the research process the guidelines proposed by neuman (1997) were followed. each participant was given a brief description of the purpose and procedure of the research. the customers were informed of the expected duration of the telephonic interview. a ll part icipants were guaranteed anonymit y and all the records were treated as confidential. neuman’s (1997) suggestion that a summary of the findings should be presented was followed and a presentation about the findings were made to the call centre management and agents to verif y the results (refer to table 1). the call centre agents and management then judged the adequacy of the identified competencies. procedure focus groups, which allow for the explicit use of group interaction to produce data and insights that would be less accessible without the interaction found in a group (morgan, 1990; ward, bertrand & brown, 1991), were used to access data from call centre agents as well as the management of a call centre. computer-assisted telephonic interviewing (cati), which involves the making of a call to a participant, asking the participant open-ended questions and recording the answers (neuman, 1997), was used to obtain information from the customers that have been served previously by a call centre agent. the questions that the interviewer ask are carefully worded and arranged in order to have the same sequence and same wording for each participant (patton, 1990). two focus groups were conducted. one group was conducted with call centre agents and the other with management. these groups were not combined for fear of restricting responses; where call centre agents might hold back in front of management or where management might not want to reveal certain issues in front of their staff. the first focus group consisted of eight call centre agents between the ages of 22 and white, roos42 32. four of the participants are male and four female. all eight have completed school or have a higher education. the focus group of the participants from management consisted of six participants between the ages of 20 and 45. five of the six participants were female. all six have completed school, and five have a diploma. the main question to start the focus group was: "what do you think are important competencies to be an ideal call centre agent?" ten customers were recruited from the call centre’s database to partake in this interview. the interview lasted approximately 15 minutes. analysis of the data the telephonic interviews and focus groups were taperecorded with the participants' permission and afterwards transcribed verbatim. the transcribed interviews and focus groups were read and reread until a sense of totality was obtained. the idea was to conceptualise the data in order to make sense of it (neuman, 1997). the data analysis comprised search for patterns in data. the categorising of the data allowed the researcher to make comparisons more effectively and lays the basis for making new connections between different bits of data (dey, 1993). creswell (1997) states that analysing qualitative data is a process of moving in analytic circles rather than a fixed linear approach. data were analysed until data saturation was achieved. consequently in this study discussions were held until no more information was needed (creswell, 1997; jordan, van rooyen & strumpher, 2002; neuman, 1997). common feat ures promoted by several authors (berg, 1998; creswell, 1997; miles & huberman, 1994; neuman, 1997; strauss & corbin, 1998) were used as guide for the content analysis of the data. the data were analysed in the following three steps. in this first step, themes were located and initial codes were assigned to organise the data into categories (creswell, 1997; neuman, 1997). the second step involved the initial broad themes or statements compiled in step one. all these broad themes (sub-themes) were grouped together as main themes. strauss and corbin (1998) state that the purpose of axial coding is to group the data that were fractured during open coding. the focus of this step was on the categories assigned in step one and not on the data; and the aim was to review and examine these initial categories (neuman, 1997). in this step the researcher explored causal conditions, asked about causes and consequences, condit ions and interact ions, strategies and processes (creswell, 1997; neuman, 1997). also, during axial coding, the researcher interconnected the categories by looking for categories or concepts that cluster together. in the final step, the different categories identified in axial coding were integrated and refined (creswell, 1997; strauss & corbin, 1998). the previous categories were examined to make comparisons and contrasts after data collection was complete. neuman (1997) refers to this as selective coding. the different groups from which the data have been obtained (agents, customers and management) were used as multiple indicators to inform the research objective. results the three steps that have been described are illustrated below. it only serves as an example of the process of analysis. the process open and axial coding is illustrated in tables 2 and 3. this is only one identified attribute, namely communication. all identified attributes were analysed in a similar manner. the general aim of this step is to interconnect the broad categories identified in the open coding. table 2 illustration of data analysis response open coding moderator introduction to start off with i want to know what you like about being a call centre agent. what about being a call centre agent makes you tick? participant a: i would say it is talking to � talking different people about the same thing and � to different people getting different opinions. talking to these � getting different different people develops you as a person. opinions because people may say to you whatever � not allowed to say how they want, but you are not allowed to say you feel how you feel, because you must stick to � certain way you talk your script. there is a way they talk to you to them and a way you must talk to them. and that is what you like about your job? talking to these different people and getting different responses to the same question? participant a: yes, talking to different people � talking to different and improving in this way your people communication skills. � improving communication skills participant a: what i also like is that you � do not bow down shouldn’t bow down, tell what you want – � respect but at the same time with respect and being � tact tactful. and the day when you get home as an � speaking to different agent, you must feel; wow! can you believe people i did this and who says i can’t speak to � speaking to people of anyone? at the end of the day you speak to different status so many different people, from a student at the university to a managing director of a big company. this makes me feel some sort of satisfaction. table 3 illustration of interconnection of broad category communication: verbal communication agents management customers � agents enjoy � communicating with � communicating communicating with different customers effectively with different people customers from different walks of life � communicating � having a good voice � bringing forth a effectively and being articulate message � communicating in � speaking clearly � speaking clearly a good voice � being outspoken � building rapport � being outspoken with customers through verbal communication discussion a discussion of the skills and attributes that have been identified in the research follows next. communication it is clear that all three groups think an effective call centre agent should have the skills to communicate effectively, both verbally and non-verbally. the importance of communication for a call centre agent is emphasised in literature and from the results core competencies of call centre agent 43 presented in this study. vetere and gale (1987) state that within a system all processes depend upon a flow of information from and to the call centre agent in the form of instructions or constraints. ruben (1983) adds that communication is the most basic life process and is the process of transforming information in order to adapt to the environment. it seems as if effective communication is also regarded as an important competency in other service environments as indicated by grobbelaar et al. (2004) in a financial institution. the literature reported that an ideal call centre agent should have the skills to effectively convey ideas and information (barnhart, 2000) and should be able to understand customers and be able to apply effective questioning techniques (freeman & rusnell, 2000). the results explained the competency communication further by noting that communication skills include the ability to communicate with different people in a professional way without personal feelings influencing the process. effective verbal communication includes the ability to communicate with people from different walks of life, the ability to build rapport with the customer, the ability to provoke an interest in the research from the customer and in so doing, induce and maintain a reaction from the customer. communicating effectively also includes more general aspects such as being outspoken, having a good voice and speaking clearly. although the literature (barnhart, 2000; boshoff, 1999) states that service representatives should also be able to communicate effectively through written communication, no reference was made of this in the particular study. the conclusion is thus that in this particular call centre under study, written communication is not a competency required to be an effective call centre agent as they only capture responses by typing exactly what the participant is saying and do not have to do any formal writing. communication also includes non-verbal communication, which includes hesitations, shifts in tempo of speech, overtones of voice and so on, that the customer can hear over the phone. customers want the communication to take place in a conversational tone. bateson (1972) believes that non-verbal communication is more important than verbal communication as this provides the customer with the underlying message that agents do not want to convey through verbal communication, such as that they are upset (faster tempo); tired (a yawn) or unsure (hesitation). listening the ability and desire to listen actively, is an important competency for an effective call centre agent (barnhart, 2000; grobbelaar et al., 2004). listening skills also include the ability to respond to the statements and comments of others; to use reflective responses and clarif ying questions to assure the other person that they have been heard and the ability to remember notable points covered by the customer (barnhart, 2000; charos, 1999; competencies on target, 2001). when agents do not listen to the feedback from the customer, mistakes may become greater as agents do not take action based on the feedback (ruben, 1983). the following competencies were not identified in the literature, but became evident from the results of this research: the ability to listen without being distracted by surroundings or personal matters, sounding interested in every thing customers have to say and the ability to correctly capture everything the customer says. attentiveness a critical competency of an effective call centre agent was found to being attentive. being attentive and detail-focused is an important concept in systems thinking as it allows the call centre agent to focus on the customer as a whole and also to keep detail such as the context of the customer in mind (senge, 1990). the literature explains being attentive as having a concern for accuracy and quality (competencies on target, 2001), correctly completing work, monitoring and checking work (freeman & rusnell, 2000); and finally delivering on promises dependently and accurately (bennington, cummane & conn, 2000; spencer & spencer, 1993). the results of this research assert that attentiveness is the ability to correctly capture relevant responses; the ability to gather accurate and detailed information; the ability to raise accurate points and the ability to be thorough and detail-focused. understanding whilst the literature uses the word empathy (parasuraman, zeithaml & berry, 1988), the results found this competency better described as understanding. from the literature and the results, being understanding includes understanding the customers' predicament and making an effort to understand the customers' specific needs. providing the customer with caring, individualised attention also forms part of being understanding. the literat ure states that understanding includes what the customers are feeling and what their motives and concerns are (boshoff & allen, 2000; spencer & spencer, 1993). an ability to understand includes having a balance between being neutral and getting involved; and being considerate to the customers' situation by, for example, phoning back at a later, more convenient time. although agents are pressed for a certain number of interviews, they should at all times be understanding and give customers the opportunity to finish their complaint regardless of its relevance. understanding agents should remain professional at all times and not let personal opinions and beliefs influence their understanding of the customers' situation. attitude a call centre agent’s attitude will influence the customers' at t it ude. for example, if the call centre agent has a friendly attitude, it will pull for an even friendlier response from the customer. for this reason it is important that a call centre agent has the correct attitude. the literat ure and results state that a call centre agent (or service representat ive) should be friendly, considerate, selfmotivated, professional, helpful and pleasant (boshoff, 1999; career services, 2001; lorimer, 1999). call centre agents should remain positive and energetic throughout the day; have a good sense of humour and go out of their way to help the customer and answer any questions or solve any problems the customer has. ideal call centre agents will be polite and patient by being willing to repeat questions, explain confusing questions in the questionnaire, answer the customers’ questions and give customers the opportunity to state their case. customers should always be treated with respect, even when they are abusive. in such cases, the interview should be ended with tact. the approach towards a customer is very important. if the approach is wrong or the introduction does not create an interest, then the interview is likely to fail. consistency no evidence of this competency was found in the literature. a call centre agent should be consistent throughout the day. being consistent includes having a positive attit ude throughout the day and not letting personal matters influence interaction with the customer. furthermore consistency includes maintaining a balance between being impartial and getting emotionally involved. it means that the agent treats all customers in the same way. white, roos44 confidence again no evidence was found in the literature regarding this competency. having confidence will ensure that the customers accommodate agents by participating in the interview. confidence also assists agents to deal with rude customers. a confident agent is brief and to the point. the results confirm the literature by saying having confidence will put the agent in charge of the interview. the call centre agent has the power to decide whether to continue with the interview or not. when customers become abusive, agents can end the interview. agents should not let the customer talk about irrelevant matters, but should remain in control of the interview in a professional manner. knowledge an effective call centre agent should be knowledgeable. senge (1990, p.283) feels that this knowledge should not be "compartmentalised", as compartments creates a false sense of confidence. the literature specifically emphasises product or service knowledge (grobbelaar et al., 2004). this involves the benefits, usage and features of the product or service (career services, 2001; freeman & rusnell, 2000). agents should be able to acquire and then apply knowledge quickly. the results verif y product knowledge as being essential, but add that a call centre agent should also be knowledgeable regarding the research, the company, research methods and the terminology of the research project. the results show that the agent should have adequate knowledge in order to answer all the customers' questions, whether these concern products, services, the company itself or the research. speed the literature notes that, although customers require accuracy and detail, they still want their requests to be solved in a timely manner (boshoff, 1999; jones & jaebeom, 1997). from the results it is evident that acquiring all the identified competencies, for example confidence, knowledge and basic telephone manner, will contribute to a speedy interview. agents suggest that better typing skills would lead to a faster interview. unpredictability as a challenge in the literature no mention is made of the unpredictability of the call centre. the results, however, repeatedly indicate that the call centre is an unpredictable setting accompanied by various challenges. agents feel that studying questionnaires, having briefing sessions and dealing with similar difficult situations will assist in making the call centre a more predictable setting. according to levine and fitzgerald (1992), as the call centre as a system develops, its dynamic structure emerges as a results of feedback processes. call centre agents should find adapting to the demands of the feedback a challenge. flexibility in the literature, flexibility is defined as the ability and willingness to change, keep an open mind, implement new approaches, maintain objectivity, be resilient and manage the process of change (grobbelaar et al., 2004). flexibility also includes the ability to conform to procedures and adapt to certain processes (spencer & spencer, 1993). the results confirm this and contribute by saying agents should be flexible in order to deal with customers from various walks of life and adapt to their specific needs. agents should not compromise professionalism in any situation, but still be flexible and adapt to the requirements of the sit uation. flexibilit y and adaptability should therefore be qualities to consider when recruiting new agents. language the existence, functioning and development of the call centre agent, requires continual exchanges with different contexts. this exchange can take place in the form of communication. ford and lerner (1992) believe that meanings can be communicated if different individuals have the same linguistic images linked to similar abstract representations. understanding each other's language will activate one another's abstract and imagistic representations. although the literature makes no reference to language in particular, the importance of language in a call centre setting is evident. customers prefer to conduct the interview in their language of choice. stress tolerance stress causes a variable to take on a value close to the higher or lower level of the next variable, resulting in a lack of flexibility. to ensure flexibility in the call centre, it is important to keep stress levels as low as possible. the call centre environment is a stressful environment in which agents must deal with rude, demanding, or distraught customers, face crises, work with new and complicated technology and constantly monitor each call (peter, 2001). contributors to stress also include pressure from management, who expect a certain number of calls in a certain time frame. working in a team and contributing to the team effort can also cause stress if your performance is lower than the other agents' performance. being stress tolerant is the ability to perform under conditions where pressure, resistance or opposition makes completing the work difficult (competencies on target, 2001). being stress tolerant is the ability to remain productive in times of crisis or critical events (barnhart, 2000). goal-orientation although the literature does not refer to the importance of being goal-driven, the importance of this competency becomes apparent in the results. call centre agents should be goal-driven in order to reach targets set by management. proactive problem solving senge (1990) states that being proactive means being in charge of your future. proactiveness comes from "seeing how we contribute to our own problems" (senge, 1990, p.21). in the literat ure, problem-solving skills are explained as representing an analytical thinking process in order to solve problems. this is reflected in call centre agents’ abilit y to gather information and select the best possible solution. problem-solving skills include pract ical intelligence, reasoning, planning skills and creative thinking (barnhart, 2000; competencies on target, 2001; freeman & rusnell, 2000; spencer & spencer, 1993). the results contribute by saying that customers sometimes require information a call centre agent is not supplied with. the call centre agent must have initiative, be a quick thinker, and provide the customer with this information. teamwork the literat ure highlights the importance of collaboration, work relationships and the abilit y to work in a team. teamwork implies working cooperatively with others, which requires interpersonal skills (spencer & spencer, 1993). the necessit y of an ideal call centre agent being able to work independently and also in a team became evident in this study. poor work performance will influence the entire teams' performance. management should train agents to work in a team or should aim to recruit team players who are also able to work individually. basic telephone and technology skills the literat ure states that all call centre agents must have the abilit y to apply computer or telephone technolog y. other basic skills include t yping skills and retrieving information from the database (career services, 2001; competencies on core competencies of call centre agent 45 target, 2001; freeman & rusnell, 2000). the results confirm this by noting that basic knowledge that agents should possess before starting to work in the call centre includes t y ping skills, a good telephone manner and computer literacy. an effective agent will possess basic telephone skills such as how to greet customers appropriately, how to use the participants' name throughout the interview and how to read properly. conclusions from the results it emerged that an effect ive agent should have the competencies, including personal attributes and skills to communicate effectively with different people in a professional way, without personal feelings influencing the process. the agent should listen without being distracted by surroundings or personal matters. an effective agent would be at tent ive, ensuring accurate and detailed information. the agent would show understanding of the customers' predicament and make an effort to understand the customers' specific needs. having the 'correct' attit ude includes being friendly, considerate, self-mot ivated, professional, helpful, confident and pleasant. an effective agent would consistently maintain a friendly and professional attitude, regardless of the customer’s attitude, the time of day, or any personal matters. they would stay in control of the interview at all times; be a knowledgeable agent who has knowledge regarding the product or service, the research, the company, research methods and the terminolog y of the research project. an effective agent would be able to deliver quality working in a short period of time and deal with the unpredictability of the call centre as a challenge. this unpredictability also calls for flexibility and adaptability to the demands of the situation. one manner in which flexibility could be fostered is by being multilingual. in any stressful situation an agent would be able to deal with stress and remain productive in times of crisis or critical events. effective call centre agents would be goal-driven, have initiative, be quick thinkers, solve problems quickly and be able to work independently and also in a team. the effective call centre agent should have basic telephone and technological skills such as speedy typing, a good telephone manner and computer literacy. in similar research (grobbelaar et al., 2004) many of the competencies that were identified in this research, were also identified. the results of both research, which has been conducted in different environments, can not be generalised to other contexts, since it focus on competencies in helping others, “rather than on business outcomes or technical processes” (grobbelaar et al. 2004, p.17). however, it is very interesting to see the emerging field of competencies that are generic in terms of service environments, but also unique in relation to the specific context. suggestions for further research this research only focused on an outbound call centre; the same research can be conducted with an inbound call centre. the results would determine if agents working in an outbound call centre require different competencies than those working in an inbound call centre and vice versa. emerging from the results is the fact that cultural concerns in a call centre are mostly related to crosscultural issues rather than interracial issues (ruben, 1983). clearly there is a need to explore communicat ion bet ween different cultures and how cross-cultural issues affect interaction over the phone. references babbie, e.(1989). the practise of social research (5th ed.). cape town: wadsworth. barnhart, r. (2000). what is a competency? compet consulting. retrieved october, 2002, from http://www.competinc.com. bateson, g. (1972). steps to an ecology of mind. new york: ballantine books. belt, v., richardson, r. & webster, j. (2002). women, social skill and interactive service work in telephone call centres. new technology, work and employment, 17 (1), 20-34. berg, b.l. (1998). qualitative research methods for the social sciences. london: allyn and bacon. bennington, l., cummane, j. & conn, p. (2000). customer satisfaction and call centres: an australian study. international journal of ser vice industry management, 11 (2),162-173. boshoff, c. (1999). recovsat: an instrument to measure satisfaction with transaction-specific service recovery. journal of ser vice research, 1 (3), 236-249. boshoff, c. & allen, j. (2000). the influence of selected antecedents on frontline staff’s perceptions of service recovery performance. international journal of ser vice industry management, 11 (1), 63-90. bryman, a. (1988). quantity and quality in social research. london: unwin hyman. burgers, a., de ruyter, k., keen, c. & streukens, s. (2000). customer expectation dimensions of voice-to-voice service encounters: a scale development study. international journal of ser vice industry management, 11 (2),112-113. burns, j. (1995). developing and implementing a customer contact strategy. mcb managing ser vice quality, 5 (4), 960-974. career services. (2001). retrieved august, 2002, from www.lsc.gov.uk/news_docs/youthsurvey.pdf. charos, m. (1999). improve telephone agents’ listening skills. telebusiness partners – callcraft. retrieved october, 2002, from http://www.iew3.technion.ac.il/serveng/references/ccbib.ps. competencies on target. (2001). online call centre recruitment and assessment solutions. retrieved october, 2002, from http://www.impart.com.au/documents/competencies_on_t arget.doc. creswell, j.w. (1997). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five traditions. london: sage. dawson, k. (1997). the role of the call centre. retrieved october, 2001, from http://www.realmarket.com. dey, i. (1993). qualitative data analysis: a user-friendly guide for social scientists. new york: routledge. ford, d.h. & lerner, r.m. (1992). developmental systems theory: an integrative approach. newbury park: sage. freeman, b. & rusnell, d. (2000). selection advantage assessment results and observations. kingston call centre expo. retrieved october, 2002, from http://business. kingstoncanada.com/expo-kaplanreport.pdf. grobbelaar, r.l., roodt, g. & venter, a. (2004). critical competencies to promote a customer service core capability in a human resources call centre. south african journal of human resource management, 2 (3), 16-24. houlihan, m. (2001). managing to manage? stories from the call centre floor. journal of european industrial training, 25 (2), 112-113. jones, m.a. & jaebeom, f. s. (1997). transaction-specific satisfaction and overall satisfaction:an empirical analysis. journal of ser vices marketing. 14 (2),147-159. jordan, p.j., van rooyen, d. & strumpher, j. (2002). the lived experience of patients on mechanical ventilation. health sa gesondheid, 7 (4), 24-37. kravetz, d.j. (1997). what is a job competency? building a job competency database. retrieved october, 2001, from http://www.kravetz.com/art2/art2p2.html. levine, r.l. & fitzgerald, h.e. (eds).(1992). analysis of dynamic psychological systems. basic approaches to general systems, dynamic systems and cybernetics. new york: plenum press. white, roos46 lorimer, i. (1999). targeting skills. callcraft. retrieved january, 2003, from http://209.130.20.20/now/manage/people/ targeting.htm. mcburney, d.h. (1994). research methods (3rd ed.). pacific grove: brooks/ cole. miles, m.b. & huberman, a.m. (1994). qualitative data analyses. thousand oaks: sage. morgan, d.l. (1990). focus groups as qualitative research. newbury park: sage. neuman, w.l. (1997). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. boston: allyn and bacon. parasuraman, a., zeithaml, v.a. & berry, l.l. (1988). servqual: a multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. journal of retailing, 64, 12-40. patton, m.q. (1990). qualitative evaluation and research methods. newbury park: sage. peter, d. (2001). band aid does not fix stress in call centres. retrieved july 2001, from http://wwwsatelelink.com/ people.htm. prahalad, c. k. & hamel, g. (1990). the core competence of the corporation. har vard business review, 68 (3), 79-91. rademeyer, d. (1995). a benefits model for the call centre strategy. unpublished dissertation, rand afrikaans university, johannesburg. ruben, b.d. (1983). a system-theoretic view. intercultural community theory: current perspectives. london: sage. sanchez, r. (2004). understanding competence-based management. identif ying and managing five modes of competence. journal of business research, 57, 518-532. senge, p.m. (1990). the fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. new york: doubleday/currency. stauss, b. & mang, p. (1999). cultural shocks in inter-cultural service encounters. journal of services marketing, 13 (4), 329-346. strauss, a.l. & corbin, j.m. (1998). basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. london: sage. spencer, l.m. & spencer, s.m. (1993). competence at work: models for superior performance. new york: john wiley and sons. vetere, a. & gale, a. (1987). ecological studies of family life. chichester: john wiley and sons. ward, v.m., bertrand, j.t. & brown, l.f. (1991). the comparability of focus group and survey results: three case studies. evaluation review, 15 (2), 266-283. core competencies of call centre agent 47 abstract introduction research methodology findings discussion of findings conclusion and further research acknowledgements references about the author(s) abimbola o. windapo department of construction economics and management, university of cape town, south africa citation windapo, a.o. (2016). skilled labour supply in the south african construction industry: the nexus between certification, quality of work output and shortages. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a750. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.750 original research skilled labour supply in the south african construction industry: the nexus between certification, quality of work output and shortages abimbola o. windapo received: 06 aug. 2015; accepted: 21 jan. 2016; published: 10 june 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: construction human resource management. research purpose: the study examines the skilled labour supply in the south african construction industry and determines whether there is a relationship between trade certification, quality of work output and scarce labour skills. motivation for the study: the rationale for the investigation is based on the view of scholars that a skilled labour shortage is preponderant in the south african construction industry even though there is a high level of youth unemployment in south africa and that the perceived skills shortage contributes to a decrease in productivity and product quality. research design, approach and method: the paper reviews relevant literature and employs a mixed method research approach in collecting empirical data from contracting companies within the western cape province of south africa that are listed on the construction industry development board contractor register. main findings: the study demonstrated that there is no shortage of manpower, but there is a shortage of qualified or skilled tradesmen, such as electricians, plumbers, welders, fitters and carpenters, whose professions are more technical and require formal training and certification. the level of supply of skilled tradesmen is attributed to the lack of high-quality basic education, the state of the economy, compulsory certification of tradesmen and an ageing workforce. it was also found that there is a significant relationship between skilled labour shortages and the requirement that labour be certified and that work output is unsatisfactory when there is no certification requirement. practical/managerial implications: based on these findings, the study concludes that skilled labour shortages and poor work output quality continue to be experienced in the south african construction industry when workers are unable to obtain formal certification for informal work experience acquired through years of practice on construction sites. contribution: it is recommended that the south african government establish proactive strategies in the form of a framework for use in evaluating, certifying and grading the informal expertise acquired by workers through years of practice. this recommendation seeks to ensure that the supply of certified craftsmen capable of undertaking and producing high-quality construction work meets demand. introduction purpose of the study increases in infrastructure spending since 2003 have seen a steady increase in the number of jobs as well as skills shortages that accompany such increases (construction industry development [cidb], 2007). there have been various contributors to the increase in infrastructure development and construction activity within south africa in recent years. these increases in infrastructure development came as a result of the government’s r372 billion-investment programme resulting from the accelerated and shared growth initiative for south africa projects, as well as from the recent infrastructure developments that accompanied hosting the 2010 soccer world cup. these activities intensified the skilled labour crisis in south africa (cidb, 2007). skilled artisans were identified as critical for sustained growth by the government’s accelerated and shared growth initiative for south africa, as well as by other infrastructure projects (mukora, 2008), and the skilled labour shortage may deter the rollout of the government’s proposed strategic infrastructure projects. the cidb (2007) views construction labour as all persons involved in physical construction work. this includes skilled and unskilled labour, which form the core labour component for the physical completion of the construction process. as a labour-intensive industry, construction heavily relies on the skills of its workforce (agapiou, price & mccaffer, 1995). skill can be described as the ability to perform particular tasks at a certain level of competence (shah & burke, 2005). these competencies include the ability to perform a set of tasks, the ability to understand what others are doing and why, and the ability to adapt to changes and unforeseen circumstances (department of labour, 1997). unskilled labour is more informal and unclearly defined, comprising labourers who lack relevant qualifications and various forms of education and learning (shah & burke, 2005). uwakweh and maloney (1991) posit that developing countries often experience an abundance of unskilled and untrained labour. skills shortage has been a persistent problem and a critical factor facing the south african construction industry (department of education and employment, 2000; erasmus & breier, 2009; makhene & thwala, 2009). skills shortage can be described as an insufficient supply of suitably qualified workers willing to work under existing market conditions, particularly at prevailing wages. there have been extensive studies performed on the subject of skilled labour shortage in the construction industry and ways to alleviate the problem. these studies can be grouped into three categories. the first category identifies and discusses the various factors contributing to skilled labour shortages (see ademeso, izunnwanne & windapo, 2011). the second category addresses the impacts and consequences of skilled labour shortages (see cidb, 2007; rasool & botha, 2011). the third category addresses the methods and means of dealing with the alleviation of the skilled labour crisis (see agapiou et al., 1995; awe, 2004; department of labour, 2007). the few studies (see cattell, 1997; mukora, 2008; makhene & thwala, 2009) that have focussed on the south african labour market have proposed a comprehensive and concise list of factors that match those found in the construction industries of developing countries. ademeso et al. (2011) studied the nigerian construction industry, and agapiou et al. (1995) examined the uk construction industry. these studies both identified the cyclic nature of construction work and the image of the construction industry as a major contributing factor to the skills shortage. factors offer an opportunity to understand the skilled labour shortage crisis in the construction industry. for example, the cyclic nature of construction markets has resulted in the industry experiencing significant fluctuations in output, which has influenced employment and training-level requirements (agapiou et al., 1995; morton & jagger, 1995). a recession in the construction industry is accompanied by job losses as companies downsize or go bankrupt because of a paucity of construction work (sa construction news, 2011). unemployed skilled construction workers then look for opportunities in other industries, as well as in cross-border construction industries (mackenzie, kilpatrick & akintoye, 2000). when the economy recovers, the skilled workers are reluctant to return to the construction labour market, thus exacerbating the skilled labour shortage (agapiou et al., 1995). according to cidb (2007), the issue of the quality and relevance of the training that students receive from training programmes (for example, further education and training [fet] colleges) and what is required of students has had an adverse effect on the skilled worker supply pipeline. this adverse effect is attributed to the characteristics of the education system, such as low educational standards, little provision for early childhood development and declining grade 12 pass rates (modisaotsile, 2012). additionally, the fact that south africa’s maths and science results are extremely poor but required for admission to many of the programmes linked to certified trades, such as electrical and plumbing (wedekind, 2015) has exacerbated the situation. skill shortages are blamed on the education system, which is struggling to overcome decades of neglect and dysfunction under apartheid, when the education of black people was under-funded and of a poor quality, the decline in the apprenticeship system and the failure of substitute interventions, such as training through learnerships and fets (makhene & thwala, 2009). therefore, the study examines the skilled labour supply in south africa and determines whether there is a significant relationship between the need for skills certification, skills shortage and quality of work output. the study proposes that there is a significant relationship between the need for labour certification and skill shortages and between the lack of certification and quality of work output in the construction industry. to conduct the study and test these propositions, the study undertakes an analytical review of the literature pertaining to skilled labour shortages. thereafter, it collects empirical data through a mixed research method approach that includes interviews and questionnaires. the data collected are analysed using inferential and descriptive statistics. finally, conclusions and recommendations that address the problems of the study are provided. the south african labour market and factors influencing the skilled labour supply the section provides an overview of the south african labour market with an emphasis on the skilled labour supply in the construction sector. it presents the current state of the skills supply and identifies holistic factors influencing the supply of skilled labour documented in the literature. overview of the south african labour market the south african labour market is characterised by a predominance of an oversupply of unskilled workers and a shortage of skilled workers (department of labour, 2007). despite the fact that a number of reforms have been implemented, the country still faces substantial skills shortages (rasool & botha, 2011). according to kraak (2008), the skills shortages experienced by the south african labour market are major impediments to economic growth and job creation in the country. the definition of skill is generic throughout the reviewed literature, with all sources attaching a qualification and a certain level of competence or expertise to a particular activity (department of labour, 2007; shah & burke, 2005). the construction industry is one of the largest employers in south africa (department of labour, 2003). in 2005, the construction industry employed up to two thirds of all craft-related workers (mukora, 2008) and by 2011, 1 031 000 people were employed (mayekiso, 2011) by the construction industry. although the industry employs a large number of people, there was a decrease in formal employment between the early 1990s and 2001, with the construction industry losing more than 200 000 jobs (cidb, 2007). the increase in infrastructure investment in 2003, in addition to the construction of the guatrain and infrastructure for the 2010 fifa world cup, stimulated an increase in employment. this increased employment resulted in an increase in the demand for qualified managers, supervisors and artisans, which was hampered by a lag in graduation rates in construction and engineering (cidb, 2007). in south africa, skills shortages exist in many industries, including construction, and have been acknowledged by both the government and industry (department of labour, 2003). brier (2009) states that there is a skills crisis because it takes longer to source skilled workers in the event of a surge in the demand for skills resulting from various infrastructure and large-scale projects. investigation into factors influencing skills shortages it can be inferred from the literature that the factors influencing skills shortage include the construction industry’s poor image, the role of the government, the quality and relevance of the training received by artisans, the ageing workforce, the cyclical nature of the demand for construction services, technological advancements, economic conditions and the need for certification. firstly, the construction industry is perceived as a job of low social standing and as lacking in attractiveness because of its physical demands, long hours, remote work sites and nomadic lifestyle (cidb, 2007). career artisans require people with hands-on experience rather than just supervisory experience. according to mukora (2008), today’s youth have no preference for hands-on labour and would rather work with computers. as a result, the industry has struggled to attract young people and has failed to replace the labour that has left the industry and to satisfy the increased demand for skilled labour (ademeso et al., 2011; cattell, 1997). government plays a significant role in the supply of artisans through the funding of training facilities (mukora, 2008). for example, the south african government has attempted to increase the supply of artisans by launching the sector education and training authority, with the construction education and training authority as the primary institution driving this initiative in the construction industry (cidb, 2007). however, it has been found that the south african government has sought to over-regulate in some instances and has failed to ensure that various critical institutions of learning are functional enough to meet the demands of the industry (mukora, 2008). the cidb (2007) questions the skills taught in the various training programmes and posits that these skills do not make a significant contribution to the specialised skills required by the construction industry. according to wedekind (2015), modern vocational programmes must prepare students for complex work, which demands a skills and knowledge mix that is different but not necessarily easier than those of school subjects. other factors mentioned in the literature as being responsible for skilled labour shortages in the construction industry include the ageing workforce; ageing members of the workforce who are near retirement are believed to affect the supply of labour because whilst fewer skilled workers are entering the job market, a significant number of qualified artisans, approximately 30%, are leaving the job market (mukora, 2008) and the cyclical nature of construction work, which has been noted as resulting in fluctuations in potential output, employment and training levels (agapiou et al., 1995; drucker & white, 1996; gruneberg, 1997). furthermore, it is noted that changes in technological advancements in construction have resulted in changes in the demand for various types of skilled labour (clarke & wall, 1998). according to department of education and employment (2000), the development of new construction methods and processes is redefining the skill requirements of the industry. meanwhile, according to wells and jason (2010), adverse economic conditions have caused construction companies to dispense with hiring labour permanently in favour of employing labour on a temporary basis. in south africa, this tendency towards hiring temporary workers has resulted in the proliferation of labour brokers (hemson, 2002; skinner, 2002) and a lack of permanent employment and skills acquisition. conceptual framework of the study the conceptual framework of the study is shown in figure 1. this concept is based on the findings of previous studies by cattell (1997) and awe (2004). cattell (1997) notes that the training that occurs in the informal sector is seldom certifiable because it is not a pre-requisite for obtaining employment in the informal sector. awe (2004) views the lack of a requirement for compulsory certification as a barrier to the provision of skilled workers. this is because, in the non-compulsory certification segments, new entrants do not always see the value in completing an apprenticeship programme, and those who begin such a programme may be inclined to discontinue it during periods of high demand for skilled workers in the industry. figure 1: the concept of the study. figure 1 theorises that there is a relationship between skilled labour certification, labour shortages and the quality of work output. the figure proposes that construction services in which there is a requirement for skilled labour certification will experience shortages and that there will be poor quality work output in areas in which labour certification is not a requirement. research methodology this study began with a literature review. according to yin (1994), the main use of documentation is to corroborate and dispute evidence from other sources. additionally, effective design of the research instrument requires a good understanding of the theories underpinning the research area. the study adopted a sequential mixed method research approach involving personal interviews and a questionnaire survey to collect empirical data. it was acknowledged from the outset that research surveys could attract identifiable disadvantages (oo, proust & lim, 2012), including low response rates and the potential to incorporate bias (sampling skews, researcher bias, a priori knowledge, etc.). thus, measures were taken to address these shortcomings by using research triangulation (see fellows & liu, 2008; jick, 1979; leedy & ormod, 2014). the intent of triangulation was not to replicate results but to obtain complementary findings that strengthen the deductions made (morse, 1991). questionnaires were distributed to a sample of contracting companies within the western cape province of south africa that are listed in grades 2–9 of the cidb contractor register, supported by interviews to validate the findings made from the responses received. the simple random sampling technique was used to select contractors from each grade to form a sample size of 460 respondents. at the end of the survey period, 63 responses were obtained, which translates into a 14% response rate. the survey gathered information pertaining to the investigation into the extent of skilled labour shortage and the factors influencing the shortage, and in-person and telephone interviews were used to examine factors that might have been overlooked in the survey and provide context to the preliminary results. the data obtained from the survey were analysed using descriptive statistics – the mean item score (mis) and inferential statistics – the spearman’s coefficient of rank correlation, ρ. a mean score will represent the results of the mis, which will be a number ranging from 0 to 1. the function of the mis score is to rank the data collected from the rating scales used in the questionnaire. equation 1 shows the formula of the mis analytical technique: where: m1 = none; m2 = low; m3 = average; m4 = high and m5 = very high. spearman’s coefficient of rank correlation ρ (rho) (see equation 2) is a measure of the association between two variables, which is determined by the rank of the observations of the variables (fellows & liu, 2008): (where d = difference between the ranks of two variables and n = number of observations). the spearman’s correlation test is used to establish whether there is a relationship between the perceived level of labour shortage and the need for labour certification. eight telephone and personal interviews were undertaken. the interview questions sought to learn (1) the factors that determine the extent of the skilled labour shortage experienced by a particular company and (2) other factors perceived by the respondents to influence the severity of the skills shortage for various firms in the construction industry. the data collected were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. themes emerging from the interviews were triangulated with findings drawn from the survey and used to gain insight into and contextualise the factors influencing skills shortages in the south african construction industry. these analysis methods ensure the internal validity of the research and increase the probability that the most likely explanations are provided for the observations made (leedy & ormod, 2014). to add reliability and accuracy to the data interpretation, cronbach’s alpha was used, which is a widely recognised approach to objectively measure the reliability of a survey instrument. the cronbach’s alpha reliability index provides a measure of the internal consistency of a questionnaire instrument in particular, the extent to which the items in a test or scale measure are the same concept or construct and their connection or relationship to the items within the test (bland & altman, 1997). the acceptable values of alpha for consistency range from 0.70 to 0.95, as defined in many texts (devellis, 2003; tavakol & dennick, 2011). in the study, the alpha values for ‘level of difficulty in obtaining skilled labour’ and ‘factors impacting skilled labour supply’ are presented in table 1. table 1: cronbach’s alpha test results for difficulty in obtaining skilled labour and factors impacting skilled labour supply. table 1 shows that the alpha values for each of the variables tested were greater than 0.70, with an overall value of 0.908. these results indicate that test results viz difficulty and skills impact factors were of high reliability and high interrelatedness and expressly capable of being measured on the same latent trait and scale. findings in this section, the empirical data collected through the survey and the interviews conducted are presented, analysed and discussed. distribution of respondents by contractor grade table 2 shows the distribution of respondents in the survey by their contractor grade. table 2: distribution of respondents by contractor grade. table 2 reveals that the study sample consisted of mainly medium-sized contractors, followed by large and small-sized contractors. perspectives of scarce skills the study sought to determine the level of difficulty experienced by employers in sourcing skilled labour. the data obtained in this regard are presented in table 3. table 3: level of difficulty experienced in sourcing skilled labour. table 3 indicates that contractors have more difficulty in sourcing carpenters, fitters, electricians and plumbers than they do in sourcing bricklayers, tilers, plasterers and painters. some contractors indicated that there are other trades not listed in the questionnaire that they had difficulty in finding, for example, instrumentation technicians, who take care of the plant on site; heating, ventilating and air conditioning technicians; steel fixers; shutter hands and sheet metal workers. trades in which skilled labour must be certified before employment table 4 presents data collected on the trades that employers require some form of labour certification for before employment. it can be seen from table 4 that although 88% of the respondents affirmed that their companies require electricians to be certified before employment, 19%, 12%, 8% and 6% require that bricklayers, tilers, painters and plasterers be certified, respectively. table 4: trade in which employing company requires labour to be certified. perceived factors affecting the skilled labour supply the study sought to determine the factors perceived by the respondents as contributing to skilled labour supply shortages. the data collected in this regard are presented in table 5. table 5 shows that from a ranking perspective, respondents view economic conditions, lack of basic education and compulsory certification as key factors in creating skilled labour supply shortages. table 5: factors impacting on skilled labour supply. test of the relationship between labour certification requirement and labour shortage this study sought to test the proposition that there is a significant relationship between the need for labour certification and the perceived level of skill shortages experienced in the south african construction industry. data presented in tables 3 and 4 were used to calculate the difference in rank, which was established as 42. substituting this figure into the formula for calculating the spearman’s rank correlation coefficient in equation 2: the observed value of ρ (rho) (0.75) is larger than the tabulated critical value (0.65) and is therefore significant at the 0.05 level for the two-tailed test. based on these findings, it can be concluded that the need for trade certification significantly contributes to the perceived level of skills shortages in the construction industry. workers may have the necessary knowledge or skills, but they need a certificate to prove it. differences in the quality of work output between certified and uncertified artisans the study sought to determine whether there are any differences in the work produced by certified and uncertified artisans. the responses provided to this enquiry are shown in figure 2. for a number of the trades – electricians, plumbers, roofers, fitters and welders – the respondents experienced high to very high differences in the quality of work produced by artisans who are certified and those who are not. figure 2: differences in quality of work output between certified and uncertified artisans. figure 2 reveals that the respondents experienced no significant differences in the quality of work produced between tradesmen who are versus those who are not certified in the bricklaying, plastering and painting trades. interview findings the factors influencing skilled labour supply that were identified in the interviews matched those identified from the questionnaire and literature surveys. prominent amongst these factors were the lack of education, economic conditions, compulsory certification and the ageing work force. however, the interviews did provide additional insight into factors currently relevant to the skilled labour supply in south africa. the interviewees also revealed that: all companies in the construction industry need skilled labour as part of their work force. this is to ensure that the quality of the work they do is consistent and of the required standard. therefore, skilled labour plays an integral role in the success of a construction firm because it affects the firm’s profitability. the number of skilled labourers a company needs is related to its size and the value of the tenders it has won. that is, large companies will have a different scale of low-, mediumand high-skilled labour needs when compared to a small company that normally works as a sub-contractor. according to participant 36: ‘basically, it’s a function of costs and profits. for example, a big company like murray and roberts might have a pool of skilled workers employed full time, while a small sub-contractor will only have a few and employ more workers on an as needed basis. a company ideally wants to employ the number of labour as related to their needs, i.e., whether they have work or not.’ (participant 36, male contractor, grade 6) the issue of labour brokers (e.g. colven nkomo) as a factor influencing skilled labour supply was also mentioned. according to participant 22: ‘labour brokers generally have both skilled and unskilled labour they can call on and employ when they are needed by the companies they service. these workers are not employed by the company but are outsourced and that is why some companies prefer this option because it is easier and cost effective. however, due to the consistency and quality, which is needed in the work produced, they won’t entirely depend on this source of skilled labour, companies will need to have a few of their own skilled labourers to ensure quality and consistency of their work.’ (participant 22, female contractor, grade 7) the subject of labour certification and the problems involved in obtaining certification were also addressed. a respondent revealed that there are few people who are certified in any particular construction skill because there are no recognised training centres that have a high level of skill to pass on to prospective students. according to the respondent, the question of differences between the quality of work output of certified and uncertified artisans is irrelevant because skilled artisans belong to an older generation, and much of the training occurs in contracting organisations. another factor that emerged in the interviews is the procurement targets requirement in government contracts. government requires a certain percentile of labour to be employed from the area where the project is located. broad-based black economic empowerment sub-contractors and suppliers must be hired, and a certain amount of money must be put aside for training some of those workers. according to a participant 47: ‘this may to some extent, affect the amount of skilled labour a company will choose to have, if they have to utilise local labour and broad-based black economic empowerment sub-contractors.’ (participant 47, male contractor, grade 9) discussion of findings the survey and interview data were triangulated to ensure the validity that construction firms require skilled labour as part of their workforces. skilled labour is required to ensure that the quality of work these workers do is consistent and of the required standard. therefore, skilled labour plays an integral role in the success of a construction firm. the results showed that the trades in which skills are scarce and in which contractors experience difficulty in sourcing workers are those with a technical nature, such as plumbers, electricians and carpenters. these artisans require greater levels of accuracy, a more rigorous education and training process and certification (wedekind, 2015). the study found that the shortage in skilled artisans is correlated to the need for certification. the key factors perceived to contribute to the level of skilled labour shortages are the lack of basic education, which may affect the ability of an individual to enter fet colleges, which is suggestive of a poor educational system, economic conditions and compulsory certification. the study results also confirmed the proposition that there is a large difference in the quality of work output between certified and uncertified artisans in the electrical, plumbing, roofing, fitting and welding trades. these trades are the trades in which firms often require certification. the findings of the study match the findings of studies by awe (2004) – the need for certification; wells and jason (2010) – economic conditions; agapiou et al. (1995), drucker and white (1996), gruneberg (1997) and ademeso et al. (2011) – the cyclical nature of the demand for construction services; and mukora (2008) – an ageing workforce. there were no previous studies that considered lack of basic education as a factor influencing the skilled labour supply in the construction industry or that established a relationship between the need for compulsory trade certification and scarce labour skills, which are key findings of the study. however, wedekind (2015) contends that the skill shortage in south africa is linked to a lack of formal schooling. conclusion and further research the paper examined the skilled labour supply in the south african construction industry and determined whether there is a relationship between notable factors, such as trade certification, quality of work output and scarce labour skills. the study used a mixed method research approach to elicit empirical data from contractors based in the western cape province of south africa. it emerged that there were skilled labour shortages in the construction industry, particularly within the electrical, plumbing, welding and fitters’ trades, and that these shortages are correlated with the need for certification and that there is a difference between the quality of work produced by certified skilled workers and uncertified workers. it was also found that the key factors perceived to affect the skilled labour supply are the lack of basic education, economic conditions and the need for certification from a ranking perspective. based on these findings, the study concludes that south africa will continue to experience skill shortages, particularly amongst the highly technical trades in which accuracy is required, such as for electricians, plumbers, roofers, fitters and welders, if the basic educational system is not strengthened, if this category of workers fails to become certified and if there is no framework for evaluating the expertise acquired by workers informally through years of experience on job sites. the paper recommends that the south african government establish proactive strategies in the form of subsidised technical and vocational schools for training tradesmen and for improved secondary education to increase the likelihood that capable individuals will attend fet colleges. it is also recommended that future research examine at least one third of the provinces in south africa and the obstacles affecting the training and certification of construction industry artisans. the study is limited to the western cape province of south africa and therefore care should be taken when generalising its results to the general contractor population in south africa. acknowledgements the author would like to acknowledge the assistance of the following people in conducting the survey and interviews: dominic benn, bulelani gwabeni and tatenda kanyangarara. competing interests the author declares that she has no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article. references ademeso, o.s., izunnwanne, o., & windapo, a.o. (2011). examining factors contributing to shortage of skilled workers in the construction industry. nmmu construction management 40 conference proceedings, 27–29 november (pp. 204–213). protea marine hotel, port elizabeth, south africa: department of construction management, nmmu. agapiou, a., price, a.d.f., & mccaffer, r. (1995). planning future construction skill requirements: understanding labour resources. construction management and economics, 13(2), 149–161. awe, e.m. (2004). the nigerian technical education and manpower need in the construction industry: the missing link. journal of educational technology and management, 5(4), 232–241. bland, j.m., & altman, d.g. (1997). statistics notes: cronbach’s alpha. british medical journal, 314, 572. brier, m. (2009). skill shortages in south africa: case studies of key professions. cape town: hsrc press, pp. 1–33. cattell, k.s. (1997). the development of black south african small-scale construction enterprises: emerging contractors and the demand for formal training, unpublished report, department of construction economics & management, university of cape town, cape town. clarke, l., & wall, c. (1998). a blueprint for change: construction skills training in britain. bristol: policy press. construction industry development board (cidb). (2007). skills for infrastructure delivery in south africa: the challenge of restoring the skills pipeline. pretoria: cidb. department of education & employment (dfee). (2000). an assessment of skill needs in construction and related industries, skill dialogues: listening to employers research papers. london: dfee and business strategies ltd. department of labour (dol). (1997). green paper: skills development for economic and employment growth in south africa. pretoria: dol. department of labour (dol). (2003). state of skills in south africa. pretoria: dol. department of labour (dol). (2007). development implementation strategy report. pretoria: dol. devellis, r. (2003). scale development: theory and application, thousand oaks, ca: sage. drucker, j., & white, g. (1996). research methods for construction. (2nd edn.). oxford: blackwell science ltd. erasmus, j., & breier, m. (2009). skills shortages in south africa, case studies of key professions, world rights publishers, isbn 978-07969-2266-3. retrieved april 02, 2012, from http://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/product.php?productid=2257 fellows, r., & liu, a. (2008). research methods for construction. (3rd edn.). west sussex, uk: wiley-blackwell. gruneberg, s.l. (1997). construction economics – an introduction. london: macmillan, pp. 21–36. hemson, d. (2002). breaking the impasse, beginning the change: labour market, unions and social initiative in durban. in v. padayachee, & b. freund (eds.), d(urban) vortex. south african city in transition, (pp. 195–221). pietermaritzburg: university of natal press. jick, t.d. (1979). mixing quantitative and qualitative methods: triangulation in action. administrative science quarterly, 24(4), 602–611. kraak, a. (2008). the education-economy relationship in south africa, 2001–2005. in a. kraak, & k. press (eds.), human resources development review 2008, education employment and skills in south africa (pp. 1–25). cape town: hsrc press. leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2014). practical research planning and design. (10th edn.). essex, england: pearson education ltd. mackenzie, s., kilpatrick, a.r., & akintoye, a. (2000). uk construction skills shortage response strategies and an analysis of industry perceptions. construction management and economics, 18(7), 853–862. makhene, d., & thwala, w.d. (2009). skilled labour shortages in construction contractors: a literature review. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. mayekiso, l. (2011). annual labour market bulletin. pretoria: department of labour. modisaotsile, b.m. (2012). the falling standard of basic education in south africa. pretoria: africa institute of south africa. morse, j. (1991). approaches to qualitative-quantitative methodological triangulation. nursing research, 40(2), 120–123. morton, r., & jagger, d. (1995). design and economics of building april 2010–march 2011. london: e & fn spon. mukora, j. (2008). scarce and critical skills research report, pretoria: department of labour. oo, b., proust, g., & lim, b. (2012). an empirical studies of communication competence of civil engineering graduates – implication of engineering curriculum. proceedings of joint cib international symposium of w055, w065, w089, w118, tg76, tg 78, tg81, and tg84, 26–29 june (307–317). montreal, canada. international council for research and innovation in building and construction (cib). rasool, f., & botha, c.j. (2011). the nature, extent and effect of skilled shortages on skills migration in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 9(1), 1–12. sa construction news. (2011). sa construction firms look to africa for growth, commercial property news. retrieved september 21, 2012, from http://www.saconstructionnews.co.za shah, c., & burke, g. (2005). skills shortages: concepts, measurement and policy responses. australian bulletin of labor, 31(1), 44–71. skinner, c. (2002). understanding formal and informal economy labour market dynamics: a conceptual and statistical review with reference to south africa. school of development studies, university of natal, durban, p. 25. tavakol, m., & dennick, r. (2011). making sense of cronbach’s alpha, editorial. international journal of medical education, 2, 53–55. uwakweh, b.o., & maloney, w.f. (1991). conceptual model for manpower planning for the construction industry in developing countries. construction management and economics, 9(5), 451–465. wedekind, v. (2015). vocational training is not an easy alternative to formal schooling, the conversation, july. retrieved july 10, 2015, from http://www.theconversation.com/ wells, j.s., & jason, a. (2010). employment relationships and organizing strategies in the informal construction sector. african studies quarterly, 11(2&3), (spring), 107–124. yin, r.k. (1994). case study research: design and methods. (2nd edn.). london: sage. article information authors: flip schutte1 renier steyn1 affiliations: 1graduate school of business leadership, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: renier steyn email: steynr@unisa.ac.za postal address: po box 392, university of south africa 0003, south africa dates: received: 06 aug. 2014 accepted: 23 jan. 2015 published: 26 mar. 2015 how to cite this article: schutte, f., & steyn, r. (2015). the scientific building blocks for business coaching: a literature review. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1) art. #657, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.657 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the scientific building blocks for business coaching: a literature review in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study    • research purpose    • trends from the research literature       • concepts       • statements       • conceptual frameworks    • the potential value-add of the study • research design    • research approach    • research method       • sampling       • data collection methods       • data analysis       • strategies employed to ensure quality data       • reporting • findings    • finding pertaining to concepts    • findings pertaining to definitions    • findings pertaining to typologies    • findings pertaining to models    • findings pertaining to theories    • findings pertaining to paradigms • discussion    • outline of findings    • practical implications    • limitation and recommendations    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references • appendix 1 abstract top ↑ orientation: business coaching is a relatively new approach to leadership development. it is also slowly growing as an academic discipline with only a small number of active researchers and a dearth of published literature reviews. research purpose: this article is an investigation into the current level of development of the body of knowledge related to business coaching by means of a systematic literature review. motivation of the study: previous literature reviews summarised the available published articles. in order to contribute to establishing business coaching as an independent academic discipline, the building blocks for science in the phenomenon under investigation have to be scientifically not only summarised, but also synthesised and explored to ground this new discipline as an academic field of research. research design, approach and method: a methodological framework has been developed to analyse the information. the data were synthesised according to the following building blocks for science: concepts, definitions, typologies, models, theories and paradigms. main findings: a total of 84 articles were accessed by the specified search strategy and 36 were analysed according to inclusive and exclusive criteria. although coaching has not been sufficiently developed as an academic discipline, it is possible to develop a comprehensive definition of coaching, as well as to identify the main models and theories that apply to this field. practical/managerial implications: this literature review has synthesised and summarised the available data in such a way that it will contribute to the conceptualisation and foundation of business coaching as an academic discipline. contribution: the building blocks for business coaching as a relatively new and emerging science within the field of business leadership have been defined. this will contribute to the articulation of concepts within this discipline by future researchers and practitioners. introduction top ↑ key focus of the study for many years almost every article published on business coaching started with the same sentence, namely that business coaching is a newcomer to the world of business and an emerging industry that still needs some time to develop (clegg rhodes, kornberger & stilin, 2005; king & eaton, 1999). although it is a growing industry (shelley, 2008), the academic research on the topic is still in its infancy and there is a need for empirical work in this field (beets & goodman, 2012). coaching appears not yet to be an academic discipline standing on its own (april & april, 2007). evidence of this is the fact that the conceptual and operational identity of coaching is also still unclear (cilliers, 2005). it is important to note that there is not an absence of knowledge on coaching, only that this knowledge is in its nature more practical because it describes the way in which coaching practitioners operate in their specific industries. this makes the knowledge more context specific. therefore literature on coaching is mainly found in popular journals and magazines (cilliers, 2005), including popular books on this matter (see upton, 2006 and b. anderson, 2007, as examples). coaching is also addressed as part of management and leadership training together with themes such as mentoring in some master of business administration courses (april & april, 2007). empirical research on coaching, however, is according to passmore and gibbes (2007) mostly done by students and researchers at postgraduate level. the results of this research have remained largely unpublished (passmore & gibbes, 2007). there has more recently been a shift in the themes of articles, away from describing practices, to asking questions about the effectiveness of coaching (bowles, cunningham, de la rosa & picano, 2007). the present study aims, firstly, to explore the literature regarding the way in which literature reviews have to be done. the results of this investigation will then, in the second instance, be used as a lens to investigate the published articles in the field of business coaching. this will result in the compilation of a comprehensive updated literature review that can form a basis for future academic research on the subject of business coaching. background to the study in order to assess the level of knowledge on coaching, it is important to stipulate to what extent it contains the elements included in a comprehensive body of scientific knowledge. mouton (1996) provides a simple scheme of elements of a scientific body of knowledge. at the most basic level scientific knowledge is made up of concepts. concepts act as the carriers of meaning. when associated concepts are combined and sentences formed, one arrives at statements or propositions. when related statements are combined, more complex conceptual frameworks such as typologies, models, theories and eventually broad theoretical paradigms and research traditions are created (mouton, 1996). information should only be added to the body of knowledge once it is accepted by the scientific community (mouton, 1996). the community will only do so once the information (theory or hypothesis) has been submitted for evaluation by relevant experts. only when they have scrutinised and accepted the information as a plausible claim will they endorse and disseminate it, namely publish it (babbie & mouton, 2012). academic knowledge is thus mostly disseminated through peer-reviewed academic journals. research purpose some efforts have been made to explore the body of knowledge captured in the literature and several literature reviews in the domain of coaching have already been published. one of the earliest literature reviews on business coaching was done by kilburg (1996). he concludes that there is a dearth of empirical research on the actual work of practitioners in the field and that most of the available literature is devoted to managers exerting themselves to add coaching to their roles to empower subordinates. he found only two researched studies that could form a scientific basis for what is called business coaching (kilburg, 1996). kampa-kokesch and anderson (2001) published a comprehensive literature review on executive coaching. these authors conclude that the extant literature provides some basis for understanding definitions, purposes, processes, methodologies, clients and service providers, but that surprisingly little empirical research has been done on the efficacy of executive coaching. in 2005, joo reviewed a total of 78 articles on coaching, of which only 11 were research articles published in academic journals. the rest were published in non-academic magazines. the most important conclusion joo (2005) draws from the empirical articles is that business coaching has become increasingly popular despite limited empirical evidence about its impact. the problem is thus not the practice per se, but the lack of research and theory to advance the field. joo, in his reporting on business coaching, categorises the articles according to research methodology, definitions and the purpose of the articles. the last comprehensive literature review on business coaching was done by passmore and gibbes (2007). they built upon the work of kampa-kokesch and anderson (2001). they focused mainly on executive coaching as a discipline. their primary finding was that there is a general shortage of empirical research on business coaching. they concluded that more research to understand the impact of coaching on performance needs to be done. they also recommended that research that describes the nature of the coaching intervention must get more attention. the present literature review on business coaching is thus not conducted in a vacuum, but aims to close the gap since the last comprehensive literature review was done by passmore and gibbes (2007). the aim of this article is to report on the present level of knowledge on coaching by means of the scheme provided by mouton (1996), taking into account the existing literature reviews and other research articles published since the work of passmore and gibbes. trends from the research literature the first part of this article is a literature review on how literature reviews are done. the result of this investigation will then be used in the second part of the article to conduct a literature review on the available literature on business coaching. systematic literature reviews have become widely accepted during the past 20 years (kable, pich & maslin-prothero 2012). the purpose of a literature review is to objectively report on the current knowledge on a topic, based on a summary of previously published research (green, johnson & adams, 2006). it is a rigorous and highly valued approach to evaluating literature on specific topics. the literature review is also an essential step in the research process and is included in all empirical and review articles (wu, aylward, roberts & evans, 2012). a literature review presents a broad perspective on a topic and also describes its history. in addition, it traces development in a specific area (green et al., 2006) and enables researchers to position their own investigations. through the identification of relevant concepts and issues, as well as methods of enquiry, researchers can use diverse frameworks for the analysis of their own work (v. anderson, 2009). the objective for conducting a literature review is to enable a researcher to write a synthesis of the available literature, to discover similarities between different research outputs, to examine differences in the results of the researchers and to identify emerging issues, themes and topics (kable et al., 2012). de vos, strydom, fouché and delport (2013) provide a structure for presenting a literature review. they tapped into the seminal work of babbie and mouton (2012) and kerlinger and lee (2000). de vos et al. present the building blocks of science under three headings, namely concepts, statements and conceptual frameworks. concepts concepts are the most basic building blocks of a body of knowledge. concepts may be defined as symbolic constructs (mouton, 1996) by means of which people classify or categorise reality. terms, words or notions must be available for those aspects of the world that constitute the subject matter of a given scientific discipline. the specific things of which a science tries to make sense are its concepts (de vos et al., 2013). they are also the most basic building blocks of communication in science. according to babbie and mouton (2012), the process of reaching an agreement during a scientific conversation is called conceptualisation and the result or agreement reached is called a concept. concepts are the primary analytical instruments by means of which one comes to grips with reality. by doing a literature review, a researcher works with the sources from which concepts can be discovered or key concepts generated (terre blanche, durrheim & painter, 2009). concepts then lead to statements and statements to theory building. statements once concepts have been formalised, they can be combined into statements, which constitute the next level of the building blocks of knowledge. statements include definitions, hypotheses and propositions (de vos et al., 2013), as well as statements of truth (babbie & mouton, 2012). definitions are words or constructs that describe other words or constructs (de vos et al., 2013). according to mouton (1996), definitions are neither true nor false. some are just more useful than others. they are used to facilitate communication and argumentation in the sense that they make it possible to say something more easily and clearly than would otherwise be possible (de vos et al., 2013). the function of a definition is to demarcate the meaning of a word in terms of its sense and reference (mouton, 1996). the best definitions are those that lead to clear conceptualisations and valid measurements of the phenomena under investigation (winter, 2000). a hypothesis is an educated guess (terre blanche et al., 2009) or a tentative explanation for an observation, a phenomenon or a scientific problem that can be tested by further investigation, made on the basis of limited evidence (babbie & mouton, 2012). according to de vos et al. (2013), a hypothesis contains two or more variables that are measurable, or potentially measureable, and that specify how the variables are related. hypotheses are normally formulated to solve problems in quantitative research. a proposition is a statement or a sentence that contains demonstrable and testable claims (mouton, 1996), a judgement or an opinion about the world. propositions must be tested against reality before they can be accepted as a valid theory or as part of a valid theory (de vos et al., 2013). propositions normally form part of a qualitative research project. truth statements make epistemic or knowledge claims. epistemic is derived from the greek word for truthful knowledge (babbie & mouton, 2012). statements are accepted as the truth by the scientific community when they are good approximations of reality and when they provide accurate and reliable representations of phenomena (babbie & mouton, 2012). truth statements may follow after testing hypotheses or investigating propositions. conceptual frameworks conceptual frameworks are the integration of scientific statements into a scientific structure (de vos et al., 2013), which is the next level of the building blocks of scientific knowledge. hierarchically conceptual frameworks are classified as typologies, models, theories and paradigms. a typology typically fulfils a classifying or categorising function and a model exposes the relationships between concepts, whereas a theory explicates the driving force that explains the relationship between concepts (de vos et al., 2013). a paradigm provides the broader field in which the conceptual framework functions. a typology is defined by mouton (1996) as a conceptual framework in which phenomena are classified in terms of characteristics that they have in common with other phenomena. the different types that comprise the typology should, as far as possible, be mutually exclusive (de vos et al., 2013). the construction of a typology, according to mouton, sometimes constitutes the first step in a process that will ultimately culminate in the systematic collection of data. it thus serves as a frame of reference for observation and data collection. it often also provides the most appropriate device for understanding the data (babbie & mouton, 2012). according to mouton (1996), a model is like a scientific metaphor. it consists of words that form a description of a social phenomenon, which abstracts the main features of the phenomenon, without an attempt to explain or predict anything (de vos et al., 2013). through a study of a specific phenomenon, the researcher reveals certain similarities or relationships and systemises these as a model of that phenomenon (mouton, 1996). the model is then a framework in which the phenomenon functions. the purpose of models is not to include all features of the system being modelled but only those necessary for research purposes (de vos et al., 2013). a theory is an instrument that is aimed at explaining phenomena and events (de vos et al., 2013). it is based on observable facts and can be proved wrong at any time (higgs & smith, 2006). a theory explains by way of casual models or stories, or by postulating a set of casual mechanisms that account for phenomena (mouton, 1996). theories vary in scope from very specific explanations (descriptive theories) to fairly large-scale general theories (grand theories) (dryer, 2006). the concepts, statements and conceptual framework operate within a larger framework which is called a paradigm. a paradigm in the social sciences can be described as a way of viewing one's own research material and placing it within a broader framework (de vos et al., 2013). a paradigm can also be described as a system of understanding (terre blanche et al., 2009) or a pattern containing a set of legitimate assumptions and a design for collecting and interpreting data (de vos et al., 2013). in the literature review, the structure provided by de vos et al. (2013) is employed because it provides convenient scaffolding for organising knowledge about a specific topic, in this case about business coaching. the potential value-add of the study this study aims to explore and systemise the existing theory in the body of knowledge within business coaching according to the building block for science as described by mouton (1996). in order to do that, a comprehensive literature review will be conducted. the value added by this study will be to assist future researchers to have access to the most recent synthesised concepts, definitions, typologies, models, theories and paradigms functioning in the field of business coaching as an academic discipline. research design top ↑ research approach the researchers conducted a systematic review of the literature. by doing this the researchers gained access to the key scientific contributions relevant to the subject (tranfield, denyer & smart, 2003). the researchers used extensive literature searches of published studies. by using transparent and reproducible procedures, systematic reviews improve the quality and outcome of review processes. review processes generally consist of data collection, analysis and synthesis. this study followed the pattern in order to explore the available data to compile the literature review that will be presented below. research method the research methodology is directly linked to the aim of this article, namely to provide a systematic and qualitative review of published academic literature on business coaching. systematic reviews are designed to reduce bias (white & schmidt, 2005). the methodology specifically developed for systematic literature reviews aims to minimise the effect of the selection of sources, assessment of publications and type of data collected (nightingale, 2009). the review is qualitative because it does not combine the results of the reviewed studies statistically. it includes a summary and critique of the findings from systematic methods through the processes by which the individual studies are integrated (green et al., 2006). sampling sampling is the selection of research material from an entire body of data (babbie & mouton, 2012). the selected sample must be representative in order for a researcher to draw valid and accurate conclusions (terre blanche et al., 2009). researchers must ensure that the sample is large enough to allow them to make inferences about the entire body of available data. in this case, all the articles that could be found through the specified search engines of the university of south africa (unisa) library have been selected. no sampling was done and the whole population was considered. data collection methods the structure described by kable et al. (2012) is used as an outline for this literature review. some reviews of articles have already been published (see joo, 2005; kampa-kokesch & anderson, 2001; kilburg, 1996; passmore & gibbes, 2007); these are acknowledged in the background section of this article. the most recent comprehensive literature review on executive coaching appeared in 2007 and was conducted by passmore and gibbes. the main aim of the search was to find articles that presented literature reviews on business coaching. broad bouquets of ebsco host and emerald insight, databases consisting of 54 individual search engines, including business source complete and eric, were used as they have a very broad reach. this was complemented by a google and google scholar search to identify other articles, relevant documents and published reports from conferences or seminar programmes. nightingale (2009) suggests that this addition was necessary to improve the sensitivity of the search. the search was limited to an electronic search of english language articles published during the past 20 years. attention was given to the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the search. inclusion and exclusion criteria should ideally be established in the protocol development stage and should inform the development of a checklist for deciding which studies to include and which to exclude (white & schmidt, 2005). only information or data that are accepted by the scientific community should be included in building the body of knowledge (babbie & mouton, 2012) and as such only published peer-reviewed articles were considered. articles of which the full text was not available were excluded, as were articles written in an informal style and promotional articles. when the search captured articles in non-academic publications such as magazines, they were also excluded. three key terms were used to search the databases, with a focus on the titles of documents. the searched terms were coaching, business coaching and executive coaching. the search was conducted in late may 2014. each of the articles retrieved was assessed for relevance by reading the abstract and, where necessary, the entire paper. the inclusion and exclusion criteria were used to exclude papers that are not relevant to this review. articles that met the criteria were selected and documented and duplicates were excluded. the results of the search were reported as the number of articles that met the inclusion criteria, as well as the number of cases remaining after the introduction of the exclusion criteria. the quality of the articles was not appraised again. all articles in peer-reviewed journals were included, based on the fact that they had been peer reviewed. once included in a journal, the articles were deemed sufficient. the articles found during the search are presented chronologically in appendix 1. the 12 steps outlined by kable et al. (2012) were followed in collecting the data. once the articles had been selected and recorded, they were scrutinised for information relevant to the body of knowledge, as advocated by de vos et al. (2013). data analysis the analytical tools function as the lens through which to interrogate the available literature. these tools can be developed before or during engagement with the literature (terre blanche et al., 2009). in this study the tools were developed beforehand and are presented below: concepts: concepts were identified as the words that appeared in the keyword list of the selected articles. when articles did not have a keyword list, no concepts were identified. statements: only statements that included the word ‘definition’ or phrases such as ‘the phenomenon is described as …’ were included as definitions of the concept. no effort was made to integrate information to construct definitions, as this would introduce bias. the analysis of the articles revealed that no other statements, such as hypotheses, propositions or truth statements were found in more than two articles. the information presented was thus insufficient to warrant in-depth analysis and, as such, definitions were the only focus of further investigation. typologies: typologies in the text were recognised when they were presented as lists or strings of characteristics associated with the phenomena. the test that was used to identify a typology was to ask if a particular list or string represented the characteristics of the phenomena or if it described types of the phenomena. this is equivalent to the manner in which babbie and mouton (2012) describe typologies. if the list or string of statements did not meet these criteria, it was not classified as a typology. models: models were identified as pieces of text that express the relationship between variables. the focus in models was expressed as relationships, with no reference to the forces driving such a relationship. theories: theories were identified as pieces of text that explain the relationship between variables, but in which, in addition to models, reference is made to the reasons behind relationships. paradigms: these refer to the broader framework in which the research was positioned. paradigms were deduced from the general tone of the articles. strategies employed to ensure quality data according to babbie and mouton (2012), reliability refers to the likelihood that a given measurement procedure will deliver the same description of a phenomenon if the measurement is repeated. validity refers to the extent to which a specific measurement provides data that relates to commonly accepted meanings of a particular concept. in the case of this research project, repeatability was assured by stipulating exactly how the data was collected (see kable et al., 2012). the validity and trustworthiness was established by means of appropriate sampling of the articles in the field and reading the articles using an appropriate framework (see de vos et al., 2013). reporting in reporting the findings a qualitative reporting style will be followed. the findings will be presented in an essay style under different headings and in paragraphs. an appendix with a list of the articles investigated is attached. the articles are numbered. in the result section the findings will be recorded by referring to the article number. findings top ↑ the search delivered 84 articles, of which 42 were peer reviewed. of the 42, six were promotional articles, leaving the researcher with 36 articles that were suitable for investigation (see appendix 1). finding pertaining to concepts in the systematic review, the specified analytical tool found only two concepts associated with coaching and executive coaching, namely management development and leadership development. fifteen of the 36 articles included a list of keywords. the most common keywords were coaching (n = 12; see articles 7, 10, 15, 18, 19, 22, 23, 26, 31, 33, 40 and 41) and leadership development (n = 6; see articles 7, 13, 18, 20, 31 and 35). the third most popular keyword was executive coaching (n = 5; see articles 13, 15, 24, 35 and 41), followed by management development (n = 4; see articles 13, 18, 35 and 41). the other keywords were not mentioned more than three times. other keywords included in the different articles were business improvement, business benefits, facilitation, organisational change, organisational development, executive management, executive training, evaluation, planning, business benefits, leadership, team learning, workplace learning, performance and characteristics of coaching, coaching psychology, coaching relationship, business coaching and mentoring. findings pertaining to definitions the following 14 statements met the criteria to be included as definitions: article 1: executive coaching is defined as a helpful relationship. this relationship is formed between a client and a consultant. the client has managerial authority and responsibility in an organisation. the consultant uses a wide variety of behavioural techniques and methods to help the client achieve a mutually identified set of goals. the aim is for the client to improve their professional performance and personal satisfaction and, consequently, to improve the effectiveness of the client's organisation within a formally defined coaching agreement. article 9: coaching is defined as a form of consultation. it is a formal, ongoing relationship between an individual or team and a consultant. the consultant in this relationship has in-depth knowledge of various psychological paradigms and perspectives regarding behavioural change and organisational functioning. the consultant then provides learning opportunities for the development of self-esteem and self-awareness, as well as increased quality communication with colleagues, peers and subordinates. the consultation techniques give direct behaviourally based feedback and interpretations about the employee's impact on others. the business or organisation will benefit because the behavioural change in the individual or team will lead to enhanced performance. article 13: coaching is defined as a process of a one-on-one relationship between a professional coach and a coachee for the purpose of enhancing the coachee's behavioural change through self-awareness and learning, and which ultimately contributes to the success of the individual and of the organisation. article 16: coaching is defined as a natural conversation that follows a predictable process and leads to superior performance, commitment to sustained improvement and positive relationships. article 18: coaching is an approach to leadership development. article 22: coaching is the focus of building performance and enhancing well-being in non-clinical populations. article 26: coaching is defined as the coach's participation in the development and learning process of the person in focus. it is a form of conversation. article 29: coaching is defined as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximise their personal and professional potential. article 31: coaching has been defined as a teaching technique for imparting facts and methods for accomplishing a task. article 33: electronic coaching can be defined as coaching delivered via an electronic medium such as an intranet. article 35: executive coaching is defined as the teaching of skills in the context of a personal relationship with a learner and the provision of feedback on the executive's interpersonal relations and skills. article 39: executive coaching is defined as formal, collaborative relationships between clients and consultants to improve their work performance and personal satisfaction, and thereby to improve organisational effectiveness. article 41: coaching is defined as a one-on-one relationship between a professional coach and an executive (coachee). article 42: coaching is the practice of support to leaders who drive organisational goals. although these definitions address a wide range of interpretations of what coaching entails, some communality is evident. these will be presented in the discussion part of this article. findings pertaining to typologies none of the articles provided a typology of coaching that met the criteria set out in the analytical tools section of this article. findings pertaining to models from the six articles reporting on models of coaching, six different and distinct models of coaching were identified. a very early model was found in article 1. it suggests that an effective coaching model would feature the following steps: developing an intervention agreement. building a coaching relationship. creating and managing expectations of coaching success. providing an experience of behavioural mastery or cognitive control over the problems and issues. evaluating and attributing coaching success or failure. article 14 suggests that coaching benefits optimally from a pyramid model as a workable model for coaching. this model has four key factors as its foundation, namely the skills of the coach, the personal attributes of the coach, the coaching process and the coaching environment. the next stage of the model suggests that, when the foundation is in place, the coachee is empowered to realise the level of inner personal benefits, namely clarity and focus, confidence and motivation. after this the coachee is mentally ready to produce the outer personal benefits, namely enhanced skills, knowledge and understanding, and improved behaviour. the coachee will then be equipped and empowered to achieve the pinnacle of the pyramid, namely business results. in 2006 the four-category model appeared (see article 15). this model defines the approach in terms of the goals of the coaching assignment, the scope of work and the type of business scenarios involved. each of the four approaches in this model brings with it recommended methods and interventions, qualifications and styles of providers and specific objectives regarding the diverse needs of executives and leadership teams. article 25 places considerable emphasis on goal-setting and attainment as introduced by the goal attainment scaling (gas) model as a tool to be used in coaching research and practice. the model presented in article 18 is called the competency-based coaching model. it has the same elements as the model in article 40. the only difference is that article 18's model adds training, job knowledge and strengths and weakness analysis as extra steps. the model in article 40 suggests that the coaching model contains the following: goal orientation: individual and team-based. a strong emphasis on self-reflection and goal-setting. the building capacity to work relationally, socially and organisationally. it also focuses on situation or context and the ‘here and now’. time limits: contracted relationship for a fixed time. issues of power and influence that are addressed and negotiated as part of the relational process. from the aforementioned it seems as if the model provided by leedham (2005) in article 14 is the most prominent because it includes most of the concepts introduced by the other models. findings pertaining to theories in sum, 14 articles referred directly to theories. according to article 35, coaching operates within the broader theory of psychotherapy because the concept of ‘working alliance’ has its roots in psychotherapy. because of the client-therapist relationship and the therapeutic intervention, article 1 also places coaching within the broader theory of psychotherapy. article 2 and article 27 argue that the outcome of coaching must be sustained behavioural change and because that is the focus of an experienced psychologist, the theory in which coaching operates must be that of psychotherapy. article 31 places coaching within the leader-member exchange theory (lmx). lmx posits that leaders develop different types of exchange relationships with their subordinates and that the quality of these relationships influences leaders’ and subordinates’ attitude and behaviours. the social exchange theories maintain that there is a perceived obligation on the part of subordinates to reciprocate high-quality relationships and that these relationships are developed over time through a series of exchanges. article 8 and article 41 argue that coaching falls within the parameters of cognitive-behavioural psychology theory and approach because it deals with coping-skills therapies. article 19 and article 29 link up with coping skills and connect coaching with emotional intelligence, problem-solving therapies and cognitive-restructuring therapies and theories, whilst article 15 positions it within the clinical psychological theory. article 22 and article 23 use positive psychology and coaching psychology as theories because they focus on building performance and enhancing well-being in non-clinical populations. article 18 and article 20 identify the theory in which coaching operates as the developmental counselling theory within the broader framework of executive or supervisory development in human resource development. article 26 links up with the developmental theory and posits coaching within the aesthetic learning theory because it is a cognitive process. article 21 also supports the cognitive theory, but adds goal-setting theory and action theory. article 33 goes one step further and claims that this learning process can take place via a virtual process through the internet as e-coaching. it appears that the psychotherapy theory (n = 4; see articles 1, 2, 27 and 35) and the developmental theory (n = 3; see articles 18, 20 and 26) are the theories most often referred to in the field of coaching. findings pertaining to paradigms the available literature is mainly divided between two paradigms in which coaching functions. nine articles (articles 4, 7, 13, 14, 17, 26, 27, 36 and 37) position coaching in the paradigm of management development and more specifically, within human resource development. some researchers position it within the psychological paradigm. the following eight articles are examples of this: articles 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 32, 34 and 39. discussion top ↑ outline of findings in total 84 articles were located by the search strategy and 36 were analysed according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria described above. all 36 articles were published in the last 18 years. fourteen articles were published in the last 6 years. these articles were published in a diverse range of accredited academic journals all over the world. most articles were published in the international coaching psychology review, followed by journal for industrial and commercial training and consulting psychology journal. no other journal has more than two hits. the result of this search emphasises the notion that only a limited body of research on coaching is available. with regard to concepts, it must be noted that practitioners of coaching as a profession and academic researchers are still experimenting on arranging concepts into sentences to form statements that can become theories to investigate. based on their review of current literature and practice, bond and seneque (2013) hope that coaching will be conceptualised as a useful tool for managers. managers must assess what approach might be most suitable to their organisation and personal needs to facilitate sustained change. coaching struggles conceptually to find its place somewhere between therapy, training, development, mentoring, counselling and interventions (cilliers, 2005). the approaches to coaching vary in a range from executive coaching (kilburg, 1996), corporate coaching, business coaching and personal coaching to life coaching, with many variations and permutations in between, such as speciality, niche and group coaching (bond & seneque, 2013). averweg (2010) has added concepts such as virtual coaching and e-coaching to the debate. early definitions of coaching found in literature between 1987 and 1992 place a key emphasis on the contribution that coaching can make to improve individual and organisational performance by equipping people with tools, knowledge and opportunities. definitions constructed between 2001 and 2006 tend to define coaching more as a process and draw a stronger link between coaching, learning, development (articles 3 and 28) and assisting teams and individuals to reach their full potential. coaching has more recently been defined by some researchers as a personal or organisational intervention (article 2) that builds upon strengths (article 7) and strengthens underdeveloped skills (article 25), and as a systematic activity that seeks to foreground complexity, pluralist perspectives, unpredictability and contextual factors. article 34 describes coaching as the search for achieving a balance between stability as one of the major contributions that it can make to management interventions. when one looks at the repetition of keywords in definitions, the following findings have come to light: the words that are repeated in the definitions are ‘relationship’ (n = 7; articles 1, 9, 13, 16, 35, 39 and 41), ‘effectiveness’ (n = 7; articles 1, 9, 13, 16, 22, 29 and 39), ‘learning’ (n = 5; articles 9, 13, 26, 31 and 35), ‘behavioural change’ (n = 3; articles 1, 9 and 13) and ‘goal–setting’ (n = 2; articles 1 and 42). a comprehensive definition of business coaching, given the aforementioned would thus contain at least these words and could be formulated as follows: business coaching is a one-on-one relationship with the purpose to change behaviour through learning to improve organisational effectiveness by setting goals to achieve the desired results. authors on coaching are silent about typologies. only one (article 40) of the 36 articles identifies five ‘meta’ categories. these are management approaches or typologies used in the context of transformational change. the five meta types of management approaches that the article identifies are managing, consulting, mentoring, facilitating and coaching. as a phenomenon, coaching as a type is placed next to these other types of management approaches that are used for transformational change in organisations. no single model on coaching seems to be dominant. different models (n = 6; see articles 1, 14, 15, 18, 25 and 40) were introduced to be followed during the coaching process. the common denominators in these models are goal-setting, self-reflection, behavioural change, situational analysis, timeframe and relational processes. in 17 of the 36 articles on coaching, theories are presented in which the researchers place the coaching practice or process. twelve of these articles place the theories within psychological theories and five are positioned within human resources developmental theories. the two human resource developmental theories that were identified are the executive developmental theory and the learning theory. in the domain of psychology, the theories varied from clinical and positive to cognitive-behavioural discourse and psychotherapy. two paradigms were identified in which coaching functions, namely human resource development (n = 9; articles 4, 7, 13, 14, 17, 26, 27, 36 and 37) and the psychology paradigm (n = 8; articles 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 32, 34 and 39). article 9 makes the assumption that coaching is customarily studied from behaviourist and humanist paradigms in psychology. article 14 explicitly states that coaching operates within the positivistic and phenomenological paradigm but does not give any reasons for the statement. practical implications the building blocks for business coaching as a relatively new and emerging science within the field of business leadership have been defined. this will contribute to the articulation of concepts within this discipline by future researchers and practitioners. limitation and recommendations because business coaching is still a newcomer to the world of business, the academic research on the topic is also still in its infancy. business coaching as such is not an established concept yet. concepts such as coaching, business coaching, executive coaching, management coaching and even life coaching are used as synonyms. this made it difficult in searching for data on the specific topic of business coaching and can thus be considered a limitation for this study. it is recommended that research must be stimulated to continue in this field to add data to the body of knowledge. conclusion this article attempts to contribute to the research on business coaching in more than one way. the literature review proves that the concerns of cilliers (2005) are valid because the available research is very limited. it also shows that there is a dearth of active researchers and academics currently working in this field. although the academic data is limited, a number of concepts, models, theories, typologies and paradigms could be identified and may contribute to the systemisation of the body of knowledge. this article summarises the available data in a way that no previous literature review has done before by using the structure discussed in the methodology section. the model of kable et al. (2012) has proved to be a systematic method through which the literature review could be structured to eliminate bias and to access a proper sample, and the structure provided by de vos et al. (2011) has been shown to be useful to organise, integrate and synthesise the data collected. the key concepts associated with coaching are leadership development and executive coaching. an inclusive definition of executive coaching reads as follows: business coaching is a one-on-one relationship with the purpose to change behaviour through learning to improve organisational effectiveness by setting goals to achieve the desired results. the most prevalent model of executive coaching is that of leedham (2005) and it includes the following elements: the skills of the coach, analysis of the situation, improved behaviour and the achievement of business results. the most prevalent theory on executive coaching is one that suggests a relationship between psychotherapy and human resource development. two paradigms dominate executive coaching, namely the psychological and human resource developmental paradigms. although business coaching is constantly described as a newcomer to the world of business and an academic discipline that is not yet independent, this literature review has proved that in the gap since the last comprehensive literature review has been published, a constant flow of new peer-reviewed articles have been published. this is a tendency that must be encouraged. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions f.s. (university of south africa) was responsible for the collection and integration of the data whilst r.s. (university of south africa) made conceptual contributions to the design and presentation of the research. references top ↑ anderson, b. (2007, august 02). executive coaching: soft of hard core? finweek, p. 56. anderson, v. (2009). research in human resource management. (2nd edn.). london, uk: charted institute of personnel and development. april, k.a., & april, a.r. (2007). growing leaders in emergent markets: leadership enhancement in the new south africa. journal of management education, 31(2), 214–244. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1052562906297595 averweg, u.r. (2010). enabling role of an intranet to augment e-coaching. industrial and commercial training, 42(1), 47–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00197851011013715 babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2012). the practice of social research. cape town, south africa: oxford university press. beets, k., & goodman, s. (2012). evaluating a training programme for executive coaches. journal of human resource management, 10(3), 12–22. bond, c., & seneque, m. (2013). conceptualizing coaching as an approach to management and organizational development. journal of management development, 32(1), 57–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02621711311287026 bowles, s., cunningham, c.j.l., de la rosa, g.m., & picano, j. (2007). coaching leaders in middle and executive management: goals, performance, buy-in. leadership and organization development journal, 28(5), 388–408. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437730710761715 cilliers, f.v.n. (2005). executive coaching experiences: a systems psychodynamic perspective. sa journal of industrial psychology, 31(3), 23–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v31i3.205 clegg, s.r., rhodes, c., kornberger, m., & stilin, r. (2005). business coaching: challenges for an emerging industry. industrial and commercial training, 37(5), 218–223. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00197850510609630 de vos, a.s., strydom, h., fouché, c.b., & delport, c.s.l. (2013). research at grass roots: for the social sciences and human services professions. (4th edn.). pretoria, south africa: van schaik. dryer, m.s. (2006). descriptive theories, explanatory theories, and basic linguistic theory. trends in linguistics studies and monographs, 167(1), 207–216. green, b.n., johnson, c.d., & adams, a. (2006). writing narrative literature reviews for peer-reviewed journals: secrets of the trade. journal of chiropractic medicine, 5(3), 102–117. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0899-3467(07)60142-6 higgs, p., & smith, j. (2006). rethinking truth. (2nd edn.). cape town, south africa: juta & co. joo, b. (2005). executive coaching: a conceptual framework from an integrative review of practice and research. human resource development review, 4(4), 462–488. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1534484305280866 kable, a.k., pich, j., & maslin-prothero, s.e. (2012). a structured approach to documenting a search strategy for publication: a 12 step guideline for authors. nurse education today, 32, 878–886. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2012.02.022 kampa-kokesch, s., & anderson, m.z. (2001). executive coaching: a comprehensive review of the literature. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 53(4), 205–228. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1061-4087.53.4.205 kerlinger, f.n., & lee, h.b. (2000). foundations of behavioural research. (4th edn.). fort worth, tx: harcourt college publishers. kilburg, r.r. (1996). toward a conceptual understanding and definition of executive coaching. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 48(2), 134–144. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1061-4087.48.2.134 king, p., & eaton, j. (1999). coaching for results. industrial and commercial training, 31(4), 145–151. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00197859910275791 leedham, m. (2005). the coaching scorecard: a holistic approach to evaluating the benefits of business coaching. international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring, 3(2), 30–45. mouton, j. (1996). understanding social research. pretoria, south africa: van schaik. nightingale, a. (2009). a guide to systematic literature reviews. surgery, 27(9), 381–384. passmore, j., & gibbes, c. (2007). the state of executive coaching research: what does the current literature tell us and what's next for coaching research? international coaching psychology review, 2(2), 116–128. shelley, m. (2008). coaching in construction. magazine of the south african institution of civil engineering, 16(10), 52–53. terre blanche, m., durrheim, k., & painter, d. (2009). research in practice. applied methods for the social sciences. cape town, south africa: university of cape town press. tranfield, d., denyer, d., & smart, p. (2003). towards a methodology for developing evidence-informed management knowledge by means of systematic review. british journal of management, 14(3), 207–222. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375 upton, p. (2006, august 10). sport can learn from business. finweek, pp. 48–49. white, a., & schmidt, k. (2005). systematic literature reviews. complementary therapies in medicine, 13, 54–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2004.12.003 winter, g. (2000). a comparative discussion of the notion of ‘validity’ in qualitative and quantitative research. the qualitative report, 4(3&4), 3–6. wu, y.p., aylward, b.s., roberts, m.c., & evans, s.c. (2012). searching the scientific literature: implications for quantitative and qualitative reviews. clinical psychology review, 32, 553–557. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2012.06.007 appendix 1 top ↑ table a1: chronological list of articles selected for the research. downsizing: perspectives, outcomes and implications book title: downsizing: is less still more? authors: cary l. cooper, alankrita pandey, james campbell isbn: 9781107004672 publisher: cambridge university press, 2012, £47.00* *book price at time of review reviewer: nelesh dhanpat1 affiliation: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa postal adress: po box 524, auckland park 2006, south africa how to cite this book review: dhanpat, n. (2014). downsizing: perspectives, outcomes and implications. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12(1), art. #649, 2 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.649 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. book review open access the editors of downsizing: is less still more?, cary l. cooper, alankrita pandey and james campbell quick, present a collection of perspectives on downsizing from the point of view of distinguished international experts. this book uses empirical research to explore this business strategy. it spans 13 chapters, which explore and examine the extent and depths of downsizing whilst offering the reader an all-encompassing and impressive understanding of various facets and significant themes of downsizing. the editors skillfully diagnose downsizing in four comprehensive parts, namely overview, human outcomes, organisational outcomes and post-downsizing implications.part i, the overview, provides an overview of job loss and the effects on both workers and firms. the chapter firmly introduces the topic of job loss and readily investigates job stability and sets forth the outline for the remainder of the chapters. the data used to examine job loss are based on four decades of data, from the united states of america, which were derived from various data sources. subsequently, the chapter examines the alternatives to layoffs, namely work sharing, and examines various cases within organisations to determine the viability and sustainability of layoffs. the chapter concludes by discussing the effects of job loss on workers, namely subsequent work, happiness and health, in addition to the effects on firms. chapter 2 brings to the attention of the reader the title of the book and encapsulates the origins of downsizing whilst concisely defining this phenomenon. the contributors of this chapter provide a comprehensive, though non-exhaustive, discussion on the causes of employment downsizing. the authors clarify two broad classes, namely external or macro-environmental and internal organisational factors. this sets the scene for the remainder of the chapter, which investigates 15 tabulated antecedents at great length. the suggested antecedents give rise to suggestions for future researchers. part i concludes with chapter 3, which expands on chapter 2 by exploring the antecedents of downsizing. four categories are identified that can effect an organisation’s decision to downsize. subsequently, the chapter elucidates on the role of different factors in shaping downsizing. a framework for understanding the antecedents of downsizing is highlighted and guides the discussion. internal and external factors of downsizing are revealed that lead to managerial decisions in downsizing. the chapter further elucidates the various moderators that are associated with downsizing, namely industry characteristics, ownership structures, board characteristics and firm characteristics. the chapter adeptly highlights downsizing as a proactive strategy and questions its ability in developing economies. the role of institutional forces are analysed as a way of explaining a firm’s decision to downsize. part ii begins with chapter 4. work motivation is reviewed, whilst clarifying such factors as individual values, cultural values, organisational culture, leader member exchange, job design and fit, as well as distributional and procedural justice. the chapter draws on the aforementioned factors, analysing motivation and downsizing. in addition, this chapter examines downsizing and voluntary turnover, which may increase amongst survivors. the link between downsizing and productivity is examined along with the negative effects downsizing has on employees and the work situation. chapter 5 focuses on the disparate outcomes of downsizing through an adapted strategic human resource management model. this chapter examines the impact of downsizing strategies of human capital whilst exploring the impact of in-role and extra-role behaviour. views on justice, social exchange relationships and perceptions are examined at an individual level. the chapter concludes by discussing the impact on human resource (hr) practices and the perceptions of hr practices in eliciting and addressing downsizing. chapter 6 draws on the health outcomes of employees, namely survivor disease. the health outcomes are examined from a macro and micro economic change perspective of threats to employees’ capabilities and employment status. a succinct table presents the associations between downsizing and health from various international studies. the chapter provides insight into the major concerns of the surviving workforce and explores health effects of job insecurity and job restructuring. part iii reviews downsizing from an organisational outcome perspective. chapter 7 discusses the impact of employee downsizing on organisational performance and thoroughly investigates the performance effects of downsizing whilst introductorily reviewing the benefits and costs. this chapter provides a framework of performance outcomes organised around downsizing and identifies three such streams. stream i focuses on market responses, stream ii on profitability and stream iii on productivity. the chapter presents the findings, suggesting streams i and ii as being detrimental to shareholders and profitability in contrast to stream iii, which provides a constructive perspective. chapter 8 presents an examination of executive perceptions of downsizing and investigates the institutionalisation of downsizing. this chapter sets out the theoretical framework of the perceptions of downsizing. it presents a model investigating the perception that downsizing is financially effective as well as inevitable. this chapter concludes with implications for empirical research and practice. chapter 9 reviews downsizing in today’s global economy by examining whether downsizing is viable or not. a longitudinal study is presented that was conducted amongst american fortune 1000 companies, tracking the financial performance for five years, namely the year before downsizing, the year of the downsizing and each of the three consecutive years. the chapter further builds on psychological contact theory and economic theory. the impact of downsizing on individuals and organisations is identified, favouring the psychological contract theory. it is argued that the benefits of downsizing will be proven in the long run. the chapter concludes by providing theoretical and practical implications of downsizing, indicating that strategic analysis, thoughtful planning and careful execution are prerequisites of downsizing. part iv explores post-downsizing implications. chapter 10 presents the stress outcomes of downsizing and identifies five groups of individuals that are impacted by the process. the chapter focuses on the following groups: victims (primary causalities), survivors and agent survivors (secondary casualties). each of the affected groups is defined and its stress sources explained. the second half of the chapter explains the moderating factors and elaborates on what can be done to reduce the consequences. chapter 11 draws attention to good downsizing and examines the contributions of implementing a workforce reduction strategy at a business unit level. a succinct table of elements of good downsizing is provided. the chapter leverages on normative suggestions by dissecting downsizing strategies affecting structural arrangements. chapter 12 explains the implications and consequences of downsizing from a global perspective. the chapter opens by shedding the light on downsizing as a strategy or process, which sets the framework for the chapter. the phases of downsizing are examined, namely before, during and after downsizing. the chapter further builds upon the financial consequences and implications. the chapter also highlights the implications of economic structures in organisations. subsequently, the chapter explores the organisational implications and consequences and needs for training and development as a national orientation and notes such changes in china due to the changing economy. the chapter examines socio-cultural changes from australia, new zealand and south africa. the chapter distinguishes between private and publicly held firms in terms of the way in which downsizing takes place. chapter 13 concludes the book and provides an integrated view between a universal model of downsizing and a country-specific view. similar to the previous chapter, this chapter examines the global perspective and highlights different approaches of downsizing in different countries. this international perspective suggests that many organisations face global issues. it distinguishes between the ‘western’ approach to downsizing and the ‘eastern’ approach to downsizing. a multi-factor approach is taken to describe or evaluate the consequences of downsizing. the chapter and the book conclude by exploring downsizing qualitatively by means of semi-structured interviews conducted amongst professionals who have led and or participated in downsizing in multinational corporations. this book is a value-add and presents a comprehensive study of downsizing. it is a worthwhile read for all human resource professionals and organisations that are embarking on workforce reduction. in addition, the book is deemed valuable to researchers as they will be able to build on the research presented in terms of the gaps in literature, limitations and to build upon the directions for future research. the editors present downsizing effectively, focusing on firms in the united states. however, it is important to note that downsizing is a global phenomenon, and although implications may differ in other countries, organisations around the world may benefit from this book. abstract introduction current knowledge on authentic leadership research design findings and discussions outline of authentic leadership programme effect of the authentic leadership programme on the development of leadership authenticity conclusion, limitations and implications for practice acknowledgements references about the author(s) tineke wulffers department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa mark bussin department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa magda hewitt department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa citation wulffers, t., bussin, m., & hewitt, m. (2016). fast-tracking authentic leadership development by means of a programme. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a764. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.764 original research fast-tracking authentic leadership development by means of a programme tineke wulffers, mark bussin, magda hewitt received: 12 oct. 2015; accepted: 27 june 2016; published: 20 sept. 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: while there is considerable literature on the definition and impact of authentic leadership (al), there is a research gap regarding the effectiveness of al programmes. research purpose: the focus of this article is on the proximal programme effect of an al development programme on executive leaders within a period of 3 months. motivation for the study: al has been identified not only as the root construct of positive forms of leadership but also equates to the highest level of leadership effectiveness. leadership authenticity can take a life time to develop, and organisations need positive and ethical leadership now. an appropriate al programme could considerably shorten the development period of a such leadership research design, approach and method: a longitudinal qualitative programme evaluation approach was used. the participants comprised a primary group of a 10-member executive leadership team who were the al programme participants and their respective secondary (senior, peer and subordinate) participants who provided preand post-programme data on the leadership authenticity of the primary participants. main findings: the outline of the al programme is presented with an indication of how it adhered to specific guidelines offered for development of such programmes. findings indicate that the programme had a proximal effect of increasing al; starting with the development of personal followed by interpersonal and professional leadership. practical/managerial implications: an appropriate and effective al programme could thus considerably shorten the development period of such leadership. introduction key focus good leaders navigate through all weather; profound leadership occurs during a storm. (meyer, 2007, p. 4) the above notion illustrates the potential value of authentic leadership (al), which could be regarded as the highest form of leadership effectiveness (eigel & kuhnert, 2005). to combine high performance with high integrity and to re-instate trust in the free enterprise system requires leaders who know who they are and who produce consistent and predictable leadership behaviour as such leaders foster higher levels of integrity, trust and positive affective responses among followers (chan, hannah & gardner, 2005; walumbwa, avolio, gardner & peterson, 2008). the challenge is that the metric of time required for developing such leadership is typically very long, as it takes life and leadership episodes over time for the characteristics of al to emerge (chan, 2005). there is a need for a leadership programme that could possibly fast-track the development of leadership authenticity (wulffers, 2014). background to the study the latest rash of corporate scandals over the last decade has awakened collective consciousness to the fact that self-interest, unchecked by moral reasoning and obligation, can result in destructive greed. this greed destroys not only the lives of those executives who are driven by it to ethical compromise but also ultimately impacts on all stakeholders, as the outcomes trickle down the corporate hierarchies, spilling over into communities and crashing into families (fry & whittington, 2005, p. 184). true leadership is always more difficult to maintain in challenging times, and the unique stressors facing organisations throughout the world today call for a renewed attention to what constitutes true and positive leadership (walumbwa et al., 2008). organisations are focusing on finding leadership that will restore confidence, hope and optimism, while displaying resiliency that allows appropriate responses to potentially catastrophic events. there is a need for leaders who lead with purpose, values and integrity (george, 2003; metcalf & benn, 2013). what organisations require is a way of leading that is based on character and substance rather than style of leadership and integrity rather than image or position (george & sims, 2007). trends from research literature while there are ample definitions available in literature on al and how al impacts on inter-relational trust, individual and team leadership, and organisational effectiveness, there is less information available on how it can be developed. typically, it takes a long time to develop the characteristics of leadership authenticity, requiring life and leadership episodes that provide development opportunities. this begs the question whether companies can wait that long to have true leaders at the helm (wulffers, 2014). unless a way can be found to deliberately develop such leadership within a reasonable time span, organisations and even governments will head the news in stories of corruption and achieving wealth at the expense of their citizens (karpoff, 2010). to date, insufficient research has been done on how the development of al can be fast-tracked (avolio, 2010; wulffers, 2014). avolio and gardner (2005) highlighted the complexity of al development theory and stated that they were not yet able to view al development in the format of a programme, unless it were to be broadly labelled ‘life’s program’ (avolio & gardner, 2005, p. 322), meaning that the development had to emanate from the lessons offered by life. research purpose and objectives while much has been written about the need for a better quality of leadership (fry & whittington, 2005; george, sims, mclean & mayer, 2007), very little research is available on how this type of leadership can be developed. reichard and avolio (2005) conducted a study on the status of leadership intervention research, pointing out that very little research has been done on al programmes. they highlighted some high-level aspects that should be present in al programmes and encouraged researchers to do high-quality research studies on the effectiveness of al programmes. a subsequent meta-analytic review of leadership impact research by avolio, reichard, hannah, walumba and chan (2009) comprised research on 200 leadership interventions from 1950 onwards, and although these authors are regarded as leading researchers in the field of al, their study did not yet include any al intervention studies. thus, there is a need for further research on the development of leadership authenticity by means of the evaluation of an appropriate programme. this study focused on a practitioner’s perspective on developing al by means of an al programme. the aim of this article is twofold: to outline the al programme under study. to report on the evaluation of the impact of this al programme on the development of leadership authenticity. contribution to the field al can be regarded not only as the root construct of positive leadership (avolio, gardner, walumbwa, luthans & may, 2004; avolio, walumbwa & weber, 2009; gardner, avolio, luthans, may & walumbwa, 2005) but also meets the requirements for the highest level of leadership (eigel & kuhnert, 2005). however, as the metric of time for developing such leadership authenticity is typically very long (chan, 2005), it was therefore worthwhile to evaluate an al programme that not only shortens the development period of such leadership but would also provide organisations with a programme that has been proven to develop al (wulffers, 2014). what will follow the next section reviews relevant current literature on al and criteria for al development. the research design is then presented followed by the outline of the programme and the findings from the qualitative research design. the article concludes with the main contributions to the field of an outline and effect of an al programme on the development on al, which in itself is an antecedent of leadership effectiveness. current knowledge on authentic leadership in 2005, the first dedicated monographs on al theory and practice appeared after the 2004 nebraska gallup leadership institute summit. in particular, this study is informed by the publication on the emergence, functioning and impacts of veritable al by chan et al. (2005), which captured the essence of leadership authenticity. their al theory provided the philosophical underpinnings to which the leadership authenticity programme under study is aligned. as this research focused on the development of al by means of an appropriate programme, the following sections highlight some theoretical perspectives on al, development of al and research done on al programmes. about leadership authenticity the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else, is to be nobody-but-yourself. (cummings, 1958, p. 1) the quote by cummings applies especially in the organisational leadership context, which at times can squeeze the self out of oneself (wulffers, 2014). it is helpful to understand al by what it is not. al is not about impression management, which occurs when an inauthentic person acts in deference to external information rather than being aligned to an internal sense of being true to the self (chan et al., 2005). impression management might also be the result of a lack of self-awareness of who the self really is, whereas the authentic person will ensure that the impression created is consistent with the true self (franzese, 2007). extraordinary leaders are those who are transparent and genuine, therefore commanding respect and admiration, rather than one who is merely posing as a leader, falsely currying favour and trust among followers (kolditz & brazil, 2005). increasing self-clarity through self-awareness requires the process of continuous self-reflection or introspection (akrivou, bourantas, mo & papalois, 2011; walumbwa et al., 2008). introspection and reflection require a dynamic processes that describes the fact that individuals continually question and re-assess their values, strengths and weaknesses during leadership episodes that test and further develop leadership authenticity (freeman & auster, 2011; peus, wesche, streicher, braun & frey, 2012). understanding one’s purpose, identity, values, beliefs and psychological states requires not only continuous self-reflection and introspection but also consultation with and feedback from others (george, 2004). even so, authentic leaders are only human; therefore, they need to display the psychological state of vulnerability in non-defensive recognition of their own weaknesses as well as their strengths (diddams & chang, 2012). this ability, which leroy and sels (2008) called balanced vulnerability, in itself becomes a strength allowing for further development. balanced vulnerability then becomes an internal resource that allows challenging events to trigger heightened self-awareness and self-regulatory behaviours as part of the process of positive self-development (avolio & gardner, 2005; ladkin & taylor, 2010; weischer, weibler & peterson, 2013). positive psychological states (pps), such as (self-) accountability, (self-) belief, (self-) commitment, (self-) honesty, consistency, courage, truthfulness, respect and trust in self and others, contribute to leadership authenticity. it is the reflection of these aspects in leadership behaviour that will allow the restoration of the public’s trust in leadership in the wake of the reported ethical dilemmas (diddams & chang, 2012). having this understanding of what is morally good and holding oneself accountable for staying aligned with this understanding ultimately leads to psychological ownership (luthans & avolio, 2009), which reflects not only in the leader’s behaviour but often also in those of the followers. leaders who usually reflect relational transparency (weischer et al., 2013) and balanced processing (rego, sousa, marques & pina e cunha, 2012) develop relationships of trust and mutual respect with their followers. the positive impact of leadership authenticity on the levels of trust, predictability and overall quality of leader–follower relationships ultimately leads to a positive influence on the development of a culture of authenticity (clapp-smith, vogelgesang & avey, 2009; walumbwa, luthans, avey & oke, 2011). therefore, pps in al has a direct impact on leadership effectiveness, trust and follower–team effectiveness (walumbwa et al., 2011). while al is a logical extension of the authentic self (chan et al., 2005), it can also be regarded as the root construct of positive leadership (avolio & gardner, 2005). therefore, a leader who is authentic can achieve more than one who is not, and the extent to which the leader is authentic as a person directly affects the efficacy of his or her leadership of followers (chan et al., 2005). in summary, authentic leaders are leaders who know who they are and what they believe in; display transparency and consistency between their values, ethical reasoning and actions; focus on developing positive emotional states such as confidence, optimism, hope and resilience within themselves; and are widely known and respected for their integrity (avolio, gardner & walumbwa, 2005, p. xxiii). development of leadership authenticity referring to increasing leadership development levels, eigel and kuhnert (2005) point out that it is important to note that enhancing al needs to start with mastering personal leadership, before being able to lead others and, ultimately, the organisation as the complexity in leading increases at each level. it is not possible to successfully lead others if selfor personal leadership has not yet been mastered (barret, 2010). being able to lead self and others with awareness and authenticity requires a journey of transformation where individuals need to explore the internal identity that drives them and integrate all of life’s experiences into a meaningful context (cashman, 2008; shamir & eilam, 2005). in order to lead with purpose, which could be regarded as one’s highest value (demartini, 2013), understanding of one’s values is required. therefore, this journey of developing leadership is about getting to know the authentic self and how it needs to be expressed. it is about practising values and principles, understanding what inspired individuals and leading with purpose and passion (george & sims, 2007). the following two aspects are important in the development of al: the development of al requires exploring what is happening below the ‘emotional waterline’ or the emotional soil-line. what is meant by this is that behaviour, as noticed by others, therefore visible above the soil-line, is informed by those aspects such as beliefs, values and purpose, which are invisible below the soil-line (wulffers, 2014). new self-awareness does not automatically lead to change. it needs to be supported by new forms of self-regulation (chan et al., 2005). existing ways are often habitual, requiring a partnership with an external facilitator or coach to facilitate the change from limiting to empowering habits. chan et al. (2005, p. 5) proposed that every leader forms part of a bigger system and that they interact with, influence and receive feedback from other members in their system. they illustrated a process model of the emergence of authentic behaviour, starting with self, which proposes six major al sub-processes: (1) a leader’s self-clarity and meta-cognition of the self-system, commonly known as self-awareness; (2) the leader’s alignment of self-awareness and self-regulation, that is, aligning the expression of self to the awareness of who the self is; (3) the sense that others (followers) make of the leader’s observed behaviour, called perceived leadership authenticity; (4) the resulting true effects this has on followers; (5) the self-verification of the leadership processes through the diagnostic feedback in terms of impact on performance of followers and organisations and finally (6) how this leads to the formation and reinforcement of a more authentic organisational culture. this study focuses mostly on the first two al sub-processes (self-awareness and aligning self-regulation with self-awareness). leadership authenticity programmes although chan et al. (2005) did not elaborate on the nature of the required leadership programme, they did indicated that the process ought to start with a leadership programme. reichard and avolio (2005), in their meta-analysis and summary of the effectiveness of various forms of leadership programmes from 1900 to 2004 concluded that the dominant characteristics of the previous leadership programmes included the use of training manipulations. moreover, the shift from traditional leadership theories to a focus on a new genre of leadership required a different type of programme. reichard and avolio (2005) were not able to include any research on al programmes, and they encouraged researchers to bridge the practitioner–researcher divide by conducting a greater number of high-quality field programme studies, adding that it is important to adequately test theoretical propositions. they referred specifically to those propositions offered by cooper, scandura and schriesheim (2005), which will be outlined later on. more recent leadership intervention meta-analytic research by avolio, reichard et al. (2009) still did not include any data on al interventions. recent research by kinsler (2014) and gatling (2014) started to explore the link between coaching or coaches and the development of al, and even so, there seems no evidence of any evaluation of an al programme yet. recommendations for consideration regarding the design of al programmes were made by several researchers. the al programme under study adhered to four working assumptions regarding the requirements of effective al programmes offered by chan (2005), which builds further on the guidelines of cooper et al. (2005). these will be further elaborated on during the discussion on findings. research design this article focuses on the qualitative aspects of a larger mixed-methods programme evaluation study on the effect of an al programme. research approach the researcher considered various philosophical research approaches, such as post-positive, social construction, advocacy or participatory and pragmatic (cresswell, 2009). the selected pragmatist approach can be described as a world-view that arises out of actions, situations and consequences, rather than antecedent conditions. it concerns applications – what works and what does not – and solutions to problems (cresswell, 2009; teddlie & tashakkori, 2004), which is characteristic of programme evaluation. research strategy the researcher’s ontological perspective, in line with postulates outlined by cresswell (2009), is that there is no such thing as absolute truth and that truth is constructed. this ontology translated into an epistemology of a qualitative approach that allowed for mining of deeper subjective meanings during the participant interviews and data triangulation across various sources of qualitative data. data triangulation comprised temporal and spatial variation, which was addressed by gathering data from primary and secondary participants. the researcher’s practitioner reflective journal was an additional data source for data triangulation to validate and enrich interpretations (hammersley, 2008). research method research setting this article focuses on practitioner research. starting in 2007, the al programme under study was developed and refined over the years by the researcher who is an al development practitioner. the practitioner consistently followed an adult experiential learning process as outlined by kolb and kolb (2005), where the al development concrete experiences were followed by reflective observations, which continually yielded new insights that could actively be experimented upon. the study took place at an international beverage organisation. the researcher was first approached by the human resource manager and introduced to the general manager, who had communicated in writing his belief that ‘… an intervention is needed to extract the potential from this team and get them to lead the brewery to the performance that is required’. it was agreed that the programme to be evaluated by the researcher was appropriate in terms of the needs of the leadership team. entree and establishing researcher roles at the outset of the study, a declaration of adherence to ethical research was signed and submitted to the ethics committee of the university of johannesburg. the sponsor of the participating organisation signed the research agreement, and a welcoming letter was sent to all participants. each participant had to sign a participant-informed consent form, outlining the research focus, process, benefits and ethical considerations, such as confidentiality and anonymity, to be upheld during the study. participants and sampling the sample size was not large, which is typical of a leadership team and common in rich qualitative research. the 10-member executive leadership team, comprising a natural group, conveniently and purposefully selected, participated in the programme under study and became the primary participants of the programme. the leadership team comprised a general manager, hr business partner, financial manager, brewmaster, brewing manager, packaging manager, engineering manager, operations manager and a systems manager. the primary participants comprised six males and four females, ranging between the ages of 40 and 60 years. each primary participant selected three secondary participants (their manager, peer and a subordinate), who reported on their experiences of the primary participant before and after the programme. the researcher facilitated the programme and also kept a facilitator’s reflective journal. the reason for augmenting participant data with the researcher’s data was to address some of the obvious threats to the validity of the data collected, such as social desirability responses, selective memories and interpretation bias (babbie & mouton, 2001). data collection methods and instruments once the programme was completed, in-depth qualitative data were gathered from primary participants via semi-structured interviews, to gain a deeper understanding of the effect of the al programme, as experienced by these participants. similar data were simultaneously gathered via questionnaires from secondary participants. the researcher, also the facilitator, kept a reflective journal to record her perceptions and experiences of primary participants throughout the programme. a post-programme semi-structured interview allowed the researcher to extract from each primary participant their narratives, insights and themes of self-reflection of how programme participation had contributed to development of their al. this interview was piloted to test and refine the questions and establish the time required for the interview. the questions relative to this article that were asked after the intervention were: what is your understanding now of leadership authenticity and how does this compare to your previous understanding of leadership? how has this leadership authenticity programme contributed to your development as an authentic leader? how have specific life or work events helped you both to test and further develop yourself as an authentic leader since starting the programme? the three secondary participants were requested to answer the following question: ‘since the start of this study, what, if any, changes have you noticed in this leader?’ a facilitator’s journal was kept for each participant and was updated with the contents of each session and the facilitator’s thoughts and feelings about the content of each session recording of the data data collected via semi-structured interviews were, with prior permission from participants, digitally recorded, and all data were safely stored by the researcher. data analysis using thematic analysis, the researcher followed the six-phase guide offered by braun and clarke (2006, p. 87), supplemented by additional recommendations by various authors on qualitative analysis (bloomberg & volpe, 2012; saldana, 2009). these included familiarisation with data, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing those themes, defining and naming themes and producing a report. atlas.ti®, a computer-aided qualitative data analysis software programme, was used to assist in administrative processes such as making field notes and creating codes and linking those to data segments, theory building and preparing interim and final reports (friese, 2012). as the research was qualitative, the researcher considered the criteria of trustworthiness and credibility during the research. to ensure reliability and validity in the findings, this research followed the guidelines by lincoln and guba (1985), ensuring that her findings were credible, transferable, dependable and confirmable (wulffers, 2014). for instance, she ensured that her findings were trustworthy by allowing data saturation to occur via the semi-structured interview process and by means of triangulating data across various sources. she also conducted member checks with programme participants both on transcribed raw data and interpreted data and kept an audit trail throughout with access to an independent auditor who determined that the study was completed in a dependable manner (wulffers, 2014). reporting style the findings are reported theme by theme. each key finding is supported by at least one direct participant quotation, which includes the participant’s identification (p1–p10). ethical considerations: position as practitioner-researcher practitioner research can be defined as research carried out by practitioners for the purpose of advancing their own practice (mcleod, 1999, p. 8), which was the case for this research. the most important factor to guard against bias in such research was practitioner and researcher reflexivity (cox, 2012; edmonds & candy, 2010), and to such end, the researcher kept a reflective journal of each participant’s development, which yielded further practitioner insights after each session. an informed consent form was signed by all research participants, wherein anonymity was ensured. findings and discussions this research focused on a practitioner’s perspective on developing al by means of an al programme. an outline of the al programme under study is presented, followed by the findings of the effect of the al programme on the development of leadership authenticity. this includes a discussion on leadership episodes that have allowed primary participants to test and further develop their al during their programme participation. outline of authentic leadership programme the conceptual framework of al development, which underpins the programme under study, is followed by an overview of the six individual al sessions. these six sessions adhere to the suggestions provided by eigel and kuhnert (2005) and barret (2010) that enhancing al needs to start with mastering personal leadership, before being able to lead others and, ultimately, the organisation. in designing the programme, certain decisions were made. the rationale for using a coaching style in facilitating al programmes is that coaching is about facilitating change through listening, challenging, supporting, questioning, testing and giving feedback (hall & duval, 2002). it is about understanding how we manage our thinking and behaving for more effective performance in life and work. coaching holds the philosophy that individuals are talented and competent, with many strengths, which aligns with a positive psychology and strengths approach (kauffman, 2006) to developing leadership authenticity (gardner, avolio & walumbwa, 2005). in this programme, a coaching style was particularly fitting as it allowed participants to develop a deeper understanding of what al entailed. it also allowed the participants to develop a deeper self-awareness of their current self-schema, comprising their leadership purpose, vision, legacy, internal identity, values, beliefs about self and others and their psychological states, all invisible below the soil-line, and how these impacted on their behaviour, noticeable to self and others above the soil-line. the programme started with six individual coaching sessions, approximately 2 weeks apart, which focused specifically on the development of al, followed by three team sessions 1 month apart, to enhance inter-relational trust and individual and team al effectiveness. this article focuses on the six individual sessions. individual session 1 allowed increased awareness of participants’ perceptions of inner and outer landscapes and how these perceptions might work for or against them. session 2 allowed them to set the intrapersonal, interpersonal and professional leadership outcomes, with accompanying behavioural evidence of successful achievements of those. assuming that each person is a product of his or her life history, in the third session they explored their life chapters, to obtain a better understanding of various aspects of their self-schemas that culminated into who they currently were. in the fourth session, they used these themes to build a picture of the current self and to determine the strength of the golden thread running across the elements within their self-schema. in session 5, they refined that picture contained in their current self-schema towards a next level of a more congruent possible self, completing the individual journey in session 6 with a review of outcomes achieved thus far. figure 1 illustrates the horizontal and vertical aspects of the al journey that underpinned the six individual sessions. once participants had identified the leadership outcomes they wished to achieve, the programme helped them to create awareness of selves along a continuous horizontal time-line, from their past, through their current, to their future selves. at the same time, they explored along a vertical line aspects below the soil-line that informed their past and current behaviour, which would need to inform their future behaviour and performance. once that awareness had been created (al theme 1), self-regulation could be implemented below the soil-line (al theme 2), leading to a more congruent desired self, which could then be reflected in behavioural outcomes above the soil-line (al theme 3), in line with the model of al emergence put forth by chan et al. (2005). figure 1: vertical and horizontal aspects of authentic leadership programme journey. the evaluated programme adhered to the recommendations by chan (2005), reichard and avolio (2005) and cooper et al. (2005). definitive research done by cooper et al. (2005) suggested four major issues that need to be addressed by any al development intervention, namely (1) ensuring that the programme itself is authentic, (2) determining how trigger events can be replicated during training, (3) deciding whether ethics-based decision making can be taught and (4) determining who should participate in al training. the first two considerations were relevant and adhered to in the study reported in this article. the al programme under study also adhered to four working assumptions regarding the requirements of effective al programmes offered by chan (2005), which builds further on the guidelines for al interventions proposed by cooper et al. (2005): targeted and customised. because of the complexity of the al construct, there can be no default, one-size-fits-all al training system. high-frequency and micro-interventions. one way to model what authentic leaders go through in real life is to simulate these learning episodes in high-frequency micro-interventions, which would shorten the time required to develop leadership authenticity. self-reinforcing interventions (over time). al interventions need to be self-reinforcing, so as to sustain development over time. multilevel, nested interventions. leaders never operate in isolation, and while the context(s) in which the leader operates impacts on the leader, the leader also needs to acknowledge that he or she is able to be an agent of change. the individual sessions typically run over 2–3 months and adhere to all the afore-mentioned criteria. effect of the authentic leadership programme on the development of leadership authenticity the majority of participants indicated that the programme had had a noticeable effect on the development of their leadership authenticity. these effects are elaborated on in the following findings from the qualitative data from the post-programme semi-structured interviews and questionnaires and from the facilitator’s journal. the discussion of the findings is grouped, wherever possible, into the following categories: development of personal, interpersonal and organisational al in the work context, and within those, the following three al themes – al1: awareness of self-schema, al2: commitment to that awareness (self-regulation) and al3: behavioural reflection of that self-regulation. programme effect on personal authentic leadership al1: awareness of self-schema: authentic leading starts with being able to lead oneself, before one can lead others. the findings indicated that the programme led to a noticeable increase of both the participants’ understanding of and development in al. reflections on their self-awareness before the programme: before commencement of the programme, there was limited awareness of the notion of al, illustrated by the following quote: p10: ‘i don’t know if i had an understanding of what leadership authenticity was before.’ in line with findings by kolditz and brazil (2005), participants sensed that most leadership styles did not acknowledge the authentic self, rather prescribing a one-fit-for-all skill set that was transactional in nature pertaining to organisational outcomes only: p 6: ‘… like, you know, your 10-day mba. they’ll put in … some extracts about what good leadership is. … i think it was very prescriptive; it always comes with a formula … it always put up an ideal identity that you need to live up to.’ before the programme, participants experienced mostly a lack of self-awareness or self-knowledge of their own self-schemas. not only did they not realise how they contributed to the problems within their team, they also did not realise their potential: p10: ‘i don’t think i was optimistic or overestimated it was just where i was not knowing what my potential could be in a sense. knowing that there’s probably a lot more growth that i could get out of me … i think i didn’t know what i didn’t know in a sense, i didn’t know what i could still grow at.’ reflection on their self-awareness after the programme: during the programme, they started the process of continuous introspection towards increasing self-awareness: p 8: ‘i think it’s had a huge change on me. it gave me the opportunity to get to know myself a lot better. it gave me the time to actually become comfortable with myself, understand myself, understand the values that i have, being able, i suppose, to some extent articulate that and be comfortable to articulate that ….’ this example is in line with suggestions by akrivou et al. (2011) and peus et al. (2012) about the importance of self-awareness gained through introspection. similar to thoughts by george (2004) regarding underpinnings of authentic behaviour, participants referred specifically to aspects that drive behaviour, such as core beliefs, core values, internal identity and purpose or vision or legacy. this quote illustrates these underpinnings: p 7: ‘i’ve learnt to see the value in what i really want out of life. purpose in terms of, it talks to the vision, so that’s changed a lot for me. identity has changed in terms of me being more authentic and true to myself ….’ the increased self-awareness also pertained to what they believed about self, others and even what leadership really could entail, as the following quotation illustrates. as a result, their self-knowledge about their potential became clearer and resulted in increased self-confidence, requirements for al as postulated by diddams and chang (2012): p 4: ‘so what it’s done is, it’s giving me a lot more scope to understand the people not just myself. so understanding yourself, part of that learning to understand yourself better, is to understand everybody else better … work is around relationships. at the end of the day everybody works and lives in a world where relationships are important.’ a programme such as this can never be evaluated in isolation. aligned with cooper et al. (2005) and freeman and auster (2011), it needs to be cognisant of and use trigger events to test and further develop leadership authenticity. participants were able to identify specific work episodes that had tested and further developed their awareness of self and others towards increased leadership authenticity, leading to more trusting relationships, for example: p 9: ‘i think through the programme what i learnt is that he would rather listen to stuff through his ear than actually read them in an email or a message whatever. so that’s one thing. i try to keep him a little bit more informed verbally, even if it’s just try touch by his office or whatever.’ these key findings illustrate that the programme had a noticeable effect on increased understanding of al and increased self-awareness of the self-schema. al2: commitment to self-schema (self-regulation): participants’ reflections on their commitment to their self-schema (self-regulation) before the programme: participants understood that before the programme they were simply deluding themselves and that they were lacking in positive psychological states, as the following illustrates: p 1: ‘not dealing with it and thinking you’re okay. so if i ignore this thing, i’ll just live with it. i’ll just file it at the back of my mind but oh, i’m okay. i think i was fooling myself … i think it’s about not wanting to deal with it … so it’s about – again, we spoke about it earlier – the self-belief, the gut feel, the giving more to other people than to myself, not wanting to face conflict …’ reflection on their commitment to their self-schema (self-regulation) after the programme: in terms of commitment to being true to one’s self and one’s core values, once an awareness of the drivers of the participant’s behaviour was in place, self-regulation could follow. as illustrated in table 1, increased awareness lead to increased internal management of positive psychological states such as accountability (psychological ownership), appropriate vulnerability, commitment, consistency, self-belief, self-confidence, self-discipline, self-honesty, truthfulness and trust. table 1: examples of development of positive psychological states. accountability (self-ownership), commitment, consistency, self-belief, self-confidence, self-discipline, self-honesty, truthfulness and trust are all requirements of al as highlighted by avolio and gardner (2005) and walumbwa et al. (2008). regarding appropriate vulnerability, also referred to by leroy and sels (2008) as balanced vulnerability, the programme helped participants to develop appropriate strength-based vulnerability so that they could accept and grow from feedback from others, which further led to the development of intrapersonal and interpersonal trust, which supports the postulates by diddams and chang (2012). increased self-belief, self-confidence, self-discipline, self-honesty and being true to self, in line with postulates by avolio et al. (2005) and walumbwa et al. (2008) resulted in participants who previously wished to leave the organisation to develop more hope in their current situation. these findings illustrate that the programme had a noticeable effect on increased commitment towards a more authentic self-schema within primary participants. al3: behavioural reflection of self-regulation in participants’ behaviour:reflecting self-regulation in behaviour before the programme: the lack of self-regulation in participants before the programme manifested in, among others, not dealing with issues, and at times, taking inappropriate responsibility for others, as illustrated from the researcher as facilitator’s reflective journal: facilitator’s reflection: ‘i asked p9 how happy he was at work at the moment, and he admitted that he was frustrated and unhappy … he also was starting to ask how he was adding to the problem, and what he needed to do to be part of the solution … this was creating a tension in him at the moment …’ reflecting self-regulation in behaviour after the programme: secondary participants noticed that primary participants were more willing to do continuous introspection, resulting in increased psychological state management, reflected in their behaviour. in particular, they noticed increased consistency, relational transparency, confidence and balanced processing, illustrated by the examples in table 2. rego et al. (2012) and weischer et al. (2013) suggest that qualities such as consistency, relational transparency, confidence and balanced processing are al qualities that further lead to developing relationships of trust and mutual respect with their followers. table 2: examples of positive psychological states as noted by secondary participants. participants gave examples of leadership episodes where they had been tested in terms of changes in their behaviour, such as the positive impact of being able to conduct crucial conversations and relationship building that led to better team delivery. they were also better able to hold team members accountable for delivery, and even on occasion, hold their seniors accountable for their behaviour, as illustrated in table 3. table 3: examples of leadership episodes that tested or further developed authentic leadership. authors on al, such as chan et al. (2005) and peterson, walumbwa, avolio and hannah (2012), often refer to the impact of al on followers without necessarily limiting those to sub-ordinates. these findings indicate that authentic leaders could even, at times, lead those senior to them, illustrating that they lead by presence rather than position. these key findings illustrate that the programme had a noticeable effect on increased reflection of self-regulation in the behaviour of participants. furthermore, there was an indication of an increase in all three al sub-processes, as outlined by chan et al. (2005), resulting in a noticeable increase in personal al. programme effect on interpersonal authentic leadership the findings indicated the programme had a noticeable effect on both the understanding and development of interpersonal al. whereas all three al themes were required in developing personal al, only the third was required in developing interpersonal al. al3: reflection of self-regulation in participants’ behaviour:reflection of self-regulation in participants’ behaviour before the programme: in terms of the participants’ original perspectives on interpersonal al, participants had previously been introduced to the notion of engaging leadership. however, there was a sense that, even if leaders are encouraged to engage with others, they were not necessarily authentically doing so; rather than showing their true selves, they would create an impression that they were truly engaging with others, as the following quotation illustrates. avolio and gardner (2005), chan et al. (2005), franzese (2007) and walumbwa et al. (2008) call this impression management, which does not constitute al: p 7: ‘but general leadership, i was always believed that it was something where you had to put on a facade and behave a certain way and not show your true self.’ reflection of self-regulation in participants’ behaviour after the programme: during the programme, one participant realised that appropriate vulnerability, also called balanced vulnerability, allowed him to be open to others: p 5: ‘taking people into your confidence, i suppose that’s part of openness really. (interviewer) appropriate vulnerability? i’m just checking. p 5: yes, you are exactly right.’ participants realised the importance of consistently holding others accountable, as others would then know what the leader expected of them and the importance of meaningful and empowering communication: p 1 on holding others accountable: ‘they’ve got to know that is exactly what p1 wants, that i know he’s going to react that way, i know he’s going to hold me accountable and that’s that.’ p 6 on meaningful and empowering communication:’… true to me – know what’s true to me as a person, know what drives me, understand how i see the world, understand how i see other people. i think once i understood that it became easier to interact with others around me in a much more real and meaningful way. so for me it’s really about understanding myself within the context of the world to be able to live up to the best vision of who i want to be.’ they referred to understanding and adhering to increased positive psychological states of interpersonal respect and interpersonal trust and realised the importance of truly knowing themselves. this reflected in their behaviour as it allowed them to engage in meaningful and empowering communication with others, which concurs with findings by archer (2009), as illustrated in table 4. table 4: examples of positive psychological states. however one participant was less optimistic and referred to the fact that he himself remained part of the problem, indicating that each participant was not yet at the same leadership development level, in line with findings by eigel and kuhnert (2005): p 5: ‘no, that was the big thing for me. i think downwards i’ve been strong in the past and i think my style is reasonably consistent with the model. upwards i’ve been particularly weak. i haven’t managed to fix that.’ in line with claims by rego et al. (2012), secondary participants noticed significant changes in terms of increased balanced processing. for instance, one participant had become more open and engaging and no longer strictly results-driven and only interested in the bottom line. she had also toned down her directive leadership style. there had also been a move towards more balanced processing in the leader of the team; instead of autocratic style of leadership, he became more willing to listen, as the following illustrate: p 7: (peer) ‘i think the feedback that she had has made her tone down her over direct way of approaching people.’ p 8: (subordinate) ‘p8 has changed considerably – he no longer dictates what needs to be done instead he listens to opinions and lets the team formulate a way forward.’ these findings illustrate that the programme had a noticeable effect on increased reflection of interpersonal self-regulation in the behaviour of participants, as noticed both by primary and secondary participants. this is in line with the third al sub-process outlined by chan et al. (2005), resulting in a noticeable increase in interpersonal al within the participants. programme effect on organisational authentic leadership in terms of their original perspectives on the notion of organisational leadership, participants considered this to be restricted mainly to positional leadership and being task-focused and driving results, illustrated as follows: p 5 on positional leadership: ‘before i just worked on downward leadership, i didn’t really think of working on upward or peer leadership.’ p 8 on being mainly task-focused: ‘it was about the hard numbers and i suppose it still is about the hard numbers. i suppose in retrospect, if i’d changed my approach i might’ve been able to turn it quicker by not just focussing on the task or maybe give a little bit more of a balanced approach to it.’ concurring with postulates by avolio et al. (2005), during the programme participants realised that leadership authenticity forms the root construct of positive leadership: p 7: ‘it would make it [engaging leadership] more effective if the person was true to themselves in their day-to-day activities. being true to yourself and actually being genuine … because you can see through people that are putting on a façade because their behaviours change daily; whereas somebody that’s genuine and no matter what day or what time you approach them, you almost know what their response is going to be …’ similar to suggestions by george and sims (2007), it is a type of leadership that went beyond position and a balanced situational leadership that allowed one to be true to oneself both in and beyond the organisational environment. this, in turn, allowed the leader to create a culture worth following, which was conducive to the achievement of results, as postulated by chan et al. (2005) and walumbwa et al. (2011), as the following response indicates: p 3: ‘it’s how true you are to both yourself and to the environment or the people that you’re working with … so it does talk to both your internal values and i think we relate – the company has got values and they publish these values. i wouldn’t be able to work in a company where i couldn’t subscribe to those values and i think that’s part of it … that’s what it is. it’s being true to that.’ secondary participants noticed how developing leadership authenticity in primary participants had enhanced effectiveness and commitment within the team, in line with findings by clapp-smith et al. (2009). primary participants had also developed a more empowering style of leadership, which also confirms findings by walumbwa et al. (2011): p 7: (subordinate) ‘she has become more open and engaging and not strictly results-driven and only interested in the bottom-line.’ these findings illustrate that the programme had a noticeable effect on increased understanding of al and an increased reflection self-regulation in the behaviour of participants, as noticed by the primary and their secondary participants. this is in line with the third al sub-process outlined by chan et al. (2005), resulting in a noticeable increase in organisational al within the participants. conclusion, limitations and implications for practice findings indicated that the programme had a proximal impact on the enhancement of personal, interpersonal and professional al leadership. figure 2 illustrates, at a meta-level, the programme effect on al development. figure 2: programme impact on development of authentic leadership. from the personal perspective, it became clear that the enhancement of personal al required all three al sub-processes, namely (1) developing more self-awareness regarding the elements of purpose, identity, values and beliefs within the self-schema, (2) self-regulation to better align these elements and (3) reflecting this self-regulation in behaviour. from an interpersonal perspective, once personal al had been developed, interpersonal al required mainly the third al sub-process, which was to reflect, through self-regulation, a true self in behaviour that followers could notice. relational transparency and consistency in behaviour became noticeable and participants became much more relational orientated. from an organisational leadership perspective, participants realised after the programme that al forms the root construct of positive leadership. it is a leadership by presence that goes beyond position and allows one to be true to self, while also being true to one’s organisational environment. this further allows one to create a culture that others wish to be part of and in which results can be achieved. potential limitations and recommendations for further research the main limitations of this study were that there was only one leadership team that comprised the programme participant sample; therefore, the findings of this study cannot be generalised. although the individual sessions in this empirical study ran over 3 months and data were collected after the programme, indicating that changes had been made towards increased al, the question remained whether these changes could be sustained. this study opens a new area of possibilities for further research, as follows: with additional leadership teams as programme participants. the impact of enhancement of al on organisational outcomes. further longitudinal research on the sustainability of al growth gained from participating in an al programme. main contribution for some in leadership positions, it can take years, even a life time, to discover the true self at a deep and meaningful level. it can take even longer to master the regulation of the various processes below the soil-line that allows the leader to sustain authenticity; not only within but also in the leadership role and purpose to which he or she needs to be true. whereas most research on leadership authenticity focuses on what it entails, how it impacts and considerations in the development of such leadership, the uniqueness of this research is that it focused from an empirical perspective on the proximal programme effect on development of al. it determined that the al programme adhered to guidelines for such programmes and had a noticeable proximal effect on enhancing leadership authenticity within a period of 3 months. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions t.w. was responsible for experimental and project design and performed the research and wrote the article. m.b. and m.h. made conceptual contributions and supervised the research. references akrivou, k., bourantas, d., mo, s., & papalois, e. (2011). the sound of silence – a space for morality? the role of solitude for ethical decision making. journal of business ethics, 102, 119–133. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0803-3 archer, m.a. (2009). authentic teaming: undiscussables, leadership and the role of the consultant. organization development journal, 27(4), 83–92. avolio, b.j. (2010). pursuing authentic leadership development. in n. nohria & r. khurana (eds.), handbook of leadership theory and practice (pp. 721–750). boston, ma: harvard business press books. avolio, b.j., & gardner, w.l. (2005). authentic leadership development: getting to the root of positive forms of leadership. the leadership quarterly, 16(3), 315–337. avolio, b.j., gardner, w.l., & walumbwa, f.o. (2005). preface. in w.l. gardner, b.j. avolio, & f.o. walumbwa (eds.), monographs in leadership and management volume 3: authentic leadership theory and practice: origins, effects and development (pp. xxi–xxix). amsterdam: elsevier. avolio, b.j., gardner, w.l., walumbwa, f.o., luthans, f., & may, d.r. (2004). unlocking the mask: a look at the process by which authentic leaders impact follower attitudes and behaviors. the leadership quarterly, 15(15), 801–823. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2004.09.003 avolio, b.j., reichard, r.j., hannah, s.t., walumba, f.o., & chan, a. (2009). a meta-analytic review of leadership impact research: experimental and quasi-experimental studies. the leadership quarterly, 20, 764–784. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lsu.2009.06.006 avolio, b.j., walumbwa, f.o., & weber, t.j. (2009). leadership: current theories, research and future directions. annual review of psychology, 60, 421–449. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163621 babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2001). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford university press southern africa (pty) ltd. barret, r. (2010). the new leadership paradigm. richard barret. bloomberg, l.d., & volpe, m. (2012). completing your qualitative dissertation: a roadmap from beginning to end. california, md: sage publications. braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 2006(3), 77–101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa cashman, k. (2008). leadership from the inside out. becoming a leader for life. san francisco, ca: berret-koehler publishers, inc. chan, a. (2005). authentic leadership measurement and development: challenges and suggestions. in w.l. gardner, b.j. avolio, & f.o. walumbwa (eds.), monographs in leadership and management volume 3: authentic leadership theory and practice: origins, effects and development (pp. 227–250). amsterdam: elsevier. chan, a., hannah, s.t., & gardner, w.l. (2005). veritable authentic leadership: emergence, functioning and impacts. in w.l. gardner, b.j. avolio, & f.o. walumbwa (eds.), monographs in leadership and management volume 3: authentic leadership theory and practice: origins, effects and development (pp. 3–41). amsterdam: elsevier. clapp-smith, r., vogelgesang, g. r., & avey, j. b. (2009). authentic leadership and positive psychological capital: the mediating role of trust at the group level of analysis. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 15(3), 227–240. cooper, c., scandura, t., & schriesheim, c. (2005). looking forward but learning from our past: potential challenges to developing authentic leadership theory and authentic leaders. the leadership quarterly, 16(3), 475–494. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.008 cox, r. (2012). teaching qualitative research to practitioner-researchers. theory into practice, 51, 129–136. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2012.662868 cresswell, j.w. (2009). research design: quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods approaches. california, md: sage publications. cummings, e.e. (1958). a poet’s advice. retrieved august 08, 2012, from http://www.thepositivemind.com/poetry/apoet%27sadvicepoem.html demartini, j. (2013). the values factor. new york: penguin group. diddams, m., & chang, g.c. (2012). only human. exploring the nature of weakness in authentic leadership. the leadership quarterly, 23, 593–603. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.12.010 edmonds, e., & candy, l. (2010). relating theory, practice and evaluation in practitioner research. leonardo, 43(5), 470–476. eigel, k.m., & kuhnert, k.w. (2005). authentic development: leadership development level and executive effectiveness. in w.l. gardner, b.j. avolio, & f.o. walumbwa (eds.), monographs in leadership and management volume 3: authentic leadership theory and practice: origins, effects and development, (pp. 357–386). amsterdam: elsevier. franzese, a.t. (2007). to thine own self be true? an exploration in authenticity. doctorate of philosophy in the department of sociology, graduate school of duke university, new york. freeman, r., & auster, e.r. (2011). values, authenticity, and responsible leadership. journal of business ethics, 98, 15–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1022-7 friese, s. (2012). qualitative data analysis with atlas.ti. london: sage publications, ltd. fry, l.w., & whittington, j.l. (2005). in search of authenticity: spiritual leadership theory as a source for future theory, research, and practice on authentic leadership. in w.l. gardner, b.j. avolio, & f.o. walumbwa (eds.), monographs in leadership and management volume 3: authentic leadership theory and practice: origins, effects and development (pp. 183–202). amsterdam: elsevier. gardner, w.l., avolio, b.j., luthans, f., may, d.r., & walumbwa, f.o. (2005). ‘can you see the real me?’ a self-based model of authentic leader and follower development. the leadership quarterly, 16(16), 343–372. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.03.003 gardner, w.l., avolio, b.j., & walumbwa, f.o. (2005). authentic leadership development: emergent themes and future directions. in w.l. gardner, b.j. avolio, & f.o. walumbwa (eds.), monographs in leadership and management volume 3: authentic leadership theory and practice: origins, effects and development (pp. 357–386). amsterdam: elsevier. gatling, a. (2014). the authentic leadership qualities of business coaches and its impact on coaching performance. international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring, 12(1), 27–46. george, b. (2003). authentic leadership: rediscover the secrets to creating lasting value. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. george, b. (2004). the journey to authenticity. retrieved september 09, 2014, from http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/pages/item.aspx?num=16233 george, b., & sims, p. (2007). true north: discover your authentic leadership. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. george, b., sims, p., mclean, a.n., & mayer, d. (2007). discovering your authentic leadership. harvard business review, 85, 129–130, 132–138, 157. hall, l.m., & duval, m. (2002). meta-coach training system and certification. clifton, va: neuro-semantic publications. hammersley, m. (2008). troubles with triangulation. in m.m. bergman (ed.), advances in mixed methods research (pp. 1–8). london: sage publications ltd. karpoff, j. (2010). the decade’s worst financial scandals. retrieved n.d., from http://foster.uw.edu/research-brief/the-decades-worst-financial-scandals/ kauffman, c. (2006). positive psychology: the science at the heart of coaching. in d.r. stober & a.m. grant (eds.), evidence based coaching handbook (pp. 219–254). hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons, inc. kinsler, l. (2014). born to be me … whom am i again? the development of authentic leadership using evidence-based leadership coaching and mindfulness. international coaching psychology review, 9(1), 92–105. kolb, a.y., & kolb, d.a. (2005). the kolb learning style inventory – version 3.1 2005 technical specifications. cleveland, oh: cape western reserve university. kolditz, t.a., & brazil, d.m. (2005). authentic leadership in extremis settings: a concept for extraordinary leaders in exceptional situations. in w.l. gardner, b.j. avolio, & f.o. walumbwa (eds.), monographs in leadership and management volume 3: authentic leadership theory and practice: origins, effects and development (pp. 345–356). amsterdam: elsevier. ladkin, d., & taylor, s.s. (2010). enacting the ‘true self’: towards a theory of embodied authentic leadership. leadership quarterly, 21(1), 64–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.10.005 leroy, h., & sels, l. (2008). authentic functioning: being true to the self in the organisation. retrieved august 20, 2013, from https://lirias.kuleuven.be/handle/123456789/198466 lincoln, y.s., & guba, e.g. (1985). naturalistic inquiry. newbury park, ca: sage publications. luthans, f., & avolio, b.j. (2009). the ’point’ of positive organizational behavior. journal of organizational behaviour, 30, 291–307. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.589 mcleod, j. (1999). practitioner research in counselling. london: sage publications. meyer, t. (2007). the nature of leadership: perspectives. in t. meyer & i. boninelli (eds.), conversations in leadership: south african perspectives (pp. 3–17). randburg, south africa: knowledge resources. metcalf, l., & benn, s. (2013). leadership for sustainability: an evolution of leadership ability. journal of business ethics, 112, 369–384. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1278-6 peterson, s.j., walumbwa, f.o., avolio, b.j., & hannah, s.t. (2012). the relationship between authentic leadership and follower job performance: the mediating role of follower positivity in extreme contexts. the leadership quarterly, 23, 502–516. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.12.004 peus, c., wesche, j.s., streicher, b., braun, s., & frey, d. (2012). authentic leadership: an empirical test of its antecedents, consequences, and mediating mechanisms. journal of business ethics, 107, 331–348. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1042-3 rego, a., sousa, f., marques, c., & pina e cunha, m. (2012). hope and positive affect mediating the authentic leadership and creativity relationship. journal of business research, 67, 1–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2012.10.003 reichard, r.j., & avolio, b.j. (2005). where are we? the status of leadership intervention research: a meta-analytic summary. in w.l. gardner, b.j. avolio, & f.o. walumbwa (eds.), monographs in leadership and management volume 3: authentic leadership theory and practice: origins, effects and development, (pp. 203–226). amsterdam: elsevier. saldana, j. (2009). the coding manual for qualitative researchers. los angeles, ca: sage. shamir, b., & eilam, g. (2005). ‘what’s your story?’ a life stories approach to authentic leadership development. the leadership quarterly, 16(3), 395–417. teddlie, c., & tashakkori, a. (2004). overview of contemporary issues in mixed method research. in a. tashakkori & c. teddlie (eds.), mixed methods in social & behavioral research. (2nd edn.). los angeles, ca: sage. walumbwa, f.o., avolio, b.j., gardner, w.l., & peterson, s.j. (2008). authentic leadership: development and validation of a theory-based measure. journal of management, 34(1), 89–126. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206307308913 walumbwa, f.o., luthans, f., avey, j.b., & oke, a. (2011). authentically leading groups: the mediating role of collective psychological capital and trust. journal of organisational behaviour, 32, 4–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job weischer, a.e., weibler, j., & peterson, m. (2013). ‘to thine own self be true’:the effects of enactment and life storytelling on perceived leader authenticity. the leadership quarterly, 24, 477–495. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.03.003 wulffers, m.c.c. (2014). evaluating a leadership authenticity programme. phd thesis. university of johannesburg, johannesburg. 1naidu.qxd leadership is one of the main drivers of organisational success for the t went y first cent ury and beyond. the external environment in which organisations operate is changing unpredictably, so much so, that transformation or change management has become a necessity and has moved from being mere buzzwords to becoming the accepted norm. (kouzes & posner, 2002 and macnamara, 2004). rampant change has become the benchmark for most organisations and as it is the leadership of most organisations who drive the change, it is they who are constantly challenged. the business world is becoming much more competitive and volatile. businesses are being faced with technological change, markets that have been de-regulated, intensive competition from local and international companies and more demanding customers. in addition to these factors south african organisations have been faced with identif ying coping strategies for a culturally diverse workforce and an increase in demand for skilled personnel. the net result is that doing what was done yesterday, or doing it a little better, is no longer a guarantee of success. instead major changes in business practices, methodologies and leadership competence are necessary to survive and compete effectively in this new environment. kotter (1998) advises that more change always demands more leadership. hence, the importance of leadership in implementing change or transformation interventions. most organisations, however, do not pay enough attention to leadership and leadership st yles when they implement transformation interventions. it has been predicted widely in the business community that the only organisations that will thrive in the contemporary competitive environment will be the ones that can focus the synerg y of their workforce. put differently, successful organisations need to have leaders implementing the right leadership approach with the right people at the right times (beck & yeager, 2001; berr, church & waclawski, 2000). but what exactly is the ‘right’ leadership style and when are the right times to use it? is there any relationship between particular leadership styles and influencing a workforce to accept and implement transformation? can a leader motivate or influence employees who are resistant to change to accept and become part of a shared vision merely by using a particular leadership style? these are some of the questions this research article seeks to provide answers for. the problem identification and statement: there is an urgent need for transformation in our country, which in turn requires strong leadership to make this transformation happen. leaders are the initiators, implementers and evaluators of organisational change and therefore leadership roles take on a central position amidst organisational change. leaders set the pace and subordinates should follow. it is essential for organisations to transform in order to survive and progress in the modern world. therefore they need leaders who can initiate and implement the necessary transformation interventions. but leaders do not operate in a vacuum. they have followers whom they have to take with them in moving towards the required goal. yet it is fact that leaders have different leadership styles and that some leadership styles may be more effective than others in specific circumstances. if this is true, it may pose a problem to organisations, for ineffective leaders may not bring about the desired organisational transformation. this in turn, could lead to huge monetary losses or even the demise of the organisation over time. this research will answer the question "does the way in which subordinates perceive their management’s leadership style influence the successful implementation of transformation interventions?" the research therefore aimed to test the null hypothesis that there is no relationship between leadership style and the implementation of transformation interventions. the organisation in which this research was based, is classified as a mining company according to the mining sector. this organisation, like all other mining organisations, is governed by the mining charter. this charter is a proactive strategy of change to foster and encourage black economic empowerment and the advancement of historically disadvantaged south africans in the form of both, skills development and specific employment j naidu m s van der walt department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract the objective of this research was to determine whether a relationship exists between the way in which subordinates experience their managers’ leadership styles and the influence of such leadership styles on the implementation of transformation interventions. a two-phase triangulated research design was employed where the qualitative phase preceded the quantitative phase. ninety six (n = 96) respondents from a mining company participated in the survey. results indicate a statistical and meaningful correlation between integrated leadership styles and transformation interventions but no correlation between directive leadership and implementation of transformation interventions. opsomming die doel van hierdie studie was om te bepaal of daar ’n verband bestaan tussen ondergeskiktes se ervaring van hulle bestuurder se leierskapstyl en die invloed daarvan op die implementering van transformasie-intervensies. ’n tweefasige intermetodiese kruisvalidasie-ontwerp is gebruik waar die kwalitatiewe fase die kwantitatiewe fase voorafgegaan het. ses-en-negentig (n = 96) respondente van ’n mynmaatskappy het aan die opname deelgeneem. resultate dui daarop dat daar ’n statistiese en ook praktiese betekenisvolle korrelasie bestaan tussen die geïntegreerde leierskapstyle en die transformasie-intervensies. daar is egter geen korrelasie tussen directive leierskap en die implementering van transformasie-intervensies nie. an exploration of the relationship between leadership styles and the implementation of transformation interventions requests for copies should be addressed to: j. naidu, pamnaidu@absamail.co.za 1 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (2), 1-10 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (2), 1-10 equity targets. in addition to this, the charter also prescribes transformation at the tiers of ownership, procurement and rural development. some of the penalties for non-compliance include loss of mining licences and huge fines. thus, transformation must be seen as a priority and leaders in the mining industry must exhibit leadership styles that will effectively drive transformation interventions. however, the need for transformation is not only a priority in the mining industry. it is indeed a priority for any south african organisation that wants to compete globally. the impact of the mining charter is that organisations need to implement specific transformation interventions, which need to be driven by leaders. leaders have different leadership styles. their different leadership styles may cause them to influence transformation differently. some leaders can therefore be seen as more effective, some as less effective. less effective leadership styles can be costly to the organisation in terms of money and time. the aim was therefore to assess the link, if any, between a manager’s style of leadership and the implementation of transformation interventions in the mining industry. leadership and leadership styles the terms “management” and “leadership” have many definitions but for the purposes of this research the term “leadership” will encompass and refer to management, for managers lead change and drive transformation in organisations. research supports this view. kotter (1998) states that leadership and management are “complementary systems of action” and that while management is about coping with complexity, leadership is about coping with change. according to williams, woodward and dobson (2002) all managers are leaders for they help others to identif y and achieve goals. this, to them, is a critical leadership function. a literature review reveals that there is no single and clearly agreed upon definition of leadership. kanji and moura (2001, p. 709) stated there are “almost as many different definitions of leadership as there are researchers who have attempted to define the concept.” other views on leadership include the following: � kouzes and posner (2002) see leadership as a process ordinary people use when they are bringing forth the best from themselves and others. leaders, they feel, are credible, inspire a shared vision, enable others to act, model the way and recognise their employees’ contributions. � paul taffinder, (cited in burton, 2002, p. 22) regards leadership as “getting people to do more than they think is possible or than they want to do.” � “leaders empower others to make decisions” (havenga, 2002, p. 5 quoting tom peters, world-renowned management guru). this study does not intend to resolve the definitional controversy of leadership by providing a single best definition. instead it approaches leadership as the ability to influence people to participate in transformation interventions and align their individual goals with those of the organisation. literat ure on leadership identifies transactional and transformational leadership as the two most dominant styles of leadership. this study focused on a broader view of leadership styles and incorporated the four-factor leadership model of manz and sims which included the “directive” or “strong man”, “transactional”, “visionary hero” or “transformational” and “superleader” or “empowering” leadership styles (bass & avolio, 1997; manz & sims, 1991). “directive” or “strong man” type of leadership style represents a highly directive, occasionally punitive and dictatorial individual. he relies on his formal position to exert power and makes unilateral key decisions in his organisation. his subordinates have to comply (manz & sims, 1991). it is this type of leader who sizes up the situation and delivers commands to his workers based on what he regards as his superior strength and skill. if his commands are not followed he will deliver some significant form of punishment to the guilty party. the “strong man” or “directive” leadership style is based on intimidation, contingent reprimand, assigned goals and fear-based compliance (manz and sims, 1991, p. 19; pearce & sims, 2002). “transactional” leaders are often seen as traditional leaders who reward their followers for task completion and compliance. followers are made aware of what their leader regards as acceptable standards of performance and the rewards they will receive should they achieve these acceptable standards of performance (hartog & van muijen, 1997). this type of leadership is based on a rational exchange approach (exchange of rewards for work performed). the focus is on goals and rewards. in this type of leadership style the leader’s power stems from his ability to provide rewards. typical leader behaviours include interactive goal setting, contingent material reward, contingent personal reward and personal recognition (manz & sims, 1991). bass and avolio (1997) conclude that the following focus areas are key to transactional leaders: rewards and incentives to motivate followers, close monitoring of followers to identif y mistakes made by followers and taking corrective action where necessary. “transformational” leaders, unlike transactional leaders, are said to inspire their followers to such an extent that they work towards the good of the company (bass & avolio, 1997; godardt & lenhardt, 2000; thorn, 2003). the following dimensions are common to transformat ional leaders: charismatic leadership (or idealised influence), inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, idealised behaviours and idealised attributes (pearce & sims, 2002, p. 175). the leader articulates a compelling optimistic vision of the future. he takes a stand on controversial issues and is confident that goals will be achieved. in this way he inspires his followers. the leader provides intellectual stimulation for his followers by encouraging them to see solutions to problems from different perspectives and to be creative when completing tasks. the leader places emphasis on values, beliefs, morals and trust in working towards a common mission (bass & avolio, 1997). idealised attributes refer to leaders who are emulated by their followers for they display power, confidence and make sacrifices for the benefit of others (bass & avolio, 1997; godard & lenhardt, 2000). typical leader behaviours include communication of the leader’s vision, emphasis on leader’s values, stimulation, challenge to the status quo and inspirational persuasion (manz & sims, 1991). manz and sims (2001) referred to the “empowering leader” or “superleadership” as representing a paradigm shift. this is the kind of leader who leads others to lead themselves. the empowering leader creates followers who are effective selfleaders. their followers are empowered to such an extent that they eventually are capable of leading themselves and do not need the leader any longer. typical leader behaviours include becoming and modelling self-leadership, creating positive thought patterns and developing self-leadership through reward and constructive reprimand (salam, cox & sims, 1997). the “superleader’s” strength is said to be measured by his ability “to maximise the contributions of others through recognition of their right to guide their own destiny,” rather than his ability “to bend the will of others to his or her own” (manz & sims, 1991, p.18). typical leader behaviours include independent action, self-reward, self-leadership, participative goal-setting and encouraging teamwork (pearce & sims, 2002). naidu, van der walt2 in assessing the relationship between leadership styles and transformation interventions it is important to understand what exactly is meant by transformation interventions. transformation inter ventions we now take a look at scholars’ views on transformation interventions and how they need to be recognized. heifetz and laurie (2002) see transformation as “adaptive challenges” that force leadership to clarif y their values, develop new strategies and mobilize their workforce to do work that is different to what they were used to. transformation is seen by applebaum and wohl (2000) as a total metamorphosis, as something totally different from change. transformation is creating something new, not improving on something that already exists, they say. transformation interventions for purposes of this research study would, however be seen as interventions used to bring about change and mobilize the workforce to do things differently. transformation will not be seen as a total metamorphosis. linkage inc. researched eight major manufacturing and pharmaceutical firms and found that the top five transformation interventions with a link to leadership are: action learning, 360 degree feedback, exposure to senior executives, exposure to strategic agenda and external coaching (giber, carter & goldsmith, 2000). for the purposes of this proposed study six transformation interventions were selected. they are the strategies presently being utilised in the organisation under study, and include: communication, empowerment, diversit y management, training and development, performance management and change management. why the selection of these strategies and not any others? communication is vital for an individual to do his job properly. individuals who understand the why, what, when and how of changes to be made will feel more confident in predicting the consequences of change according to williams et al. (2002). empowering individuals to make decisions is an important aspect of including individuals in the change process. mosia (2003, p.39) defines empowerment as the process of passing authority and responsibility to individuals at lower levels of the organisation. he adds further that leaders must empower their subordinates so as to create an environment of trust and motivation. performance management, a developmental tool, is helpful in setting achievable targets and measuring whether targets have been met or not. similarly if change management is a planned process it can be an effective transformation strategy. a job for life is no longer a realistic expectation. what was a job for life is now a life full of jobs (peters, 2004, p.7). individuals now have to think in terms of continuing education and this is where training and development becomes an important transformation strategy for organisations. diversity management is another important transformation strategy as the south african workforce is made up of a culturally diverse workforce. items measuring these strategies were developed in conjunction with the responses received from the management team when interviewed. these were then incorporated into a structured questionnaire. an extensive pool of knowledge exists on leadership styles and transformation interventions as separate phenomena. however knowledge on how different leadership styles impact on the implementation of transformation interventions is limited. although both the variables have been researched in separate studies, a mixed methodological approach incorporating both variables has not been undertaken. here follows a discussion of what is already known regarding the issues of leadership style and the implementation of transformation interventions: thorn (2003) undertook a qualitative study and identified emerging findings on the current and future qualities and attributes of leaders of international organisations. thorn’s findings supported the principles and characteristics associated with transformational leadership. her research indicated that leaders of international organisations need to adopt a transformational leadership style to effectively implement change. this research, although relevant to the topic of this research was done by interviewing twelve leaders from four international financial and development institutions. it was not done in a south african setting or in an organisation that falls within the mining sector. quantitative research aimed at identifying effective leadership for teamwork cross-nationally was done by leslie and van velsor in 1998. their research indicate that work teams can be unified through friendliness and clear task orientation. this research explored eastern european and us perceptions of effective leadership. the study results indicate that unique value patterns are perceived in effective leaders. once again, although this study is relevant to the topic, it was not based in a south african context. research already done in a south african setting regarding leadership and transformation indicates a void in scientific knowledge on how leadership st yles could facilitate the implementing of transformation interventions in south africa and it is to this gap that this study wants to add new knowledge. smit and carstens (2003) focused their research on the influence leadership role congruence has on organisational change within three south african organisations in the manufacturing industry. four leadership change roles (initiator, shaper, monitor and assessor) were identified and a set of competencies was developed for each leadership role. the research findings included, amongst others, that there was role congruence for the initiator and assessor roles as they influenced change outcome positively and that there was a lack of congruence for the shaper and monitor roles as they had a negative influence on change outcome. the study was done quantitatively and in a manufacturing industry, not a mining industry. the importance of leadership roles in the strategic management process was researched by mosia (2003). he identified leadership as being of the “utmost importance in facilitating the establishment and sustainability of key strategic management processes”. however, the study did not focus on specific leadership styles. transformation can be classified as a key strategic management process since it is not negotiable. it is this void in linking leadership styles to effective transformation, that this study wishes to address. mester, visser, roodt and kellerman (2003) researched relationships between leadership style and organisational commitment, job satisfaction, job involvement and organisational citizenship behaviour. they tested whether these relationships were stronger for transformational than for transactional leaders in a world class engineering company in south africa. their findings were that transformational and transactional leadership did not correlate significantly with the constructs of job involvement and job satisfaction. there was a significant correlation bet ween transformational leadership and organisational citizenship behaviour. there was a positive correlation of both transformational and transactional leadership and affective commitment. the focus in this st udy falls on leadership st yles and not on transformation interventions. this st udy also has a quantitative basis and the participants were executives and senior managers only. transformational leadership was researched in the study “transformational leadership in business organisations ascending to world-class stat us: a case st udy in the petrochemical industry” by de kock and slabbert (2003). leadership styles and transformation interventions 3 their aim was to prove that in order to achieve economic competitiveness; transformational rather than transactional leadership should be a core element in an organisation’s ascent to ‘world-class’ status. this study revealed that in the petrochemical industry, transformational leadership was not up to expectation but also acknowledged that the organisation under study was still in the initial phases of the transformation process. theoretically the study will contribute to the existing pool of knowledge on how different leadership styles contribute to the effective implementation of transformation interventions. this study will test the null hypothesis that there is no relationship between leadership style and implementation of transformation interventions. on a practical level the leaders in the specific company under study may use this knowledge to change or modif y their personal leadership styles to more effectively implement transformation interventions. in general all employees and managers in the organisation should benefit if the transformation process is implemented more smoothly and successfully. research design quantitative and qualitative research is often seen as representing two different paradigms or basic set of beliefs that guide research, each assuming different ontologies and epistemologies (hathaway, 1995). quantitative research is associated with numerative induction in that it “relies upon measurement, utilises statistics and will mean the same thing in different social, cultural and linguistic settings” (bless & higson-smith, 2000, p. 38). qualitative research, on the other hand, is difficult to define as “it can mean different things to different people” (strauss & corbin, 1990, p.17). denzin and lincoln (2000) and bogdan and biklen (1998) support this view. despite the difficulty in pinning down a single best definition, one of the major distinguishing characteristics of qualitative research is that the researcher attempts to understand people in terms of their own definitions of their world. employing both quantitative and qualitative research methods in a particular study is supported by various prominent social science researchers, including: bless and higson-smith (2000); denzin and lincoln (2000); flick, (1998) and strauss and corbin (1990). denzin and lincoln (2000) refer to this method as “methodological triangulation” and more specifically as a “between-methods” approach (the use of different methods in relation to the same object of study). creswell, trout and barbuto (2003) support the method of triangulation. in short: multiple methods can be used to secure an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon in question. research methodology for the purposes of this research a two-phased triangulated or blended research design was used to achieve the research objectives (creswell, trout & barbuto, 2003). both qualitative (phase 1) and quantitative data (phase 2) were used in the study. the qualitative (less dominant phase) preceded the dominant quantitative phase. tashakkori and teddlie (2003) refer to this type of design as a ‘nested’ design, as one method is given less emphasis but is clearly nested within the other. a similar research approach of triangulation was employed by bussin (2003). participants/respondents phase 1 (qualitative) 5 heads of department (randomly selected) from the management team of 19 managers were interviewed to describe the transformational interventions they had launched, initiatives used to achieve these interventions, identif y and list the outcomes they hoped to achieve with each intervention and rate or assess their outcomes numerically on a semantic differential scale ranging from 1 (not at all successful) to 5 (very successful). responses received in the interviews were used to draw up questions for section b of the questionnaire and supplement the literature review to be used in phase 2. phase 2 (main study – quantitative) in order to ensure representativeness the different departments were used as strata and within each department a random sampling method was used to select respondents. an alphabetised departmental list was used to identif y every third person that was handed a questionnaire. the respondents were subordinates reporting to the 5 heads of departments who were interviewed in phase one of the research. the sample population consisted of 96 respondents whose average age was 35,05 and average number of years at the company was 7,79 years. the range was 21 to 57 with fewer older respondents and is positively skewed. measuring instruments a questionnaire consisting of 3 sections was used. (the questionnaire is available on request). � section a : biographical information � section b : transformational intervention questionnaire � section c: leadership strategy questionnaire ii by manz and sims. phase 1 for the first part of the study, the hod’s responses were recorded via a semi-structured interview to elicit information about the way in which they perceive their own leadership styles and supplement the literature review on transformation interventions. the hod’s were asked to describe, amongst other things, the transformation interventions they had launched, initiatives used to achieve these interventions, list the outcomes they hoped to achieve with each intervention and rate the success of its implementation. the data obtained from the interviews was content analysed and used to generate questions for section b of the questionnaire that was used in phase 2 of the study. phase 2 the transformational intervention questionnaire consisted of 30 items based on transformational interventions the hod’s had indicated they had launched. transformation interventions such as communication, empowerment, diversity management, change management, training and development and performance management were dimensions addressed in the questionnaire. the leadership strategy questionnaire consisted of 96 items and focused on the dimensions of “directive”, “transactional”, “transformational” and “superleadership” or “empowering leadership”. subordinates’ perceptions of leader behaviours exhibited by their managers were elicited via this questionnaire. each of these dimensions in the leadership strateg y questionnaire were analysed in terms of their sub-dimensions, which will be discussed in the analysis that follows. the leadership strategy questionnaire ii is a standardised questionnaire that was initially researched on 702 managers in the defence industry in america. based on this research 15 leader behaviours were identified and grouped into a four-factor leadership model consisting of the following four leadership st yles: directive, transactional, transformational and empowering leadership styles (manz and sims, 1991). the reliability coefficient for each of the 15 dimensions ranged from 0,62 to 0,9 (van der heyde and roodt, 2003). naidu, van der walt4 results phase 1 the interview schedule covered the following dimensions of transformation interventions communication, empowerment, change management, diversit y management, performance management and training and development. the data obtained from the interview revealed that the management team interviewed rated themselves very high (4 out of 5) in terms of their effectiveness on all of the above transformational interventions, except for performance management. they admitted that performance management, still in its developmental stage, needed attention. the responses obtained from the interviews were used, in conjunction with theory, to draw up questions for section b of the questionnaire that was developed for phase 2 of the research. phase 2 transformational inter vention questionnaire the kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy (msa) was equal to 0,9 and the bartlett test for sphericity was 493,01 (p<0,000) indicating that there was sufficient correlation in the correlation matrix to justif y factor analysis. due to the small sample size, that is 96 respondents, a factor analysis was subsequently done on the variables in each of the theoretical dimensions of the transformational intervention questionnaire. the principal axis factoring (paf) method using a varimax rotation was used. in each case the items reduced to one factor per dimension. the internal reliability of the dimensions was assessed by calculating the cronbach alpha coefficient. the cronbach alpha scores are displayed in table 1. table 1 reliability scores of the transformation intervention questionnaire dimensions dimension cronbach number example in questionnaire alpha of items scores obtained communication 0,69 5 my hod/superintendent welcomes feedback on his/her management style. empowerment 0,83 5 my hod/superintendent allows me to take initiative in my job. performance 0,74 5 my hod and i agree on management key performance objectives at the start of a new job or project. training and 0,83 5 my hod/superintendent development encourages me to study further and develop myself. change management 0,73 5 change in my organisation is a well-planned process. diversity 0,82 5 my hod/superintendent management respects and tolerates individual differences in people. an analysis of table 1 reveals cronbach alpha scores higher than 0,6. this confirms that the instrument was reliable. the overall scores ranged from 0,83 (empowerment and training and development) to 0,69 (communication). the first order dimensions were subsequently subjected to a second order factor analysis. principal axis factoring was used. the six first order factors reduced to a single order factor with reliability of 0,95. table 2 rotated factor matrix of second order factor analysis factor matrix factor 1 tiq empowerment 0,926 tiq performance management 0,902 tiq diversity management 0,893 tiq communication 0,867 tiq training & development 0,865 tiq change management 0,762 leadership strategy questionnaire ii a factor analysis was done on the items in each dimension separately since the number of respondents was too few. the aim of the factor analysis was to test the factors against the dimensions as identified in previous empirical research done on the leadership strateg y questionnaire. the following subdimensions linked to leadership st yle, were factor analysed: “aversive behaviour”, “encourages self-reward”, “challenge the stat us quo”, “encourage teamwork”, “cont ingent material reward”, “assigned goals”, “vision”, “instruction and command”, “encourages opport unit y thought”, “participative goal setting”, “contingent personal reward”, “cont ingent reprimand”, “idealism” and “independent action”. a factor analysis was not done on the sub-dimension, “stimulation and inspiration” as there were only t wo items in this dimension. table 3 indicates the item loadings obtained from the factor analysis. the internal reliabilit y was tested using the iterat ive item loadings technique and the cronbach a lpha coefficient scores obtained are reflected in table 4. the cronbach alpha scores ranged from 0,6 (“instruction and command”) to 0,9 (“participative goal setting”) indicating that the instrument was reliable. in the first order factor analysis all theoretical dimensions reduced to one reliable factor per dimension except “aversive behaviour” which reduced to 2 factors. all items in “aversive behaviour,” however, do form a reliable scale. table 5 demonstrates that second factor analysis (using principal axis factoring and oblimin with kaiser normalization rotation method) reduced the 15 dimensions to 3 second order dimensions. the following dimensions had the highest loading on factor 1: “encourages self-reward”, “encourages opport unit y thought”, “contingent personal reward”, “participative goal-setting”, “contingent material reward”, “assigned goals”, “vision”, “stimulation and inspiration”, “independent action” and “encourage teamwork”. the dimensions “idealism”, “challenge to the status quo” and “contingent reprimand” had the highest loading on factor 2. “aversive behaviour” and “instruction and command” had the highest loading on factor 3. a cronbach alpha reliability score was obtained for each of the factors. the reliability of factor 1 was 0,98. the reliability of factor 2 was 0,88 and the reliability of factor 3 was 0,73. factor 1 will be called “integrated leadership style” for it is a combination of all four leadership st yles. research on leadership styles (as was discussed under leadership and leadership styles) indicates that the leader behaviours such as “encourages self-reward”, “encourages opportunity thought”, “participative goal-setting”, “independent action” and “encourages teamwork” are associated with an empowering leadership styles and transformation interventions 5 naidu, van der walt6 table 3 rotated factor matrix (per dimension) of the dimensions of the leadership strategy questionnaire item factor loadings 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 1. aversive behaviour 76 0,78 36 0,67 57 0,65 51 0,49 14 0,47 30 0,45 7 0,15 2. encourages self-reward 62 0,85 27 0,82 42 0,81 86 0,79 48 0,74 20 0,68 3. challenge to status quo 64 0,85 85 0,73 44 0,68 22 0,54 93 0,54 4. encourages team work 61 0,92 92 0,87 50 0,85 18 0,76 60 0,43 5. participative goal setting 83 0,91 91 0,89 25 0,83 46 0,82 21 0,78 43 0,78 6. independent action 96 0,91 70 0,88 87 0,80 75 0,77 581 0,30 7. contingent material reward 67 0,86 26 0,83 47 0,79 3 0,62 8. assigned goals 81 0,82 41 0,79 90 0,76 19 0,55 9. vision 69 0,84 49 0,81 29 0,79 5 0,70 10.contingent personal reward 53 0,89 72 0,89 32 0,81 10 0,66 11.contingent reprimand 15 0,73 58 0,60 37 0,59 77 0,48 12. idealism 70 0,80 69 0,70 39 0,64 13.instruction and command 45 0,92 24 0,58 1 0,56 65 0,20 14.encourages opportunity thought 54 0,82 11 0,79 33 0,77 leadership st yle. “contingent personal reward” and “contingent material reward” are associated with transactional leadership whilst leader behaviours such as “vision” and “stimulation and inspiration” are associated with a transformational leadership style. “assigned goals” is a leader behaviour associated with directive leadership. hence the term “combined leadership st yle” for factor 1 for it is a combination of transactional, transformational and empowering leadership styles. factor 2 will be referred to as “transformational leadership st yle” as “idealism” and “challenging the status quo” are leader behaviours associated with a transformational leader. “contingent reprimand”, also a dimension in factor 2, is associated with directive leadership. however, since “contingent reprimand” has a lower loading on factor 2, factor 2 will be referred to as “transformational leadership”. factor 3 will be referred to as “directive leadership” for instruction and command and aversive behaviour are dimensions of this type of leadership. table 4 reliability coefficients of the dimensions of the leadership strategy questionnaire dimension cronbach alpha coefficients no. of items aversive behaviour 0,81 7 encourages self-reward 0,90 6 challenge to status quo 0,80 5 encourages teamwork 0,87 5 participative goal setting 0,93 6 independent action 0,85 5 contingent material reward 0,85 4 assigned goals 0,82 4 vision 0,86 4 contingent personal reward 0,88 4 contingent reprimand 0,69 4 idealism 0,75 3 instruction and command 0,64 4 encourages opportunity thought 0,84 3 table 5 rotated pattern matrix of the dimensions of the leadership strategy questionnaire pattern matrix factor loadings integrtaed leadership style 1 2 3 lsoii encourages self-reward 0,90 lsoii encourages opportunity thought 0,83 lsoii contingent personal reward 0,82 lsoii participative goal-setting 0,81 lsoii contingent material reward 0,74 lsoii assigned goals 0,73 lsoii vision 0,65 lsoii stimulation and inspiration 0,58 lsoii independent action 0,55 lsoii encourage teamwork 0,55 lsoii idealism 0,81 transformational leadership style lsoii challenge to the status quo 0,78 lsoii contingent reprimand 0,72 lsoii aversive behaviour 0,47 directive leadership style lsoii instruction and command 0,42 since an oblique rotation was used in the second order factor analysis, factor 1, factor 2 and factor 3 can be correlated. the correlations between the factors are indicated in table 6. anovas (one way analysis of variance) and t-tests were used to establish whether there were any significant differences between respondents and their age, educational qualifications and number of years in the company. the tests revealed no significant difference (p<0,05). this implies that subordinates’ perceptions of their manager’s leadership st yle are not determined by their age, number of complete years in the company or their educational qualifications. leadership styles and transformation interventions 7 table 6 correlations between second order factors lsoii second order factor 1 lsoii second order factor 2 lsoii second order factor 3 lsoii second order factor 1 pearson correlation 1 0,645(**) -0,090 sig. (2-tailed) 0,000 0,420 n 86 81 83 lsoii second order factor 2 pearson correlation 0,645(**) 1 0,091 sig. (2-tailed) 0,000 0,399 n 81 90 88 lsoii second order factor 3 pearson correlation -0,090 0,091 1 sig. (2-tailed) 0,420 0,399 n 83 88 93 table 7 correlations of the second order factors correlations tiq second lsoii second lsoii second lsoii second order factor order factor 1 order factor 2 order factor 3 tiq second order factor pearson correlation 1 -0,698(**) -0,348(**) 0,181 sig. (2-tailed) 0,000 0,001 0,102 n 86 78 82 83 correlation between transformation inter vention questionnaire and leadership strategy questionnaire the interrelationships between the variables were computed using pearson’s product moment correlation to identif y the direction and strength of the relationships between each of the variables. effect sizes, rather than inferential statistics were used to decide on the significance of the findings. effect sizes of 0,1; 0,3 and 0,5 were seen as small, medium and large effect sizes respectively. inter-correlation analyses were performed to assess the overall correlation between the theoretical dimensions of the transformation intervention questionnaire and the dimensions of the leadership strategy questionnaire ii. the correlations are set out in table 7. there is no significant correlation between transformation interventions and factor 3 or directive leadership (r = 0,18). there is a significant strong negative correlation with factor 1 or combined leadership st yles (transactional, transformational and empowering leadership styles) because r = -0,69. however, since the scales were inversed this means there was a significant strong positive correlation. there is a significant medium correlation with factor 2 or transformational leadership (r = 0,34). discussion the primary aim of the study was to explore the relationship bet ween leadership st yles and the implementation of transformation interventions. the aim of the study was not to measure leadership styles of the management but to focus on subordinates’ perception of their manager’s leadership style. the study also tested the null hypothesis that there is no relationship bet ween leadership st yles and the implementation of transformation interventions. the findings of the research indicate that there is a strong relationship bet ween the implementation of transformation interventions and perceived integrated leadership styles. this means that organisations that want to inf luence the implementation of transformation interventions need to encourage their managers to make use of leader behaviours such as “self-reward”, “opportunity thought”, “contingent personal reward”, “participative goal setting”, “contingent material reward”, “assigned goals”, “vision”, “stimulation and inspiration”, “independent action” and “encourage teamwork”. what was noteworthy about this finding is that these dimensions (listed above) are associated with all four leadership st yles as postulated by manz and sims (1991) and not just a single leadership style. implementat ion of transformat ion intervent ions has a medium correlat ion with perceived transformat ional leadership st yle. implementat ion of transformat ion interventions has no significant relationship with directive leadership st yle. this means that aversive behaviour and instruct ions and command are neither necessary nor unnecessary for the implementat ion of transformat ion interventions. according to the factor analysis there is sufficient evidence to support manz and sim’s (1991) leadership theory. from the 15 factors 14 were identified in the first order factor analysis (stimulation and inspiration was not factor analysed for there were only 2 items in this dimension), which places the reliability of the questionnaire above reproach. however, what must be noted is that many of the questions were repeated or rephrased in a very similar manner. this obviously would have increased reliability. therefore, to a certain extent, the reliabilit y scores can be seen as artificial reliabilit y scores and fut ure research could perhaps adapt the questionnaire. only 3 factors (integrated, transformational and directive leadership) were extracted from this research. consequently this research study does not fully support the four-factor leadership model (made up of directive, transactional, transformational and empowering leadership st yles discussed under leadership and leadership styles) proposed by manz and sims (1991). factor 1(extracted from this research) includes behaviour t y pes of all 4 leadership behaviours namely directive leadership st yle (assigned goals), transactional leadership style (contingent personal reward, and contingent material reward. transformational leadership style (vision, stimulation and inspiration) and empowering leadership style (independent action, encourages self-reward, encourages opportunity thought and encourages teamwork). factor 2 includes transformational leader behaviours as in “challenge to the status quo” and “idealism” whilst “contingent reprimand” is associated with directive leader behaviours. “aversive behaviour” and “instruction and command” form the basis of factor 3 and are associated with a directive leadership style. the above groupings of the research findings point to the fact that leaders do not need to have just a single leadership style to implement transformation interventions. instead the study reveals that leaders need to employ all four leadership styles, depending on the context. this finding provides a possible answer to the question posed at the beginning of the research process, “what exactly is the ‘right’ leadership style and when should it be used?” thus, despite the fact that the correlations are not causal, they suggest that leaders implementing transformation interventions need to adapt their leadership styles depending on the context. what was unexpected in the findings was that factor 1, referred to as “integrated leadership st yles”, included “assigned goals” which is a leader behaviour associated with a directive leadership style. the dimension “participative goalsetting” was also included in factor 1. one would expect that in a modern mining organisation striving for world-class status, employees would prefer and expect to engage in participative goal-setting rather than have goals assigned to them. this points to the fact that the subordinates perceive that a leader who assigns goals for them would be effective in implementing transformation interventions as he or she would be providing them with a sense of direction. the study also indicates that transactional leadership (employees receive something in exchange for following orders) is needed to aid the implementation of transformation interventions. this is surprising for one would expect the modern employee to take initiative to bring about transformation. what was also unexpected was that the dimension “contingent reprimand” (a dimension of directive leadership) was grouped with transformational leader behaviours in factor 2. this indicates that subordinates expect their leaders to display transformational leader behaviours but also expect them to let them know when they perform poorly or when their work is not up to par. a number of limitations of the study were identified. the use of a single organisation as the research site is a potential limitation on the ability to generalise these results. in addition to this, the fact that the research was based in a mining organisation makes it difficult to generalise the findings to any other organisation within another industry. the sample size was limiting. future research would do well to collect larger data sets. the transformation intervention questionnaire used in this study could be seen as a possible limitation. the transformational intervention questionnaire was designed for this study using specific transformation interventions that is used by the leaders in the research site. consequently, the questionnaire may not necessarily adhere to strict naidu, van der walt8 questionnaire design requirements and future research should take this into account. individual perceptions of each of the variables measured could have been affected by employee morale. morale in the group was at a low. there was resistance and uncertainty about the implementation of employment equity and lack of promotion opportunities for many of the white male employees. typically this kind of study is directed at the understanding of causal processes, which occur over time, yet the conclusions are going to be based on observations made at only one point in time. babbie (1975), a relatively old source, but considered an evergreen, in his observation draws an analogy with taking a photograph. he states this limitation is somewhat akin to that of determining the speed of a moving object on the basis of a high-speed, still photograph, which “freezes” the movement of the object. recommendations for future research several avenues for future research are readily identifiable. a need for research that expands on the information obtained in this article could prove valuable. it is therefore advised that attempts should be made to replicate these analyses in a number of different industries. similar research could be conducted with a larger sample. given that this study incorporated both qualitative and quantitative research methods, perhaps future research could take on a purely qualitative approach with in-depth interviews of both management and employees in a given organisation or organisations. the leadership strategy questionnaire ii by manz and sims utilised in the study, incorporated a selection of leader behaviours that was fairly extensive but was by no means exhaustive. therefore, it is clearly possible that investigation of different leader behaviours may produce different results. perhaps there are leadership styles conducive to a south african leadership climate that is not addressed in this particular questionnaire. the success or effectiveness of transformation interventions can only be seen over time. perhaps future research could utilise a methodology that takes this factor into account and would present a better understanding of transformation as a causal process. acknowledgement the authors would like to thank r.eiselen and w.c. koster from statcon, r au, for their professional service and valuable contribution regarding the data analysis of this project. references applebaum, s.h. & wohl, i. (2000). transformation or change: some prescriptions for health care organizations. managing ser vice quality, 10 (5), 279-298. babbie, e.r. (1975). the practice of social research. california: wadsworth publishing. bass, b.m. & avolio, b.j. (1997). full range leadership development. manual for the multifactor leadership questionnaire. california: mind garden. beck, j.d.w. & yeager, n.m. (2001). the leader’s window: mastering the four styles of leadership to build high-performing teams. california: davies-black publishing. berr, s.a, church, a.h. & waclawski, j. (2000). the right relationship is everything: linking personality preferences to managerial behaviours. human resource development quarterly, 11 (1), 133-158. bless, c. & higson-smith, c. (2000). fundamentals of social research methods: an african perspective. lansdowne: juta. bogdan, r. & biklen, s.k. (1998). qualitative research for education: an introduction to theory and methods. 3rd ed. boston: allyn and bacon. burton, l. (2002). developing leadership in south africa – an interview with accenture’s global leadership expert, paul taffinder. people dynamics. dec/jan 2002, 21+ bushe, g. r. (2001). clear leadership: how outstanding leaders make themselves understood, cut through the mush and help everyone get real at work. california: davies-black publishing. bussin, m. (2003). factors driving changes to remuneration policy and outcomes. unpublished doctoral thesis, johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. creswell, j.w., trout, s. & barbuto, j.e. (2003). a decade of mixed methods writings: a retrospective. retrieved may 30, 2004, from http://www.edra.org/resources/pdfs/drnv33n4.pdf. de koch,p.m. & slabbert, j.a. (2003). transformational leadership in business organisations ascending to world-class status: a case study in the petrochemical industry. sa journal of industrial psychology, 29 (1), 1-7. denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. (eds). (2000). handbook of qualitative research. 2nd ed. thousand oaks: sage publications. flick, u. (1998). an introduction to qualitative research. london: sage publications. giber, d., carter, l.l & goldsmith, m. (eds). (2000). linkage inc’s best practices in leadership development handbook. san francisco: jossey-bass. godard, a. & lenhardt, v. (2000). transformational leadership: shared dreams to succeed. new york: palgrave. hartog, d.n., & van muijen, j. (1997). transactional versus transformational leadership: an analysis of the mlq. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 70 (1), 19-35. hathaway, r.s. (1995). assumptions underlying qualitative and quantitative research: implications for institutional research. research in higher education, 36 (5), 535-562. havenga, r. (2002). the new leadership challenge: teaming principles with practices in times of change. management today, february 2002, 4+ heifetz, r.a. & laurie, d.l. (1998). the work of leadership. in har vard business review on leadership. usa: harvard business school press. kanji, g.k. & moura, e.s. (2001). measuring leadership excellence. total quality management, 12 (6), 709. kotter, j.p. (1998). what leaders really do. in har vard business review on leadership. usa: harvard business school press. kouzes, j.m. & posner, b.z. (2002). leadership challenge. san francisco: jossey-bass. leslie, j.b. & van velsor, e. (1998). a cross national comparison of effective leadership and teamwork: towards a global workforce. human resource development quarterly, 11 (1), 207-209. macnamara, c. (2004). an over view of leadership in organizations. retrieved january 27, 2004, from http://www.mapnp. org/library/ldrship/ldrship.htm. manz, c.c. & sims, h.p. jnr (1991). superleadership: beyond the myth of heroic leadership. organizational dynamics, 19 (4), 18-35. manz, c.c. & sims, h.p. (2001). the new superleadership. san francisco: berrett-koehler publications. mester, c., visser, d., roodt, g. & kellerman, r. (2003). leadership style and its relation to employee attitudes and behaviour. sa journal of industrial psychology, 29 (2), 72-82. mining charter. retrieved march 15, 2004, from: http://www. dme.gov.za/minerals/ mining_charter.htm. mosia, m.s. (2003). the importance of different leadership roles in the strategic management process. unpublished doctoral thesis. johannesburg: rau. pearce, c.l. & sims, h.p. jnr. (2002). vertical versus shared leadership as predictors of the effectiveness of change management teams: an examination of aversive, directive, transactional, transformational, and empowering leader behaviours. group dynamics: theory, research and practice, 6 (2), 172-197. peters, t. (2004). reimagine: business excellence in a disruptive age. management today, 20 (6), 6-9. leadership styles and transformation interventions 9 salam, s., cox, j.f. & sims, h.p. jnr (1997). in the eye of the beholder: how leadership relates to 360 degree performance ratings. group and organisational management. retrieved june 23, 2004 from http://www7.kellogg, northwestern.edu/murmann/weeks/art icles/week/10/ w10a3.doc smit, h. & carstens, l. (2003). the influence of leadership role competencies on organisation change outcome in the manufacturing industry in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 1 (2), 45-52. strauss, a. & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research. grounded theory procedure and techniques. newbury park: sage publications. tashakorri, a. & teddlie, c. (2003). handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioural research. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. thorn, m. (2003). leadership in organizations: global leadership competencies. retrieved march 15, 2004, from http://www. academy.umd.edu/publications/global leadership/marlene_ thorn.htm. van der heyde, a. & roodt, g. (2003). die verband tussen waargenome leierskap en die vlak van outonomie binne spanverband. south african journal of industrial psychology, 29 (1), 8-17. williams, a., woodward, s., dobson, p. (2002) managing change successfully. using theory and practice to implement change. australia: thomson. naidu, van der walt10 abstract introduction research methodology data analysis and discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) esther m. maimela department of human resource management, university of south africa, south africa michael o. samuel department of management and human resource management, university of the witwatersrand, south africa citation maimela, e.m., & samuel, m.o. (2016). perception of performance management system by academic staff in an open distance learning higher education environment. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a784. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.784 original research perception of performance management system by academic staff in an open distance learning higher education environment esther m. maimela, michael o. samuel received: 14 jan. 2016; accepted: 02 sept. 2016; published: 31 oct. 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: institutions of higher learning in south africa are fast embracing performance management system (pms) as a mechanism for the achievement of teaching excellence and enhancement of research productivity. however, literature provided evidence to show that application of pms in the private sector had failed to drive competition, efficiency and productivity. research purpose: the main purpose of this article was to evaluate the perception of academic staff members of an open distance learning institution regarding the implementation of a pms. motivation for the study: pms as a mechanism through which performance of academics is measured has been described as inconsistent with the long tradition of academic freedom, scholarship and collegiality in the academy. moreso, previous research on the implementation of pms was limited to private sector organisations, thus resulting in the dearth of empirical literature relating to its practice in service-driven public sector institutions. research design, approach and method: the article adopted a quantitative research approach using census survey methodology. data were collected from 492 academic staff from the surveyed institution using a self-developed questionnaire that was tested for high content validity with a consolidated cronbach’s alpha value of 0.83. data were analysed using a one-sample t-test because of the one-measurement nature of the variable under investigation. main findings: major findings of the study indicated that respondents were satisfied with the implementation of the pms by management. however, the payment of performance bonuses was not considered as sufficiently motivating, thus necessitating a pragmatic review by management. practical/managerial implications: the findings of this article provided a practical guide to managers on the implementation and management of pms as an employee performance reward mechanism in non-profit and service-oriented organisations. contribution: this article provided an incremental contribution to the body of literature in the broad field of management and a further advancement of existing knowledge in the sub-field of performance management system. introduction globalisation-induced competition has substantially increased the necessity for organisational managers to develop sustainable human resource (hr) strategies that are capable of optimising business performance (imran, arif, cheema & azeem, 2014). one such hr strategy is the development of performance management system (pms). pms has been variously described by authors as a combination of a number of functions and processes that have been carefully planned and carried out with the intention of achieving predetermined organisational objectives through employee’s work performance (aguinis, 2013; armstrong, 2009; hawke, 2012; sousa, de nijs & hendriks, 2010; taticchi, balachandran & tonelli, 2012). therefore, performance management is considered as an integral and inalienable managerial function in any organisational setting (islam & rasad, 2006). this is more so as organisational managers attempt to devise an objective criteria that measures the performance of employees, both as individuals and group and to determine the extent to which such performances have contributed to the overall achievement of business effectiveness (stanton & navenkis, 2011). pms provides a mechanism through which organisational rewards are objectively matched with individual employee’s contribution to the achievement of organisational goals. the complexity involved in the design and implementation of this performance measurement criteria has over the years posed a challenging operational consideration for hr managers (saeed & shahbaz, 2011). notwithstanding the complexity and challenges that are associated with this performance management activity, it remains the responsibility of management to provide a link between organisational effectiveness and employee performance. many authors (e.g. bowman, 1994; daley, 1998; fox & shirkey, 1997; perry, 1991) have questioned the continued relevance and use of the merit rating or performance appraisal system as an objective performance evaluation technique. merit rating or performance appraisal is a systematic and periodic evaluation of individual employees’ value to the organisation in comparison to his or her colleagues (junais, 2012; toppo & prusty, 2012). this criticism has accelerated the adoption of pms as a more objective alternative in providing an integrated and continuous approach to the management of employee performance (armstrong, 2009). further preference for the adoption of pms by managers is motivated by the ever increasing complexity in the management of business, which require a dynamic process of monitoring and evaluation (willaert & willems, 2006). therefore, this complex and dynamic operating business environment requires a strategic and integrated performance management process that could assist the organisation to gain competitive advantage. the integrated approach involves the integration of other hr functions such as recruitment and selection, performance evaluation, training and development and remuneration (pieters, 2009). the overall objective of the integrated approach is to establish a strategic alignment between a functional pms and the overall organisational goals. the motivation for the introduction of pms in the higher education sector could perhaps be linked directly to increasing pressure from government for universities to increase both student throughput and research output. the introduction of performance incentive system (subsidy) by government in the higher education sector in south africa has no doubt provided an unintended impetus for competition in the academy. because incentivised performance management was alien to the educational sector, management of universities imported the prevailing performance management practices in the private sector. a number of performance management practices operating in the private sector include the ‘integrated performance management system’ and ‘360 degree performance management system’. notwithstanding the use of pms in the private sector as a measure of productivity and competitive advantage, documented evidence suggests that the approach was not effective in achieving these objectives (moullakis, cited in karim, 2015; karuhanga, 2010; hainess & st-onge, 2011). however, management of universities seems to disregard such available evidence, consciously or unconsciously. one noticeable shortcoming of performance management programmes is the assumption by the designers that one programme works well across entities without necessarily taking into consideration the peculiarities of individual organisations. this ambitious and erroneous belief most often signifies the beginning of failure for such programmes. in order to avoid such a design failure, kandula (2006) recommended an organisation-specific pms that considers individual organisation’s peculiarities such as internal environment, business strategy, strengths and weaknesses, vision and mission. the design pitfall that characterises adoption of performance management programmes partly motivated this study, as the adoption of pms in the private sector may not necessarily achieve the same in a service-oriented academic institution. while the main business of universities is to create and impart knowledge and disseminate scholarly ideas through research, private sector organisations are business oriented with the sole objective of capital accumulation and profit maximisation (hudzik, 2011). however, research publication and graduate throughputs in south african universities attract some form of monetary subsidies from government. this subsidy in some ways serves as a third-stream income for universities; and this also trickles down to research-active academics, thus making the business of research publication a commercial enterprise rather than scholarly engagement (bogt & scapens, 2011; hill, 2010; flaniken, 2009). research problem the introduction of pms as a performance monitoring tool for academics has been considered to be in conflict with the tradition of academic freedom, scholarship and collegiality (parsons & slabbert, 2001; tam, 2008). previous studies (e.g. solomons, 2006; willaert & willems, 2006) relating to the practice of pms were conducted in the private sector, thus resulting in the dearth of empirical literature relating to pms practice in service-driven public sector institutions. furthermore, existing literature revealed that most of the studies on the impact of pms in higher education were conducted in universities where the mode of teaching involves face-to-face interactive lecture sessions between lecturers and students. such teaching methodology is different from those applied in open distance learning (odl) universities where teaching and learning take place through correspondence and in the absence of a physical interaction between students and lecturers. a salient problem arising from the introduction of performance management programmes by different organisations is that such programmes are not compatible with the organisational culture and this often shapes the perceptions of employees (kandula, 2006). for example, issues around organisational culture, values, tradition, mission and vision differ from one organisation to the next and are most distinguished between profitand service-oriented organisations. similarly, the operating environment in a face-to-face teaching university is different from that of an odl university in terms of performance measurement and management. the distinctions between the mode of operation in odl institutions and other universities partly inform the conduct of the present study. this is with the aim of avoiding a designer failure – that is, tendency of a one-system-fits-all approach – in the introduction of a performance management programme. study objective and research questions it is against the background of the research problem described in the above section that this article sought to evaluate the perception of academic staff members in the institution under study regarding the implementation of a pms. in order to achieve this broad primary objective, the researchers formulated the following overarching research question: what are the perceptions and experiences of academic staff at a south african odl university regarding the implementation of a pms? the following section provides both literature overview as well as theoretical framework for the article. literature overview performance management system and organisational culture the decision to introduce a pms requires careful consideration by management of the compatibility of the intended change with the prevailing culture and tradition of the organisation (solomons, 2006). previous literature (e.g. bititci, mendibil, nudurupati, garengo & turner, 2004; shields, 2008) argued that the introduction of a pms is capable of transforming employee values, attitudes and behaviour thus leading to an eventual change in the overall culture of the organisation. culture evolves over a long period of time, and once established, becomes extremely difficult to change (hatch & cunliffe, 2006). an effective change in organisational culture involves changes in policies and procedures, and most important, managing the subconscious unaware assumptions and values which guide people’s behaviour (kandula, 2006; ogbonna, 2007). this may imply that changes in the physical structures of the organisation are not capable of transforming established organisational culture and behaviour of academic staff. what is required for an effective change in behaviour is a reorientation of the thinking process from the old ways to embrace a new way of doing things. therefore, changing existing organisational culture and employees’ behaviour are crucial for the successful implementation of pms (robinson, carrillo, anumba & a-ghassani, 2005). the authors emphasised the traumatic experience that is associated with change, and this explains why employees’ resistance to change should be expected by management as a natural phenomenon. workload model in open distance learning institutions the south african institute for distance education (saide, 2009) described an odl system of education as an approach that seeks to remove all unnecessary physical barriers to learning in order to provide more people with a meaningful platform to acquire higher education. the teaching methodology in the odl university (explained in the preceding literature) does have implication for the workload model of academics. performance of their primary responsibility of teaching involves substantial administrative engagement unlike their contemporaries in conventional universities. these cumbersome administrative duties impact significantly on the time available to conduct research by odl academics, yet research productivity accounts for a substantial amount of subsidy accruable to the university from the department of higher education. the administrative bottleneck in the odl course delivery is embedded in the design of the system, and this should not be compromised at the expense of research productivity. tutors are employed in the odl system to provide academic support for learners (maimela, 2015). these tutors are managed by academic staff of the institution. this places additional responsibility on lecturers and this has further implication on their research productivity. however, the impact of tutor management by lecturers in the odl system has been described as a negligible fraction of lecturers’ workload as study and other learning resources are distributed to learners using internet facilities (saide, 2009). this description may not be totally accurate as teaching and instructions through the distance education system involves the use of printed course materials and telecommunication devices such as twitter, podcasts, and smart phones. all these processes are managed by academic staff. as a result, academics in odl institutions are office bound with fixed working hours, expending most of their productive time developing study materials and responding to student enquiries on a daily basis. this no doubt impacts negatively on the amount of time available for research, which is a critical component of the ‘key performance area’ in the pms. does employee perception matter in the performance management system process? the simple answer to the above question is ‘yes’. the explanation for this answer is that management needs to enlist the understanding and cooperation of the category of employees who would be affected by the operationalisation of the pms. for this to happen, recipients of pms must perceive the programme to be a fair, just and equitable one (farndale, van ruiten, kelliher & hope-hailey, 2011; islam & rasad, 2005; kavanagh, benson & brown, 2007; luthra & jain, 2012). it is only then that employees return the intended benefits of pms to management. one can also reasonably assume that employees will not likely embrace a pms that they perceived to be biased, unfair and lacking equity in the distribution of organisational outcomes (e.g. promotion, salary increment, research incentives). the whole essence of balancing employee input with reward output is located within the concept of organisational justice (baldwin, 2006; greenberg, 1990). literature of organisational justice was derived from stacey adams’ equity theory (1963), which postulates an input–output ratio comparison by an individual employee with those of his or her colleagues and reacts based on the outcome of the assessment. employees who perceive injustice in the input–output ratio will likely embark on withdrawal activities that include reduced productivity, lateness, sabotage or resignation from the organisation (schultz, bagraim, potgieter, viedge & werner, 2003). monitoring of academic staff performance: a new trend managers of higher education institutions now expect employees in the sector (particularly academics) to embrace organisational innovation practice that is typical of the private sector organisations (hill, 2010; parsons & slabbert, 2004; tϋrk, 2007). such expectation is informed by the need to ensure efficiency in the operations of higher education institutions in south africa. this involves a systemic monitoring and measuring of academics’ work performance and outputs. ironically, such practice conflicts directly with the age-long established tradition of a self-defining work mechanism expressed within the context of autonomy and academic freedom (pityana, 2004). however, the implementation of pms in many institutions of higher learning suggests that work roles of academics are being defined by managers based on values and purposes that are dictated by market economy rather than the academic enterprise (pityana, 2004). this management tendency has been described as the ‘new public management’, which is oriented towards outcomes and efficiency through better management of public budget (shishkina, 2008; zeleza, 2012). the introduction of this managerial approach in higher education sector could be problematic as managing a university is quite different from that of government ministries (shishkina, 2008). therefore, introduction of this new found management practice in the university system should be carefully considered as this could severely compromise the principle of work autonomy and academic freedom. management of higher education institutions have been under pressure by the higher education authority to increase student enrolment and research productivity without a corresponding increase in budgetary allocation (parsons & slabbert, 2004; ruben, 2004). a possible way of achieving government’s demand by management is the implementation of pms which measures work outputs in quantitative terms. however, available studies indicated that operationalisation of the pms in higher education institutions around the world is challenging (mapesela & strydom, 2004; osei-owusu, 2013; tam, 2008). further literature resists any attempt to commercialise academic institutions whose social objective is the production and dissemination of knowledge through research and teaching (shishkina, 2008). the outcome of a study conducted by mapesela and strydom (2004) in three higher education institutions in south africa regarding the introduction and development of pms highlighted the tension between collegiality and managerialism as it affects academic freedom. this tension, according to the authors, reflects the outcome in the business sector and such outcome is difficult to manage in a university system that is complex and diverse (tam, 2008). similarly, martz, mckenna and siegall (2001) argue that one of the most controversial issues associated with designing a workable pms for academics is to first determine the content of the scholarly activities that would be incorporated into it (e.g. teaching, research, community engagement, academic citizenship). therefore, for pms to be effective in the higher education environment, a typical business performance management model and approach needs to be adapted to the peculiarities of higher education institutions. academics have contested the validity of pms arguing that it failed to measure all the activities it is supposed to measure (pienaar & bester, 2007). respondents in the study by pienaar and bester highlighted overtly the preference of research over teaching by university management thus resulting in a dilemma for academics as to which of the academic activities – teaching or research – to prioritise. therefore, for the study participants, the pms constitutes unnecessary barrier to their career progression. therefore, pms should be designed to incorporate a full range of academic activities performed by academic staff in order for it to be well accepted and trusted. an effective pms should account for the complex linkages between task performance and time factor. based on a comparative study of some universities in the united states, united kingdom, nigeria, australia and south africa, molefe (2010) concluded that introduction of pms will likely be resisted by academics if its performance assessment criteria do not take into account the following broad issues: teaching workload or distribution of workload between members of the departments results of student evaluation based on an acceptable format used by the faculty student numbers per course research output with emphasis on accredited output corporate citizenship which encompasses service to the community without compensation. the debate around the implementation of the pms in academic institutions has been a balanced one. while some academics argued that the approach is anti-thetical to the academic culture, others submitted that pms is capable of improving performance in the higher education system. for example, taylor (2001) emphasises that the introduction of performance indicators in an academic institution can motivate its members to work harder, especially academics who are inclined and motivated by extrinsic rewards such as money and other financial rewards. however, people who are intrinsically motivated would be disinclined to support the pms (ryan & deci, 2000). instead, they would be motivated by factors such as recognition or quality of life factors such as leisure and holiday with family and friends. in furtherance of the early study, molefe (2012:5265) developed a model that depicts aspects of performance management that were both theoretically and empirically considered as important aspects for measuring the work of academics (see figure 1). figure 1: conceptual model of performance measurement for lecturers. molefe’s model (figure 1) suggests that a feasible and workable performance management for academics should consider competencies such as knowledge and subject mastery, communication skills, student–lecturer relationship, workload and the reward mechanism. molefe (2012) contended that a pms that considers all the stipulated competencies will likely be successful as both financial and non-financial rewards have been incorporated. theoretical framework for the study performance management literature is broadly conceptualised within the framework of motivational theories as kandula (2006) argued that unless the motivational composition of individuals is correctly understood and managed effectively, no performance could ever be successful. therefore, performance excellence comes from people who are well motivated. this treatise is underpinned by the goal-setting theory and expectancy theories (atkinson & shaw, 2006) respectively. goal-setting theory is essentially premised on the understanding that some individuals perform better when specific goals are set as there is the tendency for them to remain focussed and expend additional efforts in order to achieve set goals (locke & latham, 1990). the theory is predicated on the argument that (1) individuals have different goals, (2) act to achieve such goals if there is a chance of succeeding and (3) the value of the goal affects the level of motivation (locke & latham, 1990). the theory further postulates that not only does assigning specific goals to individuals or teams result in enhancement of performance but also enhancing goal acceptance through employee involvement and increasing the challenges of goals leads to increased motivation and improved performance. apart from being challenging, goals should also be clearly stipulated and feedback mechanism installed. involving employees in the goal-setting process is crucial in order for performance management to be effective and successful. vroom (1964) posited the expectancy theory on three basic factors: valence, instrumentality and expectancy. valence refers to the value, that is, the attractiveness of the task outcomes (e.g. rewards); instrumentality is the degree of expectation that improved job performance will lead to the desired task outcomes and the expectation that increased effort is perceived to lead to increased job performance (outcomes). therefore, the greater the value of a set of rewards and higher the probability that receiving each of these rewards depends upon effort, the greater the effort that will be expended in achieving the set outcome. the applicability of the expectancy theory found empirical support in a study conducted by aguinis (2013), which demonstrated that pmss are more effective when results (performance) are directly tied to the reward system (valence). research methodology research design, population and sampling the article adopted the case study research design using the quantitative approach (bryman & bell, 2011). case study design was more appropriate because the study was limited to a single organisation. a census survey was used to collect primary data from and about every individual in the population (floyd & fowler, 2014). the distinguishing factor between census survey and sample survey is that the former (census survey) collects data from every member of the population while the latter (sample survey) collects data only from some members of the population (chawla, chindra & pandey, 2013; harding, 2006). the census survey strategy is enhanced in the study because of the homogeneous nature of the population (i.e. all academics) irrespective of their academic positions or titles within the institution. structured questionnaire was therefore administered to a target population of 1775 as contained in the sampling frame (bryman & bell, 2011) obtained from the case university database. questionnaires were distributed using the institutional email address of all the participants. measuring instrument a self-constructed questionnaire comprising four sections with each section measured on a 5-point likert scale (anchored on 1 = ‘strongly disagree’ to 5 = ‘strongly agree’) was employed in gathering primary information from the participants (cooper & schindler 2001; tustin, lighelm, martins & van wyk, 2005). the questionnaire items were derived from extensive review of performance management literature in order to achieve content validity (bryman & bell, 2011) while the questionnaire items were also pre-tested in a pilot study comprising 11 academic subject matter experts who were purposively selected from the case institution. reliability test was performed on the measuring instrument using the cronbach’s alpha coefficient and the following alpha values were obtained: section a comprises 7 items with a cronbach’s alpha value of 0.822; section b comprises 10 items with a cronbach’s alpha value of 0.911; section c comprises 8 items with a cronbach’s alpha value of 0.693 and section d comprises 8 items with a cronbach’s alpha value of 0.895. each section of the measuring instrument achieved the reliability threshold of 0.70 as recommended by nunnally (1978), thus establishing the internal consistency of the instrument. similarly, the average inter-item correlations all exceeded 0.30, indicating relative homogeneity among items and reflecting the same underlying construct (hair et al., 2010). sections a, b, c and d of the measuring instrument were designed, respectively, to measure the following aspects of pms: awareness and understanding of the pms; the role of managers in ensuring the effectiveness of the pms; satisfaction with performance goals and standard setting and satisfaction with performance rating and bonus. section e of the questionnaire consists of biographic information of the respondents with the following key demographic distributions: academic staff from professorial to lecturership positions (78%), research assistants and academic administrators (22%). others are female respondents (52.4%), male respondents (47.6%), white respondents (55.3%), black respondents, and indian and mixed-race respondents (44.7%). the respondents were aged between 20 and 65 years (97%) with 43% possessing doctorate degrees while 57% hold other academic degrees. of the 492 questionnaires returned, only 313 were useable. this represents 64%, which is considered adequate for the study. data analysis and discussion this section consists of interpretation of data as presented in the respective tables (tables 1–4) and then followed immediately by a discussion of the statistical results. each table consists of a theme, and each theme comprises a number of separate questions with independent statistical results. as a result of this arrangement, the results, interpretation and discussion were presented together rather than organised into separate sections (data analysis, discussion). table 1: results of one-sample t-test statistics for section a of the measuring instrument. table 2: results of one-sample t-test statistics for section b of the measuring instrument. table 3: results of one-sample t-test statistics for section c of the measuring instrument. table 4: results of one-sample t-test statistics for section d of the measuring instrument. data analysis data analysis was conducted using a one-sample t-test, which is used to test whether a population mean is significantly different from some hypothesised value. it is more useful when one-measurement variable is involved and the researcher wants to compare the mean value of the measurement variable with some theoretical expectations. the present study measured the perceptions of all academic staff (irrespective of their positions) in case the university considered implementing pms. this represents a one-measurement variable. the statistical results and discussion of findings are presented in the following section. the results present a strong evidence of awareness with a reported mean of x = 4.68 and associated standard deviation σ = 0.641. further analysis showed a fair perception regarding clear definition and communication of the system to the affected employees (x = 3.4 and σ = 1.226; x = 3.34 and σ = 1.266, respectively). it is imperative for the management to explain the rationale for introducing a pms to the affected employees (aguinis, 2013) as transition from one assessment regime to another requires communication and justification (change management) of the new system in order to re-orientate and assist the employees in understanding and coping with the new system (ogbonna, 2007). consultation with respective stakeholders is a key requirement during the design and implementation of a pms in any organisation. however, the results (x 1.88 & σ1.166) of this article indicate that academics were not consulted during the process and this could lead to the failure of pms in the institution (aguinis, 2013). aguinis emphasised that in order for any pms to be successful, all stakeholders must be consulted and provided with an opportunity to participate and make input in its development and implementation. this participatory approach provides each party an opportunity for trade-offs and compromise. it is expected that possible aspects of the system that could cause tension during implementation would have been removed at the design stage. the research study tested the extent to which the design of pms enabled academics to express the value of their individual contribution towards the institutional goals. the results (x = 3.01 and σ = 1.312) suggested a slightly poor deviation of respondents from the mean to indicate a neutral position. these results are inconsistent with recommendations by previous studies (e.g. aguinis, 2013; kim, 2011), which emphasised that pms creates a direct link between employee performance and organisational goals and makes the employee’s contribution to the organisation explicit. therefore, it is a strategic hrs imperative to align and integrate both individual employee’s performance and group contributions to the overall effectiveness of the organisation (stanton & nankervis, 2011). however, contrary to existing literature, majority of the respondents in the present study conceded the failure of pms to integrate individual academics’ goals with that of the institution (x = 2.88 and σ = 1.302). the implication of the above finding is explained by decramer, christiaens and vanderstraeten (2007), who noted that institutional goals may sometimes conflict with personal goals, thus resulting in conflict of interests during the system implementation stage. furthermore, employee performance management generally represents a smaller part of a broader strategic organisational goal. lack of synergy between individual performance objective and organisational goals may frequently result in tension and lack of cooperation between the different entities (decramer et al., 2007; gruman & saks, 2011). respondents were therefore negatively disposed to the effectiveness of the pms in serving the purpose of its establishment by management. this statement is derived from the statistical evidence (x = 2.4 and σ =1.252), which shows that majority of the respondents fall below the mean and a greater deviation from the average position. this finding is consistent with that of holland (2006), who revealed that only 3 out of 10 employees believed that the performance-review system in their organisations actually assisted in improving their performance towards achieving the organisational goals. coleman (2012) further argued that it is unrealistic to expect that when a pms is implemented, employees will automatically and immediately be motivated to perform better. the role of managers in the implementation of any pms cannot be overemphasised as they exercise judgement in rating employees’ performance. in order to exercise this judgement effectively, managers must be knowledgeable about the rating requirements of the system, and more importantly, be able to objectively justify rating awards to employees who may require such explanation. this study established that a large percentage of academics who responded to the questionnaire do not perceive their reporting line managers to be appropriately qualified in reviewing individual performances (x = 3.42 and σ = 1.248). however, the finding on the role of managers in the review of pms was not supported by aguinis (2013), who argued that managers are usually in the best position to evaluate employees’ performance in relation to strategic organisational goals. the justification is that managers are responsible for operating strategic goals of the organisation and this provides them with the knowledge of individual employee’s performance. the ability and knowledge of managers in implementing the pms was not in doubt in the present study given the statistical results of x = 3.45 and σ = 1.168, respectively. however, strangely, this result was not supported by flaniken (2009), who found that in most organisations, managers do not receive sufficient performance training and this results in inadequate knowledge with which to rate employee’s performance. there was no explicit indication to suggest that managers were specifically trained in the management of pms, but respondents in this study did not seem to have problems regarding the ability or knowledge of their managers in implementing the pms. notwithstanding the statistical outcome in the present study, any pms requires targeted performance management training for managers in order to guarantee success (haines & st-onge, 2012). application of the pms by line managers should be guided by the relevant institutional policy. to this end, we sought to know from the respondents if this was the case. although a high percentage of the respondents agreed with this statement (x = 3.49), this outcome could not be described as truly representative of the respondents with a σ = 1.115. although information regarding the pms is conspicuous and easily accessible via the institution’s intranet, a reasonable number of respondents could not ascertain whether managers applied the system in accordance with the institutional policy. this, perhaps, could account for the divergent degree of standard deviation recorded (σ = 1.115). the finding in this study thus reflects a recommendation by aguinis (2013) that performance management policy must be developed and implemented in such a way that it provides clear guidance to managers and employees on how to deal with performance and capability issues. our findings regarding the objectivity of the ratings and quality of feedbacks received from their managers suggest that majority of the respondents considered the rating outcomes as subjective and not objectively representing their performance. similarly, feedback provided by their managers was neither constructive nor progressive. this deduction was derived from the following statistical results obtained from the analysis of respective questionnaire items: x = 3.4 and σ = 1.139; x = 3.74 and σ = 1.149; x = 3.4 and σ = 1.139. however, analysis of a related questionnaire item indicated that managers indeed based their performance assessment essentially on the evidence of their work performance rather than individual employee’s personality. this conflicting outcome was derived from the following statistical results, which demonstrated a mean of x = 3.29 and a corresponding standard deviation of σ = 1.164. according to flaniken (2009) and aguinis (2013), raters should focus on the standard of work performance relative to predetermined goals without consideration for extraneous issues (e.g. personal relationship with the employee). aguinis (2013) further reiterated the need for managers to avoid destructive criticism when reviewing employee performance, no matter how poor they perceive the employee’s performance to be, as this could trigger negative feelings that could result in interpersonal conflict in the workplace. any open appraisal system should make provisions for employees to ask raters for explanation and perhaps justification of the rating outcomes. in this article, respondents could not confirm whether they received any form of explanation or justification for their rating outcomes from their managers. this assertion was predicated on the strength of statistical results, which showed a mean and standard deviation that are slightly above average (x = 3.29 and σ = 1.164) in respect of the rating outcome by managers. literature (e.g. karuhanga 2010) recorded lack of provision of adequate feedback to employees by raters as a major challenge in pmss. this failure on the part of management is contrary to the position canvassed by aguinis, joo and gottfredson (2011) to the effect that a pms serves as an important two-way communication device, as it clarifies the types of behaviours and results that are valued and rewarded by the organisation. consistency in the application of performance criteria across the board constitutes an important consideration regarding the integrity of a pms. this attribute was tested in this article and the results indicated a non-commitment (i.e. no confirmation) by the respondents regarding the consistent application of the pms criteria to all participants given statistical results of x = 3.03 and σ = 1.167, respectively. this result could be informed by the confidential nature of the pms, which was conducted on a one-on-one basis between individual employees and their managers. therefore, it is not easy for individual employees to compare performance ratings among themselves. this reasoning could be sustained by aguinis’s (2013) recommendation, which emphasised the need for managers to always assure individual employees about the confidentiality of personal information collected from them. there was a low level of participation by respondents in setting the goals of performance management. this was evident in the statistical results of x = 3.23 and σ = 1.23, suggesting that a little above average of the respondents indicated their participation in the process. given these results, it cannot be said that the entire system was that of ‘command and control’. a participatory pms is an important motivational tool for employees in achieving predetermined organisational goals (gruman & saks, 2011; locke & latham, 2002). notwithstanding the level of employees’ participation in the goal-setting process, respondents clearly understood their responsibilities regarding the performance goals and standards (x = 3.46 and σ = 1.167). this outcome is consistent with aguinis (2013) that managers should discuss key or broad areas of job responsibilities with individual employees for the purpose of performance accountability. it has been theoretically established (locke & latham, 1990) that managers should set challenging but achievable goals. goal setting should be pitched at a level that commensurates with the hierarchical position of individual employees within the organisation. in this article, there was indication that performance goals and standards were at appropriate levels of responsibility. this statement was supported with a statistical result x = 3.28 and σ = 1.178, leading to the conclusion that most academics considered their performance goals and standards as achievable and having been set at an acceptable level of responsibility. pienaar and bester (2007) reported that academics considered pmss to lack validity, that is, they do not measure all aspects of the job they are supposed to measure. this shortcoming was reiterated by aguinis et al. (2011) that good and credible pmss should evaluate all major job responsibilities, including behaviours and results. however, majority (x = 3.45 and σ = 1.270) of the respondents in this article indicated that not all tasks performed by them were taken into consideration when setting performance goals, thus adversely affecting their ratings. similarly, a large percentage of the respondents reported failure of the pms to capture their entire workload as evidenced in the statistical outcome (x = 2.37 and σ = 1.27). barret and barret (2008) reported a similar finding in their study. they further report that academics who were surveyed worked long hours and during weekends with their extra efforts not captured in the performance rating. molefe (2010) further submitted that pmss are likely to be resisted by academics if they do not take into account the teaching workload or distribution of the workload between members of departments. however, respondents conceded that management did not deviate from predetermined goals and standards in rating their performance. this response was underscored with statistical results of x = 3.34 and σ = 1.124 and the outcome is consistent with the submission of consistency with aguinis (2013), who emphasised that a good pms should review the extent to which the desired behaviours are being displayed, and whether the desired results have been achieved as agreed upon in the performance agreement. however, flexibility was built around the application of the pms to enable amendments to performance goals and standards should there be changes in the nature of tasks performed in the future. the respondents were asked to state whether the pms respects their independence and freedom regarding their work as academics. one of the core values that academics considered as crucial and non-negotiable for a successful career is the issue of academic freedom and work autonomy. barret and barret (2008) asserted that academics have a high regard for work autonomy and a fairly well-developed cynicism about managerial practices, including performance management. consistent with barret and barret’s assertion, the results of this article (x = 2.67 and σ = 1.297) showed widespread resentment among respondents who considered pms as an orchestrated design by management to undermine their academic freedom and work autonomy. this finding also concurred with that of pityana (2004) who reiterated that academic duties have long been defined by work autonomy and academic freedom, but such rubrics are now being dictated by other parties in line with the dictate of market economy and other considerations. the perception of management infringement (through pms) of academic freedom and work autonomy did negatively affect respondents’ attitude towards their work. results obtained in this study (x = 2.61 and σ = 1.342) alluded to this statement. luthra and jain (2012) provided literature support for this finding by stating that pms will not achieve its intended purpose if employees lack faith in its implementation. a major argument in favour of pms is its inherent ability to fairly distribute organisational rewards. this argument is theoretically supported by adams’ equity theory (1963) which postulated that people compare their work-input (contribution) and outcomes (rewards or bonuses) with those of other workers in order to determine the level of inequity or equity. the outcome of such equity analysis provides an employee with a motivational or attitudinal platform towards the achievement of organisational goals. the performance bonus associated with goal achievement failed to motivate respondents in this study as demonstrated by the statistical results (x = 2.86 and σ = 1.343). luthra and jain (2012) contended that employees may perceive that the pms is unfair in distributing rewards to better performers. such perception by under-performers may lead to a situation where they have them to deal with the perceived imbalance between efforts and rewards by altering their performance (putting in less effort). two reasons can be attributed to the results presented above. firstly, employees could consider the bonus as not attractive enough, as articulated by the expectancy theory (vroom, 1964), to the extent that employees will only work harder if the reward promised is attractive. secondly, rewards are a great source of motivation for employees, but they can prove to decrease motivation in circumstances where those employees having poor performance records are equally rewarded as high performers (saeed & shahbaz, 2011). however, we could not find statistical confirmation as to whether performance bonus motivated poor performers to work harder in order to receive a bonus in the future. the statistical mean of x = 2.73 and a standard deviation of σ = 1.276 suggest that respondents were not motivated by the performance bonus to strive for excellence. vroom’s (1964) expectancy theory posits that employees first assess the degree to which improved job performance is expected to lead to desired outcomes. this finding may be explained within the context of an earlier finding in this article, which indicated that the criteria used in calculating performance bonuses by management are not fair as represented by a statistical mean of x = 2.69 and a corresponding standard deviation of σ = 1.191. a possible reason for this outcome could be lack of proper understanding by academic staff of how performance bonuses are calculated as literature revealed that employees generally have a negative perception of how pmss distribute rewards (luthra & jain, 2012). to conclude our discussion of findings, a greater percentage of respondents indicated their general satisfaction with the outcome of their latest performance evaluation which they described as fair. this position was derived from a statistical mean of x = 3.5 and a standard deviation of σ = 1.111, thus confirming earlier findings reported in this article to the effect that raters were knowledgeable in implementing the pms and that they are rated strictly based on performance rather than personality. therefore, it can be concluded that pms in the case institution is more fairly implemented than what is obtainable in other organisations. for example, a study by flaninken (2009) reported lack of credibility in the implementation of pms in the organisation that was surveyed. the outcome of another study conducted by gallup in india in 2010 also indicated that indian employees, particularly those with 3–10 years’ tenure in an organisation, strongly feel that most pmss are not capable of distinguishing superior performance; therefore, they found such systems to be unfair (luthra & jain, 2012). conclusion this article highlighted the perception and experiences of academic staff regarding the implementation of pms in an odl higher educational institution in south africa. while the pms was designed as a mechanism through which productivity of academic staff could be objectively determined and managed, the measurement criteria used in the pms failed to adequately capture all the tasks performed by academics. this raises concern about the validity of the pms and its fairness in the equitable distribution of organisational outcomes. implementation of pms in institutions of higher learning is not entirely undesirable if properly designed and effectively managed. while it is imperative to adopt a participative approach in its design, administration of the system should also be transparent. the outcomes of this study provide an impetus for improving existing and future pms implementation by management. acknowledgements we want to sincerely thank the reviewers for painstakingly going through the manuscript and making constructive suggestions. their suggestions have assisted us tremendously in improving the quality of this manuscript. we are truly indebted to them. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions e.m.m. conceptualised the study, provided literature review and collected primary data. m.o.s. supervised the study and assisted in methodology, data analysis and wrote the manuscript. references adams, j.s. (1963). towards an understanding of inequality. the journal of abnormal social psychology, 67(5), 422–436. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0040968 aguinis, h. (2013). performance management (2nd edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson prentice hall. aguinis, h., joo, h., & gottfredson, r.k. (2011). why we hate performance management – and why we should love it. business horizon, 54(6), 503–507. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2011.06.001 armstrong, m. (2009). handbook of human resource management practice (11th edn.). london: kogan page. atkinson, c., & shaw, s. (2006). managing performance. in r. lucas, b. lupton, & h. mathieson (eds.), human resource management in an international context (pp. 173–198). london: cipd. baldwin, s. (2006). organisational justice. hr network paper mp73. brighton: institute for employment studies. barret, l., & barret, p., (2008). the management of academic workload: full report. london: leadership foundation for higher education. bititci, u.s., mendibil, t.k., nudurupati, s.s., garengo, p., & turner, t.j. (2004). the interplay between performance measurement, organisational culture and management styles. measuring business excellence, 8(3), 28–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13683040410555591 bogt, h.j., & scapens, r.w. (2011, september). the management of performance in universities – npm and some of its effects. paper presented at the egpa conference, bucharest. bowman, j. (1994). at last, an alternative to performance appraisal. total quality management. public administration review, 54, 129–136. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/976521 bryman, a., & bell, e. (2011). business research methods (3rd edn.). new york: oxford university press. chawla, d., chindra, s., & pandey, v. (2013). census and sample methods. retrieved january 17, 2015, from http://www.slideshare.net/sunilchichra/introduction-28293803 coleman, t.g. (2012). a model for improving the strategic measurement and management of policing: the police organizational performance index (popi). unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of regina, saskatchewan. cooper, d.r., & schindler, p.s. (2001). business research methods. new york: mcgraw-hill. daley, d. (1998). designing effective performance appraisal systems. in s. condrey (ed.), handbook of human resource management in government (3rd edn., pp. 555–586). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. decramer, a., christiaens, j., & vanderstraeten, a. (2007, august). individual performance management in higher education institutions. paper presented at the 29th annual eair forum, innsbruck. farndale, e., van ruiten, j., kelliher, c., & hope-hailey, v. (2011). the influence of perceived employee voice on organizational commitment: an exchange perspective. human resource management, 50(1), 113–129. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20404 flaniken, f.w. (2009). performance appraisal systems in higher education: an exploration of christian institutions. unpublished doctoral degree thesis, university of central florida, orlando, fl. floyd, j., & fowler, j.r. (2013). survey research methods (5th edn.). thousand oaks: sage. fox, c., & shirkey, k. (1997). employee performance appraisal: the keystone made of clay. in c. ban, & n. riccucci (eds.), public personnel management (pp. 189–204). new york: longman. greenberg. (1990). organisational justice: yesterday and tomorrow. journal of management, 16(2), 399–432. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920639001600208 gruman, j.a., & saks, a.m. (2011). performance management and employee engagement. human resource review, 21(2), 123–136. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2010.09.004 hainess, v.y., iii, & st-onge, s. (2012). performance management effectiveness: practices or context?. the international journal of human resource management, 23(6), 1158–1175. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.561230 harding, r. (2006). social entrepreneurship monitor. london: global entrepreneurship monitor. hatch, m.j., & cunliffe, a.l. (2006). organisation theory: modern, symbolic, and postmodern perspectives (2nd edn.). oxford: oxford university press. hawke, l. (2012). australian public sector performance management: success or stagnation? journal of productivity and performance management, 61(3), 310–328. hill, c. (2010). external pressures bring changes to higher education. retrieved october 31, 2012, from http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/distance-learning/external-pressures-bringchanges-to-higher-education/ holland, k. (2006, september 10). performance reviews: many need improvement. the new york times. retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/business/yourmoney/10mgmt.html?_r=0 hudzik, j.k. (2011). comprehensive internationalization: from concept to action. washington, dc: nafsa. the association of international educators. imran, h., arif, i., cheema, f., & azeem, m. (2014). relationship between job satisfaction, job performance, attitude towards work, and organizational commitment. entrepreneurship and innovation management journal, 2(2), 135–144. islam, r., & rasad, s.b.m. (2006). employee performance evaluation by ahp: a case study. asia pacific management review, 11(3), 163–176. junais, p.k. (2012). performance appraisal. retrieved june 30, 2016, from http://www.slideshare.net/nitcalicut_soms/performance-appraisal-15464013 kandula, s.r. (2006). performance management strategies-interventions-drivers. new delhi: phi learning pvt ltd. karim m.o. (2015). assessing the influential behavioral factors of performance management systems. journal of strategy and performance management, 3(1), 4–16. karuhanga, b.m. (2010, august). challenges of performance management in universities in uganda. paper presented at the international research symposium in service management, mauritius. kavanagh, p., benson, j., & brown, m. (2007). understanding performance appraisal fairness. asian pacific journal of human resource management, 45(2), 132–150. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1038411107079108 kim, p.s. (2011, april). performance management and appraisal. paper delivered at the cepa meeting, new york. locke, e.a., & latham, g.p. (1990). a theory of goal setting and task performance. upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. luthra, p., & jain, m. (2012). india’s performance management problem. gallup business journal (online). retrieved february 14, from http://businessjournal.gallup.com/content/153278/india-performance management-problem.aspx maimela, e.e. (2015). academic staff perception of performance management: a case study of an open distance learning institution. unpublished master of commerce dissertation, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. mapesela, m.l.e., & strydom, f. (2004, november). performance management of academic staff in south african higher education system: a developmental project. paper presented at the oecd conference on trends in the management of human resource in higher education, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa. martz, b., mckenna, j., & siegall, m. (2001). applying a standard performance model to a university setting. business process management journal, 7(2), 100–113. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14637150110389425 molefe, g.n. (2010). performance measurement dimensions for lecturers at selected universities: an international perspective. south african journal of human resource management, 8(1), 1–13. molefe, g.n. (2012). performance measurement model and academic staff: a survey at selected universities in south africa and abroad. african journal of business management, 6(15), 5249–5267. nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory (2nd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. ogbonna, e. (2007). managing culture: fantasy or reality? human resource journal, 3(2), 42–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.1992.tb00309.x osei-owusu, m. 2013. performance management in higher education institution – review of experience, performance management in higher education institution. retrieved june 24 2015, from http://ssrn.com/abstract=2240895 parsons, p.g., & slabbert, a.d. (2001). performance management and academic workload in higher education. south african journal of higher education, 15(3), 74–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v15i3.25328 perry, j. (1991). linking pay to performance. the controversy continues. in c. ban, & n. riccucci (eds.), public personnel management (pp. 73–86). white plains, ny: longman. pienaar, c., & bester, c.l. (2007). the retention of academics in the early career phase. south african journal of human resource management, 6(2), 32–41. pieters, m. (2009). the textbook for personnel management. cape town: kagiso higher education. pityana, n.b. (2004, april). higher education in south africa: future perspectives. keynote address delivered at bill venter/altron literacy awards 2003, johannesburg. robinson, h.s., carrillo, p.m., anumba, c.j., & a-ghassani, a.m., 2005, review and implementation of performance management models in construction engineering organizations. construction innovation: information, process, management, 5(4), 203–217. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14714170510815258 ryan, r.m., & deci, e.l. (2000). intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: classic definitions and new directions. contemporary educational psychology, 25, 54–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/ceps.1999.1020 saeed, m.k., & shahbaz, n. (2011). employee perceptions about the effectiveness of performance appraisals: the case of pakistan. siu journal of management, 1(1), 58–75. schultz, h., bagraim, j., potgieter, t., viedge, c. & werner, a. (2003). organisational behaviour: a contemporary south african perspective. pretoria: van schaik publishers. shields, j. (2008). managing employee performance and reward: concepts, practices, strategies. new york: cambridge university press. shishkina, v. (2008). new public management strategies: implications for universities in emerging economies. unpublished master’s thesis, blekinge institute of technology, karlskrona, sweden. solomons, n. (2006). a critical evaluation of the performance management system used by nampak research and development. unpublished mba dissertation, nelson mandela metropolitan university, port elizabeth, south africa. sousa, c.a.a., de nijs, w.f., & hendriks, p.h.j., 2010, secrets of the beehive: performance management in university research organisations. human relations, 16(9), 1439–1460. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0018726709357083 south african institute for distance education (saide). 2009. saide policy on open educational resources. retrieved november 23, 2012, from https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=utf-8&rlz=1t4plxb_enza595za596&q=saide+%28south+african+institute+for+distance+education%29.+2009.+saide+policy+on+open+educational+resources stanton, p., & nankervis, a. (2011). linking hrm, performance management and organisational effectiveness: perceptions of managers in singapore. asia pacific review, 17(1), 62–84. tam, w.h.k. (2008). academics’ perspectives of performance management in a british university context. unpublished phd thesis, university of leicester, leicester, united kingdom. taticchi, p., balachandran, k., & tonelli, f., 2012, performance measurement and management systems: state of the art, guidelines for design and challenges. measuring business excellence, 16(2), 4. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13683041211230311 toppo, l., & prusty, t. (2012). from performance appraisal to performance management. journal of business and management, 3(5), 1–6. http://dx.doi.org/10.9790/487x-0350106 tϋrk, k. (2007). performance appraisal and the compensation of academic staff in the university of tartu. baltic journal of management, 3(1), 40–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17465260810844257 tustin, d.h., lighelm, a.a., martins, j.h., & van wyk, h. de j. (2005). marketing research in practice. pretoria: unisa press. vroom, v.h. (1964). work and motivation. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. willaert, p., & willems, j. (2006). process performance measurement: identifying kpis that link process performance to company strategy. emerging trends and challenges in information technology management, 1(2), 740–744. zeleza, p.t. (2012, march). internationalization in higher education: opportunities and challenges for the knowledge project in the global south. paper presented at a sarua leadership dialogue on building the capacity of higher education to enhance regional development, maputo, mozambique. abstract introduction research aim or purpose theoretical framework methods findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) guinevere m. lourens ukwanda centre for rural health, stellenbosch university, south africa department of nursing and midwifery, stellenbosch university, south africa danielle k. daniels-felix ukwanda centre for rural health, stellenbosch university, south africa citation lourens, g.m., & daniels-felix, d.k. (2017). hospital volunteerism as human resource solution: motivation for both volunteers and the public health sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a813. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.813 original research hospital volunteerism as human resource solution: motivation for both volunteers and the public health sector guinevere m. lourens, danielle k. daniels-felix received: 21 apr. 2016; accepted: 25 may 2017; published: 15 aug. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: a volunteer programme with 50 registered volunteers was established in 2007 at a secondary-level public, semi-rural regional hospital in the cape winelands, south africa. this was a rapid response to the extensive renovations and system changes brought about by the hospital revitalisation initiated in 2006 and the resultant expanded services, which required additional human resources. this study describes the hospital volunteer programme and provides hospital administrators with practical planning guidance for hospital volunteer programme implementation. purpose: the purpose of this study is to (1) describe the outcomes of the hospital volunteer programme implementation intervention and (2) to make sound recommendations for volunteer programme implementation. methodology and approach: a qualitative case-study methodology was employed using purposive sampling as a technique. participants were recruited from a public hospital in the western cape. a case-study design was applied to explore the hospital volunteer programme implementation. in-depth interviews and a focus group discussion with thematic content analysis of transcripts as well as document reviews were conducted to conclude the study during 2015. the key participants were individually interviewed and included two members of the hospital management, two volunteers and one volunteer coordinator. a focus group discussion consisting of three volunteers was also conducted. findings: the findings of this study indicate that a volunteer programme can meet needs and be a motivational force for both the individual volunteer and the organisation. however, it requires co-ordination and some secure funding to remain sustainable. such a programme holds huge benefits in terms of human resource supplementation, organisational development, as well as the possibility of gainful employment for the previously unemployed. practical implications: in practice, a health service contemplating a volunteer programme should develop criteria for recruitment and selection of volunteers, accompanied by the necessary documentation for applications. a coordinator of the volunteer service needs to be identified. volunteers will need to be orientated, given access to in-service training and supervised. consideration needs to be given to risk management of vicarious liability by developing a code of conduct, clear roles and responsibilities, managing staff and volunteer relationships and providing emergency care for injuries while on duty as a volunteer. introduction volunteers play a crucial role within the health care system (prabhu, hanley & kearney, 2008, p. 265). there is scope to further the promise of possibility and opportunity for both the volunteers involved and the hospital in which a volunteer programme is established. hotchkiss, fottler and unruh (2009, p. 127) found a positive relationship between volunteerism and hospital cost saving but suggested a need for further research. the exploration of the sensitive issue of the relationship between volunteer and paid labour is also an area for future research (handy, mook & quarter, 2008, p. 16), which could have implications for volunteerism policy, as well as public leadership. penner (2002, p. 448) defined volunteerism as ‘long-term, planned prosocial behaviour that benefits strangers and occurs within an organizational setting. volunteerism has four salient attributes: longevity, planfulness, non-obligatory helping and an organizational context’. hotchkiss, unruh and fottler (2014, p. 15) call for health care executives to share best practices in volunteer recruitment, screening, orientation, training, policies, service guidelines and risk management plans in formalisation of volunteer programmes. the national department of health of south africa implemented a hospital revitalisation grant to modernise and transform the infrastructure and health technology of public hospitals and improve the access to health care as well as quality of care. a secondary-level, semi-rural, public regional hospital in the cape winelands was entered into the hospital revitalisation programme (hrp) in may 2006 and reached practical completion on 23 march 2012. hospital revitalisation is an organisational development intervention in its own right as it brings about organisation-wide changes in the physical surroundings, workflow and modernised technology requiring skills training. the expanded services make way for human resource expansion. however, the expanded services were not well aligned to the existing staff establishment, and funding constraints prevented filling of required posts. the management at this hospital implemented a volunteer programme in 2007 as one of the planned interventions to cope with the rapid change brought about by revitalisation and the expanded services as a result of these renovations. the hospital board initiated a volunteer programme whereby 50 individuals volunteered to assist by working in the pharmacy, linen bank, porter service and cleaning team, or to be part of the pamper team, a group of volunteers doing hair and nail care. although the number of volunteers on any given day may fluctuate, the hospital has subsequently retained this number of a maximum of 50 volunteers, which can be accommodated daily in the volunteer service. following this opportunity to volunteer, there have been numerous success stories arising from this programme. the advantage of being volunteers at a hospital when a position becomes vacant is that they have a competitive edge on application and during the interview over other candidates. however, the literature should culminate on success stories of volunteers at hospitals such as the case illustrated of the hospital in this study. the literature search revealed many hospitals providing case studies on the success of their volunteer programmes, but they have used ‘volunteer’ as a broader term meaning an individual who provides work for no profit. it should be noted that there are different categories of volunteers: professional volunteers (retired nurses and doctors and allied health professionals) and non-professional volunteers (housekeepers, cleaners, porters, etc.). most of the literature focuses on professional volunteers. there is a scarcity of literature concentrating on non-professional volunteers in hospitals, who have secured jobs as a result of their non-profit labour experience. this area of volunteerism has been under-researched because volunteerism in health care organisations in a broader context usually involves patient care and administration. in this particular study, volunteerism involves working in various service support departments such as pharmacy, medical records, kitchen, linen bank, porter service and cleaning and pamper teams. the volunteers in this study do not assist with caring for the physical health of the patients. volunteers assist an organisation to ‘increase capacity and resources within the health services’ (jones, 2004, p. 5). connors (2011, p. 117) concurs that volunteers enable expansion of service despite budgetary limitations. international studies on volunteerism indicate that volunteers perform tasks in different areas such as transporting patients, assisting with clerical duties and providing information. a study conducted by jones (2004) indicated that 60% of the participants within the health setting found that volunteers improved services by supporting staff and adding value to the services being rendered. according to handy and srinivasan (2004), volunteers are assigned to: escort patients on outings, provide companionship and support to patients, assist with recreational and social programmes, help with shopping and doing errands, and accompany patients from one facility to another and administrative work. however, in japanese hospitals, volunteer activities were related to ‘recreation, conversation partners, music and entertainment, wheelchair pushing and helping with administration’ (aragaki, saito, takahashi & kai, 2007). the dynamics of volunteer activities show how volunteer roles are emerging through closer contact with the patients and how volunteer positions have evolved over the years. according to connors (2011), all volunteer involvement generates risks. ellis (2012) suggests that risk assessment is always valid, as an organisation should want to keep all participants safe. hotchkiss et al. (2014) indicate a gap within volunteerism theory and mention that the types of positions in which volunteers are used should be measured in future research. because this area is under-researched, it is advisable that studies are done on non-professional volunteers in hospitals. studies should evaluate success stories of non-professional volunteer programmes in other hospitals and examine whether there are rewards or benefits that go along with being a volunteer. research aim or purpose this study aimed to provide a description of a hospital volunteer programme, which will contribute to the body of knowledge on hospital volunteer programme implementation. the public health sector and role-players in public health management stand to benefit from this research. theoretical framework the conceptual framework in qualitative research utilises concepts from existing theories and relates the findings to these. theories help to understand the phenomenon and incorporate our understanding of the setting, people, processes and the interrelationships (maxwell, 2012, pp. 85–87). motivational theories build on the extrinsic conditions which stimulate certain behaviours and the intrinsic responses sustained by sources of energy or motives which drive action (jooste, 2009, p. 69). the humanistic content theories of motivation focus on inner needs that motivate behaviour and are associated with thinkers such as maslow, alderfer, atkinson, herzberg, mcclelland and mcgregor. maslow’s theory of motivation was helpful in understanding the motives served by volunteerism. the maslow (1954) motivation theory is one of the best known, influential theories on workplace motivation, which suggests that humans have a hierarchy of needs and that when basic psychological and physical needs are met, the focus on safety, a sense of belonging, esteem and self-actualisation follows. blanchard (2006, p. 31) found that motivations to volunteer in a hospital are complex. volunteers can be sustained by non-altruistic motives of the social benefits and upskilling for personal enhancement. besides personal fulfilment, generosity was also found to be influential in volunteering. other studies highlight social rewards of volunteering and the draw of personal and indirect economic rewards. methods a case-study design with a qualitative approach was utilised for this study. in case-study research, all evidence is collated in data collection and qualitative methods are regarded as primary. the case-study design involves an intensive exploration of a single unit of study (bowling, 2009, p. 434) such as the hospital being studied and was therefore selected as most suited to exploring this public secondary regional hospital institution volunteer programme. the goal of qualitative studies is not to generalise but to understand the processes and meanings for the specific setting. the guiding principle in a qualitative study is selecting the setting and individual or participants who are most accessible and conducive to gaining the understanding on what you want to know (maxwell, 2012, pp. 94–95). qualitative content analysis with thematic coding was applied to the data set. the interviews took place in private office spaces and the focus group in the boardroom of the hospital, which was most convenient for the participants. five participants from the hospital were asked to participate in individual interviews and another three in a focus group. the individual interviewees included two members of hospital management, two volunteers and one volunteer coordinator. the focus group consisted of three volunteers. a purposive sampling technique was used and the eight participants joined in the study. the interview schedule and focus group consisted of four questions and provided information regarding the participant’s involvement and experience of the volunteer programme, the challenges experienced and their recommendations going forward. with the consent of the participants, the interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. the interviews and focus groups were conducted face to face and did not exceed an hour. the qualitative methodology adopted included the following data collection methods: individual interviews and a focus group with purposively sampled key participants and the analysis of documents pertaining to the volunteer implementation programme. although the in-depth interviews and the focus group were the primary source of data collection, reviewing documents was also used to build a description of the case. the following documents were reviewed: (1) volunteer recruitment document, (2) application documents developed, (3) the volunteer register, (4) attendance register and (5) statistics on volunteer training and those gainfully employed at the hospital or other placements during the course of revitalisation. the different sources of data enabled multi-method data collection, which serves to triangulate data (ross, 2012, pp. 134–135). ethical considerations ethics approval for the study was obtained from the human research ethics committee of stellenbosch university. findings in may 2007, a volunteer programme was established by employing a part-time coordinator. she had to coordinate the volunteers who wanted to assist the hospital for 4 h daily, initially on week days only. she was mentored by an experienced manager in the radiology department. she initially handled a team of 30 volunteers daily and was assisted by the whole of the radiology department, which adopted this campaign and assisted her whenever assistance was needed or when she was on leave or off sick. the programme was mainly advertised by word of mouth and soon the number of volunteers had to be restricted to 50, which could be handled on a daily basis. the volunteers included semi-skilled and unskilled people. volunteers worked as cleaners, porters, administrative clerks, medical records clerks, stores assistants and linen assistants. there was also the establishment of the pampering team, which renders hair and nail care to clients admitted to hospital in a state of neglect or those far from home with no relatives close by. the necessities such as a trolley with stationery, shampoo, soap, and hair and nail equipment for this programme were funded by the hospital facility board. with the introduction of clinicom (a new client record database) to the hospital, new human resource challenges emerged, and dedicated volunteers were trained to assist some of the service departments with this added work load. the programme was extended on request by the emergency centre to include having volunteers on duty over weekends to assist the patients and their family or as escorts in the waiting rooms by handing out beverages for those waiting for long periods of time. volunteers also assist the patients by asking the nursing staff about waiting times. later volunteers were utilised as queue marshals in the busy outpatients department. the one aspect regarded by informants as the main success of the programme was the number of volunteers who were subsequently permanently employed, both at this hospital and at other public health sector institutions or the private sector. by the conclusion of this study, seven people were employed as porters, eight people as general assistants, seven people as clerks, five people in the food service department and one person in the linen bank. six people were employed as pharmacy assistants, two at this institution and the others at other institutions. there are also many volunteers working as paid locums, 6 in the pharmacy, 20 as general assistants and 1 as a porter. the five participants were interviewed individually, and three members joined in a focus group discussion on the programme experience, challenges and recommendations. those involved in the programme at the hospital expressed pride in their contribution, to give the volunteers a chance to gain experience and provide them with testimonials via the coordinator when needed at the end of their volunteer time. two main themes emerged, namely economic and altruistic drivers. four sub-themes emerged from the participants’ responses and the quotes are presented below. these themes are displayed diagrammatically in figure 1. responses given in afrikaans have been translated into english and are indicated by square brackets. each theme is explained and participant quotes from the interviews and focus group discussion are added to illuminate the meaning of each theme. figure 1: economic and altruistic drivers in volunteer programme. economic transition for the volunteers, the opportunity to be a volunteer in this programme led to some form of economic transition, albeit a tedious process. for some volunteers, it took many years of volunteering before they realised this transition. the transition was moving from unemployment to gainful employment, either in positions at the hospital, other health facilities or as contract workers for locum agencies. volunteers were asked to register with locum agencies and were given preference when paid locum jobs became available. volunteers were assisted with on-the-job training, gaining work experience, cv-writing skills and job interview skills, all of which were seen as contributing factors towards making this transition. informants said that it was the power of this possibility which kept them in the programme so long. the comments included: volunteerism … is a foot in the door and you get experience … the volunteers got opportunities to earn money in locum positions; based on the experience they gained. (respondent 2, female, volunteer) i can only say to those who want to volunteer, only good can come from volunteering. what you sow, you will reap. you need to be prepared to plough and your heart needs to be right. (respondent 4, female, volunteer) economic sustainability for the hospital, the economic driver for the volunteer programme was the economic benefits it held. the cost-benefit of the volunteer programme totalled the equivalent of 14 full-time staff members in the hours volunteered in various departments. the ‘pre-investment’ in volunteers in terms of on-the-job training paid off when those volunteers successfully applied for vacant posts. the transition into the job was relatively seamless as pre-knowledge existed about the position and the organisational environment. the following participant had calculated that the hours put in by volunteers equated to 14 full-time staff members: stats show we recruit the equivalent of 14 full-time workers at the hospital through the volunteer programme. (respondent 5, male, hospital management) prior investment in people took place and the fact that the volunteers had already been trained in their jobs means that the investments pays off when the person starts working and they already have some skills. (respondent 5, male, hospital management) volunteer satisfaction for the volunteers, satisfaction came from having a sense of purpose on a daily basis. as they become known at the hospital, they developed a sense of belonging. they described the personal satisfaction of being ‘seen’, and noticed by others. they acknowledged that it was sometimes a difficult environment with so many diverse people, but found it purposeful. the comments included: i got purpose … and i feel that i belong … i was motivated and felt acknowledged which makes you feel that you belong. (respondent 3, male, volunteer) we are in a people business. people are the essence. it is give and take. it is not a high profile job, but purposeful. being out there is difficult. (respondent 3, male, volunteer) i want to add that as a volunteer, you introduce yourself to the staff. they get used to you and it is one of the advantages. if you enter the building, the people get used to you; they see you on a daily basis … daily visibility – you become known and seen. (respondent 4, female, volunteer) volunteer opportunities the hospital being studied took pride in being seen as a place of opportunity. however, a volunteer coordinator was deemed essential as well as the funding for such a post to make the programme viable and sustainable. management bought into the volunteer programme, which contributed to the success thereof. experienced volunteers were used to train new recruits. the comments included: i think one of the great successes is that management bought into it. (respondent 1, female, hospital management) he is so valuable for me, because now if we want to place volunteers, we place them with him and he trains them because he knows what it was like when he was a volunteer. (respondent 1, female, hospital management) the hospital is now a place of opportunity. (focus group discussion) it was pointed out to us that it was a program where no promises are made. it is a voluntary service, but it can lead to a permanent position at the hospital. (respondent 3, male, volunteer) people went from volunteering to get jobs in different places … gainful employment and we are very proud of that. (respondent 5, male, hospital management) in some cases, permanent staff took a back seat when volunteers were deployed to a department. tight control of work allocation and the management of roles, responsibilities and relationships between volunteers and hospital staff were required, as evidenced in the comment below: they will stand talking to each other, and the volunteer will do the work and that is a challenge for their manager, because that manager needs to manage their people together with the volunteers, but sometimes is does not work so well. (respondent 1, female, hospital management) discussion where blanchard (2006, p. 36) found that reputational gains and experience were not significant factors in volunteer motivation, this study found the contrary. it could be argued that in the south african context, with unemployment rates of around 25% and youth unemployment over 60% (statistics south africa, 2015), such motives are more critical. respondents reported having a sense of belonging and daily importance in their work as volunteers. connors (2011) acknowledges that volunteer and staff relations remain critical and complex and calls for adequate communication between these parties as well as orientation and training of volunteers. skill development to gain experience towards paid employment was a significant factor in the motivations of respondents. the hospital management also felt that training and experience had the benefit to the volunteer towards possible employment and to the hospital should they recruit the volunteer, as they were ‘pre-trained’ for the job. motivation is a concept used to describe the intrinsic responses sustained by human needs, which in turn stimulate people to action in order to seek and achieve goals to satisfy those needs. the data that emerged from this study were well aligned to the maslow’s (1954) hierarchy of needs and confirmed that needs are continuous and that volunteers are more enthusiastically motivated by what they are seeking. no matter what they have achieved in terms of volunteerism; lower order needs such as a sustainable income will always be the focus and energy (jooste, 2009, pp. 69–71). maslow’s theory of motivation serves the purpose of explaining the volunteerism phenomenon and was used in the inductive process of building from the data to themes. the data collected from the volunteer participants in terms of motive were applied to maslow’s motivational theory and tabulated in table 1. table 1: maslow’s motivational theory as applied to the volunteers experiences. from the themes which emerged and the literature (botma, greeff, mulaudzi & wright, 2010, p. 199), the theory could also be applied to the motivation of the hospital with regard to the volunteer programme and is depicted in table 2. table 2: maslow’s motivational theory as applied to the hospital’s perspective. from an implementation of a volunteer programme perspective, the interviews with management illuminated the risk management requirements. wyngaard (2012, p. 31) warns about vicarious liability and volunteers. this means that the organisation could be held liable for unlawful conduct of volunteers. connors (2011) calls for courses in volunteer resource management at facilities and dedicated attention to volunteerism policy development. in this study, a volunteer policy was drawn up and overseen by the chief executive officer (ceo). documentation on application to volunteer initially included declarations on criminal records. a subsequent innovation under consideration is to get police criminal record clearance certificates for volunteers, but had not been implemented until the end of this study. however, a code of conduct for volunteers is a recommendation of this study, as well as a rigorous application process. hotchkiss et al. (2014, p. 15) concur that health care organisations need to carefully screen volunteers prior to selection to maximise the quality benefits. constant redefining of risk management boundaries when it comes to having volunteers in a health setting makes for good governance. risk assessment leads to appropriate volunteer assignments, identification of the necessary qualifications to fill those roles, targeted recruitment for those skills, proper screening, solid orientation and training and monitoring (ellis, 2012). in this study setting, the volunteers are managed by a coordinator, who in turn is managed by a senior manager in the hospital. the ceo oversees the programme and reports to the hospital facility board, which would fund the costs of the programme, appoint the coordinator and act on behalf of the public should any complaints or concerns be raised about the volunteer programme. volunteerism is important in the management of health care facilities as it allows the organisation to substitute volunteers for paid staff, offers significant cost savings to hospitals and is likely to impact on quality indicators such as patient satisfaction and safety (hotchkiss et al., 2014, p. 2). more research is required to measure the cost–benefit ratio and impact on organisational performance. this study found a definite benefit in volunteers bolstering human capital and an impact in the health care organisational performance through contributions made by volunteers in many different settings in the hospital. health care organisations should assess which additional activities, duties and responsibilities could be assumed by volunteers. recommendations the findings of this study could serve to inform health service practice management of recommendations for hospital volunteer programmes. initially, the hospital needs to secure seed funding to appoint a coordinator and for the start-up equipment. hospital management needs to develop a risk management strategy. risk management strategies should include careful selection of volunteers and character interrogation, such as criminal record clearance to prevent vicarious liability. the volunteers need to be integrated into the orientation and induction processes, as well as staff training opportunities. by the same token, volunteers should take advantage of training opportunities afforded to them. volunteers should have some choice of the section they want to work in to ensure a good fit. however, the relationships between hospital staff and volunteers need to be clarified. in most cases, the relationship between hospital staff and volunteers should be actively managed. exploitation of volunteers by permanent hospital staff must be prevented. volunteers need some initial guidance on how to engage in various departments and with hospital staff. they need to develop resilience for some of the relationship challenges between volunteers and hospital staff. although the volunteering holds distinct benefit in terms of self-development, self-esteem and self-actualisation, perseverance is required on the part of the volunteer. volunteers need to be acknowledged and valued for the contribution they make to the health care environment. conclusion hospital volunteerism promises to be a quid pro quo, or something for something, intervention which benefits both hospital and volunteer. the hospital benefits in efficiency gains, development of local community members and in recruitment of potential future staff members. volunteers benefit, by giving of their time, in learning new skills, gaining experience and belonging to a setting where they have a daily purpose and are valued. provided risk is managed and minimised, the promise of possibility permeates to both volunteer and hospital facility. acknowledgements this study has been supported and is funded by stellenbosch university, fund for innovation and research in rural health (firrh). competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions g.m.l. was responsible for the research proposal, ethics applications, data collection and data analysis of this article. d.k.d-f. carried out the literature review and performed the data analysis triangulation. references aragaki, m., saito, t., takahashi, m., & kai, i. (2007). hospital volunteer’s role and accident prevention systems. a nationwide survey of japanese hospitals. health services management research, 20, 220–226. https://doi.org/10.1258/095148407782219021 blanchard, j.a. (2006). hospital volunteers: a qualitative study of motivation. the international journal of volunteers administration, 14(2), 31–40. botma, y., greeff, m., malaudzi, f., & wright, s. (2010). research in health sciences. cape town: pearson. bowling, a. (2009). research methods in health. berkshire: open university press. connors, t. (2011). the volunteer management handbook: leadership strategies for success (2nd ed.). hoboken, nj: wiley. ellis, s. (2012). common sense and volunteer involvement. retrieved may 14, 2017, from https://www.energizeinc.com/hot-topics/2012/april handy, f., mook, l., & quarter, j. (2008). the inter changeability of paid staff and volunteers in nonprofit organizations. nonprofit and volunteer sector quarterly, 37(1), 76–92. https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764007303528 handy, f., & srinivasan, n. (2004). valuing volunteers: an economic evaluation of the net benefits of hospital volunteers. nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly, 33, 28–54. https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764003260961 hotchkiss, r.b., fottler, m.d., & unruh, l. (2009). valuing volunteers: the impact of volunteerism on hospital performance. health care management review, 34(2), 119–128. hotchkiss, r.b., unruh, l., & fottler, m.d. (2014). the role, measurement, and impact of volunteerism in hospitals. nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1097/hmr.0b013e31819e919a jones, h. (2004). volunteering for health. wales council for voluntary action, welsh assembly government. retrieved may 17, 2017, from http://www.wales.nhs.uk/documents/volunteering-for-health-report-e.pdf jooste, k. (ed.). (2009). leadership in health services management (2nd ed.). landsdowne: juta. maslow, a.h. (1954). motivation and personality. new york: harper & row. maxwell, j.a. (2012). a realist approach for qualitative research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. penner, l.a. (2002). dispositional and organizational influences on sustained volunteerism: an interactionist perspective. journal of social issues, 58, 448. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-4560.00270 prabhu, v.r., hanley, a., & kearney, s. (2008). evaluation of a hospital volunteer programme in rural australia. australian health review, 32(2), 265–269. https://doi.org/10.1071/ah080265 ross, t. (2012). a survival guide for health research methods. berkshire: open university press. statistics south africa. (2015). quarterly labour force survey: quarter 2. pretoria: south african government. wyngaard, r. (2012). a practical legal guide to south african volunteers. cape town: ricardo wyngaard attorneys. abstract introduction research purpose and objective research design discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) tinashe t. harry department of industrial psychology, university of fort hare, south africa nicole m. dodd department of industrial psychology (military), stellenbosch university, south africa willie t. chinyamurindi department of industrial psychology, university of fort hare, south africa citation harry, t.t., dodd, n.m., & chinyamurindi, w.t. (2017). using narratives to understand the motivational factors and experience of being a self-initiated academic expatriate in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a797. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.797 original research using narratives to understand the motivational factors and experience of being a self-initiated academic expatriate in south africa tinashe t. harry, nicole m. dodd, willie t. chinyamurindi received: 07 feb. 2016; accepted: 05 july 2017; published: 31 aug. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: a growing movement of foreign nationals is settling in south africa. given this, there is a need to understand not only those factors influencing foreign nationals to settle in south africa but also their lived experiences as a basis for individual career development. research purpose: to investigate the expatriation motivational factors and experiences of self-initiated academic expatriates in south africa. motivation for the study: calls have been made within the careers literature for more empirical focus on understanding career development using some of the neglected sample groups. research approach, design and method: the interpretive paradigm was adopted to understand the main purpose of the study. guided by study objectives, unstructured interviews were conducted using a sample of foreign academics working in south africa (n = 25). main findings: individual stories and narratives highlighted that academics relocated for the following reasons: (1) individual preference, (2) economic meltdown and (3) political conditions. furthermore, the lived experiences of the expatriates reflected discrimination within the workplace and the community of residences in south africa. practical and managerial implications: research findings indicate that the human resources (hr) function can come up with interventions that positively influence the lived experience and career development of foreign academics working in south africa. contribution: the expatriate experience framed in this study provides a picture of the career development processes of neglected sample groups in the extant literature. such an understanding is key in advancing literature and proposing interventions. all this is important given the global trend on labour and skills movement added to the role south africa plays in the international arena. introduction many individuals are now looking beyond their home countries in search of career opportunities and a better life. mostert (2014) attributes the movement of labour to globalisation. this has allowed host countries the opportunity to not only attract but also retain skilled professionals within their workplace (silvanto & ryan, 2014). ryan, silvanto and ozkaya (2015) observe that host countries have had to lower their migration requirements so as to attract skilled foreign nationals. fundamentally, this has changed not only the nature of work but also the view of the notion of a career (baruch, dickmann, altman & bournois, 2013; rodriguez & scurry, 2014). such international trends have led to the rise of, and need to investigate, self-initiated expatriates (sies) as an important source of talent (doherty, 2013; haslberger & vaiman, 2013). the major difference between sies and traditional expatriates is the initiative to move (andresen, al ariss & walther, 2012; selmer & lauring, 2012; suutari & brewster, 2000). accordingly, sies are viewed as those individuals choosing to pursue international careers on their own initiative (cao, hirschi & deller, 2013; tharenou & caulfied, 2010) and who finance their own expatriation for personal and career development. for sie, the initiative to expatriate is therefore a personal choice, not an organisation’s (richardson & mallon, 2005). despite the rise in sie, little empirical focus exists internationally (doherty, 2013). this even extends to the south african setting as well. furthermore, calls have been made for understanding the concept of boundaryless or protean careers (abele, spurk & vomer, 2012; al ariss, cascio & paauwe, 2013; carr, inkson & thorn, 2005; hall, 2002; inkson, gunz, ganesh & roper, 2012; tams & arthur, 2010). such career paths are characterised by mobility across different locations. the notion of the sie can be thought to fit within this categorisation and hence its importance and the need for more research (richardson, 2009; selmer & lauring, 2011a). such investigations are warranted for given intensification in the movement of individuals across borders (international labour organisation, 2010). emerging literature appears to suggest that the decision to expatriate no longer lies with the organisation but rather with the individual (selmer & lauring, 2011a). calls have been made for research that expands this view (froese, 2012; howe-walsh & schyns, 2010). a need thus exists to investigate the sie experience as part of a project of the individual (volpe & murphy, 2011), especially amongst academics as their professional skills are easily transferable across countries (beaverstock, 2005; richardson & mckenna, 2003). furthermore, calls exist for more empirical work to investigate sie within the academic context and extend theorising given the mobility within this type of work (richardson, 2009). research purpose and objective the purpose of this study was to explore the expatriation motivational factors and the lived experiences of sie academics working at a south african rural university. the backdrop of this is twofold. firstly, theoretically, there is an acknowledgement of the important role sies play not just for the home but also the host country (ainuddin & lily, 2012; doherty, richardson & thorn, 2013; jokinen, brewster & suutari, 2008). this has even culminated in an argument that such investigations on sie can provide a better understanding to the field of work studies (inkson & richardson, 2010). second is a contextual argument. although expatriates may face discrimination in academia globally, discrimination against expatriates is worth careful and particular attention in south africa. this is because south africa has experienced a spate of violent xenophobic attacks since 1994 (saleh, 2015). more so, discrimination, specifically xenophobia, is prevalent in south african universities, with expatriate students and staff being exposed to a wide array of xenophobic experiences in south africa (buthelezi, 2009; sorensen, 2012; singh, 2013). south africa is simultaneously experiencing a skills crisis, specifically in higher education (sebola, 2015), and will fail to address its skills shortages over the short term if it cannot attract and retain sies. it is therefore necessary to identify and address factors such as discrimination which may deter skilled sies from choosing to work in higher education in south africa. the overall research question guiding this study was: what factors (given the south african context) influence sies to expatriate and the ensuing lived experience accompanying this decision? factors influencing self-initiated expatriate’s movement contemporary career theories emerge, especially because of environmental complexities surrounding modern day careers. this study focused on the boundaryless career theory because of its applicability to knowledge-intensive workers (inkson et al., 2012). for the purpose of this research study, the boundaryless career theory is divided into physical and psychological mobility. physical mobility represents the transitions of the participants across boundaries, and psychological mobility illustrates transitions of the individual’s perception (andresen et al., 2012; chen, 2012). given this, the thinking could be that the interaction between the physical and psychological plays a part in decisions such as moving from one country to another. a number of studies have been conducted on the movement of sie especially internationally. within the british context, the need for adventure or travel has been found to be a factor that influences movement of skills (richardson & mallon, 2005; richardson & mckenna, 2002). in another study, the need for financial gain and the quest for career development opportunities have been found to influence the movement of younger academics to leave their home countries (selmer & lauring, 2010). in general, studies conducted mostly in western countries attribute a sense of adventure, monetary issues, family and partner considerations, life change and personal development as influencing factors amongst expatriates (al ariss & syed, 2011; howe-walsh & schyns, 2010; selmer & lauring, 2011b). amongst academics there is acknowledgement that within such professions, skills are easily transferable across countries (beaverstock, 2005; richardson & mckenna, 2003). this is suggested to be a notable pattern in western countries (maharaj, 2011). altbach (2004) makes a categorisation of push and pull factors as influencing academics to expatriate. push factors include motivation such as opportunities for scholarships, better working conditions and better salary. conversely, pull factors (depending on the individual) may include the need for job security, stability, resource scarcity and the need for better working conditions. despite the growing theorising, there are arguments for the need of more empirical focus into the lived experience of sie (alshammari, 2013). further, the role of environmental and social phenomena on this experience is argued to be important in enhancing the expatriate experience (e.g. richardson, 2006, 2009; richardson & mallon, 2005; richardson & mckenna, 2002; richardson & zikic, 2007; selmer & lauring, 2010). research design research approach a qualitative exploratory research approach was adopted to understand not only the factors but also the lived experiences of sies working as academics. this approach helped gain a deeper understanding of the participants’ lived experiences (creswell, 2009) from the subjective view of the individual (riessman, 2008). such an approach allows for the collection of situational information and extrapolating information that accompanies human actions and decisions (guba & lincoln, 1994). research strategy unstructured interviews were deemed as an appropriate method for collecting data, thereby allowing participants to share their experiences freely. the aim here was to generate meaning through participant stories; such stories are viewed by merriam (2002, p. 286) as tools that allow for ‘meaning-making’ to understand the ‘human experience’. by using unstructured interviews, participants were able to draw meaning from their lived experience and reflect on their experiences and to clarify their responses (rubin & rubin, 2005). this type of interviewing allowed the researcher to elicit stories from the participants rather than brief answers or discrete responses that can be pre-determined (riessman, 2008). research method sampling and participants a total of 25 participants were selected to take part in this study. the sample for this study was gathered using a combination of sampling methods, namely: judgemental and convenience sampling (creswell, 2009). in this regard, participants had to be full-time foreign academics who were accessible to the researchers because of time and budget constraints. the demographic characteristics of participants and their pseudonyms (used to protect their identity) are illustrated in table 1. table 1: participant profiles. data collection methods during the interview process, the researchers recorded notes, and all interviews were recorded and transcribed word for word. prior to every interview, participants were given a thorough briefing and informed of the expectations, rights and responsibilities around the research. all interviews were conducted in the offices of the academics at the university campus, and inclusion and exclusion criteria protocols were followed. participants had to be foreign nationals working as full-time academics at a selected university who had initiated their own expatriation. recording of the data data analysis the interviews were transferred to qsr nvivo 9, which is a data analysis and management software (reuben & bobat, 2014). a data analysis procedure based on three levels of meaning-making, as adopted in previous research, was used (chinyamurindi, 2012, 2016; mccormack, 2000). level 1 was helpful in developing a good understanding of the career development experience of each story. this was performed by re-reading each interview and listening to audio recordings. such a process allowed for the identification of ‘markers’ of the stories (mccormack, 2000, p. 221) and answering the questions about each interview: ‘what kind of story is this?’ (thornhill, clare & may, 2004, p. 188). level 2 was achieved through classifying responses from participants into meaningful categories (nachmias & nachmias, 1996). finally, in level 3, the researcher analysed the content of the gathered narrative accounts and themes (mccormack, 2000). this was carried out by identifying themes and using quotes based on consistencies across participant stories. this method allowed for understanding individual sense making around each story (chinyamurindi, 2016) and understanding ensuing complexities around the lived experiences (maree & beck, 2004). strategies to ensure data quality and reporting in order to ensure data quality, the researchers adhered to suggestions from the literature (denzin & lincoln, 2005; sitko, 2013). first, data were collected over a 6-month time frame to avoid research fatigue. furthermore, a pilot sample was used prior to the start of the main study as a means of testing the waters and dealing with any anticipated challenges. all interviews were transcribed within 24 hours of the interviews being conducted. the researchers collected data until a point where new data did not create new themes. an integration and triangulation of diverse qualitative data sources were applied (e.g. interviews and observations) to check the consistency of findings. in addition, the researchers ensured that the analysis served the purpose of the inquiry. researcher triangulation amongst the three academics was useful in analysing of data and reducing bias. finally, as used in previous work adopting narrative analysis (e.g. chinyamurindi, 2012, 2016), pseudonyms were used to protect participants in the study. research results and findings based on the data analysis, four main factors emerged as serving as motivation to expatriate. table 2 presents a summary of these factors and how they served as a basis for the rationale to expatriate. the second finding is around the experiences of the academics while in south africa. table 3 presents some of these challenges and illustrating quotes. table 2: motivating factors to expatriate. table 3: challenges faced by expatriates. motivating factors to expatriate table 2 presents the factors contributing as motivation to expatriate. participants considered factors specific to their own preference and allurement that south africa, as a country, offers as compared with their home countries. in essence, the factors shown in table 2 and the illustrating quotes can be considered as either push factors or pull factors. the need for further studies for the academics who participated in this research entailed acquiring postgraduate qualifications and improving their research acumen. south africa appeared to be a country of choice given the opportunities available through the national research foundation (nrf). thus, to the participants, furthering their academic studies in south africa was not as an end in itself, but a way out of the challenges faced in their home countries. further, the worsening economic and political conditions in their home countries appear to have an influence on the individuals’ decision to expatriate (see table for illustrating quotes). participants viewed south africa as a country with a favourable economic and political climate, thus allowing for expression without troubles as compared with their home countries. one participant (jim) from eritrea expressed the view that even if things get better in his home country, he ‘will never go back’: last week my own father died, i can’t even go back to bury my own father. even if i go, i will never return back. this is due to my visa and also the bad political and economic situation. (jim, male, married) in addition to the two identified factors contributing to expatriating, participants also cited the need for a new life experience outside their home country. however, this factor is to be viewed simultaneously with an individual’s desire to develop one’s career. because of challenges in the home country, south africa was perceived to be offering the potential for opportunity. in addition to the illustrating quotes in table 3 the story offered by collin can be cited as an example. collin left a good job in his home country due to challenges (economic and political) to come to south africa. for collin, south africa added the attraction of a ‘new experience’: it was about time for a new experience, i hated the predictability of my life and a new start was just the launching pad i needed to move. having worked in an ngo, academia was to be part of my quest for a new experience. new career path and a new country. (collin, male, married) a final factor motivating expatriation was reported to be the perception of good resources and facilities in south africa. these resources and facilities were varied. some women participants cited ‘good schools for their children’ and other participants cited resources such as ‘skilled and internationally acclaimed professors’. for example, conrad, who is a senior lecturer in soil and pasture science, first came to south africa as a student but upon completion of his studies, he went to work in swaziland and namibia before joining the south african academic sector because of the ‘facilities and resources’ which would help him contribute more: south african universities’ facilities and resources are up to standard and also the work environment to do your research is better, freedom of academic environment is there. (conrad, male, married) the study also focused on the experience of being an sie. participants described this to be challenging with the source of this emanating from (1) work and (2) non-work-related challenges. the self-initiated expatriates experience as a challenge table 3 presents a summary of the sie experiences summated as work and non-work-related challenges. non-work-related challenges appear to characterise the sie experience. these are the factors outside the formal employment contract. accommodation issues appeared to pose a great challenge to sies. although the university offered accommodation, it was insufficient for all its staff members, which meant that some participants had to look for their own places to stay. in some cases, participants had to travel long distances to and from towns as far as 120 km from the university. for instance, paul described the commuting between towns as a ‘life risk’ as he spends a third of his day on the road: my biggest challenge has been accommodation; i have had to stay very far away from my workplace as an expatriate, driving long distances consumed my time and also did not give me a little bit of peace of mind; the time i travelled between my home and my workplace could have been better utilised. (paul, male, married) in some cases, the lack of accommodation for sie resulted in participants like conrad sending their families back home: i couldn’t get the right accommodation and as a result, i was forced to send my family back home, and living without them is very difficult. (conrad, male, married) linked to the challenge of accommodation was the challenge of family separation. it was not only the lack of accommodation that resulted in the separation of families as in conrad, but also the local culture and life outside their home country which some families could not adjust to. the stories of sean and kelly appear to reveal this. both participants are separated from their families. sean’s family ‘struggled’ to integrate to the local culture and conditions given the difference between his home country (cameroon) and south africa: … my family speaks french, here in south africa, especially in alice, i could not find a french speaking school. further, our cultures are just too different. career wise, i could adjust, but it was tough and my family struggled. we made a decision to send the family back to cameroon for their own benefit. the distance is killing us. (sean, male, married) conversely kelly, after losing her husband, decided to send her family back to zambia. the thinking around this was motivated around how the experience of being in south africa reminded the children of their father. further, kelly had to work extra hard and at times she could not cope: i realised because of the long hours of work, i had no time for the children. the children were literally being brought up by the nanny as i was always not there. further, the death of my husband did not go well with the kids. the best i could do was send the kids back home. it was a good decision, it’s so tough to deal with now. (kelly, female, widow) a non-work-related challenge was the discrimination sies had to endure from members of the community. in all cases, participants narrated this to be an identity issue stemming from the fact that they were foreigners in south africa. for instance, lilly described her ‘foreignness’ as a ‘threat to locals’ and subsequently affecting her integration in her community. collin put it succinctly: … everywhere you go, there is this icy stare from the locals. at the supermarket, i am not too light enough. when getting petrol, why i am speaking english and not xhosa. when searching [for] a school for my child, you get 101 questions. i will always be a foreigner in this country, a badge that comes with challenges. (collin, male, married) finally, some challenges emanated from the work-setting of the expatriates. the sies also experienced challenges within their formal employment contracts. long working hours seemed to be the main challenge, and all the participants reiterated that a normal working week was not enough for them to do their work. because of the flexibility and work load in the academia, participants found themselves working on weekends. angie, for example, did not have a ‘social life’ because of the work load. in some instances, participants, such as uche, were no longer taking leave days because of the work load: i have not taken an official leave to go and relax because my work tends to require me to stay extra-time. (uche, male, married) despite devoting several hours of their time, the monetary compensation did not reflect their immense efforts. for personal and career development reasons, participants such as robin had to work for extended hours despite ‘a lack of funding and incentives’. furthermore, the institution had a dual salary policy in the sense that the locals and expatriates were being remunerated differently although equally skilled. angie concisely expressed the predicament: sometimes, right now the standard rates they are giving us are not the same as south africans’, it’s just that salaries are confidential, but you will be surprised that the salaries that they are giving us, the same person who is sitting in my position with same experience or sometimes i even have more experience than that person, but they are getting a higher salary than me. (angie, female, single) finally, a work-related challenge sies had to endure was discrimination from local staff members. in most cases, participants were treated unfairly, which hindered their career and personal development. participants’ ‘foreignness’ did not only affect their integration into the community but also in the workplace as collin felt that his nationality was a ‘threat’, consequently hampering their career development. in some cases, because of nationality, participants were not being given a chance in their respective departments. succinctly put by teshi: the only excuse that i’m being given is that i’m a foreigner. actually, my hod told me face-to-face that the reason why we are not taking you on a full-time basis is because you are not a south african citizen. (teshi, female, single) ethical considerations ethics approval was sought and obtained from the university where the study was conducted. furthermore, before participation, the participants were asked to sign a written informed consent form that summarised all known potential benefits, confidentiality issues, risks associated with the research and how the data will be used. discussion outline of the findings this study investigated the factors and experiences of sies in south africa. factors that influenced expatriation were multifaceted. the main factors behind expatriation were identified as follows: (1) a need for further studies, (2) worsening political and economic conditions in the home country, (3) need for new life experience and (4) perception of good resources and facilities in south africa. despite the benefits associated with sies, the experience of being an sie presents itself as a challenge, with the challenges emanating from work-related and non-work-related challenges. work-related challenges are factors within the formal employment contract, while non-work-related ones are outside the formal employment contract. relating main findings to literature the findings of this study are consistent with the existing literature on factors influencing expatriation and sie experiences. previous studies have shown that people seek expatriation as a way to escape from their current situations (selmer & lauring, 2010; van den bergh & du plessis, 2012). many of the participants originated from countries with poor economic and political conditions. this supports previous studies’ findings that economic and political conditions act as a motivational factor to expatriate (al ariss & syed, 2011; carr et al., 2005; thorn, 2009). furthermore, current research participants mentioned that because of the need to experience new lives in other countries and develop their careers, they were motivated to expatriate. new life experiences and career development have been noted as some of the major factors that influence expatriation (andresen et al., 2012; froese, 2012; mostert, 2014; van den bergh & du plessis, 2012). in addition, through good resources and facilities, participants were able to advance and develop their careers (andresen et al., 2012). participants of this research can be viewed as refugees who are architects and mercenaries (fitzgerald & howe-walsh, 2008; richardson & mckenna, 2002). this research revealed that sies are not solely driven by the desirability of the job, but rather the poor economic and political conditions in their home countries. on the contrary, findings of previous studies (inkson, arthur, pringle & barry, 1997; myers, 2013; richardson & mckenna, 2002; van den bergh & du plessis, 2012) cited that exploration acted as a motivator to expatriate. however, as found in this study, exploration amongst sies comes as a secondary factor; perhaps this is because of the sample being from developing countries. although sies’ experiences are described as beneficial (al ariss & ozbilgin, 2010; scurry, rodriguez & bailouni, 2013; thorn, 2009), the experience is characterised by several challenges (richardson & zikic, 2007). a great challenge for the participants was accommodation (froese, 2012). as in previous studies, lack of housing led to family separation which eventually led to loneliness (mostert, 2014). furthermore, the inability of the family members to adapt to the host country’s culture and language led to family separation (van den bergh & du plessis, 2012). furthermore, as in previous studies, most participants felt like outsiders because of culture and language differences which made it difficult for them to blend in with the community (froese, 2012; richardson & mckenna, 2002). the participants also faced work-related challenges. money is one of the major motivators to expatriate, as illustrated in previous studies (andresen et al., 2012; richardson & mallon, 2005; selmer & lauring, 2010). although participants received compensation, it did not reflect their work efforts. furthermore, lack of support from the institution demoralised the participants (froese, 2012; mostert, 2014). because of discrimination, participants always lived in fear of the unknown (richardson & mckenna, 2002; richardson & zikic, 2007). this study contributes to the understanding of factors that influence expatriation and sies’ experiences (alshammari, 2013). the focus was on people who are from developing countries and move between developing countries as it is a neglected sample. this research has responded to calls for understanding sies as the decision to expatriate no longer lies with the organisation (froese, 2012, selmer & lauring, 2011a). practical implications many countries are facing talent shortages. organisations should perceive sies as valuable human resources. attracting and retaining skilled workers is an important issue. the south african government should account for its reliance on skilled sies within south africa and the positive impact sies have on the economy. furthermore, organisations should accept that skilled sies play an important role in the development of local employees through development of transferable skills or knowledge-sharing. sies are viewed as less expensive labour and equally skilled compared with traditional expatriates. as sies are escaping from economic and political hardships, they may be more likely to accept job offers. however, organisations should not exploit this group of employees. further, sies should not be seen as a homogenous group who expatriate for the same reason. the organisations should assist sies to attain houses as it was illustrated as one of the major challenges faced by sies. additionally, organisations should create social networks for the sies and their families to adjust quicker to the host country’s culture and language. in order for the academics to be productive, organisations need to offer sies competitive remuneration to show their appreciation of the work being carried out by expatriates. institutions need to provide sufficient support to sies, for example, in their research work, in order to retain and increase the levels of commitment of the sies. finally, organisations should also educate the university employees and broader community on how to embrace individual differences and not discriminate on the basis of country of origin and any other demographic differences. limitations of the study and future research areas some limitations exist within this work. firstly, the study focused on african sies who are based in south africa, and the discoveries of this study may not be applied to other countries and continents. secondly, only one institution was used for this study, the findings are not generalisable. thirdly, most of the participants in the study were black africans, and this can be noted as a further limitation. however, the demographic make-up of the participating university is mainly composed of the black african group especially amongst sies. finally and because of the nature of the qualitative paradigm, though the sample size was deemed to be small, it has assisted as argued by chinyamurindi (2016) in emerging sense making around the topic under study. although enlightening, the findings from this study of self-initiated academic expatriates may not be generalised to other professions of sies. therefore, future studies should make use of samples of employees from different professions, especially the ones in the business world. given the scarcity of research on sies, there are many other areas to explore. based on the findings of this study, there is a need to conduct more empirical studies in africa in order to understand the experiences of sies who move between developing countries, and to explore the meaning of being an sie to them. furthermore, there is a need to study the human resources departments that employ sies to find out how they are meeting the needs of the sies. another avenue to be further studied is the experience of the sies who move from developed countries to developing countries. in addition, future studies should look at how self-initiated academic expatriates can have a better work–life balance. conclusion international and global mobility is increasing, and this is opening various opportunities and avenues for skilled individuals to take up work in different countries. many people are becoming sies; however, research about sies is still in its infancy. this study contributes to the understanding of the factors influencing sies to relocate into south africa and their experiences as a result of the relocation. the findings of this study provide a future research basis focusing on sies that move between developing countries. acknowledgements the authors are grateful for funding received from the govan mbeki research and development centre (gmrdc) at the university of fort hare. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions t.t.h. conducted the research as part of his m.com in industrial psychology. n.m.d. and w.t.c. supervised t.t.h. in his studies and jointly assisted in writing this article. references abele, a.e, spurk, d., & volmer, j. (2012). career stagnation: underlying dilemmas and solutions in contemporary work environments. in n.p. reilly, j.m. sirgy, & c.a. gorman (eds.), work and quality of life (pp. 107–132). dordrecht: springer. ainuddin, r.a., & lily, j. (2012). expatriate adjustment and perceptions of liability of foreignness among self-initiated expatriates and assigned expatriates in malaysia. sabah, malaysia: school of business and economics, university of malaysia, pp. 1–7. al ariss, a., cascio, w.f., & paauwe, j. (2013). talent management: current theories and future research directions. journal of world business, 49(2), 173–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2013.11.001 al ariss, a., & özbilgin, m. (2010). understanding self-initiated expatriates: career experiences of lebanese self-initiated expatriates in france. thunderbird international business review, 52(4), 275–285. https://doi.org/10.1002/tie.20355 al ariss, a., & syed, j. (2011). capital mobilization of skilled migrants: a relational perspective. british journal of management, 22(2), 286–304. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2010.00734.x alshammari, h. (2013). the adjustment of self-initiated expatriate academics in higher education institutions in saudi arabia. college of business: school of management, rmit university. retrieved september 19, 2014, from https://researchbank.rmit.edu.au/view/rmit:160615 altbach, p.g. (2004). globalisation and the university: myths and realities in an unequal world. tertiary education and management, 10(1), 3–25. andresen, m., al ariss, a., & walther, m. (2012). self-initiated expatriation: individual, organisational and national perspective. new york: routledge. baruch, y., dickmann, m., altman, y., & bournois, f. (2013). exploring international work: types and dimensions of global careers. the international journal of human resource management, 24(12), 2369–2393. beaverstock, j.v. (2005). transnational elites in the city: british highly-skilled inter-company transferees in new york city’s financial district. journal of ethnic and migration studies, 31(2), 245–258. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183042000339918 buthelezi, m. (2009). an investigation of the experiences and meaning of xenophobia at the university of zululand by international students. unpublished master’s thesis, university of zululand, kwazulu-natal, south africa. cao, l., hirschi, a., & deller, j. (2013). the positive effects of a protean career attitude for self-initiated expatriates: cultural adjustment as a mediator. career development international, 18(1), 56–77. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620431311305953 carr, s.c., inkson, k., & thorn, k. (2005). from global careers to talent flow: reinterpreting ‘brain drain’. journal of world business, 40(4), 386–398. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2005.08.006 chen, y. (2012). three-stage process model of self-initiated expatriate career transitions: a self-determination theory perspective. milwaukee: university of wisconsin. chinyamurindi, w.t. (2012). an investigation of career change using a narrative and story-telling inquiry. south african journal of human resource management, 10(2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.447 chinyamurindi, w.t. (2016). a narrative investigation into the meaning and experience of career success: perspectives from women participants. south african journal of human resource management, 14(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.659 creswell, j.w. (2009). research design, qualitative and quantitative and mixed methods approaches. (4th edn.). london: sage. denzin, n.k., & lincoln, y.s. (ed.). (2005). handbook of qualitative research. (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. in nicholson, n. (2000). motivation–selection–connection: an evolutionary model of career development. in m. peiperl, m. arthur, r. goffee, & t. morris (eds.), career frontiers: new concepts of working life (pp. 54–75). oxford: oxford university press. doherty, n. (2013). understanding the self-initiated expatriate: a review and directions for future research. international journal of management reviews, 15(4) 447–469. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12005 doherty, n., richardson, j., & thorn, k. (2013). self-initiated expatriation: career experiences, processes and outcomes. career development international, 18(1), 6–11. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620431311305917 fitzgerald, c., & howe-walsh, l. (2008). self-initiated expatriates: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of professional female expatriates. international journal of business management, 3(10), 156–175. froese, f.j. (2012). motivation and adjustment of self-initiated expatriates: the case of expatriate academics in south korea. the international journal of human resource management, 23, 1095–1112. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.561220 guba, e.g., & lincoln, y.s. (1994). competing paradigms in qualitative research. in n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds.), handbook of qualitative research (pp.105–117). thousand oaks, ca: sage. hall, d.t. (2002). protean careers in and out of organizations. thousand oaks, ca: sage. haslberger, a., & vaiman, v. (2013). self-initiated expatriates: a neglected source of the global talent flow. in v. vaiman & a. haslberger (eds.), talent management of self-initiated expatriates: a neglected source of global talent (pp. 1–18). hampshire: palgrave macmillan. howe-walsh, l., & schyns, b. (2010). self-initiated expatriation: implications for hrm. international journal of human resources management, 21, 260–273. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190903509571 inkson, k., arthur, m.b., pringle, j., & barry, s. (1997). expatriate assignment versus overseas experience: contrasting models of international human resource management. journal of world business, 32(4), 351–368. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1090-9516(97)90017-1 inkson, k., gunz, h., ganesh, s., & roper, j. (2012). boundaryless careers: bringing back boundaries. organization studies, 33(3), 323–340. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840611435600 inkson, k., & richardson, j. (2010). self-initiated expatriation and career development: diversity across cultures and genders (pp.6–10). montreal, canada: academy of management. international labour organisation. (2010). international labour migration: a rights-based approach (p. 18). geneva, switzerland: international labour office. jokinen, t., brewster, c., & suutari, v. (2008). career capital during international work experiences: contrasting self-initiated expatriate experiences and assigned expatriation. international journal of human resource management, 19, 979–998. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190802051279 maree, j. g., & beck, g. (2004). using various approaches in career counselling for traditionally disadvantaged (and other) learners: some limitations of a new frontier. south african journal of education, 24, 80–87. maharaj, a. (2011). the impact of globalisation on south african higher education institutions: patterns of academic inflow into the south african higher education system. delhi business review, 12(1), 1–14. merriam, s.b. (2002). qualitative research in practice: examples for discussion and analysis. (1st edn.). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. mccormack, c. (2000). from interview transcript to interpretative story: part 1. viewing the transcript through multiple lenses. field methods, 12(4), 282–297. mostert, e. (2014). exploring push and pull factors experienced by south african self-initiated ‘expatriates. unpublished master’s dissertation. human resources department, university of pretoria, pretoria. myers, b. (2013). volunteer self-initiated expatriation: alternative career development pathways for older women? in the 2013 conference of equality, diversity and edi, 01–03 july 2013 (pp. 1–21). athens, greece: athens university of economics and business. nachmias, f.c., & nachmias, d. (1996). research methods in the social sciences. (5th edn.). new york: worth. reuben, s., & bobat, s. (2014). constructing racial hierarchies of skill – experiencing affirmative action in a south african organisation: a qualitative review. south african journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), 1–12. richardson, j. (2006). self-directed expatriation: family matters. personnel review, 35, 469–486. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480610670616 richardson, j. (2009). geographic flexibility in academia: a cautionary note. british journal of management, 20(1), 160–170. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2008.00641.x richardson, j., & mallon, m. (2005). career interrupted: the case of the self-directed expatriates. journal of world business, 40, 409–420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2005.08.008 richardson, j., & mckenna, s. (2002). leaving and experiencing: why academics expatriate and how they experience expatriation. career development international, 7(2), 57–68. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430210421614 richardson, j., & mckenna, s. (2003). international experience and academic careers: what do academics have to say? personnel review, 32(6), 774–795. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480310498710 richardson, j., & zikic, j. (2007). the darker side of an international academic career. career development, 12(2), 164–186. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430710733640 riessman, c.k. (2008). narrative methods for the human sciences. london: sage. rodriguez, j.k., & scurry, t. (2014). career capital development of self-initiated expatriates in qatar: cosmopolitan globetrotters, experts and outsiders. the international journal of human resource management, 25(2), 190–211. rubin, h.j., & rubin, i. (2005). qualitative interviewing: the art of hearing data. thousand oaks, ca: sage. ryan, j., silvanto, s., & ozkaya, h.e. (2015). a contextual, theoretical and empirical analysis of the uses of university degrees as symbolic capital in self-initiated expatriation. european journal of international management, 9(5), 614–634. saleh, i. (2015). is it really xenophobia in south africa or an intentional act of prejudice? global media journal-african edition, 9(2), 298–313. scurry, t., rodriguez, j.k., & bailouni, s. (2013). narratives of identity of self-initiated expatriates in qatar. career development international, 18(1), 12–33. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620431311305926 sebola, m.p. (2015). scarce skills expatriates in south african universities: rhetoric and realities of the ‘messianic’ academics. the journal for transdisciplinary research in southern africa, 11(4), 180–192. https://doi.org/10.4102/td.v11i4.53 selmer, j., & lauring, j. (2010). self-initiated academic expatriates: inherent demographics and reasons to expatriate. european management review, 7(3), 169–179. https://doi.org/10.1057/emr.2010.15 selmer, j., & lauring, j. (2011a). acquired demographics and reasons to relocate among self-initiated expatriates. international journal of human resource management, 22, 2055–2070. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.580176 selmer, j., & lauring, j. (2011b). expatriate academics: job factors and work outcomes. international journal of manpower, 32(2), 194–210. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437721111130206 selmer, j., & lauring, j. (2012). reasons to expatriate and work outcomes of self-initiated expatriates. personnel review, 41 665–684. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481211249166 singh, r.j. (2013). examining xenophobic practices amongst university students: a case study from limpopo province. alternation special edition, 7(1), 88–108 silvanto, s., & ryan, j. (2014). relocation branding: a strategic framework for attracting talent from abroad. journal of global mobility, 2(1), 102–120. https://doi.org/10.1108/jgm-07-2013-0046 sitko, n.j. (2013). qualitative methods: data analysis and validation. lusaka, zambia: indaba agricultural policy research institute. sorensen, t. (2012). the lived experience of xenophobia within a south african university. unpublished master’s thesis. port elizabeth, south africa: nelson mandela metropolitan university suutari, v., & brewster, c. (2000). making their own way: international experience through self-initiated foreign assignments. journal of world business, 35, 417–436. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1090-9516(00)00046-8 tams, s., & arthur, m.b. (2010). new directions for boundaryless careers: agency and interdependence in a changing world. journal of organisational behaviour, 31, 629–646. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.712 tharenou, p., & caulfield, n. (2010). will i stay or will i go? explaining repatriation by self-initiated expatriates. academy of management journal, 53(5), 1009–1028. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.54533183 thorn, k. (2009). the relative importance of motives for international self-initiated mobility. career development international, 14(5) 441–464. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430910989843 thornhill, h., clare, l., & may, r. (2004). escape, enlightenment and endurance: narratives of recovery from psychosis. anthropology and medicine, 11, 181–199. https://doi.org/10.1080/13648470410001678677 van den bergh, r., & du plessis (2012). highly skilled migrant women: a career development framework. journal of management development, 31(2) 142–158. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621711211199485 volpe, e.h., & murphy, w.m. (2011). married professional women’s career exit: integrating identity and social networks. gender in management: an international journal, 26(1), 57–83. https://doi.org/10.1108/17542411111109318 article information authors: crystal hoole1 jackie bonnema1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: crystal hoole email: crystal.hoole@gmail.com postal address: po box 524, auckland park 2006, south africa dates: received: 09 jan. 2015 accepted: 13 july 2015 published: 28 aug. 2015 how to cite this article: hoole, c., & bonnema, j. (2015). work engagement and meaningful work across generational cohorts. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #681, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.681 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. work engagement and meaningful work across generational cohorts in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction • literature review    • relationship between work engagement and meaningful work    • generational cohorts       • baby boomers       • generation x       • generation y    • generational cohorts, work engagement and meaningful work • problem statement and research questions • research method    • sampling procedures • ethical considerations • results    • descriptive statistics    • normality of distribution    • reliability    • correlation    • multivariate analysis of variance • discussion    • question 1       • is there a positive relationship between meaningful work and engagement?    • question 2       • are there significant differences between the generational cohorts in terms of meaningful work?    • question 3       • are there significant differences between the generational cohorts in terms of engagement?       • implications for organisations    • limitations    • recommendations    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: engaging employees and providing employees with a sense of meaning at work is not a one-size-fits-all approach. although research has shown that differences between work engagement and meaningful work amongst generational cohorts exist, results are still inconclusive. with age becoming increasingly more important as a diversity factor, a better understanding of the dynamics between work engagement and meaningful work across different generational cohorts is necessary to design the right strategy for each organisation's unique parameters. research purpose: the aim of this study was to determine whether there is a relationship between work engagement and meaningful work and whether there are significant variances between the levels of work engagement and meaningful work between different generational cohorts. motivation for study: work engagement has consistently been highlighted by researchers and human resources experts as a recommended solution to provide companies with the upper hand when it comes to creating a competitive edge. yet, levels of work engagement are far from ideal, requiring intensified efforts to identify solutions towards raising overall engagement levels. in recent years, much of the focus in terms of generating engagement has been aimed in the direction of financial rewards and other benefits; some organisational experts are of the opinion that a shift is occurring towards meaningful work instead of monetary rewards as the driver of engagement. the changing nature of the work landscape also suggests that generational cohorts experience work engagement and meaningful work differently. understanding these complexities is mandatory in creating solutions towards improving levels of engagement and meaningful work. research approach, design and method: a cross-sectional quantitative research approach has been followed. the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) and psychological meaningful scale (pms) were administered to 261 participants across several financial institutions in gauteng, including three generational cohorts (baby boomers, generation x and generation y). main findings: a moderate relationship was found to exist between work engagement and meaningful work. the baby boomer generation experiences the highest levels of engagement and meaningful work. significant differences were found between baby boomers and generation x and baby boomers and generation y. no significant difference were noted between generation x and generation y. practical/managerial implications: a one-size-fits-all strategy to improve work engagement and the sense of meaning in work does not exist. results of this study suggest that various approaches based on the needs of each cohort may be required in order to sustain engagement. older workers in particular prove to be far more valuable and productive and should be treated with care. contribution: whilst a large amount of information exists in terms of generational cohorts, not all findings are supported by empirical research to link the concept of work engagement to the different generational cohorts. the conventional belief that older people are less engaged and do not find meaning in their work has been proven to be a misconception, which highlights the danger of stereotypical beliefs. the findings suggest that older employees are still very valuable resources and can contribute significantly to the organisation's success, but have different needs and values than other age groups. customised engagement strategies tailored towards different generational cohorts might be more beneficial. introduction top ↑ work engagement has been hailed by researchers and human resources experts as a solution to improve the overall functioning of organisations and individuals within organisations. many studies have pointed out that work engagement has become an important predictor in determining organisational outcomes and has been associated with business success (bakker & schaufeli, 2008; bakker et al., 2007; gallup consulting, 2008; schaufeli, 2013). an engaged workforce may potentially enhance the competitive edge required in the current economic landscape. whilst high levels of engagement add value, low levels can have a detrimental effect on the bottom line of organisations. according to global reports, disengaged employee-related productivity losses translate into billions of dollars per year (bates, 2004; gallup consulting, 2008). it seems that a gap exists between ideal engagement levels and the realisation thereof. according to research, almost 71% of organisations include engagement components in their performance measurement tools, but only 35% consider themselves successful in terms of positive engagement outcomes (evenson, 2014). there are various factors that contribute to employees’ experience of engagement in the workplace. according to wrzesniewski, mccauley, rozin and schwartz (1997), individuals spend more than a third of their lives engaged in their jobs. individuals will pursue different work roles throughout their careers which will allow them to better define and discover themselves. furthermore, over the last two decades it has also been noted that there has been a shift in psychology towards a more positive approach focusing on people's strengths (rothmann, 2003; seligman & csikszentmihalyi, 2000). research has highlighted that engaged employees are more hands-on, dedicated to maintaining a quality performance standard, take responsibility for their own growth and are now more involved in their jobs than ever, utilising every single skill and capability they possess to fulfil the myriad of roles in business (rothmann & rothmann, 2010; schaufeli, 2013). one important point that needs to be made is how work engagement is defined. construct contamination, confusion and redundancy in the field of engagement has been a problem for at least the last three decades since morrow (1983) called for a moratorium on the further development of work-related constructs. since then very little has changed, resulting in the erroneous use of interchangeable constructs such as work engagement, employee engagement, employee involvement, commitment, passion, organisational commitment, to name a few (havenga, stanz, visagie & wait, 2011; macey & schneider, 2008; morrow, 1983; roodt, 2004; schaufeli, 2013). although it is not in the ambit of this article to go into the detail of the history of the construct development of work engagement and related constructs, it suffices to say that although ample evidence exists that work engagement is conceptually a unique and independent construct (bakker & demerouti, 2008; schaufeli, 2013; sonnentag, 2011), the debate is still ongoing. it is therefore imperative for every study to clearly define how it conceptualises and operationalises its definition of engagement. for the purpose of this study we therefore define work engagement as ‘a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigour, dedication, and absorption’ (schaufeli, salanova, gonzález-romá & bakker, 2002, p. 74). work engagement could therefore be understood as the underlying energy of the organisation which might be utilised towards organisational success and personal benefits for the individual (pech & slade, 2006). despite the recognised advantages of high work engagement and meaningful work levels within the workplace, statistics still indicate that actual levels and outcomes are far from ideal. as work engagement contributes towards overall organisational success, attention needs to be paid to work dimensions that might be related to engagement levels. in recent years, companies have relied on financial rewards and other benefits to elevate engagement levels (scott & mcmullen, 2010). new arguments are however surfacing to support the notion that meaningful work (rather than monetary rewards) could be employed as the driver of engagement (wells-lepley, 2013). erickson (2011, p. 1) proposes that ‘meaning is the new money’, indicating that meaningful work instead of higher pay could facilitate more effort from employees. but do we all experience meaning in the same way, and if we do not what does it mean for organisations? researchers have long argued whether differences exist amongst generational cohorts in terms of what motivates them and drives them to perform optimally (deal, altman & rogelberg, 2010; drake, 2012; kapoor & solomon, 2011; miller, 2008). recent years have seen trends in older workers working past their normal retirement age (boone-james, mckechnie & swanberg, 2011; miller & nyce, 2014). considering stereotypical beliefs that older workers are less engaged than younger workers, issues become more serious. if older workers are going to be in the workforce for a number of additional years, organisations would want them to be as optimal and engaged as possible. if differences between generational cohorts exist, engagement strategies need to be adjusted and customised accordingly. literature review top ↑ relationship between work engagement and meaningful work work engagement is defined by schaufeli and bakker (2003) as an energetic connection that exists between employees and their jobs. as a result, engaged employees are more effective and equipped to cope with demanding situations in the workplace. whilst some schools of thought position engagement as the opposite of burnout (maslach & leiter, 1997), the work of schaufeli and bakker views engagement as an independent construct, which presents as an enduring state of mind (schaufeli et al., 2002). engaged employees demonstrate vigour, dedication and absorption when executing tasks in the workplace (schaufeli et al., 2002). schaufeli, taris and van rhenen (2008) propose that engagement contains an element of balance and resilience, as engaged employees tend to feel tired when they work hard, but not in a way that was associated with burnout. engaged employees do not develop into workaholics; instead they merely work hard as result of a high internal drive. work engagement should not be confused with other constructs, even though some similarities are found when commitment, job satisfaction and involvement are discussed (maslach, schaufeli & leiter, 2001; schaufeli, 2013). work engagement may go far beyond commitment, as it identifies engaged employees as people who are not merely committed or passionate, but people who are fully aligned with the goals of the organisation and who make a distinct effort to contribute (blessingwhite, 2012). maslach et al. (2001) are of the opinion that engagement clearly differs from job satisfaction and involvement in terms of personal fulfilment and energy. according to these researchers, fulfilment and energy could be associated with engagement, but could not be observed clearly in the other two constructs. it can therefore be deduced that the concepts (engagement, commitment, satisfaction and involvement) are related, but that engagement contains a deeper dimension of well-being, emotional and behavioural responses, such as experiencing joy and fulfilment at work (crabtree, 2005; hallberg & schaufeli, 2006; schaufeli et al., 2002). meaningful work originated as a concept from the philosophical principles associated with the meaning of life, as a feeling of purpose in one's overall existence which creates a sense of harmony and completeness (overell, 2008). frankl (1984) indicates that the search for meaning is one of the most important motivators during the lifespan of a human being. meaningful work can then imply that a person would also find a sense of harmony and completeness in their occupational environment. kant defines work that provides autonomy, a sufficient income and the opportunity to develop on a moral level as meaningful work (bowie, 1998). meaningful work has also been linked to maslow’s (1943) need hierarchy. the hierarchy places self-actualisation at the top of the pyramid, with the underlying principle that when a certain need is fulfilled, another takes its place. a person therefore always strives to become fully realised (maslow, 1943). according to overell (2008), this translates into self-actualisation in work and happens when a person assimilates work completely into identity. kahn (1990) describes meaningfulness at work as the experience that effort is justified and rewarded accordingly. various researchers have linked meaningful work to the values and needs of the individual and identify different dimensions of the construct. chalofsky and krishna (2009, p. 195) view meaningful work as a state of ‘integrated wholeness’, where a ‘sense of self’, ‘the work itself’ and ‘sense of balance’ play a role. lips-wiersema and wright (2012, p. 655) identify four dimensions of meaningful work which relate closely to the needs of the individual and the needs of others. these dimensions can be identified as ‘developing the self’, ‘unity with others’, ‘service to others’ and ‘expressing full potential’. may, gilson and harter (2004) state that the value that a person finds in work is aligned to aspirations and priorities. meaningful work could also contribute towards a person's sense of security and dignity (ayers, miller-dyce & carlone, 2008). fairlie (2011) identifies meaningful work as the presence of qualities in the workplace or the work itself that is aligned to a person's definition of meaning. empowerment research in the workplace indicates that successful and committed employees experience feelings of meaningfulness during the execution of tasks (thomas & velthouse, 1990; tymon, 1988). on a theoretical level, several researchers have argued that relationships between work engagement and meaningful work exist on multiple levels. for instance, the affective component of engagement presents a link with the search for meaning and purpose. csikszentmihalyi (1975) wrote about the holistic sensation that people experience a feeling of total involvement: the idea of holism is related to fulfilment, whilst the idea of involvement may refer to a high level of engagement. holbeche and springett (2003) argued that people strive towards finding meaning in life and work, and once they are able to find fulfilment from a professional perspective, they tend to experience increased engagement. other researchers argue that the experience of meaningful work could be viewed as a moderator to engagement (anitha, 2014; dullien, 2012; macey & schneider, 2008; wells-lepley, 2013). hirschi (2012) supports the notion that meaningful work can foster an environment where engagement levels would be higher. kular, gatenby, rees, soane and truss (2008) infer that meaningfulness contributes to a positive attitude towards work and can lead to higher engagement levels. other field experts, such as koloc (2013), are of the opinion that meaningful work can lure and retain talent. meaningfulness, safety, and availability contribute to engagement levels according to may et al. (2004). employees who are able to find alignment between the meaning they derive from their work and their personal views of meaning will tend to be more engaged and more fulfilled (king & napa, 1998; schaufeli et al., 2002). not only is meaningfulness one of the conditions for engagement (kahn, 1990) but it is also one of the largest single predictors of engagement (fairlie, 2011). generational cohorts a generational cohort can be described as a group of individuals who share certain life stages and experiences during the same historical time frame (kowske, rasch & wiley, 2010). members of a cohort will therefore be born, attend educational institutions, start work, engage in marriage and retire from the workforce during roughly the same period of time. whilst living within these time frames, members of a generational cohort are exposed to historical happenings and certain phenomena on cultural and social terrains; these experiences influence their thinking and attitudes, and this in turn can impact on their behaviour (schewe & noble, 2000). the generational cohorts that are predominantly represented in the current workforce are the baby boomers, generation x and generation y. baby boomers can be defined as individuals born between 1946 and 1964, generation x represents those born between 1965 and 1980 and generation y (also known as millennials) represents those born between 1981 and 1999 (meriac, woehr & banister, 2010). each cohort displays certain characteristics and contributes in their own way to the workplace. baby boomers baby boomers grew up in a time of economic growth and also experienced political and ideological turmoil during the 1960s (hornbostel, kumar & smith, 2011). the employees in this cohort are currently nearing retirement (parry & urwin, 2009). according to hornbostel et al. (2011), baby boomers are ambitious, highly competitive and work-driven. they place value on being committed to an organisation and will most likely remain at the same place of work for their entire life (drewery, riley & staff, 2008). generation x generation x's members are the children of baby boomers, who grew up in an era of significant technological innovation (wong, gardiner, lang & coulon, 2008). they are most likely to have experienced minimal supervision whilst their parents were working and are characterised as independent (hornbostel et al., 2011). generation x members have been active in the workplace for the past 30 years and make up a large portion of employment statistics. according to hornbostel et al. (2011), generation x members carry some of the beliefs of their parents, such as the drive for money, challenge and progressing within their careers, but they also place an emphasis on work-life balance and a more informal work environment. generation x members are believed to be more flexible than baby boomers (white, 2011). generation y generation y grew up in the age of social media and cyberspace, and has significant advantage over baby boomers in terms of being technologically savvy (deal et al., 2010). generation y members are currently entering the world of work; some might have been part of the workforce for the past few years (parry & urwin, 2009). generation y members are team players with a strong need to be included in groups. they want to feel valued and recognised within the workplace, grow and learn. if an environment does not provide these types of work values, they will not hesitate to leave the organisation. generation y members are inclined to multitask more and to provide their services for the greater good (white, 2011). wong et al. (2008) hypothesise that generation y is bombarded with negative media reports and has been exposed to the failures of previous generations at a much higher level than previous generations. generational cohorts, work engagement and meaningful work in terms of meaningful work, previous findings suggest that employees’ values influence their experience of meaningful work, which, in turn, could have an impact on work engagement levels. but is there a significant difference in the work values and experience of meaningful work between the cohorts? researchers are not in agreement on the issue. some believe that variances exist and that employers should build engagement and meaningful work strategies to accommodate the unique generational needs (drake, 2012; kunreuther, 2003). according to kapoor and solomon (2011), each cohort brings its own contribution to the workplace. overell (2008) proposes that the life stage of a person has a significant impact on what they want from work in order to find it meaningful. research suggests that variances might exist amongst cohorts in terms of the conceptualisation of meaningful work during different life stages (glass, 2007; miller, 2008). as a result, varying approaches based on the needs of each cohort may be required in order to sustain engagement (aon hewitt, 2013; dwyer, 2009; pitt-catsouphes & matz-costa, 2009; robinson, perryman & hayday, 2004). miller (2008) argues that meaning in work is altered as a person gains more experience. global studies produce conflicting results relating to the generational cohorts and engagement. in regions such as asia pacific, europe, latin america and north america, baby boomers seem to be more engaged than their younger counterparts (aon hewitt, 2013). in sub-saharan africa, generation y presents higher engagement levels than the other two cohorts (emergent growth, 2013; maurer, 2013). in australia, baby boomers and millennials are identified as the most engaged (australian public service commission, 2012), in south africa, kenexa's (2012) findings identify generation y members as displaying the highest level of engagement, whilst coetzee and de villiers (2010) indicate that older generations experience higher levels of engagement than generation y. these findings indicate the possibility of cultural and regional influences on the development of engagement cultures. boone-james et al. (2011) indicate that age groups should be a consideration when studying engagement, a term they very broadly defined as ‘the employee's perception of his/her value to the organization, the employee's loyalty and commitment to the organization, and his/her willingness to contribute to the good of the organization’ (p. 11), as they view age as a new factor of diversity, whilst conceding that certain stereotypes may exist. others feel that no significant differences exist and that minimal effort should be directed towards separate engagement approaches (deal et al., 2010; mlodzik & de meuse, 2010). more specific findings have been proposed by various researchers in terms of the perceived differences in work values amongst generations. kompier (2005) argues that younger workers (generation y) tend to question the nature of meaningful work at a higher level than their older colleagues. schaufeli et al. (2002), as well as coetzee and de villiers (2010), argue that older workers tend to be more engaged. wong et al. (2008) conclude that generation x and generation y tend to be more ambitious but less optimistic than their counterparts in the baby boomer generation. generation x and generation y are also motivated by greater workplace challenges than the older generation. d’ amato and herzfeldt (2008) indicate that the younger generations (generation x and generation y) will be more likely to remain connected to their organisation if the opportunity for learning exists, whereas older workers are less focused on learning and more on the development of leadership and commitment. generation x and generation y prefer a collaborative workplace, tend to be more tolerant of diversity and are more inclined to belong to groups than baby boomers (wong et al., 2008). this might be due to the fact that baby boomers are approaching the end of their careers and, as a result, are severing their ties with other people who will remain in the workforce. generation y members, on the other hand, are just starting to enter the workforce and therefore need to affiliate themselves to become integrated members of the organisation (wong et al., 2008). should variances exist, organisations can tailor their engagement strategies towards this diversity in order to be successful. kapoor and solomon (2011) propagate that a level of understanding needs to be created between the members of different generations who share the same workspace. by fostering a generational-friendly environment, organisations are also investing in the development of future leaders (kunreuther, 2003). problem statement and research questions top ↑ the focus of many organisations is shifting towards customising their engagement strategies. well-informed strategies need to be supported by good research. work engagement should not be underestimated when it comes to creating a productive and efficient workplace. several studies have focused on the importance of high levels of engagement in order to facilitate other outcomes, such as low absenteeism, high organisational commitment and employee wellness. meaningful work is closely related to work engagement, and it is postulated that employees who experience meaningful work may display higher levels of work engagement (dik & duffy, 2007). this study will therefore attempt to shed light on the interaction of these variables by testing whether there are significant differences between the levels of engagement and the experience of meaningful work amongst different generational cohorts and what the relationship is between them. the research will therefore attempt to answer the following questions: question 1: is there a positive relationship between work engagement and meaningful work? question 2: are there significant differences between the generational cohorts in terms of meaningful work? question 3: are there significant differences between the generational cohorts in terms of work engagement? research method top ↑ sampling procedures participants were selected by using non-probability stratified sampling from organisations within gauteng, south africa, to ensure a sufficient number of respondents for each generational cohort. as work engagement levels were to be measured, individuals who had been working for one year or longer within the organisation needed to be included to allow for reasonable levels of engagement and meaningfulness. the questionnaire consisted of three parts, including biographic information, the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) developed by schaufeli and bakker (2003) and the psychological meaningfulness scale (pms) developed by tymon (1988). a total of 320 questionnaires were distributed, out of which 283 were returned (88% response rate). after data vetting processes, 261 surveys (82%) were identified as viable for the purposes of the analysis. twenty-two cases (7%) were excluded due to incomplete data, or work experience of less than one year. whilst questions relating to all three dimensions in the uwes were included, it is assumed that all items relate to engagement, which allowed unidimensional use of the instrument, an approach endorsed by several other authors (de bruin, hill, henn & muller, 2013; rothmann, jorgensen & hill, 2011). ethical considerations top ↑ in any research project, ethical dimensions need to be considered. all participants in this study were included on the basis that they were fully briefed on the purpose of the project. participation was voluntary and individuals had the opportunity to withdraw at any time. furthermore, no participant's name was included in the study: responses were only labelled in terms of a numbering system. organisations were also not explicitly mentioned, as the data were handled in a consolidated manner. in terms of data coding, each company was assigned an alpha character to ensure full anonymity. results top ↑ descriptive statistics descriptive statistics were calculated in order to provide more information about the sample and to determine whether assumption-related violations existed (see table 1). table 1: demographic characteristics of participants. in terms of the generational cohorts, participants belonged to one of three groups, depending on their year of birth. participants born between the years 1946 and 1964 were grouped into the cohort labelled baby boomers, participants born between 1965 and 1980 were allocated to the generation x cohort and participants born between 1981 and 1999 were classified as generation y. the mean age for baby boomers, generation x and generation y were 57, 42 and 28 respectively and can be seen in table 2. table 2: generational cohorts. normality of distribution the data was scrutinised for any violations in terms of outliers, skewness and kurtosis levels. although some level of skewness existed (table 3), scores were acceptable for the size of the sample (tabachnick & fidell, 2006). table 3: skewness and kurtosis. reliability the commonly-used indicator for reliability is the cronbach's alpha coefficient, which is considered acceptable when above 0.70 and preferably above 0.80 (field, 2009; pallant, 2005; tabachnick & fidell, 2006). cronbach's alpha scores of 0.93 and 0.72 were obtained for the uwes and pms respectively. in the case of the pms one should take into consideration that reliability also tends to be lower when a scale consists of fewer than 10 items (pallant, 2005). correlation in order to examine the relationship between work engagement and meaningful work, pearson's correlation coefficient was calculated. a moderate, positive correlation of 0.43 and statistical significance at the 0.01 level were achieved, indicating that higher levels of engagement can be associated with higher levels of meaningful work. multivariate analysis of variance in order to understand how generational membership affects engagement and meaningfulness, a multivariate analysis of variance (manova) was conducted. manova, as opposed to multiple analysis of variance (anovas) was chosen to avoid type i errors and to show potential interaction effects. to determine whether the assumption of homogeneity of variance-covariance matrices are adhered to, the box test was included in the analysis. according to the results (significant value 0.782), it can be assumed that the homogeneity assumption has not been violated, as it presents larger than 0.001 (pallant, 2005). according to the levene test, a significance value of less than 0.05 indicates violation of the assumptions of equality of variance. the levene scores for work engagement and psychological meaningfulness respectively were 0.649 and 0.714, indicating no related issues. the results of the multivariate tests (table 4) indicated that significant differences were present between the groups in terms of the dependant variables. for smaller sample sizes or groups with unequal sizes, the pillai's trace is often the preferable measure and offers the best protection against type i errors (field, 2009). it can be assumed that a difference exists between the cohorts in terms of the relationship between engagement and meaningfulness. table 4: multivariate analysis. significance in terms of each of the variables were further investigated (test of between-subjects effects, table 5). table 5: estimated marginal means. the baby boomer cohort obtained the highest level of engagement (79.85), generation x scored the second highest (74.13) and the generation y cohort scored the lowest (70.71). when the meaningfulness levels are studied, the same pattern emerges. the baby boomers have the highest level of meaningfulness (15.35), generation x members present with the second highest level (14.78) and generation y members have the lowest levels of the three cohorts (14.07). differences in themselves might not always have statistical significance. in order to determine whether there are significant differences between the groups, post hoc tests were executed (table 6). table 6: post hoc tests. the multivariate tests, the pillai's trace and wilks's lambda values of 0.000 for both indicate that the differences were significant. in terms of engagement, there are significant differences between the baby boomer generation and the other two cohorts, whilst no significant difference is present between generation x and generation y. when meaningfulness is considered, a significant difference is present between baby boomers and generation y, but no significant variances are found between the generation x and generation y members, or between members of the baby boomer and generation x cohorts. to understand the differences between the groups in more practical terms and to determine the effect size of the differences, cohen's d was calculated for each cohort for engagement and meaningful work respectively. the results can be seen in table 7. table 7: effect size (cohen's d) for differences between groups for engagement and meaningful work. discussion top ↑ the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between work engagement and meaningful work and to compare levels of engagement and meaningfulness across different generational cohorts in the workplace. based on the results of the study, the findings in terms of each research question are discussed further. question 1 is there a positive relationship between meaningful work and engagement? as discussed, many authors support the idea that a relation­ship exists between meaningful work and engagement (anitha, 2014; dullien, 2012; fairlie, 2011; kahn, 1990; macey & schneider, 2008; wells-lepley, 2013). according to the results of this study, a moderate positive relationship exists between the two variables. this implies that higher levels of meaningful work could imply higher engagement levels, which could prompt organisations to pay more attention to the content of work and other factors such as person-job fit, again taking into consideration factors such as age, career stages and second careers. question 2 are there significant differences between the generational cohorts in terms of meaningful work? one of the main gaps identified by previous research is inconclusive evidence on whether there are any real differences in the experience of meaningful work between the generational cohorts (boone-james et al., 2011; drake, 2012; kapoor & solomon, 2011; kunreuther, 2003; overell, 2008). in terms of meaningful work, this study presented only a significant difference between baby boomers and generation y. if one takes the theory into account that each cohort will conceptualise meaning in work differently according to the life stage that they are in and that meaning will change as more experience is gained (boone-james et al., 2011; glass, 2007; miller, 2008), the results can partially be accounted for as the differences between generation x and baby boomers are a lot less pronounced. perhaps the segmentation of generational cohorts should also be scrutinised in finer detail to improve the richness of the data. question 3 are there significant differences between the generational cohorts in terms of engagement? as with the case of meaningful work, global studies deliver conflicting results when it comes to the engagements levels of generational cohorts in the workplace. the results of this study indicated a significant difference between the baby boomer generation and the other two cohorts, but no significant difference between generation x and generation y. baby boomers are the most engaged, supporting results found by coetzee and de villiers (2010). this also supports other international studies who indicated similar trends (aon hewitt, 2013; australian public service commission, 2012). the differences in engagement levels between the cohorts could be attributed to various factors. if baby boomers are highly ambitious, competitive, dedicated and driven (drewery, riley & staff, 2008; hornbostel et al., 2011; white, 2011), it can be inferred that they might be more engaged in their work in order to reach their goals. the differences can be attributed to the different generational experiences that impact on behaviour (glass, 2007). one can also not completely rule out other that factors such as personality factors and temperament that may have contributed to some of the observed differences (langelaan, bakker, van doornen & schaufeli, 2006), although the focus of the study was not on individual differences but on differences between generational cohorts. implications for organisations the changing generational landscape can be taken into consideration when the engagement levels of the cohorts are interpreted from this study, as it provides an additional contextual background. as employees within the workforce mature, the distribution of the generational cohorts is changing. according to mlodzik and de meuse (2010), the estimated generational stratification for 2010 and beyond in the usa is as follows: 5% matures (the generation preceding the baby boomers), 38% baby boomers, 32% generation x and 25% generation y. future predictions indicate that by 2020, generation y will be the predominant cohort (42% of the workforce), whilst generation x will remain relatively stable at 30%. the mature cohort will be reduced to 1% of the workforce, whilst baby boomers will represent 22% and a new cohort will be introduced in the form of generation z (mlodzik & de meuse, 2010). in today's workplace, members from the older cohorts are not necessarily leaving the workforce once they reach retirement age. in the current financial climate, people continue to work well beyond retirement age to enable a more comfortable lifestyle. for this reason, it is important to facilitate higher engagement levels amongst older employees (hornbostel et al., 2011). benchmark surveys have indicated that 60% of south african pensioners appear to be in financial crisis and 31% continued some form of employment after their official retirement date to supplement their income (sanlam, 2013). the results of the study indicate that baby boomers are the most engaged, and this finding has various implications. firstly, it could be projected that organisations within south africa might risk losing the most engaged cohort in the near future. this also has another implication, which is that the larger part of the workforce might not be optimally engaged. according to studies, the impact of less engaged employees could translate into large financial losses (bates, 2004; gallup consulting, 2008). organisations should therefore attempt to understand how engagement levels could affect their organisational success and act accordingly. limitations some limitations should be noted. common method bias may have influenced the results as respondents were asked to respond to more than one construct in the same survey at the same time. with smaller sample sizes, any significant differences between groups should be treated with caution. the baby boomers cohort was a much smaller group than the other two cohorts which could have influenced the results. this also poses a problem in terms of generalisability of the results. perhaps one of the downfalls of using wellestablished instruments is that one sometimes assumes that they remain relevant over time. significant differences between baby boomers and generation y could, besides others factors, also be attributed to test item bias, simply having a different understanding or interpretation of the constructs being measured. differential item functioning (karami, 2012) is recommended to address this shortcoming. another possible cause that could have been overlooked in explaining at least some of the differences is the use of composite scores in analysing mean differences between groups (steinmetz, 2013). according to steinmetz (2013), researchers in social sciences often assume that partial invariance of the measurement instrument is sufficient, which might not be the case when working with composite scores. results should therefore be treated with care. recommendations within the diverse and changing landscape in the workplace, the focus of many organisations needs to start shifting towards the needs and values of different generational cohorts. the fact that baby boomers outperformed generation x and generation y in terms of both work engagement and meaningful work indicates that they have a lot more to offer than what stereotypically has been believed. whilst this study provides relevant information in terms of the engagement and meaningful work levels between the cohorts, more in-depth research is required to enable organisations to customise better engagement strategies. it would for instance be interesting to investigate the engagement levels over time, to determine whether these vary for the same participants across a specific time period. furthermore, it is recommended that more is done to understand how different generations approach meaningful work and whether the same definitions are present across different cohorts. this could aid organisations to tailor their selection, development and reward policies to suit individuals from different age groups. attention could be paid to the interaction between the different generations in the workforce to determine whether the groups experiencing higher levels of engagement and meaningfulness could ultimately play a role in elevating these levels amongst the other groups. it is further suggested that more in-depth mixed approaches such as qualitative and longitudinal studies should investigate other factors such as personality differences across generational cohorts and the influences of the different career stages on the experience of work. conclusion this study showed that a positive moderate relationship exists between work engagement and meaningful work and that efforts to increase engagement levels will have a positive effect on workers’ experiences of meaningfulness in their work. beliefs that older people are less engaged and find work less meaningful are proven incorrect. in both instances, baby boomers outperformed their younger counterparts. the results therefore suggest that organisations should take age into serious consideration when designing their engagement strategies. with people retiring later, organisations need to keep their older workers engaged, but also need to determine which elements the other generational cohorts find meaningful in their work to become more engaged and customise their strategies accordingly. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions c.h. (university of johannesburg) was the supervisor of the research study. she was responsible for making conceptual contributions to the study and contributed to updating and revising the literature review, executing the data analysis and writing the article. j.b. (university of johannesburg) was responsible for conceptual contributions to the study; she was the main contributor to the literature review and was responsible for data collection and data capturing. references top ↑ anitha, j. (2014). determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance. international journal of productivity and performance management, 63(3), 308–323. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-01-2013-0008 aon hewitt. (2013). 2013 trends in global employee engagement. retrieved february 14, 2014, from http://www.aon.com/forms/2013/ah_trends-employee-engagement.html australian public service commission. (2012). employee engagement. retrieved february 16, 2014, from http://www.apsc.gov.au/about-the-apsc/parliamentary/state-of-the-service/2011-12-sosr/04-employee-engagement ayers, d.f., miller-dyce, c., & carlone, d. (2008). security, dignity, caring relationships and meaningful work: needs motivating participation in a job-training program. community college review, 35(4), 257–276. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1059601108314581 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2008). towards a model of work engagement, career development international, 13, 209–223. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430810870476 bakker, a.b., & schaufeli, w.b. (2008). positive organizational behaviour: engaged employees in flourishing organizations. journal of organizational behaviour, 29, 147–154. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.515 bakker, a.b., xanthopoulou, d., dollard, m.f., demerouti, e., schaufeli, w.b., taris, t.w. et al. (2007). when do job demands particularly predict burnout? the moderating role of job resources. journal of managerial psychology, 22(8), 766–786. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940710837714 bates, s. (2004). getting engaged. hr magazine, 49(2), 44–51. retrieved from http://www.shrm.org/publications/hrmagazine/editorialcontent/pages/0204covstory.aspx blessingwhite. (2012). the engagement equation. retrieved february 04, 2014, from http://blessingwhite.com/elibrary/eengagement_equation_factsheet.pdf boone-james, j., mckechnie, s., & swanberg, j. (2011). predicting employee engagement in an age-diverse retail workforce. journal of organizational behaviour, 32, 173–196. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.681 bowie, n.e. (1998). a kantian theory of meaningful work. journal of business ethics, 17(9–10), 1083–1092. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1006023500585 chalofsky, n., & krishna, v. (2009). meaningfulness, commitment, and engagement: the intersection of a deeper level of intrinsic motivation. advances in developing human resources, 11(2), 189–203. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1523422309333147 coetzee, m., & de villiers, m. (2010). sources of job stress, work engagement and career orientations of employees in a south african financial institution. south african business review, 14(1), 27–58. crabtree, s. (2005). engagement keeps the doctor away. gallup management journal. retrieved february 15, 2014, from http://nsuweb.nova.edu/ie/ice/forms/engagement_keeps_the_doctor_away.pdf csikszentmihalyi, m. (1975). beyond boredom and anxiety. retrieved march 20, 2014, from http://pages.ucsd.edu/~nchristenfeld/happiness_readings_files/class%207%20-%20csikszentmihalyi%201975.pdf d’amato, a., & herzfeldt, r. (2008). learning orientation, organizational commitment and talent retention across generations: a study of european managers. journal of managerial psychology, 23(8), 929–953. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940810904402 deal, j.j., altman, d.g., & rogelberg, s.g. (2010). millennials at work: what we know and what we need to do (if anything). journal of business and psychology, 25(2), 191–199. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9177-2 de bruin, g.p., hill, c., henn, c.m., & muller, k. (2013). dimensionality of the uwes-17. an item response modeling analysis. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 8 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1148 dik, b.j., & duffy, r.d. (2007). calling and vocation at work: definitions and prospects for research and practice. the counselling psychologist, 37(3), 424–450. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0011000008316430 drake, t.j. (2012). assessing employee engagement: a comparison of the job engagement scale and the utrecht work engagement scale. retrieved june 16, 2014, from http://digitool.library.colostate.edu/exlibris/dtl/d3_1/apache_media/l2v4bglicmlzl2r0bc9km18xl2fwywnozv9tzwrpys8xnza3mzm=.pdf drewery, k., riley, a., & staff, h. (2008). gen up – how the four generations work. retrieved february 15, 2014, from http://www.cipd.co.uk/nr/rdonlyres/25da52de-f120-4579-afe3-564c8801425d/0/genuphowfourgenerationswork.pdf dullien, t. (2012). improving employee engagement: make work meaningful. indian gaming, 31(3), 34–37. dwyer, r.j. (2009). prepare for the impact of the multi-generational workforce! transforming government: people, process and policy, 3(2), 101–110. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506160910960513 emergent growth. (2013). sub-saharan africa: employee engagement survey. retrieved february 10, 2014, from http://personal.crocodoc.com/jpxhxfj?embedded=true erickson, t. (2011). meaning is the new money. retrieved march 20, 2014, from http://blogs.hbr.org/2011/03/challenging-our-deeply-held-as/ evenson, l. (2014). new frontiers in employee engagement. … http://www.bersin.com/news/details.aspx?id=15208 fairlie, p. (2011). meaningful work, employee engagement, and other key employee outcomes: implications for human resource development. advances in developing human resources, 13(4), 508–525. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1523422311431679 field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss. london: sage publications. frankl, v.e. (1984). man’s search for meaning: an introduction to logotherapy. boston, ma: beacon press. gallup consulting. (2008). employee engagement: what is your engagement ratio? retrieved march 18, 2014, from http://www.gallup.com/strategicconsulting/121535/employee-engagement-overview-brochure.aspx glass, a. (2007). understanding generational differences for competitive success. industrial and commercial training, 39(2), 98–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00197850710732424 hallberg, u., & schaufeli, w.b. (2006). ‘same same’ but different? can work engagement be discriminated from job involvement and organizational commitment? european psychologist, 11, 119–127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040.11.2.119 havenga, w., stanz, k., visagie, j., & wait, k. (2011). evaluating the difference in employee engagement before and after business and cultural transformation interventions. african journal of business management, 5(22), 8804–8820. http://dx.doi.org/10.5897/ajbm10.1436 hirschi, a. (2012). callings and work engagement: moderated mediation model of work meaningfulness, occupational identity, and occupational self-efficacy. journal of counseling psychology, 59(3), 479–485. pmid: 22774870, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0028949 holbeche, l., & springett, n. (2003). in search of the meaning of work. exeter: roffey park institute. hornbostel, b., kumar, r., & smith, r. (2011). my generation. retrieved february 10, 2014, from http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/thinkweek/fourgenerations-hornbostel_kumar_smith-july2011.pdf kahn, w.a. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 33(4), 692–724. retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/256287 kapoor, c., & solomon, n. (2011). understanding and managing generational differences in the workplace. worldwide hospitality and tourism themes, 3(4), 308–318. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17554211111162435 karami, h. (2012). an introduction to differential item functioning. the international journal of educational and psychological assessment, 11(2), 59–75. retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/1030760/an_introduction_to_differential_item_functioning kenexa. (2012). the many contexts of employee engagement. retrieved february 10, 2014, from http://www.kenexa.com/portals/0/downloads/khpipapers/themanycontextsofemployeeengagement-2012wtreport_cs6.pdf king, l.a., & napa, c.k. (1998). what makes a life good? journal of personality and social psychology, 75(1), 156–165. pmid: 9686456, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.75.1.156 koloc, n. (2013). what job candidates really want: meaningful work. harvard business review. retrieved march 16, 2014, from http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/04/what-job-candidates-really-wan/ kompier, m. (2005). dealing with workplace stress. in c.l. cooper (ed.), handbook of stress medicine and health (pp. 349–374). london: crc press. kowske, b.j., rasch, r., & wiley, j. (2010). millennials’ (lack of) attitude problem: an empirical examination of generational effects on work attitudes. journal of business and psychology, 25(2), 265–279. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9171-8 kular, s., gatenby, m., rees, c., soane, e., & truss, k. (2008). employee engagement: a literature review. retrieved march 16, 2014, from http://eprints.kingston.ac.uk/4192/1/19wempen.pdf kunreuther, f. (2003). the changing of the guard: what generational differences tell us about social-change organizations. nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly, 32(3), 450–457. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0899764003254975 langelaan, s., bakker, a.b., van doornen, l.j., & schaufeli, w.b. (2006). burnout and work engagement: do individual differences make a difference? personality and individual differences, 40(3), 521–532. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2005.07.009 lips-wiersema, m., & wright, s. (2012). measuring the meaning of meaningful work: development and validation of the comprehensive meaningful work scale (cmws). group & organization management, 37(5), 655–685. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1059601112461578 macey, w.h., & schneider, b. (2008). the meaning of employee engagement. industrial and organizational psychology, 1(1), 3–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2007.0002.x maslach, c., & leiter, m.p. (1997). early predictors of job burnout and engagement. journal of applied psychology, 93(3), 498–512. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.93.3.498 maslach, c., schaufeli, w.b., & leiter, m.p. (2001). job burnout. annual review of psychology, 53, 397–422. maslow, a.h. (1943). a theory of human motivation. psychological review, 50, 370–396. maurer, r. (2013). employee engagement high in sub-saharan africa. retrieved february 13, 2014, from http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/global/articles/pages/employee-engagement-high-africa.aspx may, d.r., gilson, r.l., & harter, l.m. (2004). the psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety and availability and the engagement of the human spirit at work. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 77(1), 11–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317904322915892 meriac, j.p., woehr, d.j., & banister, c. (2010). generational differences in work ethic: an examination of measurement equivalence across three cohorts. journal of business and psychology, 25(2), 315–324. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9164-7 miller, b., & nyce, s. (2014). which workers are delaying retirement and why? retrieved october 12, 2014, from http://www.towerswatson.com/en/insights/newsletters/americas/insider/2014/which-employees-are-delaying-retirement-and-why miller, c.s. (2008). meaningful work over the life course. fielding graduate university. retrieved march 15, 2014, from http://0-search.proquest.com.ujlink.uj.ac.za/pqdtglobal/docview/304823090/6d5cd4c186e44944pq/1?accountid=13425 mlodzik, k.j., & de meuse, k. (2010). a scholarly investigation of generational workforce differences: debunking the myths. retrieved march 20, 2014, from http://www.ihrim.org/pubonline/wire/sept12/scholarlyinvestigationofgenerationalworkforcedifferences.pdf morrow, p.c. (1983). concept redundancy in organizational research: the case of work commitment. academy of management review, 8(3), 486–500. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1983.4284606 olivier, a.l., & rothmann, s. (2007). antecedents of work engagement in a multinational oil company. sa journal of industrial psychology, 33(3), 49–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v33i3.396 overell, s. (2008). inwardness: the rise of meaningful work. london: the work foundation. retrieved from http://www.theworkfoundation.com/assets/docs/publications/32_inwardness_final.pdf pallant, j. (2005). spss survival manual. crows nest: allen & unwin. parry, e., & urwin, p. (2009). tapping into talent. retrieved february 10, 2014, from http://employeeengagement.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/tappingintotalentfinal.pdf pech, r., & slade, b. (2006). employee disengagement: is there evidence of a growing problem? handbook of business strategy, 7(1), 21–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/10775730610618585 pitt-catsouphes, m., & matz-costa, c. (2009). engaging the 21st century multi-generational workforce. retrieved february 10, 2014, from http://www.bc.edu/research/agingandwork/projects/generations.html robinson, d., perryman, s., & hayday, s. (2004). the drivers of employee engagement. retrieved february 10, 2014, from http://www.employment-studies.co.uk/pubs/summary.php?id=408 roodt, g. (2004). concept redundancy and contamination in employee commitment research: current problems and future directions. sa journal of industrial psychology, 30(1), 82–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v30i1.135 rothmann, s. (2003). burnout and engagement: a south african perspective. sa journal of industrial psychology, 29(4), 16–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v29i4.121 rothmann, s., jorgensen, l.i., & hill, c. (2011). coping and work engagement in selected south african organisations. sa journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), 107–117. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i1.962 rothmann, s., & rothmann, s. (2010). factors associated with employee engagement in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(2), 27–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i2.925 sanlam. (2013). when one day becomes day one. retrieved march 20, 2014, from http://www.sanlambenchmark.co.za/webadmin/include/content/2013_pensioner8mayfinal.pdf schaufeli, w.b. (2013). what is engagement? in c. truss, k. alfes, r. delbridge, a. shantz, & e. soane (eds.), employee engagement in theory and practice (pp. 15–35). london: routledge. schaufeli, w., & bakker, a. (2003). uwes utrecht work engagement scale. retrieved march 19, 2014, from http://www.beanmanaged.com/doc/pdf/arnoldbakker/articles/articles_arnold_bakker_87.pdf schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzáles-romá, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3, 71–92. schaufeli, w.b., taris, t.w., & van rhenen, w. (2008). workaholism, burnout, and work engagement: three of a kind or three different kinds of employee well-being? applied psychology, 57(2), 173–203. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2007.00285.x schewe, c.d., & noble, s.m. (2000). market segmentation by cohorts: the value and validity of cohorts in america and abroad. journal of marketing management, 16(1–3), 129–142. http://dx.doi.org/10.1362/026725700785100479 scott, d., & mcmullen, t. (2010). the impact of rewards programs on employee engagement. retrieved march 18, 2014, from http://www.worldatwork.org/waw/adimlink?id=39032 seligman, e.p., & csikszentmihalyi, m. (2000). positive psychology: an introduction. american psychologist, 55(1), 5–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0003-066x.55.1.5 sonnentag, s. (2011). research on work engagement is well and alive. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 20(1), 29–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2010.510639 steinmetz, h. (2013). analyzing observed composite differences across groups: is partial measurement invariance enough? methodology: european journal of research methods for the behavioral and social sciences, 9(1), 1–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/1614-2241/a000049 tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2006). using multivariate statistics. (5th edn.). boston, ma: pearson. thomas, k.w., & velthouse, b.a. (1990). cognitive elements of empowerment : an ‘interpretive’ model of intrinsic task motivation. academy of management review, 15(4), 666–681. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1990.4310926 tymon, w.g. (1988). an empirical investigation of a cognitive model of empowerment. temple university. retrieved march 26, 2014, from http://0-search.proquest.com.ujlink.uj.ac.za/pqdtglobal/docview/303724939/fulltextpdf/ wells-lepley, m. (2013). meaningful work: the key to employee engagement. business lexicon: weekly wire. retrieved march 15, 2014, from http://bizlex.com/2013/03/meaningful-work-the-key-to-employee-engagement/ white, m. (2011). rethinking generation gaps in the workplace: focus on shared values. retrieved february 10, 2014, from https://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/executive-development/custom-programs/~/media/c8fc09aef03743be91112418fee286d0.ashx wong, m., gardiner, e., lang, w., & coulon, l. (2008). generational differences in personality and motivation: do they exist and what are the implications for the workplace? journal of managerial psychology, 23(8), 878–890. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940810904376 wrzesniewski, a., mccauley, c., rozin, p., & schwartz, b. (1997). jobs, careers, and callings: people's relations to their work. journal of research in personality, 31, 21–33. 2-mofomme.qxd according to karmen (1984:133), police are the first representatives of the criminal justice system, with which victims of crime come into contact. karmen (1984:125) quotes reilly (1981) who said that the one word, which can be used to describe how the criminal justice system treats victims of crime and witnesses, is “badly”. he also quotes heinz (1982) who said that the painful insensitivity of the criminal justice system towards victims of crime is a ‘crime’ which goes largely unnoticed and it is committed daily across the nation.in terms of the national crime prevention strategy (ncps) (1996), crime violates the individual’s basic human rights and the experience is traumatic. williams 1999:52 supports this by indicating that victims of crime may be engulfed by feelings of fear, guilt, depression and posttraumatic stress. the police are expected to be sensitive towards victims of crime, comfort them, show empathy and provide good quality service. they must provide a more victim-friendly service (update on national crime prevention strategy 1997:7). this will help restore a sense of equilibrium in the crime victim. it will also enable the victim to heal and move on with the least possible harm. the strategic plan for the saps 2002 – 2003 provides a code of conduct for the south african police service. the police undertake to render service of a high quality responsibly and effectively, and to continue improving it. the 1997 white paper on transforming public service delivery prescribed that public services must render quality service and put people (customers) first. it identified eight principles of service delivery that are intended to put people first. these batho pele principles are consulting customers about their needs, setting service standards, access to services, courtesy, information, openness and transparency, remedy failures and best possible value for money. dynamics of the problem groenewald (2001:38) cites merton who identified certain dysfunctions that are present in bureaucratic institutions, which affect the organisation’s efficiency: the conservative nature of bureaucracies makes it difficult for the organisation to become flexible and adjust to changes in the external environment. bureaucracy results in trained incompetence. routine work leads to a mental state of work psychosis, where an individual displays certain preferences and antipathies and emphasises some aspects of his job at the expense of others. excessive conformity to rules may result in the organisation giving first priority to observing rules and regulations at the expense of satisf ying needs of the customer. the existence of a formal structure for maintaining discipline results in relationships that are depersonalised. the organisation becomes hypersensitive to all forms of criticism, whether external or internal. marks (2000:145), indicates that the police must demonstrate the ability to adapt to changed environments and aspire to perform best, as they are the most public face of the state. he said that the police operate on a strict ranking system and there is a strong emphasis on rules and regulations enforced through specific disciplinary measures. they also have a distinct and discernible occupational culture or what is called “cop culture” (reiner 1992 as cited by marks 2000:145). according to mclaughlin & muncie (2001:74) the “cop culture” arises from group socialization, the work environment and institutional routine. these features and dysfunctions make it difficult for police organisations to adapt to change. this results in police officials who are resistant to change as they are used to stability and strictly enforced ways of behaviour. marks (2000:146) argues that the police are more comfortable with maintaining the status quo and will generally give new names to old practices, limit themselves to traditional mechanisms, such as new training and new policies, and claim that they have changed. the importance of customers according to jenkins (1997:12), customers are an important stakeholder group that must be brought into the strategic thinking of an organization. customers are seen as a catalyst for change and it is therefore important to create and sustain a leah mofomme neil barnes department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract an investigation was conducted into the level and quality of service delivered by the saps in the client service centres (csc). quality was measured in terms of the principles of batho pele. the concept of ubuntu was introduced to see how it could be used to enhance these principles. a customer service model was developed and used to evaluate the quality of service rendered. interviews were conducted with staff, customers and managers. the results of the study showed that employees of the saps do not experience internal quality. the customers also do not receive service of a good quality as the principles of batho pele were not applied. opsomming ’n ondersoek is geloots, met betrekking tot die kwaliteitsvlakke van diens lewering by die suid afrikaanse polisiediens se kliente diens sentrums. die kwaliteit van diens lewering word gemeet aan die maastawwe van die batho pele beginsels. ’n kliente diens model is vir hierdie doel ontwerp om die kwaliteit van dienste gelewer te bepaal. die resultate van hierdie studie toon dat die werknemers van die sapd ondervind nie interne kwaliteit nie en hul nie die beginsels van batho pele implementeer nie. an investigation into the quality of service delivered by the south african police service in the north rand, gauteng requests for copies should be addressed to: l mofomme, department of human resource management, rau, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 11 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (2), 11-16 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (2), 11-16 dialogue with them. gerson (1992:34) indicates that organizations must recognize customers for their loyalty and continued business by sending them gifts and thank you cards. their needs and expectation must be addressed beyond the average. horovitz (2000:57) indicates that organizations often see complaining customers as the enemy. the author adds that customers who formally complain have, on average, already made two attempts to be heard before they finally sent a letter or phone. kessler (1996:58) says that customers who complain are heavily committed as they take their time, effort and energy to complain. they can be transformed into ambassadors for the organization. it is important that customers know where to address their complaints and that procedures are made very easy. the name and contact details of the manager must be available for customers at all times (horovitz 2000:65). the service-profit chain according to edvardsson & gustavsson (2003:148), research on customer satisfaction has focused on the customer, drivers of customer satisfaction, and what the customer perceives to be quality. this has been done at the expense of work satisfaction of the employees. the authors say that emphasis was placed on characteristics of employees such as attitudes, competence and behavior. they quote schlesinger and heskett (1991) who argued that customer satisfaction is rooted in employee satisfaction. they refer to external service quality, which leads to customer satisfaction and loyalty, as well as internal service quality, which drive employee satisfaction. employee satisfaction drives external quality, which in turn drives internal quality service. heskett, jones, loveman, sasser & schlesinger (1994:164) refer to the service-profit chain to indicate the relationship between internal quality and organizational success. the needs of employees must be met for them to do a good job (bergman & klefjö 1994:24). internal quality also requires that employees as internal customers, be informed about the company’s progress on customer satisfaction. this will make them identif y with the objectives and programs of the company and be motivated to achieve them. employees who experience internal quality become loyal to the organization and remain in the company for long. the final product in this chain of events is organizational success and growth (heskett et al 1994:165). the authors further indicate that leadership underlies the success of the chain. a leader, who understands how the service-profit chain works, will strive to achieve internal quality. enhancing batho pele through ubuntu according to mbigi (1997:2), ubuntu “is a literal translation for collective personhood and collective morality”. he says that the concept is best expressed by the xhosa proverb, which says that people are people through others. mbigi (1997:3) indicates that ubuntu is a concept that is uniquely african and emphasises concern for people and being good. broodryk (1998:28) indicates that ubuntu means humanness. the main pillars of ubuntu are intense caring and sharing attitudes. these values will enable a police official to show more courtesy towards customers. the problem statement the saps needs people who can deliver quality service. customer satisfaction depends on the value of services provided by employees. the latter can only deliver quality services if they are also satisfied in their work. the present research question therefore could be stated as follows: does the level and quality of the service delivered by the saps satisf y the needs and expectations of the community (customer) of the north rand? the context of this question is that if the police apply the eight principles of batho pele, then the needs and expectations of their customers will be met. research design the research design, which was utilised in this study, is phenomenological. it enabled the researcher to understand the experiences of the customers with regard to the service delivered by the saps. in order to test data collection methods, the researcher did a pilot study at kwa-thema police station, which is outside the area of north rand. participatory observation was used as a method of data collection as the researcher wanted to study the experiences of human beings in their natural environment. the researcher visited all 14 police stations in the north rand. she spent four hours in the client service centre (csc) of each station, interacting with employees of the saps and observing interactions bet ween the police and members of the community, as well as interactions among police members. conversations and interactions were analysed. measuring instrument qualitative interviews were conducted with customers who had received service from the police. interviews were also conducted with employees of the saps who work in the csc and station management. in order to ensure quality, the researcher prepared specific questions that helped to give structure to the interviews. these consisted of main questions, probes and follow-up questions. three questionnaires were developed; for the station manager, the client and the employees who work in the csc. the questionnaires consisted of different sections that were meant to obtain information on principles of batho pele and ubuntu, members experiences and managers perceptions. internal quality internal quality was measured in terms of whether employee loyalty and achievement are rewarded; what influences how important they feel in the workplace; what influences the satisfaction of their needs and expectations, whether employees are empowered and whether management asks them for feedback and suggestions on service delivery improvement. the researcher also determined how managers measured employee performance to see whether incentives are awarded based on performance. results members from nine police stations indicated that their management does reward loyalty, while those from five police stations said loyalty is not rewarded. all managers indicated that they do reward customer champions. all employees interviewed indicated that they feel important when the community and their commanders appreciate their efforts and hard work. they indicated that their needs and expectations are satisfied when colleagues, managers and the community appreciate them. they also indicated that work conditions could be improved and their needs and expectations could be satisfied if they received additional and proper facilities. members from seven stations added that they need more supportive and committed managers who recognize them for their good work. only one said that managers must give them rest days as a reward for good work. all members interviewed indicated that when a customer is not satisfied with the service rendered, they refer him/her to their superior. if the superior is not available such as after hours, they request the person to come back when the supervisor will be mofomme, barnes12 available. only six of the members interviewed indicated that they attended the customer service course and they felt that it was very useful for csc personnel. they indicated that customer satisfaction could be improved if more members attended the course. eight had not attended the customer service course and did not know what it entails. only one of the eight indicated that customer service could be improved through the customer service course. the rest quoted more resources as the solution to improving customer service. all employees interviewed seem to feel that giving feedback on investigations is not their job; it is the responsibility of detectives. they therefore only refer customers to detectives. members from seven stations indicated that their station commanders do ask them for feedback and suggestions on service delivery. employees from the remaining seven stations indicated that their station commanders never spend time with them in the csc and never ask them for any suggestions. they indicated that they only see the station commissioners in the csc when they come to check registers. however, when the researcher interviewed managers, they all mentioned that they do interview employees in the csc about their work. all members interviewed indicated that the performance enhancement programme (pep) is used to measure performance on a quarterly basis. customer satisfaction customer satisfaction was assessed in terms of the eight principles of batho pele. 1. accessibility accessibility was assessed in terms of whether the police stations are easy to find and within reach for the customers, accessibility to people with disabilities and the elderly, and whether the station has victim friendly facilities. the researcher observed that six of the police stations in the north rand have direction boards from the main roads. eight of the police stations do not have any directional boards from the main roads. all the police stations in the north rand are accessible to the disabled and the elderly. all clients interviewed indicated that it was easy for them to find the police stations because they live within the station precinct. only one customer indicated that although she knew where the station is, she had to take two taxis to get there. this was seen as an inconvenient and expensive exercise. all stations in the north rand have created facilities where customers with sensitive cases are interviewed. only three stations have fully established victim support centres. 2. value for money value for money was assessed in terms of courtesy, interpersonal skills and competence of employees. all the customers interviewed indicated that there was someone to help them when they arrived at the station and employees of the saps knew what to do in order to assist them. they reported that employees were able to express themselves and to write statements where necessary. of all the customers interviewed, only one indicated that he had called the station before and could not be assisted. he then decided that he will never call the station but will go there whenever he needs assistance from the station. out of all the customers interviewed, four came to open case dockets, two reported accidents and five went to certif y documents, two needed sworn statements and one old lady had previously opened a case docket and came to enquire when the police would arrest the suspect. two of the four who had opened case dockets were happy with the service they received in the csc, two were unhappy that the police did not go out to arrest the suspects immediately. the elderly lady who came to enquire when the police would come to arrest the suspect indicated that the former is always there and continues to harass her. she was then told to wait for the patrol van so that she could go with the police and show them the suspect. the rest of the customers (nine) were happy with the assistance they received from the police. 3. service standards service standards were assessed in terms of their existence, whether they are known and respected by all employees and whether customers’ experiences meet their expectations. the researcher observed that all 14 police stations visited did not have vision/mission statements on customer satisfaction. no service standards were displayed in the csc or anywhere in the station. only four stations had the batho pele principles displayed in the csc. all employees interviewed did not know the values of the saps. they also indicated that their stations did not have their own policy on customer service or specific customer service standards. all customers interviewed indicated that they expect the police to be available at all times when needed and to assist them without delay. three of the customers added that they also expect the police to go out and arrest suspects whose whereabouts are known. they also indicated that their expectations were not met as the police only opened dockets and did not go further and arrest the suspects. eleven customers indicated that the police officials in the csc did meet their expectations. 4. courtesy courtesy was assessed in terms of how employees interact with customers, how they address them and how they respond to them. the question of ubuntu was considered in terms of whether employees show respect and empathy. all customers interviewed indicated that employees of the saps in the csc did not greet them nor introduce themselves; neither did they ask them their names. the researcher also observed that the members in the csc did not greet the customer. they only approached the counter and asked whether they can help. some even called customers by shouting “next!”. all customers interviewed indicated that the police officials must be more friendly and polite than they currently are. the researcher observed that members did show some level of ubuntu in that they were helpful, but they did not show any empathy and/or kindness. when a person reported a crime or an accident, they only took prescribed forms and started writing down the facts. they did not share any of the customer’s feelings. nine of the station commissioners also indicated that members do not have good communication skills. they said that members do not place themselves in the position of the customer and try to understand their problem. one station commissioner said that members like to refer customers to other stations and to social workers instead of helping them. one of the nine station commissioners said that members do not understand procedures of domestic violence cases and therefore refer people to other institutions. five of the station commissioners said that members have good communication skills but there is room for improvement. three of these managers said that members received training when they attended the customer service course and two said they were never trained and use natural skills. the quality of service delivered by the saps 13 all customers reported that employees of the saps had good communication skills, as they were able to take statements and help them. some of the customers were happy that members of the saps were able to help them in their own language. 5. information information was assessed by determining whether customers are informed of the processes and procedures that will follow after they visited the station. the customers who came to certif y documents and to obtain affidavits did not need additional information from the police. the four who came to open case dockets and the two customers who reported accidents indicated that the police had informed them of the processes that they would follow and what they had to do in the mean time. however, they were told that the detectives would contact them, they were not told when that would happen. the last customer indicated that the police had explained the procedures to her but nothing happened as they said. 6. remedy failures this was assessed in terms of whether customers are given an opportunity to evaluate the service they received and what is done about that. the saps’ procedures to register complaints were looked at. the research also assessed how customer satisfaction is measured and whether results are used to improve service delivery. all the customers interviewed indicated that they were not asked to evaluate the service they received; neither did they see a feedback/comments form. at one of the police stations, the researcher found notices in the csc requesting all customers to fill in the opinion poll forms next to the suggestion box before they left the station. no opinion poll forms were available and all the members in the csc did not know what forms those were. one station commissioner produced a service evaluation form, which he printed from the computer. it appears as if it was once used but the practice has since been discontinued, as csc employees were not aware of the evaluation form. neither were such forms available in the csc. out of all the customers interviewed, only one knew how to register a complaint against the police. this customer is involved in policing, as he is a member of the community policing forum (cpf). when members of the saps were asked what they do when a customer is not satisfied with the service, they all said they refer him/her to the superiors. none indicated that they give them an option to register a complaint against the police and/or explained the procedures. all customers interviewed suggested that the police must ask them to evaluate services received. methods suggested varied from short evaluation forms, short interviews by supervisors, to electronic devices where the customer punches in comments. service delivery and improvement programme (sdip) files were perused. these were found to contain only the station plans. no documentation on measuring service and/or initiatives to improve it could be found. all the station commissioners reported that they have not done any sdip activities at all this year. all the managers indicated that they were not happy that service delivery is not measured. the researcher observed that all 14 police stations did not have a notice informing customers who to contact if they are not satisfied with the service. 7. consultation consultation was assessed in terms of whether communities are consulted about the services they require, and whether they are involved in policing. the existence and functioning of community police forums (cpf) at each station was also assessed. only one out of fourteen customers interviewed said he was a member of the cpf and attended meetings regularly. he said that cpf’s could be improved if police management showed more interest and commitment. a ll the other customers could not comment on the question. thirteen customers indicated that the police had never consulted them about the services they need. the other was the cpf member who felt that he is consulted. all the station commissioners reported that they involve the community in policing through the cpf. they also attend meetings that are arranged by the communit y, street committees, sanco, etc. their school monitoring unit and captain crime stop are also used to visit schools and youth centers to tell them about crime. it is during these meetings that the police hear about the problems and needs of the community. 8. openness and transparency openness and transparency were assessed in terms of site visits and open days organized by the police for members of the community. all customers interviewed indicated that they had never received invitations for a site visit or open day. five of the customers indicated that they had seen and heard the police speak about crime and their achievements, but not necessarily from their station. three customers said they usually read about their station from the local newspapers. they said that the stories are mostly about crime, crime hints and police members’ achievements. as indicated above, station commissioners reported that they get an opportunit y to inform the communit y about police initiatives by attending meetings when invited by the community. only one station commander indicated that the station and the cpf usually arrange information sessions for the community to inform them about crime. this station also has a website and a monthly newsletter which is distributed to all the residents. contact numbers of the cpf and the csc are printed on the newsletter. discussion it appears that customers of the saps do not expect a high quality service from members in the client service centre. they accept the pure basics that they require from the police. they do not seem to measure employees in terms of the principles of batho pele but on whether they can do the basics of opening dockets, certif ying documents, etc. from the results of the study, it appears that members of the saps in the csc believe that service delivery can only be improved through more and better resources. initiatives to reward employees and to measure customer satisfaction are started but are generally not sustained. employees are rewarded with certificates and floating trophies. the service delivery improvement programme (sdip) was last done during 2002 but no record could be found of what was measured at that time. the police in the north rand are not happy that they do not measure whether customers are satisfied with the service received or not. it appears that employees in the csc are not empowered to handle customer complaints. they refer these to their seniors and make no follow-up as to whether the customer was eventually satisfied. the csc is open every day for 24 hours and this is where members of the community go for assistance. the research found that out of 71 complaints registered against the police for the period january 2003 to august 2003, 33 relate to poor investigation or no feedback on progress of investigations. however, members of the saps who work in the csc are not able to give full assistance and feedback to customers who come to enquire. the customer is only told who the mofomme, barnes14 investigating officer is and whether the case docket is still open or closed. he/she is then referred to the detectives for more information. this sometimes means that the customer must come back the next day and they still cannot assure him/her that the detective will be available. there is no “fix-it-now” approach due to the “it is not my job” custom. the research indicated that most customers found it difficult to understand what value for money means in the context of policing. the researcher had to restructure the question and ask whether customers were satisfied with the service they received. customers are not encouraged to complain formally. no employee of the saps in the csc indicated that they gave customers who were not happy with the service an option to register a complaint against the police. procedures and necessary forms for registering a complaint against the police are not available in the csc. officers who work office hours only keep them. except for one station, there are no notices in the csc informing members of the community who to contact if they are not happy with the service. a discrepancy was found between the report of employees and the response of managers. all managers reported that they interact with employees and reward loyalty, while only 50% of the employees interviewed said that their commanders interact with them in the csc and (9) indicated that managers do reward loyalty. the community arranges most community meetings and they notif y the police. the latter then get an opportunity to address them about crime: tendencies, hints, etc. they do not address them about their needs or give them information about customer satisfaction and levels of quality they can expect. no open days or site visits were arranged by the police up to the time of the collection of data. the results of the research indicated that more people go to the police station for administrative processes than to open cases. those who open cases expect the police to go out and arrest suspects if customers tell them where to find them. it seems as if members of the saps distance themselves from the feelings of the community. they only do the physical work but do not seem to get emotionally involved by showing empathy and supporting the victim. they do not genuine concern and interest in the customer. they only stick to the facts and completing forms/documentation. this makes it difficult for them to render quality service and they seem to be sticking to the old ways of doing things. customers do not seem to expect the police to be friendly and courteous towards them. however, when asked how courtesy could be improved, all customers said the police must be friendlier and greet them. it appears that the police make use of cpf structures to consult the community about their needs. however, emphasis seems to be on crime and not on softer issues of service delivery. cop-culture can make the police expect the community to treat them badly, so they develop a defence against the community. this creates division, as the police may not see themselves as part of the community. this can have a disabling effect on service delivery. managers play a major role in changing the culture of the organisation. police managers must use the “copculture” to transform the organisation. recommendations it is recommended that the south african police service (saps) adopt the customer service model described below in order to improve customer satisfaction in the client service centre (csc). internal quality: strive for internal customer satisfaction internal quality must be developed through applying the principles of batho pele to the employees of the saps. management must treat employees with respect, involve them in decision-making and empower them. subordinates must feel that every job is important. employees who feel important in their work will be loyal and remain in the saps for longer periods. therefore, expertise will not be lost. strive for external customer satisfaction happy employees will provide quality service to external customers. they will be able to apply the principles of batho pele and the values of ubuntu. the saps currently uses community police forums (cpf) to consult the community about crime problems. the functioning of cpf’s must be enhanced and utilised optimally in terms of the manual of the saps (1997). they must be used as a point to report complaints about poor service. the saps management must develop standards on customer service in consultation with all employees. these must be communicated to all employees and customers and be displayed in client service centres. police officers must be more courteous towards the customers. they must learn to introduce themselves to customers. they must remember the names of customers and address them by their name. they must be more polite and show respect when calling customers to help them. they must develop a sharing and caring attitude (ubuntu). customers must be invited for a site visit to the csc, allowed to work with the police and to give feedback on their experiences with regard to service delivery. customers must be encouraged to evaluate services and complain. opinion forms/questionnaires must be developed and kept in the csc where customers can see them. a note must be placed in the csc informing customers about the questionnaires, complaint forms and who to contact when they are not happy with the service. members of the saps must give the best possible value for money by handling requests and enquiries to the satisfaction of the customer. the latter must not be sent to different people. csc personnel must make the necessary enquiries and give feedback to the customer. organisational success internal customer satisfaction will lead to better quality service being rendered to the community. this will lead to satisfied customers who will appreciate employees of the saps and thus enhance feelings of worth and satisfaction among employees. the saps as an organisation will be able to achieve its vision/mission and values with regard to customer service. good leadership and management good leadership and management are prerequisites for the success of the customer service model. the management of the saps must model correct behavior in the way they treat their subordinates and customers. managers must recognise the efforts and achievements of employees by giving rewards and celebrating “champions”. they must also drive customer service programmes through continuous in-service training. the quality of service delivered by the saps 15 in conclusion, it appears, from the study that customers do not have very high expectations of the police. they were only happy with the administrative duties performed. the quality of the service rendered in terms of batho pele is very poor. employees of the saps do not experience internal quality and therefore do not provide quality service to customers. references bergman, b. & klefsjö, b. 1994. quality: from customer needs to customer satisfaction. london: mcgraw-hill book company broodryk, j. 1998. managing the ubuntu way: four teats of a cow. management today, april 1998, 28-31. edvardsson, b., thomasson, b. & øvretveit, j. 1994. quality of ser vice: making it really work. new york: mcgraw-hill book co. gerson, r.f. 1993. measuring customer satisfaction. crisp publication inc: usa. groenewald, b.j.j. the ser vice side of policing. presentation at institute for municipal law enforcement (imle) conference. 23 24 august 2001: western cape. heskett, j.l., jones, t.o., loveman, g.w., sasser, jr.,w.e. & schlesinger,l.a. 1994. putting the service-profit chain to work. havard business review. 164-174. horovitz, j. 2000. the se ven secrets of ser vice strategy. prentice-hall: great britain. karmen, a. 1984. crime victims: an introduction to victimology. california: brooks/cole publisihing company. kessler, s. 1996. measuring and managing customer satisfaction: going for the gold. asqc quality press: wisconsin. losardo, m.m. & rossi, n.m. 1993. at the ser vice quality frontier: a handbook for managers, consultants and other pioneers. asqc quality press: wisconsin. marks, m. 2000. transforming robocops? a case study of police organisational change. society in transition, 31 (2): 144 -161. mbigi, l. 1997. ubuntu: the african dream in management. randburg: knowledge resources (pty) ltd. mclaughlin, e. & muncie, j. 2001. controlling crime. second edition. sage publications: london. williams, b. 1999. working with victims of crime: policies, politics and practice. london & philadelphia: jessica kingsley publishers notice 1459 of 1997. minister of safety & security. draft policy document: change. 1994. white paper on public service delivery (batho pele white paper). government gazette no. 18340. government printers: pretoria. national crime prevention strategy. may 1996. national instruction 1/2000. ser vice delivery improvement. march 2000. south african police service. strategic plan for the south african police ser vice: 2002 2005 update on national crime prevention strategy. vol. 2 no.1 of 1997. draft policy document. 1994. minister of safety and security. mofomme, barnes16 article information authors: david w. brits1 theo h. veldsman1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: theo veldsman postal address: po box 524, auckland park 2006, south africa dates: received: 07 feb. 2013 accepted: 30 jan. 2014 published: 30 july 2014 how to cite this article: brits, d.w., & veldsman, t.h. (2014). a global central banker competency model. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12(1) art. #575, 14 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.575 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. a global central banker competency model in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study    • review of the literature    • competencies    • competency models    • competency modelling    • the evaluation of a competency model    • problem statement and objective of study    • the potential value-add of the study • method    • research approach    • research design       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research hypotheses of the study       • statistical analysis • results    • phase 1: a proposed central banker competency model    • phase 2: qualitatively expanded central banker competency model    • phase 3: a quantitatively validated global central banker competency model    • psychometric properties of the competency survey questionnaires       • reliabilities       • inter-correlations of the competency clusters       • global central banker competency model competencies: relevance and training offered       • global central banker competency model competency clusters: relevance and training offered       • presence of a global central banker competency model and the training offered and a central bank’s global influence       • evaluating the quantitatively validated global central banker competency model • discussion    • finding 1: a globally validated global central banker competency model    • finding 2: independent hard and soft competency dimensions    • finding 3: no differentiation of competencies in terms of levels of work    • finding 4: differences between central banks with higher and lower global influence according to the global central banker competency model    • finding 5: the training offered by central banks    • finding 6: comparing the training offered by central banks with a higher and lower global influence    • conclusion • acknowledgement    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: no comprehensive, integrated competency model exists for central bankers. due to the importance of central banks in the context of the ongoing global financial crisis, it was deemed necessary to design and validate such a model.research purpose: to craft and validate a comprehensive, integrated global central banker competency model (gcbcm) and to assess whether central banks using the gcbcm for training have a higher global influence. motivation for the study: limited consensus exists globally about what constitutes a ‘competent’ central banker. a quantitatively validated gcbcm would make a significant contribution to enhancing central banker effectiveness, and also provide a solid foundation for effective people management. research approach, design and method: a blended quantitative and qualitative research approach was taken. two sets of hypotheses were tested regarding the relationships between the gcbcm and the training offered, using the model on the one hand, and a central bank’s global influence on the other. main findings: the gcbcm was generally accepted across all participating central banks globally, although some differences were found between central banks with higher and lower global influence. the actual training offered by central banks in terms of the model, however, is generally limited to technical-functional skills. the gcbcm is therefore at present predominantly aspirational. significant differences were found regarding the training offered. practical/managerial implications: by adopting the gcbcm, central banks would be able to develop organisation-specific competency models in order to enhance their organisational capabilities and play their increasingly important global role more effectively. contribution: a generic conceptual framework for the crafting of a competency model with evaluation criteria was developed. a gcbcm was quantitatively validated. introduction top ↑ key focus of the study over the past 4–5 years, the role of central banks has grown increasingly important globally. their role has shifted from national, micro regulation to global, macro regulation (linde, 2012; the economist, 2013; vergara, 2012). in some quarters, it is contended that central bankers have become the most powerful players in the global economy. as stated in the economist:before the financial crisis started in 2008 central bankers were often seen as back room technocrats: unelected, unexciting men in grey suits, who adjusted interest rates to keep prices stable on the basis of widely agreed rules. today, the suits are the same, but not much else. central bankers have become the most powerful players in the global economy. by providing massive liquidity to the financial system, they saved the world from economic collapse in 2008 (2012, p. 15). background to the study although many central banks agree on what the core functions of a central bank should be, there is little or no consensus globally about what constitutes a ‘competent’ central banker. the growing importance of the global role of central bankers, as well as the absence of a global competency model for central bankers provided the rationale for this study. more specifically, the study was intended to establish a ‘common language’ for central banks to converse globally about central banker competencies (stevens, 2013). review of the literature the literature reported here covers the following topics: • competencies • competency models • competency modelling • evaluating the effectiveness of a competency model. competencies a competency is a general description of the underlying knowledge, skills and attributes that people need to deliver worthy job performance (stevens, 2013). according buford and linder (2002), larocca (n.d.) and parry (1998), competencies pertain to behaviour of a certain standard required for successful performance that cover a set of related knowledge, skills and attributes. wynne and stringer (1997, p. 20) define competencies simply as ‘those things employees have to be, know and do, to achieve job outputs’. for dubois’s (n.d.) competence are the personal characteristics that drive superior job performance. competencies allow organisations to translate their business strategies, imperatives and objectives into performance requirements for their employees (stevens, 2013). for the purpose of this article, a competency is defined as a composite of the knowledge, skills and attributes that lead to worthy job performance. in addition to the term competency, the terms competency cluster and competency domain were also introduced in this study. a competency cluster is defined as a collective name for a set of related competency domains. a competency domain, in turn, is defined as being made up of related competencies. competency models competency models can provide organisations with a flexible and dynamic base from which to engender a competitive advantage (soderquist, papalexandris, ioannou & prastacos, 2010; stevens, 2013). according to garrett (n.d.), a competency model embodies a collection of the success factors necessary for achieving results in a specific job in the organisation, as well as the realisation of its strategy (stevens, 2013). mirabile (1997) describes a competency model as an enabler to distinguish between high and low performers. since this study focused on the competencies required by occupational groups, a more accurate explanation of a competency model would be that it is a selection of competencies required by a specific occupational group at the individual, team and organisational levels (stevens, 2013). a mere listing of competencies has more value for its users if similar competencies are grouped together to form a model (parry, 1996). for the purpose of this study, a competency model was defined as a set of competency domains, with their associated competencies, required by a specific occupational group. competency modelling a proposed competency modelling process, with its specific stages and commensurate steps for each stage, is discussed and summerised in table 1.table 1 indicates that the development of a competency model requires a systematic ten-step process. the first step in the process is to communicate the need for the competency model. durgin (2006) declares that, before a competency model is developed, it is important for everyone who will be involved to understand fully the purpose of having a competency model and what its benefits would be. the second step is preparing the organisation to accept the competency model and how the model will contribute to talent management. the third step is to specify the design considerations for the competency model. this depends, according to parry (1996), on how the competencies will be used in the organisation. the fourth step is to define the requisite levels of work applicable to the organisation. jaques and clement (1994) proposed the stratified systems theory, which states that there is increasingly complex, critical work at each successively higher organisational level. the fifth step is to collect information about the key activities performed by an occupational group. the sixth step is to translate activities into the key knowledge, skills and personal attributes that make a master performer successful (zemke & zemke, 1999). the knowledge, skills and personal attributes applicable to various occupational groups must also be determined. this bundle or group of key activities make up a generic competency, not a single activity (truesdell, 2001). the seventh step is to align the competency model with the organisational strategy, which constitutes its vertical alignment. according to schippmann et al. (2000), the increased interest in organisational competencies, together with the fast pace of change in the business world, most likely encouraged a concurrent interest in individual competencies supporting the business strategy. an organisation should invest time and resources in developing competency models as a component of a larger commitment to talent management, connected to the overall business strategy (brown, 2006). similarly, it is important to align the competency model with the people management framework, which constitutes its horizontal alignment. this goal is achieved by aligning all the people management functions to the competency model to ensure harmony and consistency (rothwell & wellins, cited by ramlall, 2006). in this way, competency models remove the barriers that often arise between disjointed people management functions. this means that the competencies and their associated behavioural indicators become a common language across all people management functions (campion et al., 2011). the eighth step is to officially sign off the competency model, preferably by the ceo, before it is implemented in the organisation. the ninth step is to provide opportunities for employees to obtain the new knowledge, skills and expertise as specified by the compelling model (brown, 2006). the tenth and final step is to continuously assess the competency model for its relevance and added value. table 1: the competency modelling stages with their commensurate steps. the evaluation of a competency model the competency model also needs to be evaluated against a set of criteria. such a set of criteria, sourced from literature, was developed by the researchers, as illustrated in figure 1. a competency model, as the product of the modelling process, should be assessed in terms of these criteria, and enhanced if necessary. the best approach would be to have a knowledgeable person or persons, perhaps even the users of the model, conduct such an assessment, independently of the person (or persons) who developed the model. figure 1: evaluation criteria for assessing a competency model as constructed by the researchers. problem statement and objective of study the study was directed and guided by the following problem statement: the growing importance of central bankers and the fact that there is currently no globally validated competency model for central bankers prompted the need to develop and validate such a competency model. the objective of the research was twofold: firstly, to craft and validate a comprehensive, integrated, global competency model for central bankers and, secondly, to assess whether central banks that use a comprehensive, integrated competency model, and develop these competencies, have a higher global influence as a central bank. the potential value-add of the study the contention of the study is that a globally validated central banker competency model would make a significant contribution to enhancing central banker effectiveness. such a model would also establish a sound and solid foundation for effective people management (fisher, schoenfeldt & shaw, 1999; rothwell & wellins, 2004; stevens, 2013; veldsman, 2011). method top ↑ research approach the sources and nature of the data to be collected to meet the objectives of the study called for a blended research approach. jogulu and pansiri (2011) assert that a combination of qualitative and quantitative research approaches is epistemologically coherent. such an approach is useful for data generation and verification of findings. the use of a qualitative research approach, such as focus groups, allows for longer engagements with participants, which gives ample time to deliberate issues more intensively. in the case of this study, this approach assisted the researchers to use the qualitative data to construct more comprehensive and relevant survey questionnaires. the application of the blended research approach in this study is illustrated in figure 2.from an ethical point of view, the respondents were given the assurance that their identities will not be disclosed. with regard to the data used, the use and misuse of the data presented were avoided by ensuring not only that the reported conclusions were based on accurately recorded data but also that all relevant observations are reported. a commitment was also given to the respondents that they will receive the generalised results of the study. figure 2: the blended research approach used in this study. research design the research process followed three successive phases. during phase 1, a proposed central banker competency model was generated, based on a review of the available literature. during phase 2, this proposed model was converted into a qualitatively enhanced central banker competency model, using the information obtained from focus groups. finally, in phase 3 the global central banker competency model was quantitatively assessed by means of a questionnaire survey of a representative sample of central banks. the research process used in this study is illustrated in figure 3, in the form of a sequential process flow, showing the seven steps that the researchers followed across the abovementioned three phases.during phase 2 of the study, the empirical data collection entailed identifying the key activities that are performed by global bankers, by engaging subject matter experts in multiple functional specialist focus groups (106 participants in 16 focus groups). the focus group were conducted in a single central bank forming part of the high global influence group. the output from the focus groups, in the form of competencies, was used in constructing the survey questionnaires. the draft questionnaires were sent to select persons in central banks globally to review. during phase 3 of the study, the empirical data collection proceeded by sending the final questionnaires to respondents in central banks from the g-20 countries (i.e. those banks that could be regarded as having a higher global influence), plus other central banks that are not part of the g-20 countries (i.e. those banks that could be regarded as having a lower global influence). figure 3: research process employed. research participants the population consisted of all of the central banks in the world. the sample was drawn by selecting central banks from both developed and developing countries, as well as differentiating between banks with higher and lowers global influence. in order to measure effectively the dependent variable, namely global influence, the sample was selected using the criterion of membership the group of twenty (g-20) – the finance ministers and central bank governors from the 20 major economies of the world. central banks from european union (eu) countries were also regarded as having a higher global influence, because they make up the european central bank, which is the 20th member of the g-20. central banks falling outside this group were regarded as having a lower global influence.in total, 40 central banks were invited to participate in the study. thirty banks responded. the fact that 30 out of a potential 40 central banks responded (75%) is deemed an excellent response rate. however, a limitation of the study was that, for various reasons, a number of major central banks decided against participating, namely the federal reserve bank of new york, the people’s bank of china, the european central bank and the bank of japan. the 30 participating central bank training providers per country and g-20 members were: australia (g-20), austria (g-20/eu), botswana, belgium (g-20/eu), canada (g-20), czech republic, united kingdom (g-20), france (g-20), germany (g-20), italy (g-20), kenya, malawi, malaysia, namibia, netherlands (g-20/eu), new zealand, portugal, south african reserve bank college (g-20), seychelles, south africa (g-20), slovakia, spain (g-20/eu), swaziland, switzerland, tanzania, mauritius, mexico (g-20), mozambique, zambia and zimbabwe. measuring instruments the independent variable of the study was the presence or absence of a comprehensive, integrated central banker competency model. the measurement of the independent variable focused on the extent to which the central banker competency model for a given central bank was integrated and comprehensive.two questionnaires, constructed by the researchers, were used for the measurement and validation of the competency model. the first questionnaire dealt with the functional and professional specialisation competencies within a central bank. the second questionnaire consisted of four sections: (1) enabling competencies, which addressed the knowledge and skills individuals should have to get along well with co-workers and to function effectively in the central bank, (2) leadership or management competencies, dealing with competencies related to leading and managing people, (3) ethical competencies, focusing on ethical and values-related competencies and (4) contextual complexity competencies, addressing increasingly more complex critical competency requirements at each successive organisational level. the dependent variable referred to the global influence that a central bank has. high global influence was defined as being a member of the g-20. low global influence was defined as a central bank being not a member of the g-20. research hypotheses of the study two sets of hypotheses were tested in this study. hypothesis 1:h0: the presence or not of a comprehensive, integrated central banker competency model does not affect the global influence of a central bank. ha: the presence of a comprehensive, integrated central banker competency model does affect the global influence of a central bank. hypothesis 2: h0: the training offered or not in terms of this competency model does not affect the global influence of a central bank. ha: the training offered in terms of this competency model does affect the global influence of a central bank. the relationship between the study variables and hypotheses is illustrated in figure 4. figure 4: relationship between the study variables. statistical analysis the data generated during phase 3 of the study was analysed using the spss 12 (2004) software package to provide statistically processed answers to the empirical research questions. descriptive statistics were used to determine the profile of the sample from which the data had been obtained, as well as the statistical features of the data collected. the mann-whitney u test and pearson’s chi-squared test were used to test the hypotheses. the small sample size led to the decision to use these non-parametric tests, as they are not as sensitive to deviations from multivariate normality and smaller sample sizes. results top ↑ the results are reported according to the three phases followed in the study. phase 1: a proposed central banker competency model in building the proposed central banker competency model, a literature review was conducted of publicly available competency models. four generic competency models were reviewed: the shl universal competency framework (bartram, 2012), the world health organization (who) global competency model (who, 2010), the leadership competency model (central michigan university, n.d.) and the organisation-person fit competency model (veldsman, 2010). in general, the assessment of these models against the competency model evaluation criteria showed the following strengths: (1) each competency model formed a meaningful and logical whole, (2) a common language was used throughout to describe the competencies, (3) the models were based on sound theory and best practices and (4) the competencies did not merely constitute a wish list. the four models, to varying degrees, also have shortcomings in terms of: (1) not supporting specific organisational strategies with their talent requirements, (2) limited alignment to specific organisational cultures and values, (3) having too many competencies, (4) not supporting a specific people management framework and (5) not indicating the level of proficiency required. the shortcomings listed regarding (1), (2), and (3) may not be real weaknesses, but a function of the models claiming to be generic (or universal) models (except for the who global competency model), which implies that organisations using any of these models need to customise them to fit their organisations. as regards the currently available competency models for central banks, two models were reviewed: the european central bank (ecb) competency model (fehlker, 2004) and the unendorsed south africa reserve bank competency model (gidlow, ngcobo, du plooy & smal, 2002). the following overall key strengths were identified for these models: (1) a common language was used throughout, (2) the models supported the organisational strategy, (3) the models were comprehensive enough to support the range of competencies making up the functions of a central bank and (4) they matched the requisite complexity of the central banks concerned. the following overall key weaknesses were identified: (1) due to the comprehensiveness of these models, they could be cumbersome to use, (2) the behavioural descriptions of each competency were not consistently described in an output-based format and (3) there was a need for some form of measurement to distinguish between varying levels of proficiency for each of the competencies. the literature review of publicly available competency models helped the researchers to develop a proposed central banker competency model. the proposed model comprises four competency clusters with their associated competency domain descriptions, and is given in figure 5. figure 5: phase 1: the competency clusters of the proposed central banker competency model as constructed by the researchers. phase 2: qualitatively expanded central banker competency model the proposed model served as a conceptual framework for the development of a qualitatively expanded central banker competency model. the inputs obtained through the focus groups assisted the researchers to identify competency clusters and competency domains with their associated competencies.this qualitatively expanded central banker competency model comprised the following competency clusters: (1) functional and professional specialisation competency cluster, which was constructed using the information obtained from focus group meetings and from the proposed central banker competency model, (2) enabling competencies, (3) leadership or management competencies, (4) ethical competencies and (5) contextual complexity competencies. competencies (2)–(5) were all constructed from the information sourced from the generic, publicly available and central bank competency models reviewed. the various competency clusters comprising the qualitatively expanded central banker competency model are given in figure 6. according to figure 6, the levels of work (jaques & clement, 1994) provide the context, that is, the contextual complexity competencies, in which all of the other competency clusters are embedded and have to be made specific to the requisite complexity of the respective organisational levels and an organisation’s overall complexity. personal mastery, one of the two competency domains of the enabling competencies cluster, is central to all four competency clusters, because of the researchers’ view that it forms the basis of all of the other competency clusters. figure 6: phase 2: the competency clusters of the qualitatively expanded central banker competency model as constructed by the researchers. phase 3: a quantitatively validated global central banker competency model two survey questionnaires were constructed, based on the competencies making up the qualitatively expanded central banker competency model resulting from phase 2. the purpose of the first questionnaire was to validate quantitatively the functional and professional specialisation competencies (i.e. the competencies specific to central bankers). the purpose of the second questionnaire was to validate quantitatively the enabling, leadership or management and ethical competencies, as applicable to central bankers.the quantitatively validated global central banker competency model (gcbcm) is, in essence, the same as the qualitatively expanded central banker competency model of phase 2, with two exceptions: (1) the relevance of the competencies was quantitatively confirmed and (2) the areas in which training was offered by central banks were determined. with regard to the functional and professional specialisation competency cluster, the profile sample of central bank technical subject matter experts (e.g. economists) who responded was: • length of service: 33.3% had 21 years of service. • period in current position: 54.0% had been in their current position for up to 5 years. • position held: 50.0% were managers. • function: 32.0% worked in the bank supervision or financial stability areas. with regard to the enabling, leadership or management, ethics and values competency clusters, the profile sample of central bank officials (e.g. managers or training officials) who responded was: • length of service: 35.0% had between 16 and 20 years of service. • period in current position: 65.5% had been in their current position for up to 5 years • position held: 38.5% were training and development practitioners or experts and 27.0% managers. • function: 48.0% worked in the learning and development area (e.g. training department or institute or corporate university). the gcbcm, as constructed by the researchers, is diagrammatically displayed in figure 7. according to figure 7 the gcbcm comprised four competency clusters: the functional and professional specialisation competency domain, the enabling competency domain, the leadership or management competency domain and the ethical competency domain. the levels of work provide the context (contextual complexity) in which the critical competencies making up the central banker competency model have to be embedded, and be made specific to each organisational level. figure 7: overview of the quantitatively validated gcbcm as constructed by the researchers. psychometric properties of the competency survey questionnaires reliabilities cronbach’s alpha correlation was used to measure the internal consistency (reliability) of the survey questionnaires. table 2 displays the cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients for all three competency clusters, with their associated competency domains. the closer the cronbach’s alpha correlation coefficient is to 1.0 the greater the internal consistency of the items in the scale.as indicated in table 2, the cronbach’s alpha correlation coefficients ranged between excellent and good, with only two coefficients in the good range: national economy and financial stability. george and mallery (2003, p. 231) give the following rule of thumb in this regard: ≥ 0.9 = excellent, ≥ 0.8 = good, ≥ 0.7 = acceptable, ≥ 0.6 = questionable, ≥ 0.5 = poor and ≤ 0.5 = unacceptable. table 2: cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients of the competency survey questionnaires. inter-correlations of the competency clusters the overall inter-correlations of the means for the four competency clusters are displayed in table 3.table 3 shows significant correlations between the enabling, the leadership or management and the ethical competency clusters (p ≤ 0.05). no significant correlations were found between the hard and soft competency clusters. one could readily accept that relationships would exist between the enabling, the leadership or management and the ethical competency clusters, because they contain soft competencies, in contrast to the functional professional competencies, which are made up of hard competencies. the inter-correlations of the contextual complexity domain with the four competency clusters are displayed in table 4. there was a significant positive correlation between contextual complexity and the enabling and leadership or management competency clusters (p ≤ 0.05). table 3: inter-correlations of the four competency clusters. table 4: inter-correlations of contextual complexity amongst the four competency clusters. global central banker competency model competencies: relevance and training offered due to space limitations, the detailed gcbcm is not represented here, but is available upon request. however, the gcbcm showing only the 10 most relevant competencies per competency domain, together with the degree to which training is offered in these competencies, is given in table 5.a five-point likert response scale was used for assessing the relevance of the central banker competencies. a score of 1 represented very high relevance, and a score of 4 represented very low relevance. in terms of the scale, a competency was regarded as relevant if a response was equal to or smaller than a rating of 2. a cut-off point of 2 was used for reporting the relevancy results. a cut-off of 60% or more was used to indicate in which competencies training was mostly offered. the researchers considered: (1) the distribution of the scores and (2) the category definitions of the response scale when making decisions on cut-off points. overall, the competencies were scored as either very high relevance or high relevance. an average of 80% of the respondents scored all of the competencies as most relevant across all four of the competency clusters. in the case of the functional and professional specialisation competency cluster, the respondents viewed most of the proposed competencies as most relevant, with an average of 91%. in the case of the enabling, leadership or management, and the ethical competency clusters, the respondents viewed most of the proposed competencies as most relevant, with an average of 76%. the highest percentage of competencies trained in per cluster was 59% (finance and public finance domain of the functional and professional specialisation competency cluster) and 60% (interpersonal and team interaction domain of the enabling competency cluster). only 17% training was given in the ethics and values domain competencies. across all competency domains, the average was 31% training (median: 27%), with the corresponding averages being 32% (median: 30%) and 28% (median: 20%) for, respectively, the hard (functional and professional specialisation cluster) and soft competencies (the enabling, the leadership or management, and the ethical clusters in combination). table 5: quantitatively validated global central banker competency model: top ten most relevant competencies and training mostly offered. global central banker competency model competency clusters: relevance and training offered the relevance using the overall mean score for each competency domain is given in table 6. the relevance percentages are given for each competency domain.table 6 shows that the overall mean scores of the majority of the competency domains fell between 1.50 and 2.00. this indicates that the respondents scored the competency domains mostly as either being of very high relevance or high relevance. on average, none of the domains was scored as having a low relevance or very low relevance. the respondents scored the competency domains macro models, financial stability, bank supervision, legal and bank supervision (analysts) at the highest levels of relevance of all the competency domains. the average mean score for the relevancy of competency domains was 1.46. regarding the functional and professional specialisation cluster, most of the respondents regarded the proposed competencies making up the respective competency domains as most relevant, with an average of 91% across all of these competencies. training was provided in, on average, 33% of all of the competencies, not only the relevant ones included in this cluster. for the enabling competency cluster, most of the respondents (average of 72%) regarded the proposed competencies making up the respective competency domains as most relevant, with an average of 31% of all of the competencies in which training is being offered. the average mean score for the relevance of these competencies was 1.74. in the case of the leadership or management competency cluster, most of the respondents (an average of 80%) regarded the proposed competencies making up the respective competency domains as most relevant. training was being given in, on average, 26% of all of the competencies. the average relevancy means score was 1.73. with respect to the ethical competency cluster, most of the respondents regarded the proposed competencies making up the respective competency domains as most relevant, with an average of 75%. the average mean score for the relevance of these competencies was 1.57. all of the respondents (100%) regarded the ‘training least offered’ category as relevant to this cluster. table 6: quantitatively validated global central banker competency model: relevant competency clusters and training offered. presence of a global central banker competency model and the training offered and a central bank’s global influence the testing of the study hypotheses, namely that the presence of a comprehensive, integrated gcbcm, and the training offered in terms of this model, do affect the global influence of a central bank, are discussed next.table 7 presents the results of the hypothesis testing regarding the presence of a comprehensive, integrated gcbcm in relation to the global influence of a central bank. table 7 shows that significant differences in level of global influence were found in the case of two competency domains: (1) bank supervision (analysts) (p ≤ 0.01) and (2) currency management (p ≤ 0.05). table 8 shows the results of the hypothesis test of the relationship between the degree of global influence and the training offered by a central bank. table 8 shows that significant differences were identified in the levels of global influence of a central bank and the training offered. higher global influence central banks offer significantly more training in the following competency domains: (1) macro models, (2) financial and public finance, (3) treasury operations (accounting and settlement), (4) reserves management, (5) payment systems (operations), (6) currency management and (7) ethics and values. bank supervision (legal) was borderline in terms of significance. table 7: hypothesis testing: the level of global influence with respect to the competency model in use – results of the mann-whitney u-test. table 8: hypothesis testing: degree of global influence and training offered: results of pearson’s chi-squared test. evaluating the quantitatively validated global central banker competency model the researchers co-assessed, as objectively as possible, the gcbcm against the evaluation criteria proposed in figure 1, in a first attempt to test the robustness of the model. ideally speaking, one should solicit an independent evaluation by multiple assessors or a panel of assessors to evaluate the gcbcm. this not having been done can be regarded as a limitation of the study, as well as an area for future research. nevertheless, the researchers are of the opinion that the gcbcm can be regarded as the most suitable competency model for central bankers globally.contrary to the two currently available central banker competency models discussed, the gcbcm: (1) indicates the required level of proficiency, (2) clearly links roles, competencies and outputs, (3) shows that the included competencies are meaningful and form a logical whole, (4) defines all of the competencies in behavioural terms, making them measureable, and, because central bankers themselves identified and prioritised the competencies, (5) is a highly authentic model. discussion top ↑ finding 1: a globally validated global central banker competency model the majority of the competencies included in the gcbcm were regarded as relevant by the respondents. this confirms the validity of the gcbcm because, firstly, subject matter experts were used for identifying the competencies in the focus groups in one central bank (phase 2: the qualitative research approach) and, secondly, the same competencies were subsequently validated by other subject matter experts globally (phase 3: the quantitative research approach). with regard to the reliability of the questionnaire used to validate the competencies, the reliabilities obtained were excellent for a newly developed questionnaire. this may be ascribed to the tightly defined or closely related competencies in each of the competency domains, as was confirmed by the focus groups, as well as the high number of items per competency domain. finding 2: independent hard and soft competency dimensions central banks seem to place greater emphasis on the development of hard competencies than soft competencies. one reason could be that they regard themselves as essentially technocratic organisations. however, the researchers believe that soft competencies are becoming increasingly important in building healthy personal and interpersonal relationships in the workplace and engendering high levels of employee engagement. finding 3: no differentiation of competencies in terms of levels of work it is evident from the findings that central banks are not structured in terms of levels of work, and do not differentiate competencies according these levels. by implication, they treat all competencies the same, regardless of variations in the requisite complexity across organisational levels. one implication could be that, if central banks do not differentiate according to levels of work and train and develop employees accordingly, their employees will not be able to contribute at the requisite level of complexity. one could postulate that central banks, due to the increasingly pivotal role they are playing in national and international economies, should, at the governor level at least, operate at level of work 6 (corporate citizenship), where the role of the organisation is seen within an international context, and in some cases, like the federal reserve system of the usa and the european central bank, at level of work 7 (global prescience). in this case, the organisation affects a sector’s design and functioning. if central banks at the highest level of work only operate at level of work 5 (strategic intent), they would predominantly pursue parochial, national interests, with limited regard for their global impact. finding 4: differences between central banks with higher and lower global influence according to the global central banker competency model significant differences were found in only two competency domains between central banks with respectively higher and lower levels of global influence: (1) bank supervision (analysts) and (2) currency management. inversely, these results imply that the respondents in all of the central banks, regardless of their global influence, viewed the majority of the competency domains as relevant.the significant difference in bank supervision in central banks with a higher global influence, however, is in stark contrast to what happened in practice with the bank failures that occurred in the usa and certain european countries during the 2008/2009 financial crisis. one would have thought that, in these countries, adequate and proactive measures through effective bank supervision or regulation would have been taken to counteract bank failures. as regards currency management, various high-profile global incidents emphasised that it is important for central banks to have carefully considered and tested strategies to deal with shortages of cash due to anything from supplier problems to natural disasters. if central banks do not forecast the demand for banknotes and coins correctly, it could lead to a shortage of cash in circulation. in conclusion, although significant differences were found between central banks with a higher and lower global influence in terms of relevance in two competency domains, namely bank supervision (analysts) and currency management, one can state with confidence that the competency model is generally valid across all central banks, regardless of their global influence. finding 5: the training offered by central banks a concern is that the responding central banks worldwide generally offer limited training to their staff members. from the findings, it is furthermore evident that central banks place a much greater emphasis on hard competencies than on soft competencies. this is worrying, because it is no longer good enough for central banks to have only highly competent technical experts, given their changing role. they need the right people in the right jobs, who are fully engaged. given the fierce global war for talent, soft competencies may just be the key differentiator in making one’s organisation an employer of choice. finding 6: comparing the training offered by central banks with a higher and lower global influence significant differences were found between the training offered by central banks with a high global influence and those with a low influence, in the following seven competency domains: (1) macro models, (2) financial and public finance, (3) treasury operations (accounting and settlement), (4) reserves management, (5) payment systems (operations), (6) currency management and (7) ethics and values. bank supervision (legal) was border line in terms of significance.of all the above mentioned competency domains, it is interesting to note that macro models (73%), financial and public finance (59%), and currency management (55%) were the competency domains in which all of the central banks offer most of their training. this means that central banks with both a higher and lower global influence regard these competency domains as critical areas. what is also interesting is that the competency domain ethics and values is the only soft competency domain appearing amongst the hard competency domains. central banks have a central position in the economy. therefore, central banks should lead by example in terms of sound corporate governance and business ethics. an important implication for central banks with a lower global influence is that they could rightfully ask why central banks with a higher global influence provide more training in the seven competency domains mentioned above. in summary, firstly, there was no quantitatively validated gcbcm prior to conducting this study. the value of this study is that central banks now have a gcbcm, which could become an aspirational and benchmark model for central banks. secondly, central banks should make a concerted effort to offer more training to their employees, and also give greater attention to developing the soft competencies. thirdly, if central banks do not train their employees to meet the complex requirements of levels of work, central banks may not be able to make their expected contribution, nationally and globally. conclusion from a theoretical value-add point of view, the study provided an updated, comprehensive process for competency modelling, with the criteria for assessing the robustness of the model produced. methodologically, the value added by the study lies in the provision of two new validated and reliable questionnaires that are available to determine: (1) the relevance of competencies in the gcbcm and (2) whether training is provided to develop these competencies. practically, the value added by the study is that it reflects the current thinking amongst central bankers globally about what constitutes a competent central banker.the study has several strengths. firstly, through a comprehensive literature review, a sound foundation was laid for the empirical research. secondly, the blended research design helped the researchers to obtain richer data, because different data sources were used, and, through triangulation, this multi-method approach added to the richness of the study. thirdly, because the researchers could integrate the data obtained from both qualitative and quantitative research, more reliable and complete competency survey questionnaires with high levels of internal consistency (reliability) could be constructed. fourthly, because a high percentage of the respondents (33%) had 21 or more years of service in a central bank, good quality data could be collected. finally, the relatively high level of global participation by central banks makes it possible to generalise the research results to central banks worldwide. the weaknesses of the study are, firstly, that the classification of central banks into the higher and lower global influence categories was taxing, because information on their global influence and reputation is scanty. the researchers were forced to rely on only two sources of information, although both were reliable. the 20 major economies in the world were used as the primary data source for central banks with a higher global influence. a cross-validation of level of influence through a review of journal articles and the internet served to corroborate the primary data source. secondly, the study was limited by non-participation of a number of major central banks. thirdly, due to the relatively small sample size, the research was restricted to the use of non-parametric statistics, which are less powerful than inferential statistics. lastly, the researchers did not use an independent panel to assess the gcbcm against the evaluation criteria. future research opportunities are as follows: firstly, to conduct an independent evaluation using multiple assessors to determine the extent to which the gcbcm meets the evaluation criteria; secondly, to differentiate the gcbcm in terms of levels of work; thirdly, to select a larger sample so that: (1) factor analysis can be applied to the questionnaires, in order to determine the underlying factorial structure, and (2) a cluster analysis may be performed, to classify central banks in terms of the competency models applied by them, and in this way determine whether it would make sense to differentiate central banks by their degree of global influence, or according to the competency model used by them; fourthly, to assess if the gcbcm can be incorporated into all facets of the people management. if so, whether people management would be done differently; lastly, to investigate why central banks offer so little training in developing competencies, particularly soft competencies. it is believed that this study has made a significant contribution to providing a gcbcm that could be used by central banks. additionally, the study contributed to the wider body of knowledge regarding competencies, competency models and competency modelling. acknowledgement top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions t.h. (university of johannesburg) was the supervisor of the study and provided input. d.w. (university of johannesburg) performed most of the research and prepared the samples and calculations with the assistance of statkon at the university of johannesburg. the article was jointly prepared by both authors. references top ↑ anonymous. (2012, 01 december). the grey man’s burden. the economist, 405(8813), 15–16.athey, t. r., & orth, m. s. (1999). emerging competency methods for the future. human resource management, 38(3), 215–226. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-050x(199923)38:3%3c215::aid-hrm4%3e3.0.co;2-w bartram, d. (2006). the shl universal competency framework. pretoria, south africa: shl white paper 2012. brophy, m., & kiely, t. (2002). competencies: a new sector. journal of european industrial training, 26 (2-4), 165–176. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090590210422049 brown, t. (2006). stop competency blunders. training and development, 60(1), 20–22. buford, j.a., & lindner, j.r. (2002). human resource management in local government: concepts and applications for students and practitioners. cincinnati, oh: southwestern. campion, m.a., fink, a.a., ruggeberg, b.j., carr, l., phillips, g.m., & odman, r.b. (2011). best practices in competency modeling. personnel psychology, 64, 225–262. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2010.01207.x central michigan university. (n.d.). leadership central. retrieved september 20, 2012, from http://www.chsbs.cmich.edu/leader model/ dalton, m. (1997). are competency models a waste? training and development, 51(10), 46–49. dubois, d.d. (n.d.). what are competencies and why are they important? career trainer. retrieved march 22, 2007, from http://www.careertrainer.com/request.jsp?nview=printarticle&article=oid%3a11 durgin, t. (2006, august 8). implementing a successful competency model. human capital institute, 1–10. dutrisac, m., koplowitz, h., & shepard, k. (2009). an executive’s guide to ro-based organisational design. in j.l. gray, j.g. hunt, & s. mcarthur (eds). organization design, levels of work & human capability (pp. 27–52). ontario, canada: gobal organization design society. fehlker, c. (2004). european central bank competency model. frankfurt, germany: european central bank. fisher, c.d., schoenfeldt, l.f., & shaw, j.b. (1999). human resource management. (4th edn.). boston, ma: houghton-mifflin. gangani, n., mclean, g.n., & braden, r.a. (2006). a competency-based human resource development strategy. performance improvement quarterly, 19(1), 127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1937-8327.2006.tb00361.x garrett, s. (n.d.). competency mapping: what is it and how it can be done by individuals. career trainer. retrieved march 22, 2007, from http://www.careertrainer.com/request.jsp?nview=printarticle&article=oid%3a11 george, d., & mallery, p. (2003). spss for windows step by step: a simple guide and reference. boston, ma: allyn & bacon. gidlow, r., ngcobo, t., smal, d., & du plooy, r. (2002). south african reserve bank competency model (unendorsed). pretoria, south africa: south african reserve bank. jaques, e., & clement, s.d. (1994). executive leadership: a practical guide to managing complexity. oxford, uk: blackwell business. jogulu, u.d., & pansiri, j. (2011). mixed methods: a research design for management doctoral dissertations. management research review, 34(6), 687–701. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01409171111136211 larocca, m. (n.d.). career and competency pathing: the competency modeling approach. retrieved august 18, 2008, from http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/arossett/pie/interventions/career_1.htm lievens, f., sanchez, j.i., & corte, w. (2004). easing the inferential leap in competency modelling: the effects of task-related information and subject matter expertise. personnel psychology, 57, 881–904. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2004.00009.x linde, l.m. (2012). central bank monetary policy, regulatory and supervisory measures. in 5th international banking conference/grupo santander (pp. 1–3). madrid, spain: bis central bankers’ speeches. mirabile, r. (1997). everything you wanted to know about competency modeling. training and development, 51(8), 73–80. montier, r., alai, d., & kramer, d. (2006). competency models develop top performance. training and development, 60(7), 47–50. moyer, r. (2001). defining and measuring competencies: an overview of approaches. click2learn, august, pp. 2–7. parry, s.b. (1996). the quest for competencies. training, 33(7), 48–56. parry, s.b. (1998). just what is a competency? (and why should we care?). training, 35(6), 58–64. ramlall, s.j. (2006). identifying and understanding hr competencies and their relationship to organizational practices. aplied h.r.m. research, 11(1), 27–38. robinson, d.g., & robinson, j.c. (1998). moving from training to performance: a practical guidebook. san francisco, ca: american society for training and development and berrett-koehler publishers, inc. rothwell, w., & wellins, r. (2004). mapping your future: putting new competencies to work for you. training and development, 58(5), 1–9. schippmann, j.s., ash, r.a., battista, r.a., carr, m., eyde, l.d., hesketh, b. et al. (2000). the practice of competency modeling. personnel psychology, 53, 703–740. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2000.tb00220.x soderquist, k.e., papalexandris, a., ioannou, g., & prastacos, g. (2010). from task-based to competency-based: a typology and process supporting a critical hrm transition. personnel review, 39, 325–346. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00483481011030520 stevens, g.w. (2013). a critical review of the science and practice of competency modeling. human resource dvelopment review, 12(86), 86–107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1534484312456690 truesdell, j. (2001, october). focusing on core competencies. supply house times, 44(8), 50–53. the economist. (2013). central banks. brave new worlds. rich-world central banks explore more doveish strategies, the economist, february, pp. 59–60. veldsman, t.h. (2010). an organisation-person fit competency model appropriate to a newly emerging world of work. human capital review. retrieved november 15, 2010, from http://humancapitalreview.org/content/default.asp?page_id=122 veldsman, t.h. (2011). crafting and implementing strategic talent management in pursuit of sustainable talent excellence. in i. boninelli, & t. meyer (eds.), human capital trends. building a sustainable organisation (pp. 359–390). johannesburg, south africa: knowres. vergara, r. (2012). macroeconomic and financial stability – challenges for monetary policy. in annual conference on ‘central banking, analysis and economic policies’ (p. 1). santiago, chile: bis central bankers’ speeches. verwey, a. (2010). fulfilling my functional role effectively. module 5: operating at the requisite level of work. in leadership development programme (pp. 1–10). johannesburg, south africa: university of johannesburg. wells, r. (2009). evaluating the effectiveness of competency model use. herndon, va: systems. world health organization. who global competency model. retrieved may 22, 2010, from http://www.who.int/employment/who_competencies_en.pdf wynne, b., & stringer, d. (1997). a competency based approach to training and development. boston, ma: pitman publishing. zemke, r., & zemke, s. (1999). putting competencies to work. training, 36(1), 70–76. article information authors: jo-ann p. gainsford1 ebben s. van zyl1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology, university of the free state, south africa correspondence to: jo-ann p. gainsford postal address: flippie groenewoud building 159, department of industrial psychology, internal box 23, 9999, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa dates: received: 23 mar. 2012 accepted: 26 sept. 2012 published: 04 dec. 2012 how to cite this article: gainsford, j.p., & van zyl, e.s. (2012). die doeltreffendheid van talentbestuursprogramme in uitgesoekte suid-afrikaanse organisasies. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(2), art. #467, 13 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i2.467 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. die doeltreffendheid van talentbestuursprogramme in uitgesoekte suid-afrikaanse organisasies in this original research... open access • abstrak • abstract • inleiding    • kernfokus van die studie    • agtergrond    • navorsingsdoelwitte    • waardetoevoeging deur die studie    • literatuuroorsig       • definisies, aard en omvang van talentbestuur       • die noodsaaklikheid van talentbestuur       • talentbestuursmodelle       • komponente van ‘n talentbestuursprogram       • verskille in terme van die volledigheid van komponente wat ingesluit moet word, sowel as die tevredenheid met talentbestuursprogramme in die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore       • hipoteses       • plan van die studie • navorsingsontwerp    • navorsingsbenadering    • navorsingsmetode       • seleksie van proefpersone en steekproefnemingsprosedure       • meetinstrumente       • navorsingsprosedure       • statistiese analise • resultate    • beskrywende statistiek       • volledigheid van talentbestuursprogramme soos verkry van respondente       • tevredenheid met talentbestuursprogramme volgens die respondente    • inferensiële statistiek: verskille tussen sektore    • verskille tussen sektore met betrekking tot die persepsie van hoe gereeld die onderskeie komponente gebruik word (volledigheid)    • verskille tussen sektore met betrekking tot tevredenheid met talentbestuursprogramme    • verskille tussen die doeltreffendheid van die sektore se talentbestuursprogramme • etiese oorwegings    • potensiële voordele en gevare    • werwingsprosedure    • ingeligte toestemming    • databeskerming • bespreking    • opsomming van resultate       • volledigheid van talentbestuursprogramme       • tevredenheid met talentbestuursprogramme    • inferensiële statistiek: verskille tussen sektore    • gevolgtrekkings en aanbevelings    • implikasies vir bestuur    • beperkinge van studie    • voorstelle vir verdere navorsing • erkenning    • mededingende belange    • outeursbydrae • literatuurverwysings abstrak top ↑ oriëntasie: die identifisering, behoud en ontwikkeling van talent moet doeltreffend bestuur word. navorsingsdoelwit: die studie het ten doel om die doeltreffendheid van bestaande talentbestuursprogramme in uitgesoekte suid-afrikaanse organisasies in die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore te evalueer. motivering vir die studie: streng wetgewing (soos regstellende aksie) en die swak ekonomiese situasie in suid-afrika veroorsaak dat goeie presteerders as baie waardevol beskou word en behou moet word. indien organisasies nie oor ’n doeltreffende talentbestuursprogram beskik nie, sal hulle waarskynlik talentvolle werknemers verloor. navorsingsontwerp, -benadering en -metode: hierdie studie maak van ’n kwantitatiewe navorsingsontwerp gebruik. deur middel van toevallige steekproefneming is 117 werknemers in die onderskeie sektore ingesluit. die anova-toets en tukey se paarsgewyse vergelykingstegniek is aangewend om die verskille tussen die drie sektore te bepaal. resultate: die resultate van die studie dui daarop dat die organisasies wat aan die studie deelgeneem het grootliks al die noodsaaklike komponente in die talentbestuursprogramme insluit. die uitsondering is egter talentbestuursagteware, wat oor die algemeen nie in die talentbestuursprogramme ingesluit is nie. verdere resultate dui daarop dat die oorgrote meerderheid van die respondente nie baie tevrede is met die komponente van die talentbestuursprogramme in hul organisasies nie. die respondente van die mynbousektor het die laagste tevredenheidsvlakke ten opsigte van die talentbestuursprogram getoon. die resultate dui verder daarop dat die finansiële sektor se talentbestuursprogram meer doeltreffend as dié van die mynbousektor is. praktiese/bestuursimplikasies: ’n omvattende lys van komponente van ’n talentbestuursprogram is ontwikkel om organisasies te ondersteun in die ontwerp en implementering van ’n doeltreffende talentbestuursprogram. bydrae/waardetoevoeging: die resultate van die studie kan gebruik word om bestaande talentbestuursprogramme aan te pas. abstract top ↑ the effectiveness of talent management programmes in selected south african organisations.orientation: this study was driven by a need that was identified within south african organisations to establish guidelines for the implementation of an effective talent management programme. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effiency of the existing talent management programme in selected south african organisations in the financial, transport and mining sectors. motivation for study: legislation and the poor economic situation in south africa necessitate the retention of talented employees. this can be done by means of an effective talent management programme. research design, approach and method: the study was conducted using a quantitative research design. the anova test and tukey’s studentised range were applied to determine differences between the three sectors with regard to the effectiveness of the talent management programmes. the sample consisted of 117 identified talented employees. main findings: results of the study indicated that the organisations that participated in the study do have most of the necessary components included in their talent management programmes. the exception is talent management software, which was generally not included in the talent management programmes of the organisations. further results indicated that, for the largest part, the respondents are not very satisfied with the components of the talent management programmes in their organisations. the respondents of the mining sector indicated the lowest satisfaction levels regarding the talent management programme. furthermore, the financial sector’s talent management programme seemed to be more effective than the mining sector’s talent management programme. practical/managerial implications: a comprehensive list of components was developed which should be included in a talent management programme to assist organisations with the design and implementation of an effective talent management programme. contribution/value-add: the results of the study can be utlised to adapt existing talent management programmes. inleiding top ↑ kernfokus van die studie die identifisering, behoud en ontwikkeling van talent behoort doeltreffend in suid-afrikaanse organisasies bestuur te word. indien organisasies nie oor ’n doeltreffende talentbestuursprogram beskik nie, sal hulle waarskynlik talentvolle werknemers verloor (gainsford, 2010). agtergrond die dinamiese aard van die globale sakewêreld in die een-en-twintigste eeu plaas druk op organisasies om voortdurend uitsonderlike leierskapstalent in die mark te soek, waar die vraag verreweg die aanbod oorskry. groot organisasies stel al hoe meer hoof-uitvoerende beamptes van buite die organisasie aan en personeelagentskappe floreer as gevolg van hierdie vraag na leierskapstalent. die meeste groot organisasies poog om toppresteerders in diens te neem en bied hierdie persone ’n enorme vergoedingspakket aan om hulle in die organisasie te behou (charan, drotter & noel, 2001; o’neal & gebauer, 2006; ready & conger, 2007). volgens charan et al. (2001) is die aggressiewe, en somtyds desperate, pogings om buitestaanders te werf ’n teken dat die leierskaps-pyplyn in die organisasie nie aan die organisasie se verwagtinge voldoen nie. die leierskaps-pyplyn waarvan charan et al. (2001) melding maak, is ’n pyplyn in die organisasie wat met potensiële bestuurders gevul behoort te wees sou ’n huidige bestuurder uit sy of haar pos bedank. dit is veral in suid-afrika belangrik om doeltreffende talentbestuursprogramme te implementeer aangesien navorsingsbevindinge daarop dui dat die talentpoel redelik klein is (pauw, oosthuizen & van der westhuizen, 2008). gesprekke met menslikehulpbronen talentbestuurders in die finansiële, mynbouen vervoersektore, het aan die lig gebring dat die huidige ekonomie druk op sommige organisasies plaas om poste te vries. hierdie gevriesde poste bring mee dat slegs bestaande werknemers aansoek kan doen vir poste wat in ’n organisasie beskikbaar raak. die probleem is tans dat die interne talentpoel vinnig besig is om op te droog en dat daar nie meer talent in organisasies beskikbaar is om poste te vul nie (cf. hardy, 2004; pauw et al., 2008). verskeie navorsers en menslikehulpbronspesialiste is van mening dat individue in sekere bestuursposisies dikwels nie bevorder kan word nie omdat niemand die persoon kan opvolg nie (pauw et al., 2008; s. phalatse [persoonlike kommunikasie, julie 21, 2009]; a. van der zwaard [persoonlike kommunikasie, julie 03, 2009]; h. van zyl [persoonlike kommunikasie, junie 18, 2009]). die geskiedenis van suid-afrika bring ook verdere probleme mee wat organisasies se talentbestuursprogramme kelder. dit gebeur dikwels dat daar wel ’n talentvolle werknemer in die organisasie is wat ’n sekere pos kan vul, maar regstellende aksie verhinder dat die persoon aangestel word (hardy, 2004; pauw et al., 2008; s. phalatse [persoonlike kommunikasie, julie 21, 2009]; a. van der zwaard [persoonlike kommunikasie, julie 03, 2009]; h. van zyl [persoonlike kommunikasie, junie 18, 2009]). vir suid-afrikaanse organisasies in die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore is dit belangrik om ’n doeltreffende talentbestuursprogram te hê omdat daar voortdurend sterk mededinging vir hierdie organisasies is om talentvolle werknemers in die organisasies te behou en nie aan die opposisie af te staan nie (donaldson, 2006; ellehuus, 2012; opp, 2003; sohail, muneer, tanveer & tariq, 2011). in die lig hiervan word die navorsingsdoelwitte van die studie vervolgens uiteengesit. navorsingsdoelwitte die primêre navorsingsdoelwit is om die doeltreffendheid van bestaande talentbestuursprogramme in uitgesoekte suid-afrikaanse organisasies in die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore te evalueer. hierdie doeltreffendheid berus op hoe gereeld die geïdentifiseerde komponente wat in die talentbestuursprogram teenwoordig moet wees, ingesluit is (volledigheid) en op die tevredenheid van die respondente met die onderskeie komponente.uit die bogenoemde primêre navorsingsdoelwit volg die spesifieke doelstellings, naamlik: • om deur middel van literatuurverkenning en onderhoude ’n teoretiese raamwerk te ontwikkel vir die doeltreffende bepaling van die inhoud en implementering van talentbestuursprogramme in uitgesoekte suid-afrikaanse organisasies in die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore. • om deur middel van ’n nie-eksperimentele navorsingsontwerp te bepaal hoe volledig die talentbestuursprogramme is in terme van die komponente wat in uitgesoekte suid-afrikaanse organisasies in die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore ingesluit moet word. • om deur middel van ’n nie-eksperimentele navorsingsontwerp te bepaal hoe tevrede geïdentifiseerde talentvolle werknemers is met die huidige talentbestuursprogramme wat deur uitgesoekte suid-afrikaanse organisasies in die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore geloods word. • om op grond van die bevindinge van die empiriese ondersoek die uitgesoekte suid-afrikaanse finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore in die studie met mekaar te vergelyk om verskille tussen die drie sektore ten opsigte van die doeltreffendheid van hul onderskeie talentbestuursprogramme te bepaal. waardetoevoeging deur die studie die resultate van die studie kan deur organisasies as ‘n riglyn gebruik word om ’n doeltreffende talentbestuursprogram te ontwikkel en te implementeer. literatuuroorsig na aanleiding van die eerste navorsingsdoelwit word die definisies, die aard en omvang van talentbestuursprogramme, die noodsaaklikheid van talentbestuursprogramme en vier modelle van talentbestuur kortliks bespreek. definisies, aard en omvang van talentbestuur ’n breë omskrywing van talentbestuur is die strategiese bestuur van die vloei van talent deur die organisasie (duttagupta, n.d.). volgens duttagupta (n.d.) is die doel van talentbestuur om te verseker dat ’n organisasie oor voldoende talent beskik om op die regte tydstip die regte persone in die regte poste te plaas, gebaseer op strategiese organisatoriese doelwitte. duttagupta (n.d.) noem verder dat wanneer organisasies na talentbestuur verwys, dit slegs dié werknemers met die meeste talent en die hoogste potensiaal behels. wellins, smith, paese en erker (n.d., p. 1) definieer talentbestuur as die sisteem waar persone gewerf, ontwikkel, bevorder en behou word om die organisasie se vermoë te optimaliseer ten einde positiewe organisatoriese uitkomste in die lig van die verskuiwing van mededingende landskappe en arbeidsvereistes te verkry. meer spesifiek, talentbestuur is ’n sakeproses wat sistematies die gaping tussen die talent waaroor die organisasie beskik en die talent wat die organisasie benodig om suksesvol te wees, oorbrug. hierdie definisie sluit die volgende komponente van talentbestuur in: • artikulasie van die talent wat benodig word om die organisasie se sakestrategieë uit te voer. • die vroeë identifisering van potensiaal binne die talentpoel van die organisasie. • die evaluering van die gereedheid vir bevordering van die talent in die organisasie. • die ontwikkeling van talent in die organisasie. die noodsaaklikheid van talentbestuur sears (2003), hartley (2004), donaldson (2006), sohail et al. (2011) en ellehuus (2012) is van mening dat alle organisasies ten alle tye werknemers met die regte vaardighede en talent benodig en dat, indien ’n organisasie wil groei, dit onontbeerlik is om talent in die organisasie te vind en op ’n gefokusde wyse te ontwikkel. suid-afrika is geen uitsondering nie. burke en kock (2008) wys daarop dat, met die huidige sosiale en ekonomiese ontwikkelingsuitdagings, algemene menslikehulpbronbestuurspraktyke waarskynlik nie voldoende sal wees om die uitdagings van transformasie en die uitvoering van die verwagte ontwikkelingsrol die hoof te bied nie. navorsing dui daarop dat talentbestuur toegepas moet word as ’n praktyk wat menslikehulpbronbestuur aanvul om organisatoriese doelwitte te bereik (burke & kock, 2008). talentbestuursmodelle ten einde talent suksesvol in die organisasie te bestuur, word ’n model benodig. die vier talentbestuursmodelle wat in die studie gebruik is, is uiteenlopend. daar is egter sekere kernaspekte wat in al die modelle voorkom en noodsaaklik is om talent in die organisasie te ontdek, te ontwikkel en te behou, en dus talent suksesvol te bestuur. die volgende kernaspekte kan in elke model geïdentifiseer word.die leierskapspyplynmodel: om ’n basis vir leierskap te bou, vereis ’n begrip van wat die hiërargie van werk in die organisasie is. in ’n groot gedesentraliseerde organisasie bestaan die hiërargie uit ses loopbaangange of -pyplyne: • pyplyn 1: van selfbestuur tot die bestuur van ander werknemers. • pyplyn 2: van die bestuur van ander na die bestuur van bestuurders. • pyplyn 3: van die bestuur van bestuurders na ’n funksionele bestuurder. • pyplyn 4: van ’n funksionele bestuurder na ’n sakebestuurder. • pyplyn 5: van ’n sakebestuurder na ’n groepsbestuurder. • pyplyn 6: van ’n groepsbestuurder na ’n ondernemingsbestuurder (hoof-uitvoerende beampte). elkeen van hierdie pyplyne verteenwoordig ’n verandering van posisie in die organisasie vir die individu – ’n volgende vlak en kompleksiteit van leierskap. verder moet sekere nuwe vaardighede en werkswaardes in elk van hierdie pyplyne ontwikkel word aangesien die posvereistes en die tydshorisonne van die vorige pyplyne verskil. sonder ’n proses waar bestuurders gehelp word om die vaardighede, tydshorisonne en waardes van elke toepaslike leierskapsvlak aan te neem, sal geen opleiding of mentorskap ’n beduidende impak hê nie (charan et al., 2001). talentbestuursbevoegdheidsmodelle: oehley (2007) het ’n omvattende talentbestuursbevoegdheidsmodel ontwikkel wat die vereiste lynbestuursgedrag omskryf om die talentbestuurstrategie in die organisasie suksesvol uit te voer. hierdie bevoegdhede is geëvalueer teen die uitkomste werkstevredenheid, affektiewe toewyding en voorneme om te bedank, wat veronderstel is om ’n impak op die talentbestuursbevoegdhede te hê. werkstevredenheid kan beskryf word as ’n gunstige of positiewe emosionele toestand wat ontstaan uit die evaluering van ’n persoon se werk of werkservaring (quick & nelson, 2009). volgens allen en meyer (1990) verwys affektiewe toewyding na die werknemer se emosionele gehegtheid aan die organisasie, die werknemer se vereenselwiging met die organisasie en die werknemer se betrokkenheid in die organisasie. voorneme om te bedank verwys na werknemers se gedragsintensies en word gedefinieer as ’n bewustelike en doelbewuste gewilligheid om die organisasie te verlaat (du plooy & roodt, 2010; tett & meyer, 1993; van schalkwyk, du toit, bothma & rothmann, 2010). volgens oehley (2007) bestaan daar ’n beduidende positiewe verband tussen die eksogene latente veranderlike talentbestuursingesteldheid en die endogene latente veranderlikes lok en werf talent, ontwikkel en hou verhoudings in stand, verskaf betekenisvolle en uitdagende werk, vergoed en beloon billik en bestuur werk-lewe-balans. volgens oehley (2007) en ellehuus (2012) is talentbestuur-ingesteldheid die diepgewortelde besef dat beter talent op alle vlakke in die organisasie tot beter prestasies as dié van mededingende organisasies sal lei. hierdie beduidende verwantskappe verskaf vir die eerste keer empiriese bewyse van die belangrikheid van ’n talentbestuur-ingesteldheid by lynbestuurders (ellehuus, 2012; oehley, 2007; van schalkwyk et al., 2010). addisionele beduidende verwantskappe is gevind tussen affektiewe betrokkenheid en voorneme om te bedank, tussen organisatoriese werkstevredenheid en voorneme om te bedank en tussen lok en werf talent en organisatoriese werkstevredenheid (oehley, 2007). die talentbalansstaatmodel van talentbestuur: die derde model wat in hierdie studie bespreek word, is die talentbalansstaatmodel (people balance sheet). dit word veral in die vervoersektor in suid-afrika gebruik. eers word prestasiebestuur, opleidingen ontwikkelingsrekords, psigometriese evaluasie en die loopbaanrekord van die geïdentifiseerde werknemer in ag geneem om te bepaal of die werknemer oor die nodige potensiaal beskik om as talentvol bestempel te word. die volgende stap behels ’n evaluasie van die persoon se potensiaal, loopbaanaksies, prestasie, gereedheid vir bevordering, asook pospassing. hierna maak die personeelbeampte ’n aanbeveling by die ontwikkelingsraad rakende die geïdentifiseerde talentvolle werknemer wat prestasie, opvolgbeplanning, mentorskap, retensie-aksies en ontwikkelingsareas behels. die ontwikkelingsraad evalueer hierdie aanbevelings en keur dit goed of af. sodra goedkeuring van die raad ontvang is, sal die menslikehulpbrondepartement die aanbeveling uitvoer (vervoersektor [persoonlike kommunikasie, mei 28, 2009]; a. van der zwaard [persoonlike kommunikasie, julie 03, 2009]; h. van zyl [persoonlike kommunikasie, junie 18, 2009]). die talentkaart-talentbestuursmodel: die vierde model wat in hierdie studie gebruik is, staan bekend as die talentkaart en word veral in die suid-afrikaanse finansiële sektor gebruik. volgens people tree group (persoonlike kommunikasie, mei 28, 2004), a. ward (persoonlike kommunikasie, julie 16, 2009) en gainsford (2010) gaan die model van die veronderstelling uit dat daar geen inherente waarde in ’n persoon se vaardighede bestaan nie die waarde word deur die konteks bepaal. wanneer ’n persoon in ’n posisie geplaas word, moet daar eers ’n tydperk verloop alvorens die persoon se vaardighede waardevol in die omgewing is. namate die omgewing of konteks verander, verander die vaardighede wat benodig word om suksesvol in die organisasie te wees. om dus die waarde van die persoon vir die organisasie te behou, moet nuwe vaardighede ontwikkel word of die persoon moet verskuif word na ’n ander pos waar ’n beter pospassing ten opsigte van vaardighede moontlik is. volgens hierdie model bestaan daar 9 tipes werknemers wat elk ten opsigte van prestasie en potensiaal bespreek word. hoe hoër die werknemers se prestasie en potensiaal is, hoe groter is die talent waaroor hulle beskik. uit bogenoemde besprekings kan die afleiding gemaak word dat talentbestuur ’n proses is wat by werwing begin en by opvolgbeplanning eindig. die ontwikkeling van vaardighede en bevoegdhede is ’n onlosmaaklike komponent van enige talentbestuursprogram. dit is nie net noodsaaklik om die talentvolle werknemers te ontwikkel nie, maar ook om die bestuurders in die organisasie van die nodige opleiding te voorsien om die talentbestuurstrategie suksesvol uit te voer. ’n begrip vir die hiërargie van werk in die organisasie en van die regte ingesteldheid by lynbestuurders, asook ’n sistematiese talentbestuursproses en die konteks waarbinne talentbestuur plaasvind, is kritiek. addisioneel tot die bogenoemde is die volgende aksies wat deur wellins et al. (n.d.) se definisie van talentbestuur beklemtoon word, naamlik dat: • die nodige talent in die organisasie geartikuleer moet word • talent so vroeg as moontlik ontdek moet word • die gereedheid van talentvolle werknemers vir bevordering deurgaans gemonitor moet word • talent ontwikkel moet word. na aanleiding van die tweede en die derde navorsingsdoelwitte, soos hierbo uiteengesit, word die beduidende komponente van ’n talentbestuursprogram vervolgens uitgelig. komponente van ‘n talentbestuursprogram die komponente wat in ’n talentbestuursprogram ingesluit behoort te word, vorm die grondslag vir die ontwikkeling van ’n teoretiese raamwerk vir doeltreffende talentbestuur in organisasies. hierdie komponente is as vertrekpunt gebruik vir die ontwikkeling van die talentbestuurders se onderhoudskedule en die talentbestuursvraelys wat na die geïdentifiseerde talentvolle werknemers uitgestuur is tydens die uitvoer van hierdie studie. die volgende komponente is uit die literatuur geïdentifiseer (wellins & caver, 2006; wellins et al., n.d.):• hoëpotensiaal-leierskapsontwikkelingsprogramme • afrigting en ontwikkeling • bevoegdheid/ suksesprofielanalise • talentbestuursprosesontwerp • prestasiebestuur • talentbestuursagteware • opvolgbeplanning • vroeë identifisering van leierskapspotensiaal • assessering van die gereedheid vir bevordering • werwing • retensie • terugvoer • organisatoriese verbintenis • vereistes vir implementering. wellins et al. (n.d.) is van mening dat daar 9 praktyke bestaan wat as vereistes vir die implementering van ’n doeltreffende talentbestuursprogram moet dien: 1) begin met die uitkoms in gedagte – huidige en toekomstige organisatoriese behoeftes. 2) senior leiers moet talent bestuur. 3) beskik oor ’n suksesprofiel. 4) ontwikkel ’n sistematiese en geïntegreerde benadering tot alle ontwikkelingsaktiwiteite. 5) talentbestuur is veel meer as opvolgbeplanning. 6) onderskei tussen potensiaal, prestasie en gereedheid. 7) fokus op die span. 8) verander leiers in talentbestuurders. 9) talentbestuur behels die regte persone in die regte poste. na aanleiding van die laaste doelwit word vervolgens gefokus op die verskille in terme van die volledigheid van komponente wat ingesluit moet word, sowel as die tevredenheid met talentbestuursprogramme van werknemers in die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore. verskille in terme van die volledigheid van komponente wat ingesluit moet word, sowel as die tevredenheid met talentbestuursprogramme in die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore gainsford (2010) wys daarop dat min of geen navorsing beskikbaar is oor die verskille met betrekking tot die volledigheid van komponente en die tevredenheid met talentbestuursprogramme in die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore nie. soos reeds genoem, berus die doeltreffendheid van talentbestuursprogramme op hoe gereeld die geïdentifiseerde komponente wat in die talentbestuursprogram teenwoordig moet wees, ingesluit is (volledigheid) en op die tevredenheid van die respondente met die onderskeie komponente in hierdie program.navorsing deur liker en meier (2007) en l. grobler (persoonlike kommunikasie, julie 13, 2009) dui daarop dat die doeltreffendheid van talentbestuursprogramme in suid-afrikaanse organisasies oor die algemeen nie op standaard is nie en dat dit vir alle sektore geld. volgens die navorsing behoort talentbestuursprogramme doeltreffend te wees in die sektore waar menslike hulpbronne hoog op prys gestel word. hulle beklemtoon egter dat, alhoewel menslike hulpbronne universeel as belangrik beskou word, talentbestuursprogramme nie in alle sektore as doeltreffend beskou kan word nie. pauw et al. (2008) en m. van wyk (persoonlike kommunikasie, julie 13, 2009) beweer dat talentbestuursprogramme in die private sektor waarskynlik meer doeltreffend is as in die openbare sektor aangesien private maatskappye oor die algemeen waarskynlik meer op winsbejag en oorlewing ingestel is en dus die belangrikheid van talentidentifisering en -behoud besef. vervolgens word die hipoteses van die studie geformuleer. hipoteses • hipotese 1: daar bestaan statisties beduidende verskille in die tellings behaal op die volledigheid van die komponente wat in talentbestuursprogramme in die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore in die uitgesoekte suid-afrikaanse organisasies ingesluit moet word.• hipotese 2: daar bestaan statisties beduidende verskille in die tellings behaal op die tevredenheid van die geïdentifiseerde talentvolle werknemers met die talentbestuursprogramme in die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore in die uitgesoekte suid-afrikaanse organisasies. • hipotese 3: daar bestaan statisties beduidende verskille in die tellings behaal op die doeltreffendheid van die talentbestuursprogramme in die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore in die uitgesoekte suid-afrikaanse organisasies. plan van die studie die navorsingsontwerp van die studie, die resultate en ’n bespreking van die resultate wat verkry is, word vervolgens bespreek. navorsingsontwerp top ↑ navorsingsbenadering hierdie studie het ’n kwantitatiewe navorsingsbenadering gevolg deur vraelyste te gebruik. talentbestuursvraelyste is na geïdentifiseerde talentvolle werknemers uitgestuur. beskrywende statistiek en verskille is onder andere uit die data-analise bepaal. navorsingsmetode seleksie van proefpersone en steekproefnemingsprosedure niewaarskynlikheidsteekproefneming (of meer spesifiek, toevallige steekproefneming) is gebruik aangesien slegs die individue wat gedurende die studie beskikbaar was, ingesluit is. toevallige steekproefneming impliseer dat alle beskikbare gevalle gebruik word totdat die verlangde grootte bereik word. elke persoon het dus ’n gelyke kans om in die studie ingesluit te word (aggarwal, 2011; berg, 2004; fatoki & chindoga, 2011; huysamen, 1996; neuman, 1997). nadat onderhoude gevoer is met 26 bestuurders van die betrokke maatskappye wat talentbestuursprogramme binne die uitgesoekte groep bedryf, is die nodige aanpassings aan die onderhoudskedule gemaak. die aangepaste onderhoudskedule is tesame met ’n biografiese vraelys na die geïdentifiseerde werknemers in die maatskappye wat talentbestuursprogramme bedryf, gestuur. die talentbestuurders het ongeveer 40 talentvolle werknemers (in elke organisasie) geïdentifiseer aan wie die vraelyste uitgestuur is. die vraelyste het ten doel gehad om die doeltreffendheid van die talentbestuursprogramme in die onderskeie organisasies te evalueer. die totale steekproef het 117 werknemers in die onderskeie sektore ingesluit (semi-geskoolde en geskoolde werknemers). die verdelings ten opsigte van ouderdom, geslag, huistaal en ouderdomsgroepe is relatief gelyk in die groep. die respondente wat aan hierdie studie deelgeneem het, het oor die volgende kenmerke beskik. van die 117 respondente wat aan die studie deelgeneem het, kom 47 uit die finansiële sektor, 35 uit die mynbousektor en 35 uit die vervoersektor. die grootste persentasie van die respondente in die steekproef (48%) was langer as 10 jaar in diens van die betrokke organisasies. ’n beduidende persentasie (35%) het slegs ’n matrieksertifikaat. die meerderheid van die respondente (56%) is vroulik. die grootste persentasie van die respondente het twee afhanklikes (35%), gevolg deur 18% met een afhanklike en 18% met drie afhanklikes. die totale steekproef het uit 29% ongetroude en 71% getroude respondente bestaan. die oorgrote meerderheid was afrikaanssprekend (45%), gevolg deur 20% engelssprekendes. meetinstrumente talentbestuursvraelys: die talentbestuursvraelys is ontwikkel op grond van die literatuur en onder toesig van deskundiges in die bedryfsielkundeveld. hierdie vraelys bestaan uit 42 vrae in die vorm van driepuntskaal-tipe vrae. die vraelys het 16 items gemeet. ’n konsepvraelys is ontwikkel en aan spesialiste (akademici en praktisyns) gestuur om by te voeg en/of te verander. verder is onderhoude met 26 talentbestuurders gevoer ten einde die talentbestuursvraelys verder te verfyn. bogenoemde proses het dus tot die inhoudsen gesigsgeldigheid van die vraelys bygedra. volgens johnson (1997), patton (2002) en berg (2004) vereis die insae van verskeie navorsers tydens die ontwerp van die vraelys ’n verdere metode van intermetodiese kruisvalidasie. vir die doeleindes van hierdie studie is talentbestuursvraelyste aan 117 geïdentifiseerde talentvolle werknemers gestuur. die onderhoudskedule wat gebruik is vir die onderhoude met die talentbestuurders is aangepas om in die korrekte formaat as ’n vraelys aan die geïdentifiseerde werknemers uitgestuur te word. die komponente wat uit die literatuurstudie verkry is, tesame met die onderhoude wat met die bestuur gevoer is, is as basis vir die vraelyste gebruik. die onderhoude het ten doel gehad om te bepaal of die vraelys wat aan die werknemers uitgestuur moes word, volledig was. indien talentbestuurders van mening was dat daar komponente ontbreek, sou die navorser hierdie voorstelle inkorporeer. daar is geen komponente by die onderhoudskedule (en dus vraelys) gevoeg nadat die onderhoude gevoer is nie omdat geen bestuurder van mening was dat daar komponente uitgelaat was nie. biografiese vraelys: die tweede vraelys wat aan die werknemers uitgestuur is, is ’n biografiese vraelys met die doel om die werknemers se dienstydperk, kwalifikasies, geslag, huwelikstatus, aantal afhanklikes en huistaal weer te gee. navorsingsprosedure aangesien die studie uitgevoer is in organisasies wat landswyd verspreid is, is die meeste vraelyste elektronies uitgestuur. respondente het dan ’n redelike tydperk gekry waarin die vraelyste voltooi en aan die navorser teruggestuur moes word. sommige respondente wat vir die navorser bereikbaar was, het ’n hardekopie van die vraelys gekry wat per hand ingevul is. statistiese analise in hierdie studie is beskrywende en inferensiële statistiek gebruik. die statistiese ontledingstegnieke wat aangewend is, is die anova-toets en tukey se paarsgewyse vergelykingstegniek. hierdie statistiese metodes is met behulp van die sas (2009) rekenaarprogram (‘statistical analysis systems version 9.21‘) uitgevoer. die f-statistiek is gebruik om te bepaal of beduidende verskille (p ≤ .05 en/of p ≤ .1) bestaan. resultate top ↑ beskrywende statistiek volledigheid van talentbestuursprogramme soos verkry van respondente die volgende tabel dui op die respondente se opinies rakende hoe gereeld elke komponent wat in ’n talentbestuursprogram ingesluit behoort te wees, wel ingesluit is.uit tabel 1 blyk dit dat die organisasies wat aan die studie deelgeneem het, wel die noodsaaklike komponente in die huidige talentbestuursprogramme in die organisasies insluit. daar is egter sekere komponente wat volgens die respondente nie op ’n voortdurende basis in die talentbestuursprogram gebruik word nie. tabel 1: persepsie van die respondente rakende die frekwensie van die gebruik van die komponente in ‘n talentbestuursprogram. tabel 1 wys daarop dat slegs 27% van die respondente van mening is dat die organisasie voortdurend van talentbestuursagteware gebruik maak as ’n kritieke komponent in die talentbestuursprogram. verder is dit 45% van die respondente se opinie dat die organisasie nie deurlopend die talentvolle werknemers in die organisasie se gereedheid vir bevordering bepaal nie. volgens 36% van die respondente ag talentbestuurders nie die vroeë identifisering van leierskapspotensiaal as ’n prioriteit in die organisasie nie. tabel 1 toon verder dat 50% van die respondent aangedui het dat prestasiebestuur, afrigting, ontwikkeling en opvolgbeplanning deur hul organisasies gebruik word.dit is verder kommerwekkend dat 50% van die respondente genoem het dat hoëpotensiaal-leierskapsontwikkelingsprogramme op ’n voortdurende basis in die organisasie gebruik word. slegs 48% van die respondente huldig die opinie dat die ontwerp van die talentbestuursproses op ’n deurlopende basis geëvalueer word. nog ’n probleemarea is die bevinding dat slegs 49% van die respondente beweer dat hul bestuurder skiktyd toestaan aan werknemers wat gesinsof persoonlike probleme het. die bevinding dat lynbestuurders volgens slegs 33% van die respondente voortdurend opgelei word om talentbestuurders te wees, kan verdere probleme vir die organisasies inhou. ander resultate uit die studie toon dat slegs 44% van die respondente voel dat die huidige talentbestuursprogram deurgaans op spanwerk fokus. volgens 19% van die respondente lyk dit of die verkeerde persoon in die organisasie aangestel is, naamlik iemand wat nie aan die posvereistes voldoen nie en wat nie ontwikkelbaar is nie. tevredenheid met talentbestuursprogramme volgens die respondente die volgende tabel dui op die tevredenheid met elke komponent van die talentbestuursprogramme.volgens tabel 2 is die algehele tevredenheid met die komponente van die talentbestuursprogramme redelik laag. slegs 44% van die respondente is baie tevrede met die hoëpotensiaal-leierskapsontwikkelingsprogramme in die organisasies, wat ’n relatiewe lae persentasie is. slegs 36% van die respondente is baie tevrede met die afrigtingsproses en 32% is baie tevrede met die suksesprofielanalise in die organisasie. dit is egter kommerwekkend dat slegs 32% van die respondente baie tevrede is met die opvolgbeplanning en dat slegs 50% baie tevrede is met die vroeë identifisering van leierskapspotensiaal in die organisasie. daar is net drie ontwikkelingstegnieke waarmee meer as 50% van die respondente baie tevrede is, naamlik aksieleerprojekte (62%), eksterne kursusse of seminare (54%) en binnenshuise klaskameropleiding (52%), wat ook relatiewe lae vlakke van tevredenheid is. tabel 2: tevredenheid van die respondente met die talentbestuursprogramme. uit tabel 2 blyk dit verder dat nie al die respondente die sterkte van die senior bestuurspanne op standaard ag nie. talentoptimalisering, die katalisering van verandering, asook senior spanontwikkeling, is komponente waarmee minder as 50% van die respondente baie tevrede is. inferensiële statistiek: verskille tussen sektore die anova-toets is toegepas, met sektor as die onafhanklike veranderlike en komponentfrekwensietelling, tevredenheidstelling en doeltreffendheidstelling onderskeidelik as die afhanklike veranderlikes. daarna is die anova-toets afsonderlik toegepas op elke berekende komponenttelling as die afhanklike veranderlike en sektor as die onafhanklike veranderlike. indien die anova-toets die verskille as beduidend bewys het (p ≤ .05 en/of p ≤ .1) en die relevante onafhanklike veranderlike meer as twee kategorieë het, is tukey se paarsgewyse vergelykingstegniek aangewend. verskille tussen sektore met betrekking tot die persepsie van hoe gereeld die onderskeie komponente gebruik word (volledigheid) verskille (sien tabel 3) in die gemiddelde van die komponentfrekwensietellings is gevind tussen die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore, maar die verskille is nie statisties beduidend nie (p ≥ .05). hipotese 1, naamlik dat daar statisties beduidende verskille bestaan in die tellings behaal op die volledigheid van die komponente wat ingesluit moet word in talentbestuursprogramme in die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore in die uitgesoekte suid-afrikaanse organisasies, word dus nie deur die data ondersteun nie. tabel 3: variansie-analisetabel vir die toets van die verskille tussen die komponentfrekwensietellings van die verskillende sektore. verskille tussen sektore met betrekking tot tevredenheid met talentbestuursprogramme die gemiddeld van die mynbousektor se tevredenheid is redelik laer bevind as die tevredenheidsvlakke van die finansiële en vervoersektore. ’n statisties hoogs beduidende verskil (p ≤ .001) (sien tabel 4) is tussen die tevredenheidstellings van die respondente uit die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore gevind. hipotese 2, naamlik dat daar statisties beduidende verskille bestaan in die tellings behaal op die tevredenheid van die respondente met die talentbestuursprogramme in die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore in die uitgesoekte suid-afrikaanse organisasies, word dus deur die data ondersteun. tabel 4: variansie-analisetabel vir die toetsing van die verskille tussen die tevredenheidstellings van die verskillende sektore. om egter te bepaal presies watter van die drie sektore van mekaar verskil, is tukey se paarsgewyse vergelykingstegniek gebruik. statisties beduidende verskille is gevind tussen die finansiële sektor en die mynbousektor, asook tussen die vervoersektor en mynbousektor ten opsigte van die tevredenheidsvlakke met die talentbestuursprogramme (p ≤ .05). die respondente van die mynbousektor is minder tevrede met die talentbestuursprogram as die respondente van die finansiële en vervoersektore. daar bestaan egter geen statisties beduidende verskille tussen die finansiële sektor en die vervoersektor ten opsigte van die tevredenheidsvlakke met die talentbestuursprogramme nie (p ≥ .05). verskille tussen die doeltreffendheid van die sektore se talentbestuursprogramme dit blyk dat daar statisties beduidende verskille (p ≤ .05) in die gemiddelde van die doeltreffendheidstelling van die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore bestaan (sien tabel 5). hipotese 3, naamlik dat daar statisties beduidende verskille bestaan in die tellings behaal op die doeltreffendheid van die talentbestuursprogramme in die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore in die uitgesoekte suid-afrikaanse organisasies, word dus deur die data ondersteun. tabel 5: variansie-analisetabel vir die toetsing van die verskille tussen die doeltreffendheidstellings van die verskillende sektore. met behulp van tukey se paarsgewyse vergelykingstegniek is bevind dat die finansiële sektor en die mynbousektor statisties beduidend van mekaar verskil (p ≤ .05) ten opsigte van die doeltreffendheidstellings van die talentbestuursprogramme in die onderskeie organisasies. hiervolgens is die finansiële sektor se talentbestuursprogram meer doeltreffend as die mynbousektor se talentbestuursprogram. daar bestaan egter geen statisties beduidende verskille (p ≥ .05) tussen die finansiële sektor en die vervoersektor, of tussen die mynbousektor en die vervoersektor ten opsigte van die doeltreffendheid van die onderskeie talentbestuursprogramme nie. etiese oorwegings top ↑ goedkeuring is van die universiteit van die vrystaat se navorsingskomitees verkry om die studie te kon uitvoer. potensiële voordele en gevare die voordeel wat respondente verkry het vanuit die studie hou verband met werkstevredenheid. indien organisasies talent doeltreffend bestuur, sal die talentvolle werknemers meer werkstevredenheid ervaar en dus in die organisasie aanbly. geen risikos vir respondente was aan hierdie studie verbonde nie. werwingsprosedure respondente se deelname aan hierdie studie was vrywillig. deelnemers kon op enige tydstip uit die studie onttrek. ingeligte toestemming die navorser het die doel van die studie, asook die proses, aan die respondente verduidelik, waarna toestemming van die respondente verkry is. respondente was ten volle ingelig waaroor die studie handel en kon dus ingeligte besluite neem rakende hul deelname aan die studie. databeskerming die persoonlike data wat gevra is, is relevant tot die studie en die navorser was deursigtig met die redes waarom persoonlike data gevra is. respondente is verder verseker van anonimiteit. bespreking top ↑ soos reeds genoem, is die doel van hierdie studie om die doeltreffendheid van bestaande talentbestuursprogramme in uitgesoekte suid-afrikaanse organisasies in die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore te evalueer. die doeltreffendheid van die talentbestuursprogramme berus op hoe gereeld die geïdentifiseerde komponente wat in die talentbestuursprogram teenwoordig moet wees, ingesluit is (volledigheid) en op die tevredenheid van die respondente met die onderskeie komponente in hierdie program. na aanleiding hiervan kan ’n omvattende lys van vereiste komponente van ’n talentbestuursprogram opgestel word wat suid-afrikaanse organisasies kan help met die ontwerp en implementering van ’n doeltreffende talentbestuursprogram. opsomming van resultate volledigheid van talentbestuursprogramme uit die resultate blyk dit dat die meeste komponente wat volgens die literatuur in talentbestuursprogramme ingesluit behoort te word, wel in die programme van die finansiële, vervoer-, en mynbousektore ingesluit is. die uitsondering is talentbestuursagteware, waar slegs 27% van al die respondente van mening is dat die organisasie voortdurend van talentbestuursagteware as ’n noodsaaklike komponent in die talentbestuursprogram gebruik maak. die resultate van hierdie studie dui verder daarop dat terugvoer vir ontwikkelingsdoeleindes, werwing en talentverbintenis die enigste komponente is wat volgens meer as 70% van die respondente deurlopend in die uitvoering van talentbestuur aangewend word. die bevindinge van hierdie studie stem grootliks ooreen met vorige navorsing wat in hierdie verband in organisasies gedoen is. reflections on talent management (2006) het bevind dat, van bykans al die ontwikkelingstegnieke wat organisasies tydens talentbestuursprogramme gebruik, minder as 50% werklik gebruik word. die resultate van hierdie studie toon verder dat prestasiebestuur, afrigting, ontwikkeling en opvolgbeplanning volgens meer as 50% van die respondente (steeds ’n relatiewe lae persentasie) voortdurend gebruik word in die uitgesoekte organisasies. volgens wellins en caver (2006) is die komponente wat die meeste in die talentbestuursprogramme gebruik word prestasiebestuur, afrigting, ontwikkeling en opvolgbeplanning. die komponente wat die minste gebruik word, is talentbestuursagtewarestelsels, assessering van gereedheid vir bevordering en suksesprofielanalise. die bevinding in hierdie studie dat hoëpotensiaal-leierskapsontwikkelingsprogramme slegs die 50%-kerf bereik ten opsigte van die frekwensie van die gebruik daarvan, is ’n bron van kommer aangesien hierdie ontwikkelingsprogramme noodsaaklik is in die huidige sakewêreld waar daar ’n groot tekort aan leiers is (charan et al., 2001; gainsford, 2010; makholwa, 2010; o’neal & gebauer, 2006; ready & conger, 2007). die bevinding van hierdie studie, naamlik dat die evaluering van die talentbestuursprosesontwerp volgens ’n groot persentasie van die respondente nie voortdurend plaasvind nie, kan ’n invloed op die doeltreffendheid van die talentbestuursprogram hê. soos reeds genoem, word die talentbestuursproses deur voortdurende ontwikkeling, aanpassing en verandering gekenmerk ten einde te verseker dat die proses in lyn met die organisatoriese strategieë en doelwitte bly. dus moet die ontwerp van die huidige talentbestuursproses gereeld in oënskou geneem word (gainsford, 2010; oehley, 2007). die bevinding dat slegs 49% van die respondente van mening is dat bestuurders skiktyd aan werknemers toestaan, kan die verbintenis van die werknemers tot die organisasie beïnvloed omdat verbintenis gegrond word op gevoelens dat werknemers na waarde geskat word (du plooy & roodt, 2010; garger, 1999; oehley, 2007; schreuder & coetzee, 2011; sohail et al. 2011). dit is kommerwekkend dat ’n relatiewe klein persentasie van die respondente in hierdie studie van mening is dat lynbestuurders voortdurend as talentbestuurders opgelei word aangesien lynbestuurders die grootste verantwoordelikheid dra om organisatoriese strategieë in resultate om te skakel deur talent in die organisasie te betrek. talentbestuurders moet oor die nodige vaardighede beskik om talent te bestuur. dus moet lynbestuurders met die nodige vaardighede toegerus word om talent in die organisasie te kan bestuur (aquila, 2007; cantrell & benton, 2007; van dam, 2008; wellins et al., n.d.). sommige navorsers en menslikehulpbronbestuurders beweer dat die opinie kan bestaan dat die talentpoel ryk sal wees in tye van hoë werkloosheid en dat dit maklik sal wees om die regte persoon vir die regte pos te vind. dit is egter nie die geval nie. dit beteken wel dat daar oor die algemeen meer kandidate om elke pos meeding. negentien persent (19%) van die respondente is van mening dat dit deurgaans lyk of die verkeerde persoon in die organisasie aangestel is, naamlik iemand wat nie aan die posvereistes voldoen nie en wat ook nie ontwikkelbaar is nie (hardy, 2004; pauw et al., 2008). dit is ’n aanduiding dat die talent in die organisasie nie doeltreffend bestuur word nie aangesien talentbestuur behels dat die regte persone met die regte vaardighede in die regte poste geplaas word (wellins et al., n.d.). die resultate van hierdie studie ondersteun die bevinding van fulmer en bleak (2008) dat daar te veel op die individu en te min op die span gefokus word aangesien ’n relatiewe klein persentasie van die respondente in hierdie studie beweer dat spanwerk voortdurend in die talentbestuursprogram ingesluit word. tevredenheid met talentbestuursprogramme die algehele tevredenheid met die komponente van talentbestuursprogramme is redelik laag (sien tabel 2), wat korreleer met ’n studie deur wellins en caver (2006) waar respondente baie lae tevredenheidsvlakke (minder as 50%) met die komponente van die talentbestuursprogramme getoon het.reflections on talent management (2006) dui daarop dat 35% (’n relatiewe hoë persentasie) van die respondente wat aan die studie deelgeneem het die opinie gehuldig het dat die ontwikkelingsaktiwiteite in die organisasie nie doeltreffend is nie en dat hulle dus nie tevrede was met die ontwikkelingstegnieke in die organisasie oor die algemeen nie. mentorskap is veral ’n bron van kommer wanneer die lae tevredenheidsvlakke ten opsigte van hierdie komponent in ag geneem word. daar is moontlik nie genoeg senior werknemers met die regte vaardighede in organisasies om doeltreffende afrigters en mentors vir junior werknemers te wees nie (hardy, 2004; mulder, 2007; pauw et al., 2008; tucker, kao & verma, 2005; s. phalatse [persoonlike kommunikasie, julie 21, 2009]; j. taljaard [persoonlike kommunikasie, julie 16, 2009]; h. van zyl [persoonlike kommunikasie, junie 18, 2009]). die bevinding dat universiteitsen ander onderrigprogramme lae tevredenheidsvlakke bereik, word deur die navorsing van wellins en caver ondersteun (2006). universiteitsen ander onderrigprogramme alleenlik is nie genoeg nie, maar die doeltreffendheid daarvan word verhoog wanneer dit met genoeg praktiese blootstelling gekombineer word (wellins & caver, 2006; l. grobler [persoonlike kommunikasie, julie 13, 2009]; a. van der zwaard [persoonlike kommunikasie, julie 03, 2009]; m. van wyk [persoonlike kommunikasie, julie 13, 2009]). die bevinding dat ’n klein persentasie van die respondente baie tevrede met die suksesprofielanalise in die organisasies blyk te wees, word verder deur onlangse navorsing ondersteun (reflections on talent management, 2006; wellins & caver, 2006). die komponent van talentbestuursprogramme waarmee die laagste tevredenheidsvlakke in hierdie studie bereik is, is talentbestuursagteware. talentbestuursagteware is ook volgens wellins en caver (2006) ’n komponent waarmee uitsonderlike lae tevredenheidsvlakke bereik word. alhoewel opvolgbeplanning ’n wesenlike praktyk in die organisasies is, is die meeste respondente in hierdie studie nie baie tevrede met die opvolgbeplanningsproses nie. hierdie bevinding stem ooreen met navorsing deur wellins en caver (2006) waar slegs 18% van die respondente tevrede was met die opvolgbeplanningsproses in die organisasies. die bevindinge van hierdie studie, naamlik dat die sterkte van die senior bestuurspan in byna alle areas bevraagteken word, word ondersteun deur ’n studie deur wellins en caver (2006) wat daarop dui dat minder as 43% van die respondente in alle areas van mening was dat senior bestuurders in hul organisasies sterk leiers is. inferensiële statistiek: verskille tussen sektore daar bestaan geen statisties beduidende verskille tussen die persepsies van die respondente uit die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore rakende die volledigheid van die talentbestuursprogramme nie. hierdie bevinding kan ’n aanduiding wees dat organisasies in suid-afrika oor die algemeen ’n basiese talentbestuursprogram in plek het. verder is daar wel statisties beduidende verskille tussen die finansiële sektor en die mynbousektor, asook tussen die vervoersektor en die mynbousektor, ten opsigte van die tevredenheid met die talentbestuursprogramme. die respondente van die mynbousektor blyk minder tevrede met die talentbestuursprogram as die respondente van die finansiële en vervoersektore te wees.volgens die resultate van die studie blyk dit verder dat die finansiële sektor en die mynbousektor statisties beduidend van mekaar verskil ten opsigte van die doeltreffendheid van die talentbestuursprogramme in die organisasies. hiervolgens is die finansiële sektor se talentbestuursprogram meer doeltreffend as dié van die mynbousektor. daar bestaan egter geen statisties beduidende verskille tussen die finansiële sektor en die vervoersektor, of tussen die mynbousektor en die vervoersektor, ten opsigte van die doeltreffendheid van die talentbestuursprogramme nie. gevolgtrekkings en aanbevelings hierdie studie se bevindinge kan as riglyn gebruik word vir die ontwerp en implementering van talentbestuursprogramme. dit beteken dat die eerste navorsingsdoelwit van hierdie studie bereik is, naamlik om deur middel van literatuurverkenning en onderhoude ’n teoretiese raamwerk te ontwikkel vir die doeltreffende bepaling van die inhoud en implementering van talentbestuursprogramme in uitgesoekte suid-afrikaanse organisasies in die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore. die resultate van die studie kan as kontrolelys gebruik word om te bepaal of die huidige talentbestuursprogram op standaard is. indien die talentbestuursprogram meer volledig is ten opsigte van die komponente van sodanige programme en talentbestuurders opgelei en bevoeg is om hierdie programme te bestuur, sal die tevredenheid met die programme aansienlik verhoog. die belangrikste aksies wat in ’n talentbestuursprogram ingesluit moet wees, is: • die artikulasie van talent wat benodig word om die sakestrategieë uit te voer. • die vroeë identifisering van potensiaal binne die talentpoel in die organisasie. • die evaluering van gereedheid vir bevordering van talent in die organisasie. • die ontwikkeling van talent in die organisasie. die minimum komponente wat vir insluiting in ’n talentbestuursprogram aanbeveel word, is die volgende: • hoëpotensiaal-leierskapsontwikkelingsprogramme • afrigting • ontwikkeling • terugvoer • bevoegdheid/suksesprofielanalise • talentbestuursprosesontwerp • prestasiebestuur • talentbestuursagteware • opvolgbeplanning • assessering van gereedheid vir bevordering • vroeë identifisering van leierskapspotensiaal • werwing • retensie • organisatoriese verbintenis. die vereistes waaraan ’n talentbestuursprogram moet voldoen, is soos volg: • die doelwitte en strategieë van die organisasie moet die dryfveer wees wat die gehalte en hoeveelheid talent wat die organisasie benodig, bepaal. • fokus op die span. • beskik oor ’n suksesprofiel. • ontwikkel ’n sistematiese en geïntegreerde benadering tot alle ontwikkelingsaktiwiteite. • talentbestuur is veel meer as opvolgbeplanning. • ’n duidelike onderskeid word tussen potensiaal, prestasie en gereedheid getref. • senior leiers moet talent bestuur. • verander leiers in talentbestuurders. • talentbestuur behels die regte persone in die regte poste. die aanbeveling kan gemaak word dat die organisasies in die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore die totale talentbestuursprogram moet hersien, met die uitsondering van die volgende komponente: • terugvoer vir ontwikkelingsdoeleindes • werwing • verbintenis van talent. organisasies moet egter spesifiek aandag gee aan die gebruik van talentbestuursagteware tydens talentbestuur aangesien die gebruik van hierdie programme die bestuur van talent in organisasies aansienlik verbeter en vergemaklik. die lae tevredenheidsvlakke wat bereik is met die talentbestuursprogramme maak die hersiening van die algehele talentbestuursprogramme in die onderskeie organisasies selfs meer dringend. die resultate van hierdie studie kan gebruik word om die areas waar ontevredenheid met die programme bestaan, te identifiseer. implikasies vir bestuur die werkslading van die talentbestuurders, sowel as die talentvolle werknemers, moet hersien word aangesien ’n te groot werkslading sal veroorsaak dat talentbestuur ’n afgejaagde proses word. verder is dit noodsaaklik dat talentvolle werknemers so vroeg as moontlik in die organisasie geïdentifiseer word omdat die talentpoel in suid-afrika vinnig besig is om op te droog.die laaste aanbeveling is dat soveel as moontlik senior werknemers wat oor die nodige potensiaal beskik, opgelei moet word om mentors en/of afrigters te wees aangesien die probleem in die meeste organisasies ’n tekort aan genoeg bevoegde mentors of afrigters is om junior werknemers op te lei en te ontwikkel. dit is dus noodsaaklik dat bestuurders persone in poste aanstel wat selfs beter presteer en oor meer potensiaal beskik as hulself om sodoende die kultuur van hoë prestasie te behou en te verbeter. dit sal genoeg potensiële afrigters en mentors lewer om junior werknemers by te staan om die produktiwiteit van die organisasie te verhoog. beperkinge van studie die betroubaarheid van die talentbestuursvraelys is onbekend en is dus ’n beperking van die studie wat in toekomstige navorsing aangespreek moet word.verder moet die steekproef van die ondersoek groter wees en meer organisasies insluit sodat die resultate van die studie veralgemeen kan word. die studie kan egter deur suid-afrikaanse organisasies in die finansiële, vervoeren mynbousektore as ’n riglyn gebruik word om ’n doeltreffende talentbestuursprogram te ontwikkel en te implementeer. voorstelle vir verdere navorsing eerstens moet die betroubaarheid van die talentbestuursvraelys vasgestel word. tweedens moet die steekproef van die studie groter wees en meer organisasies insluit sodat die resultate van die studie veralgemeen kan word. derdens kan dit tot voordeel van die navorser wees om al die vraelyste elektronies aan deelnemers uit te stuur aangesien die respondente moontlik eerliker kan wees oor hulle houding teenoor die talentbestuursprogram. deur van e-posdienste gebruik te maak word die moontlikheid dat talentbestuurders ’n vraelys aan ’n spesifieke werknemer kan koppel aansienlik kleiner omdat die respondente die vraelyste direk aan die navorser terugstuur. erkenning top ↑ mededingende belange die outeurs verklaar dat hulle geen finansiële of persoonlike verbintenis het met enige party wat hulle nadelig kon beïnvloed in die skryf van hierdie artikel nie. outeursbydrae die artikel is uit ‘n meestergraad –studie (master societatis scientiae) ontwikkel deur j.p.g. (universiteit van die vrystaat). die artikel is deur j.p.g. (universiteit van die vrystaat) onder toesig en leiding van e.s.v.z. (universiteit van die vrystaat) geskryf. literatuurverwysings top ↑ aggerwal, a. (2011). sampling issues in research methodologies [steekproefkwessies in navorsingsmetodologieë]. indian journal of medical specialities, 2(2), 169–172.allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization [die meting en antesedente van affektiewe, voortdurende en normatiewe verbintenis tot die organisasie]. journal of occupational psychology, 63, 1–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.x aquila, a.j. (2007). key best practices for succession planning. accounting today, 21(11), 23. berg, b.l. (2004). qualitative research methods for the social sciences. (5th edn.). boston: pearson. burke, m., & kock, r. (2008). managing talent in the south african public service [die bestuur van talent in die suid-afrikaanse publieke sektor]. public personnel management, 37(4), 457–470. cantrell, s., & benton, j.m. (2007). the five essential practices of a talent multiplier [die vyf noodsaaklike praktyke van ‘n talentvermenigvuldiger]. business strategy series, 8(5), 358–364. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17515630710684475 charan, r., drotter, s., & noel, j. (2001). the leadership pipeline: how to build the leadership-powered company. san francisco: jossey-bass. donaldson, c. (2006). topping up on talent. retrieved januarie 17, 2009, from http://www.humanresourcesmagazine.com.au/articles/82/0c03dc82.asp du plooy, j., & roodt, g. (2010). work engagement, burnout and related constructs as predictors of turnover intentions [werksbetrokkenheid, uitbranding en verwante konstrukte as voorspellers van omset-intensies]. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 36(1), art. #910, 13 pages. http://dx.doi.org/0.4102/sajip.v36i1.910 duttagupta, r. (n.d.). identifying and managing your assets: talent management. retrieved september 08, 2006, from http://www.buildingipvalue.com/05_sf/374_378.htm ellehuus, c. (2012). transforming business leaders into talent champions [transformeer besigheidsleiers in talentkampioene]. strategic hr review, 11(2), 84. fatoki, o., & chindoga, l. (2011). an investigation into the obstacles to youth entrepreneurship in south africa [’n ondersoek na die struikelblokke vir jeug-entrepreneurskap in suid-afrika]. international business research, 4(2), 161–169. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v4n2p161 fulmer, r.m., & bleak, j.l. (2008). the leadership advantage: how the best companies are developing their talent to pave the way for future success. new york: amacom. gainsford, j.p. (2010). die effektiwiteit van talentbestuursprogramme in geselekteerde suid-afrikaanse organisasies. ongepubliseerde meestersgraadverhandeling, universiteit van die vrystaat, bloemfontein. garger, e.m. (1999). holding on to high performers: a strategic approach to retention [vashou aan hoë presteerders: ‘n strategiese benadering tot die behoud]. compensation and benefits management, 15(4), 10–17. hardy, k. (2004). self-leadership as a tool in management succession planning. the public manager, winter, 41–44. hartley, d.e. (2004). tools for talent [gereedskap vir talent]. training and development, 58(4), 20–22. huysamen, g.k. (1996). methodology for the social and behavioural sciences. johannesburg: international thomson publishing. johnson, b.r. (1997). examining the validity structure of qualitative research [ondersoek die geldigheidsstrukture van kwalitatiewe navorsing]. education, 118(3), 282–292. liker, j.k., & meier, d.p. (2007). toyota talent: developing your people the toyota way. new york: mcgraw-hill. makholwa, a. (2010, 24 june). ageing workforce a worry. finweek, p. 12. mulder, c. (2007, 08 february). nurture the minority who show potential and desire: if elitism translates into an enhanced skills base, bring it on. finweek, p. 60. neuman, w.l. (1997). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. (3rd edn.). boston: allyn and bacon. oehley, a. (2007). the development and evaluation of a partial talent management competency model. unpublished master’s thesis, stellenbosch universiteit, stellenbosch, south africa. o’neal, s., & gebauer, j. (2006). talent management in the 21st century: attracting, retaining and engaging employees of choice [talentbestuur in die 21ste eeu: lok, behou en kry gekose werknemers betrokke]. worldatwork journal, 15(1), 6–16. opp. (2003). capitalising on talent. retrieved september 11, 2006, from http://www.opp.eu.com/uploadedfiles/capitalising%20on%20talent.pdf patton, m.q. (2002). qualitative evaluation and research methods. (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. pauw, k., oosthuizen, m., & van der westhuizen, c. (2008). graduate unemployment in the face of skills shortages: a labour market paradox [gegradueerde werkloosheid in die aangesig van vaardigheidstekorte: ‘n arbeidsmark paradox]. south african journal of economics, 76(1), 45–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2008.00152.x quick, j.c., & nelson, d.l. (2009). principles of organizational behavior: realities and challenges. (6th edn.). australia: south-western cengage learning. ready, d.a., & conger, j.a. (2007). how to build a talent factory [hoe om ’n talentfabriek te bou]. computer world, 41(24), 30. reflections on talent management. (2006). retrieved october 23, 2006, from http://www.cipd.co.uk/nr/rdonlyres/f473b522-dd49-49e2-9021-59eobzbda288/o/reftalmanca0306.pdf sas institute inc. (2009). sas/iml 9.21 user’s guide. cary, nc: sas institute inc. schreuder, a.m.g., & coetzee, m. (2011). careers: an organisational perspective. (4th edn.). lansdowne: juta & co. sears, d. (2003). successful talent strategies: achieving superior business results through market-focused staffing. new york: amacom. sohail, n., muneer, a., tanveer, y., & tariq, h. (2011). losing your best talent: employee retention the dilemma of the textile industry [verloor jou beste talent: werknemerretensie die dilemma van die tekstielindustrie]. interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, 3(8), 896–906. tett, r.p., & meyer, j.p. (1993). job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intention and turnover: path analysis based on meta-analytic findings [werkstevredenheid, organisatoriese verbintenis, omet-intensie en omset: pad-analise gebaseer op meta-analitiese bevindinge]. personnel psychology, 46(2), 259–293. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1993.tb00874.x tucker, e., kao, t., & verma, n. (2005). next-generation talent management: insights on how workforce trends are changing the face of talent management [volgende-generasie talentbestuur: insigte in hoe arbeidsmarktendense talentbestuur verander]. business credit, 106(7), 20–27. van dam, n. (2008). developing scalable business coaching [ontwikkel meetbare besigheids-afrigting]. chief learning officer, 7(2), 14. van schalkwyk, s., du toit, d.h., bothma, a.s., & rothmann, s. (2010). job insecurity, leadership empowerment behaviour, employee engagement and intention to leave in a petrochemical laboratory [werkssekuriteit, leierskapsbemagtigingsgedrag, werknemerbetrokkenheid en intensie om te bedank in ‘n petrochemiese laboratorium]. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8(1), art. 234, 7 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.234 wellins, r.s., & caver, k. (2006). ddi survey findings at the conference board 2006 talent management strategies conference. retrieved october 15, 2006, from http://www.ddiworld.com/pdf/ddi_2006talentmanagementstrategiesconference_es.pdf wellins, r.s., smith, a.b., paese, m.j., & erker, s. (n.d.). white paper: nine best practices for effective talent management. retrieved november 01, 2006, from http://www.ddiworld.com/pdf/ddi_ninebestpracticetalent management_wp.pdf abstract introduction research design and methodology findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) emmanuel udekwe graduate centre for management, cape peninsula university of technology, south africa andre c. de la harpe graduate centre for management, cape peninsula university of technology, south africa citation udekwe, e., & de la harpe, a.c. (2017). the use of human resource information systems in two retail organisations in the western cape, south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a827. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.827 original research the use of human resource information systems in two retail organisations in the western cape, south africa emmanuel udekwe, andre c. de la harpe received: 17 june 2016; accepted: 19 july 2017; published: 13 nov. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the retail industry is the largest contributor to employment and the gross domestic product (gdp) in the western cape, south africa. the management of human resources in this very competitive industry is a high priority for all retailers. the successful implementation, maintenance and use of human resource information systems (hriss) are an integral part of many retailers. research purpose: human resource information systems are difficult to implement and maintain, and as a result, organisations cannot effectively utilise these systems to their benefit. the purpose of this paper is to explore the factors affecting the implementation, maintenance and use of hriss in two retail organisations in the western cape. motivation of study: many retailers find it difficult to apply and utilise hriss to their benefit and to the systems’ full potential. this study explores the challenges retailers are facing when implementing, maintaining and using hriss. research design, approach and method: multiple case studies were used to conduct the research. data were collected through a semi-structured questionnaire using interviews. twenty-one interviews were conducted in the two retail companies to gain an understanding of the use of hriss within these organisations. the data were analysed using a thematic method of analysis. the units of analysis were the human resources and the information technology departments of both companies. the units of observation were (21) purposively selected employees in the two mentioned departments of both retail organisations. main findings: this research shows an under-utilisation of the hris in both companies as a result of poor data quality, lack of adequate training and the high cost of implementing and maintaining the system. there is a gap in terms of data analytics and report generation. this gap leads to the under-utilisation of the hriss preventing the retailers to optimise the benefits of the hris. practical and managerial implications: for organisations to reap benefits from hriss, a change management strategy and a rigorous training programme are needed that will focus on the implemented maintenance and improved usage of these systems. contribution: the contribution of the study includes proposed guidelines for the effective and efficient use of hriss. the study further contributes to the body of knowledge in shedding light on the implementation, maintenance and use of hriss in the retail industry in the western cape, south africa. introduction retail is an important sector that contributes to the growth of the economy in many ways, such as the reduction in unemployment and an increase in the gross domestic product (gdp) (nalla & varalaxmi, 2014). as the retail sector is a major contributor to the creation of employment in the economy, the management of human resources becomes an important aspect in organisations (powell & dent-micallef, 1997). quality systems dedicated to human resource management are required to manage this complex environment. human resource information systems (hriss) are introduced to strengthen the strategic objectives of organisations by providing accurate information relating to human resources at the lowest time and cost (das & ara, 2015). for organisations to achieve this, they need to ensure that strategies such as recruitment, training, development and reward are aligned and well established (chitere & gachunga, 2013). an hris is defined by kavanagh, gueutal and tannenbaum (1990, p. 13) as ‘a system that is used to acquire, store, manipulate, analyse, retrieve and distribute information resources’. the human resources (hr) and information technology (it) departments are responsible for the extraction, transformation and loading of company employee information in a system (mahmoud, 2014). the purpose of the study the purpose of the study is to explore the challenges retailers are facing when implementing, maintaining and using an hris in order to gain benefits from the system. the research questions are based on how organisations implement, maintain and use hriss and if there are differences between organisations in how they use the system. literature review for organisations to achieve success in the effective use of an hris, there is a need to fully utilise the hris as many organisations only use some system functionalities (mohite, 2012). some reasons for the ineffective use of the hris are the lack of management support, not able to upgrade the system, shortage of funds and poor training. in this complex environment, hriss are difficult to implement and maintain and as a result, organisations cannot effectively utilise the system to their benefit. the aim of the study is to explore what factors affect the effective use of the system in the organisations and how hriss are utilised by organisations to gain benefits from the system. arora (2013) mentions that the effective use of hriss is difficult to measure, especially in terms of benefits for organisations. most organisations that implemented hriss indicate the system to be complex (bhargava, 2014). the complexity of an hris is posed as a negative influence for the adoption of the system (alalwan, 2014). complexity affects innovation when using the system because employees find the system difficult to understand (ahmer, 2013). marufu (2014) mentions that under-utilisation of the system is a critical problem caused by the users who lack the understanding of how the system works. furthermore, the implementation, use and level of maintenance of the system is determined by the size of the organisation (slavić & berber, 2013). the size of an organisation also contributes to the effective use of the system (ball, 2001) and could be part of the reasons why organisations are not maximising the use of the system, which is a great concern. sarker (2014) states that there should be a relationship between the size of an organisation and hr practice in the use of the hris, so that the growth of the organisation is assisted by the system to select the right skills needed to optimise organisational performance. many organisations with hriss neglect positioning the required resources to manage it, depriving the users and the organisations of achieving the benefits it offers (arora, 2013). training is a compulsory requirement that most organisations set as a criterion before employees can access the system (naris, 2009). in the retail banking sector, training of employees on how to use the system is identified as a critical success factor (chitere & gachunga, 2013; hossain, 2014). chitere and gachunga (2013) and kinanaga (2013) state that training and development are important criteria for the adoption of hriss to improve hr functions. nalla and varalaxmi (2014) identify a significant difference in the use of hriss with the introduction of training of newly employed hris users in the retail sector. nalla and varalaxmi (2014) support sorescu, frambach, singh, rangaswamy and bridges (2011), stating that retailers create value for their businesses through innovations and training of their employees in order to build a sustainable advantage in the marketplace. akpaloo (2010) identifies the lack of management support and inadequate funding as some of the problems affecting the effective use of the system. ahmer (2013) supports akpaloo (2010) by stating that a lack of management support impacts negatively on the adoption of the system. ngai and wat (2006) mention that many organisations are not realising the benefit of hris implementation because of the lack of funds and support from management. inadequate funding could deprive an organisation from utilising the system effectively. the cost of the implementation and maintenance of the system is a major concern that impacts its effective use (iwu & benedict, 2013). ahmer (2013) argues that an hris with less functionalities could be more expensive in terms of the cost of acquisition and maintenance. the maintenance of the system relates to the upgrades, backups and improvements of the software and hardware part of the system (lippert & swiercz, 2005). system application and products (sap) is one of, and the most famous, hris software programmes that was introduced in 1972 by three german programmers to assist companies in their daily business and human resource activities irrespective of the size of the organisation (khoualdi & basahel, 2014, p. 29). most retailers are identified to be making use of the sap system, which requires the use of functionalities known as modules. companies can buy the modules they can afford, but this cost saving can have a negative impact on the use of the system (udekwe, 2016). thakur (2016, p. 2) indicates that the proper implementation of sap assists in improving the efficiency of organisations if effectively utilised. khan, hasan and rubel (2015, p. 48) also comment that the high cost of instituting and maintaining the sap system is the major barrier in hris implementation. according to chumo (2014), the hr department is under pressure to reduce costs and at the same time improve the services they render to their employees. improved services benefit the organisation as the needs of employees include being more satisfied, employee information is secure, employees trust the hris, and as a result, their efficiency and effectiveness in the organisation improve. organisations that have an hris and do not consider information security as important are prone to malpractices which could disrupt the information in the system (mohite, 2012). information security in hriss is a critical factor that should be considered when implementing the system in an organisation (stone & dulebohn, 2013). the lack of effective information security of an hris could have a negative impact on the effective use of the system, including employees being afraid that their information could be accessed by unauthorised individuals; as a result, employees could be biased in terms of the level of trust they have in the system. trustworthiness of the hris is one of the management motivators towards the investment of resources in the system (iwu & benedict, 2013). davarpanah and mohamed (2013) argue that the trust in the system is determined by the number of components used to operate the system for effectiveness. by identifying potential employees, maintaining complete records of employees and developing the talents and skills of employees, trust in the hris can be increased (bal, bozkurt & ertemsir, 2012). trust in the hris system also relates to the involvement of both the hr and it departments in the form of teamwork and coordination on how to work together to achieve success in the usefulness of the hris (lippert & swiercz, 2005). the lack of proper teamwork and staff coordination among the users do have a negative impact on the benefits expected to be derived from the use of the hris (mahmoud, 2014). without proper coordination between the two departments, most organisations would find it difficult to build trust in their hris. bal et al. (2012) mention that effective teamwork will assist in the performance of the system and will go a long way in having an effective work environment. the performance of organisations in terms of hris usage is also based on the level of data quality (tetteh, 2014). poor data quality has a negative effect on the organisation’s productivity. incorrect data captured into the system, for example, could have a negative impact on the employees’ salaries and other benefits paid to them. the volume of data and the data capturers not understanding the hris system could lead to poor data quality in the system (chen, 2014). according to bhargava (2014), user requirements are also misunderstood and as a result, the quality of the data decreases. marufu (2014) identifies poor data quality as part of the challenges that organisations are facing. it negatively affects the level of confidence in the system and that leads to a low level of usage of the system. furthermore, hriss are regarded as a strategic tool, especially when the data capturing is accurate (slavić & berber, 2013). it also assists organisations in predicting the perfect time to employ or to down size their employment portfolio. kumar and parumasur (2013) regard a competitive advantage as one of the major reasons why organisations should invest in hriss. das and ara (2015) also comment on the effective use of an hris by the retail organisations and state that hriss can create a competitive advantage in terms of recruitment, training and development processes as well as other benefits offered by the system. hriss can benefit organisations when used effectively and efficiently. however, many factors need to be considered and managed, as the hris is a complex tool to use. the involvement of the management and the training of the users are needed to optimise the application of the hris. without good teamwork and adequate funds, the innovation possibilities and the creation of a competitive advantage for the organisation will remain a dream. research design and methodology research approach this research was conducted using a qualitative research method. an interpretive paradigm with an inductive approach was followed (saunders, lewis & thornhill, 2009). research strategy a multiple case study was used as a strategy. two retailers, an oil company and a supermarket company, were used as case studies (yin, 2003). both the retailers are leaders in their respective fields. the one retailer has many convenience retail outlets throughout south africa and africa. they have been using different hris systems for years, but moved to a sap platform 8 years ago. the other retailer has many different kinds of retail stores and distribution depots. these stores range from super macro stores to small family franchised stores. in this case, the retailer only implemented an hris (sap) 2 years ago. many retailers were afraid to participate in the study; only the two mentioned companies made their organisations available for the research. a case study strategy was used because of the need to understand in depth the challenges faced by the management (hr), it employees and users, from planning through to implementation and thereafter. research design the interviewees were non-randomly and purposively selected. twenty-one interviews were conducted across the two companies. this research focused on the it and hr departments of both companies as the units of analysis. the units of observation were 10 employees in the oil retail company and 11 employees in the supermarket retail company. data were collected by using an interview guide. the interview guide consisted of 40 semi-structured questions directly related to the research questions. the interviews were transcribed and given back to the interviewees for confirmation of the validity and reliability of the transcriptions. the transcriptions were then coded. from the coding, findings were generated and supported by direct quotes from the interviewees. the findings were categorised and themes developed from the findings (saunders et al., 2009). findings in both organisations, the implementation of an hris (sap platforms) was met with great expectations. the implementations went more or less as planned. the normal project delays did occur, but at large both organisations are satisfied and are using their hriss. an aspect that stood out was teamwork. in both organisations, teamwork is mentioned as the outstanding factor contributing to the success of the hris implementations. the result of the teamwork is that knowledge transfer took place, as an interviewee said: all the hr and it people participated in the implementation process and became part of the project team, which led to knowledge transfer. (i4) a second important factor contributing to the success of the implementation was the commitment and involvement of top management. top management in both organisations took ownership of the implementation and oversaw the projects. their commitment and enthusiasm for the projects contributed to the successful implementation of the hris. management is in support of new changes, and upgrades had to be made. the involvement of management in the implementation of the hriss has led to the advantage that management trusts the system. both organisations are of the opinion that security is at a high level and that there are processes in place to maintain and improve the security of the system. one interviewee stated that: all the users do have a username and password to log into the system, and all the hr and it personnel do have their personal computer that could be used to trace them. (i1) training is an on-going concern in both organisations. users in both organisations are not allowed to use the system before they have completed the training. interviewees feel that not enough is done to train employees and to maintain the training as new functionalities are added or changes made to the system. many interviewees are of the opinion that training needs to be increased. one interviewee in company a said: they need to push up the performance of individuals through rigorous training in order for them to feel the benefit of the system. data quality remains a challenge. this may be the result of the training gaps. an interviewee said: it is not really applicable to all employees, but the sap users are fully trained and also they sign a competency agreement. access to the system also depends on the employee role. but the accuracy of data is still an issue. (12) too many human errors occur, resulting in poor data quality and leading to employees not trusting the system. this is contrary to the trust that top management has in the system. the perceived lack of data quality also affects the analytics and reports generated from the system. in both companies, reports generated are found to be difficult to extract and are not adequately customised to suit the requirements at that particular time. this indicates a gap in terms of data analytics and report generation to the under-utilisation of the systems and preventing the companies from reaping the benefits offered by the hris. as far as upgrades are concerned, one company has a strategy to upgrade on a regular basis and to keep ahead of the tide. in the case of the second retailer, they choose to upgrade only if the upgrade is of direct benefit to the company. the result is that they do not always reap the full benefit of the system upgrades. there was no clear answer when the interviewees were asked about customer satisfaction. in the case of the one retailer, customer satisfaction with the hris is high. contrary to this, the other retailer has a low hris customer satisfaction report. the dissatisfaction is at different levels. in some cases, it is because not all the system functionalities are used; the under-utilisation and a feeling of waste were specifically mentioned. other interviewees replied that the system is not user friendly or simply cumbersome to use. an interviewee stated: i am satisfied with the system and would not recommend any other system, but i think the system could be made to be more users friendly. (i14) this is supported by a statement from another interviewee: i am not totally satisfied; i think the system is cumbersome and my main concern is that reports cannot be easily prepared and printed. things have to be done on the system in a complicated way. (i5) although there is some dissatisfaction at one retailer, most interviewees are of the opinion that the hriss do add value to their companies, and they will recommend the systems to other companies. the retailers are of the opinion that the system adds value to their organisation and that the implementation has been successful. the commitment of management, teamwork and training contributed to successful implementation. top management has trust in the systems and supports the needed upgrades of the systems. system security in both organisations is rated to be good. the main challenge facing the retailers is to use the hris optimally. the lack of continuous training may be a reason for the non-usage of all the required functionalities and poor data quality. both retailers are experiencing challenges in terms of reporting and analytics. this is important as the real value of the hris lies with analytics, reporting and data quality. there is a difference in the two retail organisations based on the usage of the functionalities of the system (table 1). the oil company makes use of 90% of the hris functionalities compared to the supermarket, which uses only 40% of the functionalities. the recruiting system, which is part of the hris, is the only system that both retailers do not use. this poses a general problem and needs to be researched in future. table 1: summary of the functionalities in the human resource information systems of both retailers. discussion hr management in retail is important as the sector is one of the largest employers in the economy of the western cape province. the hris is an important tool used to assist organisations in managing their complex hr environment. the implementation and maintenance of hriss are difficult and complex, and as a result, many companies do not reap the benefits and value the system offers. contrary to the general perception and research reports on the implementation of hriss, this study shows that under certain conditions, the implementation of hriss can be done successfully. in both of the cases investigated, the retailers reported successful implementation of the hris. when implementing an hris, according to the participants of the study, teamwork is stated as the most critical success factor in both organisations. this is supported by the findings of shaikh (2012) who states that teamwork is a critical factor that contributes to the effectiveness of an hris. kumar and parumasur (2013) argue that teamwork creates the environment where knowledge transfer happens and as a result, assists with the implementation of an hris. the involvement and commitment of top management is needed to contribute to the implementation and effective use of an hris (alalwan, 2014). the findings of the study support those of alalwan (2014). in both cases, the management of the retail organisations took ownership of the project and is committed and involved not only in the implementation phase but also with the maintenance, further development and enhancements to the system. security is an important factor that needs special attention when implementing an hris as well as during the operating and maintenance life cycle of the system. irrespective of the organisation size, hris implementation needs to have security in place to safeguard the system (mohite, 2012). both organisations have security in place to safeguard the system. usernames and passwords as an access code are created for all the users. a full audit trail is also kept when users are logged into the system. in many organisations training is prioritised as being important. training has become important as it contributes towards creating a competitive advantage for the organisation (das & ara, 2015; powell & dent-micallef, 1997). the more employees know and understand the organisation, business processes and its systems, the better the organisation will benefit from the system, and values will be added to the bottom line. in both retail organisations, training is seen as an on-going concern and a prerequisite for the use of the hris. ji, guthrie and messersmith (2014) identify rigorous training of employees as an influence to employment stability and job satisfaction. from the interviews conducted in this research, it has been found that there is a lack of rigorous training to equip the users, especially as far as new upgrades are concerned. this is a challenge for the organisations as the lack of skills and knowledge of the upgrades will affect the utilisation of the hris. the upgrades of the hris are an important strategic decision. upgrades are important as it keeps the organisation in touch with the latest technological advances. these technological advances can improve and safeguard the systems of the organisation, leading to a competitive advantage. it also ensures the organisation that the system is fully utilised. mohite (2012) proposes that other required missing applications should be added to the hris system for full utilisation of the system. laumer, maier and eckhardt (2014) agree with mohite (2012) that procedures need to be put in place in the use of hris to support business strategic goals and objectives. there are various procedures to follow as far as upgrades are concerned. organisations can follow best practices for upgrades as they are made available by the manufacturers but will be determined by the availability of funds and the required timing by the organisations. in this study, one of the retailers does regular upgrades but lacks in effective training support to the users. the other retailer only conducts upgrades based on cost and business requirements. this particular retailer also lacks an effective training programme on the use of the system, which is a concern. data quality is an important characteristic of hriss. effective data quality is regarded as a strategic tool used by organisations to make strategic decisions (slavić & berber, 2013). inaccurate data or poor data integrity of an hris leads to mistrust and inadequate usage of the system (ukandu, iwu & allen-ile, 2014). human error is one of the main factors affecting the quality of data. therefore, training and employee understanding of the importance of quality data when using the system is of fundamental importance to the organisation. poor quality of data leads to poor data analytics and reporting, which result in low trust in the system. in both organisations, data quality and analytics are challenged by poor usage of the system, which leads to poor system satisfaction within the organisations. marufu (2014) argues that poor data quality and low user satisfaction do have a negative impact on the success of the system. there is a need for improvement in the quality of data in order to utilise the system effectively and efficiently. these findings support the findings of akpaloo (2010) and ukandu et al. (2014). ukandu et al. (2014) argue that by enhancing data quality, the organisation could gain a competitive advantage using an hris. at the same time, trust and satisfaction levels of employees in and with the use of the hris will increase. confidence and trust in the hris is an important factor when utilising the system. the lower the trust in the system, the less effective is the use of the system. according to iwu and benedict (2013), trust and confidence in the use of hriss by management is important because the higher the trust, the higher will the investments be that is made by management to support the system. as far as the two retailers are concerned, management and employees have a high level of confidence and trust in the system. unfortunately, there are some smaller issues within the system threatening the trust relationship between management, employees and the utilisation of the system. when evaluating these issues, it all goes back to data quality and training. the hris usage is characterised by the resources and efficiency of the administrators (mohite, 2012). the two retail organisations have identified that the system is not fully utilised because not all of the required functionalities are utilised, which negatively affects the effectiveness of the system. although the two organisations are not operating within the same sector of the retail industry, the lack of optimal use of the system is a common threat to both retailers. this is caused by the lack of skilled employees to operate the system and human errors that create poor data quality in the system. the under-utilisation of the systems by both organisations is rather interesting as most of the findings are very positive. many of the critical areas are adhered to, but when asked about the usage of the system, both companies responded negatively. the two main reasons for this phenomenon seem to be the poor data quality and lack of effective training. both these issues are not system problems but rather human problems. based on the difference in the utilisation of the hris, it could be seen in table 1 that one of the retailers is making use of 9 out of 10 hris functionalities as compared to the other retailer which makes use of only 4 out of the 10 functionalities. according to iwu and benedict (2013) as well as mukherjee, bhattacharyya and bera (2014), the use of the required hris functionalities assists in having an accurate hris recruiting system. further research needs to be conducted on the impact of the utilisation of the hris in the two organisations. despite the under-utilisation of the system, the employees and other stakeholders seem to be satisfied with the hris. they all recognise that the system adds value to the employees, management and organisation at large. nawaz and gomes (2014) as well as vărzaru and albu (2014) indicate that satisfaction of the system is an important indicator of the effectiveness of the system. although the effectiveness level of the systems is rated as good by both organisations, some challenges were raised by employees. the complexity of the system, the lack of customisation and poor functionalities are causing frustration and some discomfort at certain levels within the organisations. the reasons for these challenges need further research in the sector. it is proposed that for successful implementation of hriss and gaining optimal benefits from the system, retail organisations could follow the proposed guidelines: create a steering committee to guide the implementation process determine the goals and objectives of the hris get management involved and committed to the implementation and maintenance of the hris prioritise the implementation of the hris to create its importance in the mind of the employees (change management) make use of all the required functionalities for benefit creation customise some of its functionalities to eliminate difficulties in operation conduct a rigorous training programme to equip the users of the system to fully use the system. conclusion the hris is an important strategic tool for organisations’ growth and productivity. the two retailers that formed the basis of the study emphasise the advantage of using an hris. although many factors such as management commitment and support, good teamwork and security contributed to the successful implementation of the system, there are also some concerns, especially as far as system usage is concerned. the lack of continuous training, lack of regular upgrades, not making use of all the required system functionalities and poor data quality are creating challenges to the retail organisations. these challenges could result in low employee and management satisfaction, preventing the organisation from reaping the benefits and value offered by the system to the retail organisations. it is recommended that a training strategy supporting the changes, as well as maintenance of the system, be put in place. furthermore, the training should develop a good user understanding of the system as a whole, including processes, data quality and the role that users play when operating the system. it is further recommended that organisations simplify and modify some of the hris applications in order to eliminate complexity and complications when using the system. added to the training, procedures of regular upgrades need to be created. with the pace of changes in the retail industry, no organisation can afford to fall behind with the latest technology. this will result in the organisation losing its competitive advantage and market place. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.c.d.l.h. is the supervisor for e.u.’s master’s thesis. e.u. is a master’s student and successfully completed his master’s degree. references ahmer, z. (2013). adoption of human resource information systems innovation in pakistani organisations. journal of quality and technology management, ix(ii), 25–50. akpaloo, s. (2010). the implementation of human resource information systems: the case of ghana commercial bank limited. tesano, ghana: university of cape coast. alalwan, j.a. (2014). recruiters’ intention to adopt social information systems. in twentieth americas conference on information systems, savannah, georgia, usa, 07–10 august (pp. 1–10). arora, k. (2013). importance of hris: a critical study on service sector. global journal of management and business studies, 3(9), 971–976. bal, y., bozkurt, s., & ertemsir, e. (2012). the importance of using human resources information systems (hris) and a research on determining the success of hris. in management knowledge and learning international conference, celje, slovenia (pp. 53–62). ball, k.s. (2001). the use of human resource information systems: a survey. personnel review, 30(6), 677–693. https://doi.org/10.1108/eum0000000005979 bhargava, r. (2014). role of human resource information system in functional integration of human resource management case study research. journal of exclusive management science, 3(6), 1–7. chen, w. (2014). a framework for human resource information systems based on data streams. international journal of hybrid information technology, 7(3), 177–186. https://doi.org/10.14257/ijhit.2014.7.3.18 chitere, w.k., & gachunga, h. (2013). the effect of adopting strategic human resource management: a case study of university of nairobi. international journal of social sciences and entrepreneurship, 1(5), 308–321. chumo, m.c. (2014). relationship between human resource information systems and staff development among international non-governmental organisations in nairobi, kenya. nairobi, kenya: university of nairobi. das, k.k., & ara, a. (2015). impact of human resource information systems on organisational performance: an empirical study. splint international journal of professionals, 2(1), 47–64. davarpanah, a., & mohamed, n. (2013). human resource information systems (hris) success factors in a public higher education institution context. in 3rd international conference on research and innovation in information systems (icriis’13), kuala lumpur, malaysia, 27–28 november (pp. 79–84). hossain, a. (2014). an overview on effective employee training systems of private sector commercial banks in bangladesh. international journal of ethics in social sciences, 2(1), 33–44. iwu, c., & benedict, h. (2013). economic recession and investment on human resource information systems (hris): perspectives on some south african firms. journal of management development, 32(4), 404–418. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621711311326383 ji, y., guthrie, j.p., & messersmith, j.g. (2014). the tortoise and the hare: the impact of employment instability on firm performance. human resource management journal, 24(4), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12052 kavanagh, m.j., gueutal, h.g., & tannenbaum, s. (1990). the human resource information system. boston, ma: pus-kent. khan, a.r., hasan, n., & rubel, m. (2015). factors affecting organisations adopting human resource information systems: a study in bangladesh. iosr journal of business and management ver ii, 17(11), 45–54. retrieved january 25, 2016, from http://www.iosrjournals.org khoualdi, k., & basahel, a. (2014). the impact of implementing sap system on human resource management: application to saudi electricity company. international journal of business and management, 9(12), 28–34. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v9n12p28 kinanaga, r.o. (2013). information technology adoption determinants in improving human resource function in kenyan public universities. juja, kenya: jomo kenyatta university of agriculture and technology. kumar, n.a., & parumasur, s.b. (2013). managerial perceptions of the impact of hris on organisational efficiency. journal of economics and behavioral studies, 5(12), 861–875. laumer, s., maier, c., & eckhardt, a. (2014). the impact of human resources information systems and business process management implementations on recruiting process performance: a case study. in twentieth americas conference on information systems, savannah, ga, usa, 7–10 august (pp. 1–12). lippert, s.k., & swiercz, p.m. (2005). human resource information systems (hris) and technology trust. journal of information science, 31(5), 340–353. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551505055399 mahmoud, m. (2014). a review of human resource information systems (hris) in organisations. siu journal of management, 4(1), 148–181. marufu, d.g. (2014). human resource information system and decision making in the ministry of health. nairobi, kenya: university of nairobi. mohite, b.j. (2012). impact of managing personnel records in an electronic environment (hris) on business organisations and related problems. in ninth aims international conference on management, aims international, pune, india, 1–4 january (pp. 645–651). mukherjee, a.n., bhattacharyya, s., & bera, r. (2014). role of information technology in human resource management of sme: a study on the use of applicant tracking system. ibmrd’s journal of management & research, 3(1), 1–22. nalla, b., & varalaxmi, p. (2014). human resource management practices in organised retailing – a study of select retailers. international journal of business and administration research review, 1(2347), 63–74. naris, s.n. (2009). the effectiveness of an human resource code: staff development and training at the polytechnic of namibia (pon). cape town, south africa: cape peninsula university of technology. nawaz, m.n., & gomes, a.m. (2014). to assess the level of employee satisfaction on hris usage in select software companies in bangalore karnataka, india. elixir – human resource management, 66, 20438–20441. ngai, e.w.t., & wat, f.k.t. (2006). human resource information systems: a review and empirical analysis. personnel review, 35(3), 297–314. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480610656702 powell, t.c., & dent-micallef, a. (1997). information technology as competitive advantage: the role of human, business, and technology resources. strategic management journal, 18(5), 375–405. retrieved july 25, 2016, from http://thomaspowell.co.uk/article_pdfs/it_as_ca.pdf sarker, a.r. (2014). increasing employee job satisfaction as well as organisational performance through effective hrm practices in private commercial banking sector of bangladesh. journal of economics and sustainable development, 5(10), 157–165. saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2009). understanding research philosophies and approaches limited edition: research methods for business students (5th ed.). london: pitman. shaikh, s. (2012). human resource information system (hris) designing needs for business application. zenith international journal of business economics & management research, 2(1), 256–264. slavić, a., & berber, n. (2013). the role of information systems in human resources. in iii international symposium engineering management and competitiveness (emc 2013), emc, zrenjanin, serbia, 21–22 june (pp. 434–439). sorescu, a., frambach, r.t., singh, j., rangaswamy, a., & bridges, c. (2011). innovations in retail business models. journal of retailing, 87, s3–s16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2011.04.005 stone, d.l., & dulebohn, j.h. (2013). emerging issues in theory and research on electronic human resource management (ehrm). human resource management review, 23(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2012.06.001 tetteh, g.k. (2014). state-of-the-art: research theoretical framework of information systems implementation research in the health sector in sub-saharan africa. journal of health informatics in developing countries, 8(2), 42–66. thakur, a. (2016). enterprise resource planning (erp) implementation in technical educational institutes: prospects and challenges. international journal of multifaceted and multilingual studies, 3(2), 1–5. udekwe, e. (2016). the impact of human resources information systems in selected retail outlets in western cape. cape town, south africa: cape peninsula university of technology. ukandu, e.n., iwu, c.g., & allen-lle, c.o.k. (2014). influence of e-hrm in decision making in selected tertiary institutions in south africa. problems and perspectives in management, 12(4), 397–405. vărzaru, d.c., & albu, c.c. (2014). contributions of social information systems to value added growth and organisational performance. jel classification, 2(42), 5–16. yin, r.k. (2003). case study research: design and methods (applied social research methods) (3rd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. abstract introduction reasons for low retention of women chartered accountants theoretical framework: job demands-resources model method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) stella ribeiro department of accountancy, university of johannesburg, south africa anita bosch department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa jurgen becker department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa citation ribeiro, s., bosch, a., & becker, j. (2016). retention of women accountants: the interaction of job demands and job resources. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a759. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.759 note: this paper is an extension of reporting on the public reports titled: women in the workplace research report: keeping south africa’s female chartered accountants in public practice. original research retention of women accountants: the interaction of job demands and job resources stella ribeiro, anita bosch, jurgen becker received: 02 oct. 2015; accepted: 27 jan. 2016; published: 26 may 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: most ceos in south africa are chartered accountants (cas). retaining women cas might therefore lead to an increase in women in leadership. the job demands-resources model presents a framework to investigate organisational job-related factors that promote or deter voluntary turnover of women cas. research purpose: the primary objective was to investigate which organisational factors promote or reduce the risk of turnover intentions for south african women cas. the secondary objective was to investigate the moderating potential of job resources on the relationship between job demands and turnover intentions. motivation for the study: there is a fair amount of research on the problems associated with the retention of women cas in public practice but very little is known about how those problems interact with each other, and whether there are factors that could buffer them. research design, approach, and method: the study consisted of a sample (n = 851) of women cas in public practice firms nationally in south africa. we used structural equation modelling together with moderated regression analysis. main findings: job demands promote turnover intentions, whereas job resources have a negative effect on turnover intentions. counter-intuitively a negative direct effect was found between job insecurity and turnover intentions. statistical support was found for the moderating role of all job resources, except financial advancement, on the relationship between work–family conflict and turnover intentions; and growth opportunities, on the relationship between job insecurity and turnover intentions. practical/managerial implications: no job resource measured could buffer the impact of job overload on turnover intentions. contribution: this is the first study to investigate factors that may retain women cas in public practice audit, tax, and advisory firms (big four accountancy firms) using the jd-r model. few studies have investigated the buffering effect of job resources on the relationship between job demands and turnover intentions in general. introduction significant changes in the global economic and social environment with underpinning legislation have resulted in public practice firms having to consider strategic ways to ensure the retention of women accountants. international research has shown for decades that more women graduates are entering the accountancy profession each year than men (crosley, 2006; gold, 2008a; meredith & french, 1996). however, two outcomes remain of concern. firstly, a small percentage of women chartered accountants (cas) remain employed in large public practice firms after completion of their trainee apprenticeships. an attrition rate of 56% immediately after completion of the training period is reported (south african institute of chartered accountants [saica], 2009). secondly, which is perhaps a knock-on effect of the first outcome, the percentage of women partners in accountancy public practice firms remains low (crosley, 2006; gold, 2008a, 2008b; kornberger, justesen & mouritsen, 2011). globally, a large amount of research has been conducted on the progression of the careers of women cas, the obstacles they face, the reasons for their lack of progression into management positions, as well as their reasons for opting out of public practice. most of the studies were conducted between the 1990s and late 2000s, and emerged primarily from the usa and the uk (refer to studies of cabrera, 2007; collins, 1993; crosley, 2006; gold, 2008a; gold, 2008b; haynes, 2008; johnson, lowe & reckers, 2008; maitland, 2000; meredith & french, 1996), as well as a south african study by sadler (1989), and more recent studies on syrian women accountants (kamla, 2012) and mexican women accountants (ruiz castro, 2012). kornberger, carter and ross-smith (2010) highlight that women are understudied in accounting and that interdisciplinary studies are needed to aid our understanding of the gender inequality phenomenon. focusing more research efforts on the reasons why women cas are not retained in public practice firms will only tell us more about the problems, but not provide information on how those problems interact with each other, and whether there are factors that could buffer these problems. over the past three decades, various studies have endorsed the importance of job characteristics for employee well-being, work satisfaction, and performance (bakker, van veldhoven & xanthopoulou, 2010; deci & ryan, 1985; mark & smith, 2008). each occupation, such as that of accountants, has its own job characteristics, which can be broadly classified as either job demands or job resources (bakker & derks, 2010; demerouti, bakker, de jonge, janssen & schaufeli, 2001a). the job demands-resources (jd-r) model presents a framework that can be used to investigate organisational factors that promote or deter voluntary turnover of women cas. the jd-r model was first introduced in 2001 (demerouti, bakker, nachreiner & schaufeli, 2001b), and has been applied in studies across various professions as a predictor of employee well-being (bakker, demerouti & schaufeli, 2003a; bakker, demerouti & verbeke, 2004; prieto, soria, martinez & schaufeli, 2008; rothmann, barkhuizen & tytherleigh, 2008; rothmann & joubert, 2007; schaufeli & bakker, 2004; van den berg, manias & burger, 2008; wiese, rothmann & storm, 2003), and a predictor of work identity, as well as an indicator of employee turnover intentions (bester, roodt & bosch, 2012; de braine & roodt, 2011). to the purpose of more deeply understanding the interactions of demands and resources that have an impact on the work of women accountants, minnotte’s (2016, p. 416) application of the jd-r model found that ‘results for mothers indicated that job resources and demands only mattered when the interactions between them were considered’. therefore this study aimed to understand the job demands and job resources that contribute to turnover intentions often resulting in the low retention rates of women cas and women trainee cas in south african public practice audit, tax, and advisory firms. the primary objective of the study was to investigate, through the use of the jd-r model, which factors promote or reduce the risk of turnover intentions for south african women cas. the secondary objective of the study was to investigate the moderating potential of job resources on the relationship between job demands and turnover intentions. the study makes contributions in the following three ways: (1) firstly, this is the first study to investigate the impact of job demands and job resources on the turnover intentions of south african women cas in public practice audit, tax, and advisory firms; (2) secondly, the study will expand on which job demands and job resources correlate with turnover intentions for women accountants; and (3) lastly, few studies have investigated the buffering effect of job resources on the relationship between job demands and turnover intentions in general, and specifically with reference to women cas working in public practice firms. we commence with an overview of literature on the reasons for the low retention of women cas where after we discuss the jd-r model with associated propositions. the method and results sections are followed by a discussion of the salient findings of our study. reasons for low retention of women chartered accountants many studies attribute the high turnover rate of women accountants to the male-dominated culture of professions such as accounting which, amongst others, does not allow for life cycle needs such as child bearing years, with resultant childcare (barker & monks, 1998; bell, 2009; meredith & french, 1996). the culture of accounting firms continues to resemble that of men (barker & monks, 1998; bosch, ribeiro & becker, 2012). the ideal worker is therefore considered to be a man that is available 24/7, and society’s responsibility regarding children and other care roles are considered activities that occur beyond the boundaries of organisations (lewis & humbert, 2010). parental leave or flexible work hours are often seen as hindrances to productivity and steady workflow. although conclusive research suggests that the lack of women’s representation in public practice firms cannot be attributed to lack of commitment or ability (e.g. barker & monks, 1998; bell, 2009), women who have chosen to have children do seem to face care roles that differ greatly from those of their male counterparts. work–family conflict therefore remains an area that is associated with the low retention of women accountants (dambrin & lambert, 2008). when considering non-essentialist views of women, other reasons that have been cited as possible causes for the low representation and, by implication, the high turnover of women accountants, include job overload and job insecurity. job-related tension such as job overload and environmental stressors (collins, 1993) contribute negatively to the retention of women accountants. the accounting profession is known for its long working hours, high volumes of work, and pressing deadlines (gammie, gammie, matson & duncan, 2007; ruiz castro, 2012). ‘research has also shown that the prevalence of psychological distress is higher in those employees who are required to work more than 60 h per week (hilton, 2008), which is not uncommon for accountants in public practice’ (bosch et al., 2012, p. 22). a 1998 study of irish cas revealed that most cas in that sample were working 50–60 h per week, and that 82% of women in that study thought that success in an accountancy career meant working very long hours (barker & monks, 1998). the commoditisation of time and global economic turbulence has led to employment trends such as layoffs, and increased temporary working arrangements which contribute to pronounced levels of job insecurity amongst accountants (sweeny & quirin, 2009). in this climate, costing and budgetary control mechanisms, such as the use of unit labour costs, have been linked to a disproportionate increase in women in temporary positions, and their remuneration in this capacity is considerably lower than that of men (armstrong, 2000). other reasons cited for the low retention of women accountants relate to a lack of growth and development opportunities. some of these are mentorship and formal talent management (gold, 2008b; sadler, 1989); a lack of a sense of belonging to an organisation (maitland, 2000; sadler, 1989), which is also underscored by men and women accountants receiving differing levels of social support from their managers (windsor & auyeung, 2006); women’s lack of networking skills when compared to men (crosley, 2006); a lack of opportunity for advancement (barker & monks, 1998; cabrera, 2007); and unequal remuneration and benefits (barker & monks, 1998). the importance of team climate in countering the difficulties of diversity in teams, including gender diversity, is yet to be laid to rest, as studies reflect contradictory results (tekleab & quigley, 2014). however, a positive team climate assists with the retention of women accountants. the external prestige of an accountancy organisation is furthermore said to retain both women and men through the promise of career growth opportunities (nouri & parker, 2013). the above cited reasons can be broadly categorised into either job demands or job resources, depending on how public practice firms structure and manipulate supportive and detractive characteristics of an accountant’s job. in the current study three job demands and five job resources, as identified in the literature above, were deemed as critical to investigate voluntary turnover in the ca profession. the job demands included in the study are work–family conflict, job overload, and job insecurity. the job resources used in this study are: growth opportunities (variety, opportunities to learn, and job independence), social support (relationships with supervisors and colleagues), advancement (remuneration, career possibilities, and training opportunities), perceived organisational external prestige (image and reputation of a firm), and team climate (collaboration and trust in a team). in the following section, the jd-r model is described, and the relationships are explained. theoretical framework: job demands-resources model the jd-r model expands the job demands control model by underscoring the motivational role of job resources as antecedents to salutogenic work outcomes (e.g. work engagement and commitment) and buffering moderators in the job stress–strain process (kain & jex, 2010; schaufeli & bakker, 2003; schaufeli & salanova, 2007). the health impairment process is based on the notion that excessive job demands exhaust employees mentally and physically (demerouti et al., 2001b; hakanen & roodt, 2010). furthermore, excessive job demands and health problems lead to absenteeism (bakker, demerouti, taris, schaufeli & schreurs, 2003b). job demands refer to ‘physical, social, or organisational aspects of a job that require sustained physical and/or psychological effort on the part of the employee’ (bakker et al., 2004, p. 86; schaufeli & bakker, 2004). chartered accountants are often faced with demands for the delivery of work that is accurate and complex under high timeand volume pressure. other demands include emotional strain, role ambiguity, lack of feedback, unfavourable working conditions and environments, and a lack of support from supervisors and colleagues (bakker & demerouti, 2007; schaufeli & bakker, 2004). job resources are those ‘physical, psychological, social, or organisational aspects of a job that (a) reduce job demands and the associated physiological and psychological costs; (b) are functional in achieving work goals; and (c) stimulate personal growth, learning, and development’ (bakker & demerouti, 2007, p. 312). turnover intentions are defined as the thought of quitting, the intention of searching for another job, and the ‘employee’s subjective assessment that they will leave their current occupation in the near future’ (carmeli & gefen, 2005, p. 70). job resources can be located at an ‘organisational level (pay, opportunity, and security), an interpersonal level (team climate, supervisor support), an organisation of work level (role clarity and participation in decision-making), and at task level (skill variety, task significance, autonomy, and feedback)’ (bakker & demerouti, 2007; demerouti & bakker, 2011, p. 4). as with job demands, women cas have access to varying levels and types of job resources in public practice firms. ‘job resources play an intrinsic motivational role if they foster growth, learning, and development, or an extrinsic motivational role if they assist in achieving work goals’ (schaufeli & bakker, 2004, p. 298). the literature suggests strong positive correlations between job resources and engagement. similarly, studies have found that job resources such as coaching, feedback, and support predict dedication and commitment, which are strongly negatively correlated to turnover intentions (bakker et al., 2003a; bakker & demerouti, 2007). it has also been found that ‘engagement mediates the relationship between job resources and turnover intentions’ (schaufeli & bakker, 2004, p. 299). interaction of job demands and resources despite the voluminous support found for the strong main effects of job demands and job resources on key wellness outcomes, relatively little research has been conducted on the moderating potential of job resources on the stress–strain sequence. contributions by xanthopoulou, bakker, demerouti and schaufeli (2009) suggest that job resources can play a buffering role in the prevention of strain. it stands to reason then that job resources could moderate the relationship between job demands and turnover intentions. for example, feeling valued at work may reduce demands such as job overload. by the same token, good communication with employees and constructive feedback improve effectiveness (bakker & demerouti, 2007). therefore, we would expect job resources to buffer the adverse impact of job demands on turnover intentions. the above leads us to propose a complex theoretical model predicting turnover intentions of women cas in public practice, based on the relationship between the constructs of the jd-r model as illustrated in figure 1. the three job demands of job overload, work–family conflict, and job insecurity are predicted to promote higher levels of turnover intentions. the job resources of growth opportunities, social support, advancement, organisational prestige, and team climate are expected to have negative associations with turnover intentions. moreover, job resources (combined and individually) are expected to buffer the relationship between job demands and turnover intentions. figure 1: theoretical model on the impact of job demands and resources on turnover intentions of women chartered accountants. the following section explains the research design that was used to empirically operationalise and test the proposed theoretical model. method procedure and participants the saica database was utilised to contact trainee (those women graduate cas in apprenticeships) and qualified women cas across south africa to participate in the research project. in total 7228 questionnaires were distributed: 1989 to qualified women cas, and 5239 to women trainee cas in south african public practice firms. of this sample, 851 responses were returned, resulting in a 12% response rate. survey fatigue as well as work pressure may have accounted for the response rate. frequency statistics revealed that, of the 851 responses, 281 women or 33% were qualified cas who held management or partnership positions, and 566 respondents indicated that they were trainee cas in the process of meeting the saica qualification requirements with the vast majority having completed a certificate of theory in accounting along with their bachelor’s degrees. with regard to race, as stated according to the south african government’s classification system, 15% were asian or indian, 21% black african, 6% mixed race (individuals of mixed race), and 56% white. as would be expected, qualified cas were older, with longer tenure in public practice firms, and had more dependants, compared to trainee cas. measures building on demerouti et al.’s (2001b) conceptualisation of the jd-r model, jackson and rothmann (2005) developed the job demands-resources scale (jdrs). the scale consists of 48 items: operationalising workload, pace, emotional load, variety in work, opportunities to learn, communicating, remuneration, and relationships with colleagues and supervisors, as well as career possibilities. responses are rated on a four-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (never) to 4 (always). rothmann, mostert and strydom (2006) found support for the following five factors of the jdrs in the south african context: growth opportunities (7 items), organisational support (18 items), advancement (6 items), job overload (8 items), and job insecurity (3 items). rothmann et al. (2006) found the following reliabilities for the factors growth opportunities – α = 0.86, organisational support – α = 0.92, advancement – α = 0.83, job overload – α = 0.76, and job insecurity – α = 0.89. de braine and roodt (2011) argued for a more comprehensive taxonomy, and supplemented the model of rothmann et al. (2006) with the inclusion of perceived external prestige (5 items), team climate (6 items), and work–family conflict (5 items). riordan, gatewood and bill (1997) conceptualised a five-item scale of perceived prestige, measured with a seven-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (not good at all) to 7 (extremely good). the cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the scale (α = 0.90) was indicative of a reliable measure. an adapted version of klivimaki and elovaino’s (1999) six-item scale was utilised to measure team climate. responses were rated on a seven-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (not very well at all) to 7 (very well). the internal consistency reported for this scale was 0.89. work–family conflict was measured with a work–family conflict scale that was adapted from that of netemeyer, boles, and mcmurrian (1996). responses were rated on a seven-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (never) to 7 (always). the internal consistency reported for the netemeyer, boles and mcmurrian (1996) scale was 0.96. roodt’s (2004) turnover intention scale was used to measure turnover intentions. responses on the six-item scale are quantified by means of a seven-point likert scale. the scale has been found to demonstrate acceptable internal consistency reliability (α = 0.81, m = 25.21, sd = 8.10). statistical analysis structural equation modelling (sem) with mplus (version 6, muthén & muthén, 2010) was used. the means and covariance structures were analysed with the robust maximum likelihood estimator, because of the non-normality of the manifest variables. confirmatory factor analyses identified some problematic items, which were removed from the scales to reduce the amount of error variance. the fit of the models was assessed with the satorra–bentler chi-square (χ2), the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea), the comparative fit index (cfi), and the tucker-lewis index (tli). in the second phase of analysis, the moderating (i.e. buffer) effect of job resources (growth opportunities, social support, advancement, prestige, and team climate) on the relationship between job demands (work–family conflict, job overload, and job insecurity) and turnover intentions was investigated with moderated regression analysis (cohen, cohen, west & aiken, 2003). in this study we used a combination of sem (to test direct relationships) and regression analysis (to test interaction effects). a combination of the two methods strengthens the research design. the moderating potential of each of the five job resources on the relationship between job demands and turnover intentions was assessed across three levels of job resources (work–family conflict, job overload, and job insecurity) by means of a hierarchical multiple regression approach (aguinis, beaty, boik & pierce, 2005; cohen et al., 2003). substantive propositions were empirically corroborated when the direction, magnitude, and statistical significance of path coefficients were congruent with a priori theorising. results in the first part of the results section, the direct effects of job demands and job resources on turnover intentions were investigated using a covariance modelling approach. the second part of the section investigates the moderating role of job resources in buffering the adverse impact of job demands on turnover intentions. descriptive statistics the correlations and internal consistency between the variables included in the study are summarised in table 1. as expected, moderately strong positive correlations were reported between the job demands indicators and turnover intentions (except job insecurity), whereas negative correlations were found between job resources and turnover intentions. all the internal consistencies of the scales were acceptable, because all reported cronbach alphas were well above 0.70 (nunnally, 1978). table 1: correlations between the study variables and internal consistencies (cronbach’s coefficient alphas on the diagonal). assessment and measurement models in total, nine confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) models were specified for each individual scale included in the structural model. the cfa models were analysed to establish the measurement quality of the scales prior to incorporating them into the structural model. as was the case with the exporatory factor analysis (efa) and item analyses, item dq2r was removed because of low factor loading (λ = 0.15). the overall fit of the refined exogenous measurement model was satisfactory (s-b χ2 = 1955.55, df = 602, p < 0.05; rmsea = 0.060, p < 0.05, cfi: 0.882; tli: 0.870; srmr: 0.069) and deemed appropriate for constructing the proposed structural model. although the cfi and tli values did not conform to the strict guidelines advocated by hu and bentler (1999), the deviation was marginal. thus, considering the fit indices and model parameters collectively, the fit of the exogenous measurement model to the data can be described as adequate. because only turnover intentions constituted the endogenous measurement model, interpreting the adequacy of the model was considerably simpler. the overall fit of the refined endogenous measurement model was satisfactory (s-b χ2 = 46.225, df = 9, p < 0.05; rmsea = 0.082, p < 0.05, cfi: 0.960; tli: 0.943; srmr: 0.035). assessment of the structural model model fit residuals provide important information regarding overall model fit (jöreskog & sörbom, 1996; kelloway, 1998). the frequency distributions of the standardised residuals followed a marginally negatively skewed distribution, which approximated a normal distribution. goodness-of-fit indices pertaining to the balanced model of work wellness are reported in table 2. table 2: goodness-of-fit statistics for the structural model. in general, the results reported in table 2 suggest that the proposed structural model mapping various job demands and job resources on turnover intentions provides a reasonable account of the empirical data. most of the fit indices are within the normative ranges, with the exception of the cfi and til, which are marginally lower than the normative cut-off value of 0.90 (hair, black, babin, anderson & tatham, 2006). kline (2005) argues that model fit should also be evaluated on a more molecular level by looking at specific model parameters. the next section will investigate the empirical merits of the proposed model by investigating the proposed relationships between variables constituting the model. model parameters structural regression parameters pertaining to the proposed structural model are presented in table 3. in line with initial theorising, turnover intentions were negatively related to growth opportunities (β = -0.451; p < 0.001) and team climate (β = -0.276; p < 0.001). contrary to initial theorising, social support, advancement, and prestige did not seem to be significant predictors of turnover intentions. table 3: direct effects of job demand and job re-sources on turnover inten-tions (n = 851). with regard to job demands, statistically significant positive relationships were found between turnover intentions and job overload (β = 0.200; p < 0.001), and turnover intentions and work–family conflict (β = -0.158; p < 0.001). these findings support the initial theorising, which predicted that job demands are likely to advance turnover intentions. no statistical support was found for the proposed relationship between turnover intentions and job insecurity. examination of the goodness-of-fit indices, residuals, and model parameters indicated that the proposed theoretical model reproduced the covariances in the observed covariance with acceptable, albeit not satisfactory, levels of precision. in total, 50% of the a priori propositions were confirmed in the sem analysis. this may be regarded as strong support that job demands promote turnover intentions, whereas job resources counter turnover intentions. however, of further interest would be to examine if job resources buffer the adverse impact of job demands on turnover intentions. thus, the secondary research objective of the current study will be investigated in more detail in the subsequent section. moderated regression analysis a hierarchical multiple regression approach was utilised, where the main effects constituting the interaction effect were entered in step 1, and the main effects plus interaction effect were entered in step 2. results of the moderated regression analysis are presented in table 4. table 4: results of the moderated regression analysis: interactions between job resources and job demands in predicting turnover intentions (n = 851). the pattern of significant results in table 4 provides further support for the a priori propositions insofar as job resources consistently report a negative relationship with turnover intentions, whereas job demands reported a positive relationship with turnover intentions. however, contrary to expectations, a negative relationship was found between job insecurity and turnover intentions. similar results were found in the sem analysis, although the relationship was not statistically significant. turning to the interaction effects, not one of the five job resources significantly moderated the relationship between overload and turnover intentions. however, statistical support was found for the moderating (i.e. buffering) role of all job resources, except advancement, on the relationship between work–family conflict and turnover intentions. similar results were found with regard to the buffering role of job resources on the relationship between job insecurity and turnover intentions. in the latter case, only growth opportunities failed to explain the additional variance in turnover intentions, when the constituent main effects were taken into consideration. effect sizes for the statistically significant interaction effects were quite small, ranging between 0.4% and 1.6%. taken together, statistical support was found for 8 of the 15 (54%) interaction terms, providing empirical support for the moderating potential of job resources in the stress–strain sequence for south african women cas in public practice firms. discussion the present study shows that job demands promote turnover intentions, whereas job resources combat turnover intentions of women working in the accountancy profession in south african public practice firms. in general, the pattern of results between the five job resources, three job demands, and turnover intentions provided support for the aforementioned thesis. this finding is important for public practice managers as it provides a theoretical framework with which they can view the jobs of women accountants. utilising the jd-r model, managers may be able to manipulate job characteristics, instead of person-specific characteristics, to reduce health impairment and to motivate women employees, thereby reducing turnover intentions. there was, however, a negative direct effect between job insecurity and turnover intentions in the regression analysis. based on national employment expectations data, dickerson and green (2012) indicate that, for an individual, the fear of losing one’s job (job insecurity) is usually overestimated and the reality of replacing a job underestimated. vast research support is found for the positive relationship between job insecurity and voluntary turnover, especially for highly qualified workers with rare skills (stedham & mitchell, 1996; sverke, hellgren & naswall, 2002; vinokur-kaplan, jayaratne & chess, 1994). ‘however, other researchers (e.g. borg & elizur, 1992; repenning, 2000; van vuuren, klandermans, jacobson & hartley, 1991) have argued that job insecurity might have the opposite effect on performance and withdrawal behaviour’ (konig & staufenbiel, 2010, p. 101). the fear of losing one’s job may motivate vulnerable employees to actively cope with the threat by increasing visibility and work output. in a cross-cultural study in israel and the netherlands, van vuuren et al. (1991) asked more than 500 employees about perceived safeguards against involuntary job loss. the vast majority of participants in both countries believed that high personal output protected them best against involuntary turnover. these findings are congruent with stress theory, where job insecurity may be viewed as a challenge stressor, as opposed to a hindrance stressor, that triggers active problem-solving as a coping strategy (cavanaugh, boswell, roehling & boudreau, 2000). in the case of south african women cas, who have a skill-set that is in high demand and who are presently underrepresented in the workplace, the finding that turnover intentions do not increase when job insecurity increases could be explained by the challenge stressor theory. in our study 56% of the survey respondents were white women who might feel insecure about finding alternative job opportunities because of legislation that aims to reconfigure racial representation in the workplace (south africa, 1998). furthermore, women and other marginalised groups would react to stereotype threat, where women cas are in the minority in public practice firms, the stereotype that being an accountant is ‘not appropriate female behaviour’ (anderson-gough, grey & robson, 2005, p. 471) is constantly invoked (hoyt, johnson, murphy & skinnell, 2010). once the stereotype threat is invoked, women will experience job insecurity and start exhibiting additional effort when measured against men to ensure continued employment and relevance in the team or firm. in addition, the study found support for the buffering proposition of job resources in the stress-turnover perceptions sequence. the moderated regression analysis suggested that 8 of the 15 interaction effects were statistically significant. thus, different combinations of job demands and job resources explained significant amounts of variance in turnover intentions. these findings are consistent with previous research on the buffer proposition of the jd-r model, indicating that several job resources can mitigate the adverse impact of job demands on health and turnover intentions (bakker et al., 2003a). the results suggest that the model is equally effective in predicting turnover intentions amongst the sample of women accountants employed in south african public practice firms. results from the study support bakker and demerouti (2007) theory that not all job resources are equally effective in combating the adverse consequences of job demands. in the current study we see that none of the five job resources were effective in buffering the adverse impact of job overload on turnover intentions. these results may suggest that the impact of job overload on turnover intentions is so pervasive and strenuous amongst women accountants working in public practice in south africa that no single job resource measured (i.e. growth opportunities, social support, advancement, perceived external prestige, and team climate) was able to buffer its impact. high work volumes and long hours spent working and travelling to out-of-town assignments are part and parcel of a south african accountant’s job (sadler, 1989) which may contribute negatively to the retention of women accountants, given that women carry the bulk of care and household tasks in addition to work demands. according to stress theory, job overload can thus be regarded as a hindrance stressor which impairs performance and promotes turnover intentions of women cas in public practice firms. the impact of work–family conflict is buffered by growth opportunities, social support, perceived external organisational prestige, and a positive team climate. financial advancement which includes career possibilities, did not buffer the impact of work–family conflict on turnover intentions. this finding suggests that the adage of paying people inflated salaries would not necessarily ensure that women cas are retained by public practice firms. cas already earn high salaries and therefore women would not necessarily seek additional financial reward. instead the job resources that do buffer work–family conflict are all intangible. there has recently been a growing trend within organisations to focus on the importance of the so-called ‘human factors’, and many women cas working in public practice firms may benefit more from organisational cultures that are accommodating of difference (bakker & derks, 2010; snyder & lopez, 2002; strümpfer, 1990, 2003) instead of increased financial advancement. south african women cas are therefore indicating that public practice firms should exert careful planning when considering their employee management practices rather than merely just ‘throwing money at the problem’. in addition, research suggests that the incentives for organisations to promote women may be reduced if they do not have access to leadership roles early on in their careers (bell, 2009). promoting women early on in their careers may also aid in buffering work–family conflict as younger professional women often may not experience intense work–family conflict and could be in more senior roles by the time that the conflict starts setting in for them. arguably the most innovative theoretical contribution made by this study is the distinction between challenging and hindrance stressors and the moderating impact of job resources on them. the negative relationships between turnover intentions and job insecurity suggest that women accountants in public practice firms are actively engaged by their perceptions of job insecurity (i.e. a challenge stressor). however, higher levels of job resources (i.e. social support, advancement, prestige, and team climate) buffer this relationship. stated differently, women accountants in public practice firms who experience high levels of social support, advancement, prestige, and team climate experience lower levels of turnover intentions than those with lower levels of these job resources, especially when high levels of job insecurity are present. the findings also imply that providing women cas with more job variety and opportunities to learn (growth opportunities) does not reduce their perceived job insecurity. this finding is alarming when considering that rothmann and rothmann (2010) found that growth opportunities have the strongest effect on employee engagement, but may be explained by hall and smith’s (2009) finding that mentoring for career development leads to an increase in turnover intentions for accountants. however, the positive image and reputation of a public practice firm as well as a positive team climate, social support from managers and colleagues, and satisfactory remuneration, could create a perception that public practice firms are stable supportive communities where jobs are relatively secure. limitations statistically significant interaction effects remain quite elusive in the social sciences, despite the widespread application of interactionist theories (klein & muthén, 2007; marsh, wen & hau, 2004; moulder & algina, 2002). it is therefore remarkable that empirical support has been found for more than 50% of the proposed directional paths. however, the effect size was very modest and one should be careful about generalising the result to the broader population of women accountants in south african public practice firms. another drawback is the cross-sectional nature of the study, whereby temporal stability is ambiguous rather than sequential (kerlinger & lee, 2000). making causal inferences regarding the relationships between job demands, job resources, and turnover intentions would be imprudent, yet there is congruence between a priori theorising and empirical results which are clearly supportive of the jd-r model (bakker et al., 2003a) which is also supported by the conservation of resources theory (hobfoll, 1989, 2002). this strengthens the degree of confidence in the linear causal relationships proposed in the structural model. alternative job demands and job resources might also be uncovered if the study was preceded by a qualitative investigation of the job characteristics of accountants instead of relying solely on available literature. the counter-intuitive finding of a negative direct effect between job insecurity and turnover intentions should be tested in samples that include men. presently it remains unclear whether job insecurity is a challenge stressor specifically for women accountants. finally, the use of self-report questionnaires reflects participants’ perceptions, which may or may not reflect objective reality. as a result, future research should try to replicate the findings in the study with a combination of research approaches (e.g. experimental) and measures (e.g. objective strain measurement, diary approach). conclusion the global accountancy profession has a clear interest in stopping the attrition of women accountants from public practice firms. the findings in the study indicate those job resources and job demands that in combination may combat turnover intentions, thereby supporting the finding of minnotte (2016) that the interaction of these factors matter for women. at the most basic level, the findings seem to suggest that organisations reduce hindrance stressors, like overload. the converse, though not specifically probed in this study, remains equally important: provide employees with enough stretch goals in the form of challenging stressors to keep them engaged and motivated. admittedly, differentiating between the two categories of stressors, namely, challenge, and hindrance stressors, and their optimal level of arousal needed to promote work engagement and high performance, remains as much an art as a science. acknowledgements an earlier version of this paper was presented at the equality, diversity, and inclusion conference in greece. the women in the workplace research reports describe different aspects of the same study. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions s.r. was the project leader and master’s degree student. a.b. was the co-supervisor who made substantial theoretical and conceptual contributions. j.b. was the methodologist who did the statistical analyses and reporting. references aguinis, h., beaty, j.c., boik, r.j., & pierce, c.a. (2005). effect size and power in assessing moderating effects of categorical variables using multiple regression: a 30-year review. journal of applied psychology, 90(1), 94–106. anderson-gough, f., grey, c., & robson, k. (2005). “helping them to forget”: the organizational embedding of gender relations in public audit firms. accounting, organizations and society, 30(5), 469–490. armstrong, p. (2000). accounting for insecurity. critical perspectives on accounting, 11(4), 383–406. bakker, a., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w. (2003a). dual processes at work in a call centre: an application of the job demands–resources model. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 12(4), 393–417. bakker, a., van veldhoven, m., & xanthopoulou, d. (2010). beyond the demand-control model. journal of personnel psychology, 9(1), 3–16. bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2007). the job demands-resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22(3), 309–328. bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., taris, t.w., schaufeli, w.b., & schreurs, p.j. (2003b). a multigroup analysis of the job demands-resources model in four home care organizations. international journal of stress management, 10(1), 16–38. bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & verbeke, w. (2004). using the job demands-resources model to predict burnout and performance. human resource management, 43(1), 83–104. bakker, a.b., & derks, d. (2010). positive occupational health psychology. occupational health psychology: a key text. oxford: wiley-blackwell, pp. 194–224. barker, p.c., & monks, k. (1998). irish women accountants and career progression: a research note. accounting, organizations and society, 23(8), 813–823. bell, s. (2009). women in science in australia: maximising productivity, diversity and innovation. federation of australian scientific and technological societies, pp. 1–96. bester, f., roodt, g., & bosch, a. (2012). work identity, work engagement and turnover, pan pacific conference. haikou, hainan island: china pan pacific business association. borg, i., & elizur, d. (1992). job insecurity: correlates, moderators and measurement. international journal of manpower, 13(2), 13–26. bosch, a., ribeiro, s., & becker, j. (2012). women in the workplace research report: keeping south africa’s female chartered accountants in public-practice. women in the workplace research programme, department of industrial psychology and people management, auckland park, south africa: university of johannesburg. cabrera, e.f. (2007). opting out and opting in: understanding the complexities of women’s career transitions. career development international, 12(3), 218–237. carmeli, a., & gefen, d. (2005). the relationship between work commitment models and employee withdrawal intentions. journal of managerial psychology, 20(2), 63–86. cavanaugh, m.a., boswell, w.r., roehling, m.v., & boudreau, j.w. (2000). an empirical examination of self-reported work stress among us managers. journal of applied psychology, 85(1), 65–74. cohen, j., cohen, p., west, s.g., & aiken, l.s. (2003). applied multiple correlation/regression analysis for the social sciences. hillsdale, nj: erlbaum. collins, k.m. (1993). stress and departures from the public accounting profession: a study of gender differences. american accounting association, accounting horizons, 7(1), 29–38. crosley, g. (2006). where are all the women rainmakers in accounting? accounting today, 20(12), 9. dambrin, c., & lambert, c. (2008). mothering or auditing? the case of two big four in france. accounting, auditing and accountability journal, 21(4), 474–506. de braine, r., & roodt, g. (2011). the job demands-resources model as predictor of work identity and work engagement: a comparative analysis. sa journal of industrial psychology, 37(2), 52–62. deci, e.l., & ryan, r.m. (1985). intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behaviour. new york: plenum. demerouti, e., & bakker, a.b. (2011). the job demands-resources model: challenges for future research. south african journal of industrial psychology, 37(2), 1–9. demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., de jonge, j., janssen, p.p.m., & schaufeli, w.b. (2001a). burnout and engagement at work as a function of demands and control. scandinavian journal of work, environment and health, 27(4), 279–286. demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., nachreiner, f., & schaufeli, w.b. (2001b). the job demands-resources model of burnout. journal of applied psychology, 86(3), 499–512. dickerson, a., & green, f. (2012). fears and realisations of employment insecurity. labour economics, 19(2), 198–210. gammie, e., gammie, b., matson, m., & duncan, f. (2007). women of icas reaching the top: the demise of the glass ceiling. edinburgh: the institute of chartered accountants of scotland. gold, l. (2008a). it’s not just for women anymore! accounting today, 22(13), 1–38. gold, l. (2008b). challenges remain for women of color in accounting. accounting today, 4(17), 8–30. hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., anderson, r.e., & tatham, r.l. (2006). multivariate data analysis (6th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson education inc. hakanen, j.j., & roodt, g. (2010). work engagement chapter 7. in a.b. bakker & m.p. leiter (eds.), a handbook of essential theory and research (pp. 85–101). sussex: psychology press. hall, m., & smith, d. (2009). mentoring and turnover intentions in public accounting firms: a research note. accounting, organizations and society, 34(6–7), 695–704. haynes, k. (2008). (re)figuring accounting and maternal bodies: the gendered embodiment of accounting professionals. accounting, organizations and society, 33(4–5), 328–348. hilton, m.f. (2008). the prevalence of psychological distress in employees and associated occupational risk factors. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 50(7), 746–757. hobfoll, s.e. (1989). conservation of resources. american psychologist, 44(3), 513–524. hobfoll, s.e. (2002). social and psychological resources and adaptation. review of general psychology, 6(4), 307–324. hoyt, c.l., johnson, s.k., murphy, s.e., & skinnell, k.h. (2010). the impact of blatant stereotype activation and group sex-composition on female leaders. the leadership quarterly, 21(5), 716–732. hu, l.t., & bentler, p.m. (1999). cut-off criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. structural equation modeling: a multidisciplinary journal, 6(1), 1–55. jackson, l.t.b., & rothmann, s. (2005). an adapted model of burnout for educators in south africa. south african journal of education, 25(2), 100–108. johnson, e.n., lowe, d., & reckers, p.m.j. (2008). alternative work arrangements and perceived career success: current evidence from the big four firms in the us. accounting, organizations and society, 33(1), 48–72. jöreskog, k.g., & sörbom, d. (1996). prelis 2 user’s reference guide: a program for multivariate data screening and data summarization, lisrel, lincolnwood, illinois, united states of america: scientific software international. kain, j., & jex, s. (2010). karasek’s (1979) job demand-control model: a summary of current issues and recommendations for future research. in p.l. perrewé & d.c ganster (eds.), new developments in theoretical and conceptual approaches to job stress (vol. 8, pp. 237–268). bingley, united kingdom. kamla, r. (2012). syrian women accountants’ attitudes and experiences at work in the context of globalization. accounting, organizations and society, 37(3), 188–205. kelloway, e.k. (1998). using lisrel for structural equation modeling: a researcher’s guide. thousand oaks: sage publications. kerlinger, f.n., & lee, h.b. (2000). survey research: foundations of behavioral research. fort worth, tx: harcourt college publishers, pp. 599–619. klein, a.g., & muthén, b.o. (2007). quasi-maximum likelihood estimation of structural equation models with multiple interaction and quadratic effects. multivariate behavioral research, 42(4), 647–673. kline, r.b. (2005). principles and practice of structural equation modelling. new york: guilford. klivimaki, m., & elovainio, m. (1999). a short version of the team climate inventory, development and psychometric properties. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 72(2), 241–246. konig, c.j., & staufenbiel, t. (2010). a model for the effects of job insecurity on performance, turnover intention, and absenteeism. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 83(1), 101–107. kornberger, m., carter, c., & ross-smith, a. (2010). changing gender domination in a big four accounting firm: flexibility, performance and client service in practice. accounting, organizations and society, 35(8), 775–791. kornberger, m., justesen, l., & mouritsen, j. (2011). “when you make manager, we put a big mountain in front of you”: an ethnography of managers in a big 4 accounting firm. accounting, organizations and society, 36(8), 514–533. lewis, s., & humbert, l. (2010). discourse or reality?: “work-life balance,” flexible working policies and the gendered organization. equality, diversity and inclusion – an international journal, 29(3), 239–254. maitland, a. (2000). from women upstarts to start-ups: women entrepreneurs. london, uk: financial times, p. 20. mark, g.m., & smith, a.p. (2008). stress models: a review and suggested new direction. in j. houdmont & s. leka (eds.), occupational health psychology (pp. 111–144). nottingham: nottingham university press. marsh, h.w., wen, z., & hau, k.t. (2004). structural equation models of latent interactions: evaluation of alternative estimation strategies and indicator construction. psychological methods, 9(3), 275–300. meredith, v., & french, s. (1996). social policy and women in accounting: a cross-cultural comparison. international advances in economic research, 2(1), 76–85. minnotte, k.l. (2016). extending the job demands-resources model: predicting perceived parental success among dual-earners. journal of family issues, 37(3), 416–440. moulder, b.c., & algina, j. (2002). comparison of methods for estimating and testing latent variable interactions. structural equation modeling, 9(1), 1–19. muthén, l.k., & muthén, b.o. (2010). mplus user’s guide (6th edn.). los angeles, ca: muthén & muthén. netemeyer, r.g., boles, j.s., & mcmurrian, r. (1996). development and validation of work-family conflict and family-work conflict scales. journal of applied psychology, 81(4), 400–410. nouri, h., & parker, r.j. (2013). career growth opportunities and employee turnover intentions in public accounting firms. the british accounting review, 45(2), 138–148. nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory. new york: mcgraw-hill. prieto, l.l., soria, m.s., martinez, i.m., & schaufeli, w. (2008). extension of job demands-resources model in the prediction of burnout and engagement among teachers over time. psicothema, 20(3), 354–360. procopiou ribeiro, s. (2012). the retention of south african female chartered accountants in public practice. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of johannesburg, south africa. repenning, n.p. (2000). a dynamic model of resource allocation in multi-project research and development systems. system dynamics review, 16(3), 173–212. riordan, c.m., gatewood, r.d., & bill, j.b. (1997). corporate image: employee reactions and implications for managing corporate social performance. journal of business ethics, 16(4), 401–412. roodt, g. (2004). concept redundancy and contamination in employee commitment research: current problems and future directions. sa journal of industrial psychology, 30(1), 82–90. rothmann, s., barkhuizen, n., & tytherleigh, m.y. (2008). model of work-related ill health of academic staff in a south african higher education institution. south african journal of higher education, 22(2), 404–422. rothmann, s., & joubert, j.h.m. (2007). job demands, job resources, burnout and work engagement of managers at a platinum mine in north west province. south african journal of business management, 38(3), 49–61. rothmann, s., mostert, k., & strydom, m. (2006). a psychometric evaluation of the job demands resources scale in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 32(4), 76–86. rothmann, s., & rothmann, s. (2010). factors associated with employee engagement in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(2), 1–12. ruiz castro, m. (2012). time demands and gender roles: the case of a big four firm in mexico. gender, work and organization, 19(5), 532–554. sadler, e. (1989). prospects for the advancement of women chartered accountants in public accounting firms in south africa. de ratione winter, 3, 27–34. saica (south african institute of chartered accountants). (2009). membership statistics. retrieved november 24, 2009, from https://www.saica.co.za/members/aboutmembers/membershipstatistics/tabid/502/language/en-za/default.aspx schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2003). utrecht work engagement scale: test manual, unpublished manuscript, department of psychology, utrecht university, utrecht. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organizational behavior, 25(3), 293–315. schaufeli, w.b., & salanova, m. (2007). work engagement: an emerging psychological concept and its implications for organizations. in s.w. gilliland, d.d. steiner, & d.p. skarlicki (eds.), research in social issues in management: managing social and ethical issues in organizations (pp. 135–177). greenwich, ct: information age publishers. snyder, c.r., & lopez, s.j. (2002). handbook of positive psychology. new york: oxford university press. south africa. (1998). employment equity act, 55. government gazette no 19370. retrieved february 20, 2014, from http://www.labour.gov.za/dol/downloads/legislation/acts/employment-equity/eegazette2015.pdf stedham, y., & mitchell, m.c. (1996). voluntary turnover among non-supervisory casino employees. journal of gambling studies, 12(3), 269–290. strümpfer, d.j.w. (1990). salutogenesis: a new paradigm. south african journal of psychology, 20(4), 265–276. strümpfer, d.j.w. (2003). resilience: a stitch that saves nine. south african journal of psychology, 33(2), 69–79. sverke, m., hellgren, j., & naswall, k. (2002). no security: a meta-analysis and review of job insecurity and its consequences. journal of occupational health psychology, 7(3), 242–264. sweeny, j.t., & quirin, j.j. (2009). accountants as layoff survivors: a research note. accounting, organizations and society, 34(6–7), 787–795. tekleab, a.g., & quigley, n.r. (2014). team deep-level diversity, relationship conflict, and team members’ affective reactions: a cross-level investigation, journal of business research, 67(3), 394–402. van den berg, h., manias, d., & burger, s. (2008). the influence of job-related factors on work engagement of staff at the university of the free state. acta academia, 40(3), 85–114. van vuuren, t., klandermans, b., jacobson, d., & hartley, j. (1991). employees’ reactions to job insecurity. in j. hartley, b. klandermans, & t. van vuuren, (eds.), job insecurity: coping with jobs at risk (pp. 79–103). london: sage publishers. vinokur-kaplan, d., jayaratne, s., & chess, w.a. (1994). job satisfaction and retention of social workers in public agencies, non-profit agencies, and private practice: the impact of workplace conditions and motivators. administration in social work, 18(3), 93–121. wiese, l., rothmann, s., & storm, k. (2003). coping, stress and burnout in the south african police service in kwazulu-natal. sa journal of industrial psychology, 29(4), 71–80. windsor, c., & auyeung, p. (2006). the effect of gender and dependent children on professional accountants’ career progression. critical perspectives on accounting, 17(6), 828–844. xanthopoulou, d., bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2009). reciprocal relationships between job resources, personal resources, and work engagement. journal of vocational behavior, 74(3), 235–244. strategic human resource management: a brief introduction book title: short introduction to strategic human resource management isbn: 9781107608832 publisher: cambridge university press, 2012, us$21.98* *book price at time of review reviewer: jenni gobind1 affiliation: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa postal adress: postnet suite 333, private bag x17, weltevreden park 1715, south africa how to cite this book review: gobind, j. (2014). strategic human resource management: a brief introduction. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslike hulpbronbestuur 12(1), art. #611, 2 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.611 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. book review open access short introduction to strategic human resource management is a short and concise book written by wayne cascio and john boudreau. this book is about human resource (hr) strategy: the decisions, processes and choices that organisations make about managing people. it is designed as a primer for students pursuing a master of business administration (mba) degree or hr programs, as well as for hr and organisation leaders and general managers. it aims to provide an overview of the elements of human resource plans at the strategic, operational, unit and functional levels. this eight-chapter book is succinct and to the point. chapter 1 discusses the definition of strategy, strategy formulation analysing internal strengths and weakness and a brief history of strategic thought; this chapter makes reference to michael porter’s influential thinking on corporate strategy. cascio and boudreau round up the chapter by discussing strategy today whilst investigating the aspect of strategic direction with an emphasis on vision, mission and objectives of organisations. chapter 2 examines some aspects of the external environments of organisations, whilst discussing globalisation. cascio and boudreau discuss the effects of globalisation and technology on labour markets whilst investigating legal, political and regulatory environments. virtual mobility and new business models are touched on with reference to case studies like the mumbai-based tata group, apple and ups. chapter 3 discusses hr strategy in the context of environmental, organisational and functional elements. in this chapter the authors describe how hr strategy has to consider not just the hr department but its connection to the organisation and the surrounding environment. a multi-level framework for the context of hr strategy is unpacked, three observations are made: hr success will incorporate other disciplines, hr success will rely on boundary spanning and hr success will require accepting diverse definitions of the hr role. once again the authors use a carefully selected case study that emphasises the gist of the chapter. in this instance, the authors relied on the disney company as an example in discussing risk management. chapter 4 investigates hr strategy through a risk-optimisation framework. this chapter focuses more explicitly on mitigating, managing and optimising human capital risk, and then incorporating these considerations into hr strategy. the chapter discusses human capital strategy as a risk mitigation, uncertainty, risk and opportunity and how risk and opportunity are related. the chinese concept of ‘ji’ is expounded on, incorporating the idea of retooling risk in hr management using traditional management tools. the chapter ends with a summary, touching on uncertainty, risk and opportunity applied to employee turnover. chapter 5 deals with hr strategy: linkages, anchor points and outcomes. this chapter provides a framework for understanding the connections between the investment that organisations make in human resource management and the vital outcomes that organisations define as sustainable strategic success. the chapter further delves into impact, effectiveness and efficiency, once again referring to the disney company and their talent pools, which make the biggest difference to strategic success. chapter 6 speaks of hr strategy: communication and engagement. this chapter emphasises the role of communication in talent engagement. human capital reporting is widely discussed whilst making reference to principles of persuasion and human resource strategy communication, trust and communicating human capital strategy to employees. starbucks aprons and the power of trust as the authors explain it are an example of power and the importance of employee perceptions to human capital strategy. how to communicate human capital with managers and leaders is effectively discussed using the royal bank of canada as a basis for discussion. the chapter concludes by looking at strategy and transformative hr. chapter 7 focuses on outcomes of successful business and hr strategies. the authors open this chapter with reference to chess and the role of strategy in the game of chess. the chapter pays attention to the balance score card from financial to strategic reporting, customer, internal business and innovative learning perspectives. chapter 8 looks at future forces driving hr strategy, the elements of hr strategy and a balanced approach to uncertainty and opportunity. this chapter recaps previous chapters by teasing out major themes like globalisation, driving innovation, using talent analytics and focusing on values. the authors conclude with a final word stating that they hope that the tools they have provided will help in the journey towards strategic human resource management. as denise rousseau, a university professor at carnegie mellon university, states: cascio and boudreau have written a state-of-the art primer on how managers can learn to think systematically about human resource decisions. with concrete examples and cases, they show how to combine the best available business facts with scientific findings to improve the quality and strategic value of the organization’s hr practices. the authors have indeed taken a journey in using practical examples to guide the reader into a world of strategic human resource management. 2clutterbuck.qxd relational learning at work has become prominent in a workplace characterised by uncertainty, change and ambiguity. indeed, the more turbulent and difficult conditions become in today’s work settings, the more naturally occurring work challenges there are, and the more motivated people are to give and receive help. relationships are a major source of learning. people do much of their learning through connection with other people. however, individuals are more likely to engage in successful developmental relationships at work when they have both the desire and competence to do so (hall & kahn, 2002). the most powerful learning is often provided by the mentormentee relationship which provides both task learning and socio-emotional learning. creating an effective mentor-mentee relationship requires the competence to create increasingly trust-worthy settings. for mentors, this means performing appropriate care-giving functions which allow mentees to experience themselves as valued and supported (kahn, 1993). for their part, mentees need to know how to make themselves increasingly visible. they must disclose themselves-what they are thinking, feeling, perceiving-in the course of seeking support and guidance (hall & kahn, 2002; kram, 1996). the focus of this article is on developmental mentoring (clutterbuck, 2001; clutterbuck & sweeney, 2003; hay, 1995; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). developmental mentoring is defined as offline help by one person to another in making significant transitions in knowledge, work, or thinking (clutterbuck, 2001, p. 3). this definition of mentoring is the official definition of the european mentoring centre. a weakness of the academic literature is the lack of longitudinal research on mentor and mentee competencies. although it is logical that the competencies required of a mentor and a mentee would evolve with the progress of the relationship, there has been no systematic examination of the process (clutterbuck & lane, 2005). furthermore, a set of standards for mentoring programmes has been generated and subjected to public consultation on behalf of the european mentoring and coaching council. standards codif y competencies into a framework that can be used to assess how well an individual performs against them. the virtue of this framework is that it provides a structure upon which evidence of competence can be gathered, in terms of both knowledge and effective practice. unlike most qualification-based programmes, they provide an objective, independent measure. how useful that measure is depends on how credible the standards are perceived to be by programme participants and organisations using mentoring. it is probably fair to say that the jury is still out on this issue. there does, however, seem to be room for a generic or core set of mentoring standards, which will apply with minimal adaptation to most or all situations and to which situationspecific competencies can be added as appropriate. one valiant attempt to do this is the draft occupational standards on mentoring, produced by the university of north london, in association with a variety of other academic and practitioner bodies. this was evaluated in over 300 mentoring schemes in all sectors of education, government and business (clutterbuck, & lane, 2005). the issue of standards in mentoring has arisen for two reasons. first, the rapid spread of mentoring programmes aimed at young and vulnerable people requires close attention to risk management, and government-supported programmes require standards as an element of impact measurement. second, the rapid growth of executive coaching and mentoring inevitably gives rise to calls for regulation, given that anyone can claim to have the necessary skills and experience. the increasing volume of qualifications offered in coaching and mentoring does not necessarily help, as they tend not to be specific about the level of competence required (length of experience does not equate to quality of performance!), nor about the audience specific factors that may demand additional competencies (for example, knowledge of cognitive development and skills in behaviour management for mentors of children and persons with special needs.) the starting point for this article is the captured experience of thousands of mentors, mentees and would-be mentors around the world, who have attended skills development workshops and david clutterbuck sheffield hallam university united kingdom abstract this introduction to this special edition of the sa journal of human resource management dealing with recent qualitative and quantitative work undertaken by south african human resource practitioners and industrial psychologists on the topic of mentoring, attempts to draw together the thinking around the nature and concept of mentor and mentee competence. a framework of competencies which mentors and mentees can be helped to develop before or during their mentoring relationships is also suggested. although the proposed competencies described have face validity, there is still a great deal of research to be done to establish the validity using more rigorous measures. opsomming hierdie inleiding tot die spesiale uitgawe van die sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur wat handel oor kwalitatiewe en kwantitatiewe studies wat deur suid-afrikaanse menslikehulpbronpraktisyns en bedryfsielkundiges oor die onderwerp mentorskap onderneem is, poog om die gedagtegang rondom die aard van die konsep mentor en mentee bevoegdheid bymekaar te bring. daar word ook ’n raamwerk van praktiese bevoegdhede wat mentors en mentees kan ontwikkel voor of tydens die mentorverhouding voorgestel. alhoewel die voorgestelde bevoegdhede gesigsgeldigheid het, is daar nog ’n behoefte aan heelwat navorsing wat van meer indringende metings gebruik maak om die geldigheid daarvan te bepaal. establishing and maintaining mentoring relationships: an overview of mentor and mentee competencies requests for copies should be addressed to: m coetzee, coetzm1@unisa.ac.za 2 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (3), 2-9 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (3), 2-9 seminars over the past decade, captured on flip charts and in discussion groups. the behavioural dimensions which define the conceptual models of mentor competence presented in this article are based on the experience of the respondents. this is, therefore, a practitioner’s account. in addition, however, the article presents some of the research and connections with academic study that reinforce and/or complement these practitioner insights. the definition of ‘competence’ is also not always consistent. is a competent individual one who can do the basics of a task consistently well? or someone who is expert at it? is competence solely a matter of skill and application, or does it also include personality and attitude? for the purposes of this article, competence is defined as the consistent, observable and measurable ability to perform a defined task or an element of a task (ackley & gall, 1992; clutterbuck & lane, 2005; lane, 1996; 1997). the development of a fully validated set of competencies is a lengthy and time-consuming business. the concepts outlined here can best be described as protocompetencies – skills and behaviours which have high face validity, but have not so far been subjected to rigorous validation (clutterbuck & lane, 2005). mentor competence defining mentor competencies is also complicated by the fact that all mentoring relationships are both situational and temporal in nature. situational refers to the primary responsibility of the mentor to respond to the mentee’s need. this is a bold statement to make, but it is one that is generally endorsed by all parties in a mentoring programme, both participants and the organisation. if there are different needs, it implies that there should be different responses. we can therefore infer that one of the generic competencies of a mentor is to be able to respond appropriately to the variety of needs a mentor may have (clutterbuck & lane, 2005). this immediately poses problems, because the range of situations could be very wide. let us peel this onion one layer further. situation may also be affected by purpose. whose purpose? ty pically the organisation will have a scheme purpose, which provides the reason for supporting mentoring. this purpose might be developing top talent, promoting diversity, retaining graduate recruits and so on. at the same time, the participants in the relationship will have a common purpose, which may be different from that of the organisation. (the mentee may, for example, plan to leave the organisation in three years time.) the mentor may also have some learning goals from the relationship – perhaps to hone his or her skills in developing direct reports. so another generic competence may be the ability to recognise and reconcile different and perhaps conf licting purposes. the temporal nature of mentoring refers to the way, in which relationships evolve over time. kathy kram, whose original and insightful studies of mentoring in the early 1980s have been the foundation for so much later research, identified four phases of evolution: initiation, cultivation, separation and redefinition (kram, 1983). field experience with much larger numbers than kram’s original sample suggest potentially five phases that characterise the developmental relationship, namely (1) rapport-building, (2) the direction-setting phase, (3) progress-making, (4) winding down, and (5) moving on or professional relationship. phase 1: rapport-building rapport-building is the initial phase, in which mentor and mentee decide whether or not they want to work with each other. if the chemistry is not right, or there is an inappropriate balance of similarit y (common ground, common interests) and dissimilarity (an experience gap that provides opportunities for learning), the relationship will not progress very far under its own steam. as important as the skills of achieving rapport is the ability of the mentor to recognise a lack of rapport and manage it positively – confronting the issue openly and reviewing with the mentee what kind of person might better meet their needs. at this stage, also, mentor and mentee negotiate how the relationship will be conducted – what each expects of the other, particularly in terms of behaviour (hay, 1995; ibarra, 2000; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). phase 2: direction-setting phase the direction-setting phase is where mentor and mentee achieve clarity about what each aims to achieve from the relationship and how. for example, clear development targets may be set for the mentee to achieve. goals may change with circumstances or as they are achieved and replaced with new ones. however, having a sense of purpose for the relationship is fundamental to achieving commitment to it. phase 3: progress-making progress-making is the hard core of the mentoring relationship – where most of the time and energy is expended. having helped the mentee to define and commit to personal change, the mentor has to guide and support them as needed. most of this effort will take place within the mentoring meetings, but much may also occur through telephone conversations and via e-mail. the portfolio of potential skills required here is as wide as the variety of potential applications of mentoring. where practical and within the role, the mentor will wish to provide the particular type of help that is needed, when it is asked for. phase 4: winding down winding down occurs as the relationship has delivered or helped to deliver the desired outcomes, or when the mentee begins to outgrow the mentor. it is not always obvious when the time has come for the mentee to leave the comfort of the mentoring nest. the mentor needs to be sensitive to this issue and to some extent pre-emptive, reviewing the value-added of the relationship with the mentee from time to time. having a vision of where the relationship might go (although not one that restricts or restrains its potential by being too fixed or too narrow) also helps the mentor plan towards an effective, positive ending (clutterbuck & megginson, 2001). phase 5: moving on/professional friendship moving on from a mentoring relat ionship into a less committed, more casual relat ionship, or professional friendship demands potential complex skills of redefinition. these have been likened to changes in relationship bet ween parent and child. some such relationships never progress beyond parent-child behaviours, even when the child has grown up and become a parent in turn. old habits die hard. other parent-child relationships dissolve into conflict: instead of dependence, the child’s need to self-express leads to counter-dependence – a rejection of the parent. in a healthy relationship, however, the child achieves independence and their interaction with the parent becomes collegial (clutterbuck & lane, 2005; hay, 1995; kiohnen & john, 1998). the greater the element of sponsorship and power broking within a relationship, the more difficult it appears to be for both parties to achieve the positive independence of each other that underlies a continuing professional friendship (clutterbuck, 1998; clutterbuck & megginson, 2001; hay, 1995). each phase requires a modification of the mentor’s behaviours and, by inference therefore, of the competences required. the skills of rapport building differ substantially from those required in helping someone clarif y and commit to specific career or personal development goals. the skills required in managing a relationship which has settled into an effective routine are different from those required in bringing the formal phase of the relationship to a positive close. and, should the relationship involve into more of a long-term supportive mentor and mentee competencies 3 friendship, it may call for different behaviours again. another generic competence, therefore, may be recognising and adapting appropriately to the phases of the mentoring relationship (clutterbuck, 1998; hay, 1995; kram, 1985). table 1 provides an overview of some suggested mentor competencies for each phase of the mentoring relationship. table 1 some suggested mentor competencies for each phase of the mentoring relationship (clutterbuck & lane, 2005) mentorship relationship suggested competence phase building rapport active listening empathising giving positive regard offering openness and trust to elicit reciprocal behaviour identif ying and valuing both common ground and differences setting direction goal identification, clarification and management personal project planning testing mentee’s level of commitment to specific goals reality testing-helping the mentee focus on a few, achievable goals rather than on many pipedreams progression sustaining commitmentensuring sufficient challenge in the mentoring dialogue helping the mentee take increasing responsibility for managing the relationship being available and understanding in helping the mentee cope with set-backs winding down manage the dissolution process professional friendship ability to redefine the relationship when it has run its formal course generic mentor competencies fieldwork suggests that in addition to proto-competencies, there are also generic competencies (clutterbuck, 2001; clutterbuck & megginson, 2001; clutterbuck & lane, 2005). several years ago, clutterbuck & lane (2005) began to gather perceptions of managers, professional executive mentors and human resource professionals about those behaviours and abilities, which had proven most useful in executive mentoring. in parallel, they gathered feedback from initial training sessions, review workshops and questionnaires to both programme participants and programme coordinators for a variety of other work-based programmes – for equal opportunities, graduate induction, succession planning and so on – across a wide array of industries and nationalities. the research method was highly informal. in the initial training workshop mentors and mentees were asked to complete a list of the characteristics that they would least expect in an effective mentor – ‘the mentor from hell’ – then in an effective mentor. clutterbuck & lane (2005) found five pairs of matched capabilities, which were commonly associated with the most efficacious mentors. these were: � self-awareness and behavioural awareness (understanding others) � business/professional savvy and sense of proportion � communication and conceptual modelling � commitment to own learning and interest in helping others to learn � relationship management and goal clarity self-awareness and behavioural awareness (understanding others) this might more easily be expressed as ‘mentors need a relatively high level of emotional intelligence’, although only two elements of emotional intelligence are represented here (goleman, 1996). mentors need high self-awareness in order to recognise and manage their own behaviours within the helping relationship and to use empathy appropriately. selfawareness helps them recognise when there is a dissonance between what they are advising the mentee to do and what they do themselves. it is also essential to the processes of analysing one’s own behaviour and motivations. one of the common problems we find in mentoring relationships is that the mentor sees the mentee’s issues in the light of the mentor’s own problems and preoccupations, rather than from the mentee’s perspective. such transference may lead to inappropriate guidance. given that the mentor’s role is often at least in part to help the mentee grow his or her own self-awareness, being an effective role model for self-perceptiveness could be regarded as an essential skill. by the same token, having an understanding of, as well as insight into other people’s behaviour and motivations is equally important. to help others manage their relationships, the mentor must have reasonably good insight into patterns of behaviour between individuals and groups of people. predicting the consequences of specific behaviours or courses of action is one of the many practical applications of this insight. it is not typically essential for the mentor to have a deep understanding of behavioural psychology, but it does help for them to be able to relate issues to some of the basic concepts of motivation, social exchange and learning processes. helping someone else work through such issues frequently results in the mentor reflecting more deeply on similar issues of their own. the ability to pose the right questions at the right time is therefore an essential competence of mentors. some of the questions, which mentors may usefully ask themselves and their mentees to build selfawareness are summarised in table 2. table 2 types of questions used in mentoring (klasen & clutterbuck, 2002:158) type of question aim of question examples reflective get mentee to say more “you said … can you explain about an issue and to in more detail how you explore it in more depth mean this?” hypothetical introduction of new ideas “what about…?” on part of mentor; making “what if…?” suggestions justif ying obtaining further “can you elaborate on what information on reasons, makes you think that?” attitudes, feelings probing discovering motivations, “what would you perceive feelings and hidden as the cause of this?” concerns “when did you first experience that?” checking establishing whether the “are you sure about that?” mentee has understood “why do you feel this clearly way?” business/professional savvy and sense of proportion savvy is the intuitive wisdom a person gathers from extensive and varied experience and reflection on that experience. it could also be referred to as specific contextual knowledge. the mentee’s need for access to that wisdom may be very broad (an overview of good business practice) or quite narrow (making better use of a computer). savv y may be technical, strategic, political or systemic. it helps the mentee avoid problems, which they might not have foreseen; find better strategies for getting around obstacles; and it is the source of those ‘killer’ questions that force people to reshape their thinking. in short, savvy is the link between experience and being able to use experience to guide another person effectively (hay, 1995; clutterbuck & lane, 2005). clutterbuck4 sense of proportion (wider contextual experience) is a broader perspective that places the organisation’s goals and culture in the wider social and business context. it is, in effect, the other side of wisdom – the ability to step back from the detail, to identif y what is really important and to link together apparently discrete issues. it also encompasses the ability to project good humour, helping the mentee recognise the elements of incongruity in situations, to laugh at himself or herself, where appropriate. mentees frequently find this to be one of the most valuable competencies of a mentor – very often the mentee is so close to his or her issues, that they cannot easily put them into perspective without skilled help. communication and conceptual modelling communication is not a single skill, but rather a combination of a number of skills. those most important for mentors include: � listening – opening the mind to what the other person is saying, demonstrating interest/attention, encouraging them to speak, holding back on filling the silences. � observing as receiver – being open to the visual and other non-verbal signals, recognising what is not said. � parallel processing – analysing what the other person is saying, reflecting on it, preparing responses. effective communicators do all of these in parallel, slowing down the dialogue as needed to ensure that they do not overemphasise preparing responses at the expense of analysis and reflection. equally, they avoid becoming so mired in their internal thoughts that they respond inadequately or too slowly. � projecting – crafting words and their emotional ‘wrapping’ in a manner appropriate for the situation and the recipient(s) � observing as projector – being open to the visual and other non-verbal signals, as clues to what the recipient is hearing/understanding; adapting tone, volume, pace and language appropriately. � exiting – concluding a dialogue or segment of dialogue with clarity and alignment of understanding (ensuring message received in both directions) and agreeing on follow-up action to be taken. the most effective mentors place far more emphasis on listening and encouraging the mentee to speak than on talking themselves. they are also adept at the use of silence, at times suggesting the mentee pause to reflect on an issue; at other times simply allowing silence to take over, giving the mentee space to think matters through. effective mentors have a portfolio of models they can draw upon to help the mentee understand the issues they face. these models can be selfgenerated (i.e. the result of personal experience), drawn from elsewhere (e.g. models of company structure, interpersonal behaviours, strategic planning, career planning) or – at the highest level of competence – generated on the spot as an immediate response. according to the situation and the learning styles of the mentee, it may be appropriate to present these models in verbal or visual form. or the mentor may not present them at all, but simply use them as the framework for asking penetrating questions. commitment to own learning and interest in helping others to learn effective developmental mentors become role models for selfmanaged learning. they seize opportunities to experiment and take part in new experiences. they read widely and are reasonably efficient at setting and following personal development plans. they actively seek and use behavioural feedback from others. within the context of the mentoring relationship, they perceive this as a significant opportunity for mutual learning. they may articulate their learning needs to the mentee and from time to time share what they have learned from the relationship. at the same time, effective mentors have an innate interest in achieving through others and in helping others recognize and achieve their potential. this instinctive response is important in establishing and maintaining rapport and in enthusing the mentee, building his or her confidence in what they could become. there is a danger here, however. the more the relationship is driven by the mentor’s need to feel useful, the easier it is to overshadow the mentee’s need to achieve independence. mentors (particularly in a sponsorship-based model) may end up trying to relive their own careers through someone else. altruism can be a highly self-serving attitude of mind, if it is not moderated by a sense of social exchange. the overt recognition of mutual learning objectives largely overcomes this problem. relationship management and goal clarity both of these areas have been largely covered in the analysis of the various phases of a mentoring relationship. among the key abilities in relationship management are to establish and maintain rapport, to set and adhere to a schedule of meetings, and to step back and review the relationship from time to time. mentees rate their mentors highly on relationship management when the latter clearly place an importance on the relationship and demonstrate that they have continued to think about the mentee’s issues between meetings. goal clarity is important, because the mentor must be able to help the learner sort out what he or she wants to achieve and why. goal clarity appears to derive from a mixture of skills including systematic analysis and decisiveness. mentors, who lack the skills to set and pursue clear goals of their own, are likely to struggle to help someone else. yet most mentors seem to find that helping someone else achieve goal clarity has a positive effect on how they perceive and work towards their own goals. macro versus micro mentor competencies as table 3 illustrates, the multiple approaches to identif ying the competencies of a mentor give rise to a long list, with considerable duplication. from a practitioner perspective, and/or from the perspective of someone who helps mentors and mentees equip themselves with the skills for the role, this is not necessarily a problem. we know that this is a complex, int uit ive, mult i-skilled role that requires a very wide spectrum of life skills and purpose-specific skills. the reduction of the list into macro and micro is to some extent arbitrary, but all the items listed under macro-competencies are generic – they are essential for effective role management in all mentoring relationships. the micro elements, by contrast, all have some aspects of situationalit y – they are specific to a phase of the relationship, or they are a constit uent behaviour or skill, which will enhance the relationship, but not necessarily one that all relationship will require in significant measure. very few mentors out of a potential population are likely to be excellent in all of these micro-competencies – indeed, they may use the mentoring relationship as one means to develop in those areas, where they are least strong. recognising the ideal, however, provides a platform for development, which both individuals and mentoring scheme coordinators can use. mentee competence as noted earlier, creating an effective mentor-mentee relationship requires the competence of both mentors and mentees. for the mentee, the ability to capture the mentor’s interest and commitment is the precursor to rapport between mentor and mentee, which is in turn crucial to the subsequent maintenance of the relationship. kram (1983) describes the protégé or mentee as a young manager, who ‘quickly comes to represent someone with potential, someone who is “coachable” and someone who is enjoyable to work with’. the successful protégé is likely to exhibit more masculine traits, regardless of gender, than feminine traits, according to a study of 387 university professors and their mentoring relationships. the proposed explanation for this result is that ‘masculine and/or mentor and mentee competencies 5 androgynous behaviour is associated with effective leadership and management’ – in other words, mentors are drawn to people who most closely match the mentor’s perception of potential future leaders. table 3 macro and micro mentor competencies (clutterbuck & lane, 2005) macro-competencies � to be able to respond appropriately to the variety of needs a mentor may have to recognise and reconcile different and perhaps conflicting purposes. � recognising and adapting appropriately to the phases of the mentoring relationship. � responding to the learner’s needs with the appropriate level of directiveness and the appropriate balance of stretch and nurture. � recognising different developmental roles, and having the flexibility to move between roles appropriately and comfortably. � recognising the boundaries between mentoring and those elements of other roles which are not normally part of the mentoring experience. � establishing a positive, dynamic atmosphere within the relationship (motivational skills). micro-competencies � building rapport – active listening, empathising and giving positive regard; offering openness and trust to elicit reciprocal behaviour; identif ying and valuing both common ground and differences. � setting direction – goal identification, clarification and management; personal project planning; testing the mentee’s level of commitment to specific goals; reality testing. � progression – sustaining commitment; ensuring sufficient challenge in the mentoring dialogue; helping the mentee take increasing responsibility for managing the relationship; being available and understanding in helping the mentee cope with setbacks. � winding down – the ability to review the relationship formally and celebrate what has been achieved. � professional friendship – the ability to redefine the relationship when it has run its formal course. � self-awareness. � behavioural awareness. � business/professional savvy. � sense of proportion. � communication. � conceptual modelling. � commitment to own learning (being a role model for good practice in self-development). � interest in helping others to learn. � relationship management. � goal clarity. kalbfleisch and davies (1993) summarise the research on receipt of mentoring. a variety of studies suggests that ‘demographic factors such as gender (daniels & logan 1983; ragins 1989; sands, parson & duane, 1991) and race (kalbfleisch & davies, 1991) may predict the likelihood of having a mentor.’ however, o’neill (2001) in summarising the evidence on these issues concludes that the majority of studies do not indicate significant differences on race or gender grounds for receipt of mentoring. kalbf leisch and davies’ (1991) analysis is more useful, however, where it examines factors such as communication competence and self-esteem in the mentee, both of which they found to be related to participation in mentoring relationships. they quote wiemann (1977) who defines communication competence as the abilit y of an interactant to choose among available communicative behaviours in order that he may successfully accomplish his own goals during an encounter, while maintaining the face and line of his fellow interactants within the constraints of the situation. among definitions of self-esteem is that it is composed of perceptions of self-worth and perceptions of power and abilit y. self-worth originates from a sense of social approval and perceptions of power and abilit y arise from feelings of effectiveness (franks & marolla, 1976). a proposed intervening variable between communication competence and self-esteem is perceived risk in intimacy. mentors and mentees may need to expose their own feelings and hidden experiences, in order to encourage the other party to reciprocate. kram (1985) and bullis and bach (1989) both refer to psychological intimacy as an element of mentoring relationships. the primary conclusions of kalbfleisch and davies’ study are that: “individuals with higher degrees of communication competence and self esteem, who perceive less risk in intimacy, are more likely to participate in mentoring relationships ... conversely … individuals, who may very much need mentoring relationships may not be as likely to be involved in those relationship as individuals who are more communicatively competent, have higher self esteem and perceive less risk in being intimate.’ studies of self-efficacy (bandura, 1982) also support the position that confident, competent people find relationship building easier than less confident, less competent peers. fagenson (1992) studied the needs of mentees and nonmentees for power, achievement, autonomy and affiliation. she found that people who became mentees tended to have higher needs for power and achievement, but not for autonomy and affiliation. it should be noted, however, that personality characteristics do not necessarily equate with competencies. it is quite possible for someone to have a personality that makes them attractive as a mentee, but not the skills to make effective use of the relationship – and vice versa. effectiveness within the mentoring relationship, once it is established, has been related to a variet y of factors. aryee, chay and chew (1996) examine ingratiation behaviours in the context of mentoring. (ingratiation in this meaning is not necessarily a negative behaviour; rather it consists of a wide spectrum of reputation management behaviours). they note the link in other studies bet ween ingratiatory behaviours and career success. communication skills, already identified above as a factor in the initiation stage, were recorded by kram (1985) as a factor in relationship success for both mentors and mentees. small field experiments carried out with coaches by myself and some colleagues suggest that the way the learner presents an issue for discussion strongly influences the nat ure and qualit y of the response. saying ‘i have a problem’, for example, is likely to switch on advice mode; indicating the need for a sounding board to review thinking already partly done is likely to precipitate a more discursive, reflective dialogue. engstrom (engstrom & mykletun, 1997) compared personality factors of mentors and mentees in the success of mentoring relationships. high scores of agreeableness, extraversion and openness to experience on the part of the mentee correlated with positive relationship outcomes, although the personalit y interaction between mentor and mentee was also a significant factor with respect to each of the personality dimensions. we have not been able to find any studies which investigate the skills required in managing the mat ure mentoring relationship, or in managing the relationship ending from the mentee perspective. kram (1992) (cited in clutterbuck, 2004) refers to experiencing ’new independence and autonomy’ and to the need to ‘test his or her abilit y to function effectively without close guidance and support’. however, she does not explore how the mentee contributes towards achieving these attributes. managing the closure of the relationship and moving on is an important element in the satisfaction of both parties. a recent study (clutterbuck & megginson, 2001) of relationship endings found that a planned, positive winding up was more effective than a gradual drifting away. it would seem logical, given that the mentee is expected to take more and more responsibility for driving the relationship, that he or she should also play a role in bringing it to a close. kram (1983) discusses the pain of separation, clutterbuck6 comparing it to bereavement. some clues to the management of the separation process may therefore be gained from the counselling literature that deals with processes for letting go. a framework of mentee competencies as with mentors, it seems that competencies for mentees may arise from a number of paired characteristics, which can be considered to be generic pairs of behaviours. in some cases – perhaps all – these pairs are in essence probably dimensions; however, it would be presumptuous to elevate them to that status without considerable further investigation (pascarelli, 1998). those suggested by my analysis of the literature and by field experience in mentor and mentee training, as well as review meetings, appear to fall into three categories, relating to the mentee’s stage of development and the stage of relationship development. there seem to be three pairs of competencies at (1) the relationship initiation level and four each at (2) the relationship management and (3) learning maturity/disengagement levels. table 4 provides an overview of these competencies. table 4 a framework of mentee competencies (clutterbuck & lane, 2005) relationship relationship learning initiation management maturity/disengagement competencies competencies competencies focus-proactivity learn-teach acknowledge the debtpay it forward respect-self-respect challenge-be challenged process awareness-process management listening-articulating open-questioning extrinsic and intrinsic feedback prepare-reflect independenceinterdependence relationship initiation competencies relationship initiation competencies include the ability to focus the relationship and being proactive, developing respect and self-respect and the ability to listen and articulate one’s goals, feelings and values. focus – proactivity focus relates to having some ideas about what you want to achieve (what do you want? what do you want to become?) and/or a willingness to work with the mentor to put some clarity behind the relationship purpose. proactivity relates to a willingness to take initiative, to contact the mentor rather than wait to be contacted and to seek the opinion of others in determining what issues to bring to the mentor. the proactive mentee will already at least have thought about how to achieve his or her goals and ideally taken some steps towards achieving them. mentors are also impressed by the perception of relationship commitment – behaviours that demonstrate that the mentee really wants the relationship to work and is prepared to invest in it. respect – self-respect respect and self-respect go hand in hand. rogers’ concept of mutual common regard indicates the necessity of reciprocated respect as a core constituent of rapport (1961). mentees can demonstrate respect by showing that they value the mentor’s advice and/or insights, by being attentive and by using the mentor’s time and effort wisely (for example, by not making inappropriate demands). self-respect may be an emergent characteristic of the mentee, rather than a starting competence, but, as the research above indicates, the relationship may establish itself more easily if the mentee is relatively self-confident. there are, of course, extremes – self-confidence to the point of arrogance is unlikely to be attractive to a mentor. equally, in community mentoring schemes, mentors often report that the greatest satisfaction comes from watching the mentee grow in self-esteem and self-confidence. listening – articulating although some mentees may not have great communication skills, the willingness to listen and to try to communicate their goals, feelings and values goes a long way towards establishing a relationship. relationship management relationship management competencies include a commitment to learning; a willingness to be challenged; being open and honest with oneself and one’s mentor; and the ability to reflect on one’s motives, attitude and behaviour. learn – teach the mentee must have a commitment to learning and a purpose for doing so which shapes their requests of the mentor and gives the mentor a sense of direction for the relationship. they must value the learning they may acquire from the mentor and demonstrate that they do so. at the same time, they need to be aware of the mentor’s needs and prepared to share their experiences, learning and insights, where these will be of interest and value to the mentor. challenge – be challenged the mentee must be willing and able to engage in constructive dialogue. this requires occasional challenge – not simply accepting advice from the oracle, but delving deeper and exploring the reasoning behind advice and guidance given. at the same time, they must be open to examining issues about which they feel fearful or otherwise uncomfortable, in the cause of gaining greater understanding. open – questioning mentees must be prepared to be honest with themselves and their mentors, both providing an accurate description of issues they face and being willing to consider different perspectives and approaches. at the same time, they need the appropriate skills to pose questions to the mentor in ways that make it clear what kind of help they need at this time – a sounding board, direct advice, counselling or some combination of these. prepare – reflect this could perhaps be described as reflect – reflect, for it is important that the mentee spend quiet thinking time both before the mentoring session (to prepare what they want to discuss and why) and after (to review what they have learned and extract further lessons from it). reflection also encompasses willingness to examine one’s own motives, drives, attitudes and behaviour. advanced competencies for mentees the four dimensions of advanced competencies suggested by both field experience and mentoring case studies are outlined below. acknowledge the debt – pay for ward the debt there is a substantial difference bet ween demonstrating gratitude and ingratiation. the level of mutual respect required in the relationship should make ingratiation untenable as a behaviour, but the mentee should be able to express their appreciation for the mentor’s time and thoughtfulness. they may also be able to reciprocate in more practical ways – for example, one of my mentees keeps an eye open for public platforms i might find it commercially useful to speak at, although there is no obligation for her to do so. paying forward the debt is a reflection of a phenomenon noted in much of our field research. people who have been effective mentor and mentee competencies 7 mentees frequently wish to become mentors in turn. indeed, this is one of the core measurements of the success of a mentoring relationship or scheme. it is also a key goal for community mentoring in the uk (miller, 2002). process awareness – process management an awareness of the process is essentially a contextual competence. field interviews suggest strongly that mentees learn more and reflect more, if they understand what the mentor is trying to do and why. mentoring therefore becomes a collusive activity, in which the mentee takes an active role in helping the mentor help them. for example, if the mentee may recognise that a period of silence is an opportunity for them to reflect; or the may mentee craft the way an issue is presented to the mentor, in order to stimulate the kind of response that will be most useful to them (saying ‘i’ve got a problem’ is likely to trigger direct advice; saying ‘i’d value your help in testing my thinking about …’ is more likely to trigger exploratory dialogue). the process of empowerment in the mentoring relationship requires that the mentee take responsibility for the management of the process. the mature learner, or the mentee with high selfesteem and high goal clarity, may begin the relationship by setting the agenda, steering the mentor towards appropriate responses and actively drawing down upon the mentor’s knowledge, experience and networks. extrinsic and intrinsic feedback receiving feedback from others can be one of the most difficult skills to learn. it demands a certain level of trust, which is not always easy to give and a willingness to accept and address one’s weaknesses. people who appear self-defensive and oversensitive to criticism make it more difficult for the mentor to relax and behave naturally towards them. a relationship where one, or both sides, is constantly having to assess whether or not what they say will offend, will struggle. indeed, it may not even get off the ground in extreme cases. as the relationship progresses, the need typically increases to accept the mentor as a critical friend and to encourage ‘cruel but kind’ feedback. in addition, the mentee should become more comfortable with giving honest personal feedback about the mentor’s performance in their role, especially when the mentor specifically seeks it. the mentee should also be able to move beyond feedback from others to develop his or her intrinsic feedback skills. learning how to listen to yourself or observe yourself in action takes time. with each new area of skill, you may need to begin the process again, learning what to listen for, how to recognise positive and negative patterns and how to assess the impact of experimental changes. for example, a teenager with problems of anger control learned to watch out for the tightening of muscles that indicated he would repeat a cycle of verbal abuse followed by violence. by experimenting with different reactions to these early physical cues, he was able to learn a different set of instinctive behaviours that not only helped him control himself, but also gave him more control over the situation that threatened to cause the anger. the same principles of intrinsic feedback can be applied to almost any personal performance issue at work, from time management to giving presentations or motivating colleagues. independence – interdependence being self-motivated, self-reliant, self-resourceful and selfconfident are all elements of maturity, in life as well as in learning. the more capable the mentee is in each of these areas, the less dependent they will be on the mentor. a comment i often hear from ‘mature’ mentees is: ‘when i was faced by a dilemma, i thought, ‘how would my mentor have approached this?’ and i soon had the answer’. this phenomenon of role model in absentia appears to characterise those relationships where the mentee has expanded both the scope and the portfolio of their responses to learning opportunities. independence is likely to be accompanied by a shift from using the mentor as advisor to using him or her as sounding board. it is also likely to involve an increasing confidence in their own ability to manage their career planning and progress towards career objectives. developing a wide range of support resources is also a sign of learning maturity. with the mentor’s help initially, and gradually through his or her own ingenuity, the mentee builds a network of advisors – sources of information, influence and encouragement – upon which he or she calls for different needs and in different circumstances. the mentee also develops the skill to sustain and enhance relationships within this network and may reciprocate to the mentor by passing on information and contacts from outside the mentor’s sphere. conclusions and implications the proto-competencies for mentors and mentees explored here belong to the specific context of developmental mentoring and to structured mentoring programmes. by developmental mentoring, i mean off-line relationships, where there is no expectation of sponsorship and a concentration on helping the less experienced person achieve independence. by structured programmes, i mean those where there is a process for assisting people (and in particular those who are at a racial, gender or other disadvantage) to find a suitable mentor, some training for participants to help them use the relationship well, and some form of ongoing background support for participants. a number of writers on mentoring have linked mentor competencies with the phases of relationship development, suggesting that specific skills should be addressed as they become necessary in the management of the relationship (for example). however, none, so far as i have been able to ascertain, has applied the same principle to the development of mentee competences. of course, it cannot be expected of mentors and mentees to have all of these competencies. however, they can be helped in acquiring and reinforcing each of the competencies. issues that need further explanation here include the timing and extent of help and whether it should be given by the mentor or by a source outside the relationship. with regard to timing, much will depend upon the mentee’s starting point. we might expect a mentee who is mature in the sense of learning capability and who has prior experience of being mentored to begin with a much fuller competence set than one who is a neophyte in both respects. according to yan lu (2002), previous experience of a mentor-type relationship with a school teacher as a young student correlates strongly with subsequent development of positive mentoring relationships. the mentee who is low in both previous experience of mentoring and learning maturity will presumably require more support upfront and more tolerance from the mentor than someone who is high on both counts. in general, the mentee who has low learning maturity and experience of being mentored will need a wider range of support and encouragement simply to embark on the relationship. someone with high learning maturity and little experience in mentoring should swiftly adapt to the relationship, but many require a high degree of initial clarity about what to expect. a mentee who has low learning maturity and a lot of experience in mentoring is a less likely combination. however, we have encountered people who have had an ineffective mentoring relationship. here the mentor may need to spend time early in the relationship building his or her credibility with the mentee. future research recommendations although all of the proposed competences described have face validity, there is still a great deal of research to be done to establish the validity using more rigorous measures. in the meantime, however, having at least a tentative framework of mentee competencies should help scheme coordinators design training that helps mentees present themselves more effectively to their mentors and engage more fully in the initiation of the relationship. it should also help to deliver mentee training more clutterbuck8 closely in phase with evolving needs. finally, it should also be useful in making mentors more aware of what to expect from a mentee – and how they can work with the mentee to help them gain more from the relationship. given the paucity of data from desk research, a high emphasis needs to be placed on field research. the process of data gathering in the field has been in three main forms: two highly informal and subjective; one more formal and more objective. first, mentors and mentees have been asked to discuss and record those characteristics they would expect to value and those they do not value, in both roles. typical responses include an aversion among mentees to a mentor who talks at them rather than with them; and among mentors, an aversion to people who expect too much of the relationship, people who do not respond (variously described as ‘black holes’ or ‘puddings’) and people who are unwilling to give commitment. a second phase involves review meetings, where mentors and mentees discuss their actual experiences, with a view to improving both the scheme process and their own skills in the roles. over the past two years, i have also been gathering data on mentor and mentee expectations, behaviours and outcomes in a continuing longitudinal study. at time of writing, the data from this study are not ready for detailed statistical analysis, but they appear to support the broad thrust of the previous two phases. from an academic perspective, i hope this analysis provides a starting point for continued research to refine the notion of mentoring competencies. certainly, some greater clarity around which competencies are generic in all forms of mentoring would be helpful, along with a credible diagnostic process to map the micro-competencies of mentoring against the requirements of specific situations and forms of mentoring. references ackley, b. & gall, m.d. (1992). skills, strategies and outcomes of successful mentor teachers. paper presented at the annual meeting of the american educational research association, april 20-24, san francisco, california. aryee, s., chay, y.w. & chew, j. (1996). the motivation to mentor among managerial employees: an interactionist approach. group and organization management, 21, 261-277. bandura, a. (1982). self-efficacy mechanism in human agency. american psychologist, 37 (2), 122-147. bullis, c. & bach, b.w. (1989). are mentoring relationships helping organisations? an exploration of developing mentee-mentor-organisational identifications using turning point analysis. communication quarterly, 37, 199-213. clutterbuck, d. (1998). learning alliances: tapping into talent. london: institute of personnel and development. clutterbuck, d. (2001). everyone needs a mentor: fostering talent at work. london: cipd. clutterbuck, d. & lane, g. (2005). the situational mentor. london: gower. clutterbuck, d. & megginson, d. (1999). mentoring executives and directors. oxford: butterworth-heinemann. clutterbuck, d. & megginson, d. (2001). winding up and winding down a mentoring relationship. paper at the 8th european mentoring centre conference, cambridge. clutterbuck, d. & sweeney, j. (2003). coaching and mentoring. burnham: clutterbuck & associates. daniels, t.d. & logan, l.l. (1983). communication in women’s career development relationships. in p. postrum (ed.). communication yearbook, vol. 7, 532-552. beverly-hills, ca: sage. engstrom, t. & mykleton, r. (1997). personality factors’ impact on the success in the mentor-protégé relationship. dissertation. fagenson, e.a. (1992). mentoring:who needs it? a comparison of protégés and non-proteges’ needs for power achievement, affiliation, and autonomy. journal of vocational behavior, 41, 48-60. franks, d.d. & marolla, j. (1976). efficacious action and social approval as interacting dimensions of self-esteem: a tentative formulation through construct validation. sociometry, 39, 324-341. goleman, d. (1996). emotional intelligence. london: bloomsbury. hay, j. (1995). transformational mentoring. new york: mcgrawhill. hall, d.t. & kahn, w.a. (2002). developmental relationships at work: a learning perspective. in c.l. cooper & r.j. burke (eds.). the new world of work: challenges and opportunities, 49-74. oxford: blackwell. ibarra, h. (2000). making partner: mentor’s guide to the psychological journey. har vard business review, 78 (2), march-april, 147-155. kahn, w.a. (1993). caring for the caregivers: patterns of organizational caregiving. administrative science quarterly, 38 (4), 539-563. kalbfleisch, p.j. & davies, a.b. (1991). minorities and mentoring: managing the multicultural institution. communication education, 40, 226-271. kalbfleisch, p.j. & davies, a.b. (1993). an interpersonal model for participation in mentoring relationships. western journal of communications, 57, 399-415. kiohnen, e.c. & john, o.p. (1998). working models of attachment: a theory based prototype approach. in j.a. simpson & w.s. rhodes (eds.). attachment theory and close relationships. new york: guilford press. klasen, n. & clutterbuck, d. (2002). implementing mentoring schemes: a practical guide to successful programs. london: butterworth-heinemann. kram, k.e. (1983). phases of the mentoring relationship. academy of management journal, 26, 608-625. kram, k.e. (1985). improving the mentoring process. training and development journal, 39 (4), 19-23. kram, k.e. (1996). a relational approach to career development. in d.t. hall & associates (eds.). the career is dead – long live the career: a relational approach to careers, 132-157. san francisco: jossey-bass. lane, g.m. (1996). the competence of a mentor and implications for directors and ceo’s. paper to the 3rd european mentoring conference, london. lane, g.m. (1997). the developed model of mentor competence. paper to the 4th european mentoring conference, london. miller, a. (2002). the way mentoring is going. paper to the 9th european mentoring and coaching council conference. o’neill, r. (2001). gender and race in mentoring relationships: a review of the literature. in d.clutterbuck & r. ragins (eds.). mentoring and diversity: an international perspective. oxford: butterworth-heinemann. pascarelli, j. (1998). a four-stage mentoring model that works. in s. goodlad (ed.). students as mentors and tutors. london: kogan page. ragins, b.r. (1989). barriers to mentoring: the female manager’s dilemma. human relations, 42 (1), 1-23. ragins, b.r. (1999). mentoring in the new millennium: time to reflect, or party like it’s 1999? paper to the 6th european mentoring centre conference. sands, r.g., parson, l.a., & duane, j. (1991). faculty mentoring in a public university. journal of higher education, 62 (2), 174-193. yan lu, r. (2002). mentoring in belgian organisations: does theory fit practice? paper to the 9th european mentoring and coaching council conference. mentor and mentee competencies 9 article information authors: gary w. paul1 david m. berry1 affiliations: 1department of human resources, nelson mandela metropolitan university, south africa correspondence to: gary paul postal address: po box 77000, port elizabeth 6031, south africa dates: received: 11 nov. 2011 accepted: 26 aug. 2012 published: 14 jan. 2013 how to cite this article: paul, g.w., & berry, d.m. (2013). the importance of executive leadership in creating a post-merged organisational culture conducive to effective performance management. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #446, 15 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.446 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the importance of executive leadership in creating a post-merged organisational culture conducive to effective performance management in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • problem statement       • the key focus of the study       • background to the study       • objectives of the study    • literature review • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instrument       • research procedure       • response rates       • statistical analysis • results • ethical considerations    • potential benefits and hazards    • recruitment procedures    • informed consent    • data protection • trustworthiness    • reliability    • validity • discussion    • the cronbach alpha test for internal consistency and reliability    • practical implications and implementation opportunities of the research findings    • possible limitations of the study and directions for future research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: focus was placed on the important role of executive management in creating a post-merged organisational culture conducive to effective performance management.research purpose: to develop a theoretical model from the insights gleaned from the literature study, interviews with senior human resource (hr) practitioners at participating institutions and the empirical study. based on the empirical findings, this model was refined and resulted in the eight-step integrated post-merged organisational culture creation model. motivation for the study: the negligible attention given to the design of mechanisms supportive of post-merged organisational culture creation emphasised the need for this study. the high percentage of merger failures attributable to ineffective post-merged organisational culture integration further contributed. research design, approach and method: a quantitative study was conducted at three merged south african higher education institutions, namely nelson mandela metropolitan university, cape peninsula university of technology and durban university of technology. respondents occupied the following functional categories: executive management, senior and line management, hr practitioners and non-hr or non-management. main findings: respondents perceived the role of executive management to be the most important step of the theoretical model which formed the basis for the empirical survey questionnaire. this step, which obtained the highest summated mean score in all three institutions and across all functional categories, was depicted as step 5 of the model. practical/managerial implications: the refined eight-step integrated post-merged organisational culture creation model will significantly enhance the creation of a post-merged organisational culture conducive to effective performance management. contribution/value-add: this study addressed the void regarding a model to guide the creation of a post-merged organisational culture conducive to effective performance management in higher education institutions as well as merged corporate organisations. introduction top ↑ problem statement the main problem statement of this study focuses on strategies to create a post-merged organisational culture which is conducive to effective management of performance. froneman (2003) contends that higher education is one of the most rapidly changing sectors of society. he further argues that the successful leadership and management of these changes requires the permanent transformation of higher education from the ’what is‘ state into the ’what should be or must be‘ state (froneman, 2003). this study aims to focus on the changes and challenges imposed on higher education institutions in south africa as a result of the mergers specifically, as well as the concomitant implications for organisational culture and performance management in these post-merged institutions.martin and roodt (2008) express the view that a merger can be considered as a significant life event for both an organisation and its employees. how employees cope with and respond to a merger has a direct impact on the organisation’s performance in the short to medium term. muller (2006, pp. 198–207) concurs with this view, pointing out that mergers can cause staff to feel ’overstretched‘ and ’overburdened’. the logical consequence of these experiences is a negative impact on the performance of the organisation. bresler (2007) argues that, normally, mergers form part of a general strategy for diversification or growth and are underpinned by a due-diligence process prior to the merger, during which merger candidates are evaluated in order to determine the strategic fit. she further points out that in the case of the merging of higher education institutions, no such rationale or justification was provided, nor were the strategic or organisational synergies made explicit to affected parties. instead, she contends, individual institutions were left with unclear expectations about their positioning in the merger as well as organisational culture fit. institutions were left to their own devices and were expected to navigate through the process of culture integration without knowledge of the process and its effects (bresler, 2007). locke (2007) suggests that mergers in higher education, like commercial mergers, fail to deliver their promised or desired value as a result of organisational culture clashes. a lack of organisational culture integration often translates into strategic, financial and operational non-performance in a merged institution (locke, 2007). locke (2007) also points out that the longer term benefit of managing higher education mergers with the necessary cultural sensitivity is the unleashing of a wave of creativity amongst staff, creating greater openness to new ideas, a dynamic mix of interests and expertise, and unanticipated synergies, leading to enhanced teaching portfolios, increased research outputs and new collaborations with external stakeholders. the key focus of the study this study makes a significant contribution in an area that is crucial to higher education. there has been a paucity of studies of post-mergers and scant attention has been given to the design and implementation of mechanisms that could support the post-merged organisational culture creation process. background to the study in january 2000, the minister of education, the late professor kader asmal, requested the council on higher education (che) to provide him with a concrete proposal in respect of the size and shape of higher education in south africa. this proposal was required to give direction to institutional restructuring with the view of ensuring long-term affordability and sustainability of higher education (council on higher education, 2000). in 2002, the south african government approved the restructuring of higher education which resulted in the mergers and incorporations within the sector (buanews, 2003). however, there was strong opposition to the mergers and it was contended that the process was driven by government through a mixture of politics, legislation and persuasion (jansen, 2003).schultz (2009) echoes the sentiment that mergers have been a major and highly contested theme in higher education in the past decade. in reference to the south african context, she argues that a political decision was made to change the higher education landscape. this has had the unintended consequence of lower organisational commitment and potentially lower employee job performance in the merger-bound higher education institutions as a result of the slapdash manner in which the restructuring occurred. furthermore, she argued that employees’ responses to a merger have an impact on institutional performance and that serious consideration should be given to realigning the people management component to support the business strategy and to produce the desired level of organisational performance (schultz, 2009). ramphele (2009) argues that the transformation of education and training in south africa could have been better effected by learning from the experiences of countries such as finland, ireland, south korea and even zimbabwe, who were all able to increase mass access to education and training whilst improving the quality of outcomes. she further argues that improved access to education in south africa has not necessarily translated into improved outcomes, such as in the lives of the poor (ramphele, 2009). it can be concluded that the conditions mentioned above could only serve to add to the leadership challenges to be encountered during the merger process and therefore strengthening the case for effective executive leadership during such times. the purpose of this article is, however, to place special focus on the survey findings related to step 5 (‘integration and alignment of executive management’) of phase 3 (‘initiate the integration and alignment process’) in the eight-step theoretical model which underpinned the creation of the survey questionnaire (explained in a later section). the typical organisational structure of a south african tertiary institution’s executive, senior management and line management structure is depicted in figure 1. the empirical study required responses from executive management (vice-chancellor, deputy vice-chancellor, executive directors and executive deans), senior management (senior directors and directors), line managers and human resource (hr) practitioners. executive management members are typically responsible for directing the development of strategies and determining policies within the institution. senior management members are usually required to direct the implementation of strategies and policies. line managers are required to ensure that the employees working in their departments execute their functions in accordance with the operational plans, based on the strategies, within the relevant policy parameters. figure 1: typical south african tertiary institution organisational structure. like most tertiary institutions in south africa, those that participated in this study utilise the peromnes grading system. this system takes into account the following eight factors in determining the level of a particular job:• problem solving • consequence of judgement • pressure of work • knowledge • job impact • comprehension • educational qualifications • further training and experience. few mergers reach their stated growth and value creation targets and more than half of all merger transactions destroy value, resulting in lower profitability. these outcomes can be attributed to a lack of effective pre-merger preparation (roland berger strategy consultants, 2010). they further point out that successful pre-merger planning requires a sound strategy, a deep understanding of operational, financial, legal, taxation and cultural issues related to the merging organisations (roland berger strategy consultants, 2010). according to goodboy (2010), pre-merger planning and preparation are two critical success factors in respect of mergers. he also highlights the need to focus on legal, financial, taxation and cultural aspects, as well as an operational due diligence study. he suggests that an understanding in relation to these matters can be achieved through meetings between the management of the merging organisations, as well as ad hoc interviews with employees, suppliers and other stakeholders (goodboy, 2010). carleton and lineberry (2004) place strong emphasis on a pre-merger culture due diligence study. this, they argue, can be done by means of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. qualitative methodologies include interviews, focus groups, workplace observations and documentation reviews. researchers could capture the voice of the culture and the employees by collecting their verbal comments and arranging the data according to predetermined culture attributes or according to the types of cultural behaviours that are displayed. quantitative methodologies are shaped by the qualitative data obtained from the methods mentioned above. it is advisable to administer a web-based culture due diligence survey to a sample of the total population of the organisations involved in the merger in order to develop a high-level culture profile of each organisation. according to hall, symes and luescher (2004), the pre-merger phase in respect of higher education institutions in south africa included the following aspects: • institutional and joint structures to facilitate the merger process • statutory and merger governance structures • compliance with labour legislation • due diligence in respect of assets, liabilities, obligations, systems and controls • the development of a merger plan. objectives of the study the main objective of this study was to work towards the development of an eight-step integrated post-merged organisational culture creation model to support the establishment of an organisational culture which is conducive to effective performance management in a post-merged environment. this main objective has been achieved through the pursuance of the following research objectives:• developing an integrated eight-step theoretical model from the literature sources, inclusive of the role of executive leadership in creating a post-merged organisational culture conducive to effective performance management. • through this article, focused attention will be placed on the importance of executive management in the creation of a post-merged organisational culture conducive to effective performance management. • the literature to be relied upon in the ’literature review‘ section of this article, explores the various results, views and variables related to the role of executive management in creating a post-merged organisational culture conducive to effective performance management. • gathering responses from sample of executive management, line and senior management, hr practitioners and non-hr or non-management employees from three merged institutions in south africa. • integrating the results from the empirical study with the integrated eight-step theoretical model to develop an eight-step integrated post-merged organisational culture creation model for establishing a post-merged organisational culture conducive to effective performance management. literature review the general gist of this section is to focus on literature which deals with the role of effective leadership in the development of a post-merged organisational culture conducive to effective performance management. the promises made on paper in relation to future merger success often fail to materialise. instead of creating new value, a merger can lead to value destruction. this is supported by recent literature on mergers and acquisitions which suggests that merger failure rates vacillate between 50% and 70%. reasons cited for the dismal merger success rates can be attributed to ineffective executive leadership or, worse still, simply an executive leadership vacuum (stahl, 2004). scanlan (2005) points out that merger success can invariably be linked to executive leadership who understand how to build a business. he argues that a leader has to choose to spend the time and money up front in critically assessing the proposed community, economic and clinical merits of the merger, or spend immeasurably more time and money after the fact trying to fix what should have been figured out before closing the deal. scanlan (2005) cautions that the single biggest challenge for executive leadership during a merger is blending people of different corporate and even national cultures, by working to reduce the psychological distances between them. a further critical leadership requirement is that the chief executive and his or her executive team must espouse visionary or values-based leadership. this brand of leadership reinforces the values inherent in the organisation’s vision (scanlan, 2005). the findings of a study conducted by booz allen hamilton (2001) suggests that merger success is inextricably linked to executive leadership rigour, which includes awareness of and attention to people, organisational culture issues and dealing with competing priorities and demands. effective executive leadership drives disproportionate value towards the creation of an effective post-merged organisational culture integration and alignment process (booz allen hamilton, 2001). the greater the frequency and magnitude of change, the more important leadership and organisational culture become. ’leadership holds it all together during a merger.’ it is considered to be a ’make or break‘ function in the post-merger environment (able, 2007, pp. 1–9). in their study on the management of post-merger integration for the creation of a successfully performing organisation, macfarlane and butterill (1999) present six principles that are critical in ensuring the effective transitioning of employees during a merger. the list of six includes the development of a clear, concise and accessible vision of the positive benefits of the merger and the involvement of visible, strong, cohesive executive leadership throughout the post-merger integration process. this post-merger executive leadership, referred to as the senior management group (smg), advocated by macfarlane and butterill (1999), is required to take responsibility for embedding the accountability to lead the planning and implementation of the post-merger integration. some of the specific roles of the smg include developing a comprehensive set of transition planning principles and assumptions, convening a number of task forces and integration teams to assist in the planning and approving their work plans and final reports, as well as developing macro-level indicators to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the post-merger integration (macfarlane & butterill, 1999). denison consulting (2007) illustrates that a successful and high-performing post-merged organisation was created in reynolds american by implementing strategies which included: • a pre-merged culture survey, which was conducted in order to determine the progress in respect of the culture integration as well as to identify the areas in need of immediate attention. over 3000 employees completed this survey, which provided positive reinforcement for the integration work that had been done. • executive leadership’s relentless communication of the vision, strategy and core values through open and meaningful conversations with all employees about the roadmap to post-merged success. • executive leadership’s task to get as much input and employee reaction as possible prior to launching any major initiatives. • each functional team’s task to present their employee engagement plans to the high performance culture team, which included executive leadership from reynolds american. the merger between london guildhall university and university of north london (to form the london metropolitan university) attributes much of its success to the fact that the members of the executive leadership (vice-chancellor, chief executive, three deputy vice-chancellors, director of finance, director of human resources, director of merger projects) were appointed ahead of the actual merger and that they were appointed on the basis of merit and suitability (floud & corner, 2002). designing and implementing an effective communication strategy were some of the key activities on which the executive leadership focused to ensure that staff would feel that they have been consulted and that they are being listened to. the executive team of the newly merged london metropolitan university also spent much time and effort on planning, implementing and motivating change. in particular, the executive leadership attended to the philosophical direction and purpose of the merger instead of simply ascribing the merger of the two universities to an economic necessity (floud & corner, 2002). the salient aspects related to the above two cases seem to corroborate the findings of this study in relation to the importance of the role of executive management in achieving a successful merger. merger failure, on the other hand, is said to occur when whatever the organisations had in mind that caused them to merge in the first place does not work out that way, or when shareholders suffer because operating results deteriorate instead of improving (tobak, 2007). the list of the 10 most notorious merger failures that have been evaluated by tobak (2007) include, aol and time warner, hp and compaq, alcatel and lucent, daimler benz and chrysler, excite and @home, jds uniphase and sdl, mattel and the learning company, borland and ashton tate, novell and wordperfect, and national semiconductor and fairchild semiconductor. when considering the set of conclusions in tobak’s (2007) evaluation of the above listed failed mergers, one can argue that most, if not all, of the reasons for these merger failures can be attributed to executive leadership problems within the merging organisations. he concludes by providing the following summary of the reasons underpinning these merger failures: • flawed corporate strategy for either or both companies • one company ‘sugarcoats’ the truth, the other buys a powerpoint pitch • sub-optimum integration strategy for the situation • culture misfit, loss of key employees after retention agreements are concluded • the acquiring company’s management team is inexperienced regarding merger-related matters • flawed assumptions in synergies calculation • ineffective corporate governance • two desperate companies merge to form one big desperate company • chief executive officer (ceo) of one or both companies sells the board and shareholders a bill of goods • an impulse buy or panic sell gets shoved down the board’s throat. it can be argued that the issues raised in tobak’s (2007) list provide compelling evidence of the types of activities on which the executive leadership within the context of a post-merged environment should be focusing in order to avoid the merger from being a failure. the above views make a compelling case for the critical role of effective executive leadership required to ensure merger success. research design top ↑ a basis for sound decision-making is the knowledge generated through a research process, rather than intuition, tradition or a gut-feel. this applies to decision-making in both the public and private sectors (brynard & hanekom, 2006). brynard and hanekom (2006) point out that research or a scientific enquiry is a procedure used to obtain answers to questions and solve problems, in a systematic manner, with the support of verifiable facts. meyers (2009) argues that a researcher finds a topic or a research problem that relates to the body of knowledge in a particular field or discipline, as illustrated in figure 2.according to figure 2, research questions are usually derived from a theoretical body of knowledge, but they could also emerge from the prevailing business practice or the researcher’s own intuition. in order to find answers to the questions arising from the research problems, the researcher elects a research method with which to find the empirical evidence systematically (meyers, 2009). the views expressed above place an important obligation on the researcher to ensure that the empirical questionnaire is capable of obtaining the desired answers to the various research questions, so as to create new knowledge or generate solutions to the research problems. research approach the empirical study was conducted by means of a survey questionnaire which provided for the collection of large amounts of data. according to brynard and hanekom (2006), questionnaires provide respondents with an opportunity to carefully consider their responses to the various questions in the questionnaire. an added advantage is that large numbers of respondents, spread over a vast geographical area, can be reached by means of a questionnaire. research method research participants a generalised communiqué was issued to all employees through the intranet at the respective participating institutions, inviting employees who fall within the following functional categories to participate in the survey:• executive management • line managers • human resource practitioners • non-hr or non-management. as per data received from p. newman (personal communication, june, 2010), e. olkers (personal communication, september, 2010) and i. tserpelis (personal communication, august, 2010), the total permanent employees within each of these institutions across the four functional categories are presented in table 1. as indicated in the note below table 1, employees who did not have access to a dedicated personal computer and those employees in jobs below peromnes grade 13 were excluded from the survey and are not reflected in the population in table 1. welman, kruger and mitchell (2005) and de vos, strydom, fouche and delport (2005) argue that a sample can only be described as representative if it has the same properties or characteristics as the population relevant to the research in question. the populations in each of the three merged institutions involved in this study can be described as homogeneous on the basis that they comprise four sub-groups consisting of executive management, line management, hr practitioners and non-hr or non-management employees. these four functional categories which served as the four strata are mutually exclusive by virtue of the distinctive nature of functional roles within these institutions. the members across these four functional categories are, however, heterogeneous in respect of gender, home language and age. this application of the stratified random sampling method is consistent with the assertions of de vos et al. (2005). this type of sampling is known to ensure that the different segments of a population are given sufficient representation in the sample. the sample size is selected in proportion to the number of persons in the stratum; in other words, larger samples from larger strata and smaller samples from smaller strata (de vos et al., 2005). the hr director (or a designated substitute) and the information technology (it) person responsible for it-related research support within each of the participating institutions assisted in the institution-wide dissemination of the request to participate in the survey. with the assistance of the it-person, a follow-up was conducted by issuing two reminders to all employees within each of the four functional categories. figure 2: a model of research in business and management. table 1: permanent employees in the three study institutions across the four functional categories†. measuring instrument the survey in this study was made available to potential respondents by means of an internet-based questionnaire. respondents were required to complete the questionnaire after accessing it through the hyperlink that was inserted into the body of the communiqué. the questions that were included in the questionnaire used in this study were formulated in accordance with the guidelines provided by welman et al. (2005), and struwig and stead (2001). the majority of the questions were close-ended; however, at the end of sections 2, 3, 4 and 5, provision was made for respondents to provide any information that they considered relevant to the subject covered in those particular sections. each section had an appropriately phrased introduction related to the subject covered. questions were formulated in a straightforward manner in order for respondents to easily grasp what was being asked. the questionnaire was laid out in an uncluttered manner to avoid possibly confusing respondents. research procedure given the stringent protocols which exist in relation to conducting research within higher education institutions, the researcher also submitted formal requests to conduct the empirical research study to the vice-chancellors of the participating institutions. response rates figure 3 provides a visual illustration of the tabulated response rate per merged institution. it is clear from the information contained herein that the nelson mandela metropolitan university (nmmu) employees completed the majority of the questionnaires compared to that of the cape peninsula university of technology (cput) and the durban university of technology (dut) as separate institutions. however, given the low response rates from cput and dut, the responses from these two institutions were combined for purposes of statistical analyses.the nmmu responses were slightly higher from the former port elizabeth technikon (43%) than the former university of port elizabeth (40%). the cput responses included more respondents from the former cape technikon (27%) than from the former peninsula technikon (14%). at dut, more respondents originated from the former natal technikon (26%) than from the former ml sultan technikon (16%). question 2 in section 1 of the questionnaire made provision for respondents who did not work for any of the listed pre-merged institutions by allowing respondents to select the ’other‘ option. the researcher analysed and categorised the ’other‘ options into academic (8%) and non-academic (9%) institutions, as illustrated in table 2 . table 3 indicates that responses across the four categories from nmmu and cput–dut are marginally different. it is clear that the majority of the respondents are from the non-hr or non-management (‘other‘) category. at nmmu, 66% of respondents were from the ’other‘ category, compared with 62% from cput–dut. executive responses from nmmu and cput–dut were 5% and 4% of the total responses, respectively. line managers from nmmu and cput–dut represented 66% and 62% of the total responses, respectively. the number of respondents per functional category is a representative sample of the total number of permanent employees who occupy the various categories per institution, as illustrated in figure 3. statistical analysis the research findings have been organised and presented in tabular form. tables 1–9 referred to in this paper were generated with the aid of the dpss version 11.0 software package, as per d. venter (personal communication, october, 2010), by using a download of the data that were stored in a password-protected data-repository which developed as questionnaires were completed and submitted electronically via the internet. descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the raw data obtained from the survey. the descriptive data included measures of central tendency and dispersion of selected variables. the scoring of sections 2–5 of the questionnaire made use of a likert-type scale. the questionnaire consisted of six sections. section 1 dealt with respondents’ biographical details. in section 2 of the questionnaire, numerical values, namely 1 (‘not important’), 2 (‘fairly important’) and 3 (‘very important’), were used to enable the quantitative analysis of the results. in addition to using this scale to indicate importance, respondents also had to indicate whether the assessment should be formal or informal or that there should not be an assessment at all. numerical values, namely 1 (‘no assessment’), 2 (‘informal assessment’) and 3 (‘formal assessment’) were also assigned here to enable the quantitative analysis of the results. in sections 3–5, respondents were requested to indicate whether an aspect was ‘not important’, ‘slightly important’ or ‘very important’. the same numerical values as in section 2 of the questionnaire were used for ‘not important’, ‘fairly important’ and ‘very important’ in order to enable the quantitative analysis of results. figure 3: percentage of respondents per merged institution. table 2: response rates per merged and pre-merged institution. table 3: functional category per merged institution. results top ↑ the results in this study have been derived by means of descriptive and inferential statistics. descriptive statistics were applied to determine the summated mean scores which related to the various phases and process steps of the model in figure 4, as well as the summated scores for the two groups of institutions (nmmu and cput–dut) and their functional categories. inferential statistics employed in this study are illustrated in table 4.explanations related to the application and interpretations of the different values derived from each of these tests are provided, where a specific test was used, in the various tables and graphs that are presented in this article. the results in table 5 provide information related to the significance of correlations between the various phases and their associated process steps of the integrated theoretical model in figure 2. table 4: inferential statistical tests used in this study. table 5: correlations of statistical significance between summated scores obtained from nmmu and cput–dut for phases and process steps of integrated theoretical model which formed the basis for the survey questionnaire. the data above the diagonal line in table 5 relates to the responses obtained from nmmu and the data below the line to responses obtained from cput–dut.the scores indicated in bold in table 5 denote a significant correlation between those particular phases’ summated scores (depicted by the letter ‘p’) in terms of importance within the two groups (nmmu and cput–dut). a correlation is statistically significant if (|r| > 0.168 for nmmu and |r| > 0.166 for cput–dut) and practically significant of (|r| > 0.30) significant for both nmmu and cput–dut. the correlations indicate congruence between the different institutions in terms of the importance of these factors, as well as the interrelatedness of these factors. these correlations also confirm the reliability of the items in the questionnaire and their relation to the specific phases. it is also evident from the scores in table 5 that p3.1 (depicted as step 5 in figure 4) correlates positively with p3.2 (depicted as step 6 in figure 4) and p3.3 (depicted as step 7 in figure 4). the scores in table 5 also indicate a positive correlation between p3.1 and p3 (depicted as the entire phase 3 in figure 4) and p4 (depicted as phase 4, the step 8 in figure 4), as well as the moderating variables (mv) at both nmmu (above the diagonal line) and cput–dut (below the diagonal line). all the interactions between phases, process steps and the mv listed in table 5 are indicative of significantly different correlations between nmmu and cput–dut. the p-values are all below 0.05, suggesting that the correlations listed in table 6 are statistically significantly different between nmmu and cput–dut in terms of the chi-square test for statistical significance. the v-values range between 0.14 and 0.37 (refer to table 6), suggesting that the difference in the correlations between nmmu and cput–dut, as listed in table 6, range between small and moderately significant in terms of the cramér’s v-test for practical significance. it is also noteworthy that p3.1 (the role of executive leadership in creating an organisational culture conducive to effective performance management in a post-merged environment) did not show any significant or practical difference from all other variables at nmmu and cput–dut. in terms of the above analysis, it is significant to note that respondents at nmmu and cput–dut did not necessarily express similar perceptions regarding the importance of the other aspects between which the correlations in table 5 were made. this difference in perceptions could possibly be attributed to the differences in the nature of the institutions, as nmmu is a comprehensive university and cput and dut universities of technology. ethical considerations top ↑ it was a requirement for the study to obtain written approval from the research ethics committees of the participating institutions. the researcher duly complied with that institutional requirement and written approval was obtained from each of the participating institutions. potential benefits and hazards participation in the survey posed no risks or dangers to respondents and no information will be disclosed that may compromise the nature of responses received. the responses received were stored in a data repository which did not allow access to any party other than the researcher. respondents from the three participating institutions could benefit from the findings of this study should their respective institutions elect to implement the recommendations. table 6: the chi-square test for statistical significance and the cramér’s v-test for practical significance. recruitment procedures respondents were under no obligation to respond. with the assistance of the various it-departments, the researcher issued an electronic invitation by means a generalised communiqué at the three participating institutions. the communiqué included a hyperlink to the web-based questionnaire which allowed respondents access to the survey questionnaire. informed consent respondents who participated in the empirical study were fully informed of the purpose of the study and could seek clarity from the researcher in the event of any queries or concerns. data protection the responses received were stored in a password-protected data repository which was only accessible to the researcher. under no circumstances was any part of the data accessed or accessible to any other persons. trustworthiness top ↑ in order to comply with the imperative of trustworthiness, the data in this study were subject to reliability and validity testing. reliability saunders, lewis and thornhill (2003, p. 101) caution that four threats need to borne in mind in relation to reliability. the first of these is subject or participant error. this refers to the variability in the results obtained, depending on when the questionnaire was completed. the second threat relates to participant bias, which occurs when respondents have provided answers that they believe their bosses would want them to provide. the third threat relates to observer error, which occurs when there are perhaps three researchers conducting interviews and who thus have the potential for at least three different approaches to eliciting responses. the fourth threat relates to observer bias, which occurs when three interviewers have three different approaches to interpreting the replies. in relation to this study, the researcher was the only interviewer who conducted the face-to-face interviews with the senior hr practitioners, thus eliminating the threats related to observer error and observer bias. additionally, the survey questionnaires were made available electronically, which allowed respondents to complete it at their own leisure. the threat of participant bias was further avoided on the basis that the responses to the questionnaires were completely confidential. validity validity is defined as the truth or trustworthiness of research findings (struwig & stead, 2001, p. 18). validity can be enhanced by means of triangulation, which implies that there must be various data sources, several investigators or various research methods. different observers or respondents could provide different perspectives on the issue being investigated. welman et al. (2005, p. 142) describe validity as the extent to which the research findings accurately represent what is really happening in the situation. this particular study applies the triangulation concept in that four different functional categories of employees (executives, line managers, hr practitioners and non-hr and non-management employees), of three different merged institutions (nmmu, cput and dut), were required to express their perceptions of the same issues in the questionnaire. discussion top ↑ the outcome of this study has been the development of an eight-step integrated post-merged organisational culture creation model to support the establishment of an organisational culture which is conducive to effective performance management in a post-merged environment. a significant finding of this study has been the level of importance that respondents have attached to the role of the executive leadership in the creation of a post-merged organisational culture conducive to effective performance management. this article therefore specifically focuses on that particular finding.table 7 provides details of the eight questions under section 3 of the questionnaire, which focused on aspects related to the role of the executive leadership in a post-merged environment. step 5 in phase 3 of the eight-step integrated post-merged organisational culture creation model addresses the integration and alignment of executive management. the cronbach alpha test for internal consistency and reliability the cronbach alpha is a statistical test that is utilised to establish the internal consistency and reliability of the items or statements included in the questionnaire. according to struwig and stead (2001), it is particularly useful in instances where a likert-type scale has been applied. in essence, the cronbach alpha quantifies how well the items or statements measure a specific concept or factor, such as executive management integration and alignment or line management integration and alignment, and whether the statements in the questionnaire or sub-scale belong together (simon, 2008). table 8 depicts the cronbach’s coefficient alpha summated scores obtained for the various phases (p1, p2, p3, p4), process steps (p1.1, p1.2, p1.3, p3.1, p3.2, p3.3) and mv that were used in the survey questionnaire. a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of greater than 0.70, the recommended value for reliability, was observed for all of the factors, with values ranging from 0.78 to 0.90. according to simon (2008), a value of 0.06 is acceptable as sufficient evidence of adequate reliability for purposes of an exploratory study. the observed cronbach’s alpha coefficients relating to the factors in table 6 all exceeded the 0.07 threshold, thus confirming the reliability of the summated scores derived from the individual measuring instruments. table 9 indicates the comparison between the summated mean scores of the participating institutions, as well as the functional categories in this study. this comparison is based on the means and standard deviations for summated responses related to each phase and its process steps (for phases 1 [p1] and 3 [p3] only) of the model in figure 2. the survey findings are presented as a combination of nmmu executive managers (em), line managers (lm) and hr practitioners’ (em–lm–hr) responses compared to that of the non-hr or non-management employees (‘other‘) of nmmu and cput–dut, respectively. the nmmu and the cput–dut combination are referred to as ’groups‘ for the purposes of providing clear explanations. these correlations also confirm the reliability of the items in the questionnaire and their relation to the specific phases. table 7: statements which required a response from executive management. table 8: the cronbach alpha test summated scores in respect of the various phases and process steps as reflected in figure 4. table 9: comparison of summated scores in terms of institution and functional category. in terms of table 9, p3.1 (step 5 in the model the integration and alignment of executive management) has an aggregate mean which equates to 2.84 (n = 276). it is noteworthy that this particular aggregate mean is the highest of all the aggregate mean scores for all the phases and steps that formed part of the survey questionnaire. this implies that the participating institutions (nmmu and cput–dut), as well as the functional categories (executive management, line management, hr practitioners and non-hr or non-line management), have individually and collectively considered the integration and alignment of executive management as the most important step in the eight-step integrated post-merged organisational culture creation model.in the ’institution‘ column, the means of nmmu (2.83; n = 136) and cput–dut (2.85; n = 140) in total are relatively close to the aggregate mean score for this column, which suggests that respondents’ perceptions at the two institutions in respect of the importance of aspects covered in this section of the questionnaire (step 5 of the model), can be viewed as being very similar. in the combined ’functional category‘ column, the mean scores equate to 2.83 (em–lm–hr; n = 99) and 2.85 (other; i>n = 177). these respective mean scores are relatively close to the aggregate mean of 2.84 (n = 276) for the combined ’functional category‘ column, which suggests that the respondents’ views of the importance of the aspects dealt with in this section of the questionnaire can be described as very similar, despite their different functional categories. in the combined ‘institution: functional category’, the functional categories are separated and presented by institution. the ’em–lm–hr‘ and ’other‘ categories at nmmu have mean scores equating to 2.85 (n = 46) and 2.83 (n = 90), respectively. these mean scores are relatively close to the aggregate mean score of 2.84 (n = 136) for this column, which suggests that the two functional categories at nmmu have expressed very similar perceptions in relation to importance of aspects dealt with in this section of the questionnaire. the ’em–lm–hr‘ and ’other‘ categories at cput–dut have mean scores equating to 2.85 (n = 53) and 2.84 (n = 87), respectively. again, the mean scores for this column are relatively close to the aggregate mean score of 2.84 (n = 140) for this column, which suggests that the perceptions of the respondents are very similar in relation to the importance of aspects dealt with in this section of the questionnaire. the high mean score in relation to the integration and alignment of executive management is indicative of the high level of importance that respondents attached to the role of executive management in a post-merged environment. this finding is consistent with the views expressed by able (2007), booz allen hamilton (2001), macfarlane and butterill (1999), scanlan (2005) and stahl (2004), in relation to the criticality of effective executive leadership during a merger. this study therefore not only corroborates the findings of previous studies regarding the role of executive leadership in a post-merged environment, but it also highlights the need for merged higher education institutions to continue building post-merged leadership capacity in order to support the creation of an organisational culture which is conducive to effective performance management in order to avoid merger failure. figure 4: the eight-step integrated post-merged organisational culture creation model. figure 5: details of the eight-step integrated post-merged organisation culture creation mode. the refined eight-step integrated post-merged organisational culture creation model thus emerges from the review of the quantitative results and is depicted in figure 4. the integrated nature of the model is graphically illustrated by the vertical and horizontal arrows that connect the various process steps within and across the various phases. this suggests that the model might not achieve its intended outcome if only certain phases or process steps of the model are implemented in isolation. this contention has, in fact, been confirmed by testing the statistical significance of the correlations between the various process steps of the model (refer to table 5). all the significant correlations are highlighted in bold. a more detailed discussion related to table 5 was provided in the section entitled ’results‘. the outcome of the model (refer to the rectangular shape in figure 4, situated between phases 3 and 4) is described as an ’organisational culture conducive to effective performance management‘. the model further illustrates that this outcome will be influenced by various merger-related variables, such as employees’ age, clarity of the merger rationale, employee buy-in and stakeholder expectations.figure 5 provides details of the eight-step integrated post-merged organisational culture creation model. the details are arranged according to each phase and its associated process steps, as depicted in figure 4. phase 1 in figure 5 deals with the conducting of pre-merge assessments, which include a culture assessment, human capital capability assessment and a change readiness assessment. the resulting data are to be utilised in phase 2 (and step 4), which deals with the commissioning of the integration and alignment planning process as well as the actual development of the culture alignment and integration plan. phase 3 deals with the implementation of the culture integration and alignment process which entails the alignment of executive management (step 5), alignment of senior and line management (step 6) and alignment of the total organisation (step 7). practical implications and implementation opportunities of the research findings the findings flowing from this study have revealed several implications and implementation opportunities for organisations embarking upon a merger process. these implications and opportunities include the need for:• post-merged organisational culture integration and alignment to be executed in a structured and integrated manner, such as the approach outlined in the model illustrated in figure 4. • pre-merger assessments, in respect of culture compatibility, human capital capability and change readiness, to be treated as important and be conducted either formally or informally. • executive management to be visibly leading the organisational culture integration and alignment process. • a structured employee engagement programme to form an integral part of the organisational integration and alignment of the total organisation (refer to step 7 in figure 4). additionally, figure 6 confirms the strong correlation between employee engagement and an organisation’s financial prosperity in the form of return of assets, profitability and shareholder value (macey, schneider, barbera & young, 2009). a specific intervention that could be considered in supporting the employee engagement programme is known as positive organisational scholarship (pos), which focuses on the generative dynamics such as life-building, capability enhancing and capacity-creating in an organisation. these organisational dynamics could enhance human strengths and virtues, resilience and healing, vitality and thriving, as well as the cultivation extraordinary states in individuals, groups and organisations during times of organisational change such as mergers. the university of michigan, which has implemented pos, reported a ’great deal of intellectual energy‘ from scholars across a spectrum of disciplines such as the schools of business, education, medicine, public health, music, literature, science and arts. through various associations and interactions, which includes conferences, research initiatives and classroom teaching materials, collaborative research and shared ideas for application in their various disciplines have been fostered (dutton, glynn & spreitzer, 2006). figure 6: employee engagement and financial performance comparisons. possible limitations of the study and directions for future research a possible limitation of the study is that it did not draw a distinction between the responses of academics and those of professional, administrative and support staff, regarding which aspects were included in the various sections of the questionnaire. this distinction could have provided useful insights into academics’ perceptions regarding the merger, given their centrality to the core business of higher education institutions. this limitation could be addressed by specifically focusing on the integration and alignment of the academic cohort within post-merged higher education institutions, on the basis that academics are responsible for delivering on the core mandate of these institutions. conclusion the insights gleaned from the findings of the empirical study show a strong congruence with the views in relation to the importance of effective executive leadership in the post-merged organisation to ensure the creation of an organisational culture which is conducive to effective performance management. the findings of the study further highlighted the need to attend to the particular aspects that are listed in table 5, as part of executive management’s role to ensure their own integration and alignment as part of the organisational culture creation process as advocated on the basis of the application of the eight-step integrated post-merged organisational culture creation model. the findings of this study corroborate other studies relating to the importance of an effective post-merged culture integration to support optimal performance management. it furthermore places particular emphasis on the importance of the role of executive leadership with regard to the various critical key pre-merger and post-merger related activities to support the creation of an organisational culture conducive to effective performance management. acknowledgements top ↑ the three institutions that participated in this study, namely the nelson mandela metropolitan university, the cape peninsula university of technology and the durban university of technology, are acknowledged for providing ethical clearance to conduct the empirical study amongst their employees. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this paper. authors’ contributions g.w.p. (nelson mandela metropolitan university) conducted the empirical research, literature review, statistical interpretation and reporting of results in various formats as well as various content contributions. d.m.b. (nelson mandela metropolitan university) provided conceptual and content contributions as well as his generous support and encouragement. references top ↑ able, r.m. (2007). the importance of leadership and culture to merger and acquisition success. the human capital institute. retrieved september 24, 2011, from http://www.imaa-institute.org/docs/m&a/towersperrin_09_the importance of leadership and culture to m&a success.pdf booz allen hamilton (2001). merger integration: delivering on the promise. a series of viewpoints on mergers, acquisitions and integration. retrieved september 25, 2011, from http://www.boozallen.com/media/file/76776.pdf bresler, n. (2007). the challenge to reposition three divergent higher education institutions as a new comprehensive institution. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 10(2), 195–206 brynard, p.a., & hanekom, s.x. (2006). introduction to research in management-related fields. (2nd edn.). pretoria: van schaik publishers. buanews (2003). higher education mergers named. retrieved january 24, 2012, from http://www.buanews.gov.za/news/12/12040412351001 carleton, j.r., & lineberry, c.s. (2004). achieving post-merger success: a stakeholder’s guide to due diligence, assessment, and integration. san francisco: pfeiffer. council on higher education. (2000). towards a new higher education landscape: meeting the equity, quality and social development imperatives of south africa in the 21st century. retrieved january 21, 2011, from http://www.che.ac.za/documents/d000009/ denison consulting (2007). reynolds american: a (rare) merger success story. retrieved may 17, 2010, from http://former.denisonconsulting.com/libraries/resources/cs-2007-reynolds-american.sflb.ashx de vos, a.s., strydom, h., fouche, c.b. & delport, c.s.l. (2005). research at grass roots: for social sciences and human professions. (3rd edn.). paarl: paarl print. dutton, j.e, glynn, m.a., & spreitzer, g. (2006). positive organisational scholarship. retrieved march 11, 2011, from http://www.bus.umich.edu/positive/pdf/dutton-pos-encyc-of-career-devel.pdf floud, r., & corner, f. (2002). managing a merger: making it work for a university community. retrieved september 24, 2011, from http://www.eua.be/eua/jsp/en/upload/case londonmet managing a merger.1076688728905.pdf froneman, l. (2003). managing change in higher educational institutions in south africa: some challenges. retrieved january 02, 2010, from http://search.sabinet.co.za/webz/authorize?sessionid=0&bad=ejour/ejour_badsearch.html&portal=ejournal&next=images/ejour/acom/acom_v3_a5.pdf goodboy, d. (2010). pre-merger preparation. retrieved september 23, 2011, from http://www.equity-buyout.com/?p=84 hall, m., symes, a., & luescher, t. (2004). the governance of merger in south african higher education. retrieved june 11, 2011, from http://www.che.ac.za/documents/d000072/governance_of_merger_he_aug2004.pdf jansen, j. (2003). mergers in south african higher education: theorising change in transitional contexts. retrieved january 12, 2011, from http://repository.up.ac.za/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2263/118/jansen (2003)a.pdf?sequence=3 locke, w. (2007). higher education mergers: integrating organisational cultures and developing appropriate management styles. higher education quarterly, 61(1), 83–102. macey, w.h., schneider, b., barbera, k.m., & young, s. (2009). employee engagement: tools for analysis, practice and competitive advantage. new york: blackwell press. macfarlane, d., & butterill, d. (1999). from principles to practice: the management of post-merger integration. retrieved november 18, 2009, from http://www.longwoods.com/content/16959 martin, a., & roodt, g. (2008). perceptions of organisational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intentions in a post-merger south african tertiary institution. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 34(1), 23–31. meyers, m.d. (2009). qualitative research in business management. thousand oaks: sage publications. muller, n.j. (2006). merger and managers: what’s needed for both to work? reflections on a merger of two higher education libraries in kwazulu-natal. sa journal of library and information science, 72(3), 198–207. ramphele, m. (2009). laying ghosts to rest – dilemmas of the transformation in south africa. cape town: nb publishers. roland berger strategy consultants (2010). pre-merger preparation and post-merger integration. retrieved september 23, 2011, from http://www.rolandberger.com/expertise/functional_issues/strategy_and_corporate_excelence/integration/ saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2000). research methods for business students. (2nd edn.). harlow: prentice-hall. scanlan, l. (2005). mergers: a critical test of leadership: challenge yourself to excel at leadership during uncertain times. retrieved january 14, 2011, from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1g1-132536403.html schultz, c.m. (2009). building a human resource strategy for a merging higher education institution in south africa. south african journal of labour relations, 33(2), 11–18. simon, s. (2008). measuring agreement. retrieved january 11, 2011, from http://www.childrensmercy.org/stats/weblog2004/cronbachalpha stahl, g.k. (2004). getting it together: the leadership challenge of mergers and acquisitions. retrieved march 14, 2011, from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/lia.1083/abstract struwig, f.w., & stead, g.b. (2001). planning, designing and reporting research. cape town: pearson education. tobak, s. (2007). why mergers fail. retrieved september 24, 2011, from http://news.cnet.com/8301-13555_3-9796296-34.html welman, j.c., kruger, s.j., & mitchell, b. (2005). research methodology. (3rd edn.). cape town: oxford press. abstract introduction method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) martin weihs hiv/aids sexually transmitted infections and tb, human sciences research council, south africa anna meyer-weitz school of applied human sciences, university of kwazulu-natal, south africa citation weihs, m., & meyer-weitz, a. (2016). do employees participate in workplace hiv testing just to win a lottery prize? a quantitative study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a722. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.722 original research do employees participate in workplace hiv testing just to win a lottery prize? a quantitative study martin weihs, anna meyer-weitz received: 07 june 2015; accepted: 14 apr. 2016; published: 29 july 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: to encourage workers to participate in workplace hiv testing, some south african automotive companies use lotteries. however, there is a lack of empirical evidence on how lottery incentives may influence employees’ workplace hiv counselling and testing behaviour. research purpose: determine whether workers intend to test for hiv only to win a lottery prize. motivation for the study: the positive and also negative influences of lotteries on workers’ hiv testing behaviour need to be understood to avoid undue coercion in workplace hiv testing participation. research design, approach and method: post-test only quasi-experimental studies were conducted the day hiv testing and lotteries were announced to staff in four companies using a cross-sectional, self-administered survey that measured workers’ workplace hiv testing behaviour intentions. intention to participate in workplace hiv counselling and testing was used as the main outcome of respondents’ behaviour and investigated via the statement: ‘if the company would organise its on-site wellness day tomorrow, i would go testing for hiv tomorrow’. in a first setting, two companies’ workers had to test for hiv to be entered in the lottery (n = 198). in the second setting, two other companies’ workers did not have to test to be entered in the lottery (n = 316). chi-square tests were conducted to measure significant differences between the two conditions distinguishing between permanent and non-permanent staff. main findings: no significant association was found between behaviour intention in the two settings for permanent workers’ workplace hiv testing intention ( χ2 = 1.145, p = 0.285, phi = -0.097). however, a significant association with a small effect size was found for non-permanent workers ( χ2 = 8.04, p = 0.005, phi = -0.279). practical/managerial implications: results show that lotteries to encourage workplace hiv testing are very likely to help workers ‘do the right thing’ and unlikely to have a coercive effect if all staff attending hiv testing has participated in standardised hiv and aids workplace programme activities and is informed about the consequences of testing positive. contribution: a better understanding of how lotteries influence workplace hiv testing among workers of different work status and informed related recommendations. introduction more than a billion people live on the african continent, of whom many millions are infected and affected by the hiv virus. the world of work, which accommodates many hiv-positive employees, plays an important role in helping alleviate the negative consequences of the pandemic; for example, a recent systematic review showed that hiv-positive people who have a job are nearly 40% more likely to be adherent to their hiv treatment than those who are not working (ilo, 2013). still, an urgent need for interventions to improve companies’ workplace hiv testing rates has been identified (arimoto, seiro, kudo & kazunari, 2013; bhagwanjee, petersen, akintola & george, 2008; sabcoha, 2015). provision of incentives to increase hiv testing uptake may be a useful tool to encourage workplace hiv counselling and testing (hct) (george & quinlan, 2009; lee, cui, muessig, thirumurthy & tucker, 2014; mahajan, colvin, rudatsikira & ettl, 2007; weihs & meyer-weitz, 2014). in south africa, the automotive industry development centre, eastern cape, together with the deutsche gesellschaft für internationale zusammenarbeit gmbh have been supporting the use of lottery incentives to encourage workplace hiv testing within the automotive manufacturing sector in the nelson mandela bay municipality (nmbm). lotteries can encourage employees hiv testing behaviour and also help to improve hiv testing uptake necessary for companies to determine a reliable hiv prevalence rate for their workforce (weihs & meyer-weitz, 2014, in press). human resource managers require these data for their companies’ strategic human resource planning in order to ‘ensure that the right numbers of the right kinds of people are available at the right times and in the right places to translate organisational plans into reality’ (rothwell & kazanaz, 2003, p. 2), as well as ensuring timely support and care to hiv-infected employees. still, more research is necessary to clarify the theoretical underpinnings of lottery interventions (lee et al., 2014; weihs & meyer-weitz, 2014, 2016) as there is a lack of empirical evidence on how lottery incentives may influence employees’ workplace hct behaviour. this may constitute a critical element towards trying to understand, predict and support employees’ workplace hct performance. although lotteries used to encourage hiv testing in south africa have been criticised to coerce people to participate in hiv testing (cameron & van der merwe, 2012; office of the anc chief whip, 2011), first studies done in south african companies show that lotteries influenced employees’ hiv testing behaviour through positive social pressure (weihs & meyer-weitz, 2014, in press). however, the two mentioned studies could not exclude the possibility that some employees might have participated in workplace hct just because they wanted to win the lottery. interviewees stated that for some employees, the possibility of winning the lottery appeared to be the only motivating factor to participate in workplace hiv testing regardless of all hiv and aids workplace programme (wpp) activities done to sensitise employees to the importance of knowing your hiv status (weihs & meyer-weitz, 2014). past experience of receiving rewards and the possibility of being rewarded in the future are known to motivate people (kahneman & tversky, 1979; loewenstein, weber, hsee & welch, 2001). lotteries have been found to particularly improve participation in health behaviour activities among staff with lower income (haisley, volpp, pellathy & loewenstein, 2012). purpose this research formed part of a larger study examining the influence of lotteries on workers’ workplace hiv testing behaviour within the automotive industry in south africa. lotteries’ positive and also negative influences on workers’ hiv testing behaviour need to be understood to avoid undue coercion of employees. more studies on incentives are needed that measure complex constructs such as coercion (marteau, ashcroft & oliver, 2009). because of the highly different employment nature of permanent versus non-permanent workers with all its implications pertaining to their legal status and differences in levels of wages, access to hiv and aids wpp activities, social security and education levels, the decision was made in this study to distinguish lotteries’ influence on permanent and non-permanent staff. permanent staff is of central importance in companies’ long-term strategic human resource planning while non-permanent staff, a significant group, is estimated to make up about 7% of south africa’s total labour force (the world bank, 2013). to allow better understanding of lotteries’ influence on companies’ staff, this study investigated whether permanent and non-permanent workers intended to test for hiv only to win a prize when lotteries were used. the study contributed towards a growing body of knowledge about the use of incentives in encouraging workplace health-screening behaviours, in particular, the use of lottery incentives to improve workplace hct uptake. managers, health practitioners and even funding agencies have an interest in finding ways to encourage workplace hiv testing in ways that do not result in undue coercion. the results of this study are argued to inform recommendations on the use of lotteries in encouraging workplace hiv testing. literature review the importance of determining workplace hiv prevalence south africa has the world’s largest hiv and aids epidemic (unaids, 2014). an estimated 90% of hiv-positive people are in the economically active age group (sabcoha, 2015; setswe, 2009). yet, recent studies show that in 2012 only 44.8% of the estimated 6.4 million hiv-positive people living in south africa knew their hiv status (shisana, 2013); therefore, many may not seek timely treatment. to address the epidemic, the south african national strategic plan on hiv, stis and tb, 2012–2016 (sanac, 2012), and the code of good practice on hiv and aids and the world of work (department of labour, 2012) foresee that workplaces should address hiv, which would include the promotion of hct that is considered to be one of the most effective and efficient instruments in hiv prevention and access to care in africa (corbett et al., 2006). hiv management in the workplace is becoming a priority for companies operating in countries with a high hiv prevalence (arimoto et al., 2013; george & quinlan, 2009) as hiv and aids are eroding corporate investments and companies are losing trained staff because of aids (arimoto et al., 2013; george, surgey & gow, 2014). in the context of wide access to antiretroviral treatment (art), hiv-positive workers unaware of their status may not receive timely support and treatment that will prevent ill-health and an untimely death, detrimental to both their families and companies. consequently, many companies in south africa have introduced hiv and aids wpp (arimoto et al., 2013; ellis & terwin, 2005). these wpp interventions cover, for example, hiv and aids policies, hiv prevention, treatment and care education, provision of condoms, workplace hct, art or medical referral for treatment of employees (mahajan et al., 2007). to ensure quality and standardisation of such wpp, the south african bureau of standards developed the sans 16001:2013, a national standard for a wellness and disease management system including hiv and tb (gansan, 2013). one of the key issues of these hiv and aids wpp is the focus on determining a reliable hiv prevalence for the company’s staff through workplace hct. high workplace hct participation allows defining a reliable company hiv prevalence rate, which in turn is a prerequisite for efficient and effective hiv and aids management (unaids, 2002). this has also been acknowledged by the sans 16001:2013 wellness and disease management system that aims to provide organisations with solid data and statistics on the health determinants and burden of disease within their workplaces necessary for proper strategic human resource planning (gansan, 2013). unfortunately, relatively low hiv testing uptake rates are reported by south africa’s companies (connelly & rosen, 2006; george, 2006; george & quinlan, 2009; sabcoha, 2015). offering incentives might be a useful tool to encourage workplace hct (george & quinlan, 2009; lee et al., 2014; mahajan et al., 2007; weihs & meyer-weitz, 2014). lotteries to encourage hiv testing, a contentious subject in south africa from a cultural perspective, competitions such as lotteries are extremely popular among south africans and are especially present in people’s daily life (van wyk, 2012). in her study, van wyk (2012) found that although almost 70% of her study’s interviewees reported never winning anything in the lottery, 80% of them kept on ‘taking a chance’. lottery competitions have already been used for mass hiv testing in south africa. for instance, the south african ‘right to know’ hiv testing competition tested more than 50 000 people in 2009 (keeton, 2009). supporters of the use of lotteries for encouraging hiv testing claim that lotteries help people to make the ‘right choice’ and are not coercive. neville koopowitz, ceo of discovery health that supported the ‘right to know’ competition, said that his organisation wanted to apply its ‘model of giving people incentives to participate in healthy behaviours … to our country’s most pressing and important health issue’ (keeton, 2009, p. 2). sunday times editor mondli makhanya described how lotteries made it exciting to test: ‘by offering an incentive, we believe that the right to know campaign has contributed to making it hip to test’ (keeton, 2009, p. 2). new start’s technical adviser, scott billy, said: i think it’s a great idea. if you test and win the prize, you’ve won twice. you’ve won some money and you’ve won the opportunity to take control of your health, your life and your family’s future by learning your hiv status. and if you don’t win the prize, you’ve still won because you got yourself tested. (keeton, 2009, p. 2) there are many examples in south africa where lotteries are claimed to have increased hiv testing rates and thus promoted efficiency: a little increase in expenditures for lotteries nevertheless created a large health benefit. in november 2011, the western cape government implemented a pilot lottery to encourage people in communities to get tested for hiv. preliminary indications show that the incentive scheme significantly increased the number of people tested (mbhele, 2011). when the national department of health launched its hiv testing campaign ‘first things first’ among tertiary institutions in the country, prizes such as a car, laptop computer and book vouchers were offered in the lottery to attract students to test. as an incentive to participate, first-year students could enter a lucky draw at each campus. approximately 97% of students counselled and tested for hiv (cameron & van der merwe, 2012). the ‘first things first’ campaign was overall described as a great success and was awarded by the african network for strategic communication in december 2011. the non-governmental organisation bulungula incubator managed to triple the hiv testing uptake in four eastern cape villages by using lotteries to encourage villagers to check their status (malan, 2013). in various discussions held with senior staff of the automotive industry in the nelson mandela bay, south africa, one of the authors learned that they were convinced that lotteries increased workplace hct rates, that staff highly appreciated lotteries and that it created a positive atmosphere around workplace hct. in an interview, sean jelly, ceo of a south african company specialising in providing hiv and aids medical support to corporate employers, reported that lotteries greatly increased workplace hct uptake among their clients (george & quinlan, 2009). while rebecca hodes, director of policy for the treatment action campaign welcomed initiatives to promote hiv testing, some of the treatment action campaign leaders and members were critical of lotteries and said that ‘it is a great enough incentive to know your status and to access anti-retrovirals if you need them’ (keeton, 2009, p. 2). lotteries are described to be coercive as they put undue pressure on people to participate in hiv testing (cameron & van der merwe, 2012), especially on a person in desperate need for extra financial income. the office of the anc chief whip argued with regard to the 2011 western cape’s government lottery that the hiv and aids testing lottery down played the gravity of hiv and aids and that it generated the impression that hiv and aids concern only the poor, who are easily tempted by prizes (office of the anc chief whip, 2011). a frequent criticism is that lotteries to encourage hiv testing are a poor use of public resources that should rather be used for more urgent needs: ‘the battle against hiv/aids must not be a game where people’s participation is motivated by winning the jackpot’, and that the money might be better spent if handed over to the national aids council and the department of health (office of the anc chief whip, 2011, p. 1). lotteries are accused of being paternalistic as they undermine individuals’ autonomy. lotteries used in the 2011 western cape’s government lottery were described to undermine the importance of hiv and aids education that ensures understanding of hiv testing, counselling and the advantages of knowing one’s status (office of the anc chief whip, 2011). in conclusion, many claims for and against the use of lotteries to influence workplace hct in south africa exist, but very little scientific evidence about their influence on employees’ workplace hiv testing behaviour has been published. findings about lottery incentives to encourage workplace hiv counselling and testing the quantitative results of a study done in south african automotive companies in which lotteries were used to encourage workplace hct showed that the announcement of lotteries significantly increased employees’ workplace hct behaviour intention and perceptions of support by the company, colleagues and family to participate in hiv testing. the results reflected employees’ strong conviction that such a collective approach to workplace hct would be successful. the lotteries helped to address various existing hct barriers at a ‘social-cultural-collective’ level rather than at an individual level (weihs & meyer-weitz, in press). furthermore, a qualitative study done in the same companies after the hiv testing to explore participants’ experiences of the lottery and all aspects in this regard showed that in the 2 weeks prior to the hiv screening event, lotteries brought excitement to the workplace and enhanced shop-floor workers’ personal interest in hiv testing (weihs & meyer-weitz, 2014). this enabled social interactions and collective support among the staff with regard to participating in hiv testing and helped in mitigating hiv stigma. lotteries were described as being a supportive and innovative company initiative. employees expressed social support and encouragement for testing but did not experience this as coercive (weihs & meyer-weitz, 2014). a qualitative research study done among students who participated in the south african ‘first things first’ campaign, showed similar findings. most of the participants supported the lottery. students’ reported that the reasons for getting hiv tested were the excitement created by the campaign and friends encouraging them. although many participants were encouraged by the prospect of winning a prize, no student reported feelings of coercion. the students reported that the decision to participate in hiv testing was based on ‘their own best interests’ (cameron & van der merwe, 2012). against the above background, this research posed the following question: how do lottery incentives influence permanent and non-permanent workers’ workplace hiv testing behaviour intention, when lottery entry is conditional on hiv testing (setting 1) compared to when hiv testing is not conditional for entry into the lottery (setting 2)? if workers’ workplace hct behaviour intention in setting 1 was not found to be significantly higher than that in setting 2, this would suggest that workers’ intention to participate in workplace hiv testing was not significantly influenced by the prizes of the lottery. method research approach this research forms part of a larger study examining the influence of lottery incentives on workers’ workplace hct behaviour. for more details about the methodology and particularly the measuring instruments, refer to weihs and meyer-weitz (in press). a quantitative approach was followed. for this study, a post-test only, quasi-experimental study design was used in two different settings as described below. the workplace poses major challenges for impact assessments and limits the design of these studies. participants the data for setting 1 were collected among shop-floor workers (permanent and non-permanent workers) in two independent automotive component manufacturing companies of the nmbm in november and december 2010. similarly, the data for setting 2 were collected among shop-floor workers in two other independent automotive component manufacturing companies of the nmbm in july and november 2012. participating companies had never offered incentives in the past to encourage workers to test for hiv in the workplace. none of the companies offered art to their employees. workers in all companies had been involved in a minimum of 6 months of hiv and aids wpp activities of similar standard. these comprised the implementation of hiv and aids policies and education activities directed at hiv prevention, treatment and care. all workers were also informed that a wellness event would soon be held on the premises of the company where four health-screening tests would be offered for free, that is, hypertension, blood sugar level, body mass index and hiv. the study population included all permanent and non-permanent shop-floor workers working in two different shifts, one shift receiving the experimental intervention, the other shift being the control group. in all companies, the two shifts were set up by production managers unaware of the research study when planning the shifts. the sample size of setting 1 was 203 workers, of whom 198 completed the questionnaires (control group [n = 88] and experimental group [n = 110], response rate was 97.5%). the sample size of setting 2 was 356 workers, of whom 316 completed valid questionnaires (control group [n = 147] and experimental group [n = 169], the response rate was 88.8%). measuring instruments for the larger study, a questionnaire was compiled in accordance to the theory of planned behaviour (ajzen, 1991) to measure predictors of workplace hct behaviour intention for use in both settings. in addition, various socio-demographic information were sought, that is age, gender, marital status, highest education reached and employment status. however, for this research only data that measured workplace hct behaviour intention and socio-demographics were used to answer the research question. intention to participate in workplace hct (bintention) was investigated with the statement ‘if the company would organise its on-site wellness day tomorrow, i would go testing for hiv tomorrow’. bintention was assessed using a four-point likert scale. design a post-test only, quasi-experimental study design was used. a structured, self-administrated questionnaire in english was administered to the control and experimental groups in both settings. english was the official language used in the workplaces and the large majority of workers had national senior certificates. the experimental intervention was a leaflet informing shop-floor workers about data and venue of the wellness event and the conditions to be entered into the lottery (shopping vouchers worth r2000 [first prize], r500 [second prize], and 10 extra r100 prizes). in setting 1, the experimental intervention informed that while four health-screening tests were offered, that is, hypertension, blood sugar level, body mass index and hiv, workers had to test for hiv to be entered into the lottery. in setting 2, the experimental intervention informed workers that in the context of the same four health-screening tests, they had to participate in three tests out of the four offered, to be entered into the lottery; so it was made clear that they did not necessarily have to participate in hiv testing to be entered in the lottery. the first prize was close to half a month of a worker’s normal wage. peer educators supported the data collection by explaining and clarifying questions and misunderstandings. they were not informed about the experiment but were told that the survey was done to improve the hiv and aids wpp. the data were captured considering quality assurance for completeness and consistency. ethical approval for the study was obtained from the university of kwazulu-natal ethics committee (reference number hss/1263/010). analysis the study data were analysed using spss 22 software. frequencies were calculated and the central tendencies of the data investigated. chi-square tests were used to compare demographics of setting 1 with demographics of setting 2, distinguishing between permanent and non-permanent workers. for better distribution, bintention was re-coded into a dichotomous variable because of a negatively skewed response rate. to determine whether workers’ intention to test for hiv was solely based on a chance to win a lottery prize, chi-square tests were used to measure the difference in behaviour intention between settings 1 and 2 for the control and experimental groups, and distinguishing between permanent and non-permanent staff. results the demographic characteristics of the permanent workers in contgroup setting 1 and setting 2 and expgroup setting 1 and setting 2 are shown in table 1. chi-square for independence tests indicated no significant differences in terms of the proportions of age, gender, marital status and qualifications in the contgroup setting 1, as compared to contgroup setting 2 and expgroup setting 1 as compared to the expgroup setting 2. thus, contgroup setting 1 and contgroup setting 2 were considered as comparable. expgroup setting 1 and expgroup setting 2 were also considered as comparable. table 1: summary of socio-demographics for permanent workers. similar to the above discussion, the demographic characteristics of the non-permanent workers in contgroup setting 1, and setting 2 and expgroup setting 1 and setting 2 are shown in table 2. chi-square for independence tests indicated no significant differences in terms of the proportions of age, gender, marital status and qualifications in the contgroup setting 1, as compared to contgroup setting 2 and expgroup setting 1 as compared to the expgroup setting 2. thus, the groups were considered comparable. table 2: summary socio-demographics for non-permanent workers. behaviour intention across settings and groups permanent workers a chi-square test for independence (with yates continuity correction) indicated no significant difference between the control groups of permanent workers in both settings (not depicted in a table) for workplace hct behaviour intention ( χ2 = 0.059, p = 0.808, phi = 0.037). as depicted in table 3, a chi-square test for independence (with yates continuity correction) indicated no significant difference for workplace hct behaviour intention between setting 1 and setting 2 for the experimental group of permanent workers ( χ2 = 1.145, p = 0.285, phi = -0.097). table 3: relationship between bintention and settings 1 and 2 for permanent workers. non-permanent workers a chi-square test for independence (with yates continuity correction) indicated no significant difference between the control groups of non-permanent workers in both settings (not depicted in a table) for workplace hct behaviour intention ( χ2 = 0.231, p = 0.631, phi = -0.075). table 4 shows that for the expgroup among non-permanent workers, a significant difference was measured between setting 1 and setting 2 ( χ2 = 8.04, p = 0.005). the effect size (phi = -0.279) using cohen’s (1988) criteria, was small. table 4: relationship between bintention and settings 1 and 2 for non-permanent workers. discussion outline of results this study compared the influence of lottery incentives on workplace hct behaviour intention in two settings: (1) when entry into the lottery was conditional on hiv testing and (2) when hiv testing was not conditional for entry into the lottery. the findings also shed light on whether the respondents intended to test for hiv only because of the chance to win a prize when lotteries were used to encourage workplace hct. in terms of the control groups’ workplace hct behaviour intentions between settings 1 and 2 for permanent and non-permanent workers, no significant differences emerged. this was expected as there was no significant difference in the socio-demographics, and both groups were exposed to very similar hiv and aids wpp activities. in addition, to ensure constant quantity, quality and costs of production, production managers tend to put together fairly similar groups of workers for the shifts in their companies. no significant difference was found for workplace hct behaviour intention between setting 1 and setting 2 for the experimental groups of permanent workers. here, the same proportion of workers indicated a strong behavioural intention to participate in workplace hct irrespective of whether they had to participate in workplace hct to be entered into the lottery or not. this result indicates that the announcement of lotteries did not pressurise permanent workers to choose between hiv testing and having the chance to access extra financial income or not testing and being excluded from a chance of extra income. this result and the findings of weihs and meyer-weitz (2014, 2016) supported the conclusion that lotteries were highly likely to have played a catalyst role, that is, fostered excitement, positive feelings of encouragement and support for workplace hiv testing rather than being coercive. this finding corroborates with that of cameron and van der merwe (2012) in their study among students where it was reported that although many participants were encouraged by the prospect of winning a prize, no student reported feelings of coercion. the non-permanent workers represented nearly 42% of the study population. this is a very high figure knowing that temporary workers make up an estimated 7% of south africa’s labour force as mentioned above (the world bank, 2013). a significant difference for workplace hct behaviour intention was found between setting 1 and setting 2 for the experimental group of non-permanent workers. however, according to cohen’s criteria (1988), the effect size was small and of limited practical value. caution should be taken when interpreting this result as the sample size was small. when non-permanent workers did not have to participate in workplace hct to be entered in the lottery, proportionally fewer workers were motivated to participate in workplace hct. these results indicate that when lotteries were announced, non-permanent workers’ hiv testing intention was slightly higher in setting 1 than in setting 2, thus suggesting that some non-permanent workers mainly intended to participate in hiv testing because they wanted to be eligible to win a lottery prize. lotteries have been previously found to improve participation in health behaviours, particularly among staff with lower levels of income (haisley et al., 2012). a recent study by dickinson (2015) among post office workers revealed that, although working alongside permanent workers and doing the same work, non-permanent workers had very different terms and conditions of employment and earned just a quarter of what permanent workers were earning. the chances that non-permanent workers contribute to pension funds or medical aid, are smaller (the world bank, 2013). furthermore, non-permanent workers face higher insecurity of employment as their employment can suddenly be ended at the demand of the client (bamu & godfrey, 2009). although this study did not collect data about the income and other benefits of study participants, the above-mentioned literature findings could be an explanation for non-permanent workers’ workplace hiv testing intention being slightly positively influenced by their interest in winning a lottery prize. for this more vulnerable sample of workers, lotteries might have created an irresistible offer pushing them to choose testing to have a chance of accessing extra financial income over not testing and being excluded from a chance of extra income. however, a qualitative study done after the hiv testing event in setting 1, companies described how lotteries in the 2 weeks before hiv testing took place in the companies, brought excitement to the workplace and enhanced shop-floor workers’ personal interest in hiv testing (weihs & meyer-weitz, 2014). this enabled social interactions and collective support among the staff with regard to participating in hiv testing and helped mitigating hiv stigma. the study interviewees who consisted of permanent and non-permanent staff described lotteries as being a supportive and innovative company initiative. still, as the above quantitative results show that non-permanent employees’ hiv testing behaviour intention was significantly influenced by the prizes, it cannot be excluded that some non-permanent workers only tested to win a prize and in this way were slightly more coerced to test. limitations and recommendations the study only measured the influence of specific lottery prizes on employees’ behaviour intention. it did not include a follow-up to clarify whether workers translated their intentions into practice. furthermore, the influence of other types and values of lottery prizes on employees’ behaviour needs to be clarified. findings of this study are based on relatively small samples in companies that had implemented an hiv and aids wpp of a specific standard. further studies with bigger samples and in different settings are necessary to generalise the results. recommendations were developed in addition to those proposed by weihs and meyer-weitz (2014, in press): when making use of lotteries to encourage workers’ workplace hiv testing, it is important that all workers presenting for hiv testing benefitted from hiv and aids wpp and it is made sure that they are informed about all implications of testing positive, their rights as well as how to access treatment and care. to assure this, contracts signed with labour brokers should foresee that all non-permanent staff to be placed should benefit from hiv and aids wpp. to assure quality, hiv and aids wpps should be based on widely acknowledged standards and evaluated regularly as per the code of good practice on hiv and aids and the world of work (department of labour, 2012) and/or sans 16001:2013 (gansan, 2013). this ethical practice should be integral to hiv management as part of strategic human resource planning. conclusion the results of this study allowed comparing the influence of lottery incentives on workplace hct behaviour intention in two settings: (1) when entry into the lottery was conditional on hiv testing and (2) when hiv testing was not conditional for entry into the lottery. in the case of permanent workers, no significant association was found between the behaviour intentions to test in the two settings. for these workers, testing intention was not significantly influenced by their interest in winning a lottery prize. however, for the non-permanent workers a significant, yet small difference was found. when lotteries were announced, non-permanent employees’ hct behaviour intention was slightly higher in setting 1 than in setting 2, suggesting that some were likely to have participated in hiv testing for entry into the lottery in the hope of winning a prize. this could be linked to their often poorer employment conditions than permanent employees. however, the effect size was small. caution is also needed when interpreting the result because of the small sample size. these results and the findings of weihs and meyer-weitz (2014, in press) strongly suggest that the use of lotteries to encourage workplace hiv testing are highly likely to help workers ‘do the right thing’ and is unlikely to be unduly coercive. ethical practice in hiv management also demands that before hiv testing, all workers participate in standardised hiv and aids wpp activities and are well informed about the consequences, support and treatment available when testing hiv positive. acknowledgements we thank the companies and workers who participated in the study. we would also like to thank the human sciences research council, the automotive industry development centre eastern cape and the deutsche gesellschaft für internationale zusammenarbeit gmbh for supporting the research. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.w. and a.m-w. conceived and designed the experiments. m.w. performed the experiments. m.w. and a.m-w. analysed the data and wrote the manuscript. references ajzen, i. (1991). the theory of planned behavior. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 50(2), 179–211. http://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-t arimoto, y., seiro, i., kudo, y., & kazunari, t. (2013). stigma, social relationship and hiv testing in the workplace: evidence from south africa (cei working paper series no. 2012–06). center for economic institutions, institute of economic research, hitotsubashi university. retrieved june 07, 2015 from http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/hithitcei/2012-06.htm bamu, p., & godfrey, s. (2009). exploring labour broking in the south african construction industry. braamfontein, south africa: building & wood workers’ international. retrieved may 10, 2015, from http://www.lrs.org.za/docs/bwi_labour%20broking%20booklet.pdf bhagwanjee, a., petersen, i., akintola, o., & george, g. (2008). bridging the gap between vct and hiv/aids treatment uptake: perspectives from a mining-sector workplace in south africa. african journal of aids research, 7(3), 271–279. cameron, d.a., & van der merwe, h. (2012). are students being coerced into testing for hiv? ethical considerations related to offering incentives for hiv counselling and testing at tertiary institutions in south africa. south african journal of bioethics and law, 5(2), 95–97. http://doi.org/10.7196/sajbl.197 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. (2nd edn.). hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum. retrieved august 05, 2015, from http://books.google.com/books?id=tl0n2lrao9oc connelly, p., & rosen, s. (2006). treatment for hiv/aids at south africa’s largest employers: myth and reality. south african medical journal, 96(2), 128–133. corbett, e.l., dauya, e., matambo, r., cheung, y.b., makamure, b., bassett, m.t., et al. (2006). uptake of workplace hiv counselling and testing: a cluster-randomised trial in zimbabwe. plos medicine, 3(7), e238. department of labour. (2012). south african code of good practice on hiv and aids and the world of work in employment equity act, no. 55 of 1998. republic of south africa: department of labour. retrieved may 05, 2015, from http://www.labour.gov.za/dol/downloads/legislation/acts/employment-equity/hivaidstechnicalguide.pdf dickinson, d. (2015). contracting out of the constitution: casual workers and the failure of south africa’s industrial relations framework. retrieved may 15, 2015, from http://wiser.wits.ac.za/system/files/seminar/dickinson2015.pdf ellis, l., & terwin, j. (2005). the impact of hiv&aids on selected business sectors in south africa, 2005. stellenbosch: sabcoha and bureau for economic research. retrieved may 05, 2015, from http://www.ber.ac.za/themes/content themes/ber 2.02011/templates/contentgeneral.aspx/?pageidref=1731 gansan, j. (2013, march). sans 16001:2013 wellness and disease management system (including hiv and tb). presentation, south african bureau of standards, sabs. retrieved may 16, 2015, from https://www.sabs.co.za/docs%5cjai%20gansan_certification%20requirements.pdf george, g. (2006). workplace art programmes: why do companies invest in them and are they working? african journal of aids research, 5(2), 179–188. george, g., & quinlan, t. (2009). ‘health management’ in the private sector in the context of hiv/aids: progress and challenges faced by company programmes in south africa. sustainable development, 17(1), 19–29. george, g., surgey, g., & gow, j. (2014). south africa’s private sector investment in training and its erosion as a result of hiv and aids. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 17(2), 109–123. haisley, e., volpp, k.g., pellathy, t., & loewenstein, g. (2012). the impact of alternative incentive schemes on completion of health risk assessments. american journal of health promotion, 26(3), 184–188. http://doi.org/10.4278/ajhp.100729-arb-257 ilo. (2013). the impact of employment on hiv treatment adherence. geneva: international labour organisation. retrieved may 05, 2015, from http://www.ilo.org/aids/publications/wcms_230625/lang--en/index.htm kahneman, d., & tversky, a. (1979). prospect theory: an analysis of decision under risk. econometrica, 47(2), 263–291. http://doi.org/10.2307/1914185 keeton, c. (2009, august 18). disagreement over whether prizes should be offered to those who want to learn whether they’re negative or positive. times live. retrieved may 05, 2015, from http://www.timeslive.co.za/specialreports/hivaids/2009/08/18/50000-pass-our-hiv-testing lee, r., cui, r.r., muessig, k.e., thirumurthy, h., & tucker, j.d. (2014). incentivizing hiv/sti testing: a systematic review of the literature. aids and behavior, 18(5), 905–912. loewenstein, g.f., weber, e.u., hsee, c.k., & welch, n. (2001). risk as feelings. psychological bulletin, 127(2), 267–286. http://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.127.2.267 mahajan, a.p., colvin, m., rudatsikira, j.-b., & ettl, d. (2007). an overview of hiv/aids workplace policies and programmes in southern africa. aids, 21(3), 31–39. malan, m. (2013, november 29). villagers flock to take hiv tests. retrieved may 05, 2015, from http://mg.co.za/article/2013-11-29-villagers-flock-to-take-hiv-tests/ marteau, t.m., ashcroft, r.e., & oliver, a. (2009). using financial incentives to achieve healthy behaviour. british medical journal (clinical research ed.), 338, 983–985. mbhele, z. (2011, december 14). premier zille conducts final prize draw of hiv testing campaign | western cape government (14 december 2011). retrieved may 05, 2015, from https://www.westerncape.gov.za/news/premier-zille-conducts-final-prize-draw-hiv-testing-campaign office of the anc chief whip. (2011). zille must scrap hiv-testing lottery (1 december 2011). retrieved may 05, 2015, from http://www.anc.org.za/caucus/show.php?id=2436 rothwell, w.j., & kazanaz, h.c. (2003). planning & managing human resources: strategic planning for personnel management. (2nd edn.). human resource development press, inc. retrieved may 11, 2015, from http://recruitusmc.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/william-j.-rothwell-h.-c.-kazanas-planning-and-managing-human-resources-second-edition-hrd-press-2002.pdf sabcoha. (2015). hiv & business overview. south african business coalition on health and aids. retrieved may 05, 2015, from http://www.sabcoha.org/hiv-business-overview/ sanac. (2012). the national strategic plan (nsp) 2012–2016. johannesburg: south african national aids council. retrieved october 29, 2015, from http://sanac.org.za/resources/cat_view/2-nsp setswe, g.k.g. (2009). best practice workplace hiv/aids programmes in south africa: a review of case studies and lessons learned. african journal of primary health care & family medicine, 1(1), 1–6. http://doi.org/10.4102/phcfm.v1i1.30 shisana, o. (2013, june 20). hiv/aids in south africa: at last the glass is half full. retrieved may 05, 2015, from http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/media-briefs/hiv-aids-stis-and-tb/plenary-session-3-20-june-2013-hiv-aids-in-south-africa-at-last-the-glass-is-half-full the world bank. (2013). the world development report 2013. washington, dc: the world bank. retrieved october 05, 2015, from http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?contentmdk=23044836&thesitepk=8258025&pipk=8258412&pagepk=8258258&cid=ext_fbwbpubs_p_ext unaids. (2002). the private sector responds to the epidemic: debswana – a global benchmark. (case study, unaids best practice collection.). geneva: joint united nations programme on hiv&aids. retrieved may 05, 2015, from http://data.unaids.org/publications/irc-pub02/jc769-debswana_en.pdf unaids. (2014). gap report. geneva: joint united nations programme on hiv&aids. retrieved may 05, 2015, from http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/campaigns/2014/2014gapreport/gapreport van wyk, i. (2012). ‘tata ma chance’: on contingency and the lottery in post-apartheid south africa. the journal of the international african institute, 82(1), 41–68. weihs, m., & meyer-weitz, a. (2014). a lottery incentive system to facilitate dialogue and social support for workplace hiv counselling and testing: a qualitative inquiry. journal of social aspects of hiv/aids, 11(1), 116–125. http://doi.org/10.1080/17290376.2014.937739 weihs, m., & meyer-weitz, a. (in press). examining how incentives influence workplace hiv testing using the theory of planned behaviour. african journal for aids research, manuscript under review. 5eygelaar.qxd the need for a strategy to improve health service delivery and performance excellence was highlighted by the production of the white paper on the transformation of the public service by the south african department of public service and administration during 1995. it serves as a practical implementation strategy for the transformation of public service delivery. the white paper is primarily about how public services should be provided, and specifically about improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the way in which services should be rendered. the white paper also provides a framework to enable public services to develop performance excellence strategies. these strategies will need to promote continuous performance improvements in quantity, quality and equity of service provision. this study is contextualised in a public service health care organisation. the decision on this topic and its relevance and importance was theoretically, empirically and practically informed by strategic imperatives induced by the transformation of the particular state department, the constitution of the republic of south africa, corporate governance in south africa, the south african department of health strategic framework 1999 – 2004, the department’s business strateg y, global optimisation plans for health systems and performance measurements in the public sector. organisational performance excellence organisational performance excellence means different things to different organisations (scholtz, 1997; prescott, 1998; prinsloo et al.,1999; peters & waterman, 1992b). according to robson (1988), the absence of a comprehensive and integrated practical model has caused the demise of many efforts to introduce organisational performance excellence. therefore constructing a definition of organisational performance excellence seems to be quite a challenging task (knauft et al., 1991). samson and challis (1999, p. xvi) state that the world's truly excellent companies illustrate definite observable patterns. these patterns include: a single, integrated improvement strategy, a conscious focus on using a set of fundamental principles of management to guide behaviour in their organisation, active management of performance, linking rewards for all employees to organisational performance, benchmarking themselves against other leading companies and setting corresponding stretch goals and most importantly, linking together the elements of strategy, actions and operations, performance and rewards in powerful, sensible ways. veldsman (1994, p. 21; 2002, p. 34) postulates that world class organisations need be characterised by: convergence around specific foci and divergence towards new foci, extrapolation from the present and future creation, maintenance of the existing and creation of the new, alignment around vision/philosophy and flexibility in the ways to achieve the vision, control over the context of action (for example, direction, outcomes) and autonomy regarding the freedom to act at the point of action, differentiation around areas of specialised competence and integration around measurable, customer-focused whole pieces of work (or core competencies/ capabilities), proficiency with respect to what needs to be done in the present and potential creation with respect to future demands, exploitation to the fullest extent of what is available now and enhancing what exists for future application, beingresults driven and using a style that will retain buy-in and commitment and allowing for the survival of the fittest through constructive competition and ensuring support through caring. based on the successful corporate turnarounds of several south african companies despite a high degree of environmental sjd eygela ar js uys department of human resources management rau university abstract this article examines the appropriateness of applying the south african excellence model for public service performance excellence in developing a strateg y to enhance health service delivery and performance excellence in a state department. the results achieved by the application of the south african excellence modei for public service performance excellence self-assessment questionnaire provide potential benefits for the state department to enhance health service delivery and performance excellence. the excellence model identifies the department’s strengths and areas for improvement based upon well-established internationally accepted theoretical frameworks and recognised criteria for performance excellence. from this study it is inferred that determining health service performance excellence continues to be a challenge in the department. opsomming hierdie artikel ondersoek die geskiktheid van die toepassing van die suid-afrikaanse uitnemendheidsmodel vir openbare sektor prestasieuitnemendheid as die ont wikkeling van ‘n strategie vir die bevordering van gesondheidsdienslewering en prestasieuitnemendheid in ‘n staatsdepartment. die resultate behaal met die toepassing van die suid-afrikaanse uitnemendheidsmodel vir openbare sektor prestasieuitnemendheidselfbeoordelingsvraelys bied potensiële voordeel vir die staatsdepartement om gesondheidsdienslewering en prestasieuitnemendheid te bevorder. die uitnemendheidsmodel identifiseer die department se sterkpunte en ontwikkelingsareas gebaseer op internasionaal-gevestigde, teoretiese raamwerke en erkende kriteria vir prestasieuitnemendheid. van hierdie studie kan dit afgelei word dat gesondheidsdiensprestasieuitnemendheid steeds ‘n uitdaging in die departement bly.gevolg deur ’n iteratiewe itemontleding. die voorlopige bevindinge dui daarop dat die vraelys toegepas kan word vir die beoordeling van ’n kliëntintimiteitskultuur. the application of the excellence model to enhance health service delivery and performance excellence in a state department requests for copies should be addressed to: sjd eygelaar, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 32 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (3), 32-41 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (3), 32-41 turbulence, research by nasser and viviers (1995) outlines the processes inherent in developing mindsets and strategies for the new generation and counter-trend organisations. according to nasser and viviers (1995) there are 10 key principles, which encompass the purposeful and success-driven behaviour of new generation organisations. these are: � engaging the market. there are four key principles which are critical in the process of engaging the market. these are: understand the market, create value for customers, call the tune and calculate the risk – then pre-empt. � mobilising capacity. the project research has identified three principles in mobilising capacity. these are: def y the old paradigms, focus on speed, simplicity and self-confidence and create an obsession with perpetual renewal. � energising the organisation. there are three fundamental principles underlying the energising of the organisation. these are: nurture competitive angst, inspire with pack leadership and manage through creative tension. rhinesmith (1996) is of the opinion that no business can excel and succeed without a proper business strategy, which must be translated into appropriate policies, processes, structures, procedures and plans of action. this implies that the integration of these elements into an efficient and effective management system is a prerequisite for corporate success and also the foundation of a global strategy. marquardt (1999, p. 85) ident ifies the elements of business success and refers to what he calls "global competencies", which he defines as "a strategic mastery of identified global business skills, an abilit y to operationalise key global concepts, and a mastery of global competitive and organisational dynamics." these have been further defined as follows: describing the forces behind the globalisat ion of business, recognising and connect ing global market trends, technological innovation and business strateg y, identif ying issues essential to effective strategic alliances, framing day-to-day management issues, problems and goals in a global context, thinking and planning beyond historical, cult ural and political boundaries, struct ures, systems and processes; creating and effectively leading worldwide business teams, and establishing a functional global organisational structure. prinsloo et al. (1999) developed a model of a world-class organisation. this model depicts direction, delivery system and business results as key elements and concepts of corporate excellence. prinsloo et al. (1999) also regard the concept of joint governing ("partnering") as an essential component in the management of world-class organisations. as stated above, joint governance refers to the inter-relationships between the various stakeholders (customers, suppliers, employees, organised labour, government and community). most world-class organisations practise what has been called the "lean management" concept of business (aurik et al., 2003). steen (2002) summarises this concept as follows: defining customer value, adding value at every step along the way, creating a value chain, tailoring product to customer needs and pursuing perfection (i.e. seek continuous improvement). against the background of premises formulated by different scholarships, and for the purpose of this study, organisational performance excellence, therefore, can be conceptualised as a goal, based on corporate culture, values and belief systems (mindsets), underlined by an integrated framework and fundamental strategic determinants. these strategic determinants provide the foundation stones on which an organisation committed to excellence can build its strategic competitiveness (hamel & prahalad, 1994; scholtz, 1997; denton & campbell, 1999; doug, 2000). strategic determinants for organisational performance excellence strategic determinants for organisational performance excellence are key areas of the organisation, which, if properly managed, will improve the organisation's global competitiveness and performance excellence (doug, 2000; ali et al., 2001; stiglitz, 2002). a comprehensive literature study indicates many approaches to achieving sustainable organisational performance excellence. however, within these approaches there are some basic (generic) strategic determinants, which underpin organisational performance excellence. a condensed list of strategic determinants for organisational performance excellence is introduced based on an assessment of different studies and international organisational performance excellence models (shergold & reed, 1996). however, strategic determinants are dynamic concepts and will change as excellent organisations develop and improve. the following strategic determinants for organisational performance excellence are identified. these strategic determinants for organisational excellence are theoretically defined. � leadership relates to the behaviour of all managers in respect of how the executive team and all other managers inspire, drive and reflect a culture of performance excellence as the organisation’s fundamental process for continuous improvement (peters & waterman, 1992a); abell, 1995; dahlgaard, 1997; dahlgaard, 1999; hall & maritz, 1997; kedia & harveston, 1998; zairi, 1999a; hough & neuland, 2000; cardona, 2000; veldsman, 2002). � policy and strategy reviews the organisation’s mission, vision and strategic direction (birkin, 1997; john et al., 1997; taylor, 1997; zairi, 1999b; fredericks, 2000; willet et al., 2002; pearce & robinson, 2003). � customer satisfaction examines what the organisation is achieving in relation to the satisfaction of its external customers (heskett et al., 1994; koopman, 1994; kellas, 1997; darling, 1999; schmidt, 1999; smith, 2000; becker et al., 2001; crawford & matthews, 2001; hirvonen & helander, 2001; walters & jones, 2001; amderson & kerr, 2002; cant et al., 2002; cook, 2002; eisler, 2002; galbreath, 2002; handfield & nichols, 2002; seybold et al., 2002; smith & wheeler, 2002; veldsman, 2002; faulkner, 2003; knox et al., 2003). � people management studies the management of the organisation’s people and how the organisation releases the full potential of its people to improve its business and/or service continuously (hall, 1980; stroh & caligiuri, 1998; eastgate, 2000; gratton, 2000; luoma, 2000; blanchard et al., 2001; aldisert, 2002; glanz, 2002; mckeown, 2002; rostron, 2002; veldsman, 2002; erasmus & van dyk, 2003). � resources and information management refers to the management, utilisation and preservation of resources and how the organisation’s resources are effectively deployed in support of policy and strategy (hamel & prahalad, 1996; thorp, 1998; april & cradock, 2000; marchand et al., 2000; willcocks, 2000; lessing, 2001; spar, 2001; cairncross, 2002; champy, 2002; veldsman, 2002; drucker, 2003; glen, 2003). � processes analyse the management of all value adding activities within the organisation, and address how processes are identified, reviewed and revised to ensure continuous improvement of the organisation’s business and/or service (schonberger & knod, 1994; champy, 1995; hammer & champy, 1995; saunders, 1997; veldsman, 1997; hall, 2002; lowson, 2002; veldsman, 2002). � impact on society probes what the organisation is achieving in satisf ying the needs and expectations of the community at large (schmidt, 1999; edgeman, 2000; tinsley, 2001; prusak & cohen, 2001; post et al., 2002; rockey, 2002). excellence model 33 � people satisfaction investigates what the organisation is achieving in relation to the satisfaction of its people (john et al.,1997; schmidt, 1999). � organisation results review what the organisation is achieving in relation to its planned business and/or service objectives and in satisf ying the needs and expectations of everyone with an interest in the organisation (schonberger & knod, 1994; champy, 1995; becker et al., 2001; bossidy et al., 2002). excellence model theoretical frameworks it is internationally accepted that excellence models provide potential benefits for organisations to enhance service delivery and performance excellence. excellence models identif y organisational strengths and areas for improvement based upon well-established internationally accepted theoretical frameworks and recognised criteria (strategic determinants) for performance excellence. they provide an organisation-wide assessment and create a concept ual framework for the way organisations can strategically position themselves. excellence models involve employees at all levels in performance excellence improvement. they allow organisations to measure improvements and progress over time through regular self-assessment processes. excellence models facilitate comparisons with other similar organisations and identif y critical areas for improvement. one of the most important potential benefits of applying excellence models is that it improves the development of an organisation business plan and strategy. in broad terms, the major excellence model frameworks stress the importance of management process, customer satisfaction, people and total qualit y to the attainment of superior competitive position (ghobadian & woo, 1994; motwani, 2001; lee, 2002; tan, 2002). the major business excellence awards, e.g. iso9000, deming application prize, the eqa and the malcolm baldrige quality award, are based on a perceived model of business excellence (tqm). the models underpinning the frameworks implicitly recognise that the excellence of the final results is the outcome of a complex of integrated processes and employees' efforts. at a first glance, the major excellence model frameworks appear to be significantly different in terms of the assessment categories (criteria) they use to establish the performance excellence profile of an organisation. however, a closer examination of categories and criteria (items) within each category reveals a number of common areas. these include: formulation of quality policies; assigning responsibility for quality to the top management; constant improvement in the level of understanding of the quality policies within and outside the organisation; managing quality procedures and control; reviewing the progress of the improvement process; and delegation of authority, recognition of quality behaviour and empowerment of the workforce. each self-assessment framework also has its unique categories and emphasis. the deming prize addresses factors concerned with the management of facilities, vendors, procurement and service. the eqa considers the management and provision of resources. the baldrige award incorporates projection of the competitive environment, management of data and information and consideration of human resources. the self-assessment frameworks place a different emphasis on the importance of results. the eqa places significant importance on the results and has four examination categories for this purpose. moreover, it is the only reward that unquestionably addresses the financial results. the eqa and the baldrige award also consider the impact on society. in general, the deming prize criteria place greater emphasis on the quality assurance of products and services, whereas the baldrige award and the eqa criteria have a broader scope and less depth. the baldrige award, and to a lesser extent, the eqa are criticised because of their weak focus on business results. detractors also argue that the reviewed excellence model frameworks are too process-orientated and place too much emphasis on tqm as a "check the box activity" and not as a path to sustainable results. they argue that more emphasis should be placed on results over time and that these frameworks should not simply reinforce the culture of "just do it". the eqa, by including and examining financial results, has to some extent addressed this criticism. the other criticisms directed at the major reviewed excellence model frameworks include (leonard & mcadam, 2002): award criteria are static and not dynamic; supplicants nominate themselves and are not nominated by customers; the eqa, baldrige award and deming prize fail to define quality clearly; awards encourage a homegrown approach to quality and this will not help them to achieve world-class performance; companies may focus on winning the award rather than opport unities for selfexamination, learning and improvement; and pursuing the award distracts the attention of key executives from running the business. each of the reviewed excellence model frameworks has its unique characteristics. however, they all attempt to propagate organisational performance excellence practices. they share a set of fundamental philosophies. these include: acceptance of responsibility for quality by the top management, customer orientation, high level of employee participation, open and effective communication, fact-based management and strategic quality planning. there is no doubt that excellence model frameworks have helped to focus attention on organisational performance excellence and facilitated a better understanding of the underlying issues. the full impact of these excellence model frameworks on improving the global competitiveness of national and international industry and commerce (as well as non-profit public service organisations) must still be ascertained. the excellence model conceptual framework used in this study consists of the south african excellence model for public service performance excellence (south african excellence model, 2000). in applying the excellence model, a strategy was developed for service delivery and performance excellence for the department’s health service. the south african excellence model for public service performance excellence is based on the following premise as depicted in figure 1 (south african excellence model, 2000): � customer and stakeholder satisfaction, people satisfaction, impact on society, and supplier and partnership performance are achieved through � leadership driving � policy and strategy, customer and stakeholder focus, people management, resources and information management, and processes leading ultimately to excellence in � organisation results. eygela ar, uys34 figure 1: south african excellence model for public service performance excellence (south african excellence model, 2000) applications of performance excellence improvement frameworks in health care organisations many different approaches to improving performance excellence have been developed and deployed in health care over the last 20 years (ovretveit, 2002). the variety of approaches include educational programmes, team projects using different quality (excellence) methodologies, medical audit (walshe,1995), hospital quality programmes, the malcolm baldridge quality award (nist, 1999), comparative measurement systems such as the maryland hospital indicators system (kazandjian et al., 1995), collaborative rapid improvement methods (kilo, 1998), as well as national quality strategies (norwegian ministry of health, 1995; doh, 1998). some of the performance excellence improvement frameworks focus on professional competence through clinical guidelines (woolf et al., 1999), continuing medical education (accreditation council for continuing medical education, 1997) and clinical peer review (van weert, 2000). others focus on external control through public performance reporting (department of health, 1998). an extensive literature review by zimmerer et al. (1999) examined the extent to which philosophies, techniques and tools related to systematic performance excellence improvement were being utilised in an operational health care environment. it is evident from the literature review by zimmerer et al. (1999) that some hospitals and other segments of the health care industry have attempted to implement business philosophies, techniques and tools such as tqm, benchmarking, business process reengineering and timebased competition. different to the findings by zimmerer et al. (1999), yasin et al. (2002) reason that in most cases, such new managerial philosophies, techniques and tools, which have been proven to be effective in the business and manufacturing sector, are not being systematically implemented in health care organisations. yasin et al. (2002, p. 2) concluded their empirical investigation of the effectiveness of contemporary managerial philosophies in a hospital operational setting by stating: “the lack of complete utilization and full integration of these philosophies is, to a large extent, attributed to historic internal barriers to change and the lack of overall strategy to integrate the implementation of such philosophies.” blumenthal and kilo (cited by yasin et al., 2002, p. 7) strongly reinforce this notion when they conclude that: “the quality improvement in health care has not had the impact that many advocates and observers hoped for. in other industries the theory and methods of continuous improvement have contributed to dramatic improvements in product qualit y that enabled us manufacturers to triumph in the face of fierce international competition … in the health care field none of the national quality experts could identif y a health care organization that has fundamentally improved its performance through continuous quality improvement or any other means.” with this discussion in mind, the objective of this study is to explore the appropriateness of the application of the excellence model in developing a strategy for a health service organisation (hso) to enhance health service delivery and performance excellence. research question given the background about and challenge for applying the excellence model to develop a strategy for a state department’s health service organisation, the following research question emerges: how does the south african excellence model for public service performance excellence enable the health service organisation to develop a strategy for enhancing service delivery and performance excellence? research goals aim of the research the aim of this research is to identif y critical areas for enhancing service delivery and performance excellence associated with the application of the excellence model to develop a strategy for a health service organisation. objectives of the research to arrive at such an aim, the following research objectives will be met: � a theoretical framework will be established for assessing organisational performance excellence based on a conceptual framework of the excellence model principles. � a qualitative and quantitative study of a health service organisation will be carried out to establish the critical areas for enhancing service delivery and performance excellence in developing a military health service strategy. method sample the research data are located within the public service health care organisation within a state department. the sample recorded in the study represents a broad and heterogeneous sample of units of the health service organisation across the republic of south africa. seventeen units are included in the study, representing approximately 85% of all units. the units represented in the sample range from hospitals, area health care service units, corporate headquarters and directorates within the department. different levels of management are represented in the sample, ranging from strategic and operational to tactical levels. the measuring instrument the south african excellence model for public service performance excellence self-assessment questionnaire selected and adopted as an integrated approach to self-assessment, because it best meets the needs, requirements and circumstances of the health service organisation. the culture and structure of excellence model 35 the organisation as well as the benefits it desires influenced the selection of the south african excellence model for public service performance excellence self-assessment questionnaire approach to enhance service delivery and performance excellence in health service organisations. reliability in this study refers to the degree to which different operations of the same concept yield the same result (ghiselli et al., 1981; bohrnsteadt & knoke, 1985; neale & liebert, 1986). in this study the reliability factors are addressed in the following ways: the excellence model consists of internationally recognised (benchmarked) criteria for performance excellence, the organisation-wide assessment is based on facts and not individual perception, a structured approach is followed, participants taking part in the action research approach are members of the same organisation, people taking part in the research are trained in applying principles and practices of performance excellence, the method is applied at all organisation levels, from independent units up to the organisation as a whole and consensus is gained to achieve consistency of direction on what needs to be done. validity in this study refers to the degree to which a study results in a measure that accurately reflects the concept it is intended to measure (ghiselli et al., 1981; bohrnsteadt & knoke, 1985; neale & liebert, 1986). this study could be said to be valid if its results as recorded and interpreted enhance service delivery and performance excellence in the health service organisation. the overall generalisation of participatory/action research are often affected by the small number of cases and low degree of control (mouton, 2001). in this study internal generalisation applies to the extent to which conclusions are generalisable to the military health service context in which the study is conducted. given the fairly high percentage (85%) of the representative sample of participants involving employees at all levels in process improvement within the health care organisation, the external generalisation could be regarded as fairly high. data collection procedure in order to meet the objectives of the study, the author gathered information via the administration of the south african excellence model for public service performance excellence selfassessment questionnaire. textual (qualitative) and numeric (quantitative) data were generated and made available in the format of structured interviews and questionnaire responses. new data were gathered through the research. the research design can be classified as primary data. participatory/action research has been considered as research design for the study. according to mouton (2001) participatory/action research involves the subjects of research (research participants) as an integral part of the design. a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods are used in this study in order to gain understanding and insight into the life-worlds of research participants. the conceptualisation and mode of reasoning during the study were more inductive than deductive. the selection of cases and sampling were conducted on the basis of non-probability selection principles. the strength of the participatory/action research design is the participation and involvement on the part of research subjects, which enhances chances of high construct validity, low refusal rates and ownership of findings (mouton, 2001; cornwall, 1995; elden & chisholm, 1993). the application of the south african excellence model for public service performance excellence selfassessment forms part of a four-step workshop approach which helps management teams to become involved and take ownership of the planning and implementation of continuous improvement within their units. statistical and data processing is done by means of the microsoft excel computer package. procedure the designed integrated excellence model assessment framework applied in this study is depicted in figure 2. figure 2: integrated excellence model assessment framework (porter & tanner, 1996; south african excellence model, 2000) the four main steps in the research structure and data collection techniques are (south african excellence model, 2001): � briefing. a briefing is held to introduce team members to the south african excellence model for public service performance excellence. � individual rating. at the briefing each team member receives a copy of the south african excellence model for public service performance excellence self-assessment questionnaire, included in a workbook, in which they mark their own rating of the unit being assessed. � consensus meeting. after the individual completion of the self-assessment questionnaire the team meets for a consensus workshop assisted by a trained facilitator. although the facilitator is a fully trained assessor, his/her role is not to decide the rating but to use questioning techniques and facilitation skills to help the team agree on their rating. � action planning. the final step is the action-planning meeting in which the assessment team uses consensus rating and discussion notes as a basis for producing and implementing an action plan for improvement. results health service corporate enablers and results criteria performance excellence levels the results reported in the study include the different health service organisational enablers and results criteria based on the south african excellence model for public service performance excellence assessment framework. the results reflect the health service organisational performance excellence levels. eygela ar, uys36 table 1 hso corporate enablers and results performance excellence levels score total % average % total average achievement achievement points points criterion leadership 618 36.35 154.50 9.09 policy and strategy 509 29.94 86.53 5.09 customer and stakeholder focus 532 31.29 79.80 4.69 people management 593 34.88 136.39 8.02 resource and information 588 34.59 88.20 5.19 management processes 606 35.64 181.80 10.69 total enablers criteria 3444 33.78 727.22 7.13 criterion impact on society 559 32.88 83.85 4.93 customer and stakeholder 346 20.35 148.78 8.75 satisfaction people satisfaction 399 23.47 87.78 5.16 supplier and partnership 347 20.41 24.29 1.43 organisation results 493 29.00 187.34 11.02 total results criteria 2144 25.22 532.06 6.26 total hso criteria 5588 29.50 1259.28 6.70 the enablers performance excellence level of 34% as assessed by the south african excellence model for public service performance excellence indicate how the health service organisation approaches each of the criterion parts. � the leadership performance excellence level of 36% indicates how the behaviour and actions of the leaders inspire, support and promote a culture of performance excellence. � the policy and strategy performance excellence level of 29% indicates how the organisation formulates, deploys, reviews and turns policy and strategy into plans and actions. � the customer and stakeholder focus performance excellence level of 31% indicates how the organisation determines needs, requirements and expectations, enhances relationships and determines the satisfaction of customers and stakeholders. � the people management performance excellence level of 34% indicates how the organisation releases the full potential of its people. � the resources and information management performance excellence level of 36% indicates how the organisation manages and uses resources and information effectively and efficiently. � the processes performance excellence level of 36% indicates how the organisation identifies, manages, reviews and improves its processes. the results performance excellence level of 25% as assessed by the south african excellence model for public service performance excellence indicates what the health service organisation has achieved. � the impact on society performance excellence level of 33% indicates what the organisation is achieving in satisf ying the needs and the expectations of the local, national and international community at large. � the customer and stakeholder satisfaction performance excellence level of 20% indicates what the organisation is achieving in relation to the satisfaction of its external customers. � the people satisfaction performance excellence level of 23% indicates what the organisation is achieving in relation to the satisfaction of its people. � the supplier and partnership performance excellence level of 20% indicates what the organisation is achieving in relation to the management of supplier and partnering processes. � the organisation results performance excellence level of 29% indicates what the organisation is achieving in relation to its planned objectives and satisf ying the needs and expectations of everyone with a financial interest or other stake in the organisation. strategic areas for health service delivery and performance excellence improvement the health service organisation’s corporate scoring summary sheet is reflected in table 2. the extent of the differences in column d indicates where the organisation should focus its continuous performance excellence efforts (highest figures). table 2 hso organisational scoring summary sheet hso corporate scoring summary sheet criteria criteria weighted points criteria total points scored difference a b c d enablers criteria: 1. leadership 25 9 16 2. policy and strategy 17 5 12 3. customer and stakeholder focus 15 5 10 4. people management 23 8 15 5. resources and information 15 5 10 management 6. processes 30 11 19 total: enablers criteria 125 43 82 results criteria: 7. impact on society 15 5 10 8. customer and stakeholder satisfaction 43 9 34 9. people satisfaction 22 5 17 10. supplier and partnership performance 7 1 6 11. organisation results 38 11 27 total: results criteria 125 31 94 total: hso 250 74 176 the health service organisation’s current/target scoring chart is depicted in figure 3. the current assessment points indicated in column c of the organisational summary sheet (table 2) are recorded in the current/target scoring sheet (figure 3). the criteria weighted points indicate the “target points” for the organisation for its next revision in relation to the public service performance excellence levels benchmarked against international best practice figures. figure 3: hso current/target scoring chart excellence model 37 in comparison with the public sector user’s data (south african excellence model, 2001), the health service organisation on average scored worse in all criteria during this research project. from such a comparison it is clear that the organisation scored best in the criteria supplier and partnership performance, impact on society, resources and information management and customer and stakeholder focus. the areas where the organisation is well behind its counterparts in the public sector are in the criteria customer and stakeholder satisfaction, processes, organisation results, leadership and people management. such relative low scores in the health service organisation offer scope for significant improvements in enhancing health service delivery and performance excellence. giving an indication of the improvement required to enhance health service delivery and performance excellence, the following criteria are identified and prioritised as strategic areas for improvement (table 2 and figure 3): � priority 1: customer and stakeholder satisfaction – the degree to which the organisation satisfies the needs, requirements and expectations of its external customers and stakeholders and enhances relationships. � priority 2: processes – the degree to which the organisation identifies, manages, reviews and improves its processes. � priority 3: organisation results – the degree to which the organisation achieves its planned organisational objectives and satisfies the needs and expectations of everyone with a financial interest or other stake in the organisation. � priority 4: people satisfaction – the degree to which the organisation satisfies the needs of its people. � priority 5: leadership – the degree to which the behaviour and actions of the organisation executive team and all other leaders inspire, support and promote a culture of performance excellence. � priority 6: people management – the degree to which the organisation develops and releases the full potential of its people. � priority 7: policy and strategy – the degree to which the organisation formulates, deploys, reviews and turns policy and strategy into plans and actions. � priority 8.1: customer and stakeholder focus – the degree to which the organisation determines the needs, requirements and expectations of customers and stakeholders, determines the satisfaction of customers and stakeholders and enhances the relationships with them. � priority 8.2: resources and information management – the degree to which the organisation manages and uses resources and information effectively and efficiently. � priority 8.3: impact on society – the degree to which the organisation satisfies the needs and expectations of the local community. � priority 9: supplier and partnership performance – the degree to which the organisation manages supplier and partnership processes effectively. discussion this research focuses on the application of the excellence model to enhance service delivery and performance excellence in a health service organisation. it examines the appropriateness of the south african excellence model for public service performance excellence in developing a strategy for the organisation to enhance health service delivery and performance excellence. the aim of this research was to identif y critical areas for enhancing service delivery and performance excellence associated with the application of the excellence model to develop a strategy for a health service organisation. excellence models were concept ualised in this st udy as internationally accepted self-assessment frameworks that provide potential benefits to organisations in enhancing service delivery and performance excellence. they identif y organisation’ strengths and areas for improvement based upon a set of internationally recognised strategic determinants (criteria) for organisations’ performance excellence. they provide an organisation-wide assessment and create a conceptual framework for the way organisations can improve themselves. it has been stated that excellence models provide a method to measure the organisation’s progress over time and facilitate comparisons with other organisations. excellence models also allow the organisation to integrate various improvement initiatives into normal organisational operations, plans and strategies. a vital research question that was raised during the study was: whether excellence models are appropriate for developing health service strategies. linked to this research question was the question of how the south african excellence model for public service performance excellence enables health service organisations to develop a strategy for enhancing service delivery and performance excellence. the results and data obtained through the application of the south african excellence model for public service performance excellence within the organisation support the notion that excellence models provide potential benefits for health service organisations to develop a health care strategy in enhancing service delivery and performance excellence. an interpretation of the main findings and results of this study highlight the different benefits. the application of the south african excellence model for public service performance excellence within the organisation enables it to determine its corporate performance excellence profile. the corporate performance excellence profile enables the organisation to assess its organisational performance objectively against a number of internationally recognised criteria, identif y the strengths of the organisation, single out areas for improvement and set improvement plans in action. the 30% performance excellence level of the organisation accounted for the identification of areas of improvement within the organisation. the application of the south african excellence model for public service performance excellence within the organisation enabled it to identif y areas for improving service delivery and performance excellence. the identified and prioritised areas for improvement can assist the organisation to set targets and identif y priorit y opportunities in developing a health care strategy to enhance service delivery and performance excellence. the main results of the empirical study indicated that the application of the excellence model in a health service organisation could assist the organisation to develop a strategy in enhancing health service delivery and performance excellence. conclusion this study was conducted with a fairly large representative group of the health service organisation as a public service organisation within a south african state department. the generalisation of the findings is thus quite extensive. however, it would be advisable to conduct further comparative studies to optimise the application of the excellence model in the context of health service systems. the construction of a definition of organisational performance excellence, the different variables contained in it and its relevance for health service organisations will often be eygela ar, uys38 determined by the unique corporate culture of the health service institution. the way in which the corporate culture of the health service institution supports or disrupts the corporate performance and strategic objectives of the organisation must still be determined by further research projects. studies to examine the qualitative and quantitative nature of the strategic determinants for assessing health service organisational performance excellence introduced in this study must be encouraged. it is therefore recommended that the content and construct validity of the strategic determinants for health service organisational performance excellence be ensured by means of qualitative and quantitative research designs and methodologies. this was a first study of its kind in the health service organisation and could be considered as a baseline study determining the current organisational performance excellence levels of the organisation. in the light of the results of this study, it is recommended that follow-up studies should be conducted to establish tables of comparison and changes in the organisation’s performance excellence levels. commitment must be gained from leaders in the organisation to use the south african excellence model for public service performance excellence as an integrated self-assessment framework for assessing organisational performance excellence in the organisation. the commitment of senior management in the organisation must be developed through understanding the rationale of the south african excellence model for public service performance excellence. the whole process of assessing organisational performance excellence is completely wasted unless action is taken on the performance excellence data. far too often, and in far too many organisations, management fails to do this. charts and reports are produced, but they then fail to analyse the data and decide what they are going to do differently inside the organisation. the processes of designing assessment systems are well understood. the issues associated with the implementation of assessment systems are well recognised. the question that health service organisations need to address is how to extract the maximum value from performance assessment data? evidence of effectiveness of the application and implementation of excellence models in health service organisations is still lacking. more research on excellence models should be done to answer performance excellence practitioners' and managers' questions on which approaches are most effective, and on which "context conditions" are critical to allow transfer and replication or translation. research should be encouraged that uses a variety of theorytesting and theory-building research methods to describe excellence models, study outcomes, understand how excellence models work to produce outcomes and understand the assisting and hindering context factors. the quality of research on excellence models would be improved with better descriptions of the excellence (quality) improvement process (i.e. the activities and what was actually done) and of the context of the process over time. research needs to investigate the extent to which the programme was implemented: how "broadly" across all areas of the organisation and how "deeply" in each area. an electronic database of reports of excellence improvement processes should be created to give practitioners easy access to this evidence. terminology relating to excellence models criteria for health service organisations must be clarified to prohibit any form of misunderstanding or misinterpretation. scientific benchmarked weights for criteria and their application in health service organisations must be researched. studies to examine this could contribute to customise the design of an organisational performance excellence model for health service institutions that will enhance performance excellence in service delivery. references abell, d. (1995). redefining leadership. people dynamics, 13 (1), 12-16. accreditation council for continuing medical education. (1997). the accme report. accreditation council for continuing medical education. chicago, il. aldisert, l.m. (2002). valuing people – how human capital can be your strongest asset. chicago: dearborn trade publishing. ali, m., brookson, s., brue, a., eaton, j., heller, r., johnson, r., langdon, k. & sleight, s. (2001). managing for excellence. london: dorlington kindersley ltd. amderson, k. & kerr, c. (2002). customer relationship management. new york: mcgraw hill. april, k.a. & cradock, j. (2000). e-business – redefining the corporate landscape in south africa. durban: butterworth publishers (pty) ltd. aurik, j.c., jonk, g.j. & willen, r.e. (2003). rebuilding the corporate genome: unlocking the real value of your business. chichester: john wiley & sons, inc. becker, b.e., huselid, m.a. & ulrich, d. (2001). the hr scorecard – linking people, strategy and performance. usa: harvard business school press. birkin, m. (1997). the practicalities of becoming an unlimited company. management today, 13 (8), 20-26. blanchard, k. & waghorn, t. (1997). mission possible: becoming a world-class organisation while there's still time. new york: mcgraw-hill. bohrnstedt, g.w. & knoke, d. (1985). statistics for social data analysis. illinois: f.e. peacock publishers, inc. bossidy, l., charan, r. & burck, c. (2002). the discipline of getting things done. new south wales: random house business books. cairncross, f. (2002). the company of the future: meeting the management challenge of the communications revolution. london: profile books. cant, m.c., brink, a. & brijball, s. (2002). customer behaviour a south african perspective. landsdowne: juta & co. ltd. cardona, p. (2000). transcendental leadership. leadership & organisation development journal, 21 (4), 201-207. champy, j. (1995). reengineering management: the mandate for new leadership. london: harper collins publishers. champy, j. (2002). x-engineering the corporation: reinvent your business in the digital age. london: hodde & stoughton. cook, s. (2002). customer care excellence: how to create an effective customer focus, 4th ed. london: clays ltd. cornwall, a. & jewkes, r. (1995). what is participatory research? social science and medicine, 41 (12), 1667-1676. crawford, f. & matthews, r. (2001). the myth of excellence why great companies never try to be the best at everything. new york: crown business. dahlgaard, j. (1997). achieving business excellence: successful leadership styles. london: p.a. consulting group publication. dahlgaard, j. (1999). integrating business excellence and innovation management: developing a culture for innovation, creativit y and learning. total quality management, 10 (4/5), 465-472. darling, j.r. (1999). organization excellence and leadership strategies: principles followed by top multinational executives. leadership and organization development journal, 20 (6), 309-321. denton, m. & campbell, k. (1999). strategic repositioning: the fundamentals. goodwood: nbd excellence model 39 department of health. (1998). the new nhs modern and dependable: a new national framework for assessing performance. department of health. london. doh. (1998). a first class ser vice: qaulity in the nhs. department of health. london. doug, m. (2000). achieving performance excellence. management, 47, 1. drucker, p.f. (2003). managing in the next society. burlington: butterworth-heinemann publications. eastgate, m. (2000). business profit through people. industrial and commercial training, pp. 1-3. retrieved august 05, 2001 from the world wide web: http://www.emerald-library.com/brev/htm. edgeman, r.l. (2000). best business excellence: an expanded view. measuring business excellence, 4 (4), 15-17. eisler, r. (2002). the power of partnership – seven relationships that will change your life. novato: new world library. elden, m. & chisholm, r.f. (1993). emerging variants of action research: introduction to the special issue. human relations, 46 (2), 121-142. erasmus, b.j. & van dyk, p.s. (2003). training management in south africa, 3rd ed. cape town: oxford university press. faulkner, m. (2003). customer management excellence: successful strategies from ser vice leaders. chichester: john wiley & sons, ltd. fredericks, w. (2000). winning business plans. florida: made e-z products, inc. galbreath, j. (2002). success in the relationship age: building quality relationship assets for market value creation. the tqm magazine, 14 (1), 8-24. ghiselli, e.e., campbell, j.p. & zedeck, s. (1981). measurement theory for the behavioural sciences. san francisco: w.h. freeman and company. ghobadian, a. & woo, h. (1994). comparing the premier quality awards of four continents. occasional paper no. 13, middlesex university business school, london, 1994. glanz, b.a. (2002). handle with care: motivating and retaining employees. new york: mcgraw hill. glen, p. (2003). leading geeks – how to manage and lead people who deliver technology. chichester:john wiley & sons, inc. gratton, l. (2000). living strategy – putting people at the heart of corporate purpose. london: prentice hall. hall, j. (1980). the competence connection. woodlands: woodstead press. hall, d. (2002). doing the business – boost your company's fortunes. london: virgin books ltd. hall, j. & maritz, f. (1997). leadership: turning potential into productivity. management today, 13 (7), 27-31. hamel, g. & prahalad, c.k. (1994). competing for the future. usa: harvard business school press. hammer, m. & champy, j. (1995). reeingineering the corporation: a manifest for business revolution. london: nicholas brealey publishing. handfield, r.b. & nichols, e.l. (2002). supply chain redesign transforming supply chains into integrated value systems. rivor: prentice hall. heskett, j.l., jones, t.o., loveman, g.w., sasser, w.e. & schelinger, l.a. (1994). putting the service profit chain to work. har vard business review, march-april. hirvonen, p. & helander, n. (2001). towards joint value creation processes in professional services. the tqm magazine, 13 (4), 281-291. hough, j. & neuland, e.w. (2000). global business: environments and strategies – managing for global competitive advantage. oxford: oxford university press. john, r., cox, h., ietto-gillies, g., grimwade, n., allen, m. & finn, e. (1997). global business strategy. st ives: clays ltd. kazandjian, v., woods, p. & lawthers, j. (1995). balancing science and practice in indicator development: the maryland hospital association quality indicator project. international journal for quality in health care, 7 (1), 39-46. kedia, b.l. & harveston, p.d. (1998). transformation of mba programs: meeting the challenge of international competition. journal of world business, 33 (2), 204-217. kellas, r. (1997). how to make organisations world-class. management today, 13 (7), 19-24. kilo, c. (1998). a framework for collaborative improvement: lessons from the institute for healthcare improvement’s breakthrough series. quality management in health care, 6, 1-13. knauft, e.b., berger, r.a. & gray, s.t. (1991). profiles of excellence: achieving success in the non-profit sector. san francisco: jossey-bass publishers. knox, s., maklan, s., payne, a., peppard, j. & ryals, l. (2003). customer relationship management: perspectives from the marketplace. burlington: butterworth-henemann. koopman, a. (1994). becoming world class: facing tomorrow's challenges. human resource management, 10 (8), 16-18. lee, p. (2002). sustaining business excellence through a framework of best practices in tqm. the tqm magazine, 14 (3), 142-149. leonard, d. & mcadam, r. (2002). the strategic impact and application of the business excellence model: implications for quality training and development. journal of european industrial training, 26 (1), 4-13. lessing, n. (2001). juxtapositions in management: critical issues to be resolved. management today, 17 (1), 10-14. lowson, r.h. (2002). strategic operations management – the new competitive advantage. london: routledge. luoma, m. (2000). developing people for business success: capability-driven hrd in practice. management decision, 1-11. retrieved august 05, 2001 from the world wide web: http://www.emerald-library.com/brev/htm. marchand, d.a., davenpoort, t.h. & dickson, t. (2000). mastering information management. london: prentice hall. marquardt, m.j. (1999). global advantage – how world-class organisations improve performance through globalisation. houston: gulf publications. mckeown, j.l. (2002). retaining top employees. new york: mcgraw-hill. motwani, j. (2001). critical factors and performance measures of tqm. the tqm magazine, 13 (4), 292-300. mouton, j. (2001). how to succeed in your master’s and doctoral studies. a south african guide and resource book. pretoria: van schaik publishers. nasser, m.e. & viviers, f.j. (1995). mindset for the new generation organisation. how leading sa companies create counter-trend performance in turbulent times. kenwyn: juta & co, limited. neale, j.m. & liebert, r.m. (1986). science and behaviour. an introduction to methods of research, 3rd ed. new jersey: prentice-hall international, inc. nist. (1999). health care criteria for performance excellence. national institute of standards and technolog y. us department of commerce, technology administration. gaithersburg, md. norwegian ministry of health (1995). national strategy for quality in health care. norwegian ministry of health. oslo. ovretveit, j. (2002). producing useful research about quality improvement. international journal of health care quality assurance, 15 (7), 294-302. pearce, j.a. & robinson, r.b. (jr). (2003). strategic management: formulation, implementation and control, 8th ed. boston: mcgraw hill. peters, t.j. & waterman, r.h. (1992a). in search of excellence. new york: harper & row. peters ,t.j. & waterman, r.h. (1992b). in search of excellence. lessons from america's best-run companies. chatham: harper collins. post, j.e., frederick, w.c., lawrence, a.t. & weber, j. (2002). business and society: corporate strategy, public policy, ethics, 8th ed. new york: mcgraw-hill, inc. prescott, b.d. (1998). creating a world-class organisation: ten performance measures of business success. london: kogan page. eygela ar, uys40 prinsloo, k.j., moropodi, j.n., slabbert, j.a. & parker, a.j. (1999). a perspective on the world-class company. pretoria: strat-excell pty. ltd. prusak, l. & cohen, d. (2001). how to invest in social capital. har vard business review, june, 86-93. rhinesmith, s.h. (1996). a manager's guide to globalisation. six skills for success in a changing world. astd: mcgraw-hill. republic of south africa (1995). white paper on the transformation of the public service, government gazette no 16838, 15 november 1995. robson, m. (1988). the journey to excellence. wantage: m.r.a. international ltd. rockey, v. (2002). the corporate social investment handbook: a comprehensive reference guide to corporate social investment in south africa, 5th ed. durban: trialogue publishers. rostron, s.s. (2002). accelerating performance: powerful new techniques to develop people. london: kogan page. samson, d. & challis, d. (1999). patterns of excellence: the new principles of corporate success. london: biddles ltd., guildford & king's lynn. saunders, m. (1997). strategic purchasing and supply chain management, 2nd ed. london: prentice hall. schmidt, j.a. (1999). corporate excellence in the new millennium. journal of business strategy, 20 (6), 39. scholtz, h. (1997). can your company measure its business excellence? the edge, july 1997, 44-46. schonberger, r.j. & knod, r.j. (1994). operations management: continuous improvement. boston: irwin. seybold, p.b., marshak, r.t. & lewis, j.m. (2002). the customer revolution: how to thrive when customers are in control. london: business books. shergold, k. & reed, d.m. (1996). striving for excellence: how self-assessment using the business excellence model can result in step improvements in all areas of business activities. the tqm magazine, 8 (6), 48-52. smith, a.m. (2000). using consumer benchmarking criteria to improve service sector competitiveness. benchmarking: an international journal, 7 (5). smith, s. & wheeler, j. (2002). managing the customer experience: turning customers into advocates. london: prentice hall. south african excellence model. (2000). general guidelines for public ser vice performance excellence self-assessment, no. 5. south african excellence model. (2001). self-assessment questionnaire & workbook for public ser vice performance excellence, no. 2. spar, d. (2001). pirates, prophets and pioneers. london: random house business books. steen, m. (2002). people management in global markets. lectures presented at rand afrikaans university. johannesburg, south africa. stiglitz, j. (2002). globalization and its discontents. victoria: allen lane penguin press. stroh, l.k. & caligiuri, p.m. (1998). increasing global competitiveness through effective people management, journal of world business, 33 (1), 1: 1-16. tan, k.c. (2002). a comparative study of 16 national quality awards. the tqm magazine, 14 (3), 165-171. taylor, b. (1997). the return of strategic planning – once more with feeling. long range planning, 30 (3), 334-344. thorp, j. (1998). the information paradox: realizing the business benefits of information technology. toronto: mcgraw-hill. tinsley, s. (2001). environmental management plans demystified: a guide to implementing iso14001. london: spon press. van weert, c. (2000). developments in professional quality assurance towards quality improvement: some examples of peer review in the netherlands and the united kingdom. international journal for quality in health care, 12, 239-242. veldsman, t.h. (1994). in search of the holy grail of worldclass competitiveness. human resource management, 10 (70) 15-21). veldsman, t.h. (1997). people issues essential for corporate marriages. management today, 13 (7), 27-31. veldsman, t.h. (2002). into the people effectiveness arena. navigating between chaos and order. randburg: knowledge resources. walshe, k. (1995). evaluating clinical audit: past lessons, future directions. royal society of medicine, london. walters, d. & jones, p. (2001). value and value chain in healthcare: a quality management perspective. the tqm magazine, 13 (5), 319-335. willcocks, l. (2000). moving to e-business: the ultimate practical guide to effective e-business. london: random house business books. willet, j., brickley, j.a., smith, c.w. & zimmerman, j.l (2002). designing organizations to create value: from strategy to structure. new york: mcgraw-hill. woolf, s.h., grol, r., hutchinson, a., martin, e. & grimshaw, j. (1999). clinical guidelines: potential benefits, limitations, and harms of clinical guidelines. british medical journal, 318, 527-530. yasin, m.m., zimmerer, l.w., miller, p. & zimmerer, t.w. (2002). an empirical investigation of the effectiveness of contemporary managerial philosophies in a hospital operational setting. international journal of health care quality assurance, 15 (6), 268-276. zairi, m. (1999a). leadership: managing excellence. the tqm magazine, 11 (4), 215-224. zairi, m. (1999b). managing excellence: policy and strategy. the tqm magazine, 11 (2), 74-79. zimmerer, l.w., zimmerer, t.w. & yasin, m.m. (1999). overcoming barriers to effectiveness in a health care organization: building on lessons of american industry. hospital marketing quarterly, 17 (17), 59-80. excellence model 41 abstract introduction method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) maelekanyo c. mulaudzi department of human resource management, university of south africa, south africa citation mulaudzi, m.c. (2016). testing measurement invariance of the learning programme management and evaluation scale across academic achievement. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a730. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.730 original research testing measurement invariance of the learning programme management and evaluation scale across academic achievement maelekanyo c. mulaudzi received: 07 july 2015; accepted: 25 aug. 2016; published: 13 oct. 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: measurement invariance is one of the most precarious aspects of the scale development process without which the interpretation of research findings on population sub-groups may be ambiguous and even invalid. besides tests for validity and reliability, measurement invariance represents the hallmark for psychometric compliance of a new measuring instrument and provides the basis for inference of research findings across a range of relevant population sub-groups. research purpose: this study tested the measurement invariance of a learning programme management and evaluation (lpme) scale across levels of academic achievement. motivation for the study: it is important for any researcher involved in new scale development to ensure that the measurement instrument and its underlying constructs have proper structural alignment and that they both have the same level of meaning and significance across comparable heterogeneous groups. research design, approach and method: a quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional survey design was used, and data were obtained from 369 participants who were selected from three public sector organisations using a probabilistic simple random sampling technique. the statistical package for social sciences and analysis of moment structures software (versions 21.0.0) were used to analyse the data. main findings: the findings show that all the four invariance models tested have achieved acceptable goodness-of-fit indices. furthermore, the findings show that the factorial structure of the lpme scale and the meaning of its underlying constructs are invariant across different levels of academic achievement for human resource development (hrd) practitioners and learners or apprentices involved in occupational learning programmes. practical implications: the findings of this study suggest practical implications for hrd scholars as they are enabled to make informed decisional balance comparisons involving educational attainment sub-groups. contributions and value addition: this study contributes methodologically to the sub-field of hrd by enabling scholars to make comparisons of mean differences or other structural parameters across sub-groups. introduction social science researchers are increasingly concerned with testing for measurement invariance; that is, determining if items used in survey-type instruments mean the same thing to members of different groups (cheung & rensvold, 2002). this concern is inevitable because measurement invariance is a key aspect of the scale development process, especially where the target population is heterogeneous. according to van de schoot, schmidt, de beuckelaer, lek and zondervan-zwijnenburg (2015), a meaningful comparison of latent factor means between groups of a heterogeneous population could be achieved if the measurement structures of the latent factor and their survey items are stable, that is, invariant. very often, researchers ignore measurement invariance issues and compare latent factor means across groups or measurement occasions even though the psychometric basis for such a practice does not hold. however, measurement invariance is a fundamental requirement in both applied and scientific use of measurement instruments (blankson & mcardle, 2015). researchers invest their time in writing scale items that are unambiguous and clear, and item analyses are carried out to select the best items that comprise a measurement instrument. however, it has often been assumed that the items of a measurement instrument will have the same connotations and meanings for all people and therefore the scale is invariant in comparisons of people of different classifications (horn & mcardle, 1992). if this assumption of invariance is incorrect, then conclusions of group comparisons based on results from studies applying such a measurement instrument are likely to be incorrect. as blankson and mcardle (2015) state, regardless of its importance, measurement invariance has been more often neglected in behavioural sciences than it has been evaluated. the invariance assumption has rarely been stated as a hypothesis and tested, although increasing attention is being paid by researchers to this issue in recent times (adolf, schuurman, borkenau, borsboom & dolan, 2014; bowden, saklofske & weiss, 2011; chiorri, day & malmberg, 2014; guenole & brown, 2014; hox, de leew & zijlmans, 2015; savage-mcglynn, 2012; tshilongamulenzhe, 2015; van de schoot, lutgtig & hox, 2012; van de schoot et al., 2013, 2015; wang, merkle & zeileis, 2014; zercher, schmidt, cieciuch & davidov, 2015). consequently, the question of measurement invariance should be considered in all behavioural science research wherein analyses are directed at showing that measured attributes, and the relationships among such attributes, are different for different classes of people or for the same people measured under different circumstances (blankson & mcardle, 2015). to this end, the primary objective of this study is to heighten awareness among researchers involved in new scale development in order to ensure that the measurement instruments they design and their underlying constructs have proper structural alignment, and that they both have the same level of meaning and significance across comparable heterogeneous groups. such awareness is particularly important if the success of studies applying newly developed measures hinge on the possibility of making meaningful comparisons across groups. brief context of the study and an overview of the learning programme management and evaluation scale guided by the scale development protocol suggested by devellis (2012), tshilongamulenzhe (2012) developed a new learning programme management and evaluation (lpme) scale which seeks to enhance the effectiveness of management and evaluation practices pertaining to occupational learning programmes (olps) in south africa. these programmes have been proclaimed by the south african government as a fundamental mechanism to address skills shortages; hence, vocational and occupational certification via learnership and apprenticeship programmes is at the core of the new skills creation system (tshilongamulenzhe, coetzee & masenge, 2013). an olp includes a learnership, apprenticeship, skills programme or any other prescribed learning programme that includes a structured work experience component (republic of south africa, 2008). a number of challenges have been raised regarding the co-ordination and management of skills development training projects in south africa, including poor quality of training and lack of mentorship (du toit, 2012). mummenthey, wildschut and kruss (2012) revealed the prevalence of difference in standards across the different occupational learning routes (learnership, apprenticeship, skills programme), which brought about inconsistencies regarding procedures to implement occupational training. these shortcomings are indicative of the management and evaluation weaknesses impacting the south african skills development system, and they raise serious concerns about the quality of occupational learning (tshilongamulenzhe et al., 2013). learnerships and apprenticeships are potentially significant routes to critical vocational and occupational qualifications in south africa and the promise of future employment (wildschut, kruss, janse van rensburg, haupt & visser, 2012). they represent important alternative routes to enhance young peoples’ transition to the labour market and to meet the demand for scarce and critical skills. if these interventions are not effectively managed and evaluated, the dreams and aspirations of many young people who hope to acquire skills would be adversely affected. equally important, poor management and evaluation of these interventions have the potential to further drown the economy which is struggling from persistent skills shortages. it is for some of these reasons that tshilongamulenzhe (2012) developed a measure for lpme which is relevant to the south african occupational learning context. no evidence was found that shows the existence of such a measure in the south african skills development context (tshilongamulenzhe, 2012). the newly developed lpme scale was necessitated by the need for an integrated and coherent approach towards occupational lpme with a view to effectively promote the alignment of skills development goals with the needs of the workplace in support of the goals of the national skills development strategy. a detailed account regarding the scientific process followed in the development of the lpme scale, including its underlying theoretical constructs, and evidence of exploratory factor and rasch analyses are provided by tshilongamulenzhe et al. (2013). although adequate scientific evidence has been presented which show good psychometric properties for the lpme scale, including its validity and reliability, the degree to which the conceptual foundation and the underlying constructs measured in this scale can be validly and reliably compared across heterogeneous population groups is yet to be tested; hence, this study which seeks to test invariance across educational achievements. theoretical perspectives regarding measurement invariance the diversity of the population from which the samples were drawn for both the development (tshilongamulenzhe et al., 2013) and the cross-validation studies related to the lpme scale necessitate a further scientific examination of data in order to make informed decisional balance comparisons involving sub-groups of this population. the two samples were heterogeneous with inherent differences across a range of demographic indicators. it is therefore significant for the researcher to examine the influence of these heterogeneous characteristics on the meaning that participants in these studies ascribe to the underlying constructs and/or items measured by this new scale. the premise that sample sub-groups comprehend the items or sub-scales in a particular measure in the same manner has to be proven first before any conclusions are made (yen & lan, 2013). as cheung and rensvold (2002) state, if measurement invariance of an instrument cannot be established, then the finding of a between-group difference cannot be unambiguous. thus, legitimate comparison of means or structural relations across groups requires equivalence of the measurement structure underlying the indicators (ployhardt & oswald, 2004; thompson & green, 2006). otherwise, comparisons of mean differences or other structural parameters across groups are meaningless without evidence of measurement invariance (schmitt & kuljanin, 2008). consequently, the objective of this study is to test the measurement invariance of the lpme scale based on academic achievement of participants using multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis. this is to ensure that group differences, if they exist, are interpreted in terms of differences regarding participants’ academic achievement relative to the underlying constructs of the lpme scale. very often, researchers tend to assume that both the measuring instrument and the construct being measured are operating in the same way across a population of interest (byrne & van de vijver, 2010). that is, there is a presumed equality of (1) factorial structure, (2) perceived item content, (3) factor loadings and (4) item intercepts. the scientific reality is that this assumption of measurement invariance has to be tested first before any conclusions can be drawn in this regard. vandenberg and lance (2000) have cautioned that failure to establish measurement and structural equivalence is as damaging to substantive interpretations of findings as is the inability to demonstrate reliability and validity of research. test of measurement invariance examines whether an instrument has the same psychometric properties across heterogeneous groups (chen, 2007). according to brown (2006) and meredith (1993), appropriate comparisons of group means rest on the assumption of configural and metric invariance, as well as ‘scalar’ or what is sometimes referred to as ‘strong’ invariance. evidence of these tests is fundamental to establish the overall measurement invariance and conceptual interpretation of an instrument. chen (2007) points out that when groups are compared based on instruments that do not measure the same construct, inference problems occur. in other words, the conclusions drawn from such studies may be biased or invalid if measures that are relied upon do not have the same meanings across different groups. nevertheless, the literature points to various recommendations regarding the sequences of measurement invariance tests (bollen, 1989; byrne, shavelson & muthén, 1989; cheung, 2008; cheung & rensvold, 2002; drasgow & kanfer, 1985; jöreskog & sörbom, 1993; little, 1997; steenkamp & baumgartner, 1998; vandenberg & lance, 2000), but none of these is absolute as the decision for choice by the researcher is reliant on the research question to be answered. an appropriate answer to the research question will depend on the corresponding level or levels of measurement invariance test, that is, whether the test is at configural, metric and/or scalar levels. the current study followed the procedure described by meredith (1993) and widaman and reise (1997) in order to test a series of models to establish measurement invariance of the lpme scale across academic achievement of participants. the procedural levels tested are as follows. the first level: configural (form invariance) this level requires that the same item must be associated with the same factor in each group; however, the factor loadings may differ across groups. participants belonging to different groups are assumed to conceptualise the constructs the same way (riordan & vandenberg, 1994). according to widaman and reise (1997), this level indicates that similar, but not identical, latent constructs have been measured in the group. only the extent to which the same number of factors and patterns (configuration) of fixed and freely estimated parameters holds across groups is of interest and thus no equality constraints are imposed (byrne & van de vijver, 2010). in other words, for each group, the same model of hypothesised factorial structure is tested. as suggested by meredith (1993), where configural invariance exist, the data collected from each group breaks down into the same number of factors, with similar items associated with each factor. however, when concepts are abstracted such that participants’ perceptions of the construct depend on their cultural context, configural non-invariance manifest itself (tayeb, 1994). equally, millsap and everson (1991), millsap and hartog (1988) and riordan and vandenberg (1994) indicate that configural non-invariance manifest itself when participants from different groups use different conceptual frames of reference and attach different meaning to constructs. this level of invariance is important in that it serves as a baseline against which all subsequent tests for equivalence are compared and, thus, acceptable goodness-of-fit between this test and the multi-group data is imperative. the next levels of tests for invariance involve the specification of cross-group equality constraints for particular parameters (byrne & van de vijver, 2010). the second level: factor loading (weak invariance) at this level, it is hypothesised that all factor loading parameters are equal across groups. according to bollen (1989) and jöreskog and sörbom (1999) factor loadings represent the strength of the linear relationship between each factor and its associated items. as soon as the factor load of each item on the underlying factor shows equality in more than two groups, the resultant effect is that the underlying factor has the same unit or same interval. chen (2007) suggests that this level of invariance is required for comparison of regression slopes. however, conceptual agreement regarding the type and number of underlying constructs and the items associated with each construct may be obtained from data originating from samples drawn from two populations (cheung & rensvold, 2002). despite this, there may be differences in the strength of the relations between specific scale items and the underlying constructs. in this instance, disagreement regarding how the constructs manifested may show from the data. the third level: intercept (strong invariance) at this level, it is assumed that the vectors of item intercepts are equal across groups. according to chen (2007), intercepts represent the foundation of the scale. this level of invariance is achieved when the scores from different groups depict the same factor loading as well as the same intercept. widaman and reise (1997) indicate that this level of invariance is required for comparing latent mean differences across groups. when the item slopes (factor loadings) and item intercepts are both invariant, the measurement scales share the same operational definition including the same interval and same zero points across groups, which further suggests that meaningful comparison of the latent means can be achieved (cheung & lau, 2011). the fourth level: residual invariance (strict invariance) at this level, it is hypothesised that residual invariance is equal across groups. residual invariance is the portion of item variance not attributable to the variance of the associated latent variable (cheung & rensvold, 2002). therefore, testing for the equality of between groups residual variance determines if the scale items measure the latent construct with the same degree of measurement error. when this level of invariance holds, all group differences on the items occur owing to group differences on the common factors (chen, 2007). residual invariance may fail when participants belonging to one group, compared with those of another, are unfamiliar with a scale and its scoring formats, and therefore respond to it inconsistently (mullen, 1995). furthermore, malpass (1977) states that differences in vocabulary, idioms, grammar, syntax and the common experiences of different cultures may produce residual non-invariance. in this regard, configural, weak, strong and strict invariance are the most commonly tested forms of invariance and these were applied in the current study. however, in view of the complexity surrounding measurement of invariance testing, chen (2007) offered the following guidelines to establish model fit: the cut-off points on the three routinely used fit indexes (i.e., comparative fit index (cfi), root mean square error of approximation (rmsea), and standardized root mean square residual (srmr)) are recommended for evaluating invariance at the three commonly tested levels (configural, factor loading and intercepts). the fourth level, residual invariance has been included in this study purely to assess the influence of measurement error on participants’ interpretation of the conceptual base and underlying constructs of the lpme scale. (p. 501) according to chen (2007, p. 501), when the sample size is small (n = ≤ 300), sample sizes for sub-groups are unequal and the pattern of non-invariance is uniform, the following cut-off criteria are suggested: for testing loading invariance, a change of ≤ -0.005 in cfi, supplemented by a change of ≥ 0.010 in rmsea or a change of ≥ 0.025 in srmr would indicate non-invariance; for testing intercept or residual invariance, a change of ≤ -0.005 in cfi, supplemented by a change of ≥ 0.010 in rmsea or a change of ≥ 0.005 in srmr would indicate non-invariance. similar values are suggested for cfi and rmsea across all four levels of invariance tests, but different values are proposed for srmr since srmr is more sensitive to non-invariance in loadings than to non-invariance in intercepts or residual variances (chen, 2007). when sample size is adequate (n = > 300) and sample sizes are equal across the sub-groups, particularly when lack of invariance is mixed, more stringent criteria are suggested. for testing loading invariance, a change of ≥ -0.010 in cfi (cheung & rensvold, 2002), supplemented by a change of ≥ 0.015 in rmsea or a change of ≥ 0.030 in srmr would indicate non-invariance; for testing intercept and residual invariance, a change of ≥ -0.010 in cfi (cheung & rensvold, 2002), supplemented by a change of ≥ 0.015 in rmsea or a change of ≥ 0.010 in srmr would indicate non-invariance. chen (2007) advised that caution must be exercised when applying these criteria owing to complexity surrounding measurement invariance. the current study had adequate total sample size (n = 369) but was constrained by the uneven academic achievement sub-group sizes (matric equivalent and below, n = 276; above matric, n = 93). in view of this, the researcher straddled between the two sets of criteria to overcome the sample sub-group size anomaly. method research approach a quantitative approach was applied which followed a non-experimental, cross-sectional survey design. in order to achieve the study’s objective, primary data were collected from two metropolitan municipalities in gauteng province and a provincial government department in the north west province, south africa. participants participants in this study comprised human resource development (hrd) practitioners and learners or apprentices from two metropolitan municipalities in gauteng province and a provincial government department in the north west province. these participants were selected from their organisations through a probabilistic simple random sampling technique. out of a target of 900 participants, a total of 579 completed questionnaires were returned, thus yielding a 64% response rate. the returned questionnaires were subjected to a stringent data management process in order not to derail from the objective of this study. the first round of data management resulted in 187 questionnaires that were discarded as they had missing data. this was done in order to comply with the analysis of moment structures (amos) software requirement for computation of modification indices. at the end of this first round, a total of 392 questionnaires were retained for the subsequent round of data management. the second round of data management was carried out as necessitated by the focus and objective of the current study which sought to test measurement invariance of participants across academic achievement. only questionnaires that had an indication of the level of academic achievement were retained during this second round. consequently, about 23 questionnaires were eliminated as participants who completed them did not indicate their level of academic achievement. the final pool comprised 369 questionnaires that were split between two categories of academic achievement (group 1 – matric level or equivalent and below [n = 276]; group 2 – above matric level [n = 93]). a matric level certificate is a school leaving certificate. about 86% of the participants were younger than age 35 and 56% were male. in terms of academic achievement, 74% of the participants had acquired a matric level certificate, its equivalent or below. while 84.9% of participants had exposure to learnerships, 79% were learners or apprentices. the disparity in the sample size for academic achievement was anticipated in this study since the target beneficiaries of olps are young people (learners or apprentices) who are mainly at the lower levels in their academic pursuits. participants who have reported educational achievement above matric level were mainly hrd practitioners who are one of the key stakeholders in the occupational learning context. measuring instrument the 11-dimensional lpme scale developed by tshilongamulenzhe (2012), comprising 81 items, was used to collect data for this study. the 11 dimensions of the lpme scale were: administrative processes (ap), environmental scanning (es), monitoring and evaluation (me), observation and problem solving (ops), policy awareness (pa), quality assurance (qa), stakeholder inputs (si), strategic leadership (sl), learning programme design and development (lpdd), occupational competence (oc) and learning programme specifications (lps). the lpme scale had achieved an acceptable cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.86 during the exploratory factor analysis phase (tshilongamulenzhe et al., 2013) and a 0.87 during the confirmatory factor analysis phase. the reliability coefficient for the 11 lpme dimensions ranged from 0.82 to 0.93. research procedure permission to undertake this study was sought from the three participating organisations. the researcher collected data using a self-administered questionnaire which was distributed through a drop-in and pick-up method. the questionnaire had clear instructions and telephone numbers of the research team in case participants would need further clarity at the point of completion. in addition to this, a short briefing session was held with each participant at the point of questionnaire drop-in to ensure that they understood the purpose of the study, their rights as well as the instructions on how to complete the questionnaire. statistical analysis data obtained in this study were analysed using statistical package for social sciences (spss) (ibm, 2013) and amos software (versions 21.0) (arbuckle, 2013). in view of the study’s objective, descriptive statistics (mainly frequencies), scale reliability analysis, as well as multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis were computed. results table 1 depicts the results of the goodness-of-fit index for both the total sample and academic achievement sub-groups in this study. the cfi (0.980) of the total sample shows a good fit for the model to the empirical data whereas the rmsea (0.078) shows an acceptable fit. all four models tested for invariance had a good cfi (ranging from 0.980 to 0.984) and a good rmsea (ranging from 0.055 to 0.041). the srmr of 0.022 across all models and the total sample is indicative of a good fit. taken together, these results support measurement invariance of the lpme scale and show that the model provides a good fit to the data. table 1: measurement invariance by academic achievement. the ∆cfi (measurement weight = 0.001; structural covariance = 0.000 and measurement residual = 0.003), ∆rmsea (measurement weight = -0.005; structural covariance = 0.000 and measurement residual = -0.009) and ∆srmr (measurement weight = 0.000; structural covariance = 0.000 and measurement residual = 0.000) across all successive models after items were constrained met the cut-off criteria suggested by chen (2007) and showed strong invariance between the two sub-groups. these results support the strong factor loading, intercepts and residual invariance of the lpme scale across academic achievement. the results of the standardised regression weights (z), squared multiple correlations (r2) and cronbach’s alpha coefficient (α) are depicted in table 2. table 2: regression weights, squared multiple correlations and cronbach’s alpha. it is clear from the table that all sub-scales of the lpme scale had a high reliability coefficient during the confirmatory factor analysis phase with α values ranging from 0.82 to 0.93. the results in table 2 depict that all the sub-scales of the lpme scale are good indicators of the effectiveness of management and evaluation practices for olps. pa, programme design and development, stakeholders’ inputs and occupational competence are the best indicators of olp, and their standardised regression weights are 0.838, 0.914, 0.901 and 0.803, respectively. this means that olp explains about 70%, 83%, 81% and 64% of variance in pa, programme design and development, stakeholders’ inputs and occupational competence, respectively. therefore, the null hypothesis that the model is not a good fit to the data is easily rejected. a close inspection of these results reveals that the conceptual foundation and factorial structure of the lpme scale as proposed by tshilongamulenzhe (2012) and further reported by tshilongamulenzhe et al. (2013) are invariant across a range of academic achievements in the occupational learning context. discussion the main objective of this study was to test the measurement invariance of the lpme scale across academic achievement of participants. following multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis, the findings of this study support the measurement invariance of the 11-dimensional lpme scale, and these findings meet the criteria suggested by cheung and rensvold (2002) and chen (2007). as byrne (2008) stated, goodness-of-fit related to multi-group parameterisation as carried out in this study are indicative of a well-fitting model. the equivalence of factors related to the lpme scale and their related items relative to academic achievement have been positively tested in this study. the findings show an acceptable fit of the models to the empirical data both for the total sample and for the sub-groups as identified by levels of academic achievement. given the paucity of previous studies in south africa focusing on the effectiveness of management and evaluation practices related to olps (except a study reported by tshilongamulenzhe et al., 2013), this study is very profound as it lays a solid foundation for future studies that will further examine the phenomenon of occupational learning. the study succinctly followed the measurement invariance testing procedure outlined by meredith (1993) and widaman and reise (1997). the configural model was used as a baseline against which all subsequent invariance tests were compared with. metric invariance which is a strong test (vandenberg & lance, 2000) was conducted in order to guarantee that the factor loadings between factors and indicators are similar across groups, and the results from this test support metric invariance of the lpme scale. the results of both the scalar and residual invariance tests also support the invariance of the lpme scale. thus, the observed scores are related to the latent scores in such a way that group differences in means were meaningfully compared. overall, the findings of this study suggest that the same constructs are measured across groups and that the units and origins of the lpme scale are the same. these findings provide adequate validity evidence regarding the factorial structure and measurement properties of the lpme scale. limitations of the study like other studies, this study has some limitations. the first limitation relates to the generalisability of the findings to the relevant population. it would be inappropriate to assume invariance of the lpme scale across other demographic indicators that have not been tested in this study. therefore, the findings of this study must be limited to academic achievement of the relevant population from which the sample was drawn. the second limitation relates to the unequal sub-group sizes pertaining to academic achievement, which may have influenced the magnitude of change in fit statistics. chen (2007) uncovered a number of factors that researchers may need to be wary of when testing measurement invariance, namely pattern of non-invariance, sample size, ratio of sample size and model complexity. the current study is mainly concerned with the ratio of academic achievement sub-groups sample size. implications and recommendations for future research this study has the following implications: it will provide an opportunity for empowerment to management scientists and methodologists in the sub-field of training management or hrd by laying a solid and scientifically tested foundation which should ignite renewed thinking about the occupational learning construct in order to propel the necessary critique and modification of this new instrument. it will support researchers in the sub-field of training management or hrd with a scientifically developed and validated measure which can be practically applied to a relevant population with different levels of academic achievement. in conclusion, the invariance assumption regarding the lpme scale across different levels of academic achievement has been successfully tested scientifically in this study. to this end, it can be confidently stated that participants in this study ascribe the same meaning and understanding towards the lpme scale and its sub-scales irrespective of their levels of academic achievement. future studies may explore the measurement invariance of the lpme scale on other different but even population sub-groups in order to ascertain the actual meaning that participants ascribe to the construct of an occupational learning programme and its attendant dimensions. acknowledgements competing interest the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. references adolf, j., schuurman, n., borkenau, p., borsboom, d., & dolan, v. (2014). measurement invariance within and between subjects: a distinct problem in testing the equivalence of intraand inter-individual model structures. frontiers in psychology, 5, 883. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00883 arbuckle, j.l. (2013). ibm spss amos 21 user guide. new york: amos development corporation. blankson, a.n., & mcardle, j.j. (2015). measurement invariance of cognitive abilities across ethnicity, gender and time among older americans. journal of gerontology, series b: psychological sciences and social sciences, 70(3), 386–397. bollen, k.a. (1989). structural equations with latent variables. new york: wiley. bowden, s.c., saklofske, d.h., & weiss, l.g. (2011). invariance of the measurement model underlying the wechler adult intelligence scale-iv in the united states and canada. educational and psychological measurement, 71, 186–199. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013164410387382 brown, t.a. (2006). confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. new york: guilford. byrne, b.m. (2008). structural equation modeling with eqs: basic concepts, applications, and programming. (2nd edn). new york: routledge. byrne, b.m., shavelson, r.j., & muthén, b. (1989). testing for the equivalence of factor covariance and mean structures: the issue of partial measurement invariance. psychological bulletin, 105, 456–466. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.105.3.456 byrne, b.m., & van de vijver, f.j.r. (2010). testing for measurement and structural equivalence in large-scale cross-cultural studies: addressing the issue of non-equivalence. international journal of testing, 10, 107–132. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15305051003637306 chen, f. (2007). sensitivity of goodness of fit indexes to lack of measurement invariance. structural equation modeling, 14 (3), 464–504. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10705510701301834 cheung, g.w. (2008). testing equivalence in the structure, means and variances of higher-order constructs with structural equation modelling. organizational research methods, 11, 593–613. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1094428106298973 cheung, g.w., & lau, r.s. (2011). a direct comparison approach for testing measurement invariance. organizational research methods, 1–32. cheung, g.w., & rensvold, r.b. (2002). evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. structural equation modeling, 9 (2), 233–255. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15328007sem0902_5 chiorri, c., day, t., & malmberg, l.e. (2014). an approximate measurement invariance approach to within-couple relationship quality. frontiers in psychology, 5, 983. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00983 devellis, r.f. (2012). scale development: theory and application. (2nd edn). thousand oaks, ca: sage. drasgow, f., & kanfer, r. (1985). equivalence of psychological measurement in heterogeneous populations. journal of applied psychology, 70, 662–680. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.70.4.662 du toit, r. (2012). the nsf as a mechanism to address skills development of the unemployed in south africa. pretoria: hsrc. guenole, n., & brown, a. (2014). the consequences of ignoring measurement invariance for path coefficients in structural equation models. frontiers in psychology, 5, 980. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00980 horn, j.l., & mcardle, j.j. (1992). a practical and theoretical guide to measurement invariance in aging research. experimental aging research special issue: quantitative topics in research on aging, 18, 117–144. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03610739208253916 hox, j.j., de leeuw, e.d., & zijlmans, e.a.o. (2015). measurement equivalence in mixed mode surveys. frontiers in psychology, 6, 87. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00087 ibm. (2013). ibm spss statistics 21 brief guide. new york: ibm corporation. jöreskog, k., & sörbom, d. (1993). lisrel 8: user’s reference guide. chicago, il: scientific software international. jöreskog, k., & sörbom, d. (1999). lisrel 8: user’s reference guide. (2nd edn.). chicago, il: scientific software international. little, t.d. (1997). mean and covariance structures (macs) analyses of cross-cultural data: practical and theoretical issues. multivariate behavioural research, 32, 53–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr3201_3 malpass, r.s. (1977). theory and method in cross-cultural psychology. american psychologist, 32, 1069–1079. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.32.12.1069 meredith, w. (1993). measurement invariance, factor analysis and factorial invariance. psychometrika, 58, 525–543. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf02294825 millsap, r.e., & everson, h. (1991). confirmatory measurement model comparisons using latent means. multivariate behavioral research, 26, 479–497. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr2603_6 millsap, r.e., & hartog, s.b. (1988). alpha, beta, and gamma changes in evaluation research: a structural equation approach. journal of applied psychology, 73, 574–584. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.73.3.574 mullen, m. (1995). diagnosing measurement equivalence in cross-national research. journal of international business studies, 3, 573–596. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490187 mummenthey, c., wildschut, a., & kruss, g. (2012). assessing the impact of learnerships and apprenticeships under nsdsii: three case studies: merseta, fasset & hwseta. pretoria: hsrc. ployhardt, r.e., & oswald, f.l. (2004). application of mean and covariance structure analysis: integrating correlational and experimental approaches. organizational research methods, 7(1), 27–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1094428103259554 republic of south africa. (2008). skills development amendment act, act no. 37 of 2008. pretoria: government printers. riordan, c.m., & vandenberg, r.j. (1994). a central question in cross-cultural research: do employees of different cultures interpret work-related measures in an equivalent manner? journal of management, 20, 643–671. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920639402000307 savage-mcglynn, e. (2012). sex differences in intelligence in younger and older participants of the raven’s standard progressive matrices plus. personality and individual differences, 53, 137–141. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.06.013 schmitt, n., & kuljanin, g. (2008). measurement invariance: review of practice and implications. human resource management review, 18, 210–222. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2008.03.003 steenkamp, j.e.m., & baumgartner, h. (1998). assessing measurement invariance in cross-national consumer research. journal of consumer research, 25, 78–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/209528 tayeb, m. (1994). organizations and national cultures: methodology considered. organization studies, 15, 429–446. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/017084069401500306 thompson, m.s., & green, s.b. (2006). evaluating between-group differences in latent means. in g.r. hankok & r.o. mueller (eds.), structural equation modeling: a second course (pp. 119–169). greenwich: information age. tshilongamulenzhe, m.c. (2012). an integrated learning programme management and evaluation model for the south african skills development context. unpublished doctorate thesis, university of south africa, pretoria. tshilongamulenzhe, m.c. (2015). testing measurement invariance of the learning programme management and evaluation (lpme) scale across gender using multi-group confirmatory factor analysis. journal of governance and regulation, 4(1), 124–131. tshilongamulenzhe, m.c., coetzee, m., & masenge, a. (2013). development of the learning programme management and evaluation scale for the south african skills development context. south african journal of industrial psychology, 39(1), 1–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i1.1080 van de schoot, r., kluytmans, a., tummers, l., lugtig, p., hox, j., & muthen, b. (2013). facing off with scylla and charybdis: a comparison of scalar, partial and the novel possibility of approximate measurement invariance. frontiers in psychology, 4, 770. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00770 van de schoot, r., lugtig, p., & hox, j. (2012). developmentrics: a checklist for testing measurement invariance. european journal of developmental psychology, 9(4), 486–492. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2012.686740 van de schoot, r., schmidt, p., de beuckelaer, a., lek, k., & zondervan-zwijnenburg, m. (2015). editorial: measurement invariance. frontiers in psychology, 6, 1064. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01064 vandenberg, r.j., & lance, c.e. (2000). a review and synthesis of the measurement invariance literature: suggestions, practice and recommendations for organizational research. organizational research methods, 3, 4–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/109442810031002 wang, t., merkle, e., & zeileis, a. (2014). score-based tests of measurement invariance: use in practice. frontiers in psychology, 5, 438. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00438 widaman, k.f., & reise, s.p. (1997). exploring the measurement invariance of psychological instruments: applications in the substance use domain. in k.j. bryant, m. windle & s.g. west (eds.), the science of prevention: methodological advances from alcohol and substance abuse research (pp. 281–324). washington, dc: american psychological association. wildschut, a., kruss, g., janse van rensburg, d., haupt, g., & visser, m. (2012). learnerships and apprenticeships survey 2010 technical report: identifying transitions and trajectories through the learnership and apprenticeship systems. pretoria: hsrc. yen, w.k.s., & lan, o.s. (2013). measurement invariance of students’ parents action questionnaire (spaq) among three ethnic groups in malaysia. the international journal of educational and psychological assessment, 12(2), 123–139. zercher, f., schmidt, p., cieciuch, j., & davidov, e. (2015). the comparability of the universalism value over time and across countries in the european social survey: exact versus approximate measurement equivalence. frontiers in psychology, 6, 733. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00733 article information author: joha louw-potgieter1 affiliation: 1section of organisational psychology, university of cape town, south africa correspondence to: joha louw-potgieter postal address: section of organisational psychology, university of cape town, rondebosch 7701, south africa dates: received: 05 oct. 2011 accepted: 20 apr. 2012 published: 13 july 2012 how to cite this article: louw-potgieter, j. (2012). evaluating human resource interventions. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(3), art. #420, 6 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v10i3.420 copyright notice: © 2012. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. evaluating human resource interventions in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • purpose of the special edition    • current theoretical perspectives       • how does human resource work?       • do human resource departments work?    • rationale of this special edition • acknowledgements    • competing interests • references abstract top ↑ orientation: programme evaluation is a transdiscipline, which examines whether a programme has merit or not. a programme is a coherent set of activities aimed at bringing about a change in people or their circumstances.research purpose: the purpose of this special edition is to introduce readers to the evaluation of human resource (hr) programmes. motivation for the study: there are few comprehensive evaluations of hr programmes despite many publications on functional efficiency measures of hr (i.e. measures of cost, time, quantity, error and quality). research design, approach and method: this article provides a value chain for hr activities and introduces the reader to programme theory-driven evaluation. main findings: in summarising all of the contributions in this edition, one of the main findings was the lack of programme evaluation experience within hr functions and the difficulty this posed for the evaluators. practical/managerial implications: this introductory article presents answers to two simple questions: what does hr do? and, what is programme evaluation? these answers will enable practitioners to understand what programme evaluators mean when we say that programme evaluation seeks to determine the merit of a programme. contribution/value-add: the main contribution of this introductory article is to set the scene for the hr evaluations that follow. it alerts the reader to the rich theory contribution in hr literature and how to apply this in a theory-driven evaluation. introduction top ↑ in 2006, the section of organisational psychology at the university of cape town (uct), established a master’s degree option in programme evaluation. as is usual with the implementation of new academic programmes, this initiative was contested from within and without the section of organisational psychology. those within organisational psychology argued that programme evaluation did not belong in its domain, whilst those outside organisational psychology claimed it for their domains. it seemed that programme evaluation belonged everywhere and nowhere in the university of cape town. this is quite common in the case of a transdisciplinary programme. according to scriven (2003), a transdiscipline is a discipline with its own methods, which can be applied to other disciplines or domains or knowledge. like most domain disputes, this debate is far from over. in the meantime, the master’s degree in programme evaluation has become a popular and sought-after degree for south african and international postgraduate students. there are specific reasons for this high demand for programme evaluators in south africa and africa. firstly, within the public sector in south africa, the department of monitoring and evaluation was created within the national planning commission in the presidency to monitor the delivery of social programmes. in order to comply with the requirements of this department, a monitoring and evaluation function within national and regional government departments has been mooted. secondly, within the private sector in south africa, there is sporadic evidence of evaluation activity within service (e.g. human resource, financial services) and social responsibility departments (field, 2011). thirdly, in africa, big donor organisations (e.g. the president’s emergency programme for aids relief, centers for disease control, the european union, swedish international development cooperation agency) include evaluation as part of their funded interventions. these evaluation endeavours are good news for the universities of cape town and stellenbosch, the only two universities in south africa that offer degrees in programme evaluation. purpose of the special edition in this special edition, we present the evaluations of human resource programmes produced within the section of organisational psychology at uct. this work reflects the pioneering spirit of the section in its quest to establish programme evaluation as a standard assessment within the hr function. it is also a tribute to the section’s academics and students who ventured into the relatively unchartered waters of ‘real world evaluation’ (bamberger, rhug & mabry, 2006) within the human resource (hr) domain. current theoretical perspectives for a long time a myth persisted that the value of hr interventions could not be measured (fitz-enz, 1995). this state of affairs has changed and measures of transactional efficiency (i.e. measures of cost, time, quantity, error and quality) abound within the hr function (fitz-enz, 2000). therefore, the need is not for more measures, but for systematic and consistent measures that will enable organisations to make informed decisions about the merit of hr interventions (boudreau & ramstad, 2007). evaluations, or decisions about programme merit, are still the exception rather than the norm in hr. skinner (2007) commented that: given that [evaluation] is so central to what people do, it is perhaps surprising that evaluation, as a planned and formal activity, appears to be so problematic in an organisational context. (p. 118) edwards and his colleagues (edwards, scott & raju, 2003, 2007) have documented a number of hr programme evaluations, but otherwise this area of evaluation is still developing. firstly, one could speculate that the reason for the paucity of evaluation of hr programmes is that most non-hr programme evaluators perceive this function as consisting of multiple, unrelated people management tasks. this perception is reinforced by hr’s generation of many independent transactional efficiency measures. secondly, the reason could be that most hr and non-hr people have not made the connection between the purpose of an evaluation and the specific hr intervention. is the purpose of the evaluation to find out how the intervention was implemented, or is it to determine the results that it produced? can we use the information from a systematic evaluation to make an informed decision that established whether or not to improve or discontinue the programme? the main aims of this introductory article are: • to simplify the activities of the hr function into an explanatory framework that enables non-hr people to understand what hr does • to demystify the domain of programme evaluation into five comprehensible steps • to show how hr interventions can be evaluated. how does human resource work? when confronted with the myriad of people management tasks that hr practitioners engage in daily, most people fail to find logic in all of this detail. however, there is a simple but powerful logic (sometimes also called a value chain) that categorises these tasks and presents the categories in a sequential fashion.one can think of people management practices as a sequence of activities that follows the employee throughout the organisation, namely: • recruitment and selection (a person applies for a job, goes through a selection process, is placed in a suitable job and inducted into the organisation) • pay, benefits and reward (depending on the job level, the person is paid a specific salary with benefits like medical aid and a pension fund and may be recognised by means of non-financial awards like employee of the month) • training and development (the person is trained for the specific job and developed for personal growth or organisational change) • performance management (after a suitable period, the person’s performance in the current job is reviewed and evaluated against appropriate organisational standards, a process which is often linked to pay and a training or development plan) • employee relations (by means of fair practices, health and safety programmes and interventions such as diversity programmes, the organisation strives to foster a workplace with a positive culture and climate for its employees). this value chain is presented in figure 1. figure 1: human resource value chain. a number of authors have attempted to categorise hr tasks and make sense of the function. in this regard, the work of fitz-enz (2000) stands out. he presented six typical management activities of the hr function, namely: planning, acquiring, maintaining, developing, retaining and evaluating. according to fitz-enz, evaluating is not a separate hr function, but integral to the effective functioning of the other five hr activities. he then continues to describe what happens in each of these activities: • planning provides guidelines to human resource needs and succession planning as intended at a particular time. • acquiring refers to recruitment and selection, both from within and outside the organisation. • maintaining refers to how employees are maintained by means of reward and recognition. • developing focuses mainly on how training and development programmes are used to develop people to their fullest potential. • retaining, the last activity, involves programmes for staff retention, which may focus on employee relations, organisational culture and values. these two models show significant overlap and clarify the purpose of hr. they deal with superordinate categories of work, which simplifies hr work for non-hr people. at the same time, they enable programme evaluators to see at a glance how hr activities are interlinked and add value to employees’ journeys within the organisation. do human resource departments work? this is a typical evaluation question that assesses the value or merit of hr interventions. in order to get to hr evaluation we must first explore a model that will enable us to judge the merit of hr activities. this model shows a hierarchy of steps, which can be used in evaluating hr programmes; it is also possible to isolate some of the steps and only deal with those in an evaluation. the model was developed by rossi, lipsey and freeman (2004) and is presented in a step-wise hierarchy in figure 2. figure 2: step-wise model of programme evaluation. this model is usually applied to social programmes (i.e. programmes that seek to improve social conditions like poverty, hunger, crime, etc.). however, it can also be applied to any programme that consists of an organised set of activities, which seeks to change the current state of affairs. for instance, the model could be used to assess a programme that aims to bring about improved performance in the workplace, and that consists of organised skills training, performance management and reward components. the model starts with the first step, need, which is the motivation of most social programmes. why do we want to implement a programme? because there is a problem. what exactly is the problem? how big is it? how is it distributed? an example of a people management need can illustrate this. a company is experiencing significant staff turnover. the problem is that employees, especially managers, are leaving the company. this is a serious problem, as the company has lost 15% of its middle and senior managers in the last six months. ten per cent of this 15% manager loss is in the johannesburg branch. there is a need to do something about this problem. a programme to stop managerial job loss could be a solution to this problem. the second step in the hierarchy is programme theory and design. programme theory refers to the assumptions or ideas of stakeholders about how the programme works (bickman, 1987), or how it will bring about change. very often, programme theories are modest theories (donaldson, 2007). these programme theories may also be implausible. it helps considerably to have experts who know the subject area to assist in building a more complex or a plausible programme theory. the better practitioners understand how a programme will bring about change, the better they can choose relevant programme activities that will support this change. in this way, we can design a programme, which shows good alignment between programme theory and programme activities. an example of a modest programme theory is when stakeholders assume that training will cause improved organisational performance. if this theory is left unchallenged, a skills training programme may be implemented and when evaluated, may show little impact on company performance. however, if some research was undertaken on the relationship between training and performance, the programme managers might have realised that training is a necessary but not a sufficient intervention for improved performance (brinkerhoff, 1998). they may also have come to the conclusion that, in order for training to be effective, employees first need to apply what they have learned in training to their jobs. furthermore, they may have read that employees who have supportive supervisors (noe, 2005), who encourage experimentation, may create a department where people try out their new skills without fear of being laughed at or punished for mistakes made. thus, these programme managers, armed with a more plausible theory about the link between training and performance, may now set about to design a programme with training, application and supervisory support components. the third step in the model is implementation. implementation addresses coverage (who received the programme), process (how the programme was implemented) and programme resources (whether or not there were enough resources to implement the programme properly) (rossi et al., 2004). many newcomers to programme evaluation find these implementation terms confusing, mainly because there is more than one label for the same concept. for instance, an implementation evaluation is often referred to as a process evaluation, coverage is also called service utilisation, process and service delivery are used interchangeably, and resources are often called support and organisational functions. in this special edition, we shall use the terms implementation evaluation with the sub-categories of coverage, process and programme resources. many well-designed programmes with robust programme theories fail, because they are poorly implemented. an example of a well-designed programme with poor implementation is the south african national housing programme. in the hr function, implementation is even more problematic. often a programme is conceptualised by senior hr staff, but implemented by line managers who have not been part of the design process or who have not been trained to execute the implementation (purcell & hutchinson, 2007). should an hr programme evaluation conclude that the implementation was done poorly, this can invariably be related to unclear accountability for its implementation. the fourth step deals with the outcomes and impact. outcomes refer to a change in the state of the problem, a change in the state of affairs, or a change within the recipient of the programme (rossi et al., 2004). outcomes can be short, medium or long-term. impact refers to a causal relationship and addresses the question of whether or not the programme, and not anything else, has brought about the change in the problem, state of affairs or the recipient. we often expect significant impact from hr programmes. however, researchers like cohen (1988) have indicated that a realistic expectation for the effect of a well-targeted behaviour change programme is approximately a 30% – 35% change or improvement. the fifth and final step deals with programme cost. please note that this is not about budgeting for a programme. budgeting happens when people plan programmes. this step deals with judging how much a specific programme costs per recipient, or how much a specific programme costs in comparison with other programmes of the same kind (rossi et al., 2004). sometimes a programme might bring about the desired change, but may simply be too costly to sustain. high-level management or executive development programmes often fall within this category. monitoring and evaluation are often used simultaneously in book titles or university programmes. monitoring refers to tracking the implementation, outcomes or both, of a programme over time. when programme evaluators monitor outcomes, we do so by means of indicators (the best representations of the outcome) (kusek & rist, 2004). for instance, we may monitor the training outcome, knowledge acquisition, by means of performance on a knowledge test. sometimes we add standards to our outcome indicators. a standard is a measure which tells us whether or not our outcome progress is good enough (kusek & rist, 2004). in hr, we have a number of standards, which indicate whether or not performance is good enough. these standards are often called benchmarks and organisations like saratoga or companies undertaking salary surveys update and publish these regularly. sometimes these standards form part of international agreements, like the international labour organisation’s conventions on hours of work, maternity protection, or minimum age. at a national level, these standards are reflected in the basic conditions of employment act. or we can set our own realistic standards. for instance, what percentage of absenteeism is acceptable? does this percentage hold for friday and monday absenteeism too (when more staff are absent), or do we inflate the standard for these days? again, the terminology used for monitoring might be confusing for newcomers to programme evaluation. often, indicators are called criteria; some programme evaluators distinguish between indicators and measures whilst others assume that an indicator includes a measureable component; often, standards are called targets or yardsticks. sometimes an outcome cannot be measured directly, thus, we use proxy indicators. a proxy indicator is an indirect representation of the outcome (kusek & rist, 2004). in south africa, we often refer to race to indicate socio-economic class or previous disadvantage. another example of a proxy indicator is the following: in the 2009 elections, a survey included ‘number of bathrooms’ as a proxy indicator of socio-economic class. socio-economic class was then used to predict for which political party people within that class category would vote. when we are dealing with social programmes, we may use pre-designed indicators (kusek & rist, 2004), like the millennium developmental goals or the international monetary fund’s financial soundness indicators. in hr, pre-designed indicators are provided in salary surveys (i.e. this is the basic salary for a process engineer in gauteng) or from hr practice (i.e. what is the optimal hr staff:employee ratio in a manufacturing organisation?). often, programme evaluators use baseline indicators. a baseline indicator provides information at the beginning of the monitoring period and serves as a starting point for future performance (kusek & rist, 2004). an example of an hr baseline indicator is a measure of skill or knowledge taken prior to the implementation of a skills or knowledge training programme. after the training, another knowledge or skill measure is taken and compared with the baseline measure to judge whether or not a trainee has acquired skill or knowledge during the training. usually, a social programme is aimed at improving a social condition, in other words, it does good (rossi et al., 2004). recipients of social programmes are often referred to as beneficiaries, and are the people who experience the social benefits of the programme. these beneficiaries are now less poor, have better access to health service delivery, have houses, or live in peace. when we evaluate hr programmes, the beneficiaries are defined less clearly. who are the beneficiaries of an hr programme which is introduced to improve work performance, but which does not have a remuneration component tied to it? who benefits from a selection programme aimed at providing the best person-job fit? who benefits from a training programme in which the skills to be learned are organisation-specific and not transferrable to other companies? with hr programmes, the beneficiary is often the organisation and not the employees. sometimes both benefit, sometimes one party benefits more than the other. most hr programmes are not aimed at doing good; they are aimed at improving organisational performance and recipients may therefore be a more realistic term for the people who receive the programme. rationale of this special edition in this special edition, we show that, by using the methods of programme evaluation, we can improve current hr programmes or determine the merit of these programmes. unlike most texts, we do not just exhort hr practitioners to measure or evaluate; we provide clear examples of how to improve or judge the merit of hr programmes. we present seven hr programme evaluations, which cover the full hr value chain, from staffing to employee relations.in the recruitment and selection category, an evaluation of an induction programme is described (hendricks & louw-potgieter). this is a theory evaluation that showed how a modest programme theory led to the development of sparse programme activities, which did not produce the outcomes envisaged by the programme manager. a plausible programme theory and more extensive programme activities were suggested, which might result in organisational identification and staff retention. what is still missing is an evaluation of a selection programme in the recruitment and selection category. some organisations use psychological assessments for manager selection, whilst others have developed assessment centres or have committed to a series of focused interviews. we do not know which of these selection programmes are most effective. also, an organisation seldom uses all three types of selection programme simultaneously. this makes comparison difficult. furthermore, the absence of a plausible programme theory of manager selection, which includes most of the relevant mediating and moderating variables, complicates useful evaluation. in the pay and reward category, salie and schlechter showed how to work around unexpected obstacles in a formative evaluation of a recognition programme. these authors presented an elegant exposition of the difference between the programme manager’s and the recipients’ perceptions of this programme. this evaluation highlighted the importance of asking both the programme designer and recipients whether or not a programme works. the crux of the reward and recognition category is whether or not pay motivates employees and which kinds of pay are the best motivators. this is a complex area to evaluate and would require in-depth knowledge of types of pay and employee motivation. for the present, we leave this as a challenge for a prospective doctoral student. in the training and development category, we found the highest number of evaluations (three). it seems that training evaluation is the default in hr evaluation (in south africa, and also elsewhere in the world). this in itself is interesting, as training is not a high-cost hr intervention like recruitment and selection or pay. so, why would most hr evaluations focus on training? perhaps the pervasive popularity of kirkpatrick’s (1994) four levels of evaluation could explain this. kirkpatrick offered the hr function a four-category evaluation model (reaction to training, learning, application of training and effect of training) which appealed intuitively to all. today, reaction to training is used as a measure for virtually every training programme offered within organisations. most hr professionals proudly offer information regarding the number of delegates and whether these delegates liked the training or not, as ‘evaluations’ of training. sometimes learning is assessed, but application and the effect of training are seldom evaluated. the assessment of the latter two levels is more complex and cannot be achieved by means of simple questionnaires. for this reason, training evaluation seems stuck with the number of delegates and their reaction to the training. firstly, the initial evaluation in the training and development category (buys & louw) highlights how a plausible programme theory might be misaligned to the initial needs assessment done for a supervisor development programme. whilst the programme under evaluation could be judged as successful, it did not fulfil the initial need of reducing the cost of supervisor recruitment. rather, it had become a training programme for incumbent supervisors. secondly, rundare and goodman show how additional programme activities like group learning enhanced the effectiveness of a perinatal care programme for midwives. in their recommendations for future evaluations of the programme, they indicated how a quasi-experimental design could strengthen future evaluations. thirdly, beets and goodman used brinkerhoff’s success case method (scm) (2003, 2006) to evaluate whether or not recipients had applied the skills, knowledge and values (skas) they acquired on a coaching training programme in their work. the evaluators illustrated here how to use this method and made useful suggestions on when not to use it. in the performance management category, joseph, emmett and louw-potgieter use an implementation evaluation to show how a pay-for-performance programme had little effect because of its flawed implementation. they extracted the essential variables for successful implementation of such a programme. this evaluation has been used by the organisation in question to re-launch the pay-for-performance programme during 2009. finally, in the employee relations category, duffy and louw present a plausible programme theory for a wellness intervention. like salie and schlechter, these authors also indicated how to work around evaluation problems when programme staff change their commitment to evaluation. duffy and louw intended to do an implementation evaluation, but had to settle for a theory evaluation when the economic downturn prevented the organisation from rolling out the wellness initiative. the evaluations presented in this special edition utilised a theory-driven evaluation approach (donaldson, 2007). a theory-driven evaluation approach requires a good description of the programme activities. from these activities, ‘a plausible and sensible model of how a programme is supposed to work’ is constructed (bickman, 1987, p. 5). this model is called a programme theory and it is usually tested against existing social science research in order to ascertain whether or not it constitutes a plausible theory of change (i.e. how the programme will change the recipients or the problem). apart from detailing how a theory-driven approach to evaluation science works, the articles in this special edition also show how to craft evaluation reports for different audiences, how to undertake evaluations for different purposes, how to utilise different evaluation methods and how to overcome the challenges of conducting evaluations of hr programmes in organisations. in utilising this approach, we hope to contribute to improved hr practice in south africa. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the author declares that she has no financial or personal relationship(s) which may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this paper. references top ↑ bamberger, m., rugh, j., & mabry, l. (2006). realworld evaluation: working under budget, time, data, and political constraints. thousand oaks: sage.bickman, l. (1987). the functions of programme theory. new directions for program evaluation, 33, 5–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ev.1443 boudreau, j.w., & ramstad, p.m. (2007). beyond hr. the new science of human capital. boston: harvard business school press. brinkerhoff, r.o. (1998). clarifying and identifying impact evaluation. in s.m. brown & c.j. seider (eds.), evaluating corporate training. models and issues, (pp. 141–166). boston: kluwer academic publishers. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4850-4_7 brinkerhoff, r.o. (2003). the success case method. find out quickly what’s working and what’s not. san francisco: berrett-koehler publishers. brinkerhoff, r.o. (2006). getting real about evaluation. training & development, 60(5), 24–25. cohen, j.w. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. hillsdale: lawrence erlbaum associates. donaldson, s.i. (2007). program theory-driven evaluation science. new york: lawrence erlbaum associates. edwards, j.e., scott, j.c., & raju, n.s. (2003). the human resources program-evaluation handbook. thousand oaks: sage. edwards, j.e., scott, j.c., & raju, n.s. (2007). evaluating human resources programs: a six-phase approach for optimizing performance. san francisco: john wiley & sons. field, c. (2011). training evaluation practices in the south african financial services sector. unpublished manuscript. section of organisational psychology, university of cape town. fitz-enz, j. (1995). how to measure human resources management. new york: mcgraw-hill inc. fitz-enz, j. (2000). the roi of human capital. measuring the economic value of employee performance. new york: amacom. kirkpatrick, d.l. (1994). evaluating training programs: the four levels. san franciso: berret-koehler. kusek, j.z., & rist, r.c. (2004). ten steps to a results-based monitoring and evaluation system. washington, dc: the world bank. http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/0-8213-5823-5 noe, r.a. (2005). employee training and development. boston: mcgraw-hill. purcell, j., & hutchinson, s. (2007). front-line managers as agents in the hrm-performance causal chain: theory, analysis and evidence. human resource management journal, 17, 3–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2007.00022.x rossi, p.h., lipsey, m.w., & freeman, h.e. (2004). evaluation. a systematic approach. (7th edn.). thousand oaks: sage. scriven, m. (2003). evaluation in the new millennium: the transdisciplinary vision. in s.i. donaldson & m. scriven (eds.), evaluating social programs and problems: visions for the new millennium, (pp.19–42). mahwah: lawrence erlbaum associates. skinner, d. (2007). evaluating shrm: why bother and does it really happen in practice? in m. millmore, p. lewis, m. saunders, a. thornhill & t. morrow (eds.), strategic human resource management. contemporary issues, (pp. 117–149). harlow: prentice hall. article information authors: kreshona pillay1 johanna h. buitendach1 herbert kanengoni1,2 affiliations: 1department of psychology, university of kwazulu-natal, south africa2department of industrial psychology, university of the free state, south africa correspondence to: herbert kanengoni postal address: private bag x13, phuthaditjhaba 9866, south africa dates: received: 09 oct. 2013 accepted: 03 june 2014 published: 11 dec. 2014 how to cite this article: pillay, k., buitendach, j.h., & kanengoni, h. (2014). psychological capital, job demands and organisational commitment of employees in a call centre in durban, south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslike hulpbronbestuur, 12(1), art. #599, 13 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v12i1.599 copyright notice: © 2014. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. psychological capital, job demands and organisational commitment of employees in a call centre in durban, south africa in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • literature review • method    • research participants    • measuring instruments       • the psychological capital questionnaire       • the job-demands-resources scale       • the organisational commitment questionnaire    • research design       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results • discussion    • limitations of the study    • recommendations for future research    • contribution of the study    • conclusion and implications • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the south african call centre industry is growing as call centres are increasingly used as a means of service delivery to customers. positive psychologists posit that psychological capital could lead to positive outcomes such as organisational commitment of call centre staff.research purpose: this study investigated the relationship between psychological capital, job demands and organisational commitment and intended to determine whether psychological capital and job demands predict call centre employees’ organisational commitment. motivation for the study: the study aimed to explore potential links between psychological capital, job demands and organisational commitment of call centre employees. it is premised on previous research that call centre job demands may be related to commitment to the organisation. research approach, design and method: this cross-sectional study sampled 117 call centre employees from durban, south africa, and used a biographical questionnaire, psychological capital questionnaire, the job-demands-resources scale and the organisational commitment questionnaire to collect data. main findings: findings indicated a statistically significant relationship between psychological capital and work overload, as well as a practically and statistically significant relationship (medium effect) between psychological capital and continuance organisational commitment. the results showed that psychological capital has predictive value for continuance organisational commitment. practical/managerial implications: psychological capital has predictive value for continuance organisational commitment. organisations can develop initiatives to enhance positive psychological states and address this relationship. contribution: the findings could be beneficial to management and employees in considering ways to boost psychological capital in order to improve organisational commitment. introduction top ↑ the call centre industry in south africa and around the world is growing at a rapid rate and has provided many job opportunities for south africans with entry-level skills (benner, 2006). many organisations internationally, as well as in south africa, use call centres as a means of service delivery to customers (gordi, 2006) and therefore as the prevalence of call centres increases in organisations there is a subsequent need to understand the manner in which employees engage with work that is required of them in the call centre environment and to understand how they maintain their commitment to an organisation. generally call centre work has been affiliated with work that requires a basic level of skill; however, despite this, the demands of call centre work can have an impact on the way in which employees view work and the organisation. the demands placed on call centre employees in relation to customer delivery may take a toll on employees and therefore may cause them to re-evaluate their commitment to the organisation. this is consistent with findings from previous studies (e.g. holman, 2003), which have revealed that call centre work places high demands on employees. malhotra and mukherjee (2004) found a lack of organisational commitment amongst banking call centre employees. call centre work involves optimising productivity and at the same time delivering exceptional customer service; therefore, it can be characterised as demanding and can often be stressful (lewig & dollard, 2003). the choice of subjects for the study is built upon the nature of the call centre work environment, which is often characterised by, amongst others, emotion work, which mostly entails the need to consistently display positive emotional job-requirements (ortiz-bonnin, garcia buades, caballer-hernandez & zapf, 2013). in support, holman (2003) adds that call centre work is often associated with high levels of stress, which is most likely caused by the various demands placed on call centre employees. the customer delivery demands that employees in a call centre are faced with may explain why there are low levels of organisational commitment in the call centre environment.this article reports on a study conducted amongst call centre workers in durban, south africa (pillay, 2012). the motivation for conducting the study is premised on previous findings regarding the nature of call centre work. previous research suggests that the unpredictable demands of call centre work may be related to employee’s commitment to an organisation (armony & maglaras, 2004). in light of the increasing interest from researchers in positive psychology, such as the founders seligman and csikszentmihalyi (2000) as well as money, hillenbrand and da camara (2009), there is a need to find ways to help call centre employees to address these job demands and to do so by focusing on ways to enhance employees’ positive psychological states and subsequently maintain employees’ commitment to the organisation. much of the research on psychological capital (psycap) (e.g. avey, luthans & jensen, 2009; larson & luthans, 2006; luthans, norman, avolio & avey, 2008), which is made up of the constructs hope, optimism, self-efficacy and resiliency, has been conducted internationally, whilst little research sampling call centre employees has been conducted in south africa. the central aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between psychological capital, job demands and organisational commitment. although there has been a considerable amount of research conducted on call centre workers (e.g. armony & maglaras, 2004; benner, 2006; lewig & dollard, 2003; malhotra & mukherjee, 2004; norman, 2005), little research addressing organisational commitment of call centre employees has been conducted in south africa. in addition, despite the existence of numerous studies conducted on psychological capital in many different contexts (e.g. avey, luthans & jensen, 2009; avey, patera & west, 2006; larson & luthans, 2006; luthans, norman, avolio & avey, 2008), there is limited research that addresses psycap issues in south african situations. with this in mind, there is a need to contribute to studies with practical implications on psychological capital in the south african context specifically. this study may provide a means for organisations to find ways to develop the psychological capital of their employees in order to achieve desirable organisational outcomes such as organisational commitment. the study will therefore address the following research questions: • what is the relationship between psychological capital, job demands and organisational commitment? • to what extent do psychological capital and job demands predict organisational commitment? • what is the relative contribution of each of the dimensions of psychological capital and job demands in predicting organisational commitment? literature review snyder and lopez (2002) assert that the field of positive psychology is rapidly gaining interest in industrial psychology. psychology as a discipline has predominantly focused on overcoming psychological or emotional problems (mcmohan, 2009) and has tended to focus on negative aspects or experiences in individuals, thereby focusing on negative states as opposed to positive states (seligman & csikszentmihalyi, 2000). positive psychology aims to understand and foster factors that allow individuals to flourish (seligman & csikszentmihalyi, 2000). it can be defined as the ‘the study of human happiness: the conditions and processes that contribute to the flourishing or optimal functioning of people, groups, and institutions’ (gable & haidt, 2005, p. 104). ‘positive psychology promotes the role of positive emotions and individual strengths that are linked to successful outcomes’ (mcmohan, 2009, p. 64).compton (2005) posits that research conducted on positive psychology has shown that positive emotions and adaptive behaviour are specifically important in order to live a satisfying and productive life. therefore, positive psychology is becoming a cutting edge trend in research as researchers and practitioners look for ways to enhance the efficiency of their delivery systems without jeopardising worker optimal quality. in this regard, the reasoning is that there is a need to focus more on developing and nurturing positive individual states as opposed to concentrating only on negative states. the emergence of positive psychology in the literature has resulted in the development of constructs reflecting positive psychological states in individuals, such as psychological capital. psycap as a construct emerged from positive psychological literature and the study of positive organisational behaviour (pob) (luthans, avolio, avey & norman, 2007). luthans (2002b) defines pob as ‘the study and application of positively oriented human resource strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed for performance improvement’ (p. 59). avey, nimnicht and graber pigeon (2009) posit that there has been a considerable amount of research paying specific attention to positive psychological capacities in the workplace. these psychological capacities include self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience. self-efficacy refers to an individual’s beliefs or perceptions about their ability to control certain situations and their confidence in performing specific tasks (bandura, 1994). hope is defined as ‘a positive motivational state that is based on an interactively derived sense of successful (1) agency (goal-directed energy) and (2) pathways (planning to meet goals)’ (snyder, 2002, p. 250). snyder (2002) argues that hope has two dimensions: willpower and pathways. willpower refers to the motivation individuals have to achieve a desired goal (luthans, avey, clapp-smith & li, 2008), and pathways refer to alternative pathways to a goal, which aids individuals in achieving goals despite the presence of obstacles (luthans, avolio, avey & norman, 2007). optimism generally refers to having a positive outlook on life. optimistic individuals expect good things to happen to them and in contrast pessimists expect bad things to happen to them (scheier & carver, 1985). in relation to pob, luthans (2002a) defines resilience as ‘the capacity to rebound or bounce back from adversity, conflict, failure, or even positive events, progress, and increased responsibility’ (p. 702). these capacities are collectively referred to as psychological capital (avey, luthans & jensen, 2009). luthans, youssef and avolio (2007) define psychological capital as: an individual’s positive psychological state of development and is characterised by: (1) having confidence (self-efficacy) to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks; (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future; (3) persevering toward goals and, when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to succeed; and (4) when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond (resilience) to attain success. (p. 3) research on psycap has shown growing evidence that psycap is significantly related to desired employee behaviours, attitudes and performance. research has also found a significant relationship between psycap and job satisfaction and psycap and organisational commitment (larson & luthans, 2006). furthermore, studies by avey, wernsing and luthans (2008) have found that employees’ psycap is related to their positive emotions which in turn is related to their attitudes and behaviours relevant to organisational change. studies on the psycap of chinese workers show that psycap is related to their performance (luthans, avolio, walumbwa & li, 2005; luthans, avey, clapp-smith & li, 2008). currently there is little research that has been conducted on psycap in the south african context; more specifically, no research has been conducted on the psycap of call centre employees. therefore, this research aims to address this disparity in the literature. in relation to the research problem and the evidence provided by research on the construct, the psycap of call centre employees may therefore have an impact on employees’ commitment to the organisation. psycap is recognised as a positive psychological state that can be further developed by the individual (luthans, avolio, avey & norman, 2007, p. 543). if employees have confidence in themselves and put in effort to succeed in challenging tasks (self-efficacy), they may be able to deal with job demands such as meeting deadlines. if they are optimistic about their future (optimism) and persevere to attain goals (hope), as well as not allowing obstacles to stand in the way of success (resilience), they may be able to deal with the demands placed on them and therefore remain committed to their jobs. psycap with regard to this study is defined as individuals possessing positive psychological states (self-efficacy, optimism, hope and resilience) that may predict organisational commitment. research has shown that psychological capital is related to desired outcomes such as organisational commitment (larson & luthans, 2006). when individuals are optimistic about their futures in the organisation they remain committed to their jobs; individuals with self-efficacy believe they have control over their lives and can make a contribution to the organisation (larson & luthans, 2006). individuals with hope feel that they have the motivation to succeed in any tasks that they have to perform in the organisation; in relation to this, individuals with resilience are able to perform well in the organisation even in the face of adversity (luthans, 2002b). as a result individuals are able to remain committed to the organisation. therefore, the study aims to determine the relationship between psycap and organisational commitment of call centre employees. no research has been conducted on the relationship between psycap and job demands; thus, this is a gap in the literature that this research aims to address. job demands as a construct has been defined throughout literature by karasek’s (1979) job-demands-control model. karasek posits that job demands are measured by determining ‘psychological stressors involved in accomplishing the workload, stressors related to unexpected tasks, and stressors of job-related personal conflict’ (p. 291). extensions and modifications to the model have resulted in other job demands models emerging. the job-demands-resources model (jd-r) by demerouti, bakker, nachreiner and schaufeli (2001) attributes employee well-being to characteristics of work environments. working environments can be characterised into two categories: job demands and job resources. ‘job demands refer to physical, social, or organisational aspects of the job that require sustained physical or mental effort and are therefore associated with certain physiological and psychological costs’ (demerouti et al., 2001, p. 501) and can include factors such as workload or time pressures. job resources refer to physical, psychological, social or organisational aspects of the job that may play a functional role in aiding individuals to achieve work goals, reduce job demands and fuel personal growth and development (demerouti et al., 2001). these researchers identify organisational resources as including job control, potential for qualification, participation in decision-making and task variety; social resources involve the support given by family, colleagues and peers (demerouti et al., 2001). the model posits that extreme job demands may lead to exhaustion and that a lack of resources results in individuals not meeting job demands; this may lead to withdrawal from work and disengagement from work (demerouti et al., 2001). bakker, demerouti and schaufeli (2003) state that when employees are faced with demanding work conditions, those who have more resources at their disposal are more capable of dealing effectively with these demands. cavanaugh, boswell, roehling and boudreau (2000) make a further distinction by separating job demands into job hindrances and job challenges. job hindrances refer to work characteristics such as role ambiguity, job insecurity, constraints and interpersonal conflicts and job challenges refer to workload, time pressure and cognitive demands (cavanaugh et al., 2000). job hindrances are more likely to ‘elicit negative emotions that interfere with employee’s work goal achievement and well-being’ (van den broeck, de cuyper, de witte & vansteenkiste, 2010, p. 737) and although job challenges may be ‘energy-depleting’ (van den broeck et al., 2010, p. 737), they are also stimulating and therefore provide employees with the challenge to achieve their goals. most of the current literature focuses on the negative aspects of job demands and neglects to see that there is a positive component (i.e. job challenges). bakker et al. (2003) conducted a study with a sample of employees in a call centre and applied the jd-r model. their study showed that job demands (work pressure, computer problems, emotional demands and changes in tasks) were important predictors of health problems and absenteeism and that job resources (e.g. social support, supervisory coaching, performance feedback and time control) were predictors of involvement, which is closely related to organisational commitment. however, in this study, the focus was only on the job demands aspect of the jd-r model. the reasoning was that work pressure, emotional demands and changes in tasks may be a more debilitating factor than lack of job resources in the call centre environment. in light of the proposed study problem, job demands can be defined as psychological, social and organisational factors that impact negatively on an individual. the negative impact that job demands may have on an individual may further have an effect on an employee’s commitment and dedication to the organisation. norman (2005) identifies the following work-related exposures and demands placed on call centre staff: work tasks and work quantity, call monitoring and logging, salary and additional numeration, physical exposures relate to comfort, time spent seated, continuous computer work, psychological demands such as emotional and cognitive demands, decision latitude, and support from colleagues and supervisors. (p. 5) this study therefore aims to determine whether psycap and job demands predict organisational commitment. becker (1960) defines ‘commitment’ as a term used to describe ‘consistent behaviour’ (p. 33). according to becker, this behaviour ‘persists over a period of time and the person remains in the organisation’ (p. 33). subsequent studies have resulted in researchers beginning to identify other forms of commitment (meyer, stanley, herscovitch & topolnytsky, 2002). meyer and allen (1984) make a distinction between affective commitment and continuance commitment. affective commitment refers to ‘an emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in the organisation’ and continuance commitment refers to the ‘perceived costs associated with leaving the organisation’ (allen & meyer, 1990). allen and meyer (1990) propose a third component of organisational commitment, normative commitment, which ‘reflects a perceived obligation to remain in the organisation’ (meyer et al., 2002, p. 21). allen and meyer posit that employees with strong affective commitment remain because they want to, those with strong continuance commitment because they need to and those with strong normative commitment because they feel they ought to do so. an individual may experience the three components of commitment to varying degrees. in addition, the three components develop independently of each other as a result of different experiences or antecedents. similar arguments are raised by powell and meyer (2004), who further emphasise that the three components often develop in different ways and have different implications for job behaviour. meyer et al. (2002) define a committed employee as being one who ‘stays with an organisation, attends work regularly, puts in a full day and more, protects corporate assets, and believes in the organisational goals’ (p. 22). in addition, meyer et al. also conducted a meta-analysis, which revealed three forms of commitment that are related to each other yet distinguishable from one another. affective and continuance commitment correlated with antecedents such as personal characteristics and work experiences, and personal characteristics, alternatives and investments, respectively (meyer et al., 2002). the study also concluded that affective commitment ‘had the strongest and most favourable correlations with organisation-relevant (attendance, performance, and organisational citizen behaviour) and employee-relevant (stress, work-family conflict) outcomes’ (meyer et al., 2002, p. 20). stander and rothmann (2009) found that there were only two components of organisational commitment, namely attitudinal commitment and continuance commitment. the researchers found that affective commitment and normative commitment could be included as one component called attitudinal commitment. meyer, allen and smith (1993) state that continuance commitment refers to employees’ behavioural orientation, whereas normative and affective commitment refers to employees’ attitudinal orientation. a study on the impact of organisational commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour on turnover intentions of call centre personnel in pakistan showed that ‘turnover intentions of call centre personnel depended on the organisational commitment of the employees’ (ahmad, shahzad, rehman, khan & shad, 2010, p. 585). the demanding nature of call centre work may make employees apathetic towards their work. the characteristics of the job have the potential to make employees unwilling to remain in an organisation that may not provide them with a sense of fulfilment and accomplishment. employees may also feel as though they play a very insignificant role in the organisation, and in most cases there is little opportunity for promotion. the low skill nature of call centre work may make employees feel inferior to other employees in the organisation, and they may feel as though they are not making a valuable contribution to the organisation. hu and schaufeli (2011) conducted a study using the job-demands-resources model on chinese business workers. they found that if individuals had job resources to deal with job demands, this contributed to them being able to cope effectively with the imminent demands and therefore maintain their commitment to the organisation. when individuals are faced with excessive job demands and feel as though they do not have the resources to the deal with these demands, this may have an impact on their decision to remain in an organisation: they may feel as though they do not belong in an organisation and cannot deal with the demands of the job. wu and norman (2006) found that organisational commitment and job demands often have an inverse relationship: when job demands increase organisational commitment often decreases. hansez and chmiel (2010) found that when commitment levels of management decreased, this was usually a result of increased job demands. this study therefore aimed to determine the relationship between job demands and organisational commitment. the theoretical framework underpinning the research is fredrickson’s (2001) broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. positive psychology posits that positive emotions lead to optimal well-being (fredrickson, 2001). she states that positive emotions signal and produce flourishing, not only in the present, but in the long term as well. positive emotions are therefore ‘worth cultivating, not just as end states in themselves but also as a means to achieving psychological growth and improved well-being over time’ (fredrickson, 2001, p. 220). fredrickson’s broaden-and build theory further explains the role of positive emotions: the theory states that certain discrete positive emotions, including joy, interest, contentment, pride, and love, all share the ability to broaden people’s momentary thought-action repertoires and build enduring personal resources, ranging from physical and intellectual resources to social and psychological resources. (fredrickson, 2001, p. 219) positive emotions have the ability to widen the range of thoughts and actions that come to mind (fredrickson, 2001). fredrickson (2001) states that: joy creates the urge to play, push limits, and be creative; interest creates the urge to explore and to take in new information and experiences; contentment creates the urge to value current life circumstances and from new views of the self and the world; pride follows personal achievements and creates the urge to share news of achievements and envision greater achievements in the future. (p. 220) finally, love is considered to be a combination of joy, interest and contentment (fredrickson, 2001). broadening modes of thinking and acting further ‘builds enduring personal resources which function as reserves to be drawn on to manage threats’ (fredrickson, 2001, p. 220). research and evidence gathered from previous studies has stated that positive emotions may fuel resilience. resilience is considered to be a personal resource (fredrickson, 2001). optimism, self-efficacy, and hope can also be considered to be personal resources that may help individuals deal with adverse situations. positive emotions may also fuel the development of these constructs and the overall psychological capital of an individual. the premise is that positive emotions may therefore enable call centre staff to deal with demands of the job, and the manner in which these emotions broaden action and thought repertoires may help to enhance an individual’s well-being and lead to employees being committed to the job. research on the role of positive emotions needs to be conducted in the south african context and this study aims to contribute to this gap in the research. therefore, in light of the points raised in literature, the study firstly established the relationship between psychological capital, job demands and organisational commitment. secondly, the researchers investigated the extent to which psychological capital and job demands predict organisational commitment. it is the belief of the researchers that the additive contributions of the findings have useful practical implications for situations in south african call centre environments. method top ↑ research participants non-probability purposive sampling was used in the study to select the sample. non-probability sampling refers to a sampling method where the selection of elements is not determined by the statistical element of randomness (durheim & painter, 2006). in purposive sampling ‘sampling depends not only on the availability and willingness to participate, but that cases that are typical to the population are selected’ (durheim & painter, 2006, p. 139). non-probability purposive sampling was the most appropriate method to use as participants that were selected were employees that worked specifically within the call centre environment.the call centre in durban has approximately 150 staff members, including call centre representatives, call centre support staff, managers and senior managers. one hundred and seventeen participants completed the questionnaires. the sample comprised of more women (81.2%) than men (18.8%). the majority of the participants were in the age group 21–30 years old (42.7%) followed by the participants between 17–20 years and those older than 51 years, which constituted 35.9% each. about 16% were between the ages of 31 and 40 years and only 5.1% of the participants were between 41 and 50 years. the racial demographics of the group is interesting to note as the majority of the participants were indian and african and the minority of the participants were mixed race or white. of the sample, most participants only had a matric qualification, 30.7% had a diploma and only 3.5% had obtained degrees. the majority of the participants had been working for the organisation for more than 5 years (62.4%). the majority of the respondents were non-management employees (93.2%). some of the categories had missing data. the demographic characteristics of the respondents are illustrated in table 1. table 1: demographic characteristics of the participants. measuring instruments the data collection method for the study consisted of the use of three scales and one biographical questionnaire that was developed by the researcher. the biographical questionnaire was only used in the study to collect demographic information about the participants in the study. information was collected on the participants’ gender, age group, race, highest qualification, number of years working for the organisation, and the participant’s job level in the organisation. the psychological capital questionnaire the psychological capital questionnaire (pcq) was developed by luthans, avolio, avey and norman (2007) and was used as the measure for psycap. the pcq consists of 24 items and four subscales measuring self-efficacy, hope, resilience and optimism. there are six items for each of the four subscales. an example of a self-efficacy item is ‘i feel comfortable contributing to discussions about the companies strategies’; a hope item is ‘if i find myself in a jam, i could think of ways to get out of it’; an example of a resilience item is ‘i usually take stressful things at work in stride’; an example of a optimism item is ‘i always look on the bright side of things regarding my job’. the responses are measured using a six-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). avey et al. (2006) found a very high cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.90 for psycap and the cronbach’s alpha reliabilities of the four subscales were found to be 0.82, 0.81, 0.78 and 0.65. the job-demands-resources scale the job-demands-resources scale (jdrs) was developed by jackson and rothmann (2005) to measure job demands and resources. the scale consists of 42 items and responses are measured on a four-point likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 4 (always). according to jackson and rothmann, the jdrs has seven dimensions: organisational support, growth opportunities, overload, job insecurity, relationship with colleagues, control and rewards. alpha coefficients for the above seven dimensions of the jdrs were 0.88, 0.80, 0.75, 0.90, 0.76, 0.71 and 0.78 (jackson & rothmann, 2005). an example of an organisational support subscale item is ‘do you get on well with your colleagues?’; an example of a growth opportunities item is ‘does your job offer you opportunities for personal growth and development?’; an example of an advancement item is ‘does your job give you the opportunity to be promoted?’; an example of an overload item is ‘do you have too much work to do?’; an example of a job insecurity item is ‘do you need to be more secure that you will still be working in one year’s time?’ rothmann, mostert and strydom (2006) found cronbach’s alpha reliabilities of between 0.76 and 0.92 for the jdrs. these results show that the jdrs has high levels of internal consistency. the organisational commitment questionnaire the organisational commitment questionnaire (ocq) was developed by allen and meyer (1990) and consists of 18 items with three subscales measuring three components: affective, continuance and normative commitment. the responses are measured on a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). an example of an item in the affective organisational commitment subscale is ‘i would be very happy to spend the rest of my career in the organisation’; an example of an item in the continuance organisational commitment subscale is ‘it would be very hard for me to leave the organisation right now, even if i wanted to’; an item in the normative organisational commitment subscale is ‘i do not feel any obligation to remain with my current employer’. allen and meyer found the cronbach’s alpha coefficient to be 0.87 for the subscale affective organisational commitment, 0.75 for continuance organisational commitment and 0.79 for normative organisational commitment. meyer et al. (1993) found cronbach’s alpha coefficients for affective organisational commitment, continuance organisational commitment and normative organisational commitment to be 0.82, 0.74 and 0.83, respectively. nawab and bhatti (2011) found a cronbach’s alpha reliability of more than 0.82 for the ocq, which reflects a high internal consistency.cronbach’s alpha reliabilities should be higher than 0.70 (nunnally & bernstein, 1994), and considering that most researchers have found cronbach’s alpha reliabilities of over 0.70 for the three questionnaires, the questionnaires were used. research design a quantitative research design was used to the conduct the research. quantitative research involves counting and measuring events and performing the statistical analysis from numerical data (howitt & cramer, 2003). quantitative research refers to a data collection process in which ‘the researcher moves deductively from abstract ideas, to specific data collection techniques, to precise numerical information produced by the techniques’ (neuman, 2006, p. 181). this design was favoured because the researcher aimed to determine the relationship between psychological capital, job demands and organisational commitment; thus the researchers believed that quantitative research was the most appropriate research design to use. a cross-sectional research design was used which refers to a:a criterion groups design in which the different criterion groups are typically comprised of different age groups which are examined in terms of one or more variables at approximately the same time. (huysamen, 1994, p. 98). the sample was drawn from the population at a specific time and point (huysamen, 1994), as opposed to taking multiple measures over an extended time period. research procedure a letter of informed consent was given to the organisation asking for permission to conduct the research. a meeting was then set up with an employee from the human resources department to discuss the objectives of the research. the organisation gave permission to the researcher to conduct the research and to distribute questionnaires to the call centre employees during a 2-week period. call centre employees were asked to participate in the study on a voluntary basis, and this was facilitated by employees in the human resources department who agreed to assist the researcher. employees who were willing to participate in the study were given a letter to brief them on the description of the study, the purpose of the study, the procedure of participation in the study and issues of confidentiality and anonymity. they were also given an informed consent form before participation in the study. the collection of data took place over a period of 2 weeks as agreed with the organisation. this allowed participants enough time to complete questionnaires at their convenience. the human resource employees were provided with the questionnaires and distributed them amongst their staff. the collection of the questionnaires was done by the human resources employees; this ensured that questionnaires that were completed were collected at the end of the procedure. statistical analysis data was analysed using the spss statistical programme, version 21. descriptive statistics were analysed by determining minimum and maximum scores, standard deviations and means. skewness was evaluated to determine the symmetry of the distribution, and kurtosis was analysed to determine the peakedness of the distribution. cronbach’s alpha reliabilities were analysed to determine the internal consistency and reliability of the questionnaires.exploratory factor analysis was conducted to investigate construct validity. ‘factor analysis is a specialised statistical technique that is particularly useful for investigating construct validity’ (gregory, 2007, p. 135). before exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the pcq, items 13, 20 and 23 were reversed. on the ocq items 3, 7, 10 and 16 were reversed. factor analysis was conducted on the pcq, jdrs and the ocq to determine the underlying factors in the scales. the pcq consists of four subscales, the jdrs consists of seven subscales, and the ocq consists of three subscales. it was therefore necessary to determine what factors or subscales best represented the data in the study. the analysis of constructs aims to determine whether the constructs are homogenous and are therefore able to measure a single construct (gregory, 2007). cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated to ascertain internal consistency of the measuring instruments (gregory, 2007). according to nunnally and bernstein (1994), cronbach’s alpha coefficients should be higher than 0.70 to be considered to have an acceptable level of internal consistency. inferential statistics were used to analyse the data as inferences were made about a population from a sample. pearson correlation coefficient analysis was used to determine the relationship between psychological capital, job demands and organisational commitment. practically and statistically significant relationships were assessed. practically significant relationships were assessed to determine ‘whether a relationship is large enough to be important’ (steyn, 2002, p. 10). the following guidelines according to cohen (2007) were used to determine whether a relationship is important: values of 0.3 to 0.49 indicate a medium effect and 0.5 to 0.99 indicate a large effect. a simple linear regression analysis was conducted to determine whether psychological capital had predictive value for organisational commitment. standard multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine the relative contribution of the dimensions of psychological capital and job demands on organisational commitment. results top ↑ exploratory factor analysis (efa) was conducted on 24 items of the pcq, 18 items of the ocq and 42 items of the jdrs. confirmatory factory analysis (cfa) would have been conducted but given the common problems associated with using cfa with small sample sizes and the fact that little research has been conducted in the area with the subjects used in this study, efa was favoured. the choice of efa was prompted by the fact that the study used a small sample of 117 employees and is designed to make an additive contribution to the body of literature (on psycap, job demands and organisational commitment in call centre environments) useful for those refining future research in the area. as such, this is an exploratory, investigative work from which tentative developments can be deduced rather than conclusive trends. larger multi-site investigations are needed to confirm these results before firm conclusions can be made about south african situations at large.subjected to the principal component analysis, 24 items of the pcq revealed that one factor emerged from the data (see table 2). the keizer-meyer-olkin value was 0.77, which exceeds the threshold value of 0.6, and the bartlett’s test of sphericity showed a statistical significance. a two-component solution explained a total of 41.5% of the variance. an oblimin rotated solution revealed strong loadings and many items substantially loading on one component. the subscales hope, optimism, resilience and self-efficacy all loaded on one factor, which explained 32.5% of the total variance. the factor was called psycap. avey et al. (2006) and larson and luthans (2006) both found that each subscale loaded onto four factors thus presenting the uniqueness of each factor as a measurement of psycap. for the jdrs, the results of the factor analysis showed two factors emerging. job resources loaded on one factor and job demands loaded on one factor. as highlighted, the study only focused on the factor job demands in the analysis as job resources were not included in the research questions of the study. the keizer-meyer-olkin value was 0.71 and exceeded the recommended 0.6 value and the bartlett’s test of sphericity showed a statistical significance. a two-component solution explained a total of 35.7% of the variance, with component one contributing 24.1% of the total variance and the second component, which was called work overload, explaining 11.5% of the total variance. whereas this study revealed two factors, rothmann, mostert and strydom (2006) found that five factors emerged from their data; one of the factors was overload. table 2: initial eigenvalues for the total variances explained. as illustrated in table 2, the results of the factor analysis of the ocq showed that a one factor emerged from the data. the factor was called continuance organisational commitment. the keizer-meyer-olkin value was 0.77, exceeding the recommended value of 0.6, and the bartlett’s test of sphericity showed a statistical significance. a two-component analysis explained a total of 42.8% of the variance. a clear interpretation of the two was obtained through the rotated solution, which showed strong loadings of items on one component. the one factor explained 26.66% of the total variance. allen and meyer (1990) found that organisational commitment can be measured by three factors. stander and rothmann (2009) only found two factors. they called the factors affective commitment and attitudinal commitment. table 3 shows the descriptive statistics of the factors that were used in the study. the negative skewness values indicate that the distribution is negatively skewed. therefore, most scores cluster around high scores on the distribution. the kurtosis values indicate that the distribution is relatively flat; this indicates that the scores are relatively spread out along the distribution. the skewness and kurtosis values indicate that the distribution is normally distributed. cronbach’s alpha coefficients were used to test reliability of the psycap questionnaire, jdrs and the ocq. according to nunnally and bernstein (1994), cronbach’s alpha coefficients should be greater than or equal to 0.70 to be regarded as reliable and acceptable. table 3 reports the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the questionnaires and the factors. cronbach’s alpha reliability for the pcq was 0.87, for the jdrs was 0.89, and for the ocq was 0.77. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for psycap (factor) was found to be 0.91. work overload had a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.76. the cronbach’s alpha level for continuance organisational commitment was found to be 0.82. table 3: descriptive statistics and reliability statistics for the scales. table 4 shows the results of the pearson correlation coefficient analysis. pearson correlation coefficient analysis was used to determine the relationship between psychological capital (as measured by the pcq), work overload (as measured by the jdrs) and continuance organisational commitment (as measured by the ocq). psycap was found to have a statistically significant relationship with work overload [r(117) = 0.227; p < 0.05]. psycap demonstrated a practically and statistically significant relationship, [r(117) = 0.428; p < 0.01, medium effect] with continuance organisational commitment. as illustrated in table 4, no relationship was found to exist between work overload and continuance organisational commitment [r(117) = 0.128; p > 0.05]. table 4: correlations between psychological capital, work overload and continuance organisational commitment. table 5 shows the results of the simple linear regression. simple linear regression analysis was conducted to determine whether psycap has predictive value for continuance organisational commitment. a compound score was used to represent psycap and table 5 shows that psycap significantly predicts continuance organisational commitment (r² = 183; f = 21.27; p < 0.01). no relationship was found to exist between work overload and continuance organisational commitment; therefore, a multiple regression analysis could not be conducted to determine whether work overload had predictive value for continuance organisational commitment. table 5: simple linear regression (psychological capital and continuance organisational commitment). standard multiple regression was used to ascertain how well a set of specific dimensions (self-efficacy, hope, resilience, optimism, work overload and resources) of the independent variables (psychological capital and job demands) predicted continuance organisational commitment. the idea was to obtain information about the model as a whole (all subscales) and the main and unique contribution of each of the individual subscales. as shown in table 6, the regression model accounted for 20.3% of the variance (r2 = 0.203; f = 2.722; p > 0.01). a statistically significance for only one predictor was found to make unique contribution to continuance organisational commitment: hope (β = 0.384; t = 2.415; p < 0.05). table 6: coefficients showing the relative contribution of each of the dimensions of psychological capital and job demands in predicting organisational commitment. discussion top ↑ firstly, the current study assessed how the concepts psycap, job demands and organisational commitment were conceptualised in the literature. psycap can be defined as positive psychological states that include self-efficacy, optimism, resilience and hope. organisational commitment is defined as an employee’s willingness to remain in the organisation, willingness to put in effort to contribute to the goals of the organisation and feeling as though they are making a valuable contribution to the organisation. continuance organisational commitment refers to individuals’ feelings about remaining in the organisation and their obligation to remain in the organisation. individuals with strong continuance organisational commitment remain in the organisation because they feel they have to or need to. job demands refers to psychological, social and organisational factors that impact negatively on an individual. secondly, the study attempted to explore the relationship between psycap, job demands and organisational commitment of employees in a call centre in durban, south africa. lastly the study aimed to determine whether psycap and job demands could predict organisational commitment and to determine the relative contribution of the dimensions of psycap and job demands on organisational commitment. the importance of such a study lies in its ability to provide an understanding of the demands placed on call centre employees and to understand the relationship between psycap and commitment to the organisation.efa was conducted on the pcq, jdrs and the ocq. the results of the factor analysis of the pcq showed that a one-factor model best fitted the data in the study; the factor was called psycap. psycap explained 32.5% of the total variance. all four dimensions of psycap loaded on one factor thereby showing that all four dimensions are able to measure the construct of psycap. avey et al. (2006) and larson and luthans (2006) found that the four subscales of psycap loaded on four different factors, thus showing that although all four subscales can provide a measure for the construct psycap, all four subscales are unique and provide measures for their respective dimensions as well (larson & luthans, 2006). results of the efa of the jdrs showed one factor emerged from the data. the factor was referred to as work overload. work overload explained 11.5% of the total variance. jackson and rothmann (2005) found seven factors for the jdrs, whereas rothmann, mostert and strydom (2006) only found five factors. however, the researchers in this study found one factor, called overload, in their results. efa of the ocq showed that one factor was most appropriate. the factor was continuance organisational commitment. continuance organisational commitment explained 26.6% of the total variance. the results of the factor analysis show that employees’ commitment to the organisation is mainly based on their need to remain in the organisation and not because they have an attachment to the organisation. allen and meyer (1990) propose that one can measure organisational commitment using a three-factor model. cohen (2007), however, found that the constructs in organisational commitment often overlap. further, stander and rothmann (2009) found that organisational commitment can be measured using two factors. they found that affective and normative organisational commitment can be considered as one factor, namely attitudinal organisational commitment, with the other factor being continuance organisational commitment. the researchers only found one factor in this study; this therefore shows that this is a grey area and further research needs to be conducted on the concept of organisational commitment to reconceptualise the construct and to determine how many subscales underlie the construct. the descriptive statistics showed that the data was normally distributed. a cronbach’s alpha reliability analysis was carried out to determine the psychometric properties of the pcq, the jdrs and the ocq. cronbach’s alpha coefficients were used to estimate the reliability of all the measuring instruments used in the study. the findings showed that all the measuring instruments had a high internal consistency as all cronbach’s alpha reliabilities were larger than 0.70, and were therefore considered to be acceptable following nunnally and berstein’s (1994) guidelines. pearson r correlation analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between the variables in the study. no research has been found on the relationship between these three constructs together; therefore, this is a gap in the literature that the researcher aimed to address. the findings showed that there is a statistically and practically significant relationship (medium effect) between psycap and continuance organisational commitment. the two variables were strongly correlated [r(117) = 0.428; p < 0.01]. larson and luthans (2006) found that psycap is significantly related to organisational commitment. the study suggests that employees remain in the organisation because they need to remain in the organisation. this is reflected in the findings that, when employees have high levels of psycap, their commitment to the organisation is also high. psycap was found to have a statistically significant relationship to work overload [r(117) = 0.227; p < 0.05]. this means that when levels of work overload are high, the psycap of employees is also high. this relationship may be explained with reference to the theoretical framework underlying this study. according to broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, certain positive emotions build enduring personal resources, which include physical, intellectual, social and psychological resources (fredrickson, 2001). positive emotions have been shown to fuel personal resources such as resilience. self-efficacy, optimism and hope can also be considered to be personal resources. more specifically, they can be considered to be psychological resources, which can be drawn upon to help manage threats (fredrickson, 2001) such as job demands. therefore, when job demands increase, the psycap of employees may also increase. the multiple regression analysis revealed interesting findings. the researchers were interested in comparing the unique contribution of each specific dimension of the independent variables to explaining the continuance organisational commitment. the largest beta coefficient was 0.384, which was for hope. this means that in this study, hope made the strongest and statistically significant unique contribution to explaining continuance organisational commitment (β = 0.384; t = 2.415; p < 0.05). the other predictors’ beta values were slightly lower, indicating less of a unique contribution. therefore, in light of the above, hope is an important psychological capacity in predicting continuous organisational commitment, more so than self-efficacy, optimism and resilience and other job-related characteristics. the results are partly consistent with larson and luthans’s (2006) findings that psycap is significantly related to organisational commitment. the additional aspect is that this study further looked at individual contribution of the psycap dimensions with results indicating that, as long as employees believe that there are alternate ways to deal with problems and that they are actively pursuing their work goals (hope), they are more likely to have high continuance organisational commitment. no relationship was found to exist between work overload and continuance organisational commitment. wu and norman (2006) found that organisational commitment and job demands often have an inverse relationship, in that when job demands increase, organisational commitment often decreases. hu and shaufeli (2011) suggested that when job demands were high commitment to the organisation diminished, but when individuals had the resources to cope with the demands, then their commitment to the organisation was higher. the findings therefore suggest that regardless of whether levels are high, work overload has no relationship to continuance organisational commitment. hansez and chmiel (2010) found that when commitment levels of management decreased this was usually a result of increased job demands. however, holman (2003) found that call centre employees often also have to endure high job demands. malhotra and mukherjee (2004) note that call centre staff often have low levels of organisational commitment. the study suggests that employees remain in the organisation because they feel they the need to remain in the organisation and therefore work overload is not related to their decision to remain in the organisation. this is reflected in the fact that results show that 62.4% of the sample has been working in the organisation for more than 5 years. research has shown that positive psychological states lead to positive organisational outcomes such as organisational commitment. a positive relationship was found between psycap and continuance organisational commitment; this led the researcher to determine whether psycap has predictive value for organisational commitment. the results of the simple linear regression analysis showed that psycap had statistically significant predictive value for continuance organisational commitment (r² = 183, f = 21.27, p < 0.01). this result was consistent with the findings of larson and luthans (2006), who found that psycap has predictive value for organisational commitment. limitations of the study it should be noted that this study contains a few important limitations that will require attention in future studies. the study used a cross-sectional design in order to determine the relationships between the variables in the study. this design however does not determine causality between the variables. the study used non-probability purposive sampling in which only employees who worked in the call centre environment were included in the sample. this form of sampling may lack generalisability to other call centres in south africa because the nature of the work in call centres in different sectors varies. the data collection method used in this study was a survey design and therefore the data collected was a result of self-reported questionnaires. this means that participants may have answered the questionnaires in a socially desirable manner and may not have given accurate responses that reflected their real opinions and feelings. this limitation could have been exacerbated in this study because the study procedure involved the distribution of questionnaires to the staff by human resource employees in the organisation. recommendations for future research it is recommended that longitudinal studies should be conducted to determine causality as well as to determine the levels of psycap, job demands and organisational commitment at different times during the research course. no research has been conducted on these three constructs together; therefore, there is a need for research to link these constructs together as research has shown that call centre staff face high job demands and there is generally a lack of organisational commitment in the call centre industry (holman, 2003; malhotra & mukherjee, 2004). there is a need for more studies to be conducted on organisational commitment as there is still confusion surrounding how many subscales underlie the construct. this is a grey area in research that needs to be addressed. there is also a need to provide research on the role of psycap as a psychological resource that can be used in the workplace to deal with organisational threats in the absence of other resources. for future studies, it might also be necessary to examine and clarify the strength and causal direction of the relationship between the four dimensions of psycap and the variable in context. large multi-site studies could be helpful for identifying potential underlying aspects and findings that can allow generalisations beyond our study population. contribution of the study the study has contributed to the literature on positive psychology as well as to the literature on psycap, which is lacking in the south african context. positive emotions and positive psychological states play an important role in the workplace as they lead to positive outcomes such as organisational commitment. the study has also attempted to identify problems that employees may have in remaining committed to the organisation. the findings of this study showed that work overload did not have a relationship with continuance organisational commitment, thereby suggesting that employees remain committed to the organisation regardless of their workload. the research has also attempted to understand the role of job demands in the call centre environment to help employees find ways to address these demands by focusing on ways to enhance the psycap of employees. the findings can be used by organisations to develop interventions that increase employee’s psychological capital in order to achieve desirable organisational outcomes such as organisational commitment and to deal with job demands that call centre employees face. interventions can be created to help employees develop their self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience capacities. conclusion and implications in south africa, call centres have provided many job opportunities, especially for people with low-level skills (benner, 2006). as it is difficult to attain employment in south africa without a higher qualification than a matric, many individuals rely on call centres as an opportunity to gain employment and receive an income. given the findings, the research suggests that psycap may have a significant influence on continuance organisational commitment. more specifically it was found that the psycap dimension hope held predictive value for continuance organisational commitment. the findings in relation to continuance organisational commitment therefore suggest that employees within the call centre environment are likely to remain committed to the organisation based on their need to remain within the organisation. furthermore, the findings suggest that when employees are motivated to reach their own desired goals despite the presence of obstacles, this is likely to predict continuance organisational commitment. there are various recommendations and managerial implications that are very crucial to these and other organisations. to management and organisations, the findings of this study point to the critical importance of developing the psychological capacities of employees, especially in environments such as the call centre environment where work pressure, emotional demands and changes in tasks are characteristics. in addition, it is particularly useful to encourage personal development amongst call centre workers as this is more likely to improve the coping abilities of workers as well as being flexible to ease the emotional demands experienced in call centre environments.the study has attempted to fill the gap in literature in relation to psycap in the south african context and the psycap of call centre staff. very little research has been conducted on the role of job demands and the relationship it has on employees’ commitment to their organisation. the results of the study have provided interesting information on job demands and organisational commitment in the call centre environment in the south african context; the findings have suggested that even though job demands may be high in the organisation, this has no effect on whether employees remain committed to the organisation or not. the study also provided interesting information with regard to the relationship between psycap and job demands. the results suggest that psycap is related to job demands and according to fredrickson’s (2001) broaden-and-build theory, positive emotions have been found to help with managing threats and dealing with problems. therefore, when employees have high levels of self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience, they are able to manage job demands such as work overload. acknowledgements top ↑ the financial assistance of the national research foundation south africa (nrf) towards this research is hereby acknowledged. opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at are those of the authors and are not necessarily to be attributed to the nrf. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions k.p. (university of kwazulu-natal) was the main researcher and was responsible for conceiving ideas, conducting fieldwork, as well as writing up the article. j.h.b. (university of kwazulu-natal) supervised the research and made conceptual contributions to the study. h.k. (university of kwazulu-natal) conducted the statistical analysis, co-authored the results and discussion sections, as well as addressing the editor’s and copy editor’s concerns. references top ↑ ahmad, s., shahzad, k., rehman, s., khan, a.m., & shad, i.k. (2010). impact of organisational commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour on turnover intentions of call centre personnel in pakistan. european journal of social sciences, 17(4), 585–591.allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organisation. journal of occupational psychology, 63, 1–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.x armony, m., & maglaras, c. (2004). contact centres with a call-back option and real-time delay information. operational research, 52, 527–545. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/opre.1040.0123 avey, j.b., luthans, f., & jensen, s. (2009). psychological capital: a positive resource for combating stress and turnover. human resource management, 48, 677–693. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20294 avey, j.b., nimnicht, j.l., & graber pigeon, n. (2009). two field studies examining the association between positive psychological capital and employee performance. leadership & organisation development journal, 31(5), 384–401. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437731011056425 avey, j.b., patera, j.l., & west, b.j. (2006). the implications of positive psychological capital on employee absenteeism. journal of leadership and organisational studies, 13(2), 42–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10717919070130020401 avey, j.b., wernsing, t.s., & luthans, f. (2008). can positive employees help positive organisational change? impact of psychological capital and emotions on relevant attitudes and behaviours. journal of applied behavioural science, 44, 48–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0021886307311470 bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2003). dual processes at work in a call centre: an application of the job demands resources model. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 12, 393–417. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594320344000165 bandura, a. (1994). self-efficacy. in v.s. ramachaudran (ed.), encyclopaedia of human behaviour (pp. 71–81). new york, ny: academic press. becker, h.s. (1960). notes on the concept of commitment. american journal of sociology, 66, 32–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/222820 benner, c. (2006). south africa on call: information technology and labour market restructuring in south african call centres. regional studies, 40(9), 1025–1040. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00343400600928293 cavanaugh, m.a., boswell, w.r., roehling, m.v., & boudreau, j.w. (2000). an empirical examination of self-reported work stress among us managers. journal of applied psychology, 85, 65–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.85.1.65 cohen, j. (2007). commitment before and after: an evaluation and reconceptualisation of organisational commitment. human resource management review, 17, 336–354. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2007.05.001 compton, w.c. (2005). an introduction to positive psychology. usa: thomson wadsworth. demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., nachreiner, f., & schaufeli, w.b. (2001). the job demands-resources model of burnout. journal of applied psychology, 86, 499–512. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.499 durheim, k., & painter, d. (2006). collecting quantitative data. in m. terre blanche, k. durheim & d. painter (eds.), research methods in practice: applied methods for the social sciences (pp. 132–159). cape town, south africa: uct press. fredrickson, b.l. (2001). the role of positive emotions in positive psychology: the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. american psychologist, 56, 218–226. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.56.3.218 gable, s.l., & haidt, j. (2005). what (and why) is positive psychology? review of general psychology, 9, 103–110. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.9.2.103 gordi, r.m. (2006). job satisfaction of call centre representatives. retrieved march 20, 2011, from http://etd.uwc.ac.za/usrfiles/modules/etd/docs/etd_init_8719_1175067659.pdf gregory, r.j. (2007). psychological testing: history, principles, and applications. (5th edn.). boston, ma: pearson international edition. hansez, i., & chmiel, n. (2010). safety behaviour: job demands, job resources, and perceived management commitment to safety. journal of occupational health psychology, 15(3), 267–278. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0019528 holman, d. (2003). call centres. in d. holman, t.d. wall, c.w. clegg, p. sparrow, & a. howard (eds.), the new workplace: a guide to the human impact of modern working practices (pp. 115–131). london, uk: john wiley & sons. howitt, d., & cramer, d. (2003). an introduction to statistics in psychology. (2nd edn.). london, uk: prentice hall. hu, h., & schaufeli, w.b. (2011). job insecurity and remuneration in chinese family-owned business workers. career development international, 16(1), 6–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620431111107784 huysamen, g.k. (1994). methodology for the social and behavioural sciences. pretoria, south africa: southern book publishers. jackson, l.t.b., & rothmann, s. (2005). work-related well-being of educators in a district of the north west province. perspectives in education, 23, 107–122. karasek, r. (1979). job demands, job decision latitude, and mental strain: implications for job redesign. administrative science quarterly, 24, 285–308. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2392498 larson, m., & luthans, f. (2006). potential added value of psychological capital in predicting work attitudes. journal of leadership and organisational studies, 13, 75–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10717919070130020601 lewig, k.a., & dollard, m.f. (2003). emotional dissonance, emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction in call centre workers. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 12, 366–392. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594320344000200 luthans, f. (2002a). the need for and meaning of positive organisational behaviour. journal of organisational behaviour, 3, 695–706. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.165 luthans, f. (2002b). positive organisational behaviour: developing and managing psychological strengths. academy of management executive, 16, 57–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/ame.2002.6640181 luthans, f., avey, j.b., clapp-smith, r., & li, w. (2008). more evidence on the value of chinese workers psychological capital: a potentially unlimited competitive resource? the international journal of human resource management, 19, 818–827. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190801991194 luthans, f., avolio, b.j., avey, j.b., & norman, s.m. (2007). positive psychological capital: measurement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. personnel psychology, 60, 541–572. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2007.00083.x luthans, f., avolio, b.j., walumbwa, f., & li, w. (2005). the psychological capital of chinese workers: exploring the relationship with performance. management and organisation review, 1, 247–269. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8784.2005.00011.x luthans, f., norman, s.m., avolio, b.j., & avey, j.b. (2008). supportive climate and organisational success: the mediating role of psychological capital. journal of organisational behavior, 29(2), 219–238. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.507 luthans, f., youssef, c.m., & avolio, b.j. (2007). psychological capital: developing the human competitive edge. oxford, uk: oxford university press. mcmohan, g. (2009). positive feelings at work. retrieved march 25, 2011, from http:// www.trainingjournal.com malhotra, n. & mukherjee, a. (2004). the relative influence of organisational commitment and job satisfaction on service quality of customer-contact employees in the banking call centres. the journal of service marketing, 18(2/3), 162–174. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/08876040410536477 meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1984). testing the ‘side-bet theory’ of organisational commitment: some methodological considerations. journal of applied psychology, 69, 372–378. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.69.3.372 meyer, j.p., allen, n.j. & smith, c. (1993). commitment to organisations and occupations: extension and test of a three-component conceptualisation. journal of applied psychology, 87, 538–551. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.4.538 meyer, j.p., stanley, d.j., herscovitch, l., & topolnytsky, l. (2002). affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organisation: a meta-analysis of antecedents, correlates, and consequences. journal of vocational behaviour, 61, 20–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2001.1842 money, k., hillenbrand, c., & da camara, n. (2009). putting positive psychology to work in organisations. journal of general management, 34(3), 21–36. nawab, s., & bhatti, k.k. (2011). influence of employee compensation on organisational committment and job satisfaction: a case study of educational sector of pakistan. international journal of business and social science, 2(8), 25–32. neuman, w.l. (2006). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. london, uk: sage publications. norman, k. (2005). call centre work: characteristics, physical and psychosocial exposure and health related outcomes. published doctoral thesis. sweden: department of mechanical engineering, linkopings university. nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, j. (1994). psychometric theory. new york, ny: mcgraw hill. ortiz-bonnin, s., garcia buades, m.e., caballer-hernandez, a., & zapf, d. (2013). a multi-level analysis of the moderating role of supportive team climate in the emotion work-emotional exhaustion relationship. poster presentation at the sixteenth congress of the european association of work and organizational psychology, muenster, germany, 22–25 may. pillay, k. (2012). happiness, psychological capital and organisational citizenship behaviour of employees in a financial institution in durban, south africa. unpublished master’s thesis, school of applied human sciences, university of kwazulu-natal, south africa, viewed n.d., from http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10413/9379/pillay_kreshona_2012.pdf powell, m., & meyer, j.p. (2004). side-bet theory and the three-component model of organisational commitment. journal of vocational behaviour, 65, 157–177. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0001-8791(03)00050-2 rothmann, s., mostert, k., & strydom, m. (2006). a psychometric evaluation of the job demands-resources scale in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 32(4), 76–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v32i4.239 scheier, m., & carver, c. (1985). optimism, coping, and health: assessment and implications of generalized outcome expectancies. health psychology, 4, 219–247. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.4.3.219 seligman, m.e.p., & csikszentmihalyi, m. (2000). positive psychology: an introduction. american psychologist, 55, 5–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.5 snyder, c.r. (2002). hope theory: rainbows in the mind. psychological inquiry, 13(4), 249–275. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1304_01 snyder, c.r., & lopez, s.j. (2002). the handbook of positive psychology. new york, ny: oxford university press. stander, m.w., & rothmann, s. (2009). the relationship between leadership, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. sa journal of human resource management, 7(3), 7–13. steyn, h.s. (2002). practically significant relationships between two variables. sa journal of industrial psychology, 28(3), 10–15. van den broeck, a., de cuyper, n., de witte, h., & vansteenkiste, m. (2010). not all job demands are equal: differentiating job hindrances and job challenges in the job demands-resources model. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 19(6), 735–759. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594320903223839 wu, l., & norman, i.j. (2006). an investigation of job satisfaction, organizational commitment and role conflict and ambiguity in a sample of chinese undergraduate nursing students. nurse education today, 26(4), 304–314. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2005.10.011 article information authors: boitomelo makhuzeni1 e. nicolene barkhuizen1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology, north-west university, mafikeng campus, south africa correspondence to: nicolene barkhuizen email: nicolene.barkhuizen@nwu.ac.za postal address: private bag x2046, mmabatho 2745, south africa dates: received: 06 mar. 2015 accepted: 21 aug. 2015 published: 05 nov. 2015 how to cite this article: makhuzeni, b., & barkhuizen, e.n. (2015). the effect of a total rewards strategy on school teachers’ retention. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #699, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.699 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the effect of a total rewards strategy on school teachers’ retention in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • literature review       • total rewards • research design    • research approach    • research strategy    • research setting • research method    • entrée and establishing researcher roles    • sampling    • data collection method    • recording of data    • data analyses    • ensuring the quality and rigour of the research    • reporting • findings    • theme: performance management and recognition    • theme: benefits    • theme: work-life balance    • theme: career development    • theme: compensation • discussion    • practical implications    • limitations of the study    • recommendations for future research    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: south african schools are facing significant challenges to retain a talented pool of school teachers. a total rewards strategy could assist schools to reduce teacher turnover. research purpose: the aim of this study was to determine the effect of a total rewards strategy on the turnover intentions of school teachers in the north-west province. motivation: the under supply of quality teachers has negative consequences for both school pupils and the larger community. research approach, design and method: a qualitative research approach was followed using semi-structured interviews to gather data from teachers in the north-west province (n = 6). main findings: the findings showed that performance management, career development and compensations of teachers were poorly applied in schools. teachers strongly considered leaving the teaching profession as a result of poor rewards. the participants were fairly satisfied with their work benefits and work-life balance. practical/managerial implications: school management should implement reward practices and policies that will attract and enhance retention of school teachers. contribution: this research highlighted the problematic areas in the reward systems for school teachers and the subsequent impact thereof on their turnover intentions. introduction top ↑ the retention of quality teachers is a major problem in south african schools (steyn, 2013). factors contributing to the shortage of educators include resignation, medical boarding, dismissal, emigration of highly trained professionals for greener pastures and restrictions related to self-development and a lack of recognition for good performance (adedeji & olaniyan, 2011; schullion, 2011). in particular, teachers are constantly protesting as a result of the poor remuneration and reward practices (armstrong, 2007). as a result of these factors teachers are leaving the teaching profession for better compensation in developed countries or other career prospects (south african council for educators, 2010). teacher turnover leads to a significant loss of service efficiency which eventually has a detrimental effect on the performance of school children (williams, champion & hall, 2012). the task of the department of education is, therefore, to develop attractive reward and remuneration practices that will retain a talented pool of school teachers (armstrong, 2009; sace, 2010). according to shukia (2009) effective reward and retention policies improve teacher abilities and the school's overall effectives. retention policies should be able to attract new employees, satisfy the older generation of employees and motivate current employees to stay within the organisation (barkhuizen, 2014). one of the best methods that institutions can implement to retain employees is to adopt good remuneration practices (davis & edge, 2004; gerhart & rynes, 2003). the main objective of this research was to determine the effect of reward and remuneration practices on the retention of school teachers in the north-west province. more specifically this research addressed the following research questions: what are teacher's perceptions of the current state of rewards in the teaching profession? to what extent do rewards influence teachers’ decisions to leave the teaching profession? this research is motivated by the fact that the global competitiveness report continues to rank south africa as poor in terms of people development (schwab, 2015). this is a consequence of a poor schooling system that fails to deliver scholars with the necessary skills and competencies to add value to the country as whole (dieltiens & meny-gibert, 2012). this research is further motivated by the fact that quality school teachers are becoming a scarce resource within developing countries which in turn has a negative impact on the overall school performance (bartlett, 2011; ruchi & justin, 2014). a recent report by the north-west provincial legislature (2013) pointed out that the allocation of teachers at schools is a major challenge. the significant shortage of teachers had a profound impact on the performance and pass rate of grade 12 learners. other problems highlighted included: some teachers absconding from their duties to leave learners unattended service delivery protests that led to the poor attendance of learners school governing bodies that are not functioning well teenage pregnancy a lack of resources such as water and sanitation at schools scholar transport problems. in addition to these a study by leke-ateh, assan and debeila (2013) showed that teacher trainees are not adequately prepared for teaching practice, mentors are not sufficiently involved in teaching practice because they lack knowledge of mentorship, and the assessment and awarding of teaching practice marks are subjective. we believe that this research will make an important contribution towards highlighting the reward factors that will retain quality school teachers in a developing context such as south africa. literature review total rewards total compensation systems aim to achieve multiple goals, including: attracting employees retaining solid perfomers motivating perfomance spending compensation money wisely aligning employees with organisational goals rewarding the behaviour that the organisation wants to encourage (reddick & coggburn, 2008). for the purposes of this research we used the total rewards model of the world at work society as a framework to explore teachers’ perceptions of rewards in the workplace. the world at work society (2011), for professionals, developed and validated a total rewards model to reflect the strategic elements of the employer-employee exchange and how it affects the attraction, motivation, retention and engagement of employees. according to this model the total rewards strategy of an organisations should consist of the following five practices: compensation – the fix of variable pay provided to employees by the employer for services rendered. benefits – the programs an employer can use such as health, income protection and retirements benefits to provide security for employees and their families and supplement the cash component that employees receive. work-life balance – the organisational support structures that enable employees to achieve success both in the workplace and at home. performance management – the alignment of employee efforts towards the achievement of business goals and effectiveness. career development – the opportunities and mechanisms for employees to advance their skills and competencies in their future careers. nthebe (2015) recently applied the total rewards model to a sample of school principals in the north-west province. the results showed that total rewards were a significant predictor of well-being and service orientation of school principals. this study, furthermore, proved that the total rewards model is applicable for use in the public sector domain as well. remuneration: remuneration can be demarcated into compensation and incentives. employees are remunerated when an income or other financial benefits are allotted to them for service rendered (baguiley, 2009). the pay arrangement regulates what an employee is paid once the job has been assessed on its virtual worth. the organisation governs the pay construction and the pay rankings for jobs of comparable significance and complexities (barkhuizen, 2011). organisations are now discovering the necessity to cultivate tailor-made compensation practices to reward the exclusive critical skills of gifted employees (schlechter, faught & bussin, 2014). in a highly globalised setting, it is obligatory to have extremely flexible and customised compensation strategies to reward exceedingly skilled employees. organisations are under growing pressure to develop aptitude and skills related pay for inspiring employees to advance their knowledge, skills and abilities on a continuous basis (durai, 2010). the available research clearly points out that teachers are poorly compensated and underpaid (see correa, parry & reyes, 2015; qureshi, 2015; smith, conley & you, 2015). krueger (2002) maintains that public revenue must be used justifiably to fund public schools, including teachers’ salaries, which must be wholly paid by the government. although the post-apartheid equalisation of teacher pay initially resulted in a substantial increase in teacher salaries, evidence suggests that salary increases during the past decade plateaued to the extent that teachers are not able to match their cost of living (armstrong, 2009; strauss, 2012). research by van der berg and burger (2010) found that financial incentives for south african teachers are limited as a result of fiscal constraints. a study by rothstein (2015) showed that teacher tenure can only be accomplished by large increases in salaries. benefits: beam and mcfadden (2001) refer to benefits as the financial or non-financial payments that employees receive for continuing their employment with the company. benefits include employer-provided benefits for death, accident, sickness, retirement or unemployment. fringe benefits are a collection of numerous benefits delivered by an employer, which are exempt from taxation (berger & berger, 2008). fringe benefits commonly include health insurance, group term life coverage, education reimbursement and other related benefits (armstrong & murlis, 2007). according to a report by sace (2010) teachers regarded non-financial rewards such as employer brand, working hours, and holidays as important factors that will attract and retain them in the teaching profession. teachers furthermore regarded sense of community, personal connectedness and the opportunity to make a difference to school children (müller, alliata & benninghoff, 2009) as important benefits in the teaching profession. strauss (2012) found similar results in a sample of school teachers in south african rural schools. work-life balance: work place flexibility attracts skilled and motivated employees (disselkamp, 2013). flexibility can further improve customer service and retention, more committed employees and greater employee retention (christensen & schneider, 2010; maitland & thomson, 2011). various studies to date explored the factors that enhance the work-life balance of teachers. the results showed that teachers with high levels of emotional intelligence and who are satisfied with their pay experience less work-family conflict (see kappagoda & sampath, 2014; khokhar & zia-ur-rehman, 2014). strauss (2012) found that family support and work-life excellence are key motivators to retain teachers in rural schools. a study by vorster and barkhuizen (2013) indicated that support from both the family and work context are essential to maintain a balanced work and personal life. hudson (2012) highlighted the importance of willing and capable assigned mentors who can model practices and provide feedback on beginning teacher's practices to enable them to maintain a healthy work-life balance. miryala and chiluka (2012) pointed out the importance of work-life balance policies and programmes that enable the teaching community to balance their work and personal life needs. padma, reddy and sudhir (2014) further mention that work-life balance facilities are important tools to attract and retain a talented pool of school teachers. clearly then a supportive work environment is important to assist teachers in managing their multiple roles and, at the same time, results in lower attrition rates (chawla & sondhi, 2011). performance and recognition: a good performance management system can act as a positive method to identify developmental opportunities and implement succession planning processes (mondy, noe & premeaux, 2002). performance appraisals are useful mechanisms to improve employee performance, within the educational field (steinberg, 2014; tuytens & devos, 2012). the performance management systems in many schools, however, are subjected to intense scrutiny as teachers are being held accountable for the performance of learners (monyatsi, steyn & kamper, 2006). the education labour relations council introduced the integrated quality management system (iqms) in 2003 to assess amongst others the performance of school teachers (mosoge & pilane, 2014). the findings of mosoge and pilane indicate that the lack of knowledge and expertise on the iqms processes such as mentoring, coaching, and monitoring hampers the effective implementation of performance management. consequently teachers are being blamed by management for poor school performance who are also ignoring the failures of control systems or broader systematic issues. day (2012) found that poor performance management systems in schools resulted in destabilisation, increased workload, intensification of work, a crisis of professional identity for many teachers and a subsequent loss of public confidence and service quality. according to briere, simonsen, sugai and myers (2015) constructive performance feedback is important to retain younger teachers in the profession. a study by tuytens and devos (2012) showed that the extent to which teachers are allowed to participate in the performance appraisal system significantly influences their perceptions of procedural fairness and usefulness of performance feedback. recognition for performance is an important factor to enhance employee morale (smithe & london, 2009). high employee morale reduces stress, absenteeism and turnover and increases employee performance (mccleod, 2010). research showed that enhanced performance recognition motivates teachers to advance their careers (patton & parker, 2015). non-recognition for performance, however, reduces the quality teaching of school children (hanhela, 2014). educators, therefore, should receive regular feedback on their own performance as well as recognition for a job well done (williams et al., 2012). career development: the importance of career development of school teachers is widely documented. the development of school teachers can result in several positive outcomes such as: increased work identity (du plessis, carroll & gillies, 2015) enhanced quality of interaction with school children (pianta et al., 2014) an improved teaching climate (avidov-ungar, friedman & olshtain, 2014) self-efficacy and confidence (chia-pin, chin-chung & meilun, 2014) collaboration skills (morel, 2014). employers can contribute significantly to their staff members’ career development by supporting career development activities within the department (foskett & lumby, 2002). schullion (2011) is of the opinion that the department of education can motivate and retain educators by providing them with other career path opportunities to occupy senior positions based on good performance and proven managerial skills. applied within the south african context teachers in rural areas are limited in terms of career development opportunities (strauss, 2012). career development opportunities are important factors that attract younger generations to organisations (barkhuizen, 2014). the high turnover rate of quality younger teachers results in teaching becoming an ageing profession (armstrong, 2007). the department of education, therefore, has to invest in career development programmes to attract and retain quality school teachers. research design top ↑ research approach a qualitative research approach using semi-structured interviews based on the framework of the total rewards strategy was used. according to pring (2004) qualitative research seeks to understand a given research problem or topic from the perspectives of the local population that it involves. in broad terms qualitative research is an approach that allows one to examine people's experiences in detail (hennink, hutter & bailey, 2011). qualitative data are organised, interpreted, analysed and communicated so as to address real world concerns (tracy, 2013). research strategy a case study strategy was applied for this research. a case study strategy was deemed most appropriate as the researchers aimed to investigate a contemporary phenomenon in the real–life context (cresswell, 2009). more specifically this research followed a multiple case study design which included several cases as a unit of analyses, in this case it was teachers (yin, 2012). the themes were derived from the semi–structured interviews and were compared with the relevant literature to generate a universal result. research setting the research setting included two samples. the first sample included three teachers who were employed in public schools in the mafikeng are of the north-west province. the second sample included three teachers who were previously employed in the north-west provincial schools but who left the teaching profession for other research opportunities. the latter participants were also situated in the mafikeng area. the participants were interviewed at their offices for the sake of convenience, so that they could feel comfortable and to ensure privacy. research method top ↑ entrée and establishing researcher roles permission was requested from the head of the department of education in the north west province to enter schools in the north west province. once approval was obtained, school principals were approached for permission to conduct the research, which was granted. ethical approval was obtained from north-west university prior to the execution of the research. confidentiality was maintained at all times. sampling the unit of analysis for this study was north west province schools. six participants were selected on a purposive convenience basis to participate in the study. three of the participants were still employed as teachers at the time of the interviews and three had left the profession for other career opportunities. all of the participants could give an account of the reward system of the schools. an equal number of males and females participated in this research. all of the participants were representative of the african ethnic group. five of the participants were in possession of a degree and had more than ten years of teaching experience. data collection method the data were collected through semi-structured interviews, in which the researcher prepares a list of themes and questions to be covered during the interview (saunders, lewis & thornhill, 2007). the number, order and nature of questions vary from one interview to the next, and are dependent on the context and situation within which the interview takes place. according to bless, higson-smith and kagee (2006), qualitative interviewing has a unique advantage as a result of its specific form. the researcher has the opportunity to learn about other elements related to the topic, about which the researcher would otherwise be unaware. the researcher also receives the opportunity to hear the participants view concerning the factors of focus in the study. the interviews were conducted in english. the questions were based on the total rewards framework of the world at work society (2011). the teachers were asked to indicate how they experience and have experienced the five rewards practices as specified in this model. the questions were phrased to determine whether these rewards will influence them or have influenced them to leave the teaching profession. recording of data as qualitative research produces a considerable amount of data it became imperative to ensure the easy retrieval of data for later detailed analysis. to support this method of data collection, audio recordings and transcriptions were taken and deemed to be appropriate. in addition, notes were taken during the interviews to provide information concerning the participants’ non-verbal communication. verbatim transcriptions were transcribed of the data. data analyses according to bryman and bell (2012) qualitative analyses begin in the field as researchers identify problems during observations and interviewing. theme (content) analyses were applied to analyse and interpret the data. the analyses started with a process for organising the data that were collected (thyme, wiberg, lundberg & graneham, 2013). thereafter the data were systematically analysed to identify the themes and sub-themes. cooper and schindler (2011) maintain that theme analyses prevent selective perception of the content and ensure reliability and validity in qualitative research. ensuring the quality and rigour of the research data verification is a process where different types of data are tested for accuracy and inconsistencies after data migration is completed (morse & niehaus, 2009). the trustworthiness of a qualitative study was ensured by maintaining high credibility and objectivity (stempien & loeb, 2002). as a qualitative researcher's perspective is naturally biased as a result of the researcher's association with the data, sources, and methods, various audit strategies were used to confirm findings. the data transcriptions were returned to participants to verify the accuracy of the statements. peer debriefing was also applied. these methods enhanced the trustworthiness of interpretations and findings (bamberger, 2000). reporting the findings of this research are reported in table format. the themes and sub-themes extracted from the interviews are substantiated by direct quotes. this method conforms with the modernistic qualitative research approach where the researcher seeks for support that a conclusion applies in a specific research context (cresswell, 2009). findings top ↑ table 1 presents the themes that emerged from the focus group sessions. the table gives the frequency with which themes emerged. the researchers identified 15 themes from the combined responses of the participants. table 1 shows that ‘availability of leave opportunities (i.e. sick, holiday, study)’, ‘lack of recognition for performance’ and ‘lack of career advancement opportunities’ were the themes that occurred most often. table 1: themes deduced from the participants. the themes were further clustered into the five main categories of rewards based on the frequencies of the sub-themes. combined themes in this study were mostly related to performance management. remuneration appeared to be the least important theme in this study. the main themes and sub-themes are presented in table 2. this article discusses the themes according to the framework presented in the literature review. table 2: categories of main and sub-themes. theme: performance management and recognition combined, the themes relating to performance management and recognition occurred mostly in this study. the lack of recognition for performance was one of the sub-themes that was mentioned second most often in this study (11 times). the participants in particular discussed how teachers are never recognised for good performance which in turn lowered their morale. some of the participants mentioned the following: ‘definitely the department did not recognize teachers … i am one of them who produced the best results in english in the sachet around rustenburg … no recognition at all’. (participant 4, male, master's degree, resigned teacher, eight years working experience in the teaching profession) participant 2 supported this view by adding: ‘in terms of recognition teachers aren’t getting that much recognition … most of the time you find that is the learners’. (participant 2, female, master's degree, teacher, 23 years working experience in the teaching profession) the findings revealed that the participants were generally dissatisfied with the performance management of teachers (eight times). the participants indicated that whilst they were teachers no performance management system existed. as mentioned by one of the participants: ‘what can i say about this performance management system by then there was no performance management system’. (participant 5, female, bachelor's degree, resigned teacher, three years of work experience in the teaching profession) in support participant 4 added: ‘there were not policies that outlined performance in schools. there was no guidance’. (participant 4, male, master's degree, resigned teacher, eight years working experience in the teaching profession) the participants also had reservations about the performance targets and were of the opinion that they are not achievable: ‘according to them they say these standards are attainable but however at some point it does not it does not work with us’. (participant 1, female, bachelor's degree, teacher, four years working experience in the teaching profession) theme: benefits the sub-themes relating to benefits occurred second most in this study. generally the participants appeared to be satisfied with the benefits offered by the teaching profession. the availability of various leave benefits such as study leave, vacations and sick leave were the themes that occurred mostly in this study (19 times). participant three explained this theme as follows: ‘i can say all this benefits work for me especially sick leave, study leave and paid public holidays because with study leave i can be able to study and obtain more qualifications …’. (participant 3, male, bachelor's degree, teacher, four years of work experience in the teaching profession) another participant added: ‘i would say the ones that best suited me were public holidays in a sense that i was staying away from my family and so public holidays, paid public holidays were giving me time to go meet my family’. (participant 4, male, master's degree, resigned teacher, eight years working experience in the teaching profession) the participants indicated that one of the reasons they are still in the teaching profession is because of the fact that they can make a contribution to a child's life. the participants who left the profession also highlighted that child development is a positive aspect of teaching. one of the participants mentioned: ‘when you teach the kid you are helping the nation. you are giving skills to children … you are empowering them to be good citizen, to be skilled workers for the future one day. you are laying a foundation for something good in the future that is the only advantage because the nation must be educated’. (participant 6, male, matric plus teaching diploma, resigned teacher, four years of working experience in the teaching profession) another participant added: ‘for me the advantage of teaching is that you get to work with young minds you know the good thing is having to you also had a hand in building the child to be something nice in life’. (participant 2, female, master's degree, teacher, 23 years working experience in the teaching profession) theme: work-life balance work-life balance was the theme that was mentioned the third most in this study based on the sub-themes derived from the participants’ responses. the participants highlighted that family support for their work enabled them to meet work and personal life demands. as mentioned by one of the participants: ‘my family of course they are always there for me they encourage me to go on and on when i want to quit’. (participant 1, female, bachelor's degree, teacher, four years working experience in the teaching profession) another participant added: ‘from my family i receive lot of support … they understand being a teacher there is many challenges that you need deal with’. (participant 2, female, master's degree, teacher, 23 years working experience in the teaching profession) management support from school principals was also highlighted as a contributing factor to the work-life balance of teachers. some participants mentioned: ‘in terms of the profession we have subject advisors, we have colleagues who are on our side … we got principals who always take care of us … so in my school there is so much support and the department they do visit us for the support’. (participant 1, female, bachelor's degree, teacher, four years working experience in the teaching profession) participant 4 also highlighted the importance of management support: ‘the principal were i started working … he was a real leader … he is the one who kept me in the profession … he was like a father to me’. (participant 4, male, master's degree, resigned teacher, eight years working experience in the teaching profession) theme: career development the sub-themes relating to career development were the fourth most important for this study. the participants in general highlighted the lack of career development opportunities for teachers. this sub-theme occurred second most in this study (11 times). the findings showed that the participants appeared to be dissatisfied with the career development opportunities for teachers. participant two explained this as follows: ‘when it comes to advancement opportunities there aren’t that many … it is all about experience …, experience if you don’t have experience then you are not considered therefore you have to be a teacher maybe for 4 years or 5 years and that could assist in order to go to a higher level or post rather than that you will still be in the same position’. (participant 2, female, master's degree, teacher, 23 years working experience in the teaching profession) participants also highlighted unfair career advancement practices and favouritism. the participants highlighted that in order to advance you must be a relative of someone in the school in which you work, or you must be affiliated to a union and be very close to the leader of that union. as mentioned by one of the participants: ‘within the teaching profession there is the favoritism and advancement of opportunities … you can’t get a better post especially when you are new is better if you stayed there for a particular period and then favoritism, i don’t like the way they are doing it. i believe everybody deserve opportunity as everyone in there’. (participant 3, male, bachelor's degree, teacher, four years of work experience in the teaching profession) another participant added: ‘talking about advancement opportunities this one is a very painful thing in a sense that is only union members who get promoted … you have to be affiliated to unions and be very close to leaders of union to be able to get promotion … there is no equality at all’. (participant 4, male, master's degree, resigned teacher, eight years working experience in the teaching profession) according to participants, a career development plan exists in some schools and is absent in others; it all depends on the principal and how professional and organised he or she is. other participants, especially those who are still in the profession, highlighted that in the current system a career development plan exists even though they feel it does not cater for the old teachers who are accustomed to the old system in which there was no career development plan. the respondents also indicated that teachers are not given sufficient time to familiarise themselves with new school curriculums. as mentioned by one of the participants: ‘ah when it comes to teaching this career development plan it doesn’t work for old teachers especially with the changes that are happening regularly it doesn’t suit them at all because it doesn’t help them to develop, can be able to deliver the best content to the learners’. (participant 3, male, bachelor's degree, resigned teacher, four years of work experience in the teaching profession) another participant added: ‘for sure department of education did not have any career development plan … not at all … i can say, teachers were not encouraged at all to go at reading’. (participant 4, male, master's degree, resigned teacher, eight years working experience in the teaching profession) theme: compensation the sub-themes relating to compensation were less frequently mentioned compared to the rest of the themes. however, the findings relating to the current compensation of teachers are deemed important. most of the participants were in agreement that teacher payment is poor and not sufficient to cover their costs of living. participant three described this theme as follows: ‘i have considered quitting this profession because we don’t get much recognition and reward on this profession and our salary is as little as we cannot do anything with it’. (participant 3, male, bachelor's degree, teacher, four years of work experience in the teaching profession) those participants, who had already left the profession for other careers, mentioned that they could not cover most of their basic needs when they were still in the teaching profession. participant one mentioned the following: ‘we want changes if i have to speak for all of us … the money is not enough it … does not match with the standard of living’. (participant 1, female, bachelor's degree, teacher, four years working experience in the teaching profession) the above sentiment was echoed by participant 4 who stated: ‘unfortunately at that time the money was very little i struggled to meet my needs’. (participant 4, male, master's degree, resigned teacher, eight years working experience in the teaching profession) discussion top ↑ the main objective of this research was to investigate the effect of rewards on the retention of school teachers. more specifically this research aimed to investigate teachers’ perceptions of the current rewards in the teaching profession. furthermore this research aimed to investigate the extent to which rewards influence teachers’ decisions to leave the teaching profession. in this research we used the total rewards model of the world at work society (2011) to determine the extent to which teachers experienced performance management, benefits, work-life balance, career development and compensation in their respective schools. the participants highlighted the lack of poor performance management systems in schools and specifically the lack of recognition for performance. the poor performance management system might be a consequence of the lack of understanding of the iqms system (see mosoge & pilane, 2014). some of the participants highlighted the lack of performance guidance. the lack of performance policies and non-compliance with performance management systems can reduce teaching quality and service delivery (hanhela, 2014; smithe & london, 2009). more concerning is that non-recognition for performance can result in increased absenteeism and eventually increased teacher turnover (mccleod, 2010). the participants in this study seemed to be fairly satisfied with the benefits associated with the teaching profession. most of the participants highlighted leave benefits (i.e. study, health and holiday) as important factors that will keep them in the teaching profession. these results confirm the findings of the sace (2010) report that indicated that holiday benefits are an important retention factor for teachers. teachers also mentioned the opportunity to work with children and make a contribution to their lives as a key factor that motivates them to remain in the teaching profession. the results are in line with previous studies which highlighted teacher-child interaction as an important teacher attrition factor (strauss, 2012). the findings showed that the participants are satisfied with their work-personal life balance. the participants mentioned that support from their families assisted them to deal more effectively with work demands (see strauss, 2012). management support from school principals was also a key factor that enabled the participants to manage work-family conflict. several studies pointed out the importance of a supportive work environment in the attraction and attrition of school teachers (hudson, 2012; miryala & chiluka, 2012). based on the above findings we can conclude that a healthy work-life balance is best achieved when employees are supported both from their work and family domains. the findings of this research reemphasised the lack of career development opportunities in teaching (see armstrong, 2007; strauss, 2012). the results are concerning as the retention, especially of younger employees, depends on the availability of career development opportunities (barkhuizen, 2014). furthermore, teachers are also not able to benefit from the positive outcomes of career development (see avidov-ungar et al., 2014; pianta et al., 2014) which in turn may hamper quality service delivery and teaching performance (williams et al., 2012). finally, the findings showed that the compensation of teachers remains problematic. most of the participants in this research were in agreement that teacher salaries are poor and prevent them from living a reasonable quality of life (see correa et al., 2015; qureshi, 2015; smith et al., 2015; strauss, 2012). moreover, the findings clearly pointed out that the participants considered other career avenues as a consequence of poor remuneration (davis & edge, 2004; gerhart & rynes, 2003). in line with rothstein (2015), school management needs to increase teacher remuneration as a measure to retain teachers. to summarise, our findings showed that the factors that will contribute to teachers’ turnover intentions include the lack of performance recognition, poor performance and rewards, no performance management system, no career advancement, no support from the profession and favouritism in terms of promotions. on the other hand our research also showed that the factors that will attract teachers to schools include flexible work, work-life balance, study leave, sick leave, child development and good leadership from the school principals. the future and sustainability of south africa as a developing country is dependent on a good educational sector. therefore, school managers are encouraged to develop appropriate reward policies and practices to create a healthy work environment that will secure a competent and skilled teacher workforce. practical implications the findings of this research have important practical implications for the teaching profession. although this research included a small sample, school management should take cognisance of problematic reward factors such as teacher compensation, performance management and recognition and career development, and implement corrective measures to retain quality school teachers. the career development opportunities of teachers can also be enhanced. a career development plan should clearly outline the skills and knowledge that teachers need to enhance their careers, as well as outline how teachers can enhance the daily operations of the school and the expectation of the department from teachers (mosoge & pilane, 2014). the findings of this research indicated that the department of education should consider developing the department with more creative financial and non-financial rewards to attract and retain teachers. furthermore teacher salaries need to be market related to ensure that they do not explore other career avenues. limitations of the study this research had some limitations. as a result of the small sample size the findings of this study are not generalisable to the general population. firstly, the findings of this research study are only applicable to the specified area and cannot be expanded to the rest of the province or country. secondly, the data were collected at one point in time which limits the research in terms of making a cause and effect relationship over a longer period of time. recommendations for future research the results of this research provide various opportunities for future research. from a theoretical point of view the total rewards model can be expanded to include benefits for specific occupational domains such as teaching. the model can further be expanded to quantitatively assess and detect the effectiveness and organisational compliance with reward practices. longitudinal studies can also be applied to test teacher perceptions of rewards over a longer period of time. future studies should also focus on testing how reward practices differ between different generations based on their work experience. future quantitative studies can benefit from testing total rewards with other outcome variables such as teacher performance. finally, this study can also be expanded to other provinces in south africa to compare total rewards practices at a national level. conclusion in conclusion, this research highlighted the importance of sound rewards and remuneration practices for the attraction and retention of teachers in the teaching profession. the total rewards model of world at work proved its utility as a framework to benchmark current teacher rewards. the findings of this research should encourage school management to take stock of current reward practices and take corrective and preventive actions to reduce teacher turnover. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions this article is based on the masters study of b.m. (north-west university) of which e.n.b. (north-west university) was the supervisor. b.m. compiled the article and e.n.b. provided editorial inputs. references top ↑ adedeji, s.o., & olaniyan, o. (2011). improving the conditions of teachers and teaching in rural schools across african countries. addis ababa, unesco. armstrong, a. (2009). teacher pay in south africa: how attractive is the teaching profession? stellenbosch economic working papers: stellenbosch university. armstrong, m. (2007). employee reward management and practices (2nd edn.). london, uk: kogan page limited. armstrong, m., & murlis, h. (2007). reward management. london, uk: kogan page limited. avidov-ungar, o., friedman, i., & ohshtain, e. (2014). empowerment amongst teachers holding leadership positions. teachers & teaching, 20(6), 704–720. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2014.885706 baguiley, p. (2009). performance management (7th edn.). london: cox and wyman bamberger, m. (2000). integrating qualitative and quantitative research in development project. washington, dc: the international bank for reconstruction and development. barkhuizen, e.n. (2011). establishing strategic pay plans. in g. dessler et al. (eds.), human resource management: global and southern african perspectives (12th edn., pp. 383–430). cape town, pearson education. barkhuizen, e.n. (2014). exploring the importance of rewards as a talent management tool for generation y employees. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5, 1100–1105. http://dx.doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n27p1100 bartlett, c. (2011). principal succession. trends and impacts. unpublished doctoral dissertation, faculty of college and education, university of houston, houston, tx. beam, b.t., & mcfadden, j.j. (2001). employee benefits. chicago: dearborn financial publishing inc. berger, l., & berger, d. (2008). the compensation hand book. london, uk: macgraw hill professional. bless, c., higson-smith, c., & kagee, a. (2006). fundamentals of social research methods (4th edn.). cape town: juta co. ltd. briere, d.e., simonsen, b., sugai, g., & myers, d. (2015). increasing new teachers’ specific praise using a within-school consultation intervention. journal of positive behavior interventions, 17(1), 50–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1098300713497098 bryman, a., & bell, e. (2012). business research method (2nd edn.). new york: oxford university press inc. new yolk. chawla, d., & sondhi, n. (2011). assessing work-life balance among indian women professionals. indian journal of industrial relations, 47, 341–352. chia-pin, k., chin-chung, t., & meilun, s. (2014). development of a survey to measure self-efficacy and attitudes toward web-based professional development among elementary school teachers. journal of educational technology & society, 17, 302–315. christensen, k., & schneider, b.l. (2010). work flexibility-realigning 20th century jobs for a 21stcentury workforce. new york: pennsylvania state university press. cooper, d.r., & schindler, p.s. (2011). business research methods (10th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill irwin. correa, j.a., parro, f., & reyes, l. (2015). self-selection in the market of teachers. applied economics, 47, 1331–1349. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2014.995365 cresswell, j.w. (2009). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (3rd edn.). california: sage publications. davis, m.l., & edge, t.j. (2004). executive compensation. windsor professional information. day, c. (2012). new lives of teachers. teacher education quarterly, 39(1), 7–26. dieltiens, v., & meny-gibert, s. (2012). in class? poverty, social exclusion and school access in south africa. journal of education, 55, 128–144. disselkamp, l. (2013). work place asset management book of knowledge. hoboken, nj, usa, john wiley & sons inc. du plessis, a., carroll, a., & gillies, r.m. (2015). understanding the lived experiences of novice out-of-field teachers in relation to school leadership practices. asia-pacific journal of teacher education, 43(1), 4–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1359866x.2014.937393 durai, p. (2010). human resource management. new delhi: dorling kindersley (india) pvt. ltd. foskett, n., & lumby, j. (2002). leading and managing education international dimension. london: sage publication. gerhart, b., & rynes, s.l. (2003). compensation. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. hanhela, t. (2014). the problematic challenges of misrecognition for pedagogic action. educational philosophy & theory: incorporating access, 46(1), 59–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2011.00804.x hennink, m., hutter, i., & bailey, a. (2011). qualitative research method. london: sage publications ltd. hudson, p. (2012). how can schools support beginning teachers? a call for timely induction and mentoring for effective teaching. australian journal of teacher education, 37(7), 70–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2012v37n7.1 kappagoda, u.w.m.r., & sampath, i.u.p. (2014). work-family conflict among school teachers in north central province in sri lanka. journal of organizational behavior, 13(3), 53–68. khokhar, a.m., & zia-ur-rehman, m. (2014). a study of pay satisfaction and work-to-family conflict. compensation & benefits review, 46(3), 177–187. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0886368714549932 krueger, a.b. (2002). economic consideration and class size, national bureau of economic release working papers. new york: national bureau of economic release inc. leke-ateh, b.a., assan, t.e.b., & debeila, j. (2013). teaching practice for the 21st century: challenges and prospects for teacher education in the north-west province, south africa. journal of social sciences, 37, 279–291. maitland, a., & thomson, p. (2011). future work – how business can adapt and thrive in the new world of work. hampshire-england: palgrave macmillian. mccleod, d. 2010. the zero turnover sales force. new yolk: amacom books. miryala, r.k., & chiluka, n. (2012). work-life balance amongst teachers. journal of organizational behavior, 11(1), 37–50. mondy, r.w., noe, m.r., & premeaux, s.r. (2002). human resource management. london, uk: prentice hall. monyatsi, p., steyn, t., & kamper, g. (2006). teacher perceptions of the effectiveness of teacher appraisal in botswana. south african journal of education, 26, 427–441. morel, n, (2014). setting the stage for collaboration: an essential skill for professional growth. delta kappa gamma bulletin, 81(1), 36–39. morse, j.m., & niehaus, l. (2009). mixed methods design: principles and procedures – volume 4, developing qualitative inquiry. philadephia, pa: pennsylvania state university. mosoge, m.j., & pilane, m.w. (2014). performance management: the neglected imperative of accountability systems in education. south african journal of education, 34, 1–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.15700/201412120947 müller, k., alliata, r., & benninghoff, f. (2009). attracting and retaining teachers: a question of motivation. educational management administration & leadership, 37, 574–598. north-west provincial legislature. (2013). north west legislature finds serious challenges in various schools in the province. mafikeng, south africa: north-west provincial government. nthebe, k.j. (2015). the relationship between remuneration, well-being, service quality and the intention to quit of school principals in the north-west province. unpublished masters thesis, faculty of commerce and administration, north-west university, mafikeng. ogunba, e.o., & adedeji, s.o. (1986). infectivity with human ascariasis in ibadan oyo state, nigeria. african journal of medicine and medical sciences, 15 (3–4), 79–83. pmid: 3031965. olaniyan, padma, s., reddy, m., & sudhir, j. (2014). work-life balance and job satisfaction among school teachers: a study. journal of organizational behavior, 13(1), 51–60. patton, k., & parker, m. (2015). ‘i learned more at lunchtime’: guideposts for reimagining professional development. the journal of physical education, recreation & dance, 86(1), 23–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07303084.2014.978421 pianta, r.c., de coster, j., cabell, s., burchinal, m., hamre, b.k., downer, j., et al. (2014). dose–response relations between preschool teachers’ exposure to components of professional development and increases in quality of their interactions with children. early childhood research quarterly, 29(4), 499–508. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2014.06.001 pring, r. (2004). philosophy of educational research (2nd edn.). new yolk: continuum books. qureshi, s. (2015). teaching fellowships for uk foundation doctors. medical teacher, 37(1), 90–91. pmid: 25073019, http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/0142159x.2014.916781 reddick, c.g., & coggburn, j.d. (2008). hand book of employee benefits and administration. new york, ny: crc press taylor & francis group. rothstein, j. (2015). teacher quality policy when supply matters. american economic review, 105(1), 100–130. ruchi, t., & justin, p. (2014). determinants of attitude of teachers – factor analysis and strategies for success. competitiveness review, 24(1), 5–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/cr-08-2013-0070 saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2007). research methods for business students (4th edn.). edinburgh gate, essex, uk: pearson. schlechter, a., faught c., & bussin, m. (2014). total rewards: a study of artisan attraction and retention within a south african context. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12(1), 1–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.648 schullion, h. (2011). global talent management. new york: taylor & francis. schwab, k. (2015). the global competitiveness report 2014–2015. world economic forum. shukia, r. (2009). talent management process of developing and integrating skilled workers. new delhi: global india publication, pvt ltd. smith, j., conley, s., & you, s. (2015). perceptions of retirement affect career commitment: the mediating role of retirement system satisfaction for two teacher age groups. educational gerontology, 41, 267–281. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2014.958018 smithe, j.w., & london, m. (2009). performance management: putting research into action. new york: amacom books. south african council for educators. (2010). a review of teacher demand and supply: identifying research gaps and the role of sace. pretoria, sace. steinberg, m.p. (2014). does greater autonomy improve school performance? evidence from a regression discontinuity analysis in chicago. education finance and policy, 9(1), 1–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/edfp_a_00118 stempien, l.r., & loeb, r.c. (2002). differences in job satisfaction between general education and special education teachers: implications for retention. remedial and special education, 23(5), 258–267. steyn, t. (2013). professional and organisational socialisation during leadership succession of a school principal: a narrative inquiry using visual ethnography. south african journal of education, 33(2), 1–17. strauss, m. (2012). exploring the factors for attracting and retaining teachers to rural areas. unpublished master's dissertation. pretoria: faculty of economic and management sciences, university of pretoria. thyme, k.e., wiberg, b., lundman, b., & graneham, u.h. (2013). qualitative content analysis in art psychotherapy research: concepts, procedures, and measures to reveal the latent meaning in pictures and the words attached to the pictures. the arts in psychotherapy, 40, 101–107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2012.11.007 tracy, s.g. (2013). qualitative research method. west sussex: john willey & sons ltd. tuytens, m., & devos, g. (2012). importance of system and leadership in performance appraisal. personnel review, 41(6), 756–776. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00483481211263692 van der berg, s., & burger, r. (2010). teacher pay in south africa. stellenbosch economic working papers. department of economics and bureau for economic research, stellenbosch university. vorster, d., & barkhuizen, e.n. (2013). social capital as a predictor of work wellness of academic staff. in n. delener, l. fuxman, f. lu, s. rodrigues, & l. rivera (eds.), 15th annual international conference on globalizing businesses for the next century: visualizing and developing contemporary approaches to harness future opportunities, global business and technology association, helsinki, finland (pp. 1271–1277). usa, gbata. williams, c., champion, t., & hall, i. (2012). mgmt. canadian ed. usa: nelson education ltd. world at work model (2011). total reward model. washington dc: world-wide headquarters world at work. retrieved october 12, 2014, from http://www.worldatwork.org/home/htlm/home/jsp 2010: united state of america, washington d.c.13/04/2014 yin, r.k. (2012). applications of case study research (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. abstract introduction research design findings discussion acknowledgements references footnote about the author(s) n. (nicky) h.d. terblanche university of stellenbosch business school, stellenbosch university, south africa ruth m. albertyn university of stellenbosch business school, stellenbosch university, south africa salome van coller-peter university of stellenbosch business school, stellenbosch university, south africa citation terblanche, n.h.d., albertyn, r.m., & van coller-peter, s. (2017). designing a coaching intervention to support leaders promoted into senior positions. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a842. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.842 original research designing a coaching intervention to support leaders promoted into senior positions n. (nicky) h.d. terblanche, ruth m. albertyn, salome van coller-peter received: 22 july 2016; accepted: 25 mar. 2017; published: 24 may 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: coaching is sometimes used in organisations to assist and support people when they are promoted into senior leadership positions. these coaching interventions are not optimally designed. research purpose: the objective of this research was to investigate how a transition coaching intervention should be designed to cater specifically for people promoted into senior leadership positions. motivation for the study: leaders face daunting challenges when promoted into a senior position. coaching could offer powerful support, but very little research exists on how to design a transition coaching intervention specifically aimed at supporting recently promoted senior leaders. research design, approach and method: a constructivist, grounded theory approach using purposeful, theoretical sampling was used to identify 16 participants (recently promoted senior leaders, coaches, human resource [hr] partners and a line manager) from various organisations with whom open-ended interviews were conducted on their experiences of coaching during a transition. main findings: transition coaching is used reactively, started too late and was not continued for long enough. transition coaching design should take cognisance of coach–coachee matching; goal setting that includes the organisation’s goals; location of coaching session (away from the office); should include reflection and active experimentation; and use assessments and involving the line manager, mentors and the new leader’s team in the process. practical and managerial implications: the findings of this research provide practical recommendations for applying coaching during transitions into senior leadership positions and may be useful to human resource practitioners when designing leadership support and succession planning interventions. contribution and value added: to address the serious and real possibility of failure once leaders are promoted, and to optimise the time and money spent on coaching during career transitions, this research provides insight into the design and execution of tailor-made transition coaching interventions to help recently promoted senior leaders succeed in their new role. introduction problem statement key focus when leaders are promoted into senior positions1 they face serious challenges. many fail to meet their objectives (martin, 2015) or underperform (sutton, 2008). coaching is a strategy that is sometimes used to support recently promoted leaders, but there is a lack of empirical research around how a coaching intervention should be designed specifically to support career transitions. this research presents findings relating to when and how coaching should be used during senior career transitions and makes recommendations regarding tailoring a transition coaching intervention for senior career transitions. background building sustainable businesses is a challenge faced by many organisations today. a key element of organisational sustainability is effective leadership on all levels in the organisation and especially at senior levels (charan, drotter & noel, 2011), and yet there is a serious shortage of effective organisational leaders in the world (freedman, 2011; oliver & page, 2017). the fast pace of corporate expansion requires leaders in organisations to move to new leadership levels at increasing speeds (charan et al., 2011) and while many attempt the transition, fewer than a third fulfil their objectives (martin, 2015) and up to 46% underperform (sutton, 2008). a study conducted by watkins (2009) showed that 87% of human resource (hr) professionals consider career transitions to be the most challenging event in a manager’s career. a career transition occurs when a leader is promoted to a more senior level in the organisation with more and different responsibilities. this occurs as a result of personal growth and ambition or structural changes in the workplace (chinyamurindi, 2012). a senior career transition poses numerous challenges to the individual and the organisation. the incumbent is expected to ‘hit the ground running’ and complete the transition quickly (sutton, 2008; watkins, 2003); deal with higher levels of complexity and uncertainty (dotlich, noel & walker, 2004); work with longer time horizons (jaques, 1996); and step out of the comfort zone of a specialist to take on strategic challenges (peltier, 2010). there is also pressure on organisations to develop attractive employee value propositions to retain talented leaders, especially in the south african context (nzukuma & bussin, 2011). in order to support recently promoted senior leaders, organisations employ a number of support strategies including leadership development programmes, mentoring and coaching (kombarakaran, yang, baker & fernandes, 2008). coaching has been shown to be an effective leadership development tool (peltier, 2010; theeboom, beersma & van vianen, 2013), but the explicit use of transition coaching during promotion to a senior position has received little attention with only one empirical study found (reynolds, 2011). research objectives the question this study asks is: ‘how should a coaching intervention be designed to explicitly support leaders who are promoted into senior positions?’ to answer this question, there were two research objectives: firstly, to understand how and when coaching should be initiated during a career transition and secondly, to understand what aspects must be present during the coaching processes to optimally support recently promoted senior leaders. contribution to field south africa faces a shortage of skilled senior leaders in the corporate world (nzukuma & bussin, 2011). the emerging field of coaching potentially offers a way to support recently promoted leaders, but very little empirical research has been conducted to understand how transition coaching can be employed during senior career transitions. this study may benefit designers of leadership development and support programmes, recently promoted senior leaders and coaches and coach trainers by providing specific guidelines for designing and conducting transition coaching for senior leaders. literature review leadership development theory with a focus on career transitions and coaching theory with a focus on transition coaching form the theoretical underpinnings of this research. this section reviews recent relevant publications in these fields and shows the significance of the challenges faced by recently promoted leaders, as well as the lack of empirical research on transition coaching. leadership development and transitions several theories of leadership career transitions, leadership levels and leadership developmental stages exist. the well-known ‘leadership pipeline’ model brought attention to the fact that there are different levels of leadership within an organisation with each level requiring different skills. leaders transition through six levels: managing self, managing other, managing managers, functional managers, business managers, group manager and enterprise manager (charan et al., 2011). each stage requires leaders to let go of certain thinking and behavioural patterns and learn new ones. the focus of this research is career transitions at the higher end of this pipeline, including business, group and enterprise managers. at these levels, leaders have to learn to deal with higher levels of complexity and take a more strategic organisational view. the chances of failure at these senior levels are high and the impact of failure is significantly damaging to both the individual and the organisation (manderscheid & ardichvili, 2008; martin & gentry, 2011). ensuring a successful transition therefore becomes an imperative and further highlights the need for support in the form of interventions such as transition coaching. a different perspective on leadership levels is jaques’ stratified systems theory that defines work in organisations in seven strata on a basis of decision-making complexity where each level of work is related to the time span required by the executor of the task to complete the task (jaques, 1996). this theory supports the view of charan et al. that different skills and abilities are required by leaders operating at different levels and reinforces the view that change and transformation are required to successfully execute at a new level. by implication then, if a leader is promoted to the next level, the leader needs to adapt to the new level and will face challenges. some of the challenges faced by newly promoted senior leaders include their need to develop new patterns of thinking and behaving (charan et al., 2011); their need to develop advanced interpersonal and social skills (kets de vries, 2006; lombardo & eichinger, 1995); moving from operational to strategic mode (bebb, 2009); fear, anxiety and self-doubt (argyris, 1991); lack of emotional intelligence (goleman, 1996); lack of follow-through and overdependence (denton & van lill, 2006); loss of identity, balancing people and tasks (hawkins & smith, 2013); misjudging the new situation and the leader’s strengths and vulnerabilities (watkins, 2003); and getting buy-in from their new team (martin, 2015). leaders’ abilities to cope at higher levels are linked to their abilities to perceive and manage complexity. rooke and torbert provide a framework that outlines seven levels of developmental action logics: opportunist, diplomat, expert, achiever, individualist, strategist and alchemist. each level represents a higher level of development (rooke & torbert, 2005). kegan distinguishes between orders of complexity and people’s ability to cope with the increased complexity with his object–subject principle. he asserts that people are capable of managing only a certain level of complexity at a given time and that they require assistance to master the next level. lack of support during transitions to the next level of complexity may result in suffering (kegan, 1994) as well as low morale and financial loss (martin & gentry, 2011). the potentially traumatic nature of transitions clearly opens the space for considered support such as transition coaching. in summary, significant theory exists regarding leadership and job levels and the challenges faced during the transition to a higher level. coaching to support leaders-in-transition, organisations are increasingly implementing leadership development programmes (kates & downey, 2005). coaching is one form of support offered (weinstock, 2011); however, although development of leaders is often stated by organisations as one of their primary concerns, there is debate as to whether enough is done to put words into action (avolio & hannah, 2008). executive coaching is a short-term interactive process between a coach and a leader aimed at improving leadership effectiveness by enhancing self-awareness and the practice of new behaviours (kombarakaran et al., 2008). transition coaching is a relatively new field of coaching. it is a specialisation of executive coaching that aims to facilitate career transitions by helping leaders identify critical issues they face as a result of the transition; define the expectations of their stakeholders; gain an outside perspective on their new role; and communicate more effectively within the organisation (witherspoon & cannon, 2004). transition coaching can play an important role in accelerating job transition (sutton, 2008). important considerations for transition coaching include the timing of coaching, the specific role of the coach, taking into account the business realities during the personal journey, understanding what skills and behaviours are required, increasing self-awareness, establishing goals and creating an action plan (sutton, 2008). research investigating the role of transition coaching is limited with only one empirical study found thus far (reynolds, 2011) and to our knowledge no such research has been published in the south african context. reynolds used an interpretative phenomenological analysis approach with a sample of six recently promoted senior leaders, to explore the meaning that coaching had for them during their transition. the findings include evidence that coaching assists transitioning leaders in overcoming a sense of vulnerability, developing new personal, social and cognitive skills and finding new meaning and purpose in their lives. the research was limited to senior leaders and did not include the view of coaches, hr practitioners and line managers as is the case in this study. reynold’s study also did not report on the coaching process but concentrated on the outcomes of the coaching only. it is evident from literature that transition coaching could potentially play an important role during career transitions, but limited empirical research has been conducted on how the transition coaching process should be designed. research design research approach this interpretevist qualitative study employed a constructivist grounded theory approach (charmaz, 2014). the interpretevist paradigm is purported by numerous scholars in the field of social research as an appropriate paradigm to uncover social truths as is the case in this study and therefore an appropriate research approach (babbie & mouton, 2001; creswell, 2003; dreher, 1994; willis, 2007). grounded theory was selected as specfic methodology because of the lack of existing theory on transition coaching (goulding, 2002). the research followed the process suggested in grounded theory whereby a theory is developed that is grounded in data that are systematically gathered and analysed according to a specific process. the theory evolves during the research process itself and is a product of continuous interplay between analysis and data collection (glaser & strauss, 1967; strauss & corbin, 1990). research method research setting participants were interviewed face-to-face as well as via telephone, given the remote location of some participants relative to the researcher and given the paucity of senior leaders who received coaching during their transition. sampling purposeful, theoretical sampling, consistent with the requirements of grounded theory research, was used to identify 16 participants from various organisations (strauss & corbin, 1990). practically, this implied starting with the most likely source of data (a recently transitioned senior leader known to the researcher), leading on to coaches who practised transition coaching, followed by the custodians of coaching in organisations and concluding with line managers of recently promoted senior leaders. the sampling strategy was informed by the outcome of the constant analysis and comparison process prescribed by grounded theory (charmaz, 2014). in total eight senior leaders, five coaches, two hr practitioners and one line manager were interviewed in that order. the sequencing of interviews was deliberate and led to insights starting from the most direct (transitioning leader) to the least directly impacted (line manager). this sampling strategy collected data in accordance with grounded theory principles of constant data collection, analysis and comparison, giving preference to the richest source of data needed next to address the research question at hand (charmaz, 2014). although gender and race were not specific inclusion criteria in this study, all four sa racial groups (white, coloured, indian and black) and equal gender grouping were represented in the sample. entrée and establishing researcher roles access to the recently promoted senior leaders was gained either through direct connection with the researcher or via the companies’ hr departments. in the case of the latter, official permission was obtained from the head of hr of the organisation. coaches, hr practitioners and the line manager were sourced from the researcher’s personal network. in all cases the participants signed informed consent forms. data collection methods open-ended interviews, lasting approximately 1 h were conducted with each participant individually. interview questions included high-level questions, followed by prompts around how participants experienced the coaching process and what aspects of the coaching worked or did not work for them. interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed and analysed. analysis and memo writing occurred after each interview to inform the interview strategy and questions for the next participant in accordance with grounded theory principles of constant comparison and theoretical sampling (charmaz, 2014; goulding, 2002). as an example, in the first interview the recently promoted senior leader made a distinction between being promoted internally versus externally. while this concept was not part of the original interview prompts, the coding and memo writing process following this interview revealed the potential importance of this phenomenon. this led the researcher to consciously enquire about this in subsequent interviews. data analyses grounded theory allows for a number of different data analysis options (goulding, 2002). in this study line-by-line coding, focussed coding and category identification through extensive memo writing were followed (charmaz, 2014). throughout the research the core principles of grounded theory were employed, namely, theoretically sensitive coding, constant comparison and theoretical sampling (glaser & strauss, 1967). this implied going back into the field to re-interview certain participants as new themes emerged (strauss & corbin, 1990). as an example, during the fifth interview a senior leader remarked how important the use of theoretical frameworks was in his coaching. during the coding of this interview (carried out straight after the interview) and the subsequent update of the memo, a new theme emerged that led the researcher to re-interview some of the participants in order to obtain their view on this aspect. the qualitative analysis software application atlas.ti was used for the analysis process. to ensure data quality, the transcribed interviews were sent back to the participants for member checking (lincoln & guba, 1985). a researcher’s diary was also kept to help keep track of the research process and to apply reflexivity. findings the findings from the analysis of the 16 interviews with recently promoted senior leaders (p1 to p8), coaches (c1 to c5), hr practitioners (hr1 and hr2) and a line manager (m1) were grouped into two themes in line with the research objectives: initiating coaching and the coaching process itself. initiating coaching the phenomenon of initiating transition coaching contains five sub-themes as summarised in table 1. table 1: theme 1: initiating coaching. timing irrespective of whether the idea of coaching was initiated by the recently promoted senior leader (p1, p5) or their line managers (p2, p3, p4, p6, p7, p8), in all instances it was undertaken when the incumbent had already shown signs of distress in the new role. this points to the fact that transition coaching is not something that organisations take seriously and apply in a pre-emptive manner. it seems to be used for remedial effect. c1 notes that the transition coaching she has done has been almost accidental as part of a ‘brushstroke’ approach by organisations to coaching their leaders, not specifically aimed at transitioning leaders. this is especially true for internally promoted senior leaders. in one instance, c2 only became involved 6 years after a promotion when issues of the person not adjusting to the new role reached crisis levels: ‘it is not front of mind for a company to say we are promoting you therefore we think you should get the support’ (c2, female, coach). hr1’s company has no specific process for assigning a coach to a newly promoted senior leader. instead the business can request a coach at any time, so it is up to the line manager to decide whether the incumbent needs a coach. alternatively, if a person is nominated for a leadership development programme they may encounter coaching as part of design, but this is not necessarily linked to a promotion. the question of whether to initiate the coaching before or after the promotion drew varied responses. on the one hand, p4, p6, c3 and m1 felt that coaching should start before the promotion. these participants agreed that there should be between one and five sessions before the promotion, a number of sessions in short succession shortly afterwards and then fewer and more spread out sessions for ongoing support for up to 2 years (m1, p1, p5, p6). c3 warned that transition coaching must be pre-emptive: ‘we tend to only look for help when there’s a burning platform’ (c3, male, coach). this is echoed by m1: if you are going to put your feet wrong – you are going to do it right there in the early stages where you want to set the agenda. you want to set the scene. you do not want to make mistakes before you have even started. (m1, female, manager of transitioning leaders) those who think that coaching should only start after the candidate enters the role (p7, c1, hr2) have different reasons for stating this. p7 feels that the candidate needs to spend a few months in the new position to understand what they are struggling with in order to optimise the coaching. c1 was concerned that transition coaching before a promotion could be confused with career coaching while hr2 was worried that transition coaching before a promotion could have legal implications should the promotion not materialise. c3 provides a pragmatic solution to this: ‘coaching should start as soon as the news is broken’ (c3, male, coach). duration while all the participants interviewed were unanimous that transition coaching should continue for an extended period of time of up to 3 years (hr2), only one participant experienced such an extended intervention of 18 months which he considered to be very beneficial to his learning process. most of the participants reported interventions ranging between 6 and 10 sessions over a period of less than a year. it was felt that this is inadequate: typically we sort of put a 12 week intervention or maybe put a 6 month intervention in but we never talk about the 2 year and 3 year period. unfortunately, i think coaching is great and it has its place, but i think we still think too tactically about the learning journey. (hr2, female, hr practitioner) behaviour doesn’t change in 12 months. (m1, female, manager of transitioning leaders) the reasons for these limited interventions were cited as cost and a misunderstanding of the transition and transformation process. in hr2’s experience there is a perception from line managers that if the incumbent has not ‘made it after six months on the job as a leader then we shouldn’t have promoted him’ (hr2, female, hr practitioner). suggested solutions include initial frequent coaching sessions (every 2 weeks) for the first 3 months to assist with immediate issues and then less frequent sessions of once a month or even 2 months for up to at least 18 months, but preferably up to 3 years. coach selection the process of selecting a coach varied between organisations. in most cases the coachee was given a choice of coaches either through an interview process or a so-called chemistry session (p3, p5), or by reviewing coaches’ cvs (p8). hr2’s organisation uses a panel of coaches and assigns a coach based on a specific skills-set needed in the intervention. the importance of coach selection was highlighted by p7 (an actuary) who stated that it was very important to him that his coach had the ability to think analytically and conceptually. the coach he selected was an engineer. logistics the issue of where and what time coaching should take place elicited varied responses. p1 preferred a location far away from work in a relaxed environment such as a restaurant or hotel and at a time of day that was convenient. the neutral location energised him sufficiently to allow him to engage in the coaching. p2 on the other hand was coached at her office, but she does feel that it would have been better to be coached away from the office as she would have felt more free to talk about ‘what is bothering her’. p4 concurred that even though he was coached at the office he would have preferred to be out of the ‘buzz’ of the office. p5 and p7 experienced both in and out of the office scenarios and both preferred the off-site location. it would appear from the responses that off-site coaching is preferable, but c1 sums it up well when she states that: ‘… it is up to the coachee to make the call on what suits them and for the coach to be flexible and accommodating’ (c1, female, coach). contracting all the coaches reported going through a contracting phase. in all cases there was at least one session at the start where an organisational representative provided input into the coaching process. there were some variations. c1 has two sessions with the organisation, one at the start to set goals and one at the end to provide feedback, although she has observed that for executive-level coachees the organisations seem to be less involved in the coaching process. the importance of confidentiality during the contracting phase and throughout the intervention is stressed: the client might think you are in cahoots with the organisation and they might want to use you to do performance management. (c2, female, coach) i never meet – except for the first conversation that they ask me they want me to coach so and so. after that i never meet alone with any of the organisational representatives. never. that creates suspicion. the minute you talk it creates suspicion. (c4, female, coach) the coaching process the coaching process theme yielded four sub-themes (table 2). table 2: theme 2: the coaching process. managing the coaching process goal setting emerged as an important part of the transition coaching process. coaching goals provided structure (p1, p4) and helped coachees stay accountable: … once you kind of put it down on a piece of paper, even if it was only your piece of paper, it suddenly becomes much more tangible … just writing it down is incredibly powerful. (p5, male, transitioning leader) c3 uses goal setting as a standard practice to involve line managers indirectly in the coaching process: they (line managers) are the ones who see you dropping the ball in the areas you want to develop. so if you’re lacking assertiveness and in the next exco meeting you’re not speaking up then they can hold you accountable. (c3, male, coach) two coachees felt strongly about the benefits of their coaches summarising the coaching sessions and sharing this with them. p5’s coach created a twoto three-page, typed summary after each coaching session. this was useful to him in that it allowed him to reflect on the coaching session between sessions, as well as serving as a reminder of coaching goals. even after the coaching ended, p5 was using the coaching summaries (comprising some 40 pages) to remind himself of his journey and his progress to date. for p7 the summaries acted as reference to books and resources he could consult. active experimentation emerged as a strong sub-theme (p1, p2, p3, p6, p7, p8). p8 experimented with body and verbal language. p6 practised in a mirror to overcome her public shyness. p7 provided another example: go into a meeting and try and come out of it with the other party feeling: i love this guy. or go into a meeting and try and get the guy at the end going you really struck me as someone with very high eq. (p7, male, transitioning leader) reflection was used in various ways including obtaining clarity of thinking (p3), identifying alternative solutions (p4), feeling unjudged (p5) and creating awareness of positive thoughts (p6). c1 distinguishes between assisted reflection, led by the coach and self-reflection, performed by the coachee outside of the coaching sessions. c4 uses reflection to close the active experimentation learning loop. in general, there seems to be a pattern of the coaching, creating awareness in the client, of the need to change, encouraging the client to practise and experiment with different behaviours to see what works and finally to reflect back in the coaching session on what worked or did not work and the reasons for it (c1, c2, c3, c4). using theory a number of participants valued the inclusion of theoretical models and frameworks in the coaching process by their coaches. coaches shared cognitive behavioural theory (p1), leadership theory (p4), video clips (p5) and the leadership pipeline model (c1). for p7 as a technically minded individual it was crucial that his coach provided him with theoretical frameworks to allow him to understand what process he was undergoing. socratic questioning helped him to listen to people instead of telling them what to do. a number of participants reported using psychometric assessments as input into the coaching process. this include 360-degree review, enneagram, myers-briggs, insights, organic scorecard and repertoire grid to name a few. the benefits of these assessments range from comfort that my coach knows me (p7), increased self-awareness (p8, c3, c5) and getting the coaching ‘unstuck’ (c4). consulting external parties the classical three-way meeting between the coach, coachee and line manager at the start of the coaching process to align on goals and at the end to provide feedback were present in a number of instances (p1, p3, p5, c1, c3). for c3: ‘if the line manager does not enforce the shift to the desired behaviour it probably won’t happen’ (c3, male, coach). hr1 feels it is sufficient to receive occasional feedback from the coach while hr2 feels that the organisation should take a backseat as the results of the coaching should be visible. if not she will intervene: i am not seeing the behaviour. i am not seeing the values demonstration. i am not seeing the strategic thinking. i am not seeing the connectedness with people, whatever the case may be. those tell-tale signs should then say – okay coach i need to check in. (hr2, female, hr practitioner) while being coached, some coachees found it useful to have a mentor. for some this was a formal process (p2) where their line manager appointed an internal mentor to support their transition, while for others it was an informal process. it would appear that using a mentor at the same time as being coached is not a standard practice, but for those who did have a mentor the effect was positive. an interesting phenomenon that emerged from this research is where coaches c2 and c3 involved the newly promoted leader’s team in the coaching process. for c2 this was almost out of frustration because the transformation that her client underwent was met with suspicion by her team. it was only after three facilitated sessions with the leader and her team that trust was restored to some extent. for c2 ‘there is no other way of coaching people who are being groomed for leadership’ (c2, female, coach) than to involve their teams at some point while for c3 involving the team was a way to bring in the systemic aspect of a senior corporate position. networking p1 and his coach spent some time analysing his network: we spent quite a bit of time to draw a picture of the people in my work life: who are the people that stress me out, who are the players, the actors in this great play at work. (p1, male, transitioning leader) c1 and c4 reported using a similar approach with their clients to help them build new relationships. p3 expanded her network on a senior level, p5 spent time on his international network and p6 focussed on building networks outside of her regional office. all three participants found this exercise helpful in their new role. c1 advises her clients to build networks by meeting face-to-face either formally (using work as an excuse to introduce yourself) or informally (dropping in and introducing yourself as the new person). ethical considerations this research was approved by the ethics committee of the university of stellenbosch. all participants signed informed consent forms where their confidentiality, anonymity and rights were explained. discussion the main aim of this research was to investigate how a coaching intervention should be designed to explicitly support leaders who are promoted into senior leadership positions. two main themes emerged from the empirical data: aspects to take into account when initiating the coaching process and considerations when facilitating the coaching process itself. these findings provide practical suggestions for designing transition coaching interventions aimed at supporting leaders when they are appointed into senior leadership positions. initiating the coaching process the most prominent finding of this research is that transition coaching is not yet seen as a distinct coaching sub-discipline by organisations, despite the fact that the coaching fraternity considers transition coaching to be a specialisation of executive coaching (witherspoon & cannon, 2004). as a result coaching is not used explicitly and pre-emptively to assist leaders during their promotion into senior leadership positions. for the participants in this research, transition coaching was not part of the default leadership development tools used by their organisations. organisations use a number of methods to train new leaders such as mentoring and coaching, 360-degree feedback, leadership training, job assignments, self–other agreement, use of self-narrative and life stories and action learning among others (day, fleenor, atwater, sturm & mckee, 2014; fleenor, smither, atwater, braddy & sturm, 2010; ligon, hunter & mumford, 2008). some of these coaching is unique in that it is tailored to the individual and concentrates on behavioural change. coaching puts into action the suggestion of change that other leadership development programmes profess (kombarakaran et al., 2008). there is a clear need for a more systematic approach to supporting new leaders that include both traditional leadership development programmes and personal coaching (martin, 2015). this research confirms the notion that coaching at key career transition points, such as a promotion into a senior position, is a powerful mechanism to help ensure the incumbent’s success (simpson, 2010). the findings of this research suggest that to avoid getting off to a wrong start, coaching should commence before the promotion (as soon as the announcement is official) to help the new senior leader design an action plan. there should then be regular (every 2–4 weeks) coaching sessions for the first 6 months, after which less frequent (every 2–3 months) sessions should occur for up to 3 years. these results differ from the notion that coaching for senior leaders should only start after the first 90 days (sutton, 2008) and concurs that the results of the first 90 days in a senior position often set the tone for failure or success (watkins, 2009). the reason that transition coaching is not used more pervasively can to some extent be attributed to the high cost associated with the process. this was certainly the case for a number of participants in this research and is in line with other research findings that suggest that coaching is often lumped together with expensive interventions such as training programmes without considering the unique individual benefits that coaching brings (simpson, 2010). on the other hand, if the high cost associated with an unsuccessful promotion to both the individual and the organisation is considered (martin, 2015; watkins, 2009), and the high likelihood of failure (witherspoon & cannon, 2004) perhaps the cost of a 3-year long coaching intervention as suggested above, is not as significant as is currently perceived. an important part of initiating the coaching process is matching the coach and coachee. both the new leader and the organisation’s fit to the coach must be considered (weinstock, 2011). the findings from this research suggest that the new leader must be given a choice of coaches to consider. this is particularly important because not all coaches may be skilled in the specialisation of transition coaching and transition coaching is considered challenging for the coaching profession. new senior leaders are typically ambitious, intelligent, energetic and restless individuals, which implies that the coach must be able to cope with a wide range of issues and be able to move at a fast pace (reynolds, 2011). a strong case can therefore be made to include a specific focus on transition coaching when training new coaches. these research findings suggest that coaching sessions should ideally be conducted away from the office environment to create a space free from mental clutter. it is important however that pragmatism and flexibility be applied to customise the coaching progress to suit both coach and coachee. this is echoed by other research (kaufman, 2006; sammut, 2014). managing the coaching process once the coaching process is underway, a number of key elements must be present to help guide the transition coaching process to success. the first such element as revealed by the findings, is the importance of managing the coaching process by setting goals, encouraging active experimentation in between coaching sessions and constant reflection. because of the inherently complex and unstructured nature of the new role and the challenges that senior leaders face (peltier, 2010), it is crucial that goals are set to enable the incumbent to focus and to develop their current capacity (grant, passmore, cavanagh & parker, 2010). these goals enable the newly promoted leader, their team and line manager to identify critical issues that need addressing and to find alignment (freeman, 2011, witherspoon & cannon, 2004). this research shows that goal setting during transition coaching is a crucial step and that these coaching goals must take into account the organisational needs (gray, 2006; kahn, 2014). this research also shows that setting transition coaching goals and sharing this with a wider audience help to keep coachees accountable not only to themselves, but to their team and line managers. reflection during and between coaching sessions and active experimentation between coaching sessions by the new leader appear to be important elements of a successful transition coaching intervention. new leaders often have incomplete, biased and irrelevant mental models when they take up the new position. they also often underestimate the complexity of the new role they take on, and this causes them to focus selectively on problems they feel comfortable to tackle (freeman, 2011; hill, 1992). the role of the transition coach is to help create awareness of these limiting assumptions through reflection (reynolds, 2011) and encouraging active experimentation to refute strongly held notions of what is possible (schön, 1991). the importance of reflection and active experimentation is echoed by the findings of this research whereby all the coaches interviewed profess to use reflection and active experimentation in their transition coaching practice. the findings suggest that the use of assessments and other theoretical frameworks were utilised frequently to provide a baseline and scaffolding within which the transition coaching was executed. literature also suggests the use of assessments in transition coaching to determine coaching needs (grant et al., 2010; kaufman, 2006; witherspoon & cannon, 2004). involving third parties such as line managers and mentors emerged as an important contributing factor to transition coaching success. one use of this technique is for the coach to obtain feedback from others to help the new leader understand their limiting assumptions (freeman, 2011). mentors and line managers can also support the coaching agenda by being made aware of the coaching goals and to provide support and guidance during the coaching intervention. findings from this research even suggest that the new leader’s team should be involved in the process to enable an understanding of the change process and to provide a systemic angle to the coaching. finally, this research shows that the transition coach should help the new leader identify and build a strong network of people relevant to the new role. this finding is in line with other research that shows the importance of building a strong network (clutterbuck & megginson, 1999; terblanche, 2014). practical implications a senior career transition is a uniquely challenging point in a leader’s career with specific and well-known obstacles to overcome. the findings of this research suggest that the process of initiating and managing the transition coaching intervention could be specifically designed to address these known challenges. this gives impetus to the idea of recognising ‘transition coaching’ as a distinct coaching sub-discipline and for hr practitioners to take note of the potential benefit of such a tailor-made intervention. hr practitioners should take note of the timing of initiating coaching (as soon as possible after the appointment is official), the frequency of coaching (one or two sessions before the role take-up, 6–10 during the first 6 months and thereafter one session every 2–3 months for up to 3 years). hr practitioners must also ensure that coach–coachee matching provides a number of options to the coachee, that clear coaching goals are set that consider the organisational goals and that transition coaches employ reflection and active experimentation in their coaching model. line managers, peers and team members of the new leaders must also be involved in the coaching process through input (e.g. 360 assessments), mentoring and goal sharing. limitations of the study although the participant selection included a diversity of perspectives which included new leaders who were coached, transition coaches, hr practitioners and a line manager, diversity could have been increased by including the perspectives of the new leader’s peers and subordinates. conclusion literature indicates that there are significant challenges faced by newly promoted senior leaders. the cost of failure is high to both the individual and the organisation. transition coaching has been shown to be a valuable support for leaders-in-transition. this research provides empirical evidence of the need for transition coaching and the lack of its use at present. practical suggestions are made to assist hr practitioners and coaches to design coaching interventions specifically aimed at assisting transitioning leaders. these include: starting transition coaching as soon as the appointment is official continuing for at least 3 years with a session every 2–3 weeks for the first 6 months and a session every 2–3 months thereafter providing the coachee with a number of coach options allowing coaching to happen outside the office environment. as part of the coaching process, the following aspects must be present: clear coaching goals must be set which take into account the organisational needs. the coach’s model must include reflection and active experimentation. assessments and theoretical frameworks must be used during the coaching intervention to help create self-awareness. mentors, line managers and the new leader’s team must be involved in the coaching process. building a new network must be an explicit part of the coaching process. coaching can provide effective support for leaders. if customised for career transition as suggested in this research, transition coaching may be able to provide a humane way to support ambitious, talented individuals with the significant challenges they face during promotions into senior leadership positions. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions n.h.d.t. conducted the research and wrote the article as part of his phd project. r.m.a. and s.v.c-p. supervised his research and reviewed the article. references argyris, c. (1991). teaching smart people how to learn. harvard business review, 1 may–june, 99–109. avolio, b.j., & hannah, s.t. (2008). developmental readiness: accelerating leader development. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 60(4), 331–347. https://doi.org/10.1037/1065-9293.60.4.331 babbie, e., & mouton, k. (2001). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford university press. bebb, s.s. (2009). the structure of role transition: a phenomenological study of successful executives from five countries. international journal of leadership studies, 4(2), 223–243. charan, r., drotter, s., & noel, j. (2011). the leadership pipeline. san fransisco, ca: wiley. charmaz, k. (2014). constructing grounded theory. thousand oaks, ca: sage. chinyamurindi, w.t. (2012). an investigation of career change using a narrative and story-telling inquiry. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vi, 10(2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.447 clutterbuck, d., & megginson d. (1999). mentoring executives and directors. oxford: butterworth-heinemann. creswell, j.w. (2003). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. (2nd edn). thousand oaks, ca: sage. day, d., fleenor, j., atwater, l., sturm, r., & mckee, r. (2014). advances in leader and leadership development: a review of 25 years of research and theory. the leadership quarterly, 25, 63–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.11.004 denton, j., & van lill, j. (2006). managerial derailment. vilakshan, ximb journal of management, august, 231–250. dotlich, d.l., noel, j.l., & walker, n. (2004). leadership passages. san fransisco, ca: wiley. dreher, m. (1994). qualitative research methods from the reviewer’s perspective. in j. morse (ed.), critical issues in qualitative research methods (pp. 281–297). thousand oaks, ca: sage. fleenor, j.w., smither, j.w., atwater, l.e., braddy, p.w., & sturm, r.e. (2010). self-other rating agreement in leadership: a review. the leadership quarterly, 21(6), 1005–1034. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.10.006 freedman, a.m. (2011). some implications of validation of the leadership pipeline concept: guidelines for assisting managers-in-transition. the psychologist-manager journal, 14, 140–159. https://doi.org/10.1080/10887156.2011.570146 glaser, b., & strauss, a. (1967). the discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. chicago, il: aldine publishing. goleman, d. (1996). emotional intelligence: why it can matter more than iq. london: bloomsbury. goulding, c. (2002). grounded theory: a practical guide for management, business and market researchers. thousand oaks, ca: sage. grant, a.m., passmore, j., cavanagh, m.j., & parker, h. (2010). the state of play in coaching today: a comprehensive review of the field. international review of industrial and organizational psychology, 25, 125–167. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470661628.ch4 gray, d.e. (2006). executive coaching – towards a dynamic alliance of psychotherapy and transformative learning processes. management learning, 37(4), 475–497. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507606070221 hawkins, p., & smith, n. (2013). coaching, mentoring and organizational consultancy. (2nd edn.). maidenhead: mcgraw hill education, open university press. hill, l.a. (1992). becoming a manager: mastery of a new identity. boston, ma: harvard business school press. jaques, e. (1996). requisite organisation. gloucester, ma: cason hall. kahn, m.s. (2014). coaching on the axis: working with complexity in business and executive coaching. london: karnac books. kates, a., & downey, d. (2005). the challenges of general manager transitions. in r.b. kaiseer (ed.), filling the leadership pipeline (pp. 45–68) greensboro, north carolina: centre for creative leadership. kaufman, b. (2006). the role of executive coaching in performance management. in patricia coate (ed.), handbook of business strategy (pp. 287–291). uk: emerald group publishing. kegan, r. (1994). in over our heads: the mental demands of modern life. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. kets de vries, m. (2006). the leadership mystique – leading behaviour in the human enterprise. london: ft prentice hall. kombarakaran, f., yang, j., baker, m., & fernandes, p. (2008). executive coaching: it works! consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 60(1), 78–90. https://doi.org/10.1037/1065-9293.60.1.78 ligon, g.s., hunter, s.t., & mumford, m.d. (2008). development of outstanding leadership: a life narrative approach. the leadership quarterly, 19(3), 312–334. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2008.03.005 lincoln, y., & guba, e. (1985). naturalistic inquiry. newbury park, ca: sage. lombardo, m., & eichinger, r. (1995). preventing derailement: what todo before it’s too late. greensboro, nc: centre for creative leadering. manderscheid, s.v., & ardichvili, a. (2008). a conceptual model for leadership transition. performance improvement quarterly, 20(1), 113–129. https://doi.org/10.1002/piq.20006 martin, j., & gentry, w.a. (2011). derailment signs across generations: more in common than expected. the psychologist-manager journal, 14, 177–195. https://doi.org/10.1080/10887156.2011.595973 martin, j.f. (2015). ascending to the c-suite. new york: mckinsey & company. nzukuma, k.c.c., & bussin, m. (2011). job-hopping amongst african black senior management in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), 12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.360 olivier, a., & page, t. (2017). rewriting the rules for the digital age: 2017 human capital trends report for south africa. deloitte university press. peltier, b. (2010). the psychology of executive coaching: theory and application. (2nd edn.). new york: routledge. reynolds, g. (2011). exploring the meaning of coaching for newly appointed senior leaders in their first twelve to eighteen months in role. international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring, june (special issue no. 5), 39–53. rooke, d., & torbert, w. (2005). seven transformation of leadership. harvard business review, 83(4), 66–76. sammut, k. (2014). transformative learning theory and coaching: application in practice. international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring, 8, 39–53. schön, d.a. (1991). the reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. aldershot: ashgate publishing ltd. simpson, j. (2010). in what ways does coaching contribute to effective leadership development? international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring, (special issue no. 4), 114–134. strauss, a., & corbin, j. (1990). basic qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques. newbury park, ca: sage. sutton, j. (2008). coaching leadership transitions. in the 2008 pfeiffer annual leadership development (pp. 199–207). wiley. terblanche, n. (2014). knowledge sharing in the organizational context: using social network analysis as a coaching tool. international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring, 12(2), 146–164. theeboom, t., beersma, b., & van vianen, a. (2013). does coaching work? a meta-analysis on the effects of coaching on individual level outcomes in an organizational context. the journal of positive psychology, 9(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2013.837499 watkins, m. (2003). the first 90 days. boston, ma: harvard business school press. watkins, m.d. (2009). picking the right transition strategy. harvard business review, 01 january, 47–53. weinstock, b. (2011). the hidden challenges in role transitions and how leadership coaching can help new leaders find solid ground. holistic nursing practice, 25(4), 211–214. https://doi.org/10.1097/hnp.0b013e31822270ec willis, j. (2007). foundations of qualitative research: interpretive and critical approaches. thousand oaks, ca: sage. witherspoon, r., & cannon, m.d. (2004). coaching leaders in transition. in a.f. buono (eds), creative consulting: innovative perspectives on management consulting (p. 201). information age publishing, greenwich: connecticut. footnote 1. the term ‘senior leaders’ in the context of this research refers to c-level executives and heads of business units up to two levels below the c level. 1coetzee.qxd this edition is about mentoring in the south african organisational context. although extensive literature exists on the topic of mentoring, the current state of mentoring in the south african organisational context is under-researched and not yet well explored, particularly in the context of employment equity. this special edition on mentoring therefore aims to provide an overview of current research, practices and experiences regarding mentoring in the multi-cultural south african organisational context. st udies have shown that mentoring relationships can benefit the mentee (or protégé) and the mentor, and that informal mentoring appears to be more effect ive than formal mentoring. the value of mentoring appears to be linked particularly to the nat ure of the developmental relationships created through the mentoring process. developmental relationships at work are key learning resources which facilitate increased work effect iveness and employee fulfilment. they offer a way for people to continue to learn to build their own capacities. as a source of meaningful feedback and psychological safet y for ref lection, these relat ionships also contribute to the growth of the individual’s self-knowledge and his or her abilit y to seek and use feedback in the fut ure. it is through such ref lection that organisations and their members are most likely to create the conditions that facilitate the growth of developmental relationships to sustain them at work and in their careers. research indicates that employees engaged in some form of developmental relationship such as mentoring are more successful in their careers and have greater feelings of career sat isfact ion. in the context of employment equit y, developmental relat ionships are especially usef ul for historically disadvantaged groups who probably at this stage of their career development are in a greater need for career support. st udies have also shown that the mentoring relationship offers the most powerful learning as it provides both task-related learning and socio-emotional learning that affect the individual’s adaptabilit y and identit y over a long period of time. the articles included in this special issue cover the following topics: � the nature and concept of mentor and mentee competencies and a proposed framework of competencies based on an extensive qualitative survey conducted around the world by david clutterbuck; � the development of a normative instrument as a tool in identif ying and developing mentors in the south african context (karen janse van rensburg and gert roodt); � a qualitative investigation of the expectations of and perceived challenges to white male and female mentors and white and black female mentees in a formal mentoring programme (sonia pinho, melinde coetzee and dries schreuder); � a qualitative investigation of the factors that contribute to the quality of the mentoring relationship as experienced by white male mentors and mentees and african female mentees (nelise gilmore, melinde coetzee and dries schreuder); � a qualitative investigation of the impediments to effective mentoring as experienced by black and white female mentees with a taxonomy of recommendations for reducing these barriers in the workplace (kevin stone and melinde coetzee); � a qualitative investigation of the practices employed by three south african companies to implement and sustain their mentoring programmes (marina hattingh, melinde coetzee and dries schreuder); � a quantitative analysis of how individuals’ perceptions of employment equity (ee) and black economic empowerment (bee) relate to organisation-related commitment and whether individuals’ perceptions of the mentor’s role mediate the relationship bet ween ee, bee and organisation-related commitment (karen janse van rensburg and gert roodt); and � a qualitative exploration of the possibility of utilising mentoring as a vehicle in institutionalising corporate ethical practices (x goosen and lj van vuuren). the research presented in this issue shows promise for future investigations. we trust that the findings of the studies will provide a starting point for continued and more rigorous research on the role and value of the mentoring relationship in addressing the unique challenges faced by the south african business community. melinde coetzee dries schreuder guest editors department of industrial and organisational psychology university of south africa introductory overview requests for copies should be addressed to: m coetzee, coetzm1@unisa.ac.za 1 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (3), 1 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (3), 1 article information authors: bright mahembe1 amos s. engelbrecht1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology, stellenbosch university, south africa correspondence to: bright mahembe postal address: department of industrial psychology, stellenbosch university, private bag x1, matieland 7602, south africa dates: received: 14 sept. 2012 accepted: 19 dec. 2012 published: 10 apr. 2013 how to cite this article: mahembe, b., & engelbrecht, a.s. (2013). the relationship between servant leadership, affective team commitment and team effectiveness. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), art. #495, 10 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ sajhrm.v11i1.495 copyright notice: © 2013. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the relationship between servant leadership, affective team commitment and team effectiveness in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • aim of study    • conceptualising team effectiveness    • conceptualising servant leadership    • conceptualising affective team commitment    • the relationships between servant leadership, affective team commitment and team effectiveness    • theoretical model    • statistical hypotheses • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • missing values analysis    • uni-dimensionality    • goodness-of-fit: the measurement models    • measurement models: factor loadings    • item analysis    • goodness-of-fit indices for the structural model    • the relationship between servant leadership and team effectiveness    • the relationship between servant leadership and affective team commitment    • the relationship between affective team commitment and team effectiveness    • the moderating role of affective team commitment • ethical considerations • trustworthiness    • reliability    • validity • discussion    • limitations and suggestions for future research    • managerial implications    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: value-based leadership practices play a critical role in teamwork in high-performance organisations. research purpose: the aim of the study was to empirically validate a theoretical model explicating the structural relationships between servant leadership, affective team commitment and team effectiveness. motivation for the study: the increased reliance on teams for production calls for an analysis of the role of follower-focused leadership practices in enhancing team effectiveness. research design, approach and method: a non-probability and multicultural sample consisting of 202 primary and secondary school teachers was drawn from 32 schools in the western cape province of south africa. main findings: high levels of reliability were found and uni-dimensionality of the subscales was demonstrated through exploratory factor analyses. good fit with the data was found for the measurement models through confirmatory factor analyses. structural equation modelling showed a reasonable fit for the structural model. positive relationships were found amongst servant leadership, team effectiveness and affective team commitment. standard multiple regression analysis showed that affective team commitment moderated the relationship between servant leadership and team effectiveness. practical/managerial implications: the findings emphasise the central role played by servant leadership and affective team commitment in team performance. servant leadership fosters team effectiveness if employees feel committed to their work team. contribution/value-add: the servant leadership style alone may not be a sufficient condition for team effectiveness; other variables, such as affective team commitment, also play a role. the study suggested specific variables that may also combine with leadership to positively influence team effectiveness. introduction top ↑ effective teamwork has been identified by researchers as one of the core features of high-performance organisations (afolabi, adesina & aigbedion, 2009; schlechter & strauss, 2008; sheng & tian, 2010). team-based approaches to work can, (1) increase innovation, (2) improve quality, productivity, organisational responsiveness and flexibility, (3) serve customers better and (4) reduce the time it takes for an organisation to transform an idea into a product that is viable and profitable within the marketplace (glassop, 2002; hamilton, nickerson & owan, 2003). given the pivotal role of teams in organisational success, team performance needs to be proactively managed to influence team effectiveness. teamwork, facilitated by effective leadership, is one of the means used by organisations to increase productivity (chen, kirkman, kanfer, allen & rosen, 2007; eisenbeiss, van knippenberg & boerner, 2008; morgeson, derue & karam, 2010; schaubroeck, lam & cha, 2007; transcritti, 2010). whilst a leader is expected to be accountable for the effectiveness of his or her team, a service-oriented approach to leadership appears to be one of the important determinants of team effectiveness (irving & longbotham, 2007). servant leadership comprises an understanding and practice of leadership that places the good of those who are led above the self-interest of the leader. a servant leader has true commitment to his or her followers and predominantly serves the needs of followers, hence providing vision and empowerment, with service being the main activity of the servant leader (sendjaya & sarros, 2002; spears, 2010). servant leadership therefore has some important implications for team commitment (dannhauser, 2007). whilst influence is generally ‘considered the key element of leadership, servant leadership changes the focus of this influence by emphasizing the ideal of service in the leader-follower relationship’ (van dierendonck, 2011, p. 1229). as ‘servant leadership is demonstrated by empowering and developing people; by expressing humility, authenticity, interpersonal acceptance and stewardship; and by providing direction’, followers are likely to feel empowered (van dierendonck, 2011, p. 1254). prior research has demonstrated that followers who are empowered display more commitment; when employees are empowered, they portray a greater level of self-confidence and have a greater sense of being able to influence their work environment in a positive way (zhu, may & avolio, 2004). whilst the literature on servant leadership and teams is increasing, paucity in research exists in south africa on the relationships between servant leadership, affective team commitment and team effectiveness. it is also important to note that most of the studies on team effectiveness were carried out in business or revenue generating settings (afolabi et al., 2009; dannhauser, 2007), whilst a few studies were undertaken in service-oriented contexts such as educational settings (bowman, 2005; dufour, 2001). it is essential to understand team effectiveness in educational settings as it helps to shed some light on the nature of the school as a workplace, as well as on how the quality of interactions in schools affect teachers’ performance. in a school workplace where there is interaction of a high quality amongst members, teachers will commit themselves to work harder and make their work experience more meaningful (turan, 2002). according to dufour (2001), principals who are inspired by the servant leadership role focus on developing a school climate and culture in which teachers share a common vision and a collective commitment to the team or school. school principals identified as servant leaders were rated highly by their teachers, compared to other school principals who use other leadership styles (taylor, martin, hutchinson & jinks, 2007). when the school principal (servant leader) has served the teachers’ (followers’) needs through the provision of a clear vision and guidance, teachers, in turn, are likely to act as servant leaders or trail blazers for students by removing obstacles that stand in students’ paths (bowman, 2005). aim of study servant leadership and team commitment play a central role in team performance. the primary goal of the study was to conduct an analysis of the relationships between servant leadership, affective team commitment and team effectiveness. the secondary goal was to validate a theoretical model explicating the structural relationships between these variables in the south african education sector. conceptualising team effectiveness it is necessary for organisations to have a clear and thorough understanding of what is meant by team effectiveness in order to utilise teams and enhance the overall success of the organisation (hackman, 2002; irving & longbotham, 2007; piccoli, powell & ives, 2004; pina, martinez & martinez, 2008; ross, jones & adams, 2008). owing to the complex nature of human behaviour, which is a fundamental part of teamwork, researchers have experienced multiple problems in defining the boundaries of team effectiveness and operationalising this construct (pina et al., 2008). according to the literature, one can distinguish between two types of models regarding team effectiveness. the first is a uni-dimensional model that uses objective measures of team performance, or the degree of real productivity. the second type is multidimensional and is based on the assumption that team effectiveness depends on several other variables apart from performance or productivity (pina et al., 2008). ross et al. (2008) defined team effectiveness by evaluating five broad principles contributing to team effectiveness. these principle variables used to evaluate team effectiveness were: performance, behaviour, attitude, team member style and corporate culture. performance comprises the extent to which the output conforms to the customer’s standard of quality, quantity, and timeliness. to ensure and increase team performance, there should be a compelling direction for the team’s work. compelling direction refers to whether the team has clear, challenging and consequential goals that focus on the outcomes to be accomplished (hackman, 2002). behaviour refers to the way in which team members act and react to one another and circumstances, as well as perceived behavioural control (ross et al., 2008). attitude concerns team members’ feelings of psychological safety, willingness to cooperate, reception and giving of feedback, and accepting responsibility. team members’ individual characteristics (e.g. assertiveness and responsiveness) also affect the effectiveness of the team as a whole. lastly, corporate culture refers to the business climate in which the team operates, which has a significant influence that can either enhance or diminish team effectiveness (ross et al., 2008). a supporting organisational culture refers to whether the team receives adequate resources, rewards, information, training, intergroup cooperation and support needed by team members (hackman, 2002). team effectiveness is defined broadly as group-produced outputs and in terms of the consequences that the team has for its members (piccoli et al., 2004). irving and longbotham (2007) have defined team effectiveness as the attainment of common objectives or goals through the coordination of team members’ activities. piccoli et al. (2004) further explained that for teams to be classified as effective, they need to produce high quality and levels of outputs in the form of goods and services. team members should also find the working experience satisfactory. thus, team effectiveness should measure the output of teams, the state of the group as a performing unit, as well as the impact of the group on its individual members. conceptualising servant leadership servant leadership is not a new concept; it can be traced back to the practice of leaders such as mahatma gandhi, martin luther king jr and mother theresa, who promoted it as being the way to approach leadership (sendjaya & sarros, 2002). the concept re-emerged in academic literature with the work of robert greenleaf, who coined the term ‘servant leadership’ more than 30 years ago (dannhauser, 2007). greenleaf’s thoughts on leadership inspired a new way of thinking for many prominent leadership writers and thinkers. despite initial lack of support for the concept – largely because of perceived paradoxes in, and misunderstandings of, the terminology – servant leadership has gained support and momentum, as evidenced by the ever-increasing number of scholarly articles on servant leadership (sendjaya & sarros, 2002; van dierendonck, 2011).servant leadership is virtuous, highly ethical and based on the premise that service to followers is at the heart of leadership (sendjaya, sarros & santora, 2008). servant leaders also demonstrate the qualities of vision, caring for other people, altruism, humility, hope, integrity, trustworthiness and interpersonal acceptance (van dierendonck, 2011). it can be deduced from the different conceptualisations of servant leadership that service to followers and valuing followers are the basic tenets of a servant leader. if team members perceive that their leader really cares about their wellness, they will become more committed to their teams. conceptualising affective team commitment with allen and meyer’s (1990) three-dimensional conceptualisation of organisational commitment adapted to team commitment, the dimensions of team commitment can be identified as, (1) affective commitment, which refers to an employee’s emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in, the team, (2) continuance commitment, which indicates commitment based on the costs that an employee associates with leaving the team and (3) normative commitment, which refers to an employee’s feelings of obligation to remain with the team. employees with strong affective commitment remain because they want to, compared to those with strong continuance commitment who remain because they need to; those with strong normative commitment remain because they ought to do so (allen & meyer, 1990, p. 3). of these three components of organisational commitment, affective commitment has been the most widely studied (bishop, scott, goldsby & cropanzano, 2005; sheng & tian, 2010; wasti, 2003) as it has consistent relationships with performance, attendance and intention to quit (afolabi et al., 2009; ferreira, 2012; hammond, 2008; oehley, 2007). as this study focuses on the impact of servant leadership on team effectiveness, affective commitment appears to be the most appropriate component of team commitment for predictive purposes. the relationships between servant leadership, affective team commitment and team effectiveness organisations have a need for leadership styles that create favourable environments for teams to function optimally. morgeson et al. (2010) viewed team leadership as a fundamental process, oriented around the satisfaction of critical team needs with the goal of enhancing team effectiveness. clear communication of the team’s mission and goals with proper feedback enhances cohesive relationships amongst team members and has a positive effect on the overall performance of teams. setting challenging goals and clear performance expectations is the most important leadership function for facilitating effective team performance. team leaders have to acquire the necessary resources to complete team goals, encourage team members to act autonomously and create a positive social climate within the team (morgeson et al., 2010). it is thus evident that leadership is an essential part of team performance and contributes to team effectiveness through a variety of means. servant leadership distinctively specifies the combined motivation to be a leader with the need to serve as the foundation of a leader’s behaviour. a team leader needs to be goal-directed, be able to handle different personality types within the team, create commitment, give recognition and enhance cohesiveness amongst team members. all of these aspects are incorporated in servant leadership (van dierendonck, 2011). servant leadership is concerned about followers and creates conditions that enhance followers’ well-being, thereby facilitating a shared vision (van dierendonck, 2011). servant leadership adds the component of social responsibility to serve other people to leadership behaviour, as well as dedication to followers’ needs and interests as opposed to their own (sendjaya & sarros, 2002). servant leaders focus on follower outcomes in terms of personal growth and development (van dierendonck, 2011). all these qualities would further contribute to a positive team climate. the inspirational and moral component of servant leadership is important for the development of teams. team members are more likely to work collaboratively in the achievement of organisational goals if they have inspirational and moral confidence in their leader (van dierendonck, 2011). although numerous studies on the importance of leadership in team performance are available (gupta, huang & niranjan, 2010; kuo, 2004; morgeson et al., 2010), the role that servant leadership plays in the effective functioning of teams has not been studied extensively. in this regard, dannhauser (2007) could not identify a significant relationship between servant leadership and team effectiveness in the south african automobile industry. irving and longbotham (2007) examined the relationship between servant leadership and team effectiveness in the us division of an international non-profit organisation, reporting a significant positive relationship between the two constructs. a study conducted by hu and liden (2011) also provided support for the existence of a positive relationship between servant leadership and team effectiveness. these findings were further confirmed by transcritti (2010) in a recent study of church pastors in the us state of ohio. on the basis of the above theoretical arguments and empirical findings, it was postulated that servant leadership has a positive effect on team effectiveness. little is known about the relationship between servant leadership and team commitment. servant leadership can help organisations discover how to maximise their team performance by increasing resilience and productive time, whilst, at the same time, minimising negative factors such as exhaustion and absenteeism. when individuals feel cared for they will respond with greater loyalty towards their leader, feel compelled to generate solutions and commit to team and organisational goals (ostrem, 2006). in investigating the respective relationships between servant leadership, follower trust and team commitment within the south african context, dannhauser (2007) revealed a significant positive relationship between servant leadership and team commitment. this result concurs with findings at the individual level of analysis, in which the perceived support of the leader has been documented to correlate positively with employees’ commitment to the organisation (bagraim, 2003; boshoff, van wyk, hoole & owen, 2002). as affective commitment appears to be the most widely used component of commitment for predictive purposes, it can therefore be inferred that fostering affective team commitment through servant leadership is likely to contribute to team effectiveness. based on the above arguments and findings, it was postulated that servant leadership has a positive impact on affective team commitment. teams owe part of their success to the strength of bonds linking group members with one another, such as team identification and cohesion, coupled with honest communication, strong team commitment to the shared task and a willingness to put the needs of the team before individual interests (forsyth, 2010). members of cohesive teams are committed to their teams, with team commitment being indicated by the degree of attachment to the team, a long-term orientation to the team and intentions to remain within the group (arriaga & agnew, 2001; forsyth, 2010). as team cohesion and team member identification increases, so does team commitment (johnson & johnson, 2006). more specifically, leaders develop affective commitment, which represents the extent to which members become identified with, emotionally attached to, and involved with the team and other members. given that affective commitment has been documented as consistently linked to performance, it is expected that it will foster team effectiveness. hammond (2008) has confirmed a positive relationship between affective team commitment and team effectiveness on a sample made up of participants from 44 engineering, manufacturing and sustainment teams within one of the largest companies in the usa. based on the arguments presented above, it was postulated that affective team commitment, in turn, has a positive influence on team effectiveness. theoretical model after an in-depth investigation of the literature, a conceptual model was derived. figure 1 illustrates the conceptual model that depicts the specific hypothesised causal linkages between servant leadership, affective team commitment and team effectiveness. figure 1: the conceptual structural model. statistical hypotheses the overarching research hypothesis for the close fit null hypothesis is:h01: rmsea < 0.05 ha1: rmsea > 0.05 where rmsea is the root mean square error of approximation. in order to test the validity of the proposed relationships in the structural model, the following specific research hypotheses were tested: • hypothesis 1: a significant positive relationship exists between servant leadership (ξ1) and team effectiveness (η2) (h02: γ21 = 0; ha2: γ21 > 0). • hypothesis 2: a significant positive relationship exists between servant leadership (ξ1) and affective team commitment (η1) (h03: γ11 = 0; ha3: γ11 > 0). • hypothesis 3: a significant positive relationship exists between affective team commitment (η1) and team effectiveness (η2) (h04: β21 = 0; ha4: β21 > 0). research design top ↑ research approach the objectives set out for this research were achieved through the use of a cross-sectional correlational research design. a quantitative survey design was used to achieve the research objective. research method research participants although the team is expected to be the unit of analysis in studies of this nature, the present study used the individual team members as the unit of analysis; hence, the hypotheses that have been discussed indicate team members’ perceptions of the different relationships. a non-probability sampling strategy was used in the study. the study was conducted using primary and secondary school teachers from 32 schools in the western cape province of south africa. out of the 400 questionnaires distributed to the members of the teams, 202 completed questionnaires were returned, yielding a response rate of 50.5%. the sample consisted of 137 female (68.2%) and 64 male (31.8%) employees. the majority (60.2%) fell in the age category between 30 and 50 years. the ethnic distribution in the sample was: black respondents (24.9%), coloured respondents (56.2%) and white respondents (18.9%). the home language of the majority was afrikaans (73.6%), with a minority speaking their home languages in xhosa (18.4%) and english (5.0%). regarding their highest level of qualification, the majority of respondents had a degree or diploma (93.0%). measuring instruments various self-reporting measuring instruments were identified and used in measuring the constructs under study such as the servant leadership questionnaire, an adapted team commitment survey and an adapted team effectiveness questionnaire, details of which are provided below. servant leadership: servant leadership was measured using the servant leadership questionnaire (slq) (barbuto & wheeler, 2006). the slq was formulated in an attempt to develop a scale that captures the 11 characteristics of servant leadership. barbuto and wheeler (2006), through factor analysis, found only five factors underlying 23 items. reliabilities for the self and rater versions of the scale ranged from 0.68 to 0.87 and 0.82 to 0.92, respectively. the rater version of the scale yielded the following coefficient alphas: altruistic calling (α = 0.82), emotional healing (α = 0.91), wisdom (α = 0.92), persuasive mapping (α = 0.83) and organisational stewardship (α = 0.83) (barbuto & wheeler, 2006). example items included: ‘this person goes above and beyond the call of duty to meet my needs’ (altruistic calling), ‘this person is talented at helping me to heal emotionally’ (emotional healing), ‘this person is good at anticipating the consequences of decisions’ (wisdom), ‘this person is very persuasive’ (persuasive mapping) and ‘this person believes that the organisation needs to play a moral role in society’ (organisational stewardship). affective team commitment: team commitment was assessed using a six-item affective team commitment subscale adapted from the team commitment survey (tcs) developed by bennet and durkin (2000). the tcs is a modification of allen and meyer’s (1990) organisational commitment scale in which the referent of commitment is changed from the organisation to the team, as suggested by becker and billing (1993). a high internal reliability coefficient was found for the affective commitment scale (α = 0.98). example affective team commitment scale items included: ‘this team has great personal meaning for me’. team effectiveness questionnaire: an adapted 11-item team effectiveness questionnaire (teq) developed by larson and lafasto (2001) was used to measure team effectiveness. the teq is a self-reporting scale and is based on larson and lafasto’s (2001) earlier grounded theory work that attempted to identify the essential characteristics of effective teams. the cronbach alpha coefficient for this questionnaire is 0.85, which also was found when dannhauser (2007) administered the teq on a south african sample. example items included: ‘achieving the team goal is a higher priority than any individual objective’ and ‘the team is given the resources it needs to get the job done’. research procedure access to the sample was achieved through personal delivery of the questionnaires to the various schools. the participants received a composite questionnaire including a covering letter, a biographical section and the three measuring instruments. the covering letter gave the rationale for the study and instructions on completing the questionnaires, as well as the participants’ ethical rights. statistical analysis missing values: the missing values problem is a common occurrence when self-reporting instruments are used. in the present study, this problem was addressed through imputation by matching (jöreskog & sörbom, 2006). through this technique, missing values are substituted by values derived from one or more other cases that had a similar response pattern over a set of matching variables (jöreskog & sörbom, 2006). structural equation modelling: structural equation modelling (sem) helps to explain the patterns of covariances found amongst the observed variables in terms of the relationships hypothesised by the measurement and structural models. the measurement model describes how each latent variable is operationalised by corresponding manifest indicators, whilst the structural model describes the relationships between the latent variables themselves (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). evaluating the measurement models: item and exploratory factor analyses (efa) were performed to identify any poor items (i.e. factor loadings < 0.30; complex items) of the questionnaires used in the study using spss version 20.0 (2011). the application of the eigenvalues-greater-than-unit rule was used to identify the number of factors that underlie the observed correlation matrix for each of the subscales. efa was also used to test for uni-dimensionality of the scales. after deletion of the poor items, lisrel version 8.80 (jöreskog & sörbom, 2006) was used to perform confirmatory factor analyses (cfa) on the refined scales. once a satisfactory fit was achieved, any item with an inadequate completely standardised factor loading (< 0.30) was deleted (hair, black, babin, anderson & tatham, 2006). results top ↑ missing values analysis the use of imputation by matching resulted in an effective sample size of 198 cases (jöreskog & sörbom, 2006). uni-dimensionality based on item analysis and efa, poor items were identified and excluded from the slq (1 item), teq (1 item) and affective tcs (3 items). uni-dimensionality was confirmed on all the subscales. goodness-of-fit: the measurement models comparison of the goodness-of-fit (gfi) indices reported in table 1 indicated that the refined structures of the slq, affective tcs and teq, presented a satisfactory fit with the data (hair et al., 2006; kelloway, 1998). in terms of the gfi indices, the χ²/df ratio (2.45–4.85) for the refined measurement models fell in the 2–5 range that is indicative of acceptable fit (kelloway, 1998). as recommended by kelloway (1998), it is important not to rely solely on the χ²/df ratio, but to rather take into account a range of indices. the rmsea indeed suggested that the refined measurement models fit the obtained data adequately (0.04–0.08), as values < 0.08 represent good model fit. the p-value for test of close fit (rmsea < 0.05) varied between 0.06 and 0.51; the null hypothesis of close fit was therefore not rejected and the slq and tcs measurement models can be said to show close fit. however, the teq measurement model did not show close fit (0.01). the standardised root mean squared residual (rmr) values of 0.04–0.05 are indicative of good model fit (< 0.05). the gfi values for the teq and tcs measurement models are close to 1.00 (0.90–0.95), indicating that good fit has been achieved, as each scale has reached the > 0.90 level required to indicate good fit. however, for the slq measurement model, the gfi value of 0.82 fell marginally below the good fit level. table 1: goodness-of-fit indices obtained for the refined servant leadership questionnaire, affective team commitment survey and team effectiveness questionnaire measurement and structural models. the results of the incremental fit measures indicate that, when compared to a baseline model, all three refined measurement models achieved normed fit index (nfi), non-normed fit index (nnfi), comparative fit index (cfi), incremental fit index (ifi) and relative fit indices indices > 0.90, which represents good fit (hair et al., 2006; kelloway, 1998). these relative indices therefore appear to portray a positive picture of model fit. measurement models: factor loadings table 2 presents a summary of the factor loadings obtained for each of the refined measurement models. except for one item, the completely standardised factor loading for each item comprising the measurement model exceeded the > 0.50 level (hair et al., 2006). this means that the items, in general, appeared to significantly reflect the dimension they were designed to represent. table 2: refined measurement scales: factor loadings and reliability. item analysis table 2 provides the reliability scores for each of the refined measuring scales. high levels of reliability were found for all subscales (a > 0.70) (nunnally, 1978). satisfactory reliabilities were also found for the total slq (a = 0.97), total teq (a = 0.89) and the affective tcs (a = 0.76). goodness-of-fit indices for the structural model the lisrel program formally tests the null hypothesis of close fit (h0: rmsea ≤ 0.050). with the exceedance probability (0.032) being very small at the 0.050 level of significance, the close fit null hypothesis is rejected. the structural model therefore does not show close fit. however, after interpreting all other fit indices, the conclusion was reached that the structural model fitted the data reasonably well (see table 1). the relationship between servant leadership and team effectiveness the purpose of evaluating the structural model through sem is to determine whether the theoretical relationships specified at the conceptualisation stage are substantiated by the data. a positive relationship was found between servant leadership and team effectiveness (t = 7.73, p < 0.05) (see table 3). thus, hypothesis 1 was confirmed. table 3: the gamma and beta matrix of path coefficients for the structural model. the relationship between servant leadership and affective team commitment a positive relationship was found between servant leadership and affective team commitment (t = 3.75, p < 0.05). consequently, hypothesis 2 was supported (see table 3). the relationship between affective team commitment and team effectiveness the sem path between affective team commitment and team effectiveness was found to be insignificant and hypothesis 3 could thus be rejected (t = 1.42, p > 0.05) (see table 3). consequently, the relationship between servant leadership and team effectiveness was further analysed to investigate whether this relationship may be moderated by affective team commitment. the moderating role of affective team commitment standard multiple regression analysis showed that affective team commitment moderated the relationship between servant leadership and team effectiveness (t = 2.45, p < 0.05) (see table 4 and figure 2). both servant leadership (totsl) and the interaction effect variable (sl*tc) made a significant (p < 0.05) unique contribution in explaining team effectiveness (f = 98.305, p < 0.001). the regression analysis results also showed low possibility of multicollinearity (tolerance value > 0.10) (pallant, 2010) (see table 4). table 4: standard regression analysis: testing moderating effect. figure 2: the scatter plot of the interaction effect of affective team commitment on servant leadership and team effectiveness. ethical considerations top ↑ in terms of ethics, permission for the research was obtained from the institution’s research ethics committee, as well as the department of education. informed consent was sought from the participants before questionnaire completion and confidentiality of the information and data obtained was maintained. trustworthiness top ↑ reliability the reliability of each of the instruments used in the study was ensured through the use of the scale reliability analysis procedure available in spss (2011), as discussed in the ‘results’ section. the use of instruments that have been proven to be reliable in previous research ensured success in ascertaining instrument reliability. validity validity was ensured through the use of appropriate and standardised measuring instruments. the construct validity of the instruments was ensured through the use of standard instruments and subjecting the instruments to confirmatory factor analysis. discussion top ↑ the aim of the study was to validate a theoretical model explicating the structural relationships between servant leadership, affective team commitment and team effectiveness. the specific objectives were to develop an explanatory structural model that explicates the manner in which servant leadership and affective team commitment affect team effectiveness, to test the model’s fit with data and to evaluate the significance of the hypothesised paths in the model. the potential contribution of the study relates to the central role played by servant leadership in influencing team behaviour.with regard to the fit of the model, the gfi indices indicate that both the measurement and the structural models produced reasonable fit. the results imply that the items measured the dimensions (latent variables) as postulated, as well as supported the theoretical model underlying the postulated relationships between the latent variables. servant leadership was found to have a positive effect on team effectiveness. this finding is consistent with results obtained by hu and liden (2011), irving and longbotham (2007) and transcritti (2010), which reported a positive relationship between servant leadership and team effectiveness. however, this finding is not consistent with findings from dannhauser (2007) on a south african sample. the differences can be explained in terms of the nature of the samples. dannhauser’s (2007) study was conducted on revenue-generating teams in the automobile industry, whilst the sample used in the present study was in the service-oriented education sector. a positive relationship was found between servant leadership and affective team commitment. these findings are consistent with the findings reported by dannhauser (2007). the dannhauser study used the three-component model of commitment (i.e. affective, normative and continuance), although the construct was collapsed to two factors in response to the exploratory factor analyses output for the team commitment scales used in the study. according to the findings of the present study, there is no significant relationship between affective team commitment and team effectiveness. this contradicts the previous findings on the positive relationship between the two constructs (hammond, 2008; salas, goodwin & burke, 2008). affective team commitment might not have a direct influence on team effectiveness, but rather an indirect effect through moderators such as organisational trust, justice and organisational citizenship behaviour. the question also invariably arises as to the extent to which this result is caused by the inability to successfully operationalise the latent variable of team effectiveness. although the present study failed to confirm a mediating effect of affective team commitment on the relationship between servant leadership and team effectiveness, affective team commitment has been found to be a significant moderating variable of this relationship. hence, the ability of a servant leader to purposefully develop positive feelings of nurturance, service and employee empowerment should be powerful enough to appeal to the employees’ feelings of identification with the team through enhanced affective team commitment in order to positively influence team effectiveness. in other words, the servant leader should relate with the employees in a way that enhances employees’ attachment with the team for effective team functioning to occur (hammond, 2008; ostren, 2006). limitations and suggestions for future research the use of the english language as the mode of communication posed a challenge, as some of the schools refused to participate because the language of the questionnaire went against their official language policy. although the procedures involved in the translation of standard research instruments are cumbersome, future studies face the challenge of having to address the use of the participants’ mother language in data collection.most of the participants were drawn from the african and coloured ethnic groups (> 80%) and only a small proportion was white, which reduced the generalisability of the findings. the sample consisted only of teachers and so could be seen as being rather homogenous; therefore, more heterogeneous demographics should be represented in samples used in future studies. collecting research data at a single point in time rather than long-term and continued measurement (e.g. longitudinally over a period of time) may have exacerbated same-source or common method biases. podsakoff and mackenzie (1994) have posited that a longitudinal design could reduce this potential influence. they stated two further advantages that a longitudinal study would have over cross-sectional studies such as the one reported in this study. these include the following: • it would permit better assessment of the causal priority of servant leadership, affective team commitment, and team effectiveness. • it would allow examination of the longer-term effects of servant leadership and affective team commitment on team effectiveness. future research should consider the possibility of expanding the theoretical model by formally incorporating additional latent variables, such as cultural experiences, emotional intelligence, organisational justice, trust, empowerment and organisational citizenship behaviour, in an attempt to explain additional variance in team effectiveness. furthermore, greater psychometric refining of the measuring instruments used in this study is required. the study was conducted in an educational setting which is usually service oriented, whilst business settings are revenue generating. future studies should therefore examine whether service-oriented and revenue teams are comparable. the treatment of each school as comprising a team had its own weakness. in larger schools, between 30 and 75 teachers may comprise various phases (foundation phase, intermediate phase and senior phase). the way these sub-teams function may be different from how the broader school team works; foundation phase teachers might work together much more efficiently than those in the intermediate phase. furthermore, future studies should also consider using larger sample sizes to ensure that the eventual sample size is not smaller than 200, which is the minimum sample size recommended when using sem for testing hypothesised models. managerial implications the current study reported positive relationships between servant leadership and affective team commitment, as well as team effectiveness. it was also found that affective team commitment is a significant moderator of the relationship between servant leadership and team effectiveness. on the basis of these results, management in organisations should focus on increasing team effectiveness through the development of empowering and people-oriented leadership styles such as servant leadership. servant leadership is one of the value-based leadership styles that foster employee development and has a significant influence on team effectiveness when employees feel emotionally committed to their work teams. conclusion servant leadership incorporates the ideals of empowerment, team building, participatory management and the service ethic necessary for the promotion of team commitment and team effectiveness. this research has shown that the use of servant leadership and affective commitment has important implications for teambuilding interventions that can be used to assist work teams to become more effective. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions b.m. (stellenbosch university) was the project leader responsible for the data collection, statistical analyses and write-up of the article, whilst a.s.e. (stellenbosch university) contributed to the refinement of the measures, as well as the write-up of the article. references top ↑ afolabi, o.a., adesina, a., & aigbedion, a. (2009). influence of team leadership and team commitment on teamwork and conscientiousness. journal of social sciences, 21(3), 211–216.allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organisation. journal of occupational psychology, 63(1), 1–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.x arriaga, x.b., & agnew, c.r. (2001). being committed: affective, cognitive, and conative components of relationship commitment. personality and social psychology bulletin, 27, 1190–1203. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167201279011 bagraim, j.j. (2003). the nature and measurement of multiple commitment foci amongst south african knowledge workers. management dynamics, 12(2), 13–23. barbuto, j.e., & wheeler, d.w. (2006). scale development and construct clarification of servant leadership. group and organisational management, 31(3), 300–326. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1059601106287091 becker, t.e., & billings, r.s. (1993). profiles of commitment: an empirical test. journal of organisational behaviour, 14(2), 177–190. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.4030140207 bennet, h., & durkin, m. (2000). the effects of organisational change on employee psychological attachment. journal of managerial psychology, 15(2), 126–148. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940010310328 bishop, j.w., scott, k.d., goldsby, m.g., & cropanzano, r. (2005). a construct validity study of commitment and perceived support variables. a multifoci approach across different team environments. group & organisation management, 30(2), 153–180. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1059601103255772 boshoff, a.b., van wyk, r., hoole, c., & owen, j.h. (2002). the prediction of intention to quit by means of biographic variables, work commitment, role strain and psychological climate. management dynamics, 11(4), 14–28. bowman, r.f. (2005). teacher as servant leader. clearing house, 78(6), 257–259. http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/tchs.78.6.257-260 chen, g., kirkman, bl., kanfer, r., allen, d., & rosen, b. (2007). a multilevel study of leadership, empowerment, and performance in teams. journal of applied psychology, 92(2), 331–346. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.2.331, pmid:17371082 dannhauser, z. (2007). relationship between servant leadership, follower trust, team commitment and unit effectiveness. doctoral dissertation. stellenbosch: university of stellenbosch. diamantopoulos, a., & siguaw, j.a. (2000). introducing lisrel. london: sage. dufour, r. (2001). in the right context. journal of staff development, 22(1), 14–17. eisenbeiss, s.a., van knippenberg, d., & boerner, s. (2008). transformational leadership and team innovation: integrating team climate principles. journal of applied psychology, 93(6), 1438–1446. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0012716, pmid:19025260 ferreira, n. (2012). hardiness in relation to organisational commitment in the human resource management field. sa journal of human resource management, 10(2), 1–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.418 forsyth, d.r. (2010). group dynamics. (5th edn.). wadsworth: cengage learning. glassop, l. (2002). the organisational benefits of teams. human relations, 55(2), 225–249. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0018726702055002184 gupta, v.k., huang, r., & niranjan, s. (2010). a longitudinal examination of the relationship between team leadership and performance. journal of leadership & organisational studies, 17(4), 335–350. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1548051809359184 hackman, j.r. (2002). leading teams: setting the stage for great performances. boston: harvard business school press. hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., anderson, r.e., & tatham, r.l. (2006). multivariate data analysis. (6th edn). upper saddle river: prentice hall. hamilton, b.h., nickerson, j.a., & owan, h. (2003). team incentives and worker heterogeneity: an empirical analysis of the impact of teams on productivity and participation. the journal of political economy, 111(3), 465–497. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/374182 hammond, h.r. (2008). the antecedents of affective commitment to the team and their impact on team effectiveness. unpublished doctoral thesis, tui university, cyprus, california. hu, j., & liden, r.c. (2011). antecedents of team potency and team effectiveness: an examination of goal and process clarity and servant leadership. journal of applied psychology, 96(4), 851–862. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0022465, pmid:21319877 irving, j.a., & longbotham, g.j. (2007). team effectiveness and six essential servant leadership themes: a regression model based on items in the organizational leadership assessment. international journal of leadership studies, 2(2), 98–113. johnson, d.w., & johnson, f.p. (2006). joining together: group theory and group skills. (9th edn.). new york: pearson international. jöreskog, k.g., & sörbom, d. (2006). interactive lisrel 8.80. chicago: scientific software international. kelloway, e.k. (1998). using lisrel for structural equation modelling: a researcher’s guide. thousand oaks: sage. pmid:9520604 kuo, c.c. (2004). research on impacts of team leadership on team effectiveness. journal of american academy of business, 5(1), 266–277. larson, c.e., & lafasto, f.m.j. (2001). the team effectiveness questionnaire. in p.g. northouse (ed.), leadership: theory and practice. (2nd edn.). (p. 184). thousand oaks: sage. morgeson, f.p., derue, d.s., & karam, e.p. (2010). leadership in teams: a functional approach to understanding leadership structures and processes. journal of management, 36(1), 5–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206309347376 nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory. new york: mcgraw-hill. oehley, a. (2007). the development and evaluation of a partial talent management competence model. masters thesis. stellenbosch: university of stellenbosch. ostrem, l.m. (2006). servant leadership and work-related outcomes: a multilevel model. phd thesis. lincoln: university of nebraska. pallant, j. (2010). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using spss. (4th edn.). london: mcgraw-hill. piccoli, g., powell, a., & ives, b. (2004). virtual teams: team control structure, work processes, and team effectiveness. information technology & people, 17(4), 359–379. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09593840410570258 pina, m., martinez, a., & martinez, l. (2008). teams in organizations: a review on team effectiveness. team performance management, 14(1/2), 7–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13527590810860177 podsakoff, p.m., & mackenzie, s.b. (1994). an examination of the psychometric properties and nomological validity of some revised and reduced ‘substitutes for leadership’ scales. journal of applied psychology, 79(5), 702–713. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.79.5.702 ross, t.m., jones, e.c., & adams, s.g. (2008). can team effectiveness be predicted? team perfomance management, 14(5/6), 248–268. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13527590810898518 salas, e., goodwin, g.f., & burke, c.s. (2008). team effectiveness in complex organisations: cross-disciplinary perspectives and approaches. mahwah: lawrence erlbaum. schaubroeck, j., lam, s.s.k., & cha, s.e. (2007). embracing transformational leadership: team values and the impact of leader behaviour on team performance. journal of applied psychology, 92, 1020–1030. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.4.1020, pmid:17638462 schlechter, a.f., & strauss, j.j. (2008). leader emotional intelligence, transformational leadership, trust and team commitment: testing a model within a team context. south african journal of industrial psychology, 34(1), 42–53. sendjaya, s., & sarros, j.c. (2002). servant leadership: its origin, development, and application in organisations. journal of leadership & organisational studies, 9(2), 57–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/107179190200900205 sendjaya, s., sarros, j.c., & santora, j.c. (2008). defining and measuring servant leadership behaviour in organisations. journal of management studies, 45(2), 402–424. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2007.00761.x sheng, c., & tian, y. (2010). relationships among teamwork behaviour, trust, perceived team support, and team commitment. social behaviour and personality, 38(10), 1297–1306. http://dx.doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2010.38.10.1297 spears, l.c. (2010). the character and servant leadership: ten characteristics of effective, caring leaders. journal of virtues & leadership, 1(1), 25–30. spss 20.0 for windows [computer software] (2011). chicago: scientific software international. taylor, t., martin, b.n., hutchinson, s., & jinks, m. (2007). examination of leadership practices of principals identified as servant leaders. international journal of leadership in education, 10(4), 401–419. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13603120701408262 transcritti, f.g. (2010). the relationship between servant leadership and team effectiveness of deacon ministries in southern baptist churches. unpublished phd thesis. the southern baptist theological seminary, louisville, kentucky. turan, s. (2002). organisational climate and organisational commitment: a study of human interactions in turkish public schools. educational planning, 14(2), 20–30. van dierendonck, d. (2011). servant leadership: a review and synthesis. journal of management, 37(4), 1228–1261. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206310380462 wasti, a.s. (2003). organisational commitment, turnover intentions and the influence of cultural values. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 76, 303–321. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317903769647193 zhu, w., may, d.r., & avolio, b.j. (2004). the impact of ethical leadership behaviour on employee outcomes: the roles of psychological empowerment and authenticity. journal of leadership & organisational studies, 11(1), 16–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/107179190401100104 9vanzyl1.qxd various authors stated through their discourses, their belief that innovation is the key to organisational survival and growth (drucker, 1955; handy, 1996; hivner, hopkins & hopkins, 2003; kuczmarski, 1996; mcgivern & tvorik, 1997; mohamed, 2002; tucker, 2003). however, few authors have attempted to build an integrated conceptual framework of the building blocks of innovation, e.g. authors such as kuczmarski (1996) admitted that many executives today, similar to him twenty years ago, have not yet figured out how to create an environment that breeds innovation. in support of these notions, leaders and/or managers required a common point of reference in the shape of a conceptual multi-dimensional framework that dealt with the complex nature of innovation, which may be used and built upon in practice and research (cooper, 1998). subsequently, there is a need for the development of an integrated conceptual framework that pinpoints the building blocks of innovation to ensure that innovation, as a business practice, is applied and implemented. objectives of the study the primary research objective of this two-part study is to compare a theoretical framework based on a current literature review of innovation building blocks with the soe managers’ espoused theory on the building blocks of innovation. the primary objective of the literature review in the current article (part one) will therefore be to establish a generic theoretical framework on the building blocks of innovation within organisations. the secondary objectives will be focused on: 1) approaches to innovation within organisations; 2) the barriers to innovation; and 3) the enablers of innovation. the research question and objectives were addressed by conducting a comprehensive, but not an all-inclusive literature review (refer to figure 1). results the results of the literature review, as reflected by international literature, will be presented as follows: � approaches to innovation � inhibitors of innovation � enablers of innovation figure 1: diagrammatical presentation of the sequence of the literature research questions approaches to innovation according to the literat ure review, approaches of large organisations towards innovation is influenced by important aspects, such as the macro economic setting of innovation focusing on the cycles of innovation inclusive of the well-known s-curve and adoption curve of innovation introduced by rogers (1995), the classification and types of innovation and the drivers of innovation. all of these form the contextual setting of innovation within the organisation. the economic setting of innovation: the interrelatedness between organisations and their market position is reflected in betsi van zyl gert roodt johan coetsee department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract this article (part one of a two-part study) presents a literature review aimed at establishing a theoretical framework on the innovation building blocks in a state-owned enterprise (soe). part two of the study will focus on soe managers’ espoused theory on the building blocks of innovation. the findings of the literature (theoretical) review, suggested that the current theoretical framework on innovation consisted of five important building blocks, namely contextual setting; strategic enablers; business enablers; foundational enablers; and human resources; each with its own categories and sub-categories. the study also identified barriers to innovation. opsomming hierdie artikel (deel een van ’n tweedelige studie) bied ’n literatuuroorsig aan wat die daarstelling van ’n teoretiese raamwerk van die innoveringsboublokke in ’n staatsbeheerde onderneming (sbo) ten doel het. deel twee van die studie sal op sbo bestuurders se voorgestane teorie oor innoveringsboublokke fokus. die bevindinge van die literatuuroorsig (teoretiese oorsig) dui daarop dat die huidige teoretiese raamwerk van innovering uit vyf belangrike boublokke bestaan, naamlik ’n kontekstuele omgewing; strategiese bemagtigers; besigheidsbemagtigers; grondslagbemagtigers; en menslike hulpbronne; elkeen met sy eie kategorieë en subkategorieë. die studie het ook innoveringshindernisse identifiseer. building blocks of innovation within a state-owned enterprise (part one) requests for copies should be addressed to: g roodt, gertr@uj.ac.za 69 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (2), 69-78 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (2), 69-78 the approach that organisations take towards innovation. the economic patterns of innovation give to a large extent, an indication of the age of an industry, as innovation is linked to macro-economic patterns and fluctuation. innovations tend to cluster in time and space, since there is often a strong interdependency among them as explained by drejer (2002). economists described the clustering or patterns as cycles or waves (“kondratiev cycles”). each wave represents a diffusion phase of innovations that could create entirely new industrial sectors. according to a comprehensive longitudinal study by freeman and associates (1982) innovation patterns are based on short-wave patterns of about seven years in length. each successive wave of innovation represents a linear extension of the previous pattern, as well as being a source of cumulating disruption. each wave contains both incremental (linear) and radical (rupture) innovation described in a boom and bust manner (economist, 1999; freeman, 1982). the freeman-study (1982) extended the kondratiev long-wave theory to recognise two other factors in the flux of innovations, namely institutional variables and technological variables. this study also noted that there tends to be a turn from product innovation to process innovation during the upswing of the economic cycle as larger volumes and lower costs are sought. at the other extreme are industries that are in a process of decline or stagnation with very little or no research and development activities and where much of the technical innovation that does take place comes from outside, from the suppliers of machinery, equipment and material. economically, the diffusion of innovation is very important. freeman (1982) explained that the diffusion process of innovation is not simple carbon-copy replication, but frequently involves a string of further innovations. the diffusion theory of earlier days is linking up with the product-cycle and industrycycle theories of economists (freeman, 1982). schumpeter (freeman, 1982) and his belief that the innovation diffusion process is inherently an uneven one has been confirmed by product life-cycle theory and international trade theory because first a few and then many organisations follow in the wake of successful pioneers. there is a hesitant start; fast growth and subsequent saturation followed by decline or stagnation, also referred to as the innovation adoption curve. the innovation adoption cur ve: the innovation adoption curve is described as the slowness with which an idea moves through the organisation and is picked up by the market. rogers (1995) differentiated amongst adopters of innovations based on the time duration it takes them to adopt innovations. his various categories reflect the idea that certain individuals are more open to adaptation (change) than others. although, the adoption process of innovation is linked with the diffusion process referred to earlier as described by freeman (1982). rogers (1995) differentiated the adoption process from the diffusion process. the adoption process pertains to an individual, including rejection. rejection is not to be confused from discontinuance. discontinuance is a rejection that occurs after adoption of the innovation (rogers, 1995). the diffusion process occurs within society, as a group process. the most striking feature of diffusion theory is that, for most members of a social system; the innovation-decision depends heavily on the innovationdecisions of the other members of the system. this movement is influenced by the market power that the organisation wields and is strongly linked to the well-known s-cur ve phenomenon. in other words the successful spread of an innovation follows an sshaped diffusion curve (brooking, 1997; jones & kirby, 2002; rogers, 1995). jones and kirby (2002) referred to it as the “legacy drag” (p.44). the s-cur ve model offers an explanation of organisational growth, maturity, and progress over time. products, services, processes, systems, structures, and business models from the simplest to the most complex – go through three basic phases of growth and change before they must either leap to a new level of sophistication and complexity or die, hence the focus on breakthrough change and continuous change (abraham & knight, 2001). drejer (2002) explained the s-curve phenomenon from a technology approach to innovation. he divided the life cycle of a product/process into four elements; technological discontinuity, era of ferment, dominant design, and era of incremental improvement. a technological discontinuit y represents a dramatic break with existing practice – and hence knowledge – in an industry. disruptive changes, e.g. in the form of a technological discontinuity are the foundation of exnovation. exnovation or creative destruction refers to the removal of existing practices so that they can be replaced with new practices (clark & staunton, 1990; drejer, 2002). a distinction can be made between creative destruction and technology exploitation (drejer, 2002). rogers (1995) identified two types of discontinuance, namely disenchantment discontinuance and replacement discontinuance. disenchantment discontinuance is a decision to reject an idea as a result of dissatisfaction with its performance. replacement discontinuance is the decision to reject an idea in order to adopt a better idea. both are intangibly part of innovation practices. the drivers of innovation: the drivers of innovation provide the stimulus to move away from the status quo. environmental factors, as drivers of innovation that affect the business environment, are deregulation, legislation, especially in regulated industries, the blurring of industries, globalisation of markets, continuous change and the growing importance of sustainability (janszen, 2000; jones & kirby, 2002). competition, as a driver of innovation, is proposed as a driving force of innovation dynamics, such as the internationalisation of competition. a need exists for a dynamic view of organisational strateg y in terms of both the external product-market perspective and internal competence perspective (janszen, 2000; jones & kirby, 2002; pyka & küppers, 2002). drejer (2002, p.4) referred to this as “hyper-competition”, a concept coined by d’aveni in 1994, which he (drejer) quoted. technology is proposed as one of the main drivers of innovation, such as the world wide web and e-business where new technology has been utilised as a business model (janszen, 2000). classification of innovation: the need for organisations to understand the differences in the classification and nature of innovations spring from the fact that each innovation would require different resources, core competencies and management techniques in order for that innovation to add true value as described by darroch and mcnaughton (2002). typically, innovation is classified according to the percentage change that the innovation engenders, e.g. the degree of strategic and structural change that the organisation must accommodate with regard to the innovation, namely radical or incremental (clark & staunton, 1990; cooper, 1998). radical innovations refer to product and processes that result from advances in knowledge, whereas incremental innovation refers to the continual process of improvement of techniques (mole & elliot, 1987). literature shows that innovations are blended in the sense of having both radical and incremental elements. there are cycles of “altering” (radical) and “entrenching” (incremental) innovation (clark & staunton, 1990, p.85) linked to the economic patterns of innovation. abernathy (in urabe et al., 1988) made a distinction between two patterns of innovation, namely radical product innovation focusing on the maximisation of product performance; and incremental process innovation focusing on the improvement of the production process for the cost minimisation and increase of productivity and quality level, which form the link between radical and incremental innovation. he agreed that the mode of innovation shifts from radical to incremental as an industry van zyl, roodt, coetsee70 matures. as a dominant product design is established and standardised, process innovation becomes the focus because cost and productivity become much more important as the focus of competitive strategy. product innovations tend to decrease in relative importance in the mature stage of an organisation (christensen & raynor, 2003; grülke, 2001; urabe et al., 1988). the types of innovation: the types of innovation cited mostly in literature encompass technology, administrative and process innovation: it is believed that technological innovation, because of its uncertainty, bears a large element of risk (andriopoulos & lowe, 2000; itami, 1988). urabe et al. (1988) stated that technological innovation, usually linked to radical innovation, can not be realised without being accompanied by some kind of managerial innovation (also described as administrative innovation). administrative innovation is described as a software innovation such as a new approach, a new way, a new system, or a new technique towards strategy, marketing, personnel development, labour problems and management systems. urabe et al. (1988) believed that incremental process innovation owes more to administrative innovation than to technological innovation. he cited the “kanban” system (jit) production system as an example (urabe et al., 1988, p. 6). the distinction between technological and administrative innovation is based upon the change that occurs in the operational core of the organisation. technological innovation influences output processes and administrative innovations focus on the social structure of the organisation, such as policies, and allocation of resources as described by cooper (1998). process innovation refers to the combination of a process view of the organisation with the adoption of innovation with regard to key processes (davenport, 1993). this enables the organisation to achieve reductions in cost or time and improvements in quality, flexibility, and/or service levels. process innovation includes new work strategies, e.g. low-cost producer strategies, process design activit y and the implementation of change in all its complex technological, human and organisational dimensions. finance is a powerful driver of process innovation as these initiatives could be linked to a need to improve financial performance. process innovation can be distinguished from process improvement, which seeks a lower level of change, meaning slightly increased efficiency or effectiveness (davenport, 1993; zhuang, williamson & carter, 1999). process innovation is typically much more top down, requiring strong direction from senior management. because large organisational structures do not reflect their cross-functional processes, only those in positions overlooking multiple functions may be able to see opportunities for innovation (davenport, 1993). the orientation to innovation can be presented visually as in figure 2. figure 2: contextual environment and approaches to innovation inhibitors of innovation according to the literat ure there are generally accepted symptoms and causes of disabilities pertaining to innovation. these disabilities will be presented below: rigid strategic planning: the leadership, vision, strategic focus, valued competencies, structures, policies, and rewards that were critical in building an organisation’s growth and competitive advantage during one period can become its achilles heel as technological and market conditions change over time. in order to overcome these patterns of success followed by failure and of innovation followed by inertia, senior executives and managers must learn to lead in current markets while innovating for future markets. leadership should therefore emphasize a current and a future perspective. culture: the flexible internal structures, competencies and cultures required to foster innovation for future success are often seen as a threat to the organisation’s current rigid or routine priorities, practices and successes. creative processes have an innate interactiveness; they require a freedom of action that cannot adhere to rigid, routinised or overly controlled environments (quinn et al., 1997). leadership: because innovation projects contain a risk element they are usually met with resistance and opposition and would therefore need the support from leaders/top management. clear goals set by leaders would facilitate creativity and innovation. a short-term view on profits increases intolerance for innovation and hampers any creative jobs (andriopoulos, 2001; kono, 1988; tucker, 2002). intolerance: it is manifested in the organisation as high conformity, punishing norms, fear of getting it wrong, losing face, negative thinking and limiting innovation only to a specific department such as research and development (andriopoulos, 2001; gurteen, 1998; kilroy, 1999; tucker, 2002). strategic gridlock: this is a situation whereby an organisation goes overboard with alliances and networks, leaving no partners when the need arises. although it might not seem like a hindrance to many of these partnerships, it also hinders innovation as the lack of time and overburdening of employees do. emphasis on productivity and downsizing, which leads to more pressure on employees to work harder, is not conducive to creativity and innovation in an organisation (arias, 1995; tucker, 2002). tunnel vision: gurteen (1998, p. 10) referred to “voj” (voice of judgement) in people’s heads. this mechanism causes people to judge and criticise immediately. voj forms a creative strait-jacket (buchen, 2003) where discussion, as opposed to dialogue, is regarded as detrimental to innovation. discussions are rather focused on argument. it is about forcing agreement or compromise – in short, confrontation. it has nothing to do with creativity or the exploration of possibilities (gurteen, 1998). structural inhibitors: monopolies with bureaucratic structures normally flourish in overly protected environments as they do not foster any visible creative and innovative capabilities that would facilitate competitive positioning (borins, 2002). borins indicated that organisational sociologists regard innovation in soes as an oxymoron. enablers of innovation innovation is an ancient art, maybe as old as 500 000 years, but managing innovation is a relatively young management technique. enablers of innovation within an organisation form the vehicle for that organisation to harness its innovativeness. brodtrick (1999) described innovativeness as application of creativity through an established process that results in innovation. the literature study produced the following enablers as presented below: building blocks of innovation i 71 strategy: innovation at a strategic level encompasses strateg y, vision, mission and funding. strateg y, as an enabler of innovation, encompasses t wo levels: the first level deals with the strateg y and strategic intent of the organisation and the flexibilit y thereof. strategic flexibilit y is the abilit y to adapt quickly and efficiently to changing environmental factors. this involves agilit y, versatilit y and resilience (arias, 1995). the origin of creativit y and innovation lies in a clear strateg y, a shared vision and mission, which are focused on the future (andriopoulos, 2001; davenport, 1993; johnson, 2000; kono, 1988). employees should understand the vision and mission (which support creativit y and innovation) and the gap bet ween the current situation and the proposed vision and mission to be able to act creatively and innovatively. buchen (2003) stated that organisations that include innovation in their mission statements are holistically proactive and generate innovations that are future-oriented. in addition, organisational leaders should know how to effectively match the financial policy of the organisation with a particular phase of an innovation (christensen & raynor, 2003; kono, 1988). the second level deals with the strateg y in terms of innovation per se and is described as an innovation strateg y that promotes the development and promotion of new products and/or services. an innovation strateg y guides and promotes the development and implementation of new products and services. it should be a directive and stabilising aid for innovative endeavours as described by martins and terblanche (2003). leadership: strategy should be visionary and is cited as an important aspect of progressive leadership that should stimulate creativity and innovation (christensen & raynor, 2003; clark & staunton, 1990). visioning ability refers to having a clear-cut vision for the organisation; a crucial ability when managing creative people (andriopoulos, 2001; uecke, 2002). this critical ability centres on strategic choices and is the start of a long-term probing into the future. visioning is also an anticipation of strategic issues where discontinuities can emerge, which will impact on the structural architecture of the organisation (clark & staunton, 1990). the most important requirement for effective visioning is a climate for intellectually open, creative thinking (davenport, 1993). leaders should stimulate creativity for two reasons, namely to prevent obsolescence and to increase productivity. the role of leaders is therefore important to the level at which innovative practices will occur in organisations. the visioning abilit y of leaders, their leadership st yle, development and habits, such as reading, e.g. business books, is especially important (cooper, 1998). tucker (2002) made the statement that executive leadership within an organisation should go on a “reading diet” (p. 108). according to quinn, et al. (1997) observations have shown that, apart from reading, innovative people are well-informed and have what they called a “culch bag” approach (p. 142). this ‘culch bag’ consists of ideas, clippings, notes, observations and devices. when the need arises or an idea strikes, this culch bag is used to form new constructs that change past stasis. this is important in view of the argument put forward by cottam, ensor and band (2001) where they indicated that senior management did not have the right skills to encourage or foster innovation. the appropriate leadership model for creativity and innovation is democratic, accessible and participatory (andriopoulos, 2001; uecke, 2002). leaders cannot force creative thought, but they can recognise and value it when it emerges, by implementing the idea (slywotzky & wise, 2003). consequently, leaders can promote creativity and innovation by employing business processes that create an internal work environment that stimulates the workforce to be more creative and innovative (ahmed, 1998, martins & terblanche, 2003). culture: organisational culture forms the baseline that facilitates a shared system of meanings and enhances corporate communication and mutual understanding (martins & terblanche, 2003; veldsman, 2002). some literature dealing with culture from an innovation angle has shown that there is little agreement on the type of organisational culture needed to improve creativity and innovation. there also seems to be a paradox in the sense that organisational culture can stimulate or hinder creativity and innovation (martins & terblanche, 2003). however, there is substantial literat ure indicating that organisational culture seems to be a critical contributing factor regarding the degree to which creativity and innovation are stimulated (ahmed, 1998; andriopoulos, 2001; martins & terblance, 2003; thomson, 1998). tucker (2002) emphasised an innovation-adept culture is the building block that forms the basis of future innovation practices. andriopoulos (2001) indicated that organisations need to develop innovative and supportive cultures, which he translated by using words, such as divergent, learning, empowering and caring. clark and staunton (1990) referred to a “thinking corporate culture”. they indicated that innovativeness would be enhanced by what they call “frontend intellectual loading” (p. 120). this means that corporate cult ure provides the necessary language (cognitive and affective) infrastruct ure for the innovation process. the assumptions of the work force in the organisation on how to act and behave within the cultural environment will have an impact on the degree of creativity and innovation in the organisation through socialisation processes. individuals will, in accordance with shared norms, make assumptions about whether creative and innovative behaviour forms part of the way in which the organisation operates (martins & terblanche, 2003). ahmed (1998) cited studies by other researchers that indicated a definite link between culture and innovativeness. they defined four generic culture types, namely market culture, adhocracy culture, clan culture and hierarchical culture. these studies have shown that certain culture types are more able to enhance innovativeness such as the market and adhocracy types that are less rigid, but more organic, fluid, flexible and responsive. janszen (2000) and grülke (2001) both believed that an entrepreneurial culture is needed for innovation to take place within an organisation. grülke (2001) also indicated that it is extremely difficult to recreate the kind of entrepreneurial culture experienced in the first half of a business cycle when the efficiency culture of the second half of the business cycle is the norm. this is why mature organisations experience difficulties with the entrepreneurial approach. pech (2001) believed that a culture of individualism and leadership results in new ways of doing things, such as new products and services. he refers to an open culture espousing loyalty, trust, and helpfulness. it is an atmosphere of co-opetition, (a seemingly paradoxical combination of co-operation and competition). several authors (arad, hanson & schneider, 1997; martins & terblance, 2003) indicated that an organisational culture that supports a continuous learning orientation should encourage creativity and innovation. a learning culture can be created and maintained by focusing on being inquisitive, by encouraging personnel to talk to one another (e.g. to clients within and outside the organisation to learn from them), by keeping knowledge and skills up to date and by learning creative thinking skills. amabile (1988) and martins and terblanche (2003) explained the relationship between organisational culture and creativity and innovation in terms of the external environment where economy and competitiveness encourage continual changes in products, technology and customer preferences. they referred to the innovation strategy that reflects the reaction of the organisation to critical incidents inside and outside the organisation, as well as managers' values and beliefs (e.g. free exchange of information, open questioning, support for change, diversity of beliefs). they also referred to the flexible structures of organisations that are characterised by decentralisation, shared decision-making, low to moderate use of formal rules and van zyl, roodt, coetsee72 regulations, broadly defined job responsibilities and a flexible authority structure with fewer levels in the hierarchy. they also discussed technology, which includes knowledge of individuals and availability of facilities, such as access to the internet to support the creative and innovative process. climate: culture is a reflection of climate, but operates at a deeper level (ahmed, 1998; buckler, 1996; cooper, 1998). juniper (1996) referred to climate as the mental health of the organisation. andriopoulos (2001) referred to climate as the mood or atmosphere existing in an organisation. mcadam and mcclelland (2002) used amabile’s theory on individual creativity to indicate that any person can be creative. it is the work environment that influences the level and frequency of this creativity. a perpetually challenging climate, supported by appropriate values, should be encouraged where people can discuss and share their ideas freely and where assumptions can be questioned in a positive manner (amabile, 1998; andriopoulos & lowe, 2000; andriopoulos 2001; kono, 1988; mcadam & mcclelland, 2002). ahmed (1998) quoted scheider who defined four dimensions of climate, namely the nature of interpersonal relationships; the nat ure of hierarchy; the nature of work and the focus of support and rewards all of which impact on innovation and the adoption thereof in a systemic manner. values: uecke (2002) indicated that core values are sub-factors that support creativity. the following values were cited by authors as important for innovation, namely trust is needed to form a solid basis for teamwork (andriopoulos, 2001; uecke, 2002) with commitment to encourage innovation and acceptance of risks that go hand in hand with innovation (gratton, 2000); support for change and a positive attitude towards change (arad et al., 1997; johnson, 1996; martins & terblanche, 2003); tolerance of conflict, e.g. between different ideas and handling that conflict constructively (mumford, whetzel & reiter-palman, 1997; martins & terblanche, 2003). the values cited above, hint towards the required business processes that would include values in the daily operations of the organisation and would also manage the fuzzy front end of innovation as described by kim and wilemon (2002). these processes will be presented in more detail. management practices: organisations that wish to be innovative need forward-looking management practices, such as strategic judgment and evaluation (buchen, 2003; wu, chiang & jiang, 2002). cooper (1998) believed that innovation is not a one-time event. peters and waterman (1982) published common denominators that fostered creativity and innovation. their analysis showed that the successful companies have built-in management mechanisms that stimulate new ideas and the pursuit of those ideas by intrapreneurs (in-house entrepreneurs). the innovation paradox is that the unpredictability with regard to innovation needs a stable disciplined management system and process to nurture the growth and development of unplanned opportunities. on the other hand, management practices should also encourage creative tension. creative tension refers to the notion of deliberately stimulating competition. it is believed that without challenge there are not enough stimuli to elicit creative responses (peters & waterman, 1982; senge, 1990). the management system should be a combination of leadership skills and management processes and should include the following areas: exploration, which is a search for undisclosed needs; potential new markets; customer segments; business model adaptations; experimentation, which may include pilot projects; attempts to test potential opportunities for viability; learn what would be needed to make it successful; development where resources are committed to develop or refine the new products and/or services and integration where the new product is fully commercialised (buchen, 2003; cooper, 1998; wu, chiang & jiang, 2002). business processes and systems: cooper (1998) indicated that organisational processes and procedures are important to the adoption of innovation and is supported by andriopoulos (2001) who referred to systems within an organisation as a determinant of organisational creativity. amabile and gryskiewicz (1997), quoted by uecke (2002), mentioned amongst others factors such as ideas management system, reward system, and performance management. these and other identified practices/processes and systems are: � recruitment and staff process: knowledge of kirton’s adaption-innovation (kai) theory would facilitate the creation of the right balance between adaptor and innovator type of persons, who are both important to different stages within the innovation process (andriopoulos, 2001; mcadam & mcclelland, 2002, johnson, 2001). � diversity management process: diversity management is essential to optimise the creativity of a heterogeneous group (mcadam & mcclelland, 2002; tucker, 2002). justesen (2001) described vicious circles of diversity (miscommunication, intergroup anxiety and goal incongruence) that impede innovation and virtuous circles of diversity (absorptive capacit y, requisite variet y, net work variet y, creative destruction, and enhanced problem-solving skills) that advance innovation. � reward system: andriopoulos (2001) discussed generous recognition of creative work and active encouragement, which translates into a reward and recognition system. he and other authors linked the rewards system to motivation. intrinsic motivation is a key driver of creativity. intrinsically motivated employees should be identified and assigned jobs involving creativity to enhance the emergence of new ideas (ahmed, 1998; kono, 1988; mcadam & mccelland, 2002; uecke, 2002). � performance management process: successful innovative organisations evaluate on four levels according to quinn et al. (1997). these four levels are individual performance (peers), customer performance (customers), collaborative performance (group members/customers) and organisation performance (value-add measures). kaplan and norton (2004) indicated that innovative processes have a longer-term focus and measurement tools should reflect that. � knowledge management process: “knowledge management is an emerging set of organisational design and operational principles, processes, organisational structures, applications and technologies that help knowledge workers dramatically leverage their creativity and ability to deliver business value” (gurteen, 1998, p.6). knowledge is regarded as a source of competitive advantage and therefore a corporate asset (darroch & mcnaughton, 2002; ferrari & toledo, 2004). the american productivity and quality center (apqc) undertook a study called using knowledge management to drive innovation. the results of the study showed that effective knowledge management does create successful innovation. the study also highlighted functions that are supportive and enabling to both knowledge management and innovation, such as an effective information technology system, communities of practice (cross-disciplinary knowledge), culture change, human resource practices, infrastructure and resources (strategic decision, 2004). however, whilst agreeing with the results of studies as mentioned above, darroch and mcnaughton (2002) indicated that the relationship between knowledge management and innovation is not well understood. taking an idea (creativity) and turning it into action (innovation) requires the application of existing knowledge and the development of appropriate new knowledge (gurteen, 1998). from that viewpoint knowledge management is seen as the basis for intellectual capital through innovation capital. � change management process: innovation is closely related to organisational change. ahmed (1998) argued that innovation building blocks of innovation i 73 is the engine of change, and that innovative changes are very sensitive to context. according to quinn et al. (1997) researchers have indicated supporting, innovative issues that are crucial to successful change processes. these issues are building adaptive capabilities, which are needed for incremental and transformational change and to establish change competencies. change should be seen as the realignment across the vertical, horizontal and temporal axes of the organisation so that a capability for renewal and adaptation can be developed (gratton, 2000). a holistic approach should thus be taken, as innovation is systemic by nature. change brings risk and uncertainty, but it also brings opportunities. the organisation should therefore develop the required profile to seize these opportunities and deal with the uncertainties (gratton; 2000; quinn et al. 1997). � risk management process: taking risks and experimenting are behaviours that are associated with creativity and innovation (brodtrick, 1999). a culture in which too many management controls are applied will inhibit risk taking and consequently creativity and innovation (judge et al., 1997). literature emphasised that the corporate climate must be tolerant towards errors, accepted as part of taking the initiative and should be viewed as learning experiences (andriopoulos, 2001; martins & terblanche, 2003; tucker, 2002). however, it is important that a balance should be reached in the degree to which risk-taking is allowed. these risks are based on sensing and critical thinking skills and should be regarded as calculated risks (johnson, 2001). � scanning ability: kono (1988) stated that an extensive process of information collection is needed for innovation. he further referred to formal and informal sources of information such as customer needs; new products by competitors; trends in new technology; trends in the general environment; and the strengths of the company. this scanning process for opportunities was labeled as “mining the future” by tucker (2002, p. 107). he stressed the importance for organisations to stay abreast of trends and new ideas. in a similar vein, the “white space” technique (quinn et al., p. 149) can be used for exploring totally new or unexploited opportunities. � quality management process: authors on qualit y and innovation agreed that quality is doing things better; innovation is doing things differently and that both are needed. when a company is an industry leader, quality processes can produce incremental improvements that will help maintain its leadership position for a time. however, to maintain competitive advantage over the long term, companies need to innovate to push ahead (samaha, 1997). it is believed that a quality management process and/or system in an organisation create an environment, which is conducive to successful innovating activity, such as ideas generation (silverman, 1999). � ideas management process: mcadam and mcclelland, (2002) referred to a study done by sowrey in 1987 in which he found that companies that utilised idea generation systems actually produced a larger number of new products as opposed to those companies who did not. the management of an idea system can help the organisation to incorporate innovation as a business discipline (andriopoulos, 2001; ahmed, 1998; kono, 1988; tucker, 2002; zhuang et al., 1999). therefore, large organisations can be just as innovative as small companies through an ideas management system (mcadam & mcclelland, 2002). tucker (2002) referred to ideation as a systematic process with the specific goal to generate ideas by using specific techniques in order to develop new products, services or systems. he mentioned the use of “ideation rooms” (p. 60) to foster creativity. � communication management: the role of communication is stressed by andriopoulos (2001); cooper (1998) as well as martins and terblanche (2003). an organisat ional cult ure that supports open and transparent communication, based on trust, will have a positive inf luence on promot ing creat ivit y and innovat ion. communication should be based on dialogue that is nonjudgemental, exploring, inquiring and creative as opposed to discussion, which is judgmental, confrontational, defensive and destructive (gurteen, 1998). � relationship management process: leaders, especially team leaders, should promote creativity in teamwork, but they can only do so if they are aware of the complexities of teamwork relationships and also if they have knowledge on how to nurture and utilise these relationships in a positive way (cooper, 1998). this can only be achieved by real insight into relationships and by understanding the underlying contractual relationship, also including financial and psychological issues (mcadam & mcclelland, 2002; gratton, 2000). for example, an organisation-customer relationship can be a critical gateway to address unmet customers needs (slywotzky & wise, 2003). customers: creativity as a resource should be focused on meeting the needs of customers. profitable new products (innovation) can be generated by first identif ying the needs of customers and second by generating ideas and solutions to address those needs. this customer-pull (or market-pull) approach to knowledge creation and idea generation with lead users is used for instance by 3m and hewlett packard (mcadam & mcclelland, 2002). however, darroch and mcnaughton (2002) referred to statements that incremental innovation is more aligned to customers needs. radical (or technologypush) innovation by definition ignores customers’ needs, because it is either new to the world or new to the organisation. this is often presented as a reason why so many radical technological innovations fail. therefore, a balance should be maintained between market-pull and technologypush strategies with regard to innovation. human resources: creativity, resulting in innovation, is possible for most individuals at work (gurteen, 1998; henry, 2001). kono (1988) stated that a creative organisation, and therefore an innovative organisation, would need people with different and complementary capabilities. drejer and riis (2001) labelled them as focus competencies – those required competencies for tomorrow's needs. these competencies are: � emotional intelligence: to excel in today’s competitive business environment, organisations need members who can move beyond cognitive intelligence (iq). emotional intelligence is described as the capacity to reason with emotion in four areas: to perceive emotion, to integrate emotion in thought, to understand emotion and to manage emotion. consequent studies on emotional intelligence have found that people with high emotion regulation abilities seem to form more satisfactory relationships with others on various levels. emotionally intelligent persons accept the inherent ambiguities and tensions that are so prevalent when dealing with innovation. workers are willing to offer ideas and work cohesively without fear of criticism or ridicule (gratton, 2000; goleman, 1995; sy and côté, 2004). � creativity: creativity, starting with imagination, feeds upon itself, producing more creative ideas. juniper (1996) believed that creativity must be demystified. the concept of creativity must be understood in the sense that effective working is creative working. it must also be understood that creativity is about divergent thinking. innovation is about convergent thinking. therefore, creativity is not enough. innovation is needed to activate creativity (gurteen, 1998). mcadam & mcclelland, (2002), using amabile’s componential theory of creativit y, indicated three components to individual creativity, namely, expertise (linking to relevant skills and knowledge); creative-thinking skills (ability to consider different perspectives independently) and task motivation (intrinsic motivation is more conducive to the processing of van zyl, roodt, coetsee74 divergent information). as creativity is affected by skills such as expertise, technical skills, talent and mental flexibility it would be beneficial to the organisation if those skills are clearly understood and conceptualised (ahmed, 1998; henry, 2001; zhuang et al., 1999). � core skills: andriopoulos (2001) referred to skill as a determinant of organisational creativity. cooper (1998) stressed that different skills are needed in the different stages of the innovation process. organisations need people with “t-shaped” skills, which is explained as deep vertical knowledge and strong lateral associative skills (quinn et al., 1997,p. 29). � creative and hybrid thinking skills: organisations tend to encourage analytical thinking rather than creative thinking. this limits creativity and innovation, as idea generation is limited. hybrid thinking is a higher-order thinking process that incorporates both creative and analytical modes of thinking, namely intuitive thinking where information stimulates the mind to produce an idea, formative thinking where insight is used to mould the idea into a concept (or a value-adding proposition) and logical thinking where the idea is evaluated sensibly, e.g. customer value analysis (kilroy, 1999; mcadam & mcclelland, 2002). � systems thinking skills: systems thinking (systemic capabilities) would ensure vertical and horizontal alignment of the innovative activities with the strategies of the organisation. the organisation and its innovations must be seen as a whole and not just as different functions each with its own separate new products and services (ahmed, 1998; gratton, 2000). organisational learning: in the ever-changing business environment, an organisation’s capacit y to learn must exceed the rate of change it has to cope with. organisational learning is a dynamic process based on the transfer of learning from individual to organisation. therefore, learning takes place on two levels, namely on individual level and on organisational level, that involves learning new things continuously, as well as unlearning old things. learning from failures is interpreted as ref lective learning (andriopoulos, 2001; buckler, 1996; johnson, 2001; mcadam & mcclelland, 2002; tucker, 2002). entrepreneurship: it is generally understood that corporate entrepreneurship consists of intrapreneurship (new ventures within and surrounding a current organisation) and dispersed entrepreneurship (structures/cultures to foster entrepreneurs/innovation) (drucker, 1985; sundbo, 1998; quinn et al., 1997). dispersed entrepreneurship is also labelled as “questocracy” by johnson (2001, p.138). intrapreneurship refers not only to the creation of new business ventures, but also to other innovative activities and orientations, such as development of new products, services, technologies, administrative techniques, strategies and competitive postures. its characteristic dimensions, are new business venturing, product/service innovation, process innovation, self-renewal, risk-taking, proactiveness, and competitive aggressiveness. new business (new company) creation is the most obvious manifestation of entrepreneurship in the economy. a distinction could be made bet ween conservative (risk averse, noninnovative, and reactive) organisations and entrepreneurial (risk-taking, innovative, and proactive) organisations. entrepreneurship in organisations is therefore a matter of degree (bostjan & hisrich, 2003; drucker, 1994). structure: mcadam and mcclelland (2002) cited research studies that indicate structural flexibility is one of six top drivers for innovation within an organisation. these authors argue that a-typical structures are necessary for innovation, as innovation is a non-linear process which therefore needs a non-linear structure. yet it seems that few organisations have act ually restruct ured around the imperatives of implementing and managing innovation (andriopoulos, 2001; cooper, 1998; martins & terblanche, 2003; urabe et al., 1988; quinn et al., 1997). it is said that innovation is enhanced by organic rather than mechanistic structures (hellström et al., 2002). it is suggested that a fluid, organic type of organisation fits the early development stage where radical product innovation is prevalent, whereas a highly structured, mechanistic type of organisation with attendant job specification procedure fits the mature development stage where incremental process innovation becomes the prevalent mode of innovation. in other words, a mechanistic structure is seen to be appropriate if the environment is stable and predictable with simple markets and well-defined parameters (sy & côté, 2004). an organic structure is appropriate to facilitate innovation in an unpredictable environment (ahmed, 1998; quinn et al., 1997). organisations that are innovative tend to favour “adhocrasies” (quinn et al., 1997, p. 14). adhocrasies, as they described it, referred to what is known today as multi-disciplinary teams that form for a specific purpose. innovative structures are the opposite of power-centered, discipline-orientated or functional struct ures as often found in large, mat ure organisations. bureaucratic layers discourage cross-functional interaction as reporting lines are clouded and the power base is eroded. the concept of innovation is better represented by organic, circular constructs. this indicates fluid boundaries. the effectiveness of these structures is based on stimulating an aligned purpose, open information-sharing and a rich and profuse network(s) of relationships (quinn et al., 1997). responses to the dilemma of a fitting organisational structure to support innovative practices are the matrix organisational structure (sy & côté, 2004); multi-disciplinary teams (cooper, 1998; mcadam & mcclelland, 2002; tucker, 2002; uecke, 2002); networks (arias, 1995; slywotzky & wise, 2003; tucker, 2002; uecke, 2002); collaboration as a purposive relationship. margaret wheatley in quinn et al. (1997) noted: “innovation is fostered by information gathered from new connections; from journeys into other disciplines; from active collegial networks and f luid open boundaries. innovation arises from ongoing circles of exchange, where information is not just accumulated and stored, but created” (p. 136). technology: technology, e.g. information technology serves as an enabler for innovation across the value chain (production and administration) to deal with the innovation from input to output (andriopoulos, 2001; drejer, 2002; martins & terblanche, 2003). lack of resources can constrain creativity as all energy is aimed at finding resources and not at developing the new idea into a viable product. in addition, the capacity to develop and manage software is indicated as a core skill for generating innovation (quinn et al., 1997). discussion it would seem, from the literature presented, that individual activities/processes across disciplines within an organisation could collectively impact on innovation and its practices. when these activities/processes are practiced in a positive way it could be regarded as enablers of innovation within an organisation. these enablers include strategic, leadership, human, business process and culture practices, each with its own sub-elements, can be regarded as building blocks of innovation. these enablers are needed at every level and in every functional discipline within an organisation, both on an individual and an organisational level (cooper, 1998; gurteen, 1998). tucker (2002) regarded the knowledge about innovation inhibitors as crucial if an organisation wishes to incorporate innovation into their daily practices. the mentioned inhibitors are therefore included in the theoretical framework presented at the end of this article. building blocks of innovation i 75 the building blocks of innovation, presented as a framework, reflect the complexity and systemic nature of innovation and how far, deep and wide organisations must embrace elements that would ensure innovation and its practices within an organisation. it shows clearly that innovation deals with various elements and activities, which need input from different roleplayers across and external to the organisation in order to create innovations. the framework will be discussed below according to the broad categories. contextual setting of innovation this forms the broad backdrop to and in which all organisations must respond in order to function as an organisation. the contextual setting of innovation consists of the economic setting of innovation, the drivers of innovation, the classification of innovation and the types of innovation. the economic setting of innovation included the influence that economic patterns have on innovation, described as “kondratiev cycles” (freeman, 1982). the position, age and development stage of the organisation in the market is reflected through the s-curve, and adoption and diffusion of innovation in a broader context are reflected through the innovation adoption curve of rogers (1995). drivers of innovation drivers include environmental factors such as deregulation, legislation, the blurring of industries, globalisation of markets, continuous change and the growing importance of sustainability; competition described as hyper-competition; and technolog y where technolog y changes business models (janszen, 2000; jones & kirby, 2002; pyka & küppers, 2002). the classification of innovation this depends on the degree of change necessary in the organisation to adopt the innovation and is generally described as either radical or incremental (darroch and mcnaughton (2002). consequently, radical and incremental innovation are linked to types of innovation, such as technology, administrative and process innovation (clark & staunton, 1990; cooper, 1998; mole & elliot, 1987). the inhibitors of innovation the inhibitors identified through the literature review are rigid strategic planning, issues pertaining to culture, leadership and the execution thereof, structural modes, intolerance, strategic gridlock and tunnel vision (andriopoulos, 2001; arias, 1995; borins, 2002; buchen, 2003; gurteen, 1998; kilroy, 1999; kono, 1988; tucker, 2002; quinn et al., 1997). the enablers of innovation the enablers form the core focus of innovation management. the clustering was done based on the interrelatedness of the elements to the category. the categories are human enablers consisting of emotional intelligence, creativity, core skills, creative and hybrid thinking skills, as well as systems thinking skills (ahmed, 1998; cooper, 1998; gratton, 2000; henry, 2001; juniper, 1996; klemm, 2004; mcadam & mcclelland, 2002; quinn et al., 1997; zhuang et al., 1999); business management enablers consisting of leadership and management practices (andriopoulos, 2001; buchen, 2003; clark & staunton, 1990; cooper, 1998; judge et al., 1997; martins & terblanche, 2003; mcadam & mcclelland, 2002; peters & waterman, 1982; quinn et al., 1997; senge, 1990; tucker, 2002; uecke, 2002; urabe et al., 1988); business process enablers consisting of recruitment, diversit y, reward, performance management, knowledge management, change management, risk management, scanning abilit y, qualit y management, ideas management, communication management and relationship management (buchen, 2003; cooper, 1998; darroch & mcnaughton, 2002; henry, 2001; justesen, 2001; kaplan & norton, 2004; senge, 1990; tucker, 2002; uecke, 2002); structural enablers consisting of multi-disciplinary teams, networks and collaboration; and van zyl, roodt, coetsee76 figure 3: proposed framework of innovation based on a literature review business atmosphere enablers comprised of culture, climate, values and organisational learning (ahmed, 1998; andriopoulos, 2001; arad et al., 1997; brooking, 1997; buckler, 1996; cooper, 1998; gratton, 2000; johnson, 2001; kono, 1988; martins & terblanche, 2003; tucker, 2002). following from the literature review a theoretical framework for depicting the building blocks of innovation is presented in figure 3 and thereby achieving the primary and secondary objectives of this study. conclusion it would seem that while many organisations subscribe to the importance of innovation, few have been able to maintain a culture that supports innovation as a top strategic priority. according to drejer (2002) raising the inherent innovation effectiveness curve requires senior management to understand that innovation is not a discrete activity or event, but a multifunctional capability that requires several types of competencies that need a formal management framework. enablers are appropriate in both rapidly changing and slowpaced contexts. innovation, and its complexities, is the result of the combination and consolidation of many diverse elements in a non-linear fashion because new products integrate many elements into new functions, and innovation and its production requires the integration of many resources within one organisation. the success of the organisation with regard to its innovation rests on how well these building blocks of innovation in the theoretical framework of are managed. reference abraham, j.l. & knight, j.d. (2001). strategic innovation: leveraging creative action for more profitable growth. strategy & leadership, 29 (1), 21-27. ahmed, p.k. (1998). culture and climate for innovation. european journal of innovation management, 1 (1), 30-43. amabile, a. (1988). a model of creativity and innovation in organizations. research in organizational behaviour, 10, 123-167. andriopoulos, c. (2001). determinants of organisational creativity: a literature review. management decision, 39 (10), 834-841. andriopoulos, c. & lowe, a. (2000). enhancing organisational creativity: the process of perpetual challenging. management decision, 38 (10), 734-42. arad, s., hanson, m.a. & schneider, r.j. (1997). a framework for the study of relationships bet ween organizational characteristics and organizational innovation. the journal of creative behavior, 31 (1), 42-58. arias, j.t.g. (1995). do networks really foster innovation? management decision, 33 (9),52-56. borins, s. (2002). leadership and innovation in the public sector. leadership and organization development journal, 23 (8), 467-476. bostjan, a. & hisrich, r.d. (2003). clarif ying the intrapreneurship concept. journal of small and enterprise development, 10 (1), 7-24. brodtrick, o. (1999). some thought on definitions of innovation. the innovation journal [the public sector innovation journal], 4 (3). brooking, a. (1997). intellectual capital. london: international thomson business press. buckler, b. (1996). a learning process model to achieve continuous improvement and innovation. the learning organization, 3 (3), 31-39. buchen, i.h. (2003). future-imbedded innovation methodologies. foresight, 5 (3), 3-9. christensen, c.m. & raynor, m.e. (2003). the innovator’s solution. boston: harvard business school press. clark, p. & staunton, n. (1990). innovation in technology and organization. london: routledge. cooper, j.r. (1998). a multidimensional approach to the adoption of innovation. management decision, 36 (8), 493-502. cottam, a. ensor, j. & band, c. (2001). a benchmark study of strategic commitment to innovation. european journal of innovation management, 4 (2), 88-94. darroch, j. & mcnaughton, r. (2002). examining the link between knowledge management practices and types of innovation. journal of intellectual capital, 3 (3), 210-222. davenport, t.h. (1993). process innovation: reengineering work through information technology. boston: harvard business school. drejer, a. (2002). situations for innovation management: towards a contingency model. european journal of innovation management, 5 (1), 4-17. drejer, a. & riis, j.o. (2001). new dimensions of competence development in industrial enterprises. the international journal of manufacturing technology and management, 2 (17), 660-682. drucker, p.f. (1955). the practice of management. suffolk: pan books. drucker, p.f. (1985). innovation and entrepreneurship. new york: harper & row. drucker, p.f. (1994). innovation and entrepreneurship: practice and principles. great britain: butterworth heineman. economist (1999). long wave cycles of innovation. retrieved from the world wide web on 15/07/2004: http://www. people.hofstra.edu. ferrari, f.m. & de toledo, j.c. (2004). analyzing the knowledge management through the product development process. journal of knowledge management, 8 (1), 117-129. freeman, c. (1982). innovation and long-cycles of economic development. paper presented at the international seminar on innovation and development at the industrial sector. 25-27 august, university campinas. retrieved from the world wide web on 07/05/2003: http://www.catlibraries.org. goleman, d. (1995). emotional intelligence: why it can matter more than iq. london: bloomsbury. gratton, l. (2000). living strategy: putting people at the heart of corporate purpose. financial times/prentice hall. grülke, w. (2001). lessons in radical innovation. south africans leading the world. johannesburg: @one communications. gurteen, d. (1998). knowledge, creativity and innovation. journal of knowledge management, 2 (1), 5-13. handy, c. (1996). beyond certainty: the changing worlds of organisations. london: arrow business books. henry, j. (2001). creativity and perception in management. london: sage publications. hellström, t., jacob, m. & malmquist, u. (2002). guiding innovation socially and cognitively: the innovation team model at skandia networks. european journal of innovation management, 5 (3), 172-180. hivner, w, hopkins, w.e. & hopkins, s.a. (2003). facilitating, accelerating, and sustaining the innovation diffusion process: an epidemic modeling approach. european journal of innovation management, 6 (2), 80-89. itami, h. (1988). mobilizing invisible assets. cambridge: harvard university press. janszen, f. (2000). the age of innovation: making business creativity a competence, not a coincidence. london: prenticehall. johnson, d. (2001). what is innovation and entrepreneurship? lessons for larger organisations. industrial and commercial training, 33 (4), 135-140. jones, t. & kirby, s. (2002). taking ideas to market. uk: capstone publishing. judge, w.q., fryxell, g.e. & dooley, r.s. (1997). the new task of r&d management: creating goal-directed communities for innovations. california management review, 39 (3), 72-85. juniper, d. (1996). human resource and creativity. work study, 45 (7), 15-22. building blocks of innovation i 77 justesen, s.l. (2001). innoversity: master thesis in intercultural management. mpp working paper no. 6/2001. kaplan, r.s. & norton, d.p. (2004). strategy maps. converting intangible assets into tangible outcomes. boston: harvard business school press. kilroy, d.b. (1999). creating the future: how creativity and innovation drive shareholder wealth. management decision, 37 (4), 363-374. klemm, w.r. (2004). leadership: creativity and innovation. conference paper: concepts for airforce leadership (au-24). retrieved from the world wide web on 07/05/2003: http://www.au.af.mil. kim, j. & wilemon, d. (2002). strategic issues in managing innovation’s fuzzy front-end. european journal of innovation management, 5 (1), 27-39. kono,t. (1988). factors affecting the creativit y of organizations:an approach from new product development. in urabe, k.; child, j.; kagono, t. walter de gruyter (eds.) innovation and management: international comparisons. berlin. 105-144. kuczmarski, t.d. (1996). fostering an innovation mindset. journal of consumer marketing, 13 (6), 7-13. martins, e.c. & terblanche, f. (2003). building organisational culture that stimulates creativity and innovation. european journal of innovation management, 6 (1), 64-74. mcadam, r & mcclelland, j. (2002). individual and team-based idea generation within innovation management: organisational and research agendas. european journal of innovation management, 5 (2), 86-97. mcgivern, m.h. & tvorik, s.j. (1997). determinants of organizational performance. management decision, 35 (6), 417-435. mohamed, m.a.k. (2002). assessing determinants of departmental innovation: an exploratory multi-level approach. personnel review, 31 (5), 620-641. mole, v. & elliot, d. (1987). enterprising innovation: an alternative approach. london: frances pinter. mumford, m.d., whetzel, d.l. & reiter-palman, r. (1997). thinking creatively at work: organization influences on creative problem-solving. the journal of creative behavior, 31 (1), 7-17. pech, r.j. (2001). reflections. termites, group behaviour, and the loss of innovation: conformit y rules! journal of managerial psychology, 16 (7), 559-574. peters, t. & waterman, r. (1982). in search of excellence: lessons from america’s best run companies. new york: harper and row. pyka, a. & küppers, g. (2002). innovation networks: theory and practice. cheltenham, uk: edward elgar. quinn, j.b., baruch, j.j. & zien, k.a. (1997). innovation explosion: using intellect and software to revolutionize growth strategies. new york: the free press. rogers, e.m. (1995). diffusion of innovations. new york: the free press. schurink, w.j. & schurink, e.m. (2001). lecture one. deciding to use a qualitative research approach. in: schurink, w.j. models of qualitative research. department of human resource management. johannesburg: rau. senge, p.m. (1990). the fifth discipline. the art and practice of the learning organization. new york: doubleday currency. silverman, l.l. (1999). critical shift. the future of quality in organizational performance. wisconsin: asq quality press. slywotsky, a. & wise, r. (2003). three keys to groundbreaking growth: a demand innovation strategy, nurturing practices, and chief growth officer. strategy & leadership, 31 (5), 12-19. sy, t. & côté, s. (2004). emotional intelligence: a key ability to succeed in the matrix organization. journal of management development, 23 (5), 437-455. sundbo, j. (1998). the theory of innovation: entrepreneurs, technology and strategy. northampton: edward elgar. thomson, k. (1998). emotional capital: capturing hearts and minds to create lasting business success. uk: capstone. tucker, r.b. (2002) driving growth through innovation. how leading firms are transforming their futures. san francisco: berrett-koehler publishers. tucker, r.b. (2003). innovation and growth. strategy & leadership, 19 (4), 29-31. uecke, o. (2002). aio: an innovative organization. paper within entrepreneurial creativity. jönköping international business school. jönköping university. 1-13. urabe, k. (1988). innovation and the japanese management system. innovation and management.international comparisons. in urabe, k.; child, j.; kagono, t.; walter de gruyter (eds.) innovation and management: international comparisons. berlin. 3-25. veldsman, t.h. (2002). into the people effectiveness arena. johannesburg: knowledge resources. wu, w., chiang, c. & jiang, j. (2002). interrelationships between tmt management styles and organizational innovation. industrial management & data systems, 102 (3), 171-183. zhuang, l., williamson, d. & carter, m. (1999). innovate or liquidate – are all organisations convinced? a two-phased study into the innovation process. management decision, 37 (1), 57-71. van zyl, roodt, coetsee78 article information authors: sibongile r. mahlangu (kubheka)1 cookie govender1 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa correspondence to: sibongile mahlangu (kubheka) email: sibongile.kubheka@eskom.co.za postal address: po box 401, midstream estate 1692, south africa dates: received: 05 may 2014 accepted: 10 feb. 2015 published: 18 may 2015 how to cite this article: mahlangu (kubheka), s.r., & govender, c. (2015). management competencies required in the transition from a technician to a supervisor. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #644, 8 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.644 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. management competencies required in the transition from a technician to a supervisor in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction • trends from the literature    • key competencies essential for a technician    • key competencies essential for a supervisor    • transition from a position of technician to supervisor    • challenges organisations face in transitioning a technician a supervisor • method    • phase 1: quantitative approach       • sample size       • ethical considerations       • research instrument       • research procedure       • data analysis • results    • phase 2: qualitative approach       • sample size       • research instrument       • research procedure       • data analysis • results • discussion    • implications of the findings    • limitations of the study    • recommendations for future research • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: technicians are frequently promoted to supervisory positions based on their technical abilities, with scant attention focused on developing management competencies. this oversight often poses significant challenges. the effective transition from technician to supervisor is important in any organisation. research objective: the primary objective is to identify and verify the competencies that are required for a technician and a supervisory position; the secondary objective is to identify the gap that must be filled with relevant training interventions to enable technicians to make an effective transition to a supervisory position. motivation for this study: the identification of the management competencies required for a technician who makes a career change to a supervisor position. research method: the sequential mixed method approach was used to enable the two-phase data collection process: phase one was the quantitative phase and phase two was the qualitative phase. main findings: the overall findings confirm that there are indeed management competencies that technicians require training and development on before being promoted to a supervisory position. implication: organisations need to identify the key competencies for a technician and a supervisor and implement development or training interventions that are essential to successfully transition an employee from the level of a technician to the level of a supervisor. contribution: organisations need to implement essential development or training interventions focused on developing management competencies and put in place support interventions such as coaching, job shadowing, mentoring and networking. introduction top ↑ for organisations to achieve a competitive advantage over their competitors, they need to build on the skills and knowledge of their current employees (gratton, 2000; ito & brotheridge, 2005). organisations need to create a pool of skilled, competent technicians and supervisors who are able to deliver on required and projected products and services (mahapatro, 2010). the identification of the competencies that are required for a technician and for a supervisor is of importance to any organisation. according to woodruffe (2003), competencies are fundamental distinguishable characteristics that an individual uses to perform a specific job or output successfully. a notable challenge that contemporary organisations face is the management function of transitioning a technician from a subject matter expert to a supervisor (badawy, 1995; barley, 1996; hood, 1990). the challenge often is occasioned by the role differences; a technician largely uses hands-on experience and logical reasoning competencies, whilst a supervisor requires management, leading, planning, directing, and people skills (hilgert & leonard, 2008; hodgetts, 2007; mintzberg, 2009; rue & byars, 2004). unfortunately, most technicians lack the required management competencies that are required for a supervisory position. therefore, the skills differences that exist between a technician and a supervisor are not being addressed in the workplace. in view of these findings, it seems important to identify, verify and make recommendations on the development of management competencies that are required when transitioning technicians to supervisory positions. trends from the literature top ↑ key competencies essential for a technician according to the engineering council of south africa (ecsa, 2003), technical competencies refer to the knowledge, skills and techniques that are required to effectively operate, test, inspect, construct, install, repair and maintain relevant allocated work areas as per the prescribed standards, legislations, regulation guidelines and code of practice. technical competencies are the knowledge, skills and behaviours that are required to perform a specific task (reio & sutton, 2006). technical competencies focus on the application of relevant technical knowledge and skills as per the predefined standards and guidelines in order to effectively perform the required tasks (becker, 2009; technician council, 2011; united states office of performance management, 1999). review of the analyzer technician competency model (analyzer technician opportunities project, 2009) and the united states office of performance management (1999) provides six competency themes that are critical for the technician position. these competency themes can be grouped as follows: theme 1: maintenance, operation, transmission and distribution of activities per allocated area. theme 2: technical operations, principles, functionality and techniques. theme 3: investigation, inspection and modification of allocated systems. theme 4: quality control. theme 5: safety knowledge and compliance. theme 6: people skills. each of the competency themes was further broken down into actual activities. in addition to the identified themes and actual activities, the national academy of engineering (2005) states the importance of sub-competencies, which are mathematics, technical qualifications and experience in the technical field. these sub-competencies are required in the technical field. theoretical analysis of the technical documents and the energy utility industry's job profiles of the technicians indicates that matric (grade 12), 2 years’ technical experience and mathematics at nqf level 4 are sub-competencies that are required for a technician position. key competencies essential for a supervisor greer and plunkett (2000) state that a supervisor's role includes providing subordinates with instructions and relevant training to enable them to perform their roles effectively. a supervisor is a person who has the discretion and authority to coordinate, direct, and oversee daily work activities of individuals and teams. supervisors need to ensure that the teams’ operational plans are formulated and monitored (de beer & rossouw, 2005); therefore, central to management or supervising others are the four functions of management, namely planning, organising, leading and controlling, and the five skills in addition to technical skills, namely dealing with people, information-sharing, decision-making and problem-solving (de beer & rossouw, 2005; hilgert & leonard, 2008; hood, 1990; howard, 2003; mintzberg, 2009; rue & byars, 2004; seethamraju & agrawal, 1999; yulk, 2008). in addition, the literature review and the theoretical analysis of the technical documents and the industry-wide job profiles of the energy utility industries provide additional skills that are required for a supervisory position. those skills include interpersonal relations, leadership behaviour, administration, budgeting and knowledge of human resources (hr) processes and systems. transition from a position of technician to supervisor transition refers to a career progression from one lower-level position to another higher-level position, a shift from the technical workforce to the managerial role to increase economic and professional standing (ebberwein, krieshok, ulven & prosser, 2004; louis, 1980; osipow & fitzgerald, 1996; roberts & biddle, 1994). hall (2002) and howard (2003) argue that transition is a process of changing jobs or professions. the transition from a technician position to a supervisory position needs to be managed. many companies often make the mistake of selecting the best-performing technical employee for promotion to a supervisory or management level without providing them with any supervisory or managerial training, believing that they will make good supervisors or managers (badawy, 1995; lewis, 2009; roberts & biddle, 1994; thamhain, 1991). transition should not be a single event, but should occur over a period of time (badawy, 1995; handschin, 2007; newstrom, 2007). according to charan, drotter and noel (2001), transition from a technician to a supervisor involves recognising the required competencies essential for effectiveness at different performance levels. badawy (1995, p. 54) identifies the seven mechanisms for easing the transition to management, as shown in table 1. table 1: mechanisms for easing the transition to management. challenges organisations face in transitioning a technician a supervisor handschin (2007) evaluates the challenges of promoting a technician to supervise or manage a department. according to handschin, the nature of the challenges that organisations often face with technicians who are promoted to a supervisory position is the fear of disengaging from the technical field. technicians are confident in working with tools and equipment and therefore they often find it difficult to delegate these tasks to their teams. they may remain fixed in their specialist positions as technical experts (badawy, 1995; ebberwein et al., 2004; hood, 1990; kadushin & harkness, 2002). this is supported by charan et al. (2001) who argue that organisations need to put in place mechanisms to deal with the vague sense of letting go of the current role and adding on the new role. this transition stage needs to be handled swiftly and efficiently to avoid slips, unnecessary stress, low morale and substandard performance (hood, 1990; howard, 2003). katz (2003) argues that interpersonal skills, which include open communication and trust-building, are critical for a technician who makes a transition to a supervisory position in order to delegate work effectively and to interact with teams in an open and transparent manner. the transition stage, if not handled correctly, may result in stressful effects for the new supervisor in trying to execute the job effectively (aucoin, 2002; badawy, 1995; freedman, 1998; handschin, 2007; hood, 1990; kadushin & harkness, 2002). method top ↑ a sequential mixed method approach was used. the rationale for using both the quantitative and qualitative approaches was to ensure reliability and validity of research results (bernardi, kleim & von der lippe, 2007; creswell & plano, 2011). jogulu and pansiri (2011) argue that the use of qualitative and qualitative approaches is useful in ascertaining the epistemological coherence of data gathered. the researchers found that the topic was not well researched, there was limited data available on the subject, rich data was needed and therefore the sequential mixed method approach was appropriate. the quantitative approach was applied first to identify the competencies required for a technician and a supervisor and the qualitative approach was applied later to validate the list of competencies, assign a degree of importance and recommend any further development or training interventions that are essential to successfully transition an employee from the level of a technician to the level of a supervisor. the research approach was applied as depicted in the figure 1. figure 1: research approach. phase 1: quantitative approach quantitative research is defined as a research methodology that focuses on the discovery of an in-depth, deeper meaning (rubin & babbie, 2005). according to teddlie and tashakkori (2009), quantitative research refers to the interpretation of data to obtain numerical results. it enables the researchers to employ numerical assessment and analysis of data to the research questions (zikmund, babin, carr & griffin, 2013). the quantitative phase was executed to identify the competencies required for a technician position and a supervisor position. in the quantitative phase, a survey was developed, based on the data gathered during the literature review. sample size a sample size of 250 participants was randomly selected from (with acquired management approval) the population of eskom technicians, supervisors and hr administrators from the mpumalanga, gauteng and limpopo provinces who had a majority of technicians who were promoted to the supervisory position. the hr administrators were invited to participate in this study because they play a supporting role in advising the technicians and supervisors regarding hr-related enquiries. ethical considerations confidentiality was maintained throughout this study, as all participants were anonymous during data-capturing. the purpose of this study was clearly communicated to all participants prior to their engagement in this study. permission to conduct the study, to utilise the organisation job profiles as the basis for the study and to publish the results with the organisation acknowledged was granted by eskom management. information on the time allowed for the completion of the questionnaire and instructions on how to complete the questionnaire wwere communicated to all participants. furthermore, participants were informed that their participation in this study was voluntary, that all data gathered will be used for research purposes only and that the results of this study will be made available upon request. research instrument a questionnaire was constructed by the researchers using the data gathered in the literature review. the questionnaire focuses on three specific parts: the first part focuses on biographical data, which addresses information on job title, division, department, age profile, gender profile, highest qualification, experience in the technical field and experience in the supervisory field. the questionnaire was structured in a closed-ended rank order scale. the second part of the questionnaire focuses on technician competencies and addresses the maintenance, technical operation, investigation, inspection and modification of allocated systems, quality control, safety knowledge and mathematics, whilst the third part focuses on supervisory competencies and addresses interpersonal relations, leadership behaviour, planning, leading, controlling, organising, administration and budgeting, hr business processes and mathematics. a five-point likert (1932) rating scale, with ratings of 1 (strongly disagree), 2 (disagree), 3 (unsure), 4 (agree), and 5 (strongly agree) was used for the second and third parts of the questionnaire. research procedure the questionnaire was distributed to 250 participants. besides the 100% response rate of the original sample, 16 additional questionnaires were copied and completed. the researchers were unable to distinguish between the original and additional questionnaires. consequently, the analysis was conducted on a total of 266 completed questionnaires. data analysis data was analysed by statkon (university of johannesburg statistical division), using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss version 21.0). descriptive statistics were used to analyse data. the competencies were ranked based on the mean and standard deviation scores such that a higher central tendency indicated a stronger preference for the inclusion of such a competency. competencies that received a rating of 4 and 5 were included and those that received a rating of 3 and below were excluded. the cronbach's alpha test of reliability achieved scores over 0.90 for all variables measured with exception of the ‘qualification’ variable, which had a cronbach's alpha score of 0.861. this was due to the fact that some of the participants were uncomfortable with mathematics as a required competency for a technician position. results top ↑ out of the 266 valid questionnaires analysed, the frequency responses received from the eskom divisions are as follows: distribution division 40.2%, transmission division 36.8%, generation division 18.8% and corporate division 4.1%. the departmental spread was recorded as follows: maintenance 37.9%, engineering 28.4%, operating 20.8%, hr 3.8% and 9.1% did not indicate their department. the age profile of the participants ranged as follows: 45.9% 40–49 years, 28.2% 30–39 years, 16.9% 50–59 years and 9% 29 years and younger. the gender profile of participants was predominately male at 68.9% with 31.1% female. the most prevalent of qualifications were national diploma at 32.1% followed by national certificates at 28.3%. a postgraduate diploma was held by 19.2% of participants and 7.5% held a bachelor's degree. the most frequent range of experience in the technical field was 6–10 years (35.8%), followed by 10–15 years (16.2%); range of experience at the supervisory level was 3–6 years (30.1%) and 0–3 years (28.2%). according to the findings, the following competencies are deemed to be significant for all supervisors, especially those that were promoted from the position of technician. the mean scores are provided for each competency with standard deviation scores in brackets: leadership 3.39 (0.636), planning 3.34 (0.578), leading 3.39 (0.586), controlling 3.31 (0.627), organising 3.32 (0.639), administration 3.28 (0.615), budgeting 3.07 (0.684), safety knowledge 3.37 (0.631), hr systems and processes 3.26 (0.642), training and development 3.19 (0.623) and qualification and experience 2.94 (0.650). phase 2: qualitative approach qualitative research is aimed at understanding the meaning, experience and perception that people attach to their everyday lives (de vos, 2002). qualitative research is a non-statistical approach that elicits participants’ accounts of meaning and experience (creswell, 2009; willis, 2007). according to cooper and schindler (2012), qualitative research attempts to understand how and why a phenomenon happened. for the purpose of this study, qualitative research using focus groups was conducted immediately after the quantitative survey results were analysed. sample size the focus group participants were selected randomly from a total of 150 managers with a breakdown as follows: 60 supervisors, 60 line managers, 15 hr development (hrd) managers and 15 hr managers. all managers were directly affected by the future transitioning of technicians into supervisory positions. to ensure that the groups were small enough to give everyone the opportunity to express an opinion and diverse enough to encourage participation, participants were split randomly into four groups of 50, 50, 25 and 25. in each of the four focus groups, participants were further split into three or four groups to facilitate discussion, debate and agreement amongst 8 to 15 participants. ideally, the focus groups should have been smaller to allow for rigorous discussion and debate; however, for the purpose of this study, the sample size fortunately allowed the groups to achieve the desired outcome. research instrument the competencies that were identified in the quantitative phase were consolidated into two charts listing the key competencies of a technician's position and the key competencies of a supervisor's position. participants of the focus groups were requested to agree with and accept each competency, then rank the degree of importance of each competency and recommend any further competency that may have been omitted. finally, participants were requested to recommend the development or training interventions that would be essential to successfully transition an employee from the level of a technician to the level of a supervisor. research procedure participants in the focus group sessions were issued with the two charts generated from the quantitative survey findings listing the competencies of a technician and of a supervisor. participants were also provided with flipcharts to record their discussion points. after discussions, participants were requested to agree, accept and validate each competency. thereafter they had to prioritise and order each competency into those that were most important to those that were least important. a ranking scale of 1–5 was used, ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’. data analysis the data gathered from the focus group discussions were moderated to check if all groups had accomplished the tasks as requested. the charts were checked to identify if all stated competencies for both technician and supervisor were accepted. the degree of importance rankings were tallied to check if participants agreed on the priority assigned to each competency. rankings of 4 (‘agree’) and 5 (‘strongly agree’) were interpreted as significant for the purpose of this phase of the study. the flipcharts were scanned for common additional competencies that groups included besides those stipulated on the charts provided as well as for the training intervention topics recommended for technicians transitioning into supervisory positions. results top ↑ the majority of the competencies that were listed on the technician and supervisory competencies charts obtained a degree of agreement score of between 4 and 5. competencies of the supervisor were ranked as follows: most important competencies (ranking of 5): interpersonal relations, leadership behaviour, organising ability, budgeting, safety knowledge, relevant qualification and experience. less important competencies (ranking of 4): planning, leading, controlling, administration, training and development. the focus group concluded that the competencies for the technician's position are aimed at improving the technical skills and knowledge, whilst the supervisory competencies are aimed at improving the management of individuals and teams and ensuring effective planning, organising, leading and controlling of the day-to-day operations. in addition to the listed competencies of supervisors, the focus group participants added these competencies as highly necessary for junior management staff: conflict management, time management and managing meetings. for effective training and development interventions for technicians transitioning into supervisory positions, focus group participants recommended these skills be included: coaching, mentoring, talent management and networking skills. discussion top ↑ the competencies identified for the technician position and the supervisor position as per the literature review were accepted by participants in the quantitative survey and further validated by participants in the qualitative focus groups. the work of a technician involves the day-to-day operation and maintenance of various types of equipment (barley & bechky, 1994). a technician is someone who has acquired specialised training and experience and who is skilled to utilise the technical instruments, techniques, equipment and procedures to solve technical problems (ecsa, 2003). research participants agree that a technician uses a wide variety of systems, tools and equipment in analysing, scanning and investigating system networks and plant performance. ideally, technicians should use their tools and equipment safely with minimal danger and damage to self, client and others. a low rating of mathematics as a required competency for a technician indicates that many research participants are unsure of the importance of this competency for a technical position. mathematics as a competency required for a supervisory position recorded a favourable frequency score of 62.9%. the technical specification documents emphasised the importance of mathematics for a technician position, as technicians are expected to understand how to read drawings, calculate required amounts of specifications for the repairing of machines and maintain project schedules. this is supported by ecsa (2003), which states that the knowledge and understanding of mathematics for a technician's position provides technicians with a skill to perform fault-finding, designs and routine checks adequately. mathematics seems to be a contested requirement, which could be due to perceptions about its difficulty and the potential barriers to entry into a supervisory position for technicians who do not have high levels of mathematical proficiency. the organisation should launch an investigation into the current and required level of mathematical proficiency for a technician and thereafter promote mathematical skills via training interventions as well as policy documents. supervisors have more demands placed on them than technicians, as they have to ensure that they oversee the work of their teams. the survey results reveal a common acceptance of the definition of the role of the supervisor, especially the responsibility for team, departmental and organisational performance. the focus groups agreed that supervisors are expected to ensure that their team performance contributes to organisational success. the findings of the survey confirm that supervisors have to create a balance between getting work done and building relationships within their teams. this is in support of boone and kurtz’s (2011) argument that supervisors need to communicate clearly what is needed and establish a culture of customer-centricity, which has employee satisfaction at the centre of business performance. in addition, the results from the qualitative focus group sessions indicated that supervisors are expected to apply technical competencies, plan for the required resources for the execution of daily tasks, supervise their team and assess their team's performance. of the 11 supervisory competencies identified in this study, the leadership and leading competencies achieved the highest mean scores and were ranked as most important by focus group participants. safety knowledge was highly significant with the second highest mean score and a focus group ranking of 5. planning was the third placed competency identified as essential for supervisors, closely followed by interpersonal skills and organising ability. these findings reveal that the key competencies that are required for a supervisory position include planning, organising, directing, controlling and monitoring of daily activities of their teams. these findings are in line with the literature where various authors have argued that there are four functions that are central to management or supervising of other employees: planning, organising, leading and controlling (de beer & rossouw, 2005; hilgert & leonard, 2008; hood, 1990; howard, 2003; mintzberg, 2009; rue & byars, 2004; seethamraju & agrawal, 1999; yulk, 2008). four additional skills that are critical for a supervisor position are dealing with people, information-sharing, decision-making and problem-solving. from the findings it is evident that transitioning from a technician to a supervisor involves recognising the required competencies essential for effectiveness at different performance levels (charan et al., 2001). according to aucoin (2002), for the technician to make the transition to a supervisor position, there are three critical skills required, namely technical, administrative and personnel or hr skills. supervisors need to lead their teams and create a balance between getting the work done and building relationships. the focus groups agreed that leadership behaviour and interpersonal skills are critical for the supervisory position. supervisors set a foundation for effective operations, workplace relationships and quality standards for all employees in the workplace. the competency gaps between a technical position and a supervisory position were measured as a shift in competencies from a technical position to a supervisory position (roberts & biddle, 1994). this shift is referred to as a transition. the literature trends reveal that when technicians make a transition into a management position, they often experience challenges, especially when managing teams (hood, 1990). for example, the transition from an engineer (which is a technical field) to a manager is a difficult experience (howard, 2003). the difficult experience of making the shift from technician to supervisor is a challenge that organisations can handle effectively through the implementation of necessary development and coaching interventions. organisations need to acknowledge that a transition should not be seen as a single process of just promoting a technician to a supervisory position and expecting that the same success that was achieved at the technician level will be achieved at a supervisory level. the transition should be viewed as a process (hill, 2003; hood, 1990; newstrom, 2007). the transition process should be a swift and efficient process that is carefully executed to avoid slip-ups, unnecessary stress, low morale and substandard performance. moreover, it is critical that the technicians who make a career transition to a supervisory position have the required skills and competencies to properly manage their team activities (hood, 1990). where there is a gap in the skills required to make the shift, organisations should implement necessary training interventions. training and development were confirmed in both the quantitative and qualitative phase as significant requirements for the transition from a technician to a supervisor. training and development should aim to provide the necessary skills and competencies for the required position. the triangulation of the results of this study reveal that, as identified in the literature review, the survey and focus group participants agree that the competencies for technicians and supervisors differ and that technicians should be groomed to acquire and master the additional competencies required by supervisors. implications of the findings the management competencies that are required to transition a technician to a supervisor have three important implications for the employees, managers and clients of the organisation. firstly, the literature review may guide the organisation to identify the key competencies that are essential for a technician and a supervisor. the list of competencies for each position could be used as a tool for recruiting, engaging, retaining and addressing the gaps in the required key competencies for each position. furthermore, the list of competencies could be an effective tool for transitioning a technician to a supervisory position. secondly, the findings reveal that the competencies for supervisors are shared by technicians; however, additional competencies are required in a supervisory position. more demands are placed on supervisors than on technicians (hilgert & leonard, 2008; hodgetts, 2007; mintzberg, 2009). supervisors need to create a balance between getting work done and building relationships within their teams (badawy, 1995; hilgert & leonard, 2008; yulk, 2008). according to the focus group findings, supervisory positions are often complex: in addition to allocating and supervising the work of individuals and teams, there is the added responsibility of managing conflict amongst team members, managing time spent by teams on tasks and attending and managing meetings, which could sometimes last an entire workday. thirdly, the findings of this study confirm that organisations should implement development or training interventions that are essential to successfully transition an employee from the level of a technician to the level of a supervisor. the results reveal that such a transition should not be treated as a one-off event, but as a process that takes time; hence, it should be seen as progressing through five overlapping stages that occur over several months or even years (badawy, 1995; newstrom, 2007). therefore, organisations need to build effective training and development interventions and design supporting structures to ensure the smooth transition of technicians into supervisory positions. the proposed development solutions or interventions to enhance management competencies that are required in the transition from a technician to a supervisory position may be used to guide hrd professionals in supporting the development of a learning environment in which there is sharing of knowledge and skills. organisations should implement processes to identify and support the potential challenges that are faced by the technicians who make the transition into supervisory positions. limitations of the study the study was conducted in one organisation within the energy sector; hence, generalisation of the results into other organisations is limited. the competencies used in the questionnaires could not always be substantiated by the literature as there was a scarcity of literature on the competencies required for a technician and a supervisor, especially those within an electricity generation organisation. however, the competencies identified in this study will fulfil the purpose for which it was intended, especially for the organisation under study. it is hoped that this study will form a theoretical framework for further studies on the subject of supervisory and management competencies as required by junior staff seeking promotion opportunities. recommendations for future research as a recommendation, further research should be conducted on a variety of organisations in the energy sector to verify the competencies described in this paper as well as to allow for generalisation of the results. further research is required for a broader population including different types of industries that employ technicians and supervisors. a future study could investigate the more complex designs involving inferential statistics to determine which competencies have the highest prediction value on the effective execution of work when a technician is promoted to a supervisory position. conclusion top ↑ the main objective of this study was to establish the management competencies that are required for a technician to make the transition into a supervisory position. this study also provided a comprehensive view on the management competencies that are required for a technician to make a smooth transition to a supervisory position. the response rate and the interest in the content of this research confirm the importance of this subject within the studied organisation. to achieve these in-depth research findings, this study applied a sequential mixed methods research approach. the quantitative phase utilised the survey questionnaire to identify and verify the competencies identified during the literature review. the results from the quantitative phase were used as input to the qualitative phase of this study. the qualitative phase utilised focus group discussions to validate the identified competencies, assign a degree of importance and identify additional competencies for technicians transitioning into supervisors. research participants recommended that training or development interventions are imperative to successfully transition employees from a technician to a supervisory position. the overall findings confirm that when technicians are promoted to a supervisory position, the additional competencies for supervisors are not considered and technicians are not provided with the essential training that is critical for the supervisory position. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions s.r.m. (university of johannesburg) performed the research and wrote the article. c.g. (university of johannesburg) was a supervisor. references top ↑ analyzer technician opportunities project. (2009). analyzer technician competency model. baytown, tx: national science foundation, lee college. aucoin, b. (2002). from engineer to manager: mastering the transition. norwood, ma: artech house. badawy, m. (1995). developing managerial skills in engineers and scientists: succeeding as a technical manager. (2nd edn.). new york, ny: john wiley & sons. barley, s. (1996). technicians in the workplace: ethnographic evidence for bringing work into organizational studies. administrative science quarterly, 41, 404–441. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2393937 barley, s.r., & bechky, b. (1994). in the backrooms of science: the work of technicians in science labs. work and occupations, 21, 85–126. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0730888494021001004 becker, m. (2009). competence matrix for the sector electronics/electrical engineering. paper presented at the vocational qualification transfer system (vqtsii), flensburg, germany, june. bernadi, l., kleim, s., & von der lippe, h. (2007). social influences on fertility: a comparative mixed methods study in eastern and western germany. journal of mixed methods research, 1, 23–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2345678906292238 boone, l.e., & kurtz, d.l. (2011). contemporary business. (14th edn.). new york, ny: john wiley & sons, inc. charan, r., drotter, s., & noel, j. (2001). the leadership pipeline. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. cooper, d.r., & schindler, p.s. (2012). business research methods. (9th edn.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. creswell, j.w. (2009). qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. creswell, j.w., & plano, c. (2011). designing and conducting mixed methods research. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, inc. de beer, a., & rossouw, d. (2005). focus on operational management. a generic approach. cape town, south africa: juta. de vos, a.s. (2002). research at grassroots for the social science and the helping profession. pretoria, south africa: van schaik. ebberwein, c.a., krieshok, t.s., ulven, j.c., & prosser, e.c. (2004). voices in transition: lessons on career adaptability. career development quarterly, 52(4), 292–308. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2004.tb00947.x engineering council of south africa (ecsa). (2003). ecsa policy statement r2/1c. acceptable engineering work for registration of professional engineering technicians. johannesburg, south africa: ecsa. freedman, a. (1998). pathways and crossroads to institutional leadership. consulting psychology journal, 50, 131–151. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1061-4087.50.3.131 gratton, l. (2000). living strategy: putting people at the heart of corporate purpose. london, uk: pearson education limited. greer, c.r., & plunkett, w.r. (2000). supervision. diversity and teams in the workplace. (9th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. hall, d.t. (2002). careers in and out of organizations. thousand oaks, ca: sage. handschin, b. (2007). mastering the transition from technician to technical manager. talent management consulting. retrieved june 02, 2012, from http://www.talentmci.com hilgert, r.l., & leonard, e.c. (2008). supervision: concepts and practice of management. (9th edn.). cincinnati, oh: south western. hill, l. (2005). becoming a manager. boston, ma: harvard business school press. hodgetts, r.m. (2007). effective supervision: a practical approach. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. hood, d. (1990). transition engineer to manager: specialist to generalist. presented at ieee international engineering conference, management through the year 2000: gaining the competitive advantage, howthorne, ca, 21–24 october 1990. howard, c. (2003). from engineer to engineering manager: a qualitative study of the experiences, challenges, and individual transitions for engineering managers in aerospace industries. retrieved may 26, 2012, from https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/paper/6057/1409 ito, j.k., & brotheridge, c.m. (2005). does supporting employees’ career adaptability lead to commitment, turnover, or both. human resources management, 44, 5–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20037 jogulu, u.d., & pansiri, j. (2011). mixed methods: a research design for management doctoral dissertations. management research review, 34(6), 687–701. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01409171111136211 kadushin, a., & harkness, d. (2002). supervision in social work. (4th edn.). usa: columbia university press. katz, r. (2003). the human side of managing technological innovation. (2nd edn.). new york, ny: oxford university press. lewis, j.p. (2009). making the transition from engineer or technical expert to manager. business management, 10, 21. likert, r. (1932). a technique for the measurement of attitudes. archives of psychology, 140, 1–55. louis, m. (1980). career transition: varieties and commonalities. academy of management review, 5(3), 325–340. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/257108 mahapatro, b.b. (2010). human resource development. in b.b. mahapatro (ed.), human resource management (pp. 272–298), new delhi, india: new age international. mintzberg, h. (2009). the structuring of organisations. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. national academy of engineering. (2005). the engineer of 2020: vision of engineering in the new century. washington, dc: national academies press. newstrom, j.w. (2007). supervision: managing for results. (9th edn.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. osipow, s., & fitzgerald, l. (1996). theories of career development. (4th edn.). toronto, canada: allyn & bacon. reio, t.g., & sutton, f.c. (2006). employer assessment of work-related competencies and workplace adaptation. human resource development quarterly, 17(3), 305–324. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.1176 roberts, k., & biddle, j. (1994). the transition into management by scientist and engineers: a misallocation of efficient use of human resources. human resource management, 33(4), 561–579. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.3930330406 rubin, a., & babbie, e. (2005). research methods for social work. (5th edn.). belmont, ca: thomson, brooks, cole. rue, l.w., & byars, l.l. (2004). supervision: key link to productivity. boston, ma: mcgraw-hill, irwin. seethamraju, r., & agrawal, r. (1999). engineers as managers: a conceptual model of transition. presented at the management of engineering and technology portland international conference (picmet), portland, or, 25–29 july 1999. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/picmet.1999.787818 technician council. (2011). presentation – the technician council. london, uk: the technician council. teddlie, c., & tashakkori, a. (2009). foundations of mixed methods research: integrating quantitative and qualitative techniques in the social behavioural sciences. london, uk: sage. thamhain, h. (1991). from engineer to manager. training & development, 45(9), 66–70. united states office of performance management. (1999). workplace compensations and performance services. engineering technician series gs-0802. washington, dc: author. willis, j. (2007). foundations of qualitative research. thousand oaks, ca: sage publication. woodruffe, c. (2003). what is meant by a competency? leadership and organisational journal, 14(1), 26–36. yulk, g. (2008). leadership in organisations. (7th edn.). albany, ny: university of albany. zikmund, w.j., babin, b.j., carr, j.c., & griffin, m. (2013). business research methods (9th edn.). boulevard, ma: cengage learning. abstract introduction conceptualising performance management and training in the public service various training models to enhance performance in the public service role players in the performance management system capacity versus training and performance management acknowledgements references about the author(s) p. harry munzhedzi department of public and development administration, university of venda, south africa citation munzhedzi, p.h. (2017). a reflection on the relationship between performance management and training in the south african public service. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a864. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.864 note: this article is partially based on the author’s thesis of the degree of master of administration in public administration at the university of south africa, south africa, with supervisor prof. k.g. phago and joint supervisor ms v.p.p. disoloane, received october 2011, available here: http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/5537/thesis_munzhedzi_p.pdf original research a reflection on the relationship between performance management and training in the south african public service p. harry munzhedzi received: 16 sept. 2016; accepted: 29 aug. 2017; published: 22 nov. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: performance management plays a pivotal role in the realisation of many facets of public administration, including service delivery, good governance and organisational productivity through setting of performance targets and regular assessments of performance. in search of improved quality and productivity in the public service, the south african government introduced several legislative and policy interventions, including but not limited to the public service act, 1994 (proclamation 103 of 1994), public service regulations of 2001 and the white paper on transforming public service delivery of 1997. research purpose: the main thrust of this conceptual paper was to explore the relationship between performance management and training in the south african public service. motivation for the study: the lack of sufficient literature on the relationship between performance management and training. to also prove that the two are inseparably linked, meaning that one cannot exist without the other. research design, approach and method: this article, which is conceptual in nature, reviewed existing literature on performance management and training in the public service extensively so as to arrive at a definitive conclusion. main findings: the article contends that as much as training underpins the process of performance management, training is also fortified by performance management. precisely, there cannot be performance management without training and vice versa. practical/managerial implications: as much as training is imperative in the management of performance in the public service, such training must be need-based and it must be underpinned by performance management through identification of skills gap in the assessment of performance. contribution: it is proposed that to enhance the knowledge, capacity, effectiveness and efficiency of the public service performance, needs-based training that seeks to close the skills gap, is developed and adequately implemented. introduction public service regulations of 1999 provide that both present and prospective public servants ought to be trained so as to achieve an efficient, effective, non-partisan and career-oriented public service, which is ‘broadly representative’ of the south african community in terms of section 195 of the constitution of the republic of south africa, 1996 (du toit, knipe, van niekerk, van der waldt & dolve, 2002). such regulations also provide that programmes to educate, train and develop public servants should be demand-driven and that they must seek to address the identified challenges of lack of skills and capacity among others. that is, the public service should at all cost avoid trainings that are not aligned with the skills gap identified. however, proper measures of identifying this lack of skills and capacity must be designed so as to address the existing challenges. in the context of south africa, the department of higher education and training (2016) compiled a report on the skills supply and demand in government departments and reported that there is a dire shortage of skills in the country, needless to say that only 20% have a tertiary qualification, 32% have completed secondary education and close to half of the workforce do not have a grade 12 certificate. this lack of requisite skills has a negative impact on the provision of basic services. kroukamp (2011, p. 25) is of the view that for government departments to improve the relevance of their skills development plans, it is critically important to strengthen, through a coordinated approach with all role players, the manner in which skills assessments and provision are done. unfortunately, the skills audit as well as the trainings provided to public servants, often through national school of government (nsg), are often not aligned (mello, 2015; munzhedzi, 2011). performance management also has a positive contribution towards training management, including that of assisting public service managers to identify and pinpoint performance gaps and weaknesses. the purpose of this article is to explore the relationship between performance management and training in the south african public service. the article commences by providing a coherent conceptualisation of the notions of performance management and training with the view of establishing a commonality in their understanding, at least in the context of this article. the article further argues that the relationship between the two is inevitable in that training often ensues after the lack of skills and capacity has been identified through the performance management process. it is for this reason that munzhedzi (2011) propounds that, performance of both individual employees and by extension the whole organisation is enhanced through training, which should be focused on the identified challenging areas. for adequate understanding, training and performance management are conceptualised before the exploration is advanced. conceptualising performance management and training in the public service according to armstrong (1995, p. 429), performance management is a means of getting better results from an institution, teams and individuals by understanding and managing performance within an agreed framework of planned goals, standards and competence requirements. cardy and dobbins (1994, p. 2), on the other hand, define performance management as a formal and systematic process by means of which the job-relevant strength and weakness of employees are identified, measured, recorded and developed. although performance management may sound as if it has the same meaning as a performance management system (pms), they are different. a pms is an authoritative framework for managing employee performance that includes a policy framework as well as a framework relating to all aspects and elements in the performance cycle, including performance planning and agreement, performance monitoring, review and control, performance appraisal and moderating and managing the outcome of appraisals (mello, 2015; munzhedzi & phago, 2014; simeka management consulting, 2004). munzhedzi (2011, p. 14) also posits that pms gives guidelines on how everything to do with performance management is to be done, from goal setting and deciding how to measure accomplishments to providing regular assessments. a pms is also a process that begins by translating overall institutional objectives into clear individual objectives that will be set as targets for individual employees on a quarterly or annual basis (amos, ristow, ristow & pearse, 2008, p. 286). the performance target of individual employees also sets the agenda for supervisors and individual employees regarding the monitoring and reviewing of performance. it is in those set performance targets and requirements that the satisfactory or non-satisfactory performance of employees will be determined. after such determinations, good performance may be rewarded and poor performance may be improved through appropriate improvement measures. good performance refers to a performance where an employee achieves the set performance targets and bad performance refers to a performance where an employee consistently fails to achieve the set performance targets (aguinis, 2009; mello, 2015; viedge, 2011). in essence, performance management is the means applied to harness available resources to improve performance, productivity and service delivery in the context of the public service. it therefore means that performance management focuses not only on the management of the workforce but also on the effective, efficient and economic use of requisite resources including but not limited to financial and material resources. most important is that the said resources may be properly managed by a trained and competent workforce. institutions all over the world are often applying wide-ranging strategies to stay ahead of global competition insofar as training and development is concerned. in order to stay ahead of the said competition, kroukamp (2011, p. 24) posits that institutions should continuously invest in the skills and knowledge capital of the workforce through inter alia training. however, it can be argued that training is not a miracle cure by which all management and administrative challenges can be unravelled. it is one of the pivotal human resource development practices that may be used by an institution to capacitate and improve the productivity of their workforce (erasmus, loedolff, mda & nel, 2008, p. 45). training basically refers to a learning opportunity that is provided in order to improve individual as well as organisational performance (vukovic, zavrsnik, rodic & miglic, 2008, p. 655), and it assists government to develop some kind of necessary capacities of public servants and promote institutional change. the said capacitation contributes towards equipping these public servants with the necessary knowledge, skills and competencies to achieve their set performance targets effectively and efficiently. like performance management being a paramount factor in training and development, training plays a crucial role in the performance management process. of paramount importance, as far as kroukamp (2011) is concerned, is that training is one mechanism which, if properly utilised, could bring about a visible change in the performance of the public service. the ensuing discussion focuses on the different training models applicable in enhancing the skills gap that would have been identified through the performance management process further supporting kroukamp’s (2011) argument that performance and training are inextricably interconnected to each other. mello (2015) correctly notes that for good management performance to take place, a proper functioning pms is necessary. that is, a proper pms is a prerequisite for proper performance management. various training models to enhance performance in the public service there are different models that are used to impart knowledge and skills in the public service officials, namely, orientation training, e-learning, sensitivity training, team building, case study, coaching and job rotation (du toit et al., 2002). department of higher education and training (2016) indicates that there is a mismatch between the kind of skills and competencies that are in demand versus what the education sector is currently supplying. department of higher education and training (2016) further notes that skills that lack in the main are those in the scare skills professions, including but not limited to health sciences, accounting and engineering. these lacking skills are the ones that are needed the most, but they are in short supply. to a certain extent, this may affect the overall organisational performance because there is generally lack of skills in the south african public service including at the local sphere of government. the different models of training that the government may consider in addressing the lack of skills and capacity are discussed below. orientation training while new employees may have requisite academic qualifications, they often lack necessary familiarity with specific circumstances and skills of the new job (national school of government, 2015; underwood, 2002). it is paramount that each and every new public service employee is orientated so that he or she may be familiarised with the new work environment including all the technicalities required. it is therefore a prerequisite for all new employees to be oriented (public service commission, 2014). the performance of an employee who has not been oriented is likely to be affected in that the employee does not have a clear picture of the organisational objectives and his or her part in a bigger puzzle. it is critical that an employee understands or be oriented of the bigger picture in the organisation so that he or she may be able to link his or her performance targets with the organisational annual plan, strategic plan, vision and mission and the national development plan (ndp) in the case of government in its entirety (minnaar, 2010). it is therefore crucial to ensure that new employees are oriented so as to augment their performance and the management of it thereof. sensitivity training sensitivity training refers to training that focuses on improving interpersonal relations (du toit et al., 2002, p. 181; mello, 2013; underwood, 2002). in this case, it is assumed that emotional problems contribute negatively in the job performance of employees. van der weisthuizen and wessels (2013, p. 334) purport that the main aim of sensitivity training is to sensitise or make employees aware of their own behaviour and how such behaviour affects fellow co-workers. this effect may either be positive or negative. it is for this reason that most public service institutions have got a specialised unit called ‘employees’ wellness programme’, which basically focuses on the wellness of employees. it does counselling for employees who either have marital, drug or alcohol problems particularly because all these ‘not work-related’ problems directly or indirectly do affect the performance of the employees in the public service. it is therefore safe to say that work-related skills alone do not matter as far as performance management is concerned. team building team building is often about new or even old employees of the department or the municipality getting to know each other in a not-so-formal environment. according to van der weisthuizen and wessels (2013, p. 334), team building addresses information about how the groups work together, what problems exist and what norms are followed and sought. activities associated with team building are goal setting, development of interpersonal relations and clarification of roles and responsibilities (du toit et al., 2002; knipe, 2002). after the interactions, the facilitator assists the group to understand the feedback and also develop the action plans so as to improve the processes and increase trust and openness. the more employees interact, the more they get to know each other and the more they know and trust each other, the more they are likely to perform well as a group and the more they perform well as a group, the more the organisation is likely to be productive, which ultimately results in improved service delivery. simulation simulation refers to a method whereby a particular work is done in the presence of the employees or trainees, thereafter, those employees will have to replicate it to show that they have learned. the main objective of simulation is to show that employees may be able to replicate that which they have learned (de cenzo & robbins, 1994, p. 269; knipe, 2002; van der westhuizen & wessels, 2013, p. 335). some of these works is done or shown to a group but individual employees have to demonstrate an element of understanding. case study to demonstrate an understanding, employees or trainees may be provided with a written description of a particular actual or hypothetical case. in such cases, employees or trainees are required to analyse the case, identify and discuss the identified problem and finally suggest possible solutions. de cenzo and robbins (1994, p. 269) posit that the case study method seeks to show trainees that there is no easy solution to organisational problems, that there may be various but equally valid solutions and that case studies assist trainees with problem-solving skills. coaching coaching basically refers to a case where experienced managers guide, mentor and supervise the work of those who are less experienced (fisher, schoenfelt & shaw, 1993, p. 39). the advantage of coaching is that trainees receive performance feedback as and when they engage in their daily tasks and activities. with coaching, the mentor or the coach is more hands-on regarding guidance and supervision unlike the other methods of training (de cenzo & robbins, 1994). it is also one of the best forms of identifying underperformance and good performance. it is through this identification of the state of performance that mentors or managers are able to develop improvement or corrective plans (erasmus, swanepoel, schenk, van der westhuizen & wessels, 2005, p. 337). it is through coaching that underperformance is identified and addressed as and when it is identified, meaning that the coach does not have to wait until the end of the quarter or the financial year. however, other scholars including fisher, schoenfelt and shaw (1993, p. 39), are of the opinion that the disadvantage is that the trainee may adopt the manager or mentor’s way of doing things, which may at times not necessarily be the best there is. this article argues that coaching is one of the best method of training and performance management ingredient compared to other training models discussed. job rotation job rotation refers to a method of moving employees from one job assignment to another within the same organisation and possibly in the same salary or job level (van der westhuizen & wessels, 2013, p. 336). this is done to give employees a broader perspective of the mission, vision and objectives of the organisation. in a way, job rotation encourages generalists instead of job specialists in that organisational employees obtain overall perspective of the organisation. in short, you can not only be able to manage organisational human resource but also you must be able to develop strategic plan, draft budget and project expenditure, train the unskilled, analyse expenditure patterns and so on. it also becomes easier to cover for an employee who is on leave or replace an employee who has just resigned because other employees are generalists as well and they can fill in the gap in no time. it therefore means that there is a greater benefit in job benefit in that individual employees are exposed to broader organisational objectives and operations (decenzo & robbins, 1994, p. 272) than specialising or having one focus area. it is also a common purpose that more employees may appreciate being exposed to other greater opportunities than to do routine and boring work. however, a disadvantage may be that other employees have become more like specialists in their specific field of work. this may mean that they may not want to be rotated for the fact that they are already a specialist and learning a new field may prove to be difficult. nevertheless, job rotation is a positive contribution not only to public service training but also to performance management. an individual employee may be moved from one unit to another for having under-performed or lack of skills on their previous division or unit. the movement is often done with an anticipation that the identified employee will perform better in the new unit because they have a particular skill, qualification or desire that may assist him or her perform better in the new unit. e-learning e-learning refers to a learning approach whereby learning resources, including booklets and software materials, are provided electronically to the targeted group of public service employees (more, 2002; van der westhuizen & wessels, 2013, p. 336). these learning materials could also be a video, audio, slideshow or web-based training services provided through online portal. the advantage of this form of training is that to an established organisation, this may be cost-effective in that the institution does not have to hire an external service provider or a physical being to conduct training. the information technology (it) devices may be able to provide such training with a click of a button. it is important to note that the introduction of technology must be accompanied by technological illiteracy of employees as well as availability of relevant equipment (mathevula & uwizeyimana, 2014). e-learning may be a valuable tool of conveying needed information to public officials. while the same it devices may be valuable for training purposes, they may be used to capture performance management information as well. such information may include submission of performance instruments, underperformers, good performers and those who are in need of training. it further justifies the fact that the relationship between performance management and training is inevitable. however, e-learning may prove to be a challenge in a country like south africa where computer illiteracy is widespread (mathevula & uwizeyimana, 2014). it means that government in its entirety may have to strengthen its base and capacity regarding its effort to train its officials. the foregoing paragraphs highlighted various types of training model that may be used to impart knowledge and capacity in the public service officials particularly for skills gap identified through the performance management process. however, each of these different models has got its own pros and cons. nevertheless, each one of these models may contribute positively to the development of capacity in the south african public service, particularly if others may be applied simultaneous, such as coaching and job rotation. munzhedzi (2011, p. 34) posits that it is imperative for the municipality (or the public service in this case) as provided for by section 45 of the municipal systems act, 2000 (act 32 of 2000), to conduct a performance audit in order to find out their strengths and weaknesses. in essence, these models are not only enablers of training insofar as capacitation is concerned but they complete the performance management process in that underperformers are assisted through the very same models discussed. the ensuing paragraphs discuss different role players and the specific role they play in the performance management process. role players in the performance management system there are several role players in the process of managing performance in the public service. these role players include the public service commission, the department of public service and administration (dpsa), nsg, trade unions and employees. these role players are discussed in detail below. public service commission the public service commission (psc) was established in terms of section 196 of the 1996 constitution as a chapter 10 institution that promotes values and principles set out in section 195, throughout the public service (republic of south africa, 1996). some functions of the commission are to propose measures to ensure effective and efficient performance within the public service. the commission also has a watchdog role to play in that it investigates, monitors and evaluates human resource practices of the public services (erasmus et al., 2005, p. 9; mello, 2013; psc, 2014). the performance agreements of provincial heads of department and national directors general are coordinated by the office of the psc. the implementation of human resource policies are monitored and evaluated at the psc. upon completion of its processes of investigations, inspections, monitoring and evaluations, the commission publishes its findings as public reports. some of the reports published include a report on the payment of performance incentives (bonuses or pay progression) to heads of departments without annual performance evaluations conducted in 2008 and a report on the analysis of performance agreements as an effective performance management tool conducted in 2009. a psc has further responsibility to advise national and provincial organs of state regarding personnel practices relating to recruitment, appointment, transfer, discharge and career management (mello, 2015; psc, 2014). it is the responsibility of the psc to ensure that policies such as the pms are properly implemented in the public service and advise where necessary. department of public service and administration according to the white paper on human resource management in the public service of 1997, the dpsa focuses in terms of human resources solely on the public service. the key responsibilities for the dpsa include developing human resource policies, getting support for such policies from organised labour at national level, ensuring practicality of application for the policies and ensuring that human resource policies are aligned with other transformation initiatives (department of public service and administration, 1997; erasmus et al., 2005, p. 35). the dpsa also has to give support service to national departments and provincial administration regarding the implementation of human resource policies and development of capacity to implement the developed policies and programmes. even the first pms policy framework was initiated by the dpsa in 1999 to serve as a guide to national and provincial departments in developing their own departmental policies. all public service institutions have to align their policies with dpsa’s framework. individual performance targets have to be aligned to the departmental goals and objectives in order to enhance the overall performance of the department (banfield & kay, 2008, p. 310). however, the policy of a specific department must be in line with the dpsa’s policy framework on a pms and each department’s policy must be relevant to its own needs and circumstances. national of school of government nsg seeks to contribute towards establishing a capable, professional and responsive public service that is committed to and has institutionalised the values and policies of a developmental state (national school of government, 2015, p. 10). the nsg was officially launched in 2013, which was a replacement to the public administration leadership and management academy (palama) and this was established in 2008 as a replacement for the south african management development institute with the mandate of facilitating training provision to public servants (kroukamp, 2011, p. 26). nsg is constituted as a schedule 1 department by the public service act, 1994 (proclamation 103 of 1994) as amended by the public service act, 1999 (act 5 of 1999). nsg is headed by a director-general who reports to the minister of public service and administration. nsg, as the public sector training academy, has a central role to play in building the capacity of the public service to perform effectively and efficiently (palama, 2010, p. 3). palama trains and develops public service employees in order to enable them to improve their performances, which will then contribute to the improvement of public service delivery. however, there are major challenges facing nsg in the fulfilment of its mandate of contributing to the development of a high-performing public service by capacitating public servants (palama 2010, p. 4). one of the challenges includes the uncoordinated way in which public service training is conducted. palama aims to ensure that public servants have all the necessary skills including technical, leadership and financial. according to the public service amendment act, 2007 (act 30 of 2007), there shall be a training institution listed as a national department, which shall provide training or cause such training to be provided (republic of south africa, 2007). lack of understanding of a pms in the public service should be addressed by nsg through relevant training programmes. trade unions the labour relation act, 1995 (act 66 of 1995) defines a union as an association of employees whose primary purpose is to regulate the relations between employees and employers including associations that represent employers. a union that wishes to continuously be in touch with issues affecting its members in any institution will ensure that it has a shop steward at every level possible (republic of south africa, 1995; bendix, 2001, p. 167). unions have to ensure that the management of an institution recognises their shop stewards because they (shop stewards) play a pivotal role in the workplace in all matters that affect their membership. it must also be highlighted that public sector employment is highly unionised with majority of its employees affiliated to one union or the other (kroukamp, 2011, p. 22). congress of south african trade unions constitutes majority of the public service employees. from the development of a pms policy to the facilitation of the process, trade unions play a role in representing the interests of their members. the unfair treatment of employees with regard to payment of performance bonuses or subjective assessment of employees’ performance often leads to trade unions being in endless confrontations with management. the shop steward has to ensure that the relationship between the union and its members is maintained and promoted (bendix, 2001, p. 168). when employees have not received performance bonuses at the end of the financial year, they often lodge complaints with a trade union against their employer. trade unions also intervene when their members allege that they have been treated unfairly as far as the pms is concerned. capacity versus training and performance management there is an inevitable relationship between the human capacity of public service employees together with their training and performance management. capacity refers to the availability of and access to concrete or tangible resources (human, financial, material or technological) and having the knowledge to implement policies and the delivery of public services (koma, 2010, p. 114). capacity may also refer to the intangible resources such as commitment to, and leadership for, the implementation of policies and delivery of public services (brynard & de coning, 1999, p. 2006). it may also be associated with potential to translate policy objectives into practical and tangible outcomes, which are often the needs of the community as captured during the development of manifestos by political parties. it is generally well accepted that some policies of government are very good and well thought of. however, the question of capacities of public functionaries always come into play. no matter how good the public policies are, lack of capacity often results in limited or no implementation of those policies at all. in a way, capacity makes a huge difference between a good and a bad public policy. lack of capacity to translate the said policies is often identified through performance management processes, namely, quarterly and annual assessments often by supervisors. through the said assessments which are done on a regular basis, supervisors are able to pinpoint and identify lack of skills and capacity, underperformance and good performance by officials. however, it must also be noted that underperformance is not always as a result of lack of skills and capacity. it may also be because of pure laziness. it is also the view of ivancevich, konopaske and matteson (2011, p. 209) that employees should not be required to perform responsibilities that exceed their current skill or knowledge level if they have not received training. more efficient structures, procedures and criteria of training have to be established with the public service sector education and training authority taking the lead role in this respect (munzhedzi, 2011, p. 30). however, the process does not end at the regular assessments of performance but at closing the gap between the lack of skills and capacity and achieving the set performance objectives. training plays a vital role in the implementation of a pms in any public service institution. a pms that is not linked to training is not likely to succeed in the inculcation of maximum performance. lack of training in an institution can result in underutilised abilities (byars & rue, 2006, p. 222). to be precise, an inevitable relationship between skills and capacity, training and performance management exists. it often starts with identification of lack of skills and capacity through performance management and proceeds with training of those with limited skills and capacity. it must be noted that one may only identify weaknesses and strength if you assess that particular performance. it is then that training may be effected to enhance skills and capacity of those found to be lacking. however, munzhedzi (2011, p. 78) correctly postulates that in government most of the training that is done is not aligned to the skills gap or challenge. nevertheless, the public service commission (2010, p. 8) is emphatic on the fact that the functioning of the machinery of government needs to be strengthened through the development of appropriate skills to ensure that institutional capacity is built and services can be delivered optimally. conclusion in essence, the south african public service is essentially responsible for bringing government policy into practice. basically, the public service is there to implement government policies and realise the policy objectives into practical operations. however, implementation of government policies may not be such a smooth process if the implementing body, namely, the public service does not have capacity to implement. it is the duty of government to ensure that underperformance and lack of skill and capacity are pinpointed and identified so that they may be addressed through appropriate measures. kroukamp (2011) correctly posits that the numerous training programmes developed to address the skills gap in the field of public administration and management, be it the formal curricula, work-integrated learning to improve the challenges regarding bridging the gap between theory and practice or memoranda of understanding between different role players to transfer skills for improved service delivery, should adequately reflect and address ongoing challenges seeking to improve productivity or service delivery in the case of the public service. to this end, orientation, sensitivity training, e-learning, job rotation, coaching, case study, team building and simulation are some of the measures that may be used to address skills and capacity gap in the public service so as to ultimately improve performance of employees. however, performance management as a system that is used to identify performance gaps must also be beefed-up so that it may be able to do so effectively. the implication of this analogy is that, if skills gaps are not correctly identified through pms, the training programmes developed may incorrectly solve the wrong problem and the service provision is going to suffer. wessels (2006, p. 1505) also concurs that if the wrong problem has been diagnosed or if the wrong skill shortage has been identified, then wrong or inappropriate solutions may be proposed. as a result, employees will be trained on skills they do not need, meaning the wrong problem will be addressed. munzhedzi (2011, p. 78) postulated that training could play a paramount role in the improvement of performance and productivity in government. however, there must be a proper skills audit and training based on proper and regular assessments. in order to avoid unnecessary expenditure on training, the impact (of these trainings) should be seen through the performance of an employee. nevertheless, the significance and the unavoidable link between the two variables, namely, performance management and training cannot be overemphasised because they complement each other, and that one cannot be successfully be undertaken without the other. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. references aguinis, h. (2009). performance management. upper saddle river, nj: pearson prentice hall. amos, t.l., ristow, a., ristow, l., & pearse, n.j. (2008). human resource management. (3rd edn.). cape town: juta & co ltd. armstrong, m. (1995). a handbook of personnel management practice. london: kegan page. banfield, p., & kay, r. (2008). introduction to human resources management. new york: oxford university press. bendix, s. (2001). industrial relations in south africa. lansdowne: juta. brynard, p., & de coning, c. (1999). policy implementation. in f. cloete, h. wissink, & c. de coning (eds.), improving public policy, (pp. 196–203). pretoria: van schaik publishers. byars, l.l., & rue, l.w. (2006). human resource management. new york: mcgraw-hill. cardy, r., & dobbins, g. (1994). performance appraisal: alternative perspectives. cincinnati, oh: south-western college publishing. de cenzo, d.a., & robbins, s.p. (1994). human resource management: concepts and practice. toronto: wiley. department of higher education and training. (2016). skills supply and demand in south africa. pretoria: dhet. department of public service and administration. (1997). white paper on human resource management in the public service. pretoria: government printer. du toit, d., knipe, a., van niekerk, d., van der waldt, g., & dolve, m. (2002). service excellence in governance. sandown: heinemann. erasmus, b., swanepoel, b., schenk, h., van der westhuizen, e.j., & wessels, j.s. (2005). south african human resource management for the public sector. cape town: juta. erasmus, b.j., loedolff, p.v.z., mda, t., & nel, p.s. (2008). managing training and development in south africa (4th ed.). cape town: oxford southern africa. fisher, c.d., schoenfelt, l.f., & shaw, j.b. (1993). human resource management. boston, ma: houghton mifflin. ivancevich, j.m., konopaske, r., & matteson, m.t. (2011). organisational behavior and management. new york: mcgraw-hill. knipe, a. (2002). project human resources management. in a. knipe, g. van der waldt, d. van niekerk, d. burger, & k. nell (eds.), project management for success. sandown: heinemann. koma, s.b. (2010). the state of local government in south africa: issues, trends and options. journal of public administration, 45(1.1), 111–120. kroukamp, h. (2011). efficient and responsive public services: are departments of public administration and management at universities playing their rightful role? administratio publica, 19(1), 20–32. mathevula, m.d., & uwizeyimana, d.e. (2014). the challenges facing the integration of ict in teaching and learning activities in south african rural secondary schools. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(20), 1087–1097. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p1087 mello, d.m. (2013). managing human capital in the public sector. pretoria: van schaik. mello, d.m. (2015). performance management and development system in the south african public service: a critical review. journal of public administration, 50(3.1), 688–699. minnaar, f. (2010). strategic and performance management in the public sector. pretoria: van schaik. more, s. (2002, february 21–23). e-learning: a new tool of education in ycmou. paper presented at the 15th annual conference of the asian association open universities (aaou), new delhi, india. munzhedzi, p.h. (2011). performance management system and improved productivity: a case of the department of local government and housing in the limpopo province. unpublished masters dissertation. pretoria: university of south africa. munzhedzi, p.h., & phago, k. (2014). performance management system quandary in the public service: a case of the limpopo province, south africa. journal of public administration, 49(4), 1083–1099. national school of government. (2015). strategic plan 2015/16–2019/20. pretoria: nsg. public administration leadership and management academy (palama). (2010). public administration leadership and management academy’s strategic plan for 2010–2013. pretoria: palama. public service commission (psc). (2010). state of the public service report. pretoria: government printers. public service commission (psc). (2014). public service commission annual report 2013/2014. pretoria: government printers. republic of south africa. (1995). labour relation act, 1995 (act 66 of 1995). pretoria: government printer. republic of south africa. (1996). constitution of the republic of south africa, 1996. pretoria: government printer. republic of south africa. (2007). public service amendment act, 2007 (act 30 of 2007). pretoria: government printer. simeka management consulting. (2004). performance management system information manual. polokwane: limpopo provincial government. underwood, w.l. (2002). cultural awareness sensitivity training. unpublished masters dissertation. charleston, wv: marshall university. van der westhuizen, e., & wessels, j.s. (2013). south african human resource management for the public sector (2nd ed.). cape town: juta. viedge, c. (2011). performance management. in a. werner (ed.), organisational behaviour: a contemporary south african perspective (3rd ed.), (pp. 135–158). pretoria: van schaik. vukovic, g., zavrsnik, b., rodic, b., & miglic, g. (2008). the training of civil servants in the slovene state administration: issues in introducing training evaluation. international review of administrative sciences, 74(4), 653–676. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852308098473 wessels, j.s. (2006). the challenge of knowledge production by researchers in public administration, a south african perspective. south african journal of higher education, 19(special edition), 1499–1515. 5netswera.qxd an examination of employee retention literature reveals that efforts to retain employees are more focused on employees with core competencies or in core business units. unfavourable working conditions and low and unattractive remuneration have in most industries and in specific skill areas led to skills migration, even between countries. job hopping and skills migration have consequently become a global phenomenon and impact negatively on south africa’s post-apartheid job market. it is now common knowledge that skills flight from mainly the southern african development community (sadc) is mainly to europe, the united states of america (usa) and australia, and has generally resulted in huge skills shortages in specific skill markets (stanley, russel & jacobse, 1990). in south africa the current skills shortage as reflected in the proportion of vacancies in june 2003 was computing professionals (16.8%), engineers (11.9%), accountants and related accounting occupations (26.7%), personnel and careers professionals (15.8) and economists (7.9%). the technikons put more emphasis on programmes in business and management (47%) and in science, engineering and technology (33%) in attempt of meeting skills demanded in the economy (dol, 2003). while south africa has experienced skills flight, there is also an observed high influx of international universities. increased student registration in these foreign universities poses another challenge – if this trend continues, a possible drop in student numbers in south african public higher education institutions may be expected. subotzky (2003, p.417), however, believes that private universities, rather than purely competing for students and funds, are playing a complementary role in the development of south african human resources skills requirements. the subject of staff retention has been explored extensively in the corporate sector, but what remains largely undocumented are the efforts of higher education institutions in retaining their valuable staff members. employee retention cost according to the american management association, the biggest cost on turnover is that of replacing an employee who leaves. this cost is calculated conservatively at 30% of an employee’s annual salary and for those employees whose skills are in high demand, the cost can rise to two-thirds of their annual salary (dibble, 1999). however, other studies have found the replacement costs of lost talent to be between 70% and 200% of the lost employee’s annual salary (kaye & jordan-evans, 1999, p.29). increasing aggressive recruitment and global demands have made retaining the scarce skills more difficult. the main shortcoming is not only losing key members, but the lost productivity and replacement cost. very few institutions can afford to employ, train and allow their most valued and talented employees to leave, when it is difficult to find better replacements. salopek (2000) and the irs report (2000) state that retention leaders need to do the following in order to avoid brain drain (in no order of priority): � managing people and not retention; � having a culture of caring, balanced with a tradition of excellence; � never soliciting employee feedback and then ignoring it; � keeping an eye on the high performers and rewarding outstanding performance; � viewing people management as a strategic management issue; � being relentless in pursuit of continuous improvement. fg netswera council for scientific and industrial research (csir) em rankhumise department of human resources management tshwane university of technology rankhumiseem@tut.ac.za tr mavundla department of health studies unisa abstract the success of the most competitive companies throughout the world, including higher education institutions, lies in their highly skilled employees on which these institutions spend millions to retain. literature reveals the cost of losing best employees to be enormous – beyond monetary quantification. also worth noting is that the loss of one competent employee to a competitor institution strengthens the competitor’s advantage. this case study analysed human resources turnover data, and interviewed academic managers and employees in order to examine the possible employee retention factors for a higher education institution in south africa. the findings reveal different institutional interests between institutional managers and employees. the former are concerned more about profits, business sustenance and justification for spending, while the latter are driven by introverted interests such as development, monetary rewards and personal fulfilment. opsomming die sukses van die mededingendste maatskappye regoor die wêreld, insluitende tersiêre opleidingsinstansies, lê in hulle hoogs opgeleide werknemers, en hierdie instansies spandeer miljoene om hierdie werknemers te behou. volgens die literatuur is die koste verbonde aan die verlies van die beste werknemers enorm – baie meer as wat in geld uitgedruk kan word. wat ook merkwaardig is, is dat die verlies van een bevoegde werknemer aan ’n mededingende instansie die mededinger se voordeel versterk. in hierdie gevallestudie is menslikehulpbronomsetdata ontleed en onderhoude met akademiese bestuurders en werknemers gevoer ten einde moontlike werknemerbehoudfaktore vir ’n tersiêre opleidingsinstansie in suid-afrika te ondersoek. die bevindinge openbaar uiteenlopende institusionele belange tussen institusionele bestuurders en werknemers. eersgenoemde is meer gemoeid met die wins, besigheidsinstandhouding en regverdiging vir besteding terwyl laasgenoemde gedryf word deur interne belange soos ontwikkeling, geldelike belonings en persoonlike tevredenheid. employee retention factors for south african higher education institutions: a case study requests for copies should be addressed to: em rankhumise, rankhumiseem@tut.ac.za 36 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (2), 36-40 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (2), 36-40 salopek (2000, p.20) views the following critical elements to be important if any organisation has to effect a good employee retention exercise: � communicating how each employee contributes to the corporate vision and mission; � developing a climate of trust; � improving the skills level of the managers who supervise professional staff; � providing management training, including effective leadership skills by emphasising development; � clarif ying the understanding of employees’ needs and reinforcement of frequent communication; � not burning workers out; � clarif ying roles and responsibilities to accelerate learning contribution; � investing in maintaining ongoing commitment by paying the best talent what they are worth while losing employees is a very costly exercise, the replacement costs incurred include advertising and recruitment expenses, orientation and training of new employees, decreased productivity until the new employee is up to speed and loss of customers who were loyal to the departing employee. finding, recruiting and training the best employees represent major investment challenges. once a company has captured talented people, the return on investment requires closing the back door to prevent them from walking out. the key role of human resources development professionals should be to lead the war for talent on behalf of their organisations (kaye & jordan-evans, 1999, p.29). the retention foundation and core competencies a review by dibble (1999) suggests that retention starts long before an employee is recruited, that is, when describing the position intended to be filled. job descriptions, recruitment, selection and orientation are the imperatives of retention. why does retention commence before the actual employment is effected? if the job descriptions do not define what institutions are looking for, then recruits will not meet the requirements and, as such, will not stay. certain considerations, such as employee potential for training and development, should, however, be taken into consideration. central to instit utional requirements is their direction embedded in their vision and mission. departments within the institutions, through human resources, translate these into recruitment, training and development policies (smit, 1997, p.19). a human resources management strategy therefore emanates from and is based directly on the corporate strategy. competent human resources management planning that integrates policies, practices and procedures to achieve the right numbers of people in the right jobs at the right time is required (horwitz, 1991, p.116). core business units and the respective competencies obviously vary from one institution to the next, depending on, among other things, competitive strategies and differentiation. all higher education institutions require clear objectives in line with their mandate and core faculties that address their target markets, be it community development or skills development (tach & murphy, 1995). all institutions should therefore address the core competencies and human characteristics that are required for successful careers, responsible citizenship and a good life (chickering & stewart, 1995). the current dilemma, however, is that retaining employees in the post-apartheid south african higher education system is not only limited to addressing core business activities and required competencies, but includes responsiveness to the national imperatives for redress such as employment equity and skills development initiatives. case study methodology against the given background and literature and owing to the then perceived high employee t urnover rate of the institution surveyed, which was 157 administrative and 49 academics in t wo years, the instit utional researchers considered it important to assess the institution’s retention efforts. the research aims and objectives were executed in three phases as follows: phase 1: this phase was aimed at identif ying exit and employment trends. quantitative analysis of the secondary dataset of the period between 1998 and 2000 from the human resources department gave an indication of the exit and employment trends. phase 2: in this phase, the institutional management, that is the vice-chancellor, deputy vice-chancellors and deans of departments, were individually interviewed to identif y what the institution considered to be its core business units and competencies. the assumption, also informed by literature, is that these competencies are vital for the institution to retain its employees. phase 3: two categories of employees were individually interviewed, that is, those who had submitted resignations to leave the institution and those that had stayed with the institution for more than five years. the purpose of these interviews was to explore and describe employee retention factors. all resigning employees (23) who had resigned during the duration of the research were interviewed; however, 10 long-service employees were randomly selected. due to the sensitivit y of the information and in line with research ethics, all interviewees were promised anonymit y. recorded information was transcribed, coded and analysed using tesch’s descriptive methods in themes and sub-themes (creswell, 1994). the presentat ion of research findings in this art icle makes use of direct verbatim comments to foster a clear understanding of interviewees’ original thoughts. discussion the findings of this project are discussed in their respective separate phases below. phase 1: employee turnover data the important question to answer in this phase of the project was: in which departments and what types of skills are mainly lost? the analysis revealed the following trends: � a major loss of white employees, 78,6% (162), 48% (100) of whom were female (n = 206). � more administrative staff in academic departments, 76% (157), than the academics themselves, 23,7% (49), had left the institution during the period 1998-2000. it is evident that the institution lost most white employees and replaced them with blacks in an equit y redress effort. however, employment figures show similar trends. there is also very little to no evidence at all that suggests that the types and level of skills that the institution had lost were distinct in nature. phase 2: the identification of core business units and competencies interviews with the management component of the institution revealed the core business units and competencies to be imbedded in the institution’s value chain mission, illustrated by figure 1. employee retention factors 37 the figure depicts what management assumed to be the core business of the institution, that is, “to offer a qualit y learning experience to its learners”. while academic departments are central to the facilitation of qualit y learning experience, this cannot be achieved without full support from other departments. the qualit y learning experience is seen as a value chain to which each business unit directly contributes. each employee should therefore have a sense of purpose of being part of the core of the institution, that is, adopt an attitude that “without my contribution a lot could go wrong”. “… in fact the ser vices that are used to provide a better learning experience would always be determined by what the academics need …”. this value chain business system encourages dedicated participation by all departments. however, all institutional activities are seen as a chain of events in which one precedes the other, starting with the marketing intelligence learning programmes, support and administrative support. marketing intelligence the value chain of a higher education institution may begin with the marketing intelligence function, which consists of the country, communit y, economic and industry needs identification. marketing intelligence precedes the planning and development of relevant academic programmes. “… in general the first phase of the value chain will be what would be the amount of marketing intelligence you use to arrive at the needs so that the relationship with industry tells us what kinds of programmes we need to develop …”; “… the market will decide or will have to determine whether we have relevancy … curriculum because … they will look at market ... you don’t deal with the needs, you will have problem with relevancy …”. in line with the proposed higher education restructuring, institutions are expected to produce graduates with quality and required skills in meeting learning needs for the reconstruction and development of the country (national plan for higher education (nphe), 2001). appropriate learning programmes once the market needs are identified, often by institutional planning and research, the onus is on the academic faculties to develop appropriate learning programmes in line with the market needs. this requires properly trained and competent academic personnel in the form of lecturers and professors. “… the conventional core businesses of any higher education institution would centre around the work of academics …”; “… it will mostly be academics who look at the subject curriculum, its contents and how it needs to be distributed across a three-year or four-year degree period ...”. as confirmed by van niekerk (1996, p.33), curricula should be contextualised in order to address the problems, topics and issues that face a society. learner and academic support when appropriate programmes are developed and offered to distance learners, a need arises, that of supporting the learner. this aspect has been emphasised by yorke (1999, p. 99), who says that learners should be offered guidance and academic support to complete their course. distance learners study in solitude, and often feel cut off from the rest of the academic world. without this support, they are inclined to become depressed or frustrated (mcgivney, 2003, p.145). gous (1996, p.51) maintains that these phobic students are seen to require proactive support from their institutions. “… we need to know what learner support will be required …”; “… there are two phases of learner support: the learner support element that should be developed into courseware ... that is infused …your ongoing learner support in the form of tutor system …”. this support may range from course counselling to presenting information communication technolog y (ict) infrastructure. “… if you're going do it by web-based, your online specialist all of that, but ultimately can only produce the technical environment, the people must again produce the learning experience using that as a vehicle …”. administrative support this is seen to be running parallel to all academic and learner support processes and should be efficient. where the human resources, finance and student administrations are inefficient, all other sections may be negatively affected. “… all of these activities are underpinned by administrative support throughout …”. what emerged from these interviews was firstly that all institutional departments are dependent on each other, i.e. the efficiency of one is dependent on the other. secondly, it can be deduced that although all departments are theoretically perceived to be ‘equal’, the academic functions, which are mainly faculties, remain in the ‘core’, with all other functions as ‘supportive’. phase 3: the employee retention factors experiences were categorised into possible retention factors. these are factors that would facilitate the stay or exit by staff members from a higher education institution. the decision to leave or stay, however, depends on the perceived direction of an individual’s priorities. discriminatory practices coming from the era of apartheid, it is evident that south african institutions are to some extent still characterised by racial intolerance. these respondents revealed racial, sexist, nepotism and favouritism practices to still cloud their daily activities. the existence of these practices is to be expected and therefore legislation was enacted in an effort to counter them, namely the employment equity act, no. 55 of 1998, labour relations amendment act, no. 127 of 1998, etc. in terms of section 6 of the employment equity act, no. of 55 of 1998, employees must be treated well and no person may be unfairly discriminated against, directly or indirectly, through any employment policy, on grounds that include race, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, disability, hiv status, conscience, ethnicity, marital status, political opinion and social origin. where favouritism exists, favoured employees might stay and those discriminated against leave as reflected by these statements: “… good people coming here particularly the good black people, they get frustrated by subliminal racism …”; “… it is like they want you to be grateful that they let you enter the institution …”. netswera, rankhumise38 market intelligence academic departments/ learner support academic support programmes division identification of community, � academics � decentralised learner support � language editors a quality learning experience economic and industrial needs � programme developers � tutor system � courseware developers � course/subject development � counselling � online support � academic departments � information technology institutional administrative support figure 1: core business units and required competency identification economic relevance and sense of purpose other important considerations include the social, political and economic relevance of the institution. south african higher education provision, according to these interviews, is uneven. irrespective of salaries, some staff members would opt to work for particular institutions because of their perceived reputation and relevance of their graduates in the job market. similar sentiments were also echoed in the human sciences research council (hsrc) research conducted among grade 12 learners on their choices of higher education institutions (hsrc, 2003). it is important to note, however, that the reason for the perceived reputation and relevance of some graduates is more the historical structure of higher education than individual institutions themselves. it is important, according to the nphe (2001, p.37), to restructure higher education to produce market relevant graduates while also curbing the high dropout, retention and poor graduate rates. lack of focus can be fostered through either the institution, department and individual, or all of these. “… my idea was that i am going to be doing academic research and focus on study material development ... now the focus is on administrative processes and we have no opportunity to do academic work …”. employees who are creative, self-motivated and energetic require stimulating work opportunities, personal challenge, growth and a contributing stake in the organisational action. if these good workers find that their jobs no longer provide these necessities, they will decide they are no longer suitable and will leave for a job that will meet their new challenges (kaye & jordan-evans, 1999, p.32). management and governance management’s role in governance of the institution is revealed to be a critical area of institutional performance. most managers and supervisors think that they can keep good employees ‘with money’. research suggests that 89% of managers truly believe it is largely about money. these managers put the responsibilit y for keeping key people squarely in the hands of their finance departments (kaye & jordan-evans, 1999, p.9). “… this is where managerialism is at its disadvantage and i think we are often over-managed and demotivated …”; “… people’s focus when they come to work should be to work and not all other things like performance management, leave, salaries, etc …”; “… they don’t even know what their staff needs…if we want to exist for the next 20 years, we must look af ter our staff …”. while line managers often shift responsibilities to either hr or top management, kay and jordan-evans (1999) note that if you are a manager at any level, a front-line supervisor or project leader, you actually have more power than anyone else and perceived indecisiveness may be of concern to your employees. the institutional track record and growth potential the institutional track record, which includes the quality and employability of graduates, strengthens the reputation that an institution builds over time. while some historically black universities (hbus) and technikons (hbts) might have built a good reputation during the apartheid days, their comparative lack of resources in the new categorisation as “south african institutions” rather than black and white institutions impacts negatively on their current image. with this in mind, employees could prefer to work in the historically white universities (hwus) than the former hbus. possible effects could also be high skills flight from the hbus and hbts. “… when i came it was very interesting, maybe because the student numbers were also high; now i am not sure if numbers will stop dropping and if i will have a job in the next 5 years …”. the nphe (2001, p.36) has claimed that the drop in student numbers in the hbus and hbts between 1993 and 1999 by 9% and 138%, respectively, is linked to instabilit y in governance and declining quality. it is these factors that respondents believed were important when making a decision on whether to stay with the institution. salaries and other benefits salaries and other benefits are perceived by management as the primary motive in employment seeking and mainly in jobhopping behaviour. on the contrary, institutions that have high salaries and attractive benefits are not necessarily assumed to be the highest employee retainers. it is assumed that retention goes with other conditions of service. “… i am relatively not satisfied with my current salary and can get a better package in other institutions if i look hard but we get free parking, we used to get subsidised meals, we and our children study free, so it goes beyond my salary …”. work environment flexible working hours, a challenging job, a sense of purpose and minimal grievances between staff and employees provide a favourable work environment. in line with remarks by dibble (1999), respondents also believed that an institution should help employees maintain a balance between personal and work life. in some institutions, practices such as making childcare facilities available on the premises and flexitime can make the difference between keeping and losing an employee. “… flexible work practices will never happen in this place …”; “… if i want to go to other libraries, i don’t need to fill in a request form for such a small trip …”. the psychological environment, which provides support for handling stress, and physical support infrastructures such as a psychologist or a nurse, etc. on site provide a sense of security to employees. often statements about the environment, caring attitude towards workers, etc. appear in the official statements of the organisations, but are not often practised in most work environments (dibble, 1999, p.157). institutional policies and human resources practices such as performance management systems are again linked to line management functions. if badly and subjectively managed, they can negatively affect employee morale. employees are motivated to put more effort into their work when activities follow rewards, but basing remuneration increases on performance ratings that are often subjective can demotivate employees (dibble, 1999). staff development and promotion opportunities for promotion, training and development are among the most important reasons why employees stay, especially young and enthusiastic ones. institutions spend millions in hiring, training and developing their employees. most employees, however, leave upon completion of their developmental objectives. a similar study conducted amongst 13 british universities found that over a quarter of academics were in the top of their academic scale, which meant no promotion or progression beyond annual “cost of living” (irs report, 2000). “… i went to a couple of courses but nothing ever gave back into what i was doing, no promotion or salary incremental …”. employees who feel that they have outgrown their portfolios and that further training does not enhance their career moves within the organisation opt to leave. “… it appeared to me that my opportunities for self-development were very much limited and i do not intend to stay in the same position for the coming ten years …”. the external environment other important, but non-internal retention factors include reasons such as the social, political and economic factors that shape the country as a whole. where individuals have spouses working in foreign countries, they are also likely to leave the country. the perceived political stability of the country, crime rate and other opportunities are also important influential factors: “… i want to raise my kids overseas not here in south africa …”. although a number of retention factors were identified, probing for order of importance revealed profitability, stability and employee retention factors 39 justified spending to be important to institutional management, whereas employees are driven by personal gains, such as salaries, self-fulfilment, developmental opportunities and better conditions of work. limitations of the study due to the preconceptions that academic programmes are the core business of higher education, exit interviews were conducted amongst staff in the academic departments and therefore the study findings do not apply to the retention factors applicable to administrative staff. conclusions and recommendations the given concept of a value chain, whose product is a quality learning experience, presented in this context as the core business of the institution presents a scanty idea of where retention efforts need to be targeted. secondary data on employee turnover that is analysed here does not show any peculiar or distinct patterns on the types of skills or business units in which people with certain skills come and go. although most of the retention factors identified here are static, that is, may apply throughout the industry, others are ‘seasonal’ or temporal. for example, a sudden drop in student numbers and merger announcements may cause panic and a review of a person’s state of comfort. on the basis of this project a number of questions emerged for possible further research: � a comparison of the current employee turnover figures for the two historically distinct institutional types in south africa, that is, the hbus and the hwus. � the nphe’s indication of decreasing student figures in the hbus poses a further research question: what is the direction of the horizontal movements in higher education since 1994? the research recommends a large-scale survey to ascertain if the identified employee retention factors hold for all or most of the staff members, including administrative staff in higher education institutions. the recommended survey should also, through such methods as thurstone’s law of comparative judgement, rank all the identified retention factors in order to present an order of importance for various departments, skills levels and biographical groupings. references chickering, a. w. & stewart, d. (1995). considering the public interest. liberal-education, 81 (2): 17-19. creswell, j w (1994). research design: qualitative and quantitative approaches. thousand oaks: sage. dibble, s. (1999). keeping your valuable employees: retention strategies for your organization’s most important resource. new york: john wiley & sons. gous, v. (1996). support to distance learners: exploring the phobic phenomenon. progressio, 18(2): 49-55. horwitz, f. m. (1991). managing resourceful people: human resource policy and practice. cape town: juta. hsrc (2003). from school to higher education – what grade 12 learners choose. hsrc review, 1 (1): 10-11. irs (2000). recruitment & retention in employment in uk higher education: two independent reports. london. kaye, b. & jordan-evans, s (1999). love ‘em or lose ‘em: getting good people to stay. san francisco: berrett-koehler publishers. mcgivney, v. (2003). staying or leaving the course: noncompletion and retention of mature students in further and higher education. leicester: national institute of adult continuing education. national plan for higher education (2001). ministry of education: pretoria. salopek, j. j. (2000). career centred: how do you keep great employees? training & development, april: 24-26. smit, e. (ed.) (1997). strategic human resource management. pretoria: kagiso. stanley, w. d., russel, s s & jacobse, k (1990). international migration and de velopment in sub-saharan africa. washington dc: world bank. south africa. employment equity act. no. 55 of 1998. pretoria: government printer. south africa. labour relations amendment act. no. 127 of 1998. pretoria: government printer. south africa. department of labour (dol). 2003. state of skills in south africa. pretoria. subotzky, g. (2003). private higher education and training. hrd review. pretoria: human sciences research council. tach, l. & murphy, k (1995). competencies for distance education professionals. education technology research and development, 43 (1): 57-79. van niekerk, j. l. (1996). investigating the role of current theories of education in distance education. progressio, 18 (2): 30-37. yorke, m. (1999). leaving early: undergraduate non-completion in higher education. london: falmer press. netswera, rankhumise40 8badenhorst.qxd according to dhillon (1986), human error is the failure to carry out a specific task (or the performance of a forbidden action) that could lead to disruption of scheduled operations or result in damage to property and equipment. performance target results are achieved through behaviour of the people performing the tasks. if the behaviour does not achieve its desired goal it is termed human error. it is an action that unintentionally departs from expected behaviour associated with some set standard (mager & pipe 1992). in the power generation industry, electricity is produced at power stations by production plants called generating units. loss in plant production occurs when there is an unintentional automatic grid separation (uags) or, in laymen terms, “a unit tripped” and when a generator is unable to produce electricity. when this uags is a result of human intervention, such as the departure from following correct operating procedures, it is termed a human error. effects of human error when there is an interruption in the production line, it not only institutes a loss of income to the business unit, but also leads to an interrupted supply of electricity to the end-user customer. other costs are the loss of revenue (income) to the business unit accompanied by expenditure such as overtime, as well as emotional stress (guilt feelings and feelings of failure) to the person/s responsible for the error. the high profile of such incidents affects the person/s responsible for the tripping of the unit, who experience this as extremely negative, with corresponding negative effects on his/her qualit y of work life. because of the interact ion bet ween an organisat ion and the sociopsychological environment of the individual, this negativism is bound to affect the employee’s social support mechanisms such as his immediate family members (spouse/ children). stressful work situations are bound to have an impact on family members. according to reason (1990), researchers had concentrated on the hypothesis that reduction in human error would lead to improvement in human performance. improved human performance promotes behaviours throughout an organisation that supports the reliable operation of the plant. a working environment should be created where all obstacles to excellent human performance are eliminated. this situation would reduce or even eliminate plant incidents caused by human error. reduced production loss would result in improved productivity as well as higher income for the organisation and would also benefit the end-user customer by possibly fewer increases in the electricity price. reason (1990) found that human error occurs because human behaviour is fallible and can be caused by lack of concentration, not being motivated, ergonomic factors and various psychological and physical factors. it is possible to address these factors in the quest to improve human performance. human performance is defined as a series of behaviours executed to accomplish specific task objectives (results). where human performance is below standard, it will inevitably lead to sub-standard performance by the production plant, as machines (the plant) normally react to inputs from humans and in this case, the operating staff. according to reason (1990), operators are there to cope with emergencies and that the greatest part of their experience in the control room is monitoring the plant and occasionally tweaking of the plant while it performs within safe operating limits. reason (1990) affirms that an apparent solution would be for a large part of an operator’s shift time to be spent in being coached in the diagnostic and recovery lessons of previous system emergencies. this instigates a catch-22 situation. it is the nature of complex, tightly coupled, highly interactive, obscure and partially understood systems to be the cause of unpleasant surprises. even if it were possible to build up an extensive repertoire of recovery routines, through simulations or game playing amongst operating crews, there is no guarantee that it would be relevant, other than in a very general sense, for some future fw badenhorst j van tonder department of human resources management rand afrikaans university abstract according to neff (1977), as cited by bergh (1995), the westernised culture considers work important for industrial mental health. most individuals experience work positively, which creates a positive attitude. should this positive attitude be inhibited, workers could lose concentration and become bored, potentially resulting in some form of human error. the aim of this research was to determine the factors responsible for human error events, which lead to power supply failures at eskom power stations. proposals were made for the reduction of these contributing factors towards improving plant performance. the target population was 700 panel operators in eskom’s power generation group. the results showed that factors leading to human error can be reduced or even eliminated. opsomming neff (1977) soos aangehaal deur bergh (1995), skryf dat in die westerse kultuur werk belangrik vir bedryfsgeestesgesondheid is. die meeste persone ervaar werk as positief, wat ’n positiewe gesindheid kweek. indien hierdie positiewe gesindheid geïnhibeer word, kan dit lei tot ’n gebrek aan konsentrasie by die werkers. werkers kan verveeld raak en dit kan weer lei tot menslike foute. die doel van hierdie navorsing is om die faktore vas te stel wat tot menslike foute lei, en wat bydra tot onderbrekings in kragvoorsiening by eskom kragstasies. voorstelle is gemaak vir die vermindering van hierdie bydraende faktore ten einde die kragaanleg se prestasie te verbeter. die teiken-populasie was 700 paneel-operateurs in die kragopwekkingsgroep by eskom. die resultate dui daarop dat die faktore wat aanleiding gee tot menslike foute wel verminder, of geëlimineer kan word. determining the factors causing human error deficiencies at a public utility company requests for copies should be addressed to: fw badenhorst, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 62 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (3), 62-69 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (3), 62-69 event. as case st udies show, incidents may begin in a conventional way, but they rarely proceed along predictable lines. each incident is a truly novel event in which past experience counts for little and where the plant has to be restored by a mixture of good luck and laborious, resourcelimited and knowledge-based processing. active errors in operation are inevitable. whereas, in the more forgiving circumstances of everyday life where learning from one’s mistakes is usually a beneficial process, in the control room of power plants, such educative experiences can have unacceptable consequences. reason (1990) found that the development of human reliability analysis (hra) techniques has been intimately connected to the fortunes and misfortunes of the nuclear power industry. this does not mean that such methods are applicable only to the design and operation of nuclear power plants. they have been pioneered and widely used in other industries and organisations, but it is certainly true that nuclear power generation has been the focus of most human reliability developments over the past two decades. the current level of knowledge resides predominantly with the nuclear power industry, but basic principles can relate to a large degree to fossil generated power stations (coal-fired power stations). literature, addressing human performance and concerned with safety and safe working conditions, is generally available. should human error be reduced or eliminated, the availability of production units could be improved substantially. aim of the study the aim of this study was to determine the factors causing human error in the generation group of eskom with the primary objective of determining into which human factor category human error falls. the secondary objective was to consider possible interventions for reducing/eliminating these errors. dhillon (1986) quotes that human error can be classified in various categories, of which the following are the best known: � operating errors (caused by operating personnel). � assembly errors (caused by humans during product assembly). � design errors (due to inadequate design). � inspection errors (associated with inspection to uncover defects). � installation errors (occurred during installations). � maintenance errors (due to incorrect repair of equipment). operating errors are identified as being errors made by operating personnel, which constitute the main causes of human error. the following situations lead to operating errors: � lack of proper procedures. � task complexity and overload conditions. � poor personnel selection and training. � operator carelessness and lack of interest. � poor environmental conditions. � departure from following the correct operating procedures. the impact on the organisation is the loss of income for the period of non-production and any monetary savings that can be realised. the problem statement claims that human error is responsible for a number of unplanned automatic grid separations (uags) on the electricity generation network of eskom. uags cause loss of production. loss of revenue (income) causes unnecessary costs to be incurred in getting the units up to full production capacity again. trips can be caused by technical/mechanical failure, which is almost impossible to prevent. factors causing human errors should be identified, grouped and addressed. electronic and/or written records of uags are available from the different power stations. the present drawback is that all the research that has been done on nuclear power stations focuses on human error being responsible for safety, and not on human error being responsible for production loss. method research design the research design can be classified as exploratory/descriptive as it provides insight into the causal factors contributing to human error and also gives a description of the present situation. target population the target population consisted of panel operators from the coal-fired power stations in the generation group of eskom (approximately 700 panel operators). a haphazard sampling technique was followed. this is a non-probability sampling technique, whereby selection of the sample of participants was based on convenience, and which included individuals who were readily available. the sample represented 20% of the population and most power stations were represented. a sample size of 140 was used. approximately 69% of the respondents were between the ages of 36 years and 50 years. the majority were married (about 90%). all the respondents were males. the majority of the respondents (95%) had passed matric/n3. the majority of the respondents (62%) had between 6 years’ and 15 years’ service. measuring instruments the instruments used were the monitoring of secondary records (data relating to production plant performance and investigation reports concerning trips), and personal face-to-face unstructured interviews (open-ended questions). the whole sample group (140) was interviewed. a questionnaire was also distributed to the sample group (140) and the response rate was 65%. it was a field study, since it was conducted in the natural working environment. information was obtained from interviews, questionnaires, and documented reports and records concerning the trip history of each station. based on the situations leading to operating errors as cited by dhillon (1986), the human error factors were broken down and classified under the following causalities (factors) and the data from secondary records. factors contributing to human error were collected, perused and allocated accordingly, as shown in table 1: table 1 human error casualties causality description competency knowledge of the job, skills and attitude towards the job. communication the ability to express information. procedural factors clarity regarding standards and procedures and whether they are adhered to. mental and physical factors stress and cognitive overload and exhaustion. socio-environmental factors personal pressures such as family pressures and organisational pressures such as work relations. motivation individual and organisational aspects like job satisfaction and leadership style. ergonomical factors light, noise, space etc. this included health and safety and shift cycles. human error deficiencies 63 in order to correlate the findings, an organisational diagnostic questionnaire was given to the sampling group. the questionnaire that was used contained the ciq human error classification with the addition of separate categories of health and safety, equipment and technology and shift cycles. the critical incidents questionnaire (ciq) (martens and de koker) was used for this purpose, which consists of 85 items divided into 10 broad categories, namely: table 2 human error causalities (ciq) causalities description competency-based deficiencies knowledge, skill, attitude or behaviour communication-based deficiencies time lapse, expression motivational factors individual, organisational socio-environmental factors personal and organisational pressures ergonomics physical conditions procedural factors standards, procedures, documentation mental factors and physical emotional and cognitive over-load health and safety employee health in work environment equipment and technology state of equipment and new technology current shift system shift work this ciq was used to give the individual an opportunity to indicate how he feels regarding his present working situation and what factors contribute, in his opinion, to human error. interviews with the sampling group were conducted after completion of the ciq, for clarification purposes, and to determine underlying contributors to certain factors like low morale. statistical analysis face to face interviews secondary records � a history on trips caused by human error between 1998 and 2001 was compiled and scrutinised, yielding the results captured in table 3. table 3 number of trips per year caused by human error causal factor 1998 1999 2000 2001 total % competence 14 16 17 14 61 31 communication 6 13 1 7 22 12 procedural 17 22 28 17 84 43 mental & physical 6 3 2 4 15 8 socio-environmental 0 2 0 2 4 2 motivational 2 1 0 3 6 3 ergonomical 1 0 1 1 3 1 critical incident questionnaire (ciq) the ciq was structured complying with the following intervals, and respondents completed the questionnaire accordingly. � intervals 1 = differ strongly 2 = differ 3 = uncertain 4 = agree 5 = agree strongly the observations made in this research reflect interpretation of the data based on statistical analyses as represented by huysamen (1983). for this research project, the benchmark used was a mean value of 3,5. mean values of 3,4 or less of the trips caused by human error, were treated as possible problem areas. the results are presented in table 4. table 4 results of trips caused by human error item mean standard deviation n knowledge 3,480 0,9788 140 skills 3,360 0,9598 140 attitude/behaviour 3,100 1,0172 140 communication 3,605 0,6690 140 motivational factors 3,1143 0,8335 140 (individual) motivational factors 3,2314 0,6999 140 (organisational) organisational pressure 3,1229 0,6454 140 personal pressure 3,3371 0,9169 140 social issues 3,5286 0,6854 140 physical conditions 3,7829 0,5716 140 procedural factors 3,8400 0,5558 140 mental factors 3,4857 0,7068 140 physical factors 3,8186 0,6651 140 shift system 3,2957 0,6757 140 health and safety 4,0686 0,5161 140 equipment 3,8829 0,7081 140 according to christensen (1997) the size of the standard deviation is important because it gives an idea of the group mean differences, as well as indicating the accuracy of the sample. the smaller the standard deviation, the more confident one can be that the sample represents the population. results interpretation of findings it is important to note that the failure to follow stated procedures is sometimes due to procedures that are too lengthy, too slow or too fast. the value of the study captured important knowledge regarding factors causing human error, which results in production loss. trends are determined and proactive event management can be introduced in order to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, human error as a cause for production loss. a discrepancy was found between the points of departure of the secondary records and the ciq regarding procedural factors. the latter refers to the availability of procedures for doing the job, whilst the former refers to adherence to the available procedures. this relates to operating personnel not adhering to the procedures and therefore causing a trip. the face-to-face interviews confirmed the discrepancy. findings from the secondary records are that procedural problems and incompetence are the main factors for humanrelated trips: � 31% of trips ascribed to human error are caused by incompetence. � 43% of trips ascribed human error are caused by nonadherence to procedures. badenhorst, van tonder64 the findings of the research done on human error, clearly indicate that the lack of competence in operating the panels and the plant, as well as the tendency to ignore standard instructions, are the main causalities of human error. it was gleaned from the interviews that the tendency to look for shortcuts or to disregard procedures could be attributed to low motivation and attitudinal problems of the employees. according to the results from the ciq, individual and organisational motivational factors, organisational pressures and attitude are the predominant problem areas. motivational factors encapsulate recognition for performance and efforts, objective performance management and the remuneration system. attitude comprises the attitude towards work and the motivation to apply skills; and organisational pressure encapsulates job satisfaction, conflict management and job load. respondents completing the ciq gave an opinion regarding the availability and quality of procedures. lack of competence and non-adherence to procedures according to the respondents, 74% of human error could be eliminated if the organisation concentrates on the lack of competence and non-adherence to procedures (caused by low motivation and bad attitude towards work, or even boredom). for the purpose of this research project, all the human error categories are addressed. reason (1990) cites rasmussen (1980) and inpo (1984), stating that research indicates that simple omissions, and the failure to carry out some of the actions necessary to achieve a desired goal, constitute the single largest category of human performance problems identified in significant event reports logged. research done by meister (1962) supports the above findings and the author writes that inadequate training and poor motivation entices human error. according to dhillon (1986), operator carelessness and lack of interest (low individual motivation and bad attitude towards work) also contribute to human error. the same author writes that departing from correct operating procedures contributes significantly towards human error, and that the mismatch between worker and job and poor attitude are also indirect causes of incidents. this supported investigations that low motivation, organisational pressures and a negative attitude towards the work can result in operating personnel disregarding operating procedures and causing errors, contributing directly to the high percentage of human-error trips caused by procedural factors. competence competence is the other main causality. a concern derived from the interviews was that the competence of certain panel operators was not at the required levels. a major causality was the accelerated development programme followed in training new learners. the result of this was employees without the necessary knowledge, competence or skills being promoted to panel operators. during crisis situations, these deficiencies surface and the panel operators often make the wrong decision or just do not know what to do to prevent a trip. a void in the research was that some factors, such as the socioenvironmental factors, could be omitted by respondents, since very few (if any) of the operators responsible for a human-errorrelated trip would acknowledge that they had socioenvironmental problems. the negative connotation attached to alcoholism, marital or psychological problems prompt people to try and hide such causalities. month-of-the-year trip this refers to the month of the year when most trips occur. most trips occur in the first and last quarters of a year, which could indicate that towards the end of the year personnel are inclined to lose focus, and at the beginning of the year they could still be somewhat relaxed. there is, however, no empirical evidence to confirm this statement. time-of-the-day of trips this refers to the time when trips mostly occur. from the data collected, the time of day for trips is categorised as being between 03:00 to 07:00; 07:00 to 12:00; 12:00 to 17:00; 17:00 to 22:00; and 22:00 to 03:00. this was done in order to accommodate shift changes and to determine whether the time of the day has any significant effect. the percentage of humanerror trips occurred as follows: table 5 percentage of human error trips during time period first period 03:00 to 07:00 23% second period 07:00 to 12:00 25% third period 12:00 to 17:00 23% fourth period 17:00 to 22:00 17% fifth period 22:00 to 03:00 12% no significant trend could be established, other than that 71% of human-errorrelated trips occur between 03:00 and 17:00. studies done by carpentier and cazamian (1978) for the international labour office cite that it has been found that, among workers regularly employed on night work, there was an increase in motor reaction time and a decline in performance for spoken word tests, with maxima at 03:00. the authors write that similar test results have been obtained from the speed of response to an experimental test and from the flicker-fusion threshold. fault y responses in an experimental task are especially frequent between 04:00 and 06:00, when the speed of response and the detection-of-signals rate are hardly affected. these are the primary sensory functions used when operators must sometimes make decisions within a split second. this supports the findings that there is no significant deviation from the trip records during the early morning hours. ergonomics health and safety from the research it was determined that health and safety factors did not contribute to human error and no human-error trip could be related back to non-conformance regarding the occupational health and safety act (act 85 of 1993). eskom power stations adhere to the environmental regulations for workplaces, as well as the facilities regulations applicable under act 85 of 1993. regarding environmental regulations the lighting, ventilation and housekeeping comply with, and exceed, the requirements. regarding the facilities regulations, eskom also complies with the requirements for sanitation, safekeeping, change-rooms, seats (chairs) and drinking water for the (shift) workers. the human-error trips due to ergonomic reasons refer to the lay-out of the operating panels, where operators were distracted and the labeling of switches was confusing, for example where open and close switches are less than 10mm apart and the labels encompass both switches. shift cycles studies done by carpentier and cazamian (1978) found that night work causes fatigue and in many cases a psychosomatic occupational disorder. the mental load involved in a task and the ageing of a worker can constitute aggravating circumstances. night work also disturbs family and social life. human error deficiencies 65 according to kroemer and grandjean (2000), assumptions were made that night work would be conducive to lower output and more frequent incidents. although statistics were gathered, the facts did not clearly support the hypothesis. in some cases the incident rate at night seems hardly altered, or even reduced. the authors write that this contradiction between theory and practice reflects the conditions surrounding the night worker, such as fewer disturbances from other people, higher wages, different kinds of work and so on, compared with the circumstances of day work. this supports the findings that no trend can be determined that night work is a causality of human error within the operating fraternity in power stations. mental and physical factors according to the summary of the history on trips caused by human error, mental and physical factors contribute only 8% to causalities. boredom can have a major influence on the mental state of an employee and could also contribute to disregarding procedural guidelines. kroemer and grandjean (2000) reached the conclusion that personal factors have a considerable impact on the incidence of boredom, or on the ability to withstand boredom. the authors write that proneness to boredom is higher for, amongst others, the following people: people with low motivation and little interest can resort to nonadherence of procedures. according to kroemer and grandjean (2000), one could distinguish bet ween boredom itself and its emotional manifestations, which the authors call satiation. this refers to a state of irritation and aversion to activity, which promotes boredom. a person feels that she/he has had enough. this is a state of actual conflict between a feeling of duty to work and the desire to have done with it, which puts the person involved under increasing internal tension. occupational stressors dhillon (1986) affirms that stress plays a major role in affecting human performance. the author writes that it is obvious when an operator is performing a task under extreme stress, and the probability of the occurrence of human error will be higher than when he or she is operating under moderate stress. occupational stressors can be classified into the following four types: � type 1. this concerns work over-load or work under-load and examples of under-load are lack of intellectual input and repetitive performance. � type 2. this involves occupational change such as reorganisation and relocation. � type 3. this is concerned with problems of occupational frustration, which results in situations where the job inhibits the meeting of set goals, lack of communication, poor career development and bureaucracy difficulties. � type 4. this is associated with other possible sources such as ergonomics and poor relationships. according to the same author, the following factors induce stress in the human operator: 1. information feedback to the operator is inadequate for determining the correctness of his or her actions. 2. comparisons needing to be made between two or more displays quickly. 3. decision-making time is very short. 4. prolonged monitoring by the operator. 5. to perform a task, the sequence of steps to be followed is very long. 6. more than one display is cumbersome to differentiate. 7. a requirement to operate more than one control simultaneously at high speed. 8. performing operating steps at high speed. 9. decisions that have to be made on the basis of data collected from various sources. from the interviews with the target group, it was established that the following were the main contributors to high stress levels and affected the operator’s mental ability to cope with the given situation: � comparisons needing to be made between two or more displays quickly. � decision-making time is very short. � the sequence of steps needed is very long. � operating more than one control simultaneously at high speed. � perform operating steps at high speed. adding to the above, dhillon (1986) confirms that the following factors aggravate stress in operators: 1. having to work with people who have unpredictable temperaments. 2. unhappy with the present job. 3. financial difficulties. 4. having problems with family. 5. poor chances for promotion at work. 6. possibility of redundancy at work. 7. lacking the expertise to perform the job. 8. poor health. 9. performing under extremely tight time pressures. 10.having a job below one’s ability and experience. 11. excessive demands from superiors at work. from the interviews with the target group, the following factors contribute towards increased stress levels: � poor chances of promotion at work. � possibility of redundancy at work. � having a job below one’s ability and experience. � excessive demands from superiors at work. many competent white male panel operators see no further promotional possibilities for them, although they still have 20 to 25 years’ service left. this is due to the employment equity drive of eskom. because of their restricted field of expertise, work opportunities outside eskom are limited. for the same employment equity reason, black operators are promoted prematurely and often lack the expertise to perform on the job. white supervisors are inclined to put excessive demands on these operators and, during a crisis situation, they are prone to human error. communication communication problems contributed 13% towards the causalities of human error. associated with this is face-to-face communication and feedback as well as communication by radio/telephone etc. from the interviews it was determined that communication broke down when employees were instructed to perform certain operational tasks. in a crisis situation the message that is transferred is not understood due to mental blockage processes, such as preconceived ideas about what could be wrong. an example is when the water flow in the cooling system is interrupted, a faulty valve is perceived to be the cause, but it could be that the labelling of the display on the panel is incorrect, thus indicating that the valve is open while actually being closed. the noise level also plays a role when communicating by radio. sometimes instructions are not clearly heard. the last aspect is the lack of constant feedback from line managers regarding performance. summary a major factor of human error is an incompetent panel operator. accelerated development and learning programmes contribute to this situation due to operators being promoted prematurely. other contributing factors are low motivation, because of limited promotional opportunities, organisational pressure due to excessive demands by superiors and negative attitudes. this creates the tendency to ignore procedural requirements. badenhorst, van tonder66 occupational stressors are also causalities, albeit not major. should these causalities be addressed, factors causing human error could be reduced by as much as 70%. suggestions and recommendations (discussion) according to dhillon (1986), there are certain methods/ interventions that one could introduce to prevent human error. the first method deals with characteristics such as motivation, competence and adherence to procedure problems. this method is known as man-machine system analysis, which can be used to reduce unwanted effects caused by human error to some acceptable level in a system. this method comprises 10 steps as shown below. table 6 man-machine system analysis step 1 outline the functions and goals of the system. step 2 outline the situational characteristics subject to which humans will have to carry out tasks such as union activities. step 3 outline the characteristics of manpower associated with the system. identif y and estimate the characteristics such as training required to improve competence, experience, motivation and skills levels. step 4 outline the tasks and jobs carried out by the system manpower. step 5 perform analysis of tasks and jobs to raise potential “errorlikely” conditions and other associated difficulties. step 6 obtain an estimate for the occurrence of each potential error. step 7 obtain an estimate for the likelihood that each potential error will remain undetected and uncorrected. step 8 obtain an estimate for the consequences of each undetected potential error. step 9 make recommendations for changes to the system. step 10 re-evaluate each system change by repeating most of the above nine steps. step no 3 (identif ying characteristics requiring improvement) is critically important if management is determined to eliminate factors causing human-error trips, and this will address about 80% of the causalities of human error. improved job satisfaction in addition to the identification of characteristics required to improve, the organisation could follow a method that swain (1973) calls an error-cause removal program (ecrp). the emphasis here falls on preventative measures rather than on remedial ones. the method is useful in the sense that it can improve job satisfaction of workers, because it requires their direct involvement and participation. this should have a direct impact on reducing human error. workers were directly involved in the data collection, analysis and design recommendation aspects. this created a sense of ownership. each ecrp was composed of teams of operating personnel, who had a coordinator whose responsibility was to keep the team focused and goal-driven. in periodic error-cause-removal team meetings, reports of the error and “errorlikely” situations were examined and discussed. suggestions for remedial or preventative actions were made. this was then presented to management for action. human resources and other specialists could assist each team, as well as management. these specialists helped both parties with respect to evaluation and implementation of the suggested design solutions. implementation of such solutions should prevent human error. important guidelines: � the data collection should be concerned with error-likely situations and errors. � the programme should be restricted to the identification of work conditions that need to be redesigned to reduce error potential. � a team of specialists should evaluate each redesigning of the work situation. � error-cause-removal program components. � management should implement the most appropriate design solutions. � efforts by employees are recognised by management. � the errors and “error-likely” situations are reported and their causes determined. reason (1990) lists the following human reliability analysis methods/techniques, which should contribute towards achieving the goal of reducing human-error related trips. probalistic risk assessment (pra) pr a aims to identif y potential areas of risk, indicating how improvements can be made, and to quantif y the overall risk of a potentially hazardous plant. pr a’s are logical “tree” models of the plant and its functions and assume two basic forms, namely: fault trees that address the question of how a given plant failure occurs and event trees that answer the question of what could happen. technique for human error rate prediction (therp) therp provides human reliability data for pra studies. therp assumes that the operators’ actions can be regarded in the same light as the success or failure of a given pump or valve. operator activities are broken down into task elements and substituted for equipment outputs in a more or less conventional reliability assessment, with adjustments to allow for the greater variability and interdependence of human performance. as such, the reliability of the operator can be assessed in essentially the same way as an equipment item. empirical technique to estimate operator errors (teseo) teseo yields the probability of operator techniques through the combined application of five error probability parameters, k1 to k5. it is a mathematical model that can quantify human reliability in specific process situations. the parameters refer as follows: k1 = type of activity k2 = temporary stress factor for routine activities k3 = operator qualities k4 = an activity anxiety factor k5 = an activity ergonomic factor dhillon (1986) lists the following techniques: the author also refers to therp. the probability tree method this technique is concerned with representing critical human actions and other events associated with the system under consideration. diagrammatic task analysis is represented by the branches of the probability tree and represents outcomes (i.e. success or failure) of each event. each branch of the tree is assigned an occurrence probability. pontecorvo’s method of predicting human reliability this method is concerned with obtaining estimates of reliability of separate and discrete subtasks having no correct reliability figures. this method accesses the interaction of men and machines quantitatively. in addition, it determines the performance of a single person. human error deficiencies 67 rooks model of human error occurrence this model can be used to compute the total probability of no function failures over all independent types of tasks. this is also a mathematical model that is used in situations where system failures result from errors committed in repetitive manual assembly work. it was also experienced that a combination of factors plays a role in a crisis situation. according to dhillon (1986), in order to minimise the occurrence of human errors, the design engineer and the reliability engineer must consider operator limitations or characteristics during the design phase. proper training and management principles could, however, also contribute significantly towards eliminating these characteristics and factors. strategies aimed at changing the environment this strategy will address socio-environmental factors. newman and beehr (1979) cite levi (1967) in claiming that the government and society in general ought to make some changes in the overall environment. he suggests a reshaping of society in a more humane direction. this strategy could involve a comprehensive, long-term social programme designed to provide psychological security as a complement to economic security. this programme would be aimed at the institutions of marriage, family, child-care, education and work. the organisation’s social responsibility programme would help to improve environmental circumstances and would alleviate socio-environmental stressors. organisational strategies aimed at changing organisational processes and the environment this strategy would address job enlargement, boredom and proper human resource allocation, which would affect organisational pressures as well. employees would experience higher levels of job satisfaction. according to newman and beehr (1979) a group of researchers conceptualised job-stress problems as one of person-work environment misfit. therefore, their meta-strategy for handling stress is aimed at maximising the fit between the person and the work environment. they point out that stress management does not involve the total elimination of all stresses in organisational life, but rather it implies reducing stress to levels commensurate with the tolerance and needs of individuals. the authors use an example of an organisational diagnosis, which reveals that certain stressful jobs are characterised by low responsibility for other people, under-utilisation of one’s skills and ability, low participation, insecurity and ambiguity with respect to one’s occupational future. one could address these stresses through programmes of job enlargement, job enrichment and increased participation. the types of job stressors must be identified, as well as the extent to which they are related to the state of employees’ health and motivation. this diagnostic information should be utilised in the design of programmes of prevention and therapy. it should also take into account individual differences and specifically consider the problems of changing the environment to fit the person and changing the person to fit the environment. the only two parties who can make a difference regarding mental stress factors are management and the worker. management could ensure that they do all that they can to eliminate contributing factors and the worker himself should work on coping strategies for those stressors that cannot be changed e.g. the employment equity legislation implemented by the government. according to reason (1990), the decision-makers, high-level managers, of a system should direct the goals at strategic level. a large part of their function is to allocate finite resources, comprising money, equipment, people (talent and expertise) and time to deploy these resources for maximising productivity. supporting this strategic direction are the line managers who are responsible for implementing these directives. appropriate decisions are not themselves sufficient. something is needed between the line managers and productive activities. these are a set of qualities, possessed by both machines and people, and are: reliable equipment of the right kind; a skilled and knowledgeable workforce; work schedules, maintenance programmes and environmental conditions that permit efficient and safe operations; codes of practice that give clear guidance regarding desirable and undesirable performance and an appropriate set of attitudes and motivators. where productive activities involve exposure to natural or intrinsic hazards, both the individuals and the machines should be supplied with safeguards, sufficient to prevent foreseeable injury, damage or costly outages. the author also states that many of the above factors are influenced by decisions made by top and middle management. management style can also influence attitudes and motivation. should they make the wrong decisions regarding the above matters, it could have an adverse effect on employees. if there are problems concerning some of the mentioned factors, it is possible for management to influence it positively by a specific intervention, e.g. state-of-the-art training, improved working schedules and enhanced environment. reason (1990) states that: the innate incompetence of any set of line managers could further exacerbate the adverse effects of high-level decisions or even cause good decisions to have bad effects. conversely, competence at the line management level could mitigate the inefficient impact of fallible decisions, or make neutral decisions, having more efficient consequences and transforming good decisions into even better ones. it is recommended that line managers should be developed towards being competent in fulfilling their responsibilities. attitude towards their subordinates should foster trust and commitment. this behaviour will influence attitudes and motivation of the subordinates positively. management is also responsible for ensuring that the workforce is skilled and knowledgeable in order to perform at optimal levels. westrum (1988) has provided a simple but meaningful classification of the ways in which organisations may differ in their reactions to safety data. his basic premise is that organisations think. like individuals, they exhibit a consciousness, a memory and an ability to create and to solve problems. their thinking strongly reflects the generation and elimination of hazards. organisational responses to hazards fall into three groups: denial, repair and reform actions. the more effective the organisation, the more likely it is to respond to safety data with actions from “reform,” while those less adequate will employ responses from “denial.” westrum (1988) then uses these reactions to define organisations along a scale of what he calls “cognitive adequacy”, or the effectiveness in their ways of thinking about hazards. these are grouped under three headings: pathological, calculative and generative organisations and can be applied to the management style of an organisation. pathological organisations pathological organisations are ones whose safety measures are inadequate even under normal conditions. these organisations sacrifice safety goals in the pursuit of production goals, often under severe economic pressures, and actively circumvent safety regulations. information about hazardous conditions is suppressed at the source by censoring or restraining the messenger. badenhorst, van tonder68 calculative organisations calculative organisations try to do the best job they can by using “by-the-book” methods. these are usually adequate under normal operating conditions, but often fail when they encounter unforeseen circumstances. in short, they may implement many safety practices, but have little in the way of effective disaster plans. generative organisations generative organisations are charactarised by a high degree of ostensibly irregular or unconventional activities in furthering their goals. they set targets for themselves beyond ordinary expectations and fulfil them because they are willing to do unexpected things in unexpected ways. they emphasise results rather than methods and value substance more than form. hazards tend to be quickly discovered and neutralised because lower-level personnel have both the freedom to see and permission to do. this “cognitive adequacy” can be applied to human error incidents as well. the organisation’s management style falls into the calculative category. to improve, the organisation’s leadership can “move” the organisation to be more generative, by setting tough, but achievable targets. the emphasis on results could be achieved by means of a proper performance management system. empowerment of lower level employees would ensure that defects are detected and dealt with at an early stage. empowered employees would experience more job satisfaction, which would contribute to better motivation and more positive attitudes. ultimately this would reduce the possibilities of human error. communication forms part of establishing a culture in an organisation and has been dealt with in the discussions above. it is imperative though, that management ensures that electronic and verbal communication channels are properly used. it should be added that feedback also plays a major role in the process of influencing attitude and motivation. drury and fox (1975) write that in most work situations line managers do not adequately describe what people should do, and almost never give subordinates feedback. the authors cite henry parsons (1974) where he argues persuasively in an article that the noted hawthorne effect was really a feedback effect. performance kept improving in the now famous hawthorn studies, despite variations in working conditions, because workers knew exactly how they were performing and it improved performance. drury and fox (1975) say that: if management is serious about such things as improving performance or improving worker satisfaction, they should be developing ways to provide consistent and reliable feedback. each worker should know how well she/he is doing and what he or she is contributing. management does not do much of this because it is not an easy thing to do, but this is another of those things that line managers should be working on and there is lots of room for improvement. the fact that feedback is difficult for one job is no excuse for not providing good feedback on other jobs where it is less difficult. the research proved that factors leading to human error could be reduced, or even eliminated, but the responsibility to implement proposals lies with management. if they are committed to implement these proposals, plant performance could be improved substantially. references carpentier, j. & cazamian, p. (1977). night work. international labour organisation. geneve switzerland christensen, l.b. (1997). experimental methodology (7 th edition). boston: allyn & bacon. dhillon, b.s. (1986). human reliability with human factors. new york usa: perganon press. drury, c.g. & fox j.g. (1975). human reliability in quality control. london: taylor & francis ltd. kroemer, k.h.e. & grandjean, e. (2000). fitting the task to the human (5 th edition). a textbook of occupational ergonomics. uk: taylor & francis ltd. meister, d. (1962). the problem of human-initiated failures. proceedings of the eigth national symposium on reliability and quality control. ieeee: new york. mager, r.f. & pipe, p. (1992). analyzing performance problems. wiley: london. newman, .je. & beehr, t.a. (1979). personal and organizational strategies for handling job stress: a review of research and opinion. personnel psychology, 32. occupational health and safety act. (no 85 of 1993). reason, j.t. (1990). human error. wiley: london. westrum, r. (1988). organizational and inter-organizational thought. in world bank workshop on safety control and risk management. washington. human error deficiencies 69 abstract introduction literature review methodology results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) boris urban graduate school of business administration, university of the witwatersrand, south africa elena gaffurini graduate school of business administration, university of the witwatersrand, south africa citation urban, b., & gaffurini, e. (2017). organisational learning capabilities as determinants of social innovation: an empirical study in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a857. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.857 original research organisational learning capabilities as determinants of social innovation: an empirical study in south africa boris urban, elena gaffurini received: 01 sept. 2016; accepted: 20 feb. 2017; published: 13 apr. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: a critical reading of the human resource management (hrm) literature finds limited contributions to understanding the organisational determinants of social enterprises and how these may contribute to higher levels of social innovativeness. although innovation is a key theme in organisational research it has been acknowledged that the field needs more theory-based examinations of different types of innovativeness. research purpose: to determine how different organisational capabilities are related to social innovation. motivation for the study: many social enterprises in developing countries do not have the requisite capabilities to efficiently manage all their programmes, which presents a major threat to organisational sustainability. research design, approach and method: the empirical analysis is a cross-sectional study based on primary survey data. hypotheses are tested using correlational and regression analysis. main findings: the results show that the organisational learning capabilities of knowledge conversion, risk management, organisational dialogue and participative decision-making all have a significant and positive relationship with social innovation. practical/managerial implications: managers and practitioners can leverage the different organisational learning capabilities to improve social innovations in their social enterprises. contribution/value-add: the study is one of the first in an african market context to empirically investigate social enterprises in terms of social innovation and organisational learning perspectives. introduction growing interest has been placed on social entrepreneurship (se) as an innovative way to incorporate economic activities into providing solutions for social problems, and in the process adding social value (porter & kramer, 2011). indeed, both practitioners and scholars note that the pursuance of financial worth without reference to social value creation is becoming increasingly difficult (nicholls, 2014). several researchers and practitioners are advocating that social enterprises could pave the way to a more sustainable and fair society, built on the basis of satisfying local needs and the creation of innovative market-orientated solutions (nicholls, 2006; urban, 2015). se has gained popularity under shifting market conditions and can be viewed as a process that catalyses social change (jiao, 2011; mair & marti, 2006). social entrepreneurs, virtually by definition, are attacking social problems caused by shortcomings in existing markets and social welfare systems and seek to create systemic changes and sustainable improvements (bacq & janssen, 2011; weerawardena, mcdonald & mort, 2010). they engage in a process of ‘continuous innovation, adaptation, and learning; acting boldly without being limited by resources currently in hand and exhibit heightened accountability to the constituencies served and for the outcomes created’ (dees, emerson & economy, 2001, p. 2). scholarly interest in se has progressed beyond the early focus on definitions and context to investigate the management and performance of social enterprises (littlewood & holt, 2013; urban, 2015). prior studies have focused on how social enterprises have developed innovative strategies (weerawardena & mort, 2006); formulated new resource configurations (austin, stevenson & wei-skillern, 2006); found new ways to advance social change (dees, 2007); established new business models (michelini & fiorentino, 2012); understood the role of power in social innovations (dover & lawrence, 2012); and hold the requisite mix of managerial and entrepreneurial skills (urban, 2008). however, a critical reading of the human resource management (hrm) literature revealed a dearth of contributions to understanding the organisational determinants and processes of se and how these may contribute to higher levels of social innovativeness. although innovation is a key theme in se research it has been acknowledged that the field needs more theory-based examinations of innovativeness (newth & woods, 2014). se not only has direct relevance to developed countries, but also to emerging markets, where social issues have unequivocal application since traditional government initiatives are unable to satisfy the entire social deficit (rwigema, urban & venter, 2010). the study responds directly to recent research calls to provide a much needed account of current thinking on theoretical and practical problems on innovativeness and organisational aspects of social enterprises. the problem prompting this study is that many social enterprises in developing countries do not have the time and expertise to efficiently manage all their programmes, which presents a major threat to organisational sustainability (dacin, dacin & tracey, 2011; weerawardena et al., 2010). considering the dearth of capabilities in the african formal sector (zoogah, peng & woldu, 2015), the effectiveness of african organisations is severely limited. insights are drawn upon from earlier work which advocates that social enterprises need to adopt market-orientated approaches and subsequently need to develop organisational learning capabilities to adapt to dynamic environments, while simultaneously creating social innovations and delivering social value (e.g. chalmers & balan-vnuk, 2013). organisational learning capability (olc) for the purpose of this study implies experimentation through searching for innovative solutions to social challenges and requires support for creativity and tolerance for failure to enhance the social enterprises’ adaptability to the external environment (chiva & alegre, 2009). building on the theoretical roots of organisational and innovation studies (hoogendoorn & pennings, 2010), hypotheses are formulated to empirically test the relationship between different dimensions of olc and social innovation of social enterprises. se, non-profit and philanthropic studies are a relatively new area of study, and consequently the emphasis of many publications has tended to be focused on issues of definition and theory with designs that rely on anecdotal evidence, without supporting empirical research (helm & andersson, 2010). consequently, this study makes the following contributions to the literature on organisational learning and social enterprises. firstly, it adds to the literature by focusing on olc towards explaining levels of social innovation in social enterprises. in this regard, the study will address the current issues on organisational aspects in africa and rely on the theory of organisational learning to understand its influence on social innovation. secondly, the study takes place in an under-researched country, south africa, a non-western context where social problems are exacerbated by a social context characterised by massive inequalities in education, housing, the hiv and/or aids pandemic, and high unemployment and poverty rates (rwigema et al., 2010). the study will be one of the first in an african market context to empirically investigate social enterprises from a social innovation and olc perspective. thirdly, the study has implications for managers and practitioners who need to take into account the configuration of olc factors which influence higher levels of social innovations. this article is structured as follows: the first section describes the theoretical foundations underlying the analysis and derives hypotheses for empirical testing. the second section introduces the methodological design of the empirical work which is based on primary survey data. and the third section presents the results of the statistical analysis, while the final section discusses the findings and their implications for policy and further research. literature review social entrepreneurship and social innovation se is an extended concept of entrepreneurship (drucker, 1986) and has in recent decades gained momentum as a means to address social challenges within society (nicholls, 2011). this is evident in philanthropic efforts, not-for-profit organisations (npos) and non-governmental organisations (ngos), as well as corporate social initiatives, all of which are social interventions that attempt to address social inequities that may exist within a society (dees et al., 2001). conceptual differences are noticeable in definitions of se (focus on process or behaviour), social entrepreneurs (focus on founder of initiative), and social enterprise (focus on tangible outcome of se). further reflection on the se academic literature reveals a number of themes, preoccupations and domains (weerawardena & mort, 2006); broadly these are: (1) se may be expressed in a vast array of economic, educational, welfare, and social activities, reflecting diverse initiatives and activities, (2) se may be conceptualised in a number of contexts, that is public sector, community, and social action organisations and (3) the role of innovativeness, proactiveness and risk taking in se have been emphasised in distinguishing se from other forms of community work. increasing research is taking place on the social enterprise as a vehicle to drive social innovations (porter & kramer, 2011). however, the same importance of innovativeness has also been assigned to social enterprises, where it is suggested that they need to adopt a market and entrepreneurial posture (weerawardena & mort, 2001), in order to engage in innovative practices (mcdonald, 2007). innovation is a key determinant of survival for social enterprises just as it is for traditional businesses (jaskyte & dressler, 2005). social innovation is the outcome of a new way of thinking and acting, which materialises through new social movements, institutions, social practices or even different structures of collaborative work (cajaiba-santana, 2014). social innovation is conceptualised as more ambiguous and complex than conventional innovation as applied by commercial ventures, because of the higher number of stakeholders having different interests, value sets and priorities (lettice & parekh, 2010). the importance of the relationship between social innovation and organisational learning is underscored when considering that if knowledge and innovation do not circulate effectively in a social enterprise, there is a high probability of wasteful resources that may negatively affect the community and hinder the potential to scale the social innovation (dees, 2009). indeed, innovation pursued in the absence of knowledge regarding what is already in place is not innovation but rather duplication and useless efforts amounting to little more than multiple reinventions of existing wheels (nicholls, 2006). organisational learning research on organisational learning has progressed exponentially in recent years (easterby-smith, crossan & nicolini, 2000). beginning with the notion of learning as being primarily cognitive and simply equal to the sum of learning of individuals (simon, 1991), research has progressed to recognise organisational learning as being socially constructed and situated (lave & wenger, 1991) in the learning activities of individuals, groups, organisations and inter-organisational networks. different schools of thought in organisational learning have been noted; these include the economic (learning based on experience and production), the developmental (the learning organisation being a stage in the evolution of the firm), the managerial (concerned with prescriptive learning outcomes) and the process (learning as socially constructed and grounded in the cognitive and behavioural capability of individuals) (bell, whitwell & lukas, 2002). organisational learning has also been related to the entrepreneurship where dutta and crossan’s (2005) 4i (intuiting, interpreting, integrating, and institutionalising) organisational learning framework yields insights about the processes that comprise the life cycle of the entrepreneurial opportunity construct. the 4i framework recognises that a critical part of learning occurs when the individuals develop insights based on their intuitive patterns relating to the emerging business environment. from a resource-based view (rbv), organisations achieve sustained competitive advantage through firm-specific resources and capabilities that are valuable, rare, hard to imitate and organisationally embedded (vrio) (barney, 2001). organisations that can configure their resources and capabilities in ways that enable them to overcome the constraints of the complex and unpredictable environment are likely to achieve short-term and long-term outcomes (zoogah et al., 2015). similarly, olc from the rbv lens may be considered as a bundle of intangible and tangible competencies and resources used by organisations to obtain several benefits when transforming the outcome of the acquisition of knowledge into rare, valuable, non-substitutable and inimitable routine procedures (chiva & alegre, 2009). olc provides an indication of the potential to innovate and grow (jerez-gómez, céspedes-lorente & valle-cabrera, 2005) which encompasses several subprocesses, and is considered a complex and multi-dimensional construct (chalmers & balan-vnuk, 2013). several studies have identified different dimensions of olc which include activities that people need to be involved so that organisations become learning organisations (watkins & marsick, 1996), as well as in the context of entrepreneurship, social enterprises and government organisations (alegre, chiva, gobert & lapiedra, 2008; chiva & alegre, 2009; visser, 2009). the dimensions of olc include: continuous learning, inquiry and dialogue, empowerment, strategic leadership, managerial commitment, openness and experimentation, knowledge transfer and integration, risk management, interaction with the environment, organisational dialogue and participative decision-making. building on in this research direction several key dimensions of olc are operationalised for the purpose of this study which have been previously identified in the literature. notwithstanding the complexity of the phenomenon and the reciprocal nature of relationships between these dimensions and social innovation, hypotheses are formulated but are restricted to a number of dimensions (knowledge conversion, experimentation, risk management, networking, dialogue and participative decision-making). these olc dimensions which inform the hypotheses are examined below. knowledge conversion: knowledge conversion and its effective utilisation at the organisational level have been identified as an important conduit that fosters idea creation and enhances innovation (gunsel, siachou & acar, 2011). an organisational design that is conducive to optimising knowledge work expertise (ramsey & barkhuizen, 2011), where the process of knowledge conversion creates valuable intangible assets that form part of the capital base of the organisation is considered a driving force for innovation. cabrita and vaz (2005) point out that knowledge generation and conversion is dependent on the individual’s willingness. research finds that the timely combination of internally generated and externally acquired knowledge with existing products and services in creative ways is a source of competitive advantage for hybrid enterprises and assists in delivering on increased social innovation (escobar, gutierrez, gutierrez & carlos, 2011). following these theoretical and empirical findings, in the first instance it is hypothesised that: hypothesis 1 (h1): the olc dimension of knowledge conversion is positively related with levels of social innovation in social enterprises. experimentation: experimentation as a series of trial and error changes, which includes the process of learning from failure (pretorius & le roux, 2011), can be pursued along various dimensions of strategy, and helps an organisation to develop a competitive advantage (sarasvathy & venkataraman, 2011). olc implies experimentation through searching for innovative solutions to social challenges and requires support for creativity and tolerance for failure (chiva & alegre, 2009). experimentation involves curiosity, testing of new ideas and implementing changes in operational processes, and materialises through incremental changes fostering a creative environment (mthanti & urban, 2014). for social enterprises, experimentation implies developing creative and sustainable ideas to solve a broad range of issues affecting society as well as improving the well-being of individuals (bulut, eren & halac, 2013). consequently, it is hypothesised: hypothesis 2 (h2): the olc dimension of experimentation is positively related with levels of social innovation in social enterprises. risk management: creating new products or services, or new ways of delivery are required by social entrepreneurs to satisfy the needs embedded in the social market (mair & marti, 2006), specifically in the process bringing about social change (urban, 2015). social enterprises are accountable to their funders and donors, as well as to the communities to whom they present their products and services with a unique selling proposal focused on delivering social value. in this regard, weerawardena and mort (2006) proposed that social entrepreneurs have risk-management qualities, instead of their risk-taking qualities, as do their commercial counterparts. social enterprises constantly seek new approaches to intervene in solving social issues which reflects a level of risk bearing in light of promoting social innovation (hoogendoorn & pennings, 2010). against this background, it is hypothesised that: hypothesis 3 (h3): the olc dimension of risk management is positively related with levels of social innovation in social enterprises. networking: social entrepreneurs generate value from social networks they can access, particularly in terms of acquiring ideas, attracting talent and resources (jiao, 2011). olc may be reinforced by the interaction of social enterprise actors with external stakeholders, through a complex structure of boundaries and agents who can bridge the gaps due to the inherent diversity in the external environment (tandon, 2014). failing to connect to the right network may limit access to resources and lower the morale of the staff, thereby hindering the capability to successfully innovate (lettice & holt, 2010). acquiring knowledge through collaboration and interacting with the external environment allows for effective partnerships to evolve which in turn enhances the capability of an organisation to generate social innovation (chalmers & balan-vnuk, 2013). following this line of reasoning, it is anticipated that: hypothesis 4 (h4): the olc dimension of networking is positively related with levels of social innovation in social enterprises. organisational dialogue: seelos and mair (2012) highlight the importance for social enterprises to develop capabilities such as absorptive capacity and knowledge management, which often evolve through sustained dialogue (tandon, 2014). implementing knowledge management initiatives, building project databases, and fostering dialogue internally and externally generally enhance the capability of the organisation to generate social innovations (chalmers & balan-vnuk, 2013). social entrepreneurs who foster innovativeness leverage the intellectual stimulation of their collaborators and employees, and seek to create a feeling of unity while fostering dialogue and commitment towards the achievement of the organisational vision (jaskyte, 2004). moreover, in social enterprises learning is likely to occur when different departments and teams interact through sustained dialogue with each other (tandon, 2014). building in this direction, it is hypothesised that: hypothesis 5 (h5): the olc dimension of organisational dialogue is positively related with levels of social innovation in social enterprises. participative decision-making: studies indicate that an organisational structure facilitating inclusive decision-making practices supports organisational learning and innovation (chiva, alegre & lapiedra, 2007). promoting learning and participative decision-making among employees can enhance their engagement and increase their sense of belonging to the organisation, therefore fostering a culture of alertness to new opportunities and innovations (marques, 2007). findings, such as from the world economic forum (2014), highlight that individuals are most confident about social enterprise leaders because these leaders are trusted to act in the interests of the marginalised and under-represented. based on these findings it is hypothesised that: hypothesis 6 (h6): the olc dimension of participative decision-making is positively related with levels of social innovation in social enterprises. these hypothesised relationships are illustrated in figure 1. the hypotheses and model structure are tested statistically in the following sections. figure 1: conceptual model of organisational learning capability dimensions and social innovation. methodology data collection and sampling the present article is a cross-sectional study utilising survey data to test the hypotheses formulated. the primary selection criteria in choosing participants are that they should be involved in an enterprise with social profit goals and revenue should be used to support social goals instead of shareholder returns (harding, 2006). similar to other studies, the lack of a legal framework identifying social enterprises did not allow for the identification a priori among the population (chiva & alegre, 2009). consequently, in recognising these limitations, social enterprises operating in south africa based on a sampling frame from the south african social innovation and entrepreneurship (sasie) network database (holt, 2016) were accessed, where respondents included field workers, social enterprise managers and project managers. the unit of analysis was the individual as they typically hold some levels of decision-making power and are engaged in strategic discussions for their respective organisations. based on the sampling selection criteria an electronic survey yielded a total of 577 qualifying individuals which were coded into a database where a random-numbers program was applied to randomly select individuals across the surveyed social enterprises. this multistage screening rendered a final sample of 135 complete responses, yielding a 23.4% response rate. this was regarded as a reasonable response rate, given that a number of emails did not reach the recipients presumably because of staff mobility, error in capturing email addresses and/or strict email policy among the organisations surveyed (cooper & schindler, 2011). instruments the research survey design was an interview questionnaire consisting of three separate sections reflecting the constructs under study. care was taken to ensure clarity in terminology and to ensure that the items in the questionnaire addressed the hypotheses. existing instruments were scrutinised for suitability and the survey operationalised with the theoretical constructs discussed in the literature. all items were measured along a seven-point likert-type scale, ranging from ‘mostly disagree’ = (1) to ‘mostly agree’ = (7). ethical considerations were taken into consideration by ensuring that the instrument used posed no risk or danger to respondents. the study purpose and benefits to the sample population as well as the participant’s rights and protections were made explicit and explained to the respondents at the start of the data collection process. furthermore, full and open information (informed consent) was made available to respondents, to ensure that no form of deception and misrepresentation was used to extract information from the respondents and their privacy and confidentiality was respected at all times. the first section of the instrument consisted of multi-variables used to assess olc (as the independent variables [ivs]) by measuring the dimensions in line with the hypotheses. the manifest variables were operationalised based on the following six olc dimensions identified in prior studies and as conceptualised in the literature review (chalmers & balan-vnuk, 2013; chiva & alegre, 2009; visser, 2009): (1) experimentation as the extent to which new ideas and suggestions are accepted and tested (3 items); (2) risk management as the tolerance for ambiguity, uncertainty and errors (3 items); (3) knowledge conversion as learning from past errors and dissemination of knowledge across the organisation through systems, training, formal and informal networks (4 items); (4) the external environment as the scope of the relations nurtured by the environment where the organisation operates (4 items); (5) dialogue as the collective inquiry into processes and assumptions of routine activities (4 items) and (6) participative decision-making as the level of influence assigned to employees along the decision-making process (3 items). the second section focused on social innovation (as the dependent variable [dv]) of social enterprises. several instruments were scrutinised for suitability, and in the final instance a social innovation index was used which focuses on supporting the development of local solutions to global problems by facilitating collaboration and hybridisation across sectors (innobasque, 2013). the index was developed with the intent of allowing its customisation to fit different sectors, namely businesses, universities, technological centres and npos. eleven items were used to measure social innovation, which included items relating to project development, impact and governance as indicators of an organisation’s ability to enact social innovation (innobasque, 2013). control variables included respondent’s years of tenure in the organisation, educational background and work position, all of which have previously been linked to se (harding, 2006). data analysis as the study used a self-report questionnaire to capture the individual-level measures at one point in time, common method bias may have affected the results and conclusions. a number of procedural and statistical steps were taken to minimise this risk. procedurally, to reduce socially desirable responses and item ambiguity, the questionnaire featured specific, clear, concise items, with a ‘counter-balanced’ question order, and the respondents could choose to remain completely anonymous (podsakoff, mackenzie, lee & podsakoff, 2003, p. 888). statistically, to ensure rigour in the results all items relating to the ivs and dvs were explored in a single principal component analysis (pca), using harman’s one-factor test (podsakoff et al., 2003) to check if one component accounted for most of the variance. five components with eigenvalues greater than 1.0 were detected, which accounted for 63% of the variance. the largest component accounted for only 11%. these results suggest that common method bias was not identified and is not a serious concern in this study. furthermore, exploratory factor analysis (efa) was applied to determine the dimensionality of the constructs of the model, followed by correlational and linear regression analysis to test the hypotheses as per the conceptual model. results sample characteristics the majority of the respondents (42%) had worked at the current social enterprise for less than 12 months, while 26% had worked for a period of 1–3 years. in terms of work position, 48% of the respondents were field workers directly involved with the target community, 29% were project managers liaising with head office and local branches in the delivery of social projects and initiatives, and 16% of the respondents were senior managers focused on the development of new strategies and the governance of the organisation, while 7% were external consultants hired on a temporary contract basis. furthermore, 44% of the sample had completed high school, while 48% had university education, with 4% of the sample holding postgraduate qualifications. measurement validity and reliability tests initially the adequacy of the intercorrelations across all olc items was checked with bartlett test of sphericity, and the sampling adequacy was tested through the kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) measure. both the results were significant (p < 0.001) and the obtained kmo value of 0.88 (x2 = 162.09) provided support for the adequacy of conducting factor analysis. efa using the principal axis factoring method with harris kaiser case ii rotation was used. eigenvalues > 1 and factor loadings of ≥ 0.5 were regarded as significant (hair, black, babin & anderson, 2010). based on the literature review, six factors were expected to underlie the items measured, and subsequently to load on a second-order factor describing the construct of olc as conceptualised for this study. after several attempts at factor analysis, using the scree plot method of factor extraction, the presence of five factors with eigenvalues > 1 were detected. however, some of the items did not load consistently or did not load at all. the loadings on two of the factors were extremely weak with several cross-loadings of items. subsequently, a four-factor solution was extracted with significant factor loadings, explaining 80% of cumulative variance. based on the results of this factor analysis, the constructs as originally conceptualised were all retained apart from experimentation and networking. the extracted factors were subsequently identified as ivs representing the theoretical constructs of: (factor 1) knowledge conversion, (factor 2) risk management, (factor 3) organisational dialogue and (factor 4) participative decision-making. these results ensured that four (h, h3, h5, h6) out of the original six hypotheses were now tested further. the same procedure was conducted to establish construct validity of the dv – social innovation. based on the scree plot method of factor extraction, the presence of one factor, with an eigenvalue > 1, was detected which explained 89% of total variance. efa results showed that all the items loaded (≥ 0.50) on one unique factor measuring social innovation, and consequently it was decided to treat social innovation as a unique construct. to assess the reliability of the scales, cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated on the factors identified through the efa results. table 1 shows the number of items per construct scale, the average inter-items total correlation and the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for each construct. these alpha values were all deemed to be reliable as they exceed the suggestion of 0.70 for exploratory research by nunnally (1978). thereafter, the scales were aggregated by averaging the multi-item scores for each observation into a final variable score, which was used in subsequent analyses. table 1: reliability results for the remaining organisational learning capability factors and the social innovation factor. descriptive statistics and correlations descriptive statistics are shown in table 2, where the overall mean scores for the various factors were relatively high, indicating agreement with the scale, and exceeded the midpoint average on the 1–7 likert scale. thus the responses to these scales are generally positive or very positive, an observation consistent with the skewness of the scales. the highest mean score was for social innovation (m = 5.64, sd = 0.97). the standard deviations of all olc scores exceeds 1.00, suggesting relatively high variation across the responses. table 2: descriptives and correlation matrix for variables under study. comparisons of means tests were conducted to evaluate the effects of single control variables on social innovation in isolation to other control variables, with no significant results detected. similarly, individual one-way analysis of variance (anova) tests (not shown) did not find any statistical differences in social innovation between any of the control variables and were subsequently not entered into the correlation matrix. to understand the nature of the relationship between the variables, a correlation analysis was conducted. pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were calculated for each of the scales and are reported with levels of significance denoted in table 2. the relatively strong (r > 0.60) and significant positive correlations between the olc factors and the dv suggest initial support for all of the hypotheses in terms of positive associations between olc factors and social innovation. hypotheses testing the remaining hypotheses (h1, h3, h5, h6) were tested using linear regression analyses. scatter plots of residuals by regressor for each of the ivs were calculated independently for each hypothesis (not shown). h1: for the influence of knowledge conversion on social innovation, results of the regression analyses (see table 3) were statistically significant with an adjusted r² = 0.43 and a significant f(21.32; p < 0.001). these findings support the existence of a positive relationship between knowledge conversion and social innovation. consequently, based on the statistically significant results, h1 is supported. table 3: linear regression results for the effect of knowledge conversion on social innovation (hypothesis 1). h3: the results of regression analysis in terms of the effect of risk management (see table 4) on social innovation show a statistically significant adjusted r² = 0.49 and a significant f(22.71; p < 0.001), which means that the predictive and explanatory power of this model is fairly robust considering the amount of variance (r² = 49%) explained in social innovation by this olc factor. consequently, based on the statistically significant results, h3 is supported. table 4: linear regression results for the effect of risk management on social innovation (hypnotises 3). h5: for the influence of organisational dialogue on social innovation, results of the linear regression model (see table 5) were statistically significant with an adjusted r² = 0.42 and a significant f(25.63; p < 0.001). these findings support the existence of a moderate positive relationship between organisational dialogue and social innovation, as confirmed by the linear regression of the residuals of the iv on the dv. consequently, based on the statistically significant results, h5 is supported. table 5: linear regression results for the effect of organisational dialogue on social innovation (hypnotises 5). h6: for the influence of participative decision-making on social innovation, results of the linear regression model (see table 6) were statistically significant with an adjusted r² = 0.44 and a significant f(25.63; p < 0.001). these findings support the existence of a moderate positive linear relationship between participative decision-making and social innovation. consequently, based on the statistically significant results, h6 is supported. table 6: linear regression results for the effect of participative decision-making on social innovation (hypnotises 6). discussion the main purpose of this article was to determine how different organisational capabilities are related to social innovation. recognising the need for empirical investigations into organisational aspects of social enterprises, this article is one of the first in the south african context to examine how dimensions of olc may influence levels of social innovation. the study results show that the olc dimensions of knowledge conversion, risk management, organisational dialogue and participative decision-making all have a significant and positive relationship with social innovation. additionally, based on the regression results these olc factors explain a significant amount of variance in levels of social innovation. the study findings are in line with literature which indicates that the process of knowledge conversion evolving in social enterprises takes place through practice, active participation and interaction of local agents which leads to higher levels of innovations (tandon, 2014). organisational dialogue and participative decision-making represent the embedded nature of social enterprises whereby the organisation needs to understand the need of the community it aims to support, elaborate upon this information internally and convert it into organisational knowledge in order to develop innovative solutions. furthermore, both organisational dialogue and participative decision-making affect levels of social innovation in terms of employee commitment which increases with engagement (chalmers & balan-vnuk, 2013). the implications of these positive findings translate into recognising that managerial practices which promote social innovation tend to evolve across boundaries because of complexities of the cross-sector environment in which social enterprises operate and the context-specific solutions they need to implement (tandon, 2014). consequently, organisational dialogue is important for the management of social enterprises under such circumstances. moreover, organisational dialogue and participative decision-making may be reinforced by the interaction of social enterprise actors with external stakeholders, through a complex structure of boundaries and agents who can bridge the gaps because of their diversity. considering the study was undertaken in an under researched emerging market context, south africa, the adequacy of measures used in this study were first tested. the study established construct validity and reliability which adds to the growing knowledge base on the factor structure of olc and social innovation. additionally, the results also have contextual relevance where emerging economies provide a unique environment which offers the ability to obtain fresh insights and to expand the theory and our understanding of it by incorporating more contextualised considerations (bruton, ahlstrom & obloj, 2008). in this sense it is acknowledged that the social enterprise sector across sub-saharan africa is still highly influenced by local, international and bilateral political and economic decisions that often challenge the success of social-entrepreneurial initiatives aiming at systemic societal change (karanda & toledano, 2012). in the african context, the survival of many social enterprises remains dubious (gugerty, 2010). past studies indicate that building a new, viable organisation is a challenging endeavour, and only some enterprises manage to reach the goal of running an operational business (urban, 2008). in terms of academic implications, this study is a starting point in filling the gap in the olc and se literatures which has largely neglected the effectiveness of african organisations. practically the implications of this study point to several areas of interest to managers and practitioners who need to be aware of the importance of the olc dimensions in leveraging social innovations when considering that those who fund social enterprises are looking to invest in people with a demonstrated ability to create change, and the factors that matter most are the ability to learn and adapt (urban, 2008). by focusing on dimensions of olc it is anticipated that managers in social enterprises can configure and leverage knowledge conversion, risk management, organisational dialogue, and participative decision-making in ways that enable them to overcome the constraints of the complex and unpredictable environment in africa and increase their levels of social innovation. it is recommended that managers of social enterprises leverage their olc in terms of knowledge conversion and organisational dialogue by identifying functional areas which they may impact – such as technology-enabled solutions to facilitate collecting data from the communities in which they operate. additionally, adopting appropriate tools for risk assessments would support social enterprises in identifying their ideal level of risk taking versus innovativeness and could pave the way to provide measurable returns on investment to financial capital as well as returns on social investment. managers should consciously establish organisational and individual determinants to create an environment supportive of sustainable innovation (de jager, muller & roodt, 2013). the development of creative and innovative thinking is not sufficient on its own to support sustainable innovation. as an hrm strategy, organisational learning always requires long-term commitment to be established, maintained and improved, while its value can only be demonstrated over time. consequently, managers must recognise the need to invest in establishing hrm systems that promote organisational learning. the study has several limitations of which the early stage of theoretical development of se as a whole and its related measures in terms of olc and social innovations remains open for further scrutiny. it is also recommended that scales used in this study be improved upon in future studies with constructs that capture the dynamic nature of the social innovation process. another limitation of the article is that a cross-sectional design prevents demonstrating causation. consequently, in future research using longitudinal research designs is required to examine the potential reciprocal links between the olc and social innovation. conclusion building on the theoretical roots of organisational learning and innovation studies the study results support the hypotheses where the olc dimensions of knowledge conversion, risk management, organisational dialogue and participative decision-making explain a significant amount of variation in levels of social innovation. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions b.u. wrote the article and was responsible for the conceptual design of the article. e.g. conducted the empirical work and interpreted the data emanating from the field work. references alegre, j., chiva, r., gobert, d., & lapiedra, r. (2008). organisational learning capability and product innovation: an empirical test on spanish and italian ceramic tile producers. technovation, 28(6), 315–356. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2007.09.003 austin, j., stevenson, h., & wei-skillern, j. (2006). social and commercial entrepreneurs: same, different, or both. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 30(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2006.00107.x bacq, s., & janssen, f. (2011). the multiple faces of social entrepreneurship: a review of definitional issues based on geographical and thematic criteria. entrepreneurship & regional development, 23(5–6), 373–403. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2011.577242 barney, j.b. (2001). resource-based theories of competitive advantage: a ten-year retrospective on the resource-based view. journal of management, 27(4), 643–650. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630102700602 bell, s.j., whitwell, g.j., & lukas, b.a. (2002). schools of thought in organisational learning. journal of the academy of marketing science, 30(1), 70–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/03079459994335 bulut, c., eren, h., & halac, d.s. (2013). social innovation and psychometric analysis. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 82, 122–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.06.235 bruton, g.d., ahlstrom, d., & obloj, k. (2008). entrepreneurship in emerging economics: where are we today and where the research should go in the future? entrepreneurship theory and practice, 32(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2007.00213.x cabrita, m.d.r., & vaz, j.l. (2005). intellectual capital and value creation: evidence from the portuguese banking industry. electronic journal of knowledge management, 4(1), 11–20. cajaiba-santana, g. (2014). social innovation: moving the field forward. a conceptual framework. technological forecasting and social change, 82, 42–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2013.05.008 chalmers, d.m., & balan-vnuk, e. (2013). innovating not-for-profit social ventures: exploring the micro foundations of internal and external absorptive capacity routines. international small business journal, 31(7) 785–810. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266242612465630 chiva, r., & alegre, j. (2009). organisational learning capability and job satisfaction: an empirical assessment in the ceramic tile industry. british journal of management, 20(3), 323–340. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2008.00586.x chiva, r., alegre, j., & lapiedra, r. (2007). measuring organisational learning capability among the workforce. international journal of manpower, 28(3/4), 224–242. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720710755227 cooper, d.r., & schindler, p.s. (2011). business research methods. (11th edn.). new york: mcgraw hill international edition. dacin, m.t., dacin, p.a., & tracey, p. (2011). social entrepreneurship: a critique and future directions. organization science, 22(5), 1203–1213. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1100.0620 dees, j.g. (2007). taking social entrepreneurship seriously. society, 44(3), 24–31. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02819936 dees, j.g. (2009). social ventures as learning laboratories, innovations, special edition for the world economic forum annual meeting. mit press journal, 2(1), 11–15. dees, j.g., emerson, j., & economy, p. (2001). enterprising nonprofits: a toolkit for social entrepreneurs. new york: wiley. de jager, c., muller, a., & roodt, g. (2013). developing creative and innovative thinking and problem-solving skills in a financial services organization. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.502 dover, g., & lawrence, t.b. (2012). the role of power in nonprofit innovation. nonprofit voluntary sector quarterly, 41(6), 991–1013. https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764011423304 drucker, p.f. (1986). innovation and entrepreneurship: practice and principles. new york: harper collins. dutta, d.k., & crossan, m.m. (2005). the nature of entrepreneurial opportunities: understanding the process using the 4i organisational learning framework. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 29(4), 425–449. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2005.00092.x easterby-smith, m., crossan, m., & nicolini, d. (2000). organisational learning: debates past, present and future. journal of management studies, 37(6), 783–796. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00203 escobar, j., gutierrez, j., gutierrez, m., & carlos, a. (2011). social economy and the fourth sector, base and protagonist of social innovation. ciriec espana, revista de economia publica, social and cooperativa, 73(1), 33–60. gugerty, m.k. (2010). the emergence of nonprofit self-regulation in africa. nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly, 39(6), 1087–1112. https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764010372972 gunsel, a., siachou, e., & acar, a.z. (2011). knowledge management and learning capability enhance organisational innovativeness. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 24(5), 880–888. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.09.012 harding, r. (2006). social entrepreneurship monitor, london: london business school. hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. 2010. multivariate data analysis: a global perspective. (7th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson. helm, s.t., & andersson, f.o. (2010). beyond taxonomy an empirical validation of social entrepreneurship in the nonprofit sector. nonprofit management and leadership, 20(3), 259–276. https://doi.org/10.1002/nml.253 holt, d. (2016). sasie. south african social innovation and entrepreneurship. retrieved august 15, 2015, from http://www.sasieresearch.net/index.php/database hoogendoorn, b., & pennings, h.p.g. (2010). what do we know about social entrepreneurship: an analysis of empirical research? erasmus research institute of management: rotterdam. innobasque. (2013). resindex: regional social innovation index. a regional index to measure social innovation. retrieved may 03, 2014, from http://www.innobasque.com/home.aspx?tabid=1163 jaskyte, k. (2004). transformational leadership, organisational culture, and innovation in non-profit organizations. nonprofit management and leadership, 15(2), 153–168. https://doi.org/10.1002/nml.253 jaskyte, k., & dressler, w.w. (2005). organisational culture and innovation in nonprofit human service organizations. administration in social work, 29(2), 23–41. https://doi.org/10.1300/j147v29n02_03 jerez-gómez, p., céspedes-lorente, j., & valle-cabrera, r. (2005). organisational learning and compensation strategies: evidence from the spanish chemical industry. human resource management, 44(3), 279–299. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20071 jiao, h. (2011). a conceptual model for social entrepreneurship directed toward social impact on society. social enterprise journal, 7(2), 130–149. https://doi.org/10.1108/17508611111156600 karanda, c., & toledano, n., (2012). social entrepreneurship in south africa: a different narrative for a different context. social enterprise journal, 8(3), 201–215. https://doi.org/10.1108/17508611211280755 lave, j., & wenger, e. (1991). situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. cambridge: cambridge university press. first published in 1990 as institute for research on learning report 90-001. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511815355 lettice, f., & parekh, m. (2010). the social innovation process: themes, challenges and implications for practice. international journal of technology management, 51(1), 139–158. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijtm.2010.033133 littlewood, d., & holt, d. (2013, november 12–13). institutional framing of csr and social entrepreneurship interactions in south africa. paper presented at isbe conference, cardiff. retrieved november 15, 2014, from http://www.isbe.org.uk mair, j., & marti, i. (2006). social entrepreneurship research: a source of explanation, prediction, and delight. journal of world business, 41(1), 36–44. marques, j.f. (2007). the interconnectedness between leadership and learning: a reaffirmation. journal of management development, 26(10), 918–932. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710710833388 mcdonald, r.e. (2007). an investigation of innovation in nonprofit organizations: the role of organisational mission. nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly, 36(2), 256–281. https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764006295996 michelini, l., & fiorentino, d. (2012). new business models for creating shared value. social responsibility journal, 8(4), 561–577. https://doi.org/10.1108/17471111211272129 mthanti, t., & urban, b. (2014). effectuation and entrepreneurial orientation in high-technology firms. technology analysis and strategic management, 25(9), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537325.2013.850161 newth, j., & woods, c. (2014). resistance to social entrepreneurship: how context shapes innovation. journal of social entrepreneurship, 5(2), 192–213. https://doi.org/10.1080/19420676.2014.889739 nicholls, a. (2006). introduction. in a. nicholls (ed.), social entrepreneurship: new models of sustainable social change (pp. 1–35). oxford: oxford university press. nicholls, a. (2011). editorial: social enterprise – at the forefront of rethinking business. journal of social entrepreneurship, 2(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/19420676.2011.566764 nicholls, a. (2014). and in the end. journal of social entrepreneurship, 5(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1080/19420676.2014.888167 nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory. (2nd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., lee, j.y., & podsakoff, n.p. (2003). common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. journal of applied psychology, 88(5), 879–903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879 porter, m., & kramer, m. (2011, january/february). the big idea: creating shared value, harvard business review, pp. 1–17. pretorius, m., & le roux, i. (2011). successive failure, repeat entrepreneurship and no learning: a case study. sa journal of human resource management, 9(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.236 ramsey, m., & barkhuizen, n. (2011). organisational design elements and competencies for optimising the expertise of knowledge workers in a shared services centre. sa journal of human resource management, 9(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.307 rwigema, h., urban, b., & venter, r. (2010). entrepreneurship theory in practice. johannesburg: oxford university press. sarasvathy, s.d., & venkataraman, s. (2011). entrepreneurship as method: open questions for an entrepreneurial future. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 35(1), 113–135. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2010.00425.x seelos, c., & mair, j. (2012). innovation is not the holy-grail. stanford social innovation review, fall, 44–49. simon, h.a. (1991). bounded rationality and organisational learning. organization science, 2(1), 125–134. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2.1.125 tandon, a. (2014). investigating learning in social enterprises: a boundary perspective. social enterprise journal, 10(2), 155–172. https://doi.org/10.1108/sej-05-2013-0022 urban, b. (2008). social entrepreneurship in south africa: delineating the construct with associated skills. international journal of entrepreneurial behavior & research, 14(5), 346–364. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552550810897696 urban, b. (2015). evaluation of social enterprise outcomes and self-efficacy. international journal of social economics, 42(2), 163–178. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijse-03-2013-0071 visser, m. (2009, may 11–14). diagnosis organisational learning capability (dolc). paper presented at euram, liverpool. watkins, k.e., & marsick, v.j. (eds.). (1996). in action: creating the learning organization. alexandria, va: astd press. weerawardena, j., mcdonald, r.e., & mort, g.s. (2010). sustainability of nonprofit organizations: an empirical investigation. journal of world business, 45(4), 346–356. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2009.08.004 weerawardena, j., & mort, g.s. (2001). learning, innovation and competitive advantage in not-for-profit aged care marketing: a conceptual model and research propositions. journal of nonprofit & public sector marketing, 9(3), 53–73. https://doi.org/10.1300/j054v09n03_04 weerawardena, j., & mort, g.s. (2006). investigating social entrepreneurship: a multidimensional model. journal of world business, 48(1), 21–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2005.09.001 world economic forum. (2014). outlook on the global agenda 2015. retrieved february 28, 2015, from http://reports.weforum.org/outlook-global-agenda-2015/ zoogah, d.b., peng, m.w., & woldu, h. (2015). institutions, resources and organisational effectiveness in africa. the academy of management perspectives, 29(1), 7–31. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2012.0033 abstract introduction research objective research design results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) rebecca tladinyane department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa marna van der merwe department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa citation tladinyane, r., & van der merwe, m. (2016). career adaptability and employee engagement of adults employed in an insurance company: an exploratory study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a752. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.752 note: this article is based on the author’s thesis of the degree of master of commerce in the subject industrial and organisational psychology at the university of south africa, south africa, with supervisor: dr r.t. tladinyane, received june 2013, available here: http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/13742/dissertation_potgieter_m.pdf?sequence original research career adaptability and employee engagement of adults employed in an insurance company: an exploratory study rebecca tladinyane, marna van der merwe received: 25 aug. 2015; accepted: 23 nov. 2015; published: 16 may 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: as a resiliency resource, career adaptability relates to an individual’s ability to adapt to new work demands and is seen to impact various occupational outcomes such as engagement. research purpose: the aim of the study was to determine the relationship dynamics between career adaptability (measured by career adapt-abilities scale) and employee engagement (measured by utrecht work engagement scale). motivation for the study: as a personal resource, career adaptability enables employees to deal with job demands, facilitating employee engagement. limited research exists on the impact of career adaptability variables on employee engagement, bearing significant relevance in the current workforce. research design, approach and method: a quantitative survey was conducted with a convenience sample (n = 131) of employees in an insurance company within south africa. main findings/results: significant positive relationships were found between career adaptability and employee engagement. the results suggest that participants who have experienced higher employee engagement have better developed career adaptability skills. practical implications: managers and human resource practitioners need to recognise how people’s career adaptability influences their level of engagement in the organisation. contribution: this research is the first to investigate the construct of career adaptability in an insurance company and the findings add to the existing career literature and provide valuable information that can be used to inform career development and engagement strategies. introduction key focus of the study in the current era of more diverse, global and boundary-less careers (biemann, zacher & feldman, 2012; briscoe, hall & frautschy demuth, 2006; sullivan & arthur, 2006), employee’s ability to adapt to new work demands, diverse groups and different environments is becoming increasingly important. for organisations, this means that every effort should be made to remain relevant in this environment (klehe, zikic, van vianen & de pater, 2011). this includes refocusing attention to attracting, retaining, engaging and developing key employees (coetzee, bergh & schreuder, 2010). for employees, the changes in the world of work imply significant changes to the nature and complexity of their careers and their job demands (coetzee & schreuder, 2009; klehe et al., 2011). the present study focused on the career adaptability variables that enable the individual to proactively adapt to the changing career circumstance and the way in which these attributes influence their engagement to the organisation. by identifying the relationship between these variables, recommendations can be made to enhance human resources practices, such as to inform engagement strategies, as well as in the career development setting. the climate in the insurance industry has similarly reflected global changes (coetzer & rothmann, 2007). since the 19th century, the insurance industry has seen immense growth and expansion, characterised by competitiveness and rivalry (coetzer & rothmann, 2007). these changes, along with world-wide economic conditions and demands, have forced organisations into rapid adaptation, including down-sizing, restructuring and outsourcing (coetzer & rothmann, 2007). from a human resources perspective today, employee engagement continues to be an important consideration. because of the challenging economic climate, organisations now more than ever are deciding to restructure and resize, which has resulted in organisations investigating new approaches to maintain and increase engagement. organisations need to strike the right balance between fostering and enhancing employee engagement levels whilst at the same time not compromising their competitive position (knight, 2011). the ability to attract, engage, develop and retain talent will become increasingly important for gaining competitive advantage. in the new economy, competition is global, capital is abundant, ideas are developed quickly and cheaply and people are willing to change jobs often (sundaray, 2011). organisations that do not provide good treatment for their employees will lose their talented people. in this situation, engaged employees may be a key to competitive advantage because, engaged employees have high levels of energy, are enthusiastic about their work and are often fully immersed in their jobs so that time flies (macey & schneider, 2008; may, gilson & harter, 2004). employee engagement is seen as a function of working conditions, specifically the job demands, job resources and the control that the employee has over his work (bakker, 2011; schaufeli & bakker, 2004). it is also a function of personal resources; therefore, career adaptability may influence engagement, as suggested by career adaptability and engagement models (rossier, zecca, stauffer, maggiori & dauwalder, 2012). research on employee engagement has predominantly focused on the organisational factors that may influence it, whilst individual influence factors have not received sufficient attention (rothmann & joubert, 2007). little to no research has studied the relationship between career adaptability and their impact on employee engagement in an insurance environment. background to the study the contemporary workplace witnesses a decrease in stability and security in careers (ferreira, 2012). the emergence of protean and boundary-less careers implies an erosion of a career with a single employer and involves frequent career changes (lent, 2013) that, in turn, require greater levels of career adaptability (savickas, 2011). career adaptability is an adaptive resource enabling individuals to cope with career traumas and transitions in stressful and uncertain times (ferreira, 2012). as a resiliency resource, career adaptability relates to positive behaviour and the individual’s ability to adapt with greater ease to stress and uncertainty in the work environment (harry & coetzee, 2013). individuals with high levels of career adaptability are generally both cognitively and emotionally more ready to cope with more predicable tasks of preparing for and participating in the work role and with the unpredictable adjustments prompted by changes in work and working roles (savickas & porfeli, 2012). career adaptability is seen to impact various occupational outcomes, including job success, job satisfaction, tenure and engagement (klehe et al., 2011). it enables employees to deal with changes in their work environment, such as redundancy, restructuring, outsourcing and job insecurity, all characteristics of the current business environment (klehe et al., 2011). specific skills encapsulating adaptability, such as coping skills and self-regulation, relate to outcomes like engagement (savickas, 1997). lower levels of career adaptability are associated with employees who have lower engagement (rossier et al., 2012). regardless of the job demands and increased pressures of the work environment, some employees do not reach a point of burnout, but rather thrive on the pressure, finding pleasure in hard work and effectively dealing with high job demands (schaufeli & bakker, 2001). employee engagement is a positive, gratifying, work-related state of mind that is characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption (pitt-catsouphes & matz-costa, 2008). it is further described as the meaning that employees find in their work and the discretionary effort and time devoted to work (pitt-catsouphes & matz-costa, 2008). increased employee engagement may benefit employers and employees alike (pitt-catsouphes & matz-costa, 2008). engaged workers are less likely to be stressed, more satisfied with their personal lives and more productive. engaged workers would probably stay longer in an organisation than less engaged counterparts would (pitt-catsouphes & matz-costa, 2008). for the employer, an engaged workforce displays higher productivity, innovation, increased profitability, stronger client relationships and longevity within the organisation (pitt-catsouphes & matz-costa, 2008). individual variables, such as adaptability, have been relatively absent in literature in relation to employee engagement. it is important to acknowledge that both organisational variables and individual factors influence employee engagement (rothmann & joubert, 2007). as a personal resource, career adaptability may influence employee engagement, as evident in the career adaptability and engagement models (bakker, 2011). trends from the literature career adaptability according to ferreira (2012), adaptability is a predisposition to consciously maintain an integration of person and the environment and constitutes the attitudes, competencies and behaviours that individuals use to fit into different professions. career adaptability relates to the professional duties, traumas, events, situations and transitions that individuals find themselves having to deal with, as well as the psychosocial strategies needed to cope (savickas & porfeli, 2012). in the career construction theory, adaptability resources help to inform the strategies that individuals use to direct their adaptive behaviours (stoltz, 2014). individuals need to self-regulate in order to accommodate employment-related change and to also acknowledge that change can be driven by individuals seeking new challenges or wishing to adopt new perspectives associated with engagement in substantive personal development (brown, bimrose, barnes & hughes, 2012). career adaptability, as a personal resource, relates specifically to the agency of the employees to manage their own careers, make career decisions and have the confidence to adapt to changing work environments (bakker, 2011). savickas (1997) proposes career adaptability as a bridging construct that entwines the career life stages and essentially connects all perspectives of the career or lifespan theory. in reaction to the changing world of work, regulation skills and adaptation abilities, adaptability is regarded as critical for individuals to respond to and face the challenges associated with constantly changing work contexts (savickas & porfeli, 2012). career adaptability can be defined as the individual’s readiness responses and coping resources, which are used by individuals to plan for, explore and inform decisions regarding the future possibilities of their careers (rossier et al., 2012). career adaptability reflects a process through which people build their professional lives in a dynamic manner and at the same time demonstrate the ability to handle changes both proactively and effectively with regard to the particular sociocultural and socioeconomic context within which they live (coetzee, 2008; ferreira, 2012). adapting proactively to a changing career circumstance reflects the ability to handle constructively the stress of a new or challenging career context (hirschi, 2012). it is the readiness of the individual to cope with predictable tasks, such as planning, preparing and participating in work, as well as unpredictable demands of the organisation, such as changes in work and career (klehe et al., 2011). in achieving this, career behaviours, such as exploration and planning, are seen as complementary (super, savickas & super, 1996; savickas, 1997, 2005). the four dimensions of career adaptability resources are concern, control, curiosity and confidence. these dimensions are used by individuals to support self-regulation strategies (savickas & porfeli, 2012). career concern consists of the ability of an individual to be aware of and plan for a vocational future. it involves a tendency to consider life within a time perspective anchored in hope and optimism (stoltz, 2014). control relates to the responsibility of individuals to shape themselves as well as the environment and to face challenges with effort, persistence and self-discipline (savickas & porfeli, 2012). career control rests on the belief that it is an advantage for people to be able not to only use self-regulation strategies but also to exert some sort of influence over the context (stoltz, 2014). curiosity encourages individuals to explore alternatives of themselves and their environment and to see themselves in different roles (savickas & porfeli, 2012). curiosity about possible selves increases people’s active exploration behaviours. to explore information builds confidence in individuals to actualise their decisions and implement these in their life designs. career confidence is the self-confidence in one’s ability to face and to solve concrete vocational and career problems. even in the face of obstacles and barriers, individuals with career confidence are able to stand by their own aspirations and objectives. an adaptable individual in the face of change is therefore seen as concerned about their future, takes control of preparing for it, explores alternatives through their curiosity and pursues aspirations through established confidence (savickas & porfeli, 2012). individuals with high levels of career adaptability generally take a proactive stance towards managing their personal life and promoting their own well-being (lent, 2013). there appears to be a paucity of research on the career adaptability in an insurance industry. according to savickas and porfeli (2012), adaptability is the coping responses or behaviours necessary for an individual to handle the career change tasks with which individuals may be faced. broadly speaking, adaptability reflects the ability to adjust to change, especially in unpredictable situations like in insurance companies. the resources or dimensions of career adaptability enable individuals to adjust their behaviours to the changing needs and demands of the environment and are mediating factors of job demands and job resources. therefore, career adaptability is also associated with employee engagement (bakker, 2011; schaufeli & bakker, 2004). career adaptability is therefore an important construct to consider in this study as it relates to employee engagement. career adaptability contributes to factors such as work engagement, job satisfaction, career success, a stronger connection and a fit with the organisation and a stronger sense of responsibility towards the organisation (ferreira, 2012; savickas & porfeli, 2012; zacher, 2014). organisations that develop career adaptability will most likely promote the management of engagement strategies. employee engagement employee engagement implies that the individual feels strongly involved and connected to their work, invests more discretionary effort in their work and is focused and concentrated on the work they are involved in (rossier et al., 2012). it is further viewed as a function of working conditions as well as the personal control that the individual has over their work (rossier et al., 2012; schaufeli & bakker, 2004). employee engagement has been linked to job satisfaction, organisational commitment, personal initiative, prosocial behaviour, motivation and life satisfaction (vecina, chacon, sueiro & barron, 2012). employee engagement appears to be dependent on job and personal resources (bakker, schaufeli, leiter & taris, 2008). job resources represent the characteristics of the job that are functional in obtaining career-related objectives, whereas personal resources are associated with resiliency and positive self-evaluations that enable individuals to control and influence their environment (demerouti, bakker, nachreiner & schaufeli, 2001; hobfoll, johnson, ennis & jackson, 2003; tremblay & messervay, 2011). truss et al. (2006) define employee engagement as a ‘passion for work’, which encompasses the physical, cognitive and emotional components. according to kahn (1990), employee engagement is the result of being psychologically present when occupying and performing an organisational role. kahn (1990) suggests that engagement is a multidimensional construct where employees can be emotionally engaged, physically engaged and cognitively engaged. engaged employees become physically involved in their tasks, are cognitively alert and emotionally connected to their jobs and hide their true identity (coetzee & de villiers, 2010; olivier & rothmann, 2007). schaufeli and bakker (2004) consider employee engagement to be a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind, characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption. engagement does not refer to monetary and specific state but rather a more persistent and pervasive affective-cognitive state that is not focused on any particular object, event individual or behaviour (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). the following dimensions are considered relevant for employee engagement: vigour refers to the willingness to invest effort, low fatigue, high levels of energy and resilience and persistence in the face of difficulties (bakker, 2011; schaufeli & bakker, 2003). vigour also refers to employee’s resilience when working (bakker, 2011). dedication refers to the sense of significance the individual derives from doing their job, a feeling of pride and enthusiasm about work, feeling challenged and inspired at work. individuals with high dedication strongly identify with their work and experience it as meaningful, challenging and inspiring (bakker, 2011; schaufeli & bakker, 2003). absorption indicates the feeling of being totally and happily immersed in work, often finding it difficult to detach from work (bakker, 2011; schaufeli & bakker, 2003). employees with high absorption are happily engrossed in their work and fully concentrate on the task at hand (bakker, 2011). hr practitioners face a major ongoing challenge to enhance productivity in the workplace and must constantly strive to find ways of encouraging employees to be more committed to their employer and to increase the levels of employee engagement in the organisation. sartain and finney (2003) maintain that the reality is that hr needs to identify innovative and creative behaviours to build a dynamic, lively, exciting and profitable workplace where employees will love their jobs. those organisations that are not able to positively engage their employees in their work and in the organisation’s values and objectives will not be able to realise their full potential. investing in the conditions that foster employee engagement is vital for the growth and profitability of the organisation (chughtai & buckley, 2008). the relationship between career adaptability and employee engagement the various definitions of employee engagement imply that employees put energy into their work, feel involved in their work and concentrate on the task at hand (bakker & demerouti, 2008). consequently, employee engagement can be viewed as a function of work conditions. this relates more specifically to the job demands, job resources available to the employee as well as the extent to which an individual has control over his work and career (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). guided by the job demands-resources model (jd-r), it is further proposed that employee engagement is a function of personal resources, such as intrapersonal resources of career adaptability, self-efficacy, optimism and career management (bakker, 2011; cotter & fouad, 2012). therefore, career adaptability may influence employee engagement (bakker, 2011; cotter & fouad, 2012). very little research has focused on occupational guidance variables and employee engagement, especially in a work-to-work transition context (rossier et al., 2012). according to cotter and fouad (2012), few studies have taken into account personal strengths, such as career adaptability, when examining employee engagement. previous studies have found links between career adaptability and positive outcomes, such as life satisfaction (hirschi, 2009) as well as negative work-related outcomes, such as turnover intentions (ito & brotheridge, 2005). in terms of decision-making, exploration, confidence, planning and increased career adaptability have been seen to assist in the successful mastery of vocational transitions promoting well-being and decreasing distress (hirschi, 2009). van den heuvel, demerouti, bakker and schaufeli (2013) view career adaptability as a crucial personal resource that enables employees to respond to the changing world of work and consequently career transitions. career adaptability is further seen as one of the most important factors to ensure commitment and motivation of employees amidst increased environmental pressure, thus ensuring organisational success (savickas & porfeli, 2012; van den heuvel et al., 2013). in their study of retrenched employees, cotter and fouad (2012) found no relationship between career adaptability and employee engagement despite the anticipated theoretical relationship. contradictory to these findings, rossier et al. (2012) found significant relationships between the two variables. therefore, understanding the relationship between career adaptability and employee engagement is increasingly relevant and important. career adaptability may predict process-oriented constructs, such as performance, as well as occupational behaviours, such as engagement (rossier et al., 2012). figure 1 illustrates the theoretical relationship between career adaptability and employee engagement: hypothesis 1 (h1): career adaptability is significantly related to people’s level of employee engagement. figure 1: theoretical relationship between career adaptability and employee engagement. research objective the present study aimed at empirically assessing whether career adaptability positively relates to employee engagement. the assessment of whether career adaptability is related to employee engagement may provide valuable information for human resource managers and practitioners to inform career development interventions and engagement strategies within organisations. the next section of the article elaborates on the research design, which covers the research approach and method, followed by the presentation of the results and a discussion of the findings. the article concludes with a brief synopsis of the main conclusions, implications for practice and recommendations for potential future research. research design research approach for this exploratory study, a quantitative survey design was used to achieve the research objective. research method participants the participants were a convenience sample of 131 employed adults within a financial institution (see table 1). table 1: characteristics and biographical distribution of the sample. measuring instruments participants completed the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) (schaufeli & bakker, 2003) and the career adapt-abilities scale (caas) (maree, 2012). the uwes is a self-rating questionnaire developed by schaufeli and bakker (2003), which measures three subscales of engagement, namely vigour, dedication and absorption. it comprises 17 items which include statements such as ‘i am bursting with energy every day in my work’ (vigour); ‘my job inspires me’ (dedication); and ‘time flies when i am at work’ (absorption). respondents respond to items on a 7-point rating scale, indicating frequency of feelings and experiences relative to work, varying from never (0) to always (6) (rossier et al., 2012; schaufeli, bakker & salanova, 2006). the uwes is scored by calculating the score obtained per question based on the response (7-point scale) per dimension (schaufeli & bakker, 2003). the cronbach’s alpha values of the uwes were also highly satisfactory with all scores between 0.80 and 0.91. the overall internal consistency of the uwes was high, at 0.94, indicating good reliability of the instrument. the caas (international form) consists of 24 items which the respondents rate on a scale from 1 (not strong) to 5 (strongest). the questionnaire includes items such as ‘preparing for the future’ and ‘considering the consequences of my actions’. these items are divided equally to measure the four dimensions of career adaptability, namely concern, control, curiosity and confidence (maree, 2012). for this study, each of the subscales on the caas reflected adequately high cronbach’s alpha values and displayed high internal reliability (0.85–0.93). the caas had an overall cronbach’s alpha value of 0.96, which indicates high internal reliability of the instrument. research procedure ethical clearance and permission to conduct the research were obtained from the university of south africa and the participating organisation. participants consented to voluntarily complete an electronic questionnaire of the uwes as well as the caas. questionnaires were sent to participants via an electronic survey tool, accompanied by a covering letter explaining the purpose and voluntary nature of the research as well as confidentiality of information. informed consent from participants was obtained by explaining the purpose of the study, confidentiality of data as well as the purposes for which the data will be used in a compulsory section to be completed in the electronic survey. participants were not able to continue with the questionnaire if they have not given explicit informed consent. statistical analysis a cross-sectional study (measuring all variables at a certain point in time) was employed to investigate the relationship between career adaptability and employee engagement. descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. pearson’s product–moment correlations were performed to test the research hypothesis. results means, standard deviations and internal reliability for the variables of interest are shown in table 2. table 2: descriptive statistics: career adapt-abilities scale and utrecht work engagement scale. table 2 shows the average mean score of the caas as m = 41.93; sd = 6.10. the highest means score obtained was on the curiosity subscale (m = 43.51; sd = 6.93), whilst control presented the lowest scores (m = 39.51; sd = 6.64). furthermore, table 2 shows that the uwes had an average mean score of m = 25.97 and standard deviation of sd = 5.44. all subscales obtained similar mean scores, with the highest on the dedication scale (m = 27.81; sd = 5.96) and the lowest on both vigour and absorption (m = 27.10; sd = 5.71). hypothesis testing the primary aim of the study was to empirically assess whether career adaptability relates to employee engagement. h1 was analysed by performing pearson’s product–moment correlations. h1 proposed that career adaptability (caas variables) would be significantly related to employee engagement (uwes variables). correlational statistics the relationship between the variables was calculated by means of pearson’s product–moment correlations. pearson’s product–moment correlations allowed the researcher to identify the direction and strength of the relationship between each of the variables. as shown in table 3, employee engagement correlated significantly with career adaptability (r = 0.404; p ≤ 0.01) with medium practical effect size, indicating a strong positive relationship between the two constructs. employee engagement also correlated positively with all the career adaptability variables with the exception of absorption. the correlations vary from r = 0.22 (p ≤ 0.05) to r = 0.476 (p ≤ 0.01). table 3: pearson’s product–moment correlations: career adapt-abilities scale and utrecht work engagement scale. the highest correlation was found between employee engagement and confidence as a dimension of career adaptability (r = 0.458; p ≤ 0.01), indicating a significant positive relationship of medium practical effect size. practical significant relationships were also established between employee engagement and both control (r = 0.365; p ≤ 0.01) and curiosity (r = 0.333; p ≤ 0.01) of medium effect size. a moderate relationship between concern and employee engagement was established (r = 0.272; p ≤ 0.05; small practical effect size). confidence revealed the highest correlations with all dimensions of employee engagement, with vigour r =0.476; p ≤ 0.01; medium practical effect size, dedication on r = 0.427; p ≤ 0.01; medium practical effect size and absorption r = 0.371; p ≤ 0.01; medium practical effect size. overall, vigour had the strongest relationship with all dimensions of career adaptability. career adaptability showed the weakest correlation with absorption (r = 0.288; p ≤ 0.05; small practical effect size). overall, absorption yielded the weakest correlations with all dimensions, with correlations with curiosity significant on the 0.05 level (r = 0.220; p ≤ 0.05; small practical effect size). absorption and concern yielded no significant relationship (r = 0.160; p ≤ 0.05; small practical effect size). based on the statistical results, h1 (career adaptability is significantly related to people’s level of employee engagement) is accepted. discussion this study explored the relationship between career adaptability and employee engagement. the correlational analyses indicated a number of significant relationships between the variables that provide valuable pointers about the relationship between the variables of concern of the present study. overall, the results suggest that participants who have experienced higher employee engagement have better developed career adaptability skills. this relationship is in line with the theoretical relationship expected to exist between the constructs, as reported by previous research (bakker, 2011; cotter & fouad, 2012; hirschi, 2009; ito & brotheridge, 2005; rossier et al., 2012; van den heuvel et al., 2013). the results indicated that respondents had experienced higher employee engagement when they were more concerned about their careers, had a sense of control over their careers, were curious about their careers and had confidence in their ability to manage their careers. these findings are consistent with similar findings by rossier et al. (2012) in a swiss sample where career adaptability was found to have a significant impact on employee engagement, mediating the relationship between intrinsic dispositions and work-related outcomes. the findings are supported by savickas and porfeli (2012) who state that the dimensions of career adaptability are utilised to support employees’ self-regulation strategies. consequently, career adaptability can be linked to positive organisational outcomes, such as employee engagement, as proposed by hirschi (2009). confidence had the most significant meaningful relationship with employee engagement. this means that the extent to which individuals feel they are able to implement and actualise their choices and have the confidence to deal with their career-related changes (savickas & porfeli, 2012) is likely to lead to increased engagement. control (the ability of individuals to own their future) is seen to influence engagement significantly. control enables employees to take charge of their future, to shape themselves and the environment and to meet changes head-on through effort, discipline and persistence (savickas & porfeli, 2012). employee engagement is further seen to be influenced by the extent to which individuals’ direct energy towards exploring possibilities, their future selves and possible scenarios (savickas & porfeli, 2012). to a lesser extent, the findings indicate that engagement is influenced by the individual’s concern for the future, planning ahead and looking ahead to what may come next (savickas & porfeli, 2012). the four adaptability resources call for individuals to be concerned about their future, take control over preparing for their future, explore different future scenarios and strengthen their confidence to pursue their careers (savickas & porfeli, 2012). in relation to the initial definitions of employee engagement that were proposed, engagement is seen to be the meaning that individuals find in their work and the discretionary effort invested in work (pitt-catsouphes & matz-costa, 2008). it is seen as the energy that employees apply to their work, the feeling of being involved in their work and the focus which they have on the task at hand (bakker & demerouti, 2008; rossier et al., 2012). based on the findings discussed above as well as the aforementioned definitions of employee engagement, it is clear that the ability of individuals to adapt their careers to a changing work environment may well translate into discretionary effort and energy invested in their work, which is likely to influence employee engagement (bakker & demerouti, 2008; rossier et al., 2012). these findings are consistent with similar research which has found that increased career adaptability has assisted in the successful mastery of vocational transitions which, in turn, promote well-being and decrease distress (hirschi, 2009). the findings also support the view that career adaptability is one of the most important factors to ensure commitment and motivation of employees amidst increased environmental pressure, thus ensuring organisational success (savickas & porfeli, 2012; van den heuvel et al., 2013). conclusion implications for practice the findings of this study have implications for managers and human resource practitioners who are responsible for providing career development and engagement interventions. it can be concluded that there is a significant positive relationship between the four dimensions of career adaptability, namely concern, confidence, curiosity and control, and employee engagement. these findings contribute to the body of knowledge regarding the relationship between career adaptability variables and employee engagement, which have not been greatly explored in an insurance environment. the research also adds to the existing body of knowledge on employee engagement and engagement models. in terms of the jd-r model, career adaptability, as a personal resource, is discussed as another intrapersonal resource that enables employees to deal with the demands of their jobs, in turn fostering engagement and a high-performing workforce. this adds another dimension to existing literature on personal resources within this engagement model. in practice, this research emphasised the significance of career adaptability in the 21st century world of work, which enables employees to deal with the changes and environmental pressures that they face. in practice, facilitating career adaptability skills can be seen to equip and enable individuals to deal with the changing world of work, whilst simultaneously fostering employee engagement within the organisation. human resources and career development practitioners should ensure that career adaptability skills of employees employed in the insurance company are enhanced so that they can continue to be engaged. the conclusions derived from these findings indicate that practitioners can benefit greatly from understanding the relationship between career adaptability and employee engagement in order to inform career development and engagement interventions in insurance companies. career development interventions should focus on developing career adaptability skills to enhance engagement levels. methodological limitations and for future directions in research the sample was also drawn from a specific industry only. this reduces the power of this study and the potential to generalise the results to the diverse south african population. given the exploratory nature of the research design, this study cannot yield any statements about causation. associations between the variables have therefore been interpreted rather than established. by expanding the population group from which the sample is drawn to other regions within south africa and different divisions within the organisation, more generalisable results and conclusions about the relationship between career adaptability and employee engagement can be rendered. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions r.t. supervised the research, assisted with the writing up of the article and submitted the article for publication. m.v.d.m. was responsible for data collection and assisted with the literature review. references bakker, a.b. (2011). an evidence-based model of work engagement. current directions in psychological science, 20(4), 265–269. bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2008). towards a model of work engagement. career development international, 13(3), 209–223. bakker, a.b., schaufeli, w.b., leiter, m.p., & taris, t.w. (2008). work engagement: an emerging concept in occupational health psychology. work and stress, 22, 187–200. biemann, t., zacher, h., & feldman, d.c. (2012). career patterns: a twenty-year panel study. journal of vocational behaviour, 81(2), 159–170. briscoe, j.p., & hall, d.t., & frautschy demuth, r.l. (2006). protean and boundaryless careers: an empirical exploration. journal of vocational behaviour, 69, 30–47. brown, a., bimrose, j., barnes, s., & hughes, d. (2012). the role of career-adaptabilities for mid-career changers. journal of vocational behaviour, 80, 754–761. chughtai, a.a., & buckley, f. (2008). work engagement and its relation with state and trait trust: a conceptual analysis. journal of behavioural and applied management, 10(1), 47–71. coetzee, m. (2008). psychological career resources of working adults: a south african survey. sa journal of industrial psychology, 34(2), 32–41. coetzee, m., bergh, z., & schreuder, d. (2010). the influence of career orientations on subjective work experiences. south african journal of human resource management, 8(1), 1–13. coetzee, m., & de villiers, m. (2010). sources of job stress, work engagement and career orientations of employees in a south african financial institution. southern african business review, 14(1), 27–57. coetzee, m., & schreuder, d. (2009). psychological career resources as predictors of working adults’ career anchors: an exploratory study. south african journal of industrial psychology, 35(1), 1–11. coetzer, w.j., & rothmann, s. (2007). a psychometric evaluation of measures of affective well-being in an insurance company. south african journal of industrial psychology, 33(2), 7–15. cotter, e.w., & fouad, n.a. (2012). examining burnout and engagement in layoff survivors: the role of personal strengths. journal of career development, 40, 424–444. demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., nachreiner, f., & schaufeli, w.b. (2001). the job demands-resources model of burnout. journal of applied psychology, 86, 499–512. ferreira, n. (2012). constructing a psychological career profile for staff retention. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. harry, n., & coetzee, m. (2013). sense of coherence, career adaptability and burnout of early-career black staff in the call centre environment. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1138–1148. hirschi, a. (2009). career adaptability development in adolescence: multiple predictors and effect on sense of power and life satisfaction. journal of vocational behaviour, 74, 145–155. hirschi, a. (2012). the career resources model: an integrative framework for career counsellors. british journal of guidance & counselling, 40(4), 369–383. hobfoll, s.e., johnson, r.j., ennis, n., & jackson, a.p. (2003). resource loss, resource gain, and emotional outcomes among inner city women. journal of personality and social psychology, 84, 632–643. ito, j.k., & brotheridge, c.m. (2005). does supporting employee’s career adaptability lead to commitment, turnover, or both? human resource management, 44(1), 5–19. kahn, j.h. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 33, 692–724. klehe, u.c, zikic, j., van vianen, a.e.m., & de pater, i.e. (2011). career adaptability, turnover and loyalty during organisational downsizing. journal of vocational behaviour, 79(1), 217–229. knight, r. (2011). employee engagement: a study of employee engagement at topaz’s south dublin region service station. unpublished masters dissertation, national college of ireland, dublin. lent, r.w. (2013). career-life preparedness: revisiting career planning and adjustment in the new workplace. the career development quarterly, 61(1), 2–14. macey, w., & schneider, b. (2008). the meaning of employee engagement. industrial and organisational psychology, 1(1), 3–30. maree, j.g. (2012). career adapt-abilities scale – south african form: psychometric properties and construct validity. journal of vocational behaviour, 80(3), 730–733. may, d.r., gilson, r.l., & harter, l.m. (2004), the psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety and availability and the engagement of the human spirit at work. journal of occupational & organisational psychology, 77(1), 11–37. olivier, a.l., & rothmann, (2007). antecedents of work engagement in a multinational oil company. south african journal of industrial psychology, 33(3), 49–56. potgieter, m. (2013). the relationship between career adaptability and employee engagement amongst employees in an insurance company. master of commerce. south africa: university of south africa. pitt-catsouphes, m., & matz-costa, c. (2008). the multi-generational workforce: workplace flexibility and engagement. community, work and family, 11(2), 215–229. rossier, j., zecca, g., stauffer, s.d., maggiori, c., & dauwalder, j-p. (2012). career adapt-abilities scale in a french-speaking swiss sample: psychometric properties and relationships to personality and work engagement. journal of vocational behaviour, 80, 734–743. rothmann, s., & joubert, j.h.m., (2007). job demands, job resources, burnout and work engagement of management staff at a platinum mine in the north west province. south african journal of business management, 38(3), 49–61. sartain, l., & finney, m. (2003). hr from the heart: inspiring stories and strategies for building the people side of a great business. new york: amacon. savickas, m.l. (1997). career adaptability: an integrative construct for life-span, life-space theory. the career development quarterly, 45, 247–259. savickas, m.l. (2005). the theory and practice of career construction. in r.w. lent, & s.d. brown (eds.), career development and counselling: putting theory and research to work, (pp. 42–70). new jersey: john wiley & sons. savickas, m. l. (2011). new questions for vocational psychology: premises, paradigms, and practices. journal of career assessment, 19, 251–258. savickas, m.l., & porfeli, e.j. (2012). career adapt-abilities scale: construction, reliability, and measurement equivalence across 13 countries. journal of vocational behaviour, 80, 661–673. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2001). werk en welbevinden: naar een positieve benadering in de arbeidsen gezondheidspsychologie [work and wellbeing: towards a positive occupational health psychology]. gedrag en organizatie, 14, 229–253. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2003). uwes: utrecht work engagement scale preliminary manual. netherlands: utrecht university. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organisational behaviour, 25, 293–315. schaufeli, w.b., bakker, a.b., & salanova, m. (2006). the measurement of work engagement with a short questionnaire: a cross-national study. educational and psychological measurement, 66, 701–716. stoltz, e. (2014). employability attributes and adaptability as predictors of staff satisfaction with retention factors. unpublished masters dissertation, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. sullivan, s.e., & arthur, m.b. (2006). the evolution of the boundaryless career concept: examining physical and psychological mobility. journal of vocational behaviour, 69(1), 19–29. sundaray, b.k. (2011). employee engagement: a driver of organisational effectiveness. european journal of business and management, 3(8), 53–59. super, d.e., savickas, m.l., & super, c.m. (1996). the life-span, life-space approach to careers. in d. brown, & l. brooks (eds.), career choice and development, (pp. 121–178). san francisco: jossey-bass. tremblay, m.a., & messervey, d. (2011). the job demands-resources model: further evidence for the buffering effect of personal resources. south african journal of industrial psychology, 37(2), 10–19. truss, c., soane, e., edwards, c., wisdom, k., croll, a., & burnett, j. (2006). working life: employee attitudes and engagement. london: cipd. van den heuvel, m., demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., & schaufeli, w.b. (2013). adapting to change: the value of change information and meaning-making. journal of vocational behaviour, 83, 11–21. vecina, m.l., chacon, f., sueiro, m., & barron, a. (2012). volunteer engagement: does engagement predict the degree of satisfaction among new volunteers and the commitment of those who have been active longer? applied psychology-an international review, 61(1), 130–148. zacher, h. (2014). career adaptability predicts subjective career success above and beyond personality traits and core self-evaluation. journal of vocational behaviour, 84, 21–30. 6-bussin.qxd at a time when hunting for the ’next enron’ is an international sport, companies are uncertain as to what governance decisions they should be making. the clean-up has extended to insider selling, financial disclosure, even chief executive officer (ceo) pay – all issues that feed the image of corporate corruption (useem, 2002). in south africa many stakeholders and the media are also baying for blood and newspaper headlines like, “the fat cats are still grabbing all the cream,” (sunday times business times, april 27 2003, p. 1) hit sensitive nerves. there is a rising tide of resistance against executives who take huge pay rises despite poor earnings, both nationally and internationally. the johannesburg stock exchange (jse) will be getting tough on complying with king ii (shevel, 2003), which means that organisations are in the spotlight too. yet watson wyatt’s 1999–2000 ceo pay study reveals a strong, positive correlation between changes in pay and corporate performance (kay and graskamp, 2001). the dichotomy of attraction, motivation and retention of good executives versus tough corporate governance and media spotlights, places remuneration decision-makers in a difficult position (merchant, 1989). a company’s ability to understand the ‘drivers’ of remuneration policy and ceo pay is therefore a critical component in determining its present and future success in good remuneration governance. this study seeks to understand the factors that drive changes to remuneration policy and what the outcomes are. well designed remuneration systems play a strategic role by promoting organisational success in highly competitive markets in which technological change constantly influences how employees perform their jobs (martocchio, 1998). indeed, some go so far as to argue that there are strong links between remuneration system design and organisational performance (greenhill, 1988; modise, 1993; rodgers, 1999; rynes and gerhart, 2000; young, 2002). problem definition committees meet several times a year to make decisions about the organisation’s remuneration policy, philosophy, ceo and director pay. the committees that make remuneration policy decisions range in nature from remuneration committees, human resource committees, finance committees, audit committees, boards of directors, owners, advisers and consultants (chingos, 1997; corporate leadership council, 2001b; fisher, 1991; reda, 2002; williams, 1994). decisions are made on the basis of experience or market benchmarking, but not really on empirical evidence. this study seeks to define the empirical relationship. scope of research three main constructs have been isolated for this research as shown in figure 1. figure 1: inter-relatedness of research constructs the dependent variable is outcomes in the form of perceived impact on the organisation. respondents indicated whether the remuneration policy changes had a positive or negative impact on the organisation. a list of factors driving remuneration policy decisions was presented to respondents who indicated the extent to which each factor drove remuneration policy decisions in their organisations. motivation for the study six reasons can be offered regarding the motivation for the study. these are ordered in the same order as the research constructs shown previously in figure 1, and flow from external to the organisation to internal as follows: mark bussin deon huysamen department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract the aim of this study was to develop an in-depth understanding of the relative importance of the factors driving change to remuneration policy decision making and the impact on organisations. data from 148 organisations was analysed and subjected to rigorous statistical analysis. the results show that the most potent drivers of remuneration policy are retention of key staff, financial results and organisation strategy. the greatest changes to remuneration policy were in the areas of variable pay, merit/performance related pay, market position, total package and job evaluation/ broadbanding policy. a strong correlation was found between the extent of change in remuneration policy and impact on the organisation. this suggests that the greater the change in remuneration policy the greater the impact on the organisation. opsomming die doel van hierdie studie is om die relatiewe belangrikheid van die faktore wat verandering in die vergoeding besluitnemingsbeleid dryf asook die impak wat dit op organisasie het in diepte te verstaan. data van 148 organisasies is geanaliseer onderworpe aan streng statisiese analises. die resultaat wys dat die mees kritieke drywers vir vergoedingsbeleid die volgende is: retensie van sleutelpersoneel, finansiële resultate en organisasie strategie. die grootste veranderinge in vergoedsbeleid was in die volgende areas: veranderlike betaling, meriete/prestasie verwante betaling, markposisie, totale pakket en rolevaluasie/‘broadband’ beleid? sterk korrelasie is gevind tussen die vlak van verandering in die vergoedingsbeleid en die impak op die organisasie. dit wys onder andere uit hoe groter die verandering in vergoedingsbeleid, hoe groter die impak op die organisasie. factors driving changes to remuneration policy and outcomes requests for copies should be addressed to: m bussin, department of human resource management, rau, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 45 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (2), 45-54 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (2), 45-54 construct 1 – forces driving change 1. changing nature of work 2. investor confidence 3. lack of knowledge construct 2 – remuneration policy 4. governance construct 3 – outcomes – perceived impact on the organisation 5. attracting and retaining high-performing employees 6. return on investment factors driving and influencing remuneration policy remuneration policy is influenced by many factors. decisionmakers usually do not know how much ‘weight’ to give each factor, and are often reactive to situations that develop. detecting environmental signs before others is what often gives the competitive advantage. often, the driver is based primarily on what the committee can ‘sell’ to shareholders, and hence may not be the most appropriate solution. understanding the extent to which each of the factors drives remuneration decision-making will inform the relative weight that needs to be attached to the driver when making the remuneration changes. the main components of remuneration policy organisations all have different remuneration policies with different content. it is what gives them their competitive advantage (fay, knight and thompson, 2001). there were, however, common themes derived from the literat ure review as indicated in a rmstrong and murlis (1998), bergman and scarpello (2001), burnett (2000), chingos (1997), corporate leadership council (2001d), fay et al., (2001), fisher (1991), king (2002), martocchio (1998), white and druker (2000), and young (2002) and this review of the literat ure yielded 18 remuneration policy headings (with definitions). outcomes from changes to the components milkovitch and newman (1999) and lawler (1990) suggest that the impact of changes to remuneration policy on organisations can be grouped under the headings of positive and negative impact. from a remuneration point of view, armstrong and murlis (1998), the corporate leadership council (2002), lawler (1990) and milkovitch and newman (1999) define the following as positive impacts on the organisation and these are sorted into ‘employee’ and ‘company’. table 1 provides a summary of the constructs which formed the basis of the questionnaire. the link between remuneration and company performance has been researched and a positive correlation has been found (armstrong and murlis, 1998; lawler, 1990; milkovich and rabin, 1991). given the background and problem statement sketched above, the specific research question for each construct was: construct 1 – factors driving change to remuneration policy question 1: what factors are important in driving remuneration policy decisions? question 2: to what extent do these factors influence decisionmaking? construct 2 – remuneration policy components question 3: which components of the remuneration policy were changed and to what extent were they changed? the null hypothesis is that components of the remuneration policy identified in the literature study are valid components. bussin, huysamen46 table 1 summary of constructs input: stimulus throughput: organismic output: response forces driving change remuneration policy impact on organisation external forces fixed pay employee 1. advanced technological developments 1. base pay management policy 1. compensation arrangements are provided so 2. competitors 2. competence based pay policy that money issues do not become a distraction 3. corporate failures, e.g. enron 3. fixed period employment contracts (i.e. 2. employees are attracted, motivated, retained and 4. external advisers, e.g. legal, auditors, for a fixed period of time) policy understand the remuneration system consultants 4. fringe benefits policy 3. productivity is positively affected 5. investment/stock exchange analysts 5. international remuneration (i.e. all or part of 4. there is a strong link between performance 6. legislation, e.g. employment equity remuneration paid overseas) policy and pay act, sars audit 7. publicity, e.g. media, customers variable pay company 8. remuneration committee 9. shareholder expectations 6. long term incentives (e.g. eva, banking of bonus 5. governance policies are sound 10. social upheaval/trade union over several years – not shares) policy 6. publicity is positive 11. surveys/benchmarking 7. share schemes policy 7. remuneration costs are maintained 12 turbulence in business environment 8. short term incentives (e.g. profit share, gain 8. reward underpins the business strategy 13. war for talent and retention share, bonus schemes, commission) policy. 9. shareholders, business analysts and stakeholder, are satisfied with remuneration levels, and see internal factors remuneration process, systems and policy the company as a good investment 10. the compensation system is legally compliant 14. affordability/rising costs 9. job evaluation or broad banding policy 11. the organisation performs better financially 15. board of directors 10. legal compliance (e.g. employment equity 16. change in culture act) policy 17. development/career progression 11. market position policy, benchmarking practice 18. economic restructuring/different work patterns policy 19. financial results/organisation success 12. merit pay/individual performance leading to a 20. internal advisers, e.g. hr department, higher annual increase/performance related pay stakeholders (prp) policy 21. governance and king ii report 13. rand hedging of salaries policy 22. strategic thrust 14. remuneration governance policy 23. productivity 15. remuneration mix (the ratio of guaranteed to 24. remuneration committee variable pay) policy 25. retention of key staff 16. retention strategy policy 26. staff loyalty 17. retirement funds policy 18. total package concept/all inclusive remuneration/my pay -my way policy construct 3 – impact of remuneration policy changes on organisation question 4: what impact did the changes to the remuneration policy make on the organisation? the null hypothesis is that a correlation exists between the extent of changes in remuneration policy and the impact on the organisation. question 5: are there differences in the responses for different participants? the null hypothesis is that the mean extent of change in remuneration policy is equal across categories of characteristics of organisations. method research approach the ‘blending’ methodology as a way to resolve the qualitative / quantitative dichotomy of the components of this study was used. creswell (2003, p.10) refers to this dual approach as “triangulation” and the dual approach is sequential and dominant-less dominant design. the qualitative, less dominant phase preceded the dominant quantitative phase. the triangulated research model that was adopted, comprised two phases: � phase 1 – a pilot study that was qualitative, involving individual interviews with experts in the field and content analysis. this qualitative step was carried out to define valid constructs for the questionnaire for phase 2 � phase 2 – the main study that was quantitative and involved questionnaires and statistical analysis definition of variables the dependent variable, perceived impact on the organisation, was operationalised via the five-point likert scale on a continuum of extremely negative impact to extremely positive impact. to operationalise the impact on the organisation, knapp (corporate leadership council, 2002), board chairman of inova (an american based company), has a three-fold goal in assessing compensation at the company: � fulfil the responsibilit y for meeting any regulatory requirements � provide compensation arrangements so that money issues do not become a distraction � design compensation arrangements that align actions to required performance these three goals can be associated with a positive impact of remuneration on the organisation. the converse is also true. in another study by the corporate leadership council (2002) the success of a compensation strategy is defined under the following elements: � retention � profitability � employee feedback � benchmarking data � financial performance � enforcement of business goals the primary independent variable, remuneration policy, was to be operationalised by listing each remuneration policy component and gauging the extent of the change via a fourpoint scale. the secondary independent variable factors driving changes was to be operationalised through the use of a semantic differential scale ranging from 1 = to no extent to 7 = to a very large extent. all major variables were obtained through personal interviews and a comprehensive review of the literature. population and sampling phase 1 – pilot study (qualitative) the purpose of the pilot was to obtain valid constructs for the questionnaire and to supplement the literat ure review. interviews were held and the questionnaire was amended to incorporate all variables not covered in the literature review (cooper and schindler, 1998). the purposive method of sampling was used to identif y the sample for the pilot study (zikmund, 1997). the outcome of this phase was to integrate the research methodology and the research questions. the population needed to be more narrowly defined where the following mix of 10 interviewees were selected: � listed companies employing more than 5000 employees – 2 interviews with dedicated remuneration professionals � companies employing less than 5000 employees – 2 interviews with dedicated remuneration professionals � remuneration committee members who are not dedicated remuneration experts – 4 interviews � managing directors – 2 interviews this sample was to conform to criteria that serve the purpose of the study – a method commonly used in exploratory research. welman and kruger (2001) state that it is not possible to evaluate the extent to which such samples are representative of the relevant population. phase 2 – main study (quantitative) the size of the population for the main quantitative phase of the study were people responsible for remuneration in all registered companies in south africa. several mail lists were used, namely south african chamber of commerce, all listed companies in south africa and the 21st century business and pay solutions client database. these combined databases consist of 1700 companies. the response was considered a representative sample of the companies operating in south africa. measuring instrument/data-gathering methods two measuring instruments were used. phase 1 – pilot study for the first phase of the study an open-ended questionnaire from the research topic was used to generate the variables from the selected sample. respondents were asked what the factors were that drove remuneration policy decision-making and what the components were of their remuneration policy. this qualitative method provided valid results if the questions in the interview elicited the type of information that was sought (leedy, 1997). this data was content analysed to generate research constructs and variables in addition to the ones obtained from the literature review. phase 2 – main study for the second phase a closed-ended quest ionnaire constructed from theory and results of the pilot study was used. biographical data was collected and then the constructs (independent variables) were measured to determine the relative importance of each factor in the remuneration decision. the quest ionnaire was sent to part icipants electronically and data was capt ured electronically. the data was verified on capt uring and suspicious data was telephonically confirmed. research process phase 1 – pilot study the individual interviews had open-ended questions to elicit further constructs and to let respondents interpret and to avoid remuneration policy and outcomes 47 bias based on the researchers questions. appointments were set up with a sample of 10 interviewees. these interviewees were selected through quota sampling from the mail list. self-administered questionnaires were used (leedy, 1997) and data was gathered using the intercept method (cooper and schindler, 1998). any constructs identified in the literature research were included at this point. phase 2 – main study questionnaires were e-mailed to 1700 companies. the person who is the custodian of the remuneration policy was asked to complete the questionnaire. creswell (2003) discusses how the items in the survey instrument must be closely aligned to the research questions, the variables from the literature and the proposed statistical analyses. the questionnaire asked closedended questions through an electronic form which allowed for the efficient capturing and processing of the data, and which was suitable for highly educated respondents (cooper and schindler, 1998). the questionnaire comprised 3 main sections. demographical data was collected at the beginning of the questionnaire (section 1) to enable data to be analysed by classification to identif y differences relative to outcomes. section 2 comprised factors driving change to remuneration policy using a 7-point scale to determine the extent of each factor. the extent to which the components of the remuneration policy changed since the year 2000 were tested using a 4-point scale ranging from ‘to no extent’ to ‘to a large extent’ in section 3. the impact of these changes on the organisation were also tested in this section using a 5-point scale and the option to indicate if the change was not applicable to impact on the organisation. participants had the option of completing their details (if they want to receive an executive summary) or remaining anonymous. statistical analysis phase 1 – pilot study the data was analysed for content to define valid constructs. cooper and schindler (1998) define content analysis as a research technique for the objective, systematic and quantitative description of the manifest content of a communication. the unit of analyses was identified as factors driving changes to remuneration policy and remuneration policy components as prescribed by welman and kruger (2001) for this type of study. the resultant constructs were visible in the questionnaire. the outcome of the pilot study formed the basis for phase 2 by identif ying the interviewees’ beliefs and values regarding remuneration policy and factors driving it. consequently their behaviour was viewed as intentional and creative and it could be explained but not predicted in the outcome (schurink, 2003). phase 2 – quantitative study phase 1 resulted in certain themes and/or categories of factors driving change in remuneration policy and remuneration policy components, and phase 2 then studied these constructs in four steps from a quantitative perspective. this was done using a detailed questionnaire sent out to the participants in the study. the data was analysed by statkon (the ‘statistics consultancy’ at rand afrikaans university). the methodology is discussed in more detail. recorded frequencies the background information was analysed for recorded frequencies. information on respondent position, organisation type, organisation structure, organisation size, industry sector, organisation age and whether the organisation is listed or not, was elicited by the questionnaire. where recorded frequencies of data were too low, the data was reduced into broader categories. the background information of the recorded frequencies is referred to as the characteristics of the recorded frequencies hereafter. the broader categories of recorded frequencies of background information will be referred to as the categories of the characteristics of the recorded frequencies. factors driving change in remuneration policy – construct 1 the semantic differential technique was used to illicit the strength of each factor driving change to the company’s remuneration policy over the past 3 years (i.e. since 2000). bipolar rating scales were developed on a seven-point scale (from 1 to 7) for the constructs. whilst the seven-point semantic differential scales can be highly generalisable, specific tailormade bipolar rating scales were used that permit connotative perceptions. the chi-square test was used to determine the dependence of the categorical variables (background information) and the independent variables (factors driving change). in other words, the null hypothesis was that the extent of the factor driving change is independent of the characteristics of recorded frequencies. testing was done at a significance level of 0.05 after the degrees of freedom for each construct had been determined. the calculated chi-square value was compared to the critical chisquare values. the outcome of this identified the factors driving changes in remuneration policy that were not independent of the characteristics of recorded frequencies. extent of changes in components of remuneration – construct 2 a first order factor analysis was done on the 18 components of remuneration. the method used was principal factor analysis. the diagnostics performed were the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy. measures of sampling adequacy (msa) were calculated per component. a varimax (orthogonal) rotation was used and then the kaiser criterion to decide on the number of components of remuneration with an extent of change in remuneration policy. the first order factor analysis was repeated on the remaining number of components to yield a number of first order factors. various components of remuneration were grouped in each factor through the process. a reliability analysis on the first order factors was performed and tested using cronbach’s alpha. first order factors with a value < 0,6 were excluded. second order factor/factors with an extent of change in components of remuneration of the remuneration policy were identified through the reliability analysis on the first order factors. impact of changes on the organisation – construct 3 the extent of change of components of remuneration in the remuneration policy was cross-tabulated with the impact of the change on the organisation. the hypothesis was that there is not independence between the extent of change of components of remuneration in the remuneration policy and the impact of change on the organisation. the chi-squared value was used to check that there is not independence. a correlation was assumed if cramer’s v is greater than 0.2. the impact of the change on the organisation was grouped into 3 measures, namely, negative impact, no impact and positive impact. if ‘to no extent’ was marked for the extent of change in a component of remuneration, it was assumed to be ’not applicable’ to the impact of change on the organisation. identify the strength of the relationship between the extent of changes and recorded frequencies of the sample data the anova test for continuous variables was used. the null hypothesis assumed that the mean extent of change of the components of remuneration in first and second order factors were equal across the broader categories of characteristics of the sample data. the significance of the relationship between the extent of change of the components of remuneration in first and second order factors and the broader categories of the characteristics of the sample was tested using cramer’s v. bussin, huysamen48 a gap analysis was then performed on the data to illustrate the relationship between the extent of change of components of remuneration and the impact of these changes on the organisation. a comparison of the gap analysis was made between the private sector and the public sector broader categories of characteristics. analysis of factors driving change to remuneration policy and outcomes of changes in remuneration policy a first order factor analysis was done on the 24 factors driving change to remuneration policy. the method used was principal factor analysis and followed the same diagnostics as that of the analysis on the extent of change in components of remuneration. a varimax (orthogonal) rotation was used and then the kaiser criterion to decide on the number of factors driving change to remuneration policy. various factors driving change to remuneration policy were grouped in each factor through the process. a reliability analysis on the first order factors was performed and tested using cronbach’s alpha. first order factors with a value < 0,6 were excluded and then a second order factor analysis was performed on the first order factors using the same method and diagnostics. finally the correlation between the resultant second order factor/factors and extent of change to remuneration policy and impact of change on the organisation was tested using a pearson correlation. reliability and validity of the research results the central consideration concerning the process of data collection is that of reliability (mouton and marais, 1996). reliability of observations or data is influenced by four variables; namely, the researcher, the participants, the measuring instrument and the research context or circumstances under which the research is conducted. in this study compliance with reliability and validity were attained through the detailed research approach, design and execution that followed to ensure that the study could be replicated and results in the same findings. reliability tests were performed at all stages of the analysis to test the validity of the repertory grid (fransella and bannister, 1977). the grid revealed a pattern of relationships between the constructs by revealing a pattern in the way in which the person has ranked elements. results organisation profiles the demographic details of the survey respondents are reported from the questionnaire as shown in table 2. analysis of research propositions and results table 3 indicates the various factors driving change to remuneration as to the extent that they influence the remuneration policy of the organisation. it is rank ordered by the percentages in the last column – ‘to a large extent.’ the top 5 factors that drive change to remuneration policy to a large extent in terms of recorded frequency are retention of key staff, financial results, strategic thrust, surveys/benchmarking and internal advisers. corporate failures, investment/stock exchange analysts, publicity, governance/king ii report, social upheaval/trade unions drive change to remuneration policy to a lesser extent. factors driving change in remuneration policy results of the analysis the results of the hypothesis testing are shown in table 4. the bold figures indicate for which broader categories of the characteristics there is a dependence and is listed in increasing p-values. numbers in bold indicate a rejection of the null hypothesis that the extent of factors driving change in remuneration policy is independent of the broader categories of the characteristics of the data. table 2 categories and characteristics of survey respondents characteristic broader categories of characteristic industry sector resources financials non-cyclical cyclical other consumer services goods 26,5% 24,3% 20,9% 15,5% 12,8% type of private public company sector sector/ parastatal 75% 25% listing of not listed listed company 60,1% 39,9% organisational holding subsidiary (missing structure (local or data) international) 33,1% 43,2% 23,7% organisation up to >r300m >r1,51bn financial size* r300m 27,7% 29,1% 43,2% number of small (up medium (501 large employees to 500) to 5000) (>5000) 32,4% 36,5% 31,1% number of 50 years over 50 years or less years incorporated 48,6% 51,4% remuneration yes no do not committee know 62,2% 34,5% 3,3% position hr other manager/ 52,7% director 47,3% * financial size is determined by turnover, sales or budget table 3 factors driving change to remuneration policy rank ordered by large extent factors driving change to to a small to a moderateto a large remuneration policy extent extent extent count % count % count % retention of key staff 8 5,4% 64 43,2% 76 51,4% financial results 13 8,8% 66 44,6% 69 46,6% strategic thrust 16 10,8% 67 45,3% 65 43,9% surveys/benchmarking 18 12,2% 78 52,7% 52 35,1% internal advisers 17 11,5% 84 56,7% 47 31,8% affordability/rising costs 13 8,8% 91 61,5% 44 29,7% productivity 17 11,5% 88 59,4% 43 29,1% legislation 35 23,6% 72 48,7% 41 27,7% board of directors 32 21,6% 76 51,4% 40 27,0% change in culture 34 23,0% 76 51,3% 38 25,7% your competitors 43 29,1% 69 46,6% 36 24,3% development/career progression 19 12,8% 97 65,6% 32 21,6% economic restructuring/ 26 17,6% 90 60,8% 32 21,6% different work patterns remuneration committee 60 40,5% 60 40,5% 28 19,0% shareholder expectations 51 34,5% 74 50,0% 23 15,5% staff loyalty 32 21,6% 95 64,2% 21 14,2% turbulence in business 45 30,4% 82 55,4% 21 14,2% environment advanced technological 65 43,9% 66 44,6% 17 11,5% developments external advisers 53 35,8% 79 53,4% 16 10,8% social upheaval/trade union 73 49,3% 62 41,9% 13 8,8% governance/king ii report 46 31,1% 91 61,5% 11 7,4% publicity 89 60,1% 51 34,5% 8 5,4% investment/stock exchange 106 71,6% 37 25,0% 5 3,4% analysts corporate failures 112 75,7% 33 22.,3% 3 2,0% remuneration policy and outcomes 49 table 4 component loadings on 7 first order postulated factors factor extent of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 change internal advisers 0,691 0,122 0,177 governance/king ii 0,592 0,230 0,186 0,297 report strategic thrust 0,518 0,384 0,201 -0,187 0,234 remuneration 0,486 0,101 0,255 0,163 committee external advisers 0,466 0,287 0,153 investment/stock 0,811 0,205 exchange analysts corporate failures 0,125 0,627 0,149 0,105 shareholders 0,101 0,487 0,368 expectations publicity 0,383 0,209 0,107 0,252 -0,150 productivity 0,596 0,371 0,251 economic 0,167 0,567 restructuring/d ifferent work patterns change in culture 0,285 0,407 -0,158 0,229 advanced 0,340 0,384 0,223 technological developments development/career 0,131 0,315 0,311 0,284 progression financial results 0,239 0,160 0,199 0,615 0,192 board of directors 0,145 0,440 0,165 0,214 affordability/rising 0,392 costs turbulence in -0,112 0,289 0,311 0,107 0,308 0,111 business environment social upheaval/trade 0,103 0,138 0,141 0,605 unions legislation 0,202 0,183 0,52 your competitors 0,120 0,201 0,653 0,106 surveys/benchmarking 0,354 -0,126 0,446 retention of key staff 0,256 0,163 -0,162 0,268 0,620 staff loyalty 0,137 0,222 0,122 0,616 seven factors are postulated according to kaiser’s (1970) criterion (eigenvalues greater than unit y) that explain approximately 58% of the variance in the factor space. the component loadings on these five factors are shown in table 4. therefore the null hypothesis is accepted. first order factor analysis suggests that there is an interdependence of the components of each factor that could be assigned single descriptive labels as shown in table 5. table 5 first order factors factor descriptive label 1 governance 2 shareholders/stakeholders 3 organisation and work design 4 financial and leadership 5 legislation and agreements 6 competitors 7 staff retention it is now possible to understand the groupings of the forces that affect remuneration policy. five factors are postulated according to kaiser’s (1970) criterion (eigenvalues greater than unity). these five factors explain approximately 58% of the variance in the factor space. these are the most important components when developing remuneration policy. the component loadings on all the factors are shown in table 6. table 6 component loadings on 5 first order postulated factors component loadings remuneration policy component 1 2 3 4 5 remuneration mix 0,721 0,203 0,195 -0,114 short term incentive 0,718 2,26 remuneration governance 0,669 0,149 0,285 0,134 legal compliance 0,548 0,105 0,151 share scheme 0,547 0,38 fixed period employment contracts 0,725 -0,107 0,323 total package 0,347 0,651 0,134 -0,177 fringe benefits 0,189 0,597 0,22 base pay management -0,175 0,503 0,408 0,249 rand hedging of salaries 0,142 0,843 0,136 international remuneration 0,107 0,14 0,768 0,102 job evaluation/broadbanding 0,118 0,124 0,825 market position 0,142 0,173 0,596 0,485 merit pay/prp 0,166 0,338 0,372 0,531 retention strategy 0,284 0,132 0,119 0,765 long term incentives 0,446 -0,103 0,295 -0,179 0,494 first order factor analysis suggests that there is an interdependence of the components of each factor and these have been grouped into 5 descriptive labels given in table 7. table 7 first order factors factor descriptive label 1 remuneration mix and governance 2 guaranteed pay 3 international remuneration 4 pay progression/prp 5 retention strategy these 5 descriptive labels are the major headings of remuneration policy design and are what create competitive advantage between organisations. extent of change in components of remuneration policy and impact of changes a gap analysis was then performed on the data to illustrate the relationship between the extent of change of components of remuneration and the impact of these changes on the organisation. a comparison of the gap analysis was made between the private sector and the public sector broader categories of characteristics. figures 2 and 3 illustrate the gap analysis for both private and public sectors, showing the relationship between the extent of remuneration policy changes and the impact on the organisation. the remuneration policy components are rank ordered by extent of change. bussin, huysamen50 results of the analysis significance that the mean extent of change in components of remuneration policy is not equal across the categories of characteristics is evident for the following: � holding and subsidiary organisational structures � hr manager/director and other positions significance that the mean extent of impact of change in components of remuneration policy on the organisation is not equal across the recorded frequencies of characteristics is evident for the following: � holding and subsidiary organisation structures � different industry sectors � hr manager/director and other positions discussion this study attempted to establish and quantif y the relationship, dependence and/or correlation that exists between factors driving change in remuneration policy, the extent of changes in components of the remuneration policy and the impact of these changes on the organisation. to distil meaning from a large number of drivers and components of remuneration, the descriptive factors are submitted in table 8. the linkage between each construct is now known. construct 1 – stimulus/input the factors driving change in remuneration policy are driving different extents of change in the components of remuneration policy. the extent of change of these components are interdependent and make up the remuneration policy. factors driving change to remuneration policy (stimuli) are informed by business strategy including governance, stakeholders, organisation and work design, finance and leadership, legislation and staff retention. these factors driving change of a component of remuneration policy will have a significant impact on the extent of change of remuneration policy in an organisation. 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 fringe benefits total package merit pay / prp short-term incentives long term incentives job evaluation market position base pay management share schemes international remuneration retirement funds retention strategy remuneration mix remuneration governance legal compliance competence based pay rand hedging of salaries fixed period employment contracts 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 job evaluation short-term incentives competence based pay market position merit pay / prp legal compliance fixed period employment contracts remuneration mix total package retention strategy long term incentives retirement funds international remuneration base pay management remuneration governance fringe benefits rand hedging of salaries share schemes mo imp 3 = figure 2: gap analysis of extent of change of remuneration policy and impact of change on the organisation – private sector figure 3: gap analysis of extent of change of remuneration policy and impact of change on the organisation – public sector remuneration policy and outcomes table 8 summary of analysis stimulus/input organismic/throughput response/output (construct 1) (construct 2) (construct 3) factors driving change components of impact on remuneration policy organisation governance remuneration mix/ positive governance shareholders/stakeholders guaranteed pay neutral organisation and work international remuneration negative design financial and leadership pay progression/prp legislation and agreements retention strategy competitors staff retention construct 2 – organismic/throughput these organismic throughputs result in a response or output. if a component of remuneration policy was changed, the impact of change on the organisation has a strong dependence on the extent of the change of the component of remuneration policy. this relationship is not equal across holding or subsidiary structures, different industry sectors and may be position dependent. the extent of change of remuneration policy has a high correlation with the impact of changes in remuneration policy on an organisation (response or outputs). the literature review and pilot study yielded 18 components of remuneration policy. what was not known was the extent on change of these policies in south africa over the past 3 years. table 9 shows each remuneration policy component. firstly, they are rank ordered by mean extent of change. secondly, they are ranked by the mean impact of the remuneration policy change on the organisation. a score of 1 = small extent, 2 = moderate extent, and 3 = large extent. table 9 mean extent of change of remuneration policy and impact on organisation sorted by extent sorted by impact extent impact extent impact short term incentives 2,13 2,63 2,10 2,68 total package job evaluation 2,11 2,52 1,91 2,68 competence based pay total package 2,10 2,68 2,09 2,64 merit pay/prp merit pay/prp 2,09 2,64 2,13 2,63 short term incentives market position 2,08 2,59 1,95 2,63 retention strategy long term incentives 2,06 2,60 2,06 2,60 long term incentives fringe benefits 2,01 2,17 2,08 2,59 market position international 1,97 2,47 1,94 2,54 remuneration mix remuneration base pay management 1,96 2,44 2,11 2,52 job evaluation retirement funds 1,96 2,38 1,97 2,47 international remuneration retention strategy 1,95 2,63 1,96 2,44 base pay management remuneration mix 1,94 2,54 1,85 2,44 share schemes competence based pay 1,91 2,68 1,96 2,38 retirement funds legal compliance 1,89 2,35 1,89 2,35 legal compliance share schemes 1,85 2,44 1,81 2,32 remuneration governance remuneration 1,81 2,32 1,76 2,25 fixed period governance employment fixed period 1,76 2,25 1,70 2,18 rand hedging of employment salaries rand hedging of salaries 1,70 2,18 2,01 2,17 fringe benefits construct 3 – response/output the greater the extent of change in remuneration policy, the greater the impact on the organisation. the policy components that had the most positive impact are total package, competence based pay, long term incentives, market position, merit pay/prp, total package, remuneration mix, short term incentives and retention strategy. the results of this study support the relationship between the factors driving change to remuneration policy and the impact of the changes of the remuneration policy on the organisation. this finding has closed the gap in our current level of knowledge. the literature review is validated in that the components of remuneration policy were identified and not one participant added another component to the ‘other’ column in the questionnaire. linkage to research questions a synopsis of the major findings linked to the research questions is provided below in summary format. this closes a gap in current knowledge and provides a guide to remuneration decision makers. question 1: what factors are important in driving remuneration policy decisions? a review of the literature and pilot study yielded 24 factors that drive remuneration policy. the strength of each was determined and the top 5 drivers in order of strength are: � retention of key staff � financial results � strategic thrust � surveys/benchmarking � internal advisers question 2: to what extent do these factors influence decisionmaking? the research has shown that there is a strong correlation between the factors driving change and the extent between the factors driving change and the impact of change. the factors therefore influence decision making directly. question 3: which components of the remuneration policy were changed and to what extent were they changed? the research provided a good indication of which components were changed and the extent to which they were changed. for private sector participants, the top 5 changes in order of extent of change were in: � fringe benefits policy � total package policy � merit pay/performance related pay policy � short term incentives policy � long term incentives policy in public sector and parastatals, the top 5 changes in order of extent of change were in: � job evaluation /broadbanding policy � short term incentives policy � competency based pay policy � market position policy � merit pay/performance related pay policy common to both public sector/ parastatals were short term incentives, and merit pay/ performance related pay policies. variable pay continues to be an important component of the remuneration mix with it receiving the most attention in participating organisations as most organisations wish to tie the onerous salary and wage bill to the fortunes of the organisation. wealth sharing is a concept that has gained momentum over time, especially since organised labour has warmed to the concept. bussin, huysamen52 the need to review market position policy is possibly linked to the retention driver. there is also a move in the market to focus on market related guaranteed packages pegged at the median or upper quartile. this is a shift from the common wisdom over the past 10 years where organisations aimed for a lower guaranteed package relative to the market and used to aim for lower quartile to the median. question 4: what impact did the changes to the remuneration policy make on the organisation? the greatest positive impact in the private sector in order of strength for the top 5 was in the following areas: � total package policy � merit/performance related pay policy � retention strategy policy � short term incentives policy � competence base pay policy for the public sector/parastatals, the greatest positive impact in order of strength for the top 5 was in the following areas: � competency based pay policy � long term incentives policy � international remuneration policy � total package policy � market position policy common to both is the total package concept which demonstrates the need for equity, cost containment and flexibility. international remuneration in the parastatals shows a significant interest in cross border expansion. while an anticipated domain for private sector, the parastatals are facing the challenge of international pay. the strength of the impact of competency based pay in the public sector and parastatals perhaps demonstrates the usefulness of this reward vehicle where capacity building and training are big issues. question 5: are there differences in the responses for different participants? there are distinct differences in the extent of change and impact of change across organisation structure and industry sector and particularly between private and public sector. this is telling from a survey and benchmarking point of view, in that the best data for comparative purposes will come from organisations structured similarly and in the same industry sector. value add: what is now known the results of this research provide useful insights to remuneration policy decision makers. firstly, the forces driving change to remuneration policy are known as well as the strength of each force. the forces dependent on the type of organisation are also known. secondly, the changes made to remuneration policy over the last 3 years is also known as well as the extent of the changes. this provides guidance to the focus areas and indicators as to which components need to be watched over the next few years. thirdly, the impact of change of each component of remuneration policy on the organisation is known. this guides remuneration policy makers as to the most positive impacts on the organisation. more important is the discovery of those components that have a neutral impact on the organisation. expectations can therefore be managed accordingly. finally, the differences between the various t ypes of organisation are known and that has implications for the remuneration strategists regarding what to keep on the ‘radar screen.’ the estimated value for remuneration policy makers and organisations is that: � guidelines are provided as to the forces driving remuneration policy change � the strength of each force provides a guide as to how much research and emphasis should be placed on each driving force � guidelines as to the changes made to remuneration policy are reported and it is now known where the focus areas have been. this informs remuneration policy decision making and provides competitive advantage � the impact of each remuneration policy change on the organisation is known and this provides clear guidance on how to manage the implementation of the policy. those policies that have a neutral impact should not be hyped up by management and implemented routinely without unrealistic expectations � guidelines as to which driving forces play a role by organisation demographics are reported. this allows a focused approach when doing the annual compensation review limitations of this research the following limitations need to be considered relative to this study: � the main focus was on the quantitative study and the completion of the questionnaire. this results in a respondents perception, which would have been better captured in conjunction with a more thorough qualitative analysis � the dependent variable – impact on organisation – was described in broad terms. this needs to be expanded on so as to provide deeper understanding of the impact of remuneration policy changes on organisations � this study captures management’s view of the situation. it would be useful to complement this with the views from employees future research emanating from this study, the following research is suggested: � there is an increasing interest in the needs of generation x and y employees (huysamen, 2003). it would be useful to repeat this study with a special emphasis on these categories of employees � an in-depth study of other important components of remuneration policy i.e. remuneration mix and retention is recommended. it may include design issues and application of the strategy and implementation � it is recommended that a more detailed understanding of the impact on organisations is researched. this study was limited to a positive, neutral or negative impact, which could be expanded to provide richer understanding � lastly, the linkages between retention of key staff and the organisation scorecard measures like customer loyalty, finance, learning and growth and organisation processes could be explored conclusion whilst the literature review provided a useful insight into all the drivers and remuneration components, little was known about the strength, extent and links between these. this research provided answers on which to base remuneration decision making. there were expected and unexpected findings, both of which provided rich insight and scrambled some assumptions. it is hoped that this research will provide a useful base from which to build and further enhance our understanding of a subject that touches all working people’s pockets. money matters. references armstrong, m. & murlis, h. (1998). reward management. london: biddles ltd. bergman, t. & scarpello, v. (2001). compensation decision making. fort worth: harcourt college publishers. burnett, j. (2000). the relative importance of the components of remuneration structures for managers. unpublished mba research report. johannesburg: universit y of the witwatersrand. remuneration policy and outcomes 53 chingos, p. (1997) paying for performance – the current climate. in p. chingos and kpmg peat marwick llp compensation and benefits consultants (eds.), paying for performance: a guide to compensation management. (pp. 242 – 256) new york: john wiley and sons. cooper, d.r. & schindler, p.s. (1998). business research methods. boston: mcgraw-hill. corporate leadership council (2001b, november). legal responsibilities of compensation committees. washington dc: the corporate adviser’s board. corporate leadership council (2001d, may). executive compensation philosophies. washington dc: the corporate adviser’s board. corporate leadership council (2002, march). executive compensation metrics and selection. washington dc: the corporate adviser’s board. creswell, j. w. (2003). research design. california: sage publications, inc, thousand oaks. fay, c., knight d. & thompson, m. (2001). the executive handbook on compensation. new york: the free press. fisher, j. (1991). the role of the compensation committee. executive compensation: a strategic guide for the 1990s. boston, massachusetts: harvard business school press. fransella, f. & bannister, d. (1977). a manual for repertory grid technique. london: academic press. greenhill, r. (1988). performance related pay. england: director books. huysamen, d. (2003, 30 june – 4 july). module one: executive human resources update. lecture presented for ‘the 5-day mba: what every executive needs’ conference. kay, i. & graskamp, e. (2001, february 1). year 2000 executive pay: superior pay for superior performances. aca news, (pp. 29 – 30). king, m. (2002). the king report on corporate governance for south africa. institute of directors. lawler, e. (1990). strategic pay. san francisco: jossey-bass publishers. leedy, p. (1997). practical research planning and design. (6th ed.). upper saddle river, new jersey: prentice hall, inc. martocchio, j. (1998). strategic compensation. new jersey: prentice-hall, inc. merchant, k. (1989). rewarding results. boston: harvard business school press. milkovich, g. & newman, j. (1999). compensation. boston: irwin mc graw-hill. milkovich, g. & rabin, b. (1991). executive compensation and firm performance. in f.k. faulkes (ed.). executive compensation: a strategic guide for the 1990s. (pp. 81 – 97). boston, massachusetts: harvard business school press. modise, j. (1993). executive compensation and corporate performance, unpublished mba report. johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. mouton, j. & marais, h. (1996). basic concepts of the social sciences. pretoria: hsrc publishers. reda, j. (2002). compensation committee handbook. new york: john wiley and sons, inc. rodgers, c. (1999). managers’ perceptions of a total package compensation system. unpublished master of management research report, johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. rynes, s. & gerhart, b. (2000). compensation in organisations. san francisco: jossey-bass. schurink, w.j. (2003 march). workshop on qualitative research. lecture presented at rand afrikaans university, johannesburg. shevel, a. (2003, april 13). jse to get tough on king ii compliance. sunday times, business times. times media limited: johannesburg, (pp. 22). useem, j. (2002, september 16). in corporate america it’s cleanup time. fortune, (pp. 23 – 28). useem, j. (2003, april 28). have they no shame. fortune, (pp. 23 – 27). welman, j.c. & kruger, s.j. (2001). research methodology. cape town: oxford. white, g. & druker, j. (2000). reward management: a critical text. london: routledge. williams, a. (1994). just reward? the truth about top executive pay. london: kogan page. young, warren. (2002). a post-mortem of corporate failure – an analysis of the effect that remuneration policy has on directors and consequent corporate failure, unpublished mba research report, pretoria: gordon institute of business science. zikmund, w. (1997). business research methods. fort worth: the dryden press. bussin, huysamen54 abstract introduction rules and regulations to select and appoint a retirement fund trustee to serve on boards of trustees servant leadership role of the trustee research approach and methods findings and discussions acknowledgements references about the author(s) l.m. magda hewitt department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa faul la grange department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa citation hewitt, l.m.m., & la grange, f. (2017). servant as leader: critical requirements for the appointment and training of retirement fund trustees. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a879. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.879 original research servant as leader: critical requirements for the appointment and training of retirement fund trustees l.m. magda hewitt, faul la grange received: 19 oct. 2016; accepted: 19 july 2017; published: 27 sept. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the south african retirement fund industry ranks among the 15 largest retirement fund industries internationally, with some 8 million members and assets under management of close to r2 trillion. however, to be successful, retirement funds need good governance. research purpose: to explore the most critical servant leadership qualities required that can serve as profile in the selection, appointment and training of retirement fund trustees (rfts) to serve on boards of trustees of retirement funds in the south african context. motivation for the study: the south african national treasury’s retirement reform proposal clearly articulates government’s concern for the poor governance of retirement fund assets by appointed boards of trustees and the broader implications on social and economic security in retirement. it promotes the regulation of standards relating to the minimum qualifications and expertise needed to be appointed to serve on a board of trustees (bots). although the measures proposed by government to improve fund governance and the role of the rfts are sound in principle, it does not inform the character, leadership qualities or leadership competence desired for rfts, thus leaving the management of funds in the hands of people who must make investment decisions when they themselves are not fully committed. research design, approach and method: the research question was addressed through an extensive literature review and a qualitative methodology using a semi-structured interview; fieldwork that included personal observations; and notes with six active, high-profile, respected, purposefully selected rfts. an interpretive approach was adopted to provide elaborative interpretations of phenomena without having to rely on numerical measurement. main findings: a strong similitude exists between servant leader qualities, as found in the literature, and those qualities identified and required to be appointed as a rft. literature findings support that limitations impacting on good retirement fund governance are (1) lack of knowledge, (2) lack of experience, (3) independence and (4) lack of capacity of rfts. legislative and regulatory framework changed in recent years, resulting in an increased complexity in managing the affairs of retirement funds. a great need for qualified and skilled rfts was expressed. practical and managerial implications: servant leadership qualities proved useful to profile and aid the selection, appointment and training of rfts in a meaningful way, thereby benefiting the broader south african retirement fund industry and social welfare of all south africans. the importance of the role human resources practitioners can play to aid their employees to correctly select and appoint a rft cannot be emphasised enough. contribution: the many practical contributions of the study were evident from the real and tangible outcomes of using a servant leader’s profile to select, appoint and train prospective rfts to serve on the bots of pension funds, to ensure that social justice is upheld for those members of society who cannot protect themselves. introduction the financial services board (fsb) in south africa is the appointed regulator of non-banking financial services, ensuring also that all entities comply with applicable legislation, including the pensions fund act (no. 24 of 1956). the office of the registrar of pension funds acts as supervisor of the retirement fund industry. each fund must appoint a management team to serve on the board of trustees (bots) consisting of at least four members. one such member, the retirement fund trustee (rft), must be elected and appointed by the members (normally employees) to assist with the management and the investment asset for the benefit of the retirement fund members. this must be done in the context of the applicable laws and rules of the specific fund. the challenge in the south african retirement fund industry today is that there is little to no regulatory guidelines for the selection of the rfts to office, because there are no formal qualifications or guidelines, except for willingness, needed to serve as an rft. however, any person who can basically understand the requirements of the pensions fund act can be an rft. only the rules of a fund can disqualify a person from being an rft and only if that person is guilty of having a criminal record, misused funds, committed fraud or has been found guilty of dishonesty or theft. therefore, the problem is that without an understanding of the qualities necessary to serve as rfts, and a profile to guide the selection of rfts, persons not qualified to serve their members’ best interests will continue to be selected and appointed to serve on the bots of a pension fund (pf), not fully comprehending the full extent of the responsibility placed upon them. the research question the researchers ask is to what extent the qualities ascribed to a servant leader can assist in the selection, profiling and training of rfts. this study aims therefore to analyse the nature of a servant leader as proposed by the literature, as well as to draw on the key learnings and profile of a servant leader to determine if servant leader qualities can be used as an aid in the selection of rfts in south africa. purpose the purpose of this study was to understand the most critical servant leader qualities that can serve as an aid in the profiling, selection, appointment and training of rtfs to serve on boards of trustees of pfs. literature review the literature review first unpacks the challenges experienced in the pf industry and then explores current rules and regulations governing the selection and appointment of rfts to the boards of trustees. the third section explores relevant theory with regard to the servant leader. the challenges in the pf industry include the following: assets of pfs are managed on behalf of its members by bots for the main purpose of providing the benefits promised to its members in terms of the registered rules of the fund. legislation, in the form of section 7(a) of the pensions fund act of 1956, provides for the election of individuals to the office of bots. the potential threat faced by funds because of the lack of abilities and skills and ineffectiveness of certain bots has been highlighted in recent judgements by the courts, for example, in the case of smith vs. dantex, south africa (pty) ltd., where the applicant was not satisfied with the section 37(c) death benefit distribution and contested it. the rfts had agreed to initially withhold payment until the dispute was resolved, but later retracted their commitment to do so. an interdict was granted preventing the rfts from paying out the benefit to allow the applicant’s complaint to be reviewed before proceeding with the review of the decision. the court found that the rfts, in the reasonable exercise of their duties, ought to have been aware that the law provides for further adjudication of their decisions. the court further held that the rfts should have been more astute in preserving the rights and interests of the claimant and held that the rfts not only acted negligently but also grossly unreasonable. the rfts were in this matter ordered to pay the applicant’s costs. in addressing the cosatu labour rfts at their annual conference, the pension fund adjudicator (ngalwana, 2005) stated: i believe the reason south africans retire with insufficient savings is that we as trustees do not exercise our fiduciary duties. perhaps it is because we do not know what they entail. (ill wind for institutions, 2005, n.p.) the above statement by ngalwana (2005) is reiterated by nevondwe (2013) who argues that the trustees’ duties should be linked with the duties of directors under the new companies act and the king iii report. in the registrar of pension funds annual report 2007, specific reference was made to irregularities being the direct result of the failure of pfs to appoint properly constituted bots. the registrar of pension funds annual report 2009 identified the main challenges of the retirement fund industry as follows: rfts not displaying proper stewardship in managing the retirement assets, and retirement funds not having properly constituted bots and therefore having taken invalid decisions in many regards. the reader needs to be reminded that members (employees) appoint their rfts, and as nel (2014) pointed out, the apathy showed by members of a pf further complicates the issue. he further reports that the majority of members solely rely on their trustees to make the right investment decision for them – little to no interest is shown by employees to really elect these trustees who will represent their pension interest on their behalf. the new complaints unit (ncu) is the entry point for complaints against pfs at the office of the pension funds adjudicator (opfa), and statistical data researched suggested an increase in the number of new complaints by members against their rfts. complaints increased from 2387 in the period 2004–2005 to 10 254 in the period 2007–2008. new complaints in the period 2008–2011 remained around an estimated 6000 complaints per annum. minister of finance, nhlanhla nene in his introduction to the pension fund adjudicator annual report (2015) expressed his concern that the number of complaints raised almost 30% during the 2014–2015 financial year. however, he optimistically pointed out that an increase in level of service and quality of work was noticeable. rules and regulations to select and appoint a retirement fund trustee to serve on boards of trustees the pensions fund act (1956) states that bots of pfs must comprise at least four rfts. by way of application, the registrar of pension funds may allow fewer than four rfts if it can be shown that it is impractical or unreasonably expensive to have four rfts. the pensions fund act (1956) further states that members of a fund have the right to elect at least 50% of the members of bots. it is significant to note that although the act stipulates the requirement that pfs must have bots, the act does not refer to or specify any qualities, skills, qualifications or requirements an individual should possess in order to be appointed to the office of bots. yet, bots are legally obligated to manage and oversee the fund’s contribution payments, financial and other records, assets, compliance with the fund rules and the legislative framework and protect members’ and beneficiaries’ interests. this implies a gross loophole as practically any person who is willing may be elected by its members. in this regard, the pensions fund act could be more onerous and prescriptive in respect of the qualities, skills and qualifications an individual should possess to serve as an rft. people without character elected or appointed to a bot are unlikely to act in accordance with the rules of the fund and are likely to abuse their powers to serve their own interest. these people will find it difficult to act prudently, responsibly, honestly and impartially, to take into account all the relevant facts and to ask for professional advice if necessary. as such it is postulated here that the servant as leader qualities as an approach might enrich elected or appointed rfts to serve on boards of trustees for the greater good of the society at large. servant leadership the term ‘servant leader’ cannot be discussed without reference to its initiator, robert k. greenleaf, as cited in the works of authors such as freeman (2011), hayden (2011), parolini (2005), patterson (2003), russell and stone (2002) and sendjaya, sarros and santora (2008). however, upon consulting the original work of greenleaf (1970), one realises how his original work is diluted by the work of other authors. his name is mentioned almost in passing. without disregarding the importance and contributions of other authors’ work, this article will first revert back to greenleaf’s original work. greenleaf acknowledged that the original idea of the servant as leader came from an earlier work he had read, hermann hesse’s journey to the east, 11 years before his own essay was written and published. the story is about leo, the servant, and how he served his masters during their travels. most of all, leo kept them positive by means of his kind spirit and songs. after leo’s disappearance, the group fell in dismay and abandoned their journey. many years later leo was found and was in fact a great and noble leader of the order. based on the story above, greenleaf theorises that leadership is first bestowed on a person who is a servant by nature. secondly, servants as leaders must regularly do introspection, contemplating how best they can apply themselves to serve best. he further argues that leaders can only bring about trust if there is confidence in their judgement and values, if they are accepting people for whom they are and if they are adopting an ethos that will support the common goal for the good of all. greenleaf attributes also the following highly valued characteristics to a servant as leader: (1) listening skills – the servant as leader acknowledges what was heard and what can be done about something, without attempting to put the blame on someone else; (2) having beyond conscious rationality the upfront ability to see and know what others fail to see and know. greenleaf states this as a distinguishing point between good and poor leadership. if leaders wait too long before making decisions, not trusting their intuition, different challenges arise and they have to start all over again. the person who is better at making a decision will most likely surface as a leader. he refers to the leader’s failure of foresight as an ethical failure, because failure to see the consequence of one’s actions in the future is failure to act in time, when there is still freedom to act constructively; (3) awareness; (4) persuasion (one person at a time); (5) authentic to oneself; (6) conceptual leadership (seeing what people can do for themselves) and (7) building their community. role of the trustee relevant and most important to this study is greenleaf’s (1970) reference, specifically to the role of trustees. these are people in whom trust is placed. he explicitly refers to organisations and the two kinds of leaders needed, inside and outside the organisation. outside the organisation is when tangible assets such as employees’ pfs are involved. the trustees are legally responsible and accountable to all interested parties to govern it to the good use and benefit of all. the role ‘of a trustee provides a great opportunity for those who would serve and lead’ (greenleaf, 1970, p. 23). thus, elected and appointed trustees are to serve the people for the common good and should be held accountable for their actions. pf have become so large (hunter, 2002, p. 1), they became the ‘personal fiefdoms of their principal officers’ and organisations seldom question the excessive administrative expenses incurred. pf are open for personal abuse by the staff and officials appointed, and some funds outsource the management of funds of which their trustees and senior management are shareholders. cited in the work of freeman (2011), four conceptual servant-as-leader organisation models (parolini, 2005; russell & stone, 2002; wong & page, 2003) and two servant-as-leader follower models (patterson, 2003; winston, 2003) were discussed. seven instruments to measure servant leadership (barbuda & wheeler, 2006; dennis & bocarnes, 2005; dennis & wintston, 2003; laub, 2003; linden, waybe, zhao & henderson, 2008; sendjaya et al., 2008) were developed and validated. however, none of the conceptual models or measurement instruments above contributed or alluded to the role of the trustee as a servant as leader per se. table 1 portrays a summary of some of the empirical work done in terms of servants as leaders. although there are similarities between the works of the authors above, it is evident that they each attempted to establish their own accord of what is understood by a servant as leader. it is acknowledged that the work presented by the authors above enriched the existing body of knowledge relating to the servant-as-leader field. however, without knowing what is really required, the administration of these instruments would serve little to no purpose in the selection, appointment and training of rfts. table 1: servant-as-leader measuring instruments. hayden (2011) undertook research to test not only greenleaf’s (1970) original intended theory but also the impact on followers. he used barbuto and wheeler’s (2006) five dimensions (1) altruistic calling, (2) emotional healing, (3) wisdom, (4) persuasive mapping and (5) organisational stewardship, after subjecting the original 11 dimensions as postulated by greenleaf (1970) in his original essay for analysis. hayden’s study validates greenleaf’s claim that servant leadership would have an effect on followers and that the motive for the servant leaders is therefore the calling to serve. it can be argued here that rfts answer to such a calling as they are normally people who make themselves available to be elected to serve the interest of their fellow employees. servant leadership is not limited to any particular discipline or community (sipe & frick, 2009). it empowers any person(s), depending on their personal abilities and competence, to serve the mission and vision of their particular community. it is a sense of liability and responsibility towards all members of the community to the extent that their lives are guided to greater nobility. servant leaders are authentic leaders; they have genuine concern and affection for their followers and serve their higher order needs. they serve the less fortunate in their communities before serving their own financial gains or successes. servant leaders are caring, not manipulative, not exploitative and do not abuse their power for selfishness. achua and luccier (2010) explain the nature of sl as leaders that transcend their own personal interests in favour of serving the needs of their followers. sl is a call for self-sacrifice and selflessness at the highest level. these leaders do not lead from a position of power but serve followers through moral influence. successful sl is therefore dependent on four key principles: ‘service to other over self-interest, trust, effective listening, and empowering others to discover their inner strength’ (achua & luccier, 2010, p. 318). for the purpose of this study, the researchers used sipe and frick’s (2009) servant leadership framework, because through their construction of the seven pillars of servant leadership, sipe and frick (2009) aimed at organising a measurable and competency-based framework for illustrating knowledge, skills, and abilities of sl. it is postulated by them that: the seven pillars of servant leadership are meant to symbolise and integrate these multiple meanings. each leadership pillar represents a set of concrete, observable competencies that bear weight and provide structure and support to an organisation’s employees, customers, and wider community. they are not merely lovely, abstract ideas, but wise, hard-nosed, and humane ways of being and behaving. (p. 3) the pillars are (1) person of character, (2) people first, (3) skilled communicator, (4) moral and compassionate collaborator, (5) foresight, (6) a systems thinker and (7) lead with authority. again, one senses the influence of greenleaf’s (1970) original work. for the purpose of this research, sipe and frick’s (2009) seven leadership pillars framework was useful to enhance understanding of how a servant as leader may serve in the election and appointment of retirement fund trustees. box 1 presents spears (2010) most recognised sl qualities. these seven pillars and the sl qualities served as stimuli for the semi-structured interviews conducted. box 1: qualities of the servant-as-leader. it is postulated that a person who is recognised for having these servant leader qualities, as cited in spears (2010), and who has a character anchored in the seven pillars of servant leadership (sipe & frick, 2009) will conduct themselves as follows: serve others as independent moral agents with enhanced moral reasoning conduct themselves with care and concern create a culture of servant led community that holds at its core, the values of the group accepts responsibility for the betterment of the broader community serve the needs of others first collaborate for shared objectives value others and promote a sense of community promote shared decision making always act with moral courage and integrity. from the literature above, the researchers concluded that typical leaders would strive to influence their people to work towards achieving a common goal. they would strive to seek inclusivity and to maintain a balance between organisational goals and employee well-being. one can argue that, on the other hand, servant leaders do not seek to build inclusivity in the organisation. they focus on the personal needs of the people or community they serve and place higher emphasis on their well-being. servant leaders should strive to go beyond what is expected of them and consider the longer term, broader objectives and future impact on the community they serve. in the case of the role of a trustee, it would be the rft member that serves on the bots. therefore, extensive knowledge of the organisation and environment they operate in is essential if they want to make a difference. research approach and methods primary data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews and textual analysis was applied. the advantages were that it provided the opportunity for the researchers to discover, interpret and comprehend the perspectives, personal opinions and worldviews of south african role players involved in the pf industry. further strengths of the qualitative approach was that it provided high construct validity, deep insights and established rapport with the participants (mouton, 2011). as the research paradigm was a qualitative study, suggesting an interpretive paradigm (alvesson & willmott, 2003), it is argued by the researchers that an interpretive approach is concerned with a particular individual’s experience (thorpe & holt, 2008) in a particular context, rather than with abstract generalisations and is not necessarily concerned with the development of theory but rather that the value thereof is in the richness and depth of description of the phenomena under investigation. the interpretative endeavour of the researchers was a personal exploration as the outcome of the study was to make sense of the accounts and the experiences of the participants with regard to their day-to-day dealing with rfts. the principle researcher was concerned with how the theory of servant leadership can provide meaning in the practical sense for the selection and appointment of rtfs to bots. sampling and participants purposive sampling strategies (babbie & mouton, 2011) were deployed. the aim was to interview some of the most recognised, highly regarded, respected, independent and professional rfts currently serving the south african retirement fund industry. participants with at least 15 or more years in the industry were sought. with tacit and intimate knowledge and experience of the industry, these rfts, through their involvement and interest in the study, could contribute significance and meaningfulness to the study’s final outcome. the researchers felt confident that the experts chosen are considered to be the best and experienced in the field of interest, thereby avoiding sampling error (travers, 2008). a concise biography of each participant is presented below. the fsb does not require registration or certification of rfts. it is therefore difficult to understand the total number of rfts active in the industry at any given point in time. to overcome the two weaknesses of purposive sampling, namely unreliability and bias, the researcher employed the following processes. the researcher made as broad an enquiry as possible with as many significant industry stakeholders as possible, whom they regard as the most professional, qualified and experienced rfts currently in the industry. a shortlist was compiled from this information and 10 rfts were identified. the researchers approached each rft individually via an electronic letter, introducing the study and invited them to participate in the study. those rfts that expressed an interest in the study (a total of six) received further communication in writing, offering them the opportunity to enter into a confidentiality agreement with the researchers prior to the interview. participant 1 was a female in her late forties. she holds a bproc degree, an advanced diploma in labour law, a higher diploma in pension law, as well as business and management development diplomas. she is a member of the pension lawyers association and served on the legal and technical committee of the institute of retirement funds for a number of years, as well as on various sub-committees. she currently has an independent legal consultancy providing independent legal advice to bots of pfs, members and participating employers. she serves as rft, principal officer and chairperson on a number of large pfs. participant 2 was a female in her mid-thirties. she received her bsc degree cum laude and is currently busy with her honours degree in human resources. she has 12 years of experience in human resource management and is currently serving as rft and principal officer of one of the largest logistics and transport industry pfs. participant 3 was a male in his late thirties. he holds a master of law (llm) from the university of south africa. he is a director at an incorporated attorneys firm, specialising in the provision of independent legal and related services to pfs. he serves as legal advisor, independent chairperson, independent audit committee member, independent rft and independent principal officer to a large number of industry, bargaining council and private employer pfs. participant 4 was a female in her late forties. she has a ba llb (uct), an hdip (tax) (wits) and fpi qualification. she is an independent pensions law consultant. she is involved in documentation work, providing general pensions law advice, dispute resolution and corporate governance to pfs. she holds a number of appointments as rft and independent principal officer appointments to large pfs. participant 5 was a 40-year old male. he holds a master’s degree in business administration. he serves as rft on closed medical schemes, umbrella retirement funds, umbrella preservation funds, umbrella trust funds and occupational retirement funds. he is also an independent principal officer, a member of surplus tribunals and a former member representative for surplus apportionment schemes and presents rft training courses to aspirant rfts. participant 6 was a middle-aged female. she holds a ba (us), bproc (unisa), and llb (unisa) qualification. she has been an rft of various large pfs since 1996, as well as a principal officer of various pfs since 2004. she is a provider of legal and compliance advice services to rfts, pfs, administrators, actuaries, consultants and long-term insurers since 1995. she has also been appointed by the fsb as advisor to various specialist tribunals in terms of section 15(k) of the pensions fund act. data collection the use of a semi-structured interview as the way to collect primary data was deemed most appropriate as it lends itself to an interpretative approach (terre-blanche, durrheim & painter, 2006). the semi-structured interview was structured around topics to ensure data were collected that could be compared to the qualities that describe the servant leader character and conduct, ethics and the typical servant leader according to sipe and frick (2009). observations and personal notes were kept to enrich the data collection process. findings and discussions table 2 illustrates the four main topics explored with the participants as organised in the semi-structured interview guide and includes the most significant codes referenced by all or most of the participants. table 2: major themes explored. participants considered the following qualities as most relevant and closely linked with conduct and character of rfts: (1) has an enquiring mind – p2, p3, p5 and p6; (2) is a good listener and good communicator – p2, p3, p4 and p6; (3) participants p4 and p6 cited ‘good communicator’ several times during the interviews; (4) embrace and manage diversity – p1, p2, p4 and p6; (5) has the ability to make sense of complexity – p1, p2, p3, p5 and p6 with p5 and p6 making several references to the importance of being able to make sense of complexity for self and others and (6) constantly seeks and shares knowledge – p2, p3, p4, p5 and p6 and p2 elaborated extensively on the need to seek and share knowledge. field notes and observations with regard to remarks on conduct and character revealed the following: notes on knowledge: it is significant to note that all the respondents are very passionate about their level of knowledge in regard to their subject and their continued personal and professional development. i support this view. it is also my personal experience, from having attended and advised hundreds of bot meetings, that rfts who invest in their ongoing development and who endeavour to remain up to date with current affairs in the industry make better decisions and are more inclined to participate actively in managing the important affairs of the fund. notes on independence and objectivity: indeed the independence and objectivity of these respondents are admirable. they proudly have no obligations, whether contractually or otherwise, to any particular stakeholder other than the members they serve. their agenda is very clear – it is whatever agenda best serves the interests of all the stakeholders of the pf. all participants referenced ethics as having and behaving in accordance with one’s own good moral compass and personal value system. the following were important to the participants relating to rfts: (1) has a strong moral code – p1, p2, p4, p5 and p6; (2) behaves consistently authentic – p1 to p6; (3) defends courageously what is right and in accordance with their personal value system or moral compass – p1, p4, p3 and p6. field notes and observations with regard to remarks on the ethics of rfts revealed the following: notes on participation and popular opinion: it is refreshing and encouraging to hear the views of the respondents in as far as popular opinion is concerned. in my experience the best decisions are made when educated personal opinions are openly debated and the best course of action is collectively decided based on facts. my most challenging encounters with bots have been where there have been no independent and honest opinions on the table. rfts simply abstain from participation and take the ‘easy way’ out and that is to go with the popular opinion. this behaviour seldom translates into meaningful discussions or effective decision making. most participants seemed to share the same opinion that the leadership role of rfts is that of coach, mentor and creator of community. other codes emerged as listed below: (1) coach and mentor to others – p1, p2, p3 and p6; (2) role model – p2, p3, p4 and p6 with participant referencing the importance of being a role model to other rfts several times during the interview; (3) rft as leader creates community – p1, p2, p4, p5 and p6. p4, p5 and p6 have made extensive reference to rfts as leaders in the creation of community and (4) rfts must lead the vision – p4, p5 and p6. field notes and observations remarks revealed the following: notes on leadership responsibility: i am delighted at both the eagerness and seriousness with which the respondents consider themselves responsible to lead. there are many stakeholders of a pf and most needs guidance (leadership). if the leadership role is not taken up by the very people who have been entrusted with the welfare and well-being of the stakeholders, then who will? strong leadership underpinned by sl attributes can only significantly improve the input and therefore the output of rfts and bots in the best interests of those they serve (lead). i have often been witness to how the absence of strong leadership defaults to popular opinion and which translates into indecisiveness, apathy and chaos amongst rfts. based on the above, the following themes were identified as extensively referenced by all, or most of the participants: (1) integrity; (2) trustworthy; (3) serves a higher purpose; (4) maturity; (5) independence; (6) collaboration; (7) enquiring mind; (8) good listener and good communicator; (9) manage diversity; (10) making sense of complexity; (11) seeks and shares knowledge; (12) moral code; (13) authenticity; (14) courage; (15) coach and mentor; (16) role model; (17) creator of community and (18) leads the vision. table 2 illustrates the four main topics explored with the respondents as organised in the semi-structured interview guide and includes the most significant themes (15 themes) referenced by all or most of the participants. these themes will be discussed below. themes related to servant leaders’ character integrity ‘honest, ethical, forthright, upright, trustworthy, credible – no matter what is called, servant leaders must maintain integrity’ (sipe & frick, 2009, p. 25). all the participants referenced these qualities when asked to describe the character of rfts. most participants referred directly to integrity as a cardinal quality for rfts. according to goffee and jones (2005), leaders must know themselves and others and reveal their ‘true self’ to others in order to establish integrity. sipe and frick (2009) caution leaders that behaving in a way or playing a role that is not the ‘true self’, will harm their integrity, as followers will have trust issues when they feel that they are being misled. trust trust is the belief and positive expectation that another will not harm you, thereby becoming vulnerable to the actions of that person. trust is cooperation, openness, integrity, flexibility, reciprocity, and predictability. it is honest communication and commitment to common goals. trust is built and sustained in everyday transparent engagements (mayer, davis & schoorman, 1995). participants p2, p4 and p5 spoke extensively on the topic of trust. they reminded the researchers that it is as important to trust others as it is to be trustworthy in the eyes of others. p4 responded by saying that it is important to demand trustworthiness from others, but to be sure to behave in a way that others can trust you. serve others to serve others first is to have a service orientated character, thinking of others first with a sense of responsibility that is not an intellectual exercise. greenleaf (1970, 1996, 1998a, 1998b, 2003) states that a calling to serve emerges from a deep desire to serve and is the primary motivator of true leadership. sipe and frick (2009) state that to serve others is different from helping others. to help others is by talking to them, whereas serving them is listening to them and then act to serve them. to serve others first is to care more for their knowledge, skills, emotional and behavioural dynamics than for one’s own. in one way or another, all the participants commented that being an rft is about serving the interests of others and not one’s own agenda, needs or ego. participant 6 was especially passionate about accepting that one becomes an rft to serve others. emerged themes related to servant leader conduct maturity the ability to appreciate diversity (greenleaf, 2003) and accepting differences are characteristics of a mature leader. mature leaders (sipe & frick, 2009) have control over their thoughts, feelings and behaviour and their mature character behaves with consistent authenticity and optimism resulting in trustworthiness. participant 2, p4 and p5 spoke often of the importance to conduct oneself in a mature manner when serving as an rft. these participants mentioned several times during the interview that ‘it is not personal or about you’ – it is issues that must be addressed in a professional, mature manner. collaboration sipe and frick (2009) start with the personal responsibility to trust and respect the opinions of others. trust and respect in turn is dependent on placing a deep value on the truth and truth telling. to collaborate is to share power based on expertise and accountability. collaboration is a commitment to the achievements of others first, before one’s own success. the participants that did speak about collaboration (all but p6) did so in the context of the importance of collaboration for feedback, input and clarity in order for shared decision making to happen effectively. good listener and good communicator people want to be heard. when people truly believe that you want to listen to them, they feel valued (greenleaf, 1977). to be a good listener (spears, 2010) can be learned; it is a skill much needed to achieve the other qualities described in this section. sipe and frick (2009) refer to a good listener as an empathic listener who seeks first to understand and then to communicate with unconditional positive regard. according to sipe and frick (2009), the effective communicator is able to mobilise others not through position or power, but rather with passionate persuasion and assertiveness. the critical importance of being a good listener and good communicator when serving as an rft was undoubtedly the strongest theme under this section, especially for p3, p4 and p6. these participants elaborated on how important it is to hear the views of others and how to effectively and assertively articulate one’s own views for others to hear. seeks and shares knowledge greenleaf (1970, 1996, 1998a, 1998b, 2003) suggests that sl is a lifelong journey of discovery and learning. he states that it is the constant strife for new insights that allows people to stretch their skill sets and be the best that they can be. sipe and frick (2009) state that with knowledge comes the responsibility to impart that knowledge so that others can grow and can benefit the greater community. servant leaders have a desire for knowledge, to develop and to improve themselves and others over their lifetime. they are self-aware, reflective, and want to be the best leaders they can be so that they can positively impact their communities. all the participants agree that, without knowledge, you cannot serve as an rft. all participants also agreed that it is the responsibility of every rft to impart knowledge as often and as best they can. emerged themes related to servant leadership ethics three main themes emerged: strong moral code, authenticity and courage. strong moral code sipe and frick (2009) state that the authentic servant leader nurtures enough self-awareness to know their true north. ‘a servant leader lives, loves, and leads by conscience – the inward moral sense of what is right and what is wrong’ (sipe & frick, 2009, p. 16). the one quality (covey, 1989) that sets sl apart from any other leadership theory is the selfless character that chooses right over wrong by applying intellect to do what is moral and ethical and in accordance with one’s own moral compass and that is the reason why some leadership theories work, but sl endures. all the participants referred to either ‘a moral compass’ or an ‘own value system’ that is necessary to know right from wrong and act accordingly. strong themes from all the participants include independence, objectivity and impartiality in order to remain above the agendas of others and popular opinion, in order to do the right thing for their members. authenticity an authentic character acts rightly in the face of popular opposition and fear and is liberated from perceptions and paradigms of society. the authentic leader is not a victim but ‘response–able’ to do what is right and oppose what is wrong (spears, 2010). participant 2, p3 and p6 referred to authenticity as not having double standards in and outside the role of rft. they all mentioned the importance of applying the same principles and values to the role of rft as they would to their normal lives as ordinary citizens. courage according to sipe and frick (2009), courage is not to act on popular opinion, but to gather all the facts and then to lead the way. courage is to collect the input of all and not to decide on one’s own the best course of action. to be able to take courageous and decisive action, one needs foresight, vision and creativity (greenleaf, 1970, 1996, 1998a, 1998b, 2003). participant 3 and p4 spend some time talking about courage and the need for courage when important decisions need to be made. they argue it is then that one can easily be derailed by popular or majority opinion; courage is needed to serve the cause. themes related to the servant as leader three main themes emerged: coach and mentor, creator of community, and visionary and sense maker. coach and mentor servant leaders value the developmental needs of others more than their own (greenleaf, 1977; spears, 1995). servant leaders want to develop other people, because they believe that everybody has something unique that they can contribute. they develop people on multiple levels, personally and professionally, in a pro-active way. participants p1, p2, p3 and p6 responded by using the words ‘coach’ and ‘mentor’ to explain the role and responsibility of rfts to develop others around them. participant 2 said that it is one’s responsibility to upskill others, whereas p3 spoke of the responsibility rfts have to develop the next generation of rfts. creator of community community is created when the needs of a diverse group of people are aligned to common goals, and outcomes are mutually beneficial to all who contribute. community is about less structure and more cooperation. creating community is about developing alliances and partnerships, and it is an important skill for leaders to have. creating community is giving feedback and to value the inputs and views of others, building teams and resolving conflict among community members. for p4, p5 and p6, the construct of community revolved around sharing power, sharing accountability and sharing in the decision-making process. trust was again a central theme in the building of community according to these participants. visionary and sense maker leaders require vision to serve others with efficiency and effectiveness. leaders must constantly find new ways to serve others better, and to do this, they need to have vision of exactly what ‘better service’ means. sipe and frick (2009) refer to foresight as creative vision. this foresight (vision) helps leaders to find direction and purpose. purpose and direction is what is needed to make sense of complexity. followers relate to and trust leaders when they provide purpose, direction and clarity. most of the participants responded by using the words, ‘guiding, clarifying or simplifying’ complex issues for others, so that they can make sense of it. participant 4, p5 and p6 all referred to the leadership role of rfts to communicate the vision, and live the vision by example for others to follow. next a comparison is provided, as illustrated in table 3, between literature findings and data gathered during the semi-structured interviews. table 3: comparison between literature and data gathered. many studies have confirmed the characteristics in column 1 and 2 of table 3 as being critical to servant leadership (joseph & winston, 2005; russell & stone, 2002; sipe & frick, 2009; spears, 2010). these behavioural scientists further categorise servant leadership attributes, as seen in figure 1 into functional attributes and accompanying attributes, whereas functional attributes are defined as intrinsic characteristics of servant leaders, and accompanying attributes complement and enhance the functional attributes. figure 1: attributes. a parallel can be drawn between the servant leadership attributes defined by literature and the servant leadership qualities derived from the data gathered. the servant leaders qualities derived from the data gathered, as shown in figure 2, covers extensively the functional and accompanying attributes of servant leadership as described above. figure 2: servant-as-leader: retirement fund trustee profile. practical implications this exploratory research supports the principles and recommended practices of the financial services board circular pf130, a framework for good pf governance. the principle of the circular is to ensure that rfts and boards of trustees are responsible institutional citizens and that their practice is to protect, enhance and invest in the well-being of society, the economy and the retirement fund industry as a whole. undoubtedly, these responses articulate the values, principles and moral attributes rfts need for their behaviour and decision making to be aligned with circular pf130 principles and recommended practice. the servant leader profile can be used in many different ways to aid the selection of rfts to bots of pfs: the servant leader profile can be translated into a survey to gather information from relevant and interested industry parties about a person who is being considered for appointment to a bot. the servant leader profile can be used as a self-measurement tool for individuals to critically and honestly reflect if they have the servant leader qualities needed to serve as rfts before they accept appointments as rfts, or make themselves eligible for election to bots. the servant leader profile can be used as a communication tool to inform members of pfs participating in elections about the servant leader qualities rfts need to serve their best interests. they may know the nominated candidates well enough to make an informed decision about their vote, or they may use the sl profile to gather information from others about the nominated candidate to inform their vote. the financial services laws general amendment bill (2012) proposes changes to the pensions fund act. these include the following: a new sub-section (3) to section 7(a) of the act: the registrar of pf to prescribe minimum skills and training each trustee must attain within 6 months of appointment and retain throughout their term in office. elevating financial services board circular pf130 to that of a directive for the governance of pf. the financial services board to monitor trustee appointments (including ‘fit and proper’ requirements). practical contributions are derived in that the study can be used by the south african retirement fund industry to better the selection of rfts who are better equipped to comply with the proposed retirement reform proposals, and which will potentially benefit the members they intended to serve from the outset. in a very practical way, the servant leader profile derived from the study can be included in the toolkit of bots to select and appoint rfts. the servant leader profile can further be translated into a functional guideline or code of conduct for rfts. the sl profile can also be included as theory in rft training programmes. limitations and recommendations the relative small purposive sample group, given the large number of rfts active in the south african retirement fund industry, limits the extent to which generalisations could be made. it is further acknowledged that the scope of this study was limited to rfts in south africa and that international trends and practices were not consulted. it is important, however, to note that the small homogenous sample group contributes to validity as they were purposively targeted. the proposed profile for rfts is presented in figure 1, and it is strongly recommended that available validated measuring instruments be pursued to be used in conjunction with the suggested profile of rfts. conclusion the study supports the views of achua and luccier (2010), greenleaf (1970), sipe and fick (2009), and spears (2010) that the nature of sl is about ethics, integrity, humility and that it serves a higher purpose. one should develop others and be concerned about your community and their affairs. good communication skills, the manner in which one behaves, being able to embrace diversity and having the courage to stand by personal believes are fundamental characteristics of the servant leader. making sense of complexity and being able to adapt is essential. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions l.m.m.h. made the conceptual contributions to the original research and wrote the manuscript. f.l.g. was the principal researcher and field agent and conducted the interviews. a part of this manuscript was extracted from f.l.g.’s minor dissertation. references achua, c.f., & luccier, r.n. (2010). effective leadership. mason: south western cengage learning. alvesson, m., & willmott, h. (2003). studying management critically. london: sage. babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2011). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford university press. barbuto, j., & wheeler, d. (2006). scale development and construct clarification of servant leadership. group & organisationa management, 31(3), 300–326. covey, s. (1989). seven habits of highly effective people. new york: fireside. dennis, r., & bocarnea, m. (2007). development of the servant leadership assessment instrument. leadership and organisational development journal, 25(8), 600–615. dennis, r., & winston, b. (2003). development of the servant leader assessment instrument. leadership and organisational development journal, 2(7/8), 600–615. freeman, g. (2011). spirituality and servant leadership: a conceptual model and research proposal. emerging leadership journal, 4(1), 120–140. goffee, r., & jones, g. (2005). managing authenticity. harvard business review, 83(12), 90. greenleaf, r.k. (1970). the servant as leader. retrieved august 10, 2017, from http://www.greenleaf.org/whatissl/ greenleaf, r.k. (1977). servant leadership: a journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. new york, ny: paulist press. greenleaf, r.k. (1996). the strategies of a leader. in d.m. frick & l.c. spears (eds.), on becoming a servant leader: the private writings of robert k. greenleaf (pp. 299–311). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass publishers, inc. greenleaf, r.k. (1998a). seminary as servant. in l.c. spears (ed.), the power of servant leadership (pp. 169–233). san francisco, ca: berret-koehler. greenleaf, r.k. (1998b). servant: retrospect and prospect. in l.c. spears (ed.), the power of servant leadership (pp. 17–60). san francisco, ca: berret-koehler. greenleaf, r.k. (2003). the servant-leader within: a transformative path, h. beazley, j. beggs, & l.c. spears (eds.). new york: paulist press. hayden, r. (2011). greenleaf’s ‘best test’ of servant leadership: a multilevel analysis. unpublished thesis. retrieved august 10, 2017, from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1029&context=aglecdiss hunter, r. (2002). the governance of pension funds. financial planning institute conference (pp. 1–17), durban, 29–30 april. retrieved august 10, 2017, from http://www.bowmanslaw.com/article-documents/institute-of-retirement-funds-conference-september-2004.pdf ill wind for institutions. (2005). today’s trustee. retrieved august 10, 2017, from https://www.totrust.co.za/contents_200512.htm joseph, e.e., & winston, b.e. (2005). a correlation of servant leadership, leader trust, and organizational trust. leadership & organization development journal, 26(1), 6–22. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730510575552 laub, j.a. (2003). from paternalism to the servant organization: expanding the organizational leadership assessment (ola) model. paper presented at the 2003 meeting of the servant leadership roundtable, virginia beach, va. laub, j.a. (2004). defining servant leadership: a recommended typology for servant leadership studies. servant leadership roundtable. indiana wesleyan university. retrieved august 20, 2017, from https://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/sl_proceedings/2004/laub_defining_servant.pdf liden, r.c., wayne, s.j., zhao, h., & henderson, d. (2008). servant leadership: development of a multidimensional measure and multilevel assessment. leadership quarterly, 19, 161–177. mayer, r.c., davis, j.h., & schoorman, f.d. (1995). an integrative model of organizational trust. academy of management review, 20(3), 709–734. mouton, j. (2011). how to succeed in your master’s and doctoral studies. a south african guide and resource book. pretoria: van schaik. nel, r. (2014). sanlam benchmark survey (p. 9). retrieved august 10, 2017, from sanlambenchmarkco.za ngalwana, v. (2005). opening statement. retrieved from www.pensionlawyers.co.za/…/annual_conference_2005 nevondwe, l. (2013). member’s right and where should the emphasis be? unpublished presentation, pension lawyers association conference, misty hills, johannesburg, 5th march. parolini, j. (2005). investigating the relationship amongst emotional intelligence, servant leadership behaviours and servant leadership culture (pp. 1–21). servant leadership research roundtable. school of leadership studies, regent university. retrieved 30 august, 2017 from https://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/sl_proceedings/ patterson, k. (2003). servant leadership: a theoretical model (pp. 1–10). servant leadership research roundtable. school of leadership studies, regent university. retrieved august 10, 2017, from http://www.regent.edu/acad/sls/publications/conference_proceedings/servant_leadership_roundtable/2003pdf/patterson_servant_leadership.pdf pensions fund act 24 of 1956. retrieved august 10, 2017, from http://www.gov.za/documents/pension-funds-act-22-may-2015-1349 registrar of pension funds. (2007). annual report. retrieved august 10, 2017, from http://www.fsb.co.za registrar of pension funds. (2009). annual report. retrieved august 10, 2017, from http://www.fsb.co.za russell, r.f., & stone, a.g. (2002). a review of servant leadership attributes: developing a practical model. leadership & organization development journal, 23(3), 145–157. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730210424 sendjaya, s., sarros, j., & santora, j. (2008). defining and measuring servant leadership behaviour in organizations. journal of management studies, 45(2), 402–424. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2007.00761.x sipe, j.w., & frick, m.d. (2009). seven pillars of servant leadership. new york: paulist press. smith, s. vs dantex, m. south africa (pty) ltd 2008, jdr 0362 (w). spears, l.c. (2010). character and servant leadership: ten characteristics of effective, caring leaders. the journal of virtues & leadership, 1(1), 25–30. terre blanche, m., durrheim, k., & painter, d. (eds.). (2006). research in practice: applied methods for the social sciences (2nd ed., pp. 1–594). cape town: uct press. thorpe, r., & holt, r. (2008). the sage dictionary of qualitative management research. london, england: sage. travers, m. (2008). qualitative research through case studies. london: sage. van dierendonck, d., & nuitjteb, i. (2011). the servant leadership survey: an integration of previous theorizing and research. journal of business ethics, 128, 119–131. https://doi.org/10.1007/s1055-014-2085-z article information authors: mark bussin1 minute f. modau2 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology and human resource management, university of johannesburg, south africa 2gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa correspondence to: mark bussin email: drbussin@mweb.co.za postal address: po box 2334, saxonwold 2132, south africa dates: received: 06 oct. 2014 accepted: 12 mar. 2015 published: 17 june 2015 how to cite this article: bussin, m., & modau, m.f. (2015). the relationship between chief executive officer remuneration and financial performance in south africa between 2006 and 2012. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #668, 18 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.668 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the relationship between chief executive officer remuneration and financial performance in south africa between 2006 and 2012 in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • key focus of the study    • background to the study    • research purpose    • trends from the research literature    • research objectives    • the potential value-add of the study    • what will follow    • literature review       • ceo remuneration components       • the principal-agent theory       • remuneration committees       • optimal contracting and the managerial power approach       • organisation performance measures       • the ceo pay-performance relationship       • conceptual underpinning of ceo pay-performance relationship • research design    • research approach    • research method       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • descriptive statistics       • ceo remuneration: fixed and variable pay       • organisation performance measures       • results of the effects of the 2008 financial crisis       • results of the correlation between ceo remuneration and organisation performance • discussion    • practical implications    • research limitations • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: the relationship between chief executive officer (ceo) remuneration and organisation performance has been a topic of close scrutiny, especially since the global financial crisis. optimal contracting relies on the premise that effective incentives will link organisation financial performance and ceo remuneration in ways that will be in the best interests of both shareholders and ceos. research purpose: the purpose of this research study was to investigate the relationship between ceo remuneration and organisation performance in south africa between 2006 and 2012 and to determine whether the two constructs were positively correlated. motivation for the study: the study provides an evidenced-based understanding of the nature of the ceo pay-performance relationship in south africa. understanding this relationship is critical to finding a suitable model to structure executive remuneration that will protect shareholders from over-remunerating executives in times of economic appreciation, whilst protecting executives from being underpaid in times of economic depreciation. method: the financial results and ceo remuneration of 21 of the top 40 listed companies on the johannesburg stock exchange were analysed for the period 2006–2012. the research was a quantitative, archival study. the primary statistical techniques used in the study were correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. main findings: the primary finding of the current research indicates that between 2006 and 2012 organisation executives have noticeably been moving away from focusing on short-term incentives, which are categorised as performance-related elements of remuneration packages. based on these findings, it is evident that the relationship between executive remuneration and organisational financial performance has been experiencing a decline, especially since the 2008 global financial crisis. the decline has predominantly been due to a move away from performance-related elements of remuneration contracts by ceos, creating a disconnect between ceo remuneration and organisational performance. the findings suggest that, to a large extent, remuneration contracts for ceos are no longer optimal for the organisation and its shareholders, but are influenced by the propensity of executives to enhance their own remuneration. there exists a link between short-term incentives received by ceos and accounting-based organisational performance measures; on the other hand, fixed pay linked with organisational performance measures continue to be eroded as organisations’ executives become more innovative as they are noticeably moving away from focusing on short-term incentives. practical/managerial implications: a stronger test of the pay-performance link and the power of incentive design are required in order to ensure that executives are rewarded or penalised for poor performance. the question of how executives are paid also needs to be considered. contribution: this research contributes to the literature on ceo remuneration by providing an evidenced-based understanding of the nature of the ceo pay-performance relationship in south africa. understanding this relationship is critical to finding a suitable model to structure executive remuneration that will protect shareholders from over-remunerating executives in times of economic appreciation, whilst protecting executives from being underpaid in times of economic depreciation. introduction top ↑ key focus of the study the primary challenge in the executive pay-performance relationship is finding a mutually beneficial balance between executive remuneration and organisational performance. this challenge is compounded by the fact that there is no universally accepted understanding of the strength and significance of the relationship. in addition, the measurement of organisational performance is itself open to interpretation with a variety of conflicting indicators suggested as valid and reliable. the lack of clarity in the understanding and measurement of the constructs within the executive pay-performance relationship makes the creation of a model to structure executive remuneration difficult. a longitudinal, evidence-based understanding of the relationship between executive pay and organisational performance is necessary to determine a meaningful and optimal model of executive remuneration. background to the study chief executive officers (ceos) assume the highest levels of responsibility and accountability for an organisation and its performance on behalf of the organisation's shareholders (kaplan, 2013; wibowo & kleiner, 2005). these individuals are typically highly skilled, have significant leadership competencies and are viewed as a scarce resource. as a result, these executives are highly incentivised through remuneration structures to remain in the employ of the organisation and drive the performance of the organisation. in order to ensure that there is alignment between the ceo's interests and those of the shareholders it is important for shareholders to design and employ a pay-performance model that is proven to deliver this alignment. there is a well-recognised challenge in finding a balance between remuneration that will be enticing enough to keep executives in the employ of the organisation without over-compensating them when organisation performance is not favourable (bebchuk & fried, 2005; marais & lefifi, 2013). there have been calls from governments, trade unions and civil society to curb what is perceived as exorbitant executive remuneration in light of increasing levels of relative poverty and inequality, especially in countries like south africa (marais & lefifi, 2013). the 2008 global financial crisis has placed executive remuneration even more directly in the spotlight due a perceived weak pay-performance link. according to researchers such as shaw (2011) and bebchuk, cohen and holger (2010), executive remuneration has been widely regarded as one of the key contributors to the financial crisis. this sentiment has found its way into academic literature as researchers try to understand more fully the root causes of the 2008 global financial crisis. much criticism has been levelled at organisations and their remuneration committees for increases in executive remuneration in the face of disappointing financial results (lindqvist & grunditz, 2004). the amount of legislation and regulation in dealing with executive remuneration has subsequently increased, supporting remuneration contracts that reward superior organisation performance (morrissey, 2009). research purpose in south africa, the companies act (act no. 71 of 2008) and king code and report on governance in south africa (king iii; institute of directors southern africa, 2009) specify that there should be a positive correlation between ceo remuneration and organisation performance, and associated disclosure requirements have also increased (institute of directors southern africa, 2009). the purpose of this research is to investigate whether there is indeed a positive correlation or not between ceo remuneration and company performance, especially in the biggest companies listed on the johannesburg stock exchange. trends from the research literature there are empirical findings that support both a relationship between ceo pay and organisational performance, as well as little or no relationship. in seminal pieces of research, jensen and murphy (1999) found that the correlation was small and that shareholders came off second best. in contrast to this, firth, fung and rui (2006) and merhebi, pattenden, swan and zhou (2006) found that there was a significant positive correlation between ceo pay and most measures of organisational performance. most studies show a decline in the relationship between ceo pay and organisational performance since the global financial crisis in 2008 (shaw, 2011; van blerck, 2012; van rooyen, du toit, botha & rothmann, 2010). research objectives to facilitate an optimal contract between a ceo and shareholders, the incentives of the ceo need to be aligned with the interests of shareholders, thus creating value for both through the pay–performance relationship (o’ byrne & gressle, 2013; veliyath & bishop, 1995). the purpose of this research study was to investigate the relationship between ceo remuneration and organisational performance in south africa between 2006 and 2012, and to determine whether the two constructs were positively correlated. the primary research objectives were as follows: to establish if there were any structural changes that occurred in south africa after the 2008 global financial crisis with regard to the mix in the remuneration components received by ceos. to establish the closest link (correlation) between ceo remuneration and financial performance of an organisation when considering the most commonly used financial performance measures. the potential value-add of the study this research contributes to the literature on ceo remuneration by providing an evidenced-based under­standing of the nature of the ceo pay-performance relationship in south africa. understanding this relationship is critical to finding a suitable model to structure executive remuneration that will protect shareholders from over-remunerating executives in times of economic appreciation, whilst protecting executives from being underpaid in times of economic depreciation. previous research asserts that performance-based elements of ceo remuneration are necessary to justify the high remuneration packages of executives. the research points to the long-term dilemma that will arise for boards of directors if they become reluctant to either reward executives for superior performance or penalise them for poor performance. what will follow a more detailed review of the literature follows in the next section. the research design section outlines the longitudinal, quantitative, archival research method selected and describes the sampling rationale employed. the results of the study are then presented and discussed. the article concludes with a brief discussion of the research limitations and practical implications for remuneration practitioners. literature review ceo remuneration components ceo remuneration is composed of the financial compensation and other non-financial awards received by an executive from their firm for their service to the organisation. the concept of executive remuneration includes all payments made to executive members of the board including the ceo (bussin, 2011). these payments include all guaranteed cost-to-company (ctc), short-term and long-term incentives and other financial benefits for performance rendered (bussin, 2011). desirable remuneration packages are created to ensure the ability of the company to attract and retain the best possible ceos. the most common determinants for executive pay are organisation size, organisation performance, executive-specific factors (such as age, experience, tenure, career path), organisation structure, job or position-specific factors and job complexity (bussin, 2011). excessive pay can be seen as additional amounts of money that need to be paid for services and activities that were not originally planned or taken into account. despite substantial heterogeneity in remuneration practices across different organisations, most ceo remuneration packages consist of salary, annual bonus, short-term and long-term performance incentives (frydman & jenter, 2010; warr & fay, 2001). ellig (2007) argues that the structure of an executive's remuneration package will follow the path where it is the easiest for the executive to earn a more favourable remuneration. should short-term incentives (stis) be difficult to obtain due to factors outside the control of the ceo, the structure of the remuneration would lean towards a guaranteed ctc or fixed pay (fp). the inverse is also true, that should stis be easier to obtain, the structure of remuneration will gravitate towards higher incentive pay (ellig, 2007). the principal-agent theory the principal-agent theory needs to be understood in order to gain an understanding of the executive remuneration process. laffont and martimort (2002) argue that the owner of an organisation needs to delegate their responsibilities to other members of the organisation. the owner therefore becomes the principal and the employee becomes the agent. duffhues and kabir (2008) state that listed companies are characterised by the ownership of the organisation residing with the shareholders who reflect a diverse and wide cross-section of the population, whilst control is in the hands of a few managers responsible for the management of the organisation. the principal-agent theory infers that these managers or agents do not always perform their jobs solely in the best interests of the shareholders. frydman and jenter (2010) discuss the structure of executive pay as a possible method of rectifying this misalignment between the principal and the agent. compensation committees are one of the key mechanisms that could assist in aligning the principal and the agent by reviewing ceo compensation with specific attention to goal setting and alignment with incentives. o’ reilly and main (2010) describe this process as the board crafting an optimal pay mechanism to try and align the interests of the ceo with those of the shareholders. thus it is clear that the ceo is the agent of the shareholders, who as a group represent the principal and that the agent's goals should be aligned with those of the organisation and the principal. remuneration committees organisations should appoint a remuneration committee or other such appropriate board committee, consisting entirely or mainly of independent non-executive directors, to make recommendations regarding executive and ceo pay. the principal-agent theory assumes it is the purpose of the board to monitor the ceo. however, o’ reilly and main (2010) argue that this is a narrow view of the duties of a board. to minimise the costs associated with this theory, ceo compensation should be linked to both the ceo's performance and the organisation's performance to ensure an alignment between shareholders and management interests (o’ reilly & main, 2010). prior research showed that as the power of the ceo increased, their pay increased; however the sensitivity of their pay to performance decreased (lin & kuo, 2013; o’ reilly & main, 2010). king iii (2009) discusses the remuneration committee in detail and adds that it should be the duty of the remuneration committee to assist the board in setting the various salary bands within the organisation, particularly for the remuneration packages of the senior executives. king iii (2009) states that remuneration committees should keep the long-term goals of the organisation in mind when giving remuneration advice. optimal contracting and the managerial power approach bebchuk and fried (2003) suggest that there are two contrasting views on the link between the agency problem and the remuneration received by executives in an organisation. the optimal contracting approach, which considers executive remuneration as a remedy to the agency problem, is the more widely accepted view. under the optimal contracting approach ‘boards are assumed to design compensation schemes to provide executives with efficient incentives to maximize shareholder value’ (bebchuk & fried, 2003, p. 1). this view is also supported by shaw and zhang (2010) as they assert that efficient remuneration contracts will link executive remuneration with organisational performance, whilst providing compelling incentives for executives to avoid self-serving activities and operate organisations in the shareholders’ best interests. according to bebchuk and fried (2003), optimal remuneration contracts could result from either effective arm's length bargaining between executives and boards of directors, or from market constraints that will encourage executives and boards of directors to adopt such contracts even in the absence of arm's length bargaining. market constraints consider what executives will ask boards of directors to approve and what boards of directors will agree to. in contrast to the optimal contracting approach, the managerial power approach considers remuneration received by executives not only as a potential instrument for dealing with agency problems, but also as part of the agency problem (frydman & jenter, 2010). according to bebchuk, fried and walker (2002), remuneration contracts are not only shaped by what would be optimal, but are also influenced by executives’ capability to influence their own remuneration contracts. also, market constraints are not seen to play a significant role in preventing executives from obtaining arrangements that are more favourable to themselves. according to the managerial power approach, board-approved executive remuneration contracts often deviate from optimal contracting arrangements. factors that enable this deviation include: boards of directors being subjected to influence by executives, boards being sympathetic to executives or boards being incompetent in overseeing remuneration contracts (bebchuk et al., 2002). the result of managerial power is thus a situation in which executives receive rewards in excess of what would be optimal for shareholders. the excess rewards constitute rent extraction rather than the provision of efficient incentives (bebchuk et al., 2002). in summary, there are weaknesses in the optimal contracting approach that are highlighted by the managerial power approach. despite these weaknesses, that the ceo exerts too much power over the negotiation of the remuneration package, it is still widely believed that executive rewards can be used to align the interests of executives to those of the shareholders and thereby reduce possible agency costs (edmans & gabaix, 2009). in addition, even if the ceo's remuneration is efficient due to the optimal contracting approach, it does not preclude remuneration packages from being suboptimal and, as a result, intense scrutiny by shareholders remains important. organisation performance measures organisational performance can be measured in many different ways using accounting-based measures and market-based measures (attaway, 2000). fatemi, desai and katz (2003) argue that such measures do not account for the risk incurred by the organisation's executive in their search for growth and profitability, suggesting two additional measures, namely economic value added (eva) and market value added (mva). according to the economic theories of remuneration, ‘organisational performance should affect an executive's remuneration only to the extent that it serves as a proxy for unobservable managerial effort or productivity’ (murphy, 1985, p. 20). although previous theories uniformly suggest a relationship between compensation and observed performance, most analyses are not in agreement with regard to the measurement of organisational performance (canarella & gasparyan, 2008). in the empirical compensation literature there seems to be limited consensus on the optimal measure of company performance as researchers have measured organisational performance in many different ways (attaway, 2000; bacidore, boquist, milbourn & thakor, 1997; canarella & gasparyan, 2008; carpenter & sanders, 2002; eriksson & lausten, 2000; fatemi et al., 2003; kyriazis & anastassis, 2007). measures of company performance can be divided into three main categories: absolute financial performance measures (audited measures within a specific year), financial performance ratios (ratios derived from absolute performance measures) and market performance measures (performance within equity markets) (edmans, gabaix, sadzik & sannikov, 2012; shaw, 2011). the ceo pay-performance relationship since the early 2000s executive compensation levels have increased dramatically. managerial power and optimal contracting have been offered as leading reasons for this increase (frydman & jenter, 2010). optimal contracting is defined as occurring when the three types of agency costs (contracting, monitoring and misbehaviour) are balanced against one another to minimise the total cost (harvey, 2012). it is suggested that executives have influenced remuneration committees to increase fixed pay (despite poor organisational performance over the financial crisis period) in order to compensate for the loss of short-term and long-term incentive payouts (amzaleg, azar, ben-zion & rosenfield, 2014; frydman & jenter, 2010). through managerial power, ceos are able to influence boards and compensation committees and thus influence the structure of their remuneration packages (doscher & friedl, 2010). jensen and murphy (1999) acknowledge that there are serious problems with executive remuneration, but they do not view excessive ceo pay as the most significant issue. they point out that ‘the relentless focus on how much ceos are remunerated diverts public attention from the real problem – how ceos are paid’ (jensen & murphy, 1999, p. 64). haynes, thompson and wright (2007) point out that failure to reward or punish executives for either superior or poor performance will erode the link between ceo remuneration and organisation performance and will, according to jensen and murphy (1999), entrench what they call ‘bureaucratic remuneration systems’ (p. 159). instead, anderson and kleiner (2003) assert that the remuneration of organisations’ top executives should be virtually dependent on organisation performance. although the theoretical and empirical literature on executive remuneration is fairly well developed, it is far from complete, according to canarella and gasparyan (2008). a large number of pay-performance studies have been carried out in most parts of the world, and these studies reflect a lack of consensus on the pay-performance relationship (abraham, harris & auerbach, 2014; bruce, buck & main, 2005). the literature indicates that there is limited consensus on the optimal measure of organisational financial performance as researchers continue to assess organisational performance in many different ways (attaway, 2000; bacidore et al., 1997; chari, 2009; fatemi et al., 2003). older research studies use accounting and market-based measures of organisation performance, whilst more recent studies use eva and mva. some researchers, like canarella and gasparyan (2008), use both accounting-based and stock market-based measures to avoid potential biases inherent in using either of the two performance measures on their own. firth et al. (2006) conducted a ceo pay-performance study in china. their study, in which they used regression analysis techniques, found that there was a positive relation between ceo remuneration and organisation performance measured in both accounting and shareholder wealth. their study results, however, indicate that the relations were only statistically significant under certain ownership conditions. organisations that have state bureaucratic agencies as the major shareholder did not appear to embrace performance-related pay schemes. firth et al.'s regression results indicated that a change in shareholder wealth was positively associated with change in ceo remuneration and the relationship was not significant, that is, in the remuneration-performance equation, the change in shareholders’ wealth slope was 0.004 for state-controlled organisations. in contrast, listed organisations with a private block-holder as the largest shareholder based ceo remuneration on changes in shareholder wealth, resulting in the remuneration-performance equation with the change in shareholders’ wealth slope of 0.485. in contrast to these and other studies which found a positive and significant relationship between ceo pay and organisation performance, jensen and murphy (1999) analysed the ceo remuneration of 2505 ceos in 1400 publicly held organisations from 1974 to 1988 in the us. they concluded that the relationship between ceo and shareholder wealth was small and had fallen significantly in the last 50 years. mueller’ s (2006) study supports this observation by concluding that executive remuneration packages in the us increased by far more than could be accounted for by increases in managerial productivity in the 1990s. the study by mueller (2006) indicated that using the organisational remuneration-performance relationship derived from 1993 data, ceo remunerations were 215% higher than predicted by the 1993 estimates. another study, conducted in the uk by haynes et al. (2007), found that organisation size had a positive and significant impact on executive remuneration (in the remuneration-performance equation the slope on organisation size was found to be 0.21) and that the responsiveness of executive remuneration to organisation performance was much smaller when compared to the size of the organisation (the slope on organisation performance was found to be 0.12). a study by duffhues and kabir (2008) found no evidence of a positive pay-performance relationship for executives in the netherlands, which led to the conclusion that executives in the netherlands received rewards for reasons unrelated to performance. duffhues and kabir's study found that in the pay-performance equation, the regression slope on organisation performance between 1998 and 2001 was between −0.539 and −0.074, whilst the slope for organisation size between 1998 and 2001 was between 0.399 and 0.413. in south africa, a ceo pay-performance research study by shaw (2011) looked at financial service organisations during the period 2005 to 2010. shaw categorised organisation performance measures into three main categories: absolute financial performance measures, financial performance ratios and market performance measures. the study used economic profit, accounting profit and shareholder returns in the form of return on equity (roe) and headline earnings per share (heps) as measures of organisational performance. debt to assets ratio and total assets or book value were also included to ensure comprehensive measurement of organisational performance. shaw (2011) found a moderate to strong relationship between ceo remuneration and organisation performance. however, the results of the study indicated that there has been a decline in the relationship between 2008 and 2012: the average coefficient of correlation scores between organisation performance and book value, earnings before income tax depreciation and appreciation (ebitda) and profit after tax were found to be 0.56, 0.52 and 0.45, respectively. the results of the study also showed an associated structural change in the mix of remuneration components, ‘most notably there was an observed shift in ceo remuneration from variable pay to fixed pay’ (shaw, 2011, p. 102). a similar study on south african financial institutions conducted by van blerck (2012) used eva, roe and share price as the organisation performance measures and considered a time period between 2002 and 2011. van blerck's findings support those of shaw (2011), finding a moderate correlation between share price and executive remuneration and only a weak relationship with roe before 2007. shaw's study found an average coefficient of correlation of 0.013 between remuneration and roe, whilst van blerck found it to be 0.293. van blerck found that the remuneration received by executives in south african financial institutions correlated strongly with eva and that the correlation strengthened after the 2008 financial crisis: the coefficient of correlation for eva between 2002 and 2006 was found to be 0.592 and between 2007 and 2011 it found to be 0.663. more importantly, van blerck also found that executives based in the us have rewards that are strongly aligned to equity-based incentives compared to south african executives, whose rewards are strongly aligned to eva: the coefficient of correlation for roe between 2002 and 2006 was found to be 0.067 and between 2007 and 2011 it found to have increased to 0.338. conceptual underpinning of ceo pay-performance relationship whilst ceos are responsible and accountable for their respective organisations’ performance, and are highly incentivised through remuneration structures to ensure they perform their duties solely in the best interest of the shareholders, in recent years ceos’ remunerations have been in the limelight and often for the wrong reasons (anderson & kleiner, 2003; enrione, mazza & zerboni, 2006; matsumura & shin, 2005; ozkan, 2011). in view of many national recessions caused by the financial crisis of 2008, the high remuneration packages of executives, especially ceos, has attracted the attention of the public, unions, investors, the media and academic researchers. the public continues on the perception that executives receive excessive salaries and bonuses (leon, 2012). the unions continue to express outrage at large remuneration increases in executives’ salaries compared to national average salaries of employees (mantshantsha, 2007). the investors expect that there should be a close alignment between executives’ remunerations and performance of their respective organisations (sharp, mackay, rankin & aling, 2012). the unions, investors and the media seize on any executive's remuneration that appears excessive, particularly if recent performance of the organisation is regarded as poor (perry & zenner, 2001). the academic researchers continue to focus on establishing the relationship between executives’ remunerations and organisation performance. the remuneration of organisa­tions’ top executives should be virtually dependent on organisation performance and organisations that evaluate their ceos will be successful overall even though the evaluation process is time consuming (anderson & kleiner, 2003). the relation between executive remuneration, especially that of ceos, and organisations’ performance is still an important issue in financial debate (traichal, gallinger & johnson, 1999). according to jensen and murphy (1999), the executive remuneration literature has grown considerably over the last 50 years. although the theoretical and empirical literature on executive compensation is fairly well developed, it is far from complete, according to canarella and gasparyan (2008). the literature reviewed indicates that research on executive pay-performance, especially for ceos, has yielded mixed and inconclusive results due to the principal-agent problem and managerial power approach. according to the agency framework, executive remuneration is an efficient means of aligning executive interests more closely with those of shareholders through a remuneration contract that rewards superior company performance (jensen & meckling, 1976). the literature also indicates that innovation is needed to establish sound remuneration policies that are aligned with the long-term strategic plans of organisations. corporate governance mechanisms are also utilised to ensure that the interests of both the principal and agent are aligned. according to mcknight and weir (2009), corporate governance mechanisms are used to ‘realign the interests of agents and principals and so reduce agency costs’ (p. 140). the above discussions have identified two key points: firstly, executive remunerations should have a strong incentive effect and thus be related to performance and, secondly, due to potential conflicts of interest, safeguarding the objectivity of the remunerating process is crucial. the corporate governance and disclosure requirements that are currently applicable in south africa through the implementation of the companies act (2008) and king iii (institute of directors southern africa, 2009) has given a clear indication that there is a need to ensure that executive remunerations are linked to their respective organisational performances. it is these regulatory changes and the current economic climate that make this research relevant. there is a need to link reward and performance, a powerful lever for driving business strategy. research design top ↑ research approach this research study was an empirical exploratory quantitative study that was aimed at assessing the relationship between ceo total remuneration and the financial performance of an organisation as this approach was the best way to answer the research questions. the total remuneration consisted of fp (including benefits) and stis (these incentives measure performance for up to 1 year and typically include profit share, commission and bonus schemes). the research took the form of a desktop study and was archival in nature, using secondary sources to provide the organisation financials and their respective executive remuneration data for ceos. the research approach was ­ex-post facto in nature in that the focus was on reporting the characteristics of the variables rather than playing any role in manipulating them (saunders & lewis, 2012). the research was also longitudinal in nature, allowing for the identification of trends and the isolation of any unusual observations either in the events or the data. research method research participants the research data utilised were obtained for publicly listed organisations on the johannesburg stock exchange (jse). according to the jse listing requirements, listed organisations are contractually bound to adopt king iii and the companies act of 2008 (institute of directors southern africa, 2009) and, as a result, these organisations were required to disclose the information needed for the research. the information used was deemed credible as it had been subject to financial audits that are stipulated by the jse securities exchange rules. the research data was drawn from the mcgregor bfa database. mcgregor bfa is south africa's provider of financial data feeds and analysis tools and covers the jse and global share prices as well as organisation information including annual reports and financial statements. the research utilised publicly listed organisations on the jse for the time period 2006–2012. the combined number of organisations listed on the jse is 472 (jse, 2009). the jse top 40 organisations have a combined market capitalisation (mc) of 83.69% of the total jse mc of all the 472 organisations on the jse as of 25 april 2013 (satrix, 2013). as a result, these jse top 40 organisations were chosen as the research population as they represent a significant quantity of the total jse. the proportion of the total capitalisation of the jse top 40 organisations was seen as being large enough to be sufficient for the research. the same scoping process is consistent with that of previous research on executive remuneration done by miller (1995). the list of organisations on the jse top 40 changes from year to year as a result of some organisations being replaced by organisations with growing mc effectively moving ‘up the list’. the resulting number of organisations on the jse top 40 between 2006 and 2012 was 57 in total. these 57 organisations were subjected to the following criteria for inclusion in the sample: the organisation had to have been on the jse top 40 for the entire research period (2006–2012); this reduced the number of organisations to 27. the secondary research data required for the current research had to be available either from the mcgregor bfa database or financial statements of the respective organisation; this reduced the number of organisations to 22. more than one organisation with the same executive receiving the same remuneration was considered as one organisation and the different organisation performance measures were added; this reduced the number of organisations to 21. table 1 contains the list of organisations included in the research sample. table 1: list of organisations included in the research sample. measuring instruments total remuneration was defined to include fp, the combination of the basic salary and benefits (car benefit, other benefits and cost of employee benefits) received during the organisation's financial year, and stis (these incentives measure performance for up to 1 year, and typically include profit share, commission and bonus schemes) (21st century pay solutions, 2010). executive remuneration figures that were either in great british pound (gbp), united states dollar (usd) or euro (eur), and not in south african rand (zar), were converted to zar utilising the average exchange rates between 2006 and 2012: gbp/zar exchange rate used was 13.08, usd/zar was 7.74 and eur/zar was 10.47. ideally, long-term incentives (ltis) should be included in studies with the objective of determining the relationship between ceo remuneration and the financial performance of an organisation (lippert & porter, 1997; murphy, 1985). however, the measurement of ltis has been proven problematic, uncertain and only based on future performance targets at the time total remuneration is awarded. it has therefore become accepted practice to include only fp and stis in pay-performance analyses (core, holthausen & larcker, 1999). the second unit of analysis was the financial performance of the organisations. for the purposes of this research, and largely based on past research work on pay-performance sensitivity, the following organisation financial performance measures were chosen (their definitions are sourced from mcgregor bfa and ward & price, 2006): market capitalisation (mc): the total value of the issued shares of a publicly traded organisation. this figure is used to determine an organisation's size. the unit of measurements for mc is usually the currency of the country, in this case zar: earnings per share (eps): the portion of an organisation's profit allocated to each outstanding share of common stock; it serves as an indicator of an organisation's profitability. the unit of measurements for eps was south african cents: return on equity (roe): the amount of net income returned as a percentage of shareholders equity. it is a ratio that measures an organisation's efficiency in generating profit for each unit of shareholders’ equity. roe measures an organisation's profitability by revealing how much profit an organisation generates with the money shareholders have invested. the unit of measurements for roe was a percentage: economic value added (eva): a measure of an organisation's financial performance based on the residual wealth calculated by deducting cost of capital from its operating profit (adjusted for taxes on a cash basis). the unit of measurements for eva was zar: market value added (mva): it was found that it is essential to analyse mva by placing all organisations on a uniform basis. there are different approaches to establish this and the one chosen for this research was to express the mva performance indicator as a ratio as opposed to the difference based on the general definition for mva. the approach effectively standardises all the enterprises to have the same size and further facilitates comparisons between large and small organisations. however, the use of a ratio eliminates the contribution of size to value creation: research procedure the relationship between ceo remuneration and measures of organisation performance were observed over a period of 7 years between 2006 and 2012. the time period included the recessionary decline phase due to the 2008 global financial crisis and the august 2011 stock market fall (jensen & murphy, 1999). the approach was chosen to ensure the validity of the research and also to ensure that the history for a given organisation would yield a maximum of seven observations. the 7-year period was also deemed sufficient to ensure limited influence of short-term irregularities, whilst being short enough to provide reliable estimates of the research constructs. statistical analysis correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to determine two measures of the strength of the pay-performance relationship, namely the coefficient of correlation and the coefficient of determination respectively. results top ↑ descriptive statistics ceo remuneration: fixed and variable pay table 2 contains a summary of the descriptive statistics for fp received by ceos between 2006 and 2012. table 2: ceo fixed pay summary (r ’000). figure 1 shows a graphical representation of the descriptive statistics for ceo fp. although the general trajectory of the average fp shows an upward trend, this increase slowed down during the recession period between 2008 and 2009. the fp mean and median plots in figure 1 can both be approximated by linear equations with the coefficient of determination (r2) equal to 0.9212 (p = 0.0006100 < 0.10 and r = 0.9598) and 0.9548 (p = 0.0001498 < 0.10 and r = 0.9771), respectively. figure 1: graphical representation of the descriptive statistics for ceo fixed pay. table 3 contains a summary of the descriptive statistics for stis received by ceos between 2006 and 2012. table 3: ceo short-term incentives summary (r ’000). figure 2 shows a graphical representation of the descriptive statistics for ceo stis. there was no general trajectory observed for the average (mean) stis between 2006 and 2012. on the contrary, it was observed that the median stis had a downwards moving trajectory which was approximated by a linear equation with the coefficient of determination (r2) equal to 0.6491 (p = 0.02872 < 0.10 and r = 0.8056). for a linear approximation of the sti mean, the coefficient of determination was found to be equal to 0.02797 (p = 0.7200 > 0.1, indicating statistical insignificance as the null hypothesis, which states that the slope of the linear approximation is equal to zero and has no effect, could not be rejected and r = 0.1672). for an approximation equation with the coefficient of determination (r2) greater than that found for the median (r2 = 0.6491), the sti mean approximation equation was found to be of the fourth degree with the coefficient of determination (r2) being 0.9972. figure 2: graphical representation of the descriptive statistics for ceo short-term incentives. organisation performance measures figure 3 shows the mc of the research sample, the combined jse mc and the research sample percentage portion of the jse between 2006 and 2012. figure 3: market capitalisation: research sample versus jse. despite the fact that only the 21 organisations of the jse top 40 have been included in the research sample, these organisations, as illustrated in figure 3, had a combined mc of between 50% and 82% of the total jse mc for the research period between 2006 and 2012. the average percentage mc representation of the research sample to the jse mc for the research period was 68%. table 4 contains a summary of the means of the descriptive statistics for organisation performance measures selected for the research study: mc, eps, roe, eva and mva. table 4: organisational performance measures means. table 5 contains a summary of the standard deviations for the organisation performance measures. table 5: organisational performance measures standard deviations. results of the effects of the 2008 financial crisis the primary objective of this research was to determine the relationship between ceo remuneration and the financial performance of an organisation. as a result, the first research question investigated whether any structural changes occurred with regard to the mix of remuneration components ceos received after the 2008 financial crisis. figure 4 shows year-on-year percentage changes in ceo total remuneration (fp and sti) between 2006 and 2012. also included in figure 4 are the respective initial fp and sti averages (i.e. for zar-based figures; non-zar-based figures and the total research sample) for 2006. figure 4: ceo fixed pay (a) and short-term incentive (b) means and percentage changes. figure 4 shows that the percentage year-on-year change trajectories for ceo fp listed in zar and other currencies were observed to be similar, except in 2012 when the two were going in opposite directions. as for ceo stis, the trajectories were observed to be similar except for 2011, when the ceo stis listed in zar spiked whilst those listed in other currencies slowed down. figure 5 shows the calculated sti:fp ratios for means and medians between 2006 and 2012 with their respective trend lines. the trend lines indicate that there was a change in the mix in fp and stis and that the change was statistically significant: r2 mean = 0.4534 (p = 0.09732 < 0.10 and r = 0.6733) and r2 median = 0.7876 (p = 0.007677 < 0.10 and r = 0.8874). figure 5: short-term incentive/fixed pay ratios (2006–2012). figure 6 shows the mean percentage mix between fp and sti as a percentage of total remuneration received by ceos. it is evident that fp increased from 44% in 2006 to 59% in 2012 and, in conjunction with figure 4, indicates a trend of increasing fp compared to decreasing stis. figure 6: fixed pay – short term incentive mix (2006–2012). results of the correlation between ceo remuneration and organisation performance figure 7 shows the coefficient of correlation (r) results for the correlation analysis that was done with fp as a dependant variable; independent variables considered for the correlation analysis included all the organisational financial performance measures selected for the research and are as listed on the horizontal axis of figure 7. figure 7 also includes the 7 years’ correlation results averages for each of the organisation financial performance measures and a table with all the correlation coefficient (r) numerical values. for example, the correlation coefficient between fp (dependent variable) and mc (independent variable) in 2006 on figure 7 was found to be 0.7709, whilst that between fp (dependent variable) and mva (independent variable) in 2006 on figure 7 was −0.2619. table 6 contains similar coefficient of correlation (r) results to those found in figure 7 and their associated p-values as determined using the pearson product moment correlation coefficient method. figure 7: correlation analysis: fixed pay and organisational performance measures. table 6: correlation analysis: fixed pay and organisational performance measures. figure 8 shows the correlation coefficient results for the correlation analysis that was done with sti means as the dependant variable; independent variables are as listed on the horizontal axis and include all the selected organisation financial performance measures. figure 8 also includes the 7 years’ correlation results averages. table 7 contains similar coefficient of correlation (r) results to those found in figure 8 and their associated p-values as determined using the pearson product moment correlation coefficient method. figure 8: correlation analysis: short-term incentives and organisational performance measures. table 7: correlation analysis: fixed pay and short-term incentives. due to the extreme relative nature of outliers, especially for stis paid to ceos by organisations, the medians for ceos remuneration were also considered in the correlation analysis. medians are not influenced by outliers compared to means and in most cases when data sets have outliers, reporting the median as the central tendency of the data often gives a better ‘typical’ data value than the mean (anderson, sweeney, williams, freeman & shoesmith, 2007; weiers, 2010). figure 9 shows the correlation results when the means and medians of the ceo remuneration and organisation performance measures were considered, with the fp and stis as the two separately considered dependent variables. figure 9: correlation coefficients results: means and medians. figure 10 shows the correlation coefficients absolute value differences in the results found in figure 9 between the means and medians of the two dependent variables (i.e. fp or sti). figure 10: means and medians correlation coefficients (r) differences. figure 10 illustrates that the observed absolute value differences in the coefficients of correlation between fp means and fp medians when used as the dependent variable are between 0.01 and 0.29. in contrast, the observed absolute differences in the correlation coefficient between sti means and medians when used as the dependent variable are between 0.25 and 0.60. this illustrates that the absolute differences between means and medians are higher for stis as compared to fp. discussion top ↑ the primary objective of this research study was to investigate the relationship between ceo remuneration and organisation performance in south africa between 2006 and 2012 and to determine whether the two constructs were positively correlated. understanding this relationship is critical to finding a suitable model to structure executive remuneration that will protect shareholders from ­over-remunerating executives in times of economic appreciation, whilst protecting executives from being underpaid in times of economic depreciation. the first research question investigated was whether there were any structural changes to the total remuneration received by ceos as a result of the global financial crisis. the implementation of the companies act (2008) and king iii (2009) were expected to cause some form of structural changes in remuneration, more specifically, and in the context of the current research, to ensure that there is a link between executive remuneration and organisation performance. the research findings strongly suggest that some structural changes to the total remuneration of ceos occurred after 2008. the main structural change was an increase in fp accompanied by a decrease in stis. these findings can be supported further by the calculated means and medians of the sti to fp ratios. the trend lines for the means and medians show that there was an upward movement between 2006 and 2007, which was followed by a downward movement in 2008. the general regression equations for the sti:fp ratios have the following negative slopes: βmean = −0.0701 (r2mean = 0.4534, p = 0.09732 < 0.10) and βmedian = −0.1477 (r2median = 0.7876, p = 0.007677 < 0.10). it can be seen that ceos are becoming more innovative as they are noticeably moving away from focusing on stis, which are categorised as performance-related elements of remuneration. as a result, ceos are focusing more on fp rather than stis. this change in focus results in the companies act (2008) and king iii (2009) requirements being less effective, as ceos avoid being measured for performance. as jensen and murphy (1999, p. 64) state, ‘the relentless focus on how much ceos are remunerated diverts public attention from the real problem – how ceos are paid’. whilst the implementation of the companies act (2008) and king iii (2009) was expected to cause structural changes driving the link between executive remuneration and organisation performance, the opposite has been observed. the second research question was aimed at determining the correlation between ceo total remuneration and organisation performance. corporate governance and economic theories of remuneration largely suggest that ‘organisational performance should affect an executive's remuneration to the extent that it serves as a proxy for unobservable managerial effort or productivity’ (murphy, 1985, p. 20). the expected pay-performance relationship was that a direct and strong relationship would be found to exist between ceo remuneration and measures of organisational performance. results indicate that fp was found to be weakly and inversely correlated to roe during the research study period between 2006 and 2012 (raverage = −0.1570) (bebchuk et al., 2010). the inverse relationship between fp and mva was found to be weak to moderate (raverage = −0.2631) (bebchuk et al., 2010). the relationship between fp and eva was found to be weak to moderate, and inverse in some years (r2006 = −0.2224, r2008 = −0.0332, r2009 = −0.2922 and r2010 = −0.0208) whilst direct in other years (r2007 = 0.0104, r2011 = 0.3445 and r2012 = 0.0457). both direct relationships between mc and eps with fp were found to be moderate to strong (rmcaverage = 0.7875 and repsaverage = 0.6838). results indicate that stis had an inverse relationship with roe and the strength of the relationship was weak to moderate (raverage = −0.1656). a similar relationship, in terms of direction and strength, was observed between stis and mva and the relationship was inverse and weak to moderate (raverage = 0.2253). the relationship between stis and eva was found to be generally weak, and direct in some years (r2006 = 0.1165, r2007 = 0.0704, r2008 = 0.1925 and r2011 = 0.0505) whilst inverse in other years (r2009 = −0.1660, r2010 = −0.0704 and r2012 = −0.2598). both direct relationships between mc and eps with stis were found to be weak to moderate (rmcaverage = 0.3342 and repsaverage = 0.3202). the most stable of the findings was the direct relationship of ceo total remuneration with mc and eps; another was the inverse relationship with roe and mva. the findings of the relationship between ceo total remuneration and roe support those found by van blerck (2012) and, more importantly, the behaviour of the relationship during and immediately after financial crisis was similar to what van blerck found in 2007 in the south african financial services sector. mva represents value created whilst roe measures an organisation's profitability by revealing how much profit an organisation generates with the money shareholders have invested. the inverse relationship found between these performance measures and ceo total remuneration is of major concern, especially as value creation occurs during global financial difficulties when executives adopt a risk-averse orientation. the relationship between ceo total remuneration and eva tended to change direction depending on the global economic standings. when the global economy was experiencing uncertainty or difficulties (e.g. 2008 global financial crisis and august 2011 stock market fall), eva was found to be leaning towards being more directly related to ceo total remuneration. when the global economy was performing well, eva was found to be leaning towards being more inversely related to ceo total remuneration as organisations earned more profits and allocated less to the cost of financing their respective organisations’ capital. the correlation findings with regard to eva suggest that ceos, during economic certainty, engage more in empire building, taking investment projects that may not be profitable for the shareholder, but are undertaken purely to increase the size of the organisation. similar findings were made by hope and thomas (2008), who concluded that executives grow organisations due to the fact that boards have limited information on which to judge their ability, and so growth in organisation size seems to be the next best solution in ensuring that executives are viewed favourably. the average fp had a direct relationship with mc and eva over the 7-year research period and the relationships were found to be strong and moderate. results also indicate that average fp was inversely correlated to eps, roe and mva and the respective relationships were moderate, strong and moderate. except for eva, the relationship between stis and all organisation financial performance measures were directly opposite to those found for fp. stis were found to be moderately inversely related to mc and directly related to the other four organisation financial performance measures. the relative relationship strengths of stis with the eps, roe, eva and mva were found to be weak, strong, moderate and strong. shaw and zhang (2010) point out that efficient remuneration contracts will link executive remuneration with organisation performance, whilst providing strong incentives for executives to operate in shareholders’ best interests. the findings of this research, with regard to the directions and strengths of the relationships between ceo fp and organisation performance measures, suggest that the general pay-performance link has been lost. the directions and strengths of the relationships between stis and organisation financial performance measures indicate that a link exists between what executives receive as stis and accounting-based measures of performance. the irony is that whilst the sti link with organisation financial performance measures (i.e. accounting-based measures) exists, the fp link with organisation performance measures continues to be eroded. executives are avoiding stis and paying greater attention to fp to reduce the impact of performance-related elements in determining their remuneration. the above findings strongly suggest that failure to reward or punish executives for either superior or poor performance will continue to erode the link between ceo total remuneration and financial organisation performance. the optimal contracting approach does not appear to be working and the managerial power approach seems dominant, that is executive remuneration is not being used as a potential instrument for addressing agency problems, but has become part of the agency problem itself (frydman & jenter, 2010). the long-term impact of this, according to jensen and murphy (1999), anderson and kleiner (2003) and haynes et al. (2007), will be entrenched bureaucratic remuneration systems in which boards become reluctant to either reward ceos for superior performance or punish them for poor performance. practical implications this research suggests that a stronger test of the pay-performance link and the power of incentive design is required in order to ensure that executives are rewarded or punished for performance. the question on how executives are paid also needs to be considered. the research identifies the need for a robust and valid ceo pay-performance model to ensure consistency with the agency notion that top executives are rewarded for increases in shareholder wealth. it is suggested that boards and remuneration committees need to pay more attention to the different performance measures available in assessing ceo performance. more attention should also be paid to reducing the subversive behaviour of ceos, which serves to reduce the efficacy of the companies act (2008) and king iii (2009) by avoiding the issue of ceos being measured for performance. research limitations this research only investigated the specific relationship between performance and pay and did not include information on the causal factors influencing ceo remuneration and the financial performance of the organisations. in addition, the size of the organisations studied, and the possible effect that this would have on the total remuneration of the ceo, was deemed to be beyond the scope of this research. the fact that all the organisations selected were large organisations could address the problem of organisation size as a threat to the validity of the research; however, it is suggested that further research should be conducted to see if the same findings apply to small and medium organisations. conclusion top ↑ in theory, efficient remuneration contracts will be designed well enough to link executive remuneration with organisation performance and provide strong incentives for executives to operate organisations in the best interest of the shareholders. additionally, the companies act (2008) and king iii (2009) specify that there should be a positive correlation between executive remuneration and organisation performance. the primary objective of this research was to take advantage of the available information on ceo remuneration data and requirements in terms of positive correlation between ceo remuneration and financial performance of organisations. based on the findings of the current research, it can be concluded that there have been structural changes after the 2008 global financial crisis with regard to total remuneration received by ceos; these structural changes were further amplified after the august 2011 stock market fall. the findings of the current research indicate that these changes were deliberate as ceo were focusing more on fixed pay and moving away from performance-related short-term incentives, thus creating a disconnect between what ceos are being paid and the performance of organisations. more attention needs to be paid to the different behaviours of top executives, especially ceos, in making the companies act (2008) and king iii (2009) requirements ineffective as they avoid being measured on the performance of their organisations. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.b. (university of johannesburg) was the project leader and academic supervisor and also contributed to writing the manuscript. m.f.m. (university of pretoria) was responsible for project design, field work and writing up the research. references top ↑ 21st century pay solutions. (2010). global reward trends. retrieved august 24, 2013, from https://www.saica.co.za/portals/0/about/committees/global reward trends.pdf abraham, r., harris, j., & auerbach, j. (2014). ceo-pa performance sensitivity. technology and investment, 5, 125–136. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ti.2014.53013 amzaleg, y., azar, o.h., ben-zion, u., & rosenfield, a. (2014). ceo control, corporate performance and pay-performance sensitivity, journal of economic behavior & organization, 106(c), 166–174. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2014.07.004 anderson, b., & kleiner, b.h. (2003). how to evaluate the performance of chief executive officers effectively. management research news, 26(2/3/4), 3–11. anderson, d.r., sweeney, d.j., williams, t.a., freeman, j., & shoesmith, e. (2007). statistics for business and economics. (6th edn.). london, uk: thomson learning. attaway, m.c. (2000). a study of the relationship between company performance and ceo compensation. american business review, 18(1), 77–85. bacidore, j.m., boquist, j.a., milbourn, t.t., & thakor, a.v. (1997). the search for the best financial performance measure. financial analysts journal, 53(3), 11–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.2469/faj.v53.n3.2081 bebchuk, l.a., & fried, j.m. (2003). executive compensation as an agency problem. cambridge, ma: national bureau of economic research. http://dx.doi.org/10.3386/w9813 bebchuk, l.a., & fried, j.m. (2005). pay without performance: overview of the issues. journal of applied corporate finance, 17(4), 8–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6622.2005.00056.x bebchuk, l.a., cohen, a., & holger, s. (2010). the wages of failure: executive compensation at bear stearns and lehman 2000–2008. yale journal on regulation, 27(2), 257–282. bebchuk, l.a., fried, j.m., & walker, d.i. (2002). managerial power and rent extraction in the design of executive compensation. cambridge, ma: national bureau of economic research. http://dx.doi.org/10.3386/w9068 bruce, a., buck, t., & main, b.g. (2005). top executive remuneration: a view from europe. journal of management studies, 42(7), 1493–1506. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2005.00553.x bussin, m. (2011). the remuneration handbook for africa: a practical and informative handbook for managing and recognition in africa. randburg: knowres publishing. canarella, g., & gasparyan, a. (2008). new insights into executive compensation and firm performance: evidence from a panel of ‘new economy’ firms, 1996–2002. managerial finance, 34(8), 537–554. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03074350810874064 carpenter, m.a., & sanders, w. (2002). top management team compensation: the missing link between ceo pay and firm performance? strategic management journal, 23(4), 367–375. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smj.228 chari, l. (2009). measuring value enhancement through economic value added: evidence from literature. iup journal of applied finance, 15(9), 46–62. core, j.e., holthausen, r.w., & larcker, d.f. (1999). corporate governance, chief executive officer compensation, and firm performance. journal of financial economics, 51(3), 371–406. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0304-405x(98)00058-0 doscher, t. & friedl, g. (2010). corporate governance, stakeholder power and executive compensation. or spectrum, 33(2), 309–331. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00291-010-0218-z duffhues, p., & kabir, r. (2008). is the pay–performance relationship always positive? evidence from the netherlands. journal of multinational financial management, 18(1), 45–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mulfin.2007.02.004 edmans, a., & gabaix, x. (2009). is ceo pay really inefficient? a survey of new optimal contracting theories. european financial management, 15(3), 486–496. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-036x.2009.00500.x edmans, a., gabaix, x., sadzik, t., & sannikov, y. (2012). dynamic ceo compensation. journal of finance, 67(5), 1603–1618. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.2012.01768.x ellig, b.r. (2007), the complete guide to executive compensation. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. enrione, a., mazza, c., & zerboni, f. (2006). institutionalizing codes of governance. american behavioral scientist, 49(7), 961–973. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0002764205285175 eriksson, t., & lausten, m. (2000). managerial pay and firm performance. scandinavian journal of management, 16(3), 269–286. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0956-5221(99)00026-3 fatemi, a., desai, a.s., & katz, j.p. (2003). wealth creation and managerial pay: mva and eva as determinants of executive compensation. global finance journal, 14(2), 159–179. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1044-0283(03)00010-3 firth, m., fung, p.m., & rui, o.m. (2006). corporate performance and ceo compensation in china. journal of corporate finance, 12(4), 693–714. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2005.03.002 frydman, c., & jenter, d. (2010). ceo compensation. annual review of financial economics, 2, 75–102. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-financial-120209-133958 harvey, c. (2012). optimal contract. the free dictionary by fairelex. retrieved june 15, 2013, from http://financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/optimal+contract haynes, m., thompson, s., & wright, m. (2007). executive remuneration and corporate divestment: motivating managers to make unpalatable decisions. journal of business finance & accounting, 34(5–6), 792–818. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5957.2007.02008.x hope, o.-k., & thomas, w.b. (2008). managerial empire building and firm disclosure. journal of accounting research, 46(3), 591–626. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-679x.2008.00289.x institute of directors southern africa. (2009). king iii report on corporate governance for south africa. pietermaritzburg: author. jensen, m., & meckling, w.h. (1976). theory of the firm: managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure. journal of financial economics, 3(4), 305–360. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0304-405x(76)90026-x jensen, m., & murphy, k. (1999). ceo incentives: it's not how much you pay, but how. harvard business review, 3, 64–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.146148 jse. (2009). global classification system. retrieved april 02, 2013, from http://www.jse.co.za/products/ftse-jse/classification-system.aspx-global kaplan, s.n. (2013). ceo pay and corporate governance in the us: perceptions, facts and challenges. journal of applied corpoaret finance, 25(2), 2–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jacf.12013 kyriazis, d., & anastassis, c. (2007). the validity of the economic value added approach: an empirical application. european financial management, 13(1), 71–100. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-036x.2006.00286.x laffont, j.-j., & martimort, d. (2002). the theory of incentives, the principal-agent model. princeton, nj: princeton university press. leon, p. (2012). marikana, mangaung and the south african mining industry. webber wentzel report. cape town: south african institute of international affairs. lin, d., & kuo, h. (2013). chief executive compensation: an empirical study of fat cat ceos. the international journal of business and finance research, 7, 27–42. lindqvist, j., & grunditz, j. (2004). ceo compensation and company performance: an empirical study of the situation in sweden’s listed companies. master's thesis, school of business, economics and law, goteborg university, sweden. lippert, r.l., & porter, g. (1997). understanding ceo pay: a test of two pay-to-performance sensitivity measures with alternative measures of alignment and influence. journal of business research, 40(2), 127–138. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0148-2963(96)00283-4 mantshantsha, s. (2007, february). is there a case for a maximum salary? usb agenda magazine. retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/4653 marais, j., & lefifi, t.a. (2013, april 28). bang goes bank boss pay. sunday times, p. 1. matsumura, e.m., & shin, j.y. (2005). corporate governance reform and ceo compensation: intended and unintended consequences. journal of business ethics, 62(2), 101–113. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-005-0175-7 mcgregor bfa database. (n.d.). retrieved n.d., from http://www.inetbfa.com/tag/mcgregor-bfa/ mcknight, p.j., & weir, c. (2009). agency costs, corporate governance mechanisms and ownership structure in large uk publicly quoted companies: a panel data analysis. the quarterly review of economics and finance, 49(2), 139–158. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.qref.2007.09.008 merhebi, r., pattenden, k., swan, p.l., & zhou, x. (2006). australian chief executive officer remuneration: pay and performance. accounting & finance, 46(3), 481–497. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-629x.2006.00178.x miller, d.j. (1995). ceo salary increase may be rational after all: referents and contracts in ceo pay. academy of management journal, 38(5), 1361–1385. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256861 morrissey, j. (2009, september 23). more angry investors say, throw the boards out. time business & money. retrieved april 06, 2013, from http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1925344,00.html mueller, d.c. (2006). corporate governance and economic performance. international review of applied economics, 20(5), 623–643. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02692170601005598 murphy, k.j. (1985). corporate performance and managerial remuneration: an empirical analysis. journal of accounting and economics, 7(1), 11–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0165-4101(85)90026-6 o’byrne, & gressle, m. (2013). how ‘competitive pay’ undermines pay for performance (and what companies can do to avoid that). journal of applied corporate finance, 25(2), 26–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jacf.12014 o’reilly, c.a., & main, b.g. (2010), economic and psychological perspectives on ceo compensation: a review and synthesis, industrial and corporate change, 19(3), 675–712. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/icc/dtp050 ozkan, n. (2011). ceo compensation and firm performance: an empirical investigation of uk panel data. european financial management, 17(2), 260–285. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-036x.2009.00511.x perry, t., & zenner, m. (2001). pay for performance? government regulation and the structure of compensation contracts. journal of financial economics, 62(3), 453–488. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0304-405x(01)00083-6 republic of south africa. (2008). companies act, act no. 71 of 2008. south africa: department of justice. satrix. (2013). satrix 40. retrieved march 14, 2013, from http://www.satrix.co.za/products/satrix40.aspx saunders, m., & lewis, p. (2012). doing research in business and management: an essential guide to planning your project. harlow, uk: prentice hall. sharp, l., mackay, g., rankin, n., & aling, p. (2012). are south africa's ceos overpaid? labour market navigator 2012(q1), 1–36. shaw, k.w., & zhang, m.h. (2010). is ceo cash compensation punished for poor firm performance? the accounting review, 85(3), 1065–1093. http://dx.doi.org/10.2308/accr.2010.85.3.1065 shaw, p. (2011). ceo pay-performance sensitivity in south african financial services companies. mba research report, gordon institute of business science (gibs), university of pretoria, south africa. traichal, p.a., gallinger, g.w., & johnson, s.a. (1999). the relationship between pay-for-performance contracting and external monitoring. managerial finance, 25(9), 68–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03074359910766163 van blerck, t.g. (2012). the relationship between executive remuneration at financial institutions and economic value added. mba research report, gordon institute of business science (gibs), university of pretoria, south africa. van rooyen, l., du toit, d.h., botha, e., & rothmann, s. (2010). artisan retention in an organisation in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 8(1), 1–8. veliyath, r., & bishop, j. (1995). relationship between ceo compensation and firm performance: empirical evidence of labour market norms. the international journal of organizational analysis, 3(3), 268–283. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/eb028832 ward, m., & price, a. (2006). turning vision into value: corporate finance for non-financial executives. pretoria: van schaik. warr, p., & fay, d. (2001). age and personal initiative at work. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 10(3), 343–353. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594320143000717 weiers, r.m. (2010). introduction to business statistics. (7th edn.). boston, ma: south western, cengage learning. wibowo, g., & kleiner, b.h. (2005). the duties of a chief executive officer. management research news, 28(2/3), 88–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01409170510785138 1shokane.qxd davis (1975, p. 43) defines the business environment as the aggregate of all the conditions, events and influences that surround and affect an organisation, and if the latter is to remain prosperous it must frequently adapt to its business environment (as it constantly changes). the complex interaction between an organisation and its environment is further aggravated by the impact of globalisation. stals (2002, p. 19) explains globalisation as the process of integrating worldwide markets and market operations. according to jackson (1998, p. 01), globalisation of businesses is not just a new phenomenon but also “a handy word for internationalisation of trade and capital.” schermerhorn, hunt and osborne (1997, p. 22) see globalisation as the new world order that provides a new business environment characterised by worldwide interdependence of resources, suppliers, product markets and business competition. it is a process of free trade and commerce accompanied by fierce competition on international markets. vignali (2001, p. 97) sees globalisation as a process that involves developing strategies as though the world market is a single entity. central to these integrated world market strategies are the following issues: international use of information technology; provision of quality in terms of goods and services; and selling goods and services at prices and quality than the competitors elsewhere (wright & burns, 1998, p. 899). therefore, there is little doubt that countries are being encouraged by the process of globalisation to move from inward focused economic practices to open-market economic practices. this encourages a stronger private sector, a stronger competitive market and a freer trade market economy. within the context of the southern african development community (sadc) and africa in general, south africa is the only country that has reached the advanced stage of a liberal and open economy. in this advanced stage of liberal economy, south african markets for goods, services and capital have the depth, the liquidity, the infrastructure and the sophistication needed for successful integration with the rest of the global economy (stals, 2002, p. 19). according to de kock and slabbert (2001, p. 4), globalisation of businesses has ushered in the concept of ‘world-class’. a ‘worldclass’ organisation means the ability of a business to establish itself in foreign markets and withstand any form of competition. the following issues are central to a ‘world-class’ strategy: leadership as a springboard to world-class practices in people management; cost-efficiency in the delivery of goods and services; a participative culture of joint-governance; benchmarking and continuous learning of best practices (prinsloo, moropodi, slabbert and parker, 1999, pp. 27-34). therefore, the focus of the literature study had been to unpack the concept of leadership as a springboard to study world-class best practices in people management. organisations in pursuit of ‘world-class’ depends on the availabilit y of the right leadership pract ices. research defines leadership as the process of inf luencing, motivating, supporting, facilitating, and encouraging employees in pursuit of organisational goals through the means put together by all members of the business (drouillard & grobler, kleiner, 1996, p. 31; brewster, dowling & warnich, 2000, p. 29; smit, 2000, p. 57). deducing from the definition of leadership above, the latter can be further unpacked as follows: an activit y of inf luencing individuals and team members to strive willingly to achieve organisation goals; a process of giving meaning to the activities people performs, support them and provide guidance and direction; a process of art iculat ing a vision that entails the right values and attit udes. manz, neck and mancuso (1997, p. 3) are of the opinion that leadership is about the leader’s abilit y to lead himself and lead others to lead themselves. horner (1997, pp. 270287) sees leadership as the accomplishment of a group rather than an individual. newstrom and davis (1997, p. 229) and graetz (2000, p. 559) added that leadership is the mental and emot ional involvement of employees in a group sit uat ion where organisat ion decisions are concluded. graetz (2000, pp. 550-551) explicates the advantages of leadership that: it encourages product ivit y; it reduces conf licts, organisation t urnover and absenteeism; it elevates ms shokane kj stanz ja slabbert department of human resource management rau university abstract the aim of this study was to describe the nature of leadership in organisations in pursuit of ‘world class’ competitive status. ‘analysis of variance’ (anova) was used for analysis and interpretation of data. the sample of convenience consisted of 534 senior leaders. the difference between transactional and transformational leadership dimensions was determined. the results showed that the nature of leadership in south africa is diversified between transactional leadership and transformational leadership dimensions. the diverse nature of leadership is brought about by the dynamics of organisational environments. more also, there is a definite shift away from conventional transactional leadership to a combination of transactional and transformational leadership dimensions. opsomming die doel van die studie was om die aard van leierskap in organisasies in die navolging van wêreldklas meedingende status te ondersoek. variansie-ontleding (anova) is gebruik om data te analiseer en te interpreteer. die geleentheidsteekproef het uit 534 senior leiers bestaan. die verskil tussen transaksienele en trans formasionele leierskapsdimensies is bepaal. die resultate dui daarop dat leierskap in suid afrika ’n kombinasie van transaksionele en transformasionele leierskap aanneem. die diverse aard van leierskap word deur die dinamika van organisasieomgewings teweeg gebring. meer nog is daar ’n definitiewe wegbeweeg van die konvensionele transaksionele leierskap na ’n kombinasie van transaksionele en transformasionele leierskap. description of leadership in south africa: organisational context perspective requests for copies should be addressed to: ms shokane, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 1 sa journal of human resource management, 2004, 2 (3), 1-6 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2004, 2 (3), 1-6 employees’ self-esteem and job satisfaction; it encourages employee commitment to goals; and it allows for better f low of communication. in line with the concept of participative leadership is the leader’s integration of productivity with employees’ wellbeing in an organisation. according to newstrom and davis (1997, p. 208), the most successful managers are those that consider both the productivity and the employees’ well being for success. graetz (2000, p. 557) adds that in order for organisations to strive for competitiveness they must find the right balance between instrumental and inspirational leadership. harnessing the two dimensions provides the organisation with a task-oriented dimension of leadership while embracing the interpersonal aspect of leadership. smit (2000, p. 73) adds to the exposition above that organisations need to understand the difference between a manager and a leader and then harmonise the two qualities synergistically to offset any weaknesses inherent in each. this is due to the fact that organisations need a structured, deliberate and controlled view of a manager and a flexible, visionary and uncontrolled view of a leader (veldsman: 2002, p. 80; kossek & block: 2000, p. 18). drouillard and kleiner (1996, pp. 31-32) compared the qualities of a leader to that of a manager and came up with the following results: the manager’s mind is always within the system of administration, while the leader’s soul is to envisage the future; the manager’s focus is in the immediate, while the leader’s focus is in long-term; the manager’s approach to work is conservative, while the leader’s approach to work is inspirational. bass and avolio (1997, p. 13) use the concept of transformational and transactional leadership interchangeably to describe the relations bet ween a leader and manager respectively. transformational leadership means a high-order kind of leadership that is inspirational to employees to acquire both short-term and long-term goals. transactional leadership means the ability of a leader to manage the behaviours of employees and resources of the organisation to acquire short-term goals. sarros and santora (2001, p. 392) acknowledge the overlapping relation between the two concepts by stating the following results in their study: transactional leadership deals with the management of resources, systems, and structures. transformational leadership is rooted within the personal side of management. de kock and slabbert (2001) emphasise that both transactional and transformational leaders have an important role to play in modern day organisation, as one cannot exists without the other. avolio (2000, p. 7) adds that transformational leadership facilitates the diffusion of organisation vision, strategy, and long-term goals. lack of transformational leadership in business means greater degree of confusion and lack of alignment of organisation goals across all levels. therefore, transformational leadership provides the alignment of people’s actions to the organisation’s vision, strategy, and long-term goals for a greater degree of consistency and coherence in business processes. research objective maritz (2000, p. 18) did a benchmarking study of south african organisations against its international counterparts. the results for the study highlighted that south african leaders lack a sense of urgency to move away from a conventional transactional leadership. organisations are still rigid and bureaucratic in terms of pay structures and rewards systems. avolio (2000, p. 7) adds that leaders who are more transformational have the ability to enhance alignment around a compelling vision and strategy, the consequence of which is the employees’ greater understanding of the organisation’s long-term goals. parker (1998, pp. 186-187) provided the following postulate for further research that: ‘south african business organisations are hard on people and hard on performance, instead of being soft on people and hard on performance.’ in line with parker (1998) and prinsloo et al (1999), the productivit y development survey of 280 south african organisations showed that one in 25 managers embraces a multiskilled, team-based work, collaborations in decision-making, and the involvement of teams (bennett, 1999). given the background above, it became obligatory for the researcher to investigate and describe the nat ure of transactional, transformational and non-leadership dimensions in the south african business context. the aim was to use the three reputable organisations from various sectors of the economy to describe the nature of leadership in south africa. figure 1: leadership model adapted from bass and avolio (1997, p. 13). it describes various dimensions of leadership: from transformational to non-transactional leadership dimensions. the following section provides a detailed description of the model of leadership above and the hypotheses for the study: transformational leadership transformational leadership is a high-order form of leadership in exchange processes characterised by the leader’s ability to display conviction of right values, beliefs and shared purpose that lead to long-term positive implications for an organisations. there are four t y pes of transformational leadership dimensions: 1. individualised consideration individual consideration means the leader’s ability to see and treat individual employee as important assets that contribute to productivity in the workplace. (bass & avolio: 1997, pp. 13-21) (sarros & santora: 2001, p. 385). 2. inspirational motivation inspirational motivation means the ability of a leader to clearly articulate an appealing future state of the company. this includes communicating the vision, mission, and values of the organisation (bass and avolio: 1997, pp. 13-21) (sarros & santora: 2001, p. 385). 3. intellectual stimulation intellectually stimulate means the leader’s ability to encourage employees’ creativit y when developing ideas or working shokane, stanz, slabbert2 effective transformational leadership constructive transactional passive ineffective frequency active active management-byexemption passive management-byexemption laissez-faire through challenging obstacles in the organisation (bass & avolio: 1997, pp. 13-21) (sarros and santora: 2001, p. 386). 4. idealised influence idealised influence means the leader’s ability to charismatically influence followers that the latter emulates the leader’s behaviour (sarros & santora: 2001, p. 387). transactional leadership transactional leadership can be defined as the day-to-day exchange relations between the employers and employees that comprise of constructive transactional leadership, active management-by-exception leadership, and passive managementby-exception leadership. (bass & avolio: 1997, pp. 13-21). 1. constructive transactional leadership constructive transactional leadership means the manager engages in constructive transactions for rewards for accomplishment of organisational goals (jung: 2001, p. 187). therefore, the outcome of this approach is the employer’s encouragement for performance beyond expectations for rewards. 2. active management-by-exemption leadership active management-by-exemption leadership means the manager puts in place measures of performance and actively monitors performance for corrective actions (jung: 2001, p. 188) (sarros & santora: 2001, p. 389). 3. passive management by exemption leadership passive management by exemption leadership means the manager rarely puts in place measures of performance, and passively monitors performance for corrective actions. (sarros & santora: 2001, p. 389). non-leadership non-leadership is a form of leadership with absence of both the transactional and or transformational leadership dimension. an attribute of laissez-faire’s non-leadership includes delays in terms of decision-making and avoidance to motivate others. given the likelihood that laissez-faire’s non-leadership will not have effect to the nature of leadership in any business or behaviour group. hypotheses in the light of the stated objectives of this study, 3 major hypotheses have been formulated. h1: the means across the group of organisations will differ statistically significantly with regards to transformational leadership due to the dynamics of the business environments. h2: the means across the group of organisations will differ statistically significantly with regards to transactional leadership due to the dynamics of the business environments. h3: the means across the group of organisations will differ statistically significantly with regards to laissez-faire approach (non-leadership) due to the dynamics of the business environments. method the following section explicates the research design, the instrument used for the collection of data, and the procedure followed in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data. research design the opinions of south african leaders on the nature of leadership are vital for this study, and a sample survey was used. the method involves the collection and analysis of information in respect of a sample of participants from three major organisations in south africa. hartley (2001, p. 185) outlines the following characteristics of the sample survey technique: � in a sample survey technique there must be a link between the sample and the population from which it is drawn. � it is a systematic collection of information, with the researcher using the same procedure with all the respondents. a convenience sample of employees from different organisations was sought for the study. highly experienced employees and students on management and leadership from a tertiary sector institution, and highly experienced executive employees from a public sector institution and a private sector corporation were drawn for the st udy. the sampled participants had to have at least three years of managerial experience. the sample sizes in the three selected organisations ranged from 97 to 238. the names of the selected organisations are not revealed for the purpose of confidentiality. the study is considered exploratory, as the sample is not representative of the entire business environment, but a sample of convenience. generalisation to the entire business community can therefore not be made. measuring instrument the measuring instrument comprised two sections, namely, biographical/background questions and the multifactor leadership questionnaire. based on the previous research done on the multifactor leadership questionnaire (mlq), the reliabilit y coefficients in respect of transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and laissez-faire yielded 0,99, 0,73 and 0,80 respectively (bass and avolio, 1997; gardner and stouch, 2000, p73; ackerman, schepers and lessing 2000, p. 58). the mlq is a self-administered questionnaire consisting of 45 items sub-divided into several dimensions. each item was measured on a 5-point likert scale. permission was obtained from productivity development (pt y) ltd, the organisation with the copyrights of the multifactor leadership questionnaire in south africa, for the use of the instrument. the following table describes the sampled items of the mlq: table 1 the dimensions of the mlq dimensions number first order sample items of item factor transformational 5 1. charismatic leader i instil pride in others leadership for being associated with me (item 10) 2. idealised influence i specif y the importance of having a strong sense of purpose (item 14) 3. inspirational i articulate a compelling motivation vision of the future (item number 26) 4. intellectual i seek differing stimulation perspectives when solving problems (item number 8) 5. individual i spend time teaching consideration and coaching (item 16) transactional 3 1. contingent i make clear what one leadership reward can expect when performance goals are achieved (item 16) 2. management-byi focus on irregularities, exception (active) mistakes, exceptions and deviations from standards (item 4) 3. management-byi show that i am a firm exception (passive) believer in ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ nontransactional 1 1. laissez-faire i delay responding to urgent requests (item 33) leadership in south africa 3 statistical analysis the assistance of rand afrikaans universit y’s statistical consultation services for analysis of the data was sourced. in order to determine whether the vector of means of the three organisations differ statistically significantly in respect of the dimensions of the mlq a multivariate analysis of variance (manova) was utilised. one-way analysis of variance (anova) was subsequently used to determine whether the means of the three groups in respect of each of the dimensions of the mlq differed statistically significantly. finally multiple comparisons (scheffe or dunnett’s t3) were used to determine which organizations differed statistically significantly with regard to each of the dimensions. a 5% level of significance was utilised throughout the study. results the reliability coefficients of the three leadership dimensions across the three sampled organisations are shown in table 2. the dimensions transformational leadership and non-leadership (laisses-faire) can be considered reliable since the reliability coefficients was greater than 0,6 (alpha coefficients) in each case. however, for transactional leadership the reliability coefficient is only 0,44. therefore, the reliability of the results on transactional leadership dimension was short of the expected results as explicated by the other research studies (see measuring instrument above). table 2 reliability estimates of mlq for the study measures n number of items alpha transformational 534 20 0.84 transactional 534 12 0.44 non-leadership 534 4 0.61 descriptive statistics of the three leadership dimensions for each of the sample organisations together with 95% ci’s for the means appear in table 3. the statistical nullhypothesis for the equality of the vector of population’s means (manova) was rejected (wilks lambda = 0.074, p-value < 0.05). the null-hypotheses of equal population means for each one of the dimensions of the mlq were rejected (p-values<0.05 in each case). table 4 provides the one-way analysis of variance (anova), comparing the means of the various organisations in respect of the mlq. table 4 one-way analysis of variance (anova): comparison of the means of the organisations in respect of the mlq variables source of sum of df mean f sig. varience squares square tansformational between groups 4,922 2 2,461 14,141 0,000 within groups 92,023 531 0,173 total 97,015 533 transactional between groups 1,758 2 0,879 5,794 0,003 within groups 80,550 531 0,152 total 82,308 533 non-leadership between groups 10,416 2 5,208 14,510 0,000 within groups 190,591 531 0,359 total 201,007 533 to determine which of the organisations differ significantly with respect to each of the dimensions, post–hoc comparisons in the form of scheffe’s multiple comparisons were used for transformational leadership as well as transactional leadership. in both cases the null-hy pothesis of equal population variances (using levene’s test for the quality of error variances) could be assumed. in the case of non-leadership, the assumption of equal population variances could not be made (based on levene’s test for the equality of error variances). table 5 describes the scheffe multiple comparisons of the means of the various groups for transformational, transactional and non-leadership dimensions. based on the multiple comparisons above, the statistically different means for each of the dimensions of the mlq are further shown in table 6. these results show that the private sector corporation, public sector institution, and tertiary sector institution differed statistically significantly with regards to transformational and transactional (see table 3, table 4; and table 5). the tertiary education sector institution, with a mean of 3,145, indicated that it is significantly more transformational. the statistical difference between the private sector corporation and the public sector institution equaled 0,157, with the private sector corporation becoming more transformational than the public shokane, stanz, slabbert4 table 3 mean, standard deviations in respect of the mlq dimensions variables company n mean std. deviation std. error 95% confidence min max interval for mean lower bound upper bound transformational private sector corporation 238 3,048 0,392 0,025 2,998 3,098 1,9 3,9 public sector institution 199 2,891 0,464 0,032 2,826 2,956 1,3 3,8 tertiary sector institution 97 3,145 0,364 0,037 3,072 3,219 2,35 3,9 total 534 3,007 0,426 0,018 2,971 3,044 1,3 3,9 transactional private sector corporation 238 2,109 0, 382 0,024 2,06 2,158 1,25 3,42 public sector institution 199 2,211 0, 407 0,028 2,153 2,267 0, 57 3,33 tertiary sector institution 97 2,065 0, 367 0,037 1,991 2,139 1,17 3 total 534 2,139 0, 392 0,017 2,105 2,172 0, 57 3,42 non-leadership private sector corporation 238 0,487 0,502 0,032 0,422 0,551 0 2,5 public sector institution 199 0,781 0, 712 0,051 0,681 0,879 0 3 tertiary sector institution 97 0,502 0,560 0,056 0,389 0,615 0 3,5 total 534 5,991 0,614 0,265 0,546 0,651 0 3,5 sector institution (see table 5). the results offered a full support to hypothesis 1 that transformational leadership will differ statistically significantly between organisations due to the dynamics of the business environment. table 5 sheffe’s multiple comparison of the groups in respect of the mlq variables means of groups difference between group means group 1 group 2 group 3 1-2 1-3 2-3 transformational 3,048 2,891 3,145 0,157 -0,097 -0,254 transactional 2,109 2,211 2,065 -0,102 0,044 0,146 non-leadership: 0,487 0,781 0,502 -0,294 -0,015 0,279 laisses-faire group 1: private sector corporation group 2: public sector institution group 3: tertiary education sector institution the public sector institution, with an arithmetic mean of 2,211, indicated that it is more transactional than private sector corporation and the tertiary sector institution (with means = 2,109 and 2,065 respectively). the implication of the results of the public sector institution is that the organisation is more transactional and less transformational when compared to the private sector corporation and the tertiary sector institution. the mean difference between the latter two organisations in terms of transactional leadership is 0,044, with the private sector corporation becoming more transactional than the tertiary sector institution. this means that the private sector corporation is not more transformational nor more transactional but rather found to strike a balance between the two dimensions. the results offered a full support to hypothesis 2 that transactional leadership will differ statistically significantly from organisation to organisation due to the dynamics of the business environment. these results further show that the private sector corporation, public sector institution, and tertiary education sector institution did not differ statistically significantly with regards to non-leading (laissez-faire approach). the three organisations indicated arithmetic means of 0,487, 0,780, and 0,502 respectively. therefore, results could not support fully hypothesis 3’s postulate, namely, the means across the group of organisations will differ statistically significantly with regards to laissez-faire approach (non-leadership) due to the dynamics of the business environments. the significance of the overall results indicated that the three organisation became either more transformational on the one hand, more transactional on the other hand or both transactional and transformational. this view is in line with the emphasis by graetz (2000), smit (2000) and veldsman (2002) in the literat ure that a synerg y bet ween the transactional and transformational leadership dimensions is required in organisations to offset any weaknesses inherent in each. moreover, the results could not support hypothesis 3 due to less statistical difference between the means for the transactional, transformational and non-leadership dimension (table 03). leadership in south africa 5 table 6 multiple comparisons of means (mean difference between transactional and transformational leadership) sheffe (i) company name (j) company name mean std error sig. 95% confidence interval difference (i-j) lower upper bound bound private sector corporation private sector corporation public sector institution 0,258 0,044 0,000 0,148 0,368 tertiary education sector institution -0,141 0,561 0,044 -0,278 -0,003 public sector institution private sector corporation -0,258 0,044 0,000 -0,368 -0,148 public sector institution tertiary education sector institution -0,399 0,057 0,000 -0,541 -0,257 tertiary education sector institution private sector corporation -0,141 0,056 0,044 0,003 0,278 public sector institution 0,399 0,057 0,000 0,257 0,541 tertiary education sector institution dunnett t3 private sector corporation private sector corporation public sector institution 0,258 0,045 0,000 0,150 0,366 tertiary education sector institution -0,141 0,054 0,032 -0,237 -0,009 public sector institution private sector corporation -0,258 0,045 0,000 -0,366 -0,150 public sector institution tertiary education sector institution -0,399 0,056 0,000 -0,535 -0,263 tertiary education sector institution private sector corporation 0,141 0,054 0,032 0,009 0,273 public sector institution 0,399 0,056 0,000 0,263 0,535 tertiary education sector institution based on the observed mean the mean difference is significant at the 0,05 level discussion deducing from the results of the study the nat ure of organisational leadership is diversified bet ween the transactional and transformational leadership dimensions. the diverse nature of leadership might be brought about by the dynamics of the organisational environments within which these organisations exist. the environments could influence the dimension of leading to either a transactional, a transformational, or towards both the transactional and transformational leadership. more also, it has been emphasised in the literature that the business environment is the aggregate of all the conditions, events and influences that surround and affect an organisation. and if the latter is to remain prosperous it must frequently adapt to an ever-changing business environment (davis: 1975, p. 43). veldsman (2002: p. 24) elaborated extensively on the subject matter argued by davis (1975) above that leaders must relate their organisations to the dynamics of the ecosystem surrounding it. the administrative nature of public sector environment may be limiting the derivation of transformational leadership in the public sector institution. the tertiary sector institution is significantly a transformational organisation compared with the private sector corporation and the public sector institution. continuous learning of best practices may be the main contributing factor towards derivation of transformational leadership. complexit y of the changing manufacturing environment, accompanied by globalisation and fierce international competition, requires the harnessing of both the transactional and transformational leadership dimensions. therefore, the results of the study confirm that there is a need for organisations to integrate the transactional and transformational leadership dimension (smit: 2000, p. 73; veldsman: 2002: p. 81; graetz: 2000, p. 557) several points to ponder from the results of the study: � leadership is influenced by environmental factors surrounding it. � transformational and transactional leaderships augment one another to offset any weaknesses inherent in each. � perfect alignment of leadership styles to factors of the environments may mean effective implementation of strategy. references ackerman, c.p., schepers j.m. & lessing b.c. (2000). die factorstruktuur van bass se veelfaktor, journal of industrial psychology. 26 (2), 58-65. avolio, b. (2000). strategic transformational leadership: aligning vision to collective action; management today; june; 4-7. bass, b.m. (1990). bass and stoghill’s handbook of leadership. 3rd edition. free press. bass, b.m. & avolio b.j. (1997). full range leadership development trainer manual, randburg, south africa: productivit y development. bennett, j. (1999). a revolution of minds in the workplace. sunday times archives: johannesburg, 09 may 1999. brewster, c., dowling p., grobler p., holland p. & warnich s. (2000). contemporary issues in human resource management: gaining competitive advantage. oxford university press: new york. davis, k. (1975). the challenge of business. new york: mcgraw-hall. de kock, p.m. & slabbert j.a. (2001). transformational leadership in businesses ascending to world-class status. dissertation for masters. rand afrikaans university, johannesburg. drouillard, s. e. & kleiner b. e. (1996). good leadership. management development review, 9 (5), 30-33. gardner, l.w. & stough c. (2002). examining the relationship between leadership and emotional intelligence in senior level managers. leadership and organisation development review, 23 (2), pp63-78. graets, f. (2000). strategic change leadership. management decision, 38 (08), 550-564. hartley, j. ( 2001). employee surveys. the international journal of public sector management, 14 (03), 184-204. horner, m. (1997). leadership theory: past, present, and the future. team performance management, 3 (4), 270-287. howell, d.c. (1995). fundamental statistics for the behavioral sciences, 3rd ed. california usa: duxbury press. jackson, g. globalisation, wages, jobs and myths. http://www. newaus.com.all.econ46c.html. jung, d.d., (2001). transformational and transactional leadership and their effects on creativity in groups. creativity research journal, vol.13, no.2, 185-195. kossek, e.e. & block r.n. (2000). managing human resources in the 21st century: from core to strategic choice, modular approach. usa: southwestern college publishing, maritz, d. (2000). south african leaders’ emergence towards transformational leadership, management today, july, 16-18. manz, c.c., neck c.p., mancuso. (1997). for team members only. amacon. newstrom, j.w., davis k. (1997). organisation behaviors at work. usa: irwin/mcgraw-hill. parker, a. j. (1998). the role of employment relations management in the business strategy of south african organisations in pursuit of world-class. dissertation for masters (human resources management), rand afrikaans university. prinsloo, j. j., moropodi m.j., slabbert j.a. & parker a.j. (1999). a perspective on the world-class company. johannesburg: stratexcell (pty) ltd. sarros, c. j. & santora c. j. (2001). the transformationtransactional leadership model in practice. leadership and organisation development journal, 22 (08), 383-393. schermerhorn, j. r., hunt j.g. & osborne r. n. (1997). organisational behavior, 6th edition. new york: john wiley and sons. smit, p. j. (2000). strategy implementation. johannesburg: juta. stals, c. l. (2002). the economic impact of globalisation in the context of the southern african region. aambeld-anvil (rand afrikaans university), 30 (1), july, 19-22. veldsman, t.h., (2002). into the people effectiveness arena: navigating between chaos and order. knowledge resource (pty) ltd. vignali, c. (2001). mc donald’s: “think global, act local”. british food journal, 103 (02), 97-111. wright, d. t. & burns n.d. (1998). new organisation structures for global business. international journal of operations and production management, 18 (9), 896-923. shokane, stanz, slabbert6 article information authors: melinde coetzee1 nadia ferreira2 ingrid l. potgieter2 affiliations: 1department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa 2department of human resource management, university of south africa, south africa correspondence to: melinde coetzee email: coetzm1@unisa.ac.za postal address: po box 392, pretoria 0003, south africa dates: received: 15 jan. 2015 accepted: 14 apr. 2015 published: 04 june 2015 how to cite this article: coetzee, m., ferreira, n., & potgieter, i.l. (2015). assessing employability capacities and career adaptability in a sample of human resource professionals. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #682, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.682 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. assessing employability capacities and career adaptability in a sample of human resource professionals in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • focus of the study    • background to the study    • research purpose    • literature review       • employability capacities       • career adaptability       • what will follow • research design    • research approach • method    • participants       • measuring instruments       • procedure and ethical considerations       • statistical analysis • results    • descriptive statistics and correlations    • canonical correlations • discussion    • limitations and future research directions    • practical implications • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: employers have come to recognise graduates’ employability capacities and their ability to adapt to new work demands as important human capital resources for sustaining a competitive business advantage. research purpose: the study sought (1) to ascertain whether a significant relationship exists between a set of graduate employability capacities and a set of career adaptability capacities and (2) to identify the variables that contributed the most to this relationship. motivation for the study: global competitive markets and technological advances are increasingly driving the demand for graduate knowledge and skills in a wide variety of jobs. contemporary career theory further emphasises career adaptability across the lifespan as a critical skill for career management agency. despite the apparent importance attached to employees’ employability and career adaptability, there seems to be a general lack of research investigating the association between these constructs. research approach, design and method: a cross-sectional, quantitative research design approach was followed. descriptive statistics, pearson product-moment correlations and canonical correlation analysis were performed to achieve the objective of the study. the participants (n = 196) were employed in professional positions in the human resource field and were predominantly early career black people and women. main findings: the results indicated positive multivariate relationships between the variables and showed that lifelong learning capacities and problem solving, decision-making and interactive skills contributed the most to explaining the participants’ career confidence, career curiosity and career control. practical/managerial implications: the study suggests that developing professional graduates’ employability capacities may strengthen their career adaptability. these capacities were shown to explain graduates’ active engagement in career management strategies deemed important for their sustained employability in the contemporary career environment. contributions: the results of the study offered empirical evidence in support of theoretical views on the self-regulatory capacities underpinning individuals’ career adaptability and how these are influenced by their employability capacities. introduction top ↑ focus of the study as a mechanism of social integration, employment offers individuals a strategy for participating in and sustaining themselves in society (savickas, 2005). the societal structures in which the career is pursued are influenced by environmental factors that impact on the employability and career development of individuals (hall, 2013; savickas, 2013). global competitive markets and technological advances are increasingly driving the demand for graduate knowledge and skills in a wide variety of jobs (nel & neale-shutte, 2013; tran, 2013; wickramasinghe & perera, 2010). employers have come to recognise graduates’ employability capacities and their ability to adapt to new work demands as important human capital resources for sustaining a competitive business advantage (kyllonen, 2013; sung, ng, loke & ramos, 2013). employability capacities refer to sets of portable ‘soft’ skills and attributes (such as, for example, people-related and team-related skills, conceptual thinking and problem solving skills, goal setting and management skills, knowledge of the business world and skills related to innovation and change and the profession and community) that are important in determining graduates’ work readiness and success in the workplace (coetzee, 2014a; daniels & brooker, 2014; kyllonen, 2013; rocha, 2012; sung et al., 2013; tran, 2013). as enabling human capital resources, these capacities support the career development and employability of graduates through lifelong learning endeavours (rocha, 2012). well-developed employability capacities help individuals to function successfully within a continuously evolving work environment and to contribute to business-crucial employer requirements over the course of their working lives (daniels & brooker, 2014; tomlinson, 2010). background to the study individuals’ employability has been associated with their agency in proactively managing their careers beyond those offered by the organisation (hall, 2013; hess, jepsen & dries, 2012; mcardle, waters, briscoe & hall, 2007; sullivan, 2013). contemporary career theory therefore emphasises career adaptability across the lifespan as a critical skill for career management agency (del corso, 2013; hess et al., 2012). career adaptability refers to the self-regulatory psychosocial resources individuals need to successfully manage current and anticipated career transitions and adjustments (savickas, 2013). notions of graduate level employment positions and linear, upward career paths are no longer realistic expectations for graduates in the 21st century work environment (wickramasinghe & perera, 2010). career paths and patterns have become unpredictable and more blurred with the advent of globalisation and the mobilisation of workers across boundaries, organisations and enterprises (hall, 2013; hess et al., 2012). in order to sustain their employability, individuals must have the capacity not only to adapt within their respective occupations to keep up with advances in technology but also to adapt between occupations and different life roles at a rate that is unprecedented compared to previous generations (del corso, 2013). the career is no longer seen as a lifetime commitment to one employer, but as a recurrent selling of innovative services and updated skills to a series of employers who need projects completed (savickas, 2012). individuals must be flexible, proactive, embrace lifelong learning, seek out new skills and think globally in order to keep up with the pace of change and comply with the requirements of employers (del corso, 2013). research purpose in the current article, we were interested in exploring the relationship between graduate employees’ employability capacities and their career adaptability. both these constructs relate to self-regulatory capacities considered important for contemporary career management (de guzman & choi, 2013; savickas, 2013; van der heijde, 2014). despite the apparent importance attached to employees’ employability and career adaptability, there appears to be a general lack of research investigating the association between these constructs, especially in the south african workplace context. research by de guzman and choi (2013) amongst technical secondary school students showed important associations between employability skills such as communication, problem solving and teamwork skills and career adaptability. the present study extends de guzman and choi's research by focusing on the employed professional graduate and by investigating a wide range of employability capacities recognised as being important for graduates’ employability. specifically, by employing canonical correlation analysis, we sought (1) to ascertain whether a significant relationship exists between a set of employability capacities and a set of career adaptability capacities and (2) to identify the variables that contributed the most to this relationship. literature review employability capacities employability refers to the ability to gain and maintain employment and to manage employment transitions such as transitions between organisations and transitions between jobs and roles within the same organisation to meet changing job requirements (hillage & pollard, 1999; wickramasinghe & perera, 2010). employees are seen to be employable if they have up-to-date technical knowledge about their working domain, demonstrate openness and resilience towards contextual and workplace changes (froehlich, beausaert, segers & gerken, 2014) and if they are able to demonstrate a range of transferable generic capacities (rocha, 2012). research scholars highlight problem solving and decision-making, critical thinking, writing and speaking (communication skills), proficiency in english, teamwork, interpersonal skills, research skills, information literacy and ethical awareness as important generic graduate employability capacities (cf. dhiman, 2012; faber, lópez & prescher 2012; griesel & parker, 2009; mcneil et al., 2012; spencer, riddle & knewstubb, 2012; steur, jansen & hofman, 2012; velasco, 2012). the transformative nature of graduate employability capacities assists in cultivating three overarching attitudinal stances of personal and intellectual development: scholarship, global and moral citizenship and lifelong learning (barrie, 2004; coetzee & schreuder, 2011; steur et al., 2012). scholarship represents graduates’ attitude or stance towards the production and application of new knowledge in order to conscientiously solve complex problems within organisations and society (barrie, 2004; steur et al., 2012). problem solving and decision-making skills, analytical thinking skills and enterprising skills generally contribute to graduates’ scholarship (barrie, 2004; coetzee, 2014a). employers regard the development of graduates’ scholarship attributes (i.e. their problem solving, information and decision management and lateral thinking and creativity capabilities) as vital for graduate employability (jackson & chapman, 2011). global and moral citizenship refers to graduates’ attitude or stance towards the world and their communities. it generally includes the ability to function effectively, efficiently and responsibly as a person in communicating and interacting with people from diverse cultures, backgrounds and authority levels, both globally and locally (coetzee, 2014b). ethical and responsible behaviour, presenting and applying information skills and interactive skills contribute to graduates’ global and moral citizenship (coetzee, 2014a). lifelong learning relates to graduates’ attitude or stance towards themselves and includes goal-directed behaviour and a continuous learning orientation (barrie, 2004; coetzee, 2014a). goal-directed behaviour is an important aspect of individuals’ self-managed employability (bezuidenhout, 2011). a continuous learning orientation denotes a cognitive meta-awareness and openness towards one's own learning, a willingness to proactively engage in the process of acquiring new knowledge, skills and abilities throughout one's life and career in reaction to, and in anticipation of, changing technology and business performance criteria (coetzee, 2014a). employability and continuous learning concerns have become an integral aspect of career success in the 21st century career environment (hall, 2013). research by coetzee (2014b) shows that scholarship capacities increase self-directed behaviour whilst global and moral citizenship attributes seem to enhance sense of agency and motivation. graduates’ employability skills and attributes were also shown to be positively associated with their optimism about future career prospects (coetzee, 2012). career adaptability career adaptability denotes a set of transactional resources comprising certain attitudes, competencies and behaviours that enable job search opportunities and facilitate the creation of alternative career improvement options, fitting oneself to preferred work contexts and participating positively in the work role (duffy, 2010; klehe, zikic, van vianen, koen & buyken, 2012; savickas, 1997, 2013; tolentino et al., 2013). the self-regulatory strengths underpinning individuals’ career adaptability are seen to prepare them to cope with current and anticipated occupational changes and transitions and adjustments due to unpredictable changes in work and working conditions (duffy, 2010; savickas & porfeli, 2012; tolentino et al., 2013). career adaptability has been described along four different dimensions or syndromes, which include concern (‘do i have a future?’: showing concern for one's future, being engaged in planning by being aware, involved and prepared), control (‘who owns my future?’: degree to which an individual engages and exerts control over their future through decision-making, determination and agency), curiosity (‘what do i want to do with my future?’: how individuals gather occupational information and self-knowledge as they attempt to fit themselves into the world of work) and confidence (‘can i do it?’: the degree to which individuals feel a sense of self-efficacy to overcome obstacles as they work to implement their career goals) (del corso, 2013; savickas, 2005, 2013; savickas & porfeli, 2012). the four domains of career adaptability are seen to relate to important vocational developmental tasks, which entail a primary adaptive goal that, when accomplished, builds a foundation for career success, future adaptability and growth (hartung, 2013). career concern involves a future orientation, feeling optimistic about it and demonstrating a planful attitude about the future (hartung, 2013). being concerned about one's future requires one to be aware, involved and preparatory (savickas, 2005, 2013). career control involves a sense of self-direction and self-regulation prompted by taking responsibility for one's future and the career decision-making tasks it involves (hartung, 2013). problems with career control can manifest as career indecision. individuals with low sense of career control may tend to struggle with uncertainty and indecisiveness in today's work environment. demonstrating personal control over one's career enables individual to better embrace uncertainty and concomitant anxieties (del corso, 2013). career curiosity leads to productive career exploration stemming from an inquisitive attitude toward the career (hartung, 2013). adapting to changing contexts or situations, individuals must display an inquisitive attitude and engage in exploration by experimenting, taking risks and inquiring (savickas, 2005, 2013). career confidence is reflected in demonstrating an efficacious attitude in solving problems and effectively navigating obstacles to constructing the future (hartung, 2013). career inhibition (contrary to career confidence) occurs when individuals feel they are unable to work through occupational difficulties (savickas, 2005, 2013). career confidence is demonstrated in how individuals deal with the myriad stressors they may encounter throughout their lifetime along the career journey, for example sudden unemployment, lack of available jobs, health problems, family struggles, unexpected workplace challenges or pressure to learn new skills (del corso, 2013). both graduate employability capacities and career adaptability are important self-regulatory psychosocial resources for individuals’ continuous learning and employability (bezuidenhout, 2011). in the present article, we assumed that the transferable skills and attributes reflected in the graduate employability capacities may help to strengthen individuals’ career adaptability. high levels of career adaptability are positively associated with future job search self-efficacy, employment status, perceptions of the future work self, person-environment fit (guan et al., 2014) and career satisfaction (zacher, 2014). what will follow the next section elaborates on the research design for this study, including the research approach and method. the results are then presented and the findings discussed. the article concludes with a brief outline of the most important conclusions and implications for management. finally, the limitations of the research design are outlined and recommendations for possible future research initiatives are formulated. research design top ↑ research approach a cross-sectional, quantitative research approach was followed to collect primary data. method top ↑ participants a purposive non-probability sample (n = 196) of employed adults participated in the study. the participants were enrolled for further studies in the human resource management field at a distance learning higher education institution. they were employed in professional positions in the human resource field and comprised predominantly 88% black people and 73% women in the early career stage (80% < 45 years). measuring instruments graduate employability capacities were measured by means of the graduate skills and attributes scale (gsas) developed by coetzee (2014a). the gsas is a multifactorial self-rating scale consisting of 64 items and eight subscales: problem solving and decision-making skills (eight items, e.g. ‘i consider the complexities of the larger cultural, business, and economic reality when approaching a problem or situation’), enterprising skills (nine items, e.g. ‘i find it easy to identify business opportunities for myself, my community or organisation’), analytical thinking skills (four items, e.g. ‘i can make a rational judgment from analysing information and data’), interactive skills (16 items, e.g. ‘i find it easy to communicate effectively with people from different cultures, backgrounds and authority levels’), presenting and applying information skills (five items, e.g. ‘the solutions i offer make a positive difference in my personal life, community or workplace’); ethical and responsible behaviour (five items, e.g. ‘i uphold the ethics and values of my profession, community or workplace in all i do’), goal-directed behaviour (10 items, e.g. ‘i develop plans for specific goals and tasks’) and continuous learning orientation (seven items, e.g. ‘i make sure that i keep myself up to date on technical knowledge and new developments in my field’). a six-point likert-type scale (1 = never true for me; 6 = always true for me) is used for subjects’ responses to each of the 64 items. exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis by coetzee (2014a) confirmed the construct and structural validity and internal consistency reliability of the gsas in the south african context. in terms of the present sample, the overall scale obtained a reliability coefficient of 0.97. the internal consistency reliability coefficients for the eight subscales ranged between 0.76 (ethical and responsible behaviour) and 0.91 (interactive skills). career adaptability was measured by means of the career adapt-abilities scale (caas). the caas (savickas & porfeli, 2012) is a multifactorial self-rating measure, consisting of 24 items and four subscales: concern (six items, for example ‘thinking about what my future will be like’), control(six items, for example ‘taking responsibility for actions’), curiosity (six items, for example ‘becoming curious about new opportunities’) and confidence (six items, for example ‘performing tasks efficiently’). a five-point likert-type scale (1 = not strong; 5 = strongest) is used for subjects’ responses to each of the 24 items. confirmatory factor analysis by maree (2012) confirmed the construct and structural validity and internal consistency reliability of the caas in the south african context. in terms of the present sample, the overall scale obtained a reliability coefficient of 0.94. the following cronbach's alpha coefficients (internal consistency) for the four subscales were obtained: career concern (0.75), career control (0.72), career curiosity (0.79) and career confidence (0.80). procedure and ethical considerations the survey was conducted during a school study programme that was attended by the participants. the participants were invited to voluntarily participate and signed an informed consent form. the privacy, anonymity and confidentiality of all the participants were ensured and honoured (e.g. the research responses were anonymous and only used for research purposes by the researchers). ethical clearance and permission to conduct the research were obtained from the management of the university. statistical analysis descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations and cronbach's alpha coefficients), pearson's product-moment correlations (using spss) and canonical correlation analysis (using sas) were performed. the practical significance (cohen, 1992) for interpreting the pearson's correlations (r) was as follows: rless than 0.10 for a small practical effect, r less than 0.30 for a moderate practical effect and r greater than 0.50 for a large practical effect. multicollinearity concerns were set at r greater than 0.90 (hair, black, babin & anderson, 2010). the relative importance of the canonical loadings was assessed by applying the cut-off criteria for canonical factorial loadings (≥ 0.30). the magnitude of the overall correlational relationships between the two variates of a canonical function and the practical significance of the predictive ability of the canonical relationship were determined by considering the r² type effect size (1 – 0.λ; hair et al., 2010). the practical significance for interpreting the r² type effect size was in line with the guidelines of cohen (1992): r² less than 0.01 for a small practical effect, r² less than 0.09 for a moderate practical effect and r² greater than 0.25 for a large practical effect. the graduate attributes were treated as the set of independent variables and the career adaptability variables as the set of dependent variables. the participants’ age, gender and race were used as controls to explore the relationships between the research variables. results top ↑ descriptive statistics and correlations the reliability coefficients reported in table 1 show acceptable internal consistency reliability of the two scales and the subscales. the overall scale reliability coefficient of the graduate skills and attributes scale was very high (α = 0.97) as well as the reliability coefficient of the overall career adaptability scale (α = 0.94). these coefficients indicated strong overall internal consistency for the two scales. table 1: descriptive statistics, zero-order correlations and internal consistency reliability. as can be seen from table 1, the practical effect of the significant inter-correlations amongst the gsas and caas subscale variables respectively ranged between 0.40 and 0.80 (moderate to large effect; p≤ 0.001). with the exception of the analytical thinking skills (r= 0.65) and the ethical responsible behaviour (r = 0.67) subscales, the gsas subscales had high correlations with the overall gsas scale (r ≥ 0.83 ≤ 0.90). the caas subscales also correlated strongly with the overall caas scale (r ≥ 0.65 ≤ 0.84). because of the strong zero-order correlations between the subscales and the respective overall scale, the two overall scales were not included in the canonical correlation analysis in order to address concerns of possible multicollinearity. the significant inter-correlations between the gsas and caas variables were small to moderate in practical effect (r ≥ 0.15 ≤ 0.47; p ≤ 0.05), suggesting that multicollinearity did not pose a threat to the interpretation of the canonical correlation results. the associations between age, gender and race and the gsas and caas variables were small in practical effect and regarded as negligible. canonical correlations canonical correlation analysis was used to study the multivariate relationships between the eight gsas scores (problem solving and decision making skills, enterprising skills, analytical thinking skills, interactive skills, presenting and applying information skills, ethical and responsible behaviour, goal-directed behaviour and continuous learning orientation) and the four caas scores (career concern, career control, career curiosity and career confidence). the gsas variables were treated as the set of independent variables and the caas variables as the set of dependent variables. table 2 shows that the full model was significant using wilks's multivariate test criterion (wilks's lambda, λ, = 0.569, function 1: fp = 2.65; p = 0.0001). only the first function of the model was significant and contributed 29% (rc² = 0.29) of the overall explained variation relative to the function. the full model r² type effect size (yielded by 1 – 0.λ) was 0.43 (large practical effect), indicating that the full model explains an adequate proportion, about 43% of the variance shared between the two variable sets. the redundancy index results summarised in table 2 show that the employability capacities explained 17% (rc² = 17; moderate practical effect) of the variance in career adaptability and was able to predict 63% (large practical effect) of the proportion of variance in the individual original career adaptability variables. table 2: results of the standardised canonical correlation analysis for the first canonical function. table 2 provides the canonical coefficients (weights), canonical structure coefficients (rc), canonical cross-loadings (rc) and squared canonical loadings (rc² ). the four caas variables all loaded positively with the career adaptability canonical construct and were assumed to represent high career adaptability. career concern (rc = 0.43) showed the lowest loading in comparison with career control (rc = 0.83), career curiosity (rc= 0.83) and career confidence (rc = 0.90). goal-directed behaviour (rc = 0.90) and continuous learning (rc = 0.90) showed the highest loading with the employability capacities canonical construct as measured by the gsas, followed by problem solving and decision-making skills (rc = 0.83) and interactive skills (rc = 0.82). using 0.40 as the cut-off value for interpreting the results, table 2 further shows that the employability capacities contributed positively in explaining the variance in three of the original career adaptability variables: career confidence (rc = 0.49; 24%), career curiosity (rc = 0.45; 20%) and career control (rc = 0.44; 19%). the career adaptability variables contributed positively in explaining the variance in especially goal-directed behaviour (rc = 0.48; 23%), continuous learning orientation (rc= 0.48; 23%), problem solving and decision-making skills (rc = 0.44; 19%), interactive skills (rc = 0.44; 19%) and enterprising skills (rc = 0.40; 16%). discussion top ↑ in this study we sought (1) to ascertain whether a significant relationship exists between a set of employability capacities and a set of career adaptability capacities and (2) to identify the variables that contributed the most to this relationship. overall, the results showed positive associations between the employability capacities and career adaptability constructs. the lack of association between the biographical variables of age, gender and race and the participants’ employability capacities and career adaptability could be attributed to the relatively small sample size. in line with research by de guzman and choi (2013), we expected positive associations between the two sets of constructs and that the problem solving and decision-making skills, interactive (team) skills and presenting and applying information (communication) skills would be strong predictors of career adaptability. our results showed that participants with high levels of problem solving and decision-making and interactive skills were also likely to be actively engaged in career management strategies relating to career control (taking responsibility for career decision-making and goal implementation), career curiosity (gathering occupational information) and career confidence (being confident about their ability to implement career goals and solve problems). these findings contributed empirical evidence in support of the view that career adaptability seems dependent upon individuals’ problem solving strategies and decision-making abilities (del corso & rehfuss, 2011). although our results confirmed the importance of problem solving and decision-making and interactive skills in predicting individuals’ level of career adaptability, our study revealed goal-directed behaviour and continuous learning as the strongest predictors of career adaptability. the findings showed that the lifelong learning capacities (goal-directed behaviour and continuous learning orientation) contributed the most to explaining higher levels of career confidence, career curiosity and career control. these three career adaptability capacities represent a sense of agency and responsibility (control), motivation and willingness (curiosity) and efficacy (confidence) to actively engage in vocational developmental tasks that will help individuals adjust proactively to unexpected needs that may arise from changes in the labour market or working conditions (nota, ginevra, santili & soresi, 2014; savickas & porfeli, 2012). the findings contributed valuable empirical evidence in support of hall’ s (2013) view that lifelong learning has become an important career meta-capacity for sustaining employability in the contemporary career environment. career adaptability is also seen as an important resource throughout the lifespan for sustaining employability (savickas, 2011). limitations and future research directions several limitations need to be noted in the interpretation of the results. firstly, canonical correlation analysis is a maximisation technique and in interpreting the results, researchers and practitioners should be aware of the possibility of overestimation due to the amplification of linear composites (hair et al., 2010). secondly, the sample was confined to a relatively small group of human resource professionals, which limits the interpretability of the results to populations in different occupations. testing the variables on various multicultural populations from various occupational groups may further inform theories of career adaptability in the employability context for diverse groups of employees. thirdly, the self-report nature of the study could have contributed to spuriously strong relationships between the variables as a result of method variance limitation. finally, the cross-sectional nature of our study limits the nature of data obtained to a specific moment in time. much would be gained by future longitudinal research analysing the shift in levels of employability capacities and career adaptability as the career self-concept evolves over time. practical implications the study suggests that developing professional graduates’ employability capacities may strengthen their career adaptability. these capacities were shown to positively explain graduates’ active engagement in career management strategies deemed important for their sustained employability in the contemporary career environment. more specifically, human resource practitioners and career development practitioners should ensure that graduate professionals continue to be engaged in challenging job assignments that draw on their problem solving, decision-making and teamwork skills as part of their on-the-job career development. workplace-based career development interventions should consider problem-based learning activities, which have been shown to promote critical thinking and problem solving skills. such activities should facilitate individual agency in self-directed learning, personal learning needs identification, collaborative teamwork and interaction with and learning from peers, mentors and coaches as a consequence of active participation in the learning process (gurses, acikyildiz, dogar & sozbilir, 2007). our research showed that a lifelong learning orientation and problem solving, decision making and teamwork skills were positively associated with higher levels of career adaptability, including career management strategies relating to taking responsibility for career decision-making and goal implementation, gathering occupational information and being confident about one's ability to implement career goals and solve problems. career development interventions should generally focus on helping graduate professionals to articulate their employability capacities, including the ‘transferable skills’ that go beyond one occupation, in order to increase their confidence and self-efficacy in demonstrating their skills and abilities to manage their careers and employability (del corso, 2013). conclusion top ↑ notwithstanding the limitations of the research design, the study findings contribute new insights to contemporary career theory. our study provides empirical evidence in support of theoretical views on the self-regulatory capacities underpinning individuals’ career adaptability and employability in the south african workplace context. the multivariate approach in ascertaining the relationship between the two sets of variables helped to identify key employability capacities that explain individuals’ level of career adaptability. it is trusted that the research will stimulate further research on a topic of contemporary relevance and importance for both individuals and organisations. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.c. (university of south africa) conducted the literature review and data analysis and wrote up the article. n.f. (university of south africa) and i.l.p. (university of south africa) assisted with the data collection and critical review of the manuscript. references top ↑ barrie, s.c. (2004). a research-based approach to generic graduate attributes policy. higher education research & development, 23(3), 261–275. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0729436042000235391 bezuidenhout, m. (2011). the development and evaluation of a measure of graduate employability in the context of the new world of work. unpublished master's dissertation, department of human resource management, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. coetzee, m. (2012). distance learning students’ graduateness as predictors of their job satisfaction and optimism about future career prospects. journal of social sciences, 33(3), 305–313. coetzee, m. (2014a). measuring student graduateness: reliability and construct validity of the graduate skills and attributes scale. higher education research and development, 33(5), 887–902. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2014.890572 coetzee, m. (2014b). graduate attributes in relation to academic self-directedness in open distance learning: the mediating role of global/moral citizenship and lifelong learning attributes. higher education research and development, 33(6), 1085–1098. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2014.911260 coetzee, m., & schreuder, a.m.g. (2011). the relation between career anchors, emotional intelligence and employability satisfaction among workers in the service industry. southern african business review, 15(3), 76–97. cohen, j. (1992). quantitative methods in psychology: a power primer. psychological bulletin, 112(1), 155–159. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155 daniels, j., & brooker, j. (2014). student identity development in higher education: implications for graduate attributes and work-readiness. educational research, 56(1), 65–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2013.874157 de guzman, a.b., & choi, k.o. (2012). the relations of employability skills to career adaptability among technical school students. journal of vocational behavior, 82, 199–207. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.01.009 del corso, j. (2013). the theory of career adaptability. in a. di fabio & j.g. maree (eds.), the psychology of career counseling: new challenges for a new era (pp. 117–130). new york, ny: nova science publishers, inc. del corso, j., & rehfuss, m. (2011). the role of narrative in career construction theory. journal of vocational behavior, 79, 334–339. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.04.003 dhiman, m.c. (2012). employers’ perceptions about tourism management employability skills. anatolia – an international journal of tourism and hospitality research, august, 1–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13032917.2012.711249 duffy, r.d. (2010). sense of control and career adaptability among undergraduate students. journal of career assessment, 18(4), 420–430. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072710374587 faber, k., lópez, v., & prescher, t. (2012). ‘i-learn’: developing a new approach in higher education for lifelong learning. european journal of higher education, august, 1–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21568235.2012.709382 froehlich, d.e., beausaert, s., segers, m., & gerken, m. (2014). learning to stay employable. career development international, 19(5), 508–525. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/cdi-11-2013-0139 griesel, h., & parker, b. (2009). graduate attributes: a baseline study on south african graduates from the perspective of employers. pretoria: higher education south africa and south african qualifications authority. guan, y., guo, y., bond, m.h., cai, z., zhou, x., xu, j. et al. (2014). new job market entrants’ future work self, career adaptability and job search outcomes: examining mediating and moderating variables. journal of vocational behavior, 85, 136–145. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2014.05.003 gurses, a., acikyildiz, m., dogar, c., & sozbilir, m. (2007). an investigation into the effectiveness of problem-based learning in a physical chemistry laboratory course. research in science & technological education, 25(1), 99–113. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02635140601053641 hair, j., black, w., babin, b., & anderson, r. (2010). multivariate data analysis. englewood cliffs, nj: pearson education. hall, d.t. (2013). protean careers in the 21st century. in k. inkson, & m.l. savickas (eds.), career studies, vol i: foundations of career studies (pp. 245–254). london, uk: sage. hartung, p.j. (2013). career construction counseling. in a. di fabio & j.g. maree (eds.), the psychology of career counseling: new challenges for a new era (pp. 15–28). new york, ny: nova science publishers, inc. hess, n., jepsen, d.m., & dries, n. (2012). career and employer change in the age of the ‘boundaryless’ career. journal of vocational behavior, 81, 280–288. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.10.009 hillage, j., & pollard, e. (1999). employability: developing a framework for policy analysis. london, uk: department for education and employment. jackson, d., & chapman, e. (2011). non-technical skill gaps in australian business graduates. education + training, 54(2/3), 95–113. klehe, u.c., zikic, j., van vianen, a.e., koen, j., & buyken, m. (2012). coping proactively with economic stress: career adaptability in the face of job insecurity, job loss, unemployment and underemployment. research in occupational stress and well-being, 10, 131–176. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/s1479-3555(2012)0000010008 kyllonen, p.c. (2013). soft skills for the workplace. change: the magazine of higher learning, 45(6), 16–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00091383.2013.841516 maree, j.b. (2012). career adapt-abilities scale – south african form: psychometric properties and construct validity. journal of vocational behavior, 80, 730–733. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2012.01.005 mcardle, s., waters, l., briscoe, j.p., & hall, d.t. (2007). employability during employment: adaptability, career identity and human and social capital. journal of vocational behavior, 71, 247–264. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2007.06.003 mcneil, h.p., scicluna, h.a., boyle, p., grimm, m.c., gibson, k.a., & jones, p.d. (2012). successful development of generic capabilities in an undergraduate medical education program. higher education research & development, 31(4), 525–539. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2011.559194 nel, h., & neale-shutte, m. (2013). examining the vevidence: graduate employability at nmmu. south african journal of higher education, 27(2), 437–453. nota, l., ginevra, m.c., santili, s., & soresi, s. (2014). contemporary career construction: the role of career adaptability. in m. coetzee (ed.), psycho-social career meta-capacities: dynamics of contemporary career development (pp. 247–254). dordrecht, the netherlands: springer. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00645-1_13 rocha, m. (2012). transferable skills representations in a portuguese college sample: gender, age, adaptability and vocational development. european journal of psychology in education, 27, 77–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10212-011-0067-4 savickas, m.l. (1997). adaptability: an integrative construct for life-span, life-space theory. career development quarterly, 45, 247–259. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.1997.tb00469.x savickas, m.l. (2005). the theory and practice of career construction. in r.w. lent & s.d. brown (eds.), career development and counseling: putting theory and research to work (pp. 42–70). hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons. savickas, m.l. (2011). new questions for vocational psychology: premises, paradigms, and practices. journal of career assessment, 19(3), 251–258. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072710395532 savickas, m.l. (2012). life design: a paradigm for career intervention in the 21st century. journal of counseling & development, 90, 13–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1556-6676.2012.00002.x savickas, m.l. (2013). career construction theory and practice. in r.w. lent & s.d. brown (eds.), career development and counselling: putting theory and research to work (2nd edn., pp. 147–183). hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons. savickas, m.l., & porfeli, e.j. (2012). career adapt-abilities scale: construction, reliability, and measurement equivalence across 13 countries. journal of vocational behavior, 80, 661–673. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2012.01.011 spencer, d., riddle, m., & knewstubb, b. (2012). curriculum mapping to embed graduate capabilities. higher education research and development, 31(2), 217–231. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2011.554387 statistical analysis system (sas) [computer software]. (2010). cary, nc: sas institute inc. statistical package of the social sciences (spss) [computer software]. (2013). new york, ny: ibm corporation. steur, j.m., jansen, e.p.w.a., & hofman, w.h.a. (2012). graduateness: an empirical examination of the formative function of university education. higher education, 64(6), 861–874. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10734-012-9533-4 sullivan, s.e. (2013). the changing nature of careers: a review and research agenda. in k. inkson & m.l. savickas (eds.), career studies, vol i: foundations of career studies (pp. 271–302). london, uk: sage. sung, j., ng, m.c.m., loke, f., & ramos, c. (2013). the nature of employability skills: empirical evidence from singapore. international journal of training and development, 17(3), 176–193. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ijtd.12008 tolentino, l.r., garcia, p.r.j.m., lu, v.n., restubog, s.l.d., bordia, p., & tang, r.l. (2013). validation of the career adapt-abilities scale and an examination of a model of career adaptation in the philippine context. journal of vocational behavior, 83, 410–418. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.06.013 tomlinson, m. (2010). investing in the self: structure, agency and identity in graduates’ employability. education, knowledge and economy, 4(2), 73–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17496896.2010.499273 tran, t.t. (2013). limitation on the development of skills in higher education in vietnam. higher education, 65, 631–644. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10734-012-9567-7 van der heijde, c.m. (2014). employability and self-regulation in contemporary careers. in m. coetzee (ed.), psycho-social career meta-capacities: dynamics of contemporary career development (pp. 7–18). dordrecht, the netherlands: springer. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00645-1_1 velasco, m.s. (2012). more than just good grades: candidates’ perceptions about the skills and attributes employers seek in new graduates. journal of business economics and management, 13(3), 499–517. http://dx.doi.org/10.3846/16111699.2011.620150 wickramasinghe, v., & perera, l. (2010). graduates’, university lecturers’ and employers’ perceptions towards employability skills. education + training, 52(3), 226–244. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00400911011037355 zacher, h. (2014). individual difference predictors of change in career adaptability over time. journal of vocational behavior, 84, 188–198. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2014.01.001 abstract introduction research purpose and objectives research design research method research results and findings discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) willie t. chinyamurindi department of business management, university of fort hare, south africa citation chinyamurindi, w.t. (2016). a narrative investigation into the meaning and experience of career success: perspectives from women participants. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), art. #659, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.659 original research a narrative investigation into the meaning and experience of career success: perspectives from women participants willie t. chinyamurindi received: 09 aug. 2014; accepted: 02 july 2015; published: 04 feb. 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: in south africa opportunities are being created that encourage more women to enter the workforce. understanding how women conceptualise and experience career success affects not only their individual career development but also their general outlook in life. research purpose: to investigate how a sample of previously disadvantaged women distance learners conceptualise and experience the notion of career success. motivation for the study: calls have been made for research incorporating a subjective understanding regarding career success, especially amongst minority groups. research approach, design and method: an interpretive approach was employed aimed at understanding individual experience and the interpretation of it. unstructured interviews were conducted shaped by the objectives of the study amongst a sample of women (n = 25). main findings: through narratives and stories, findings revealed career success to be conceptualised and experienced as (1) a means of professional attainment and recognition, (2) a contribution to society and (3) evident in material and non-material artefacts. further, from the sample of women used in this research, the experience of career success considered not only socio-historical issues and community but also the cultural milieu. education emerged as an enabler of individual pursuit and goals leading to career success. practical/managerial implications: an understanding of how career success is conceptualised and experienced by previously disadvantaged women can serve as a forerunner to individual specific career development interventions. the results of the study are therefore useful to both academics and practitioners in their formulation of interventions that enable individual career development. contribution: the experience of career success as found in this study through participant narratives and stories gave a picture of career development processes amongst previously disadvantaged groups in south africa. these processes illustrate how individuals draw meaning and a sense of direction en route to career success, revealing aspirations affecting not only their career development but also their lived experience. introduction women in south africa occupy a strategic position. laws such as the employment act of 1998 have been credited with encouraging the involvement and increasing the number of women in key sectors of the south african economy (mahlomaholo, 2011; mkhize & msweli, 2011). furthermore, initiatives such as affirmative action (aa) and employment equity (ee) have been introduced with the belief that they will achieve equality in a largely divided society (czakan, 2006). the focus here is on giving organisations’ aa and ee targets an opportunity to open a passage into their influence in the socio-economic cluster of the country (booysen, 1999). this has been suggested to be a way to improve the lives individuals who are aa and ee targets (de bruin, 2000). despite this progress through aa and ee initiaves, women remain under-represented in south african organisations (booysen & nkomo, 2010; moletsane & reddy, 2008). this under-representation has been attributed to the history of south africa including the policy of apartheid (sedibe, 2011). the ideological basis of apartheid was around ‘separateness’ by colour and this subsequently relegated women (cottrell, 2005). in south africa, the term ‘previously disadvantaged’ is used to describe those individuals or categories of persons who, prior to the new democratic south africa, were unfairly discriminated on the basis of their race (nefcorp, 2005). these individuals include mostly black african people, mixed race people, indian people, women and people living with disabilities (cottrell, 2005). traditional career development theories have been used to understand phenomena such as career success. however, such theories have been criticised for providing a static view of careers (hirshi, 2011) and one that does not account for the possibility of complexity and the unpredictable nature of variables influencing career development (patton & mcmahon, 2006). others (e.g. asuquo & inaja, 2013) highlight a shortcoming of traditional career theories in the omission of the needs of groups such as women, with a focus more of elite white men and matching them to jobs. further, in understanding the career development processes of groups such as women, the empirical focus should move away from the matching of careers (as espoused in traditional career theories) to determining the factors that may retain and sustain individual career development in a demanding context (watt, richardson, & wilkins, 2014). traditional career theories have also been noted for their omission of environmental context in shaping careers. ozbilgin (2011) advocates a more situated (geographical and cultural) perspective in understanding career development that is contextually relevant. this fits in with calls for studies to be less general and more specific in relation to contextual issues affecting people (edwards, 2011; khapova & arthur, 2011). this is an important focus, especially given the environmental changes that shape individual careers in contemporary society (chudzikowski & mayrhofer, 2011). such a research focus is believed to not only aid understanding of career development, but also challenge traditionally held views of a career being linear and following a developmental stage approach (sullivan, 1999; sullivan & baruch, 2009). to aid the retention of women in organisations, researchers continually argue for an investigation into how women experience success (maxwell & ogden, 2011; pheko, 2014). this is important given that such groups of people have received little or no empirical focus (themba, oosthuizen & coetzee, 2012). such inclusive approaches are helpful not only in modern career management practices, but also to keep up with changes (social, economic and political) that have happened in south africa (oosthuizen, coetzee & mntonintshi, 2014). by applying this focus, it may be a useful launchpad to informing not just career development initiatives, but also the retention of women in organisations. subsequently, this has an overall bearing on the lived experience of the individual (price, 2009). however, little is still known in south africa concerning individual career success as part of career development (coetzee & gunz, 2012; koekemoer, 2014). there is also acknowledgement of the role distance learning can play on individual career development (burgess & russell, 2003). pityana (2009) notes distance education as addressing two key barriers faced by previously disadvantaged groups, namely location and lack of funds. lemmer (2009) applauds distance education as popular for those individuals who require flexibility between work and study. in all this, distance education is the most popular mode of instruction especially amongst previously disadvantaged individuals (department of education, 2010; department of higher education and training, 2013). an understanding of the career development processes of previously disadvantaged individuals can be a starting point for career interventions specific to their situation. calls have been made for studies that focus on how distance learning can further develop human capital skill sets (reimers-hild, fritz & king, 2007) and individual career development (burgess & russell, 2003; chinyamurindi, 2012). furthermore, qualitative methods are advocated as important in understanding the career development processes of previously disadvantaged individuals such as women (maree, 2010, 2014, 2015) given that such individuals face complexity in their career development not often captured easily through the quantitative research paradigm. such research approaches are applauded, especially in societies faced with a great deal of environmental complexity (savickas, 2011). within this, austin and cilliers (2011) argue that given the macro environmental changes happening in south africa, there is a need to investigate how such change impacts the individual and their career development using sample groups that have received scant empirical focus. one such sample group that remains ‘understudied’ in south african career research is previously disadvantaged individuals, which includes women (schreuder & coetzee, 2012, p. 2), especially those individuals involved in lifelong learning (braimoh, 2010) who are working and studying at the same time whilst subject to initiatives of economic redress. research purpose and objectives research into career success is growing in south africa (e.g. koekemoer, 2014; pheko, 2014) and internationally (for an overview see ng, eby, sorensen & feldman, 2005). nevertheless, there seems to be the need for further research on career success using different sample groups with their specific situations and experiences in mind. there is acknowledgement that the career development of women is theorised to be different from men (o’neil & bilimoria, 2005) and also that distance learning can aid individual career development (braimoh, 2010; burgess & russell, 2003; chinyamurindi, 2012). the purpose of this study was to identify specific factors that influence the career success of women distance learners within the south african context, thereby helping to inform career interventions and improving the lived experience. the overall research question that guided this study was: what factors (given the south african context) influence the career success of women distance learners in south africa? background of career success career success is defined as the individual’s accumulation of positive work-related and psychological outcomes from the work experience (judge, cable, boudreau & bretz, 1995). by understanding the factors that influence individual framing of career success, this may impact career development in general (gattiker & larwood, 1986). career success was once viewed as following an upward trajectory of lifetime employment in one organisation (adamson, doherty & viney, 1998). however, in view of the changing environmental context, this view may not be guaranteed (maree, 2014; savickas, 2011). such a focus that pays attention to the complex and unpredictable nature of career development is receiving empirical focus and has been labelled as part of the ‘new’ agenda within career literature (chudzikowski, 2012, p. 298). the ‘new’ agenda in career literature is one that tries to identify the individual and organisational variables that influence individual framing of career success (heslin, 2005). given this, there is increasing empirical focus on understanding career development as part of this ‘new’ agenda (e.g. joo & park, 2010; ndzube, 2013; price, 2009). career success has been framed to be either objective or subjective (baruch, 2006). objective and subjective career success a distinction is offered between objective and subjective career success. the former is thought to strive for the observable, measurable and verifiable attainment (dries, pepermans, & rypens, 2009). an example of objective career success includes monthly salary and status (abele & spurk, 2009). on the other hand, subjective career success is viewed as an individual’s evaluation of the present achievements compared to their personal goals and expectations (seibert & kraimer, 2001). examples of subjective career success include career satisfaction (greenhaus, parasuraman & wormley, 1990) and job satisfaction (ng et al., 2005). there appears to be an empirical slanting towards the use of quasi-objective measures of career success (dries et al., 2009). the thinking here is the need to generate objective data that are observable and measurable based on scientifically tested instruments (nicholson, 2000). given the importance and popularity of career success in the academic press, there is continued focus on investigating those factors that influence or impede career success (coetzee & schreuder, 2009; koekemoer, 2014; pheko, 2014). predictors of career success for women a number of studies (mostly international) exist investigating the subjective evaluations of career success amongst women. even with research using both male and female participants, there is limited focus on investigating career success (koekemoer, 2014). a summary of international and national studies investigating the predictors of career success is shown in table 1. notably, based on table 1, no study has investigated the factors that either contribute to or impede career success amongst women distance learners, despite a number of recommendations. for instance, pheko (2014, p. 9) suggests the need for research around career success amongst ‘women with similar profiles’ like ‘educational background’. the women to be used in this study are all from the previously disadvantaged cohort who are working and studying via distance learning. others like koekemoer (2014, p. 2) suggest that in south africa research on career success is ‘timeous’ given the popularity of this research stream internationally. as its contribution, this study seeks to answers these calls. research design research approach the study adopted a qualitative exploratory research approach. the rationale for this was that this approach was useful in understanding the factors influencing career success (koekemoer, 2014). such an approach allows for understanding of experience and the interpretation of it from the individual viewpoint (hallebone & priest, 2009). the focus here is on understanding human experiences from a holistic and in-depth perspective (vishnevsky & beanlands, 2004), rather than it being fragmented as often employed in survey-based techniques. this is done through collecting more situational information and extrapolating the meaning and purpose that individuals attach to their actions (guba & lincoln, 1994). research strategy unstructured interviews were preferred over semi-structured interviews using a sample of career women who were working and studying at the same time. stead and watson (2006, p. 86) argue that semi-structured interviews tend to imply a ‘search for specific course of events’. the focus of this research was not to impose any predetermined structure in understanding career success; semi-structured interviews would assume this predetermination. unstructured interviews helped to allow participants to share freely their situation from their own points of view (fraenkel & wallen, 2006). this allowed investigation into how individuals make meaning of their lived experiences (walter, 2006). participants could open up memories, reflect on experiences, elaborate on ideas and clarify responses during the course of the interview (rubin & rubin, 2005). research method research setting, sampling and participants the research project was part of a partnership between two institutions, one located in the united kingdom (open university business school) and the other in south africa (university of south africa). the author of this article was pursuing his phd studies with the united kingdom institution and had also worked as a junior academic in south africa. the south african institution had a regional hub located in the city of port elizabeth and was chosen due to researcher familiarity. table 1: summary of south africanand international studies focusing on predictors of career success amongst women. entree and establishing researcher roles given that the study involved two universities, ethics approval was sought from and granted by both universities. permission was also sought from participants who were informed of the purpose of the research and how data generated will be used for teaching purposes and writing journal articles. sampling and participants convenience sampling (cohen, manion & morrison, 2007, p. 114) was used for this research and allowed the researcher to identify ‘available and accessible’ participants for the study. the hosting south african university served as a strategic hub from which potential participants could be sampled. inclusion and exclusion criteria had to be adopted. all participants had be registered distance learners with the south african university. participants were excluded if they did not meet this criterion. a total of 25 women participants took part in the research; table 2 summarises the characteristics of the 30 participants used as part of this study. data collection methods the interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. in addition to this, notes were made to accompany the recording. given that participants in the study were studying and working, a strategic hub in the form of a leading distance learning university campus was important in accessing the sample. participants had to be recognised by law of being previously disadvantaged either by race or by gender (cottrell, 2005). participants were excluded if they did not meet this criterion. participants were approached and informed of the goals of the study and consent asked for their participation. upon agreeing, participants filled in a consent form and their confidentiality was guaranteed. since the study involved two universities, geographically separated, ethical clearance was applied for at both institutions and granted. in addition, participants in the research had to give consent before taking part in the research. recording of the data data analysis the interviews were exported into qsr international’s nvivo 9, a data analysis and management software package useful when dealing with a lot of text, graphic, audio and video data (reuben & bobat, 2014). a data analysis procedure based on three levels of meaning making as adopted in previous research was used (e.g. chinyamurindi, 2012; mccormack, 2000). table 3 represents the stages of the levels of meaning making adopted in the data analysis. level 1 was helpful in developing a good understanding of the career development experience of each participant. this was done by rereading each interview and listening to audio recordings. such a process allowed for the identification of ‘markers’ in the stories (mccormack, 2000, p. 282) and answering the following question about each interview: ‘what kind of story is this?’ (thornhill, clare & may, 2004, p. 188). level 2 was achieved through classifying responses from participants into meaningful categories (nachmias & nachmias, 1996). finally, in level 3, the researcher analysed the content of the gathered narrative accounts and themes (mccormack, 2000). this was done by identifying themes and using quotes based on consistencies across participant stories (rhodes, 2000). strategies to ensure data quality and reporting to ensure data quality, four steps were taken. firstly, initial interview questions were pre-tested with a sample of 10 students (non-participants) who fit the same profile as those interviewed in the main part of the research. secondly, to ensure credible data, all interview data were recorded and transcribed verbatim within 24 hours. thirdly, after transcription data, participants were emailed a copy of the transcription to verify if this was accurate as per the interview. finally, before and during the study, reflexivity was conducted to safeguard objectivity and avoid researcher bias (lewin, taylor & gibbs, 2005); this was also done to ensure sensitivity with regard to how data is collected, analysed and represented (mays & pope, 2000). in doing so, comprehensive notes were taken at all key stages of the research for additional depth and quality. research results and findings based on the data analysis, various factors emerged that portray a picture of the factors that contribute to and impede the career success of women (see figure 1) and these are discussed next. table 4 presents a summary of the factors that contribute to career success and table 5 presents those factors that impede career success. figure 1: factors contributing to and impending career success. contributing factors table 4 presents the specific factors contributing to the success of women. participants considered career success to be influenced by the intersection between individual factors with individual characteristics and contextual factors such as presence of support structures, interventions such as employment equity and affirmative action and educational attainment. table 2: the characteristics of the respondents. table 3: data analysis procedure. educational attainment refers to the quest for professional attainment and receiving recognition for this. most participants cited the recognition and responsibility that comes with a professional title. salient titles included being ‘an accountant’, ‘a lawyer’ and ‘a psychologist’. thus, educational attainment was viewed as a contributing factor towards individual career success as this led to the attainment of an ‘expert’ status. an example is given from one participant’s story. jennifer was working as a bank teller and also studying via distance learning for an accounting degree. her wish was to use her accounting qualification to move away from being a bank teller to becoming a ‘chartered accountant’ within the bank. during the interview she painted a picture of how she did not enjoy the ‘routine’ and mundane activities that came with being a teller. for her, being a ‘chartered accountant’ was the goal to be attained although she did not like the journey leading to this. in her narration, educational attainment was to contribute to her attaining ‘expert’ status: ‘it’s about being an expert at what i do and people turning to me because of this expertise. if that happens then i consider myself as successful.’ (jennifer, bank teller, black, 29 years old) another participant’s narrative echoed the same sentiments. mary was head hunted to work in an administrative role for a new bank. this role entailed ‘challenging’ tasks. mary enrolled to study via distance learning so as to improve her chances of being promoted in the bank. like jennifer, mary also made reference to professional attainment and recognition as an evaluation of career success: ‘i would love to be good and be an expert in something. in my company i am becoming that within sales and customer relationship management. i feel i am going somewhere and i am getting the recognition of an expert.’ (mary, administrator, black, 27 years old) attaining an education appears to open doors for participants; their individual career development is subsequently viewed as linked to career success. this was manifest mainly through further study by distance learning and taking up opportunities for further career development. participants did not see themselves as being stagnant, but as constantly improving themselves. the quest for growth was actuated through the need for further study and also taking part in organisational training interventions to improve individual skills and qualifications. from the interviews, the presence of support structures provided a platform from which to achieve career success. such support structures appear to be routed within community and were used for various activities. for instance, bridget attributes her success to her family who have ‘stood by her even when she has made some bad decisions’. it appears that the proximity of family to bridget made her trust them and hence she could turn to them for support. others like glenda cited the role of friends as the factor contributing to her success. in her narration, glenda discussed gender and race: ‘truth be told there is no place for a woman let alone a black woman in the corporate world. so we decided to make a way for ourselves as sisters. one of my friends works for a reputable motor manufacturing company here in port elizabeth, she got a good job. she then supported me through mentoring and even talking to her superiors so i can get in the system. now that i am here and consider myself successful, i must help the next black sister also struggling to get in. that’s how we should do it, sisters doing it for themselves.’ (glenda, police officer, black, 49 years old) table 4: summary of factors perceived to contribute to career success. interventions targeted at redress were also attributed to be influential in contributing to the success of women. the quotes by sherry, nkulie and nwabisa in table 4 illustrate this. such interventions, like the presence of support, provided a platform from which women could enter a workplace that has barriers. a final contributing factor to success were those qualities specific to the individual such as being hardworking and persistent despite challenges. interestingly, some of the women also brought up race and gender not as proxies to their success, but rather attributing influence to individual characteristics and qualities such as hard work, as in the case of nomusa (see table 4). this study also found factors that revealed barriers affecting career success of women; illustrating quotes are presented in table 5. impeding factors like factors contributing towards career success, those factors that impede career success were specific to the individuals and also contextual. for instance, participants like nwabisa cited contextual challenges as influencing her career development and subsequent framing of career success due to perceptions of the role of a woman in society: ‘i am from rural cofimvaba and you can see people in my community are not supportive to the career development of women. this can be due to thinking that our role as women is just to have children, stay in the kitchen and fend for the children. to an extent because of this prevailing attitude, girls like me will never be anything and that is sad and limiting.’ (nwabisa, accountant, black, 30 years old) contextual challenges appear to also trickle into personal challenges and impede career success. notably, personal circumstances such as poverty were salient. however, participants such as zama (illustrated in table 5) cited personal challenge pertaining to the need for balance between duties of being a mother and wife and also a career woman as impeding her career success. linked to this were also barriers such as the glass ceiling effect, also cited as common in the workplace. continual reference was made by participants to the privileged position of men ahead of women and the preferential treatment they receive in society. the quotes from becky and anna in table 5 bring into focus the existence of prejudice against women in corporate south africa. role of distance learning on individual career development in the framing of career success, the role of distance learning appears to serve as a utility function of advancing individual career development en route to the experience of career success. generally, participants cited mixed emotions towards studying by distance: ‘being a distance learner has helped me realise my career goal of finally getting a tertiary qualification. this means that i can be taken seriously in my organisation. however, it’s not easy. it’s a struggle of balancing between work, personal life and study. sometimes i don’t know how i cope.’ (siphokazi, secretary, black, 25 years old) furthermore, distance learning appeared to also meet a pragmatic need for participants as a cost-effective mode of study in comparison to full-time studying: ‘distance learning is really cheap and i guess with my financial situation this is not only important but a priority as i want to reach my career goals.’ (michelle, engineer, black, 31 years old) table 5: summary of factors perceived to impede career success. finally, distance learning fit well with seeking a balance in life. it would appear that career success was not just an experience of accomplishment in terms of study and also working life, but also about seeking a balance between all these: ‘i do not want to be a successful person career wise and yet a failure to my family. distance learning is flexible so i can still be a mother and a wife while also pursuing my own ambitions.’ (zama, teacher, black, 38 years old) distance learning emerged as an enabler of the framing of career success through skills acquisition and attaining professional qualifications. thus, distance learning was a tool to achieving career success. discussion outline of the findings the purpose of this study was to identify the specific factors that influence the career success of women distance learners within a south african context. two types of factors emerged. contributing factors are those factors that encourage the career development of women and subsequently their framing of career success. impeding factors are those that act as barriers towards career development and subsequently affect an individual’s career success. firstly, contributing factors were identified and further grouped into two categories: individual specific factors such as drive, motivation and individual strategies leading to career success. for example, the quest for educational and professional attainment. contextual factors such as the presence of support and the influence of policies and legislative mandates aimed at redress. secondly, impeding factors are also grouped into two categories: individual specific factors around personal circumstance and challenges. these challenges include lack of resources and support facilities, work-life balance and attending to family responsibilities. contextual factors include factors in the organisation and factors in the macro environment. both contributing and impeding factors that influence career success include individual and contextual factors. generally, these two factors are the same as the factors that influence career development as theorised within the systems theory framework (patton & mcmahon, 2006). this study has illustrated their role in the experience of career success amongst a sample of previously disadvantaged women in south africa. relating main findings to literature the findings of this research appear to support some general factors that contribute to or impede the career success of women. there is support of previous studies that showed factors that contribute to career success such as support structures available to women (doubell & struwig, 2014; ravindaran & baral, 2013), individual specific attributes of women (ip, 2011; riordan & louw-potgieter, 2011) and the influence of organisational and professional development efforts (bombuwela & chamaru, 2013; sasithornsaowapa, 2013; teo, lord & nowak, 2014). in essence, these factors were acknowledged by participants in this study to inform career development positively and to aid individual progress. the interaction of these factors appears to support the idea of career development as shaped by the interaction between individual and contextual factors (ozbilgin, 2011; patton & mcmahon, 2006). with regard to impeding factors, this research supports previous findings that found lack of support structures (maxwell & ogden, 2011; pheko, 2014), relationships and work-life balance (evers & sieverding, 2014; maxwell & ogden, 2011; pheko, 2014; raburu, 2015; yet-mee, peng & yin-fah, 2013). further, participants in this research cited the role of economic and social factors (austin & cilliers, 2011) as working together in shaping their career development. narratives of participants illustrated the dynamic interaction between the person and their environment (patton & mcmahon, 2006). this interaction was also complex as is manifest through the identified factors that impede career success illustrated in the participants’ stories. due to the nature of this complex and dynamic interaction as found in this research, this implies that career development is a non-linear process and one that is difficult to predict. in dealing with the factors that impede career success, women also engage in a process of self-management (savickas, 2011) in finding resolutions to their quest for career development. one way this was found to happen in this study was through lifelong learning (braimoh, 2010), which brings into focus the role of distance learning. similar to previous studies (pheko, 2014), the role of education is highlighted in this study as aiding the career success of women. distance education based on these participants’ views occupied a pragmatic function that cannot be divorced from individual needs or the circumstances surrounding their life situation. the study makes a number of contributions. firstly, in studying the career success of women distance learners, career development is portrayed as a complex process that does not follow a hierarchical approach as believed in traditional career theories. thus, the findings of this research negate theorising espoused in career theories of career development as being reductionist and fragmented by viewing a holistic perspective of the lived experience (joo & park, 2010; price, 2009). secondly, this study contributes to our understanding of career success especially in a south african context (koekemoer, 2014) by using an ‘understudied’ yet important sample group in south africa: previously disadvantaged individuals (schreuder & coetzee, 2012, p. 2). based on this study, solutions and interventions may be proposed, helping to expand understanding of career development (savickas, 2011). thirdly, this study illustrates how career development processes are facilitated within a distance learning context (burgess & russell, 2003), including the contributing and impeding factors that affect career success amongst this cohort of the south african population. these include: financial constraints, the failure to be accepted into full-time universities, poor high school matriculation and individual circumstance, thus supporting previous studies (lemmer, 2009; pityana, 2009). in essence, distance education assisted the career development process with the individual acquiring a qualification or the skills to support this. distance education also created a space not just for acquiring an education, but for mobility away from a life of disadvantage to a better one considering the individual situation and background in south africa. this study has illustrated how these processes happen within a distance education context. finally, this study has answered calls for studies investigating career experiences through the subjective lens (chudzikowski, 2012) and seeking to understand career development not as a static, but as a dynamic process (hirshi, 2011). practical implications given that the majority of the participants in this study were career women, a practical implication from this study could be to devise interventions into how women balance life roles with not only their studies, but also employment. the focal point here should be on helping women not only through education, but also career development. this can also be important and prudent in informing policy efforts on a grand scale, especially amongst individuals working and studying at the same time. the desired goal here should not only be inclusion and access to education, but also the management of individual success through career development – especially for those previously disadvantaged in south africa. another practical implication for this study is around the issue of striving for balance between study, work and personal and social commitments. there appears to be a paradox here. on one hand, this balance is needed and distance learning allows for it. however, it appears that maintaining such a balance places a great strain on the individual and a possible stumbling block. career counsellors can assess their client’s commitment towards this balance by drawing on the narratives (as illustrated in this study) and ascertaining practical interventions around such an important construct. one useful way is to offer training courses targeted for distance learners in which aspects of life-balance are part of the training. in addition to this, and specifically with distance learners, it may be helpful to make those intending to enrol via distance learning aware of some of the potential challenges accompanying their enrolment, including striving for balance in the lived experience. trainers and organisational development practitioners can use narratives (as done in this research) for material development and training targeted for women. this can help relate practical and contextual real-life stories to concepts that can be viewed as abstract. in turn, this may not only inspire, but also help in proposing interventions that women can relate to. given that the narratives and stories used in this research are context specific, this can allow trainers the opportunity to relate to not only the lives of career women, but also the performative dimension of careers and its complexity. this allows for trainers to identify with lives of career women used in this research as role models. the thinking here is that through teaching and learning from the lives of career women, one can re-story one’s life. limitations of the study although this study was helpful in understanding the factors that influence career success amongst a sample of women distance learners in south africa, some limitations can be flagged. the sample size was not representative of the population of either previously disadvantaged individuals or women in south africa. from the sample, only black and mixed race women took part in the research. this subsequently affects issues of generalisability. furthermore, the participants were all distance learners from only a single province in south africa (eastern cape). this again raises issues of generalisability from a geographical and modal system of education perspective. furthermore, given the subjective nature of the study and that interpretation of participant data into themes was also based on the researcher’s influence, the research is not bias free. suggestions for future research future research could compare factors that influence career success across geographical locations and also include the full-time mode of learning. furthermore, future research can also include male participants in its investigation of career success. all this can be done as a basis of comparison in relation to the findings of this research. the impact of the glass ceiling effect emerged as a finding in this research as also in previous research (e.g. koekemoer, 2014; pheko, 2014). clearly there is a need to further unpack this concept. future research could use various approaches and techniques in understanding the glass ceiling effect. these may include a quantitative survey approach in ascertaining the influence of the glass ceiling effect on objective and subjective outcomes of career success such as career satisfaction or job satisfaction. also, a longitudinal study tracing the experiences of women and their career development can provide useful insights on phenomena such as career success. conclusion this study places importance on understanding the role and influence of context and individual agency on career development processes and experiences such as career success. thus, this study has highlighted factors that may contribute to or impede career success including the complexity of these on career construction in south africa for women. the findings provide a basis for future research appealing to the academic and practitioner press, especially in using an ‘understudied’ (schreuder & coetzee, 2012, p. 4) yet important population cohort given the agenda of economic redress, social justice and equity. this forms a basis for theoretical and practical interventions. acknowledgements an earlier version of this article was presented at the 2nd international conference on human resources management and the management of organisations in africa conference, hosted by nottingham business school (united kingdom) in september 2012. the author thanks attendees to this conference for their constructive feedback. competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. references abele, a.e., & spurk, d. (2009). how do objective and subjective career success interrelate over time? journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 82, 803–824. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317909x470924 adamson, s.j., doherty, n., & viney, c. (1998). the meanings of career revisited: implications for theory and practice. british journal of management, 9(4), 251–259. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00096 asuquo, p.n., & inaja, e. (2013). fostering sustainable career development and employability among young people in the changing world of work: employers’ perspective. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 84, 1492–1499. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.06.778 austin, k., & cilliers, f. (2011). the psychometric relationship between career thinking and salutogenic functioning amongst unemployed adults. south african journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), 1–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i1.969 baruch, y. (2006). career development in organisations and beyond: balancing traditional and contemporary viewpoints. human resource management review, 16, 125–138. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2006.03.002 bombuwela, p.m., & chamaru, d.a.a. (2013). effects of glass ceiling on women career development in private sector organizations – case of sri lanka. journal of competitiveness, 5(2), 3–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.7441/joc.2013.02.01 booysen, l.a.e., & nkomo, s.m. (2010). gender role stereotypes and requisite management characteristics: the case of south africa. gender in management: an international journal, 25(4), 285–300. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17542411011048164 booysen, s. (1999). towards more feminine business leadership for the 21st century: a literature overview and a study of the potential implications for south africa. south african journal of labour relations, 23(1), 31–54. braimoh, d. (2010). revisiting lifelong learning for quality improvement in odl institutions in africa. africa education review, 7(2), 229–243. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/18146627.2010.515420 burgess, j.r.d., & russell, j.e.a. (2003). the effectiveness of distance learning initiatives in organizations. journal of vocational behavior, 63(2), 289–303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0001-8791(03)00045-9 chinyamurindi, w.t. (2012). an investigation of career change using a narrative and story-telling inquiry. south african journal of human resource management, 10(2), 1–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.447 chudzikowski, k. (2012). career transitions and career success in the ‘new’ career era. journal of vocational behavior, 81(2), 298–306. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.10.005 chudzikowski, k., & mayrhofer, j. (2011). in search of the blue flower? grand social theories and career research: the case of bourdieu’s theory of practice. human relations, 64(1), 19–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0018726710384291 coetzee, m., & gunz, m. (2012). careers and retention of staff in the 21st century world of work: introduction to the special edition. south african journal of human resource management, 10(2), 1–4. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.505 coetzee, m., & schreuder, a.m.g. (2009). using the career orientations inventory (coi) for measuring career orientations in the south african organisational context. south african journal of industrial psychology, 35(1), 1–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v35i1.806 cohen, l., manion, l., & morrison, k. (2007).research methods in education. (6th edn.). london: routledge-falmer. cottrell, r. (2005). south africa: a state of apartheid. new york, ny: chelseahouse. czakan, p. (2006). retention of workers in telecommunications. unpublished mba thesis, graduate school of business. cape town: university of cape town. de bruin, w. (2000). women: a growing economic force: an f and t finance week feature. finance week, 22 september, 37–47. department of education. (2010). education statistics in south africa 2009. pretoria: author. department of higher education and training. (2013). white paper for post-school education and training: building an expanded, effective and integrated post-school system. retrieved january 13, 2015, from http://www.dhet.gov.za/siteassets/latest%20news/white%20paper%20for%20post-school%20education%20and%20training.pdf doubell, m., & struwig, m. (2014). perceptions of factors influencing the career success of professional and business women in south africa. south african journal of economic management sciences, 17(5), 531–543. dries, n., pepermans, r., & rypens, l. (2009). development and validation of an objective intra-organizational career success measure for managers. journal of organizational behavior, 30, 543–560. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.564 edwards, p. (2011). message from the new editor-in-chief. human relations, 65(1), 3–4. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0018726711428110 evers, a., & sieverding, m. (2014). why do highly qualified women (still) earn less? gender differences in long-term predictors of career success. psychology of women quarterly, 38(1), 93–106. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0361684313498071 fraenkel, j.r., & wallen, n.e. (2006). how to design and evaluate research in education. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. gattiker, u.e., & larwood, l. (1986). subjective career success: a study of managers and support personnel. journal of business and psychology, 1, 78–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf01018805 greenhaus, j.h., parasuraman, s., & wormley, w.m. (1990). effects of race on organizational experiences, job performance evaluations, and career outcomes. academy of management journal, 33(1), 64–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/256352 guba, e.g., & lincoln, y.s. (1994). competing paradigms in qualitative research. in n.k. denzin, & y.s. lincoln (eds.), handbook of qualitative research (pp. 105–117). thousand oaks, ca: sage. hallebone, e., & priest, j. (2009). business and management research: paradigms and practices. new york, ny: palgrave macmillan. heslin, p.a. (2005). conceptualizing and evaluating career success. journal of organizational behavior, 26, 113–136. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.270 hirshi, a. (2011). career-choice readiness in adolescence: developmental trajectories and individual differences. journal of vocational behavior, 79, 340–348. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.05.005 ip, n. (2011). career development for women scientists in asia. neuron, 70, 1029–1032. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2011.06.008 joo, b.k., & park, s. (2010). career satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention: the effects of goal orientation, organizational, learning culture and developmental feedback. leadership & organization development journal, 31(6), 482–500. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437731011069999 judge, t.a., cable, d.m., boudreau, j.w., & bretz, r.d. (1995). an empirical investigation of the predictors of executive career success. personnel psychology, 48, 485–517. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1995.tb01767.x khapova, s.n., & arthur. m.b. (2011). interdisciplinary approaches to contemporary career studies. human relations, 64(1), 3–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0018726710384294 koekemoer, e. (2014). an explorative study on factors influencing the career success of management employees. south african journal of industrial psychology, 40(2), 1–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i2.1204 lemmer, e.m. (2009). empowerment of women students through educational achievement: a narrative inquiry. african education review, 6(1), 80–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/18146620902857319 lewin, a., taylor, c., & gibbs, g.r. (2005).what is qualitative data analysis (qda)? retrieved january 13, 2015, from http://onlineqda.hud.ac.uk/intro_qda/what_is_qda.php mahlomaholo, s.m.g. (2011). gender differentials and sustainable learning environments. south african journal of education, 31, 312–321. maree, j.g. (2010). career counselling: methods that work. cape town: juta. maree, j.g. (2014). career construction with a gay client: a case study. british journal of guidance & counselling, 42, 436–449. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2014.886670 maree, j.g. (2015). career construction counseling: a thematic analysis of outcomes for four clients. journal of vocational behavior, 86, 1–9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2014.10.001 maxwell, g., & ogden, s. (2011). career development of female managers in retailing: inhibitors and enablers. journal of retailing and consumer services, 13, 111–120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2005.08.010 mays, n., & pope, c. (2000). assessing quality in qualitative research. british medical journal, 320, 50–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.320.7226.50 mccormack, c. (2000). from interview transcript to interpretative story: part 1. viewing the transcript through multiple lenses. field methods, 12(4), 282–297. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1525822x0001200402 mkhize, m., & msweli, p. (2011). the impact of female business leaders on the performance of listed companies in south africa. south african journal of economics management, 14(1), 1–7. moletsane, r., & reddy, v. (2008). an assessment of the participation of women in set industry for department of science and technology. retrieved june 09, 2013, from http://www.hsrc.ac.za/research/output/outputdocuments/5505_moletsane_assessmentoftheparticipationofwomen.pdf nachmias, f.c., & nachmias, d. (1996). research methods in the social sciences. (5th edn.). new york, ny: worth publishers. ndzube, f. (2013). the relationship between career anchors and employability. unpublished master’s dissertation, department of industrial and organisational psychology. pretoria: university of south africa. nefcorp. (2005). national empowerment fund glossary. retrieved june 12, 2013, from http://www.nefcorp.co.za/glossary.asap ng, t.w.h., eby, l.t., sorensen, k.l., & feldman, d.c. (2005). predictors of objective and subjective career success: a meta-analysis. personnel psychology, 58, 367–408. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2005.00515.x nicholson, n. (2000). motivation–selection–connection: an evolutionary model of career development. in m. peiperl, m. arthur, r. goffee, & t. morris (eds.), career frontiers: new concepts of working life (pp. 54–75). oxford: oxford university press. o’neil, d., & bilimoria, d. (2005). women’s career development phases: idealism, endurance, and reinvention. career development international, 10, 168–188. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430510598300 oosthuizen, r.m., coetzee, m., & mntonintshi, f. (2014). investigating the relationship between employees’ career anchors and their psychosocial employability attributes in a financial company. south african journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.650 ozbilgin, m. (2011). continuity and change: improving our service to the bjm community and moving towards contextual studies of management. british journal of management, 22, 1–3. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2011.00739.x patton, w., & mcmahon, m. (2006). career development and systems theory. (2nd edn.). pacific grove, ca: brooks/cole. pheko, m.m. (2014). batswana female managers’ career experiences and perspectives on corporate mobility and success. south african journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.445 pityana, n. (2009). open distance learning in the developing world: trends, progress and challenges. keynote address at 23rd icde world conference on open learning and distance education: ‘flexible education for all: open –global – innovative’, maastricht, the netherlands, 07–10 june 2009. retrieved january 12, 2014, from http://www.unisa.ac.za/contents/about/principle/docs/icdemaastricht250609.pdf price, s. (2009). future directions for career choice research in nursing: a discussion paper. international journal of nursing studies, 46, 268–276. pmid: 18775535, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2008.07.011 raburu, p.a. (2015). motivation of women academics and balancing family and career. journal of educational and social research, 5(1), 359–370. http://dx.doi.org/10.5901/jesr.2015.v5n1p359 ravindaran, b., & baral, r. (2013). factors influencing the attitudes, behaviours and career success of re-entry women: an indian perspective. proceedings of 8th asian business research conference, bangkok, thailand, 01–02 april 2013. reimers-hild, c.l., fritz, s., & king, j.w. (2007). entrepreneurial career development: using human capital, social capital, and distance education to achieve success. kimmel education and research center faculty & staff publications. paper 1. retrieved january 12, 2014, from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/kimmelfacpub/1 reuben, s., & bobat, s. (2014). constructing racial hierarchies of skill – experiencing affirmative action in a south african organisation: a qualitative review. south african journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), 1–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1158 rhodes, h. (2000). mid-life career change to home-based self-employment in a group of women. unpublished master’s dissertation. british columbia: faculty of education, simon fraser university. riordan, s., & louw-potgieter, j. (2011). career success of women academics in south africa. south african journal of psychology, 41(2), 157–172. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/008124631104100205 rubin, h.j., & rubin, i. (2005). qualitative interviewing: the art of hearing data. thousand oaks, ca: sage. sasithornsaowapa, n. (2013). female executive career success and satisfaction in bangkok, thailand. international journal of social, education, economics and management engineering, 7(8), 1130–1132. savickas, m.l. (2011). new questions for vocational psychology: premises, paradigms, and practices. journal of career assessment, 19(3), 251–258. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1069072710395532 schreuder, d., &coetzee, m. (2012). a review of four decades of organisational career research by academia in south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 10(2), 1–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.474 sedibe, m. (2011). inequality of access to resources in previously disadvantaged south african high schools. journal of social sciences, 28(2), 129–135. seibert, s.e., & kraimer, m.l. (2001). the five factor model of personality and career success. journal of vocational behavior, 58, 1–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2000.1757 stead, g.b., & watson, m.b. (2006). career psychology in the south african context. (2nd edn.). pretoria: van schaik publishers. sullivan, s.e. (1999). the changing nature of careers: a review and research agenda. journal of management, 25(3), 457–484. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0149-2063(99)00009-4 sullivan, s.e., & baruch, y. (2009). advances in career theory and research: a critical review and agenda for future exploration. journal of management, 35(6), 1542–1571. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206309350082 teo, t., lord, l., & nowak, m. (2014). career success: leadership of women in the resources sector of western australia. world review of business research, 4(2), 160–175. themba, m.a., oosthuizen, r.m., & coetzee, m. (2012). exploring socio-demographic differences in career maturity in the south african military. south african journal of labour relations, 36(1), 8–30. thornhill, h., clare, l., & may, r. (2004). escape, enlightenment and endurance: narratives of recovery from psychosis. anthropology and medicine, 11, 181–199. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13648470410001678677 vishnevsky, t., & beanlands, h. (2004). interpreting research in nephrology nursing. nephrology nursing journal, 31, 234–238. walter, m. (2006). social science methods: an australian perspective. oxford, new york, ny: oxford university press. watt, h.m.g., richardson, p.w., & wilkins, k. (2014). profiles of professional engagement and career development aspirations among usa preservice teachers. international journal of educational research, 65, 23–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2013.09.008 yet-mee, l., peng, t.l., & yin-fah, b.c. (2013). a study on women’s career advancement in malaysia. journal of human and social science research, 2(1), 21–34. 5duplessis.qxd the management of projects has become a strategic issue for many companies. issues such as strategic alliances, rapid movement of labour and capital, and failure of projects are calling for the need of risk assessment and management from a new perspective. an organisation that wants to remain competitive in providing its customers with continually improved products and services has no choice but to use project management concepts and processes (cleland, 1994). there is some realisation in organisations that employees, in addition to working on a business process, also need to lead or participate in one or more projects (martin & tate, 1998). according to martin and tate (1998), there are only two ways in which work gets done in organisations: through business processes or through projects. business processes are permanent work structures that transform inputs into repetitive outputs. they can be viewed as on-going operations (kerzner, 1997). projects, on the other hand, are temporary work structures that transform inputs into unique outputs. projects start up, produce whatever they have been commissioned to produce, and then shut down. organisations that have not traditionally been involved in projects are increasingly turning to project management without fully understanding its underlying philosophy, principles and practices. this 'project management rush' by organisations of all kinds results in a situation where many organisations are faced with the dilemma of not doing as well as they had anticipated. as organisations are faced with the dilemma of rapid changing markets, transformation, their project organisations are becoming increasingly dynamic. normal day-to-day administrative and functional skills are now becoming insufficient to deal with the complexities of modern project undertakings. the human resource function has increasingly come under the attack of not being able to contribute towards business results. for human resources to be true business and strategic partners, they need to assist in leveraging the core ingredients of a business to gain a competitive advantage. they need to understand the new business methodology required for many organisations in the form of project management, how to create a positive environment to manage projects successfully as well as how to integrate and manage the complex processes and struct ures as well as the people involved in projects (ulrich & brockbank, 2005; ulrich, 1998; verma, 1996). project failure happens despite of extensive research on the technical-side of project management, theory and methodology that has been written about how to organize and manage new project teams and delivering project success. many organisations, including certain government departments are not used to project work and do not comply with the principles and practices of t y pical project management environments thus adding to the high project failure rate. in a typical project environment the scope of the project will be clear to all stakeholders. there will be a feasible project plan, being executed by a competent project team. the principles of time, cost and quality will be managed to ensure results and customer satisfaction. continuous monitoring and communication during the phases of the project life cycle, as well as management support is essential. key factors that are associated with project failure are the lack of feasibility studies, ignoring the project environment, over management of project managers and their teams, the lack of post-project reviews, putting political agendas above the objectives of the project, etc (kendra & taplin, 2004; pinto & kharbanda, 1996; standish study, 2000). project management literature indicates that project culture is important to project success (cleland, 1994; lientz & rea, 1999). kotter and heskett (1992) also found a relationship between culture and economic performance in organisations. one of the main causes of project failure is that the organisational culture in which projects have to be delivered is not supportive of projects (gray & larson, 2003). the creation of a supportive organisational culture is critical for the success of any project and ultimately the growth of the business. according to andersen (2003), in many organisations the project culture is often at odds with the organisational culture. andersen (2003) further differentiates bet ween the organisational culture of the base or parent organisation, their sub-cultures, and the culture within the project to meet its objectives. however justified, “project management should not be used until the leaders of the organisation are committed to its use and are willing to prepare a suitable culture for project management to germinate and grow”. yvonne du plessis crystal hoole yvonne.duplessis@up.ac.za department of human resources management university of pretoria abstract the aim of this research is to develop an operational ‘project management culture’ framework, which can be used by project managers and organisations to support project work. one of the main causes of project failure is attributed to a non-supportive project management culture in organisations. a triangulation method is followed inclusive of a thorough literature review, a survey questionnaire and a concept mapping process. a project management culture framework with descriptive elements, based on deal and kennedy’s (1982) definition of organisational culture, comprising of four dimensions i.e. project process; people in projects; project systems and structure, and project environment was developed. key words project management culture an operational ’project management culture’ framework (part 1) 36 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (1), 36-43 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (1), 36-43 dinsmore (1999) is of the opinion that “successful organisations will have to change their business processes from being hierarchical, functional organisations to being fast tracking, entrepreneurial enterprises made up of portfolios of projects that are ever changing and renewable. this needs a faster, cheaper, better way of doing business embodied in a project management culture”. gray and larson (2003) stated that there is a strong interrelationship between project management structure, organisational culture, and project success. organisations can successfully manage projects within the traditional functional structure, if the organisational culture encourages crossfunctional integration. it was found that the concept of “project management culture” is not clearly defined (du plessis, 2001; henrie, 2004; wang, 2001). project management culture has been described by various authors, including cleland (1982), firth and krut (1991), graham and englund (1997), gray and larson (2003), harrison (1992), hobbs and menard (1993), kerzner (2000) and wang (2001) each with a different focus point. none of these authors have clearly defined the concept 'project management culture' as a holistic, systemic phenomenon. to some degree, several of them, regard project management culture as the culture of the project management profession or the project team. duncan (2001) developed a project management culture model to assess how “project friendly” an organisation is. kerzner (2000) views project management culture as the “corporate culture” for project management. wang (2001) defined project management culture as “a set of work related values and benefits shared by project management professionals”. hobbs and menard (1993) refer to a 'project management culture as a system of attitudes and behavior patterns'. cleland (1982) states: 'taken in its cultural context, project management is a complex whole that includes knowledge, beliefs, skills, attitudes, and other capabilities and habits acquired by people who are members of some project society'. however, most of the above authors use the term 'project management culture' or other similar terms in the sense of a sub-cult ure in an organisation instead of the operational culture of the organisation. it is not used to support the successful management of projects as a holistic phenomenon. few st udies investigated the operational side of project management culture, how it manifests itself in organisations and how it theoretically can be defined (du plessis, 2001; wang, 2001). deal and kennedy (1982) highlighted the operational dimension of organisational culture by defining it as “the way we do things around here”. according to chell (1994), this operational dimension of culture comprises of three categories of beliefs i.e. beliefs about how employees should be treated; beliefs about professionalism and support of efforts of doing a good job; and beliefs about how the organisation interfaces with the environment and strives to accomplish its mission. for the purpose of this paper deal and kennedy’s (1982) definition of organisational culture was adopted, since it highlights the operational dimension of organisational culture. the aim of this research is to answer the question: what are the dimensions and supportive elements that constitute a valid project management culture framework as an operational culture in organisations? literature study a thorough literat ure study was conducted to describe organisational culture and project management. organisational culture and project management understanding the underlying principles of project management and organisational culture will facilitate the identification of project management culture elements. authors in project management literature use organisational culture and project management culture as synonymous, without defining the exact meaning. these two concepts are not the same thing, although they do share some underlying dimensions. hofstede (1997) defines organisational culture as “holistic… a whole which is more than the sum of its parts … historically determined … reflecting the history of the organisation”. baba, falkenburg and hill (1996) differentiated between three interrelated forms of culture existing in organisations namely national, corporate and work culture. organisational culture in its most basic form refers to a system of shared norms, beliefs, values and assumptions that bind people together (ball & asbury, 1989; schein, 1984). in addition, each type of organisational culture reflects a socially constructed, stable sense of what an organisation is and should be. each represents what certain groups of people think when they hear the word “organisation,” or when they consider which organisations are “good.” culture is a characteristic of the organisation, not of individuals, but it is manifested in and measured from the verbal and/or non-verbal behaviour of individuals aggregated to the level of their organisational unit. people who hold a common conception of what the organisation should be and how work should be organised will tend to create an organisation that realises that conception. and an individual who joins that organisation will tend to become socialised to that conception and come to perceive the way work is conducted as appropriate and natural (deal & kennedy, 1982). culture is part of the overall organisational design to enable widespread information flow (cummings & worley, 1997). frohman (1998) alludes to the fact that the relationship that exists between management and employees forms technology companies’ cultures. gray and larson (2003) identified 10 primary characteristics which capture the essence of an organisation’s culture i.e. member identity, team emphasis, management focus, unit integration, control, risk tolerance, reward criteria, conflict tolerance, means versus end orientation and open-system orientation. these perspectives are far from exhaustive. one should accept that the one perspective is not necessarily more correct than the other, it all depends on the purpose and context in which the dimensions are used. what is important is that the purpose and context are clearly stated. the general message that all these perspectives have in common is that culture influences who, what and how to perform work in our organisations. when organisational culture is viewed from a project management perspective it reflects the way projects are conducted as work by interdependent project team members in an organisational setting that supports project principles and practices to ensure focused delivery of results within a set time frame, budget constraints and with customer satisfaction. project management culture and project success the importance of organisational culture for business success has also been investigated to establish the role of culture as success factor. gray and larson (2003) described the relationship between organisational culture and successful projects by means of a riverboat metaphor where culture is the river and the project is the boat. if the culture of the organisation is supporting projects successfully it is like paddling down stream. in such an environment teamwork and cross-functional operation are the norm, conflict is recognized and dealt with and excellence is the project management culture (part 1) 37 driver. in an opposite environment, where effective project management is inhibited, it is like paddling up stream. such a non-supportive project environment requires more effort, more time and more attention. teamwork would be discouraged, conflict would be rife or ignored, risk is avoided and projects would face several obstacles. however, gray and larson (2003) stated that the ideal culture is not at any extreme of the dimensions they identified. an optimal culture would balance concern with output and processes to achieve those outcomes. graham and englund (1997) have designed a tool called "peat" (project environment assessment tool) for measuring and determining the environment that supports project success. it has not been developed to measure project success, but to determine how well organisations support project management. they have identified eight factors that directly influence project success. these include: strategic emphasis of projects, upper management support, project planning support, customer/enduser input, project team development, project execution support, communication and information systems and organisational systems support. they have not indicated how these factors are linked in creating a project management culture for project success. these factors have been taken into consideration in developing the project management culture framework of this study. kendra and taplin (2004) developed a four-dimensional success model to highlight the roles that the project manager, project team, processes and measurement systems play in project success. their model consisted of four dimensions namely a micro-social dimension – looking at project manager’s skills and competencies, leadership qualities and subject areas such as planning and managing tasks; a macro-social dimension – looking at organisational structures at the project level, e.g. matrix structures, cross-functional teams, participative work environment; a micro-technical dimension – looking at performance measurement systems and individual metrics such as time, cost and quality, business objectives, team performance, financial performance and user satisfaction; and lastly a macrotechnical dimension – looking at supporting management practices, grouping of structured business processes or frameworks. it includes factors such as general project management processes, software development frameworks, strategic management processes and vendor management. the authors further iterated that the four dimensions are interdependent and linked by project management cultural values that relate to the dimensions and success factors. literature also indicates other elements to be present in a project environment that establish and foster the desired project culture i.e. business sponsorship (hall, 1999;saia, 1997; zimmer, 1999), senior management involvement (cleland, 1994), middle management involvement (glaser, zamanou & hacker, 1987), team based and participatory approach (cleland, 1996; martin & tate, 1998; sweeney & lee, 1999), project orientation and control (hall, 1999), project management methodology (martin & tate, 1998; zimmer, 1999), communication and information systems (hall, 1999; graham & englund, 1997; saia, 1997) and project review and learning (bohn, 1994; kotnour, 1999; peters & homer, 1996). from the above mentioned it can be concluded that there is no “ideal” organisational culture, but that there are certain dimensions which can be utilised to underpin a culture that will lead to improved project success and that there are certain success factors that should be part of such a project management culture. if the associated descriptive elements of a successful project, project management and organisational culture are taken into consideration it is possible to identif y the cultural elements in an organisation that can contribute successfully to a project. the literature studied provided clarification on the dimensions of organisational culture with specific emphasis on how it pertains to an organisation having to implement projects, in whatever form, successfully. the project management culture descriptive elements identified from the literature can be divided into four dimensions, i.e. people in projects, systems and structures in projects, processes within projects, and the project environment. the people related dimension refers to the people and their subsequent behaviour involved in the projects and include elements such as interpersonal relationships; management and stakeholder commitment; interdependence; discipline of delivery; risk propensity; conflict tolerance; learning affinity; results orientation; open communication; open system focus and team orientation. the system and structure dimension refer to the systems and structural elements that have to be created and applied to ensure project success. elements included in this dimension are team approach; interdependence; flexible boundaries; customer orientation; project methodology and a supportive environment with regards to structure, procedures and resources. the associated descriptive elements included in the process dimension include the understanding of project life-cycle phases; results and speed of delivery; controlled/disciplined procedures; learning and continuous improvement, customer orientation and systems thinking. the environment dimension relates to elements such as strategic emphasis; upper management support; project planning support; customer/end-user support and buy-in; project team development opportunities; project execution support; communication and information systems availability and organisational support. although one could theoretically assign the various elements to certain dimensions, the complex nature of the theoretical construct must allow for a high degree of flux on the one hand, and at the same time a seemingly low degree of correlation among some of the items. from the literat ure and the adopted definition of deal and kennedy (1982) on organisational culture it is envisaged that an operational project management culture would consist of four main dimensions: project process (the way), people (we), project methodology (system and structure elementsdo things), and the project environment (around heremeaning the organisation in context). each main dimension represents a number of associative descriptive elements as identified from the literature. the degree to which an organisation supports these dimensions will contribute towards its project successes. research design an exploratory and descriptive research design was followed inclusive of multiple research methods designed to tap the range of project management culture elements and ensuring a valid and reliable research processes called a triangulation approach. research approach the interpretative approach is relevant in this study, since the perceptions and understanding of project management culture of practising project managers were determined, which contend that organisations are cultures because their existence is based on human interaction. the multiple methods used were a literature study as theoretical base, a qualitative dimension-questionnaire to verif y the theory and concept mapping to broaden the base. research methodology participants participants in this study comprised of two groups. the participants involved in completing the questionnaire and the participants involved in the concept mapping exercise. the participants who completed the questionnaire were selected out of a population of 150 practising project managers, du plessis, hoole38 attending post-graduate studies in project management at the university of pretoria in 2001, as well as members of the project management institute of south africa (pmisa). the participants who successfully completed the questionnaire were 50. they represented various organisations (technical and non-technical) in south africa (see table 1). table 1 industry information on the project management expert sample group for questionnaire (n = 50) type of 1. service (e.g. banking, education, government) n = 21 industry 2. technical (e.g) engineering/manufacturing) n = 29 type of a. technical (‘hard-side’ e.g. production, n = 30 projects manufacturing) b. non-technical (‘soft-side’ e.g. processes, n = 20 service delivery) years of projects 5-10 yrs 11-15 yrs 16-20 yrs 21+ yrs work experience 12 24 14 0 qualification bachelor’s honour’s master’s doctoral degree degree degree degree 8 26 15 1 the participants for the concept mapping exercise were selected from experienced project managers who can contribute freely and not be influenced by the researcher/facilitator. a convenience sample of 30 practising project managers (different from the previous sample), who are post-graduate students in project management at the university of pretoria (2001) and who represent a cross section of organisations in south africa, dealing with all types of projects were selected. since they are experienced and come from a varied background with regard to projects it was felt that they would be able to make a valuable contribution to the study outcome. measuring instrument a qualitative dimension-questionnaire was developed from the key dimensions and associated elements identified in the literature study. a summary of the identified elements, from the literature study, of a project management culture (although the list is not exhaustive) is given in table 2. table 2 summary of identified elements from literature included in a project management culture 1. interpersonal relationships the degree to which relationships (understanding each other) between team members, customers and suppliers are playing an important role in the success of the project. 2. team emphasis the degree to which people participate in the management of the project and work activities are organised around groups rather than individuals. 3. management/stakeholder commitment the degree to which each stakeholder including management commits, by means of active participation and support, to the successful completion of the project. 4. interdependence the degree to which units within the organisation are encouraged to operate in a co-ordinated or interdependent manner. 5. control/discipline the degree to which rules, policies, and direct supervision are used to oversee and control employee behaviour. 6. risk orientation the degree to which the project environment encourages participants to be aggressive, innovative, and risk-seeking for success. 7. learning the degree to which projects are viewed as learning interventions and processes of continuous improvement. 8. conflict tolerance the degree to which employees are encouraged to air conflicts and criticisms openly and deal with it responsibly. 9. results orientation the degree to which management and team members focus on achievement of results and outcomes, rather on the means.the degree to which status in the organisation becomes less dependent on the organisational role held and more on the results one is able to accomplish, both individually and as a team. 10. open-system focus the degree to which the organisation and people involved monitor and respond to changes in the external environment. 11. open communication the degree to which shareholders communicate openly and share information about the project, its problems, opportunities, successes and failures. this questionnaire has a closed section consisting of eleven (11) elements of a project management culture as displayed in table 3, which had to be evaluated, as well as an open section where additional key dimension or elements could be mentioned by the participant. table 3 questionnaire of verifying key elements defining a project management culture complete the questionnaire of eleven (11) key elements/dimensions included in a project management culture i.e. “the way we do projects”, identified from literature, according to your perception. indicate each dimension's contribution to the definition of a project management culture, in an organisation using projects of any type, by drawing a 1cm line on the scale between high and low. eg. high negotiation low questionnaire : key elements defining a project management culture 1. interpersonal relationships high low 2. team emphasis high low 3. management/stakeholder commitment high low 4. interdependence high low 5. control/discipline high low 6. risk orientation high low 7. learning high low 8. conflict tolerance high low 9. results orientation high low 10. open-system focus high low 11. open communication high low project management culture (part 1) 39 procedure the research process followed included the completion of a questionnaire and a concept mapping exercise. the participants of the questionnaire were requested to complete the closedsection of the questionnaire, (table 2) according to their perception of the eleven (11) elements in a project management culture, identified from the literature, by indicating with a line drawn on the dimensions-scale between high and low. an example of how to conduct this evaluation was provided. they were also requested to add any relevant key elements according to their experience in the opensection of the questionnaire. the results can be seen in table 4. table 4 results of key dimensions defining a project management culture questionnaire: 1. interpersonalrelationships high low 2. team emphasis high low 3. management/stakeholder commitment high low 4. interdependence high low 5. control/discipline high low 6. risk orientation high low 7. learning high low 8. conflict tolerance high low 9. results orientation high low 10. open-system focus high low 11. open communication high low to further explore and clarify the concept of project management culture, concept mapping was used. concept mapping is a general method with which people's ideas about some topic in a graphical form can be clarified and described. by mapping out concepts in pictorial form, a better understanding of the relationships among the concepts can be drawn. concept mapping is especially a useful method for developing a conceptual framework, as is the case in this study (http://trochim.human.cornell.edu/kb/kbhome.htm, 2001). concept mapping encourages the participant group (research sample) to stay on task, and the conceptual framework is expressed in the language of the participants rather than in that of the planner/evaluator/researcher. with its pictorial representation and its participant-oriented features concept mapping can be a powerful method to organise complex problems and ideas. the timing and venue of the event should be suitable and convenient for participants to fully participate. participants were gathered during a lecture session week, that all attended. they were asked to participate in an early morning session (all were enthusiastic and energetic) and saw this as an added learning event, since they are interested in project management themselves. an initial two-hour session was scheduled to generate ideas, with an additional twohour session the next day to sort and prioritize ideas. the elements generated by the participants were structured in a logical combination of elements and evaluated in terms of their relevance to project management culture, as per definition of deal and kennedy (1982). the elements were integrated in terms of meaning and mutuality during a clarification and numbering session. the elements were subsequently rated according to importance and visually illustrated using cluster analysis and concept maps. results all the dimensions and descriptive elements identified during the concept mapping session were perceived as important by the participants. the results can be seen in table 5: table 5 identified project management culture elements through concept mapping (16 elements) 1. utilising project methodology/tools the methodology, tools and specific project approach, utilised in projects ensures the delivery of results. e.g. work breakdown structure (wbs), specifications, deadlines, milestones, project plan 2. open communication communication is seen as the "glue" that binds the parts together that makes the project succeeds. open communication ensures interdependence and breakdown of “silo’s”. 3. quick response projects do not have unlimited time to deliver, therefore the competence of members and utilisation of processes should enable a quick response, without sacrificing quality 4. commitment by all stakeholders involvement and commitment by all the parties who have a vested interest in the project is necessary. 5. integrated with organisational strategy if the project is not seen as contributing towards the strategic priorities of the organisation, it is likely not going to have the necessary resource allocation and support from management. 6. flexibility flexibility in structure and mindsets of people to ensure creativity and optimisation of resources. 7. delivering unique outcomes projects are unique and deliver unique outcomes according to user specifications and requirements. 8. uncertainty and risk the unique nature of projects creates change and with change comes uncertainty and risk. 9. discipline and control discipline with time, quality and costs are necessary for project performance. thus deadlines, quality specifications and costs should be controlled. 10. clear project goals clear project goals should be developed that focus all the parties to ensure a shared vision for successful delivery. 11. keeping focus focusing the efforts of diverse individuals on the project goal is vital, especially during major projects that can stretch over several years. 12. team effort a project is a team effort, due to the complexities and varied activities and expertise that might be necessary. 13. integration/coordination of activities and roles every member in the project process should have clear activities and roles, which should be integrated at the right time to ensure completion of planned deliverables. 14. interdependence interdependence amongst and between interested parties is vital, due to resource and information sharing. since a project follows an integrated process (systems-approach); any missing link can cause project failure. du plessis, hoole40 15. limited life-span/life cycle a project has a life cycle, comprising of various stages, with a definite start and ending. if the project does not deliver within a specific timespan, trade-offs between time, cost and quality will be necessary. this could lead to project failure. 16. environment of project support the organisation should support the project from start to end with organisational practices and systems. the necessary resources should be available. rewards and recognition should be in line with project performance. in comparing the results of the qualitative dimension questionnaire and the concept mapping process, support was found for the suggested project management culture assessment framework. the sixteen (16) elements mentioned in the concept mapping process (see table 5) correlate with the elements found to be relevant in the literat ure study and qualitative questionnaire – see table 6. table 6 comparison between findings on project management culture elements identified from literature and questionnaire with elements from concept mapping project management culture concept mapping elements (16) elements (11) identified from literature and questionnaire 1. interpersonal relations 14. interdependence 2. team emphasis 12. team effort 3. management/stakeholder 4. commitment by all stakeholders commitment and support 16. environment of project support 4. interdependence 14. interdependence 5. control/discipline 3. quick response 7. delivering unique outcomes 9. discipline and control 6. risk orientation 8. uncertainty and risk 7. learning *learning was not mentioned by project managers, maybe their paradigm does not include this as part of their experience in south african projects 8. conflict tolerance 13. integration/coordination of activities and roles 9. results orientation 5. integrated with organisational strategy 7. delivering unique outcomes 10. open-system focus 6. flexibility 11. keeping focus 11. open communication 2. open communication 12. project methodology and 1. utilising project methodology/ process tools this element was added in the 10. clear project goals open section of the questionnaire 15. limited life-span/life-cycle the literature researched indicated that a project management culture is important for project success and projects are key building blocks in the design and execution of business strategies. gray and larson (2003) acknowledged that, “project managers must shape a project culture that stimulates teamwork and high levels of personal motivation as well as a capacity to quickly identif y and resolve problems that threaten project work”. discussion findings from the research conducted provided no one definition of “project management culture”. it was found that the concepts “project culture”, “project management culture”, “project climate” and “project environment” are interrelated and often used in the same context. sufficient qualitative information was gathered from this research to develop a framework with guiding elements of the concept “project management culture”. the authors of this study are of the opinion that the definition of organisational culture by deal and kennedy (1982), “the way we do things around here”, can be superimposed onto projects and project management. adding to this the definition of organisational culture by schein (1984), “the pattern of basic assumptions that a given group has invented, discovered, or developed in learning to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, and that have worked well enough to be considered valid, and therefore to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems”, provides enough information to adequately define the concept. an illustration of how project management culture is defined, together with the descriptive elements belonging to each dimension can be seen in table 7: table 7 summary of project management culture framework and descriptive elements *organisational culture defined by deal and kennedy, 1982 * project management descriptive elements per culture framework dimension in framework the way project process or approach process elements: we do (how) � integrated process, systemic things in nature around � project life cycle here � disciplined and controlled � customer oriented delivery � results oriented with beneficial change � continuous improvement and learning people in the project: the people elements: project team and stakeholders � mindset (who and for whom) � results and risk oriented � disciplined and flexible paradigm � team-player � change readiness and � learning affinity � competent � committed and ethical � interdependence � trusting and trustworthy � sound interpersonal relations � open communication � conflict management � emotional intelligence project management structure and systems elements: methodology (what) � clear project plan structure and system � communication plan � work breakdown structure (wbs) � clear roles and responsibilities/ responsibility attainment matrix � team approach/networking � risk management � flexible boundaries/temporary structure � specifications, deadlines, milestones � measurement and control � learning project environment environmental elements: (where) � strategic emphasis � internal (in project team) � upper management support � external (organisation � project planning support and wider) � customer/end-user input � project execution support � organisational support (adapted from graham & englund, 1997) project management culture (part 1) 41 if the definition of organisational culture as being “the way we do things around here” (deal & kennedy, 1982), is taken and superimposed onto a project, the following can be said about project management culture: � the way = refers to the project process (how) � we = refer to the people in the project, i.e. project team and stakeholders (who and for whom) � do things = refer to the project management methodology (what) � around here = refers to the project environment (where). the proposed framework is much in line with the fourdimension success model developed by kendra and taplin (2004). the model of kendra and taplin (2004) focuses on the relationships and impact of the dimensions on success, whereas the framework developed by this study attempted to develop an operational definition of project management culture and its descriptive elements, which can be used as a conceptual framework. the results obtained from this st udy are t wofold: the framework can be used to further develop an assessment tool for measuring the operational project management culture of organisations to enhance project success or it can be used as an organisational development process to create a project management culture in the organisation. the degree to which an organisation supports the elements in the framework and how they will measure against the project management cult ure framework, will determine how successful organisations will be in utilizing projects as a mean of achieving business goals. the framework and descriptive elements derived from this study are going to be deployed as theoretical constructs in the development of an operational project management culture assessment tool, which will be presented in a separate article. the value of this study to the field of human resources management is fundamental as it indicates the ability of the “softer sciences” to contribute meaningfully in what is often seen as the domain of the “harder sciences”. human resources management is a strategic partner in business improvement and project management success. this study has successfully contributed to the multi-disciplinary environment where human resources management is often neglected due to ignorance or a silo mentality. references andersen, e.s. (2003). understanding your organization’s project character. project management journal, 34 (4), 4. baba, m., falkenburg, d. & hill, d. (1996). technolog y management and american culture: implications for business process design. research technology management, 39 (6), 44-54. ball, a. & asbury, s. (1989). the winning way. jonathan ball: johannesburg. bohn, r.e. (1994). measuring and managing technological knowledge. sloan management review, fall, 61-73. chell, e. (1994). making the right decision, organizational culture, vision and planning. international small business journal, 12 (2), 90. cleland, d.i. (1982). the human side of project management. in a.j. kelly (ed.), new dimensions of project management. lexington, ma: d.c. heath and company. cleland, d.i. (1988). the cultural ambience of project management – another look. project management journal. june, 49-56. cleland, d.i. (1994). 2nd ed project management – strategic design and implementation. mcgraw-hill. cleland, d.i. (1996). strategic management of teams. wiley & sons: new york. cooke, r.a, & rousseau, d.m. (1988). behavioural norms and expectations: a quantitative approach to the assessment of organizational culture. group and organization studies, 13, 245-273. cummings, t. & worley, c. (1991). organizational development and change (6th ed). cincinnati, oh: south western college. deal, t.e. & kennedy, a.a. (1982). corporate cultures: the rites and rituals of corporate life. addison-wesley: reading ma. dinsmore, p.c. (1999). winning in business with enterprise project management. amacom publishers. duncan, w.r. (2001). electronic discussion. http://www.lists. uts.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/pmnet. du plessis, y. (2001). defining the concept of “project culture” in organisations – a framework of guiding principles. mba thesis, university of pretoria, pretoria. faules, d. (1982). the use of multi-methods in the organizational setting. western journal of speech communication, 42, 150161. firth, g. & krut, r. (1991). introducing a project management culture. european management journal, 9 (4), 437-443. frohman, a. (1998). building a culture for innovation. research technology management, 41 (3), 9-12. glaser, s. r., zamanou, s. & hacker, k. (1987). measuring and interpreting organizational culture. management communication quarterly, 1 (2), 173-198. graham, r.j, & englund, r. l. (1997). creating an environment for successful projects. jossey-bass publishers : san francisco, california. gray, c.f & larson, e.w. (2003). project management – the managerial process. irwin mcgraw-hill: usa. hall, j. (1999). six principles for successful business change management. management ser vices enfield, 43 (4),16-18. harrison, f.l. (1992). advanced project management (3rd ed). new york: halsted press. henrie, m. (2004). project management: a sociotechnical cultural literature review. old dominion university. hobbs, b. & menard, p. (1993). organizational choices for project management. in p.c. dinsmore (ed), the ama handbook of project management. new york: amacon. hofstede, g. (1997). cultures and organizations. software of the mind. new york: mcgraw-hill. jick,t.d. (1979). mixing qualitative and quantitative methods: triangulation in action, administrative science quarterly, 24, 602-611. kendra, k. & taplin, l.j. (2004). project success. a cultural framework. project management journal, 35 (1), 30-45. kerzner, h. (1998). 6th edition. project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling and controling. van nostrand reinhold: new york. kerzner, h. (2000). applied project management. new york: john wiley & sons. kotter, j.p. & heskett, j. l. (1992). corporate culture and performance. new york free press. kotnour, t. (1999). a learning framework for project management. project management journal, 30 (2), 32-39. kreitner, r. & kinicki, a. (1995). organizational behavior. 3rd edition. irwin:usa. lientz, b.p. & rea, k.p. (1999). breakthrough technology project management. academic press. martin, j. & siehl, c. (1983). organizational culture and counter culture: an uneasy symbiosis. organizational dynamics, 52-64. martin, p.k. & tate, k. (1998). projects that get quality treatment. the journal for quality and participation, 21 (6), 58-61. peters, l.a. & homer, j. (1996). learning to lead, to create quality, to influence change in projects. project management journal, 27 (1), 5-11. peters, t.j. & waterman, r.h. jr. (1982). in search of excellence: lessons from america's best-run companies. harper & row: new york. du plessis, hoole42 pinto, j.f. & kharbanda, o.p. (1996). how to fail in project management without really trying. business horizons, 39 (4), 45-55. rousseau, d.m. (1990). assessing organisational culture: the case of multiple methods. in b. schneider (ed.), organisational climate and culture. jossey-bass: san francisco. saia, r. (1997). harvesting project leaders. (cultivating project managers) computer world, 21 (31), 81-110. schein, e.h. (1984). coming to a new awareness of organisational culture. sloan management review, 25 (2), 3-15. shockley-zalabak, p. (1992). fundamentals of organisational communication. new york: longman. shockley-zalabak, p. & morley, d.d. (1989). adhering to organisational culture: what does it mean? why does it matter? group & organisation studies, 14 (4), 483-500. standish group international. (2000). sur vey results for information technology projects. http://www.standishgroup. com. sweeney, p. j. & lee, d. r. (1999). support and commitment factors of project teams. engineering management journal, 11 (3), 13–18. ulrich, d. (1998). a new mandate for human resources. har vard business review, 76 (1), 124-134. ulrich, d. & brockbank, w. (2005). the hr value proposition. hbs press. verma, v.k. (1996). human resources skills for the project manager. usa: project management institute. wang, x. (2001). dimensions and current status of project management culture. project management journal, 32 (4), 4-17. zimmer, b.t. (1999). project management: break through or bust. hospital material management quarterly, 21, 93-99. project management culture (part 1) 43 6stone.qxd the potential benefits of an organisational mentoring programme that is soundly designed, correctly implemented and well managed are numerous (clawson, 1979; clutterbuck, 2001; clutterbuck & ragins, 2002; coetzee & stone, 2004; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; kram, 1985a; 1985b; scandura, tejeda, werther & l ankau, 1996; tabbron, macaulay & cook, 1997). it is considered an important training and development tool, both in the academic literat ure (hunt & michael, 1983; kram, 1985a) and in practice. while literat ure on mentoring intervent ions in the organisational context is plentiful (arnold, 1997; caldwell & carter, 1993; coetzee & stone, 2004; clutterbuck, 2001; clutterbuck & ragins, 2002; forret, turban & doughert y, 1996; galbraith & cohen, 1995; greenhaus, callanan & godshalk, 2001; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; kram, 1985a; kram & bragar, 1992; veale & wachtel, 1996), and the issues facing women in mentoring have also received attention (akande, 1994; clutterbuck & ragins, 2002; kram, 1985a; hurley & fagenson-eland, 1996; linehan & walsh, 1999; okanlawon, 1994; ragins & cotton, 1996; thomas, 2001), few studies have focused specifically on the barriers to mentoring faced by women in the south african organisational context. given the increased focus on organisational compliance with labour legislation such as the employment equit y act, 55 of 1998, and the escalating proportion of women joining the workforce, the lack of attention to this issue could be considered an urgent concern. furthermore it could be argued that the existing literature dealing with the barriers faced by women in mentoring are not only plentiful, they are also problem-focused rather than solution-focused. the literature primarily emphasises the challenges faced by women, but it contains very few practical recommendations to aid the reduction of the barriers to mentoring experienced by women in the south african organisational context women and mentoring the directions taken in the world of work and in staff development in particular have unquestionably been the result of continuous, rapid change (coetzee & stone, 2004; finkelstein, allen & rhoton, 2003; handy, 1994; jossi, 1997; schreuder & theron, 2001). viewed within a systems context (cascio, 1998), changing societal and political norms have led to changes in the composition of the workforce. the workforce now includes greater numbers of women, the average age of workers have increased, and there is more cultural and ethnic variability (arnold, 1997; grobler, warnich, carrell, elbert & hatfield, 2002), countering the previous image of predominantly homogenous organisations. in the south african context the provisions of the employment equity act,. 55 of 1998, have placed particular emphasis on correcting demographic imbalances in the workplace. every organisation in south africa should regard the development of historically disadvantaged staff, which specifically includes women, as a high priority (grobler et al., 2002). for many organisations, the implementation of mentoring has proven to be a useful mechanism for advancing workplace diversity through the development of female employees (amongst others) to ensure legislative compliance and to redress past inequalities (greenhaus et al, 2001; schreuder & theron, 2001). the concept of mentoring is not new. although it is closely related to craft apprenticeship schemes of the past (wilbur, 1987) and despite numerous different approaches to the definition thereof (armstrong, allinson & hayes, 2002; clutterbuck & lane, 2005), it is in many ways simply a modern term for a time-honoured concept (hagenow & mccrea, 1994; clutterbuck & sweeney, 2003). clutterbuck and sweeney (2003, p4) define the mentoring process in a contemporary organisational context as “off-line help by one person to another in making significant transitions in knowledge, work or thinking”. mentoring is viewed as a developmental, caring, sharing, helping relationship where one person invests time, know-how and effort to increase and improve another person’s growth, knowledge and skills (klasen & clutterbuck, 2002). kevin stone melinde coetzee department of industrial & organisational psychology university of south africa abstract the purpose of this study was to investigate the impediments to effective mentoring faced by women protégés at two south african organisations. the purposive sampling method was used to identif y female employees who had participated as protégés in a mentoring relationship (n=17). qualitative methods were used to collect and analyse data on the respondents’ experiences of the mentoring relationship. the findings indicated numerous barriers to mentoring for women. a basic taxonomy of recommendations for reducing these barriers in the workplace is recommended. opsomming die doel met hierdie studie was om die hindernisse wat deur vroue protégés in twee suid-afrikaanse organisasies ervaar word ten opsigte van doeltreffende hulp en leiding (mentoring), te ondersoek. ’n doelmatigheidsteekproefneming is aangewend om vroulike werknemers wat deel van ’n mentorverhouding was, te identifiseer (n=17). kwalitatiewe metodes is benut om data oor die respondente se ervaring van die mentorverhouding te versamel en te ontleed. die bevindinge dui op aansienlike hindernisse tot die mentor van vroue. ’n basiese taksonomie van aanbevelings vir die vermindering van hierdie hindernisse in die werkplek word aanbeveel. levelling the playing field: reducing barriers to mentoring for women protégés in the south african organisational context requests for copies should be addressed to: m coetzee, coetzm1@unisa.ac.za 33 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (3), 33-39 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (3), 33-39 organisations are increasingly t urning to mentoring programmes as a vehicle for creating opportunities for open communication among employees and for assimilating newcomers into the institutional culture (clutterbuck, 2004; clutterbuck & ragins, 2002; parsloe & wray, 2000; webb, 1995). from an individual perspective, having a mentor has been linked to mobility and career advancement (baruch, 2004; clawson, 1979; clutterbuck, 2001; clutterbuck, 2004; jennings, 1971; kram, 1985a; 1985b; phillips-jones, 1982; scandura, 1992; stumpf & london, 1981). in the race to the top, mentors can make the difference between getting on the inside track and trailing the field (dreher & ash, 1990; fagenson, 1989; scandura & williams, 2002; scandura & hamilton, 2002; whitely, dougherty & dreher, 1991). a number of studies indicate that persons who have received extensive mentoring report that they are promoted more often, earn higher incomes and are more satisfied with pay and benefits (akande, 1994; hall & kahn, 2002; parsloe & wray, 2000; scandura & hamilton, 2002). so too, research consistently indicates that mentoring is related to a variety of positive work outcomes, including higher degrees of career and organisational commitment, recognition, satisfaction, career mobility and compensation (fagenson, 1989; greenhaus et al, 2001; klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; whitely et al, 1991). mentoring becomes especially important in a diverse (multicultural or multigender) environment where nonperformance-related factors can block career progress (clutterbuck & ragins, 2002; finkelstein et al, 2003; gordon, 1993). women, in particular, are told that mentors are essential for overcoming gender-related barriers to advancement (burke & mckeen, 1990; noe, 1988; ragins, 1989;thomas, 2001). studies have consistently shown that a significantly high proportion of women with successful careers have received encouragement and support from mentors (arnold & davidson, 1990; hennig & jardim, 1978; ragins, 1997; ragins & cotton, 1991). paradoxically, mentoring for women has not occurred to a sufficient degree in the workplace, and female employees often find themselves restrained by a number of barriers (akande, 1994; clutterbuck & ragins, 2002). the following barriers have been identified through various studies: women lack access to networks within organisations; women may be viewed as tokens who cannot reach top management; and misconceptions about women’s abilities to manage may reduce the view of their performances. in addition, women may be seen as having been socialised to develop personalities alien to management success; cross-gender mentoring relationships may be viewed as taboo; and women may rely on ineffective sources of power, thereby reducing their success (clutterbuck & ragins, 2002; kram, 1985a; linehan & walsh, 1999; morrison, 1988; noe, 1986; 1988; ragins & cotton, 1996; robbins, 1993). recurring problems faced by women entering and sustaining mentoring relationships include the absence of women in influential positions who can be effective mentors and role models, marital disruption, and the possibility of sexual undertones in cross-gender mentoring which may constrain the relationship (arnold, 1997; clutterbuck & ragins, 2002; greenhaus et al, 2001; thomas, 2001). moreover, although mentoring relationships may prove to be crucial for women’s strategic decision-making in organisations, women are significantly less likely than men to develop these relationships (linehan & walsh, 1999; nieva & gutek, 1981). based on such findings, there can be little doubt that women are handicapped in the race to enter and sustain mentoring initiatives. this has been confirmed by a marked proliferation of training and development programmes aimed at helping female employees develop mentoring relationships (burke & mckeen, 1989; chao, walz & gardner, 1992). however, these programmes are often instit uted without a clear understanding of the barriers to mentoring that women may encounter. in reality, organisations are spending considerable sums of money on programmes to remove barriers without a clear understanding of what these barriers act ually are (clutterbuck & ragins, 2002; ragins & cotton, 1996). in a diverse workplace such as the t y pical south african organisation, the successful development and advancement of women can spell the difference between strategically aligned, equitable workforce practices and a definitive lack of legislative compliance (grobler et al, 2002). viewed against the backdrop of the challenges and complexities regarding the mentoring of women, the implementation of mentoring targeted at female employees may require interventions that take into account the unique barriers faced by south african women who attempt to enter and sustain mentoring relationships. the objective of this study is to investigate women’s perceptions of the impediments to effective mentoring in the south african organisational context. more specifically, the research aims to answer the following research questions: � how effectively does the organisation focus on the development of women? � what do female mentees perceive as the major barriers or problems they face in participating in a mentoring relationship? research design research approach a qualitative approach was decided upon, since as this approach is specifically suitable when the research takes place in a natural setting (silverman, 2000). qualitative research attempts to make sense of and interpret constructs and phenomena in terms of the meanings that people ascribe to them, thus seeking to give meaning to social experience (denzin & lincoln, 1994). merriam (2002) also recommends that a qualitative approach be used when the research objectives are exploratory and descriptive. silverman (2000) also asserts that qualitative studies are commonly believed to provide a deeper understanding of the phenomenon being investigated. since the research questions pertain to understanding and describing a particular phenomenon about which very little is known, the qualitative approach appeared to be the most suitable for gaining insight about respondents’ perceptions of the barriers females experience regarding sustaining an effective mentoring relationship in the south african organisational context (creswell, 1994). this study was therefore conducted within a qualitative paradigm and the grounded theory method was used to develop an inductively derived theory (strauss & corbin, 1990). this method enabled the researcher to study the phenomenon (barriers to mentoring) within its context and facilitated the systematic generation of theoretical principles from, and grounded in, the data regarding the respondents’ expectations of and viewpoints on the impediments to effective mentoring as experienced by female mentees. respondents two south african information technology (it) organisations were used as case study institutions for this study. the population consisted of 375 it employees – 235 from organisation a, and 140 from organisation b. in organisation a, 24% of the employees were female and in organisation b 41% were female. in both organisations women occupy less than 15% of senior management positions. a non-random, purposive sampling strategy (huysamen, 1994) was adopted to identif y females who had participated as a stone, coetzee34 protégé in a mentoring relationship during the previous year. this process identified 17 female mentees (n=17) from the two case study organisations who agreed to participate in the study. the sample constituted 1 coloured, 10 white, 3 indian, and 3 african females. twelve of the females were matched with a male mentor and five of the females were matched with a female mentor. the 10 white mentees were all matched with white mentors, whilst the 1 coloured, 1 of the 3 indian, and 2 of the african female mentees were matched with white mentors. two indian females were matched with an indian mentor whilst 1 african mentee was matched with an african mentor. the mean age of the mentors was 36 and those of the mentees 27 years. method of data gathering the study was conducted within a qualitative research paradigm. the qualitative data collection technique in this study included a semi-structured qualitative interview with each participant. the duration of each interview was approximately 25 minutes and respondents were asked to answer t wo open-ended questions, namely: � how effectively does your organisation focus on the development of women? � as a female protégé, what (if any) were the major barriers or problems you faced in participating in a mentoring relationship? procedure the women were approached telephonically or via e-mail and invited to participate in the study. the nature of the study was explained and anonymity guaranteed. participants were offered the opportunity to peruse and comment on the transcripts of interviews once they became available. data analysis the data was analysed with the aid of a qualitative content analysis process (berg, 2001). by the end of the data collection and transcription process, a preliminary understanding of the data had been obtained. thereafter, underlying themes were induced, which indicated organising principles that underscored the data. this was followed by a coding process, during which sections of the data were labelled as relevant to one or more of the identified themes. in addition, the frequency of responses to questions and the occurrence of themes were analysed in a quantitative manner (berg, 2001). in conclusion, the themes were interpreted in the light of existing literature on the topic, which made meaningful interpretation of the results possible. results the main findings indicated that white male mentors were still predominant. the female mentees indicated that limited attention was given to the development of women. the crossgender composition seemed to create barriers that made it difficult for the respondents to participate effectively in the mentoring relationship. the racial homogeneity of employees with the necessary expertise to mentor others in the workplace successfully (ragins, 1995) was reflected in the sample it is also interesting to note that only black (african, coloured, indian) individuals had participated in cross-cultural mentoring relationships, while all the white protégés were matched to white mentors. these findings collectively confirm the relatively high representation within these case study organisations of white males in senior positions that lend themselves to the mentoring of developing female employees. of the 17 women who participated in the study, 12 indicated that they had been in a cross-gender mentoring relationship (i.e. with male mentors), confirming the general finding that women are more likely to enter workplace mentoring relationships with male mentors (arnold, 1997; clutterbuck & ragins, 2002). kram’s (1985a) proposition that mentors are generally older than their protégés was ref lected in the current sample, with the participating protégé’s reportedly being on average almost 7 years younger than their male mentors, and 2 years younger than their female mentors. effectiveness of the development of women in organisational context the majorit y of respondents felt that their organisation was not doing enough to focus specifically on the development and advancement of women. according to some respondents “prejudice” and “discrimination”, although outlawed by south africa’s employment equit y act, 55 of 1998, were still prevalent, and affected the development of women in the case study organisations negatively. a common concern was the “lack of senior management support” for initiatives aimed particularly at developing women, and some respondents felt that their organisation was “not accepting its responsibilit y” to foster the development of women in the workplace (greenhaus et al, 2001). one participant summarised her perception of the matter by stating that her organisation’s “lack of commitment to the advancement of women is clearly mirrored by its lack of female management representation”. numerous respondents interpreted the lack of formal programmes aimed specifically at the development of women as a lack of management support for the process of developing female employees. more often than not, this led to the perception that efforts at furthering their careers in the organisation (e.g. through a mentoring relationship) would be “futile”. respondents indicated that female protégés aspiring to management positions were often pressured to adopt the traditional male managerial skills and attitudes (linehan & walsh, 1999; okanlawon, 1994). perceptions of the major barriers to participating in the mentoring relationship in response to the question about the barriers or problems that made it difficult for the respondents to participate in a mentoring relationship within their respective organisations, the majority of them indicated that the participation of women in workplace developmental relationships was fraught with difficulty. most respondents indicated that they have fewer formal and informal opportunities to obtain mentors than their male counterparts, a view supported by okanlawon (1994). research confirms that women are less likely than their male counterparts to report having had mentoring relationships (clutterbuck & ragins, 2002; dreher & cox, 1996). it was indicated that women who occupied high-profile positions often resisted mentoring junior female employees. these women seemed to prefer not to have their actions construed by male colleagues as a sign of weakness or to avoid other females who could threaten their positions. this so-called “queen bee syndrome” (okanlawon, 1994; powell, 1988) further exacerbated the difficulties experienced by women wishing to enter mentoring relationships. two interviewees referred to the “glass ceiling” concept. they indicated that women could not move into top management positions because of discrimination in the workplace, the inability of women to penetrate the “old boys’ network” and the tendency of executives to promote others like themselves (larwood & gutek, 1987; morrison & von glinow, 1988). it was felt that this negated the purpose of mentoring relationships and relegated such initiatives to the equivalent of “windowdressing” or tokenism (greenhaus et al, 2001) to achieve gender equity targets. generally, the respondents recounted difficult y and reluctance in situations where they had to initiate mentoring barriers to mentoring of women proteges 35 relationships. the most common reason for this was that they felt their approach could be “misinterpreted as a sexual advance” by potential male mentors (clawson & kram, 1984; clutterbuck & ragins, 2002; galbraith & cohen, 1995; linehan & walsh, 1999; ragins, 1989). one participant indicated that she had been turned down by a potential male mentor who feared the possibilit y of being charged with sexual harassment should he unwittingly “act out of his place”, indicating unclear boundaries in this regard (hurley & fagenson-eland, 1996; reynolds, 1993). respondents expressed the opinion that issues of increasing int imacy and sexual tension inherent to cross-gender relationships (kram, 1985a) made it difficult to establish rapport and added stress to the mentoring relationship. at times these issues even resulted in the demise of the mentoring relationship (arnold, 1997). the respondents indicated that there were few suitable female mentors available in their organisations. the subsequent crossgender mentoring relationships in some cases resulted in a loss of credibility as colleagues apparently perceived an element of romantic involvement bet ween mentor and protégé (bowen, 1985, ragins & cotton, 1996). another complication of cross-gender mentoring relationships common to a traditionally male-dominated workplace was that protégés found it difficult to identif y with the role model or mentor. women in the early years of their career often face development dilemmas that are unique to females in a maledominated organisational context (baker-miller, 1976; clutterbuck & ragins, 2002; kanter, 1977; missirian, 1982). as one respondent claimed, “male mentors simply don’t understand what it means to be a female protégé in the workplace today”. respondents suggested that employees who were very assert ive in their at tempts to init iate a mentoring relationship were often seen as threatening (especially by potent ial male mentors), primarily as the result of traditional or “legacy” sex-role expectations (clutterbuck & ragins, 2002; maccoby & jacklin, 1974) still prevalent in the south african workplace. while men were expected to seek a mentor actively, participants felt that women were expected to wait until they were chosen. relatively poor representation of women in top management (couric, 1989; linehan & walsh, 1999; ragins & cotton, 1991; ragins & scandura, 1994) meant that senior management rarely understood the particular issues faced by women hoping to f urther their careers through mechanisms such as mentoring. it was also felt that this “reduced the potential pool of suitable female mentors”. one respondent mentioned a “vicious cycle” in the workplace. her perception was that although women were in need of mentors, their relative lack of experience often made it difficult for them to obtain mentors because they did not know how mentoring works or how to approach it. this view is confirmed by ragins and cotton (1996). women in both case study organisations generally occupied low-level staff positions (clutterbuck & ragins, 2002; ragins & sundstrom, 1989), resulting in a reduced likelihood that they would be afforded the opportunit y to demonstrate involvement in key decision-making tasks that could give rise to mentoring relationships (kram, 1985a; reich, 1985). so too, a number of respondents felt that they lacked access to “male-dominated net works” and therefore had less opportunit y to penetrate the dominant coalition (brass, 1985; clutterbuck & ragins, 2002; dreher & doughert y, 199). either by design or by default, women were often excluded from the informal meetings and net works where mentorprotégé relationships were regularly initiated (greenhaus et al, 2001). table 1 gives an overview of the key barriers reported by the respondents. table 1 barriers to mentoring for women protégés lack of opportunities to obtain mentors lack of management support exclusion from male-dominated networks poor representation of women in top management prejudice/discrimination against women misinterpretation of sexual boundaries in cross-gender relationships pressure to adapt traditional male managerial attitudes & values lack of suitable female mentors legacy sex-role expectations difficulty relating to male role modelsissues of intimacy & sexual tension in cross-gender relationships lack of experience in forming and sustaining mentoring relationships lack of willingness among of senior females to mentor their junior counterparts discussion the results of the present study have a number of practical implications for organisations seeking to promote the development and advancement of women through mentoring relationships. the elimination of all these barriers may not be possible (clutterbuck & ragins, 2002; hurley & fagenson-eland, 1996), but organisations that study the impediments that women face in initiating and sustaining mentoring relationships, and work on solutions which will alleviate or reduce those barriers, are more likely to sustain productive, effective mentoring initiatives (klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; lobel, 1993). based on the findings of this study, as well as salient contributions to the field of women in mentoring outlined elsewhere in this article, a taxonomy of interventions aimed at reducing the problems faced by female employees in developmental mentoring relationships is proposed. a summary of the taxonomy – divided into initiatory or access barriers, cross-gender barriers and equity barriers – is presented in figure 1, with further elaboration in the discussion thereafter. figure 1 proposed taxonomy of interventions for reducing barriers faced by women protégés in mentoring reducing initiatory or access barriers � the establishment of formal mentoring programmes in organisations, as opposed to ad hoc or informal mentoring, will help improve access to mentors (klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; ragins & cotton, 1996). it may also help alleviate stone, coetzee36 protégés’ fear of approaching male mentors and male mentors’ fear of seeking out female protégés (hurley & fagenson-eland, 1996). these programmes (and their formal communication) will also help alleviate rumours about women who initiate mentoring relationships with men for sexual reasons, because the protégés could be assigned mentors by the organisation (lewis & fagenson, 1995) under the auspices of a formal development programme. � a formal register of potential mentors and protégés may simplif y the process of gaining access to suitable partnerships in mentoring relationships. it may also reduce the stigma attached to cross-gender developmental partnerships. � human resource staff and organisations should increase the number of opportunities for women to meet potential mentors on an informal basis (klasen & clutterbuck, 2002; ragins & cotton, 1996). this may be accomplished by breaking down barriers to informal networking, for example by sponsoring social interaction between potential mentors and protégés. reducing cross-gender barriers � training programmes can be developed for potential female protégés and their mentors (ragins & cotton, 1996). these programmes could be integrated with diversity efforts (ragins, 1995), and could examine and alleviate sexual concerns in cross-gender relationships. they could also determine how gender-role stereotypes influence opinions about who has responsibility for initiating mentoring relationships. ragins and cotton (1996) further suggest that women who have successfully acted as mentors and role models be used in these training sessions. the training should also explicitly deal with the dangers of sexualising the mentoring relationship (mainiero, 1989; wilson & elman, 1990) by facilitating an understanding of the differences bet ween sexual harassment, nonsexual psychologically intimate relationships, and sexually intimate relationships. � the mentoring process should be as open and transparent as possible. this would help eliminate negative perceptions of women in mentoring, and could include specific guidelines aimed at eliminating problems with sexuality and intimacy in cross-gender mentoring relationships (hurley & fagensoneland, 1996). � hurley and fagenson-eland (1996) suggest that mentors and protégés keep mentoring journals to help them keep track of any problems that develop, and to enable management to facilitate the smooth running of mentoring programmes. � ragins and cotton (1996) suggest that the number of potential female mentors could be increased by formally recognising mentoring activities in performance appraisals and salary decisions. by making the benefits greater than the costs, organisations can promote the development of female mentors and circumvent many of the barriers women face in developing cross-gender mentoring relationships. reducing equity barriers � top management must, as a matter of critical urgency, demonstrate their support of mentoring programmes (catalyst, 1993; clutterbuck & klasen, 2002). by committing to the advancement of women through policies, communication and overt action, both potential protégés and mentors would be more likely to initiate productive mentoring relationships. � the targeted development of women is strongly opposed by some (harlan & weiss, 1980) who say it merely highlights the perceived differences bet ween men and women in the workplace. yet research has proven that it is less threatening and that it enables women to overcome paternalist ic workplace dominat ion (l angrish, 1980; makin, cooper & cox, 1989). in the south african context where redress of past gender imbalances in the workplace is a priorit y (employment equit y act, 55 of 1998), a caref ul balance should be struck bet ween training females along their male counterparts to increase their knowledge and experience, and educating male employees so that they become aware of the barriers women face in the organisation. fast-track development programmes for women are well-known components of employment equit y programmes in the south african context. if these are implemented and managed properly, they may help reduce some of the barriers faced by women in mentoring relationships. � if potential minority mentors are identified in a wellplanned manner and if the development of these individuals’ mentoring skills is prioritised, the gender and cultural heterogeneity of the pool of available mentors could improve. � organisations that regard the successful mentoring of women as important may need to reconsider their organisational culture. many values held and assumptions made within a western, male construct may not be appropriate and, instead of promoting multiple perspectives, may lead to mentoring that aims for homogenisation or conformity to one viewpoint (clutterbuck & ragins, 2002; galbraith & cohen, 1995). moreover, the culture of an organisation significantly affects the extent to which differences in demographics will interfere with the establishment of development alliances (kram, 1985a). � dreher and dougherty (1997) proposed the design and establishment of an integrated career management and assessment system (cmas) that incorporates numerous career management initiatives. such a cmas would serve as a substitute for career mentoring and curb the oftenlimiting effect of gender in mentoring relationships. this may be a feasible solution for south african organisations seeking to reduce these and other equityrelated imbalances to ensure legislative compliance and fair personnel practices. in conclusion, this study provided insight into the perceptions of women who participated in mentoring programmes at two case study organisations in south africa. the results of the study were integrated with contributions from topical literature on the barriers faced by women who want to participate in mentoring relationships, culminating in the proposal of a brief taxonomy of potential mechanisms to reduce such barriers in the south african organisation. a limitation of this sampling strateg y is that the findings of the study only apply to women in the sample, and therefore cannot necessarily be assumed to be applicable to all female protégés in south african mentoring relationships. fut ure research on the topic of reducing the barriers faced by women in mentoring could possibly focus on the utilit y of the recommended initiatives in the south african workplace. it could also include a detailed exploration of the specific complexities surrounding women in developmental relationships that are simultaneously cross-gender and cross-cultural. there can be no doubt that mentoring adds immense value to the development of women in particular and effective career management in general (arnold, 1997, baruch, 2002) in the south african context. however, organisations will have to align themselves strategically to make the successful mentoring of women possible. organisations need to develop a vision of mentoring that emphasises the acceptance of differences that enrich their worldview and ultimately transform mentoring practices to make them congruent with a diverse south african society (galbraith & cohen, 1995). organisations that institute mechanisms to address women’s concerns regarding mentoring will reap the full benefits of mentoring in the south african organisational context. barriers to mentoring of women proteges 37 references akande, a. (1994). the glass ceiling: women and mentoring in management and business. employee counselling today, 6 (1), 21-28. armstrong, c.w., allinson, c.w. & hayes, j. (2002). formal mentoring systems: the effects of mentor/protégé cognitive styles on the mentoring process. journal of management studies, 39 (8), 1111-1137. arnold, j. (1997). managing careers into the 21st century. london: paul chapman. arnold, v. & davidson, m.j. (1990). adopt a mentor – the way ahead for women managers? women in management review and abstracts, 5 (1), 10-18. baker-miller, j. (1976). towards a new psychology of women. boston: beacon press.baruch, y. (2002). career systems in transition: a normative model for organisational career practices. personnel review, 32 (2), 231-251. baruch, y. (2004). transforming careers: from linear to multidirectional career paths: organisational and individual perspectives. career development international, 9 (1), 58-73. berg, b.l. (2001). qualitative research methods for the social sciences. boston: allyn & bacon. bowen, d.d. (1985). were men meant to mentor women? training and development journal, 39 (2), 31-34. brass, d.j. (1985). men’s and women’s networks: a study of interaction patterns and influence in an organisation. academy of management journal, 28, 327-343. burke, r.j. & mckeen, c.a. (1989). developing formal mentoring programmes in organisations. business quarterly, 53 (3), 76-99. burke, r.j. & mckeen, c.a. (1990). mentoring in organisations: implications for women. journal of business ethics, 9, 317-332. caldwell, b.j. & carter, e.m.a. (1993). the return of the mentor: strategies for workplace learning. london: falmer. cascio, w.f. (1998). applied psychology in human resource management (5th ed.). upper saddle river: prentice hall. catalyst, c. (1993). mentoring: a guide to corporate programs and practices. new york, ny: catalyst. chao, g.t., walz, p.m. & gardner, p.d. (1992). formal and informal mentorships: a comparison on mentoring functions and contrast with non-mentored counterparts. personnel psychology, 45, 619-636. clawson, j.g. & kram, k.e. (1984). managing cross-gender mentoring. business horizons, 27 (3), 22-32. clawson, j.g. (1979). superior-subordinate relationships for managerial development. unpublished doctoral dissertation. boston, harvard business school, boston, ma. clawson, j.g. (1980). mentoring in managerial careers. in c.b. derr (ed.) work, family and the career. new york: praeger. clutterbuck, d. (1993). everyone needs a mentor: fostering talent at work (2nd ed.). london: institute of personnel management. clutterbuck, d. (2001). everyone needs a mentor: fostering talent at work. london: cipd. clutterbuck, d. (2004). the situational mentor. london: gower. clutterbuck, d. & ragins, b.r. (2002). mentoring and diversity: an international perspective. johannesburg: butterworthheinemann. clutterbuck, d. & sweeney, j. (2003). coaching and mentoring. burnham: clutterbuck & associates. coetzee, m. & stone, k. (2004). learner support: toward learning and development. knowres: randburg. couric, e. (1989). women in the large firms: a high price of admission? national law journal, december, 2-12. coyle, a. (1989). women in management: a suitable case for treatment. feminist review, 31, spring. creswell, j.w. (1994). research design: qualitative and quantitative approaches. california: sage publications. denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. (1994). handbook of qualitative research. thousand oaks, califca: sage. dreher, g.f. & ash, r.a. (1990). a comparitive study of mentoring among men and women in managerial, professional, and technical positions. journal of applied psychology, 75, 539-543. dreher, g.f. & cox, t.h. (1996). race, gender, and opportunity: a study of compensation attainment and the establishment of mentoring relationships. journal of applied psychology, 81, 297-308. employment equity act. (1998). no. 55 of 1998. pretoria: government printers. fagenson, e.a. (1989). the mentor advantage: perceived career/job experiences of protégés vs non-protégés. journal of organisational behaviour, 10, 309-320. finkelstein, l.m., allen, t.d., & rhoton, l.a. (2003). an examination of the role of age in mentoring relationships. group & organisation management, 28 (2), 249-281. forret, m.l., turban, d.b. & dougherty, t.w. (1996). issues facing orgainzations when implementing formal mentoring programmes. leadership and organisation de velopment journal, 17 (3), 27-30. galbraith, m.w. & cohen, n.h. (1995). mentoring: new strategies and challenges. san francisco: jossey-bass. gordon, j. (1993). organisational behaviour. boston, ma: allyn & bacon. greenhaus, j.h., callanan, g.a. & godshalk, v.m. (2001). career management. new york: dryden. grobler, p.a., warnich, s., carrell, m.r., elbert, n.f. & hatfield, r.d. (2002). human resource management in south africa. canada: thomson. hagenow, n.r. & mccrea, m.a. (1994). a mentoring relationship. nursing management, 251 (12), 42-43. hall, d.t. & kahn, w.a. (2002). developmental relationships at work: a learning perspective. in c.l. cooper & r.j. burke (eds.). the new world of work: challenges and opportunities, 49-74. oxford: blackwell. handy, c. (1994). the empty raincoat. london: hutchinson. hansman, c.a. (1998). mentoring and women’s career development. in l.l. bierema (ed.). women’s career development across the lifespan: insights and strategies for women, organisations and adult educators, 63-73. san francisco: jossey-bass. harlan, a. & weiss, c. (1980). moving up: women in managerial careers. third progress report. welsley, ma: welsley centre for research on women. hennig, m. & jardim, a. (1978). the managerial woman. london: marion boyards. hunt, d.m. & michael, c. (1983). mentorship: a career training and development tool. academy of management review, 8 (3), 475-485. hurley, a.e. & fagenson-eland, e.a. (1996). challenges in cross-gender mentoring relationships: psychological intimacy, myths, rumours, innuendoes and sexual harassment. leadership & organisation development journal, 17 (3), 42-49. huysamen, g.k. (1994). methodology for the social and behavioural sciences. halfwayhouse: southern. jennings, e.e. (1971). routes to the executive suite. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. jossi, f. (1997). mentoring in changing times. training, 34, 50-53. kanter, r.m. (1977). men and women of the corporation. new york, ny: basic books. klasen, n. & clutterbuck, d. (2002). implementing mentoring schemes: a practical guide to successful programs. london: butterworth-heinemann. kram, k.e. (1985a). mentoring at work. glenview, il: scott foresman. kram, k.e. (1985b). improving the mentoring process. training & development journal, 44, 40-43. kram, k.e. & bragar, m. (1992). development through mentoring: a strategic approach. in d. montross and c. shinkman (eds.). career development: theory and practice. springfield, il: thomas press. stone, coetzee38 langrish, s. (1980). single sex management training – a personal view. women & training news, 1, 3-4. larwood, l. & gutek, b.a. (1987). working toward a theory of women’s career development. in gutek, b.a. & larwood, l. (eds). women’s career de velopment. newbury park, ca: sage. lewis, a.e. & fagenson, e.a. (1995). strategies for developing women managers: how well do they fulfill their objectives? journal of management development, 14 (2), 39-53. linehan, m. & walsh, j.s. (1999). mentoring relationships and the female managerial career. career de velopment international, 4 (7), 348-352. lobel, s.a. (1993). sexuality at work: where do we go from here? journal of vocational behaviour, 42, 136-152. maccoby, e.e. & jacklin, c.n. (1974). the psychology of sex differences. stanford, ca: stanford university press. mainiero, l.a. (1989). office romance. new york, ny: rawson associates. makin, p., cooper, c. & cox, c. (1989). managing people at work. leicester: the british psychological society. merriam, s.b. ( 2002). qualitative research in practice: examples for discussion and analysis. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. missirian, a.k. (1982). the corporate connection: why executive women need mentors to reach the top. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. morrison, a.m.( 1988). women in the corporation: the value added. new york: sage. morrison, a.n. & von glinow, m.a. (1988). women and minorities in management. center for effective organisation, university of southern california: monograph. mouton, j. & marais, h.c. (1992). basic concepts in the methodology of the social sciences. pretoria: hsrc. nieva, v.f. & gutek, b.a. (1981). women and work: a psychological perspective. new york: praeger. noe, r.a. (1986). an investigation of the determinants of successfully aligned mentoring relationships. personnel psychology, 421, 457-479. noe, r.a. (1988). women and mentoring: a review and research agenda. acadmey of management review, 13, 65-78. okanlawon, g. (1994). women as strategic decision-makers: a reflection on organisational barriers. women in management review, 9 (4), 25-32. parsloe, e. & wray, m. (2000). coaching and mentoring: practical methods to improve learning. new york: kogan page. phillips-jones, l.l. (1982). mentors and protégés. new york, ny: arbor house. powell, g.n. (1988). women and men in management. newbury park, ca: sage. ragins, b.r. (1989). barriers to mentoring: the female manager’s dilemma. human relations, 42, 1-22. ragins, b.r. (1995). diversity, power and mentoring in organisations: a cultural, structural and behavioural perspective. in chemers, m.m., oskamp, s. & costanzo, m.a. (eds). diversity in organisations: new perspectives for a changing workplace. thousand oaks, ca: sage. ragins, b.r. (1997). diversified mentoring relationships in organisations. academy of management review, 22 (2), 482-521. ragins, b.r. & cotton, j. (1991). easier said than done: gender differences in perceived barriers to gaining a mentor. academy of management journal, 34, 939-951. ragins, b.r. & cotton, j.l. (1996). jumping the hurdles: barriers to mentoring for women in organisations. leadership and organisation development journal, 17 (3), 37-41. ragins, b.r. & cotton, j. (1999). mentor functions and outcomes: a comparison of men and women in formal and informal mentoring relationships. journal of applied psychology, 84 (4), 529-550. ragins, b.r. & scandura, t. (1994). gender differences in expected outcomes of mentoring relationsihps. academy of management journal, 37, 957-971. ragins, b.r. & sundstrom, e. (1989). gender and power in organisations: a longitudinal perspective. psychological bulletin, 105, 51-88. reich, m.h. (1985). executive views from both sides of mentoring. personnel, 62 (3), 42-46. reynolds, l. (1993). new congress will tackle women’s issues. hr focus, 70 (2), 1-3. robbins, s.p. (1993). organisational behaviour (6th ed). new york, ny: prentice-hall. scandura, t.a. (1992). mentorship and career mobility: an empirical investigation. journal of organisational behaviour, 13, 169-174. scandura, t.a. & hamilton, b.a. (2002). enhancing performance through mentoring. in s. sonnentag (ed.). psychological management of individual performance (pp. 293-308). new york: wiley. scandura, t.a., tejeda, m.j., werther, w.b. & lankau, m.j. (1996) perspectives on mentoring. leadership & organisation development journal, 17 (3). 50-56. scandura, t.a. & williams, e.a. (2002). formal mentoring: the promise and the precipice. in c.l. cooper & r.j. burke (eds.). the new world of work: challenges and opportunities, 49-74. oxford: blackwell. schreuder, a.m.g. & theron, a.l. (1997). careers: an organisational perspective. cape town: juta. schreuder, a.m.g. & theron, a.l. (2001). careers: an organisational perspective. cape town: juta. shea, g. (1995). can a supervisor mentor? super vision, november, 16-19. sonnenfeld, j.a. & ward, a. (1995). being successful at succession. directors and boards, 19 (4), 17-21. silverman, d. (2000). doing qualitative research: a practical handbook. london: sage. strauss, a. & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research: grounded theory. procedures and techniques. newbury park: sage. stumpf, s.a. & london, m. (1981). management promotions: individual and organisational factors influencing the decision process. academy of management review, 6, 539-549. tabbron, a., macaulay, s. & cook, s. (1997). making mentoring work. training for quality, 5 (1), 6-9. thomas, d.a. (2001). the truth about mentoring minorities: race matters. har vard business review, 79 (4), 98-111. veale, d.j. & wachtel, j.m. (1996). mentoring and coaching as part of a human resource development strategy: an example at coca-cola foods. leadership & organisation development journal, 17 (3), 16-20. webb, l.m. (1995). a proactive stance. connections: the southern states communication association newsletter, 15 (1), 4-6. white, b., cox, c. & cooper, c. (1992). women’s career development: a study of high flyers. cambridge: blackwell. whitely, w., dougherty, t.w. & dreher, g.f. (1991). relationship of career mentoring and socioeconomic origin to managers’ and professionals’ early career progress. academy of management journal, 34, 331-351. wilbur, j. (1987). does mentoring breed success? training and development journal, 41 (11), 38-41. wilson, j.a. & elman, n.s. (1990). organisational benefits of mentoring. academy of management executive, 4 (4), 88-94. barriers to mentoring of women proteges 39 5singh.qxd social work as a profession has not had a very long history in india and as a result much more is still to be unearthed to understand the psycholog y of individual social workers working for non-governmental organisations (ngos). the great impetus to the social standing of this profession has come from the government of the day, which has slowly but steadily started believing in and practising the philosophy of developing the society through the organisations/agencies that are non-governmental in nature. it is because of such a belief in that very philosophy on the part of the government, both at the centre and the state in india, that substantial amounts of funds are being given to the ngos of repute for helping them to realise their dream of the all-round development of the people of the nation. the functioning and the efficiency of the ngos is totally dependent on the efficiency and effectiveness of the professionals who work for them. it is the social work professionals who are the lifeblood of the ngos operating in any kind of developmental activities and as a result need to be taken care of more seriously. therefore, it is pertinent to assess and study the psychological make-up of the social work professionals who work with passion on their organisational assignments. there is hardly any empirical research literature from a psychological perspective on the social work profession and its professionals, behavioural research findings in other kinds of organisations that this study has been designed to study, the variables of emotional intelligence, locus of control and role efficacy as well as the interrelationships between them are kept in mind. it also aims to study the relative contribution of the independent variables of emotional intelligence and locus of control on the role efficacy of the social work professionals. thus, the present investigation is very pertinent, and it is a small attempt in the direction of studying social work professionals (swp) from a psychological perspective. emotional intelligence: some empirical findings its true that the term ‘emotional intelligence’ was coined relatively recently, but it certainly bears some resemblance and partially overlaps with earlier concepts such as social intelligence (legree, 1995; sternberg & smith, 1985; wong et al., 1995). moreover, the construct of emotional intelligence is considered to be theoretically preferable over the earlier construct of social intelligence because it is more focused on affect per se. furthermore, the concept of ‘emotional intelligence’ is distinct from predispositions to experience certain kinds of emotions captured by the personality traits of positive and negative affectivity (george, 1996; tellegen, 1985). while looking into the research literature, it can be said that some of the elements of emotional intelligence were identified long before the idea of ‘emotional intelligence’ was formally conceptualised. rosenthal (1977) reports that the ability to identif y people’s emotions, i.e. empathy, contributes positively to one’s professional and social success. similarly, bachman (1988) reports in a study that most effective leaders in the us nav y are warmer, more outgoing, emotionally expressive, dramatic and sociable. thus, looking at the findings of these two studies, it can be concluded that emotional intelligence and its competencies certainly augment people’s performance in organisational lives. the construct of emotional intelligence incorporates in itself a number of abilities, including the ability to be aware of one’s own and of other people’s emotions, to be able to manage those emotions, and to understand the complex relationships that can occur bet ween emotions and likely emotional transitions (caner & salovey, 1997). on the whole, the ability called ‘emotional intelligence’ is not fixed for life and can be improved with suitable training (goleman, 1995; caner & salovey, 1997; salovey & caner, 1990). this can mean that the ability called emotional intelligence is not an innate but acquired ability on the part of an individual who earned it through rigorous experiences and practices with a number of interpersonal situations. it can also be said that the leaders who experience anger can frequently face difficulty building good relationships with followers and engendering their trust (jones & george, 1998). in the same vein, leaders who frequently experience positive moods on the job can fail to notice and attend to performance shortfalls that are less than apparent. and why not? it has been found and said, that leaders who possess significant cognitive resources might still have reduced performance during stressful times (fiedler, 1986; 1995). therefore, the management of emotions is likely to result in employees increasing their affective commitment to the organisation by generating enthusiasm for their work (caner & salovey, 1997). to this end, george (2000) says that highly emotionally intelligent leaders are needed to manage employees’ emotional states. it is also true sanjay kumar singh sanjaysinghdu@yahoo.com assistant professor – human resources management institute of management technology raj nagar, ghaziabad, u. p. india abstract the principal objective of the study was to study social work professionals psychologically. this study was conducted on a sample of 178 participants. the findings depict role efficacy to be associated positively with emotional intelligence and internal locus of control, but negatively with external locus of control. similarly, emotional intelligence was found to be associated positively with internality, but negatively related to externality. the findings also indicated that emotional intelligence alone accounts for 43% of the variance on role efficacy of social work professionals. the findings of the study have major implications for non-governmental organisations and are discussed. key words social work professionals, emotional intelligence, locus of control, role efficacy social work professionals’ emotional intelligence, locus of control and role efficacy: an exploratory study 39 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (2), 39-45 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (2), 39-45 that emotional intelligence training can help managers to deal effectively with subordinates’ insecurities, promoting teamwork, and establishing productive relationships in the workplace (goleman, 1998). these research findings shed light on the possession of both cognitive and emotional competencies in adequate numbers by organisational members to be efficient and effective in their organisational roles. moreover, the research literature dealing with emotional intelligence and organisational outcome variables have successfully destroyed the age-old myth of the superiority of the cognitive brain over the emotional brain but the relevance of both in equal amounts for helping organisational members to perform. therefore, it can be asserted that though the term ‘emotional intelligence’ was formally coined in 1990, but prior to 1990 the influence thereof on the efficiency and effectiveness of organisational members was noticed. in a nutshell, it can be said that it is not only cognitive intelligence, but cognitive intelligence combined with emotional intelligence that bring success to one in any walk of life in any part of the world. locus of control: research findings and their relevance people have a generalised belief about the amount of control that they have over their own lives. an individual employee who feels that he/she is very much in charge of his/her own destiny has an internal locus of control, whereas those who think that events in their lives are primarily due to fate or luck have an external locus of control. it is said that people who perform better in most employment situations generally possess a moderately strong internal rather than external locus of control. they tend to be more successful in their careers and earn more money than their external counterparts. therefore, the control of outcomes can be perceived as located in one’s own behaviours or skills or as residing in luck or chance (rotter, 1966). one’s locus of control explains one’s own successes, failures or other experiences when environmental conditions do not provide an obvious explanation (sears et al., 1991). it is also necessary to mention here that the concept of ‘control’ plays an important role in several psychological theories. the concept of locus of control is central to seligman’s probability analysis of control and theories of learned helplessness, rotter’s social learning theory, and weiner’s attribution analysis of motivation and emotion, and it is the key concept in bandura’s self-efficacy theory (wise, 1999). doherty (1983) suggests that locus of control can also change in response to very disturbing or disrupting life events. being a generalised expectancy, locus of control can determine an outcome if a situation is ambiguous. but if a situation is by its nature associated with chance outcomes or outcomes dependent on personal skills, the situation, not the locus of control, will determine outcomes (allen, 2000). the research literature in this field of knowledge states that internals are particularly well suited to leadership positions and other jobs requiring initiative, independent action, complex thinking and high motivation. internals have also been found to be more satisfied with their jobs and cope better in stressful situations, and they are more motivated by performance-based reward systems (andrisani & nestel, 1976; howell & avolio, 1993; spector, 1982). similarly, the internals were found to be interested more in research and development, introducing new products more quickly than the competition as such, and making more drastic product line changes. they were also noticed pursuing more aggressive strategies and planning further into the future (kets de vries & toulouse, 1982; miller & toulouse, 1986). furthermore, the literature depicts that internals tend to be more involved in their jobs, show greater satisfaction, cope better with stress, and rise to leadership positions more frequently than people who are externals (anderson, 1997; lefcourt et al., 1984). therefore, in contrast to the people with external loci of control, people with internal loci of control give their maximum in all organisational and interpersonal situations by efficiently managing whatever psychological and non-psychological obstructions come their way to perform to the maximum. moreover, one study indicated that ideal managers might have external orientation because externally controlled managers are perceived as initiating more structure and consideration than internally controlled managers (durand & nord, 1976). it can ultimately be said that there are mixed findings with regard to the relationships as well as the impact of internal and external loci of control with the outcome variable. but overall, it can be said that the internal locus of control generally succeeds over the external locus of control in predicting the successes of employees in their roles in the organisation. research on role efficacy the role efficacy of an organisational member refers to his/her potential effectiveness in a role in an organisation. in other words, it is a psychological construct underlying role effectiveness (pareek, 1997). the superior performance of any organisational member in his/her role depends on his/her expertise in technical, conceptual and human relation aspects of management as well as the perceived organisational support system, structure and processes involved to get the assigned work done efficiently and effectively. this could mean that both personal and organisational resources should be made available to any role occupant so as to make the organisation and its members healthy, productive and effective, etc. research in this area is of great importance and has unearthed many more desired personal and organisational ingredients helping a role occupant to be effective in whatever kind of job he/she is assigned to do. it has been found that people with high role efficacy seem to experience less role stress, anxiety and work related tension (sen, 1982); rely on their own strengths to cope with problems that come their way (sen, 1982; surti, 1983); are generally active and interact with the people and the environment (sen, 1982; surti, 1983); persist in solving problems mostly by themselves and sometimes by taking the help of other people (sen, 1982; surti, 1983; shingala 1985); show growth orientation and attitudinal commitment (sen, 1982); and feel satisfied with life and with their jobs and roles in the organisation (sen, 1982). therefore, the crux of these research findings is that for organisational members to be role effective, they need to indulge in and display attitudes related to proactivity, growth orientation, approach behaviours, etc. thus, for an organisational member to be role effective, he/she should be helped to shed his/her dysfunctional attitudes, be active from within, become involved in searching opportunities for growth, helping others around whenever they need help, etc. furthermore, the potential effectiveness in a role in an organisation has been found to be related to types of roles, location of the workplace, length of employment and age (sen, 1982; surti, 1983; moran, 1986). such research findings suggest the role of many variables to influence the effectiveness of people in their respective roles in the organisation. to take it one step further, it can be said that the role efficacy/effectiveness of any role occupant in the organisation is not a static entity but a dynamic one. with regard to the organisational aspects in a participative climate, employees who have higher job satisfaction, it has been found to be associated with role efficacy. moreover, an organisational climate promoting concern for excellence, use of expertise, and concern for the larger issues contributes to role efficacy. on the other hand, a climate characterised by control and affiliation seems to lower employees' role efficacy (brahman & pareek, 1982; sen, 1982; surti, 1983). innovation fostering climate was found to be a strong predictor of role efficacy (deo, 1993). role efficacy has also been reported as a strong moderator singh40 or a mediating variable, showing the dramatic influence of role efficacy in predicting or enhancing the effect on organisational climate (das, 1984; sayeed, 1992a; sayeed, 1992b). these research literatures directly convey that to bring and maintain the desired level of role effectiveness of each employee in the organization, it is necessary to create an organisational climate that should be perceived fairly favourably by the organisational members. to sum up, the research literature on the psychological construct of role efficacy suggests that it is influenced by personal, interpersonal, and organisational variables. therefore, personal resources, interpersonal skills and organisational support systems should exist at least at an average level for helping/making a person effective in his/her respective role in the organisation. on the whole, while looking at the research findings reviewed thus far concerning the variables of emotional intelligence, locus of control and role efficacy, the investigators did not come across any study directly having an exclusive focus on the variables selected for study here. but if one looks at the research literature, one can find that the potential effectiveness of an organisational member is influenced by emotional intelligence and the kind of locus of control that he/she has. therefore, it is expected that the obtained results of the present study will have high relevance for the world of organisations, especially non-governmental organisations. objectives of the study the study has the following objectives: � to determine the level of emotional intelligence, locus of control and role efficacy of social work professionals � to determine the relationships between the role efficacy, locus of control and emotional intelligence of social work professionals � to investigate the relationships of locus of control with the emotional intelligence of social work professionals � to determine the relative contribution/impact of emotional intelligence and locus of control on the role efficacy of social work professionals hypotheses the following hypotheses were formulated in the study: � there are statistically significant relationships between the role efficacy, locus of control and emotional intelligence of social work professionals. � there are statistically significant relationships between the emotional intelligence and locus of control of social work professionals. � the regression of emotional intelligence and locus of control on role efficacy is statistically significant. research design research approach the study was designed to study quantitatively the psychological constructs of emotional intelligence, locus of control, and role efficacy as well as the inter-relationships between these variables. it also aimed to study the relative contribution of emotional intelligence and locus of control to the role efficacy of social work professionals. participants the study was conducted in the development sector in delhi, india. the size of the sample under investigation was 178 consisting of 92 males and 86 females. it was selected randomly from 15 non-governmental organisations (ngos) operating in the national capital of delhi, india. the sample under study was social work professionals who had a minimum of a master’s degree in social sciences, humanities and life sciences; and with a minimum of one year of work experience in the developmental sector. the sample selected for study is a proportional representation of male and female social work professionals working for any particular ngo under investigation. psychometric tools used the following psychometric tools were used to collect the data: � emotional competency inventory – version 2 (hay group, 2002) � locus of control inventory (pareek, 1997) � role efficacy scale (pareek, 1997) emotional competence inventory (eci) the emotional competence inventory (eci) – version 2.0 was developed and standardised by the hay group in 2002. it has 72 items grouped into eighteen emotional competencies. furthermore, these eighteen emotional competencies fall into four major dimensions, viz. selfawareness (sa), self-management (sm), social awareness (soa), and relationship management (rm). the eighteen emotional competencies in the scale used are: emotional selfawareness (esa), accurate self-awareness (asa), selfconfidence (sc), emotional self-control (esc), transparency (trp), adaptability (adap), achievement orientation (ao), initiative (ini), optimism (opt), empathy (emp), organisational awareness (oa), service orientation (so), developing others (do), change catalyst (cc), influence (infu), conf lict management (cm), teamwork and collaboration (tc), and an over-all score of emotional intelligence (ei). the manual of the eci indicates that for selfratings, the alpha coefficients range from 0.53 (transparency) to 0.78 (developing others) with an overall average internal consistency coefficient of 0.65. locus of control (loc) inventory the locus of control (loc) inventory used was developed and standardised by pareek (1997). the loc scale has a total of thirty items divided into three dimensions, namely internality (int), externality others (eo) and externality chance (ec). it has a split-half reliabilit y coefficient of 0.43, 0.45 and 0.55 respectively for internality, externality – others and externality – chance, and the even-odd reliability coefficients were 0.41, 0.48 and 0.54 respectively. role efficacy scale (res) the role efficacy scale (res) used was developed by pareek (1997). the scale has a total of twenty items divided into ten dimensions and a total score. the ten dimensions of the res are: centrality (cen), self-role integration (sri), proactivity (pro), creativit y (cre), inter-role linkage (irl), helping relationships (hrel), superordination (sup), influence (infu), personal growth (pg), confrontation (conf), and role efficacy score (res). it has a test-retest reliability coefficient of 0.68 (sen, 1982). statistical techniques used to meet the objectives of the study, the following statistical tools were used: � arithmetic mean and standard deviation; � pearson’s product-moment correlation; and � multiple regression analysis – stepwise. results and discussion the present study was conducted on social work professionals working for non-governmental organisations in delhi, india. the study was designed to assess the level of emotional intelligence, the locus of control orientation, and the role efficacy of social work professionals. it was also aimed at investigating the interrelationship between the variables, viz. emotional intelligence, locus of control and role efficacy. finally, the study was designed to study the relative impact of emotional intelligence, locus of control, role efficacy 41 emotional intelligence and locus of control on the role efficacy of social work professionals. the results in table 1 depict the mean values of the emotional competencies, the locus of control, and the potential for effectiveness in the organisational roles and functions of social work professionals. the obtained results indicate that on all eighteen emotional competencies, the four major dimensions of emotional intelligence and emotional intelligence as a whole, the social work professionals have above average scores. it can mean that these social work professionals working for nongovernmental organisations where the study was undertaken have an above average ability to manage their own emotions and those of others with whom they interact. it is assumed that an above average amount of emotional intelligence possessed by them would help them to function effectively in their respective roles in the organisation/s. this assumption of the investigators has empirical grounding, as other researchers (eg. bachman, 1988; rosenthal, 1977) working in the area of emotional intelligence and the related domain of knowledge have maintained similar assumptions. the above average level of emotional intelligence possessed by social work professionals is assumed to help them in the management of felt emotions that they experience in interactions with others around. then this can in turn increase their affective commitment to the organisation by generating enthusiasm for their work. this assumption of the investigators finds support in the work of caner & salovey (1997). on the other hand, with regard to the results obtained in respect of the three dimensions of locus of control depicted in table 1, it can be said that social work professionals are high on internal, but low on external (others) and external (chance) dimensions of locus of control. thus, it can be asserted that social work professionals feel that they are responsible for their own successes and failures that they have had in their organisational lives thus far. therefore, it is assumed that high internality orientation possessed by social work professionals would help them to be successful when they are asked by their organisations to occupy leadership positions and other jobs requiring initiative, independent action, complex thinking and high motivation. furthermore, it can also be assumed that social work professionals having high internality can be more satisfied with their jobs, cope better in stressful situations, and are more motivated by performance-based reward systems. such assumptions on the part of the investigators have been drawn from conclusions arrived at in the research findings of other researchers (ie. andrisani & nestel, 1976; howell & avolio, 1993; spector, 1982) but in these researches, the sample was not social work professionals, but managers and the like. finally, table 1 also depicts the results obtained for the potential role effectiveness of social work professionals. while looking at the results obtained, it can be said that the overall role effectiveness of social work professionals under study is above average. such a relatively high level of the role effectiveness of social work professionals can be assumed to be a function of their perceiving their roles to provide them with opportunities for professional development and finding themselves well integrated with the roles assigned. therefore, it is assumed that these social work professionals would tend to interact freely with the people and the environment, and feel satisfied with life, jobs and roles in the organisation. on the whole, the results obtained and depicted in table 1 satisf y both individual social work professionals and the organisations for whom they work. in today’s competitive world, employees are required to be emotionally intelligent, to be high on internality, but low on externality, and to possess a potential for being effective in organisational lives, and these desired attributes have been found to be characteristics of social work professionals. table 1 means and standard deviations of emotional intelligence, locus of control and role efficacy of social work professionals (n = 178) emotional competency inventory swp (n = 178) mean s.d. accurate self-assessment (asa) 14,08 2,59 emotional self-awareness (esa) 14,64 2,92 self-confidence (scon) 15,38 2,16 achievement orientation (ao) 14,78 2,28 adaptability (adap) 14,01 2,18 emotional self-control (esc) 13,96 2,09 initiative (ini) 13,84 2,49 optimism (opt) 15,00 2,19 transparency (trp) 15,17 2,52 empathy (emp) 15,01 2,49 organisational awareness (oa) 14,38 2,30 service orientation (so) 15,09 2,78 change catalyst (cc) 13,63 2,30 conflict management (cm) 12,80 2,41 developing others (do) 15,03 2,28 influence (inf) 13,86 2,23 inspirational leadership (il) 13,94 2,53 teamwork and collaboration (tc) 15,16 2,19 self-awareness (sa) 44,48 5,46 self-management (sm) 86,20 8,88 social awareness (soa) 44,62 6,78 relationship management (rm) 84,80 8,67 emotional intelligence (ei) 261,13 24,87 locus of control inventory internality (int) 31,54 4,78 externality others (eo) 15,74 6,89 externality chance (ec) 12,52 6,14 role efficacy scale centrality (cen) 2,48 0,79 self-role integration (sri) 2,95 0,68 proactivity (pro) 2,83 0,94 creativity (cre) 2,96 1,05 inter-role linkage (irl) 3,07 1,12 helping relationship (hrel) 2,98 1,38 superordination (sup) 2,52 1,09 influence (infu) 2,39 0,74 personal growth (pg) 2,74 0,69 confrontation (conf) 2,99 0,81 role efficacy score (res) 28,17 3,81 table 2 depicts the results obtained in respect of the relationships of role efficacy with emotional intelligence and the locus of control of social work professionals. as for the relationships between role efficacy and emotional intelligence, there are statistically significant relationships. therefore, the interpretation can be that as there is an increase in the amount of emotional intelligence of the social work professionals, there is a corresponding increment in their potential role effectiveness and vice versa. in other words, as the social work professionals become efficient in managing their own emotions and those of others with whom they interact in their organisational lives, they become a proactive person, engage more often in giving and receiving help from others whenever the need arises, and the like. the investigators cannot confirm singh42 or disconfirm these findings obtained here as the investigators to date have not come across findings of other research investigations where these variables were studied together. but it is asserted that the level of emotional intelligence of organisational members certainly has to do with their potential effectiveness in their roles in the organization in appositive way. on the other hand, the role efficacy of social work professionals has been found to be positively associated with internality, but negatively with externality. for the positive relationship of role efficacy with internality, it can be said that as the social work professionals start becoming more and more internal in orientation, there is a corresponding increment in their potential effectiveness in the organisationally assigned roles and functions and vice versa. similarly, for the negative relationships of role efficacy with externality (others) and externality (chance), it can be said that as social work professionals start believing in factors external to them being a major cause of their failures in organisational lives, they lead to a corresponding decrement in their potential effectiveness and vice versa. once again in the absence of research findings of other researchers in this area of knowledge, the investigators are at a loss to provide maximum meanings to the findings obtained in the present study. last but not least the investigators can say that there are statistically significant relationships of the role efficacy with emotional intelligence and locus of control of the social work professionals. thus, hypothesis 1 as stated in the present study, is supported. table 3 correlation coefficients between locus of control and emotional intelligence for social work professionals (n =178) social work professionals (n = 178) internality externality externality others chance accurate self assessment (asa) 0,41** -0,10 -0,24** emotional self awareness (esa) 0,31** -0,11 -0,37** self-confidence (scon) 0,44** -0,38** -0,25** achievement orientation (ao) 0,35** -0,22** -0,11 adaptability (adap) 0,12 -0,22** -0,10 emotional self-control (esc) 0,12 -0,14 -0,23** initiative (ini) 0,29** -0,22** -0,20** optimism (opt) 0,48** -0,13 -0,10 transparency (trp) 0,35** -0,13 -0,12 empathy (emp) 0,41** -0,08 -0,30** organisational awareness (oa) 0,39** -0,27** -0,27** service orientation (so) 0,37** -0,10 -0,21** change catalyst (cc) 0,39** -0,10 -0,19* conflict management (cm) 0,13 -0,20** -0,13 developing others (do) 0,34** -0,11 -0,13 influence (inf) 0,23** -0,10 -0,19* inspirational leadership (il) 0,13 -0,09 -0,20** teamwork and collaboration (tc) 0,42** -0,13 -0,39** self awareness (sa) 0,53** -0,21** -0,29** self management (sm) 0,41** -0,12 -0,11 social awareness (soa) 0,39** -0,21** -0,20** relationship management (rm) 0,29** -0,11 -0,11 emotional intelligence (ei) 0,45** -0,09 -0,22** * p < 0,05 * * p < 0,01 emotional intelligence, locus of control, role efficacy 43 table 2 correlation coefficients of role efficacy with emotional intelligence and locus of control for social work professionals (n = 178) centrality self-role procreativity interrole helping superinfluence personal confronrole integration activity linkage relationordination growth tation efficacy ship score accurate self assessment (asa) 0,14 0,13 0,09 0,21** 0,18* 0,17* 0,09 0,23** 0,12 0,31** 0,29** emotional self awareness (esa) 0,14 0,12 0,31** 0,25** 0,19* 0,27** 0,09 0,18* 0,31** 0,26** 0,42** self-confidence (scon) 0,22** 0,26** 0,18* 0,10 0,30** 0,33** 0,12 0,13 0,26** 0,37** 0,44** achievement orientation (ao) 0,12 0,09 0,27** 0,20** 0,17* 0,22** 0,11 0,12 0,30** 0,22** 0,36** adaptability (adap) 0,25** 0,26** 0,24** 0,23** 0,41** 0,21** 0,07 0,26** 0,25** 0,41** 0,52** emotional self-control (esc) 0,10 0,12 0,24** 0,16* 0,18* 0,23** 0,23** 0,29** 0,16* 0,12 0,32** initiative (ini) 0,17* 0,11 0,31** 0,22** 0,09 0,31** 0,25** 0,26** 0,24** 0,11 0,23** optimism (opt) 0,17* 0,42** 0,28** 0,36** 0,41** 0,26** 0,12 0,33** 0,46** 0,43** 0,66** transparency (trp) 0,11 0,16* 0,16* 0,13 0,20** 0,33** 0,12 0,22** 0,24** 0,27** 0,36** empathy (emp) 0,13 0,23** 0,09 0,20** 0,32** 0,35** 0,14 0,26** 0,34** 0,37** 0,45** organisational awareness (oa) 0,18* 0,16* 0,24** 0,12 0,23** 0,11 0,11 0,19* 0,33** 0,28** 0,39** service orientation (so) 0,26** 0,19* 0,07 0,19* 0,32** 0,09 0,10 0,08 0,28** 0,33** 0,38** change catalyst (cc) 0,21** 0,20** 0,24** 0,12 0,17* 0,10 0,24** 0,24** 0,23** 0,13 0,34** conflict management (cm) 0,14 0,08 0,21** 0,23** 0,11 0,12 0,22** 0,09 0,12 0,21** 0,13 developing others (do) 0,27** 0,25** 0,17* 0,15* 0,40** 0,18* 0,13 0,21** 0,35** 0,25** 0,47** influence (inf) 0,24** 0,12 0,26** 0,24** 0,12 0,11 0,17* 0,10 0,34** 0,26** 0,34** inspirational leadership (il) 0,09 0,08 0,13 0,17* 0,11 0,14 0,27** 0,11 0,12 0,09 0,22** teamwork and collaboration (tc) 0,27** 0,32** 0,34** 0,12 0,49** 0,30** 0,12 0,24** 0,40** 0,55** 0,60** self awareness (sa) 0,17* 0,20** 0,28** 0,25** 0,32** 0,34** 0,09 0,25** 0,33** 0,42** 0,54** self management (sm) 0,16* 0,25** 0,35** 0,30** 0,31** 0,22* 0,18* 0,34** 0,38** 0,36** 0,59** social awareness (soa) 0,18* 0,21** 0,16* 0,21** 0,32** 0,24** 0,10 0,18* 0,35** 0,38** 0,46** relationship management (rm) 0,24** 0,19* 0,27** 0,22** 0,27** 0,09 0,27** 0,16* 0,32** 0,26** 0,46** emotional intelligence (ei) 0,22** 0,24** 0,30** 0,28** 0,33** 0,24** 0,19* 0,26** 0,37** 0,38** 0,57** locus of control internality (int) 0,33** 0,41** 0,45** 0,12 0,50** 0,28** 0,14 0,35** 0,38** 0,40** 0,62** externality others (eo) -0,25** -0,17* -0,31** -0,27** -0,18* -0,19* -0,22** -0,22** -0,13 -0,11 -0,30** externality chance (ec) -0,42** -0,16* -0,34** -0,11 -0,19* -0,19* -0,26** -0,16* -0,09 -0,09 -0,27** * p < 0,05 * * p < 0,01 table 3 depicts the results obtained in respect of the relationships of emotional intelligence and its competencies with locus of control and its dimensions. from table 3, it can be said that there are statistically significant positive relationships between emotional intelligence and internal locus of control. the interpretation can be that as there is an increment in the amount of emotional intelligence of social work professionals, there is a corresponding increment in the belief that they are themselves the major or sole cause of whatever successes and failures they have in their organisational lives and vice versa. but, for the statistically significant relationships of emotional intelligence with externality (others) and externality (chance) dimensions of locus of control, it can be said that as there is a decrement in the amount of emotional intelligence possessed by the social work professionals, they start believing that all the failures and successes that they have in their organisational lives are because of the factors that are associated with the significant others with whom they work or some chance factors and vice versa. it is necessary to mention that the investigators did not come across research findings dealing with emotional intelligence and locus of control of any of the behavioural scientists. therefore, the investigators are unable to validate their research findings vis-à-vis those of others in the academic world. on the whole, the investigators can safely assert that the stated hypothesis 2 of having statistically significant relationships between emotional intelligence and locus of control of the social work professionals is accepted. table 4 relative impact of emotional intelligence and locus of control on role efficacy of social work professionals (n = 178) r r2 d �� f p < 0,001 optimism 0,61 0,37 0,00 0,61 65,32 0,000 internality 0,70 0,49 0,12 0,38 50,81 0,000 teamwork and collaboration 0,74 0,55 0,06 0,28 42,41 0,000 externality others 0,75 0,57 0,02 -0,16 34,62 0,000 table 4 depicts the results in respect of the contribution of emotional intelligence and locus of control orientation of social work professionals to their potential role effectiveness. while looking at table 4, it can be said that emotional intelligence and locus of control jointly predict 57% of the variance in the role effectiveness of the social work professionals in their organizational lives. therefore, the remaining 43% of the variance in the role effectiveness of the social work professionals is still to be explained. it can mean that there are also some other variables, that contribute along with emotional intelligence and locus of control to the role effectiveness of social work professionals. furthermore, of the 57% variance accountable for the role effectiveness of social work professionals, table 4 indicates that emotional intelligence with its three emotional competencies, namely optimism, teamwork and collaboration, contributes 43% of the variance and locus of control with its internalit y and the externalit y (others) dimensions contributes 14% of the variance respectively. thus, it can be said that of the two independent variables, it is the emotional intelligence rather than locus of control orientation that significantly explains the role effectiveness of social work professionals. in a nutshell, the results obtained here indicate the relevance of emotional intelligence in the role effectiveness of social work professionals. it can ultimately be said that a significant percentage of variance in the role efficacy of the social work professionals has been predicted by the two independent variables of emotional intelligence and locus of control. hypothesis 3 is supported. conclusions after discussing the findings of the study, the following conclusions can be drawn: � social work professionals possess above average emotional intelligence and potential for role effectiveness. they have also been found to be high on the internality, but low on the externality dimensions of the locus of control. � the role efficacy of social work professionals is positively associated with their emotional intelligence and with their internal locus of control, but negatively related to their external locus of control. � the emotional intelligence of social work professionals is positively associated with the internality, but negatively with the externality dimensions of the locus of control. � the independent variables of emotional intelligence and locus of control together account for 57% variance of the potential role effectiveness of the social work professionals. limitations of the study like other research in any area of knowledge, the present study has some limitations. the limitations of the study combined with recommendations for future research are: � though the study was conducted on a large sample selected from the ngos situated and working in the national capital of delhi (india), the findings of the study can only be generalised with confidence to the ngos operating in the delhi region and not to those operating in other parts of the nation. therefore, it is suggested that anyone interested in pursuing research on this topic, in future should select a sample of social work professionals in their study from across the nation. � in this study, only the variables of emotional intelligence and locus of control were studied to determine their impact/contribution on role effectiveness of social work professionals. therefore, it is suggested that anyone interested in doing research in the area of role efficacy needs to study other psychological constructs too and not only emotional intelligence and locus of control for a clearer picture to emerge. implications of the study the findings of the study have some major implications for nongovernmental organisations for making maximum use of their human resources in the form of social work professionals. the following are some of the major implications of the study: � since role efficacy has been found to be associated positively with emotional intelligence and internal locus of control, but related negatively to external locus of control, the nongovernmental organisations are required to develop more of the emotional competencies as well as the internality orientation of social work professionals through behavioural training. these training programmes should be designed exclusively to help develop emotional competencies and internal locus of control. � as 43% of the variance in the role efficacy of social work professionals is contributed by their emotional intelligence alone, the major focus of any behavioural training programmes for the social work professionals should aim to develop and sharpen their emotional competencies. references allen b.p. (2000). personality theories: development, growth and diversity. boston: allyn and bacon. anderson, c.r. (1997). locus of control, coping behaviors, and performance in stress settings: a longitudinal study. journal of applied psychology, 62, 446-451. andrisani, p.j. & nestel, c. (1976). internal-external control as a contributor to and outcome of work experience. journal of applied psychology, 61, 156-165. singh44 bachman, w. (1988). nice guys finish first: a symlog analysis of us naval commands. in r.b. polley (eds.), the symlog practitioner: application of small group research. new york: praeger. brahman, d.n. & pareek, u. (1982). motivational climate in bharat engineering ltd. in u. pareek, t.v. rao, and d.m. pestonjee (eds.), behavioural processes in organizations, new delhi: oxford & ibh. deo, t.p. (1993). a study of some psychological correlates of role efficacy in organizations from the information technology industry. unpublished doctoral dissertation in psychology, university of bombay, india. doherty, w.j. (1983). impact of divorce on locus of control orientation in adult women: a longitudinal study. journal of personality and social psychology, 44, 834-840. durand d.e. & nord, w.r. (1976). perceived leader behavior as a function of personality characteristics of supervisors and subordinates. academy of management journal, 427-428. fiedler, f.e. (1986). the contribution of cognitive resources and leader behaviour to organizational performance. journal of applied social psychology, 16, 532-548. fiedler, f.e. (1995). cognitive resources and leadership performance. applied psychology: an international review, 44, 5-28. george, j.m. (1996). trait and state affect. in k.r. murphy (eds.), individual differences and behavior in organizations. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass, 145-171. george, j.m. (2000). emotions and leadership: the role of emotional intelligence. human relations, 53, 1027-1055. goleman, d. (1995). emotional intelligence: why it can matter more than iq. new york: bantam books. goleman, d. (1998). working with emotional intelligence. new york: bantam books. hay group (2002). emotional competency inventory, (version: 2). boston: mcber and company. howell, j.m. & avolio, b.j. (1993). transformational leadership, transactional leadership, locus of control, and support for innovation: key predictors of consolidated-business-unit performance. journal of applied psychology, 78, 891-902. jones, g.r. & george, j.m. (1998). the experience and evaluation of trust: implications for cooperation and teamwork. academy of management review, 23, 531-546. kets de vries, m.f.r. & toulouse, j.m. (1982). top executive locus of control and its relationship to strategy making, structure, and environment. academy of management journal, 25, 237253. lefcourt, h.m., martin, r.a. & saleh, w.e. (1984). locus of control and social support: interactive moderators of stress. journal of personality and social psychology, 47, 378-389. legree, p.j. (1995). evidence for an oblique social intelligence factor established with a likert based testing procedure. intelligence, 21, 247-66. caner, j.d. & salovey, p. (1997). what is emotional intelligence? in p. salovey & d.j. sluyter (eds.), emotional development and emotional intelligence: educational implications. new york: basic books. miller, d. & toulouse, j.m. (1986). chief executive personality and corporate strateg y and structure in small firms. management science, 32, 1389-1409. moran, p.j. (1986). the development of the role of the grade superintendent in the face of social change: the implications of training and retraining. unpublished master’s dissertation in education, manchester university. pareek, u. (1997). training instruments for human resource development. new delhi: tmh. rosenthal, r. (1977). the pons test measuring sensitivity to nonverbal cues. in p. mcreynolds (eds.), advances in psychological assessment. san francisco, ca: jossey – bass. rotter, j.b. (1966). generalized expectancies for internal vs. external control of reinforcement. psychological monographs, 80 (1), 1-28. salovey, p. & caner, j. (1990). emotional intelligence. imagination, cognition, and personality, 9, 185-211. sayeed, o.b. (1992). role making behaviour, organizational priorities, and managerial situational control. indian journal of industrial relations, 27 (4), 346-369. sears, d.o., peplau, l.a. & taylor, s.e. (1991). social psychology. new jersey: prentice hall. sen, p.c. (1981). a study of personal and organizational correlates of role stress and coping strategies in some public sector banks. unpublished phd thesis, gujarat university, india. shingala, y. (1985). managing frustration for increasing role efficacy at work as well as at home. paper presented to iftdo world conference, stockholm, sweden. spector, p.e. (1982). behaviour in organizations as a function of employee’s locus of control. psychological bulletin, 91, 482497. sternberg, r.l. & smith, c. (1985). social intelligence and decoding skills in nonverbal communication. social cognition, 3, 168-92. surti, k. (1983). role stress and coping styles of working women. doctoral thesis in psychology, gujarat university, india. tellegen, a. (1985). structure of mood and personality and their relationships to assessing anxiety with an emphasis on selfreport. in a.h. tuma and j.d. maser (eds), anxiety and the anxiety disorders. hillsdale, nj: erlbaum, 681-706. wise, m. (1999). locus of control in our daily lives – how the concept of control impacts the social world. www.muohio.edu/ psybersite/control/index.htx. wong, c.t., day, j.d., maxwell, s.e. & meara, n.m. (1995). a multitrait – multimethod study of academic and social intelligence in college students. journal of educational psychology, 87, 117-133. emotional intelligence, locus of control, role efficacy 45 abstract introduction research design findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) ingrid l. potgieter department of human resource management, university of south africa, south africa melinde coetzee department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa themba ximba department of human resource management, university of south africa, south africa citation potgieter, i.l., coetzee, m., & ximba, t. (2017). exploring career advancement challenges people with disabilities are facing in the south african work context. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a815. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.815 original research exploring career advancement challenges people with disabilities are facing in the south african work context ingrid l. potgieter, melinde coetzee, themba ximba received: 13 may 2016; accepted: 23 nov. 2016; published: 28 feb. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: south africa has faced a number of discriminatory practices in the past. most of these practices are still present today. although a considerate amount of attention has been given to discrimination based on gender, race and religion, limited emphasis has been placed on discrimination based on disability, specifically within the workplace. research purpose: the objective of the study was to explore the perceptions of individuals living with a disability with regards to career advancement challenges they face in the south african workplace. motivation for study: the research literature shows that irrespective of employment equity legislation, employees with disabilities have restricted opportunities to advance in their careers. research is needed to assist these employees with their career development. research design, approach and method: a qualitative research design with an exploratory approach was followed. probability, purposeful and snowballing sampling techniques were applied in this study on 15 employed individuals with declared disabilities. the data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews and the verbatim transcriptions were analysed by content analysis. main findings/results: the findings indicated that people with disabilities generally experience career advancement challenges and reach career plateau. managers and colleagues’ lack of knowledge about disability has an adverse impact on the careers of people living with a disability. the study found that human resource practices, especially promotion opportunities, discriminate against employees with disabilities. furthermore, the study further indicated that there is prejudice against invisible disabilities, and as a result, employees are reluctant to declare their disability. practical implications: human resource practitioners and managers need to recognise the influence that disabilities have on the career advancement of individuals living with a disability in order to assist such individuals in their own career development. contribution: the findings of this study will help companies improve their practices on the integration and inclusion of employees with disabilities and also on decision-making regarding their careers. introduction south africa has faced a number of discriminatory practices in the past. most of these practices are still present today. although a considerate amount of attention has been given to discrimination based on gender, race and religion, limited emphasis has been placed on discrimination based on disability, specifically within the workplace (ximba, 2016). some of the major key challenges that employees living with a disability face today include inequality, discrimination and transformation (marumoagae, 2012). employees living with disabilities generally face obstacles in exercising the most important economic, political and social rights and have experienced challenges with advancement within their careers (ximba, 2016). despite the effort in order to increase awareness and sensitivity with regards to disability within south africa, employees as well as individuals applying for work mostly find themselves to be the victims of employment discrimination because of their disability (marumoagae, 2012; ximba, 2016). this article aims to broaden research on employment for people with disabilities by exploring career advancement challenges people with disabilities face in the south african workplace. the research literature shows that irrespective of employment equity (ee) legislation employees with disabilities have restricted opportunities to advance in their careers (cole & van der walt, 2014; commission for employment equity [cee], 2012; gowan, 2010; hernandez et al., 2008; lourens & phabo, 2015; ofuani, 2011; watermeyer, swartz, lorenzo & priestley, 2006). however, there seems to be a dearth of research on the perspective of employees with disabilities regarding the career challenges they face in the post-apartheid south african workplace context (ximba, 2016). the observed restricted opportunities show a need for further empirical research on career advancement challenges faced by people with disabilities. the purpose of the present study therefore was to contribute to the research literature on career advancement challenges for people with disabilities by exploring the perspectives of employees with declared disabilities. the findings from the research may contribute to the human resource management field in the establishment of transformation and ee strategies focusing on employees with disabilities. furthermore, the study may potentially assist in improving human resource practices pertaining to the career development of people with disabilities. literature review disability is a complex concept and definitions vary from country to country (smith, 2012; sommo & chaskes, 2013). according to sing and govender (2007), a comprehensive definition of what constitutes disability could prevent employers from recruiting candidates with ‘minimal disability’ for the sake of equity targets and acknowledges competences for people with disabilities. this article adopted the definition found in the employment equity act (no. 55 of 1998), which defines the disabled as ‘people who have a long-term or recurring physical or mental impairment which substantially limits their prospects of entry into, or advancement in, employment’. recruitment, selection, training and promotion are generally human resource management practices used for employee career advancement. recruitment is a process through which organisations attract potential and suitable applicants for employment opportunities (rahmania, akhter, chowdhury, islam & haque, 2013; searle, 2003). selection is a process whereby a suitable job applicant is chosen from a pool of job applicants based on selection criteria (abbott & meyer, 2014). training intends to equip employees with relevant competencies in order to perform efficiently (chan, 2010). promotion is an organisational practice to acknowledge employee performance by appointing an employee to a higher position with increased pay, responsibilities, benefits and autonomy (tuwei, matelong, boit & tallam, 2013). however, it seems from the research literature that human resource practices tend to discriminate against employees with disabilities because they generally are underrepresented in the workplace (ximba, 2016). the research literature clearly indicates that individuals living with a disability feel excluded from the labour market because of discrimination based on their disability, which may allude to their underrepresentation in the workplace (christianson, 2012; ofuani, 2011). south africa (as a developing country) enacted legislation changes to redress imbalances that resulted from the past. apartheid was characterised by inequalities experienced by previously disadvantaged south african citizens. prior to 27 april 1994, people with disabilities did not have legal provisions in employment. people with disabilities were deemed incapable of participating in the open labour market (parlalis, 2013). according to the department of international relations and cooperation (2013), south africa was re-admitted as a member of the international labour organisation (ilo) on 26 may 1994 and pledged to comply with ilo standards to eliminate discriminations at work which arose on the basis of race, sex, colour or disability. the south african context focuses on legislations that have an effect on socio-economic issues pertaining to people with disabilities in the south african workplaces (ximba, 2016). as a result, the south african democratic government enacted legislations to redress employment inequalities experienced by people from the designated groups (black people, women and people with disabilities). legislations such as the constitution of the republic of south africa, 1996, the employment equity act (no. 55 of 1998) and the promotion of equality and prevention of unfair discrimination act (no. 4 of 2000) intended to transform organisations to be representative of all south african workforce demographics. these legislations attempt to create an inclusive and accommodative workplace environment for all. employers are guided by codes of good practice on how to successfully integrate people with disabilities and enable them to perform well in their roles. however, the legislation, aimed to protect against discrimination, still seems to fail the very people it intended to promote and protect (ofuani, 2011; ximba, 2016). ximba (2016) posits that the legislation merely created awareness of the need for equality and the right of workers to employment and to decent working conditions. the question therefore arises: is the legislation adequate to address the discrimination and inequality experienced by individuals living with a disability? oosthuizen and naidoo (2010) found that organisations only comply with ee legislative requirements in an ‘ee numbers chasing game’, where employers are only concerned with increasing ee and affirmative action (aa) figures rather than improving their ee status quo through value-adding investments. oosthuizen and naidoo (2010) further argue that ee and aa progress should be measured on the criteria of numbers as well as their organisational climate. workplaces within the 21st century necessitate a paradigm shift from merely meeting ee prerequisites to creating an amicable workplace that is inclusive of employees with disabilities (daya, 2014; hasse, 2011). several factors (such as age, race, religion, gender, occupational levels and disabilities) influence the career growth of employees, which cause challenges such as underemployment, low wages, bias and limited advancement opportunities (beatty, 2012; gowan, 2010; ofuani, 2011). according to lengnick-hall and gaunt (2007), employees with disabilities are assumed to be incompetent, not productive and create undue hardship for the business; hence, they face limited career advancement opportunities. despite the legislations implemented to redress discrimination against employees with disabilities, hernandez et al. (2008) found that employees with declared disabilities mainly occupy entry-level and semi-skilled positions. many adults with disabilities are either unemployed or occupy positions characterised by low wages with little or no chance of advancement (lindstrom, doren & miesch, 2011). individuals with disabilities are therefore faced with limited career advancement opportunities, even if they meet the stipulated minimum requirements (gowan, 2010; ofuani, 2011; watermeyer et al., 2006). the cee (2012) report indicated that white men and individuals without disabilities are more likely to be recruited and promoted within most organisations. hernandez et al. (2008) and beatty (2012) suggested that the most prevalent factor influencing these barriers that individuals with disabilities face is because of management perceptions with regards to the ability of these employees. christianson (2012) also noted that people with disabilities may have either or both the qualifications and the capacity to be employed, but that this decision depends on employers’ willingness to provide reasonable accommodation for a disabled candidate. guimaraes, martins and barkokebas junior (2012) found that a lack of professional training, architectonic barriers and discrimination based on functional potential hinder the inclusion of people with disabilities in the labour market. according to gida and ortlepp (2007), ignorance, fear and stereotypes are the main reasons for a low representation of people with disabilities in the workplace. gida and ortlepp (2007) noted that organisations do not have a strategy or policy document for the employment of people with disabilities. the south african human rights commission (2012) advocated that scarce employment opportunities and inadequate marketable skills exacerbate the unemployment of candidates with disabilities. it is thus evident that equal opportunities between people with disabilities and people without disabilities have not been attained (ofuani, 2011). people with disabilities do not have equal employment opportunities as do people without disabilities and this adversely impacts on them (li & goldschmidt, 2009). the employment of people with disabilities benefits the organisations because they earn black economic empowerment (bee) points and achieve ee targets, which makes an organisation appear civically oriented to the community in which it operates (sing & govender, 2007; watermeyer et al., 2006). transformed organisations therefore stand good chances to get lucrative contracts with the government or private companies because of their bee and ee statuses. several other benefits have been reported to having employees living with a disability. these include a diverse workforce, low absenteeism rates and long tenure (parlalis, 2013). in addition, hernandez et al. (2008) found that people living with disabilities are committed, reliable, loyal and hardworking. the ilo (2011) states that people with disabilities bring benefits such as good, dependable employees, untapped skills, creativity and high work ethic. in addition, they enhance the company’s public image. according to the ilo (2011), a number of employers do not know the benefits of recruiting people with disabilities as they are not sensitised to disability matters. the workplaces are thus not inclusive to all employees. perceptions of employees with disabilities are the greatest barrier that hinders transformation to be representative of employees with disabilities. management can play an active role in transforming organisations by changing perceptions of candidates with disabilities. to create inclusive workplaces, employers should be sensitised about the legislative prerequisites to integrate job applicants with disabilities and eradicate preconceptions about the capabilities and competences of the disabled community (ilo, 2011; parlalis, 2013). however, the literature does not provide the perspective of employees with disabilities regarding the career advancement challenges they face especially in the south african work context. research purpose this study explored the perceptions of individuals with disabilities regarding the career advancement challenges they face. the findings of the study may be used to formulate suggestions for future research and the development of transformation agenda strategies relating to the career development of people with declared disabilities. what will follow the following section of this article elaborates on the research design. the section includes the research approach, strategy and method, followed by the discussion of the findings. a brief summary of the main conclusions, implications for practice and recommendations for potential future research concludes this article. research design research approach this study was done as an exploratory research effort to increase insight into the perceived factors that influence career advancement of individuals living with a disability within south africa. a qualitative explorative approach was used in this research. the researcher thus aimed to describe the lived experiences of participants as accurately as possible, without being influenced by any pregiven framework (thomas, 2004). this was done by collecting more situational information and determining the meanings and purposes that individuals ascribe to their actions (guba & lincoln, 1994). research strategy in this transcendental or descriptive phenomenological study, employees with declared disabilities were interviewed who are employed by two group companies in different sectors within the gauteng province. according to leedy and ormrod (2010), a phenomenological study is a study that attempts to understand an individual’s perception, perspective and understanding of a particular situation. research method research setting the research setting refers to the place where the data will be collected. in this study, the data were collected from companies in the retail and financial service sector in gauteng province. the interviews were conducted at the participants’ place of work in a setting provided by the participants’ employers. the research setting and physical environment are vital as these aspects can influence the outcome of the research (king & horrocks, 2010; terre blanche, durrheim & painter, 2006). therefore, the researcher made sure the interview setting was comfortable, allowed for privacy and that it was a quiet surrounding during the interviews. entree and establishing researcher roles after permission was granted to conduct the study, the researcher explained and clarified the research objectives and procedures with the main decision makers within the selected organisations. the institutions appointed a gatekeeper who assisted the researcher with logistical aspects of the research. the gatekeeper also assisted in communicating the research opportunity to employees, identified possible participants and scheduled all the interviews (de vos, strydom, fouche & delport, 2011; maxwell, 2005). in order to ensure that quality data were collected (boyce & neale, 2006), the researcher was trained suitably in interviewing techniques (neuman, 2003). several authors emphasised the importance of reflexivity in quality research (boyce & neale, 2006; terre blanche et al., 2006). the researcher thus made time after each interview in order to reflect on the interview and recorded these reflections as part of the field notes. participants and sampling a purposive, voluntary non-probability sample of 15 employees with declared disabilities was included in this study. these employees were selected from two separate group companies (within different sectors) within the gauteng region. only participants who have declared their disabilities with their employers were included in the sample. employees who complied with the inclusion criteria and were willing to participate were included in the sample. the number of participants in the sample was determined by data saturation (burns & grove, 1997). the sample (n = 15) comprised 5 (34%) participants from african origin, 2 (13%) participants from coloured origin, 1 (7%) participant from indian origin and 7 (47%) white participants. the participants included 10 (67%) women and 5 (33%) men. there were no coloured and indian male participants. most of the participants were employed in semi-skilled positions. none of the participants was employed in unskilled or top management–level positions. the participants were predominantly between the ages of 41 and 50 years (maintenance career phase, middle adulthood). eleven participants have been with their employers for between 6 and 30 years and 4 participants for between 1 and 5 years. the range of the declared disabilities included: hearing impaired amputation bipolar or other psychological disorders physical disability epileptic and brain tumour learning disability partial sighted. data collection methods in this research, data were collected by means of semi-structured individual interviews. after giving informed consent, the participants were asked eight standard successive questions. questions 1–3 dealt with obtaining the biographical profile of the participants. the first question, which served to identify whether the employee do indeed have a disability, was ‘what is the nature of your disability’. the second question (‘what is your race, age, gender and occupational level’) was asked to assist the researcher to determine the profile of the sample. the third question, ‘how long have you been employed in this organisation’ helped to identify the likelihood for an employee to be provided with career advancement opportunities. questions 4–8 dealt with obtaining the core career advancement issues faced by the participants. the fourth question, ‘since your employment in this organisation, what are the career advancement challenges you have experienced’ helped to identify the career advancement challenges the participants face. the fifth question, ‘how did the career advancement challenges adversely influence your career’ was asked to identify the effect of the career challenges. the sixth question, ‘what impact do you race, age, gender and occupational levels have on your career advancement opportunities’ was asked to help identify if participants from different race, age, gender and occupational levels differ significantly regarding their perceptions of career advancement challenges. question 7, ‘how does your disability impact your career advancement opportunities in the organisation’ was asked to help identify if participants’ disabilities influence their career advancement opportunities, and finally, question 8, ‘what suggestions could you propose to management to overcome the career advancement challenges you are currently facing due to your specific disability’ was asked to assist with interventions and suggestions to management in order to redress identified challenges. recording of data interviews were recorded and detailed field notes were made (also known as observation notes). according to hesse-biber and leavy (2004), field notes are an explanation of the researcher’s experience (including his or her sight, hearing and thought during the interview process). the field notes can be classified as either methodology notes, personal notes or theoretical notes. all the field notes as well as verbatim transcripts were prepared for data analysis. all field notes, transcriptions and interviews were labelled by means of a coding system (only known by the researcher and transcriber) in order to maintain confidentiality. the anonymity of all data (audio files’ content and field and transcription notes) was upheld, and data were stored in a secure place in order to ensure further confidentiality. data analyses the obtained data were analysed using content analysis. according to hesse-biber and leavy (2004), content analysis is a systematic technique that gathers and combines a large amount of text into identifiable and specific content categories, which can be analysed. content analysis focuses on content and contextual meaning of the text. the researcher is thus able to draw replicable and valid inferences from the content (hsieh & shannon, 2005). in order to get the bigger picture of the content, the researcher thoroughly read the interviews a number of times. the researcher then categorised the actual text (responses from the participants) into meaningful pieces of sentences and paragraphs. these pieces were then categorised and sorted into major themes. strategies to ensure quality data principles with respect to quality data were maintained in this research. these principles include accuracy, context and density of descriptions, usefulness and reflexivity (richards, 2009). the following methods were employed in this study: (1) clear and careful descriptions of each stage of the research was outlined, (2) comprehensive field notes were taken after each interview, (3) an independent professional transcriber were assigned, (4) critical open discussions between the researcher and transcriber on the process and the results of the data analysis were held and (5) clarification and confirmation of themes with some participants were done. to establish trustworthiness of the qualitative research, the terms credibility, authenticity, transferability, dependability and confirmability are used as equivalents for internal validity, external validity, reliability and objectivity (creswell, 2007). in order to ensure trustworthiness in this research, the researcher consulted theoretical literature applicable to the research topic and adapted a triangulation strategy in order to compare varied sources of theoretical data or common themes. the researcher furthermore took preliminary analysis of descriptions or themes to participants for their confirmation of the accuracy and validity of the analysis. ethical considerations ethical procedures were ensured in this study. each participant was provided with a participation information sheet, clearly indicating the purpose of the study as well as the procedure to follow should the participant experience stress or emotions because of the participation in the study. in addition, the researcher received an informed consent from each participant. the researcher maintained confidentiality by ensuring that the data were available only to the researcher. ethical clearance was obtained for the project by the institutions’ research and ethics’ committee as well as the organisations were the interviews were conducted. reporting in the subsequent findings section, the major influential perceptions and subsequent sub-perceptions are discussed. findings data analysis of the interview data on research questions 4–8 yielded various themes relating to the career advancement issues faced by the respondents. table 1 summarises the three main themes and various subthemes that were identified using tesch’s (1990) method of content analysis: (1) career advancement challenges, (2) impact of demographics on career advancement and (3) suggestions to management on assisting in overcoming the career advancement challenges in the company. table 1: summary of the core themes pertaining to career advancement issues faced by people with disabilities. table 1 (continues…): summary of the core themes pertaining to career advancement issues faced by people with disabilities. theme 1: career advancement challenges table 1 shows that 7 subthemes emerged from question 4 while six subthemes emerged from question 5. question 4: since your appointment in this organisation, what are the career advancement challenges you have experienced? the subthemes related to no career advancement opportunities, slow or no promotion opportunities, the work environment not being conducive for people living with a disability, no prospect of employment opportunities or not being selected, lack of disability awareness from the organisation or lack of understanding of the disability, ee requirements and educational level. question 5: how did the career advancement challenges adversely influence your career? the subthemes related to hindered disability declaration, no salary increase, bonuses and promotion, including demotions, job specifications or company policy not conducive for people living with a disability, lack of influence, reliance on colleague support to perform core duties and negativity and aspiration. according to the findings, the most common career advancement challenges individuals living with a disability face are because of a lack of awareness or understanding from the company’s side and the environment not being conducive for people living with disabilities. furthermore, the participants reported that they experience slow or no promotion opportunities and are less likely to be selected for a position because of their disability. however, some participants reported that they do not experience any career advancement challenges within their companies. it seems as if the participants who received support from their management and colleagues did not experience career advancement challenges. participants (1, 2, 6, 7, 10 and 12) found their work environment to be inclusive, accommodative and supportive. in these instances, employers focused on participants’ capabilities and performance rather than disabilities. some of the challenges that were mentioned include non-conducive work environment, trust issues and the reaction of colleagues after declaration. participant 8 indicated that his career advancement challenges started when he declared his disability and management could not provide reasonable accommodation. after declaring his disability, participant 8 was reassigned and demoted to a lower role. this new role had limited career growth opportunities because of less value-adding responsibilities. some participants reported that absence from work because of incapacity leave or hospitalisation influenced participant’s pay increase, bonuses, assignment to value-adding responsibilities and promotions. according to participants 5 and 14, the call centre environment is not accommodating to persons with disabilities, especially for employees with hearing impairment. it is evident from the findings that employees with partial hearing impairment have challenges with access to information. participant 7, 9, 11 and 14 argued that they had to make extra effort to understand the information being communicated either in meetings or telephonically and it was often necessary to ask for clarity. participant 7 asserted that he has not experienced challenges, in contrary; he argued that he needs to work a little bit harder (as compared to individuals without a disability) because of the disability challenges. according to participants 9 and 13, people lack understanding of disability. participant 8 stressed that people are unsympathetic because they lack awareness and education about people with disabilities. people are not knowledgeable about disabilities, while disability declaration helped participants to get support from their managers. five participants (1, 2, 7, 10 and 12) did not experience career advancement challenges. participant 7 asserted that ‘i have been able to grow in this organisation, i have been given opportunities for growth. the organisation has treated me well and i have been surprised at some of the opportunities that have come my way’. participant 5 indicated that the employer did not provide parking for wheelchair users. therefore, he cannot drive to work by himself. as a result, he is not able to work late shifts. participant 5 also stated that absence from work was not approved because it was submitted in short notice. such an absence record adversely affect employee records when applying for external job opportunities. leave in short notice was inevitable at times because of the nature of the disability. there seemed to be different influences, especially emotions, caused by the career advancement challenges the participants faced. it could be concluded that some participants were not completely aware of the influences; hence, the researcher elicited the influences during the interviews. three female participants indicated that they were tolerant of the career challenges because they have families to support otherwise they would have left. theme 2: impact of demographics on career advancement opportunities table 1 shows that four subthemes emerged from question 6 while six subthemes emerged from question 7. question 6: what impact do your race, age, gender and occupational levels have on your career advancement opportunities? the subthemes that emerged from question 6 included no impact, age, gender and race. question 7: how does your disability impact your career advancement opportunities in the organisation? the subthemes that emerged included no impact, preferred for employment, limiting job scope and opportunities, stigma and limited knowledge influences on personal relationships, lack of reasonable accommodation and limited support and training opportunities. it was evident that the participants had different perspectives on career advancement challenges. the inception of broad-based black economic empowerment (bbbee) brought changes in employment. black participants indicated that bee accorded them employment opportunities while white participants had limited opportunities. it was found that call centre work was not preferred for persons with various disabilities but was preferred by the younger generation. the findings indicated that women with disabilities work harder than their male counterparts. three female participants indicated that they were tolerant of the career challenges because they have families to support otherwise they would have left. the most prevalent impact the disability has on career advancement according to the participants was that they are sometimes preferred for a position (the position is thus reserved for an individual with a disability), but because of the disability, they are often provided with limited opportunities. the participants perceived that other colleagues hold a stigma against them and it negatively influences their relationship. they experience a lack of reasonable accommodation and feel that they are provided with limited support and training opportunities. theme 3: suggestions to management table 1 shows that five subthemes emerged from question 8. question 8: what suggestions could you propose to the management to overcome the career advancement challenges you are currently facing because of your specific disability? the participants provided the following suggestions to management in order to redress career advancement challenges employees with disabilities face: provide disability sensitisation provide reasonable accommodation provide permanent employment opportunities and increase responsibilities connect with employees. discussion this study explored the perceptions of individuals with disabilities regarding the career advancement challenges they face in the south african workplace context. overall, the research participants were representative of all races and gender. most of the participants occupied semi-skilled positions. none of the participants occupied unskilled or top management–level positions. hernandez et al. (2008) and management today (2011) asserted that the employees with disabilities predominantly occupy entry-level and semi-skilled positions. the cee (2012, 2013, 2014) found that white people dominate the representation of people with disabilities over black people. statistics south africa (2014) asserted that there are more female participants with disabilities than male participants. hashim and wok (2014), hernandez et al. (2008) as well as buciuniene and kazlauskaite (2010) asserted that people with disabilities have a long tenure; they tend to be committed, reliable, loyal and hardworking employees. the study found that not all people with disabilities face career advancement challenges. five (33%) participants indicated that they have not faced career advancement challenges in their workplaces. the perspectives of the participants regarding the challenges they faced were similar to those indicated by the research literature. the literature indicated that disability challenges hinder career advancements in the workplace (hernandez et al., 2008). the findings of the present study corroborate research indicating that employers lack knowledge about disabilities and the legislative requirements (wehman, 2011). beatty (2012) also found that employees with disabilities experience career plateaus where they remain in the same position for a long time and that advancement to a higher level is unlikely. zondi (2009) mentioned that people perceive that people with disabilities are not able to do well in senior positions. van niekerk and van der merwe (2013) also stress that employment, advancement and training opportunities for people with disabilities are linked to their educational levels. in agreement with the findings of the study, crowther (1999) argues that barriers encountered by disabled people vary from social barriers (perceptions and behaviours), material barriers (inaccessible structures and information) to organisational barriers (legislation, organisational policies and procedures, economic factors and practices). the study founded that human resource practices, especially promotion do not favour the participants because of their perceived disabilities. the participants indicated that promotion opportunities are prolonged or not afforded because of their disability. one participant even indicated that he was demoted after declaration of disability while one argued that it took her longer to be promoted because the environment was not conducive for declaration. several authors also found that promotion is one of the most evident advancement challenges faced by individuals living with a disability (hussein, manthorpe & ismail, 2014; lapierre & zimmerman, 2012; vickers, 2009). similar to this study’s findings, jakovljevic and buckley (2011) mentioned that employees fear to disclose their disabilities to employers because of perceived prejudice towards disability. hussein et al. (2014) asserted that employees, except for employees in higher level positions and with decision-making powers, fear losing their jobs if they disclose their invisible disabilities to employers. the experiences of limited job opportunities, lack of bonuses, promotion and salary increases or permanent employment may be attributed to what hernandez et al. (2008) view as being managers’ perceptions that recruiting and appointing persons with disabilities would result in an increase in supervisory time, low productivity and frequent absence. however, in this regard, article 38 of the law on protection of disabled persons (1990) prohibited discrimination against persons with disabilities on different grounds including pay increase, promotions and bonus. jones (2008) asserted that an employer may equate an individual’s productivity to those without disability by providing reasonable accommodation. in line with the present study’s findings, belzil and bognanno (2010) also mentioned that education, age and tenure are variables that influence decisions regarding promotion, scope of the position and opportunities. similar to the participants’ perceptions, hussein et al. (2014) mentioned that employees fear losing their jobs if they declare disabilities. the study found that there is prejudice against invisible disabilities and people are unsympathetic. the participants indicated that they do not want to use their disabilities as excuses for incapacity or being sorry for, but want to be recognised for the contribution that they can make. the study findings corroborate research showing that stereotypes and stigmas against employees with disabilities are the reason for their high unemployment rates (vickers, 2009). according to watermeyer et al. (2006), the provision of skills advancement opportunities to all employees will help to achieve ee in the labour market. they further argue that appointments should be based on competences (skills and abilities) rather than meeting ee targets and goals. the world health organisation (2011) claimed that most jobs can be performed by persons with disabilities if all reasonable accommodation needs are provided. the findings indicated that people from different race, age, gender and occupational levels differ in their perceptions regarding career advancement challenges to some extent. female participants perceived themselves to have higher career advancement challenges than their male counterparts. in agreement with the experiences of the female participants, lapierre and zimmerman (2012) indicated that female participants do not progress as much as their male counterparts. white participants, especially male participants, experienced higher levels of discrimination because of post-apartheid aa and ee legislation. this finding is contrary to the findings of watermeyer et al. (2006), which suggest that black people with disabilities tend to experience inferior conditions compared to their white counterparts. the participants provided suggestions to address the identified career barriers people with disabilities face. the suggestions were directed to management or people with influence in decision making. the most prevalent suggestions were to provide disability sensitisation and reasonable accommodations. the study findings also confirm in line with hernandez et al.’s (2008) view that management perceptions are a barrier to initiatives to employ people with disabilities and that increased attention should be given to the provision of reasonable accommodation to employees with disabilities. sing and govender (2007) and watermeyer et al. (2006) stress that employment of people with disabilities benefits the organisations because they earn bee points and achieve ee targets, which makes an organisation appear civically minded to the community in which it operates. the participants suggested that people should undergo a disability sensitisation to learn about disability so that an inclusive, diverse and accommodative environment can be created. limitations and future research directions although this study provides comprehensive and valuable contributions in order to help identify the perceptions that employees living with a disability may have with regards to career advancement, some important limitations are worth mentioning. one such limitation is that the employees in this sample were selected from two different sectors within the gauteng province and that the sample was relatively small. thus, no generalisations can be made as the perceptions recognised and explored in this study could possibly be only representative of the particular organisations and their cultures. however, the participants’ responses may still be typical of what employees in south african workplaces experience, thereby allowing for the transferability of the findings (appleton, 1995; terre blanche et al., 2006). future studies incorporating more participants from different sectors, regions and cultural or language groups might reveal additional perceptions on career advancement challenges. conclusion individuals with disabilities could contribute to developing the south african labour market. efforts to enhance and utilise their skills should be made without being discriminated against on the grounds of their perceived disability. employers or management need to be sensitised on disability. disability sensitisation will equip organisations to create an inclusive and amicable workplace where employees with disabilities will be accommodated and their talent or contributions valued. employers should employ candidates with disabilities in meaningful roles for their skills. employment should precede the ee and bbbee targets. the targets may be irrelevant or change in due course while skills are critical for the businesses to sustain. this will avoid rotation of candidates with disabilities in learnerships and lower level positions without career growth. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions i.l.p was the project leader. t.x collected the data and assisted with the literature review. i.l.p and m.c conducted the data analysis and wrote up the research article. references abbott, p., & meyer, m. (2014, july). national hr standards phase iii: hs standards – update. hr future, 34–35. appleton, j.v. (1995). analysing qualitative interview data: addressing issues of validity and reliability. journal of advanced nursing, 22(1), 278–308. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.1995.tb02653.x beatty, j.e. (2012). career barriers experienced by people with chronic illness: a u.s. study. employee responsibilities and rights journal, 24, 91–110. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-011-9177-z belzil, c., & bognanno, m. (2010). the promotion dynamics of american executives. research in labor economics, 30, 189–231. https://doi.org/10.1108/s0147-9121(2010)0000030009 boyce, c., & neale, p. (2006). conducting in-depth interviews: a guide for designing and conducting in-depth interviews for evaluation input. retrieved june, 2012, from http://www.pathfind.org/site/docserver/m_e_tool_series_indepth_interviews.pdf?docid=6301 buciuniene, i., & kazlauskaite, r. (2010). integrating people with disability into the workforce: the case of a retail chain. equality, diversity and inclusion: an international journal, 29(5), 534–538. https://doi.org/10.1108/02610151011052816 burns, n., & grove, s.k. (1997). the practice of nursing research: conduct, critique and utilization (3rd edn.). philadelphia, pa: wb saunders. chan, j.f. (2010). training fundamentals. san francisco, ca: pfeiffer. christianson, m. (2012). people with disabilities inside (and outside) the south african workplace: the current status of the constitutional and statutory promises. acta juridica: reinventing labour law, 286–305. cole, e.c., & van der walt, a. (2014). the effect of labour legislation in the promotion and integration of persons with disabilities in the labour market. obiter, 35(3), 506–538. commission for employment equity annual report (2012, 2013, 2014). retrieved may 13, 2016, from http://www.labour.gov.za/dol/documents/annual-reports/commission%20for%20employment%20equity%20report/2014-2015/commission-for-employment-equity-report-2014-2015 creswell, j.w. (2007). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing approaches (2nd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. crowther, n. (1999). overcoming disability discrimination: disabled people, housing and social exclusion. housing, care and support, 16–20. https://doi.org/10.1108/14608790199900034 daya, p. (2014). diversity and inclusion in an emerging market context. equality, diversity and inclusion: an international journal, 33(3), 293–308. https://doi.org/10.1108/edi-10-2012-0087 department of international relations and cooperation. (2013). international labour organization (ilo). retrieved june 11, 2013, from http://www.dfa.gov.za/foreign/multilateral/inter/ilo.htm de vos, a.s., strydom, h., fouche, c.b., & delport, c.s.l. (2011). research at grass roots: for the social sciences and human service professions. pretoria, south africa: van schaik publishers. gida, p., & ortlepp, k. (2007). employment of people with disabilities: implications for hr management practices. acta commercii, 7, 135–150. gowan, n.j. (2010). hr manager’s guide to managing disability in the workplace (1st ed.). toronto, canada: thomson reuters. guba, e.g., & lincoln, y.s. (1994). competing paradigms in qualitative research. in n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds.), handbook of qualitative research (pp. 105–117). thousand oaks, ca: sage. guimaraes, b.b., martins, l.b., & barkokebas junior, b. (2012). issues concerning scientific production of including people with disabilities at work. work, 41, 4722–4728. hashim, j., & wok, s. (2014). predictors to employees with disabilities’ organisational behaviour and involvement in employment. equality, diversity and inclusion: an international journal, 33(2), 193–209. https://doi.org/10.1108/edi-03-2012-0018 hasse, j. (ed.). (2011). perfectly able: how to attract and hire talented people with disabilities. new york: amacom. hernandez, b., mcdonald, k., divilbiss, m., horin, e., velcoff, j., & donoso, o. (2008). reflections from employers on the disabled workforce: focus groups with healthcare, hospitality and retail administrators. employee responsibilities & rights journal, 20(3), 157–164. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-008-9063-5 hesse-biber, s.n., & leavy, p. (2004). approaches to qualitative research: a reader on theory and practice. oxford, uk: oxford university press. hsieh, h., & shannon, s.e. (2005). three approaches to qualitative content analysis. qualitative health research, 15, 1277–1288. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732305276687 hussein, s., manthorpe, j., & ismail, m. (2014). ethnicity at work: the case of british minority workers in the long-term care sector. equality, diversity and inclusion: an international journal, 33(2), 177–192. https://doi.org/10.1108/edi-02-2013-0009 international labour organisation. (2011). international labour organization (ilo). retrieved may 13, 2016, from http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/@publ/documents/publication/wcms_150440.pdf jakovljevic, m., & buckley, s. (2011). assistive technologies in a workplace environment: barriers for the employment of persons with disabilities. dcidj, 22(2), 55–78. https://doi.org/10.5463/dcid.v22i2.32 jones, m.k. (2008). disability and the labour market: a review of the empirical evidence. journal of economic studies, 35(5), 405–424. https://doi.org/10.1108/01443580810903554 king, e.c., & horrocks, c. (2010). interviews in qualitative research. london, uk: sage. lapierre, t.a., & zimmerman, m.k. (2012). career advancement and gender equity in healthcare management. gender in management: an international journal, 27(2), 100–118. https://doi.org/10.1108/17542411211214158 leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2005). practical research: planning and design (8th ed.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson prentice hall. leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2010). practical research: planning and design (9th ed.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson prentice hall. lengnick-hall, m.l., & gaunt, p. (2007). why employers don’t hire people with disabilities. in m.l. lengnick-hall (ed.), hidden talent: how leading companies hire, retain, and benefit from people with disabilities (pp. 2–6). westport, ct: praeger. li, y., & goldschmidt, j. (eds.). (2009). taking employment discrimination seriously: chinese and european perspectives. boston, ma: maritinus nijhoff publishers. lindstrom, l., doren, b., & miesch, j. (2011). waging a living: career development and long-term employment outcomes for young adults with disabilities. exceptional children, 77(4), 423–434. lourens, a., & phabo, l. (2015). diversity management: the management of disabled persons within the sandf. journal of public administration, 50(1), 634–643. management today. (2011). disabled south africans have few freedoms to celebrate. pretoria, south africa: author. marumoagae, m.c. (2012). disability discrimination and the right of disabled persons to access the labour market. potchefstroom electronic law journal, 15(1), 345–365. https://doi.org/10.4314/pelj.v15i1.10 maxwell, j.a. (2005). qualitative research design: an interactive approach (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. neuman, w.l. (2003). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. boston, ma, usa: allyn & bacon. ofuani, a.i. (2011). the right to economic empowerment of persons with disabilities in nigeria: how enabled? african human rights law journal, 11(2), 639–658. oosthuizen, r.m., & naidoo, v. (2010). attitudes towards and experience of employment equity. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.836 parlalis, s.k. (2013). legal framework against disability discrimination at work in cyprus. equality, diversity and inclusion: an international journal, 32(4), 426–437. https://doi.org/10.1108/edi-07-2012-0055 rahmania, m., akhter, r., chowdhury, s., islam, s., & haque, m.r. (2013). hrm practices and its impact on employee satisfaction: a case of pharmaceutical companies in bangladesh. international journal of research in business and social science, 2(3), 2147–4478. richards, l. (2009). handling qualitative data: a practical guide (2nd ed.). london: sage. searle, r.h. (2003). selection & recruitment: a critical text. london, united kingdom: the open university. sing, d., & govender, v. (2007). establishing enabling structures and measures for people with disabilities in the south african public service. journal of public administration, 42(8), 786–797. smith, m. (2012). application of the international classification of functioning, disability and health with specific focus on disabling hearing impairment in legislation and policy in south africa. journal for juridical science, 37(2), 96–116. sommo, a., & chaskes, j. (2013). intersectionality and the disability: some conceptual and methodological challenges. research in social science and disability, 7, 47–9. https://doi.org/10.1108/s1479-3547(2013)0000007005 south african human rights commission annual report. (2012). retrieved may 13, 2016, from http://www.sahrc.org.za/home/21/files/annual%20report%202012-13.pdf%20october.pdf statistics south africa. (2014). census 2011: profile of persons with disabilities in south africa. retrieved september 30, 2014, from http://beta2.statssa.gov.za/publications/report-03-01-59/report-03-01-592011.pdf terre blanche, m., durrheim, k., & painter, d. (2006). research in practice: applied methods for the social sciences. cape town, south africa: university of cape town press. tesch, r. (1990). qualitative research: analysis, types and software tools. new york: the falmer press. thomas, a.b. (2004). research skills for management studies. london, uk: routledge. tuwei, j.g., matelong, k.n., boit, s.r., & tallam, k.z. (2013). promotion opportunity on employee career change decision: the case of a selected learning institution in kenya. international journal of business and management, 8(18), 53–62. van niekerk, z., & van der merwe, j. (2013). participation opportunities for persons with disabilities in training interventions in the dti and cipro. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.466 vickers, m.h. (2009). why people with disabilities might really be leaving work: an exemplar case with lessons. in r.c. preziosi (ed.), the 2009 pfeiffer annual: management development (pp. 139–154). san francisco, ca: pfeiffer. watermeyer, b., swartz, l., lorenzo, m., & priestley, m. (eds.). (2006). disability and social change: a south african agenda. cape town: hsrc press. wehman, p.h. (2011). employment for persons with disabilities: where are we now and where do we need to go? journal of vocational rehabilitation, 35, 145–151. world health organization. (2011). world report on disability. retrieved april 17, 2014, from http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2011/9789240685215_eng.pdf ximba, t. (2016). career advancement challenges facing people with disability in south africa. unpublished master’s dissertation. pretoria: university of south africa. zondi, d. (2009). the effectiveness of the employment equity act (act 55 of 1998) in the public service with reference to the department of agriculture 2000–2006: south african perspective. master’s thesis, university of pretoria, pretoria. abstract introduction and background to the problem current collective engagement stakeholder strategies overview of the current south african collective engagement strategy external factors impacting south african collective engagement strategies discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) popi c. madlala department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa cookie m. govender department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa citation madlala, p.c., & govender, c.m. (2018). current collective engagement stakeholder strategies for south african labour relations. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a909. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.909 original research current collective engagement stakeholder strategies for south african labour relations popi c. madlala, cookie m. govender received: 01 feb. 2017; accepted: 08 nov. 2017; published: 10 may 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: collective engagement stakeholder strategies are significant for the creation of harmony in the workplace. it is a known fact that the south african (sa) labour environment has been dominated by industrial action before and after the 1994 democratic transition. to be precise, the statistics reveals that industrial action has increased and become more destructive post-1994. purpose: the purpose of this article was to present the current collective engagement stakeholder strategies for south african labour relations. motivation for the study: the sa mining sector has seen more violent strikes, with a higher number of deaths, injuries, criminal activities, arrests, dismissals and job losses in recent years. this article captures the current mining stakeholder strategies shaping the existing labour relations environment. research approach, design and method: this is a theoretical article highlighting the recent literature on collective engagement in the mining sector in south africa. main findings: this article presents the current labour relations incidents, reflecting the need for more effective collective engagement and stakeholder management strategies. practical and managerial implications: the current labour relations context has prompted key stakeholders at the national economic development and labour council (nedlac) to look specifically at promoting employment, labour market stability, the right to strike, minimising violence through collective bargaining and highlighting the role of the state, reducing vulnerability through social protection and increasing the minimum wage. contribution or value add: this article adds theoretically to the existing body of knowledge regarding collective engagement and stakeholder strategies in the sa mining sector. introduction and background to the problem the status of south african (sa) collective engagement has failed to transform to the desirable level since the democratisation of the labour relations environment, with the promulgation of the labour relations act (no. 66 of 1995) (oecd, 2000). chinguno (2013) argued that democracy and violence should have an inverse relationship. however, in south africa, violence remains a significant phenomenon despite the transition to democracy, both in the labour relations environment and in society as a whole. this demonstrates the lack of a collaborative collective engagement strategy. according to nwankwo (2016), collective engagement refers to the negotiation, administration and interpretation of a written agreement between two parties that covers a specific period of time. the international labour organization (ilo) has defined collective engagement as negotiations on working conditions and terms of employment between an employer, or a group of employers, and one or more employee organisations, with a view to reaching an agreement. the terms of that agreement serve as a contract, defining the rights and obligations of each party (nwankwo, 2016). most importantly, the collective agreement must shape the labour relations landscape in a more positive way. although the current collective engagement framework is deemed to be comprehensive and sufficient, the evidence collected by various analysts (as would be presented in the discussions that follow) suggests that there is a need to overhaul the current stakeholder collective engagement strategies (coleman, 2013; congress of south african trade unions [cosatu], 2012; hartford, 2012). the current collective engagement in the mining environment, especially in the decentralised environment, leaves much to be desired and suggests that there is room for further strategic improvements at all levels of the bargaining process. this theoretical article presents the current collective engagement strategies for labour relations by current stakeholders and adds value by contributing to the theoretical knowledge regarding collective engagement strategies in the mining sector in sa. it also adds value in a practical way by contributing to the debate on what strategies union and employer managers and leaders should utilise to create harmonious labour relations in the mining sector. current collective engagement stakeholder strategies the current collective engagement strategies are presented under the subheadings of collective engagement framework in sa, an overview of the current sa collective engagement strategy and external factors impacting sa collective engagement strategies. collective engagement framework in south africa according to sachs (2013), the labour law regime provides for unionisation that requires workers to organise for the purpose of collective engagement. sachs suggests that the process of collective engagement has also been captured by political influences, where public policies and financial regulations are designed to facilitate political organising by the poor and middle classes, through collective engagement. collective engagement practices and strategies in the sa mining sector were in the spotlight even before the shocking killings of mineworkers in marikana in 2012. the statutory collective engagement framework is provided by the labour relations act (lra), as presented in table 1, and describes the functions and powers of key stakeholders as governed by statutory legislation in sa (coleman, 2013). table 1: levels of statutory bargaining in south africa. the workplace collective engagement framework, as provided for by legislated guidance on collective agreements, is outlined in table 2. the table describes the stakeholder platforms, the functions and the powers of each. table 2: current levels of workplace collective engagement in south africa. it is expected that with such a well-designed framework, the sa mines should be able to contain unnecessary tensions that lead to unwanted conflict. the government has accepted that the industrial action experiences at the marikana platinum mine in 2012 prompted the sa government to reinforce social discourse and collective engagement. according to the department of labour (dol), it was noted that the relapse of industrial disputes is a symptom of the failure of social discourse in the working environment, and persistent inequality is because of the ineffectiveness of policy implementation strategy in the sa labour market (dol, 2012). the other reality is the absence of effective collective engagement strategies from the key collective engagement stakeholder representatives to eradicate the existing collective engagement challenges. the minister of labour indicated that the one thing that needed to be dealt with regarding the marikana incident was the re-establishment of the bargaining system in the platinum mines (dol, 2012). the minister suggested a multi-pronged approach in the collective engagement system and suggested ensuring that all relevant stakeholders be included in the dialogue (dol, 2012). this paper seeks to locate the reasons for the failures in the collective engagement system, and thereafter to make recommendations that will contribute to the current debate on the subject. hartford (2012) argued that the most noticeable feature of the events preceding the mining strike upsurge is the lack of any form of analysis of the economicand social-democratic drivers. hartford suggested that the lack of analysis led to the collapse of established collective bargaining institutions, agreements and norms in the labour relations process. hartford’s viewpoint recommended a review of the collective engagement framework to explore strategies that will ensure the harmonisation of the labour relations climate in the sa mining environment. the farlam commission of inquiry report of 2015 underlined the fact that the processes of collective bargaining are embedded in the sa constitution and in a set of sophisticated enactments, central to which is the lra (farlam, hemraj & tokota 2015). the labour relations dispensation is, at its core, a framework for officially organised union and employer entities, functioning within a bargaining environment that not only normalises their interface but also provides for the possibility of resorting to lawful strike or lockout measures (farlam et al., 2015). the intention of the lra in establishing the bargaining councils is to centralise the collective engagement process to be sector specific (south african government, 2015). centralised collective engagement assists in creating consistent patterns of employment conditions within the same sector. the gold and coal sectors have a centralised collective engagement system, and history reveals that the mines in these sectors have competitive employment conditions. as much as the legislation’s intentions to regulate collective engagement are good, the negative connotation is that it acts as a deterrent for inclusive collective engagement. the legislation excludes smaller trade unions in crucial stages of collective engagement and where it matters most. for example, in collective bargaining, only significantly recognised trade unions are given a passport to collective engagement. kruger and tshoose (2013) cited legislation as one of the hindrances, as it shuts the minority out of the collective engagement process, especially when dealing with crucial employee socio-economic issues. they argued that section 23 of the lra specifically excludes the minority, as it allows for the collective agreement with a significantly representative trade union to be imposed on all minority trade unions (kruger & tshoose, 2013). this exclusion amounts to exclusion based on freedom of association, as the interests represented by smaller trade unions may be ignored. the weaknesses and shortcomings in the labour legislation are that it does not provide for employee participation in decision-making in the mining sector (kruger & tshoose, 2013; lester, 2014). the argument is that workplace forums can contribute significantly to creating worker participation in the collective engagement process; however, the current labour legislation dispensation leaves the establishment of the workplace forum to the trade unions rather than the employer. labour analysts suggested a review of the legislation in order to ensure broader participation in the collective engagement process (lester, 2014). harvey (2013) argued that the current institutional labour relations policy framework perpetuates trade union rivalry to value violence over cooperation, amongst other causes. the argument is that the clear existence of a policy dilemma in the labour relations landscape within sa’s mining industry warrants strategic redesign to avert the damaging effects of mutual inconstancy. a possible means of attaining the focal goal would be to mandate the legislator to remove bargaining rights from any union guilty of endorsing illegal or violent strike action (harvey, 2013). according to coleman (2013), the following recommendations are to be noted: the overhaul of the collective engagement system, an integrated proposal connecting the transformation of collective bargaining to a wage and income strategy and the transformation of social protection. according to the suggestion, the recommendation is for wages, social protection and collective bargaining to be brought together into one coherent package. from the above discussion, it is clear that the current collective engagement framework in sa, especially in the mining industry, needs to be overhauled. this can be achieved through peaceful negotiation, engagement, win-win intentions and a powerful collective engagement strategy. the objective of this article is to review the current stakeholder collective engagement strategies and deduce the intention of leaders, managers and unions in bringing about a peaceful labour relations environment in the mining sector of sa. overview of the current south african collective engagement strategy the farlam commission of inquiry report identified inconsistent engagement strategies that contributed significantly to the instability in the collective engagement processes (farlam et al., 2015). for instance, the national union of mineworkers (num) was involved in a collective engagement process with implats on the rock drill operators (rdos) conditions of employment, which lifted the implats rdos above the industry norm. national union of mineworkers should have been aware of what the consequences of its achievement at implats would be on its constituencies in surrounding mines. furthermore, the union failed to negotiate similar conditions successfully for its members at the lonmin mine. in recent times, after the marikana debacle, similar to rdo, demands have been made and realised in other mines in sa (farlam et al., 2015). collective engagement strategies of trade unions and employers shape the pay equity effects of a minimum wage policy (grimshaw, bosch & rubery, 2014). this was further supported by the outcome of the study conducted by karen roberts in 2015, which recorded the results as showing a difference between collaboratively and competitively bargained contracts in two areas, namely, direct responses to a changing national minimum wage and responses to the absence or weakness of a national minimum wage (roberts, 2015). the marikana debacle raises the debate about the best-fit strategy between decentralised and centralised collective bargaining, wherein the question that arises is: of decentralisation and centralisation, which is the better strategy? currently, the platinum mining sector practices decentralised collective bargaining, unlike the gold and coal sectors. some have argued that the platinum sector was sufficiently similar to that of the gold mining sector to warrant centralised bargaining, notwithstanding the general problems associated with the practice (chinguno, 2015; lester, 2014). dawkins (2014) concluded that substantive operational indicators of collective engagement are lacking in the literature to guide collective engagement stakeholders on effective strategies for managing collective engagement. earlier, coleman (2013) postulated that the labour movements, and labour in general, are faced with the need to introduce new quality strategies to advance the wages and social protection of workers in the labour market. cosatu (2012) suggested that a more offensive strategic perspective to substantially restructure the current collective engagement architecture is required to confront the failures of the current sa national collective engagement system, which has failed to meet its objectives. new public policies and regulatory frameworks ought to be proposed to promote the consolidation of centralised engagement, a developmental engagement framework which increases wage equity, and the alignment of centralised bargaining with industrial and economic development strategies (cosatu, 2012). a paper on new collective bargaining, learnt from experiences in brazil, was presented by cosatu in 2012, which suggested that to achieve the new way of collective bargaining, some shortcomings from the existing system needed to be identified. the identified gaps, included, among others the need to develop new strategies to advance the position of workers in the labour market qualitatively. the cosatu paper identified that the key stakeholders have not succeeded in fundamentally changing the apartheid wage structure, with the partial exception of the public service and local government, and some pockets of the manufacturing sector, such as metal and engineering, and less so in the mining sector. there is a lack of centralisation of collective engagement in the platinum mining sector that has created severe inequalities amongst mining operations in this sector. the current gains achieved through the collective engagement process are deemed to be less efficient in real terms or sometimes reflect no change in real wages and lifestyle. there is therefore the danger that current strategies are in critical respects reinforcing the cheap labour structure of apartheid. the paper highlighted that there is widespread poverty amongst workers which remains a serious problem in sa. this is attributed to the high levels of unemployment and lack of social protection, leading to a greater dependency on low wages. having realised these challenges and the need to review the national collective engagement strategy in sa, cosatu proposed the following strategic intent: the need to campaign for the adoption of a national minimum wage; the need for the development of federation-style collective bargaining strategies, especially to reconfigure the pay structure; the need for the introduction of legislated mandatory centralised bargaining; the need to campaign for universal income support to cover all adults; the package of labour market and social protection measures should form the basis of a national agreement through the national growth plan (ngp), which is connected to an overhaul of the sa macro-economic policies; and, where employment is threatened in crisis-hit industries, a package of rescue measures needs to be devised and implemented by the parties, together with the government (cosatu, 2012). an analysis of the marikana commission of enquiry report identified eight emerging conditions lacking in the strategies of collective engagement stakeholders (south african board of people practices [sabpp], 2015). the first omission is that it is not easy to build a relationship of trust through collective engagement with employees as long as employees’ living conditions are unpleasant and outside the mine premises. the second omission is that collective engagement failed to adequately match investment in employee housing to the cycles of platinum prices. the third omission is that there was a failure of the parties to engage thoroughly, separately and collectively on matters. the fourth omission is that most of the time, compromises and consensus are only considered during the dispute phase of the collective engagement process and when emotions are out of control. the fifth omission is that the failure to continue engaging during a dispute fuels the destructive nature of a strike. the sixth omission is the use or intervention of non-collective engagement agents during a dispute or strike situation, which causes havoc and raises emotions. the seventh omission is the lack of a communication strategy or contingency plan to deal with a strike situation that threatens to be disastrous. lastly, there is a failure to listen to minority parties during a strike situation that can extend the size of the strike, as those unions or employees not involved in a dispute may be prevented from continuing with regular work. this results in forcing non-striking employees to continue working as normal during a volatile strike, putting the lives of innocent people at risk. management needs to assess the risks and institute action that will protect non-striking employees (sabpp, 2015). the sabpp picked up lessons from the marikana debacle and suggested the following strategies as the way forward for collective engagement in the workplace. the first suggestion is the creation of a climate of trust, cooperation and stability within an organisation. the second suggestion is achieving a harmonious and productive working environment which enables the organisation to compete effectively in its marketplace. the third suggestion is to establish a framework for conflict resolution. the fourth suggestion is to establish a framework for collective bargaining, where relevant. the fifth suggestion is ensuring capacity building and compliance to relevant labour legislation and codes of good practice as per the ilo and dol standards. the sixth suggestion is that management must at all times give honest information about its financial circumstances and ensure that employees understand the information. the seventh suggestion is that commitments made to any plan or agreement must be adhered to, or stakeholders must be involved in any proposed changes to those commitments. the eighth suggestion is that information on any change in the employment relations climate, which may occur from many different causes, should be gathered and carefully evaluated. lastly, all stakeholders should be involved sooner rather than later in the resolution of disputes (sabpp, 2015). as a major labour movement in the country, cosatu has accepted that the status of collective engagement requires a major strategic overhaul (coleman, 2013). cosatu has acknowledged that the labour markets are facing significant challenges, which include the following: collective bargaining institutions becoming fragmented and constantly being destabilised, no coherent wage policy in the country to address poverty and inequality amongst workers and no consistent framework to link labour market strategies and institutions to a broader economic development strategy (coleman, 2013). there are a number of interventions that can restore the sa mining industry to a good, healthy state, specifically if jointly driven by stakeholders (government, labour movements and employers) who have the will to modernise and transform the industry. hartford (2012) endorsed the following essential interventions: transforming and investing in the migrant labour system to modernise labour migrancy through a new migratory labour model founded on human dignity and the promotion of the mining industry as an employment attractor; short work cycles and continuous operations; significant pay rewards in a flatter remuneration structure on re organised work processes; modern, adequate living quarters for migrants underpinned by an efficient migrant commuter transport network (flight, rail or road); restoring migrant nuclear families to good health and banking facilities to facilitating maximum remittances to rural areas; overhauling stakeholder relationships and transforming or enabling the front-line managers to understand freedom of association, worker democracy, positively managing people, problem resolution capacity, union rights, levels of bargaining and recognition procedures; ensuring constituency-based union accountability and democracy; deepening freedom of association and democratic processes for union accountability in bargaining units, rights of shop stewards and threshold representation levels; rapidly transforming line management function to create language synergy and strong interpersonal problem-solving skills; restoring line function to be accountable for people problem resolution and employee communication, and measuring and rewarding line management for effective people problem resolution and effective communication. elgoibar, munduate and euwema (2016) highlight trust as a deterrent and argue that a good trust relationship is critical in the management of inevitable tensions and conflicts of interest related to change, and in the process of repairing broken relationships between management and employees, and their representatives. at marikana, the employees did not trust either num or management, and for this reason wanted to engage on their own with the company representatives; thus, they felt excluded by both parties. as an alternative, the rdos turned to the association of mineworkers and construction union (amcu) for assistance with their bargaining issues, and soon most other job category employees also diverted to amcu. webster (2013) cited that the engaging parties’ ability to compromise is a possible limitation to harmonious collective engagement. furthermore, the inability of the social partners to implement a delicate concession seems to be hampered by the complex legacy of sa’s apartheid past. with the above discussion in mind, one wonders whether a collective engagement framework, as outlined in tables 1 and 2, is considered by stakeholders in the mining sector when attempting to create sustainable harmonious policies, strategies, procedures and practices. it is evident from the literature review that there is an empirical research gap in stakeholder strategies for managing collective engagement in sa mines. whether the proposed collective engagement strategy changes will overhaul the mining industry remains to be tested in practice. it seems that the current intentions and strategies of the current collective engagement stakeholders in sa may not be geared towards co-creating harmonious working environments in the country because of internal and external factors. external factors impacting south african collective engagement strategies external circumstances can impact internal employment relations processes. hence, the collective engagement stakeholder representatives must continually scan and evaluate the external environment. the lack of attention paid to the conditions under which employees live, and attempting to improve socio-economic conditions of employees, means that leaders and managers are less likely to pay attention to radical elements from inside or outside. the external factors impacting the sa collective engagement strategies are presented under the subheadings of legacy and socio-political factors and global labour market influences. legacy issues and socio-political factors benjamin (2005) argued that attempts were made in the early post-apartheid period to forge a more social, democratic and coordinated variety of capitalism; however, this floundered as the government adopted neoliberal macro-economic policies against the wishes of organised labour. hence, black economic empowerment policies further undermined an already racially fraught business sector. di paola and pons-vignon (2013) concur with coleman (2013) to confirm the reports produced by the international monetary fund (imf), which state that the sa government has yielded to feared warnings of populism in the labour market. they argued that market flexibility has been destroyed by rigid rules established for overprotected workers who are poorly skilled or over-unionised. this is a deadly mix that results in high unemployment and poverty. the shift in the political environment of the country, meanwhile, has had a more fundamental transformative impact, shaking the institutional underpinnings of collective bargaining in the mining sector (szabó, 2013). the sa mining industry is challenged by the need to address a number of legacy issues that promote a undesirable review of the industry and perpetuate discontent, leading to potential policy change (humby, 2016). humby suggested that the past is unlikely to be addressed through a uniform process and that the industry would do better to be more attentive to the remedial theories, limitations and opportunities inherent in multiple forms of engagement, as these manifest in flashpoints of conflict that invoke legacy issues. szabó (2013) suggested that the economic crisis has affected collective bargaining through two channels: direct economic challenges and political change. sa’s economic challenges have led to the polarisation of the labour force in the private sector and further sternness in the public sector. a study conducted by price, bailey and pyman in 2014 concluded that an environment in which unions are not forced to fight to represent members can be conducive to collaborative employment relations, particularly in industries where the parties do not adopt an adversarial stance (price et al., 2014). bluestone and kochan (2014) agreed that the continuing fiscal crisis facing the commonwealth countries and its municipalities can provide the motivation for forging a fundamental change in public sector labour relations. this could not only lead to a more efficient and effective government service but could also play a critical role in improving public services and closing the achievement gap. the dominance of competitiveness is a central frame reference in the wage policies of different trade unions (cruces, trillo & leonardi, 2015). this competitiveness has a negative impact on economic growth and social cohesion. seldén (2014) concluded that competing discourses co-existed with regard to the measures to be taken, displaying important and historically rooted differences between trade unions regarding the context, scope and objectives of transnational collective action. a good stakeholder collective engagement strategy should, therefore, be able to fit within the environmental factors (past, present and future) that have an influence on the labour market and that have an impact on collective engagement processes. global labour market influences multinational firms pay above-industry average wages compared to local firms in the country in which they operate, thus impinging on competitors, and on employment policies of the labour market in general (driffield, 2013). multinational firms have bargaining power weakness when compared to local firms; first, because of their positions in global structures, and second, because of their desire to buy industrial peace which they can afford because of high volumes of productivity and profitability (driffield, 2013). most of the mining companies in sa are part of the global companies; hence, they pay higher averages in comparison with local companies in other sectors. the local mining companies are forced to compete with these global companies, putting strain on their financial outlook and causing them to fail in sustaining their businesses. the labour market firms influence economic growth and impact the supply of key skilled workers to new and expanding firms, and the shedding of workers from declining and failing firms (henrekson, 2014). growth-favouring labour market institutions include the following as part of the payment package: portable pension plans and other job tenure rights, health insurance untied to the current employer, individualised wage-setting and public income insurance systems that encourage mobility and risk-taking. blanton, blanton and peksen (2015) stated that organised labour has consistently been critical of international financial institutions (ifi) policy prescriptions attached to loans, as such policies harm workers’ interests. on the contrary, these financial institutions refute the organised labour claims, arguing to the contrary that they work with relevant labour organisations and that many of their arrangements call for compliance with core labour standards (blanton et al., 2015). it seems that very little research has been devoted to whether ifi programmes affect labour laws and the actual labour practices of recipient countries. it also seems that international financial institutes undermine collective labour rights and that policy reforms are necessary. discussion in this article, the current literature has been reviewed according to the current collective engagement stakeholder strategies to establish their effectiveness and relevance. the conclusion is that most of the research conducted has been focused on collective engagement failures and that there is a need to pay more attention to future collective engagement strategies that will contribute positively to a harmonious labour relations environment. figure 1 outlines the analysis of the current collective engagement stakeholder strategies and the gaps that need to be addressed. figure 1: current collective engagement strategy analysis. cognisance was taken of the evolving labour relations environment and the fact that there is a need for a constant review of labour strategies to sustain labour peace, meaning that empirical research in this area should be continuous. based on the literature discussion, it is suggested that an effective stakeholder strategy should reflect the following: there should be strategic intent; there should be a clear analysis of past and current strategy impact to the labour relations environment to establish the future strategy; the strategy should be measurable; the strategy should be amenable to change where the new developments in the labour market dictate as much; the strategy should address not only wages and terms of employment but must also take cognisance of socio-economic and political factors that have a direct or indirect impact; and there should be a collective establishment of the strategy that is aligned with other similar business sectors. the review of the current labour relations challenges and weaknesses, together with the analytical suggestions, resulted in a proposed strategic model for harmonious collective engagement in sa. figure 2 proposes what a possible future labour relations strategic model should consider with regard to strategic intent, strategy effectiveness, reviewable strategy and impact of external factors. figure 2: proposed collective engagement strategic model. figure 2 suggests a collaborative approach in the development of strategies, either at plant or central bargaining levels or at policy formulating levels. collective engagement stakeholder representatives should be able to predetermine critical matters of interest for any intended collective engagement and jointly adopt appropriate collective engagement strategies that are relevant for the purpose. a clear engagement agenda should be jointly generated and agreed upon, and should be measured as to whether it is responding positively, efficiently and effectively to matters of importance, both internally and externally. conclusion this theoretical article presented an overview of the current stakeholder strategies for collective engagement for harmonious labour relations in the sa mining sector. the introduction and background presented the unstable and violent collective engagement processes in the employment relations environment in sa. the existing collective engagement strategies were identified and presented. a discussion of the suggestions and recommendations for harmonious labour relations in the sa mining sector resulted in a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (swot) analysis and a proposed collective engagement strategic model. although the current collective engagement framework in sa is sound and stable, the stakeholder’s ability to create harmonious strategies supporting the framework is found to be lacking. ideally, the country, and specifically the mining sector, should have a set of standards prescribing best practices for peaceful negotiations and resolutions of employer–employee–union conflicts. acknowledgements the university of johannesburg has funded this study. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions p.c.m. is a student who conducted the research study into the collective engagement and stakeholder strategy for harmonious labour relations in a mining organisation, submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the master of philosophy in employment relations degree. c.m.g. is a senior lecturer who supervised the study conducted and co-authored the production of this article. references benjamin, p. (2005). a review of labour markets in south africa: labour market regulation: international and south african perspectives. human science research council. retrieved n.d., from http://www.repository.hsrc.ac.za blanton, r.g., blanton, s.l., & peksen, d. (2015). the impact of imf and world bank programs on labor rights. political research quarterly, 68(2), 324–336. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912915578462 bluestone, b., & kochan, t.a. (2014). toward a new grand bargain: collaborative approaches to labor-management reform in massachusetts. report. boston, ma: the boston foundation. chinguno, c. (2013). marikana and the post-apartheid workplace order. society, work and development institute (swop), working paper no. 1. braamfontein: university of the witwatersrand. chinguno, c. (2015). the unmaking and remaking of industrial relations: the case of impala platinum and the 2012–2013 platinum strike wave. review of african political economy, 42(146), 577–590. https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2015.1087396 coleman, n. (2013). towards new collective bargaining, wage and social protection strategies in south africa – learning from the brazilian experience. global labour university, working paper no. 17. retrieved november 17, 2013, from http://www.global-labour-university.org cosatu. (2012). concept paper: towards new collective bargaining, wage and social protection strategies – learning from the brazilian experience. input to cosatu cec. retrieved may 28, 2012, from http://www.cosatu.org.za/docs/discussion/2012/cec_conceptpaper.pdf cruces, j., álvarez, i., trillo, f., & leonardi, s. (2015). impact of the euro crisis on wages and collective bargaining in southern europe – a comparison of italy, portugal and spain. in g. van gyes & t. schulten (eds.), wage bargaining under the new european economic governance: alternative strategies for inclusive growth, (pp. 93–137). brussels: european trade union institute. dawkins, c.e. (2014). the principle of good faith: toward substantive stakeholder engagement. journal of business ethics, 121(2), 283–295. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1697-z di paola, m., & pons-vignon, n. (2013). labour market restructuring in south africa: low wages, high insecurity. review of african political economy, 40(138), 628–638. https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2013.858432 dol. (2012). annual industrial action report. pretoria: government printers. driffield, n. (2013). global competition and the labour market. routledge. retrieved may 13, 2013, from http://www.routledge.com elgoibar, p., munduate, l., & euwema, m. (2016). building trust and constructive conflict management in organizations: industrial relations & conflict management. cham: springer. farlam, i.g., hemraj, p.d., & tokota, b.r. (2015). marikana commission of inquiry: report on matters of public, national and international concern arising out of the tragic incidents at the lonmin mine in marikana, in the north west province. retrieved march 13, 2015, from http://www.lonmin-farlam.com grimshaw, d., bosch, g., & rubery, j. (2014). minimum wages and collective bargaining: what types of pay bargaining can foster positive pay equity outcomes? british journal of industrial relations, 52(3), 470–498. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12021 hartford, g. (2012). the mining industry strike wave: what are the causes and what are the solutions? groundup. retrieved october 10, 2012, from http://groundup.org.za/content/mining-industry-strike-wave-what-are-causes-and-what-are-solutions#sthash.blkck2zl.dpuf harvey, r. (2013). releasing the prisoners from their dilemma: how to resolve labour tensions in south africa’s mining sector. cape town: saiia. (n.d.). retrieved from https://www.africaportal.org/documents/11211/saia_spb_81_harvey_20131231.pdf henrekson, m. (2014). how labor market institutions affect job creation and productivity growth. iza world of labor. https://doi.org/10.15185/izawol.38 humby, t.l. (2016). redressing mining legacies: the case of the south african mining industry. journal of business ethics, 135(4), 653–664. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2380-8 kruger, j., & tshoose, c.i. (2013). the impact of the labour relations act on minority trade unions: a south african perspective. per: potchefstroomse elektroniese regsblad, 16(4), 1–45. lester, d.b. (2014). employee participation in decision making in the mining sector. doctoral dissertation. cape town: university of the western cape. nwankwo, n.u. (2016). the role of collective bargaining on management and labour relations: a case study of first aluminium company limited and west african glass industry limited port harcourt. doctoral dissertation. enugu: university of nigeria. organization for economic co-operation and development (oecd). (2000). tackling inequalities in brazil, china, india and south africa: the role of labour market and social policies. paris: oecd. price, r., bailey, j., & pyman, a. (2014). varieties of collaboration: the case of an australian retail union. the international journal of human resource management, 25(6), 748–761. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.743477 roberts, k. (2015). does collaborative bargaining make a difference in nursing agreements? east lansing, mi: michigan state university. sabpp. (2015). where did it all go wrong? findings of the farlam commission report – how lonmin employment relations management practice compared to the sabpp hr management standard on erm. parktown: sabpp. sachs, b.i. (2013). the unbundled union: politics without collective bargaining. yale law journal, 123(1), 148–207. retrieved october 08, 2013, from https://ssrn.com/abstract=2337561 seldén, k.l. (2014). laval and trade union cooperation: views on the mobilizing potential of the case. international journal of comparative labour law and industrial relations, 30(1), 87–104. south african government. (2015). labour relations act, no. 66, of 1995, amended in 1996, 1998, 2002, 2015. pretoria: government printers. szabó, i. (2013). between polarization and statism – effects of the crisis on collective bargaining processes and outcomes in hungary. transfer: european review of labour and research, 19(2), 205–215. webster, e. (2013). the promise and the possibility: south africa’s contested industrial relations path. transformation: critical perspectives on southern africa, 81(1), 208–235. https://doi.org/10.1353/trn.2013.0000 article information authors: nico schutte1 nicolene barkhuizen1 lidewey van der sluis2,3 affiliations: 1department of industrial psychology, north-west university, mafikeng campus, south africa 2strategiese talent management, nyenrode business, the netherlands 3optentia research unit, north-west university, south africa correspondence to: nicolene barkhuizen email: nicolene.barkhuizen@nwu.ac.za postal address: department of industrial psychology, north-west university, mafikeng campus, mmabatho 2745, south africa dates: received: 13 june 2015 accepted: 29 sept. 2015 published: 30 nov. 2015 how to cite this article: schutte, n., barkhuizen, n., & van der sluis, l. (2015). exploring the current application of professional competencies in human resource management in the south african context. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #724, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.724 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. exploring the current application of professional competencies in human resource management in the south african context in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction    • purpose    • literature review       • human research management role and competency requirements       • human resource competencies and background variables • method    • research approach    • measures       • sampling       • measuring instrument    • research procedure       • statistical analyses • results    • factor analyses       • professional behaviour and leadership       • service orientation and execution       • business intelligence    • multivariate analysis of variance analyses       • professional behaviour and leadership       • service orientation and execution       • business intelligence • discussion    • practical implications    • limitations and recommendations    • conclusion • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: human research (hr) practitioners have an important role to play in the sustainability and competitiveness of organisations. yet their strategic contribution and the value they add remain unrecognised. research purpose: the main objective of this research was to explore the extent to which hr practitioners are currently allowed to display hr competencies in the workplace, and whether any significant differences exist between perceived hr competencies, based on the respondents’ demographic characteristics. motivation for the study: limited empirical research exists on the extent to which hr practitioners are allowed to display key competencies in the south african workplace. research approach, design, and method: a quantitative research approach was followed. a human resource management professional competence questionnaire was administered to hr practitioners and managers (n = 481). main findings: the results showed that hr competencies are poorly applied in selected south african workplaces. the competencies that were indicated as having the poorest application were talent management, hr metrics, hr business knowledge, and innovation. the white ethic group experienced a poorer application of all human research management (hrm) competencies compared to the black african ethnic group. practical/managerial implications: the findings of the research highlighted the need for management to evaluate the current application of hr practices in the workplace and also the extent to which hr professionals are involved as strategic business partners. contribution/value-add: this research highlights the need for the current application of hr competencies in south african workplaces to be improved. introduction top ↑ human research (hr) practitioners have an important role to play in the sustainability of organisations and the subsequent economic growth of any country through its people (sikora & ferris, 2014). the global competitiveness report (2014) consistently gives south africa poor rankings in terms of people development and hr practices. according to this report, south africa is ranked 113 out of 144 countries for labour relations practices, 143rd for hiring and firing practices, due to rigidity, and 144th, for labour relations, due to significant tensions (world economic forum [wef], 2014). similarly, the global talent competitive index of 2014 ranked south africa last out of 93 countries for labour–employer co-operation and 74 out 93 countries for effective hiring practices (lanvin & evans, 2014). it therefore appears that the hr profession is slow in making a strategic contribution, and may not be maintaining effectiveness and relevance in the south african context (boudreau & lawler, 2014). the role that hr practitioners should play in organisations is the subject of an on-going debate (o’ brien & linehan, 2014). in line with the early work of ulrich (1997), many scholars advocate that hr practitioners should be allowed to play a more strategic role in organisations (see de nisi, wilson & biteman, 2014; sikora & ferris, 2014). boudreau and lawler (2014, p. 233) highlighted the fact that hr practitioners are not focusing on key strategic challenges in organisations such as ‘improving productivity, increasing quality, facilitating mergers and acquisitions, managing knowledge, implementing change, developing business strategies and improving the ability of the organisation to execute strategies’. moreover, pohler and willness (2014, p. 468) have stated that hr is being perceived as a ‘low-level, reactive, and cost-focused administrative function with little autonomy ... and nothing more than a management control function’. the available research has emphasised the impact of poor hr practices on both individual-level and organisational-level outcomes in the south african context. findings show that poor human capital practices have a negative impact on psychological contracts, organisational commitment, work engagement, motivation, job satisfaction, happiness, meaningfulness, well-being and the retention of employees in various settings (barkhuizen, mogwere & schutte, 2014; diseko, 2015; kekgonegile, 2015; magolego, barkhuizen & lesenyeho, 2013; mtila, barkhuizen & mokgele, 2013; saurombe, 2015; smit, 2014). poor hr practices can have a significant impact on employee performance (magolego et al., 2013; masale, 2015) and, subsequently, on the quality of service delivery (barkhuizen, mogwere & schutte, 2014; smit, 2014). purpose in the light of the preceding, the need exists to explore the current application of human research management (hrm) competencies in the south african workplace. most of the research in south africa has focused on the roles, responsibilities, and practices of hr professionals. given the current criticisms surrounding the hr function, research should focus on exploring the underpinning competencies that are the building blocks of effective hr practices (abdullah, 2014). the lack of detailed empirical research on hr competencies and functions is widely recognised (abdullah, 2014; abdullah, musa & ali, 2011; o’ brien & linehan, 2014). the main objective of this research was to explore the extent to which hr practitioners are currently allowed to display hr competencies in the workplace and whether any significant differences exist between perceived hr competencies, based on the respondents’ demographic characteristics. the next section of the article highlights some of the limited literature available on the application of hrm competencies in the south african workplace. thereafter, the research approach and research method of the present study are discussed. the article concludes with a discussion of the research results as well as recommendations for further research. literature review human research management role and competency requirements most of the literature to date has been dominated by the extent to which hr practitioners are allowed to play a strategic versus an operational role in organisations. many researchers have tested the original four-factor hr role model of ulrich (1997) in various settings. according to this model, hr has four major roles to play, namely strategic partner, change agent (strategic roles), administrative expert and employee champion (operational roles). the activities of a strategic partner are aimed at developing an hr strategy that is aligned with the business strategy of the organisation. as change agents, hr practitioners focus on developing the capability of people and, consequently, the organisation. the role of an administrative expert focuses on the effective design and execution of hr processes, whereas the employee champion function deals with the daily needs and problems of employees. in the light of the above model, ulrich and brockbank (2005) maintained that it is the role of the hr function to create value for investors and customers external to the organisation and to create value for line managers and employees inside the organisation. this value is created through the facilitation of hr practices that focus on: ‘the flow of people’ — ensuring the availability of talent to accomplish the organisational strategy; ‘the flow of performance management’ — promoting accountability for performance by defining and rewarding it; ‘the flow of information’ — ensuring that employees are aware of what is occurring in the organisation and can apply themselves to those things that create value; and ‘the flow of work’ — providing the governance processes, accountability, and physical setting that ensure quality results. (ulrich & brockbank, 2005, p. 20) ulrich, brockbank, younger, and ulrich (2013) recently revised the focus of the traditional model in order to adapt it to the changing business world. according to the revised model, hr practitioners as strategic business partners are ‘high-performing hr professionals’ who should understand the global context. the capacity-building role includes the ability of hr professionals to define and build organisational capabilities. hr, as a change agent, needs to assist organisations with effective change processes and structures, whereas the innovator and integrator roles require hr professionals to integrate hr business practices in order to support change initiatives. the need for hr competence and professionalism is clearly highlighted in the revised roles proposed by ulrich, younger, brockbank and ulrich (2012). while the roles of hr have changed, the essential principles that guide hr (such as managing and developing the workforce) have remained unchanged (boudreau & lawler, 2014). hr professionals therefore need to move away from traditional hr practices andbring about much-needed change in hr competence, skills, strategic roles, and professionalism to mobilise human capital and help to achieve organisational strategies. hr practitioners in developing countries are still fulfilling mainly operational roles (i.e. tessema & soeters, 2006), whereas most in developed countries are fulfilling more strategic roles (du plessis, paine & botha, 2012; thill, venegas & groblshegg, 2014). in the south african context, walters (2006) found that hr practitioners are mostly fulfilling the roles of administrative experts and employee champions, but are perceived as ineffective or incompetent in these roles. steyn (2008) found similar results but discerned that some hr practitioners are moving towards fulfilling a more strategic role in organisations. a recent study by abbott, goosen and coetzee (2013), however, pointed out that many hr practitioners in south africa are still focusing on the role of employee advocate in the workplace without this role being extended. the available research in the south african context points to a lack of hrm competence and subsequent poor practices being applied in the workplace. schultz (2010) found that the hr department in a merged south african higher education institution displayed poor personal skills, hr business knowledge, and management skills. a study by van wyk (2006) highlighted the lack of sufficient business knowledge among hr practitioners regarding a social responsibility issue such as hiv and aids. the hr practitioners, however, did acknowledge the importance of educating employees on social responsibility issues. a study by louw (2012) indicated that hr practitioners lack experience and competence in evaluating, executing, and reporting on hr interventions. as a result, hr practitioners cannot provide organisations with important data regarding the effectiveness of hr interventions (field & louw, 2012; salie & slechter, 2012). furthermore, organisations are of the opinion that the data provided by hr practitioners are unreliable and lack integrity, and can therefore not be used (de bruyn & roodt, 2009). the effective talent management of employees also remains an area of great concern. several studies pointed out the lack of talent management as evinced by poor training and development opportunities, poor performance management, poor workforce planning and acquisition, and ineffective retention strategies (barkhuizen, 2015). these findings can be explained by the fact that confusion still prevails as to who should take responsibility for talent management in organisations. other factors include the lack of management commitment to managing talent, bureaucratic organisational structures, and the non-recognition of hr’s potential strategic value in a business partnership (sabpp, 2011). schutte (2015) recently developed and validated an hr competency model for the south african context. according to this model, hr professionals should be able to display hr competence in three domains: professional behaviour and leadership, service orientation and execution, and business intelligence. professional behaviour and leadership refers to the suitability of hr professionals’ activities, whether intentionally or unintentionally, in effecting environmental changes or conditions that reflect on the qualities associated with hr leadership and professional responsibilities. hr service orientation and execution involves the ability of hr practitioners to analyse situations or problems, make timely and sound decisions, construct plans, and achieve optimal results in response to the changing demands of customers. hr business intelligence refers to the ability of hr professionals to position themselves as an essential value-adding department of the organisation through the use of information in order to gain a competitive edge over competitors (see schutte, 2015). this model is used in this study to assess the current application of hr practices in south african workplaces. in the light of the preceding, the following hypothesis has been set: hypothesis 1: hr competencies are poorly applied in the south african context. human resource competencies and background variables limited research currently exists on the interactive relationships between hr competencies and background variables such as home language, ethnicity, job level, and outlook. regarding age, research has shown that generation y (born between 1978 and 1990; (weingarten, 2009) places emphasis on sound hrm practices regarding compensation and training and development (barkhuizen, 2014). a study by du plessis and barkhuizen (2012) on the personal-level factors of hr practitioners showed that individuals aged 45 years and older displayed higher levels of hope and confidence than their younger counterparts. further results showed that the white ethnic group scored higher on hope and confidence than the black ethic group, whereas the latter group displayed higher levels of resilience. final results showed that hr practitioners employed at top management level displayed higher levels of psychological capital (i.e. hope, confidence, optimism, and resilience) than those employed at lower levels in the organisation (du plessis & barkhuizen, 2012). in the light of the preceding the following hypothesis has been set: hypothesis 2: significant differences exist between hr practitioners and managers in the way in which they display hr competencies, based on their demographic characteristics. method top ↑ research approach a non-experimental, cross-sectional survey research strategy of enquiry was used in this study, based on the need for exploratory research on the application hr competencies in the south african workplace (field, 2009). cross-sectional research occurs when data are collected from the research participants at a single point in time or during a single, relatively brief period of time (johnson & christensen, 2008). measures sampling the respondents were hr officers and managers from various organisations in the private and public sectors who had knowledge of hrm processes in the workplace. the study employed purposive convenience sampling in which respondents were chosen based on their availability to participate and provide the desired information. a total of 800 questionnaires were distributed and 483 were returned. a total of 481 questionnaires were usable for analysis. this represented a 60.13% response rate. the demographic characteristics of the respondents in this sample, reported on in table 1 below, are as follows: 55.1% were women, 70.5% spoke indigenous languages, and 76.9% were black africans. a total of 29.5% of the respondents were aged 30–39 years, 35.8% held a bachelor’s degree as their highest level of educational qualification, and 31.1% were employed at middle management level. of the respondents, 37.8% had six to 15 years’ work experience, 83.8% had been employed in their job for 0–10 years and 64.0% had been employed by their current organisation for 0–10 years. measuring instrument a human resource management (hrm) professional competence questionnaire (schutte, 2015) was used in this study. this questionnaire consist of three sections and measures three core hr competency domains, namely, ‘professional behaviour and leadership’, ‘service orientation and execution’, and ‘business intelligence’. the professional behaviour and leadership competency consists of four sub-competencies, namely, leadership and personal credibility (8 items), solution creation (4 items), interpersonal communication (7 items), and innovation (6 items). the service orientation and execution competency consists of four sub-competencies, namely, talent management (9 items), hr risk (5 items), hr metrics (6 items), and hr service delivery (6 items). the business intelligence competency consists of four sub-competencies, namely, strategic impact (11 items), hr business knowledge (10 items), business acumen (6 items), and hr technology (3 items). responses were measured on a five-point likert scale ranging from ‘never’ (1) to ‘always’ (5). the questionnaire has been validated for the south african context, and showed excellent reliabilities of above 0.90 for the underlying factors (schutte, 2015). research procedure permission was obtained from the necessary authorities prior to the administration of the questionnaire. hard-copy and soft-copy surveys were distributed to the relevant participants. ethical clearance was obtained prior to the administration of the surveys. confidentiality was maintained at all times. statistical analyses data were analysed with the aid of spss inc. (2015). exploratory factor analyses were used to determine the underlying factor structure. descriptive statistics (i.e. means, standard deviation, and kurtosis) were used to analyse the data. multivariate analysis of variance (manova) was used to determine the significance of differences between the dimensions of the hrm professional competence model for the demographic groups. manova tests whether mean differences among groups in a combination of dependent variables are likely to have occurred by chance (field, 2009). when an effect was significant in manova, one-way analysis of variance (anova) was used to discover which dependent variables had been affected. t-tests were done to assess the differences between the groups in the sample. for purposes of the present research, we used cohen’ s (1988, p. 283) guidelines for the interpretation of effect sizes: 0.0099 constitutes a small effect, 0.0588 a medium effect, and 0.1379 is a large effect. results top ↑ the kmo analyses showed the following measures of sampling adequacy: professional behaviour and leadership – 0.954, service orientation and execution – 0.936, and business intelligence – 0.950. these results were acceptable according to the guideline of a kmo higher than 0.6 being adequate for factor analysis (hair, black, babin & anderson, 2010). the results of the factor analyses are reported next. factor analyses professional behaviour and leadership exploratory factor analyses, using principal component analyses, were done on the 25 items of the ‘professional behaviour and leadership’ section of the questionnaire. the initial analyses revealed that four factors could be extracted, based on the eigenvalues. a subsequent factor analysis with direct oblimin rotation revealed four underlying factors, which explained 82.020% of the variance. four items were deleted because of problematic loadings. the factors were labelled: ‘interpersonal communication’ (factor 1), ‘leadership and personal credibility’ (factor 2), ‘solution creation and implementation’ (factor 3), and ‘innovation’ (factor 4). the items showed acceptable loadings. service orientation and execution an exploratory factor analysis, using principal component analyses, was done on the 26 items of the ‘service orientation and execution’ section of the questionnaire. the initial analyses revealed that four factors could be extracted, based on the eigenvalues. a subsequent principal component factor analysis, using varimax rotation, was done to specify the four underlying factors. six items were deleted due to problematic loadings. the four factors explained 81.636% of the variance for the measure. the factors were labelled ‘talent management’ (factor 1), ‘hr service delivery’ (factor 2), ‘hr metrics’ (factor 3), and ‘hr risk’ (factor, 4). the items showed acceptable loadings. table 1: demographic characteristics of the respondents. business intelligence an exploratory factors analysis, using principal component analyses, was done on the 30 items of the ‘business intelligence’ section of the questionnaire. the initial analyses revealed that four factors could be extracted, based on the eigenvalues. a subsequent principal component factor analysis, using varimax rotation, was done to specify the four underlying factors. the four factors explained 74.417% of the variance. two items were deleted because of problematic loadings. the factors were labelled as follows: ‘hr business knowledge’ (factor 1), ‘strategic impact’ (factor 2), ‘business acumen’ (factor 3) and ‘hr technology’ (factor 4). the items showed acceptable loadings. the descriptive statistics of the factors are reported on in table 2. table 2: descriptive statistics of the factors. the findings, provided in table 2, showed acceptable to excellent reliabilities for all the dimensions of the hrm professional competence model. the respondents indicated that most of the dimensions are applied moderately. the competencies that were indicated as having the poorest application were talent management, hr metrics, hr business knowledge, and innovation. next, a gap analysis was performed to determine whether significant differences existed between the importance and the current application of the hrm dimensions. the results, provided in table 3, showed no significant differences between the current applications versus the importance of hrm competencies. table 3: gap analyses: current application versus the importance of human resource management competencies. next, the findings of the manova of the differences between the current application of the hrm professional dimensions (i.e. professional behaviour and leadership; service orientation and delivery; business intelligence) and demographics groups are reported. multivariate analysis of variance analyses professional behaviour and leadership the findings in table 4 show that the respondents differed significantly regarding the current application of hr competencies, according to the variables home language, ethnicity, and job level. further post hoc analyses showed no significant differences related to the variables home language and ethnicity. the remainder of the findings of the post hoc analyses are reported below. table 4: multivariate analysis of variance analyses – professional behaviour and leadership and demographic groups. wilks’s lambda for the variable home language was 0.936 [f (1, 481) = 8.090; p ≤ 0.05]. analysis of each dependent variable, using a bonferroni adjusted alpha level of 0.025, showed that the groups differed regarding leadership and personal credibility [f(3, 481) = 6.565; p ≤ 0.05; partial η2 = 0.026], solution creation [f(3, 481) = 16.859; p ≤ 0.05; partial η2 = 0.023], interpersonal communication [f(3, 481) = 3.972; p ≤ 0.05; partial η2 = 0.062], and innovation [f(3, 481) = 8.203; p ≤ 0.05; partial η2 = 0.029). the english-language group were of the view that hr practitioners display the leadership competencies solution creation, interpersonal communication, and innovation less effectively, compared to respondents from the indigenous languages group. the effects were small. wilks’s lambda for the variable ethnicity was 0.933 [f(1, 481) = 2.067; p ≤ 0.05]. analysis of each dependent variable, using a bonferroni adjusted alpha level of 0.025, showed that the groups differed in terms of leadership and personal credibility [f(3, 481) = 3.699; p ≤ 0.05; partial η2 = 0.030], solution creation [f(3, 481) = 3.783; p ≤ 0.05; partial η2 = 0.031], and innovation [f(3, 481) = 3.296; p ≤ 0.05; partial η2 = 0.027]. the black african ethnic group rated hr practitioners’ display of the leadership competencies solution creation and innovation as more effective than the white ethnic group did. the effects were small. service orientation and execution the findings, provided in table 5, show that the respondents differed significantly regarding the current application of hr competencies, according to the variables home language, age, qualifications, and job level. further post hoc analyses showed no significant differences according to age and job level. the remainder of the findings of the post hoc analyses is reported below. table 5: multivariate analysis of variance analyses – service orientation and execution and demographic groups. wilks’s lambda for home language was 0.953 [f(1, 481) = 5.879; p ≤ 0.05]. analysis of each dependent variable, using a bonferroni adjusted alpha level of 0.025, showed that the groups differed regarding talent management [f(3, 481) = 8.416; p ≤ 0.05; partial η2 = 0.017], hr risk [f(3, 481) = 21.816; p ≤ 0.05; partial η2 = 0.044], hr metrics [f(3, 481) = 13.836; p ≤ 0.05; partial η2 = 0.028], and hr service delivery [f(3, 481) = 6.194; p ≤ 0.05; partial η2 = 0.013]. the english-language group indicated that hr practitioners display the competencies talent management, hr risk, hr metrics, and hr service delivery less effectively, compared to the indigenous languages group. the effects were small. business intelligence the findings, provided in table 6, show that the respondents differed significantly regarding the current application of business intelligence, based on the variables home language and age. further post hoc analyses showed no significant differences according to the variable age. the remainder of the findings of the post hoc analyses is reported below. table 6: multivariate analysis of variance analyses – business intelligence and demographic groups. wilks’s lambda for home language was 0.957 [f(3, 481) = 5.322; p ≤ 0.05]. analysis of each dependent variable, using a bonferroni adjusted alpha level of 0.025, showed that the groups differed regarding strategic impact [f(3, 481) = 7.749; p ≤ 0.05; partial η2 = 0.024], hr business knowledge [f(3, 481) = 17.002; p ≤ 0.05; partial η2 = 0.041], business acumen [f(3, 481) = 8.978; p ≤ 0.05; partial η2 = 0.021], and hr technology [f(3, 481) = 8.934; p ≤ 0.05; partial η2 = 0.018]. the english-language group indicated that hr practitioners display the competencies strategic impact, hr business knowledge, business acumen, and hr technology less effectively, compared to the indigenous languages group. the effects were small. discussion top ↑ the main objective of this research is to explore the extent to which hr practitioners display hr competencies in publicand private-sector organisations. secondly, this research aimed to determine whether significant differences exist between the respondents’ perceptions of hr competencies, based on their demographic characteristics. the findings of this research show that hr practitioners are allowed to display the defined hr competencies only to a low or moderate extent in organisations. more specifically, hr practitioners are limited in applying innovation, talent management, hr metrics, and hr business knowledge. these results concur with those of previous studies which found that hr professionals are still not allowed to play a strategic role in south african organisations and, as a result, hr competencies and practices are poorly applied (see barkhuizen, 2015; schultz, 2010; van wyk, 2006; walters, 2006). these findings are concerning, given that the respondents ranked all the measured hr competencies as important. although the results revealed no significant differences between the current application of hr competencies versus their importance, public-sector organisations should improve their current hr practices to enhance both individual and organisational outcomes. the findings show that the respondents differed significantly in their perceptions of the current application of hr competencies, based on the variable home language. the predominant finding in this research is that significant differences existed between respondents from the englishlanguage group (representative of the white ethnic group) and respondents from the indigenous languages group (representative of the black african ethnic group). the english-language group were of the view that all hr competencies (i.e. leadership and personal credibility, solution creation, interpersonal communication, innovation, talent management, hr risk, hr metrics, hr service delivery, strategic impact, hr business knowledge, business acumen, and hr technology) are significantly less effectively applied, compared to the view of the indigenous languages group. these findings are a reflection of the current realties in the south african context. as mentioned previously, the public sector has been subjected to numerous changes since the establishment of the new south african democratic dispensation in 1994, which resulted in various practices to address the past imbalances in the workforce. affirmative action resulted in numerous white employees being retrenched to ensure employment equity in the government sector. as a result, the remaining minority of members of the white ethnic group may view the application of hr practices as less effective, compared to other ethnic groups. these results, however, need to be interpreted with caution. more research is needed to clarify the significant differences of viewpoint between white and black ethic groups regarding the application of hr practices. these results confirm that significant differences may exist between respondents in their perceptions of the application of hr competencies and practices in the south african workplace (see du plessis & barkhuizen, 2012). practical implications this research makes important theoretical, methodological, and practical contributions. from a theoretical perspective, it research adds to the body of emerging research on the current status of hrm in south african organisations. many researchers have debated the application of hr practices in south african workplaces without empirically investigating them. the present research provides sound empirical knowledge on the competency requirements and subsequent effectiveness of hr practitioners in south african workplaces. this research makes an important methodological contribution by demonstrating the utility of a new measure of hr competencies in the south african workplace. this research also adds important practical value by highlighting the problematic areas of hrm in publicand private-sector organisations and by making suggestions for their improvement in order to ensure hr competence in service delivery. limitations and recommendations this research has some limitations. first, the convenience sampling technique used limits the research in terms of generalising its findings to the total population. second, this research used a cross-sectional design, which limited the diagnosis of cause-and-effect relationships between variables. future research could benefit from longitudinal studies to predict the cause and effect of findings, especially among different ethnic groups in south africa. future research could also benefit from cross-national studies to benchmark hr practices with those of other african countries. such research would benefit africa as a developing continent, as sound hr practices play a key role in the competiveness and sustainability of organisations and countries. future research could also expand on the current study by including individual-level and organisational-level variables to predict the key outcomes of hr competencies in south african workplaces. conclusion in conclusion, this research highlights the importance of the hr function in the south african workplace context. organisations can reap the long-term benefits from a strategic partnership with hr in the form of competitiveness and sustainability. the findings of this research reiterate the need for business leaders to take stock of their current hr practices and the extent to which hr practitioners are allowed to play a strategic role in their organisations. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions n.s. (north-west university) is an associate professor and a phd student. this article, which he compiled, is based on his second phd. n.b. (north-west university) was the supervisor for this study and l.v.d.s. (nyenrode business) the co-supervisor. both supervisors provided editorial inputs for the article. references top ↑ abbott, p., goosen, x., & coetzee, j. (2013). the human resource function contribution to human development in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 11(1), 14. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.408 abdullah, a.h. (2014). development of an hr practitioner competency model and determining the important business competencies: an empirical study in malaysia. international journal of management excellence, 3, 446–461. abdullah, a.h., musa, r., & ali, j.h. (2011). the development of human resource practitioner competency model perceived by malaysian human resource practitioners and consultants: a structural equation modeling (sem) approach. international journal of business and management 6, 241–255. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v6n11p240 barkhuizen, e.n. (2014). project talent management. in y. du plessis (ed.), project management: a behavioural perspective: theoretical principles, advanced practices and cases (chapter 13, pp. 370–408). cape town: pearson education. barkhuizen, e.n. (2015). talent management: the catalyst for the 21st century business world. retrieved april 30, 2015, from http://www.nwu.ac.za/sites/www.nwu.ac.za/files/files/mc/documents/2015%20-%20inaugural%20lecture%20prof%20barkhuizen.pdf barkhuizen, e.n., mogwere, p., & schutte, n.e. (2014). talent management, work engagement and service quality orientation of support staff in a higher education institution. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5, 69–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n4p69 barkhuizen, e.n., welby-cooke, g., schutte, n.e., & stanz, k.j. (2014). talent management and leadership reciprocity: the case of the south african aviation industry. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5, 11–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n9p11 boudreau, j., & lawler, e.e. (2014). stubborn traditionalism in hrm: causes and consequences. human resource management review, 24, 232–244. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2014.03.005 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. (2nd edn.). orlando, fl: academic press. de bruyn, l., & roodt, g. (2009). applying the criteria of ulrich and brockbank for the assessment of the role of human resources as a strategic business partner in a mining company. sa journal of human resource management, 7(1), art. #200, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.200 denisi, a.s., wilson, m.s., & biteman, j. (2014). research and practice in hrm: a historical perspective. human resource management review, 24, 219–231. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2014.03.004 diseko. (2015). talent management as a predictor of turnover intentions of teachers. unpublished master’s dissertation, north-west university, mafikeng, south africa. du plessis, y., & barkhuizen, e.n. (2012). psychological capital: a requisite for organisational performance in south africa. the south african journal of economic and management sciences, 15, 16–30. du plessis, a.j., paine, s., & botha, c.j. (2012). the role of human resource practitioners maintaining sustainability in organisations: some empirical evidence of expectations, challenges and trends. international journal of contemporary business studies, 3, 16–34. field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss. (3rd edn.). london: sage. field, c., & louw, j. (2012). a theory-driven evaluation of a wellness initiative. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 10(3), art. #427, 8 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i3.427 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2010). multivariate data analysis: a global perspective. (7th edn.). upper saddle river, n je: pearson education. johnson, l.t.b., & christensen, l. (2008). educational research: quantitative & qualitative and mixed approaches. (3rd edn.). london: sage publications. kekgonegile, k. (2015). the relationship between talent management, burnout and turnover of mining employees in botswana. unpublished master’s dissertation, north-west university, mafikeng, south africa. lanvin, b., & evans, p. (eds.). (2014). the global talent competitiveness index: growing talent for today and tomorrow. singapore: adecco. louw, j. (2012). programme evaluation: can it improve human resource management practice? sa journal of human resource management, 10(3), art. #428, 5 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i3.428 magolego. h., barkhuizen, e.n., & lesenyeho, d.l. (2013). talent management and job performance: the mediating role of job satisfaction. in s.m. lee & g. roodt (eds.), 30th pan pacific conference (pp. 132–135). johannesburg, south africa: ppba. isbn: 1-931649-27-3. masale, l. (2015). talent management as a predictor of council employees’ performance in a local government institution in botswana. unpublished master’s dissertation, north-west university, mafikeng, south africa. mtila, j., barkhuizen, e.n., & mokgele, r. (2013). exploring the application of talent management practices in a local government institution. in s.m. lee & g. roodt (eds.), 30th pan pacific conference (pp. 66–68). johannesburg, south africa: ppba. isbn: 1-931649-27-3. o’brien, e., & linehan, c. (2014). a balancing act: emotional challenges in the hr role. journal of management studies, 51(8), 1257–1285. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/joms.12098 pohler, d., & willness, c. (2014). balancing interests in the search for occupational legitimacy: the hr professionalization project in canada. human resource management, 53, 467–488. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21579 sabpp. (2011). annual stakeholder report. johannesburg: sabpp. salie, s., & schlechter, a. (2012). a formative evaluation of a staff reward and recognition programme. sa journal of human resource management, 10(3), art. #422, 11 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i3.422 saurombe, m. (2015). talent management as a predictor of positive work related outcomes for academic staff in south african higher education institutions. unpublished master’s dissertation, north-west university, mafikeng, south africa. schultz, c.m. (2010). hr competencies at a merged higher education institution. sa journal of human resource management, 8(1), 8 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.225 schutte, n.e. (2015). the development of a human resource management competency measure: a pilot study. unpublished manuscript, mafikeng, south africa. sikora, d.m., & ferris, g.r. (2014). strategic human resource practice implementation: the critical role of line management. human resource management review, 24, 271–281. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2014.03.008 smit, a. (2014). the relationship between talent management, motivation and service orientation of support staff in a higher education institution. unpublished master’s dissertation, polytechnic of namibia, windhoek, namibia. spss inc. (2015). spss 22.0 for windows. chicago, il: author. steyn, a. (2008). the strategic role of human resource professionals in a south african context. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. tessema, m.t., & soeters, j.l. (2006). challenges and prospects of hrm in developing countries: testing the hrm–performance link in the eritrean civil service. international journal of human resource management, 17, 86–105. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190500366532 thill, k., venegas, b.c., & groblschegg, s. (2014). hr roles and activities. empirical results from the dach region and implications for a future development of the hr profession. international journal of business and management, 4, 97–109. ulrich, d. (1997). human resource champions: the next agenda for adding value and delivering results. boston: harvard business school press. ulrich, d., & brockbank, w. (2005). the hr value proposition. boston: harvard business school press. ulrich, d., brockbank, w., younger, j., & ulrich, m. (2013). global hr competencies: mastering competitive value from the outside in. new york: mcgraw hill. ulrich, d., younger, j., brockbank, w., & ulrich, m. (2012). hr talent and the new hr competencies. strategic hr review, 11, 217–222. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14754391211234940 van wyk, c.d. (2006). human resource practitioners’ perceptions of their role and responsibility in managing hiv/aids in the industry. sa journal of human resource management, 4, 29–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v4i3.10 walters, g. (2006). the effectiveness of a human resources function within a public utility. unpublished master’s dissertation, department of industrial psychology, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. weingarten, r. (2009). four generations, one workplace: a gen x–y staff nurse’s view of team building in the emergency department. journal of emergency nursing: jen: official publication of the emergency department nurses association, 35(1), 27–30. pmid: 19203677, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jen.2008.02.017 world economic forum (wef). (2014). global competitiveness report 2013–2014. geneva: wef. 3claassen.qxd there is considerable literat ure about the effect of aging upon men’s physical, psychological and sexual health (metz & miner, 1998). this aging “strikes at the core of what it is to be a man ... his youthf ul sexual drive and performance” (sheehy, 1993, p. 163). more often than not, the idea that men experience a change of life equivalent to female menopause is the butt of jokes, and ridicule is directed at those who have proposed such an “unscientific notion” (ducharme, 2002, p. 36). while male menopause has always existed it has only recently been acknowledge and given its own identity as “andropause”. the terms “male menopause”, “viropause”, “andropause”, “male climacteric” (from the greek word klimacter – the rung of a ladder) (charlton, 2004; nowak, 2000) and, more recently, the acronym adam (androgen decline in the aging male) have all been used in medical literature (kessenich & cichon, 2001; cetel, 2002; nowak, 2000). the term androclise (“clise” in greek meaning slowly diminishing) is clinically a more correct description, but still not appropriate for all men (charlton, 2004). the world health organisation meeting in paris 2003 and the world congress on the aging male in prague, 2004, suggested two definitive terms: the aging male syndrome (ams) or late onset hypogonadism (charlton, 2004). while male menopause is not the equal of female menopause, many men lose potency, energy and drive between 40 and 80 years of age. sheehy (1994) calls it “the unspeakable passage,” a process that starts during a man’s 40s to 50s and chews away relentless at his strength, his sexuality and his general sense of contentment (cowley & kalb, 1996, p. 69). despite the significant impact this phenomenon has had not only on men but also on the partners they live with, it has until quite recently been poorly understood if not practically ignored. one can only speculate as to the reasons for this. is it perhaps a touch of male denial in the predominantly male medical community? has this then contributed to the undercurrent of controversy that exists even today regarding the validity of the male climacteric – despite the significant impact it has on men’s lives and on the lives of the women with whom they live (cetel, 2002)? “what is male menopause”? while not predictable, this phenomenon occurs mainly in middle adulthood (age 40-60) when men’s testosterone production and plasma concentrations fall. in aging men, the reduction in testosterone concentration is due mainly to a decline in leydig cell mass in the testicles, or to a dysfunction in the hypothalamic-pituitary homeostatic control, or both, leading to abnormally low secretion of luteinising hormones with resultant low testosterone production (gould, petty & jacobs, 2002). symptoms of the hormonal decline accompanying aging male hormonal withdrawal can be divided into three categories, namely: physical, psychological and sexual symptoms (kessenich & cichon, 2001). physical symptoms include fatigue, decreased capacity for physical exercise, decreased muscle strength; sleep dist urbances, loss of short-term memory, and both increased body fat and urinary frequency (kessenich & cichon, 2001). psychological symptoms are irritabilit y, depression, anxiet y, loss of self-confidence, difficulty concentrating, and indecisiveness (kessenich & cichon, 2001). for many older men sexual symptoms are probably the most bothersome and may be the chief reason that they seek medical attention. hormonal decline in aging men may also lead to decreased libido, impotency, erectile dysfunction, and an overall reduced interest in sex (kessenich & cichon, 2001). these clinical symptoms are reported by a number of researchers and it is evident that there is a general consensus among scholars regarding the symptoms of male menopause (ducharme, 2002; metz & miner, 1998). in a recent study charlton (2004) suggests a fourth category called endocrine. its t y pical symptoms are f lushes, erectile dysfunction, reduced erectile quality, dry skin, joint and muscle aches and decreased body hair. this category represents a strong overlap with the physical symptoms already discussed. it is to be expected that profound physiological changes will have an influence on many, if not all, aspects of a man’s life. small wonder then that the t ypical symptoms of male menopause are well documented in the literature. however, surprisingly, the effect of these symptoms on the “systemic male” has not been explored in any depth. nonetheless, a number of research projects have been undertaken on the influence of depression on menopausal men (milne, 1999; gerrit cla assen willem schurink willems@acc.co.za dept of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract the purpose of this study was to explore how a small group of white south african men going through menopause attached meaning to this major event in their lives, and also how it affected the decisions they took as leaders in the financial sector. the findings indicated that menopause symptoms in particular (physical, psychological and sexual dimensions) had a profound influence on the systemic male. a provisional substantive theory was developed – “work power trade-offs result in decreased decision-making power during the male menopause” – and a number of recommendations were proposed. opsomming die doel van hierdie studie was om te verken tot hoe ’n mate ’n klein groep blanke suid-afrikaanse mans, wat tans in hulle menopouse is waarde daaraan heg en hoe die gebeurtenis hul lewens asook hul besluitneming as leiers in die finansiële sektor beinvloed. die bevindinge het aangedui dat veral die manlike menopouse simptome ’n sterk invloed op die sistemiese man uitgeoefen het. die bevindinge het ook aanleiding gegee tot die formulering van ’n voorlopige substantiewe teorie wat gedefinieerd is as “werksmagverruiling (trade-offs) lei tot verminderde besluitnemingsmag gedurende die manlike menopouse fase”. male menopause and decision-making: a qualitative study requests for copies should be addressed to: w. schurink, willems@acc.co.za 14 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (1), 14-21 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (1), 14-21 seidman, araujo, roose & mckinlay, 2001). particularly notable is the “quality of life questionnaire” (qol) that has recently been validated by novak, brod and elbers (2002). despite developments like these, very little research has been undertaken on the influence of male menopause in the boardrooms of big business. since declining testosterone has such a widespread inf luence on the “systemic male”, the relationship bet ween this nat ural aging process and decision-making should be investigated – after all, “managers have to make decisions; it is their responsibility” (oldcorn, 1998). decision-making as a rational, deliberate, purposeful action, beginning with the development of a decision strategy and moving through the appraisal of results occurs in all organizations. the process is the same even if the content is different in different cases (tarter & hoy, 1998). decision-makers are primarily human beings who eat, sleep, have families and a variety of interests; diversity and compromise is the stuff of their everyday existence (tarter & hoy, 1998). given this context of male leader decision-making, addressing quality of life issues, dealing with midlife transition, growing old, and on top of it all, being let down by their “most prized asset”, life for menopausal men can indeed be very demanding. it gives new meaning to the anonymous saying: “middle age is when you have the choice of two temptations and choose the one that will get you home earlier”. at the age of 40 to 50 most men have reached the peak of their careers or what development psychologists refer to as “middle adulthood” (louw, 1995; levinson, 1978). as already mentioned, this is also the beginning of the male midlife passage or the onset of male menopause (sheehy, 1997a). from a synoptic review of the literature it is clear that while a number of studies have explored the effect of menopause on men, the majority of them followed a medical approach and only a few have thus far studied the broader psychological and career/work-related influences of male menopause. inevitably the main focus of these studies has been to address the symptoms of declining testosterone in aging men. work enhances many men’s feelings of power and therefore it is understandable that they would have the urge to prove themselves and their masculinit y. levinson (1978) describes the transition from early adulthood to midlife as a time when man feels obliged to reappraise his life structure. this process has been described as of ten leading to disillusionment, since men recognise that long-held assumptions or beliefs about maleness and the world are not necessarily true. for example, in north american societ y, men are t ypically taught that the key to personal growth and achievement is work, and that virtually all personal needs for creative expression, stat us, securit y, freedom and love will be met as a direct function of occupational achievement (samson, 1977 in metz & miner, 1998). midlife is further complicated and perhaps even triggered by the aging process, which indicates the beginning of male menopause. this life stage has various implications for business since individuals in key positions at this stage often terminate their careers, resulting in the loss of critical competencies, and a decline in productivit y (hutchison, 2003). moreover, work morale is low, and worst of all, extramarital affairs at work often occur. thus, male menopause ultimately has broad and varied implications for both individual and business. while not all men experience menopause similarly, all are aging, and this prompts them to realise that at some stage they will have to face their mortality. from the preceding discussion, it is clear that career longevity issues are being brought into the boardroom by the male menopause. deciding to study male menopause and decision-making in a south african financial institution having explored various literature sources, and being unable to trace any existing scientific knowledge on south african men’s menopause and how it impacts on their careers, and specifically their leadership responsibilities and tasks, claassen decided to launch an explorative study in an attempt to explore this phenomenon. more particularly, he decided to undertake an in-depth study of the lives of a few authentic white south african men who have been experiencing menopause and have occupied leadership positions for some years in a financial institution, in south africa’s gauteng province. he believed by undertaking this research we would be able to shed light on these men’s experiences of this stage in their life cycle and the challenges it poses to them at work. moreover, we assumed that obtaining first-hand insight into these men’s social world would not only contribute towards scientific knowledge locally, but would also lead to the development of strategies to assist male leaders in the corporate world to adjust to menopause and the challenges it poses. further, we were convinced that by applying an appropriate qualitative methodological approach that is increasingly being favoured among researchers of leadership and organisations abroad,1 a contribution to local methodolog y would be made since it would illustrate practically how such a methodological approach could be adopted in relation to male menopause and decision-making in the south african context. core assumptions in the study we applied an interpretive social science approach. our scientific beliefs correlate closely with those of terre blanche and durrheim (1999): i.e. any reality to be studied consists of people’s subjective experiences of the external world (ontolog y). our stance was interactional epistemological towards social reality, and we employed a methodology that relied on a subjective relationship between the subjects and the researcher. for interpretive research, the goals of social science are to develop an understanding of social life and to discover how people construct meaning in their natural settings. qualitative research is primarily concerned with issues of the richness, texture and feeling of raw data because of its inductive approach, which emphasises the development of insight and understanding from the data collected (neuman, 2003). the transcendent perspective fits the interpretive approach well since research questions originate from the standpoints of the people being studied, and not that of outsiders (neuman, 2003). we worked from the premise that the wisdom and knowledge required to understand the interaction of male menopause and decision-making is vested in the research participants. by conducting a qualitative study our aim was to generate knowledge and insight into male menopause and business decision-making. in this way we wanted to establish knowledge about a relatively new dimension of leadership behaviour as influenced by physiological processes in an organisational context. moreover, we hoped that through applying a formal qualitative inferential method, grounded theory, the findings of the study might lead to the creation of a substantive theory on male menopause as it relates to decision-making in the work sphere. finally, claassen looked forward to gaining a better understanding of his own menopause within his career and psychosocial context. male menopause and decision-making 15 1 a modernist qualitive research is used in the sudy. this variety of qualitative research is characterised by the interpretation of reality by means of formalised qualitative methods and the undertaking of rigorous data analysis (e,g, analytical induction and grounded theory). examples of this perspective (which still prevails in recent studies) include the symbolic interactionist perspective as reflected in the works of bogdan and taylor (1975), glaser and strauss (1967) and lofland (1971) (schurink, 2003). method selecting research participants we made use of a combination of convenient and purposive selection. based on claassen’s knowledge of the organisation and its people, we identified two indigenous hierarchies in the bank – senior and executive management – and it was from these ranks that we enrolled participants2. we developed the following criteria, which claassen applied in selecting the participants: (a) male employees between 45 and 55 years of age, since the literature indicates that men in this age category experience menopause; and (b) male employees in leadership positions within the organisation. claassen personally approached leaders falling into these categories and invited them to take part in the st udy. making use of people who are knowledgeable about the organisation further enriched our selection of participants. claassen interviewed these informants in order to discover and share insights they had of the financial institution as well as to elicit suggestions as to possible research candidates and themes for the study. based on the above criteria, advice from informants and claassen’s personal knowledge of the organisation, we finally chose five leaders (including claassen) in leadership positions in the organisation to participate in the study. claassen obtained official permission from the financial institution to approach potential research participants while certain “gatekeepers” who could grant him access to these potential participants were also informed. in described and exploring male menopause and decisionmaking in the work environment, we decided to conduct a series of three in-depth interviews with each participant.3 the socio-demographics of the men participating in the study – including claassen – can be summarised as follows: (i) their ages ranged from 44 to 52 years, (ii) the men were all white, (iii) were married, (iv) had children, and (v) had formal qualifications (three had postgraduate certificates in the behavioural sciences while the other t wo had commerce credent ials). the part icipants all occupied senior management levels in the bank. with a single exception, all of them grew up and lived in south africa’s metropolitan centres. not unexpectedly, despite the interviewees’ homogeneit y in terms of colour and race, their differences in background emerged in their unique worldviews. we are satisfied that, within the context of the research and given the various practical constraints, we managed to select a group of men who represented confident senior leaders of the financial instit ution with established beliefs and views regarding marriage, aging, relationships and decision-making. applying grounded theory we opted for strauss and corbin’s (1990) application of grounded theory. we applied this approach within the requirements of modernist qualitative research, i.e., we attempted to provide sufficient information to establish the study’s credibility. in addition, we strove to provide the participants with a voice in the study. against this background we made inferences by applying three analytical steps, namely: open coding, axial coding and selective coding. open coding open coding is the process of breaking down and concept ualising the data (strauss and corbin, 1990). this process starts from the moment the first data is created (holloway & wheeler, 2002). this phase brings to the surface themes from the data “at a low level of abstraction” and from the initial research questions (neuman, 2003, p. 443). as the coding process progresses the level of abstraction increases. the following t went y-four themes emerged during the open coding phase including the broad category from which they emerged: table 1 open coding themes theme theme category broad categories no. 1 decline in physical power physical symptom 2 changing sleep patterns and insomnia physical symptom 3 decline in physical appearance and wellness physical symptom versus fantasies of revived youth and health 4 decline in self-confidence, mood-swings and psychological the inability to change symptom 5 questioning the purpose of work and the psychological emergence of anxiety symptom 6 the inability to control emotions versus psychological insight in emotional integration symptom 7 decline in sexual power due to a weakening sexual symptom sexual appetite and drive 8 marriage at mature age is not related to sexual symptom waning sex drive 9 female depersonalisation as a defence sexual symptom mechanism for the loss of sexual power and sexual appetite 10 declining sexual need versus increasing sexual symptom freedom in relationship giving meaning to life 11 increased value and the importance of changing family life relationships 12 men’s psychological feelings of comfort changing arising from their insight into changing relationships experiences 13 emerging of personal values changing relationships 14 paradoxes changing relationships 15 contradictions in male menopause changing experience: control at work versus loss of relationships control in marriage 16 experiencing loss due to aging sense of loss 17 increased death awareness and the sense of loss projecting of immortality onto external objects 18 increasingly satisf ying work experience work experience 19 decreased need for personal power at work work experience due to psychological integration 20 the south african socio-political landscape work experiences and employment equity legislation 21 the inability to control emotions leading to decision-making emotional decisions being made 22 easier decision-making facilitated by the decision-making menopause 23 wise decision-making decision-making 24 situational decision-making approach decision-making with regard to the open coding used in the study the following deductions can be made: (i) the men experienced a general decline in power; (ii) they reported physical, psychological and sexual symptoms which they believed had profound effects on their behaviour and decision-making; (iii) post-apartheid south african employment equity played a profound role in channelling them to deal with their careers in a different way much earlier in their careers; (iv) due to the aging process they experienced a sense of loss which mainly focused on physical appearance, sexual decline, and a decline of power in the financial institution; (v) anxiety and stress manifested in the majority of the themes emerging during open coding; (vi) decision-making patterns changed during menopause; it appeared that wisdom emerged as the key driver of these changes, and (vii) the men appeared to be satisfied cla assen, schurink16 2 leaders in these two levels are usually in their middle dulthood (the life stage in which menopause occurs), and regularly make decisions with longer-term implications. 3 however, the time constraints and the busy work schedules of the participants did not make three in-depth interviews possible in all cases. with the new values they discovered – like the significance of their families. axial coding axial coding implies a process of reassembling data, i.e. describing a category (phenomenon) in terms of the conditions giving rise to it; its context or the specific set of properties in which it is embedded; the actions/interactional strategies by which it is handled, managed and carried out; and the consequences of those strategies (strauss & corbin 1990). we needed to integrate codes around the axes of central categories which we accomplished by: (i) exploring, discussing and relating the themes identified during the open coding; (ii) integrating and reducing the themes, grouping new themes that emerged or themes together under existing themes; (iii) reviewing notes claassen made during the study; (iv) exploring menopause symptoms as experienced and perceived by the men before we combined and related themes to each other; (v) grouping the symptoms reported by the men, into three broad categories, namely: physical, psychological and sexual symptoms since they correlated largely with those we identified in prominent scholarly works; (vi) battling with: “what is causing these symptoms to emerge during menopause”?; (vii) in order to reassemble the data created in the open coding phase relating each emerging new theme to the other themes; and (viii) having completed this process relating all of these to the central research question – namely, “how does these themes inf luence decision-making in the work context?” the themes we managed to infer from the men’s accounts and related to both salient abstract theoretical concepts and the empirical findings available in the relevant literature are: table 2 axial coding themes theme 1 men experiencing a decline in power theme 2 sense of loss theme 3 changing relationships in the menopause theme 4 positive work experience theme 5 perceived new realities during the menopause leading to inner peace theme 6 menopause and its symptoms leading to stress and anxiety in relating these categories to decision-making at work (the central research question of the study), we re-discovered the following key phrases by reviewing claassen’s field notes and the transcribed interviews: (i) being more impatient with people; (ii) having the necessary knowledge to influence decision-making; (iii) being more direct than previously; (iv) reaching high levels of confidence; (v) obtaining quality decision-making; (vi) experiencing irritation and frustration in the work environment (linked to decision-making); (vii) making easier decisions; (viii) taking more decisions but being less afraid to take them; (ix) not making any decisions; and (x) displaying more emotion during decision-making. we discovered that these did not convey a strong tale, but as soon as one integrated them with the preceding six themes, an illuminating story appeared. in tracing these themes and stories back to the current leadership and literature on decision-making new insights emerged. leadership characteristics in the decision-making process were of special importance to this study and it was clear from our scrutinising of the available literature that the somewhat chaotic characteristics and requirements found in it represented building-blocks that could assist leaders to effect good-quality decisions. it also became clear that the particular decision approach decided upon, the particular decision model selected, and the specific characteristics or decision competencies utilised, changed continuously according to the urgency of the situation, the strategic level of the decision, budget constraints, and external environmental influences. this context facilitated insight into how leaders in their menopause take decisions. utilising the insight gained from the six themes extracted during axial coding, and combining them with the understanding brought about by explicating the decision-making process and consulting the relevant scholarly literature, we were able to relate the six themes more precisely to decision-making. selective coding the final level of grounded theory entails selective coding, i.e. the process of selecting a core category that emerges during axial coding and relating it to the other categories (strauss & corbin, 1990). here the essential task is to develop a single theory line around which all themes can be “draped”; this represents the highest level of abstraction of the data. in executing this phase we integrated both supportive and contradictory literature relating to the core theme. we believe that one important outcome of reviewing the literature was the discovery of the link between male menopause and the human life cycle, particularly middle adulthood. st udying the implications of this linkage assisted us in placing the findings of the core theme in context, thus allowing the provisional substantive theory to emerge. the core theme emerging in the study centres on “the decreased need for work power in the workplace due to psychological integration during the male menopause phase”. the men followed a process of psychological integration in order to settle for less work power than they had before. it became clear that this came about as part of a systemic interaction between the themes that emerged during axial coding. the interaction and interplay between a decline in power, a sense of loss, changing relationships, experiencing work as positive, accepting new realities, and stress and anxiety, all contributed to the emergence of the central theme. experiencing work as positive and accepting new realities were indeed very positive themes, which should have assisted the men to ease the effect of menopause. as a result of the changing socio-political landscape and the introduction of employment equit y legislation in the workplace, the participants realised early in their careers that they had to accept the new social reality. being in their menopause and dealing with its associated changes, work became even more important to these men: on the one hand they wanted to retain their work, and on the other, they used this as an anchor to deal with life’s transitions and uncertainties. through a process of psychological integration, the men accepted these new realities. one of these was to cope with a decreased need for work power since the influence and decision-making power of white leaders in the organisation had decreased remarkably. for leaders to relinquish power is indeed not easy to do since the public recognition accompanying senior positions, internally and external to their company, is important to them. the men’s menopause also influenced their physical wellbeing. the reported menopause symptoms resulted in a decline in power, an experience of a sense of loss, and changing relationships. the psychological influences of these themes culminated in relatively high stress and anxiety levels. changing work practices (men being forced to retire earlier, and then finding it difficult to find employment again) and uncertain career prospects due to employment equit y legislation might have acted as the final pressure on the participants to settle for decrease work power through a process of psychological integration. this appeared to ensure career longevity in the organisation. male menopause and decision-making 17 in putting the core theme together, the emergence of key influencers of behaviour – namely frustration, selfdoubt, becoming more emotional, blaming the organisation for robbing one of important life events, and resentment – were confirmed again. with a decreased need for personal power it can be assumed that the men would experience declining decision-making authorit y and influence in the organisation. the participants were perhaps inclined to demonstrate less personal work power since aging white men do not have real decision-making authorit y in the organisation any longer. this trend led to a decline in self-confidence, which, in turn, resulted in frustrat ions in both family and work environments. the men began to question their lives and work, resulting in stress building up. they were more emotional during menopause, which gave rise to emotionally charged decisions. frustration, self-doubt, and resentment clearly moved them to respond more emotionally towards work challenges. this further resulted in them as white leaders being overly cautious in decision-making in order not to risk their employment contracts. the men have limited options in the organisation and it is understandable that they would not risk losing their jobs through risky decisionmaking. it appeared that they became more cautious in their decision-making, which perhaps explains why none of them made mention of often taking high-risk decisions. as already indicated, it is quite ironic that while these men have been in their positions and job level for some time, and clearly have the abilit y to make difficult high-risk decisions, they in stead rely on their experience and the wisdom they have gained over the years. in doing this they believed that they could control their emotions and display more tolerance in the decision process. emergence of substantive theory we are convinced that the substantial and rich data that claassen gathered enabled us to accomplish this vision in at least, provisionally and/or partly building a substantive theory. selective coding and relating the themes both with each other and the core theme paved the way for such theory. we believe that the phrase “work power trade-offs result in decreased decision-making power during the male menopause phase” substantially illuminates the main theme. we identified three different work power trade-off situations leading to decreased decision-making power explaining this phenomenon: � white male leaders in the organisation expressed a need for less work power due to psychological integration, that is coping with changes in the organisation, accepting a changing role in the organisation and realising that one is aging since one is moving through menopause; � less work power is needed as a result of the socio-political changes and employment equity legislation (white leaders have less value and power in the work situation in their male menopause phase); and � the men settled for less work power since they did not reach their personal work goals and at the same time menopause created the awareness that they are aging and would because of this probably not reach these goals anyway. this awareness is compounded by limited career opportunities for white leaders in the organisation. according to the literature the idea of relinquishing work power as the result of a sense of loss and personal vulnerability associated with aging is particularly unattractive to senior leaders in organisations (kets de vries, 2001). past research illustrates that some leaders display a great intentness and singlemindedness to maintain power. interesting enough the present study suggests the opposite: white leaders within the sociopolitical realities of south africa appear to sacrifice some of their work power, resulting in them having decreased power to make decisions in the organisation. it appeared that the men participating in the present study used work power trade-offs to survive in the bank, to stay relevant, to deal with changes in the organisation, and certainly not to challenge the emerging black leadership regime. subsequent investigation into whether similar power trade-offs occur in the family situation proved worthwhile. it appeared that the men relied more on their wives during their menopause than before and actually enjoyed it! this is supported by the literature. this is supported by the literature and in particular by the so-called double menopause suggesting the unconscious existence of a complementary personalit y (cetel, 2002). anima represents a man’s unconscious feminine side, while animus is a woman’s unconscious masculine side. mid-life appears to lower the threshold of the expression of anima and animus. in the menopausal male androgen hormonal levels decline and the relative levels of female hormones increase (cetel, 2002; sheehy, 1997; segell, 1996). it can thus be deduced that hormonal changes would influence the psychology and psyche of men. it therefore appears that menopause might be a prompt for men to get more in touch with their female side. in the work context this may manifest as a further aspect of work power trade-off. in contrast, in the family context this may manifest as a shift in power resulting in a different focus – the power to realise long-held unfulfilled dreams which anima in mid-life enables. discussion i gained a number of first-hand insights into male menopause and its influence on decision-making within organisations. despite these discoveries, additional research questions emerged which may be constructed as hypotheses and explored in future research initiatives. while these did not necessarily emerge during the selective coding phase, they are: � the use of paradoxes as a sensitising concept in the participants’ stories to share their worldviews and experience of male menopause. � a renewed discovery of the powerful influences of typical male menopause symptoms on the systemic male in the work and social context. � participants marrying late in life do not experience the decline in sexual drive that was reported by men who married early. � the discovery of the powerful influences of the changing socio-political landscape and employment equity legislation in south africa on men’s realities at work and experience of their menopause. � the physical roots of the male menopause appear to be the catalyst that sets this life stage in motion and it should not be underestimated. in the study it manifested in “a decline in power”. � the unobtainable desire expressed by the men to be young and healthy again, while doing very little to achieve it. � stress does not necessarily reduce the sex drive: it in fact possibly even increases it – while the physical sexual performance required to satisf y is lacking. � female depersonalisation as a defence mechanism for the loss of sexual power. � the acknowledgment of a lack in career-planning in the organisation, with the participants using their careers (albeit coincidental and unplanned) as an anchor in dealing with their menopause. � the participants’ view that since they had already taken a number of important decisions in their lives before the onset of their menopause there was no need to take anymore important decisions. � the emergence of wisdom as a prevalent theme in the accounts of the participants with regard to the decision-making process. cla assen, schurink18 � the greater tolerance of participants in decision-making. � the emergence of a situational decision-making approach. these “discoveries” supported the study’s emerging core theme, namely: “the decreased need for work power in the work environment due to psychological integration” as well as its substantive theory: “work power trade-offs result in decreased decision-making power during the male menopause phase”. noticeable shortcomings the process of grounded theory research is extremely timeconsuming and the volumes of data generated by applying this approach can be overwhelming. in the present study it was essential to manage the volumes of data within the parameters of practical constraints. while only a small number of people could consequently be enrolled in the research, a massive amount of material was still generated by the approach, which proved very challenging for claassen as lone researcher4. the following are particular shortcomings that emerged: (1) in essence this research represents a case study in a prominent financial institution. the small sample obviously, as with qualitative studies generally, limited the extent to which its findings can be generalised (external validity). similar research employing grounded theory but including larger samples of leaders in the particular financial institution or across financial institutions should be considered. according to neuman (2003) the best sample size depends on three things: (a) the degree of accuracy required; (b) the degree of variabilit y in the population; and (c) the number of variables observed simultaneously. in the context of this study a smaller sample was sufficient since less accuracy was acceptable (the depth was more important), the population was homogeneous and only a few variables were examined at a time. (2) the reliability and validity of this study were particularly challenging. by following an autoethnographical approach claassen took special care not to project his own biases onto the data. throughout the study we followed and applied specific interventions to ensure the reliability and validly of the study. we used lincoln and guba’s (1985) criteria to assess the trustworthiness of the study: � truth value: we established the truth value of the study by giving the men free choice of research participation, assuring them of anonymity and privacy, conducting interviews with informants to identif y potential participants who were regarded as knowledgeable, allowing the participants to select the interview sites, making the transcribed interviews available to them and, finally, conducting various member validation interviews with them. � applicability: since the study represents a case study of a financial institution, the sample used limits the extent to which the study can be applied to other contexts or subjects. however, given the depth of the exploration we are of the opinion that the findings can be applied to other contexts and participants. this assumption is especially relevant since all white males between 45 and 60 in south africa are experiencing menopause and are influenced by the changing socio-political changes and employment equity legislation. however, this does not suggest a broad applicability. � consistency: as schurink (2004) points out, qualitative research is exceptionally unpredictable. small wonder that decisions and steps are typically taken while the research is being conducted, and not before it commences. “although some of these decisions can be noted in the report, it is not possible to reproduce all the steps followed in a particular investigation in such a way that a blueprint is given for other researchers who wish to replicate the study” (schurink 2004, p. 12). in the current study claassen endeavoured to outline the key decisions taken during the study as well as the reasons for taking them via the natural history. we believe that this does not mean that the results of this study cannot be tested in further research. there is at least amongst modernist qualitative researchers a tendency to search for “cases that contradict the findings and encourage the verification of results without needing to repeat the original investigation” (schurink 2004, p.12). � neutrality: member validations were used extensively in this study. in addition, the voices of the participants were also conveyed via the excerpts of their accounts5. these offer the reader the opportunity to assess the interpretation of the themes that emerged from the data. the accounts presented by the interviewees could have been influenced by the fact that claassen knew some of them and had business dealings with them from time to time in the organisation. this might have had an influence on the reliability and validity of the study. we are of the opinion, however, that the consistent research procedures we followed ensured that these business relationships did not turn into personal biases. the member validations also offered the participants the opportunity to reflect on their personal contributions and my interpretations of the data. despite the obvious shortcomings of this study we are convinced that they were not detrimental to its findings. we are convinced that the careful interpretations of the findings within the context of these limitations enabled valid (although, of course, not flawless) deductions regarding the men’s worldviews particularly as they relate to menopause and decision-taking in a particular local financial institution. personal reflections claassen’s personal reflections of this study varied widely – from ecstatic and challenged, to frustrated and uncertain. he experienced the same feelings as pandit (1996): to work with ground theory involves lengthy periods of uncertainty. he had to display a lot of patience, faith and persistence to execute the process properly. the pleasure of new interesting discoveries emerging, however, made it all worthwhile. the most gratif ying experience of the study was certainly the interaction with the participants. this did not lie only in the conversations but also in the journey of insight both the participants and claassen gained. the immense curiosity on the side of the participants to read the final report was also a continuous source of inspiration and motivation for him. in retrospect, the strongest motivator for claassen was the opportunity to hand each participant a final copy of the study. he also sensed that their curiosity was linked to a need for increased insight into their own menopause and how it might influence their decision-making in the financial institution, of which they are employees. we truly hope that the insights gained and recommendations made in the study will live up to the participants’ expectations and will assist them to appreciate both their conscious and unconscious behaviour to settle for less work power while at the same time losing their decisionmaking power. recommendations the recommendations we offer relate to the following broad areas: leadership and change studies, male menopause and decision-making, theory and methodology. finally, we present suggestions particularly relevant to the financial institution where the research was undertaken. leadership and change studies with regard to leadership and chang studies we suggest: � additional studies need to be undertaken focusing on the leadership life cycle and male menopause. men reach senior leadership positions in the organisation when the effect of male menopause and decision-making 19 4 while as supervisor, schurink assisted with the research and writing the article, claassen was as student principally responsible for the design and execution of the study. 5 it was decided not to present excerpts from the research participants’ accounts in the article and interested readers are requested to consult claassen (2004). aging and menopause become noticeable (kets de vries, 2003), yet the true impact of this life-stage event is not fully understood from a leadership perspective. � although this is not directly related to leadership studies, we also want to suggest that male menopause and its “position” and relationship to the middle adulthood life stage should be defined clearly. there is currently no clarity in this regard in the available literature. clarity here will benefit students in future leadership life-cycle studies since male menopause plays a key role in a specific life stage. � the emergence of a substantive leadership theory – namely, that white leaders in their menopause settle for less work power, which results in decreased decision-making power – needs to be explored further. within the changing sociopolitical landscape and employment equity in the local work context in south africa this phenomenon may have a dramatic influence on white leadership in both an organisational and country context. male menopause and decision-making with reference to the findings pertaining to male menopause and its influence on decision-making in the work context the following proposals are relevant: � leaders need to be more aware of the physical, psychological and sexual changes associated with middle adulthood and male menopause. the study highlighted the systemic influences of these symptoms and the associated stress and anxiety created by the changes. � men do not undertake the journey associated with aging and menopause on their own. their families and, specifically, partners need to be aware of this life stage and obtain the necessary insight into the changes influencing their men. � leaders in their menopause phase must be specifically sensitised in order to become aware of, and deal with, the systemic influence of stress and anxiety accompanying this life stage. � men in general and leaders specifically must take care when redefining relationships during their menopause stage. this life stage is associated with middle adulthood where one of the main tasks is redefining relationships (hutchinson, 2003). due to the complexit y and varied nat ure of relationships, this is a particularly challenging task. grounded theory making suggestions in relation to theory-building in grounded theory studies specifically and qualitative research generally is no easy matter. nevertheless, based on our experience with the present study, we suggest: � specif y as part of the study’s purpose whether any attempt will be made as to create a theory by means of the grounded theory approach. � ensure an understanding of the grounded theory approach and its varieties in order to guarantee that the research findings, emerging concepts and resultant theory are properly grounded in the data. � appreciate that qualitative and grounded theory studies are underpinned by symbolic interactionism (locke, 2001; collis & hussey, 2003). � researchers need to appreciate personal exposure to the study before embarking on it. this is of specific importance in an autoethnographic approach, which demands a high level of personal sharing and involvement. � be specific as to the precise nature of the envisaged theory. � be sure to allow sufficient time to create theory. we have already shared some views and perceptions regarding grounded theory as a methodological approach in qualitative research. in view of his own experiences in the present study, claassen offer the following two additional observations: � while there is controversy as to when and how extensively the relevant theoretical and empirical literature should be applied in grounded theory research, such review must be undertaken at some point after the researcher has been exposed for some time to the social world he or she is studying. scrutinising the available literature on the subject under study is essential for exploring and possibly aligning the different views and experiences of those who are part of the research. grounded theory appears to be particularly complicated and confusing for first-time users and therefore an appropriate literature study will assist them considerably. “ … glaser (1978) acknowledges that some pre-emergent analytic thinking is necessary for the ‘emergent fit’ model of grounded theory. a researcher cannot come into a topic … completely cold. the researcher must have some predetermined idea of the things about which the subjects will be questioned, without asking explicitly about esoteric topics from the existing leadership literature. thus, questioning of subjects should revolve around a range of leadership-related topics ... having said this, existing leadership theories must not be considered until after the grounded theory has been generated. obviously, the emergent theory must be compared with the existent leadership literature. this will avoid the possibility of existing theories or biases being ‘forced’ into the data gathered. at most, they will provide a mere backcloth to data collection” (parry, 1998, p. 94). � quantitative research is clearly favoured in south african leadership studies. the academic community should assist in advocating and following a balanced approach in teaching both quantitative and qualitative approaches. schurink (2003) recently conducted a literature search on qualitative research in local management and organisational studies and came to the conclusion that the literature on qualitative research in south africa is limited. he (schurink 2003) coincidentally came to the same conclusion as the above when he stated that a tradition of qualitative research does not exist in the local institutions of higher learning. the financial institution in assisting male leaders who are experiencing menopause the following broad areas are particularly important: educational inter vention � the bank should consider designing interventions equipping male leaders with life skills enabling them to deal with career and life-stage transitions and to cope effectively with life changes like male menopause. � special interventions for leaders in senior positions should be designed to address added the stress and anxiety associated with life-stage and menopause changes. the key focus should be on restoring a balance in life. � reading material should be provided on the organisation’s intranet portal to assist in creating an awareness of the systemic influences of male menopause in the work situation. � a special attempt should be made to educate families of male leaders who are moving into their menopause. this should apply to female leaders as well. � according to the works of sayegh et al. (2004) and ford and gioia (2000), the organisation should consider leadership interventions to nurture both the emotional side and the creative side of decision-making. comprehensive career counselling � the organisation needs to assist male leaders approaching their menopause or those already in this life-cycle phase with comprehensive career planning. this is specifically relevant for current white leaders since they are experiencing sociopolitical changes in south africa and the introduction of employment equit y; their career progression in the organisation has reached a premature ceiling and they are responding by expressing a decreased need for work power. comprehensive career-planning should ensure career longevity and reduce resentment towards the organisation for robbing them of opportunities, and it should also influence the quality of decision-making positively. cla assen, schurink20 � we found in the study that work plays an important role in the lives of male leaders. in the light of this the organisation needs to address the paradox that work is important for these leaders, and they are on top of their technology, but the organisation is rendering them obsolete earlier in their careers (sheehy, 1997a). this phenomenon leads to high levels of anxiety and it appears to affect the quality of organisation decision-making. counselling � the organisation should consider training facilitators or counsellors who can assist male leaders in their midlife transition and menopause. this recommendation relates closely to the education programme and careerplanning in the organisation suggested above. � medical support for leaders with health issues should be readably available. the organisation has already implemented an executive health-care program, which offers an ideal opportunity to integrate male menopause counselling. � trauma debriefers should be trained to deal with crises male leaders might experience during this life stage, even if it is only to refer the leader to an appropriate counsellor. � male leaders in their middle adulthood and menopause should also be trained to act as mentors to younger employees. this will facilitate the removal of barriers between old and young. in addition, as erikson (levinson, 1978) points out, leaders could assist in the process of generativity. references cetel, n. (2002). double menopause: what to do when both you and your mate go through hormonal changes together. new jersey: john wiley & sons, inc. charlton, r.d. (2004). ageing male syndrome, andropause, androgen decline or midlife crises? the journal of men’s health and gender, 1 (1), 55-59. collis, j. & hussey, r. (2003). business research: a practical guide for graduate and postgraduate students. (2nd ed.). new york: palgrave macmillan. cowley, g. & kalb, c. (1996). attention: aging men. newsweek, 128 (12), 69-77. retrieved january 24, 2003, from ebscohost database. ducharme, s.h. (2002). male menopause: the real thing? paraplegia news, 56 (11), 36-38. ford, c.m. & gioia, d.a. (2000). factors influencing creativity in the domain of managerial decision-making. journal of management, 26 (4), 705-732. gould, d.c., pett y, r. & jacobs, h.s. (2002). the male menopause: does it exist? british medical journal, 320 (7238), 858. retrieved january 21, 2004, from infotrac database. holloway, i. & wheeler, s. (2002). qualitative research in nursing. (2nd ed.). oxford: blackwell science ltd. hutchinson, e.d. (2003). dimensions of human behaviour: the changing life course. (2nd ed.). london: sage publications. kessenich, c.r. & cichon, m.j. (2001). hormonal decline in elderly men and male menopause. geriatric nursing, 22 (1), 24-28. kets de vries, m.f.r. (2001). the leadership mystique: an owner’s manual. london: pearson education limited. kets de vries, m.f.r. (2003). leaders, fools and impostors: essays on the psychology of leadership. new york: iuniverse, inc. levinson, d.j. (1978). the seasons of a man’s life. toronto: the random house ballantine publishing group. lincoln, y.s. & guba, e.g. (1985). naturalistic inquiry. newbury park: sage publications. locke, k. (2001). grounded theory in management research. london: sage publications. louw, d.a. (1995). human development, cape town: abc book printers. metz, m.e. & miner, m.h. (1998). psychosexual and psychosocial aspects of male aging and sexual health. canadian journal of human sexuality, 7 (3), 245260. retrieved january 24, 2003, from ebscohost database. milne, c. (1999). coming to grips with depression. maclean’s, 112 (8), 32. retrieved january 24, 2004, from ebscohost database. neuman, w.l. (2003). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. (5th ed.). boston: allyn and bacon. novak, a., brod, m. & elbers, j. (2002). andropause and the quality of life: findings from patient focus groups and clinical experts. maturitas, 43 (4), 231-237. nowak, r. (2000). life in the old dog. new scientist, 167 (2248), 36. retrieved january 21, 2003, from infotrac database. oldcorn, r. (1998). management. hampshire: macmillan education ltd. pandit, n.r. (1996). the creation of theory: a recent application of the grounded theory method. the qualitative report, 2 (4). retrieved april 19, 2004, from http:// www.nova.edu/sss/qr/qr2-4/pandit.html. parry, k. w. (1998). grounded theory and social process: a new direction for leadership research. leadership quarterly, 9 (1), 85-105. sayegh, l., anthony, w.p. & perrewe, l. (2004). managerial decision-making under crisis: the role of emotion in an intuitive decision process. human resource management review, 14 (2), 179-199. schurink, w.j. (2003). methods in qualitative research: grounded theory. anne crafford’s programme in industrial psychology presented at master’s programme, rand afrikaans university, johannesburg, 8 october 2003. schurink, w.j. (2004). lecture thirteen: evaluating qualitative research. rand afrikaans university, study school, 27-28 february 2004. segell, m. (1996). the new softness (why men become more intimate and nurturing in later life). esquire, 125 (4), 51(1). retreived january 21, 2003, from infotrac database. seidman, s.n., araujo, a.b., roose, s.p. and mckinlay, j.b. (2001). testosterone level, androgen receptor polymorphism, and depressive symptoms in middle-age men. biological psychiatry, 50 (5), 371-376. sheehy, g. (1993, april). the unspeakable passage: is there a male menopause? vanity fair, p. 163. sheehy, g. (1994). the silent passage: menopause. london: harpercollins publishers. sheehy, g. (1997a). new passages: mapping your life across time. london: harpercollins publishers. sheehy, g. (1997b). beyond virility, a new vision: men and their doctors need to understand that impotence is just one part of a complicated midlife passage – call it manopause. newsweek, 130 (20), 69(1). retrieved january 21, 2003, from infotrac database. strauss, a.l. and corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques, thousand oaks: sage publications. tarter, c.j. & hoy, w.k. (1998). toward a contingency theory of decisionmaking. journal of educational administration, 36 (3), 212-228. terre blanche, m. & durrheim, k. (1999). research in practice: applied methods for the social researcher. cape town: university of cape town press. male menopause and decision-making 21 abstract introduction literature review research methodology results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) mogantheran naidoo graduate school of business and leadership, university of kwazulu-natal, south africa muhammad e. hoque graduate school of business and leadership, university of kwazulu-natal, south africa citation naidoo, m., & hoque, m.e. (2017). reducing youth unemployment beyond the youth wage subsidy: a study of simtech apprentices. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a845. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.845 original research reducing youth unemployment beyond the youth wage subsidy: a study of simtech apprentices mogantheran naidoo, muhammad e. hoque received: 28 july 2016; accepted: 17 oct. 2016; published: 24 mar. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: south africa currently has the twin challenges of worsening youth unemployment and scarce skills that threaten its economic and social stability. artisanal trades are an occupation category that strongly reflects this current problem. simtech training institute in durban, the study setting, currently trains artisan apprentices and facilitates their internship work placements. research purpose: the objective of this study was to identify some of the critical success factors that differentiated simtech artisan apprentices who obtained permanent employment, compared to those who are currently unemployed. motivation for the study: the main motivation of the study was to improve the conversion rate of artisan apprentices to permanently employed artisans. research design, approach and method: the study was a cross-sectional study conducted among 51 artisan apprentices who had graduated over the past 3 years at simtech and who were selected randomly. an online questionnaire comprising primarily likert scale type questions was utilised to obtain the responses from the sample. factor analysis was used to remove scale items from the independent variables that did not impact the variability sufficiently. then the remaining scale items that impacted variability significantly were combined and categorised as new composite independent variables. logistic regression analysis identified success factors for permanent employment of simtech graduates. main findings: internship or workplace environment had a statistically significant impact on permanent employment. youth work ethic had a minor impact on permanent employment status – albeit not a statistically significant one. practical/managerial implications: these findings showed that improving the internship/workplace environment can reduce youth unemployment and address skills scarcity. contribution: internship host companies and other stakeholders need to urgently focus on improving the quality of the internship/workplace environment experienced by artisan apprentices rather than just on the intake number of artisan apprentices that the youth wage subsidy has encouraged to date. introduction at present, south africa faces the twin challenges of rising youth unemployment rates and worsening scarce skills required to drive economic growth. youth unemployment currently sits at 70% (statssa, 2014). this situation is likened to a ‘ticking time bomb’ (burnett, 2014). there is no quick fix for the current high youth unemployment levels (yu, 2013). in this context, the employment incentive bill was introduced on 01 january 2014 and is better known as the youth wage subsidy. the objective of this legislation was to encourage the employment of young people with limited work experience, by using tax incentives (rankin & roberts, 2011). south africa currently has 30 000 fewer artisans than it requires based on vacancies (akoojee, 2013). there is thus a major focus on artisan training schools and apprenticeships in the workplace to produce more artisans for the economy (simkins, rule & bernstein, 2007). the effectiveness of such workplace apprenticeships is an important lever to increase qualified artisan output. the youth unemployment problem becomes even more dire when looking at artisan trades. current artisan apprenticeship programmes were not having the desired effect in reducing youth unemployment while producing scarce skills for the economy (oseifuah, 2010). a lot more needed to be done to improve the output of such apprenticeship programmes (smith, jennings & solanki, 2005). this study sought to solve the problem of what critical success factors ensure that apprenticeship programmes yield the desired output of qualified artisans who are permanently employed and contributing to south africa’s economy (witte, rothmann & jackson, 2012). research objectives the research objectives of the study are to: investigate whether the internship or workplace environment of simtech’s young artisanal apprentices significantly impacted their attainment of permanent employment after the apprenticeship period identify whether the work ethic of simtech’s young artisanal apprentices significantly impacted their attainment of permanent employment after the apprenticeship period determine whether the employability skills of simtech’s young artisanal apprentices significantly impacted their attainment of permanent employment after the apprenticeship period. literature review youth unemployment youth unemployment has been one of the most concerning trends in the global labour market (ogbuanya, 2015). it was particularly prevalent in developing economies like south africa (mlatsheni & rospabé, 2002). high youth unemployment rates contributed to a number of socio-political problems in countries, such as high crime rates, high poverty levels and radical political upheavals – as in the arab spring uprisings that swept through north africa and most notably egypt a few years ago (akoojee & gonon, 2013). south africa was starting to experience similar rhetoric with the emergence of the economic freedom fighters political party that has sought to obtain economic freedom for its predominantly young support base (burnett, 2014). developed countries such as germany and japan have not been immune to youth unemployment and skills shortages (akoojee & gonon, 2013). declining population rates coupled with a disinterest by their young people in blue-collar artisanal trades has resulted in a ‘lost generation’ of artisans emerging in these countries (wildschut, meyer & akoojee, 2015). this has meant that these countries needed to import such scarce skills into their economies, and this has driven a global scarcity of artisans (horwitz, 2013). role of the apprenticeship system in south africa the apprenticeship system in south africa had a turbulent past. during apartheid, it was used as a job reservation gatekeeper to prevent black people from accessing these trades (smith et al., 2005). this is one of the reasons for the current shortage of artisans in south africa. the majority of the population was prevented from accessing apprenticeships – which created a ‘lost generation’ of artisans in the south african labour market (kruss & wildschut, 2015). another important reason for the current shortage of artisans has been the discontinuation of many state-owned enterprise (soe) apprenticeship schools after the advent of the new democracy in 1994 (kruss et al., 2014). this was necessitated by the need for these organisations to become more profitable. as a result, artisan apprentice training was deemed a non-core activity and many training schools were shut down (akoojee, 2013). this has caused a severe loss of training capacity in south africa for artisanal trades. many former instructors and trainers who were retrenched more than a decade ago are now no longer around. it would indeed take a lot to re-establish the institutional capacity of these soe training schools (wedekind, 2013). over the past 20 years, blue-collar occupations such as artisanal trades have become less and less popular – as most young people have sought university education to access occupations in the service industry and information technology sectors (schlechter, faught & bussin, 2014; wildschut et al., 2015). south africa is not alone in this regard, as there was a similar trend in developing economy peers such as india and nigeria (ukachi, 2015). however, recent developments suggest that interest in artisanal trades could be increasing again. a phenomenon such as the widespread drought in south africa has also popularised an artisanal trade such as plumbing – particularly in the rural areas of the country (wildschut et al., 2015). private institutions such as the simtech training institute – the focus of this research – have been established to increase the number of artisan apprentices graduating into the labour market. they have been trying to fill the gap caused by the closing down of soe training schools. while organisations like simtech provide most of the theoretical and practical aspects of a trade onsite at their training school premises, they are reliant on industry companies to provide the apprentices with much needed workplace experience (allais, 2012; simon, pauline, & josé-luis, 2014). success factors of employed apprentices youth work ethic while acknowledging the existence of circumstances beyond the control of the youth worker, there is much that a youth worker can do through hard work and effort to influence their progress during the internship (becton, walker, & jones-farmer, (2014). south africa has one of the lowest work ethics in the world (de armas, grove, hiatt, taylor-roy & quezada, 2014). this is reflected in many studies – most notably ‘the world economic forum – global competitiveness index’, where south africa ranked 134 out of 144 countries that participated in the benchmarking exercise (becton et al., 2014). accusations of an ‘entitlement mentality’ creeping into the minds of young south africans have been bandied about. unrealistic dreams of large rewards with very little efforts have also played a part in diminishing the work ethic of south africa’s young people (rauscher, wegman, wooding, davis & junkin, 2013). society bore the responsibility for assisting unemployed youth with social grants in the income provision system. it is thought that this created an entitlement mentality in young people and has diminished their will to work (de armas et al., 2014). work ethic was determined by a number of different factors. there was some consensus on certain key elements that constituted the construct of a work ethic. reliability, initiative and determination were important (deal et al., 2013; roberts 2013). character was highlighted as being extremely important (cohen, panter, turan, morse & kim, 2014; kruss & wildschut, 2015). accountability was also put forward strongly (rauscher et al., 2013). workplace or internship environment this section looked at the youth unemployment problem from the perspective of the institution or company that took in youth workers and were responsible for training and moulding them into productive, competent individuals. these institutions or companies sometimes received tax incentives such as skills levies or the youth wage subsidy in return for fulfilling this role. mentorship quality the quality of mentorship was extremely important for ensuring the success of the internship period and nurturing young talent within an organisation. many studies looked at the quality of mentorship and presented a variety of viewpoints (doerwald, scheibe & van yperen, 2015; patil, 2015). the initial chance taken on a young individual by an astute mentor who saw the potential of the individual, often unearthed gems who went on to be highly successful employees who contributed much to the success of organisations (mulligan-ferry & nugent, 2016). given the impact such decisions could have on both companies and young workers, it was important that mentors were chosen carefully. unfortunately, far too often this selection of mentors was not done correctly (patil, 2015). either the mentor was overloaded with work and had insufficient time to fulfil his or her duties to the mentee or the mentor was disinterested in the growth of the youth worker and saw them as a threat to their position in the company. indeed, in south africa, with the introduction of the youth wage subsidy, there was much resistance and antagonism from older workers towards young workers (doerwald et al., 2015). training and development opportunities it was of vital importance that relevant training and development opportunities are afforded to young workers during the internship period. this was to ensure that they are continuously learning valuable skills and improving as future employees (du toit & roodt, 2008). according to downs (2015), the investment in high-potential employees yielded significant results for companies in the long term. this view is supported by boyle (2015), who stated that significant training investment had started to yield the desired outcomes – with more engineering interns becoming competent to meet the needs of industry in scotland. south africa invested a large amount of money in training and development each year. this was largely collected via the skills levies act and administered by sector education and training authority (seta). the success of these organisations though has been questionable (smith et al., 2005). more needs to be done to extract more value out of the training sessions relative to the amount spent on them. ben-hur, jaworski and gray (2015) discussed whether the training budgets were being spent on the right things. employability skills ilo (2013) referred to core employability skills as those skills necessary for lifelong learning and they were transferable across career roles. ilo stated that these skills equipped young workers to adapt to continuous change in the world of work and prevented their skills from becoming obsolete. the ilo had narrowed down these core employability skills to learn, communication, teamwork and problem solving. mourshed, farrell and barton (2012) stated that 43% of employers could not find the required employability skills in young workers. this showed that much more needed to be done to improve the employability skills of young workers – and thus enhance their employment chances. in south africa, there has been much focus on providing access to workplace internships via the youth wage subsidy launched in 2014. this is a noble effort given that the first work experience plays a significant role in a young worker’s career. however, not enough focus has been put on the actual internship period, in preparing the youth worker for permanent employment jobs elsewhere or within the same company. research methodology this study utilised a quantitative methods design. according to creswell (2014), such a design was well suited to testing predetermined outcomes and statistically analysing significant correlations. the quantitative method was utilised by this study, so that attitude data could be gathered by instrument-based questions (sekaran & bougie, 2013). the simtech trade apprenticeship school was chosen as a suitable study setting, given the familiarity of the researcher with their operations and because of accessibility of their students who could be reached to participate in the empirical research. this institution nurtures and trains young people with technical and general workplace skills, over a certain period of time. these apprentices then serve time in the industry, working for numerous companies and gaining workplace experience. the simtech institution and its apprentices was thus an ideal choice for carrying out this exploratory study on understanding their actual experiences during their internship period. simtech had 120 apprentices over the past 3 years who completed their training programme and workplace internship. these 120 graduates were the target population for the study and currently were either employed or unemployed. a 95% confidence interval and 5% level of significance was used to calculate the required sample size for the research study. a sample size of 92 was needed to significantly represent the 120 simtech apprentice graduates who have graduated in the past 3 years. a simple random sampling technique was used to select the samples for the study. the data collection instrument was an online questionnaire. this was the most efficient method of collecting sufficient responses from a representative sample size of the target population within the desired timeframe (creswell, 2014). the online questionnaire was designed to take only 15 minutes to complete – to encourage a higher participation and completion rate. most respondents would not be english native speakers. special care was taken to use simple english in the questionnaire and to make the questions as straightforward as possible. this was achieved by avoiding double-barrelled questions with ambiguous meaning. respondents without e-mail access were accommodated by the researcher administering the survey telephonically. the researcher then captured the data onto the esurveycreator system. it was anticipated that the data collection would take place over a 3to 4-week period. the questionnaire was administered following a three-stage process. firstly, there was an initial e-mail advising participants of the survey. secondly, the actual link to the electronic survey followed 3 days later. lastly, a follow-up e-mail was sent a week after the link was sent out – to thank those participants who had already responded and encouraging those participants who had not yet replied to do so. a likert scale was chosen to code the responses into quantifiable integer numbers ranging from 1 to 4. a four-point likert scale was chosen deliberately – instead of the standard five-point likert scale. the reason was to eliminate neutral responses, by forcing respondents to select negative or positive responses. the online questionnaire was initially e-mailed to five people to test its functionality. key aspects checked where the time needed to complete the survey, the clarity of the questions and the cronbach’s alpha that verified the internal consistency of the items being tested. the cronbach’s alpha was 0.91, which indicated that the data were reliable. the study received an ethical clearance certificate from the ethics committee of the university of kwazulu-natal. also, a permission letter was obtained from the ceo of simtech apprentice training institute, prior to questionnaires being sent out. each respondent had the option of withdrawing from participation in the questionnaire at any time they wished, without any penalties. this was clearly explained in the letter of informed consent that accompanied the online questionnaire. the actual research instrument – the online survey – underwent strict ethical clearance scrutiny by the university of kwa-zulu natal’s research ethical clearance committee. the field study only proceeded once such ethical clearance (protocol reference number: hss/0249/016m) was granted. results biographical information table 1 shows the summary of age distribution and internship period of the participants. about half the respondents (42%) were aged 28–30 years and the same number spent 1–2 years as an apprentice. table 1: distribution of age and internship period. ten statements comprised the construct of the youth work ethic. there was a noticeable difference in the answering choices of the employed and unemployed groupings. for example, 56% of the unemployed grouping felt that they should have a job, no matter how they performed – pointing towards an entitlement culture. it was found that 72% of the employed grouping was trusted by colleagues to do their work, while 68% of the employed grouping accepted responsibility for their mistakes (figure 1). figure 1: youth work ethic frequency distribution. for the employed respondents’ grouping, the most frequent mode of answer on the likert scale was ‘agree’. in contrast, for the unemployed respondents’ grouping, the most frequent mode of answer was ‘strongly disagree’ or ‘disagree’. some 68% of the unemployed grouping strongly disagreed that their internship host company offered any apprentice a permanent job, while 60% further strongly disagreed that they were told they would get a permanent job at the end of the apprenticeship if they performed to a high standard. in stark contrast, the employed grouping largely agreed on every one of the ten items – pointing towards a largely positive internship or workplace environment (figure 2). figure 2: internship or workplace environment frequency distribution. most of the employed participants agreed to most of the statements regarding employability skills. in contrast, for the unemployed respondents grouping, the most frequent of answer was negative. about two-thirds (64%) of the unemployed grouping stated that they strongly disagreed that their internships equipped them with entrepreneurial skills (figure 3). figure 3: employability skills frequency distribution. the kaiser–meyer–olkin measure of sampling adequacy in table 2 was greater than 0.5, which implied that the sampling adequacy was extremely good. table 2: kaiser–meyer–olkin and bartlett’s test. all scale items in table 3 that had an eigenvalue greater than 1 were retained in the model. an eigenvalue equal to 1 was considered an average score. table 3 illustrates the scale items that were subsequently included and excluded from the three composites that were then created: composite_work ethic, composite_workplace environment and composite_employability skills. the remaining scale items that made up the three composite independent variables were then added to reach a sum total score of the various scale items and were transformed into binary using the following set rule. all cases that had a composite total score less than the mean score were transformed to a 0; and all cases that had a composite total score equal to or greater than the mean score were transformed to a 1. this transformation function prepared the three composite independent variables for the logistic regression analysis against the dichotomous dependent variable. table 3: communalities. the nagelkerke r-squared value was 0.653, which implied that 65.3% of the variability in the dependent variable could be predicted by the model. this implied that the model, formed with the three composite variables refined by the factor analysis was strong. the classification shown in table 4 indicated that the model correctly predicted the employment status of 86.3% of all cases captured by the data. this further reinforced the strength of the model. table 4: classification table. the variables included in the equation in table 5 were the composite workplace environment and the composite work ethic. the composite workplace environment was statistically significant at a value of 0.001 (p < 0.05). although composite work ethic was not statistically significant at a value of 0.998 (p > 0.05), it still made it into the final model, indicating that it had some impact on the prediction model. an artisan apprentice who was happy with his or her workplace environment was 18.33 times more likely to be employed than an artisan who was not happy with his or her workplace environment. table 5: forward stepwise regression model output. discussion the biographical information showed that most respondents were in the 28to 30-year bracket, implying that a level of maturity was needed to complete an apprenticeship properly and obtain permanent employment. most respondents had an internship period of less than 2 years, which showed that companies were possibly just employing them to derive the benefit of the youth wage subsidy tax benefit. this shorter duration could impact the skills transfer and depth of knowledge acquired by apprentices, to become qualified, competent artisans. the main critical success factor was the importance of a positive and enabling internship or workplace environment in determining the permanent employment status of artisan apprentices. artisan apprentices who enjoyed a positive workplace environment were a staggering 18.3 times more likely to obtain permanent employment compared to their unemployed peers (p = 0.001). the factors that comprise internship or workplace environment were under the direct control of internship host companies, and these companies can utilise this insight to improve their training programmes offered to artisan apprentices. the internship/workplace environment factors examined were mentorship, training and development opportunities and talent pipeline management. the findings are discussed in more detail below. the quality of mentorship was extremely important for ensuring the success of the internship period and nurturing young talent within an organisation. past studies on the quality of mentorship (e.g. mulligan-ferry & nugent, 2016) stated that the initial chance taken on a young individual by an astute mentor who saw the potential of the individual often unearthed gems who went on to be highly successful employees who contributed much to the success of those organisations. therefore, it is important that internship host companies select mentors wisely and also equip them to adequately perform their functions. unfortunately, far too often, this selection of mentors is done incorrectly (patil, 2015). either the mentor was overloaded with work and had insufficient time to fulfil his or her duties, or the mentor was disinterested in the growth of the youth worker and saw them as a threat to his position in the company. the findings also revealed the vital importance of relevant training and development opportunities afforded to young artisan apprentices during the internship period. these training opportunities ensured that young apprentices were continuously learning valuable skills and improving as future employees. according to downs (2015), the investment in high-potential employees yielded significant results for companies in the long term. this view was supported by boyle (2015), where significant training investment had started to yield desired outcomes – with more engineering interns becoming competent to meet the needs of industry in scotland. south africa invests a large amount of money in training and development each year. this is largely collected via the skills levies act and is administered by setas. the success of these organisations though has been questionable. more needs to be done to extract more value from training sessions relative to the amount spent on them (du toit & roodt, 2008). ben-hur et al. (2015) postulate whether the training budgets were being spent on the right things. progressive companies view the internship process as a way of securing the scarce skills they require to drive their business ambitions (edmond et al., 2007). according to drew (2015), there was a concerted effort made to capture young talent and the brightest minds in the labour market. this was further enforced by rabbi et al. (2015) that talent management was a significant source of competitive advantage. alkhalaf, zaballero, and alzahmi (2015) reiterated that company strategy was built around their talent pipeline management. the survey results contradict this theoretical view and suggest that further investigation into artisan development to meet scarce skills demand is warranted. the other critical success factor discovered was that the composite_work ethic variable had some impact on the dependent variable. the factors that comprise youth work ethic can be directly influenced by the youth themselves – to improve their own chances of success by displaying attributes of desirable employees to their internship host company. the youth work ethic factors that were investigated were reliability, initiative, determination, accountability and character. more than 50% of unemployed artisan apprentices did not complete allocated tasks within deadlines, while 96% of employed artisan apprentices completed their allocated tasks within deadlines. clearly, going forward, all artisan apprentices need to ensure that they complete all their allocated tasks within deadlines. employers are much more likely to permanently employ artisan apprentices who display such attributes. arriving at work punctually had less of an impact on attaining permanent employment. most unemployed and employed artisan apprentices attended work on time. the survey results back up this theoretical perspective by clearly showing that those apprentices who did not quit tasks that became difficult ended up with permanent employment more frequently. it is noteworthy that 100% of all employed respondents did not quit difficult tasks. young artisan apprentices must not give up on difficult tasks, but should rather persevere. they should request assistance early on from colleagues and supervisors when experiencing difficulties. ultimately, they need to want to make a success of their apprenticeships. if this inner determination is lacking, it will clearly adversely affect their employment prospects. it was shown that initiative was another important attribute in contemporary workplaces (roberts, 2013). young apprentices have to be able to motivate themselves to tackle more tasks and drive their own personal growth (deal et al., 2013). with most employers having lean structures, mentors do not have much time to spend with each artisan apprentice. young apprentices clearly have to create and grab opportunities to learn more and take on additional tasks. those apprentices who took a lot of initiative by voluntarily working additional hours derived more value from their apprenticeships and were ultimately more successful in obtaining permanent employment. the present study found that young artisan apprentices who accepted responsibility for their mistakes were more likely to attain permanent employment. all (100%) employed artisan apprentices accepted responsibility, while only 60% of unemployed artisan apprentices did so. young artisan apprentices must learn to take accountability for their actions. they need to discard the trend of entitlement and blaming others for their present status in society. it is only once youth discard this mentality that they can move forward as better future employees. it was concluded that character and personal demeanour were important components of a strong work ethic (van der walt & de klerk, 2014). these characteristics often come from an individual’s background and upbringing (cohen et al., 2014). some common character traits were honesty and trustworthiness, which were often seen as hallmarks of successful high-performing employees. character was something built up over a lengthy period of time, and yet could be destroyed quickly through negative actions (schreiner, 2015). youth workers had to demonstrate their good character repetitively and consistently to earn themselves a good reputation during their artisanal apprenticeships. conclusion the study established that of the three independent constructs of youth work ethic, internship or workplace environment and employability skills, only internship or workplace environment had a significant relationship with the dependent variable of permanent employment attainment. youth work ethic had some influence, but was not significant. while such a correlation is not necessarily causal in nature, it does prove that a strong and supportive internship or workplace environment was an accurate predictor of success for young artisan apprentices attaining permanent employment. conversely, should young artisan apprentices be placed in a weak and unsupportive workplace environment during their internship, their chances of attaining permanent employment were significantly diminished. recommendations based on the research findings, the following are recommended: future artisan apprentices of simtech should commit themselves to giving of their best throughout their internship period at their host companies and display a strong work ethic that makes them attractive to future employers. internship host companies should urgently review the suitability and performance of the mentors they allocate to oversee the development of artisan apprentices. there must be some deliverables that mentors are accountable for. government departments overseeing administration of the youth wage subsidy and similar tax incentives should vet internship host companies more stringently to determine whether the contribution they make towards national artisan development outweighs the tax incentives they are benefiting from. defaulters who are abusing the incentive programme must be taken to task and have appropriate penalties enforced to correct bad behaviour. the artisan apprentice curriculum should be modified to add more employability skills that are useful across a broader range of industries – to improve the employability of young artisan apprentices. the internship host company should view apprenticeships as a key part of their talent pipeline management system – to cultivate the scarce skills they need to grow. young artisan apprentices should want to do the respective professions they enter apprenticeships for and should have a strong passion for that vocation. apprentices should be taken from technikon or training colleges where they have had some technical exposure and post-schooling education. currently, apprentices sourced straight from matric is not ideal, as many of these candidates lack the maturity to grasp the apprenticeship with the seriousness it deserves. limitations of the research study the following limitations of the research study are acknowledged: this study focused only on simtech artisan apprentices for the past 3 years. simtech is one of many artisan training centres in south africa. hence, the results cannot be generalised to all artisan apprentices in south africa. most respondents in the survey do not speak english as their first language. their understanding of the various questions was assumed, but there is the possibility of bias in their responses, because of a lack of understanding. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.n. conceptualised the topic, carried out the data collection. m.n. and m.e.h. developed the methodology and analysed the data. m.e.h. wrote the manuscript. both m.n. and m.e.h. approved the final draft of the manuscript. references akoojee, s. (2013). accelerating artisan training: a response to the south african skills challenge. in the architecture of innovative apprenticeship (pp. 307–319). new york: springer. akoojee, s., & gonon, p. (2013). apprenticeship in a globalised world: premises, promises and pitfalls (vol. 27). berlin: lit verlag münster publishers. alkhalaf, a., zaballero, a., & alzahmi, r. (2015). talent pipeline management: attracting, developing, and retaining talents to meet future drilling challenges. paper presented at abu dhabi international petroleum exhibition and conference, 9–12 december 2015, abu dhabi, uae. allais, s. (2012). will skills save us? rethinking the relationships between vocational education, skills development policies, and social policy in south africa. international journal of educational development, 32(5), 632–642. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2012.01.001 becton, j.b., walker, h.j., & jones-farmer, a. (2014). generational differences in workplace behavior. journal of applied social psychology, 44(3), 175–189. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12208 ben-hur, s., jaworski, b., & gray, d. (2015). aligning corporate learning with strategy. mit sloan management review, 57(1), 53–59. boyle, a. (2015). developing the young workforce – the future of skills for north-east scotland. paper presented at spe offshore europe conference and exhibition, 8–11 september, aberdeen, scotland. burnett, s. (2014). unemployed youth: ‘time bombs’ or engines for growth? african security review, 23(2), 196–205. https://doi.org/10.1080/10246029.2014.913833 cohen, t.r., panter, a.t., turan, n., morse, l., & kim, y. (2014). moral character in the workplace. journal of personality and social psychology, 107(5), 943–963. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037245 creswell, j.w. (2014). research design (4th edn.). los angeles, ca: sage publishers. de armas, a., grove, m., hiatt, a., taylor, r.d.s., & quezada, b. (2014). entitlement of millenials in the workplace, research paper, point loma nazarene university, san diego, ca. deal, j.j., stawiski, s., graves, l., gentry, w.a., weber, tj., & ruderman, m. (2013). motivation at work: which matters more, generation or managerial level? consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 65(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032693 doerwald, f., scheibe, s., & van yperen, n.w. (2015). role of age in workplace mentoring. in encyclopedia of geropsychology. new york: springer. downs, l. (2015). star talent: investing in high-potential employees for organizational success. industrial and commercial training, 12(3), 349–355. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict-06-2015-0041 drew, j. (2015). how to win the game of talent. journal of accountancy, 220(4), 28–35. du toit, r., & roodt, j. (2008). engineers, technologists and technicians. human resources development review, 452–468. edmond, n., hillier, y., & price, m. (2007). between a rock and a hard place: the role of he and foundation degrees in workforce development. education + training, 49(3), 170–181. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400910710749305 horwitz, f.m. (2013). an analysis of skills development in a transitional economy: the case of the south african labour market. the international journal of human resource management, 24(12), 2435–2451. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.781438 ilo (2013), global employment trends for youth 2013. geneva: international labour office. kruss, g., & wildschut, a. (2015). how does social inequality continue to influence young people’s trajectories through the apprenticeship pathway system in south africa? an analytical approach. journal of education and work, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2015.1076157 kruss, g., wildschut, a., janse, v.r., visser, m., haupt, g., & roodt, j. (2014). learnerships and apprenticeships: key mechanisms for skills development and capability building in south africa. human science research council. retrieved february 3, 2016, from http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/research-data/ktree-doc/13717 mlatsheni, c., & rospabé, s. (2002). why is youth unemployment so high and unequally spread in south africa? development policy research unit, university of cape town, cape town. mourshed, m., farrell, d., & barton, d. (2012). education to employment: designing a system that works. mckinsey center for government. mulligan-ferry, l., & nugent, j.s. (2016). who took a chance on you? retrieved april 12, 2016, from http://www.catalyst.org/zing/who-took-chance-you ogbuanya, t. (2015). regenerating technical and vocational education for sustainable youth empowerment in nigeria. journal of education and practice, 6(36), 61–64. oseifuah, e.k. (2010). financial literacy and youth entrepreneurship in south africa. african journal of economic and management studies, 1(2), 164–182. https://doi.org/10.1108/20400701011073473 patil, s.p. (2015). identification of mentors. international research journal of multidisciplinary studies, 1(3), 1–14. rabbi, f., ahad, n., kousar, t., & ali, t. (2015). talent management as a source of competitive advantage. journal of asian business strategy, 5(9), 208–214. rankin, n.a., & roberts, g. (2011). youth unemployment, firm size and reservation wages in south africa. south african journal of economics, 79(2), 128–145. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2011.01272.x rauscher, k.j., wegman, d.h., wooding, j., davis, l., & junkin, r. (2013). adolescent work quality: a view from today’s youth. journal of adolescent research, 28(5), 557–590. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558412467676 roberts, s. (2013). boys will be boys … won’t they? change and continuities in contemporary young working-class masculinities. sociology, 47(4), 671–686. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038512453791 schlechter, a., faught, c., & bussin, m. (2014). total rewards: a study of artisan attraction and retention within a south african context. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.648 schreiner, e. (2015). five characteristics of a good work ethic. retrieved april 12, 2016, from http://smallbusiness.hron.com/five-characteristics-geo-work-ethic sekaran, u., & bougie, r. (2013). research methods for business (6th edn.). chichester: wiley. simkins, c., rule, s., & bernstein, a. (2007). doubling for growth: addressing the maths and science challenge in south africa’s schools. johannesburg: centre for development and enterprise. simon, f., pauline, m., & josé-luis, á.-g. (2014). oecd reviews of vocational education and training: a skills beyond school review of south africa. paris: oecd publishing. smith, m.j., jennings, r., & solanki, g. (2005). perspectives on learnerships: a critique of south africa’s transformation of apprenticeships. journal of vocational education and training, 57(4), 537–561. https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820500200301 statssa. (2014). stats sa – youth unemployment statistics. retrieved february 16, 2016, from http://www.statssa.gov.za/?page_id=1854&ppn=p0211 ukachi, n.b. (2015). exploration of information literacy skills status and impacts on the quality of life of artisans in lagos, nigeria. new library world, 116(9/10), 578–587. https://doi.org/10.1108/nlw-01-2015-0006 van der walt, f., & de klerk, j.j. (2014). workplace spirituality and job satisfaction. international review of psychiatry, 26(3), 379–389. https://doi.org/10.3109/09540261.2014.908826 wedekind, v. (2013). rearranging the furniture? shifting discourses on skills development and apprenticeship in south africa. paper presented to international network on innovative apprenticeship at 5th conference of apprenticeship in a global world: premises, promises and pitfalls, university of the witwatersrand, johannesburg. wildschut, a., meyer, t., & akoojee, s. (2015). changing artisanal identity and status: the unfolding south african story. pretoria: human sciences research council. witte, h.d., rothmann, s., & jackson, l.t. (2012). the psychological consequences of unemployment in south africa. south african journal of economic and management studies, 3, 235–248. yu, d. (2013). youth unemployment in south africa since 2000 revisited. stellenbosch economic working paper (04/13), university of stellenbosch, stellenbosch. abstract introduction research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) kamohelo nthebe department of industrial psychology, north-west university, mafikeng campus, south africa nicolene barkhuizen office of the executive dean, north-west university, mafikeng campus, south africa nico schutte department of public administration, north-west university, south africa citation nthebe, k., barkhuizen, n., & schutte, n. (2016). rewards: a predictor of well-being and service quality of school principals in the north-west province. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a711. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.711 original research rewards: a predictor of well-being and service quality of school principals in the north-west province kamohelo nthebe, nicolene barkhuizen, nico schutte received: 03 may 2015; accepted: 03 june 2016; published: 31 aug. 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: school principals have an important role to play in the quality of service delivery in schools. evidence suggests that school principals are generally poorly compensated, which has an adverse impact on their well-being and subsequent service quality orientation. research purpose: this study investigated whether rewards are a predictor of well-being and service orientation of school principals in the north-west province. motivation for the study: effective school principals are fundamental to the success of any school, which necessitates the establishment of an effective reward and remuneration system. research design, approach and method: quantitative research was carried out among school principals (n = 155) in four districts of the north-west province. the total rewards scale, maslach’s burnout inventory – general survey, the utrecht work engagement scale and the servqual measure were administered among the principals. main findings: the results showed that rewards are a significant predictor of the well-being and service quality of school principals. the results further showed that burnout significantly reduces the service quality of school principals. no significant relationships were found between work engagement and the service quality of school principals. practical/managerial implications: an effective total rewards system enhances the well-being of school principals and, subsequently, their willingness and commitment to delivering quality services. contribution: the results of this study point out some key elements that need to be considered by the department of education to enable quality service delivery in south african schools. introduction the south african school system continues to be under intense scrutiny, criticised for failing to deliver the required services (department of basic education, 2015; south african human rights commission, 2014; taylor, mabogoane & akoobhai, 2011). van der berg, taylor, gustafsson, spaull and armstrong (2011) found that some of the shortcomings in school teaching practices are attributable to school leadership. the role of school principals in the quality of education in schools is therefore imperative (ayeni, 2012; clark, martorell & rockoff, 2009; steyn, 2013; trisno & nurdianto, 2014). the demanding role of school principals in maintaining quality education is well documented (frederici & skaalvik, 2011; newton, 2015; özer, 2013; tanjung, 2015). school principals have, among others, the task of managing pupils, handling criticism from parents, and placating frustrated teachers (boyland, 2011), while at the same time managing daily operations at a school and monitoring the school’s infrastructure (plants) (amanchukwu & ololube, 2015). furthermore, in the midst of the economic downturn and political upheaval, school principals are expected to play an important role in education reform (bas & yildirim, 2012). therefore, school principals are expected to display the principles of effective and productive leadership, and to make a meaningful contribution to society (bartlett, 2011; boyland, 2011). the south african education system may soon face the dilemma of a ‘brain drain’ of school principals if they are not managed and compensated well (maforah & schulze, 2012; reddy et al., 2010; steyn, 2013). evidence suggests that the reward system of the department of education is not attracting more capable and talented principals (arends, 2007; armstrong, 2009; south african council for educators, 2010). a study by maforah and schulze (2012) showed that poor salaries discourage talented teachers to apply for promotion to the position of school principal. this problem is further exacerbated by the fact that remuneration of principals differs in terms of the post provision model (ppm) of the school. according to this model, a school principal of a large school in terms of learners receives a higher salary than the principal of a smaller school (smit & oosthuizen, 2011). the model does not take into consideration the responsibilities or the work load of individual principals (maarman, steyn & wolhuter, 2006). in large schools, the principal is responsible for management and administration only, and has the support of a complementary school management team, whereas, in small and medium schools, the principal manages and teaches at the same time, and has very few management team members. school principals therefore have the difficult task of managing a school or classroom successfully, maintaining a healthy family life and preserving their own wellness (bas & yildirim, 2012). increasing role demands without supportive measures can lead to stress and burnout among school principals (boyland, 2011). bakker, gierveld and van rijswijk (2006) found that social support from colleagues, together with rewards in the form of career development opportunities, enhances the work engagement (the presumed antidote to burnout) of school principals. furthermore, a principal’s health and well-being, in turn, have an impact on effective and quality service delivery in schools (igwebuike, 2013). against this background, the main objective of this research was to determine whether rewards are a significant predictor of well-being (burnout versus work engagement) and service quality of school principals in the north-west province. price (2009) postulated that the manner in which people are rewarded affects the quality of their work, their attitude towards customers and their willingness to be flexible or learn new skills and suggest innovations. moreover, andreyko (2010) pointed out that the demanding nature of the position of principal results in a shrinking pool of available school leaders. eventually, teachers and school principals will look outside the department of education and beyond the borders of the country for better remuneration (steyn, 2013). this will leave a vacuum that is very difficult to fill, and will hamper effective service delivery in schools, as envisaged in the action plan 2019 towards the realisation of schooling (department of basic education, 2011). the next section of this article highlights the available literature on the relationships between rewards, well-being and service quality. flowing from literature review the research method and results are presented, followed by a discussion of the results. this article concludes with recommendations for practice and further research. literature review rewards rewards encompass all forms of financial returns and tangible services and benefits employees receive as part of an employment relationship (milkovich, newman & gerhart, 2013). these include base pay, merit pay, shortand long-term incentives, perquisites, recognition awards, and retention awards (van der westhuizen & wessels, 2011). for purposes of the present research, the term rewards represents a multidimensional construct consisting of basic salary, benefits, work-life balance, performance management and recognition, and training and development (world at work society, 2011). according to the total rewards model, compensation includes fixed or variable pay for services rendered. benefits can include a variety of programmes, such as healthcare and retirement, to provide security for employees and their families. performance management refers to the alignment between employee efforts and business goals, whereas career development opportunities can assist school principals in advancing their skills and competencies (bas & yildirim, 2012). according to chapman (2005), quality principalship cannot be maintained without a coherent, integrated and systematic approach to leadership development. researchers continue to point out the challenges relating to the career development of school principals. a study by mulkeen, chapman, dejaeghere and leu (2007) highlighted the need for organised and systematic training to enhance the professionalisation of leadership in education. a study by bartlett (2011) pointed out the lack of mentoring for school principals, concomitant with poor career development prospects. as regards compensation, a study by maforah (2010) showed that principals felt that their salaries were not aligned with their workload, and that more effective reward systems were needed. this study furthermore highlighted the poor performance management systems of the department of education, as well as policy applications that are eroding the autonomy of principals and their ability to manage effectively. well-being well-being is a concept that consists of two opposite poles: burnout and work engagement (schaufeli, 2003; schaufeli & salanova, 2007). burnout is a prolonged pathological ill-being condition (mäkikangas, kinnunen, feldt & schaufeli, 2016), whereas the concept of work engagement emerged through the positive occupational health psychology movement to denote a positive, fulfilling work-related state of mind (shimazu & schaufeli, 2009). according bakker and demerouti (2008), burnout occurs as a result of excessive striving to reach unrealistic work goals, which leads to work overload, patterns of overcommitment, and exhaustion of physical and mental resources (bakker & demerouti, 2008). a person displaying such behaviours for a prolonged period eventually becomes listless, ineffective, inefficient and unproductive (van der westhuizen & wessels, 2011). burnout consists of three dimensions, namely exhaustion, mental distance, and lack of professional efficacy (schaufeli, 2003). exhaustion refers to a feeling of being overextended and depleted of one’s emotional and physical resources (leiter & maslach, 2008). schaufeli, taris and van rhenen (2008) defined mental distance as a distant attitude towards one’s job (cynicism) or people (depersonalisation). lack of professional efficacy includes feelings of inefficiency, which are a result of a tendency to evaluate one’s work negatively (schaufeli & taris, 2005). burnout is a frequently reported phenomenon in human services professions such as education (brouwers & tomic, 2014; thomas, kohli & choi, 2014). school principals are particularly prone to emotional and physical burnout, as they have to manage an environment of which humans are the main input and output (özer, 2013). continuous intensive interpersonal relationships with problem students, complaining parents, and a criticising society, while having to take care of daily administrative functions, can result in school principals feeling exhausted, aloof, and deprecated (bas & yildirim, 2012; friedman, 2002). a study by whitehead, ryba and o’driscoll (2000) revealed high levels of emotional exhaustion among school principals. özer (2013) maintained that school principals with a weak sense of efficacy where interpersonal relations are profound are likely to feel physically worn out and experience a sense of despair. according to tomic and tomic (2008), school principals who feel a sense of inefficacy may doubt whether they should remain in their job. work engagement: according to scott and mcmullen (2010), work engagement includes a high level of employee involvement, commitment to the organisation, and job satisfaction. work engagement is a positive psychological state of mind and includes three dimensions: vigour, dedication and absorption (schaufeli & bakker, 2010). vigour is the energy dimension of work engagement and is characterised by high levels of mental resistance and persistence in carrying out difficult tasks (coetzer & rothmann, 2013). coetzee and de villiers (2010) defined dedication as the willingness of people to spend considerable time and effort on doing something meaningful. absorption is a state in which individuals are fully focused on their work and experience a high level of concentration while performing a task (bakker, schaufeli, leiter & taris, 2008). work engagement is the all-involved psychological commitment of an employee to the role he or she fulfils in the organisation, and enhances employees’ motivation to try harder and invest extra effort (nel et al., 2008). work engagement in the context of school education is characterised by a sense of connecting with student learning and identification with the school as employer (newton, 2015). engagement of school principals is therefore important, as they are then more willing to take on extra tasks that are not part of their job description, invest more effort in their jobs, share information with other employees, and remain with the organisation longer than employees who are less engaged (bakker & demerouti, 2008; scott & mcmullen, 2010). service quality service quality is an attitude towards the service offered, resulting from a comparison of expectations with perceptions (cüliberg & rosjek, 2010). the service expectations of school principals are varied and extensive. service quality in the context of student education is the ability of a school to transform students’ knowledge base, ability, wisdom and character; to prepare them academically for higher education; and also shape them personally to become responsible and contributing members of society (al-refai, al-omar, son & hamdy, 2015). school principals further have the responsibility of effectively managing their staff. a study by dworkin, saha and hill (2003) showed that principals who are non-authoritarian, supportive and collegial reduce the incidences of burnout among their staff members, which, in turn, facilitates effective service delivery. amanchukwu and ololube (2015) highlighted the importance of school principals managing and monitoring school plants such as buildings, equipment and essential structures for effective teaching and learning. for purposes of the present research, we used the five-factor servqual model of parasuraman, zeithaml and berry (1988) to assess school principals’ service quality orientation. according to this model, service quality consists of five dimensions: reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles (sharabi, 2013). reliability refers to the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately. responsiveness includes the willingness to assist customers and to provide prompt service. assurance refers to the knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence. empathy refers to how a company cares and gives individualised attention to their customers, making the customers feel valued and special. tangibles refers to the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communication materials. mosahab, mahamad and ramayah (2010) found that schools lacked quality service in the areas of responsiveness and tangibles. the importance of school principals in the total quality management of schools cannot be underestimated (al-refai et al., 2015; cheng & yau, 2011). reciprocity between rewards, well-being, and service quality rewards and burnout: the relationship between rewards and burnout is well documented. according to leiter and maslach (2008), insufficient rewards (whether financial, institutional or social) increase people’s vulnerability to burnout. this implies that, if a reward is insufficient, it may lead to exhaustion, which will create a callous or excessively detached response to various aspects of the job. a study by jackson and rothmann (2006) showed that poor pay and benefits increase incidences of burnout among teachers. coetzee and de villiers (2010) further found that burnout in conjunction with poor remuneration result in lower levels of absorption and subsequent lower commitment to an organisation. tomic and tomic (2008) alluded to a study of sari (2004), who found that lack of rewards and recognition, among other factors, is a source of burnout among school principals. boyland (2011) found that opportunities for professional development and improved performance evaluation processes may reduce incidences of stress and related illnesses among school principals: hypothesis 1: rewards would be negatively related to burnout. burnout and service quality: the competitive nature of schools, concomitant with increased accountability and responsibilities, is resulting in significant physical and emotional costs for school principals (andreyko, 2010). ashtari, farhady and khodaee (2009) found that high levels of exhaustion and depersonalisation result in an inability to perform. a study by abdullah and yuen (2011) found that high levels of exhaustion result in poor performance among employees in human service organisations. humborstad, humborstad and whitfield (2008) found that burnout reduces a service individual’s willingness to deliver quality service. a study by igwebuike (2013) showed that a principal’s health and well-being have a positive influence on educational service delivery. omanukwue (2013) furthermore found that burnout leads to school principals disengaging from their work tasks, as they find the tasks uninteresting and no longer challenging: hypothesis 2: burnout would be negatively related to service quality. rewards and service quality: according to armstrong (2012), reward makes a positive impact on performance when it contributes to the development of a high-performance culture. this signifies that, if school principals are rewarded well, their performance will increase, and they will provide a high quality service. according to sigh (2007), incentives motivate employees to put forth their best efforts, and the average productivity level of labour increases. reward systems inspire staff to provide their best attempts in performing assigned tasks (gohari, kamkar, hosseinipour & zohori, 2013). demerouti, bakker and leiter (2014) found that employees who compensate themselves in terms of career development opportunities are less likely to experience burnout, and are able to perform better on the job. several studies have shown that both financial and non-financial rewards (i.e. salary, bonus, incentives, allowances and fringe benefits) show a strong relationship with job performance (ashraf, bandiera & jack, 2014; osibanjo, adeniji, falola & heirsmac, 2014). a study by (billger, 2007) showed that the low pay of school principals was related to poor accountability and, subsequently, poor matric pass rates: hypothesis 3: rewards would be positively related to service quality. rewards and work engagement: jacobs, renard and snelgar (2014) found that intrinsic rewards, such as meaningfulness, choice, competence and progress, resulted in higher levels of work engagement of employees in the south african retail industry. likewise, abdelhadi and drach-zahavy (2012) found that financial rewards significantly enhance the work engagement of employees. bakker et al. (2006) found that development opportunities enhance the work engagement of school principals. bakker et al. (2008) found that performance feedback is the best predictor of work engagement. bakker, hakanen, demerouti and xhantopoulou (2007) found that job resources, such as appreciation, act as a buffer between pupils’ misbehaviour and teachers’ work engagement. effort-reward imbalances can have a negative impact on work engagement (inoue et al., 2014; kinnunen, feldt & makikangas, 2008). therefore, satisfaction with both financial and non-financial rewards is crucial in enhancing the work engagement of employees (malik, 2013): hypothesis 4: rewards would be positively related to work engagement. work engagement and service quality: according to newton (2015), organisational science research on employee engagement follows a general trend of exploring human capital as a means for organisations to meet their goals. a study by salanova et al. (2005) showed that organisational resources and work engagement enhance service climate, which, in turn, has a positive spillover effect on employee performance and customer loyalty. barkhuizen, mogwere and schutte (2014) found that the work engagement of support staff in an academic institution enhances their service quality orientation. in essence, the long-term outcomes of work engagement include better quality products and services and more satisfied and loyal customers (bakker & demerouti, 2008). koch, binnewies and dormann (2015) found that the work engagement of school principals is a motivational catalyst for enhanced innovation and creativity of school teachers. furthermore, tanjung (2015) found that the work engagement of school leadership also enhances the professionalism of school teachers: hypothesis 5: work engagement would be positively related to service quality. research design research approach a quantitative, cross-sectional research design was followed in the present study. cross-sectional research occurs when data are collected from the research participants at a single point in time or during a single, relatively brief time period (johnson & christensen, 2008). cross-sectional research is ideally suited to testing for correlations between variables (field, 2009). measures sampling public school principals in four districts of the north-west province were identified as the unit of analysis for this study. of the 300 questionnaires that were distributed, only 155 (n = 155) were received and analysed, which gave a total response of 51.7%. most of the respondents in this research were female (65.8%), aged between 30 and 39 years (43.2%), and representative of the black ethnic group (43.2%). most of the respondents (76.1%) had worked for their current school for more than 16 years, and worked more than 40 hours per week (67.7%). measuring instruments the total rewards scale (moore & bussin, 2011) was used to measure the rewards practices for school principals. the questionnaire consists of 17 statements that measure five components (i.e. pay, benefits, performance management, work-life balance and career development) of the world at work model for total rewards in organisations. responses are measured on a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 (not important at all) to 5 (extremely important). moore and bussin (2011) found an overall reliability of 0.821 for the measurement. the maslach burnout inventory – general survey (mbi-gs) of schaufeli, leiter, maslach and jackson (1996) was used to measure the exhaustion, cynicism and professional efficacy dimensions of burnout. the depersonalisation dimension of the maslach burnout inventory educator survey (mbi-es) was also included in the questionnaire. responses to 21 items were given on a six-point scale varying from 0 (never occurs) to 6 (occurs every day). the questionnaire was validated in the south african context (rothmann & barkhuizen, 2008), with cronbach alphas ranging from 0.81 to 0.87 for the three dimensions of burnout. the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) (schaufeli & bakker, 2003) was used to measure work engagement. the uwes consists of 11 items, and measures three dimensions, namely vigour, dedication and absorption. responses are provided on a six-point scale varying from 0 (never occurs) to 6 (occurs every day). the questionnaire has been validated in the south african context (barkhuizen & rothmann, 2006; bell & barkhuizen, 2011), with cronbach alphas ranging from 0.78 to 0.85 for the three dimensions of work engagement. the researchers adapted the servqual scale (parasuraman et al., 1998) to measure five dimensions of the respondents’ orientation towards delivering quality service: reliability, tangibles, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. responses were measured on a six-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). the questionnaire has been validated in the south african context (barkhuizen et al., 2014). research procedure permission was obtained from the head of the department of education of the north-west province to use the school principals within his jurisdiction as participants. the surveys were distributed in hard copy format to the participants. ethical clearance was obtained prior to the execution of the study. the confidentiality of the participants was ensured, as the researcher did not request or record the respondents’ identity. data analysis statistical analysis was carried out using the spss program (spss inc., 2015). the reliability and validity of the measuring instruments were determined by means of cronbach alpha coefficients, as well as exploratory factor analysis. linear regression analyses were applied to test for the significance of predictive relationships between the variables (see field, 2009). results prior to the testing of the hypotheses, the measurements were subjected to a kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) test of sample adequacy and sphericity for factor analyses. the measurements obtained the following kmo measure results: total rewards questionnaire – 0.823, mbi-gs – 0.847, uwes – 0.893 and servqual – 0.809. the results verified that all the measurements were factorable (hair, anderson, tatham & black, 2010). a subsequent confirmatory factor analysis was performed on the four measurements. confirmatory factors analysis appeared to be the obvious choice, as these measurements have been standardised in the south african context. however, because of poor model fit, the researchers decided to use exploratory factor analysis to uncover the factor structure for the measurements for this sample. factor analysis was deemed necessary, as it was the first time that these measurements were applied to a sample of school principals in south africa. the results of the factor analysis are reported next. total rewards scale an exploratory factor analysis, using principal component analysis, was performed on the 17 items of this measurement. the initial analysis showed that four factors could be distinguished, based on the eigenvalues. however, closer inspection of the scree plots showed that three factors could be distinguished. exploratory factor analysis, using sphericity rotation, was performed, specifying three factors. the factors were labelled performance management (factor 1), benefits (factor 2) and career development (factor 3); these explained 56.772% of the variance. five items were deleted because of problematic loadings. mbi-gs an exploratory factor analysis, using the principle component factoring extraction method, was performed on the 21 items of the mbi-gs. the factor analysis resulted in three underlying factors. an exploratory factor analysis, using varimax rotation, was conducted on the mbi-gs, specifying three factors. two items were deleted because of problematic loadings. the factors were labelled exhaustion (factor 1), professional efficacy (factor 2) and mental distance (factor 3). the three factors explained 50.892% of the variance. uwes an exploratory factor analysis, using the principle component factoring extraction method, was performed on the 17 items of the uwes. the items of the absorption scale showed problematic loadings, and were omitted from further analyses. the research therefore only used the vigour and dedication scales of the uwes in the analysis. a subsequent factor analysis was done on the 11 items of the uwes. the factor analysis resulted in one underlying factor, which was labelled work engagement. one item was deleted because of a problematic loading. the factor explained 46.312% of the variance. servqual an exploratory factor analysis, using the principle component factoring extraction method, was performed on the 22 items of the servqual measurement. the items of the tangibles scale showed problematic loadings, and were omitted from further analyses. a subsequent factor analysis was done on the 18 items of the measurement. the factor analysis resulted in three underlying factors, which were labelled empathy (factor 1), assurance (factor 2) and responsiveness (factor 3). the three factors explained 49.893% of the variance. two items were deleted because of problematic loadings. the descriptive statistics of the measurements are reported in table 1. table 1: descriptive statistics of the measurements. the results in table 1 show acceptable to excellent reliabilities for all the scales of the measurements, except for the career development scale of the total rewards questionnaire (see field, 2009). this scale was omitted from further analyses. the results showed that, on average, the respondents viewed rewards as important. the results further showed that the respondents showed a low level of professional efficacy and average levels of exhaustion and mental distance. the respondents further indicated average levels of work engagement and a high orientation towards quality service delivery relating to empathy, assurance and responsiveness. the next section reports the results in terms of the hypotheses. linear regression analysis was applied to test for predictive relationships between the variables. the results of the interactive relationship between rewards and burnout are reported in table 2. table 2: regression analyses of rewards and burnout. the results in table 2 show that performance management is a significant negative predictor of the mental distance dimension of burnout: f (1155) = 4.646 and accounted for approximately 17.2% of the variance of mental distance (r2 = 0.029, adjusted r2 = 0.023). the effect was small. benefits is a significant positive predictor of professional efficacy: f (1155) = 8.920 and accounted for approximately 23.5% of the variance of professional efficacy (r2 = 0.055, adjusted r2 = 0.049). the effect was small. based on the above results, hypothesis 1, that there is a significant negative relationship between rewards and burnout, is partially accepted. the results of the regression analysis of the relationship between burnout and service quality are reported in table 3. table 3: regression analyses of rewards and service quality orientation. the results in table 3 show that professional efficacy is a significant positive predictor of the reliability dimension of service orientation: f (1154) = 5.015 and accounted for approximately 17.8% of the variance of reliability (r2 = 0.032, adjusted r2 = 0.025). the effect was small. the results furthermore showed that mental distance is a significant positive predictor of the assurance dimension of service orientation, and accounted for approximately 16.8% of the variance of reliability (r2 = 0.028, adjusted r2 = 0.022). the effect was small. based on the above results, hypothesis 2, that there is a significant negative relationship between burnout and service quality orientation, is partially accepted. the results of the regression analysis of the relationship between rewards and service quality orientation are reported in table 4. table 4: regression analyses of burnout and service quality orientation. the results in table 4 show that performance management is a significant positive predictor of the reliability dimension of service orientation: f (1154) = 7.402 and accounted for approximately 21.5% of the variance of reliability (r2 = 0.046, adjusted r2 = 0.040). the effect was small. the results furthermore showed that benefits is a significant positive predictor of the assurance dimension of service orientation, and accounted for approximately 18.8% of the variance of reliability (r2 = 0.035, adjusted r2 = 0.029). the effect was small. based on the above results, hypothesis 3, that rewards are significantly positively related to service quality, is partially accepted. the results of the regression analysis of the relationship between rewards and work engagement are reported in table 5. table 5: regression analyses of rewards and work engagement. the results in table 5 show that performance management is a significant positive predictor of work engagement: f (1154) = 3.925 and accounted for approximately 15.8% of the variance of mental distance (r2 = 0.025, adjusted r2 = 0.019). the effect was small. based on the above results, hypothesis 4, that rewards are significant positively related to the work engagement, is partially accepted. the results of the regression analysis of the relationship between work engagement and service quality orientation are reported in table 6. table 6: regression analyses of work engagement and service quality. the results in table 6 show no significant relationship between work engagement and service quality. based on the above results, hypothesis 5, that work engagement is positively related to service quality is rejected. discussion the main objective of this research was to determine whether rewards are a significant predictor of well-being (i.e. burnout versus work engagement) and service quality of school principals. we hypothesised that the availability of rewards enhances the well-being of school principals, which, in turn, has a positive effect on the quality of their service delivery. the results showed that the availability of performance management systems decreases the mental distance of school principals. in line with the findings of boyland (2011), these results suggest that adequate performance evaluation systems may reduce incidences of stress-related illnesses such as burnout. as a result, we would expect school principals to display less callous attitudes towards their job and the individuals (i.e. school pupils, teachers and parents) who are the recipients of their service (schaufeli et al., 2008). the results further show that the availability of benefits enhances the professional efficacy of school principals. a school system that provides adequate benefits will therefore enhance school principals’ self-belief that they are capable of performing well in their job (bas & yildirim, 2012). the results of this study confirmed that professional efficacy enhances reliable service delivery of school principals. school principals who have a strong professional self-belief will therefore be able to manage and maintain school plants and culture, so that services can be delivered in an accurate and timely manner to school pupils and the broader community (amanchukwu & ololube, 2015). the mental distance of school principals in this study was found to be positively related to the assurance dimension of service quality. the results can be explained by the fact that the school principals displayed average levels of mental distance, indicating that they are not experiencing a strong detachment from the people that are working with or their work tasks. as a result, these school principals might build effective interpersonal and trusting relationships with teaching staff, school pupils, and parents (nel et al., 2008), while walking the extra mile to do meaningful work (scott & mcmullen, 2010). in line with previous research, the results of this study also showed that the quality of service delivery of school principals is dependent on an effective rewards system (ashraf et al., 2014; demerouti et al., 2014). the availability of a performance management and subsequent acknowledgement system will increase the accurate and reliable service delivery of school principals (billger, 2007). the availability of benefits enhanced the assurance dimension of service quality of school principals, which enables them to instil confidence and trust in teachers to deliver quality services through innovation and creativity (koch et al., 2015). performance management was also found to be positively related to work engagement. this implies that job resources in the form of performance feedback and appreciation will increase the work engagement of school principals (bakker et al., 2007, 2008). in contrast with previous research, work engagement was not found to be significantly related to the quality of service of school principals (bakker & demerouti, 2008; salanova et al., 2005). practical implications school principals play an important role in the quality service delivery of schools. the results of this study highlighted the importance of an adequate school reward system that includes adequate performance management systems, performance evaluation, and performance feedback. as shown by the results, performance management plays an important role in decreasing job burnout, and enhances work engagement and subsequent service quality. furthermore, the availability of benefits was found to increase school principals’ sense of professional self-efficacy, which, in turn, enhances reliable service delivery and quality. performance management, in conjunction with benefits, is therefore imperative for the effective functioning of school principals. limitations the study had some limitations. firstly, a cross-sectional research design was used, which limited the research in terms of making cause-and-effect inferences over the long term. the study used self-assessment as the method of data collection. this means that the results are based on the perceptions of the participants. only questionnaires were used to collect the data; other methods such as observation and interviewing could have been used to obtain another perspective. recommendations this study has implications for future research. larger studies using longitudinal data representing all the principals in the country are needed to provide additional evidence in support of our main findings. it should be noted that the study findings can be relevant to all levels of management, from lineand middleto top-management, in various sectors of government. from a methodological point of view, the items of the servqual measure should be revisited to present an accurate reflection of the five dimensions of service quality. the analyses of the servqual measure in this study resulted in various cross-loadings, rendering factors such as tangibles and empathy unusable. furthermore, the items of the total rewards questionnaire should be expanded to give a more accurate reflection of the five dimensions of the total rewards model that formed the foundation of this research. conclusion in conclusion, schools need effective principals to succeed and deliver quality services. it is vital that the department of education look after school principals, to curb the brain drain. researchers have revealed that many organisations, particularly in the public sector, fail to address the needs of their employees, which causes them to be victims of burnout and eventually quit. it is quite evident that many educators, including principals, quit because of poor remuneration, which has led to a shortage of skilled personnel in schools. it is of paramount importance that schools look closely at the impact of reward on the well-being of school principals and their service quality. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions this article is based on the masters research of k.n., of which n.b. and n.s. were the research supervisors. n.b. wrote the article and k.n. and n.s. provided editorial inputs. references abdelhadi, n., & drach-zahavy, a. (2012). promoting patient care: work engagement as a mediator between ward service climate and patient-centred care. journal of advanced nursing, 68, 1276–1287. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2011.05834.x abdullah, d.n.m.a., & yuen, f.c. (2011). the impact of job burnout towards job performance among nurses. in proceedings of the ieee symposium on business, engineering and industrial applications, langkawi, malaysia, pp. 351–356; 25–28 september institute of electrical and electronics engineers, piscataway, new jersey, nj: united states of america. al-refai, a.i., al-omar, h.o., son, m.s., & hamdy, h.i. (2015). managing service quality of high school delivery: evidence from kuwait. international journal of education, 7, 67–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.5296/ije.v7i2.5803 amanchukwu, r.n., & ololube, n.p. (2015). managing school plants for effective service delivery in public schools in river state of nigeria. human resource management research, 5, 95–102. andreyko, t.a. (2010). principal leadership in the accountability era: influence of expanding job responsibilities on functional work performance, stress management, and overall job satisfaction. unpublished doctoral dissertation, graduate faculty of the school of education, university of pittsburgh, pittsburgh, pa: united states of america. arends, f. (2007). the employment status of educators. paper presented at the teacher development and institutional change in an evolving education context, johannesburg, south africa, 28–29 may. armstrong, a. (2009). teacher pay in south africa: how attractive is the teaching profession? stellenbosch economic working papers. stellenbosch university, south africa. armstrong, m. (2012). armstrong’s hand book of human resource management practice. (12th edn.). london: kogan page. ashraf, n., bandiera, o., & jack, b.k. (2014). no margin, no mission? a field experiment on incentives for the public service industry. journal of public economics, 120, 1–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2014.06.014 ashtari, z., farhady, y., & khodaee, m.r. (2009). relationship between job burnout and work performance in a sample of iranian mental health staff. african journal of psychology, 12, 71–74. ayeni, a.j. (2012). assessment of school principals’ supervisory roles for quality assurance in secondary schools in ondo state, nigeria. world journal of education, 2, 62–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.5430/wje.v2n1p62 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2008). towards a model of work engagement. career development international, 13, 209–223. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430810870476 bakker, a.b., gierveld, j.h., & rijkswijk, k. (2006). successfactoren bij vrouwelijke schoolleiders in het primair onderwijs: een onderzoek na burnout, bevlogenheid en prestaties [success factors among female school principals in primary teaching: a study on burnout, work engagement and performance]. diemen, the netherlands: right management consultants. bakker, a.b., hakanen, j.j., demerouti, e., & xanthopoulou, d. (2007). job resources boost work engagement, particularly when job demands are high. journal of educational psychology, 99, 274–284. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.99.2.274 bakker, a.b., schaufeli, w.b., leiter, m.p., & taris t.w. (2008). work engagement: an emerging concept in occupational psychology. work & stress, 22, 187–200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02678370802393649 barkhuizen, e.n., mogwere, p., & schutte, n.e. (2014). talent management, work engagement and service quality orientation of support staff in a higher education institution. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5, 69–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n4p69 barkhuizen, e.n., & rothmann, s. (2006). work engagement of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. management dynamics, 15, 38–48. bartlett, c. (2011). principal succession: trends and impacts. unpublished doctoral thesis, faculty of college and education, university of houston, austin, texas: tx, united states of america. bas, g., & yildirim, a. (2012). an analysis of burnout of turkish elementary school principals. journal of educational and instructional studies in the world, 2, 62–73. bell, e., & barkhuizen, e.n. (2011). the relationship between barriers to change and work engagement of employees in a south african property management company. south african journal of industrial psychology, 37, 1–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i1.935 billger, s.m. (2007). principals as agents? investigating accountability in the compensation and performance of school principals. bonn, germany: institute for the study of labour. boyland, l. (2011). job stress and coping strategies of elementary principals: a statewide study. current issues in education, 14, 1–11. brouwers, a., & tomic, w. (2014). a longitudinal study of relationships between three burnout dimensions among secondary school teachers. sensoria: a journal of mind, brain & culture, 10, 23–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.7790/sa.v10i2.409 chapman, j.d. (2005). recruitment, retention and development of school principals. brussels, belgium: international academy of education. cheng, a.l.f., & yau, h.k. (2011). principals’ and teachers’ perceptions of quality management in hong kong primary schools. quality assurance in education, 19, 170–186. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09684881111125069 clark, d., martorell, p., & rockoff, j. (2009). school principals and school performance. washington, dc: calder, the urban institute. coetzee, m., & de villiers, m. (2010). sources of job stress, work engagement and career orientations of employees in a south african financial institution. south african business review, 14, 27–43. coetzer, c.f., & rothmann, s. (2013). job demands, job resources and work engagement of employees in a manufacturing organization. south african business review, 11, 17–32. cüliberg, b., & rosjek, i. (2010). identifying service quality dimensions as antecedents to customer satisfaction in retail banking. economic & business review, 12, 151–166. demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., & leiter, m. (2014). burnout and job performance: the moderating role of selection, optimisation, and compensation strategies. journal of occupational health psychology, 19, 96–107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0035062 department of basic education. (2011). action plan to 2014: towards the realisation of schooling 2025. pretoria, south africa: department of basic education. department of basic education. (2015). education statistics in south africa 2013. pretoria, south africa: department of basic education. dworkin, a.g., saha, l.j., & hill, a.n. (2003). teacher burnout and perceptions of a democratic school environment. international education journal, 4, 108–120. field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss. (3rd edn.). london: sage publications. frederici, r.a., & skaalvik, e.m. (2011). principal self-efficacy and work engagement: assessing a norwegian principal self-efficacy scale. social psychology education, 14, 575–600. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11218-011-9160-4 friedman, i.a. (2002). burnout in school principals: role related antecedents. social psychology of education, 5, 229–251. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1016321210858 gohari, p., kamkar, a., hosseinipour, s.j., & zohori, m. (2013). relationship between rewards and employee performance: a mediating role of job satisfaction. interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, 5, 571–597. hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., & anderson, r.e. (2010). multivariate data analysis: a global perspective. (7th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson education. humborstad, s.i.w., humborstad, b., & whitfield, r. (2008). burnout and service employees’ willingness to deliver quality service. journal of human resources in hospitality and tourism, 7, 45–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/j171v07n01_03 igwebuike, f.k. (2013). the school principals’ health and wellness status for quality education service delivery in enugu state. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 4, 67–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n12p67 inoue, a., kawakami, n., tsutsumi, a., shimazu, a., miyaki, k., takahashi, m., et al., (2014). association of job demands with work engagement of japanese employees: comparison of challenges with hindrances. plos one, 9, 1–8. jackson, l., & rothmann, s. (2006). occupational stress, organizational commitment and ill health of educators in the north-west province. south african journal of education, 26, 75–95. jacobs, s., renard, m., & snelgar, r.j. (2014). intrinsic rewards and work engagement in the south african retail industry. sa journal of industrial psychology, 40, 1–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i2.1195 johnson, l.t.b., & christensen, l. (2008). educational research: quantitative & qualitative and mixed approaches. (3rd edn.). london: sage publications. kinnunen, u., feldt, t., & makikangas, a. (2008). testing the effort-reward imbalance model among finish managers: the role of perceived organizational support. journal of occupational health psychology, 13, 114–127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.13.2.114 koch, a.r., binnewies, c., & dormann, c. (2015). motivating innovation at schools: school principals’ work engagement as a motivator for school’s innovation. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 24, 505–517. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2014.958471 leiter, m.p., & maslach, c. (2008). early predictors of job burnout and engagement. journal of applied psychology, 93, 493–512. maarman, r., steyn, e., & wolhuter, c. (2006). optimal demographic information for policy development in the south african education system. south african journal of education, 16, 295–304. maforah, t.p. (2010). the job satisfaction of principals of previously disadvantaged schools in the north-west province. unpublished doctoral thesis, school of education, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. maforah, t.p., & schulze, s. (2012). the job satisfaction of principals of previously disadvantaged schools: new light on an old issue. south african journal of education, 32, 227–239. mäkikangas, a., kinnunen, u., feldt, t., & schaufeli, w.b. (2016). the longitudinal development of employee well-being: a systematic review. work & stress, 31, 331–345. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2015.1126870 malik, t. (2013). positive effects of opinion-count on job satisfaction of team members in business enterprises. journal of communication management, 17, 56–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13632541311300151 milkovich, g.t., newman, j.m., & gerhart, b. (2013). compensation. (11th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill international edition. moore, a., & bussin, m. (2011). reward preferences for generations in selected information and communication technology companies. sa journal of human resource management, 10, 1–9. mosahab, r., mahamad, t., & ramayah, r. (2010). service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty: a test of mediation. international business research, 3, 72–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v3n4p72 mulkeen, a., chapman, d.w., dejaeghere, j.g., & leu, e. (2007). recruiting, retaining, and retraining secondary school teachers and principals in sub-saharan africa. washington, dc: african region human development department, the world bank. nel, p.s., werner, a., haasbroek, g.d., poisat, p., sono, t., & schulz, h.b. (2008). human resource management. (7th edn.). cape town: oxford university press. newton, p. (2015). employee engagement in saskatchewan school divisions: literature review, conceptualisation and policy analyses. college of education, university of saskatchewan, saskatoon, sk: canada. omanukwue, p.n. (2013). factors that influence job engagement among heads of departments at secondary schools in eldorado park. unpublished master’s dissertation, department of management, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa. osibanjo, o.a., adeniji, a.a., falola, h., & heirsmac, p.t. (2014). compensation packages: a strategic tool for employee’s performance and retention. leonardo journal of social sciences, 25, 65–84. özer, n. (2013). investigation of primary school principals’ sense of self-efficacy and burnout. middle-east journal of scientific research, 15, 682–691. parasuraman, a., zeithaml, v.a., & berry, l.l. (1988). servqual: a multi-item scale for measuring customer perceptions of service quality. journal of retailing, 64, 12–42. price, j.k. (2009). the role of tenure as a moderator to work engagement and job satisfaction. unpublished master’s dissertation, san jose state university, washington, san jose: ca: united stated of america. reddy, v., prinsloo, c.h., netshitangani, t., moletsane, r., juan, a., & van rensburg, d.j. (2010). an investigation into educator leave in the south african ordinary public schooling system. commissioned by unicef for the department of education, pretoria, south africa. rothmann, s., & barkhuizen, n. (2008). burnout of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. south african journal of higher education, 22(2), 439–456. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v22i2.25796 salanova, m., llorens, s., garcia, m., bürriel, r., bresó, e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2005). towards a four-dimensional model of burnout: a multi-group factor-analytic study including depersonalisation and cynicism. educational and psychological measurement, 65, 901–913. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013164405275662 sari, h. (2004). an analysis of burnout and job satisfaction among turkish special school head teachers and teachers, and the factors affecting their burnout and job satisfaction. educational studies, 30, 291–306. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0305569042000224233 schaufeli, w.b. (2003). past performance and future perspectives of burnout research. sa journal of industrial psychology, 29, 1–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v29i4.127 schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2003). uwes – utrecht work engagement scale: test manual. utrecht, the netherlands: department of psychology, utrecht university. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2010). defining and measuring work engagement: bringing clarity to the concept. in a.b. bakker & m.p. leiter (eds.), work engagement: a handbook of essential theory and research (pp. 10–24). new york: psychology press. schaufeli, w.b., leiter, m.p., maslach, c., & jackson, s.e. (1996). maslach burnout inventory – general survey. in c. maslach, s.e. jackson, & m.p. leiter (eds.), the maslach burnout inventory – test manual. (3rd edn. pp. 19–26). palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. schaufeli, w.b., & salanova, m. (2007). efficacy or inefficacy, that’s the question: burnout and work engagement, and their relationships with efficacy beliefs. anxiety, stress & coping, 20, 177–196. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10615800701217878 schaufeli, w.b., & taris, t.w. (2005). commentary. the conceptualisation and measurement of burnout: common grounds and work apart. work & stress, 19, 356–362. schaufeli, w.b., taris, t.w., & van rhenen, w. (2008). workaholism, burnout, and work engagement: three of a kind or three different kinds of employee well-being? applied psychology: an international review, 75, 173–203. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2007.00285.x scott, d., & mcmullen, t. (2010). the impact of rewards program on employee engagement. scottsdale, az: worldatwork – the total rewards association. sharabi, m. (2013). managing and improving service quality in higher education. international journal of quality and service sciences, 5, 309–320. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijqss-03-2013-0016 shimazu, a., & schaufeli, w.b. (2009). towards a positive occupational health psychology: the case of work engagement. japanese journal of stress science, 24, 181–187. sigh, b.d. (2007). compensation and reward management. new delhi, excel books. smit, m.h., & oosthuizen, i.j. (2011). improving school governance through participative democracy and the law. south african journal of education, 31, 55–73. south african council for educators. (2010). a review of teacher demand and supply: identifying research gaps and the role of sace. pretoria: south african council for educators. south african human rights commission. (2014). report: delivery of primary learning materials to schools. south african human rights commission, braamfontein, johannesburg. spss inc. (2015). spss 23 for windows. chicago, il: spss inc. steyn, t. (2013). professional and organisational socialisation during leadership succession of a school principal: a narrative inquiry using visual ethnography. south african journal of education, 33, 1–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.15700/saje.v33n2a702 tanjung, b.n. (2015). the effect of principal leadership, compensation and work motivation on teacher professionalism at private high schools in medan. journal of humanities and social science, 20, 53–57. taylor, n., mabogoane, t., & akoobhai, b. (2011). service delivery report office of the presidency: the school sector. johannesburg, south africa: jet education sector. thomas, m., kohli, v., & choi, j. (2014). correlates of job burnout among human services workers: implications for workforce retention. journal of sociology and social welfare, 41, 69–90. tomic, w., & tomic, e.n. (2008). existential fulfilment and burnout among principals and teachers. journal of beliefs & values, 29, 11–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13617670801928191 trisno, b., & nurdianto, d. (2014). the key factors affecting internal quality education services in secondary vocational schools. in conference proceedings of the 3rd upi international conference on technical and vocational education and training, pp, 15–17, 13–14 november, bandung, indonesia, curran associates. inc, red hook, ny: united states of america. van der berg, s., taylor, s., gustafsson, m., spaull, n., & armstrong, p. (2011). improving education quality in south africa. report for national planning commission. department of economics, university of stellenbosch, stellenbosch, south africa. van der westhuizen, e., & wessels, j. (2011). south african human resource management for the public sector. (2nd edn.). cape town: juta & company ltd. whitehead, a., ryba, k., & o’driscoll, m. (2000). burnout among new zealand primary school teachers. new zealand journal of psychology, 29, 52–60. world at work model. (2011). total reward model. washington, dc: world-wide headquarters, world at work. retrieved april 13, 2014, from http://www.worldatwork.org/home/htlm/home/jsp2010 8whitford.qxd it has been argued that, from all the areas of human resource management, performance management has the greatest impact on organisational performance (stiles, 1999). however, despite the growing body of research that supports the positive impact that effective performance management can have on the organisation’s bottom-line, evidence suggests that organisations in south africa and elsewhere are not utilising the practices that are advocated by the theory of best practice in people and performance management (kock, roodt & veldsman, 2002). performance management has developed under the assumptions of bureaucracy, that is inappropriate to the fast-changing environments often found in the world of work today (stiles, 1999). bartlett and goshal (2002) argue that hrm should focus on building processes that form part of the design, development and delivery of an organisation’s strategy. they have, however, noted that although organisations realise that people are a key source of sustainable competitive advantage, minimal managerial attention has been given to employee development, motivation, and commitment. williams (2002) also found that, in most cases, performance management still rested on the traditional methods of objective-setting and performance appraisal, supplemented occasionally by personal development plans. human resource managers are therefore still stuck in old paradigms, using antiquated tools and are trying to bring about major change with incremental solutions (bartlett & goshal, 2002). it thus seems that a revolution in performance management is required. value of performance management most organisations recognise the value of performance management in improving both individual and organisational performance (decenzo & robbins, 2002; de waal, 2002; engelman & roesh, 1997). organisational case studies also provide anecdotal evidence that an integrated performance management system is the key driver to their success (brown & armstrong, 1999; de waal, 2002; gratton, 2000; winslow & bramer, 1994). dave packard, for instance, stated that no other operational system had contributed more to hr’s success than performance management (gratton, 2000). improvements in financial indicators such as stock price, book value, earning per share and return on investment have been found to be significantly greater in those organisations with performance management systems than those without (hellriegel, jackson & slocum, 1999; mcdonald & smith, 1995; zwell, 2000). effective performance management can also contribute to the personal development and growth of the employee. as organisations encourage employees to use their talents and skills in the workplace, employees develop a toolkit of portable skills that make them more marketable and that contributes to their feeling of self-worth (heil, bennis & stephens, 2000). conversely, the cost of poor performance has been found to have a large financial impact on organisations around the world. a survey of seven nations found that the annual cost of managing poor performance was great, ranging from $1.29 billion (or 0.6% of gdp) in sweden to $105 billion (or 2.3% of gdp) in the united states (future foundation, 2004). failure to implement effective performance management could result in lower employee morale, motivation and commitment to work (armstrong, 2000; schwartz, 1999). in addition, employees could be unsure of the objectives of their work and of their performance in reaching those objectives (heil, bennis & stephens, 2000). there is a high probability in these circumstances that the organisation could fail to leverage the potential of its human capital in the best possible manner. in this way, organisations could lose their competitive edge and overall organisational performance could potentially be diminished. as south africa is now an international player, organisations will need to utilise performance management effectively in order to build sustainable competitive advantage through the performance of their people. current status of performance management literature, however, suggests that south african organisations in particular often fail to follow best practice in performance management and are still struggling to implement performance management effectively (le roux, 1995; rademan & vos, 2001; spangenberg & theron, 2001). some of the more common problems experienced by south african organisations, as well as international organisations, are summarised in table 1. cm whitford wj coetsee jc@rau.ac.za department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract the objective of this study was to develop a model that assists organisations in implementing performance management effectively. a model describing the philosophical paradigm underpinning best practice in performance management and the criteria for effective implementation of performance management was developed. the sample used in this study was a convenience sample of 615 employees. exploratory factor analysis revealed three reliable philosophical dimensions. moderate correlations were found between the three dimensions and some of the implementation criteria. key words effective performance management, underlying philosophy a model of the underlying philosophy and criteria for effective implementation of performance management 63 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (1), 63-73 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (1), 63-73 whitford, coetsee64 table 1 currents issues facing organisations in performance management 1 hr is still perceived to own the process, and not line management, as best practice advocates (hodges & pantony, 2003; parker, 2003) 2 lack of empowerment of line management and employees in performance management (armstrong, 2000; gratton, hope-hailey, stiles & truss, 1999; lennon, kim, o’reilly, molloy & johnson, 1998). 3 short-term focus on hard targets often results in little managerial commitment to the design and implementation of performance management (deloitte & touche, 2001; furlonger, 2002; mcgovern, 1999). 4 struggle to align performance management with the strategy and goals of the organisation (hodges & pantony, 2003; le roux, 1995; rademan and vos, 2002) 5 organisations often experience difficulties in linking reward, remuneration and promotion decisions to performance (griffith & orgera, 1997; hodges and pantony’ 2003; the corporate leadership corporation, 2003) 6 the results from performance management are sometimes found to be questionable in terms of reliability in measurement (decenzo & robbins, 2002; hellriegel, jackson & slocum, 1999; muchinsky, 2000; rademan & vos, 2001; spector, 2003) and consistency of application (mcgovern, 1999). 7 performance management systems tend to be evaluative rather than developmental (heil, bennis & stephens, 2000; hodges & pantony, 2003; rademan & vos, 2001; weiss & hartle, 1997; williams, 2002; zwell, 2000) 8 focused on historical performance data rather than directing future behaviour (de waal, 2002; williams, 2002). from the table, it is clear that a need exists to determine where the problems in practice lie within various organisations so that a framework can be developed to assist organisations to better leverage the potential of their people. a case study organisation a large life insurance organisation in south africa was found to be a highly suitable case study of the issues facing organisations when implementing performance management. the organisation, which employs approximately 1300 full-time staff, is currently attempting to move from a traditional performance appraisal process to performance management. the appraisal process was found to be a paper-intensive, bureaucratic process that resulted in a punitive culture. in addition, the company found that although their staff members’ performance was mostly evaluated as average during the appraisal process, the disappointing overall performance of the company did not correlate with these ratings. it was therefore felt that a culture of performance with better performance measures, feedback mechanisms and development initiatives had to be put into place. it was also hoped that this approach would encourage the growth of a new culture based on accountability, trust, development, and growth that would ultimately result in better organisational performance. it was for this reason that the implementation of an effective performance management system was identified as one of the business priorities in 2002. the new performance management system was launched in the third quarter of 2004 and is currently in its second cycle of formal performance appraisals. during the implementation of the new process, the organisation has experienced many of the problems identified in table 1. for this reason, it was felt that the issues facing the organisation were relevant for developing a framework that could be used to potentially assist this, and other organisations in implementing performance management effectively. research objectives the organisation is trying to effect a paradigm shift from bureaucracy to the new people-centred paradigm underpinning performance management by using new tools and by implementing best practice. in managing this change process, the organisation is trying to avoid and overcome many of the problems identified in table 1. the purpose of this study was therefore to assist the organisation, and possibly other organisations in the future, in implementing performance management effectively. however, the philosophical paradigm underpinning performance management first had to be identified to ensure that the cultural changes the organisation wants to realise support the values of performance management. secondly, the criteria for effective performance management had to be identified to ensure that best practice is being followed during the implementation process. finally, the link between these two elements needed to be investigated to understand how the philosophy of performance management informs and supports the criteria for effectiveness. once these theoretical aspects had been clarified, a measuring tool could be developed to assess the organisation’s performance against the criteria for effectiveness and to determine whether the organisation’s underlying philosophy of performance management is aligned with the current philosophy as identified in the literature. with these needs in mind, a literature review was conducted and a model for performance management was developed that would form the basis of a measuring instrument. a model of performance management purpose and definition of performance management organisations require the unique qualities and commitment of employees so that more, better quality work can be done in less time in order for the organisation to survive in the increasingly competitive economic environment (decenzo & robbins, 2002). as mentioned previously, the great value of performance management is that it assists organisations in building sustainable competitive advantage by leveraging the potential of its human capital. as such, the purpose of performance management can be viewed generally as a means of sustaining competitive advantage through the performance of its people (hartle, 1997; weiss & hartle, 1997). another outstanding feature of performance management is that it attempts to link the efforts and performance of individuals to the goals, strategies and performance of the organisation (engelmann & roesch, 1997; stiles, 1999; ucsd, 2004; williams, 2002). figure 1 has been developed to demonstrate how the behaviour and skills of people are linked to the ultimate financial performance of the organisation (gratton, 2000). in this model, business goals are defined and the context for people to perform is developed. employees’ behaviour determines the meeting of business goals, inf luencing organisational performance, and ultimately financial business goals business goals business goals business goals business goals figure 1: a model for linking business goals with individual and organisational performance (from gratton, 2000, p.10) effective performance management 65 performance. de waal (2002) similarly believes that main purpose of performance management is to alter the behaviour of people. the context in which people perform can be shaped by a communication process (ucsd, 2004), a management style (hartle, 1997; weiss & hartle, 1997) or a management information and control system (de waal, 2002). in addition, armstrong (2000), brown and armstrong (1999), engelmann and roesch (1997), and newton (1998) all agree in some way that the result of performance management is performance improvement. gratton’s model (gratton, 2000), in combination with the views of the above-mentioned experts, is useful for developing a definition of performance management. from this perspective, performance management can generally be defined as a philosophy for managing the behaviour of people within a context that facilitates and supports the alignment of individual goals with organisational goals in order to achieve organisational and financial performance. by examining organisational goals and sources of competitive advantage, the organisation can develop a unique purpose and definition of performance management that supports and communicates the strategic direction of the firm. the content of the system will be informed by the strategic intent of the organisation and will tend to be unique in every organisation (brown & armstrong, 1999; weiss & hartle, 1997; williams, overall purpose: sustainable competitve advantage defintion: performance management is a philosophy for managing the behaviour of people within a context that facilitates and supports alignment of individual goals with organisational goals in order to achieve organisational and financial performance. performance management criteria for effective performance management philosophy employee’s unique knowledge, alignment of individual and team behaviour to organisational objectives skills, experience and personal (spangenberg, 1994). style are essential to achieving 1. communication of organisational strategy and team/individual objectives to the objectives of the organisation employees (curtis, 1999; de waal, 2002; engelmann & roesch, 1997; hartle, (hope-hailey, stiles & truss, 1997; hellriegel, jackson & slocum, 1999; newton, 1998; schwartz, 1999; 2001; kotze, 2002; truss, 1999). spangenberg & theron, 2001; ucsd, 2004; weiss & hartle, 1997; williams, 2002): � knowledge of strategic objectives � measurable objectives (what to achieve) � behavioural competencies (how to achieve it) (boyaztis, 1982; decenzo & robbins, 2002; de waal, 2002; engelmann & roesch, 1997; hartle, 1997; weiss & hartle, 1997; fletcher, 2001; hellriegel, jackson & slocum, 1999; stiles, 1999). 2. hr systems and processes support organisational strategy/objectives (armstrong, 2000; engelmann &roesch, 1997; hartle, 1997; phelps, 2005; spangenberg, 1994; spangenberg & theron, 2001; ucsd, 2004; weiss & hartle, 1997; williams, 2002): � hr resource planning � training and development � reward and remuneration empowerment and participation employees responsible for own performance management, driven by line, of employees in the workplace supported by hr and commitment from top management (armstrong, 2000; is essential for employee wellengelmann & roesch, 1997; schwartz, 1999): being and for motivating � system applies to all levels of employees (armstrong & baron, 1998; employees to commit to the spangenberg & theron, 2001) objectives of the organisation � training of line management and employees (armstrong, 2000; decenzo & (mcgregor, 1960; schwartz, 1999; robbins, 2002; engelmann & roesch, 1997; muchinsky, 2000; newton, 1998; spangenberg & theron, 2001; rademan & vos, 2001). ucsd, 2004; williams, 2002). focus on development (armstrong, 2000): � formal/informal training (williams, 2002). � personal development plans (armstrong, 2000) � coaching/mentoring (armstrong, 2000; engelmann & roesch, 1997; hodges & pantony, 2003; muchinsky, 2000; schwartz, 1999; weiss & hartle, 1997). continuous feedback (decenzo & robbins, 2002; griffith & orega, 1997; hellriegel, jackson & slocum, 1999; ucsd, 2004) � 360° feedback (armstrong, 2000; hodges & pantony, 2003; fletcher, 2001; lepsinger & lucia, 1997; muchinsky, 2000; scwartz, 1999; wiess & hartle, 1997). � separate performance evaluation and development feedback discussions (heil, bennis & stephens, 2000; hodges & pantony, 2003). ultimate philosophy of continuous monitoring and review (armstrong, 2000; brown & armstrong, performance improvement. 1999; griffith and orega, 1997; williams, 2002) – of the individual/team (armstrong, 2000; williams, � performance appraisal – of the performance management system 2001) � performance management system audit – of the organisation � organisational performance (financial indicators) system should be flexible and adaptable to changing demands (engelmann & roesch, 1997; stiles, 1999). figure 2: a philosophical model of performance management and criteria for effectiveness whitford, coetsee66 2002). for this reason, it can be concluded that performance management is more a philosophy of management than a preformulated system or process to be implemented (weiss & hartle, 1997). philosophy of performance management the field of performance management has moved away from the philosophy based on the paradigm of management control and direction through coercion and tight controls to one based on shared values such as participation and empowerment, which emphasise the individuality and self-directed nature of the employee (schwartz, 1999; spangenberg & theron, 2001; ucsd, 2004; williams, 2002). this shift in philosophy is partly a result of the new shift in focus on employees as a sustainable source of competitive advantage (hope-hailey, stiles & truss, 2001; kotze, 2002; truss, 1999). it also stems partly from theory y, which states that employees will strive towards goals to which they are committed, and from noon’s view of ‘hermeneutical’ man, which speaks of employees as creators of organisational reality rather than mere respondents to external cues (mcgregor, 1960; noon, 1992; truss, 1999). furthermore, mcgregor (1960) felt that management’s aim should be to facilitate the growth and development of its employees in order to leverage the potential of its human resources. performance management thus subscribes to a philosophy of improvement (armstrong, 2000; williams, 2001). three philosophical tenets emerge from this shift in philosophy. first, employee’s unique skills, knowledge, experience, skills and personal style are essential to achieving the objectives of the organisation (hope-hailey, stiles & truss, 2001; kotze, 2002; truss, 1999). secondly, empowerment and participation of employees in the workplace, as well as recognition of their contributions and achievements, are essential for employee wellbeing and for motivating them to commit to the objectives of the organisation (mcgregor, 1960; schwartz, 1999; spangenberg & theron, 2001; ucsd, 2004; williams, 2002). thirdly, performance management rests on a philosophy of performance improvement, both of the individual and of the organisation (armstrong, 2000; williams, 2001). this humanistic approach clearly indicates a shift from bureaucratic to a more empowering, people-centred paradigm that is aligned with the overall purpose of performance management. criteria for effective implementation of performance management despite the fact that the content of performance management tends to be unique to every organisat ion (brown & armstrong, 1999; weiss & hartle, 1997; williams, 2002), there are some basic processes followed by most organisations that could be viewed as best practice. for example, most experts on the subject tend to agree to some extent that performance management is an ongoing process of planning, managing, supporting, monitoring, assessing, reviewing, rewarding and developing performance (brown & armstrong, 1999; griffith & orega, 1997; spangenberg & theron, 2001; williams, 2002). similarly, a number of criteria for effect ive implementation of these processes can also be found in the literat ure. these criteria have been linked to the three main philosophical tenets of performance management that have been identified. figure 2 has been created to describe this relationship. if employees’ behaviour is essential to achieving the objectives of the organisation, it follows that employee behaviour must be aligned to those objectives. the performance management process should therefore focus on the objectives of the job and of the organisation (spangenberg, 1994). this means that organisational strategy as well as measurable objectives must be communicated to individuals and teams (curtis, 1999; de waal, 2002; engelmann & roesch, 1997; hartle, 1997; hellriegel, jackson & slocum, 1999; newton, 1998; schwartz, 1999; spangenberg & theron, 2001; ucsd, 2004; weiss & hartle, 1997; williams, 2002). in addition, it is argued that employees must not only know what is to be achieved but also how it is to be achieved (hartle, 1997; weiss & hartle, 1997). in this regard, behavioural competencies are becoming more important in communicating performance expectations (boyaztis, 1982; decenzo & robbins, 2002; de waal, 2002; engelmann & roesch, 1997; fletcher, 2001; hellriegel, jackson & slocum, 1999; stiles, 1999). to effectively facilitate the link bet ween organisational objectives and individual behaviour, hr systems and processes underlying performance management should also support and be aligned with organisational objectives (spangenberg, 1994; spangenberg & theron, 2001). this also facilitates strategic fit of performance management processes and hr interventions (beer & lawrence, 1984; fombrun, tichy & devanna, 1984; stiles, 1999; storey, 1992). as such, performance management should be aligned with and linked to all aspects of hr planning (recruitment, career management, succession management, leadership development), training and development, as well as reward and remuneration initiatives (armstrong, 2000; phelps, 2005; spangenberg & theron, 2001; williams, 2002). performance management should also be a responsibility that is shared between manager and employee (armstrong, 2000; schwartz, 1999) and should take place at all levels of the organisation (armstrong & baron, 1998; spangenberg & theron, 2001). due to the complex and changing nature of work, managers are not always fully in touch with the day-today specifics of the employee’s job (engelmann & roesch, 1997). employees therefore need to take ownership of the process and need to manage their personal development with assistance and support from the organisation (engelmann &roesch, 1997; hartle, 1997; ucsd, 2004; weiss & hartle, 1997). in this way, performance management moves away from a directive approach to a more supportive approach (armstrong, 2000) and tends to result in employees who are more engaged in their work (phelps, 2005). this approach also helps to realise the values of empowerment and participation that underpin the performance management philosophy (williams, 2002). in addition, the organisation needs to empower line management to drive the process. this is important because it is line management who understand the dynamics and intricacies of their departments, provide feedback to their subordinates, and who are ultimately responsible for their employees’ performance (armstrong, 2000). training of line management to conduct appraisals and provide feedback is therefore of crucial importance to the success of the process (armstrong, 2000; decenzo & robbins, 2002; engelmann & roesch, 1997; muchinsky, 2000; newton, 1998; rademan & vos, 2001). in addition, bias and rater errors lead to distrust of traditional performance appraisal processes (williams, 2002). zedeck and cascio found that training enhanced the accuracy of performance appraisal and facilitated acceptability of the information to those being appraised (muchinsky, 2000). training can also be effective in providing managers with techniques of giving feedback in a positive and rewarding manner. simba south africa, for example, turned its performance management system around by communicating with line managers and training them in providing developmental feedback to their people (porter, 2004). appraisees can also benefit from training in that it might alleviate their concerns around fairness, the subjectivity of appraisal, and the reasons for which they are being appraised (rademan & vos, 2001). employees should also receive training in the skills of performance planning and development so that they can effectively manage themselves (armstrong, 2000; hartle, 1997; weiss & hartle, 1997). effective performance management 67 support from top management is also vital to the success of the process (engelmann & roesch, 1997). top management provide the ultimate direction for employee performance and also act as role models in demonstrating self-managing values (hartle, 1997; weiss & hartle, 1997). in line with a philosophy of empowerment and participation, performance management has a strong developmental slant. armstrong (2000, p.7) states that performance management should be called ‘performance and development management’. it should therefore be directly linked to both formal and informal training and development initiatives in the organisation (williams, 2002). mentoring and coaching interventions are fast becoming prominent features as part of developmental processes in performance management (armstrong, 2000; engelmann & roesch, 1997; hodges & pantony, 2003; muchinsky, 2000; schwartz, 1999; weiss & hartle, 1997). the performance of employees against objectives needs to be measured and ongoing feedback regarding their progress and individual development needs should be provided (decenzo & robbins, 2002; griffith & orega, 1997; hellriegel, jackson & slocum, 1999; ucsd, 2004). regular feedback helps to mitigate the negative effects that formal performance appraisal processes generated in the past where employees felt that feedback was provided after-the-fact, emphasising past performance (williams, 2002). this meant that little chance was created for performance improvement in the current context. in contrast, performance management is future-focused and emphasises developmental needs that will enable future targets to be met (armstrong, 2000). it is also being recognized that multi-rater feedback is far more effective in contributing to individual development and leads to more accurate appraisal than traditional manager-subordinate feedback (fletcher, 2001; lepsinger & lucia, 1997). single rater feedback has presented itself as somewhat problematic within organisations in that the reliability of the process may be questionable, important information that can be gained from other sources may be missed, appraisees are rated by a single individual with a singular perspective, and the fairness of the process may not be legally defensible in terms of new legislation (rademan & vos, 2001). for these reasons, 180° or 360° feedback is becoming a prominent feature of most performance management systems to be used at all levels and especially at managerial level (armstrong, 2000; hodges & pantony, 2003; lepsinger & lucia, 1997; muchinsky, 2000; schwartz, 1999; weiss & hartle, 1997). another important factor influencing trust and openness is keeping performance review feedback separate from personal development feedback. hodges and pantony (2003) found that when the two processes were separated, respondents rated their scheme as more effective in achieving its objective of developing people. heil, bennis and stephens (2000) comment on the difficulty of managing a performance management system that is both evaluative and developmental in nature as the manager straddles the role of both evaluator and coach. in this conflicting situation, they perceive the employee to be less open and candid about weaknesses and potential development areas thus leading to less effective developmental interventions and fewer learning experiences. finally, performance management subscribes to a philosophy of continual performance improvement of both the individual and the organisation (armstrong, 2000; williams, 2001). we must therefore ensure that the performance of people in the organisation is effectively leveraged in meeting organisational objectives. with this aim in mind, the effectiveness of performance management in adding value must be constantly monitored and evaluated at the individual, team and organisational levels (armstrong, 2000; brown & armstrong, 1999; griffith and orega, 1997; williams, 2002). as hartle (1997, p.216) explains, ‘evolution, revision and change will be necessary to achieve continuous improvement’. the system therefore also needs to be flexible so that it can meet the everchanging demands of the business environment (engelmann & roesch, 1997). this need can partly be met by moving away from a system based on assumptions of bureaucracy to one that facilitates the empowerment and participation of employees. in this way performance management can become a flexible process that adapts to the demands of high-velocit y environments (stiles, 1999). research design research approach this study is a quantitative study and a cross-sectional survey design was used to describe the information on the population collected. the study is also exploratory and descriptive as well as retrospective in nature. elements of the research design are predetermined and in addition it is ex post facto and attempts to show causes and consequences after they have occurred. research methodology respondents the participants included all permanent, non-broker staff at a life insurance organisation. a total of 615 questionnaires were sent out. biographical characteristics of the population are summarised in table 2. table 2 percentage of population demographic characteristics (march 2005) male female asian black coloured white asian black coloured white total: specialist 1,25 0,36 0,72 3,40 0,89 0,54 0,54 3,04 10,74 non0,18 8,94 2,68 0,36 5,55 19,14 6,26 6,80 49,91 supervisory super2,15 16,10 2,50 7,16 2,15 3,04 1,25 5,00 39,35 visory/ manager total: 3,58 25,40 5,90 10,92 8,59 22,72 8,05 14,84 100,00 measuring instrument an online survey questionnaire was the main instrument used in the collection and analysis of data. the questionnaire was specifically designed to operationalise the criteria for success and philosophical tenets identified in figure 2. punch’s (2003) methodology was largely used to operationalise the criteria and develop the questionnaire. in this regard, for each variable identified in the table, it was decided whether demographical, knowledge, attitudinal or practice information was required to measure the variable. each variable was then also categorised as categorical or continuous in the way it was to be measured. the next step was deciding whether each variable was to be measured by a single indicator or by multiple items. the items that emerged were reviewed, refined and also evaluated against the ideal time that it would take respondents to complete the questionnaire. less important items were discarded to decrease completion time and hopefully increase the response rate. similarly, items evaluating the effectiveness of processes unique to the organisation of study were operationalised and added to the questionnaire. in addition, items measuring demographic characteristics were also included to allow for comparisons across demographic groups in the organisation. the questionnaire thus consisted of four main sections: general information, performance management philosophy, current practice in performance management, overall evaluation. whitford, coetsee68 the questionnaire was then reviewed and approved for use by statcon and by the organisation of study. the survey was then tested within the life insurance organisation and relevant changes were made. during this time, it was also piloted within a second organisation to ensure that questions were appropriate and meaningful to respondents, that it was quick and easy to use, that issues of confidentiality were identified and addressed, and to ensure that meaningful data was collected. an interview with the hr manager was used to measure performance against criteria that could not be measured through the survey of employee perceptions. policy documents were also reviewed and evaluated as part of this process. procedure the request to complete the questionnaire was sent to exactly 615 full-time staff to whom the system applies via e-mail where they could access it via a link to the website containing the questionnaire. responses were collected anonymously and all communications with respondents were directed through an independent company to ensure full confidentiality of the process. statistical analysis statistical analysis focused on the identification of latent variables of the instrument by means of exploratory factor analysis and the estimation of the reliabilities (cronbach alpha) of the identified latent variables. the results of the 94-item questionnaire were subjected to both a first-order (factors rotated by means of varimax rotation) and subsequent secondorder (factors rotated by means of direct obliman method) factor analysis. in both cases, factors were extracted using the kaiser criterion (the number of eigen values greater than unity) and principal factor analysis (pfa) was used. diagnostics included bartlett’s test of sphericity and the kaiser mayer olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy (msa). bartlett’s test of sphericity is a statistical test for the presence of correlations among variables. hair, anderson, tatham & black (1998) say in this regard that the test provides the statistical probability that the correlation matrix has significant correlations among at least some of the variables. the kmo quantifies the degree of intercorrelations among the variables and the appropriateness or applicability of factor analysis. msa values were also determined per item to determine whether the specific items should be used in the factor analysis. a cut-off point of 0,6 was used throughout. according to hair et al. (1998) this measure can be interpreted with the following guidelines: .80 or above, meritorious; 0,70 or above, middling; 0,60 or above, mediocre; 0,50 or above, miserable; and below 0,50 unacceptable. it is also important to note that the msa increases as (1) the sample size increases, (2) the average correlations increase, (3) the number of variables increases, or (4) the number of factors decreases. analysis of variance and t-tests were utilised to test the significance of categorical data and eta was calculated to determine effect size. a post hoc test (sheffe) was also carried out to determine where differences lay. regression analysis was used to determine the strength of the relationships on continuous variables. results the response rate was fairly low with only 149 (24,2%) staff members responding to the questionnaire. however the sample size was large enough to carry out meaningful statistical analysis and was fairly representative of the population. level of staff responses were obtained from non-supervisory staff (36,2%), supervisory or management staff (52,3%), and specialists (11,4%). proportionally more managers responded than nonsupervisory staff when compared to population statistics. no significant differences were found between any of these levels on any criteria or on the philosophical tenets. table 3 frequency and percentage of respondents by organisational level non-supervisory 54 36,2% supervisory/management 78 52,3% specialist 12 11,4% total 149 100,0% race the racial composition of the sample was 28,9% black, 14,1% coloured, 14,4% indian/asian, and 35,6 % white. some respondents (7,4%) did not respond or preferred not to respond. although no significant differences were found between the racial groups, proportionally less black than white employees responded to the questionnaire when compared to the entire population. table 4 frequency and percentage of respondents by ethic origin black 43 28,9% coloured 21 14,1% indian/asian 21 14,1% white 53 35,6% other 1 0,7% i prefer not to respond 9 6,0% missing 1 0,7% total 149 100,0% academic qualification the majorit y (43,0%) of respondents had academic qualifications up to and including a matric; 20,1% had a post matric certificate; and 36,2% had a degree, three year diploma or post graduate degree. no significant differences between these groups were found. table 5 frequency and percentage of respondents by highest academic qualification grade 12 or below 64 43,0% post matric certificate 30 20,1% degree/3 year diploma/post graduate 54 36,2% missing 1 0,7% total 149 100,0% gender the majority of respondents were also female (67,1%) which, although slightly elevated, corresponded fairly well with the gender distribution within the organisation. no significant differences were found between these groups. effective performance management 69 table 6 frequency and percentage of respondents by gender male 48 32,2% female 100 67,1% missing 1 0,7% total 149 100,0% item analysis the first 12 items of the questionnaire, which related to the philosophical tenets of the model, were subjected to a firstorder factor analysis using principal factor analysis. none of the 12 items were excluded from the initial factor analysis as all the msa values for these items were greater than 0,6. the kmo statistic for the correlations among the 12 questions was 0,877 (>0,6) and bartlett’s test was significant (p-value<0,05), indicating that the correlation matrix can be factor analysed. three first-order factors were extracted based on the kaiser criterion, accounting for 62,83% of the variation in the original 12 items. an orthogonal rotation (varimax) was used to improve interpretability of factors. the reliabilities of all three factors exceed 0,7 and are thus considered reliable. table 7 shows the items in each first order factor together with the reliabilities of these scales. table7 rotated factor matrix and coefficient alphas for performance management philosophy items factor 1 2 3 the organisation does not tolerate poor 0,604 -0,407 performance the organisation believes that its people are 0,580 0,462 0,374 important in achieving the objectives of the company the organisation recognises and rewards 0,559 0,348 0,242 excellent performance of individuals the organisation is proactive in retaining 0,538 0,165 0,311 good performers the organisation recruits talented people 0,420 0,135 the organisation values the expertise i bring 0,364 0,646 0,321 to my job i am involved in decisions taken in my 0,117 0,623 0,221 department the organisation recognises my contribution 0,430 0,597 0,421 to the organisation i have control over the way in which i do my work 0,266 0,120 the organisation recognises the importance of 0,233 0,258 0,900 developing individuals the organisation strives to improve the 0,431 0,326 0,575 performance of individuals the organisation provides me with the right skills so that i can manage my work autonomously 0,297 0,442 reliabilities (coefficient alpha): 0,69 0,72 0,77 a second order factor analysis was conducted using the same methodology, from which a single factor was extracted, according to the kaiser criterion. this factor was found to explain 70,93% of the total variance and proved to be reliable with a reliability coefficient of 0,85. first-order factor analysis using principal factor analysis was also utilised on the items relating to the criteria in the model. items were first analysed in terms of response rates and those with low response rates (n<100) were excluded from the analysis to reduce the impact of systematic error. in this way, eight items were excluded from the analysis. all remaining items had msa values of greater than 0,6 and were therefore found to have significant correlations for each first-order factor analysis that was done. two first-order factors were extracted based on the kaiser criterion from the six items relating to the criterion ‘communication of organisational strateg y and team/individual objectives to employees’, accounting for 73,73% of the variation. the overall reliability coefficient of this criterion was found to be 0,84. similarly, four first-order factors were extracted for the 23 items related to the next main criterion, ‘hr system and processes support organisational strategy/objectives’, which account for up to 73,32% of the total variance. the overall kma statistic for these items was 0.92. the four factors had acceptable reliability coefficients (<0,7). a second order factor analysis resulted in a single factor that accounted for 64,85% of the total variance and had a reliability coefficient of 0,95. a first-order factor analysis done across all the criteria related to the second philosophical tenet was conducted, from which a single reliable factor emerged. the factor accounted for 55,83% of the total variance and has a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0,88. first-order factor analyses were conducted on two questions related to criteria named ‘performance appraisal’. one factor was extracted from the items relating to the effectiveness of different types of appraisal. this factor accounted for 60,75% of the total variance and had a reliability coefficient of 0,83. a factor analysis on the statements relating to specific performance appraisal activities and outcomes also resulted in a single factor. this factor accounted for 70,57% of the total variance and had a reliability coefficient of 0,92. the relations between philosophical tenets and corresponding criteria were tested. the first philosophical tenet had a moderate correlation (r=0.33) with the criterion ‘communication of organisational and team/individual objectives to employees’ and a large correlation (r=0,66) with the criterion ‘hr systems and processes support the organisation’s strategy/objectives’. a significant correlation was also found between the second philosophical tenet and the criterion ‘employees are responsible for their own performance management’ (r=0,24). a small but significant effect size (eta=0,23) was found between the second philosophical tenet and a grouping of all the continuous variables across all the corresponding criteria. a one-way anova revealed a significant and moderate effect size (eta=0,35) between the philosophical tenet and the criterion ‘commitment from top management’. a moderate and significant effect size (eta=0,33) was also found for the criterion ‘continuous feedback’. the eight items containing continuous variables relating to development and 360° feedback as well as to the criterion ‘performance management driven by line management’ had low response rates and resulted in unreliable data. for the same reason no significant correlation could be found between the third philosophical tenet and the criterion factor related to performance appraisal (evaluating the effectiveness of the type of appraisal). however, a significant correlation (r=0.47) was found with the second criterion factor related to performance appraisal (detailed statement regarding performance appraisal activities and outcomes). a significant and moderate effect size (eta=0,30) was also found between the third philosophical tenet and the criterion of ‘organisational performance’. a number of criteria were evaluated through the interview with the hr manager and by looking at policy documents. however, these criteria were not assigned numerical ratings and, as such, the correlation between these criteria and the corresponding philosophical tenet was not calculated. discussion the results of the research indicate some changes to the theoretical model that was initially developed. these changes have been incorporated into a new model illustrated in figure 3. whitford, coetsee70 the arrows with the solid lines in the model indicate significant correlations or effect sizes between the philosophical tenet and each criterion that were found. those arrows with broken lines indicate correlations that have yet to be verified. the specific criteria that have yet to be verified are also bracketed. from the results, the philosophical tenets were renamed to reflect the new, more reliable factors that had emerged. when examining the items that loaded onto each of the factors, it was found that many items had not changed and that the basic definitions in the theoretical model still largely held true. nevertheless, the literature was revisited in order to clarif y and redefine the tenets in accordance with the changes that had taken place. one of the factors that emerged had three of the six original items remaining of the first theoretical tenet. an additional two items relating to excellent and poor performance had emerged. the first tenet was thus adjusted to read as follows: ‘talented and high performing individuals have unique knowledge, skills, experience and personal style that are essential to achieving the objectives of the organisation, and these high performing individuals need to be recognised and rewarded.’. the second theoretical tenet emphasised empowerment of the individual. while the items relating to empowerment and participation remained, t wo items relating to the value that the organisation places on the expertise of the individual and recognit ion of the individual’s contribut ion to the organisat ion were combined with the init ial items. additional research of the literat ure revealed that employees not only need to have self-determination and control in the workplace to increase self-esteem and be motivated to perform, but also need to be recognised by others for meaningful achievements at work (maslow, stephens & heil, 1998). the definition for the second philosophical tenet was thus expanded to read as follows: ‘empowerment and participation of employees in the workplace and recognition of their contribution is essential for employee well-being and for motivating employees to commit to the objectives of the organisation’ finally, the third theoretical tenet focussed on a philosophy of performance improvement. while improving the performance of individuals remained an important feature of this tenet, items relating to the development of individuals were found to load quite strongly on to this factor. when reading through the above literature review, it was stated that mcgregor (1960) felt that management’s aim should be to facilitate the growth and development of its employees in order to leverage the potential of its human resources. for this reason, armstrong (2000) and williams (2001) stated that performance management subscribes to a philosophy of improvement. in defining the third theoretical tenet, the author neglected to incorporate the aspect of personal development. the third philosophical tenet should thus be defined as follows: ‘focus on development drives a philosophy of performance improvement’. from the first main criterion ‘communication of organisational strategy and team/individual objectives to employees’ two factors were extracted. the first sub-criteria remained as ‘knowledge of strategic objectives’ while the other two suboverall purpose: sustainable competitve advantage defintion: performance management is a philosophy for managing the behaviour of people within a context that facilitates and supports alignment of individual goals with organisational goals in order to achieve organisational and financial performance. performance management criteria for effective performance management philosophy talented and high performing alignment of individual and team behaviour to organisational objectives individuals have unique 1. communication of organisational strategy and team/individual objectives knowledge, skills, experience to employees: and personal style that are � knowledge of strategic objectives essential to achieving the � knowledge of personal objectives (what to achieve and how to achieve it) objectives of the organisation, 2. hr systems and processes support organisational strategy: and these high performing � overall effectiveness in implementing hr activities individuals need to be � link pm with training and development, and hr planning recognised and rewarded � link pm with reward and remuneration � link pm with recruitment and induction empowerment and participation employees responsible for own performance management, (driven by line), of employees and recognition of (supported by hr) and commitment from top management: their contribution in the workplace � (system applies to all levels of employees) is essential for motivating � (training of line management and employees) employees to commit to the objectives of the organisation focus on development: � (formal/informal training) � (personal development plans) � (coaching/mentoring) continuous feedback � (360° feedback) � (separate performance evaluation and development feedback discussions) focus on development drives a continuous monitoring and review – of the individual/team philosophy of performance � performance appraisal – (of the performance management system improvement. � performance management system audit) – of the organisation � organisational performance (financial indicators) (system should be flexible and adaptable to changing demands) figure 3: a new model of performance management philosophy and criteria for effectivenes effective performance management 71 criteria were combined to form a new criterion named ‘knowledge of job objectives (what to achieve and how to achieve it)’. four factors were extracted from the items relating to the next criterion ‘hr system and processes support organisational strategy/ objectives’. here, an additional sub-criterion had emerged from the data that was not in the original theoretical model. three of the factors had items relating to the linkage of certain hr activities to the performance management system. the fourth factor loaded on items that dealt with the effectiveness of general hr activities. this factor was named ‘effectiveness in achieving the objectives of hr activities’. the other three factors were named ‘linking performance management with training and development, and hr planning’, ‘linking performance management with reward and remuneration’, ‘linking performance management with recruitment and induction’. low response rates on the items relating to development and 360° feedback resulted in unreliable data and non-significant relations. however, non-applicable responses on these items were data in themselves in that they indicated that these activities do not frequently take place for a large group of individuals in the case study organisation. nevertheless, a single reliable factor emerged from other items related to other related criteria and it was decided to include these variables in the model. factor analyses conducted on two questions related to criteria named ‘performance appraisal’ revealed some interesting results. one factor was extracted from the items relating to the effectiveness of different types of appraisal. this factor accounted for 60,75% of the total variance and had a reliabilit y coefficient of 0,83. a factor analysis on the statements relating to specific performance appraisal activities and outcomes also resulted in a single factor. this factor accounted for 70,57% of the total variance and had a reliability coefficient of 0,92. while both questions explain a significant proportion of the total variance and are both reliable, it seems as if the more detailed statements relating to performance appraisal activities and outcomes are a better measure of this criterion than generalised questions regarding the effectiveness of types of appraisal. this new model was used to interpret frequency data results of the organisations actual performance against the tenets and criteria. practical suggestions were then provided to the organisation. the results and practical suggestions have been briefly summarised below. performance against criteria and practical implications the philosophical tenet ‘talented and high performing individuals have unique knowledge, skills, experience and personal style that are essential to achieving the objectives of the organisation, and these high performing individuals need to be recognised and rewarded’ was rated the lowest among employees. it emerged that the organisation of study is effective in communicating a clear vision for employees in terms of what the organisation would like to achieve, and is effective in translating the strategy into individual job objectives and the behaviours that are required to achieve those objectives. in this way, it seems the organisation recognizes the importance of people in reaching organisational objectives. however, recognition and reward of high performing individuals seems to be lacking in the organisation. in this regard, a proportion of respondents felt that their performance is not evaluated against these objectives. almost 30% of respondents felt that the performance review and appraisal system was slightly effective or not effective while 43.5% stated that the outcomes of the process did not make them feel fairly rewarded. the lack of a clear link between appraisal and reward was found to be the most problematic aspect by those who found the system to be ineffective. as respondents seem fairly confident of what is expected of them, the problem perhaps lies in their perceptions and expectations of the process, misalignment bet ween the reward strateg y and performance ratings, or in inefficiencies in manager’s ratings of their subordinates. it is interesting to note that managers found using a rating scale to get to an overall evaluation one of the more difficult tasks in managing the performance of others. managing others’ expectations was also one of the more difficult tasks for managers. the use of forced-choice ranking strategies was suggested to assist managers in better differentiating the performance of their employees. performance-related remuneration strategies that would help make the link between performance and reward clearer to employees were also discussed with the organisation. this action would realize the value of recognizing and rewarding high performing individuals. training for managers on providing realistic performance feedback and setting realistic expectations was also suggested as a means of reinforcing the link and clarif ying expectations. a related issue is that respondents perceive that the organisation is not proactive in retaining good performers. in rating the effectiveness of the overall system, a fairly large proportion of respondents felt that high fliers within the organisation are not rewarded. respondents also perceived a weak link between performance management and promotion decisions, leadership development, career development and succession management. in addition, the organisation was perceived to be the least effective in these activities. it therefore seems that there are no clear progression paths for employees to follow. in this regard, it was suggested that clear succession planning, career progression and talent retention strategies be put in place and communicated to employees. more specifically, a ‘high fliers’ programme was discussed that would be used to identif y potential talent in the organisation, put those talented individuals through a programme of activities, assign them a mentor or coach and target them for future positions within the organisation. the programme could have the added benefit of acting as a non-monetary reward for high performing individuals. the organisation obtained the highest rating for the philosophical tenet ‘empowerment and participation of employees in the workplace and recognition of their contribution is essential for employee well-being and for motivating employees to commit to the objectives of the organisation’. in this regard, employees stated that they had control over their work and readily took accountability for managing their own performance. however, only a moderate rating on this tenet was obtained. a lack of regular informal feedback, especially at the non-supervisory level, could account for this finding. gaining access to feedback and developmental advice was rated as the most difficult for respondents in managing their own performance. while formal training and development initiatives were seen to have a strong link to performance management and were found to be effective, access to other developmental initiatives seem to be limited for many respondents. lack of feedback and coaching as well as career and personal development were found to be stumbling blocks for an effective performance management system within the organisation. it is interesting to note that when respondents are exposed to these initiatives, they find them generally effective in improving performance. in addition, respondents seemed to assume personal accountability for driving their own performance and initiating development activities. greater access to developmental activities over and above formal training programmes may provide further opportunities for employees to develop whitford, coetsee72 themselves. for this reason, further access is advised for staff across all levels of the organisation. this process can be assisted and supported through the encouragement of regular informal performance feedback sessions. once again, an initiative such as the ‘high fliers’ programme could provide opportunities for personal development and growth. finally, the organisation obtained a moderate rating on the philosophical tenet ‘focus on development drives a philosophy of performance improvement’. in evaluating the overall effectiveness of the process, a large proportion of respondents stated that they did not feel that the time spent on performance management justifies it. many also stated that it was not successful in increasing their commitment to the organisation. the value of the performance management system thus needs to be demonstrated and marketed to employees. respondents stated that the lack of clarity about the goals of performance management was a contributor to the ineffectiveness of the system. making the purpose and goals of the performance management system clearer to employees through an awareness campaign may assist in enhancing their perceptions of the system. a further point to consider is that although the majority of respondents felt that senior management is committed to the process, over 20% felt that management is only slightly committed or not committed at all. feedback from the organisation was that middle management is not as committed to performance management as senior management is and that the more bureaucratic st yle that preceded performance management still exists to some extent at this level. in response to these problems, a pilot project was suggested in which employees and managers are trained and closely monitored in conducting good practice in performance management under the supervision of a consultant. performance measures would be closely monitored and hopefully, as a result of good practice, improvements in performance over time could be demonstrated. critical learning points, success stories and performance improvements could then be shared with the rest of the organisation. the aim of the project would be to demonstrate the value of performance management and to gain buy-in from middle management and employees alike. conclusions the new model proved to be a useful tool in analysing the performance management system of the case study organisation. the evaluation of the organisation’s performance against both philosophical tenets and criteria for effectiveness provided a complete picture of the status of the organisation’s performance management process. while the organisation has seemingly evolved from the punitive and bureaucratic process that preceded the performance management system, there is still room for improvement. more specifically, a culture of accountability appears to have arisen but aspects of trust, development and growth have yet to be fully developed. the criterion results highlighted specific areas for improvement in this regard and practical suggestions have been made. though the use of the model, another cultural aspect has been found to be problematic in the organisation. the recognition and reward of individuals for their performance against job-related criteria is a key area to work on in this organisation. it is suggested that recognition and reward of high performing individuals should be made an explicit value of the organisation and practical interventions addressing this problem should take priority. in this case, the model proved useful in highlighting the specific goals and values of the organisation as well as identif ying an additional value that could enhance the overall success of its performance management system. it is further suggested that the model could be used in a similar fashion in a number of other organisations in a variety of industries. by using the model as a framework for analysis, a complete picture of the organisation’s general realisation of the underlying philosophy of performance management as well as specific problem areas can be obtained. with this information, practical interventions can be identified that will hopefully assist the organisation in implementing performance management effectively and ultimately lead to improved organisational performance. limitations a major limiting factor of this study was the fairly low response rate coupled with extremely low response rates on some questions. the low response rate could have a potentially biasing effect on the results (mcburney, 2001; punch, 2003). it also affected the reliability of some of the items and hindered subsequent analysis. a related problem is that numerical ratings were not obtained on all criteria. for this reason, the model has not been fully validated. the survey questionnaire will have to be re-evaluated to rectif y the problem of low response rate on some items and perhaps obtain measures on additional criteria. items may also have to be added, deleted or adjusted in order to increase the reliabilities of some dimensions. a complementary rating form may have to be developed in order to capture ratings on dimensions that could not be obtained through the survey on employee perceptions. structural equation modelling (sem) also could not be performed due to the nature of the data. as such, the direction of the relationship between philosophical tenets and criteria could not be examined. suggestions for further research this last point provides an indication of further research to be conducted, that is, to explore whether the philosophy and resulting culture of performance management inform and support the criteria for effectiveness or whether performance against criteria results in a cultural change and a move towards the philosophical ideals of performance management. a third, more likely, possibility could be that each supports and reinforces the other. research in other organisations from different industries would also be useful in refining and validating the model. it would also be interesting to monitor the future performance of the case study organisation to determine whether significant improvements in individual and organisational performance takes place as a result of the interventions suggested. in this way, the relationship between business goals, the context created by performance management and the ultimate performance of the organisation implied in the definition of performance management can also be investigated and validated. references armstrong, m. (2000). management: key strategies and practical guidelines (2nd ed.). kogan page: london. bartlett, c.a. & ghoshal, s. (2002). building competitive advantage through people. mit sloan management review, winter 2002, pp. 34-41. birt, m., wallis, t. & winternitz, g. (2004). talent retention in a changing workplace: an investigation of variables considered important to south african talent. south african journal of business management, 35 (2), pp.25-31. beer, m.s. & lawrence, p.r. (1984). managing human assets. john wiley & sons: new york. boyaztis, r. (1982). the competent manager: a model for effective performance. john wiley & sons: new york. brown, d. & armstrong, m. (1999). paying for contribution: real performance-related pay strategies. kogan page: london. effective performance management 73 cascio, w.f. (2004, december). globalisation: implications and impact. hr future, p.6. corporate leadership council (2003, january). executive level performance management. retrieved january 2003 from the world wide web: http://www. corporateleadershipcouncil. com. curtis, d. (1999). performance management for participatory democracy: thoughts in the transformation process in south africa local government. international journal of public sector management, 12 (3), pp.260-272. decenzo, d.a. & robbins, s.p. (2002). human resource management (7th ed.). john wiley & sons: new york. deloitte & touche. (2001). human capital corporation sur vey. de waal, a.a. (2002). quest for balance: the human element in performance management systems. john wiley & sons: new york. elmes, d.g., kantowitz, b.h. & roediger, h.l. (1999). research methods in psychology (6th ed.). brooks/cole publishing: pacific grove. engelman, c.h & roesch, r.c. (1997). managing individual performance: an approach to designing an effective performance management system. american compensation association. english, g.c. (2004). managing information and human performance: strategies and methods for knowing your workforce and organisation. hrd press: amherst. fletcher, c. (2001). performance appraisal and management: the developing research agenda. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 74 (4), pp.473-488. fombrun, c.j., tichy, n.m. & devanna, m.a. (eds.) (1984). strategic human resource management. wiley & sons: new york. future foundation (2004). getting the edge in the new people economy. furlonger, d. (2002). staff and bossesa growing gap. financial mail , 1 november, p. 39. gratton, l. (1999). people processes as a source of competitive advantage. in l. gratton, v. hope-hailey, p. stiles, & c. truss, strategic human resource management. oxford university press: oxford. gratton, l. (2000). living strategy: putting people at the heart of corporate purpose. prentice-hall: london. gratton, l., hope-hailey, v., stiles, p. & truss, c. (1999). emerging themes. in l. gratton, v. hope-hailey, p. stiles, & c. truss, strategic human resource management. oxford university press: oxford. griffith, l.j. & orgera, a.c. (1997). performance management: mapping out the process. in p.t. chingos (ed.), paying for performance: a guide to compensation management. john wiley & sons: new york. hartle, f. (1997). transforming the performance management process. kogan page: london. heil, g., bennis, w. stephens, d.c. (2000). douglas mcgregor, revisited: managing the human side of the enterprise. john wiley & sons: new york. hellriegel, d., jackson, s.e. & slocum, j.w. (1999). management (8th ed.). south-western college: cincinnati. hodges, k. & pantony, h. (2003). performance management: a sur vey of views in current practice. shl group: thames ditton. kaiser, h.f. (1961). a note on guttman’s lower bound for the number of common factors. british journal of statistical psychology, 14 (1), p. 1. kerlinger, f. n. & lee, h.b. (2000). foundations of behavioural research (4th ed.). harcourt college publishers: fort worth. kock, r., roodt, g. & veldsman, t. h. (2002). the alignment between effective people management, business strategy and organisational performance in the banking and insurance sector. sa journal of industrial psychology, 28 (3), pp. 83-91. kotze, j. (2002). sustainable competitive advantage. accountancy sa, february, pp.14-15. lepsinger, r. & lucia, a.d. (1997). the art and science of 360° feedback. jossey-boss pfeiffer: san francisco. le roux, d.j. (1995). the evaluation of a performance management system within south african organisations. mba thesis, graduate school of business, universit y of stellenbosch, south africa. maslow, a.h., stephens, d.c., & heil, g. (1998). maslow on management. john wiley & sons: new york. mcburney, d.h. (2001). research methods (5th ed.). wadsworth: belmont, ca. mcdonald, d. & smith, a. (1995). a proven connection: performance management and business results. compensation and benefits review, jan-feb, pp.59-64. mcgovern, p. (1999). hrm policies and management practices. in l. gratton, v. hope-hailey, p. stiles, & c. truss, strategic human resource management. oxford university press: oxford. muchinsky, p.m. (2000). psychology applied to work (6th ed.). wadsworth: belmont, ca. newton, a. (1998). human resources and strategy: achieving integration. ft pitman publishing: london. parker a. (2003). future role of hr in high performance world class organisations. hr future, december, pp. 26-28. phelps, g.r. (2005). the fundamentals of performance management: three keys to creating a system that eliminates costly variation in employee performance. gallup management journal, feb. 10, pp.1-6. porter, i. (2004). engaging the line in people development at simba. strategic hr review, pp.20-23. punch, k.f. (2003). sur vey research: the basics. sage: london. rademan, d. j. & vos, h. d. (2001). performance appraisals in the public sector: are they accurate and fair? journal of industrial psychology, 27 (1), pp. 54-60. schwartz, a. (1999). performance management. barron’s: new york. spangenberg, h.h. (1994). performance management: problems and possible solutions. journal of industrial psychology, 20 (1), pp.1-6. spangenberg, h.h. & theron, c.c. (2001). adapting the systems model of performance management to major changes in the external and internal organisational environments. south african journal of business management, 32 (1), pp. 3547. spector, p.e. (2003). industrial and organisational psychology: research and practice (3rd ed.). john wiley & sons: new york. stiles, p. (1999). performance management in fast-changing environments. in l. gratton, v. hope-hailey, p. stiles, & c. truss, strategic human resource management. oxford university press: oxford. storey, j. (1982). developments in the management of human resources. basil blackwell: oxford. truss, c. (1999). soft and hard models of human resource management. in l. gratton, v. hope-hailey, p. stiles, & c. truss, strategic human resource management. oxford university press: oxford. ucsd human resources department (2004). guide to performance management: over view of performance management. retrieved 23 september 2004 from the world wide web: http://wwwhr.ucsd.edu/~staffeducation/guide/ overvw.html useem, m. (2003). people: hr’s bottom-line asset. in m. effron, r. gandossy, & m. goldsmith (eds.), human resources in the 21st century. john wiley & sons: hoboken, ny. weiss, t. b. & hartle, f. (1997). reengineering performance management: breakthroughs in achieving strategy through people. st. lucie press: boca raton, fl. williams, r.s. (2002). managing employee performance: design and implementation in organisations. thomson learning: london. winslow, c.d. & bramer, w.l. (1994). futurework: putting knowledge to work in the knowledge economy. the free press: new york. zwell, m. (2000). creating a culture of competence. john wiley & sons: new york. review panel edition 4.1 (2006) mr g bekker (m. eng) private consultant dr m birt university of cape town (retired) ms f donald (ind. psych) university of witwatersrand prof jj havenga university of johannesburg dr cs jonker north-west university dr l kirby case western university, cleveland , ohio (part-time) prof p koortzen unisa prof m kotze university of the free state prof p moller professor emeritus dr t nell absa ms a odendaal (ind. psych) unisa prof hh spangenberg university of stellenbosch prof j visagie north-west university dr d wijnbeek clover mr marius stander north-west university mr ej steyn university of pretoria review panel abstract introduction method findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) kelebogile d. magano department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa adèle thomas department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa citation magano, k.d., & thomas, a. (2017). organisational change and the psychological contract at a pharmaceutical company. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a920. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.920 original research organisational change and the psychological contract at a pharmaceutical company kelebogile d. magano, adèle thomas received: 25 feb. 2017; accepted: 17 july 2017; published: 27 sept. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: over a period of 6 years, a south african pharmaceutical company had been involved in several mergers and acquisitions. these changes had proved difficult for staff and staff attrition had risen. research purpose: the objective of the study was to explore the perceptions of senior managers about the impact of change on the psychological contract. the sub-objectives were to determine what organisational factors contribute to changes in the psychological contract during periods of change, and the implications of the breach of the psychological contract for the company and its employees. motivation for the study: as the company was set to embark on further mergers and acquisitions, the opinions of senior managers about how such changes should be addressed are important for the company. research design, approach and method: a case study approach was used in this qualitative study. the population comprised 60 senior managers of whom 12 were purposefully selected for inclusion in the study. a semistructured interview schedule was used to capture the views of these managers and themes were extracted by means of content analysis. main findings: seven themes emerged which encapsulated the perceptions of senior managers about the impact of change on the psychological contract during periods of mergers and acquisitions – lack of communication, an absence of planning, lack of employee engagement, less than optimal human resources involvement, lack of preparation of the organisational culture and poor change management processes. these factors need to be addressed to strengthen the psychological contract of employees during periods of change. practical/managerial implications: the study highlighted areas that leaders and managers of the company should consider when embarking on mergers and acquisitions if the psychological contract of employees is not to be negatively impacted. contribution: while caution must be exercised in the generalisation of the findings, companies in the same industry or those in other industries could use the findings as points of departure for considering the elements that should be addressed in change initiatives. introduction growing competition has created opportunities for companies to increase market share through mergers and acquisitions (m&as). however, many m&as fail to create value for the merged companies (gomes, angwin & yedidia tarba, 2013) because the complex interdependent sub-activities of due diligence, negotiations, financing, people integration and organisational culture have not been synergised (wei & clegg, 2014). when implementing changes such as m&as, leaders tend to focus on business outcomes rather than on the impact the changes will have on individuals within the organisation (aggarwal-gupta, kumar & upadhyahula, 2012). the pharmaceutical company, the subject of this case study, was established in 1990 as the only south african vaccines importer. at that point, its core business was to provide effective, safe vaccines to the south african health department at competitive prices following cold chain principles. the company engaged in a series of m&as between 2009 and 2015. in south africa, the introduction of the broad based black economic empowerment act (bbbee act no. 53 of 2003) saw an increase in m&a transactions within the south african context (thayser & dada, 2007). the publication of the revised codes of good practice required companies to review their strategies as the old focus on equity ownership became less important. because of these codes, certain aspects of bbbee, such as black participation in businesses and procurement from black businesses, became increasingly important (thayser, 2009; thayser & dada, 2007). in accordance with the legislative environment, in 2008, the company sold 40% of its shareholding to a 100% black-owned company. this sale saw the organisation becoming the first black economically empowered healthcare company in south africa as well as the only wholly owned south african vaccines importer and distributor. the shareholding was subsequently increased from 40% to 51%, thereby transforming the company from an empowered company into a black-owned and controlled company. prior to the m&as, which impacted approximately 300 employees, no human resources (hr) due diligence was conducted to prepare and mobilise the workforce for the organisational changes. the negative impact of missing this critical step became evident when the best talent began leaving the company with attendant declining motivation and lost productivity. purpose the objective of the study was to explore the perceptions of senior managers about the impact of change on the psychological contract. the sub-objectives were to determine what organisational factors contribute to changes in the psychological contract during periods of change, and the implications of the breach of the psychological contract for the company and its employees. literature review change management practices during mergers and acquisitions a merger is the combination of two-share capital, almost equally sized organisations. the two organisations take the best of each to form a new entity, sharing resources and corporate objectives (filho, 2014). an acquisition occurs when an organisation takes ownership by purchasing majority shares in another organisation (gomes, weber, brown & tarba, 2011). although m&as are different legal transactions, they tend to be treated similarly in the literature (al-laham, schweizer & amburgey, 2010; bowman & ambrosinni, 2007). various steps must be taken to ensure that the merged entities function optimally (sun, peng, ren & yang, 2012). such steps include undertaking a due diligence process, involving hr in the management of the process, communicating to employees, developing culture compatibility and ensuring governance around structures and processes. due diligence and postmerger integration should be planned simultaneously and managed as ongoing processes during the premerger phase (weber, 2011). effective due diligence leads to a purposeful acquisition strategy for the merging companies and thus is an important process (ceausescu, 2008); inadequate due diligence increases the risk of failure (sun et al., 2012). the process of due diligence normally involves financial staff and is not extended to other leaders in areas such as hr, information technology and operations who must work with the new partners (penava & šehić, 2014). similarly, senior executives involved m&as mostly focus on the strategic fit of the merging organisations, not on cultural fit (bauer & matzler, 2014), and may not consider the human element in the running of the operations postmerger (rottig, reus & tarba, 2014). however, nohe and michaelis (2016) note that, with acquisitions, it is important that the acquiring organisation gains a holistic perspective of the target organisation. various factors are important during periods of m&as. communication is crucial during such processes and the lack of a systematic communication method for liaising with employees can be an impediment to successful postmerger integration (herold, fedor, caldwell & lui, 2008). effective communication includes aspects of timing, frequency, honesty and management reliability and approachability (brakman, garita, garresten & van marrewijk, 2008). top executives are critical to the leading of any change process, including setting out the communication agenda (penava & šehić, 2014). senior management must drive the communication strategy with a consistent message, assuring all stakeholders that the process is efficient and effective, and providing reminders about the rationale for the change (angwin 2004). the management of hr is a major determinant in the success of the integration postmerger (alfes, truss & gill, 2010). employees of newly merged companies are likely to be exposed to changes in their psychological contracts that affect their performance and engagement (coyle-shapiro & kessler, 2002; mcdermott, conway, rousseau & flood, 2013). the management of hr is important both preand postmerger in order to address issues of uncertainty about matters of job security and the future, as talented employees are often lost during periods of change (creasy & peck, 2009). lack of attention to employees at this time may also result in resistance to change (penava & šehić, 2014) which manifests itself through negative attitudes and behaviours towards the acquisition or merger (choi, 2011). resistance must be managed because it can influence successful postmerger integration and it affects the inputs and the willingness of employees to participate in the integration process (kyei-poku & miller, 2013). organisational culture is ‘the deep structure of organisations, entrenched in the values, beliefs and assumptions held by employees’ (stahl & voight, 2008, p. 163). organisational cultural misalignment is a major impediment to successful m&as as employees bring to the workplace their own particular ways of operating and their preferences and desires based on the culture of the organisations that have served as a reference point for them. even in optimal situations, it can take time for employees to assimilate into a single culture (chatterjee, 2009). the psychological contract the psychological contract refers to the exchange agreement between the employee and employer (rousseau, 1990) and involves perceived obligations that centre on seeking agreement on employment terms (vantilborgh et al., 2014). psychological contracts are not static and are continuously changing as a result of employee experiences during employment (aggarwai & bhargava, 2009; chaundry, coyle-shapiro & wayne, 2011). the psychological contract involves employee belief of what the organisation should offer and what the employee should give in return (guest, 2016). the psychological contract invokes certainty by creating, in employees, a sense of predictability, job security and control (sverdrup, 2012). breach of the psychological contract involves a perception that the company has reneged on the obligations that it promised to fulfil (cassar & buttigieg, 2015; piccoli & de witte, 2015). perceived fulfilment or psychological contractual obligations influence employee attitudes and behaviours such as job satisfaction and perceived job security (ahmed, d’netto, chelliah & fein, 2016; payne, culbertson, lopez, boswell & barger, 2015), organisational citizenship behaviours, turnover intentions and actual turnover (bauer & matzler, 2014) and motivation and performance (weber & fried, 2011). maintaining organisational commitment is a challenge during periods of organisational change (connelly & gallagher, 2004) as employees tend to maintain their commitment to the old employer rather than committing to a new employer (kessler, coyle-shapiro & purcell, 1999). in order to address the research objective of exploring the perceptions of senior managers about the impact of change on the psychological contract, four propositions emanating from the literature review are posited. proposition 1: psychological contract breach can occur during periods of organisational change. if not handled sensitively, organisational change can break the psychological contract between the employee and employer, resulting in counter-productive behaviours such as the intention to leave, reduced organisational commitment and less job involvement (wagner & victoria garibaldi de hilal, 2014). proposition 2: performing a due diligence exercise is important prior to the merger or acquisition in order to promote the psychological contract between employer and employee. m&as generally involve extensive organisational change for the acquiring, the acquired or the merged organisation (gomes et al., 2013). marks and mirvis (2001) indicate that in most m&a activities, hr issues are neglected and hr practitioners do not play a central role in the process. if a merger or acquisition is to be successful, hr needs to be involved actively throughout all the stages of the m&a process (gomes, angwin, peter & mellahi, 2012; zhang et al., 2015). proposition 3: during periods of strategic change such as m&as, key talent can be lost because of breaches of the psychological contract. many acquiring companies lose key employees soon after the deal closes (steigenberger, 2016) and, if uncertainties exist, key employees look for other alternatives (pohl, bertrand & ergen, 2016). proposition 4: the existing organisational cultures of the merging organisations can result in a clash of cultures that impacts the psychological contract between employer and employee. culture is critically important to business success (viegas-pires, 2013), but changes in organisational culture through m&as can lead to culture clashes and result in employee unhappiness (marks & mirvis, 2001). in summary, table 1 notes the alignment of the propositions, the literature review and the research objective or sub-objectives. table 1: alignment propositions, literature and research objective or sub-objectives. method research approach the choice of a qualitative methodology was motivated by the desire to explore issues surrounding a problem for which greater information is needed (domegan & fleming, 2007). qualitative methodology results in data-rich descriptions that are coherent and can advance understanding of the social phenomenon under investigation (marshall & rossman, 2010). accordingly, the study was positioned within an interpretivist paradigm where reality consists of reported subjective experiences of the external world (erikson & kovalainen, 2008). research design a case study design in a single organisation was used to allow for the exploration of the manner in which individuals construct meaning within the real-life context (yin, 2009). population and sample the population comprised all 60 senior managers in the company. non-probability, purposive sampling was used that afforded focus on the particular characteristics of a population of interest in order to best allow the research question to be answered (marshall & rossman, 2010). the sample consisted of 12 senior managers who actively participated in the daily supervision, planning and administrative processes of the company. all were located in band d reporting into band e of the paterson grading system (paterson, 1972). all were employed at the organisation during 2009 and 2015 when the organisation was undergoing the changes. by the use of such selection criteria, an attempt was made to ensure that those providing information could comment sensibly on the issues under investigation. the participants included seven males and five females: three were african, one was mixed race, one was indian and seven were white people. tenure with the organisation ranged between 5 and 22 years. all participants had undergraduate degrees with some pursuing postgraduate studies. interview guide based on the literature reviewed, an interview guide with semistructured, open-ended questions were constructed to guide the researchers in the probing of issues. the questions focused on the issues of promises made to employees and change management during the periods of m&as. examples of questions included: ‘what changed in your working conditions when there was a merger or an acquisition?’ ‘can you provide an example of a time that a promise made to you was broken by the company?’ ‘please describe the changes you experienced’. data collection the semistructured interviews were conducted at the participants’ place of work in gauteng. all interviews were recorded on a digital voice recorder with the permission of the participants. while an interview guide served to guide the interviews and to provide a broad structure in terms of the areas of investigation, participants were encouraged to embellish on the issues and such embellishments allowed for the probing of the issues under consideration. data analysis and interpretation key themes were identified after a content analysis resulted in a grouping of emerging issues from the data (leedy & ormrod, 2005). the propositions were used as a framework for the interpretation of the data. validity and reliability of the data to ensure face validity of the measuring instrument, the questions were piloted with five managers from the finance department under the same conditions as those that prevailed in the main study. lincoln and guba (1985) propose that qualitative studies must be trustworthy by being credible with the research accurately identifying the issues under study. the present study sought to uphold this ideal by three independent researchers separately checking the data emerging from the interviews. lincoln and guba (1985) further note that the study must be dependable. this aspect was addressed by the transcription of detailed and accurate content provided by the research participants. further, the concept of transferability (lincoln & guba, 1985) was adhered to in that the study allows for the findings to be applicable in other contexts through the use of ‘thick descriptions’ (geertz, 1973) that can be considered in other settings. finally, the concept of authenticity (lincoln & guba, 1985) was addressed by fairly representing the data and by reporting the findings in a manner that allows for a greater understanding of social situations and the perspectives of a variety of people. findings seven themes, perceived by senior managers as being important for the psychological contract during periods of change, emerged from the data: communication, planning, leadership, employee engagement, the role of the hr department, organisational culture and change management processes. qualitative comments provided by participants (noted as participant 1, participant 2, etc.) are interspersed with the reporting of the findings. communication all participants agreed that communication plays a critical role in change processes such as m&as. two central issues emerged around the theme of communication: communication relating to the merger or acquisition itself and communication relating to people issues. all participants highlighted the need for timeous communication concerning any change initiative. eight participants agreed that the conclusions of the deals were communicated to employees using verbal and written forms of communication although these sessions were perceived as being reactive on the part of management after rumours of pending deals emerged. email was the most frequently used communication channel and eight participants indicated that they would have preferred face-to-face and direct communication over written communication. four participants indicated that they became aware of the deals through the ‘grapevine’: well, i read the newspapers. i hear mergers here and there, people are angry, people are being retrenched – not that i know the difference between a merger and an acquisition. (participant 4, white male, acquiring company) i think there should have been earlier communication which was honest rather than vague. i mean look at the x deal, no one knew about it. but i think you show respect to people by involving them and i don’t think we got that quite right. (participant 2, african male, acquiring company) all participants agreed that communication regarding people issues was neglected by management. eight participants agreed that lack of communication or inadequate communication regarding issues that directly affected people caused apprehension amongst employees and this made further communication efforts difficult. people lost interest in the merger or acquisition and there was a general decline in productivity and staff morale: often there wasn’t transparency, so one didn’t know … we would hear things in the passage. i think that the biggest problems we had … the lack of transparency, lack of clear communication and, i think, also often dissent in the management circle. top management couldn’t agree and they fought amongst themselves. (participant 9, white female, acquired company) eleven participants felt that they were not given an opportunity to provide feedback to leadership regarding issues of concern: a staff survey was made available, which was administered twice but we actually never got feedback. we never got to know what the main issues that emanated from the staff survey were and how they were going to be addressed. so, for me, it didn’t work at all. communication was ineffective because management failed to actually monitor or get the issues resolved. (participant 5, white male, acquiring company) i felt management communicated as one of those ‘by the way’ things and ticked off the box that it’s been done. (participant 1, african female, acquiring company) planning all participants strongly agreed that planning is critical during periods of change, such as those introduced by m&as, but stated that planning for the m&as was insufficient. two broad issues emerged in relation to the theme of planning: the absence of a sound due diligence exercise and the absence of setting vision, mission and strategic objectives: a proper due diligence should have been conducted by outside consultants to eliminate any biased thinking or overconfidence in the organisation’s own abilities. furthermore, potential liabilities should have been identified and investigated further and not been taken at face value. (participant 12, indian male, acquired company) i think the biggest thing within all these acquisitions was a lack of a clear strategic direction and leadership. i know for a fact that there has been a downturn in profits and profitability … if you look at the figures, we’re going in the wrong direction. (participant 2, african male, acquiring company) the involvement of people is a critical component in the due diligence process, as it is those people who will make the due diligence process work. (participant 12, indian male, acquired company) seven participants felt that the formation of the new company, with its merged and acquired components, provided the company with an opportunity to formulate a vision, mission and new strategic objectives. however, this did not happen because business units continued to trade as separate entities with one business unit refusing to be part of the integration. four participants emphasised the importance of setting up a strategic direction for the newly merged entity: well … as you know … i’m on my way out. i’m tired of the politics at play. there’s no direction, no clear strategy. (participant 3, mixed race female, acquired company) i think there were too many changes and even at this point, i still don’t know where we’re going. i don’t have a clear understanding of what the strategy is. because one day we are retrenching people in finance, the next minute we are not; the next minute we are retrenching procurement staff, the next we are not. the next minute business development is here, the next it’s in ireland. so everything’s all over the show. nothing’s clear at the moment, so i guess that makes me a little bit nervous. (participant 7, white female, acquired company) almost all participants had changed positions once or twice within the organisation and felt that no senior cohesive team had been developed after the m&as: the critical element for success of an m&a is not the potential amount of synergy to be realised by combining companies, but rather the existence of people who can play a critical role in ensuring a successful integration process. (participant 12, indian male, acquired company) literally, i’ve had seven job descriptions over a period of two years. within the first year of my employment, i had four different bosses. it was quite disruptive. (participant 7, white female, acquired company) three participants indicated that more in-depth technical due diligence should have been conducted because all the business units used different systems and processes. the delays associated with trying to implement a uniform system and implement new policies and processes caused further consternation amongst employees and clients. the biggest problem facing the business units involved incompatibility between the various systems and this resulted in the introduction of a new reporting system: some of the business units did not have formal systems and when the new reporting process system was introduced, chaos erupted. there were different versions, different interpretations, everyone having different minds about how the system had to be implemented. it was a mess. (participant 6, african male, acquiring company) leadership all participants felt that leaders have a responsibility to orchestrate the success of organisational change efforts: post-integration i feel that there hasn’t been strong leadership. i don’t think it is my perspective alone, but the general perspective of employees … they don’t feel that the organisation lived up to its words and there was no action … so there’s a very definite change in culture. (participant 5, white male, acquiring company) and i think it’s not just an hr department that must do it or should do it… but it must be driven by leadership with the support of hr. (participant 9, white female, acquired company) employee engagement the findings relating to employee engagement involved two dimensions, namely affective or emotional engagement and behavioural engagement. nine participants mentioned that they were not engaged in their work and that, although they attended and participated at work, they were merely serving time, putting no passion or energy into their work. six participants indicated that the m&a changes were threatening for employees and produced anxiety and stress. five participants highlighted the common stressors as being: level of uncertainty, fears concerning job loss, job changes and changes in compensation and status. participants believed that these stressors led to a high turnover rate, decreased productivity, low staff morale, low job satisfaction and a lack of identification with the newly constituted organisation: after the mergers and acquisitions, the anxiety grew especially as the processes unfolded and the organisation started getting big. the realities of the mergers were realised when the organisation started retrenching staff … people became disengaged, morale was affected. however … they always pulled themselves back. but just as they were about to stabilise, another acquisition happened, then the whole process of disengagement, low morale, psychological distance would happen again to a point where it became cyclical. at the present moment, based on the conversations i’ve had with some of my colleagues … people’s security is threatened, people fear that they’ll become obsolete as they fear that their skills and expertise will lose value in the new organisation. generally … people are not in a good space. you can just see; they do what is required. that sense of going an extra mile is gone … (participant 3, mixed race female, acquired company) participants reported an absence of support structures to assist employees with stress coping strategies: i was told to call our employee assistance programme … that we have it as an option should we need counselling etc. but i don’t know … empathy would have been … well … better received. (participant 5, white male, acquiring company) all participants felt that promises of support, participation in a long-term incentive scheme, salary adjustments, higher prestigious positions and opportunities for training and development were not kept. this affected the commitment of employees and their general outlook regarding the organisation: i mean forget about position and income and bonus and other things. those were there or here. decisions were reversed. (participant 2, african male, acquiring company) the role of the human resources department ten participants noted that the role played by the hr department during the m&a integration processes could have been more strategic in assisting management to develop a people management strategy. in fact, it was noted that hr was not included in the due diligence process: issues like remuneration … nothing was done about remuneration. the different remuneration structures were an issue as people started comparing themselves to their peers because the salaries and benefits were different. the general feeling was that we’re not being taken care of. (participant 8, white male, acquired company) to be honest … hr tried to implement standard policies and practices but there was so much resistance from certain senior managers who did not want changes. there were some battles won but i think the process would have been much better if hr had support from management. and when i say support, i mean support, not half hearted support. (participant 1, african female, acquiring company) organisational culture all participants agreed that the organisation had not established the type of culture they desired following the m&as. they also indicated that no proper cultural assessment had been conducted prior to these changes being implemented: my perception is that we haven’t really developed a proper culture. and the danger now with the latest acquisition is that we’re back to square one. we’re now being forced to be part of a bigger group. the whole feel needs to change. so whatever we have built with the company until now will again be sucked up into somebody else’s culture which is difficult because now you have an overseas multinational mother company that you have to look at. it’s a rough road. i don’t know why i’m still here! (participant 8, white male, acquired company) all participants felt that culture should be an important consideration during periods of growth created by m&as. in addition, they felt that if the cultures of the acquiring and acquired companies were vastly different, it would prove difficult to integrate the organisation: the cultures differ immensely. i mean we are trying to combine 13 different cultures. it was bound to be difficult to establish synergy, more especially if the leaders themselves don’t know what kind of culture they would like to see define the company brand. (participant 11, white male, acquired company) change management processes participants did not understand the different change processes, and were particularly confused about whether the change process was a merger or an acquisition; they used the terms interchangeably: well it was a strange thing because it was a reverse acquisition, remember? x actually bought y … but then y, being the bigger company, took over the acquisition, so we were part of the acquiring company in a way … it was a very strange deal. (participant 6, african male, acquiring company) ten participants felt that the m&as were discussed between top management of the acquiring and acquired companies and that other stakeholders were not involved: but it was mostly x and y and the board and whoever did all of that. they ran with everything from start to finish. (participant 6, african male, acquiring company) the stakeholders were always only the senior management of the acquiring company, and the acquired company. (participant 3, mixed race female, acquired company) all participants agreed that managing change is important when promoting integration of different organisational cultures: change management is important. it’s critical. i think if you don’t have buy in from your staff and they don’t feel part of the process, you’re lost. you’re already dead; you’re doomed to fail. aren’t your people your resource? (participant 7, white female, acquired company) change management is critical. for me, employees are what make the organisation. if they are disengaged, unhappy, fearful, constantly questioning their security, they tend to lose focus of what the organisation is trying to achieve. therefore, engage with them, talk to them, invite them to give feedback and suggestions. (participant 5, white male, acquiring company) all participants believed that a detailed change management plan should have addressed communication to create awareness about the changes and how they affect employees to avoid information being acquired through the corporate grapevine: as management, have a plan and decide on the culture that defines the company. the culture should be something that will drive the business and its processes. implementation should be immediate with milestones of what needs to be achieved and when. also, get constant feedback from employees and allow employees to give inputs. address their concerns. (participant 5, white male, acquiring company) ethical considerations in seeking informed consent for the study, the selection process was explained to the participants and the potential benefits of participation were described. this information was included in the written consent agreement which was signed by all participants. to maintain confidentiality, participants’ names were not recorded (domegan & fleming, 2007), and all identifying information was excluded in the reporting of the findings (leedy & ormrod, 2005). discussion outline of the findings the objective of the study was to explore the perceptions of senior managers about the impact on the psychological contract during periods of change. the sub-objectives were to determine what organisational factors contribute to changes in the psychological contract during periods of change, and the implications of the breach of the psychological contract for the company and its employees. four propositions were posited and form the framework within which the seven main clusters of findings that address these objectives are discussed. proposition 1: psychological contract breach can occur during periods of organisational change this proposition is supported by the themes that were identified by senior managers – organisational culture, employee engagement and communication. the findings indicate that organisational change contributed to the breakdown of the exchange relationship between the employer and employees, the heart of the psychological contract (aggarwal-gupta et al., 2012). from comments relating to the seven themes that emerged, employees appeared to have withdrawn from the organisation. during periods of change, employees may find it difficult to identify with the newly constituted organisation which can lead to lower job satisfaction and turnover intentions (payne et al., 2015). communication, a critical component of any change process (khalid & rehman, 2011), was lacking, as indicated by the numerous suggestions for increased levels of communication. in the absence of such communication, participants expressed feelings of apprehension, and noted the loss of productivity, the high employee turnover and poor morale in the company, factors which were also found by conway and coyle-shapiro (2012) to be consequences of changes in the psychological contract. similarly, bauer and matzler (2014) report that during periods of change, lack of communication, involvement and support have a negative impact on the psychological contract. the need for clarity about plans, structure and personnel issues, together with honesty and openness, are key ingredients of any effective communication system (brakman et al., 2008). further, the negative impact of change on the psychological contract can be extrapolated from the expressions of potential loss of organisational citizenship behaviours such as loyalty and trust in the organisation, perceptions of organisational unjust practices such as unfairness of the downsizing or retrenchment processes and confusion over roles and expectations. in line with the breach in psychological contract, it appears that participants felt that there were few prospects for growth because of the broken promises they experienced. these findings echo the argument of chaundry et al. (2011) who suggest that organisational change results in a revision in the relational psychological contract. proposition 2: performing a due diligence exercise is important prior to the merger or acquisition in order to promote the psychological contract between employer and employee the findings support this proposition. the themes identified by senior managers in this regard include those of the involvement of the hr department and the change management processes. m&as are becoming increasingly complex and it is thus important that an appropriate due diligence exercise is performed to mitigate the difficulty and risk associated with these deals (ceausescu, 2008). despite due diligence being an important aspect of m&as (gomes et al., 2012), very little implementation planning was conducted at the company, and hr appeared to have been excluded from the process. participants perceived that the due diligence process, including the people aspects of due diligence, had been overlooked. linked to due diligence, it appears that leaders of the company did not strategise for employee engagement and that the change management process was unclear and excluded the involvement of staff. for m&as to be successful, and for the psychological contract to be preserved during such change processes, hr practitioners need to play an integral role in the process (zhang et al., 2015). proposition 3: during periods of strategic change such as mergers and acquisitions, key talent can be lost because of breaches of the psychological contract the findings support this proposition. the themes that emerged from senior managers to support this proposition included employee engagement, communication and change management processes. several participants alluded to the unhappiness of staff in the organisation with references to departure intentions. the frequency of the changes also led to increased levels of job insecurity, and an absence of strategic planning and inadequate communication led participants to feel uneasy about their futures and career paths. participants noted that the hr department did not play a critical role in the integration process which resulted in people-related activities being neglected. they felt that the hr staff should have formulated a transitional plan during the due diligence process so that all people-related issues could be addressed (zhang et al., 2015) such as the retention of staff (steigenberger, 2016). proposition 4: existing organisational cultures of the merging organisations can result in a clash of cultures that impacts the psychological contract between employee and employer the findings support this proposition. the themes emerged from senior managers related to organisational culture, leadership, planning and the involvement of the hr department. participants perceived that culture was ignored during the m&as and noted that the resultant organisational culture was undesirable with a lack of integration of the different cultures of the acquired companies. according to simpson (2000), the continuous identification and capturing of value happens during the integration period, and success in the area requires the involvement of senior management. an effective top management team has the ability to defuse postacquisition conflict, as well as better coordinate business unit integration during periods of change (bouckenooghe, 2012). participants perceived that the leadership of the company had not established the kind of culture that would drive the business and that there were cultural mismatches that made it difficult to establish synergies. this demonstrated poor integration planning because cultural alignment should begin during the m&a processes (rottig et al., 2014) and be instilled throughout the change process (bauer & matzler, 2014; viegas-pires, 2013). in addition, participants noted that, as hr was not involved in the integration planning, culture integration was overlooked. the most important contribution by hr during m&as is to determine if the cultures of the merging companies are compatible (zhang et al., 2015). practical implications seven themes emerged which encapsulated the perceptions of senior managers about the impact of change on the psychological contract during periods of m&as – lack of communication, the absence of planning, lack of employee engagement, less than optimal hr involvement, lack of preparation of the organisational culture and poor change management processes. these factors need to be addressed to strengthen the psychological contract of employees during periods of change. as a result of these factors not being addressed, the psychological contract between employees and the company was negatively impacted, with dissatisfaction being manifested along with signs of intention to leave the company. the study provides practical pointers for the company to consider in relation to the importance of the psychological contract during m&as. conway and briner (2009) note that useful guidance for managers is often overlooked in studies that focus on psychological contract breach. the present study provides awareness of the need to manage the psychological contract as an integral component of the change process during m&as. the psychological contract is a crucial element in understanding employee work behaviours and a variety of work outcomes (coyle-shapiro & kessler, 2002). the success or failure of integration depends on how organisations manage the psychological contract during periods of change. understanding employee expectations relating to the employer–employee contract will enhance the understanding of the factors that employees regard as crucial and shape the psychological contract (aggarwai & bhargava, 2009). leaders should understand that change is dynamic, and thus, also affects the psychological contract. therefore, initiatives supporting change management should not focus exclusively on tangible issues, but should also address people issues. it is recommended that the leaders of the company develop a clear integration plan should any further restructuring occur. in this regard, managers need to be in continuous dialogue with employees in order to inform them about the organisational goals and plans. this enables managers to obtain feedback from employees about their personal needs and preferences. better communication between parties encourages the development of clearer expectations by all about the psychological contract. hr practitioners should play a role at every stage of the merger or acquisition process. it is important for the company to equip its hr department with better knowledge and skills to cope with the new realities. this implies that hr practitioners should have business acumen relating to issues such as industry trends, governmental policies, finance, legal systems, social and development changes that have a direct bearing on the company’s objectives, performance and its people. after the integration process, company leaders should ensure that employees have clear guidance on their roles within the new organisation, as well as growth plans that assist them in adjusting to ensuing changes. cognisance should be taken of the differences that exist between individuals and where possible, their remuneration structures, career aspirations and development plans should be structured equitably. a culture audit, during the pre-integration stage, should be conducted to determine what kinds of norms are important to the functioning of an organisation. cultural audits are not watertight, but such audits may assist leaders in understanding pressure points at which culture might be influenced. a process of continuous communication should be adopted to ensure that employees understand the rationale for the change and its overall contribution to the business objectives. the communication needs to begin during the premerger stages to set the scene to promote the commitment of staff to the organisation (herold et al., 2008). limitations and recommendations the tacit nature of the psychological contract is subjective. accordingly, the change experienced and its impact on the psychological contract of participants cannot be generalised to represent the experience of all employees in the company. however, in keeping with this methodology, rich insights were gained and can be used to further the research agenda in this field. while participants were assured of confidentiality of responses, they, nevertheless, may have provided ‘socially acceptable’ responses. however, from the tone of the qualitative narrative, it appears that participants felt free to express their views. again, inherent in the analysis of qualitative data is the possibility of bias in the interpretation of data. future research could focus how leaders can protect and strengthen the psychological contract during periods of mergers or acquisitions. based on the key issues that emerged in this study, a model process could be devised with key action steps at all points in the change process. it is suggested that this model is then validated within the company. conclusion the objective of the study was to explore the perceptions of senior managers about the impact of change on the psychological contract. from the factors identified, it is indicated that leaders of organisations need to pay particular attention, during the change process involving m&as, to communication, planning, employee engagement, the involvement of hr in the process, the preparation of the organisational culture, change management processes and leadership. the organisational environment is continuously changing and organisational leaders need to be aware of the employment relationships in various situational circumstances. safeguarding the psychological contract is paramount if good staff are to be retained and a positive organisational culture established within which staff can flourish during periods of change and thereafter. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the study was based on the research dissertation of the first author, k.d.m., completed at the university of johannesburg for the mphil degree in human resources management. a.t. was the supervisor of the study. a.t. converted the dissertation into the present manuscript. references aggarwai, u., & bhargava, s. (2009). reviewing the relationship between human resources practices and psychological contract and their impact on employee attitude and behaviors: a conceptual model. journal of european industrial training, 33(1), 4–31. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090590910924351 aggarwal-gupta, m., kumar, r., & upadhyahula, r.s. (2012). success of a merger or acquisition: a consideration of influencing factors. international journal of management practice, 5(3), 270–286. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijmp.2012.048076 ahmed, e., d’netto, b., chelliah, j., & fein, e. (2016). psychological contract breach: consequences of unkept promises of permanent employment. contemporary management research, 12(2), 182–210. https://doi.org/10.7903/cmr.13914 alfes, k., truss, c., & gill, j. (2010). the hr manager as a change agent: evidence from the public sector. journal of change management, 10(1), 109–127. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697010903549465 al-laham, a., schweizer, l., & amburgey, t.l. (2010). dating before marriage: analyzing the influence of pre-acquisition experience and target familiarity on acquisition success. scandinavian journal of management, 26(1), 25–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2009.11.005 angwin, d. (2004). speed in m&a integration: the first 100 days. european management journal, 22(4), 418–430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2004.06.005 bauer, f., & matzler, k. (2014). antecedents of m&a success: the role of strategic complementarity, cultural fit, and degree and speed of integration. strategic management journal, 35(4), 269–291. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2091 bouckenooghe, d. (2012). the role of organizational politics, contextual resources, and formal communication on change recipients commitment to change: a multilevel study. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 21(4), 575–602. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2011.591573 bowman, c., & ambrosini, v. (2007). firm value creation and levels of strategy. management decision, 45(3), 360–371. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740710745007 brakman, s., garita, g., garresten, h., & van marrewijk, c. (2008). unlocking the value of cross border mergers and acquisitions. cesifo working paper series 2294. munich: cesifo group. cassar, v., & buttigieg, s.c. (2015). psychological contract breach, organizational justice and emotional well-being. personnel review, 44(2), 217–235. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-04-2013-0061 ceausescu, a. (2008). mergers and acquisitions: a strategic option for companies. economics, 8(1), 59–64. chatterjee, s. (2009). the keys to successful acquisition programmes. long range planning, 42(2), 137–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2008.12.001 chaundry, a., coyle-shapiro, j.a., & wayne, s.j. (2011). a longitudinal study of the impact of organizational change on transactional, relational and balanced psychological contracts. journal of leadership and organizational studies, 18, 247–259. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051810385942 choi, m. (2011). employee attitudes towards organizational change: a literature review. human resources management, 50(4), 479–500. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20434 connelly, c.e., & gallagher, d.g. (2004). emerging trends in contigent work research. journal of management, 30(6), 959–983. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jm.2004.06.008 conway, n., & briner, r.b. (2009). fifty years of psychological contract research: what do we know and what are the main challenges? international review of industrial and organizational psychology, 27(71), 71–131. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470745267.ch3 conway, n., & coyle-shapiro, j.a.m. (2012). the reciprocal relationship between psychological contract fulfilment and employee performance and the moderating role of perceived organizational support and tenure. journal of organizational and occupational psychology, 85, 277–299. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.2011.02033.x coyle-shapiro, j., & kessler, i. (2002). exploring reciprocity through the lens of the psychological contract employee-employer perspective. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 11, 69–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320143000852 creasy, t., & peck, s. (2009). understanding employee level dynamics within the merger and acquisition process. journal of general management, 35(2), 21–42. https://doi.org/10.1177/030630700903500203 domegan, c., & fleming, d. (2007). marketing research in ireland: theory and practice. dublin: gill & macmillian. erikson, p. &., & kovalainen, a. (2008). qualitative methods in business research. london: sage. filho, w.p. (2014). mergers and acquisitions in hospital sector: a strategic analysis of the brazilian market. international manpower review, 10(2), 5–12. geertz, c. (1973). the interpretation of cultures. new york: basic books. gomes, e., angwin, d.n., peter, e., & mellahi, k. (2012). hrm issues and outcomes in african mergers and acquisitions: a study of the nigerian banking sector. journal of management studies, 23(14), 2874–2900. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.671509 gomes, e., angwin, d.n., & yedidia tarba, s. (2013). critical success factors through the mergers and acquisitions process: revealing preand post-m&a connections for improvement performance. thunderbird international business review, 55(6), 13–35. https://doi.org/10.1002/tie.21521 gomes, e., weber, y., brown, c., & tarba, s.y. (2011). mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances: understanding the process. london: palgrave macmillan. guest, d.e. (2016). trust and the role of the psychological contract in contemporary employment relations. building trust and constructive conflict management in organizations, 13(15), 17–149. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31475-4_8 herold, d.m., fedor, d.b., caldwell, s., & lui, y. (2008). the effects of transformational and change leadership on employee’s commitment to a change: a multilevel study. journal of applied psychology, 93(2), 346–370. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.93.2.346 kessler, i., coyle-shapiro, j., & purcell, j. (1999). outsourcing and the employee perspective. human resources management, 9, 5–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.1999.tb00193.x khalid, a., & rehman, r.r. (2011). effects of organizational change on employee job involvement: mediating role of communication, emotions and psychological contract. information management and business review, 3(3), 178–184. kyei-poku, i.a., & miller, d. (2013). impact of employee merger satisfaction on organizational commitment and turnover intentions: a study of a canadian financial institution. international journal of management, 44(7), 205–225. leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2005). practical research: planning and design. upper saddle, nj: prentice hall. lincoln, y.s., & guba, e.g. (1985). naturalistic inquiry. newbury park, ca: sage. marks, m., & mirvis, p. (2001). making mergers and acquisitions work: strategic and psychological preparation. the academy of management executive, 2(1), 43–56. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2001.4614947 marshall, c., & rossman, g.b. (2010). designing qualitative research. (5th edn.). los angeles, ca: sage. mcdermott, a.m., conway, e., rousseau, d.m., & flood, p.c. (2013). promoting effective psychological contracts through leadserhip: the missing link between hr strategy and performance. human resources management, 52(2), 289–310. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21529 nohe, c., & michaelis, b. (2016). team ocb, leader charisma and organizational change: a multilevel study. the leadership quarterly, 10(3), 234–256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2016.05.006 paterson, t. (1972). job evaluation. london: business books. payne, s.c., culbertson, s.s., lopez, y.p., boswell, w.r., & barger, e.j. (2015). contract breach as a trigger for adjustment to the psychological contract during the first year of employment. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 88(1), 41–60. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12077 penava, s., & šehić, d. (2014). the relevance of transformational leadership in shaping employee attitudes towards organisational changes. economic annals, 59(200), 131–162. https://doi.org/10.2298/eka1400131p piccoli, b., & de witte, h. (2015). job insecurity and emotional exhaustion: testing psychological contract breach versus distributive injustice as indicators of lack of reciprocity. work & stress, 29(3), 246–263. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2015.1075624 pohl, s., bertrand, f., & ergen, c. (2016). psychological contracts and their implications for job outcomes: a social exchange view. journal of international human resources management, 13(6), 181–203. https://doi.org/10.1037/mil0000127 rottig, d., reus, t.h., & tarba, s.y. (2014). the impact of culture on mergers and acquisitions: a third of a century of research. advances in mergers and acquisitions, 38(9), 135–172. rousseau, d.m. (1990). new hire perceptions of their own and their employer’s obligations: a study of the psychological contract. journal of organizational behavior, 1(5), 389–400. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030110506 simpson, c. (2000). integration framework: supporting successful mergers. mergers and acquisitions in canada, 12(10), 3. stahl, g., & voight, a. (2008). do cultural differences matter in mergers and acquisitions? a tentative model and examination. organization science, 19(1), 160–171. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1070.0270 steigenberger, n. (2016). the challenge of integration: a review of the m&a integration literature. international journal of management review, 23(2), 220–240. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12099 sun, s.l., peng, m.w., ren, b., & yan, d. (2012). acomparative ownership advantage framework for cross-border m&as: the rise of chinese and indian mnes. journal of world business, 47, 4–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2010.10.015 sverdrup, t.e. (2012). the strength of reciprocity: exploring the horizontal psychological contract in work groups. unpublished masters dissertation, nhh norwegian school of economics, bergen, norway. thayser, d. (2009). ernst & young – mergers and acquisitions handbook. (17th edn.). johannesburg: ernst & young. thayser, d., & dada, a. (2007). mergers and acquisitions driven by private equity, bee and cross-border investment. management review, 23(3), 61–62. vantilborgh, t., bidee, j., pepermans, r., willems, j., huybrechts, g., & jegers, m. (2014). effects of ideological and relational contract breach and fulfilment on volunteers’ work effort. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 23(2), 217–230. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2012.740170 viegas-pires, m. (2013). multiple levels of culture and post m&a integration: a suggested theoretical framework. thunderbird international business review, 35(9), 357–370. https://doi.org/10.1002/tie.21550 wagner, b., & victoria garibaldi de hilal, a. (2014). the human factor: a successful acquisition in brazil. management research review, 37(3), 261–287. https://doi.org/10.1108/mrr-09-2012-0200 weber, y. (2011). guest editor’s introduction: managing mergers and acquisitions implementation and integration. international studies of management and organization, 41(3), 3–8. https://doi.org/10.2753/imo0020-8825410300 weber, y., & fried, y. (2011). guest editors’ notes: the dynamic employees’ reactions during the post merger integration process. human resources management, 14(7), 777–781. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20468 wei, t., & clegg, j. (2014). successful integration of target firms in international acquisitions: a comparative study in the medical technology industry. the leadership quarterly, 40, 237–255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2013.05.003 yin, r. (2009). case study research. (4th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. zhang, j., ahammad, m.f., tarba, s., cooper, c.l., glaister, k.w., & wang, j. (2015). the effect of leadership style on talent retention during merger and acquisition integration: evidence from china. the international journal of human resources management, 26(7), 1021–1050. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2014.908316 abstract introduction synthesis and critical evaluation of the literature human–robot interaction workforce implications academic theories identified research design, approach and method results and discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) andre p. calitz department of computing sciences, nelson mandela metropolitan university, south africa paul poisat nelson mandela metropolitan university business school, port elizabeth, south africa margaret cullen nelson mandela metropolitan university business school, port elizabeth, south africa citation calitz, a.p., poisat, p., & cullen, m. (2017). the future african workplace: the use of collaborative robots in manufacturing. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a901. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.901 original research the future african workplace: the use of collaborative robots in manufacturing andre p. calitz, paul poisat, margaret cullen received: 14 dec. 2016; accepted: 23 mar. 2017; published: 25 july 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: industry 4.0 promotes technological innovations and human–robot collaboration (hrc). human–robot interaction (hri) and hrc on the manufacturing assembly line have been implemented in numerous advanced production environments worldwide. collaborative robots (cobots) are increasingly being used as collaborators with humans in factory production and assembly environments. research purpose: the purpose of the research is to investigate the current use and future implementation of cobots worldwide and its specific impact on the african workforce. motivation for the study: exploring the gap that exists between the international implementation of cobots and the potential implementation and impact on the african manufacturing and assembly environment and specifically on the african workforce. research design, approach and method: the study features a qualitative research design. an open-ended question survey was conducted amongst leading manufacturing companies in south africa in order to determine the status and future implementation of cobot practices. thematic analysis and content analysis were conducted using atlasti. main findings: the findings indicate that the african businesses were aware of the international business trends, regarding cobot implementation, and the possible impact of cobots on the african work force. factors specifically highlighted in this study are fear of retrenchment, human–cobot trust and the african culture. practical implications and value-add: this study provides valuable background on the international status of cobot implementation and the possible impact on the african workforce. the study highlights the importance of building employee trust, providing the relevant training and addressing the fear of retrenchment amongst employees. introduction key focus of the study and background the term ‘industry 4.0’ originated in germany when the german government launched a high-tech strategy initiative, which promotes the computerisation of manufacturing facilities. industry 4.0 is labelled as the fourth industrial revolution and marks the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies. industry 4.0 includes cyber-physical systems, the internet of things (iot) and cloud computing. industry 4.0 creates a ‘smart factory’ within modular-structured smart factories, where cyber-physical systems monitor physical processes. in 1920, the word ‘robot’ was invented by the czech writer karel capek and used in his science-fiction stage play rossum’s universal robots. in 1954, the first industrial robot arm was patented, followed by an era of ‘caged’ robots during 1960–2000. in 1999, published research indicated that intelligent assist devices, today known as cobots, could reduce ergonomic concerns and improve safety, quality and productivity (akella et al., 1999). the first ur5 collaborative robot able to operate safely alongside humans was installed in december 2008, deploying the robot right alongside humans. this launched universal robots as a major player in the industrial automation market (ur, 2016). during 2012–2016, collaborative robotics become standard practice with large manufacturing businesses. in 2016, iso published iso/ts 15066, which provided guidelines on how to ensure the safety of human workers in collaborative robotic systems (ur, 2016). today, over 8400 cobots are installed in over 55 countries, and in south africa, vehicle manufacturers are increasingly investing in cobots. collaborative robots (cobots) are designed to work alongside human workers on assembly lines, assisting humans with a variety of assembly and manufacturing tasks. the automotive industry has been investigating and increasingly implementing cobots on assembly lines. cobots are increasingly being used as collaborators to humans in various contexts and industries, and researchers have investigated actions to promote higher team cohesiveness (strohkorb & scassellati, 2016). businesses are introducing cobots because they can be placed alongside humans in small-spaced assembly lines. cobots are more affordable and easily trainable and programmable than existing industrial robots, and they are flexible to handle short runs, repetitive and boring jobs and ergonomically challenging tasks. smalland medium-sized enterprises (smes) are eager to adopt this new technology as cobots have become more affordable. most professional service robots are collaborative by design, hence cobots are not just for smes or for manufacturing use. offices, homes, laboratories, warehouses, farms, distribution centres, hospitals and health care facilities are all employing service robots to help them do their jobs better. the market is open-ended but current uses for cobots include machine tending, material handling, assembly tasks and packaging. cobots can also pick, place, count and inspect. as more cobots are deployed, more uses will be discovered. industrial robots were caged to keep humans safe and out of harm’s way. service robots (cobots) are meant to safely leave the cage whilst doing tasks for humans. cobots come in all shapes and sizes and have integrated sensors and soft and rounded surfaces for safety purposes to reduce the risk of impact, pinching and crushing. the biggest safety feature of cobots is their force-limited joints, which are designed to sense forces due to impact and quickly react thereto. businesses increasingly use industrial robots in their manufacturing operations to reduce labour costs and increase competitiveness (technavio, 2016). in a human–machine study conducted by mit researchers at a bmw factory, the results indicated that teams made of humans and cobots collaborating efficiently can be more productive than teams made up of either humans or cobots alone. the study found that the co-operative process reduced human idle time by 85% (tobe, 2015). bmw already has 7500 industrial robots installed in their factories and are presently testing universal robots (ur3 = $23 000, ur5 = $35 000 and ur10 = $45 000) alongside humans specifically in ergonomically challenging assignments. other automobile manufacturers including mercedes-benz, audi and toyota have implemented cobots in production facilities. mercedes-benz indicated that they switched to smaller and safer robots working alongside humans for greater flexibility (gibbs, 2016). mercedes-benz are thus moving away from maximising automation, whilst increasing the role of the human in the industrial process (payne, 2016). smalland medium-sized enterprises are increasingly adopting and investing in this new technology. this segment will see massive growth in the next few years (tobe, 2015). internationally, there has been a rise in bot-sourcing. this stems from the current practices of outsourcing labour to countries such as china and india. businesses internationally are reshoring their manufacturing operations back to home countries due to rising labour costs and declining costs of industrial robots and the availability of cobots. these developments have created a platform for a new breed of industrial employee to emerge, where workers learn to work side by side with the latest generation of cobots (hollinger, 2016). research objectives the primary purpose of this study is to investigate the current use and future implementation of cobots in the african manufacturing environment. in line with this purpose, the main objective of the research is to conduct a survey amongst leading manufacturing companies in south africa and selected companies in africa in order to determine the current and future planned implementation of cobot practices. the main research question is: what are the main issues relating to the african workforce regarding the implementation of cobots? the core research problem relates to a gap in empirical research on the status of cobot practices in africa and the possible implications for the african workforce. the potential value-add of the study internationally, human–robot collaboration (hrc) on the manufacturing assembly line has been implemented in numerous advanced production environments. the value added by this study is assessing the extent to which cobot practices on the assembly lines in african manufacturing businesses are currently being investigated and implemented. the issues human resource (hr) practitioners must take cognisance of when introducing these new business practices are highlighted in this study. what will follow? the next section is a review of the literature, outlining research on the use of cobots on assembly lines in manufacturing environments and integrating it with this research study. this is followed by a discussion of the theoretical foundation on human–robot collaboration, theory identification, the research design, research findings, discussion and conclusions. synthesis and critical evaluation of the literature industry 4.0 industry 4.0 is also known as the fourth industrial revolution and is the current international trend of automation, the iot and data exchange in manufacturing environments. introducing these new technologies into a modern manufacturing environment is known as creating ‘smart factories’. industry 4.0 refers to the combination of several major innovations in digital technology transforming the manufacturing sectors. in 2015, pricewaterhousecoopers (pwc) surveyed more than 2000 companies from 26 countries in the industrial production sectors and found that companies are experiencing both cost reductions and revenue gains from their advanced digitisation efforts (geissbauer, vedsø & schrauf, 2016). three aspects of digitisation lie at the heart of an industry 4.0 approach, namely the full digitisation of a company’s operations, the redesign of products and services, and closer interaction with customers (geissbauer, vedsø & schrauf, 2016). industry 4.0 will affect the following areas: services and business models, reliability and continuous productivity, it security, machine safety, product lifecycles, the industry value chain and, most importantly, the workers’ education and skills (training) and socio-economic factors (ind4.0, 2016). industrial robots general motors introduced the first industrial robots in 1961. today robots perform a variety of tasks in automotive manufacturing plants, including welding and spray painting (gordon, 2016). robots free humans from repetitive tasks and working under difficult circumstances, such as amongst noxious fumes in vehicle paint shops. industrial robots generally consist of a robotic arm, control cabinet, control panel and other peripherals. they are used for various manufacturing operations, including welding (figure 1), painting, pick and place, palletising, cutting, assembly, product testing and inspection. during the period 1960–2000, industrial robots were generally ‘caged’, but presently cobots work in a collaborative working environment alongside humans (ur, 2016). figure 1: industrial welding robots. table 1: comparison between traditional industrial robots and cobots. market research analysts have predicted the industrial robotics market in the united states to grow rapidly at an impressive compounded annual growth rate (cagr) of more than 12% over the forecast period 2016–2020 (technavio, 2016). they have further predicted the global assembly line robots market to grow steadily at a cagr of 7% during the period 2016–2020. the need for flexibility in plant operations is one of the primary drivers of the market. cobots collaborative robots are a robotic device intended to interact physically with humans in a shared workspace (peshkin & edward, 1999). a cobot can manipulate objects and perform specified tasks in collaboration with human workers (colgate, wannasuphoprasit & peshkin, 1996). cobots are designed to work alongside human workers in production environments, assisting humans with a variety of tasks (tobe, 2015). the updated characteristics of traditional industrial robots and cobots are displayed in table 1, indicating that cobots are more flexible, easy to programme using graphical user interfaces, less expensive and are safety and easily redeployable (djuric, urbanic & rickli, 2016). the european union sme robot programme commenced in 2005 with the goal of increasing worker productivity to avoid the off-shoring of labour-intensive tasks (tobe, 2015). businesses are introducing cobots because they can interact with humans in a shared workspace, performing tasks in collaboration with humans. cobots are becoming increasingly affordable and can easily be trained. they are flexible to handle short runs and complete repetitive and boring jobs and ergonomically challenging tasks (tobe, 2015). the use of cobots minimises the margin of error in operations in comparison with manual labour and they do not require any supervision. cobots further reduce product failure and wastage and their adoption enables companies to minimise direct and overhead costs (hollinger, 2016). a leading vendor in the cobot market, asea brown boveri (abb), recently launched yumi, a two-arm cobot capable of advanced manual tasks (figure 2). abb’s yumi is a desk-top robot that has flexible hands and incorporates a parts feeding system, a camera-based part location and automated control system. yumi can collaborate side by side or across a workbench with human workers, allowing businesses to obtain optimal performance from humans and cobots working together (mcisa, 2017). figures 1 and 2 indicate that cobots are presently being designed and manufactured in different shapes and sizes. cobots (figure 2) have integrated sensors and soft rounded surfaces for safety purposes in order to reduce the risk of impact, pinching and crushing. the biggest safety feature of cobots is their force-limited joints, which are designed to sense forces because of impact and quickly respond to the situation (tobe, 2015). figure 2: yumi, a collaborative robot developed by abb. cobots are becoming increasingly more affordable and highly adaptable and are easier to train (reprogram) and deploy when compared to industrial robots (tobe, 2015). cobots can be programmed using a tablet or simply by moving the arms of the cobot in the required pattern. cobots can further easily be moved in a production environment. fast-berglund, palmkvist, nyqvist, ekered and åkerman (2016) compared the cobots (ur3 and ur5) in final assembly with humans performing the task of fitting o-ring assembly manually. the study found that cobots have great potential for financial cost savings, human time savings and improved shop floor design. barclays capital estimates that the cobot market could grow by $3 billion by 2020 (hollinger, 2016). presently, more than 600 ur robots are installed internationally (mcisa, 2017). the adoption of cobots has reduced the employee workload drastically. monotonous jobs such as assembling are now performed by cobots on the production line, working alongside human co-workers with high productivity and consistent quality. the introduction of cobots allows workers to focus more on supervising and decision-making roles. the use of cobots has assisted the automotive industry to a great extent (technavio, 2016). cobots are specifically designed for automotive assembly lines. various models have been designed to assist humans in the final automotive assembly stages of the production of cars (unhelkar & shah, 2015). smart working environments have been designed to allow true joint actions of humans and cobots (lenz, nair, rickert & knoll, 2008). cobots now have the capacity to understand the environment they operate in and the actions performed by human co-workers working collaboratively. coupeté, moutarde and manitsaris (2015) have developed a gesture recognition system that allows the cobot to understand which task is performed by the worker, in order to synchronise their actions. human–robot interaction human–robot interaction (hri) can be described as humans interacting with cobots in a production or assembly environment. hri is a sub-field of human–computer interaction (hci) (yanco & drury, 2002). lawton (2016) indicated that collaborative implies working side by side or across a work space with humans whilst performing human-scale tasks (figure 3). the interaction between humans and robots improves the efficiency and effectiveness of assembly processes, particularly when the robot serves as an intelligent assistant (kruger, lien & verl, 2009). modern ergonomic workspaces, where humans and cobots jointly perform an assembly process in a collaborative environment are being implemented internationally (faber, butzler & schlick, 2015). safety and workspace layout are challenges for modern factory automation in promoting human–robot collaboration. figure 3: human–robot collaboration. in human–robot interaction, trust is an important factor (billings et al., 2012). human–robot trust determines a worker’s acceptance of a cobot in a collaborative work environment. sanders, oleson, billings, chen and hancock (2011) explored the theoretical foundations of trust and developed a model of human–robot team trust to provide a deeper understanding of the factors that facilitate the development of human trust in robotic teammates. the three-factor model of trust developed by billings et al. (2012) indicates that human characteristics, environmental characteristics and robot characteristics influence human–robot trust. additional factors include usability, social acceptance, user experience and societal impact (weiss, bernhaupt, lankes & tscheligi, 2009). these factors all influence how people experience robots as support for collaborative work and accept them as part of the shop floor and society. various metrics have been identified that focus on the human, the robot and the system (murphy & schreckenhost, 2013). the human metrics include the metrics of trust, training, mental computation and workload. the robot metrics include time for various operations, self-awareness and how long the robot can go without direct supervision. the system metrics include productivity, efficiency, reliability, safety and coactivity (murphy & schreckenhost, 2013). yanco and drury (2002) have further developed a taxonomy of human–robot interaction, to provide a basis for research in this area. they identified 11 categories that need to be considered when investigating the interaction between humans and robots. yanco and drury (2002) highlight the importance of the composition of human–robot teams, decision support for humans and human–robot interaction. strategies relating to trust have been researched for manipulating the cobots in environments where humans and cobots work together as co-workers. these strategies determine the best outcomes considering both human factors and overall systems performance. humans completing repetitive tasks on assembly lines and trust of robot models have been proposed, based on human and robot performance (sadrfaridpour, burke & wang, 2014). the human’s trust in the robot determines the degree of autonomy of the robots and hence affects task efficiency and workload. the study (sadrfaridpour et al., 2014) compared the average trust and workload amongst manual, autonomous and collaborative modes. the collaborative mode showed to have higher average trust with a moderate workload. workforce implications industry 4.0 and human–robot collaboration will significantly impact workplace design and commensurately introduce new challenges as a result of the increase in open, virtual work platforms and extensive human–machine interactions (kpmg, 2016). trust that humans have in the human–robot interaction is a major challenge that should be addressed. sanders et al. (2011) propose that human (ability or personality), environmental (task or team) and robot characteristics (performance or attribute) are key determinants in promoting human–robot team trust. their research shows that robot characteristics such as behaviour, type, anthropomorphism and reliability had the largest effect on developing trust. employees’ perceptions of safety in human–robot interaction are another factor closely related to generating trust (kagermann, wahlster & helbig, 2013; sadrfaridpour et al., 2014). research indicates that trust in robots varies according to culture (li, rau & li, 2010) and type of communication (implicit or explicit) within different cultures (wang, rau, evers, robinson & hinds, 2010). this is particularly relevant to south african organisations considering their culturally diverse workforces. besides the training needs that emanate from human–robot interaction, such as developing trust, safety, ergonomics (human–robot) and employee competencies required to interact or programme the robot; specific focus will be required to approach the aforementioned within a particular cultural framework (south african – an in-depth discussion on culture falls outside the scope of the article). employees interacting with robots will be required to be flexible, innovative, perform tasks that are more demanding and may experience tension between the world of artificial intelligence and the world of the workers’ own experience (kagermann et al., 2013). workers could experience a loss of control and a sense of alienation from their work as meaningful, reciprocal social interactions decline. social exchange theory (emerson, 1976) serves as basis for conceptualising a new psychological-socio-technological relationship between man and artificial intelligence. from the aforementioned, the authors concluded that it is axiomatic that the employee value proposition for employees interacting with robots will have to be considered anew, in particular with regard to the job, working experience, competencies and social system. academic theories identified cobotics is a new field of study, which crosses multiple disciplines and examines human–robot collaboration (hrc). hci in the field of hrc requires the mention and consideration of academic theories from the disciplines of the social and natural sciences. the knowledge captured in academic theories can provide a framework for practitioners to consider the daily implementation of collaborative work environments and strategic planning (cornelissen, 2005). theories help to organise thoughts, generate coherent explanations and achieve understanding (hambrick, 2007). however, hambrick argues that some papers simply contribute to our knowledge and/or understanding and possibly have a high likelihood of stimulating future research that will substantially alter managerial theory and practice or the development of a new theory. the authors of this exploratory study note that the field of cobotics possibly needs the development of a new theory and recommends it as a topic for future research. whetten’s (1989) guidelines in terms of what constitutes a theoretical contribution will be considered. these include the following: what constructs or factors should be considered? how are they related? why – which indicates the underlying dynamics that justify the construct selection and their causal relationships; and who, where and when – where the temporal and contextual constructs set the boundaries of generalisability. this exploratory research considered many theories, which included the technology acceptance model, theory of behavioural trust and theory of computational trust. gligor, jeannette and wing (2011) in their work on trust in networks of humans and computers propose that a general theory of trust should focus on the establishment of new trust relations where none were possible before. this focus would help create new economic opportunities by increasing the pool of usable services, removing co-operation barriers amongst users and at the very least, taking advantage of network effects. traditional theoretical frameworks on trust are centred on interpersonal or psychological trust dynamics. a new understanding is that it can also be towards some process or mechanism, in this case robots. vidyasagar’s (1987) research discusses systems theory and robotics in terms of design for ease of control, design for flexible effects and a systematic approach. in the natural sciences, scientific models are taught to give credence to theory and historical examples are used to teach the method (cockshott, 2011). the diffusion of innovation theory was also considered as it describes the process through which new innovations and ideas become diffused and adopted within wider social networks (murray, 2009). diffusion of innovation seeks to explain how innovations are taken up in a population. an innovation is an idea, behaviour or object that is perceived as new by its audience. robinson (2012) offers three insights: what qualities make an innovation spread? the importance of peer–peer conversations and peer networks. understanding the needs of different user segments. innovations tend to be adopted more quickly when they (1) have a relative advantage over existing methods, (2) are compatible with existing values, past experiences and current needs, (3) are simple to understand, (4) can be tried out or played with by potential adopters and (5) are observable, such that adopters can see the results for themselves (rogers, 2004). diffusion is the process through which an innovation is communicated. communication involves people exchanging and creating information that results in collective understanding about the innovation. key to this theory would be to get ‘early adopters’ who would enable their peer’s acceptance of the cobots. the theory includes the innovation-decision process, which comprises five stages: (1) knowledge, (2) persuasion, (3) decision, (4) implementation and (5) confirmation (rogers, 1983). criticism of this theory is that it is assumed that all new methods are helpful and productive and should therefore be adopted. some innovations may not fit an organisation’s culture and the negative may outweigh the positive (miles, 2012). research design, approach and method research approach the research design was exploratory and explanatory. the research was qualitative in nature, utilising a questionnaire with open-ended questions. atlasti was used for the thematic analysis and content analysis of the respondent’s responses to individual questions. research method participants and sample: south african automotive manufacturing organisations were selected for the study considering that internationally this sector is in the advanced stages of cobot implementation on assembly lines. it managers and production managers are generally responsible for technological implementations in the production environment. it managers at the south african motor vehicle manufacturers were approached and requested to distribute and complete the survey. in addition, production managers from other selected manufacturing environments, such as component manufacturers, were approached and requested to complete the survey. six african businesses were identified and approached via email. the data collection resulted in 12 usable questionnaires, which represents a 42% response rate. the measuring instrument: an e-mail-based survey was used in this study. the first part of the survey related to demographic data collection. the second part provided 10 open-ended questions relating to the use of cobots internationally and locally and the planned future use of cobots in the present production environment. specific questions relating to the african workforce and cobot implementation were further specified. these questions related to implications for the african workforce, culture, trust and communication and training. cobot questionnaire the questionnaire was compiled from literature, and questionnaires were used to evaluate hrc. the three-factor model of trust indicates that human characteristics, environmental characteristics and robot characteristics influence human–robot trust (billings et al., 2012). this research was used as a basis for the compilation of the questionnaire. validity: subject matter experts and the nmmu statistician confirmed the face validity of the questionnaire. questionnaire pre-testing the proposed research questionnaire underwent pre-testing with academics and three it managers. a stratified sampling procedure ensured that employees from the identified occupational groups were represented appropriately. a total of 12 fully completed responses were received over a period of 4 weeks. research procedure a list of automotive manufacturers in south africa was obtained and the it manager or chief information officer (cio) was identified. the respondents were contacted telephonically and requested to complete the survey. a convenience snowball sampling technique was used in this study. the survey was emailed to the respondents, and they were requested to complete the survey and forward it to other possible respondents they know working in the field of study. a cobot supplier in south africa assisted with the distribution amongst their client base. statistical analysis the results were analysed using both thematic analysis and content analysis. the responses were analysed using the software package atlasti and the results visually presented as word clouds. word clouds display the most prominent or frequent words in a body of text. data visualisation software generally includes word cloud analysis and display and has been utilised in this study. results and discussion the respondents included it managers, plant or system engineers, production managers and a technology specialist. the companies represented in this survey are two automobile manufacturers, production automation suppliers and two component manufacturers. one respondent represents a business that is a leading worldwide supplier of automation technologies and another respondent worked for a business selling cobots in south africa who regularly conduct customer demonstrations. five respondents had experience regarding the use of cobots in manufacturing and seven had no experience but knowledge and an understanding of the field. seven of the businesses represented in the survey have international parent or holding companies, already utilising cobots in manufacturing. the thematic analysis of responses indicated that knowledge was gained through watching product demo videos, reading articles and actual experience implementing robotic solutions (figure 4). five manufacturing plants in south africa have implemented cobots, whilst six businesses are investigating the implementation into their businesses. south african businesses are experimenting with ‘proof of concept phase implementations’ of cobots and two businesses have installed cobots on the assembly and manufacturing lines. respondents further indicated that they are ‘identifying suitable pilot application environments’ (participant 4, male, it manager), ‘numerous applications are being investigated’ (participant 6, male, plant manager) and industry 4.0 ‘will become standard for all plants and manufacturing facilities worldwide’ (participant 11, male, technology specialist). figure 4: sources of cobot information and implementation. eight of the respondents indicated that they think the use of cobots is a viable option for south african and african companies. one respondent indicated that ‘south africa is a developing country and any technology advancements could only be advantageous to drive economic growth’ (participant 3, female, business developer). respondents further indicated that the introduction of cobots could improve work precision, allow workers to work smarter, and enhance human performance and that cobots generally do not replace humans, but assist them in mundane and routine tasks (figure 5). figure 5: benefits of introducing cobots. the reasons four respondents indicated that the use of cobots in manufacturing is not a viable option for the south african and african companies were: the cost of the technology being perceived as high labour costs are relatively cheap in comparison with international countries a generally technically inexperienced workforce a poorly educated and highly unionised workforce. the major challenges for south african and african businesses that introduce cobots at the organisation level are resistance from unions, technology implementation costs, change management, training and addressing the employees’ increased fear of unemployment (figure 6). one respondent indicated that ‘low volume producers will accept cobots as they are more cost competitive than semi-skilled labour in s.a’ (participant 6, male, plant manager). time will, however, force business into alternative sources of labour – such as cobots. the respondent further indicated that ‘the major impact is on unemployment in the medium to long term, as cobots/robots become more common in manufacturing’ (participant 6, male, plant manager). figure 6: challenges at organisational level. the major challenges for south african and african businesses that introduce cobots at the employee level are fear of redundancy, retrenchment and increased unemployment (figure 7). the challenges can be addressed by education and training. the introduction of a collaborative working model is suggested in order to address the lack of skills workers have working alongside robots. a respondent indicated that ‘the impact on employee motivation could be the single biggest challenge. additionally retrenchment due to implementation of technology is a challenge to achieve’ (participant 6, male, plant manager). figure 7: challenges at employee level. training and education were identified as important factors for the introduction of cobots (ind4.0, 2016). the major training needs for the introduction of cobots at senior management level are business benefits (n = 3), technology awareness and benefits (figure 8). a respondent indicated that ‘knowing what is available in the market place, how it can provide a competitive advantage and be beneficial to the company’ (participant 3, female, business developer) are the major issues for senior management. figure 8: senior management training needs. the major training needs for the introduction of cobots at employee level are greater technical training, trust and safety, understanding robotic functionality and employee loneliness (figure 9). respondents further indicated that the ‘understanding of how the robots function and their own role in the production line’ (participant 3, female, business developer) is important. ‘in the long term there might be some emotional support needed as the job might become lonely without other humans in the proximity’ (participant 9, male, operations manager) and ‘basic computer skills and good hand-eye coordination’ (participant 11, male, technology specialist) are major training needs for employees. figure 9: employee training needs. respondents indicated that the following human characteristics (figure 10) will have the most significant impact on promoting human–robot trust: ability (n = 4), trust (n = 3), new technology acceptance (n = 2) and competency (n = 2). trust, specifically in terms of safety, is highlighted by the response that ‘they need a high-level understanding of how the cobot functions to be able to trust it’ (participant 11, male, technology specialist). figure 10: human characteristics. respondents generally indicated that communication (n = 3) is an important environmental characteristic that will have a significant impact on promoting human–robot trust for collaboration (figure 11). other characteristics are culture and continuous learning, ‘so that new technologies can be embraced to their fullest potential’ (participant 11, male, technology specialist). figure 11: environmental characteristics. respondents indicated that the following robot characteristics will have the most significant impact on promoting human–robot trust: perform as designed (n = 3), function to standard specification, dependability and seeing the benefit of working collaboratively (figure 12). respondents emphasised that ‘a robot must perform 100% as expected/designed’ (participant 1, male, it manager), ‘humans need confidence that the robot will function to the standard specification for which it was designed’ (participant 3, female, business developer) and ‘when the employee realises how dependable the robot is’, robot trust will increase. dependability was also mentioned, ‘if the worker feels the robot depends on his input, rather than him on the robot, the worker will feel more value and in control’ (participant 11, male, technology specialist). other respondents stated that: personality – i have read of some studies that indicate humans react better to robots mimicking certain human behaviours. i do however believe that this would not be easily implemented in the workplace as it is normally all about cycle time and volume of production. (participant 9, male, operations manager) figure 12: robot characteristics. the psychological demands and roles placed on employees interacting with robots are mainly job security (n = 3) and stress (n = 2). respondents highlighted the ‘fear of being replaced’ and the ‘fear of the unknown’ (figure 13). regarding stress, respondents highlighted ‘the pressure to perform in a completely structured manner without reasoning ability’ (participant 1, male, it manager) and ‘stress in the sense the robot could replace the person’ (participant 6, male, plant manager). figure 13: psychological demands. the physical demands and roles placed on employees (figure 14) interacting with robots are reduced physical demands (n = 2) and reduced demanding tasks (n = 2). respondents indicated that with increased competitiveness, ‘the person will want to compete with the robot, or act completely incorrectly, resulting in forms of sabotage’ (participant 6, male, plant manager). ‘the person might find it difficult to keep up with the robot’ (participant 11, male, technology specialist) and ‘the application of cobots could increase the employee’s health since it can lead them to handle tasks in a proper physical position’ (participant 12, male, robot researcher). figure 14: physical demands. the intellectual demands and roles placed on employees interacting with robots are mainly intellectual improvements, performing more challenging tasks and learning new behaviours (figure 15). intellectual improvement due new technological advancements and exposure to new technologies were emphasised. respondents highlighted that employees must ‘understand process flows and the required outputs of robots’ (participant 3, male, business developer). employees will work and operate at a ‘more mental level and at a less physical level’ (participant 7, male, customer support manager). figure 15: intellectual demands. the ideal employee traits or characteristics for interacting with cobots and flourishing in the envisaged work environment are willingness to learn (n = 4), supporting training and upskilling, accepting change, being technologically inclined and adapting to new technologies (figure 16). the two respondents who indicated that humans working with cobots are introverted have both implemented cobots in their businesses and have gained experience with workers working in these environments. further employee traits include an independent and self-assured individual. figure 16: employee traits. the majority of the respondents (n = 9) indicated that they believe culture will have an impact on the human–robot interaction (figure 17). the major themes regarding culture that were identified were education and literacy, resistance to new and unknown technological innovations and work ethic. the threat to unemployment was mentioned by two respondents. figure 17: cultural impact. interestingly, the automotive manufacturer respondents, some of whom have introduced cobots, did not think ‘culture’ had a major impact on hri. one respondent indicated that ‘culture impacts the relationship between humans and should be taken into consideration for interaction with robots as well’ (participant 3, female, business developer). a respondent indicated that ‘african people do not resist adapting to and using new technologies, just see their dependence on mobile applications’ (participant 12, male, robot researcher). ‘it is my belief that they would find it hard to accept a robot rather than working with a colleague (african culture very focused on relationships)’ (participant 11, male, operations manager). managerial implications humans and cobots have essential collaborative abilities and advantages regarding industrial assembly processes. cobots can conduct repetitive and monotonous assembly steps, and humans can adapt to new situations and anticipate problems. management must consider modern ergonomic workspaces (faber, butzler & schlick, 2015) where humans and cobots jointly perform an assembly process in a collaborative environment. managers further need to be aware of the declining costs of industrial robots and the increased availability of cobots. bot-sourcing will become an important continuous improvement activity for businesses in the manufacturing industry. findings of the research suggest that south african and african businesses do not have the option of not following industry 4.0, international trends and collaborative work practices. automotive suppliers and component manufacturers have implemented collaborative work spaces and the extensive use of cobots. one automotive manufacturer has installed over 300 cobots in the past months and provided valuable input into the management of human resources in a collaborative work environment. culture plays a significant role in developing trust in robots. the type of communication required for adoption varies between cultures. therefore, managers of the african workforce must take cognisance of the fact that the manufacturing industry internationally implementing cobots might investigate automation differently, in the human–cobot collaborative work environment. cobots are increasingly viewed as teammates; however, an african workforce that must still establish trust, having a culture of human–human collaboration and fear of unemployment, will require new human resource management practices. acceptance of a cobot by its human team members will ultimately determine the success of human–cobot collaboration in a modern work environment. limitations of the study and directions for future research this research was conducted in africa; however, only responses from south african companies were obtained. no responses were received from the six respondents identified and emailed in africa. a more representative sample from africa must be obtained. the study is an exploratory study and further research needs to be conducted on the african workforce to address the issues highlighted in this study, namely trust, collaboration, job security and technical training. a suitable theory for human–cobot collaboration, encompassing the major aspects of this diverse field, needs to be investigated. in addition, the best business practices and lessons learned by the automotive manufacturers who have successfully implemented collaborative work environments in africa need to be explored. conclusion collaborative robots are intended to physically interact with humans in a shared workspace, assisting humans with a variety of tasks. cobots are becoming more affordable and highly adaptable and can easily be redeployed in different work environments. they are designed alongside humans in a shared workspace. robots have made little impact outside manufacturing, and it will be a gradual process before robots replace human jobs in the service, transportation or construction sectors (gordon, 2016). however, research conducted by technovio (2016) indicates that it has been observed that robots and specifically cobots have become necessary in every industry that uses production processes and systems. one of the goals of universal robots (ur, 2016) is to make robot technology accessible to smes (mcisa, 2017). smes, including auto component manufacturers, are generally reluctant to make heavy investments in robots; however, reduced cobotic costs and the challenges faced by managing manual labour, including unions, will change the adoption of cobots in the next 5 years. the sme market will become a major driver in the installation of cobots because they represent over 6 million businesses worldwide and nearly 70% of the world’s manufacturing sector (tobe, 2015). the introduction of cobots into assembly and manufacturing lines will expand automation across the plant floor, which will increase worker safety and efficiency (technavio, 2016). as more cobots are deployed, more uses will be discovered. the market acceptance of cobots, including drones, is expected to be a significant driver in non-industrial robotic growth. the cobot sector is expected to increase roughly tenfold between 2015 and 2020, reaching over $1 billion from approximately $95 million in 2014. the global cobot market is expected to grow at a cagr of 51% until 2019 (technavio, 2016; tobe, 2015). barclays capital forecasts that the cobot market will grow to 150 million units in 2020, representing a $3.1 billion global market (lawton, 2016). african manufacturing industries must consider the new category of human-friendly cobots that will work safely with humans. african managers must align their workforce strategy with their business strategy. the mobility and flexibility that cobot solutions provide will create a sustainable work environment of the future. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.p.c. and p.p. were principal researchers who conducted the empirical research. a.p.c. analysed the responses using atlasti. m.c. provided relevant theories and language editing. all authors contributed to writing the final article. references abb. (2016). yumi collaborative robot. retrieved december 05, 2016, from http://new.abb.com/products/robotics/industrial-robots/yumi akella, p., peshkin, m., colgate, e., wannasuphoprasit, w., nagesh, n., wells, j., et al. (1999). cobots for the automobile assembly line. in proceedings of the 1999 ieee international conference on robotics & automation (icra99), 10–15 may 2009 (pp. 728–733), detroit, mi. new york: ieee. billings, d.r., chen, j.y.c., & hancock, p.a. (2012). human-robot interaction: developing trust in robots. in hri’12 human–robot interaction (pp. 109–110). new york: acm. cockshott, p. (2011). competing theories: wrong or not even wrong? vlaams marxistisch tijdschrift, 45(2), 97–103. colgate, j.e., wannasuphoprasit, w., & peshkin, m.a. (1996). cobots: robots for collaboration with human operators. in proceedings of the international mechanical engineering congress and exhibition, 17–22 november 2011 (vol. 58, pp. 433–439). atlanta, georgia: dsc. cornelissen, j.p. (2005). toward an understanding of the use of academic theories in public relations practice. public relations review, 26(3), 315–326. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0363-8111(00)00050-3 coupeté, e., moutarde, f., & manitsaris, s. (2015). a user-adaptive gesture recognition system applied to human-robot collaboration in factories. in moco’16 (p. 239), july 05–06, 2016. thessaloniki, ga, greece. djuric, a.m., urbanic, r.j., & rickli, j.l. (2016). a framework for collaborative robot (cobot) integration in advanced manufacturing systems. sae international journal of materials and manufacturing, 9(2), 457–464. emerson, r.m. (1976) social exchange theory. annual review of sociology, 2, 335–362. faber, m., butzler, j., & schlick, c.m. (2015). human-robot cooperation in future production systems: analysis of requirements for designing an ergonomic work system. procedia manufacturing, 3, 510–517. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2015.07.215 fast-berglund, å., palmkvist, f., nyqvist, p., ekered, s., & åkerman, m. (2016). evaluating cobots for final assembly. in 6th cirp conference on assembly technologies and systems (cats), 16–18 may 2016 (vol. 44, pp. 175–180). gothenburg, sweden. geissbauer, r., vedsø, j., & schrauf, s. (2016). a strategist’s guide to industry 4.0. retrieved november 25, 2016, from http://www.strategy-business.com/article/a-strategists-guide-to-industry-4.0?gko=7c4cf gibbs, s. (2016). mercedes-benz swaps robots for people on its assembly lines. the guardian. retrieved october 9, 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/26/mercedes-benz-robots-people-assembly-lines gligor, v., & jeannette, m., wing, j.m. (2011). towards a theory of trust in networks of humans and computers. presented at the 19th international workshop on security protocols, 28–30 march 2011 (pp. 28–30). cambridge, uk. gordon, r. (2016). why robots will not decimate human jobs. retrieved november 24, 2016, from http://buildakingdombusiness.com/?p=732 hambrick, d.c. 2007. the field of management’s devotion to theory: too much of a good thing? academy of management journal, 50(6), 1346–1352. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2007.28166119 hollinger, p. (2016, may 4). meet the cobots: humans and robots together on the factory floor. the financial times. ind4.0. (2016). industry 4.0. retrieved november 20, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/industry_4.0 kagermann, h., wahlster, w., & helbig, j. (2013). recommendations for implementing the strategic initiatives industrie 4.0. final report of the indistrie 4.0 working group. frankfurt: national academy of science and engineering. kruger, j., lien, t.k., & verl, a. (2009). cooperation of human and machines in assembly lines. cirp annals manufacturing technology, 58, 628–646. kpmg. (2016). global ceo outlook. retrieved november 16, 2017, from https://hbr.org/2016/10/globalization-robots-and-the-future-of-work lawton, j. (2016). the collaborative robot market is set for phenomenal growth (part 1). rethinking robots, september 28, 2016. lenz, c., nair, s., rickert, m., & knoll, a. (2008). joint-action for humans and industrial robots for assembly tasks. in proceedings of the 17th ieee international symposium on robot and human interactive communication (pp. 130–135), technische universität münchen, munich, germany. august 1–3, 2008. li, d., rau, p., & li, y. (2010). a cross-cultural study: effect of robot appearance and task. international journal of social robots, 2, 175–186. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-010-0056-9 miles, j.a. (2012). management and organization theory. a jossey-bass reader. san francisco, ca: john wiley & sons, inc. mcisa. (2017). the latest robots are friendly. motion control in south africa. retrieved march 15, 2017, from http://www.motioncontrol.co.za/55852n murphy, r.r., & schreckenghost, d. (2013). survey of metrics for human-robot interaction. in 8th acm/ieee international conference on human-robot interaction (hri), 3–6 march 2013. new york: ieee. murray, c.e. (2009). diffusion of innovation theory: a bridge for the research–practice gap in counseling. journal of counseling and development, the american counseling association. 87, 108–116. payne, j. (2016). mercedes-benz swaps robots for people on its assembly lines. retrieved november 26, 2016, from http://robohub.org/mercedes-benz-swaps-robots-for-people-on-its-assembly-lines-the-guardian/ peshkin, m., & edward, j.c. (1999). cobots (invited). industrial robot, 26(5), 335–341. https://doi.org/10.1108/01439919910283722 robinson, l. (2012). a summary of diffusion of innovations. in changeology: how to enable groups, communities and societies to do things they’ve never done before (pp. 1–272). cambridge, uk: green books. rogers, e.m. (1983). diffusion of innovations (3rd ed.). new york: free press. rogers, e.m. (2004). a prospective and retrospective look at the diffusion model. journal of health communication, 9, 13–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730490271449 sadrfaridpour, b., burke, j., & wang, y. (2014). human and robot collaborative assembly manufacturing: trust dynamics and control. in proceedings of the workshop on human-robot collaboration industrial manufacturing. rss, 12–16 july 2014 (pp. 1–6). berkeley, ca: uc. sanders, t., oleson, k.e., billings, d.r., chen, j.y.c., & hancock, p.a. (2011). a model of human-robot trust. theoretical model development. proceedings of the human factors and ergonomics society annual meeting, 55(1), 1432–1436. strohkorb, s., & scassellati, b. (2016). promoting collaboration with social robots. in hri ‘16: the eleventh acm/ieee international conference on human robot interaction, 08–10 march 2016 (pp. 639–640). new york: ieee. s4. (2016). s4 integration. retrieved december 02, 2016 from http://www.s4.co.za technavio. (2016). sampleindustrial robotics market in the usa. retrieved november 20, 2016, from http://www.technavio.com tobe, f. (2015). why co-bots will be a huge innovation and growth driver for robotics industry. retrieved october 10, 2016, from, http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/collaborative-robots-innovation-growth-driver unhelkar, v.v., & shah, j.a. (2015). challenges in developing a collaborative robotic assistant for automotive assembly lines. in hri’15 extended abstracts (pp. 239–240), march 2–5, 2015, portland, or, usa. ur. (2016). universal robots and … the cobots. retrieved october 26, 2016, from, http://www.universal-robots.com/about-universal-robots/news-centre/history-of-the-cobots/ vidyasagar, m. (1987). system theory and robotics. ieee control systems magazine, 7(3) (1987), 16–17. https://doi.org/10.1109/mcs.1987.1105283 wang, l., rau, p.l., evers, v., robinson, b.k., & hinds, p. (2010). whenin rome: the role of culture and context in adherence to robot recommendations. in proceedings of the 5th acm/ieee international conference on human robot interaction, 02–05 march 2010 (pp. 359–366). new york: ieee. weiss, a., bernhaupt, r., lankes, m., & tscheligi, m. (2009). the usus evaluation framework for human-robot interaction. in aisb2009: proceedings of the symposium on new frontiers in human-robot interaction, 06–09 april 2009. uk: ssaisb: edinburgh. whetten, d.a. (1989). what constitutes a theoretical contribution? academy of management review, 14, 490–495. yanco, h.a., & drury, j.l. (2002). a taxonomy for human-robot interaction. in aaai fall symposium on human-robot interaction, 15–17 november 2002 (pp. 111–119). technical report fs-02-03. ca: aaai. north falmouth, massachusetts. abstract introduction social identity cultural intelligence during relocation critical race theory management coaching as a strategic intervention method data analysis findings human resource professionals’ perception of coaching contribution discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) heidi m. le sueur university of stellenbosch business school, university of stellenbosch, south africa valerie tapela leading within, cape town, south africa citation le sueur, h. m., & tapela, v. (2018). conditions for coaching to contribute to the adjustment of black african professionals. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a946. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.946 original research conditions for coaching to contribute to the adjustment of black african professionals heidi m. le sueur, valerie tapela received: 24 apr. 2017; accepted: 07 may 2018; published: 10 july 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: efforts to attract and retain black african professionals in cape town-based organisations are often met with challenges. coaching has been identified as a potential strategic contributor for developing a sense of inclusivity and successful adjustment for black african professionals. research purpose: the study investigated the contribution that coaching makes and aimed at understanding the conditions required for coaching to support the adjustment process during relocation. motivation for the study: too little is known in south africa of how coaching can impact the adjustment during relocation. there is a need to identify key conditions that would enable a successful coaching process for migrating groups in the larger south african context. research design/approach and method: a qualitative inductive methodology approach was followed to guide the study, consisting of 11 in-depth interviews with three different professional groups to elicit various perspectives. main findings: it can be concluded that coaching contributes to black african professionals’ adjustment to living and working in south africa. the success of the coaching outcome and capability for adjustment depends on the individual, the coach and the environment in which they work. the supporting conditions that were commonly found from the three professional groups were support and space for the individual, while depth and match played a key role according to coaches and human resource (hr) professionals. practical/managerial implications: this article provides guidelines and recommendations for hr and senior managers in any organisation that experiences a complexity infused by racial and cultural diversity within its internal and external context. the study shows ways in which coaching as a tool can be useful in dealing with cross-cultural dynamics that prevail in south africa and south africa-based organisations especially during relocation adjustment. contribution/value-add: the body of knowledge contributes to understanding coaching in a diverse society reflected in cross-cultural organisations and the key conditions influencing the coaching intervention during an adjustment process. introduction the low retention rate of black african professionals who relocate to cape town from other parts of south africa is a cause for concern. in a speech at the cape town press club, then accelerate cape town’s chief executive officer (ceo), guy lundy (2009), indicated that business needs to talk publicly about the challenge of being unable to attract and retain black african professionals. as part of their mandate to ensure the sustainability and viability of economic growth, accelerate cape town asks where the black professionals are in the city, recognising that a city that is not representative of the countrys’ demographics will not be economically sustainable (lundy, 2009). yet, by 2016, the percentage of black african professionals in cape town has increased by a mere 4% over a 10-year period (department of labour, 2014). the apartheid history of the labour force and its discriminatory effects continue to be a talking point in different circles, and it is felt today by cape town-based organisations who struggle to attract and retain black african talent. research has shown that the perceptions exist that this city is seen as an unattractive destination for african people to work and reside in (surtee & hall, 2010). according to jongens (2006), this city is seen as stuck in the ways of the old work order, where the environment lacks energy and racial discrimination is still apparent. as noted by o’flaherty and everson (2013, p. 76): ‘today, south africa is a complex patchwork of racial, language and cultural groupings’. it is therefore important to explore ways to embrace the diversity opportunities in south africa, especially to improve retention of black talent. there is a need to build inclusive and enabling environments in south africa where people of all backgrounds feel a sense of belonging. human resources (hrs) specialists in south african organisations who suffer the consequences of employees leaving because of the perceived barriers to the achievement of employment equity for black african people (surtee & hall, 2010) will find this study relevant in their recruitment and retention strategies of black professionals from outside cape town. while this study utilised the unique characteristics experienced by cape town-based organisations, the supporting conditions for successful coaching around the adjustment process are relevant for any migrating groups in the larger geographical south african context. purpose coaching has been suggested in previous research and other instances as part of a strategy to help with the adjustment for black professionals wanting to live and work in cape town (lundy, 2009; surtee & hall, 2010). very little is known about how and what coaching contributes to the adjustment process so that a direct link can be made. this article gives insights to the question on the conditions required for coaching to contribute successfully to the adjustment process. the insights can be applied by hrs personnel, senior management, coaches and black professionals themselves. it was not the aim of the study to explain the reasons why black african professionals seemed to find cape town ‘unwelcoming’ as was performed in the previous research (surtee & hall, 2010). this article provides guidelines for coaching, not only relevant for cape town-based organisations but also for any organisation that experiences complexity infused by racial and cultural diversity. literature review the authors acknowledge that south africa has faced major shifts at an economic, political and social level in a short span of time. in april 1994, there was a change from an exclusive government to an inclusive dispensation. with this episodic change, organisations had to transform, and this was largely enforced through the introduction of laws such as affirmative action, then later broad-based black economic empowerment (b-bbee) (booysen, 2007). with all these came challenges and triumphs as society sought to fit into the new dispensation. studies conducted in the south african context, specifically by myers (2013) and surtee and hall (2010), revealed that there are factors that inhibit the progression of black executives in their career and that barriers for achieving employment equity are found. these studies identified factors and barriers as being lack of experience and access to mentorship, the hostility of the environment, negative stereotyping, the sense of isolation and exclusion from a homogenic eurocentric organisational culture. a common example of ‘negative stereotyping’ in which competencies and skills of black professionals are constantly tested, amounted to the unspoken pressure to see whether they have the capability to perform, which these professionals felt their white counterparts are not subjected to (booysen, 2007; myers, 2013; surtee & hall, 2010). this common finding illustrates how the identified barriers mentioned are at play within organisations. the next section explores theories on social identity, cultural intelligence, race theory and how these are relevant for management coaching as a strategic intervention for employee adjustment and retention. social identity social identity influences racial identity, particularly in post-apartheid south africa, which, in turn, influences self-categorisation and self-concept. it is a ‘cognitive theory which holds that individuals tend to classify themselves and others into social categories and that these classifications have a significant effect on human interactions’ (booysen, 2007, p. 3). our social identity serves as a lens with which one categorises what one sees, who one is and what one makes interpretations about (o’flaherty & everson, 2013). employees’ cultural differences should therefore not be overlooked. laurie (2011) acknowledges that presently societal changes are still being dictated by or bound within racial categories. he asks how south africans can un-think or un-learn old categories of citizenship and move beyond their own political bondage. while booysen (2007) emphasised that it would be naïve to think that social identity issues in the south african organisational landscape would ever completely be done away with, the coaching process can provide the space to make people aware of the multiple identities that they operate under and reflect on how those might be influencing behaviours and choices (o’flaherty & everson, 2013), for example, in the workplace. especially the past trauma of apartheid, effects of exclusion and the ambivalent manner that black professionals seem to engage with their newly acquired privileges can be addressed in the containment of coaching (motsoaledi & cilliers, 2012). cultural intelligence during relocation cultural intelligence as a concept has potential in helping to understand cross-cultural dynamics and interactions in our modern world. as a construct, cultural intelligence has only been introduced to management literature recently and thus at present there is no generally accepted definition or operationalisation of it (ang et al., 2007). earley (2002) refers to cultural intelligence as a person’s capacity to adapt to new cultural settings based on multiple facets including cognitive, motivational and behavioural features (earley, 2002). in adjustment cases for professional expatriates, earley and mosakowski (2004) found it useful to measure the role that cultural intelligence had on experiences which people had. according to li and jackson (2015), there are three main categories of international expatriates’ adjustment: the general adjustment to the local living conditions, the work adjustment to the overseas task and the interaction adjustment to host nationals. organisations in south africa are increasingly transforming into spaces where diverse groups of people interact. this exposure to different people and therefore cultures ‘can have positive and negative effects on the psychological functioning and the well-being of employees within [the] organisation’ (laurie, 2011, p. 2). among the black african professionals, cape town is perceived as unfriendly and seen as an ‘un-african city’ (surtee & hall, 2010). for the adjustment process of black african professionals, similar to the adjustment of expatriates, cultural intelligence can be seen as a key skill from both the organisational environment as well as the professionals themselves. in other words, in recruiting and retaining black african professionals, the organisational environment needs to appreciate the cross-cultural subtleties and the professionals themselves need to be aware of their own role in understanding and dealing with the dynamics relating to the new environment. suggestions that black african professionals be treated as expatriates have led to the curiosity around what would constitute an effective attraction and retention strategy of such individuals (lundy, 2009). in their study, li and jackson (2015) found that the support the organisation gives the expatriate contributes positively when it addresses and helps expatriates to manage their anxiety and uncertainty that is inherent in new cultural experiences. critical race theory influencing this study are ideas that coaching combines psychology and politics in order to gain an ‘understanding and sympathy for the coachee’s cultural worldview above and beyond any presenting issue’ (gordon, 2015, p. 15), and ‘thereby show up the extent to which human psychology is intimately linked to, and in some ways conditioned or limited by, sociopolitical and historical forces of its situation’ (hook, 2004, p. 85). although not applying psychology, coaching is understood to have similar roots. this study acknowledges the influence this thinking has had in shaping its enquiry and rationale for singling out black african professionals in cape town. scholars such as frantz fanon and steve biko are used to advance some of the thinking. in his earliest teaching, fanon cautioned against ‘psychology depoliticising the terms of human experiences’ (hook, 2004). inferring coaching from psychology, this points to the necessity that coaches look into the individual’s sociopolitical and economic narratives that have had an influence on how they view themselves, others and their connection with their identity. biko felt that the black man’s task is to self-emancipate, break out of the shackles of learnt inferiority in order to exercise agency and retain their dignity beyond the political and environmental circumstances (biko, 1978). management coaching as a strategic intervention the essence of management coaching is ‘helping leaders getting unstuck from their dilemmas and assisting them in transferring their learning into results for their organisations’ (o’neill, 2000, p. 5). the coaching process is defined as a method where question frameworks and models are used to help clients to work out solutions to specific issues (stout-rostron, 2009). this intervention is (comensa): a professional, collaborative and outcomes-driven method of learning that seeks to develop an individual and raise self-awareness so that he/she might achieve specific goals and perform at a more effective level. (online) given these definitions, hr managers and coaches need to be aware of the perceived barriers, their possible origins and the influence of social identity, especially in diverse workplaces in south africa, so that these issues can be dealt with explicitly during the coaching process. in the recent past, there has been an inclination to view organisations as race-neutral spaces (nkomo, 1992). in the recent context, still, issues of social identity, developing culturally intelligent teams, have not been seen as key in affirming the different people the organisation attracts. majority groups who are the minority in organisations have simply been added on and expected to blend in into the environment. these minority groups experience dissonance because of the overwhelming role their race plays in cape town’s societal and social environment against a work environment which by and large does not overtly acknowledge it, interestingly adds to the ‘otherness’ that they report feeling (surtee & hall, 2010). the motivation to stay in the cape and withstand the usual work pressures in an organisation is then impacted. it is recognised that employee retention is, however, not influenced by a single factor, but rather by multiple factors that affect retention in an organisation (fitz-enz, 1990). the hr department as described by acton and golden (2003) plays an active role in retaining its employees, and therefore, hr professionals have been included in this study method it was the purpose of the study to explore the contribution of coaching to the adjustment of black african professionals, aimed specifically at understanding the conditions and perspectives of the coaching experience of the participants. with this purpose in mind, this study from a paradigm point of view lent itself to an interpretivist outlook (babbie & mouton, 2014). research approach the study followed a qualitative inductive methodology approach with the primary goal of ‘describing and understanding rather than explaining human behaviour’ (babbie & mouton, 2014, p. 270). babbie and mouton’s (2014) description of a phenomenological approach further informed the manner in which the study was conducted. the rationale for undertaking a qualitative methodology was additionally based on the assertion that data gathering happens in the natural course of events and offers ‘thick’ descriptions of the event as it occurs. research design to achieve the aim and objectives of this research, the design was a case study. case studies are understood as an in-depth study of how people experience a particular situation or phenomenon (brink, 2006). the case study in this instance is the coaching experience. this study was carried out using purposive sampling, based on the researchers’ judgement and the purposes of the study (babbie & mouton, 2014). during the process of setting up interviews, snowballing sampling was used as it proved difficult to locate and find suitable people to ‘wander with in the research journey’ (henning, van rensburg, w. & smit 2004, p. 71). eleven individuals from the three groups of professionals were chosen to participate in this study (hr managers, coaches and coachees). the rationale behind the choices was justified using laurie’s arguments, which are that change programmes on cultural interventions often fail because they are implemented without the overall company strategy guiding it (laurie, 2011). the study by abbott, stening, atkins and grant (2006), which explored coaching expatriate managers, guided the rationale for selection for this study as indicated in the overview of table 1. table 1: rationale, inclusion criteria and demography for participants. a semi-structured interview process was followed which involved unstructured and generally open-ended, probing questions and which intended to elicit views and opinions from the participants (creswell, 2009). the interview guide was free-flowing, its structure being limited only by the focus of the research (brink, 2006). the purpose of the interviews was exploratory and centred around the following question themes: the perceptions of how coaching contributed (or not) to the process of adjustment by each of the three professional groups the skills learnt (if at all) in aid of the adjustment the observations that were made, which provide evidence for the perceptions recommendations to members of their own professional groups and to the other two groups. data analysis a thematic coding methodology was used to organise the material gathered from the interviews into chunks and segments of text before bringing meaning to the information (creswell, 2009). during this process of data analysis, according to the traditional approach in social sciences, the researchers allowed the codes to emerge (creswell, 2009). ethical considerations the principles of protection of participants from harm, informed consent, the right to privacy, honesty and voluntary participation were adhered to in this study as outlined by leedy and ormrod (2001). the research ethics committee of the faculty of economics and management studies, university of stellenbosch, approved this research. findings this study included three distinct different professional groups to shed insights from these three unique perspectives. the findings are therefore reported, firstly for each group, and then synthesised to illustrate the novel insights with practical implications for coaching interventions in cape town, and more generally for south africa. to understand the findings better, it is important to give an outline of some of the questions that were posed to the different groupings. for black professionals – the enquiry was about how well they think they have adjusted, the role they attributed to coaching that played a part in the adjustment process and finally any specific skills that they learnt in the process. for all groups, the final question was the recommendations that they would give to each other in aid of maximising the use of coaching. the coaches were asked to describe their client’s experience of their coaching. they were asked to think about what in the coaching environment contributed, the skills the black professionals learnt that assisted in them adjusting to living and working in cape town. they had to further substantiate their responses through observations and feedback received from the hr managers. the hr managers were tasked with explaining their organisations’ standpoint on the value of coaching as a strategic contributor, what evidence they saw and the skills learnt which supported the black professionals in their new roles and as new residents to cape town. black african professionals’ perception of coaching contribution the inference from the study is that coaching as part of a professional’s development programme contributed to the coachees’ adjustment to the life event of ‘relocating’, changing jobs and living in a new environment. the black african professionals in this study expressed four effective conditions: space, support, match and depth in their reflections, which are illustrated in the findings below. notably, these are the benefits of having the space to reflect, getting support through the transition, enjoying an independent mirror reflecting their thoughts and gaining alignment professionally and personally. the following quote illustrates this condition: ‘it (the coaching) provided a safe space so to speak.’ (participant b2, coachee) ‘[…] it’s definitely doing what i expected it to do which is to hold up a mirror to my blind spots’. (participant b3, coachee) the findings from the interviews with black professionals were found to support the views of hill (2010), barday (2015) and motsoaledi and cilliers (2012), who found emotional support, thinking space, challenge and reflection as key aspects that contribute to the effectiveness of executives in a coaching process. factors that further assisted in the adjustment process were the level of initiative that coachees took in the coaching process, their openness with their coach, their willingness to be vulnerable and to receive feedback – both positive and negative. this was expressed in comments such as: ‘i think it was probably me taking initiative’ … (participant b1, coachee) ‘… i needed to hear the negative as much as the positives. it’s not something people receive well but just for me to grow’. (participant b1, coachee) in the study, it seems that black professionals, because of the significant changes in their lives, approached the coaching with some level of ownership. they engaged and wanted to be coached. the importance of executive engagement for coaching effectiveness has been confirmed previously (hill, 2010). executive engagement relates to whether the executive is taking initiative in the coaching, their attitude towards feedback, especially if it is negative, and their ability to open up and allow emotions to surface in the coaching so as to grow and gain new skills to navigate themselves in their new roles. other aspects that emerged related to the coach themselves, particularly in their objectivity, mutual respect, creating a safe space, depth of coaching as well as the race of the coach. the openness and ease to talk about race, issues relating to racism in the workplace and racial incidents while living and working in cape town were bigger when the coaches themselves were black. this was described as follows: ‘it’s not easy to raise a racial issue with a coach who’s white, it’s a lot harder […] having someone black, you can relate on a different level. it made the conversation a lot more honest and i was also open to her criticism on those issues’. (participant b1, coachee) cornish (2009) and pennington (2009) reveal in their findings that support and understanding on racial matters in cases might inform affinity towards race. to be open and avoid the two-persona dichotomy (cornish, 2009), it can be concluded that the black african professionals would benefit from being clear about the focus and specific help they need, and on that basis find a coach who will best serve those needs. this informs the importance of match which repeatedly emerged in this study. the participants identified that listening, embracing failure and being open to new things were learnt during coaching, and this helped them specifically with the adjustment to their new situation. as one coachee said: ‘one thing i got out of my coaching sessions after a while was that i wasn’t allowing myself the experiences in cape town and at work. i was too inward, so i realised the value of being open to trying out things’. (participant b3, coachee) socially and as a leadership competency, listening and the ability to see growth in failure are seen as key by myers (2013) and barday (2015). this further speaks to how coaching as an intervention is beneficial for the individual’s personal development but becomes a benefit for the organisational effectiveness, for example, retention of skills as well. coaches’ perception of coaching contribution according to coaches, the biggest benefit for the coachees was greater awareness of themselves, insight into how they show up in their new roles, their new environment and their response to others. the following quote illustrates this aspect precisely: ‘it’s not about being a joburg good black, it’s facilitating how they themselves show up’. it’s really about raising awareness, about their contribution to the work, it’s about their perceptions of themselves’. (participant c1, coach) increased self-awareness as a personal competency is a key coaching outcome. o’flaherty and everson (2013), in their contribution to work regarding coaching in south africa, stretch the idea of awareness by adding that it is for both the coach and the coachee to let the process of coaching unfold with awareness and commitment to challenging own assumptions, especially when coaching across social identity boundaries. given the loss of confidence that can result when an individual is in a new role, unsure of the new surroundings, different living conditions and lacking familiarity, the building of confidence is important as a coaching outcome. in her study, bennett (2015) identified that a positive sense of identity helped to build confidence. in providing a safe space, a thinking space and ease, the coaching can increase the capacity to take on new challenges (bennett, 2015). the explicit and deep engagement with the client issues in this safe space could be identified as a core factor to the conditions mentioned. one coach states this clearly: ‘with their anxiety. could be for example not having a sense of belonging, not having family, out of group. and that brings in lots of anxiety. the way to deal with it is to name it in the coaching’ (participant c3, coach) bennett (2015) highlights the benefit of explicitly engaging with uncertainty and anxiety. to do that, coaches need to listen deeply to their client’s language. in a similar vein to the coachees, the match between coach and client, the skill to understand the client, the ability to challenge and to serve as a form of deep reflection for the client were identified as helpful conditions during the adjustment. these findings support hill (2010), who highlights that the coach must challenge the executive to reflect deeply, think differently and see complex situations in new ways. it emerged in this study that understanding the client is twofold. it is essential that the coach understands both the client and additionally understands the unique south african environment in which the client works, to support them navigate with appropriate skills and techniques. this is illustrated by the following quote from one of the coaches: ‘if you do not understand their situation, it will not work … so if you don’t get their culture and you don’t get the culture they work in, then it will be difficult for you as a coach to understand and help them’. (participant c2, coach) coaches indicated the following skills and competencies as the ones that contributed to coaching helping with adjustment: cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence. from a coach’s perspective, it was stated as follows: ‘they (black african professionals) need cultural intelligence and they need personal and emotional intelligence very quickly to get into the english fabric of the company they’re working in’. (participant c2, coach) the findings underpin that cultural and emotional intelligence are about deep awareness: awareness of self, awareness of other, awareness of own culture, awareness of other’s culture and awareness of how coachees relate to all of these. earley and mosakowski (2004) and tompson et al. (2008) highlighted the indicators of cultural intelligence and what characteristics they have. as a new concept in management, cultural intelligence is still emerging and thus not many coaches explicitly use or know the principles thereof. aligned to cultural intelligence is what cornish (2009) introduces whereby the coachees need support in developing their own unique leadership style that reflects their cultural strengths but also incorporating what works from other cultures too. therefore, if there is an explicit engagement and openness to talk about the perceived and/or real discrimination, it can be unpacked to identify strategies that meet the needs of the coachee, as was confirmed in this study. the coaches found the reflection on how their coaching helped during adjustment of black african professionals who moved to live and work in cape town helpful. the awakening that took place is an indicator of the need for coaches to be aware of the explicit issues that particularly black african professionals bring to the coaching session. coaches acknowledged the coachees’ difficulties with adjusting to the cape town life, on the one hand, and the need for them to be effective in their professional roles during times of change, transition and uncertainty, on the other hand. human resource professionals’ perception of coaching contribution the main benefit of coaching, according to hr managers, is that the employees (black african professionals) gained clarity, had the space to think about not only their new roles but also their contribution to the organisation, they received much-needed support given the pressures of their leadership roles and they became more conscious leaders. an observation from an hr manager illustrates these points: ‘i watched these guys (coachees) become more conscious about how they are showing up to things. more conscious and self-aware, much more conscious of the impact that they have […] as an executive, as a leader’. (participant a1, hr manager) it has been emphasised by day (2009) that executives need support in order for them to be effective in their roles through transition periods. this point was confirmed by an hr manager as well: ‘it just gives space to not walk blindly through that life change. when you walk with intent through that transition and when you walk through that transition supported, it’s a fundamentally different experience. i cannot even imagine expecting execs i work with to do these big life changes – moving to new cities, new jobs, new reporting roles, new functions beneath them, whatever it may be, without this type of support’. (participant a1, hr manager) in the eyes of the hr managers, the conditions that contributed to the effectiveness of the coaching were mostly the match between coach and client, setting clear objectives for the coaching process, a safe space and the support the individual received from their work environment. the hr specialists recognise their responsibility to ensure that there is a match between coach and client and the support they can offer as an organisation. discussion the analysis of the data revealed how coaching contributed to the adjustment of black african professionals. it can be concluded that coaching did contribute positively. this can, however, not simply be assumed to be the case; therefore, the findings specify the conditions that contribute to the successful outcome of the coaching intervention during a relocation adjustment process. the research objectives guided how themes were clustered and how the findings are presented. findings were interpreted including past literature or theories that either confirmed or diverged from it (creswell, 2009). the authors identified the conditions that are of importance across all three professional communities, and then explored specific sub-conditions that matter to either one or two of the groups. this process was in accordance with west and milan (2001), who discussed the conditions under which learning happens in a coaching process. this study revealed that in most of the cases, adjustment was not an explicit goal in the coaching. in the course of being coached the issue of ‘fitting in’, adjusting to both working and social conditions emerged. this presents an opportunity for cape-based organisations to support employees by seeking coaching in a deliberate manner, with adjustment as one of the explicit goals. this provides the coachees’ difficulties of adjusting to work and social environment of cape town started with insights into how their social identities could be shaping their experiences and creating a barrier for them. as they experienced the ‘exclusion’, it became more insightful and useful for them to distinguish whether this was real or perceived exclusion. cornish (2009) states this as an important distinction because performance and self-esteem are negatively impacted when one feels constantly discriminated and excluded. it seems that the retention of black african professionals can be facilitated through the process of coaching where social adjustment is on the agenda. this is critical as it is one of the determining factors in the settling in of the individual. it gets the individual to reflect upon their self-categorisation lens and those they place on others, determining those lenses that are of use and those that are not. this means that coaching helps facilitate their sense of awareness and ability to empower themselves. equally, the organisational environment ought to be prepared and positioned for cultural inclusion and the competence and interest to retain (livermore, 2015). without the ability to adapt cross-culturally, there is a disconnection and therefore retention is compromised. there is an immense weight upon the individual organisations in recognising that coaching can be seen as a positive contributor to retaining and settling in of black professionals. what is also evident, although not the main point of this study, is the sentiment that cape town as a city does not inspire the adjustment and settling in of the said professionals (surtee & hall, 2010). generally, issues cited have much to do with the cultural fit of the city. its perceived unfriendliness, expensive lifestyle and the ‘eurocentricity’ drives black african professionals away as previously conducted research shows. this points to the importance of coaches and organisations putting social adjustment on the agenda. doing this helps the individual to ensure that their personal and professional goals align. moving to cape town is then a life choice and not solely seen a career move. practical implications the conclusion is that coaching contributes to black african professionals’ adjustment to living and working in cape town. the success of the coaching experience and capability for adjustment does, however, depend on the individual, the coach and the environment in which they work. the supporting conditions that were commonly found from the three professional groups were: support, depth, space and match. below is the synthesis of these core conditions paired with additional sub-conditions that stood out for each of the participating groups. one main finding is the support for the individual. both the environment and the coach have to be supportive and be open about what the black professional is experiencing. this means vulnerability, clarity on what is needed and recognition that coaching might not be the only contributor to the success in adjustment. networking within and outside of the organisation is key in breaking down the social identity categorisation that often unconsciously emerges in society and in the work environment (cornish, 2009). for the hrs community in cape-based organisations, the essential discovery has been that coaching can be used as a strategic contributor to the attraction and retention of black african professionals. providing support before they move, putting social adjustment on the agenda and being supportive of the executive’s coaching journey is seen as a pivotal support function. the authors recommend that a relocation within south africa should indeed be managed similar to the relocation of an expatriate, given the complexity of the racial and social identities which was expressed by the participants of this study and which prevailed in south africa and in cape town particularly. coaching should, however, not be seen as the only contributor but part of a collective of support given to the person. the relocating organisation can assist proactively by supporting the individual via integration in professional networks – for example, industry-related and private groups of interest, therefore exposing them to different people and environments. literature has highlighted that coaching can have great benefits for both the coachee and the organisation because in their contentedness and general well-being, people tend to perform better as they are well supported and feel acknowledged (cornish, 2009). in terms of coaches, their coaching contributes directly when there is depth in the interaction – when coachees are encouraged to reflect on their contribution to the situation, allowing them to understand their cultural capital and therefore learning from activities undertaken at work and in their personal lives. this invariably might mean breaking stereotypes that they themselves might have about themselves, their racial grouping, their gender, and so on. openness to look at things differently, allowing new experiences, learning the new culture and embracing different living conditions forms part of successful adjusting. part of transitioning is understanding that coachees have to relinquish the old, to consciously use the coaching journey to look at what is good and what works about one’s culture and incorporating it with what one perceives to be good and successful about other cultures, essentially developing cultural intelligence. all of this must take place while ensuring that they remain true to themselves. coaching contributes to the journey when there is consciousness of own leadership styles, willingness to integrate, understanding of other views and openness to complexity and multi-realities. another relevant finding in this study is that for the coaching to be effective, the coach ought to acknowledge and allow a space for black professionals to express issues relating to their blackness. this often is about the pressures they feel in the workplace and what they feel they have to deliver because they are black. sometimes, these might be real and at times these might be perceived. the key is to help them discern the difference and support them into making decisions about the appropriate actions where they leverage the strengths their background provides – which allows the development of resilience. for the coaching to support and directly contribute to adjustment, the coach needs to understand and be aware of cross-cultural diversity and social identity theories. furthermore, the value of the process of contracting and getting clarity about what the focus is should not be underestimated. this antecedent allows for a key finding in this study – making the issues explicit in this safe space: naming, acknowledging and tackling issues for what they are which allows measurement and therefore effectiveness of the coaching. the fourth condition identified across all groups is the match between the coachee and the coach. in the context of south africa, the coach must not only understand the adjustment challenges in the changing living, working and relationship conditions, but also further the unique dynamics in the south african work environment, given the complexities mentioned earlier. further, the match is an enabler of other conditions, such as the depth of the coaching process as well. all three groups should assess the match so that the client finds a coach that best serves her or his needs. figure 1 provides an overview on the conditions for coaching towards adjustment of black african professionals. figure 1: coaching for the adjustment of black african professionals. practical implications the practical implications that can be exercised by all three professional groups can be stated as follows: plan the coaching process strategically to facilitate the relocation and adjustment process. avoid it being a reactive and ad-hoc intervention. include the development of cultural sensitivity and intelligence as a coaching objective as a means for effective adjustment to different living conditions and diverse cultures. coaches need to reflect on their own social and racial identity to expand their own awareness to enable depth and a safe space for exploring coachees identities in the coaching process. sensitise staff and managers within the relocating organisation of the cross-cultural complexities and diversity factors based on social identity theories, to enable such issues to be specified openly and courageously. black african professionals need to take full ownership of the coaching process and request support before the relocation. black african professionals need to plan to develop their own unique leadership style that reflects their cultural strengths and cultural capital and also be familiar with the complexity of diversity. limitations and recommendations the research is confined to a limited number of black professionals who currently work and live in cape town after relocating to the cape and having received coaching. those who have left cape town and those who did not receive coaching during their relocation do not form part of this study. as set out in the definitions, ‘black’ in this study refers to black africans only. no indian or mixed-race professionals were interviewed. white professionals as coachees were also excluded from this study. this is because of indications that the most significant problem of adjustment and feelings of exclusion lies primarily among black professionals (surtee & hall, 2010). this is seen through the low retention rates of these professionals in cape-based organisations. black professional graduates were also excluded as their adjustment may have a different set of needs which would add complexity to the study. in their first year of work, graduates generally deal with ‘complex issues surrounding identity and transition and the journey is multi-faceted and varied’ (dunne, 2013, p. 142). in its focus, this study excluded black professionals from cape town. those who were born, raised and now work in cape town in these same organisations that reportedly are unable to retain their relocated counterparts. much can be learnt in further research about how they view and experience the corporate and social environments and whether this impacts on them continuing to work and live in cape town. given the limitation of the study, potential follow-up research could revisit those and other cape-based organisations that have recently embarked on adjustment and supportive programmes for their newly recruited and relocated black african professionals to investigate what the coaching programmes achieved and how it contributed in the longer term. additionally, those that did relocate to cape town and did not receive coaching can be included in further research to determine how their experience differs and to test the identified supporting conditions. this research could lead to tested frameworks and/or techniques that can further guide adjustment cases. cultural intelligence is a relatively new management concept with great potential for helping to understand effective skills in cross-cultural and multi-cultural organisations. further research to investigate and gain a better understanding of cultural intelligence and its relation to the successful application in south african organisations would therefore be valuable to the field of management studies. conclusion in the context of black african professionals during relocation, the findings from this study on contributions and the required conditions of coaching can be used to inform those in hr or other managerial roles and the coaching fraternity. coaches have an evidence-based right to claim that coaching can contribute to the adjustment of black african professionals to working and living in this case study, in cape town. the findings are useful in understanding the challenges that black african professionals encounter and ways in which coaching can be useful. it emerged that race does matter in organisations because of south africa’s particular history. the experience of real and/or perceived racism and discrimination in the workplace needs to be acknowledged in the coaching space. the greatest benefit in being explicit about these experiences is that the coach can challenge the thinking and beliefs of coachees, to help them leverage the positives of their own culture and to incorporate useful aspects from other cultures while remaining true to who they are. as hr professionals have been included in this enquiry, cape-based organisations can benefit from hearing the importance of supporting newly recruited black african professionals. the hr managers have indicated how coaching can be an answer to an effective retention strategy of individuals who need to adjust in work life, private life and in developing healthy associations. in closing, this body of knowledge contributes to understanding coaching in a diverse society reflected in cross-cultural organisations and the key conditions influencing the success of the coaching intervention during an adjustment process. acknowledgements v.t. was a master’s student at stellenbosch university, usb, and conducted the research as part of her dissertation for the fulfilment of the degree, master in philosophie in management coaching. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions h.m.l.s. was the supervisor for v.t. during the research project and converted the dissertation into the journal article. references abbott, g. n., stening, b. w., atkins, p. w. b., & grant, a. m. (2006). coaching expatriate managers for success: adding value beyond training and mentoring. asia pacific journal of human resources, 44(3), 295–317. acton, t., & golden, w. (2003). training the knowledge worker: a descriptive study of training practices in irish software companies. journal of european industrial training, 27(4), 137–146. ang, s., van dyne, l., koh, c., yee ng, k., templer, k. j., tay, c., & anand chandrasekar, n. (2007). cultural intelligence, its measurement and effects on cultural judgment and decision making, cultural adaptation and task performance. management and organisation review, 3(3), 335–371. babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2014). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford university press southern africa. barday, m. a. (2015). contribution of coaching, as part of the blended leadership programme towards a leader’s development and leadership development. research assignment presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree master of philosophy in management coaching. stellenbosch: university of stellenbosch. bennett, k. (2015). making sense of and developing executive leaders’ capability for uncertainty. thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of philosophy doctor in personal and professional leadership. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. biko, s. (1978). black consciousness and the quest for a true humanity. ufahamu: a journal of african studies, 8(3), 10–20. booysen, l. (2007). societal power shifts and changing social identities in south africa: workplace implications. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 10(1), 1–20. brink, h. (2006). fundamentals of research methodology for healthcare professionals (2nd edn.). cape town: juta. comensa: coaches and mentors of south africa [website]. coaching. retrieved may 10, 2018, from https://www.comensa.org.za/information/coaching cornish, t. (2009). coaching black british coachees. in j. passmore (ed.), diversity in coaching: working with gender, culture, race and age (pp. 165–180). london: kogan page. creswell, j. w. (2009). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. 3rd edn. thousand oaks, ca: sage. day, a. (2009). effective executive transitions: managing the entry process into a new leadership role. the ashridge journal, 1–5. department of labour. (2014). 14th commission for employment equity 2013–2014, annual report. pretoria: chief directorate of communication. dunne, i. (2013). graduate identity development in the first year of work. published doctoral dissertation. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. earley, p. c. (2002). redefining interactions across cultures and organisations: moving forward with cultural intelligence. research in organisational behaviour, 24, 271–299. earley, p. c., & mosakowski, e. (2004, october). cultural intelligence: best practice. harvard business review, pp. 1–9. fitz-enz, j. (1990). getting and keeping good employees. in personnel, 67(8), 25–29. gordon, l. r. (2015). what fanon said: a philosophical introduction to his life and thought. new york: fordham university press. henning, e., van rensburg, w. & smit, b. (2004). finding your way in qualitative research. pretoria: van schaik. hill, g. (2010). executive coaching: perspectives of effectiveness from executive coaches. masters research report. queensland: queensland university of technology. hook, d. (2004). frantz fanon, steve biko, ‘psychopolitics’ and critical psychology. london: lse research online. retrieved may 10, 2016 from http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/961 jongens, c. (2006). to what extent do the different social environments in cape town and johannesburg influence the organizational culture of the company in those places and how does this impact on the ways that black african managers navigate borders and negotiate identity in the workplace. unpublished masters research report. cape town: university of cape town. laurie, r. a. (2011). positive acculturation conditions and work related outcomes: the mediating role of integration. unpublished master’s thesis. potchefstroom: north-west university. leedy, p. d., & ormrod, j. e. (2001). practical research: planning and design (7th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson education, inc., publishing as merrill li, n., & jackson, m. h. (2015). global relocation: an examination of the corporate influence on expatriate adjustment. asia pacific journal of human resources, 53, 471–489. livermore, d. (2015). leading with cultural intelligence: the real secret to success (2nd edn.). new york: american management association. lundy, g. (2009, january 22). where are cape town’s black professionals? speech presented at the cape town press club, cape town. motsoaledi, l., & cilliers, f. (2012). executive coaching in diversity from the systems psychodynamic perspective. sa journal of industrial psychology, 38(2), 1–11. myers, h. (2013). factors in south africa inhibiting the progression of black executives in their careers and the role of coaching in their development. master of management research report. johannesburg: university of witwatersrand. nkomo, s. (1992). the emperor has no clothes: rewriting ‘race in organizations’. academy of management review, 17(3), 487–513. o’flaherty, c., & everson, j. (2013). coaching in south africa. in j. passmore (ed.), diversity in coaching: working with gender, culture, race and age (pp. 75–86). london : kogan page. o’neill, m. b. (2000). executive coaching with backbone and heart: a systems approach to engaging leaders with their challenges. san francisco, ca: wiley. pennington, g. (2009). coaching black american coachees. in j. passmore (ed.), diversity in coaching: working with gender, culture, race and age (pp. 181–194). london: kogan page. stout-rostron, s. (2009). business coaching wisdom and practice. randburg: knowres. surtee, s., & hall, m. j. (2010). transformation: african people in the western cape: an overview. development policy research unit. (dpru working paper no.10/141). tompson, h. b., bear, d. j., dennis, d. j., vickers, m., london, j., & morrison, c. l. (2008). coaching: a global study of successful practices. current trends and future possibilities 2008–2018. new york: american management association. west, l., & milan, m. (2001). the reflecting glass: professional coaching for leadership development. london: palgrave. abstract current context and challenges performance management literature semi-structured interviews – analysis and interpretation balanced scorecard as a strategic management tool crucial elements to be considered when implementing a balanced scorecard why the balanced scorecard may not work? concluding remarks acknowledgements references appendix 1 about the author(s) zwelinzima j. ndevu school of public leadership, stellenbosch university, south africa kobus muller school of public leadership, stellenbosch university, south africa citation ndevu, z.j., & muller, k. (2018). operationalising performance management in local government: the use of the balanced scorecard. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a977. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.977 opinion paper operationalising performance management in local government: the use of the balanced scorecard zwelinzima j. ndevu, kobus muller received: 18 july 2017; accepted: 19 mar. 2018; published: 31 may 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: local government forms that part of the public sector closest to citizens and therefore indispensable in its role of providing essential goods and services and developing the local area. local government has the authority and functions necessary to provide services for the maintenance and promotion of the well-being of all people within their area and should provide access to basic services such as water, electricity and health care. research purpose: this study examines performance management as a tool in local government effective provision service delivery. the critical question addressed in this paper was how the balanced scorecard (bsc) can be used to improve performance in the context of local government and assist in eradicating the current challenges of lack of quality services, poverty and infrastructure development. motivation for the study: the need for continuous improvement in service delivery at local government compounded by high levels of service delivery protest requires regular review of performance management system. research approach: to understand the current context and challenges facing local government, the applicable legislative framework including the constitution, white paper and the national development plans were perused to better understand the legal environment in which local government operates. a literature review was undertaken to evaluate theory on organisational effectiveness. semi-structured interviews were used to solicit expert opinions. main findings/managerial implications: the bsc approach emerged as the preferred tool because the method offered the authors the opportunity to review non-financial and financial factors to arrive at a balanced conclusion. a bsc tool was developed and applied to the joe gqabi district municipality as a case study. practical implications: the bsc as a performance management tool enables organisations to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into goal or actions. contribution/value-add: the research findings conclude that there was acknowledgement of the importance of performance measurement instruments in the municipality, yet the municipality still experienced challenges caused by the performance review process not being transparent and not communicated to all stakeholders. current context and challenges democratic south africa has introduced two important changes at local government level that have defined the process of service delivery. in the first instance, section 40 (1) of the constitution of the republic of south africa (rsa, 1996) renders local government as a distinct sphere of government, which in terms of section 41 (1) is autonomous vis-à-vis the national and provincial spheres of government. secondly, in terms of section 152 of the constitution of the republic of south africa (rsa, 1996), one of the objects of this system of local government is ‘to promote social and economic development’. according to section 153 (a), municipalities must structure and manage their administration, budgeting and planning processes in such a way that priority is given to the basic needs of the community and to promoting the social and economic development of the community (rsa, 1996). the white paper on local government discusses the characteristics of developmental local government, identifies a series of development outcomes and proposes several tools to assist municipalities to become developmental (rsa, 1998, p. 17). this makes the importance that national government attaches to service delivery at local government level quite evident. furthermore, the white paper deals with two interrelated and equally important aspects of developmental local government. the first concept that it deals with is integrated development planning (idp), which ‘provides a powerful tool for municipalities to facilitate integrated and co-ordinated service delivery within their locality’ (rsa, 1998, p. 19). secondly, it also refers to the concept of performance management that ensures that idp is being implemented and that municipalities are having the desired development impact. the net effect of these changes has been the establishment of what was generally referred to as ‘developmental local government’. the concept of developmental local government was first alluded to in the constitution of the republic of south africa (1996) (see section 153). according to section 153 (a), municipalities must structure and manage their administration, budgeting and planning processes in such a way that priority is given to the basic needs of the community and to promoting the social and economic development of the community (rsa, 1996). local government forms that part of the public sector that was closest to citizens and is therefore indispensable in its role of providing essential goods and services and developing the local area. this paper examines the role of local government in improving service delivery in south africa with special reference to the joe gqabi district municipality (jgdm) in the eastern cape province. this province, the second biggest in the country, was a predominantly rural province. persistent high levels of poverty and food insecurity in rural areas have implications for public policy and the design of a strategy to reduce poverty and improve service delivery. because of the geographical dispersion of the rural poor, it is more expensive for national government in south africa to provide provincial government and local government with public infrastructure, social services and a safety environment equivalent to those provided to urban communities. the above background is given to illustrate problems that municipalities in rural areas encounter in their quest to provide basic municipal services to the communities they serve. despite all the efforts made by the previous governments of south africa to address poverty in rural areas of the country, local government, for reasons that remain unresolved, still plays a minimal role in addressing these problems. the lack of infrastructure entrenches the problems of poverty and limits the potential of communities to sustain economic growth, rural livelihoods and social development. efforts to extend the provision of basic services to all people are slow to reach rural areas and farm-dwellers, even while most urban communities have access to free basic services. the national development plan (ndp) envisages that by 2030 south africa will be a state that is capable of playing a developmental and transformative role. in broad terms, such a state intervenes to support and guide development in such a way that the benefits accrue across society, with particular emphasis on the poor. the south african government has introduced a substantial body of legislation focusing on service delivery in the national, provincial and local spheres of government. various legislation and policy frameworks significant to local government were briefly explored in the paper and reviewed in terms of their contribution and impact on service delivery. the constitution (rsa, 1996) gives the following mandate to local government: to provide democratic and accountable government for all communities, to ensure the provision of services to communities in a sustainable manner, to promote social and economic development and to promote a safe and healthy environment. van der waldt (2006, p. 142) and thornhill (2008, p. 492) assert that local government is at the coalface of public service delivery. mopaki and mutono (2016, p. 4), who state that local government is often the first point of contact between an individual and a government institution, also articulate this view. the local sphere is often referred to as grassroots government because of its direct association with communities at a local level. local government could be described as public organisations authorised to manage and govern the affairs of a given territory or area of jurisdiction. it is also important to note that local government refers to a sphere of government, not an individual municipality. all the individual municipalities in south africa collectively make up the sphere of local government (roux, 2005, p. 64). being the government level closest to the people, it was to be expected that a core function of municipalities was the rendering of a variety of basic but essential services to the community within its jurisdiction (roux, 2005, p. 69). the provision of services by municipalities was a constitutional obligation. part b of schedule 5 of the constitution (rsa, 1996), concerning functions falling concurrently within the national and provincial competence constituent units, identifies the following services that fall within the ambit of local government and its municipalities. these are water; electricity; town and city planning; road and storm water drainage; waste management; emergency services, for example firefighting; licenses; fresh produce markets; parks and recreation; security; libraries; and economic planning. the white paper on local government (rsa, 1998) asserts that: … basic services enhance the quality of life of citizens and increase their social and economic opportunities by promoting health and safety, facilitating access to work, to education, to recreation and stimulating new productive activities. (p. 92) there are nine distinct ‘values’ in the white paper on local government (rsa, 1998): accessibility: the white paper stresses non-discriminatory (race, gender, sexual orientation) access to services, at least at a minimum level. historical unevenness in service provision was to be addressed by building new infrastructure and rehabilitating/upgrading that which already exists. the mechanism for rolling this out was capital investment in bulk and connector infrastructure via infrastructure grants, at this stage through the consolidated municipal infrastructure programme. municipalities were also urged to consider the ‘ease of use’ of this infrastructure, particularly for the disabled. the question of ‘eligibility’ was thus firmly established – all citizens were eligible for municipal services irrespective of their social and economic circumstances. much debate has centred on this principle and the extent to which it has been carried through to implementation programmes and municipal logistics. affordability: the white paper on local government (rsa, 1998) notes the importance of considering the affordability of the actual service – even though the service infrastructure may be in place. it urges that tariff levels consider both the economics of providing the service and the potential of the poor to access the services, that is, financial sustainability has to be offset against the needs of the poor and their possible contribution to service costs. service levels have to reflect local affordability patterns but not in such a way as to perpetuate the existing spatial (and racial) inequality between low, middle or high income users. cross subsidisation was envisaged within particular service types and across services (e.g. income from electricity can legitimately be used to subsidise water provision). higher income users may thus subsidise lower income users and commercial users may subsidise residential users. quality of services: quality relates to attributes like relevance to purpose, whether the service was delivered on time, and convenience to users, safety, continuity (minimal breakdown) and responsiveness to the service users. accountability: the stress here was on the municipality retaining ultimate responsibility for service provision. perhaps recognising the overarching international movement to privatisation and ‘outsourcing’, the white paper emphasises that council remains responsible for delivering appropriate services of the required standard. services and development: integrated development was called for, with consideration of the social and economic impacts of the services provided. importantly, sustainability was defined as encompassing resource usage that was financially viable, environmentally sound and socially just. value for money: it was noted that this attribute compares cost inputs with the quality and value of service outputs and that the aim was the best possible use of public resources to ensure universal access to affordable and sustainable services. it might be argued that this was the most important measure to apply in any assessment of the current service delivery patterns, specifically, useful appraisal was less about the reach and scale of service delivery (where the challenges and achievements were fairly well documented) and more about whether the significant resources allocated to services were optimally deployed. impact on local commerce and industry: when considering cross subsidisation between commercial and residential service users and generally when considering tariff levels, municipalities were urged to consider the impact of rates and service charges on commerce and industry in order not to compromise the ‘job-creating and competitive nature’ of such enterprises. (p. 93) the key outcomes that the white paper on local government (rsa, 1998) envisages local government to achieve were the provision of household infrastructure and services; creation of liveable, integrated cities, towns and rural areas; local economic development; and community empowerment and redistribution. drawing from the ndp chapter on a capable and developmental state, by 2030 south africa will have a developmental state that is accountable, focused on citizens’ priorities and capable of delivering high-quality services consistently and sustainably through cooperative governance and participatory democracy. as depicted in the white paper on local government, developmental local government was (rsa, 1998): … local government committed to working with citizens and groups within the community to find sustainable ways to meet their social, economic and material needs and improve the quality of their lives (p. 27). in this scenario, local government was at the forefront of participatory democracy, involving citizens in meaningful deliberations regarding governance and development; was responsive to citizens’ priorities, enjoying high levels of trust and credibility amongst the public; had employees who were skilled, competent and committed to delivering quality services; was able to cost-effectively increase the quantity and quality of services; and operated within a supportive and empowering intergovernmental system. the ndp, however, cautions that such a developmental state cannot materialise by decree, nor can it be legislated or waved into existence by declarations. it has to be consciously built and sustained. local government was at the centre of development, and to achieve the aspiration of a transformed and effective local government system will require strong leadership through a clear and consistent, long-term strategy. additionally, while the metro municipalities have made significant progress in addressing service delivery backlogs, even these advances are obscured by overwhelming challenges related to the fast pace of urbanisation and in-migration. the ndp identifies institutional capacity, an enabling environment and the macro context as the main challenges facing local government in south africa. table 1 lists the constraints as depicted in the chapter on local government as components of outcome nine in the ndp document. the critical question addressed in the paper was how the balanced scorecard (bsc) tool could be used for improving performance measurement in service delivery in local government and assist in eradicating the current challenges of lack of quality services, poverty and infrastructure development. table 1: local government constraints. performance management literature armstrong and baron (1998, p. 7) define ‘performance management’ as a strategic and integrated approach to delivering sustained success to the organisation by improving the performance of employees and by developing the capabilities of teams and individual contributors. the objective, from this definition, aimed at the improvement of results at the level of the individual, the team and the organisation, as illustrated in figure 1. figure 1: individual performance management cycle. according to grobler et al. (2011, p. 293), performance management is a process that significantly affects organisational success by having managers and employees work together to set expectations, review results and ultimately reward excellent performance. hood (1995, p. 98) argues that encouraging a performance management approach in the organisation means managing results, not rules. the interest was more on achieving organisational objectives and goals rather than monitoring how procedures and policies are implemented. cavalluzzo and ittner (2004, p. 251) further argue that an organisation that relies on or adopts performance measures should achieve improved decision-making methods. clarify expectations it is important in performance management to first ensure that employees understand what was expected of them in the workplace. they must have a clear understanding not only of what the objectives mean but also of what was necessary to affect the measure associated with the objectives (grobler et al., 2011; werner, 2007, p. 110). plan to facilitate performance in this case, a manager asks a subordinate in the initial performance management meeting to identify which areas of work, resources and skills the organisation can assist the employee with in order to achieve the objectives. there are instances in which the organisation has to intervene because the employee has no authority or resources to execute their responsibilities effectively and efficiently (grobler et al., 2011; werner, 2007, p. 110). monitor performance at this stage, there is a common understanding of what should be done. it is important to monitor actual performance to check whether the organisation is still on track to achieve the set organisational goals. the frequency of the monitoring process depends on the nature of services provided and the seniority of the employee being monitored. in some environments, monitoring may take place every day; in other cases, especially with middle to senior employees, a performance review session may be held on a monthly or in some cases on a yearly basis (werner, 2007, p. 110). provide feedback one of the main reasons for monitoring performance is to be able to provide feedback on progress towards achieving organisational goals and on employee performance. according to werner (2007, p. 111), feedback serves two purposes: it allows the organisation to provide consequences for performance and to redirect employees’ efforts if necessary. feedback allows employees to improve their performance by indicating performance deficits (grobler et al., 2011). coach, counsel and support if performance monitoring reveals a serious performance deficit, the organisation may have to coach the employee concerned. this consists of discussing the desired performance and if necessary modelling the performance for the employee, requesting the employee to perform and then giving critical feedback until performance is at the required level. in some instances, employee performance is substandard because of personal or interpersonal problems. in this case, the manager may have to counsel the employee and if possible offer advice on how to overcome the problem. it is also important to support employees and ensure they know that the organisation has confidence in them and will stand by them should the need arise. figure 1 demonstrates that far from merely emphasising individual performance and accountability or reporting on compliance with procedures, the performance management process is a useful and essential management process for understanding the performance of programmes, reaching agreement on performance expectations, improving performance and demonstrating to citizens that expectations of performance are successfully met. as part of the overall management strategy, public sector managers need to measure performance to evaluate whether the organisation was performing as expected. according to niven (2003, p. 56), there is growing recognition that using performance measures to gauge success is vital to any organisation whether in the private or public sector. balanced scorecard perspective the last decade has seen a paradigm shift in the public sector towards more accountability and the adoption of the new style of public management, which is more closely aligned with private sector management systems (sharma & gadenne, 2011, p. 167). the above has precipitated the adoption of more sophisticated performance management and control systems such as the bsc. the bsc was originally developed for the private sector by kaplan and norton (1992, p. 75). they argued that financial indicators alone were not sufficient to measure performance or manage an organisation. senior management needs various kinds of information about the goods and services that the organisation is offering (such as quantity, quality, market, consumers, suppliers, competition and technology) as inputs for decision-making and strategic planning (kaplan & norton, 1992, p. 75). it has become apparent that managers need a balanced presentation of both financial and non-financial measures so that they are able to view the organisation’s performance simultaneously across several areas or perspectives. kaplan (2001) is of the view that the bsc has the potential to enable public sector organisations to: bridge the gap between vague mission, strategy statement and day-to-day operational actions develop a process to achieve strategic focus, avoiding the notion of attempting to be everything to everyone shift their focus from programme and initiatives to the outcomes the programs and initiatives are aiming to achieve avoid the illusion that they have a strategy because they are managing a diverse set of programs and initiatives align initiatives, departments and individuals to work in ways that reinforce each other so that dramatic performance improvements can be achieved (p. 90). the name bsc comes from the idea that measurable statistics form the basis of the approach and metrics that are applied for different but related elements are important to the organisation’s success (thompson & mathys, 2008, p. 378). the categories of metrics form a balanced set of measures to assess organisational performance. in rampersad’s view (2006, pp. 110–113), the alignment of personal ambition informed by a personal bsc with the shared organisational ambition informed by an organisational bsc is central for the purposes of employee commitment, trust, inner involvement, stress and burnout reduction, stimulating enjoyment, active participation, motivation and empowerment of employees. it has to do with reaching a higher degree of compatibility between personal and organisational objectives and mutual value, as illustrated in figure 2. in a similar manner, recent studies, such as those conducted by ellangovani and kamalanabhan (2014, p. 10), the authors have also explored and agreed with the approaches discussed above and argue that the original framework remains the basis for successful implementation of the bsc. figure 2: match between personal ambition and shared ambition. the argument by rampersad means that employees do not work with devotion or expend energy on something they do not believe in or agree with. as rampersad (2006, p. 114) puts it, clarity and uniformity of personal and organisational values and principles are therefore essential for employees’ active involvement and contribution to the achievement of organisational goals. the above demonstrates the importance of understanding that employees join the organisation with personal objectives or have aspirations to achieve at a personal level. kaplan and norton (2001, p. 99) cited in sharma and gadenne (2011, p. 171) argue that many of the concepts articulated above consist of lists of programmes and initiatives rather than outcomes that the organisation is attempting to achieve. within this context, sharma and gadenne (2011) advocate a modified bsc framework where the organisational mission is featured at the highest level of the scorecard, underpinned by three high level perspectives: costs of providing services value or benefits of the service support of legitimising authorities including the legislature by taxpayers (p. 72). introducing a bsc means introducing change in the organisation, which was never an easy process: the organisation can expect to encounter challenges. semi-structured interviews – analysis and interpretation in this paper, the qualitative method was applied through interviews with a selected number of stakeholder representatives. the participants in the study were officials, the political office bearers, ward committee members, and the business and agriculture forums from jgdm jurisdiction. welman and kruger (2002, p. 211) argue that the important factor in collecting data through interviews is to identify themes, as they assist the researcher in analysing interview data. the researchers used a structured interview questionnaire formulated around themes that were predetermined; jgdm was used as a case study. examining attitudes to the use of performance measures in a municipality can be particularly interesting because the nature of the community and stakeholders varies considerably. these themes were limited to policy implementation, management commitment, performance measurement and analysis, and performance evaluation approach. policy implementation participants were asked questions on their awareness of the legislative and policy requirements for the implementation of performance measurement in municipalities. the participants were given a list of legislative and policy requirements that were applicable to the sector, as captured in appendix 1 for them to indicate their knowledge of these requirements. while ward committee members and the business and agriculture forums were not familiar with or could not remember the policy requirements, the officials and political office bearers explained the policies that oblige the municipality to do performance evaluation. management commitment the need for strong top management commitment to performance measurement is recognised in the government reform literature. cavalluzzo and ittner (2004, p. 247) argue that while administrative and technical factors are expected to influence the implementation of performance measurement, their impact is secondary to that of organisational factors. they argue that top management commitment is crucial to implementation success because these managers can focus resources, goals and strategies on initiatives they deem worthwhile and deny resources to initiatives they do not support, as well as provide the political help needed to motivate or push aside individuals who resist the initiative. the feedback from interviews conducted with all stakeholders reflected different views from participants. the municipality’s political office bearers and officials indicated that there was support from council, which is the top management governance structure in the municipality, but the organisation was hampered by a lack of capacity to implement the performance management initiative as well as current budgetary constraints. however, other stakeholders interviewed indicated that top management was not willing to take decisions and commit to support the implementation. they based their argument on the fact that they were not aware of any municipal policy dealing with performance measures. performance measurement and analysis interviewees were asked to comment on the use of performance measures in the municipality. categories were given to them to help with the focus of the response. the categories included input, activity/process, output, outcome, benchmarks and customer satisfaction. the interviewees were provided with definitions and explanations for each of these terms to ensure consistent understanding of terminology. all respondents agreed that customer satisfaction was central to the process of implementing performance measures and that community input should be more visible and valued. participants also indicated that while in practice the programmes that the municipality develops were informed by input from all stakeholders in the area such as the idp, they were divided on whether performance measurement was focused on shared programme results or rather on the service delivery budget and implementation plan, over which they had little input and influence. interviewees were questioned about the consequences of performance measures and targets not being met. the interviewees agreed that the current culture at local government did not provide any consequences for measures and targets not being met. performance evaluation approach judging by responses given to the above theme, it was concluded that while all stakeholders understood and agreed on the importance of a performance measurement review, their opinions about the overall experience with performance measures in the municipality differed fundamentally. more specifically, they all acknowledged the usefulness of performance measures but at the same time indicated problems in their identification and implementation. some of the points raised by ward committee members and the agriculture and business community were, in no particular order: the review process was not transparent there was no review system, or if there was it was not communicated to all stakeholders lack of commitment by all parties reactive approach by management and political office bearers. while management, on the other hand, identified the following challenges, the list below does not reflect order of importance: lack of capacity budget and time constraints politically driven process poor management of the process implementation challenges. balanced scorecard as a strategic management tool the scorecard was initially introduced solely as a performance measurement system but the inventors soon realised that a measurement system can help the organisation to navigate the future. subsequently, the scorecard became the operational framework in which strategy was organised. it can be concluded that a scorecard provides a framework in which strategic objectives are organised within the four perspectives. the strategy’s critical elements and the linkage between them is organised top–down on a cause-and-effect relationship basis. according to kaplan and norton (2001, p. 91), cause-and-effect relationships should exist between these four perspectives in such a way that learning and growth leads to the improvement of the internal process, which in turn leads to financial improvement, finally bringing about customer satisfaction improvement. figure 3 shows the design of an ideal scorecard in the context of local government, as supported by the discussion above. figure 3: a design of an ideal scorecard framework. the proposed scorecard framework contains the four standard perspectives, but instead of starting with a learning and growth perspective it starts with a customer perspective. each perspective represents a strategic goal, objective and key performance indicators (kpi) as depicted in figure 4. customer perspective: is the municipality focusing on the needs of its citizens and offering quality services? financial perspective: is the municipality providing quality service standards at a reasonable and cost-effective rate (value for money)? internal process perspective: is the municipality maintaining its operational systems and striving to improve its method of service provision? learning and growth perspective: is the municipality able to change or adapt to innovative methods of service provision? figure 4: the four perspectives of the joe gqabi district municipality scorecard framework. the scorecard design was based on the assumption that the municipality’s performance in the achievement of the strategic goal of every perspective was related to its performance in achieving the strategic goal of the lower level perspective. every subsystem has one strategic goal and contains both outcome measures (objectives) and performance drivers (kpis). the strategic goal of each perspective takes place on the first level. the second level consists of the outcomes of the measures of the perspective that serve as objectives, while the third level contains the selected kpis for every objective. the scorecard provides the municipality with a comprehensive framework that translates vision and strategy into a coherent and linked series of objectives and kpi; it was not just a collection of critical, financial or non-financial indicators of these four perspectives. crucial elements to be considered when implementing a balanced scorecard leadership and support of senior management kaplan and norton (1996, p. 285) argue that the leadership and support of senior management is crucial for the successful implementation of a bsc. organisations that complied with the criteria for a fully developed and structurally complete bsc were found to have greater senior management involvement during the bsc implementation process. these organisations also reported fewer bscs that were cluttered with inappropriate measures or measures not linked to cause-and-effect relationships (soderberg et al., 2011, p. 704). burning platform for change in addition to senior executive support, niven (2003, pp. 47–48) was of the opinion that a burning need for change (also referred to as a ‘burning platform’) has to be determined. a case study article of seven private sector financial companies, which found that the initial reasons given for the implementation of the bsc affect the potential benefits of bsc use (agostino & arnaboldi, 2011, pp. 99, 109–111), supported this. niven (2003, pp. 47–48) explains that the burning platform for change to the bsc includes understanding why it was being done, the need to get involved (‘buy-in’) and its value to the organisation. resistance to change is natural (mooraj, oyon & hostettler, 1999, p. 490). learning anxieties are central to the resistance; consequently, people will only adapt to change when ‘survival anxiety … [is] greater than learning anxiety’ (niven, 2003, p. 48). the implementation of the bsc helps to encourage change by placing the focus of employees on long-term objectives (mooraj et al., 1999, p. 490). the objectives that are developed by the bsc team will communicate the survival anxieties of the organisation to the staff and convey why change is required for success. the bsc reduces learning anxiety by providing a safe environment for learning (niven, 2003, p. 48). balanced scorecard team and leader kaplan and norton (1996, p. 64) posit that one person cannot draw up a bsc because no single person has the requisite knowledge to tell the strategic story of the organisation. kaplan and norton (1996, p. 64) contend that collective knowledge, experience and input have to be provided by all well-prepared staff members who are part of the bsc team, a position with which niven (2003, p. 51) concurs. this approach enables the bsc team to own and drive the bsc concept under the guidance of the bsc team leader, driver or architect (kaplan & norton, 1996, p. 64, 2001, pp. 362–363). kaplan and norton (2001, p. 363) argue that a broader set of people could be involved in smaller subgroups, possibly focusing on one perspective. the work of the subgroups would then be integrated at a bigger meeting. why the balanced scorecard may not work? balanced scorecards that are not reviewed periodically a bsc should not be built once and then left unchanged (niven, 2003, p. 287) but should be maintained (weinstein & bukovinsky, 2009, p. 54). in fact, best practice studies have shown that most practitioners do an annual critical evaluation of the bsc to ensure that the strategic story is still being told accurately (niven, 2003, pp. 287–288). balanced scorecard development labelled a short-term project niven (2003, p. 289) is of the opinion that the development of a bsc that is seen as a ‘project’ is doomed to failure. he argues that a project is a short-term endeavour and the bsc should become a fixture in management processes. to reach this level, it should be used continually in every facet of the operation, including decision-making and resource allocation. on the other hand, nair (2004, p. 157) believes that bsc development should be treated as a project. this reflects a different viewpoint in that nair (2004, p. 157) does not see a project as short-term but focuses on the strict and controlled sequencing that flows from the planning and implementation of projects. according to kaplan and norton (2001, p. 365), the bsc should be seen as a management project and certainly not as a systems project. kaplan and norton (2001, p. 365) argue that where consultants are appointed to develop and implement a bsc management system, engagement with managers on strategic dialogue rarely occurs. consultants are more likely to design a system that gives managers desktop access to masses of data but does not contribute to the organisation’s being managed differently and as such is never used. lack of disciplined management and leadership nair (2004, p. 157) sees disciplined management and leadership as crucial to successful bsc implementation. nair (2004, p. 157) believes that without disciplined management and leadership, projects tend to be overcommitted, understaffed and miscalculated. keeping the balanced scorecard at the top according to kaplan and norton (2001, p. 364), while senior management should support bsc implementation, the mistake of involving them alone should be avoided. in order to be effective, bsc implementation should ultimately involve everyone in the organisation. the aim is for all staff to have an understanding of the strategy and contribute to implementing it, therefore making strategy ‘everyone’s everyday job’. drawn-out development process kaplan and norton (2001, p. 364) caution that the bsc is a building process and that a limited amount of time should be invested in its initial development and implementation. even though there may not be data for all measures on the bsc at first, implementation should proceed. delaying implementation to design the ‘perfect’ bsc will inevitably lead to it being ineffective or even not being implemented at all. once the implementation of the initial bsc is embedded in the management system, developments and refinements can be made on a continual basis. appointing inexperienced consultants kaplan and norton (2001, p. 366) argue that the appointment of consultants who do not specialise in the bsc and have not implemented multiple successful bscs will most likely doom it to failure. an inexperienced consultant generally proceeds with the implementation of a measurement or information system that he or she is familiar with, makes minor changes and calls it a bsc, even though it is not. only introducing the balanced scorecard for compensation while bsc implementation can effectively be used as a tool to gain the attention and commitment of individuals, kaplan and norton (2001, pp. 366–367) are of the opinion that great care should be taken when a bsc is implemented mainly for compensation, because there is a tendency to skip the conversion of the strategy into measures. when strategy is skipped, a collection of financial and non-financial measures that resemble a stakeholder or strategy scorecard are grouped together and called a bsc. concluding remarks balanced scorecard is a performance management system that can be used in local government as it allows management to measure financial, internal processes, learning and customer results in operations and organisational potential. however, it is suggested that in local government such a system should start with a definition of community or customer needs and service expectations. leadership, a transformation orientation and collaborative decision-making are essential to the implementation of a bsc in local government. the implementation of a bsc system should be perceived as a long-term leadership and management project and such a system should be used to develop and implement strategy rather than just as a compensation tool. as such, it should be driven from the top but also cascaded to the individual performance management level. research on the bsc has been heavily orientated towards the private sector but as public sector organisations increasingly seek ways to improve their performance management practices, a growing need exists to understand the issues and challenges of bsc implementation in the public sector. an implication of this paper is that where local government is perceived to lack strategic direction, the potential for the bsc to support decision-making and performance improvement may not be recognised. as indicated in other similar studies, the findings of this paper suggest that bsc could be used as an important management tool, as it enables organisations to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into goal or actions. the reporting based on the bsc can greatly improve accountability. acknowledgements this opinion paper is based on the author’s dissertation ‘a performance management model for supporting improved local government service delivery: a case study of the joe gqabi disctrict municipality’. the dissertation can be found at http://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/98102. we acknowledge the contribution of the participants in the article. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions z.j.n. was the principal investigator and k.m. was the co-researcher of this study. references agostino, d., & arnaboldi, m. (2011). how the bsc implementation process shapes its outcome. the international journal of productivity and performance management, 60(2), 99–114. https://doi.org/10.1108/17410401111101458 armstrong, m., & baron, a. (1998). performance management. london: chartered institute of personnel and development. cavalluzzo, k.s., & ittner, c.d. (2004). implementing performance measurement innovations: evidence from government. accounting, organisations and society, 29, 243–267. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0361-3682(03)00013-8 ellangovani, k., & kamalanabhan, t.j. (2014). introducing performance management in secondary government hospitals in kerala and tamil nadu using the balanced scorecard framework. journal of multidisciplinary research in healthcare, 1(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.15415/jmrh.2014.11001 grobler, p.a., warnich, s., carrell, m.r., elbert, n.f., & hatfield, r.d. (2011). human resource management in south africa. 4th ed. hampshire: cengage learning emea. hood, c. (1995). the ‘new public management’ in the 1980s: variations on a theme. accounting, organisations and society, 20, 93–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(93)e0001-w kaplan, r.s. (2001). strategic performance measurement and management in non-profit organisations. non-profit management and leadership, 11(3), 353–369. https://doi.org/10.1002/nml.11308 kaplan, r.s., & norton, d.p. (1996). the balanced scorecard: translating strategy into action. london: harvard business school press. kaplan, r. s., & norton, d.p. 2001. transforming the balanced scorecard from performance measurement to strategic management: part 1. accounting horizons, 15(1), 87–104. mooraj, s., oyon, d., & hostettler, d. (1999). the balanced scorecard: a necessary good or an unnecessary evil? european management journal, 17(5), 481–491. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-2373(99)00034-1 mopaki, o., & mutono, a. (2016). the balanced scorecard system as a performance measurement tool for public sector organisations: the case of the media information communications technology sector education training authority, republic of south africa. british journal of applied science & technology, 8(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.9734/bjast/2016/29531 nair, m. (2004). essentials of balanced scorecard. hoboken, nj: wiley. niven, p.r. (2003). balance scorecard: step by step for government and non-profit agencies. nj: johan wiley and sons, inc, hoboken, new jersey. rampersad, h.k. (2006). personal balance scorecard: the way to individual happiness, personal integrity and organisational effectiveness. randburg: knowres. republic of south africa (rsa). (1996). constitution of the republic of south africa. pretoria: government printers. republic of south africa (rsa). (1998). white paper on local government, 1998. pretoria: government printers. roux, n.l. (2005). unrest at the local sphere of government in south africa: unrealistic expectations or the inability to implement policies? strategic review for southern africa, 27(2), 55–84. sharma, b., & gadenne, d. (2011). balanced scorecard implementation in a local government authority: issues and challenges. the australian journal of public administration, 70(2), 167–184. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8500.2011.00718.x soderberg, m., kalagnanam, s., sheehan, n.t., & vaidyanathan, g. (2011). when is a balanced scorecard a balanced scorecard? international journal of productivity and performance management, 60(7), 688–708. https://doi.org/10.1108/17410401111167780 thompson, k.r., & mathys, n.j. (2008). an improved tool for building high performance organisations. organisational dynamics, 37(4), 378–393. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2008.07.006 thornhill, c. (2008). the transformed local government system: some lessons. journal of public administration, 32, 492–511. van der waldt, g. (2006). managing local government performance: key considerations and challenges. journal of public administration, 41(2), 128–131. weinstein, l., & bukovinsky, d. (2009). use of the balanced scorecard and performance metrics to achieve operational and strategic alignment in arts and culture not-for-profits. international journal of arts management, 11(2), 42–55. welman, j., & kruger, s. (2002). research methodology. 2nd ed. oxford: oxford university press. werner, a. (2007). organisational behaviour: a contemporary south african perspective. pretoria: van schaik. appendix 1 table 1-a1: policy implementation. article information authors: andrea hansen1 johanna h. buitendach1 herbert kanengoni2 affiliations: 1department of psychology, university of kwa-zulu natal, howard college campus, south africa 2department of industrial psychology, university of the free state, qwaqwa campus, south africa correspondence to: herbert kanengoni email: hkanengoni@gmail.com postal address: private bag x13, phuthaditjhaba 9866, south africa dates: received: 13 jan. 2014 accepted: 05 sept. 2014 published: 16 sept. 2015 how to cite this article: hansen, a., buitendach, j.h., & kanengoni, h. (2015). psychological capital, subjective well-being, burnout and job satisfaction amongst educators in the umlazi region in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #621, 9 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.621 copyright notice: © 2015. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. psychological capital, subjective well-being, burnout and job satisfaction amongst educators in the umlazi region in south africa in this original research... open access • abstract • introduction • literature review    • psychological capital    • subjective well-being    • burnout    • job satisfaction • method    • measures       • research participants       • measuring instruments       • research design       • research procedure       • statistical analysis • results    • exploratory factor analysis    • descriptive statistics    • pearson's correlation analysis    • regression analysis • discussion    • limitations of the study    • recommendations for future research    • contributions of the study    • conclusions and implications • acknowledgements    • competing interests    • authors’ contributions • references abstract top ↑ orientation: challenges faced by educators in south africa are increasing due to their working conditions, which in turn affects the educators’ enthusiasm towards their jobs. change will likely be witnessed when educators are able to attain a positive and rewarding life, develop and flourish as individuals. research purpose: this study sought to investigate the relationship between psychological capital (psycap), subjective well-being, burnout and job satisfaction and to explore whether psycap mediates the relationship between subjective well-being and burnout. motivation for the study: the study is premised on the fact that enhancing the positive attributes and strengths of educators can have a positive impact not only on their performance and commitment, but also on the satisfaction of students. research approach, design and method: this cross-sectional study used a biographical questionnaire, psycap questionnaire, satisfaction with life scale, burnout inventory and minnesota job satisfaction questionnaire to collect data from 103 educators. main findings: findings indicated statistically significant relationships between psycap, subjective well-being, burnout and job satisfaction. psycap was found to mediate the relationship between subjective well-being and burnout. managerial implications: psycap mediates the relationship between subjective well-being and burnout. organisations can minimise burnout through the enhancement of positive capacities inherent in psycap and the aiding potential of subjective well-being. contribution/value-add: the findings highlighted the aiding potential of subjective well-being as well as the possible resources psycap, subjective well-being and job satisfaction can provide in times of distress. introduction top ↑ teachers often occupy a role far beyond that of an educator to their students, as they aim to understand the plethora of factors affecting the learning abilities of their students and thereby promote a positive and enriching environment for optimal learning of their students (govender, 2011). hammett and staeheli (2009) are of the view that many teachers lack the skills to promote an expected effective and relevant learning environment for their students. hammett and staeheli further posit that the challenges and demands teachers face in south africa are unique, overwhelming and increasing constantly due to the vast socioeconomic disparities teachers find themselves facing. access to adequate resources has been cited as problematic by many educators in south africa, which in turn affects the motivation and enthusiasm teachers possess for their jobs and eventually the quality of education students receive (hammett & staeheli, 2009). in recent years, the south african basic education sector witnessed the introduction of different systems of curriculum (such as outcome-based education), which is believed to have placed a significant amount of stress on teachers as they have had to adapt to the changing curricula (ladbrook, 2009). despite the demands placed on teachers, there is a consensus that teachers often concern themselves with trying to fix the problems encountered by their learners, whilst neglecting the need to focus on developing their own strengths and qualities (hammett & staeheli, 2009). enhancing the positive attributes and strengths of educators leads not only to a positive impact on their performance, commitment and satisfaction, but also to an increase in satisfaction amongst students, which enables them to achieve higher academic results (luthans, norman, avolio & avey, 2008). one of the fundamental purposes of teachers is not only enriching the educational needs of the youth, but also inspiring and encouraging students to flourish and live a positive and rewarding life. it is imperative that educators in south africa achieve job satisfaction to enhance commitment to their jobs and performance improvement (luthans et al., 2008). in order for educators to transfer positive outlook to students and cultivate a generation of positive, flourishing, committed and satisfied youth, who are able to excel in all spheres of life, it is imperative for teachers to become aware of their strengths and positive attributes. a shared consensus exists amongst researchers (e.g. clark, 2000; rothmann & barkhuizen, 2008) that education institutions worldwide are developing an imbalance with their environments arising because schools face an overload of demands and are equipped with an undersupply of response capabilities. this is taxing and often contributes to the depletion of internal resources teachers possess for their valuable work. in this regard, it is necessary for a positive approach to be taken in the study of educators and how certain positive capacities can aid in the development and flourishing of educators. it should be noted that in the current study, the terms learners and students as well as the terms teachers and educators are used interchangeably. in light of the above, the study sought to investigate the potential link between psychological capital, subjective well-being, burnout and job satisfaction. psychological capital (psycap) and the tremendous potential value it can provide in the work arena were explored. the effect of psycap was assessed to determine whether its positive capacities play a role in increasing job satisfaction amongst teachers, whilst decreasing the levels of burnout. in order to address the objective of the study, the following research questions were asked: how have psychological capital, subjective well-being, burnout and job satisfaction been conceptualised in the literature? what is the relationship between psychological capital, subjective well-being, burnout and job satisfaction? does psychological capital mediate the relationship between subjective well-being and burnout? literature review top ↑ this study is situated in the positive psychology sub-discipline, which entails the study of human happiness: the conditions and processes that contribute to the flourishing or optimal functioning of people, groups and institutions (gable & haidt, 2005). this field was propounded to provide an alternative direction to psychology's main focus on weaknesses that plague individuals and creating ways to fix these weaknesses that would create a psychologically and physically sound individual (seligman, steen, park & peterson, 2005). on a lighter note, seligman and csikszentmihalyi (2000) advocate focus on the positive aspects individuals possess whilst de-emphasising the focus on weaknesses, which is especially relevant for educators within the south african context. the rationale for incorporating the concept of positive psychology is that teachers have a direct impact on the quality of education students receive. it therefore becomes necessary to examine ways of enhancing and cultivating positive capacities (which may act as buffers when educators experience challenging demands and encounter symptoms of burnout) in teachers (herbert, 2011). the theoretical framework underpinning this study is the conservation of resources theory (cor) (hobfall, 1989), which highlights elements necessary to form positive emotions, positive individual traits and positive institutions, which are the three main propositions of positive psychology. cor holds that everyone seeks to conserve the quantity and quality of their resources (which contain instrumental and symbolic value to them) and to limit any circumstance that might endanger the quantity or quality of these resources (lee, 2010). in addition, cor places emphasis on resources (which may include but are not limited to personal characteristics, conditions or energies), which influence an individual's ability to cope with stressors. it is believed that individuals experience stress, even when that stress is merely perceived, as a consequence of factors that threaten to diminish their resources and they then seek to retain their resources in order to maintain equilibrium. luthans, avolio, avey and norman (2007) share the same sentiments as cor in that individuals who possess all the positive psychological capacities will prove to be better performers in their jobs as well as be more satisfied workers. this can have a significant impact on teacher turnover rates and can have positive influence on the quality of education in south africa. in light of the above, research illustrating the effect of positive emotions and positive resources, and how these positive capacities may mediate between burnout and improve the well-being of individuals and lead to satisfaction, is important. psychological capital psychological capital emerged from the field of positive organisational scholarship, which is premised on the belief that unlocking hidden potential in individuals and focusing on their excellence benefits not only the individual but also the organisation. psycap focuses on the personal strengths and positive qualities of individuals and this focus is believed to lead to improved individual and organisational performance (luthans, luthans & luthans, 2004). luthans, youssef and avolio (2007) contend that psycap entails an individual's positive psychological state of development and is characterised by: (1) having confidence (self-efficacy) to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks, (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future, (3) persevering towards goals and, when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to succeed and (4) when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond (resilience) to attain success. it is believed that individuals who score high on self-efficacy feel a sense of reliance, certainty and assurance in their skills and knowledge, which enables them to effectively accomplish tasks and be in control of certain situations (stajkovic & luthans, 1998). optimistic individuals often internalise positive events and externalise negative events (seligman, 1998). this definition of psycap emphasises that these positive psychological capacities have developmental properties that can be enhanced as well as be drawn from when individuals feel the need. cetin (2011) found job satisfaction to be positively related to the hope, resilience and optimism whilst herbert (2011) found high levels of hope, optimism, self-efficacy and optimism to be associated with low levels of burnout and stress. the findings of the research conducted by herbert reflect the same possibilities and assumptions in this study, of positive attributes negating the effects of demands and stressors. in this regard, if teachers could strive towards their goals and overcome barriers, possess confidence in themselves and their work tasks as well as have hope and an optimistic outlook about their work, they would be more likely to report low rates of burnout and high job satisfaction. subjective well-being subjective well-being is a derivative of the positive psychology field and entails the cultivating of positive emotions to ensure the optimal functioning and experience of individuals (ryan & deci, 2001). well-being has been differentiated into two categories: hedonic well-being and eudaimonic well-being (culbertson, fullagar & mills, 2010). the hedonic aspect of well-being refers to subjective emotions such as happiness and the experience of pleasure and is thereby characterised by the presence of positive moods and the absence of negative moods (ryan & deci, 2001). in contrast, the eudaimonic aspect is more cognition based and focused on the motivation individuals possess to achieve their goals and thereby contributes to positive feelings (culbertson et al., 2010). it is important to distinguish between subjective well-being and happiness, as happiness implies a high ratio of positive to negative feelings (uchida, norasakkunkit & kitayama, 2004) and subjective well-being comprises a broad category of phenomena that includes people's emotional responses, domain satisfaction and global judgments of life satisfaction (diener, suh, lucas & smith, 1999). in this study, only subjective well-being was assessed, as it incorporates how individuals both feel and think about their lives (self-evaluation) (ozmete, 2011). research conducted on teacher burnout (e.g. jackson & rothmann, 2006) has focused on how teachers may be unsuited to their environmental demands, which is usually perceived as the reason for the high rates of burnout amongst teachers. a study conducted by vazi et al. (2011) reported that indicators of subjective and psychological well-being can be evaluated for inclusion in burnout prevention interventions in teachers. however, little or no research has incorporated the health-promoting effect of subjective well-being on burnout, which is reported as having an aiding potential during times of distress (vazi et al., 2011), making that a notable additive contribution of this study. burnout burnout is a term often used to describe instances when individuals experience mental exhaustion (schaufeli, 2003) and tend to be pervasive in human service occupations such as education (rothmann & barkhuizen, 2008). there have been many definitions proposed to conceptualise burnout, with some referring to it as a cluster of psychological (affective and cognitive), physical and behavioural symptoms (e.g. van tonder & williams, 2009). however, the most common definition of burnout was put forth by maslach and jackson (1986), who conceptualise burnout as a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur in individuals who do ‘people work’ of some kind. burnout, known to develop over time depending on various factors, can be understood as a self-perpetuating process that negatively affects individuals in achievement of their goals whilst depleting their resources (van tonder & williams, 2009). maslach, schaufeli and leiter (2001) distinguish three dimensions inherent in burnout: exhaustion, cynicism and reduced personal efficacy. exhaustion was described as feelings of decreased emotional resources, cynicism as a pessimistic attitude towards work and reduced professional efficacy as feelings of incompetency. within the education profession, burnout can be seen as including three distinct dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and low personal accomplishment. burnout is common amongst educators in south africa as they often have to teach massive classes (40–60 students) with inadequate resources and teaching equipment; this was especially highlighted upon the introduction of the obe system in 2000 (van tonder & williams, 2009). studies on burnout (e.g. george, louw & badenhorst, 2008; rothmann, 2003) have shown that burnout plays a factor in job turnover, absenteeism, low morale and job dissatisfaction. since burnout has often been linked to the experience of stress and subsequently job dissatisfaction, it has become of paramount importance to focus on the positive aspects of individuals and work, which likely lead to job satisfaction. job satisfaction locke (1976) defines job satisfaction as ‘a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job or job experiences’ (p. 1304). implicit in this definition of job satisfaction is the importance of both affect and cognition. the evaluation of a job, therefore, involves both thinking and feelings, which can be linked to the affective and cognitive aspects of subjective well-being. job satisfaction has been researched extensively to determine its link to worker productivity and organisational effective­ness (e.g. menon & athanasoula-reppa, 2011) with shann (1998) emphasising that teacher job satisfaction should be understood as a multi-faceted construct. shann further proposes that teacher job satisfaction is directly linked to teacher commitment and retention and therefore contributes to school effectiveness. research on job satisfaction amongst teachers (e.g. gendin & sergeev, 2002) has received increased attention recently as the teaching profession recorded a declining status and due to high turnover rates reported in developing countries over the past few decades (buckley, schneider & shang, 2005). there is general consensus that different attitudes of teachers, their physical well-being, life expectancy, absenteeism, turnover and their success in the profession are all dependent on the degree of job satisfaction experienced. with this in mind, the limited studies (e.g. herbert, 2011; wang, liu, wang & wang, 2012) on relationships between psycap and burnout in educational settings within south african situations highlight the need for more focus on assessing the psychological capacities inherent in psycap, their possible positive role in enhancing job satisfaction and how they can help decrease burnout amongst educators. method top ↑ measures research participants using convenience sampling, the study sampled 103 edu­cators across four selected educational institutions in the umlazi region of kwazulu-natal. close to half (45%) of the sample of 89 women and 14 men had over 10 years’ experience in the field. the majority of the sample was in the 41 and older age group (57.3%) whilst the lowest number belonged to the 20–25 year age group. most of the participants were white (74), followed by respondents of indian (22), african (6) and mixed race (1) descent. the majority of participants held a diploma (37.9%); a large percentage of the participants held degrees (32.0%), with only a few holding a master's degree (4.9%). the demographic characteristics of the participants are illustrated in table 1. table 1: demographic characteristics of participants. measuring instruments a composite questionnaire was used that consisted of a biographical data sheet, a psychological capital questionnaire, a satisfaction with life scale, the burnout inventory and the minnesota job satisfaction questionnaire. psychological capital questionnaire (pcq): the 24-item pcq consists of four subscales that measure self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience (luthans, avolio, avey & norman, 2007) on a six-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). an item reflecting the self-efficacy subscale is ‘i feel confident helping to set targets or goals in my work area’. an item reflecting the hope subscale is ‘if i should find myself in a jam at work, i could think of many ways to get out of it’. an item reflecting the optimism subscale is ‘i always look on the bright side of things regarding my job’. an item reflecting the resilience subscale is ‘i usually take stressful things at work in my stride’. a study conducted by du plessis and barkhuizen (2012) in south africa found the reliability coefficients of the four subscales to be 0.86, 0.86, 0.77 and 0.81 respectively, values that indicate a high internal consistency between the items. satisfaction with life scale (swls): to measure subjective well-being the swls, developed by diener, emmons, larsen and griffin (1985), consists of five items measured on a seven-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 7 (strongly disagree). a study conducted by maluka and grieve (2003) in south africa found the cronbach's alpha coefficient of the swls to be 0.77. oldenberg burnout inventory (olbi): the olbi (demerouti, 1999) used to measure burnout consists of 16 items on a four-point likert scale with two subscales which measure exhaustion and disengagement. an item reflecting the exhaustion subscale is ‘after my work, i usually feel worn out and weary’ and one reflecting the disengagement is ‘over time, one can become disconnected from this type of work’. a similar study conducted by tilakdharee, ramidial and parumasur (2010) in south africa found the cronbach's alpha reliabilities for the two subscales to be 0.82 and 0.80 respectively and found the overall cronbach's alpha for the olbi to be 0.93. minnesota job satisfaction questionnaire (msq): the msq (weiss, dawis, england & lofquist, 1967) measures job satisfaction on a five-point likert scale and consists of three subscales: intrinsic satisfaction, extrinsic satisfaction and general satisfaction. an item reflecting the intrinsic subscale is ‘being able to keep busy all the time’. an item reflecting the extrinsic subscale is ‘the way my boss handles his/her workers’. general satisfaction is a summation of all items. a south african study conducted by buitendach and rothmann (2009) found the cronbach's alpha reliabilities for the three subscales to be 0.82, 0.79 and 0.86; therefore, these questionnaires were considered acceptable to be used for this study. research design this cross-sectional study employed a quantitative research design for its objectivity and cost effectiveness and to allow for collection of data that could not directly be observed. the use of a survey was also deemed most appropriate as the study targeted a large number of participants at one specific time. research procedure the study protocol was approved by the university of kwazulu research ethics committee. permission to collect data in a two week period was also sought from the principals in the selected schools before all participants gave their informed consents in writing to participate in the study. the questionnaire was administered by the researcher directly to each participant in the selected schools. after completion, questionnaires were submitted in a sealed collection box provided by the researcher. refusal to complete the questionnaire, even after informed consent had been given, was allowed. statistical analysis data were analysed using the spss statistical program version 21. firstly, descriptive statistics were computed to obtain the minimum and maximum scores of each questionnaire and to calculate the standard deviation, mean, kurtosis and skewness of values. using guidelines provided by nunnally and bernstein (1994), acceptable cronbach's alpha coefficients equal to or greater than 0.70 were considered in determining the reliability of the instruments. exploratory factor analysis (efa) was conducted on psycap, burnout and job satisfaction to investigate construct validity and to determine the factors that best represented the data. efa allowed for the factors influencing the participants’ responses to be determined and allowed for the identification of underlying factors (suhr, 2006). inferential statistics were used to make inferences about the population. the current research study made use of the pearson's r correlation analysis to determine the relationship between psycap, subjective well-being, burnout and job satisfaction. baron and kenny’s (1986) mediation model was used for linear regression analysis to determine whether psychological capital mediated the relationship between subjective well-being and burnout. a sobel test further assessed whether psycap carried the effects of subjective well-being to burnout. results top ↑ exploratory factor analysis efa was conducted on the items of the pcq, the olbi and the msq to determine the underlying factors in the scales. according to pillay, buitendach and kanengoni (2014), factor analysis entails the use of a specialised statistical technique particularly useful for investigating construct validity. factor analysis conducted on the pcq showed a keizer-meyer-olkin value of 0.846, which exceeds the recommended value of 0.6 and the bartlett's test of sphericity showed a statistical significance. the outcome showed that 23 of the 24 items (all but item 20) loaded on one factor, which was labelled psycap. an analysis of the eigenvalues and the scree plot revealed that only one factor could be extracted (see table 2). the single factor included all four subscales of psycap; therefore, this one factor included items reflecting all four positive psychological states. table 2: initial eigenvalues for the total variances explained. an analysis of the eigenvalues in table 2 showed that two factors could be extracted from the olbi. when factor analysis was conducted, 12 of the 16 items loaded on the two factors. the keizer-meyer-olkin value was 0.822, which exceeds the recommended value of 0.6, and the bartlett's test of sphericity showed a statistical significance. factor 1 was labelled disengagement and included items 1, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 15, which indicated that individuals distanced themselves from work and formed negative attitudes about their jobs and work tasks. factor 2 was labelled exhaustion and included items 2, 4, 8, 10, 12 and 14, which indicated that individuals felt that their emotional resources were depleted. an item illustrating exhaustion is ‘after my work, i usually feel worn out and weary’. factor analysis of the msq, an examination of the scree plot and eigenvalues (see table 2) showed that one factor could be extracted. the keizer-meyer-olkin value (0.766) exceeded the recommended value of 0.6 and the bartlett's test of sphericity showed a statistical significance. items 3, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 (14 of the 20) loaded on one factor. this single factor was labelled general satisfaction. the general satisfaction factor included both the intrinsic and extrinsic subscales of job satisfaction. general satisfaction included items related to the feelings individuals possessed regarding the nature and aspects of their work tasks and work environment. descriptive statistics the results of the komogorov-smirnov test conducted on psycap, subjective well-being, burnout, and job satisfaction revealed no differences between the distributions of the sample and population as the significance values for all four scales were above 0.05, thus indicating that the sample distributions were normally distributed. the cronbach's alpha coefficients for all measuring instruments were acceptable based on the guidelines provided by nunnally and bernstein (1994): psychological capital scale (α ≥ 0.70, r = 0.91), subjective well-being scale (α ≥ 0.70, r = 0.81), burnout scale (α ≥ 0.70, r = 0.86), disengagement (α ≥ 0.70, r = 0.73), exhaustion (α ≤ 0.70, r = 0.69) and general satisfaction (α ≥ 0.70, r = 0.88). pearson's correlation analysis a pearson correlation analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between psychological capital, subjective well-being, burnout and job satisfaction. the findings in table 4 indicate that psycap had a statistically and practically significant relationship with subjective well-being (r = -0.30, p ≤ 0.01, medium effect), with burnout (r = -0.62, p ≤ 0.01, large effect), and with both subscales of burnout, disengagement (r = -0.64, p ≤ 0.01, large effect) and exhaustion (r = -0.54, p ≤ 0.01, large effect). the correlation analysis also revealed that psycap had a statistically and practically significant relationship with job satisfaction (general satisfaction) (r = 0.52, p ≤ 0.01, large effect). a statistically and practically significant relationship was found to exist between and subjective well-being and burnout (r = -0.37, p ≤ 0.01, medium effect). subjective well-being was also found to have a statistically and practically significant relationship with disengagement (r = -0.38, p ≤ 0.01, medium effect), with exhaustion (r = -0.24, p ≤ 0.05, medium effect) and with job satisfaction (general satisfaction) (r = 0.42, p ≤ 0.01, medium effect). the correlation analysis showed that burnout had a statistically and practically significant relationship with job satisfaction (general satisfaction) (r = -0.55, p ≤ 0.01, large effect). table 3: descriptive statistics and reliability statistics for the scales. table 4: correlations between the scales and factors. regression analysis a multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine whether psycap mediated the relationship between subjective well-being and burnout. according to baron and kenny (1986), three steps must be fulfilled in order to test for mediation. to test for mediation beta coefficients of different regression equations must be compared (baron & kenny, 1986). firstly, the mediator should be predicted by the independent variable. secondly, the dependent variable should be predicted by the mediator and the independent variable. lastly, the dependent variable should be regressed on the independent variable, whilst controlling the mediator. if all the steps are conducted and they prove significant and the independent variable does not predict the dependent variable whilst controlling the mediator, this indicates perfect mediation. as shown in table 5, in step 1, subjective well-being was entered into the analysis and was found to be a statistically significant predictor of burnout (β = 0.37; t = 4.01; p < 0.05). in step 2, psycap was found to significantly predict burnout (β = -0.29; t = -2.99; p < 0.05). lastly, when subjective well-being was added into the regression equation in step 3, only the regression coefficient of psycap (β = -0.56; t = -7.07; p < 0.05) was statistically and practically significant (large effect). however, the regression coefficient of subjective well-being was not statistically significant when psycap was controlled for in the equation. findings in table 5 further demonstrate that 13.7% (r² = 0.137; f = 16.08; p ≤ 0.05) of the variance in burnout was explained by subjective well-being; when psycap was entered into the analysis, 42.5% (r² = 0.425; f = 8.99; p ≤ 0.05) of the variance in burnout was accounted for. from this observation, it can therefore be deduced that psycap mediates the relationship between subjective well-being and burnout. to further support this outcome, a sobel test was conducted (z = 2.77 and p = 0.005). according to this mediation analysis, psycap was confirmed as mediating the relationship between subjective well-being and burnout. table 5: coefficients showing the relative contribution of subjective wellbeing and psycap in predicting burnout. discussion top ↑ the general aim of the study was to determine the potential link between psychological capital, subjective well-being, burnout and job satisfaction and assess whether psycap mediated the relationship between subjective well-being and burnout amongst educators in umlazi, kwazulu-natal. luthans, avolio, avey and norman (2007) found that the four subscales of the pcq can load separately on four different factors, indicating that all four of the subscales can provide a measure of psycap and their own subscale as well. the two factors found on the obli, which were labelled disengagement and exhaustion, corresponded to the two factors that were found by demerouti (1999) for the olbi. the intrinsic and extrinsic subscales of the msq loaded onto one factor. george et al. (2008) found a three-factor model for job satisfaction in their research and identified the intrinsic, extrinsic and general satisfaction subscales of job satisfaction. weiss et al. (1967) suggest that a three-factor model can be used to measure job satisfaction; however, they propose that the third factor was a summation of the intrinsic and extrinsic subscales. this research study thus labelled the one factor general satisfaction and included in it both the intrinsic and extrinsic subscales of job satisfaction. a possible reason why a one-factor model best fitted the data in this research study may be attributed to the relatively small sample size of this study. findings from the pearson's correlations revealed that as educators’ levels of subjective well-being increased, their levels of psycap decreased. this is contrary to the findings by avey, luthans and jensen (2009), which revealed a statistically and practically significant positive relationship between psycap and subjective well-being. the psycho­logical resources in psycap have been found to have developmental properties (luthans, youssef & avolio, 2007). these developmental properties of psycap suggest that these psychological resources will not be drawn on if individuals feel satisfied or if there is no need to draw on them. the findings from the study at hand support the state or trait debate surrounding the construct of psycap. the result of the pearson correlation suggests that educators that are satisfied with their lives, experience frequent positive emotions and infrequent negative emotions and are less likely to draw on the internal positive psychological resources inherent in psycap, suggesting that when educators’ levels of psycap are high then their levels of exhaustion and disengagement are low. this can be explained through the theoretical framework underlying this study, cor, which suggests that individuals work to conserve and protect their resources and thus aim to increase their positive resources to deter and cope with stressors (lee, 2010). the positive psychological resources inherent in psycap can serve as a personal characteristic resource. this suggests that as educators experience negative feelings and states due to exhaustion or disengagement as a result of their work tasks or environment, they draw on the positive psychological resources in psycap to counter the effects of exhaustion and disengagement. a study conducted by herbert (2011) revealed that high levels of psycap were associated with low levels of burnout, which supports the possibility of psycap being a personal coping resource. the psychological resources inherent in psycap (self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience) may prevent against the development and progression of burnout. in a similar study, larson and luthans (2006) found a statistically and practically significant relationship between psycap and job satisfaction. this finding highlights the positive effects of the psychological resources inherent in psycap. as educators’ levels of psycap increase, the more satisfied they are with factors pertaining to their jobs and the more satisfaction they derive from internal aspects of their jobs. vazi et al. (2011) suggest that subjective well-being can have a positive effect on burnout and can have aiding potential during times of distress, thus lessening the negative effects or the onset of burnout. this assertion is supported by the findings in this study: as educators’ levels of subjective well-being increased, their levels of disengagement and exhaustion decreased, thus indicating that subjective well-being may have deterred the feelings of exhaustion and disengagement educators may have experienced in their work tasks and environment. thus, low levels of disengagement and exhaustion were reported when levels of job satisfaction were high. job satisfaction was found to have a statistically and practically significant relationship with subjective well-being. in a similar study, malka and chatman (2003) found a statistically and practically significant relationship between job satisfaction and subjective well-being. this relationship suggests that educators’ were not only satisfied with their lives in general, but were also satisfied with the intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of their jobs and work environment. this indicated that psycap mediated the relationship between subjective well-being and burnout. the result of the sobel test confirmed the mediating effect of psycap on the relationship between subjective well-being and burnout. this is supported by luthans, youssef and avolio (2007), who contend that psycap can serve as a psychological resource that can be drawn on during periods of distress. further research conducted by vazi et al. (2011) suggests that subjective well-being can have aiding potential during times of stress, thus lessening the negative effects of stress such as burnout. the results indicate the possibility of the positive psychological capacities inherent in psycap, coupled with the aiding potential of subjective well-being being carried over to reduce the negative effect of burnout on the well-being of educators. limitations of the study it should be recognised that this research suffers from several limitations that need to be addressed in future studies. firstly, this study used a relatively small sample size across different educational institutions that were in the same geographical location. secondly, the participants were conveniently sampled based on easy accessibility and the employment of a cross-sectional design did not allow the establishment of causal direction of relationships between psycap, subjective well-being, burnout and job satisfaction. lastly, the use of self-reported questionnaires in data collection may have affected the reliability and validity of the study as participants may have answered in a socially desirable manner. in this regard, the findings from this research may not be generalised beyond our study population, but this is an exploratory, investigative work from which tentative developments can be deduced rather than conclusive trends. recommendations for future research future research should incorporate a larger sample so that more informative results can help to decrease burnout rates amongst educators, whilst increasing their satisfaction and well-being. larger multi-site investigations may be conducted to increase the reliability of future research and confirm the current findings before firm conclusions can be made regarding the potential link between psycap, subjective well-being, burnout and job satisfaction. future researchers may come up with more definitive results by using longitudinal research designs to assess whether the demands and challenges experienced differ across educational institutions and geographical locations and can thus affect the burnout and satisfaction rates of educators. contributions of the study there has currently been no research conducted using psycap as a mediating variable between subjective well-being and burnout. the research study also indicated that job satisfaction could also be drawn on as a resource to mitigate the negative effects of burnout. little or no research to date has highlighted the aiding potential of subjective well-being for educators or the possible resource job satisfaction can provide in times of distress. to follow on the current study, further research can be conducted to illustrate the role that psycap can play as a resource and the role that subjective well-being and job satisfaction can play as resources in times of stress. the findings provided valuable information with respect to increasing satisfaction and well-being rates through the enhancement of psycap whilst minimising the burnout rates amongst educators. this is essential for educators as they play an invaluable role and this study's findings are imperative to counter the high burnout rates and, indirectly, the high teacher turnover rates. this study's additive contribution to the body of research conducted on psycap in the south african context is noteworthy as it highlights the positive influence psycap can have amongst south african educators. conclusions and implications the positive psychological states inherent in psycap can be invested in and managed and can thus be drawn on during times of need to enhance a person's ability to perform and increase organisational performance. the direct positive link between subjective well-being and job satisfaction can be utilised by individuals and practitioners in assessing whether individuals are living up to their expectations or not; if the individuals score high on subjective well-being, they likely achieve job satisfaction. similarly, if educators experience high levels of psycap, it is more likely that they will experience low levels of exhaustion and disengagement. another general conclusion drawn from the findings is that as educator's levels of psycap increase, the more likely they are to be satisfied with factors pertaining to their jobs and the internal aspects of their jobs. an interesting thing from the findings to note is the inference that the more educators are satisfied with their lives in general the more likely they are to be satisfied with the intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of their jobs and work environment. an inverse relationship between job satisfaction and both exhaustion and disengagement may imply that, if educator's levels of job satisfaction are high the more likely they are to experience low levels of exhaustion and disengagement. psycap was found to mediate the relationship between subjective well-being and burnout, which implies that the enhancement of the positive capacities of psycap and the aiding potential of subjective well-being can help minimise burnout. acknowledgements top ↑ competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.h. (university of kwazulu-natal) was responsible for formulating ideas, conducting fieldwork, statistical analysis and presentation of findings. j.h.b. (university of kwazulu-natal) supervised and made conceptual contributions and to the study. h.k. (university of the free state) was also involved in statistical analysis, co-authored the results and wrote the final article as well as addressing the editor's concerns. references top ↑ avey, j.b., luthans, f., & jensen, s. (2009). psychological capital: a positive resource for combating stress and turnover. human resource management, 48, 677–693. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20294 baron, r.m., & kenny, d.a. (1986). the moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. journal of personality & social psychology, 51, 1173–1182. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173 buckley, j., schneider, m., & shang, y. (2005). fix it & they might stay: school facility quality and teacher retention in washington, d.c. teachers college press, 107, 1107–1123. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9620.2005.00506.x buitendach, j.h., & rothmann, s. (2009). the validation of the minnesota job satisfaction questionnaire in selected organisations in south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 7(1), 1–8. cetin, f. (2011). the effects of the organizational psychological capital on the attitudes of commitment and satisfaction: a public sample in turkey. european journal of social sciences, 21(3), 373–380. clark, b.r. (2000). collegial entrepreneurialism in proactive universities. change, 32(1), 10–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00091380009602704 culbertson, s.s., fullagar, c.j., & mills, m.j. (2010). feeling good and doing great: the relationship between psychological capital and well-being. journal of occupational health psychology, 15(4), 421–433. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0020720 demerouti, e. (1999). burnout: a consequence of specific working conditions among human service and production tasks. frankfurt/main: lang. diener, e., emmons, r.a., larsen, r.j., & griffin, s. (1985). the satisfaction satisfaction with life life scalescale. journal of personality assessment, 49, 71–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13 diener, e., suh, e.m., lucas, r.e., & smith, h.e. (1999). subjective well-being: three decades of progress. psychological bulletin, 125, 276–302. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.125.2.276 du plessis, y., & barkhuizen, n. (2012). psychological capital, a requisite for organisational performance in south africa. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 15(1), 16–30. gable, s.l., & haidt, j. (2005). what (and why) is positive psychology? review of general psychology, 9(2), 103–110. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.9.2.103 gendin, a.m., & sergeev, m.i. (2002). school reform in the mirror of teachers’ opinions. russian education and society, 44, 6–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.2753/res1060-939344126 george, e., louw, d., & badenhorst, g. (2008). job satisfaction among urban secondary-school teachers in namibia. south african journal of education, 28, 135–154. govender, m. (2011). balancing the educator’s rights to fair labour practices and to strike with the right to education. unpublished master's thesis. department of labour law, nelson mandela metropolitan university, south africa. retrieved n.d., from www.nmmu.ac.za/documents/theses/mahalingum%20govender.pdf hammett, d., & staeheli, l.a. (2009). citizenship education in south africa: a report to schools. retrieved n.d., from www.mendeley.com/.../citizenship-education-in-southafrica-areport-toschools/ herbert, m. (2011). an exploration of the relationships between psychological capital (hope, optimism, self-efficacy, resilience), occupational stress, burnout and employee engagement. unpublished master's thesis. department of industrial psychology, university of stellenbosch, south africa. retrieved n.d., from http://scholar.sun.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10019.../ hobfall, s. (1989). conservation of resources: a new attempt at conceptualizing stress. american psychological association, 44(3), 513–524. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.44.3.513 jackson, l., & rothmann, s. (2006). occupational stress, organisational commitment, and ill health of educators in the north west province. south african journal of education, 26(1), 75–95. ladbrook, m.w. (2009). challenges experienced by educators in the implementation of inclusive education in primary schools in south africa. unpublished master's thesis. school of education, university of south africa, south africa. retrieved n.d., from http://umkn-dsp01.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/.../dissertationlandbrookm.pdf larson, m., & luthans, f. (2006). potential added value of psychological capital in predicting work attitudes. journal of leadership and organisational studies, 13, 75–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10717919070130020601 lee, p. (2010). conservation of resources theory. retrieved n.d., from http://petunialee.blogspot.com/2010/04/conservationofresourcetheory.html locke, e.a. (1976). the nature and causes of job satisfaction. in m.d. dunnette (ed.), handbook of industrial and organisational psychology (pp. 1297–1349). chicago, il: rand mcnally. luthans, f., avolio, b.j., avey, j.b., & norman, s.m. (2007). positive psychological capital: measurement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. personnel psychology, 60, 541–572. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2007.00083.x luthans, f., luthans, k.w., & luthans, b.c. (2004). positive psychological capital: going beyond human and social capital. business horizons, 47(1), 45–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2003.11.007 luthans, f., norman, s.m., avolio, b.j., & avey, j.b. (2008). the mediating role of psychological capital in the supportive organizational climate-employee performance relationship. journal of organisational behavior, 29(2), 219–238. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.507 luthans, f., youssef, c.m., & avolio, b.j. (2007). psychological capital: developing the human competitive edge. oxford, england: oxford university press. malka, a., & chatman, j.a. (2003). intrinsic and extrinsic work orientations as moderators of the effect of annual income on subjective well-being: a longitudinal study. society for personality and social psychology, 29 (6), 737–746. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167203029006006 maluka, c.s., & grieve, k. (2003). determining the suitability of the satisfaction with life and the rosenberg self-esteem scales in a cross-sectional setting. new voices in psychology, 4, 41–50. maslach, c., & jackson, s.e. (1986). maslach burnout inventory manual. (2nd edn.). palo alto, ca: consulting psychologists press. maslach, c., schaufeli, w.b., & leiter, m.p. (2001). job burnout. annual review of psychology, 52, 397–422. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397 menon, m.e., & athanasoula-reppa, a. (2011). job satisfaction among secondary school teachers: the role of gender and experience. school leadership and management, 31(5), 435–450. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2011.614942 nunnally, j., & bernstein, i. (1994). psychometric theory. (3rd edn.). new york, ny: mcgraw hill. ozmete, e. (2011). subjective well-being: a research on life satisfaction as cognitive component of subjective well-being. international journal of academic research, 3(4), 55–61. pillay, k., buitendach, j.h., & kanengoni, h. (2014). psychological capital, job demands and organisational commitment of employees in a call centre in durban, south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 12(1), art. #599, 14 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.599 rothmann, s. (2003). burnout and engagement: a south african perspective. south african journal of industrial psychology, 29(4), 16–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v29i4.121 rothmann, s., & barkhuizen, n. (2008). burnout of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. south african journal of higher education, 22(2), 439–456. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v22i2.25796 ryan, r.m., & deci, e.l. (2001). on happiness and human potentials: a review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. annual review psychology, 52, 141–166. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.141 schaufeli, w.b. (2003). past performance and future perspectives of burnout research. south african journal of industrial psychology, 29(4), 1–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v29i4.127 seligman, m.e.p. (1998). learned optimism. new york, ny: pocket books. seligman, m.e.p., & csikszentmihalyi, m. (2000). positive psychology: an introduction. american psychologist, 55, 5–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.5 seligman, m.e.p., steen, t.a., park, n., & peterson, c. (2005). positive psychology progress: empirical validation of interventions. american psychologist, 60, 410–421. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.60.5.410 shann, m.h. (1998). professional commitment and satisfaction among teachers in urban middle schools. journal of educational research, 92(2), 67–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220679809597578 stajkovic, a., & luthans, f. (1998). social cognitive theory and self-efficacy: going beyond traditional motivational and behavioural approaches. organisational dynamics, 26(4), 62–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0090-2616(98)90006-7 suhr, d.d. (2006). exploratory or confirmatory factor analysis? cary, nc: sas institute. tilakdharee, n., ramidial, s., & parumasur, s.b. (2010). the relationship between job insecurity and burnout. sajem ns, 13(3), 254–271. uchida, y., norasakkunkit, v., & kitayama, s. (2004). cultural constructions of happiness: theory and empirical evidence. journal of happiness studies, 5, 223–239. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10902-004-8785-9 van tonder, c.l., & williams, c. (2009). exploring the origins of burnout among secondary educators. south african journal of industrial psychology, 35(1), 1–15. vazi, m.l.m., ruiter, r.a.c., van den borne, b., dumont, k., martin, g.m., & reddy, p. (2011). indicators of subjective and psychological well-being as correlates of teacher burnout in the eastern cape public schools, south africa. international journal of education administration and policy studies, 3(10), 160–169. wang, y., liu, l., wang, j., & wang, l. (2012). work-family conflict and burnout among chinese doctors: the mediating role of psychological capital. journal of occupational health, 54(3), 232–240. http://dx.doi.org/10.1539/joh.11-0243-oa weiss, d.j., dawis, r.v., england, g.w., & lofquist, l.h. (1967). manual for the minnesota ssatisfaction qquestionnaire. minneapolis, mn: industrial relations center. 1pirie.qxd hiv/aids and its impact on south african organisations the hiv/aids pandemic threatens the welfare of between 4 to 6 million south africans (garbus, 2002), of which an estimated 4, 7 million people are between the age of 15–49 years (http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu). furthermore, it is assumed that 25% of south africa’s economically-active individuals are believed to be hiv positive (human science research council, 2002; pangaea global aids foundations hiv/aids statistics, 2004). this implies that the hiv/aids pandemic has dramatically changed the environment in which organisations operate. as indicated in figure 1, hiv/aids undeniably impacts on organisations and workplaces. barrows, gallow and mulleady (1996) argue in this regard that the effect of hiv/aids manifests itself in the workplace through increased absenteeism, increased salaries, lower employee morale and higher staff t urnover. hiv/aids also significantly impacts on organisational goals when investing resources in black economic empowerment and upliftment programmes. not only has the pandemic a significant impact on an organisation’s profits through direct costs and declining economies, but the pandemic deters investment and decreases output which could earn foreign exchange (http://www.corporateleadershipcouncil.com). a study in several southern and east african countries has estimated that the combined impact of aids-related absenteeism, decline in productivity, health care expenditures and recruitment and training expenses could cut profits by at least 6 – 8% and that absenteeism can account for as much as 25 – 54% of a company’s total cost structure (garbus, 2002). despite the mentioned economic challenges, hiv/aidsrelated stigmatisation, discrimination and denial have characterized the disease for the past twenty years and offered additional challenges for organizations in terms of prevention, care and treatment programmes (lim & loo, 2000). linking to the previous, hiv/aids-related discrimination, stigmatisation and denial have been cited at all stages of the employment relationship (connors & heaven, 1995) and it can be argued that these impact negatively on the psycho-social contract bet ween employer and employee. regarding the psycho-social contract veldsman (1996, p. 14) emphasises that the psycho-social contract focuses on the reciprocal expectations of co-responsibility for organizational success and serve as a source of security and legitimacy between the parties, providing stability and predictability to their interactions over time. it can therefore be argued that hiv/aids–related discrimination and stigmatization could destabilize the reciprocal expectations in the employee/ employer relationship and could impact negatively on organisational effectiveness. hiv/aids discriminatory behaviour manifests itself in the workplace in different ways. authors such as aggleton, whitty, knight, prayle, warwick, and rivers (1998) state in this regard that stereotyping, exclusion from social events, pre-employment hiv testing, denial of employment to people who test positive or who are suspected to be infected, dismissal, pressure to resign and harassment, employees’ refusal to work with infected coworkers or refusal to share communal facilities, exclusion or denial of certain benefits and lack of confidentiality regarding an employee’s health status could be regarded as examples of discriminatory practices. chandra, deepthivarma and manjula (2003) state in this regard that the internalization of these responses on an individual level may result in non-disclosure of hiv/ aids stat us, self-exclusion from information, treatment and care programmes. this presents a major barrier to the effectiveness of educational programmes. training is generally regarded as an important determinant in creating hiv/aids awareness and reducing risk behaviour (jourdan & etkind, 2004). however, training is expensive in terms of production and wages, and much investment in training is wasted because the training is not underpinned by effective models for behavioural change or by a learning environment (holton & baldwin, 2000). relating to this, the present st udy seeks to determine if there is a relationship between increasing levels of knowledge about hiv/aids and perceptions of discriminatory behaviour toward people with hiv/iads. m pirie wj coetsee jc@rau.ac.za department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract the primary objective of this study was to assess whether there is a relationship between increasing levels of knowledge about hiv/aids and perceptions of discriminatory attitudes and behaviour towards people with hiv/aids. employees (3662) from a large accounting firm were exposed to a survey and a response rate of 41% or 1532 was received. the secondary objective of the study was to determine whether there were any statistically significant differences in the mean difference of knowledge scores of groups created in terms of the different biographical variables. anova’s (to determine the significance of differences between the means), t-tests (two groups only) and f-statistics were used for the analysis. given the large sample size an f-test is not conclusive and the effect of the difference in sample size needs to be taken into account. for this reason it was also necessary to look at the partial eta squared. results indicate that respondents are generally knowledgeable about the prevention and transmission of hiv/aids and that respondents’ level of knowledge correlates negatively with discriminatory practices. key words knowledge levels regarding hiv/aids, discriminatory attitudes, hiv infected people the effectiveness of high levels of knowledge regarding hiv/aids in reducing discriminatory attitudes and behaviour towards hiv-infected people 1 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (1), 1-11 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (1), 1-11 hiv/aids-related attitudes attitudes, has been variously defined as, stable predispositions (cox & cox, 1991) a general and enduring positive or negative feeling about some person, object, or issue (arnold, cooper & robertson, 1995; worchel, cooper & goethals, 1991) a mental state of readiness, learned and organized through experience (ivancevich & matteson, 1996) and consisting of three distinct components i.e. 1. cognitive component (consists of a person’s perceptions, opinions and beliefs); 2. affective component (consists of the feelings, emotions a person has toward an object); and 3. behavioural component (refers to the tendency of a person to act in a certain way). the relationship between the three components is illustrated in figure 2 and from this it is clear that the components are directly related and dependant upon each other (lewis, 1990). the creation of knowledge (i.e. cognitive component) can be understood as the cognitive activity that determines individual understanding and sense making of environmental stimuli. weick (1995) and dougherty, borelli, munir and o’sullivan (2000) regard sense making as the process through which people reduce the complexity of their environment and by means of which different information, insight and ideas come together in a meaningful way. this means that information is gathered (through environmental scanning), interpreted and meaning is assigned to the information (thomas & pollock, 1999). adding to this, lewis (1990, p. 41) argues that, associated with cognition, is the concept of perception i.e. “…a cognitive process by which an individual gives meaning to the environment and it includes the interpretation of objects, symbols and people in the light of pertinent experiences” (ivancevich et al., 1996, p. 121; cook & hunsaker, 2001). dixon (1999) postulates that individuals create meaning structures (intentionally or unintentionally) when they are purposefully trying to understand or learn. the new meaning structures may corroborate or modif y existing meaning structures that the individual has, and when existing meaning structures conflict with new meaning struct ures, individuals experience an internal sense of uneasiness or dissonance. closely related to perception is the concept of stereot ypes. stereot yping is the process employed to assist individuals in dealing with information processing demands. this means individuals make assumptions about people solely on the basis of their belonging to a certain race, group or gender (hellriegel, jackson & slocum, 1999). attitudes (as illustrated in figure 2) originate from human cognit ions and are closely linked and inf luenced by perceptions. prejudice and stigmatisation normally refers to a specific attitude – a combination of hostile feelings, negative emotions and hostile behaviour towards others (lewis, 1990; ivancevich et al., 1996). authors such as goffman (1963), and pirie, coetsee2 figure 1: the impact of hiv/aids on organisations (unaids, 200) figure 2: relationship between cognitive, affective and conative components (figure taken and adapted from lewis, 1990) parker and aggleton (2002) describe stigmatisation as a significant discrediting attitude, a process of devaluation or a perceived flaw which allows for its bearer to be treated in a dehumanized way or to reduce the stat us of the person who possesses it, resulting in a “spoiled identit y” (parker et al. 2002). it is important to note that, apart from beliefs, perceptions and attitudes (which are critical for successful change (i.e. behaviour), there are individual difference variables (e.g. personalit y traits) that differentiate bet ween individual responses to change (schalk, cambell & freese, 1998; weber & weber, 2001). the last component illustrated in figure 2 namely the conative component refers to the likelihood of an individual behaving in a certain way. given the focus of the study, the term discrimination can be defined as the unfair and unjust treatment of an individual based on his/her real or perceived hiv stat us, and discrimination is usually seen to follow stigmatisation (u naids, 2003). linking to the above, dixon (1999) argues that individual actions are mediated by meaning structures. this means that stigmatisation and discriminatory behaviour is seen to be a function of the individual’s current meaning structures. it can therefore be speculated that those who stigmatise do not understand the condition, lack a relevant frame of reference/meaning structure and that this is supported by inappropriate knowledge of the condition. it is further speculated that other variables that could impact on an individual’s abilit y to construct or reconstruct meaning structures are demographic factors such as age, gender and educational level as well as perceived vulnerabilit y to becoming infected (norman & carr, 2003). according to chiliaoutakis et al. (1996) the initial characterization of aids as being the result of clandestine, immoral and antisocial behaviour as well as the stereotyping of ‘high risk’ groups on this basis, paves the way to a ‘full blown’ aids social epidemic of stigmatisation and discriminatory practices. it can therefore be argued that hiv/aids-related stigmatisation builds upon and reinforces prejudices that already exist and strengthen existing social inequalities. attribution theory (ferris, bhawuk, fedor & judge, 1995; cook et al. 2001) gives a further explanation of this phenomenon. martinko (1995) argues in this regard that when an individual’s behaviour is observed the observer attempts to determine whether the behaviour was internally caused by the individual or externally by the context or the sit uation. three criteria namely distinctiveness (explain whether a person’s behaviour fits with other behaviour), consistency (explain the degree of variance in behaviour over time) and consensus (how others behave in similar situations) are used in the attribution process (cook et al., 2001). this means that society is likely to attribute the cause of hiv/aids infections to either internal or external factors and thereby feel that stigmatisation and discriminatory practices are justified. this also illustrates the fact that the behaviour of people is continuously inf luenced by perceptions and attributions. figure 3 not only indicates the link bet ween hiv/aids and pre-existing sources of stigmatisation and discrimination but also links to factors used in the attribution process. furthermore, it can be argued that by stereotyping certain individuals or groups, and through attribution, society can excuse itself from the responsibility of caring for and looking after infected populations. stereotypes also enable people to justif y to themselves why they personally will never be likely to become infected, which leads to a state of denial. some of the most common forms of denial are to ignore the existence of hiv and aids, neglecting to respond to the needs of those infected and failing to recognize the growing epidemic in the belief that hiv/aids ‘can never happen to us’. denial fuels aids stigmatisation by making those individuals who are infected appear abnormal and exceptional (http://www.avert.org). figure 3: the link between hiv/aids and pre-existing sources of stigmatisation and discrimination (figure taken from horizons, 2004, p. 3) hiv/aids knowledge and discriminatory behaviour the majority of hiv/aids interventions have the common goal of educating employees regarding hiv/aids transmission and prevention so as to reduce the number of new infections, i.e. change individuals’ at risk behaviour (sixsmith, kelleher & crangle, 2000). organisations therefore need to provide continuous and strategic hiv/aids awareness, education and prevention activities integrated into ongoing communication, education and training activities. despite the importance of continuous hiv/aids education and preventative programmes, the impact and effectiveness of these programmes remain questionable (grunseit & aggleton, 1998). from the literature it is clear that research conducted is inconclusive with regard to whether increases in knowledge alone is sufficient in changing discriminatory attitudes toward people infected with hiv/aids. research conducted by chiliaoutakis et al. (1996) showed that the higher the level of accurate knowledge about aids, the less discrimination and stigmatisation would occur. unlike the findings of chiliaoutakis et al. (1996), de bruyn (1998) found that education will not change everyone’s attitudes or prevent stigma and discrimination in every instance. stigmatized attitudes toward people with hiv/aids persist in a minority of the general population and research has demonstrated that negative attitudes toward, for example, homosexualit y contribute significantly to such stigmatizing attitudes. quah (1998) found that the image of hiv/aids sufferers is moulded by a person’s age and level of information (outcome of formal education and knowledge) on the disease. ragan and bowen (2001) found that the provision of information can improve negative attitudes however, the new attitude may be lost without reinforcement for change. bhate (1999) adds another level of complexity to the debate by stating that when attempting to change attitudes, it is important to know which cognitive styles one is dealing with (adaptors versus innovators) as they follow different patterns in changing attitudes as a result of exposure to negative and positive sources. recent international and local research regarding hiv/aids knowledge showed that respondents who were younger and had a higher formal education attainment (de bruyn, 1998; garbus, 2002; norman et al., 2003; steward, 1993) lived in urban rather than rural areas; were employed and had higher household socioeconomic status (garbus, 2002); had better hiv/aids knowledge. no significant gender differential regarding hiv/aids knowledge was found (garbus, 2002). knowledge regarding hiv/aids 3 with regard to denial and fear, garbus (2002) found that only 0.5 percent of south africans believed that there was someone infected with hiv in their families and that up to 92 percent of persons who tested positive for hiv were not able to tell their partners their serostatus. international research shows that stigma, fear of discrimination (http://www.avert.org; chandra et al., 2003), disgrace to family and self (lau, tsui, li, chung, chan & molassiotis, 2003), were reported as the main reasons for non disclosure. the majority of subjects (73%) reported anticipation of negative societal reaction as the main concern following disclosure (chandra et al., 2003). the conviction of individuals that they will be discriminated against is confirmed by various studies that show that people would resist working alongside, avoid, or even dismiss an employee if the person was found to be hiv-positive (barrows, gallo & mulleady, 1996; lau et al., 2003). results of a study conducted by lim and loo (1999) indicated that respondents view the employing of people with hiv/aids as holding adverse consequences for the organisation. a number of studies have shown a positive correlation between perceived personal risk of contracting the disease and knowledge of the disease. the kaiser youth survey undertaken in 2000 showed that 54% of respondents indicated that they are afraid they may contract hiv and that 66% agreed with the statement “i could die of aids” (garbus, 2002). a study in trinidad of 1 351 adults showed that knowledge was associated with concern about personal risk of hiv (quah, 1998) and that the image of hiv/aids is less important than the joint impact of accepting personal responsibility and the perceived seriousness of the disease (norman et al., 2003). the finding is that research is inconclusive and lacking with regard to the link between the extent of hiv/aids knowledge, attitude towards infected and affected people and resulting behaviour (discriminating, indifferent or accepting). although knowledge appears to be a very important variable in reducing stigma and discrimination, it is clearly not the only variable. existing studies looking into the role that a supportive, protective and caring environment plays in reducing hiv/aids discrimination can also be expanded on. to date only a limited amount of research has examined working adults’ attitudes towards infected colleagues in the workplace. it would appear that research in south africa regarding mechanisms involved in the stigmatisation of risk behaviours, the socio-cultural construction of risk, attitudes of discrimination, and attitudes based on fear, have not received much scientific attention at all. the research that has been conducted on the last mentioned issues has also mainly been of international origin. bearing in mind that cultural differences may influence people’s attitudes (quah, 1998) towards having to work with an hiv-infected colleague, a case can be made that it is worthwhile examining individuals’ attitudinal and intended behavioral responses towards infected people in the organisational setting within the south african context. the problematic nature of stigmatisation and discrimination as social processes or phenomena are summarized by parker et al. (2002, p14): “much of what has been written about stigma and discrimination in the context of hiv and aids has emphasised the complexity of these phenomena, and has attributed our inability to respond more effectively to both their complex nat ure and their high degree of diversit y in different cultural settings”. objectives of the study the primary objective of the study was to determine if there is a relationship between increasing levels of knowledge about hiv/aids and perceptions of discriminatory attitudes and behaviour towards people with hiv/aids. the secondary objective of the study was to determine if there are any statistically significant differences in the mean difference scores between levels of knowledge with regard to educational qualifications, sex, age and high-risk behaviour. this comparison would assess whether different comparison groups have different mental models regarding positive hiv/ aids employees. the previously mentioned objectives have been implemented by utilizing exploratory means, including a questionnaire that was compiled with the aim of measuring knowledge levels of the respondents regarding hiv/aids. the research design is further explained and developed in the next section. research design research methodology this study is a quantitative study and a cross-sectional survey design was used to describe the information on the population collected. the study is also exploratory and descriptive as well as retrospective in nature (i.e. it was done on retrospective data). elements of the research design are predetermined and in addition it is ex post facto and attempts to show causes and consequences after they have occurred. respondents due to the inherent educational value that knowledge, attitude, practices and behaviour (kapb) surveys have, all 3662 employees of a large accounting firm situated in nine regions (see table 1) were exposed to the survey. table 1 geographic regions region of work count % eastern cape 92 6,0% free state 72 4,7% gauteng 763 49,8% kwazulu natal 136 8,9% limpopo 16 1,0% mpumalanga 20 1,3% north west 36 2,4% northern cape 43 2,8% western cape 353 23,1% total 1531 100,0% a response return rate of 41% (n = 1532) was achieved. employees from offices situated in gauteng, kwa-zulu, free state, western cape, northern cape, north west, mpumalanga, limpopo participated in and responded to the survey. the employment setting was predominantly white collar and participants operated in diverse functional areas e.g. from professional staff such as accountants to support and administrative personnel. table 2 gives an indication of the ages of the respondents. table 2 age of respondents age count % 19 and younger 8 0,5% 20 24 287 18,7% 25 29 496 32,4% 30 34 277 18,1% 35 39 150 9,8% 40 44 123 8,0% 45 49 80 5,2% 50 and older 110 7,2% total 1531 100,0% pirie, coetsee4 respondents ages ranged from as young as 19 (0,5%) to age 50 and older (7%) with the majority of employees (32%) in the 25 – 29 year age category (n = 496). the sample indicated a leaning towards female respondents (n = 902), with male respondents accounting for 41% of the sample (n = 627). the educational level of the sample varied between high school, college and university, with the majority of respondents (63%) reporting a university degree (n = 963). see table 3 in this regard. table 3 educational levels highest educational level count % college/technikon 267 17,4% high school 284 18,5% primary school 17 1,1% university 963 62,9% total 1531 100,0% more than half of the respondents (52%) indicated that they were in a relationship with the remaining 48% indicating that they were single at the time. measuring instrument in the research, a questionnaire consisting of 32 items and comprising three sections was utilized. section a recorded the demographic data of the various respondents. section b (22 items) measured the level of knowledge of the respondents regarding hiv/aids and section c (10 items) measured discriminatory practices regarding an hiv-positive individual. various literature sources were used in the compilation of the questionnaire. in this regard the ilo code of practice on hiv/aids and research done by the world health organisation refer. following the study of different knowledge domains, it appears that information regarding hiv/aids is centered around the following themes: 1. how is the virus contracted? 2. what is the cause of hiv/aids? 3. employees concerns, myths and fears; 4. prevention and control of the spread of the virus; 5. testing for hiv/aids; 6. discriminatory practices. the abovementioned themes served as point of departure in formulating the questions. each of the items in the hiv/aids knowledge questionnaire is presented in the form of a threepoint scale namely agree, uncertain, and disagree. this format is most appropriate, given the objective of the study, i.e. to assess the level of knowledge of the respondents. for the purpose of this study all questions answered as uncertain were considered to be incorrect answers, which indicated a lack of knowledge. an example of the item construction is included. “do you believe hiv/aids can be cured?” agree uncertain disagree “do you believe that you can prevent becoming infected by wearing a condom during intercourse?” agree uncertain disagree procedure a pre-survey distribution, meeting was held with the participating organisations stakeholders. the aim of the workshop was to familiarise stakeholders with the hiv/aids knowledge questionnaire content and with the procedures of distribution to ensure buy-in into the process, efficient survey delivery and minimizing possible misunderstandings. surveys were distributed amongst all of the participating organisations’ employees. although the majority of surveys were distributed electronically a small number of hard copies were distributed to employees who were not able to obtain them or did not have access to the electronic version. employees also received an email or letter from the deputy chief executive officer of the participating organisation that explained the objectives of the survey and encouraged participation. employees were asked to either return the survey electronically or to place completed questionnaires in the collection boxes provided. employees were assured that the data would be kept confidential and anonymous. results the secondary objective of the study was to determine whether there were any statistically significant differences in the mean difference of knowledge scores of groups created in terms of the different biographical variables. anova’s (to determine the significance in difference between the means), t-tests (two groups only) and f-statistics were used for the analysis. given the large sample size, an f-test is not conclusive and the effect of the difference in sample size needs to be taken into account. for this reason it was also necessary to utilize the partial eta squared. hiv/aids knowledge questionnaire the items utilized in the questionnaire are indicated in table 4. given the purpose of the investigation, namely to determine the relationship between increasing levels of knowledge about hiv/aids and perceptions of discriminatory attitudes and behaviour towards people with hiv/aids, items were included that are considered by inspection to have face validity. the pilot questionnaire can therefore serve as point of departure in compiling and refining a subsequent questionnaire. it is apparent from table 4 that questions 1; 6; 7; 9; 11; 12; 15; 16 possess a relatively low discriminatory value and it is recommended that the items be excluded from any subsequent questionnaire. table 4 knowledge questions and discriminatory practices section b: knowledge agree uncertain disagree 1. a blood test can show whether count 1480 28 21 someone has hiv/aids % 96,8% 1,8% 1,4% 2. it is possible to have a negative count 1251 178 94 hiv blood test in the first couple % 82,1% 11,7% 6,2% of months after becoming infected with hiv 3. an hiv-positive mother who is count 1127 207 195 breast-feeding can pass the hiv % 73,7% 13,5% 12,8% virus on to her baby 4. hiv/aids can be cured count 204 193 1132 % 13,3% 12,6% 74,0% 5. the presence of a sexually count 1175 192 164 transmitted disease can increase % 76,7% 12,5% 10,7% the risk of hiv transmission 6. a pregnant woman who has count 1437 42 52 hiv/aids can pass the hiv virus % 93,9% 2,7% 3,4% on to her unborn baby 7. tb can be cured if treatment is count 1474 44 12 given early enough % 96,3% 2,9% 0,8% 8. there is a difference between count 1317 64 149 being hiv-positive and having % 86,1% 4,2% 9,7% aids 9. a person can be hiv-positive for count 1438 54 40 many years without becoming ill % 93,9% 3,5% 2,6% 10. tuberculosis (tb) is often count 692 225 612 considered to be an aids % 45,3% 14,7% 40,0% related disease knowledge regarding hiv/aids 5 11. you can tell by looking at count 65 71 1393 someone that they are infected % 4,3% 4,6% 91,1% 12. you can become infected by count 35 20 1476 touching the body of a person % 2,3% 1,3% 96,4% who has hiv/aids 13. you can become infected by count 214 149 1167 kissing a person who has % 14,0% 9,7% 76,3% hiv/aids 14. you can become infected by count 88 82 1361 sharing food or eating utensils % 5,7% 5,4% 88,9% with a person who has hiv/aids 15. you can become infected by count 1507 6 17 using syringes/needles previously % 98,5% 0,4% 1,1% used by a person who has hiv/aids 16. you one can become infected count 1518 2 11 by having unprotected (no % 99,2% 0,1% 0,7% condom) sex 17. you can become infected by count 222 377 931 being bitten by a mosquito that % 14,5% 24,6% 60,8% previously bit an hiv-infected person 18. you can become infected by count 57 79 1396 using the same toilet seats as % 3,7% 5,2% 91,1% hiv-infected people 19. you can become infected by count 51 152 1327 being in contact with the % 3,3% 9,9% 86,7% perspiration (sweat) of a person who has hiv/aids 20. you can prevent becoming count 1264 88 178 infected if you wear a condom % 82,6% 5,8% 11,6% 21. there are female condoms that count 574 551 405 are effective in the prevention % 37,5% 36,0% 26,5% of hiv transmission 22. contraceptive practices such as count 30 56 1444 the pill etc. can also prevent hiv% 2,0% 3,7% 94,4% transmission section c: discriminatory practices disagree uncertain agree 1. if you were infected, do you count 210 639 673 believe that your colleagues % 13,8% 42,0% 44,2% would avoid you if they found out that you had hiv/aids? 2. would you feel comfortable count 314 396 818 working with a colleague if you % 20,5% 25,9% 53,5% knew that he/she was hivpositive? 3. would you feel comfortable count 356 305 868 sharing toilets with an hiv % 23,3% 19,9% 56,8% infected colleague? 4. would you feel comfortable count 347 252 928 sharing equipment/tools with an % 22,7% 16,5% 60,8% hiv-infected colleague? 5. would you feel comfortable count 417 297 814 sharing cutlery/crockery with an % 27,3% 19,4% 53,3% hiv-infected colleague? 6. do you believe that co. x would count 986 426 115 attempt to dismiss you if they % 64,6% 27,9% 7,5% found out that you were hiv positive? 7. should you become infected with count 598 494 433 hiv /aids would you tell your % 39,2% 32,4% 28,4% manager/supervisor? 8. should you become infected with count 576 474 476 hiv/aids would you tell your % 37,7% 31,1% 31,2% hr manager? the descriptive statistics for different educational levels are depicted in table 5. from table 1 it is clear that the majority of respondents are universit y graduates. respectively, 284 respondents (19%) are in possession of a high school diploma and 267 respondents (18%) are in possession of a college or technicon qualification. given the sample size, statistically significant differences (table 6) were found in the mean scores between levels of education and knowledge levels of the respondents.(f 2; 1511 = 34,776, p < 0,0005). however, based on the effect size, partial eta squared (table 2), the effect of level of education on knowledge is relatively small as eta = 0,21 < 0,3 table 5 descriptive statistics according to levels of education 95% confidence interval for mean n mean std. std. lower upper minimaxideviation error bound bound mum mum college/ 267 82,1927 10,82341 0,66238 80,8885 83,4969 technicon high 284 78,5851 13,19370 0,78290 77,0441 80,1262 36,36 100,00 school univer963 84,4898 9,67387 0,31174 83,8780 85,1015 31,82 100,00 sity total 1514 82,9771 10,85558 0,27899 82,4298 83,5243 31,82 100,00 table 6 anova: comparisons of levels of education in respect of level of knowledge sum of df mean f sig. eta squares square between groups 7845,893 2 3922,947 34,776 0,000 0,210 within groups 170451,376 1511 112,807 total 178297,270 1513 eta 0,1 – 0,3 (small effect) 0,4 – 0,5 (moderate effect) > 0,5 (large effect) table 7 levene’s test of equality of error variances levene statistic df1 df2 sig. 19,994 2 1511 0,000 the results of the levene’s test for equality of error variances are depicted in table 3. as the null hypotheses of equal variances is rejected (see table 7), dunnett t3 post hoc tests are used to ascertain which of the educational groups differ significantly. table 8 post hoc tests: multiple comparisons between levels of education 95% confidence interval (i) (j) mean std. sig. lower upper (recoded) (recoded) diferror bound bound highest highest ference educaeduca(i-j) tion level tion level dunnett college/ high 3,6076(*) 1,02552 0,001 1,1515 6,0636 t3 technischool kon uni-2,2970(*) 0,73207 0,005 -4,0523 -0,5418 versity high college/ -3,6076(*) 1,02552 0,001 -6,0636 -1,1515 school technikon uni-5,9046(*) 0,84268 0,000 -7,9254 -3,8838 versity unicollege/ 2,2970(*) 0,73207 0,005 0,5418 4,0523 versity technikon high 5,9046(*) 0,84268 0,000 3,8838 7,9254 school *the mean difference is significant at the 0,05 level. pirie, coetsee6 the results of the dunnett t3 post hoc tests for the different educational levels are depicted in table 8. from table 8 it is clear that there are significant differences in mean between the groups: college/technicon, high school and universit y graduates. from table 5 it is clear that respondents who have a university degree have a higher level of knowledge than respondents who have a high school or technikon qualification. table 9 descriptive statistics on gender groups gender n mean std. std. deviation error mean percentage correct on female 902 82,3523 11,16853 0,37187 level of knowledge male 627 83,3913 10,91232 0,43580 the descriptive statistics for gender groups are depicted in table 9 and indicate that 902 (59%) respondents are female and 627 (41%) are male. table 10 t-test: independent comparison of the mean difference scores of the different gender groups levene's test for equality of variances t-test for equality of means f sig. t df sig. (2tailed) percentage correct on equal variances 0,875 0,350 -1,806 1527 0,071 level of knowledge assumed no statistically significant differences (table 10) were found in the mean scores pertaining to the level of knowledge between the different gender groups [t(df =1527) = -1,806, p =0.071 > 0,05]. based on partial eta squared (table 11) only 4.6% of the variance in level of knowledge can be attributed to differences in gender scores. hence the observed differences between gender groups are neither of statistical significance nor of practical significance. table 11 directional measures value nominal by interval eta percentage correct on level 0,046 of knowledge dependent eta 0,1 – 0,3 (small effect) 0,4 – 0,5 (moderate effect) > 0,5 (large effect) table 12 descriptive statistics on age groups 95% confidence interval for mean n mean std. std. lower upper minimaxideviation error bound bound mum mum 24 and 295 82,6502 11,66458 0,67914 81,3136 83,9868 31,82 100,00 younger 25-29 496 84,5308 9,44966 0,42430 83,6971 85,3644 31,82 100,00 30-39 427 82,7656 10,75391 0,52042 81,7427 83,7885 40,91 100,00 40 and 313 79,9303 12,87195 0,72757 78,4987 81,3618 36,36 100,00 older total 1531 82,7356 11,12108 0,28422 82,1781 83,2931 31,82 100,00 the descriptive statistics for age groups are depicted in table 12 and it is clear that that the majority of respondents fall in the age categories 25 – 29 (32%) and 30 – 39 (28%) years. the remainder of respondents were 24 years of age and younger (19%) and 40 years of age and older (20%). table 13 anova: comparisons of levels of knowledge in respect of age groups sum of df mean f sig. eta squares square between groups 4064,230 3 1354,743 11,172 0,000 0,147 within groups 185163,763 1527 121,260 total 189227,993 1530 eta 0,1 – 0,3 (small effect) 0,4 – 0,5 (moderate effect) > 0,5 (large effect) given the sample size, statistically significant differences (table 13) were found in the mean scores of the different age groups (f 3; 1527 = 11,172, p < 0,0005). however, based on partial eta squared (table 9) the effect of the level of age on knowledge is relatively small as eta = 0,147 < 0,3 table 14 levene’s test of equality of error variances levene statistic df1 df2 sig. 8,392 3 1527 0,000 the results of the levene’s test for equality of error variances are depicted in table 14. as the null hypotheses of equal variances is rejected (see table 14), the dunnett t3 post hoc tests are used to ascertain which of the age levels differ significantly. table 15 post hoc tests: multiple comparisons between age groups percentage correct on level of knowledge subset for alpha = 0,05 (recoded) age n 1 2 scheffe (a,b) 40 and older 313 79,9303 24 and younger 295 82,6502 30-39 427 82,7656 25-29 496 84,5308 sig. 1,000 0,150 means for groups in homogeneous subsets are displayed. a) uses harmonic mean sample size = 365,538. b) the group sizes are unequal. the harmonic mean of the group sizes is used. type i error levels are not guaranteed. the results of the scheffe post hoc tests (for comparison between the different age groups) are depicted in table 15. from table 15 it is clear that the levels of knowledge of respondents in the age group 40 and older are significantly lower than that of respondents in the other age categories. however, it is important to note that, based on the partial eta squared (0,147), the effect of age on the level of knowledge is relatively small. (0,147 < 0,3). see also table 10 in this regard. the descriptive statistics for respondents’ perceived risk of becoming infected are depicted in table 16. it is clear that the majority of respondents (62%) do not believe that it is likely at knowledge regarding hiv/aids 7 all that they will become infected with hiv. 8% of respondents believe that they are somewhat likely and 2% believe that it is very likely that they will become infected with hiv. the remaining 27% of respondents are uncertain about their personal likelihood of becoming hiv-infected. table 16 descriptive statistics on perception of contracting hiv 95% confidence interval for mean n mean std. std. lower upper minimaxideviation error bound bound mum mum not 954 83,2762 10,47576 0,33917 82,6106 83,9418 31,82 100,00 likely at all some 125 85,5636 11,19470 1,00128 83,5818 87,5455 36,36 100,00 what likely uncertain 416 81,3265 11,90367 0,58363 80,1793 82,4737 36,36 100,00 very 34 76,3369 13,27715 2,27701 71,7043 80,9695 45,45 95,45 likely total 1529 82,7784 11,09924 0,28385 82,2216 83,3352 31,82 100,00 table 17 anova: comparisons of levels of knowledge in respect of perception of contracting hiv sum of df mean f sig. eta squares square between groups 3493,769 3 1164,590 9,613 0,000 0,136 within groups 184745,209 1525 121,144 total 188238,978 1528 eta 0,1 – 0,3 (small effect) 0,4 – 0,5 (moderate effect) > 0,5 (large effect) given the sample size, statistically significant differences (table 17) were found in the mean scores between levels of knowledge and perceived perception of contracting hiv/aids (f 3; 1525 = 9,613, p < 0,0005). however, based on partial eta squared (table 13) the effect of level of knowledge on perception is relatively small as eta = 0,136 < 0,3. table 18 levene’s test of equality of variances levene statistic df1 df2 sig. 2,854 3 1525 0,036 the results of the levene’s test for equalit y of error variances are depicted in table 18. it is evident that the error variance for knowledge differences is unequal across groups (p < 0,05) and therefore the dunnett is used to compare variances (table 18). the results of the post hoc tests are depicted in table 19 which shows that there are significant differences in the mean level of knowledge bet ween respondents who believe they know a great deal about hiv/aids and those who believe they have lower levels of knowledge. in particular, those who believe they know a great deal scored on average 86% for the knowledge test. from table 20 it is clear that level of knowledge correlates significantly negatively (p < 0,0005) with discriminatory practices (pearson correlation = -0,287). due to the actual magnitude of the correlation we, however, conclude that the effect of level of knowledge on discriminatory practices is relatively small. table 19 post hoc tests: multiple comparisons on levels of knowledge (i) (j) mean std. sig. lower upper (recoded) (recoded) diferror bound bound highest highest ference educaeduca(i-j) tion level tion level dunnett a great enough 4,5155(*) 0,75320 0,000 2,5205 6,5105 t3 deal just a 11,6527(*) 0,93654 0,000 9,1792 14,1263 little noth26,3409(*) 4,79511 0,002 10,7954 41,8864 ing enough a great -4,5155(*) 0,75320 0,000 -6,5105 -2,5205 deal just a 7,1373(*) 0,70684 0,000 5,2713 9,0032 little noth21,8254(*) 4,75558 0,007 6,2964 37,3545 ing just a a great -11,6527(*) 0,93654 0,000 -14,1263 -9,1792 little deal enough -7,1373(*) 0,70684 0,000 -9,0032 -5,2713 noth14,6882 4,78804 0,066 -0,8541 30,2304 ing nothing a great -26,3409(*) 4,79511 0,002 -41,8864 -10,7954 deal enough -21,8254(*) 4,75558 0,007 -37,3545 -6,2964 just a -14,6882 4,78804 0,066 -30,2304 0,8541 little * the mean difference is significant at the 0,05 level. table 20 correlations: knowledge and discriminatory practices percentage correct on level of knowledge section 4 factor (2,3,4,5) percentage correct pearson correlation 1 -0,287(**) on level of knowledge sig. (2-tailed) 0 0,000 n 1532 1525 section 4 factor pearson correlation -0,287(**) 1 (2,3,4,5) sig. (2-tailed) 0,000 0 n 1525 1525 ** correlation is significant at the 0,01 level (2-tailed). there is no significant correlation between knowledge and behaviour; (pearson’s correlation = 0,012, p = 0,679 > 0,05) discussion the main objective of this study was to determine if there is a relationship between increasing levels of knowledge about hiv/aids and perceptions of discriminatory attitudes and behaviour towards people with hiv/aids. from the findings it is evident that respondents are generally knowledgeable about the transmission and prevention of hiv/aids. the results of this study indicate that respondents are pirie, coetsee8 knowledgeable about the four main methods of hiv transmission, namely through sexual contact, through transfusion of contaminated blood, through the sharing of contaminated needles among hiv drug users and from an infected mother to her baby during pregnancy. results of the survey also suggest that the majority of respondents were clear that hiv cannot be transmitted through casual contact such as sharing of communal toilets, sharing of cutlery and crockery and sharing of tools and equipment. a greater uncertainty was expressed regarding whether hiv can be contracted via exposure to an infected person’s bodily fluids such as saliva and whether mosquitoes could transmit the virus. specifically, a total of 23% were not sure as to whether one can be infected with hiv after kissing an infected person. 24% did not know about the likelihood of transmission of hiv through mosquitoes, while 14% believed incorrectly that one could be exposed to hiv from mosquitoes. although all scientific data available leads to the conclusion that hiv cannot be transmitted through these modes, respondents appear not be convinced of this fact, as the above findings suggest. results of this study corroborate the findings of research conducted in the far east (lim et al., 1999). considering the last mentioned findings, it is not surprising to find that 46% of employees would not feel comfortable or are uncertain about whether they would be comfortable working with an infected colleague. although employees showed a high level of knowledge and awareness that hiv can not be transmitted through the various means of casual contact, 43% were not willing to or uncertain about using the same toilets as an infected person, 46% were not comfortable or uncertain about sharing crockery and cutlery and 39% were not comfortable or uncertain about sharing tools or equipment with an infected person. although respondents indicated that they know that hiv cannot be transmitted through casual contact (as this is what they have been told) they may remain unconvinced of scientific findings because they worry that new evidence may come to light at a later date that points to the possibility of hiv transmission occurring through casual contact. this study further highlighted that only 14% of employees believed that their colleagues would not avoid them if they found out that they had hiv or aids. the remaining 44% of respondents believe that they will be ostracised and 42% were uncertain about their colleagues’ reactions should their hiv status become known. the last-mentioned finding substantiates findings of barrows et al. (1996) and lau and wong (2001) that individuals believe that they will be discriminated against or that others will resist working alongside or avoid them if they were found to be hiv positive. despite the last mentioned scepticism and concern that respondents showed regarding the transmission of hiv by means of casual contact it is evident from the findings that, although the relationship between levels of knowledge about hiv/aids and discriminatory behaviour toward people with hiv/aids is relatively small, the level of knowledge correlates negatively with discriminatory practices. these findings corroborate the findings of research conducted by chiliaoutakis et al. (1996). it would therefore appear that these results indicate that such respondents are able apply the data and information that they have received regarding hiv/aids in a meaningful manner which then results in non-discriminatory practices. the study further assesses whether several comparison groups created in terms of the different biographical variables had differing scores with regard to level of knowledge. the results of this study indicated that there is a meaningful difference between the average levels of knowledge and respondents’ education level and age. however, based on the effect size, the effect of level of education and age on knowledge is relatively small. this survey’s findings corroborate findings of garbus (2002) in that no significant difference was found between the knowledge of men and women. findings of this study correspond to findings of de bruyn (1998), garbus (2002) and norman et al. (2003) that aids knowledge is higher among people with more education and amongst younger people. in south africa the lower knowledge of respondents 40 years and older can be ascribed to such employees having been less likely to have received sex education and hiv/aids education particularly in school in comparison to younger respondents. linking findings back to earlier discussion regarding the formation of attitudes it could be argued that older respondents’ meaning structures with regard to sex and sexually transmitted diseases may differ from those of younger respondents in that meaning structures were formed in the absence of exposure to hiv/aids. older employees were thus required to fit the concept of hiv/aids (new information) into their already existing categories at a much later stage in their lives. according to worchel et al. (1991) all new information is distorted to some degree in order to fit into already existing categories and existing categories have to expand to accommodate such information. depending on a number of variables, including the extent to which the individual is set in his/her ways or willingness to change existing categories, accommodation of information regarding hiv/aids would or would not take place. in comparison, younger respondents formed their meaning structures inclusive of hiv/aids due to their exposure to hiv/aids from a much earlier age. the same argument can be used for the findings that indicate that the higher the respondent’s level of education the higher the level of knowledge. respondents with a higher level of education may find it less difficult to assimilate and accommodate new information into existing concepts as this is primarily what training in any field teaches and requires an individual to do. it would therefore appear that both educational level and age may be contributing factors in the formation of different mental models. another interesting finding was that although no correlation was found between level of knowledge and behaviour that places one at risk of infection, a significant difference was found between level of knowledge and respondents’ perceived risk of becoming infected (given the large sample size the impact thereof remains small). respondents with high levels of knowledge perceived themselves to be at lower risk of infection and respondents with lower levels of knowledge perceived themselves as having a higher probability of becoming infected. the last mentioned findings correspond with norman et al. (2003) findings that knowledge was associated with concern about personal risk of contracting aids. findings may be attributed to respondents’ (with a higher level of knowledge) understanding of the difference between putting themselves at risk for infection, thus having to make a pre-behavioral decision, and knowing when they are already at risk of being infected due to past decisions. respondents with a higher level of knowledge are more likely to know that one increases one’s risk of infection through high-risk practices such as having unprotected sex with a partner, having unprotected sex with sex workers who are at high risk of becoming infected themselves, by sharing needles/ syringes to inject drugs/ steroids or by having unprotected sex with individuals who have previously placed themselves at high risk of becoming infected. results of the survey show that a concerning 8% of respondents (125 employees) believed that they were “somewhat” likely to become infected with hiv and that a further 2% of respondents (34 employees) believed that they were very likely of becoming infected. it would therefore appear that these respondents are evidently aware of their previous and current “risk” practices. the 27% of respondents who stated that they are uncertain about their personal likelihood of becoming infected with hiv may not understand/be knowledgeable about at-risk practices that place them at risk of hiv infection. despite the findings based on partial eta squared that the effect of level of knowledge is relatively small, the findings of the research conducted still add value by means of determining the knowledge regarding hiv/aids 9 various knowledge levels. education regarding hiv/aids will continue to be a key component in any strategy to reduce or prevent stigma and discrimination against people with hiv/aids as stigma and discrimination may result in isolation and marginalization, increased vulnerability to infection and increased likelihood of general health risks (de bruyn, 1998). the employment equity act specifically protects individuals from discrimination and it is therefore important to identif y possible discriminatory attitudes and practices, which might hold labour relations implications for the organisation. discriminatory behaviour not only affects the employer employee relationship but can also damage the public’s view of the organisation which will have other far-reaching negative consequences. according to firmansyah and kleiner (1999) aids discrimination in the workplace is not limited to the employer employee relationship but can also take place between business and its customers. the last-mentioned can have a further devastating impact on the organisation’s bottom line. the implications of these findings can be summarised as follows: 1. the provision of hiv/aids educational intervention programs are imperative in reducing discriminatory attitudes and behaviour towards people infected with hiv/aids. 2. by reducing discriminatory attitudes and behaviour one contributes to a milieu of acceptance and understanding which in turn assists in reducing fear and denial and thereby indirectly reduces the risk of new infections. 3. current thinking regarding “at risk” groups such as younger age groups, should be reconsidered, since such “stereotyping of risk” can contribute to older individuals not perceiving themselves to be at risk when they may in fact be at higher risk due to their lower level of knowledge and past lack of exposure to sex and hiv/aids education. 4. hiv/aids intervention programs should have the dual aim of providing information, according to bellinger et al. (2004) information is data that has been given meaning by way of relational connection, this meaning can be useful, but does not have to be, and education (knowledge and understanding). people first need information i.e. the facts, which will help to lay the foundation for health education. shortcomings of the study are the following: 1. it is focused mainly on knowledge of transmission, few questions regarding knowledge of prevention e.g. effectiveness of latex condoms vs. nat ural membrane condoms, the effect of oil based lubricants on condoms etc. 2. fear and denial were not a main focus of the survey 3. the sample group is not representative of the general south african population (high educational levels) 4. findings may be limited to the specific organisation due to its specific environmental setting 5. cannot ascribe high level of knowledge to educational and other interventions offered by the organisation only. other sources of information e.g. mass media campaigns, community-based and interpersonal interventions, informal networks e.g. friends and family may also have played a role. 6. although it has been noted that both knowledge and a supportive and caring environment is required to adequately reduce stigma and discrimination, this study focused only on the link between knowledge and attitude towards those infected, and disregarded the structural components. references aggleton, p., whitty, g., knight, a., prayle, d., warwick, i. & rivers, k. (1998). promoting young people’s health: concerns and needs of young people. health education, 98, (6), 213-219. arnold, j., cooper, c. & robertson, i. (1995). work psychology: understanding human behaviour in the workplace. london: pitman publishing. avert.org. (2004). hiv & aids stigma and discrimination: attitudes towards hiv & aids. retrieved february 17, 2004 from http://www.avert.org/aidsstigma.html. barrows, c.w., gallo, m. & mulleady, t. (1996). aids in the us hospitality industry: recommendations for education and policy formulations. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 5, (1), 5 – 9. bhate, s. (1999). cognitive style differences and their impact on responses to message sources. marketing intelligence and planning, 17, (6), 280 – 287. chandra, p.s., deepthivarm, a.s. & manjula, v. (2003). disclosure of hiv infection in south india: patterns, reasons and reactions. aids care, 15, (2), 207 – 215. corporate leadership council. (2002). strategies for hiv/aids management. retrieved april 21, 2004 from http://www.corporateleadershipcouncil.com. connors, j. & heaven, p. (1995). health beliefs and attitudes towards people living with hiv/aids. journal of applied social psychology, 25, (10), 922-931. cook, c.w. & hunsaker, p.l. (2001). management and organizational behaviour. new york: mcgraw-hill. cox, s. & cox, t. (1991). structure of employee attitudes to safety: a european example. work and stress, 48, (3), 93-106. de bruyn, t. (1998). hiv/aids and discrimination: a discussion paper. canadian hiv /aids legal network and canadian aids society, montreal. dixon, n.m. (1999). the organizational learning cycle. usa:gower. dougherty, d. borelli, l., munir, k., & o’sullivan, a. (2000). systems of organizational sense making for sustained product innovation. journal of engineering and technology management, 17, 321-355. ferris, g.r., bhawuk, d., fedor, d.f. & judge, t.a. (1995). organizational politics and citizenship: attributions of intentionality and construct definition, in martinko, m.j., attribution theory: an organizational perspective, (231-251). delray beach: st lucie press. firmansyah, s. & kleiner, b.h. (1999). new developments concerning discrimination against workers with hiv or aids. equal opportunities international, 18, 2 – 4. garbus. l. (2002). ucsf: country aids policy analysis project. regents of the university of california. goffman, e. (1963). stigma: notes on the management of a spoiled identity. new york: simon & schuster. grunseit, a.c. & aggleton, p. (1998). lessons learned: an update on the published literature concerning the impact of hiv and sexuality education for young people. health education, 2, 45 – 54. hellriegel, d., jackson, s.e. & slocum, j.w. (1999). management. cincinnati, ohio: south-western college publishing. hivinsite. (2004). center for hiv information. retrieved march 31, 2004 from http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/global? page=cr09-sf-00. holton, e.f. & baldwin, t.t. (2000). making transfer happen: an action perspective on learning transfer systems. advances in developing human resources, 8, 1-6. horizons. (2004). hiv/aids related stigma, pp.13 – 15. retrieved february 17, 2004 from http://www.popcouncil.org/ horizons.html. human sciences research council of south africa. (2002). research programmes: social aspects of hiv/aids and health (saha). retrieved march 23, 2004 from http://www.src.ac.za/ research/npa/saha/news/news20021205.html. ivancevich, j.m. & matteson, m.t. (1996). organizational behaviour and management. usa: irwin. jourdan, j., & etkind, p. (2004) enhancing hiv/aids and std prevention through program integration. public health reports, 119, (1), 4-11. lau, j.t.f., tsui, h.y., li, c.k., chung, r.w.y., chan, m.w., & molassiotis, a. (2003). needs assessment and social environment of people living with hiv/aids in hong kong. aids care, 15, (5), 699 – 706. lau, j.t.f & wong, w.s. (2001). aids related discrimination in the workplace – the results of two evaluative surveys carried out during a three year period in hong kong. aids care, 13, (4), 433 – 440. pirie, coetsee10 lewis, m.h. (1990). an investigation to predict the extend of discrimination based upon the existence of stereotypes and prejudicial attitudes against woman in managerial positions. for partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree “master of personnel guidance”. university of the orange free state, bloemfontein. lim, v.k.g & loo, g.l (1999). hiv and the workplace. organisational consequences of hiring persons with hiv and attitudes towards disclosure of hiv related information. international journal of manpower. 21, (2), 129 – 140. martinko, m.j. (1995). the nature and function of attribution theory within the organizational sciences. in martinko, m.j. attribution theory: an organizational perspective. (7-14). delray beach: st lucie press. norman, l.r. & carr, r. (2003). the role of hiv knowledge on hiv related behaviors: a hierarchical analysis of adults in trinidad. health education, 103, (3), 145 – 155. pangaea global aids foundation. (2004). south african hiv/aids statistics. retrieved march 31, 2004 from: http://www.pgaf.org/pressreleases//south_africa_stats.html. parker, r. & aggleton, p. (2002). hiv/aids-related stigma and discrimination: a conceptual framework and an agenda for action. horizons program and population council. quah, s.r. (1998). ethnicity, hiv/aids prevention and public health education. international journal of sociology and social policy, 18, 78. ragan, a.m & bowen, a.m. (2001). improving attitudes regarding the elderly population: the effects of information and reinforcement for change. the gerontologist, 41, (4), 511 -515. schalk, r., cambell, j.w. & freese, c. (1998). change and employee behaviour. leadership and organization development journal, 19, 157-163. sixsmith, j., kelleher, c.c. & crangle, e. (2000). impact evaluation of an hiv screen educational advertisement. health education, 100, (1), 42-49. thomas, h. & pollock, t. (1999). from i-o economics’ s-c-p paradigm through strategic groups to competence-based competition: reflections on the puzzle of competitive strategy. british journal of management, 10, 127-140. unaids. (2000). report on the global hiv/aids epidemic 2002. retrieved january 8, 2003 from: http://www.unaids.org/ barcelona/presskit/barcelona%20report/chapter3.html. unaids. (2003). fact sheet: stigma and discrimination. retrieved february 17, 2004 from http://www.unaids.org. veldsman, t.h. (1998). exploring the living organization: the concept organizational culture. in j.a. slabbert; j.j. prinsloo; b.j. swanepoel; w. backer (eds). managing employment relations in south africa, (8-1-18-25). durban: lexisnexis butterworths. weber, p.s. & weber, j.e. (2001). changes in employee perceptions during organizational change. leadership and organization development journal, 22, 291-300. weick, k.e. (1995). sense making in organizations. london: sage. worchel, s., cooper, j. & goethals, g.r. (1991). understanding social psychology. new york: wadsworth, inc. knowledge regarding hiv/aids 11 2carstens.qxd there are views that indicate that the success of an organization is as a direct result of the leadership. one such organisation is southwest airlines that was viewed as a very successful organisation in the early nineties. southwest airlines was the only us airline to earn a profit every year from 1973 to 1996. its net profit margins averaged over 5% since 1991, the highest in the industry. it had the lowest staff turnover percentage in the industry, and the company experienced a 133% traffic growth between 1991 and 1996, ranging from 20% to 30% per year. the management team at southwest airlines believed that leadership was the key ingredient to their success. freiburg and freiburg (1996) claim that an organisation rises to greatness when the otherwise latent talents and energies of its people are evoked by the power of leadership. according to freiburg and freiburg (1996) leadership at southwest airlines was practiced through collaborative relationships. the people of southwest airlines worked in relationships where the roles of leader and collaborator were interchangeable. essentially, leadership was something leaders and collaborators were doing together at southwest airlines. maxwell (2003) claims that individuals cannot succeed without the help of others, and that relationships impact on leadership. he further claims that relationships hold teams together and that the more solid the relationship the more cohesive the team. however, the question is: will involvement with others lead to the success of a team? certain authors and commentators on modern leadership have a similar view regarding leadership in the sense that leadership is not a one-person activit y. the views revolve around interdependence, care and growth, service or servant leadership and being in control as opposed to taking control and interactive leadership. the common thread involves relationships between the members of specific groups or teams and their ability to adopt the role of either leader or follower, depending on the specific demands of the situation. the leadership challenge therefore is about how leaders can mobilise others to want to get extraordinary things done in organisations. it is about the practices leaders use to transform values into actions, visions into realities, obstacles into innovations and risks into rewards. leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow (kouzes and posner, 2002). leadership is not something that only takes place at the highest level in an organisation, but it can be found everywhere. according to kouzes and posner (2002) success in business and life is, and will continue to be, a function of how well people work and play together. they further claim that collaboration is the critical competency for achieving and sustaining high performance, and trust and vulnerability are at the heart of collaboration. according to kouzes and posner (2002), if neither person in a relationship takes the risk of trusting at least a little, the relationship is inhibited by caution and suspicion. if leaders want to achieve the higher levels of performance that come with trust and collaboration, they must demonstrate their trust in others before requiring for trust from others. the mantra of exemplary leaders should therefore be: "you can’t do it alone", because getting extraordinary things done can simply not be achieved by a single person who acts alone. if it is accepted today that the content of leadership has not changed, but that the context has changed as a result of many factors such as heightened uncertainty, people being more connected than ever before, globalisation, technological changes and speed of interaction, then it appears that the biggest leadership challenge is about the capacity to build and sustain those human relationships that enable people to get extraordinary things done on a regular basis. in the new leadership landscape the context is continuously changing, and roles bet ween leader and employer are becoming more fluid, stakeholder involvement is getting broader and leadership styles need to become more inclusive. folkman and zenger (2002) claim that there is a strong relationship between focusing on results and interpersonal skills in the successful modern leader, therefore not allowing the modern leader to operate in silos; a more holistic approach, or at least a multidimensional one, is required. finding a positive relationship bet ween leader/employee relationships and business performance supports welch (2001) when he claimed that building good people led to people building good products and services and, by implication, successful businesses. based on the information presented and comments from various authors the modern team or work group should then be made up of individuals who are just as comfortable to lead as they are to follow, and are sensitive to the specific needs of the team and mature enough to know when to play which role. the key, it can be argued, is their relationship with the other members and the leader of the group. the objective of the research is to investigate factors that influence the quality of the leader/employee relationship and what affect that might have on business performance. fj carstens neil barnes neilbarn@telkomsa.net department of human resources management university of johannesburg abstract this study set out to investigate what role the quality of the relationship between business leaders and their employees played in the performance of their business. the study compared the business performance of forty five area managers in one of the major listed banks in south africa with their specific leader/employee relationship profiles. the research approach was quantitative and of a correlational nature. the results indicate that although certain elements within the relationship between business leaders and employees indeed have an influence on business performance this alone was not a sufficient condition. the study suggested that the dimensions relating to vision, trust, accountability and decisionmaking have the strongest influence on business performance. further research in this area is suggested. key words quality, leader/employment relationship, business performance the quality of leader/employee relationship in business performance 10 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (2), 10-19 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (2), 10-19 towards a leadership/employee relationship model it has been accepted as a truism that good leadership is essential to business, to government and to countless groups and organisations that shape the way in which we live, work and play (robbins, 1986). bridle (2001) agrees with this idea and claims that successful business begins at the top and is driven by leadership. a leader gives direction and sets standards, creates inspired people whose enthusiasm for the business leads to an innovative approach to the business and also inspires employees with natural enthusiasm and flair when interacting with customers. in the paragraphs that follow it is the intention of the author to investigate certain elements that have an influence on the relationship between business leaders and their employees with the purpose of building up a model of the leadership employee relationship. substance in leadership when asked what made a leader effective, stoner and wankel (1986) replied that most people when asked this question would probably reply that effective leaders have certain desirable traits or qualities – for example, charisma, foresight, persuasiveness and intensity. and indeed, when thinking of heroic leaders such as napoleon, washington, lincoln, rooseveldt and churchill, it is recognised that such traits came naturally to them and were necessary for what they accomplished. however, numerous of studies of leadership – some dating back to the nineteenth century – have failed to demonstrate that any trait or quality is consistently associated with effective leadership. most text books on leadership, management or organisational behaviour will explain in great detail the various theories whether they are trait, behavioural, contingency or situational theories, and how the most important factor in organisational effectiveness is the high-performance group or team and the importance of the role the leader plays in the performance of that particular group. kotter (1999) who studied organisations for the past thirty years came up with a few observations regarding leaders. he claims that the increasingly fast-moving and competitive environment of the twenty-first century demands more leadership from more people to make enterprises prosper. he further claims that the central issue is not one of a new leadership style. in a globalising world with a better educated workforce that is no longer inclined to be seen and not heard, a new leadership style is indeed called for, but style is not the key leadership issue, but substance within the leader. leadership as core behaviour veldsman (2002) appears to share kotter’s view when he claims that without different and better leadership that is appropriate to the post-modern world, the future will indeed be bleak. kotter (1999) says that it is all about core behaviour on the job, not surface detail and tactics, but a core that changes little over time, across different cultures or in different industries. he further states that managerial work is increasingly becoming a game of dependence on others instead of having power over others. this statement from kotter highlights the interdependent relationship that exists between business leaders and their followers. this is a thought also shared by bridle (2001) when he claims that being a leader is not about taking control, but it is about being sufficiently in control to be able to transfer leadership to others, and to encourage leadership in others. leadership is also about paying attention to good relationships. according to gittell (2003) taking care of relationships is good management practice and the foundation for competitive advantage. building on the thoughts of kotter and bridle it may be said that leaders are not always trying to lead. they recognise that from time to time leadership will pass from them and move to someone else who can best provide leadership at that particular time. the leaders will, however, still be around to provide direction and encouragement if required. leadership as empowerment another author shares this view of interdependence. boon (2001) claims that the wise leader in a position of power will devolve power to his subordinates. he will ensure that they have the power to veto any of his decisions. he will be totally reliant on consensus, notwithstanding his ability to persuasively influence the group. he will create mechanisms to ensure that he is unable to become an autocrat. in other words, boon is suggesting that the wise leader will ensure some form of participation from subordinates. leadership as vulnerability boon (2001) further states that a strong leader is able to make unpopular decisions. because of the trust and faith people have in him these will be respected and accepted. it usually becomes clear that even unpopular decisions are made for the right reasons and to gain the best results. as a result, even more trust is built into his leadership. none of this can be achieved without the leader becoming vulnerable and exposed. leadership is vulnerability (boon, 2001), an interesting point made if one takes ghandi as an example. ghandi made himself vulnerable and therefore incorruptible and by doing so became a very strong leader. yet, he held no official government office or position. kouzes and posner (2002) agree on the area of vulnerability and claim that trust in the leadership relationship is built when one makes oneself vulnerable to others whose subsequent behaviour we can’t control. interactive leadership where bridle (2001) talks about encouraging leadership within others, boon (2001) refers to interactive leadership, and claims that interactive leadership involves leading one another, leading and being led by colleagues regardless of the position in the organisation. this approach assumes equalit y of humanity, without discounting individual “seriti/isithunzi”, and a collective aspiration towards superordinate goals. “seriti” is a sotho word which in broader terms refers to the aura around a person. “isithunzi” is an nguni word meaning the same. boon (2001) claims that a person’s “seriti” or “isithunzi” reflects that person’s moral weight, influence and prestige. it is what identifies an individual to be good, or what will identif y a person to be depleted of goodness. the view that (boon, 2001) is bringing across is that whether an individual is a leader who is being led or whether the individual is a follower being asked to lead, the individual stat us or inf luence (seriti/isithunzi) of that person will not be diminished, nor will the person be thought less of. in fact the person’s understanding of the collective goals of the group will be highlighted as will the individual’s willingness to share the group’s accountabilities. leadership as accountability on a different continent two authors share this concept of accountability towards the group. giuliani and kurson (2002) say that any chief executive should expect his or her top staff to be experienced, successful individuals, and sometimes these are not the t y pe of people who are accustomed to admitting in front of a group that they don’t know everything, especially when that group setting includes the rivalries and jockeying for position that are the signs of healthy competition. the business leader should counter that reluctance early and often. one of the best lessons a leader can communicate to his or her staff is that problems – or worse, covering them up – should not be tolerated (giuliani and kurson, 2002). leadership as collaboration to explain the concept of collaboration freiburg and freiburg (1996) explore the lone ranger myth. they claim that reading the business literature an impression is created that jack welsh single-handedly transformed general electric, anita roddick built the body shop without any help and that norman schwarzkorpf rallied the allied forces in desert storm all by leader/employee relationship 11 himself. intellectually most people would agree that no one person – no matter how great – can do any of this alone. yet they claim that individuals have been conditioned to think of leadership in terms of the heroic figure who comes to the rescue of people who are too weak to help themselves. they further claim that the lone ranger image – the idea that one heroic person is out in front taking charge while everyone else passively follows is not what happens. leadership as ser vice when freiburg and freiburg (1996) investigated the success of southwest airlines they uncovered the concept of “service” or “servant leadership”. the concept suggests that inherent in the act of leadership is the natural desire and corresponding choice to first serve others. they claim that leadership is being a faithful, devoted, hard-working servant of people, and participating with them in the agonies, as well as the ecstasies of life. schuitema (1998) has a similar view on leadership when he explores the care and growth model for leadership. he claims that empowerment is about an incremental suspension of control. this implies that empowerment is as much a result of "not doing" as it is of "doing". the leader does not do anything to the subordinate, he does things for the subordinate. he removes restrictive barriers (schuitema, 1998). it is interesting to note that schuitema immediately qualifies the statement of incremental suspension of control by saying that it comes with maturity. he claims that maturity implies giving or acting with generosity and courage. it means that in every situation a person does not act in terms of what that person wants, but that person acts in accordance with what is in the best interests of the other (schuitema, 1998). this thought of maturity can be linked with boon’s view on vulnerability, freiburg and freiburg’s view on service or servant leadership, kotter’s views on interdependence and bridle’s view on encouraging leadership in others. these authors who were mentioned do not focus on personal excellence like steven covey or on the command relationships like tom peters, but they rather take a stance where leadership must create the conditions for employees to work because they want to. it is a case of empowering and growing subordinates. interpersonal skills maxwell (2003) claims that relationships are the glue that hold teams together, and the more successful an individual wants to be as a leader depends on his or her ability to connect with people. he further claims that few things will pay bigger dividends than the time and trouble taken to understand people. almost nothing will add more stature to an executive and a person. becoming a highly relational person brings individual and team success (maxwell, 2003). folkman and zenger (2002) claim that an extraordinary leader must have competencies clustered into the following five different areas: � character � focus on results � interpersonal skills � leading organisational change � personal capacity. for example, a number of relationship competencies such as building relationships, developing others, collaboration and teamwork and communicating powerfully and prolifically are clustered in the interpersonal skills domain. they further claim that strength in the interpersonal skills cluster of competencies will distinguish great from good leaders, and if this is combined with strength in focusing on results it is a valuable and a powerful combination, and is also very likely to lead to success and overall effectiveness (folkman and zenger, 2002). role switching one cannot only look at the leaders and their roles in business performance. the follower plays just as important a role, specifically as all the authors quoted above have been of the opinion that the best approach should be a participative one. two students of leadership theory, lussier and achua (2001) made an observation that leadership was not a one-way street. they stated that even when someone was identified as a leader, the same person would hold a complementary follower role. it is not uncommon to switch being a leader and being a follower several times over the course of a day’s work. how to integrate these diverse roles is an interesting question with valuable lessons for leadership effectiveness. lussier and achua (2001) further claim that one researcher on highperformance teams revealed that the most successful teams were those that had a great deal of role-switching among the followers about who was serving in a leadership role at any given time. the observation made was that successful teams had members who were operating in the team who were comfortable to fulfill either the role of leader or follower at any time. boon (2001) agrees with this, but he claims that it is the responsibility of the leader to bring the leadership qualities of the whole group to the fore. he says that there is some degree of leadership in every person. all people can be encouraged to develop and demonstrate dormant leadership qualities. leaders at all levels of progression are responsible for nurturing, stimulating and wakening the leader instinct that exists within practically every human being. this is the nature of leadership (boon, 2001). based on the survey of some of the relevant literature, and as described above, figure 1 below could provide an indication of the leadership/employee relationship model as the author sees it. the model, for example, takes concepts such as vision, trust, empowerment, servanthood and links them to the quality of the relationship between leader and employee. the premise is that the quality of the relationships has an influence on issues like teamwork, group accountabilit y, performance standards, subordinate growth or role interchangeability which, in turn, influence business performance. the relationships between the various concepts and their influence on each other are also indicated in the model. it therefore postulated that the leaderemployee relationship will have a significant relationship to business performance. figure 1 : leadership/employee relationship model carstens, barnes12 the following are the objectives of this research: � investigate what makes up leader-employee relationship quality. � investigate the relationship between the quality of this relationship and business performance. � possible recommendations how this relationship can be improved. research design research approach to be able to answer the research question the business performance of a number of leadership groups within a specific organisation was compared with their specific leader/employee relationship profiles. the research approach was quantitative, and of a correlational nature. an important issue to define was the one of dependent and independent variables. the independent variable being the leader/employee relationship profile as measured by the leader/employee index and the dependent variable business performance as measured by the balanced scorecard. both variables are discussed in greater detail in the following section. the figure below visually depicts the two sets of variables and the relationship between the leadership/employee index and the balanced scorecard during the study. figure 2: independent and dependent variables participants the population for the study was derived from all the branches of a major listed financial institution within the borders of south africa. the financial institution has divided its branch banking-business into the nine provinces in the country. for the purpose of this study branches over the entire country were used. the reason for this was to ensure a large enough population. within the financial instit ution the nine provinces are further divided along municipal boundaries into forty-five catchment areas each with a number of branches responsible for delivering banking services to its clients. each catchment area has a management group consisting of an area manager, an area sales manager and several branch managers. the area manager is the appointed leader for each group. the study included all forty five catchments, and therefore all forty five assessments were done on the forty five area managers. the units of analysis were therefore the area managers within the forty five catchment areas. of the forty five area managers in the sample 12 were female and 33 were male. in terms of the definition used by the employment equity act, the racial mix was 62% white and 38% black. the average months in position for the sample group was 22,6 months. the male average being 22,9 months, and the female average 21,8. biographical details of the sample are summarised in table 1. table 1 respondents’ biographical data race male female total african 6 3 9 coloured 3 3 6 indian 1 1 2 white 23 5 28 average time in position 22,29 21,8 22,6 measuring instruments independent variable (leader/employee index) braxton (2004) has worked on and developed a culture print model which provides the basis for any organisation to measure specific aspects of the organisation’s culture and employee satisfaction. the culture print model identifies eleven workplace community values which, in turn, can be broken down into forty nine measurement dimensions. sixt y eight survey questions are used to indicate an organisation’s performance in each of the measurement dimensions. this can be used as an indication of how well an organisation is performing in terms of communit y values. braxton (2004) further claims that the cult ure print model provides a way to link employee satisfaction to tangible bottom-line measures, for example, profitability, sales growth and quality innovation. the culture print model contains a leader/employee index which measures the quality of the relationship between the business leaders and subordinates. the leader/employee index makes it possible to analyse specific leaders’ strengths and development areas using the following approach: � questions that serve as representative measures for good and effective leadership are identified throughout the questionnaire. � each person participating in the survey identifies his or her report, and while completing the survey also provides a score regarding the effectiveness of his or her leader. � the results of all the business leaders in a group are consolidated in one report in order to identif y strengths and development opportunities for leaders in the business. � alternatively, the results for a specific leader are consolidated in one report in order to identif y strengths and development opportunities for that particular business leader. the following leadership/employee index questions are used along with the rationale for using each question. according to braxton (2004) the culture print model is a statistical validated instrument, and has a published reliability factor (cronbach’s alpha) of 0,98, and a validity factor of 0,67. on the face of the report it appears that the culture print model, and therefore the leader/employee index, reliably and validly measures what it is designed to measure. dependent variable (balanced scorecard) the balanced scorecard had its origins in the early nineties when david norton acted as the study leader to robert kaplan, an academic consultant. they were studying innovative performance-measurement systems because executives and academics realised that traditional financial measures like earnings per share and return on investment were giving misleading signals for continuous improvement and innovation, the activities that the new competitive environment demanded. through their research and discussions the balanced scorecard was created. during a year-long research project with twelve companies at the leading edge of performance measurement, leader/employee relationship 13 they devised a balanced scorecard, a set of measures that gave top management a fast, but comprehensive view of the business (kaplan and norton, 1992). the balanced scorecard is used in this research because it is recognised worldwide as a performance measurement tool. table 2 leadership/employee index questions leadership/employee index rationale for using question questions 1. during the performance participation takes place where the contracting process, i had the leader and the employee apply a opportunity to influence the process of communication and performance standards that are formalisation of results to be expected of me. achieved. 2. i can discuss my career leaders are receptive and open when objectives with my leader. facilitating an individual’s career aspirations. the importance of a person’s career as part of the overall performance process is emphasised. 3. i receive monthly informal indicates that individuals receive feedback regarding my frequent informal input regarding performance. their performance, where the management of performance takes place as an everyday occurrence. 4. the performance measures for people are provided with a sense of which i am accountable have an purpose through understanding what impact on the performance of is required from a results perspective. the organisation. the focus is whether individual performance is aligned to the organisation’s objectives. 5. i understand what the individuals are provided with organisation’s expectations are information on the organisation’s in terms of my career. talent needs, this will enable them to match their careers with the organisation’s expectations. 6. my leader inspires people to leaders create unity and commitment achieve the organisation’s vision. behind the vision through their own behaviour and actions. 7. my leader ensures that people leaders take ownership and identif y believe in the future of the with the organisation, thereby organisation. harnessing the energy and enthusiasm of their people. 8. my leader regularly discusses indicates the extent to which leaders the future of our organisation communicate the future of the with us. organisation, thereby directing the energy of their people. 9. my leader accepts accountability the leader takes ownership of the for both the successes and the results achieved by his/her team, failures of our team. whether or not targets have been met. 10. my leader always makes indicates that decisions made by the decisions in the best interest of leader support the objectives of our team. his/her team. 11. my leader addresses problem the leader acts to resolve situations in our team, even if disagreement within the team, it could make him/her irrespective of any impact on his/her unpopular. personal popularity. 12. my leader supports me on how indicates that the leader extends help to accomplish my performance and support towards the achievement goals. of performance goals. 13. where i work my leader the leader promotes the importance encourages an environment of open communication that builds a where people freely share their level of trust openness and opinions. accessibility. 14. my leader involves our team in indicates the leader’s regard for making decisions that will getting buy-in within the decisionaffect us. making process, thereby ensuring inclusive decision-making where ownership is taken. 15. my leader trusts me in making leaders display confidence in the decisions relating to my job. manner in which people resolve a challenge or problem when making decisions. 16. i understand the competencies indicates the level of understanding required for future positions. between leaders and their subordinates regarding their development for future roles and promotion. the scorecard framework has four important elements, namely: financial performance, customer-value proposition, internal processes, and learning and growth. each element, or perspective, may have a number of key result areas which can be specifically measured by key performance indicators, depending on what the specific strategy of the organisation or business unit is. objectives in the four perspectives link together in a chain of cause-and-effect relationships. enhancing and aligning intangible assets, according to kaplan and norton (1992), lead to improved process performance, which, in turn drives success for customers and shareholders. table 3 below provides an indication of the balanced scorecard perspectives and the corresponding key results area’s linked to the perspectives. table 3 the balanced scorecard perspectives and their corresponding key result areas balanced scorecard perspective key result area financial costs contribution liabilities assets customer customer satisfaction direct debit accounts vertical sales index internal processes audit capacity people development staff satisfaction employment equity the purpose of using the balanced scorecard to drive and measure performance is that it can give a balanced view of what is important to any business. while providing senior managers with information from four different perspectives, the balanced scorecard minimises the information overload by limiting the number of measures used. according to kaplan and norton (1992) companies rarely suffer from having too few measures. more commonly they keep adding new measures when an employee or consultant makes a worthwhile suggestion. the balanced scorecard forces leaders to focus on the handful of measures that are most critical, it captures the critical valuecreation activities created by skilled, motivated organisational participants, while retaining an interest in shortterm performance, via the financial perspective. according to kaplan (2002), by using the balanced scorecard, individuals are now freed from narrow and restrictive job descriptions and are encouraged to come to work daily and do their jobs differently and better, thus adding to the advancement of the company. the two immediate advantages for any company in using the balanced scorecard is, firstly, that it brings together many of the seemingly disparate elements of a company’s competitive agenda in a single management report, and, secondly, that it guards against suboptimisation by forcing senior managers to consider all the important operational measures together. the balanced scorecard clearly reveals the value drivers for superior long-term financial and competitive performance. this can be measured by giving the different perspectives weightings to add up to 100%, and giving the specific performance indicators rating scales, so that when the performance is measured it can be projected as a specific value and individuals and teams can be compared with each other and even ranked. the measurement and ranking will assist in the intended correlational study. carstens, barnes14 procedure the data collection for the study took place over a two-month period beginning in april 2005, and giving the author until the end of june 2005 to ensure that all relevant information was collected and taken into account. during april 2005 all the managers within the forty five catchments underwent a culture print model assessment which included the leader/employee index. the assessment comprised of a self-assessment and an assessment done by the individuals’ subordinates. these assessments were administered by an external vendor to the financial institution and completed electronically to ensure accurate capturing and confidentiality of the information. once all the assessments were completed, individual and group leader/employee index reports were produced and used in the study. a monthly balanced scorecard was produced for individual branches, areas and provinces. once the leader/employee index reports were produced and available to a specific group, the balanced scorecard's score for that group was used for the purposes of the study. analysis of the data the analysis of the data was done on behalf of the author by the statkon unit at the university of johannesburg using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss version 13), and the following analyses were made: � descriptive statistics were examined. once all the data was collected the process of analysis began, using both descriptive and inferential statistics. may, masson and hunter (1990) describe descriptive statistics as procedures used to summarise a set of data and inferential statistics as procedures that allow inferences to be made from a set of data. � pearson product correlations. pearson product correlations were performed between each of the items on the leadership/employee relationship measure and the four dimensions of the balanced scorecard to produce a correlation matrix. correlational analysis answers the following three possible questions about sets of data: � whether there was a relationship between sets of data? � what the direction of the relationship was (positive or negative)? � how strong the relationship was? (walliman and baiche, 2001). the statistical term used for the description of the evaluation of the relationship is the correlation coefficient, which is the numerical indicator of the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables. however, may, masson and hunter (1990), warn against the existence of a strong correlational bond between variables implying a causal bond. although the correlation coefficient describes the degree of linear relationship between two variables, it does not necessarily indicate whether the one is a result of the other. this analysis of the correlation coefficient will enable an indication as to whether there are indeed relationships between the quality of leader/employee relationship as measured by the leader/employee index and business performance as measured by the balanced scorecard. � multiple regression. multiple regression was done to ascertain the effect which items of the leadership/employee index have on dimensions of the balanced scorecard. the multiple regression also assisted with the investigation into exploring the possibility of predictive relationships existing between the leadership/ employee index and the balanced scorecard. an ethical consideration was also given to the data, and rogelberg (2002) claims that all researches must evaluate their competence to conduct the research, their knowledge of ethical guidelines, soundness of the research design and the ethical acceptability of their study. for this reason consent has been obtained from the company, and to further protect the confidentiality of the information the names and areas of participants have been substituted with letters and numbers. results summary of the relationship between the leadership/employee index and the balanced scorecard performance measures pearson product correlations were performed between the items on the leadership/employee index and the dimensions of the balanced scorecard. the four perspectives (financial, customer, internal, and people) and their subdimensions were used. table 4 summarises the correlations between the leadership/employee index questions and the balanced scorecard dimensions. table 4 correlations between leadership/employee index items and balanced scorecard overall dimensions leadership/employee balanced scorecard perspective*** index item** financial customer internal people total processes business performance lei 1 -0,221 0,185 0,104 0,099 0,021 p<0,145 p<0,223 p<0,498 p<0,517 p<0,889 lei 2 -0,085 0,209 0,241 0,152 0,179 p<0,579 p<0,169 p<0,111 p<0,320 p<0,24 lei 3 -0,115 0,216 0,335 0,113 0,176 p<0,453 p<0,154 p<0,024* p<0,459 p<0,249 lei 4 0,139 0,188 0,247 0,240 0,347 p<0,363 p<0,215 p<0,102 p<0,112 p<0,020* lei 5 0,070 0,208 -0,101 0,199 0,192 p<0,649 p<0,169 p<0,511 p<0,190 p<0,206 lei 6 0,180p -0,082 -0,007 0,053 0,094 <0,236 p<0,593 p<0,966 p<0,731 p<0,539 lei 7 -0,026 0,139 0,193 0,186 0,184 p<0,865 p<0,362 p<0,204 p<0,221 p<0,227 lei 8 -0,020 0,149 0,139 0,199 0,181 p<0,896 p<0,330 p<0,364 p<0,191 p<0,235 lei 9 -0,166 0,31 0,134 0,210 0,168 p<0,276 p<0,038* p<0,381 p<0,165 p<0,270 lei 10 -0,091 0,225 0,272 0,293 0,252 p<0,554 p<0,137 p<0,071 p<0,051 p<0,095 lei 11 -0,139 0,042 -0,104 -0,010 -0,102 p<0,363 p<0,787 p<0,497 p<0,095 p<0,506 lei 12 -0,003 0,168 0,023 0,258 0,191 p<0,986 p<0,271 p<0,883 p<0,087 p<0,210 lei 13 0,044 0,111 0,044 0,333 0,232 p<0,773 p<0,470 p<0,775 p<0,026 p<0,125 lei 14 -0,149 0,002 -0,074 0,176 -0,038 p<0,329 p<0,990 p<0,630 p<0,249 p<0,804 lei 15 -0,211 0,139 0,019 0,119 -0,010 p<0,164 p<0,362 p<0,902 p<0,435 p<0,948 lei 16 -0,122 0,198 0,087 0,153 0,106 p<0,425 p<0,193 p<0,569 p<0,315 p<0,489 *significant at the 0,05 level **leadership/employee index items lei 1 my leader inspires people to achieve the business vision. lei 2 my leader ensures that people believe in the future of the business. lei 3 my leader regularly discuss the future of our business with us. lei 4 my leader accepts accountability for both the successes and failures of our team. lei 5 my leader always takes decisions in the best interest of our team. lei 6 my leader addresses problem situations in our team, even if it could make him/her unpopular. lei 7 my leader supports me on how to accomplish my performance goals. lei 8 where i work my leader encourages an environment where people reely share their opinions. lei 9 my leader involves our team in making decisions that will affect us. lei 10 my leader trusts me in making decisions relating to my job. lei 11 during the performance-contracting process, i had the opportunity to influence the performance standards which are expected of me. lei 12 i can discuss my career objectives with my leader. lei 13 the performance measures for which i am accountable impact on the performance of the business. lei 14 i receive monthly informal feedback on my performance. lei 15 i understand what the business expectations are in terms of my career. lei 16 i understand the competencies required for future positions. leader/employee relationship 15 *** balanced scorecard perspective description financial – relate to financial measures that indicate whether the company’s strategy and corresponding tactics are contributing to the bottom line. customer – deals with measures relating to the customer service or experience provided to the external customers of the business. internal processes – relates to measures that indicate core processes that will enable superior customer performance, financial prosperity and people growth and development. people – relates to measures aimed at ensuring the management and growth of intangible assets. total business performance – is a combination of the four perspectives, indicating overall business success. it is noteworthy that only a few of the leadership/employee index items appear to have a significant relationship with the balanced scorecard perspectives. it appears that none of the leadership/employee index items have a relationship of any significance with the financial perspective of the balanced scorecard, and only one item on the leadership/employee index has any significant relationship with the customer perspective of the balanced scorecard. the internal processes and total business performance perspectives each have t wo significant relationships with some of the items and the people perspective has three significant relationships. the items are: lei 3 has two significant relationships with the people perspective, lei 4 has a relationship with total performance, lei 9 has a relationship with the customer perspective, lei 10 has a relationship with the people perspective, and lei 13 also has a relationship with the people perspective, a total of six altogether. for the purposes of investigation the average leadership/employee index score was also compared with the total business performance of the catchment areas. table 5 summarises the correlations. the data suggest no significant relationships between the average leadership/employee relationship score and the total business performance score. may, masson and hunter (1990) claim that the value of the correlation between two variables may be underestimated when the range of the variables is restricted. it could be a plausible explanation for the weak relationship between the average leadership employee relationship scores and the total business performance scores as the range for the leadership/ employee relationship scores is very narrow. table 5 average leadership/employee index and balanced scorecard correlation table balanced scorecard perspective ** correlation with statistical leadership/employee significance index average* financial -0,075 p<0,625 customer 0,167 p<0,273 internal processes 0,101 p<0,510 people 0,194 p<0,202 total business performance 0,142 p<0,351 * average leadership/employee index score for each catchment area, the average was computed for the 15 lei items and this was correlated with the overall score for each of the balanced scorecard dimensions. ** balanced scorecard perspective description financial – relate to financial measures that indicate whether the company’s strategy and corresponding tactics are contributing to the bottom line. customer – deals with measures relating to the customer service or experience provided to the external customers of the business. internal processes – relates to measures that indicate core processes that will enable superior customer performance, financial prosperity and people growth and development. people – relates to measures aimed at ensuring the management and growth of intangible assets. total business performance – is a combination of the four perspectives, indicating overall business success. upon closer investigation of each of the items of the leadership/employee index and the key result areas of the balanced scorecard dimensions, certain relationships are found. four of the dimensions of the leadership/employee index appear to have significant relationships with some of the balanced scorecard key result areas. the four are lei 1, lei 4, lei 9 and lei 10. lei 1 (my leader inspires people to achieve the business vision.) appears to have a relationship with the contribution element of the financial perspective that is significant at the p<0.05 level and relationships significant at the p<0.10 level with the customer satisfaction element of the customer perspective and the people development element of the people perspective. lei 4 (my leader accepts accountability for both the successes and failures of our team.) has a number of significant relationships. it appears to have a relationship at the p<0.10 significance level with the people development element of the people perspective, and relationships at the p<0.05 significance level with the liabilities component of the financial perspective, the audit component of the internal perspective and the overall business performance. lei 9 (my leader involves our team in making decisions that will affect us.) appears to have a significant relationship at the p<0.05 level with the development element of the people perspective, the customer satisfaction element of the customer perspective and the total customer perspective. lei 10 (my leader trusts me in making decisions relating to my job.) appears to have the most relationships with the elements of the balanced scorecard. it has relationships at the p<0.05 significance level with the customer satisfaction element of the customer perspective, the audit component of the internal perspective, and the development part of the people perspective. it also has significant relationships at the p<0.10 level with total internal perspective, the total people perspective and the overall business performance. on first inspection it appears that the elements of the leadership/employee index which have a significant relationship with components of the balanced scorecard are the elements relating to vision (lei 1), accountability (lei 4), decisionmaking (lei 9) and trust (lei 10). table 6 provides a summary of the correlation matrix that indicates the described relationships. table 6 correlation between balanced scorecard key performance areas and the leadership/employee index balanced scorecard leadership/employee relationship index item* dimension** lei 1 lei 4 lei 9 lei 10 contribution -0,300 p<0,045 liabilities 0,308 p<0,039 customer satisfaction 0,254 0,409 0,334 p<0,092 p<0,005 p<0,025 customer 0,31 p<0,038 audit 0,354 0,317 p<0,017 p<0,034 internal processes 0,272 p<0,071 development index 0,249 0,257 0,309 0,437 p<0,099 p<0,088 p<0,038 p<0,003 people 0,293 p<0,051 total business performance 0,347 0,252 p<0,020 p<0,095 * leadership/employee index item description lei 1 – my leader inspires people to achieve the business vision. lei 4 – my leader accepts accountability for both the success and failures of our team. lei 9 – my leaders involves our team in making decisions that will affect us. lei 10 – my leader trusts me in making decisions relating to my job. ** balanced scorecard dimension description contribution – relates to the measure indicating overall profit growth. measured monthly. liabilities – relates to the growth in liabilities measure. measured monthly. customer satisfaction – is a measure indicating the view the customers have of the bank. measured bi-annually. customer deals with measures relating to the customer service or experience provided to the external customers of the business. a consolidation of all the customer measures. audit – relates to the measure around high-risk audits, done annually in all branches. internal processes relates to measures that indicate core processes that will enable superior customer performance, financial prosperity and people growth and development. carstens, barnes16 measured annually. development index – is a measure relating to the improvement in competencies of the staff employed in a specific area. measured annually. people relates to measures aimed at ensuring the management and growth of intangible assets. measured annually. total business performance – is a combination of the four perspectives, indicating overall business success. the impact of the leadership/employee index items on the balanced scorecard key performance areas – a multiple regression approach what is noteworthy, as with the correlational analysis, is the fact that very few of the leadership/employee index items have a predictive relationship with the dimensions on the balanced scorecard. the regression analyses did, however, highlight some important effects. table 7 below indicates that a predictive relationship exists between the lei 3, lei 4, lei 6, lei 9, and lei 16 items in the leadership/employee index and the cost dimension of the balanced scorecard. the items are the following: � my leader regularly discusses the future of our business with us. � my leader accepts accountability for both the successes and failures of our team. � my leader addresses problem situations in our team, even if it could make him or her unpopular. � my leader involves our team in making decisions that will affect us, and i understand the competencies required for future positions. table 7 multiple regression table for the balanced scorecard cost key performance area source df sum of mean square f value pr>f squares model 5 7824,68 1564,94 4.66 0,002 error 39 13095 335,78 corrected total 44 20920 variable lei 3 0,017 lei 4 0,010 lei 6 0,013 lei 9 0,007 lei 16 0,058 table 8 below indicates a predictive relationship between lei 11 (during the performance-contracting process, i had the opportunity to influence the performance standards that are expected of me.) and the contribution dimension of the balanced scorecard. table 8 multiple regression table for the balanced scorecard contribution key performance area source df sum of mean square f value pr>f squares model 1 812,86 812,86 4.27 0,045 error 43 8187,14 190,40 corrected total 44 9000 variable lei 11 0,045 the lei 7 (my leader supports me on how to achie ve my performance goals.) and lei 15 (i understand what the business expectations are in terms of my career.) both influence the capacity dimension of the balanced scorecard, as indicated in table 9. table 9 multiple regression table for the balanced scorecard capacity key performance area source df sum of mean square f value pr>f squares model 2 398,33 199,16 4,52 0,017 error 42 1851,67 44,09 corrected total 44 2250 variable lei 7 0,005 lei 15 0,023 the following leadership-employee items have a predictive relationship with the people development dimension of the balanced scorecard: lei 4 (my leader accepts accountability for both the successes and failures of our team.), lei 8 (where i work my leader encourages an environment where people freely share their opinions.), and lei 11 (during the performancecontracting process, i had the opportunity to influence the performance standards that are expected of me.). these are indicated in table 10. table 10 multiple regression table for the balanced scorecard people development key performance area source df sum of mean square f value pr>f squares model 3 2185,32 728,44 4,38 0,009 error 41 6814,68 166,21 corrected total 44 9000 variable lei 4 0,090 lei 8 0,006 lei 11 0,002 lei 16 (i understand the competencies required for future positions.) again has a predictive relationship with one of the balanced scorecard dimensions. this time it is the staff satisfaction dimension, and is indicated in table 11. table 11 multiple regression table for the balanced scorecard staff satisfaction key performance area source df sum of mean square f value pr>f squares model 1 521,65 521,65 12,98 0,001 error 43 1728,35 40,19 corrected total 44 2250 variable lei 16 0,001 table 12 indicates a predictive relationship between lei 1 (my leader inspires people to achieve the business vision.), and lei 6 (my leader addresses problem situations in our team, even if it could make him/her unpopular.) and the employment equity dimension of the balanced scorecard. lastly, again lei 16 relating to future competencies has a predictive relationship with the people dimension of the balanced scorecard. this is indicated in table 13. leader/employee relationship 17 table 12 multiple regression table for the balanced scorecard employment equity key performance area source df sum of mean square f value pr>f squares model 2 1328,30 664,15 3,64 0,035 error 42 7671,71 182,66 corrected total 44 9000 variable lei 1 0,092 lei 6 0,017 table 13 multiple regression table for the balanced scorecard people key performance area source df sum of mean square f value pr>f squares model 1 5030,48 5030,48 8,28 0,006 error 43 26120 607,43 corrected total 44 31150 variable lei 16 0,006 discussion the primary goal of the study was to investigate the correlation that leadership-employee relationship has with business performance. based on the correlational study that was done the relationship between the leadership/employee index and the overall business performance of the catchment areas appears not to be significant enough to be make any observations from. the results however do indicate that there is a relationship between some of the elements of the leadership/employee index and key result areas of the balanced scorecard. vision the study suggests that there is a significant relationship between the vision the leader creates for the employees in terms of achieving business objectives and the financial, customer and people perspectives of the balanced scorecard. this corresponds with the thoughts of thompson and strickland (2003) who claim that managers cannot function effectively as leaders without a future-orientated view of the business, and that a wellarticulated vision creates enthusiasm for the course chosen by management and engages members of the organisation. accountability this study indicates that there is a significant relationship between leadership accountability and the people, financial, and internal-processes perspectives of the balanced scorecard. there appears also to be a relationship of significant value with the overall business performance. this finding supports the thoughts of meyer and boninelli (2004), boon (2001), kouzes and posner (2002) and schuitema (2000) who all emphasise the importance of accountability in the leadership relationship, and the role of individual accountability as a critical element of every collaborative effort. giuliani and kurson (2002) also mention the idea of accountability towards the group and the importance thereof. decision-making the study indicates a significant relationship between decisionmaking as an element of the leadership-employee relationship and the customer and people perspectives of the balanced scorecard. this concept is supported by the team decisionmaking model of team new zealand, the 1995 america’s cup winning team. the research therefore proves the impact that decision-making or empowerment has on the overall business performance. an idea also supported by chrislip (2002), to which he refers as consensus-based decision-making. trust the study indicates significant relationships between trust as an element of leadership-employee relationship and the customer, internal processes and people perspectives of the balanced scorecard. it also has a significant relationship with the overall business performance. this appears to support the idea that trust plays a major part in the leadership-employee relationship and it may influence business performance. whitney (1994) claims that trust can be directly linked to profit and loss, and maxwell (2003) claims that integrity is crucial for business and personal success. the predictive nature of the leadership/employee index it appears that the leadership-employee relationship is an important but not complete predictor of business performance. the regression analysis done indicates that very few of the items on the leadership/employee index appear to have any significant relationship with dimensions on the balanced scorecard that are predictive in nature. only lei items 4, 6, 11 and 16 appear to have multiple influences on the balanced scorecard. they are the items that deal with accountabilit y, action orientation, empowerment or contribution, and future orientation. this appears to support the thoughts of folkman and zenger (2002) who claim that successful leaders are those that have the ability to combine their interpersonal skills as strengths with their action orientation or focus on results. leadership/employee relationship model earlier in the study the author put forward the idea in the leadership/employee relationship model that the quality of the relationship is largely influenced by four groupings. these are trust, vision, serving and development/empowerment, which, in turn influence business performance. the premise is that the better the quality of the relationship, or the more elements pertaining to the four groupings that are present, the bigger the influence on business performance. having evaluated the results and seen the relationship that appears to be present bet ween some of the leadership/ employee index elements and perspectives of the balanced scorecard the model could be adjusted to include the following grouping as significant in the leadershipemployee relationship: vision, trust, accountabilit y and decision-making. figure 3 below indicates the new model of leadership/employee relationship. limitations although the business has not implemented the leadership/ employee index measurement or the balanced scorecard throughout all its units, it could provide certain restrictions on the breadth of the study. the research was also limited to one industry and a specific discipline within that industry. this could possibly restrict the findings in terms of the elements of the relationship that appear to have an influence on business performance. it is suggested that this study is conducted in various industries to see if the model will apply universally. a further limitation could be the fact that only the area managers of the bank were used in the study, it might be of interest to use the indexes of the branch managers as well. recommendation it is recommended that further studies be done to see whether similar relationships are prevalent, not just in a repeat carstens, barnes18 analysis, but also in different industries. it is further recommended that the elements of the relationship, viz trust, vision, decision-making and accountability, become areas that leaders are measured to and developed in, as that would be an obvious place to start if a business would want to influence business performance through the quality of the leadershipemployee relationship. figure 3: new leadership/employee relationship model conclusion the study set out to investigate the possible effect that the quality of the relationship between a business leader and his or her employees or followers would have on overall business performance, and although the investigation did not conclusively find a significant relationship between the quality of the relationship and business performance, or overwhelming evidence of many predictive relationships, it did highlight some interesting facts. the elements that a person would think would influence good leadership and, in turn, performance were indeed found to be critical. the study emphasises the influence of accountability, decision-making, vision and trust on business performance and an individual would then reasonably deduce that those elements are critical for any leader if he or she would want to successfully impact on business performance. the study also made it possible to conclude that certain items of the leadership/employee index could very well act as leading indicators for business performance as measured by the balanced scorecard. references boon, m. (2001). the african way – the power of interactive leadership. cape town. zebra press. braxton, r. (2004). the culture print model. presentation. braxton, r. (2004). the leadership – employee index (lei). presentation. bridle, p. (2001). leadership – the never-ending story. 1st. gloucestershire. management books 2000 ltd. chrislip, d.d. (2002). the collaborative leadership fieldbook. san francisco. jossey bass. folkman, j., & zenger, j.h. (2002). the extraordinary leader. turning good managers into great leaders. new york. mcgrawhill. freiburg, k., & freiburg, j. (1996). nuts! – southwest airlines crazy recipe for business and personal success. 1st. austin. bard press inc. gittell, j. (2003). the southwest airlines way. using the power of relationships to achieve high performance. summaries.com giuliani, r.w., & kurson, k. (2002). leadership. london. little brown. kaplan, r.s. (2002). after september 11th: the heightened role for cost and performance management. balanced scorecard report volume 4. harvard business school publishing. kaplan, r.s, & norton, d.p. (1992). the balanced scorecard – measures that drive performance. harvard business review. kaplan, r.s., & norton, d.p (2004). strategy maps. boston. harvard business school press. kaplan, r.s., & norton, d.p. (1992). the balanced scorecard. 1st. boston. harvard business school press. kotter, j.p. (1999). what leaders really do. boston. harvard business school press. kouzes, j.m., & posner, b.z. (2002). the leadership challenge. 3rd. san francisco. jossey – bass. lussier, r.n., & achua, c.f. (2001). leadership: theor y, application, skill building. 1st. cincinnati. south western college publishing. may, r.b., masson, m.e., & hunter, m.a., (1990). application of statistics in behavioural research. 1st. new york. harper and row publishers. maxwell, j.c. (2003). the 4 pillars of leadership. cape town. struik christian books. mazany, p. (1999). teamthink team new zealand: the black magic of management behind the 1995 america’s cup success. summaries.com. meyer, t.n.a., & boninelli, i. (2004). conversations in leadership. randburg. knowledge resources (pty) ltd. rogelberg, s.g. (2002). handbook of research methods in industrial and organisational psychology. oxford. blackwell publishers ltd. robbins,s.p. (1986). organizational behaviour. concepts, controversies, and applications. 3rd. new jersey. prentice-hall. schuitema, e. (1998). leadership – the care and growth model. 1st. paarl. ampersand press. stoner, j.a.f., & wankel, c. (1986). management. 3rd. new jersey. prentice – hall. veldsman, t.h. (2002). into the people effectiveness arena. randburg. knowledge resources (pty) ltd. walliman, n., & baiche, b. (2001). your research project – a step by step guide for the first time researcher. 1st. london. sage publications. welch, j., & byrne, j.a. (2001). jack. london. headline book publishing. whitney, j.o. (1994). the trust factor. liberating profits and restoring corporate vitality. new york. mcgraw-hill, inc. leader/employee relationship 19 abstract introduction research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) michael a.w. seymour department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa dirk j. geldenhuys department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa citation seymour, m.a.w., & geldenhuys, d.j. (2018). the impact of team dialogue sessions on employee engagement in an information and communication technology company. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a987. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.987 note: this article is largely based on the author’s dissertation of the degree of master of commerce in industrial and organisational psychology at the university of south africa, south africa, with supervisor prof dirk geldenhuys, received february 2015, available here: http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/19179/dissertation_seymore_maw.pdf?isallowed=y&sequence=1 original research the impact of team dialogue sessions on employee engagement in an information and communication technology company michael a.w. seymour, dirk j. geldenhuys received: 08 aug. 2017; accepted: 13 feb. 2018; published: 14 june 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: engaged employees are regarded as extremely valuable in today’s unstable economic environment. however, despite spending large amounts of money on the improvement of employee engagement, the effect thereof is seldom determined. this study was about determining the impact of team dialogue sessions on the enhancement of employee engagement in a large information and communication technology company over a 2-year period. research purpose: this study focused on determining the improvement of employee engagement through an organisation development intervention. the intervention was based on a social constructionist perspective, namely, team dialoguing, and was facilitated over a period of two years. motivation for the study: although the matter regarding the improvement of employee engagement seems to be extensively discussed in the literature, research on the use of interventions to enhance employee engagement is to a large extent still lacking. based on a theoretical integration, it was argued that team dialoguing could improve employee engagement. research design, approach and method: this was a quantitative study, employing a quasi-experimental design. an experimental group was exposed to an organisation development intervention of team dialogues over a 2-year period and then compared to a control group that had not been exposed to the intervention. main findings: although with a small effect size, it was discovered that facilitating team dialogue sessions had a positive impact on employee engagement, more specifically on the exercise of discretionary effort, intention to remain, rational commitment, communication and supervisory support as dimensions. practical and managerial implications: the practical implication of this study is that the engagement of employees can be enhanced by involving the direct supervisor and his or her team in dialoguing sessions. contribution or value-add: the study contributed to the literature on employee engagement by reporting on the implementation of an intervention over a period of two years to enhance employee engagement. introduction this study concerns the impact of team dialogue on employee engagement. the importance of employee engagement is not disputed in the literature, especially in publications in journals referring to its benefits and overall contribution to organisational effectiveness (markos & sridevi, 2010). for instance, according to dick (2007), engaged employees are more motivated, responsive to change and more willing to perform different demanding work activities. furthermore, robinson, perryman and hayday (2004) state that engaged employees are more productive, make more money for the company and create emotional engagement by loyal customers. they contribute to good organisational climate where people are productive, ethical and accountable. they remain with the organisation for a longer period and are more committed to quality and growth than non-engaged and actively disengaged employees. recently, gupta and sharma (2016) emphasised the crucial role of employee engagement in the volatile economic world. for instance, they referred to research findings indicating that employee engagement was found to be a significant predictor of productivity, retention, customer satisfaction and, also shareholder return. the manager plays a crucial role in representing the organisation for the employee [bakker, 2017; corporate leadership council (clc), 2004]. dick (2007), for example, referred to the research findings indicating that where employees trusted their managers, liked their leadership styles and perceived them as competent, they aligned with the company’s values and were honoured to be a member of the company. although the matter regarding the improvement of employee engagement seems to be extensively discussed in the literature, research on the use of interventions to enhance employee engagement is largely still lacking (van der colff & rothmann, 2009). this is especially true for applying interventions that are based on social constructionism, such as team dialogue sessions (geldenhuys, 2015). the rationale in this article is that organisation development (od) interventions that are based on social constructionism, more specifically team dialogue sessions, can be used to enhance employee engagement. camargo-borges and rasera (2013) indicated that social constructionism, with its focus on concepts such as dialogue, imagination, co-creation and meaning-making, introduced new ways of working with teams in organisations by studying and analysing the interconnectedness of, and mutual influence between, team members. these authors are therefor of the opinion that social constructionism offers new opportunities for organisational interventions that may be used by managers, consultants and group leaders alike. research objective the purpose of this study was to determine the impact of dialogue sessions on employee engagement in work teams over a 2-year period. the theoretical framework that follows served as the basis for the study, the research design, the reporting of the results and the discussion thereof. employee engagement the study of employee engagement has led to the development of four main research directions (simpson, 2009). firstly, employee engagement is regarded as personal engagement, a concept introduced by kahn (1990). kahn reasoned that engagement is a multidimensional construct where employees can be emotionally engaged (psychological safety), physically engaged (psychologically availability) and cognitively connected with their work roles (psychological meaningfulness), with cognitive and emotional engagement as the two major dimensions. kahn (1990, p. 694) subsequently defines employee engagement as ‘the harnessing of organisation members’ selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively and emotionally during role performances’. it is therefore the result of being psychologically present when occupying and performing an organisational role. workers are likely to be more engaged in situations that allow them to experience more psychological meaningfulness and psychological safety, as well as when the workers are more psychologically available (kahn, 1990). in a field study conducted by may, gilson and harter (2004), who furthered the work of kahn, support was found for the relationship between engagement and all three psychological conditions. secondly, employee engagement is regarded as the positive antithesis of burnout. this line of reasoning was developed by maslach, schaufeli and leiter (2001) and leiter and maslach (2004). maslach et al. (2001, p. 417) defined employee engagement as ‘a persistent, positive affective-motivational state of fulfilment’. according to maslach et al., employee engagement is characterised by the direct opposites of the three burnout dimensions (exhaustion, cynicism and inefficacy), namely energy, involvement and efficacy. thirdly, the study of employee engagement is based on the conceptualisation of schaufeli and bakker (2004), who preferred to use the term ‘work engagement’. engagement is regarded as a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption (schaufeli, salanova, gonzález-romá, & bakker, 2002). vigour refers to high levels of energy, mental resilience and a willingness to put effort into one’s work. dedication is associated with enthusiasm, inspiration, pride, challenge and a sense of significance; and absorption refers to a state where time passes quickly and where the employees find it difficult to detach themselves from work (schaufeli et al., 2002). schaufeli et al. (2002) reasoned that vigour is the opposite of emotional exhaustion, dedication is the opposite of cynicism and absorption is a third component of work engagement. furthermore, schaufeli and bakker (2004) reasoned that both engagement and burnout can be integrated into a comprehensive and overarching framework, which they coined as the job demands resources model (jdr model). according to the jdr model, work engagement is a function of the demands of the job and resources provided by the organisation. engagement is at its highest when employees experience interesting job demands but simultaneously have access to sufficient job resources (bakker, 2017). finally, the concept as developed by harter, hayes and schmidt (2002) entails job satisfaction, involvement and enthusiasm, a set of motivating resources, such as recognition and support from managers and colleagues, performance feedback, and opportunities for learning and development. this concept was measured using the gallup work audit. according to erikson (2004), employee engagement is not only about job satisfaction but also involves aspects such as commitment, loyalty and pride in the organisation, a willingness to advocate for the organisation and a sense of personal responsibility. employee engagement therefore entails discretionary effort where employees decide whether to do their very best and put in extra effort, or just do the bare minimum of what is expected of them. therefore, it seems that there is no consensus on conceptualising employee engagement and hence the dimensions thereof (bakker, 2011; gupta & sharma, 2016). for the purpose of this study, employee engagement refers to the degree to which employees demonstrate discretionary effort (willingness to go ‘above and beyond’ the call of duty), as well as their intention to remain employed in that organisation (clc, 2004). employee engagement includes the extent to which an employee displays rational commitment, that is, the degree to which employees are of the opinion that managers, teams and their organisation have their interests at heart. it also includes emotional commitment, that is, the degree to which employees believe in, value and enjoy their jobs. highly engaged employees are more likely to remain with their current organisation, to be productive and to engage more positively with customers than employees with lower engagement levels. from the above discussion on the perspectives on employee engagement, the following dimensions of employee engagement have been identified for the purpose of this study. discretionary effort: referring to doing one’s very best and putting in extra effort that promotes the effectiveness of the organisation without explicitly being rewarded for their efforts by the formal system (erikson, 2004; kahn, 1990; organ, 1997). turnover intention: tett and meyer (1993, p. 262) defined turnover intention as the ‘conscious and deliberate willingness to leave the organisation’. it has also been described as ‘the last in a sequence of withdrawal cognitions, a set to which thinking of quitting and intent to search for alternative employment also belong’ (tett & meyer, 1993, p. 262). withdrawal behaviour is the primary way in which employees deal with issues in the employment relationship (lo & aryee, 2003). emotional commitment: kahn (1990) suggests that engagement relates to the emotional engagement (psychological safety) of employees. rothbard (2001) considers engagement to have a dimension of psychological presence ‘absorption’, while schaufeli (2013) and bakker (2004) consider employee engagement to be a positive and rewarding state of mind. psychological safety is defined as ‘feeling able to show and employ one’s self without fear of negative consequences to self-image, status, or career’ (kahn, 1990, p. 703). in addition, employee engagement involves the active use of ‘emotions and behaviours’ (may et al., 2004, p. 12). rational commitment: saks (2006) states that engagement has cognitive behavioural components associated with individual role performance, while kahn (1990, p. 694) maintains that ‘people employ and express themselves cognitively in role performances’. may et al. (2004, p. 12) agree with kahn (1990) and introduce ‘psychological meaningfulness’, ‘the value of a work goal or purpose’ and ‘a primary motive to seek meaning in their work’. rothbard (2001, p. 656), on the other hand, refers to ‘cognitive availability and the amount of time one spends thinking about a role’. communication: two-way, open communication forms a fundamental part of employee engagement (erikson, 2004). perceived supervisory support: the crucial role played by supervisors in employee engagement is emphasised by dick (2007), referring to research findings indicating that where employees trusted their supervisors, liked their management styles and were of the view that they were competent, they shared the company’s values and were proud to be employed by the company. perceived team support: may et al. (2004) also found that co-worker relations were positive predictors of employee engagement. for the purpose of this study and based on the work conducted by the clc (2004), discretionary effort and turnover intention are regarded as the main constructs of employee engagement. team dialogue the word ‘dialogue’ has two greek roots: dia (meaning ‘through’ or ‘with each other’) and logos (meaning ‘the word’) (isaacs, 1994). dialogue is ‘the art of thinking together’ and is ‘a sustained collective inquiry’ into everyday experience, and what we take for granted (isaacs, 1994, p. 353). according to ellinor and gerard (1998), dialogue entails: [s]eeing the whole rather than breaking it into parts; seeing connections rather than distinctions; inquiring into assumptions rather than justifying or defending them; learning through inquiry and disclosure rather than persuading, selling or telling; and creating shared meanings rather than gaining agreement on one meaning. (p. 21) dialoguing is based on social constructionism as ontological and epistemological underpinning and explores the manner in which knowledge is embedded in cultural values and practices. meanings are socially constructed through the coordination of people in their various encounters (camargo-borges & rasera, 2013). there is a difference between dialoguing and debating, discussing or persuasion. in a debate, there is normally a clash of opinions and positions where the most rational argument is regarded as superior. persuasion, however, takes a milder approach, with the aim of finding convincing ways to influence people to make a choice. dialogue, in contrast, constructs a space for conversation that welcomes participants to invite a multiplicity of voices. it is a process that is intimately connected with the co-creation of new realities (gergen, mcnamee, & barrett, 2002). it is not focused on finding the ‘right way’ or ‘the only way’ of doing things, but on finding ways to generate and create opportunities for people to feel connected and willing to participate. furthermore, dialogue is also different from consensus building (isaacs, 1994). while consensus building often seeks to limit options and find strategies that are acceptable to most people, dialogue seeks to surface fundamental assumptions and an understanding of why they arise. dialogues allow, through sharing, to externalise what is on a person’s mind and eventually change the underlying patterns of meaning (herrera, 2015). the goal of dialogue is not to eliminate differences but to create a space where the differences can co-exist and be studied, not be ignored or put aside to arrive at something all parties can agree on. dialoguing requires the identification of socially constructed realities or assumptions by means of listening, inquiring and reflecting (duffy & wong, 2016; gerard & teurfs, 1995); bringing similarities and differences into the open for discussion, common understanding and modification (lau & shani, 1992, p. 99); and by respecting other perspectives by suspending judgement (gerard & teurfs, 1995). applied to organisations, duffy and wong (2016) stated that dialogue is fundamental to organisational learning, for without dialogue individuals and groups cannot exchange ideas effectively, nor can they develop shared understanding. for the greeks, dialogos meant a free flowing of meaning through a group, allowing the group to discover insights not attainable individually (senge, 1990). theoretical integration based on the literature, it seems that the dimensions of employee engagement that are related to teamwork can be mostly influenced by team dialogue sessions. for instance, erikson (2004) indicates eight factors that consistently surface as drivers of employee engagement; of these, teamwork, involvement and belonging, open two-way communication, trust and confidence in leadership are directly linked to the team. also, according to maslach et al. (2001), a breakdown of community among team members will weaken their commitment to each other. without a sense of community, a work team lacks the synergies required for an integrated work group. moreover, a poor sense of community directly affects productivity and creates a vulnerability to conflict between the group members. unresolved conflict drains the team members emotionally and thereby influences their emotional commitment (maslach et al., 2001). furthermore, of the six drivers of employee engagement identified by saks (2006), perceived supervisor and organisational support are particularly important in the team context. when employees feel that they are allowed to reveal their true selves without fearing negative consequences, they gain a sense of psychological safety; this stems from the amount of support that they perceive to be provided by their manager, their work colleagues and the organisation (kahn, 1990; may et al., 2004; schaufeli & bakker, 2004). this view is supported by robinson et al. (2004), who reasoned that employees are more engaged in circumstances where there is a good relationship with clear communication from their manager, when they have a clear path set for focusing on what they do best and have strong relationships with and feel a strong commitment to their co-workers, thus enabling them to take risks and stretch for excellence. may et al. (2004) describe employee engagement in terms of psychological meaningfulness, psychological safety and psychological availability. the workplace dimension related to psychological safety includes supervisory relations, co-worker relations, work role insecurities and behavioural norms, which are directly applicable to the team context. in teams, effective dialogue directly influences the functioning of a team, the communication within a team, the relationships between the team members in a team and the relationship team members have with their supervisor. as stated by lau and shani (1992): one of the basic and most persistent problems of organisational life is that different people see situations, issues, or goals differently, depending on their particular perspectives, experiences, backgrounds, and biases – yet everyone typically assumes that everyone else sees things as they do. (p. 99) according to schein (1993, p. 44), ‘dialogue aims to build a group that can think generatively, creatively, and most importantly, together’, and reasoned that dialogue is revealed when the way in which someone interprets a concept is recognised as being different from one’s own; that is, there is a willingness to accept differences in the way that people reason and act under conditions of high uncertainty and high task interdependence can lead to greater levels of understanding of alternative ways of thinking and dedication to a particular worldview. robinson et al. (2004) agree that employees are more engaged in circumstances where there is clear communication from their manager. the following noted by lau and shani (1992): communication dialoguing is one way to overcome contradictory expectations by bringing similarities and differences in perspective out into the open. they can then be discussed, modified by other data or new interpretations, and shared … such exchange is the foundation for understanding, trust, and thus effective working relations, and successful managers and employees use it frequently. (p. 98) research design research approach this was a quantitative study, using a non-equivalent quasi-experimental design (cooper & schindler, 2011). as volunteers were recruited for the experimental group and non-volunteers were used for the control group, the self-selected experimental group design was used as variation of the design (cooper & schindler, 2011). the membership of the experimental group was exposed to the team dialogue intervention over a period of 2 years and compared to a control group that had not been exposed to the dialogue intervention. the team dialogue intervention was conducted with work teams, including their direct supervisors. all the sessions were facilitated by a human resource (hr) specialist facilitator who was responsible for creating a relational space where dialogue was encouraged. such dialogue had to be characterised by openness and curiosity, in which conversations could be brought together or coordinated, based on multiple realities, representing various stakeholders with different stories and experiences, bases of power and belief systems. in exploring ways of creating a context that invites dialoguing, the emphasis was on the relational processes between the team members and not on the team members as entities themselves (geldenhuys, 2015). the facilitator also had to ensure that the dialogue sessions adhered to the nature of dialoguing such as thinking together, suspending judgement, identifying assumptions, listening, inquiring and reflecting and, finally, collaborative learning. the content of the dialogue sessions not only had to focus on the vision and mission of the company, as well as the core values, but also had to include dialogue on team functioning, communication, team relationships, perceived team support and relationships between team members and their supervisors. the team dialogue sessions were conducted on a monthly basis and lasted for approximately two hours. during the session, the facilitator took notes, which the team could refer to in the following session. research method research participants the population for this study comprised all the 23 000 individual full-time employees of an information and communication technology (ict) organisation. the sample for this study numbered 660 employees who participated in the employee engagement surveys conducted before and after participating in team dialogue sessions over this period, which was the experimental group. the control group consisted of 660 randomly selected individual full-time employees who participated in both the employee engagement surveys conducted, but did not participate in the organisation intervention of team dialogue sessions. the demographic characteristics of the experimental group and the control group are compared in figure 1. as displayed in figure 1, the demographic distribution characteristics of the experimental group and the control group are largely similar. this implies that the differences between the experimental group and the control group can be measured accurately to determine the influence of team dialogue sessions on employee engagement. this also means that the research can reliably use non-parametric tests for comparing the control group and the experimental group. figure 1: biographical comparison of experimental and control groups. measuring instrument the employee engagement scale, developed by the clc, was used as measuring instrument for this study. to validate this survey, several studies of employee engagement were conducted, using this survey questionnaire with more than 50 000 employees across the world. overall, cronbach’s alpha of over 0.70 (clc, 2004) was reported. the reason for selecting this scale was not only its reliability and validity but also its capability to measure the dimensions as conceptualised for the purpose of this study that might be influenced by team dialogues, namely, emotional commitment and rational commitment, communication, perceived team support and perceived supervisory support, as well as turnover intention and discretionary effort. respondents had to rate items on a five-point likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). the scale for some of the items ranged from 1 (very poor) to 5 (excellent). provision was also made for ‘unable to rate’ (0). examples of the questions asked are presented below: discretionary effort: i am willing to work many additional hours over the next year if it helps achieve its goals. turnover intention: i actively search for job opportunities at other companies. rational commitment: all in all, it i would say ‘it is worth it’ for my family, my career and for me personally to work here. emotional commitment: working with itc has a great deal of personal meaning to me. communication: overall how would you rate itc’s employee communications? perceived supervisory support: providing the right amount of supervision and guidance. perceived team support: being in a section/team you have a strong personal attachment to. research procedure the institution through which the research was conducted provided ethical clearance for the study. permission was also obtained from the company and voluntary participation of all participants and confidentiality of all information were assured. a personal invitation was sent out by an e-mail to the entire population, with the universal resource locator (url) address of the online survey attached. when administering the four employee engagement surveys, a census-based approach was used with the intention of surveying all employees in the heterogenic population (everybody in the target population had an equal opportunity to participate in the survey). these surveys were conducted over a period of 1 month, 2 years apart, before and after the intervention. it should be noted that participation in the intervention was also on a volunteering basis according to the best ethical practice in organisation development (od) as stipulated in the ‘ethical guidelines for an od/human systems development (hsd) professional’ as developed by the human systems development consortium (cummings & worley, 2015, pp. 70–73). statistical analysis data captured from the online web-based surveys were analysed, using version 23 of the ibm statistical package for the social sciences (spss). it was decided to make use of non-parametric tests for the analysis of the data as non-parametric tests are less demanding to use, do not specify stringent assumptions such as normally distributed populations or equality of variance (easton & mccoll, 2004) but still achieve an efficiency as high as 95% (cooper & schindler, 2011). furthermore, the kolmogorov–smirnov test was applied to measure the differences in the means between the experimental group and the control group (easton & mccoll, 2004). this test is often used in organisational studies and is recommended for independent related samples with ordinal data (brewerton & millward, 2001; cooper & schindler, 2011). hypotheses the following hypotheses were formulated: h0: team dialogues have no influence on employee engagement. h1: team dialogues have a significant influence on employee engagement. results instrument reliability the overall cronbach’s alpha coefficient score of 0.778 that was yielded by the measuring instrument as a whole can be regarded as acceptable (pallant, 2007). the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the individual dimensions are presented in table 1. table 1: cronbach’s alpha coefficient scores. all cronbach’s alpha scores (ranging from 0.744 to 0.832) are indicative of the acceptable reliability of the measuring instrument (pallant, 2007). descriptive statistics the means and standard deviations of the experimental group and the control group, both before and after the intervention, are presented in table 2. table 2: descriptive statistics. as shown in table 2, the experiment had a mean of 3.40 before the intervention, with a mean of 3.51 after the intervention, indicating an improvement after the intervention. furthermore, the control group is lower on employee engagement than the experimental group, both before and after the intervention. a possible explanation for this is that the experimental group volunteered for the intervention and could therefore be positively biased towards the dialogue sessions. according to sidebottom (2015), some people do not prefer a face-to-face communication. those employees who do not favour face-to-face communication probably do not volunteer to be part of the intervention. non-parametric paired sampling test to determine if the two samples may reasonably be assumed to originate from the same distribution, the kolmogorov–smirnov test was used. the results are presented in table 3. table 3: hypothesis test summary. non-parametric independent sampling test the wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to measure the differences in the means between the experimental group and the control group (easton & mccoll, 2004). the results are presented in table 4. table 4: wilcoxon ranks table. the negative rank score in table 4, for both the experimental group and the control group, indicates a significant difference between before the intervention and two years thereafter, and an improvement in the employee engagement rating. the negative rank score for the experimental group (z = -3.942, p < 0.001, η² = 0.024) indicates a higher score than that of the control group (z = -3.927, p < 0.001, η² = 0.024), and the degree of the difference between before and after the intervention for the experimental group is also larger. this indicates that the improvement in the employee engagement rating was larger for the experimental group between the two tests in comparison with the control group. however, it should be noted that the effect size is relatively small (η² = 0.024) for both the experimental and the control groups (hattie, 2009). dimension differences between the experimental group and the control group the differences in the scores for the dimensions of employee engagement are presented in table 5. table 5: experimental group comparison between the two years. the differences in the scores of the dimensions of discretionary effort, turnover intention, rational commitment, emotional commitment, communication, perceived supervisor support and perceived team support are presented in table 6. table 6: control group comparison between the two years. the extent of the differences between the experimental group and the control group regarding discretionary effort, turnover intention, rational commitment, emotional commitment, communication, perceived supervisor support and perceived team support are presented in table 7 and figure 2. figure 2: extent of differences between experimental group and control group over two years. table 7: extent of differences between the experimental group and the control group over two years. between the two years, the experimental group indicated a greater improvement regarding discretionary effort, turnover intention, rational commitment, communication and perceived supervisor support. the control group, on the other hand, indicated a greater improvement between the two years regarding emotional commitment and perceived team support. turnover intention deteriorated for the control group. the extent of the differences between the improvement in the experimental group and control group between the two years are presented in table 7 and figure 2. discussion this study investigated the influence that team dialogue intervention sessions over a period of 2 years, had on employee engagement. overall, it can be concluded that dialogue as a team intervention that was conducted over a period of two years positively influenced the employee engagement of the team. the results should however be viewed with caution as the practical significance of the influence was relatively small. based on the results it could be argued that the dialogue sessions offered the teams a relative sense of psychological safety and availability, two important dimensions of employee engagement (may et al., 2004). psychological safety is experienced when employees are prepared to share their true feelings without fearing negative consequences; this, for instance, relates to the amount of support that they perceive to be provided by their manager and the organisation (kahn, 1990; may et al., 2004; schaufeli & bakker, 2004). furthermore, through dialogue, the team members probably developed skills to think creatively together, to understand alternative ways of thinking and a willingness to accept differences (schein, 1993). according to bakker (2011), stimulating personal growth, learning and development is regarded as job resources that serve as a driver for employee engagement. dimensions discretionary effort regarding the different dimensions, improvement in discretionary effort was rated higher by the respondents who participated in the team dialogue sessions in comparison with non-participants. employee engagement concerns discretionary effort, where employees decide on whether to do their utmost best and put in extra effort or to do just the bare minimum of what is expected (erikson, 2004). this result is in support of gupta and sharma (2016) who reasoned that engagement is a two-way process in which management puts in extra effort to engage employees and, in return, employees give the discretionary effort that motivates them to contribute to the success of the organisation and simultaneously enhance their own sense of well-being. intention to leave regarding intention to leave the organisation, the results indicated that employees who participated in the team dialogues were more inclined to stay with the organisation than those who did not participate. as dialogues create opportunities for conversation that welcomes participants to be involved in co-creating the future (gergen et al., 2002), the dialogues could have increased the employees sense of belonging. a greater sense of belonging may lead to a decrease in withdrawal behaviour by employees. withdrawal behaviour is one of the main ways in which employees deal with issues in the employment relationship (lo & aryee, 2003). engaging in dialoguing sessions therefore probably provided the participants with resources for connecting them with each other, including the supervisor, who represents the organisation. rational commitment the improvement on rational commitment was also rated higher by members of the experimental group in comparison with the control group. rational commitment relates to the extent to which employees believe that managers, teams and organisations are acting in their financial, developmental or professional self-interest (clc, 2004). it would appear that the success of the team dialogue session is linked to the extent that team members were willing to create shared meaning, rather than gaining agreement on one meaning; they were accordingly more able to learn from each other and to ‘criss-cross’ their views with each other, thus enhancing their understanding of the types of issues that impede their ability to perform (jabri, 2004). emotional commitment the dimension of emotional commitment indicated a greater improvement in the control group than the experimental group. from the results, it can be concluded that there is a possibility that the team dialogue sessions were, from an emotional commitment perspective, viewed less positively by the experimental group than the control group. kahn (1990) suggests that engagement relates to the emotional engagement (psychological safety) of employees. this finding could be explained in the sense that members experienced less safety when others were allowed to offer viewpoints different to their own. it could also be interpreted as supporting the notion that a team’s creation of shared meaning could influence the emotional commitment of individual team members and that, where a shared understanding is created, it would in turn improve rational commitment (jabri, 2004). communication the communication dimension indicated a larger improvement in the experimental group in comparison with the control group. this result corresponds with the expectation that team dialogue will improve communication among the team members. differences and similarities in perspectives can be dealt with by allowing these differences and similarities to be shared in the open and to be modified by other data or new perspectives (lau & shani, 1992). ‘such exchange is the foundation for understanding, trust, and thus effective working relations, and successful managers and employees use it frequently’ (lau & shani, 1992, p. 99). schein (1993) considers dialogue as a basic process for building common understanding, in that it allows one to see the hidden meanings of words, first by revealing these hidden meanings in our own communication. schein (1993, p. 44) stated that ‘dialogue aims to build a group that can think generatively, creatively, and most importantly, together’. perceived supervisory support perceived supervisory supports indicated greater improvement in the experimental group, with an improvement of 2%, compared to the control group where the improvement was 0.5%. the direct supervisors of the teams were also members of the dialogue sessions. it therefore seems that the direct dialogues through which team members, together with their supervisors, could engage in open, non-judgmental dialoguing could have created the perception that their supervisors supported them. this result is in line with research conducted by benkoff (dick, 2007), indicating that where employees trusted their supervisors and liked their management style, the employees shared the company’s values and were proud to be employed by the company. similarly, may et al. (2004) concluded that relationship with supervisor was a positive predictor of employee engagement. perceived team support other than expected, the improvement in perceived team support was higher for the control group in comparison with the experimental group. however, it could be reasoned that the dialogue sessions impacted prevalent group dynamics where the team could have been a closed knit unit before the intervention, characterised by group thinking, not allowing for differences to be expressed. this is supported by may et al. (2004), indicating that co-worker norms and self-consciousness are negative predictors of employee engagement. lau and shani (1992) stated: one of the basic and most persistent problems of organisational life is that different people see situations, issues, or goals differently, depending on their particular perspectives, experiences, backgrounds, and biases – yet everyone typically assumes that everyone else sees things as they do. (p. 99) conclusion in conclusion, the evidence presented by this study suggests that team dialogues, although with a small practical significance, have a positive impact in terms of improving employee engagement levels within an organisation, more specifically, on the major dimensions of discretionary effort, turnover intention, rational commitment, communication and perceived supervisory support. it is therefore, argued that dialogue sessions as applied from a social constructionist perspective could be considered a long-term intervention to enhance employee engagement. limitations the score before the intervention was lower for the control group than for the experimental group. as the experimental group volunteered to be part of the intervention, these participants could have been positively biased towards the dialogue sessions. this could have influenced the impact of the intervention in both directions. for instance, employees who were not positive before the intervention, and therefore did not participate, could have found the intervention more valuable in comparison with those who did participate (because of high expectations). a further possible limitation of this study is that both the experimental group and the control group were drawn from the same ict sector population. therefore, any generalisation to populations outside the ict sector should be made with caution. implications and recommendations when practised successfully, dialogue may have an influence on the level of employee engagement, as it allows groups to move beyond any one individual’s understanding to gain new insights and to create ideas in ways that could not be achieved individually (hale, 1998). because of its centrality to team effectiveness and team learning, dialogue and the open healthy communication that allows it to occur can be considered a ‘core competency’ that should be aspired by the managers striving to maximise their potential (hale, 1998). a unique relationship develops among team members who regularly enter into dialogue, as they develop a deep trust that cannot help but carry over to discussions taking place in the team. they develop a richer understanding of the uniqueness of each person’s point of view and experience how larger understandings emerge by holding one’s own point of view ‘gently’. part of the vision of dialogue is the assumption of a ‘larger pool of meaning’ accessible only to a group. this idea, while may appear radical at first, has deep intuitive appeal for managers who have long cultivated the subtle aspects of collective inquiry (senge, 1990). acknowledgements competing interest the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions both authors contributed equally to the writing of this article. references bakker, a.b. (2011). an evidence-based model of work engagement. current directions in psychological science, 20, 265–269. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721411414534 bakker, a.b. (2017). strategic and proactive approaches to work engagement. organizational dynamics, 46, 67–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2017.04.002 brewerton, p., & millward, l. (2001). organizational research methods. london: sage. camargo-borges, c., & rasera, e.f. (2013). social constructionism in the context of organization development: dialogue, imagination, and co-creation as resources of change. sage open, 3(2), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244013487540 cummings, t.g., & worley, c.g. (2015). organization development and change (10th ed.). stamford, ct: cengage learning. cooper, d.r., & schindler, p.s. (2011). business research methods (11th ed.). singapore: mcgraw-hill. corporate leadership council (clc). (2004). employee engagement survey. london: research corporate executive board. dick, g. (2007). the progress of female police officers? an empirical analysis of organisational commitment and tenure explanations in two uk police forces. international journal of public sector management, 20(2), 81–100. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513550710731463 duffy, g.l., & wong, a.k. (2016). complementary strengths. the journal for quality and participation, 39(2), 20–22. easton, v.j., & mccoll, j.h. (2004). steps statistics glossary. the university of glasgow. retrieved from http://www.stats.gla.ac.uk/steps/glossary/nonparametric.html ellinor, l., & gerard, g. (1998). dialogue: rediscover the transforming power of conversation. new york: wiley. erikson, b. (2004). nature times nurture: how organizations can optimize their people’s contribution. journal of organizational excellence, 24(1), 21–30. https://doi.org/10.1002/npr.20034 geldenhuys, d.j. (2015). relational constructionism and relational practices as a paradigm for organisational psychology in the south african context. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 41(1), art. #1225, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v41i1.1225 gerard, g., & teurfs, l. (1995). dialogue and organizational transformation. in k. gozdz (ed.), community building: renewing spirit and learning in business (pp. 143–153). san francisco, ca: new leaders press. gergen, k.j., mcnamee, s., & barrett, f.j. (2002). realizing transformative dialogue. in n.c. roberts (ed.), the transformative power of dialogue (pp. 77–105). oxford, uk: elsevier science. gupta, n., & sharma, v. (2016). exploring employee engagement – a way to better business performance. global business review, 17(3), 45–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/0972150916631082 hale, j.p. (1998). the theory and practice of dialogue in organisational settings. cco research paper. retrieved from http://www.workteams.unt.edu/literature/paper-jhale.html harter, j.k., hayes, t.l., & schmidt, f.l. (2002). business-unit-level relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: a meta-analysis. journal of applied psychology, 87(2), 268–279. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.2.268 hattie, j. (2009). visible learning. london: routledge. herrera, d. (2015). the record company as a learning structure: identifying performance and learning inhibitors. journal of the music and entertainment industry educators association, 15(1), 121–146. https://doi.org/10.25101/15.6 isaacs, w.s. (1994). team learning. the fifth discipline fieldbook: strategies and tools for building a learning organization. new york: doubleday. jabri, m. (2004). team feedback based on dialogue implications for change management. journal of management development, 23(2), 141–151. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710410517238 kahn, w.a. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 33, 692–724. https://doi.org/10.2307/256287 lau, j.b., & shani, a.b. (1992). behaviour in organisations. an experiential approach (5th ed.). boston, ma: irwin. leiter, m.p., & maslach, c. (2004). areas of worklife: a structured approach to organizational predictors of job burnout. in p. perrewé & d.c. ganster (ed.), research in occupational stress and wellbeing (vol. 3, pp. 91–134). oxford, uk: elsevier. lo, s., & aryee, s. (2003). psychological contract breach in a chinese context: an integrative approach. journal management studies, 40, 1005–1020. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00368 markos, s., & sridevi, m.s. (2010). employee engagement: the key to improving performance. international journal of business and management, 5(12), 89–96. maslach, c., schaufeli, w.b., & leiter, m.p. (2001). job burnout. annual review of psychology, 52, 397–422. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397 may, d.r., gilson, r.l., & harter, l.m. (2004). the psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety and availability and the engagement of the human spirit at work. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 77, 11–37. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317904322915892 organ, d. (1997). organizational citizenship behaviour: it’s construct clean-up time. human performance, 10(2), 85–97. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup1002_2 pallant, j. (2007). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using spss for windows (3rd ed.). england: mcgraw hill open university press milton keynes, uk. robinson, d., perryman, s., & hayday, s. (2004). the drivers of employee engagement, ies report 408. retrieved from http://www.employment-studies.co.uk/summary/summary.php?id=408 rothbard, n.p., (2001). enriching or depleting? the dynamics of engagement in work and family roles. administrative science quarterly, 46, 655–684. https://doi.org/10.2307/3094827 saks, a.m. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169 schaufeli, w.b. (2013). what is engagement? in c. truss, k. alfes, r. delbridge, a. shantz, & e. soane (eds.), employee engagement in theory and practice. london: routledge, 1–2 http://www.wilmarschaufeli.nl/publications/schaufeli/414.pdf schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organizational behavior, 25(3), 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.248 schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzález-romá, v., & bakker, a.b., (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a confirmative analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3, 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 schein, e. (1993). on dialogue, culture and organizational learning. organizational dynamics, 21, 40–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(93)90052-3 senge, p.m. (1990). the fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organisation. new york: currency-doubleday. sidebottom, j. (2015). six ways to develop high-performance teams. consulting – specifying engineer. retrieved from https://0-search.proquest.com.oasis.unisa.ac.za/docview/1738105364?accountid=14648 simpson, m.r. (2009). engagement at work: a review of the literature. international journal of nursing studies, 46(7), 1012–1024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2008.05.003 tett, r.p., & meyer, j.p. (1993). job satisfaction, organisational commitment, turnover intention and turnover: path analysis based on meta-analytic findings. personnel psychology, 46(2), 259–293. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1993.tb00874.x van der colff, j.j., & rothmann, s. (2009). occupational stress, sense of coherence, coping, burnout and work engagement of registered nurses in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 35(1), 1–10. retrieved from http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=s2071-07632009000100001&lng=en&tlng=pt abstract introduction current theoretical perspectives results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) paul poisat graduate school, nelson mandela metropolitan university, south africa michelle r. mey school of industrial psychology and human resources, nelson mandela metropolitan university, south africa citation poisat, p., & mey, m.r. (2017). electronic human resource management: enhancing or entrancing? sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a858. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.858 original research electronic human resource management: enhancing or entrancing? paul poisat, michelle r. mey received: 01 sept. 2016; accepted: 25 jan. 2017; published: 25 july 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: this article provides an investigation into the current level of development of the body of knowledge related to electronic human resource management (e-hrm) by means of a qualitative content analysis. several aspects of e-hrm, namely definitions of e-hrm, the theoretical perspectives around e-hrm, the role of e-hrm, the various types of e-hrm and the requirements for successful e-hrm, are examined. research purpose: the purpose of the article was to determine the status of e-hrm and examine the studies that report on the link between e-hrm and organisational productivity. motivation for the study: e-hrm has the capacity to improve organisational efficiency and leverage the role of human resources (hr) as a strategic business partner. main findings: the notion that the implementation of e-hrm will lead to improved organisational productivity is commonly assumed; however, empirical evidence in this regard was found to be limited. practical/managerial implications: from the results of this investigation it is evident that more research is required to gain a greater understanding of the influence of e-hrm on organisational productivity, as well as to develop measures for assessing this influence. contribution: this article proposes additional areas to research and measure when investigating the effectiveness of e-hrm. it provides a different lens from which to view e-hrm assessment whilst keeping it within recognised hr measurement parameters (the hr value chain). in addition, it not only provides areas for measuring e-hrm’s influence but also provides important clues as to how the measurements may be approached. introduction in recent years, the use of technology in facilitating the human resource management (hrm) function has increased significantly. a number of business objectives have been raised in support of the introduction of electronic human resource management (e-hrm) in the 21st century. these have included cost savings and increased efficiency, the facilitation of strategic aims, and improvements in client services, all of which are clearly beneficial from an organisational perspective (marler, 2009; ruël, bondarouk & looise, 2004). however, before organisations expend resources on e-hrm systems, it is important to determine whether e-hrm is indeed supporting the attainment of business objectives. in this regard, it is important to consider the role played by e-hrm, the factors that influence the successful implementation of e-hrm systems, and the link between e-hrm and organisational productivity. this article aims to explore these considerations as well as provide an overview of the current body of knowledge related to e-hrm. in this study, 100 articles, journals and other research products were examined of which 67 were included in the final analysis. these research products were chosen based on their relevance in exploring the following areas: definitions of e-hrm, various types of e-hrm, theoretical perspectives on e-hrm, e-hrm’s effect on productivity and other key issues surrounding e-hrm. purpose of the study the objective of this qualitative content analysis is, firstly, to provide a theoretical overview of the current understanding of the nature and relevance of e-hrm, secondly, to identify the major contemporary areas of e-hrm research and, thirdly, to examine the link between e-hrm and organisational productivity. the findings of this analysis are offered in an attempt to stimulate the thinking of e-hrm researchers in terms of applying their efforts to exploring the influence of e-hrm from a more strategic perspective, in particular in researching the influence of e-hrm on organisational productivity and developing reliable measures in this regard. in the following section, a definition of e-hrm is provided. current theoretical perspectives defining electronic human resource management bondarouk and ruël (2009, p. 506) argued that e-hrm definitions have ‘flourished, with little consistency or agreement in sight’. the authors further argue the importance of understanding how researchers define e-hrm. they assert that minor differences in terminology may result in consequent studies assuming multiple directions, or in a range of user ‘subsets’ within the e-hrm target population. since early works on the intersection between web-based technologies and hrm, a number of definitions have been proposed regarding this phenomenon. e-hrm has been referred to as hr information system (hris), virtual hr(m), web-based hrm and intranet-based hrm, although the literature strikes a distinction between these various electronic and web-based phenomena. to gain a clear understanding of what comprises hris is important. hris was initially defined as comprising a ‘specialised information system within the traditional functional areas of the organisation, designed to support the planning, administration, decision-making, and control activities of human resource management’ (desanctis, 1986, p. 16). in later years, hris was described as a system used to acquire, store, manipulate, analyse, retrieve and distribute pertinent information about the human resources of an organisation (haines & petit, 1997). despite the term hris still being in use today, there is an assumed difference between the early information systems for hrm (hris) and the information technologies required for current e-hrm applications. magnitude and reach appears to be a prominent difference between an hris and e-hrm. some definitions of e-hrm in existing literature focus on a network structure as a central defining feature. for example, strohmeier (2007, p. 20) defined e-hrm as the ‘planning, implementation and application of information technology for both networking and supporting of at least two individual or collective actors in their shared performing of hr activities’. lepak and snell (1998, p. 216) used the term ‘virtual hr’ to encompass a ‘network-based structure built on partnerships and mediated by information technologies to help the organisation acquire, develop, and deploy intellectual capital’. e-hrm is thus regarded as a way of implementing hr strategies, policies and practices in organisations through a conscious and directed support of and/or with the full use of web technology-based channels (ruël et al.’s, 2004). e-hrm provides multiple functions to its users including managing employee information for various purposes and supporting many hr activities such as recruitment and selection, performance management, compensation and benefits, training and development, health and safety, employee relations, retention, and policies on work-life balance (ensher, nielson & grant-vallone, 2002; olivas-lujan, ramirez & zapata-cantu, 2007). thite and kavanagh (2009) divided hrm activities into three categories: (1) transactional activities, involving day-to-day transactions and recordkeeping, (2) traditional hrm activities, such as recruitment, selection, planning, training, compensation and performance management and (3) transformational activities which add value to the organisation, such as organisational development, talent management and learning. as technology has become increasingly incorporated into hr systems large proportions of transactional activities are now delivered electronically. in the following section the differences between computerised human resource information system/human resource information systems (chris/hris) and e-hrm are explored in an attempt to ascertain the pertinence of a technology driven and web-based interface aimed at multiple users in driving hrm effectiveness and efficiency. the difference between computerised human resource information system/human resource information systems and electronic human resource management kettley and reilly (2003) identified a chris as comprising a fully integrated, organisation-wide network of hr-related data, information, services, databases, tools and transactions. this system forms an integral part of e-hrm and relates to the application of conventional, web and voice technologies to improve hr administration, transactions and process performance. existing literature fails to provide a consistent definition of e-hrm and the term is often interchangeably used with hris, human resource management systems (hrmss), hr software, web-based hr, hr self-service, business to employee (b2e) and other terms. walker (2001) defined hris as involving a systematic procedure for collecting, storing, maintaining, retrieving, and validating data about an organisation’s human resources, personnel activities, and organisational unit characteristics. in understanding what constitutes e-hrm it is important to consider the following. an integrated hris, as well as appropriate technology, is required in order for e-hrm to be effectively implemented and thus allow for the acquisition, storage, analysis and flow of human resource information throughout the organisation (van heerden, poisat & mey, 2012). hris must, through an effective e-hrm platform, assist both human resource and line managers in decision-making that is linked to the achievement of strategic business objectives through systematically generating accurate, timely and relevant information (van heerden et al., 2012). there are several fundamental differences between hris and e-hrm. in essence, hris are directed towards the hr department itself as users of these systems are mainly hr staff (ruël et al., 2004). these systems increase hr departmental efficiency which then purportedly extends to the achievement of business objective (ruël et al., 2004). e-hrm is not the sole domain of hr staff. it extends to employees and managers within the broader organisational context through hr services which are offered via an intranet and/or the internet (ruël et al., 2004). the switch from the automation of hr services per se, towards broader technological support and the provision of information on hr data and services to multiple users is regarded as the major difference between hris and e-hrm (ruël et al., 2004). in other words, e-hrm is a way of implementing hr strategies, policies, and practices in organisations through a conscious and directed support of and/or with the full use of web-technology-based channels (ruël et al., 2004). in determining the position and relevance of e-hrm from an organisational perspective it is important to consider e-hrm in the context of business appropriate theoretical perspectives. this contextualisation is provided in the following section. theoretical perspectives related to electronic human resource management four major theoretical frameworks or perspectives on e-hrm are identifiable in the literature: contingency theory, resource-based view theory, transaction cost theory and new institutional theory. firstly, according to lawrence and lorsch’s (1967) contingency theory, organisations are largely influenced by the environment in which they operate and thus organisational success is dependent on the extent to which the organisation adapts internal structuring to account for the limitations imposed by the environment (lawrence & lorsch, 1967). there must be a fit between micro and macro environmental factors and suitable organisational structures in place to achieve desired outcomes (ruël & van der kaap, 2012). secondly, the resource-based theory states that the most valuable element of organisational competitive advantage is the human resources of the firm which, in terms of this theory, is regarded as valuable, unique, inimitable, and not easily substitutable (barney, 1991). e-hrm functions such as e-recruiting and e-learning can be viewed as tools which enable organisations to ensure this competitive advantage. thirdly, transaction cost theory identifies cost effectiveness as the best explanation for institutional arrangements. saving costs becomes the driving force behind organisations’ complex, partially outsourced, partially decentralised and partially delegated e-hrm systems (lepak & snell, 1998). fourthly, institutional theory has been used to clarify hrm practices and influence in the e-hrm field (heikkilä, 2013). institutionalism promotes a critical view on the factual consequences of organisational actions as well as offering explanations of the relation between institutional context and configurations of e-hrm (strohmeier, 2007). in further exploring the position and relevance of e-hrm in enhancing organisational efficiencies and effectiveness the following section explores the role of e-hrm as determined through the literature review. the role of electronic human resource management e-hrm is regarded as having three over-arching goals, namely (1) reducing cost, (2) improving hr services and (3) improving strategic orientation (bondarouk, ruël & van der heijden, 2009; brockbank, 1997; lepak & snell, 1998; stanton & coovert, 2004). these goals are subject to external factors, such as the impact of globalisation, and lack a clear definition in the practice of e-hrm. from the literature review, it seems apparent that e-hrm is regarded as being mostly concerned with cost reduction and efficiency increases in the provision of hr services, rather than on improving the strategic orientation of hrm (gardner, lepak & bartol, 2003; parry & tyson, 2011; ruël et al., 2004; ruta, 2005). it is argued that increasing the use of e-hrm allows hr professionals to improve their performance through participating more as internal consultants and focusing less on transactional and administrative duties, thereby providing value to the organisation and improving the standing of hrm in the organisation (hussain, wallace & cornelius, 2007; lawler & mohrman, 2003). to this end, e-hrm is regarded as a medium which provides executive reports and summaries to help hr professionals and management in making strategic decisions (broderick & boudreau, 1992). in understanding the contribution afforded to organisations in adopting a true e-hrm system, in other words one which is distinguishable from an hris and supported by the necessary technology and web-enabled platform, the following section explores the differing forms of and related hrm functions associated with e-hrm. these considerations are deemed important in determining the benefits of associating hrm functions with e-hrm from a broad-based hrm value chain perspective. types of electronic human resource management lepak and snell (1998) identified three types of e-hrm: operational e-hrm, relational e-hrm and transformational e-hrm. firstly, operational e-hrm consists of the basic administrative activities of the hr department such as payroll, personnel data management, departmental record maintenance and others which make up the bulk of the workload of the hr department. a number of authors have supported the cost-reducing benefits and increase in efficiency created by e-hrm in this regard (marler, 2009; ruël et al., 2004). this is achieved through minimising hr staff bonded to these activities, increasing processing speed and reducing the amount of administrative work, thus freeing time for other activities (ruël et al., 2004; ruta, 2005; strohmeier, 2007). secondly, relational e-hrm comprises those hr activities that support a mutual relationship between the hr department and other departments, both within the organisation and externally. these types of e-hrm activities include functions such as e-recruitment, e-learning and e-performance management. relational e-hrm may provide employees and managers with remote access to hr information, thus increasing their ability to connect with other internal and external stakeholders, as well as providing individuals with the tools to perform hr activities themselves. this again lessens the involvement of hr staff, allowing them to refocus their priorities. thirdly, transformational e-hrm focuses on the strategic activities of hrm, such organisational change processes, strategic re-orientation, strategic competence management and strategic knowledge management. by improving the strategic orientation of hrm, e-hrm has the capacity to transform the hr function (ruël et al., 2004). a strategic hr function links hrm activities to the strategic management process and strategic objectives of the business. this leads to an integrated set of policies and practices developed to execute the company’s implicit or explicit business strategy through the management of the firm’s human capital (martin-alcazar, romero-fernandez & sanchez-gardey, 2005; wright & mcmahan, 1992). a pivotal goal of e-hrm is thus to contribute to the strategic alignment of the hrm function. in this regard, e-hrm systems provide managers with accurate and reliable data about their employees which may prove crucial in business decisions (ghazzawi, al-khoury & saman, 2014). this is perhaps the least considered and explored role of e-hrm, as may be evidenced by subsequent considerations in this review. the success of e-hrm in enhancing the hrm value chain for the hrm department, line managers and other users or stakeholders of e-hrm is dependent on a number of requirements. these are outlined in the following section. key requirements for electronic human resource management success the literature investigated revealed that a number of key issues need to be addressed in order to successfully implement e-hrm. these are discussed below. human resources skills changes to service delivery, and hence the hr role, cannot be achieved without the development of new skills within an organisation’s hr team. practitioners must possess consultancy, strategic thinking, analytical, advanced communication, negotiation, process engineering, project management and business writing skills (parry & tyson, 2011). if these skills do not already exist within the hr function then organisations will be unable to meet the required improvements in service delivery needed to take on the challenges associated with e-hrm and even consider moving the mode of hrm service delivery to a more strategic role (parry & tyson, 2011; wright & snell, 1998). training in electronic human resource management use providing sufficient training for users of the e-hrm system has a great influence on the outcomes of e-hrm use. organisations that fail to do so report that systems do not provide the desired efficiency savings as users frequently have to contact hr to obtain support (parry & tyson, 2011). a recommendation provided in this regard is to allow hrm staff more time to practise on the system so that they require less support once the system is live (panayotopoulou, vakola, & galanaki, 2007; parry & tyson, 2011). in some cases, employees are not aware of the full functionality of the system and are therefore not able to take full advantage of this (parry & tyson, 2011). engagement with electronic human resource management it is important for both managers and employees to engage with a new e-hrm system for it to be accepted and used within the organisation. difficulties in encouraging managers and employees to make use of e-hrm systems have been experienced as managers have complained that using e-hrm is not a good use of their time and some still resort to using traditional offline systems (parry & tyson, 2011). this example emphasises the importance of encouraging people to change their mindset in regard to the value of adopting e-hrm to avoid delays and reaping the associated benefits (parry & tyson, 2011). the role of skills development, training and a relatable e-hrm system are highlighted as important in this regard. the adoption of e-hrm may also be influenced by cultural factors, as the national culture in which a company is situated may in turn impact the culture of the organisation (bondarouk, schilling & ruël, 2016). for example, a culture that relies on face-to-face relationships and personal connections may find e-hrm practices less personal and thus more difficult to adopt and engage with (bondarouk et al., 2016). engagement with e-hrm is also influenced by the web of delivery channels which have evolved over time. this has influenced perceptions of a more advanced e-hrm. hr-shared service centres serve as one example hereof (farndale, paauwe & hoeksema, 2009). face-to-face hrm services are seen as becoming obsolete, with organisations preferring modern, well-designed and technically well-functioning it-based e-hrm platforms. the inflexibility, rigidity, innovative incapacity, and inferior efficiency and effectiveness of traditional two-level hrm functions developed around the hr department and middle managers are becoming obsolete. design of the electronic human resource management system the design of the e-hrm system may affect the outcomes of the introduction of that system (and therefore the realisation of goals). a system that is not user-friendly or intuitive increases the amount of administration necessary for managers rather than reducing it (parry & tyson, 2011). a further important consideration in terms of design is that of imitation. e-hrm is not exempt from the impact of imitation through the diffusion of technological innovations across economies, sectors and organisations (ciborra, 2002). adopting the same or a similar e-hrm application without considering organisational uniqueness may destroy the competitive advantage which may be associated therewith. familiarity with technology organisational culture which readily accepts the use of technology will find it easier to introduce e-hrm systems and to realise the benefits of said systems. user acceptance is of great importance in determining the success or failure of e-hrm systems. the technology acceptance model (tam) is the most widely applied model of user acceptance and subsequent usage of information systems (huang & martin-taylor, 2013). this model emphasises two main constructs: perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use (huang & martin-taylor, 2013). perceived usefulness is the belief that using a system will enhance job performance and perceived ease of use is the belief that using a system will require minimum effort (huang & martin-taylor, 2013). conceptualising relationships between electronic human resource management and human capital development at a strategic level, the relationship between e-hrm and human capital development needs to be clear for all users of e-hrm platforms. global talent search and retention is believed to be facilitated by e-hrm. hr portals, explored by shilakes and tylman (1998) and bondarouk and ruël (2009), are considered a method of insuring informed business decisions, which are made based on personalised information from organisations, as well as the practice of monitoring, collecting and developing organisation-wide knowledge resources. this is particularly important in the alignment between hr portal configuration and hr strategy on the creation of intellectual capital (bondarouk & ruël, 2009). frequently and easily accessed hr portals lead to the alignment of the hr portal configuration, with the hr strategy which allows for the ability to leverage intellectual capital creation and development. hr professionals become accountable for e-hrm (hr portal) design and choices regarding its applications (bondarouk & ruël, 2009). measurement of value creation for diverse groups of users a core concern in the development and implementation of e-hrm is on how value creation is measured for diverse groups of users (bondarouk & ruël, 2009). e-hrm users have become increasingly comfortable with the use of e-sources in finding reliable and high-quality information and learning how to work with applications and software that they are not traditionally familiar with (bondarouk & ruël, 2009; martin, reddington & alexander, 2008). therefore, for current and new e-hrm applications to be constructive, their use and value must be acknowledged by their users. different user groups will have different views on the relevance of e-hrm (bondarouk & ruël, 2009). limited value exists in the simple division of users into management, employees and hr professional groupings as multiple subgroupings can be identified within these groups. all of these groups and subgroups have unique needs that must be met. following the above exposition of the nature, role and importance of e-hrm, including information on the drivers for the successful implementation of e-hrm, it becomes important to consider the influence of e-hrm on productivity (parry, 2011). electronic human resource management and productivity watson (2002) identified four factors which provide evidence of the value of e-hr: productivity improvements, cost reductions, return on investment and better employee communications. several pieces of existing literature and case studies hint at increased productivity as a result of e-hrm. this is seen as being achieved through a reduction in hr staff, cost savings and less administrative burden due to automation (hawking, stein & foster, 2004; ruël et al., 2004 as cited in strohmeier, 2007). however, it is not possible to directly translate the time saved by e-hrm into financial benefits (dias, 2001). e-hrm can help achieve relational goals, namely, the provision of high-quality services to the internal customers of the organisation, through increasing the timeliness and improving the client-service orientation of hr professionals (snell, pedigo & krawiec, 1995 as cited in lepak & snell, 1998). according to walker (2001), improving the level of service, reducing costs and allowing more time for higher value tasks are of great importance for the success of technology in the hr domain. it is expected that the hr function provides strategic direction to human capital management in an organisation and becomes a strategic partner in the achievement of organisational objectives (hawking et al., 2004; lepak, bartol & erhardt, 2005). thus investments in technology are aimed at bringing about efficiency in operational tasks (bell, lee & yeung, 2006; lawler & mohrman, 2003). it is believed that e-hrm can promote the quality of hr functions as well as help managers to supervise employees efficiently and effectively (yusoff, ramayah & haslindar, 2010). in relation to the role of e-hrm and organisational productivity, it is argued that e-hrm helps to achieve the aim of globalisation of organisations, which has led to the development of terms like global hris, global information system (gis) and international human resource management (ihrm; akmanligil & palvia, 2004; ruël et al., 2004). many unknown and complex challenges are created by globalisation. e-hrm provides considerable benefits in alleviating these challenges (akmanligil & palvia, 2004). employees are able to work remotely, thanks to technological advancement, with hr staff able to carry out tasks from any location (van heerden, 2011). this increases flexibility and produces better results amongst staff. problem statement and research objectives the purpose of this study was to investigate the current level of development of the body of knowledge related to e-hrm, specifically in relation to the influence of e-hrm on organisational productivity, more particularly in south africa. the research methodology associated with this study is provided in the following section. research design as stated, the purpose of this review was to determine the status of e-hrm and examine the studies that report on the link between e-hrm and organisational productivity. the study aimed to determine the existence of south african research in this regard. because of the extremely limited research encountered in south africa, it was decided to expand this study to a search for relevant international studies. although this study focuses mainly on research produced after 2000, some earlier seminal works, such as that of lepak and snell (1998), were used. research approach a qualitative content analysis, taking the form of a systematic review of existing literature, was conducted. a content analysis followed by a thematic analysis of key themes that emanated from the literature. to this end, 100 articles, journals and research products were sourced using ebscohost, jstor and google scholar, and examined for relevance. keywords and phrases used in the search included hrm, e-hrm and productivity, e-hrm in south africa, and chris/hris. of the articles examined, only 67 were found to be relevant and included in the final review. these studies were categorised into research areas, some of the findings of which are presented in the literature discussed above and further highlighted in the following section. results for the purposes of this study, a review of current literature on the nature and extent of e-hrm was conducted. it was initially envisaged that this study would be limited to a south african context. however, a paucity of studies in this regard led to a more general analysis of these considerations. in an attempt to stimulate both local and international research, table 1 outlines the major e-hrm research areas explored through the survey of existing literature. the table also indicates the corresponding authors considered for each area. this approach is deemed appropriate in light of the fact that e-hrm is not a country or continent ‘bound’ phenomenon, and supports the notion of globalised hrm practices. table 1: research areas to date. table 1 reflects that the majority of e-hrm research has focused on the tools and effectiveness of e-hrm. however, most of the studies in question have been of a theoretical nature and empirical evidence in this regard is limited. in particular, no studies were found that empirically linked an increase in organisational productivity to the implementation of e-hrm. authors such as watson (2002) and walker (2001) hint at this improvement in productivity but do not provide empirical proof. lee, as cited in boninelli and meyer (2011), asserts that the core mandate of hrm is to have a positive impact on organisational outcomes. to this end, he described the linkages between hr and desired outcomes in terms of the hr value chain. the value chain is broadly constituted of the following elements: what hr believes and understands (philosophy, values, culture and strategy). what hr does (programmes, operating procedures and interactions). what happens with people (ksas, attitudes, and motivation and health). hr-related resources (hriss, facilities, communication and other systems). what the people achieve in the organisation (productivity, customer and external stakeholder reactions). what the company achieves in the market or society (financial, environmental and societal). the moderating effect of environmental context (political, economic, sociocultural and technological). utilising the hr value chain typology as proposed by lee (2011) to view the content of the e-hrm research areas as indicated in table 1 reflects that much of the research focuses on ‘what hr does’; ‘what happens with (hr) people’; ‘hr related resources’ and ‘what (hr) people achieve in the company’. these focus areas suggest that e-hrm is evaluated and researched largely in terms of the benefits and value addition that it creates for the hr department and supports the contention of gardner et al. (2003), amongst others, that e-hrm is mostly concerned with cost reduction and efficiency as opposed to improving the strategic orientation of hrm. dias (2001) asserts that it is not possible to directly translate the time saved by e-hrm into financial benefits. discussion from the analysis conducted, it would thus appear that a direct line of sight has not been drawn between the implementation of e-hrm and organisational success based on empirical evidence, more particularly when it comes to determining the influence thereof on productivity. the diversity of organisations and their contexts and the multitude of e-hrm platforms and applications should be considered in this regard (shen et al. 2009). what seems apparent is that the influence of e-hrm on organisational productivity needs to be determined through qualitative and quantitative research. in this study, an attempt was made to determine the current status of e-hrm and the body of knowledge which exists in this regard. to this end, a quantitative content analysis was undertaken which formed the backdrop to this study. it further allowed for a delineation of current research areas. it was initially planned that this study be conducted within the south african context. however, because of limited research encountered, it was deemed appropriate to extend the study to include international studies. it is argued that e-hrm can increase the efficiency of hr activities, improve hr service delivery and transform the role of the hr function into one that is more strategic (hendrickson, 2003; martin et al., 2008; ruël et al., 2004). this implies that the use of e-hrm may allow the hr function to increase its value and contribute to the competitive advantage of the firm. the increasing deployment of hr technology and systems could be an additional source of organisational value as these assets have lower barriers to imitability than factors such as know-how (dierickx & cool, 1989; rumelt, 1982). the suggestion that e-hrm can improve the efficiency of hr activities through reducing costs and increasing the speed of hrm processes can be found in many pieces of existing literature. lepak and snell (1998) and hendrickson (2003) both suggested that e-hrm leads to the streamlining of hr transactional processes and thus increases efficiency. one of the main goals of e-hrm is to produce efficiency gains or cost reductions by reducing headcount in hr departments and removing administration (ensher et al. 2002; lengnick-hall & moritz, 2003; martin et al., 2008; ruël et al., 2004). e-hrm can thus be used as an alternative to having people perform administrative or transactional tasks manually and also deliver these tasks more efficiently. sophisticated e-hrm systems may be used to offer manager and employee self-service options to further reduce administrative tasks. conclusion it is clear that some aspects of e-hrm are more commonly researched than others. the findings of this analysis appeared to suggest that much of the research focused on the relevance and value of e-hrm for the hr department and personnel. more research is required to gain a greater understanding of this field and prove the assumption that the implementation of e-hrm will lead to strategic advantages, including improved productivity. this implies a focus in terms of lee’s hrm value chain on ‘what the company achieves in the market/society’. this would entail empirical studies focused on establishing reliable and valid measures to demonstrate the link between e-hrm and reduced costs, increased revenue or profit, return on investment, economic value addition, shared earnings, reduction in pollution levels, poverty alleviation, amongst others. in addition, it is further proposed that future research should focus on assessing the relevance of, and value creation associated with, e-hrm for diverse groups of users, including operational employees and line management. this would imply that an hrm value chain focuses on ‘what happens with the people’ and ‘what the people achieve in the company’. research in these areas would also necessitate independent research by organisations as to the appropriateness of the assessment criteria (metrics) which are used to determine success in these areas (lee as cited in boninelli & meyer, 2011). acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.r.m. and p.p. were jointly responsible for collecting the data. both the authors were responsible for the writing and editing of the article. references akmanligil, m., & palvia, p. (2004). strategies for global information systems development. information and management, 42(1), 45–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2004.01.001 andersen, p.a. (2008). nonverbal communication: forms and functions. long grove, il: waveland press. ball, k.s. (2001). the use of human resource information systems: a survey. personnel review, 30(5/6), 677–693. https://doi.org/10.1108/eum0000000005979 barney, j.b. (1991). firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. journal of management, 17(1), 99–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700108 bell, b.s., lee, s., & yeung, s.k. (2006). the impact of e-hr on professional competence in hrm: implications for the development of hr professionals. human resource management, 45, 295–308. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20113 benson, a.d., johnson, s.d., & kuchinke, k.p. (2002). the use of technology in the digital workplace: a framework for human resource development. advances in developing human resources, 4(4), 392–404. https://doi.org/10.1177/152342202237518 bissola, r., & imperatori, b. (2013). facing e-hrm: the consequences on employee attitude towards the organisation and the hr department in italian smes. european journal of international management, 7(4), 450–468. https://doi.org/10.1504/ejim.2013.055282 bondarouk, t., & ruël, h. (2009). electronic human resource management: challenges in the digital era. the international journal of human resource management, 20, 505–514. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190802707235 bondarouk, t., ruël, h., & van der heijden, b. (2009). e-hrm effectiveness in a public sector organization: a multi-stakeholder perspective. international journal of human resource management, 20(3), 578–590. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190802707359 bondarouk, t., schilling, d., & ruël, h. (2016). e-hrm adoption in emerging economies: the case of subsidiaries of multinational corporations in indonesia. canadian journal of administrative sciences/revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration, 33(2), 124–137. https://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1376 boninelli, i., & meyer, t. (2011). human capital trends: building a sustainable organisation. montreal, south africa: knowres publishing. bowman, c., & ambrosini, v. (2000). value creation versus value capture: towards a coherent definition of value in strategy. british journal of management, 11, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00147 brockbank, w. (1997). hr’s future on the way to a presence. human resource management, 36(1), 65–69. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099050x(199721)36:1%253c65::aidhrm11%253e3.0.co;2-d broderick, r., & boudreau, j.w. (1992). human resource management, information technology, and the competitive edge. academy of management executive, 6(2), 7–17. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.1992.4274391 burbach, r., & dundon, t. (2005). the strategic potential of human resource information systems: evidence from the republic of ireland. international employment relations review, 11(1/2), 97–117. ciborra, c. (2002). the labyrinths of information. new york: oxford university press. desanctis, g. (1986). human resource information systems: a current assessment. mis quarterly, 10, 15–27. https://doi.org/10.2307/248875 dias, c. (2001). corporate portals: a literature review of a new concept in information management. international journal of information management, 21, 269–287. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0268-4012(01)00021-4 dierickx, i., & cool, k. (1989). asset stock accumulation and sustainability of competitive advantage. management science, 35(12), 1504–1511. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.35.12.1504 ensher, e.a., nielson, t.r., & grant-vallone, e. (2002). tales from the hiring line: effects of the internet and technology on hr processes. organizational dynamics, 31(3), 224–244. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0090-2616(02)00111-0 farndale, e., paauwe, j., & hoeksema, l. (2009). in-sourcing hr: shared service centres in the netherlands. international journal of human resource management, 20(3), 544–561. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190802707300 findikli, m.a., & bayarçelik, e.b. (2015). exploring the outcomes of electronic human resource management. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 207, 424–431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.10.112 gardner, s., lepak, d., & bartol, k. (2003). virtual hr: the impact of information technology on the human resource professional. journal of vocational behavior, 63, 159–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0001-8791(03)00039-3 ghazzawi, k., al-khoury, p., & saman, j. (2014). the effect of implementing technology in hrm on the level of employee motivation. human resource management research, 4(2), 33–39. https://doi.org/10.5923/j.hrmr.20140402.04 haines, v., & petit, a. (1997). conditions for successful human resource information systems. human resource management, 36(2), 261–275. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-050x(199722)36:2<261::aid-hrm7>3.0.co;2-v hawking, p., stein, a., & foster, s. (2004). e-hr and employee self-service: a case study of a victorian public sector organization. issues in informing science and information technology, 1, 1017–1026. heikkilä, j.p. (2013). perspectives on e-hrm in the multinational setting. uva.fi, 173. retrieved june 30, 2016, from http://www.uva.fi/materiaali/pdf/isbn_978-952-476-472-8.pdf hendrickson, a. (2003). human resource information systems: backbone technology for contemporary human resources. journal of labor research, 24(3), 381–394. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12122-003-1002-5 hooi, l.w. (2006). implementing e-hrm: the readiness of small and medium sized manufacturing companies in malaysia. asia pacific business review, 12(4), 465–485. https://doi.org/10.1080/13602380600570874 hopkins, b., & markham, j. (2003). e-hr: using intranets to improve the effectiveness of your people. hampshire: gower publishing limited. huang, j., & martin-taylor, m. (2013). turnaround user acceptance in the context of hr self-service technology adoption: an action research approach. the international journal of human resource management, 24(3), 621–642. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.677460 hussain, z., wallace, j., & cornelius, n.e. (2007). the use and impact of human resource information systems on human resource management professionals. information and management, 44(1), 74–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2006.10.006 kettley, p., & reilly, p. (2003). e-hr: an introduction (report no 398). brighton: institute of employment studies. lawler, e.e. & mohrman, s. (2003). hr as a strategic partner – what does it take to make it happen? human resource planning, 26(3), 15–29. lawrence, p.r., & lorsch, j.w. (1967). differentiation and integration in complex organizations. administrative science quarterly, 12(1), 1–47. https://doi.org/10.2307/2391211 lee, g. (2011). hr metrics. 1st ed. randburg, south africa: knowres publishing. lengnick-hall, m., & moritz, s. (2003). the impact of e-hr on the human resource management function. journal of labor research, 24(3) 365–379. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12122-003-1001-6 lepak, d.p., bartol, k.m., & ernhardt, n.l. (2005). a contingency framework for delivering hr practices. human resources management review, 15, 139–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2005.06.001 lepak, d.p., & snell, s.a. (1998). virtual hr: strategic human resource management in the 21st century. human resource management review, 8, 215–234. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(98)90003-1 marchington, m., & wilkinson, a. (2005). human resource management at work: people management and development. (3rd edn.). london: chartered institute of personnel & development (cipd) publishing. marler, j. (2009). making human resources strategic by going to the net: reality or myth? international journal of human resource management, 20(3), 515–527. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190802707276 martin-alcazar, f., romero-fernandez, p.m., & sanchez-gardey, g. (2005). strategic human resource management: integrating the universalistic, contingent, configurational and contextual perspectives. the international journal of human resource management, 16(5), 633–659. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190500082519 martin, g., reddington, m., & alexander, h. (2008). technology, outsourcing and transforming hr. oxford: elsevier. olivas-lujan, m.r., ramirez, j., & zapata-cantu, l. (2007). e-hrm in mexico: adapting innovations for global competitiveness. international journal of manpower, 28(5), 418–434. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720710778402 panayotopoulou, l., vakola, m., & galanaki, e. (2007). e-hr adoption and the role of hrm: evidence from greece. personnel review, 36(2), 277–294. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480710726145 parry, e. (2011). an examination of e-hrm as a means to increase the value of the hr function. the international journal of human resource management, 22(5), 1146–1162. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.556791 parry, e., & tyson, s. (2011). desired goals and actual outcomes of e-hrm. human resource management journal, 21, 335–354. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2010.00149.x ruël, h., bondarouk, t., & looise, j. (2004). e-hrm: innovation or irritation. an explorative empirical study in five large companies on web-based hrm. management revue, 15(3), 364–381. ruël, h., & van der kaap, h. (2012). e-hrm usage and value creation. does a facilitating context matter? zeitschriftfür personal forschung, 26(3), 260–281. rumelt, r.p. (1982). diversification strategy and profitability. strategic management journal, 3, 359–369. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250030407 ruta, c. (2005). the application of change management theory to hr portal implementation in subsidiaries of multinational corporations. human resource management, 44(1), 35–53. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20039 sanayei, a., & mirzaei, a. (2008). designing a model for evaluating. the effectiveness of e-hrm (case study: iranian organizations). international journal of information science and technology 3(9), 79–98. shen, j., chanda, a., d’netto, b., & monga, m. (2009). managing diversity through human resource management: an international perspective and conceptual framework. the international journal of human resource management, 20(2), 235–251. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190802670516 shilakes, c.c., & tylman, j. (1998). enterprise information portals. new york: merrill lynch. shrivastava, s., & shaw, j.b. (2003). liberating hr through technology. human resource management, 42(3), 201–222. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.10081 snell, s.a., pedigo, p.r., & krawiec, g.m. (1995). managing the impact of information technology on human resource management. in g.r. ferris, s.d. rosen, & d.t. barnum (eds.), handbook of human resource management (pp. 159–174). oxford: blackwell publishers. stanton, j.m., & coovert, m.d. (2004). turbulent waters: the intersection of information technology and human resources. human resource management, 43(2), 121–126. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20010 strohmeier, s. (2007). research in e-hrm: review and implications. human resource management review, 17, 19–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2006.11.002 thite, m., & kavanagh, m.j. (2009). human resource information systems: basics, applications and directions (pp. 3–24). thousand oaks, ca: sage. van heerden, j. (2011). the impact of the implementation of e-hrm on the human resource management function. mba, faculty of business and economic sciences, port elizabeth: nelson mandela metropolitan university. van heerden, j.m., poisat, p., & mey, m.r. (2012). the impact of the implementation on e-hrm on the human resource function. paper presented at 6th international business conference. business schools partners network, mombassa, kenya. walker, a.j. (2001). web-based human resources: the technologies and trends that are transforming hr. new york: mcgraw-hill. watson, w. (2002). the net effect: e-hr and the internet 2000. retrieved july 13, 2016, from http://wsu.worldcat.org/title/net-effect-ehr-and-the-internet-2000-survey-report/oclc/729765551?referer=di&ht=edition wright, p.m., & mcmahan, g.c. (1992). theoretical perspectives for strategic human resource management. journal of management, 18(2), 295. wright, p.m., & snell, s.a. (1998). toward a unifying framework for exploring fit and flexibility in strategic human resource management. academy of management review, 23(4), 756–772. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639201800205 yusliza, m.y., & ramayah, t. (2011). explaining the intention to use electronic hrm among hr professionals: results from a pilot study. australian journal of basic and applied sciences, 5(8), 489–497. yusoff, y.m., ramayah, t., & haslindar, i. (2010). e-hrm: a proposed model based on technology acceptance model. african journal of business management, 4(13), 3039–3045. zafar, j. (2010). the role of information technology in the personnel department: hrm in the knowledge economy. canadian social science, 6(5), 54–59. 3jvrensburg.qxd organisation socialisation – the process of introducing new members into the organisation and thereby entrenching the organisational culture and values – is an often underestimated tool for improving organisational effectiveness and efficiency, especially in a diverse work-force context such as south africa. organisation socialisation can be divided into three stages, namely: � the pre-contract (also called the pre-arrival) stage, � the induction (or the encounter) stage; and � the role management (or the adjustment) stage (cf. ivancevich & matteson, 1996). mentoring is an integral part of this socialisation process, (in the second and third stages where the first encounter and the adjustment takes place) (storm & roodt, 2002) and is crucial for socialising new members (kram, 1985) into the organisation. mentoring is amongst others a training and development tool to assist individuals in the upward progression in companies (levinson, darrow, klein, levinson & mckee, 1978; roche, 1979). mentoring is also a mechanism by which employees are equipped to adapt to organisational change (eby, 1997). interestingly, research has shown that maximum benefit may be achieved in the mentoring process, where the protégé is driving the process (clutterbuck & abbott, 2003). the development of a measure for assessing the mentoring role may therefore be an important aid in identif ying and developing suitable candidates for the mentoring role. the purpose of the study is therefore to develop such a measuring instrument. the origins of mentoring the description of mentoring can be traced back to ancient greek mythology (cf. april, 1979; chao, 1997; chao, walz & gardner, 1992; clawson, 1980, 1985; rogers, 1992). most of the empirical research has been conducted in the last two decades, but this research is fragmented (chao, 1997; chao et al., 1992). some of this research includes phases of mentoring (kram, 1983, 1988), functions served by the mentor (noe, 1988a; orth, wilkinson & benfari, 1987; schockett & haring-hidore, 1985; tack & tack, 1986), and the outcomes of mentoring (chao et al., 1992; dreher & ash, 1990; fagenson, 1988, 1989; hunt & michael, 1983; jacobi, 1991; orpen, 1995; riley & wrench, 1985; scandura, 1992; whitely, dougherty & dreher, 1991). research also focuses more on the protégé. some studies have been conducted on the mentor per se (allen, poteet & burroughs, 1997). fagenson (1994) suggested that a multiperspective approach be followed to include both the mentor and the protégé. mentoring is a process of transferring specific knowledge from the mentor to the protégé (hendrikse, 2003). this knowledge has two components, namely tacit and implicit knowledge. tacit knowledge is knowledge that you can see or show. implicit knowledge comes from years of practical experience and the mentor can only demonstrate this knowledge. part of the knowledge transfer includes knowledge of the organisation (organisation cult ure)(hendrikse, 2003). singh, bains and vinnicombe (2002) supported this and according to them, this is crucial for organisational effectiveness and success. kram (1988) identified four phases of mentoring: � initiation. a younger person (protégé) is flattered that someone with a high level of management chooses him/her and the manager is pleased that someone younger seeks his/her advice. this normally has a timeframe of six months to a year. � cultivation. the mentor/protégé relationship develops symbiotically over this period. the timeframe is normally two to five years. � separation. the protégé outgrows the need for a mentor. the timeframe is over a period of six months to two years. � redefinition. the relationship develops to such an ideal level that these two parties are on a peer level. hunt and michael (1983) referred to the four stages of mentoring as initiation, protégé learning, break-up and lasting friends. chao (1997) supported kram’s sequence of the four mentoring stages and indicates that the protégés in the initiation phase report the lowest levels of support compared to the protégés in other phases. the timeframe of mentorship is important and cohen (1999a; 1999b) also divided it into four phases, namely the early, middle, latter and final phases, which support kram’s (1988) phases. karen janse van rensburg gert roodt gertr@uj.ac.za department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract the objective of this study is to develop a normative instrument for assessing the mentoring role in the south african context. the sampling frame for the study constituted the 1200 employees of a division of a large transport organisation. a convenience sample including all 1200 employees yielded 637 fully completed records (a 53% response rate). first and second level factor analyses, followed by an iterative item analysis on the scale of 26 items, yielded a seemingly robust scale with a cronbach alpha of 0,97. the psychometric properties of the scale are further discussed. opsomming die doel van hierdie studie is om ’n normatiewe instrument te ontwikkel vir die beoordeling van die mentorskaprol in die suid-afrikaanse konteks. die steekproefraamwerk vir die studie bestaan uit die 1200 werknemers van ’n divisie uit ’n groot vervoeronderneming. ’n gerieflikheidsteekproef wat al 1200 werknemers ingesluit het, het 637 volledigvoltooide rekords opgelewer (’n responskoers van 53%). eersteen tweedevlakfaktorontledings gevolg deur ’n iteratiewe itemontleding op die 26 items van die skaal het ’n oënskynlike robuuste skaal met ’n cronbach alfa van 0,97 opgelewer. die psigometriese eienskappe van die skaal word verder bespreek. a normative instrument for assessing the mentoring role requests for copies should be addressed to: gert roodt, gertr@uj.ac.za 10 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (3), 10-19 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (3), 10-19 besides the different stages of mentorship, one can also identif y different types of mentoring. the next section deals with types of mentoring. types of mentoring five types of mentoring can be identified from the literature, namely hierarchical, peer, diversity, supervisory and executive mentoring that can be applied in different contexts. hierarchical mentoring hierarchical mentoring can be divided in mentors on a higher or lower grade: mentoring from a higher grade hierarchical mentoring is when a senior person (mentor) with regard to age and experience agrees to share his/her information, advice and emotional support with a junior person (protégé) (cf. april, 1979; burke, 1983; levinson et al., 1978; olian, carroll, giannantonio & feren, 1988; phillips-jones, 1982; walbrugh & roodt, 2003). hunt and michael (1983); kram (1988); levinson et al. (1978); noe (1988a) and owen (1991) were in favour of the aforementioned and refer to mentoring as a junior-senior relationship where the common purpose for both parties is the personal growth of the junior person. mentoring from a lower grade according to clutterbuck and abbott (2003), the focus has recently been on relevant experience rather than on hierarchy level and therefore upward mentoring can occur where a junior employee mentors the senior manager, for example, on diversity issues. peer mentoring eby (1997) and kram and isabella (1985) were of the opinion that the traditional mentor-protégé relationship had to adjust to accommodate the flatter structures and this has led to lateral (peer) mentors. clutterbuck and abbott (2003) were in favour of peer mentoring. kram and isabella (1985) differentiated between information, collegial and special peer mentoring: � information peer mentoring is when an exchange of information occurs in the workplace, with less commitment involved. � collegial peer mentoring occurs when information exchange is linked to increasing levels of emotional support. � special peer mentoring entails an intimate relationship with a peer, which is scarce and takes years to develop. when assisting in job-related skills development, intra team, inter team, co-worker, survivor mentoring, peer mentoring for domestic relocaters and international forms of mentoring can be used. when assisting in career skills development, internal and external collegial peer mentoring can be useful (eby, 1997). diversity mentoring there are two types of diversity mentoring, namely crosscultural and cross-gender mentoring: cross-cultural mentoring ndlovu, the executive manager of the black management forum, suggests inter-cult ural mentorship programmes, whereby whites and blacks can learn from each other. he also agrees that women could have more problems if black men were ruling (alperson, 1993). according to atkinson, neville and casas (1991) and thomas (1990), blacks are more likely to be in cross-race relationships than whites. white protégés on the other hand rarely form crossrace mentoring relationships (thomas, 1990). gunn (1995) suggested that the partners must also be trained in the sensitivity of the cross-cultural mentor-protégé relationship. blacks were also more likely to find positive mentor relationships outside the department with other races than mentors of the same race (thomas, 1990). according to wingrove (2002), a short-term solution for protégés could be to get a role model in the black empowered group outside the company. thomas and alderfer (1989) found in their study that black people found it necessary to have white sponsorship, but also needed to have a mentoring relationship with a same race individual. cross-gender mentoring in a study conducted by olian et al. (1988), no consistent evidence of same sex mentor preferences (preference of male protégé to male mentor) was found. ragins and cotton (1999) and ragins and mcfarlin (1990) found that cross-gender mentoring leads to less social activities than same gender mentoring. noe (1988a) indicated that protégés in cross-gender mentor relationships utilised these relationships more effectively than protégés of the same sex mentor relationship. the problem is that there are only a few women in top management positions (blau & ferber, 1987; ueckermann, 2004) that can act as role models (bowen, 1985; ragins & scandura, 1994; warihay, 1980). other researchers have also found this shortage of female mentors (brown, 1986; noe, 1988b; parker & kram, 1993; ragins, 1989). junior female employees experience less support from the top women than the top women managers feel they render to the juniors (warihay, 1980). brefach (1986) and erkut and mokros (1984) found that both genders see men as having more power and erkut and mokros (1984) found that male protégés avoid female mentors because of this. rogers (1992) referred to the mentoring circles (e.g. one mentor for three protégés) to assist females and focus on gender awareness in mentoring. kayle and jacobson (1995) referred to this as group mentoring. everybody must be able to have access to mentoring opportunities with senior managers, and cross-gender mentorship creates an environment to make this possible for young women (kram, 1988). according to bowen (1985), both male mentors and female protégés benefit positively in their work or non-work relationships and this out weighs the problems that can be experienced. as more women enter the business world, the pressures of tokenism are reduced and women can therefore be free from the stress of being the only one in this business environment (kanter, 1977). secondly, as more women enter the managerial levels, there will be female mentors available and role modelling will be easier (daily, certo & dalton, 2000; kram, 1988). blake (1995) conducted a study on black women and found that they lack black role models and this causes frustration. they did not trust white women and this affected their relationships. super visory mentoring only a few studies have focused on supervisory mentoring (douglas & schoorman, 1988; scandura & schriesheim, 1994). burke, mckenna and mckeen (1991) suggested that the quality of mentoring would be affected by a protégé’s status. scandura and schriesheim (1994) found that supervisory mentoring was linked to higher salary and promotion rates for subordinates. mullen (1994) suggested that protégés who have bosses as mentors communicate more comfortably with them. when the supervisor/manager is the mentor, the protégés are likely to adopt the leadership style of their manager if the managers are perceived to be competent and respected (bass, 1990). according to burke, mckeen and mckenna (1993) and ragins and mcfarlin (1990) the advantage of having a boss as a mentor is that they receive more opportunities for career development. fagenson-eland, marks and amendola (1997) supported the results of ragins and mcfarlin (1990) that supervisory mentors were perceived as providing more effective mentoring than non-supervisory mentors. in a study conducted by green and bauer (1995) on doctoral students and their advisors, they found that students who had higher verbal aptitude and commitment to the programme, normative instrument-assessing the mentoring role 11 received higher levels of psychosocial and career mentoring functions by their supervisors (advisors). thus, the most talented students gained the most from the mentoring functions. women are also more likely than men to develop mentoring relationships with their supervisors as a result of male barrier networking (brass, 1985). it seems that supervisory mentoring is increasingly becoming a part of the supervisor role (green & bauer, 1995; hissong, 1993; kerkes, 1994; marien, 1992; parson, 1991). executive mentoring informal mentoring is normally applicable to executives and directors (april, 1979; clutterbuck & megginson, 1999). in a study completed on women, executive women perceived the mentor as an important tool in assisting them in becoming more visible to top management and helping them to learn how to handle organisational politics. most of these relationships were informal (clutterbuck & devine, 1987). an increasingly common practice has recently been that the retiring chief executive officer becomes a mentor to his/her successor (clutterbuck & megginson, 1999). a word of caution was raised against self-styled gurus who make themselves available for coaching/mentoring and it was recommended that protégés do their homework before engaging in such a relationship (april, 1979). executive mentors can play the following roles, e.g. be a sounding board, critical friend, counsellor, career advisor, networker and coach. the protégé expects a mentor to play three common roles, namely executive coach, elder states person and reflective mentor (clutterbuck & megginson, 1999). according to clutterbuck and megginson (1999), an important part of mentoring is the management of emotional intelligence. according to goleman (1996), emotional intelligence involves five key skills: � knowing one’s emotions (self-awareness). � managing emotions (handling feelings). � motivating oneself. � recognising emotions in others (empathy). � handling relationships (social competence). the mentor can assist the protégé in obtaining these five skills. part of the complexity of executive mentoring is the different processes involved as well as the fact that the mentor must assist on several levels to adhere to the protégé’s needs. a model including different executive mentoring processes such as business processes, concepts and models, business results, selfawareness, intellectual leadership processes, behaviour, and emotional processes and values was developed by clutterbuck and megginson (1999). some of the qualities a mentor can have are experiences outside the organisation, asking good questions, role modelling, credibilit y, good listening skills, patience, net working, balancing processes and content, helping to manage knowledge and being dependable (clutterbuck & megginson, 1999). against the background of the different types of mentoring relationships, the next section of the discussion will deal with critical issues in the mentor-protégé relationship. the mentor-protégé (mentoring) relationship the allocation of a mentor can be done formally or the protégé can informally choose a mentor (fracaro, 2002; hofmeyer, 1987; mcgregor, 1993). there was a debate earlier on whether the informal mentor/protégé relationship can be formalised. hofmeyer (1987) was of the opinion that due to the natural development of the mentor-protégé relationship over time, this relationship cannot be institutionalised (or formalised as a relationship), but organisations can try to create conditions to develop such relationships. burke and mckeen (1989); geigerdumond and boyle (1995) and zey (1985) mentioned that organisations attempt to replicate informal mentoring into formal mentoring programmes. according to kram (1985), mentoring affects the whole organisation and if everybody is committed (spends time, patience and effort) it is much more useful than a formal programme with little relevance for the individual and the organisation. fracaro (2002); ragins and cotton (1999) and viator (2000) supported the notion that informal mentoring has more benefits for the protégé than formal mentoring. time is the criteria for choosing between formal and informal mentoring. organisations do not have the time to wait for the development of the relationship and therefore choose a formal mentoring programme (hunt, 1991). douglas (1997); murray (1991) and zey (1985) indicated that formal mentoring is less time consuming than informal mentoring. dinsdale (1990) emphasised the fact that formal mentoring does not attempt to replace the informal process, but rather supplement it. according to dinsdale (1990), these formal mentoring programmes should be flexible for protégés to select mentors other than supervisors and managers. chao et al. (1992) compared the formal and informal mentoring relationships. they found that protégés in informal mentoring relationships benefited more in terms of career-related support than protégés in formal mentoring relationships, but no differences were found in psychosocial support. the importance of their discovery was that regardless of the mentoring relationship, mentoring was beneficial to the individual (higher organisation socialisation, job satisfaction and salary). in contradictory results, fagenson-eland et al. (1997) found that protégés received greater psychosocial mentoring in informal mentoring and that formal mentoring did not influence the perceptions of career mentoring. informal mentoring develops spontaneously without the involvement of the organisation (chao et al., 1992). through programmes the company manages formal mentoring. mcgregor (1993) supported the concept of formal mentoring and suggested that formal mentoring in organisations has manifested itself in training programmes and that the success of an employee development programme (such as affirmative action or mentoring programmes) depends on the mentor as well as the training and commitment of both sides (mcgregor, 1993). it is important to note that the protégé must also take responsibility and initiatives for activities in the above-mentioned programme and part of this programme includes keeping a protégé’s journal (cohen, 1999a). the formal programmes also lead to additional organisation commitment from the mentor and the protégé (phillips-jones, 1983). matching the right mentor and protégé is critical for the success of the mentoring (cohen, 1999a). in this regard, the informal mentoring relationship is more positive because in a formal mentoring relationship, the programme coordinator decides on the match (chao et al., 1992; douglas, 1997; gaskill, 1993; murray, 1991; singh et al., 2002). possible criteria for successful matching range from working out the logistics of “who can meet when” to finding the “ideal” match. gender, ethnicity (burke, 1984; thomas, 1990) and religion (cohen, 1999a) are important variables. one viewpoint is also that the more similar the participants’ background, the greater the chance of personal and professional compatibility. the background similarities were supported by furano, roaf, styles and branch (1993); garcia (1992) and ragins (1997). ensher and murphy (1997) found that the more protégés perceived themselves as being “similar” to the mentor, the more they would like the mentor and be satisfied with the mentor, and the more contact there would be. a “similar” concept in mentoring was supported by allen et al. (1997) and burke et al. (1993). clutterbuck and abbott (2003) were more in favour of differences rather than similarities, because more learning occurs in such a relationship. the mentor will also be more attracted to higher performers than moderate performers (fracaro, 2002; olian, carroll & janse van rensburg roodt12 giannantonio, 1993; willbur, 1987). according to fagenson (1992), the mentor-protégé relationship is based on mutual attraction and respect, while anticipated satisfaction is the key of this attraction (olian et al., 1988). one key aspect of the mentor-protégé relationship is trust (clawson, 1980; cohen, 1999b) and according to hunt (1991), trust is critical irrespective of formal or informal mentoring. hendrikse (2003) supported this and, according to him, if change occurs in the organisation it can have an impact on the mentor-protégé relationship. another key aspect of the mentor-protégé relationship is interpersonal communication and both parties should listen affectively (kram, 1988). clawson (1980) indicated that effective mentors communicate more frequently with their protégés. managers with greater levels of interpersonal skills are more often preferred as mentors (olian et al., 1988). with a better understanding of the mentoring relationship, the next section will more specifically focus on the mentoring role. the mentoring role cohen (1999a, 1999b) referred to six dimensions of the mentoring role. these six dimensions are incorporated in the behavioural profile for both the mentor and the protégé and provide the key thrust for each dimension (cohen, 1999a) (see table 1). table 1 behavioural profile of a mentor and protégé behavioural profile mentor behaviour protégé behaviour 1. relationship key point – trust shares and reflects on experiences. offers detailed explanations. listens empathetically. expects mentor to listen and to understands and accepts. ask questions. 2. information key point – advice offers facts about career, education, provides facts and records. plans, progress. expects mentor to review use comments about use of information. and depth of sources. exhibits tailored, accurate and sufficient knowledge. 3. facilitative key point – alternatives explores interests, abilities, ideas explains choices and decisions. and beliefs expects mentor to pose options provides other views/attainable goals. and other views. shares personal decisions about career. 4. confrontative key point – challenge shows respect for decisions, actions, reflects on initiatives. career. expects mentor to examine goals shares insight into counterproductive and approach. strategies and behaviours. evaluates need and capacity to change. 5. mentor model key point – motivation discloses life experience as role model. expresses main concerns. personalises and enriches relationship. expects mentor to share ideas takes risks; overcomes difficulties in and feelings. education and career. 6. employee vision key point – initiative thinks critically about career future. visualises own future. considers personal/professional expects mentor to examine potential. plans and encourage progress. initiates change: negotiates transitions. [adapted from cohen, 1999a.] kram (1988) identified nine mentoring roles which will serve as the theoretical framework of the instrument developed in this study. according to kram (1988) these roles can be categorised into two dimensions, namely career functions (sponsorship, exposure and visibility, protection and challenging work assignments) and psychosocial functions (role modelling, acceptance and conformation, counselling and friendship). each of the nine roles will be briefly described: � protection – providing protection to the protégé on risky issues within the organisation; � challenging tasks – assigning challenging tasks for growing the protégé’s experience and competence; � counselling – encouraging open communication on the protégé’s anxiet y and fears that may hamper work performance; � coaching – introducing alternative ways of behaving on the job to the protégé; � friendship – being a best friend to the protégé; � sponsorship – acting as a sponsor to promote the career interests of the protégé; � exposure/visibility – providing exposure to the protégé through networking with other managers in the organisation; � acceptance – showing feelings of respect to the protégé; and � role model – serving as a role model to the protégé. it becomes evident from the above descriptions that the mentor provides t wo t ypes of support to the protégé, namely instrumental support (protection and challenging tasks) and psychosocial support (counselling, coaching and friendship) (ensher & murphy, 1997) that also support kram’s nine roles. the studies that support kram’s work include burke (1984); gibb and megginson (1993); noe (1988a); olian et al. (1988); scandura (1992) and schockett and haring-hidore (1985). the psychosocial support to which kram (1988) referred includes help through the managers’ network of relationships, which can also include peers (kram & isabella, 1985). from the above section it should be clear that mentoring is an important tool in the development of managerial capacity in organisations. it has a multitude of applications in a diverse work-force context and can make a large contribution to organisational effectiveness and efficiency. problem statement south africa is currently facing a serious shortage of competent and experienced managers, especially in the ranks of black managers. it seems that mentoring can play an important role in developing the required skills in these ranks. an instrument for assessing the mentoring role can be an important tool in identif ying and developing mentors. the objective of this study therefore is to develop a normative instrument for assessing the mentoring role in the south african context. research design research approach the research approach followed in the study is from the quantitative paradigm and the application of measuring instruments in a cross-sectional, non-random field survey generated the primary data for the study. an ex post facto approach to data analysis was used in exploring the interrelationships between variables in the data set. research methodology the research methodology followed, is described according to the following three headings: sample of participants the largest division of a large transport organisation was targeted for the research. a convenience sample including all employees from a sampling frame of 1200 employees yielded 637 completed normative instrument-assessing the mentoring role 13 questionnaires. a response rate of 53% was obtained. only fully completed records were used for the data analyses. as indicated in table 2, the majority of the respondents were whites (62%) followed by africans (24%) and coloureds/ indians/asians (13,5%). most of the respondents were male (80,5%) and a smaller group (19,5%) female. table 2 background information of the respondents background information respondents percentage (%) race africans 154 24,2 coloureds/indians/asians 86 13,5 whites 397 62,3 total 637 100% gender males 513 80,5 females 124 19,5 total 637 100% age 30 years and younger 104 16,3 31-35 92 14,4 36-40 82 12,9 41-45 141 22,1 46-50 115 18,1 older than 50 103 16,2 total 637 100% tenure 10 years or less 158 24,7 11-20 years 130 20,4 21-25 years 124 19,5 26-30 years 100 15,7 more than 30 years 125 19,7 total 637 100% marital status single, divorced or widowed 171 26,8 married or living together 466 73,2 total 637 100% educational level standard 9 or lower 131 20,6 standard 10 179 28,1 post-matric diploma/certificate 218 34,2 degree or higher 109 17,1 total 637 100% home language afrikaans 320 50,2 english 162 25,4 african 155 24,4 total 637 100% job level junior employees 173 73 management 464 27 total 637 100% union membership do not belong to a union 188 29,5 belong to a union 449 70,5 total 637 100% type of mentor hierarchical mentor in a higher grade 119 18,7 hierarchical mentor in a lower grade 11 1,7 supervisor as mentor 88 13,8 peer mentor (same grade) 30 4,7 executive mentor 13 2,1 no mentor 376 59 total 637 100% mentor type same race 98 15% different race 63 10% same sex 61 10% opposite sex 39 6% no mentor 376 59% total 637 100% mentor phase initial 61 10% learning 72 11% independency 64 10% redefinition 64 10% no mentor 376 59% total 637 100% mentor age <25 6 1% 25-30 17 3% 31-35 41 6% 36-40 31 5% 41-45 61 10% 46-50 45 7% 51-55 45 7% 56-63 15 2% no mentor 376 59% total 637 100% measuring instrument a comprehensive measuring instrument was designed for the purpose of another study (janse van rensburg, 2004). this questionnaire, the employee commitment questionnaire, consisted of 127 items measured on a five-point intensity scale (excluding the biographical questions). the mentioned questionnaire consisted of seven sections: section a and b – the background information of the respondents; section c – f consisted of different scales that will not be discussed here; and section g – the mentorship role questionnaire a 29 item questionnaire which was used for the purpose of this article. the latter scale was designed by the authors. the questionnaire will be discussed in more detail next focussing on the rationale for inclusion in the study, the composition of the questionnaire as well as the reliability and validity of the instruments. the mentorship role questionnaire (adapted from dreher & ash, 1990) the questionnaire of dreher and ash (1990) was used as a foundation for developing this questionnaire, also supported by the theory of kram (1988) – the nine roles of a mentor – and it was a shorter version of noe’s (1988) questionnaire based on the same theory. twenty-nine items in question format were included in this questionnaire. no information on the reliability is available on this instrument, but findings of this study will be reported under the results section. the first three questions were based on the fact that the respondent has a mentor. questions 1a, 1b were about the type of mentorship and question 2 was about the mentor phase in which the protégé currently finds himself/herself. question 3 was about the mentor’s age. from question 4, the questions were phrased in such a way that everybody could answer them regardless of whether they had a mentor or not. the questionnaire has a five-point intensity scale. question 4 to question 6 was about the quality of the mentorship and the frequency of the interactions. the rest of the 29 items were based on the nine roles of a mentor (kram, 1988). cited below are examples of two items in question-format and their response scales: question g6: to what extent should a mentor protect one from working with other managers before one is informed about their opinion on controversial topics? to no extent 1 2 3 4 5 to a very large extent question g10: to what extent should a mentor give one challenging assignments that present opportunities to improve one’s competence? to no extent 1 2 3 4 5 to a very large extent janse van rensburg roodt14 no information on the reliability is available on this instrument. this instrument seems to have content and face validity based on the item content. research procedure the measuring instrument was distributed via the organisation’s intranet to all individuals in the division, excluding those on the lowest levels who were not able to read or write. a hard copy was also sent to employees via human resources practitioners. all the ethical codes, e.g. control procedures, were adhered to. a letter of reminder was sent at a later stage to urge individuals to participate in the study. individuals could respond anonymously and all the returned responses were treated with the utmost confidentiality. the identity (anonymity) of all the individuals was thus protected to ensure reliable responses. results the item distribution statistics are displayed in table 3. item distribution curves are slightly negatively skewed (based on negative skewness coefficients) and mesokurtic. table 3 descriptive statistics of the mentorship role questionnaire n valid missing mean median mode skewness kurtosis g4 636 1 3,74 4,00 5,00 -0,876 -0,227 g5 636 1 3,67 4,00 4,00 -0,913 0,408 g6 636 1 3,90 4,00 4,00 -1,119 0,657 g7 636 1 3,62 4,00 4,00 -0,685 0,034 g8 636 1 3,65 4,00 5,00 -0,725 -0,256 g9 636 1 3,52 4,00 4,00 -0,603 -0,099 g10 635 2 3,77 4,00 4,00 -0,985 0,520 g11 635 2 3,23 3,00 4,00 -0,517 -0,409 g12 636 1 3,77 4,00 4,00 -1,038 0,727 g13 636 1 3,66 4,00 4,00 -0,800 0,190 g14 636 1 3,97 4,00 5,00 -1,186 0,830 g15 636 1 3,71 4,00 4,00 -0,762 0,056 g16 636 1 3,19 3,00 3,00 -0,399 -0,566 g17 636 1 3,51 4,00 4,00 -0,574 -0,525 g18 636 1 3,73 4,00 4,00 -0,789 -0,044 g19 636 1 3,56 4,00 4,00 -0,624 -0,152 g20 636 1 3,85 4,00 4,00 -1,023 0,443 g21 636 1 3,63 4,00 4,00 -0,787 0,256 g22 636 1 3,55 4,00 4,00 -0,596 -0,238 g23 636 1 3,87 4,00 5,00 -0,997 0,381 g24 636 1 3,37 4,00 4,00 -0,516 -0,542 g25 636 1 3,32 3,00 3,00 -0,386 -0,529 g26 636 1 2,94 3,00 3,00 -0,133 -0,821 g27 636 1 2,70 3,00 3,00 0,283 -0,565 g28 636 1 3,06 3,00 3,00 -0,025 -0,773 g29 636 1 3,58 4,00 4,00 -0,714 -0,094 in order to determine the sampling adequacy and sphericity of the item intercorrelation matrix, the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy (msa) and bartlett’s test of sphericit y were respectively conducted on the item intercorrelation matrix of the instrument. a result of 0,6 and higher is required from the msa to be acceptable (hair, anderson, tatham & black, 1998). three items were omitted at this stage, leaving 26 items in the scale. the results are reported in table 4. from table 4 it is clear that matrix is suitable for further factor analysis. table 4 kmo and bartlett’s test of the item intercorrelation matrix of the mentorship role questionnaire kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling 0,972 adequacy bartlett's test of sphericity approx. chi-square 15392,06 df 1 sig. 0,000 first level factor analysis the eigenvalues of the unreduced item intercorrelation matrix were calculated. two factors were postulated according to kaiser’s (1970) criterion (eigenvalues-greater-than-unit y) (the eigenvalues of the unreduced item intercorrelation matrix are given in table 5) and extracted by means of principal axis factoring. the t wo factors explained about 67% of the variance in the factor space. table 5 eigenvalues of the unreduced item intercorrelation matrix of the mentorship role questionnaire initial eigenvalues factor total % of variance cumulative % g1 15,448 59,414 59,414 g2 1,913 7,357 66,771 g3 0,939 3,611 70,382 g4 0,843 3,243 73,625 g5 0,724 2,785 76,411 g6 0,538 2,070 78,481 g7 0,479 1,844 80,325 g8 0,453 1,742 82,067 g9 0,444 1,709 83,776 g10 0,394 1,515 85,291 g11 0,372 1,430 86,721 g12 0,343 1,319 88,041 g13 0,315 1,213 89,253 g14 0,292 1,123 90,376 g15 0,280 1,078 91,454 g16 0,275 1,059 92,513 g17 0,258 0,991 93,504 g18 0,237 0,913 94,417 g19 0,222 0,854 95,271 g20 0,211 0,810 96,081 g21 0,203 0,783 96,864 g22 0,191 0,736 97,600 g23 0,181 0,698 98,298 g24 0,166 0,640 98,938 g25 0,157 0,602 99,541 g26 0,119 0,459 100,000 trace = 26 the factor matrix obtained was rotated and sorted to a simple structure by means of varimax rotation (see table 6). only items with values greater than 0,3 were reported. normative instrument-assessing the mentoring role 15 table 6 sorted and rotated factor matrix of the mentorship role questionnaire factor 1 2 g10 0,868 g12 0,845 g6 0,842 g13 0,756 0,366 g7 0,739 0,372 g5 0,738 0,338 g20 0,734 0,387 g14 0,734 0,376 g23 0,698 0,486 g4 0,688 0,308 g9 0,679 0,464 g18 0,632 0,486 g15 0,627 0,549 g21 0,625 0,471 g8 0,602 0,456 g19 0,580 0,545 g29 0,575 0,428 g26 0,809 g25 0,364 0,768 g28 0,677 g27 0,672 g24 0,375 0,660 g17 0,464 0,650 g16 0,374 0,599 g22 0,527 0,586 g11 0,482 0,570 extraction method: principal axis factoring. rotation method: varimax with kaiser normalisation. the rotation converged in 3 iterations. second level factor analysis sub-scores were calculated on the two obtained factors and they were subsequently intercorrelated. the kaiser-meyerolkin measure of sampling adequacy and bartlett’s test of sphericity were not repeated here because only two factors were extracted. during the second level factor analysis, eigenvalues were calculated and kaiser’s (1970) criterion (eigenvalues-greaterthan-unity) was applied and only one factor was postulated. the eigenvalues of the unreduced subscore intercorrelation matrix appear in table 7. from table 7, it can be seen that the one postulated factor explains about 90% of the variance in the factor space. table 7 eigenvalues of the unreduced sub-score intercorrelation matrix of the mentorship role questionnaire + initial eigenvalues factor total % of variance cumulative % 1 1,795 89,769 89,769 2 0,205 10,231 100,000 the sorted and rotated factor matrix appears in table 8 and it is apparent that both sub-factors have equally high factor loadings. table 8 sorted and rotated factor matrix of the mentorship role questionnaire sub-scores factor communalities i extraction (factor 2) g: mentor 0,891 0,795 (factor 1) g: mentor 0,891 0,795 extraction method: principal axis factoring. 1 factor extracted. 8 iterations required. iterative reliability analysis the results obtained from the iterative reliability analysis on the mentorship role questionnaire yielded a cronbach alpha of 0,9718, indicating a highly acceptable reliability. see table 9. table 9 iterative item analysis: the mentorship role questionnaire item scale mean scale corrected squared alpha if item variance if item multiple if item deleted item deleted total correlation deleted correlation g10 88,2835 495,1403 0,7655 0,8075 0,9706 g12 88,2898 494,1146 0,8011 0,8122 0,9704 g6 88,1591 495,0740 0,7443 0,7725 0,9707 g13 88,3921 493,6835 0,8015 0,7448 0,9704 g7 88,4378 493,3506 0,7934 0,7189 0,9704 g5 88,3811 494,9744 0,7723 0,7224 0,9706 g20 88,2094 492,0491 0,7961 0,7529 0,9704 g14 88,0819 493,2425 0,7881 0,7272 0,9704 g23 88,1890 490,0589 0,8351 0,7565 0,9701 g4 88,3134 492,2281 0,7154 0,6780 0,9710 g9 88,5354 493,2838 0,8085 0,7316 0,9703 g18 88,3213 492,3004 0,7856 0,7100 0,9705 g15 88,3465 492,0344 0,8213 0,7404 0,9702 g21 88,4283 495,1979 0,7691 0,6660 0,9706 g8 88,4031 492,3041 0,7465 0,6196 0,9707 g19 88,4961 493,1873 0,7841 0,7000 0,9705 g29 88,4740 496,1235 0,7078 0,5465 0,9710 g26 89,1213 498,5894 0,6395 0,6789 0,9715 g25 88,7307 493,5220 0,7567 0,7046 0,9707 g28 88,9937 499,6750 0,6102 0,6224 0,9717 g27 89,3575 504,0723 0,5433 0,5769 0,9722 g24 88,6882 495,0509 0,6989 0,6427 0,9711 g17 88,5433 490,8700 0,7601 0,6781 0,9706 g16 88,8661 498,4978 0,6611 0,5527 0,9713 g22 88,5102 493,5847 0,7696 0,6645 0,9706 g11 88,8252 496,1918 0,7256 0,6134 0,9709 n of cases = 637 n of items = 26 cronbach coefficient alpha = 0,9718 the iterative item analyses further indicate that total score means vary between 88,08 and 89,12, somewhat above the total score midpoint (52). the item–total score correlations vary between 0,54 and 0,83. the item reliability coefficients vary between 0,9701 to 0,9722 and the internal consistency of the scale yielded a cronbach alpha of 0,97. this concludes the results on the mentorship role questionnaire. discussion in the construction of the instrument, the theoretical model proposed by kram (1988) [studies that support kram’s work janse van rensburg roodt16 include burke (1984); gibb and megginson (1993); noe (1988a); olian et al. (1988); scandura (1992) and schockett and haring-hidore (1985)], was used as a foundation for constructing this instrument. items in the questionnaire were formulated in such a way that all the dimensions (subdomains) of the theoretical construct were systematically covered – a prerequisite for sound questionnaire construction (cf. swart, roodt & schepers, 1999). this procedure has ensured that the content validity (a facet of construct validity) as well as the face validity of the instrument was established (foxcroft & roodt, 2004). an important assumption often made in the construction of psychometric tests is that the items in the test form a linear scale. this assumption of the dimensionality of the vector space of test items must first be tested. schepers (2004) suggested that if it turns out to be multidimensional, the test must first be categorised according to the construct to be measured. the categorisation can be done with the aid of factor analysis, but the procedure is not free of problems (schepers, 2004). this procedure for overcoming the effects of differential item skewness as proposed by schepers (2004) was followed in the factor analyses of this study. before proceeding with the first level factor analysis on the item intercorrelation matrix, two tests (the kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy and the bartlett’s test) were conducted to test the suitability of the matrix for factor analysis. after establishing the affirmative, eigenvalues were calculated on the unreduced matrix and t wo factors were post ulated based on the eigenvalues larger than unity. subscores were calculated on each of these postulated factors but owing to the fact that only two factors were extracted tests for the suitability of the matrix for further factor analysis were not again repeated. eigenvalues were again calculated on the unreduced subscore intercorrelation matrix and one factor was postulated. only one factor was extracted by using principal axis factoring. the one extracted factor suggests that the mentorship role questionnaire complies with the requirements of factorial validity, a sub-component of construct validity (allen & yen, 1979). the statistical analyses were concluded by iterative item analyses on the scale. the obtained cronbach alpha of 0,97 confirms the high internal consistency of the scale, suggesting that the measuring instrument is capable of consistently reflecting the same underlying constructs. furthermore, it indicates a high degree of homogeneity between the questionnaire items. these obtained reliability coefficients suggest that the scale measures the mentorship role construct with a low standard error of measurement (sem). based on the above discussion, it seems as if the mentorship role questionnaire has acceptable metric properties as it succeeded in measuring the mentorship role construct in a reliable and consistent manner. hereby the primary objective of the study was met. no analyses were conducted to give an indication of the scale’s differential (discriminant) validit y, a facet of construct validity. future research can address this issue by comparing different groups that were composed on expected a priori differences. it seems as if the newly constructed instrument can play a valuable role in identif ying and developing prospective mentors for this key role in organisations and also to identif y their comparative training and development needs. in doing so, this instrument can assist in developing south africa’s much needed black management talent and thereby improving the effectiveness and efficiency of south african companies to enhance much needed economic growth. references allen, m.j. & yen, w.m. (1979). introduction to measurement theory. monterey, california: brooks/cole publishing. allen, t.d., poteet, m.l. & burroughs, s.m. (1997). the mentor’s perspective: a qualitative inquiry and future research agenda. journal of vocational behavior, 51, 70-89. alperson, m. (1993). woman experiences of affirmative action. in d. innes, m. kentridge & h. perold (eds), reversing discrimination: affirmative action in the workplace (pp. 205212). cape town: oxford university press. april, a. (1979). teaching the ropes: the growing popularity of coaching/mentoring. convergence, 3 (3), 44-48. atkinson, d.r., neville, h. & casas, a. (1991). the mentorship of ethnic minorities in professional psychology. professional psychology: research and practice, 22, 336-338. bass, b.m. (1990). bass and stogdill’s handbook of leadership. new york: the free press. blake, s.d. (1995). at the crossroads of race and gender: lessons from the mentoring experiences of professional black women. paper presented at the national academy of management meeting, vancouver, british columbia, canada. blau, f.d. & ferber, m.a. (1987). occupations and earnings of women workers. in k.s. koziara, m.h. moskow & l.d. tanner (eds), working women: past, present, future (pp. 3768). washington, dc: bureau of national affairs, inc. bowen, d.d. (1985). were men meant to mentor women? training and development journal, 2, 31-34. brass, d.j. (1985). men’s and women’s networks: a study of interaction patterns and influence in an organization. academy of management journal, 28, 327-343. brefach, s.m. (1986). the mentor experience: the influences of female/male mentors on the personal and professional growth of female psychologists. unpublished doctoral dissertation. boston: boston university. brown, d.a. (1986). the role of mentoring in the professional lives of university faculty women. dissertation abstracts international, 47, 160a. burke, r.j. (1983). mentors in organizations: managers as teachers. unpublished paper. oklahoma: oklahoma organizational behaviour teaching conference. burke, r.j. (1984). mentors and organizations. group and organization studies, 9, 253-272. burke, r.j. & mckeen, c.a. (1989). developing formal mentoring programs in organizations. business quarterly, 53, 76-99. burke, r.j., mckeen, c.a. & mckenna, c. (1993). correlates of mentoring in organizations: the mentor’s perspective. psychological reports, 72, 883-896. burke, r.j., mckenna, c. & mckeen, c.a. (1991). how do mentorship differ from typical supervisory relationships? psychological reports, 68, 459-466. chao, g.t. (1997). mentoring phases and outcomes. journal of vocational behaviour, 51, 15-28. chao, g.t., walz, p.m. & gardner, p.d. (1992). formal and informal mentorships: a comparison on mentoring functions and contrast with nonmentored counterparts. personnel psychology, 45, 619-636. clawson, j.g. (1980). mentoring in managerial careers. in c.b. derr (ed.), work, family and career: new frontiers in theory and research (pp. 36-39). new york: praeger publishers. clawson, j.g. (1985). is mentoring necessary? training and development journal, april, 36-39. clutterbuck, d. & abbott, p. (2003). mentoring as an empowerment tool. people dynamics, 21 (4), april, 24-25. clutterbuck, d. & devine, m. (1987). businesswoman. basingstoke: macmillan. clutterbuck, d. & megginson, d. (1999). mentoring executives and directors. oxford: butterworth heinemann. cohen, n.h. (1999a). the mentee’s guide to mentoring. amherst, massachusetts: hrd press. cohen, n.h. (1999b). the manager’s pocket guide to effective mentoring. amherst, massachusetts: hrd press. normative instrument-assessing the mentoring role 17 daily, c.m., certo, s.t. & dalton, d.r. (2000). the future of corporate women. in r.j. burke & m.c. mattis (eds), women on corporate boards of directors: international challenges and opportunities (pp. 11-23). dordrecht: kluwer academic publishers. dinsdale, r. (1990). formal mentorship: building effective future managers. human resource management, february, 26-28. douglas, c.a. (1997). formal mentoring programs in organizations: an annotated bibliography. greensboro, nc: center for creative leadership. douglas, c.a. & schoorman, f.d. (1988). the impact of career and psychosocial mentoring by super visors and peers. paper presented at the 1988 academy of management meeting, anaheim, ca. dreher, g.f. & ash, r.a. (1990). a comparative study of mentoring among men and women in managerial, professional and technical positions. journal of applied psychology, 75 (5), 539-546. eby, l.t. (1997). alternative forms of mentoring in changing organizational environments: a conceptual extension of the mentoring literature. journal of vocational behavior, 51, 125-144. ensher, e.a. & murphy, s.e. (1997). effects of race, gender, perceived similarity and contact on mentor relationships. journal of vocational behavior, 50, 460-481. erkut, s. & mokros, j.r. (1984). professors as models and mentors for college students. american educational research journal, 21 (2), 399-417. fagenson, e.a. (1988). the power of a mentor: protégés’ and nonprotégés’ perceptions of their own power in organizations. group and organization studies, 13, 182-194. fagenson, e.a. (1989). the mentor advantage: perceived career/job experiences of protégés versus non-protégés. journal of organizational behavior, 10, 309-320. fagenson, e.a. (1992). mentoring – who needs it? a comparison of protégés and nonprotégés’ needs for power, achievement, affiliation and autonomy. journal of vocational behavior, 41, 48-60. fagenson, e.a. (1994). perceptions of protégés’ vs. nonprotégés’ relationships with their peers, superiors and departments. the journal of vocational behavior, 45, 55-78. fagenson-eland, e.a., marks, m.a. & amendola, k.l. (1997). perceptions of mentoring relationships. journal of vocational behavior, 51, 29-42. foxcroft, c. & roodt, g. (2004). an introduction to psychological assessment in the south african context. cape town: oxford university press. fracaro, k. (2002). mentoring: tool for career guidance. super vision, 63 (9), september, 10-12. furano, k., roaf, p.a., styles, m.b. & branch, a.y. (1993). big brothers/sisters: a study of program practices. philadelphia, pa: public/private ventures. garcia, m. (1992). mentoring the new graduate at jet propulsion laboratory (pp. 162-171). proceedings of the diversity in mentoring conference, chicago, il, western michigan university. gaskill, l.r. (1993). a concept ual framework for the development, implementation and evaluation of formal mentoring programs. journal of career development, 20, 147-160. geiger-dumond, a.h. & boyle, s.k. (1995). mentoring: a practitioner’s guide. training and development, 49, 51-54. gibb, s. & megginson, d. (1993). inside corporate mentoring schemes: a new agenda of concerns. personnel review, 22, 40-54. goleman, d. (1996). emotional intelligence. london: bloomsbury. green, s.g. & bauer, t.n. (1995). supervisory mentoring by advisors: relationships with doctoral student potential, productivity and commitment. personnel psychology, 48, 537-561. gunn, e. (1995). mentoring: the democratic version. training, 32 (8), august, 64-67. hair, j.f. jr., anderson, r.e., tatham, r.l. & black, w.c. (1998). multivariate data analysis (5th edition). upper saddle river, nj: prentice-hall international. hendrikse, j. (2003). personal communication: mentorship. april 9. johannesburg: spoornet. hissong, d. (1993). excel in your engineering. chemical engineering, 100, 157-160. hofmeyer, k.b. (1987). can mentorship be institutionalized? ipm journal, april, 13-15. hunt, d. (1991). mentorship: the path to success. boardroom, 3, 23-25. hunt, d. & michael, c. (1983). mentorship: a career training and development tool. academy of management review, 8 (3), 475-485. ivancevich, j.m. & matteson, m.t. (1996). organisational behavior and management (4th edition). chigago: irwin. jacobi, m. (1991). mentoring and undergraduate success: a literat ure review. re view of educational research, 61, 505-532. janse van rensburg, k. (2004). a predictive model of employee commitment in an organisation striving to become world-class. unpublished d. litt. et phil. thesis. johannesburg: rand afrikaans university. kaiser, h.f. (1970). a second-generation little jiff y. psychometrika, 35, 401-415. kanter, r.m. (1977). men and women of the corporation. new york: basic books. kayle, b. & jacobson, b. (1995). mentoring: a group guide. training and development, 49 (4), april, 23-27. kerkes, d.j. (1994). precepts of project management. civil engineering, 64, 70-72. kram, k.e. (1983). phase of the mentor relationship. academy of management journal, 26, 608-625. kram, k.e. (1985). improving the mentoring process. training and development journal, april, 40-43. kram, k.e. (1988). mentoring at work: developmental relationships in organizational life. lanham: university press of america. kram, k.e. & isabella, l.a. (1985). mentoring alternatives: the role of pure relationships in career development. academy of management journal, 28 (1), 110-132. levinson, d.j., darrow, c.n., klein, e.b., levinson, m.a. & mckee, b. (1978). seasons of a man’s life. new york: knopf. marien, b.a. (1992). quality in r&d: putting tqm into the performance review process. research technology management, 35, 39-43. mcgregor, a. (1993). a holistic approach to affirmative action. in d. innes, m. kentridge & h. perold (eds), re versing discrimination: affirmative action in the workplace (pp. 95105). cape town: oxford university press. mullen, e. (1994). framing the mentoring relationship in an information exchange. human resource management review, 4, 257-281. murray, m. (1991). beyond the myths and magic of mentoring: how to facilitate an effective mentoring program. san francisco: jossey-bass. noe, r.a. (1988a). an investigation of the determinants of successful assigned mentoring relationships. personnel psychology, 41, 457-479. noe, r.a. (1988b). women and mentoring: a review and research agenda. academy of management review, 13 (1), 65-78. olian, j.d., carroll, s.j. & giannantonio, c.m. (1993). mentor reactions to protégés: an experiment with managers. journal of vocational behaviour, 43, 266-278. olian, j.d., carroll, s.j., giannantonio, c.m. & feren, d.b. (1988). what do protégés look for in a mentor? results of three experimental studies. journal of vocational behavior, 33, 15-37. orpen, c. (1995). the effects of mentoring on employees career success. journal of social psychology, 135, 667-668. orth, c.d., wilkinson, h.e. & benfari, r.c. (1987). the manager’s role as coach and mentor. organization dynamics, 15, 66-74. janse van rensburg roodt18 owen, m.a. (1991). beyond the myths and magic of mentoring. oxford: jossey-bass. parker, v.a. & kram, k.e. (1993). women mentoring women: creating conditions for connection. business horizons, 36 (2), 42-51. parson, r.j. (1991). enlightened management must lay a strong foundation in training new engineers. industrial engineering, 23, 34-38. phillips-jones, l. (1982). mentors and protégés. new york: arborhouse. phillips-jones, l. (1983). establishing a formalized mentoring program. training development journal, february, 38-42. ragins, b.r. (1989). barriers to mentoring: the female managers’ dilemma. human relations, 42, 1-22. ragins, b.r. (1997). antecedents of diversified mentoring relationships. journal of vocational behavior, 51, 90-109. ragins, b.r. & cotton, j.l. (1999). mentor functions and outcomes: a comparison of men and women in formal and informal mentoring relationships. journal of applied psychology, 84 (4), 529-550. ragins, b.r. & mcfarlin, d.b. (1990). perception of mentor roles in cross-gender mentoring relationships. journal of vocational behavior, 37, 321-339. ragins, b.r. & scandura, t.a. (1994). gender differences in expected outcomes of mentoring relationships. academy of management journal, 37 (4), 957-971. riley, s. & wrench, d. (1985). mentoring among female lawyers. journal of applied social psychology, 15, 374-386. roche, g. (1979). much ado about mentors. har vard business review, 57 (1), 14-28. rogers, b. (1992). mentoring: takes a new twist. human resource magazine, august, 48-51. scandura, t.a. (1992). mentorship and career mobility: an empirical investigation. journal of organizational behavior, 13, 169-174. scandura, t.a. & schriesheim, c.a. (1994). leader-member exchange and supervisor career mentoring as complementary constructs in leadership research. academy of management journal, 37, 1588-1602. schepers, j.m. (2004). overcoming the effects of differential item skewness of test items in scale construction. sa journal of industrial psychology, 30 (4), 27-43. schockett, m. & haring-hidore, m. (1985). factor analytic support for psycho-social and vocational mentoring functions. psychological reports, 57, 627-630. singh, v., bains, d. & vinnicombe, s. (2002). informal mentoring as an organisational resource. long range planning, 35, 389-405. storm, l. & roodt, g. (2002). die verband tussen organisasiesosialisering en organisasieverbondenheid (the relationship bet ween organisation socialisation and organisation commitment). sa journal of industrial psychology, 28 (1), 14-21. swart, c., roodt, g. & schepers, j.m. (1999). item formaat, differensiële item skeefheid en die faktorstruktuur van ’n selfvoltooiingsvraelys (item format, differential item skewness and the factor structure of a self-completion questionnaire). journal of industrial psychology, 25 (1), 33-43. tack, w.l. & tack, l. (1986). don’t ignore seasoned managers: the case for management cycling. sloan management review, 27, 63-70. thomas, d.a. (1990). the impact of race on manager’s experiences of developmental relationships (mentoring and sponsorship): an intra-organizational study. journal of organizational behavior, 11, 479-492. thomas, d.a. & alderfer, c.p. (1989). the influence of race on career dynamics: theory and research on minority career experiences. in m.b. arthur, d.t. hall & b. lawrence (eds), handbook of career theory (pp. 133-158). cambridge, ma: cambridge university press. ueckermann, h. (2004). te min vroue in sleutelposisies (to few women in key positions). city press careers, may 2, 1. viator, r.e. (2000). the association of formal and informal public accounting mentoring with role stress and related job outcomes. accounting, organizations and society, 26 (1), 73-93. walbrugh, a. & roodt, g. (2003). different age groups response to employee equity practices. sa journal of human resource management, 1 (2), 28-39. warihay, p.d. (1980). the climb to the top: is the network the route for women? personnel administrator, 25 (4), 55-60. whitely, w., dougherty, t. & dreher, g. (1991). relationship of career mentoring and socio-economic origin to managers and professionals early career progress. academy of management journal, 34, 331-351. willbur, j. (1987). does mentoring breed success? training and development journal, 11, 38-41. wingrove, t. (2002). mentoring challenges to sweeten the medicine. hr future, 2 (11), november/december, 10-12. zey, m.g. (1985). mentor programs: making the right moves. personnel journal, 64 (2), 53-57. normative instrument-assessing the mentoring role 19 abstract introduction purpose literature review research design findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) anthony solomon graduate school of business leadership, university of south africa, south africa renier steyn graduate school of business leadership, university of south africa, south africa citation solomon, a., & steyn, r. (2017). exploring cultural intelligence truths: a systematic review. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a869. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.869 original research exploring cultural intelligence truths: a systematic review anthony solomon, renier steyn received: 27 sept. 2016; accepted: 10 feb. 2017; published: 31 mar. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: to identify and report on cultural intelligence truths. research purpose: to explore cultural intelligence truths by means of a systematic review of the cultural intelligence literature. motivation for the study: cultural intelligence truths must be systemised if the business and academic communities are to derive optimal value from the diverse knowledge base. research design, approach and method: the research was qualitative in nature, comprising a systematic literature review. the period covered was from 01 january 2002 to 31 may 2015. the final number of included studies was 76, representing 48 different journals. cultural intelligence hypotheses were identified and thematically categorised. validated hypotheses constituted truths (i.e. truth statements). key findings are both reported and commented on. main findings: cultural intelligence hypotheses may be classified into 13 separate themes plus a ‘not categorised’ group. in total, 60% of the hypotheses on cultural intelligence have given rise to truth statements. accordingly, there remains some divide between theorised cultural intelligence relationships and how these have played out under empirical investigation. practical managerial/implications: business professionals will find it easier to consume the cultural intelligence literature, thereby facilitating their understanding of how best to leverage the knowledge in equipping the workforce to function optimally in cross-cultural interfaces. scholars will be better positioned to tailor the focus and structure of cultural intelligence studies going forward. contribution: cultural intelligence truths have been systematically identified, organised and reported on. introduction globalisation, a force firmly rooted within the current era of unprecedented technological advancement, is increasingly exposing both individuals and organisations to situations of cultural heterogeneity in which they are required, and indeed expected, to function effectively (alon et al., 2016). with the aim of explaining why some persons are able to operate more successfully than others in such circumstances, earley and ang (2003), through their seminal work, conceptualised cultural intelligence (cq). cq targets capabilities to comprehend, process and act effectively in an array of intercultural exchanges and interactions (ang et al., 2007). cq is presently experiencing increased momentum in terms of research efforts to better explain the construct. in this regard, bücker, furrer, poutsma and buyens (2014, p. 2068) affirm that cq is ‘attracting growing attention in academic literature’. in evaluating such literature, it would be important to ascertain the degree to which it situates within the general body of scientific knowledge framework (see babbie & mouton, 2011), particularly in terms of the truth statement elements thereof. although there have been some efforts to explore the literature – for example, ang, van dyne and rockstuhl (2015), who reported on the origins, conceptualisation, evolution and methodological diversity of cq, and bovornusvakool, ardichvili and rana (2015), who considered different cq approaches – the authors are of the view that further value could be provided if the cq truths were to be systemised accordingly. truth statements consist of knowledge declarations and may arise from testing hypotheses (schutte & steyn, 2015), that is, they are generated following the production of empirical evidence in support of the hypotheses in question. as such, they are indicative of theory reflected as reality. hypotheses comprise statements of expectation concerning a proposed relationship between two variables (de vos, strydom, fouche & delport, 2013) and are normally associated with quantitative research (schutte & steyn, 2015) in that they necessitate the use of measures (whetten, 1989). purpose the purpose of this study was to report on cq truths. as a result, non-validated hypotheses were not considered. research question the question this study aimed to address was the following: what do the cq truths reveal? literature review as this study covered cq truths, the literature review targeted an explication of both truth and cq and was hence divided into two separate sections. in the first section, attention was devoted to understanding the concept of truth and the role that science plays in the quest to achieve it. the second section covered cq and its constituent dimensions. truth and scientific knowledge for millennia, the topic of truth has stimulated much debate (glanzberg, 2014). disagreement exists amongst scholars as to a uniform definition of truth (badenas, 2012) and this has given rise to a variety of different truth theories, examples of which include the correspondence, coherence and the deflationary theories. the correspondence theory argues that truth is with a fact and is most often attendant with metaphysical realism, that is, truth is the equation of thing and intellect (marian, 2015) or the ‘correspondence between a statement and the reality’ (badenas, 2012, p. 8). as such, the correspondence theory suggests that a proposition is true only when that proposition and a fact actually correspond. young (2015) indicates that the coherence theory of truth asserts that a proposition is considered to be true when it is in coherence with a definite set of propositions. the coherence theory thus differs from the correspondence theory in that in the former the truth of a proposition ascends from the existence of an association between additional propositions and the proposition being considered, whilst in the latter a proposition is assessed as true when it is related to a worldly fact. the deflationary theory of truth holds that saying a statement is true is actually nothing more than to declare the statement itself (stoljar & damnjanovic, 2014). galinon (2015) points out that the deflationism thesis contends that the ‘truth predicate has no explanatory power’, that is, truth is ‘a purely expressive device’ (p. 268). sloan (1979, p. 2) points out that ‘science is a search for the truth’, whilst weingart (2002, pp. 704–705) notes that ‘science produces “true” knowledge’. it follows on that scientific knowledge is motivated by the pursuit of truth through evidence accumulation (babbie & mouton, 2011). in contrast, ordinary knowledge, which babbie and mouton (2011, p. 5) observe to be ‘unsystematic and rather haphazard’, is predicated upon either ‘personal authority’ or ‘secondary sources’. scientific knowledge thus holds a hallowed position in authoritative dialogues which has resulted in it becoming the architype of logical practice (fuchs, 1992). it follows on that knowledge generation through scientific endeavour remains inimitable (weingart, 2002) in the search for truth. indeed, mouton (2013, p. 138) states that ‘the search for “truth” or “truthful knowledge” is the overriding goal of science’. to this end, a hypothesis or theory is recognised as ‘true’ when it has been shown that it is a ‘good approximation of reality’ (babbie & mouton, 2011, p. 10). srnka and koeszegi (2007, p. 38) remark that ‘the accepted view in the business and management sciences is that “good” science is based on research leading to results that are valid, reliable, and thus generalizable’. as a basis for conceptualising research problems and the rationality of the research process, mouton (1996) proposed a structure comprising ‘three worlds’. the first world consists of everyday life and lay knowledge (mouton, 2013). in this world, humans attain knowledge through learning, practice and introspection, the outputs of which are often referenced, amongst others, as common sense, insight and wisdom (babbie & mouton, 2011). although lay knowledge is required in order to handle everyday life better (mouton, 2013), babbie and mouton (2011, p. 7) point out that such knowledge is ‘extremely varied in origin, kind and especially truth value’. in the second world, the objective is to produce truthful, that is, reasonable and credible elucidations of the world. the second world is thus that of science and scientific endeavour (mouton, 2013). in this world, phenomena from the first world are researched. accordingly, the second world is demarcated by the epistemic imperative (babbie & mouton, 2011). leplin (1981, p. 271) notes that ‘a connection between knowledge and truth is characteristic of analyses of second world knowledge’. truth in the second world is reflected, as pointed out above, to be a best estimate and not absoluteness nor infallibility (babbie & mouton, 2011; mouton, 2013). reflection is the foundation of the third world. in this world, researchers consider the methodologies or mechanisms through which science may be progressed (babbie & mouton, 2011). the third world is thus that of meta-science (mouton, 2013). cultural intelligence cq is a non-academic intelligence (kumar, rose & subramaniam, 2008) that portrays a person’s competence in functioning seamlessly in those environments that are representative of cultural variety (earley & ang, 2003). it epitomises a ‘theoretical extension of gardner’s (1993, 2011) multiple facets of intelligence’ (chen, 2015, p. 102). cq incorporates a collection of mental, motivational and behavioural abilities (presbitero, 2016). hence, it may be distinguished from general academic talent in that the latter focuses exclusively on the positioning of intellectual aptitudes (ang et al., 2015). being an etic type of intelligence (klenke, 2009), cq is also distinct from emotional and other non-academic intelligences in that such intelligences are culture constrained (thomas et al., 2008) as they do not transfer across the cultural spectrum. ng, van dyne and ang (2009) observe that cq, as conceptualised by earley and ang (2003), comprises four factors or dimensions: (1) metacognition, (2) cognition, (3) motivation and (4) behaviour. all of metacognition, cognition and motivation situate within the head in that they are mental capabilities, whilst behaviours manifest as explicit actions (ang et al., 2007; sutherland, edgar & duncan, 2015). metacognitive cq encompasses the capacity to both procure and comprehend cultural knowledge (ang et al., 2015). as such, metacognitive cq mirrors the ability to think about prevailing cross-cultural assumptions and to modify these as appropriate (groves, feyerherm & gu, 2015), thereby assisting persons to have an improved awareness of their cultural predilections both prior to and in the course of cross-cultural exchanges (eisenberg et al., 2013). cognitive cq refers to the knowledge one has about different cultures (presbitero, 2016). this knowledge may be sourced from, and developed through, both personal and educational experiences (huff, 2013). the desire to immerse oneself in other cultures is evidenced by motivational cq. this dimension also incorporates the utilisation of energy in transitioning to cultural settings that one may be unaccustomed to (groves et al., 2015). the fourth dimension of cq is that of behaviour, that is, a person’s ability to act and react appropriately during cross-cultural exchanges (huff, 2013). the actions may be both verbal and non-verbal (ang et al., 2007). thomas (2006) offered an alternative conceptualisation of cq comprising (1) knowledge, (2) mindfulness and (3) behaviour. knowledge covers both the principles of cultural behaviour (such as greetings, rituals, etc.) and understanding, for example, the history of a culture (tuleja, 2014). in addition to having cultural knowledge, the culturally intelligent person is mindful, that is, he or she pays ‘attention to the subtle cues in cross-cultural circumstances’ and processes these in terms of his or her cultural knowledge (tuleja, 2014, p. 10). behaviour reflects the capacity to select suitable actions based on the nature of the intercultural situation (thomas & inkson, 2005). the difference between the above cq constructs appears to be purely conceptual as metacognitive cq forms part of the knowledge dimension in the model of thomas (2006) (du plessis, 2011). research design research approach a systematic review of the cq literature was undertaken. systematic reviews, having become broadly accepted (kable, pich & maslin-prothero, 2012), have as their aim the discovery of all material concerning a particular research question so that a fair and impartial summary of the literature may be offered (nightingale, 2009). to this end, crossan and apaydin (2010, p. 1156) indicate that systematic reviews employ ‘an explicit algorithm, as opposed to a heuristic’ in delivering on their objective. as such, they may be distinguished from literature reviews pursuant to their repeatable, methodical and dispassionate search style (burke, 2015). systematic reviews most often comprise (1) the collection of data, (2) data analysis and (3) data synthesis (olckers & du plessis, 2012). this study followed these steps. research method as this research sought to report on cq truths, that is, it did not merge nor integrate the results from the reviewed studies statistically, the methodology was qualitative in nature. with this in mind, o’neil and koekemoer (2016, p. 2) point out that qualitative research employs ‘a naturalistic and interpretive stance’. sampling ross (2010, p. 5) defines a sample as a ‘subgroup of the population’. as the intention was to identify all research studies on cq that satisfied the inclusion criteria set, no sampling techniques were used. data collection in describing the method by which data was collected, it is necessary to provide details as to both the inclusion and exclusion criteria adopted, as well as the manner in which the studies were identified (cronin, ryan & coughlan, 2008; nightingale, 2009). inclusion criteria: four criteria governed study inclusion. publication time frame was set as the first criterion. despite earley and ang (2003) having formally introduced cq for the first time in 2003 (thomas et al., 2008), earley (2002) had already discussed the construct. accordingly, the beginning of january 2002 was set as the commencement date for the systematic search so as to ensure that the period during which cq was conceived was included. as the search was performed during may 2015, the end date was taken as 31 may 2015. the time frame was thus 13.4 years. the second criterion for inclusion required the study to have been reported on in a peer-reviewed journal, that is, textbooks and unpublished material were excluded. the premise for this criterion was the recommendation by babbie and mouton (2011) that only research outputs that have been specifically inspected and accepted by the scientific community be incorporated. in this respect, the titles of all journals in which relevant articles were identified were compared against ulrichsweb (see serials solutions, 2015) to confirm their application of a peer review process. the third and fourth criteria addressed language of publication and focus, respectively. only those studies articulated in english were included. the main focus of the study had to be cq, that is, it was mandatory that both the article title and key words incorporated the term cultural intelligence or cq. study identification: a comprehensive electronic search was conducted. cultural intelligence and cq >were used as the search terms. in sum, 404 articles were discovered and split as to ebsco host business source complete (90), proquest abi/inform global (105), proquest psychology (60), sage (30) and google scholar (119). the 404 article titles from the different databases were then compared and duplicates were removed. the number of unique studies was 157 (representing 101 different journals). beall’s list (see scholarly open access, 2015) was then scrutinised to identify whether any of the journals in which the identified studies were reported on are considered to be potentially, possibly or probably predatory in nature. this investigation indicated that none of the 101 journals were reflected as such. the examination of ulrichsweb (see serials solutions, 2015) revealed that 14 of the journals do not follow a peer review process. a further 10 journals’ titles were not found on ulrichsweb (see serials solutions, 2015) and thus their respective websites were inspected in an attempt to establish whether the articles published in them are peer reviewed. seven of these journals were found to have peer review policies, whilst three did not. the 17 (14 + 3) journals that did not meet the second inclusion criterion represented 21 of the identified studies. these studies were thus removed from the review. this reduced the number of studies to 136 (representing 84 journals). data extraction and analysis the abstract of each of the 136 studies was first examined to further confirm the focus on cq. all the articles were then listed on a spreadsheet. details captured were (1) journal title, (2) article title, (3) author(s), (4) date of publication, (5) key words, (6) hypotheses (if any) and (7) propositions (if any). in sum, 76 of the 136 articles presented hypotheses that had been the subject of empirical investigation, 11 articles offered propositions that had not been empirically tested, whilst 49 articles did not put forward any hypotheses or propositions. the final number of included studies was therefore 76 (representing 48 journals). where a single hypothesis contained multiple components, each was counted as a separate hypothesis – for example, a hypothesis that referenced a relationship between a variable and each of the four cq dimensions was counted as four hypotheses. this resulted in 590 hypotheses being identified across the 76 studies. thematic analysis was used to categorise the hypotheses. fox (2004, p. 1) indicates that thematic analysis is ‘a generic approach to data analysis that enables data sources to be analysed in terms of principal concepts or themes’. categories (i.e. grouped concepts) become themes (fox, 2004, p. 1). ryan and bernard (2003) describe various techniques by which themes may be identified. they note that certain techniques are ‘more suited to rich, complex answers, whilst others are more appropriate for short responses’ (ryan & bernard, 2003, p. 85). they assert that the technique of repetition identification is a suitable method through which themes in short text may be detected and specifically point out that ‘the more the same concept occurs in a text, the more likely it is a theme’ (ryan & bernard, 2003, p. 89). as hypotheses comprise short text, the repetition identification strategy was followed. all the hypotheses were scrutinised to discern included concepts. thereafter the concepts were recorded on the spreadsheet with same or similar ones being arranged into separate groups. in seeking guidance as to the number of times a concept should be repeated (i.e. it appears in different hypotheses), direction was, once again, taken from ryan and bernard (2003, p. 89) who submit that ‘only the investigator can decide’. to keep the decision pragmatic, it was resolved that the same concept had to be included in two or more separate hypotheses. those concepts that appeared once only, that is, they did not appear in more than a single hypothesis, were then gathered together and designated ‘not classified’. examples of such last-mentioned concepts are marketing mix adaptations and career competencies. finally, the results section of each of the included studies was inspected to identify those hypotheses that had been validated. these hypotheses were then marked up as truth statements. the themes thus reflect confirmed cq relationships based upon the aforementioned concept groupings. data synthesis and reporting the findings are reported on per identified theme. the discussion section follows the same approach. findings the number and percentage of hypotheses and truth statements are presented, per identified theme, in table 1. out of the 590 hypotheses, 352 were confirmed by the respective studies of which they formed part or, in other words, 60% of all the cq hypotheses, empirically investigated in the period covered by the systematic review, gave rise to truth statements. in total, 13 themes were determined plus the ‘not classified’ group. the 13 themes are arranged in descending order based on the number of identified hypotheses included in each. the ‘not classified’ group is listed below them. table 1: cultural intelligence hypotheses and truth statements per identified theme. based on the above order, approximately 55% of the truth statements could be classified into just the first four themes. the top six themes, in turn, accounted for 64% of all the truth statements. these themes are (1) cq and cross-cultural adjustment relate positively, (2) cross-cultural training and experiential learning stimulate cq, (3) cq improves job performance, satisfaction, involvement and adaptation, (4) international experience and exposure progress cq, (5) cq advances team knowledge sharing, performance and development of shared values whilst team trust enhances cq and (6) cq predicts leadership potential and styles and advances leadership effectiveness. whilst the truth statement mean percentage was 65% per theme, the associated range extended from a low of 44% in respect of cq increasing the effectiveness of communication to a high of 94% regarding cq and its influence on organisational agility, commitment and adaptive capability. these outcomes should, however, be seen in the context of the relative number of hypotheses, which were tested in the reviewed studies, forming part of the respective themes. in view of the large number of truth statements, it was not practical, because of space limitations, to offer a synthesis of the findings and associated discussion for each theme. the commentary in this report is hence limited to (1) the first six themes and (2) key observations therein. the reader is reminded that the purpose of this review was to report on cq truths and thus other findings (i.e. hypotheses that were not confirmed by the included studies) are not presented. theme 1: cultural intelligence and cross-cultural adjustment relate positively a number of studies hypothesised about and tested the relationship between cq and cross-cultural adjustment, in terms of both the concepts themselves and their respective components. six studies (guðmundsdóttir, 2015; jyoti & kour, 2015; lee & sukoco, 2010; lin, chen & song, 2012; ramalu, rose, kumar & uli, 2010; ramalu, wei & rose, 2011) established that cq and cross-cultural adjustment are positively related. two studies (chen, wu & bian, 2014; konanahalli et al., 2014) examined the relationship between cq in aggregate and the components of cross-cultural adjustment (general, interaction and work adjustment). both of these studies validated a positive association between cq and (1) general and (2) interaction adjustment, whilst konanahalli et al. (2014) confirmed the same result in respect of work adjustment (chen et al., 2014, did not hypothesise about cq and work adjustment). the relationships between the dimensions of cq and the components of cross-cultural adjustment have also been the subject of hypotheses investigated by a number of studies. motivational cq was found to be positively related to each of general, interaction and work adjustment (ang et al., 2007; guðmundsdóttir, 2015; huff, 2013; ramalu, rose, et al., 2010; ramalu, wei, et al., 2011; templer, tay & chandrasekar, 2006) and explained the variance in general, interaction and work adjustment beyond that which the five-factor personality model could (huff, song & gresch, 2014). metacognitive cq showed a positive association with (1) all three of these cross-cultural adjustment components (general, interaction and work) (guðmundsdóttir, 2015) and (2) with only the general and interaction components (ramalu et al., 2010; ramalu et al., 2011). cognitive cq and interaction adjustment shared a positive relationship (ramalu et al., 2010; ramalu, 2011). lastly, behavioural cq predicted each of general, interactional and work adjustment (ang et al., 2007). the relationship between groups of cq dimensions (achieved through factor analysis) and the cross-cultural adjustment components have also been examined and reported on in the literature. ‘awareness cq’ (comprising metacognitive and cognitive cq) was positively related to each of the components of cross-cultural adjustment (malek & budhar, 2013), whereas ‘interaction cq’ (consisting of motivational and behavioural cq) related positively to both general and interaction adjustment only (malek & budhar, 2013). finally, a single study hypothesised about the moderating effect of the four cq dimensions on the link between expatriate supporting practices (esp) and each of the cross-cultural adjustment components. motivational cq improved the effect of esp on work adjustment, whilst metacognitive and cognitive cq reduced the influence of esp on (1) general and work adjustment and (2) interaction adjustment, respectively (wu & ang, 2011). theme 2: cross-cultural training and experiential learning stimulate cultural intelligence the benefit of undergoing academic cross-cultural training with a view to developing cq was validated by eisenberg et al. (2013). at a dimension level, (1) academic training was shown to improve metacognitive cq (eisenberg et al., 2013), cognitive cq (rehg, gundlach & grigorian, 2012) and behavioural cq (rehg et al., 2012), whilst (2) experiential learning interventions increased metacognitive cq (macnab, 2012; wood & st peters, 2014), cognitive cq (wood & st peters, 2014), motivational cq (macnab, 2012; wood & st peters, 2014) and behavioural cq (macnab, 2012). inversely, both metacognitive and motivational cq acted as stimulants of a learner’s commitment to study international business (ramsey, barakat & aad, 2014). motivational cq was also found to positively impact cultural effectiveness following a participant’s completion of cross-cultural training (peng, van dyne & oh, 2014). undergoing expectancy disconfirmation during an experiential education intervention positively associated with the development of each of the cq dimensions. furthermore, such expectancy disconfirmation experience mediated the relationship between the perception of optimal cross-cultural contact and the development of all of metacognitive, cognitive, motivational and behavioural cq (rosenblatt, worthley & macnab, 2013). whilst the extensiveness of cross-cultural training had a positive effect on each of the cq dimensions, only cognitive cq was positively influenced by the duration of the training (moon, choi & jung, 2012). theme 3: cultural intelligence improves cross-cultural job performance, satisfaction, involvement and adaptation job performance, or the completion of work obligations (task performance) and the formation and growth of relationships with host country employees (contextual performance), has also been studied in the domain of cq. cq demonstrated a positive influence on job performance (chen, lin & sawangpattanakul, 2011; ramalu et al., 2010; ramalu, rose, uli & kumar, 2012) and task performance (jyoti & kour, 2015). at a cq dimension level, each of metacognitive, cognitive, motivational and behavioural cq was positively associated with job performance (chen et al., 2011). metacognitive cq exhibited a positive association with each of task performance (ang et al., 2007) and contextual performance (rose, ramalu, uli & kumar, 2010), whilst behavioural cq was similarly associated with task performance (ang et al., 2007; duff, tahbaz & chan, 2012) and contextual performance (rose et al., 2010). cq, in aggregate, positively influenced job satisfaction (bücker et al., 2014) as did the dimensions of metacognition, motivation and behaviour (yeşil, 2013). whilst all four of the cq dimensions displayed a positive impact on job involvement (chen, 2015), it was only motivational and behavioural cq that positively affected adaptive performance (şahin & gürbüz, 2014). finally, the personality trait of openness and metacognitive cq interacted to enhance task performance, whilst openness and cognitive cq and openness and motivational cq constricted task performance (duff et al., 2012). theme 4: international experience and exposure progress cultural intelligence several studies confirmed the positive effect of international experience on all of the cq dimensions (engle & crowne, 2014; morrell, ravlin, ramsey & ward, 2013; şahin, gürbüz & köksal, 2014). the same result was achieved by eisenberg et al. (2013) in respect of metacognitive, cognitive and motivational cq. international non-work (i.e. leisure) experience was positively related to each of the cq dimensions, whilst international work experience shared a positive association with only metacognitive and cognitive cq (moon et al., 2012). exposure to other cultures also contributed to improving cq (crowne, 2013; kim & van dyne, 2012). both the depth and breadth of exposure showed positive relationships with cq (crowne, 2013). the previous working experience of expatriates (1) in the overseas department of their employer and (2) with foreign nationals within their home country prior to their expatriation displayed a positive relationship with cognitive cq and metacognitive cq, respectively (moon, choi & jung, 2013). the number of local staff members in the host country with whom expatriates worked presented a positive relationship with all of the cq dimensions (moon et al., 2013). the number of co-expatriates that expatriates worked with in the host country revealed a negative association with each of cognitive, motivational and behavioural cq (moon et al., 2013). expatriates’ perceptions of promotion following conclusion of the foreign assignment positively related to metacognitive and motivational cq, whilst their knowledge of the duration of the assignment moderated the relationship between such perceptions and their motivational and behavioural cq (moon et al., 2013). the self-monitoring of expatriates positively associated with all of the cq dimensions, whereas the extent of their interaction with local employees moderated the relationship between the number of local employees and the expatriates’ metacognitive and behavioural cq (moon et al., 2013). the duration of international work experience and cq were positively related (li, mobley & kelly, 2013) although even a short-term international experience positively associated with all of the cq dimensions (engle & crown, 2014). theme 5: cultural intelligence advances cross-cultural team knowledge sharing, performance and development of shared values whilst team trust enhances cultural intelligence all of metacognitive, cognitive and motivational cq were shown to directly promote knowledge sharing amongst team members, whereas behavioural cq required the mediation of perceived team efficacy to deliver the same effect (chen & lin, 2013). initial performance levels and the speed with which performance improved were superior for those cross-cultural teams with higher, rather than lower, cq levels (moon, 2013). cq also had a positive impact on the quality of teamwork in creative, as opposed to analytical, jobs (scholz, 2012). team metacognitive and behavioural cq had a positive influence in facilitating the development of shared values amongst culturally mixed team members (adair, hideg & spence, 2013), whilst team trust enhanced the cq of team members (erez et al., 2013). theme 6: cultural intelligence predicts international leadership potential, effectiveness and styles cq was validated as a predictor of international leadership potential (kim & van dyne, 2012) and was found to be positively associated with leadership effectiveness, specifically in the context of (1) cross-border activities (rockstuhl, seiler, ang, van dyne & annen, 2011) and (2) culturally heterogeneous teams (groves & feyerherm, 2011). cq and transformational leadership demonstrated a positive relationship both in terms of cq as an aggregated concept (ismail, reza & mahdi, 2012; keung & rockinson-szapkiw, 2013) and in respect of (1) each of the cq dimensions (ismail et al., 2012) and (2) cognitive and behavioural cq (keung & rockinson-szapkiw, 2013). motivational cq and the democratic leadership style were also shown to correlate (eken, özturgut & craven, 2014). cq acted as a moderator of the relationship between transformational leadership and (1) both expatriate adjustment and performance (lee, veasna & wu, 2013) and (2) organisational innovation (elenkov & manev, 2009). discussion this study was undertaken with the aim of reporting on cq truths. the discussion that follows is thus a fusion of the findings described above. theme 1: cultural intelligence and cross-cultural adjustment relate positively cq has been shown to positively affect the ability of persons to successfully navigate and adapt to the many and varied manifestations of the new cultures they may find themselves exposed to, including living conditions (such as housing and healthcare), daily interfaces with host culture citizens and unique local employment and education practices. the consistency of this cq and cross-cultural adjustment relationship prevails across a range of persons (including expatriates and students) and countries. metacognitive cq followed by motivational and behavioural cq reveals the most association with and thus positive influence on the components of cross-cultural adjustment. the moderating effect of the cq dimensions on the association strength between esp and cross-cultural adjustment reveals that those expatriates who are more motivated to integrate into the new culture are similarly enthused by and exploit more fully the efforts of their employers to assist with work integration. in addition, those expatriates who have knowledge about foreign cultures and increased ability to process cultural knowledge are less dependent on, and derive reduced benefit from, dedicated support provided by their employers when embarking on international work assignments. in pursuing cross-cultural adjustment, cq is an indispensable competence. theme 2: cross-cultural training and experiential learning stimulate cultural intelligence although training interventions were shown to advance cq and, in particular, all of metacognitive, cognitive and behavioural cq, it is important that training programmes be carefully designed to ensure both the thoroughness and applicability of their content. the duration of training, though, appears to be less of a factor. experiential learning-type interventions are a key mechanism through which cq may be developed in that they positively impact each of the cq dimensions. to promote the study of international business, educators should directly target the enhancement of students’ higher-order cognitive cultural processing skills (metacognitive cq) and desire to engage in intercultural exchanges (motivational cq). cross-cultural training and experiential learning interventions should thus be employed when the aim is to cultivate cq. theme 3: cultural intelligence improves cross-cultural job performance, satisfaction, involvement and adaptation cq and each of its dimensions play a key role in promoting cross-cultural job performance. however, only two of the dimensions, metacognitive and behavioural cq, specifically influence task and contextual performance. without the display of culturally apposite behaviours, it is unlikely that a person will be considered to have functioned optimally during exchanges characterised by cultural diversity. the implication is that those persons who wish to ignite their work output and relationships with host country work colleagues should target the growth of their behavioural cq followed by their metacognitive cq capabilities. it is not only cross-cultural job performance but also job involvement and satisfaction that are positively influenced by a person’s cq and its dimensions. motivational and behavioural cq also positively impact adaptive performance. it follows on that the development of motivational and behavioural cq is key in enhancing one’s feelings of job involvement and satisfaction whilst also equipping one to adapt as work imperatives evolve. the findings regarding the negative moderating effect of openness on the relationship between (1) each of cognitive and motivational cq and (2) task performance may suggest that those persons who are open-minded need to pay special attention to completing the task at hand rather than becoming distracted by the cross-cultural interaction itself (duff et al., 2012). in preparing for a job in cross-cultural circumstances, persons should develop their levels of cq with specific attention to the metacognitive and behavioural dimensions thereof. theme 4: international experience and exposure progress cultural intelligence opportunities to experience foreign cultures, be they leisure or of a work-related nature, impact positively the development of a person’s cq. the reason why the leisure interactions influence all of the cq dimensions whilst the work exchanges only affect metacognitive and cognitive cq could be that leisure activities offer a greater assortment of interfaces and thus occasions through which cq may be developed. although longer periods of cross-cultural interactions allow for greater experience to be acquired leading to more developed cq levels, the value of short-term opportunities to interface cross-culturally should not be underestimated. interestingly, although cognitive cq was positively influenced by working in an overseas department within the home country, for metacognitive cq to be similarly influenced, the individual needed to have actually interacted with foreign nationals in his or her home country. these findings indicate that where an opportunity was availed to acquire cultural knowledge, knowledge acquisition took place but the actual processing thereof only materialised when expatriates were required to really use such knowledge (i.e. when interactions with foreigners occurred). it is submitted that the negative effect of ongoing exchanges with co-expatriates on cognitive, motivational and behavioural cq is because such exchanges essentially serve to entrench cross-cultural stereotypes and misconceptions (in respect of cognitive and behavioural cq) whilst familiarity breeds inertia (in respect of motivational cq). experiencing other cultures, particularly in a non-work context, assists in cq improvement, especially where persons engage in actual interactions with those native to such cultures. theme 5: cultural intelligence advances cross-cultural team knowledge sharing, performance and development of shared values whilst team trust enhances cultural intelligence to build an effective team, members need to collaborate in the sharing of knowledge. to this end, all of the cq dimensions, with the exception of behavioural cq, fuel information distribution in multi-cultural teams. a possible reason why behavioural cq only indirectly influences knowledge sharing may be because of behaviour being the physical display of (or failure to display) applicable knowledge, that is, behaviour occurs as a result of knowledge. the fact that metacognitive, cognitive and motivational cq stimulate and encourage knowledge sharing amongst team members is expected as metacognitive and cognitive cq represent intellectual processing and cultural knowledge, whilst motivational cq depicts, amongst others, the desire and effort to acquire cultural knowledge. in building a base of common values for the team, focus should centre on expanding the ability of team members to process how their culturally heterogeneous colleagues think as well as displaying culturally appropriate behaviours. as trust between team members grows, it is not unreasonable to expect that they will increasingly be pre-disposed to sharing aspects of their respective cultures with their co-workers and hence team member cq improves. individual team member cq is thus especially necessary to ensure the successful building and functioning of multi-cultural teams. theme 6: cultural intelligence predicts international leadership potential, effectiveness and styles leadership is a function of culture (steers, sanchez-runde & nardon, 2012) and, as cq assists one to function effectively across the cultural gamut, it is rational that cq would be associated with international leadership potential, leadership effectiveness across borders (i.e. spanning at least two national cultures) and leadership of teams whose members are culturally dissimilar. apart from the positive relationship between democratic leadership and motivational cq, only transformational leaders are, however, associated with having cq. the inference is that when organisations select leaders required to operate in crossor multi-cultural environments, they should pursue and select those persons who premise their leadership upon the formulation of a vision of the future and who are adept in arousing their followers to action in the realisation of such vision, that is, leaders who are transformational. similarly, being culturally intelligent allows transformational leaders to better assist their expatriate followers in adapting to the host country as well as improving their work outputs whilst organisational innovation is advanced. limitations and recommendations the primary limitation of this systematic review is that it is possible that some material satisfying the inclusion criteria may not have been identified. despite the broad examination of various databases, it is conceivable that some cq empirical studies may only have been referenced in databases not scanned. furthermore, unpublished reports and theses were not considered. it was also not feasible to report on and discuss all of the truth statements, given space restrictions. it is recommended that future efforts to explore cq truths should target those themes that exhibited a low truth statement ratio because they are reflective of the areas in which cq has not acted in a manner consistent with that anticipated. such themes cover leadership, communication and self-efficacy in particular. equally, attention should be devoted to further investigating the relationship between cq and other concepts in those themes which, despite having demonstrated a high truth statement percentage, only incorporated a relatively small number of hypotheses. these themes pertain to psychological capital and collaborative dealings. the ‘not classified’ group offers an additional area of cq truths that could be specifically examined. conclusion the purpose of this study was to report on cq truths. with this in mind, the cq truth statements identified, through the systematic review performed, are representative of truth per the correspondence theory and are typical of knowledge that is found in the second world of the three-world structure of mouton (1996). whilst the cq truths appear to be mostly confined to a narrow band of themes, a further 18% of the truth statements locate within the ‘not classified’ group, evidencing the prevalence of a somewhat diverse array of cq truths. cq truths reveal that cross-cultural training, experiential learning interventions, international experience (both work and leisure related) and trust building (amongst team members) act as levers that the business community may employ in order to promote staff member cq development. individual level cq contributes to cross-cultural adjustment, job performance, satisfaction, involvement and adaption, team knowledge sharing and team performance. similarly, cq instructs the potential of international leaders and is positively linked to cross-border leadership effectiveness. this study has thus achieved its purpose in that the cq truths have now been identified, organised and reported on. the results will assist scholars in directing future enquiry whilst at the same time facilitating an improved comprehension of cq by business professionals. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.s. performed the literature search, data extraction and prepared the manuscript. r.s. provided conceptual and design input as well as commentary on the manuscript drafts. references adair, w.l., hideg, i., & spence, j.r. (2013). the culturally intelligent team: the impact of team cultural intelligence and cultural heterogeneity on team shared values. journal of cross-cultural psychology, 44(6), 941–962. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022113492894 alon, i., boulanger, m., elston, j.a., galanaki, e., de ibarreta, c.m., meyers, j., et al. (2016). business cultural intelligence quotient: a five-country study. thunderbird international business review, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1002/tie.21826 ang, s., van dyne, l., koh, c., ng, k.y., templer, k.j., tay, c., & chandrasekar, n.a. (2007). cultural intelligence: its measurement and effects on cultural judgment and decision making, cultural adaptation and task performance. management & organization review, 3(3), 335–371. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8784.2007.00082.x ang, s., van dyne, l., & rockstuhl, t. (2015). cultural intelligence – origins, conceptualization, evolution, and methodological diversity. in m.j. gelfand, c. chiu & y. hong (eds.), handbook of advances in culture psychology (pp. 273–323). new york: oxford university press. babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2011). the practice of social research. (1st ed.) cape town: oxford university press southern africa. badenas, r. (2012). looking for (present) truth. dialogue, 24(3), 8–12. bovornusvakool, w., ardichvili, a., & rana, s. (2015). cultural intelligence: a review of the literature. in ufhrd conference (pp. 1–30), ireland, university college cork. bücker, j.j.l.e., furrer, o., poutsma, e., & buyens, d. (2014). the impact of cultural intelligence on communication effectiveness, job satisfaction and anxiety for chinese host country managers working for foreign multinationals. the international journal of human resource management, 25(14), 2068–2087. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.870293 burke, s. (2015). disarmament, demobilization and reintegration sequencing: a systematic review of lessons learned. retrieved january 10, 2017, from https://ssrn.com/abstract=2602720 chen, a.s. (2015). cq at work and the impact of intercultural training: an empirical test among foreign laborers. international journal of intercultural relations, 47, 101–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2015.03.029 chen, a.s., lin, y., & sawangpattanakul, a. (2011). the relationship between cultural intelligence and performance with the mediating effect of culture shock: a case from philippine laborers in taiwan. international journal of intercultural relations, 35, 246–258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2010.09.005 chen, a.s., wu, i., & bian, m. (2014). the moderating effects of active and agreeable conflict management styles on cultural intelligence and cross-cultural adjustment. international journal of cross cultural management, 14(3), 270–288. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470595814525064 chen, m., & lin, c. (2013). assessing the effects of cultural intelligence on team knowledge sharing from a socio-cognitive perspective. human resource management, 52(5), 675–695. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21558 cronin, p., ryan, f., & coughlan, m. (2008). undertaking a literature review: a step-by-step approach. british journal of nursing, 17(1), 38–43. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2008.17.1.28059 crossan, m.m., & apaydin, m. (2010). a multi-dimensional framework of organizational innovation: a systematic review of the literature. journal of management studies, 47(6), 1154–1191. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2009.00880.x crowne, k.a. (2013). cultural exposure, emotional intelligence, and cultural intelligence: an exploratory study. international journal of cross cultural management, 13(1), 5–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470595812452633 de vos, a.s., strydom, h., fouche, c.b., & delport, c.s.l. (2013). research at grass roots. pretoria: van schaik. du plessis, y. (2011). cultural intelligence as managerial competence. alternation, 18(1), 28–46. duff, a.j., tahbaz, a., & chan, c. (2012). the interactive effect of cultural intelligence and openness on task performance. research & practice in human resource management, 20(1), 97–113. earley, p.c. (2002). redefining interactions across cultures and organizations: moving forward with cultural intelligence. research in organizational behavior, 24, 271–299. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0191-3085(02)24008-3 earley, p.c., & ang, s. (2003). cultural intelligence: individual interactions across cultures. stanford, ca: stanford university press. eisenberg, j., lee, h.j., bruck, f., brenner, b., claes, m.t., mironski, j., & bell, r. (2013). can business schools make students culturally competent? effects of cross-cultural management courses on cultural intelligence. academy of management learning & education, 12(4), 603–621. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2012.0022 eken, i., özturgut, o., & craven, a.e. (2014). leadership styles and cultural intelligence. journal of leadership, accountability and ethics, 11(3), 154–165. elenkov, d.s., & manev, i.m. (2009). senior expatriate leadership’s effects on innovation and the role of cultural intelligence. journal of world business, 44(4), 357–369. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2008.11.001 engle, r.l., & crowne, k.a. (2014). the impact of international experience on cultural intelligence: an application of contact theory in a structured short-term programme. human resource development international, 17(1), 30–46. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2013.856206 erez, m., lisak, a., harush, r., glikson, e., nouri, r., & shokef, e. (2013). going global: developing management students’ cultural intelligence and global identity in culturally diverse virtual teams. academy of management learning & education, 12(3), 330–355. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2012.0200 fox, n. j. (2004). qualitative data analysis: har6010 (taught unit from msc in health and social care research). sheffield: university of sheffield. fuchs, s. (1992). the professional quest for truth – a social theory of science and knowledge. albany, ny: state university of new york press. galinon, h. (2015). deflationary truth: conservativity or logicality? the philosophical quarterly, 65(259), 268–274. https://doi.org/10.1093/pq/pqu087 gardner, h. (1993). multiple intelligences: the theory in practice. new york: basic books. gardner, h. (2011). frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. new york: basic books. glanzberg, m. (2014). truth. in the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy, fall. retrieved september 12, 2015, from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2014/entries/truth/ groves, k.s., & feyerherm, a.e. (2011). leader cultural intelligence in context: testing the moderating effects of team cultural diversity on leader and team performance. group & organization management, 36(5), 535–566. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601111415664 groves, k.s., feyerherm, a.e., & gu, m. (2015). examining cultural intelligence and cross-cultural negotiation effectiveness. journal of management education, 39(2), 209–243. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562914543273 guðmundsdóttir, s. (2015). nordic expatriates in the us: the relationship between cultural intelligence and adjustment. international journal of intercultural relations, 47, 175–186. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2015.05.001 huff, k.c. (2013). language, cultural intelligence and expatriate success. management research review, 36(6), 596–612. https://doi.org/10.1108/01409171311325750 huff, k.c., song, p., & gresch, e.b. (2014). cultural intelligence, personality, and cross-cultural adjustment: a study of expatriates in japan. international journal of intercultural relations, 38, 151–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2013.08.005 ismail, a.m., reza, r., & mahdi, s. (2012). analysis the relationship between cultural intelligence and transformational leadership. international journal of business and social science, 3(14), 252–261. jyoti, j., & kour, s. (2015). assessing the cultural intelligence and task performance equation. cross cultural management, 22(2), 236–258. https://doi.org/10.1108/ccm-04-2013-0072 kable, a.k., pich, j. & maslin-prothero, s.e. (2012). a structured approach to documenting a search strategy for publication: a 12 step guideline for authors. nurse education today, 32(8), 878–886. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2012.02.022 keung, e.k., & rockinson-szapkiw, a.j. (2013). the relationship between transformational leadership and cultural intelligence – a study of international school leaders. journal of educational administration, 51(6), 836–854. https://doi.org/10.1108/jea-04-2012-0049 kim, y.j., & van dyne, l. (2012). cultural intelligence and international leadership potential: the importance of contact for members of the majority. applied psychology: an international review, 61(2), 272–294. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2011.00468.x klenke, k. (2009). trilogy of the leader’s mind: emotional, cultural and spiritual intelligences. journal of management systems, 21(1), 1–30. konanahalli, a., oyedele, l.o., spillane, j., coates, r., von meding, j., & ebohon, j. (2014). cross-cultural intelligence (cq) – it’s impact on british expatriate adjustment on international construction projects. international journal of managing projects in business, 7(3), 423–448. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-10-2012-0062 kumar, n., rose, r.c., & subramaniam, n.k. (2008). the effects of personality and cultural intelligence on international assignment effectiveness: a review. journal of social sciences, 4(4), 320–328. https://doi.org/10.3844/jssp.2008.320.328 lee, l.y., & sukoco, b.m. (2010). the effects of cultural intelligence on expatriate performance: the moderating effects of international experience. the international journal of human resource management, 21(7), 963–981. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585191003783397 lee, l.y., veasna, s., & wu, w.y. (2013). the effects of social support and transformational leadership on expatriate adjustment and performance – the moderating roles of socialization experience and cultural intelligence. career development international, 18(4), 377–415. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi-06-2012-0062 leplin, j. (1981). truth and scientific progress. studies in history and philosophy of science part a, 12(4), 269–291. https://doi.org/10.1016/0039-3681(81)90018-2 li, m., mobley, w.h., & kelly, a. (2013). when do global leaders learn best to develop cultural intelligence? an investigation of the moderating role of experiential learning style. academy of management learning & education, 12(1), 32–50. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2011.0014 lin, y., chen, a.s., & song, y. (2012). does your intelligence help to survive in a foreign jungle? the effects of cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence on cross-cultural adjustment. international journal of intercultural relations, 36(4), 541–552. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2012.03.001 macnab, b.r. (2012). an experiential approach to cultural intelligence education. journal of management education, 36(1), 66–94. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562911412587 malek, m.m., & budhwar, p. (2013). cultural intelligence as a predictor of expatriate adjustment and performance in malaysia. journal of world business, 48(2), 222–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2012.07.006 marian, d. (2015). the correspondence theory of truth. in the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy, fall. retrieved september 12, 2015, from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2015/entries/truth-correspondence/ moon, t. (2013). the effects of cultural intelligence on performance in multicultural teams. journal of applied social psychology, 43(12), 2414–2425. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12189 moon, h.k., choi, b.k., & jung, j.s. (2012). previous international experience, cross-cultural training, and expatriates’ cross-cultural adjustment: effects of cultural intelligence and goal orientation. human resource development quarterly, 23(3), 285–330. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21131 moon, h.k., choi, b.k., & jung, j.s. (2013). comprehensive examination on antecedents of cultural intelligence: case of south korea. personnel review, 42(4), 440–465. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-10-2011-0146 morrell, d.l., ravlin, e.c., ramsey, j.r., & ward, a.k. (2013). past experience, cultural intelligence, and satisfaction with international business studies. journal of teaching in international business, 24(1), 31–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/08975930.2013.810064 mouton, j. (1996). understanding social research. pretoria: van schaik. mouton, j. (2013). how to succeed in your master’s & doctoral studies. (1st ed.). pretoria: van schaik. ng, k.y., van dyne, l., & ang, s. (2009). from experience to experiential learning: cultural intelligence as a learning capability for global leader development. academy of management learning & education, 8(4), 511–526. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2009.47785470 nightingale, a. (2009). a guide to systematic literature reviews. surgery, 27(9), 381–384. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mpsur.2009.07.005 olckers, c., & du plessis, y. (2012). the role of psychological ownership in retaining talent: a systematic literature review. sa journal of human resource management, 10(2), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.415 o’neil, s., & koekemoer, e. (2016). two decades of qualitative research in psychology, industrial and organisational psychology and human resource management within south africa: a critical review. sa journal of industrial psychology, 42(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v42i1.1350 peng, a.c., van dyne, l., & oh, k. (2014). the influence of motivational cultural intelligence on cultural effectiveness based on study abroad: the moderating role of participant’s cultural identity. journal of management education, 39(5), 572–596. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562914555717 presbitero, a. (2016). cultural intelligence (cq) in virtual, cross-cultural interactions: generalizability of measure and links to personality dimensions and task performance. international journal of intercultural relations, 50, 29–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2015.11.001 ramalu, s.s., rose, r.c., kumar, n., & uli, j. (2010). doing business in global arena: an examination of the relationship between cultural intelligence and cross-cultural adjustment. asian academy of management journal, 15(1), 79–97. ramalu, s.s., rose, r.c., uli, j., & kumar, n. (2012). cultural intelligence and expatriate performance in global assignment: the mediating role of adjustment. international journal of business & society, 13(1), 19–32. ramalu, s.s., wei, c.c., & rose, r.c. (2011). the effects of cultural intelligence on cross-cultural adjustment and job performance amongst expatriates in malaysia. international journal of business and social science, 2(9), 59–71. ramsey, j.r., barakat, l.l., & aad, a.a. (2014). commitment to the study of international business and cultural intelligence: a multilevel model. journal of teaching in international business, 25(4), 267–282. https://doi.org/10.1080/08975930.2014.902349 rehg, m.t., gundlach, m.j., & grigorian, r.a. (2012). examining the influence of cross-cultural training on cultural intelligence and specific self-efficacy. cross cultural management, 19(2), 215–232. https://doi.org/10.1108/13527601211219892 rockstuhl, t., seiler, s., ang, s., van dyne, l., & annen, h. (2011). beyond general intelligence (iq) and emotional intelligence (eq): the role of cultural intelligence (cq) on cross-border leadership effectiveness in a globalized world. journal of social issues, 67(4), 825–840. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2011.01730.x rose, r.c., ramalu, s.s., uli, j., & kumar, n. (2010). expatriate performance in international assignments: the role of cultural intelligence as dynamic intercultural competency. international journal of business and management, 5(8), 76–85. rosenblatt, v., worthley, r., & macnab, b.r. (2013). from contact to development in experiential cultural intelligence education: the mediating influence of expectancy disconfirmation. academy of management learning & education, 12(3), 356–379. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2012.0199 ross, s.m. (2010). introductory statistics. burlington: elsevier. ryan, g.w., & bernard, h.r. (2003). techniques to identify themes. field methods, 15(1), 85–109. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822x02239569 şahin, f., & gürbüz, s. (2014). cultural intelligence as a predictor of individuals’ adaptive performance: a study in a multicultural environment. international area studies review, 17(4), 394–413. https://doi.org/10.1177/2233865914550727 şahin, f., gürbüz, s., & köksal, o. (2014). cultural intelligence (cq) in action: the effects of personality and international assignment on the development of cq. international journal of intercultural relations, 39, 152–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2013.11.002 scholarly open access. (2015). beall’s list. retrieved august 5, 2015, from http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/ scholz, t.m. (2012). talent management in the video game industry: the role of cultural diversity and cultural intelligence. thunderbird international business review, 54(6), 845–858. https://doi.org/10.1002/tie.21507 schutte, f. & steyn, r. (2015). the scientific building blocks for business coaching: a literature review. sa journal of human resource management, 13(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.657 serials solutions. (2015). ulrichsweb global serials directory. retrieved august 05, 2015, from http://0-ulrichsweb.serialssolutions.com.oasis.unisa.ac.za/ sloan, a.w. (1979). the nature of science. transactions of the royal society of south africa, 44(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/00359197909520075 srnka, k.j., & koeszegi, s.t. (2007). from words to numbers: how to transform qualitative data into meaningful quantitative results. schmalenbach business review, 59, 29–57. steers, r.m., sanchez-runde, c., & nardon, l. (2012). leadership in a global context: new directions in research and theory development. journal of world business, 47, 479–482. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2012.01.001 stoljar, d., & damnjanovic, n. (2014). the deflationary theory of truth. in the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy, fall. retrieved september 12, 2015, from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2014/entries/truth-deflationary/ sutherland, a., edgar, d., & duncan, p. (2015). international infusion in practice – from cultural awareness to cultural intelligence. journal of perspectives in applied academic practice, 3(3), 32–40. https://doi.org/10.14297/jpaap.v3i3.188 templer, k.j., tay, c., & chandrasekar, n.a. (2006). motivational cultural intelligence, realistic job preview, realistic living conditions preview, and cross-cultural adjustment. group & organization management, 31(1), 154–173. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601105275293 thomas, d.c. (2006). domain and development of cultural intelligence – the importance of mindfulness. group & organization management, 31(1), 78–99. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601105275266 thomas, d.c., elron, e., stahl, g., ekelund, b.z., ravlin, e.c., cerdin, j., et al. (2008). cultural intelligence: domain and assessment. international journal of cross cultural management, 8(2), 123–143. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470595808091787 thomas, d.c., & inkson, k. (2005). cultural intelligence – people skills for a global workplace. consulting to management, 16(1), 5–9. tuleja, e.a. (2014). developing cultural intelligence for global leadership through mindfulness. journal of teaching in international business, 25(1), 5–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/08975930.2014.881275 weingart, p. (2002). the moment of truth for science. embo reports, 3(8), 703–706. https://doi.org/10.1093/embo-reports/kvf165 whetten, d.a. (1989). what constitutes a theoretical contribution? the academy of management review, 14(4), 490–495. https://doi.org/10.2307/258554 wood, e.d., & st peters, h.y.z. (2014). short-term cross-cultural study tours: impact on cultural intelligence. the international journal of human resource management, 25(4), 558–570. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.796315 wu, p., & ang, s.h. (2011). the impact of expatriate supporting practices and cultural intelligence on cross-cultural adjustment and performance of expatriates in singapore. the international journal of human resource management, 22(13), 2683–2702. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.599956 yeşil, s. (2013). the impact of cultural intelligence (cq) on cross-cultural job satisfaction (ccjs) and international related performance (irp). journal of culture, society and development, 1, 41–54. young, j. (2015). the coherence theory of truth. in the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy, fall. retrieved september 12, 2015, from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2015/entries/truth-coherence/ abstract introduction research theoretical framework research methodology findings discussion and conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) javad afshari college of nursing and midwifery, zabol university of medical sciences, iran zahra moein college of nursing and midwifery, zabol university of medical sciences, iran farzad afshari college of nursing and midwifery, zabol university of medical sciences, iran javad sharifi-rad phytochemistry research center, shahid beheshti university of medical sciences, iran abbas balouchi college of nursing and midwifery, zabol university of medical sciences, iran azam afshari college of nursing and midwifery, zabol university of medical sciences, iran citation afshari, j., moein, z., afshari, f., sharifi-rad, j., balouchi, a., & afshari, a. (2017). a comparison of leadership styles with respect to biographical characteristics. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a817. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.817 original research a comparison of leadership styles with respect to biographical characteristics javad afshari, zahra moein, farzad afshari, javad sharifi-rad, abbas balouchi, azam afshari received: 14 may 2016; accepted: 22 nov. 2016; published: 12 apr. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract research purpose: managers, when applying their leadership styles, are affected by some of their own traits. this article intends to compare the leadership styles of the managers of zabol university of medical sciences with respect to hersey and blanchard model that was based on their biographical characteristics. research design, approach and method: the research methodology is descriptive-causal and comparative. the data were collected from 300 individuals (124 female and 176 male participants). main findings: no significant difference was observed between the directive, persuasive, participative and delegative leadership styles of male and female managers. however, there was a significant difference between the mean of the directive, persuasive, participative and delegative leadership styles of managers, considering their work experience, education level and field of study. research limitations: the conservative atmosphere in university environments may affect the manager’s responses to the questionnaire; therefore, in the generalisation of the results, this issue should be taken into account. practical implications: it is recommended to hold in-service courses for managers who have a lower education level or less work experience or have been graduated from the fields of study other than the management major. it is also suggested to pay attention to the managers’ fields of study and managerial experiences at the time of employment. contribution: this study enhances the quality of managers’ leadership style and consequently increases the productivity in university environments. introduction many experts in management and organisation believe that leadership style is one of the most important elements in the managers’ success, which can be gradually established based on their experience, education, training and the system of values and beliefs (hersey & blanchard, 2005). many experts and scholars believe that if there is to be only one factor to distinguish between successful and unsuccessful organisations, that factor will be the dynamic and effective leadership (mirsepasi, 2005). considering the role of education in the progress and development of a country, organisational managers, particularly university managers, can interact with their subordinates through selecting the appropriate leadership style and recognising all the factors effective in the education process and university management. they can also provide the context for an effective implementation of plans and achievement of goals through enhancing the employees’ morale and making them connected to vocational and personal objectives and motivating them to work; thereby, managers will be able to successfully accomplish educational activities and provide a desirable productivity in their employees. evidently in organisations, where managers do not select an appropriate leadership style, there will be a conflict among the employees. the organisation’s atmosphere will be tedious and employees will despise it, and consequently, the organisation’s efficiency will be decreased (khalkhali, shakibaei & andesh, 2011). an effective leadership style is selected according to the different conditions, about which a capable manager should have a rich understanding in order to exploit them to their best advantage. university managers are in contact with the special people, who demand a particular type of management. in general, an individual’s leadership style is defined by his or her behavioural pattern for influencing others’ activities; this type of leadership is a combination of task orientation and relationship orientation. these two types of advocating task and advocating relationship are among the main components of leadership styles (robinson, 2010). the importance of leadership in organisations has caused thinkers and scholars of management to attempt to discover the features and characteristics of successful managers in organisations and always try to specify the characteristics in organisations. previous research results indicate that managers’ use of different leadership styles varies considerably. in this regard, van engen and willemsen (2004) and kolaric (2005) separately presented different results about the managers’ selection method for leadership styles. their research results showed that there are different relationships between the managers’ leadership styles and some of their personal traits. davis (2002), while studying the managers’ leadership style, obtained the following results: whereas only 28.9% of managers used the evolutionary leadership style, 62.7% of educators applied the evolutionary leadership style. in addition, he realised that there is no significant relationship between the leadership style and the years of experience. added to that, there is no meaningful relationship between the leadership style and the education level. gharaeini and abbaszadeh (2009) comprehended that there is a significant difference between the leadership style of male and female managers, and male managers use the relationship-oriented style more than female managers; but the leadership styles of managers, in accordance with their education level, were identical and no significant difference was noticed. khaksar (2002) concluded that there is no significant relationship between the effective behaviour of managers in boys’ and girls’ schools. mahboudi (2006) showed that there is a meaningful difference between the education level and the field of study of managers and their effectiveness; however, no significant difference was observed between the effectiveness of male and female managers. sheikh nezami (1997) conducted a study on school managers and concluded that female managers, compared to male managers, have more communication skills, but this difference was insignificant. in a study, entitled ‘a comparison of the performance of managers, graduated from the management major and the other fields, in the high schools of mashhad city’, ziraki (1997) expressed that managers, graduated from the management and educational administrative planning majors, compared to their counterpart, have a better performance in skills such as exploiting resources, taking decisions, innovation and accountability. hamidi and shoghli (2006) found that there is no significant difference between managers, graduated from the management major and those graduated from the other fields of study, in nine main roles, including evaluation, group leadership, organisation, teachers’ consultation, coordination, administrative planning, decision making, service provision, management and supervision. ettehadnejad (2001) concluded that from the teachers’ perspective, the education level, field of study and management experience are not influential on their effective skills; however, in teachers’ view, there exists a significant difference between male and female managers in the domain of professional, technical, perceptional and human effective skills (wafa, ramaya & hoon, 2005). wafa, in his study on the leaders’ behaviour and the leadership effectiveness, which was carried out among the high school managers, perceived that there is a significant difference between the teachers’ viewpoint about the leadership effectiveness of male and female managers; however, no significant relationship was reported between the race, field of study, and education level of managers and the managers’ effectiveness. robinson (1996) spotted a significant difference when comparing the teachers’ viewpoint on the leadership effectiveness of the elementary school managers based on their age, gender and ethnicity. jafari and yousefnejad (2002) indicated that there is no significant difference between the leadership style of male and female managers, whereas hyler linda (1993) showed that there is a difference between the leadership style of male and female managers. research theoretical framework the concept of leadership there are different definitions for leadership, each of which clarifies an aspect of the leadership operation and process. in this article, it has been attempted to state different definitions in order to achieve a more thorough understanding. leadership is defined as the ability to influence the group and direct it towards the intended goals. it is a source of the influencing power and has an official nature, like leaning on the bench of management. furthermore, it is worth stating that not all leaders are managers and not all managers are leaders (robinson, 2010). leadership is a structured unit, consisting of the current needs. in leadership, participation is the key and the most important aspect. moreover, identifying the weaknesses, strengths, threats and opportunities is an indispensable element for leadership. the leader gives feedbacks about his or her daily jobs and will be the pioneer, whenever necessary (bennis, 1999). leadership style hersey and blanchard believe that personality and style are synonyms and in their view, one’s personality or style is defined as the behavioural pattern she or he shows when directing the activities of others (alagheband, 2006). considering the variable nature of human behaviours in different conditions, it can be realised that the leadership style or method is variable and one single style cannot be adopted in all conditions for all institutions and organisations. therefore, a manager’s leadership style is to be related to his or her assumptions about the human’s nature and the people in the organisation with whom she or he works. every manager has some assumptions about the nature of the people around him, such as the subordinates, peers and bosses. these assumptions consciously or unconsciously affect his or her decisions, behaviours and in general his or her style (griffin & moorhead, 2011). hersey and blanchard’s situational theory situational leadership is a contingency theory, which concentrates on the followers and subordinates of a leader. the goal of this focus is related to this fact that a leader’s success and effectiveness originally result from the followers, who accept or reject him or her. regardless of what a leader does, his or her success rate depends on his or her followers’ reaction. the method, presented by hersey and blanchard, is based on the maturity level or the readiness level of followers. in general, readiness reflects how much ability and willingness a follower has for performing a task. hersey and blanchard specified four stages for obtaining this readiness: in the first stage, individuals are neither willing, nor able to take the responsibility of performing a task. in the second stage, individuals are not able to perform the tasks, but they are ready and willing to take the responsibility. in the third stage, individuals have the ability to do the tasks, but they are not willing to do what the leader says. in the fourth stage, individuals have the ability and willingness to do what they are asked to do (hersey & blanchard, 2005). situational leadership applies the two dimensions, specified by fiedler; that is, the leader’s behaviour according to the focus on the task or on the employee. hersey and blanchard have gone further and placed each dimension in one end of the spectrum and then four special leadership styles were created by integrating them: directing (more attention to work – less attention to employee): the leader defines the tasks and tells the employees how, when and where to perform what task. in this method, the instructions are much focused. persuasion (more attention to work – more attention to employee): the leader continues giving instructions in order to make the individual more familiar to his or her tasks; but the leader’s attention to the person him or herself has increased. participation (less attention to work – more attention to employee): the leader and follower both participate in the decision-making process. the main role of the leader is to increase the pace of performing tasks and the communication speed. delegation (less attention to work – less attention to employee): the leader gives no instruction or directive about the task or for the sake of supporting the employees (mirsepasi, 2005). when the followers are at a high level of readiness, the leader not only lessens his or her control on the tasks but also attempts to reconsider his or her behaviour and in other words supports the employees less than before. for example, in the first stage of readiness, the leader should give clear instructions to his or her followers, such as the instructions presented by the directive leadership style. in the second stage, the leader should pay much more attention to task and employees. by focusing more on the task, the employees’ lack of readiness and ability will be compensated, and by focusing more on employees, they will also attempt to mentally compensate the leader’s favours and fulfil his or her demands. in the third stage, the motivational issues are raised, which will be solved in the best way in the participative leadership style. finally, in the fourth stage, the leader should not do much work because the followers are willing and able to take the responsibilities (robinson, 2010). the necessity of the leadership style for managers many experts of management and organisation believe that leadership style is one of the most important elements in the success of managers, which is gradually established based on their experience, education, training and the system of values and beliefs (hersey & blanchard, 2005). the leadership style and the decisions taken by managers affect the organisation’s performance from top to bottom. this factor leads to the organisation’s success or failure because in addition to the other internal factors of the organisation’s atmosphere, it also affects and controls the external factors (khalkhali et al., 2011). research methodology the present article is a descriptive-comparative study. the data collection method is the library-field method. statistical population of this research includes the male and female managers and employees at zabol university of medical sciences. the number of managers is 52 (12 women and 40 men) and the number of employees is 1300 (537 women and 763 men). the sample size for managers is 52 individuals, determined by census; and the sample size for employees is 300 individuals including 124 females and 176 males, determined by the stratified random sampling based on the morgan table. in order to evaluate the leadership style, 40 managers with 6 employees from their subset, and 12 managers with 5 employees from their subset were selected. in order to gather the required information, two questionnaires were used as follows: demographic information questionnaire, including gender, age, education level, field of study, and work experience. leadership style questionnaire: in order to evaluate the leadership style, the leadership effectiveness and adaptability description questionnaire, based on the situational leadership theory of hersey and blanchard, was used. the questionnaire consists of 12 questions, which measure the four leadership styles of directive, persuasive, participative and delegative. with a 4-scale ranking, this questionnaire has been set with the priorities 1–4. it is worth mentioning that the content validity of this questionnaire has been previously determined in the iranian society with the reliability coefficient of 0.92 in hasanian (2004) and 0.76 in nooraee et al. (2006). in this study, in order to confirm the reliability of the questionnaire, 25 questionnaires were distributed among the employees of zabol university of medical sciences, and after collecting them, the cronbach’s alpha coefficient was obtained 0.84; therefore, the reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed. the questions and the reliability coefficient of each style in the questionnaire are presented in table 1. table 1: the questionnaire items and reliability coefficients. each individual’s score is calculated on the whole scale as follows: if the questionnaire scores are between 12 and 24, the application of the directive, persuasive, participative and delegative leadership styles is at a weak level; if it is between 25 and 36, it is at an average level; and if it is higher than 37, the application of the directive, persuasive, participative and delegative leadership styles is at a very high level. findings the first hypothesis: hypothesis 1: there is a difference between the leadership style of male and female managers. independent t-test was used to study the difference between the leadership style of male and female managers. the results are presented in table 2. table 2: studying the difference between the leadership style of male and female managers. findings of table 2 show that no significant difference was observed between the directive, persuasive, participative and delegative leadership styles of male and female managers, at the confidence level of 95% and with the t-test values of 1.47, 1.04, 0.29 and 0.21, respectively (p < 0.05, df = 51). the second hypothesis: hypothesis 2: there is a difference between the managers’ leadership style, with respect to their education level. one-way analysis of variance was used to study the difference between the managers’ leadership style with respect to their education level. the results are presented in table 3. table 3: results of the one-way analysis of variance of the thinking styles, with respect to the managers’ education level. according to table 3, in the directive style, based on the findings of the one-way analysis of variance and the observed f, with regard to the comparison of the average scores of managers and with respect to their education level, no significant difference was observed at the confidence level of 95% (p ≤ 0.05, f = 1.95). in the persuasive style, with regard to the difference in the average scores of managers, based on the findings of the one-way analysis of variance and the observed f, with respect to their education level, no significant difference was observed at the confidence level of 99% (p ≥ 0.01, f = 3.99). the highest average was obtained by the managers holding bachelor’s degrees. moreover, in the participative style, considering the difference in the average scores of managers, based on the findings of the one-way analysis of variance and the observed f, with regard to their education level, a significant difference was observed at the confidence level of 95% (p ≥ 0.05, f = 3.46). the highest average was obtained by the managers with the degrees higher than the master’s degree. in the delegative style, considering the difference in the average scores of managers, based on the findings of the one-way analysis of variance and the observed f, with regard to their education level, a significant difference was observed at the confidence level of 99% (p ≥ 0.01, f = 3.81). the highest average was obtained by the managers with the degrees, higher than the master’s degree. the third hypothesis: hypothesis 3: there is a difference between the managers’ leadership styles with respect to their work experience. one-way analysis of variance was used to study the difference between the managers’ leadership style with respect to their work experience. the results are presented in table 4. table 4: results of the one-way analysis of variance of leadership styles, with respect to the managers’ work experience. the results of table 4 with regard to the directive style of managers indicate that there is a significant difference between the managers’ average years of work experience, at the confidence level of 99% (p < 0.01, f = 7.37). the highest average score was obtained by the managers with 1–10 years of work experience. also, a significant difference with regard to the persuasive style of managers was observed between the managers’ average years of work experience, at the confidence level of 99% (p < 0.01, f = 6.82). the highest average score was obtained by the managers with 1–10 years of work experience. regarding the participative leadership style, a significant difference was observed between the managers’ average years of work experience, at the confidence level of 95% (p < 0.05, f = 3.48). the highest average score was obtained by the managers with more than 20 years of work experience. regarding the delegative leadership style, there is also a significant difference between the managers’ average years of work experience, at the confidence level of 99% (p < 0.01, f = 4.54). the highest average score was obtained by the managers with more than 20 years of work experience. the fourth hypothesis: hypothesis 4: there is a difference between the managers’ leadership style with respect to their field of study. the independent t-test was utilised to study the difference between the managers’ leadership style with respect to their field of study. the results are presented in table 5. table 5: studying the difference between leadership styles, with respect to the managers’ field of study. as can be seen in table 5, a significant difference was observed between the average leadership style of the managers, graduated from the management major and the other fields, at the confidence level of 99% (p < 0.01, df = 50, t = 3.17). the average score of the managers, graduated from the other fields is more than that of the managers, graduated from the management major. moreover, a significant difference was observed between the average score of the persuasive leadership style of the managers, graduated from the management major and from the other fields, at the confidence level of 99% (p < 0.01, df = 50, t = 3.87). the average score of managers from the other fields is more than that of the managers from the management major. a significant difference was observed between the average score of the participative leadership style of the managers, graduated from the management major and from the other fields, at the confidence level of 99% (p < 0.01, df = 50, t = 3.29). the average score of managers from the management major is more than that of the managers from the other fields. additionally, a significant difference was observed between the average score of the delegative leadership style of the managers, graduated from the management major and from the other fields, at the confidence level of 99% (p < 0.01, df = 50, t = 4.21). the average score of managers from the management major is more than that of the managers from the other fields. discussion and conclusion in the present study, no significant difference was observed between the directive, persuasive, participative and delegate leadership styles of male and female managers. this finding conforms to the findings of khaksar (2002), who concluded that there is no significant difference between the effective behaviour of managers in boys’ and girls’ schools. it is also in agreement with the study by mahboudi (2006), who indicated that there is no meaningful difference between the effectiveness of male and female managers. it is also in conformity with the work of sheikh nezami (1997), who mentioned that female managers, compared to male managers, have better communication skills, but this difference is insignificant. however, the present article conclusion does not conform to the findings of gharaeini and abbaszadeh (2009), who comprehended that there is a difference between the leadership style of male and female managers, and also wafa et al. (2005), who stated that there is a significant difference between the teachers’ opinions on the leadership effectiveness of male and female managers. furthermore, the findings of the second hypothesis showed that in the directive style, no significant difference was observed between the average scores of managers, with respect to their education level. despite this, in the persuasive style, a significant difference was observed between managers with respect to their education level. managers with a bachelor’s degree have used the persuasive style more than the other styles. also, a significant difference was observed between the participative and delegate styles of managers with respect to their education level. the managers, with the degrees higher than the master’s degree, have used the participative and delegative styles more than the other styles. these results conform to the findings of van engen and willemsen (2004) and kolaric (2005), who found that there are different relationships between the managers’ leadership styles and some of their personal traits. in addition, it is in agreement with the work of mahboudi (2006), who indicated that there is a significant difference between the managers’ education level and effectiveness. the results do not conform to the results of wafa et al. (2005) and davis (2002), who expressed that there is no significant difference between the managers’ education level and their effectiveness and leadership style. moreover, the findings of the third hypothesis exhibited that there is a significant difference between the managers’ directive, persuasive, participative and delegative leadership styles and their years of work experience. the managers, with 1–10 years of work experience, have used the directive and persuasive styles more than the other styles. in addition, the managers with more than 20 years of work experience have used the participative and delegative styles more than the other styles. these results conform to the findings of van engen and willemsen (2004) and kolaric (2005), who indicated that there are different relationships between the managers’ leadership styles and their personal traits. in addition, it is in conformity to the work of kolagari, modanloo and behnampor (2007), who found that experience affects the managers’ performance. findings of the fourth hypothesis indicated that there is a significant difference between the directive, persuasive, participative and delegative leadership styles of the managers, graduated from the management major and those from the other fields. the managers from the other fields utilised the directive and persuasive styles more than the managers from the management major. most of the managers graduated from the management major have used the participative and delegative styles more than the other styles. these results conform to the findings of mahboudi (2006), who found that there is a significant difference between managers’ field of study and effectiveness. moreover, it is in conformity to the research of ziraki (1997), who concluded that the managers who graduated from the management and planning fields of study, compared to their peer group, have a better performance in the skills for exploitation of resources, decision making, innovation and accountability. added to that, these results do not conform to the results of hamidi and shoghli (2006), which shows that there isss no significant difference between the performance of the managers who graduated from the management major and the managers of other fields, in nine roles of evaluation, group leadership, organisation, teachers’ consultation, coordination, educational planning, decision making, service provision, management and supervision. also, they do not conform to the findings of ettehadnejad (2001), who concluded that in teachers’ view, managers’ field of study does not affect their effective skills, and also wafa et al. (2005), who mentioned that no significant difference is observed between the managers’ field of study and their effectiveness. given the research results, university heads are recommended to hold in-service courses for managers, who have lower education level and work experience and have been graduated from the fields of study other than the management major. they are also recommended to pay enough attention to the managers’ field of study and management background at the time of recruitment. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions j.a. and z.m. designed the study. j.a. and z.m. carried out the experiments. f.a., a.a., j.s-r. and a.b. analysed the results. j.a. and z.m. wrote the article and j.s-r. reviewed critically the manuscript. references alagheband, a. (2006). the theoretical foundations and principles of educational administration. tehran: mental publication. bennis, w. (1999). the end of leadership: exemplary leadership is impossible without full inclusion, initiatives, and cooperation of followers. organizational dynamics, 28, 71–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0090-2616(00)80008-x davis, d.j. (2002). an analysis of the perceived leadership styles and levels of satisfaction of selected junior college athletic directors and head coaches. the sport journal, 5, 13–17. ettehadnejad, s. (2001). according to the teachers about the skills of effective managers and its relationship academic achievement of high school students in shiraz. msc dissertation. iran: shiraz university. gharaeini, k., & abbaszadeh, s. (2009). the relationship between leadership styles and burnout urmia high school teachers in the academic year 85–86. journal of education, 3, 109–132. griffin, r., & moorhead, g. (2011). organizational behavior. (m. alvani & t. memarzadeh, gh., trans.). tehran: morvarid publication. hamidi, y., & shoghli, a. (2006). essential skills in the effectiveness of quality management at the university of medical sciences. payesh journal, 5, 289–294. hasanian, m. (2004). leadership styles of educating departments’ managers in medical science university of hamadan. iranian journal of medical education, 4, 108–112. hersey, p., & blanchard, k. (2005). organizational behavior management (human resources application). tehran: amir kabir publishing institute. hyler linda, r. (1993). leadership styles of secondary and elementary schools administrators in selected demographic variable. phd, ucla (university of california, los angeles, ca). jafari, e., & yusufnejad, f. (2002). comparing the performance of high school principals in isfahan and its relationship with the leadership style relationship-oriented, task-oriented. journal of knowledge and research in psychology, 13, 25–38. khaksar, r. (2002). to evaluate the effect of organizational climate on effective behavior management school for boys and girls high school teachers in the city of ardabil of view. msc, tarbiat moallem university. khalkhali, a., shakibaei, z. & andesh, m. 2011. meta-analysis on the impact of ict on teachers professional development. information and communication technology in educational sciences, 1, 165–183. kolagari, s.a., modanloo, a., & m.behnampor, n. (2007). compare specialized agricultural education administrators and medical universities in the province alerts impact of management concepts on performance management. journal of agricultural sciences and natural resources, 4, 158–168. kolaric, b. (2005). an examination of coaches and their efforts to maximize team cohesion and team satisfaction. department of psychology senior thesis. goffstown, nh: saint anselm college. mahboudi, m. (2006). the relationship between organizational skills, time management and organizational effectiveness district 2 middle school in shiraz. master’s thesis. iran: shiraz university. mirsepasi, n. (2005). application of appropriate theory in effective use of human resources. tehran: islamic university. nooraee, t., amirtash, a., tondnevis, f., & behrangi, m. (2006). the relation between educational philosophy, leadership style of managers and organizational atmosphere in colleges and departments of physical education. journal of movement sciences and exercise, 1, 37–52. robinson, c.t. (1996). school effectiveness behaviours of elementary school principals in mississippi. ph.d. thesis. jackson, ms: jackson state university. robinson, s. (2010). primary headteachers: new leadership roles inside and outside the school. educational management administration & leadership, 39, 63–83. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143210383899 sheikh nezami, z. (1997). compared self-directedness and its dimensions among managers of shiraz high schools. master’s thesis. iran: shiraz university. van engen, m.l., & willemsen, t.m. (2004). sex and leadership styles: a meta-analysis of research published in the 1990s 1. psychological reports, 94, 3–18. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.94.1.3-18 wafa, s.a., ramaya, t., & hoon, l.h. (2005). leadership behaviour and effectiveness among secondary principals in penang. journal ramaya 7–9. ziraki, m. (1997). compare the performance of executives and managers are graduates of educational administration graduate high school boys in mashhad other disciplines. master’s thesis. iran: shahid beheshti university. abstract introduction literature review methodology findings and managerial implications acknowledgements references about the author(s) rosa naude tourism research in economic environs and society, north-west university, south africa stefan kruger tourism research in economic environs and society, north-west university, south africa leon t. de beer workwell research unit, north-west university, potchefstroom campus, south africa melville saayman tourism research in economic environs and society, north-west university, south africa cara jonker school for human resources management, north-west university, south africa citation naude, r., kruger, s., de beer, l.t., saayman, m., & jonker, j. (2016). the relationship between personality types and leisure time activities amongst casino employees’ workplace expectations. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a761. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.761 original research the relationship between personality types and leisure time activities amongst casino employees’ workplace expectations rosa naude, stefan kruger, leon t. de beer, melville saayman, cara jonker received: 06 oct. 2015; accepted: 28 apr. 2016; published: 17 june 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: associations between a person’s character strengths, happiness and well-being can be explained with the overlap that they have with personality. casino employees’ working hours were and are increasing, which means that their leisure time is decreasing concomitantly, with only 20 hours per week being used in pursuit of leisure activities. research purpose: the primary purpose of this research was to investigate 1502 casino employees’ personality types and the relationship it has on their leisure life and overall happiness. motivation for the study: the importance of leisure participation and time to take part in leisure activities, and the effect it has on casino employees’ happiness in the workplace, warrants further investigation. if human resources managers and general management want happier casino employees in the workplace, they should focus on their personality types and make more leisure activities available to them; which will result in a happier workforce. research design, approach and method: the target population consisted of 3032 casino employees, who received the questionnaires and were given the opportunity to complete the questionnaires anonymously. an availability sampling technique was used, based on the number of casino employees who were willing and available to complete the questionnaires. main findings and practical/managerial implications: in terms of the structural equation modelling, it was found that the positive personalities such as extraversion and openness to experience correlated well with leisure life and happiness. in this study, the standardised regression weights showed that if an individual has a negative personality, he or she will not necessarily be unhappy. a positive relationship was found between positive personality traits such as cooperativeness and agreeableness and leisure life and happiness. considering mediation effects, leisure preference was the greatest partial mediator between happiness and personalities. contribution: human resource managers of casino establishments can use these results to determine the type of personality of casino employees that will experience a good leisure life and happiness in relation to the workplace, contributing to positive psychology and human resource literature. introduction szeliga (2009) and wong, gardiner, lang and coulon (2008) state that individuals can be categorised in many ways, for example their height, weight, gender, age, generation and education levels and, very importantly, their personality. based on these typical categorisations, decisions regarding promotions, selection and training can be made. another way in which people can be categorised is by means of different personality types. personality variables of people may include interpersonal and communication skills, self-control, self-efficacy, initiative, autonomy, responsibility, emotional stability, resilience and integrity (bergh, 2009). in essence, this research should therefore be able to facilitate the best fit between an employee, his or her behaviour and the relevant working environment (bergh, 2009; wong et al., 2008). bergh (2009) and wong et al. (2008) confirm that personality is arguably one of the most important disciplines that should be considered during the study of human nature and individual differences and similarities, as employees bring their personalities to the work place and these personalities determine the way in which they behave. a personality of conscientiousness, for example, is a consistent predictor of work performance across various jobs; extraversion is related to job factors such as social interaction and being proficient in training; and autonomy is an intervening variable (bergh, 2009). there is a ‘big five factor’ that describes five main personality types that can be extended to 10 personality types (bergh, 2009; goldberg, 1990; kalshoven, hartog & de hoog, 2011). for the purpose of this article, the authors have focused on the extended 10 personality types, known as the ten-item personality inventory (tipi), that are typically the big five with their opposites, also known as positively and negatively keyed tipi items (gosling, rentfrow & sann, 2003; keyes, kendler, myers & martin, 2015). recognising the importance of personalities, the studies of lu and hu (2005) and stephan, boiché, canada and terracciano (2014) found that a possible relationship exists between leisure life, quality of work life domain and an individual’s personality. lu and argyle (1994) found that personality differences lead to different kinds of leisure being chosen. cooperative individuals normally choose clubs, whereas neurotic people like hobbies rather than sports. wan and chan (2013) found during their research that casino employees have a desire for more leisure time during their work shifts to be able to concentrate for long periods of times, which reflects the demand and intensity of their jobs. wagner et al. (2014) mentioned that various studies have already found that different ways of spending one’s leisure time affect your psychological and subjective well-being. lu and argyle concluded that leisure satisfaction correlates with happiness and that the social aspects of leisure satisfaction predict happiness in the long run. lucas and diener (2009) and pishva, ghalehban, mordai and hoseini (2011) ascertained that basic personality structures determine the tendency to be happy or unhappy. pishva et al. state that neuroticism and psychoticism would typically be negatively associated with happiness, while extraversion is positively related to happiness. a survey that was conducted by lucas and diener found that personality characteristics are more highly correlated with happiness than any correlations with demographic predictors or major life circumstances; they argue that a theory of well-being that fails to incorporate personality characteristics would be incomplete. warr (2007) found that higher scores on neuroticism as a personality type among individuals reported more unhappiness. a person’s personality could, therefore, possibly have an effect on his or her happiness in the work environment (lauriola & iani, 2015; warr, 2007; zeng, forrest & mchale, 2012). bonab (2014) supports this comment with his finding that personal values, individuals’ tendencies and one’s personality have a significant effect on happiness. blackshaw (2010) has also highlighted the fact that the point of working is not just to have a job, but that it should be a job that is exciting, stimulating, challenging and that makes one happy. the study of veenhoven (2011) postulates that there is currently a gap in academic literature that is related to happiness; for this reason, a great deal of research is currently taking place in order to understand why some people are happier than others and also to find ways in which to make people happier. wagner et al. (2014) also mentioned that knowledge of the way in which one could achieve happiness and the outcomes that this will have in the different life domains such as family and leisure will contribute significantly to the body of research of people’s well-being. wan and chan (2013) commented that in our ever-changing and fast-paced society, determining what makes employees feel satisfied about their working life is vital for human relations practitioners. employee and organisational well-being should be the main aim in industrial and organisational psychology, so that one would be able to ensure that the best work performance and business outcomes (such as productivity and improved profits) could be achieved (may, 2009). szeliga (2009) noted that a gap to be filled in future research is to obtain a proper understanding of the personality of employees so that productivity and profitability are maximised and employee turnover minimised by understanding the employees better. bergh (2009) also mentioned a gap in research in studying the relationship of the big five personality factors with regard to job performance, job satisfaction, occupational choice, positive and negative affect and teamwork. taking the literature into consideration, the authors will aim to determine whether casino employees’ personalities have an influence on their leisure life and the happiness that they experience. the outcome could make human resources managers of casinos aware of the type of employees that would be happier and enjoy a good leisure life; it could also give these managers a better understanding of their employees and why some of them react happier than others. based on the introduction, figure 1 depicts the linear relationship between positive and negative personalities in relation to leisure life and happiness of casino employees in the workplace. this relationship and model fit are discussed further in the empirical results and findings section. figure 1: the structural relationship between the key concepts, that is, personality types, leisure life and happiness, without the measuring model. literature review casino employees but still being a casino employee also implicates just-in-time service delivery, which means that the employee has to respond promptly in situations of great pressure (wan & chan, 2013), and has to deliver quality service (liu, 2005). zhao, qu and liu (2014b) mentioned that the hospitality industry requires employees to work odd hours, including weekends and holidays, and thus requires that they sacrifice leisure time that is necessary to fulfil their family responsibilities. casino employees also have constant face-to-face contact with guests; many times, this contact is in conflict situations because of customers who are intoxicated or angry over gambling losses (tiyce, hing, cairncross & breen, 2013; wan & chan, 2013), leading to great pressure to respond to customers quickly. bradley, mccoll-kennedy, sparks, jimmieson and zapf (2010) mentioned that it is also expected employees to regulate their emotions during all service encounters. prentice (2013) found that the casino service environment is the only factor that impacts players’ propensity to switch, and food service and empathy from table dealers will affect player retention. tiyce et al. (2013) listed demanding work roles, emotional labour, lack of control, ethical concerns and supercharged environments as additional stressors for casino employees. on top of that, wan and chan (2013) mentioned that there is also the added stress of management constantly watching the employees, as they are on the lookout for cheating dealers and players. in a casino, slots and tables are the main revenue generators and therefore need to be manned by knowledgeable, productive employees (lee, back & chan, 2015; liu, 2005). kilby, fox and lucas (2005) mentioned that within the tables department, the payroll of casino employees represents 25% to 50% of the winnings and the biggest expense of tables’ expenses, proving the great importance of casino employees. prentice (2013) remarked that the days are gone that casino management can just assume that players will return to a casino unconditionally. compared to the general workforce, casino employees are at a greater risk of various health problems because of their constant exposure and familiarity with, as well as ready access to and knowledge of gambling, alcohol and tobacco (shaffer, vander bilt & hall, 1999). delivering quality service in a casino is the effective relationship marketing tool to attract customers and maintain their loyalty (back & lee, 2015; prentice, 2013). zhao et al. (2014b) remarked that hospitality (casino) employees have a desire to relax or take part in social events because of their stressful work. personality bergh (2009) and crooker, faye and tabak (2002) define ‘personality’ as a profile of interactions between the characteristics or traits of a person and the way in which he or she responds to the complexity and dynamism in life. a person’s personality is more or less enduring and involves stable characteristics, predispositions, and patterns of thinking, feeling and acting across time and situations. these traits organise and direct a person’s, behaviour and, at the end of the day, provide the person with fairly identifiable personality profiles (bergh, 2009; friedman & kern, 2014). bergh (2009) stated that personality might be seen as those attributes that fit the demands of the working environment. previous research has already indicated that overall career success and happiness are aided by personality factors such as being optimistic, serious-minded, energetic, content, open, spontaneous, self-confident, self-sufficient and ambitious (bergh, 2009). crooker et al. (2002) found that different personalities are able to cope with uncertainty differently; this ability to cope determines their work-life-balance experiences as well as individual outcomes such as stress levels, and organisational outcomes such as working behaviours. these should then be coupled with the ability to be free from negative feelings, hostility, aggression, anxiety, irritability, unhappiness and dissatisfaction (bergh, 2009). noftle, schnitker and robins (2011) and bergh (2009) explained that the big five personality model is the approach that the majority of researchers use when they study personalities and that this approach enjoys wide acceptance. bergh is of the opinion that with the model of the big five personalities, the traits have been proven to have a construct and predictive validity; the model has good theoretical descriptions as well as various trait descriptions. the big five personality model represents a new and integrated way of describing, assessing and studying people’s personalities and the relationship that they may have with various other contexts such as the workplace (bergh, 2009). the model is a hierarchical taxonomy of traits, attempting to organise all the ways in which people may differ from each other (noftle et al., 2011). the big five personalities are displayed in table 1 (jani, 2014; noftle et al., 2011; pervin & john, as cited by bergh, 2009; warr, 2007). as can be seen in table 1, each of the five factors in the first column is described by their specific traits. the five personalities in column one are known as the big five personalities. according to bergh, all five of these factors have roots in conceptual psychology theory, including the subtraits that have been scrutinised and are seen as true descriptions of the factors. the personalities in column two are the opposites of the big five factors in column one as listed by gosling et al. (2003) in the 10-item personality inventory, also known as positively and negatively keyed tipi items. gosling et al. mentioned that this 10-item measure will typically be used when personality is not the primary topic of interest or when the research can tolerate a somewhat diminished psychometric property that is associated with the brief measures. the positive and negative personality types will be indicated with either a plus (+) or minus (–) symbol to indicate whether they fall in the positive or negative personality grouping. this grouping does in no way mean that a negative personality type is bad; it merely classifies the traits that are generally observed as either being positive or negative. mcadams (2006) listed the big five personalities in his book with the five basic dispositional traits, indicating the positive and negative personality sides of the big five. table 1: traits and descriptions of the 10 personality types. mccrae (2011) stated that researchers should be cautious when linking personality with work, as personality traits are not the sole determinants of well-being and that various other factors (e.g. income, life cycle and work-life balance) could also have an impact on happiness. on the other hand, mccrae (2011) and bergh (2009) noticed that personality traits are reasonably stable; they might change, as they are dynamic, but the change will be gradual and not sudden. an example of this is that as individual’s age, they find life less exciting, but more satisfying (mccrae, 2011). this is further good news for employers, because the most suited employees should be selected based on the enthusiasm, gratitude, bravery, initiative and responsibility that they showed in an interview, as this will hopefully continue in the workplace (may, 2009; mccrae, 2011). mccrae (2011) argues that it is also a good suggestion for employers to look out for ‘positive’ personality traits, also known as ‘moral’ traits, in potential employees. examples of these necessary traits are that leaders in the work place need to be assertive; clinicians need to show empathy and hostage negotiators need to be emotionally stable. mccrae (2011) also found that the active expression of agreeableness and conscientiousness raises levels of well-being and happiness. in the past, much more attention was paid to ‘negative’ traits such as anxiety and aggression (mccrae, 2011). whatever role or relationship people encounter, they bring their traits with them and a good understanding of their strengths may therefore help to optimise their fit. bonab (2014) and noftle et al. (2011) stated that it is possible that the associations between a person’s character strengths, happiness and well-being can be explained with the overlap that they have with personality. allen and laborde (2014) added that personality can also influence the amount of time that is spent on leisure activities, as well as the type of leisure activities. leisure life lu and hu (2005) made the obvious statement that most people find leisure life more satisfying than their work; it is also a major source of pleasure and sense of achievement among people. leisure life can include activities such as combative, creative and competitive leisure activities (lu & hu, 2005). there are also social events such as sports, parties and clubs, as well as solitary events such as reading and watching television (lu & hu, 2005). during this study, leisure life has been divided into two areas, namely leisure time and leisure preference that, when combined, make up one’s leisure life. gavin and mason (2004) mentioned that casino employees’ working hours are increasing, which means that their leisure time is decreasing concomitantly, with only 20 hours per week being used in pursuit of leisure activities. wan and chan (2013) also found that (especially) croupiers desire more resting time during their working shifts because of their demanding and intense jobs in which they must maintain high levels of concentration for long periods of time. ryan and glendon (1998), as cited by zhao et al. (2014b), listed the following two distinct intentions of leisure. the first intention is relaxation; lu and argyle (1994) explained that it implies to escape from the daily pressures of life, find a calm and peaceful place, relieve depression, reduce anxiety, benefit one’s physical health by recovering from tiredness, release mental stress and refresh one’s energy. the second intention is social, which is explained by lu and argyle (1994) as corresponding by building and maintaining companionship, friendship and feelings of belonging. blackshaw (2010) summarised all these in three simple phrases: leisure should give pleasure, fill one’s desire and make one happy. consider the study that was conducted by lu and hu (2005); they found that extraverts acquire greater leisure satisfaction, whereas neurotic people enjoy leisure less. they also found that leisure satisfaction is related to happiness when the effects of personality traits and the positive and negative affect in relation to life domains are taken into account. blackshaw (2010) listed the big seven leisure pursuits, namely gambling, sex, alcohol, television, taking drugs, shopping and annual holidays. gavin and mason (2004) argued that stress is often experienced at work, but that it does not stop at work, it spills over into the rest of the employees’ lives such as family life, social life, leisure life and the self. hon, chan and lu (2013) found that service employees in the hospitality industry who feel under pressure at work are in essence dissatisfied with the status quo. in a survey of british employees, gavin and mason found that 8 million employees complained that work-related pressure gave them headaches and 12 million stated that, because of their workday experiences, they get bad tempered and irritable when they are at home. hon et al. made the comment that stress is very common in the hospitality industry, but that the advantage of this stress is that it provides a powerful impetus for change to happen in the organisation by coming up with creative ideas for improvement. qian, yarnal and almeida (2014) found that high daily stress will prompt an individual to allocate more time to leisure than normal which, in turn, will have a positive affect and thus remedy the damage that has been done by high daily stress. qian et al. (2014) also confirmed that both mental and physical health improve by means of leisure participation. lu and argyle (1994) found that a person’s gender, age and job status do not have an effect on having a committed leisure life. it does have an effect on the type of leisure activities one will take part in, though; younger people, cooperative people and those with a high self-esteem opted for voluntary work, joining clubs and taking part in sports rather than engaging in hobbies, art, educational activities or craftwork (lu & argyle, 1994). lu and hu (2005), as well as steel and ones (2000), found that extraverted people engage in more leisure activities and also derive greater satisfaction from them, which leads to a higher amount of happiness in the end. it was also confirmed that neurotic people do not have an obvious preference for leisure, as they derive less satisfaction from their leisure life; in the end, this contributes to the suppression of their level of happiness. malkina-pykh and pykh (2014) found that there are definite connections between leisure and trip experiences, one’s satisfaction with life domains and the overall satisfaction with one’s life. furthermore, they found that vacationing has definite positive effects on perceived quality of life and overall happiness experienced. lu and argyle confirmed that leisure is a definite source of happiness even more important than health or income. happiness ‘happiness’ is described by selezneva (2010) and malkina-pykh and pykh (2014) as the individual’s judgement of the overall quality of his or her own life as a whole. keyes et al. (2003) define happiness as spontaneous reflections of one’s pleasant and unpleasant feelings that one experiences immediately, while life satisfaction is the long-term assessment of one’s life. warr (2007) attested in his book to the different reasons why people are happy at work. reasons that were mentioned include the employees’ job titles, job features or contents and lastly, the employees themselves, their characteristics and mental processes (warr, 2007). bonab (2014) explained that, according to certain emotion theories, happiness is one of the big six emotions, namely wonder, fear, anger, happiness, hate and worry, that people experience. warr (2007) found that happiness can be determined by two philosophical distinctions. firstly a person can experience subjective happiness (experienced by a person himor herself), also known as subjective well-being. according to warr, subjective forms of high or low levels of happiness are determined by the experience of pleasure or pain. hedonism theories explain the preponderance of positive feelings over negative feelings; terms such as delight, elation, joy, contentment and satisfaction are part of hedonistic perspectives. secondly, happiness is independent of the person, for example the sense that one is using one’s attributes well, that one is fulfilling oneself and that one means something. themes that support this form of happiness include a sense of wholeness, self-realisation and fulfilment, being authentic and true to oneself, and finally, being morally desirable (warr, 2007) – these are all forms of the self-validation of happiness. this form of happiness is not always accompanied by the experience of pleasure (warr, 2007) and may even be accompanied by some form of pain. robinson and tamir (2011) also found that happier people are more productive and engaged at the workplace. based on the literature review the following hypotheses will be tested: hypotheses 1a (h1a): positive personality will have a positive relationship with leisure life. hypotheses 1b (h1b): positive personality will have a positive relationship with happiness. hypotheses 2a (h2a): negative personality will have a negative relationship with leisure life. hypotheses 2b (h2b): negative personality will have a negative relationship with happiness. hypotheses 3 (h3): leisure life will have a positive relationship with happiness. hypotheses 4 (h4): leisure life mediates the relationship between positive personality and happiness. hypotheses 5 (h5): leisure life mediates the relationship between negative personality and happiness. methodology sampling method the target population of this study was casino employees, namely slots employees (management included), tables employees (management included) and cashiering employees (management included) of a selected, well known casino and resort group in south africa. a proposal was sent to the human resources director of the casino group. the director gave the researcher permission to continue with the study at the casino units. all units were informed of the planned study and the way in which the entire process would take place; units were also requested to make themselves available for the study. questionnaires were mailed to all the slots, tables and cashiering managers of the various units and a due date was set for the questionnaires to reach the researcher. surveys were completed at 12 units (out of 13 units) of the group through mail correspondence, indicating their willingness to participate in the survey. based on the number of casino employees who were employed in the group, 3032 questionnaires were mailed to the various units and 1502 fully completed questionnaires were received back (a 49.5% response rate). other employees, who did not respond, could have been on their days off, sick leave or annual leave; they could also have been unwilling to fill in the questionnaire. according to israel (2009), for a target population of 4000 people, a sample size of 870 is sufficient to provide a ±3% precision with a 95% confidence level. measuring instrument the questionnaire consisted of three sections: section a covered the 10 different personality types that can be represented by the casino employees (table 3). these 10 personality types were derived from a combination of the big five personality types as studied by goldberg (1990) and judge, heller and mount (2002), as well as from the expansion of the five-factor model to a ten-item personality inventory (tipi) by gosling et al. (2003). section b included the leisure questions that form part of a qwl domain, investigating employees’ leisure life with questions regarding their leisure time and leisure preference (table 3). section c contained nine questions regarding the casino employees’ happiness at work. these questions about their happiness were based on the questionnaire of the happiness-at-work-index survey (table 3) that was developed by chiumento (2007). sections b and c consisted of a five-point likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). this is in line with the suggestion of allen and seaman (2007) that there should be at least five response categories in a likert scale in order to ensure reliability. data capturing and statistical analysis the data was captured in spss statistics for windows (version 22.0) (ibm corp, 2013). mplus 7.1 (muthén & muthén, 2012) was used to perform the confirmatory factor analyses (cfas), correlations, and regression analyses. brown and moore (2012) stated that a cfa also forms part of structural equation modelling (sem) in the way that it looks at the measurement models by determining the relationship between observed measures (indicators) and latent variables, also known as factors. the goal of a cfa is to determine the specific number of factors among a set of indicators; this is a very important step in the process before one can continue with the structural part of the sem (brown & moore, 2012). to consider the fit of the cfa model, the researcher investigated the chi-square value, degrees of freedom, comparative fit index (cfi), tucker-lewis index (tli) and root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) (hooper, coughlan & mullen, 2008). flora and curran (2004) mentioned that higher factor loading values will indicate greater factor determinacy, proving the factor to be valid. for the fit of the cfa, the factor loadings need to have a p-value ≤ 0.05 to be statistically significant (pallant, 2005). hooper et al. (2008) and barret (2007) mentioned that the model chi square (x2)/df is the traditional way to determine the model fit. according to hooper et al., no agreement has been reached as to what the acceptable ration for this statistic should be and it is therefore accepted to be in a range of between 5.0 (according to wheaton, as cited by hooper et al., 2008) and 2.0 (according to tabachnick & fidell, as cited by hooper et al., 2008). looking at the cfi and tli, values of ≥ 0.90 are suggested and for the rmsea, a value of ≤ 0.08 is suggested (van de schoot, lugtig & hox, 2012). with regard to spearman’s rank correlation, zar (2015) described the correlation as a study of the relationship between two variables, assuming that neither of them is dependent upon each other. we will be using the guidelines of cohen (1988) for the correlations of a small effect, ranging from between 0.10 and 0.29, which is not practically significant; a medium effect, ranging from between 0.30 and 0.49, which has a practical visible difference; and a large effect ≥ 0.50, which also has a practically significant difference. weston and gore (2006) mentioned that regressions indicate relationships among the latent variables that have been established in the cfa, with the strength of the relationships being indicated by the standardised regression weights. yet again, it will be important for the p-value to be ≤ 0.05 to be statistically significant. empirical results with respect to schmitt (1996), in some cases, a low reliability result of between 0.49 and 0.70 will not be a major impediment to the use of variables. the majority of the results in table 2 is above the normally accepted cut-off point of 0.7 (schmitt, 1996) and therefore, all results are accepted as reliable, which represents high internal consistency of the likert scales that have been used. table 2: reliability of constructs or factors. with regard to the model, fit statistics of the cfa regarding positive and negative personalities, leisure time, leisure preferences and happiness are indicated in figure 1. the calculation of x2/df is 1286.613/242 = 5.32, which is just above the 5 threshold and therefore still acceptable. cfi and tli both need to be ≥ 0.90; they are both (cfi = 0.93; tli = 0.92) above this level and therefore of acceptable fit. finally, looking at the rmsea, the standard is ≤ 0.08 and therefore the rmsea is also of good fit at 0.05. overall, it can be accepted that the confirmatory factor analysis regarding the positive personalities, negative personalities, leisure time, leisure preferences and happiness is of good fit. when a model has a good fit, it proves that the model is an accurate representation of the observed data (field, 2013). for the cfa, the item loading p-values have to be p ≤ 0.05, meaning that all factor loadings as presented in table 3 are statistically significant. all standardised errors (se) loaded small results, proving that all factor loadings that have been done in the cfa represent the variables correctly. some factor loadings with the largest loadings include disagreeableness (0.819), intraversion (0.838), unconscientiousness (0.864) and i have to feel trusted by my manager to feel happy at work (0.803). the smallest factor loadings in the results include i have at least four leisure activities per week (0.378), i visit other casino establishments as leisure (0.248) and i prefer passive leisure (reading and watching tv) (0.295). even though the factor loadings are very small, these factor loadings are still reported on. the results in table 3 are important to report on, as these results will contribute to methodology and literature in relation to human resources management and positive psychology. table 3: confirmatory factor analysis of the positive and negative personality types, leisure time, leisure preferences and overall happiness. in table 4, the authors report on the pearson’s correlation matrix of all factors that have been used, describing the strength of the relationships between identified factors. for this study, the interpretation of the correlations will focus on medium and large correlations, indicating the strength of the correlations between the positive and negative personalities, leisure time and preference, and overall happiness. it can be seen that there is a large negative correlation between the positive personality types and the negative personality types; this makes sense, as they are the total opposites of each other. gosling et al. (2003) support this result in their study; they found that the big five personalities correlate with the 10-item personality inventory and stated that there are five positive and five negative big five personalities. the positive personalities (extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience, agreeableness and emotional stability) have a good medium correlation with leisure preference, indicating that the positive personality types do take part in leisure activities, whether active or passive. lu and hu (2005) also support this finding; they found that extraverted people correlate positively with all kinds of leisure activities, namely active (i.e. physical sports and activities) and passive leisure (i.e. reading or watching tv). the positive personalities also have a medium correlation with happiness, indicating that positive people experience happiness. tsigilis and srebauite (2015) found that neuroticism and extraversion jointly accounted for 49% of the happiness and subjective well-being variability. finally, it can be seen that there is a large correlation between leisure preference and happiness, proving that employees who take part in leisure activities experience happiness in their lives. yet again, the study of lu and hu (2005) confirms this finding with their statement that leisure satisfaction and happiness are the most direct indicators of leisure effects. table 4: correlations matrix (r) of the latent variables (positive and negative personalities, leisure time preference and overall happiness). the sem fit indices between personalities, leisure life and happiness are illustrated in figure 1. the calculation of x2/df is 1339.062/243 = 5.5, indicating that this model will be accepted. both the cfi and tli are ≥ 0.900 at cfi (0.930) and tli (0.920), showing that the model is of good fit. finally, looking at the rmsea, where the requirement is ≤ 0.07, the model is yet again proven as a good fit with a value of 0.06. this means that the sem can be accepted as true and a real representation of the observed data (field, 2013). regarding table 5, it must first of all be noted that all regressions were statistically significant with p-values ≤ 0.001, except for the final regression between happiness and the negative personality types (disagreeableness, neuroticism, intraversion, unconscientiousness and derivative). this shows that there is no statistically significant relationship between negative personality and happiness, indicating that just because someone is a more negative personality type; it does not mean that he or she will not experience happiness. if one looks at the relationship between the positive personality types and happiness, there is a definite relationship. when looking at figure 1, other relationships that were found include the following: there is a positive relationship between the positive personality types and leisure time with a regression weight of β = 0.387, indicating that employees with positive personalities spend time on leisure activities. this result supported h1a. there was a positive relationship between positive personalities and happiness, supporting h1b. there is a positive relationship between positive personalities and leisure participation with a weight of β = 0.601, indicating that positive personalities take part in leisure activities – supporting h1a. comparing this to the relationship between the negative personalities and leisure participation, the weighting is much less at β = 0.200, indicating that the relationship between negative personalities and leisure participation is much weaker. this result also rejected h2a as the direction of the relationship was once again positive and not negative as expected. stephan et al. (2014) support this in stating that positive personality types, namely extraverted people with openness to experience, are more likely to engage in different active leisure activities. there is a positive relationship between the negative personality types and leisure time with a regression weight of β = 0.363, indicating that even the negative personality types use time to take part in leisure activities. this result rejected h2a as the direction of the relationship was also positive and not negative as expected. regarding the relationship between happiness and leisure participation and leisure time, it can be seen that there is a positive relationship between leisure time and happiness at β = 0.153 (as confirmed by lu & argyle, 1994), but an even stronger relationship between happiness and leisure participation (β = 0.376), supporting that when one participates in leisure, one’s happiness increases. this result supported h3. malkina-pykh and pykh (2014) found that leisure participation does improve one’s happiness and subjective well-being. negative personality did not significantly predict happiness, rejecting h2b. table 5: regression analysis between personality types, leisure preference and time and happiness. concerning table 6, all indirect effects were found to be statistically significant which confirmed h4 and h5. mediation is found when one variable (x) has an effect on an outcome variable (y) through one or more than one intervening variable(s), also known as mediators (hayes, 2009). it can further be stated that the positive personalities model found a complementary mediation, where both the mediated and direct effect exist and point in the same direction – and the negative personalities model is an indirect-only mediation model as the direct relationship from negative personalities to happiness was not significant (zhao et al., 2014a). looking at the effects of positive personality on happiness, the sum of indirect effect was shown to be 0.29 (95% ci [0.19, 0.38]). friedman and kern (2014) found during their study that agreeableness, extraversion, conscientiousness and openness to experience are positively correlated to subjective well-being, whereas neuroticism was found to be correlated at much lower levels. more specifically, leisure time mediated the relationship between positive personality and happiness at 0.06 (95% ci [0.02, 0.10]). secondly, leisure preference mediated the relationship between positive personality and happiness at 0.23 (95% ci [0.15, 0.30]), which was the highest mediation result in this section. an interesting study that was completed by qian et al. (2014) which found that daily stress triggered busy individuals to allocate more time to leisure. concerning the effect sizes of the negative personality types to happiness, the sum of the indirect effect is shown to be 0.13 (95% ci [0.06, 0.21]). leisure time mediated the relationship at 0.06 (95% ci [0.02, 0.09]). finally, leisure preference mediated the relationship between the negative personality and happiness at 0.08 (95% ci [0.02, 0.13]). in general, it seems that leisure preference had a larger mediating effect than leisure time. table 6: mediation – indirect effects between happiness, leisure life and personality types. findings and managerial implications firstly, one can construe that the factors in table 1, namely positive personalities, negative personalities, leisure time, leisure preference and happiness achieved, are acceptable reliabilities, even when a short five-point likert scale was used in the questionnaire, indicating that the likert scales that were used in measuring variables are representative of the variables that they represent. this indicated to the authors that they could continue in reporting the cfa, as they are statistically representative. secondly, correlations were calculated and included in the statistical analysis; the first correlation that was tested was between negative (neuroticism, closedness, introversion, antagonism and lack of direction) and positive personalities (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness to experience); the correlation was negative (table 4). this result proved the suspicion that the positive personality factors are the opposite of the negative personality factors, indicating that a casino employee either has a positive or a negative personality type. positive personalities had a positive correlation with leisure preferences, indicating that positive personalities like participating in leisure activities. a specific implication of this finding is that human resources managers could provide more leisure opportunities. examples could be employee engagement programmes, participating in the nelson mandela day, contributing to community involvement as a form of a leisure activity by team or department employee participation and sport education of community youth) available to the casino employees with positive personalities; these casino employees are most likely to participate in the leisure activities and could enjoy it (naude, kruger & saayman, 2013). the positive personalities also showed a positive correlation with happiness, proving that these casino employees experience happiness in the workplace. this verifies the fact that casino employees with a positive personality are happy people in general as well as in the workplace. the final result from the correlations was the positive correlation between leisure preference and happiness, proving that people who take part in preferred leisure-related activities experience happiness. this finding implies that there is an opportunity for human resources and general management to make more opportunities available to casino employees to take part in leisure. this will improve the happiness that they experience in the workplace even more. thirdly, a regression analysis was done to determine relationships between factors (table 5). a positive relationship was found between positive personality types and leisure time, indicating that positive personality types value setting aside leisure time instead of just focussing on their work. a positive regression was found between negative personality types and leisure time, proving that even negative personality types set aside time for leisure activities. an implication of this finding is that instead of giving positive and negative personality types more fringe benefits, management could rather consider giving them more time off during non-peak busy periods to take part in leisure activities, as the casino employees value taking part in leisure activities. furthermore, human resources managers cannot make changes in terms of their personality type to employees who are employed in the current work environment. it is suggested that future applicants should be well screened by human resources managers, based on personality types. the employees are often interacting with guests in the casino environment and negative personalities might not cope well in front-of-house operations in the casino. they could possibly be employed in back-of-house jobs (yavas, karatepe & babakus, 2010, 2013). a positive relationship was found between positive personalities and leisure participation, showing that positive personalities like taking part in leisure activities. furthermore, there is an opportunity here to expose positive employees to more and different types of leisure activities, as they enjoy taking part in them. the relationship between negative personalities and leisure participation was much smaller, indicating that negative personalities are not that keen to take part in leisure compared to their counterparts. looking at the relationship between happiness and leisure participation and leisure time, a positive relationship was found between happiness and leisure participation, showing that the more leisure activities you take part in, the happier you tend to be. an entertainment manager who is based at the casino could induce the following leisure participation activities that could then have a positive effect on casino employees’ happiness: personal development (furthering educational achievement and on the job training); outdoor activities (an outing to a nature reserve with fellow employees); social activity (taking a drink with fellow employees after work); and sport (exercising with fellow employees in a gym or fitness club) (lee, lee, lee & shaffer, 2014). these findings imply that if management wants happy casino employees, they should give them the opportunity and time to take part in leisure activities and expose them to different types of activities; the end result will be a happier workforce. finally, looking at the mediation, all mediation results proved to be statistically significant, with leisure time proving to be a mediator between positive personality types and happiness. leisure preference was the strongest mediator between positive personalities and happiness. making leisure activities available for the positive personality types to take part in is therefore an important factor to ensure that the employees are happier at the end of the day. leisure preference and time both proved to be mediators between negative personalities and happiness. an implication for human resources and general management would be that they should take cognisance of the fact that negative personality types enjoy leisure and should therefore also be exposed to different leisure activities and some more leisure time should be made available to them. conclusion and recommendations the goal of the study was to research the effect of casino employees’ personalities on their leisure life and happiness. firstly, it was determined that negative and positive personalities have a strong negative correlation, confirming the fact that these two groupings of personalities are each other’s opposites. positive personalities had a positive correlation with leisure preference and happiness, indicating that they like taking part in leisure activities and that they experience happiness. the sem proved that casino employees’ personality types definitely have an influence on their leisure life and the happiness that they experience. a positive relationship was found between positive personality types and leisure time and leisure participation, proving that positive personality types tend to set aside time to take part in leisure activities and that they enjoy taking part in leisure. negative personality types seem to set aside time for leisure participation, but the actual leisure participation does not always take place. a positive relationship was found between leisure participation and time and happiness, proving that setting aside time for leisure and taking part in leisure activities improve happiness. finally, leisure time was found to be a mediator between both positive and negative personalities and happiness, confirming the fact that having time and setting apart time to take part in leisure will improve people’s happiness. leisure participation was found to be the strongest mediator in this relationship, proving the value of taking part in enjoyable leisure activities. the contribution of this article is the important findings that can be used in the casino industry by human resources and general managers. the importance of leisure participation and time to take part in leisure activities, as well as the positive results it will have on the casino employees’ happiness in the workplace, has been highlighted. if human resources and general management therefore want happier casino employees in the workplace, they should make more leisure activities available to them, as well as time to take part in it; the result will be casino employees who are happier human beings. empirical evidence regarding this study’s topic seems to be very limited, making the study extremely valuable and insightful with regard to casino employees, their personalities, leisure life and overall happiness or subjective well-being. the human resources divisions of casinos can therefore use this information if they need to look at improving casino employees’ leisure lives or happiness experienced. the goal of the study was to make a contribution to existing literature concerning south african casino employees, as well as the managerial implications of improving the happiness and leisure life of casino employees. this study clearly proved that whether the casino employees have a negative or positive personality type, they will experience happiness when they have time to take part in leisure activities and are able to take part in leisure activities that they prefer. limitations of this study are that it was only done on a selected casino group’s employees in south africa. results may differ if all casino employees in south africa were studied and the researcher can therefore not generalise the findings and make it applicable to all casino employees. a suggestion for future research will be to focus on all casino employees across south africa; this will supply scientists with representative data of the casino industry. endless opportunities exist to look further into casino employees’ leisure lives or happiness and to improve it even more. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions s.k. was the project leader and assisted r.n. in contributing to the literature review, interpretation of the statistical analysis, findings, implications and conclusions. l.t.d.b. provided the statistical support for the project. m.s. and c.j. were the co-project leaders. references allen, i.e., & seaman, c.a. (2007). likert scales and data analyses. quality progress, 40(7), 64–65. allen, m.s., & laborde, s. (2014). the role of personality in sport and physical activity. current directions in psychological science, 23(6), 460–465. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0963721414550705 back, k.j., & lee, c.k. (2015). determining the attributes of casino customer satisfaction: applying impact-range performance and asymmetry analyses. journal of travel & tourism marketing, 32(6), 747–760. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10548408.2014.935905 barret, p. (2007). structural equation modelling: adjudging model fit. personality and individual differences, 42, 815–824. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.09.018 bergh, z.c. (2009). the nature of personality and fundamental assumptions in personality study. in z.c. bergh & a.l. theron (eds.), psychology in the work context, (4th ed.), (pp. 237–258). cape town: oxford university press. blackshaw, t. (2010). leisure. new york: routledge. bonab, b.s. (2014). the study of demographic and personality traits affecting the happiness among university students. reef resources assessment and management technical paper, 40(1), 643–648. bradley, g.l., mccoll-kennedy, j.r., sparks, b.a., jimmieson, n.l., & zapf, d. (2010). service encounter needs theory: a dyadic, psychosocial approach to understanding service encounters. research on emotion in organizations, 6, 58–221. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/s1746-9791(2010)0000006013 brown, t.a., & moore, m.t. (2012). confirmatory factor analysis. retrieved march 23, 2015, from http://www.researchgate.net/profile/michael_moore8/publication/251573889_hoyle_cfa_chapter_-_final/links/0deec51f14d2070566000000.pdf chiumento, s. (2007). happiness at work index. london: chiumento. cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioural sciences. retrieved april 12, 2015, from http://www.lrdc.pitt.edu/schneider/p2465/readings/cohen,%201988%20(statistical%20power,%20273-406).pdf crooker, k.j., faye, l.s., & tabak, f. (2002). creating work-life balance: a model of pluralism across life domains. human resource development review, 1(4), 387–419. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1534484302238434 field, a. (2013). discovering statistics using ibm spss statistics. (4th edn.). los angeles: sage publications. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1082-989x.9.4.466 flora, d.b., & curran, p.j. (2004). an empirical evaluation of alternative methods of estimation for confirmatory factor analysis with ordinal data. psychological methods, 9(4), 466–491. friedman, h.s., & kern, m.l. (2014). personality, well-being and health. annual review of psychology, 65, 719–742. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115123 gavin, j.h., & mason, r.o. (2004). the virtuous organization: the value of happiness in the workplace. organizational dynamics, 33(4), 379–392. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2004.09.005 goldberg, l.r. (1990). an alternative ‘description of personality’: the big-five factor structure. journal of personality and social psychology, 59(6), 1216–1229. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.59.6.1216 gosling, s.d., rentfrow, p.j., & sann, w.b. (2003). a very brief measure of the big-five personality domains. journal of research in personality, 37, 504–528. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0092-6566(03)00046-1 hayes, a.f. (2009). beyond baron and kenny: statistical mediation analysis in the new millennium, communication monographs, 76(4), 408–420. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03637750903310360 hon, a.h.y., chan, w.w.h., & lu, l. (2013). overcoming work-related stress and promoting employee creativity hotel industry: the role of task feedback from supervisor. international journal of hospitality management, 33, 416–424. hooper, d., coughlan, j., & mullen, m. (2008). structural equation modelling: guidelines for determining model fit. electronic journal of business research methods, 6(1), 53–60. ibm corp. (2013). ibm spss statistics for windows (version 22.0). retrieved april 09, 2015, from http://www-01.ibm.com/software/analytics/spss/ israel, g.d. (2009). determining sample size. retrieved march 19, 2015, from http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/pd/pd00600.pdf jani, d. (2014). relating travel personality to big five factors of personality. turizam znanstveno – stručni časopis, 62(4), 347–359. judge, t.a., heller, d., & mount, m.k. (2002). five-factor model of personality and job satisfaction: a meta-analysis. journal of applied psychology, 87(3), 530–541. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.3.530 kalshoven, k., hartog, d.n.d., & de hoogh, a.h.b. (2011). ethical leader behaviour and big five factors of personality. journal of business ethics, 100, 349–366. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0685-9 keyes, b., corey, l., magyar-moe, l., lopez, j.l., shane, j., (ed.) & snyder, c.r. (ed.). (2003). positive psychological assessment: a handbook of models and measures. washington, dc: american psychological association. keyes, c.l., kendler, k.s., myers, j.m., & martin, c.c. (2015). the genetic overlap and distinctiveness of flourishing and the big five personality traits. journal of happiness studies, 16(3), 655–668. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10902-014-9527-2 kilby, j., fox, j., & lucas, a.f. (2005). casino operations management. (2nd edn.). new jersey: john wiley & sons, inc. lauriola, m., & iani, l. (2015). does positivity mediate the relation of extraversion and neuroticism with subjective happiness? plos one, 10(3), 1–6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0121991 lee, j.s., back, k.j., & chan, e.s. (2015). quality of work life and job satisfaction among frontline hotel employees: a self-determination and need satisfaction theory approach. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 27(5), 768–789. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijchm-11-2013-0530 lee, t.k., lee, c.k., lee, h.m., & shaffer, h.j. (2014). comparing stress perception and leisure type preference between south korean smoking and nonsmoking casino employees. international journal of mental health & addiction, 12(5), 618–628. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11469-014-9495-0 liu, c. (2005). a day in the life of a casino host. doctoral thesis. retrieved september 09, 2014, from http://digitalcommons.library.unlv.edu.thesedissertations/614 lu, l., & argyle, m. (1994). leisure satisfaction and happiness as a function of leisure activity. kaohsiung journal of medical sciences, 10, 89–96. lu, l., & hu, c. (2005). personality, leisure experiences and happiness. journal of happiness studies, 6, 325–342. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10902-005-8628-3 lucas, r.e., & diener, e. (2009). personality and subjective well-being. social indicators research series, 3, 75–201. malkina-pykh, i.g., & pykh, y.a. (2014). subjective well-being and personality: implication for wellness tourism. wit transactions on ecology and the environment, 187, 51–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.2495/st140051 may, m. (2009). psychological well-being. in z.c. bergh & a.l. theron (eds.), psychology in the work context, (4th edn.), (pp. 351–370). cape town: oxford university press. mcadams, d.p. (2006). the person: a new introduction to personality psychology. (4th edn). denver, co: john wiley & sons. mccrae, r.r. (2011). personality traits and the potential of positive psychology. in k.m. sheldon, t.b. kashdan, & m.f. steger (eds.), designing positive psychology, (pp. 193–206). new york: oxford university press. muthén, l.k., & muthén, b.o. (2012). mplus user’s guide. (7th edn). los angeles, ca: muthén & muthén. naude, r., kruger, s., & saayman, m. (2013). who to work for: a south african hotel or resort? international journal of hospitality management, 33, 331–338. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2012.10.003 noftle, e.e., schnitker, s.a., & robins, r.w. (2011). character and personality: connections between positive psychology and personality psychology. in k.m. sheldon, t.b. kashdan, & m.f. steger (eds.), designing positive psychology, (pp. 207–227). new york: oxford university press. pallant, j., (2005). spss survival manual. (2nd edn.). maidenhead: mcgraw-hill education. pishva, n., ghalehban, m., mordai, a., & hoseini, l. (2011). personality and happiness. social and behavioural sciences, 30, 429–432. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.10.084 prentice, c. (2013). who stays, who walks, and why in high-intensity service contexts. journal of business research, 67(4), 608–614. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.02.044 ryan, c., & glendon, i. (1998). application of leisure motivation scale to tourism. annals of tourism research, 25(1), 169–184. qian, x.l., yarnal, c.m., & almeida, d.m. (2014). does leisure time moderate or mediate the effect of daily stress on positive affect? an examination using eight-day diary data. journal of leisure research, 46(1), 106–124. robinson, m.d., & tamir, m., (2011). a task-focused mind is a happy and productive mind: a processing perspective. in k.m. sheldon, t.b. kashdan, & m.f. steger (eds.), designing positive psychology, (pp. 160–174). new york: oxford university press. schmitt, n. (1996). uses and abuses of coefficient alpha. psychological assessment, 8(4), 350–353. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.8.4.350 selezneva, e. (2010). surveying transitional experience and subjective well-being: income, work, family. economic systems, 23, 139–157. shaffer, h.j., vander bilt, j., & hall, m.n. (1999). gambling, drinking, smoking and other health risk activities among casino employees. american journal of industrial medicine, 36, 365–378. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-0274(199909)36:3%3c365::aid-ajim4%3e3.0.co;2-i steel, p., & ones, d.s. (2000). personality and happiness: a national-level analysis. journal of personality and social psychology, 83(3), 767. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.83.3.767 stephan, y., boiché, j., canada, b., & terracciano, a. (2014). association of personality with physical, social and mental activities across the lifespan: findings from us and french samples. british journal of psychology, 105, 564–580. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12056 szeliga, e.m.r. (2009). personality of servers: what kind of people wait tables? master’s thesis. pacific university. retrieved october 20, 2014, from http://commons.pacificu.edu/spp/98 tiyce, m., hing, n., cairncross, g., & breen, h. (2013). employee stress and stressors in gambling and hospitality workplaces. journal of human resources in hospitality & tourism, 12(2), 126–154. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15332845.2013.752708 tsigilis, n., & srebauite, d. (2015). does self-esteem mediates the association between personality traits and happiness? a structural equation modelling approach. journal of social science studies, 2(2), 102–116. http://dx.doi.org/10.5296/jsss.v2i2.7370 van de schoot, r., lugtig, p., & hox, j. (2012). a checklist for testing measurement invariance. european journal of developmental psychology, 9(4), 486–492. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2012.686740 veenhoven, r. (2011). greater happiness for a greater number: is that possible? if so, how? in k.m. sheldon, t.b. kashdan, & m.f. steger (eds.), designing positive psychology, (pp. 396–409). new york: oxford university press. wagner, l., conrad, d., gajic, n., kacha, o., martinovic, k., skvortsova, a., et al. (2014). examining adolescents’ well-being: how do the orientations to happiness relate to their leisure time activities? journal of european psychology students, 5(2), 8–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/jeps.bv wan, y.k.p., & chan, s.h.j. (2013). casino employees’ perceptions of their quality of work life. international journal of hospitality management, 34, 348–358. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2012.11.010 warr, p. (2007). work, happiness and unhappiness. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates, inc. weston, r., & gore, p.a. (2006). a brief guide to structural equation model. the counselling psychologist, 34(5), 719–751. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0011000006286345 wong, m., gardiner, e., lang, w., & coulon, l. (2008). generational difference in personality and motivation. journal of managerial psychology, 23(8), 878–890. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940810904376 yavas, u., karatepe, o.m., & babakus, e. (2010). relative efficacy or organizational support and personality traits in predicting service recovery and job performance: a study of frontline employees in turkey. tourism review, 55(3), 70–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/16605371011083530 yavas, u., karatepe, o.m., & babakus, e. (2013). correlates of nonwork and work satisfaction among hotel employees: implications for managers. journal of hospitality marketing & management, 22, 375–406. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19368623.2012.667596 zar, j.h. (2015). spearman rank correlation. retrieved march 10, 2014, from ftp://biostat.wisc.edu/pub/chappell/800/hw/spearman.pdf zeng, z., forrest, d., & mchale, i. (2012). happiness and job satisfaction in a casino-dominated economy. journal of gambling studies, 29(3), 471–490. zhao, x., lynch, j.g., & chen, q. (2014a). reconsidering baron and kenny: myths and truths about mediation analysis. journal of consumer research, 37(2), 197–206. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/651257 zhao, x.r., qu, h., & liu, j. (2014b). an investigation into the relationship between hospitality employees’ work-family conflicts and their leisure intentions. cornell hospitality quarterly, 55(4), 408–421. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1938965513517171 abstract introduction research methodology findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) cecile gauche workwell research unit, north-west university, south africa leon t. de beer workwell research unit, north-west university, south africa lizelle brink workwell research unit, north-west university, south africa citation gauche, c., de beer, l.t., & brink, l. (2017). managing employee well-being: a qualitative study exploring job and personal resources of at-risk employees. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a957. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.957 original research managing employee well-being: a qualitative study exploring job and personal resources of at-risk employees cecile gauche, leon t. de beer, lizelle brink received: 09 june 2017; accepted: 28 aug. 2017; published: 21 nov. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: job and personal resources influence the well-being of employees. currently, limited information exists in literature surrounding the experience of these resources in employees identified as at-risk of burnout. research purpose: to investigate the experience of job and personal resources from the perspectives of employees identified as at-risk of burnout. motivation for the study: empirical evidence on the integrative role and influence of job and personal resources on the well-being of employees in the south african context is currently limited. attaining a better understanding of the manner in which at-risk employees experience resources can empower organisations to actively work towards creating an environment that allows for optimal employee well-being. research design, approach and method: a phenomenological approach was taken to conduct the study in a south african-based financial services organisation. a combination of purposive and convenience sampling was used, and 26 employees agreed to participate. semi-structured interviews were used to collect data, and data analysis was performed through the use of thematic analysis. main findings: employees identified as at-risk of burnout acknowledged both job and personal resources as factors influencing their well-being. participants in this study elaborated on received job resources as well as lacking job resources. information was also shared by participants on personal resources through describing used personal resources as well as lacking personal resources. practical/managerial implications: knowledge gained from the study will contribute to empower organisations to better understand the impact of resources on the well-being of employees, and allow organisations to adapt workplace resources to ensure adequate and appropriate resources to facilitate optimal employee well-being. contribution: this study contributes to the limited research available in the south african context regarding the experience of job and personal resources from the perspective of at-risk employees. the study may also enable organisations to create a workplace that is more supportive and empowering with appropriate resources to deliver on expected demands. introduction employees are faced with the reality of having to deal with various job and life demands on a daily basis and are continuously required to find ways to cope with these demands (thuynsma & de beer, 2016). employees become burnout risks and burned out as a result of high demands that exhaust physical and mental resources and lead to a depletion of energy (bakker, demerouti & sanz-vergel, 2014), through a process widely referred to in literature as the health impairment process (schaufeli & taris, 2014). burnout in the work context can be described as a psychological syndrome comprising exhaustion, depersonalisation or cynicism, and reduced personal accomplishment in response to chronic work-related strains (maslach, schaufeli & leiter, 2001). however, evidence is accumulating that reduced professional accomplishment plays a more divergent role as compared to exhaustion and cynicism (de beer & bianchi, 2017), which were previously indicated as the core components of the burnout syndrome (cf. schaufeli & taris, 2005). in order to support employees in dealing with the various demands experienced, and to prevent burnout from occurring, organisations should strive towards providing resources that will support employees in delivering upon expectations. the job demands–resources (jd-r) model is a theoretical framework used to understand the impact of demands and resources on the well-being of employees (schaufeli, bakker& van rhenen, 2009). the model assumes that employee health and well-being result from a balance between positive (job resources) and negative (inordinate job demands) job characteristics and identify two processes, that is, the health impairment process of burnout (as referred to above) and a motivational process (bakker & demerouti, 2007). the motivational process highlights the availability of job resources that leads to work engagement and organisational commitment (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). however, job resources also have a buffering effect on job demands and the burnout process itself (bakker et al., 2014). according to schaufeli and bakker (2004), job resources can be explained as the physical, psychological, social or organisational aspects of the job that (1) are functional in achieving work goals, (2) reduce job demands and the psychological and physiological costs associated therewith or (3) encourage personal growth and learning. previous studies have found job resources to have positive relationships with work engagement (e.g. de beer, rothmann & pienaar, 2012; schaufeli & bakker, 2004), as well as negative relationships with burnout (crawford, le pine & rich, 2010). job resources therefore play a motivational role as they foster employees’ growth and development, and support the achievement of work goals (schaufeli et al., 2009). nahrgang, morgeson and hofmann (2011) found job resources (knowledge, autonomy, supportive environment) to motivate employees and impacted positively on work engagement. job resources can also affect employee well-being states negatively if unavailable, similar to the impact that job demands may have – the lack of a needed job resource can therefore function similarly as a job demand (cf. bakker & demerouti, 2007). research purpose studies on the jd-r model have mainly focused on work characteristics (job demands and job resources), and the role of employees’ personal characteristics (personal resources) as important determinants of burnout has been largely neglected (huang, wang & you, 2016; xanthopoulou, bakker, demerouti & schaufeli, 2007). it is important to also consider the impact and role of personal resources on the experience of well-being of employees identified as at-risk of burnout as they provide additional sources of coping that individual possess (or lack). hobfoll, johnson, ennis and jackson (2003) described personal resources as elements of the self that are generally linked to resilience and point to individuals’ sense of ability to control and impact upon their environment successfully. a study on the role of personal resources showed that self-esteem and optimism influence the health impairment process, and optimism also influences the motivation process (huang et al., 2016). buruck, dörfel, kugler and brom (2016) investigated the role of emotional regulation skills as personal resources in enhancing well-being at work and found that well-being can be improved by training on specific personal resources. organisations have a responsibility towards the organisation and also to the needs of the employees in order to attempt to reduce distress and prevent the occurrence of burnout. this qualitative study aimed to explore the resources of employees identified as at-risk of burnout from their perspective. this knowledge will empower organisations to potentially adapt the workplace resources to ensure adequate and appropriate support to employees in an attempt to reduce and prevent the occurrence of burnout through the effective managing of these risks. literature review job resources and employee well-being the effect of job resources on the well-being of employees is often described in literature by highlighting the impact thereof on the health impairment and motivational processes, within the context of the jd-r model (bakker & demerouti, 2007; schaufeli et al., 2009). the jd-r model is considered to be a leading job stress model in literature for a variety of reasons, one of them being that it does not restrict itself to specific job demands or job resources, but assumes that any demand and any resource may affect employee well-being (schaufeli & taris, 2014). in previous research studies, job resources have been represented by a variety of different concepts, including advancement, appreciation, financial rewards, goal clarity, information, job challenge, leadership, opportunities for professional development, participation in decision-making, procedural fairness, quality of relationship with supervisor, social support from colleagues, social support from supervisor, supervisory coaching, task variety and team cohesion (schaufeli & taris, 2014). job resources are positively valued and fulfil basic psychological needs, such as the need for autonomy, competence and relatedness – in line with self-determination theory (bakker, 2011). several studies have shown job resources (e.g. autonomy, performance feedback, opportunities for development and social support) to mitigate the impact of job demands on strain, including burnout (schaufeli & bakker, 2004; schaufeli & taris, 2014; xanthopoulou et al., 2007). ten brummelhuis, ter hoeven, bakker and peper (2011) examined burnout as a longitudinal process and found a decrease in job resources (social support at work, job autonomy, participation in decision-making, information) to play a significant role in the increase in baseline burnout over a 2-year period. a study by de beer et al. (2012) also found a negative relationship between job resources (growth opportunities, supervisor and colleague support, role clarity and communication) and burnout within the south african context, indicating that job resources are important in the buffering of burnout. the availability of job resources allows employees to better cope with the demands experienced in the workplace and contribute to improved employee well-being. in a systematic review of literature, nieuwenhuijsen, bruinvels and frings-dresen (2010) confirmed the potential of preventing stress-related disorders by improving the psychosocial work environment, for example, evidence was found that low job control, low co-worker support, low supervisor support, low procedural justice and low relational justice predicted the incidence of stress-related disorders. this also supports the notion that a ‘lack of job resources’ contributes to demands experienced by employees. job resources have been found to have an important influence on work engagement (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). work engagement has been positioned in literature as the positive antipode of burnout and is defined as a ‘positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterised by vigour, dedication, and absorption’ (schaufeli & bakker, 2004, p. 295). engaged employees identify with their work and view it as challenging; they are willing to invest extra effort and have a sense of energetic and effective connection with their work (bakker et al., 2014). this motivational process is strongly driven by the availability of job resources; these resources contribute to employees’ growth and development and through being instrumental in achieving work goals (schaufeli et al., 2009). a study by bakker (2011) posits that job and personal resources are the main elements influencing work engagement and highlights that these resources gain their salience in the context of high job demands. the study also underlined the value of highly engaged workers by pointing out that they tend to be more productive, more open to new information and more willing to put in extra effort, all of this being likely to contribute to the success of the organisation. in a meta-analytical study by nahrgang et al. (2011), job resources were found to motivate employees and related positively to work engagement; a supportive work environment was also found to be the most consistent job resource in terms of explaining variance in burnout, engagement and safety outcomes measured in the study. job resources have also been found to lead to organisational commitment through work engagement within the south african context (de beer et al., 2012). therefore, job resources have a dual functionality: supporting (buffering) employees’ demands and impacting positively on motivation (positively on work engagement and negatively on burnout) and organisational outcomes (e.g. commitment, performance and retention). personal resources and employee well-being it is important to recognise and consider the influence of both job resources and personal resources on the experiences of well-being from the perspective of employees, as research on burnout from the viewpoint of personal resources has remained scarce (garrosa, rainho, moreno-jiménez & monteiro, 2010). personal resources are typically described in literature as positive self-evaluations that are associated with resiliency and the individuals’ sense of their ability to control and impact upon their environment successfully (hobfoll et al., 2003). such positive self-evaluations tend to contribute to goal setting, motivation, performance, job satisfaction, life satisfaction and other desirable outcomes (judge, van vianen & de pater, 2004). personal resources have been represented by different concepts in the literature, for example, emotional and mental competencies, hope, intrinsic motivation, need satisfaction, optimism, organisation-based self-esteem, resilience, self-efficacy and value orientation (schaufeli & taris, 2014). ouweneel, le blanc and schaufeli (2012) conclude that personal resources, in the context of work, represent the positive cognitive evaluations of one’s future in work (i.e. hope and optimism) and of oneself as an employee (i.e. self-efficacy), which can influence how engaged employees are. schaufeli and taris (2014) also state that personal resources matter, but that we need to be cognisant of the fact that different types of explanatory models can be used to specify the role of personal resources. xanthopoulou et al. (2007) investigated the role of personal resources (self-efficacy, organisational-based self-esteem and optimism) in the jd-r model and found personal resources to influence the relationship between job resources and work engagement, suggesting that job resources may also foster the development of personal resources. a study on work–life spill over and crossover effects has also shown home resources to have a positive influence on job performance (demerouti, bakker & voydanoff, 2010). various ‘coping strategies’ are applied by individuals as means of personal resources supporting them in dealing with demands experienced in the workplace. a study by garrosa et al. (2010) provides evidence that when adequate coping strategies are adopted, burnout levels are more likely to reduce. in the aforementioned study, social support, active coping and avoidance were included as types of coping strategies; active coping and social support were found to be negative predictors of burnout dimensions, and active coping had an inverse temporal effect on depersonalisation and lack of personal accomplishment (garrosa et al., 2010). in a study exploring informal social support structures and relationships, huynh, xanthopoulou and winefield (2013) investigated the effect of non-work resources (e.g. family or friend support) on the relationship between firefighters’ volunteer demands (emotional demands and work–home conflict) and burnout and organisational connectedness. results of the study indicated that family or friend support buffered the relationship between volunteer demands and organisational connectedness. specifically, results indicated that when volunteer firefighters were confronted with emotionally charged situations and did not receive family or friend support (lacking resources), it was harder for them to stay connected to volunteering. the study further showed that high levels of family or friend support may turn the negative relationship between emotional demands and organisational effectiveness into a more positive one. these results are important as it suggests that support from family and friends (received resources) is critical in coping with demands and may protect from burnout, while helping them to stay connected to volunteering. a study focused on family-to-work conflict also found non-work resources that stem from both the family (e.g. spouse support) and community (e.g. friend support) to complement work resources in increasing family-to-work facilitation (a form of synergy in which resources associated with one role enhance or make easier participation in the other role) (voydanoff, 2005). the impact of personal resources on the well-being of employees has been less researched than the impact of job resources on well-being, specifically also within the south african context. sánchez-moreno, roldán, gallardo-peralta and de roda (2014) highlight the value that will be added by qualitative research designs to allow for an improved understanding of the experience that individuals themselves have of burnout. this study set out to contribute towards this need, making use of a qualitative research approach to add to the body of knowledge in understanding the experience of both job and personal resources, both received and lacking, from the viewpoint of employees identified as at-risk of burnout. research methodology the research method consists of the research approach, research setting and sample, entrée and establishing researcher roles, procedure, data collection, data recording, strategies employed to ensure data quality and integrity, data analysis and reporting style. research approach a qualitative research approach was followed in this study. qualitative research is oriented to collect data that provide contextual information and contribute towards creating a deeper understanding of the phenomena (sanders, cogin & bainbridge, 2014); qualitative research is interested in understanding how people make sense of the world and how they experience events (willig, 2013). in this study, it allowed the researcher to explore the experience of resources and the influence thereof on burnout from the viewpoint of employees identified as at-risk of burnout. a phenomenological approach helped the researcher to make sense of everyday experiences without pre-supposing knowledge of those experiences (converse, 2012). the researcher in this study applied deliberate effort to keep an open mind and to remain objective in order to understand the experiences shared by participants from their points of view. the social constructivism paradigm guided the researcher to consider the specific context within which people lived and worked, and to make sense of the views participants constructed in their minds (creswell, 2013). research setting and sample the research setting for this study was a specific business unit or division of a south african-based financial services organisation. the particular business unit went through a period of significant changes and consequently made the decision to roll out a climate survey across the specific business unit as part of a diagnostic process to understand how employees were doing and to identify vital areas that should be focused on as part of the people management strategy for the division. the particular business unit had a headcount of approximately 300 employees who were appointed in departments ranging across various functional areas including operational call centres (e.g. claims, client services and sales) as well as support departments such as actuarial, information technology, finance and human resources. roles in the business unit ranged from operational positions (e.g. call centre advisors) to senior management. the office of the particular business unit is based in gauteng province in south africa, and all interviews were conducted in the office building of the particular division. to ensure privacy and convenience for all, private meeting rooms were booked for the interviews. entrée and establishing researcher roles as the researcher formed part of the organisational development team who implemented the annual climate surveys (2014–2015) in the business unit, the first role of the researcher was that of planner. this required the researcher to plan how the data were going to be collected, the sampling techniques to be used, as well as planning around aspects of data analysis. the researcher took care to ensure that all of this was done with the necessary support and approval from top management in the business. the researcher also played the role of interviewer, active listener and facilitator during the discussions. the researcher prepared for the interviews by creating an interview guideline to use throughout all of the interviews and by reading through the individual human factor benchmark feedback reports of the individuals. the researcher was also responsible for sending through referrals for the employee assistance programme (eap) in instances where further support was required from a clinical psychologist and/or other relevant professionals. next, the researcher together with two co-coders (in the same field of study) fulfilled the role of gathering, analysing and interpreting the data. this was done to ensure that the experiences of participants were presented in an accurate and truthful manner. the final role played by the researcher was that of report writer. the researcher was responsible for writing up and presenting the data in a scientific manner in the form of a research article. the researcher took care throughout this process to not let her own beliefs, values and experiences influence the interpretations formed and findings derived during the study (creswell, 2013). procedure for the purpose of this study, a combination of purposive and convenience sampling was used. purposive sampling entails a random selection of sampling units within the segment of the population with the most information on the characteristic the researcher wants to study (guarte & barrios, 2006). in this study, participants were selected who were identified as being at-risk of burnout through the use of the annual organisational climate survey, within the business unit where the study was conducted. convenience sampling is a popular sampling technique and was used in that participants were selected based on their accessibility and/or proximity to the research (bornstein, jager & putnick, 2013). the organisational human factor benchmark (ohfb; afriforte, 2013) survey is a normed survey for the south african context, based on at least 50 000 employees in south africa from various economic sectors. the survey was completed online through a secure encrypted connection by all participants. the ohfb system compares the results of participants to the ohfb’s south african norm in order to determine employees’ burnout risk level; this happens automatically as soon as an individual has completed the survey. upon completion of the survey, participants were asked to grant permission to the organisational development team (of which the researcher formed a part) to access their results and to contact them to discuss their results. if permission was granted, high-risk participants were contacted based on the employee number provided. in this study, 49 employees were identified as at being at high risk of burnout through the ohfb survey, 34 of those employees granted permission for their results to be accessed by the organisational development team and a total of 26 employees agreed to participate in an interview. participants completed a questionnaire to provide biographical information in terms of race, gender and age. the majority of participants were white people (50%), with 27% being africans, 19% indians and 4% mixed race. just over half of participants were female (54%), with 46% being male. the majority of participants were between the ages of 25 and 35 years (65%), whereas 12% were younger than 25 years, and 23% were between the ages of 36 and 45 years. the researcher was satisfied that the participants were representative of a diverse population group in terms of race, gender and age. data collection the researcher started with three pilot interviews to determine the appropriateness of the research questions and to ensure comprehension of all questions by participants. once the suitability of the interview questions was confirmed, the researcher proceeded with the rest of the interviews. the interviews were semi-structured in nature which created flexibility and allowed the researcher freedom to seek clarification on matters that arose during the discussion (doody & noonan, 2013). the interview guideline used by the researcher in the interviews is presented below, and it reflects the interview questions as well as sub-questions (probing questions) used in the interviews. the sub-questions served to probe for further detail and richness in responses from participants where it was required. question 1: what resources in your work environment play a role to contribute to your well-being? what support are you currently receiving in the workplace and from whom? what support would you have liked to receive in the workplace that you are currently not getting? are there things happening in the work environment that helps you to cope better when there is a lot expected of you? are there things that you would have liked to happen or be available in the work environment as it would have helped you to cope better with all the demands? question 2: what resources in your personal life play a role to contribute to your well-being? what are you currently doing to help you cope better with the demands expected off you? what action or actions can you take to help you improve your well-being when things are tough? what support are you receiving or not receiving which impacts your well-being? recording of data during the semi-structured interviews, the researcher took detailed notes of the perspectives and experiences shared by the participants. the researcher was guided by her previous experience of such interviews and was conscious of the sensitive nature of the topics being discussed, which consequently led to the decision not to use an electronic recording device to record the interviews with participants. de vos, strydom, fouché and delport (2005) emphasise the importance of data recording strategies fitting the setting and sensitivities of the participants. as a result, the focus was on recording data by means of detailed note-taking. upon completion of each interview, the researcher took care to transcribe the detailed notes captured during the interview on a secure (password protected) electronic (microsoft excel) spreadsheet. at the end of each interview, the researcher confirmed that the notes captured was an accurate reflection of what the participant meant when answering the questions. this served to confirm accuracy of the notes captured, as well as to emphasise the availability of further support to participants, should it be required. data analysis a thematic analysis (ta) approach was followed to recognise and analyse patterns of content and meaning in the data set (braun & clarke, 2006; willig, 2013). ta is a method well suited to varying needs and requirements of research projects, including health and well-being research (braun & clarke, 2014). the researcher followed the six steps of ta as identified by braun and clarke (2006) to analyse the data for this article. step 1: familiarisation with the data as part of the data collection, all interviews were transcribed in an electronic (microsoft excel) spreadsheet, which formed one large data set that the researcher consulted during the data analysis phase. in order for the researcher to become intimately familiar with the data, she allowed herself adequate time to read and re-read through the text. the focus on familiarisation with the data made it possible for the researcher to start noting initial analytic observations which were relevant to the research question (clarke & braun, 2014). step 2: coding the process of coding involves working through the text line by line to identify units of meaning and labelling these with a code that captures the meaning identified (willig, 2013). the researcher and two co-coders (from the same field of study at phd level) went through a process of manually coding the data to ensure that suitable and accurate codes were identified. in order to achieve this outcome, equal attention was given to all raw data, and the researchers double checked the coding process to ensure correctness and efficiency of coding (braun & clarke, 2006). the researcher and co-coders were cautious to ensure that each data item in the data set was coded, and data that may seem insignificant at the time were not disregarded. step 3: searching for themes during this phase, the researcher and co-coders actively applied own analytical judgement to search for themes that were significant and meaningful to answer the research questions (braun & clarke, 2006). by reviewing responses from participants pertaining to the two identified categories (job resources and personal resources), the researcher and co-coders were able to identify themes and sub-themes. keywords describing sub-themes were also noted in a separate document, as the researcher proceeded through analysing the data. step 4: reviewing themes during this step, the researcher reviewed all the themes originally identified to confirm that it ‘talks’ to the coded data as well as to the entire data set (clarke & braun, 2014). each theme was reviewed in order to ensure that it creates insight about the data, and in cases where it was required, the researcher made changes, for example, collapsed and split themes. the researcher also worked on defining the boundaries of each individual theme. to finalise this phase, the researcher read through the complete data set one more time to ensure that the process of reviewing themes was satisfactory and that all responses were coded. the final set of themes was confirmed before the researcher moved to defining and naming the themes. step 5: defining and naming themes themes were further refined by conducting and writing a detailed analysis of each theme (braun & clarke, 2006) to capture the ‘essence’ of each theme and to show how it relates to other themes (clarke & braun, 2014). the researcher worked on identifying the crucial aspects comprising each theme and wrote up a detailed analysis and definition for each theme (see findings). the researcher also refined the sub-themes and finalised the descriptive key words for each sub-theme during this phase. lastly, a clear and explanatory name was formulated for each theme. step 6: writing up in this phase, the researcher clearly and accurately wrote up the data to explain her findings to the reader through a logical and systematic manner. the researcher combined the analytical narrative research method and used a data abstract to contextualise the findings and to strengthen the validity of the interpretations (clarke & braun, 2014). strategies to ensure quality data for this study, the researcher was guided by the constructs of credibility, dependability, transferability and confirmability to prove trustworthiness (guba, 1981). credibility credibility is similar to internal validity in quantitative terms and is achieved by checking for the representativeness of the data as a whole (thomas & magilvy, 2011). the researcher established credibility through sharing the notes captured with participants and ensuring that participants recognise the findings and confirm the accuracy and truthful representation thereof. the researcher also made use of co-coders within the field of industrial psychology to ensure that the experiences of participants were captured and presented in an authentic manner. transferability transferability refers to the ability of research findings or methods to be transferred from one group or setting to another (thomas & magilvy, 2011) and is equivalent to external validity in qualitative research (lincoln & guba, 1985). in this study, the researcher established transferability through thoroughly and methodically describing the context and population being studied, as well as the process of data collection, data analysis and writing up of the findings. this detailed and vigorous presentation of the research context, process and findings contributes to establishing transferability. dependability the researcher meticulously noted the purpose of the study, how participants were selected to form part of the study, the process of data collection and analysis, as well as the interpretations of the research findings (thomas & magilvy, 2011). this allowed the researcher to ensure a logical and consistent process was followed throughout the study. it also contributed to creating a clear audit trail that could be followed by future researchers to repeat the study. confirmability confirmability refers to the traditional concept of objectivity (de vos et al., 2005) and requires a conscious effort on the part of the researcher to follow rather than lead the direction of the interview. throughout the study, the researcher actively focused on remaining open to the study and unfolding results, and to not let her own preconceptions and beliefs influence the results of the study (thomas & magilvy, 2011). it remained an objective for the researcher throughout the study to authentically capture and present the perspectives of participants shared in the study. reporting style a table format was used to report the themes as well as the sub-themes for both the categories identified, namely job resources and personal resources. a column containing descriptive keywords was also included in the tables to allow for an enhanced understanding of the data and to add to clarity for the reader. ethical considerations in order to ensure that this research project was handled in an ethical manner and that the dignity, rights and well-being of participants were considered, the project was guided by the following principles: privacy and confidentiality; voluntary participation, informed consent, do no harm; and data security. findings the purpose of this study was to explore resources from the viewpoint of employees identified as at-risk of burnout. categories, themes and sub-themes were used to structure the findings of this study. descriptive keywords were also included to further support the findings of the study. results were divided into two categories. category 1 includes job resources, whereas category 2 reflects personal resources. tables were used to present themes, sub-themes and descriptive keywords within each category (refer tables 1 and 2). table 1: job resources. table 2: personal resources. category 1: job resources two main themes were recognised within category 1: (1) received resources and (2) lacking resources. various sub-themes were identified under each of the two main themes. the sub-themes within received job resources were as follows: career opportunities, coaching, colleagues support, communication, leave, referral (professional support) and supervisor support. career opportunities: participants perceived job resources in the opportunities to move from one department to another, as well as through gaining on-the-job experience (this was obtained through the opportunity to accompany an expert in the field and observe and learn what this specialised role entailed). this exposure provided participants with new knowledge and insights that positively contributed to their career development journey. coaching: participants experienced coaching as a job resource through experiential learning which provided them with the opportunity to obtain knowledge in a desired professional field, through the support and guidance from a subject matter expert. coaching was also experienced by participants through assistance provided to help them to apply techniques to reframe negative thought patterns and encourage them to engage in constructive conversations aimed at resolving areas of concern. sharing of advice and input around effective management of expectations held by stakeholders was also experienced by participants as coaching. additional keywords used to describe coaching included establishing a personal development plan to address gaps, ‘helicopter coaching’ and shadow coaching. colleague support: this support was experienced in asking team members for assistance when an employee was new in a role or required assistance with understanding how everything works. participants also experienced colleague support as a job resource through improved relationships in the team. communication: communication was experienced as a resource as it aided in creating clarity around business decisions. thus, the organisation ensured the effective and efficient flow of information to different departments and teams. leave: the opportunity to take leave and to have some time off from work was experienced as a job resource by participants. referral (professional support): participants experienced the availability of professional support as a job resource. this included requests to see a psychologist for support on an emotional level, to help unpack everything, to obtain support on high levels of stress, to receive guidance on how to deal with challenges and marriage counselling. participants also expressed gratitude and thankfulness to the company for the care and support provided. supervisor support: this type of support included good relationships with supervisors and managers. participants experienced managers as supportive and trying to alleviate emotional burdens, and commented on being comfortable to speak to their managers. the second theme identified within the category of job resources was lacking job resources. sub-themes under lacking resources included colleague support, communication, financial assistance (studies), growth opportunities, leave, management style, recognition, role clarity and supervisor support. colleague support: participants experienced a lack in resources through the negative impact of colleague relationships; this included occurrences of people not carrying their weight and being accountable only for themselves and not caring about the business. communication: feelings of being disconnected from business decisions that are taken and poor communication around changes in the department impacted upon communication and contributed to lacking resources. financial assistance (studies): the rejection of the application for study assistance (financial) was experienced. growth opportunities: participants were faced with challenges around not receiving support for career growth, as well as not being able to find suitable vacant positions in line with career aspirations when considering leaving the department. leave: participants highlighted challenges around not having the opportunity to take leave. in areas where employees work on a pay-for-performance salary structure, performance (and consequently remuneration) gets negatively affected when employees are not at work, making it difficult for employees to take leave. management style: perceptions that misconduct was allowed by a team manager together with the experience of not being able to give feedback and engage with manager constituted a lack of job resources. participants experienced that although managers invited them to share their opinions on matters in the workplace, there was not really a willingness to consider the input provided. the feeling also existed that feedback given to managers was often received in a negative light. recognition: participants experienced feelings of not being appreciated and recognised in the job. role clarity: no clarity with regard to roles and responsibilities was experienced as a lacking job resource. supervisor support: the lack of supervisor support was highlighted in comments around team managers not providing assistance when employees continue to struggle with difficult conversations and not having good relationships with team managers. the difficult conversations referred to by participants related to challenges experienced in expressing a need for support from colleagues, as well as addressing unhappiness with certain processes not adhered to by colleagues in the workplace. category 2: personal resources in category 2, personal resources are reflected through two main themes, namely used resources and lack of resources. various sub-themes have been identified in each of the aforementioned themes. used personal resources comprise the following sub-themes: affective coping, behavioural coping and cognitive coping. affective coping: affective coping was expressed by participants as a personal resource in statements around ‘loving the company’ and ‘love being here’. the function of emotion-focused coping is described in the literature as follows: it reduces the stressful emotional reaction by the environment (folkman & lazarus, 1980) and tends to be utilised by individuals to avoid failure and protect self-worth (parker, martin, colmar & liem, 2012). behavioural coping: behavioural coping reflects as a frequently used personal resource that was highlighted by the majority of participants in this study. included in behavioural coping are various strategies employed by participants to actively work towards solving problems contributing to distress experienced by participants; this include strategies aimed at acting on the environment as well as on the self (shin et al., 2014). keywords used to describe this sub-theme included putting healthy habits in place like going to the gym and spending time on hobbies, asking family and friends for help, moving to a smaller apartment to address financial problems, trying to live a healthy lifestyle and balance work and life, considering moving out of corporate environment and praying a lot to get clarity on what to do. seeking professional support from psychologists and getting guidance from medical doctor or doctors on the use of medication also formed part of behavioural coping that contributed to personal resources for participants. cognitive coping: participants employed cognitive coping as a personal resource by using time off to reflect on own needs, learning to understand triggers that are causing emotional reactions and realising when it is necessary to distance oneself from the situation. cognitive coping refers to strategies that people employ to respond to the experience of life stress (e.g. rumination, putting into perspective, positive refocusing, and acceptance and refocus on planning) (garnefski, kraaij & spinhoven, 2001). in this study, cognitive coping was further exercised in concerted decisions that were made to not work overtime anymore and admitting to over-commitment. the second theme within the category of personal resources was lack of personal resources, underpinned by sub-themes affective coping, behavioural coping, cognitive coping and support structures. affective coping: a lack of personal resources relating to affective coping was expressed through feelings of struggling to manage emotions, despondency, being on the verge of a breakdown, feeling depressed and beating oneself up when things go wrong. behavioural coping: participants expressed a lack of personal resources relating to behavioural coping in admitting that they do not do much for themselves, showing signs of presenteeism, procrastination on tasks, deliberately keeping quiet because of what people might think and avoiding interaction with other people. cognitive coping: a lack of personal resources expressed through references relating to cognitive coping included comments of not looking forward to come to work, acknowledging that there are things that no one can help with, and questioning their own competence and value-add. support structures: participants shared comments of family and support structures being based mainly in another city, in-laws working full time and offering little or no help, and not asking for help from friends. discussion this study was aimed at exploring resources from the perspective of employees identified as at-risk of burnout. findings of this study examined two types of resources (job and personal) through a qualitative approach that contributed rich and insightful data. job resources participants identified various job resources that influenced their well-being in this study. within the category of job resources, career opportunities were identified as a received job resource together with growth opportunities being identified as a lacking job resource. participants highlighted the need to get exposure to new skills and the importance of having the opportunity to move into new positions. our research confirms the finding of biron and eshed (2016) who highlighted the positive relationship between career paths and lower burnout levels and pointed out the great importance ascribed to career progression by generation y employees. coaching was identified as a received job resource and participants emphasised the value gained from a personal development plan, as well as from discussing strategies with a coach, pairing up with a ‘buddy’, and shadow coaching. the value of coaching is confirmed by duijts, kant, van den brandt and swaen (2008) who found coaching to lead to significant improvements in health, life satisfaction, burnout and overall psychological well-being of employees. organisations that are able to capitalise on the value of coaching are likely to achieve a competitive advantage through performance of employees in delivering upon business objectives. participants experienced colleague support, which included assistance from team members and good team relationships as a resource received in the workplace; however, it was also raised as a lacking resource by some participants in this study. in a study among teachers, van droogenbroeck, spruyt and vanroelen (2014) found relationships with colleagues to be directly related to emotional exhaustion and cynical depersonalisation, indicating that the support that teachers receive from colleagues can function as a buffer against burnout. the value of solid colleague relationships is clearly reflected in the aforementioned study, and encouraging colleague support as an integral part of organisational culture is likely to be to the benefit of the organisation. communication was described as a received job resource in cases where participants obtained clarity on work-related matters, but was also raised as a lacking resource by participants where no feedback was received, and changes and business decisions were not communicated properly. kim and lee (2009) found both supportive relationship communication and job-relevant communication to contribute to lower levels of burnout and a decline in turnover intention. in line with the social information processing theory, brown and roloff (2015) also confirm that burnout appears to be a job attitude that can be influenced by the communication from the organisation. the influence of communication as a job resource is clearly highlighted in the above statements and emphasises the need for organisations to create an environment that allows for optimal and regular communication with employees. the opportunity to take leave was viewed by some participants as a job resource, whereas others found it difficult to take leave or even experience a negative impact upon performance. fritz and sonnentag (2006) found recovery from work demands to occur during vacation and allowed for individual resources to be replenished. positive experiences during vacation also further contributed to rebuilding resources, as reflected in well-being and performance-related outcomes upon employees’ return to work. based on the above, it can be concluded that creating an environment where employees are able to take sufficient leave to allow for effort recovery should contribute to an enhanced well-being of employees. receiving professional support upon referral by the organisation was also viewed as a received job resource by participants. this included referrals for psychological as well as psychiatric support offered as part of the organisation’s employee assistance programme. this finding confirms the research by tetrick and winslow (2015) who emphasised the importance of employee wellness programmes and reported on the preventative stance of wellness programmes nowadays aimed at enhancing job and personal resource for employees. participants experienced supervisor support as a received job resource through good relationships with team managers and support received from managers and team managers in dealing with various matters. there were also cases where supervisor support was identified as a lacking resource. this study confirms the findings of weigl et al. (2016) that found supervisor support to be an important resource for employees in dealing with high self-reported work stress. further, sub-themes that were identified by participants as lacking job resources included financial assistance (studies), management style, recognition and role clarity. financial assistance was experienced by participants in the rejection received upon applying for study assistance. starrin, aslund and nilsson (2009) highlighted the risk for psychological ill health as a result of greater financial stress. management style was experienced by participants in the perception which existed that it was unsafe for participants to openly share feedback with management. this finding is in support of research by arnold, turner, barling, kelloway and mckee (2007) who confirmed a positive relationship between transformational leadership and psychological well-being of employees. these findings emphasise the value and importance of embedding an effective leadership style as part of creating an environment that enables optimal well-being of employees. recognition as a lacking resource was experienced by participants through feelings of not being appreciated for the job they were doing. brown and roloff (2015) found that organisations can buffer the burnout process by rewarding their hardest working with monetary incentives or by demonstrating gratitude for their extra time and effort. role clarity was also identified as a lacking resource by this study and support findings by previous researchers which found role ambiguity and role conflict to be related to higher levels of burnout experienced by employees (faúndez, monte, miranda, wilke & ferraz, 2014). the results of these studies emphasise that organisations should be clear on what is expected of employees in their roles, to benefit from greater employee well-being. personal resources affective coping was a personal resource identified by participants as part of used resources, that is, participants commented on feelings of affection towards the company (love the company); it was, however, also recognised as a lacking resource through feelings of despondence, being out of control and feeling depressed. buruck et al. (2016) recognised the importance of dealing with negative emotions at work and found affective regulation training to contribute to increasing emotion regulation skills and well-being of employees. it can therefore be reasoned that by creating an environment wherein employees are empowered (e.g. training) to more effectively regulate their emotions (e.g. accept, tolerate and modify), organisations can contribute to enhance overall well-being of employees. behavioural coping was identified by participants as a used resource as well as a lacking resource. extensive experiences were shared which constituted examples of instances where behavioural coping was employed by participants in the study, for example, putting healthy habits in place (exercising), spending time on hobbies, taking action to address financial problems and making changes to allow for a better work–life balance. shin et al. (2014) found problem-focused coping to be associated with lower levels of burnout. ‘rational coping behaviours’ has also been identified in literature as a resource that helped to overcome job-related stressors (antoniou, ploumpi & ntalla, 2013). participants in this study identified behavioural coping as a lacking resource with references to not taking action and avoiding interactions with other people. this is also in alignment with previous studies which found avoidance coping to be associated with higher levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation components of burnout (austin, shah & munce, 2005). cognitive coping also fall into both categories of personal resources. our findings concur with a study by rupert, miller and dorociak (2015) which found that applying cognitive strategies (maintaining a sense of control, reflection on satisfying work experiences, maintaining professional identity and maintaining self-awareness) to keep perspective on one’s work contributed to reducing both emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation components of burnout. capitalising on cognitive coping can become a valuable personal resource for employees in embracing well-being and countering risks of burnout. support structures was the final lacking personal resource identified by participants in the study and referred to a lack of support from family and friends. social support (e.g. getting help with a task and being able to discuss their situations and feelings) has been confirmed as an effective coping resource that buffers the adverse effects of high job stressors and contributes to lower levels of burnout (garrosa et al., 2010). encouraging employees to build strong social support networks could therefore be argued to enhance personal resources and contribute to greater employee well-being in the workplace. practical implications although the impact of resources on burnout has been studied in the literature, research within the south african context on the topic remains limited, specifically relating to the impact of personal resources on burnout. this study provides an enhanced understanding of job and personal resources on the well-being of at-risk employees. creating awareness for employees around the availability of resources and encouraging at-risk individuals to engage with and utilise job and personal resources lead to greater well-being and higher levels of engagement in the workplace. the challenge for organisations will remain in operationalisation of the implementation of such strategies to equip individuals with the necessary training and skills to successfully apply such strategies. limitations and recommendations the findings of this study should be interpreted in the light of various limitations. firstly, because of the sensitive nature of the topic being studied, there might have been instances where participants felt uncomfortable to share personal and sensitive information. secondly, although not recording interviews verbatim could be seen as a limitation, the researcher believes that it was the right decision to ensure collection of accurate and truthful data. thirdly, another potential limitation of the study could be that it focused only on the experience of resources from the perspective of employees and did not investigate the view on resources from the organisation’s perspective. acquiring a better understanding on the availability of resources offered and measures taken by the organisation to provide support to employees at-risk of burnout could have contributed to creating a more comprehensive understanding of resources from the perspectives of both employees as well as the organisation. a recommendation for future studies would be to follow an integrative approach to explore resources from the viewpoint of employees as well as the organisation. conclusion this study presented both job and personal resources (received and lacking) from the perspective of employees at-risk of burnout may be important to consider in the overall well-being of employees. having a better understanding of the type of job and personal resources which could impact upon well-being can empower individuals, as well as organisations, to ensure the availability of sufficient and relevant resources. this study can assist with the establishment of an organisational culture where employees are encouraged to make use of resources. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions this manuscript forms part of c.g.’s phd dissertation and as such took the lead in the writing of the manuscript. l.t.d.b. was the promoter of the study, acted as co-coder and provided conceptual input. l.b. acted as a co-coder and provided important guidance in the structure and writing of the manuscript. references afriforte (2013). the organisational human factor benchmark workplace analytics system. potchefstroom, south africa: afriforte. antoniou, a.s., ploumpi, a., & ntalla, m. (2013). occupational stress and professional burnout in teachers of primary and secondary education: the role of coping strategies. psychology, 4(03), 349–355. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2013.43a051 arnold, k.a., turner, n., barling, j., kelloway, e.k., & mckee, m.c. (2007). transformational leadership and psychological well-being: the mediating role of meaningful work. journal of occupational health psychology, 12(3), 193–203. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.12.3.193 austin, v., shah, s., & muncer, s. (2005). teacher stress and coping strategies used to reduce stress. occupational therapy international, 12(2), 63–80. https://doi.org/10.1002/oti.16 bakker, a.b. (2011). an evidence-based model of work engagement. current directions in psychological science, 20(4), 265–269. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721411414534 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2007). the job demands-resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22(3), 309–328. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & sanz-vergel, a.i. (2014). burnout and work engagement: the jd–r approach. the annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behavior, 1(1), 389–411. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091235 biron, m., & eshed, r. (2016). gaps between actual and preferred career paths among professional employees implications for performance and burnout. journal of career development. retrieved march 21, 2017, from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0894845316645664 bornstein, m.h., jager, j., & putnick, d.l. (2013). sampling in developmental science: situations, shortcomings, solutions, and standards. developmental review, 33(4), 357–370. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2013.08.003 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa braun, v., & clarke, v. (2014). what can “thematic analysis” offer health and wellbeing researchers? international journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being, 9. retrieved january 10, 2017 from http://journals.co-action.net/index.php/qhw/article/view/26152 brown, l.a., & roloff, m.e. (2015). organizational citizenship behavior, organizational communication, and burnout: the buffering role of perceived organizational support and psychological contracts. communication quarterly, 63(4), 384–404. https://doi.org/10.1080/01463373.2015.1058287 buruck, g., dörfel, d., kugler, j., & brom, s.s. (2016). enhancing well-being at work: the role of emotion regulation skills as personal resources. journal of occupational health psychology, 21(4), 480–494. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000023 clarke, v., & braun, v. (2014). thematic analysis. in t. teo (ed.), encyclopedia of critical psychology (pp. 1947–1952). new york: springer. converse, m. (2012). philosophy of phenomenology: how understanding aids research. nurse researcher, 20(1), 28–32. https://doi.org/10.7748/nr2012.09.20.1.28.c9305 crawford, e.r., lepine, j.a., & rich, b.l. (2010). linking job demands and resources to employee engagement and burnout: a theoretical extension and meta-analytic test. journal of applied psychology, 95(5), 834–848. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019364 creswell, j.w. (2013). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. thousand oaks, ca: sage. de beer, l.t., & bianchi, r. (2017). confirmatory factor analysis of the maslach burnout inventory: a bayesian structural equation modelling approach. european journal of psychological assessment. retrieved july 04, 2017 from http://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/abs/10.1027/1015-5759/a000392 de beer, l., rothmann, s., jr., & pienaar, j. (2012). a confirmatory investigation of a job demands-resources model using a categorical estimator. psychological reports, 111, 528–544. https://doi.org/10.2466/01.03.10.pr0.111.5.528-544 demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., & voydanoff, p. (2010). does home life interfere with or facilitate job performance? european journal of work and organizational psychology, 19(2), 128–149. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320902930939 de vos, a.s., strydom, h., fouché, c.b., & delport, c.s.l. (2005). research at grass roots for the social sciences and human sciences profession. pretoria, south africa: van schaik publishers. doody, o., & noonan, m. (2013). preparing and conducting interviews to collect data. nurse researcher, 20(5), 28–32. https://doi.org/10.7748/nr2013.05.20.5.28.e327 duijts, s.f., kant, i., van den brandt, p.a., & swaen, g.m. (2008). effectiveness of a preventive coaching intervention for employees at risk for sickness absence due to psychosocial health complaints: results of a randomized controlled trial. journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 50(7), 765–776. https://doi.org/10.1097/jom.0b013e3181651584 faúndez, v.e.o., monte, p.r.g., miranda, l.e.m., wilke, c.j., & ferraz, h.f. (2014). relationships between burnout and role ambiguity, role conflict and employee absenteeism among health workers. terapia psicológica, 32(2), 111–120. https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-48082014000200004 folkman, s., & lazarus, r.s. (1980). an analysis of coping in a middle-aged community sample. journal of health and social behavior, 21(3), 219–239. https://doi.org/10.2307/2136617 fritz, c., & sonnentag, s. (2006). recovery, well-being, and performance-related outcomes: the role of workload and vacation experiences. journal of applied psychology, 91(4), 936–945. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.4.936 garnefski, n., kraaij, v., & spinhoven, p. (2001). negative life events, cognitive emotion regulation and emotional problems. personality and individual differences, 30(8), 1311–1327. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0191-8869(00)00113-6 garrosa, e., rainho, c., moreno-jiménez, b., & monteiro, m.j. (2010). the relationship between job stressors, hardy personality, coping resources and burnout in a sample of nurses: a correlational study at two time points. international journal of nursing studies, 47(2), 205–215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2009.05.014 guarte, j.m., & barrios, e.b. (2006). estimation under purposive sampling. communications in statistics – simulation and computation, 35(2), 277–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/03610910600591610 guba, e. (1981). eric/ectj annual review paper: criteria for assessing the trustworthiness of naturalistic inquiries. educational communication and technology, 29(2), 75–91. hobfoll, s.e., johnson, r.j., ennis, n., & jackson, a.p. (2003). resource loss, resource gain, and emotional outcomes among inner city women. journal of personality and social psychology, 84(3), 632–643. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.84.3.632 huang, j., wang, y., & you, x. (2016). the job demands-resources model and job burnout: the mediating role of personal resources. current psychology, 35(4), 562–569. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-015-9321-2 huynh, j.y., xanthopoulou, d., & winefield, a.h. (2013). social support moderates the impact of demands on burnout and organizational connectedness: a two-wave study of volunteer firefighters. journal of occupational health psychology, 18(1), 9–15. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030804 judge, t.a., van vianen, a.e., & de pater, i.e. (2004). emotional stability, core self-evaluations, and job outcomes: a review of the evidence and an agenda for future research. human performance, 17(3), 325–346. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup1703_4 kim, h., & lee, s.y. (2009). supervisory communication, burnout, and turnover intention among social workers in health care settings. social work in health care, 48(4), 364–385. https://doi.org/10.1080/00981380802598499 lincoln, y., & guba, e.g. (1985). naturalistic inquiry. beverly hills, ca: sage. maslach, c., schaufeli, w.b., & leiter, m.p. (2001). job burnout. annual review of psychology, 52(1), 397–422. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397 nahrgang, j.d., morgeson, f.p., & hofmann, d.a. (2011). safety at work: a meta-analytic investigation of the link between job demands, job resources, burnout, engagement, and safety outcomes. journal of applied psychology, 96(1), 71–94. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021484 nieuwenhuijsen, k., bruinvels, d., & frings-dresen, m. (2010). psychosocial work environment and stress-related disorders, a systematic review. occupational medicine, 60(4), 277–286. https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqq081 ouweneel, e., le blanc, p.m., & schaufeli, w.b. (2012). don’t leave your heart at home: gain cycles of positive emotions, resources, and engagement at work. career development international, 17(6), 537–556. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620431211280123 parker, p.d., martin, a.j., colmar, s., & liem, g.a. (2012). teachers’ workplace well-being: exploring a process model of goal orientation, coping behavior, engagement, and burnout. teaching and teacher education, 28(4), 503–513. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2012.01.001 rupert, p.a., miller, a.o., & dorociak, k.e. (2015). preventing burnout: what does the research tell us? professional psychology: research and practice, 46(3), 168–174. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039297 sánchez-moreno, e., roldán, i.n.d.l.f., gallardo-peralta, l.p., & de roda, a.b.l. (2014). burnout, informal social support and psychological distress among social workers. british journal of social work, 45(8), 2368–2386. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcu084 sanders, k., cogin, j.a., & bainbridge, h.t.j. (2014). research methods for human resource management. new york: routledge. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organizational behavior, 25(3), 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.248 schaufeli, w.b., bakker, a.b., & van rhenen, w. (2009). how changes in job demands and resources predict burnout, work engagement, and sickness absenteeism. journal of organizational behavior, 30(7), 893–917. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.595 schaufeli, w.b., & taris, t.w. (2005). the conceptualization and measurement of burnout: common ground and worlds apart. work & stress, 19(3), 256–262. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370500385913 schaufeli, w.b., & taris, t.w. (2014). a critical review of the job demands-resources model: implications for improving work and health. in g.f. bauer & o. hämmig (eds.), bridging occupational, organizational and public health (pp. 43–68). dordrecht, the netherlands: springer. shin, h., park, y.m., ying, j.y., kim, b., noh, h., & lee, s.m. (2014). relationships between coping strategies and burnout symptoms: a meta-analytic approach. professional psychology: research and practice, 45(1), 44–56. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035220 starrin, b., åslund, c., & nilsson, k.w. (2009). financial stress, shaming experiences and psychosocial ill-health: studies into the finances-shame model. social indicators research, 91(2), 283–298. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-008-9286-8 ten brummelhuis, l.l., ter hoeven, c.l., bakker, a.b., & peper, b. (2011). breaking through the loss cycle of burnout: the role of motivation. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 84(2), 268–287. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.2011.02019.x tetrick, l.e., & winslow, c.j. (2015). workplace stress management interventions and health promotion. annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behavior, 2, 583–603. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032414-111341 thomas, e., & magilvy, j.k. (2011). qualitative rigor or research validity in qualitative research. journal for specialists in pediatric nursing, 16(2), 151–155. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6155.2011.00283.x thuynsma, c., & de beer, l.t. (2016). burnout, depressive symptoms, job demands and satisfaction with life: investigating discriminant validity and explained variance. south african journal of psychology, 47(1), 46–59. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246316638564 van droogenbroeck, f., spruyt, b., & vanroelen, c. (2014). burnout among senior teachers: investigating the role of workload and interpersonal relationships at work. teaching and teacher education, 43, 99–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2014.07.005 voydanoff, p. (2005). the differential salience of family and community demands and resources for family-to-work conflict and facilitation. journal of family and economic issues, 26(3), 395–417. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-005-5904-7 weigl, m., stab, n., herms, i., angerer, p., hacker, w., & glaser, j. (2016). the associations of supervisor support and work overload with burnout and depression: a cross-sectional study in two nursing settings. journal of advanced nursing, 72(8), 1774–1788. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.12948 willig, c. (2013). introducing qualitative research in psychology. berkshire, united kingdom: mcgraw-hill education. xanthopoulou, d., bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2007). the role of personal resources in the job demands-resources model. international journal of stress management, 14(2), 121–141. https://doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.14.2.121 3pietersen.qxd critical nursing staff shortages are a worldwide phenomenon, and filling vacant positions is becoming more and more difficult (miracle & miracle, 2004; moyle, skinner, rowe & gork, 2003). hospitals in south africa also experience critical nursing staff shortages. venter (2003) pointed out that these critical shortages are developing at a time when there is an escalation in communicable diseases, such as hiv/aids. he compared nurse/population ratios in the different provinces in south africa, released by statistics sa in 2002, to the world health organisation's minimum nurse/population ratio of 200 per 100000. these statistics showed, for instance, that limpopo, mpumalanga, the northern cape, and the eastern cape reflected ratios well below the national average of 343 per 100000. reducing the turnover rate among nursing staff remains one of the most effective ways to decrease staff shortages (evans, 2005; lacey, 2003). today, health care managers acknowledge the link between retention and job satisfaction (murrow & nowak, 2005). according to igbaria, meredith and smith (1994), job satisfaction is the most important factor in determining a person’s intention to stay with an organization. a logical starting point for any development and/or intervention program aimed at maintaining and/or enhancing the satisfaction of employees is to obtain input from employees on their job satisfaction (gunner-vaughn, 2003). the hospital administrators at a government hospital situated in the capricorn district of the limpopo province (south africa) also keenly appreciate that employee job satisfaction impacts on nursing staff retention. they expressed a need to obtain baseline data on the job satisfaction of nursing staff at the hospital. this information will be used for staff discussions, developmental strategies, and intervention activities to maintain and/or enhance the job satisfaction of their nursing staff. with the above in mind, the purpose of the present study was to explore and describe the job satisfaction of nursing staff working at the hospital. specifically, the study addressed two research questions: a) what is the general job satisfaction of hospital nursing staff? b) which intrinsic and extrinsic job factors contribute to the job satisfaction and dissatisfaction of hospital nursing staff? job satisfaction job satisfaction is a multidimensional, enduring, important and much researched concept in the field of organizational behaviour (bassett, 1994). the concept is an outgrowth of the human relations movement that began with the classic hawthorne studies in the late 1920s. there is a lack of consensus as to what job satisfaction is (hall, 1986), and how the job satisfaction of employees should be assessed. buss (1988), for example, described job satisfaction as an employee’s perception that his or her job allows the fulfillment of important values and needs. in this regard, according to siegel and lane (1982), motivational theories, such as equity theory, maslow’s need-hierarchy theory, and herzberg’s two-factor theory, all have substantial implications for understanding job satisfaction. herzberg’s theory is especially important as it distinguished between general types of work motivations, namely, intrinsic motivators and extrinsic motivators. these two groups of motivators were associated with job satisfaction and dissatisfaction, respectively (buitendach & de witte, 2005; herzberg, mausner, & snyderman, 1959; lu, 1999). locke (1976, p. 1302) listed the common aspects of job satisfaction as work, pay, promotions, recognition, benefits, working conditions, supervision, co-workers, company, and management. subsequent research indicated that these different aspects could be split according to herzberg’s t wo dimensions (spector, 1997; hirschfeld, 2000). intrinsic satisfaction refers to job tasks and job content (such as variety, autonomy, skill utilization, self-fulfilment and self-growth), and extrinsic motivation refers to other factors such as pay, co-workers, and work conditions (buitendach & de witte, 2005). herzberg (1959) also made a distinction between satisfiers and dissatisfiers. if factors such as working conditions and supervisors are good, they are perceived as satisfiers, and vice versa. however, they are not perceived as motivators. motivators include such things as opportunity for advancement and promotion, greater responsibilit y, opportunity for growth, and interesting work. different models for understanding and explaining job satisfaction were also developed. lawler’s (1973) model of facet satisfaction, for example, is closely related to equity theory. according to his model, employees are satisfied with a particular facet of their job (e.g. co-workers, supervisors, pay) when the amount of the facet they perceive that they should receive for charlotte pietersen charlottep@ul.ac.za department of human resource management university of limpopo abstract health care managers realize that job satisfaction impacts on nursing staff retention. this study examined the job satisfaction of nursing staff (n = 109) at a government hospital. just more than half of the respondents were generally satisfied. feelings that nursing is worthwhile and satisf ying, and financial stability at the hospital could promote staff retention. specific intrinsic (promotion), and extrinsic factors (routinization, working conditions, pay, interaction with supervisors, and organizational support) could impact negatively on retention. management should use these findings as a basis for staff consultation, developmental strategies, and interventions. future research on other nursing populations is recommended. opsomming gesondheidsorgbestuurders besef dat werkstevredenheid die retensie van verpleegpersoneel beïnvloed. die werkstevredenheid van die verpleegpersoneel (n=109) in ’n staatshospitaal is in hierdie studie ondersoek. net minder as die helfte van die respondente was in die algemeen tevrede. personeel retensie kan deur gevoelens dat verpleging waardevol en betekenisvol is, en finansiële stabiliteit in die organisasie, bevorder word. spesifieke intrinsieke (bevordering) en ekstrinsieke werksfaktore (geroetineerde werk, werkstoestande, betaling, interaksie met toesighouers, and organisasie ondersteuning) kan retensie negatief beïnvloed. bestuur kan die bevindings as ’n basis vir personeel konsultasie, ont wikkelingstrategieë en intervensies gebruik. verdere navorsing op ander verpleegpopulasies word aanbeveel. job satisfaction of hospital nursing staff requests for copies should be addressed to: c pietersen, charlottep@ul.ac.za 19 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (2), 19-25 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (2), 19-25 performing their work at least equals the amount they actually receive. locke’s (1969) discrepancy theory, on the other hand, explains job satisfaction in terms of needs. it focuses on satisfaction and dissatisfaction with a job, and states that satisfaction, or dissatisfaction, with some aspect of a job depends on the perceived congruence or discrepancy between desires (needs) and outcomes (what is received), and the importance of what is wanted. overall job satisfaction is the sum of each of the aspects of the job multiplied by the importance of the aspect for a person. however, in recent year, managers and industrial/organizational psychologists tend to define satisfaction as a job attitude, along with other attitudinal concepts, such as morale, job involvement, and organizational commitment. spector (1997), for example, refined job satisfaction as an attitudinal variable that measures how a person feels about his or her job in general, and also how he or she feels about different facets of the job. in their definitions lofquist and davies (1996), and price (2001) focused on this affective component of attitudes. they described job satisfaction as the affective orientation that an employee has towards his or her work. in the words of siegel and lane (1982, p. 291) job satisfaction “… occurs when an individual subjectively appraises his/her current job situation and has a positive or pleasurable emotional response”. another theory that approaches job satisfaction from an affective point of view is landy’s (1978) opponent-process theory. this theory emphasises emotional equilibrium and regards job satisfaction and dissatisfaction as emotional states. whereas job satisfaction pertains to positive feelings that individuals have relative to their jobs, job dissatisfaction indicates negative feelings that individuals have regarding their jobs or facets of their jobs (hirschfeld, 2000; spector, 1997). measuring job satisfaction presently, many organizations recognize the need to monitor the satisfaction levels of their employees (terpstra & honoree, 2004), because employee dissatisfaction could be very costly and disruptive to organizational effectiveness. what’s more, the concept is associated with other key organizational variables. in this regard, research findings indicated that job satisfaction correlates with, for example, employee motivation and performance (judge, bono, thoresen, & patton, 2001; ostroff, 1992), absenteeism (hackett & guion, 1985), organizational citizenship behavior (organ & ryan, 1995), and turnover (griffeth, hom, & gaertner, 2000). one of the most popular ways to collect job attitudinal data is the use of job satisfaction questionnaires. researchers who used job satisfaction questionnaires tended to employ two opposing approaches to the measurement of job satisfaction, namely, the use of a single global rating (nagy, 2002), and using a summation score, made up of a number of job facets (oshagbemi, 1999). the global rating method amounts to nothing more than asking individuals to respond to one question, such as “all things considered, how satisfied are you with your job?’” the other approach, a summation of job facets, is more sophisticated. it identifies key elements in a job and asks for the employee’s feelings about each. assessment instruments based on the latter approach normally cover a number of job-related factors such as supervision, coworkers, pay and benefits, promotional opport unities, working conditions, workload, and the organization (douglas, meleis, eribs & kim, 1996; fako, 2000; o'driscoll & beerh, 1994; siegel & lane, 1982). the exact number of factors varies considerably from study to study, but research findings consistently support the multidimensional nature of job satisfaction (koustelios & bagiatis, 1997). there is also a growing awareness that it is vital to examine the job satisfaction of nursing staff (dolan, 2003). some of the reasons why it is so important to study the job satisfaction of nursing staff are: a) research findings showed that the job satisfaction of employees in general (greengard, 1983), and more specifically nursing staff (gunner-vaughn, 2003), is on the decline worldwide. b) critical nursing staff shortages are on the increase worldwide (moyle, skinner, rowe & gork, 2003). there are many reasons for these nursing shortages (miracle & miracle, 2004). job related factors such as low pay, abuse by demanding patients, and lack of appreciation from doctors, work pressure, work environment-related factors, and lack of opportunities for advancement (dolan, 2003; smetherham, 2003; venter, 2003), are some of the most important reasons leading to nursing skills losses. emigration also contributes to nursing staff losses in south africa (venter, 2003). c) job satisfaction impacts on patient care (cavanagh, 1992). nursing staff with low job satisfaction levels may find it difficult to provide quality patient care, and to create a friendly and supportive atmosphere within the health care setting. nurses with low levels of job satisfaction may also avoid work responsibilities, through absenteeism, and by taking shortcuts in the performance of their duties (fako, 2000). different researchers found that different combinations of jobrelated factors were linked to the job satisfaction of nurses in hospitals. table 1 provides examples of the findings of five studies on the job satisfaction on nurses working in hospitals in different countries. a large body of job satisfaction research has accumulated either utilizing or attempting to validate well-known measures, such as the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire (msq) (buitendach & de witte, 2005; weiss, dawis, england, & lofquist, 1967), the job description inventory (jdi) (smith, kendall & hulin, 1969), and the job diagnostic survey (jds) by hackman and oldham (1975). in greece the employee satisfaction inventory (esi) has been used extensively to assess the job satisfaction of different groups of employees (koustelios & bagiatis, 1997; koustelios, kellis & bagiatis, 1999; togia; koustelios & tsigilis, 2004; tsigilis, koustelios & togia, 2004). koustelios and bagiatis (1997) originally developed and validated the esi by using a sample of 212 public and private sector employees in their study. they used exploratory factor-analysis to extract the following six factors (with eigenvalues greater than 1.00): working conditions (five items), immediate supervisor (four items), pay (four items), the job itself (four items), the organization as a whole (four items), and promotion (three items). each individual item was correlated with the factor concerned at the .50 level or above, and only items with a communality of greater than .50 were selected. the six factors that emerged accounted for 64.9% of the variance and, as such, their findings provide support for the construct validity of the instrument. with regard to the reliability of the scales, examination of the cronbach alpha coefficients showed that scores on the esi subscales were reliable: working conditions (alpha = 0,80), supervisor (alpha = 0,82), pay (alpha = 0,79), job itself (alpha = 0,77), organization as a whole (alpha = 0,76), and promotion (alpha = 0,62). koustelios and bagiatis adopted an alpha coefficient of 0,60 as an acceptable criterion for the internal consistency of scores. custom-made questionnaires are often used to study job satisfaction of hospital staff. in general, custom-made inventories to examine the job satisfaction of nurses seem to be constructed with practical purposes in mind (traynor & wade, 1993), instead of focussing on the theoretical and methodological adequacy of the instruments. boumans and landeweerd (1999), for example developed their own questionnaire to measure the job satisfaction of a group of hospital nurses in the netherlands. nearer to home, fako pietersen20 (2000) developed a “home-grown” questionnaire to conduct a survey on a national sample of nurses in botswana. his questionnaire was used to identif y key elements related to the job satisfaction of the nurses. the results of his study indicated that the nurses in the sample were, generally, not satisfied with their jobs. unfort unately, only t welve of the thirt y-one variables examined, were found to be associated with job satisfaction. fako also failed to discuss the psychometric properties and the conceptual basis of his questionnaire. arguably, a questionnaire with thirty-one variables is also too lengthy and time consuming for practical use. to conclude, no generally accepted measure is currently in use to assess the job satisfaction, especially in the nursing profession. the lack of uniformity in the assessment of nurses’ job satisfaction also makes it very difficult to compare results across different studies (conrad, conrad & parker, 1985). research design research approach a cross-sectional, survey design was employed to collect job satisfaction data from the target population within relatively a short time frame. this type of design is commonly used to gather data from a representative cross-section of a population at a single point of time (bailey, 1982; fife-shaw, 1997). respondents data was gathered at a government hospital located in the capricorn district of the limpopo province, south africa. the hospital has a nursing staff of 400 nurses (almost all of whom are females). a systematic random sample of 50% (200 subjects) of all nursing specialties (excluding higher-level managerial staff) was selected. in this project 109 questionnaires were returned. this yielded a response rate of 54,5%. the home language of the respondents is northern-sotho; their minimum scholastic qualification is grade 12; and their language of education in secondary school, and during their nursing training, is english. none of the respondents indicated any difficulty with completing the questionnaire in english. table 2 provides the age distribution of sample. table 2 age distribution of the sample age f % 20-29 16 15 30-39 53 49 40-49 35 32 50 and over 5 4 table 2 shows that majority of the participants (49%) were in the age group 30-39, followed by the age group 40-49 (32%), 15% in age group 20-29, and 4% above 50 years of age. table 3 provides a breakdown of the organizational position (ranks) of the respondents. table 3 respondents by bank rank f % registered nurses 72 66 staff nurses 25 23 nursing assistants 12 11 job satisfaction of nursing staff 21 table 1 studies on job satisfaction of hospital nurses factor mcneese-smith (1999) fung-kam (1998) moyle et al. (2003) chu, hus, price & seo, ko & price (2004) lee (2003) usa hong kong australia taiwan korea hospital nurses hospital nurses nurses, nursing assistants hospital nurses hospital nurses patient care x environment x workload x x co-workers x x x salary and benefits x x professionalism x x cultural background x career stage x autonomy x workplace flexibility x residents x working in a team x dedication to service x training x role expectations x x laborious tasks x staffing levels x overtime x affectivity x supervisor x x routinization x x management x resources x it is clear from table 3 that most of the respondents in the sample were registered nurses (66%), followed by staff nurses (23%), and nursing assistants (11%). table 4 indicates (a) the number of years that respondents have been in their current positions, and (b) the number of years of employed as nurses. table 4 respondents’ number of years in current rank, and in the nursing profession years f % f % current current nursing nursing rank rank profession profession less than five years 44 40 18 16 6 to10 years 44 40 23 21 11 to 15 years 13 12 38 35 16 years and more 8 8 30 28 from an inspection of table 4 it is evident that the majority of the participants has been working in their current ranks for less than five years (40%), and six to ten years (40%), respectively. it is also apparent from the table that the respondents were relatively evenly spread in terms of the number of years that they were employed as nurses. measuring instrument in the present study job satisfaction was approached from an attitudinal point of view. the choice of a measuring instrument was based on the following criteria (koustelios & bagiatis, 1997): (a) the instrument should be useful to examine a wide variety of employees in a variety of jobs. (b) the verbal content of the items in the instrument should at a level that it can be understood all employees (also by those who used english as a second language). (c) the instrument should be valid and reliable. (d) the instrument should yield separate scores for different facets of job satisfaction. most existing measures do not adequately meet all of the above criteria. therefore, the decision was made to compile a short, practical instrument, the job satisfaction questionnaire (jsq), using a selection of items from the study reported by koustelios and bagiatis (1997). the jsq has its own instructions for completion, item sequencing, response scale format, and scoring key. the average time for completion of the instrument is about 5 minutes. the instrument contains three items for each of the job satisfaction factors (working conditions, supervision, pay, the job itself, organization, and promotion) identified by koustelios and bagiatis (1997). each group of three items selected were the ones that showed the highest item-scale correlations with each of the factors in the koustelios and bagiatis study. seven of the selected items are reverse scored and a six-point likert-type response scale, varying from strongly disagree (value = 1) to strongly agree (value = 6), was used to measure the six factors. three openended questions are also included in the questionnaire (“what are the things you like about your job”? “what are the things you dislike about your job”? “what do you think will make you satisfied with your job”?). procedure data was collected through the administration of the jsq. following approval to conduct the study, copies of the jsq were distributed among nursing staff at the hospital. a cover letter explained the purpose of the study. respondents were assured of the confidentiality of survey. they were given a week to complete the questionnaire, and completed questionnaires were returned via conveniently placed boxes at the respondents’ workplace. statistical analysis the data was entered into the spss 12.0 for windows (spsssouth africa). descriptive statistics (percentages) were used to report the job satisfaction of respondents. an overall job satisfaction score was computed for the sample. percentages of agreement/disagreement with different aspects of job satisfaction were also calculated for each job satisfaction factor included in the questionnaire. the measurement characteristics of the jsq were explored to check the reliability and validity of the instrument. reliability figures (cronbach alphas), and results of a principal components analysis (pca), with varimax rotation, were obtained to provide data on the construct validity of the instrument. a second round of factor analysis (pca) was conducted treating job satisfaction scales as variables, in a further exploration of the data. results measurement properties of the jsq due to a lack of space, only a brief overview of the measurement properties of the jsq is provided to support the reliability and validity of results and conclusions of the study. the results showed that obtained reliability figures (alphas) range from .64 to 0,76. these findings provide support for the internal consistency of the sub-scales. all in all, 60% of the total variance (eigenvalues > 1,00) was explained by the principal components solution in the present study. this result provides evidence of construct validity of the instrument. despite the fact that the jsq contains fewer items than the esi, these findings, to a large extent, mirror the finding of the study by koustelios and bagiatis (1997). it can be concluded that the above findings provide support for the reliability and validity of results and conclusions of the present study. a factor analysis of the jsq also revealed two principal components accounting for 63,5% of total variance (eigenvalues > 1). the results provide tentative support for distinguishing between herzberg’s extrinsic and intrinsic sources of job satisfaction. one component explained intrinsic work factors (mainly the job itself factor, but also the promotion factor), while the other four components accounted for extrinsic work factors, namely, satisfaction with: working conditions, supervisor, pay, and the organization. job satisfaction table 5 presents respondent level satisfaction and dissatisfaction (percentages) with the six factors measured in the study. the six factors were grouped into intrinsic and extrinsic job factors, and the average satisfaction/dissatisfaction on each group (intrinsic and extrinsic) was calculated. average percentages for each of the factors, as well as the percentage for each item in the questionnaire are listed. all the average percentages are in bold. the general job satisfaction and dissatisfaction levels of the group of respondents are also given. the findings reported in table 5 show that there was no clear difference between general levels of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction, although more respondents were dissatisfied (56%) than those who were satisfied (44%). respondents were also somewhat more dissatisfied with extrinsic work factors (58%) than with intrinsic factors (52,5%). on the intrinsic factors, specifically, they were more satisfied with the job itself (52%) than with promotion (43%). with regard to the job itself, most of the respondents (63%) indicated that their jobs were worthwhile. table 6 also shows that at least pietersen22 some of the respondents (53%) found it satisf ying to take care of their patients. however, the results in table 5 indicated that 57% felt that their jobs were routinized and this impacted negatively on their intrinsic job satisfaction. table 5 satisfaction/dissatisfaction with job satisfaction factors factor % satisfied % dissatisfied intrinsic factors 47,5 52,5 job itself 52 48 routine 43 57 worthwhile 63 37 fulfilling 51 49 promotion 43 57 experience 53 47 prospects 32 68 likelihood 44 56 extrinsic factors 42 58 working conditions 43 57 pleasant 39 61 best ever 31 69 impact on health 59 41 supervisor 37 63 understand problems 45 55 support 35 65 irritation with 32 68 pay 39 61 insecure with 73 27 paid for work done 21 79 less than deserved 23 77 organisation 49 51 favouritism 73 27 support 33 67 best worked for 42 58 general job satisfaction level 44 56 table 6 represents a summary of the respondents’ views on: (a) things that they like about their jobs. (b) things that they dislike about their jobs. (c) things that will make them more satisfied with their jobs table 6 respondents’ comments factor % likes patient care 53 cooperation with staff 15 seeking new experiences 19 nothing 13 dislikes work not in job description 38 overwork 19 underpaid 25 favouritism 18 improvements salary increase 60 working conditions 15 patient care 11 increase staff 14 the findings in table 5 indicate that the respondents were mostly dissatisfied with all four extrinsic factors measure in the study. the results indicated that: a) 57% of the respondents (irrespective of age and rank) were not satisfied with their working conditions. a more detailed analysis showed that the majority felt that the working were unpleasant (61%). they also indicated the working conditions at the hospital were the worst that they have experienced so far in their working lives (69%). however, most of them (59%) indicated that the working conditions were not bad for their health. b) overall, most of the nursing staff (63%) was dissatisfied with their supervisors. more specifically, most of the respondents (65%) indicated that their supervisors did not support them. also, 68% indicated that their supervisors irritated them. however, there was not much difference bet ween respondents who indicated that their supervisors did not understand their problems (55%), and those who felt that supervisors did understand (45%). c) the majority of respondents were unhappy with pay (61%). they felt that they did not get paid enough for what they did (79%) or that remuneration was less than what they deserved (77%). (the results in table 6 showed that 60% felt that the organization should increase their pay). however, most of them (73%) did not fell insecure and felt that the organization had enough resources to pay their salaries. d) only 49% of the respondents were satisfied with their organization. a more detailed analysis showed that a large majority (67%) indicated that the organization did not support them. most of them (58%) also believed that the hospital was not a good place to work. however, a large majority (73%) indicated that there was no favouritism present in the organization. discussion it is evident from the literature that low levels of job satisfaction are associated with high turnover rates. the findings of the present study show that the nursing staff at the hospital were, in general, not clearly satisfied or dissatisfied. as such, it would be difficult to use their general level of job satisfaction to predict the turnover rate at the hospital. however, some specific factors could positively influence decisions of nursing staff to stay at the hospital. these factors are: a) most of the respondents indicated that their jobs were worthwhile. b) more than half of the respondents indicated that they found it satisf ying to take care of their patients. c) most of the respondents indicated there was financial stability in the organization. financial stability is one of the most appealing aspects of a nurse’s job (koebel, fuller & misener, 1991). on the other hand, the findings also show that extrinsic and intrinsic job factors that could negatively impact on the turnover rate of nursing staff at the hospital are present in the situation. the literature shows that extrinsic factors, such as working conditions, supervision, management st yles, and salary negatively affect the job satisfaction of employees. most of the respondents in the present study indicated that they were dissatisfied with their interactions with their supervisors. they were also clearly dissatisfied with their remuneration and unhappy with the working conditions in the hospital. lastly, they indicated that the organizational climate was not conducive to generate high levels of job satisfaction. these extrinsic factors will continue to contribute to job dissatisfaction unless management actively intervenes to address these issues. the literature also shows that routinization, and the resulting a lack of opportunities to be creative, has a great impact on the intrinsic job satisfaction of nurses in hospitals. the findings of the present study also indicated that routinization impacted job satisfaction of nursing staff 23 negatively on the job satisfaction of the respondents. however, much of a nurse’s job inherently contains routine activities. as such, it would probably be difficult, but not impossible, to provide opportunities for creativity at the target hospital. job satisfaction literature also provides evidence that hospital nurses are, in general, satisfied with opportunities for promotion (another intrinsic job factor). however, the respondents in the present study were mostly dissatisfied with promotion in general, and/or their chances for promotion in particular. this is another issue that the hospital management needs to focus on. to conclude, nursing shortages will continue to increase in future. an important reason for this is that staff retention is associated with job satisfaction. it is therefore recommended that hospital’s administrators should take proactive steps to retain their staff. the job satisfaction of nursing staff is on the decline worldwide. this means that proactive interventions are needed to ensure that the job satisfaction of nursing staff at the target hospital, or at any other hospital in a similar situation, does not decline. the following proactive interventions to decrease the influence of intrinsic job factors could be taken. (a) hospital managers could enhance the commitment of, and empower nursing staff, by obtaining their input on possible actions to be taken to create opportunities to be more creative in their jobs and to counteract the impact of routinization on job satisfaction. (b) hospital administrators should also create opportunities for promotion in situations where staff advancement is identified as a problem. only a small number of respondents in the present study indicated that they would be more satisfied if the staff complement of the hospital was increased. this means that the management of the hospital should attend to staff promotions to increase the intrinsic job satisfaction of their nursing staff, instead of recruiting staff from outside sources. in addition to focussing on intrinsic job factors, hospital administrators also need to take active steps lessen the negative impact of extrinsic job factors on the job satisfaction of nursing staff. hospital administrators would be advised: (a) to take active steps to ‘make the hospital a more pleasant place to work at’, (b) to develop the interpersonal skills of supervisor, (c) to implement ways and means to actively support nursing staff and to develop a caring organizational climate, and (d) to amend the pay packages of nursing staff, it at all possible. finally, to promote excellence in nursing care in hospitals in south africa, and to address the critical shortage of nurses in the country, research should be conducted on other research and gender populations in the nursing professions. further research could, for example, be conducted on nursing staff in different health care settings, in different hospitals, and in other parts of the country. information on the job satisfaction of nursing staff must be disseminated to interested parties throughout the field. such information is of critical importance to health care managers who need to address the critical nursing staff shortages in south africa. information on levels of job satisfaction, and intrinsic and extrinsic job factors are also essential for health care managers who are committed to the happiness and satisfaction of their employees, and to quality patient care. references bailey, k. d. (1982). methods of social research. (2nd ed). london: collier macmillan. bassett, g. (1994). the case against job satisfaction. business horizons, 37 (3), 61-69. boumans, n. p. g. & landeweerd, j. a. (1999). nurses’ well-being in a primary nursing care setting in the netherlands. scandinavian journal of caring sciences, 13 (2), 116-122. buitendach, j. h. & de witte, d. (2005). job insecurity, extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment maintenance workers in a parastatal. south african journal of business management, 36 (2), 27-39. buss, j. (1988). job satisfaction, powerlessness and locus of control. western journal of nursing research, 10 (6), 718-731. cavanagh, s.j. (1992). job satisfaction of nursing staff working in hospitals. journal of advanced nursing, 17, 704-711. conrad k. m., conrad, k. j. & parker, j. e. (1985). job satisfaction among occupational health nurses. journal of c0mmunity health nursing, 2 (3), 161-173. chu, c. i., hus, h. m. price, j. l. & lee, j. y. (2003). job satisfaction of hospital nurses: an empirical test of a causal model in taiwan. international nursing review, 50, 176-182. dolan, l. a. (2003). management st yle and staff nurse satisfaction. dimensions of critical care nursing, 22 (2), 9798. douglas, m. k., meleis, a. i., eribs, c. & kim, s. (1996). the work of auxillary nurses in mexico: stressors, satisfiers and coping strategies. international journal of nursing studies, 33 (5), 495505. evans, m. (2005). on the job. modern healthcare, 35 (14), 14-15. fako, t. (2000). job satisfaction among nurses in botswana. society in transition, 31 (1), 10-21. fife-schaw. (1997). surveys and sampling issues. in breakwell, g. m., hammond, s. & fife-schaw, c. (eds). research methods in psychology. london: sage. fung-kam, l. (1998). job satisfaction and autonomy of hong kong registered nurses. journal of advanced nursing, 27 (2). retrieved from ebscohost: academic search premier, 157. greengard, s. (2004). the five-alarm job. workforce management, 83 (2), 43-46. griffeth, r.w., hom, p.w. & gaertner, s. (2000). a meta-analysis of antecedents and correlates of employee turnover: update, moderator tests, and research implications for the next millennium. journal of management, 26 (3), 463-479. gunner-vaugh, r. m. (2003). simple steps to satisfaction. nursing management, 34 (5), 20-22. hackett, r.d. & guion, r.m. (1985). a reevaluation of the absenteeism-job satisfaction relationship. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 35 (3), 340-381. hackman, j. & oldham, g. (1975). development of the job diagnostic survey. journal of applied psychology, 60, 159-170. hall, c. (1986). measuring job satisfaction. nursing times, 82 (5), 43-46. herzberg, p. (1959). the motivation to work. new york: john wiley. herzberg, f., mausner, b. & snyderman, b. (1959). the motivation to work. new york: john wiley. hirschfeld, r.r. (2000). validity studies. does revising the intrinsic and extrinsic subscales of the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire short form make a difference? educational psychological measurement, 60, 255-270. igbaria, m., meredith, g. & smith, d.c. (1994). predictors of intention of is professionals to stay with the organization in south africa. information and management, 26 (5), 245-256. judge, t., bono, j., thoresen, c. & patton, g. (2001). the job satisfaction-job performance relationship: a qualitative and quantitative review. psychological bulletin, 127, 376-407. koebel, p. w., fuller, s. c. & misener, t r. (1991). job satisfaction of nurse practitioners: an analysis using herzberg's theory. nurse practitioner, 16 (4), 43-48. koustelios, a, d. & bagiatis, k. (1997). the employee satisfaction inventory (esi): development of a scale to measure satisfaction of greek employees. educational and psychological measurement, 57 (3), 469-477. koustelios, a. d, kellis, s. & bagiatis, k. (1999). the relationship between burnout and job satisfaction among physical education teachers: a multivariate approach. european journal for sports management, 6 (1), 31-39. lacey, l. m. (2003). called into question: what nurses want. nursing management, 34 (2), 15-16. pietersen24 landy, f. j. (1978). an opponent process theory of job satisfaction. journal of applied psychology, 63, 533-547. lawler, e. e. (1973). motivation and work organizations. monterey, california: brooks/cole. locke, e.a. (1976). the nature causes and causes of job satisfaction. in dunnette, m.c. (ed.). handbook of industrial and organisational psychology. chicago, il: rand mcnally. locke, e. a. (1969). what is job satisfaction? organizational behavior and human resources management, 4, 309-336. lofquist, l. h. & davies, r. v. (1969). adjustment to work: a psychological view of man’s problems in a work-orientated society. new york: applton-century-crofts. lu, l. (1999). work motivation, job stress and employees’ wellbeing. journal of applied management studies, 8 (1), 161-172. mcneese-smith, d. k. (1999). a content analysis of staff nurse descriptions of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. journal of advanced nursing, 29 (6). retrieved from ebscohost: academic search premier, 139. miracle, v. & miracle, j. (2004). the nursing shortage. critical nursing care, 23 (5), 236-237. moyle, w, skinner, j, rowe, g. & gork, c. (2003). views of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction in australian long-term care. journal of clinical nursing, 12 (2). retrieved from ebscohost: academic search premier, 64. murrow, j. & nowak, p. (2005). what nurses want. health ser vices, 25 (1), 25-28. nagy, m. s. (2002). using a single-item approach to measure facet job satisfaction. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 75 (1), 77-87. o’driscoll, m. p. & beerh, t. a. (1994). supervisor behaviors, role stressors and uncertainty as predictors of outcomes for subordinates. journal of organizational behavior, 15 (2), 141-155. organ, d.w. & ryan, k. (1995). a meta-analytic review of attitudinal and dispositional predictors of organizational citizenship behavior. personnel psychology, 48, 775-803. oshagbemi, t. (1999). overall job satisfaction: how good are single versus multiple-item measures? journal of managerial psychology, 14 (5/6), 388-404. ostroff, c. (1992). the relationship between satisfaction, attitudes, and performance: an organizational level analysis. journal of applied psychology, 77, 963-974. price, j. l. (2001). reflections on the determinants of voluntary turnover. international journal of manpower, 22 (7), 600-624. seo, y, ko, j. & price, j. l. (2004). the determinants of job satisfaction among hospital nurses: a model estimation in korea. international journal of nursing studies, 41 (4), 437-447. siegel, l. & lane, i. m. (1982). personnel and organizational psychology. georgetown, ontario: irwin-dorsey. smetherham, j. (2003). sa in short of 31 000 nurses, says minister. cape times, online edition 8 july 2005. retrieved from the world wide web, july 6, 2005:http://www. capetimes.co.za/index.php?farticleld=209416. smith, p., kendall, l. & hulin, c. (1969). the measurement of satisfaction in work and retirement. chicago: rand mcnally. spector, p. e. (1997). job satisfaction: applications, assessment, causes, and consequences. thousand oaks, ca: sage. spss 12.0 for windows. spss-sa. cape town. terpstra, d. e. & honoree, a. l. (2004). job satisfaction and pay satisfaction levels of university faculty by discipline type and by geographical region. education, 124 (3), 528-539. traynor, m. & wade, b. (1993). the development of a measure of job satisfaction for use in monitoring the morale of community nurses in four trusts. journal of advanced nursing, 18, 127-139. togia, a., koustelios, a. & tsigilis, n. (2004). job satisfaction among greek academic librarians. library and information science research, 26 (3), 373-384. tsigilis, n., koustelios, a. & togia, a. (2004). multivariate relationship and discriminant validit y bet ween job satisfaction and burnout. journal of managerial psychology, 19 (7), 666-676. venter, b. (2003). crisis as sa steadily loses qualified nursing. the star, 5 july 2005. (online ed.). retrieved from the world wide web, july 6, 2005: http://www.thestar.co.za/index. php?fsectionld=129&atricleld=2373406. weiss, d., dawis, r., england, g. & lofquist, l. i. (1967). manual for the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire. minneapolis: industrial relations centre, university of minnesota, work adjustment project. job satisfaction of nursing staff 25 abstract introduction method findings discussion of the findings acknowledgements references about the author(s) anéa burke-le roux department of business management, university of pretoria, south africa marius pretorius department of business management, university of pretoria, south africa citation burke-le roux, a., & pretorius, m. (2017). exploring entrepreneurial learning during formal business rescue processes: insights from the south african experience. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a733. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.733 original research exploring entrepreneurial learning during formal business rescue processes: insights from the south african experience anéa burke-le roux, marius pretorius received: 09 july 2015; accepted: 18 jan. 2017; published: 12 apr. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: currently, little is known about entrepreneurial learning under turnaround and rescue conditions. a better understanding of the content dimensions as well as the factors that drive or restrain entrepreneurial learning during business rescue (br) is relevant for theory and industry development. research purpose: br is a fairly new regime in south africa that extends beyond turnaround practices. it is acknowledged that business failure can fuel cognitive processes and subsequently entrepreneurial learning but to what extent in the context of formal br proceedings requires exploration. practice suggests that the role of the business rescue practitioner (brp) as ‘disproportionate influencer’ can affect the learning of filing entrepreneurs. motivation for the study: in the absence of guidelines, this study set out to explore and make sense of the specific content dimensions that entrepreneurs learn during such proceedings to assist role players. research design, approach and method: the research question for this exploratory investigation obtained first-hand accounts from subjects that have been directly involved in br proceedings. semi-structured interviews were conducted. ‘investigator triangulation’ was also used to extract as much richness and data as possible applying interpretative phenomenological analysis. findings: we extracted three key content dimensions which entrepreneurs learned during br: rescue process, business related and personal learnings. entrepreneurs with ‘positive’ experiences of br learned more than those with negative experiences. the key driving and restraining factors to entrepreneurial learning were both associated with the behaviour of the brp. practical/managerial implications: br has introduced another dimension to learning from business failure. understanding the content dimensions learned by entrepreneurs during br broadens insights of the regulator, brps and educators about the potential long-term effects of br on the factors that can either drive or restrain learning during br proceedings. originality and value: the findings led to an enriched understanding of specific entrepreneurial learning content dimensions that take place under br proceedings. it also directs future research into entrepreneurial learning when effected by br. introduction those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it. (winston churchill) following in the footsteps of developed economies such as the united states (us) (chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code, 1978), the united kingdom (uk) (cork committee, 1982), canada and australia, south africa has through the introduction of the companies act (no. 71 of 2008) (‘the act’) in april 2009 joined the international community in adopting a modern corporate reorganisation regime. the act came into effect on 01 may 2011. chapter 6 is aimed at addressing the need for a business recovery mechanism (kloppers, 1999; westbrook, 2010) that provides for ‘the rescue and recovery’ of businesses that are financially distressed, in a way ‘that balances the rights and interests of all relevant stakeholders’ (s7[k]) (du toit, 2012, p. 1). the institution of business rescue (br) through chapter 6 of the act has introduced a new regime of reform for south african businesses facing insolvency by proposing br as an alternative to liquidation. despite the novel intentions and potential of the act, it came with its own set of problems, to the extent that revision of the act was formally started in 2016. it is important, at this junction, to qualify the business rescue practitioner (brp) in relation to the turnaround professional (tp) associated with chapter 11 as these terms are often used interchangeably. under chapter 11, the tp works with the debtor in possession (dip) who is the management of the distressed firm. together they produce a plan to lay before the court for ratification. generally the process is regarded as an ‘informal’ process with the management remaining (dip) in charge. compare this to chapter 6 where the brp is appointed after ‘formal’ filing and once appointed are given sole decision-making powers until the plan is presented to the creditors for voting to support the plan, which must then be implemented by the brp. pretorius (2016) reports that the filing directors (often owners or shareholders) lose all powers in this relationship. br therefore brings about a different boundary condition for potential learning of the entrepreneur (as well as management and shareholders) compared to turnaround. with the rescue industry being just over 5 years old, it can be considered to still be in the process of overcoming its growth pains. a recent technical report by pretorius (2015) highlighted some of the challenges associated with this ‘new’ recovery regime. one of the key findings of the study was that the brp is a ‘disproportionate influencer’, as the brp can be connected to everything that is happening in the process (pretorius, 2015, p. 78). however, his report is silent on learning aspects. this highlighted the need for brp-related tasks and issues such as the accreditation, regulation and competencies of the brp, to receive optimal attention to influence the outcomes of the process. with the brp having such influence in the rescue process, it is important for the regulator and affected parties to understand the practice events to make sense of the specific learning influences that a brp may have on not only the process but specifically on entrepreneurs (often the filing director or directors or managers). in this study, we not only use entrepreneurial learning as umbrella term but also include small business directors who are often the entrepreneur, owner, shareholders and potentially all. all subjects in this study were entrepreneurial owners. could a turnaround or br event be judged successful if no knowledge transfer took place during the process? logic suggests that after br, if successful, control of the business is given back to the entrepreneur as filing director. it may therefore be assumed that brps are expected to dispense knowledge to the entrepreneurs, as the entrepreneurs will retake management control of the business again after the substantial implementation of the br plan. in a recent review, walsh and cunningham (2016, p. 249) highlighted the entrepreneurial learning issues that can take place during business failure and call for extending the research. simultaneously, very little is known about what entrepreneurs learn under formal br proceedings, which have the added dimension of the brp as a ‘disproportionate influencer’. currently, the body of knowledge about practice events that encourage or restrain entrepreneurial learning during the br process is limited. there is also no clarity on the specific content dimensions of the learnings that are gained by entrepreneurs under the new recovery regime. drawing on sense-making theory (weick, 1995), the phenomenon of entrepreneurial learning during br was explored by investigating specific episodes that were triggered by specific events, interpreted through specific processes to generate specific outcomes that are influenced by several situational factors (sandberg & tsoukas, 2015). the study sets out to explore br practice events that can drive or restrain entrepreneurial learning, as well as understand what some of the specific content dimensions are in this context. in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted to gain insights into practice events which can guide the process of making sense of the phenomena of entrepreneurial learning during br. purpose of the study although it is acknowledged that business failure fuels several cognitive processes and subsequently entrepreneurial learning (walsh & cunningham, 2016), not much is known about the phenomena of entrepreneurial learning under the newly instituted business recovery regime. while it may be expected that brps as ‘disproportionate influencers’ should share knowledge with the entrepreneurs as part of their tasks, little is known about practice events. this study thus sets out to make sense as a first episode by exploring the content dimensions that entrepreneurs, as owners or filing directors, learn during formal br proceedings. also, the factors that may restrain or drive entrepreneurial learning during br proceedings are investigated. the study has thus embarked on an area of br that has not been studied previously, namely: to document entrepreneurs’ personal accounts of learning during br proceedings. it is also of particular interest at this juncture as pretorius (2016) reported on the adverse relationships between brps and filing directors. while previous research has discussed broad content dimensions of what entrepreneurs learn from failure, this study hopes to extend with a ‘better understanding’, the learning effects during br at an individual level as they are handed back the control of the business after substantial implementation of the rescue plan is filed by the brp. if they have not learned from the process, the businesses are likely to experience the same distress in future colloquially referred to chapter 22 in the united states and chapter 12 in south africa. the investigation aims to inform future studies focussing on how the entrepreneurial learning during br can be enhanced by making sense of the factors that entrepreneurs perceive to encourage or limit their learning during br proceedings. beyond that, this study is intended to assist the regulator with insights into the factors needed to create an environment that is conducive to learning and bridge factors that restrain it; to equip brps with knowledge to help them promote entrepreneurial learning; and lastly to provide educators with lessons learned during br proceedings, which can serve as directive for training programmes. we start with a literature review from which the research propositions were derived, followed by a description of the research design and methodology and lastly the findings and a discussion. for the purposes of this study, entrepreneurs, business owners and directors were considered the unit of observation, as the researchers acknowledge that entrepreneurial learning is not limited to entrepreneurs only, as per the definition of an entrepreneur suggested by wickam (2000). the term ‘entrepreneur’ is used interchangeably with ‘business owner’ as well as ‘filing director’ for the purposes of this study. literature review the process of formal br is known to be a highly stressful process for the brps, directors, owners, as well as for other stakeholders and other ‘affected persons’. although business failure is recognised as being potentially painful and damaging to entrepreneurs (cardon & mcgrath, 1999; cope, 2011), previous studies clearly highlight that negative experiences, arguably such as business failure or rescue, can stimulate learning and adaptation processes (shepherd, 2003). cope (2011) has explored some of the content dimensions which entrepreneurs learn during business failure. mismanagement is often quoted as a common cause for business becoming distressed and in need of br (pretorius & holtzhauzen, 2008). it is, therefore, vital to know what entrepreneurial learning takes place during br proceedings to study the potential effects of br on individual entrepreneurs. as entrepreneurs play an important role in economic development and employment, the regulator needs to understand whether entrepreneurs benefit in knowledge during an intervention such as br, and what role brps play in such learning as ‘disproportionate influencers’. drawing on sense-making theory, this study aims to investigate some of the content dimensions that entrepreneurs learn during the stressful process of br. sense-making theory following a disruption associated with one’s environment (filing for br) new sense making for improved understanding is required. sense making is seen as a cognitive process. by interpreting information derived from the external environment and from internal learning, purposeful action is instigated and that leads to change (gioia & chittipedi, 1991, p. 433). weick (1995), who is seen as the father of the theory, characterises sense making by the following seven building blocks: (1) it is grounded in identity construction – thus who one is, determines what sense is made. (2) it is a retrospective process. (3) it is enactive of sensible environments – linked to what people do. (4) it involves social interaction, (5) on an ongoing basis – thus ‘episodic’ in nature, (6) focuses on and extracted by cues (signalling) and (7) driven by plausibility rather than accuracy. while often used synonymously, understanding and interpretation are not equivalent to sense making (weick, 1995, p. 14). similarities might exist between the concepts, but there are several distinguishing factors that set sense making apart from understanding, as well as interpretation. weick (1995) states that interpretation is a component of sense making but that, while interpretation is not irrelevant, sense making matters because a mistake in sense making could have dire consequences. the key distinction is that sense making is about the ways people generate what they interpret. it therefore refers to how people make sense of their experiences in the world (klein, moon & hoffman, 2006, p. 70), it is a process by which individuals develop cognitive maps of their environment (ring & rands, 1989, p. 342) as referenced by weick (1995, p. 5). the applicability of the sense-making theory is twofold for this study. first, the subjects retrospectively state their own experiences when probed during interviews about learning content. second, the researchers made sense of the data collected from the interviews and based on previous learning literature to propose an ‘initial map’ of the insights gained from the process. challenges surrounding business rescue following the institution of chapter 6 of the amended companies act (71 of 2008), some studies have started exploring the challenges and phenomena around the new business recovery model for the regulator and stakeholders to gain insights to influence future outcomes. brps are central to all the activities that takes place from their appointment, which takes place within 5 days after the rescue filing process, until substantial implementation of the plan is reached, thus making them ‘disproportionate influencers’ (pretorius, 2015, p. 78). pretorius and holtzhauzen (2008) conducted research on the key liabilities that brps are faced with and highlighted the fact that brps face a task of immense proportions. legitimacy, resource scarcity, leadership capacity, strategy options, data integrity and integration were found to be the most relevant liabilities that brps had to address. the liability of strategy options is a key liability as a turnaround strategy will only be truly effective in reversing decline if it addresses the declining firm’s core problem (barker & duhaime, 1997). as the origin of the causes of failure is categorised as either strategic or operational in nature (robbins & pearce, 1992), operational preconditions can be corrected with relative ease and expectation of success, while strategic preconditions require directional change and high-risk expectations (pretorius & holtzhauzen, 2008). data integrity and integration can also be a significant liability for a brp, as data often mark and mask the core problems rather than being of assistance (pretorius & holtzhauzen, 2013). expert brps, however, develop what could be termed ‘verifier determinants’ of early warning signs, to enhance their decision-making (pretorius & holtzhauzen, 2013). verifier determinants can be classified into five categories: management, finance, strategic, banking and operations and marketing of the ventures under investigation. le roux and duncan (2013) expanded on the work of pretorius and holtzhauzen (2008) by noting that each liability which brps have to address is accompanied by equal concerns from a creditor point of view. a major concern from the creditors’ perspective is that they are not always informed timeously about a company’s br status, and effective communication is therefore vital when commencing br (le roux & duncan, 2013). their study found that unsecured creditors often had little to no knowledge of the act, which also left creditors with unanswered questions and concerns. effective communication during rescue proceedings is a statutory requirement to adequately inform creditors. creditor communication primarily takes place in the form of creditors’ meetings and notices. in the examination of the reorganisation plans of four prominent regimes, pretorius and rosslyn-smith (2015) found that the plan serves as a tool for feasibility declaration, a medium of communication, an enabler of transparency, a contractual obligation and finally to assist decision-making for attracting post-commencement finance. these studies have given insights into br from a creditor and brp perspective. yet the existing body of knowledge on the experience of individual filing directors as entrepreneurs during br remains largely understudied. this is even more so true with regard to what is known about the practice events under which entrepreneurial learning takes place as well as specific learning content dimensions that are gained during proceedings. it leaves a gap in the regulator’s, brps’ and educators’ understanding of the longevity of br if entrepreneurial learning is impeached. business failure over the past decade, there has been an increase in literature that sets out to define, clarify and better understand business failure. while each company’s life cycle can differ in terms of its ultimate level of failure, distress or success, no organisation is exempt from experiencing certain degrees of highs and lows throughout its life cycle (burbank, 2005). failure should not be narrowly conceived as only being bankruptcy and liquidation, as failure may also involve the loss of capital and not being able to continue a business on a profitable basis (cochran, 1981). shepherd, douglas and shanley (2000) also stressed the failure red flags of unexpected declines in revenue and/or increases in expenses which may imply that the business cannot continue under its current management or ownership. a distinction can be made between decline and failure. failure marks the endpoint of the success–failure continuum, and when this discontinuance (bankruptcy) is reached, operations cease and judicial proceedings come into effect. the process leading up to this can be defined as decline and distress (pretorius, 2009). in the context of the act, a company is perceived as being distressed and is eligible to file for br when it is unlikely to pay all its debtors in the ensuing 6 months. costs of failure business failure can influence entrepreneurs in a number of ways, both positive and negative. in his study on better understanding entrepreneurial learning from failure, cope (2011) identified six distinctive spheres in which failure influences entrepreneurs, namely: financial, emotional, physiological, social, professional and entrepreneurial. the study found that all of the participants experienced some sort of financial loss, but most participants highlighted that the emotional cost was far more difficult to deal with. similarly, shepherd, wicklund and haynie (2007) acknowledged that failure is financially costly to entrepreneurs but found that emotional costs dominate over financial costs. the findings further indicated that the emotional impact of failure is linked to its social cost (cope, 2011). the social cost referring to the way entrepreneurs fear others will respond to their failure as well as their personal sense of failure as they are not able to deliver to investors, employees, creditors and family. failure did seem to have a negative impact on entrepreneurial self-efficacy and risk-taking propensity (cope, 2011). similarly, it can be argued that entrepreneurs whose businesses are in formal br are faced with added emotional costs, as the brp takes control of the business once a majority vote in favour of the rescue plan has been obtained. it is not clear how this added dimension affects the entrepreneurial learning that takes place in the context of formal br proceedings. practical experience suggests that when firms are distressed, the ‘good’ employees leave first for alternative employment leaving behind those who cannot find such alternative employment. this emphasises the crucial relationship with human resource management by both the brp during br and the entrepreneur as management before and after br. learning from failure making sense of the phenomenon of learning from business failure conditions can add to what we know about how entrepreneurs learn and respond to failure (huovinen & tihula, 2007), thus learning from failure is relevant for all management. this is even more true in the south african br context, where very little is known about entrepreneurial learning that takes place during proceedings. using quasi-field experiments and laboratory tests, ellis, mendel and nir (2006, p. 670) have found that failures are the ‘fuel that intensifies cognitive processes’. although failure can be both painful and damaging to entrepreneurs, cardon and mcgrath (1999) and shepherd (2003) have theorised about the learning and knowledge that entrepreneurs can gain from such situations. there are two dominant views on learning from negative experiences such as business failure (pretorius & le roux, 2011). barker and moné (1998) argue that organisational decline constrains cognitive processes, limits decision-making and restricts the available options. their approach is limiting to organisational change and/or adaptation and may result in threat-rigidity theory (pretorius & le roux, 2011). on the other hand, shepherd (2003, p. 318) postulated, ‘negative emotions stimulate search processes, learning, and adaptation’. politis (2008) used experiential learning theory as guiding framework and identified two critical career experiences that can be associated with more positive attitudes to failure, namely the prior start-up experience and the business closure experience. both these experiences are valuable in the development of an entrepreneurial mindset, in which failures can be seen as opportunities for learning (politis & gabrielsson, 2009). using the literature on grief and related emotions, shepherd (2003) attempted to gain deeper insights into how the self-employed learns from business failure. shepherd (2003) found that the self-employed learn from business failure when they can make use of the available information on reasons why the business failed, namely feedback information, to revise their current knowledge about how to successfully manage a business (shepherd, 2003). this learning can help them to revise their assumptions regarding the consequences of previous decisions, action and inaction. the approach described by shepherd (2003) of how the self-employed learn from business failure in the process of grief shows a very strong relationship with the action learning approach as described by mcgill and beaty (2001) and watson (2004). they describe action learning as a process that includes action, deliberate reflection, generalisation and testing. hence, an action learning approach may be very effective to promote learning from failure and can form part of the grief recovery process. by employing an action learning approach, entrepreneurs can stop and reflect on their actions and current situation, and in so doing ultimately change their future behaviour as a result. we proposition in this study that during br proceedings, the brp ‘moderates’ the entrepreneurial learning conditions to such an extent that learning may be impaired. we want to better understand if learning takes place and if so, what is learned or if not, why not. we take cognisance of pretorius (2015) report to the companies and intellectual property commission (cipc) that states the ‘disproportionate influence’ on the process by the brp. the content dimensions of learning from failure although previous studies paid attention to the process of learning from business failure (shepherd, 2003; shepherd et al., 2007), there still remains fairly scant evidence of the specific content dimensions of such entrepreneurial learning and specific ‘learning tasks’ associated with business failure (cope, 2005a, p. 380). cope (2011) conducted an interpretive phenomenological analysis with eight entrepreneurs who experienced business failure, to highlight the distinctive learning tasks that can be achieved by higher level learning in a business failure situation. learning outcomes from failure can be placed in four broad themes, namely: learning about oneself, the business (and its demise), networks/relationships and business management (cope, 2011). table 1 expands these outcomes. table 1: the entrepreneurial learning task outcomes of failure. although past literature clearly indicates that failure can provide valuable learning opportunities for entrepreneurs, there seems to be a lack of research on entrepreneur’s experiences (blackburn & kovalainen, 2008; cope, 2011). cope’s interpretive phenomenological analysis study with eight entrepreneurs (2011) highlighted four broad failure learning content themes. there still remains a need to better understand entrepreneurs’ experiences of failure as well as what and how they learn from failure. because of the newness of the act, there is specifically a need to understand entrepreneurs’ learning experiences and the specific practice events around such learning. insights into the specific learning content dimensions as well as driving and restraining factors can create a cognisance to guide the regulator and brps in their approaches to rescue proceedings. method research objectives and questions past studies have demonstrated that entrepreneurs can learn from their personal critical business experiences of failure. table 1 highlights four broad content dimensions that entrepreneurs learn during failure. this study sets out to address the gap in research on entrepreneurs’ personal accounts of learning from business failure in a south african br context by interviewing entrepreneurs who have entered and experienced br proceedings. therefore, the following investigative questions guided the research: what are the specific content dimensions that entrepreneurs learn during br proceedings? what are the factors that drive entrepreneurial learning during br proceedings? what are the factors that restrain entrepreneurial learning during br proceedings? research design and methodology research approach the research approach was exploratory and qualitative in nature. we set out to better understand, identify and explain the embedded learnings and experiences of entrepreneurs whose businesses have undergone formal br proceedings. the fact that local literature focussing on br from an entrepreneur’s, owner’s or director’s perspective is limited suggested that a qualitative research approach could be used to explore this understudied phenomenon in more detail (cooper & schindler, 2008). hence, this study did not attempt to gather data for generalisation purposes but rather focused on providing an exploratory description of the content dimensions of learning during br proceedings (see table 2), as well as the factors that can drive or restrain such learning. table 2: research design components. key scientific beliefs of the researchers in order to answer the previously mentioned questions, the researchers were aware of their own philosophical assumptions and methodological values. both researchers are objective realists who believe that knowledge is generated from facts associated with real-life cases and their contexts. where either researcher found repeated mentions of causes, practices and responses, they could ‘generalise’ them. the researchers aimed to maintain a critical view of all the data reviewed and interpret it in the framework of existing literature on br and entrepreneurial learning from business failure, while also allowing for the data to ‘speak for itself’ because of the newness of the br phenomenon. research setting and background eight interviews were conducted with entrepreneurs, business owners and directors whose businesses have undergone br proceedings as a result of voluntary filing. subjects were purposively selected and were not selected to represent certain industries or business size. all subjects that have been interviewed have filed for br in 2012 or 2013. a semi-structured interview format was utilised. follow-up non-standardised telephonic and one-on-one interviews with subjects were also conducted to extract the maximum information out of subjects as they shared their experiences (saunders, lewis & thornhill, 2009). both open and closed questions were employed to improve the researchers’ understanding of the results (cooper & schindler, 2008). during the interview, subjects were requested to reflect on their personal experience of br proceedings. following a brief open-ended discussion, the subjects were guided with a protocol to help them recall the events that took place during the br proceedings chronologically and then paused to reflect on possible learnings at key intervals during the br proceedings. in conclusion, subjects were requested to summarise their key learnings as well as possible factors that enabled or prevented them from learning, to cross-reference this with the information that has been provided earlier in the interview. sampling the research question required first-hand accounts from subjects that have been directly involved in rescue proceeding. hence, the target population of this study was entrepreneurs, business owners and directors whose businesses have undergone br proceedings in south africa as a result of a voluntary filing. the sample was thus not selected to be representative of a certain community, for example, sector or business size, but rather to provide much needed insights into the phenomenon of learning under rescue proceedings. because of the limited data available on businesses that have filed for br as well as the specific criteria for subjects, namely voluntary filing for br, a purposive snowball sampling strategy was used. the researchers tapped into their academic and business networks and also utilised referrals to qualify potential subjects. similar to cope’s (2011) interpretive phenomenological analysis to determine the distinctive learning tasks that can be achieved by business failure, this research followed suit. the sample size for the research was determined after theoretical saturation arose. eight interviews sufficed for this purpose, as theoretical saturation was reached at that point (table 3). this is supported by the work of guest, bunce and johnson (2006, p. 78) which suggests that ‘a sample of six interviews may be sufficient to enable development of meaningful themes and useful interpretations’. table 3: interview statistics. data analysis as the study was exploratory and qualitative in nature, an interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse the data. a phenomenological analysis allows for deeper levels of insight into the entrepreneur’s experiences, which can be applied for theory building purposes. the phenomena that the researchers investigated included the subjects’ perspectives, thinking, experiences and perceptions of situations. table 4 gives a clear outline of the levels of interpretative phenomenological analysis that was applied during the data analysis. table 4: levels of interpretative phenomenological analysis used to extract insights from subjects. strategies used to ensure data quality although there was only one key source of evidence, namely the entrepreneurs, ‘investigator triangulation’ was used to extract as much richness and data as possible (yin, 2003, p. 98). during interviews, we ensured that subjects were relaxed and could exit at any time to address potential subject fatigue. the entrepreneurs all were happy to share their experiences voluntarily. the subjects were telephoned several times to confirm the interpretations of the researchers. as sense making was the objective, we wanted the subjects to voice their own experiences as well as their learnings from the experience. quality was also pursued through repeated views of the data transcriptions, specifically those of the entrepreneur’s own version of their experiences, each evaluation, interview notes, and also by checking the researcher interpretations. we were open to all possible themes as we wanted to make sense of the individual experiences. the developed themes were informed by the content dimensions (see also table 4) on entrepreneurial learning (cope, 2005a, 2011). we enhanced the content dimensions by adding positive affect (driving) and negative affect (restraining) as factors. one researcher also interrogated the interpretations applying devil’s advocacy. finally, we used verbatim quotes in the discussion to convey the personalised learnings of the subjects. we proceed by stating the findings as the research progressed followed by the discussion in search of improved understanding. finally, we highlight contributions and potential consequences while acknowledging the limitation and proposals for future research. findings figure 1 introduces a framework based on the findings of the research. the middle column indicates content dimensions of ‘what’ entrepreneurs reported as learnings during br proceedings. the learning content dimensions can be grouped into three broad categories, namely learning about the process, learning about the business as well as personal learnings. arrows pointing into this middle column shows the origin of the specific learnings to be either from subjects with a positive br experience or those with a negative experience. figure 1: conceptual framework of entrepreneurial learning from business rescue proceedings in south africa. the column to the left lists the driving factors, which enabled or helped create an environment that is conducive to entrepreneurial learning in a br context. the third column highlights the factors that restrained the entrepreneurs from learning under br proceedings. it is important to note that ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ experiences from br was not defined by whether the business went into liquidation, discontinued operations or continued operations after rescue but is rather based on ‘how’ the entrepreneur described their experience of br, regardless of the continued existence of br. important to notice is that the brp effected both positive and negative experiences and both drivers and hindrances. figures 2–4 expand the three learning content findings to explore the data collected associated with the middle column of figure 1. figure 2: relative indication (percentage reported) of process-related learning content dimensions identified by subjects. figure 3: relative indication of business-related learning content dimensions identified by subjects. figure 4: relative indication of personal learning content dimensions identified by subjects. the process-related content included six dimensions of which five were identified by subjects with positive experiences, one by subjects with negative experiences and one dimension by both. four of the dimensions have to do with ‘creditor’ effects and are explored in the discussion section. because of the newness of the act, most of the entrepreneurs (six of the eight subjects) in this study appeared completely unfamiliar with the concept of br before they started searching for solutions to save their distressed businesses. the business-related content included six dimensions of which all were identified by subjects with positive experiences and one dimension by both. the personal learning–related content included four dimensions of which two were identified by subjects with positive experiences and two by subjects with negative experiences. subjects reported a notable difference in the amount of learning that took place amongst the entrepreneurs who reported a positive experience of br when compared to those who reported a negative experience of br. the entrepreneurs who had a positive experience of br had a combined total of 12 unique content leanings, whereas those with a negative experience had only 5 combined unique learnings. further to this, there was also a remarkable difference in the actual learning content between these two categories of entrepreneurs. we proceed by extensive discussion of the content-related findings related to process (figure 2), the business learnings (figure 3) and personal learnings (figure 4). where possible and length permitting, direct quotes were included to inform the discussion. discussion of the findings the research uncovered several interesting additions in terms of entrepreneurial learning content dimensions (cope, 2011) when a business is exposed to the rescue context. most revealing, however, were the factors (see also figure 1) that are perceived to either limit entrepreneurial learning during br proceedings or create an environment that will encourage such learning. furthermore, the research indicated how the ‘level’ of learning or learning content dimension is influenced by whether the entrepreneur had either a positive or a negative experience of br. three content dimensions during business rescue the findings showed similarities with cope’s (2011) findings on the content dimensions of learning from failure, namely: learning about oneself, the business (and its demise), networks or relationships as well as business management. the learning content dimensions of entrepreneurs during br proceedings can be placed in three broad categories, namely: learning about the br process, learning about the business and learning about oneself or personal learning. process learnings the first category of learning content dimensions is learning about the br process. even though some of the entrepreneurs (2 from 8) in the study were vaguely familiar with the concept of turnaround, it was their first time being involved in br proceedings. this confirmed le roux and duncan’s (2013) findings on the knowledge absence of entrepreneurs about br, as potential creditors in their study. as it was their first real-life encounter with br and because all the entrepreneurs had to adhere to the legal requirements of br, some form of learning with regard to the process was to be expected. most of the learning related to the process took place amongst entrepreneurs who had a positive experience of br. learning about creditors formed a common theme in process-related learnings. the category with a positive experience learned to be cautious of claim-related abuse by creditors, recognise the creditor’s expectations of the br plan and came to understand their level of knowledge on br. both categories of entrepreneurs became aware of the importance of consistent communication with creditors. in addition to learning about creditor communication, those with a negative experience only learned about the legal aspects of the process. the main lesson that was taken by the individuals who had a positive experience was to become more cautious of creditors who can potentially abuse the opportunity presented to them by br to raise their claims, by claiming for products or services that were never transacted to the business. these claims also shed light on a business-related area in which entrepreneurs learned to pay more attention, namely their financial systems and controls. as these systems were often not in place or up to date, it made it very difficult for entrepreneurs to know or confirm whether creditor claims were legitimate or not. furthermore, the entrepreneurs who had a positive experience learned about the knowledge of different types of creditors on br, whereas the entrepreneurs with a negative experience did not learn anything with regard to this. the entrepreneurs learned about which type of creditors they perceived to be generally informed about br, such as banks and revenue services, as well as the creditors that are generally not well informed, namely small and medium-sized enterprises (sme’s) (mainly suppliers) and local municipalities. although these learnings may be unique to each entrepreneur’s experience and will not necessarily be the same in every br, it gave them an idea of which creditors they should educate more or communicate better to, should they ever be involved in br proceedings in the future. some of the entrepreneurs from the group who had a positive experience gained knowledge on creditors’ expectations of the business plan. one entrepreneur stated that ‘the plan should only include the most relevant information’, as the entrepreneur found creditor’s main concerns to be whether they are going to receive their money and when they will receive it. another entrepreneur learned that creditors, especially the banks, are concerned whether the management team can be trusted. the learnings related to the expectations of the business plan echoes the findings of pretorius and rosslyn-smith (2015) who examined expectations of the reorganisation plans of four prominent regimes. they reported that the plan was found to serve as a tool for feasibility declaration, a medium of communication, an enabler of transparency, a contractual obligation and finally to assist decision-making for attracting post-commencement finances. the single process-related learning that was most intensely underlined by the entrepreneurs was the importance of effectively communicating with creditors and using existing relationships with creditors to avoid hostility. this finding correlates with a key entrepreneurial learning task outcome of failure that was identified by cope (2011), namely learning about the nature and management of relationships. most of the entrepreneurs felt that better communication with creditors could have saved them a lot of difficulty, as it was believed that the hostility of some creditors against br was grounded in a lack of knowledge with regard to what br actually entails. entrepreneurs, who either used their relationships with creditors to gain their trust or effectively communicated with their creditors, hardly faced any creditor hostility. instead, they were supported and encouraged by their creditors. two entrepreneurs who had a negative experience of br felt that by being personally involved in communicating with creditors, and not having the brp do all the work, would have had a better effect on creditor’s reaction to br. pretorius and rosslyn-smith (2015) acknowledge that a key success factor in the effective communication of a rescue plan is pre-engagement with affected parties, as this allows the brp to manage expectations and educate stakeholders. one entrepreneur learned to keep record of all communication during br, to have all the necessary evidence, should the entrepreneur have to go to court to oppose a perceived ‘unlawful liquidation’. the process-related learning that was limited to only entrepreneurs who had a negative experience of br was learning about legal options as well as process requirements. although all the subjects can be expected to know more about the legal aspects after br than before, seeing that it was their first real-world experience of br and that they had little to no former knowledge about br, the group who had a positive experience of br did not mention learnings about the act as noteworthy lessons. this could be because the legal and process aspects were mostly left to the brp in the latter case, whereas entrepreneurs focussed on other aspects of the process as well as their businesses. figure 2 shows that some of the entrepreneurs with a negative experience of br did not learn much about the previously mentioned process-related content dimensions. this may be associated with the restraining factors to learning during br that are discussed in this article. business learnings the second type of learning that took place during br proceedings involves learning related to the business. this learning content dimension echoes cope’s (2011) findings about entrepreneurial learning from failure. he found that the entrepreneur learns about the business and its demise as well as about business management (cope, 2011). learning related to the business itself include learning about the strengths and weaknesses of the business as well as the reasons for its failure, whereas business management as a learning task relates to how to run and control businesses more effectively in relation to the wider environment (cope, 2011). it is interesting to note that the entrepreneurs who had a negative experience of br only learned one specific business-related lesson, namely debt payment strategies and financing mechanisms, as indicated in figure 3. such limited learnings highlight the negative long-term influence that restraining factors can have on entrepreneurs who experienced br, as it hardly encourages them to behave proactively but rather reactively in future circumstances by obtaining funding or changing debt payment terms, instead of looking to avoid the need for this. a refreshing learning amongst the group who had a positive experience was that they learned to identify the early warning signs in a business and take action quicker like filing for br much earlier. they felt that this could avoid much of the damage to the business as well as their business’ reputation that took place during that time and could have significantly increased their business’ chances of survival. pretorius and holtzhauzen (2013) reported that expert brps develop what could be termed ‘verifier determinants’ of early warning signs, to enhance their decision-making. verifier determinants specifically address brp liabilities of data integrity and integration. verifier determinants can be classified into five categories namely, management, finance, strategic, banking and operations and marketing of the ventures under investigation (pretorius & holtzhauzen, 2013). the significance of this finding lies not only in the fact that the entrepreneurs learned to identify earlier warning signs in their businesses, but also in the possibility that the brps managed to create a ‘climate’ that was favourable for such learning or knowledge transfer to the entrepreneur to take place. remaining focussed on the business and ‘the larger picture’ during the troublesome business decline and failure period seemed to be a key learning for most of the entrepreneurs who had positive experience of br. some entrepreneurs reported that br proceedings have given them the opportunity to reflect on their businesses and start executing the basic business activities correctly, such as implementing and executing proper systems and controls. these entrepreneurs could thus reflect and identify their businesses’ core problems. the origin of the causes of failure can be categorised as either strategic, which require directional change and high-risk expectations, or operational, which can be corrected with relative ease and expectation of success in nature (pretorius, 2008; robbins & pearce, 1992). whether the core problems were operational in nature, such as the execution of proper systems and controls, or whether it is strategic in nature, these entrepreneurs were able to identify some of the key challenges in the business by employing an action learning approach, as described by shepherd (2003). as strategy options are one of the key liabilities that brps are faced with (pretorius & holtzhauzen, 2008), it can be argued that the entrepreneurs who could reflect on operational core problems were able to do so because of the pressure that the brp removed by dealing with the strategic options while taking control over the affairs of the business. the most prominent business-related learning of entrepreneurs who had a positive experience of br was the realisation their businesses lacked adequate operational, managerial and, most importantly, financial controls. a lack of financial systems and controls appeared to be the greatest challenge that entrepreneurs identified. this ranged from inadequate bookkeeping systems, no forecasts, budgeting and spending controls, absence of cash flow projections, no tax return submissions and also a lack of knowledge on how to steer the business based on accounting reports. in conjunction with this, too low profit margins were also identified as a ‘cause’ for some of the problems that were faced. some entrepreneurs learned that during this turbulent time in the business, proper management controls were often neglected because the managers focussed their attention in other areas of the business as the problems in the business mounted. it was felt that by reintroducing discipline into the business and by managing teams more closely, problems such as a lack of maintenance, shrinkage as well as low productivity could be overcome. this finding is in alignment with argenti’s (1976) seminal report on contributors to failure, as well as the verifier determinants of early warning signs, including management, finance, banking and operations, which expert brps use in their decision-making (pretorius & holtzhauzen, 2013). it indicated that the entrepreneurs with these learnings were able to reflect during br on some of the potential ‘causes’ of their businesses’ failure. amongst the entrepreneurs who had a positive experience of br proceedings, some stated that it presented them with the breathing space needed to focus on their staff morale and team dynamic, which ultimately resulted in better customer service and productivity. this learning echoes the entrepreneurial learning task of learning about the nature and management of relationships (cope, 2011), whereas subjects learned to promote staff morale during the br process. another lesson pertaining to staff that some entrepreneurs reported was to employ the correct staff for the correct positions from the start, even if it costs more or means employing fewer staff. one entrepreneur found that by replacing a department of three staff members by two more effective and experienced staff members, who collectively earned what the previous three staff members collectively earned, resulted in much higher productivity and outputs. both categories of entrepreneurs who had a positive and negative experience of br learned how debt payment structuring, as well as financing mechanisms, can help improve cash flow in their businesses, as shown in figure 3. a key difference that was observed between these categories is that entrepreneurs who had a positive experience of br learned a number of other business-related lessons, whereas this was the only business learning for the entrepreneurs who had a negative experience of br. personal learnings this content dimension is aligned to cope’s (2011) findings of entrepreneurial learning tasks from failure, namely learning about oneself. it involves learning about one’s strengths, weaknesses, skills, attitudes, beliefs, and potential development areas. when compared to the amount of business and process-related learnings, subjects reported the least personal learnings. as personal learning is closely associated with the entrepreneurs’ personal experience of br, there is a very clear difference between the personal lessons learned by entrepreneurs who had a positive experience of br and those who had a negative experience. some of the entrepreneurs with a negative experience of br learned that they should not blindly trust other people in the business environment. furthermore, they felt that they would have been more equipped to navigate through br if they surrounded themselves with people who have knowledge on br. in contrast to this, one entrepreneur who had a positive experience of br felt that instead of listening to all the advice that is given to the entrepreneur during br from external parties other than the brp, the entrepreneur should focus on the business and do what they feel is in the best interest of the business. it appears that entrepreneurs who had a negative experience of br as well as some who did not, learned about managing relationships through which guidance could be given to them, which is in line with cope’s (2011) findings of learning about the nature and management of relationships. lastly, overcoming the emotional hurdles associated with failure and overcoming the fear of failure was also noted as a valuable personal lesson that was learned during br. one entrepreneur mentioned the importance of remaining positive and focussed during the rescue process. similarly, shepherd et al. (2007) found that although failure is financially costly to entrepreneurs, emotional costs dominate over financial costs. in line with this, cope (2011) found that failure can have a negative impact on entrepreneurial risk-taking propensity and self-efficacy. figure 4 summarises the personal learning of entrepreneurs during br. driving factors the factors that enabled entrepreneurs who had a positive experience of br to learn about their business, the br process and about themselves can be grouped into three broad categories, namely: factors related to the benefits of br, the brp and the entrepreneur’s own actions and background. one of the driving factors that were identified by all the entrepreneurs in this group was ‘sense of protection against creditor claims’. by not constantly having to deal with the stress of having to pay creditors, it was felt that the entrepreneurs could focus their energy and time on the business, which again enabled them to learn invaluable lessons about their business and themselves. this driving factor resonates the intention of the act, namely to offer financially distressed businesses with the necessary time (moratorium) to reorganise their affairs and recuperate from their challenges. the second driving factor that was identified by all the entrepreneurs who had a positive experience of br was the fact that they trusted their brps. this attributed to a sense of safety and helped create a less tense environment in which the focus could be on rescuing the business and learning in doing so. the entrepreneurs’ trust in the brp was based on their perception of the brp’s financial, legal and management competence. another factor that enabled the group with a positive experience to learn not only about the process but also about the business was collaboration and constant communication with the brp. there was a sense of working together towards the same goal. knowledge and ideas were constantly shared between the entrepreneurs and the brps, who were always willing to make recommendations. the entrepreneurs relied on the brp for guidance in terms of the br proceedings as well as the managing of the business. the positivity that some brps introduced into the businesses also motivated the entrepreneurs. the active involvement of the brp also contributed to an environment that was conducive to entrepreneurial learning. one entrepreneur mentioned that despite his br fees adding to his struggling business’ expenditures and his brp wanting to hand the business back to the entrepreneur, the entrepreneur requested the brp to stay, as he relied on their advice and guidance. as a result of the expertise of the brps and their willingness to listen and advise, some entrepreneurs saw value in the brp’s fees. they understood the brp’s role in assisting the business and were satisfied with the brp’s guidance and direction. the positive learning outcomes of collaboration between the entrepreneurs and the brps echo the work of holman, pavlica and thorpe (1997), who argue that debate with oneself as well as collaboration with others forms the very basis of entrepreneurial learning. the final factors that promote personal learning were centred on the entrepreneur. some entrepreneurs felt that their education and previous business experience has enabled them to learn about their businesses during br proceedings. deliberate reflection and constant questioning about their business situations also marked a key difference between the entrepreneurs who had a positive experience of br and learned about various aspects of the process, business and themselves and those who did not. shepherd (2003) also found that entrepreneurs learn from failure when they reflect on the current information on why the business failed to revise their current knowledge about how to successfully manage a business. this finding also highlights the value of action learning in business failure, as were described by mcgill and beaty (2001) and watson (2004) as a process that includes action, deliberate reflection, generalisation and testing. thus, deliberate reflection is a vital tool for extracting lessons from business failure which can change the way that entrepreneurs manage their businesses in the future. restraining factors the circumstances around the br cases of entrepreneurs who had a negative experience were notably different from those who had a positive experience of br as the latter learned more. the key difference behind their experiences and the amount of content dimensions that they learned could be linked to the behaviour and actions of the brp. this finding thus supports the work of pretorius (2015, p. 78) which indicates that the brp is a ‘disproportionate influencer’, as everything that is happening in the process can be connected to the brp. the brp thus to some extent ‘moderates’ the entrepreneurial learning environment during rescue. one of the restraining factors to learning that often surfaced during the interviews with the subjects was that they did not trust the brp. this finding is aligned to the liability of legitimacy which brps are faced with. legitimacy relates to whether the brp is of the perceived capacity to successfully affect the turnaround, given his or her credibility, reputation, knowledge, skills, track record, ability to muster resources, acceptability as a representative to all stakeholders and more (pretorius & holtzhauzen, 2008). noteworthy concerns regarding the brp were the perceived incompetence of some of the brps as well as their alleged abuse of the proceedings. the seeming incompetence of brps mainly related to their inability to draft a br plan that meets all stakeholder expectations. some of the br plans that were presented to creditors were described as merely being brief debt restructuring plans, which contained no actual plan to reorganise the affairs of the business. this is vital not only to get a majority vote but also to actually make the necessary adjustments to enable the business to be able to operate on a profitable basis again, instead of merely postponing creditor payments. after some of the brps already accepted their appointment, entrepreneurs were informed that if they cannot come up with the money to pay the creditors themselves, then there is no prospect to save the business. in one case, the brp did not quantify votes when the br plan was presented, as was prescribed by the act. in another case, where the brp failed to prepare a rescue plan, the brp did not set up any creditors meetings and filed for liquidation before the first creditors meeting (section 142 [2][b][i] of the act states that the brp can do so if he believes there is no reasonable prospect). the fact that there was no rescue plan in some cases not only made it difficult for entrepreneurs to secure post-commencement funding but also denied them a potentially valuable learning opportunity. if a comprehensive rescue plan was compiled by the brp, the entrepreneur could have seen an evaluation of the current state of affairs of the business, reflect on what went wrong and also to think about how they can act differently in the future to avoid similar situations. alleged abuse of br proceedings by brps left some entrepreneurs with a very negative experience of br and limited learnings about the process, the businesses and themselves. one entrepreneur applied to court to have two consecutive brps removed because of malpractice and also because the brps were never licensed by the cipc, as is required by the act. other allegations that might be constituted as abuse of br are the cases where brps accepted appointments based on their stated belief that there is reasonable prospect to save the business, charged the entrepreneur a deposit for their services and then immediately filed for liquidation even before setting up a first creditors meeting or preparing a rescue plan. this made two of the subjects very negative about br proceedings, as they saw no value in the brp fees and shifted their focus from working with the brp to reorganise the affairs of the business and from learning by doing so. the lack of active involvement in the business, perceived arrogance and lack of collaboration with the entrepreneurs further added to negative experiences of br. some brps preferred doing all the work themselves and did not involve or consult with the entrepreneurs. as we know that debate with oneself and collaboration with others forms the basis of entrepreneurial learning holman et al. (1997), it can be argued that a lack of collaboration can hamper learning. other brps did not get involved and also did not advise the entrepreneurs in terms of the daily operations and functions within the business. this, again, moved the entrepreneurs’ attention from focussing on the business and learning to focus on the process and understanding their believed ‘rights’. the only restraining factor that was not related to the brp was the entrepreneur’s own lack of knowledge regarding their ‘believed rights’ in the br process set out by the act. because of the newness of the act and a general lack of knowledge on br, very few entrepreneurs knew how br should work, identify when there is possibly incompetence or abuse and what their perceived ‘rights’ and options are. gribnitz and applebaum (2014) however reported that filing directors have no rights under the act. some of the entrepreneurs argued that if they knew more about the br process, they could have a better experience as well as a better outcome of br. practical implications contribution to entrepreneurial learning in the context of business rescue this research contributes practically to the south african body of knowledge on formal reorganisation procedures. generic business failure has an impact on entrepreneurial learning through various elements mainly to do with the context and the individual (entrepreneur). like turnaround situations where a tp is involved, formal br adds the brp as moderator and mediator to these relationships that influence learning. figure 1 provides a guideline for brps, business management educators as well as the regulator to better understand the factors that promote or prevent entrepreneurial learning. the brp was found to play an important role as both driver and hindrance to entrepreneurial learning in br (similar to pretorius [2016]) referring to it as a ‘disproportionate influence’. potentially, the brp’s reputation of ‘skill transfer’ may therefore serve as a future selection criterion to filing directors. furthermore, it highlights the long-term invaluable learnings that br can offer to businesses’ management which may extend the potential of br to positively influence the economy beyond the time frame of the proceedings, as entrepreneurs can apply their learnings in future situations. educators may also benefit from the result as it serves as a directive for training programmes. because of the nature of this study being exploratory, it primarily aims to direct future research into entrepreneurial learning under this newly instituted business recovery regime. the findings contribute to an improved understanding of specific entrepreneurial learning content dimensions to guide future research. second, it identified factors that may drive or restrain such learning and may be exploited by the regulator and practitioners. finally, this study proposes directives for education of both entrepreneurs and practitioners to optimise entrepreneurial learning under this newly instituted business recovery regime. the study has added to learning during failure by exposing how negative experiences can significantly limit entrepreneurial learning during br proceedings. investigating learning in br identified an additional context to be considered. given the porousness of borders and the international cross-border rescue and insolvency procedures taking place, there is a definite need for widening the availability of knowledge obtained from this research. potentially relevant to turnaround, it, however, requires further investigation before generalising its application. alleged incompetence and abuse of the process by brps are rife in the industry (pretorius, 2015, 2016), and subsequently in this study, a lack of trust in the brps was confirmed as the main reason why the entrepreneurs had a negative experience of br, and thus did not learn as much as those with a positive experience. these restraining factors thus limit the long-term potential of entrepreneurial learning during br proceedings. it is thus recommended that the regulator investigates measures and avenues to address potential abuse and incompetence, by potentially assigning independent professional bodies who can take action on reports and complaints of brp misconduct or incompetence. although the cipc as regulator is the appointed responsible body for br in south africa, more aggressive action needs to be taken to eradicate malpractice to ensure that the novel intentions of the act are achieved. the prescribed tasks of brps do not cover an obligation to address entrepreneurial learning but should recognise its importance for when br is officially over and the entrepreneurs must take the reins again. research limitations and future research recommendations this study is to some extent limited by restricted literature on the topic of br, specifically in terms of entrepreneurial learning in this specific context. as the subjects were asked to share their personal experience, the potential risk of bias based on their background, social desirability and personal loss remains plausible (saunders et al., 2009). in sense making, this is to be recognised (weick, 1995) as it was their experiences of those involved, which were reported. the restrictions of individual in-depth interviews were recognised and mitigated as far as it was possible (marshall & rossman, 2006; ritchie & lewis, 2003). it is acknowledged by the researchers that the number of subjects interviewed may limit the study, even though data saturation was reached after eight interviews. it is however acknowledged that each rescue has its own unique context and interpretation should consider this before any generalisation. lastly, we acknowledge the fact that the study was subject to the researchers’ own interpretations of the data was possibly a limitation. we also acknowledge that a relationship may exist between failed versus successful rescues influencing the entrepreneur’s experience as positive or negative as well as the learning opportunities associated with each. future research can look at this. the academic literature related to br remains scant and extensive studies on various aspects are still needed to better understand it. the findings of this study have uncovered a number of areas in which further research is needed. specifically, more research is needed on the creation of an enabling environment within br that is conducive to entrepreneurial learning. finally, research should be conducted on malpractice and best practice for brps, as the weight of the long-term success of br in south africa largely rests on their shoulders. conclusion learning from business failure remains complex as it stretches the limits of entrepreneurial learning by adding distress to the context. business rescue, as applied under south african legislation provides for a rescue practitioner that is considered an expert who can impart knowledge to those who must take the business back at substantial implementation. however, this research identified driving and restraining factors to learning that exist under the duress of the business rescue process. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.b-l.r. executed the research for mphil degree purposes while m.p. conceptualised the problem. collaborative effort was made for the appropriate design, theory and reviews. references argenti, j. (1976). corporate planning and corporate collapse. long range planning, 9(6), 12–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-6301(76)90006-6 barker, v.l., iii, & duhaime, i.m. (1997). strategic change in the turnaround process: theory and empirical evidence. strategic management journal, 18(1), 13–38. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-0266(199701)18:1<13::aid-smj843>3.0.co;2-x barker, v.l., iii, & moné, m.a. (1998). the mechanistic structure shift and strategic reorientation in declining firms attempting turnarounds. human relations, 51(10), 1227–1258. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872679805101002 berglund, h. (2007). researching entrepreneurship as lived experience. in h. neergaard & j.p. ulhøi (eds.), handbook of qualitative research methods in entrepreneurship (pp. 75–93). cheltenham: edward elgar. blackburn, r., & kovalainen, a. (2008). researching small firms and entrepreneurship: past, present and future. international journal of management reviews, 11(2), 127–148. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2008.00254.x burbank, r.k. (2005). the classic five-step turnaround process: case study of prodigene, inc. the journal of private equity, 8(2), 53–58. https://doi.org/10.3905/jpe.2005.490419 cardon, m., & mcgrath, r.g. (1999). when the going gets tough…toward a psychology of entrepreneurial failure and re-motivation. frontiers of entrepreneurship research, 29, 58–72. cochran, a.b. (1981). small business mortality rates: a review of the literature. journal of small business management, 19(4), 50–59. cooper, d.r., & schindler, p.s. (2008). business research methods. (11th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill higher education. cope, j. (2005a). toward a dynamic learning perspective of entrepreneurship. entrepreneurship practice and theory, 29(3), 373–397. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2005.00090.x cope, j. (2005b). researching entrepreneurship through phenomenological inquiry: philosophical and methodological issues. international small business journal, 23(2), 159–183. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266242605050511 cope, j. (2011). entrepreneurial learning from failure: an interpretative phenomenological analysis. journal of business venturing, 26(6), 604–623. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2010.06.002 cork committee. (1982). insolvency law and practice, cm 8558. london: hmso. du toit, l. (2012). tax implications for business rescues in south african law. unpublished master’s thesis, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. easterby-smith, m.a., thorpe, r., & lowe, a. (2002). management research: an introduction. london: sage. eisenhardt, k.m. (1989). building theories from case study research. academy of management review, 14(4), 532–550. ellis, s., mendel, r., & nir, m. (2006). learning from successful and failed experience: the moderating role of kind of after-event review. journal of applied psychology, 91(3), 669–680. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.3.669 fossey, e., harvey, c., mcdermott, f., & davidson, l. (2002). understanding and evaluating qualitative research. australian and new zealand journal of psychiatry, 36(6), 717–732. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1440-1614.2002.01100.x gioia, d.a., & chittipedi, k. (1991). sensemaking and sensegiving in strategic change initiation. stategic management journal, 12(6), 433–446. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250120604 gribnitz, k., & applebaum, r. (2014). business rescue and compromise offers – a practical analysis of the obligations and rights as set out in chapter 6 of the companies act no 71 of 2008 as amended. (1st edn.). johannesburg: g7a compass publishing (pty) limited. guest, g., bunce, a., & johnson, l. (2006). how many interviews are enough?: an experiment with data saturation and variability. field methods, 18, 59–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822x05279903 holman, d., pavlica, k., & thorpe, r. (1997). rethinking kolb’s theory of experiential learning: the contribution of social constructivism and activity theory. management learning, 28, 135–148. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507697282003 huovinen, j., & tihula, s. (2007). entrepreneurial learning in the context of portfolio entrepreneurship. international journal of entrepreneurial behaviour and research, 14(3), 152–171. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552550810874673 hycner, r.h. (1985). some guidelines for the phenomenological analysis of interview data. human studies, 8, 279–303. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00142995 klein, g., moon, b., & hoffman, r.r. (2006). making sense on sensemaking 1: alternative perspectives. ieee intellegent systems, 21(4), 70–73. https://doi.org/10.1109/mis.2006.75 kloppers, p. (1999). judicial management – a corporate rescue mechanism in need of reform. stellenbosch law review, 10, 417–435. leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2001). practical research: planning and design. (7th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: merrill prentice hall. le roux, i., & duncan, k. (2013). the naked truth: creditor understanding of business rescue: a small business perspective. southern african journal of entrepreneurship and small business management, 6(167), 57–74. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajesbm.v6i1.33 marshall, c., & rossman, g.b. (2006). designing qualitative research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. mcgill, i., & beaty, l. (2001). action learning: a guide for professional management and education developmen. (2nd edn.). london: kogan page. patton, m.q. (1990). qualitative evaluation and research methods. london: sage publications. politis, d. (2008). does prior start-up experience matter for entrepreneur’s learning? a comparison between novice and habitual entrepreneurs. journal of small business and enterprise development, 15(3), 472–489. https://doi.org/10.1108/14626000810892292 politis, d., & gabrielsson, j. (2009). entrepreneurs’ attitudes towards failure: an experiential learning approach. international journal of entrepreneurial behaviour and research, 15(4), 364–383. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552550910967921 pretorius, m. (2008). when porter’s generic strategies are not enough: complementary strategies for turnaround situations. journal of business strategy, 29(6), 19–28. https://doi.org/10.1108/02756660810917200 pretorius, m. (2009). defining business decline, failure and turnaround: a content analysis. southern african journal for entrepreneurship and small business management, 2(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajesbm.v2i1.15 pretorius, m. (2015). business rescue status quo report: final report. hatfield: university of pretoria. pretorius, m. (2016). the debtor-friendly fallacy in business rescue: agency theory moderation and quasi relationships. southern african journal of economics and management sciences, 19(4), 479–496. pretorius, m., & holtzhauzen, g. (2008). critical variables of venture turnarounds: a liabilities approach. southern african business review, 12(2), 87–107. pretorius, m., & holtzhauzen, g. (2013). business rescue decision making through verifier determinants – ask the specialists. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 16(4), 468–485. pretorius, m., & le roux, i. (2011). successive failure, repeat entrepreneurship and no learning: a case study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.236 pretorius, m., & rosslyn-smith, w. (2015). stakeholder expectations of the business rescue plan from a south african perspective. southern african journal of entrepreneurship and small business management, 7(1), 1–35. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajesbm.v7i1.4 ring, p.s., & rands, g.p. (1989). sensemaking, understanding, and committing: emergent interpersonal transaction processes in the evolution of 3m’s microgravity research program. in a.h van de van, h.l. angle, & m.s. poole (eds.), research on the management of innovation: the minnesota studies (pp. 337–366). new york: ballinger. ritchie, j., & lewis, j. (2003). qualitative research practice: a guide for social science students and researchers. thousand oaks, ca: sage. robbins, d.k., & pearce, j.a. (1992). turnaround: retrenchment and recovery. strategic management journal, 13(4), 287–309. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250130404 sandberg, j., & tsoukas, b. (2015). making sense of the sensemaking perspective: its constituents, limitations, and opportunities for further development. journal of organizational behavior, 36(suppl 1), s6–s32. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1937 saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2009). research methods for business students. london: financial times/prentice hall. senior, v., smith, j.a., michie, s., & marteau, t.m. (2002). making sense of risk: an interpretive phenomenological analysis of vulnerability to heart disease. journal of health psychology, 7(2), 157–168. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105302007002455 seymour, r.g. (2006). hermeneutic phenomenology and international entrepreneurship research. journal of international entrepreneurship, 4(4), 137–155. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10843-007-0011-5 shepherd, d.a. (2003). learning from business failure: propositions of grief recovery for the self-employed. academy of management review, 28(2), 318–328. shepherd, d.a., douglas, e.j., & shanley, m. (2000). new venture survival: ignorance, external shocks, and risk reduction strategies. journal of business venturing, 15(5), 393–410. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0883-9026(98)00032-9 shepherd, d.a., wicklund, j., & haynie, j.m. (2007). moving forward: balancing the financial and emotional costs of business failure. journal of business venturing, 28(2), 318–328. smith, j.a., & eatough, v. (2006). interpretative phenomenological analysis. in g.m. breakwell, s. hammond, c. fife-schan, & j.a. smith (eds.), research methods in psychology (pp. 322–341). london: sage. smith, j.a., jarman, m., & osborn, m. (1999). doing interpretative phenomenological analysis. in m. murray & k. chamberlain (eds.), qualitative health psychology (pp. 218–239). london: sage. smith, j.a., & osborn, m. (2008). interpretative phenomenological analysis. in j.a. smith (ed.), qualitative psychology: a practical guide to research methods. (2nd edn.). london: sage. walsh, g.s., & cunningham, j.a. (2016). business failure and entrepreneurship: emergence, evolution and future research. foundations and trends® in entrepreneurship, 12(3), 163–285. https://doi.org/10.1561/0300000063 watson, g.e.h. (2004). a situational analysis of entrepreneurship mentors in south africa. unpublished m com thesis, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. retrieved june 14, 2015, from unisa etd: http://umkn-dsp01.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/2098/dissertation.pdf?sequence=1 weick, k.e. 1995. sensemaking in organisations. (vol 3). newbury park, ca: sage. westbrook, j.l. (2010). a global view of business insolvency systems. washington, dc: martinus nijhoff. wickam, p.a. (2000). strategic entrepreneurship: a decision-making approach to new venture creation and management. (4th edn.). london: pitman. yanow, d. (2004). translating local knowledge at organizational peripheries. british journal of management, 15(1), 9–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2004.t01-1-00403.x yin, r.k. (2003). case study research: design and methods. thousand oaks, ca: sage. 1vinger.qxd the study of leadership has recently become quite intense and diversified (northouse, 2001). thousands of empirical investigations of leaders have been conducted over the last 75 years. still, no clarity has been reached as to what distinguishes leaders from non-leaders, or effective leaders from ineffective leaders (bennis & nanus, 1997). it is intriguing that effective leadership, which is presently described as transformational leadership, has become a sine-qua-non in modern-day organisations (yukl, 1998) without which the organisation’s survival in times of turbulence and change would be almost unthinkable. transformational leadership has been studied within particular contexts or in relation to various variables. examples are the effect of leadership on organisational culture (van tonder, 1998); investigating the transformational leadership skills which are essential to mobilise people (handford, 1999); the relationship bet ween certain personalit y traits and transformational leadership (van rensburg & crous, 2000); and the relationship of transformational leadership with locus of control (van staden, scheepers & rieger, 2000). change is one such variable that can provide the context within which leadership can be studied (file, 2000). organisations are constantly in a state of change, though to varying degrees, because change is itself a dynamic and ongoing process (van rooyen, 2000) that needs to be managed. this study investigated the problem of the apparent lack of leadership in the higher education (he) sector in south africa (sa), particularly the perception that there is a lack of transformational leadership in the public he institutions. this will compromise the leaders’ abilit y to manage change successfully. this problem was viewed from the perspective of the changing he landscape in sa, in which institutions are being merged or incorporated as prescribed by the higher education act, act no. 101 of 1997 (department of education, 1997). one of the potential consequences of these mergers is that the newly-formed institutions may be threatened by a lack of appropriate leadership. the view that a lack of such leadership is one of the root causes why institutions find themselves in a precarious situation is widely supported by scholars and role players in the he sector. for example, cloete, bunting and kulati (2000, p. 9) have stated that “owing to a lack of leadership and management capacity, these institutions find it difficult to establish a new direction for themselves and to attract new funds”. the minister of education was reported to have said (in business day of 12 march 1999), that “some of our vicechancellors are still using historical disadvantage as an unconvincing cover for the mess they have caused in their tertiary education institutions” (cited in cloete et al., 2000, p. 10). brunyee (2001, p. 1) has mentioned that, besides the rate of change in the sector a number of universities and technikons are also in some form of financial or leadership crisis, as may be perceived in the continuous media coverage. it has furthermore been recognised that one of the major failings of the south african he sector, delaying its effective transformation, is a shortage of skilled leadership, problematic governance and a lack of adequate management capacity (higher education leadership and management programme, 2004). the aim of this present research was to establish the frequency of exhibition of transformational leadership and its behaviours and to ascertain its level in the sector, including the commonly manifesting themes and strategies that transformational leaders, as change agents, utilise to effect change in their organisations. the research was premised on the assumption that if leaders exhibit transformational leadership and its behaviours frequently, if not always, and if their level of transformational leadership is high, then they could manage change successfully. the full range of leadership styles (frl) (bass, 1998) was adopted in that the transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles were also measured. fundamental to the frl model is that every leader exhibits each style to some extent, and the model represents how frequently a leader exhibits a particular style of leadership. organisational change the phenomenon of change has become central in the management of the modern organisations and is one of the issues today (mclagan, 2002). change is an inseparable part of organisations, and it will certainly not disappear or dissipate (paton & mccalman, 2001). organisations no longer have a choice: they are confronted with pressures to change; otherwise this may lead to their downfall (nicholson, 1993). burns (1996, cited in paton & mccalman, 2001), argues that change is not itself a problem – the problem lies in an inability on the part of leaders to lead it. there is, burns considers, a growing inability on the part of leaders to develop and reinforce their role and purpose within complex, dynamic and challenging organisations. organisational change in the present research refers to the transformation of he institutions by way of merging them to gift vinger frans cilliers cillifvn@unisa.ac.za department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract the south african higher education (he) sector has been criticised for an apparent lack of leadership, calling into question the leaders’ ability to manage change as a result of the recent mergers of he institutions. the aim of this present research was to establish the frequency of exhibition of transformational leadership and its behaviours and its level in this sector, including the commonly manifesting themes and strategies that transformational leaders, as change agents, utilise to effect change in their organisations. the multifactor leadership questionnaire was administered to 190 he leaders, followed by individual interviews. it was found that these leaders exhibit transformational leadership fairly often and that, contrary to criticism, they manage change fairly successfully. key words effective, transformational leadership behaviours, managing challenge, he institutions effective transformational leadership behaviours for managing change 1 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (2), 1-9 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (2), 1-9 create completely new institutions with new identities, structures, cultures, reward systems, information processes and work designs. transformation, as opposed to crescive change, is a form of enacted change which is planned, the intention of which is to bring about significant changes in, for example, how an institution is led (norris, 2001). whilst transformation is purposefully planned to change organisational structures and relationships, crescive change is unplanned and occurs through a natural course of events. this transformational change is referred to as large-scale organisational change (letford et al., 1990, cited in dawson, 1994) and aims at overhauling the entire he sector. the national plan for higher education (nphe) which came into being in 2001 (jansen, 2001) proposed the mergers and incorporations of public he institutions, which constitutes “….. the most ambitious and comprehensive change programme in the world today” (frans van vught, rector of the university of twente and former director of the centre for higher education policy studies, quoted by cloete et al., 2000, p. 2). the question seems to be whether the leaders of he institutions are ready to handle such massive change and if they exhibit the necessary transformational leadership behaviours to do so. bass’ theory of transformational and transactional leadership the concept “transformational leadership” was first coined by downton in a work titled rebel leadership in 1973 (bass & avolio, 1994). it emerged as an important approach to leadership, as evidenced by the classic work of the political sociologist james macgregor burns in 1978 entitled leadership (hughes, ginnet & curphy, 1999). burns’ (1978) theory laid a solid foundation for the works of other scholars regarding this perspective on leadership theory (conger & kanungo, 1998). bass (1985) therefore builds on the earlier ideas of burns (engelbrecht, 2002; yukl, 1998), although his theory is not necessarily consistent with burns’ (northouse, 2001). transformational leadership transformational leadership is defined relative to the leader’s effect on his/her followers, in which the latter feel trust, admiration, loyalty, and respect toward the former and followers are motivated to do more than they were originally expected to do (avolio, 1999; bass, 1985; 1998; yukl, 1998). bass identified four transformational leadership behaviours which represent four basic components or “i’s” of transformational leadership (avolio, 1999; bass & avolio, 1992). idealised influence (charisma) arouses strong emotions from followers and identification with, and emulation of, the leader (bass & avolio, 2001; yukl, 1998) because leaders act as strong role models for followers (avolio, 1994; bass, 1998; northouse, 2001). they also display very high moral standards and conduct themselves in an ethical manner, and can thus be counted on to do the right thing (bass & avolio, 1994; northouse, 2001). individualised consideration involves providing support, encouragement, coaching (avolio, 1999; bass, 1998; yukl, 1998), delegation, advice, and feedback for use in the personal development of followers (bass & avolio, 1992). intellectual stimulation increases awareness of problems and influences followers to view problems from a new point of view (yukl, 1998). followers are stimulated to be creative and innovative and also to challenge their own beliefs and values and those of their leaders and organisation (bass & avolio, 2001).in addition they are also encouraged to take intellectual risks and to question assumptions (avolio, 1994; bass, 1998). inspirational motivation includes developing and communicating an appealing vision (avolio, 1994), using symbols and images (bass & avolio, 2001) to focus the efforts of subordinates, and modelling behaviours that are deemed appropriate (yukl, 1998). bass (1998) argues that when one organisation acquires another, the employees of the acquired organisation may be disturbed by a loss of identity and purpose. this may lead to anxiety, anger, depression and helplessness. resignations, forced departures and threats to one’s own security may also occur. people may be obsessed with survival in the merged organisation. transformational leadership is therefore needed, so as to deal with the merging of the cultures of the acquired organisation and the organisation which is taking over, transcending both organisations. to help cope with the stress of the merger, support, consideration and commitment are needed. transformational leadership can assist followers and colleagues to alleviate the tensions of disengagement; the difficulty in disengaging from the old situation; disenchantment with the new arrangements; disorientation without the anchors of the past; and aid them to work through their denial and anger. transactional leadership transactional leadership concerns exchanges or transactions which are based on leaders discussing their role requirements with followers and specif ying the rewards the latter will receive if they meet those requirements (bass & avolio, 1994, cited in engelbrecht, 2002). bass also identified transactional leadership behaviours, which are described below. contingent reward involves an exchange process between the leaders and followers in which specific rewards are exchanged for follower effort. the leader endeavours to obtain agreement from followers regarding what should be done, accompanied by appropriate payoff (northouse, 2001) or avoidance of punishment (bass, 1985). management-by-exception (active and passive) involves corrective criticism, negative feedback, and negative reinforcement (northouse, 2001). bass is an advocate of what is termed the transformational/ transactional continuum. the two leadership styles should be viewed as a single continuum rather than as mutually independent continua (yammarino, 1993, cited in northouse, 2001). transformational leadership does not necessarily detract from transactional leadership but rather builds on it, thereby broadening the effects of the leader on effort and performance (bass, 1998). these two are also distinct entities but not mutually exclusive processes. the same leader may use both styles at different times in different situations (bass & avolio, 1992; yukl, 1998) or in different amounts and intensities (bass, 1985). leaders can thus act both transformationally and transactionally (conger & kanungo, 1998). laissez-faire leadership laissez-faire leadership is non-leadership, where a leader abdicates responsibilities and avoids making decisions (bass, 1998). research design research approach methodological triangulation was adopted. following on creswell (1994) and lee (1999), the design used is dominant-lessdominant in that this research is presented within a single, dominant quantitative paradigm, with a small component of the overall research being drawn from the qualitative paradigm. the triangulation is sequential in that the use of the interview is informed by and based on the results of the questionnaire. research methodology participants since the he institutions were being reduced from 36 to 23 by means of the mergers and incorporations (department of education, 2001), seven affected institutions have been selected as the primary sampling units, viz. technikon free state (now central university of technology, free state); university of the vinger, cilliers2 free state; vista universit y (unbundled); potchefstroom university and university of north west (now north-west university); rand afrikaans university (rau) and technikon witwatersrand (now university of johannesburg). thus, this study involved complex samples in which different levels of sampling units are employed (babbie & mouton, 2001). the sample, which is the secondary or final sampling unit, consisted of senior leaders drawn from the seven institutions (n = 190). the senior leaders included vice-chancellors, deputy vice-chancellors, registrars, executive deans, deans, heads/chairs of departments/schools, executive directors, chief directors, senior directors, directors, managers and campus heads. the inclusion of these categories of leaders was based on the premise that transformational leadership is not confined to the occupants of the highest or most prominent positions in terms of influencing others (bass & avolio, 1994) – such leaders can be found at all levels of the organisation’s hierarchy (avolio, 1999). the gender composition of the sample was strongly biased towards males (72,1% male/24.7% female). its racial composition was highly skewed towards whites (78.4% white, 16.3% black, 1,6% coloured and 1,1 % indian). the mean age was 49.66 years (sd = 9.31) which showed a trend towards older people, characteristic of senior leadership levels in organisations (minimum age 31/maximum age 65). tenure in the respective leadership positions fluctuated between 1 (14.2%) and 9+ years (46.8% between 2 and 5; 15.9% between 6 and 8; 22,6% 9+ years). vice-chancellors constituted the fewest number of subjects (1,1%) whilst heads/chairs of departments/schools constituted the largest number (50.5%). table 1 summarises the biographical characteristics of the sample. table 1 biographical characteristics (n = 190) variable frequency percentage male 137 72,1 female 47 24,7 missing values 6 3,2 total 190 100 racial group white 149 78,4 black 31 16,3 coloured 3 1,6 indian 2 1,1 missing values 5 2,6 total 190 100 age 31-40 21 11,1 41-50 71 37,4 51-60 69 36,3 61-70 16 8,4 missing values 13 6,8 total 190 100 years of experience 0-1 27 14,2 2-5 89 46,8 6-8 30 15,9 9 and above 43 22,6 missing values 1 0,5 total 190 100 leadership category vice-chancellor 2 1,1 deputy vice-chancellor 9 4,7 registrar 7 3,7 dean (executive dean etc.) 22 11,6 head/chair of dept/school 96 50,5 director (executive, chief, senior, etc.) 41 21,6 manager 9 4,7 campus head 3 1,6 missing values 1 0,5 total 190 100 data collection technique the following two measuring instruments were used. the multifactor leadership questionnaire, form 6-s for the quantitative study, the shortened form of northouse’ (2001) multifactor leadership questionnaire, form 6-s (mlq6s) was used as developed by bass and avolio (1992). this instrument is referred to as the most frequent and well researched and validated leadership instrument in the world (tejeda, 2001) and is applied to a wide range of organisational settings as well as with leaders in different cultures (bass, 1998). it is used to measure transformational leadership st yle systematically (northouse, 2001). research has demonstrated links between transformational leadership behaviours and desired organisational outcomes such as successful change. the transformational leadership scales comprise the following factors: idealised influence, individualised consideration, intellectual stimulation, and inspirational motivation (tejeda, 2001), while the transactional scales consist of contingent reward and management-by-exception (active and passive). there is also a scale dealing with laissez-faire leadership. several different approaches have been used to confirm the reliability of the mlq by examining the resulting agreement among respondents (bass 1998). these approaches included ratererate consistency, subordinate-superior agreement, and peer ratings based on performance in small groups. in the same vein, various other types of evaluations such as performance ratings by supervisors and direct reports, as well as standard financial measures, have demonstrated a positive relationship between transformational behaviour and high mlq ratings (bass, 1995). in addition, similar results were found in various organisational settings when the mlq was employed (bass, 1995). substantive evidence from a number of studies conducted by tejeda (2001), avolio and bass (1999), has showed that the mlq is indeed a valid instrument across a number of validity types. tejeda (2001) found firstly, that a reduced set of items from the mlq appeared to show preliminary evidence of predictive and construct validity; secondly, the transformational subscales or items were highly inter-correlated in support of convergent validity; and thirdly, the transformational leadership scales were negatively related to both management-by-exception subscales and laissezfaire leadership, providing support for discriminant validity. the semi-structured inter view for the qualitative study, a semi-structured interview, developed from descriptive, qualitative research on transformational leadership, was used. such research has provided considerable insight pertaining to the way leaders motivate followers and influence change in organisations (yukl, 1998). in particular, the interview was based on research by bennis and nanus (1997) who identified and interviewed effective leaders in an attempt to ascertain their characteristic behaviours, trait and processes of influence as well as the common themes and strategies that leaders utilise to effect change in their organisations (yukl, 1998). whilst the mlq measured three dimensions of leadership style, viz. transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership (northouse, 2001), the interview assessed one dimension, viz. transformational leadership. data collection procedure the sample was accessed via lists obtained from the institutions’ human resources directors and web-sites. the questionnaire was distributed either electronically or via mail, followed by one follow-up. the instrument was self-administered, accompanied by a covering letter that provided the necessary details about the study and a self-addressed, stamped, return envelope. in order to ensure that the maximum number of questionnaires was returned, the subjects were promised a summary of the findings of the research once the study was completed. this was delivered after its completion. effective transformational leadership behaviours 3 a total of 399 questionnaires were despatched and 190 of them were returned, which constituted a response rate of 47.6%. in total, 86 subjects scored high on all transformational leadership behaviours, from which a total of 25 (29%) was selected for the interview. a letter was sent to 36 of the 86 subjects requesting them to participate in the interview. a total of 11 subjects either did not respond or were unavailable for interviews, therefore leaving a total of 25 who were available for interviews, which were conducted in the subjects’ offices. the interview lasted for ten minutes. it solicited answers to five questions, namely: what are your transformational leadership strengths? what are your transformational leadership weaknesses? what past events most influenced your leadership approach? what were the critical points in your career? what are the characteristic behaviours and influences of a good transformational leader? follow-up questions were asked for clarification or for soliciting a more straightforward answer, such as: can you mention any other characteristic of a transformational leader and explain why? the interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed. data analysis the quantitative data was analysed by a statistical consultation service connected to a university. descriptive statistics were used to summarise patterns in the sample’s responses. the statistics provided information about the frequency of the demonstration and the level (high, moderate, low) of the transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership behaviours of the sample. these statistics were also used to describe the distribution of a set of data by determining the data’s frequency distribution, the mean and the standard deviation (sd) (denscombe, 2000). two major modes of qualitative data analysis were employed, viz. meaning condensation and hermeneutic meaning interpretation (lee, 1999). meaning condensation involved extracting, abridging and abstracting the most important themes from the interview texts. hermeneutic meaning interpretation required imposing meaning on the perspective from a preexisting paradigm, viz. bennis and nanus’ (1997) descriptive research into transformational leadership. results quantitative results table 2 provides frequency distributions of the leaders’ responses to the 21 questionnaire items as they chronologically appear in the questionnaire. table 2 leaders’ perception of their leadership behaviours not at once somefairly fretotal all in a times often quently, while if not always 1. i make others feel count 1 3 24 96 63 186 good to be around % 1,6% 12,9% 51,6% 33,9% 100,0% me. 2. i express with a count 1 5 26 98 58 188 few simple words % 0,5% 2,7% 13,8% 52,1% 30,9% 100,0% what we could and should do. 3. i enable others to count 2 1 37 90 57 187 think about old % 1,1% 0,5% 19,8% 48,1% 30,5% 100,0% problems in new ways. 4. i help others develop count 1 11 74 103 189 themselves. % 0,5% 5,8% 39,2% 54,5% 100,0% 5. i tell others what to count 2 11 45 80 50 188 do if they want to % 1,1% 5,9% 23,9% 42,6% 26,6% 100,0% be rewarded for their work. 6. i am satisfied when count 10 48 130 188 others meet agreed% 5,3% 250,5% 69,1% 100,0% upon standards. 7. i am content to let count 37 45 79 20 7 188 others continue % 19,7% 23,9% 42,0% 10,6% 3,7% 100,0% working in the same way as always. 8. others have comcount 1 21 119 43 184 plete faith in me. % 0,5% 11,4% 64,7% 23,4% 100,0% 9. i provide appealing count 3 34 112 37 186 images about what % 1,6% 18,3% 60,2% 19,9% 100,0% we can do. 10. i provide others with count 3 26 112 46 187 new ways of looking % 1,6% 13,9% 59,9% 24,6% 100,0% at puzzling things. 11. i let others know count 4 20 92 70 186 how i think they % 2,2% 10,8% 490,5% 37,6% 100,0% are doing. 12. i provide recogcount 1 17 70 98 186 nition/rewards % 0,5% 9,1% 37,6% 52,7% 100,0% when others reach their goals. 13. as long as things are count 14 30 91 37 13 185 working, i do not try % 7,6% 16,2% 49,2% 20,0% 7,0% 100,0% to change anything. 14. whatever others count 55 59 58 11 1 184 want to do is ok % 29,9% 32,1% 31,5% 6,0% 0,5% 100,0% with me. 15. others are proud to count 2 24 116 39 181 be associated with me. % 1,1% 13,3% 64,1% 21,5% 100,0% 16. i help others find count 2 16 118 51 187 meaning in their % 1,1% 8,6% 63,1% 27.3% 100,0% work. 17. i get others to count 34 106 47 187 rethink ideas that % 18,2% 56,7% 25,1% 100,0% they had never questioned before. 18. i give personal count 3 31 92 61 187 attention to others % 1,6% 16,6% 49,2% 32,6% 100,0% who seem rejected. 19. i call attention to count 5 37 108 31 181 what others can get % 2,8% 20,4% 59,7% 17,1% 100,0% for what they accomplish. 20. i tell others the count 2 19 97 68 186 standards they have % 1,1% 10,2% 52,2% 36,6% 100,0% to know to carry out their work. 21. i ask no more of count 42 55 41 30 16 184 others than what is % 22,8% 29,9% 22,3% 16,3% 8,7% 100,0% absolutely essential. transformational leadership behaviours: on average, all the four behaviours, viz. idealised influence, individualised consideration, intellectual stimulation, and inspirational motivation, were exhibited fairly often. the most frequently exhibited behaviour was idealised influence, i.e. 110 (60,1%); followed by inspirational motivation, i.e. 109 (58,5%); followed by intellectual stimulation, i.e. 103 (54,9%); and lastly individualised consideration, i.e. 84 (46,0%). transactional leadership behaviours: on average, the majority of leaders exhibited contingent reward fairly often, i.e. 86 (46.6%) and management-by-exception frequently, i.e. 70 (37.6%). laissez-faire leadership: on average, the majority of leaders totalling 59 (31,9%) exhibited laissez-faire leadership sometimes. table 3 provides the measures of central tendency and dispersion. table 4 indicates the leaders’ perceptions of their transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles as shown by the mean and the sd. transformational leadership: the mean is 3.14 and the sd 0.683. the mean implies that the leaders were of the opinion that they exhibited transformational leadership fairly often. this was a relatively high level of transformational leadership exhibited by the 186 leaders who correctly completed the questionnaire. the sd measures variability around the mean. at 0.683 the sd is low against the mean of 3.14. the mean is a typical value, given that the sd is low. typically, all leaders exhibited transformational leadership fairly often. vinger, cilliers4 table 3 measures of central tendency and dispersion valid missing mean median std. skewkurtosis devianess tion 1. i make others 186 4 3,18 3,00 0,710 -0,545 0,089 feel good to be around me. 2. i express with a 188 2 3,10 3,00 0,771 -0,813 1,114 few simple words what we could and should do. 3. i enable others 187 3 3,06 3,00 0,787 -0,716 1,083 to think about old problems in new ways. 4. i help others 189 1 3,48 4,00 0,632 -0,931 0,437 develop themselves. 5. i tell others what 188 2 2,88 3,00 0,908 -0,578 0,037 to do if they want to be rewarded for their work. 6. i am satisfied 188 2 3,64 4,00 0,582 -1,377 0,901 when others meet agreed-upon standards. 7. i am content to 188 2 1,55 2,00 1,041 0,130 -0,405 let others continue working in the same way as always. 8. others have com184 6 3,11 3,00 0,600 -0,197 0,383 plete faith in me. 9. i provide ap186 4 2,98 3,00 0,670 -0,309 0,222 pealing images about what we can do. 10. i provide others 187 3 3,07 3,00 0,668 -0,414 0,413 with new ways of looking at puzzling things. 11, i let others know 186 4 3,23 3,00 0,722 -0,718 0,412 how i think they are doing. 12, i provide recog186 4 3,42 4,00 0,680 -0,873 0,029 nition/rewards when others reach their goals. 13. as long as things 185 5 2,03 2,00 0,975 -0,090 0,058 are working, i do not try to change anything. 14. whatever others 184 6 1,15 1,00 0,940 0,289 -0,730 want to do is ok with me. 15. others are proud 181 9 3,06 3,00 0,625 -0,319 0,592 to be associated with me. 16. i help others find 187 3 3,17 3,00 0,613 -0,392 0,822 meaning in their work. 17. i get others to 187 3 3,07 3,00 0,656 -0,072 -0,662 rethink ideas that they had never questioned before. 18. i give personal 187 3 3,13 3,00 0,737 -0,452 -0,276 attention to others who seem rejected. 19. i call attention to 181 9 2,91 3,00 0,694 -0,386 0,321 what others can get for what they accomplish. 20.i tell others the 186 4 3,24 3,00 0,674 -0,547 0,152 standards they have to know to carry out their work. 21, i ask no more of 184 6 1,58 1,00 1,247 0,393 -0,860 others than what is absolutely essential. table 4 the mean and sd indicating the leaders’ perception of their transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles variable valid missing mean std deviation transformational leadership 186 4 3,14 0,683 transactional leadership 186 4 3,02 0,752 laissez-faire leadership 185 5 1,38 1,076 transactional leadership: the mean is 3.02 and the sd is 0.752, the mean implies that leaders held the view that they exhibited transactional leadership fairly often. this was also a relatively high level of transactional leadership exhibited by the 186 leaders who correctly completed the questionnaire. at 0.752 the sd is low against the mean of 3.02, implying that there is little variation around the mean. that is, the mean is a typical value, given that the sd is low. typically, all leaders exhibited transactional leadership fairly often. laissez-faire leadership: the mean is 1,38 and the sd is 1,076. the mean implies that the leaders held the opinion that they exhibited laissez-faire leadership once in a while. this was a very low level of laissez-faire leadership exhibited by the 186 leaders who correctly completed the questionnaire. at 1,076 the sd is high against the mean of 1,38. this implies that there is more variabilit y around the mean. as a result, the assertion that leaders exhibited laissez-faire leadership once in a while varies from leader to leader or is not t ypical among all the leaders. the results of the quantitative study showed that on average, the level of transformational leadership is more or less the same as the level of transactional leadership, as leaders exhibited these styles of leadership fairly often. this is in line with bass’ view that transformational leadership augments transactional leadership (tejeda, 2001, 35) – what is referred to as the transformational/transactional continuum. the low level of laissez-faire leadership indicates that leaders did not exhibit nonleadership, which is positive vis-à-vis their ability to manage change successfully. qualitative findings leaders employed five themes or strategies in effecting change in their organisations. firstly, they utilised their transformational leadership strengths, which included people orientation, sensitivity to the macro-environment, the ability to manage diversity and to engage in two-way communication, exposure to transformational leadership, religious beliefs, and having a vision. secondly, they displayed weaknesses which included impatience, inability to reverse decisions, poor communication owing to a language barrier, avoidance of conflict, being forthright, and a perfectionist attitude. thirdly, they were guided by the past events that most influenced their leadership approach. these include family and mentor influences and assumptions regarding leadership roles. fourthly, they were guided by critical points in their careers which included appointment and promotion, making unpopular decisions, receiving rewards, and undertaking and completing important projects. fifthly, they utilised certain cognitive, affective, motivational, and interpersonal behaviours and influences that characterise a good transformational leader. discussion the quantitative study indicated that these particular leaders exhibited transformational leadership and its behaviours effective transformational leadership behaviours 5 fairly often, which is a relatively high level. in addition, the level of transformational leadership is relatively high, thereby implying that these leaders can manage change fairly successfully. the ideal situation, however, would be for leaders to exhibit these behaviours frequently if not always. they also exhibited transactional leadership behaviours fairly often and frequently, which indicated that they are transactional in their leadership approach. similarly, they exhibited transactional leadership fairly often, which is also at a relatively high level, thereby implying that these leaders lead by the exchange relationship they have with their followers. they further exhibited laissez-faire leadership once in a while, which is at a very low level, with variations from one leader to another. the qualitative study indicated that these leaders employed the following five themes or strategies in effecting change in their organisations. the transformational leaders’ strengths the leaders were people-oriented in terms of knowing what happens in their followers’ lives; caring for them by way of empathising with them during trying times and not becoming detached from their problems; motivating them by way of creating a climate conducive to optimal functioning; and standing up for them and taking blame for their mistakes. they also displayed sensitivity to the macro-environment in terms of embracing, monitoring and having a passion for change. they were aware of and sensitive to the changes taking place in the environment in which they operate. bennis and nanus (1997) established in this regard that transformational leaders develop conscious awareness of environmental changes and trends (yukl, 1998) in their efforts to manage change. the leaders possessed the ability to manage diversity. this should have made the followers feel, irrespective of their diverse backgrounds, that they were an inseparable part of a worthwhile enterprise (bennis & nanus, 1997; northouse, 2001; yukl, 1998). coupled with this was the ability to engage in two-way communication and adopt an open-door policy, which is a basic ingredient for developing trust between the leader and the follower and is a “golden line in every organisation”. inspirational motivation includes developing and communicating an appealing vision (avolio, 1994) so as to focus the efforts of followers. leaders communicate high expectations or give pep talks (bass & avolio, 1992) to followers and thereby inspire them to become more committed to the organisation and allow them to communicate their feelings and ideas freely. they were also exposed to transformational leadership and read up extensively on this leadership style. the process perspective on leadership contends that leadership can be observed in leader behaviours and can be learned (northouse, 2001). bennis and nanus (1997) established that transformational leaders are able to sharpen their skills and enhance the knowledge they have gained from experiences of success and failure by recognising the importance of continually gathering information about changing and uncertain events. they also create a network of information and take the initiative as regards special organisational studies of the information gathering needed for strategic planning (yukl, 1998). leaders are committed to learning and relearning (bass, 1990), including consistent emphasis on education in the organisation (northouse, 2001). the leaders displayed strong religious beliefs, especially that of christianity. they saw their leadership style as being a result of their religion and not of their own control over events that affected their lives. their locus of control was thus external in that they attributed outcomes to circumstances beyond their control. they also possessed a clearly articulated and appealing vision (hughes et al., 1999). having vision is a necessary condition to be met for transformational leadership (yukl, 1998), since vision is necessarily a commodity of leaders (bennis & nanus, 1997). the transformational leaders’ weaknesses the leaders often became impatient with processes and people and wanted to see change happen overnight. they disliked red tape (“seven signatures before leave could be approved”, “long communication lines”, many policies and procedures channelling them into a certain mode of thinking). they wanted things done immediately. they also felt unable to reverse decisions and, as such, exhibited rigid behaviour. the whites experienced poor communication due to a language barrier, especially with regard to their lack of knowledge of an indigenous language spoken by their followers, thereby making it difficult to build rapport, trust, and a sense of belongingness with them. this is a diversity issue in which one group (white) was unable to connect with another (black). they further tended to avoid conflict with their followers. when followers did not perform, the leaders did not show dissatisfaction. instead, they corrected the mistakes committed by their followers or else they did the actual work supposed to have been done by the latter. avoidance of conf lict is but one tactic leaders employ in handling dysfunctional conflict, which is the kind of conflict that threatens the organisation’s interest (kreitner & kinicki, 1998). avoidance might be suitable for trivial issues or when the costs of confrontation outweigh the benefits of resolving the conflict. it is, however, inappropriate for difficult and worsening problems. the committing of mistakes should also be viewed in a positive light. bennis and nanus (1997) established that leaders viewed mistakes as being a normal part of doing things and used them as windows of opportunity for learning and development purposes (yukl, 1998). bass (1998) also found that transformational leaders came from backgrounds in which it was acceptable to fail as long as a person tried his/her best and in which mistakes were considered part of learning. paradoxically, the leaders tended to be forthright and did not avoid conflict, irrespective of whether some people might get hurt in the process. they believed in “telling it like it is”. this implied being inconsiderate, inhumane, disrespectful, unreasonably confrontational, “devilish”, not caring, and lacking people skills. if this perception were true, then it deserved to be classified as a weakness on the part of the leaders. however, if being forthright was perceived as being genuinely wanting to achieve the organisational objectives, manage change effectively and efficiently, and create functional conflict, then it constitutes a strength. they also perceived themselves as being too perfectionist in attitude and actions. as a result, they struggled with delegating matters. they could not risk leaving important things in the hands of other people, lest they made mistakes. they also tended to adhere strictly to deadlines and preferred to spend sleepless nights rather than be beaten by deadlines. this perfectionist attitude is an obsession which makes them compulsive in behaviour. past events that most influenced the leaders’ leadership approach relevant experiences acquired early in life appear to contribute to one’s emergence as a transformational leader in adulthood (bass, 1998). dozens of important individual events shape individuals’ lives and contribute significantly to their ethical beliefs and behaviour (griffin, 1996). these events are not isolated but are a normal and routine part of growing up and maturing. vinger, cilliers6 the leaders attributed their leadership style to family influences. their parents used to set high standards and they set high standards for themselves too. they were also brought up in “liberal households”. avolio and gibbon (1988, cited in bass, 1998) found that neither a severely disadvantaged nor a highly privileged childhood was conducive to becoming a transformational leader. instead, most conducive was a childhood with some moderate challenges. transformational leadership also represents an ethical and moral exercise as it essentially raises the level of human conduct and motivation (northouse, 2001). people begin to form ethical standards as children in response to the behaviours of their parents and the behaviours that their parents allow them to choose. the leaders also attributed their leadership style to mentor influences. the mentor-protégé relationship is important in developing a high-performance culture, including employee development and effective organisational communication (kreitner & kinicki, 1998). mentoring is like individualised consideration which indicates the degree to which the leaders show interest in others’ well-being, assign projects individually, and pay individual attention to those who seem less involved in the group (northouse, 2001). on the contrary, leaders who were faced with stressful conflict with their bosses had their intellectual functioning impaired (fiedler & lester, 1977, cited in bass, 1985). the leaders were made to assume leadership roles at an early age, especially when they were still at school or university, such as being a herd-boy, the captain of various sports teams, the head student of a hostel and an src president. according to bass (1998) transformational leaders were found to have engaged in more leadership activities in high school and college. their school-age experiences revealed that they were almost always leaders of the gang or “clique”, which was a precursor of charismatic-inspirational leadership. those higher in individualised consideration either encouraged others to talk to them about their personal problems or were told about personal problems by others. they had also been more involved in high school sports activities, particularly team sports, in their early life (yammarino & bass, 1990, cited in bass, 1998). critical points in the leaders’ career the leaders cited their appointment and promotion as critical points. these constitute a form of motivation and make an individual happy, satisfied, and inspired to go the extra mile in making meaningful contributions to the organisation. finding a job, particularly in the hostile and unreceptive job market, is payback time for all the hard work and sacrifices made during school and university days. the leaders also made unpopular decisions. one does not have to “buy face” or “run a popularity campaign” by making decisions that will be accepted by everyone. they considered themselves to be strong enough and to display sufficient character to make unpopular decisions, as long as those decisions were justifiably sound. transformational leaders will, firstly, not make decisions haphazardly, as in the case of a “garbage model” of decision-making; secondly, they will not be channelled by bounded rationality in which they are bound or restricted by a variety of constraints that reduce rational thinking; and thirdly, they will not subscribe to groupthink in which cohesive in-groups allow the desire for unanimit y to override sound judgment (kreitner & kinicki, 1998). the reception of awards in recognition of their achievements or of work well done and the undertaking and completion of important projects were cited as critical points. these boosted the leaders’ morale and inspired them to achieve even more. as a result, team spirit is aroused and enthusiasm and optimism are displayed (bass, 1998). characteristic behaviours and influences of a good transformational leader cognitive behaviour is based on a perspective that emphasises thinking as the key element (davis & palladino, 1997) in causing behaviour, and involves understanding and knowing (groome, dewart, esgate, gurney, kemp & towell, 2001). the leader exhibiting cognitive behaviour keeps his/her ear to the ground, monitors the environment, and aligns him/herself with progressive thinking in the industry. he/she is a scholar and keeps abreast with developments in the fields of leadership and change management. affective behaviour involves an individual’s feelings and emotions which result from his/her beliefs about a person, object or situation (gordon, 1996). the leader perceives a vision of where he/she wants to take the organisation and displays patience in dealing with transformational issues. the leader also exhibits charisma, which is a necessary ingredient for attaining unequivocal follower support, and displays innovation and creativity, which are necessary for managing unpredictable change situations. motivational behaviour encompasses those psychological processes that cause the arousal, direction and persistence of voluntary, goal-directed actions (kreitener & kinicki, 1998). the leader is able to motivate his/her followers to see the necessity to change to the new paradigm that must be followed, and acknowledges that people possess inherent strengths and that they should be convinced and not coerced. interpersonal behaviour involves the ability to communicate with, understand, and motivate both individuals and groups (gordon, 1996). the leader is a good listener and is able to communicate well and translate into acceptable language what people are putting too strongly. he/she is both people-oriented and results-driven, thereby balancing the needs of the followers and those stemming from the tasks to be performed in order to achieve the desired results. conclusions the leaders investigated in this study have been found to exhibit transformational leadership and its behaviours fairly often, which is a relatively high level. also, the level of transformational leadership is relatively high, hence implying that the leaders can manage change fairly successfully. the ideal situation, however, would be one in which leaders exhibit these traits frequently if not always. transformational leadership is shaped by the leaders’ strengths and weaknesses, in which they dwell more on their strengths than on their weaknesses, the past events that most influenced their leadership approach, critical points in their careers, and the characteristic behaviours (cognitive, affective, motivational, and interpersonal) that define good transformational leaders, with the consequent ability to manage change. the findings indicate that the picture painted about leadership is not as bleak as it has been made to be. therefore, the perception that there is a lack of effective leadership among leaders in the he sector is not that accurate. recommendations recommendations to facilitate these leaders’ transformational leadership, which is manifested frequently if not always, include the following. firstly, coaching in transformational leadership could help to equip leaders with those behaviours lacking in their repertoire. coaching is a people-focussed form of development (mathews, 1997) and an open-ended process that analyses the present situation, defines the performance goal, and combines personal, organisational and external resources with the purpose of implementing a plan to reach that goal (king & eaton, 1999). effective transformational leadership behaviours 7 coaching can be performed in terms of different paradigms. although accredited mlq coaching is desirable, coaching from the systems psychodynamic stance (cilliers, 2005) could equip the leader in terms of awareness of diversity dynamics and conflict management. secondly, training in he leadership would have to be carried out via the higher education leadership and management programme (helm). the helm is a direct response to the purported sectoral leadership and management capacit y needs. its aim is to guide, assist and support he leadership in successfully navigating the constant challenges of change. it explores and creates dynamic solutions that address organisational and individual capacity gaps in he leadership (higher education leadership and management programme, 2004). thirdly, in-house leadership training, in which internal experts or external consultants on leadership are tasked to design training programmes that are tailored to the needs of the particular institution, is recommended. the helm and in-house training should be used to supplement coaching. lastly, it is suggested that the findings of this research be extended to other sectors in the public and private domains. limitations the generalisability of the results could be limited because of the short 21-item mlq-6s, the primary sampling units which excluded he institutions that were not involved in the merger processes, the use of descriptive statistics in processing quantitative data and because analysis of variance (anova) was not used. also, the self-administration mode of the questionnaire could have enhanced the subjectivit y of responses. references avolio, b.j. (1994). the alliance of total quality and the full range of leadership. in b.m. bass & b.j. avolio. (eds.). improving organisational effectiveness: through transformational leadership. thousand oaks, ca: sage. avolio, b.j. (1999). full leadership development: building the vital forces of organisations. thousand oaks, ca: sage. avolio, b.j. & bass, b.m. (1999). re-examining the components of transformational and transactional leadership using the multifactor leadership questionnaire. journal of occupational & organisational psychology, 72 (4), 441-462, babbie, e. & mouton, j. (2001). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford university press. bass, b.m. (1985). leadership and performance beyond expectations. new york: the free press. bass, b.m. (1990). bass and stodgill’s handbook of leadership: theory, research and managerial application. new york: the free press. bass, b.m. (1995). from transactional to transformational leadership: learning to share a vision. in r.m. steers, l.w. poter & g.a bigley (eds.). motivation and leadership at work. (6th ed.). new york: mcgraw-hill: 628-640. bass, b.m. (1998). transformational leadership: industrial, military, and educational impact. mahwali, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. bass, b.m. & avolio, b.j. (1992). developing transformational leadership: 1992 and beyond. journal of european industrial training, 14 (5), 21-27. bass, b.m. & avolio, b.j. (1994). introduction. in b.m. bass & b.j. avolio. (eds.). improving organisational effectiveness: through transformational leadership. thousand oaks, ca: sage. bass, b.m. & avolio, b.j. (2001). shatter the glass ceiling: women may make better managers. in k. grint (ed). leadership: classical, contemporary, and critical approaches. oxford: oxford university press. bennis, w. & nanus, b. (1997). leaders: the strategies for taking charge. new york: harper and row. brunyee, l.r. (2001). managing in the rapidly changing context of higher education: a manager, as reflective practitioner, reflects on some experiences. in p. higgs (ed.). south african journal of higher education, 15 (2), 8-12, burns, j.m. (1978). leadership. new york: harper & row. cilliers, f. (2005). executive coaching experiences. a systems psychodynamic perspective. south african journal of industrial psychology, 31 (3), 23-30. cloete, n., bunting, i. & kulati, t. (2000). higher education and leadership challenges in 1999. in n. cloete, i. bunting & t. kulati. (eds.). leadership and institutional challenges in higher education. pretoria: centre for higher education transformation. conger, j.a. & kanungo, r.n. (1998). charismatic leadership in organisations. thousand oaks, ca: sage. creswell, j.w. (1994). research design: qualitative & quantitative approaches. thousand oaks, ca: sage. davis, s.f. & palladino, j.j. (1997). psychology. new jersey: prentice hall, upper saddle river. dawson, p. (1994). organisational change: a processual approach. london: paul chapman. denscombe, m. (2000). the good research guide: for small-scale social research projects. burkingham: open university press. department of education. (1997). higher education act, no 101 of 1997. pretoria: government printers. department of education. (2001). national plan for higher education. pretoria: government printers. engelbrecht, a.s. (2002). the effect of organisational leadership on value congruence and effectiveness: an integrated model. in s.m. brink. (ed.). south african journal of economic and management sciences. pretoria. university of pretoria. 5 (3), 589-608. file, j. (2000). a comparative perspective on leadership and institutional change. in n. cloete, i. bunting & t. kulati. (eds.). leadership and institutional challenges in higher education. pretoria: centre for higher education transformation. gordon, j.r. (1996). organisational behaviour: a diagnostic approach. new jersey: prentice hall international. griffin, r.w. (1996). management. boston: houghton mifflin. groome, d.; dewart, h.; esgate, a.; gurney, k.; kemp, r. & towell, n. (2001). an introduction to cognitive psychology: processes and disorders. east sussex: psychology press. handford, j.s. (1999). essential transformational leadership skills to mobilise people. unpushed mba dissertation. potchefstroom: pu for che. higher education leadership and management programme. (2004). available from: www.sauvca.org.za/keyprojects/ (accessed on 7 july 2004). hughes, r.l., ginnet, r.c. & curphy, g.l. (1999). charisma and transformational leadership. leadership: enhancing lessons from experiences. boston: irwin/mcgraw-hill: 285-326. jansen, j.d. (2001). does the national plan effectively address the critical issues facing higher education? in j.d. jansen. (ed.). south african journal of higher education, 15 (3), 5-9. king, p & eaton, j. (1999). coaching for results. industrial and commercial training, 31 (4), 145-148. kreitner, r. & kinicki, a. (1998). organisational behaviour. boston: mcgraw-hill. lee, t.w. (1999). using qualitative methods in organizational research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. matthews, s. (1997). mentoring and coaching: the essential leadership skills. london: ft pitman. mclagan, p. (2002). change leadership today: why we need to rethink change. in r. havenga. (ed.). management today, 18 (7), 4-6. nicholson, n. (1993). organisational change. in c. mabey & b. mayon-white. (eds.). managing change. london: paul chapman. vinger, cilliers8 norris, b.d. (2001). transformation, diversity and organisational change within institutions of higher education. south african journal of education, 21 (3), 219-222, northouse, p.g. (2001). leadership: theor y and practice. thousand oaks, ca: sage. paton, r.a. & mccalman, j. (2001). change management: a guide to effective implementation. london: sage. tejeda, m.j. (2001). the mlq revisited: psychometric properties and recommendation. leadership quarterly, 12 (1), 31-52. van rensburg, c. & crous, f. (2000). die verband tussen sekere persoonlikheidseienskappe en transformasionele leierskap. journal of industrial psychology, 26 (3), 39-46. van rooyen, g. (2000). strategising and managing in a crisis: lessons from the public sector. in n. cloete, i. bunting & t. kulati. (eds.). leadership and institutional change in higher education. pretoria: centre for higher education transformation. van staden, j.f; scheepers, j.m. & rieger, h.s. (2000). lokus van beheer en transformasionele leierskap. journal of industrial psychology, 26 (3), 8-14. van tonder, h. (1998). the effect of transformational leadership on organisational culture. unpublished dcom thesis. johannesburg: rau. yukl, g. (1998). leadership in organisations. englewood cliffs: prentice-hall. effective transformational leadership behaviours 9 4beyleveld.qxd background to information technologies and business information technolog y (it) has been a powerful force in the far-reaching changes that have taken place in the way people accomplish their work in the 21st cent ury. not surprisingly, the role that it plays in business has also given rise to various crucial questions. undoubtedly, a key issue is whether resources and money invested by business in such innovation justif y the expected increased productivit y and return on investment. donovan-wright, in an article entitled "how to do erp right" (2003), quotes fritz who, working as project manager in assist ing organizat ions undergoing enter prise resource planning (erp) implementations, warns that organizations implementing erp from a pure technolog y perspective are bound to experience an enormous people issue. working for a company that lost $50 million in revenues after a project implementation, fritz substantiates this claim by pointing out: "[t]his is evidenced by predictable performance dips of 25 to 50 percent for the first six to eight months after system launch" (donovan-wright, 24/3/2003). the issue of returns on vast it expenditure also received attention by taylor (1995) who states that modern organizations are critically dependent on it for their daily operations and that it is thus crucial when designing information system solutions that business engineering efforts are focused on improving business process as well as productivity. he comments that while american companies spent in excess of a trillion dollars on information technology during the 1980’s their overall office productivity increased by only one percentage point. he concludes: “given the obvious advantages of automating routine business processes, there is clearly something wrong with this picture" (taylor, 1995, p. 188). siegele (2003), after having undertaken a survey on the it industry, describes how the divide between business and information management (im) departments causes the miscalculation of it project implementations. he explains: "this set-up creates permanent tension between it departments and the business units. it is also the main reason why so many it projects are over budget and late. and when they are up and running at last, they often turn out to be obsolete already; or they do not get used because they take no account of how employees actually do their work" (siegele, 2003, p. 22) (emphasis added). after having worked in the field of erp system implementations and more specifically systems applications products (sap) r/3 for the past four years, the first author, beyleveld1, feels that the inherent problem implies the lack of competency development in business’ understanding of people using these systems and the resultant lack of business ownership. the focus remains largely on a transactional level of the implemented technology2. consequently, the emerging social and cultural environment, which would enable the business and its system implementers to be more proactive, is not understood properly. the reasons for this are numerous and include amongst others: (i) we do not know what these competencies are, (ii) project implementation limits the time available to position people and teach them the new skills required, and, (iii), the social environment and cult ure following erp implementation are largely unknown contributing to misjudging, if not discounting the emerging culture, when adopting new ways of working. impact of information technologies on business some of our experiences and views, as well as related viewpoints of other scholars, bear testament to the reasons given by axelrod (2000) as to why the traditional change management paradigm does not meet the challenges of the contemporary corporate world. he (axelrod 2000) argues that the traditional paradigm produces unintended negative consequences, as its models do not cater for current challenges. axelrod (2000, p. 18) focuses on the following six factors which he believes accounts for the ineffectiveness of arnold beyleveld willem schurink willems@acc.co.za department of human resources management university of johannesburg abstract many companies that have implemented an enterprise resource planning (erp) system do not reap the intended benefits of the potential inherent in these systems despite their exorbitant implementation cost. the reasons for this are numerous. this study is aimed at understanding the social impact a systems applications products (sap) r/3 implementation had on the end users of a south african company in the chemical industry. a qualitative process evaluation study was undertaken to obtain a clearer understanding of the underlying organisational cultural factors that emerged from such an implementation. the objective was to provide a framework for companies considering such an implementation to ensure better system productivity and to assist companies already using an erp solution with continuous improvement. opsomming vele maatskappy ontgun nie al die moontlike voordele van die implimentering van ’n “enterprise resource planning” (erp) stelsel nie ten spyte van die hoë implimenteringskoste verbonde aan sulke stelsels. die redes hiervoor is legio. die studie het dit ten doel gehad om die impak te verstaan wat so ’n stelselimplimentering het op die eindverbrukers van ’n suid afrikaanse maatskappy in die chemiese bedryf. ’n proses-evalueringstudie was onderneem om meer duidelikheid te kry oor die onderliggende kulturele faktore wat ontstaan het tydens die implimentering van ’n “systems applications products” (sap r/3). die doel van die studie was om ’n raamwerk te skep waarbinne maatskappye wat soortgelyke stelselimplimenterings oorweeg hulself kan voorberei vir hoër stelsel produktiwiteit. laastens was die doel om insig aan maatskappye wat alreeds ’n erp stelsel geïmplimenteer het te bied oor die impak the social construction of systems applications products (sap) r/3 by employees of a south african chemical industries company requests for copies should be addressed to: w. schurink, willems@acc.co.za 22 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (1), 22-33 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (1), 22-33 1 in order to adhere to the journal guidelines the decision was made to write this study in the third person, even though it is acceptable practice in qualitative research to write research reports in the first person. arnold beyleveld conducted the research project and is the first author of this article, while willem schurink is the second author who as study leader assisted with the planning of the research and writing of the article. 2 this differs somewhat from fritz’s technology and relates to business processes and people requirements. change management: (i) allowing a small number of people to decide for many; (ii) isolating leaders and organization members from one another; (iii) separating the design process from that of implementation; (iv) adopting the parallel organization but not its underlying values; (v) assigning a primary role to process improvements and a secondary one to cultural shifts, and (vi) being unequal in the process itself. the position taken in this article is that the focus on the transactional level of the implemented technolog y has resulted in south african businesses not being able to exploit or optimally develop the competencies needed to tap the value of these technologies. we believe it is crucial for business to view the erp system as an information management tool to be used in enabling them to encourage their business processes and not to regard it as the responsibility of some im department. organisational dynamics are of crucial importance and it is appropriate at this juncture to explore some specifics of other developments highlighted by axelrod (2000) and other specialists. axelrod points to the following: "as the parallel organization was adopted by process-driven change, the concept of shifting the organization's culture began to fade into the background and eventually disappeared entirely. what became primary was implementing the change, often through technology. even though the development of new systems and structures required people to change the way they worked and the partners they worked with, these cultural aspects were deemed secondary. there are many examples of reorganizations and reengineering processes designed to create new internal working relationships or to improve customer service that completely ignored the cultural aspects of change. people soon found themselves in new organisational configurations designed to produce cooperation, teamwork, and improved customer service while old hierarchical silo culture remained unchanged. this failure to deal with cult ural aspects of change undermined the benefits of the system" (axelrod, 2000, p. 23) (emphasis added). davenport (1999) appropriately points out that organizations build and strengthen their capabilities, by improving them to affect a winning strategy. developing organization capabilities, in turn, calls for the manipulation of a set of implementation levers. he (davenport, 1999, p. 49) distinguishes the following “four levers”: (i) human capital3; (ii) organization structure4; (iii) work processes5, and, (iv) technology6. davenport (1999) believes that to acquire a competitive advantage, organizations need to ensure that the aforementioned levers are taken into consideration. looking at erp project implementation, it is clear that the focus is typically on structure, process and technology with little attention given to developing people competencies to drive these components. in real terms, ‘people development’ receives attention only when the operation of the new system is addressed after the go-live phase of a sap r/3 project implementation. he (davenport 1999) rightly argues that companies place a high premium on the ability of individuals to act strategically. since the advent of technological innovation, the shortening of the time-to-market period, and the growing demand for continued innovation and productivit y have changed at a rapid pace resulting in strategic performance becoming crucial. according to davenport (1999), in order for an individual to be the ‘right worker’, i.e. someone who is capable of observing the environment, assessing the company's position, and responding creatively to a demanding environment of today, s/he needs to re-skill him/herself continuously. before concluding this introduction, it is necessary to emphasize the purpose of erp implementation and some of its shortcomings7. first and foremost, as has been implied already, an erp implementation is intended to assist organizations in planning their strategies. while we supply people with the necessary technology and redesign processes and structures with world best practices, we barely, if at all, provide the necessary assistance to enable people to exploit the new system properly. in addition, while we certainly empower organizations, there is no doubt that we also, unintentionally, tend to weaken the potentially critical role the work force could play in influencing organisational strategies striving towards achieving competitive advantage. this unfortunate state of affairs is mainly due to an inadequate understanding of the social and cultural environment emerging from sap r/3 implementation. problem statement from the preceding it should be clear that erp implementations are very costly, complex and consequently have a significant impact on organizations as a whole. the purpose of such implementations is at the very least to ensure organisational performance, improved customer service, cost savings, and good return on investments. reaping the benefits of erp implementations after the execution of the project represents one of the challenges contemporary companies are faced with. productivity and system effectiveness are obviously a result of the interaction between the people and the system, and do not come about merely because a new system has been implemented. therefore, it follows that productivity and effectiveness will only occur if the users of the technology are sufficiently developed to improve their skills, knowledge, potential and mind-set (bacal, 3/2/2003).8 furthermore, erp implementations imply major cultural changes since project teams focus purely on technology and silo based business process implementations. integrated business processes are not in operation until the system is activated. such integration is only tested during the final preparation phase of the implementation project and then only on the technical configuration aspects of the project. in other words, true integration of the business processes are not mapped out in real life situations, thus true business re-engineering does not take place. this results in people trying to operate the system in an ‘old’ culture of business operation and not exploiting the benefits of an integrated business model. according to davidson (in donovan-wright 24/3/2003), "companies did not realize they were going through a cultural change as well as a process change until they were well into the implementation. the technology-based project teams didn't realize they needed buy-in, and often, hr wasn't brought in until it was too late". technology, first and foremost, entails the application of knowledge to execute business processes more effectively through tasks or activities. nel et al. (2002) state that organisational technology prescribes the techniques necessary to transform inputs into outputs. according to them, it can be argued that all managers and levels of staff in contemporary organizations make use of technology in transforming their organizations. consequently, the effect of technology on organisational structure and behaviour is more pronounced than ever before. mullins (1999) notes that in today's work environment technolog y has an inf luence on both the behaviour of people and the climate of the organization. information technology, he believes, affects the nature of individual jobs and the formation and structure of working groups. finally, advances in technical knowledge tend to develop at a faster rate than, and in isolation from, related human and social consequences. in the it industry this is commonly refer to as the law of moore9. the world is rapidly the social construction of systems applications 23 3 the intangible resources of abilities, effort and time workers bring to invest in their work. 4 the pattern of relationships between units and individuals within the organisation. 5 the series of actions and operations that yield products and services. 6 the employment of mechanical means, especially science and computer related, to perform tasks and manage information. 7 the main purpose of an erp system is to streamline the data collection and the processing, based on the information needs of the industry segment. better information leads to better business decisions, which in turn contribute to improved business performance (higuet & kelly, 1998). 8 ideally, these competencies should not only be transactional skills, knowledge and capabilities, but should include supplementary skills and knowledge (bacal, 3/2/2003). 9 moore predicted that the number of transistors which could be put on a single computer chip would double every 18 months. moore’s prediction has broadly been proved accurate between 1971 and 2001 (siegele, 2003, p. 3). this development caused the rapid growth in the it industry’s capabilities. becoming increasingly complex through the accelerated development and application of it resulting in organizations having to respond much faster to challenges. this demand requires quantum leap change, rather than adaptive change, from organizations. in order to achieve this, a new breed of leader is required (nel et al. 2002). from the preceding, the applicability, if not necessity, of researching the topic is threefold; (i) organisational development to shorten the period of system stabilization after project implementation, (ii) competency development to ensure a higher level of productivity and effectiveness and (iii) leadership and organisational culture to ensure return on investment in a shorter period of time. a better understanding of the social environment and culture of the end users that have been developed owing to erp implementation can contribute to all these areas. aim of study the main aim of the study was to become familiar with the current everyday experiences and viewpoints of a group of end users in a south african company in the chemical industry which have been exposed to an erp implementation for the past two and a half to three years. their subjective, insider experiences of the system and their views, particularly as to whether anything could have been done differently to make the application of the system easier, were elicited and described. this implies that a process evaluation was undertaken in which the staff’s everyday lived experiences, i.e. their understanding of behaviour, competencies, attitudes and values, were elicited and described. method research setting because of the typical in-depth and comprehensive descriptive nat ure of qualitative research, the st udy needed to be restricted to rather small realities, or so-called small-scale worlds. based on beyleveld’s experience with the erp implementation, it was decided to focus on those departments of the chemical company that are based at its head office in johannesburg, gauteng. the company is a large manufacturer of chemical products in south africa and a division of a larger corporation. their products are sold locally and internationally. the majority of end users using the sap r/3 system are concentrated at the johannesburg office10. the company has experienced a massive growth in terms of market expansion and customer base since it was established seven years ago11. it started off with a very small personnel component and the leadership style, culture and governance models were very informal. their market expansion and growth happened very fast and their informal leadership style did not keep up with this growth. during this period the decision was made to implement the sap system and the changes in the work culture12 was driven more by the system than the leadership style13. methodology in order to accomplish the present study’s objectives, a methodolog y was required that would be suitable for investigating the relatively unexplored area of a sap r/3 implementation. in addition, we wanted to explore the social and cult ural environment evolving as a result of the implementation, and particularly how this environment changes the way employees of a south african chemical company perceive and go about their everyday work. the need to explore the subjective experiences of the end users led to the selection of a qualitative methodology since this approach with its unstructured and flexible ability is ideally suited to discover and describe the insider worlds of the end users of which very little, if any, knowledge is currently available locally. more particularly, the present study resembles a qualitative process evaluation of the sap r/3 system that was implemented in 2000 at its head office. according to schurink (2003f, p. 4) process evaluation “focuses on the actual activities of a particular programme (system) and its internal dynamics in an attempt to reach some understanding of the programme's strengths and weaknesses”. qualitative research and information systems (is) myers (2003) from the association for information systems states that since there has been a general shift in research away from technological to managerial and organisational issues in information systems (is), interest in the application of qualitative research methods has increased. he claims that in the area of the design and evaluation of information systems, interesting collaborations between ethnographers (including qualitative researchers) on the one hand, and designers, is professionals, computer scientists and engineers on the other hand, are taking place. he correctly believes that there is a need in this field to focus research on the people component because of the impact of information systems on both the organization and its culture. he concludes that ethnography (including qualitative research) is very useful for exploring the social and organisational contexts of is development and its use14. qualitative research, in general, and ethnography, in particular, are very good at answering so-called “w”-questions: “why”, "what", "when", "where", and "who". the following views from myers (11/05/2003) reflect the increasing interest in the application of ethnography in the information systems (is) field: “after early ground-breaking work by wynn, suchman and zuboff, ethnography has now become more widely used in the study of information systems in organizations, from the study of the development of information systems (hughes et. al, orlikowski; preston) to the study of aspects of information technolog y management (davies, davies and nielsen). ethnography has also been discussed as a method whereby multiple perspectives can be incorporated in systems design (holzblatt and beyer) and as a general approach to the wide range of possible studies relating to the investigation of information systems (pettigrew). in the area of the design and evaluation of information systems, some very interesting work is taking place in a collaborative fashion between ethnographers on the one hand, and designers, is professionals, computer scientists and engineers on the other. this collaborative work is especially strong in the uk and europe and is growing in the us” (emphasis added). other views from abroad on the place and role of ethnography and qualitative research are that qualitative research and specifically ethnographic research are commonly used in business today (collis & hussey, 2003)15. further, ethnographers seek to understand the culture of a social system, where the subject makes the first interpretation. this is then “… read and systematized at the second order level by the researcher who writes an ethnographical account for the third order interpretation by the reader” (partington, 2002, p. 120)16. qualitative research in local management studies while there is a general lack of training qualitative research methodology at local higher training institutions, there is an increasing tendency to start utilizing qualitative research for researching life at work that can contribute to the development of this field in south africa; particularly with regard to the beyleveld, schurink24 10 the head office in johannesburg consists of the financial, sales and distribution, supply chain and logistics, mareketing information management departments. their manufacturing plants are situated at three different sites in south africa and their distributing offices are based in johannesburg, durban and cape town. 11 end users on the system increased from 200 in 2000 to more than 500 in 2003. 12 work culture in this context is the way employees think about their business and how the value chain of the business is integrated. 13 the reason for implimenting the sap r/3 system was driven by a strategic decision of the larger corporation as part of their overall globalisation strategy. business units or divisions had to implement the sap system. 14 if there is a need to understand how is is developed and used in organisations, then ethnography is a powerful method since it provides an in-depth analysis of such a process and will enable researchers to answer questions concerning why people don’t act in ways thought to be sensible or rational by others (myers, 11/05/2003). 15 “it provides insight about a group of people and offers us an opportunity to see and understand their world” (collins & hussey, 2003, p. 71). 16 “within an organisation, particularly a large one, there is a pluraity of settings, and multiple frameworks of meaning, but the settings are partial and specialised. the organisational culture is not only researched and described as a whole, as in classic ethnography, but also usually studied in a particular context to understand a phenomenon of interest: (partington, 2002, pp. 120-121). research methodolog y found in the human resources management/organisational/leadership fields. particularly noticeable in south african management studies is that thus far focus groups; repertory grid analysis, unstructured interviews, phenomenological analysis, grounded theory, analytic induction, and discourse analysis have been used. account of the execution of the study17 why should qualitative researchers provide detailed descriptions of their various and often minute research decisions in their research outputs? the answer lies in the belief shared by many qualitative researchers that a comprehensive and motivated research account is a prerequisite for the assessment of quality, or as it is often termed, credibility18, 19. before providing an account of the decisions taken during the course of the research, a cautionary note is in order. providing sufficient detail on the various steps taken during the execution of a particular study in an article is challenging because of its relatively limited length prescription. in this contribution we attempt to provide sufficient information on some of what beyleveld experienced as key decisions taken during the execution of the research. this does not imply that the many other decisions that were taken but that are not described here are not important20. research focus apart from the decisions on what to research and the selection of a research setting, one of the first major challenges was how to limit the research so as to be manageable, yet still encompassing enough of the richness of a particular social reality to allow a valid description and appreciation of it. this particular issue could be resolved relatively early in the study because of beyleveld’s intimate knowledge of the company, its people and sap. at the time of deciding to undertake the study, beyleveld had already been in the employ of the company as a consultant for a few years and formed part of the user group. as an insider it was from the outset of the project clear to him which aspects of sap r/3 at the chemical company deserved scientific scrutiny21. table 1 participant profile gender position department participant 1 male financial manager finance participant 2 male line manager logistics participant 3 female line manager export sales participant 4 female line manager asset management participant 5 female supervisor accounts receivable participant 6 male supervisor sales and distribution participant 7 female clerk export sales participant 8 female clerk sales and distribution participant 9 male clerk financial participant 10 male business process specialist im (production planning processes) participant 11 female business process specialist im (sales and distribution processes) participant 12 female business process specialist im (material management processes) selecting colleagues as research participants a conventional statistical sample frame was not used but instead a mixture of snowball, convenient, and theoretical selection strategies, typically used in qualitative research. these strategies were applied to the company’s hierarchal structure, and representatives from this indigenous typology were selected, that is, participants from the clerical, first line management, senior management level and business process specialists in the im department functioning as employee support, were approached. (see table 1). on 20 june 2003, the financial manager of the company was approached first because of his seniority in the company as well as his positive yet critical attitude towards the sap r/3 system. after the initial interview on 27 june 2003, he was asked to recommend other potential interviewees he believed could make a contribution to the st udy. this snowball technique was followed during the entire data collection phase until all levels of the hierarchy were covered and the data became saturated. the final number of persons interviewed during the data collection phase was 12. after the initial meeting with each interviewee, follow-up meetings were scheduled to discuss any forthcoming issues highlighted during the initial interviews by particular participants. the first four interviewees were interviewed 3 times each to allow for cross-checking the data. the rest of the interviewees were interviewed once only and on average their interviews lasted about ninety minutes to cover all themes if these were not mentioned initially. this process was followed until 17 october 2003 when a point of data saturation was reached. soliciting relevant information an initial meeting with the first interviewee selected was set where the purpose of the study was explained to him. it was explained that since he was part of the initial project implementation as a business process owner and a senior manager, he was familiar with the impact the system had on his department and its people, and that his experience of this could contribute in determining what, in hindsight, had happened, what impact, if any, it had and what could have been done differently. he was finally asked for his views on what the focus for the future should be. this approach was generally followed with each interviewee. it is important to note that at that point beyleveld provided time for questions from the interviewees. after this, the informed consent form was discussed. once the research participants had agreed to take part in the study, the form was signed and the interview started. the only problem experienced was the use of the tape recorder, especially with the first interviewees. the reason for this was not about being exposed, as the trust relationship had already been established between beyleveld and the participants and the consent form was then signed. the problem was rather the research participants’ unfamiliarity with being tape-recorded. to overcome this, the tape recorder was openly displayed during the initial explanation and discussion and recording of the discussion only started once the participant’s formal agreement was obtained. as the data collection approach was largely unstructured (particularly the first interview sessions) subjective personal experiences and views that were confusing or unclear, but were particularly insightful and/or providing clues as to the interviewees’ world, were followed up. init ially the interviewees were allowed to think back to their first experience with the system and project team in order to share their experiences of the sap system and the project approach. the rationale behind this approach was to allow them to talk freely and not to interrupt them. apart from checking that the recorder worked, beyleveld took down notes of informat ion requiring f urther discussion in order to understand their specific lived experienced and particularly the words and expressions the interviewees used. beyleveld also reflected their views and experiences back to them in his own words to ensure clarit y and comprehensiveness. this process was followed until the research participants indicated that there was nothing more they could add. only then were the social construction of systems applications 25 17 generally, researchers reporting on how they carried out their research give much more attention to the many decisions that they took when researching a particular social reality. this comprehensive account often includes what has been termed “natural histories”, i.e. comprehensive descriptions of the various research steps in chronological order (schurink, 2003g). 18 this belief is at least found amongst qualitative researchers from the so-called “scientific moment” (schurink, 2003g) and denzin & lincoln (2003). 19 credibility is something that cannot be achieved by the researcher since his/her study needs to be accredited by readers of qualitative research outputs (i.e. reports or articles) from information provided in the report by the researcher (schurink, 2003g). 20 should any additional information be required, beyleveld can be contacted. 21 as already indicated, the study is focused on the impact of the sap r/3 implementation on the social environment and culture of the end users at the head office of the company used in this study. topics or themes covered in the literat ure and/or by other interviewees introduced and the interviewees were asked to comment. more specifically, the following data collection methods were employed: (i) unstructured face-to-face interviews after considering the interview types and many available approaches to interviewing, the definition provided by schurink (2003e) for unstructured interviews with a research schedule was used. it relates to the general interview guide approach: “unstructured interviews are conducted with the use of a research schedule. the schedule is a guideline for the interviewer and contains questions and themes that are important to the research. although the questions do not usually have to be asked in a particular sequence, they do ensure that all the relevant topics are covered during an interview. unstructured interviewing with a schedule or an interview guide is of particular value in a group context. quantitative researchers have recently also started using unstructured interviewing with a schedule as a form of exploratory research. this allows them to formulate hypotheses which could later be tested during a social survey” (schurink, 2003e, p. 3). first interviews were scheduled with the participants during, which the purpose and expected outcome of the study were explained. follow-up interviews were set up well in advance of the actual meeting. these interviews were conducted on site. during these sessions, the interviews were taped with the consent of the participant. once a session had been completed, the interview was transcribed either in full or in part. in order to ensure a mutual understanding of the purpose of the interviews, the research goals and objectives were discussed during the initial interview. as at least some trust relationship already existed with most of the end users, beyleveld did not have any problems with developing a relatively secure relationship with the interviewees. issues around confidentiality and anonymity were particularly emphasized, and every attempt was made to put the subjects at ease. it was explained to the subjects that beyleveld’s role was to obtain their lived experiences of the sap implementation uncontaminated. beyleveld did his best not to either explicitly or implicitly, make any value judgements about the participants’ experiences and viewpoints. although the approach followed during the interviews was largely unstructured, some guideline or structure needed to be introduced during the initial interview, which generally became more structured during the follow-up interviews. more particularly, the interviewees were, firstly, requested to share any information about themselves and their views and experiences of the sap r/3 system, second, they were asked about any thing unclear in their accounts, and finally, topics related to the implemented system were introduced. any outstanding and/or illuminating or unfolding concepts and/or experiences occurring in the participants’ accounts were taken care of during the interviews and researcher’s subsequent field-notes. any such illuminating and unfolding concepts were noted and discussed in followup sessions. this led to a procedure during which patterns in thoughts and experiences were discovered, established and “examined” or validated. (ii) human documents beyleveld studied the sap steering committee minutes kept since the implementation of sap r/3 by the company and an im report following an investigation done on the competency assessment of end users of the system. this was done with a view to determining themes and issues, and to compare this information to that elicited during the interviews. in addition, it was decided to make use of solicited documents in the form of stories compiled by the participants in which they shared their lived experiences of the sap r/3 implementation and subsequent involvement. however none of the participants were eager to write up their experiences and preferred to be interviewed and therefore only unsolicited documents22 were used. these were the sap steering committee meeting minutes and the report done on the competency investigation by the im department. as beyleveld was a consultant at the firm during the study and thus an insider, he had also been exposed to the system implementation and at the suggestion of schurink, compiled his own narratives of his experiences of the sap implementation and subsequent experience of stabilizing the system. these sketches represent a particular kind of personal document, which schurink (2003e, pp. 10-11) defines as follows, “the life history, autobiography or first-person report is a qualitative data-gathering method that is primarily concerned with a detailed first-hand account of the inner experiences of a particular person, in other words his/her description, interpretation and understanding of the world around him/her”. (iii) participation observation as beyleveld has been with the company since the implementation of the sap project, first as change manager, and then as applications and project support business information consultant, he took advantage of participation observation. for the purpose of this study, the following definition provided by fraenkel and wallen in schurink (2003a, p. 5) was used, “in participant observation studies, researchers actually participate in the situation or setting they are observing. participant observation can be overt, in that the researcher is easily identified and the subjects know that they are being observed”. the various roles open to the researcher are: (i) full participant; (ii) participant-as-observer; (iii) observer-as-participant, and (iv) full-fledged observer (schurink, 2003a, p. 8). owing to beyleveld’s extensive involvement with the sap r/3 implementation and subsequent responsibility of the system, all interviewees knew him and had an idea of what his role as applications and project support business information consultant entailed. therefore his role in participant observation was overt and varied bet ween participant-as-observer and observers-participant.23 transcribed taped inter views parts of the interviewees’ subjective accounts were elucidated and in some instances entire tapes were transcribed. the transcriptions were checked to ensure that core experiences and worldviews had not been omitted and/or changed. finally, these were stored both in hardcopy and electronic format to facilitate analysis. field notes a written account, field notes, of what was heard, seen and experienced during the interviews was constructed and wordprocessed as soon as possible after the conclusion of the interviews. the notes took the form of both descriptive and reflective reference. the former representing portraits of the subjects, reconstructions of dialogues, descriptions of the physical setting, accounts of particular events including beyleveld’s behaviour, and the react ions and feelings occurring during the interviews. the latter, as the name suggests, reflected a more personal account of the course of the research in a subject ive manner, for example, speculations, feelings, problems, ideas, hunches, impressions and prejudices24. in the process of compiling the field notes, schurink’s (2003c) t ypolog y (a revised adaptation of the scheme developed by schatzman and strauss (1973) was followed.25 these are notes on reminders, instructions and critical comments. these field notes enabled beyleveld to make preliminary analyses that he verified in subsequent data collection and finalized at the end when he was involved predominantly in data analysis. beyleveld, schurink26 22 all potential participants that were approached said they would prefer the interview setting to express and convey their experiences and perspectives. 23 many informal discussions beyleveld had with people and the interviewees during particpant observation were noted and added to the field notes. 24 in compliance with schurink (2003d, p. 9), these notes reflected (i) analysis, (ii) method, (iii) possible ethial dilemmas and conflicts, and (iv) beyleveld’s state of mind. 25 this implied that the contents of the notes included (i) observational notes (on’s), i.e. notes on what happened with little if any interpretation provided, (ii) theoretical notes (tn’s), i.e. self-conscious, systematic attemps to derive meaning from the on’s, and (iii) methodological notes (mn’s). data-analysis focusing on all three focus areas26 of erp implementation beyleveld attempted to describe, understand, and explain the subjective views and experiences of the research participants (the etic approach). the data of each interviewee’s accounts as per his field notes and memo’s were first sifted according to these three main areas after which they were sub-divided into different categories facilitating the establishment of specific trends and patterns. once this was done, beyleveld grouped together relevant topics of all interviewees and, from his understanding, gave each group a collective name or heading. he then proceeded to make further deductions and interpretations. while no systematic qualitative analytic method was used the preceding activities bear a resemblance to grounded theory and analytic induction. credibility/true worthiness of data while no fast-and-hard rules exist to guide qualitative researchers in doing qualitative research, some guidelines have been developed which can be used to accomplish qualitative or credible qualitative research. first, possible disturbing factors27 were anticipated and an effort was made to minimize them. second, in the compilation of the fieldnotes, beyleveld tried to reflect on these effects and his attempts to curb them. third, to assure the participants’ candid cooperation in the study, beyleveld spent considerable time on the topicalit y, nat ure and aim of the research before he asked participants to share their views and experiences. fourth, the participants were assured that they would remain anonymous and that everything they would share would be treated confidentially and used for research purposes only28. fifth, to compensate to some extent for the negative effects of each particular method of data collection, triangulation was used, i.e. applying multiple methods of data collection. sixth, to the extend that beyleveld’s approach was reviewed by schurink, and other examiners “peer debriefing” was used. finally, so-called member-checks were employed, i.e. by providing the analysis and interpretation of the material obtained from the participants to them and requesting them to comment on it. all participants involved in the member-checks commented that the findings, conclusions and recommendations were in line with their own experience and no comments were received that differed to what was presented to them. they regarded the study as comprehensive in terms of the topic being investigated and also as very informative as far as the findings and recommendations were concerned. they agreed with the finding that the real issue centred on the people issues and not the technical solutions. they were further of the opinion that companies considering implementing an erp or had already been through an erp implementation should consider the findings of this study as this will assist them in enhancing the productivity of the system. (see table 2). table 2 member-check summary gender position department member-check 1 male line manager logistics member-check 2 female line manager export sales member-check 3 female line manager asset management member-check 4 male supervisor sales and distribution member-check 5 female business process im (sales and specialist distribution processes) member-check 6 female business process im (material specialist management processes) ethical problems are particularly challenging when conducting qualitative research and the present study was no exception. the study inevitably delved into the social lives of the end users taking part in the study, which led to the concern that such an intense study of subjects’ lives might cause them harm. while it would be presumptuous to claim that the participants experienced no harm, we are convinced that beyleveld acted scientifically responsible29. finally, there exists the possibility of emotional stress on the part of interviewees by participating in the research and being requested to sign a consent form. findings as is to be expected from a qualitative study a large amount of rich data was generated. the data represented (i) views and experiences solicited from end users interviewed, (ii) statements and descriptions found in human documents both unsolicited (company minutes, etc.) and solicited ones (researcher sketches). naturally, all these data cannot be presented in an article. consequently, in this section the most relevant and/or illuminating subjective experiences and viewpoints are presented by presenting relevant information obtained from the various data collection methods. this is done according to common themes found in the data as well as their relatedness to the methodology of the accelerated systems applications products (asap) methodology’s main focus areas, namely business, people and technology. people-centered process new culture all interviewees referred to the way the culture of doing business had changed due to the sap implementation. they used explanations such as culture, new way of doing business, business culture, dependency on the information management department, different culture and method of working. the entire group of end users participating in the study (12) mentioned this issue without being prompted. the higher levels of management focused on the strategy of business processes while the lower levels focused more on the influence the current processes have on them. the following are some of the verbatim comments on this theme: a female end user involved in the system for the past three years commented: “people still see this is my job and the rest is not my responsibility even though the system enforces a new way of doing your job”. a male line manager that was also part of the implementation team noted, “that’s the culture here, most people are just here to earn a salary and there is no ownership for the system or the information that i need to manage” (our translation). a female line manager working on the system since it was implemented stated, “the culture issue was not dealt with properly and now people are forced to change their way of doing and thinking about their job”. this culture issue was also evident in the investigation that was done by the im department on the competency level of end users as stated in the report on this issue in january 2002. from the above, it is clear that the interviewees expressed a need for the following: � an understanding of how the system can drive business and not work against them. � greater understanding of how business operates in general but also as to their specific environment. � fostering a culture of disciplined integrated functional teams to ensure process thinking and not trying to enforce a culture by introducing the system. � a definition of clear roles and responsibilities over process and not with regard to functional areas alone. � clearly defined and documented business processes. the social construction of systems applications 27 26 the focus areas of a sap r/3 implementation are technology, business processes and people. 27 for example, in preparation for the interviews, beyleveld generally tried to forsee factors that could be related to the study, the particular participant, focused interviews, and also his own duel role, namely that of colleague and researcher. 28 particularly challenging was to convince them that their accounts would under no circumstances be revealed to the executives of the company. 29 as already pointed out, before any information was solicited from any participants, they were provided with quite a comprehensive explanation of the aims and the nature of the research allowing them to assess any uneasiness or stress their participation might cause. it is further clear that while the sap system introduced a more systematic and integrated way of doing business the organization was not aligned to this kind of system and process thinking. in the previous model of business where the departmental division was more applicable, it wasn’t necessary for users to understand or to be aware of other departments since the focus was mainly on their own immediate department and its process. the sap system compelled end users to start thinking wider than their immediate departmental boundaries. neither the project implementation team nor the organization through its leadership or its business process re-engineering, prepared either the business or its people for this new way of thinking. also clear is that the process that was followed to try and force the erp system to match the existing business process did not result in the desired outcome. this in turn, gave rise to ongoing customization that is currently hampering the stabilization process. furthermore, the people in the organization were not prepared for an integrated business process-thinking model before the new system was introduced. this was further complicated by a lack of leadership focus or involvement as will be indicated subsequently. from own experience, beyleveld believes the philosophy and methodology of erp systems to run across existing processes, hierarchies and functional divisions in an organization are creating continuous change. thus: the new way of work or business culture that is emerging is one of teamwork and/or process thinking. people need to be developed in teamwork across functional hierarchies. performance and success in an integrated process-orientated environment is not only the result of individual talents but also the effort put into the processes between individuals of different teams across functional hierarchies. this is clearly being brought forward by an erp system like sap and this change in work culture of moving away from a departmental focus to a process orientation is one of the difficulties of implementing an erp system. management involvement once again all participants referred to senior management and line management's lack of involvement in the project implementation and the system itself. the following are some of the verbatim comments: a typical comment from a senior male member of staff was: “management and leadership must change so that discipline can be enforced and to be able to manage it (information) and they need to get involved in the system from the start other wise the system will not operate” (our translation). a female system support staff member noted: “senior management has no ownership of the system as they do not know or understand the system and its capabilities at all”. a female supervisor stated: “senior management does not see the system as a management system but as a system for processing transactions” (our translation) a male line manager commented: “management that makes the decision is not the management that is involved in the day-to-day operations. management only pays lip ser vice, they cannot educate staff when they do not understand themselves”. it is evident that the end users experienced the lack of leadership as part of the problems experienced at present with the system. in addition, the participants were also of the opinion that more involvement of these levels of management would ensure ownership of the system as well as easier adoption of business processes30. as gunson and du blasis (1999) noted with most erp implementations, it was once again evident that management did not realize that an erp implementation necessitates an implementation across the entire enterprise and therefore needs greater involvement and commitment from top and senior management. business process understanding business process understanding seems to be crucial31. it is interesting to note that only senior level end users recognized this. the lower level interviewees did not initiate this topic suggesting that it was not regarded as being important in their everyday working experience. however, when prompted on this, it was interesting that only one of the lower level participants did not regard it as important. this particular female member of staff believed that it was not necessary to grasp the complete business process since all that was important was to focus on one’s own job: “i do not see why i should understand a business process because i am not interested in what other people is doing and how i am affecting them. all i am interested in is doing what i am responsible for”. other comments made by a senior manager and female line manager respectively were: “very few people understand business processes and still want to operate in silos” (our translation). and: “people know what they need to do, but not why they are doing it because they do not understand the business processes”. project team structure/selection again only management level brought this matter to the fore. the lower levels did not regard it as important or relevant. neither did the people who were interviewed that are part of the im department and representing the project implementation team. a female line manager remarked: “it was a project run by “other” people; they did not start with the people who were affected by the project. the business people were involved in the project drawing up blueprints and processes for jobs they have never done and because of this management lost the buy in as they had no credibility. also people that were taken out of the business were not involved in the business process, therefore the wrong people were placed on the project team. this resulted in the team not knowing enough about the business. the choice of team members must be people that are well aware of the business, does not matter what level in the business they are, but they must be people that has credibility with the rest of their team members, that can inf luence the rest of the team to accept the new process”. material gathered by means of the other data collection methods did not reveal any experiences and views with regard to project team structure/selection. training here interviewees commented on the operational aspects of the system, and the functional knowledge and training required. it is clear that there was consensus among the research participants that the transactional training was adequate for people involved in the project, but that they generally lacked the inherent understanding of the system and how this linked to the integrated nature of the organization’s business processes or value chain. this resulted in end users experiencing difficult y in managing processes across functional areas and executing problem-solving on the system. the timing of the transactional training also seemed to be a crucial factor and should be conducted just before the “project go-live” phase of the implementation process. a senior manager noted: “individuals that were not part of the project implementation team do not have insight into the system and for this reason the functionalities of the system are not investigated and fully used” (our translation). a male supervisor commented: “over view training of the system and the processes should have happened earlier and transactional training later. we never had business process over view training so we need to let the people know how the business work and how sap is aligned to map the business”. the sap steering minutes referred to training on numerous occasions but senior management interpreted the problem as a lack of transactional training even though the beyleveld, schurink28 30 this theme was not observed in any of the other data collection sources. 31 this issue was also identified and noted in the investigation done by the im department in january 2002. im investigation found that the problem did not lie with transactional understanding but with process understanding instead. business process continuous business change the constant change due to growth and expansion had definitely influenced the project implementation and subsequent stabilization of the system in at least a number of ways. a single participant, a senior manager, felt that the changes effected were sufficient to support the structure of an integrated system, whereas the remainder of the subjects who commented on this matter felt that the changes were too rapid and that too many things happened simultaneously, and that the culture was not prepared with regard to all these changes to support an integrated business management tool such as an erp system. the system is then exploited to change the culture. the senior manager commented: “owing to changes in the business the organization str ucture was changed to be supported by a system such as sap in terms of a management matrix. the system introduced controls that can be used by management to manage the business” (our translation). due to the rapid changes the business processes were continually changing. this resulted in the inability of the system to keep track of these transformations. as a result, the responsibility of keeping the system and related business process on the system up to date resided with the im department. this, once again, refers to the lack of ownership in the business to utilize the system to drive its business. a male business support staff member said: “also the company has grown so much and so fast that what was applicable and relevant in the beginning of the project was not valid any more”. a female supervisor commented: “too many changes happen too fast, we were barely live with the new system and then we had to upgrade to a new version again” (our translation). end users from more senior levels in the organisation appeared to be more at ease with the changes. a possible explanation could be that they were part of the decision processes accompanying all major changes or they generally had a better understanding of changes in the market environment. it appeared as if middle managers and junior staff were suffering from ‘change fatigue’ resulting in them not necessarily being committed to new changes. they tended to regard changes as temporary since they believed these depended on management’s ever changing ideas. the following comment of a female clerk summarized this point of view: “we are going through too many changes at the same time and also on a continuous basis, once you get one side right, another change happens in the business that inf luence everything and you are just getting tired of this constant adoption to new changes”. continuous business change was not addressed in the sap steering committee minutes although it was referred to in the im report stating that people regarded changes as happening too frequently and that a new management whim would soon surface again. this topic was found in all the research participants’ accounts. it was only the people in the im department that felt that the changes in the business did not affect them so much. this could perhaps be explained by their being part of the change implementation process. business process design when inspecting the material solicited from the end-users, two main concerns stood out. first, when implementing an integrated system it is necessary to define and clarif y business processes across functional hierarchies. all the interviewees were of the opinion that not enough was done to clarif y the essence of the integrated business processes and subsequently to redefine policies and procedures. the following excerpt from a senior female business support member is particularly illustrative: “business processes were not aligned in the beginning and it was not really integrated. the technology gave structure to the business processes and made it easier to identif y the areas in the business process that needed enhancements or redesign. the lessons learned are: define business processes from the beginning in terms of the complete value chain taking the integration points into account, involve all the departments involved and detail e ver ything, involve all people, from designing to testing and accepting the new solution. also policies and procedures must also be defined and documented from the beginning.” second, the participants believed that the different functional departments were only thoughtful of and focused on the process that affected them directly and what was important to their immediate environment. they did not take advantage of the opport unit y to streamline or redesign processes to facilitate and integrate process flow. most of the issues experienced with regard to the system after having gone live had to do with these interdepartmental integration challenges. as an erp system, such as sap, automates processes across functional boundaries and processes, both the business and the project team seriously neglected this area. a male line manager who was also part of the initial project implementation team put this as follows: “we made a mistake by tr ying to map the way the business was operating. we needed to define and clarif y the business processes and rules and ensured that this was documented. the rigidity that is now experienced with the system can be overcome if we re-think and adjust our business processes, this implies that the people in the business must get involve and document their business processes. but because of the level of people that gets involved with the implementation solution a misalignment of the business becomes the truth and people are only concerned about their own processes and are not aware how they affect the rest of the business” (our translation). business process design was also identified by the im investigation that was done, reported and published in january 2002. the sap steering committee also identified this as an area that needed to be addressed, but once again they were looking at the im department to provide a solution for competency level improvement. from the first author’s experience, these two issues caused the biggest challenges as the business processes across functional areas did not truly integrate and neither were business rules or processes properly documented from a business perspective. this caused a lot of frustration, miscommunication and misunderstanding at all levels affecting the productivity of the system. technology process project implementation process only one senior manager commented on this matter. the remainder of the subjects did not find this topic relevant for discussion since they believed that the process of project implementation had been executed well. the female line manager made the following comment: “the mindset for implementation was not right. this is the mindset of management that agreed to the project. they should have gone to the people, they should have initially spent more time on the buy in from the lower level staff and this should have been done by management, not the project team. t-shirts, posters and communication was nice, but did nothing to change the mindset and prepare people for this huge thing that was forced down on them it the social construction of systems applications 29 only helped to create awareness, but it did not look at the target market. the project implementation team was completely distant from the business and they never asked the business what they want, they should have moved closer to the business.” the project implementation process was not discussed in any of the other data information resources, but it seems to have validity in terms of the project implementation process and a redesign of this process. system characteristics a feeling among the more senior members of staff who took part in the research – again the lower levels subjects didn’t regard system characteristics as important – was that more effort should have gone into making people understand what the system was all about. a senior male manager noted, “the system is user unfriendly; if you process something incorrectly the process must be reversed in sequence to solve it. this takes time and results in people bypassing the system” (our translation). a female line manager noted the following: “in the first year the system was seen as an inflexible system, people did not have enough understanding of the functionality of the system and it was seen as something that forced down rules. we should have had a more psychological implementation instead of a technical implementation explaining the philosophy of an erp system and that this is more advanced than just excel and word and e-mail. after a year of working on the system this perception has diminished and people now focus on where they can streamline or enhance the process”. from beyleveld’s experience, we feel that the following two possible explanations of the different views on the role of system characteristics are fair: (i) the lower level participants are using the system on a daily basis resulting in them being more at ease with its functionalities, and (ii) senior management participants do not understand the system since they are not actively involved in it; consequently they still experience the system as intimidating or overwhelming. the only unexpected findings were those with regard to the project team member selection and the project implementation process. other than that, none of the other comments were seen as unusual from the researcher’s experience in the company and working with the system. in concluding this section it seems that the impact of a sap implementation has definite consequences on the underlying culture of an organization. organizations implementing an erp system should consider developing their silo-based culture to a process orientated culture. this should be driven by a strong leadership focus and engagement and supported by the creation of solid business understanding and the development of the necessary core business competencies and capabilities. this would ensure a higher productivity as the system would be used as a business management tool to drive business information and thus assisting in strategic decision-making. (see figure 1). discussion32 it is important to re-emphasize the explorative and (to some extent) descriptive nature of the present study. information was obtained about how a group of end-users of a sap implementation at the head office of a particular south african company in the chemical industry (and over a particular time span) experienced this technological business innovation. employing qualitative methods of participant observation, unstructured interviewing, and documentary sources, valuable initial insight was obtained into the implementation process as well as the resultant culture. it seems that the biggest impact was experienced in the area of people processes, followed by business and, finally by technology. it is clear from the findings that the impact of a sap implementation has a significant impact on both the people and cultural issues of a business33. as schneider (1999) points out, implementing an erp system is not about the technology but about reinventing the business and companies pay tremendous lip service to the people and cultural issues. from the study it is further clear that it was the experience of the subjects that the introduction beyleveld, schurink30 figure 1: high level summary of core findings 32 in this final section, conclusions, which were inferred from the information gained from end users’ subjective views together with relevant existing research findings and scholarly views, are presented. in addition, based on the process evaluation of the sap r/3 implementation effected by the study, suggestions are made as to future implementation and/or productivity enhancement of this particular technology. 33 as laughling in gunson and de blasis (1999, p. 6) state: “erp implementations do not fail because the applications do not work, they fail because the enterprise rejects them”. of the sap system had forced them to think differently not only about how they do their work but also about how the business is functioning. as nel (2002) comments, the effect of technology has a profound impact on both the organization and its behaviour and therefore the culture of the business. further, referring back to schneider’s (1999) comment on management paying lip service, all the research participants felt that the lack of management involvement in the implementation of the system during the project implementation and thereafter did not contribute meaningfully in making the transition from a silo based business approach to an integrated business approach. culture aspects were ignored and there was a lack of management involvement in the implementation. this situation led to the change process being a substantial contributor to the constant conflict between the new processes and the old ones. donovan-wright (2003) and meyer and botha (2000) refer to this aspect and describe this as resulting in the system becoming the driving force behind cultural change. organisational development and the fostering of a new way of thinking and doing business and therefore a new business culture, should start well in advance of project implementation. gunson and de blasis (1999, p. 10) state: “one difficulty in implementing erp is this switch from a functional to a process orientation, due to the fact that modules cut across traditional departmental lines. there is a value to educating all stakeholders not just end users – there is no right way to implement an erp system but that active and engaged leadership is vital”. leadership from top management and line management is essential in driving the new culture emerging from the inherent philosophy of an erp system, by moving away from silo based business thinking to integrated business functionality. it is clear from the present study’s findings that management tended to shy away from getting involved in the system not only during implementation but also when using it to manage and control their business processes. this inadequacy was due to a lack of understanding of the system, resulting in them not being proactive in adjusting the integrated business processes. also, the subsequent exclusion of the human resources department and specifically the organisational development function led to the erp system just becoming another it project implementation and not an enterprise implementation. taylor (1995) made it clear that the introduction of new business processes has brought about a loss in productivity during the first few months of an implementation. axelrod (2000) points out that new internal working relationships need to be created to ensure a minimum lost in productivity. it is therefore clear that involvement by leadership is of paramount importance. thus apart from a revisit of business processes, new roles and responsibilities need to be developed. davenport (1999) explains that a continuous re-skilling of the right people capable of performing computer tasks and managing information is required to ensure acquiring the skills and knowledge for a competitive advantage. leana and barry (in gunson & de blasis, 1999, p. 7) comment: “… organizations and individuals are increasingly pursuing change in how work is organized, how it is managed and who is carrying it out. the advantage of change to the organization is the abilit y to quickly adapt to environmental changes, explore new ideas or processes, reduce fixed costs, and in the end have an advantage over competitors”. they quote laughlin who claims, “you will underestimate and fail to appreciate the degree of change an erp solution causes” (1999, pp. 5–6). from the preceding the following recommendations seem apparent: first, ownership from leaders is required; it must be demonstrated by their commitment to the erp system as the technology or innovation to drive business processes and information. such expression will facilitate buy-in from the more junior levels in an organization and will, in turn, result in less distressing clarification of system and process related issues. ownership of and commitment to the system by leaders should accelerate the distribution of information in the system that would result in system stabilization and the smoother integration and alignment of business processes. second, in order to drive performance and improvements, management should ensure that they understand the processes affecting them directly as well as the functioning of the system. due to the lack of management involvement, the junior staff levels in the organization understand its business and processes better. this state of affairs makes it relatively easier for junior level staff to pull wool over the eyes of their superiors. related to the preceding is the necessity for management to manage the integrated business processes. to ensure continuous performance and the support of the business by the system without becoming its driving force, roles and responsibilities of the respective actors need to be clarified. in addition, key performance areas (kpa)/key performance indicators (kpi), which are in line with the process, needs to be developed. finally, discipline needs to be enforced by documenting relevant business rules and procedures. there is undoubtedly a need for leaders who have vision and focus on continuous business improvement and competitiveness to ensure a more successful erp implementation. management should see system implementation as an enterprise implementation and not an im realization. third, due to the erp system forcing a process of thinking across functional hierarchies, it follows that there is a need for understanding business processes better. closely related to this is the clarification of roles and responsibilities to ensure that all actors understand the impact they have on process and how this is affected by the system. fourth, in terms of the selection of implementation team members, two points are of importance: � the selection of business representatives. it is necessary to appoint people from the business with the necessary experience of the business processes they represent to the project team. although one interviewee indicated that such individuals should be senior people the remainder believed that they should be people who have experience of the relevant business processes since this will ensure credibility and ultimate acceptance of the technical solution developed to represent the business process. � technical consultants. they should be people that understand both business and the system. furthermore, consultants should have the ability to understand the true requirement of business and not forcing down a technical solution only they understand. put differently, consultants should have the abilit y to find technical solutions to the core needs of the business; to facilitate a solution that is suitable to the business. the end users that took part in the study believed that the consultants use mostly a technical jargon that individuals working in business generally don’t understand. this often results in proposed solutions that are technically clear to the consultant but don’t necessarily reflect the core business process and/or need. fifth, training in erp systems should focus broadly on two levels. the integrated business process overview understanding and consideration must be given to a business simulation to demonstrate this and in addition it must focus on cross-functional areas. furthermore, training should include individuals from the different functional areas representing a complete value chain. only once this the social construction of systems applications 31 understanding has been acquired should the focus turn to the transactional training of the system i.e. how to capture the data on the system. as far as business process design is concerned, it seems necessary to consider the importance of internal business process clarification where current processes should not merely be mapped onto the system. these processes should be revisited and seriously questioned to establish if a redesign of business processes should not be considered instead of merely just mapping existing processes that are not necessarily effective for an integrated business management tool. finally, once processes have been clarified, they should be documented (particularly their governing business rules and policies). such documentation should allow for better understanding and should assist in procedures where business processes – both in the business and with regards to the system – have to be enhanced. in addition, there should be a greater focus on training people who work on the system so as to understand the organization’s business processes and especially how the erp system is linked to these. there seems to be a real need to explain the philosophy and methodology of an erp system in more detail upfront during project implementation. while this exploration of the subjective experiences of end-users of sap technology at a particular business in gauteng, south africa, has various implications for other business both locally and abroad experiencing technological implementation, the following are particularly evident: � scientific/academic implications. with regard to the local field of (human resources management/organization/ leadership/information management studies), this study has made modest theoretical and methodological contributions. as far as theory is concerned, the facilitation of social constructionist theoretical constructs provides a first exposure of the social and cultural impact of sap r/3 systems on a local organization. it illustrates the great potential locked up in theoretical concepts that elucidate how people construct and assign significance to realities and problems in their everyday work situations. furthermore, this insight in concrete experiences and perspectives of authentic people holds promise for the development of skills, and capabilities required by sap r/3 system end users. the methodological contribution of the present study lies first and foremost in: providing a framework by means of which qualitative and ethnographic methods in the local hrm/is fields can be applied to generate nonstatistical information on leaders’ and other role players’ subjective experiences and perspectives. it is conceivable that further practical experience with this unstructured approach could made at least a humble contribution to the methodolog y of local leadership and related human resource management st udies. while the procedures followed in the study need to be explicated somewhat more, they provide parameters for a toolkit for qualitative programme evaluation, which is a fast developing area in the country (schurink, 2003g) � practical contribution. the practical implications of the study for local organizations exposed to technological innovation are varied. firstly, a model was developed to effect management change focusing on erp implementations and not emphasizing technological implementation, but taking into consideration the wider organisational development dynamics. secondly, having constructed a competency matrix for erp system end users for a particular local company provides a baseline that could be adjusted to the specific situation and needs of other companies, which implement erp systems. finally, the present study offers a cultural model to local companies wishing to develop, or already implementing erp systems. as this st udy focused on the impact of organisational culture in a particular chemical industry company, it is foreseen that the results would be relatively easy to assimilate and apply to other companies in south africa and abroad, owing to the dynamics of the sap r/3 system that essentially stays the same no matter where it is implemented. therefore, we are of the opinion that information and insights gained from the study with regard to organisational cult ure and its influence on change and leadership can be adopted with no real trouble for specific organizations and their environment. references axelrod, r. h. (2000). terms of engagement: changing the way we change organizations. san francisco: berret-koehler publishers, inc. bacal, r. (2003). technology & productivity – why we get one without the other. http://www.work911.com/articles/ tech.htm. 03 february 2003. 20:00. bless, c & higson-smith, c. (1995). fundamentals of social research methods: an african perspective. lusaka: juta and co, ltd. collis, j. & hussey, r. (2003). business research: a practical guide for undergraduates and postgraduate students: second edition. new york: palgrave macmillan davenport, t.o. (1999). human capital: what it is and why people invest it. san francisco: thomas o. davenport and jossey-bass inc., publishers. denzin, n.k & lincoln, y.s. (2004). the landscape of qualitative research: theories and issues: 2nd edition. thousand oaks: sage publications. de vos, a.s. (2002). research at grass roots. pretoria: van schaik, publishers. donovan-wright, m. a. (2003). how to do erp right. http://www.workforce.com/section/article/23/34/03.html. 24 march 2003. 19:34. gray, a. (2003). research practice for cultural studies. london: sage publications. gunson, j & de blasis, j. p. (2003). implementing erp in multinational companies: their effects on the organization and individuals at work. http://www.crm2day.com/library/ epfla alukuerjzrfae.php 5 october 2003. 12:27. higuet, b d. & kelly a.f. (1998). sap r/3 implementation guide: a manager’s guide to understanding sap. indiana: macmillan technical publishing. mark, r. (1996). research made simple: a handbook for social workers. 412. londen: sage publication markus, m.l. "power, politics and mis implementation," communications of the acm, 26, 1983, pp. 430-444. mcmillan, j. h & schumacher, s. (1993). research in education: a conceptual introduction. new york: harper collins college publishers. meyer, m. & botha, e. (2000). organisation development and transformation in south africa. 298. durban: butterworths. mullins, l.j. (1999). management and organisational behaviour: 5th edition. edinburgh gate: pearson education limited. myers, m.d. (2003). qualitative research in information systems. http://www.qual.auckland.ac.nz/#overview of qualitative research 11 may 2003. 19:15. nel, p.s. et al. (2002). human resources management, 5th edition. cape town: oxford university press southern africa. partington, d. (2002). essential skills for management research. london: sage publications. schneider, p. (1999). wanted: erpeople skills. http://www.cio. com/archive/030199_erp.html 2 january 2004. 12:53. schurink, w. (2003a). participant obser vation. waterkloof glen, pretoria. lecture notes to dand m-students for the leadership in performance and change programme at rau. beyleveld, schurink32 schurink, w. (2003b). writing the qualitative research report. waterkloof glen, pretoria. lecture notes to dand mstudents for the leadership in performance and change programme at rau. schurink, w. (2003c). lecture one: core features of qualitative research. waterkloof glen, pretoria. lecture notes to dand m-students for the leadership in performance and change programme at rau. schurink, w. (2003d). lecture three: capturing and storing soft data. waterkloof glen, pretoria. lecture notes to dand mstudents for the leadership in performance and change programme at rau. schurink, w. (2003e). lecture four: the methodology for unstructured face-to-face inter viewing. waterkloof glen, pretoria. lecture notes to dand m-students for the leadership in performance and change programme at rau. schurink, w. (2003f). lecture seven: qualitative evaluation. waterkloof glen, pretoria. lecture notes to dand mstudents for the leadership in performance and change programme at rau. schurink, w. (2003g). qualitative research in management and organizational studies with reference to recent south african research. sa journal of human resources management, 1 (3), 2-14 siegele, l. (2003). a survey of the it industry: cold killer application. the economist, 367 (8323). taylor, david a. (1995). business engineering with object technology. new york: john wiley & sons, inc. the social construction of systems applications 33 abstract introduction method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) richard ford gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa gavin price gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa karl b. hofmeyr gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa manoj chiba gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa citation ford, r., price, g., hofmeyr, k.b., & chiba, m. (2018). brains versus beauty in the knowledge economy. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a897. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.897 original research brains versus beauty in the knowledge economy richard ford, gavin price, karl b. hofmeyr, manoj chiba received: 05 dec. 2016; accepted: 16 oct. 2017; published: 20 mar. 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: it is a widely held belief that attractive people generally experience an easier life and that the door to success is opened by perfect bone structure and a sparkling smile. however, attractiveness might play a far lesser role in individual’s achieving their objectives than has previously been thought. is it possible that an individual’s qualifications may have a greater influence on the perceptions of managers who assess the suitability of a candidate of a knowledge worker? research purpose: the study sets out to examine the relative predictive power of physical attractiveness and qualifications in the decision to hire a knowledge worker. motivation for the study: the research was motivated by a desire to explore the presence of bias in the decision-making process when seemingly rational individuals are exposed to factors such as physical attractiveness of a job candidate and then faced with a decision on whether to hire them. research design, approach and method: a two-phased experimental design was applied to investigate the existence and strength of the beauty premium amongst a group of managers who were provided with fictitious resumes coupled with photographs of the applicants. these managers were requested to make a hiring decision based on the information supplied. main findings: although results confirm the existence of a beauty premium, it was relatively weak. it indicated that qualifications have a greater influence on a manager’s perception of the suitability of a candidate to fill a position of a knowledge worker. practical or managerial implications: the research draws attention to the possibility of bias in selection decisions and proposes ways in which such potential bias can be limited. contribution: this study contributes to knowledge concerning the existence or otherwise of a so-called beauty premium, with particular reference to its impact in the knowledge economy. introduction recruitment decisions can detrimentally affect the performance of organisations if they are not objective and take factors other than the candidate’s competence and potential into account. aharon et al. (2001), ariely (2008) and caplan (2000) proposed that, under certain circumstances, humans can be biased and irrational in their decision-making process. with relevance to this study, there is research that suggests that the physical attractiveness of a person has a powerful influence on the decisions made by third-party decision-makers (fletcher, 2009; mobius & rosenblat, 2006). simultaneously, there is much work that emphasises the need to employ the most capable person for the job based on objective criteria (degroot & gooty, 2009; yamamura & birk, 2010). bias, as described by rudolph, wells, weller and baltes (2009), is a significant difference between the evaluations of two target individuals who, when everything is considered to be equal, vary only by some stigmatised quality or characteristic extraneous to their qualifications or job performance. this bias occurs in many forms, most notably when there are differences in gender (arvey, 1979; davison & burke, 2000; deaux & taynor, 1973), race (greenhaus, parasuraman & wormley, 1990; landau, 1995; landy & farr, 1980; schmidt & lappin, 1980) and weight (puhl & brownell, 2001; roehling, 1999, 2002). purpose according to sutherland and jordaan (2004), recruitment and selection are some of the most critical human resource decisions an organisation can make. specifically, in the knowledge economy, knowledge should be viewed as a major contributing factor to an organisation’s success and the holders of this knowledge should therefore be focused on and viewed more favourably. similarly, industrial psychologists and management researchers have emphasised the need to detect and eliminate biases in personnel selection and recruitment (watkins & johnston, 2000). this research was motivated by a desire to investigate the presence of bias in the decision-making process when seemingly rational individuals are exposed to factors such as the physical attractiveness of a job candidate and then faced with a decision on whether to hire them or to hire a less attractive individual who might have better or more suitable qualifications for the available position. in a competitive environment, there is a distinct need to employ a candidate who will help to maximise the output of the company. this research would examine the presence of bias in the hiring decisions of managers in a south african context, to make recruiters aware of this potential weakness and to assist them to optimise their employment decisions. what is the effect of the physical attractiveness of an applicant on the initial hiring process before he or she is invited to be interviewed? answers to this question would provide insight as to whether the attractiveness of a candidate plays a beneficial role in the hiring decision of managers when they are provided with a resume showing the applicant’s face together with an explanation of the applicant’s qualifications. this study sets out to assess whether the managers are more likely to hire a less qualified but more attractive applicant over a more qualified but less attractive applicant. this research will contribute to the field of behavioural economics (tomer, 2007), in particular decision-making bias in the context of the so-called beauty premium. behavioural economics concerns itself with the prediction, controlling and experimental analysis of human behaviour, and one of its propositions is that systematic biases are built into the individual’s selection processes and that these choices prevent utility maximisation (etzioni, 2011). literature review the potential decision-making bias in the labour market, where those perceived as being beautiful are more likely to be hired, earn higher salaries and are more likely to be promoted, suggests the existence of a ‘beauty premium’ (solnick & schweitzer, 1999). what are the effects of the beauty premium on the perception of the physical attractiveness of others, and could there be discrimination based on this in the labour market? studies concerning bias, based on physical appearance in the labour market, are not new. however, most of these investigations have analysed beauty as a motivation for remuneration (andreoni & petrie, 2008; benzeval, green & macintyre, 2013; french, 2002; hamermesh & biddle, 1993; mobius & rosenblat, 2006; robins, homer & french, 2011; tews, stafford & zhu, 2009). this research would focus on hiring decisions. although there are fewer studies of this nature, there has been research, for example, that concluded that physical attractiveness may not be viewed as positively as expected, particularly where unattractive females were rated to be more suitable than attractive women for male stereotyped industries (dion & stein, 1978; heilman, 1983; heilman & saruwatari, 1979). the context for this study was the knowledge economy. although attractiveness might be more relevant in service jobs involving interpersonal interaction, watkins and johnston (2000) argued that attractiveness should be irrelevant in most instances concerning employment. it is proposed that this should be the case particularly for a knowledge worker in a knowledge economy. beauty and the beauty premium beauty is measured on the basis of physical attractiveness, perceptions of which have been confirmed in experiments. for example, experiments in which respondents ranging in age from 7 to 50 years were asked to rank the physical attractiveness of people in photographs demonstrated a very high correlation in their rankings (hamermesh & biddle, 1993). numerous studies have explored the existence of a beauty premium. for example, cash, gillen and burns (1977) found that physical attractiveness affects personnel decisions to the general advantage of good-looking applicants, unless these perceived attractive people seek jobs considered inappropriate for their sex. jin, fan, dai and ma (2017) found the beauty premium present in online peer-to-peer lending, with lenders tending to be more tolerant towards attractive borrowers’ dishonest behaviour. similarly, ma, qian, hu and wang (2017) demonstrated that attractive male proposers playing the ultimatum game benefit from favourable bias because of their attractiveness, as a result of compromises to the fairness considerations of the female responders. research has suggested that good-looking candidates are hired because of the belief that they are more successful (goldman & lewis, 1976), more credible (patzer, 1983) and more able (mobius & rosenblat, 2006) than their less attractive competition. goldman and lewis (1976) hypothesised that this could be because of attractive individuals displaying relatively higher levels of social skilfulness, thus resulting in a ‘kernel of truth’ in the above beliefs. according to the ‘kernel of truth’ hypothesis, the stereotype surrounding physical attractiveness might well be a self-fulfilling prophecy because better looking children are expected to outperform their peers and are thus given special treatment at school, which in turn builds confidence as well as social and communication skills (mobius & rosenblat, 2006). these increased social and communication skills also help attractive individuals come across as being more credible (patzer, 1983). hamermesh and biddle (1993) analysed attractiveness across various occupations and found that, holding constant for demographic and labour-market characteristics, plain people earn less than people of average looks, who earn less than good-looking people. more recently, fletcher (2009) found that attractiveness is positively associated with earnings for young adults, even when controlling for ability measures. robins et al. (2011) concluded from their research that physical attractiveness affected wage determination, largely confirming earlier empirical and theoretical studies. patzer (1983), in his study of source credibility as a function of communicator physical attractiveness, summarised existing physical attractiveness research into four generalisations. when the physically attractive are compared with unattractive counterparts: they have greater social power, they are perceived to have more favourable personal and non-personal characteristics (including intelligence, personality traits and success in life), they have more positive effects on other people, they receive more positive responses from others and they are more persuasive. patzer (1983) concluded that the consequences of being physically attractive are positive and the consequences of being physically unattractive are negative. these findings were supported by further evidence obtained in a study by fletcher (2009) who, in his study entitled ‘beauty vs. brains, early labour market outcomes of high school graduates’, found that attractive and very attractive individuals earned between 5% and 10% more than average-looking individuals. also, the study found that for very attractive individuals, an increase in ability was associated with an increase in wages; however, for individuals that were below average in attractiveness, the returns on ability could be negative, resulting in a ‘plainness penalty’. although the studies above add to the evidence of a beauty premium, these investigations do not consider other variables which may be related to success in the work place. robins et al. (2011) found that most studies do not take personality attractiveness and grooming into account (ritts, patterson & tubbs, 1992) and this may lead to research limitations. these authors found that when only beauty is measured it resulted in a beauty premium of approximately 12% for very physically attractive men, 7% for very physically attractive women and 4% for physically attractive women and men. when both personality attractiveness and grooming were added to their model, the beauty premium for men was slightly reduced but became statistically insignificant for women. robins et al. (2011) concluded that while beauty is the most important of the three traits tested for men, it is the least important for women after personality attractiveness and grooming. this finding is significant because it emphasises the ability for women to minimise the effects of the beauty premium by controlling their demeanour and adjusting the way that they groom themselves. in an experiment exploring beauty, gender and stereotypes, andreoni and petrie (2008) found that a beauty premium exists, but that this was only evident when total output was measured and groups performed tasks without knowing how much each member of the group had contributed. as soon as individual contributions were made known, the beauty premium disappeared. this finding suggested that people expect attractive individuals to be more cooperative but that when expectations are not met they may be less cooperative with attractive individuals. these findings confirmed the findings of langlois, kalakanis, rubenstein and larson (2000) that attractive people are consistently judged and treated more positively. to establish the effects of a beauty premium, solnick and schweitzer (1999) investigated the role of physical attractiveness and gender in an experimental setting using a variation of roth’s (1995) ultimatum game. the aim of solnick and schweitzer’s research was to explore the influence of physical attractiveness and gender on bargaining behaviour. although they found that there were no significant differences in the decisions made by attractive and unattractive people, they concluded that, consistent with the notion of a beauty premium, significant differences arose in the way attractive individuals were treated by other players. attractive people were offered more but more was demanded from them, whereas less was demanded from unattractive people. consistent with these findings, hatfield (1986) found that the physical attractiveness stereotype can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. he found that attractive children were often identified early on by teachers who expected them to outperform at school and these children were given special attention. this extra attention builds self-confidence as well as social and communication skills, which help the children later in life. this self-confidence has been confirmed in experiments where college students were asked to interact anonymously with each other via telephone and then judge, based on a 5-minute telephonic conversation, whether the person on the other end of the line was physically attractive or not (goldman & lewis, 1976). the findings of the study found that there was a correlation between physical attractiveness and social and communication skills and thus, there was a ‘kernel of truth’ in the physically attractive stereotype. as such, it is often perceived that physically attractive people may be more capable, well adjusted and socially skilful than unattractive people. the beauty premium is evidenced by recruiters who claimed that candidates’ physical appearance significantly accounted for their assessment of the candidates ‘fit’ in an organisation (solnick & schweitzer, 1999). managers may use physical attractiveness to make generalised inferences about a candidate regarding employment suitability as it is an easily identifiable characteristic (tews et al., 2009). in a related study, 50% of employers who had recently hired candidates to fill a position answered that physical appearance was very important (11%) or somewhat important (39%) (holzer, 1993). in tews et al.’s (2009) study on organisational fit, the authors found that once applicants had been screened and were deemed to meet the minimum requirement for the job, qualification was no longer important. the assessment of fit, which included interpersonal skills, goal orientation and physical attractiveness, involved something beyond the evaluation of knowledge, skills, abilities and past accomplishments. rynes and bourdreau (1986) have suggested that very little time is spent on training interviewers on how to evaluate applicants’ suitability and this may lead to bias that is based on physical appearance or the ‘what is beautiful is good’ stereotype (patzer, 1983). tews et al. (2009) found that when positive attributes are ascribed to the physically attractive, this may lead to a positive effect on hiring decisions, but when details of the applicants’ general mental ability (gma) and personality were recorded, the results demonstrated that attractiveness was valued less than both of these attributes. this finding concluded that managers do try to make hiring decisions based on employee ability to maximise job performance. however, if managers are not provided with the right information, hiring decisions may be made on the basis of physical attractiveness of the candidate, and as such, these candidates could be ‘beating’ the selection system (tews et al., 2009). in summary, the attractiveness advantage has been demonstrated in work-related settings, and although high-performing candidates are preferred in comparison to low-performing candidates, regardless of their level of attractiveness, research has found that in general attractive people are favoured over equally qualified unattractive people in hiring decisions (dipboye, arvey & terpstra, 1977; dipboye, fromkin & wibak, 1975; raza & carpenter, 1987). deryugina and shurchkov (2015) found that a beauty premium, in the form of higher wage bids, existed in tasks involving bargaining, but not ones involving analytics or data entry. bias in selection despite legislation that attempts to decrease the level of discrimination by employers on factors unrelated to job performance, studies have shown that discrimination based on external factors unrelated to job performance, such as age and sex, still exist (gerdes & garber, 1983). these biases can be further compounded by the differences amongst the raters of job applicants (quereshi & kay, 1986). demographical characteristics of the rater, such as age, sex, years of experience and sensitivity to discrimination issues, seem to affect the degree of bias displayed in hiring practices (martinko & gardner, 1983; quereshi, 1983; quereshi, buckley & fadden, 1981). dipboye et al. (1977) found in their research that regardless of the sex or attractiveness of the interviewer, highly qualified applicants were preferred over poorly qualified applicants, male applicants were preferred over female applicants and attractive applicants were preferred over unattractive applicants. the research concluded that discrimination in employment decisions can be attributed to sex-role and physical attractiveness stereotypes. the research of marlowe, scheider and nelson (1996) suggests that biases may decrease as an individual’s exposure to the qualifications and performance of others increases (marlowe et al., 1996). this may be a result of experienced managers having a wider range of performance on which to base their judgements, and as a result, they may be less susceptible to bias, based on the attractiveness of an applicant. limited research has been conducted that explores the existence of bias in the earlier phases of the personnel selection process; for example, the screening of applicants prior to the job interview (dipboye et al., 1975). in many cases, the screening and interviews are performed by the same person, and negative first impressions and psychological or actual rejection of the candidate may take place before the actual interview process has commenced. dipboye et al. (1975) found that scholastic standing was the most important determinant of suitability ratings and rankings, accounting for more than 30% of the variance. when applicants had equivalent scholastic standing, subjects revealed a strong preference for males and attractive applicants. this outcome indicates that, assuming scholastic standing is the most rational basis for discriminating between applicants, persons with equivalent qualifications had unequal probabilities of being hired (dipboye et al., 1975). the researchers also found that the subjects discriminated more against unattractive applicants and females when deciding which candidate would be assigned the top rank. this is significant because in a recruitment situation where applicants far outnumber positions available, it is critical for an applicant to be ranked amongst the highest candidates in order to be hired or invited for an interview. it is also important to note the effect that the sex or the attractiveness of the applicant may have on the interviewer’s behaviour subsequent to them evaluating the applicant’s resume. research by mayfield (1964) demonstrated that interviewers tend to form an early impression. thus, the ability of the applicant to convey gender and attractiveness to the interviewer through resume information may assist in creating an initial impression, which influences the outcome of the face-to-face interview (dipboye et al., 1975). watkins and johnston (2000) found that applicant attractiveness had no impact when the quality of the application was high, but that attractiveness was an advantage when the quality of the application was mediocre. as physical attractiveness is unrelated to job performance in most cases, any bias towards physically attractive applicants represents discrimination (watkins & johnston, 2000). huang and lin (2016) found that physically attractive males receive favourable interview questions and have higher levels of self-confidence, resulting in better interview performance compared to other males. put simply, cash and janda (1984) proposed that when meeting someone for the first time for a job interview, the characteristic that carries the most weight in making a good impression is physical appearance. individuals form first impressions of others on the basis of their immediately apparent features, most notably physical appearance (mcarthur & baron, 1980). the results of studies using fictitious resumes and applicants of varying attractiveness clearly reveal the potential for discrimination in hiring based on physical attractiveness (cash et al., 1977; cash & kilcullen, 1985; dipboye et al., 1975, 1977; holahan & stephan, 1981). maurer-fazio and lei (2015) found the beauty premium to be present across both males and females in the hiring process. ruffle and shtudiner (2015), however, found that only attractive males benefited. they found that attractive females were prejudiced, postulating that such prejudice was envy based. the knowledge economy and knowledge workers the term ‘knowledge economy’ is a broad term (powell & snellman, 2004) without a clear definition. rather, it is widely used as a metaphor (smith, 2002). for the purpose of this study, the knowledge economy is defined as: … production and service based on knowledge-intensive activities that contribute to an accepted pace of technical and scientific advance, as well as rapid obsolescence … the key component of which is the greater reliance on intellectual capability than on physical inputs and natural resources. (powell & snellman, 2004:99) this definition reflects the transition that has occurred in advanced industrialised nations from manufacturing-based to service-driven economies. a feature of the knowledge economy is the increase in the mobility of knowledge workers which leads to higher levels of recruitment and selection (sutherland & wöcke, 2011). recruitment and selection is the process of making fair and relevant assessments of the strengths and weaknesses of applicants with the intent to hire them (boxall & purcell, 2008). this definition of recruitment is the basis upon which this study was conducted. the research would explore the notion that knowledge should be the most important factor in the knowledge economy and that it is a scarce resource. hiring of knowledge workers should be as objective as possible without regard for factors such as the attractiveness of candidates. this study sets out to fill an existing gap in the literature and determines the prevalence of bias towards attractive individuals during the hiring practices of knowledge workers. although a beauty premium is, according to the literature, expected in cases where other factors are equal, the context of the knowledge economy should dictate that potential employers will favour the more technically competent applicants, and thus, there should be no employer-bias based on the physical appearance of the job applicant. the following two-part research question was thus posed: do both physical attractiveness and qualifications of an applicant for the position of a knowledge worker influence a manager’s perception of the suitability of such applicant? and if so, which of the two factors is more influential? the hypotheses used to answer the research questions were as follows: hypothesis 1 (h1a): both qualifications and attractiveness influence a manager’s perceived suitability of an applicant to fill the position of a knowledge worker. hypothesis 2 (h2a): qualifications are more influential than attractiveness in a manager’s perception of an applicant’s suitability to fill the position of a knowledge worker. method research design the researchers used a descriptive, cross-sectional and quantitative research to collect primary data to answer the hypotheses. this approach enabled the researchers to understand if being attractive and/or qualified had any effect on the hiring decisions of managers. the design thus allowed for the measurement of the effect of the two independent variables of attractiveness and qualifications on the dependent variable, namely, the suitability of the candidate for the position as a knowledge worker. the research took place as a two-phase quantitative study. the first phase was designed to obtain a rank order of the attractiveness of a set of applicants to be used in phase two, which, in turn, was designed to simulate the practice of screening applicants’ resumes prior to a job interview. sampling a non-probability convenience sample was used for this study to maximise the number of responses within the time and financial constraints of the study (saunders, lewis & thornihill, 2012). the research was conducted in two phases. for phase 1, the questionnaire was distributed to n = 10 executive master of business administration (emba) students at the gordon institute of business science, and all n = 10 respondents returned the questionnaire, with no missing data or errors, representing a 100% response rate. for phase 2, n = 115 questionnaires were distributed to programme in management development (pmd) students at the same institution, with n = 113 questionnaires returned with 10 containing errors and subsequently not included in the final analysis; therefore, the final analysis n = 103, representing an 89.56% complete response rate. the respondents represented a variety of management experience. of the respondents, 43.69% (n = 45) had between 5 and 9 years of management experience, with 39.81% (n = 41) having 0–4 years’ management experience, whereas 16.54% (n = 17) of respondents having 10 or more years of experience. as managers are predominantly responsible for making hiring decisions, these respondents were deemed suitable for the study. measuring instruments the research was conducted in two phases. questionnaires were used in both phases of the research, using a self-reporting ranking scale. phase 1 phase 1 was conducted primarily to establish a collection of photographs that respondents in phase 2 would deem attractive and not attractive. a questionnaire containing two sections was used. section 1 allowed for the collection of demographic information, namely age, gender, race and occupation of respondents. section 2 contained a set of 16 head and shoulder photographs of 8 caucasian males and 8 caucasian females. the researchers used a single race group to control for racial preference, which simultaneously allowed for the controlling of extraneous variables of height, speech, confidence levels and body language (patzer, 1983). the respondents were presented with the photographs and asked to rank each gender on a scale from 1 (least attractive) to 8 (most attractive). the two least attractive and the two most attractive photographs for each gender were then used in phase 2 of the research. phase 2 phase 2 was conducted to test the hypotheses, based on the results of phase 1 of attractive and not attractive candidates. the questionnaire used in phase 2 contained four sections. section 1 allowed for the collection of demographic information, namely age, gender, race, occupation and amount of management experience. management experience was measured through self-reported number of years at specific management levels such as general management and executive management. section 2 contained a fictitious knowledge worker job description and section 3 contained eight cvs, each with one of the eight photographs comprising of two attractive males, two attractive females, two non-attractive males and two non-attractive females, as assessed in phase 1. lastly, section 4 contained a matrix and instructions for the respondents to rank the suitability of the eight candidates for the knowledge worker position. all cvs met the minimum criteria for fulfilling the role; however, four of the cvs contained information depicting the candidate to be patently more qualified than the minimum requirements for the advertised position. each cv was standardised in format, all photographs were in colour on the top left of the page, accompanied by the name and surname of the fictitious candidates, location and date of birth, career objectives, educational qualifications, experience, language spoken and hobbies. the different levels of attractiveness (attractive and not attractive) and combinations of resume (highly qualified and minimally unqualified) were manipulated according to the design matrix illustrated in table 1. for attractiveness, +1 represents attractive as ranked in phase 1, whereas −1 represents unattractive as ranked in phase 1. for qualification, +1 represents highly qualified, whereas −1 represents minimally qualified. table 1: summary of knowledge worker job application scenarios. eight scenarios as summarised in table 1 were used as stimuli to determine if physical attractiveness and qualifications influence suitability of applicants for a knowledge worker related job specification. the format of a resume was chosen to improve the external validity as these represent real-life situations of how candidates are assessed for suitability for job roles. the resumes were further designed, as outlined above, so as not to include any additional information that could influence the attractiveness of the resume for some respondents. prior to distribution of the questionnaires, pretesting was conducted to ensure that participants understood the job specification and the accompanying resume with photographs. this was conducted with a further 10 emba students, and all respondents agreed that the fictitious job description, resumes and instructions were clear and no changes were required. the researchers distributed the four sections of the questionnaire in unmarked a4 white envelopes. a random number generator to determine the order that the resumes were placed in each envelope before being handed out. the researchers also verbally repeated the instructions contained in the envelopes to the respondents before the envelopes were handed out. the data collection was conducted in the same setting for all respondents to provide uniform conditions. data analysis to test the research hypotheses, the second phase of the research was conducted to establish the presence of any bias based on the beauty premium. the results of the survey were transcribed into an excel spread sheet and the subjects were each given an identification number from 1 to 103. these details were then recorded into spss version 22, where multiple wilcoxon signed rank tests were performed that compared the following variables and their effects and influence on: attractive versus unattractive qualified versus unqualified attractive qualified versus attractive unqualified unattractive qualified versus unattractive unqualified unattractive qualified versus attractive unqualified unattractive unqualified versus attractive unqualified attractive qualified versus unattractive qualified. results sample characteristics one hundred and thirteen responses were received, with 103 participants that were used in the final analysis. the sample characteristics are summarised in table 2. from these characteristics, it may be concluded that the sample is reasonably typical of south african middle managers. table 2: sample characteristics. candidates based on the photographs and resumes, respondents ranked the fictitious candidates and the results are reflected in table 3. table 3: frequency of rank per candidate. table 3 expresses the frequency of each candidate’s rankings. for example, the male attractive qualified candidate received a ranking of six 23 times. it is interesting to note that both male and female qualified candidates scored consistently higher in the rankings than their unqualified counterparts. this will be discussed in more detail in the results section. table 4 presents the rankings for the candidates by considering whether they were attractive or unattractive or qualified or unqualified, regardless of their gender. the results presented are interesting because they show a fairly even distribution of ranking for the attractive and unattractive applicants, whereas the results for qualified and unqualified applicants are unsurprisingly in favour of qualified applicants. table 4: cumulative totals for candidate ranking based on qualification and attractiveness. owing to the data being prepared in rank order, a wilcoxon signed rank test was applied. when analysing the wilcoxon signed rank test, the higher the mean rank, the more likely the choice (pallant, 2010). results are presented in table 5. table 5: wilcoxon signed rank test results. the results from the ranks above demonstrate both the respondents’ preference for an applicant and the strength of the preference. the following phenomena can be observed using the key above: unattractive applicants were preferred to attractive applicants. qualified applicants were preferred to unqualified applicants. attractive qualified applicants were preferred to attractive unqualified applicants. unattractive qualified applicants were preferred to unattractive unqualified applicants. unattractive qualified applicants were preferred to attractive unqualified applicants. attractive unqualified applicants were preferred to unattractive unqualified applicants. attractive qualified applicants were preferred to unattractive qualified applicants. the researchers also ran a test for effect size for each of the statistical hypotheses and used the guidance provided by cohen (1988), namely that an r-value of 0.1 = a small effect, 0.3 = a medium effect and 0.5 = a large effect. as can be seen in table 6, the wilcoxon signed rank test revealed the following: a difference in ranks between qualified and unqualified applicants (z = −7.310, p < 0.05) based on their rankings by managers to fill the position of a knowledge worker, with a medium effect size of 0.3601. a difference in ranks between attractive qualified and attractive unqualified applicants (z = −4.747, p < 0.05) based on their rankings by managers to fill the position of a knowledge worker, with a medium effect size of 0.3307. a difference in ranks between unattractive qualified and unattractive unqualified applicants (z = −5.581, p < 0.05) based on their rankings by managers to fill the position of a knowledge worker, with a medium effect size of 0.3889. a difference in ranks between unattractive qualified and attractive unqualified applicants (z = −4.364, p < 0.05) based on their rankings by managers to fill the position of a knowledge worker, with a medium effect size of 0.3040. table 6: test statistics. the difference in ranks between attractive and unattractive applicants was not significant (z = −0.259, p = 0.759). similarly, the difference in ranks between attractive unqualified and unattractive unqualified applicant was not significant (z = −0.653, p = 0.514), and furthermore, there was no difference in ranks between attractive qualified and unattractive qualified applicants (z = −0.343, p = 0.732) based on their ranking by managers to fill the position of a knowledge worker. thus, the findings of the study do not support hypothesis 1 because only qualifications and not the attractiveness of the candidates were found to have a significant difference (p < 0.05) effect on the decision of the managers. however, the findings of the study support hypothesis 2. discussion the research set out to answer the following question: do both physical attractiveness and qualification of an applicant for the position of a knowledge worker influence a manager’s perception of the suitability of such applicant? and if so, which of the two factors is more influential? to do this, it was necessary to isolate the variables of qualification and attractiveness for these to be compared. the central finding from the research was that, in a context where qualifications are considered important, when a subject is provided with the details of a prospective applicant’s qualifications, managers are more likely to make a hiring decision based on the applicant’s qualifications rather than the applicant’s physical appearance. this finding was contrary to some previous research (dipboye et al., 1975). the researchers attempted to recreate a realistic environment by sampling a diverse group of men and women with different racial backgrounds and management experience. the research made use of photographs of applicants for the job of a knowledge worker on the basis that past experiments had found that photographs demonstrated a very high correlation in the ranking on an individual’s attractiveness (hamermesh & biddle, 1993). by considering goldman and lewis’s (1976) postulation that attractive individuals display a higher level of social skilfulness, the researchers eliminated this variable by not having any personal interaction between the respondents and the applicants. owing to this lack of personal interaction between the subject and the applicant, the variable of grooming was also eliminated apart from any grooming that was evident to the respondent from the photograph of the applicant. owing to the nature of the research experiments, the researchers were unable to confirm that good-looking candidates are hired in the belief that they are more successful (goldman & lewis, 1976), more credible (patzer, 1983) or more able (mobius & rosenblat, 2006) than their less attractive competition, only that they were, in fact, preferred. the research aimed to analyse the effect of physical attractiveness on the initial hiring process before an applicant was invited for an interview. this means that applicant’s social power, favourable personal and non-personal characteristics such as personality and success in life, positive effects on people and persuasive ability were not tested for as these factors would only be available for testing in an environment where there was personal interaction between the subjects and the applicants. the results of this research demonstrated that the research subjects placed a higher value on qualifications than they did on physical attractiveness. in the case of one of the candidates (female, attractive, unqualified), it appears she may have been negatively prejudiced for being perceived as being attractive and unqualified, thus supporting the findings of maurer-fazio and lei (2015). the findings are also consistent with the research of dion and stein (1978), heilman (1983) and heilman and saruwatari (1979) who concluded that attractiveness may not always be viewed positively. the researchers found that, although qualification was the most important factor when selecting an applicant to fill the position of a knowledge worker, attractiveness of the applicant played a secondary role. this is consistent with tews et al. (2009) who found that physical attractiveness had a positive effect on hiring decisions, but when details of the applicant’s gma were given, attractiveness as an attribute was less valued. research on organisational fit has suggested another reason that physically attractive applicants could be favoured over unattractive applicants (tews et al., 2009). once an applicant has been screened and deemed to meet the minimum requirements of the job being applied for, qualification was no longer deemed important. tews et al. (2009) concluded that the assessment of fit involved something beyond the evaluation of knowledge, skills, abilities and past accomplishments but rather that interpersonal skills, goal orientation and physical attractiveness were considered important. as the researchers in this study excluded details on the applicant’s goal orientation and controlled for interpersonal skills, it is feasible that physical attractiveness, while not significant, was used as a secondary measure in order to select the applicant. although for this study the attractiveness of the research subject was not measured, the study found that, regardless of the sex of the research subject, they preferred qualified applicants to unqualified applicants, and when qualification was equal, the respondents preferred attractive over unattractive applicants. thus, it can be concluded that there is discrimination in the employment decision that can be attributed to physical attractiveness stereotypes. because the researchers controlled for interview technique, grooming and social skill and only provided details on qualifications, past experience, hobbies and a photograph to display physical attractiveness, it is reasonable to determine that the hiring decision was made using primarily the applicant’s qualifications and their physical attractiveness. the study confirmed, similar to dipboye et al. (1975), that qualifications were the most important determinants of suitability rating and ranking. however, their research found that when applicants had equal scholastic standing, subjects revealed a strong preference for attractive applicants, whereas this study revealed that subjects displayed only a non-significant preference for attractive applicants. the evidence found by the researchers confirms the findings of watkins and johnston (2000), who concluded that applicant attractiveness had no impact when the quality of the applicant was high but that it only played a role when applicant quality was mediocre. the researchers found that in the case of both qualified and unqualified applicants that attractiveness was preferred, even though it was only slightly so, over unattractiveness on a like-for-like basis, that is, attractive qualified applicants were preferred over unattractive qualified applicants, and attractive unqualified applicants were preferred over unattractive unqualified applicants. conclusion the researchers can conclude that in the context of knowledge workers, a beauty premium does marginally exist but that it is less strong than might have been expected. significantly more value is placed on the qualification of a job seeker than their physical attractiveness. congruent with research that has previously been conducted, the researchers found that regardless of the attractiveness of the applicant, more relevance is placed on the qualifications of the applicant in order to assess suitability to fill a position as a knowledge worker. however, when the quality of two applicants’ qualifications is equivalent, the more attractive applicant is likely to be selected. unlike watkins and johnston (2000) who found that attractiveness can compensate for poor application quality, the researchers found that the attractiveness of an applicant would only help when high-quality applicants or low-quality applicants were competing for a position. the attractiveness of an applicant would not give them an advantage over a more highly skilled applicant. in conclusion, like cash et al. (1977), cash and kilcullen (1985), dipboye et al. (1975), dipboye et al. (1977) and holahan and stephan (1981), the researchers found that when subjects were presented with fictitious resumes depicting applicants of varying attractiveness, the results indicated that there is some potential for discrimination in hiring on the basis of physical attractiveness. areas for further study during the course of conducting this research, the researchers identified numerous factors that might warrant further exploration, namely the existence of bias towards different types of qualifications of a knowledge worker, that is, ca versus b.eng versus bcom versus ba and gender bias in the knowledge economy. further, the provision of proper training to the individuals in human resource (hr) and recruitment responsible for hiring decisions could be explored to ascertain whether adequate training diminishes the effect of the beauty premium amongst similarly qualified individuals. the researchers were also unable to confirm that attractive candidates are hired in the belief that they are more successful (goldman & lewis, 1976), more credible (patzer, 1983) and more able (mobius & rosenblat, 2006) than their less attractive competition, only that they were preferred. further research could explore why attractive candidates are preferred, albeit marginally, in the context of knowledge workers. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions r.f. undertook the initial study while a student at the gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria. g.p. supervised the research and was the lead author. k.b.h. and m.c. contributed to the writing of the article. references aharon, i., etcoff, n., ariely, d., chabris, c.f., o’connor, e., & breiter, h.c. (2001). beautiful faces have variable reward value, fmri and behavioral evidence. neuron, 32(3), 537–551. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0896-6273(01)00491-3 andreoni, j., & petrie, r. (2008). beauty, gender and stereotypes: evidence from laboratory experiments. journal of economic psychology, 29(1), 73–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2007.07.008 ariely, d. (2008). predictably irrational. new york: harpercollins. arvey, r.d. (1979). unfair discrimination in the employment interview: legal and psychological aspects. psychological bulletin, 86(4), 736–765. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.86.4.736 benzeval, m., green, m.j., & macintyre, s. (2013). does perceived physical attractiveness in adolescence predict better socioeconomic position in adulthood? evidence from 20 years of follow up in a population cohort study. public library of science, 8(5), e63975. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0063975 boxall, p., & purcell, j. (2008). strategy and human resource management. new york: palgrave macmillan. caplan, b. (2000). rational irrationality: a framework for the neoclassical-behavioral debate. eastern economic journal, 26(2), 191–211. cash, t.f., gillen, b., & burns, d.s. (1977). sexism and beautyism in personnel consulting decision making. journal of applied psychology, 62(3), 301–310. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.62.3.301 cash, t.f., & janda, l.h. (1984). the eye of the beholder. psychology today, 18(12), 46–52. cash, t.f., & kilcullen, r.n. (1985). the aye of the beholder: susceptibility to sexism and beautyism in the evaluation of managerial applicants. journal of applied psychology, 15(4), 591–605. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1985.tb00903.x cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). new york: new york university. davison, h.k., & burke, m.j. (2000). sex discrimination in simulation employment context: a meta-anlytic investigation. journal of vocational behavior, 56(2), 225–248. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1999.1711 deaux, k., & taynor, j. (1973). evaluation of male and female ability: bias works two ways. psychological reports, 32(1), 261–262. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1973.32.1.261 degroot, t., & gooty, j. (2009). can nonverbal cues be used to make meaningful personality attributions in employment interviews? journal of business and psychology, 24(2), 179–192. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-009-9098-0 deryugina, t., & shurchkov, o. (2015). now you see it, now you don’t: the vanishing beauty premium. journal of economic behavior & organization, 11(6), 331–345. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2015.05.007 dion, k.k., & stein, s. (1978). physical attractiveness and interpersonal influence. journal of experimental social psychology, 14(1), 97–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(78)90063-x dipboye, r.l., arvey, r.d., & terpstra, d.e. (1977). sex and physical attractiveness of raters and applicants as determinants of resume evaluations. journal of applied psychology, 62(3), 288–294. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.62.3.288 dipboye, r.l., fromkin, h.l., & wibak, k. (1975). relative importance of applicant sex, attractiveness and scholastic standing in evaluation of job applicant resumes. journal of applied psychology, 60(1), 39–43. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0076352 etzioni, a. (2011). behavioural economics: next steps. journal of consumer policy, 34(3), 277–287. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10603-011-9160-y fletcher, j.m. (2009). beauty vs. brains: early labor market outcomes of high school graduates. economics letters, 105(3), 321–325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2009.09.006 french, m.t. (2002). physical appearance and earnings: further evidence. applied economics, 34(5), 569–572. https://doi.org/10.1080/00036840010027568 gerdes, e.p., & garber, d.m. (1983). sex bias in hiring: effects of job demands and applicant competence. sex roles, 9(3), 307–319. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00289666 goldman, w., & lewis, p. (1976). beautiful is good: evidence that the physically attractive are more socially skillful. journal of experimental social psychology, 13(2), 125–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-1031(77)80005-x greenhaus, j.h., parasuraman, s., & wormley, w.m. (1990). effects of race on organizational experiences, job performance evaluations, and career outcomes. academy of management journal, 33(1), 64–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/256352 hatfield, e. (1986). mirror, mirror: the importance of looks in everyday life. albany, ny: suny press. hamermesh, d.s., & biddle, j.e. (1993). beauty and the labour market. national bureau of economic research, 84(5), 1174–1194. heilman, m.e. (1983). sex bias in work settings: the lack of fit model. research in organizational behavior, 5, 269–298. heilman, m.e., & saruwatari, l.r. (1979). when beauty is beastly: the effects of appearance and sex on evaluations of job applicants for managerial and nonmanagerial jobs. organizational behavior and human performance, 23(3), 360–372. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(79)90003-5 holahan, c.k., & stephan, c.w. (1981). when beauty isn’t talent: the influence of physical attractiveness, attitudes towards women and competence on impression formation. sex roles, 7(8), 867–876. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00287771 holzer, h. (1993). multi-city study of urban inequality. unpublished manuscript, michigan state university. huang, t.c., & lin, y.h. (2016). self-fulfilling prophecies linking physical attractiveness and interviewer evaluation. academy of management proceedings, 2016(1), 12143. https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2016.12143abstract jin, j., fan, b., dai, s., & ma, q. (2017). beauty premium: event-related potentials evidence of how physical attractiveness matters in online peer-to-peer lending. neuroscience letters, 640, 130–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2017.01.037 landau, j. (1995). the relationship of race and gender to managers’ ratings of promotion potential. journal of organizational behavior, 16(4), 391–400. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030160409 landy, f.j., & farr, j.l. (1980). performance ratings. psychological bulletin, 87(1), 72–107. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.87.1.72 langlois, j.h., kalakanis, l., rubenstein, a.j., & larson, a. (2000). maxims or myths of beauty? a meta-analytic and theoretical review. psychological bulletin, 126(3), 390–423. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.126.3.390 ma q., qian d., hu l., & wang, l. (2017). hello handsome! male’s facial attractiveness gives rise to female’s fairness bias in ultimatum game scenarios – an erp study. plos one, 12(7), e0180459. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0180459 marlowe, c.m., scheider, s.l., & nelson, c.e. (1996). gender and attractiveness biases in hiring decisions: are more experienced managers less biased? journal of applied psychology, 81(1), 11–21. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.81.1.11 martinko, m.j., & gardner, w.l. (1983). a methodological review of sex-related access discrimination problems. sex roles, 9(7), 825–839. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00290033 maurer-fazio, m., & lei, l. (2015). as rare as a panda: how facial attractiveness, gender, and occupation affect interview callbacks at chinese firms. international journal of manpower, 36(1), 68–85. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijm-12-2014-0258 mayfield, e.c. (1964). the selection interview: a re-evaluation of published research. personnel psychology, 17(3), 239–260. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1964.tb00065.x mcarthur, l.z., & baron, r.m. (1980). toward an ecological theory of social perception. psychological review, 90(3), 215. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.90.3.215 mobius, m.m., & rosenblat, t.s. (2006). why beauty matters. the american economic review, 96(1), 222–235. https://doi.org/10.1257/000282806776157515 pallant, j. (2010). spss survival manual a step by step guide to data analysis using spss. (4th edn.). maidenhead: mcgraw hill. patzer, g.l. (1983). source credibility as a function of communicator physical attractiveness. journal of business research, 11(2), 229–241. https://doi.org/10.1016/0148-2963(83)90030-9 powell, w.w., & snellman, k. (2004). the knowledge economy. annual review of sociology, 30, 199–220. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.29.010202.100037 puhl, r., & brownell, k.d. (2001). bias, discrimination, and obesity. obesity research, 9(12), 788–805. https://doi.org/10.1038/oby.2001.108 quereshi, m.y. (1983). the employability of psychologists in academic settings: a cross-validation. social behavior and personality, 11(1), 17–22. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.1983.11.1.17 quereshi, m.y., buckley, j.m., & fadden, t.f. (1981). some determinants of psychologists’ employability in academic settings. personnel psychology, 34(2), 301–308. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1981.tb00944.x quereshi, m.y., & kay, j.p. (1986). physical attractiveness, age, and sex as determinants of reactions to resumes. social behavior and personality, 14(1), 103–112. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.1986.14.1.103 raza, s.m., & carpenter, b.n. (1987). a model of hiring decisions in real employment interviews. journal of applied psychology, 72(4), 596–603. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.72.4.596 ritts, v., patterson, m.l., & tubbs, m.e. (1992). expectations, impressions and judgements of physically attractive students: a review. review of educational research, 64(4), 413–426. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543062004413 robins, p.k., homer, j.f., & french, m.t. (2011). beauty and the labor market: accounting for the additional effects of personality and grooming. labour, 25(2), 228–251. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9914.2010.00511.x roehling, m.v. (1999). weight based discrimination in employment: psychological and legal aspects. personnel psychology, 52, 969–1016. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1999.tb00186.x roehling, m.v. (2002). weight discrimination in the american workplace: ethical issues and analysis. journal of business ethics, 40, 177–189. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1020347305736 roth, a.e. (1995). bargaining experiments. in j. kagel & e. roth (eds.), handbook of experimental economics, pp. 253–348. princeton, nj: princeton university press. rudolph, c.w., wells, c.l., weller, m.d., & baltes, b.b. (2009). a meta-analysis of empirical studies of weight-based bias. journal of vocational behavior, 74(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2008.09.008 ruffle, b.j., & shtudiner, z. (2015). are good-looking people more employable? management science, 61(8), 1760–1776. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2014.1927 rynes, s.l., & bourdreau, j.w. (1986). college recruiting in large organizations: practice, evaluation, and research implications. personnel psychology, 39(4), 729–757. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1986.tb00592.x saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2012). research methods for business students. (6th edn.). harlow: pearson education. schmidt, n., & lappin, m. (1980). race and sex as determinants of the mean and variance of performance ratings. journal of applied psychology, 65(4), 428–435. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.65.4.428 smith, k.h. (2002). what is the ‘knowledge economy’? knowledge intensity and distributed knowledge bases. doctoral thesis. maastricht: institute for new technologies, united nations university. solnick, s.j., & schweitzer, m.e. (1999). the influence of physical attractiveness and gender on ultimatum game decisions. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 79(3), 199–215. https://doi.org/10.1006/obhd.1999.2843 sutherland, m., & jordaan, w. (2004). factors affecting the retention of knowledge workers. south african journal of human resource management, 2(2), 55–64. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v2i2.39 sutherland, m., & wöcke, a. (2011). the symptoms of and consequences to selection errors in recruitment decisions. south african journal of business management, 42(4), 23–32. tews, m.j., stafford, k., & zhu, j. (2009). beauty revisited: the impact of attractiveness, ability, and personality in the assessment of employment suitability. international journal of selection assessment, 17(1), 92–100. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2389.2009.00454.x tomer, j.f. (2007). what is behavioral economics? the journal of socio-economics, 36(3), 463–479. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2006.12.007 watkins, l.m., & johnston, l. (2000). screening job applicants: the impact of physical attractiveness and application quality. international journal of selection and assessment, 8(2), 76–84. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00135 yamamura, l.m., & birk, c.a. (2010). attracting and retaining talent: the importance of first impressions. cpa journal, 80(4), 58–60. abstract introduction literature review research design acknowledgements references about the author(s) j.w. (cobus) pienaar arbinger institute south africa, south africa petrus nel department of industrial psychology, university of the free state, south africa citation pienaar, j.w., & nel, p. (2017). a conceptual framework for understanding leader self-schemas and the influence of those self-schemas on the integration of feedback. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a772. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.772 original research a conceptual framework for understanding leader self-schemas and the influence of those self-schemas on the integration of feedback j.w. (cobus) pienaar, petrus nel received: 19 nov. 2015; accepted: 29 nov. 2016; published: 24 mar. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: recently, the importance of blind spots, derailments and failures of leaders have been in the spotlight. enhancing their levels of self-awareness is one of the steps leaders can take to avoid derailment. while it promotes self-awareness and decreases leadership blind spots, feedback is also considered one of the most effective tools available to modify behaviour. researchers and practitioners are encouraged to explore the individual characteristics that will enhance or impede the feedback received from others so as to bring about behavioural change and increased levels of self-awareness. motivation for the study: the aim of this theoretical article was to consider various conceptual frameworks and literature in an endeavour to illustrate how leaders’ self-schemas might explain the underlying reasons why some leaders are more likely to receive, integrate, assimilate and act on the feedback, while others are not, based on how they see themselves in relation to others. research design, approach and method: a literature-based method was utilised for this study in order to provide a critical analysis of the available literature and illustrate the different theoretical perspectives and underpinnings. practical/managerial implications: leaders who are more likely to consider feedback and/or ask for feedback from others seem to be less prone to develop a blind spot and will therefore have a more accurate view of themselves. those who have an over-rating of themselves are unlikely to have an accurate view of themselves. in an attempt to ‘protect’ this inflated view, such individuals will be less open to negative feedback, as it may challenge their own perspectives and opinions they hold of themselves. individuals who hold an overly negative view of themselves are more likely to reject positive feedback and less likely to request or accept positive feedback as it may contradict the viewpoint they hold of themselves. they may however be more open to negative feedback that may ‘support’ their negative view of themselves. contribution: this article provided some suggestions as to why leaders may be less willing to accept and integrate feedback into their self-schemas as well as how to develop their levels of self-awareness in order to benefit from feedback. sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed. (friedrich nietzsche) introduction the popular media and news are fraught with reports of leaders who fail. it is sadly not uncommon to hear of unethical leadership behaviour or business leaders performing poorly. according to rothstein and burke (2010, pp. 1–3), 50% – 75% of all individuals in leadership positions are underperforming. this figure is supported by gentry (2010, p. 316), who maintains that 50% of all managers are ineffective. considered in this light, the popular notion of ‘people do not quit companies, but they quit managers’ rings true. in addition, leslie and wei (2010, p. 129) assert that those who lead, lack the appropriate skills to meet their organisations’ current and future needs. these findings are particularly disconcerting when one bears in mind that leadership is one of the most salient aspects of organisational life. rothstein and burke (2010, p. 1) and bligh, kohles, pearce, justin and stovall (2007, pp. 528, 530) agree that although there is ample research focussing on the leadership aspects, factors or facets that make leaders successful, there is insufficient research available that investigates the ‘dark-side’ of leadership, documenting leaders’ blind spots, shortcomings, derailments and failures. while leadership research in the areas just mentioned deserves more attention, the need for effective leaders grows unabated (rothstein & burke, 2010, p. 2). literature review detecting leadership shortcomings, derailments and failures leadership derailment can only be addressed when the signs of derailment are discovered early enough and assuming certain conditions have been met. leaders need to have a clear understanding of what it is that they need to change if they are to change their behaviour. in addition, they should be focussed and motivated to make the necessary changes, and have the necessary support to develop professionally. self-awareness could be considered an antidote to derailment – if leaders wish to avoid derailment, they have to enhance their levels of self-awareness (gentry, 2010, pp. 316–317). leadership and self-awareness the ability to be self-aware, or to think about oneself consciously, is what separates humans from other living organisms. sturm, taylor, atwater and braddy (2014, p. 658) refer to various scholars who state that individual self-awareness can be traced back to early social, clinical and developmental psychology. these scholars define self-awareness as having two primary components: (1) how people see themselves and the process by which people make assessments about themselves (i.e. reflecting on their own levels of self-awareness) and (2) the ability to detect how they are being perceived by others (i.e. feedback received from other individuals; sturm et al., 2014, p. 658). murphy, reichard and johnson (2008, p. 258) define self-awareness as, ‘… the similarity or difference in the way a person sees himself or herself, compared to how they are perceived by others’. alimo-metcalfe (1998, p. 37) holds a similar view to self-awareness, describing it as the way one sees oneself, compared with how others see you. according to butler, kwantes and boglarsky (2014, p. 88), taylor (2010, p. 57) and rothstein and burke (2010, pp. 5–6), there is growing consensus among scholars of leadership that self-awareness forms the foundation for leadership development and leadership effectiveness, and is therefore core to leadership self-management efforts. self-awareness is explicitly and implicitly recognised by various leadership style theories, including those on authentic, servant and transcendent leadership (sturm et al., 2014, p. 658). butler et al. (2014, pp. 87–88) refer to various instances in the literature that demonstrate that leaders who exhibit higher levels of self-awareness are more likely to be aware of their own emotions and the impact thereof on others. they further quote research that has shown that self-awareness is a critical element to both the personal success of the leader and the success of the organisation as a whole. this is substantiated by cashman (2014), who argues that self-awareness is directly linked to tangible business performance. cashman refers to research by david zes and dana landis (n.d.) who used 6977 self-assessments by professionals at 486 publicly traded companies. the self-assessments were used to identify ‘blind spots’ – disparities between self-reported skills and peer ratings. at the same time, the authors tracked stock performance. their analysis demonstrated that employees from companies that performed poorly had 20% more blind spots, and that those employees were 79% more likely to have low overall self-awareness. the importance of self-awareness in relation to leadership is further emphasised in the literature by rothstein and burke (2010, pp. 5–6) who state that this psychological characteristic also provides the basis for introspection, choice, priority setting, change and development, whereas taylor (2010, p. 58) asserts that self-awareness supports the learning process and psychological health of a leader. according to drucker (in rothstein & burke, 2010, p. 5) and kets de vries, vrignaud, korotov, engellau and florent-treacy (2006, p. 898), leadership success comes to those who know themselves. this is substantiated by clawson (2010, p. 106), who states that effective leaders realise that the knowledge of who they are is the most important ‘tool’ that they have at their disposal and that if they cannot use it, they will find it difficult to achieve success. mintzberg (in clawson, 2010, p. 91) asserts that self-awareness coupled with reflection is a critical leadership skill. although self-awareness seems to be critical in leadership effectiveness, as highlighted in the literature cited above, the way self-awareness is achieved is not always described and articulated (rothstein & burke, 2010, p. 6). herbst and conradie (2011, p. 3) state that self-insight, which might result in a more accurate self-perception, has been recognised as a prerequisite for conscious, proactive personal change and development, yet it is often poorly developed in individuals. sturm et al. (2014, p. 659) argue that because leadership transpires from social systems and is therefore a relational process that involves various individuals across a number of levels, leaders should be aware of their influence on others in order to be effective. as relational beings, people (leaders, in this instance) must interact with others and receive feedback about themselves for healthy and effective functioning (taylor, 2010, p. 60). taylor (2010, p. 60) states that one of the ways in which leaders could gain access to the perceptions of others is through the process of feedback. leadership and feedback leaders can improve and monitor their own development and simultaneously enhance their self-awareness by opting to receive feedback, thereby addressing possible derailment behaviours proactively (atwater, waldman, atwater & cartier, 2000, p. 294; sala, 2003, p. 222). according to lang (2014), it is almost impossible to become self-aware without receiving feedback from others. some organisations, particularly those that can afford it will, therefore, utilise various tools and processes as a way to provide feedback to leaders (assessment centres, 360-degree feedback, upward feedback, performance appraisals, formal mentoring and coaching, psychological assessments) in an attempt to increase their self-awareness (rothstein & burke, 2010, pp. 4–5). however, lang (2014) provides an opposing view, stating that a lack of feedback is rife in many organisations, a situation prevailing when feedback is the ‘… cheapest, most powerful, yet, most under used management tool and process that we have at our disposal …’ to assist people understand how others perceive them. factors influencing feedback in a meta-analysis conducted by smithers, london and reilly (2005), it was found that eight factors influenced individuals’ willingness to use feedback (from peers, subordinates, and supervisors) to improve their performance. these factors include characteristics of the feedback (positive or negative), the leader’s reaction to the feedback, his or her personality, their feedback orientation, their beliefs about the change suggested by the feedback, the perceived need for change, goal setting, and taking action from the feedback. atwater, brett and charles (2007) provided a useful categorisation of the above factors into the following dimensions: factors to be considered before giving feedback (e.g. personality and goal orientation), factors to consider about the feedback process (e.g. positive or negative feedback and an individual’s reactions to feedback), factors to be considered after receiving feedback (e.g. goal setting, perceived need for change and organisational support in the form of feedback-coaching interventions) and outcomes associated with the feedback process (e.g. changes in behaviour, subsequent changes in performance ratings and employee engagement). leaders or managers who receive discouraging or negative feedback that threatens their self-esteem are less likely to use this information to change their behaviour (kluger & denisi, 1996). those managers who are conscientious, open to new experiences and able to manage their emotions are also more likely to implement the feedback they have received (smither et al., 2005). there seems to be several personality characteristics that are likely to influence leaders’ reactions to feedback and willingness to use the feedback for goal-setting and action. leaders who seek out feedback from others, care what others may think of them and are not afraid of receiving feedback are likely to be high in feedback orientation. in addition, such leaders are also more likely to take responsibility for implementing the feedback to improve their performance. leaders with higher levels of self-efficacy are more likely to put in effort to change their behaviour based on the feedback they have received. other researchers also found self-efficacy to moderate the relationship between feedback and performance (bailey & austin, 2006). it is likely that individuals who receive positive feedback or feedback that is in line with their own perceptions may not see a real need to change (london & smither, 2002). leaders who focus on performance improvement (rather than protecting themselves) are likely to set performance improvement goals. in addition, when such leaders emphasise developmental goals, they are more likely to implement the behavioural changes necessary to improve their performance. to implement such behavioural changes, leaders may use feedback-coaching interventions (smither, london, flautt, vargas & kucine, 2003). however, such interventions will only be successful if leaders have high levels of self-efficacy regarding their ability to implement the change (bailey & austin, 2006). the challenge, however, is that there are many leaders who simply do not understand the need for feedback, upward and otherwise, in order to stimulate or advance their own development and careers. in addition, they do not have the foresight to see the need for increasing their personal self-awareness and how this may improve their ability to lead. in short, they do not know that they do not know that they should know (church & rotolo, 2010, p. 55). reissig (2011, p. 30) shares a similar opinion, stating that a critical ingredient for a successful leader is that he or she should be open and courageous enough to seek honest feedback from others and to utilise the information in a constructive way to enact change. the above challenge becomes even more problematic when one considers the fact that leaders at the highest of managerial or leadership levels are often uniformed about how others perceive them, as they habitually surround themselves with those who are less willing and less likely to provide them with truthful feedback (gentry, 2010, p. 317). sala (2003, p. 226) mentions a couple of reasons for the lack of feedback to leaders. according to sala, people who are higher in the organisation are less likely to receive feedback as they have fewer opportunities for feedback, because there are fewer people higher up in the hierarchy and lateral to them who can provide them with feedback. also, lower-level employees are less likely to give constructive feedback, given their position and their ineptness to understand the complexity of the role of the leader and the skills that it requires. they, therefore, do not feel that they are in a position to comment (provide feedback). taylor (2010, p. 62) argues that this lack of feedback might also be ascribed to longer tenured leaders who are less likely to seek feedback from others in an attempt to appear more confident and in control, and that those leaders are often seduced into creating a reality for themselves that is disconnected from the realities others in the organisation share. the lack of feedback may intentionally or unintentionally lead to yet another conundrum, referred to as a blind spot. leadership and blind spots blakeley (2007, p. x) is of the opinion that blind spots emerge when people do not want to listen (and by implication receive feedback) or learn. the reason provided is that this type of awareness can be both painful and time consuming and as a result people often avoid it. this is corroborated by reissig (2011, p. 30) stating that leader blind spots occur when leaders are not actively seeking out independent sources to receive feedback from, and that leaders are not equipped to have their weaknesses identified. as a consequence, their blind spots remain. clawson (2010, p. 92) states that people often do not see themselves as others do. this view corresponds with the popular and now dated johari window model, which advocates that if there are things that others see and the leader does not, it will increase the ‘blind spots’ of that person. blakeley (2007, p. 3) asserts that all people have blind spots and that it is the responsibility of leaders in particular to overcome their blind spots, as blind spots contribute to inferior decision-making, which can lead to flawed decisions, resulting in possibly detrimental consequences for various stakeholders, not just for the leaders. according to blakeley (2007, p. 4), people refer to blind spots as areas where people remain stubbornly fixed in their views, and they are more likely to dismiss sound arguments, refute evidence and refuse to change their view in any way in those areas. individuals with a blind spot do not want to expand their understanding by listening to the views or the opinions of others that they in some way ‘dislike’. blind spots, according to blakeley (2007, p. 7), are often rooted in the threat presented by certain types of information (feedback in this instance) to a person’s self-concept and sense of identity. reissig (2011, p. 30) is of the opinion that leaders are not always interested to learn about their blind spots as it stirs up feelings of inadequacy, rejection and certain other negative behaviours that are often difficult for them to confront in themselves. this will be exacerbated with time, considering clawson’s (2010, p. 92) theory that the older people get (and, by implication, leaders), the more blind spots they tend to develop. the underlying assumption regarding feedback is, therefore, that those who receive feedback (leaders, in this instance) will be able to minimise their blind spots, identify their developmental needs and improve on their leadership performance as a consequence (atwater et al., 2000, p. 276). the problem with this assumption is highlighted by research by atwater et al. (2000, p. 278), who refer to research by kluger and denisi (1996), providing convincing evidence that feedback does not automatically lead to improved performance for everyone. in their research, kluger and denisi (in atwater et al., 2000, p. 278) have shown that in over 33% of the cases, the performance actually decreased after feedback. it is highly likely that a combination of the eight factors highlighted by the meta-analysis conducted by smither et al. (2005) might to a varying degree account for these findings. one factor not explicitly identified by the meta-analysis (smither et al., 2005) nor by atwater et al. (2007) is the role of self-schemas. the next section will illustrate how leadership self-schemas might be the underlying reason why leaders often fail to seek feedback or integrate it when it does occur. leadership self-schemas van knippenberg, van knippenberg, de cremer and hogg (2005, p. 496) assert that the way a person perceives himself or herself (their self-concept or identity) will have a direct bearing on how a person feels, what they believe, the attitudes they hold, the goals they set and the behaviour that they will exhibit. other scholars, such as emery, daniloski and hamby (2011, p. 201), however, draw on the term ‘self-identity’, which frequently appears in contemporary social science and which refers to the ‘totality of the individual’s thoughts and feelings having reference to himself as an object’. markus and sentis (1982) and others (in stein, 1995, p. 188) employ the term ‘self-schemas’ to refer to the ‘knowledge structures about the self’, ‘the cognitive residual of a person in interactions with the social environment’, ‘the active, working structures that shape perceptions, memories, emotional and behavioural responses’. for the purposes of this paper, the authors will use the term ‘self-schemas’ because it provides a more holistic view and also explicitly and implicitly represents and incorporates the aspects in the realm of self-concept and self-identity. murphy et al. (2008, pp. 252–253) express the view that leadership behaviour are particularly affected by the way a leader thinks about himself or herself and that to fully comprehend leadership effectiveness one has to understand the self-schema of a leader. the following sections will, therefore, endeavour to provide a précis based on the available literature showing how feedback might be impacted by a person’s (a leader’s in this instance) self-schema and, by implication, the level of self-awareness. carless, mann and wearing (1998, p. 493) state that a leader will avoid or ignore feedback that would contradict their self-schemas or become defensive about feedback received when their view of themselves and those that others hold of them, differ (alimo-metcalfe, 1998, p. 38). alimo-metcalfe (1998, p. 38) states that leaders do this as a way to maintain a positive self-schema in order to maintain self-esteem. stein (1995, p. 188) confirms this, referring to various researchers who have shown that people are more likely to direct their attention to information if it is consistent with their established self-schemas. murphy et al. (2008, p. 259) and yammarino and atwater (1993, p. 234) have shown that self-aware leaders are better able to incorporate others’ assessments (feedback) about them into their self-schemas and are, therefore, better able to adjust their behaviour and improve on their shortcomings. this is corroborated by alimo-metcalfe (1998, p. 36), who has shown that employees are more satisfied with a leader when their perceptions of the leader match the self-perceptions that the leader holds of himself or herself – being self-aware. leaders who are self-aware also tend to receive higher leadership ratings (murphy et al., 2008, p. 259) compared with under-raters and over-raters who normally receive the lowest ratings. herbst and conradie (2011, p. 4) state that leaders who have high self-perception accuracy are more open and willing to incorporate feedback into their self-perceptions. the opposite is also true; those who have low self-perception accuracy results have a tendency to close themselves for or ignore or discount negative feedback that does not resonate with the view the leader has of himself or herself. church and rotolo (2010, p. 55) consequently raises the question as to what extent leaders are capable and accurate in their own assessments and whether they may have a tendency to believe their own internal assessments over the perspectives that others may have of them. yammarino and atwater (1993, p. 234) have found that it is not only self-schemas and self-awareness that might impact the ability to integrate feedback into self-schemas, but that there are also various personality and ability factors that might impact a person’s self-perception. those factors could explain why some people are more willing and open for feedback. although beyond the scope of this research, it is nevertheless important to at least acknowledge those aspects. problem statement scharmer (2008, p. 52) and boaz and fox (2014, p. 4) argue for more research to understand the ‘inner place’ from which leaders operate. these authors’ view is corroborated by emery et al. (2011, p. 200), who maintain that leadership scholars have recently recognised that self-perception, which forms part of the ‘inner world’ of a leader, is an important part of leadership and warrants further investigation. murphy et al. (2008, pp. 250, 252) state that there is too little research available exploring the impact of leaders’ self-perception on leadership behaviour, and that only a few leadership scholars utilise theories of the ‘self’ when attempting to understand leadership behaviour. murphy et al. (2008, p. 260) also recommend continued research on the development of leadership identity and schemas, while van knippenberg et al. (2005, p. 498) have made a persuasive argument for further research in the development of a leader’s conception of the self. the aim of these recommendations is to improve our understanding of leadership effectiveness, development and self-awareness. alimo-metcalfe (1998, p. 37) and rothstein and burke (2010, pp. 4–5) also argue for more research on leadership self-awareness, as self-awareness is an important concept encircling the self that has far-reaching implications for leadership behaviour, leadership development and leadership effectiveness (murphy et al., 2008, p. 259). the literature indicates that feedback is one of the most effective tools and processes available to modify behaviour, while it simultaneously promotes self-awareness. people vary in the way they utilise feedback, however. some embrace the information (feedback) they receive from others to make adjustments, while others disregard it (murphy et al., 2008, p. 259). on the basis of what atwater et al. (2000, p. 294) and yammarino and atwater (1993, p. 243) found, the authors of this article formulated the following problem statement: which self-schemas will enhance or impede the feedback received from others so as to bring about behavioural change and increased levels of self-awareness as well as positive organisational outcomes (e.g. higher levels of employee engagement)? contribution and aim in view of the above problem statement, the aim and contribution of this literature review was, therefore, to consider the available literature explaining the specific self-schemas at play that will enhance or hamper the feedback received from others, while drawing on a conceptual framework from the arbinger institute (2008). the authors will endeavour to illustrate how this might explain what types of people (leaders, in this instance) are more likely to receive, integrate, assimilate and act on feedback, and the underlying reasons why that is the case. this article also wishes to contribute to the existing literature by proposing an integrated conceptual framework of leadership self-schemas, in the absence of such a framework in the current literature, and to consider how this might be related to other available literature. research design research method a literature-based method was utilised for this study in order to provide a critical analysis of the available literature and illustrate the different theoretical perspectives and underpinnings. this approach allowed for the expansion and adaption of current literature, so as to address the aim of this research. location and collection of literature various electronic databases were consulted for the purpose of the literature review, which included the business source complete psycarticles and psycinfo. only texts published in english were considered in the database search. from all the texts yielded by this search, only those that addressed leadership ineffectiveness, 360-degree feedback, self-awareness, schemas and feedback were included for the review. the reference lists of the articles yielded from the returned results were also consulted for other relevant literature that may not have been considered. presentation of literature the literature will be presented by providing a conceptual framework in light of the objectives and aim of this article, after which the article will conclude with a critical discussion and practical implications, and some suggestions for further research. a conceptual framework this section considers the available literature in an attempt to propose an integrated framework to understand leadership self-schemas and those aspects enhancing or impeding feedback from others. taxonomies from the arbinger institute, which focussed on self-deception; yammarino and atwater (1993), who focussed on 360-degree feedback; and clawson (2010), who focussed on two types of leaders, will be considered in an attempt to offer an integrated framework to understand the phenomena under investigation. in its book entitled the anatomy of peace, the arbinger institute (2008) developed a complete theory to explain how the phenomenon of self-deception develops within individuals. simply stated, self-deception is the problem of a person not knowing that he or she has a problem, while blaming others for their problem. one of the arbinger institute’s (2008) conceptual taxonomies illustrates how people adopt various styles or self-perceptions or self-views, depending on how they see themselves in relation to others. the proposition is that people either hold others in the same regard that they hold themselves (others count the same) or they separate themselves from others by either elevating themselves in relation to others or lowering themselves in relation to others (other people then do not count the same anymore in both these stances). as a consequence, people become self-deceived about the nature of their relationship with others and their realities. this proposition is corroborated by emery et al. (2011, p. 201), who stated that individuals who view themselves in a certain way will, as a consequence, act in accordance with the way they perceive themselves. the arbinger institute (2008) depicts four types of individuals (resonating with self-schemas) based on how the person sees himself or herself in relation to others, which will ultimately impact how they relate with or behave towards others. this proposition is diagrammatically depicted in figure 1. figure 1: way of viewing the world. the next section will provide a synopsis of the four types of styles (schemas, in light of the context of this article) as identified by the arbinger institute (2008). it is proposed that people are more likely to consider new information from others when they see others as people and if they feel that others view them as people too. this article endeavours to illustrate that people are less likely to consider new information (feedback) if they uphold any of the four schemas depicted in figure 1, and to show how this relates to the other two taxonomies proposed by yammarino and atwater (1993) and clawson (2010). four schemas each of the four styles (arbinger institute, 2008) will be discussed briefly, and then current research will be considered against this taxonomy. how this could play out in feedback will be explored by means of examples. type 1a: ‘i am better than’: the arbinger institute refers to a type of person who holds an ‘i am better than’ opinion about himself or herself. someone with this type of self-view tends to view himself or herself among others as someone who is superior, important, right and virtuous in relation to others. in other words, a person with this type of schema tends to view others as inferior, incapable, irrelevant and wrong (arbinger institute, 2008, pp. 106–111). type 1b: ‘i deserve’: associated with the previous schema, the arbinger institute identifies another type, one who holds a self-view of ‘i deserve’. a person who tends to hold this view of themselves tends to view himself or herself as someone who is being mistreated, a victim and unappreciated, while viewing others as mistreating him or her, being ungrateful and unwise. arbinger asserts that although a person may have a view of themselves as ‘i deserve’ or ‘i am better than’, it will show up in different ways (e.g. behaviour, cognitive schemas, self-perception), but that these two types still share a similar source in that the person sees himself or herself as better and more worthy than others, and therefore he or she deserves better. for example, ‘i deserve’ better and different treatment from others, because i feel ‘i am better than’ others and when this person does not get it, it shows up in that the person sees himself or herself as a victim or as being mistreated (arbinger institute, 2008, pp. 111–114). the interconnectedness between the two preceding types shows up in a case study provided by blakeley (2007, p. 7), who refers to blind spots, while unintentionally also illuminating the proposed taxonomy to understand why leaders do not react on feedback. the author refers to a case study where she (blakeley, 2007, p. 7) observed a leader (while consulting him) who was confident and full of self-belief. he subsequently developed a vision for his organisation and enforced its implementation. as a consequence, people started to resist his efforts, as they felt that he was not listening to them and considering their feedback efforts. according to blakeley (2007, p. 7), his blind spot is that he has fallen into the trap of believing that his understanding and vision are superior to that of everyone else. where people came up with reasons why the vision will not work, he dismissed their insights and regarded them as ‘resisting change’ and unappreciative of his efforts. this is in accordance with the proposed taxonomy of the arbinger institute, which states that people with an ‘i am better than’ self-view, by which they see themselves as superior and right in their thoughts and actions, are therefore more unlikely to incorporate others’ feedback (new information) into their current self-schemas and to adjust their mental models. this case study also shows how a person may move from a ‘i am better than’ self-view to a ‘i deserve’ self-view, as the leader in this case study may view himself as being mistreated and unappreciated by his employees, while seeing himself as better than they are. this highlights the issue that people might have different styles that they may apply and that style or self-schema is not rigid. people’s self-schema may change, depending on the situation. type 2a: ‘i am worse than’: a person with this self-view tends to view himself or herself as fated, insignificant and deficient in relation to others. people with this self-schema tend to view others as privileged and advantageous and are therefore more likely to incorporate feedback in an already fragile self-schema, characterised by being defective and flawed, rarely able to discern between helpful and unhelpful feedback (arbinger institute, 2008, pp. 120–123). type 2b: ‘i must be seen as’: associated with the previous self-view comes another type, which is referred to as the ‘i must be seen as’. someone with this type of view tends to project an image to others of how they want to be seen, in an attempt to ensure that others view them in a particular way – putting on a mask in an attempt to cover up their inefficiencies. they tend to view others as judgemental, threatening and evaluating. the arbinger institute asserts that although a person may view himself or herself as either ‘i am worse than’ or ‘i must be seen as’, it may show up in different ways (e.g. behaviour, cognitive schemas, self-perception). both these types still share a similar source in that the person sees himself or herself as less than others. illustrative of the interconnectedness between these two types is someone who sees himself or herself as less capable than others (for whatever reason), but who is afraid that others will notice and judge him or her accordingly. therefore, a person with any of these two schemas projects a self-image of ‘must be seen as’ in an attempt to divert the attention from his or her insecurities (arbinger institute, 2008, pp. 115–119). blakeley (2007, p. 13) provides a practical example to illustrate the interconnectedness of these two types, although the author refers to it as blind spots. the author cites a case study where she (blakeley, 2007, p. 13) observed a leader (while consulting), who had an unsurpassed knowledge in the financial field, but her understanding of people management was limited. her employees experienced her as cold and aloof and wanted her to become more consultative and involved with the team. she was resistant to accepting feedback about her management style and refused to change her behaviour. on closer examination, the leader disclosed to the consultant that the main reason for her resistance was that she believed that her authority would be undermined if she became too close to people. she feared that they will challenge her more readily if they became too comfortable with her and that she might be considered weak and even incompetent in the area of people management. hence, she refused to even consider the prospect of changing her management style. blakeley (2007, p. 14) argues that it is this refusal to consider her team’s feedback, together with the emotional resistance to personal change, that indicates a blind spot. in terms of the arbinger taxonomy, someone who views himself or herself ‘deficient’ (i.e. worse than) in some way, as in the case with this leader who thought she had a limited understanding of people management (in relation to others or to what the position requires), might resist feedback (as in this case), because it might confirm something he or she already knows about himself or herself. in an effort to hide this deficiency (ego), he or she puts on a mask, figuratively speaking, and justifies not considering the feedback received from subordinates. the preceding taxonomy shows a resemblance to the taxonomy developed by yammarino and atwater (1993, p. 232) within the context of 360-degree feedback. this configuration provides a similar stance, but the authors go one step further by indicating that an overestimation (which resembles the ‘better than’ and ‘i deserve’ self-schema, as illustrated by the previous model) will lead to diminished organisational and individual outcomes, as depicted in the graphical representation in figure 2. figure 2: a model of self-perception accuracy. the model in figure 2 asserts that accurate estimators are those individuals whose self-ratings (and by implication, self-perceptions) are in agreement with the ratings of others. over-estimators are individuals whose self-ratings are significantly inflated above the ratings of others (representing the ‘better than’ and ‘i deserve’ types in the previous taxonomy) and under-estimators are those whose self-ratings are significantly below the ratings of others (representing the ‘i am worse than’ and ‘i must be seen as’ types in the previous taxonomy). yammarino and atwater (1993) have illustrated in their research that the individual and organisational outcomes for people in these three different categories (accurate, overand under-estimators) will differ from each other. they have found that people who have an accurate view of themselves bring about positive and enhanced organisational outcomes, whereas over-estimators produce diminished organisational outcomes, realised in poor supervisor–subordinate relationships, for example. under-estimators, in turn, affect some organisational outcomes favourably and other less favourably. under-estimators may, for example, on the one hand show interest in self-development and training, but may on the other hand not pursue possible promotions, given that they see themselves as fated and deficient in relation to others (yammarino & atwater, 1993, p. 232). sala (2003, p. 225) shows that higher level employees (leaders in this instance) are more likely than lower-level employees to have an inflated view of themselves. sala (2003, pp. 225, 227) further points out that high-performing individuals’ self-perceptions tend to match the perceptions or ratings of others and also refer to research that indicates that poor performers tend to over inflate their self-perception. the ideas above are supported by blakeley (2007, pp. 36–37), who states that a person would be more likely to consider feedback if that feedback is in accordance with the person’s self-concept (how people view themselves – self-schemas). the author states that a person’s self-esteem is founded on three fundamental needs, namely: the need to feel respected and valued by those around them the need to feel competent and in control the need to feel liked and accepted. a person will be more receptive of new information (conveyed via feedback) if it supports these needs, and people are more likely to reject information (conveyed via feedback) if they sense that the information will challenge their self-schema. clawson (2010, p. 94) provides a valuable contribution to the understanding of leadership schemas by identifying two types of people (leaders, by implication). type 1 refers to ‘outside-in’, which is characteristic of people who would adjust their behaviour based on the expectations and requirements on the outside. they will, therefore, consider what the world (and by implication, others) will ‘say’ or ‘think’ before they act. conforming to the expectations of the world is living ‘outside-in’. one of the main reasons provided why people tend to live this way is the fear of rejection. people, therefore, adjust their behaviour in order to fit in. this description seems to refer to ‘must be seen as’ when one applies the arbinger framework. type 2 refers to ‘inside-out’, which is characteristic of people who are egocentric, narcissistic, self-centred dictators. this group of people would care little to nothing about the views and opinions of others, even of society, and tend to do what they want, how they want, when they want. according to clawson (2010, p. 95), there are more of the latter type in leadership positions than the former type. sala (2003, p. 228) asserts that type will have a direct bearing on leaders who wish to develop and promote a culture of upward feedback. when one applies the arbinger framework, the type 2 may refer to either the ‘i am better than’ or ‘i deserve’ modalities. the situation becomes dire when we consider that gentry (2010, p. 316) refers to research that suggests derailments (egocentric, narcissistic, self-centred dictators) are often the result of personality characteristics formed during early ages and are unchangeable when the person reaches adulthood. the author denotes that it is therefore very unlikely that any personality changes would be possible during the adult years. some managers and leaders may, therefore, be more likely to derail because of their personality and, by implication, no feedback would salvage the situation. according to blakeley (2007, p. 45), cognitive dissonance theory suggests that when people are confronted with information that contradicts or challenges their existing beliefs (self-schemas, by implication), they are thrown into a tense and dissonant state of mind. in an attempt to restore harmony, they may avoid the new information or they may change their existing beliefs to support the new information. when new information is too challenging, people tend to have a strong tendency to distort it (provide justification) in order to preserve their existing core beliefs. this might be more so for leaders, considering the literature by taylor (2010, p. 62) who refers to research by baumeister (1999) showing that a leader’s underlying motive is to preserve his or her self-image and would therefore be highly unlikely to seek out the views of others. the author refers to research that suggests that a person’s desire to understand the perspectives of others is influenced by a leader’s degree of self-efficacy, self-esteem and impression management behaviour, all of which shape the leader’s self-perception. critical discussion and practical implications self-awareness is not a soft skill anymore, as illustrated in this article and corroborated by cashman (2014). cashman (2014) considers it ‘the most crucial developmental breakthrough for accelerating personal leadership growth and authenticity and that it is critical to leader success’. taylor (2010, p. 62) holds the same notion and suggests that organisations should pay more attention to the level of self-awareness among its leadership group, because if leaders are not aware of their impact on others they may not be able to effectively diagnose how others experience their efforts to lead, which will greatly impact their effectiveness as leaders. the mentioned categories (accurate estimators, overand under-estimators) in this article may, therefore, have certain implications for leaders in such matters as likelihood for feedback and the development of blind spots. the following three hypotheses could be formulated, given the preceding literature. hypothesis 1: accurate estimators (yammarino and atwater)/not separating themselves from others (arbinger). it is the hypothesis of the authors of the current article that individuals (and, by implication, leaders) who are more likely to consider feedback and/or ask for feedback from others will consequently be less prone to develop a blind spot and will therefore have a more accurate view of themselves. hypothesis 2: over-estimators (yammarino and atwater)/‘better than’ and ‘i deserve’ (arbinger). those who have an over-rating of themselves are unlikely (as suggested by the literature) to have an accurate view of themselves. in an attempt to ‘protect’ this inflated view, such individuals will be less open to negative feedback, as it may challenge their own perspectives and opinions they hold of themselves. however, this group may be more prone to be on the lookout for positive feedback that reinforces and support the belief they have about themselves. this may lead to situations where such individuals are much less aware of their blind spot(s). hypothesis 2 is supported by murphy, reichard and johnson (2008, p. 259), who have illustrated that leaders who overestimate themselves (‘better than’ and ‘i deserve’ in the arbinger framework) pertaining to their leadership (skills, expertise and behaviour) will be more likely to ignore feedback from others and therefore make them unlikely to set self-improvement goals, which might, by implication, lead to less awareness of the self and by default to more blind spots. people and, by implication, leaders who have an overestimation of their leadership skills are therefore also more likely to misjudge and misdiagnose their own need for improvement (alimo-metcalfe, 1998, p. 36). this explains their poor performance, as research by atwater, roush and fischthal (2000, p. 278) show that leaders who overrate themselves, relative to other ratings (feedback), tend to be poorer performers. herbst and conradie (2011, p. 10) refer to research by sosik showing that over-estimators may be viewed by their subordinates as unreceptive, inauthentic, self-centred and uncaring. these adverse perceptions are unlikely to build follower trust and commitment. atwater, roush and fischthal (1995, pp. 38–39) found that leaders who have an inflated view of themselves pose at least three potential problems for organisations, namely (1) if a leader does not perceive weaknesses, he or she will not be aware that changes in behaviour are needed, (2) leaders who have inaccurate self-ratings, compared with those of others, have been found to be poorer performers than those who have accurate self-ratings and (3) those who have an inflated view of themselves are less likely to seek out feedback. this situation might be further complicated when considering a comment by chris argyris of harvard university (in clawson, 2010, p. 93) about people who carry with them an image that they are ‘smart’, and who would naturally tend to assume that their self-image is accurate. he raised a very valid question: how to teach these smart people to learn, when they assume they know more than they do – even about themselves? hoffer (in clawson, 2010, p. 93) also points out that the ‘learned’, that is those who ‘know’ things, are therefore more likely to be less interested in learning. hence, they also become less interested in feedback. hypothesis 3: under-estimators (yammarino and atwater)/‘worse than’ and ‘i must be seen as’ (arbinger). individuals who hold an overly negative (i.e. degrading) view of themselves are more likely to reject positive feedback and less likely to request or accept positive feedback as it may contradict the viewpoint they hold of themselves. they may however be more open to negative feedback that may ‘support’ their negative view of themselves. to summarise the three hypotheses: it is likely that individuals who have inflated views of themselves may find it difficult to accept feedback or new information from others, or they would be reluctant to seek such feedback, and those with a deflated view of themselves may reduce further self-evaluations (seek out feedback). herbst and conradie (2011, p. 12) suggest the development of intensive leadership feedback processes that would provide leaders with comprehensive feedback within a supportive environment in order to increase their level of self-awareness. upward feedback is especially valuable in attempts to improve leaders. subordinates are the direct targets of a leader’s behaviour and can therefore provide valuable feedback to a leader about his or her leadership from first-hand experience. subordinate appraisals are also important because often leadership behaviour is observed only by the leader and the subordinate. subordinate feedback can provide information to the leader about follower perceptions of his or her strengths and weaknesses, and about the degree to which the leader’s perceptions match those of the followers (atwater et al., 1995, p. 36). renshon and renshon (2008, p. 509) state that what leaders see is to a large extent filtered through multiple, though inconsistent, lenses of their own psychologies and beliefs, subject to significant cognitive limitations. given the problems caused by inaccurate self-evaluations or perceptions, there are at least three ways according to atwater et al. (1995, p. 39) in which upward feedback may help resolve these problems for leaders: (1) feedback to leaders may make them more aware of their strengths and weaknesses, (2) if this feedback suggests weaknesses the leader was previously unaware of, changes in behaviour may result in order to improve the weak area and (3) an understanding of the discrepancy between selfand other rating responses to feedback would be helpful in determining how feedback should best be delivered. people should be trained to give, receive and seek out constructive feedback. coaching might also be a possibility to help leaders identify their blind spots and increase the accuracy in the way they are perceived by others. this approach is supported by atwater et al. (1995, p. 35), who refer to research by prue and fairbank (1981), who have demonstrated that objective feedback had a positive effect on individual performance. in an effort to enhance the self-awareness of leaders (organisations and those responsible for leadership and management development), learning spaces could also be developed where open dialogue can occur between leaders or managers and those they lead (followers in this instance). yammarino and atwater (1993, p. 243) are of the opinion that leadership development programmes should be designed that use upward feedback mechanisms that would permit leaders to learn how they are perceived by others and how to adjust their self-perceptions and behaviours. this is corroborated by taylor (2010, p. 64), who suggests more opportunities for 360-degree evaluations. gentry (2010, p. 317) offers specific ways to increase the self-awareness of leaders, which include utilising personality assessments, journaling and using mentors or executive coaches. leaders are more likely to incorporate the feedback from others into their self-schemas when they see the innate value of the feedback, according to atwater et al. (2000, p. 280). it is, therefore, imperative that organisations and those responsible for the development of leaders first assist leaders and managers to understand how their self-schemas might impact or derail the feedback they receive from others. as indicated in this article, self-schemas could derail the best efforts of those who are responsible for the development of leaders, and the research highlighted in this article may save organisations that up to now tried to launch efforts without considering the self-schemas of those they wish to develop millions of rands. research considerations van knippenberg et al. (2005, p. 498) insist that the role of a leader’s self-conception within leadership effectiveness should be further investigated. their view is corroborated by herbst and conradie (2011, p. 12), who accentuate the need to develop valid measures of self-awareness that are independent of multirater assessment instruments. this is necessary because, according to yammarino and atwater (1993, p. 231), various authors have demonstrated that self-estimates are problematic, as they are often inflated, unreliable, invalid, biased and generally suspect when compared to ratings by others (clients, peers, direct supports and superiors). herbst and conradie (2011, p. 12) also emphasise the necessity for future research determining alternative and more direct methods for assessing self-perception accuracy beyond the ratings congruence paradigm. in addition to self-schemas, atwater et al. (2007, p. 304) suggest future researchers to try and answer the following questions: how does coaching and training enhance feedback, given that feedback allows leaders to move from a self-focus to a task focus? how does the 306-degree feedback create self-awareness in a leader that will be motivational in nature rather than debilitating (emphasising the self as focus)? conclusion organisational change is inseparable from individual change (boaz & fox, 2014, p. 1). this means that leaders will struggle to transform their organisations to become effective if they do not first transform themselves. this article endeavoured to illustrate that, generally, the more accurate an individual’s self-perceptions, the greater the likelihood of enhanced outcomes for that individual and the organisations that they lead or manage. hopefully, upward feedback in organisations will one day become as common as downward feedback, which could very possibly be more effective for improving performance than the standard processes that are in use currently. upward feedback has the potential to address and detect leadership shortcomings, derailments and failures while simultaneously facilitating greater self-awareness in an attempt to reduce the blind spots of leaders and managers. this would be more probable if those responsible for the development of leaders and managers first address the omnipresent self-schemas of those they wish to develop. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions both authors contributed to the conceptualisation and writing of the article. references alimo-metcalfe, b. (1998). 360 degree feedback and leadership development. international journal of selection and assessment, 6(1), 35–44. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00070 arbinger institute. (2008). the anatomy of peace. san francisco, ca: berrett-koehler. atwater, l., roush, p., & fischthal, a. (1995). the influence of upward feedback on selfand follower ratings of leadership. personnel psychology, 48, 35–59. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1995.tb01745.x atwater, l.a., waldman, d., atwater, d., & cartier, p. (2000). an upward feedback field experiment: supervisors’ cynicism, follow-up, and commitment to subordinates. personnel psychology, 53, 275–297. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2000.tb00202.x atwater, l.e., brett, j.f., & charles, a.c. (2007). multisource feedback: lessons learned and implications for practice. human resource management, 46, 285–307. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20161 bailey, c., & austin, m. (2006). 360 degree feedback and developmental outcomes: the role of feedback characteristics, self-efficacy and importance of feedback dimensions to focal managers’ current role. international journal of selection and assessment, 14, 51–66. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2389.2006.00333 blakeley, k. (2007). leadership blind spots and what to do about them. west sussex, england: wiley. bligh, m.c., kohles, j.c., pearce, c.l., justin, j.e., & stovall, j.f. (2007). when the romance is over: follower perspectives of aversive leadership. applied psychology: an international review, 56(4), 528–557. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2007.00303.x boaz, n., & fox, a. (2014). change leader, change thyself. mckinsey quarterly, march. retrieved february 05, 2015, from http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/leading_in_the_21st_century/change_leader_change_thyself butler, a.m., kwantes, c.t., & boglarsky, c.a. (2014). the effects of self-awareness on perceptions of leadership effectiveness in the hospitality industry: a cross-cultural investigation. international journal of intercultural relations, 40, 87–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2013.12.007 carless, s.a., mann, l., & wearing, a.j. (1998). leadership, managerial performance, and 360-degree feedback. applied psychology: an international review, 47, 481–496. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.1998.tb00039.x cashman, k. (2014). return on self-awareness: research validates the bottom line of leadership development. retrieved march 17, 2014, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevincashman/2014/03/17/return-on-self-awareness-research-validates-the-bottom-line-of-leadership-development/ clawson, j.g.s. (2010). problems in managing the self-assessment process for leaders-to-be. in m.g. rothstein & r.j. burke (eds.), self-management and leadership development (pp. 91–107). northampton, ma: edward elgar. church, a.h., & rotolo, c.t. (2010). the role of the individual in self-assessment for leadership development. in m.g. rothstein & r.j. burke (eds.), self-management and leadership development (pp. 25–61). northampton, ma: edward elgar. emery, c., daniloski, k., & hamby, a. the reciprocal effects of self-view as a leader and leadership emergence. small group research, 42(2), 199–224. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496410389494 gentry, w.a. (2010). derailment: how successful leaders avoid it. in e. biech (ed.), the astd leadership handbook (pp. 311–324). alexandria, va: astd press. herbst, t.h., & conradie, p.d.p. (2011). leadership effectiveness in higher education: managerial self-perceptions versus perceptions of others. sa journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i1.867 kets de vries, m.f.r., vrignaud, p., korotov, k., engellau, e., & florent-treacy, e. (2006). the development of the personality audit: a psychodynamic multiple feedback assessment instrument. international journal of human resource management, 17(5), 898–917. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190600641040 kluger, a.n., & denisi, a. (1996). the effects of feedback intervention on performance: a historical review, a meta-analysis, and a preliminary feedback intervention theory. psychological bulletin, 119, 254–284. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.119.2.254 lang, f. (2014). the importance of feedback – why is feedback important? retrieved march 17, 2014, from http://www.fullcirclefeedback.com.au/resources/360-degree-feedback/360-power-of/ leslie, j.b., & wei, r. (2010). assessing leadership and the leadership gap. in m.g. rothstein & r.j. burke (eds.), self-management and leadership development (pp. 129–159). northampton, ma: edward elgar. london, m., & smither, j.w. (2002). feedback orientation, feedback culture, and the longitudinal performance management process. human resource management review, 12, 81–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(01)00043-2 murphy, s.e., reichard, r.j. & johnson, s.k. (2008). self-regulation and leadership: implications for leader performance and leader development. in d. forsyth, a. goethals, & c. hoyt (eds.), introduction: a contemporary social psychology of leadership (vol 1, pp. 250–264). westport, pc: praeger. reissig, s. (2011). 360-degree feedback: eliminating the blind spots in your managerial abilities. manager, 31, 30–31. renshon, j., & renshon, s.a. (2008). the theory and practice of foreign policy decision making. political psychology, 29(4), 509–536. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2008.00647.x rothstein, m.g., & burke, r.j. (eds.). (2010). self-management and leadership development. northampton, ma: edward elgar, pp. 1–22. sala, f. (2003). executive blind spots: discrepancies between selfand other-ratings. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 55(4), 222–229. https://doi.org/10.1037/1061-4087.55.4.222 scharmer, c.o. (2008). uncovering the blind spot of leadership. executive forum. retrieved february 03, 2015, from http://www.allegrosite.be/artikels/uncovering_the_blind_spot_of_leadership.pdf smither, j.w., london, m., flautt, r., vargas, y., & kucine, i. (2003). can executive coaches enhance the impact of multisource feedback on behavior change? a quasi-experimental field study. personnel psychology, 56, 23–44. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2003.tb00142.x smither, j.w., london, m., & reilly, r.r. (2005). does performance improve following multisource feedback? a theoretical model, meta-analysis, and review of empirical findings. personnel psychology, 58, 33–66. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2005.514_1.x stein, k.f. (1995). schema model of the self-concept. journal of nursing scholarship, 27(3), 187–193. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1547-5069.1995.tb00857.x sturm, r.e., taylor, s.n., atwater, l.e., & braddy, p.w. (2014). leader self-awareness: an examination and implications of women’s under-prediction. journal of organizational behaviour, 35, 657–677. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1915 taylor, s.n. (2010). redefining leader self-awareness by integrating the second component of self-awareness. journal of leadership studies, 3(4), 57–68. https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.20139 van knippenberg, b., van knippenberg, d., de cremer, d., & hogg, m.a. (2005). research in leadership, self, and identity: a sample of the present and a glimpse of the future. the leadership quarterly, 16, 495–499. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.06.006 yammarino, f.j., & atwater, l.e. (1993). understanding self-perception accuracy: implications for human resource management. human resource management, 32, 231–247. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.3930320204 abstract introduction research purpose and objectives theoretical background literature review research design reliability test research results and findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) juliet r. chiwara department of business management, university of fort hare, south africa willie t. chinyamurindi department of business management, university of fort hare, south africa themba q. mjoli department of industrial psychology, university of fort hare, south africa citation chiwara, j.r., chinyamurindi, w.t., & mjoli, t.q. (2017). factors that influence the use of the internet for job-seeking purposes amongst a sample of final-year students in the eastern cape province of south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a790. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.790 original research factors that influence the use of the internet for job-seeking purposes amongst a sample of final-year students in the eastern cape province of south africa juliet r. chiwara, willie t. chinyamurindi, themba q. mjoli received: 21 jan. 2016; accepted: 22 nov. 2016; published: 27 feb. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: organisations are turning to the internet in search for talent. a constituency often targeted are those students nearing the end of their tenure of study who are making a transition into the working world. given this, it is important to understand not only those factors that influence the use of the internet within the human resources (hr) talent search process, but also how such factors relate to actual intent to apply for jobs. research purpose: drawing on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (utaut) model, the study investigates factors that influence the adoption of the internet for purposes of job seeking. motivation for the study: calls have been made for research that investigates factors that influence the intention to use the internet to apply for jobs in developing countries such as south africa. research approach, design and method: the study used the quantitative approach (relying on a survey) to test the hypotheses into factors that influence the use of internet for the purpose of job seeking amongst a sample of 346 prospective job seekers in their final year of study at a south african university. main findings: through correlation and regression analysis, findings reveal a positive relationship to exist between (1) performance expectancy with intention to use the internet to apply for jobs, (2) effort expectancy with intention to use the internet to apply for jobs, (3) individual effort expectancy and performance expectancy and (4) individual trust and the intention to use the internet for job seeking. however, no relationship was found to exist between facilitating conditions and intention to use the internet for job seeking. practical/managerial implications: the findings magnify the role of salient factors in the intention to use the internet for job-seeking purposes. efforts from applicants, universities, recruitment agencies and organisations, potentially, have an effect on the intention to use the internet for job-seeking purposes. such efforts may enhance the students’ online experience and minimise problems that accompany technology adoption for the purposes of recruitment. findings from this research may help enhance the online recruitment experience both from the end-user and recruiter perspective. contribution/value-add: the study contributes to the recruitment literature in three ways: firstly, utaut is shown to be a useful framework to explain final-year, job-seeking students’ intention to use the internet to apply for jobs. furthermore, the findings illustrate the value of the utaut as a model useful in enhancing understanding on intentions. secondly, the study places focus on the human factor rather than facilitating conditions as important issues regarding intention to use the internet to apply for a job. finally, based on these findings, future angles of research that have academic and practitioner implications are proposed. introduction in south africa, from a human resources management (hrm) discipline, there is growing empirical focus on the role of technology (e.g. adams & de cock, 2015; chinyamurindi & louw, 2010; erasmus, rothmann & van eeden, 2015). one such technology is the internet and its role on the hrm function, particularly recruitment, as it is tasked with the responsibility of attracting staff into the organisation (o’meara & petzall, 2013). the internet has revolutionised the means by which people communicate, socialise, conduct their businesses and search for jobs (suvankulov, 2010). this has enabled people to engage in information acquisition and dissemination, networking, business and commerce regardless of their geographic location (leiner et al., 2013). access to and use of the internet appears to be higher in developed countries as compared to developing countries which are usually late adopters when it comes to information and communication technology (ict) (pejovic et al., 2012). however, internet usage suggests a growing usage in developing countries such as south africa. internet world statistics (2013) highlights that internet usage in africa is on the rise, with south africa ranked number three in the top 10 countries that use the internet on the continent. furthermore, internet usage by individuals was reported to have increased, especially in households as more people access the internet through their mobile phones (ict facts & figures, 2013). given this, it comes as no surprise that south africa is setting the trend on the african continent in terms of internet usage by individuals (south africa good news, 2013). this study focuses on investigating factors that influence the use of the internet for job-seeking prospects amongst a sample of final-year students. the rationale for this study is motivated by three factors. firstly, the eastern cape province is one of the poorest provinces in south africa (pejovic et al., 2012), experiencing a high rate of unemployment, especially amongst the youth (statistics south africa, 2013). given that more companies are turning to online recruitment in south africa (pavon & brown, 2010), understanding the adoption of online recruitment, especially amongst job-seeking youths, may minimise the problem of high unemployment. second, empirical evidence shows that the success of technological adoption is dependent on its full utilisation (e.g. chinyamurindi & louw, 2010; chinyamurindi & shava, 2015; hsiao & yang, 2011). paying attention to the factors that influence the adoption of the internet for job-seeking purposes may enhance not only the experience of using online recruitment portals but also affect intention to use such channels. finally, given that the study is framed within a job-seeking context, understanding the factors that influence the use of internet for job-seeking purposes may help employers and recruitment agencies enhance the online job search process, thereby realising potential benefit. thus, this study has the value of improving an understanding on the factors that influence the use of the internet for job-seeking purposes especially within a south african context where internet usage has increased (shava, chinyamurindi & somdyala, 2016). this article follows a set structure. first, this research is put into context. second, the theoretical framework underlying this study is presented, thus leading to the research hypotheses. third, the research design and methodology section follow. finally, the results, discussion and a conclusion are presented. research purpose and objectives the adoption of technology, especially within higher education (he) and the corporate setting, is gaining popularity (chinyamurindi & louw, 2010; omoniyi & quandri, 2013; shava et al., 2016). this popularity fits within a local and global agenda where the impact of technology in the creation, dissemination and evaluation of knowledge is prioritised (rienties, brouwer & lygo-barker, 2013). furthermore, technology, especially in rural communities, is argued as important as it meets challenges such as geographical barriers, thus allowing students to connect with the world (baraghani, 2007). the authors of this article work within the context of a rural university where students rely a lot on the internet to connect with the world. with regard to job seeking, most of the students on campus rely on the internet and use online recruitment for the purpose of applying for jobs. this is because of the reality that these students face as they are far from major centres where they can apply for jobs. the researchers’ interest was on understanding those factors that influence how final-year job-seeking students use the internet, particularly for purposes of online recruitment. the overall research question that guided this study was: what factors (given the south african he context) influence the adoption of the internet for job-seeking purposes amongst a sample of final-year students? the next section presents the theoretical background on which this research is based. theoretical background the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (utaut) is adopted as the theoretical lens in this research. the utaut framework assesses the factors that influence the adoption of the internet as a job-seeking tool because it incorporates different constructs from various models on technology adoption which include the technology acceptance model (tam) (venkatesh, morris, davis & davis, 2003). the utaut model is argued by hwang and schmidt (2011) as a useful tool that can aid in understanding factors that influence technology usage. the utaut framework consists of four main constructs: (1) performance expectancy, (2) effort expectancy, (3) social influence and (4) facilitating conditions (venkatesh et al., 2003). calls have been made for more studies that investigate the utaut framework in various contexts (dehzad, hilhorst, de bie & claassen, 2014). the utaut framework is believed to have evolved from the tam to include trust as a construct (gefen, karahanna & straub, 2003). this is because trust is important when it comes to using the internet as this affects users’ technology acceptance (pavon & brown, 2010). this has led to calls for testing the applicability of the utaut as a predictor of human behaviours in various contexts (ghalandari, 2012). this is a gap this research seeks to fill within a south african context. literature review recruitment is a process undertaken by an organisation to attract qualified job seekers suitable for the available job vacancies (o’meara & petzall, 2013). prior to the internet era, information was difficult to come by (teoh, tan & chong, 2013). this often made it difficult for the individual to make decisions, especially around job applications. subsequently, the internet has greatly helped job seekers acquire information that can positively affect their job and career prospects (suvankulov, 2010). the reason for this is that the internet provides information while meeting barriers such as geography, time zones and physical barriers that affect the individual (chinyamurindi & louw, 2010). thus, within a he context, students seeking employment can search for jobs, compile company information and even get in touch with potential employers with great ease (dhamija, 2012). thus, through online recruitment that affects the individual, potential advantages can be realised for both the student and the recruiter (dhamija, 2012). recruiters can also use the internet to enable organisations to realise their growth and capacity to attract quality expertise with regards to appropriate levels of knowledge, attitude and aptitude and quantity of hr at any specified time (o’meara & petzall, 2013). the characteristics that are inherent to the internet enable employers to contact candidates at any time of the year since having the right person at the right place and at the precise time is crucial for any organisation (teoh et al., 2013). many factors influence the adoption of the internet for job-seeking purposes. pavon and brown (2010) identified saliently based on the utaut framework: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, trust and facilitating conditions as key factors, especially within a south african context, influencing the behavioural intention and actual usage of the internet. performance expectancy of the internet performance expectancy (pe) is defined as the beliefs that individuals hold about the technology system, thereby assisting them in attaining a desired output (venkatesh et al., 2003). within the context of work, pe can be defined as the belief that job seekers hold about the internet in aiding the job-seeking process (dhamija, 2012). this expectation is rooted in the underlying premise that technology serves a utility value (datta, 2011). it can therefore, either be deemed to be useful or not (arpaci, 2014). thus, pe can be positioned as a driving influence towards behavioural intention (yu, 2012). conversely, if this driving influence is absent, individual intention to use the internet for the purpose of job seeking may be impeded (pavon & brown, 2010). with regard to usage of the internet for job seeking, pe can be a salient determinant. coiro and dobler (2007) argue that student skills, when using the internet, determine the experience of using the internet. the absence of such skills may result in not only difficulty for the student but also in a process that is time-consuming, subsequently affecting the intention to use the internet for job seeking (kanchanatanee et al., 2014). therefore, as a precursor to pe in using the internet for job seeking, students need skills and a motivation in relation to the task before them (leiner et al., 2013). taiwo and downe (2013) carried out a meta-analysis of empirical research using the utaut as a predictive model; findings showed pe to be a strong predictor of the intention to use information systems (is). however, previous studies such as that of pavon and brown (2010) only investigated relationships between elements of the utaut using skilled job seekers within the south african information technology (it) industry. calls have been made to be expansive in not only understanding constructs such as pe as part of the utaut but also using varying sample groups and contexts (ghalandari, 2012). this has led to studies showing pe to influence intention to use the internet in contexts such as the banking sector (yu, 2012); social media (gruzd, staves & wilk, 2012) and within a he context (brown & licker, 2003). based on this literature, the following was hypothesised: hypothesis 1: performance expectancy has a positive effect on the intention to use the internet for job seeking. effort expectancy of the internet effort expectancy (ee) is defined as the extent to which an individual finds the use of technology in general as easy to use with minimal effort (davis, 1989). generally, it has been found that easier it is to use technology in any context the more favourable the intention to use the technology (chu, 2013). thus, ee extends towards constructs in the tam and utaut such a perceived usefulness and behavioural intention to use (e.g. chinyamurindi & louw, 2010; chinyamurindi & shava, 2015; ghalandari, 2012; park, 2010; shava et al., 2016). previous research has found ee to be influenced by factors such as ease of navigation of the internet (cober, brown, levy, cober & keeping, 2003), aspects of website usability and visibility (gibson & swift, 2011; musa, meso & mbarika, 2005) and how user friendly the experience is (tong, 2009). the underlying premise here is that a system or website for job-seeking prospects is easy to use when the user deems it beneficial in relation to the activity and task before the individual (taiwo & downe, 2013). thus, ee has an indirect effect not only on user adoption of technology but the experience and expectation of using the technology (zhou, lu & wang, 2010). based on the literature reviewed, the hypotheses were set as follows: hypothesis 2a: effort expectancy (ease of use) has a positive effect on the intention to use the internet for job seeking. hypothesis 2b: effort expectancy (ease of use) has a positive effect on performance expectancy of the internet for job seeking. trust in the internet awuah (2012) argues that despite the possibility of a negative experience while using technology, individuals are willing to take a risk and use technology, this being a sign of trust. the issue of trust, thus, emerges as an influencing factor towards the intention to adopt technology. within the job-seeking process, trust plays a part when it comes to submitting personal information, especially over a channel such as the internet (bonsòn-ponte, carvajal-trujillo & escobar-rodríguez, 2015). the trust issue comes in when the individual perceives information submitted online as having the potential of being compromised or being used for a different purpose from the original intent (jansen, jansen & spink, 2005). given the concerns around trust, recruiters using online recruitment need to constantly provide assurance to job seekers (khan, awang & ghouri, 2013). in this regard, trust becomes an essential component that must be embedded within online recruitment since it affects not only the intention to use but can also be a basis for a competitive advantage (datta, 2011). in general, users with high levels of trust can reveal more information than those with lower levels of trust (lin, 2011) and affect levels of adoption of technology (datta, 2011; chu, 2013). an added concern is how recruiters can use technology in making further checks on job seekers outside what has been submitted (pavon & brown, 2010). thus, trust can exist as determinant of technology usage, as there is no personal relationship between the person submitting the information and the one receiving it (awuah, 2012; datta, 2011; escobar-rodriguez & carvajal-trujillo, 2014). based on the literature presented, the hypothesis is set as follows: hypothesis 3: trust has a positive effect on the intention to use the internet for job seeking. facilitating conditions of the internet facilitating conditions (fc) are referred to as the degree to which individuals perceive the availability of infrastructure, whether organisational or technical, for the intended use (ghalandari, 2012). facilitating conditions have been seen to have a direct influence on one’s behavioural intention to use technology (venkatesh, thong & xu, 2012). within a south african context, facilitating conditions have been found to influence technology adoption within the corporate (chinyamurindi & louw, 2010) and he sectors (chinyamurindi & shava, 2015; shava et al., 2016). pavon and brown (2010) provide a summary of these conditions to include: (1) convenience of internet access (this could be in terms of the places where one can use the internet and computers, for example at school, work or home), (2) availability of internet connectivity and (3) the speed with which one can access the internet. im, hong and kang (2011) found that fc, especially those around the internet access, to vary because of the level of development in the country. in such a case, favourable fc may lead to a greater acceptance of the internet by users (lin, 2011; pavon & brown, 2006; zhou et al., 2010). in the context of this research, it is theorised that fc may affect not only the intention to use the internet for job seeking but also the ensuing experience. in developing countries like south africa, internet connectivity is slow and sometimes difficult to access because of inadequate information technology infrastructure that facilitates the transmission and distribution of the invisible connection (kalissa & oostdijk, 2006). this has a great effect on the usage of the internet which, in turn, influences the adoption of the internet negatively (musa et al., 2005). job seekers are consequently restricted to using the internet because of limited access. to avoid this, availability of infrastructure that accommodates internet users is recommended (lin, 2011). facilitating conditions are a construct intended to measure user perceptions of the technology environment (lin, 2011). the authors also note that while it is true with most perceptual constructs, the exact structure of fc may vary slightly across technology studies. the consistent underlying focus, however, is to investigate how an operationalised set of environmental factors facilitates or impedes the use of some technology (chinyamurindi & louw, 2010; chinyamurindi & shava, 2015). for instance, a relationship has been found between facilitating conditions and internet usage habits (pavon & brown, 2010), and the intention to participate in virtual communities (lin, 2011) and the use of electronic commerce technologies (datta, 2011). the hypothesis put forth was: hypothesis 4: favourable facilitating conditions have a positive effect on internet usage habits. these hypothesised relationships are described graphically in figure 1. figure 1: research model. research design research approach a positivist approach was adopted in this research hinging on the notion that ‘causes’ determine the ‘outcomes’ (creswell, 2014, p. 7). subsequently, the research adopted a quantitative design in answering the research question. quantitative studies can help provide description and make inferences around numerical data generated (creswell, 2014). in gathering the data, the researchers made use of a questionnaire given the advantage this instrument has in being cost-effective and allowing the researchers the ability to reach a large number of respondents as used in previous research (chinyamurindi & louw, 2010). a convenience sampling approach was used in this study. this was done to access those respondents who were most accessible and available to take part in the research (churchill & brown, 2010). research strategy the instrument used a five-point likert scale (ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree) and had 22 items. the study hinged on the utaut model which is viewed as the prime tool for testing the adoption of technology and has been extensively used in various contexts (e.g. cruz, neto, munoz-gallego & laukkanen, 2010; gruzd et al., 2012; van der heijden, 2003). the questionnaire measured constructs depicted in the theoretical model in figure 1 concerning the factors that influence the adoption of the internet for job-seeking purposes (san martín & herrero, 2012). students were informed of their rights and that participating in the study was voluntary; ethical consent was shown through signing an ethical agreement form. the researchers also applied for institutional permission to conduct the study and an ethical clearance certificate granted as an outcome of this process. the university where the research was conducted was running a series of job recruitment workshops targeting final-year students within the faculty of management and commerce; these students were looking for employment after their final year of studies. the location of this workshop in one of the university campus buildings was a useful platform to recruit respondents for the research. a total of 400 students were recruited during the 5-week period when the research was conducted. a total of 346 questionnaires were deemed usable as 54 questionnaires had missing data. this yielded a response rate of 87%. an inclusion criterion was set; respondents had to be registered with the participating university and also in their full-time study within the faculty of management and commerce. a student card was used a useful identifier of students who fit in the parameters of the study. reliability test reliability the researchers adhered to the issues of reliability and validity, particularly when collecting, analysing and interpreting the data (creswell, 2014). the cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to test for internal consistency (pallant, 2011). the argument by santos (1999) was taken into consideration that the higher the cronbach’s alpha coefficient, the more reliable the scale. previous studies (e.g. pavon & brown, 2010) reported the following in terms of reliability of the scale: (1) fc – 0.76, (2) trust (trst) – 0.72, (3) ee – 0.74 and (4) pe – 0.84. in this research, the cronbach’s alpha coefficient was calculated for the 22-item questionnaire and found to be 0.78. furthermore, scales used in this research and their resultant cronbach’s alpha coefficients are shown in table 1. table 1: cronbach’s alpha coefficients of instrument used for this research. generally, the cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the constructs used in this scale were above the recommended threshold of 0.70 as deemed an acceptable reliability coefficient (nunnally, 1978). a pilot study was used to pretest the questionnaire amongst a sample of 20 students that were not included in the main study. suggestions and amendments from this process were taken on board with regard to the main study. these included aspects of simplicity and clarity of questions, including a detailed suggestion of the need for an introductory section of the questionnaire to help students. furthermore, two lecturers (one lecturing hrm and the other lecturing is) were also consulted to review a copy of the questionnaire before it was used for data collection. this qualified the instrument for face and content validity. data analysis to test the hypotheses, a combination of regression and correlation analysis was used. regression analysis allowed for the estimation of the relationships amongst variables using techniques for modelling and analysing the relationship between the dependent and one or more independent variables (kothari, 2004). field (2013) asserts regression analysis as a suitable means of analysis, specifically when there is an outcome variable (dependent variable) and predictor variables (independent variables). as a result, hypotheses tests for the effects of the independent variables (pe, ee, trst & fc) to other dependent variables (int & iuseh) were conducted. to determine the effects of the variables, the generalised linear model (glm) was used, and spearman’s correlation was used to test the strength between relationships of the variables (field, 2013). the correlation coefficient is a measure used to evaluate the strength of the relationship between independent and dependent variables (kothari, 2004). the values of the correlation coefficient range from negative one to positive one. positive one is considered to be a perfect positive correlation, and this indicates that the relationship between the independent and dependent variable is positive and vice versa (saunders, lewis & thornhill, 2009). research results and findings descriptive statistics about the data are presented in table 2. the majority (74%) of the respondents were female (n = 257), while males comprised 26% of the respondents (n = 89). most of the respondents (66%) were within the 20–25 age group (n = 228). only 118 students (34%) were above 25 years. however, the sample had no respondents who were below 20 years. the majority of the students were black (african) (90%, n = 310), while 10% of the respondents were of mixed-race (n = 36). neither indian nor white students were in the sample. table 2: demographic profile and description of internet usage. concerning the methods of accessing the internet, wi-fi was more popular (92%, n = 320) than broadband that had only 8% of the respondents (n = 26). respondents favoured wi-fi because it was provided by the university, thus making it the cheapest and most accessible means of accessing the internet. respondents were asked how often they accessed the internet during different time intervals. responses indicated that 98% of the respondents used the internet everyday (n = 340), while 8% of the respondents accessed it once a week (n = 6). table 2 presents the demographic profile of the respondents and their descriptive patterns around internet usage. regression analysis table 3 reveals the results of the regression analysis. with regard to hypothesis 1, the resulting f-value (f = 24.21; pr > f ≤ 0.000) showed that the model was highly significant. however, only 25.3% (r-square = 0.253) of the variation in intention to use the internet is being explained by the explanatory variable. the parameter estimates output showed that performance expectancy (estimate = 0.45; t value = 5.42; pr > |t| ≤ 0.0001) has a significant positive effect on intention to use the internet for job seeking. hypothesis 1 was, therefore, supported. table 3: regression analysis results. concerning hypothesis 2a (see table 3), the results are similar to those obtained from the glm on the first hypothesis. the f-value (f = 24.21; pr > f ≤ 0.0001) indicated that the model was highly significant. however, only 25.3% (r-square = 0.253) of the variation in intention to use the internet is being explained by the effort expectancy variable. there is significant evidence, at 5% significance level, to reject the null hypothesis in favour of the alternative hypothesis (estimate = 0.31; t value = 2.92; pr > |t| = 0.0041). effort expectancy (ease of use), therefore, has a positive effect on the intention to use the internet for job seeking. based on the results, hypothesis 2a was supported. with regard to hypothesis 2b (see table 3), the resulting f-value (f = 9.03; pr > f = 0.0031) showed that the model was significant. however, only 5.8% (r-square = 0.058) of the variation in performance expectancy is being explained by effort expectancy (ease of use) in the model. the parameter estimates output showed that effort expectancy (ease of use) has a positive significant effect on performance expectancy of the internet for job seeking (estimate = 0.31; t value = 3.00; pr > |t| = 0.0031). hypothesis 2b was supported. concerning hypothesis 3 (see table 3), the resulting f-value (f = 5.46; pr > f = 0.0209) showed that the model was significant. however, only 3.6% (r-square = 0.036) of the variation in intention to use the internet was explained by the explanatory variable. the parameter estimates output showed that trust (estimate = 0.21; t value = 2.34; pr > |t| = 0.0209) had a significant positive effect on intention to use the internet for job seeking. hypothesis 3 was, therefore, supported. finally, concerning hypothesis 4 (see table 3), the resulting f-value (f = 1.69; pr > f = 0.1960) showed that the model was not significant. only 1.1% (r-square = 0.011) of the variation in internet usage habits is being explained by favourable facilitating conditions in the model. the variable estimates output showed that favourable facilitating conditions had no significant effect on internet usage habits (estimate = 0.24; t value = 1.30; pr > |t| = 0.1960). based on the results, the hypothesis was not supported. with regard to correlation analysis, table 4 presents the results of the analysis conducted. in summary, performance expectancy was correlated with the intention to use the internet and also the effort expectancy of the internet for job seeking. furthermore, effort expectancy and trust had significant correlation with the intention to use the internet. however, facilitating conditions had no significant correlation with internet usage habits. table 4: correlation analysis results. discussion the focus of this study was on understanding those factors that influence how final-year job-seeking students use the internet, particularly online recruitment, for this purpose. the utaut model was the main framework on which the research was based. this section discusses the findings of this work in relation to the extant literature. performance expectancy had a significant influence on behavioural intention. the job seekers enjoyed the benefits of using the internet for job seeking. the benefits include ease in identifying job advertisements and securing employment faster. these benefits will motivate the job seekers to continue using the internet. these results are consistent with those of previous research (datta, 2011; chu, 2013; taiwo & downe, 2013; venkatesh et al., 2012; zhou et al., 2010). the results supported the applicability and the reliability of the utaut model as a theoretical base, stating that performance expectancy predicts the behavioural intention to use technology (venkatesh et al., 2003). attaining desired goals is, therefore, a necessity for job seekers to continue using the internet for job seeking. based on the results of this study, effort expectancy had a significant influence on the behavioural intention to use the internet. job seekers will use the internet because of the ease that comes with using the technology. if the internet, however, had been difficult to use, job seekers would likely look for easier means for seeking employment. some job seekers, however, will look for jobs regardless of whether the internet or websites are easy to use or not. suggestions were made on how the relationship between effort expectancy and the intention to use the technology can be strengthened by incorporating moderating factors such as user’s attitude and computer skills (awuah, 2012; venkatesh et al., 2003). effort expectancy was reported to have a positive effect on performance expectancy of the internet for job seeking. these findings were supported by pavon and brown (2010) who conducted a similar study of job seeking. effort expectancy was also reported to be a significant predictor of performance expectancy. users’ perceptions about using mobile banking should be improved by the service providers by providing user-friendly websites, thus reducing effort expectancy and enhancing performance expectancy (park, 2010). more research should be carried out for a better understanding of the relationship between effort expectancy and performance expectancy. users trust the internet by sharing their personal information and making purchases with their credit cards. this is supported by previous research on the adoption of the internet for job-seeking purposes which observed that trust had significant effect on intentions to use the internet for job seeking, and it also had indirect influence on the actual usage of the internet (pavon & brown, 2010). resources and infrastructure were not important in determining whether or not job seekers would use the internet for job seeking. the reason for this was that facilitating conditions (such as the availability of a reliable internet connection and resources that support this) were reported to have no influence on internet usage behaviour for job seeking. despite the fact that job seekers might have the necessary resources and the knowledge on how to use the internet, this had no significance on their decision to adopt the internet. theoretical implications there is more to what really motivates people to use the internet and in this study, facilitating conditions were not one of them. these results do not support the empirical findings of the utaut model, and findings imply that the utaut model does not always apply to every context of technology acceptance. there is need to understand other factors that motivate people to use technology. some websites are easy to use and others are not. the findings suggested that job seekers are likely to use the internet for job-seeking purposes if it is easy to use. there is a need to learn how to navigate the internet so that no matter how difficult a website is to navigate, job seekers should be motivated by their need to find jobs. knowledge of how to use the internet will make job searches easier. since the employers know what influences job seekers to use the internet for job-seeking purposes, it is the duty of the job seekers to also understand how the employers select the candidates for a certain job. this knowledge will alleviate the job-searching pressure of the individuals as they are aware of some of the expectations of the employers. the literature suggested that online job seeking is more effective when looking for jobs in any geographical location (leiner et al., 2013). however, traditional methods may appear to be more effective when the job offer is in the local region. job seekers should, therefore, be able to distinguish between the two methods and be able to choose the method that is more beneficial given the different scenarios. practical implications using the internet for job-seeking purposes might be the easiest, cheapest and fastest way of finding jobs; however, job seekers should not solely rely on online job searches for the following reasons: firstly, not all organisations advertise jobs on the internet. job seekers should therefore also try and incorporate other methods of job seeking which include, but not limited to, using traditional methods such as print media and visiting the organisations in person to submit their curricula vitae. this is in support of the findings of the research that facilitating conditions had no significant effect on the internet usage habits. by incorporating other methods of job seeking, chances of securing jobs are high, especially when one does not have internet access or a device to access the internet. limitations and future research the study is limited to the context of tertiary education in south africa. the study focused on one of the universities in the eastern cape province of south africa, the university of fort hare. perhaps the findings of this research would be different when the research is conducted in another province. for cultural diversity, this study’s findings would have been enhanced if a number of universities had participated. furthermore, because of limited time, data collection of the study was a once-off procedure, and this prohibited the researchers from reporting on trends in job seeking online over time. this research can be conducted in developed countries so that a comparison of the results can be carried out with the results reported for developing countries. such comparison would assist in determining whether the socio-economic state of a country plays a role. this comparison could also help determine whether the utaut model is applicable in both developed and developing countries. qualitative research methods can be used to develop a better understanding of what really makes people reluctant to use the internet. these methods may assist in identifying other factors that influence technology use, and this can lead to the modification of the utaut model. conclusion this study places importance on understanding factors influencing the internet for the purpose of job seeking amongst a sample of final-year job-seeking students. such an investigation can be a useful precursor to interventions that help and enhance job seekers as they use the internet for the purposes of searching for jobs. furthermore, practitioners such as website designers and recruiters can use the findings of this research in helping design web-based platforms that are user-friendly but can also promote and provide ease of use. notably, addressing the issues explored in this research can buffer the negative experiences accompanying a complex and emotive activity such as job seeking. acknowledgements the authors acknowledge the support of the govan mbeki research development centre and the research niche area within the faculty of management and commerce at the university of fort hare. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions j.r.c. conceptualised the study, collected the data and assisted in the write up. w.t.c. assisted in the conceptualisation of the study, collection, analysis of data and write up of the article. t.q.m. provided advice in the analysis of the data and the final write up. references adams, s., & de kock, f.s. (2015). the role of salient beliefs in graduates’ intention to apply. south african journal of industrial psychology, 41(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v41i1.1223 arpaci, i. (2015). a comparative study of the effects of cultural differences on the adoption of mobile learning. british journal of educational technology, 46, 699–712. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12160 awuah, l.j. (2012). an empirical analysis of citizens’ acceptance decisions of electronic-government services: a modification of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (utaut) model to include trust as a basis for investigation. phd dissertation, school of business & technology, capella university, minneapolis, mn. baraghani, s.n. (2007). factors influencing the adoption of internet banking. a master’s thesis, department of business administration and social sciences, lulea university of technology, sweden. bonsòn-ponte, e., carvajal-trujillo, e., & escobar-rodríguez, t. (2015). influence of trust and perceived value on the intention to purchase travel online: integrating the effects of assurance on trust antecedents. tourism management, 47, 286–302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.10.009 brown, i., & licker, p. (2003). exploring differences in internet adoption and usage between historically advantaged and disadvantaged groups in south africa. journal of global information technology management, 6(4), 6–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/1097198x.2003.10856358 chinyamurindi, w., & shava, h. (2015). an investigation into e-learning acceptance and gender amongst final year students. south african journal of information management, 17(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajim.v17i1.635 chinyamurindi, w.t., & louw, g.j. (2010). gender differences in technology acceptance in selected south african companies: implications for electronic learning. south african journal of human resource management, 8(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.204 chu, k.m. (2013). motives for participation in internet innovation intermediary platforms. information processing & management, 49(4), 945–953. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2013.02.006 churchill, g.a., & brown, j.t. (2010). basic marketing research. south west city, mo: thompson. cober, r.t., brown, d.j., levy, p.e., cober, a.b., & keeping, l.m. (2003). organizational web sites: web site content and style as determinants of organizational attraction. international journal of selection and assessment, 11, 158–169. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00239 coiro, j., & dobler, e. (2007). exploring the online reading comprehension strategies used by sixth grade skilled readers to search for and locate information on the internet. reading research quarterly, 42(2), 214–257. https://doi.org/10.1598/rrq.42.2.2 creswell, j.w. (2014). research design qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. (4th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. cruz, p., neto, l.b.f., munoz-gallego, p., & laukkanen, t. (2010). mobile banking rollout in emerging markets: evidence from brazil. international journal of bank marketing, 28(5), 342–371. https://doi.org/10.1108/02652321011064881 datta, p. (2011). a preliminary study of ecommerce adoption in developing countries. information systems journal, 21, 3–32. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2575.2009.00344.x davis, f.d. (1989). perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and user acceptance of information technology. mis quarterly, 13, 319–340. https://doi.org/10.2307/249008 dehzad, f., hilhorst, c., de bie, c., & claassen, e. (2014). adopting health apps, what’s hindering doctors and patients? health, 6, 2204–2217. https://doi.org/10.4236/health.2014.616256 dhamija, p. (2012). e-recruitment: a roadmap towards e-human resource management. researchers world, 3(3), 33–39. erasmus, e., rothmann, s., & van eeden, c. (2015). a structural model of technology acceptance. south african journal of industrial psychology, 41(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v41i1.1222 escobar-rodríguez, t., & carvajal-trujillo, e. (2014). online purchasing tickets for low cost carriers: an application of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (utaut) model. tourism management, 43, 70–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.01.017 field, a. (2013). discovering statistics using ibm spss statistics. (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. gefen, d., karahanna, e., & straub, d.w. (2003). trust and tam in online shopping: an integrated model. mis quarterly, 27(1), 51–90. ghalandari, k. (2012). the effect of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions on acceptance of e-banking services in iran: the moderating role of age and gender. middle-east journal of scientific research, 12(6), 801–807. gibson, p., & swift, j. (2011). e2c: maximising electronic resources for cruise recruitment. journal of hospitality and tourism management, 18(1), 61–69. https://doi.org/10.1375/jhtm.18.1.61 gruzd, a., staves, k., & wilk, a. (2012). connected scholars: examining the role of social media in research practices of faculty using the utaut model. computers in human behavior, 28, 2340–2350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.07.004 hsiao, c.h., & yang, c. (2011). the intellectual development of the technology acceptance model: a co-citation analysis. international journal of information management, 31(2), 128–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2010.07.003 hwang, m.i., & schmidt, f.l. (2011). assessing moderating effect in meta-analysis: a re-analysis of top management support studies and suggestions for researchers. european journal of information systems, 20(6), 693–702. https://doi.org/10.1057/ejis.2011.12 ict facts and figures. (2013). the world in 2013. retrieved march 12, 2014, from http://www.itu.int/en/itu-d/statistics/documents/facts/ictfactsfigures2013-e.pdf im, i.l., hong, s., & kang, m.s. (2011). an international comparison of technology adoptiontesting the utaut model. information and management, 48(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2010.09.001 internet world statistics. (2013). usage and population statistics. retrieved march 12, 2014, from http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats1.htm jansen, b.j., jansen, k.j., & spink, a. (2005). using the web to look for work: implications for online job seeking and recruiting. internet research, 15(1), 49–66. https://doi.org/10.1108/10662240510577068 kalissa, i., & oostdijk, m. (2006). towards excellence in internet security research for developing countries. measuring computing research excellence and vitality, 1(1), 222–229. khan, n.r., awang, m., & ghouri, a.m. (2013). impact of e-recruitment and job-seekers perception on intention to pursue the jobs. management & marketing, 11(1), 47–57. kanchanatanee, k., suwanno, n., & jarernvongravab, a. (2014). factors affecting the intention to use e-marketing of small and medium sized businesses in the three southern border provinces of thailand. international journal of business and social science, 5(6), 139–144. kothari, c.r. (2004). research methodology: methods and techniques. (2nd edn.). new delhi, india: new age international publishers. leiner, b.m., cerf, v.g., clark, d.d., kahn, r.e., kleinrock, l., lynch, d.c. et al., (2013). brief history of the internet. retrieved march 12, 2014, from http://www.internetsociety.org/internet/what-internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet lin, h. (2011). an empirical investigation of mobile banking adoption: the effect of innovation attributes and knowledgebased trust. international journal of information management, 31(3), 252–260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2010.07.006 musa, p., meso, p., & mbarika, v. (2005). toward sustainable adoption of technologies for human development in sub-saharan africa: precursors, diagnostics and prescriptions. communications of the association for information systems, 15, 592–608. nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory. (2nd edn.). new york: mcgraw hill. o’meara, b., & petzall, s. (2013). the handbook of strategic recruitment and selection: a systems approach. bingley, united kingdom: emerald group publishing limited. omoniyi, t., & quadri, a.t. (2013). perceived competence of nigerian secondary school teachers in the use of information communication technology (ict). journal of education and practice, 4(10), 157–164. pallant, j. (2011). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using spss. (5th edn.). buckingham, united kingdom: open university press. park, n. (2010). adoption and use of computer based voice over internet protocol phone service: toward an integrated model. journal of communication, 60, 40–72. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2009.01440.x pavon, f., & brown, i. (2010). factors influencing the adoption of the world wide web for job seeking in south africa. south africa journal of information management, 12(1), 1–9. pejovic, v., johnson, d.l., zhelela, m., belding, e., parks, l., & stam, g.v. (2012). the bandwidth divide: obstacles to efficient broadband adoption in rural sub-saharan africa. international journal of communication, 6, 2467–2491. rienties, b., brouwer, n., & lygo-baker, s. (2013). the effects of online professional development on teachers’ beliefs and intentions towards learning facilitation and technology. teaching and teacher education, 29, 122–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2012.09.002 san martín, h., & herrero, a. (2012). influence on the user’s psychological factors on the online purchase intention in rural tourism: integrating innovativeness to the utaut framework. tourism management, 33, 341–350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2011.04.003 santos, j. (1999). cronbach’s alpha: a tool for assessing the reliability of scales. journal of extension, 37(2), 34–36. saunders, m., lewis, p. & thornhill, a. (2009). research methods for business students. (5th edn.). london, england: pearson education limited. shava, h., chinyamurindi, w.t., & somdyala, a. (2016). an investigation into the usage of mobile phones among technical and vocational educational and training students in south africa. south african journal of information management, 18(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajim.v18i1.716 south africa good news. (2013). 41% of south africans use the internet. retrieved april 12, 2014, from http://www.sagoodnews.co.za/global_connectedness/41_of_south_africans_use_the_internet.html statistics south africa. (2013). quarterly labor force survey, statistical release. retrieved march 19, 2014, from http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/p0211/p02112ndquarter2013.pdf suvankulov, f. (2010). job search on the internet, e-recruitment, and labor market outcomes. retrieved february 02, 2016, from http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/rgs_dissertations/2010/rand_rgsd271.pdf taiwo, a.a., & downe, a. (2013). the theory of user acceptance and use of technology (utaut): a metaanalytic review of empirical findings. journal of theoretical and applied information technology, 49(1), 48–58. teoh, w.m., tan, s., & chong, s.c. (2013). factors influencing perceptions of university students towards internet recruitment. asian academy of management journal, 18(1), 123–142. tong, d.y.k. (2009). a study of e-recruitment technology adoption in malaysia. industrial management and data systems, 109(2), 281–300. https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570910930145 van der heijden, h. (2003). factors influencing the usage of websites: the case of a generic portal in the netherlands. information and management, 40, 541–549. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0378-7206(02)00079-4 venkatesh, v., morris, m.g., davis, g.b., & davis, f.d. (2003). user acceptance of information technology: toward a unified view. mis quarterly, 27(3), 425–478. venkatesh, v., thong, j.i.l., & xu, x. (2012). consumer acceptance and use of information technology: extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology. mis quarterly, 36(1), 157–178. yu, c. (2012). factors affecting individuals to adopt mobile banking: empirical evidence from the utaut model. journal of electronic commerce research, 13(2), 104–121. zhou, t., lu, y., & wang, b. (2010). integrating ttf and utaut to explain mobile banking user adoption. computers in human behavior, 26, 760–767. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2010.01.013 7piedade.qxd problem statement the recent spate of corporate failures and accounting scandals has undermined society’s faith in corporate leadership, in financial reporting and in the integrity of markets the world over (dowling, 2004; witherell, 2002). in the past years, internationally and locally, demands have been made by corporate stakeholders to increase governance practices within organisations (hollender, 2004; paine, deshpande, margolis & bettcher, 2005; zadek, 2004) and to include in corporate strategy, corporate responsibility initiatives that demonstrate organisational commitment to the greater good of society (amalric & hauser, 2005; hollender, 2004; kennedy-glans, 2005/06; werther & chandler, 2004). the notion of corporate responsibility or corporate citizenship is not easily defined (grayson, 2005). efforts have been made to translate social responsibility rhetoric into corporate action with more writers devoting their time to devising tools and methods of implementing the concept in organisations. the range of issues that continue to be added to the ‘corporate responsibility’ sphere is ever-increasing, making it difficult for corporations to know what action to take and how to make a case for action in these areas. changes in the environment in which organisations operate and debate around the accountability of business as a principal actor and motor for growth and development, opens the debate around the role of business in society. defining the boundaries of responsibility of organisations in the face of failed states, poverty and lack of economic development is especially challenging in africa today. in africa, visser, middleton and mcintosh (2005, p.18) note the role of business in a tripartite partnership with government and civil society to be focused at “aiding development towards a more participative, rule-of-law-based society where basic human rights and needs are met”. meeting such human rights involves povert y alleviation, improving governance, improving education, tackling corruption, enforcing labour standards, preventing resource depletion, controlling industrial pollution, promoting environmental conservation, upholding business ethics, ensuring the integrity of supply chains and addressing health issues such as hiv/aids (de jongh, 2004; visser, middleton and mcintosh, 2005). in this regard, visser, middleton and mcintosh (2005) view a corporate citizenship or corporate responsibility debate as being integral to any debate on the future of africa. hamann, kapelus, sonnenberg, mackenzie and hollesen (2005, p. 61) broaden this argument to stress the need for organisations working in africa to proactively and creatively develop local collaborative structures within an “intricate and dynamic web of interrelated role-players involved in (un)sustainable development at the local level”. hamann and acutt (2003, p. 255), referring to corporate social responsibility in the south african context, note that it “is meant to link the market economy to sustainable development”. such sustainable development is arguably complimentary to economic development. hamann (2003) notes that such initiatives necessarily must go beyond philanthropic investment to embrace developmental initiatives due to the country’s history of apartheid and concomitant lack of previous state support for social development. thus, the unique challenge to south african organisations is to address broader societal needs but to continue to generate profit to ensure that this happens (middleton, 2005). visser (2005) notes the drivers of corporate social responsibility in south africa to be legislation, globalisation of south african companies and concomitant subjection to international corporate governance requirements, stakeholder activism and adherence to global standards and codes including iso 14001. the king report on corporate governance (institute of directors, 2002) has also had widereaching impact with its recommendation that companies should report annually on the nature and extent of their social, ethical, transformation, safety, health and environmental practices, a recommendation that the johannesburg securities exchange has made compulsory for companies wishing to list on the stock exchange. sustainabilit y reporting is now commonplace in south africa with the publication of organisational initiatives on corporate performance in not only the economic sphere but also social and environmental performance, the so-called ‘triple-bottom line’ (co-operative insurance, 2002; grayson, 2005; institute of directors, 2002; vermeir, van de velde & corten, 2005; world business council for sustainable development, 2003). it is advocated that the elements of corporate responsibility strategy in south africa and the justification for that strategy should be studied with a view to comparing these to best practice and making recommendations to organisations. as a background to begin to address these issues, a literature survey has been undertaken, highlighting the reasons why organisations do or should implement a corporate responsibility strategy. the literature review is divided into two sections. the lucy da piedade lucydapiedade@aol.com adèle thomas adelet@uj.ac.za department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract heightened scrutiny of organisations and ever increasing stakeholder demands for organisations to respond to issues within broader society, make it imperative that organisational leaders understand why they should undertake corporate responsibility initiatives. this literature review (part one of a two part study) investigates the issues that should be addressed by organisations under the banner of corporate responsibility, including the definition of corporate responsibility, its extent and boundaries and the business case for corporate responsibility. this background provides a basis for an exploratory study (part two) of how south african organisations should frame the case for corporate responsibility and how investment in this area can be assessed. key words corporate responsibility, review initiatives, literature the case for corporate responsibility: arguments from the literature 57 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (2), 57-64 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (2), 57-64 first section offers debate on the definition of corporate responsibility. the second section is an exposition of the theory relating to the basis for arguments regarding the extent and boundaries of corporate responsibility and the consequent implications for the rationale of the business case. literature review defining corporate responsibility corporate responsibility is a diffuse and continually evolving concept. various definitions associate corporate responsibility with notions of governance, stakeholder theory, business ethics, sustainability, organisational culture and the relationship between business and society in general terms (business for social responsibility, 2002; ferrell, 2004; grayson, 2005; matten & crane, 2005). most scholars agree that there is no universally accepted definition of corporate responsibility or a definitive framework of how it should be applied (carroll, 1979; clarkson, 1995; wood, 1991; matten & crane, 2005). paradoxically, many organisations have embraced the terms ‘corporate responsibilit y’, ‘corporate citizenship’ and ‘sustainable business’ and have taken initiatives in this regard, although no consensus has emerged as to what the terms actually mean or imply (carroll & buchholtz, 2000; mirvis & googins, 2004). the various definitions advanced attempt to answer the questions: � to whom does business owe responsibility? � what is business responsible for? � who is calling for increased responsibility? (moir, 2001). the definition of corporate responsibility seems to have come a full circle. descriptions of the term in the 1950s followed a philosophical approach in terms of which business is described as having responsibilities to society in the broadest sense (bowen, 1953). frederick (1994) confirms, in his analysis of the development of the area of study, that corporate responsibility, up to 1970, was viewed in normative or philosophical terms as an obligation to work for social betterment. he refers to this stage as csr1. this was followed by a managerial action-based approach often called corporate social responsiveness or what frederick (1994) terms csr2. by the late 1980s and early 1990s a return to an ethical or moral basis of informing managerial action followed, called corporate social rectitude or csr3 (moir, 2001). the many conflicting definitions and understandings of corporate responsibility that have been advanced have led some authors to recommend the abandonment, altogether, of the concept of ‘corporate social responsibility’, which is based on a language of rights and responsibilities. waddock (2002) argues that corporate responsibility is much more than ‘social’ and that the term ‘corporate social responsibility’ is inaccurate. “thinking … in terms of ‘social’ responsibility … may allow companies to gain some positive public relations fluff, in the short run and will likely benefit some specific stakeholders. ultimately, however, this narrow perspective allows organisations to get off the real responsibility hook, which has to do with how they are managed, what they produce, how they interact with the world” (waddock, 2002, p. 20). an argument has persisted in corporate responsibility circles for some time with regard to the use of the terms ‘responsibility’ and ‘responsiveness’. some writers have criticised the term ‘responsibility’ for attempting to reduce the argument to one of pinpointing accountability or obligation. responsiveness, on the other hand, connotes a dynamic, action-oriented condition (carroll & buchholtz, 2000). the advantage of the responsiveness orientation, in many instances, is that it allows organisations to operationalise their responsibilities without becoming sidetracked by the difficulty of defining exactly what the responsibilities of an organisation are in a particular case (carroll & buchholtz, 2000). carroll (1979), an early pioneer in this area, developed the corporate social performance model, a forerunner to the pyramid of corporate social responsibility (carroll, 1991) as represented in figure 1, that integrates early thought on the three dimensions of corporate responsibility: 1) the social responsibilit y categories of economic, legal, ethical and discretionary; 2) the philosophy or mode of social responsiveness whether reactive, defensive, accommodative or proactive and 3) the social issues involved, namely consumerism, environment, discrimination and other issues which management must address in its corporate responsibility strategy. the advantage of the model is that it systematised and clarified the various dimensions and issues that were understood to form part of corporate responsibility. figure 1: carroll’s (1991) pyramid of corporate social responsibility this model highlights the necessity for organisations to simultaneously fulfil economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities. it also indicates philosophical progression in social responsiveness from a reactive mode (where being profitable is paramount), through the modes of defensiveness and accommodation (where obeying the law and being ethical, respectively, are paramount) to a proactive mode where being a good citizen is the primary organisational motivator and which would encompass the previous levels. the elements identified by carroll (1979; 1991) have later been amplified by zadek (2004) who advocates an organisational learning model along the path to corporate responsibility from the defensive stage through to the civil stage where companies collectively address societal concerns. wartick and cochrane (1985) built on carroll’s (1979) earlier work by adding three dimensions to the understanding of corporate responsibility. they envisioned these dimensions as principles that reflect the organisational dimension and issues that management identifies as important: philosophical orientation and processes; the institutional dimension of applying the philosophy; and policies. more recently, calls have been made for a shift in the analytical framework of corporate responsibility to a new paradigmatic level based on the natural sciences and complexity theory. this framework seeks to move beyond the economic or corporationcentred orientation, and to re-introduce the normative or moral debate around the need for corporate responsibility (aqueveque, 2005; frederick, 1998; hollender, 2004). da piedade, thomas58 freeman and liedtka (1991) suggest three alternative ‘conversations’ about organisations based on the understanding of the corporation as inextricably linked to society namely, the stakeholder proposition or the idea that organisations are connected networks of stakeholder interests; the caring proposition in terms of which organisations are understood to be places where individuals engage in caring activities aimed at mutual support and human achievement (organisation as communit y); and the pragmatist proposition that views organisations as means through which human beings are able to create and recreate their visions for self and community. when considering the various ways of concept ualising corporate responsibility, it is suggested that an addition to the debate would be the extension of the philanthropic layer of the carroll (1979; 1991) model in the marrying of philanthropic and business foci. in this regard, organisations that, through interaction with stakeholders and relevant interaction with communities, are able to access information regarding stakeholder interests that may impact their organisations and who are able to translate this information into market awareness are equipped to build their competencies in learning, innovation and risk response (grayson, 2005; zadek, 2001; 2004). accordingly, a definition of corporate responsibility that is advanced is the commitment of organisations to act in the interest of both business and sustainable economic development based upon ethical values, compliance with legal requirements, and respect for and engagement with people, communities and the environment. theoretical underpinnings the extent and boundaries of and the business case for corporate responsibility the following discussion highlights various evolving perspectives regarding the nature and extent of corporate responsibility and forms the basis of how corporate responsibility is embraced, as a business case, within organisations. neo-classical perspective according to the neo-classical or, what locke (http:mitsloan.mit.edu/50th/corpcitizenship) calls, the minimalist theory of corporate responsibility, the responsibility of business is to ensure optimal economic performance of corporations in order to increase shareholder wealth. those who adopt the neo-classical view of the organisation advocate that the only responsibilities to be taken on by business are the provision of employment and the payment of taxes (moir, 2001). this view holds that a society can best determine its needs and wants through the invisible hand of the marketplace (carroll & buchholtz, 2000). the leading proponent of this view, milton friedman (1970), argues that organisations, as artificial persons, cannot have social responsibilities. he maintains that the principal responsibilit y of organisations is towards their shareholders; to increase their wealth while conforming to the basic rules of society, both those embedded in law and those embedded in ethical custom. when corporate executives engage in socially responsible activities that are not required of them in terms of prevailing laws and customs, these actions constitute a tax on the organisation. one could argue that friedman’s (1970) arguments have been interpreted too narrowly and that reference to the ethical customs of the time must surely mean that changing expectations about the roles of business in society need to be taken into account. however, the most common interpretations of friedman’s statements are that in a democratic society, government is the only legitimate vehicle for addressing social concerns and that business’ involvement in this respect should be curtailed (carroll & buchholtz, 2000). levitt (1958, p. 47) also warned about the dangers of adopting corporate responsibilit y criteria, noting, “… welfare and society are not the corporation’s business. its business is making money not sweet music”. similarly korten (1997) has argued that ethical organisations are necessarily pushed out of a competitive market and zadek (2004) notes that being ‘good’ does not always pay. legal perspective the neo-classical model evolved further when laws constraining business behaviour began to proliferate in response to changed societal expectations from being strictly economic in nature to encompassing aspects that had previously been left to the discretion of organisations (carroll & buchholtz, 2000). a formalistic legal interpretation was taken by some scholars who were concerned with the distinction between those obligations mandated by law and those that were taken on a discretionary basis (davis, 1973; sethi, 1979). the philosophy of legal pragmatism developed in opposition to the legal formalistic approach that establishes that law is not merely those rules that are formally codified. laws are instruments of social policy. this philosophy holds that laws evolve organically and require managers to exercise discretion in the interpretation of the social spirit of the law (foote, 1984; ostas, 2001). most commentators agree, however, that legislation in itself cannot increase socially responsible behaviour and that organisations should work towards developing a culture of corporate responsibility (caldini, petrova & goldstein, 2004; morrison, 2001; sarre, doig & fiedler, 2001; weaver, 2001). philanthropic perspective this concept is predicated on the notion of charity, requiring more fortunate members of society to assist the less fortunate, and stewardship requiring businesses and wealthy individuals to act as stewards or caretakers of property, holding it in trust for society as a whole (frederick, 1994; freeman & liedtka,1991). philanthropic action is taken on a discretionary basis and is motivated by moral and/or religious arguments (carroll, 1991). carroll and buchholtz (2000) note that the adoption of a paternalistic and philanthropic approach to communit y involvement was precipitated by the emergence in the late 1800s of large corporations in america that changed the balance of power between society and business, and raised the issue of the responsibility of these organisations to the societies in which they operated. however, the idea remains rooted in the economic concept of business as wealth generator and not societal actor. stakeholder perspective according to this view, the responsibilit y of business encompasses more than its primary economic dut y to shareholders; business has a duty to other stakeholders as well. the ‘narrow sense of stakeholder’ refers to any identifiable group or individual on which the organisation is dependent for its continued survival (ferrell, 2004; freeman & reed, 1983). freeman (1984, p. 46) defines a stakeholder as “any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization’s objectives”. primary stakeholders are generally understood to be shareholders, investors, employees, customers and suppliers (clarkson, 1995; dowling, 2004) together with what is defined as the ‘public stakeholder group’ namely, “government and communities which provide infrastructure and markets, whose laws and regulations must be obeyed, and to whom taxes and obligations are due” (clarkson, 1995, p. 106). a high level of interdependence exists between primary stakeholders and the organisation, since damage to this relationship affects the survival of the organisation (aqueveque, 2005; dowling, 2004; werther & chandler, 2004). some writers take a narrower view of the stakeholder concept as being those stakeholders without whose continuing participation the organisation cannot survive as a going concern. the case for corpor ate responsibility: arguments from the literature 59 a broader view of stakeholder is based on the premise that organisations have a responsibility to society beyond their primary stakeholders. opinions regarding the extent of this responsibility vary. freeman (1984) subscribes to a ‘wide sense of stakeholder’, which includes any individual who can affect or who is affected by the achievement of an organisation’s objectives. other theorists believe that companies are forced into a broader notion of stakeholders due to increasing pressure being put on companies by secondary stakeholders such as activists, non-governmental organisations, communities and other governments (amalric & hauser, 2005; mirvis & googins, 2004; waddock, bodwell & graves, 2002). most organisations and corporate responsibility proponents appear to define corporate responsibility from a stakeholder perspective based on analysis and engagement (epstein,1987; frederick,1998; jones, 1980). managers are faced with the challenge of determining who their stakeholders are and to which of their demands or needs they should respond. mitchell, agle and wood (1997) developed a model of stakeholder identification and salience based on stakeholder attributes of power, legitimacy and urgency. based on this model organisations would be expected to pay the most attention to legitimate stakeholder groups who have power and urgency (moir, 2001). ferrel (2005), hall and vredenburg (2005) and zadek (2001) also distinguish between ‘negotiated boundaries’, in terms of which organisations determine the stakeholders with whom they should negotiate; ‘evolving boundaries’, which are dependent on constant learning and re-evaluation; ‘standard boundaries’, which refer to the host of international reporting standards and guidelines that prescribe the extent of corporate responsibility and, ‘committed boundaries’, which are those elements of corporate responsibility that are integral to a particular direction to which the organisation has committed itself. broad societal perspective in terms of this perspective, the boundaries of corporate responsibility are extended beyond those groups directly affected by organisational decision-making. the premise is that organisations have a moral or ethical duty to enhance broader societal goals. mahon and mcgowan (1991, p.81), in accordance with other more recent writers on the topic (werther & chandler, 2004; zadek, 2004), hold this broader understanding of stakeholders and conclude: “ … it is clear that most authors mean corporate social responsibility to include behavior and actions beyond mere profit making that serve to improve the conditions of society and individuals within that society”. corporate social responsibility in this instance is motivated by a recognition that long term viability of organisations depends upon the prosperity of the environment in which they operate (mahon & mcgowan, 1991; werther & chandler, 2004; zadek, 2004). this view is reflected in zadek’s (2001; 2004) third generational theory of corporate responsibility that seeks to address the question of the extent of business responsibility for addressing social and environmental problems. moir (2001), and later grayson (2005), remark that corporate responsibility covers an ever-increasing range of issues such as plant closures, employee relations, human rights, corporate ethics, community relations and the environment to which can be added the aforementioned issues pertinent to south africa such as hiv/aids, environmental protection and sustainability. hall and vredenburg (2005) and zadek (2001; 2004) argue that traditional and legal obligations are increasingly inadequate bases for defining the extent and boundaries of organisational responsibility. they distinguish between the legal, financial and operational methods of defining the boundaries of corporate responsibility and the more recent methods of characterising corporate boundaries in terms of strategy, risk, value chains, information, knowledge and values. the following three theories emerge from the broad stakeholder and societal perspectives. social contracts theory viewing society as a series of social contracts presents an alternative view of why organisations need to act responsibly (gray, owen & adams, 1996; grayson, 2005). organisations that adopt the social contract view explain their involvement in responsibilit y projects in terms of societal expectation. donaldson and dunfree (1999) have developed an integrated model based on the theory of social contracts for manager decision-making in an ethical context. they distinguish between macro and micro social contracts. the macro social contract will determine in which areas organisations need to get involved, whereas the micro social contract indicates the specific involvement and responsibility programmes. moir (2001) remarks that although social contract theory may explain the initial motivation of organisations in becoming involved in corporate responsibility, it probably does not explain the totality of its involvement and has to be understood in the context of the other theories such as legitimacy theory. legitimacy theory organisations often seek to legitimise their activities through communicating the benefits of their involvement and changing perceptions about their business. zadek (2004) equates this to an organisation being at a ‘strategic’ stage of learning. suchman (1995) identifies three challenges to legitimacy management namely: gaining, maintaining and repairing legitimacy. the success or failure of legitimacy management initiatives relies heavily on communication and the effectiveness of corporate communications. lindblom (1994) notes that organisations do not have to follow a passive approach in seeking to gain legitimacy, but can employ four broad legitimating strategies when faced with threats: 1) seek to educate stakeholders about the intentions of the organisation to improve performance; 2) seek to change the organisation’s perceptions of the event; 3) distract attention away from the issue of concern; and 4) seek to change external expectations about its performance. organisations not only earn legitimacy but are expected to use the power granted to them responsibly or such power will be withdrawn by society (zadek, 2004). enlightened value maximisation theory amalric and hauser (2005) and jensen (2001) argue that the maximisation of the long-term value of the organisation is the criterion for making the necessary trade-offs among various stakeholder interests. in jensen’s analysis, value maximisation provides managers with a single objective that is necessary for purposeful behaviour. his criticism of stakeholder theory is that it contains no conceptual specification as to how to make tradeoffs between the competing, and often conflicting, interests of various stakeholders. the basic premise of enlightened value maximisation is that “we cannot maximize the long-term market value of an organisation if we ignore or mistreat any important constituency” (jensen, 2001, p.16). value maximisation gives management a way to assess trade-offs and demands and it allows for principled decision-making independent of personal preferences of managers and directors. in terms of this theory, managers and employees are motivated to seek value by instituting those changes and strategies that are most likely to increase organisational value. grayson and hodges (2001) comment that organisations are often confused about where to draw the line on their external involvement and should be guided by cultural and societal norms about the role of business in the community in particular regions. they recommend that managers focus on community issues where there is a direct link to business needs, an interest among employees, relevant corporate expertise and other resources that can be deployed. as moir (2001, p. 17) states: “whether or not a business should undertake csr, and the forms that responsibility should take, depends upon the economic perspective of the firm”. da piedade, thomas60 the business case for corporate responsibility although the concept of corporate responsibility has received significant support, it has proven difficult to quantif y in costbenefit and other traditional financial terms what the contribution of corporate responsibilit y practices to profitability is (martin, 2002; vogl, 2003, zadek, 2004). however, supporters of corporate responsibility standards often point to the fact that most business decisions are taken without an explicit cost-benefit analysis (vogl, 2003). according to zadek (2001) it is an insistence on a ‘win-win’ proposition that lies at the heart of the confusion over the role and impact of business in society. research regarding the relationship bet ween corporate responsibility and financial performance appears inconclusive. some researchers have found a positive relationship between these two variables (almaric & hauser, 2005; anderson & frankle, 1980; aqueveque, 2005; bowman & haire, 1975; bragdon & marlin, 1972; chiang & chia, 2005; hall & vredenburg, 2005; ingram, 1978; klein, smith & john, 2004; mckinsey, 2002; moskowitz, 1972; orlitsky, 2005; preston, 1975; spicer, 1978; sturdivant & ginter, 1977; vermeir et al., 2005). others have found no link between the variables (abbott & monsen, 1979; aupperle, carroll & hatfield, 1985). questions are, however, raised regarding the methodology applied in these studies, particularly with regard to the measures of financial performance and corporate responsibility respectively. some researchers have found corporate responsibility to be inversely linked with profitability in the short run (vance, 1975). some have pointed to the fact that organisations that are good corporate citizens also tend to do well financially since good corporate responsibility management is often an indicator of sophisticated management throughout the organisation (ringger, 1999). aupperle et al. (1985) conclude that the issue of whether corporate responsibility is related to financial performance will never be completely resolved. according to grayson and hodges (2001) a business case is normally articulated as a positive or negative argument for action or inaction, as a cost or loss, or as a saving or a gain in relation to something of value to the organisation. value can be measured in terms of market share, reputation, employee morale and performance, relationships with business partners and the cost of capital. most writers and practitioners agree that there is no single business case for corporate citizenship (grayson & hodges, 2001; zadek, 2004). in many instances the corporate responsibility strategy will depend on where the organisation is in its life cycle (grayson & hodges, 2001), whether there are cost-benefit advantages, what the risks are to the organisation that need to be managed and whether the organisation has considered the strategic long term viability of the organisation and the linkage of its competitive advantage to the understanding and management of its various stakeholders. when preparing to make a business case for corporate responsibility, grayson and hodges (2001) recommend one of two approaches, namely, building the argument from an ‘emerging issues’ perspective or from a ‘business needs’ perspective. emerging issues are normally presented as either risks or opportunities. emerging management issues include: ecology and the environment, health and well-being, diversity and human rights and communities. a ‘business needs’ perspective includes the building of people such as recruiting and retaining employees, building the organisation in terms of reducing risks and costs and finally building reputation. reputational issues include building goodwill and a licence to operate. organisations are often required to adopt corporate responsibility practices in order to be recognised as trustworthy partners in long-term strategic relationships (pearson, 2000) and because the society within which they operate expects this (mirvis & googins, 2004). heightened interest on the part of investors, consumers and other stakeholders in the issues encompassed in corporate responsibility means that failure to address these issues may result in a number of negative outcomes. a st udy by the world business council for sustainable development (2000) points to several actions that may seriously damage corporate reputation and also translate into negative financial repercussions. these include, consumer boycotts, attacks on fixed assets, loss of employee support, unanticipated spending in order to remedy mistakes, diversion of management attention from core activities and barriers to raising finance or insurance. increasingly these issues are becoming more important to investors (co-operative insurance, 2002; dowling, 2004). a study conducted by mckinsey and company (2002), found that institutional investors in emerging markets are willing to pay a premium for investments in companies that maintain good governance practices. regional trading blocs are including social impact assessments in their trading policy with other nations in order to ensure that corporate responsibilit y principles are incorporated into trade and development agreements (european commission, 2003). zadek (2001; 2004) breaks the business case down into four broad (and interrelated) categories namely: defence or pain alleviation (the defensive stage), the traditional or cost-benefit case (the compliance stage), the strategic case and the new economy business case (the civil stage). in the first two stages, the organisation is reactive, taking only those measures that comply legally or that may satisf y basic stakeholder requirements. such compliance may be able to be measured (e.g. an absence of safety-related accidents or an absence of legal penalties). where an organisation makes a strategic business case, corporate responsibility becomes an integral element of the broader strategic approach of the organisation to long-term organisational performance. unlike the defensive or traditional case, the strategic approach cannot easily be subjected to a standard financial cost-benefit analysis. the new economy business case or civil stage involves learning, innovation and risk management of acquiring and acting on stakeholder information in a way that builds new competencies or products in the organisation, and provides innovative ideas about how to manage risk and increase profits (waddock & smith, 2000; zadek, 2001; 2004). de jongh (2004, p.28) highlights the challenges of managing social risk in south africa and states that “… in a country such as south africa, where the socio-economic and socio-political landscape is transforming at an everincreasing pace, sound judgement, stakeholder engagement and cross-sector partnership seem to be the only workable solutions to managing social risk”. in line with adopting a new economy business case, innovative business ideas have arisen from initiatives to service the poor and there is an increasing realisation that sustainable business need not be unprofitable business (handy, 2002; hart, 1997; prahalad & hart, 2002). roberts, keeble and brown (2002) report eight areas of business benefit associated with corporate responsibility, namely, sound reputation management particularly in view of the fact that value derived from intangible assets is high and reputation is often the most valuable of these assets; risk management; employee recruitment, motivation and retention; investor relations and access to capital; learning and innovation in that corporate responsibilit y objectives encourage creativit y; competitiveness and market positioning; operational efficiency by means of reductions in waste and negative environmental impact, and maintaining a licence to operate which may be in jeopardy when an organisation develops a reputation as a bad corporate citizen. grayson and hodges (2001) point to an alternative way of developing the organisation by basing it on building people, the business and the corporate reputation. under building people they refer to attracting, retaining and developing talent and the case for corpor ate responsibility: arguments from the literature 61 assert that people increasingly wish to work for organisations that share their personal values. investing money in response to issues such as protection of the environment ultimately saves costs associated with litigation and clean up operations. in the same way, a well-planned promotion of a diversity programme can avoid legal challenge. the case for responsible corporate practices may only be discernable when a longer-term view of business is applied and the sustainability of an organisation is evaluated. zadek (2001) refers to the corporate citizenship ‘mecca’ in terms of which organisations adopt a corporate responsibility strategy as part of their overall organisational strategy aimed at increasing their competitive advantage and changing the way in which organisations do business. while it may be possible to gain financially by adopting corporate responsibility practices through, for example, its impact on employee retention and productivity, customer loyalty and effective risk and reputation management, the business case is not always easy to make since it is possible to do good and not see benefits, or for such initiatives to detract from core business operations. zadek (2001) raises a further dilemma in that ‘viable well-doing’ will not be sufficient to meet the world’s challenge of sustainable development. he questions whether corporate responsibility should stretch only as far as the limits of the business case, the so called ‘oasis’ of responsibility, or whether there is an underlying moral or ethical imperative for organisations to become more responsible. currently in most organisations, business strategies and operations are aligned with certain sustainable development objectives such as the addressing of hiv/aids or the provision of social housing to employees, but do not attempt to tackle broader societal issues that would change the business environment (zadek, 2001) or go beyond the business case to fundamentally change society (hollender, 2004). forstater (2002) notes the difficulty of making a business case ‘below the breadline’ in poor regions where the traditional business case arguments fall apart in the face of endemic poverty. she concludes that the challenge of poverty in africa demands that one should go beyond corporate responsibility ‘as usual’. discussion and recommendations in recent years pressure has been placed on organisations, internationally and in south africa, to focus on good corporate citizenship. diffuse concepts have emerged such as ‘corporate citizenship’, ‘corporate social responsibility’ ‘corporate social investment’ and ‘corporate responsibility’, with little agreement on definitions or what initiatives fall, ideologically, within the ambit of the respective concepts. this paper advocates a definition of corporate responsibility that goes beyond philanthropy to combine a focus on business and sustainable development based on values, legal compliance and stakeholder engagement. this thinking is in line with what can be thought of as some of the challenges to south african organisations in the area of corporate responsibility. emerging issues such as povert y alleviation, improving governance, improving education, tackling corruption, enforcing labour standards, preventing resource depletion, controlling industrial pollution, promoting environmental conservation, upholding business ethics, addressing health issues such as hiv/aids, building human capital and promoting economic development are now growing in topicality in south african debate. these issues, it is suggested, are those that organisations operating in emerging markets, such as south africa, need to focus upon in order to demonstrate that they are adding value in their business environments. determining the extent and nature of corporate responsibility in south africa begs answers to the questions: what is the role of business in this regard? and, what can and should society expect from the business community in addressing the imperatives and aspirations underpinning sustainable development? once it is established what organisations should be doing, an equally important question is: how should these expectations be realised in practice? based on the preceding discussion, and given the increasing south african debate on ‘triple bottom line’ organisational reporting on economic, social and environmental issues (institute of directors, 2002), the following propositions are posited for further study: � proposition no 1: south african companies do not incorporate into their corporate responsibility strategies, issues that are critical to sustainable business such as hiv/aids, economic development and education (de jongh, 2004; hamann, 2003; hamann and acutt, 2003; visser, middleton and mcintosh, 2005). � proposition no 2: south african companies base their case for corporate responsibility mainly on defensive or cost-benefit arguments (zadek 2001; 2004). � proposition no 3: south african companies develop corporate responsibility strategies in order to promote innovation and learning and risk management (de jongh, 2004; waddock & smith, 2000; zadek, 2001; 2004). although there is a lack of consensus with regard to the extent of corporate responsibility and where the responsibility of business ends and that of government begins (world business council on sustainable development, 2003), the potential benefits that can be gained from an effective corporate responsibility strategy are such that this area warrants further research attention, especially with a view to delineating those aspects or corporate responsibility that should command south african business attention. references abbott, w.f.& monsen, j.r. (1979). on the measurement of corporate social responsibility: self reported disclosures as a method of measuring corporate social involvement. academy of management journal, 22 (3), 501-515. amalric, f. & hauser, j. (2005). economic drivers of corporate responsibility activites. the journal of corporate citizenship, winter, 20, 27-38. anderson, j.c. & frankle, a.w. (1980). voluntary social reporting: an iso-beta portfolio analysis. the accounting review, 55 (3), 467-479. aqueveque, c. (2005). marketing and market development: signalling corporate values – consumers’ suspicious minds. corporate governance, 5 (3), 467-479. aupperle, k.e., carroll, a.b. & hatfield, j.d. (1985). an empirical examination of the relationship between corporate social responsibility and profitability. academy of management journal, 28 (2), 446-463. blyth, a. (2002). investing in africa, challenges and initiatives. ethical corporation, november, 26-30. bowen, h.r. (1953). social responsibilities of the businessman. new york: macmillan. bowman, e.h. & haire, m.a. (1975). a strategic posture towards corporate social responsibilit y. california management review, 18 (2), 49-58. bragdon, j. & marlin, j. (1972). is pollution profitable? risk management, april, 9-18. da piedade, thomas62 business for social responsibility (2002). overview of corporate social responsibilit y. http:www.bsr.org/bsrresources/ issuebriefdetail.cfm?documentid=48809 (accessed 14 may 2003). caldini, r.b., petrova, p.k. & goldstein, n.j. (2004). the hidden costs of organizational dishonesty. sloan management review, spring, 67-73. carroll, a.b. (1979). a three-dimensional model of corporate performance. academy of management review, 4 (4), 497-505. carroll, a.b. (1991). the pyramid of corporate social responsibility: toward the management of organizational stakeholders. business horizons, 34 (4), july-august, 39-49. carroll, a.b. & buchholtz, a.k. (2000). business & society. fourth edition, cincinnati: south-western college publishing. chiang, h.t. & chia, f. (2005). an empirical study of corporate governance and corporate performance. journal of american academy of business, 6 (1), 95-101. clarkson, m.b.e. (1995). a stakeholder framework for analyzing and evaluating corporate social performance. academy of management review, 20 (1), 92-117. cochran, p.l. & wood, r.a. (1984). corporate social responsibilit y and financial performance. academy of management journal, 27 (1), 42-56. co-operative insurance (2002). sustainability pays. http://www.cis.co.uk/socacc2002/pdf/suspays.pdf (accessed 7 january 2004). davis, k. (1973). the case for and against business assumption of social responsibilities. academy of management journal, 16 (2), 312-322. de jongh, d. (2004). a stakeholder perspective on managing social risk in south africa: responsibility or accountability? the journal of corporate citizenship, autumn (15), 27-31. donaldson, t. & dunfee, t.w. (1999). ties that bind. boston: harvard business school press. dowling, g.r. (2004). corporate reputations: should you compete on yours? california management review, 46 (3), 19-36. environics international (2002). global csr monitor. http://www.globescan.com. epstein, e. m. (1987). the corporate social policy process: beyond business ethics, corporate social responsibility and corporate social responsiveness. california management review, 29 (3) spring, 99-114. european commission (2003). getting returns on social responsibility. csr magazine, 2 (2) 12-15. ferrell, o. (2004). business ethics and customer stakeholders. academy of management executive, 18 (2), 126-129. foote, s.b. (1984). corporate responsibility in a changing legal environment. california management review, 26 (3), spring, 217-228. forstater, m. (2002). what can corporate responsibility do in the fight against poverty in africa? ethical corporation magazine, november, 37-40. frederick, w.c. (1994). from csr1 to csr2: the maturing of business and society thought. business and society, 33 (2), august, 150-167. frederick, w.c. (1998). creatures, corporations, communities, chaos, complexity: a naturological view of the corporate social role. business and society, 37 (4), december, 358-389. freeman, e.r. (1984). strategic management: a stakeholder approach. boston: pitman publishing. freeman, e.r. & liedtka, j. (1991). corporate social responsibility: a critical approach. business horizons, 34 (4), july-august, 92-99. freeman, e.r. & reed, d.l. (1983). stockholders and stakeholders: a new perspective on corporate governance. california management review, 25 (3), spring, 88-106. friedman, m. (1970). the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. the new york times magazine, 13 september, 137-141. gorte, j.f. (2005). corporate social responsibility: close to victory. journal of investing, 14 (3), 140. gray, r., owen, d., & adams, c. (1996). accounting and accountability: changes and challenges in corporate social and environmental reporting. harlow: prentice-hall europe. grayson, d. (2005). from responsibilit y to opportunit y. corporate responsibility management, 2 (2), 34-37. grayson, d. & hodges, a. (2001). everybody’s business. first edition, london: dorling kindersley limited. hall, j. & vredenburg, h. (2005). managing stakeholder ambiguity. mit sloan management review, 47 (1), 11-13. hamann, r. 2003. mining companies’ role in sustainable development: the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ of corporate social responsibility from a business perspective. development southern africa, 20 (2), 237-254. hamann, r. & acutt, n. (2003). how should civil society (and the government) respond to ‘corporate social responsibility’? a critique of business motivations and the potential for partnerships. development southern africa, 20 (2), 255-270. hamann, r., kapelus, p., sonnenberg, d. , mackenzie, a. & hollesen, p. (2005). local governance as a complex system. lessons from mining in south africa, mali and zambia. the journal of corporate citizenship, summer (18), 61-73. handy, c. (2002). what’s a business for? har vard business review, 8 (12), 49-55. hart, s. l. (1997). beyond greening: strategies for a sustainable world. har vard business review, january, 75 (1), 66-76. hollender, j. (2004). what matters most: corporate values and social responsibility. california management review, 46 (4), 111-119. ingram, r.w. (1978). an investigation of the information content of (certain) social responsibility disclosures. journal of accounting research, 16, 270-285. institute of directors (2002). king report on corporate governance for south africa. johannesburg: iod. jensen, m.c. (2001). value maximization, stakeholder theory and the corporate objective function. journal of applied corporate finance, 14 (3), 8-21. jones, t.m. (1980). corporate social responsibility revisited, redefined. california management review, spring, 12 (2), 5967. kennedy-glans, d. (2005/06). achieving a single ethical standard in a globalized world. corporate responsibility management, 2 (3), 24-29. kline, j.g., smith, n.c. & john, a. (2004). why we boycott: consumer motivations for boycott participation. journal of marketing, 68 (3), 92-109. korten, d. (1997). when corporations rule the world. west hartford, connecticut: kumarian. levitt, t. (1958). the dangers of social responsibility. har vard business review, sept-oct, 36 (5), 41-50. lindblom, c.k. (1994). the implications of organisational legitimacy for corporate social performance and disclosure. paper presented at the critical perspectives on accounting conference, new york, ny. locke, r.m. (undated). note on corporate citizenship in a global economy. http://mitsloan.mit.edu/50th/corpcitizenship.pdf (accessed 2 may 2003). mahon, j.f. & mcgowan, r.a. (1991). searching for the common good: a process oriented approach. business horizons, 34 (4), july-august, 79-87. matten, d. & crane, a. (2005). corporate citizenship: toward an extended theoretical concept ualisation. academy of management review, 30 (1), 166-179. martin, r.l. (2002). the virtue matrix, calculating the return on corporate responsibility. har vard business review, march, 511. mckinsey & company (2002). investor opinion sur vey on corporate governance. london: mckinsey & company. middleton, c. (2005). interview with michael spicer, chief executive, south africa foundation. the journal of corporate citizenship, summer (18), 21-24. mirvis, p. & googins, b. (2004). the best of the good. har vard business review, december, 1-2. the case for corpor ate responsibility: arguments from the literature 63 mitchell, r.k., agle, b.r. & wood, d.j. (1997). toward a theory of stakeholder identification and salience: defining the principle of who and what really counts. academy of management review, 22, 853-886. moir, l. (2001). what do we mean by corporate social responsibility? corporate governance, 1 (2), 16-22. morrison, a. (2001). integrity and global leadership. journal of business ethics, 31, 65-76. moskowitz, m. (1972). choosing socially responsible stocks. business and society review, 1, 71-75. orlitsky, m. (2005). payoffs to social and environmental performance. journal of investing, 14 (3), 48-52. ostas, d.t. (2001). deconstructing corporate social responsibility: insights from legal and economic theory. american business law journal, 38 (2), 261-300. paine, l., deshpande, r, margolis, j.d. & bettcher, k.e. (2005). up to code: does your company’s conduct meet world-class standards? har vard business review, december, 122-133. pearson, g. (2000). making profits and sweet music. business ethics: a european review, 9 (3), july, 191-199. petersen, r. (2005). responding to changing stakeholder expectations. marketing, june, s8. prahalad, c.k. & hart, s.l. (2002). the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. strategy & business, 26 (1), 55-67. preston, l.e. (1975). corporation and society: the search for a paradigm. journal of economic literature, 13, 434-453. ringger, r. (1999). editorial. international herald tribune, 22 september, 24. roberts, s. & keeble, j. & brown, d. (2002). the business case for corporate citizenship. ht t p:www.csrwire.com/pdf/business-case-for-cor poratecitizenship.pdf (accessed 10 may 2003). sarre, r., doig, m. & fiedler, b. (2001). reducing the risk of corporate irresponsibilit y: the trend to corporate social responsibility. accounting forum, 25 (3), september, 300-317. sethi, s.p. (1979). a conceptual framework for environmental analysis of social issues and evaluation of business response patterns. academy of management review, 4 (1), 63-74. spicer, b.h. (1978). investors, corporate social performance and informational disclosure: an empirical study. accounting review, 53 (1), 94 -111. sturdivant, f.d. & ginter, j.l. (1977). corporate social responsiveness, management attitudes and economic performance. california management review, 19 (3), spring, 30-39. suchman, m.c. (1995). managing legitimacy: strategic and institutional approaches. academy of management review, 20, 571-610. vance, s.c. (1975). are socially responsible corporations good investment risks? management review, august, 18-24. vermier, w., van de velde, e. & corten, f. (2005). sustainable and responsible performance. journal of investing, 14 (3), 9499. visser, w., middleton, c. & mcintosh, m. (2005). introduction. the journal of corporate citizenship, summer (18), 18-20. vogl, a.j. (2003). does it pay to be good? across the board, jan/feb, 16-23. waddock, s. (2002). corporate responsibility is not social. ethical corporation magazine, november, 20-21. waddock, s.a., bodwell, c. & graves, s.b. (2002). responsibility: the new business imperative. academy of management executive, 16 (2), 132-150. waddock, s. & smith, n. (2000). corporate responsibility audits: doing well by doing good. sloan management review, winter, 75-82. wartick, s. l, & cochrane, p.l. (1985). the evolution of the corporate social performance model. academy of management review, 10, 758-769. weaver, g.r. (2001). ethics programs in global businesses: culture’s role in managing ethics. journal of business ethics, 30 (1), 3-16. werther, w.b. & chandler,d. (2004). strategic corporate social responsibility as global brand insurance. business horizons, 48, 317-324. witherell, b. (2002). corporate governance and responsibility: foundations of market integrity. oecd obser ver, 234, october, 7-9. wood, d. (1991). corporate social performance revisited. academy of management review, 16 (4), 691-718. world business council for sustainable development (2000). csr: making good business sense. http:www.wbcsd. ch/docroot/5mbuksfwpqagppppuq/ue/csr2000.pdf (accessed 13 may 2004). world business council for sustainable development (2003). sustainable development reporting: striking the balance. http:www.wbcsd.ch/docroot/ggfpsq8dgngt5k56saw/200 30106_sdreport.pdf (accessed 13 may 2004). zadek, s. (2001). the civil corporation, the new economy of corporate citizenship. first edition. london: earthscan publications. zadek, s. (2004). the path to corporate responsibility. har vard business review, december, 1-8. da piedade, thomas64 abstract introduction research purpose and objectives literature review research method discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) liezel cilliers department of information systems, university of fort hare, south africa willie t. chinyamurindi department of business management, university of fort hare, south africa kim viljoen department of business management, university of fort hare, south africa citation cilliers, l., chinyamurindi, w.t., & viljoen, k. (2017). factors influencing the intention to use social media for work-related purposes at a south african higher education institution. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a859. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.859 original research factors influencing the intention to use social media for work-related purposes at a south african higher education institution liezel cilliers, willie t. chinyamurindi, kim viljoen received: 01 sept. 2016; accepted: 03 apr. 2017; published: 25 july 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the rapid development of information communication technology (ict) has changed much of contemporary society. ict’s influence extends to the working context with ramifications not only for employees but also for the entire organisation. research purpose: the primary purpose of this research was to investigate the behavioural intention of a sample of employees at a traditional higher education institution to make use of social media within the workplace. motivation for the study: social media has become a common tool within society for communication and networking purposes. an understanding of the factors that influence behavioural intention to use social media within the workplace can assist the organisation to better manage social media usage within the workplace. research design, approach and method: the research adopted the positivism paradigm with a quantitative research approach. the data were analysed making use of exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis. a traditional higher education institution was chosen as the research site for the study, relying on a convenience sample (n = 134) and data gathered using the work-related social media scale and behavioural intention to use scale. main findings: although most employees make use of social media for problem-solving and communication purposes already in the workplace, organisations should allow their employees to help manage their reputation on social media. practical and managerial implications: an understanding of the factors that influence behavioural intention to use social media within the workplace can serve as a useful precursor for both employee and organisational-specific interventions. this study has specific relevance to the use of ict platforms, such as social media, in traditional higher education institutions in south africa. the study’s results are therefore useful to both employees as end-users and managers as drivers of such interventions in the workplace. contribution: this study is one of the first within a south african work context to investigate social media usage in a traditional higher education institution and proposes a workplace social media usage framework (wsmuf) that helps not only employees but also the entire organisation to predict intention to use social media in the workplace. introduction the rapid development of information and communication technologies (ict) has changed how the workplace functions. social media is seen as a powerful tool that can be used for a variety of purposes within the workplace, resulting in organisations dedicating a separate budget for this activity (hysa, mularczyk & zdonek, 2015; nielsen, 2013). more and more organisations are including social media in their marketing activities, market research, customer service, recruitment and promotion strategies (gerber, 2016; okazaki & taylor, 2013). in accordance with this trend, chinyamurindi and louw (2010) argue that more research should be conducted that focuses on technology within the south african context. social media is defined as ‘a group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of web 2.0, and that allow for the creation and exchange of user-generated content’ (kaplan & haenlein, 2010, p. 60). the decision to include social media in the organisation’s business strategies is motivated by several factors. these include the convenience of using social media services, greater awareness of the benefits that may be gained through social media tools and access to potential recruits with the possibility of disseminating information to a wider audience (palonka & porebska-miac, 2014). for the customer, social media provides an online communication platform to discuss their favourite brands or raise concerns about the organisation (stefko, bacik & fedorko, 2014). in south africa, nearly 30 million south africans have access to social media networks through their mobile phones. examples of social media networks include facebook, twitter, linkedin, instagram, google + and youtube. businesstech (2015) reported that the most popular social media site in south africa is facebook with an estimated 12 million users. this popularity, as framed in the literature, could be because of a number of reasons. firstly, facebook has transformed the workplace in that it is social in nature and allows participants to send, receive and process information freely for use by others (aula, 2010). furthermore, facebook allows for open participation and the assimilation of information across different communication channels (gerber, 2016). it also provides a communication channel for employees to discuss work-related issues away from management oversight and to share personal and work information. this, however, means that the organisation (unlike with conventional media) is no longer able to control the information that is put in the public domain about their products or services (aula, 2010). secondly, facebook is commonly referred to as grassroots technology, which means that the employees were using the technology before the organisation implemented a social media strategy. this means that employees are familiar with the technology and are more likely to adopt it for business purposes. thus, many social media tools, such as facebook, can be used both at work and at home, obscuring the boundary between these two contexts. for example, employees can upload information on their personal page that could be inconsistent with or may harm the organisation’s image or brand (dreher, 2014). in a study, 60% of management believed that they had a right to know what their employees post, but despite this acknowledgement, only 17% of these organisations had implemented a programme to monitor and mitigate risks related to social networks (lanham, 2010). these characteristics provide an interesting question concerning the factors that will determine how employees in traditional higher education institutions decide to make use of social media to perform their duties. employee social media usage can be considered a strong indicator of the technology’s success and will ultimately determine the acceptance, implementation and strategic benefit of social media in the workplace (ajzen, 1991; ali-hassan, nevo & wadec, 2015). organisations are also interested in their employees’ social media usage to derive benefits from and assess the business value of the technology. behavioural intention occurs when the employee decides to use the different features of the information technology artefact (in this case facebook) to accomplish a task that is associated with a predefined organisational goal (ajzen, 1991). researchers have previously studied the use of social media in the workplace, with most of these studies focusing on a specific discipline or field, for example, corporate, public sector, academia or the health care sector (gholami-kordkheili, wild & strech, 2013; guy, 2012; magro, 2012; wu, sun & tan, 2013). these studies focused almost exclusively on the externally focused usage of social media technologies such as advertising, communication and marketing of organisations in developed countries. the internal usage of social media, in comparison, has not been investigated as thoroughly (ouirdi, ouirdi, segers & henderickx, 2015). in addition, very few studies have been conducted in developing countries. academia has traditionally used social media to improve collaboration and communication with students to improve teaching and learning (external usage of social media; cilliers, 2016). social media technologies have been recognised as a viable supplement to the traditional learning environment. however, in line with the international trend, not many studies have focused on the internal usage of social media among academic employees in developing countries such as south africa. research purpose and objectives research into the use of social media in the workplace is growing both locally and internationally (hysa et al., 2015; palonka & porebska-miac, 2014). nevertheless, there is a need for further research in south africa on the factors that will determine the behavioural intention to use social media in the workplace. although it is acknowledged that social media is often used in the higher education context to improve teaching and learning or for external purposes such as marketing the institution, there is very little information available about how employees in higher education institutions decide to make use of social media to perform their duties, for example, internal usage (birch & irvine, 2009; chen & bryer, 2012; cilliers, 2016). the purpose of this study was to identify employees’ behavioural intention to make use of social media in the workplace at a south african traditional higher education institution. the overall research question that guided this study was: ‘what factors influence the behavioural intent of employees in the south african higher education sector to make use of social media for work purposes?’ literature review theoretical development this research draws on the theoretical underpinnings of the technology acceptance model (tam) (venkatesh, morris, davis & davis, 2003), which posits that attitude towards social media usage reflects the potential to not only use but also adopt the technology. this view within a south african setting has been supported by a number of studies (e.g. chinyamurindi & louw, 2010; chinyamurindi & shava, 2015; shava, chinyamurindi & somdyala, 2016) leading to the tam, specifically behavioural intention to use, being theorised to be a useful predictor of behaviours, such as intention, when deciding to adopt technology (agundo-peregrina, hernández-garcía & pascual-miguel, 2014; venkatesh et al., 2003). social media usage and behavioural intention to use the tam was developed by davis in 1986 and is one of the most cited theoretical frameworks in the information systems field. it is used to examine the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use that will ultimately determine the employee’s intention to make use of social media and can, therefore, be used to predict and validate factors that will influence technology adoption, acceptance and use (cilliers & flowerday, 2012). within an organisational setting, an employee’s intention to make use of social media platforms, such as facebook, can improve co-worker and supervisor support and create a platform to highlight job-related demands as it provides direct communication in the quickest possible time (lilley, grodzinsky & gumbus, 2012; ouirdi et al., 2015). furthermore, the intention to make use of social media in the assimilation of new, young employees was found to increase morale and the employees’ feelings of cultural belonging, whereas the use of an internal social networking improved employee engagement and job performance (ouirdi et al., 2015). landers and callan (2014) proposed a work-related social media questionnaire (wsmq) that could be used to determine the beneficial and harmful social media-related work behaviours that are applicable across various industries and jobs. the positive work-related social media behaviours were identified as reputation management, extra-office communication, and task-related and intra-office communication, whereas the negative behaviours included offending others and behaviours that can damage reputation and relationship or waste time. fusch (2011) divides social media tools into three important categories for the user: communication, sharing and collaboration. facebook, the social media site chosen for this study, provides employees with the opportunity to conduct activities in all three groups. employees can further communicate with each other by posting on other employees’ facebook sites, they can share information or documents, and groups of employees can open a facebook page with the aim to collaborate on a specific topic (guy, 2012). for these reasons, facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms in south africa with some estimates being at 12 million users (businesstech, 2015). within the organisational setting, some concerns exist around social media usage. for instance, concerns are raised around the type of content that can be posted on platforms such as facebook, which speaks to the usefulness of the technology (hysa et al., 2015; palonka & porebska-miac, 2014). other researchers caution that facebook can have a negative influence on both employee and workplace productivity, or ease of use, resulting in social media platforms being blocked during working hours (hysa et al., 2015). shullich (2011) cautions that the increased use of social media in the workplace can be a source of malware (trojans, viruses and spyware) that can compromise the data security and integrity of the organisation. to safeguard against such threats, dreher (2014) advises organisations to pay attention to issues through the implementation of policy governing social media usage in organisations. such policy should be accompanied by both punitive and corrective measures when violations occur (hysa et al., 2015). in addition, gerber (2016) argues for a greater presence of the ict department in supporting all business functions, given that social media usage may transcend across business functions. a review of the extant literature positions the need for this study on three fronts. firstly, there is a growing body of empirical work paying attention to the role of icts within the south african workplace (e.g. chinyamurindi & louw, 2010; de wet, koekemoer & nel, 2016; erasmus, rothmann & van eeden, 2015). however, within this growing body of work, scant attention is given to social media usage within the workplace. secondly, no proposed framework(s) appear to have emerged based on the findings of the growing body of empirical work within a south african context in relation to social media usage. thirdly, calls exist for studies that investigate work-related social media usage in various national, cultural, social and economic contexts (landers & callan, 2014). as its contribution, this study seeks to fill these identified research gaps through assessing the following four hypotheses: hypothesis 1 (h1): a significantly positive relationship exists between university employees’ problem-solving methods and intention to use social media. hypothesis 2 (h2): a significantly positive relationship exists between university employees’ (intra and extra) communication methods and intention to use social media. hypothesis 3 (h3): a significantly positive relationship exists between university employees’ reputational management methods and intention to use social media. hypothesis 4 (h4): a significantly positive relationship exists between university employees’ task accomplishment and intention to use social media. research method research approach saunders, lewis and thornhill (2009) consider a research paradigm as a means to study social phenomena from which certain understandings can be achieved. this study made use of a positivistic paradigm with a descriptive research design and a quantitative approach. such a philosophy and approach has been used in previous studies especially within a south african context following the same research lines (chinyamurindi & louw, 2010; chinyamurindi & shava, 2015; cilliers, 2016; shava et al., 2016). positivism assumes that social reality is singular, objective and is not affected by the researcher’s attempts to investigate it (collis & hussey, 2009). quantitative research is deductive as it is concerned with testing theories; generating models, theories and hypotheses; developing instruments and methods for measurements; experimental controls; and collection of empirical data (kuhn, 1961). for the purpose of this study, a quantitative survey method was used to gather data, whereas a convenience sampling method was used to identify the study participants. a survey method was considered appropriate as large quantities of raw data could be accumulated in a short period of time, thus facilitating advanced statistical analyses. a key component of analysis of the data collected for this study included factor analysis. the purpose of factor analysis in social research is to summarise the data through the identification of latent relationships within the data. research instrument the wsmq was used as the data collection tool in this study. the wsmq is a tool used to measure how employees use social media within the workplace for reasons related either positively or negatively to their work performance. the instrument used consists of three sections and 27 items overall. section a (6 questions) solicited demographic information from respondents (gender, ethnic group, age, level of education, employment status and level of computer knowledge). section b (18 questions) measured the positive work-related social media actions on a 5-point likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). the final section (section c) of the instrument consisted of the dependent variable comprising three items and measuring behavioural intention to use social media in the workplace as identified in previous studies (ajzen, 2006; ong & lai, 2006). the scale measures intent, prediction and planning, which represent three progressive levels of seriousness about the intention to use social media in the workplace. the scale was found to have sufficient ratings of reliability above the recommended threshold of 0.7 suggested by nunnally (1978). a pilot study was used to pre-test the original wsmq questionnaire among a sample of 20 respondents (10 academics and 10 administrators) that was not included in the subsequent main study. suggestions and amendments from this process were used to refine the research instrument of the main study. these included aspects of simplicity and clarity of questions and a suggestion to include a detailed definition of what is meant by social media in the workplace in the accompanying instructions. further, two lecturers in the human resources management and information systems fields were consulted to review a copy of the questionnaire before it was used for data collection. the pilot study provided for the face and content validity of the questionnaire. research respondents data were collected from university staff (n = 202) at one campus of a traditional university. all respondents were affiliated with the university either as an academic or administrative staff member. respondents were informed of their rights that participating in the study was voluntary and that they could withdraw at any time. if respondents were in agreement to this, an ethical consent form was signed before completion of the questionnaire. a total of 200 questionnaires were randomly distributed to academics and administrators at a university event (over a period of 1 week). a total of 134 questionnaires were returned, yielding a response rate of 67%, which was deemed acceptable. table 1 provides a summary of the descriptive statistics of the respondents who took part in the study. table 1: descriptive statistics of respondents. the results in table 1 show a dominance of black female respondents with the majority being aged between 30 and 50 years. the majority of the respondents had obtained a post grade 12 qualification. the respondents indicated that they had ‘a good’ knowledge of computers. all of these results are regarded as representative of the gender, age, qualifications and computer knowledge of the work population at a traditional university (higher education south africa, 2015). descriptive statistics in examining the descriptive statements related to the wsmq as displayed in table 2, it is evident that more participants viewed the statements positively as opposed to negatively, with some having higher means than others. statements 9 and 11 pertaining to employees contacting co-workers via social media and employees posting on their organisations’ social media pages appear to have higher means than statements such as wsmq4 and 6 which relate to contacting clients or customers via social media. because of the fact that this study takes place in a university setting, these findings would be consistent with the nature of the organisation, involving administrators and academics who do not generally contact students via social media. table 2: descriptive statistics for work-related social media questionnaire results. reliability and validity testing the researchers adhered to issues of reliability and validity while collecting, analysing and interpreting the data. the statistical analyses were carried out with spss v24. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient (α) was used to test for internal consistency of the measuring instrument (pallant, 2010). a high cronbach’s alpha coefficient suggests that the scale used is reliable. values of 0.70 and above represent a good level of reliability, whereas values between 0.50 and 0.69 are considered to indicate an acceptable level of reliability (pallant, 2010). the cronbach’s alphas were calculated for sections b and c of the questionnaire and found to be acceptable in both cases. table 3 provides the results of the empirical reliability testing for the scales used in this research. both the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the positive workplace social media scale and behavioural intention to use scale indicated adequate levels of reliability. table 3: cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the scales comprising the measuring instrument. an exploratory factor analysis (efa) was used to identify and validate the sub-constructs contained in the 18-item wsmq. prior to performing the principal components analysis, the suitability of data for factor analysis was assessed. inspection of the correlation matrix revealed the presence of many coefficients of 0.4 and above. the kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) measure was 0.686, exceeding the recommended value of 0.6, and the bartlett’s test of sphericity reached statistical significance, supporting the factorability of the correlations matrix (kaiser, 1970, 1974). thus, the efa was conducted for the purpose of determining validity of the constructs and their associated items. principal components analysis revealed the presence of three components that collectively accounted for 55.98% of the variance in the data. the principal components analysis conducted utilised equamax with kaiser normalisation as the rotation method. the rotated solution revealed three components (problem-solving, communication and reputation management) with a number of items loading on each of the components, as is evident in table 4. the three factors were assessed and named according to the components of the workplace social media usage framework (wsmuf). these factors include problem-solving, communication with peers and clients, and reputation management. it is important to note that the sub-construct of job performance was eliminated from the study at this point because of the fact that the measurement instrument appeared not to capture the essence of the construct adequately, and therefore, it could not be operationalised properly. table 4: exploratory factor analysis results. to conclude the issue of validity and reliability of the measurement instruments, it is important to note that retests of reliability were conducted based on the factors derived from the efa. adequate cronbach’s alphas for the three factors were achieved. further to the retest of reliability, it is necessary to address the issue of the credibility of the scale used to measure the dependent variable: behavioural intention to use. the dependent variable scale was tested for both reliability and validity, and the following results were derived: the cronbach’s alpha score recorded was 0.698, indicating the scale was moderately reliable, and the factor loadings to establish unidimensionality of the scale ranged from 0.724 to 0.874, indicating the scale was measuring a singular construct. correlation and multiple regression results in order to derive results to the hypotheses posed, a correlation analysis was first conducted to determine the significance of individual relationships. the correlation analysis was followed by a multiple regression analysis (mra) which provided further insights into the strengths and directions of the hypothesised relationships. as previously indicated, hypothesis 4 was eliminated from the analysis; therefore, hypotheses 1 to 3 were tested. the results of the correlations achieved between the constructs are provided in table 5. table 5: test of correlation between constructs. table 5 indicates that pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to depict the level of correlation achieved between the variables under study. a p-value of less than 0.05 was selected to indicate statistical significance. based on this explanation, it can be concluded from table 5 that the only significant and positively highly correlated relationship evident between the dependent variables (behavioural intention to use) and the independent variables (problem-solving, communication and reputation management) is the one that exists between behavioural intention to use and reputation management. to further contextualise the various relationships and to understand the possible influence the independent variables have on the dependent variables, an mra was conducted. the various summarised outputs generated from the mra are presented in table 6. table 6: influence of independent variables on behavioural intention to use social media. ethical considerations ethical approval was obtained from the university ethics committee. discussion outline of the findings the purpose of this study was to identify the behavioural intention of a sample of employees at a traditional higher education institution to make use of social media within the workplace. the mra indicates that the independent variables explain 41.90% of the behavioural intention to use the construct. table 6 confirms the findings of the correlation analysis presented in table 5. the only significantly positive relation evident is the one between behavioural intention to use and reputation management (b = 0.650; p < 0.005) which, therefore, supports hypothesis 3. these results indicate that employees are actively concerned with maintaining their organisations and co-workers’ reputations on social media and will actively pursue behaviour that results in reputation management. the findings, however, also reveal that there is no statistically significant relationship, negative or positive, between the other two independent variables (problem-solving or communication) and the dependent variable (behavioural intent), respectively. based on these findings, no support can be found for hypotheses 1, 2 or 4. these findings imply that employees do not actively intend to use social media to assist them with task accomplishment, such as problem-solving and communication at work, and there could be various reasons for this, for example, restricted access to facebook. however, the findings should be contrasted with the descriptive findings reported in table 3 which indicate that employees are already using social media for communication and problem-solving in a work environment. in considering the items used to measure the constructs of problem-solving and communication, it is possible that employees use social media as a ‘last resort’ when they are unable to contact a colleague or need some form of assistance and have not been able to obtain it from another channel in the organisation. thus, although employees are using social media to assist them in the workplace, they perhaps do not consider these to be legitimate ‘work tools’, thus explaining the lack of relationship between problem-solving, communication and behavioural intent to use social media in the workplace. the main findings of this research indicate that the behavioural intent to use social media in the academic workplace is predicated by only one factor: reputation management. thus, one of the contributions of this study, given the scant empirical focus on studies on social media usage in the south african workplace, is the knowledge that although academic staff does make use of social media in the workplace for communication and problem-solving, only reputational management of the institution is pursued actively. this extends understanding to the growing body of empirical work in south africa focusing on the role of icts in south africa (de wet et al., 2016; erasmus et al., 2015) and uniquely with social media usage. practically, organisations can emphasise the communication capability as argued by the wsmuf to improve not only communication processes but also channels through which information is shared. furthermore, the wsmuf can be a useful basis through which interventions that follow responsible social media usage can be based on. for instance, through the factor associated with reputation management, employees can be made aware of the positives and negatives of social media on not only employee reputations but also organisational reputations. a platform such as social media should not be seen as entirely counterproductive to ideals of improving organisational productivity but one that can improve such. relating main findings to the literature social media has been identified in literature as being used by organisations for marketing activities, market research, customer service, recruitment and promotion strategies (gerber, 2016). these strategies have an external focus. very little has been written about the internal usage and behavioural intent to make use of social media among employees. facebook, in particular, has allowed for open participation and the assimilation of information across a variety of different communication channels (stefko et al., 2014). the wsmuf supports this notion as communication and problem-solving among employees in the workplace were identified as two factors that will predict behavioural intent to use social media in the workplace. the third factor, reputation management, is the most important predictor of behavioural intent to use social media in the workplace. organisations recognise that brand management becomes more difficult if employees are allowed to post information that may be incongruent with the organisation’s image, as they no longer control the information that is put in the public domain about their products or services (aula, 2010). the employees believe that managing the reputation of their organisation and fellow employees is one of the key tasks when they engage in social media in the workplace. this means that the organisation could use their employees to manage their brand on social media. limitations of the study although the study was a useful precursor to understanding the factors that influence behavioural intention to use social media, some limitations can be flagged. firstly, the findings of the study are only generalisable to the entire population of employees working in universities that fit the same profile as those respondents sampled or any other south african university. secondly, the study made use of a sample consisting of both an academic and administrative function. the findings of this work should be viewed with caution especially given the skewed sample. the purpose of this work was to access a sample most accessible to the researchers, hence adoption of a convenience sampling approach. finally, a further shortcoming of this research is its reliance on retrospective data that include how employees use social media. the reliability of such data is questionable as in some cases employees may forget events and experiences. suggestions for future research future research could qualitatively explore the factors in the wsmuf as proposed in this study. this could take the form of exploring the tensions and relatedness (if any) that may exist between the factors in the wsmuf. future research could also test the wsmuf in other contexts of interest, such as the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (stem) sector, argued by chinyamurindi and louw (2010) to be key human resource management clusters of the south african economy. although the scale for measuring work-related social media usage is relatively new (landers & callan, 2014), given the diversity that exists in the south african context, future research could test this against such. conclusion social media is transforming the workplace in south africa. the study set out to determine what factors will influence the behavioural intention of employees at a traditional higher education institution to make use of social media in the workplace. the main activities identified through the wsmuf that will contribute to this intention are communication among colleagues, problem-solving and reputation management. the wsmuf for the first time provides a tool for south african organisations to manage their employees’ behavioural intent to make use of social media in the workplace to stay competitive in the social networking age. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions l.c. was responsible for conceptualisation and literature review and k.v. was the statistician. w.t.c. was responsible for conceptualisation and data collection. references agundo-peregrina, á.f., hernández-garcía, a., & pascual-miguel, f.j. (2014). behavioral intention, use behavior and the acceptance of electronic learning systems: differences between higher education and lifelong learning. computers in human behavior, 34, 301–314. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.10.035 ajzen, i. (1991). the theory of planned behaviour. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 50, 179–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-t ajzen, i. (2006). constructing a tpb questionnaire: conceptual and methodological considerations. world wide web. retrieved april 15, 2016, from http://www.people.umass.edu/aizen/pdf/tpb.measurement.pdf ali-hassan, h., nevo, d., & wadec, m. (2015). linking dimensions of social media use to job performance: the role of social capital. journal of strategic information systems, 24, 65–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2015.03.001 aula, p. (2010). social media, reputation risk and ambient publicity management. strategy & leadership, 38(6), 43–49. https://doi.org/10.1108/10878571011088069 birch, a., & irvine, v. (2009). preservice teachers’ acceptance of ict integration in the classroom: applying the utaut model. educational media international, 46(4), 295–315. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523980903387506 businesstech. (2015). facebook reveals user numbers for south africa. retrieved april 16, 2016, from http://www.businesstech.co.za/news/internet/98085/facebook-reveals-user-numbers-for-south-africa/15 chen, b., & bryer, t. (2012). investigating instructional strategies for using social media in formal and informal learning. the international review of research in open and distance learning, 13(1), 87–104. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v13i1.1027 chinyamurindi, w., & shava, h. (2015). an investigation into e-learning acceptance and gender amongst final year students. south african journal of information management, 17(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajim.v17i1.635 chinyamurindi, w.t., & louw, g.j. (2010). gender differences in technology acceptance in selected south african companies: implications for electronic learning. south african journal of human resources management, 8(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.204 cilliers, l. (2016). wiki acceptance by university students to improve collaboration in higher education. innovations in education and teaching international, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2016.1180255 cilliers, l., & flowerday, s. (2012). technology acceptance of telemedicine in the eastern cape department of health. presented at ist-africa 2012, dar es salaam, tanzania. collis, j., & hussey, r. (2009). business research: a practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. new york: palgrave. de wet, w., koekemoer, e., & nel, j.a. (2016). exploring the impact of information and communication technology on employees’ work and personal lives. south african journal of industrial psychology, 42(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v42i1.1330 dreher, s. (2014). social media and the world of work. corporate communications: an international journal, 19(4), 334–356. https://doi.org/10.1108/ccij-10-2013-0087 erasmus, e., rothmann, s., & van eeden, c. (2015). a structural model of technology acceptance. south african journal of industrial psychology, 41(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v41i1.1222 fusch, d. (2011). social media and student learning: moving the needle on engagement. academic impressions, 15. gerber, p. (2016). achieving it governance of social media at strategic and operational levels. international business and economics research journal, 15(4), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.19030/iber.v15i4.9753 gholami-kordkheili, f., wild, v., & strech, d. (2013). the impact of social media on medical professionalism: a systematic qualitative review of challenges and opportunities. journal of medical internet research, 15(8), e.184. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.2708 guy, r. (2012). the use of social media for academic practice: a review of literature. kentucky journal of higher education policy and practice, 1(2), 7. higher education south africa. (2015). strategic framework for hesa. insight, 1–15. hysa, b., mularczyk, a., & zdonek, i. (2015). social media: the challenges and the future direction of the recruitment process in hrm area. studia ekonomiczne, 234, 54–69. kaiser, h. (1970). a second generation little jiffy. psychometrika, 35, 401–415. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02291817 kaiser, h. (1974). an index of factorial simplicity. psychometrika, 39, 31–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02291575 kaplan, a., & haenlein, m. (2010). users of the world, unite! the challenges and opportunities of social media. business horizons, 53, 59–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2009.09.003 kuhn, t.s. (1961). the function of measurement in modern physical science. isis, 52, 161–193. https://doi.org/10.1086/349468 landers, r.n., & callan, r.c. (2014). validation of the beneficial and harmful work-related social media behavioral taxonomies: development of the work-related social media questionnaire (wsmq). social science computer review, 32, 628–646. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439314524891 lanham, j. (2010). social media in the workplace. new york: employment law. lilley, s., grodzinsky, f., & gumbus, a. (2012). revealing the commercialized and compliant facebook user. journal of information, communication and ethics in society, 10(2), 82–92. https://doi.org/10.1108/14779961211226994 magro, m. (2012). a review of social media use in e-government. administrative sciences, 2(2), 148–161. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci2020148 nielsen. (2013). paid social media advertising: industry update and best practices. retrieved april 06, 2016, from http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/reports-downloads/2013%20reports/nielsen-paid-social-media-adv-report-2013.pdf nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory. new york: mcgraw-hill. okazaki, s., & taylor, c. (2013). social media and international advertising: theoretical challenges and future directions. international marketing review, 30(1), 56–71. https://doi.org/10.1108/02651331311298573 ong, c.s., & lai, j.y. (2006). gender differences in perceptions and relationships among dominants of e-learning acceptance. computers in human behavior, 22(5), 816–829. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2004.03.006 ouirdi, a., ouirdi, m., segers, j., & henderickx, e. (2015). employees’ use of social media technologies: a methodological and thematic review. behavior & information technologies, 34(5), 454–464. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929x.2015.1004647 pallant, j. (2010). spss survival manual. berkshire: mcgraw hill. palonka, j., & porebska-miac, t. (2014). social recruitment. rzeszów, poland: oficyna wydawnicza ptz. saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2009). research methods for business students. london: pearson education limited. shava, h., chinyamurindi, w.t., & somdyala, a. (2016). an investigation into the usage of mobile phones among technical and vocational educational and training students in south africa. south african journal of information management, 18(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajim.v18i1.716 shullich, r. (2011). risk assessment of social media. retrieved april 07, 2016, from http://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/privacy/risk-assessment-social-media-33940 stefko, r., bacik, r., & fedorko, i. (2014). facebook content analysis of banks operating on slovak market. polish journal of management studies, 10(1), 145–152. venkatesh, v., morris, m., davis g.b., & davis, f. (2003). user acceptance of information technology: toward a unified view. mis quarterly, 27, 425–427. wu, j., sun, h., & tan, y. (2013). social media research: a review. journal of systems science and systems engineering, 22(3), 257–282. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11518-013-5225-6 abstract introduction research design research findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) lucky l. motaung department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa mark h.r. bussin department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa renjini m. joseph department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa citation motaung, l.l., bussin, m.h.r., & joseph, r.m. (2017). maternity and paternity leave and career progression of black african women in dual-career couples. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a902. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.902 original research maternity and paternity leave and career progression of black african women in dual-career couples lucky l. motaung, mark h.r. bussin, renjini m. joseph received: 20 dec. 2016; accepted: 01 aug. 2017; published: 28 sept. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the study focused on examining the perceptions of dual-career couples at a state-owned company about the influence of taking maternity and paternity leave on the career progression of black african women in middle management and leadership occupations. research purpose: the primary purpose of the study was to identify core barriers in relation to maternity and paternity leave that contribute negatively in the career progression of black african women in dual-career couples. motivation for the study: to obtain insight into the underrepresentation and progression of black african women within dual-career couples, in middle management and leadership occupations. research design, approach and method: this study was qualitative, comprising a sample of 10 black african women and 10 black african men, with data collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews. thematic analysis was utilised to analyse the interview dialogues. main findings: the findings established that taking maternity leave has a negative influence on the career progression of black african women in dual-career couples at the state-owned company. the participants further confirmed that involuntary time off work and productiveness were principal influencing barriers of taking maternity leave, leading to other undesirable consequences, such as unproductiveness and reliability. practical and managerial implications: the state-owned company should review its current talent management and recruitment and selection policies, in order to positively contribute to increasing the representation and facilitating career progression of black african women within dual-career couples, in middle management and leadership occupations. contributions or value-add: insights were provided on the influences of taking maternity and paternity leave in the underrepresentation and progression of black african women within dual-career couples, in middle management and leadership occupations. introduction family and organisational support are two primary elements that play a pivotal role in the career progression of women into leadership and top management roles, especially those who are part of a dual-career couple (dcc) (smit, 2006). many current work practices do not facilitate gender equality (smit, 2006), which is one of the values upheld by the south african constitution and the employment equity act (labour relations act, rsa, 1998b; rsa constitution, 1996). in relation to this article, there exists a challenge in the underrepresentation of black african women in middle management and leadership occupations, as well as their slow progression to such positions. focus of the study the study focused on examining how taking maternity leave (ml) and paternity leave (pl) influences the career progression of black african women in dccs, in middle management and leadership occupations. the study was conducted in a state-owned company (soc), as socs are some of the primary custodians in promoting equal employment opportunities as per the employment equity act (eea, 1998a). socs are legal entities that undertake commercial activities on behalf of an owner government. the legal status of an soc varies from being part of the government to being stock companies with the state as a majority stakeholder (public finance management act 1, 1999). the primary purpose of the study was to identify core barriers in relation to ml and pl that contribute negatively to the career progression of black african women in dccs. the study also enabled the researcher to determine how black african women manage tension between their work and family roles and the impact this may have on their career goals and success. it could be argued that if a woman successfully manages family responsibilities with sufficient and relevant support, her career could positively progress, as she will have a fair opportunity to pursue her career goals (nath, 2000). the study provided a broad examination of how taking ml and pl may influence the career progression of black african women as part of a dcc in middle management and leadership occupations at an soc, by examining both internal and external factors. background to the study for the purposes of this study, the term black african women refers to only black south african women, excluding women of mixed race and those of indian background. the below extract provides an indication on how black african women are bound, to a certain extent, by culturally inherent practices that define them, and their place in society and within the family unit: the vital life goal of black african women is to be oriented within their culture. this means to be rooted in the knowledge and practice of the culture of one’s peoples, to extract lessons from it and to use it in emancipatory, transformative and enriching ways. being a black african women begins with and is rooted in african tradition and culture. (karenga & tembo, 2012, p. 40) traditionally, men were expected to fulfil the role of sole earner in the household. women were then expected to assume economic dependency and the role of motherhood, with no aspiration for career acknowledgement and fulfilment (bosch, de bruin, de bruin & kgaladi, 2012). bosch et al. (2012) also indicated that, from an early age, black african girls are culturally indoctrinated to grow up into childbearing and motherhood roles, whereby they do not see themselves as equal to men in any aspects of their being. such socialisation can bring about many consequences that could eventually influence young black african women when they are mature and are required to make life-enhancing decisions that affect their future and growth. such influence could bring about thinking among black african women that they would never be equal to men, be it socially or economically. for many years, the majority of black african women have been inactive in the employment arena, with most of those that are employed not being as career-orientated as men. this is a result of the historical role that was imposed on them (greenhaus, callanan & godshalk, 2010). although more black african women are now employed, there exist some consequences of the socialisation of black african women. herman (2016) and mumma (2001) describe a dcc as a household where both the woman and the man earn an income and both spouses are dedicated to their professional occupations in which they pose specialist content knowledge in their field. being a spouse in a dcc can be a challenging role, which entails time and devotion (greenhaus & powell, 2006; iiies, keeney & scott, 2011). hall (2002) defined a career as a lifetime development of employment-related engagements and deeds that embrace both objective and independent elements. career success may have different meanings for men and women from the beginning of their careers to maturity. rajadhyaksha and bhatnagar (2000) argued that the significant difference between the male and female definitions of career success is that women aspire to achieve importance in what they deliver, when compared to men, who aspire for seniority in their occupations. research objective and problem the primary aim of the study was to examine how taking ml and pl influences the career progression of black african women as part of dccs at an soc. the research problem was that we did not adequately understand the impact that taking ml and pl had on the career progression of black african women as part of dccs at the soc, within middle management and leadership occupations. trends from literature motherhood has developed from the standard care-giving role towards a role of rising importance regarding attaining individual aspirations within the context of life, as well as a career (moore, 2013). the current minimal participation of men as caregivers in the form of formalised pl puts more pressure on women in balancing their careers and care-giving roles (moore, 2013). the fertility rate of black african women in 2010, with an average of 2.3 children, shows a clear obligation that is still being experienced by black african women in their quest to balance career goals and childbearing responsibilities (smit, 2006). the fertility rate of black african women dropped from 6.8 in the 1950s, to 5.8 in the 1970s, to the current rate of 2.3, which suggests that black african women are now minimising and delaying childbearing in an attempt to focus more on their career goals and progress and to minimise their time off work because of ml (moore, 2013). among other reasons, this delay could also be because of financial constraints resulting from the high unemployment rate among black african women (stats sa, 2015). nonetheless, it is imperative to take note that having children, although fewer than before, is still a vital part of black african women’s identity, even though it may influence their career progression and success (moore, 2013). while care-giving behaviours have been mostly related to feminine values and characteristics (mainiero & sullivan, 2005), recent studies indicate that, to a large extent, men are also developing increased self-consciousness regarding care roles (harrington, van deusen & mazar, 2012). men not only aspire to be economically supportive but also seek to be psychologically and physically supportive within their households (harrington et al., 2012). in ireland, where pl is policy, working fathers who have utilised pl mentioned that it has enabled them to be good fathers to their children and to feel more psychologically attached to their family units (pesonen, 2015). this indicates the essential support pl can provide to the dcc family unit and broader socio-economic context if properly and legislatively formalised. value-add of the study through this study, it has been established that taking ml and pl has a direct and indirect influence on the perceived career progression of black african women in dccs at a specific soc, in middle management and leadership occupations. in the acknowledgement of this influence, the study also contributed to the limited theory and knowledge on the topic and field of study within the context of south africa (sa). furthermore, the study identified a relationship between the black african women and black african men in their experiences and understandings of the influence of ml on the career progression of black african women in dccs at an soc, with a 90% support of such an influence across all the participants. the identification of this relation proved to be quite essential and added value to the overall study in indicating certain commonalities regarding how black african women and black african men perceive one another within the workplace and family environment. the following section reviews relevant current literature on ml and pl and the career progression of black african women. the research design is then presented followed by a report on the data gathered. the article is concluded after a detailed discussion on the main findings, limitations of the study and recommendations for future research. literature review black african women in the south african labour market the isolation of women in the notion of working-class encounters in sa must ideally be studied within the framework of the colonial and apartheid constructions of african women (tshoaedi, 2012). overall, women in the sa labour market have been secluded and discriminated against for a number of years, whereby for a majority of them, their contributions, if any, were only restricted to unskilled roles (floro & komatsu, 2011; gurjao, 2006). despite the effects of colonialism and apartheid, numerous positive strides have been made in the liberation and upliftment of women and black african women in the sa labour market (eea, 1998a). some of these developments lie in the establishment of legislation and policies that promote the participation of women in the labour market, such as the lra of 1995, the eea, the skills development act of 1998. these legislative policies have played a great role in promoting the equality journey of women in the sa labour market (eea, 1998a). in spite of some of the accomplishments of women in sa, a lot still has to be overcome both socially and economically to see more meaningful change for women in sa. it has been argued that notwithstanding the nuanced gender equality rights and complemented legislation on paper, women still encompass the majority of the underprivileged and marginalised in sa (sadie, 2015). this marginalisation transpires in that ‘patriarchal’ power still underlies the economic relegation of women (bentley, 2004). the overarching dilemma in this negative phenomenon is that some of these equality policies tend to only look promising on paper, but most of the time their practical implementation lacks impact (sadie, 2015). it can be argued that out of all the races of women in sa, black african women have been by far the worst affected and discriminated against in many possible ways (flood, hoosain & primo, 1997). historically, black african women who were privileged enough to have been employed were customarily employed as domestic workers mainly. in 1998, an estimated total average of more than 80% of all domestic workers was black african women. while also concurrently acting as heads of their families in certain instances, black african women were greatly disadvantaged, as they also often received far lower incomes than black african men (forger et al., 2001; ministry for welfare & population development, 1998). during black african women’s career progression prior to 1994, black african women were subjected to a conceptual acknowledgement called ‘double jeopardy’ or ‘double discrimination’ (de vries, 1991; davidson, 1997; sewpaul, 1994; talley-poss, 1995). black african women in sa were being oppressed, both for being ‘black’ and also for being women (commission of gender equality, 2001). these were some of the unfortunate realities that black african women were faced with in their daily lives within the sa labour market and broader socio-economic landscape, in addition to their struggle for equality and liberation. there may be undesirable effects of such ‘double discrimination’ that could have hindered their confidence, self-esteem and courage. it can be contended that these effects may still be indoctrinated in some of their social behaviours, which could take years to totally eradicate within their psychological system and general outlook on life. attainments and challenges in maternity leave maternity leave refers to granting women time off work before and after childbirth and, in some cases, for adoption of a child (basic conditions of employment act [bcea], 1997; smit, 2006). this time off provides some degree of job and social security to women during the process of childbirth and early childcare (bcea, 1997). in the sa context, ml is a legislative entitlement under the bcea, which stipulates that ml can be taken for a period of up to four consecutive months (bcea, 1997). employers have their own policies on remunerating employees, but if an employer does not provide financial ml benefits, a female employee can claim benefits for 17 weeks from the unemployment insurance fund (uif). givati and troiano (2012) argue that the provision of paid ml is an inadequate answer to the numerous impediments of maternity discrimination, disparity in the workplace and lack of representation of women in managerial and leadership occupations. paid ml may be regarded as only a small advance in the journey towards eradicating all forms of discrimination against women in our labour markets. it is also quite cognisant to appreciate the efforts by some countries including sa and many european countries in making paid ml a reality, whereas women in other countries like united states are not privileged to this right (lra, 1995; oecd, 1995). contemporary research has revealed that the main impact of paid ml could merely just be a gesture to the acknowledgement of equality and inclusion, supplementary to it being a definite diagnosis for it (givati & troiano, 2012). attainments and challenges in paternity leave paternity leave refers to the short-term leave available to fathers in the period subsequent to the delivery or adoption of a child, affording men the opportunity to devote additional time to their families, while maintaining job security (evans, 2007; haas, 2003). it is important to acknowledge that pl is not legally enforced within the sa labour environment and that it is only utilised as a benefit within the family responsibility leave category for fathers, limited only to 3 days per annum in some organisations (bcea, 1997; mokomane, 2009; morrell & richter, 2006). most southern african countries compare poorly to european union countries when comparing pl policies and legislation. slovenia offers pl of 90 days, finland 7–21 days and denmark 14 days (lammi-taskula, 2008; quoted in smit, 2006). moss (2012) highlights pl as a compensated father’s privilege as opposed to a duty, to a few days absence, engaged concurrently with the mother after childbirth. as much as pl may be an entitlement, it is important to take cognisance that pl is not considered a right to men, but only a privileged entitlement to a few (mokomane, 2009; morrell & richter, 2006). there is little knowledge documented regarding the understanding and involvement of black african men as fathers within the context of pl (wall, 2014). the uniqueness regarding black african men is to be seen in their embedded culture and traditional conceptions in terms of a woman’s role in the family unit as ‘housewife and child bearer’ (santho, 1995). it is also important to acknowledge that this cultural stigma is slowly fading away among black african men who are fathers, as many men seem to appreciate the value of pl recently (wall, 2014). motherhood and marriage within the labour markets hardill (2002) mentions that although there is autonomous decision making regarding compensated employment, the obligations of social reproduction still exclusively remain a women’s responsibility. this highlights the over-encompassing challenge of women having to maintain a peculiar balance between their ever-conflicting roles, as childbearer and as full-time employee (atkinson & hall, 2009). empirical evidence indicates that, even within dcc households, gender disparities in decision making and time allocation still remains an incitement, with some degree of disagreement and compromise extremely persistent (wheatly, 2013). the interchange to parenthood may seem to be a seamless family portrayal, but may also have the potential of negatively impacting the work domain (wheatly, 2013). salmera-aro, nurmi, saisto and halmesmaki (2000) argue in congruence of this imbalanced development in a study of pregnant parents. the study indicated that the conversion to parenthood not only affects individual goals in the domestic domain but also hinders achievement objectives within the employment domain as well. they further indicated that during pregnancy, women tend to prioritise family-associated objectives more and employment achievement aspirations less, whereas there was no subsequent impact on the employment achievement goals among men (salmera-aro et al., 2000). representation of black african women in management positions and their progression to leadership roles in the south african labour market table 1 indicates the high labour force population of black african women within the sa labour market across all groups of women. even though black african women represent the majority of women within the labour market at 73.5% in 2015, it must be noted that most of them only occupy semi-skilled to low-skilled jobs. out of their overall 73.5% labour force composition, 39.0% occupy semi-skilled occupations and 43.4% occupy low-skilled occupations, leaving only 17.6% occupying skilled jobs within which middle management and leadership roles would fall. table 1: employment by occupation, population group and sex, q3: 2015. table 1 further highlights that white and indian/asian women workforce groups dominate employment in skilled occupations as compared to black african women and women of mixed race, despite black african women being the dominant group within the woman workforce. black african women remain highly underrepresented and disadvantaged within skilled, professional and managerial occupations at only 17.6% – the lowest of all the women groups. this negative gap that exists to date between black african women and other women groups within the skilled, professional and managerial occupations are not representative of the demographics of sa. this gap becomes more prominent in an era where, to a certain extent, black african women pose more or less similar offerings in terms of education, knowledge, skills and capabilities, as women of other race groups, but still remain the most disadvantaged. this underrepresentation and slow progression of black african women in skilled, professional and managerial occupations support the literature in indicating that they are the most disadvantaged group among women in sa (forger et al., 2001; ministry for welfare & population development, 1998). research design research approach this study was qualitative, whereby in-depth, semi-structured interviews were utilised in examining the influence of ml and pl on the career progression of black african women who are part of dccs at an soc, in middle management and leadership occupations. a qualitative design enriched the context of the study in comprehending real-life social experiences that black african women encounter in their daily working lives. the qualitative approach allows little or no disruption and manipulation of their existing working social life cohesion (holiday, 2007; holloway & wheeler, 2010). research strategy an interpretivist theoretical approach was adopted in the study. the ontological stance of the researcher in the study was that there is no one realism. based on the researcher’s view, reality is subjective, socially accumulated and founded on the insights and experiences of the researcher and the participants (creswell, 2007; crotty, 1998). the epistemology was that of a naturalistic inquiry (lincoln & cuba, 1985). according to blumer (1969, pp. 46–48), ‘a naturalistic inquiry refers to a special form of inquiry that respects the natural integrity of the empirical problem under study’. in the appreciation of this natural reliability, the problem must be deliberated in its normal enduring atmosphere, in the absence of any possible predetermined elements to it (blumer, 1969). research method research setting the study was conducted at an soc in sa, as socs are considered to be one of the primary custodians in promoting employment equity in the best interest of the country’s transformation policies. this soc operates within the research and development and energy sectors. its primary activities include research and development, engineering and manufacturing. entrée and establishing researcher roles a researcher normally gains admission to an organisational setting by obtaining the consent of the persons in charge. permission to conduct the study at this soc was granted by the group executive: corporate services. the researcher’s role in this study was primarily that of an insider researcher; with consideration that the researcher is male, not yet married, not part of a dcc and not yet a father. this to a certain extent enhanced the researcher’s lack of bias. the role was furthermore limited to that of a human resource (hr) business partner aspiring to add value and novel knowledge to the field of study (schurink, 2005). population and sampling the population of the study comprised black african women and black african men, who work at the soc in middle and leadership occupations and who are part of a dcc. the sample consisted of 20 participants. non-random convenience purposive sampling was utilised. the selection of the participants in qualitative studies largely emanates from the target population of the research setting, which materialises in a convenience purposive sample of individuals. these individuals would have had exposure to some of the problem statement elements (ryan, coughlin & cronin, 2007). as a result, their insights would greatly contribute towards the achievement of the study’s objectives (quick & hall, 2015). the sample comprised 10 black african women and 10 black african men – whereby all 20 participants were permanent black african employees of the soc, who had functional backgrounds in finance, human resources, science and engineering, research and development, training and development and corporate business management. furthermore, the primary participants were black african women within the various levels of the organisational hierarchy, with a majority of them in middle management and leadership positions. middle-level to leadership management–level positions were selected as they are the roles that are being researched. these positions are being studied as they are deemed to be career phases, which are both demanding and arduous in terms of leadership and achievement. furthermore, the sample selection criterion was that the black african women and black african men participating in the study must be married and part of a dcc and also have a minimum of one child in their individual family unit. participants who had a minimum of one child offered an opportunity to examine the complexity involved in balancing domestic and employment roles as well as how ml and pl are utilised. this also highlighted the intricacy that transpires within the fundamentals of child-caring responsibilities. data collection methods semi-structured, in-depth, face-to-face interviews were utilised as the primary data collection mechanism for this study. in-depth interviewing, also called ‘conversational interviewing’ is a common technique utilised by qualitative researchers (schurink, 1998). according to schurink (1998), in-depth interviewing entails one or more face-to-face dialogues between an interviewer and an interviewee. recording of data when recording data during qualitative research, researchers must pledge to keep their data physically well organised, develop a plan about how they foresee doing it and ensure that they adhere to their scheme or plan. researchers must also create a back-up system. it is important to keep hard copies of all recorded data in a manual filing system, to ensure that valuable data are not lost in case of any unforeseen circumstances. many different types of documents are used by researchers to enrich their data, and these need to be stored safely (bogdan & biklen, 1992). in this study, all the interviews were recorded by means of a digital dictaphone, accompanied by representative field notes. the researcher transcribed the data from the interviews to enhance confidentiality and anonymity of the participants (nath, 2000). these measures ensured meticulousness in reflecting the participants’ actual words, tone of voice and any other substantial information, which aided in understanding and analysing the responses of the participants. all the data were digitally stored on a laptop and backed up on two external hard drives for safeguarding (schurink, 2004). data analysis thematic analysis was utilised to analyse the interview dialogues in the data analysis of this research. thematic analysis can be stated to be a qualitative statistical methodology of factor analysis or exploration gathering, dually aiming to define a complex data set in relation to a number of scopes or groupings (barker & pistrang, 2012). this entailed methodically classifying and consolidating understandings into patterns of meaning (themes) from the data. furthermore, the purpose of utilising thematic analysis was to realise and make sense of shared significances and experiences (braun & clarke, 2012). it is mostly used to analyse interview data, whereby the researcher analyses the material inductively. themes are derived from the data, rather than being established beforehand (barker & pistrang, 2012). soundness of the study the soundness of the study was determined by its credibility, transparency and transferability. credibility can be established by whether the data dialogued with the participants relates to the conclusions of the research inquiry (esterberg, 2002). transferability is the capability to use a similar research method and process in other but similar circumstances and obtain comparable outcomes (barker & pistrang, 2012). elliott, fischer and rennie (1999); mays and pope (2000) provide the below recommendations regarding trustworthiness, which were followed in the study: foundation (providing some of the raw data upon basing findings); transparency (revealing own preferences and prospects); consistency (themes correspond with data outline); and credibility checks (engaging other sources). (barker & pistrang, 2012, n.p.) in the quest to attain sound validity and credibility in qualitative research, a researcher’s insider involvement has to be proclaimed throughout a qualitative study, irrespective of the picture this may depict (miles & huberman, 1994). the involvement of the researcher has been clarified in this study. in the endeavour to enrich credibility, comprehensive details pertaining to data gathering, analysis and interpretation of a study should be provided. beck (2009), patton (2014) and shenton (2004) indicate that this practice accords replication of the research enhancing transparency, credibility and soundness of a study, highlighting the undesirable or different themes that materialised throughout the research project. in this study, field notes, taped dialogue recordings, original interview questionnaires, data and analyses were some of the key measures in supporting and apprehending the soundness of the study. ethical considerations the researcher adhered to research ethics throughout this study. the primary objective and value of ethics is striving to protect the dignity, well-being, rights and interests of the participants involved in a research study at all times, regardless of any possible setbacks it may convey to a study (quick & hall, 2015). firstly, the participants were informed of the objectives of the research as well as their right to voluntary participation. the researcher also signed a declaration of confidentiality with the participants regarding the information obtained during the interviews. participants also signed consent forms for their participation in the research and with regard to the recording of the interviews. the overall findings of the study will be shared with those participants who have requested to be informed once the study is completed, as a measure of enhancing transparency in the study. research findings the primary purpose of the study was to examine the influence of ml and pl on the career progression of black african women as part of dccs at an soc, in order to obtain more insight on the underrepresentation and slow progression of black african women in middle management and leadership roles. as a result, eight key themes, described below, were identified during the interview process. theme 1: commitment and motivation the initial theme that came about was that of commitment and motivation. lack of commitment and motivation was a challenge or barrier, in that its absence within black african women represented a hindering element that led to a complacent focus in black african women’s career aspirations, affecting and delaying any proactive efforts of a positive career progression. the participant responses in the study supported the above discussion and interpretation, whereby black african women indicated that a lack of commitment and motivation towards their careers was a self-imposed challenge. in comparison to men, the attitudes of women tend to be an important barrier in women’s careers, if they are not being truly committed and motivated. male participants in the study shared the same implication regarding black african women and women in general as not being committed and motivated to their careers, resulting in them not progressing as ideally as they had hoped. based on the response summary of the participants, 70% of the black african women supported this theme and 80% of black african men were also in support of the theme, signifying its importance. theme 2: patriarchal dominance and power the second theme that came about in the study was patriarchal dominance and supremacy. this theme primarily indicated that apart from women being a great barrier in their career progression in terms of lacking commitment and motivation, men transpired to be an important barrier in their career progression, through a societal system that advantages and privileges men. johnson (2005) describes patriarchy as a societal system that operates by essentially constructing privileges for men and concomitantly repressing women, which we all form a part of in one way or another. within the study, both male and female participants acknowledged patriarchal dominance and supremacy in their society as a barrier in the career progression of women in dccs at the soc, and more specifically for black african women. the participants’ supporting responses indicated that the labour market is greatly male dominated and predominantly white male dominated, especially within the middle management to leadership positions. theme 3: internal family support the third theme that came about in the study was internal family support. as indicated in the literature, internal support is one of the most essential support elements for the career progression of black african women in dccs, bearing in mind that black african women are still responsible for most of the household and childrearing burdens (hall & macdermid, 2009; oecd, 2013). besides the substantiating grounds for pl in terms of internal family support, 80% black african women participants indicated that emotional support was by far the most essential form of internal family support. black african women also indicated that they admire emotional support more than any other benefits that can be derived from either pl or any other form or structure of internal family support. the participants further ascribed internal family support towards establishing and having a strong internal support structure at home. theme 4: organisational and managerial support organisational and managerial support was the fourth theme that came about in the study. as depicted in the literature, april, dreyer and blass (2007) argued that, based on the situation-centred theory, employment and its environment can also become obstacles to the professional advancement of women. the participants’ responses supported the above interpretation in that they further acknowledged time off and availability as another deficient organisational support mechanism that also greatly influenced the career progression of black african women and women in general in dccs at an soc. this came about on a number of substantiating grounds, whereby 85% of the participants maintained that involuntary time off work and unavailability resulting from taking ml were the dominating and limiting factors in the career progression of black african women in dccs. theme 5: culture and upbringing the fifth theme that came about in the study was culture and upbringing. traditionally, men were expected to fulfil the role of sole earner in the household, while women were expected to assume economic dependency and the role of motherhood, with no aspiration for career acknowledgement and fulfilment (bosch et al., 2012). a certain number of black african women participants further portrayed a customary undesirable behaviour of perceiving the motherhood burden solely on themselves. black african women seem to not realise that times and customary tradition have evolved and that men are equally accountable for actively taking part in fatherhood and household responsibilities (harrington et al., 2012). as such, women tend to sell themselves short, by upholding certain customary practices that disadvantage them in the long run, even though times and culture have evolved to an extent that they are not compelled to do so. theme 6: training and development training, development and mentoring came about as the sixth theme of the study. both spouses in dccs work vastly in experienced managerial, professional and leadership roles. as a result, it becomes quite apparent that education, training and even mentoring stand to be essential elements in both spouses gaining entry into these occupations and more importantly, in maintaining these roles and their work–life balance. in the absence of education, training and mentoring, they would most likely not have the necessary knowledge in being competent and excelling within their professional occupations (hakim, 2002). in the study, 65% of the participants supported and greatly acknowledged the impact of training, development as well as mentoring on the career progression of black african women in dccs at an soc. the sustenance came from both black african women and black african men participants underpinning the essentiality of this theme in the careers of black african women in dccs. the participants’ responses further specified the importance of career guidance at an early stage, as an important component in ensuring that black african women make the right career choices systematically and early within their career journeys. none of the black african women participants indicated having been mentored in any way thus far in their career journey, except for receiving some form of support from a manager. theme 7: socio-economic support the seventh theme that came about in the study was socio-economic support. the absence of a fundamental socio-economic support system that solemnly prioritises the participation and advancement of black african women in the labour market is considered a barrier to the career progression of black african woman. within the study, 55% of the participants’ responses supported the above argument, whereby there was vast acknowledgement of black african women being the most undermined and underrepresented group of women in the labour market. the participants’ responses further indicated a need for legislated pl. they also argued that although legislative bodies had the authority of implementing such legislated pl, they were not prioritising it on their agenda. theme 8: fairly progressed but not ideal careers for black african women the last and eighth theme that came about in the study was ‘fairly progressed but not ideal’ careers for black african women. this theme supported and reinforced all the previous themes generated and identified in the study, portraying a comprehensive overall story about the research data. all the identified themes in the study comprehended this unified and overarching theme of fairly progressed but not ideal careers for black african women. as a result, 80% of black african women participants indicated that their careers had progressed fairly, but acknowledged that they were not in their ideal career phase. of the black african men participants, 60% also acknowledged that their spouses’ careers had progressed, but not ideally as they had hoped. only 20% of black african men admitted to their spouses’ careers having progressed well, attributing such success to the support they had provided throughout their spouses’ career. discussion the primary aim of the study was to examine how taking ml and pl influences the career progression of black african women as part of dccs at an soc. the main and key finding of this study was that it was established that taking ml and pl had a direct and indirect influence on the career progression of black african women in dccs at this soc, in middle management and leadership occupations. of the participants, 90% agreed that taking ml has a negative influence on the career progression of black african women in dccs at the soc, in middle management and leadership occupations. there were a number of direct and indirect influencing reasons for this influence, but the most predominant reasons emanated as a result of taking ml and pl, and their underlying components, as indicated below. of the black african women participants, 80% indicated that their careers had progressed fairly, but acknowledged that they were not at their ideal career phase because of taking ml and other family-related commitments. furthermore, 85% of the participants confirmed involuntary time off work and productiveness as principal influencing barriers of taking ml in the career progression of black african women in dccs at the soc, leading to other undesirable consequences, which can further impede on the career progression of black african women, such as unproductiveness, unreliability and stunted growth opportunities. of the black african men participants, 60% acknowledged that their spouses’ careers had progressed, but not as ideally as they had hoped because of taking ml and other family-related commitments. only 20% of black african men admitted to their spouses’ careers having progressed well, attributing success to the support they had provided throughout their spouses’ careers. of the participants, including both black african women and black african men, 95% agreed that taking pl has a positive influence on the career progression of black african women in dccs at an soc. practical implications the low representation of black african women in dccs at the soc in middle management and leadership occupations depicts the influence that taking ml can have on their career progression. current talent management and recruitment and selection policies engaged by management require to be reviewed in contributing positively to the career progression of black african women. limitations to the study the most dominant limitations was that the study was only limited to one specific soc, and therefore, does not represent the current status of other socs within the sa labour market. the private sector and other spheres of the government sector were not included as part of the research setting, omitting an untapped school of knowledge within the research topic. the sample of the study was limited to black african women and black african men within dccs at this soc, possibly leaving some untapped experiences of other black african women and women in general within their career progression journey. furthermore, there was limited literature about african dccs in general and about the relationship between ml and pl and the career progression of black african women in particular. recommendations for future research future research could be carried out on the same topic covering a broader sample of black african women and across the entire sa labour market in order to confirm the findings and durability of the current study. furthermore, a quantitative approach covering a larger population could be adopted. extended research could also look into other challenges and barriers, besides taking ml and pl, which play a role in the career progression of black african women within the sa labour market, specifically within the private sector or within socs. conclusion the study established that there are direct and indirect influences that taking ml and pl have on the career progression of black african women at an soc, in middle management and leadership occupations. in acknowledgement of this influence, the literature determined that in their quest for career progression, a majority of black african women still occupy unskilled occupations, highlighting their struggle in progressing into middle management and leadership occupations (qlfs, q3, 2015). this highlighted the challenges of black african women especially those in dccs, in their attempts to achieve their ideal career progression goals and objectives. the study further indicated that legislation still fails black african women, resulting in discrimination and stereotypes that still persist and remain a prevalent barrier. however, the study ascended two unfamiliar barriers; firstly that some black african women lack dedication to their careers and secondly, that their male counterparts are afforded privileges and advantages as a result of patriarchal dominance in the society, which further suppresses women in their career growth. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the study was conducted by l.l.m. as part of his masters in human resource management research project in 2016. m.h.r.b. was l.l.m.’s supervisor and edited the work for publication. r.m.j. was l.l.m.’s co-supervisor and also assisted in editing the work for publication. references april, k., dreyer, s., & blass, e. (2007). gender impediments to the sa executive boardroom. sa journal of labour relations, 31(2), 51–67. atkinson, c., & hall, l. (2009). the role of gender in varying forms of flexible working. gender, work & organization, 16(6), 650–666. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2009.00456.x barker, c., & pistrang, n. (2012). varieties of qualitative research: a pragmatic approach to selecting methods. in h. cooper (ed.), apa handbook of research methods in psychology: research designs (vol. 2., pp. 5–18). los angeles, ca: sage. beck, c.t. (2009). critiquing qualitative research. aorn journal, 90(4), 543–554. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aorn.2008.12.023 bentley, k. (2004). women’s human rights and the feminisation of poverty in south africa. review of african political economy, 31(100), 247–261. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305624042000262275 blumer, h. (1969). symbolic interactionism: perspective and method. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. bogdan, r.c., & biklen, s.k. (1992). qualitative research for education: an introduction to theory and methods. 2nd ed. boston, ma: allyn & bacon. bosch, a., de bruin, g.p., de bruin, k., & kgaladi, b. (2012). life role salience among black african dual-career couples in the south african context. the international journal of human resources management, 23(14), 2835–2853. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.671506 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2012). thematic analysis. in h. cooper (ed.), apa handbook of research methods in psychology. research designs, 2, (pp. 57–70). los angeles, ca: sage. creswell, j. (2007). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches. london: sage. crotty, m. (1998). the foundations of social research: meaning and perspective in the research process. london: sage. davidson, m. (1997). the black and ethnic minority women manager cracking the concrete ceiling. london: paul chapman. de vries, l. (1991). a study of the extent of discrimination against women in the workplace and the problems they encounter in the developing of an integrated management team. mba sociology. stellenbosch: university of stellenbosch. elliott, r., fischer, c.t., & rennie, d.l. (1999). evolving guidelines for publication of qualitative research studies in psychology and related fields. british journal of clinical psychology, 38, 215–229. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466599162782 esterberg, k.g. (2002). qualitative methods in social research. boston, ma: mcgraw-hill. evans. p.m. (2007). comparative perspectives on changes to canada’s paid parental leave: implications for class and gender. international journal of social welfare, 16, 119–128. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2397.2006.00450.x flood, t., hoosain, m., & primo, n. (1997). beyond inequalities: women in south africa. cape town: southern african research and documentation centre. floro, m.s., & komatsu, h. (2011). gender and work in south africa: what can time use data reveal? feminist economics, 2(1), 1–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2011.622722 forger, h., dimant, t., corrigan, t., mophuthing, t., spratt, j., pienaar, d., et al. (2001). south africa survey 2000/01. johannesburg: south african institute of race relations. givati, y., & troiano, u. (2012). theory of mandated benefits and evidence from maternity leave policies. the journal of law and economics, 55(2), 339–364. https://doi.org/10.1086/663632 greenhaus, j.h., callanan, g.a., & godshalk, v.m. (2010). career management (4th ed.). new york: sage. greenhaus, j.h., & powell, g. (2006). when work and family are allies: a theory of work-family enrichment. academy of management review, 31, 72–92. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2006.19379625 gurjao, s. (2006). inclusivity: the changing role of women in the construction workforce. london: the chartered institute of building (ciob). haas, l. (2003). parental leave and gender equality: lessons from the european union. review of policy research, 20, 89–114. https://doi.org/10.1111/1541-1338.00006 hakim, c. (2002). lifestyle preferences as determinants of women’s differentiated labor market careers. work and occupations, 29(4), 428–459. https://doi.org/10.1177/0730888402029004003 hall, d.t. (2002). careers in and out of organizations. thousand oaks, ca: sage. hall, s., & macdermid, s. (2009). a typology of dual earner marriages based on work and family arrangements. journal of family and economic, 30(3), 215–225. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-009-9156-9 hardill, i. (2002), gender, migration and the dual career household. international studies of women and place series. london: routledge. harrington, b., van deusen, f., & mazar, i. (2012). the new dad: right at home. boston, ma: boston college centre for work & family. hermann, k.m. (2016). dual-career couples. in w.k. killam, s. degges-white, r.e. michel, w.k. killam, s. degges-white & r.e. michel (eds.), career counseling interventions: practice with diverse clients, (pp. 35–43). new york: springer publishing co. holiday, a. (2007). doing and writing qualitative research: approaching qualitative research. london: sage. holloway, i., & wheeler, s. (2010). qualitative research in nursing and healthcare. west sussex: wiley-blackwell. iiies, r., keeney, j., & scott, b. a. (2011). work-family interpersonal capitalization: sharing positive work events at home. organizational behaviour and human decision processes, 114, 115–126. industry statistics, pretoria. johnson, a.g. (2005). the gender knot: unraveling our patriarchal legacy. philadelphia, pa: temple university press. karenga, t., & tembo, c. (2012). kawaida womanism: african ways of being woman in the world. western journal of black studies, 36(1), 33–47. lincoln, y.s., & cuba, e.g. (1985). naturalistic enquiry. beverly hills, ca: sage. mainiero, l.a., & sullivan, s.e. (2005). kaleidoscope careers: an alternative explanation for the ‘opt-out’ revolution. academy of management executive, 19, 106–123. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2005.15841962 mays, n., & pope, c. (2000). assessing quality in qualitative research. british medical journal, 320, 50–52. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.320.7226.50 miles, m.b., & huberman, m. (1994). qualitative data analysis: an expanded sourcebook. london: sage. mokomane, z. (2009). work-family conflict and gender equality in south africa. unpublished paper presented at the 26 iussp international population conference, held in marrakech, morocco, 27 september–02 october. moore, e. (2013). transmission and change in south african motherhood: black mothers in three-generational cape town families. journal of southern african studies, 39(1), 151–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070.2013.764713 morrell, r., & richter, l. (2006). men and fatherhood on south africa. cape town: hsrc press. moss, p. (2012). international review of leave policies and related research 2012. retrieved n.d., from http://www.leavenetwork.org/fileadmin/leavenetwork/annual_reviews/2012 mumma, j. (2001). relocation issues in today’s workforce. employment relations today, 28(1), 55–65. https://doi.org/10.1002/ert.1005.abs nath, d. (2000). gently shattering the glass ceiling: experiences of indian women managers. women in management review, 15(1), 44–52. https://doi.org/10.1108/09649420010310191 oecd. (1995). long-term leave for parents in oecd countries. in oecd, employment outlook, (pp. 171–202). paris: oecd. oecd. (2013). employment outlook 2013. paris: oecd publishing. patton, m.q. (2014). qualitative evaluation and research methods. saint paul, mn: sage. pesonen, a. (2015). encouraging work-family balance to correct gender imbalance: a comparison of the family and medical leave act and the iceland act on maternity/paternity and parental leave. journal of international studies, 15(1), 157–196. quick, j., & hall. s. (2015). spotlight on research. part two: qualitative research, 25(7–8), 125–133. rajadhyaksha, u., & bhatnagar, d. (2000). life role salience: a study of dual-career couples in the indian context. human relations, 53(4), 491–493. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726700534002 ryan, f., coughlin, m., & cronin, p. (2007). step by step guide to critiquing research part 2: qualitative research. british journal of nursing, 16(12), 738–744. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2007.16.12.23726 sadie, j. (2015). gender policy and legislation during the first 20 years of democracy. strategic review for southern africa, 36(2), 111–125. salmera-aro, k., nurmi, j.e., saisto, t., & halmesmäki, e. (2000). women’s and men’s personal goals during the transition to parenthood. journal of family psychology, 14, 171–186. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-3200.14.2.171 santho, s. (1995). the elimination of gender inequality in the public service with specific reference to the free state provincial administration. mpa economic and administrative science. bloemfontein: university of the orange free state. schurink, e.m. (1998). data analysis in qualitative research. in a. de vos (ed.), research at grass roots: a primer for the caring professions. pretoria: van schaik publishers. schurink, w.j. (2004). qualitative research introducing key features of an interpretative approach to social science research: lecture eleven b, grounded theory. doctoral programme in leadership in performance and change (pp. 1–23). johannesburg: university of johannesburg. schurink, w.j. (2005). qualitative research design: part 1 lecture notes to dand mstudents from the leadership in performance and change programme. johannesburg: university of johannesburg, sewpaul, v. (1994). the position of black women in south african society: a feminist perspective. social work, 30(4), 346–354. shenton, a.k. (2004). strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research projects. education for information, 22, 63–75. https://doi.org/10.3233/efi-2004-22201 smit, r. (2006). family related policies in southern african countries: are working parents reaping any benefits? journal of comparative family studies, 1(1), 15–36. south africa. (1995). labour relations act, act 66 of 1995. pretoria: government printer. south africa. (1996). constitution of the republic of south africa, act 108 of 1996. pretoria: government printer. south africa. (1997). basic conditions of employment act, act 75 of 1997. pretoria: government printer. south africa. (1998a). employment equity act, act 55 of 1998. pretoria: government printer. south africa. (1998b). labour relations amendment act, act 127 of 1998. pretoria: government printer. south africa. (1998c). skills development act, act 97 of 1998. pretoria: government printer. south africa. (1999). public finance management act, 1. government gazette no. 33059. pretoria: government printer. south africa. (2001). commission on gender equality act, act 39 of 1996. pretoria: government printer. south africa. ministry for welfare and population development. (1998). white paper on population policy. retrieved june 21, 2015, from http://www.gov.za/whitepaper statistics south africa (stat sa). (2015). quarterly labour force survey – quarter3. statistics south africa. retrieved september 17, 2015, from http://www.statssa.gov.za talley-ross, n. (1995). jagged edges: black professional women in white male worlds. new york: peter lang. tshoaedi, m. (2012). women in the forefront of workplace struggles in south africa: from invisibility to mobilization. labour, capital and society, 45(2), 58–83. wall, k. (2014). fathers on leave alone: does it make a difference to their lives. fathering. men’s studies press, 12(2), 196–210. wheatly, d. (2013). location, vocation, location? spatial entrapment among women in dual-career households. gender, work & organization, 20(6), 720–736. abstract introduction research methodology empirical results discussion recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) rhyno van der schyff school of social and government studies, north-west university, south africa doret botha school of social and government studies, north-west university, south africa suria ellis unit of business, mathematics and informatics, north-west university, south africa citation van der schyff, r., botha, d., & ellis, s. (2018). undergraduate students’ perceptions of factors affecting job satisfaction. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a949. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.949 original research undergraduate students’ perceptions of factors affecting job satisfaction rhyno van der schyff, doret botha, suria ellis received: 17 may 2017; accepted: 08 may 2018; published: 11 july 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: globally, people engage in work and sell their services to an organisation in exchange for compensation. this compensation can have a significant effect on employees’ attitude towards their work, resulting in either job satisfaction or job dissatisfaction. a high level of job satisfaction can increase organisational effectiveness and, subsequently, the organisation’s performance, whereas job dissatisfaction can cause employees to be less motivated, which can in turn decrease their productivity, effectiveness and individual performance. research purpose: this study was conducted with the aim to investigate undergraduate students’ perceptions of the factors affecting job satisfaction. motivation for the study: currently, there is a paucity of published research on the views of undergraduate students on the factors affecting job satisfaction. research approach/design and method: the study took a positivistic research approach, and a quantitative design was used. a stratified quota sampling technique was employed to select the respondents for the study; a certain quota was met in terms of race, gender and faculty of study. in total, 270 undergraduate students participated in the study. main findings: the empirical results indicated no significant association between the demographic variables (previous work experience, gender, race and field of study) and almost all occupational dimensions of job satisfaction, working conditions and recognition. however, medium to large positive relations were measured between the dimensions of job satisfaction, working conditions and recognition. it was evident from the study that all the dimensions measured are considered important for obtaining job satisfaction in the workplace. practical and managerial implications: it is important for managers to get an understanding of the views of young people on work-related issues in order to create an understanding of young people’s needs and aspirations, as they are the future permanent labour force, managers and leaders of a country. contribution/value-add: the study brought to light the views of undergraduate students on the factors affecting job satisfaction. introduction globally, people engage in work to receive rewards that help satisfy their needs. therefore, employees ‘sell’ their services to an organisation in exchange for compensation (jiang, xiao, qi, & xiao, 2009). compensation includes a cash component (salary, merit increases, bonuses, stock options and other incentives) and benefits (e.g. health and unemployment insurance) (noe, hollenbeck, gerhart, & wright, 2012). this compensation can have a significant effect on employees’ attitude towards their work, influencing individuals to be satisfied or dissatisfied with their jobs (milkovich, newman, & gerhart, 2011). job satisfaction refers to employees’ subjective attitude towards their job (aziri, 2011; gazioglu & tansel, 2006; nel et al., 2014). it is regarded as the emotional reaction an individual experiences through comparing the desired outcomes with the actual outcomes (rothman, 2001). therefore, ‘job satisfaction describes a positive feeling about a job, resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics’ (robbins, judge, odendaal, & roodt, 2009, p. 74). there are certain factors that can influence individuals’ behaviours and attitudes towards their job, which can subsequently result in either job satisfaction or job dissatisfaction (malik, nawab, naeem, & danish, 2010). these factors include, among others, salary, promotion, workload, working conditions, the nature of the work and motivation (hayes, bonner, & pryor, 2010; lumley, coetzee, tladinyane, & ferreira, 2011). if employees are satisfied with most of the factors they consider relevant, job satisfaction will be experienced (werner, bagraim, cunningham, potgieter, & viedge, 2016). job satisfaction is important for both organisations and the individual (moynihan & pandey, 2007). a high level of job satisfaction can increase organisational effectiveness and, subsequently, the organisation’s performance, whereas job dissatisfaction can cause employees to be less motivated, which can in turn decrease their productivity, effectiveness and individual performance (alam & mohammad, 2010; aziri, 2011; moynihan & pandey, 2007). meyer et al. (2012, p. 99) postulate that ‘in most south african companies there is a lack of job satisfaction’, resulting in ‘a low level of employee commitment to performance and the achievement of organisational goals’ with the following symptoms: ‘low productivity, high absenteeism, labour unrest, industrial action and high labour turnover’. the exit–voice–loyalty–neglect framework indicates the consequences of job dissatisfaction (robbins et al., 2009). the framework indicates four ways in which an individual may react towards job dissatisfaction. firstly, an individual might feel the need to leave the organisation, which may include looking for a new position as well as resigning (exit response). secondly, an individual might try to actively and constructively improve conditions by engaging with the organisation (voice response). thirdly, an individual might passively and optimistically wait for conditions to improve without seeking a new position (loyalty response). lastly, an individual might begin to passively and destructively allow conditions to worsen, including chronic absenteeism or lateness, reduced effort and an increase in mistakes in work tasks (neglect response) (robbins et al., 2009; werner et al., 2016). this study was conducted with the aim to investigate undergraduate students’ perceptions of the factors affecting job satisfaction, as they will soon enter the working environment on a more permanent basis. currently, there is a paucity of published research on the views of undergraduate students on work-related issues, such as factors affecting job satisfaction. the research study supplies managers with a perspective from students who are yet to enter a working environment. a recent research study conducted by jiang and alexakis (2017) comparing students’ and managers’ perceptions of essential entry-level management competencies revealed that managers and students have different perceptions regarding entry-level management competencies. it is subsequently important for managers to get an understanding of the views of young people on work-related issues in order to create an understanding of young people’s needs and aspirations, as they will be future employees. the results of this research study provide managers with the necessary information regarding undergraduate students’ expectations of the required entry-level managerial competencies. purpose the purpose of the study on which this article reports was to determine the extent to which perceptions of occupational dimensions influence undergraduate students’ perceptions of job satisfaction. literature review the literature review discusses theoretical explanations of job satisfaction as well as variables (occupational dimensions) of job satisfaction. theoretical explanations of job satisfaction there are strong overlapping characteristics between theories relating to job satisfaction and theories relating to human motivation, as both focus on the movement of workers to act in a desired manner (tietjen & meyers, 1998, as cited in de jager, 2015). employee motivational factors can be divided into extrinsic and intrinsic factors. the content of an individual’s job, such as the individual’s responsibilities, free will or autonomy, skills and supervision, relates to the individual’s intrinsic satisfaction and encompasses the qualitative attributes of an individual’s job (rose, 2001, as cited in chatzoglou, vraimaki, komsiou, polychrou, & diamantidis, 2011). on the other hand, the individual’s working environment is concomitant to extrinsic satisfaction and includes the individual’s working hours, opportunities for promotion, safety, rewards and bonuses, among others (rose, 2001, as cited in chatzoglou et al., 2011). goetz et al. (2012) depict job satisfaction as the extent to which individuals’ intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of their job influence them to feel negative or positive towards their job, subsequently describing the attitudes that individuals have towards their jobs. the following theories attempt to explain job satisfaction: maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, herzberg’s motivation hygiene theory, mcclelland’s acquired needs theory, alderfer’s existence, relatedness and growth (erg) theory, locke’s value-percept theory and the job characteristics model. this study aimed to explore the undergraduate students’ perceptions of occupational dimensions and job satisfaction, and therefore the following theories are discussed as they informed the development of the measuring instrument used: maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, herzberg’s motivation hygiene theory and alderfer’s erg theory. maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory theories that attempted to explain the concept of job satisfaction began with maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory in 1943 (de jager, 2015). abraham h. maslow, a clinical psychologist, developed this theory after years of observing his patients (werner et al., 2016). maslow argued that human beings have several needs, which can be categorised in a hierarchy based on importance for survival. the author divided human needs into five main categories. the lowest level contains the most basic needs that must be met before higher order needs emerge and become important to the individual (nel et al., 2014). maslow’s hierarchy of needs includes the following: psychological needs (lowest order needs), safety needs (second level of needs), social needs (third level of needs), esteem needs (fourth level of needs) and self-actualisation needs (highest level of needs; the need for self-fulfilment) (werner et al., 2016). herzberg’s motivation hygiene theory frederick herzberg modified maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory and developed the dual-structure theory, also known as the two-factor motivation theory, in 1959 (de jager, 2015). herzberg identified two sets of factors that influence motivation and job satisfaction, namely hygiene factors and motivators (nel et al., 2014). hygiene factors are related to the working environment and include organisational policy and administration; equipment; supervision; interpersonal relationships with colleagues, superiors and subordinates; salary; status; working conditions; and work security. on the other hand, motivational factors (or motivators) include achievement, recognition, the job itself (how meaningful, interesting and challenging it is), progress or growth (learning and developing), responsibility and feedback (nel et al., 2014). hygiene factors aim to prevent an individual’s bad feelings, or job dissatisfaction, but do not necessarily lead to job satisfaction, whereas motivation factors aim to achieve job satisfaction (dartey-baah & amoako, 2011; tan & waheed, 2011). herzberg’s theory argues that an individual is more likely to experience job satisfaction in a working environment with a high level of hygiene and motivational factors (dartey-baah & amoako, 2011; malik, 2011; watson, 2012). herzberg’s theory can be linked to maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory. hygiene factors relate to the lower level needs in the hierarchy and motivational factors to the higher level needs (nel et al., 2014). alderfer’s existence, relatedness and growth theory clayton alderfer’s erg theory, developed in 1972, is closely related to maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory (grobler, wärnich, carrell, elbert, & hatfield, 2011; werner et al., 2016). the e, r and g refer to three basic human need categories, namely, existence needs, relatedness needs and growth needs. existence needs refer to a person’s physical and material needs and are similar to the physiological and safety needs (first and second level of needs) in maslow’s hierarchy. relatedness needs are equivalent to maslow’s social needs (third level of needs). growth needs refer to the individual’s desire to be productive and creative and are parallel to maslow’s needs for self-esteem and self-actualisation (higher level needs) (werner et al., 2016). alderfer described two forms of movement through his hierarchy: satisfaction-progression (movement up the hierarchy) and frustration-regression (movement down the hierarchy). the satisfaction-progression movement relates to maslow’s theory. the frustration-regression movement describes what happens when a person’s need is frustrated at the higher level. this may lead to movement down the hierarchy as a person’s satisfaction at the next level is frustrated (werner et al., 2016). variables of job satisfaction in the past, numerous researchers examined different demographic and work-related variables in an attempt to explain levels of job satisfaction. demographic variables demographics of employees are strong determinants of the level of job satisfaction (al-zoubi, 2012). for this particular study, gender, race, field of study and previous work experience were measured and are discussed. gender differences in job satisfaction have been reported in various studies (gazioglu & tansel, 2006; hersch & xiao, 2016; moyes, shao, & newsome, 2008; sabharwal & corley, 2009). the literature suggests that women are more satisfied than men with their jobs (gazioglu & tansel, 2006; hersch & xiao, 2016), despite still being subjected to discriminatory practices in the workplace such as lower pay and fewer opportunities for advancement. some possible explanations for this tendency include gender differences in values, job expectations and labour force participation rates (hersch & xiao, 2016). moyes et al. (2008) emphasise the impact of gender differences on employment values and assert that women value the intrinsic attributes of the job more, including the social and emotional aspects of place of employment, positive relations with peers and job contentment. in contrast, men value the extrinsic attributes of the job more, such as high salaries, opportunities for advancement, job security and work independence (moyes et al., 2008). this view is also confirmed by sabharwal and corley (2009). abu-saad and isralowitz (1997) argue that women are traditionally socialised to be less occupation-orientated, but that female students who identify less with traditional gender values tend to be more orientated towards occupational environments. abu-saad and isralowitz (1997) conducted research focusing on the influence of gender on work values among undergraduate students. the authors did not discover any consistent patterns regarding gender differences in terms of perceptions of job satisfaction. they did, however, discover that married male students are significantly more career-orientated than married female students (abu-saad & isralowitz, 1997). stoermer, hitotsuyanagi-hansel and froese (2017) highlight the importance of focusing on the relationship between race and job satisfaction in order to maximise the efficiency of an organisation. according to stoermer et al. (2017), various previous studies focused on the relationship between race and job satisfaction, where these studies reported mixed, and sometimes contradictory, results. hersch and xiao (2016) found that black and asian workers experience lower levels of job satisfaction than white workers; however, little inquiry has been launched into this racial differentiation. contradictory findings were reported by friday and friday (2003, as cited in stoermer et al., 2017), indicating that higher levels of job satisfaction were reported by black employees. stoermer et al. (2017) found that black employees experience indefinite amounts of racial discrimination in the south african context, which in turn results in the experience of job dissatisfaction. hoppe, fujishiro and heaney (2014) indicate that, as minority groups, racial identities such as black and hispanic identities experience increasing levels of job satisfaction if they have the same racial co-workers. koh, shen and lee (2016) indicate the differences between white and black individual job satisfaction as higher than the difference between white and other racial experiences of job satisfaction. josiam et al. (2009) conducted a study that focused on the work attitudes of generation y students, as the perceptions of students before they experience the working environment can influence how they experience the working environment. the authors found that there are no significant racial differences in the perceptions of these students, although these findings are based on the context of developed countries (josiam et al., 2009). wu and norman (2006) identified a relationship between students’ field of study and job satisfaction and reported that undergraduate nursing students fear the nursing environment as a result of its high turnover rates, which can subsequently lead to job dissatisfaction. west et al. (2014) indicate that medical interns report high levels of job dissatisfaction. liu (2017) indicates that higher levels of job satisfaction are experienced by accounting interns. a research study focusing on psychology undergraduate students and work variables conducted by levin and stokes (1989) indicated that negative affectivity, such as a poor self-esteem and negative emotions, can negatively influence perceptions of the working environment and overall satisfaction. various authors identified a relationship between previous work experience and job satisfaction (chang, ma, chiu, lin, & lee, 2009; kardam & rangnekar, 2012). literature suggests that individuals with previous work experience have higher levels of job satisfaction because they have already experienced the difficulty of shifting jobs (kardam & rangnekar, 2012). elfering, odoni and meier (2016) indicate that the relationship between previous work experience and the level of job satisfaction experienced by employees is largely maintained by the emotional experiences attached to the previous working environment. resick, baltes and shantz (2007) conducted research on work decisions and attitudes. the authors found that previous work experience influences preconceived ideas about the working environment and working expectations. these ideas or perceptions might be different from the reality of the next working environment students enter and might subsequently lead to lower levels of satisfaction (resick et al., 2007). work-related variables work-related variables relate to the work itself and its attributes (chatzoglou et al., 2011) and also include the characteristics of work that result in intrinsic and/or extrinsic satisfaction. according to grobler et al. (2011), the most important factors (most surveyed employees reported) contributing to job satisfaction are regarded as the following: the job itself, including the kind of work employees perform (challenging or interesting) and the freedom allowed in terms of how the work is performed (gazioglu & tansel, 2006; millán, hessels, thurik, & aguado, 2013; shin & jung, 2014; skaalvik & skaalvik, 2014) quality co-worker relations, including the extent to which an individual is accepted as part of a work unit as well as the friendliness and support of fellow colleagues (millán et al., 2013; pan, 2015; smith, 2015; tang, siu, & cheung, 2014) good supervision, including aspects such as fairness, helpfulness, competency and effectiveness (fu & deshpande, 2014; pan, 2015; smith, 2015) opportunity to grow, which includes advancement opportunities (hanna, kee, & robertson, 2017; hartman, rutherford, feinberg, & anderson, 2014; proudfoot & lind, 2015; smith, 2015). grobler et al. (2011) further assert that the most frequently reported factors that diminish job satisfaction are the following: poor supervisory practices, such as unfair, biased treatment, failure to listen and respond to employees’ concerns and problems with management’s communication credibility (fu & deshpande, 2014; mathieu, neumann, hare, & babiak, 2014; pan, 2015) interpersonal conflict, including lack of teamwork, unfriendly colleagues and rivalry among managers and supervisors (pan, 2015; smith, 2015; tang et al., 2014) poor working environment, involving dirty, noisy, unsafe and unhealthy working conditions (dul, ceylan, & jaspers, 2011; valentine, godkin, fleischman, & kidwell, 2011) low, uncompetitive pay (chowdhary, 2013; ingram, 2015; judge, weiss, kammeyer-mueller, & hulin, 2017). research methodology research approach this study took a positivistic research approach. positivist research aims to explore, explain, evaluate, predict and develop or test theories (sarantakos, 2013). a quantitative design was used, which supplied the study with direction as well as certain procedures (creswell, 2009). a quantitative study applies attention to gaining knowledge objectively and systematically through deductive reasoning and generalisation (sousa, driessnack, & mendes, 2007). the research aimed to retrieve information concerning undergraduate students’ perceptions of occupational dimensions and job satisfaction and quantified these results through the use of numbers (see o’leary, 2013). population and sample the population used for this study consisted of undergraduate students of one of the campuses of a south african university. the study employed a stratified quota sampling technique; respondents were randomly selected from the population. the sample consisted of 270 undergraduate students based on the campus. a certain quota was met in terms of race, gender and faculty of study. table 1 presents the survey population frame. table 1: survey population frame. the sample was equally divided between the gender groups (50% male and 50% female respondents). furthermore, it consisted of 23.3% nursing or pharmaceutical students, 12.6% engineering students, 12.2% economic and management sciences students, 13.7% natural sciences students, 15.9% human and social sciences students and 22.2% psychology or social work students. it was also evident from the sample that the majority of the students (57%) were exposed to working environments of some kind (permanent, full-time, casual, clerical, technical, voluntary and pharmacy assistance). data collection strategy data were collected through face-to-face surveys, using a self-constructed coded questionnaire that consisted of a 5-point likert-type scale, ranging from very strongly disagree (1) to very strongly agree (5). administering a questionnaire has several advantages, including the following: higher response rates can be attained, the number of ‘do not knows’ and ‘no answers’ is generally decreased and the interviewer can clarify misunderstanding of the intent of the questions, thereby ensuring relevant responses (babbie & mouton, 2009). analysis and reporting the data gathered were processed with the statistical package for the social sciences (spss version 24). a factor analysis was conducted to explore the underlying structure of job satisfaction, working conditions and recognition. cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to determine internal reliability. furthermore, descriptive statistics, correlations, t-tests and anovas were used to analyse the data. cohen’s d-values were used as effect size to determine whether differences in means were important in practice, where d = 0.2 were considered as small, d = 0.5 as medium and d = 0.8 as large effects (cohen, 1988). cohen (1988) suggested that correlations of 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 can be interpreted as small, medium and large correlations, respectively. limitations of the research design the study focused on undergraduate students studying on one campus of a south african university, excluding the other two campuses. subsequently, the results of the study cannot be generalised to all undergraduate students of the university. furthermore, not all students were exposed to real working environments and this may also have influenced the results. ethical consideration this research study was formally approved by the ethics committee of the faculty of arts of one of the campuses of a south african university. the researchers also adhered to the correct ethical standards. the researchers scheduled appointments with the sampled respondents in their free time. the face-to-face interviews were administered, privately, in specific offices of the university allocated to the researchers. each respondent signed an informed consent form permitting the researcher to include them in the research. the informed consent form clarified the purpose of the study as well as the nature of the research and ensured the privacy, anonymity and confidentiality of the respondents. no student was forced to participate in the study and they were informed that they could withdraw from the study at any time. it is of extreme importance to protect respondents from any harm, be it physical, cognitive or emotional (ritchie, lewis, nicholls, & ormston, 2013); these ethical considerations were also taken into account while conducting the research. empirical results this section provides the empirical results of the research. validity and reliability job satisfaction an exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the 26 self-constructed likert-type scale items measuring perceptions of job satisfaction. principal component analysis and oblimin rotation were used. this was meant to determine the dimensionality of the job satisfaction instrument used. the kaiser–meyer–olkin test (kmo) measured 0.93 and indicated that the sample size was adequate for factor analysis. the p-value of bartlett’s test of sphericity returned a value smaller than 0.05, suggesting that the correlation between statements was sufficient for factor analysis (see field, 2005). five factors (management and leadership needs, wellness, emotional needs, advancement and dignity) were extracted through kaiser’s criteria (see field, 2005) that explain 60.67% of the total variance. the factor loadings of the management and leadership needs factor ranged from 0.457 to 0.903, the wellness factor from 0.531 to 0.825, the emotional needs factor from 0.401 to 0.798 and the advancement factor from 0.576 to 0.821. only one question loaded on the dignity factor with a factor loading of 0.814. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the management and leadership needs and emotional needs factors calculated 0.92 and 0.84, respectively, which is well above the required 0.70, and show high reliability and internal consistency. the wellness factor showed a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.62, which could be regarded as an acceptable reliability. the advancement factor had a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.51, which could be regarded as a relatively low reliability. this was caused by the low number of statements, namely two in the factor. the mean inter-item correlation was 0.382, which is sufficient according to clark and watson (1995). only one item loaded on the dignity factor, therefore cronbach’s alpha was not applicable. the means scores of all five factors were four and above, indicating that on average the respondents held the opinion that the items contained in the five factors will be regarded as factors that will contribute to students’ job satisfaction in their future working environments. the following response categories were used: 1 = very strongly disagree; 2 = fairly strongly disagree; 3 = agree; 4 = fairly strongly agree and 5 = very strongly agree. working conditions a factor analysis was conducted on the nine self-constructed likert-type scale items measuring perceptions of working conditions. principal component analysis and oblimin rotation were used. the kmo measured 0.86, indicating that the sample size was adequate for factor analysis. the p-value of bartlett’s test of sphericity returned a value smaller than 0.05, suggesting that the correlation between statements was sufficient for factor analysis (see field, 2005). only one factor (working conditions) was extracted through kaiser’s criteria (see field, 2005) that explains 55.86% of the total variance. the factor loading ranged from 0.671 to 0.828. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the working conditions factor was 0.90, indicating high reliability and internal consistency. the factor mean was 4.55, indicating that a large majority of respondents thought that the items contained in the factor are regarded as aspects contributing to appropriate working conditions. the following response categories were used: 1 = very strongly disagree; 2 = fairly strongly disagree; 3 = agree; 4 = fairly strongly agree and 5 = very strongly agree. recognition a factor analysis was conducted on the six self-constructed likert-type scale items measuring underlying dimensions of perceptions of appropriate working conditions. principal component analysis and oblimin rotation were used. the kmo measured 0.80, which indicated that the sample size was adequate for factor analysis. the p-value of bartlett’s test of sphericity returned a value smaller than 0.05, suggesting that the correlation between statements was sufficient for factor analysis (see field, 2005). two factors (extrinsic rewards and intrinsic rewards) were extracted through kaiser’s criteria (see field, 2005) that explain 73.49% of the total variance. the factor loadings of the extrinsic rewards factor ranged from 0.736 to 0.941 and the intrinsic rewards factor from 0.782 to 0.855. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the extrinsic and intrinsic rewards factors were 0.86 and 0.75, respectively, indicating high reliability and internal consistency. the mean scores were 4.16 for extrinsic rewards and 3.96 for intrinsic rewards, indicating that a large majority of respondents held the opinion that the items contained in the factors are regarded as factors contributing to recognition. however, on average, the respondents were in higher agreement with extrinsic rewards than intrinsic rewards. the following response categories were used: 1 = very strongly disagree; 2 = fairly strongly disagree; 3 = agree; 4 = fairly strongly agree and 5 = very strongly agree. correlations between job satisfaction, working conditions and recognition the correlations between job satisfaction, working conditions and recognition are reflected in table 2. medium to large positive correlations between 0.30 and 0.77 were found between the five dimensions of job satisfaction. working conditions had moderate to large positive correlations with all job satisfaction dimensions, varying between 0.355 (advancement factor) and 0.749 (dignity factor). intrinsic rewards as well as the extrinsic rewards showed moderate positive correlations with all the dimensions of job satisfaction. table 2: correlations between job satisfaction, working conditions and recognition. effect of previous work experience on job satisfaction, working conditions and recognition from the results of the t-test, it is evident that the p-values for all the dimensions of job satisfaction as well as intrinsic rewards and working conditions were 0.05 or higher, indicating that there were no statistically significant differences between the means of respondents with and without previous work experience and job satisfaction, working conditions and intrinsic rewards. the effect sizes for all these dimensions indicated a small effect, varying from 0.02 to 0.22. however, the t-test showed significant differences for the extrinsic rewards factor (p = 0.007), where respondents without previous work experience placed more emphasis (m = 4.34) on extrinsic rewards than those with work experience (m = 4.05). however, the effect was small (d = 0.31). effect of gender on job satisfaction, working conditions and recognition the results of the t-test indicated no statistically significant differences between the means of men and women and job satisfaction, working conditions and recognition. the p-value for all the dimensions (or factors) measured above 0.2. furthermore, the effect sizes also indicated a small effect between the dimensions (or factors), varying between 0.00 (working conditions) and 0.15 (advancement). effect of race on job satisfaction, working conditions and recognition from the results of the anova, it was evident that the p-values for four of the dimensions of job satisfaction (management and leadership needs factor, wellness, emotional needs and dignity) as well as working conditions, intrinsic and extrinsic rewards were above 0.05, indicating no statistically significant differences between the means of different race groups. however, the means of advancement differed statistically significantly (p = 0.006), where white respondents (m = 3.75) had a lower perception of advancement than black respondents (m = 4.2, d = 0.52) as well as mixed-race and indian (m of both = 4.08, d = 0.39) respondents. effect of field of study on job satisfaction, working conditions and recognition the results of the anova indicated no statistically significant differences between the means of the various dimensions for different study fields, as the p-values were above 0.05 in all instances. the results of the effect sizes, for all fields of studies and the dimensions of job satisfaction, working conditions and recognition indicated a small to medium effect. discussion this research aimed to determine the extent to which perceptions of occupational dimensions influence undergraduate students’ perceptions of job satisfaction. a factor analysis was conducted on the scale items measuring perceptions of job satisfaction, working conditions and recognition. five factors (management and leadership needs, wellness, emotional needs, advancement and dignity) were extracted and used to measure dimensions of job satisfaction, one factor to measure working conditions and two factors (extrinsic and intrinsic rewards) to measure recognition. cronbach’s coefficient alpha was used to determine the internal reliability of the scales. all values were above the required 0.70, except for the wellness (0.62) and advancement (0.51) factors. this was probably caused by the low number of statements in the factors; however, the mean inter-item correlations (wellness 0.303; advancement 0.382) were sufficient (see clark & watson, 1995). regarding job satisfaction, the respondents agreed that the various items contained in the five factors (management and leadership needs: mean = 4.58, wellness: mean = 4.23, emotional needs: mean = 4.56, advancement: mean = 3.99 and dignity: mean = 4.47) were considered important for obtaining job satisfaction. the statements contained in the various dimensions (or factors) also relate to attributes of the job itself, quality co-worker relations, good supervision and the opportunity to grow, which are all considered as the most important factors contributing to job satisfaction in the workplace, as also indicated in the literature review. the advancement factor achieved the lowest mean score (3.99), although still high on the scale varying from 1 (very strongly disagree) to 5 (very strong agree), indicating that advancement opportunities are essential, but are considered less important than all the other dimensions. the management and leadership needs as well as emotional needs were perceived as the most important job satisfaction factors. the results are in line with the findings of the literature review, which indicated that quality co-worker relations (the extent to which an individual is accepted as part of a work unit and the friendliness and support of fellow colleagues) (millán et al., 2013; pan, 2015; smith, 2015; tang et al., 2014) and good supervision (including fairness, helpfulness, competency and effectiveness) (fu & deshpande, 2014; pan, 2015; smith, 2015) are considered important factors for job satisfaction. furthermore, poor supervisory practices (unfair, biased treatment, failure to listen and respond to employees’ concerns and poor communication) (fu & deshpande, 2014; mathieu et al., 2014; pan, 2015) and interpersonal conflict (lack of teamwork, unfriendly colleagues) (pan, 2015; smith, 2015; tang et al., 2014) are considered as key factors that diminish job satisfaction. from the demographic section, four items (previous work experience, gender, race and field of study) were used to measure their effect on the dimensions of job satisfaction, working conditions and recognition. these were tested using t-tests, anovas and effect sizes. the empirical results indicated very few significant differences between the means of the mentioned demographic groups and the dimensions of job satisfaction, working conditions and recognition. the effect sizes also indicated medium to small effects. however, the extrinsic rewards factor differed significantly for respondents with and without previous work experience (p = 0.007), although the effect was small (d = 0.31). it indicated that respondents with no work experience on average tend to seek more extrinsic rewards (mean = 4.34) than those with work experience (mean = 4.05). this finding is consistent with maslow’s theory, which argues that the most basic needs must be met before higher order needs can emerge and become important to the individual (nel et al., 2014). extrinsic rewards are also related to the existence needs of alderfer’s erg theory, which refers to a person’s physical and material needs (werner et al., 2016). students with no work experience tend to relate recognition in the workplace to extrinsic rewards more than students with work experience, which include performance-based bonuses, salary increases and promotions. furthermore, the advancement factor differed significantly for different race groups (p = 0.006). the results of the effect size showed a medium effect (d = 0.39 to 0.52), where on average white respondents were less positive (mean = 3.75) about advancement than other races (means larger than 4). therefore, although promotion and advancement opportunities are considered as crucial factors to obtain job satisfaction, black, indian and mixed-race respondents considered it more important than white respondents. it is therefore clear from the findings of this research that most demographic variables did not have a significant effect on the dimensions of job satisfaction, working conditions and recognition. this might be because a large number of the respondents (undergraduate students) who participated in this study have not experienced a real working environment yet. their views of what would satisfy them in their future working environments are only based on their own perceptions thereof. with regard to the relationships between job satisfaction, working conditions and recognition, significant relationships were found between all the dimensions; the p-value measured < 0.001. therefore, it can be deduced that all the dimensions were considered important by the students for obtaining job satisfaction in the workplace. this finding is consistent with herzberg’s motivation hygiene theory, which argues that in addition to hygiene factors, motivational factors should be present before satisfaction can be produced and people can be motivated to perform well (dartey-baah & amoako, 2011; malik, 2011; watson, 2012). the items included in the management and leadership needs, advancement, working conditions and extrinsic rewards factors relate to hygiene factors. items comprising the wellness, emotional needs, dignity and intrinsic rewards factors relate to motivational factors. furthermore, medium to large positive correlations (between 0.297 and 0.77) were found between almost all the dimensions, except between the extrinsic rewards and the wellness (0.248) and dignity factors (0.247), which indicated relatively small correlations. therefore, extrinsic rewards are considered less important for wellness and dignity in the workplace. limitations the sample of the study only included undergraduate students. therefore, not all students included in the sample were exposed to the working environment yet; 57% of the respondents indicated that they had previous work experience. therefore, the research was generally based on the perceptions of students’ future working environments (regarding the factors affecting job satisfaction) and not based on the actual experience of the working environment itself. recommendations in the light of the findings of the study, the following recommendations are made. in order to receive a more accurate and reliable response, as well as for the study to apply to a greater context, the study could subsequently be carried out with a larger population and sample, also including other universities. the results of the research study will then be based on a broader spectrum of students’ perceptions regarding the factors affecting job satisfaction. furthermore, as a result of economic constraints, many students are obliged to undertake some kind of work, either part-time or full-time, to sustain themselves during their undergraduate and postgraduate studies. working conditions (such as working hours, payment and access to mandatory and voluntary benefits) are often problematic. as students are the future permanent labour force, managers and leaders of a country, it is important that their engagement with the world of work be a positive experience. therefore, it is recommended that further studies be conducted to measure students’ perceptions of job satisfaction in various employment fields, such as nursing, accounting, engineering and service industries (restaurants, transport, etc.). south africa’s young people will in due course shape its future and they have the potential to accelerate growth and encourage development for the country. it is therefore of utmost importance that organisations, in general, and human resource managers, specifically, understand the factors that may have an impact on a country’s human capital and may inhibit them to thrive. conclusion this researched study aimed to determine the relationship between occupational dimensions and undergraduate students’ perceptions of the factors affecting job satisfaction. although the demographic variables (previous work experience, gender, race and field of study) indicated limited significant associations with almost all dimensions of job satisfaction, working conditions and recognition, medium to large positive correlations were found between all the dimensions. therefore, it can be deduced, on average, that all the dimensions (management and leadership needs, wellness, emotional needs, advancement, dignity, working conditions, intrinsic and extrinsic rewards) are considered important by undergraduate students for obtaining job satisfaction in the workplace. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions r.v.d.s. conducted the literature review as well as the empirical research. d.b. acted as the supervisor of the research project, assisted with the literature review and the empirical research and wrote up the article. s.e. conducted the statistical analysis and reviewed the article. references abu-saad, i., & isralowitz, r. e. (1997). gender as a determinant of work values among university students in israel. the journal of social psychology, 137(6), 749–763. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224549709595496 alam, m. m., & mohammad, j. f. (2010). level of job satisfaction and intent to leave among malaysian nurses. business intelligence journal, 3(1), 123–137. al-zoubi, m. t. (2012). generating benchmarking indicators for employee job satisfaction. total quality management & business excellence, 23(1), 27–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2011.637780 aziri, b. (2011). job satisfaction: a literature review. management research and practice, 3(4), 77–86. babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2009). the practice of social research. oxford: oxford university press. chang, w. y., ma, j. c., chiu, h. t., lin, k. c., & lee, p. h. (2009). job satisfaction and perceptions of quality patient care, collaboration and teamwork in acute hospitals. journal of advanced nursing, 65(9), 1946–1955. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2009.05085.x chatzoglou, p. d., vraimaki, e., komsiou, e., polychrou, e., & diamantidis, a. d. (2011, july). factors affecting accountants’ job satisfaction and turnover intentions: a structural equation model. paper presented at the 8th international conference on enterprise systems, accounting and logistics, thassos island, greece. chowdhary, b. (2013). job satisfaction among bank employees: an analysis of the contributing variables towards job satisfaction. international journal of technology enhancements and emerging engineering research, 2(8), 11–20. clark, l. a., & watson, d. (1995). constructing validity: basic issues in objective scale development. psychological assessment, 7(3), 309–319. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.7.3.309 creswell, j. w. (2009). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th edn.). los angeles, ca: sage. cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd edn.). hillsdale, nj: erlbaum. dartey-baah, k., & amoako, g. k. (2011). application of frederick herzberg’s two-factor theory in assessing and understanding employee motivation at work: a ghanaian perspective. european journal of business and management, 3(9), 1–8. de jager, c. j. (2015). measuring the job satisfaction of young engineers at eskom power stations (unpublished master’s dissertation). north-west university, potchefstroom. dul, j., ceylan, c., & jaspers, f. (2011). knowledge workers’ creativity and the role of the physical work environment. human resource management, 50(6), 715–734. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20454 elfering, a., odoni, m., & meier, l. l. (2016). today’s work experience: precursors of both how i feel and how i think about my job? revista de psicología del trabajo y de las organizaciones, 32(1), 11–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rpto.2015.11.001 field, a. (2005). discovering statistics using spss (2nd edn.). london: sage. fu, w., & deshpande, s. p. (2014). the impact of caring climate, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment on job performance of employees in a china’s insurance company. journal of business ethics, 124(2), 339–349. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1876-y gazioglu, s., & tansel, a. (2006). job satisfaction in britain: individual and job related factors. applied economics, 38(10), 1163–1171. https://doi.org/10.1080/00036840500392987 goetz, k., campbell, s. m., broge, b., dörfer, c. e., brodowski, m., & szecsenyi, j. (2012). the impact of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on the job satisfaction of dentists. community dentistry and oral epidemiology, 40(5), 474–480. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0528.2012.00693.x grobler, p. a., wärnich, s., carrell, m. r., elbert, n. f., & hatfield, r. d. (2011). human resource management in south africa (4th edn.). london: cengage learning emea. hanna, b., kee, k. f., & robertson, b. w. (2017). positive impacts of social media at work: job satisfaction, job calling, and facebook use among co-workers. shs web of conferences, 33, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20173300012 hartman, n. n., rutherford, b. n., feinberg, r., & anderson, j. g. (2014). antecedents of mentoring: do multi-faceted job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment matter? journal of business research, 67(9), 2039–2044. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.10.006 hayes, b., bonner, a. n. n., & pryor, j. (2010). factors contributing to nurse job satisfaction in the acute hospital setting: a review of recent literature. journal of nursing management, 18(7), 804–814. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2834.2010.01131.x hersch, j., & xiao, j. (2016). sex, race, and job satisfaction among highly educated workers. southern economic journal, 38(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1002/soej.12133 hoppe, a., fujishiro, k., & heaney, c. a. (2014). workplace racial/ethnic similarity, job satisfaction, and lumbar back health among warehouse workers: asymmetric reactions across racial/ethnic groups. journal of organizational behavior, 35(2), 172–193. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1860 ingram, t. (2015). employee compensation and job satisfaction in health care organizations in poland. in j. vopava, v. douda, r. kratochvil, & m. konecki (eds.), proceedings of mac-emm 2015 in prague (pp. 213–220). prague: mac prague consulting. jiang, l., & alexakis, g. (2017). comparing students’ and managers’ perceptions of essential entry-level management competencies in the hospitality industry: an empirical study. journal of hospitality, leisure, sport & tourism education, 20(1), 32–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhlste.2017.01.001 jiang, z., xiao, q., qi, h., & xiao, l. (2009). total reward strategy: a human resources management strategy going with the trend of the times. international journal of business and management, 4(11), 177–183. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v4n11p177 josiam, b. m., crutsinger, c., reynolds, j. s., dotter, t. v., thozhur, s., baum, t., & devine, f. g. (2009). an empirical study of the work attitudes of generation y college students in the usa: the case of hospitality and merchandising undergraduate majors. journal of services research, 9(1), 5–25. judge, t. a., weiss, h. m., kammeyer-mueller, j. d., & hulin, c. l. (2017). job attitudes, job satisfaction, and job affect: a century of continuity and of change. journal of applied psychology, 102(3), 356–374. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000181 kardam, b. l., & rangnekar, s. (2012). job satisfaction: investigating the role of experience & education. journal of arts, science & commerce, 4(1), 16–22. koh, c., shen, w., & lee, t. (2016). black–white mean differences in job satisfaction: a meta-analysis. journal of vocational behavior, 94, 131–143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2016.02.009 levin, i., & stokes, j. p. (1989). dispositional approach to job satisfaction: role of negative affectivity. journal of applied psychology, 74(5), 752–757. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.74.5.752 liu, g. (2017). job design, training effect and job satisfaction: evidence from work placement at audit firms. shs web of conferences, 34, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/73406002 lumley, e. j., coetzee, m., tladinyane, r., & ferreira, n. (2011). exploring the job satisfaction and organisational commitment of employees in the information technology environment. southern african business review, 15(1), 100–118. malik, m. e., nawab, s., naeem, b., & danish, r. q. (2010). job satisfaction and organizational commitment of university teachers in public sector of pakistan. international journal of business and management, 5(6), 17–26. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v5n6p17 malik, n. (2011). study on job satisfaction factors of faculty members at university of balochistan. international journal of academic research, 3(1), 267–272. mathieu, c., neumann, c. s., hare, r. d., & babiak, p. (2014). a dark side of leadership: corporate psychopathy and its influence on employee well-being and job satisfaction. personality and individual differences, 59, 83–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2013.11.010 meyer, m., bushney, m., katz, m., knoke, g., ludike, j., meyer, m., … wofson, r. (2012). managing human resource development: a strategic learning approach (4th edn.). cape town: lexisnexis. milkovich, g. t., newman, j. m., & gerhart, b. (2011). compensation (10th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. millán, j. m., hessels, j., thurik, r., & aguado, r. (2013). determinants of job satisfaction: a european comparison of self-employed and paid employees. small business economics, 40(3), 651–670. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-011-9380-1 moyes, g. d., shao, l. p., & newsome, m. (2008). comparative analysis of employee job satisfaction in the accounting profession. journal of business & economics research, 6(2), 50–80. moynihan, d. p., & pandey, s. k. (2007). finding workable levers over work motivation comparing job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment. administration & society, 39(7), 803–832. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399707305546 nel, p., werner, a., botha, c., du plessis, a., mey, m., ngalo, o., … van hoek, l. (2014). human resource management (9th edn.). cape town: oxford university press southern africa. noe, r. a., hollenbeck, j. r., gerhart, b., & wright, p. m. (2012). human resource management: gaining a competitive advantage. new york: mcgraw-hill. o’leary, z. (2013). the essential guide to doing your research project. london: sage. pan, f. c. (2015). practical application of importance-performance analysis in determining critical job satisfaction factors of a tourist hotel. tourism management, 46, 84–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.06.004 proudfoot, d., & lind, e. a. (2015). fairness heuristic theory, the uncertainty management model, and fairness at work. in r. s. cropanzano & m. l. ambrose (eds.), the oxford handbook of justice in the workplace (pp. 371–385). cape town: oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199981410.013.17 resick, c. j., baltes, b. b., & shantz, c. w. (2007). person-organization fit and work-related attitudes and decisions: examining interactive effects with job fit and conscientiousness. journal of applied psychology, 92(5), 1446–1455. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.5.1446 ritchie, j., lewis, j., nicholls, c. m., & ormston, r. (eds.). (2013). qualitative research practice: a guide for social science students and researchers. london: sage. robbins, s. p., judge, t. a., odendaal, a., & roodt, g. (2009). organisational behaviour: global and south african perspectives (2nd edn.). cape town: pearson education south africa. rothman, s. (2001). sense of coherence, locus of control, self-efficacy and job satisfaction. south african journal for economic and management sciences, 4(1), 40–64. sabharwal, m., & corley, e. a. (2009). faculty job satisfaction across gender and discipline. the social science journal, 46(3), 539–556. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soscij.2009.04.015 sarantakos, s. (2013). social research (4th edn.). new york: palgrave macmillan. shin, j. c., & jung, j. (2014). academics job satisfaction and job stress across countries in the changing academic environments. higher education, 67(5), 603–620. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-013-9668-y skaalvik, e. m., & skaalvik, s. (2014). teacher self-efficacy and perceived autonomy: relations with teacher engagement, job satisfaction, and emotional exhaustion. psychological reports, 114(1), 68–77. https://doi.org/10.2466/14.02.pr0.114k14w0 smith, j. c. (2015). pay growth, fairness, and job satisfaction: implications for nominal and real wage rigidity. the scandinavian journal of economics, 117(3), 852–877. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjoe.12091 sousa, v. d., driessnack, m., & mendes, i. a. c. (2007). an overview of research designs relevant to nursing: part 1: quantitative research designs. revista latino-americana de enfermagem, 15(3), 502–507. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0104-11692007000300022 stoermer, s., hitotsuyanagi-hansel, a., & froese, f. j. (2017). racial harassment and job satisfaction in south africa: the moderating effects of career orientations and managerial rank. the international journal of human resource management, 23(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1278254 tan, t. h., & waheed, a. (2011). herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory and job satisfaction in the malaysian retail sector: the mediating effect of love of money. asian academy of management journal, 16(1), 73–94. tang, s. w., siu, o. l., & cheung, f. (2014). a study of work–family enrichment among chinese employees: the mediating role between work support and job satisfaction. applied psychology, 63(1), 130–150. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2012.00519.x valentine, s., godkin, l., fleischman, g. m., & kidwell, r. (2011). corporate ethical values, group creativity, job satisfaction and turnover intention: the impact of work context on work response. journal of business ethics, 98(3), 353–372. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0554-6 van der schyff, r. (2016). the relationship between undergraduate students’ perceptions of occupational dimensions and undergraduate students’ perceptions of job satisfaction. mini-dissertation – honours. potchefstroom: north-west university. watson, t. j. (2012). sociology, work and organisation (6th edn.). new york: routledge. werner, a., bagraim, j., cunningham, p., potgieter, t., & viedge, c. (2016). organisational behaviour: a contemporary south african perspective (4th edn.). pretoria: van schaik. west, c. p., dyrbye, l. n., rabatin, j. t., call, t. g., davidson, j. h., multari, a., … shanafelt, t. d. (2014). intervention to promote physician well-being, job satisfaction, and professionalism: a randomized clinical trial. jama internal medicine, 174(4), 527–533. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.14387 wu, l., & norman, i. j. (2006). an investigation of job satisfaction, organisational commitment and role conflict and ambiguity in a sample of chinese undergraduate nursing students. nurse education today, 26(4), 304–314. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2005.10.011 1vermeulen.qxd “business will never be the same” – this seems to be the new slogan for present and future chief executive managers. the fact of the matter is that the business environment is changing at a frightening pace. the question is – “what can we expect to happen in the business environment?” in an attempt to answer this question authors such as nadler and tushman (1999); peters (1997); grulke and silber (2000); davis (1988); and mccrimmon (1997) identified important key characteristics of business success in pursuit of competitive advantage in an uncertain world. inevitably, the rules of the business game are being redefined as changes occur in the business environment. an interesting topic of discussion thus is “what are these new rules now?” and what will they be in the future. the challenge for ceos, as key element in organisational success in the new millennium, is “how do i face the new environment and make a success of my company?” determining the performance drivers of organisations, the rules, is nothing new. many authors have spent much time and effort on this topic. they have expressed early warnings about change; given explanations of the change process and how to make the best of change; and also offered perfect 20-20 hindsight explanations of why the change had happened and what can be learned from it. the question, however, is what the new rules are in the changing environment which will enable business success and growth. the use of the analogy of a “genetic code”, or sometimes referred to as the dna code of organisations, shows some promise of shedding light on the variables affecting business success and growth. a genetic code provides the means by which organisms can grow successfully in their environments. the genetic code of any organism is the key to life. it is the means by which genetic information is stored as sequences of nucleotide bases in the chromosal dna (complete wordfinder, 1993) enabling (or disenabling) the organism to live and grow successfully in its environment. it seems reasonable to argue that if a genetic business code for growth could be developed it would serve as a crucial enabler of business growth. the concept of a genetic code for organisations is not new. cannon (1996) stated that the value of the genetic code of organisations is shaped by the environment in which the organisation has to attain success. he elucidated that such a code largely prescribes how an organisation responds to conditions and stimuli. this code is deeply embedded in the enterprise and rooted in the culture and values of the organisation. identif ying the basic genetics of successful organisations is the objective of this research. the concerted effort to grow organisations in volatile times requires an understanding of the capabilit ies and competencies of organisations, which are held together by the organisation’s make-up (i.e. the way in which the organisation is put together and held together to deliver value on a sustainable basis). the ceo must have a very clear view of the challenges that the organisation faces, but s/he must also understand the genetic code for organisational success. the ways in which these capabilities of the organisational genetic code combine and interact with one another will determine the success of the organisation. according to cannon (1996) this will create a competitive advantage for the company. it is generally believed that the development of a genetic business code for growth will assist managers in understanding business change and will dispel the uncertaint y of how to deal with the changing business environment. j.h. vermeulen theo h. veldsman gert roodt willem schurink programme in leadership in performance and change in the department of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract as with each living organism, it is proposed that an organisation possesses a genetic code. in the fast-changing business environment it would be invaluable to know what constitutes organisational growth and success in terms of such a code. to identif y this genetic code a quantitative methodological framework, supplemented by a qualitative approach, was used and the views of top management in the transport industry were solicited. the repertory grid was used as the primary data-collection method. through a phased data-analysis process an integrated profile of firstand second-order constructs, and opposite poles, was compiled. by utilising deductive and inductive strategies three strands of a genetic business growth code were identified, namely a leadership strand, organisational architecture strand and internal orientation strand. the study confirmed the value of a genetic business code for growth in the transport industry. opsomming daar word voorgestel dat ’n organisasie, soos elke lewende organisme, oor ’n genetiese kode beskik. in die snelveranderende sake-omgewing sal dit onskatbaar wees om te weet wat organisasiegroei en –sukses veroorsaak. ’n kwantitatiewe metodologie-raamwerk, aangevul deur ’n kwalitatiewe benadering is gebruik om hierdie genetiese kode te identifiseer, en die menings van topbestuur in die vervoerbedryf is ingewin met behulp van die “repertory grid” as die vernaamste metode van data-insameling. ’n geïntegreerde profiel van eersteen tweedeordekonstrukte, met hulle teenoorgestelde pole, is opgestel. drie stringe van ’n genetiese sakegroeikode, nl. ’n leierskapstring, die organisasieargitektuur-string en die innerlike-ingesteldheidstring is geïdentifiseer deur deduktiewe en induktiewe strategieë te gebruik. die studie bevestig die waarde van ’n genetiese sakekode vir groei in die vervoerbedryf. towards a genetic business code for growth in the south african transport industry requests for copies should be addressed to: jh vermeulen, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 1 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (1), 1-16 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (1), 1-16 aims the first aim of this study was to identif y a genetic business code for growth. referring back to the changing business environment it would indeed be a daunting task to determine what “really” makes an organisation grow and prosper. based on scientific beliefs related to both positivistic and humanistic philosophical assumptions, the second aim was to develop an appropriate methodolog y to develop the business code. differently phrased, the challenge here is to apply qualitative and quantitative methodological elements to gather relevant data to develop the business code. the third aim was to use the results of this study as a departure point to explore the possibilit y of developing an assessment tool to assess organisations; determine their current “code”; and identif y gaps for renewal interventions. research design research can be categorised into two distinct styles: qualitative and quantitative. the former concentrates on people’s feelings and emotions as expressed by, inter alia, words and observations used to conceptualise social reality and attempt to describe people in their natural situations or habitat. in contrast, the quantitative approach grew out of a strong academic tradition that places considerable trust, inter alia, in quantification by means of numbers, frequencies and concepts or variables. i.e., indicators and measurements of people’s perceptions and opinions. it goes without saying that when researchers opt for a combination of these two approaches the study’s complexity increases and clarif ying its approach becomes a crucial responsibility of the researcher. this study used a mixture of quantitative and qualitative styles. it is difficult to find an unambiguous and definite statement of what qualitative research compromises in business growth. this is, inter alia, due to the fact that the vast majority of research regarding success factors in business is quantitatively orientated. however, the researcher surmises from this study, i.e. determining the genetic business code for growth, that qualitative research has, amongst others, the following features: carefully collecting data that focus on naturally occurring, ordinary events in natural settings; highlighting the complexity of growth in the everyday business reality; providing ample “rich descriptions”, nested in a real-life context, for interpretation; reflecting on the views and experiences of ceos and executive managers, these descriptions can be studied, compared and analysed in the field of business; and locating the meanings ceos and executive managers place on events and processes in organisations, because these constructions are “lived experiences”. the research in this study was, for the greater part, done within a quantitative methodological framework, supplemented by a qualitative approach. as far as the data collection process was concerned, the study is quantitative since (a) a semi-structured interview (the repertory grid) was used providing certain themes (regarded as important by the researcher) to the research participants; and (b) a definition of business growth was presented in cases where the research participants needed clarification. the collected data are qualitative because (a) the research participants were requested to provide their views and experiences of the topics freely, i.e. no structured answer possibilities were provided (a qualitative characteristic of the repertory grid); (b) the researcher spent some time with the research participants in their natural habitat and at least played some role in discussing their construction of constructs with them; and (c) the perceptions of the research participants were captured in relatively detailed field notes. theoretical framework adopted in order to meet the principle research objective, mainly to describe and explain the views of ceos regarding business success, a research design was opted for that utilises both quantitative and qualitative assumptions. symbolic interactionism provided a theoretical framework for this mixed methodology since it describes in a meaningful, intelligible way how research participants perceive and manage their business. in addition, symbolic interactionism also enables researchers to approach social reality by means of positivistic logic when they implicitly or explicitly count and measure their data. denzin and lincoln (1994) explain that symbolic interactionism rests on three premises: firstly, human beings act toward the physical objects and other beings in their environment on the basis of the meanings that these things have for them. secondly, these meanings derive from the social interaction between individuals. thirdly, these meanings are established and modified through an interpretive process. symbolic interactionism requires that the inquirer actively enter the worlds of people being studied in order to “see the situation, as it is seen by the actor, obser ving what the actor takes into account, obser ving how he interprets what is taken into account” (mead, g.h. & blumer, h., as cited in denzin & lincoln, 1994. p. 56). the participants the transport organisation that was selected to participate in this study is a diverse national company, operating from all major centres across the country with a turnover of r35, 8 billion and employing more than 80 000 people. in this study 22 people participated. their characteristics can be summarised as follows: � males dominated the sample, 18 males out of the sample of 22. � six ceos, seven general managers, six executive managers, one chief operations manager and two senior managers were interviewed. � 86% of the south african transport industry was represented in this study. � 231 constructs were developed. � the average time spent on an interview was 90 minutes. � 20 interviews were conducted in the natural habitat of the research participant while two interviews were conducted in the office of the researcher due to logistical reasons. the breakdown of the sample in terms of designation, gender, and industry representation is summarised in table 1. data collection the real challenge in this study was not to distinguish between successful and less successful organisations, but to identif y those capabilities that actually made the difference. the challenge was to apply managerial subjectivity and perspective and to harness them in such fashion that a realistic genetic business code for growth could be produced. therefore, what was required was a tool to quantif y the “unquantifiable”. it was decided the repertory grid presented such a tool. the repertory grid is extremely valuable and enable managers to give some shape to their vague ideas and notions about business success and growth and help them to voice their attit udes, beliefs, feelings and perceptions in a nonthreatening way. it provides a means of measuring and representing how they view what is going on around them. together with a little creative thought, the repertory grid became an excellent tool for identif ying the elements of the genetic business code for growth. it is important to take note of the quantitative, as well as the qualitative components of the repertory grid. the quantitative components of the repertory grid consisted of the selection of elements and elicitation of constructs in a relatively strict environment, which is central to the grid process. the qualitative component of the repertory grid involved the opinionated, free-flowing perceptions, views and opinions that the research participants produced, without being interrupted or restricted. vermeulen, veldsman, roodt, schurink 2 table 1 key features of the sample business unit industry designation # constructs gender developed business maritime ceo 10 male unit 1 business not executive manager 10 female unit 2 represented executive manager 11 male executive manager 10 male ceo 10 male business rail general manager 10 male unit 3 general manager 9 male general manager 11 male general manager 9 male general manager 9 male general manager 9 male business maritime general manager 15 female unit 4 senior manager 9 male ceo 9 male business not ceo 13 male unit 5 represented business rail executive manager 10 male unit 6 business freight handling ceo 17 female unit 7 executive manager 9 male business aerospace ceo 11 female unit 8 chief operations 9 male manager business not executive manager 10 male unit 9 represented senior manager 11 male total # constructs 231 the constructs listed by the research respondents were recorded on specially prepared perception sheets. these perception sheets displayed, on the left-hand side, all the similarities of the elements and on the right-hand side all the differences. between them all the elements were listed, because the research participants were asked to rank each of the constructs. ranking the constructs allowed one to see how each construct was used and to compare constructs, if necessary. the ranking of the constructs can be done in two ways, namely by using the acrossmethod or the down-method. considering the above, the researcher decided to: � interview chief executive officers and executive managers in 9 business units of this transport organisation. � use the flowchart, as depicted in figure 1 as guideline during the data collection process. � use the triads of elements, and specifically the minimum contest card form, as construct elicitation method because of its simplicity and user-friendliness. � elicit the constructs by allowing the research participant to develop his/her own views and ideas in a free-flow manner. therefore, the research participant was not influenced in the elicitation process. � use the across-method in the ranking of constructs because this method leads to neater constructs – there is more opportunity and incentive to re-define the construct in use on the one hand, and to eliminate the perceived complexity of the repertory grid on the other. data analysis the repertory grid produced 231 constructs from 22 research participants. the classification of these constructs involved inductive, as well as deductive reasoning. in the inductive reasoning the first-order constructs were scrutinised in order to establish some sort of revealing pattern that would assist in the classification of the constructs into strands. in the deductive reasoning existing findings, views and opinions of scholars in the fields of leadership and organisational management were used to assist in the clustering of constructs in a particular strand, and into different components. the strategy was to use the views and opinions of current national and international scholars, particularly in the leadership, organisational and human fields of study. a flowchart of the data analysis process is given in figure 2. this process flowchart consists of ten different phases and each phase will be discussed separately to facilitate understanding. phase 1: data-gathering: all the constructs captured on the final perception sheets were used. that is, all of the 231 constructs obtained from the 22 participants during the data collection phase. phase 2: classification: this entailed the classification of elements that were used in this study. as this study is interested in the border between performing business units and nonperforming business units a range of business units were selected that can be described as performers and non-performers. to classif y these business units the corporate financial office of this transport organisation was requested to classif y the nine business units in terms of performers and non-performers. the formula that was used was not prescribed, but reflects the generic formula of net operating profit after financial cost for the year 2001/2. the business units were classified in terms of their percentage improvement. according to the classification the top performers were identified as business unit 1, business unit 2, business unit 3 and business unit 4, all with positive improvement results. these four business units will ultimately be used to identif y the capabilities that will make up the genetic business code for growth. the non-performers were business units 5,6,7,8 and 9. these business units will be used to highlight the absence of a genetic business code for growth (“negative code”). phase 3: data combination # 1: this phase involved the following: the gathering of all constructs that were developed for each business unit; as various research participants developed these constructs, all the contributions were combined into one table consisting of the second-order construct, as well as the opposite pole of the construct. phase 4: data reduction # 1: this phase dealt with the elimination of duplication. this procedure involved the following: the physical listing of all the constructs that were developed; the ident ificat ion of duplicated constructs bet ween research participants; and the elimination of the duplicated constructs. the end result of this process was the compilation of nine profiles of second-order constructs. a genetic business code 3 vermeulen, veldsman, roodt, schurink 4 now i will give you another set of three organisations and we will follow the same process. i’m going to turn each of the bipolar constructs that you have developed into a 5-point scale and ask you to rate the nine organisations in terms of that particular construct. anything else organisations 1&2 have in common that differs from 3? what you are saying is that organisation 1 & 2 are the same because of the following constructs. and organisation 3 is different because of the following constructs. write down perceptions does this apply to organisation # 3? write down perceptions on what basis are they alike? (why?) decision is made which two organisations are alike and why? give 3 cards explain the objective of the interview, as well as the area of concern – that is business growth process flowchart of the repertory grid r: can i give you another set of cards that depicts different business units? r: on that specific construct i will put the business units that you identified on the “one” of this likert type scale and the third business unit as “five” on the scale. please rate each of these other business units on the likert-type scale. r: any other similarities between business units one and three? p: no, it is only leadership style. r: can i reflect that your first construct is one of leadership style, in particular the people approach to employees? p: yes, that is what i said. r: what do you mean with “leadership style”? p: everyone in those organisations respect their leaders because of their personal approach to people. r: how does this differ from the third business unit? p: the leader of this unit is not a “people’s person”. r: which two business units are similar and different from the third? p: business unit one (transport industry) and three (esselenpark) are similar. r: why are one and three similar? p: both of these business units are successful because of the leadership style. r: i will give you a combination of three cards. on each card is the name of one business unit. your job is to select two of those business units, which are similar in some way, and different from the third. r: there are nine business units that were identified as the elements in this study. r: welcome to the interview and thank you for your time. the objective of this interview is to obtain your own thoughts and perceptions on what makes organisations successful. example of the free flowing opinionated perceptions of the participant figure 1: the repertory grid procedure (key: p=participant; r=researcher) phase 5: data combination # 2: this phase included the identification of the constructs with the highest ranking given by the research participants (ranking of 1). phase 6: data reduction # 2: this phase encompassed the identification and elimination of all duplication of the compiled profiles developed in the previous phase. the end result of this phase was four profiles of the highest-ranked constructs without duplication. phase 7: data combination # 3: this phase dealt with the compilation of an integrated profile of firstand secondorder constructs. phase 8: data reduction # 3: this phase included the identification and elimination of the duplication between the four profiles. the end result of this phase was an integrated profile of first-and second-order constructs, without duplicated constructs. phase 9: data classification # 1: this phase involved the classification of the constructs into “themes”. the procedure in this phase involved the scrutinising of the constructs and by the inductive way of reasoning underlying similarities or themes were identified. the constructs were then classified into specific themes based on the underlying meaning and themes. phase 10: data finalisation: this phase dealt with the identification of components within the identified strands through inductive and deductive reasoning. table 2 summarises the results of the data analysis reduction process (i.e. phases 1 to 6). results the integrated profile the integrated profile was the result of phases one to eight in the data analysis process and consisted of 207 constructs. after three processes of data reduction it was evident that the “business language” of the research participants in this transport organisation was relatively similar. this was substantiated by the fact that 120 duplications were eliminated to produce the final integrated profile of just 89 constructs. the integrated profile with the firstand second-order constructs is given in table 3. the first-order constructs listed are the “raw” constructs as identified and developed by the research participants, as they conveyed them to the researcher. in clarification of some of these constructs the laddering method was used as described by stewart and stewart (1990). it is obvious that there are comprehensive similarities between the firstand second-order constructs. the researcher did not add ideas or change constructs in order to make sense of the final constructs. the constructs that were most frequently duplicated were: “alignment of business processes”; “clarity of purpose”; “integration of processes”; “innovation”; “leadership”; and also people issues, such as “people development” and “retention of talent”. the identification of strands within the 89 constructs given in table 3 lies the genetic business code for growth. these 89 constructs are the views and beliefs of 22 research participants of what makes an organisation successful. in the identification of the first strand the 89 constructs of the integrated profile were scrutinised using an inductive strategy in order to establish meaningful relationships or patterns. the field notes were also scrutinised to assist with the establishment of relationships, resulting in 22 constructs that showed a strong relationship with respect to the leadership dimension (the first order constructs 1 to 22 in table 3). in fact, the construct leadership was one of the most duplicated constructs. these constructs also showed similarities in terms of human behaviour, ethical behaviour, in fact all the “soft” capabilities and competencies that are expected of leaders. in the deductive approach specific efforts were made to obtain the views of specialists regarding leadership, ethical behaviour, as well as the different components of leadership. these views are summarised in table 4. it is a fact that the “under-performance of organisations, nations, families and sporting endeavors can be directly ascribed to ineffectual leadership” (charlton, 2000, p. 29). charan and tichy (1998), garratt (2000) and maxwell (1998) support the complexity of the leadership dimension. in order to catagorise the developed constructs even further into different components of leadership, the components indicated by literature as given in table 4 are used to guide the classification process. a genetic business code 5 clustering of constructs within the different allocated strands into themes classification of constructs into strands identif y & eliminate all duplication of constructs in the integrated profile compile an integrated profile of constructs identif y & eliminate all duplication between constructs of the four top performers identif y & combine all constructs with highest rating. (rating of 1) for the top performing elements (business units) identif y and eliminate construct duplication between research participants per element identif y and combine all constructs per element classification of elements (business units) in terms of successful and less successful start using the collected information in the final response sheets data gathering phase 1 phase 2 phase 3 phase 4 phase 5 phase 6 phase 7 phase 8 phase 9 phase 10 data classification #1 data classification #2 data finalisation data combination #1 data combination #2 data combination #3 data reduction #1 data reduction #2 data reduction #3 figure 2: the data analysis process by using these views it seems that the following components of leadership can be identified: purpose; personal competence; ethical competence; and transformational competence. the identified 22 constructs (constructs 1 to 22 in table 3) showed similarities with the above-mentioned classification. the constructs that supported this classification are given in table 5. the following meaning can be attributed to the identification of these constructs: � it is clear that the research participants ranked the following constructs very high: clarit y of purpose; strategic partnerships; sensitivity towards the environment; and leadership. this view is indicative of what is happening in this environment at this stage. � the construct “understanding the global environment” seems out of place, but if the first-order construct is studied, it is clear that this construct belonged to this dimension. � the emphasis on values and the management thereof in this organisation can be attributed to the leadership style of the managing director and the board. it is also evident that very few research participants identified specific values. this can be attributed to the lack of consensus with regard to specific values. in the recent past some very high-ranking individuals in this organisation had been disciplined. this also has send a very clear message regarding certain values. � the constructs, “innovation culture” and the “predisposition to change”, dominated the transformational competence component. in this environment the introduction of the balanced scorecard as a management tool focused business units with regard to four perspectives, namely financial performance, customer satisfaction, internal business processes, and innovation and growth. innovation and transformation is presently very visible because of the measurable criteria linked to it in the balanced scorecard. the visualisation of the leadership strand is given in figure 3. vermeulen, veldsman, roodt, schurink 6 table 2 results of the data reduction process constructs awarded by constructs awarded by business units itself other business units business unit research phase 2 phase 3 phase 4 phase 5 phase 6 examples of participants performance combination final set of # of highestfinal set of typical constructs status of constructs constructs per ranking constructs element constructs 1 1 successful 10 10 66 48 leading by example innovation clear direction customer focused retention of talent training and development alignment of processes 2 4 successful 41 28 88 54 leadership customer centric culture people/intangibles process alignment and integration 3 6 successful 57 42 103 63 clarity of purpose innovation customer centric culture business process integration and alignment 4 3 successful 33 25 76 42 values market growth 5 1 less successful 13 13 not done not done clear organisational purpose reaction to change direction update frequently fast reaction to new opportunities development of human capital 6 1 less successful 10 10 not done not done leadership clear direction and focus speed of decisionmaking heavy investment in people cutting-cost culture re-engineering capability 7 2 less successful 26 20 not done not done innovation customer people 8 2 less successful 20 17 not done not done values people 9 2 not classified 21 19 not done not done customers (participants used as substitutes) a genetic business code 7 table 3 the integrated profile first-order constructs second-order constructs 1 it is not so much the change but the reaction to it and the ability to handle ability to handle change it. ability to handle change is a characteristic of a good leader. 2 the ability to communicate issues to lower levels is crucial. ability to share information 3 business acumen competencies are crucial. business acumen competencies 4 a compelling strategy is to have a clear vision. clarity of purpose 5 this environment is known for its strong leadership. leadership competent leadership creates impact. 6 you need to instill values in the organisation. show me a successful business entrench values in the organisation and i will show you values, the opposite is painfully also true. 7 one of the challenges is the flexibility in decision-making. flexibility in decision-making 8 focus on intangibles. focus on intangibles 9 the leader will focus on operational efficiency in this way he will focus on operational efficiency influence its profitability, by transforming the present operations. i believe that no organisation has ever changed without being efficient first. 10 this is sometimes the only decision the ceo can take to survive, it is forming strategic partnerships to ensure existence. this is a strategic decision taken by the ceo. i would expect a leader to take such a decision. sometimes an organisation cannot exist without strategic partnerships. it is a characteristic of a good leader to instill direction. 11 loyalty is important. high levels of loyalty 12 honesty is a sign that values are managed. honesty as a value 13 in today’s world you need to be innovative. if your exco is innovative innovation culture everybody will be – people are scared of innovation. you can only transform if you innovate. you need to nurture that competency. 14 this value is according to me the most important value to consider. what integrity clearly visible people do not realise is that values is a top-down approach and not a bottom-up approach 15 by setting an example you are leading by example. if you lead by example lead by example you are passionate. 16 as there is ongoing change you must have a predisposition to change. predisposition to change they have a predisposition to change. 17 the reaction to change will make the difference and how the leader will reaction to change crucial react to change. change transforms people, as well as organisations 18 to re-engineer means you are not satisfied with the status quo, you need re-engineer systems to improve service delivery to transform your business. 19 environment is a strategic decision; it should come from the top. sensitive towards environment 20 a people orientated business, you need to be sensitive towards people. sensitive towards people component 21 solid understanding of the industry is crucial. solid understanding of the industry 22 in the world of globalisation the understanding of this environment is understand the global environment crucial for success. the leadership must understand the global environment. 24 alignment will create value. alignment will improve productivity. integration alignment of operational processes to gain competitiveness. integration of process is a seamless approach. 25 they have alternatives in delivery. alternatives in service delivery 26 otherwise the customer will not get to know you. the image drive is for build a strong image the customer. image is important for the retention of the market. 27 not the clarity of the vision but clarity of the mission. if you are doing clarity of their mission the wrong things you will never get to your destination 28 they have complex internal business processes. complex internal business processes 29 they innovate services in order to operate better. innovation in terms of consistent innovation of services service delivery. 30 to integrate your processes is a seamless approach. integrate processes to gain consolidate & integrate business processes operating efficiency 31 if you don’t cut costs you will not survive. they are managing the cost cost-driven structures, in order to operate better. 32 a customer focused culture. you need to delight the customer. the airline customer centric culture industry is more sensitive towards clients. this how they are doing business. 33 it is just evident that some organisations develop strategies in this regard, drive a strategy to grow the market to improve their customer profitability. it will ensure their existence. 34 people development is crucial. people development is a priority. should drive people development drive this trough sdf’s and budgeting processes. the development should be a strategy. the opposite is bankruptcy. 35 they drive performance management as a process. drive performance management within business 36 these are driven by economic principles driven by economic principles 37 an empowerment culture exists. knowledge grows people. more productive empowerment culture employees. 38 engineering driven solutions makes a difference will improve operational engineering-driven solutions efficiency. 39 if you are too big for your own shoes you need to go across border. but expansion strategies across border it is strategic decision, can influence your purpose. vermeulen, veldsman, roodt, schurink 8 40 if your marketers cannot decide you’re dead. otherwise you will close fast decision-making speed your doors. 41 fast reaction to new opportunities. fast reaction to new opportunities 42 speed to customer counts. fast response time to customer 43 they focus on a limited number of products. focus on a limited number of products 44 this decision was made on a strategic level. focus on core business processes 45 this is a monopolistic regulated environment. highly regulated environment 46 these are in a competitive environment. in a competitive environment 47 the internal communication is good. internal communication excellent 48 internal relationships with people are stable. you can grow in this internal relationships with employees very stable environment. stable environment grows people. 49 introduction of technology to improve business processes. introduction of technology in business processes 50 invest in operational infrastructure. invest in operational infrastructure 51 there should be a very strong learning capability. learning capability 52 the safety drive is prominent. safety as an integral business process. manage safety as integral business process 53 they have multiple opportunities for personal exposure many opportunities for personal exposure 54 they have a monopoly in the market. monopoly in the market 55 these businesses optimise their logistics offering. optimise logistics offering 56 you got to play to your strengths, outsource. outsource non-core business. outsource non-core processes 57 the ownership of the infrastructure is a competitive advantage. ownership of infrastructure is a competitive advantage 58 the competency lies with people, you need to be people orientated. people-oriented businesses 59 they are perceived to be for the common good. perceived to be for common good 60 they recruit talented people. recruit talented people 61 will improve service delivery and effectiveness. redesign business processes 62 you need to re-evaluate your operating assets. this is a strategic decision. re-evaluation of operating assets in terms of their life cycle 63 extensive training and the refocusing of training and development are refocus training and development important. you got to refocus your training. 64 the environment will allow you just that much, you need to reposition reposition to market yourself to the market. 65 the planning of processes made a difference. require strict planning of internal processes 66 they retain customers because of their strategies. retention of customers as a strategy 67 these businesses are retaining talent. the management and retention of talent. retention of talent 68 you can manage cost structures by ringfencing the business. ringfence the business to identif y the cost-drivers 69 pursue a short-term agenda some organisations pursue short-term agendas short-term agenda for strategic reasons. 70 you got to build an infrastructure base. spent time to build infrastructure base 71 this is a regulated industry where the laws govern. subject to regulation 72 teams prosper in this environment. teams prosper 73 they unbundled their processes. unbundle their processes 74 these businesses understand customer needs. understand customer needs 75 they use excellent service as a differentiating strategy. they differentiate use excellent service as a differentiating strategy themselves in terms of service delivery. 76 you must lift the bar of performance. the utilisation of intellectual capital utilisation of intellectual capital gives you that advantage. 77 identif y the contributions in the value chain. value chain focus 78 where there is passion there is success. passionate leaders. passion in people. business drive and passion visible 79 this is a mind thing – you cannot accept your direction for very long. in direction updated frequently the changing environment you cannot accept your direction for very long. 80 there is a drive towards efficiency to optimise value through competitiveness. drive towards efficiency to optimise value through competitiveness 81 this is an interesting one, if the majority of the people are committed and high commitment of employees are passionate the chances are that their business is successful. this is according to me a distinguishable characteristic. 82 intrapreneurship capability is more prominent. intrapreneurship 83 inventing your future is a predisposition to change, look at the transport invent their future industry, they make things happen. 84 it is a concerted effort to make happen what you believe in. you got to manage own destiny manage your own destiny as a person first and then it will rub off on everyone else. 85 this is very much a spiritual thing. personal insight 86 you do a reality check. you cannot accept that everything will stay the reconsider identity same. i know it is difficult for some people to frequently check and re-check, but you must do it. 87 they were forced out of their mental state of being a parastatal – they had redefine purpose to redefine their purpose. 88 i see this as a state of mind of people. you are knocked down and you keep resilience & renewal coming up, keep improving your services this is resilience and renewal 89 improved service offering means a sustainable commitment to excellence, sustainable commitment to excellence this is a drive. table 4 leadership components indicated by literature component authors personal competence bennis and mische (1995); covey (1997); garratt (2000); kotter (1995); maxwell (1998); veldsman (2002) ethical competence bennis (1997); cannon (1996); charan and tichy (1998); garratt (2000); kotter (1995); maxwell (1998); veldsman (2002) purpose bennis (1996, 1997); bennis and mische (1995); cannon (1996); senge (1990) transformational competence bennis (1989); charan and tichy (1998); veldsman (2002) the motivation for this study states that the findings of this study could be utilised for future renewal and redesign exercises within this transport organisation. linked to this is the practical contribution, of this study, the development of a tool, as one of the major outcomes of the proposed research. to achieve this objective it was decided to apply the opposite construct pole in the same manner as with the leadership strand to visualise the opposite dimensions and components. with this approach a clearer vision of leadership, as it was developed in this study, would be created. as this opposite pole indicates several deficiencies in leadership as it was developed in this study, this strand was aptly named the leadership-deficiency strand. given space constraints this strand could not be included in the article but it is available in vermeulen (2002, p.65). figure 3: the leadership strand a genetic business code 9 table 5 leadership components supported by constructs component construct # respondents typical comments purpose clarity of purpose 14 participants “this is sometimes the only decision a ceo can forming strategic partnerships 8 participants take to survive. it is to ensure existence” sensitive towards the environment 2 participants “this is a strategic decision taken by the ceo. i would expect a leader to take such a decision” “it is a characteristic of a good leader to instill direction.” “it is not really a new thing, it is a very old principle to be sensitive towards the environment. it should come from the top, it is a strategic decision.” personal competence ability to handle change 1 participant “leadership creates impact”. ability to share information 1 participant “a people orientated business, you need to be business acumen competencies 1 participant sensitive towards people.” competent leadership 11 participants “this environment is known for its strong flexibility in decision-making 1 participant leadership.” focus on intangibles 2 participants “business acumen competencies are crucial.” sensitive towards people component 1 participant solid understanding of industry 1 participant understand the global environment 2 participants ethical competence entrench values in the organisation 6 participants “this value is according to me the most important high levels of loyalty 1 participant value to consider. what people do not realise is that honesty as value 1 participant values is a top-down approach and not a bottom-up integrity clearly visible 2 participants approach.” lead by example 1 participant “show me a successful business and i’ll show you values. the opposite is, painfully, also true.” transformational focus on operational efficiency 1 participant “the reaction to change will make the difference and competence reaction to change crucial 1 participant how the leader will react to change. change predisposition to change 4 participants transforms people, as well as organisations.” innovation culture 12 participants “you can only transform if you innovate”, re-engineering capability 1 participant “innovation needs to be built as a competence in the organisation” “the leader will focus on operational efficiency, in this way he will influence its [the organisation’s] profitability, by transforming the present operations. i believe that no organisation has ever changed without being efficient first.” “to re-engineer means you are not satisfied with the status quo, you need to transform your business.” purpose � clarity of purpose � forming strategic partnerships � sensitive towards environment personal competence � ability to handle change � ability to share information � business acumen competencies � competent leadership � flexibility in decision-making � focus on intangibles � sensitive towards the people component � solid understanding of the industry � understand the global environment ethical competence � entrench values in the organisation � high levels of loyalty � honesty as a value � integrity clearly visible � lead by example transformational competence � focus on operational efficiency � innovation culture � predisposition to change � reaction to change crucial � re-engineering capability the same methodological approach was followed in the development of the second strand. by using an inductive approach the firstand second-order constructs were scrutinised, and based on the meaning the research participants gave to these, 55 constructs were identified that showed certain similarities with business processes in an organisation (constructs 23 to 77 in table 3). processes such as performance management, cost management, and decision-making were mentioned. where the previous constructs focused on the “soft” issues in an organisation, these constructs focused more on the “hard” aspects of an organisation. a deductive approach was followed in identifying the components of the organisational architecture environment. “after all we have said about the characteristics of the 21st century corporation and the drivers of change, the new markets, the information technology, the stakeholders, and so forth, what can we say about what the new corporation looks like? what’s its architecture?” (wind & main, 1999. p. 301). on the same subject veldsman (2002) emphasises that, “architecture is one of the most important means to bridge the strategic gap between the organisation’s present and desired future positions. decisions regarding architecture determine how the organisation interfaces with its markets and clients, where the organisation focuses its energies, influences the deployment of resources, facilitates or constrains the accomplishments of work, motivates various types of job performance, and shapes the pattern of formal and informal interactions and relationships that unfold over time” (p. 103). the components indicated by literature are presented in table 6 to guide the classification process. table 6 organisational architecture components indicated by literature component authors strategic direction clegg and birch (1998); garratt (2000); ghoshal and bartlett (1995); longenecker, simonetti and sharkey (1999); sunter (1992) customer centricity hamel (1990); nadler and tushman (1999); porter (1979); prahalad and wilson (1999) people effectiveness garratt (2000); ghoshal and bartlett (1995); huang (2001); kaplan and norton (1996); mccoy (1996); veldsman (2002) operating efficiency beer and nohria (2000); kaplan and norton (2001); nohria and ghoshal (1997); owen, mundy, guild and guild (2001); porter (1987) by considering the results of the inductive and deductive reasoning, and for the purposes of this study organisational architecture will be seen as a series of related processes that focuses on the achievement of strategic direction, customer centricity, people effectiveness and operating efficiency. table 7 reflects these components as supported by the constructs. in order to attach meaning to these elicited constructs the following comments are appropriate: � the majority of constructs were developed in the customer centricity, people effectiveness and operating efficiency components. this can be ascribed to a degree of uncertainty that exists in this environment with regard to strategic direction. � it seems that the majority of research participants identified the following constructs: “build strong image”, “customer centric culture”, “drive a strategy to grow the market”, “fast decision-making speed”, “fast reaction to new opportunities” and “reposition to market”. the first-order constructs were scrutinised and the source of these constructs seemed to be all of the business units. this result could be ascribed to the introduction of the balanced scorecard in this environment. � the “people effectiveness” component was dominated by one construct, namely “drive people development”. the source of this component was all of the business units involved in this study. � the constructs “internal relationships with employees” and “empowerment culture” were the only two constructs that were not that obviously related to the development of people. the first-order constructs, however, indicated that these constructs definitely belonged to this component. � the fact that the majority of research participants identified the “people development” construct, but few broke it down into other components can be attributed to the fact that in this environment heavy emphasis is currently placed on human development. � the constructs “recruit talented people” and “retention of talent” indicated the urgency in this organisation to manage talent. this could also indicate the undersupply of appropriate talent in the transport industry. � the fact that the “alignment and integration of processes” received so much attention, whereas the construct “introduction of technology” received so little attention, was difficult to explain, as this environment is strongly technology driven. � with regard to “safety” and “cost-driven” the source of these constructs was only one business unit. this seemed acceptable as especially the safety issue is of the utmost importance to this business unit as several accidents had influenced its image during 2000/1. taking the above-mentioned into consideration, the second set of constructs were classified as the organisational architecture strand. this strand is visualised in figure 4. figure 4: the organisational architecture strand vermeulen, veldsman, roodt, schurink 10 strategic direction � ability to implement restructuring � clarity of their mission � expansion strategies across border � focus on a limited number of products � focus on core business processes � outsource non-core processes � ownership of infrastructure is a competitive advantage � re-evaluation of operating assets � short-term vs long-term agenda customer centricity � alternatives in service delivery � built a strong image � customer centric culture � drive a strategy to grow the market � fast decision-making speed � fast reaction to new opportunities � fast response time to customers � reposition to market � retention of customers as a strategy � understand customer needs � use excellent service as differentiating strategy people effectiveness � drive people development � empowerment culture � internal relationships with employees � learning capability � opportunities for personal exposure � people orientation � recruit talented people � refocus training & development � retention of talent � team work � utilisation of intellectual capital operating efficiency � alignment of operational processes � built infrastructure base � consistent innovation of services � consolidate & integrate business processes � cost-driven � drive performance management � engineering-driven solutions � internal communication � introduction of technology � invest in operational infrastructure � manage safety � optimise logistics offering � planning of internal processes � redesign business processes � ringfence businesses to identif y cost drivers � unbundle processes � value chain focus the opposite construct pole was applied in the same manner as with the leadership strand to visualise the contrasting dimensions and components. as this opposite pole indicates confusion with regard to direction, a total lack of movement (or speed) and a lack of pro-active decision-making it was decided to name the opposite strand the dinosaur strand. clegg and birch (1998) also refered to this type of characteristics as “dinosaur” characteristics (see vermeulen, 2002, p.74 for a visual representation of this strand). the identification of the first two strands paved the way to classif y the rest of the constructs into a third strand. the field notes were scrutinised to assist with the establishment of relationships. twelve constructs showed a strong relationship with respect to a mental attitude that is needed to ensure growth (constructs 78 to 89 in table 3). it seems that these constructs indicated that, besides the behavioural competencies and the organisational capabilities, a third “theme” was necessary to ensure organisational success. this “theme” included an “attitude” or “personality” that individuals possess and impose onto their respective organisations which made a difference. an inductive way of reasoning was also used in order to classify the identified constructs into components. charan and tichy (1998) mentioned that the one factor that distinguishes organisations that grow from organisations that cannot grow is not the businesses they are in, because there are losers in growth industries or markets, and winners in declining ones. neither is it the tactics they use. it is rather “a state of mind”. this “state of mind” seems to be the “third” element that ensures sustainable growth. de geus (1997) proposed that it is “the innate spirit that moves and propels a company”. he explains that an organisation is not just a bundle of individuals or a combination of assets and individuals. each living being has an undifferentiated wholeness, with its own character, which can be called its “persona”. zohar (1997) calls this “one factor” the “instinct” of an organisation. she explains that deep transformational change requires that one literally rewire one’s brain, that one grow new neural connections. a genetic business code 11 table 7 organisational architecture components supported by constructs component construct #respondents typical comments strategic ability to implement restructuring 2 participants “they implement restructuring efforts.” direction clarity of their mission 1 participant “not the clarity of the vision but clarity of the mission expansion strategies across border 1 participant if you are doing the wrong things you will never get to your destination.” focus on limited number of products 1 participant “if you are too big for your own shoes you need to go across border focus on core business processes 2 participants but it is strategic decision, can influence your purpose.” outsource non-core processes 2 participants “this decision was made on a strategic level” ownership of infrastructure is a 1 participant “you got to play to your strengths, outsource.” competitive advantage “outsource non-core business.” re-evaluation of operating assets 1 participant “you need to re-evaluate your operating assets. this is a strategic decision.” long-term vs. short-term agendas 1 participant “pursue a short-term agenda. some organisations pursue short-term agendas for strategic reasons.” customer alternatives in service delivery 1 participant “they have alternatives in delivery.” centricity build a strong image 7 participants “otherwise the customer will not get to know you.” customer centric culture 17 participants “the image drive is for the customer. image is important drive a strategy to grow the market 7 participants for the retention of the market.” fast decision-making speed 5 participants “you need to delight the customer.” fast reaction to new opportunities 3 participants “it is just evident that some organisations develop fast response time to customer 1 participant strategies in this regard, to improve their customer reposition to market 4 participants profitability. it will ensure their existence.” retention of customers as a strategy 1 participant “if your marketers cannot decide you’re dead.” understand customer needs 1 participant “speed to customer counts.” use excellent service as a differentiating strategy 1 participant “the environment will allow you just that much, you need to reposition yourself to the market.” “they use excellent service as a differentiating strategy. they differentiate themselves in terms of service delivery.” people drive people development 14 participants “people development is crucial. people development is a priority. effectiveness empowerment culture 2 participants should drive this through sdfs and budgeting processes. the development internal relationships with employees 2 participants should be a strategy. the opposite is bankruptcy.” learning capability 1 participant “an empowerment culture exists. knowledge grows people. more opportunities for personal exposure 1 participant productive employees.” people orientation 1 participant “internal relationships with people are stable. you can grow in this recruit talented people 2 participants environment. stable environment grows people.” refocus training & development 1 participant “there should be a very strong learning capability.” retention of talent 2 participants “the competency lies with people, you need to be people orientated.” team work 1 participant “these businesses are retaining talent. the management and retention utilisation of intellectual capital 1 participant of talent.” operating alignment of operational processes 5 participants “alignment will create value. alignment will improve productivity. efficiency built infrastructure base 1 participant integration to gain competitiveness. integration of process is a consistent innovation of services 1 participant seamless approach.” consolidate and integrate business processes 8 participants “you got to build an infrastructure base.” cost-driven 1 participant “they innovate services in order to operate better. innovation in terms drive performance management 2 participants of service delivery.” engineering-driven solutions 1 participant “to integrate your processes is a seamless approach.” internal communication 1 participant “integrate processes to gain operating efficiency.” introduction of technology 1 participants “if you don’t cut costs you will not survive. they are managing the cost invest in operational infrastructure 2 participants structures, in order to operate better.” manage safety 1 participant “they drive performance management as a process.” optimise logistics offering 2 participants “engineering-driven solutions make a difference will improve operational planning of internal processes 2 participants efficiency.” redesign business processes 2 participants “the internal communication is good.” ringfence business to identif y cost-drivers 1 participant “introduction of technology to improve business processes.” unbundle processes 1 participant “the safety drive is prominent. safety as an integral business process.” value chain focus 1 participant “will improve service delivery and effectiveness.” “you can manage cost structures by ringfencing the business.” “identif y the contributions in the value chain.” table 8 internal orientation components indicated by literature component authors spiritual core cavanagh (1999); de geus (1997); hock (1999) mental core charan and tichy (1997); hock (1999) emotional core charan and tichy (1997); cooper and sawaf (1997) drive and passion charan and tichy (1997); clegg and birch (1998); collins and porras (1998); levicki (1998) in order to catagorise the developed constructs even further, the components indicated by literature is presented in table 8 to guide the classification process. by following inductive and deductive strategies a third strand was identified. this strand for the purposes of this study will be classified as the internal orientation strand. this strand consists of the spiritual, emotional and mental core with drive and passion as foundation. the supporting constructs are depicted in table 9. the following observations regarding the identification of this strand are relevant: to establish meaning was difficult in the case of this strand, as not enough constructs were developed. the inabilit y of more research participants to recognise drive and passion, whereas the people component, and especially the “people effect iveness” component, received so much attention is difficult to explain. an indication could be that the majorit y of the research participants believed that the influence of drive and passion was minimal. another reason for the apparent lack of more constructs in this component could be that the sample of 22 research participants was just not enough to ident if y sufficient similar constructs. the internal orientation strand is visualised in figure 5. the opposite-construct pole was applied to develop the opposite of the internal orientation strand. this opposite strand was characterised by a general absence of a “spirit” in the organisation and the absence of mental and emotional competencies. as the term “zombie” refers to the absence of “spirit” in general, it was decided to call this strand the ”zombie strand” (see vermeulen, 2002, p. 79 for a visual representation of this strand). figure 5: the internal orientation strand vermeulen, veldsman, roodt, schurink 12 table 9 internal orientation components supported by constructs component construct #respondents typical comments spiritual core manage own destiny 2 participants “it is a concerted effort to make happen what you believe personal insight 1 participant in. you got to manage your own destiny as a person reconsider identity 1 participant first and then it will rub off on everyone else.” redefine purpose 2 participants “this is very much a spiritual thing.” “you do a reality check. you cannot accept that everything will stay the same. i know it is difficult for some people to frequently check and re-check, but you must do it.” “they were forced out of their mental state of being a parastatal – they had to redefine their purpose.” emotional core invent their future 1 participant “inventing your future is a predisposition to change, resilience and renewal 1 participant look at the transport industry, they make things happen.” “i see this as a state of mind of people. you are knocked down and you keep coming up, keep improving your services this is resilience and renewal.” mental core direction updated frequently 3 participants “this is a mind thing – you cannot accept your direction high commitment level 1 participant for very long. in the changing environment you cannot intrapreneurship 2 participants accept your direction for very long.” “this is an interesting one; if the majority of the people are committed and are passionate the chances are that their business is successful. this is according to me a distinguishable characteristic.” “intrapreneurship capability is more prominent.” drive and passion business drive and passion clearly visible 1 participant “where there is passion there is success. passionate leaders. drive towards efficiency to optimise value 1 participant passion in people.” sustainable commitment to excellence 1 participant “there is a drive towards efficiency to optimise value through competitiveness.” “improved service offering means a sustainable commitment to excellence, this is a drive.” spiritual core � manage own destiny � personal insight � reconsider identity � redefine purpose mental core � direction updated frequently � high commitment level � intrapreneurship emotional core � invent their future � resilience and renewal drive & passion � business drive and passion visible � drive towards efficiency to optimise value � sustainable commitment to excellence discussion and application of findings based on the above findings an integrated genetic business code model is proposed (given in figure 6) which depicts three strands with the internal orientation strand in the centre. (in contrast the genetic code for all known organisms has two strands and is therefore refered to as the “double helix”). according to zohar (2000) when individuals use their spiritual intelligence, they see things from the centre of their being. it can therefore be argued that the internal orientation strand acts as the “spinal cord” of the genetic business code. charan and tichy (1998) highlight that the genetic code embodies the leader’s ideas, values and emotional energy. according to charan and tichy (1998) this strand indicates how everyone thinks, acts and behaves. ideas for growth will originate from the centre strand, namely the internal orientation strand, and values by the ethical component of the leadership strand. the “constituting” role is the function of the internal orientation strand, whereas the “structuring” role is the function of the organisational architecture strand. the “acting” role is the function of the leadership strand. the horisontal and vertical characteristics of the model highlight the interdependency and interrelatedness between these strands, as well as their components. a deficiency in one component will consequentially influence the total alignment and functioning of the model. as all of the research participants identified constructs for each business unit, relatively “thick” descriptions are available of those capabilities and competencies for business success. the application of the findings is focused by specific business unit, as seen by the research participants. although based only on the views and perceptions of the research participants, these profiles can be presented with the objective of establishing patterns and exploring the possibility of developing an assessment tool that would indicate possible areas of intervention or renewal. a pattern represents different combinations of the three stands developed above. in order to establish patterns, the highest-ranking constructs for each of the business units was used to compile a profile for each of the nine business units. these profiles were compared to the respective strands of the genetic business code for growth (see figures 3,4 and 5) and the fit was expressed as a percentage. with these profiles certain patterns were identified as given in table 10. from studying table 10 it was evident that business unit 3 has the highest fit (77.25%) followed by business unit 2 (64,6%), business unit 9 (61,25%), business unit 1 (57,5%), business unit 7 (47,8%), business unit 8 (47%), business unit 4 (41,4%), business unit 5 (41,1%) and business unit 6 (22%). figure 6: the integrated genetic business code model a genetic business code 13 table 10 summary of percentage fit between profiles for the participating business units business units (from performing to underperforming) strands components business business business business business business business business business unit 3 unit 2 unit 9 unit 1 unit 7 unit 8 unit 4 unit 5 unit 6 leadership purpose 100 100 100 100 66 66 100 100 60 personal competence 55 33 55 55 44 55 77 33 22 ethical competence 100 80 60 60 20 40 60 60 20 transformational competence 100 60 100 60 80 80 40 60 20 organisational strand strategic direction 77 77 33 44 33 66 55 33 11 architecture customer centricity 54 72 90 54 63 63 45 36 54 people effectiveness 45 81 63 54 36 36 54 36 36 operating efficiency 70 41 52 64 41 41 41 70 23 internal spiritual core 60 50 50 50 75 25 25 0 25 orientation strand mental core 66 66 66 66 33 60 0 33 0 emotional core 100 50 0 50 50 0 0 0 0 drive and passion 100 66 66 33 33 35 0 33 0 % fit 77,2% 64,6% 61,2% 57,5% 47,8% 47,0% 41,4% 41,1% business units 1,2 and 3 had been identified as high performers in the initial classification of the business units. business unit 9, although not participating in the study, was highly ranked by the research participants. this exercise showed a high correlation with the initial classification of the business units in terms of hard performance measurements (phase 2 of data analysis). the validity of the strands is therefore confirmed by the high relationship bet ween the classification of the participating business units in terms of performance measures and their profiling in terms of the strands. the performance averages on the different strands is depicted in table 11. in order to develop patterns it is essential to look at the average performances in the different strands. only two business units, namely business unit 2 and 3, performed well in all the strands. it is believed that if less than 50% of the components of the genetic business code for growth are present it shows a weakness in that specific strand, and if more than 50% is present it indicates adequate representation. all possible permutations were present in the sample, namely a fit with all three strands being adequately present; secondly two strands being adequately present; thirdly only one strand being adequately present; and lastly no strands being adequately present. these four types of combinations were used to establish patterns. as this method of classification has not yet been tested extensively to establish its validity and reliability, it is difficult to assess which of the strands are relatively more valuable in predicting organisational success. however, it is hypothesised that the internal orientation strand will be the first strand to show a weakness when an organisation is faced with a challenge, because this strand provides orientation and strength towards problem solving. the second strand to show weakness will be the organisational architecture strand, followed by the leadership strand. as the classification showed that business units 2 and 3 were adequate in all three strands (see table 11) the pattern typif ying these business units were entitled as wealth creators. organisations that displayed such a balanced profile usually create wealth in the environment in which they operate. this type of organisation has all the potential to unlock the vision level as described in the discussion of the integrated genetic business code model (see figure 6). because there are creative resources available, the organisation moves effortlessly to the collective human energy level that enables the organisation to use individual drive and passion to apply strategic thinking. both these business units were rated relatively high on the organisational architecture strand, which means that they are perceived to have clarity with regard to their strategic direction; that the majority of the employees are sensitive to the customer; and that the people are effective and the processes efficient. the perceived strength of both these business units lie in the leadership strand. business units 1,8 and 9 were classified as manifesting the wealth inhibitor pattern. all three business units were perceived to be insufficiently strong in the internal orientation strand. although these business units displayed a certain amount of purpose, personal competence, ethical competence and transformational competence (i.e. leadership strand), the weak link, were that they lack the internal orientation strand that produces creative ideas for growth; the collective human energy; and drive and passion for application. the value of the internal orientation strand was evident in this case. if this deficiency is not addressed the chances are that these business units could lose momentum in the quest for success because this distinct pattern hinders or restrains action. business units 4,5 and 7 displayed the wealth terminator pattern. the characteristic of this pattern is that it destroys the organisation from the inside. all three these business units were perceived to have certain leadership competencies. although there seems to be purpose supported by certain personal, ethical and transformational competence, the “constructing” and “structuring” functions were absent. this means that the organisational environment is not conducive to leadership influences, resulting in the lack of unleashing the transformational leadership competence. although the workforce might understand the purpose, there is not enough drive, passion and collective human energy to apply transformation. in turn, this influences the organisational architecture strand with a subsequent underperformance in customer centricity, people effectiveness and operating efficiency. the last distinct pattern was named the wealth demolisher pattern. this pattern depicted an organisation that is underperforming in all three strands. business unit 6 was perceived by the research participants to be in this category. this pattern is characterised by the total breakdown of essential processes, competence and ideas. it is believed that the majority of the workforce would be frustrated in this type of environment. no vertical and horisontal alignment would exist between the strands because of the breakdown in trust. in this type of work environment people would just doing enough to stay out of trouble, resulting in an under-performing organisation. conclusion a quantitative methodological framework, supplemented by a qualitative approach was used to identif y a genetic business code for growth consisting of a leadership strand, an organisational architect ure strand and an internal orientation strand. the development of a genetic business code for the transport industry described above, could add value in terms of: � performance improvement: the introduction of the code can assist organisations in improving their financial performance, delivery and customer satisfaction; � establishing a holistic approach to business growth within organisations, in this way establishing systemic thinking; � developing an assessment tool to identif y strengths and weaknesses regarding their genetic business codes; and � assisting business units in developing appropriate measurable criteria for inclusion in their respective balanced scorecards. vermeulen, veldsman, roodt, schurink 14 table 11 performance averages on the different strands strands business business business business business business business business business unit 3 unit 2 unit 9 unit 1 unit 7 unit 8 unit 4 unit 5 unit 6 leadership strand 88 68 78 68 60 52 69 63 30 organisational 61 67 59 54 51 43 48 43 31 architecture strand internal 81 58 45 49 29 47 6 16 6 orientation strand the major strengths of the study are that a genetic code of business growth was developed, applied empirically and validated; the research design adopted a combination of qualitative and quantitative research; and the opportunities the study opens up for future research. the major weaknesses are that the study was limited to a single organisation dominating a single industry, hence the generalisation of the findings is limited at this point in time; and the unfamiliarity of the researcher initially with a qualitative research approach may have hampered the optimal execution of the study. all in all it is believed, however, that the strengths of the study outweigh its weaknesses. references bartlett, c. & ghoshal, s. (1995). changing role of top management. beyond structure to process. har vard business review, january/february 1995, 86-96. beer, m. & nohria, n. (2000). breaking the code of change. united states: harvard school press. bennis, w. (1997). becoming a leader of leaders. in: rethinking the future. r.gibson (ed.). great britain, nicholas brealey publishing limited. bennis, w.b. & mische, m. (1995). the 21st century organization. johannesburg: pfeiffer & company. bogdan, r & biklen, s.k. (1998). qualitative research for education. an introduction to theory and methods. boston: allyn & bacon. cavanagh, g.f. (1999). spirituality for managers: context and critique. journal of organizational change management. volume 12, number 3, 186-199. cannon, t. (1996). welcome to the revolution. managing paradox in the 21st century. london: pitman publishing. charan, r. & tichy, n.m. (1998). every business is a growth business. new york: three rivers press. charlton, g. (2000). human habits of highly effective organisations. pretoria: van schaik. clegg, b. & birch, p. (1998). disorganization – the handbook of creative organizational change. london: financial times pitman publishing. collins, j.c & porras, j.i. (1998). built to last. successful habits of visionary companies. london: random house business books. cooper, r.k & sawaf, a. (1997). emotional intelligence in leadership and organizations. new york: the berkley publishing group. covey, s. (1997). putting principles first. in: rethinking the future. gibson, r. (ed). london: nicholas brealey publishing. craig-cooper, m. & de backer, p. (1993). the management audit. how to create an effective management team. london: financial times. pitman publishing. davis, s.m. (1988). 2001 management. london: simon & schuster. de geus, a. (1997). the living company. london: nicholas brealey publishing. denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. (1994). handbook of qualitative research. london: sage publications. denzin, n.k. (1971). the logic of naturalistic inquiry. social forces, volume 50, 166-182. drucker, p.f. (1961). the practice of management. london: heinemann. fransella, f. & bannister, d. (1977). a manual for repertory grid technique. london: academic press. garratt, b. (2000). the twelve organizational capabilities. london: harpercollins publishers. ghoshal, s. & bartlett, c. (1995). changing role of top management. beyond systems to people. har vard business review, may-june 1995, 132-142. grulke, w. & silber, g. (2000). ten lessons from the future. parklands: @ one communications. grundy, t. (1995). breakthrough strategies for growth. london: pitman publishing. handy, c. (1994). the empty raincoat: making sense of the future. london: arrow books limited. hensler, d.a. & torres, d.p. (2001). developing the organization for growth. measuring business excellence, volume 5, number 1, 36-41. hock, d. (1999). birth of the chaordic age. san francisco: berrettkoehler publishers, inc. hopkins, w.g. (2000). qualitative research design. http://www.sportsci.org/jour/0001/ wghdesign. html. huang, t. (2001). the relation of training practices and organizational performance in small and medium size enterprises. education + training, volume 43, number 8/9, 437-444. huberman, a.m. & miles, m.b. (1994). data management and analysis methods. in: handbook of qualitative research. n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds.) california: sage publications. kaplan, r.s & norton, d.p. (1996). the balanced scorecard. boston: harvard business school press. kaplan, r.s & norton, d.p. (2001). the strategy focused organization. boston: harvard business school press. kelly, g.a. (1955). the psychology of personal constructs. new york: w.w. norton & company. inc. kotter, j.p. (1995). the new rules. new york: the free press. levicki, c. (1998). the leadership gene. london: financial times, pitman publishing. longenecker, c.o, simonetti, j.l & sharkey, t.w. (1999). why organizations fail: the view from the front-line. management decision, volume 37. number 6, 503-513. mason, j. (1996). qualitative researching. ca: thousand oaks. maxwell, j.c. (1998). the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership. nashville: thomas nelson publishers. mccoy, t.j. (1996). creating an open book organization. new york: amacom. mccrimmon, m. (1997). the change master. london: pitman publishing. mcgivern, m.h. & tvorik, s.j. (1997). determinants of organizational performance. management decision, number 6, 417-435. meyer, t. (1996). creating competitiveness through competencies. randburg: knowledge resources (pty) ltd. mouton, j. & marais, h.c. (1996). basic concepts in the methodology of the social sciences. pretoria: hsrc publishers. murphy, l. (1995). a qualitative approach to researching management competencies. executive development, volume 8, number 6, 32-34. nadler, d.a. & tushman, m.l. (1999). strategic imperatives and core competencies for the 21st century. organizational dynamics, 45-59. neumann, y & finally-neumann, e. (1994). management strategy, the ceo’s cognitive style and organizational growth/decline. journal of educational administration, volume 32, number 4, 66-76. owen, k, mundy, r, guild, w. & guild, r. (2001). creating and sustaining the high performance organization. managing ser vice quality, volume 11, number 1, 10-21. patton, m.q. (1990). qualitative evaluation and research methods. newbury park: sage. porter, m.e. (1979). how competitive forces shape strategy. har vard business review. march-april, 1979. 137-145. porter, m.e. (1987). from competitive advantage to corporate strategy. har vard business review. may-june, 1987. 43-59. porter, m.e. (1980). competitive strategy: techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. new york: free press. peters, t. (1997). the circle of innovation. united kingdom: hodder & stoughton. prahalad, c.k. & hamel, g. (1990). the core competence of the corporation. har vard business review, may/june, 79-91. schurink, w.j. (1979). crime problems. in: lotter, j.m. (ed.). social problems in the rsa: research by the isdcr. pretoria: hsrc, 1-19. (report s-68). a genetic business code 15 schurink, w.j. (1986). reconstructing social reality. in ferreira, m. et al. introduction to qualitative research methods. pretoria: hsrc. schurink, w.j. (1992). methodological approaches utilized in victimization studies. in schurink, w.j., snyman, i. & krugel, w.f. (eds.). victimisation. nature and trends. pretoria: hsrc. 63-118. schurink, w.j. & schurink, e.m. (2001). lecture one. deciding to use a qualitative research approach. in: schurink, w.j. models of qualitative research. part one. doctoral programme: leadership in performance and change. department of human resource management at rau, johannesburg, 7-9 may 2001. selznick, p. (1957). leadership in administration: a sociological interpretation. new york: harper & row. senge, p.m. (1990). the fifth discipline. the art and practice of the learning organization. new york: doubleday currency. spear, s. & bowen, h.k. (1999). decoding the dna of the toyota production system. har vard business review, septemberoctober, 97-106. stewart, v. & stewart, a. (1990). business applications of repertory grid. goodwood, south africa: national printers. sunter, c. (1992). the new century. tafelberg: human & rousseau. sveiby, k.e. (1997). the new organizational wealth. san francisco: berrett-koehler publishers, inc. sveiby, k.e. (1998). a knowledge focused strategy: a recipe for business success. management today, volume 14, number 9, 18-19. tesch, r. (1990). qualitative research. analysis types and software tools. new york: the falmer press. tulloch, s. (1993). complete wordfinder. london: the readers digest association limited. van maanen, j. (2000). qualitative methods in management research. london: sage. veldsman, t.h. (2002). into the people effectiveness arena. south africa: knowledge resources (pty) ltd. vermeulen, j., (2002). towards a genetic business code for growth in the transport industry. unpublished dissertation, rand afrikaans university. wilson, t.b. (1999). rewards that drive high performance. new york: amacom. wind, j.y. & main, j. (1999). driving change. how the best companies are preparing for the 21st century. london: kogan page. zohar, d. & marshall, i. (2000). spiritual intelligence the ultimate intelligence. great britain: bloomsbury. zohar, d. (1997). rewiring the corporate brain. san francisco: berrett-koehler publishers, inc. vermeulen, veldsman, roodt, schurink 16 abstract introduction literature review research design reporting findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) musa saurombe department of industrial psychology, north-west university, mafikeng campus, south africa e. nicolene barkhuizen department of industrial psychology, north-west university, mafikeng campus, south africa nico e. schutte department of industrial psychology, north-west university, mafikeng campus, south africa citation saurombe, m., barkhuizen, e.n., & schutte, n.e. (2017). management perceptions of a higher educational brand for the attraction of talented academic staff. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a831. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.831 original research management perceptions of a higher educational brand for the attraction of talented academic staff musa saurombe, e. nicolene barkhuizen, nico e. schutte received: 22 june 2016; accepted: 08 nov. 2016; published: 27 feb. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: academic staff members have a crucial role in the success of higher education institutions (heis). therefore, it is imperative to cultivate an appealing organisational brand that will attract them to heis as an employer of choice. research purpose: the main objective of this study was to explore management perceptions on a higher educational institution as a brand for the attraction of talented academic staff. motivation for the study: although a substantial amount of research has been conducted on organisational branding, not much has emphasised the higher educational sector. research approach, design and method: a qualitative research approach was adopted, using semi-structured interviews to collect data from management (n = 12) of a merged south african hei. main findings: the findings revealed six themes that should form the core of a higher educational brand for academic staff: reputation and image, organisational culture and identity, strategic vision, corporate social responsibility and work and surrounding environment. practical/managerial implications: the findings of the study will assist higher education management to create a compelling organisational brand and work environment to attract and retain talented academic staff members. contribution/value-add: this research makes a valuable contribution towards creating new knowledge in the key that should form part of an appealing higher education brand that will attract and retain current and future talent. introduction more recently, diminishing global boundaries and technological modifications have deepened the importance of the organisational branding of higher education (harsha & shah, 2011). branding of higher education institutions (heis) originates from the transference of noble practises from the private business arena into the arena of academia (wæraas & solbakk, 2009). harsha and shah (2011) postulate that the supremacy of a higher educational brand is signified by the judgements, outlooks, opinions, images and experiences associated with the brand in the minds of citizens or audiences and what these consumers have learnt, felt, observed and heard concerning heis over time. the internationalisation of he has further contributed towards the advent of global university rankings (stolz, hendel & horn, 2010), which are reflective of institutional brand reputation and performance (williams & van dyke, 2008). hence, it has become increasingly imperative for top management of heis to divulge the vision, mission, strategy and reason for existence of institutions to the rest of the institutional operational levels in the most effective way possible (balmer, 2012). according to biraghi and gambetti (2015), organisational branding is a continuous strategic process that mirrors the efforts of top managers to capture the identity of organisations and express it in a dependable and attractive manner to promote the organisational identification and support of stakeholders. flake (2015) maintains that hardly any assets are as crucial to the accomplishment of organisations as the image they portray to the media, customers, shareholders as well as the general public. moreover organisational branding epitomises one of the most treasured resources which companies possess to successfully differentiate themselves within the competitive field (biraghi & gambetti, 2015). amzat (2015) explains that branding is important for the sustainability of heis and the offering of products that are superior to their competitors. therefore, heis should attract qualified academic staff who can ensure sustainability and quality over the long term (makondo, 2014; pienaar & bester, 2008). finding highly qualified and a potential pool of talented scholars remains a central management challenge in the 21st century. universities in sub-saharan africa continue to operate under conditions are seriously under-resourced, which poses significant challenges for the scholars concerned (onah & anikwe, 2016; selesho & naile, 2014). employment equity and remuneration practices are important factors in attraction and retention of new academics, especially from historically disadvantaged groups in south africa (mapesela & strydom, 2005). however, the organisational brand of academic institutions continues to be hindered by unattractive remuneration practices (makondo, 2014) and a lack of adequate incentives for knowledge production (wangenge-ouma, lutomiah & langa, 2015). the main objective of this study was to explore management perceptions on a higher educational institution as a brand for the attraction of talent academic staff. more specifically, this research addressed the following research questions: what are higher educational managers’ perceptions of the current state of the organisational branding of a merged hei? what are the components of a compelling higher educational brand to manage academic talent effectively? this research is motivated from the fact that regardless of the largely renowned significance of organisational branding as a way of gaining competitive advantage, organisational branding studies suffer from vastly disjointed standpoints that makes it challenging to recognise the value of organisational branding in channel its practises (biraghi & gambetti, 2015). this article explores the concept of organisational branding as it relates to higher education by breaking it down into six concise components, namely reputation, organisational culture, strategic vision, organisational identity, intended image(s) and construed image that each directly pertains to the overall concept of organisational branding. the factors that affect organisational branding are discussed consecutively in the sections that follow. literature review factors affecting the organisational branding of higher education institutions reputation organisational reputation is frequently considered as how decent, revered, appreciated and/or esteemed organisations are (dowling & moran, 2012). these traits result in organisations gaining trust, which consequently aids people to believe in the organisations’ reliability, talents and strategies for the future (covey & merrill, 2006). in this manner, a good reputation becomes advantageous by enhancing the credibility of service providers and the trust of consumers, thus diminishing risk and related transaction charges (dowling & moran, 2012). therefore, companies should put more effort into reputation-growing activities directed at consumers and employees that focus more on non-monetary facets of reputation, comprising the enhancement of product and service quality, the fostering of an attractive workplace environment and participating in social responsibility activities (raithel & schwaiger, 2015). noble organisational reputations do not only hold the likelihood for value formation but also make it difficult for other organisations to imitate because of the impalpable nature of the reputation of organisations (terblanche, 2015). studies of academics depict that their mobility choices are mostly kindled by the reputation of host heis, the research resources at their disposal and the compatibility between the job post and their research preferences (agarwal & ohyama, 2013; de grip, fouarge & sauermann, 2010; ivancheva & gourova, 2011). williams and omar (2014) argue that the running and effectiveness of heis are vastly associated with the quest for prestige or reputation. alessandri, yang and kinsey (2006) highlight three scopes of the reputation of universities: the quality of academic enactment, the quality of external enactment and emotional engagement. brewer and zhao (2010) reference five essentials encompassing the summative reputation of universities, specifically: leadership, teaching, research, service and equity. organisational culture organisational culture is an essential characteristic of the management of organisations formed by organisations’ morals, customs, fundamental assumptions, outlooks, traditions, chronicles and cyphers − including dogmata and practises (pauzuoliene & mauriciene, 2012). according to kuh and whitt (2000), university culture is a specific type of organisational culture, which is described as the co-operative and mutually influencing arrangements of customs, values, practises, dogmata and assumptions that govern the conduct of individuals and groups in heis and offer a frame of reference within which to construe the importance of proceedings and activities on and off campuses. for the purpose of this article, organisational culture is defined as a system of interacting associations between fundamental assumptions, values, opinions, sacraments, the past, customs and symbols that are conveyed within all organisational management roles (pauzuoliene & mauriciene, 2012). a study by naidoo (2013) established that genuine and long-lasting academic quality would most probably occur within universities when the enablement and transformation roles reinforce collegiate and revolutionary cultures. numerous universities in south africa are trying to create a new and common institutional culture (bitzer, 2009). this may necessitate that institutional culture be disintegrated to give rise to the reconstruction of a fresh culture. one has to bear in mind that institutions comprise several cultures and an assortment of institutional cultures. consequently, the reconstruction of new culture(s) is evidently a major contest (bitzer, 2009). strategic vision according to balmer, stuart and greyser (2009), the strategic vision of organisations denotes the ideal strategic (future-focused) standing of organisations within a set period of time. balmer et al. (2009) further states that the strategic vision is determined after organisational aptitudes, possessions, other rival organisations as well as variations in the political, economic, moral, social and technological atmosphere have been dissected and analysed. healthy schools, as part of best practice, monitor their policy making via strategic plans (walker, 2011). acknowledging the effect such plans have on the strategic guidelines of schools, henry mintzberg (as cited in walker, 2011) cautions what must be at the heart of these plans: while undoubtedly not extinct, strategic planning fell from its platform a while ago, owing to the fact that planning frequently interrupts strategic thinking, triggering confusion in managers between the actual vision and the manipulation of figures. this confusion lies at the root of the issue, which is that the most efficacious strategies are in the form of visions, as opposed to plans. özdem (2011) opines that a sound vision statement should accentuate an inimitable feature of organisations that distinguish them from others. their vision should be comprehended and internalised by all parties with specific interest in organisations (özdem, 2011). mayfield, mayfield and sharbrough (2015) agree that such a vision requires appropriate communication by top leadership. a strategic vision and associated moral messages depict benevolence and esteem for the parties involved and pursue the advancement of the well-being of these stakeholders (mayfield et al., 2015). organisational identity jansen and roodt (2014) express that organisational identity is frequently mistaken for other constructs associated with it, like organisational identification, organisational membership and organisational obligation. lane and scott (2007) describe organisational identity as the qualities or traits of an organisation that comprise principles, aims and operations, as well as metaphors of the organisation or its affiliates. whetten (2006, p. 221) reiterates albert and whetten’s description of one of the components of organisational identity as the intricate viewpoints of members concerning the question ‘who are we as an organisation?’ martin, burke and cooper (2011) express that some features of an organisation’s identity are long-lasting, for instance, its history, the products and services it provides and the country from which it originated. however, whether for instance a company is viewed as honourable can vary in the opinion of its employees and other involved parties. numerous heis recognise their position as pertaining to their conventional two-fold undertakings of teaching and research both at the undergraduate and the graduate stages, but seem not to fully understand their role as a supplier of enduring learning in an extensive dimension, with services targeted towards adult scholars (huisman & pausits, 2010). in addition, the market rivalry for continued education is mounting. this trend is compelling universities to reconsider their programmes, to carry out market assessments and determine strategic positioning and also to develop basic processes such as post-graduate curriculums or services for adult scholars (huisman & pausits, 2010). intended image(s) according to balmer et al. (2009), the intended image of an organisation is the desirable or aspirational future standing of the organisation. it exists within the hearts and minds of organisational governors: it is what they foresee the identity of the organisation to be like in a specific period of time. hugo-burrows (1993) believes that management choices regulate the extent to which the desired organisational image is translated into strategies and policies that are directed at presenting the incorporated organisational image to the main stakeholder categories. podnar (2014) expresses that it is extremely challenging to construct an appropriate programme to convey the sought-after organisational image if the leadership does not comprehend who the organisation is, what the vision is and what its forthcoming intentions are. dolphin and reed (2011) acknowledge that organisations long for a positive attitude from significant stakeholders in the same way that organisations desire an amplified opinion of their purpose and culture. these sought-after perceptions are concentrated on helping to secure a definite foundation for the commercial association between companies and their communities (dolphin & reed, 2011). a study piloted by wood and somerville (2008) discovered that when staff deliberated on a desired image for a university college, for instance, discussions leaned towards what they thought should be accomplished over the ensuing 10 years and how a specific corporate positioning could result in success, as opposed to becoming caught up on favourite colours and preferred typeface. the nelson mandela metropolitan business school had the vision to grow into the most desirable business school in south africa and encouraged the decision to acquaint itself with the image of hard work, honour and authenticity of the country’s first black head of state (opoku, abratt & pitt, 2006). construed image according to balmer et al. (2009), the construed image of organisations relates to the images and reputations of the organisations adopted by customers and various stakeholder groups. helm, liehr-gobbers and storck (2011) describe the construed image of organisations as the impression organisations have about what others think of them. the higher education ranking schemes, for example, has created the notion of a world university market, which is extremely influential on all stakeholders within the knowledge service business (tofallis, 2012). dolphin and reed (2011) state that construed images are necessary because companies consider reputations not merely as treasured assets but also as replications of themselves in the institutional mirror. construed image is an essential component in the formation of identity, which is founded on identification and differentiation procedures (cian & cervai, 2014). the views held by members of organisations about what external parties think of their particular organisation can impact the perceptive identification of organisations and their sentiments, including their appraisals of their self-esteem (cian & cervai, 2014). dolphin and reed (2011) also agree that construed images could be a principal instrument through which companies foresee the shifting expectations in their institutional atmospheres. in conclusion, literature seems to reveal that the extent to which members can relate to organisations is contingent upon how they think organisations are perceived by others (construed image) and indirectly by how others perceive organisations in reality (corporate image). therefore, the perception of outside parties in reality impacts how members believe organisations are viewed by others, which consequently impacts the identity of organisations. in light of this knowledge, the researcher interviewed the management employees of the merged south african hei to determine what type of organisational brand they perceive is reflected to the stakeholders of the institution, particularly the academic staff members of the institution. research design research approach a research approach describes the strategies and the processes followed for research from the stage of wide suppositions to meticulous techniques of data gathering, analysis and interpretation. the choice of a research approach is further determined by the nature or essence of the research problem that is under investigation, the understanding of the researcher as well as the people that the study affects or intends to reach out to (creswell, 2014). a qualitative approach was adopted in this study. this was motivated by the fact that the population of individuals in managerial positions within the institution is relatively small; therefore, a qualitative inquiry was considered to be more practical and pertinent. the nature of the study also necessitated a qualitative approach because an organisational branding is fostered by employers and directed towards employees as one of the stakeholders. in terms of this study, the organisational branding is fostered by the management of the hei and directed towards its academic staff members. therefore, the researcher found it incumbent to obtain the detailed views or perceptions on organisational branding of the management of the merged south african hei through qualitative inquiry in the form of interviews. research strategy this research followed a case study strategy, as it was considered best suited to the researcher’s goal to investigate a current phenomenon in a real-life situation (bryman & bell, 2015). the themes were extracted from the semi-structured interviews and confirmed by scrutinising the worldwide body of existing literature. qualitative case study approach in this research falls within the interpretive/constructivist paradigm (yin, 2012). in this instance, the ontological belief is that reality is local and specifically constructed. research setting the research setting in this study included a sample comprising 12 managers of a merged south african hei. most of the participants were interviewed in person in their offices. in cases where the researcher could not travel to areas that were not within reasonably close proximity, the researcher made use of virtual interviewing methods such as telephonic and skype conversations for greater convenience. the researchers obtained the approval of the participants when virtual interviewing was used. research method entrée and establishing researcher roles permission to carry out this research was sought and obtained from the relevant authorities of the institution by means of a letter of request prior to the collection of data. upon obtaining permission, the researchers approached interview candidates personally and requested interviews. the participants were required to give consent before answering any of the researchers’ questions. anonymity was upheld and all information provided remained confidential in adherence to the code of ethics. ethical clearance was obtained prior to the execution of the study. sampling the participants of the study included the management of a merged south african higher education institution. the participants were chosen based on their work experience in higher education and their role in the organisational brand of the institution. the research participants were interviewed one after the other until data saturation was reached. this study made use of purposive convenience sampling, meaning the participants were selected based on their willingness and availability to take part in the data collection process and the relevance of their contributions. twelve individuals in managerial positions participated in this study through interviews. table 1 shows the demographic delineation. table 1: sample demographics. as can be seen from table 1, the majority of the participants were men, making up 58.33% (seven participants) of the sample. the demographic distribution constituted more black or african people in the sample (58.33% – seven participants). all participants were in possession of a doctoral degree. the distribution in terms of managerial levels showed 41.67% (five participants) to be in the executive tier of management, another 41.67% (five participants) to be in the senior tier of management and 16.67% (two participants) to be in the middle tier of management. only one out of the five participants in executive management is woman, that is, 8.33% of the entire sample as opposed to a clobbering 33.33% of men in the entire sample who held executive managerial positions. at senior management level, three out of the five participants were women, that is, 25.00% of the entire sample, as opposed to 16.67% of men in the entire sample of the participants who hold senior management positions. one out of two participants are in middle management, that is, 8.33% of the men represented in middle management participants and the women represented in middle management participants in the aggregate sample. data collection method the qualitative data collection was conducted by the use of semi-structured interviews. the purpose of the interviews was to divulge more profound meanings by allowing for new information and concepts to emerge from the results, which the quantitative data would not have managed to reveal. the interview sessions managed to specifically unravel the perceptions that management have concerning organisational branding within the merged south african hei. the hei management interview participants were requested to delineate their experiences where organisational branding is concerned − in line with this framework. the questions sought to determine the current organisational branding of the merged south african hei. recording of data the researcher deemed it fit to capture audio recordings of the participants’ answers so that these responses could be transcribed as the data were gradually obtained because of the large volume of data that were gained as a result of a qualitative study. the audio recordings were played back and verbatim transcriptions of the data were made in a microsoft word document for analysis once all the data had been gathered. data analysis in accordance with bernard and ryan (2010), a process known as transcription was used, whereby the audio-recorded responses of the participants were converted into text in a word document. thematic analysis was used in this study to uncover the associations that existed across the phenomena and how these associations relate with the aggregate cultural setting of this research (leech & onwuegbuzie, 2008). the researcher attached mnemonic labels to each theme and sub-theme through open coding to provide a description of the newly discovered phenomena as well as inclusion and exclusion criteria. the generated codes were then refined through axial coding and the labels and their descriptions were supported by verbatim quotes from the interview responses and also compared with literature and similar studies in order to determine the validity of the data and ensure that the main research question was appropriately addressed (leech & onwuegbuzie, 2008). ensuring the quality and rigour of the research in line with sargeant (2012), the following strategies were used to ensure the quality and rigour of the research: being cautious of individual biases, which may have affected the findings. recognising and evading prejudices in sampling and continuous consideration of techniques to guarantee adequate profundity and significance of data gathering and the analysis thereof. keeping a thorough record, showing all the methods employed for the analysis of data and making sure that the explanations of data are reliable and apparent. adding a significant volume of verbatim participant explanations to back the findings. validating findings by requesting the participants to offer remarks concerning the interview transcripts to determine if the ultimate themes constructed significantly represent the concepts being examined. taking into account the nature of the subject under investigation, to select the right method for addressing research questions, for example, individual interviews as opposed to focus groups tend to cater more for issues that are sensitive. reporting the findings of this research have been tabulated, displaying the themes and various sub-themes that emerged from this study. the themes and sub-themes are substantiated by verbatim quotes obtained from the participants’ answers provided during interviewing. this was done in accordance with the contemporary qualitative research approach, which entails the validating or supporting knowledge of the assumptions made in particular research settings (bowen, 2009). findings table 2 depicts the frequency of the themes that arose from the interviews with management. the findings in table 2 show that work and the surrounding environment, reputation and image and organisational culture and identity were the most frequently occurring sub-themes. table 2: frequency of themes. theme: organisational branding the sub-theme of work and surrounding environment under organisational branding occurred most frequently in this research (mentioned 28 times). other themes that arose in descending order of frequency were reputation and image, organisational culture and identity, corporate social responsibility, merger implications as well as strategic vision. sub-theme: work and surrounding environment the sub-theme of work and surrounding environment occurred most frequently in this research. the participants were of the opinion that a working environment that enables academic staff members to perform is imperative to ensure that they stay ahead as an institution of higher learning as described by the following participant: then of course the most important thing is the environment which i would say is our competitive edge, to ensure that we provide a conducive environment for an academic to develop themselves because in an academic situation, an academic career is highly competitive. (participant 1, male, executive management, doctoral degree, black or african) in addition, another participant mentioned that: firstly, we provide a local environment that is conducive for focused work that is, research and teaching and learning. secondly an enabling environment is important. if an academic needs time and flexibility, they can get it. so enabling in the sense that if i need money to go and do research, even apparatus, with the possibility of travelling to do interviews etc., then it must be available, also enabling in the sense of allowing an academic to network. (participant 8, male, executive management, doctoral degree, white) the participants believe that it is important for academic staff members to express what is important to them so that management can create the necessary environment and conditions for them to develop and thrive in their work as indicated by participants 5 and 11: you must have a plan on what you want to do, and to achieve that plan, the employer gives the enabling environment to achieve that plan and you need to put something down to see what you can do. (participant 5, male, executive management, doctoral degree, black or african) and: we provide a very conducive environment for one to study. if you’re at this campus, as a lecturer, and you’re not studying, you’ve got to account to me. (participant 11, female, executive management, doctoral degree, black or african) the participants also explained that an attractive external environment in terms of the geographic location of an institution is also imperative in influencing the decision of academic staff members to attend the institution as expressed by the following participants: another thing is that the environment also plays a very big role. a university in a rural environment finds it most of the time difficult to attract very top people into the place. they will tell you about distance, they will tell you about proximity to a good school, english school and all those kinds of things. they will tell you about proximity to the airport, we have an airport here but it wasn’t functioning for some time. (participant 5, male, executive management, doctoral degree, black or african) another participant also felt that working in such an environment as where their campus is situated is an advantage and that it has an element of attractiveness by mentioning that: you can see that generally it’s located in a rural place, you know, if you look at the cost or the nature of the standard of living when you compare it with a very busy city like cape town, pretoria or jo’burg, you’ll see that, and i think i’m also talking based on why i considered coming here, you’ll see that life is not that very expensive in an environment like this. (participant 10, male, middle management, doctoral degree, black or african) sub-theme: reputation and image the participants expressed that the upstanding reputation of the institution and the aim of being recognised both locally and internationally, for instance, in top-calibre research and high-quality teaching and learning, as well as superior service delivery is what attracts their pool of academic talent as indicated by the following participant: i don’t believe we have a specific brand as such; however we are constantly doing our part to ensure that we provide effective and efficient services to our clients, the stakeholders, and ensuring that our staff members are comfortable with that kind of agenda. (participant 2, male, senior management, doctoral degree, black or african) another participant indicated: in my opinion, we are an internationally recognised university that is largely renowned especially for our research, so that is what i believe is our brand as an institution. as far as value goes, this institution is extremely committed to offering superior value to all our stakeholders, especially to our academic staff members. (participant 8, male, executive management, doctoral degree, white) participant 10 further added: we want to be comparable across the continent; we want to be recognised internationally. (participant 10, male, middle management, doctoral degree, black or african) sub-theme: organisational culture and identity the participants supported the notion that the institution has a relatable, accommodative and attractive organisational culture and identity. the participants expressed that a culture of empowering academic staff to reach their best potential exists within the institution as pointed out by the following participant: i think specifically and i won’t say the campus, but i will rather say the faculty, i think that if you speak to the people that want to come and work here in interviews and stuff, they will tell you that it is because there is a culture in the faculty of empowering people. (participant 7, female, senior management, doctoral degree, white) other participants mentioned the strongly embedded culture of research that makes the institution attractive to academics: that is why i’m able to stay here for this number of years to see how i can add to the culture of research. (participant 5, male, executive management, doctoral degree, black or african) participant 12 further indicated that there is an organisational identity within the institution, specifically within the faculty the participant worked for, of innovation and entrepreneurship: our current brand in the faculty, we are positioning ourselves to become the business and i.t hub of this institution, so that is, that’s sort of what we say as a faculty, so we bring business, i.t and innovation to the table, that is my faculty, the faculty of economic sciences and i.t’s value proposition. (participant 12, male, senior management, doctoral degree, white) sub-theme: corporate social responsibility the findings showed that academic staff members are able to draw gratification from being able to contribute to a larger cause through community participation with their institution, according to the participant’s answer: when you work in academia, the assumption is that you want to use your talent in this environment and through your talent you want to contribute to communities, in making them better. (participant 1, male, executive management, doctoral degree, black or african) another participant added: i think most people would prefer to come to this campus simply because of the contribution they see themselves making. remember this is more of a rural campus so if you see yourself making a lot of contributions, especially towards the communities that really benefit from the institution, i would see it in that way and then it also gives you the opportunity to engage better as an academic with communities in terms of projects and so on. (participant 6, female, senior management, doctoral degree, black or african) participant 11 added that an interest in community involvement is also a factor when identifying strong candidates for employment: you’ll see that the system which is involved in the recruitment and appointment, you’ll see that it is done in such a way that we also target the best people who when they come here, they also perform in terms of our requirements, in terms of community engagement. (participant 11, female, executive management, doctoral degree, black or african) the participants also mentioned the importance of being able to make a significant contribution not only in teaching and learning as well as research but also to the larger societies which they serve, as indicated by the following participant: we are recognised for our scholarship in teaching and learning because we really do wonderful things in teaching and learning and we want to be known in terms of our scholarship in teaching and learning and also for the research we do, but not just research for the sake of doing research but doing research relevant to the societies we serve. (participant 12, male, senior management, doctoral degree, white) sub-theme: strategic vision this sub-theme occurred less frequently; however, the participants indicated that strategic vision bears influence on the success of the organisational branding and how well it will be received by stakeholders, especially by academic staff members for the purpose of this research. some of the participants noted that talent management is a recently embedded component in the institution’s strategy, as expressed by the following participants: at this institution we realise how important it is to manage the most crucial role players in our core business – our academics – which is why our new institutional strategy even has talent management as one of the main elements. (participant 1, male, executive management, doctoral degree, black or african) and: if you look at our new strategy, i don’t know whether you’ve looked at the strategy, it’s the first time i saw academic talent management in our strategy, do you know about it? so that is now a new strategy, i mean we’re busy with the implementation but i think i can tell you that it was something i was very pleased about. now that was previously never in our strategy, so i think for the first time, like your top vice-chancellor and the likes are saying that this is important. (participant 7, female, senior management, doctoral degree, white) discussion the main objective of this study was to explore management perceptions on a higher educational institution as a brand for the attraction of talented academic staff. six themes were identified as important to the organisational brand of heis to attract quality scholars. the themes are reputation and image, organisational culture and identity, strategic vision, corporate social responsibility and work and surrounding environment. the theme of work and the surrounding environment was mostly mentioned in this study as all the participants indicated the importance of a conducive and appealing internal and external environment where organisational branding for academic staff members in the hei is concerned. the findings are in line with biraghi and gambetti (2015), who state that universities need to offer competitive levels of work environment that would be conducive to faculty requirements with the aim of gaining faculty loyalty. cultivating one fragment of academia though ignoring the working settings and enduring career requirements of the other would be a formula for disheartenment and possibly degeneration. several studies showed that the mobility of academic staff is among others mostly determined by the available resources for research to their disposal (agarwal & ohyama, 2013; de grip et al., 2010). reputation and image was the second most frequently mentioned phenomenon among the participants. williams and omar (2014) indicated that prestige and reputation are key for the effective running of heis. the participants in particular agreed that the reputation and image of a hei is pivotal in terms of ensuring an institutional brand that will appeal more to academic staff members (see raithel & schwaiger, 2015). reputation aids to increase the academic staff’s belief in the institutions’ reliability and strategies for the future (covey & merrill, 2006). as mentioned by dolphin and reed (2011), reputations are a company’s treasured assets and replications of itself in the institutional mirror. the culture and identity of the institution emerged as important factors for its branding. the participants supported the notion that the institution has a relatable, accommodative and attractive organisational culture and identity. bitzer (2009) contends that even though academics might not take heed of the culture of their institutions in terms of their everyday activities, each institution has a prevalent culture that is not evadable and regulates the manner in which things are carried out at each institution. genuine and long-lasting academic quality would most probably occur within universities when the enablement and transformation roles reinforce collegiate and revolutionary cultures (naidoo, 2013). corporate social responsibility was the fourth most popular theme among the participants in this study. dolphin and reed (2011) maintain that corporate social responsibility initiative is an important attraction factor for employees and contributes to the positive attitudes of all community stakeholders. the participants were in agreement that heis can make a more substantial contribution towards uplifting communities through talented staff members. consequently, higher education can contribute to the well-being of larger communities while offering quality goods (lamboy, 2011). strategic vision was the least mentioned sub-theme under organisational branding among the participants with only a few participants having brought it up. the participants in particular highlighted the importance of including talent management of academics into the strategy. the focus on talent management shows that management has a clear strategic vision in terms of the future standing of the hei (balmer et al., 2009). moreover, a sound vision in terms of talent management can assist heis to distinguish itself from competitors (özdem, 2011). practical implications from a practical point of view, this research identified the key elements that should form part of an appealing higher education brand that will attract and retain current and future talent. higher educational managers are encouraged to create an appealing organisational brand and conducive working environment where talented academic staff can flourish and grow. management should also have the strategic foresight to create a work environment that will contribute to the competitiveness and sustainability of heis through its talented academic staff members. this will in turn enhance the reputation of the institution globally as an employer of choice through top-calibre research and high-quality teaching and learning as well as superior service delivery. limitations and recommendations this research had some limitations. the first limitation relates to the limited body of research that exists on organisational branding research within the higher educational domain. secondly, this research was done in one higher educational institution. as a result, the research cannot be generalised to other heis or organisations. finally, the sample of the research was limited to management perceptions only. for future research, it is recommended that other higher educational groups such as academics, marketing, human resource management and administrative staff are included to provide a holistic perspective in higher educational branding. this research can also be expanded to other heis in south africa for the purpose of developing a common and compelling higher educational brand that will retain academics to their institutions. future research can also benefit by adopting a longitudinal approach to detect higher education brand requirements and changes over the long term. conclusion branding is a novel and contentious research area in higher education, eliciting scepticism on its possible implementation. owing to the on-going rivalry, heis must accentuate their distinctiveness, which gives rise to a new outlook on hei, which is the crafting of an international institutional brand. this thought demonstrates that branding is now a contemporary subject in the management of education and it produces a unique export product for the nation. a member of faculty is not likely to take up an offer from a disreputable or less reputable institution merely because of the brand of the institution of learning. similar to business entities, institutions possess a brand that helps them thrive. a more robust brand draws talent into the institution and rallies greater resources. successful branding should consider the emphasis of internal ideals, ethos and vision and also the outside emphasis on the promotion of the brand. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions this research is based on the phd study of m.s. of which e.n.b. was the supervisor and n.e.s. the co-supervisor. m.s. wrote the article and e.n.b. and n.e.s. provided editorial inputs. references agarwal, r., & ohyama, a. (2013). industry or academia, basic or applied? career choices and earnings trajectories of scientists. management science, 59(4), 950–970. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1120.1582 alessandri, s.w., yang, s.-u., & kinsey, d.f. (2006). an integrative approach to university visual identity and reputation. corporate reputation review, 9(4), 258–270. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.crr.1550033 amzat, i.h. (2015). branding higher education institutions: what it takes to be branded. in i.h. amzat & b. yusuf (eds.), fast forwarding higher education institutions for global challenges: perspectives and approaches (pp. 147–162). singapore: springer. balmer, j.m.t. (2012). corporate brand management imperatives: custodianship, credibility, and calibration. california management review, 54, 6–33. https://doi.org/10.1525/cmr.2012.54.3.6 balmer, j.m.t., stuart, h., & greyser, s.a. (2009). aligning identity and strategy: corporate branding at british airways in the late 20th century. california management review, 51(3), 6–23. https://doi.org/10.2307/41166491 bernard, h.r., & ryan, g.w. (2010). analyzing qualitative data: systematic approaches. thousand oaks, ca: sage. biraghi, s., & gambetti, r.c. (2015). corporate branding: where are we? a systematic communication-based inquiry. journal of marketing communications, 21(4), 260–283. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527266.2013.768535 bitzer, e. (ed.). (2009). higher education in south africa: a scholarly look behind the scenes. stellenbosch: african sun media. bowen, g.a. (2009). document analysis as a qualitative research method. qualitative research journal, 9(2), 27–40. https://doi.org/10.3316/qrj0902027 brewer, a., & zhao, j. (2010). the impact of a pathway college on reputation and brand awareness for its affiliated university in sydney. international journal of educational management, 24(1), 34–47. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513541011013033 bryman, a., & bell, e. (2015). business research methods. (4th edn.). oxford, uk: oxford university press. cian, l., & cervai, s. (2014). under the reputation umbrella: an integrative and multidisciplinary review for corporate image, projected image, construed image, organizational identity, and organizational culture. corporate communications: an international journal, 19(2), 182–199. https://doi.org/10.1108/ccij-10-2011-0055 covey, s.m.r., & merrill, r.r. (2006). the speed of trust. new york: free press. creswell, j.w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. (4th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. de grip, a., fouarge, d., & sauermann, j. (2010). what affects international migration of european science and engineering graduates? economics of innovation and new technology, 19(5), 407–421. https://doi.org/10.1080/10438590903434828 dolphin, r., & reed, d. (2011). the fundamentals of corporate communications. abingdon, ox: routledge. dowling, g., & moran, p. (2012). corporate reputations: built in or bolted on? california management review, 54(2), 25–42. https://doi.org/10.1525/cmr.2012.54.2.25 flake, d.f. (2015). image is everything: corporate branding and religious accommodation in the workplace. university of pennsylvania law review, 163, 699–754. helm, s., liehr-gobbers, k., & storck, c. (2011). reputation management: management for professionals [adobe digital editions version]. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19266-1 hemsley-brown, j., & goonawardana, s. (2007). brand harmonisation in the international higher education market. journal of business research, 60, 942–948. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2007.01.019 hugo-burrows, m.m. (1993). trends and strategies in the marketing of corporate image and identity in a politically-conscious south africa. in r.l. king (ed.), minority marketing: research perspectives for the 1990s: proceedings of the 1993 minority marketing congress (pp. 109–113). switzerland: springer international publishing. huisman, j., & pausits, a. (eds.). (2010). higher education management and development. compendium for managers. new york: waxmann verlag. ivancheva, l., & gourova, e. (2011). challenges for career and mobility of researchers in europe. science and public policy, 38(3), 185–198. https://doi.org/10.3152/030234211x12834251302445 jansen, p.g.w., & roodt, g. (eds.). (2014). conceptualising and measuring work identity: south-african perspectives and findings. dordrecht: springer. kuh, g.d., & whitt, e.j. (2000). culture in american colleges and universities. in m.c. brown (ed.), organization & governance in higher education (5th edn., pp. 160–169). boston: pearson custom publishing. lamboy, j.v. (2011). implications of branding initiatives in higher education among trademarked institutions in california. doctoral dissertation. retrieved march 05, 2016, from http://repository.usfca.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=diss lane, v.r., & scott, s.g. (2007). the neural network model of organisational identification. organisational behaviour and human decision processes, 104, 175–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2007.04.004 leech, n.l., & onwuegbuzie, a.j. (2008). qualitative data analysis: a compendium of techniques for school psychology research and beyond. school psychology quarterly, 23, 587–604. https://doi.org/10.1037/1045-3830.23.4.587 makondo, l. (2014). academic attraction and retention trends at a south africa university. journal of social anthropology, 5(2), 169–177. mapesela, m.l.e., & strydom, f. (2005, august). performance management of academic staff in south african higher education: a developmental research project. conference on trends in the management of human resource in higher education, paris, france. marginson, s., & van der wende, m. (2007). to rank or to be ranked: the impact of global rankings in higher education. journal of studies in international education, 11(3/4), 306–329. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315307303544 martin, g., burke, r.j., & cooper, c.l. (eds.). (2011). corporate reputation: managing opportunities and threats. farnham, england: gower publishing. mayfield, j., mayfield, m., & sharbrough, w.c., iii. (2015). strategic vision and values in top leaders’ communications: motivating language at a higher level. international journal of business communication, 52(1), 97–121. https://doi.org/10.1177/2329488414560282 naidoo, d. (2013). reconciling organisational culture and external quality assurance in higher education. higher education management and policy volume, 24(2), 85–98. https://doi.org/10.1787/hemp-24-5k3w5pdwhm6j onah, f.o., & anikwe, o.s. (2016). the task of attraction and retention of academic staff in nigerian universities. journal of management and strategy, 7(2), 9–20. https://doi.org/10.5430/jms.v7n2p9 opoku, r., abratt, r., & pitt, l. (2006). communicating brand personality: are the websites doing the talking for the top south african business schools? journal of brand management, 14(1), 20–39. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.bm.2550052 özdem, g. (2011). an analysis of the mission and vision statements on the strategic plans of higher education institutions. educational sciences: theory & practise, 11(4), 1887–1894. pauzuoliene, j., & mauriciene, i. (2012). organisational culture development in klaipeda municipality. socialiniai tyrimai, 3(28), 121–132. pienaar, c., & bester, c.l. (2008). the retention of academics in the early career phase: empirical research. sa journal of human resource management, 6(2), 32–41. podnar, k. (2014). corporate communication: a marketing viewpoint. abingdon, ox: routledge. raithel, s., & schwaiger, m. (2015). the effects of corporate reputation perceptions of the general public on shareholder value. strategic management journal, 36, 945–956. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2248 sargeant, j. (2012). qualitative research part ii: participants, analysis, and quality assurance. journal of graduate medical education, 4(1), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.4300/jgme-d-11-00307.1 selesho, j.m., & naile, i. (2014). academic staff retention as a human resource factor: university perspective. international business and economics research journal, 13(2), 295–303. https://doi.org/10.19030/iber.v13i2.8444 terblanche, n.s. (2015). customer-based corporate reputation: a study of supermarket customers. in k. kubacki (ed.), ideas in marketing: finding the new and polishing the old: proceedings of the 2013 academy of marketing science (ams) annual conference (pp. 207–212). new york: springer. tofallis, c. (2012). a different approach to university rankings. higher education, 63(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-011-9417-z stolz, i., hendel, d.d., & horn, a.s. (2010). ranking of rankings: benchmarking twenty-five higher education ranking systems in europe. higher education, 60(5), 507–528. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-010-9312-z walker, m. (2011). grounding our vision: brain research and strategic vision. independent school, 70(4), 50. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-008-9155-z wangenge-ouma, g., lutomiah, a., & langa, p. (2015). academic incentives for knowledge production in africa. in n. cloete, p. maassen, & t. bailey (eds.), knowledge production and contradictory functions in african higher education, african minds, cape town, south africa. wæraas, a., & solbakk, m.n. (2009). defining the essence of a university: lessons from higher education branding. journal of higher education, 57, 449–462. whetten, d.a. (2006). albert and whetten revisited: strengthening the concept of organizational identity. journal of management inquiry, 15(3), 219–234. https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492606291200 williams, r., & van dyke, n. (2008). reputation and reality: ranking major disciplines in australian universities. higher education, 56(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-007-9086-0 williams, r.l. jr., & omar, m. (2014). applying brand management to higher education through the use of the brand flux model – the case of arcadia university. journal of marketing for higher education, 24(2), 222–242. https://doi.org/10.1080/08841241.2014.973471 wood, e., & somerville, i. (2008). public relations and corporate identity. in a. theaker (ed.), the public relations handbook (pp. 104–123). abingdon, ox: routledge. yin, r.k. (2012). applications of case study research. (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. abstract introduction method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) anusha karamchand department of community health studies, durban university of technology, south africa emilie j. kistnasamy department of community health studies, durban university of technology, south africa citation karamchand, a., & kistnasamy, e.j. (2017). experiences of community service environmental health practitioners. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a867. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.867 original research experiences of community service environmental health practitioners anusha karamchand, emilie j. kistnasamy received: 20 sept. 2016; accepted: 29 aug. 2017; published: 23 nov. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the community service initiative, a 1-year placement of health graduates, significantly improved human resource availability in the south african public health sector, even though the process was fraught with challenges. although experiences in the curative health sector were assessed, the experiences of environmental health practitioners were yet to be studied. research purpose: this study assessed the experiences of environmental health practitioners during their community service year. motivation for the study: anecdotal evidence suggested problems with the process. this study endeavoured to identify the challenges whilst taking cognisance of its effectiveness. method: a total of n = 40 environmental health graduates from the durban university of technology who had concluded community service completed questionnaires in this cross-sectional quantitative study. descriptive statistics, means and standard deviations were used to analyse the data. main findings: the timing of community service placements was critical as 58% of respondents had to repay study loans. the placement of married respondents (10%) outside kwazulu-natal, however, could have had impacts on family structures. only 68% felt stimulated by their job functions, and there arose challenges with accommodation and overtime duties. respondents felt that their tertiary education did equip them and that engagement with senior personnel helped in their professional development. even though most of the review of the community service year appeared to be positive, a majority of respondents did not intend to continue working or recommending their workplaces. future career pathing showed that 79% would prefer to be employed outside the public sector. practical and managerial implications: the process needs to be reviewed to strengthen human resource management and enhance retention in the often overloaded and under-resourced south african public health sector. contribution: relevant stakeholders can better plan, communicate and support affected parties through empowering management structures and providing logistical aid. introduction the community service initiative was a compulsory 1-year placement of most health professionals on completion of their primary diploma or degree in the public sector, failing which they would be unable to enter professional practice (department of health, 2011). this initiative significantly improved the availability of human resources and began in 2001 with the compulsory placement of doctors, dentists and pharmacists followed in 2004 by other categories of health professionals (harrison, 2009). the initiative had two policy objectives, namely (1) to achieve better distribution of human resources for health (hrh) to underserviced areas and (2) to create an enhanced environment for gaining experience (report of the community service for health professionals summit held on the 22nd april 2015). given these objectives, south africa subsequently developed an hrh strategy which also considered the who recommendations on the recruitment and retention of health professionals in rural and remote areas (department of health, 2011). table 1 shows the three strategic objectives of the hrh strategy for the health sector (2012/2013–2016/2017) as applicable to community service. table 1: human resources for health strategy for the health sector (2012/2013–2016/2017) as applicable to community service (department of health, 2011). the community service initiative, however, has encountered many challenges as evidenced, for example, by gurnell (2003) who equated community service to a conscription campaign. similarly, although a bit more restrained, community services doctors observed that the placement process and the lack of criteria for approved facilities were problematic but they also felt that in spite of this, their contributions were impacting upon disadvantaged communities (bateman, 2003). there is still though the question by community health experts about the impact of community service when infrastructure and supervision is often dismal, even if 10 healthcare disciplines saw 11 847 graduates through the public sector in 6 years (bateman, 2004). reid (2002) expressed that there was concern in the delivery of community service, particularly in the following areas: the disjuncture between academic training and the practicalities evidenced in the public health sector the management deficiencies in the public health system the annual burden on senior staff who have to orientate, mentor and train each new group the alarming number of young health professionals who intend to work overseas. he further noted that historically, one of these healthcare disciplines, namely environmental health, appeared to be well below average in terms of delivery, particularly in the rural areas where it was most needed. agenbag and gouws (2004) study showed that there were fragmented and poorly distributed environmental health services at a provincial and national level where additionally environmental health practitioners (ehps) contributed to an already substandard delivery of service by being inappropriately employed. further, although community service was initiated to solve these issues, numerous concerns on both the side of the employer and the prospective employee arose. these ranged from lack of finance to opening frozen posts to accommodating community service ehps and the feasibility of employing ehps who may not be sufficiently equipped to be effective employees. the aspirations and career pathing of the community service ehps also needed to be determined and whether they were adequately prepared to undertake community service. an added concern was that ehps that entered community service straight from tertiary institutions have very limited practical experience. purpose anecdotal evidence suggested that there were problems with placements and job satisfaction since the introduction of compulsory community service for ehps. to date, however, and after an intensive literature review, no study was undertaken to identify the actual problem areas or the effectiveness of community service for ehps in south africa. the purpose of the study, therefore, was to assess the experiences of ehps during their community service year. literature review introduction the 1-year period of compulsory community service for health professions was initially implemented for medical doctors, dentists and pharmacists who were routinely allocated for a 12-month period of service in public institutions that had been registered for community service (reid, 2002). the regulation relating to ehps was promulgated by an amendment under government notice r69 in january 2002 with the effective date being from the year 2003. other professional groups included were physiotherapists, occupational and speech therapists, clinical psychologists, dieticians and radiographers. the main objective of community service was to ensure improved provision of health services to all citizens of south africa. in the process, it also provided these newly qualified professionals with an opportunity to develop skills such as acquiring appropriate knowledge and behaviour patterns as well as critical thinking that will help their professional development (reid, 2002). additionally, if these various categories of health professionals failed to complete or were not placed for community service, they could not be registered by the health professional council of south africa (hpcsa) to practise in the public sector (national department of health, 2004). application and allocation process all graduates and final year students, including those that had participated in this study, had completed a standard application form issued by the national department of health (ndoh) and returned these to their tertiary institutions (national department of health, 2004). each applicant was allowed five choices of approved or gazetted health facilities. each tertiary institution then submitted the completed forms to the ndoh for processing. these forms are sorted according to provinces who had initiated the allocation process on a needs basis. unplaced applications were returned to the ndoh. the ndoh held a second allocation meeting based on pending vacancies in other provinces. a second list of available or vacant posts in other provinces was circulated to tertiary institutions for students to reapply. the same allocation process started again. when chosen, the applicant was issued with a letter of employment or a contract. non-placed students chose to either further their studies if finances allowed them to do so or stayed at home. others sought casual labour or started working in the private sector. shortages of environmental health practitioners mainly in rural and homelands agenbag and gouws (2004) found that there was a huge shortage of ehps especially in the rural areas (former homelands) where there were between 55% and 100% understaffed environmental health departments. these findings appeared to be consistent with data provided by the south african health systems trust (1999) which showed that there had been no substantial increase in the number of ehps employed nationally since 2005. further, there was no data available on the distribution of environmental health personnel between rural and urban areas. another concern that was expressed was the mismanagement of environmental health services where ehps, for example, were being used in functions unrelated to environmental health. this was further exacerbated by lack of expertise and inconsistent provision of services between districts and provinces. communique by the department of health a communique by cheyne (2007), assistant manager delegated for the placement of community service personnel in kwazulu-natal, under the direction of the department of human resource practices in the department of health, noted that with the devolution of power to district level the continued placement of community service was proving problematic in that these devolved authorities were, in effect, autonomous and not empowered to take on community service. the major area of concern was financial constraints, and despite treasury making funds available, this was not necessarily a standardised procedure. further, two areas that were of concern was the availability of office space and ehps not having their driving licences, which made them ineffective as additional funds were needed to provide drivers. additionally, environmental health services had received minimal attention, because of a longer than anticipated transformation process and a focus on curative health services contributing to less than required resources allocated to environmental health. an additional bias was that urban environments received more attention than rural areas which in turn contributed to a restriction in the building of capacity and resources. cele (2012) also voiced the concern that since 2007, the placement process for ehps was a serious challenge for the department of health who subsequently amended the regulation for community service which allowed municipalities to employ community service ehps. method research approach this cross-sectional study was conducted during may–october 2013 and undertaken in partial fulfilment of an honours research project in the field of office management and technology at the durban university of technology (dut). respondents were recruited as per the inclusion criteria noted under the measures section. after all ethical procedures were complied with, respondents were assigned self-administered questionnaires via electronic mail or personal collection. returned and completed questionnaires were checked for errors and the information was captured and analysed using stata 13.1. measures participants the population consisted of all former environmental health graduates from the dut. additionally, inclusion criteria were as follows: ehps who were resident and working in south africa, had completed community service in south africa and were graduated or current environmental health b-tech (honours) students at dut. measuring instrument the data collection instrument was a questionnaire that was developed based on similar studies in the health field (parker et al., 2011; reid, 2001). it consisted of six sections: (1) socio-demographic characteristics of respondents (with information required ranging from current profession, demographics to tertiary institution and year that the diploma was received); (2) community service placements (including questions on year placed, whether in or outside kwazulu-natal, employer, allocation process and convenience of workplace); (3) community service job functions (closed questions concerning job stimulation, decision-making powers, provision and satisfaction with accommodation and overtime duties, and remuneration thereof); (4) the community service year consisted of two categories: (1) a review of the community service year and (2) factors that contributed to professional development. respondents answered using the likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly agree; 2 = agree; 3, = disagree to 4, = strongly disagree for a 12-item and 6-item scale, respectively; (5) future career plans (included questions on where do you plan on working once you have completed community service and at what stage of your education or career did you decide on these plans) and (6) suggestions to improve the environmental health community service programme. research procedure potential participants were recruited via electronic media. sixty potential participants responded. if they wished to participate in this study, each was given a letter of information and an informed consent form to complete. the consent form outlined the motivation and purpose of the study and noted that any data collected will be treated with confidentiality. all participants that met the inclusion criteria and had signed the informed consent completed a self-administered questionnaire. the final sample size was n = 40. statistical analysis the capturing, cleaning and coding of data was performed using stata 13.1. descriptive statistics were used to determine the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents. after initial descriptive analysis, frequency distribution of categorical variables was calculated. for the review of the community, service year and the factors that contributed to professional development, means and standard deviations were calculated. results socio-demographic characteristics of respondents as noted in table 2, the majority of the respondents (57%) were ehps with 78% african, 60% single and 75% female. seventy-five per cent of respondents were in the category of 19–30 years with 48% resident in durban. no respondents had received study bursaries but 58% had taken a financial loan to pay for their studies which would be paid back on completion of their studies. there were plans by 45% of respondents to repay their financial obligations, whereas 26% undertook service payback. table 2: socio-demographic characteristics of respondents (n = 40). community service placements majority of community service placements (95%) occurred between 1 and 2 years after student graduation with the exception of 5% of the respondents. the 5% graduated prior to 2007 and in 2007 but were only, respectively, placed in 2011 and 2010. from the 78% of respondents who were placed in kwazulu-natal, 18% were male and 60% female, with 27% married and 50% single. those placed outside the province comprised 7% male and 15% female, with 10% married and 10% single. respondents were employed as follows: municipalities = 48%, department of health = 50% and 2% did not respond (table 3). no respondents received a rural allowance. table 3: community service placements. community service job functions although 90% of respondents were mainly engaged in fieldwork, 10% did spend the majority of their time undertaking administrative duties. only 68% felt stimulated by their job functions. decision-making powers were afforded to 50% of respondents in carrying out their job functions. employers provided accommodation for 23% of the community service employees but 56% were not satisfied with the provided accommodation. special overtime duties were performed by 33% of the participants with only 23% receiving overtime pay for doing so. the community service year the community service year was divided into two categories, namely a review of the year and factors that contributed to professional development. tables 4 and 5 show lists of items in the two categories with their accompanying means and standard deviations. table 4: review of the community service year. table 5: factors that contributed to professional development. in table 4, results showed that participants highly disagreed that they will stay on working at the same workplace (mean = 2.94, sd ± 1.07) and that their attitudes towards cs did not become more negative because of their experiences (mean = 2.93, sd ± 1.02). high agreement was noted in tertiary education equipping respondents for their placements (mean = 1.58, sd ± 0.71) and on feelings of having contributed towards the health of the communities that they served (mean = 1.75, sd ± 0.71). in table 5, results showed that participants highly disagreed that working overtime contributed to their professional development (mean = 2.82, sd ± 0.92), whereas it was highly agreed that mentorship and support (mean = 1.90, sd ± 0.79), support from management (mean = 1.90, sd ± 0.81) and engagement with senior ehps (mean = 1.90, sd ± 0.85) did enhance professional development. future career plans when asked about their future career plans after the completion of the community service year, 46% of respondents preferred working in the private sector, whereas 33% would choose to go overseas if given the opportunity. a further 13% choose the public sector with 5% of these hoping to specialise and 3% wanting to work in rural development. three per cent chose to work in non-governmental organisations, whereas 5% were undecided. the majority of participants (85%) decided on their future career pathing during the cs year. some suggestions to improve the environmental health community service programme nationally respondents requested improved communication between eh graduates and the director general or community service facilitator and felt that community service placement should rather be co-ordinated at a national level. in order to ensure that graduates were placed timeously and appropriately, it was suggested that other approved facilities be sought to offer this service, for example, clinics, hospitals and relevant industries. placement the system of placement must be changed where employment should be based on qualifications and nepotism should be eradicated. it was preferred that community service ehps be placed in the districts closest to their homes. workplace these suggestions were divided into three categories. the first was management and job functions. support should be provided from management in the form of, for example, assigning supervisors to assist with mentoring community service ehps and that the subordinate should be treated with dignity. administrative duties should not be the main job function, but rather community service ehps would prefer being in the field assessing health-related issues. secondly, logistically, proper equipment must be made available for community service ehps to perform their tasks and duties and also allow those who have drivers’ licences to drive government vehicles. suitable accommodation should be provided for ehps living away from their homes. thirdly, development programmes through workshops and seminars, should be offered. discussion outline of the results community service placements community service placements for the sample group occurred 1–2 years after graduation. this timing was vital, as a large percentage (58%) had taken financial loans to pay for their studies. timeous placement would have assisted in timeous loan payments and not created an added financial burden to the graduate and their families. the placement of married ehps (10%) outside kwazulu-natal, however, could have had negative financial, social and emotional impacts on the marital and family structures as the incumbents may have been only able to visit their homes on an irregular basis. therefore, factors that could have influenced choice of placement for community service ehps were most probably similar to that of south african occupational therapists where family contact and proximity to home were vital (lebogang, erasmus, di rago, hooper & o’reilly, 2014). nemutandani, maluleke and rudolph (2006) noted in their study, however, that there was difficulty in placing community service doctors at hospitals of their choice as many preferred working and living in big cities which had good services and infrastructure, which then left the rural areas and former homelands with a severe shortage of health professionals. it is therefore significant that the majority of our respondents had their community service placement as one of their top five choices and were satisfied with the allocation process, that the workplace was situated at a convenient place and that travel time to and from work was not greatly impacted upon. this speaks of good planning and allocation facilitation by the relevant environmental health governmental bodies. note must be taken, however, of the time period of our sample groups’ placements as there could have arisen subsequent changes or challenges since then. these findings, however, are contrary to that of mashigea, oduntanb and rampersad (2013) where community service optometrists experienced poor remuneration and had concerns about personal safety, transport and accommodation. these concerns were also evidenced in hatcher, onah, kornik, peacocke and reid’s (2014) study where a high percentage of medical and dental community service officers reported accommodation as unsatisfactory (43%), their personal safety as lacking (66%) and remuneration as unfair (46%). review of the community service year our respondents agreed that their tertiary education did equip them for placement. this equipping occurs through a 100 days of work-integrated learning (wil) programme over their 3-year diploma cycle. wil is often conducted in collaboration with municipalities and other pertinent stakeholders. these in the field hands on training together with the theory taught in class would have greatly enhanced and contributed towards their readiness for entering the environmental health profession. similarly, nurses perceived themselves as being well prepared for the year of community service as regards knowledge, skills and ability to administer nursing care (govender, brysiewicz & bhengu, 2015). conversely, nkabinde, ross, reid and nkwanyana (2013) in their study, assessing whether internship training adequately prepared south african medical graduates for community service, found that critical gaps in knowledge and skills in paediatrics, orthopaedics, anaesthetics and obstetrics existed. additionally, 75% of their respondents expressed a need for additional training in the disciplines of ear, nose and throat, urology, ophthalmology and dermatology. also, roziers and ramugondo (2014) suggested that for nurses, their curriculum should include structured training in conflict management, assertiveness and practical ethics. these suggestions are also important for the environmental health field and where relevant can only add value to improving the community service year. it was notable that in our study even though most of the review of the community service year appeared to be positive, a majority of respondents did not intend to stay on working at the same place or recommending their respective workplaces to future ehps. this now creates a disconnection because if most aspects of the community service were positive, then it should follow that community service ehps would like to continue working and recommend their workplaces. the reasons for doing this were not explored in this study but some of the suggestions to improve the community service programme as put forward by the respondents may better speak to this. further, the majority of participants decided on their future career pathing during their community service year, and nearly, 79% would prefer to be employed outside the public sector. given the critical human resource need of ehps to be employed in the public sector, this does not bode well for the future of the environmental health profession. these results may also be consistent with hatcher’s et al. (2014) findings which showed that a small majority (66%) would recommend their community service facility to others, but that only one-third (34%) intended to stay at the same facility in the coming year. factors that contributed to professional development mentorship, support and engagement with senior ehps helped in the professional development of community service ehps. these are critical contributory factors as community service is the first key entry point into the profession by new graduates. support, affirmation, motivation, critical thinking, logistical support and technical expertise by other staff members can only contribute to the upliftment of this critical human resource in the workplace. this is evidenced in studies undertaken of community service in other health professions by reid (2002), pillay and harvey (2006), visser, marais and du plessis (2006), khan, knight and esterhuizen (2009), ross and reid (2009) and parker et al. (2011). further, mashigea et al.’s (2013) study noted that community service optometrists improved their technical and clinical skills and enhanced their confidence, personal and social skills. hatcher et al.’s (2014) study showed that overall satisfaction with community service training and mentorship, with supervision, management and practical concerns during the community service year and that a majority of participants reported that they had developed professionally. the level of the workplace and working overtime, however, were two factors that community service ehps felt did not contribute sufficiently to their professional development. this could be attributed to how they were treated in the workplace by management or professionals in authority. similar feelings were expressed in studies by reid (2001) and hatcher et al. (2014). other health professions had some additional factors that should be taken into consideration. in govender et al.’s (2015) study, there was limited orientation and support and nurses experienced problems of acceptance by fellow professional nurses, whereas in paterson, green and maunder’s (2007) study, community service dieticians (csds) experienced a lack of supervision and support, lack of preparedness of the institutions receiving them, a lack of clarity of the part of the csd and a lack of teamwork. in her article on the reflections of a community service, clinical psychologist, swarts (2013) noted that clinical guidance was minimal because of insufficient supervisory capacity. practical implications it is important that concerns of our respondents and their suggested solutions are noted, discussed and implemented as best seen fit by the relevant government bodies and their associated stakeholders. the community service programme in the health sector has noble objectives that can only be achieved by a feasible, transparent and timely implementation process. it is necessary for government to review each aspect of the programme from inception (when students complete their necessary forms) to completion (on conclusion of the community service year). this review process will help manage this vital human resource of community service personnel better, especially if government is amenable to critically evaluate the pros and the challenges and to take heed of the suggested solutions of community service personnel. this transparent process can only strengthen the community service programme and enhance human resource management and retention in the often overloaded and under-resourced south african health sector. note should also be taken of the implications associated with community service ehps greater preference to not only work in the private sector, but that 33% of our sample group would choose to work overseas if the opportunity presents itself. this type of statistic was also noted by reardon and george (2014) who found that doctors and nurses had a higher disposition to moving overseas, especially among those who had had a frustrating and challenging community service year. these frustrations were echoed by miguel desroches, a wits-educated and former tygerberg hospital medical intern who complained to the constitutional court about provincially dysfunctional administrations and dismal working conditions under which he and his peers struggled daily (bateman, 2014). limitations and recommendations limitations environmental health graduates from other tertiary institutions were excluded because of logistical issues. strengths this appears to be one of the first studies of this nature conducted among community service ehps. it allowed for input from the allocation process through to the conclusion of community service and beyond, especially as regards future career pathing. future research future research could delve more deeply into reasons behind some of the quantitative aspects covered in this study. this could be carried out using qualitative or mixed methods to gain a greater understanding of some of the frustrations and challenges experienced in the community service year by graduates. it would also enhance best practice to obtain the views of the employer in this regard. feasible interventions could be piloted by the government and relevant stakeholders and reviewed thereafter to see if these can be implemented countrywide in environmental health divisions. there also should be an audit of the management and logistical resources available in the approved health facilities so that note can be taken of the challenges faced by the employer when endeavouring to empower community service personnel. conclusion this study has shown that community service ehps have gained much from their respective placements. as in any system, however, there is still room for improvement. the onus also falls on community service personnel to make their voices known using the hpcsa and any available environmental health fora to develop feasible strategies pertaining to communication, implementation, human resources, logistics, management and leadership as utilised in the community service year. acknowledgements the authors acknowledge the assistance, support and technical expertise, and intellectual input of all respondents, mrs k. moodley, mr p. karamchand, prof. r. bhagwan, prof. p. reddy, mrs r. ramsingh, dr m. rajkoomar, ms r. devraj and mrs l. meyers. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.k. was the project leader and responsible for project design and data collection. e.j.k. made conceptual contributions and undertook the statistical analyses. a.k. and e.j.k. wrote the manuscript. references agenbag, m., & gouws, m. (2004). redirecting the role of environmental health in south africa. organised by sb conferences. retrieved july 01, 2015, from www.kharahais.gov.za/files/health/011.pdf bateman, c. (2003). still getting community service right. samj, 93(1), 16. bateman, c. (2004). community service six years on…. samj, 94(6), 408–409. bateman, c. (2014). community service doctors ‘slaves to the state’ – court challenge. samj, 104(4), 263–265. https://doi.org/10.7196/samj.8084 cele, a. (2012). community service environmental health practitioners. environmental health 2012. newsletter for the professional board for environmental health practitioners. 2p. cheyne. (2007). communication. natalia, pietermaritzburg: department of health: human resources department. department of health. (2011). hrh strategy for the health sector: 2012/13–2016/17. pretoria: department of health. govender, s., brysiewicz, p., & bhengu, b. (2015). perceptions of newly-qualified nurses performing compulsory community service in kwazulu-natal. curationis, 38(1), art. #1474, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/curationis.v38i1.1474 gurnell, d.r. (2003). community service – or conscription? samj, 93(2), 84. harrison, d. (2009, december). an overview of health and health care in south africa 1994–2010: priorities, progress and prospects for new gains a discussion document commissioned by the henry j. kaiser family foundation to help inform the national health leaders’ retreat muldersdrift, january 24–26, 2010. hatcher, a.m., onah, m., kornik, s., peacocke, j., & reid, s. (2014). placement, support, and retention of health professionals: national, cross-sectional findings from medical and dental community service officers in south africa. human resources for health, 12, 14. https://doi.org/10.1186/1478-4491-12-14 khan, n.b., knight, s., & esterhuizen, t. (2009). perceptions of and attitudes to the compulsory community service programme for therapists in kwazulu-natal. south african journal of communication disorders, 56, 17–22. lebogang, j.m., erasmus, a., di rago, t., hooper, j., & o’reilly, j. (2014). factors that influence choice of placement for community service among occupational therapists in south africa. south african journal of occupational therapy, 44(1), 36–41. mashigea, k.p., oduntanb, o.a., & rampersad, n. (2013). perceptions and opinions of graduating south african optometry students on the proposed community service. south african optometric association: saoa, 72(1), 11–18. https://doi.org/10.4102/aveh.v72i1.43 national department of health. (2004). national department of health annual report 2003/2004. pretoria: national department of health. nemutandani, m.s., maluleke, f.r.s., & rudolph, m.j. (2006). community service in limpopo province. samj, 96(3), 180–182. nkabinde, t.c., ross, a., reid, s., & nkwanyana, n.m. (2013). internship training adequately prepares south african medical graduates for community service – with exceptions. south african medical journal, 103(12), 930–934. https://doi.org/10.7196/samj.6702 parker, w., steyn, n.p., mchiza, z., wentzel-viljoen, e., dannhauser, a., mbhenyane, x., et al. (2011). challenges for efficient health service delivery: experiences of dietitians completing their compulsory community service year in south africa. public health nutrition, 15(8), 1411–1418. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1368980011003314 paterson, m., green, m., & maunder, e.m.w. (2007). running before we walk: how can we maximise the benefits from community service dietitians in kwazulu-natal, south africa? health policy, 82, 288–301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2006.09.013 pillay, a.l., & harvey, b.m. (2006). the experiences of the first south african community service clinical psychologists. south african journal of psychology, 36, 259–280. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124630603600204 reardon, c., & george, g. (2014). an examination of the factors fueling migration amongst community service practitioners. african journal of primary health care & family medicine, 6(1), art. #625, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/phcfm.v6i1.625 reid, s.j. (2001). compulsory community service for doctors in south africa – an evaluation of the first year. samj, 91(4), 329–335. reid, s.j. (2002). community service for health professionals: human resources. in p. ijumba & p. barron (eds.), south african health review (pp. 135–160). durban: health systems trust. retrieved september 05, 2015, from http://www.hst.org.za/sites/default/files/chapter8.pdf community service dietitians’ experiences 1417report of the community service for health professionals summit held on the 22nd april 2015, city of tshwane. co-hosted by the foundation for professional development (fpd), the national department of health (ndoh), the university of cape town (uct) and the africa health placements (ahp). ross, a., & reid, s. (2009). the retention of community service officers at district hospitals in kwazulu natal, eastern cape and limpopo provinces. south african family practice, 51, 249–253. https://doi.org/10.1080/20786204.2009.10873856 roziers, r.l., & ramugondo, e.l. (2014). newly qualified south african nurses’ lived experience of the transition from student to community service nurse: a phenomenological study. the journal of continuing education in nursing, 45(2):91–100. https://doi.org/10.3928/00220124-20140122-01 south african health systems trust. (1999). south african health review. p. 202. hst update issue no 57. ministry of health. retrieved july 01, 2013, from www.hst.org.za/uploads/files/upd57.pdf swarts, b. (2013). a community (dis)service: reflections of a community service clinical psychologist. south african journal of psychology, 43(1) 105–115. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246312474420sap.sagepub.com visser, j., marais, m., & du plessis, j. (2006). experiences and attitudes of dietitians during the first compulsory community service year. south african journal of clinical nutrition, 19, 10–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/16070658.2006.11734084 abstract introduction research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) madelyn geldenhuys department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa carolina m. henn department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa citation geldenhuys, m., & henn, c.m. (2017). the relationship between demographic variables and well-being of women in south african workplaces. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a683. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.683 original research the relationship between demographic variables and well-being of women in south african workplaces madelyn geldenhuys, carolina m. henn received: 15 jan. 2015; accepted: 13 apr. 2017; published: 20 june 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: it is important to investigate the determinants of well-being among working women. given the unique demographic diversity within the south african context, differences in the experience of well-being among women are expected. purpose: the study investigated the effects of age, race, marital status and educational status on psychological meaningfulness, life satisfaction, work–family conflict and social support of working women. motivation: with the increase of women in the workplace, there is a need for knowledge and understanding of the factors that influence the well-being of women. this study aims to investigate demographic variables as determinants of well-being among working women. method: cross-sectional surveys were used to gather data from a sample (n = 540) of women from various south african companies. the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes), the psychological meaningfulness scale (pms), the satisfaction with life scale (swls), the work-role conflict scale and the job demands resources scale (jdrs) were administered. results: significant relationships were found between life satisfaction, work-to-family conflict and work engagement, respectively, and marital status. higher levels of education showed significant relationships with life satisfaction and work-to-family conflict. being white showed significant positive relationships with life satisfaction, work-to-family conflict and work engagement. with regard to social support and psychological meaningfulness, race explained significant amounts of variance in psychological meaningfulness, as did age. practical, managerial and methodological implications: the findings indicate that the experiences of well-being among women vary by age, race, marital status and educational status. it is therefore imperative that human resource practitioners appropriately measure these differences, accommodate them in policies through relevant supportive practices and also champion these practices for women. introduction the nature of work and society has changed in such a way that increasing numbers of women enter the workplace. owing to factors such as organisational and societal architecture, career progression for men and women are different (fagenson-eland & baugh, 2000; o’neil, hopkins & balimoria, 2008). compared to men, women often fulfil more work roles, which results in them spending time doing both formal and informal work. more specifically, they are employed by organisations on a full-time basis, which constitutes paid work, yet they also do more unpaid work than men do (organisation for economic co-operation and development [oecd], 2011). unpaid work in the context of this study refers to household – and family tasks such as childrearing and domestic chores. indeed, although men are assuming greater responsibility for family and household duties, women continue to do most of this work (douglas & michaels, 2004; greenhaus & parasuraman, 1999). this also holds true in the south african context (mostert, 2008). owing to these types of gendered social contexts (o’neil et al., 2008), it seems prudent to follow women-specific research approaches more often. it is often the case that women do not properly recover from work stress (cf. sonnentag, 2003) or struggle to balance multiple roles, resulting in work–family conflict as a negative consequence (opie & henn, 2013; rathi & barath, 2013). this can, in turn, affect their well-being, which can manifest in different ways. well-being is described as a reaction to events in life that informs satisfaction, happiness and fulfilment in the personal and work lives of people (diener, oishi & lucas, 2003). experiencing well-being at work involves work engagement (rothmann & rothmann, 2010), meaningfulness at work (van zyl, deacon & rothmann, 2012) and life satisfaction (williamson & geldenhuys, 2014). well-being is further affected by the demands and resources placed on people by work (demerouti, bakker, nachreiner & schaufeli, 2000). differences exist in terms of how people experience well-being (diener, et al., 2003). in this regard, demographic differences can also be expected to affect how women approach work, how they engage at work, how they find meaning, how they use resources, how they respond to work–family conflict and how satisfied they are. as noted by addai, opoku-agyeman and amanfu (2014) as well as ngoo, tey and tan (2015), more research on how people experience well-being has been conducted in developed countries than in african contexts. most of the studies in the developed contexts either investigated the main effects of demographic variables such as age, race and educational status, or controlled for them (cf. addai et al., 2014; ngoo et al., 2015). organisations are giving increasing attention to the fostering of well-being at work (addai et al., 2014; van zyl et al., 2012). however, it becomes more difficult to help employees cope with work as demands at work and home become more complex. the situation is further complicated by personal differences. specifically, it may benefit organisations, managers and employees if differences based on demographics are acknowledged and understood. this will enhance our understanding of the demographic determinants of work engagement, psychological meaningfulness, life satisfaction, work–family conflict and social support among women in the south african workplace. holvino (2010) states that: … ‘women’ is not a universal experience or category; we must identify, untangle and suggest interventions to change the differential impact that everyday practices have for different women in different types of organizations. (p. 264) organisations, employees and managers can benefit from this knowledge because they would be able to understand that women function, cope and experience work differently and acknowledge that women would be better able to invest themselves in the organisation when receiving appropriate support. although perhaps it may seem logical that this is understood in organisations, it is in fact not yet fully the case. for example, as pointed out by bosch (2016), managers often consider female employees to be wonderful, until the moment they fall pregnant. at that point pregnancy in female employees becomes a ‘hassle factor’ (bosch, 2016, p. 5). in this example, therefore, it is evident that age (relating to life cycle factors such as childbearing ability and age of children) and income (relating to educational status and ability to afford childcare) become salient demographics that must be considered. purpose demographic variables are often important determinants of well-being (addai et al., 2014; ngoo et al., 2015). there is plentiful literature supporting the notion that demographic variables impact organisations in numerous ways. to name but a few, mandu, buitendach, kanengoni and bobat (2004) showed that demographics such as age, race and educational status influence turnover intention; balogun (2014) found that demographic variables impact employees’ willingness to share knowledge; and dwivedi, kaushik and luxmi (2015) proved that age, educational status and marital status influenced organisational citizenship behaviour. therefore, this study aimed to provide information regarding the relationship between race, age, marital status and education on the one hand, and work engagement, psychological meaningfulness, life satisfaction, work–family conflict and social support on the other hand. not only did the study aim to establish whether there are significant relationships between the demographic variables and well-being constructs, but it also measured the amount of variance in these well-being constructs that are explained by race, age, marital status and education. an understanding of how women appraise their own life circumstances and their subjective well-being will inform workplace policies and managerial principles in such a way that women will benefit from these (cf. addai et al., 2014). this study provides crucial information regarding the impact of demographic factors on women’s well-being in the workplace. a true understanding of women in the workplace is certainly not limited to demographic factors only. nonetheless, demographic variables are an important piece of the puzzle, so to speak. it can inform policies and managerial principles, for example in the development of wellness programmes suited to female employees, policies relating to maternity leave and other women-related health issues and policies regarding flexitime. as indicated by nienaber, bussin and henn (2011), in terms of reward preferences it is impossible for organisations to take into account all aspects that influence well-being on an individual employee level. therefore, segmentation of employees into groups with similar characteristics and needs may be an effective strategy (cf. nienaber et al., 2011). an understanding of demographic factors can enable employers to apply such segmentation to enhance employee well-being and subsequently also overall organisational effectiveness. work engagement the construct of work engagement as a desirable occupational health outcome has received increased research attention in recent years (cf. bakker, schaufeli, leiter & taris, 2008; mills, culbertson & fullager, 2011). work engagement is defined as ‘a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigour, dedication and absorption’ (schaufeli, salanova, gonzález-romá & bakker, 2002, p. 74). vigour is described as high energy levels while working, eagerness to devote energy to one’s work, resilience and tenacity even when faced with challenges. dedication indicates almost complete involvement in one’s work and the experience of meaning, challenge, pride, zeal, motivation and stimulation. and finally, absorption refers to being completely submerged in and focused on one’s work to such an extent that one loses track of time and finds it difficult to withdraw from work (bakker et al., 2008). there is international research available regarding the relationship between the demographic variables of interest in this study and work engagement, but little within the south african context (bezuidenhout & cilliers, 2011; durksen & klassen, 2012; fong & ng, 2012; haley, mostert & els, 2013). with regard to age, fong and ng (2012) found significantly higher scores on all three dimensions of work engagement among older chinese employees. likewise, mahboubi et al. (2014) also found higher work engagement levels among older participants. in south african literature, bezuidenhout and cilliers (2011) found a significant positive correlation between vigour and absorption on the one hand, and age on the other hand, in a south african sample. also in a south african sample, older participants reported significantly higher scores on dedication (haley et al., 2013). it is possible that age acts as a proxy for life stage in terms of its effect on work engagement. more specifically, older employees are more likely to have grown independent children, which enables them to focus more exclusively on their jobs. bell and barkhuizen (2011) reported significant correlations between work engagement and ethnicity in a south african sample. more specifically, white participants scored significantly higher across all three dimensions of work engagement than coloured participants. white participants also scored significantly higher than black participants in terms of absorption. takawira (2012), however, found no effect for race on work engagement, also in a south african sample. in terms of education, the literature does not present hard-and-fast findings. mahboubi et al. (2014) found no significant relationships between work engagement and level of education. in a south african sample, participants with a matric qualification reported significantly higher absorption levels than participants with a doctoral degree (bell & barkhuizen, 2011). barkhuizen and rothmann (2006) reported almost the exact opposite in a group of south african academics; those with doctoral degrees had significantly higher levels of absorption than those with honours degrees or equivalent 4-year degrees. the results relating to work engagement and marital status are indeterminate. kong (2009) reported significantly higher levels of vigour, absorption and dedication among unmarried employees compared to married ones. takawira (2012) found higher levels of vigour among married people than among single people. no differences were observed in terms of marital status and either absorption or dedication. psychological meaningfulness in the work context, meaningfulness can manifest in terms of psychological meaningfulness (geldenhuys, łaba & venter, 2014). meaning is defined as the value of certain work goals in relation to personal views, morals and standards (geldenhuys et al., 2014; may, gilson & harter, 2004; olivier & rothmann, 2007). furthermore, kahn (1990) defines work-related meaningfulness as ‘… a feeling that one is receiving a return on investment of one’s self in a currency of physical, cognitive and emotional energy’ (kahn, 1990, pp. 703–704). meaningfulness in life affects the psychological well-being of people (frankl, 1997). meaningful work makes an important contribution to optimal experiences in the workplace (cf. lips-wiersma & wright, 2012). meaningful work has also been related to work engagement (van zyl et al., 2012), life satisfaction (williamson & geldenhuys, 2014) and motivation (chalofsky & krishna, 2009). according to seligman (2002), meaning helps people transcend as well as find a purpose in life (steger, oishi & kashdan, 2009). however, according to csikszentmihalyi (1990), the construct ‘meaning’ is difficult to capture and is referred to as the significance something holds for a person. noting that meaningful work can manifest differently, firstly as a fulfilment – where people pursue their passion – and secondly the view of what people contribute to an aspect that is larger than life (wolf, 2012). from a gendered approach, it would appear that there are differences in terms of meaningfulness and work engagement based on gender. women tend to experience a weaker relationship between these constructs (williamson & geldenhuys, 2014). generally, the demographics of people were found to have a minimal effect on meaning at work (hodson, 2002). no differences were found based on race and gender respectively and meaningful work (hodson, 2002). no evidence in the literature could be found to explain any difference based on education. pertaining to age, no conclusive differences could be found in terms of psychological meaningfulness. however, chalofsky and krishna (2009) point out that nearing retirement age, people start questioning the meaning in their work. life satisfaction life satisfaction is a well-known subjective well-being construct (cf. henn, 2013). it is defined as a ‘cognitive, judgemental process’ (diener, emmons, larsen & griffin, 1985, p. 71). life satisfaction is seen as the way in which individuals evaluate the quality of their lives from a global and cognitive perspective (mcdowell, 2010). it further refers to the judgement of the levels of happiness when a person realises their levels of success (pavot & diener, 1993). thus a person subjectively appraises his or her life by comparing it to an internally derived standard. literature reveals a number of studies that have found relationships between the selected demographics variables of interest in the current study and life satisfaction. fagley (2012), filiz (2014) and ngoo et al. (2015) found no significant relationship between age and life satisfaction. liang and liu (2014) reported a positive correlation between age and life satisfaction. schafer, mustillo and ferraro (2013) established that as age increased, partner satisfaction became an increasingly important determinant of life satisfaction for females. botha and booysen (2012) found a u-shaped relationship between age and life satisfaction. in their overall south african sample, life satisfaction decreased until the age of 36, after which it started to increase again. researchers have examined the relationship between ethnicity and life satisfaction. life satisfaction varied significantly across different ghanaian ethnic groups (addai et al., 2014). davis and wu (2014) reported that among white americans, individual life satisfaction decreased when group income increased, whereas among blacks, individual life satisfaction increased with increased group income. this is an interesting finding, indicating that individuals compare themselves with their social group in measuring their life satisfaction. black people are generally considered to have a collectivistic culture, and an increase in group income is in a sense ‘shared’ among the group. white people on the other hand are generally considered to have individualistic cultures, and therefore an increase in group income may be perceived as negative by an individual who does not share in that increase (cf. triandis’s 1989 review of the literature in this regard). it should be borne in mind, though, that better education can lead to less collectivism, and one can therefore not merely ascribe these differences to collectivism or individualism. as oyserman (1993, p. 1006) points out, at university ‘an individualistic perspective is likely to be prompted by academic achievement demands that focus on individual striving, competition and actualization of potential’. furthermore, better education is linked to higher income (i.e. wealth), which is a precursor of individualism (triandis, 1989). davis and wu (2014, p. 867) state that ‘an individual’s racial and ethnic identity matters in determining the reference group with which he or she engages in social comparison’. this can, in turn, influence the individual’s judgements of subjective well-being. fagley (2012) did not find any significant relationships between ethnicity and life satisfaction in an american sample. in a south african study, white, coloured and indian people were significantly more satisfied with life than black people (botha & booysen, 2012). with regard to the impact of education and wealth on life satisfaction, literature reveals varied findings. daraei and mohajery (2013) investigated the life satisfaction of female domestic workers in india. their findings showed that educational level (as well as income and occupation) was positively related to life satisfaction. addai et al. (2014) also found a higher probability of life satisfaction in upperand middle-class ghanaians than in the lower class. in the usa as well as in great britain, lower wealth was significantly associated with lower life satisfaction (jivray & nazroo, 2014). these findings all seem to point in the direction of a relationship between education and income. education is indeed a gateway to better job opportunities and higher income occupations (cf. schimmel, 2009), and therefore it seems likely that it will play a role in the relationships between income and occupation on the one hand, and life satisfaction on the other hand. in the usa, lower levels of education were also associated with lower life satisfaction (jivray & nazroo, 2014). in other research, a high school education was associated with higher life satisfaction than those of graduates, and a post-graduate qualification was associated with higher life satisfaction than a lower than high school education (mahboubi et al., 2014). this shows a curvilinear relationship between education and life satisfaction. ngoo et al. (2015) reported different findings for different areas in asia. in south asia, higher education was significantly related to higher levels of life satisfaction; in central and west asia no such relationship was found; and in southeast asia the effect was small. however, higher income did have a significant positive impact on life satisfaction in central and west asia. this may be because of an indirect influence of education on life satisfaction. nonetheless, salinas-jimenez, artes and salinas-jimenez (2011) found that education had a significant positive correlation with life satisfaction regardless of income. in a south african sample, life satisfaction was significantly positively correlated with income (botha & booysen, 2012), which may also be related to educational qualification. several studies have investigated the influence of marital status on life satisfaction, and the evidence is overwhelmingly in favour of a positive relationship between being married and higher life satisfaction. stack and eshleman (1998) investigated happiness, financial satisfaction and health (all three of which are closely related to life satisfaction) across 17 nations. their results showed a significant positive relationship between marriage or co-habitation and the three well-being measures. ngoo et al. (2015), lee and lee (2013) and filiz (2014) likewise found a significant positive relationship between marital status and life satisfaction. liang and liu (2014) reported lower levels of life satisfaction among divorced and widowed participants than among married participants. in a similar way, botha and booysen (2012) found significantly higher levels of life satisfaction among married women than any other groups (including married men) in their study. work–family conflict a widely used definition of work–family conflict that was developed by greenhaus and beutell (1985) is that it is: a form of inter-role conflict, in which the demands of work and family roles are incompatible in some respect, so that participation in one role is more difficult because of participation in another role. (p. 77) with women increasingly joining the formal workforce (boushey, 2008; casale, 2004), it stands to reason that they will be faced with the challenge of balancing the demands of work with those of their family life. work–family conflict is bi-directional, being work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict (greenhaus & beutell, 1985). in addition, different types of work–family conflict have also been identified, namely time-, behaviourand strain-based (voydanoff, 2004). alternative terms have been utilised to describe the inter-role conflict between work and family responsibilities, of which the most common among these are probably work-interfering-with-family and family-interfering-with-work (wif and fiw) (noor, 2003). in our study, the focus was on work-to-family conflict as research has shown that work-to-family conflict (also called work–family conflict) is of greater concern than family-to-work conflict (cf. bellavia & frone, 2005; greenhaus & parasuraman, 1999). in this regard, de klerk, nel and koekemoer (2012) have indicated that it is essential that more south african studies be conducted on work–home interaction, a construct similar to work-to-family conflict. however, to provide a clear context with regard to work–family conflict in our study, we have included research findings regarding family-to-work conflict. work–family conflict has been linked to age in a number of studies. older individuals correlated significantly with a decrease in work–family conflict in a sample of spanish working men and women (gaspar, 2013). lambert, hogan, kelley, kim and garland (2013) reported similar results between age and family-to-work conflict. they also found a negative correlation between behaviour and time-based work-to-family conflict and age. huffman, culbertson, henning and goh (2013) reported a curvilinear relationship between work–family conflict and age, with young and old participants showing the lowest levels of work–family conflict. this finding suggests that life cycle stages also impact on work–family conflict. allen and finkelstein (2014) found a negative correlation between age, and wif and fiw, respectively. more specifically, they reported a negative relationship between age and wif only within the empty nest stage of the family life cycle. erickson, martinengo, and hill (2010) reported a similar finding. although both family life cycle and age had significant relationships with work–family conflict in their study, allen and finkelstein (2014) pointed out that the patterns that emerged for family life cycle and work–family conflict were different from those that emerged for age and work–family conflict. it is therefore evident that age and family life cycle relate independently to work–family conflict. several studies have found no significant relationships between age and work–family conflict, including two south african studies (gaspar, 2013; noor, 2003; pieterse & mostert, 2005; steyl & koekemoer, 2011). childers and sage (2004) found that white women were 2.4 times more likely than asian-american, black and hispanic women to experience family-to-work conflict. conversely, asian-american, black and hispanic women were 1.4 times more likely than white women to experience work-to-family conflict. it seems that the context of the women impacted on the findings and should be taken into consideration when observing racial differences in levels of work–family conflict. for example, white women in the childers and sage study were mostly in dual-earner families, whereas the majority of asian-american, black and hispanic women were the only earners in their families. also, white women were in positions that indicated higher education and training, whereas asian-american, black and hispanic women were much more likely to be employed in lower-paying jobs performing manual work. childers and sage (2004) found education to be the strongest predictor of family-to-work conflict among white women. gaspar (2013) found that education had a significant impact on work–family conflict in a british sample, with higher education predicting higher levels of work–family conflict. noor (2003) reported a similar finding, with a significant positive correlation between level of education and fiw, as did ozutku and altindis (2013), who found higher behaviour-based work-to-family conflict for health care professionals with doctoral degrees. schieman and glavin (2011) reported a curvilinear relationship between education and work–family conflict. participants with higher (post school) and lower (less than high school) levels of education reported more work–family conflict than those with a high school education. the authors theorised that those with higher levels of education may experience ‘stress of higher status’ owing to the positions they occupy, with increased difficulty in balancing the demands of work and family (schieman & glavin, 2011, p. 1342). higher work–family conflict levels among participants with lower levels of education may be attributed to factors such as lower incomes and the nature of lower income occupations (e.g. shift work). with regard to marital status, the literature shows mixed results. eagle, icenogle, maes and miles (1998) found that divorced women experienced the highest time-based family-to-work conflict. nomaguchi (2011) reported higher home-to-job conflict (similar to family-to-work conflict) for single mothers than for either single fathers or for married people. steyl and koekemoer (2011) similarly reported higher private-work conflict for single participants than for married participants. ozutku and altindis (2013), noor (2003) and mazerolle, bruening and casa (2008) did not find any significant relationships between marital status and work–family conflict. supervisor and social support organisational support, as an umbrella term for supervisor and social support, is defined as the extent to which an employee’s effort is believed to be valued by the organisation and whether the well-being of employees is cared for (rhoades & eisenberger, 2002). support is considered a job resource that can fulfil either an intrinsic or an extrinsic motivational role (de lange, de witte & notelaers, 2008). intrinsic motivation includes aspects such as personal growth and development, while extrinsic motivation refers to aspects such as the achievement of goals. social support relates to the individual’s belief that he or she is loved, valued and that colleagues are looking out for his or her well-being (kossek, pichler, bodner & hammer, 2011). organisational support theory points out the positive effects of support on well-being at work (aselage & eisenberger, 2003; shanock & eisenberger, 2006). through social exchange that takes place between people, the perceived organisational support encourages levels of dedication from employees which lead to increased performance. based on this norm of reciprocity, employees welcome support in the form of tangible rewards (e.g. pay, benefits) and socio-emotional rewards (e.g. esteem, approval, caring) (cf. rhoades & eisenberger, 2002; shanock & eisengerger, 2006). in the workplace, support is an important job resource that tends to increase the levels of well-being of employees (demerouti et al., 2000). because employees need to be able to actively engage at work, fulfil job expectations and deal with complex careers (barkhuizen & rothmann, 2006), support becomes beneficial for subjective well-being (cusack & numer, 2012). social support can enhance positive work outcomes, such as work engagement (de lange et al., 2008). supervisor support refers to the extrinsic support offered by a manager to an employee (shanock & eisenberger, 2006). it includes the extent to which the manager acknowledges and allows for the demands placed on employees both at work and privately (thomas & ganster, 1995). further, supervisor support also includes emotional and practical support, which contributes to employee well-being and work effectiveness (kossek et al., 2011). few studies report on the relationship between demographic variables and organisational support. in a study on the distribution of social support and social ties among white and black employees in america, it appears that racial diversity at work can impact how social ties are formed (sloan, evenson-newhouse & thompson, 2013). in terms of age, alcover (2012) reported that where older employees experienced breaches in their psychological contract, organisational support mitigated the negative impact thereof. further, in a sample consisting of married employees, it was found that the interactive term of tenure and organisational support does not reduce work–family conflict (karatepe, 2009). it is evident from the literature that results pertaining to demographic differences are not conclusive, yet there is sufficient evidence that demographics do influence well-being. given the diverse nature of the south african workplace, it is expected that the relationships between demographic variables and well-being variables will differ significantly among women. more specifically, this study therefore hypothesises that women will experience work-related well-being differently based on age, race, marital status, education and language. research design research approach to meet the objectives of the study, a cross-sectional survey design was utilised. data were thus gathered at a particular point in time (wegner, 2007). the study employed a quantitative approach. online surveys were utilised to gather the data. women across various organisations and occupations in gauteng, south africa, participated in the study. the online survey was accompanied by a letter explaining the purpose of the study as well as ensuring the participants of both confidentiality and anonymity. research method research participants the targeted population consisted of 800 working women. the sample consisted of n = 540 women and resulted in a 67.5% response rate. non-probability sampling was utilised. organisations (e.g. media, schools, investment companies) were targeted, based on convenience, in order to obtain a diverse sample of women who have worked for one year or more. the sample was further well represented in terms of language, age, marital status and education. as regards race, 50.2% were white, 25.2% were black, 16.2% were coloured and 7.3% were indian. half the women were unmarried (50.9%), while the other half were married (49.1%). almost 27% (26.9%) of the women spoke afrikaans, 48.7% of the women were english-speaking and 22.8% spoke an african language. in terms of age groups, 47.9% were between the ages of 18 and 34 years, while 48.1% were between the ages of 35 and 65 years. pertaining to levels of education, the women were split into two groups: those with a secondary education (54.3%) and those with a university qualification (43.5%). research procedure this study formed part of a larger project. an invitation to participate in the study was sent out by email communication. participants and organisations voluntarily agreed to complete the survey. an online survey was emailed to participants. a web-link containing the online survey was used, to be accessed via the web, which meant that participants had to have internet access. a cover letter explaining the purpose and significance of the study accompanied the web-link. further, the confidentiality of the research was explained and guaranteed. measuring instruments the measuring instruments consisted of a biographical questionnaire, the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes), the job demands resources scale (jdrs), the psychological meaningfulness scale (pms), the satisfaction with life scale (swls) and the work-to-family conflict scale. all the questionnaires are in the open domain. previous research used the uwes (de bruin & henn, 2013), the jdrs (jackson & rothmann, 2005), the pms (geldenhuys et al., 2014), the swls (williamson & geldenhuys, 2014) and the work-to-family conflict scale (opie & henn, 2013). the biographical questionnaire consisted of questions regarding race, age, language, education and marital status. the pms (spreitzer, 1995), utilised to measure psychological meaningfulness, contains six items that are answered on a 5-point likert scale ranging from 1 (totally agree) to 5 (totally disagree). the scale measures the degree of meaning that individuals find in work-related activities. a sample item is my job activities are significant to me. satisfactory cronbach’s alpha was reported in previous studies. may et al. (2004) reported a reliability coefficient of 0.90. in a south african study, olivier and rothmann (2007) reported a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.92. the cronbach’s alpha for this study was 0.95. the jdrs was used to measure social support and supervisor support (jackson & rothmann, 2005). the 20 items in this scale are rated on a 4-point scale, ranging from 1 (never) to 4 (always). social support measures the level of support that is provided by colleagues (i have support from my colleagues at work), while supervisor support measured the support provided by the manager to the direct subordinate (i feel that my manager appreciates my work). sufficient reliability scores were found with cronbach’s alpha coefficients of 0.8 for organisational support and 0.76 for social support (jackson & rothmann, 2005). this study found a sufficient cronbach’s alpha coefficient of α = 0.95 for both organisational and social support. the swls is a widely used measure of life satisfaction (diener et al. 1985). the five-item scale uses a 7-point likert rating scale that ranges from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree. sample items include i am satisfied with my life and if i could live my life over i would change almost nothing. braghin (2009) reported a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.91 for this scale. this study found an internal consistency coefficient of 0.88. the 9-item uwes (uwes-9 item) was utilised to measure work engagement (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). the items are scored on a 7-point likert-type scale ranging from 0 (never) to 6 (always). the scale measures the three factors of work engagement, namely vigour, dedication and absorption. a sample item for vigour is when i get up in the morning i feel like going to work. a sample item for dedication is my job inspires me and a sample item for absorption is time flies when i’m working. as recommended by de bruin and henn (2013), the total score was utilised in the analysis. in a south african study, opie and henn (2013) reported an alpha coefficient of 0.93 for the uwes-9. the reliability for the uwes in this study was also α = 0.93. the work-to-family conflict scale (netemeyer, boles & mcmurrian, 1996) measures work-to-family conflict. it comprises five items that require responses on a 5-point likert-type scale. responses range from strongly agree to strongly disagree. sample items are the demands of my work interfere with my home and family life and my job produces strain that makes it difficult to fulfil family duties. a south african study among working women found a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.92 (braghin, 2009). this study found a cronbach’s alpha of α = 0.97. statistical analysis the statistical analysis was carried out by using spss (spss inc., 2013). data were screened for outliers, typing errors and inconsistencies. descriptive statistics including means, standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis and reliability were analysed. product moment correlation coefficients were determined. in terms of effect sizes, cohen (1992) provides the following guidelines to practical and statistical significance: r = 0.10 is indicative of a small effect, r = 0.30 is indicative of a medium effect and r = 0.50 is indicative of a large effect. this will indicate the practical significance of the correlations between the variables. a correlation is only practically significant if it is statistically significant (cohen, 1992). owing to unequal sample sizes, relationship status was lapsed into two categories, namely married and unmarried. similarly, age was split into an ‘18–34 years’ group and a ‘35–65 years’ group. education was split into ‘up to secondary education’ and ‘some form of tertiary education’ groups. independent samples t-tests were performed to compare the mean score differences of the well-being factors based on the demographic factors. for the t-test for race, the coloured and indian groups were omitted from the analysis because these two categories were too small for meaningful analysis. the levene’s test for significance was used to determine whether equal variance based on the demographic factors are assumed (pallant, 2011). further, cohen’s d was also investigated as an addition to the t-test result in inferential statistics (cohen, 1992). cohen’s d presents the distance between the two groups being compared based on the standard deviation score. cohen (1992) suggests that a value of 0.1 is a small effect, 0.3 is a medium effect and 0.5 is large effect. hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to determine the amount of variance explained in work engagement, psychological meaningfulness, life satisfaction, work–family conflict and support by age, race, education and marital status. data were inspected to ensure that the assumptions of normality, linearity and homoscedasticity were met. multicollinearity values (tolerance and variance inflation factor [vif]) were within recommended limits (pallant, 2011). results descriptive statistics the descriptive statistics for the well-being constructs are reported in table 1. the descriptive statistics include mean scores, standard deviations, skewness and kurtosis. table 1: descriptive statistics for work engagement, psychological meaningfulness, work–family conflict, life satisfaction, social support and supervisor support. table 1 shows the mean scores and standard deviations of work engagement, psychological meaningfulness, work–family conflict, life satisfaction social support and supervisor support. in terms of skewness and kurtosis, the results indicate that the data were normally distributed and had a normal peak. correlations coefficients pearson product moment correlations coefficients for the well-being constructs are reported in table 2. effect sizes were determined according to the guideline provided by cohen (1988). correlations reflect how the constructs for women relate to each other. table 2: correlations coefficients for work engagement, psychological meaningfulness, work–family conflict, life satisfaction, social support and supervisor support. table 2 shows that work engagement positively relates to psychological meaningfulness (r = 0.74; large effect), life satisfaction (r = 0.43; medium effect), social support (r = 0.48; medium effect) and supervisor support (r = 0.45; medium effect). it negatively relates to work–family conflict (r = −0.15; small effect). psychological meaningfulness positively relates to life satisfaction (r = 0.41; medium effect), social support (r = 0.48; medium effect) and supervisor support (r = 0.42; medium effect). work–family conflict negatively relates to supervisor support (r = −0.19; small effect). life satisfaction positively relates to social support (r = 0.38; medium effect) as well as supervisor support (r = 0.32; medium effect). supervisor support and social support positively relate to each other (r = 0.54; large effect). independent-sample t-tests independent-sample t-tests are reported for all the demographic variables on well-being of women in tables 3–6. table 3: independent t-tests of marital status on well-being of women. table 4: independent t-tests of race on well-being of women. table 5: independent t-tests of age on well-being of women. table 6: independent t-tests of education on well-being of women. table 3 shows the results of the independent samples t-tests investigating the significance of the relationship between well-being constructs and marital status. it was found that women experience significant differences in levels of work engagement, psychological meaningfulness, work–family conflict and life satisfaction based on marital status. more specifically, married women experienced higher levels of work engagement, psychological meaningfulness, work–family conflict, life satisfaction and social support compared to unmarried women. there is a small effect size for the difference between married and unmarried women for the specified variables. table 4 reports the results of the independent samples t-tests investigating the relationship between race and the different well-being variables in our study. significant differences were found, based on race, in work engagement, work–family conflict and life satisfaction. white women reported higher levels of work engagement, psychological meaningfulness, work–family conflict and life satisfaction than black women. the effect sizes of these differences ranged between 0.19 and 0.35, which indicates a small effect. table 5 shows the results of the independent samples t-test examining the relationship between age and the measured well-being constructs. as can be seen, older women reported significantly higher levels of work engagement, psychological meaningfulness and social support than younger women. the effect sizes based on cohen’s d indicated small variances. table 6 shows the results of the independent samples t-tests analysing the relationship between education and the measured well-being constructs. women with a tertiary qualification experience more work–family conflict and are more satisfied with life compared to women with only a senior certificate (grade 12). there is a small effect size for the difference in women with and without a tertiary qualification for the specified variables. multiple regression analyses we conducted hierarchical regression analyses to determine the percentage of variance explained by each of the demographic variables. separate regression analyses were conducted for work engagement, psychological meaningfulness, work–family conflict, life satisfaction social support and supervisor support. in each analysis, the demographic variables were entered step by step (one in each step). table 7 shows the results of the regression analysis conducted for work engagement. table 7: variances explained by demographic variables on work engagement. table 7 shows that marital status explained 10% of the variance in work engagement. further, race explained an additional 14% variance above that of marital status. age and education did not add significantly to the percentage of variance explained. table 8 indicates that marital status explained 10% of the variance in psychological meaningfulness, while race added 8% variance of psychological meaningfulness. an additional variance of 9% in psychological meaningfulness was found because of age. education did not add significantly to the amount of variance explained. table 8: variances explained by demographic variable on psychological meaningfulness. table 9 indicates that marital status explained 19% of the variance in work–family conflict. race added an additional 25% of the variance in work–family conflict, while education added an additional 7% variance therein. age did not add significant variance to work–family conflict. table 9: variances explained by demographic variable on work–family conflict. table 10 shows that marital status explains 28% of variance in life satisfaction. levels of education added a further 23% increase in the variance of life satisfaction. table 10: variances explained by demographic variable on life satisfaction. table 11 shows that age resulted in an 18% variance in social support. marital status, race and education did not explain significant variance in social support. table 11: variances explained by demographic variable on social support. the results reported in table 12 indicated that none of the measured demographic variables explained significant amounts of variance in supervisor support. table 12: variances explained by demographic variable on supervisor support. discussion outline of the research the objective of this study was to examine the demographic differences in the experience of well-being of women in the workplace. differences in the experiences of work engagement, psychological meaningfulness, life satisfaction, work–family conflict, social support and supervisor support of women were found based on race, age, marital status and education. relationships between the well-being variables the results indicated that most of the well-being constructs were related. work engagement, psychological meaningfulness, life satisfaction and support are positively related to each other. the findings of this study are in line with previous research on the relationship between work engagement, psychological meaningfulness and life satisfaction (cf. van zyl et al., 2012; williamson & geldenhuys, 2014) as well as work engagement and support (cf. barkhuizen & rothmann, 2006; schaufeli & bakker, 2004). work–family conflict is negatively related to work engagement, as is supervisor support. previous research attests to the negative effect of work–family conflict on levels of engagement of employees (opie & henn, 2013) and organisational support (karatepe, 2009). the significant correlations found among the well-being constructs demonstrate that they are closely related. even more significant is that the correlations are among work-related and non-work-related variables. this clearly signifies the importance of work, and experiences at work, in determining overall well-being – and vice versa. work is an extremely important part of people’s lives, and therefore employers cannot merely focus on work-related aspects when dealing with employees. work cannot be compartmentalised and separated from employees’ day-to-day lives, because work and private life are indeed intertwined. this is especially true in a modern work environment where, owing to technology, the boundaries between working time and private time are becoming increasingly blurred. indeed, currie and eveline (2011) refer to ‘work extensification and intensification’ (eveline, 2011, p. 539) to describe this blurring of lines between work and private life. in their study among academics with young children, one of the participants described the fact that technology allows him to work from anywhere, including home, as both a ‘blessing and a curse’ (eveline, 2011, p. 542). marital status the results indicate that married women experience higher levels of work engagement, psychological meaningfulness and life satisfaction compared to unmarried women. the findings of this study contradict those of kong (2009), who reported that unmarried employees are more engaged. takawira (2012) did find higher levels of vigour among married people. in the current study, marital status explained 10% of the variance in work engagement. it should be borne in mind that the current study only investigated women, whereas the other studies involved both genders. it seems plausible that being in a committed relationship enhances the well-being of participants, which spills over into positive appraisals of work. this can include enhanced work engagement and experiencing meaningfulness in work. hakanen, peeters and perhoniemi’s longitudinal study (2011) demonstrates the inter-relatedness of work and marriage: they found that job resources predicted work-to-family enrichment and the latter predicted work engagement (both over time). they also found that family-to-work enrichment had a positive influence on marital satisfaction (over time). these findings once again illustrate the enmeshed nature of work and family, and more specifically how work does indeed influence marital satisfaction indirectly. combining these research findings, one comes to a tenable conclusion, namely that there may exist a reciprocal relationship between marital aspects such as quality of marital life, and work experiences such as work engagement. in terms of life satisfaction, this study endorses the findings of numerous other studies that have shown that married people experience higher levels of life satisfaction (botha & booysen, 2012; filiz, 2014; lee & lee, 2014; ngoo et al., 2015; stack & eshleman, 1998). indeed, marital status explained a substantial 28% of the variance in life satisfaction. increased life satisfaction, in turn, can influence work experiences positively. for instance, literature has shown job satisfaction to be an area-specific element of life satisfaction (refer to bowling, echlesman & wang, 2010; veenhoven, 1991). married women also reported more work–family conflict. this study reports a 19% variance in work–family conflict because of marital status. given that women bear the brunt of the household (taking care of children, husband and so forth), and based on the fact that women do more work in the home environment (oecd, 2011), it is expected that married women, especially those with families, will experience more work–family conflict. race with regard to race, white women experienced significantly higher levels of work engagement, work–family conflict and life satisfaction compared to black women. additionally, race explained a significant 14% of variance in work engagement, and a significant 25% of variance in work-to-family conflict. this is in line with previous research findings regarding race and work engagement (bell & barkhuizen, 2011) as well as with life satisfaction (addai et al., 2014; botha & booysen, 2012). research by fagley (2012), however, indicated no significant relationship between race and life satisfaction. it seems likely, as explained by davis and wu (2014), that racial identity determines the social group with which an individual compares himself. this, in turn, determines the individual’s subjective perceptions of life satisfaction. race may also act as a proxy for other factors that impact on life satisfaction, such as access to education and higher paying occupations. there was no significant difference in the mean scores of psychological meaningfulness between black and white women, and this is in line with hodson’s (2002) findings in his study. in terms of work–family conflict, white women in this study experienced more conflict than black women, and this was a medium effect size. previous research has been inconclusive in this regard. one study was found to be in line with the findings of this study (childers & sage, 2004), while another study indicated that black employees experienced more conflict within their home-to-work life (cf. steyl & koekemoer, 2011). the differences in findings may be sample-specific, and more research concerning the antecedents of work–family conflict is necessary. the experiences of black and white women with regard to employment, and subsequent work–family conflict, should be interpreted against the backdrop of south africa’s socio-political history. during the era of apartheid, many black women had to leave their children in the care of grandparents while they themselves migrated to the cities where they could find employment. it stands to reason that these working mothers could focus on their work without having to balance it with childcare (of course migratory labour had many disadvantages – among them the emotional impact of being separated from one’s children for extended periods of time – but it is not the purpose of this discussion to dwell on these). as russell (2003) puts it, migrant workers are ‘geographically mobile and effectively single’ (russell, 2003, p. 171), and this makes them rather desirable employees. implicit herein is the understanding that these ‘effectively single’ employees will not be distracted from their work by family demands. there are currently still many black women who are involved in migratory labour (cf. phillips & james, 2014). although the extended family remains the dominant family structure among black south africans, there is also a shift towards nuclear families (i.e. mother, father and children living together) (cf. amoateng & heaton, 2015). given this mixture of nuclear families, extended families and families affected by migratory labour, it is difficult to obtain a clear answer as to the experiences of work–family conflict among black people, hence the inconclusive research results. age women between the ages of 35 and 65 experienced higher levels of work engagement and psychological meaningfulness compared to women between the ages of 18 and 34. research attests to the positive correlation between age and work engagement (bezuidenhout & cilliers, 2011; fong & ng, 2012; mahboubi et al., 2014). with age comes greater maturity, and women may be better able to decide what job they should be doing. older employees are also, by implication, further along in their career paths, so chances are good that they find themselves doing what they really want to do. it is plausible that this combination of factors can result in older women being more likely to find meaning in their work, and consequently also be more engaged in it. other research found no such relationship (cf. durksen & klassen, 2012; takawira, 2012). it is assumed that older people may experience more meaning in work, as chalofsky and krishna (2009) allude to the idea of older people becoming more aware of their purpose in life. one way to interpret research findings is to refer to life stages and life cycle, as these are closely aligned to age. in this regard, erik erikson’s eight stages of psycho-social development (described in meyer & van ede, 1990) present us with a theoretical context within which to explain our findings. according to this theory, the greatest challenge in early adulthood is to find a relationship to which to commit. in middle adulthood, the main challenge revolves around making a meaningful contribution in life, and in retirement the main challenge is to find satisfaction with life in general and the contributions you have made. the latter two phases of adulthood lend themselves to a greater search for meaning, which would also find expression in a search for meaning in terms of work. interestingly, there was a significant difference in the experience of social support between the two age groups, with women aged 18–34 reporting higher levels of social support than women aged 35–65. unfortunately, owing to unequal group sizes, we had to lapse the age categories into two categories, making it difficult to interpret the results regarding age. notwithstanding this challenge, erikson’s theory may also contribute towards explaining our findings regarding age and social support. in the earlier phases of adulthood, individuals are more concerned with the establishment of meaningful relationships, whereas in later phases individuals are more concerned with their contributions to the world and having peace with their life. older individuals may therefore be less concerned with support from others. older employees may also be more confident and self-reliant, as they have built competency and skill over time. more research with larger samples is required to truly understand the relationship between perceptions of social support and age. education the results showed that participants with some form of tertiary education experienced higher levels of life satisfaction and work-to-family conflict. with regard to life satisfaction, this finding is in line with literature (daraei & mohajery, 2013). as indicted earlier, education is a portal to higher paying occupations and subsequent higher standards of living (cf. schimmel, 2009). higher incomes and socio-economic class have in fact been positively linked with life satisfaction in previous studies (addai et al., 2014; botha & booysen, 2012; jivray & nazroo, 2014). indeed, education explained a significant 23% of variance in life satisfaction. educated women are able to attract higher level jobs because of their qualification. this can result in women being more satisfied with their life because they might be able to afford a better lifestyle. the finding that participants with tertiary education experienced higher levels of work-to-family conflict than those with a high school education is similar to the findings in a number of other studies (childers & sage, 2014; gaspar, 2013; noor, 2003; ozutku & altindis, 2013). as mentioned, schieman and glavin (2011) reported a curvilinear relationship between education and work–family conflict, with participants with higher (post school) and lower (less than high school) levels of education reporting higher levels of work–family conflict than those with a high school education. they proposed that participants with higher levels of education may experience ‘stress of higher status’ (schieman & glavin, 2011, p. 1342), in other words, the demands placed on them by senior levels of work may cause increasing strain in terms of balancing work and family. limitations and recommendations as this study worked with an existing database, it is possible that well-being constructs not included in our study may also be affected by demographic variables. future studies can include variables such as job satisfaction, family-to-work conflict and burnout. the study was cross-sectional, and therefore no conclusions regarding cause and effect could be drawn. owing to unequal sample sizes in terms of the demographic variables, we had to collapse each demographic variable into two categories. future studies should aim to increase sample size, with large enough numbers of participants across all categories in a variable in order to maximise generalisability. this will enable the researchers to measure finer distinctions in demographic categories such as race, age, education and marital status. practical implications the study provides ample support for the importance of demographic variables as determinants of well-being. thus, from an organisational and managerial perspective, performance can be enhanced by acknowledging the different demographics of women that affect their work experiences. in this regard, it can be helpful to segment the workforce (e.g. in terms of relationship status, income, seniority level or education) to manage and support employees (cf. nienaber et al., 2011). further, it could be helpful in understanding the context within which women function or go about their work and personal life. in connection with this, employers should be mindful that demographic factors often serve as a proxy for lifecycle stages. for example, age can be an indicator of childbearing or menopause, and age of children can be an indicator of childcare – and flexitime needs. human resource (hr) practitioners have a pivotal role in ensuring appropriate and supportive workplace practices for women (abbott, 2012). more specifically, abbott mentions aspects such as ‘working hours, location of work, remuneration, and benefits’ (abbott, 2012, p. 21). furthermore she also points out that the hr practitioner should ensure an appropriate fit between the employee and the organisation, and this includes lifestyle factors of the individual. knowledge of the possible impact of demographic factors on employee well-being and hence organisational performance is therefore indispensable. kossek and ozeki (1999) allude to two important factors that hr managers must pay attention to. firstly, although many hr policies already allow for employees to utilise supportive practices (such as flexitime), employees often do not avail themselves of these opportunities. in their literature review, they found that a possible cause for this may be an unsupportive organisational culture. indeed, an employee must ‘experience’ (kossek & ozeki, 1999, p. 25) a policy as conducive before it will actually result in positive returns such as employee well-being and organisational commitment. regarding work accommodation for pregnant women, boninelli (2016) states that: it is important that work accommodation not be viewed as unfortunate organisational costs needed to placate a special category of employees, but rather as an investment in a changed social climate and in female talent. (p. 10) this statement is in fact true for all supportive practices that an organisation makes available for women and certainly addresses the aspect of a non-supportive organisational culture. secondly, they advise that it is important to pin down the supportive practices considered most helpful and imperative for employees. they further urge researchers to utilise reliable scales to measure these. in the same way, hr practitioners should also utilise reliable scales to obtain this necessary information. more specific to our study, they should obtain data from different demographic groups in the organisation to ensure truly valuable results. such scientifically valid results, combined with workforce segmentation, can assist employers in ensuring that best practices are applied that meet the needs of their employees while also serving the best interests of the organisation. the practical implications of our research findings stretch further than merely addressing it through particular supportive practices and allowances in policies. it is essential that hr practitioners and hr managers ensure that policies are made available widely throughout the organisations, and to create awareness and tolerance thereof. line managers should receive training so as to ensure that they understand the practical implications of the relevant policies (cf. boninelli, 2016). this will prevent situations where line managers do not sanction, either directly or indirectly, their female employees’ utilisation of allowed practices. hr practitioners should in fact champion the cause for the well-being of women (abbott, 2012). in line with our particular findings, hr practitioners should note the effect of age on well-being factors and link this to where an employee is in her life cycle. this will help towards establishing family-friendly workplace policies. with regard to relationship status, married women report higher levels of work–family conflict and may have a greater need for flexible work times, to name but one. higher educational status can increase life satisfaction, and hr practitioners should consider practices such as opportunities for employees to improve their education. concerning race, employees will benefit from diversity training. these are but a few ways in which hr practitioners can make practical use of our and other similar research findings. conclusion this study demonstrates that demographic factors do influence well-being among working women. being married correlated significantly with higher levels of life satisfaction, work-to-family conflict and work engagement. marital status explained significant proportions of variance in work engagement, life satisfaction and work-to-family conflict. being older correlated significantly with higher levels of work engagement. age also explained significant percentages of variance in psychological meaningfulness, and social support at work. higher education correlated positively with higher levels of life satisfaction and work-to-family conflict. education also explained significant proportions of variance in life satisfaction and work-to-family conflict. in terms of race, white women experienced significantly higher levels of life satisfaction, work-to-family conflict and work engagement than black women. race explained significant amounts of variance in psychological meaningfulness and work-to-family conflict. understanding the impact of these factors can assist hr practitioners in effectively supporting and managing employees and designing policies and interventions – such as talent management – and retention strategies. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.g. and c.m.h. made an equal contribution on all sections (title, abstract, introduction, literature review, methodology and results, analyses and discussions) of this manuscript. references abbott, p. (2012). retention of women in the workplace – what hr practitioners can do. in a. bosch (ed.), south african board for people practices women’s report 2012 (pp. 21–24). parktown, south africa: sabpp. addai, i., opoku-agyeman, c., & amanfu, s.k. (2014). exploring predictors of subjective well-being in ghana: a micro-level study. journal of happiness studies, 15, 869–890. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-013-9454-7 alcover, c.-m. (2012). ageism in organizations? perceived organizational support as a mediator of the relations between age and psychological contract breach. revista psicologia organizacoes e trabalho, 12, 299–313. allen, t.d., & finkelstein, l.m. (2014). work-family conflict among members of full-time dual-earner couples: an examination of family life stage, gender and age. journal of occupational health psychology, 19(3), 376–384. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036941 amoateng, a.y., & heaton, t.b. (2015). changing race differences in family structure and household composition in south africa. south african review of sociology, 46(4), 59–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/21528586.2015.1109476 aselage, j., & eisenberger, r. (2003). perceived organizational support and psychological contracts: a theoretical integration. journal of organizational behavior, 24, 491–509. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.211 bakker, a.b., schaufeli, w.b., leiter, m.p., & taris, t.w. (2008). work engagement: an emerging concept in occupational health psychology. work and stress, 22(3), 187–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802393649 balogun, a.g. (2014). demographic variables predicting employee willingness to share tacit knowledge in service occupations. ife psychologia, 22(2), 42–49. barkhuizen, e.n., & rothmann, s. (2006). work engagement of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. management dynamics, 15(1), 38–48. bell, e., & barkhuizen, n. (2011). the relationship between barriers to change and the work engagement of employees in a south african property management company. south african journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37il.935 bellavia, g.m., & frone, m.r. (2005). work-family conflict. in j. barling, e.k. kelloway, & m.r. frone (eds.), handbook of work stress (pp. 113–147). thousand oaks, ca: sage. bezuidenhout, a., & cilliers, f. (2011). age, burnout, work engagement and sense of coherence in female academics at two south african universities. south african journal of labour relations, 35(1), 61–80. boninelli, i. (2016). career decisions for women considering pregnancy. in a. bosch (ed.), south african board for people practices women’s report 2016 (pp. 7–13). parktown, south africa: sabpp. bosch, a. (2016). pregnancy is here to stay – or is it? in a. bosch (ed.), south african board for people practices women’s report 2016 (pp. 3–6). parktown, south africa: sabpp. botha, f., & booysen, f. (2012). the relationship between marital status and life satisfaction among south african adults. acta academica, 45(2), 150–178. boushey, h. (2008). “opting out?” the effect of children on women’s employment in the united states. feminist economics, 14(1), 1–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/13545700701716672 bowling, n.a., eschleman, k.j., & wang, q. (2010). a meta-analytic examination of the relationship between job satisfaction and subjective wellbeing. the british psychological society, 83, 915–934. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317909x478557 braghin, c. (2009). time-based constraints and work-to-family conflict among working mothers. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of johannesburg, johannesburg. casale, d. (2004). what has the feminisation of the labour market ‘bought’ women in south africa? trends in labour force participation, employment and earnings, 1995–2001. working paper 04/84. cape town, south africa: development policy research unit. chalofsky, n., & krishna, v. (2009). meaningfulness, commitment and engagement: the intersection of a deeper level of intrinsic motivation. advances in developing human resources, 11, 189–204. childers, c.d., & sage, j.a. (2004, august). working women, work-family and family-work conflicts: a first look at differences in white women and women of colour. paper presented at the american sociological association conference, san francisco, ca. cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. (2nd edn.). hillside, nj: erlbaum. cohen, j. (1992). a power primer. psychological bulletin, 112(1), 155–159. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155 csikszentmihalyi, m. (1990). flow: the psychology of optimal experience. new york: harper & row. currie, j., & eveline, j. (2011). e-technology and work/life balance for academics with young children. higher education, 62, 533–550. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-010-9404-9 cusack, e.e., & numer, m. (2012). a phenomenological inquiry of social support in relation to health and wellbeing among rural queer female youth. the international journal of interdisciplinary social sciences, 6(4), 36–48. https://doi.org/10.18848/1833-1882/cgp/v06i04/52067 daraei, m., & mohajery, a. (2013). the impact of socioeconomic status on life satisfaction. social indicators research, 112(1), 69–81. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-012-0040-x davis, l., & wu, s. (2014). social comparisons and life satisfaction across racial and ethnic groups: the effects of status, information and solidarity. social indicators research, 117, 849–869. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0367-y de bruin, g.p., & henn, c.m. (2013). uni-dimensionality of the utrecht work engagement scale 9 (uwes-9). psychological reports, 112(3), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.2466/01.03.pr0.112.3.788-799 de klerk, m., nel, j.a., & koekemoer, e. (2012). positive side of the work-family interface: a theoretical review. journal of psychology in africa, 22(4), 683–694. de lange, a.h., de witte, h., & notelaers, g. (2008). should i stay or should i go? examining longitudinal relations among job resources and work engagement for stayers versus movers. work & stress, 22(3), 201–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802390132 demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., nachreiner, f., & schaufeli, w.b. (2000). a model of burnout and life satisfaction amongst nurses. journal of advanced nursing, 32(2), 454–464. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2000.01496.x diener, e., emmons, a., larsen, r.j., & griffin, s. (1985). the satisfaction with life scale. journal of personality assessment, 49(1), 72–75. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13 diener, e., oishi, s., & lucas, r.e. (2003). personality, culture, and subjective well-being: emotional and cognitive evaluations of life. annual review of psychology, 54, 403–425. douglas, s., & michaels, m. (2004). the mommy myth: the idealisation of motherhood and how it has undermined women. new york: free press. durksen, t.l., & klassen, r.m. (2012). pre-service teachers’ weekly commitment and engagement during a final training placement: a longitudinal mixed methods study. educational & child psychology, 29(4), 32–46. dwivedi, s., kaushik, s., & luxmi. (2015). organizational citizenship behaviour and demographic variables of employees in indian business processing outsourcing (bpo) sector. iup journal of organizational behaviour, 14(1), 39–57. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2040 eagle, b.w., icenogle, m.l., maes, j.d., & miles, e. (1998). the importance of employee demographic profiles for understanding experiences of work-family inter-role conflicts. the journal of social psychology, 138(6), 690–709. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224549809603255 erickson, j., martinengo, g., & hill, e.j. (2010). putting work and family experiences in context: differences by family life stage. human relations, 63(7), 955–979. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726709353138 fagenson-eland, e., & baugh, g. (2000). career paths, networking, and mentoring. in d. smith (ed.), women at work – leadership for the next century (pp. 145–161). nj: prentice hall. fagley, n.s. (2012). appreciation uniquely predicts life satisfaction above demographics, the big 5 personality factors, and gratitude. personality and individual differences, 53, 59–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.02.019 filiz, z. (2014). an analysis of the levels of job satisfaction and life satisfaction of academic staff. social indicators research, 116, 793–808. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0319-6 fong, t.c., & ng, s. (2012). measuring engagement at work: validation of the chinese version of the utrecht work engagement scale. international journal of behavioral medicine, 19(3), 391–397. frankl, v.e. (1997). man’s search for ultimate meaning. new york: plenum press. gaspar, m.o. (2013). the modernisation process through the perceptions of work-family in spain and great britain. european societies, 15(5), 707–728. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696/2013.829241 geldenhuys, m., łaba, k., & venter, c.m. (2014). meaningful work, work engagement and organisational commitment. south african journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1098 greenhaus, j.h., & beutell, n.j. (1985). sources of conflict between work and family roles. academic of management review, 10, 76–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/258214, https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1985.4277352 greenhaus, j.h., & parasuraman, s. (1999). research on work, family and gender: current status and future directions. in g.n. powell (ed.), handbook of gender & work (pp. 391–415). thousand oaks, ca: sage. hakanen, j.j., peeters, m.c.w., & perhoniemi, r. (2011). enrichment processes and gain spirals at work and at home: a 3-year cross-lagged panel study. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 84(1), 8–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.2010.02014.x haley, l., mostert, k., & els, c. (2013). burnout and work engagement for different age groups: examining group-level differences and predictors. journal of psychology in africa, 23(2), 283–296. henn, c.m. (2013). measures of well-being. in c. foxcroft & g. roodt (eds.), introduction to psychological assessment in the south african context (4th edn., pp. 171–184). cape town, south africa: oxford university press. hodson, r. (2002). demography or respect? work group demography versus organizational dynamics as determinants of meaning and satisfaction at work. british journal of sociology, 53, 291–317. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071310220133359 holvino, e. (2010). intersections: the simultaneity of race, gender and class in organization studies. gender, work and organisation, 17, 248–277. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2008.00400.x huffman, a., culbertson, s.s., henning, j.b., & goh, a. (2013). work-family conflict across the lifespan. journal of managerial psychology, 28(7/8), 761–780. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmp-07-2013-022 jackson, l., & rothmann, s. (2005). work-related well-being of educators in a district of the north-west province. perspectives in education, 23(3), 107–122. jivray, s., & nazroo, j. (2014). determinants of socioeconomic inequalities in subjective well-being in later life: a cross-country comparison in england and the usa. quality of life research, 23, 2545–2558. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-014-0694-8 kahn, w. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 33(4), 692–724. https://doi.org/10.2307/256287 karatepe, o.m. (2009). an investigation of the joint effects of organisational tenure and supervisor support on work–family conflict and turnover intentions. journal of hospitality and tourism management, 16, 73–81. https://doi.org/10.1375/jhtm.16.1.73 kong, y. (2009). a study on the job engagement of company employees. international journal of psychological services, 1(2), 65–68. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijps.v1n2p65 kossek, e.e., & ozeki, c. (1999). briding the work-family policy and productivity gap: a literature review. community, work and family, 2(1), 7–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/13668809908414247 kossek, e.e., pichler, s., bodner, t., & hammer, l.b. (2011). work place social support and work-family conflict: a meta-analysis clarifying the influence of general and work-family specific supervisor and organisational support. personnel psychology, 64, 289–313. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2011.01211.x lambert, e.g., hogan, n.l., kelly, t.m., kim, b., & garland, b. (2013). when domains spill over: the relationships of affective and continuance commitment with work-family conflict among correctional staff. criminal justice policy review, 25(4), 476–502. https://doi.org/10.1177/0887403412474889 lee, e-k.o., & lee, j. (2013) education, functional limitations, and life satisfaction among older adults in south korea, educational gerontology, 39(7), 514–526. https://doi.org/10.1080/03601277.2012.701154 liang, y., & lu, p. (2014). effect of occupational mobility and health status on life satisfaction of chinese residents of different occupations: logistic diagonal mobility models analysis of cross-sectional data on eight chinese provinces. international journal for equity in health, 13, 15. lips-wiersma, m., & wright, s. (2012). measuring the meaning of meaningful work: developing and validation of the comprehensive meaningful work scale (cmws). group & organisation management 37, 655–685. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601112461578 mahboubi, m., ghahramani, f., mohammadi, m., amanis, n., mousavi, s.h., moradi, f., et al. (2014). evaluation of work engagement and its determinants in kermanshah hospitals staff in 2013. global journal of health sciences, 7, 170–176. https://doi.org/10.5539/gjhs.v7n2p170 mandu, s., buitendach, j., kanengoni, h., & bobat, s. (2014). the prediction of turnover intention by means of employee engagement and demographic variables in a telecommunications organisation. journal of psychology in africa, 24(2), 131–143. martinussen, m., adolfsen, f., lauritzen, c., & richardsen, a.m. (2012). improving interprofessional collaboration in a community setting: relationships with burnout, engagement and service quality. journal of interprofessional care, 26, 219–225. https://doi.org/10.3109/13561820.2011.647125 may, d., gilson, r., & harter, l. (2004). the psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety and availability and the engagement of the human spirit at work. journal of organisational psychology, 77(1), 11–37. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317904322915892 mazerolle, s.g., bruening, j.e., & casa, d.j. (2008). work-family conflict, part i: antecedents of work-family conflict in national collegiate athletic association division i-a certified athletic trainers. journal of athletic training, 43(5), 505–512. https://doi.org/10.4085/1062-6050-43.5.505 mcdowell, i. (2010). measures of self-perceived well-being. journal of psychosomatic research, 69, 69–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2009.07.002 meyer, w.f., & van ede, d.m. (1990). ontwikkelingsteorieë. in d.a. louw (ed.), menslike ontwikkeling (2de uitgawe, pp. 51–99). pretoria, suid afrika: haum tersiêr. mills, m.j., culbertson, s.s., & fullagar, c.j. (2011). conceptualizing and measuring engagement: an analysis of the utrecht work engagement scale. journal of happiness studies, 13(3), 519–545. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-011-9277-3 mostert, k. (2008). time-based and strain-based work-family conflict in the south african police service: examining the relationship with work characteristics and exhaustion. acta criminologica, 21(3), 1–18. netemeyer, r.g., boles, j.s., & mcmurrian, r. (1996). development and validation of work-family conflict scales. journal of applied psychology, 81, 400–401. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.81.4.400 ngoo, y.t., tey, n.p., & tan, e.c. (2015). determinants of life satisfaction in asia. social indicators research, 124, 141–156. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-014-0772-x nienaber, r., bussin, m.h.r., & henn, c.m. (2011). the relationship between personality types and reward preferences. acta commercii, 1, 56–79. nomaguchi, k.m. (2011). marital status, gender, and home-to-job conflict among employed parents. journal of family issues, 33(3), 271–294. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513x11415613 noor, n.m. (2003). workand family-related variables, work-family conflict and women’s well-being: some observations. community, work & family, 6(3), 297–319. https://doi.org/1080/1366880032000143474 oecd (2011). society at a glance 2011: oecd social indicators. oecd. retrieved n.d., from https://www.oecd.org olivier, a.l., & rothmann, s. (2007). antecedents of work engagement in a multinational oil company. south african journal of industrial psychology, 33(3), 49–56. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v33i3.396 o’neil, d.a., hopkins, m.m., & bilimoria, d. (2008). women’s career at the start of the 21st century: patterns and paradoxes. journal of business ethics, 80, 727–743. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9465-6 opie, t., & henn, s.m. (2013). work-family conflict and work engagement among mothers: conscientiousness and neuroticism as moderators. south african journal of industrial psychology, 39(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i1.1082 oyserman, d. (1993). the lens of personhood: viewing the self and others in a multi-cultural society. journal of personality and social psychology, 65(5), 993–1009. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.65.5.993 ozutku, h., & altindis, s. (2013). the relations between work intensity and work-family conflict in collectivist culture: evidence from turkish health care professionals. journal of health management, 15(3), 361–382. https://doi.org/10.1177/0972063413492049 pallant, j. (2011). spps survival manual. (4th edn.). buckingham: open university press. pavot, w., & diener, e. (1993). review of the satisfaction with life scale. psychological assessment, 5, 164–172. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.5.2.164 phillips, l., & james, d. (2014). labour, lodging and linkages: migrant women’s experience in south africa. african studies, 73(3), 410–431. https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2014.962875 pieterse, m., & mostert, k. (2005). measuring the work-home interface: validation of the survey work-home interaction – (swing) instrument. management dynamics, 14(2), 2–15. rathi, n., & barath, m. (2013). work-family conflict and job and family satisfaction: moderating effect of social support among police personnel. equality, diversity and inclusion: an international journal, 32, 438–454. https://doi.org/10.1108/edi-10-2012-0092 rhoades, l., & eisenberger, r. (2002). perceived organizational support: a review of the literature. journal of applied psychology, 87, 698–714. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.698 rothmann, s., & rothmann, s. (2010). factors associated with employee engagement in south africa. south africa journal of industrial psychology, 36(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i2.925 russell, m. (2003). are urban black families nuclear? a comparative study of black and white south african family norms. social dynamics, 29(2), 153–176. https://doi.org/10.1080/02533950308628679 salinas-jiménez, m., artés, j., & salinas-jiménez, j. (2011). education as a positional good: a life satisfaction approach. social indicators research, 103, 409–426. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-010-9709-1 schafer, m.h., mustillo, s.a., & ferraro, k.f. (2013). age and the tenses of life satisfaction. journals of gerontology, series b: psychological sciences and social sciences, 68(4), 571–579. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbt038 schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands and job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organisational behaviour, 25(3), 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.248 schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzález-romá, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3, 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 schieman, s., & glavin, p. (2011). education and work-family conflict: explanations, contingencies and mental health consequences. social forces, 89(4), 1341–1362. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/89.4.1341 schimmel, j. (2009). development as happiness: the subjective perception of happiness and undp’s analysis of poverty, wealth and development. journal of happiness studies, 10(1), 93–111. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-007-9063-4 seligman, m.e.p. (2002). authentic happiness. new york: free press. shanock, l.r., & eisenberger, r. (2006). when supervisors feel supported: the relationship with subordinates’ perceived supervisor support, perceived organisational support and performance. journal of applied psychology, 91, 689–695. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.3.689 sloan, m.m., evenson-newhouse, r.j., & thompson, a.b. (2013). counting on co-workers: race, social support and emotional experiences on the job. social psychology quarterly, 76, 343–372. https://doi.org/10.1177/0190272513504937 sonnentag, s. (2003). recovery, work engagement, and proactive behavior: a new look at the interface between non-work and work. journal of applied psychology, 88(3), 518–528. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.3.518 spreitzer, g. (1995). psychological empowerment in the workplace: dimensions, measurement and validation. academy of management journal, 38(5), 1442–1465. https://doi.org/10.2307/256865 spss inc. (2013). spss statistics for windows, version 22.00. chicago, il: spss inc. stack, s., & eshleman, j.r. (1998). marital status and happiness: a 17-nation study. journal of marriage and the family, 60, 527–536. https://doi.org/10.2307/353867 steger, m., oishi, s., & kashdan, t. (2009). meaning in life across the life span: levels and correlates of meaning in life from emerging adulthood to older adulthood. the journal of positive psychology, 4(1), 43–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760802303127 steyl, b., & koekemoer, e. (2011). conflict between work and non-work roles of employees in the mining industry: prevalence and differences between demographic groups. south african journal of human resource management, 9(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.277 takawira, n. (2012). job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention of staff in a higher education institution. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of south africa, pretoria. thomas, l., & ganster, d. (1995). the impact of family supportive work variables on work-family conflict and strain: a control perspective. journal of applied psychology, 80, 6–5. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.80.1.6 triandis, h.c. (1989). the self and social behaviour in differing cultural contexts. psychological review, 96, 506–520. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.96.3.506 van zyl, l., deacon, e., & rothmann, s. (2010). towards happiness: experiences of work-role fit, meaningfulness and work engagement of industrial/organisational psychologists in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 10–20. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.890 veenhoven, r. (1991). is happiness relative? social indicators research, 24(1), 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00292648 voydanoff, p. (2004). the effects of work demand and resources on work-to-family conflict and facilitation. journal of marriage and family, 66(2), 398–412. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2004.00028.x wegner, t. (2007). applied business statistics: method and excel-based applications. (2nd edn.). cape town, south africa: juta. williamson, j.c., & geldenhuys, m. (2014). positive work experiences and life satisfaction: the moderating effect of gender. journal of psychology in africa, 24, 315–320. wolf, s. (2012). meaning in life and why it matters. princeton, nj: princeton university press. abstract introduction method findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) claude-hélène mayer department of management, rhodes university, south africa christian m. boness department of management, rhodes university, south africa lynette louw department of management, rhodes university, south africa citation mayer, c-h., boness, c.m., & louw, l. (2017). perceptions of chinese and tanzanian employees regarding intercultural collaboration. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a921. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.921 original research perceptions of chinese and tanzanian employees regarding intercultural collaboration claude-hélène mayer, christian m. boness, lynette louw received: 27 feb. 2017; accepted: 17 aug. 2017; published: 09 oct. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: chinese organisations have a long tradition of operating in tanzania, and even today, tanzania is the gateway for chinese interests entering sub-saharan markets. research purpose: the purpose of this article was to explore and understand the perceptions of chinese and tanzanian employees working in a private chinese organisation in tanzania. motivation for the study: the authors would like to contribute to the discourse on chinese and tanzanian collaboration in southern africa to improve context-based intercultural collaboration from a human resource management perspective. research design, approach and method: the study used a case study approach within a hermeneutical research paradigm. data were collected through semi-structured interviews and observation in a selected private chinese organisation. data were analysed by content analysis using terre blanche’s five-step model of content analysis. main findings: the findings show that intercultural collaboration is a challenge for both chinese and tanzanian employees. chinese employees share a mostly positive view of their organisation, while tanzanians tend to be more critical. members of both groups, however, feel that intercultural collaboration could improve if members of ‘the other group’ made recommended changes. despite this, both groups adhere to their perceptions of ‘the other’ and maintain a favourable view of the self. practical/managerial implications: chinese organisations need to create opportunities for the improvement of intercultural collaboration by reflecting on the self and ‘the other’ in terms of understanding thought styles, experiences, knowledge, and the impact of cultural values on collaboration behaviour. as such, cultural knowledge-sharing might contribute to a sustainable long-term intercultural collaboration. contribution: the study contributes to filling the gap of in-depth qualitative research on perceptions of chinese and tanzanian intercultural collaboration between employees in the field of human resource management in africa. introduction china’s impact and role in the development of countries in africa, primarily through foreign direct investments and grants to governments, has increased in the past decade. for instance, the total value of trade between china and africa was usd198.5 billion in 2012, increasing to usd385bn in 2015 (african economic outlook, 2014, p. 76). a growing number of chinese private and governmental organisations are investing in southern africa. in tanzanian contexts, this leads to a close collaboration of chinese and tanzanian employees (african economic outlook, 2014). these collaborations in chinese organisations in tanzania lead to intercultural communication situations and to new intercultural experiences and perceptions. as a result of globalisation, intercultural collaboration has become extremely prevalent during the past decades and research has emphasised that employees in intercultural work situations are often challenged by intercultural collaboration (hinds, liu & lyon, 2011). it has been highlighted that the potential for conflict increases in intercultural work situations (mayer & boness, 2011; mayer & louw, 2012) and that having a dynamic and contextualised view of culture can support an improved understanding of the perceptions in intercultural collaboration (hinds et al., 2011). culture, in this case, is viewed as a group phenomenon which is defined primarily by values, norms and basic assumptions (rosinski, 2011) and which impacts strongly on the collaboration between members of different cultural groups (mayer, 2011). the latest research has shown that values differ recognisably across chinese and sub-saharan african cultures (matondo, 2012), and it can be assumed that these value differences create differences in perception and challenges in intercultural collaboration. purpose with little systematic empirical research and information currently available, a research void exists regarding chinese–tanzanian employee collaboration and employees’ perceptions of this intercultural collaboration. this article aims to contribute to filling this void through qualitative in-depth research and by exploring perceptions of chinese and tanzanian employees working in a private chinese information technology (it) organisation in dar-es-salaam, tanzania. the principal aim of this research study is to explore and understand the mutual perceptions of chinese and tanzanian employees in intercultural collaboration in a selected chinese organisation in tanzania. the main research question based on this primary aim is therefore: ‘how do chinese and tanzanian employees perceive their intercultural collaboration in a private chinese it organisation?’ literature review contextual insights into chinese–tanzanian collaboration ‘africa needs a market for its products. africa needs technology for its development. china is ready to provide all that. what is wrong with that?’ (majani, 2013, n.p.) as this quotation suggests, the relationship between china and africa – in this case, tanzania – is a contentious issue. tanzania is looking back at a long intercultural history of chinese business and close intercultural collaboration of chinese and tanzanian traders and entrepreneurs reaching back to the 15th century. the first contacts between tanzanian and chinese people occurred approximately 100 years before the first europeans reached the region (curtis, 2015). the beginning of the modern era of chinese contributions to the region started in the 1970s with the railway having been built from 1970 to 1975 (tanzanian-zambia railway authority, 2017). according to bräutigam (2009, p. 40), chinese workers built the longest railway in africa stretching from the harbour of dar-es-salaam to the copper mine fields of zambia. after china awoke from its cultural revolution, it engaged into a south–south trade with african countries. china’s interest was based on its idea that china itself was a developing country with a similar structure to the majority of african countries, and chinese investors felt that they knew how to operate in african countries (bräutigam, 2009). in tanzania, characteristics of chinese aid and trade became visible in the 1980s: in tanzania the chinese signed an agreement to renovate more than sixty former aid projects. hydropower stations built earlier under chinese aid … received complete overhauls. chinese officials complained mildly that it was more complicated than new construction, but they persisted. being responsible to the end became a new slogan for aid. (bräutigam, 2009, p. 57) apart from this new slogan, the chinese strategy also included the principle of not interfering in internal affairs, but helping countries to build self-reliance (bräutigam, 2009, p. 57). managing chinese organisations in african countries through intercultural collaboration numerous research studies have focused on intercultural collaboration as well as on intercultural conflict management and negotiation in intercultural and international management cooperation (de klerk & kroon, 2007; harris, brewster & sparrow, 2006; hinds et al., 2011; pillay, 2008; sycara, gelfand & abbe, 2013). management research in african countries and tanzania has evolved during the past decades, focusing on challenges of intercultural collaboration (george, khayesi & haas, 2016; kamoche, 2002; kamoche, debra, horwitz & muuka, 2004; mayer, 2008, 2011). this is also true for chinese management contexts, highlighting that chinese organisations have recognised the importance of an interculturally competent workforce within the global economy. however, the intercultural collaboration competence of employees still needs to improve to work sustainably in international collaboration (koehn, 2007). managing people in african countries requires a multifaceted knowledge of historical, socio-economic and political complexities (jackson, 2004; luiz, 2006). it also needs to take cultural and work values, motivation, communication and human interaction into account (king, kruger & pretorius, 2007). cultural management philosophies such as ubuntu (luchien & honorine, 2005) and organisational change need to be addressed (hart, 2002). globalisation, socio-economic and political changes within sub-saharan africa have led to an increase in intercultural collaboration, international business collaboration, communication and conflict management (van der nest, 2004). often, management in africa has been perceived (at least from an outside and intercultural perspective) as a challenge with high conflict potential resulting from the administrative organisation, political instability, personal security, lack of business confidence, transparency and difficult labour relations (humphreys & bates, 2005). this article focuses primarily on the exploration of perceptions on intercultural collaboration between chinese and tanzanian employees. in the past, intercultural collaboration has ‘often been achieved through the domination of one culture by the other’ (graen, hui & gu, 2004, p. 225), however, this approach has been proven to be dysfunctional and inadequate. successful, effective and long-term intercultural collaboration needs to take into account the perceptions of the collaboration of the people themselves, and it needs to take the system-level approach in terms of organisational structures into account (graen et al., 2004). cultural aspects also need to be considered to develop effective intercultural collaboration (trompenaars & asser, 2010) and to understand how individuals think, behave and form their attitudes (mayer, 2008; zait & spalanzani, 2009). the perceptions of chinese and tanzanian employees working in chinese organisations in tanzanian contexts have hardly been considered in the context of intercultural collaboration (mayer, 2013). recently, research in different african countries has emphasised that in africa–china joint ventures across 12 african countries, african partners use informal, even ‘clandestine’ mechanisms to manage cultural differences in order to gain knowledge (ado, su & wanjiru, 2016), while other research sees a huge potential in bridging cultural differences through the philosophies of ubuntu and confucius (nyambegera, kamoche & siebers, 2016). these authors emphasise major challenges in chinese–african collaboration with regard to work attitudes, trust, the importance of work and what aspects of work employees place value on. chinese enterprises have been criticised for their exploitative and abusive human resource management practices. however, it seems that cultural differences with regard to recruitment, relationship-building, authority, sanctions and incentives, reciprocity, social roles and symbolic significances seem frequently ignored (giese, 2013). qualitative research is needed to explore the cultural differences in-depth. intercultural misunderstandings, which guide individual attitudes and behaviour, can cause international business failures and insensitivities in chinese human resource management when addressing issues such as hiring, promotion, reward systems and dismissal in african contexts (nyambegera et al., 2016). in an attempt to address some of these misunderstandings, the research at hand explores perceptions of chinese and tanzanian employees in a specific chinese–african context. method research approach this study uses a phenomenological (hermeneutic) research approach (gummesson, 2000) while adopting an explorative and descriptive research methodology by using a social constructivist perspective (collis & hussey, 2003). research strategy this research project focuses on a large-scale organisation operating internationally as a private chinese organisation. it is based on the sector of it, and its products are telecommunications equipment and networking equipment. the ownership is completely chinese. the organisation employed approximately 160 people in the tanzanian branch at the time this research was undertaken. for this study, convenience and snowball sampling in the organisation was used. altogether 16 interviewees were willing to participate voluntarily in the research project. of these, 6 were women and 10 were men; 6 were chinese, 9 were tanzanian and 1 person was zambian. two interviewees had worked less than 1 year in the organisation, while the remaining interviewees had worked there for more than 1 year. research design data were collected by conducting semi-structured interviews and by observations made. the semi-structured interviews were conducted face-to-face and ranged from 30 mm to 90 min in length. the interviews were conducted in english, kiswahili or chinese (mandarin), according to the language abilities of the interviewees. the research team consisted of one tanzanian, one chinese–tanzanian and two german researchers who were able to conduct the interviews in the three languages without using external translators. all of the researchers were familiar with the tanzanian cultural environment. the interview questions focused on the organisation, its contextual environment and organisational culture, as well as on the collaboration between chinese and tanzanian employees within the organisation. the notes from the observations were used to interpret the statements in the interviews. the semi-structured interview questions were developed following an extensive literature review. some examples of the questions are as follows: please talk about your perceptions of collaboration with regard to intercultural work collaboration between chinese and tanzanian employees. how do you experience the collaboration between chinese and tanzanian employees within the organisation? what do you enjoy about working for the organisation? what do you experiences as challenging in the collaboration and within the organisation? data were transcribed verbatim and were stored according to the ethical guidelines. the data were also transferred back to the participating organisation and employees. the analysis was based on the five-step process of content analysis described by terre blanche, durrheim and kelly (2006, pp. 322–326). the five steps of content analysis used in the data analysis process were: familiarisation and immersion, inducing themes, coding, elaboration, and finally interpretation and checking. data generated from observation contributed to the interpretation of information and are implicitly included in the findings and interpretation of the research. inter-validation processes among the research team members were also used (yin, 2009, p. 45). qualitative research criteria (gummesson, 2000, p. 157) were applied in the study, namely credibility, transferability, trustworthiness and confirmability (mayer, 2011). the transparent description of this research leads to credibility, as well as to the transferability and trustworthiness of the research (creswell, 2003). findings the biographical information shows the characteristics of the interviewees in terms of their position in the organisation, their nationality and mother tongue, their age, sex and duration of work time in the organisation (table 1). table 1: biographical data. the following section presents the findings regarding various perceptions of tanzanian and chinese employee collaboration. perceptions of tanzanian and chinese employees in intercultural work encounters it was found that, when asking chinese and tanzanian employees about their perceptions of intercultural collaboration, the following themes arose: strategy structure and decision-making management styles employment qualification and training knowledge-sharing motivation and incentives working conditions and atmosphere environment community, government and trade unions. the perceptions of tanzanian employees strategy a tanzanian employee (14 h-m) provides a short explanation of the organisation’s strategy: the long-term strategy i can say is to be the best ict solution provider in the country. that is how i can summarise it. (participant 14, network solution designer, tanzanian male, 35 years) for the tanzanian interviewees, the main strategic goal is clear: to become number one in the field of it. however, most of the tanzanian interviewees were unclear about the strategic outline of the organisation. they feel that their job descriptions are vague and that they are not included in the organisation’s strategic planning. structure and decision-making a tanzanian employee (5 h-e) spoke about decisions in the organisation and how they are handled: sometimes they do inform us, but sometimes they just pass the decision on. you just find out that decisions are already made, so i just have to obey. (participant 5, cso department employee, tanzanian female, 30 years) tanzanian employees believe that, in this organisation, the bosses are ‘at the top’ and supervisors take care of employees at different levels; this portrays a rigid organisational structure. tanzanian employees do not participate in decision-making. the tanzanian employee quoted above found that decisions are most often taken without being communicated. employees do not participate in decision-making and must obey. other tanzanian employees emphasised that there are no open discussions about decisions among the employees. they even think that employees are not consulted on any decision-making issues. however, chinese management seems to follow an increasingly localised focus which they believe will improve their international operations as they grow more accustomed to their external working environment. management styles a tanzanian employee (16 h-e) working on lower management level states: if a chinese comes to you, and ask for something and you tell that person then i’m not supposed to give you this … because you have to get an approval from my supervisor if you can get this thing or this item that you want. there are some stuff that you just don’t give away. you have to get an approval first and then he or she shouts at you or like, ‘who do you think you are?’ ‘who do you think you are in this organisation?’ something like that … yah! it happens. (participant 16, administrative assistant, tanzanian female, 30 years) this tanzanian employee mainly perceives the chinese as working according to formal bureaucratic rules, which are not transparent to her. she perceives a communication style of shouting and offensive behaviour, which she does not appreciate. other tanzanian employees see top management as being strongly focused on results rather than being people-orientated. it is also believed that the management style combines chinese and western values and that these styles are interlinked. although it is perceived that the organisation has a very autocratic management style with the main focus on work, tanzanian employees experience some support from the organisation to its staff members, although somewhat less than desired. employment the impression of this tanzanian employee (7 h-e) shows a changing ratio between chinese and tanzanian employees: from their side they’ll take advantage of, maybe bring in some more maybe whether chinese whatever they, they bring that, to cover that position. but in, in fact it doesn’t mean that we are not capable of doing that. even sometimes even within the position we are, we are just performing like we are, we are, we are letting days to be numbered while we are looking for some better, maybe ways. (participant 7, project managers, tanzanian male, 35 years) the interviewee seems to be disappointed that positions which could be filled by tanzanians are occupied by the chinese workforce. several tanzanian employees believe that there is an unequal distribution of workers in terms of cultural origin. there is a ratio of approximately 60 chinese to 40 tanzanians employed in the organisation. tanzanians expect the ratio to be equalised. a tanzanian employee (15 h-m) perceived the employment policy of the chinese hr management as disempowering tanzanians: you know they are not employing, they are not employing. for example, this year, last year i didn’t see any person but what they do, if for example local staff leave the organisation they just bring chinese and you just see chinese coming, that you understand. so, they are not employing. (participant 15, spare parts managers, tanzanian male, 35 years) this employee argued against the objective figures of employment in the organisation. he only sees chinese coming to fill the positions which he might have assumed were to be filled by tanzanian workers. obviously, a high fluctuation of employees is also observed by other tanzanian employees. this constant movement results in less room for interpersonal relations, leading to the opinion that hr policies are not clear. additionally, chinese ‘foreigners’ are given more learning opportunities than tanzanians. qualification and training a tanzanian employee (13 h-e) offered quite a positive statement about the issue of qualification and training: … most of them is online training. yes we have online training and before i came here i had training and then after i trained i had an exam and then after the exam you get a score, yes it is something like that we have. (participant 13, health and safety agent manager, tanzanian female, 30 years) while the organisation has a good training system in which employees are trained to deal with new technologies, it addresses qualification gaps by providing on-the-job training. however, the majority of tanzanian employees judge the level of qualification in the organisation as low. employees are not well trained and lack basic knowledge. tanzanian employees feel that the online training platform is helpful, but that the online training, skills and the expertise gained are limited. as a result, the organisation prefers to employ chinese employees at top-level management who are, according to chinese perception, more skilled than tanzanian employees. knowledge-sharing in terms of knowledge-sharing, a tanzanian employee (15 h-m) commented: support is there, but not one hundred per cent …you know here in ‘go away’ we have learnt many things. you can be given a job, someone can come and tell you: ‘do this’ but i have never done it. i tell him, ‘i don’t know; no just learn from others, ask your friends’. my supervisors don’t have time to teach me and they say ‘here nobody can teach you, you have to teach yourself. if you don’t know then find the one who can’. so we found that we don’t have much support from chinese. (participant 15, spare parts managers, tanzanian male, 35 years) tanzanian employees experience a lack of knowledge-sharing within the organisation. tanzanian interviewees find that the chinese seem to segregate themselves and do not particularly interact with tanzanian employees, causing an information barrier and less transparency. because there are no new employment or career opportunities available, this tends to put a limit on knowledge-sharing as there is hardly any motivation to share knowledge. supervisors do not teach employees, and the employees end up seeking knowledge from external sources around the country and beyond. motivation and incentives regarding the system of rewards, a tanzanian employee (3 h-m) stated: we also have incentives like if you are working on a particular project and you deliver it successfully you are given an incentive for working on that project and that is like as and when the project matures; whereas with the bonuses and annual thing the incentive award comes out when the project matures. yeah so there is all of those freebies or all of those goodies that are thrown into the whole compensation and benefit package that tend to be quite attractive. so with those incentives i think people are driven to work harder because they know if i deliver on x i am going to get said; so it is pure and simple. (participant 3, hr managers, zambian female, 35 years) this tanzanian employee finds the reward system attractive, because it could encourage the workers to work harder. however, the opinions of tanzanians on this topic vary greatly. regarding rewards and benefits, some tanzanians think that rewards should be available equally to all employees. there is induction training which is useful in that employees are trained timeously with new technologies. education and numerous training platforms exist, from on-the-job (face-to-face) training to online training. other tanzanians stated that the reward system in this organisation is performance-based, where the employer and employee agree on certain targets to be met within a given time frame. reviews are then done at the end of that period, after which bonuses and remuneration elements are worked out. the tanzanian view is that, although this may be productive for the organisation, it also may be used as a ‘trick’ to control wages. tanzanians prefer a fixed salary for permanent workers, with a bonus-related scheme for exceptional work performance. working conditions and atmosphere a tanzanian employee (5 h-m) noted that the working conditions are often affected by the language barriers: you need to be patient because chinese people, they panic. it is because sometimes, they have to understand english, and they understand chinese only. so if you are speaking and they don’t know what you are speaking about, just be patient. [laughter]. (participant 5, cso department employee, tanzanian female, 30 years) in addition to language problems which may affect communication fundamentally, other difficult aspects of the work environment were also mentioned by tanzanian employees. some tanzanians place particularly high value on interpersonal relations. however, the atmosphere in this private chinese organisation allows very little room for interpersonal relations; chinese employees seem to be more work-orientated and less relations-based. in the organisation, it is evident that there is a general norm of chinese employees to display in-group behaviour and have less personal interaction with local employees. tanzanians attribute this to the high mobility and turnover rates of chinese employees, preventing the establishment of strong relationships. language barriers with regard to documents are also perceived as impeding the development of sound interpersonal relations. as a tanzanian employee (16 h-m) observed: … we all understand each other. but sometimes (sigh) sometimes you might be given a document to sign, which is written in chinese. so, you don’t know what is there but you’re just told, ‘sign!’ (participant 16, administrative assistant, tanzanian female, 30 years) some tanzanian employees believe that there is an overemphasis on work as the chinese employees often ‘overwork’. chinese tend to expect more from tanzanians than the average job description entails. tanzanians are aware of high cultural barriers that exist between the cultures. thus, integration within the organisation becomes difficult and requires a great deal of effort. it is observed that supervisors do not teach local tanzanian employees and the employees often end up seeking knowledge from external sources around the country and beyond. this results in a counterproductive work environment, which is characterised by a lack of information transparency. environment community, government and trade unions a tanzanian employee (5 h-e) was convinced of the benefits of hardworking chinese employees in africa: they are very hardworking people. when they mean to do something, finish something, they mean it. they work day and night sometimes just to make sure that thing is done. or if there are other projects we need to win, they really work hard. they make africa go up in terms of technology issues. we are going high in technology because of them. (participant 5, cso department employee, tanzanian female, 30 years) this tanzanian employee sees his chinese counterparts as highly competitive in their working ethics and behaviour. with this in mind, africa as a continent would benefit technologically from chinese–tanzanian collaboration. other tanzanian employees appreciate the supporting of schools and various projects and initiatives in the community by the chinese. the chinese also interact with the local businesses as they purchase goods and services from other local firms. the presence of the chinese is seen as beneficial to the community, as evidenced in the increase in employment opportunities for local businesses. tanzanians also feel that the chinese play an important role in helping local entrepreneurs gain more experience in their field of work. the perceptions of chinese employees strategy a chinese employee (1 h-m) underlined the organisation’s strategy with following words: so our mission is wanting to enrich the communication between the people we want to, how do you say, to reduce the gap between the people especially for africa. i am talking about our mission in africa obvious especially for our developers in europe and america; they have already finished the job but for africa we want to bring the good solution with a reasonable price to the people here. (participant 1, deputy managing director, chinese male, 35 years) this leading chinese employee obviously saw the organisation’s strategy as pan-african: enriching communication between people at a reasonable price. the majority of chinese employees understood the organisation’s strategy as forming connectivity and solid relationships in africa. the main focus in the organisation, as highlighted by chinese employees, was on achieving a high level of teamwork, efficiency and a sense of responsibility. support is provided to everyone, and avoidance of risk is emphasised. chinese employees believed that through the implementation of this strategy, the organisation could become a key driver in the industry, as well as being able to introduce the best it solutions to the customer. structure and decision-making the structure of the organisation was described by a chinese top manager (12 h-m): yes, in this organisation we have the md, managing director and we have director of finance, me, and director and technical delivery and there is directors for key accounts and we have the main customers system like airtel and … it’s the business directors, one md and me finance director and technical and service and delivery director and four directors for each different business and we all report to the md all of us. i think when we have a business we have marketing strategy and we have our principles and some projects for maybe senior level should obey our mother organisation from china and the md has a certain level of authority a certain amount but the amount is bigger to high levels and regional and headquarters. (participant 12, director of finance, chinese male, 16 years) the interviewee explained the strict hierarchies regarding reporting structures to the chinese headquarters. regarding decision-making and participation, other chinese interviewees mentioned centralised management through headquarters and strict decision-making. there is also an awareness of the organisation’s hierarchical, bureaucratic and/or paternalistic structure, together with a strong sense of obedience to headquarters. however, some chinese believed that there is a sense of regional independence and that chinese agents should be employed. it was highlighted that the organisation ensures that all employees have highly compatible values and are aware of the main customer systems. management styles a chinese manager outlined two different culture styles of management for communicating with subordinates (12 h-m): i think it is some way, you know we chinese sometimes if i didn’t do work md he can shout at me but we seldom shout at the local staff, you know for me i am ok, it’s our way of making us work better but if we do the same thing to local staff they may think something different but to us there is no problem. what i mean is that something of ways of communication between our supervisor and management, he might be using a more straight and tough way and press me to do better, but with local staff we think more about their culture and language and which local staff we accept. the first is being said is that our management first level we should obey the laws and another is that between the suggestion of our staff between the local and the chinese and the third thing is that the organisation’s headquarters give us the regulation they say the way should be the balances between the suggestions of the local staff and regulation of headquarters, i think everything local wants first and then the second and third the management will balance. we are more open, our origin for our organisation is a culture to work hard and work more, but to the local we will give them stuff if you want the balances between work and life, you want more leisure time between your family, your family issues we give you a choice but you lose opportunities to be promoted to higher levels because it now depends on you. (participant 12, director of finance, chinese male, 16 years) the chinese interviewee shed some light on the communication style of top management in terms of adopting an eastern (as opposed to western) management style when communicating with fellow chinese. however, when relating to members of the tanzanian culture, the communication changes. according to the interviewee quoted above, the management style encompasses aspects of both chinese and tanzanian culture amalgamated into one complex management style. it seems to be preferable for chinese management to apply a centralised approach to their chinese-based headquarter operations, and a decentralised approach to management and supervisory roles, in which the objectives and goals set by higher management levels in other regions are carried out. however, some chinese think that this systematic approach could create uncertainty in management because managerial roles may vary greatly depending on the subjectivity of the working environments. with a high standard of discipline in compliance with the chinese culture, managers have set goals to work towards as performance-based indicators are adopted for incentive purposes. a high level of cultural respect expands further into their international operations. subsequently the chinese will adopt separate management systems for their local and chinese employees in order to accommodate the local cultural aspects of their working environments. other chinese employees stated that the overall managerial methods of the private chinese organisation are compatible with the tanzanian environment as the organisation uses an international style of management that is intercultural. employment a top chinese employee (1 h-m) commented: if you think about the total amount, it is sixty-five per cent local. almost all the local people are in the support team. in the sales team, we have three or four people who local staff from here in tanzania. so in total it is sixty-five per cent … now most of the chinese people are working in sales, and most of the chinese people stay in the sales team. it is because, for telecommunication, you need education. unfortunately, the ict people in tanzania still need some training for it. (participant 1, deputy managing director, chinese male, 35 years) the interviewee connects a lack of local employment in the sales team with a lack of education. with regard to the ratio of chinese to tanzanian employees in the organisation, all interviewed employees agreed that there were more local tanzanian than chinese employees, although the actual numbers given differed slightly between interviewees. overall, the employees agreed that there was an uneven spread of employees in favour of locals. a chinese employee (1 h-m) put the issue of employment opportunities like this: in our organisation, the employment depends on our business. if the business is going good, we hire more people. in 2007, our business hire many local people from the southern side of tanzania. we had huge projects and one of those project was in zambia. now we have only about a hundred and twenty projects. so the new positions really depend on the business. if we find loss in this project, we will need a lot of people to hire. so if we have a new customer coming out, we need a new accounting manager. so that is how new positions come in the organisation. (participant 1, deputy managing director, chinese, male, 35 years) obviously, employment opportunities are tightly connected to the volatile business situation in the respective countries, focusing on the demand side of business. other chinese employees were convinced that there are broad training opportunities available to all employees and underline the supply side; these opportunities were understood to be extremely skill-based which would grow the organisation into an expansionary position. qualification and training a chinese employee (6 h-m) observed: let me think, there are two kinds of support i get. firstly, i get enough materials and resources to do my research and a local internet network where i can search the organisation’s internet website to get as many things as i need to carry on with the research. secondly, i get some training from this research project and when i am doing business, i will have people who have taught me and will eventually support my business. (participant 6, pre-sales engineer, chinese male, 35 years) this chinese employee showed his full satisfaction with support and training received from the organisation. in order to increase the levels of qualification, chinese and tanzanian employees were offered the opportunity to register for a master’s degree in computer science and engineering. the beneficiaries of this offer of qualification and training are most likely to be the less-skilled labour force of tanzania. knowledge-sharing a chinese employee (11 h-m) discussed knowledge-sharing in terms of using the in-house e-database which is accessible to everyone: we have a very open e-learning platform we can call it an office system where we have e-learning platform which carries all types of knowledge and we have a system … and you can find any information you want which is related to your work. this is [our organisation] and what we did all the information from different countries and project experience or specific technology training material everything we share it in one database and one platform. any staff can use their id and just log in the office platform … chinese and local staff are very open in communication and they work together very closely. (participant 11, public relations manager, chinese male, 40 years) according to some other chinese interviewees, tanzanians do not participate in knowledge-sharing. they felt that the organisation is not cross-cultural because of this; however, other interviewees believed that there are good cultural exchanges in the organisation. information transparency and sharing was also encouraged through weekly meetings with the employees. chinese employees were convinced that they strive to help local entrepreneurs to gain experience and knowledge through exchange of ideas. motivation and incentives in the words of a chinese employee (10 h-m), salaries and promotion are the main triggers for a highly motivated commitment at work: motivation of course by increasing the salaries and higher positions for every employee in the organisation, they have to pass, from engineer to project manager and to the fr they have fulfilment responsibility and also maybe to the representative of the office and even to the region office. so they can go and follow the schedule and pass the exam then they can get a promotion. (participant 10, product manager, chinese male, 35 years) the organisation offers broad training opportunities with governmental support which ensures that sufficient training of new employees occurs, all leading to increased monetary and promotional rewards and performance-related pay, as confirmed by numerous chinese interviewees. all motivational systems, including the efficiency of management, contribute to the working conditions and atmosphere of the organisation. chinese interviewees also described the good motivational structures, which are in place such as performance-related pay (bonuses), needs-based incentives and monetary and promotional rewards. in addition, they noted that employees are given 28 days of annual leave. working conditions and atmosphere a chinese employee (2 h-m) explained how he socialises during work time and after work: i stay most of the time with chinese people. work time, i spend my work time with the locals and chinese people. and in my spent time, i stay with my chinese colleagues, because we are new in this area. most of us are single even though we are married, but our families are in china, but we stay together. (participant 2, product manager, chinese male, 40 years) this employee reflects on his family ties and the loss of his family members owing to his appointment to work in tanzania. the organisation’s working conditions and environment are described by some chinese interviewees as being like a family, which creates a pleasant atmosphere with a strong cross-cultural aspect. tanzanian employees also appear to like working in the organisation. environment, community, government and trade unions a chinese employee (6 h-e) stated: two months ago, mr chi the founder came to tanzania and we came tanzania’s private organisation. there is also a lot of companies that come from china and move to tanzania. therefore, i think china and tanzania is developing a very good relationship and also there are a lot of business opportunities here in tanzania, and it is for the good of two countries. and it is good for me to work here. (participant 6, pre-sales manager, chinese male, 35 years) likewise, other chinese employees believe that china and tanzania have a very good international partnership. the chinese see many opportunities because tanzania’s foreign policy is very open to foreigners and the country provides a safe environment for its visitors. as a result, there are many chinese companies in tanzania, and it is seen as a place with many business opportunities. it was emphasised that the relationship with the tanzanian government is good, as they have had a history of strong, positive relations. employees mentioned that only 30 years ago, china was almost at the same level of development as tanzania. therefore, the chinese find such an environment familiar. currently, the chinese perceive only infrastructural problems in tanzania in that the country’s technology is seen as inferior to china’s. in turn this leads to poor networking within the country. there were no clear views expressed by chinese interviewees on the existence and function of tanzanian trade unions, or how unions might affect the work in the organisation. the chinese organisation has created 200 local jobs and donated 3000 sports uniforms to schools in the community; corporate social responsibility is contributing to a sustainable environment. however, widespread corruption could impact on chinese activities in tanzania. the chinese interviewees observed that chinese people are not aware of many issues affecting africa, especially such factors as disease and war. however, these difficulties can be outweighed by the beauty of many african locations such as lake victoria and zanzibar. how could perceptions and conflicting intercultural collaboration be improved? both tanzanian and chinese employees in the chinese organisation shared ideas and opinions regarding ways in which the conflicting intercultural collaboration could improve. tanzanian ideas for future collaboration with the chinese included suggestions that chinese employees should improve their knowledge regarding intercultural lifestyles: use english and swahili language to make friends collect information about tanzanian history of the last 100 years know tanzanian lifestyle, tribal culture, dressing and food habits respect tanzanians recognise that most tanzanians believe in god take care of nature. in the perception of the chinese employees, tanzanians should learn to: understand chinese culture, basic language and history acknowledge that chinese feel pressure notice how chinese save their salaries accept that chinese do not believe in god, have no churches appreciate that chinese are helpful strive for sound planning, goal achievement, efficiency keep to deadlines follow the truth and be honest respect han culture’s principles: fast, hardworking, high technology, work for 16 h a day see ‘chinese culture as a big ball that spins and absorbs from all other cultures, mixing them with chinese culture until it is like one chinese culture’. interestingly, both, tanzanian and chinese employees provided future-directed ideas about what members of the ‘other’ group of employees could do to increase positive and constructive intercultural collaboration. however, neither group made reference to what they could themselves do to improve intercultural collaboration. all participants felt that their reference group was behaving in the correct manner. ethical considerations the research study followed clearly defined research ethics. informed consent was provided in writing by the organisation, as well as orally by all the voluntarily participating interviewees. participants were assured of research ethics, including anonymity, confidentiality and the freedom to withdraw at any time during the research process. ethical approval for the research was provided by rhodes university in grahamstown, south africa. discussion findings support the view of kikwete (majani, 2013) that chinese and tanzanian employees see their collaboration as a mutual and beneficial business collaboration which dates back in the history (as described in curtis, 2015) and is built on strong intercultural interaction within the south–south trading collaboration (see bräutigam, 2009). however, both chinese and tanzanian employees see the collaboration as challenging to a certain degree (as emphasised in bräutigam, 2009). the findings of the current study support bräutigam’s viewpoint (2009) that chinese employees have a certain understanding of tanzanian employees and of the structures and challenges they experience in terms of intercultural collaboration, while aiming to build self-reliance (bräutigam, 2009). the findings show that managing people in african countries requires multifaceted knowledge (jackson, 2004; luiz, 2006) regarding cultural and value concepts of work, (king et al., 2007), references to tanzanian philosophies of management such as ubuntu (luchien & honorine, 2005), as well as the understanding of recent changes at different societal and organisational levels (hart, 2002). culture-specific understanding is needed to cooperate effectively and to manage challenges around administrative organisation, political instability, personal security, lack of business confidence, transparency and difficult labour relations, as described by humphreys and bates (2005). findings of our study support findings of previous research and highlight that challenges occur in intercultural collaboration regarding strategy, structure and decision-making, management styles, ratio of chinese to tanzanian employees, qualification and training, employment opportunities, knowledge-sharing, motivation and incentives, working conditions and atmosphere, as well as challenges in terms of the environment, the community, government and trade unions. this study also shows that tanzanian employees struggle to gain knowledge from the chinese employees (as noted in ado et al., 2016). the research emphasises that an empathetic approach in intercultural collaboration is needed from all parties on a micro level, as well as on a systemic organisational management level (graen et al., 2004) to ensure successful and effective collaboration in which all parties act on an equal footing (graen et al., 2004). this study shows further that intercultural collaboration is influenced by the national culture surrounding the organisation, by the organisational culture itself and by the perceptions of individuals acting within the systems (trompenaars & asser, 2010). in particular, the perceptions of chinese and tanzanian employees on how the intercultural collaboration can be improved shows that participants in this research are influenced by their cultural background in terms of their cognition, their attitudes and their behaviour and actions (see also mayer, 2008; zait & spalanzani, 2009). participants show solidarity with employees who belong to their own cultural group (rosinski, 2011), while expecting members of the other cultural group to move towards improving the intercultural collaboration and relationships. this shows that intercultural collaboration within the organisation can still be improved, towards a more equal and understanding work partnership. as suggested in previous research, african and chinese philosophies could support management practices and bridge cultural differences (nyambegera et al., 2016). this is supported by the current findings, in which members of both groups suggest learning about the other group’s philosophies to broaden perceptions of ‘the other’. this study finally highlights the need for more research with regard to chinese–tanzanian collaborations and thereby supports the conclusions of mayer (2013) and mayer and louw (2011). limitations this research study is limited to a single case study and only takes into account the 16 interviewees who agreed to participate in the project voluntarily. the study is, therefore, not generalisable in quantitative terms, but contributes to an increase of qualitative, in-depth knowledge on intercultural work relationships and perceptions. implications for theory and practice the findings show that intercultural collaboration is a challenge for both chinese and tanzanian employees in the selected private chinese organisation. referring to the main research aim, it was found that chinese employees share a mostly positive view of their organisation, while tanzanians are generally more critical of the organisation. challenging intercultural collaboration is perceived in the contexts of strategy, structure and decision-making, management styles, employment, qualification and training, knowledge-sharing, motivation and incentives, working conditions and atmosphere, as well as the environment, the community, government and trade unions. these areas of perceived cultural differences and challenges provide in-depth information and at the same can be regarded as guidelines for theoretical and practical implications. future human resource management research should, if possible, focus on intercultural collaboration by using a positive psychology or positive organisational perspective, focusing on what works best in chinese–tanzanian collaboration in different organisational contexts and industry sectors. the best approach would be to use mixed method studies for further investigation, taking intercultural collaboration on all levels into account. on a practical level, employees in chinese organisations should be trained in the basics of intercultural collaboration to improve the understanding of the self and the other within the organisation, to reflect on stereotypes and prejudices and to improve the understanding of thought styles, experience, knowledge and basic cultural values and concepts. the human resource officer within the organisation should make use of cultural diversity programmes in the workplace to enhance mutual cultural awareness and understanding among employees. furthermore, chinese organisations could be more open to making use of intercultural training with external facilitators and consultancy to assist changing the perceptions of employees constructively and build effective and sustainable intercultural collaborations within the organisation. the perceptions of the employees and their practical skills and abilities to deal with intercultural challenges and collaboration constructively, could also be achieved through organisational development interventions, such as team building exercises, quality circles and leadership consultancy. the implementation of interventions, training and programmes in opening up the organisational culture can be achieved by using both bottom-up and top-down approaches, supported by the chinese leadership of the organisation. chinese leaders need to increase their awareness in the context of intercultural collaboration and implement strategies which are based on an intercultural collaboration. besides enhancing intercultural collaboration through human resources management, strategic and systemic management practices also need to be used to create structures of equal opportunities, embracing diversity. these practical practices might impact positively on the working conditions and atmosphere, qualification and training, knowledge-sharing and motivation of employees. acknowledgements this work is based on the research supported in part by a research grant from rhodes university, grahamstown, south africa. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions c-h.m. and c.m.b. conducted the field research and analysed the data. all three authors discussed and interpreted the findings and wrote up the research article. l.l. is the leader of the overall project on chinese organisations in sub-saharan africa: new dynamics, new insights. references ado, a., su, z., & wanjiru, r. (2016). learning and knowledge transfer in africa-china jvs: interplay between informalities, culture, and social capital. journal of international management. retrieved december 23, 2016, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s107542531630357x african economic outlook. (2014). trade policies and regional integration in africa. retrieved august 11, 2016, from http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/fileadmin/uploads/aeo/2014/pdf/chapter_pdf/03_chapter3_aeo2014_en.light.pdf bräutigam, d. (2009). the dragon’s gift: the real story of china in africa. london, uk: oxford university press. collis, j., & hussey, r. (2003). business research: a practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. (2nd edn.). new york: palgrave macmillan. creswell, j.w. (2003). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. (2nd edn.). london, uk: sage. curtis, a. (2015, march 11). china’s long history in africa. retrieved august 17, 2016 from http://newafricanmagazine.com/chinas-long-history-africa/ de klerk, s., & kroon, j. (2007). networking in south african businesses. management decision, 45(1), 83–103. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740710718980 george, g., khayesi, j.n.o., & haas, m.r.t. (2016). bringing africa in: promising directions for management research. academy of management journal, 59(2), 377–393. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2016.4002 giese, k. (2013). same-same but different: chinese traders perspectives on african labor. the china journal, 69. 134–153. https://doi.org/10.1086/668841 graen, g.b., hui, c., & gu, q.l. (2004). a new approach to intercultural cooperation. lmx leadership, 225–246. retrieved n.d., from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/george_graen2/publication/292729391_a_new_approach_to_intercultural_cooperation/links/56b0dde408ae9c1968b97809.pdf gummesson, d.e. (2000). qualitative methods in management research. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. harris, h., brewster, c., & sparrow, p. (2006). international human resource management. (3rd edn.). london, uk: cipd. hart, g.p. (2002). disabling globalization: places of power in post-apartheid south africa. berkeley, ca: university of california press. hinds, p., liu, l., & lyon, j. (2011). putting the global in global work: an intercultural lens on the practice of cross-national collaboration. academy of management annals, 5(1), 135–188. https://doi.org/10.1080/19416520.2011.586108 humphreys, m., & bates, r. (2005). political institutions and economic policies: lessons from africa. british journal of political science, 35, 403–428. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0007123405000232 jackson, t. (2004). management and change in africa. a cross-cultural perspective. london, uk: routledge. kamoche, k. (2002). introduction: human resource management in africa. international journal of human resource management, 13(7), 993–997. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190210131258 kamoche, k.n., debra, y.a., horwitz, f.m., & muuka, g.n. (2004). managing human resources in africa. london, uk: routledge. king, n., kruger, n., & pretorius, j. (2007). knowledge management in a multicultural environment: a south african perspective. aslib proceedings, 59(3), 285–299. https://doi.org/10.1108/00012530710752061 koehn, p.h. (2007). peaceful and sustainable development? middle-management entrepreneurship and transnational competence in china. east asia, 24(3), 251–263. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12140-007-9017-9 luchien, k., & honorine, i. (2005). ubuntu as a key african management concept: contextual background and practical insights for knowledge application. journal of managerial psychology, 20(7), 607–620. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940510623416 luiz, j. (2006). managing business in africa: practical management theory for an emerging market. cape town, sa: oxford university press. majani, f. (2013, october 13). china drops anchor in tanzania. retrieved august 16, 2017, from http://mg.co.za/article/2013-10-04-00-china-drops-anchor-in-tanzania matondo, j.p.m. (2012). cross-cultural values comparison between chinese and sub-saharan africans. international journal of business and social sciences, 3(11), 38–52. mayer, c.-h. (2008). managing conflict across cultures, values and identities. a case study in the south african automotive industry. marburg, germany: tectum. mayer, c.-h. (2011). the meaning of sense of coherence in transcultural management. münster, germany: waxmann. mayer, c.-h. (2013). china in tanzania. in presentation at symposium china in africa. implications for management, implications for change, rhodes university, grahamstown, south africa, 31 october 2013–01 november 2013, n.p. mayer, c.-h., & boness, c.m. (2011). culture and conflict in urban tanzania: professionals’ voices in educational organizations. african journal on conflict resolution, 11(2), 59–83. https://doi.org/10.4314/ajcr.v11i2.69833 mayer, c.-h., & louw, l. (2011). managerial challenges in south africa. european business review, 23(6), 572–591. https://doi.org/10.1108/09555341111175417 mayer, c.-h., & louw, l. (2012). managing cross-cultural conflicts in organizations. international journals of cross cultural management, 12(1), 3–8. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470595811413104 mayer, c.-h., boness, c.m., louw, l. & louw, m.j. (2016). intraand inter-group perceptions of chinese and tanzanian employees in intercultural cooperation. proceedings of the 28th annual conference of the southern african institute of management scientists. retrieved august 24, 2017, from http://www.up.ac.za/media/shared/643/zp_files/2016/papers/hrl18_full.zp97856.pdf nyambegera, s.m., kamoche, k., & siebers, l.q. (2016). integrating chinese and african culture into human resource management practice to enhance employee job satisfaction. journal of language, technology and entrepreneurship in africa, 7(2), 118–139. pillay, r. (2008). managerial competencies of hospital managers in south africa: a survey of managers in the public and private sectors. human resources for health, 6(4), 1–7. rosinski, p. (2011). global coaching for organizational development. international journal of coaching in organizations, 8(2), 49–66. sycara, k., gelfand, m., & abbe, a. (2013). models for intercultural collaboration and negotiation. dordrecht, netherlands: springer. tanzanian-zambia railway authority. (2017). tazara. retrieved august 16, from http://tazarasite.com/?page_id=131 terre blanche, m., durrheim, k., & kelly, k. (2006). first steps in qualitative data analysis. in m. terre blanche, k. durrheim, & d. painter (eds.), research in practice. applied methods for the social sciences (pp. 321–344). cape town, south africa: university of cape town press. trompenaars, f., & asser, m.n. (2010). the global m and a tango: cross-cultural dimensions of mergers and acquisitions. new york: mcgraw-hill. van der nest, d. (2004). the impact of black economic empowerment on the management of small companies in south africa. retrieved august 16, 2017, from https://ujdigispace.uj.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10210/319/impactofbeeonthemngofsmeinsouthafrica.pdf?sequence=1 yin, r.k. (2009). case study research: design and methods. (2nd edn.). london, uk: sage. zait, d., & spalanzani, a. (2009). la recherche en management et en economie [research in management and economics]. reperes epistemologiques et methodologiques. paris: l’harmattan. abstract introduction literature review method findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) stephen j. mallaby gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa gavin price gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa karl hofmeyr gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa citation mallaby, s.j., price, g., & hofmeyr, k. (2017). the transition to general management in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a846. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.846 original research the transition to general management in south africa stephen j. mallaby, gavin price, karl hofmeyr received: 05 aug. 2016; accepted: 22 feb. 2017; published: 19 may 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: understanding the nature and challenges of making the transition from a functional role to a general management role in south african organisations. research purpose: the objective of this study was to gain insight into the obstacles that affect the transition from functional to general management and identify steps that may be taken to overcome these challenges. motivation for the study: one of the most difficult crossroads for a manager is making the shift from being a functional specialist to becoming a general manager. new competencies and behaviours are required, as well as a more strategic mind set. if the transition is not made successfully, the manager and the organisation suffer. research design, approach and method: a qualitative design was used consisting of in-depth, semi-structured interviews, with 19 senior business leaders who had successfully made the transition. the interviews were used to gather insights into the challenges they faced during their transitions, and how these were overcome. main findings: to make the transition successfully, functional managers need to gain relevant experience to prepare them for the broader scope of a general management role. they need to develop appropriate skills, attitudes and personal characteristics. mentoring is an effective development process. newly appointed general managers need to learn to let go of control while maintaining ownership, build relationships and strike the right balance between strategic thinking and execution. there are unique aspects of being a general manager in south africa, such as dealing with black economic empowerment and challenges of race and identity, given the country’s history. practical and managerial implications: specific interventions are suggested which are directed at both aspiring general managers and organisations seeking to assist middle managers to make the transition to general managers. contribution: this study contributes to knowledge concerning the skills and attributes required by potential general managers, and the practical steps to be taken by south african organisations to facilitate the development of general managers. introduction being an effective general manager requires the same things today as it will require tomorrow: the willingness to lead, the openness to learn and an unwavering commitment to creating long-term value. the transition to general management is a change indeed, and it requires serious mental and emotional effort. frequently, it represents a shift away from everything one has known in the past, and often entails the unlearning of lessons one has spent years trying to make second nature. (keiser, pich & schecter, 2015, p. 2) there is a lamentably high degree of failure among general managers, part of which is attributable to leaders failing to transition effectively (burke, 2006; sokol, 2017). this may be attributed to the fact that the transition to the general management level requires a profound transformation (ibarra, snook & ramo, 2008; sparrow & makram, 2015). given that south african business is in a constant state of flux with issues of political uncertainty, globalisation, emerging economies and competitive pressures, a different style of leadership may be required (adl, burnett & dapra, 2013; de vries, sexton & ellen, 2016; hall & rowland, 2016). this may affect the ability of a leader to transition because he or she has to deal with the new role in a rapidly changing business environment. the objective of this study was to gain a better understanding of the transition that managers must make to general management in the south african context. how do managers make the transition and how do they overcome the associated challenges? the study explored the challenges faced by managers making the transition, so that recommendations for the development of general managers in south africa could be made. drotter and charan (2001) proposed that the change from a functional role to general management role results in increased pressure to move away from individual tasks and activities to those more aligned with the needs of the business, thus veering the leader into unfamiliar territory. the transition is considered to be one of the most challenging experiences for leaders, with a high potential for failure (ibarra et al., 2008; watkins, 2012). some managers, when faced with the challenge of being in unchartered territory and dealing with unfamiliar scenarios, tend to fall back on what they know best and rely on past behaviours. despite the common conception that ‘what got you here won’t get you there’, many managers fail to adopt this principle (goldsmith & reiter, 2007; reimer & meighan, 2017). this study was prompted by the observation that many organisations in south africa have struggled to perform as a direct result of poor leadership. managers are often functionally competent, but this does not mean that they will become good leaders. to some extent, this relates to the ‘peter principle’, which suggests that people are promoted to their level of incompetence (lazear, 2004; maroun, 2014; tan, 2014). in addition to highlighting the typical challenges associated with the transition into general management, the study also aimed at understanding those challenges that are specific to south africa. referring to leadership in africa, de vries et al. (2016) observed that the continent presents a unique context of study for leadership scholars because of its diversity of ethnicities, cultures and languages. south africa, given its diversity and the transformation it has experienced since the advent of democracy, should be a rich source of insights for a study dealing with leadership and general management. south africa is also a microcosm of the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world in which organisations need to survive and thrive (bawany, 2016). literature review general management warner and witzel (1997) defined general managers as executives who are capable of managing the entire company. they need to not only understand business disciplines such as finance, operations, marketing and human resource management but also have the ability to develop a vision and motivate people to achieve the organisation’s goals. kaplan and kaiser (2003) noted that the general manager needs to adopt a strategic leadership approach, which requires a different level of thinking and encompasses how broadly a leader thinks about the company, aligning the vision and strategy, growing the business and setting long-terms goals. kates and downey (2005) suggested that one of the most important talent management efforts of a business is to develop a strong pipeline of general managers. much has been written about the difference between management and leadership, and although it is not a new concept, it remains relevant. while not all leaders are managers, and not all managers are leaders, the general manager has to develop strong leadership competencies (chiu, balkunid & weinberg, 2016; gosling & mintzberg, 2003; hill, 2003; lord & hall, 2005; mintzberg, 1973). this is a theme throughout the study. the need for the manager to develop as a leader requires the manager to shift away from the ‘doing’ aspect to that of ‘being’, and in the process empowering others to focus on execution. watkins (2012) suggested that the challenge is over-managing the old familiar functions and under-managing the new ones. he described this as moving from a support cast member to the leading role, and providing both guidance and direction. organisational hierarchical levels drotter and charan (2001) developed a six-passage model to illustrate the various levels of leadership within an organisation and the requirements of the leaders at each level of a ‘pipeline’. each of the turns in the pipeline is considered to be a significant event. the concept of multiple levels of leadership has been described as a journey that a leader has to traverse with six pathways and five crossroads (freedman, 1998), as reflected in figure 1. this aligns with the principles of drotter and charan’s (2001) pipeline of changing responsibilities and accountabilities across the various levels. figure 1: the six primary pathways and five basic career crossroads. drotter and charan’s (2001) and freedman’s (1998) frameworks are further supported by watkins (2012), who described the transition between the various levels, particularly from specialist to generalist, as particularly difficult. this study focuses on the transition from functional to general management (crossroad 3). it is at this juncture that there is the highest risk of failure (bawany, 2016; freedman, 2011). facilitators and inhibitors of transition there are numerous factors that contribute to a successful transition between the various organisational levels, in particular from functional to general management. for example, leadership development and learning processes are considered to be major factors impacting an effective transition (drotter, 2010; hall & rowland, 2016; khoreva & vaiman, 2015). although there is agreement about the need for development, hackman and wageman (2007) contended that it is not so much about what leaders are taught, but rather how leaders should be helped to learn. mccall (2004) argued that experience plays the most important role in leadership development, and any development should be focused on assignments that will help leaders gain experience and build their knowledge. similarly, thomas (2008) emphasised the value that can be gained from on-the-job and off-the-job experiences. freedman (2005) argued that experience gained through traversing the career crossroads is essential, and skipping any of the crossroad levels will have a negative impact. current research suggests that the effective transition to general management is impacted by many elements such as improving skills and competencies (de meuse, dai & wu, 2011; lord & hall, 2005; mumford, campion & morgeson, 2007), and gaining experience and knowledge (hackman & wageman, 2007; mccall, 2004). boal (2000) and goldman, cahill and filho (2009) added the elements of developing strategic thinking, building a vision and motivating others, and receiving coaching and mentoring (berg & karlsen, 2016; goldman, wesner & karnchanomai, 2013). this study draws on these propositions as a frame for the research. deep personal aspects also impact the ability to transition, including going through transformations (day & harrison, 2007; ibarra et al., 2008) and changing behaviours and attitudes (boal, 2000; burke, 2006; kaiser, 2011). in addition, personal traits such as character, personality, competence, confidence, self-awareness and the change in activities and tasks play an important role (bonoma & lawler, 1989; de meuse et al., 2011; freedman, 2005, 2011; pietersen, 2015). to illustrate the number and complexity of factors impacting successful transitions, de meuse et al. (2011) identified 67 competencies that had to be developed to different degrees across organisational levels. the significance of competencies receives further support from other researchers, and a framework depicting six key managerial competencies is presented in figure 2 (hellriegel, jackson & slocum, 2005). three of the competencies (communication, teamwork and self-management) fall into the category of ‘emotional intelligence’ as defined by goleman, boyatzis and mckee (2013). they refer to the need for leaders to be intelligent about emotions and the fact that a leader’s moods and actions directly impact those they lead. emotionally intelligent leaders inspire loyalty, encourage innovative solutions and build strong teams and lasting relationships. goleman (1998) defined that emotional intelligence consists of self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skill. figure 2: six key managerial competencies. while there is extensive literature on generic factors universally, which may inhibit or facilitate the transition, there is very little literature covering aspects that are specific to south africa. the nature of the transition kaiser (2011) suggested that managers face different challenges as they transition to higher job levels, and despite extensive research on theories relating to leadership, the literature focuses more on the organisations’ process of transition and transformation and less on the leaders’ journey (hiller, dechurch, murase & doty, 2011). the transition to general management requires that the leader goes through a unique transformation, which requires him or her to do things very differently from the way they have been done in the past (burke, 2006; goldsmith & reiter, 2007; kilner, 2015; watkins, 2012). novice leaders may well gain the basics of management, but this does not guarantee being able to understand complex organisational and strategic factors (ibarra et al., 2008). freedman (2011) made reference to the ‘distressed manager in transition’ who may fall back on previous ways of solving problems, whereas the new problems are of a different nature and therefore the old solutions are no longer effective. while the term ‘hierarchy’ implies an upward structure, newly promoted leaders must not take the perspective of sitting on top but should rather consider themselves to be part of the organisation and integrating themselves within it by collaborating and building trust through relationships (watkins, 2012). the challenge for the new general manager is to determine what to continue and what to discontinue. the leader may get trapped in the dynamics of ‘betwixt and between’, where they feel stuck between the identity of who they were in their previous role and who they need to be in their new role (bandow & self, 2016; freedman, 2011; nicholson & carroll, 2013). similarly, boal (2000) argued that a leader will transition through six phases, which include the honeymoon, learning curve, constant, random, null and lastly rigor mortis. if leaders remain stuck in previous behaviours, they will become a liability to the business. in addition to this shift in identity, day and harrison (2007) suggested that there is a shift away from ‘who i am’ as an individual to ‘who we are’ as a collective. the general manager must shift away from the functional and operational leadership perspectives as these entail getting involved in the details of the business and focusing on short-term thinking and activities. too much emphasis on operational details can be a hindrance, specifically when taking on more senior roles (ibarra et al., 2008; kaplan & kaiser, 2003). from the review of the literature, it appears that there is still a need for further research to gain an understanding of the general management transition process in a south african context and, to this extent, four research questions were formulated: research question 1: what are the factors that facilitate or inhibit the transition to a general management role? research question 2: are general managers aware of what they must ‘let go of’ and the identity transformation they will go through? research question 3: what are the challenges of shifting from functional and operational activities to strategic perspectives? research question 4: what, if any, are the unique challenges of general manager transitions for general managers in south africa? method the topic of leadership transition involves a high degree of social involvement and interaction with the environment and within the organisation. according to saunders and lewis (2012), business situations are unique and complex and involve a particular set of circumstances and individuals, and for this reason, an interpretive and qualitative approach was used. the study’s focus was on senior business leaders in south africa who had successfully transitioned to the level of general manager or beyond. purposive sampling was used to identify the individuals to be interviewed. in addition, the sampling process also involved limited snowball sampling as certain interviewees were requested to provide referrals to other c-level individuals. the aim was to select a heterogeneous sample and respondents were selected from a diverse set of business types and industries. to ensure sample diversity, an attempt was made to avoid selecting more than one sample member from the same company, and this was only done in one case where three participants were from the same listed company. by selecting a heterogeneous sample, it was possible to identify trends and patterns that emerged. pilot testing was undertaken with three participants who met the criteria of the study to ensure the validity of the questions created to answer the main objective of the study. the feedback from the pilot testing was positive and helped to refine the introduction to the interview as well as make slight amendments to some of the questions. face-to-face interviews were conducted with 16 experienced c-level executives who had successfully navigated the transition to general management. the aim was to achieve a saturation point where no new relevant information was being provided. ten of the interviewees were chief executive officers of major companies, and two were chief operations officers. the remaining seven were in senior general management positions. the interview questionnaire consisted of 20 open-ended questions that covered the relevant themes and types of questions. it was found that all of the interviewees were very open to being approached and spoke freely. the interviews were conducted during business hours and each took approximately 1 h. the interviews were recorded and transcribed, and two separate content analyses were undertaken by the authors to interpret the responses. findings research question 1: what are the factors that facilitate or inhibit the transition to a general management role? the first question probed the respondents’ personal career journeys to establish what may have facilitated or hindered their growth into a general management role. three broad themes emerged. education and mentoring the strong theme to emerge was the perceived need to have a solid knowledge-based foundation and that a high quality education, both secondary and tertiary, was a powerful enabler. its importance was articulated through statements such as: ‘… the key thing is to get an education. it is very important i think. it gives you a good basis of knowledge’. another participant proclaimed: i was fortunate enough to get a good education and like i say, my dad worked day and night to put us through school. so he sent me to a private school. south africa didn’t have the opportunities for me in those days so i went to swaziland. this demonstrated the value of a high quality education for south african business leaders is. eight of the 19 participants indicated that they had achieved some form of higher academic qualification, whereas two participants indicated that they moved up the corporate ladder despite only holding a high school qualification. in most instances, a mentor or support structure was identified as being beneficial: ‘key factors for me were having mentors and having support structures in place’. the other participants made no mention of their academic qualifications. work experience interviewees provided a brief history of the experience they had gained over the years working in various functional and technical fields. during their careers, each participant had been exposed to an average of four different areas of the business. management, finance and executive positions were the fields where they had gained most of their experience. working across a range of areas seemed to be a key factor in the preparation for a general management role. one of the interviewees commented as follows: i was ten times more skilled than anyone else at that stage. everyone else had got there by being a merchant or an hr person, but no-one had the breadth of skills that i had. skills, attitude and personal characteristics other elements that facilitate the transition were reflected in the participants’ skills, attitude and personal characteristics. respondents appeared to be very goal-driven and had a high propensity to actively seek out learning experiences, often combined with an entrepreneurial spirit. reading, observing and questioning the status quo is reflected in one of the comments as a means of gaining knowledge to further their career advancement: i read enormously around business, and i always have, so i do. i read business books – so that’s part of it. and i will then roll out the concept, i have done that over the years … i mean for me this business i think about probably … 24 hours a day. it’s a project. for me business is like playing a game, its monopoly, you’ve got to keep trying to win. research question 2: are general managers aware of what they must ‘let go of’ and the identity transformation process they will go through? interviewees were aware that a fundamental change takes place with the transition to the new role. in response to research question 2, four key themes were identified. letting go of control while maintaining ownership respondents noted that successful leaders adapt their behaviour, often by letting go of certain skills and adopting new ones. those who are not effective revert back to their comfort zone and try to lead from a functional as opposed to a strategic perspective. although there was a realisation that general managers need to adopt a more strategic role, they still find this a difficult part of their transition. they feel that they could be losing control of their power base: in a functional role environment, your power base tends to be knowledge and skills, and you tend to be authoritarian … whereas true general management leadership is all by influence … and so that transition, never mind your skill base, is how to get someone to go from power-based leadership to influence-based leadership is very tricky. and that is probably the harder one, probably harder than unlearning all the things that you learnt as a financial guy. the temptation to fall back onto one’s historic strengths is very powerful, particularly when problems arise, but interviewees noted a definite need to transition from a power base role to a leadership role by letting go of power and managing by influence instead. one of the ceos illustrated this internal conflict by stating that: … the temptation is very strong to fall back on your … comfort zone, the experience that you had. so i had to broaden my perspective. i had to deepen my insight into different things; i had to become a lifelong student in the art and science of leadership. finding ways to ensure that they do not revert to managing according to their functional area of expertise, respondents expressed the need to learn to trust others and draw on other people’s strengths to support them as leaders. combined with this was the realisation that they could not do everything themselves. they were aware of the need to delegate responsibility: … you see a lot of guys move from a supervisory role into a general management role, and you probably can see them around you: the guys who try and hold on to everything and don’t tell anybody anything and don’t trust anybody. you can’t do it all, you have to trust people. respondents all acknowledged the need to let go. through making a conscious decision to empower their subordinates and learning to step back and wait patiently for the subordinate to perform the function, it frees up their time to concentrate more on strategic issues. however, they also acknowledged that their responsibility includes reflecting on what value they can add by performing the function themselves, compared with the implications of delegating the task to a subordinate who does not perform adequately. ultimately, they take total ownership of any outcomes: you actually have to teach somebody how to put the intervention in place. you have got to physically ask yourself the question, ‘should i be doing this?’ no. what is the worst thing that can go wrong if i don’t do it? the report can be wrong. they can re-do it. personal characteristics and relationships some of the interviewees reflected that when they were promoted, they tended to become distant as they felt that they should communicate and operate at a different level from their peers. some put this down to the possible arrogance of the leader and others explained it as being a consequence of the leader realising the added responsibility of the new role: ‘well you know what? i think that when you have to assume responsibility literally for everything, i think it changes you’. being promoted to the role of general manager initially instils a sense of pride in the individual and there is a danger that this could lead to arrogance. it has been a journey of hard work and dedication to reach this level of management. some of the interviewees said that they experienced a sense of entitlement to be in the new role but quickly realised that their behaviours and attitudes needed to be adjusted. it was noted that newly promoted general managers tended to ‘underestimate the power of quality relationships’ since ‘the more senior you become, the more critical the relationships are’. interviewees emphasised the importance of building good teams. this begins with developing good relationships and involves some adaptation of personal characteristics, such as reduced arrogance: some characteristics have to change … you can’t be the arrogant, obnoxious individual because that is just you – when you have teams around you and different people and different characters, then you have to adapt accordingly. one participant had a different opinion however, stating that older general managers may not be able to adjust their relationship building behaviour, as they have become too set in their ways. managers with strong characters find it particularly difficult to adjust their behaviours when they are more established and entrenched in their ways. some of the general managers admitted to becoming less tolerant of poor performance. they become aware of their responsibility towards the success of the whole organisation: i think it is not just that you change but i think that people change in their behaviour towards you as well; because i think you become less tolerant of people either withholding information or giving you wrong information, and i think that when you are managing a team of people, whether it is like 5 or 15 people as a general manager, your ability to deliver on your objectives is actually 100% reliant on the people that are working with you, and when you hold the ultimate responsibility i think it literally changes your attitude towards non-performers. insecurities the transition to general management can also lead to insecurities. when promoted to the general management level, executives can feel overwhelmed and unsure of themselves: i think 99% of the time the guys that move into general management for the first time are completely overwhelmed and you’re thinking and you are treading water just faster and faster. realising the extent of responsibility involved, coupled with the exposure to new and unfamiliar areas of responsibility, is likely to be challenging. general managers respond to their insecurities in various ways: … trying to get to grips with things that i wasn’t trained in, you know. so i was suddenly just feeling uncomfortable in my ability because i didn’t know exactly what the financial story was. the new general manager would like to feel in control of everything but experiencing feelings of insecurity sometimes results in a withdrawal to previous comfort zones. particularly when problems arise, they might react by re-taking control of the operational activities where they previously excelled. on the contrary, successful general managers find ways to deal with their insecurities and grow their characters and adapt behaviours to do so. by addressing their insecurities through reflection and support, they are able to identify what changes they need to make to manage effectively and succeed. this requires a level of self-awareness. they commit to growing their knowledge and skills at a higher level to gain a better understanding and reduce their insecurities: … you need to be able to hold that mirror up to yourself and actually not have an idea of who you are or what people think you are, but somehow get in touch with reality. so that is about people close to you, hr, colleagues, actually saying ‘well you know what, this is what people are saying and this is what people think’ – those are the things which ultimately determine whether or not you are going to succeed i think. courage in the face of loneliness the final theme was the need to have courage in the face of loneliness. much of the transition to general management appears to involve changes in self-perception or identity and this can be a lonely journey. they find themselves in a position where they have become solely responsible for the whole and are no longer just part of a team. the responsibility that the general manager now holds places a burden on their shoulders and they feel they need to ‘grow up’ as was stated by one respondent: ‘… planning horizon changes, [and their] sense of impactfulness changes’. similarly: ‘… it becomes lonely in the sense that it is you and your staff, as opposed to you working in a team with your peers’. one of the coping mechanisms reported was that general managers develop their intuitive, gut instinct that they learn to trust. after being in the business for some time and having developed a general understanding of the mechanics of the organisation, they have usually developed an intuition for the daily happenings in the business and can quickly identify any potential problems: somebody asked me the other day if i knew how many contracts we had and i said ‘i think 60’ and the answer was 59 …. now that is an intuitive feel that you develop after connecting things … because it’s the gut feel you require. in addition to using their intuition, having good relationships with peers and colleagues is a safety net and support system for the general manager. while the general managers acknowledge their lonely role, they also realise the importance of engaging with others and building relationships of trust and respect. research question 3: what are the challenges of shifting from functional and operational activities to strategic perspectives? general managers were aware of the need to shift their management focus when taking on the new role. the participants were vocal about the shift in focus that was required and the challenges that arose as a result. the challenges experienced by general managers were grouped under five main themes. a shift of focus and the definition of strategy the majority of the participants acknowledged that there was a need to shift their focus to be more strategic when taking on the general manager position. however, the participants indicated that people moving to the new role had differing understandings of what strategy and leadership entailed: many of them, or the majority perhaps … remain super-duper general managers, relatively few embrace the strategic tasks of leadership … so the common problem is that they get stuck in the management rut. so they still put all, or the bulk of, the emphasis on the functions of management, to plan and to organize and to control and they fall back on their sort of strong points and their knowledge, their insight, their functional competence … but they fail in some instances to come up with the strategy that will create a better tomorrow. the view was expressed, however, that the emphasis placed on strategic as opposed to operational elements does depend on the situation. if you are in the fortunate position of becoming general manager of a company that is growing rapidly and is running slickly you can afford to be more forward looking. so i think at a principle level, yes, but it does rather depend on the specific situation and sector …. so if you become gm of a company that is sinking like a stone, i think you’re tactical … from the interviews, the consensus was that taking on the role of general manager required a change in focus, but this shift was not necessarily a clear cut shift to a strategic focus. strategy execution is vital, but general managers are often only drivers of the strategy, which is determined at a higher level. the view was expressed that the general manager cannot avoid having a tactical focus at times to develop, inspire and motivate employees, with the ultimate goal of achieving the organisation’s strategic objectives: i think that as i have gone through in life, what is strategic is very broad decisions. most of what we operate with at general manager level is tactical, although we might perceive it to be strategic. so i think what we have got to understand is how we take the people in management of the business and expose them to strategy, because if they understand in their heart the logic behind a strategic decision the rest of the decisions on the tree just become easy. general managers need to learn the complexities of the business and understand how to change their behaviour to align with more strategic thinking. they need to become involved in all aspects of operations and develop relationships with stakeholders so that they are able to establish the success factors and potential pitfalls of the business. they also need to establish boundaries and communicate what they expect of others: … for six months you are going to run your ops ragged, you are going to be working 12 to 16 hours a day, i understand all of that, you have to learn about the people, develop the relationships. you have got to learn who the suppliers are, you have to … visit all the customers, figure out what the success factors are for this particular business, and that is going to take you a long time to do. another interviewee expressed the view that: a lot of people don’t communicate boundaries, so you wind up in a leadership or management position and you don’t set the boundaries for six months! people are pushing to see where the boundaries are. no-one taught me that, i observed that from someone else, years ago. experienced general managers seem to be aware that they cannot do everything themselves, and a vital success factor for them is to build a strong team of people who have the necessary skills and who they can trust. they often find it challenging to let go and trust that the work can be done by someone else as effectively as, or even better, than they can. however, successful general managers learn to delegate and allow their subordinates to develop. in this way, the team as a whole is strengthened and the individuals within the team experience a sense of empowerment and trust: i know some people are really good at it and other people surround themselves with people that are really good at it, and i think it is a question of realising in which arenas you should play and it is actually very important that the people that are closest to you and are your direct reports, can feel secure enough to give you honest feedback. relationship building relationship building was another key element identified by respondents. the ability to build and maintain strategic relationships came as a challenge for many general managers. some came from a background where they did not need to engage and invest heavily in relationships, but moving into the role of general manager forced them to develop their emotional intelligence. they have to be able to build relationships and manage both upwards and downwards within the organisation as well as laterally and outside the organisation. formal relationships exist naturally within the work environment but in order to be truly effective, the general manager needs to ensure that a good level of informal contact occurs: ‘… the majority of my conversations i have are informal. you can be more honest informally, there are no people watching’. a similar observation was: ‘i have to get through to the individuals. and that is a time-intensive activity, you have to walk, get around, talk, understand, and listen with empathy’. realisation that a broadening of skill sets was required a further theme was a realisation that a broadening of skill sets is required. the participants indicated that there can be a gap that exists for people transitioning to the role of general manager. these managers might know the theory of business, but a theoretical understanding of business is not enough as argued by one interviewee: i think also there is a belief, you know people say if you do an mba you can do any business, but i don’t believe that. they say we can come here, we are teaching you every aspect of business management. so in theory i should be able to go and run a bank or you should be able to go and run a radio station – but i don’t believe that. the participants outlined some of the competencies and qualities they had to learn when they transitioned to the leadership role. these are depicted in figure 3. figure 3: mastering the leadership role (coded from verbatim comments). human capital management and financial management were two other topics that were mentioned a number of times as challenges for the general manager. relationship building and performance management were seen as central to the general manager’s skill set: … the people challenge. i think that is one where i think sometimes that has been more of a challenge, to find that. where if i look at some of my business mentors they fired people a lot more lightly than i have been able to. so that for me has been the biggest challenge because i struggle with that. for me, i think it is a failure if i have to fire somebody, because it means i haven’t worked hard enough to make them productive. with the responsibility for financial management being placed on the general manager’s shoulders, they tend to feel ill equipped to take on the burden of the financial well-being of the organisation. this is despite the fact that they often have the theoretical background necessary but lack practical experience in financial management. one of the interviewees illustrated his reactions as follows: and then when i was appointed as the ceo of the organisation, well the first challenge i had was, i had to accept … responsibility for the bottom line performance, sustained profit growth, quality earnings. so that was the immediate challenge. so previously i could talk rather easily about return on market and investment, but when i was given the overall task or responsibility for the financial health of the company it was a different ball game. the need to gather information when transitioning into the role of general manager, the participants indicated that they experienced challenges around the lack of information available to them. they had exited roles where they had complete functional control, and in their new positions, they experienced an information gap. one participant suggested that the lack of information was as a result of management higher up the corporate hierarchy, not filtering information down. another participant explained that the lack of information was a result of taking on additional responsibility and having less time available to digest the information: learning to deal with incomplete information and that is something i deal with now, every single day. the more you are in control of your environment the more information you have; the more you move up the less information you have and the less time you have to digest it. one of the big transitions you have to make is learning to manage with incomplete information. to combat this challenge, the general managers would generally find ways of gathering relevant information for themselves. some choose to further their academic qualifications, some choose to keep abreast of things through reading as much as possible and some spend time researching and reflecting. the most utilised method of gathering information, however, was to engage, watch and learn on the job. ‘… so i was going out and selling with the sales people, i was servicing, i was learning the business, i was learning’. the need to set boundaries a concluding theme that built on the aforementioned themes under this research question, namely that newly appointed senior or general managers should set clear boundaries and articulate their expectations to their staff regarding their philosophy and style: i thought ‘remember this’ because this is the first time someone said to me ‘i am your new boss, here is the box that i want you …’. so for six months i wasn’t going around saying shit, should i tell him or should i not tell him – where is the boundary? the benefit of these boundaries was that they reduce insecurity in the minds, not just of the new manager but also in their team, which, in turn, creates the foundation for building relationships that empower the employees to share valuable knowledge required to make optimal decisions. research question 4: what, if any, are the unique challenges of general manager transitions for general managers in south africa? the majority of the interviewees felt that there were specific local issues. only three of the interviewees could not identify any unique challenges for south african general managers. instead, they discussed issues of a generic nature and considered these to be globally applicable. one participant commented that: ‘… every country has similar problems. it is actually frightening how synchronized the world is’. three themes specific to the south african environment were identified as: culture and diversity, black economic empowerment and transformation. south africa has more diversity than most countries, and leaders who deal with diversity and diverse cultures experience challenges and opportunities since there is no standardised approach to managing diversity, as suggested by one of the respondents: i have travelled the world and seen a lot of businesses – you follow a rule book. you know if you are faced with a particular situation you have a rule book generally to tell you what to do. and i think that is comforting for a lot of people, you know, people who are well qualified and even intelligent people, feel quite comfortable when someone has given them a rule book. in sa generally we don’t work with rule books. the local environment was also referred to by one of the interviewees as being less structured than some developed countries: i think we do have unique transition challenges. i think if you take america, america is incredibly structured, even their management side is structured. you take europe and again you go through the process before you get to management. in south africa you are accelerating the environment. with reference to black economic empowerment initiatives and so-called ‘transformation’, one interviewee expressed the opinion that: i think that for me the major thing is in south africa, if you want to be compliant your challenge is the cost of compliance has become very high because of the mobility of the black workers, of the skilled black work force. the transformation agenda of south african businesses was also identified as a unique and ongoing challenge for general managers. the executives interviewed acknowledged that there is a need to address the historic imbalances and grow young black individuals into higher levels of the organisation: ‘… the problem that we would face now for instance, we still have an ongoing challenge around transformation’. some interviewees referred to racial issues. while such issues are not unique to south africa, in their opinion they present specific challenges: i think also it is probably quite difficult for white managers to sometimes manage, performance manage black staff, because there is always the fear of being called racist, and that whole race card thing and discrimination. so i think that is an added dynamic that you probably wouldn’t have in other countries. one participant referred to the need for targeted development but also commented that not enough is being done: … that again is where mentorship becomes vitally important in organisations. it is not just, ‘let’s accelerate this mentorship’, it’s ‘let’s assign a dedicated strong leader’ – and i am not saying a strong manager – a strong leader, to work with, particularly the accelerated management. another made the observation that: ‘… it is important to have our young black leaders and our young white leaders understanding that they lead everybody in these positions’. the interviews suggested that south african leaders develop specific traits, which may be less evident in other environments, such as: being resilient and able to adapt easily. being more flexible. they tend to be younger leaders. they are able to manage diverse and dynamic cultures. they are good at managing conflict. interviewees remarked that these competencies are becoming more relevant internationally, particularly in dynamic markets. as a result, south african executives are likely to be sought after for global assignments. discussion the results of this study confirmed the need to let go of certain behaviours but also emphasised the need to adapt particular competencies. from the interviews, four themes emerged as central to the successful transition to general management: letting go of control and maintaining ownership, personal characteristics and relationships, insecurities and courage in the face of loneliness. the concept of letting go of power and control was a theme throughout the interviews. it was also highlighted as a contradiction: when managers are promoted to higher levels in an organisation, their level of power and authority increases, yet in order to be effective they needed to empower others, by letting go of power. this appears to align with the concept of the ‘paradox of power’ (hill, 2006; de klerk & stander, 2014). many of the participants reported struggling to let go of control to truly empower others, and it was only after struggling through the process and gaining the relevant experience that they were able to develop this ability to let go. it seems that letting go of this power, control and responsibility is the only way to become effective. the results suggest that the leaders needed to learn how to ‘lead through influencing’ and not through power. what did become apparent was the difficulty experienced when having to do this under stressful conditions. many reported that as soon as they faced stressful situations, they tended to fall back into their comfort zones and rely on doing functional and operational activities that they were familiar with and excelled at. letting go of control did not only relate to power and authority but also relate to key tasks and activities. the challenge described by the participants was trying to figure out what to let go of and delegate, and what to continue doing because it added value. this is not dissimilar to the ‘continuity and discontinuity theory’ perspective of de meuse et al. (2011). the importance of relationships was also emphasised in the interviews. newly appointed general managers need to maintain and develop relationships across all levels. this finding supports another south african study conducted by kanyangale and pearse (2014), which identified the importance of mentors and colleagues for successful leadership development. relationships need to extend to multiple levels, including not only vertical and horizontal relations but also external relations. hill (2006) described this as a ‘web of relations’. it is important to note that none of the themes that emerged can be viewed in isolation and are all linked. to relinquish power, it requires a level of trust, and to develop trust, one needs to build solid relations. these complex issues cannot be viewed as sequential and methodical in nature and require a high level of psychosocial skills. letting go of power and control, the importance of relationships and building trust are components of ‘emotional intelligence’ referred to in the literature review. successful leaders are self-aware, empathetic and possess social skills (goleman, 1998). building trust in a south african context takes particular skill and effort, given the country’s history of conflict and division. referring to nelson mandela’s leadership style, pietersen (2015) identified ‘interpersonal leadership’ – the capacity to understand others and bring out the best in them as one of mandela’s key attributes. the change in oneself and one’s identity was a theme that emerged during the interviews. some respondents reported feelings of insecurity, given that they were in unfamiliar territory. a strong theme that emerged was the need to adapt to the new environment: ‘… i think 99% of the time the guys that move into general management for the first time are completely overwhelmed … you are treading water just faster and faster’. despite the insecurities experienced by the participants, most of the interviewees displayed high levels of self-awareness. while they were questioning their own change in identity and who they were, they were aware of this self-reflection process. participants also made mention of the fact that their mentors had played an important part in the process. a key observation that emerged from the findings was the new level of responsibility that the general managers had to assume. they were now responsible for the ‘whole’, as opposed to only themselves as individuals: ‘… so having a heavy burden to bear does change how you look at things and does change you subtly’. interviewees also referred to feelings of loneliness, and the courage required to handle it. specific skills and behaviours which would be required by the aspiring general managers were the ability to communicate, build relationships and develop trust, let go and delegate, and have confidence in oneself. the research probed the need to shift to strategic thinking and the challenges associated with adopting a different perspective (boal, 2000; kaplan & kaiser, 2003; waldman & bowen, 2016; watkins, 2012). it was important to understand to what extent the previous focus on highly operational, functional and tactical elements might impede the shift to strategic thinking (casey & goldman, 2010). the interviews revealed that there are differing views on what the shift to a strategic perspective entails, with no definitive conclusion. there was agreement that there must be an element of operational and tactical decision making to make strategic decisions. however, some interviewees felt that the senior manager’s role was primarily executing on the strategy, whereas others reflected that they should be involved in strategy formulation and execution. the literature is unanimous about the fact that a shift is required. watkins (2012) described it as the shift from ‘tactician to strategist’, whereas kaplan and kaiser (2003) referred to a need for a ‘strategic leadership’ approach at the general management level. interviewees all recognised the need to develop appropriate skills for the new role and the need to develop strategic perspectives. the areas of financial management skills and human capital management were considered to be the most important areas requiring development: ‘… the people challenge … for me has been the biggest challenge because i struggle with that’. burke (2006), de meuse et al. (2011), freedman (2005) and ibarra et al. (2008) also referred to the need to develop the appropriate skills to facilitate the transition to general management. interviewees reported that one of the biggest challenges in being able to adopt a strategic perspective was the ability to do so without having all the necessary information at their disposal. the most significant aspect was having to make decisions with incomplete information. the participants shared how they learned to gather information through ongoing learning, observation, informal channels and interactions. they emphasised the challenge of making decisions with less and less information. this is consistent with the literature, which suggests a process of having to know ‘more and more about less and less’ (fauconnier, 2014). the shift to a strategic perspective is one of the more significant distinctions between a manager and a leader (goldman & casey, 2010). the manager may be extremely good at execution but may fail to make the shift to being able to adopt a strategic thinking perspective. interviewees agreed that there is a need for development assistance to acquire the necessary skills and the ability to think strategically. the framework proposed by pietersen (2015) based on his analysis of mandela’s leadership style encapsulates key elements identified in the research: leaders need to master three domains – leadership of self, interpersonal leadership and strategic leadership. the fourth research question dealt with the effectiveness of leadership development programmes. writers such as tucker (2013) and prager (2016) have referred to a ‘crisis of leadership’ and questioned the effectiveness of management courses in dealing with this. the literature also provides contrasting views on the development of leaders and suggests that there is a need for further research in this area (avolio, walumbwa & weber, 2009; burke, 2006; day & harrison, 2007; phillips, ray & phillips, 2016). it has been established that a manager needs to go through multiple change processes as part of the transition. however, the interviews confirmed that it is a deeply personal journey. it is not possible to rely solely on training programmes; a lot of what has to be learned can only come about through experience (hall, 2008). interviewees suggested that development programmes should focus on creating an awareness of what the manager will need to go through so that they are partially prepared and have some idea of what to expect. ibarra et al. (2008) agreed that the focus of development must extend beyond training on skills and abilities, and must incorporate psychosocial aspects and processes. there was significant support from interviewees for the observation that personal and self-driven development initiatives are an essential aspect. this is consistent with the literature that also suggests the need for further research in respect of aligning personal development, leadership development and leadership effectiveness (ibarra et al., 2008; joiner & josephs, 2007; khoreva & vaiman, 2015). building on the participant’s feedback, a consolidated training process would include elements of formal training programmes, mentoring or coaching, practical skills development and informal aspects as illustrated in figure 4. figure 4: consolidated leadership development. the emphasis placed on coaching, mentoring and relationships in the interviews aligns with the notion of focusing on how leaders are taught, as opposed to what they are taught (hackman & wageman, 2007). culture and diversity were highlighted by some as issues unique to south african managers who are transitioning to general management. others argued that many countries also have challenges associated with culture and diversity. there was some support for the fact that the south african environment is more dynamic and less structured, thus enabling managers to use more initiative. nkomo and kriek (2011) drew attention to the importance of ‘change leadership’ in the south african context and identified four themes that are also relevant to the findings in this study: embracing change, providing hope, connecting change to african values and culture, and championing diversity. black economic empowerment was also raised as a unique challenge for south african general managers. however, as noted above, it could also be argued that this is applicable to multiple levels of management transitions and not just the general manager level. the other aspect of black economic empowerment impacting the transition is the challenge associated with having to deal with compliance issues. the manager may not have been prepared to deal with multiple compliancy issues; however, it could be claimed that this is part of the new responsibility that comes with the new role. the concept of being responsible for a ‘compliance’ issue is not new, and it is only the individual compliancy issue itself, that may be unique. the theme of transformation was related to issues of race and promotion, and how to deal with the challenges this exerts on issues such as performance management. however, once again, many managers around the globe who are transitioning to general management will face issues of dealing with different demographic factors. perhaps, the only level of uniqueness is the extent to which these factors may differ from country to country. limitations and recommendations a limitation of the research is the fact that 19 senior executives were interviewed for the study. future research could broaden the scope to include more respondents. in addition, more general managers who had recently made the transition could be added to the sample. the findings of the research demonstrate the challenges faced by managers making the transition to general management. they reinforce the findings of previous research (ibarra et al., 2008; sparrow & makram, 2015), which identifies this transition as one of the most difficult to make in a manager’s career. south african organisations need to recognise the importance of facilitating this shift, and this study makes numerous practical suggestions as to the developmental programmes and processes, which can be implemented. potential general managers also need to understand the challenges they will face and the steps they can take to succeed. conclusion south african organisations face the challenge of developing employees at all levels if the country is to be globally competitive. there is a shortage of skilled workers, while supervisory and middle management levels are stretched and often lack the experience of their counterparts in developed economies. this study has focused on a critical level – general management – and the challenges of developing this leadership level within organisations. the south african context adds its own complexities, for example, the urgent need for transformation. a holistic approach is needed, which addresses elements ranging from education and mentoring, to providing appropriate work experience, to developing the skills, attitudes and personal characteristics to succeed as a general manager. newly appointed general managers need to learn how to let go of control while maintaining ownership, build relationships and deal with the insecurities of making the transition. they also need to step up and make the shift from a tactical to strategic orientation and from management to leadership. they also need to realise that the decision to move from a functional role to the general management level should not be taken lightly. it is a fundamental shift requiring courage and a changed mind set. as general managers, they take on significant responsibility with many challenges but also with the opportunity to lead a part of the organisation and contribute to the growth of the economy. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions s.j.m. undertook the initial study as part of his mba integrated research report at the gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria. g.p. was the lead author who wrote up the study as an article for submission and who conducted the second review of the transcripts. k.h. was the supervisor of the mba research project and contributed to the writing of the article. references adl, r., burnett, s., & dapra, r. (2013). where have all the general managers gone? how high potentials can make the jump from functional, mid-level management faster. bts. retrieved june 26, 2016, from http://www.bts.com/docs/newsletter/bts-insights-where-have-all-the-general-managers-gone.pdf?sfvrsn=4 avolio, b.j., walumbwa, f.o., & weber, t.j. (2009). leadership: current theories, research, and future directions. annual review of psychology, 60(1), 421–449. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163621 bandow, d., & self, t.b. (2016). leadership at all levels: developing managers to develop leaders. journal of international business disciplines, 11(2), 60–74. bawany, s. (2016). nextgen leaders for a vuca world. leadership excellence essentials, 33(8), 43–44. berg, m.e., & karlsen, j.t. (2016). a study of coaching leadership style practice in projects. management research review, 39(9), 1122–1142. https://doi.org/10.1108/mrr-07-2015-0157 boal, k.b. (2000). strategic leadership research: moving on. leadership quarterly, 11(4), 515. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(00)00057-6 bonoma, t.v., & lawler, j.c. (1989). chutes and ladders: growing the general manager. sloan management review, 30(3), 27–37. burke, r.j. (2006). why leaders fail: exploring the dark side. international journal of manpower, 27(1), 91–100. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720610652862 casey, a.j., & goldman, e.f. (2010). enhancing the ability to think strategically: a learning model. management learning, 41(2), 167–185. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507609355497 chiu, c.y.c., balkinud, p., & weinberg, f. (2016). when managers become leaders: the role of manager network centralities, social power, and followers’ perceptions of leadership. leadership quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2016.05.004 day, d.v., & harrison, m.m. (2007). a multilevel, identity-based approach to leadership development. human resource management review, 17(4), 360–373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2007.08.007 de klerk, s., & stander, m.w. (2014). leadership empowerment behaviour, work engagement and turnover intention: the role of psychological empowerment. journal of positive management, 5(3), 28–45. https://doi.org/10.12775/jpm.2014.018 de meuse, k.p., dai, g., & wu, j. (2011). leadership skills across organizational levels: a closer examination. the psychologist-manager journal, 14(2), 120–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/10887156.2011.570143 de vries, m.k., sexton, j.c., & ellen, b.p, iii. (2016). destructive and transformational leadership in africa. insead working papers collection, no. 45, pp. 1–38 insead, fontainebleau, france. drotter, s. (2010). leadership pipeline. leadership excellence, 27(8), 11–12. drotter, s., & charan, r. (2001). building leaders at every level. ivey business journal, 65(5), 21. fauconnier, c. (2014). the role of the general manager and the pitfalls of the transition. johannesburg: lecture-general management programme, gordon institute of business science. freedman, a.m. (1998). pathways and crossroads to institutional leadership. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 50(3), 131–151. https://doi.org/10.1037/1061-4087.50.3.131 freedman, a.m. (2005). swimming upstream: the challenge of managerial promotions. in r.b. kaiser (ed.), filling the leadership pipeline (pp. 25–44). greensboro, nc: centre for creative leadership. freedman, a.m. (2011). some implications of validation of the leadership pipeline concept: guidelines for assisting managers-in-transition. the psychologistmanager journal, 14(2), 140–159. https://doi.org/10.1080/10887156.2011.570146 goldman, e., cahill, t., & filho, r.p. (2009). experiences that develop the ability to think strategically. journal of healthcare management, 54(2), 140–159. goldman, e., wesner, m., & karnchanomai, o. (2013). reciprocal peer coaching: a critical contributor to implementing individual leadership plans. human resource development quarterly, 24(1), 63–87. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21153 goldman, e.f., & casey, a. (2010). building a culture that encourages strategic thinking. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 17(2), 119–128. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051810369677 goldsmith, m., & reiter, m. (2007). what got you here won’t get you there. new york: hyperion. goleman, d. (1998). what makes a leader? harvard business review, 76(6), 93–102. goleman, d., boyatzis, r.e., & mckee, a. (2013). primal leadership: unleashing the power of emotional intelligence. boston, ma: harvard business review press. gosling, j., & mintzberg, h. (2003). the five minds of a manager. harvard business review, 81(11), 54–63. hackman, j.r., & wageman, r. (2007). asking the right questions about leadership. american psychologist, 62(1), 43–47. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.62.1.43 hall, g. (2008). inside the theory of u. reflections, 9(1), 41–46. hall, r.d., & rowland, c.a. (2016). leadership development for managers in turbulent times. journal of management development, 35(8), 942–955. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd-09-2015-0121 hellriegel, d., jackson, s., & slocum, j. (2005). management: a competency-based approach. (9th edn.). mason, ia: south-western. hill, l. (2003). becoming a manager: how new managers master the challenges of leadership. (2nd edn.). boston, ma: harvard business school press. hill, l. (2006). exercising moral courage: a developmental agenda. chap. 12 in moral leadership: the theory and practice of power, judgment, and policy, edited by deborah l. rhode, 267–290. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass, 2006. hiller, n.j., dechurch, l.a., murase, t., & doty, d. (2011). searching for outcomes of leadership: a 25-year review. journal of management, 37(4), 1137–1177. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310393520 ibarra, h., snook, s., & ramo, l.g. (2008). identity-based leader development. insead working papers collection, no. 32, pp. 1–36, insead, fontainebleau, france. joiner, w.b., & josephs, s.a. (2007). leadership agility: five levels of mastery for anticipating and initiating change. (1st edn.). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. kaiser, r.b. (2011). the leadership pipeline: fad, fashion, or empirical fact? an introduction to the special issue. the psychologist-manager journal, 14(2), 71–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/10887156.2011.570126 kanyangale, m., & pearse, n. (2014). developing leadership competencies: insights from emergent junior talent-in-transitions in south africa. international journal of organizational leadership, 3, 56–79. kaplan, r.e., & kaiser, r.b. (2003). developing versatile leadership. mit sloan management review, 44(4), 19–26. kates, a., & downey, d. (2005). the challenges of general manager transitions. in r.b. kaiser (ed.), filling the leadership pipeline (pp. 45–68). greensboro, nc: centre for creative leadership. keiser, k., pich, m.t., & schecter, i.j. (2015). becoming a top manager: tools and lessons for transitioning into general management. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. kilner, a. (2015). manager or specialist. which role is most suitable for you? holistic marketing management, 5(1), 6–10. khoreva, v., & vaiman, v. (2015). intent vs. action: talented employees and leadership development. personnel review, 44(2), 200–216. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-10-2013-0191 lazear, e.p. (2004). the peter principle: a theory of decline. journal of political economy, 112(1), s141–s163. https://doi.org/10.1086/379943 lord, r.g., & hall, r.j. (2005). identity, deep structure and the development of leadership skill. leadership quarterly, 16(4), 591–615. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.06.003 maroun, n. (2014). role modeling key to valuable leadership. retrieved january 18, 2015, from http://lrmg.co.za/news/entry/role-modeling-key-to-valuable-leadership mccall, m.w., jr. (2004). leadership development through experience. academy of management executive, 18(3), 127–130. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2004.14776183 mintzberg, h. (1973). the nature of managerial work. new york: harper & row. mumford, t.v., campion, m.a., & morgeson, f.p. (2007). the leadership skills strataplex: leadership skill requirements across organizational levels. leadership quarterly, 18(2), 154–166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2007.01.005 nicholson, h., & carroll, b. (2013). identity undoing and power relations in leadership development. human relations, 66(9), 1225–1248. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726712469548 nkomo, s.m., & kriek, d. (2011). leading organizational change in the ‘new’ south africa. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 84, 453–470. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.2011.02020.x pietersen, w. (2015). what nelson mandela taught the world about leadership. leader to leader, 76, 60–66. https://doi.org/10.1002/ltl.20180 phillips, p., ray, r., & phillips, j.j. (2016). how to capture the business value of leadership development. people & strategy, 39(2), 46–51. prager, h. (2016). how do we fix our leadership crisis? talent development, 70(3), 30–34. reimer, d., & meighan, s. (2017). navigating the risks of leadership transitions. people and strategy, 40(1), 40–45. saunders, m., & lewis, p. (2012). doing research in business and management. edinburgh: pearson. sokol, m. (2017). leadership transitions: common traps and timeless tactics. people and strategy, 40(1), 14–17. sparrow, p.r. & makram, h. (2015). what is the value of talent management? building value-driven processes within a talent management architecture. human resource management review, 25(3), 249–263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.04.002 tan, b. (2014). successful leadership transition. training & development (1839–8561), 41(2), 24–25. thomas, r.j. (2008). crucibles of leadership development. mit sloan management review, 49(3), 15–18. tucker, e. (2013). what’s behind the leadership shortage? retrieved july 20, 2014, from http://www.hci.org/blog/whats-behind-leadership-shortage waldman, d.a., & bowen, d.e. (2016). learning to be a paradox-savvy leader. academy of management perspectives, 30(3), 316–327. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2015.0070 warner, m., & witzel, m. (1997). general management: back to the future. human systems management, 16(4), 263–276. watkins, m.d. (2012). how managers become leaders. harvard business review, 90(6), 64–72. 6duplessis.qxd the purpose of this study is to develop a holistic diagnostic tool to measure the operational project management culture in organisations. in order to develop a diagnostic measurement tool, the literature on scale development had to be explored and thoroughly understood. the literature study reveals a variety of often conflicting theoretical positions and a lack of empirical support for many of the measures of organisational culture. the development of a project management culture assessment tool should therefore reflect the emerging research perspectives on organisational culture, project management culture and scale development. the literature was surveyed from a multi-disciplinary point of view to ensure a thorough theoretical foundation. this is especially necessary to overcome negative critiques on the development of organisational culture tools and in this instance the project management culture assessment tool and the dimensions included in the instrument. the model or theoretical framework on which this assessment tool was developed is based on intensive previous research by du plessis (2001, 2003). one of the main problems related to research in this field is that project management culture has not been clearly defined. research conducted in the field of project management culture is limited and focuses mainly on sub-sections of project management culture such as project management profession culture (wang, 2001), project team culture (gray & larson, 2003) a supportive project environment (graham & englund, 1997), or the role that the project manager, project team, systems and process play on project success (kendra & taplin, 2004). many authors in project management use the terms ‘project culture’, ‘project management culture’ and ‘organisational culture’ interchangeable. these terms are related, because it refers to culture, but do not have the same meaning as it is conducted within a different context. in essence, ‘organisational culture’ refers to a system of shared norms, beliefs, values and assumptions that bind people together within the organisation (ball & asbury, 1989; schein, 1984). the organisational cult ure directs the behaviour of its members and is thus manifested in the verbal and non-verbal behaviour of its members. the literat ure states that organisational cult ure does contribute towards business success (ashkanasy, wilderom & peterson, 2000; furnham & gunter, 1993; kotter & heskett, 1992). ‘project culture’ refers to the culture within a project, thus the behaviour of the project team members, and contributes towards project success (cleland, 1994; turner & simister, 2000). ‘project management culture’ is viewed as the broader construct of behaviour of all stakeholders within an organisational setting where project work has to be delivered (du plessis, 2001) and is by nature systemic and consists of interdependent parts (kerzner, 1997). in order to address the fragmented nature of previous research on project management culture, an operational project management culture framework was developed by du plessis (2001; 2003). the term ‘project management culture’ in organisations should be viewed as a holistic phenomenon, inclusive of strategies, structures, systems, processes, people's behaviour and the environment in which the project has to be delivered (du plessis, 2003). the operational organisational culture definition by deal and kennedy (1982), “the way we do things around here” was used as base to construct an operational project management culture definition and framework. this project management culture framework, as reflected in figure 1, consists out of four main dimensions: project processes (the way), people in projects (we), systems and struct ures used in project management (do things) and the project environment (around here). the project process dimension included descriptive elements such as project life-cycle phases; results and speed of delivery; controlled/disciplined procedures; learning and continuous improvement and customer orientation and systems thinking. the people dimension referred to aspects such as people’s behaviour in projects, socio-cultural aspects such as interpersonal relationships, stakeholder commitment, affinity for conflict, learning orientation, results orientation, open-systems thinking, team orientation and interdependence. the systems and structure dimension referred to yvonne du plessis crystal hoole yvonne.duplessis@up.ac.za department of human resources management university of pretoria abstract the growing interest in project management as a management approach requires organisations to adopt an operational culture that supports project management principles and practices. the availability of an empirically developed assessment tool would enable organisations to assess their present organisational culture's readiness for project work. the aim of this study is to develop a diagnostic instrument that can measure the operational ‘project management culture’ in organisations. the final tool (pmcat) comprises of a five-factor scale. the overall reliability of the items in this scale was highly acceptable with a cronbach alpha above 0,70. the tool has a high validity with a interitem correlation above 0,32. key words project management culture, diagnostic assessment tool the development of a diagnostic ‘project management culture’ assessment tool (part 2) 44 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (1), 44-51 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (1), 44-51 aspects such as project methodology, tools and techniques used in project management. the environment dimension related to internal and external aspects influencing the way in which the project is being managed: such as strategic emphasis, upper management support; project planning support; customer/end-user support; project execution support; communication and information f low across boundaries and general organisational support with project execution. figure 1: project management culture dimensions research design research approach this study is methodological, and can be classified as an exploratory and descriptive study, as it aims to develop and validate a new instrument. both inductive and deductive modes of reasoning are used (mouton, 2005). hofstede and neuijen (1990) suggest that in measuring organisational culture it is advisable to start “with a qualitative orientation and then followed up with a quantitative verification. determine which operationable and independent dimensions can be used to measure them, and how do these dimensions relate to what is known about organisations from existing theory and research”. in measuring project management culture, a similar approach should be adopted. the research methodology used in developing a scale instrument is therefore inclusive of qualitative and quantitative methods. the process of scale development, as described by de vellis (1991) and supported by clark and watson (1995), was used as theoretical base for developing the project management culture assessment tool in this study. de vellis (1991) states that in the 'quantification of a particular phenomenon in research where there are either inappropriate or unavailable measurement tools, the development of a measurement instrument seems to be the only option'. the social sciences often measure elusive, intangible phenomena derived from multiple, evolving theories and thus pose a clear challenge to research (de vellis, 1991). therefore knowledge about the specific phenomenon or construct being studied is probably the most important consideration in developing a measurement scale. research methodology participants two different sampling groups were used, one group for the verification part of the theoretical construct and another for the development of the assessment tool. the biographical information of the sample groups can be seen in table 1 and 2. the sample group for the verification part of the study comprised of seventy (70) project management experts who were practicing project managers and academics in project management from various south african industries and academic institutions. these individuals are viewed as experts who practice project management in the broader project management field, from a technical, process and research point of view. participants were chosen non-randomly. a criterion in the participant selection was that all the participants had to be experienced in project management, either as project manager or as project team member for at least five years and have a project management qualification. of the 70 questionnaires sent out, 52 were returned unspoiled. the number of responses (n=52), represents a 74% response rate. table 1 biographic information on the project management expert sample (n = 52) type of 1. service (e.g. banking, education, government) 24 industry 2. technical (e.g) engineering/manufacturing) 28 type of a. technical (‘hard-side’ e.g. production, 22 projects manufacturing) b. non-technical (‘soft-side’ e.g. processes, 30 service delivery) years of projects 5-10 yrs 11-15 yrs 16-20 yrs 21+ yrs work experience 6 17 19 10 qualification bachelor’s honour’s master’s doctoral degree degree degree degree 4 18 24 6 the respondents represented both the technical (‘hard side') and non-technical ('soft side') of projects. it is clear from the biographical information in table 1 that the sample group is well educated and experienced in the field of project management across a broad spectrum of industrial sectors. the respondents are all well-qualified: more than 50% have master's or doctoral degrees and more than 80% have in excess of ten years of project experience. a valid assumption can be made about their expertise and balanced representation of technical (54%) and non-technical (46%) industries regarding their viewpoints on the validity of the theoretical construct. the sample group for the development of the assessment tool made use of 494 practicing project managers and experienced project team members. they were non-randomly chosen from a database of students who had successfully completed project management training, during 1999-2001 at the university of pretoria, and who were working in project environments. the rule of thumb in scale development is that approximately 300 responses are necessary to successfully factorise items (de vellis, 1991). however, since the items in the questionnaire were divided into sub-scales on the basis of the theoretical model of du plessis (2003), the number of responses could be less than 300 (the “rule of thumb” often used is five responses per item) (gorsuch, 1997). the maximum number of items per sub-scale was 48; therefore the minimum number of responses needed was 240 (5x48). of the 494 questionnaires sent out, 236 were returned unspoiled. the number of unspoiled responses (n = 236) represents a response rate of 48%. this number of responses was adequate to continue with scale development. the biographical information in table 2 indicates that the sample group is experienced in project management. it also shows that the sample group represented a total industry perspective across various cultural groupings (especially relevant in the south african context). project management culture (part 2) 45 measuring instrument scale development step 1: determine the purpose of what is to be measured a thorough theoretical base must be developed as an aid to clarity, therefore the theoretical framework must be clear and the boundaries of the phenomenon to be tested must be identified. if there is no theory available to guide the research, a conceptual framework must be developed before developing the scale instrument. a tentative theoretical model, based on a thorough literature review, must be specified to serve as a guide to scale development. thinking through and not just about the theoretical issues and understanding the underlying constructs prior to entering into the process of scale construction increases the likelihood that the resulting scale will contribute to theory. a general definition (broader description) or a specific (narrow) set of measurement must be done. an active decision should be taken about the specific purpose of the instrument. it is not enough to generate a set of items and then see whether they fit the purpose. scale specificity can vary along a number of dimensions, including content domains, setting (specific environment) or population. be clear about what to include in a measure, as well as what to exclude. thus make sure the underlying construct is well defined and is focused on the main purpose. step 2: generate an item pool the goal is to arrive at a set of items, some of which indicate a high level of latent variable when endorsed and others with a high level of latent variable when not endorsed. choose items that reflect the scale's purpose. devellis, (1991) mentioned the rule: 'start with 40 items and end with 10 items'. however, in the elimination process ensure that the theoretical construct is not lost because of removing items unnecessarily (hofstede & neuijen, 1990). each content area must be well represented in the initial item pool. this process is referred to as the 'theoretical-rationale or deductive method' of scale development (clark & watson, 1995). an ideal to strive for is that every item should be accounted for based on the theoretical construct to ensure content validity. good scale construction is an evolving and iterative process. items should also be written well, ensuring that the items are easy to read and to comprehend. step 3: determine the format for measurement usually two dominant response formats are used in assessments, dichotomous 'true-false or yes-no' scales and the likert-type rating scales. the likert–type scale is viewed as a more acceptable and appropriate measurement scale, because it provides a wider choice of options and is thus more reliable and stable. a desirable quality of a measurement scale is variability. the number of response options included in the likert-type scale also needs careful consideration to fit the research. equal number options can result in respondents' falling on one side, whereas midrange options can result in respondents' choosing the middle option. step 4: have initial item pool reviewed by a pool of experts it is advisable to have the initial item pool validated by a pool of experts who can add value by: � confirming or invalidating the inclusion of an item; � evaluating the items' clarity and conciseness; and/or � pointing out ways to expand items. lawshe's (1975) quantitative approach to the content validity of items was applied in this study. the judgment of subject matter experts in the field, are regarded as the highest authority to challenge the 'purported content validity of the test'. the formula for content validity is expressed as a ratio, the 'content validity ratiocvr'. cvr = ne-n/2 n/2 where; ne = number of respondents who indicate the item as essential n = the total number of respondents the cvr is negative if fewer than half say an item is 'essential', and positive when more than half say it is 'essential'. thus, the more respondents over 50%, perceive the item as 'essential', the greater the extent or degree of its content validity. therefore the content validity ratio (cvr) is an item statistic that is useful in the rejection of specific items from the initial item pool and the computation of the content validity index (cvi – the mean of the cvr values retained in the test) for the whole item pool . du plessis, hoole46 table 2 boigraphical information on the scale development sample group of project managers and project team members (n = 236) age (years) < 25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 55 + 1 54 72 43 35 20 5 6 gender male = 193 female = 43 economic sector primary sector secondary sector tertiary sector government services other 18 93 90 28 7 qualification std 10 post-school bachelor's honours master's doctoral diploma/ degree degree degree degree certificate 0 33 85 68 47 5 work history (n of years) < 6 mo. 6 mo-2 yrs 2-5 yrs 5-10 yrs 10-15 yrs 15-20 yrs 20-25 yrs over 25 yrs 1 5 35 66 58 42 12 17 marital status single married divorced widow/widower co-habitating 61 164 10 0 1 home language afrikaans english isixhosa tshivenda isizulu isindebele sepedi xitsonga setswana seswati other 111 78 8 2 11 1 4 1 2 2 14 years as team member 7,5 (mean) years as project manager 5,8 (mean) step 5: consider the inclusion of validated items ensure that the items are valid by conducting applicable validity tests to check: � content validity (representative sample of items); � criterion validity (predictive validity, which is more a practical than scientific validity); and � construct validity (theoretical relationship of a variable to other variables). step 6: administer the items to a development sample include the validated items in the questionnaire, together with new items (if applicable) and expose it to a sample of subject experts. the sample size recommended by de vellis (1991) as well as clark and watson (1995) are around 300 respondents. step 7: evaluate the items evaluate the items to determine which ones to include or retain from the item pool. clark and watson (1995) recommended an inter-item correlation of 0,15 to 0,5. the ultimate goal of scale development according to clark and watson (1995) is to maximize validity rather than reliability. internal consistency reliability is concerned with the homogeneity of the items comprising a scale and is typically equated with the cronbach’s coefficient alpha. item-scale correlation indicates to what degree items inter-correlate with each other. the items with an alpha correlation of 0.70 and higher are viewed as acceptable (cortina, 1993). step 8: optimise scale length using factor analysis at this stage the pool of items should demonstrate acceptable reliability. factor analysis should now be used to optimise the scale length. hair, anderson, tatham and black (1998) describe factor analysis, as 'a generic name given to a class of multivariate statistical methods whose primary purpose is to define the underlying structure in a data matrix'. thus its purpose is to construct common underlying dimensions in which the individual items can be grouped. factor analysis could have an exploratory or confirmatory perspective. exploratory factor analysis (efa) is useful in searching for structure among a set of variables. confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) assesses the degree to which the data fits the expected struct ure, as supported by literat ure or prior research. factor analysis generally requires the number of cases to be much larger than the number of variables, although various authors remain vague on the allowable limit: 'unfortunately, nobody has yet worked out what a safe ratio of the number of subjects to variables is' (gorsuch, 1983). a ratio of five to ten subjects per item is advised by de vellis (1991). a general conclusion stated in gorsuch (1997) is that the “sample size needed is a function of the stability of a correlation coefficient without any correction needed for the number of variables”. kaiser’s eigenvalue rule is used to extract the factors that explain more variance (kaiser, 1970). eigenvalues higher than 1.0 can be considered for inclusion as a factor. the reason for wanting a large number of subjects is that factors can become unstable and unduly dependent on the interpretation of individual respondents. to avoid such pitfalls it is therefore wise to keep the number of factors small, – much smaller than the number of cases and smaller than what is technically possible based on 'eigenvalues' larger than 1,0. also, one should only consider variables with loadings higher than 0,50 on a factor. however one should keep the underlying theoretical construct in mind (hofstede & neuijen, 1990). the complexity of the construct and research questions in this study necessitated the use of a triangulation approach (multiple methods), as expressed in the literature review. figure 2: research design and process this research process was therefore divided into three stages as illustrated in figure 2, being: � a literature study that was done to comprehend the context of the multidisciplinary fields involved and to provide a clear theoretical framework as the basis on which the desired project management culture assessment tool could be developed. � verification of the project management culture framework and elements developed by du plessis (2003). this verification was done by project management experts. this stage involved the use of a qualitative perception questionnaire and some means of quantification utilising lawshe's (1975) quantitative approach to content validity. � project management culture assessment tool development by utilising research inputs from previous researchers as mentioned in the literature. methods of data gathering and analysis of data the method of data gathering in the verification part of the theoretical construct was done by distributing a sur vey questionnaire containing the framework and descriptive elements identified by du plessis (2003). this was distributed electronically to each individual and controlled to avoid duplication. the respondents had to evaluate the content in terms of their perception as experts in the field of project management. an open section was also available for the respondent to add any possible elements, not included, that might be viewed as important in describing a project management culture. the questionnaires were received electronically and noted to avoid double counting. the data was analysed by using lawshe’s (1975) content validity technique. the validity of the items at this stage of the research was ensured by applying � content validity criteria to ensure that the sample of items are representative of project management culture as perceived by experts; and � criterion validity to ensure that the items are practical and reflected the theory. the method of data gathering in the tool development part was based on steps 6 to 8 of de vellis (1991). a sur vey questionnaire was used, comprising of 135 items derived from the data received and feedback from the experts in the verification part. a likert-type rating scale, with an unequal 1-5 agreement format, was chosen. it was noted that the mid-range option of 3 in the scale could lead to respondents choosing the middle option; however, equal number options could have resulted in respondents' falling to one side. data was gathered by distributing the survey questionnaire either by electronic-mail or by hand to the representative sample group of 494. project management culture (part 2) 47 the process steps in scale development indicated by de vellis (1991) and supported by clark and watson (1995) were applied. the 236 respondents' data (unspoiled returns) were analysed by means of a mainframe computer, assisted by the statisticians of the department of statistics at the university of pretoria. the statistical programmes that were used are the sas (1999) and bmdp (1993). item analysis on the initial 135 items was done, per construct in the theoretical model, to determine construct validity by means of a pearson correlation. items with an item-scale correlation of � 0,32 were eliminated from the item pool. each of the four theoretical constructs/dimensions (project process, people in projects, project systems and structure, and project environment) in the framework developed by du plessis (2003) was subjected to exploratory factor analysis (efa), using the bmdp (1993). this was done to determine the underlying factor structure. the factors with eigenvalues of 1,0 and higher indicated on the scree plot were considered and were further subjected to factor analysis. the high level of interdependence amongst the items necessitated the use of principal factor analysis with direct quartimin rotation of the items. the sorted rotated factor loading pattern was evaluated and items with a factor loading < 0,5 (without influencing the theoretical construct of a holistic measurement tool) were eliminated. this is in line with the recommendations of hofstede and neuijen (1990). a cronbach alpha coefficient for each factor was set at >0,7. it is noted that the closer to 1,0 the alpha was, the better, but the theoretical basis of the tool should also be supported as a holistic tool (clark & watson, 1995). confirmatory factor analysis of the individual scales was conducted to determine if the factors fit the construct. the final scale with factors (the test instrument or assessment tool) derived from this research process, was subjected to item analysis to confirm the item correlation and to ensure that the final item correlation was � 0,32. procedure duncan (1984) argues that the roots of measurement lie in social processes and that these processes and measurement actually precede science: 'all measurement…is social measurement. physical measures are made for social purposes' (duncan, 1984). whatever the initial motive of measurement, each area of science develops its own set of measurement procedures. in the social sciences, a typical measurement procedure is the use of questionnaires, and the variables of interest are part of a broader theoretical framework (de vellis, 1991), which is indeed the process used in this study. since scale development is viewed as complex, the advise given by clark and watson (1995) on validit y and the basic issues in scale development, as well as the eight steps described by de vellis (1991) on the development of a scale instrument, also supported by clark and watson (1995) were used in this study. results the results of the content validity of project management culture dimensions and associated descriptive elements as perceived by project management experts can be seen in table 3. the findings in table 3 show that experts might not regard the 'project environment' as such an important dimension in relation to the other three dimensions (project process, people in projects, and project systems and structure). this finding was to be expected, because attention to a holistic view is often neglected in project management, due to a more internal focus on the operational project environment and not on the project management environment. however, the results from the descriptive elements, within the project environment dimension, reveal respondents' acceptance of almost all the elements. thus project environment still seems relevant as a dimension in the model and is thus not excluded. table 3 content validity of project management culture dimensions and associated descriptive elements as perceived by project management experts n = total respondents (52) dimensions and descriptive elements of ne = number of respondents a project management culture cvr = ne – n/2 n/2 cvr = content validity cvr >50% or 0,50 acceptable what is the relevance of the following ne cvr dimensions and elements with regard to contributing towards a project management culture that leads to project success: a. process (the manner in which the project 52 1,0 is designed, planned, and executed and controlled-monitored). b. people (project stakeholders) 44 0,85 c. structure and systems (project methodology) 32 0,62 d. environment (internal and external) 20 0,38 content validity sixty-three (63) out of the sixty-six (66), thus 95% of the descriptive elements included in the survey questionnaire assessing the validity have a content validity ratio of higher than 0,50. the content validity index is 70%. this shows that the theoretical construct of the project management culture framework and descriptive elements are viewed as valid and thus acceptable and can be used in an assessment tool. item analysis the valid descriptive elements derived from the verification analysis were used to compile a 135 items survey questionnaire (variables), divided into a theoretical construct, based on the four dimension model/framework developed by du plessis (2001, 2003) which can be seen in table 4. table 4 number of items within the four-dimension theoretical construct 1 2 3 4 project process people in projects project systems project and structure environment 40 29 48 18 total number of items = 135 number of respondents = 236 each of the four theoretical constructs was subjected to item analysis, using sas (1999). the items with a total item correlation of � 0,32 using pearson's correlation technique were eliminated from the project management culture model within the four dimension theoretical construct. the results from the item analysis are: � project process construct five (5) of the initial 40 items were eliminated, leaving 35 items. � people in projects eight (8) of the initial 29 items were eliminated, leaving 21 items. du plessis, hoole48 � project structure and systems thirteen (13) of the initial 48 items were eliminated, leaving 35 items. � project environment two (2) of the initial 18 items were eliminated, leaving 16 items. reliability nunnally (1978) recommends a minimum level of 0,70 for a cronbach alpha coefficient. therefore the overall reliability of the items per dimension was highly acceptable, with cronbach alpha coefficients of 0,940; 0,908; 0,913 and 0,802 respectively. the results can be seen in table 5. table 5 decsriptive statistics per project management culture dimension construct/scale (n = 236) dimension scale 1 2 3 4 n of items 40 29 48 18 mean score 140,470 103,017 170,161 61,182 variance 433,995 200,406 390,425 57,259 std. dev. 20,833 14,156 19,759 7,567 skew (sk) -0,117 -0,309 -0,206 -0,430 kurtosis (ku) -0,513 -0,321 -0,087 0,588 cronbach alpha 0,940 0,908 0,913 0,802 the item inter-correlation, as ref lected in table 6 was high, which is expected of a construct that is supposed to be highly interdependent and systemic in nat ure. the remaining items under each project management culture dimension/construct were further subjected to exploratory factor analysis (efa) as reported in the following section on factor analysis. table 6 inter-correlations between items in the dimensions dimension 1 2 3 4 1 1,000 0,863 0,902 0,800 2 0,863 1,000 0,891 0,782 3 0,902 0,891 1,000 0,825 4 0,800 0,782 0,825 1,000 exploratory factor analysis a scree test was used to determine the number of factors with kaiser's eigenvalues higher than 1,0 for each theoretical construct. the factors were chosen based on the results of the scree test, their percentage variance contribution as well as their cronbach alpha coefficient. they were further subjected to factor analysis. the sorted rotated analysis results were used to analyse the factor loadings. variables with factor loadings of < 0,5 were eliminated to improve reliability, without compromising the theoretical framework of the holistic project management culture construct. the 'project systems and structure' construct divided into two separate factor scales i.e. 'project systems” and 'project structure'. the final result of the factor analyses indicated that 89 items divided into five factor scales that represented the project management culture assessment tool. the results can be seen in table 7. table 7 sorted rotated factor analysis of items of project management culture assessment tool project people in project project project process projects systems structure environment items (facitems facitems fac items facitems facn=27) tor (n=20) tor (n=15) tor (n=15) tor (n=12) tor anaanaanaanaanalysis lysis lysis lysis lysis 108 0,727 104 0,773 85 0,773 115 0,572 46 0,693 71 0,714 75 0,755 134 0,663 43 0,562 122 0,652 47 0,710 86 0,752 121 0,643 99 0,524 135 0,637 82 0,699 110 0,740 65 0,631 31 0,506 50 0,619 120 0,692 15 0,701 35 0,607 38 0,505 128 0,618 100 0,684 139 0,669 62 0,592 51 0,505 68 0,594 84 0,674 132 0,649 vv124 0,534 107 0,504 117 0,590 95 0,664 67 0,636 70 0,525 101 0,504 17 0,542 28 0,635 96 0,614 11 0,518 141 0,450 54 0,511 32 0,626 48 0,610 90 0,508 102 0,406 45 0,488 24 0,612 72 0,602 vv92 0,465 94 0,403 53 0,477 123 0,605 127 0,541 111 0,385 105 0,393 9 0,448 37 0,602 26 0,537 138 0,393 109 0,385 66 0,600 16 0,532 141 0,417 vv76 0,381 69 0,589 34 0,508 133 0,318 49 0,390 40 0,588 63 0,506 106 0,559 6 0,504 136 0,551 4 0,502 52 0,540 27 0,501 64 0,524 18 0,500 39 0,524 81 0,471 19 0,444 59 0,392 61 0,389 10 0,337 20 0,309 the final factor scale for the project management culture assessment tool can be seen in table 8. table 8 final factor scale for the project management culture assessment tool including cronbach alpha (�) factor 1 factor 2 factor 3 factor 4 factor 5 project people in project project project process projects structure systems environment � = 0,928 � = 0,915 � = 0,855 � = 0,822 � = 0,853 27 items 20 items 15 items 15 items 12 items after the completion of the exploratory factor analyses and the elimination of items confirmatory factor analysis was done on each scale. the results did not confirm that the scales were independent, which could be expected from an interdependent construct of items. a final item analysis was done on the 89 remaining items per factor root for each of the five-factor scales. the results of the final item analysis as illustrated in table 9 show that all the items have a total item correlation of > 0,32, which indicates that the items in the final tool have a high validity. project management culture (part 2) 49 table9 descriptive statistics of the final item analysis in the five-factor scale scale: 1 2 3 4 5 n of items 27 20 15 15 12 n of examinees 236 236 236 236 236 mean 96,19 71,36 54,14 55,51 43,77 variance 227,05 127,01 62,47 57,83 42,79 std. dev. 15,068 11,270 7,904 7,605 6,542 skew -0,144 -0,267 -0,119 -0,632 -0,346 kurtosis -0,471 0,427 -0,608 0,796 0,071 alpha 0,928 0,915 0,855 0,822 0,853 the descriptive statistics in table 9 show that the overall reliability of the items per dimension is highly acceptable, with cronbach alpha coefficients of 0,928; 0,915; 0,855; 0,822 and 0,853 respectively, (higher than the acceptable minimum level of 0,70). the scale inter-correlation in table 10 shows that the factors are still highly inter-correlated and this can be expected from an interdisciplinary, holistic construct of factors that are systemic in nature. table 10 final scale intercorrelations factor 1 2 3 4 5 1 1,000 0,881 0,815 0,809 0,830 2 0,881 1,000 0,872 0,687 0,859 3 0,815 0,872 1,000 0,574 0,833 4 0,809 0,687 0,574 1,000 0,665 5 0,830 0,859 0,833 0,665 1,000 discussion this study aimed 'to develop a reliable holistic assessment tool for measuring the project management culture, as operational culture, in organisations'. the principles of 'good scientific research' ('high ethical standards applied, adequate analysis and findings presented unambiguously') were applied. since project management is regarded as a holistic and interdisciplinary field, applied in an open system of multiple interdependent parts (sub-systems), an assessment of a project management culture in organisations should view such a culture as a holistic phenomenon, inclusive of strategies, structures, systems, processes, people’s behaviour and the environment. the framework on project management culture serves as a multi-disciplinary construct including the different dimensions of a project management cult ure. the high interrelatedness bet ween the items of the different dimension further supports the interdependencies and interconnectivity that characterizes an open system. at the same time clear dimensions are visible indicating the construct validity of each facet. this study has contributed on multiple levels to the fields of project management and organisational behaviour. this assessment tool can measure the current project management culture (an operational culture supportive of successful projects) of organisations. it can also be used as an informative (diagnostic) tool and a development tool to identif y the areas for improvement to create a project management culture for project success. secondly, the availability of this assessment tool would enable organisations to assess or diagnose their present organisational culture's readiness for project work. the organisations that are hoping to reap the multiple benefits from getting involved in project management, will be able to use the tool “pmcat” (project management culture assessment tool) to assess their present capability and thus could improve their chances to be more successful in doing project work. the pmcat can also serve as a valuable tool for human resources management in a strategic business role where a fine balance must be struck between managing people, processes, systems and structures within a changing environment. since the tool, ‘pmcat’, does not focus on a particular industry or nationality, but on the organisation as a holistic operational entity, which has to perform in an open system, it could be used generically. gaps in the current organisational culture, with regards to improving project work, can be identified, based on the five-factor scale. these identified gaps or possible limitations in being an organisation that can support projects more successfully, can facilitate actions to improve the situation, thereby optimising project work for continuous business improvement. furthermore the body of knowledge on project management and organisational culture was expanded and serve as a valuable contribution to the theory and research base of the interdisciplinary field of project management and organisational behaviour. the project management culture assessment tool (pmcat) derived from this research should be able to distinguish between different sample groups to be useful as a diagnostic instrument. the testing and evaluation of this diagnostic assessment tool to determine whether it can differentiate between organisations having project management culture, supporting projects or not, is a logical next step. the expansion of this study to a global sample will also contribute significantly to a globally relevant ‘pmcat’. a limitation of this study is that it is not industryspecific. to be globally useful and more customised for specific industries, further research needs to be conducted. this further research is already being persued. references ashkanasy, n. k., wilderom, p.m, & peterson, m.f. (2000). handbook of organisational culture and climate. sage publications: london. ball, a. & asbury, s. (1989). the winning way. jonathan ball: johannesburg. bmdp statistical software, inc. (1993). bmdp4mfactor analysis, release 7.1, los angeles: ca. clark, l.a. & watson, d. (1995). construct validity: basic issues in objective scale development. psychological assessment, 7 (3), 309-319. cleland, d.i. (1994). project management – strategic design and implementation, 2nd ed. mcgraw-hill. cooke, r.a. & rousseau, d.m. (1988). behavioral norms and expectations: a quantitative approach to the assessment of organisational culture. group and organisation studies, 13, 245-273. cortina, j.m. (1993). what is a coefficient alpha? an examination of the theory and applications. journal of applied psychology, 78 (1), 98-104. de vellis, r.f. (1991). scale development: theory and application. applied social research method series, 26. sage publications: london. du plessis, hoole50 du plessis, y. (2001). defining the concept of “project culture” in organisations – a framework of guiding principles. unpublished mba dissertation, university of pretoria. pretoria. du plessis, y. (2003). the development of an assessment tool for measuring project management culture in organisations. unpublished ph.d thesis, university of pretoria: pretoria. duncan, o.d. (1984). notes on social measurement. historical and critical. new york: russel sage. faules, d. (1982). the use of multimethods in the organisational setting. western journal of speech communication, 42, 150 161. furnham, a. & gunter, b. (1993). corporate assessment: auditing a company’s personality. routledge: london. gorsuch, r.l. (1983). factor analysis, 2nd ed. hills-dale, nj: lawrence erlbaum. gorsuch, r.l. (1997). exploratory factor analysis: its role in item analysis. journal of personality assessment, 68 (3), 532-560. graham, r.j. & englund, r.l.(1997). creating an environment for successful projects. jossey-bass publishers: san francisco, california. gray, c.f. & larson, e.w. (2003). project management – the managerial process. irwin mcgraw-hill: usa. hair, j.f., anderson, r.e., tatham, r.l. & black, w.c. (1998). multivariate data analysis, 5th ed. prentice -hall international, inc. hofstede, g. & neuijen, b. (1990). measuring organisational cultures: a qualitative and quantitative study across twenty cases. administrative science quarterly, 35 (2), 286-316. kaiser, h.f. (1970). a second-generation little jiff y. psychometrika, 35, 401-415. kendra, k. & taplin, l.j. (2004). project success. a cultural framework. project management journal, 35 (1), 30-45. kerzner, h. (1997). project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling and controlling, 5th ed. van norstrand reinhold: new york. knutson, j. (2001). succeeding in project-driven organisationspeople, processes, and politics. john wiley & sons: new york. kotter j.p, & heskett, j.l. (1992). corporate culture and performance. new york free press. lawshe, c.h. (1975). a quantitative approach to content validity. personnel psychology, 28, 563-575. lewis, d. (1996). the organisational culture sagafrom od to tqm: a critical review of the literature. part 2application. leadership & organisation development journal, 17 (2), 9-16. mouton, j. (2005). how to succeed in your masters and doctoral studies. a south african guide and resource book. pretoria: van schaiks. nunnally, j. (1978). psychometric theory. new york: mcgraw-hill. rodrick, r. (1988). the emergent paradigm and organisational research. paper presented at the meeting of the western speech communication association convention, san diego: ca. rousseau, d.m. (1990). assessing organisational culture: the case of communication multiple methods. in b. schneider (ed.), organisational climate and culture. jossey-bass: san francisco. sas institute, inc. (1999). sas 8.2, version 8. cary, nc. schein, e h. (1984). coming to a new awareness of organisational culture. sloan management review, 25 (2), 3-15. turner, j.r. & simister, s.j. (2000). gower handbook of project management, 3rd ed. gower publishing: aldershot. wang, x. (2001). dimensions and current status of project management culture. project management journal, 32 (4), 4-17. project management culture (part 2) 51 abstract introduction research design methodology results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) lynette louw department of management, rhodes university, south africa samuel m. muriithi department of management, rhodes university, south africa sarah radloff department of statistics, rhodes university, south africa citation louw, l., muriithi, s.m., & radloff, s. (2017). the relationship between transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness in kenyan indigenous banks. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a935. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.935 original research the relationship between transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness in kenyan indigenous banks lynette louw, samuel m. muriithi, sarah radloff received: 17 mar. 2017; accepted: 22 aug. 2017; published: 21 nov. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: effective leadership is critical to the survival and growth of organisations. for such leadership to be realised, organisational leaders need to be competent in transformational leadership, which is described as a situation in which the leader and followers empower and shape each other’s behaviour to attain a desired goal. research purpose: the purpose of this study is to empirically test the relationship between transformational leadership competency and leadership effectiveness in kenyan indigenous banks. motivation for this study: in spite of the fact that indigenous banks have been performing better recently, their overall poor performance is cause for concern. this study was motivated by a desire to establish the extent to which the recent improvement is attributable to transformational leadership competency and effectiveness. it is also anticipated that this investigation can highlight aspects of leadership which require more attention in order to sustain improved performance. research design, approach and method: the study utilised a survey method to collect both quantitative and qualitative data while probability and non-probability techniques were used to sample target population. with 494 respondents targeted in the study, 257 responses were received and analysed. data analysis was performed using structural equation modelling with cronbach’s alpha, confirmatory factor analysis and goodness-of-fit indices for analysis and for testing relationships. main findings: the overall findings confirm that a strong relationship exists between transformational leadership competencies and leadership effectiveness among the leaders of the indigenous banks in kenya. practical/managerial implication: based on the findings of this study, kenyan indigenous banks are able to identify specific and essential transformational leadership competencies and leadership effectiveness attributes. contribution: the study has identified that transformational leadership abilities of inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualised consideration and idealised influence, together with the leadership effectiveness indicators of cross-cultural competency, influence, follow commitment, versatility and group organisation are essential for the effectiveness of kenyan banks. introduction the banking industry is a leading agency of commerce in industrial development (nagar, masih & badugu, 2011). however, various banking practices and behaviours have been associated with major financial crises worldwide (brunnermerier, 2009). the last six decades in particular have seen a number of international financial crises blamed on banking industry conduct, leading to poor performance by most world economies (grant thornton, 2013). banking sectors in africa have seen slow growth, with many communities yet to profit from the numerous financial benefits that can arise from banking practices. it is notable that the banking industry in africa is highly concentrated in the cities, with marginal distribution in the rural areas. the industry is also characterised by small markets, weak creditors, low income, low deposit levels, low intermediaries, lack of entry barriers, foreign bank dominancy and poor legal frameworks (mlachila, park & yaraba, 2013). these characteristics have resulted in africa being the lowest financial performer compared with the rest of the world. like many african countries characterised by poor performance, kenya has undergone several decades of financial crisis, especially between 1970 and 2005. during this period, more than 20 banks and other financial institutions went bankrupt or were put under receivership (mwangi, 2012; sokpor, 2006). the banks that failed were all locally and privately owned (also known as indigenous banks). it has been asserted that these bank failures were attributable to factors such as ineffective leadership (mwangi, 2012; njuguna, 2013), which is largely associated with the type of leadership exercised and the competencies of leaders. kenyan bank failures have also been associated with deregulation, non-performing loans, lack of internal control mechanisms and liquidity problems, all of which relate to leadership incompetency (ambutsi, 2005; waweru & kalani, 2009). leadership competency denotes the knowledge, skills, expertise, beliefs, value motives and personal behaviour characteristics that distinguish a leader (pagon, banutai & bizjak, 2008). according to al-zoubi (2012), it is the leaders’ competencies which enable them to integrate and perform set tasks while at the same time ensuring that effectiveness is attained. burns (1978) describes transformational leadership as a situation whereby leaders and followers empower each other, resulting in higher levels of morality, motivation and leadership effectiveness. scholars such as tang, yin and nelson (2010) stress that transformational leadership competency forms the basis of leadership effectiveness. such leadership effectiveness denotes the leader’s ability to exercise personal influence, skills, knowledge and abilities to accomplish expected goals or objectives (cooper, fenimore & nirenberg, 2012). johnson, lenartowicz and apud (2006) state that there is a lack of adequate research on the main determinants of leadership effectiveness. this lack of research provides a further rationale for this study which also aimed to better understand the leadership effectiveness attributes that would contribute towards the improvement of the kenyan indigenous banks’ performance. problem definition as in other parts of the world, the negative performance of the banking sector in kenya for several decades has largely been attributed to ineffective leadership (mwangi, 2012). to be effective, leaders in banking require appropriate leadership competencies in strategic thinking, technical ability and interpersonal skills; should have integrity and honesty, and team-building abilities and emotional intelligence (amos, 2012; barnes, 2013; hogan & warrenfeltz, 2003; pricewaterhousecoopers, 2011). however, it is transformational leadership that is considered critical to leadership effectiveness. a study by northouse (2013) analysing 39 studies in transformational literature found that transformational leaders were more effective and produced better results in their organisations. this sentiment is supported by weese (1994, p. 188) who emphasises that transformational leaders ‘have a positive impact on employee satisfaction, productivity and organisational effectiveness’. before 2005, the kenyan indigenous banks were said to lack the appropriate competencies to steer their banks to great heights (sokpor, 2006). this drawback was demonstrated in the poor performance of kenyan indigenous banks, leading to vast financial losses by their stakeholders and customers. despite the past performance of these banks, in recent years, the indigenous banks have performed better with many of them recording encouraging results (mwangi, 2012). however, considering their poor performance in the past, this study was motivated by a desire to establish the extent to which the recent improvement is attributable to transformational leadership competency and effectiveness. it is also anticipated that this investigation can highlight aspects of leadership which require more attention in order to sustain improved performance. in the kenyan context, although many studies exist on the banking industry, there is no specific study focusing on leadership in the banks, especially transformational leadership (hedley, white, roche & banerjea, 2006; pwc, 2007). bearing in mind the importance of transformational leadership in the quest to attain bank leadership effectiveness, it became critical to conduct a study on the relationship between transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness among kenyan indigenous banks, a sector considered instrumental to the country’s economic development. research objectives this study investigates the relationship between transformational leadership competency (independent variable) and leadership effectiveness (dependent variable) in the current kenyan indigenous banking industry. as such, the relevant research question is whether the transformational leadership competencies of the leadership in the kenyan indigenous banks are positively correlated to their leadership effectiveness and could be associated with the current positive performance of the sector. two further objectives for this study are: to determine whether there is a positive correlation between transformational leadership competency and its sub-variables, namely, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualised consideration, idealised influence (attributes) and idealised influence (behaviour). to determine whether there is a positive correlation between leadership effectiveness and its sub-variables, namely, cross-cultural competence, influence, follower commitment, versatility and group organisation. literature review and hypothesis development contextualising transformational leadership the term ‘transformation’ was first associated with downton (1973), and was popularised by burns (1978) through his research on leadership. later, the concept of transformational leadership became the focus of research as an important leadership style in both business and non-business contexts (bass & avolio, 1990; bass, waldman & avolio, 1978). for most researchers and scholars, transformational leadership refers to a leadership style in which the leader and followers empower each other in terms of a higher level of morality and motivation (burns, 1978). bass (1985) observes that transformational leadership enables leaders to exceed their expected performance. this results in enhancement of followers’ levels of trust, admiration and loyalty. it is a style that enables both the leader and followers to engage in mutually trusting commitment that generates above-normal results. while some consider transformational leadership synonymous with transactional leadership, there are in fact significant differences between the two. transactional leadership focuses on efficiency and making sure strategies are implemented at the middle and lower management levels, while transformational leadership focuses on effectiveness through creation of a harmonious working relationship between leaders and followers (edward & gill, 2012). it has been argued that leaders need to develop transformational leadership behaviour and competencies to be effective and competitive (amos, 2012). others have asserted that both transactional and transformational leadership competencies are required to ensure leaders’ effectiveness irrespective of the level in the organisation (bass & avolio, 1995). various studies have found that transactional and transformational leadership contribute to subordinate satisfaction, performance, inspiration and positive attitude among organisational membership (avolio, howell & sosik, 1999). despite support for both types of leadership competencies, transformational leadership is considered to be more critical. for instance, walumbwa, avolio and zhu (2008) note that there are numerous research focusing on effective transformational leaders and their relationship with followers. bass and avolio (1995) contend that using transformational leadership is the ideal way to help deal with contemporary business world challenges. similarly, shadraconis (2013) argues that the transformational style is effective during times of crisis as it gives organisational leaders the platform to exercise their authority and respond accordingly. this suggests that transformational leadership is appropriate to addressing the kenyan indigenous bank challenges and could be associated with the positive performance of the industry in the recent past. conceptualising transformational leadership competence transformational leadership is understood to positively affect the productivity of followers or employees, and of the overall effectiveness of the organisation (tuuk, 2012), owing to the competencies associated with this leadership style. to measure transformational leadership, scholars and researchers have over the years developed different attributes, referred to in this study as transformational leadership sub-variables (bass, 1990; bass & avolio, 1994; hall, johnson, wysocki & kepner, 2012; hayward, 2005; hebert, 2011). bass and avolio (1990, 1994) single out four main sub-variables associated with transformational leadership, namely, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualised consideration and idealised influence attributes (commonly known as the four i’s). however, a more recent study by hayward (2005) identified an additional sub-competency of idealised influence behaviour, which is included in this study as the fifth sub-competency, making a contribution to the theoretical conceptualisation of transformational leadership. the five sub-variables are discussed below. inspirational motivation denotes a leader’s ability to inspire and mentor others (bass & avolio, 1994), a task achieved through good communication skills and mentoring, visioning, corrective action and risk-taking. furthermore, the leader is a hard worker with confidence that inspires optimism among employees, especially during crises (hebert, 2011). these leaders also encourage individual championship and team spirit in order to attain set goals and realise high performance in terms of revenues and growth (hall et al., 2012). intellectual stimulation emphasises a leader’s ability to be creative and innovative (bass & avolio, 1994; hall et al., 2012) in encouraging their followers to be creative by providing a conducive environment to test and develop new ideas (bass, 1990). in a business context, this enables employees to courageously think independently of ways to improve their performance and creative ability, thereby providing solutions to critical organisational problems and challenges (bass, 1990; hebert, 2011). in terms of individual consideration, the leader is said to have the ability to assess, diagnose and evaluate employees’ individual needs rather than treating them as a group (bass & avolio, 1994). this approach ensures that the needs of individuals are identified, addressed and mentorship provided to equip employees with skills to deal with challenging opportunities or positions (bass, 1990; hall et al., 2012). idealised influence competencies relate to a leader’s ability to capture and communicate a vision and mission, successfully showing respect, building confidence and trust among followers or employees while at the same time encouraging them to pursue individual or collective goals (bass, 1995). the leader also exhibits role model behaviour and is inspirational, considerate and able to stimulate self and others in terms of creativity and innovativeness (hall et al., 2012; hebert, 2011). idealised influence behaviour focuses on the leader’s ability not only to have a vision and mission for the organisation and its members but also to demonstrate the appropriate behaviour desired for effective performance (hayward, 2005). conceptualising leadership effectiveness the term ‘effectiveness’ refers to the ability to realise set goals or objectives (yukl, 2010). in relation to leadership, effectiveness denotes a leader’s ability to steer an organisation towards attaining set goals (green, 2010; yukl, 2010). though essential to organisational performance, defining leadership effectiveness remains controversial with little agreement on the common definition both in the past and among contemporary scholars and researchers (arnold, cooper & robertson, 1998). in this regard, stogdill (1974), bass (1981) and bass (1990) catalogued and interpreted about 5000 studies where they found great differences in definition. emphasising these differences, burns (1978) notes that leadership effectiveness ‘is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth’. for example, norma (1997) and yukl (1994) defined leadership effectiveness as a process whereby one person influenced other people’s behaviour with an aim to achieve set goals. such a leader must also win the followers’ attention and commitment in order to realise set goals. for most scholars, however, leadership effectiveness is demonstrating appropriate skills, abilities, beliefs and behaviour (green, 2010; yukl, 2010) to achieve a desired goal. for this study, leadership effectiveness implies the leader’s ability to exercise personal influence, skills and abilities to accomplish expected goals or objectives (cooper et al., 2012). to measure leadership effectiveness, scholars and researchers have developed many different attributes, referred to in this study as leadership effectiveness sub-variables (epitropaki & martin, 2005; green, 2010). some of these attributes include ability to inspire a shared vision, foster unity, exercise power effectively, empower others, establish appropriate learning environment, satisfy job-related needs of employees, group organisation, follower satisfaction, follower commitment, level of impact, cross-cultural competence and versatility (green, 2010; national centre for research in vocation education, 1994; yukl, 2010). further research identified five sub-variables as most appropriate measures of leadership effectiveness, namely, cross-cultural competence, influence, follower commitment, versatility and group organisation (green, 2010). the current study used the latter five sub-variables to measure leadership effectiveness in the indigenous banking industry. the five sub-variables are discussed below. cross-cultural competence denotes the leader’s ability to work with and attain results from followers coming from different cultures (green, 2010). several studies highlight the role of cross-cultural competence in shaping the leader’s behaviour and the increasing demand to have leaders who are able to manage diversity in the workplace (earley & ang, 2003; johnson et al., 2006). for instance, yukl (2010) emphasises the importance of recognising the role of cultural competency and diversity management as influencing the leader’s behaviour. however, johnson et al. (2006) recognise that there is insufficient research on cross-cultural competence particularly in international business arenas and therefore wanting its inclusion in this study. influence implies the leader’s ability to impact on the behaviour of others to achieve the desired results (green, 2010). to be effective, a leader’s influence must make a positive impression, not only on those supervised directly but also on the whole organisation. in applying influence, leaders should show understanding and appreciation of followers in order to gain their commitment and attention. follower commitment refers to organisational members’ commitment and dedication to a common goal and objective (green, 2010). follower commitment is a key determinant of a leader’s effectiveness, and it enables attainment of set goals and objectives in unison (yukl, 2010). a leader who emphasises and supports follower commitment, results in an enthusiastic workforce full of commitment and confidence in the leader and the leadership style, leading to positive and satisfactory performance. versatility indicates the leader’s ability to work with others and obtain desired results. the concept is used in the context of obtaining results from others, especially different line managers and across departments (green, 2010). versatility is based on the increasing demand to have leaders manage people outside their traditional organisational structures or levels. group organisation refers to the way a group is organised to ensure it works effectively to achieve set goals (yukl, 2010). employees are greatly influenced by group organisation (epitropaki & martin, 2005). according to prevailing literature, there is a need to have a positive leader–subordinate relationship, if effective work is to be realised, a goal which is achievable through group organisation. similarly, the effectiveness of a leader is determined by understanding and being involved in group organisation. however, this can only be realised if the leaders and subordinates build strong mutual trust and respect, and work as a group (epitropaki & martin, 2005). yukl (2010) comments that subordinates must be satisfied with the leader if their group is to perform effectively. with increased emphasis on attaining leadership effectiveness in organisations, group organisation has become central to leadership success. theoretical overview and hypotheses development as previously mentioned, transformational leadership is a style where both leaders and followers accept, consult and work together to achieve a common goal (burns, 1978). according to the prevailing literature, transformational leadership results in understanding and change of attitude, beliefs and heart in order to realise set goals in a mutually acceptable and satisfying manner (bass, 1985). both literature and empirical evidence identify transformational leadership competencies mandatory for leaders to perform effectively, namely, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualised consideration, idealised influence (attributes) and idealised influence (behaviours) as derived from avolio and bass (2004), hall et al. (2012) and hayward (2005). several studies support transformational leadership competencies as key ingredients in ensuring leadership effectiveness (such as avolio, howell & sosik, 1999; barling, slater & kelloway, 2000; edward & gill, 2012). to demonstrate the importance of transformational leadership competency in relation to leadership effectiveness, over 500 doctoral studies have been done since 1995 (bass & avolio, 2004). from a majority of the studies, it is hypothesised that a strong relationship exists between transformational leadership competencies and leadership effectiveness (avolio & bass, 2004; edward & gill, 2012; howell & hall-marenda, 1999). based on the theoretical review, the current study hypothesises an existence of a relationship between transformational leadership competency and leadership effectiveness within the indigenous banking sector in kenya. in order to achieve the purpose of this study, the hypothesised relationship between transformational leadership (independent variable) and leadership effectiveness (dependent variable) is depicted in figure 1. figure 1: proposed hypothesised framework of the relationship between transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness. the following hypothesis is formulated and tested to establish the existence or lack of a correlation between transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness: hypothesis 1 (h1): there is a positive correlation between transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness. research design methodology this study used a positivist approach which is most suited to the quantitative nature of the data gathered to establish the relationship between transformational leadership competencies and leadership effectiveness. sampling and response rate the population in this study consisted of 30 kenyan indigenous banks and their employees. in order to participate in the study, respective market share was used to rank the banks ranging from the largest to the smallest. a sample of 15 (50%) banks was selected based on the size of their market share, with 13 of them finally participating in the study. non-probability sampling to purposely select managers or supervisors and simple random techniques to select non-managers were used, with a total of 494 participants. while 273 questionnaires were received back, only 257 were found to be usable for statistical analysis, a response of 55.3%. measuring instruments the self-administered measuring instrument consisted of a cover letter and four sections. section 1 of the questionnaire had 20 statements containing information on kenyan indigenous banking, bank existence, leadership competencies and growth. section 2 on transformational leadership competency and section 3 on leadership effectiveness had 25 statements, respectively. the measuring statements in sections 2 and 3 were made up of a multi-item labelled five-point likert-type scale. as such, respondents indicated their level of agreement with given statements, where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. section 4 focused on demographic information, ranging from sex, age, education level, work position to bank rating. research procedure in data collection prior to collecting the data, the researcher sought the permissions from the target banks for the study to be conducted. furthermore a permit was attained from the national council for science and technology (ncst), a government body responsible for research conducted in kenya. in addition the study abided by the required research ethics standards requirements at rhodes university. the questionnaire distributed was accompanied by a cover letter explaining the purpose of the research, importance of voluntary participation and confidentiality and the need for participants’ consent before participation. through the use of research assistants, some of the questionnaires were physically distributed and collected while others were administered and completed electronically as preferred by some respondents. the actual data collection took place over a period of 4 months. data analysis to ensure the desired results were attained, structural equation modelling (sem) was used for data analysis. specifically, the software program amos (ibm spss statistics, version 21, 2013) was used for the sem. the analysis included cronbach’s alpha (ca) and confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) to assess the discriminant reliability, validity of the measuring instrument and goodness-of-fit indices. from a sem perspective, a response of 257 is sufficient for analysis. according to literature, an acceptable range for analysis is between 200 and 400 responses (farrington, 2009). however, responses of between 150 and 200 have been used for analysis (loehlin, 1992). there are other studies that have similarly argued that a sample of between 100 and 200 is appropriate (hair, anderson, tatham & black, 1998). this means that the response rate used for this study is within the accepted parameters. results the descriptive statistics shows that the majority of the respondents from the current study are women (52.1%) while men account for 47.9%. the findings further indicate that most of the respondents (63.8%) were aged between 25 and 40 years, placing most of the respondents as young employees. similarly, over half of the respondents (54.4%) were university graduates. a majority (84%) worked in the banking industry for a period ranging from 1 to 10 years, of which 52.1% had worked at the bank for a period of between 1 and 5 years. another finding indicates that more than half (64.2%) of the respondents reported that their banks had experienced financial crisis. discriminant validity and reliability results in order to perform discriminant validity and reliability tests, both cfa and ca were conducted. first, cfa was conducted to establish the unique factors in the data and assess the discriminant validity of the scales measuring the independent and dependent variables. the validity of the transformational leadership competency, independent variable, termed a construct, was made up of five sub-constructs, namely, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualised consideration, idealised influence (attributes) and idealised influence (behaviour). in this study, all factor analysis scores were acceptable at 0.3 (hair, black, babin, anderson & tatham, 2006). all the transformational leadership sub-constructs were accepted after the measuring items loaded as expected and were therefore analysed further. the following cfa scores for the leadership competency sub-construct measuring scales were attained, namely, inspirational motivation (0.654), intellectual stimulation (0.545), individualised consideration (0.730), idealised influence attributes (0.700) and idealised influence behaviour (0.599). the five factors, previously referred to as sub-constructs, explain 69.3% of the variance in the data. similarly, the five sub-constructs of the dependent variable, leadership effectiveness (cross-cultural competence, influence, follower commitment, versatility and group organisation) were used in the cfa test. the result was that three of the sub-constructs loaded successfully with cfa scores of influence (0.759), follower commitment (0.752) and versatility (0.738). two factors (group organisation and cross-cultural competence) failed to load at the minimum factor analysis score of 0.3. the three factors that loaded successfully explain 48.6% of the variance in the data. the ca’s assessment was done to establish the reliability of the scales of the measuring instrument. the independent variable (transformational leadership competency) and dependent variable (leadership effectiveness) constructs gave ca scores of 0.953 and 0.914, respectively. the scores were considered very reliable compared to the minimum acceptable score of 0.7 (nunnally, 1978). for all factors, coefficients of greater than 0.7 (nunnally, 1978, p. 226) were returned. sufficient evidence of validity and reliability for the scales measuring the independent and dependent variables is thus provided. the specific scores for transformational leadership sub-constructs were: individualised consideration (0.892), idealised influence behaviour (0.844), inspirational motivation (0.868) intellectual simulation (0.869) and idealised influence attributes (0.849). the ca scores are in agreement with similar studies, thereby making the measuring instrument and data reliable (hayward, 2005). similarly, the result for the sub-constructs for leadership effectiveness that were retained for further analysis in this study had the following scores: influence (0.759), follower commitment (0.752) and versatility (0.738). the results indicated that the items used to measure leadership effectiveness construct were reliable with all the scores being greater than 0.7. the findings also agree with similar studies (green, 2010). the results of structural equation modelling the results of both the cfa and ca indicate that all of the sub-constructs (independent variable) were accepted for analysis. two sub-constructs from the dependent variable (cross-cultural competencies and group organisation) failed to load as expected and were consequently dropped from further analysis. the changes in the number of sub-constructs required for further analysis led to the modification of the proposed theoretical framework, henceforth referred to as a model (see figure 2). figure 2: the revised hypothesised mode of the relationship between transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness. to determine the goodness-of-fit for the model and to test the hypotheses, sem was used. similarly, in order to validate and test the hypotheses and sub-constructs, sem was conducted for transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness constructs. because of space constraints, the structural relationship models have not been included in this article. instead, the structural and measurement model for transformational leadership and its sub-constructs is shown in table 1. table 1: definition of structural constructs and measurements for the transformational leadership model and its sub-constructs. goodness-of-fit a goodness-of-fit test is usually conducted in order to measure the fitness of the actual or observed input correlation or covariance in relation to the prediction made by a theoretical model (hair et al., 1998). in this study, the goodness-of-fit was determined using four measures, namely, normed chi-square (the ratio of chi-square to degrees of freedom [c2/df], the root mean square error of approximation [rmsea], the goodness-of-fit index [gfi] and the comparative fit index [cfi]). the criteria used to measure goodness-of-fit indices are shown in table 2. table 2: criteria for goodness-of-fit indices. based on the criteria set in table 2, the results of the goodness-of-fit indices for transformational leadership are represented in table 3. table 3: goodness-of-fit indices for the structural model transformational leadership. as shown in table 3, the results show that the normed chi-square or cmid/df value is 3.599 and falls between 2.0 and 5.0, indicating a good fit (hooper et al., 2008; tabachnick & fidel, 2007). the rmsea value is 0.101, which is above the maximum acceptance fit value of 0.08 and is therefore a poor fit and unacceptable (grimm & yarnold, 2000). the gfi value of 0.813 is less than 0.90. however, according to hu and bentler (1999), a value of 0.813 is still within acceptable fit. the final measure, cfi, has a value of 0.861 and is between 0.8 and 0.9, indicating a good fit (byrne, 1998; hooper et al., 2008). the cfi result value of 0.861 can therefore be termed as a good fit. with three of the tests (cmin/df, gfi and cfi) indicating good fits, there is a goodness-of-fit between the sub-model and approximation of the data. in terms of the relationship between the transformational leadership competency construct and its sub-constructs, sem analysis was used to establish if a relationship existed as shown in table 4. table 4: structural model parameter estimates and p-values for transformational leadership and its sub-constructs. table 4 demonstrates the existence of a positive correlation (p < 0.001) between all the sub-constructs and transformational leadership construct. the results indicated that all the transformational leadership sub-constructs are significant (p < 0.001) to transformational leadership competency. the findings further showed that intellectual stimulation sub-construct (estimate = 0.663; p < 0.001) had greater influence on transformational leadership. this is followed by individualised consideration (estimate = 0.616; p < 0.001), idealised influence (attributes) (estimate = 0.570; p < 0.001), idealised influence (behaviour) (estimate = 0.488; p < 0.001) and inspirational motivation (estimate = 0.465; p < 0.001), respectively. the relationship between the leadership effectiveness construct and its sub-constructs was also examined (see table 5) rather than including the structural model of structural relationships in this article. table 5: definition of structural constructs and measurements for the leadership effectiveness model and its sub-constructs. based on the criteria indicated in table 2, the results of the goodness-of-fit indices for leadership effectiveness are represented in table 6. table 6: goodness-of-fit indices for the structural model leadership effectiveness. the results of goodness-of-fit shown in table 6 indicated a cmin/df value of 2.671, signifying a good fit between data and the sub-model. the rmsea on the other hand had a value of 0.081, indicating a poor goodness-of-fit (maccullum et al., 1996). similarly, the gfi value of 0.924 (ghazali et al., 2013) and the cfi value of 0.921 indicate a very good fit (hair et al., 2006). with three of the tests (cmin/df, gfi and cfi) indicating good fits, there is a goodness-of-fit between the sub-model and approximation of the data. the relationship between the leadership effectiveness construct and its sub-constructs (influence, follower commitment and versatility) was analysed and confirmed by sem. the findings showing the parameters and the p-values are presented in table 7. table 7: structural model parameter estimates and p-values for leadership effectiveness and its sub-constructs. from table 7, it is clear that there is a positive correlation (p < 0.001) between the leadership effectiveness construct and its sub-constructs. based on importance, the influence sub-construct had the greatest impact (estimate = 0.717; p < 0.001), followed by follower commitment (estimate = 0.664; p < 0.001) and finally versatility sub-construct (estimate = 0.483; p < 0.001). the results demonstrated that influence, follower commitment and versatility were critical measures of leadership effectiveness. transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness in terms of transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness, the goodness-of-fit indices showed a good fit between the proposed measurement and structural sub-model, therefore representing acceptable approximation of the data (table 8). table 8: goodness-of-fit indices for transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness. the results of goodness-of-fit shown in table 8 illustrate a cmin/df value of 1.704, signifying a very good fit between data and the sub-model (politis, 2003; ullman, 2001). similarly, the rmsea value of 0.052 indicates a good fit (grimm & yarnold, 2000; hair et al., 1998; hu & bentler, 1999). the gfi value of 0.982 is very good (ghazali et al., 2013). finally, the cfi value of 0.922 showed a very good fit (hair et al., 2006). with four tests (cmin/df, rmsea, gfi and cfi) being successful, this indicates a goodness-of-fit between the sub-model and approximation of the data. the relationship between transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness constructs was examined as shown in hypothesis h1: hypothesis 1 (h1): there is a positive correlation between transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness. following sem analysis, the result indicated a strong positive correlation between transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness constructs. the analysis indicating the parameters and the p-values are shown in table 9. table 9: structural model parameter estimates and p-values for transformational and leadership effectiveness. table 9 indicates a strong and positive correlation (p < 0.001) between transformational leadership construct (estimate = 1.000; p < 0.001) and leadership effectiveness construct. the findings support hypothesis h1 and are in agreement with similar studies that advocate the presence of a strong correlation between transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness (amos, 2012; avolio & bass, 2004; hayward, 2005; samson & daft, 2012). discussion outline of results the study has found that the transformational leadership sub-constructs are an important ingredient for leadership effectiveness within the kenyan indigenous banking industry. the specific transformational leadership sub-constructs were found to be relevant and in order of ranking were intellectual stimulation, individualised consideration, idealised influence (attributes), idealised influence (behaviour) and inspirational motivation. from the results, it can be concluded that there existed a positive correlation between all transformational sub-constructs and transformational leadership competency. this means that effective transformational leaders are able to intellectually stimulate and motivate their followers. the leaders are also able to give individualised consideration to those under their care. such leaders are also able to apply idealised influence (attributes and behaviour) while at the same time inspiring themselves and their followers. the results of the study are in agreement with similar studies where all the five sub-constructs were found to be significant to transformational leadership competency (avolio & bass, 2004; hayward, 2005). the results are significant to the banking leadership and show the need for the leadership to develop their transformational leadership competencies in order to be effective in their performance. the findings are in agreement with similar studies that have demonstrated a strong positive relationship between transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness (donnelly, 1994; kubicek, 2011; northouse, 2013; weese, 1994; yukl, 2010). similarly, the leadership effectiveness construct was found to have three main attributes of effectiveness within indigenous banking in kenya, namely follower commitment, versatility and influence. from the findings, follower commitment was the most important attributes of leadership effectiveness followed by versatility and then by leader influence. based on the findings, the bank leadership should ensure that the right transformational leadership competencies are sought from all bank employees in order to ensure effectiveness. with leadership effectiveness, the bank leaders should now be more aware of which attributes are most influential in enhancing the banks’ sustainability. practical implications the current study on the relationship between transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness has implications for both theory and practice and organisational leadership in general. first, the study has confirmed the existence of a relationship between transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness in the indigenous banking industry in kenya. second, the study has added valuable knowledge to the field of transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness in relation to the banking industry in kenya. the findings therefore indicate that bank leadership cannot ignore transformational leadership competencies as essential to their success if they have to be effective in their leadership endeavours. limitations and recommendations the study concentration on transformational leadership competency is a limitation because there are other competencies that may affect or influence leadership effectiveness. the study therefore recommends that more studies be conducted on other leadership competencies. this will bring more understanding on the determinants of leadership effectiveness within the banking industry and in other organisations. conclusion the current study found a significant relationship between transformational leadership competencies and leadership effectiveness among the leaders in the kenyan indigenous banking industry. the study identified required transformational leadership competencies and leadership effectiveness attributes relevant to the kenyan indigenous banking industry. the findings therefore answered the key questions of this research by indicating that transformational leadership competencies of the leadership in the kenyan indigenous banks are positively correlated to the leadership effectiveness and could be attributed with the current positive performance of the sector. this study therefore emphasised the need to have banks identify the appropriate competencies for their leaders and employees. it is also necessary to match the appropriate leadership competencies with leadership effectiveness attributes of effectiveness. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions s.m.m. was the principal investigator responsible for the fieldwork and the co-writing of this article. l.l. was the academic supervisor and was responsible for the overall leadership and designing of the study and co-writing, editing, finalisation and submission of this article. s.r. was responsible for the statistical analysis of data, presentation and interpretation using relevant tools and research instrument(s). the writing of the article was a team effort. references adendorff, c.m. (2004). the development of a cultural family business model of good governance for greek family businesses in south africa. unpublished doctoral thesis, rhodes university, grahamstown. al-zoubi, b.r. (2012). leadership competencies and competitive advantage: empirical study on jordan telecommunications. european journal of business and management, 4(7), 234–247. ambutsi, p.b. (2005). a survey of corporate governance practices in selected commercial banks in kenya. unpublished mba thesis, daystar university, nairobi. amos, t. (2012). strategic leadership. in l. louw & p. venter (eds.), strategic management: developing sustainability in southern africa (2nd edn., pp. 439–476). cape town: oxford university press. arnold, j., cooper, c., & robertson, i. (1998). work psychology. understanding human behaviour in the workplace. (3rd edn.). harlow, england: pearson education. avolio, b.j., & bass, b.m. (2004). multifactor leadership questionnaire: third edition manual and sampler set. redwood city, ca: mind garden. avolio, b.j., howell, j.m., & sosik, j.j. (1999). a funny thing happened on the way to the bottom line: humour as a moderator of leadership style effects. academy of management journal, 42, 219–227. https://doi.org/10.2307/257094 barling, j., slater, f. & kelloway, e.k. (2000). transformational leadership and emotional intelligence: an exploratory study. leadership and organizational development journal, 21, 157–161. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730010325040 barnes, r. (2013). do you know your ceo? the eight essential leadership skills. retrieved march 06, 2013, from http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1174126/know-ceo-eight-essential-leadership-skills bass, b. (1990). bass & stogdill’s handbook of leadership: theory research and managerial applications. (3rd edn.). new york: free press. bass, b.m. (1981). stogdill’s handbook of leadership. new york: free press. bass, b.m. (1985). leadership and performance. new york: free press. bass, b.m. (1995). theory of transformational leadership redux. leadership quarterly, 6(4), 463–478. https://doi.org/10.1016/1048-9843(95)90021-7 bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1990). developing transformational leadership: 1992 and beyond. journal of european industrial training, 14(5), 21–37. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090599010135122 bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1994). improving organizational effectiveness through transformational leadership. thousand oaks, ca: sage. bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1995). multifactor leadership questionnaire ©. randburg: productivity development (pty) ltd. bass, b.m., waldman, d., & avolio, b.j. (1978). transformational leadership and the falling dominoes effect. group and organization studies, 12(1), 73–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/105960118701200106 brunnermerier, m.k. (2009). deciphering the liquidity and credit crunch 2007–2008. journal of economic perspectives, 23(1), 77–100. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.23.1.77 burns, j.m. (1978). leadership. new york: harper row. byrne, b.m. (1998). structural equation modeling with lisrel, prelis and simplis: basic concepts, applications and programming. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. cooper, j., fenimore, j., & nirenberg, j. (eds.). (2012). leadership effectiveness. encyclopaedia of leadership. thousand oaks, ca: sage. retrieved february 11, 2011, from http://www.sagepub.com/northouse6e/study/materials/reference/reference6.4.pdf donnelly, j.h. (1994). reframing the mind of the banker: the changing skill set and skills mix for effective leadership. international journal of bank marketing, 12(8), 12–16. retrieved february 08, 2010, from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/insight/viewpdf.jsp?contenttype=article&filename=html/output/published/emeraldfulltextarticle/pdf/0320120802.pdf downton, j.v. (1973). rebel leadership: commitment and charisma in a revolutionary process. new york: the free press. earley, p.c. & ang, s. (2003). cultural intelligence. individual interactions across cultures. stanford, ca: stanford university press. edward, g., & gill, r. (2012). transformational leadership across hierarchical levels in uk manufacturing organisations. leadership & organisational development journal, 33(1), 25–50. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437731211193106 epitropaki, o., & martin, r. (2005). from ideal to real: a longitudinal study of the role of implicit leadership theories on leader-member exchanges and employee outcomes. journal of applied psychology, 90(4), 659–676. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.90.4.659 fan, x., thompson, b. & wang, l. (1999). effects of sample size, estimation methods, and model specification on structural equation modeling fix indixes. structural equation modeling, 6(1), 56–83. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540119 farrington, s.m. (2009). sibling partnerships in south african small and medium-sized family businesses. unpublished mba thesis, nelson mandela metropolitan university, port elizabeth, south africa. ghazali, r., ahmad, a., uli, j. suandi, t., & hassan, s.a. (2013). manager commitment to change: commitment to change among managers in a selected service organization in malaysia. in j.h. westover (ed.), leadership and organisational change (pp. 300–316). champaign, il: common ground publication llc. grant thornton. (2013). 2013 banking outlook: surviving and thriving in the new normal world of banking regulations. chicago, il: grant thornton ltd. green, j.m. (2010). factors affecting perceptions of leadership effectiveness in an international organization: a study of middle management in finnish mnc. unpublished phd dissertation, aston university, birmingham, united kingdom. grimm, l.g., & yarnold, p.r. (2000). reading and understanding multivariate statistics. washington, dc: american psychological association. hair, j.f., anderson, r.e., tatham, r.l., & black, w.c. (1998). multivariate data analysis. (5th edn.). englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., anderson, r.e., & tatham, r.l. (2006). multivariate data analysis. (6th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson prentice hall. hall, j., johnson, s., wysocki, a., & kepner, k. (2012). transformational leadership: the transformational of managers and associates. gainesville, fl: university of florida institute of food and agricultural sciences. retrieved november 04, 2012, from http://edis.ifas/ufl.edu/dln hayward, b.a. (2005). relationship between employee performance, leadership and emotional intelligence in a south african parastatal organisation. unpublished master’s thesis, rhodes university, grahamstown, south africa. hebert, e.b., (2011). the relationship between emotional intelligence, transformational leadership, effectiveness in school principals. unpublished doctoral thesis, georgia state university, atlanta, ga. hedley, k., white, j., roche, p.d.d.l., & banerjea, s. (2006). banking 2015: a classic strategy battle of scale vs focus. strategy & leadership, 34(3), 51–58. https://doi.org/10.1108/10878570610700875 hogan, r., & warrenfeltz, r. (2003). educating the modern manager. academy of management learning and education, 2(1), 74–84. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2003.9324043 hooper, d., coughlan, j., & mullen, m.r. (2008). structural equation modeling: guidelines for determining model fit. the electronic journal of business research methods, 6, 53–60. retrieved august 30, 2010, from http://www.ejbrm.com howell, j. & hall-marenda, k. (1999). the ties that bind: the impact of leader-member exchange, transformational and transactional leadership, and distance on predicting follower performance. journal of applied psychology, 84(5), 680–694. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.84.5.680 hu, l.-t., & bentler, p.m. (1999). cut-off criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. structural equation modeling, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 ibm corporation. (2013). ibm spss statistics for windows, version 21.0. armonk, ny: ibm corp. johnson, j., lenartowicz, t., & apud, s. (2006). cross-cultural competence in international business: toward a definition and model. journal of international business studies, 37, 525–543. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400205 keskin, h.k. (2014). a path analysis of metacognitive strategies in reading, self-efficacy and task value. international journal of social science & education, 4 (4), 798–808. kubicek, j. (2011). leadership is dead: how influence is reviving it. new york: howard books. li, m. (2007). modeling the travel motivation of mainland chinese outbound tourists. purdue university graduate school. ann arbor, mi: proqest information and learning company. loehlin, j. c. (1992). latent variable models: an introduction to factor, path and structural analysis. (2nd edn.). hillsdale: lawrence erlbaum. maccullum, r.c., browne, m.w. & sugawara, h.m. (1996). power analysis and determination of sample size for covariance structure modelling. in e. venter (ed.), the succession process of small and medium-sized family businesses in south africa. unpublished doctoral thesis, nelson mandela metropolitan university, port elizabeth. mlachila, m., park, s.g., & yaraba, m. (2013). banking in sub-sahara africa: the macroeconomic context. washington, dc: international monetary fund, publication services. muriithi, s.m. (2015). relationship between leadership and organisational effectiveness among indigenous banks in kenya. unpublished phd thesis, rhodes university, grahamstown, south africa. mwangi, j. (2012). investors briefing. nairobi: equity bank. nagar, n., masih, e., & badugu, d. (2011). retail banking: the new buzzword of today’s world of banking. journal of banking financial services and insurance research, 1(8), 1–10. national centre for research in vocation education (ncrve). (1994). leadership effectiveness index manual. macomb, il: national center for research in vocational education. njuguna, n. (2013). the importance of the banking sector in the kenyan economy. nairobi: speech at the bank of india, kenya branch, diamond jubilee celebrations. norma, g.s. (1997). the role of leadership in business process reengineering: an empirical study of the relationship between leadership behaviour and the reengineering outcome. los angeles, ca: university of california. northouse, p.g. (2013). leadership: theory and practice. (6th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory. (2nd ed.). new york: mcgraw-hill. pagon, m., banutai, e. & bizjak, u. (2008). leadership competencies for successful change management. university of maribor. retrieved april 10, 2013, from http://www.academia.edu/437506/leadership_competencies_for_successful_change_management politis, j.d. 2003. the connection between trust and knowledge management: what are its implications for team performance. journal of knowledge management, 7(5), 55–66. https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270310505386 pricewaterhousecoopers (pwc). (2007). initial perspectives on strategic and emerging banking issues in key african markets. sunninghill: pricewaterhousecoopers inc. pricewaterhousecoopers (pwc). (2011). financial focus 2011. retrieved march 15, 2012, from www.pwc.com/ke/financialfocus-jan2011 samson, d., & daft, r.l. (2012). management: asia pacific edition. south melbourne, victoria: cengage learning australia. shadraconis, s. (2013). organisational leadership in times of uncertainty: is transformational leadership the answer? lux: a journal of transdisciplinary writing and research from clemont graduate university, 2(1), 28. sokpor, c.k.d. (2006). the role of cbk in controlling bank failures: an investigative study. unpublished mba thesis, daystar university, faculty of post graduate studies, nairobi, kenya. stogdill, r.m. (1974). handbook of leadership. new york: free express. tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2007). using multivariate statistics. (3rd edn.). new york: harpercollins college publishers. tang, h.v., yin, m., & nelson, d.b. (2010). the relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership practices: a cross-cultural study of academic leaders in taiwan and the usa. journal of managerial psychology, 25(8), 899–926. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683941011089143 tuuk, e. (2012). transformational leadership in the coming decade: a response to three major workplace trends. cornell hr review. retrieved november 15, 2011, from http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/chrr/25 ullman, j.b. (2001). structural equation modeling. in b.g. tabachnick & l.s. fidell (eds.), using multivariate statistics (4th edn.) (pp. 653–771). needham heights, ma: allyn & bacon. walumbwa, f.o., avolio, b.j., & zhu, w. (2008). how transformational leadership weaves its influence on individual job performance: the role of identification and efficacy beliefs. personnel psychology, 61, 793–825. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2008.00131.x waweru, n.m., & kalani, m.v. (2009). commercial banking crises in kenya: causes and remedies. african journal of accounting, economics, finance and banking research, 4, 12–32. weese, w.j. (1994). a leadership discussion with dr. bernard bass. journal of sport management, 8(3), 176–189. yukl, g. (2010). leadership in organizations. (7th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson education inc. yukl, g.a. (1994). leadership in organizations. (3rd edn.). englewood cliffs: prentice-hall. book review social media within the context of human resource management book title: social media in employee selection and recruitment: theory, practice, and current challenges author: richard n. landers and gordon b. schmidt isbn: 978-3-319-29989-1 publisher: springer international publishing, 2016, €55,92* *book price at time of review review title: social media within the context of human resource management reviewers: zikhona dlaza1 willie t. chinyamurindi1 affiliations: 1department of business management, university of fort hare, south africa corresponding author: willie chinyamurindi, chinyaz@gmail.com how to cite this book review: dlaza, z., & chinyamurindi, w.t. (2017). social media within the context of human resource management. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a899. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.899 copyright notice: © 2017. the authors. licensee: aosis openjournals. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. introduction social media in employee selection and recruitment: theory, practice and current challenges is a book edited by richard n. landers and gordon b. schmidt. the book offers valuable information for both researchers and practitioners around the concept of social media usage within the context of work. it seeks to explore the role played by social media in decision-making regarding issues such as the qualifications of job applicants and how social media can be used to increase the number of jobs. the purpose here is to build a cohesive research literature base surrounding social media usage in human resources management activities such as selection. the strengths of the book lie in (1) the ability to distinguish selection from other aspects of the hiring process. by referring to selection as a system that employers use to determine the qualifications of job applicants and the decision-making process used to act upon that information (farr & tippins, 2010), (2) it identifies six major research concerns in social media in selection from a variety of perspectives and theoretical frameworks and (3) provides a critical evaluation of the current applications and practical guidelines for social media in selection. authors across academia and industry contributed to the chapters of the book by organising and presenting relevant research perspectives on the subject matter. the book is split into two sections. the first section presents a set of chapters targeted primarily at researchers and practitioners. the second section highlights the challenges and limitations of social media when used as part of employee selection and recruitment. basic premise of the book the practice of using social media for pre-employment screening and selection has become more popular. this book emphasises that ‘social media’ is a complex term that needs to be carefully defined. it conceptualises social media as a broader set of social technologies, not just merely social network sites. the authors of this book place cadence on a multi-layered view of social media (i.e. including any internet technology that enables the sharing of content created by users with other users). the emphasis is supported by haenlein and kaplan (2010) that social media is a group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content. this encompasses an enormous variety of online applications, such as social networking sites, blogs, social bookmarking, social news, video sharing, wikis, event sharing, art sharing, collaborative projects, music and audio sharing, and virtual worlds. this premise makes the book rich in covering a range of topics that may be of interest to different people. the authors further acknowledge challenges faced by the process of selection, and social media can assist in this regard. one of the challenges this book focuses on is the issue of reliability and validity of information available via social media. brown and vaughn (2011) concur with the authors that one of the most problematic issues surrounding social media information for personnel decisions lies in the limited evidence of reliability and validity to support appropriateness and meaningfulness of the information gathered from social media. the book also points to future directions for researchers by discussing on the future of social media use and recruitment as well as areas needed for theoretical and empirical research. structure, content and style of the text the structure of the book is well presented and reads well even to a non-technical audience, making the book less intimidating. a common theme running through the entire book is the role of social media and the subsequent chapters. the starting chapter is the introduction that gives an overview of social media in employee selection and recruitment. the ensuing chapters appear to be grounded in various empirical studies. furthermore, all the chapters are unique as the editors solicited a range of authors to write for particular audiences. the book succeeds in presenting a balanced academic and practitioner perspective by providing guidelines to employers who intend to use and currently using social media and the role social media strategy could play in supporting employers in selection and recruitment. conclusion social media in employee selection and recruitment is a contribution to organisations where researchers and practitioners will continue to benefit. its chapters cover a wide range of topics that need to be considered when using social media in employment selection and recruitment. contributions from both academia and researchers provide well-researched and substantiated viewpoints which make the book worthy of consideration. references brown, v.r., & vaughn, e.d. (2011). the writing on the (facebook) wall: the use of social networking sites in hiring decisions. journal of business and psychology, 26, 219–225. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-011-9221-x farr, j.l., & tippins, n.t. (2010). handbook of employee selection. new york: routledge. haenlein, m., & kaplan, a. (2010). users of the world, unite! the challenges and opportunities of social media. business horizons, 53(1), 59–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2009.09.003 5buys.qxd small business is said to drive the economy of a country. in terms of the south african environment, schwenke and van heerden (2002) are confident that entrepreneurship is “...the way of the future and that job growth can and will only come from smes (small and medium enterprises)”. schwenke et al., further concludes that as a tool of job creation, enablement and entrepreneurial development, smes are at the “...vanguard of change in the local economy” (schwenke et al). it is therefore critical that the entrepreneurs in a country are identified early and skilled appropriately (through learnerships or other educational routes). it is equally important that individuals that are not entrepreneurs be found their rightful vocation and then everyone can contribute effectively to the economic activity. the skills shortage is one of the problems that exists in south africa as a result of its historic political situation. according to the department of labour (2001a), the composition of the workforce during 1970-1995 was dominated by caucasion males while africans (blacks) were employed in the unskilled occupations. this situation has indeed remained unchanged as seen when a comparison was made bet ween europeans (whites) and non-europeans (blacks, indians, coloureds) for the period 1904 to 1931 [r.j. van reenen, m. visser, e.h.d. arndt, h.f. champion, d.m. davidson, a.j. downes, w. freestone, 1935, p. 12]. this was due partially to the fact that whites tried to minimize any ‘threat’ from any source (botha, calder, fichardt, bosman, slabbert, smuts, van den berg and windsor, 1951, p. 163). their particular concern was equal opportunities to acquire skills which lessened their chances of being gainfully employed. the educational backlog originated as far back as 1950 when south africa was still a union governed by the british monarch from 1910 to 1948 and the education system was segregated along racial lines through the population registration act of 1950 (du pre, 2004). job reservation for black people was limited to certain forms of labour which at most was semi-skilled (fryer, 2003). acquiring skills was therefore reserved mainly for whites until the elections in 1994 which brought a change in leadership and a democratic government, which had as its primary mission, skills development for all. on a macro level, south africa was marginalized from global participation and on a micro level, many people were not able to even enter the workforce because of a lack of skills, let alone be active in the economy. the south african government’s resultant human resources development (hrd) and national skills development strategy (nsds) were driven by supportive legislation, namely the skills development act no 97 of 1998, employment equity act no 55 of 1998, skills development levies act of 1999 and the south african qualifications authority act no 58 of 1995 (department of labour, 2001a, b). these strategies and legislative measures intended to address the skills shortages and directly stimulate entrepreneurial potential through the implementation of learnerships as a national qualification. the term ‘learnership’ or ‘learnerships’ is a comprehensive description that groups together all the learnerships that are registered with the south african qualifications authority (saqa). one of the core components of an entrepreneurial culture is education, and how various educational programmes can incorporate entrepreneurship is a subject area which will foster enterprising or new venture creation (hynes, 1996. pp. 10 17). learnerships were preceded by the apprenticeship system intended for blue collar workers operating mainly in the trade/manufacturing sector. the promulgation of the first legislation regarding apprenticeships was the apprenticeship act of 1922 as part of an attempt by the south african government to regulate its labour situation (van reenen, et al, 1935, p. 11). following on from the high level hrd strategy were the initial over-ambitious targets for people to become qualified learners. the result was a push-through effect of individuals who were not necessarily suited to a particular learnership or able to function at the required standard (national qualifications framework or nqf level 4 that is equal to grade 12). low level evaluations were used to ‘certif y’ potential learners in terms of their numeracy and literacy levels only. the absence of a suitable assessment has been recorded in the report of the industrial legislation commission of 1935 which commented on the fact that individuals were employed on face value or because of business relations with the individual’s father (van reenen, et al, 1935). purpose and objective this situation described above provided an opportunity to evaluate the suitability of learners on the new venture creation learnership in terms of their entrepreneurial functionality and leadership qualities, to establish if they would be suited to function in the entrepreneurial environment. philna buys philna@mtnloaded.co.za kla as havenga onbjjdh@puk.ac.za department of human resources management university of johannesburg abstract the primary objective of this study was to evaluate the suitability of individuals as potential entrepreneurs in the entrepreneurial economic environment. the scientifically validated functional intelligence assessment tool (fiat) was applied to nineteen individuals (learners) during their training (new venture creation learnership or nvc learnership) which was managed by the services sector education and training authority (seta). only three of the nineteen respondents were found to be suitable as entrepreneurs of whom two also displayed leadership qualities. the implications of the findings are discussed. key words entrepreneurs, perception, new venture, functional intelligence, learnership entrepreneurial functionality of new venture creation learners 36 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (3), 36-43 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (3), 36-43 while psychological analysis can test various skills/proficiencies, it can never test the functionality of the congruent, holistic man within a specific environment. the core criterion in measuring any human functioning is environment. by excluding the environment in any quantification or measurement of human functioning, the information becomes non-effective (whitehouse, 2002). it was also necessary to identif y the functionality of all individuals who intended to be trained via any learnership before they were ‘evaluated’ by the seta in terms of their numeracy and literacy levels (only). the value of applying a scientific evaluation model to assess respondents for suitability extends beyond learnerships. it can also be applied in the workplace for people who are already employed. productivity and workforce impact can both be improved substantially if people can operate in an environment to which they are best suited. the government, setas and employers in general can allocate funds more appropriately to allow more people the opport unit y to become skilled, albeit through other education routes or training providers. through various aspects essential to the entrepreneur’s environment, growth and development, it became apparent that the entrepreneur needs a more protected environment than what might currently be in place, despite efforts from the south african government to improve the situation. it supports the developing trend in the number of entrepreneurship education and training initiatives which support the idea that entrepreneurs can be made and thus the perception that entrepreneurship can be taught (faris, 1999). a part nership (temporary/permanent) of a potent ial entrepreneur and an existing successful business with the intention of ‘cloning’ some or all aspects of an entire business and constructing event ual reciprocate relationships, is suggested (refer figure 1). such partnerships represent the empowerment of the entrepreneur and it is within the context of the partnership entrepreneur, that an entrepreneur is considered an inspired individual who excels at creating employment (of self and others) by making use of an existing successful partnership to create a separate entit y. yet, the individual must still be able to function as an entrepreneur (generate ideas, take risk, create employment) otherwise the support and guidance in the form of the partnership is of little use. entrepreneurship education is also found to contribute significantly to risk-taking, the creation of new vent ures and the tendency to self-employment (charney & libecap, 2002). the skills, product ive cit izenship and employment stat us concerning the entrepreneur is contained in the vision of the nsds. figure 1: partnership entrepreneur environment source: anonymous, 1995m; anonymous, 2004p; anonymous, 1999q; hernandez-gantes-nieri (n.d.) and lumpkin and dess (1996, p. 36 as quoted by caree and thurik (2002, p. 4)) research design the nature of this study required a multi-pronged approach to collecting the data. the first step was an examination of the (numeracy and literacy) evaluation methods applied by the seta prior to the commencement of the training of these individuals. the analyses of the results of these individuals (learners) during their training were the second step, while using the functional intelligence assessment tool (fiat) was the third step. research approach figure 1 sets out the research approach that resulted in three sets of data. the first data set consisted of two phases: phase i was an interview conducted by interviewers appointed by the seta and phase ii the “star in-basket” exercise that determined the candidate’s ability to handle various situations depicted as items in a person’s in-basket. the latter phase required the individual to complete a number of paper-based exercises that were marked manually by the seta. it assessed the learners’ ability in communication in english (written), mathematical literacy, recognise effect of hiv/aids in the workplace, customer service, planning and time management, working in a team and simple problem solving and was considered to be core learning. separate numeracy placement assessment and communication assessment tools completed the preassessment measurement (phase ii). the second set was the learners’ results during their learnership training and were obtained from the accredited training provider that reports to the seta. the third set was the individual analyses of the computer-based functional intelligence assessment tool (fiat) that consisted of two questionnaires, 300 questions each – one for suitabilit y as an entrepreneur and the other for leadership qualities. the personal values of the respondent were firstly ranked in order of importance and then matched against those of the organization (corporate values) as set by existing entrepreneurs prior to commencing the research process. the same process was applied for the leadership qualities. the nature of the functional intelligence assessment tool (fiat) necessitated a detailed analysis of each individual’s assessment because of the grouping of the constructs detailed above. research methodology participants/respondents participants were sampled using the purposive or judgmental sampling method intended for special situations (such as a small sample and the intensity of the assessments (neuman, 2003, p. 213). they were all learners who were in the process of completing the new venture creation learnership at an events management company in johannesburg, south africa. a telephonic interview with the manager who worked closely with the respondents in the company assisted in selecting twenty respondents for this study. biographical data the twenty respondents were all black africans and comprised eleven females (seven under the age of 30, three between 30 and 40 years and one of 44) and nine males (eight males under the age of 30 years and one male of 39 years of age). measuring instruments a great deal of research on personality characteristics and sociocultural backgrounds of successful entrepreneurs was conducted in the past three decades. in general, characteristics most often contributed to entrepreneurs are: commitment and determination, leadership, opportunity observation, tolerance of risk, ambiguity and uncertainty, creativity, self-reliance and ability to adapt and motivation to excel. (byers, kist and sutton, 1997). major models used to predict the three most important entrepreneurial functionality 37 support from macro-environment government • learnership grant banks • access to finance skills development coach (sdc) access, availability, problem solving mentor access, availability, problem solving support from micro environment owner/manager(s) • knowledge, experience, finance entrepreneur parent company network of suppliers, infra-structure etc. market place competitors entrepreneurial success factors (need for achievement, need for power, risk taking propensity and competitive situation) are the didato achievement motivation scale (a.j. dubrin, r.d. ireland, and j.c. williams, 1989); the scale for need for power (k. hashemi, and m. shirazi, 1994) and miner’s competitive situation sub-scale (j.b. miner, 1994, pp. 62-68). the following models (carland entrepreneurial index, the baron emotional intelligence test and the myers-briggs type indicator) were considered before the functional intelligence assessment tool (fiat) scientific model was selected because of its holistic approach to the individual and his/her functionality within an environment: � the carland entrepreneurial index drew on the research “...of leading researchers in entrepreneurial planning, characteristics, behavior and distinctions, and borrowing heavily from the literature of cognitive psychology, the authors have developed a short, objective instrument which will yield an index of entrepreneurship”. this index is an indication of the strength of the “...relative entrepreneurial preferences of respondents.” (j.w. carland, j.c. carland, and h. frank, 1992). the carland entrepreneurial index focuses on four elements cited from literature: personality, innovation, risk taking propensity, and strategic posture and the authors “...devised statements in pairs in a forced choice format which would reveal an individual's proclivity for each of those four constructs” (carland et al. (1992)). � bar-on emotional intelligence test or bar-on eq-i inventory “...describes a cross-section of interrelated emotional and social competencies, skills and facilitators that impact intelligent behavior, measured by self-report (bar-on 1997a, 1997b) within a potentially expandable multi-modal approach including an interview and multirater assessment (bar-on & handley, 2003a, 2003b). emotional-social intelligence has one or more of the following key components: “...(a) the ability to recognize, understand and express emotions and feelings; (b) the ability to understand how others feel and relate with them; (c) the ability to manage and control emotions; (d) the ability to manage change, adapt and solve problems of a personal and interpersonal nature; and (e) the ability to generate positive affect and be self-motivated.” (bar-on et al. 2003a, 2003b). � myers-briggs type indicator carl g. jung introduced the theory of psychological type in the 1920s and this was further developed in the 1940s by isabel briggs myers with ongoing research. its popularity is evident in the fact that more than two million people worldwide take the indicator each year (anonymous, (n.d.)b). the mbti identifies and describes 16 distinctive personality types that result from the interactions among the preferences of people. it uses guidelines such as one’s ‘favorite world‘, (whether you prefer to focus on the outer world or on your own inner world). this is referred to as extraversion (e) or introversion (i); information (do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or do you prefer to interpret and add meaning?). this is called sensing (s) or intuition (n); decisions (do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency or first look at the people and special circumstances?). this is called thinking (t) or feeling (f); structure (in dealing with the outside world, do you prefer to get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options?). this is called judging (j) or perceiving (p) (anonymous, (n.d.)b.). if one knows ones mbti type it will help a person to decide what specific areas of law, medicine, education, or business you prefer. “a person with a preference for introversion may find he or she is happier doing research, while a person who prefers extraversion may favor a field with more interaction with people.” (anonymous, (n.d.)b.). the mbti is perhaps the closest aligned to the work environment and its influence on how comfortable you are at your job, and can “...help you discover and use your strengths to accomplish the work. when you find an unsatisfactory job fit, you can examine the reasons and seek solutions based on your preferences. “(anonymous, (n.d.)b.). research in the fields of ecolog y and ecometrics was originated in 1960 by its founder member van zyl (whitehouse, 2002). in its 45 year history a number of other leaders in this field contributed greatly to the development thereof (whitehouse 2002). they are faul, horne, hudson and many others [b.i. horne, (1999); w.w. hudson, a.c. faul, and b. hanekom, (2000)]. functional intelligence is the occupation in which ecometrics is used to quantif y the criteria of human behaviour in a given environment (whitehouse, 2002). the functional intelligence assessment tool (fiat) therefore ident ified and substant iated the suitabilit y or non-suitabilit y of the respondents in terms of entrepreneurial requirements. fiat is unique in the sense that it scientifically measures the influence of the environment on the individual and the individual’s response to that environment (whitehouse). an additional questionnaire was administered to evaluate leadership qualities which are an essential component of the entrepreneur. guiding one’s decisions and behaviour are one’s perceptions and in its purest form, the word ‘perception’ is defined as “...the process, act, or faculty of perceiving” (anonymous, (n.d.) a) and our perceptions influence our internal interaction system (iis) and our general behavioral system (gbs). the general behavioral system (gbs) gives sight of peoples’ feelings and emotions. in other words it is how the candidate portrays him/herself – what one can see. this system is used when talking, interviewing or watching the candidate’s behaviour. through comparisons, one can determine if the candidate is an extrovert or an introvert. the iis and gbs are independent of each other and affect a person’s functioning independently. the significant difference between the iis and gbs systems is that most people seem to understand the gbs because it is the biggest diversion from the reality of truth (whitehouse, 2002). perception is therefore a critical element based on the six (separate) superconstructs (areas) used in the fiat which are the ones that people function from, each with their related constructs: 1. positive functioning areas: these indicate one’s inner interactive system (selfperception), or iis: � achievement (iis and gbs) is accomplishment, success, realization. � satisfaction (iis and gbs) is contentment, fulfillment and approval. � expectations (iis and gbs) are the outlook (positive orientation), potential, hope and opportunity of the individual towards his/her future involving emotional experience and cognitive appraisal of one’s life from an optimistic point of view. 2. negative functioning areas: indicates general behaviour system (selfportrayal system) or gbs: � frustration (iis and gbs) is aggravation, irritation, disturbance, annoyance, disappointment, dissatisfaction. � stress (iis and gbs) is pressure, strain, anxiety, tension. � helplessness (iis and gbs) is defenselessness, exposure, vulnerability. 3. self-perception areas: � inner insecurit y – state of not being secure; experiencing fear or anxiety. � guilt feelings – conscious of guilt; state of having done wrong. � lack of self worth – lack of quality which renders a thing valuable; perception of the individual that buys, havenga38 he/she is unimportant and does not mean anything to others; is not special and does not deserve to be handled with respect. 4. relationship areas: � colleagues � partner � general 5. emotional functioning areas: � dependency (addiction, reliance) � disturbing thoughts � memory loss � paranoia (fear, suspicion, mistrust, people talking behind your back) � anxiety (nervousness, concern, apprehension) � senselessness of existence. 6. corporate functioning areas: � job satisfaction � job security � equality � effectiveness of supervisor � supervisor’s leadership ability (staff perception) � supervisor’s communication skills (staff perception) � supervisor’s communication skills. results the data of the respondents for phase i (pre-assessment interview) were available in hard copy and were obtained with permission from the services seta (ss) while the data for phase ii (core learning) were obtained from the accredited training provider electronically. the services seta (ss) criteria are linked to the objectives of the overall hrd strategy. objective 1 of the hrd required the beneficiaries of learnerships to be 85% black, 54% women and 4% disabled to fulfill the equity target. objective 6.1 of the hrd required that a minimum of 80 000 people under the age of 30 would have entered learnerships by march 2005 to fulfill the assistance of employees under the age of 30 into employment. points were allocated according to these objectives listed below (refer table 1): i. race: black/asian/colored – 3 points; white – 1 point. ii. gender: female – 2 points; male – 1 point. iii.age: over 35 – 1 point; under 35 – 3 points. iv. disability: disability – 2 points; no disability – 1 point. v. education: meets educational pre-requirements – 3 points; does not meet educational pre-requirements – 1 point. the questionnaire points refer to the pre-assessment interview for which points were also allocated. the comments of the candidate were noted after each question and the case worker could also tick his/her opinion if the candidate answered coherently (2 points), answered satisfactorily, but not coherently (1 point) or could not answer (0 points). the questions used were: question 1: what job do you think someone who qualifies in this learnership will be able to do, and describe your daily activities, as you understand them. question 2: why do you want to do this learnership? question 3: do you have facilities to study in at home and will you be able to devote yourself to your studies this year? do you have adequate time to dedicate to your studies while working full time? question 4: how long have you been in this industry and why do you want pursue a career in (learnership category)? question 5: why should you be selected for this learnership over everyone else? question 6: if you are successful, how will you ensure that you complete the learnership and do not drop out – thereby taking the opportunity from someone else who could have been selected? the ‘general observations’ elements rated general spoken communication skills, written communication skills (apart from the separate literacy assessment), self-presentation, enthusiasm for the opportunity, impact, timekeeping, realism about the process and general business knowledge. the case worker could allocate 2 points (excellent) or 1 point (good) or 0 points (poor) for these elements. table 1 pre-assessment interview results – phase 1 respondent ss criteria questiontotal points general (max 13 naire points (max 41 observations points) (max 28 points) (incl in points) quest points) 1 12 25 37 13 2 11 21 32 9 3 9 26 35 14 4 11 20 31 10 5 11 22 33 11 6 11 20 31 10 7 12 27 39 11 8 12 25 37 13 9 12 26 38 14 10 12 25 37 13 11 12 21 33 9 12 12 25 37 13 13 11 22 33 10 14 11 26 37 14 15 10 18 28 6 16 11 25 36 13 17 12 26 38 16 18 12 26 38 14 19* 20** 12 21 33 9 total 216 447 663 222 average*** 11 24 35 12 * no seta detail available ** did not complete the functional assessment *** average calculated for data of 19 respondents phase ii, named the star in-basket, these items required the candidate to write instructions to his/her staff when he had just returned from holiday and was destined for a sales conference the next week. various internal memorandums, notes from staff, internal e-mail and formal letters from clients make up the inbasket (refer table 2). this exercise assessed the candidate’s ability in terms of the following items considered to be core learning: communication in english – written (candidate had to respond in writing on the document), mathematical literacy (candidate had to, for example, calculate value added tax – v.a.t at 14% as well as the total amount for an invoice), recognize the effect of hiv/aids in the workplace (candidate had to respond to a staff member who feels discriminated against because of his hiv stat us), customer service (candidate had to respond to a customer complaining about the company’s products and after-sales service), planning and time management (candidate had to respond to a plan of his/her diary after the sales conference in view of important business lunches, meetings and prioritizing his/her work), working in a team (candidate had to respond to the finance department experiencing frustration with the other departments) and simple problem solving (candidate had to respond to a staff member who was not at work because of personal reasons). entrepreneurial functionality 39 table 2 pre-assessment results – phase ii respondent score 1 17 2 20 3 24 4 22 5 21 6 18 7 15 8 17 9 15 10 19 11 23 12 18 13 12 14 25 15 13 16 18 17 25 18 26 19 20 14 total * respondent 19 excluded 362 of these items, communication, mathematics, teamwork and problem solving have been identified in the pre-assessment, the learnership results and some in the fiat. table 3 gives a summary of the scores for all the above categories obtained by the candidates. table 3 summary core learning – competent/not competent core learning assessed candidates competent not comp. not total % competent comp. communication all 19 19 100% in english: written mathematical literacy 7,8,9,13,14 5 5 26% recognise effect of hiv/ 13 1 1 5% aids in the workplace customer service all 19 19 100% planning & time 5,7,12 3 3 16% management working in a team 20 1 1 5% simple problem solving 1,2,6,7,9,10, 11 11 58% 12,13,15,16,20 the reports for the learnership results (extract of one respondent’s results shown in table 4) were obtained from the training provider during the training and were reported in three categories – achieved (assessed within the workplace or work required for the learner’s portfolio of evidence (poe)), summative (a project or assignment) and formative (presentation in class) listed in table 4. it also shows the unit standards which had to be re-assessed (reas) and what the comment was with regard to the re-assessment (reass comm). the scores for this section are summarized in table 5. table 4 learnership results moname result mark compereass reass mark dule tent* ** com *** 7468 use mathematics to investiachieved 100 yes no no gate and monitor the financial aspects of personal, business, national and international issues 7468 use mathematics to investiformative 71 yes no no gate and monitor the financial aspects of personal, business, national and international issues 7468 use mathematics to investisummative 76 yes no no gate and monitor the financial aspects of personal, business, national and international issues 8968 accommodate audience and achieved 0 no yes yes 100 context needs in oral communication 8968 accommodate audience and summative 85 yes no no context needs in oral communication 8968 accommodate audience and formative 64 yes no no context needs in oral communication 8969 interpret and use information achieved 0 no yes yes 100 from texts 8969 interpret and use information summative 85 yes no no from texts 8969 interpret and use information formative 64 yes no no from texts 8970 write texts for a range of summative 95 yes no no communicative contexts 8970 write texts for a range of formative 64 yes no no communicative contexts 8970 write texts for a range of achieved 0 no yes yes 100 communicative contexts 8973 use language and communiachieved 0 no yes yes 100 cation in occupational learning programmes 8973 use language and communiformative 64 yes no no cation in occupational learning programmes 8973 use language and communisummative 85 yes no no cation in occupational learning programmes 9015 apply knowledge of statistics achieved 100 yes no no and probability to critically interrogate and effectively communicate findings on life related problems 9015 apply knowledge of statistics formative 71 yes no no and probability to critically interrogate and effectively communicate findings on life related problems 9015 apply knowledge of statistics summative 76 yes no no and probability to critically interrogate and effectively communicate findings on life related problems key: * = competent (is the learner competent for this module also known as unit standard) ** = reassess learner (if the learner was not declared competent, then he/she has the opportunity to be reassessed) *** = reassess comment (alerts the reader to look for any comment with regard to the pass mark) buys, havenga40 table 5 gives a summary of each learner’s results as shown in table 4. the results are split into gender and their respective averages as well as a summary of the number of unit standards of the new venture creation learnership that had to be re-assessed if the respondent was not considered competent (refer table 4). it also shows that on average, each learner (for both the female and the male gender groups) had seven unit standards that had to be reassessed. respondent 15 of the females seem to have had some problems while respondent 3 of the males proved equally problematic. table 5 summary learnership results respondent gender ave total respongender ave % total % number dent number reass. reass. 1 f 56,53 7 2 m 89,03 0 7 f 70,98 7 3 m 68,35 14 8 f 72,44 6 4 m 76,63 6 9 f 65,55 9 5 m 65,04 9 10 f 85,93 6 6 m 48,78 6 11 f 68,02 6 14 m 70,97 7 12 f 77,48 1 16 m 77,9 8 13 f 48,34 5 18 m 59,58 5 15 f 68,83 12 19 m 70,95 6 17 f 59,56 6 20 f 43,22 2 total 67 otal 61 average 7 average 7 average excluded respondent 20 the data for the fiat was obtained through two web-based questionnaires (for entrepreneur and leadership qualities), calculated electronically and analyzed individually (table 6). discussion the data for phase i showed that most of the respondents scored above the average for the group (table 1) while phase ii revealed that 47% of the respondents (highlighted) scored above the average of 19 for the group (table 2). the learner is expected to cope at national qualification framework (nqf) level 4 (grade 12 or matric level) where the training material for the new venture creation learnership is pitched. therefore the adult basic education level 4 (or abet level 4) that is equal to an nqf level 1 (or grade 9) at which the learners were evaluated by the seta, is too low. the results of the pre-assessment data (phase ii) in table 3 shows that 58% of respondents were declared incompetent in terms of simple problem solving and 26% of respondents in terms of numeracy (mathematical literacy). the results for the new venture creation learnership progress of learners, showed the unit standards completed up to a point and an analysis of these results show that respondents 6, 13 and 20 scored below 50% (table 5). as a result, no conclusive results were possible other than a telephone interview with the training provider who indicated that all the respondents for this research will most likely complete their learnership. the results for the functional intelligence assessment (table 6) show that only 16% of respondents are likely to become entrepreneurs (respondent 4, 5 and 16) of which 5% are specifically suited to the environment of arts (respondent 4). of the 16% potential entrepreneurs there are 11% (respondents 4 and 16) who also have leadership qualities. the analysis of one respondent was such that no accurate analysis in terms of leadership qualities could be obtained (respondent 5). entrepreneurial functionality 41 table 6 summary results: functional intelligence assessment tool respongender entrep leader reinfunctional comment dent assessed consistency tendency 1 f no no yes yes extrovert high risk respondent; dishonest tendencies; information not trusted; cannot scientifically verif y personality 2 m no no no not significant n/a respondent is honest but no staying power when the money is absent 3 no no no yes introvert not intentional manipulation but is in denial 4 m yes (arts) yes no not significant extrovert dishonest; using some impression management; can be a suspect 5 m yes o* no yes extrovert intentionally using impression management 6 m no no no not significant introvert main problem is with supervisor, needs to change, 7 f no no no not significant n/a not trustworthy; using impression management 8 m no no yes yes extrovert using impression management; problem with supervisor 9 f no no no not significant extrovert needs to investigate her emotional functioning; professional intervention highly recommended 10 f no no no not significant introvert should be an artist; in denial or unrealistic; high risk respondent 11 f no no no yes n/a emotional functioning to be attended to; using impression management 12 f no no no yes extrovert using impression management; untrustworthy 13 f no no yes yes n/a dishonest; problems should be sorted out, professional intervention highly recommended 14 m no no no yes introvert use of manipulation 15 f no no no yes extrovert high risk respondent; indication of the use of manipulation 16 m yes yes no some extrovert seems to be functioning optimally; no manipulation suspected 17 f no no no yes introvert manipulation; impression management 18 f no no no yes n/a use of manipulation; dishonest; ineffective data 19 m no no yes yes introvert not using manipulation intentionally in terms of functional tendency, hudson (et al., 2000, p. 16) defines introverts as individuals who “...enjoy things by themselves and become grouchy if around people too long. they have a strong sense of personal space and might find it difficult to share what they are feeling”. extroverts on the other hand are “...rather gregarious and outgoing and enjoy being around people. they become energized by a group rather than overwhelmed. they talk a lot and easily initiate conversations with other people.” (hudson, et al, p.16). the results in table 6 show that 42% of respondents showed extrovert tendencies, 32% showed introvert tendencies while 26% of respondents rendered results that did not give a clear indication of the individual’s functionality. summary comments in table 6 were gleaned from each individual assessment and along with the detailed assessments were confirmed with the author of the fiat (whitehouse) and show that: 1. 47% of respondents (5, 7, 8, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17 and 18) intentionally tried to manipulate their results but were identified through their inconsistent results, while 11% manipulated results unintentionally (respondents 3 and 19). 2. 26% of respondents (5, 7, 8, 11 and 12) tried to disguise their results by giving extreme scores thereby hoping to impress with their choice of answers (impression management) while 11% were in denial about their situation, having scored unrealistic results (respondents 3, 10). 3. 11% of respondents (9 and 13) had serious problems with their emotional functioning to the extent that it is believed that they should consult a professional person (professional intervention). � respondent 9’s lack of self-worth is definitely understated in reality. the main concern is the fact that her high dependency level (close to the clinical cut-off point) indicates that the individual seems to have an inability to cope with reality and would therefore resort to external factors such as alcohol, drugs, yoga or meditation for example. people escape reality by using different methodologies to escape from that truth or reality. � respondent 13’s inner insecurity is slightly overactivated and lack of self-worth seems to be optimal. however, the reality is that the inner insecurity and lack of self-worth have to also be highly-overactivated. this is due to the fact that both her frustration and stress levels are highly over-activated especially her helplessness iis which is close to the clinical cut-off point, at which stage irrationality comes into play. the result of this scenario would be depression and withdrawal. 4. 63% of respondents (1, 3, 5, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18 and 19) revealed definite inconsistent results while 5% (respondent 16) showed some inconsistency and the 32% remainder of respondents (2, 4, 7, 8, 9 and 10) show some or an insignificant degree of inconsistency in their results. only 15% of respondents (1, 8 and 13) should be re-assessed due to the extent of their inconsistency. the success of achieving the primary research goal can further be interpreted as being able to identif y various aspects of the respondents results shown in table 6 that are valuable for future research: 1. highlighting inconsistent results – all the respondents’ ratings were inconsistent to some extent or the other, but viable enough to allow a conclusion. identif ying inconsistencies in the responses of the respondents either validated certain statements resulting from the interpretation of the assessments or motivated why one could not come to a conclusion about an aspect, for example, respondent 1 shows signs of paranoia (fear, suspicion, mistrust, people talking behind your back) which is not consistent with her level of inner insecurity (not in a state of feeling secure); if a person has a feeling of insecurity, it is likely that they would also have a lack of self-worth. the candidate’s paranoia score is a sure indication that the candidate has a higher level of inner insecurity in reality. 2. exposing manipulative behaviour of respondents in trying to conceal their true feelings. 3. identif ying respondents who need the intervention of a professional person as these respondents show suicidal tendencies or some form of suppressed anger which could erupt unannounced. 4. identif ying various personality traits (e.g. dishonesty) that are warning signs for existing and potential employers. 5. identif ying potential entrepreneurs. buys, havenga42 data set i seta interview star inbasket phase i phase ii new venture creation learnershi p results data set ii data set iii functional intelligence assessment tool (fiat) separate numeracy and literacy tests seta scientific measuring instrument figure 2: research approach 6. identif ying leadership qualities. 7. identif ying respondents who need to be confronted about their ratings to repeat the assessment. 8. highlighting respondents who did in fact reveal their true feelings and were therefore honest in their assessment. the holistic approach to assessing the functionality of an individual gives the person a vast number of areas known as super constructs (self perception and emotional functioning; relationships and corporate functioning, personal and organizational value comparison) that will either highlight a serious situation or spell out how the individual will react and interact in certain situations. references anonymous (n.d.) a. definition of perception. available from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/perception. (accessed 10 september 2005). anonymous, (n.d.) b. meyers briggs type indicator. available from http://www.myersbriggs.org/my%5fmbti%5f personality%5ftype/mbti%5fbasics/. (accessed 8 july 2005; 29 march 2006). anonymous (n.d.). the bar-on model of emotional-social intelligence (esi). (n.d.). available from http://www. opsltd.com/www/content/content/default.asp?pid=139. (accessed 23 april 2005). anonymous (n.d.). the bar-on model of emotional-social intelligence (esi). (n.d.). available from http://www. eiconsortium.org/research/baron_model_of_emotional_soci al_intelligence.htm. (accessed 5 may 2005). anonymous (1995) m. department of trade and industry. white paper on national strategy for the development and promotion of small business in south africa. notice 213 of 1995. available from http://www.polit y.org.za/html/ govdocs/white_papers/smallbiz.html?rebookmark=1 (accessed 9 february 2005). anonymous (2004) p. regulatory inflation. the role of the commission and regulatory impact assessment. available from http://www.compcom.co.za/resources/newsletter%20%20oct%2004/html/pages/5%20regulatory.html. (accessed 9 february 2005). anonymous (1999) q. developing the small business sector in south africa a review of regulatory and other obstacles by the south african chamber of business. available from http://www.sacob.co.za/smallbusiness/smb.pdf. (accessed 9 february 2005). bar-on, r. (1997a). the emotional quotient inventory (eq-i): a test of emotional intelligence. toronto, canada: multi-health systems, inc. bar-on, r. (1997b). the emotional quotient inventory (eq-i): technical manual. toronto, canada: multi-health systems, inc. bar-on, r., and handley, r. (2003a). the bar -on eq-360. toronto, canada: multi-health systems. bar-on, r., and handley, r. (2003b). the bar -on eq-360: technical manual. toronto, canada: multi-health systems. botha, jh., calder, j., fichardt, ga., bosman, aj., slabbert, j., smuts, m., van den berg, lj and windsor, wh (1951). kommissie van ondersoek in sake nywerheidswetgewing: 163 par 1122 & 1123. byers, t., kist, h and sutton, r.i. (1997). characteristics of the entrepreneur: social creatures, not sole heros. prepared for the handbook of technology management. ed. r.c. dorf. boca raton, florida. crc press. available from http:// www.stanford.edu/class/e145/materials/characteristics.html. accessed 15 september 2004. carland, j.w., jr., carland, j.a., and hoy, f. (1992). the entrepreneurship index: a theoretical and empirical validation. frontiers of entrepreneurship research. wellesley, ma. charney, a.h. and liebcap, g.d. (2002). the contribution of entrepreneurship education: an analysis of the berger programme. international journal of entrepreneurship education (3): 1-34. carree, m.a. and thurik, a.r. (2002:4). the impact of entrepreneurship on economic growth. available from h t t p : / / w w w. w i w i . t u f r e i b e r g . d e / w i p o l / p d f f i l e s / seminar2003/careethurik2002.pdf. (accessed 16 january 2005). department of labour (2001a). human resource development strategy for south africa – a nation at work for a better life for all: 11 available from http://education.pwv.gov.za/policies% 20and%20reports/2001_report/dedu-duncan-pg37.pdf. (accessed 12 august 2004). department of labour (2001b). national skills development strategy setting the context: 2nd edition: 6,7,8. dubrin, a. j., ireland, r.d. and williams, j.c. (1989). management and origination. ohio. south-western publishing company. cincinnati. du pre, r (2004). coping with changes in higher education in south africa. available from http://face.stir.ac.uk/paper101roydupre_000.htm. (accessed 2 june 2004). faris, s.h. (1999). seeking entrepreneurial origins: are entrepreneurs born or made. kauffman center for entrepreneurial leadership, digest 99:1. fryer, d (2003). coordination failure and employment in south africa. available from http://www.tips.org.za/research/ papers/pdfs/690.pdf. accessed 4 october 2004. hashemi, k and shirazi, m (1994). motivational elements of iran industr y managers in choosing growth strategies. shiraz university. hernandez-gantes, v.m., sorensen, r.p., nieri, a.h. (n.d.). fostering entrepreneurship through business incubation: the role and prospects of postsecondary vocational-technical education (report 1: survey of business incubator clients and managers) (mds-893). available from http://ncrve. berkeley.edu/summaries/893sum.html. (accessed 15 august 2004). horne, b.i. (1999). an assessment package for a life counseling model. doctoral dissertation. rand afrikaans university: 221,225 hudson, w.w., faul, a.c. and hanekom, b 2000. corporate behavioral screening inventory. first edition. copyright 2000 – perspective training college: 15, 16. hynes, b (1996). entrepreneurship education and training: introducing entrepreneurship into non-business disciplines. journal of european industrial training, 20 (8): 10 – 17. miner, j.b. (1994). role motivation theories. u.s.a: routledge: 62-68. neuman, w.l. (2003). social research methods – qualitative and quantitative approaches: 16, 145. van reenen, r.j., visser, m., arndt, e.h.d., champion, h.f., davidson, d.m., downes, a.j., freestone, w (1935). report on the industrial legislation commission: 142, 147-149,156. schwenke, j and van heerden, l 2002. entrepreneurship the answer to job creation. available from http://www. businesspart ners.co.za/media/releases/jobcreat ion.pdf. (accessed 7 july 2004). whitehouse, n (2002). functional intelligence. available form http://functionalintelligence.com. (accessed 2,15,17,18,22, 24,26,30 august 2005). entrepreneurial functionality 43 3vanvuuren.qxd south african businesses are increasingly embarking on focused and structured attempts at managing ethics. within the south african context, the recommendations of the king i report on corporate governance published in 1994, and to an even greater extent, the recommendations of the king ii report, published in 2002 (iod, 2002), clearly stipulate the institutionalisation and management of ethics as a primary focus of good governance. the king paradigm of corporate governance is built on the premise that governance is not only an ethical imperative, but also that ethics has to be governed and ethical performance reported on. organisations are, however, still somewhat ill at ease not only with the ‘how’ of managing ethics, but also with the ‘whom’ that should assume responsibility for coordinating organisations’ ethics management efforts. organisations in the united states of america have formalised the role of the ethics officer as “manager” of the organisation’s ethics performance since the mid-1980’s when companies started to create dedicated ethics management functions, or ethics offices, managed by “ethics officers” (eoa, 1999). of late, several organisations in europe have shifted their traditional focus of business ethics away from corporate social responsibility (csr) issues to managing ethics performance within organisations. most south african organisations that decide to manage ethics proactively and want to establish in-house structures to achieve this, seem to prefer a somewhat tentative approach until such time as the viability of a full-blown ethics management function becomes imperative. these organisations therefore allocate corporate ethics management responsibilities to existing corporate functions as over-and-above roles to be performed. examples of such functions that can be given ethics management responsibilities are financial management, internal audit, compliance, corporate legal services, risk management, procurement, the company secretariat, or the human resource function (hr) and/or one or more of its affiliate functions (e.g. organisational development, employment relations or human resource development). it seems that organisations are uncertain as to exactly where to locate the quasi ethics management function that comes about when such an over-and-above approach is adopted. as custodian of organisational values, hr indeed has an active role to play regarding the raising of the corporate ethical consciousness, the facilitation of ethical behaviour and the promotion of ethical leadership (british perspective provided by: arkin, 1996; johns, 1995; pickard, 1995; pocock, 1989; wehrmeyer, 1996; us perspective provided by: bartels, harrick, martell & strickland, 1998; caudron, 1997; compton, 1997; driscoll & hoffman, 1998; flynn, 1995; greengard, 1997; grensing-pophal, 1998; hosmer, 1987; koys, 1988; lawler, 1988; losey, 1997; raelin, 1987; smith & carroll, 1984). what is unclear, however, is whether hr should assume responsibility for ethics management, and whether hr should coordinate corporate ethics management initiatives. the aim of this article is to explore the option of hr assuming responsibility for corporate ethics management. it is therefore necessary to analyse supporting and opposing views to this option. thereafter an empirically based survey of south african hr practitioners’ perspectives on their perceived role in assuming responsibility for managing ethics will be reported and discussed. arguments in favour of hr managing ethics several scholars hold strong views on the role of hr in managing ethics. a survey (n=1078) by danley, harrick, schaefer, strickland and sullivan (1996) among corporate us hr managers, showed that 50% of the respondents regarded “advocate of employees” as an important part of their role. the “employee advocate” role is aligned to what ulrich (1997) labels an “employee champion” role (one of the four major generic hr roles as proposed by ulrich). other authors describe hr’s role as “custodian” of organisational values (armstrong, 1995; torrington & hall, 1995; sadler, 1995). research by foote and robinson (1999) indicated that hr managers perceived themselves as guardians of organisational values. foote (2001) claims that hr’s role as the “conscience” of the organisation has a long pedigree. lowe (in foote, 2001) refers to the human resource management role as the organisation’s “arbiter of justice and acolyte of benevolence” (p. 28), and woodd (in foote, 2001) is quite clear that such a role still remains. does being an employee champion or advocate, or custodian or guardian of values, however, qualif y hr to take the lead in managing corporate ethics? according to driscoll and hoffman (1998) “hr as the ethics office isn’t an oxymoron” and “safeguarding the company is human resources’ job. increasingly, hr managers are taking the lj van vuuren ljvv@rau.ac.za programme in industrial psychology department of human resource management university of johannesburg rj eiselen statistical consultation ser vices university of johannesburg abstract since few south african organisations have as yet appointed ethics officers, there is often a lack of clarity on who should take responsibility for coordinating organisations’ ethics management efforts. the purpose of this paper was to assess hr (the human resource function and its practitioners) as a possible contender to assume responsibility for ethics management in sa organisations. to this end a mail survey was conducted among registered hr practitioners (n=410). two factors related to 1) the extent of hr’s ethics management competence and 2) hr’s responsibility for ethics management, were identified. the results showed that hr practitioners on average believe that they indeed have an ethics management competence and that they should be involved in ethics management. however, practitioners with a great deal of exposure to organisations that manage ethics believe to a lesser extent that they should be involved in ethics management. the implications of the findings are discussed. key words ethics, human resources, ethics management a role for hr in corporate ethics? south african practitioners’ perspectives 22 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (3), 22-28 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (3), 22-28 lead in recognizing the need for ethics programs and in making them happen” (p. 121). the reasons they provide are that those in leadership positions in human resources are highly respected within their organisations for integrity, having the ability to solve complex ethical dilemmas, understanding the company’s culture and communicating it at all hierarchical levels in the organisation. driscoll and hoffman (1998) claim that even in smaller companies that do not have the resources for a separate ethics function“, ethics initiatives properly fit as part of the human resources department” (p. 121). wiley (1998) too, believes that hr has a role to play in taking responsibility for ethics management. she bases her opinion on research findings which revealed that it is appropriate for hr to assume a responsibility for corporate ethics. donaldson (in digh, 1997) suggests that “70 per cent of the responsibility for values and ethics should fall to hr” (p.92). woodd (in foote, 2001) sees hr specialists as located ideally “… at the heart of policy design and implementation, involved in the training of employees, and responding to change through organisational development” (p. 28). a 1997 survey conducted by the society for human resource management in conjunction with the ethics resource centre, indicated that “70 per cent of hr professionals are involved in formulating ethics policies and 69 per cent are a primary resource for their enterprises’ ethics initiative” (brewster, carey, dowling, grobler, holland & wärnich, 2003). drummond (in pickard, 1995) states that since ethics is about people’s behaviour, hr departments ought to be interested in managing ethics. he further claims that hr concerns itself with people’s standards and behaviour as well as performance – in ethics management, standards and behaviour are also crucial factors. ethics also plays a part in performance management in that performance is affected by ethically related issues, e.g. “treating others with respect” would influence the interpersonal relationship dimension present in performance appraisal systems. kilcourse (1994) explains that value leadership is a key role for top management and that values rest on a philosophical foundation, knowingly or not. he further states that of all the people in top management, the human resource director has the largest responsibility to promote the company values and the philosophy. “by making explicit those values which drive the organisation” and “disseminating a list of clear ethical guidelines” (kilcourse, 1994, p. 42), the hr director persuades other executives that the inculcation of a values system is crucial for leadership success. caudron (1997) is adamant that “hr professionals must be able to understand and enforce ethical business behaviour” (p. 63). berenbeim (1991) notes that of all the major functional corporate departments, hr has the greatest familiarity and expertise with the major issues (e.g. work force diversity, participative management, the abandonment of the lifetime employeremployee relationship, etc.), that have contributed to equip employees with the resources to align business priorities with individual and group moral claims. he further points out that the majority of specific issues covered by corporate codes of ethics relate to some extent to employees’ contracts with the company. he proposes this as the reason why the hr manager should have an intensive participation in the formulation, articulation, dissemination, implementation, assessment, and revision of company ethics policies, codes, guidelines, as well as ethics management programs. the intensification of the hr contribution to corporate ethics programs adds a degree of substantive involvement to hr responsibilities – a trend that promises to become more profound in future (berenbeim, 1991). woodd (in foote, 2001) argues that an underlying value for human resource specialists must be to act as the guardians of ethical conduct. although she emphasises that ethics is the responsibility of senior management, she claims that without a proactive approach from those (hr) who are involved with the people side of the business, real (ethical) issues will never be raised. the danley, et al. (1996) survey revealed that besides dealing with the many delicate ethical issues within hr practice, 83% of hr managers see themselves as currently taking the most responsibility for ethical leadership and guidance in their organisations (followed by top management, legal counsel, immediate supervisors, etc.). the results also showed that the responsibility gap as perceived by hr regarding its role in discharging the responsibilit y for ethical guidance and leadership, is 12%. this represents the percentage difference between those who are responsible and those who should be responsible for corporate ethical guidance. with regard to training in ethics, 79% of ethics officers that responded to the 2001 ethics officer association (eoa) survey, reported that the organisation’s ethics office provides training and/or continuing education on ethical business conduct to employees (eoa, 2002) while 61% of ethics officers polled responded that their organisations’ hr departments provide substantial training in ethics. thirty eight per cent of ethics officers that responded to the survey, indicated that their organisations’ hr departments determine the content of ethics training programs (eoa, 2002). brewster et al. (2003) refer to a survey by carey in 2000 which indicated that australian hr managers play a prominent role in ethics management. they are responsible for the formulation of written ethics standards, communicating these standards, as well as monitoring and enforcing compliance to the standards. brewster et al. (2003) suggest that “hr is well-positioned to make an important contribution to creating, implementing and sustaining ethical organisational behaviour within a strategic hr paradigm” (p. 270). according to the above opinions, it appears as if hr is capable of assuming responsibility for organisational ethics management initiatives. several authors are, however, opposed to hr assuming this responsibility for reasons set out below. arguments not in favour of a role for hr in managing ethics pickard (1995) claims that there is evidence that ethics is the latest big issue to pass over the heads of hr departments. cavanagh (in pickard, 1995) warns that the question of whether hr professionals want to be involved, needs to be posed. her reservations in this regard are based on the possibility that hr professionals may view ethics as “just another soft subject that will dent their credibility with the hard men who run the company” (p. 25), and not necessarily as a key factor in performance and profitability. winstanley, woodall and heery (1996) note that the ethics stewardship role for hr is problematic. should hr assume this role, line managers may argue that ethics is hr’s responsibility, thus negating their own day-to-day role of managing the ethics of their work teams. a survey by foote and robinson (1999) among senior hr practitioners in the uk revealed that when ethical responsibility for the organisation is placed explicitly with the hr function, line managers are allowed the ‘freedom’ to absolve themselves of any ethical responsibility for their actions. should ethics become an hr responsibilit y, an additional complication is that ethics may become “just another hr project …”. should contributions be required from line in the design phase of ethics management systems, hr practitioners may experience the same type of resistance that usually characterises line management’s responses to new hr systems (e.g. a new performance management system). connock and johns (1995) argue that ethical leadership must come from top management and “not be part of the ghetto of human resource management”. recent moves to elevate hr’s role of hr in corpor ate ethics 23 status to business partner has, among others, been a deliberate attempt to raise the status of the function by moving it away from its ‘welfarist’ roots, and to be more closely aligned with strategy and with board-level representation (winstanley, et al., 1996). there is of course the risk that by assuming responsibility for ethics, the hr function may again jeopardize its status and credibility. foote and robinson (1999) found that ‘managing ethics’ was not identified as a competence by the hr practitioners that responded to their survey. their survey also showed little evidence of hr professionals being able to exert much influence on organisational ethics. they claim that this inability to have an effect on the ethics of an organisation “ is determined by the interaction between the organisation and the individual which is, in turn, dependent on the status, credibility and influence of the hr specialists themselves” (p. 89). robertson and schlegelmilch (1993) found that organisations in the uk tend to communicate ethics policies through senior management other than hr. therefore: hr must do the work, but since they do not have sufficient credibility, other executives must continuously endorse ethics management initiatives. hr practitioners find themselves somewhere between two extremes: having to assume an “independent, neutral, and impartial stance in balancing the demands of the bottom line and the interests of the employees” (foote, 2001). a similar brand of tension is present when hr practitioners find themselves in the position where they are seen to be pro-union by management, and pro-management by unions. a further danger may be that hr may become lawmaker, enforcer, judge and advisor when given an ethics management role. as mentioned earlier, research by foote and robinson (1999) revealed that ‘managing ethics’ was not identified as a competence by practitioners that responded to their survey. should this be the case elsewhere – in south africa for example – the question has to be raised as to whether hr practitioners indeed have the skills acquired through formal and informal training, to take responsibility for ethics management. it is beyond dispute that members of the formalised component of the hr profession in south africa are serious about professional ethics. this is evident from current efforts of the profession to have their practitioners’ professional status formally entrenched by legislation, and where this proposed legislation contains adequate provision for ensuring ethical conduct by members of the profession. there seems to be little indication, however, that the hr profession in south africa is concerned with managing ethics as a competence for its practitioners. a scrutiny of documents and policies of standards generating bodies and professional boards and associations, revealed no formal evidence that ethics management is perceived as being an important competence hr practitioners need to possess and/or acquire. this seems to indicate that the hr profession in south africa has not given much thought to the possibility of hr assuming responsibility for corporate ethics management. lastly, it can be questioned whether hr really has both the taskand energy-based capacities to assume responsibility for ethics. as such the high expectations on hr, not only to take on a business partner responsibility for improving the bottom line, but also to spend large amounts of emotional energy in being people champions, may put a further, perhaps unfair demand on hr practitioners to take on the complex and potentially time and energy consuming role of managing ethics, where the latter may be a responsibility over-and-above their usual tasks. it is clear that there are many risks for hr when they attempt to be ‘the conscience of the organisation’. some of these risks relate to ethics being just another (albeit newer) soft, ‘welfarist’ issue to be presented for buy-in from line, doubts over hr’s ability to actually influence organisational ethics, line management absolving themselves of their responsibility for ethics since it “is now hr’s problem”, the non-identification of ethics as a key hr competence (possibly due to inadequate training and/or skills in this regard), the possibility that taking care of ethics may dilute the newly established business partner role, and the phenomenon that a responsibility for ethics should not be added as an additional burden to an already saturated hr role. most of these risks emanate from hr’s credibility issue, which in turn, may cause a severe reluctance from hr to assume responsibility for ethics. several stakeholders’ opinions could be sought to determine whether hr should 1. assume responsibilit y for ethics management in organisations, 2. possess or acquire an ethics management competence, and therefore 3. be educated and trained in ethics management principles and practices. as such one could survey other functions in organisations (e.g. governance, legal, compliance, finance, audit, the company secretariat and risk management f unct ions). senior executives and line managers would also provide indications of the possibilit y of hr taking on ethics as a responsibilit y. the professional bodies and associations that regulate, structure and coordinate hr practitioners’ activities could also be polled. however, in light of the fact that it will event ually be the practitioners themselves that will have to fulfil the requirements of an ethics management role, the researchers deemed it appropriate to firstly ascertain what the perceptions of the hr practitioners themselves are in this regard. in the process one could get closer to establishing what the ideal dispensation could be for south african organisations and the hr practitioners operating within these organisations. research design participants the population consisted of the 1969 hr practitioners registered at all levels of registration categories with the south african board for personnel practice (sabpp). questionnaires were mailed to the practitioners who were requested to complete and return the questionnaires to the researchers within a specified period of time. measuring instrument the mail survey data collection method was utilised for the purpose of this st udy, which entailed distributing questionnaires to the population of registered hr professionals. apart from background information, which included age, gender, educational qualification and experience in the hr field, the questionnaire elicited specific information regarding ethics. these included questions related to the adequacy of training in ethics during formal education. in additional, 21 opinion-related questions, each measured on a 3-point ordinal scale (small extent/moderate extent/large extent), elicited information regarding the role of hr in dealing with ethical issues. finally, 12 yes/no questions elicited specific information about exposure to a context where ethics is managed within the organisation. procedure as per the guidelines of alreck and settle (1995, pp. 183-209) concerning the survey research method, a covering letter accompanied the questionnaire. the covering letter explained the purpose and importance of the study and ensured the anonymity of respondents. the questionnaire was mailed to the selected population and included a pre-paid envelope. participants were requested to complete the questionnaire and to return it by the date stipulated in the cover letter. in an attempt to increase the response rates, a follow-up email was sent to each member of the selected population as a reminder of the request to participate in the survey. van vuuren, eiselen24 limitation of the study although the questionnaire was mailed to the entire population of hr practitioners registered at all levels of registration categories with the south african board for personnel practice (sabpp), those who chose to respond do not necessarily constitute a random or representative sample of the population. results description of the background of the sample a total of 410 (20,82%) practitioners provided complete information on the 21 items relating to the role of hr in dealing with ethical issues. the majority of these respondents (335 or 81,7%) were male. the ages of respondents varied from 25 to 76 years with an average of 45,45 years (sd = 8,56) and they had between 4 and 40 years of experience in the hr field with a mean of 18,63 years (sd = 7,4). in particular, 16,1% had less than 10 years experience, 21,2% had between 10 and 15 years experience, 25,1% had between 16 and 20 years experience and 17,1% had 26 or more years of experience. there were 309 (75.40%) respondents who occupied permanent positions within their respective organisations, with only 70 (17,10%) self-employed as consultants, while 5,1% indicated occupying both a permanent position within an organisation and being self-employed. the majority of the respondents were in senior hr manager positions (33,20%), with 20,50% in director positions. only 10,0% were junior hr managers, and 12,70% were at entry-level. this explains the fact that most of the respondents had more than 10 years experience. in terms of tertiary qualifications, 89 respondents (21,70%) had bachelor's degrees, 92 (22,40%) honours degrees, 99 (24,10%) master's degrees while 32 (7,80%) had doctoral degrees. description of responses to questions on hr and organisational ethics as far as the adequacy of training in ethics/business ethics during formal education is concerned (see figure 1), responses ranged between 1 (totally inadequate training in ethics) and 6 (totally adequate training in ethics) with a mean of 3,2 (sd = 1,17). figure 1: responses to the adequacy of training in ethics during formal training responses to the opinion-related questions, i.e. the questions related to hr’s role in the management of ethics, are summarised in table 1. these show that the majority of respondents believed that hr practitioners should be involved in business ethics and that business ethics should be included in the training of hr practitioners. table 1 percentage of responses extent to which… small moderate large extent extent extent hr practitioners are aware that some decisions 14,63 63,66 21,71 have ethical implications ethics is an everyday topic of conversation in 37,80 36,10 26,10 your company you have a need for formal training in ethics 37,32 33,66 29,02 ethics training is responsibility of the *ipm 36,10 33,41 30,49 you have a need for informal advice/coaching re 31,22 37,80 30,98 ethical issues you actually use the **sabpp code of ethics 32,44 33,66 33,90 the current sabpp code of ethics is an 11,46 54,15 34,39 adequate guideline for the behaviour of hr practitioners a company's ethics officer should be an ex-hr 20,00 39,51 40,49 practitioner ethics training is the responsibility of sabpp 24,39 33,17 42,44 you have competence to manage ethics in your 8,29 41,46 50,24 organisation there is an ethical climate in your company 12,93 36,59 50,49 you feel equipped to facilitate a problem-solving 9,27 36,83 53,90 session with an ethical issue as theme hr should assume responsibility for managing 13,66 31,95 54,39 ethics in organisation managing ethics should be a key performance 9,76 32,44 57,80 area for hr practitioners you feel competent to deal with ethical issues 2,93 37,56 59,51 ethics training is responsibility of the company 10,49 28,78 60,73 ethics training is responsibility of universities 5,37 31,95 62,68 you recognise possible ethical implications in a 1,71 34,15 64,15 decision-making situation managing ethics should be a key competence 3,66 29,27 67,07 of hr practitioners business ethics should be included in the 1,95 13,90 84,15 training of hr practitioners hr should be involved in business ethics 1,46 9,76 88,78 n = 410 * ipm = institute for people management (south africa) ** sabpp = south african board for personnel practice to reduce the dimensionality, these questions were factor analysed to determine the underlying constructs. principal factor analysis was used and the number of factors extracted were based on the kaiser criterion (number of eigenvalues >1) (tabachnick & fidell, 2001). to assist in the interpretation, a varimax (orthogonal rotation) was used (tabachnick & fidell, 2001). two reliable factors (cronbach alpha values exceeding 0,7 (hair, anderson, tatham & black, 1998)) each containing at least 4 items were extracted. these related to the extent to which hr practitioners have an ethics management competence and the extent to which hr has a role in managing ethics. the number of items per factor as well as the reliability coefficient of each appear in table 2. table 2 factors related to the role of hr in dealing with ethical issues factor reliability number sample item (coefficient of items alpha) extent to which hr 0,707 8 to what extent do you practitioners have an feel competent to deal ethics management with ethical issues? competence extent to which ethics 0,769 4 to what extent should is the responsibility hr be involved in of hr business ethics? role of hr in corpor ate ethics 25 totally adequate training 5432totally inadequate training adequacy of training in ethics during form al education 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 c o u n t 13 50 116 126 78 27 adequacy of training in ethics during formal education descriptive statistics for each of the reliable factors are shown in table 3 and are graphically displayed in figure 2. the negative skewness of the distributions and the high mean values show that the majority of respondents indicated that hr practitioners have an ethics competence (m = 2,54) and also that ethics is a responsibility of hr (m = 2,43). table 3 descriptive statistics of factors relating to the role of hr in dealing with ethical issues factor minimum maximum mean sd extent to which hr practitioners 1,50 3,00 2,54 0,324 have an ethics management competence extent to which ethics is the 1,00 3,00 2,43 0,520 responsibility of hr n = 410 figure 2: distribution of factors relating to the role of hr in dealing with ethical issues description of items related to exposure to ethics management in an organisation of the 363 respondents (88,5% of the 410 respondents) who answered all of the yes/no questions related to exposure to ethics management within an organisation, the percentage of ‘yes’ responses to each question is displayed in table 4. of interest is that only 47,93% of the 363 respondents reported that their organisations have codes of ethics and only 57,3% reported being familiar with the king report on corporate governance. in contrast, 83,2% reported that cases of fraud or corruption occurred within their organisations. table 4 percentage of yes responses (sorted in increasing order of magnitude) to exposure to ethics management questions question % of yes responses does your company have an ethics office? 9,64 does your company have an ethics committee? 14,05 does your company include managing ethics as a generic key 19,56 performance area of line managers? does your company have a hotline to answer ethics queries? 24,24 does your company provide training in business ethics? 27,00 does your company report on business ethics in its annual 27,82 report? does your company have a formal ethics strategy? 47,93 does your company have a code of ethics? 47,93 does your company make provision for whistle-blowing? 53,72 are you familiar with the recommendations of the king 57,30 report on corporate governance? is ethical behaviour a core value in your company's values 68,87 statement? have there been cases of fraud/corruption in your organisation? 83,20 n = 363 to quantif y the extent of exposure to ethics management within an organisation further, the number of ‘yes’ responses to these 12 questions was determined for each respondent. respondents were subsequently categorised into three groups based on the extent of exposure to ethics management: no to little exposure (0 to 3 yes answers), moderate exposure (4 to 6 yes answers) and a great deal of exposure (7 to 12 yes answers). this categorisation yielded the following percentage of respondents in each group: 37,5%, 35% and 27,5%. towards finding a moderator for belief regarding ethics being a responsibility of hr and the ethics competencies of hr practitioners to determine which, if any, of the background variables moderate the perception of respondents about 1) the extent to which hr practitioners have an ethics competence and 2) the extent to which ethics should be a responsibility of hr, anovas and t-tests were performed. in each case, the null-hypothesis of equal population means was tested. as far as background variables are concerned, none of the variables age group of practitioners, experience in the hr field and gender were found to moderate these perceptions (p-values > 0,05 in both cases). the same held true for their actual levels of formal education. in terms of belief regarding the extent to which formal education provided adequate training in ethics, the null-hypotheses of equal population means were rejected for 1) the extent to which hr practitioners have an ethics management competence, as well as 2) the extent to which ethics should be a responsibility of hr (p-values < 0.05). the results of the anovas are shown in table 5. van vuuren, eiselen26 3.203.002.802.602.402.202.001.801.601.40 extent to w hich hr practioners have ethics com penencies 80 60 40 20 0 f re q u e n c y m ean = 2.5405 std. dev. = 0.32412 n = 410 3.503.002.502.001.501.000.50 extent to w hich ethics is responsibility of hr 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 f re q u e n c y m ean = 2.4317 std. dev. = 0.52028 n = 410 extent to which hr practitioners have ethics competencies extent to which ethics is the responsibility of hr table 5 anova results of factors in terms of extent to which formal education provided adequate training in ethics factor ss (sum df mean ss f p-value of squares) extent to which hr between 3,275 5 0,655 6,666 <0,0005 practitioners have groups an ethics management within 39,692 404 0,098 competence groups total 42,967 409 extent to which ethics between 3,124 5 0,625 2,346 0,041 is responsibility of hr groups within 107,589 404 0,266 groups total 110,713 409 to elucidate the differences between these groups, post-hoc comparisons were performed. as equal population variances could not be assumed for the first factor (extent to which hr practitioners have an ethics competence), the dunnett t3 comparison was used. the assumption of equal population variances could, however, be assumed for the second factor (extent to which ethics is the responsibility of hr) and hence the scheffe post-hoc comparisons were used. the post-hoc comparisons revealed that practitioners who indicated that their formal education provided them with totally adequate training in ethics, on average believed that hr practitioners have more ethics management competence (m = 2,79) than those who indicated that their formal education provided them with marginally adequate to totally inadequate training (m = 2,45 and 2,43 respectively). similarly those who believed that their formal education provided them with totally adequate training in ethics believed to a larger extent that hr should be responsible for ethics (m = 2,73) than those who believed their training was inadequate (m = 2,31). the effect sizes of 0,265 and 0,149 indicate that the effect of perception regarding the adequacy of ethics training during formal education has a small effect (rosenthal, rosnow & rubin, 2000:4) on the extent to which practitioners believe that they have an ethics management competence on the one hand, and the extent to which they believe hr should be responsible for ethics on the other. as far as exposure to ethics management in an organisation is concerned, the null-hypotheses of equal population means were also rejected in both cases. the results of the anovas are shown in table 6. table 6 anova results of factors in terms of extent exposure to ethics management in an organisation factor ss (sum df mean ss f p-value of squares) extent to which hr practitioners 1,41 2 0,707 6,79 0,001 have an ethics management 37,46 360 0,104 competence 38,88 362 extent to which ethics is the 1,95 2 0,975 3,65 0,027 responsibility of hr 96,34 360 0,268 98,29 362 the scheffe post-hoc comparisons (used due to the assumption of equal population variances being assumed in both cases) revealed that practitioners with no to little exposure to ethics management have a significantly lower mean (m = 2,47) than those with a great deal of exposure (m = 2,63) in terms of the extent to which hr practitioners have an ethics competence. however, as far as the extent to which ethics is the responsibility of hr is concerned, those with no or little exposure to ethics management have a higher mean (m = 2,52), and therefore believe to a greater extent that ethics management is hr’s responsibility, than either those with a moderate (m = 2,36) or a great deal of exposure (m = 2,38) hence it is concluded that both belief regarding the adequacy of ethics training during formal education and exposure to ethics management, seem to moderate belief regarding the ethics management competence of practitioners and the extent to which hr should be involved in ethics. discussion the results of this survey have shown that, although hr practitioners agree that they have an ethics management competence and that hr should be involved in ethics within an organisation, it is their belief about the adequacy of their formal training that moderates this and not their actual level of formal training. it can be surmised that hr’s perceived competence to deal with ethics may be a reflection of the phenomenon that the majority of issues covered by corporate codes of ethics relate to some extent to employees’ contracts with the company, hr issues in other words. the results also showed that exposure to ethics management within an organisation, i.e. a context where ethics is taken seriously and addressed formally, moderates belief regarding both the ethics management competence of practitioners and the extent to which hr should be involved in ethics. of interest is the fact that practitioners with a great deal of exposure believe to a larger extent that they have an ethics management competence, but believe to a lesser extent that hr should be involved in ethics management. this may be attributed to the fact that exposure to ethics management has highlighted their operational competencies in dealing with ethics on the one hand, but may reflect their realization of the practical limitations of possibly assuming a primary responsibility for managing organisational ethics. this may, in turn, be ascribed to either their lack of positional power within organisational hierarchies or the lack of credibility that still taints the hr function and its incumbents in many south african organisations. hr practitioners may therefore perceive themselves as unable to “enforce ethical business behaviour” (a requirement suggested by caudron, 1997, p. 63). practitioners may also be hesitant to commit themselves to a substantive involvement in organisational ethics and assume a primary responsibility for ethics management for some of the reasons mentioned earlier: e.g. ethics being just another soft, ‘welfarist’ issue to be presented for buy-in from line, doubts over hr’s ability to actually influence organisational ethics, line management absolving themselves of their responsibility for ethics since it “is now hr’s problem”, the possibility that taking care of ethics may dilute the newly established business partner role, and the phenomenon that a responsibility for ethics should not be added as an additional burden to an already saturated hr role). ethical behaviour is about human behaviour. since hr practitioners need to be experts on human behaviour, it stands to reason then that hr must, in some way, be able to understand and have a substantial influence on organisational ethical behaviour. it is for this reason that professional hr associations and their members (hr practitioners) should embrace their ethics management responsibility. the nature and extent of this responsibility should, however, be elucidated and specific ethics management roles within this broader responsibility should be identified and clearly demarcated. in particular, hr tertiary education and professional training need to include business ethics knowledge and an ethics management competence. role of hr in corpor ate ethics 27 references alreck, p.l. & settle, r.b. (1995). the sur vey research handbook (2nd ed.). chicago: irwin. arkin, a. (1996). open business is good for business. people management, 11 january, 24-27. armstrong, m. (1995). a handbook of personnel management & practice. london: kogan page. bartels, l.k., harrick, e., martell, k. & strickland, d. (1998). the relationship between ethical climate and ethical problems within human resource management. journal of business ethics, 17, 799-804. berenbeim, r.e. (1991). hr taking a policy role in corporate ethics programs. employment relations today, 279-285. brewster, c., carey, l., dowling, p., grobler, p., holland, p. & wärnich, s. (2003). contemporary issues in human resource management: gaining a competitive advantage (2nd ed.). cape town: oxford university press. caudron, s. (1997). world-class executives. industry week, 246 (22), 60-66. compton, k. (1997). resolve for the new year. hr magazine, 42 (1), 151. connock, s. & johns, t. (1995). ethical leadership. london: institute of personnel and development. danley, j., harrick, e., schaefer, d., strickland, d. & sullivan, g. (1996). hr’s view of ethics in the work place: are the barbarians at the gate? journal of business ethics, 15, 273-285. digh, p. (1997). shades of gray in the global marketplace. hr magazine, 42 (4), 90-98. driscoll, d.m. & hoffman, w.m. (1998). hr plays a central role in ethics programs. workforce, 77 (4), 121-123. drummond, j. & bain, b. (eds.) (1994). managing business ethics: 9-25. oxford: butterworth heinemann. eoa (ethics officer association). (1999). www.eoa.org. general information. eoa (2002). www.eoa.org. flynn, g, (1995). make employee ethics your business. personnel journal, 74 (6), 30-40. foote, d. & robinson, i. (1999). the role of the human resources manager: strategist or conscience of the organisation? business ethics: a european review, 8 (2), 88-98. foote, d. (2001). the question of ethical hypocrisy in human resource management in the u.k. and irish charity sectors. journal of business ethics, 34, 25-38. greengard, s. (1997). 50% of your employees are lying, cheating and stealing. workforce, 76 (10), 44-53. grensing-pophal, l. (1998). walking the tightrope, balancing risks & gains. hr magazine, 43 (11),112-119. hair, j.f. jr., anderson, r.e., tatham, r.l. & black, w.c. (1998). multivariate data analysis. 5th edition. new jersey: prentice hall. hosmer, l.t. (1987). ethical analysis and human resource management. human resource management, 26 (3), 313-330. iod. (2002). second king report on corporate governance for south africa. johannesburg: institute of directors (iod). johns, t. (1995). don’t be afraid of the moral maze. people management, 5 october, 32-34. kays, d.j. (1988). values underlying personnel/human resource management: implications of the bishops’ economic pastoral letter. journal of business ethics, 7, 459-466. kilcourse, t. (1994). a human resource philosophy. management decision, 32 (9), 37-42. lawler, e.e. (1988). human resources management: meeting the new challenges. personnel, 22-27. losey, m.r. (1997). the future hr professional: competency buttressed by advocacy and ethics. human resource management, 36 (1), 147-150. pickard, j. (1995). prepare to make a moral judgement. people management, 4 may, 22-25. pocock, p. (1989). is business ethics a contradiction in terms? personnel management, november, 60-63. raelin, j.a. (1987). the professional as the executives ethical aide-de-camp. the academy of management executive, 1 (3),171-182. robertson, d.c. & schlegelmilch, b.b. (1993). corporate institutionalisation of ethics in the united states and great britian. journal of business ethics, 12, 301-312. rosenthal, r., rosnow, r.l. & rubin, d.b. (2000). contrasts and effect sizes in behavioural research: a correlational approach. cambridge: cambridge university press. rossouw, d. & van vuuren, l.j. (2004). business ethics (3rd ed.). cape town: oxford university press. sadler, t. (1995). hrm: developing a strategic approach. london: kogan page. smith, h.r. & carroll, a.b. (1984). organisational ethics: a stacked deck. journal of business ethics, 3, 95-100. tabachnick, b.g. & fidell, l.s. (1998). using multivariate statistics, 4th edition. needham heights, massachusetts: allyn and bacon. torrington, d. & hall, l. (1995). personnel management: hrm in action. hemel hempstead: prentice hall. ulrich, d. (1997). judge me more by my future than by my past. human resource management, 36 (1), 5-8. wehrmeyer, w. (1996). green policies can help to bear fruit. people management, 22 february, 38-40. wiley, c. (1998). re-examining perceived ethics issues and ethics roles among employment managers. journal of business ethics, 17, 147-161. winstanley, d. & woodall, j. & heery, e. (1996). business ethics and human resource management: themes and issues. personnel review, 25 (6), 5-12. van vuuren, eiselen28 sajhrm 14(1).indb reviewer acknowledgement open accesshttp://www.sajhrm.co.za page 1 of 1 sa journal of human resource management recognises the value and importance of the peer reviewer in the overall publication process – not only in shaping the individual manuscript, but also in shaping the credibility and reputation of our journal. we are committed to the timely publication of all original, innovative contributions submitted for publication. as such, the identification and selection of reviewers who have expertise and interest in the topics appropriate to each manuscript are essential elements in ensuring a timely, productive peer review process. we would like to take this opportunity to thank all reviewers who participated in shaping this volume of sa journal of human resource management: aleksandra furtak anita bosch annelize van niekerk anton grobler ayse e. yogun boris urban bright mahembe byron g. adams carolina m. henn cecilia m. schultz chris j. jordaan christoffel j. botha chux g. iwu colleen j. rigby debrah n. mtshelwane deon g.g. rousseau e. nicolene barkhuizen eileen koekemoer elizabeth c. rudolph elrie botha esther p. palmer felicity asiedu-appiah francesca abii francois s. de kock gary w. paul gerhard bezuidenhout gilton g. klerck golda a.v. crisostomo j. (joey) h. buitendach jacques c. myburgh jeanette e. maritz johanna c. diedericks karel f. lessing karen luyt klaus p. muller leona ungerer liezl diedericks lize van hoek lizelle brink lusanda sekaja magda l. bezuidenhout marieta du plessis mark h.r. bussin melanie j. bryant melissa jacobs nadia ferreira neil a. buys nicole m. dodd norman chiliya pierre a. joubert rachele paver rene van wyk renjini m. joseph richard g. chazuza ridhi arora roslyn t. de braine rudolf m. oosthuizen sumaya laher w. (billy) boonzaier waliu m. adegbite willie t. chinyamurindi yvonne joubert in an effort to facilitate the selection of appropriate peer reviewers for sa journal of human resource management, we ask that you take a moment to update your electronic portfolio on www.sajhrm.co.za for our files, allowing us better access to your areas of interest and expertise, in order to match reviewers with submitted manuscripts. if you would like to become a reviewer, please visit the journal website and register as a reviewer. to access your details on the website, you will need to follow these steps: 1. log into the online journal at http://www. sajhrm.co.za 2. in your ‘user home’ [http://www.sajhrm. co.za/index.php/sajhrm/ user] select ‘edit my profile’ under the heading ‘my account’ and insert all relevant details, bio statement and reviewing interest. 3. it is good practice as reviewer to update your personal details regularly to ensure contact with you throughout your professional term as reviewer to sa journal of human resource management. please do not hesitate to contact us if you require assistance in performing this task. publisher: publishing@aosis.co.za tel: +27 21 975 2602 fax: +27 21 975 4635 sajhrm sa journal of human resource management we appreciate the time taken to perform your review successfully. 2vantonder.qxd one of the most frequently noted truisms of our time is the increasing prevalence of turbulence in the operating context of organisations, brought on mainly by the emerging phenomenon of globalisation. the latter, in turn, is an artefact of many factors including rapid technological advances in the domains of information management and communications, and increasing access to air travel across the globe. equally common, is the observation that the pace of change is accelerating and that change itself is intensif ying. in addition to these perspectives, it was recently argued that these global circumstances are creating a “new” complex dynamic from which new types of change are emerging and which often result in catastrophic consequences (cf. van tonder, 2005a; 2006, on the notion of nonlinear change). examples of this phenomenon include the demise of enron, barings bank, parmalat (international), worldcom, and in south africa saambou bank. examples abound but understandably only the higher profile cases are reported in the business literature. apart from these examples of organisational demise there is a substantial literature base reporting on the poor success rate of major adaptive change initiatives by organisations, with the general view taken that between 65% and 75% of these initiatives ultimately fail (cf. applebaum & wohl, 2000; beer & nohria, 2000; mariotti, 1998; mourier & smith, 2001; smith, 2002; van tonder, 2005b). the latter includes mergers and acquisitions, downsizings, restructurings, business process re-engineering, strategic change, cultural change, continuous improvement initiatives, tqm – effectively any major change. although the notion of change “success” and change “failure” are not yet anchored in universally acceptable definitions, it most commonly refers to the non-achievement of the initial (pre-change) financial objectives to be achieved by the change initiative. however, apart from the non-achievement of these financial objectives, major change initiatives have a significant communit y and societal impact – its social ramifications are massive yet are not fully accounted for before, during and after major change initiatives (van tonder, 2005b). for this reason it is concluded that major change initiatives, by any measure, generally do not appear to meet expectations. it is obvious that organisations still grapple with change at a time when accumulated wisdom from research and business experience should render this less of a challenge. furthermore, ref lecting on the sudden demise of large corporate institutions, it is understandable that the issue of corporate governance will emerge as a prominent management concern as, clearly, shareholders and the main stakeholders of these instit utions were significantly worse off as a consequence of these corporate failures. in these instances the type of change (however defined) that culminated in the failure or demise of the organisation embodied significant yet undetected or unmanaged risk. from this perspective it has to be argued that the issue of risk management, which is central to corporate governance, clearly cannot be defined in terms of financial risk or exposure only. instead, a systemic perspective is necessitated in order to extend concepts of risk and risk management in particular to change management practices. as these examples suggest, shareholders and other stakeholders are continuously confronted with “risk” with regard to their “interests” given the prevalence of change on the one hand and the “inability” of corporate office bearers to manage major change initiatives on the other. major change and its consequences, however, are not seen as risk areas by management, largely because of the fact that the impact and ramifications of change are not adequately measured (burns, 2003) and consequently the damage inflicted by less than optimal change initiatives are not adequately accounted for in financial audits, financial statements and the balance sheet. in particular, it should be noted that the unavoidable and unanticipated consequences of change (armenakis & bedeian, 1999) typically reside in non-quantifiable and often tacit areas. these only show up over time in indices such as general staff turnover, an unacceptably high number of bright and top achievers leaving the company prematurely, difficulty with the recruitment of appropriate staff, loss of competitiveness, a drift in focus and a commensurate shift away from the quantity, quality and time dimensions of organisational output. less obvious are the ramifications of change that impact on employee and institutional health and well-being. indeed, employees’ experience of change appears to account for a significant proportion of their stress and stress-related illness (briggins, 1997; kets de vries, 1989; worrall & cooper, 1995; worrall, cooper & campbell-jamison, 2000). some 15 years ago smith (1995) observed that the cost of organisational change has been widely acknowledged as being exceedingly high. since then little seems to have changed. in this regard van tonder (2005b), referring to research that indicates that institutional transformation resulted in millions of lost employment opportunities and adversely affected large numbers of employees, concluded that the social cost of institutional change and transformation initiatives is staggering. if not attended to, these largely unobtrusive consequences may eventually lead to the demise, bankruptcy or takeover of the institution or, at best, the implementation of major and drastic change initiatives to turn the institution around. moreover, in cl van tonder clvt@eb.rau.ac.za department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract despite the fact that organisational change is one of the most frequently recurring organisational phenomena of our time, organisations do not succeed at instituting change processes effectively and dismal change “success rates” are recorded. van tonder and van vuuren (2004) suggested that the adoption of an ethical framework would significantly mitigate the implicit risk of change practices and reduce the negative consequences of such change initiatives. the literature on ethical change practices however is exceedingly sparse and offers little guidance to management on how to conduct change practices ethically. this study argues that the king ii report on corporate governance indirectly yet substantially informs issues of governance, risk and ethics in change management and provides a useful point of departure for establishing ethical change practices. key words change, change management, ethical change towards a minimum conceptualisation of ethical organisational change: the platform provided by the “king ii” report 12 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (3), 12-21 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (3), 12-21 the tightly integrated south african work and social contexts, major change initiatives such as these contain substantial potential for social upheaval that could damage managementlabour relations and the organisational culture in permanent ways. for the fact that the consequences of change are pervasive, tacit and only surface over extended periods of time, the domain of change and change management have not yet penetrated managerial awareness as an area of significant risk. it will be argued here that this is a dangerous oversight which is not in the interest of the institution, in particular its shareholders and notably its other key or relevant stakeholders. the focus of this study moreover proceeds from the platform of an exceptionally underdeveloped literature base on the ethics of change and change management. the majority of scholarly contributions, understandably, direct attention to ethics and corporate governance, business ethics, ethical decision making and ethical leadership. when authors broach the subject of ethics in relation to organisational change, it becomes clear that little real attention has been devoted to the issue of ethics in change (nielsen, nykodym & brown, 1991; mckay, 2000). this holds true also for specific forms of change such as total quality management (svensson & wood, 2005; vinten, 1998), reform (enderle, 2001), culture change, change management and the ethical consequences of these for employees (woodall, 1996). notwithstanding these views some attention has been directed at the ethics and change for example the ethical challenges of downsizing (miller, 1998) and managerial views of the ethicality of downsizing (lämsä, 1999), but these contributions remain underdeveloped. an area that has received more attention is that which deals with employees’ perceptions of “justice” during change (cobb, wooten, & folger, 1995; shapiro & kirkman, 1999; skarlicki & folger, 1997; stephens & cobb, 1999; wooten & white, 1999) and resentment-based resistance to change (folger & skarlicki, 1999). these studies provide some perspective on specific ethical dimensions concerned with the outcomes of the change (distributive justice), the change process (procedural justice) and the quality of interaction with the employee during the change (interactional justice). unfortunately these studies are so narrowly focussed that the notion of an ethical change is beyond the objectives and scope of these studies. more general philosophical considerations of the ethics of change occasionally also surface, with a case in point being calabrese (2003) who argues that change in its entirety is an ethical issue and that the decision to change or not is ethically significant. while these examples are illustrative of the few studies that sporadically surfaced over the past four decades or so, a systematic and focused attempt at articulating ethical change or, stated differently, a comprehensive and coherent ethic of change is yet to surface. given the paucit y of contributions on the ethics of organisational change, the study concerns itself with the question of what a minimum conceptualisation of an ethical approach to change and change management would be? it is in this regard that the study aims to formulate a minimalist conceptualisation of “ethical change” by contextualising the general governance and risk management principles outlined by the king ii report on corporate governance (iod, 2002). this should provide an initial platform from which to systematically pursue an “ethic of change”, be this empirical exploration or further theoretical conceptualisation. at the same time it could provide preliminary parameters for managers and change agents who have to direct and manage change initiatives at the level of practice. the emphasis accorded to the king ii report follows from its wide acceptance as a national benchmark for corporate governance within the south african institutional framework, though this has since extended beyond south africa to other states on the continent (rossouw, 2005). even though it is not compulsory and it is not the intention to pursue statutory status, the king ii report is likely to become a statutory requirement if institutions do not sufficiently subscribe to its philosophy and principles within the provided timeframe. this further underscores its legitimacy and significance as criterion from which to extract an initial ethic of change. the report is explicit in its articulation of corporate governance and the scope of its application within organisational settings. although not specifically indicated, change management practices are comfortably located (“interpreted”) under what the king ii report refers to as “functional processes” but, as argued here, it should in particular be seen as residing under “risk areas”. if the validity of this simplistic logic is recognised, it then follows that organisational change practices or “change management” as it is commonly known, are therefore equally subject to the governance premises and principles of the king ii report. the study then employs the king ii report as the “lens” through which change practices are described. in effect it extends the report’s principles to the domain of change management and reifies these in change-specific terminology. it could also be viewed as a template with which structure for a minimum conceptualisation of ethical change (or an “ethic of change”) is injected into change practices. as there are clearly many different templates that can be employed (cf. van tonder & van vuuren, 2004) the perspective introduced here serves as an initial position marker which should evolve over time in concert with a commensurate expansion of the knowledge base on change ethics. the king ii report has clearly and systematically articulated the importance, need for, and nature of corporate governance and emphasised the centrality of risk and risk management in this regard. it furthermore argued that corporate governance can only be effective if an inclusive stakeholder approach, structured around a clear set of corporate ethics, is pursued. the study follows this structure and briefly reflects on the notions of corporate governance, risk and ethics as embodied in the king ii report and continuously transfers and translates these principles into relevant change practice principles. it leads with corporate governance, which is principally concerned with the overarching objective of directing and controlling the organisation. this is followed with brief attention to the issues of risk and its management as well as governance in respect of ethics. corporate governance and a minimalist “ethic of change” as an introduction to the king ii report, cadbury’s view of corporate governance is quoted as… “corporate governance is concerned with holding the balance between economic and social goals and between individual and communal goals … the aim is to align as nearly as possible the interests of individuals, corporations and society” (iod, 2002, p.7). the issue of corporate governance was propelled into prominence by institutional decision making that appeared to favour a select few or some stakeholder constituencies, with inadequate attention to the interests of other and all significant stakeholders and in many instances at the cost of the interest of these stakeholder constituencies. high profile examples of corporate failure and demise (more specifically abuse and fraud) have led to greater awareness of the inadequacies of governance (vinten, 2001) and have prompted unparalleled public concern about ethics and integrity in business (fulmer, 2004). corporate behaviour of this kind reveals the implicit risk that has not been managed adequately by these institutions and which is the subject of governance practices. bearing the above articulation of corporate governance in mind and reflecting on the undesirable social consequences of the vast majority of major change initiatives, it is evident that the “balance” to which cadbury refers, is nonexistent… that major change decisions are effectively dominated by shareholders’ interests. the latter, it seems, in many instances are not served well either, with the number and impact of corporate failures ethnic organisational change 13 clearly negating shareholders’ interests. dramatic corporate failures are not the only evidence of shareholders interests not receiving their “fair share” of attention. in this regard a kpmg worldwide survey on mergers and acquisitions revealed that only 17% of these profoundly disruptive change initiatives actually create shareholder value or, conversely, that 83% do not add value (hattingh, 2004). in a similar vein miller (2004) indicated that 70% of change projects fail to secure the anticipated benefits. if we subscribe to cadbury’s (and hence the iod’s) view of corporate governance then clearly organisational change practice in general reveals an absence of corporate governance. at the same time recognise that change practices create unusual opportunities for the abuse of power and the manipulation of information (mayon-white, 1994) largely because of the vulnerabilit y of employees (individuals and groups) – a perspective that implicitly argues for a pronounced presence of corporate governance in change. the iod’s (i.e. cadbury’s) articulation of corporate governance (above) pertinently highlights a focus on stakeholders and in particular the interrelationships between stakeholders as a central point of departure. in this regard stakeholder theory has much to offer. drawing on freeman (1984) and rossouw and van vuuren (2004), stakeholders can be viewed as those individuals or groups with an interest in the organisation (or elements of it) and who are capable of influencing it, or are themselves impacted on by the organisation. stakeholder theor y (cf. haberberg & rieple 2001) essentially argues that organisations have stakeholder groups that influence the functioning of these organisations, as well as stakeholders on whom the organisation have an impact. secondly, the general interaction between stakeholder groups and organisations have an influence on specific, more prominent stakeholders, which, in turn impact on the organisation and, thirdly, the perspectives of prominent stakeholders impact on the feasibility of the organisation’s strategic options. this view that stakeholder theory offers a means of identif ying and reconciling disparate stakeholder interests within more effective and ethical corporate governance (simmons, 2004, p. 603) therefore appears to be quite appropriate and meshes with the emphasis accorded to stakeholders in the iod’s articulation of corporate governance. moreover, research evidence suggests that decision making is enhanced by incorporating stakeholder perspectives, in particular in stakeholder-accountable organisations (e.g. pettijohn, parker, pettijohn & kent, 2001). such an emphasis on a stakeholder approach is consequently highly appropriate for south african and african settings. proceeding from the perspective of the king ii report, and through logical extension, we will argue that organisational change practices that are engaged from within a sound corporate governance framework consequently will acknowledge and incorporate all those relevant stakeholders impacted on by the change. in the second instance, organisational change practices will reflect a balanced i.e. an equal consideration of the interests of each of the ident ified (relevant) stakeholder constituencies. in this regard the king ii report (clause 5.1, p.7) argues for the “modern approach” according to which a board will identif y the company’s stakeholders, including its shareholders, and will then agree on the nat ure and content of policies that relate to the relat ionship with these stakeholders and how these relationships should be advanced and managed in the interest of the company. in clause 5.3 (p.8) this approach is referred to as the “inclusive approach” as it allows for the incorporation and consideration of at least the community in which the company operates, its customers, its employees, and its suppliers – as key stakeholder constituencies that will impact on the performance of the company. extending this to a change setting, it now becomes possible to retroactively evaluate the extent to which a specific change decision or series or change decisions have embodied due consideration in equal proportion, of the interests of the various stakeholder constituencies as, after all, the report argues that the relationship bet ween the institution/company and its stakeholders should be mutually beneficial (refer clause 6. p.8). a business artefact of such an inclusive perspective, which recognises the interdependence of the company/organisation and its operating context, is the move towards “triple bottom line” reporting and accounting (iod, 2002, pp.10-11). this form of reporting constitutes a more embracing perspective that focuses not only on the financial, but in particular also on the economic, environmental and social dimensions of an organisation’s activities. economic activities include the traditional financial considerations but also non-financial aspects relevant to the institution’s business, whereas environmental aspects are concerned with the effect of the institution’s products or services on the environment, and social aspects relate to (“embrace” – refer clause 17.1, p.11 of the king ii report) values, ethics and reciprocal relationships with stakeholders other than the shareholders. again, through logical extension, change practices and change activities of an organisation should similarly be subjected to a multidimensional concept of change reporting and accounting. this perspective meshes with the (neglected) view that the causes of failed organisational change are multifaceted and complex beyond the common perception prevailing in the practitioner-dominated literature on change management (van tonder, 2004a; 2004b; 2004c). indeed, one of the problems undergirding the poor track record of organisational change initiatives is the inadequate definition of change success that is typically formulated for a change initiative (if at all). in those rare circumstances where this is consciously addressed, it generally tends to focus on the minimisation of costs and / or the maximisation of profits i.e. the financial wellbeing of the institution. the fallacy of this approach is exposed by research that reports on the dramatic social consequences of organisational change (cf. cameron, 1994; hattingh, 2004; mcgreevy, 2003; offerman & gowing, 1990; skrzycki, 1989), change-related stress (for example cartwright & cooper, 1993; panchal & cartwright, 2001), psychological shock (johnson, hoskisson & hitt, 1990), the traumatic side effects of change (coates, 1998), and generally the significant direct and indirect costs associated with change (morrell, loan-clark, & wilkinson, 2004). these pervasive and predominantly “non-financial” consequences have a significant indirect cost that with time inevitably converts into and manifests as direct financial costs. the latter in turn determines the success or otherwise of the change initiative. it is noteworthy that change initiatives may appear to be successful in the short term but once an extended timeframe is adopted, turn out to be unsuccessful (beer & eisenstat, 1996). while it is not possible to gauge how pervasive this phenomenon of short-term “success” – medium term failure is, questions on the probability of this dynamic suggest concern in this regard (armenakis & bedeian, 1999). at a managerial level this dilemma is seldom detected or recognised simply as “…no one gathers statistics on how successful organisations are at managing change” (burnes, 2003, p.629). it is noteworthy and certainly no coincidence that near perfect alignment is observed between the notion of “successful change” with its emphasis on the participation and involvement of employees and other stakeholders (cf. van tonder, 2004a), and the characteristics of good corporate governance as propagated by the king ii report and, specifically, its argument for adopting an inclusive stakeholder approach that is demonstrable and measurable in the triple bottom line reporting and accounting process. extrapolating from this platform of an inclusive stakeholder approach, an “ethic of change” would then include, as a minimum, a definition of change success that extends substantially beyond the financial outcomes of the initiative, to also embrace non-financial, social and communal change outcomes (van tonder, 2004a). it is however highly improbable that the adoption of such a multidimensional concept of change and change success will bear fruit in the absence of an institutionalised change measurement philosophy. van tonder14 table 1 good corporate governance characteristics: application to change practices characteristics of guiding parameters extracted and translated good corporate for change processes and practices governance1 1. corporate � how aware and committed is the organisation (e.g. discipline senior management) to systemic application of the principles of good governance for example in change initiatives and management? � how committed are senior management, line managers and change agents to adhere to change practices that are universally recognised as correct and proper? 2. transparency � how easy is it for any stakeholder or outsider to gain access to, and engage in meaningful analysis of the institution’s sanctioned change decisions, actions and practices prior to and during change initiatives? � how quickly is the data provided?· how truthful and accurate is the provided change data? 3. independence � are sanctioned mechanisms in place that will detect and minimise or avoid potential conflicts of interest during the different stages of the change process? � is the change management team, the change decision making body, the consultative forum, the research group/ team and other collective task entities balanced in their composition i.e. representative of all the relevant stakeholders? � to what extent do the change policies and procedures safeguard and balance the interests of any and all the stakeholder constituencies’ interests at all times and in all forums? � how objective are the change processes and decisions arrived at? 4. accountability � to what extent are those mandated and tasked with responsibilities of introducing and implementing change initiatives held accountable for their decisions and actions, and the outcomes of these decisions and actions?· � how clear is the hierarchical line of accountability for change initiatives and practices?· � how committed is the senior management to accountability for change initiatives and their outcomes? � are effective mechanisms in place that will enable clear accountability and effective management in terms of accountability? 5. responsibility � are those tasked with change initiatives acting responsibly towards all stakeholders of the organisation and hence the change process? � what are the quality and availability of evidence, on the basis of which responsible action prior to and during the change process can be ascertained? � how effective and efficient are the systems, mechanisms and procedures that have to detect deviation from acceptable change practices, enable corrective change practices and penalise mismanagement of change initiatives? 6. fairness � to what extent are the rights of various groups (stakeholders) acknowledged, respected and protected during the entire cycle of the change process? � is equal consideration given to the interests of the different stakeholders (including minority stakeholders)? � do the benefits and burdens of change decisions accrue equally to each and all stakeholders? � to what extent do change management systems, policies, practices and procedures entrench fairness to all stakeholders? 7. social � how aware and responsive is the organisation to responsibility the social issues, consequences and implications of change initiatives? � to what extent do change initiatives reflect a high priority on, and commitment to ethical standards and conduct prior to, during and on completion of the change initiative? � to what extent are change decisions, practices and the entire process perceived by stakeholders as non-discriminatory, non-exploitative and responsible to environmental and human rights issues (clause 18.7. p.12). the king ii report (iod, 2002, pp. 11-12) proceeds to circumscribe the notion of good corporate governance and articulate seven characteristics which are directly transferable to change practices within organisations. these are corporate discipline, transparency, independence, accountability, respon-sibility, fairness, and social responsibility. of these, fairness, accountability, responsibility and transparency are widely subscribed to and have become known as the “cardinal values” of good governance (rossouw & van vuuren, 2004). these values are applied to an organisational change setting and further reified in table 1. an “ethic of change” premised on the generally prescribed parameters of corporate governance as per the king ii report will therefore be compliant with and reflect: � an inclusive stakeholder approach that consciously incorporates and considers the interests of at least the employees, customers, and suppliers affected by the change process, and the community within which the change process is bound to have an impact. � a balanced consideration of all stakeholder interests at all stages of the change initiative or process, � change success defined in terms of multiple outcome dimensions including financial, social, and communal, and supported by an institutional (change) measurement philosophy. � the cardinal values of good governance as a minimum, but preferably the seven attributes or values that characterise good corporate governance. risk management and a minimalist “ethic of change” the case has been argued for framing organisational change practices and the decisions to engage in these practices as major areas of “risk” for the institution and is consequently not restated. note however that the notion of risk management is clearly entrenched as a critical parameter of corporate governance, in particular the careful and considered engagement of risk in exchange for corporate rewards (iod, 2002, p.73) and is defined as the identification and evaluation of potential risk areas as they pertain to the organisation, as well as the process to remove or minimise the risk. in this regard the king ii report also stipulates that the risk management process entails the planning, arranging and controlling of activities and resources to minimize the impact of risk and, in this instance, internal control measures constitute a central consideration. the king ii report and in particular section two deals at length with the notion of risk and risk management – a framework which equally and fully applies to the domain of organisational change practices. again, in view of the limited awareness of the tacit and less obvious consequences of major change initiatives, it would be safe to conclude that the prescribed parameters for dealing with risk are unlikely to be observed in the vast majority of change practices in which organisations engage on a daily basis. in an institutional context the risk framework provided by the king ii report becomes an important instrument with which to approach any major change decision. note for example that risk management, which is seen as an operational function and responsibility, relies substantially on effective and continuous monitoring of the risk in the various functions and portfolios of the organisation. continuing from this premise, if follows that once organisational change practices are recognised as areas of risk, that change practices, apart from defining and viewing organisational change practices as potential areas of risk, need to be subjected to an effective and continuous risk monitoring process and mechanisms prior to, during and upon completion of change initiatives (from conception to conclusion of the change initiative). ethnic organisational change 15 1 source: iod (2002). king report on corporate governance for south africa. johannesburg: institute of directors (iod), pp. 11-12. the cited examples of sudden and dramatic corporate failure while reflective of dramatically changing operating conditions, in particular reveal not only the absence of a risk management mindset, but provide exemplary evidence of inadequate or “failed” monitoring systems. van tonder (2005a, 2004c) for example highlighted the critical managerial deficiency in areas such as managerial sensitivity, and capabilities for detecting the developing catastrophe that eventually led to the “run-ondeposits” at saambou bank and soon after resulted in the irreversible collapse of the institution with significant losses (“damage”) incurred to each of the stakeholder constituencies. from this perspective it can be postulated that organisational change practices that embody “good governance” will entrench a risk management approach which is evidenced in a clear system of internal control that ensures risk containment and management in change practices. the recommendation that companies should develop a system of risk management and internal control that incorporates, inter alia, a demonstrable system of dynamic risk identification, and a commitment by management to this process (iod, 2002, p.81) clearly does not apply to the financial domain only, but to the organisation in its entirety and consequently also to the domain of human resources and change management practices. in this regard the king ii report argues for a continuous and systematic assessment of risk. it is interesting to note that the report singles out specific circumstances that require close attention from a risk assessment perspective which, without exception, articulate some form of institutional change e.g. “…substantive changes to the operating environment, new personnel, new or revamped information systems, rapid growth, new technology, new products or activities, corporate restructuring, acquisitions and disposals, and changes in foreign operations.” (iod, 2002, p. 78). again, proceeding from the risk management parameters highlighted in section two of the king ii report, guiding parameters for change practices are extracted and presented in table 2. these parameters are neither a complete nor necessarily a minimum application of risk management considerations to change management (initiatives and practices). it does however convey a sense of the importance and seriousness of risk and its management in an organisational sense, and suggests the substantive nature of work that would be needed to reduce the implicit risk in a change initiative once it is formally recognised as an area of risk. non-attendance to risk in general signifies a careless and irresponsible denial of the interests of those who may be impacted on by the risk. in an organisational sense nonattendance to risk will materially and adversely impact on the interests of key and relevant stakeholders. such action, when considered against a view of business ethics as the identification and implementation of standards of conduct that will ensure (as a minimum) that stakeholders’ interests will not be detrimentally impacted on, but preferably enhanced (rossouw & van vuuren, 2004) is therefore fundamentally van tonder16 table 2 risk management parameters applied to change practices application of risk management parameters2 to change practices from chapter 1 � are adequate plans, budgets, monitoring and controlling mechanisms in respect of a given change initiative, established prior to initiating the change? � have the potential risks embodied in the change initiative been identified and analysed? � has the impact of change risk(s) on all stakeholder constituencies been considered fully and responsibly? � are internal control mechanisms established for the decision, design, and implementation of any given change initiative/process? � do these internal control measures provide a reasonable assurance that the stated change objectives and therefore outcomes, which have been formulated in accordance with the agreed definition of change success for the initiative, will be achieved? more specifically, do these internal control measures provide a reasonable assurance that � the change initiative will itself be executed effectively and efficiently? � the change initiative, once concluded, will improve the effectiveness and efficiency of operational processes (organisational functioning in general)? � the organisation’s assets such as capital, people, information, reputation and market perception, and brand value will be safeguarded? � the change initiative will comply with applicable laws, regulations and supervisory requirements? � the change initiative, once concluded, will support business sustainability regardless of the operating conditions? � reporting on the change initiative will be reliable?, and � conduct towards all stakeholders prior to, during and on completion of the change initiative will be responsible? � do all functionaries involved in the research, planning and execution of the change initiative acknowledge that the identification and management of risk implicit in the change initiative, is the responsibility of each and every functionary? � are control measures to manage change risks � effective? � formally reviewed on a regular basis? from chapter 2 � is clear management accountability established for risk management in terms of the design, implementation and monitoring of change initiatives? � is a systematic and documented assessment of the risk management approach, processes, activities and mechanisms in terms of change initiatives undertaken on at least an annual basis? � does the assessment adequately circumscribe the organisation’s exposure to physical, operational, human resource, financial and credit, market, technology, compliance and business continuity risks during change initiatives? � is the organisation’s position on the risks that are implicit in change initiatives, incorporated in its public statement on risk management? from chapter 3· � are the control mechanisms to manage the risk in change practices a coherent part of the overall organisational “control environment” i.e. do they align with and complement the organisation’s ethical values, management style, culture, and so forth.... � are change management practices for example guided by a written code of conduct, training programmes in respect of corporate governance, risk, corporate and ethical values; clear authorisation protocols and performance management premised on specific, clear performance indicators? � is pertinent information arising from an assessment of the inherent risks in change initiatives/practices timely identified, captured and communicated – in such a manner that preventative and/or corrective action to minimise and manage the risk, is timely instituted? � is an effective information management system in place to enable measurement of change progress and results against stated change objectives? � is the monitoring of risk in change initiatives and practices undertaken on a continuous basis? has the company’s system of risk management and internal control been operationalised specifically for change initiatives and practices? more specifically, does this system demonstrate/convey: � documented internal control and risk management measures and procedures? � dynamic identification of change risk? � management commitment to the system and consequently to the management of risk in change initiatives? � a coherent series of activities that will mitigate the change risk(s)? � systematically documented communication of change risks? � systematic documentation of the costs of non-compliance and losses – if change practices were not approached and managed as risk? � key risks (documented) that are most likely to present during major change initiatives and that could affect the interests of shareholders and other relevant stakeholders? 2 source: iod (2002). king report on corporate governance for south africa. johannesburg: institute of directors (iod), pp. 73-85. and undeniably unethical. attending to risk in change is therefore an imperative if change practices are to be deemed “ethical” at all. in a general sense, an ethic of change will by necessity reflect a considered, responsible, and adequate treatment (and engagement) of risk. reflecting on the application parameters extracted from the king ii report and presented in table 2, it has to be concluded that an ethic of change from a risk management perspective will � entail a more encompassing and inclusive approach to analysing, interrogating and planning change initiatives and practices, than has been the case to date, � be characterised by a comprehensive, transparent and effective system of internal control, identif ication and management of the risk implicit in change initiatives and practices, � systematically articulate “change risks”, � establish the cost of non-attendance to the change risks, � consistently report (communicate) such risks and their analyses, � move to eliminate, minimise or contain risks, � ensure clear accountability for the management of change initiatives/practices and hence change risks � continuously and effectively assess and monitor change initiatives, processes and practices for risk as change is not yet adequately recognised as an area of significant corporate risk, change practices and “change management” are bound to display significant deficiencies when benchmarked against the risk management parameters indicated above and in table 2. compliance with these requirements poses significant challenges to institutional office bearers and some of the implications that arise from such a change risk perspective for example entail: � an adequate conceptualisation of “change success” (objectives articulated as outcomes) for any given change initiative that incorporates the interests of all relevant stakeholders. � the adoption and institutionalisation of a change measurement philosophy and fairly continuous change measurement practices with its requisite demands in terms of instruments and rigour. � creating a capability for measuring and quantif ying the initial indirect and non-financial impact of major change initiatives to the extent that valid and defensible cost-benefit analyses can be performed and the likely influence this will exercise on overall business objectives and business sustainability can be gauged. � clear accountability parameters for “change success” (intermediate and final outcomes). � focused and dedicated performance management with regard to any given change initiative or practice, premised on specific indicators of change performance. while the institutional challenges that accompany a corporate governance and risk management perspective on organisational change practices are substantial, arguments in section 2 of the king ii report intimates at the potential contribution of a corporate ethics philosophy. the view that ethics could substantially ameliorate change practices (by reducing change “risk”) was firmly stated by van tonder and van vuuren (2004). in this study it is argued that the elimination or reduction of change risk e.g. through the instit utionalisation of corporate governance and risk management philosophies and practices, may be expedited by commencing with a corporate ethics approach and gradually building up towards an adequate risk management and corporate governance model. the logic of this view is premised on empirical evidence that indicates that most of the risk implicit in change practices is social in nature3. section 4 of the king ii report pertinently addresses the importance of an ethical approach in organisations, which is further contextualised for change practices in the ensuing section. corporate ethics and a minimalist “ethic of change” ethics can be viewed simply as the moral principles that govern behaviour (kavanagh, 2002) or more elaborately as a system of accepted beliefs and principles of conduct typically based on moral imperatives that govern the behaviour of individuals and the groups/organisations to which they belong (irvin, 2002). in general though, it is concerned with that which is considered good and right in human interaction– effectively the interrelationship between the three concepts “good”, (the) “self” and (the) “other” and ethical behaviour, it is argued, results when one considers not only what is good for oneself, but also what is good for others (rossouw & van vuuren, 2004, p. 3). in an organisational sense an ethics perspective then would speak to the relationship between relevant stakeholders and will imply an “agreed definition” of what is in the interest of the organisation (i.e. what is “good” for the organisation) and in the interest of (i.e. “good” for) each of its relevant stakeholders. although the literature on the ethics of change (a “change ethic”) is exceptionally sparse, scholarly contributions in this regard are beginning to surface and are bound to gain momentum once the implicit risk in major change initiatives is formally acknowledged. the limited attention thus far directed at change as focus of risk and ethics however do not detract from the realit y that change practices are characterised by significant ethical considerations. calabrese (2003, p.9) in fact argues that “the whole notion of change is an ethical issue.” section 4, chapter 3 (pp. 101-106) of the king ii report (ethical practices and organisational integrity) addresses the issue of corporate ethics and is fairly explicit in its coverage of the subject. it outlines a definition of a company’s ethics (clause 1), the role and purpose of such ethics (clauses 2 to 6), core ethical principles (clause 7), structural measures to support ethical business practices (clause 8), implementation and monitoring of ethics programmes (clauses 9 to 10), the responsibilities of various functionaries with regard to ethical corporate conduct (clause 11), compliance with legislation and guidelines to combat unethical conduct (clauses 12 to 16). context ualising king’s ethics principles and recommendations for the domain of change management is of course justified from the perspective that the report argues that ethics applies to the organisation’s activities, internal relations and interactions with external stakeholders, and do not further differentiate bet ween different functional disciplines, departments or sections within the organisation. from this perspective the decision to engage in major change (for example a merger or strategic alliance) and the subsequent planning and implementation of this initiative are therefore unavoidably subject to the company’s ethics approach and policy and has to be guided by its (established) ethical principles, norms and standards. the perspective presented in clause 3 for example argues that all the organisation’s business goals, policies and activities are subject to the company’s ethical programme and principles and again clearly mandates that all change initiatives be subjected to the same ethical programme and principles. it is therefore redundant but necessary to posit that good governance in change practices will incorporate and reflect compliance with the company’s ethical programme, principles, norms and standards. working on the assumption of legitimate transferabilit y argued above, a selection of some of the more central concerns that are useful also in articulating change ethics, is presented in table 3. note in particular that the king ii report states that the meaningfulness of a company’s ethical principles is derived from the involvement of its various stakeholder constituencies (refer also earlier comments on stakeholder theory). stakeholder ethnic organisational change 17 3 reference is made here in particular to the vast literature base on “failed change” and those which highlight the reasons for poor change results. representatives, accordingly, should be actively involved in the process of identif ying and circumscribing the ethical principles and standards that will guide organisational practices. following the logic of this study, this principle applies equally also to ethics pertaining to organisational change practices. apart from being prominently argued in the king ii report, the adoption of an inclusive stakeholder approach enjoys wide acceptance and is regularly addressed in the literature (pettijohn, parker, pettijohn & kent, 2001; simmons, 2004). table 3 king’s “ethical practices” applied to organisational change practices king ii report application to organisational change practices section 4, chapter 3 clause 1: � are change practices, internal relations that are definition of a affected by the change and interactions with external company’s ethics stakeholders who are impacted on by a change initiative conducted and managed in accordance with clear ethical principles, norms and standards? � are clearly defined standards of behaviour for all change decisions and actions formulated and regularly reviewed? � to what extent do employees responsible for the change and relevant stakeholders (e.g. employee representatives, consultants) adhere to these defined standards of conduct? clause 3 � do established principles and standards of ethical conduct for change initiatives (processes) and practices exist? � do organisational change practices convey demonstrable adherence to these principles of ethical conduct? clause 4 � have all relevant stakeholder constituencies participated in and therefore informed the ethical principles and standards that guide the organisation’s change practices? � do these ethical principles and standards for change practices clearly articulate behaviour and accountability with regard to: � responsibilities to shareholders and the financial community � relations with customers and suppliers � employment practices � the community and broader social environment· � are these stakeholder constituencies engaged on a continuous basis to review/assess the relevance and appropriateness of ethical principles and standards for change practices? clause 5 � have the ethical principles and standards developed for change practices been captured in a code that is easy to communicate? clause 6: code � does the code of ethical change practices of ethics � take its cue from the corporate ethical standards � inform and guide change policy and practices? � clarif y what is considered acceptable and unacceptable change practices? � guide ethical behaviour of all officials and functionaries that are involved at the different evels of the change initiatives? � provide clear guidance with regard to difficult change decisions? � facilitate the identification of ethical entrenchments within the change initiative and change practices? � promote awareness of and a sensitivity to ethical issues, notes and considerations prior to, during and on completion of a change initiative? � facilitate the resolution of conflicts and disagreements encountered during the course of the change initiative? � articulate the scope and parameters of the organisation’s social responsibility when it comes to change initiatives, processes and practices? � clearly articulate and inform relations among stakeholders who are engaged and impacted on by the change process? � further bolster and enhance the ethical reputation of the organisation as a consequence of ethical change practices? clause 7: core � do change initiatives and practices consistently ethical principles subscribe to the principles (and values) of � fairness? � transparency? � honesty? � non-discrimination? � accountability and responsibility? � respect for human dignity, human rights and social justice? clause 8: � are structural measures introduced to embed ethical change practices? � to what extent are these structural measures utilised in pursuit of consistently ethical change practices? clause 9: � to what extent do change practices comply with established ethical principles and standards for change practices? � are change practices regularly monitored and evaluated for compliance with these principles and standards? clause 10: � are reporting on ethical conduct and compliance during change processes regular and adequate e.g. are regular interim reports on ethical conduct submitted during the implementation of a change initiative/ programme? clause 11: � are the ethical roles, responsibilities and accountabilities of directors, management, employees, suppliers, consultants and contractors during change initiatives and practices clearly articulated and differentiated? � to what extent do the various functionaries comply with these ethical roles, responsibilities and accountabilities?· are the consequences of noncompliance clearly communicated and understood by all functionaries? � to what extent are the various functionaries held accountable for their conduct in terms of the stipulated ethical roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities? clause 12: � do change practices and initiatives comply with prevailing legislation that have a bearing on them? clause 13: � do the various functionaries understand that their role is also to actively combat unethical conduct during change initiatives and have a responsibility to uncover and report on unethical change practices? it has to be concluded that if a corporate ethics perspective as per king ii is adopted, an “ethic of change” can be defined substantially. this is clearly evidenced in table 3. in essence an adequate (minimum) “ethic of change” would have to: � clearly articulate those change positions, practices and outcomes that are in the interest of the organisation and its relevant stakeholders � engage stakeholders in a collective and inclusive approach to deliberate on change considerations at all stages of the change initiative, � establish an “ethics code” together with appropriate policies for change practices that clearly stipulate behavioural principles, standards of conduct, as well as explicit roles, responsibilities and accountabilities for each participant and functionary prior to, during, and on conclusion of the change initiative. � monitor, report on, and ensure compliance with ethical principles and standards of conduct on a consistent basis. to be expected, the king ii report clearly articulates the responsibilit y parameters of the board of directors, management, employees, suppliers, consultants and contractors with regard to the organisation’s ethical conduct. it recognises that no employee, office bearer or other stakeholder is exempt from the task of maintaining sound ethical practices. these guidelines, again, are nondiscriminatory and apply to all regardless of their role and function within the organisation. as such these guidelines provide a clear platform from which to develop and structure the ethical responsibilities and guidelines of those office bearers who are more directly involved in change initiatives and change practices. typically these would include the change champion(s) i.e. the senior executives and board van tonder18 directors that take charge and lead the change initiative, the relevant managers that have to implement the change decisions and practices, the various change consultants and change facilitators (regardless of whether they are external or internal) who design and facilitate the change initiative, and designated representatives from the different stakeholders constituencies who participate in the change management forum or team. ultimately, of course, the successful introduction and sustainabilit y of an ethically-informed change philosophy, policy and practice commences with the board of directors (or the political leadership in public sector institutions), who have to acknowledge that change processes constitute a risk area that necessitates careful corporate governance and is substantially the subject of ethics. after all, the king ii report argues “… corporate governance has an ethical dimension that can be viewed as the moral obligation for directors to take care of the interests of the investors and other stakeholders” (iod 2002, p.106). while the iod’s perspective on the moral obligations of directors nat urally extends to the domain of change management and change practices, there is unfortunately, as yet, no evidence that this is the case. consider in this regard garofalo’s (2003) view that empirical evidence of more ethical individuals and institutions remains to be discovered. fisher (2003) for example stated that more and more organisations are developing codes of ethics and making public commitments to ethical conduct, yet the behaviour of business leaders has not markedly improved. the author suggests that this is indicative of a “surface approach” to business ethics i.e. one that is essentially motivated by self-interest (e.g. improved image, profits etc.) and not because of a fundamental belief in and commitment to “doing the right thing” because it is the right thing to do (calabrese, 2003; harrison, 2001). this behaviour approximates what is referred to as “carr’s ethics bluff” whereby organisations take morally responsible decisions ultimately to improve profits or minimise losses (carr, 1968; jennings, smeltzer & zener, 1993). apart from the cynicism that it breeds (gray, 1990) such approaches fail to promote ethical behaviour (fisher, 2003). this consequently provides an important realit y check on contemporary (claimed) commitment to ethical business practices. this study, through extension and reification, argued that the manner in which the philosophy, principles and recommendations have been defined and articulated in the king ii report, specifically in terms of corporate governance, risk and ethical practices, speak to any and all organisational processes and functionaries. change practices and change managers, contrary to practice, cannot escape the reach and ramifications of the king ii report’s recommendations. it is consequently submitted that organisations who claim to commit to the philosophy and principles of the king ii report, de facto commit to the notion of ethical change. where this is not borne out by actual practice, the institution’s claimed commitment is undoubtedly suspect. conclusion and recommendation organisational change is mandated by rapidly changing operating conditions, but the risk inherent in attempts at brokering these adaptive organisational responses is the central concern. to argue however that change is risk, is not to simultaneously argue that it should be shunned… calabrese (2003, p.9) aptly captures the essence of an ethic of change when he asks… “why change if the change does not better the organization? why refrain from change if the change betters the organization?” from this perspective a solid ethic of change can significantly diminish the risk. from a different vantage point it is worth noting that change practices and in particular the “case for change” and pre-change decision making will become increasingly the subject of scrutiny and public debate. with employment creation and the shedding of structural employment opportunities (with its associated retrenchments) becoming a central focal point in organised labour’s stance on national economic policy, change practices which have become a common “conduit” for such job losses, are bound to invite greater scrutiny. indeed, the less-than-desirable performance outcomes of major change initiatives such as mergers and acquisitions, downsizings, and various strategic change initiatives are becoming more visible and are reported in the business press with greater frequency than before. moreover, this is occurring not only in scholarly circles and board rooms, but public awareness of the “dark side” of corporate change and its associated risks is also increasing. the second contributor is the increasing dissatisfaction and impatience of shareholders with the experienced lack of “value-add” realised from major change initiatives (cf. hattingh, 2004). with disenchantment voiced by these two major stakeholder constituencies against the prevailing “change management paradigm”, organisational management may well be confronted with declining support and growing distrust if they do not materially alter their approach to large scale change. it is again suggested that ethical change (or an institutional change ethic) will provide a more meaningful and productive alternative in this regard. to date however the notion of ethical change practices was largely neglected and hence is an underdeveloped concept, but this will change in the current competitive climate and increasingly governance-orientated institutional landscape and will become a prerequisite for survival. moreover, historical practice and the sparse literature available on the subject do not preclude institutional office bearers from adopting and pursuing ethically based change practices. in this regard the consideration of risk management, corporate governance, and ethical conduct in the king ii report (iod 2002) provides an adequate platform and a clear starting point for defining the company’s specific change philosophies, policies and practices. the adoption of a sound business ethics philosophy may be indicative of a morally good company, but it may well also prove to be a sound investment. the decision to adopt and engage in ethical business practices in the final analysis, however, should not be done on the grounds of economically-based arguments, but because it is “the right thing to do”. by the same token the pursuit of ethical change practices would substantially diminish the risk inherent in these initiatives, facilitate greater cooperation, and produce outcomes that are more compliant with stakeholder expectations. while these are obviously desirable outcomes, ethical change practices, viewed from a societal and stakeholder perspective, ultimately constitute “the right thing to do”. in closing for a substantial period of time it has been argued that the “key” to future organisational success was regular (adaptive) “change”. during the past two decades or so this view has gradually changed to emphasise not so much the change per sé (change is a fait accompli) but rather “how to” change. this “how to” of change was articulated with great regularity, but not in ethics terminology, or from within an ethics framework. as a consequence of global concern with corporate governance, risk management and ethical conduct by institutions and their representatives, this “how to” of change will increasingly be elaborated in terms of ethical and unethical change practices. with this, the prospects of change performance (“success”) improve substantially, yet at the same time change practices will offer a window on the morality of the organisation. change practices will inevitably expose the organisation’s sense of morality and commitment to ethics. as a result the pursuit of change now significantly raises the ante for management and human resource functionaries … even compliance with a minimalist change ethic will prove substantially challenging and demanding. then again, is doing the right thing in change (for the right reasons) a matter of choice? ethnic organisational change 19 references applebaum, s.h., & wohl, l. (2000). transformation or change: some prescriptions for health care organizations. managing ser vice quality, 10 (5), 279–298. armenakis, a.a., & bedeian, a.g. (1999). organizational change: a review of theory and research in the 1990s. (yearly review of management). journal of management, 25 (3), 293-313. beer, m., & eisenstat, r.a. (2000). the silent killers of strategy implementation and learning. sloan management review, summer 2000, 29-30. beer, m., & nohria, n. (2000). cracking the code of change. har vard business review, may-june, 133-141. briggins, a. (1997). perform or perish. management review, 8 (6), 6. burnes, b. (2003). managing change and changing managers from abc to xyz. journal of management development, 22 (7), 627-642. calabrese, r.l. (2003). the ethical imperative to lead change: overcoming the resistance to change. the international journal of educational management, 17 (1), 7-13. cameron, k.s. (1994). guest editor’s note: investigating organizational downsizing – fundamental issues, human resource management, 33 (2), 183-188. carr, a. (1968). is business bluffing ethical? har vard business review, jan-feb, 43-51. cartwright, s., & cooper, c.l. (1993). the psychological impact of merger and acquisition on the individual: a study of building society managers. human relations, 46 (3), 327-347. coates, n.r. (1998). the psychological adjustment of middle managers after revolutionary organisational change. unpublished master’s dissertation, rhodes university, grahamstown. cobb, a.t., wooten, k., & folger, r. (1995). justice in the making: toward understanding the theory and practice of justice in organizational change and development. in w.a. pasmore and r.w. woodman (eds.), research in organizational change and development, volume 8, greenwich, ct: jai press (243295). enderle, g. (2001). integrating the ethical dimension into the analytical framework for the reform of state-owned enterprises. journal of business ethics, 30 (3), 261-276. fisher, j. (2003). surface and deep approaches to business ethics. leadership & organization development journal, 24 (2), 96101. freeman, e. (1984). strategic management: a stakeholder approach. london: pitman. fulmer, r.m. (2004). the challenge of ethical leadership. organizational dynamics, 33 (3), 307-317. garofalo, c. (2003). toward a global ethic: perspectives on values, training and moral agency. the international journal of public sector management, 16 (7), 490-501. gray, r.h. (1990). business ethics and organisational change. managerial auditing journal, 5 (2). haberberg, a., & rieple, a. (2001). the strategic management of organisations. harlow: prentice-hall. harrison, j. (2001). ethics for australian business. french’s forest: prentice-hall. hattingh, b. (2004). ups and downs of mergers, acquisitions. business day, july 19, 1st edition. iod. (2002). second king report on corporate governance for south africa. johannesburg: institute of directors (iod). irvin, l. (2002). ethics in organizations: a chaos perspective. journal of organizational change management, 15 (4), 359381. jennings, m.m., smeltzer, l.r., & zener, m.f. (1993). the ethics of worker safety nets for corporate change. journal of business ethics, 12, 459-468. johnson, r.a., hoskisson, r.e., & hitt, m.a. (1990). corporate restructuring: implications for organization change and development. in r.w. woodman and w.a. pasmore (eds.), research in organizational change and development, vol. 4. greenwich, ct: jai press. kavanagh, k. (ed.), (2002). south african concise oxford dictionary. cape town: oxford university press. kets de vries, m.f.r. (1989) leaders who self-destruct: the causes and cares. organizational dynamics, 17 (4), 4–18. lämsä, a. (1999). organizational downsizing – an ethical versus managerial viewpoint. leadership & organization development journal, 20 (7), 345-353. mariotti, j. (1998). 10 steps to positive change. industry week, 247 (14), 82. mayon-white, w.m. (1994). focus on business change and ethics: the ethics of change management: manipulation or participation? business ethics, 3 (4), 196-200. mcgreevy, m. (2003). the changing nature of work. industrial and commercial training, 35 (5), 191-195. mckay, r.b. (2000). applying ethical principles to the decision to build the red hill creek expressway. the international journal of public sector management, 13 (1), 58-67. miller, d. (2004). building sustainable change capability. industrial and commercial training, 36 (1), 9-12. miller, r.a. (1998). lifesizing in an era of downsizing: an ethical quandary. journal of business ethics, 17, 1693-1700. morrell, k.m., loan-clark, j., & wilkinson, a.j. (2004). organisational change and turnover. personnel review, 33 (2), 161-173. mourier, p., & smith, m. (2001). conquering organizational change: how to succeed where most companies fail. atlanta: cep press. nielsen, w.r., nykodym, n., & brown, d.j. (1991). ethics and organizational change. asia pacif ic journal of human resources, autumn, 82-93. offerman, l.r., & gowing, m.k. (1990). organizations of the future: changes and challenges. american psychologist, 45 (2), 95-108. panchal, s., & cartwright, s. (2001). group differences postmerger stress. journal of managerial psychology, 16 (6), 424433. pettijohn, l.s., parker, s., pettijohn, c.e., & kent, j.l. (2001). performance appraisals: usage, criteria and observations. journal of management development, 20 (9), 754-771. rossouw, g.j. (2005). the philosophical premises of the second king report on corporate governance and the implications thereof. paper presented at the 5th annual conference of the business ethics network of africa, kasane, botswana, august 30 september 1. rossouw, g.j., & van vuuren, l.j. (2004). business ethics. cape town: oxford university press. shapiro, d.l,, & kirkman, b.l. (1999). employees’ reaction to the change to work teams: the influence of “anticipatory justice”. journal of organizational change management, 12 (1), 51-66. simmons, j. (2004). managing in the post-managerialist era: towards socially responsible corporate governance. management decision, 42 (3/4), 601-611. skarlicki, d.p., & folger, r. (1997). retaliation in the workplace: the roles of distributive, procedural and interactional justice. journal of applied psychology, 82 (3), 434-443. skrzycki, c. (1989). the drive to downsize. washington post, august 20, b1. smith, d.r. (1995). change: still an enigma to be faced. hospital material management quarterly, 16 (4), 76–82. smith, m.e. (2002). success rates for different types of organizational change. performance improvement, 41 (1), 26-33. stephens, c.u., & cobb, a.t. (1999). a habermasian approach to justice in organizational change: synthesizing the technical and philosophical perspectives. journal of organizational change management, 12 (1), 21-34. svensson, g., & wood, g. (2005). corporate ethics in tqm: management versus employee expectations and perceptions. the tqm magazine, 17 (2), 137-149. van tonder, c.l. (2006). the application of nonlinear change theory to the demise of saambou bank. sa journal of economic and management sciences, 9 (2), 149-174. van tonder20 van tonder, c.l. (2005a). complex, chaotic and catastrophic: the advent of nonlinear change. paper presented at the 5th international conference on knowledge, culture and change in organisations, rhodes, greece, 19-22 july. van tonder, c.l. (2005b). the unacknowledged contribution of organisational change practice to organisational and employee wellness. proceedings of the 2005 international conference on the changing world of work, 8-9 march, vanderbijl park, south africa, 102-115. van tonder, c.l. (2004a). organisational change: theory and practice. pretoria: van schaik. van tonder, c.l. (2004b). the march of time and the “evolution” of change. sa journal of industrial psychology, 30 (3), 41-52. van tonder, c.l. (2004c). organisations on the edge: focusing on and exploring the nature of non-linear organisational change. paper presented at the international workshop on complexity and philosophy, rio de janeiro, november 2004. van tonder, c.l., & van vuuren, l.j. (2004). recognising ethical nodes in organisational change: a conceptual framework. paper presented at the 4th annual conference of the business ethics network of africa, zanzibar, tanzania, september 1-3. vinten, g. (2001). corporate governance and the sons of cadbury. corporate governance, 1 (4), 4-8. vinten, g. (1998). putting ethics into quality. the tqm magazine, 10 (2), 89-94. woodall, j. (1996). managing culture change: can it ever be ethical? personnel review, 26 (6), 26-40. worrall, l., & cooper, c.l. (1995). executive stress in different industrial sectors, structures and sizes of business. personnel review, 24 (7), 3–12. worrall, l., cooper, c.l., & campbell-jamison, f. (2000). the impact of organizational change on the work experiences and perceptions of public sector managers. personnel review, 29 (5), 613-636. wooten, k.c., & white, l.p. (1999). linking od’s philosophy with justice theory: postmodern implications. journal of organizational change management, 12 (1), 7-20. ethnic organisational change 21 abstract introduction literature review research design research method findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) tanya du plessis department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa annelize van niekerk department of industrial and organisational psychology, university of south africa, south africa citation du plessis, t., & van niekerk, a. (2017). factors influencing managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a880. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.880 note: this article is partially based on the author’s thesis for the degree of masters in commerce in industrial and organisational psychology at the university of south africa, south africa, with supervisor mrs annelize van niekerk, received february 2015, available here: http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/19158/dissertation_du%20plessis_esct.pdf?isallowed=y&sequence=1 original research factors influencing managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal tanya du plessis, annelize van niekerk received: 24 oct. 2016; accepted: 31 mar. 2017; published: 29 may 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: managers often have negative attitudes towards performance appraisal because of its problematic nature, which is influenced by political and social contextual factors. these negative attitudes lead to reduced employee support, inaccurate performance appraisal ratings and, consequently, negative employee perceptions of the performance appraisal process. this state of affairs necessitates a deeper understanding of the factors influencing managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal. research purpose: the purpose of this research was to gain a deeper understanding of the factors that influence managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal. motivation for the study: previous research has confirmed the importance of performance appraisals in organisations. however, managers’ dislike of and aversion to performance appraisal impact negatively on the effectiveness of performance appraisal systems and ultimately the development and performance of employees. research design, approach and method: an interpretivist qualitative study was adopted, utilising naïve sketches and in-depth interviews to collect data from eight managers, purposively selected. the data were analysed by using tesch’s descriptive data analysis technique. main findings: this study revealed that performance appraisal is fundamentally an uncomfortable and emotional process for managers, which results in their adopting defensive attitudes. because of many uncertainties, managers do not always display the ability or readiness to conduct performance appraisals. the organisational context might place the individual manager in a position to distort employee ratings, which in turn negatively influences that manager’s attitude. practical and managerial implications: this study provides insight into the present-day experience of managers in respect of performance appraisal and highlights the factors that influence their attitudes. contribution: the insight gained from this research into the factors impacting on the attitude of managers towards performance appraisals can assist organisations to better support and empower such managers to be more effective in their approach when conducting performance appraisals. introduction performance appraisal has, for many years, been regarded as a critical process aimed at improving employee performance and, ultimately, organisational effectiveness (cascio & aguinis, 2011; swanepoel, botha & mangonyane, 2014). frustration with performance appraisal is more evident than ever, and voices opposing the use thereof are increasing and growing louder (adler et al., 2016; kondrasuk, 2012; macdonald & sulsky, 2009). performance appraisal is known to be a critical but complex component within performance management, and it holds many advantages (cascio & aguinis, 2011; grote, 2011). performance appraisal has been utilised by organisations as a tool through which strengths and developmental areas of employees can be described and to facilitate the relationship between the employee and the manager (pichler, 2012). performance appraisal is also used as a mechanism through which decisions relating to salary increases and succession planning are informed (grote, 2011). however, performance appraisal is also associated with negativity and dissatisfaction among managers (cascio & aguinis, 2011; gordon & stewart, 2009). different views exist on this issue, but it seems that the challenges with performance appraisal emanate from the accuracy of employee performance ratings (botha & bussin, 2010; shore & strauss, 2008). reasons for inaccurate performance ratings include among others: distorted performance ratings as a result of managers’ personal motives (longenecker & gioia, 2003). managers’ lack of commitment to performance appraisals (tziner, murphy & cleveland, 2002). managers fear performance appraisal as they experience it to be a challenge (torrington, hall, taylor & atkinson, 2009). managers dread the possibility of damaging relationships with employees (pulakos, 2011). political motives embedded in longstanding relationships with employees (shore & strauss, 2008; swanepoel et al., 2014). the organisational culture, norms, goals and manager attitude (botha & bussin, 2010). the presence of emotional uneasiness, conflict and failure to provide constructive feedback (marreli, 2011). the fact that some managers perceive inaccuracies in performance ratings not as errors, but as enablers, which motivate and retain staff (cascio & aguinis, 2011). it is therefore proposed that, by gaining a better understanding of the factors that influence the managers’ experiences and attitudes – both positively and negatively – towards performance appraisal, organisations and managers may be enabled to conduct more effective and accurate performance appraisals and thereby enhance employee performance and development. research purpose several studies previously explored factors that influence the attitude of managers towards performance appraisal (botha & bussin, 2010; cascio & aguinis, 2011). however, the work environment and context continuously change – as do the factors influencing managers’ attitudes – resulting in managers approaching performance appraisal with a certain level of trepidation. most recent studies have focused on employees’ perceptions of the fairness of performance appraisal, consequently leaving a knowledge gap as to the factors impacting on managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal (dusterhoff, cunningham & macgregor, 2014; jacobs, belschak & den hartog, 2014). the prevailing attitudes of managers have a severe impact on the entire performance appraisal, including the accuracy of performance appraisal ratings (botha & bussin, 2010; marmet, 2015). managers viewing performance appraisal as positive tend to give more accurate ratings (jawahar, 2001). regrettably, there seems to be no consensus on an effective working solution to address manager attitudes and their impact of accurate performance appraisal ratings; consequently, displeasure with performance appraisal persists (gordon & stewart, 2009; swanepoel et al., 2014). in order to influence managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal more positively, this study was aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of the factors that influence managers’ existing attitudes towards performance appraisal. the study proposes that by gaining a better understanding of the present-day factors that influence manager attitudes towards performance appraisal, more effective interventions can be developed that will result in not only a more positive experience on the part of managers, but that will also enhance employee development and performance. literature review performance appraisal performance management is an ongoing process where the performance of individuals and teams is identified, measured and developed through the process of performance appraisal (aguinis, 2009; cascio & aguinis, 2011; shore & strauss, 2008). performance appraisal can be defined as the collection of employee performance information based on observation and the evaluation of the employee’s performance through an act of judgement (cascio & aguinis, 2011). once an employee’s current performance is measured, performance developmental areas are identified, strengths are reinforced and overall feedback is given to the employee (aguinis, 2009; swanepoel et al., 2014). as a manager’s attitude can negatively or positively influence a performance appraisal, many researchers have, over the years, found this to be an interesting topic to study (curtis, harvey & ravden, 2005; jawahar, 2001; longenecker, sims & gioia, 1987; shore & strauss, 2008; thomas & bretz, 1994). however, because of the attitude of the manager who conducts them, performance appraisals seem to remain a challenge to organisations. attitude what, then, is an attitude? thurstone (1931) proposed that an attitude was something that relates to an individual’s preferences towards an object. according to allport (1935), an attitude points to a psychological type of readiness that is formed by applying a judgement towards an object through experience. taking it one step further, eagly and chaiken (1993) define an attitude as a psychological tendency (an internal state) that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favour or disfavour. attitudes therefore serve as functions to evaluate objects of thought, to process information, to adjust behaviour accordingly, to use as a protection mechanism and with which to display individual values (fazio & petty, 2008; katz, 1960; pratkanis, 2014). attitudes can form in various ways (luthans, 2008; miserandino, 2007; vogel & wänke, 2016; zhang, xie, wee, thumboo & li, 2008). firstly, through situations where a person’s behaviour is not consistent with his or her attitudes towards the specific object. a negative attitude towards an object then forms to balance such inconsistency. secondly, attitudes can form through learning, for example with reinforcements such as positive encouragement. another method requires the pairing of two stimuli until a situation is reached where the first stimulus transforms into a signal for the second stimulus. an attitude can be created where a neutral target stimulus (conditioned stimulus) is repeatedly paired with another stimulus (unconditioned stimulus) with either a positive or negative valence which can then, in turn, change the person’s attitude in line with the direction of the unconditioned stimulus. lastly, attitudes can form through the expectancy-value framework, a theory that assumes that the attitude towards the object is based on the sum of the values of all of the attributes that the attitude object is thought to have, and which is based on the mental formation of attitudes. this framework is a useful and popular model to explain how a collection of beliefs about objects forms attitudes. the expectancy-value framework attitude formation theory was adopted for this study (zhang et al., 2008). attitude and performance appraisal in a study conducted by longenecker et al. (1987), political motivation, the degree of trust in the relationship between employees and managers, and the need to avoid confrontation with difficult employees are proposed as elements, which impact on how a manager approaches and performs an appraisal and which subsequently influence the performance ratings that such a manager allocates to employees. a few years later, bretz and milkovich (1992) conducted a study which aimed to investigate how performance appraisal was practised in the workplace. their study reported a lack of manager ownership with managers feeling that they were excluded during the decision-making process and implementation of performance appraisal systems. similar studies exploring the factors impacting on managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisals have examined the following: managers’ dislike towards the idea of influencing an employee’s career (thomas & bretz, 1994). the manager’s own level of motivation (harris, 1994). the manager’s view of the purpose of performance appraisal (tziner, lathan, price & haccoun, 1996). the manager’s attitude towards the organisation (tziner & murphy, 1999). the manager’s own personality preference as well as confidence in the performance appraisal system (tziner et al., 2002). the employees’ expectations (curtis et al., 2005; yun, donahue, dudley & mcfarland, 2005). the manager’s perception of the organisational context as well as affection towards the employee (shore & strauss, 2008). performance appraisal skills and managers’ motives (macdonald & sulsky, 2009). conflicting roles, such as playing both a judge and a coach during performance appraisal (aguinis, 2009). terminology in performance appraisal that is confusing (van de mieroop & vrolix, 2014). performance appraisal is a critical process and is viewed as one of the processes that have the greatest effect on the employee’s career and development (aguinis, 2009; bayo-moriones, galdon-sanchez & martinez-de-morentin, 2016; grote, 2011). therefore, in order to stay current and influence managers’ attitudes positively towards performance appraisal, this study sought to gain a deeper understanding of the contemporary factors that influence managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal. research design research approach this study adopted a qualitative research approach as it aimed at producing rich, nuanced and detailed data (mason, 2012). participants could share their personal performance appraisal experiences and, consequently, a complex and detailed understanding of the factors influencing these experiences was gained (creswell, 2014; de vos, strydom, schulze & patel, 2012; henning, van rensburg & smit, 2012). research strategy in line with the interpretive paradigm, in-depth interviews were used to generate rich data as to participants’ experiences, perceptions and feelings (mason, 2012; pietkiewicz & smith, 2014). the in-depth interviews moved from being general in nature to being specific and were conducted in four phases, namely opening, questioning, probing and closing (kolb, 2008). two non-leading questions laid the foundation for the in-depth interview and were followed by follow-up questions and probes intended to build better, unrestricted understanding (pietkiewicz & smith, 2014). the two non-leading questions also provided direction for the naïve sketches. the managers responsible for performance appraisals in an organisation in the financial services sector were selected as the unit of analysis in this study. research method research setting this research was conducted in the private sector at a medium-sized financial services organisation. the in-depth interviews were conducted with eight managers responsible for conducting performance appraisals on their subordinates and at a venue that was comfortable and private so as to prevent disturbances. entrée and establishing researcher roles consent was obtained from the organisation’s executive director of human capital to conduct the study. background information and the aims of the study were discussed with potential candidates. once the candidates agreed to participate, they completed an informed consent form outlining the scope of the study and how ethical and confidentiality issues would be attended to. sampling a purposive sample of eight participants was selected based on availability (de vos et al., 2012; durrheim & painter, 2006) and aimed to represent managers from different ethnic groups (african, indian and white), ages (30–70 years), genders (five female and three male) and the number of years’ experience (from 1 to 35 years) in performance appraisal. data collection methods in-depth interviews were conducted with the eight managers in order to gain a deeper understanding of their experiences, interpretations and perceptions of performance appraisals (mason, 2012). two questions were asked of the participants: ‘tell me about your overall experience with performance appraisal’ and ‘what are the positive and negative factors that influenced your attitude towards performance appraisal?’ the secondary method of data collection was naïve sketches, which refer to a description of certain phenomena in the form of a short story (giorgi, 1985). the naïve sketches were obtained through requesting each manager to draw a picture or write a narrative about their experiences with performance appraisal, highlighting the positive and negative factors that they believe have influenced their attitudes towards performance appraisal. recording of data eight naïve sketches were collected. the in-depth interviews were recorded using an audio recorder and were transcribed verbatim. field notes were taken during the interviews to capture the context as well as the researcher’s observations, perceptions and experiences during these interviews (greef, 2012). the data were stored securely and protected with passwords with only the researcher having access to them. data analysis the verbatim transcriptions of the recorded in-depth interviews and the naïve sketches were analysed in accordance with tesch’s descriptive analysis technique (creswell, 2014). all transcriptions and narratives were read once to get a holistic sense of their content, after which ideas that came to mind were documented. sub-themes were identified and grouped into major sub-themes, unique sub-themes and leftovers. this list of sub-themes was used to code the data. the most descriptive wording for each sub-theme was taken, converted into main themes and the data organised so that similar sub-themes were grouped. interrelationships between the sub-themes were found and codes were generated. all of the data that were related to one main theme were highlighted in a certain colour and assembled together. afterwards, the data were recorded to ensure that no sub-themes had been ignored. strategies ensuring quality data and ethics as required by an interpretative study, it was ensured that the researcher was skilled in using the self as an instrument to collect and analyse the data (terre blanche et al., 2006). the researcher kept field notes of her own personal experiences, biases, prejudices and orientations, which might have influenced the recording and interpretation of the information and regularly referred to and reflected on these notes to reduce possible bias (creswell, 2014). the researcher assessed the quality of the data and the rigour of the process to ensure that the generated findings would be credible, transferable, dependable and conformable (schurink, fouche & de vos, 2012). credibility was ensured through member checking (creswell, 2014; rossman & rallis, 2011). triangulation was applied in utilising two data collection methods, namely in-depth interviews and naïve sketches, in order to enhance the credibility and trustworthiness of the study (shah & corley, 2006). the transferability of the study was ensured through providing detailed descriptions of both the research methodology followed as well as the findings obtained (babbie, 2010; shah & corley, 2006). transferability was further enhanced by ensuring that all of the in-depth interviews were conducted and naïve sketches were collected within the same period so as to eliminate possible influences (babbie, 2010). dependability was ensured through being consistent in employing purposive sampling and applying the data collection and data analysis techniques (shah & corley, 2006). confirmability was obtained through rigorous data management of the verbatim transcriptions, collected naïve sketches, field notes taken of observations during the in-depth interviews and accurate record-keeping (rossman & rallis, 2011; shah & corley, 2006). reporting the findings of the study were reported by utilising a qualitative, narrative reporting style (visagie & maritz, 2009). themes and sub-themes are discussed and supported with evidence from the most descriptive verbatim quotations and findings are integrated with literature to explain the data and to indicate the relevance of the findings in relation to the current body of literature (henning et al., 2012). findings this section portrays the overall findings obtained from the eight in-depth interviews and naïve sketches and presents the main themes and sub-themes as depicted in table 1. table 1: grouping findings into main themes and sub-themes. theme 1: the employee the theme of employee-related factors yielded two sub-themes, namely employee behaviour and attitudes; and the role of employees in performance appraisal. employee behaviour and attitudes the participants all agree that performance appraisals are an emotionally loaded experience. participant 3 particularly points to the unpredictable and varying nature of emotions a manager is sometimes confronted with and ‘as a manager, it is not a moment that you can enjoy … and it becomes very difficult’ (participant 3, male, african, 1 year of experience with performance appraisal). the defensive attitude of employees certainly seems to be a factor impacting on the attitudes of managers towards performance appraisal. participants 4 and 5 are of the opinion that employees acquire defensive attitudes prior to or during the performance appraisal feedback meeting and that managers dislike handling such defensive employees. participant 6 agrees but had also experienced an employee who adopted such a defensive attitude as enjoying it: ‘the particular person who was being appraised thoroughly enjoyed it. he enjoyed that sort of thing, but it wasn’t a pleasant experience for the manager’ (participant 6, male, white, 35 years of experience with performance appraisal). most participants agree that conducting performance appraisals with employees who meet the required performance expectations is much less challenging than those with employees not meeting expectations. however, conducting a performance appraisal with an employee who did not meet the set performance expectations requires more effort and even an attitude adjustment on behalf of the manager. as participant 4 explains: ‘… that difficult guy who is not a top performer is walking in there, you have to on a personal level set your attitude …’ (participant 4, female, white, 5 years of experience with performance appraisal). the role of employees the role employees fulfil during a performance appraisal and the manner in which they execute it seem to influence the attitude the manager concerned adopts during a performance appraisal. the first factor points to the ownership employees take with regard to their performance and the appraisal thereof. both participants 1 and 3 highlighted the importance of employees taking ownership of the performance appraisal process. employees should be well informed as regards the performance appraisal process and be made aware that they are valued. when the employee feels valued and experiences a sense of belonging, managers experience the performance appraisal process as more comfortable and less threatening. the second factor relates to employees inflating their performance ratings. when managers have to rate employees lower on their actual performance in comparison with a higher employee self-rating, it becomes an unpleasant experience. participants 4, 5 and 7 state that this is even more so the case when employees are unable to substantiate their own inflated self-ratings with sufficient evidence. participant 6 agrees, personally experiencing such employees as being dishonest. participant 4 further highlights how ‘… staff lives with the idyllic idea that they are much better performers than what they actually are … even constant feedback and critic are disregarded and set aside’ (participant 4, female, white, 11 years of experience with performance appraisal), and this disregard for feedback from the managers further impacts negatively on the attitude of the manager. the third factor relates to the strength of the employee–manager relationship and its foundational characteristics such as open communication and trust. participant 2 highlights the importance of continuous, open communication as ‘communication is very important and with the workload we’re sitting with it is not always possible to communicate with your staff all the time and that is an influence …’; however, regular communication seems to be important so as ‘to ensure that there is a good understanding of what is expected’ (participant 2, female, white, 5 years of experience with performance appraisal). participant 6 points to the importance of a relationship of trust between the employee and manager and to how this simplifies the performance appraisal. in order to establish this trust relationship, participant 3 feels it is important to strike a balance between being the manager and getting the task done against building a relationship with the employee. theme 2: the manager another prominent theme emerging from the data relates specifically to the manager. the sub-theme which emerged is concerned with the manager’s previous experience gained in both the role of ratee (the employee whose performance is appraised) and rater (the manager who conducts a performance appraisal with an employee). experience as ratee and rater as ratees, managers highlight how they mostly received positive performance feedback from their managers and therefore have gained limited experience and exposure as to how a performance appraisal containing negative feedback should be handled. like most other participants, participant 2 voices this as follows: ‘i’ve never been in a situation where i could see how the other person handles a negative appraisal’ (participant 2, female, white, 5 years of experience with performance appraisal). this lack of exposure seems to impact negatively on a manager’s own readiness and ability to deal with negative performance appraisals in his or her role as rater. according to participants 2 and 5, having had limited previous experience, exposure or guidelines on how to conduct a performance appraisal as a rater meant that a performance appraisal that contained negative performance feedback was an unpleasant experience for them. participant 2, however, points to how ‘you get used to it and get to learn it. obviously as you get to learn to deal with people, it becomes easier’ (participant 2, female, white, 5 years of experience with performance appraisal). participant 1, a more experienced manager, seems to sympathise with new managers who have to deal with this uncertainty and points to the importance and value of guidance and mentoring. theme 3: senior management the influence of senior management emerged as a third theme from the data. this theme incorporates the sub-themes of the role of senior management and their subsequent directives as contained through frameworks in accordance with which performance appraisals are managed. senior management’s role and directive participants are of the opinion that senior managers play a strategic role in ensuring the effectiveness of performance appraisal and that it should be implemented following a top-down approach. participant 1 believes that ‘when performance appraisal is driven and led by senior management, it works for the company’ (participant 1, male, indian, 15 years of experience with performance appraisal). in this role, senior management also directs managers through frameworks on how they should conduct the performance appraisal. a substantial number of the managers were of the opinion that these frameworks have a significant influence on the attitudes of managers towards performance appraisals. these frameworks might require the manager to inflate or deflate the employees’ performance ratings. participant 2 shares an experience where ‘you are told that you have to make sure that your appraisal falls within the scale, which then makes it difficult for me to manage’ (participant 2, female, white, 5 years of experience with performance appraisal). participant 4 had a similar experience and elaborates: it is difficult because that influence your attitude towards the process. is it really fair? and you are the one who has to sit with that employee and there is nothing worst. and i mean you don’t want to lie to that staff member who sits in front of you, because that is not your purpose that’s not what you are there for. that makes it a yucky process and a difficult process and it starts making it in an emotional process. (participant 4, female, white, 11 years of experience with performance appraisal) subsequently, managers seem to struggle with the execution of frameworks they believe to be unethical, and this affects them emotionally, resulting in negative attitudes towards performance appraisals. theme 4: the performance appraisal theme four is the most prominent theme that emerged from the data and relates more specifically to the performance appraisal itself. four sub-themes emerged and these incorporate the clear purpose of the performance appraisal; problems relating to what is measured and how it is measured; the frequency of the performance appraisal; and the type of performance feedback. uncertain purpose of performance appraisal participants highlight the importance of a performance appraisal having a clear purpose. even though they are all employed in the same organisation, they all seem to have different views on exactly what the purpose of performance appraisal in their organisation is. participant 1 views a performance appraisal as ‘a tool to get to a result in a very objective way’ and emphasises the importance of reinforcing the objectives ‘as often as performance appraisals are conducted’ (participant 1, male, indian, 15 years of experience with performance appraisal). according to participant 6, performance appraisal is merely an administrative tool used by organisations to calculate salary increases. participant 8, on the other hand, views the purpose of performance appraisal differently and believes it has a positive element to it and can be used: as a management tool … to see where your staff is currently, what factors can help them to do their job better, faster more accurate and to get them there. (participant 8, female, white, 4 years of experience with performance appraisal) what is measured and how? the second sub-theme that emerged from the data pertains to what a performance appraisal should measure and how. most participants revealed their uncertainty as to what employee information they should use during a performance appraisal and how they should utilise this information in allocating ratings. according to participant 1 there are: two parts to the appraisal. one is factual … how you deliver, are you punctual on delivery times. then there is the second part which is airy fairy … and you know when something is not clear and to the point it leads to a lot of debate unnecessary. (participant 1, male, indian, 15 years of experience with performance appraisal) participant 4 agrees, stating: i believe in factual and statistical information and as long as you have that, it cannot be left questioned, open for interpretation and it cannot be left open for a personal attack. (participant 4, female, white, 11 years of experience with performance appraisal) participants indicate a clear preference to use objective or factual information and state clearly how they find it challenging to rate employees on subjective data because such ratings are open to interpretation and may create conflict situations between the manager and employee. frequency of performance appraisals the frequency with which performance appraisals are conducted is another factor that impacts on the attitude of managers. performance appraisals conducted only annually seem to be experienced by participant 8 as excessively time consuming because of the large amount of information that has to be dealt with. all participants agree with participant 8 and expressed a strong preference for rather conducting performance appraisals more frequently as they believe that this would enhance objectivity and fairness, assist employees to achieve their goals more successfully and also make the process less emotional. type of feedback participants shared their preference for performance appraisals in which they give positive feedback and where their final rating is equal or higher than that of the employees’ self-rating, as this results in performance appraisal being a rewarding experience. on the other hand, having to give employees feedback that is regarded as negative because of the manager’s score being lower than the employees’ self-rating is experienced by the participants as unpleasant and quite emotional. participants 6 and 7 clearly indicated their preference for shying away from giving negative feedback. participant 6 prefers to rather ‘grade people up’ as it is less unpleasant (participant 6, male, white, 35 years of experience with performance appraisal). contrary to the above participants, participant 8 feels that negative feedback is expected and mostly required as ‘you don’t have time to give positive feedback. you always have time to give negative feedback because you have to’ (participant 8, female, white, 4 years of experience with performance appraisal). participant 2 points to the influence of the manager’s personality and how it impacts on his or her attitude towards performance appraisals. according to participant 2, handling performance appraisals effectively is a skill and ability that needs to be developed ‘where you need to learn to cut off and handle it professionally’ (participant 2, female, white, 5 years of experience with performance appraisal). participant 2 further proposes: negative feedback must be given through as positive criticism … my personal challenge with this is that we have varied types of personalities and different personalities accept positive criticism in different ways. (participant 2, female, white, 5 years of experience with performance appraisal) discussion outline of the findings the aim of this research was to gain a deeper understanding of the factors that influence managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal. performance appraisal is generally experienced as a negative process (cascio & aguinis, 2011; gordon & stewart, 2009). as managers are fundamental to the process of performance appraisal it is important to explore and better understand the factors that impact negatively on their attitudes towards performance appraisal. being able to positively influence managers’ experience of and subsequent attitudes towards performance appraisal should result in more accurate performance ratings as well as in improving the support provided to employees by managers (botha & bussin, 2010). the findings of this study re-emphasised the influence emotional and defensive employees have on the attitude of managers towards performance appraisals (aguinis, 2009; thomas & bretz, 1994). employees who become emotional when they receive negative performance feedback and subsequently behave in a hostile and/or defensive manner impact negatively on the attitudes of managers towards performance appraisals. the findings further point to the importance of managers and employees taking ownership of the performance appraisal process. lack of ownership is a result of managers and employees feeling that they have not been consulted during the design phase of the performance appraisal process and thus do not own it. based on the above findings it can be concluded that managers should be well trained on both the process to be followed and that they should receive coaching and guidance on how to conduct feedback (positive and negative) as this will empower them and improve the experience and quality of performance appraisal (hii & ahmad, 2015). from the findings it is evident that managers have favourable attitudes towards performance appraisal when the performance of the ratee complies with the expected performance and when the employee’s self-appraisal ratings are similar to the ratings assigned by the managers. botha and bussin (2010) agree as ratings are based on an employee’s or manager’s subjective view of the performance and, consequently, such ratings might be inflated, thus resulting in the appraisal being experienced as uncomfortable. the findings furthermore indicate that the relationship between the manager and the employee influences the manager’s attitude. the importance of a healthy relationship built on continuous communication between employee and manager is acknowledged (pulakos & o’leary, 2011). however, during a performance appraisal the value of such a relationship is often not visible, especially when the relationship has been long standing. studies indicate that managers often choose to inflate or deflate performance ratings as they are fearful of harming the employee–manager relationship (aguinis, 2009; shore & strauss, 2008). the findings furthermore show that a manager’s previous experience, in both the capacity of ratee and rater, influences his or her attitude towards future performance appraisals. as ratees, managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal are influenced by their past experiences. these past experiences make them more familiar with the organisational processes and procedure and remind them of how they experienced receiving feedback, both positive and negative (aguinis, 2009; greguras, 2005). consequently, managers who had favourable performance appraisal experiences in the past hold favourable attitudes towards this process, and managers who had unpleasant previous performance appraisals dislike giving negative feedback to their employees (aguinis, 2009). from the findings it is evident that the role senior management plays in performance appraisal influences managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal. the participants expressed their view that senior managers should be the drivers of the performance appraisal system and that it should be executed from the top downwards, emphasising the importance and value of the process to the organisation as a whole (kondrasuk, 2012). the findings furthermore stressed the ability of the performance appraisal framework to pose an ethical dilemma to managers. in a study conducted by tziner et al. (2002), it is proposed that managers who perceive it to be acceptable to distort performance ratings would shy away from making conscious decisions to misrepresent performance ratings either in order to reach their own personal goals or to achieve the goals of the organisation. shore and strauss (2008) agree proclaiming that such frameworks originate from the organisational context and can instigate unethical behaviour on the part of the manager. evidence suggests an uncertainty between some managers as to the purpose of performance appraisal. this assertion is warranted as managers are not always clear on whether the performance appraisal is being used for administrative purposes (such as reward-related) or for the development of employees. not being clear on the purpose of performance appraisal seems to be a prevalent complication within the sphere of performance appraisal and most certainly impacts negatively on attitudes, employee development and both employee and organisational performance as not everyone is steering in the same direction (curtis et al., 2005; kondrasuk, 2012; marmet, 2015). similar to the challenges experienced pertaining to the purpose of the performance appraisal are challenges around uncertainty as to what should be measured. managers are often challenged with measuring employees’ tasks that are not properly defined, and this state of affairs results in uncertainty (kondrasuk, 2012). in some positions it is straightforward and trouble-free to determine whether the person is performing, but other positions might be complex and time and effort might be required to assess whether the person is delivering according to expectations (lawler, benson & mcdermott, 2012). jawahar (2001) claims that managers with positive attitudes towards performance appraisal will ensure that employees receive accurate performance appraisal ratings. the findings indicate that the frequency of performance appraisal will affect managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal. it is also confirmed that the frequency or timing of performance appraisal is a problematic area for managers and this is one of the reasons why performance appraisal is viewed negatively (kondrasuk, 2012). according to the findings, managers seem to agree on the impact the type of feedback they need to give – in conjunction with their personalities – has on their overall attitude to performance appraisal. according to marmet (2015), the rater’s personality interacts with the context in which the appraisal occurs. therefore, the type of feedback that needs to be given affects the manager’s attitude and emotions and subsequently influences the rating (belschak & den hartog, 2009). furthermore, managers dislike giving negative feedback to employees as such negative feedback affects the employee’s career, causes defensive reactions and even promotes employee hostility (thomas & bretz, 1994). practical implications although this research was conducted at a medium-sized financial services organisation in the private sector, the factors identified as influencing managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal have practical implications for any organisation that implements performance appraisals as part of its human resource management practices. the insight gained from this research can assist organisations to better support and empower managers to be more effective in their approach when conducting performance appraisals. performance appraisal appears to be a process during which both the manager and the employee feel uncomfortable, defensive and sometimes even emotional. managers therefore tend to avoid employees with defensive and hostile attitudes and behaviour. it is recommended that organisations make use of multi-source appraisals to minimise emotional behaviour during performance appraisal. organisations should however ensure that all raters have been sufficiently trained and that just in case an employee wishes to appeal against a rating, which process the raters should now follow. however, if attention is not given to this state of affairs, the situation is exacerbated when managers experience uncertainties regarding the technical aspects of performance appraisal, such as the purpose of performance appraisal, timing and frequency of performance appraisal and what should be measured. it is recommended that managers should receive training regarding the technical aspects of performance appraisal. because of a lack of training, managers do not always have the ability and readiness to conduct performance appraisals, specifically when such performance appraisals will contain negative performance feedback. managers draw from their experiences with performance appraisal as both ratee and rater and they need to be facilitated and trained in conducting performance appraisals, specifically performance appraisals containing negative feedback. furthermore, the organisational context might place managers in an undesirable position that leads them to distort employee performance ratings – unintentionally or deliberately. senior management needs to drive performance appraisal and ensure that employees and management understand the purpose of performance appraisal and that they all work with the same goals in mind. senior management also needs to cultivate a culture of ethical performance appraisal in which managers are held accountable for the performance ratings they assign to employees. limitations and recommendations although this study was successful in identifying the factors that influence manager attitudes towards performance appraisal, it had some limitations. firstly, the findings of this study are representative participants employed in a medium-sized financial services organisation in the private sector and thus not representative of organisational contexts within other sectors. secondly, a deeper understanding of the participants’ previous employers and the performance appraisal systems they had been subject to could have provided a more in-depth view of their attitudes towards performance appraisal as well as the factors that influence these attitudes. the findings of this study revealed the opinions and views of this sample of managers only. therefore, in future research, the sample could include participants from different organisations and business sectors to ensure better representation. it is furthermore recommended for future research to also include the views of employees and senior management as to the factors that influence managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal. conclusion it is crucial for organisations to be aware of factors that influence managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal. by taking cognisance of this fact, organisations might be better positioned to change managers’ attitudes towards performance appraisal positively. from the findings of this study as well as from the literature it seems that an interrelationship exists between the defensive and emotional nature of performance appraisal, the technical uncertainties among managers, the readiness of managers to conduct performance appraisals and the organisational context and framework in which performance appraisal is conducted. acknowledgements the authors wish to acknowledge the support provided by the ethics committee of the department of industrial and organisational psychology at unisa in obtaining ethical clearance to conduct this research. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions t.d.p. was the project leader. t.d.p. and a.v.n. were co-responsible for the experimental and project design. t.d.p. collected and analysed the data. a.v.n. performed the quality assuring of the data collection and data analysis process. t.d.p. and a.v.n. co-wrote the manuscript. references adler, s., campion, m., colquitt, a., grubb, a., murphy, k., ollander-krane, r., et al. (2016). getting rid of performance ratings: genius or folly? a debate. industrial and organizational psychology, 9(2), 219–252. https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2015.106 aguinis, h. (2009). performance management. (2nd edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson prentice hall. allport, g.w. (1935). attitudes. in c.a. murchison (ed.), a handbook of social psychology (pp. 798–884). worcester, ma: clark university press. babbie, e.r. (2010). the practice of social research. belmont, ca: wadsworth. bayo-moriones, a., galdon-sanchez, j.e., & martinez-de-morentin, s. (2016). competitive strategy, performance appraisal and firm results. retrieved october 05, 2016, from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2810452 belschak, f.d., & den hartog, d.n. (2009). consequences of positive and negative feedback: the impact on emotions and extra-role behaviors. applied psychology, 58(2), 274–303. retrieved october 09, 2016, from https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597-.2008.00336.x botha, j., & bussin, m. (2010). performance evaluation. in m. coetzee & a.m.g. schreuder (eds.), personnel psychology: an applied perspective (pp. 1–67). cape town, south africa: oxford university press. cascio, w.f., & aguinis, h. (2011). applied psychology in human resource management. (7th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson prentice hall. creswell, j.w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. (4th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. curtis, a.b., harvey, r.d., & ravden, d. (2005). sources of political distortions in performance appraisals. group and organisation management, 30, 42–60. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601104267666 de vos, a.s., strydom, h., schulze, s., & patel, l. (2012). the sciences and the professions. in a. de vos, h. strydom, c.b fouche, & c.s.l delport (eds.), research at grassroots for the social sciences and human services professions (4th edn., pp. 28–44). pretoria, south africa: jl van schaik. durrheim, k., & painter, d. (2006). collecting quantitative data: sampling and measuring. in m. terre blanche, k. durrheim & d. painter (eds), research in practice: applied methods for the social sciences (pp. 131–159). cape town, south africa: uct press. dusterhoff, c., cunningham, j.b., & macgregor, j.n. (2014). the effects of performance rating, leader-member exchange, perceived utility and organizational justice on performance appraisal satisfaction: applying a moral judgment perspective. journal of business ethics, 119, 265–273. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1634-1 eagly, a.h., & chaiken, s. (1993). the psychology of attitudes. fort worth, tx: harcourt brace jovanovich. fazio, r.h., & petty, r.e. (2008). attitudes: key readings. new york: psychology press. giorgi, a. (1985). phenomenology and psychological research. pittsburgh, pa: duquesne university press. gordon, m.e., & stewart, l.p. (2009). conversing about performance: discursive resources for the appraisal interview. management communication quarterly, 22(3), 473–501. https://doi.org/10.1177/0893318908327159 greef, m. (2012). information collection: interviewing. in a. de vos, h. strydom, c. fouché, & c. delport (eds.), research at grassroots for the social sciences and human service professions (4th edn., pp. 341–374). pretoria, south africa: jl van schaik. greguras, g.j. (2005). managerial experience and the measurement equivalence of performance ratings. journal of business and psychology, 19(3), 383–397. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-004-2234-y grote, r.c. (2011). how to be good at performance appraisals: simple effective, done right. boston, ma: harvard business review press. harris, m.m. (1994). rater motivation in the performance appraisal context: a theoretical framework. journal of management, 20(4), 737–756. henning, e., van rensburg, w., & smit, b. (2012). finding your way in qualitative research. pretoria, south africa: jl van schaik. hii, l., & ahmad, r. (2015). rater competency in conducting performance appraisal in the malaysian public sector. international journal of social science and humanity, 5(1), 69–74. https://doi.org/10.7763/ijssh.2015.v5.424 jacobs, g., belschak, f.d., & den hartog, d.n. (2014). unethical behaviour and performance appraisal: the role of affect, support and organizational justice. journal of business ethics, 121, 63–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1687-1 jawahar, i.m. (2001). attitudes, self-monitoring and appraisal behaviors. journal of applied psychology, 86(5), 875–888. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.86.5.875 katz, d. (1960). the functional approach to the study of attitudes. public opinion quarterly, 24, 163–204. https://doi.org/10.1086/266945 kolb, b. (2008). marketing research: a practical approach. london: sage. kondrasuk, j.n. (2012). the ideal performance appraisal is a format, not a form. academy of strategic management journal, 11(1), 115–130. retrieved october 09, 2016, from http://0-search.proquest.com.oasis.unisa.ac.za/docview/1037692128/fulltextpdf/bf5854ff81404669pq/8?accountid=14648 lawler, e.e., benson g.s., & mcdermott, m. (2012). what makes performance appraisals effective. compensation and benefits review, 44(4), 191–200. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886368712462331 longenecker, c.o., & gioia, d.a. (2003). confronting the politics in performance appraisal. business forum, 24(3), 17–23. retrieved october 05, 2016, from http://search.proquest.com/openview/c8fa85b763efb9d60ac601881f679338/1?pq-origsite=gscholar longenecker, c.o., sims, h.p., & gioia, d.a. (1987). behind the mask: the politics of employee appraisal. the academy of management executive, 1(3), 183–193. retrieved october 05, 2016, from https://www.tamu.edu/faculty/payne/pa/longenecker%20et%20al.%201987.pdf luthans, f. (2008). organizational behaviour. boston, ma: mcgraw hill. macdonald, h.a., & sulsky, l.m. (2009). rating formats and rater training redux: a context-specific approach for enhancing the effectiveness of performance management. canadian journal of behavioural science, 41(4), 227–240. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015165 marmet, m.d. (2015). the impact of rater personality and purpose of appraisal on performance ratings unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of connecticut, storrs, ct. marreli, a.f. (2011). problems and remedies in performance management. industrial and organisational psychology, 4(2), 169–172. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2011.01317x mason, j. (2012). qualitative researching. london: sage. miserandino, m. (2007). attitude formation. in r. baumeister & k. vohs (eds.), encyclopedia of social psychology (pp. 66–68). thousand oaks, ca: sage. pichler, s. (2012). the social context of performance appraisal and appraisal reactions: a meta-analysis. human resources management, 51(5), 709–732. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21499 pietkiewicz, i., & smith, j.a. (2014). a practical guide to using interpretative phenomenological analysis in qualitative research psychology. czasopismo psychologiczne psychological journal, 20(1), 7–14. https://doi.org/10.14691/cppj.20.1.7 pratkanis, a.r. (2014). the cognitive representation of attitude. in a.r. pratkanis, s.j. breckler, & a.g. greenwald (eds.), attitude, structure and function (pp. 71–98). new york: psychology press. pulakos, e.d., & o’leary, r.s. (2011). why is performance management broken? industrial and organisational psychology, 4(2), 146–164. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2011.01315.x rossman, g.b., & rallis, f.s. (2011). learning in the field: an introduction to qualitative research. (3rd edn.). london: sage. schurink, w., fouche, c.b., & de vos, a.s. (2012). qualitative data analysis and interpretation. in a. de vos, h. strydom, c. fouché, & c. delport (eds.), research at grassroots for the social sciences and human service professions (4th edn., pp. 397–423). pretoria, south africa: van schaik. shah, s., & corley, k. (2006). building better theory by bridging the quantitative-qualitative divide. journal of management studies, 43(8), 1823–1836. retrieved october 09, 2016, from https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2006.00662.x shore, t., & strauss, j. (2008). the political context of employee appraisal: effects of organisational goals on performance ratings. international journal of management, 25(4), 599–612. retrieved n.d., from http://search.proquest.com/openview/b6b051105f7c4837e5703997e9845dcc/1?pq-origsite=gscholar swanepoel, s., botha, p.a., & mangonyane, n.b. (2014). politicisation of performance appraisals. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.525 thomas, s.l., & bretz, r.d. (1994). research and practice in performance appraisal: evaluating employee performance in america’s largest companies. sam advanced management journal, 59(2), 28–34. retrieved october 05, 2016, from http://search.proquest.com/openview/6dcd301d72eac422a7bdba56bafa94a5/1?pq-origsite=gscholar thurstone, l.l. (1931). the measurement of change in social attitude. journal of social psychology, 2(2), 230–235. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1931.9918969 torrington, d., hall, l., taylor, s., & atkinson, c. (2009). fundamentals of human resource management. london: pearson. tziner, a., lathan, g.p., price, b.s., & haccoun, r. (1996). development and validation of a questionnaire for measuring perceived political considerations in performance appraisal. journal of organizational behavior, 17, 179–190. retrieved october 05, 2016, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2488590?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents tziner, a., & murphy, k.r. (1999). additional evidence of attitudinal influences in performance appraisal. journal of business and psychology, 13(3), 407–419. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1022982501606 tziner, a., murphy, k.r., & cleveland, j.n. (2002). does conscientiousness moderate the relationship between attitudes and beliefs regarding performance appraisal and rating behaviour. international journal of selection and assessment, 10(3), 218–224. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00211 van de mieroop, d., & vrolix, e. (2014). a discourse analytical perspective on the professionalization of the performance appraisal interview. international journal of business communication, 51(2), 159–182. https://doi.org/10.1177/2329488414525197 visagie, r.g., & maritz, j. (2009). diversifying business coaching in a south african higher education context to facilitate research output. the international journal of diversity in organisations, 9(3), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.18848/1447-9532/cgp/v09i03/39737 vogel, t., & wänke, m. (2016). attitudes and attitude change. (2nd edn.). london: routledge. yun, g.j., donahue, l.m., dudley, n.m., & mcfarland, l.a. (2005). rater personality, rating format, and social context: implications for performance appraisal ratings. international journal of selection and assessment, 13(2), 97–107. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0965-075x.2005.00304.x zhang, x., xie, f., wee, h.l., thumboo, j., & li, s.c. (2008). applying the expectancy-value model to understand health values. international society for pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research, 10(1), 61–68. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1524-4733.2008.00368.x acknowledgements references about the author(s) willie t. chinyamurindi department of business management, university of fort hare, south africa michelle r. mey school for industrial psychology and human resources, nelson mandela metropolitan university, south africa citation chinyamurindi, w.t., & mey, m.r. (2017). technology in the african workplace: introduction to the special edition. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a966. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.966 editorial technology in the african workplace: introduction to the special edition willie t. chinyamurindi, michelle r. mey copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. this special issue is dedicated to exploring the role of technology in the african workplace. technology is argued to be an important driver within modern society, resulting in its popularity (yuan, raubal & liu, 2012). the popularity of technology is acknowledged especially on the african continent, given advancements in information and communication technology (ict) infrastructure (international telecommunications union, 2013). this also appears to link with africa being acknowledged as having a young and growing population (page, 2012). given such a context, an organisational response is required that constantly seeks ways of gaining an advantage over competitors (castaneda & toulson, 2013). the human resources management (hrm) function exists as an important organisational capability through which this can be attained. it can be expected that within the domain of hrm, technology will have ramifications (positive and negative) for employees and subsequently on the overall performance of the organisation. parry (2011) argues for the use of technology in the workplace as affecting the hrm functionary and activities such as talent management, recruitment, selection, induction, socialisation, remuneration, compensation, training and development, performance management and career and knowledge management. this has led to the usage of terms such as electronic hrm (e-hrm), referring to ‘a way of implementing hr strategies, policies and practices in organisations through a conscious and directed support of and/or with the full use of web-technology-based channels’ (ruel, bondarouk & looise, 2004, p. 281), often resulting in organisations having more specialised hrm professionals (tremblay, patry & lanoie, 2008). despite this growth in the use of technology within the workplace, more empirical efforts are needed, especially within the african workplace and proving empirically that technology has an impact on productivity. we hope that this special issue ignites continued interest in this area of inquiry with both theoretical and practitioner ramifications. our call appears supported also within the international press (e.g. oostrom, van der linden, born & van der molen, 2013; parry, 2011; torrington, hall & taylor, 2005). this can possibly create strategic linkages between the technology and the human aspect (bondarouk & ruel, 2009; strohmeier, 2007, 2009). in this special issue, some key contributions are presented: zikhona dlaza and willie tafadzwa chinyamurindi provide a book review of the book edited by richard n. landers and gordon b. schmidt titled social media in employee selection and recruitment: theory, practice and current challenges. this book appears relevant and poignant, especially given the growth in the popularity of social media even within the african context. probably, the book will feature much in our african classroom and corporate context as part of ongoing discussion around the use of social media within the workplace. andre calitz, paul poisat and margaret cullen take a futuristic stance by focussing on the role and the use of collaborative robots in manufacturing. one of the salient findings of this paper is the sense of awareness by african businesses as to the use and implementation of cobots. the challenge appears to be finding ways in which some form of co-existence can be created by a context in need of technological innovation while at the same time addressing the fears such as retrenchment. continuing in the same vein are paul poisat and michelle mey, who in their paper explore e-hrm and its link to organisational productivity. the paper by the authors draws on a position of guided optimism that technology is not always a panacea to the challenges of modern organisations. thus, due care and attention is needed when positioning the value (or the lack thereof) of technology in the modern organisation. liezel cilliers, willie tafadzwa chinyamurindi and kim viljoen explore the factors that influence the intention to use social media for work-related purposes at a south african higher education institution. notably, the use of social media was found to serve a useful purpose in problem-solving and communication in the workplace. the paper challenges notions that may exist bemoaning the role of social media in the workplace. acknowledgements the authors would like to express their gratitude to all the authors who contributed to this special edition. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions w.t.c. and m.r.m. both acted as guest editors of the special edition. the introduction to the special edition was jointly written by them. references bondarouk, t., & ruel, h. (2009). electronic human resource management: challenges in the digital era. international journal of human resource management, 20(3), 505–514. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190802707235 castaneda, d., & toulson, p. (2013). the value of human resources measurement in intellectual capital and knowledge sharing. electronic journal of knowledge management, 11, 226–234. international telecommunications union. (2013). the world in 2013: ict facts and figures. retrieved october 20, 2014, from http://www.itu.int/en/itu-d/statistics/documents/facts/ictfacts-figures2013.pdf oostrom, j.k., van der linden, d., born, m.p., & van der molen, h.t. (2013). new technology in personnel selection: how recruiter characteristics affect the adoption of new selection technology. computers in human behavior, 29, 2404–2415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.05.025 page, j. (2012). youth, jobs and structural change: confronting africa’s ‘employment problem’. tunisia, tunis: african development bank. parry, e. (2011). an examination of e-hrm as a means to increase the value of the hr function. international journal of human resources management, 22(5), 1146–1162. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.556791 ruel, h., bondarouk, t., & looise, j.k. (2004). e-hrm innovation or irritation: an empirical study in large five companies on web-based hrm. management review, 15, 364–380. strohmeier, s. (2007). research in e-hrm: review and implications. human resource management review, 17, 19–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2006.11.002 strohmeier, s. (2009). concepts of e-hrm consequences: a categorisation, review and suggestion. international journal of human resource management, 20(3), 528–543. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190802707292 torrington, d., hall, l., & taylor, s. (2005). human resource management. harlow: financial times. tremblay, m., patry, m., & lanoie, p. (2008). human resource outsourcing in canadian organizations: an empirical analysis of the role of organizational characteristics, transaction costs and risks. international journal of human resource management, 19, 683–715. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190801953699 yuan, y.m., raubal, m., & liu, y. (2012). correlating mobile phone usage and travel behavior – a case study of harbin, china. computers, environment and urban systems, 36(2), 118–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2011.07.003 abstract introduction literature review research design findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) dorcas l. lesenyeho global innovative forefront talent, north-west university, south, africa nicolene e. barkhuizen global innovative forefront talent, north-west university, south, africa nico e. schutte global innovative forefront talent, north-west university, south, africa citation lesenyeho, d.l., barkhuizen, n.e., & schutte, n.e. (2018). factors relating to the attraction of talented early career academics in south african higher education institutions. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a910. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.910 original research factors relating to the attraction of talented early career academics in south african higher education institutions dorcas l. lesenyeho, nicolene e. barkhuizen, nico e. schutte received: 10 feb. 2017; accepted: 28 mar. 2018; published: 25 june 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: south african higher education institutions (heis) are facing significant challenges in attracting talents to academic positions. research purpose: the main objective of this research was to determine factors that will attract early career academics to south african heis. motivation for the study: currently there exists limited research on factors that attract early career academics to heis as preferred employers. research approach, design and method: a qualitative approach was adopted for this study; semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain data. the study participants comprised of 23 academic staff members from various merged south african heis. main findings: the findings show that nine themes are related to the attraction of early career academics to heis: career development and advancement, opportunities to make a contribution, employer branding and prestige, job security, flexible working hours (work–life balance), intellectual stimulation, innovation, opportunity to apply skills and autonomy. practical/managerial implications: the results also challenge heis to develop a superior employer brand with a strong employee value proposition (evp) that would attract, develop and reward early career academics for their work efforts. contribution/value-add: the study provides important practical guidelines that could assist heis to attract talented early career academics and become an employer of choice. introduction the ability to attract quality young academics remains a challenge for many south african higher education institutions (heis). the recent ‘fees-must-fall’ campaign by students has tarnished higher education’s reputation as an employer of choice significantly (badat, 2017). not only were many heis’ infrastructure demolished, but academics suffered losses in terms of annual salary increases, performance bonuses, lack of quality lecturing time and decreased research productivity. moreover, the organisational brands of south african heis continue to be damaged as a result of the downgrading of their competitive rankings relative to heis abroad (mouton, louw, & strydom, 2013). at the same time, academics contend with a lack of adequate state and research funding, uncompetitive remuneration packages and research incentives, a decline in the quality of the workforce in south africa as a developing country and employment equity initiatives (the south african council on higher education, 2016). consequently, tarnished organisational brands present serious barriers to attracting academics in order to ensure an adequate pipeline of academics, which is critical to south africa’s national strategy to accelerate human capital development (higher education south africa, 2014). identifying early career academics is not an easy task. according to mcalpine and akerlind (2010), there are difficulties in trying to determine who early career academics are, what they do and how they develop as academics. most researchers within higher education concur that research involving early career academics has focused mainly on participants within the first five years or so of their first academic appointment. however, the nature of those appointments varies greatly: from post-doctoral researchers or teaching fellows to probationary academics, pre-tenured faculty members, to phd students with teaching responsibilities and/or external grant funding. gratton (2011) elaborated on the need for generational cohesion and the challenge organisations face in shaping the world of work to make the best of the skills and realise the aspirations of all generations currently in the workplace. to date, limited research exists on the factors that would attract early career academics to south african heis. vale (2010) mentioned ten factors that attract people to a career in academia, regardless of the financial implications, which are freedom to choose directions, reinventing oneself throughout one’s career, participating in the great era of discovery, being part of an international community joined by common interests, pleasant travels, a social and ‘youthful’ job, many measures of success, flexible daily schedule, doing some good and scholarship. in light of the above discussion, the main objective of this research was to determine the factors that will attract early career academics to south african heis. this research was motivated by the fact that little research has been conducted on the talent management of early career academics and the factors that attract them to a hei as a preferred employer. this article is structured as follows. firstly, a literature review is presented on the factors that could attract early career academics to heis as a preferred employer. then, the research method applied in the study is presented, followed by the findings of the study. the article concludes with a discussion of the findings and recommendations for future research and practice. literature review factors attracting early career academics career development and advancement career management is a critical pillar of work-related outcomes linked to organisational commitment (de vos, dewettnick, & buyens, 2007). gong and chang (2008) stated that organisational opportunities and benefits should make employees feel obliged and committed to an organisation. according to bhatt (2011), career anchors can assist in managing and steering career development and advancement of academic staff. career anchors are patterns of self-perceived talents, attitude, motives and values that guide and stabilise a person’s career after several years of real-world experience and feedback (bhatt, 2011). these should be supported by institutional human resource (hr) processes related to developing academic interest, opportunity to improve academic qualifications, availability of promotion opportunities and rapid career advancement opportunities for early career academics. bhatt further suggested that organisations should revisit the way employees’ careers are managed to ensure career development and advancement through planning and organisational career management processes. although the concept of career management has received great research attention over the years, the career development of academics has been neglected. available research shows that the careers of academics can be advanced through a variety of methods, such as mentorship (thomas, lunsford, & rodrigues, 2015), networking (ansmann et al., 2014), transnational collaboration (coldwell, papageorgiou, callaghan, & fried, 2016), training and development (botha & potgieter, 2009), opportunities for further education (schulze, 2015; tessema, 2009) and promotion opportunities (bhatt, 2011). other research also pointed out that career development opportunities in heis are hampered by a lack of both government funding (busch & ledingham, 2016) and organisational infrastructure (macgregor, 2009). collaborative research appears to be the appropriate strategy to promote career development of early academics. kochan and mullen (in tynan & garbett, 2007) stated that collaboration enriches personal and organisational life as a whole, which is relevant for the development of new academics, regardless of gender. the greatest advantage of collaborative research is that it provides a synergy that gives early career researchers an entry into their field, with fewer mistakes and disappointments and less stress. a study by singh (2015) showed that capacity-building initiatives for a rural south african hei resulted in an increase in the number of accredited publications by staff members, the number of staff with doctoral qualifications, awareness of funding opportunities and the level of postgraduate supervision output. other researchers also highlighted the importance of developing e-skills to cater for the digital age of teaching in higher education (adegbenro & gumbo, 2015). opportunity to make a contribution public heis in south africa are expected to play a critical role in the development of human resources and in the overall social development and transformation of the continent (van heerden, bohlmann, giesecke, makochekanwa, & roos, 2007). the success and sustainability of higher education in fulfilling these roles depend on an academic profession that can utilise research, teaching and community engagement in solving problems and harnessing the full economic potential of the continent (grobbelaar & de wet, 2016). studies have also highlighted the important role of academics in advancing the employability skills of students (heerde & murphy, 2009). other research, advocates the growing importance of academic staff involvement in community service projects addressing contemporary societal needs such as those related to hiv and/or aids (sanjobo, lukwesa, kaziya, tepa, & puta, 2016). studies focusing on human-centric occupations, such as education, indicated that individuals join the teaching profession because of the enhanced opportunity to interact with students and make a contribution towards the improvement of their lives (strauss, 2012). in addition, academics are also challenged to advance their subject matter expertise to meet the knowledge requirements of the 21st century workplace (du preez, 2015; ondari-okemwa, 2011). pienaar and bester (2008) stated that the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution should not only be limited to student involvement, the community and the body of knowledge in a field. academics should be allowed to make contributions based on performance goals that are part of the job description and receive rewards in the form of bonuses, promotions, salary increases and recognition. organisational branding, prestige and employee value proposition higher education institutions are paying more attention to their marketing and branding functions because of the shortage of quality academic staff (hanover research, 2014). an employment brand reflects the extent to which a workplace values its employees. an employment brand represents an organisation’s employee value proposition (evp), which includes the gains that staff members enjoy in return for their efforts in the workplace. according to black, manohar and stehli (2013), there are four categories of benefits that represent 80% of what employees care about: leaders, the company, the job and the rewards. a study by annapoorna (2015) among management colleges in turkey showed that factors such as attractive salary, popularity of the institution, career growth, supportive work environment, recognition of work and work–life balance represent a compelling employment brand. saurombe, barkhuizen and schutte (2017) found that higher educational managers believe that factors such as reputation and image, organisational culture and identity, strategic vision, corporate social responsibility and work and surrounding environment are core to establish a compelling employment brand for talented academics. a study by lichy and pon (2015) showed that the opportunity for academics to make their own decisions regarding their work enhanced their perceptions of the employer brand of french business schools. flexible working hours (work‒life balance) university teaching has traditionally been viewed as a relatively stress-free occupation (fisher, 1994). although not highly paid in comparison to that of professionals in the commercial sector, academics have been envied for their tenure, light workloads, flexibility, perks such as overseas trips for study and/or conference purposes, and freedom to pursue their own research (gillespie, walsch, winefield, dua, & stough, 2001). according to padmasiri and mahalekamge (2016), balancing work and family life is an important factor in the personal and career development of academics. work–life conflict occurs when work and non-work demands are incompatible (rana & panchal, 2014). bell, rajendran and theiler (2012) found that escalating stress and pressures related to the changing higher educational environment affects the work–life balance of academic staff. a study by noor (2011) showed that satisfaction with work–life balance was a significant predictor of academic turnover intentions in malaysian public heis. intellectual stimulation and innovation according to goff (2008), talent includes the right combination of inborn abilities, complemented by the knowledge, skills, attitudes (competence) and experience needed to perform in a given situation. talented employees should therefore be seen not only as human capital but also as custodians of the success of their organisation through the implementation of their attributes (foreman, 2007). organisations should create an environment within which employees will spontaneously want to share their human capital and talents. bendaraviciene, kristolatitis and turauskas (2013) found that academic work is largely driven by interesting, intellectually challenging work, attentive supervision and good relations. moreover, the industry requires academics to become more innovative in terms of knowledge sharing and dissemination to facilitate learning (barrett, 2011). turner et al. (2017) indicated the need of continuous professional development in teaching innovation for academic staff to meet the increasing educational demands of students. job security job insecurity has become a key aspect of south african heis as a result of continuous transformation and merger processes (tlou, 2014). results on the job security of academic staff are mixed and confounding. a study by tessema (2009) showed that the availability of job opportunities in heis in ethiopia increased the feelings of job security of academic staff members. however, the results of this study showed that increases in job opportunities and subsequent higher student enrolments worsened working conditions of academic staff as they are faced with increased workloads and extended work schedules. in south africa, pienaar and bester (2008) found that job insecurity was a career obstacle for academic staff members. schulze (2008) found that a lack of job security had an adverse impact on the quality of research outputs produced by academic staff members in a selected south african hei. viljoen and rothmann (2009) found that stress about job security negatively affected the health of academic staff members in a south african university of technology. autonomy autonomy refers to the opportunity to be able to make decisions and implement them with little or no interference by authorities. for academics, autonomy includes being allowed to teach and conduct research within their niche areas of interest, with all the required flexibility (stromquist, 2017). according to schmidt and landberg (2008), academic freedom and autonomy are fundamental values of universities, as these affect all aspects of academic activity. these authors further stated that autonomy can include the opportunity to teach without external influences and choosing one’s own research projects and publication methods. a study by clare and sivil (2014) showed that transformation of south african heis has increasingly brought academics under surveillance and has significantly eroded their autonomy as individuals. ekundayo and adedokun (2009) found that several factors can erode autonomy, such as the appointment of a vice chancellor, erosion of the powers of the senate as a supreme body in academic matters and the issue of quota systems that force universities to take in students irrespective of whether they qualify for admission. amarasena, ajward and ahasanul haque (2015) found that a lack of autonomy furthermore has a significant impact on academic staff satisfaction in government universities in sri lanka. research design research approach a qualitative approach was adopted for this study because the emphasis was to bring forth the expectations and experiences of early academics in a holistic and in-depth manner. according to vishnevsky and beanlands (2004), this represents an exploratory analysis. furthermore, kearney (quoted in vishnevsky & beanlands, 2004) stated that an excellently pre-arranged and well-conducted qualitative research study serves as a reliable and rich source of knowledge that can be implemented by providing exploratory information about a phenomenon, promoting insight and awareness of human experience and supporting the development of formal frameworks and tools. the present study took an interpretivist approach, which involved integrating human interest and experiences for interpretation (rubin & rubin, 1995). this approach is considered suitable for qualitative evaluative research because it is particularly useful in intensive, small-scale research (walker & dewar, 2000). researchers have argued that this approach should include a theoretical framework providing guidance on how to shape meaning derived from a particular belief into interpretable knowledge. alvarez (2003) stated that the interpretivist method provides possibilities for generating fresh insights because it points out different facets of organisational phenomena and can produce markedly different and uniquely informative theoretical views of events. descriptive or interpretive data analysis for a positivist method provides sufficient evidence, enabling clear, credible and convincing claims or interpretations. research strategy a case study was the strategic approach used in this study. one of the advantages of a case study is that it is more descriptive and exploratory in nature and less explanatory. this approach was considered appropriate for the present study because, according to yin (2003), the empirical element of a case study method presents a phenomenon in a real-life context. silverman (2000) stated that a case study’s data analysis involves an iterative, spiralling or cyclical process that proceeds from a more general perspective to more specific observations that can be generalised. the approach for the present researcher was to generate and integrate themes derived from the group interviews, in conjunction with the conducted literature review. munsamy and bosch venter (2009) postulated that this approach is reliable and works consistently with the modernistic interpretivist strategy. research setting the setting for this research was a selected merged south african hei. the set hei came into being as part of the south african government’s plan to transform higher education. research method entrée and establishing researcher roles permission for the project was first obtained from the head of skills development of the higher education department of the government of south africa. further permission to conduct interviews with early career academics was obtained from the relevant authorities of the selected higher education such as the vice rector of research. the participants were informed of the purpose of the study and that participation was voluntary and anonymous. sampling the sample for this study included early career academics from a selected merged south african hei. the following criteria were used to select the sample: participants must have between 1 and 15 years of experience, be research novices and could be from any race and gender. according to neuman (2003), purposive sampling, as was adopted in the present study, enhances the understanding of what will be presented by the respondents and assists in developing theories and concepts. vishnevsky and beanlands (2004) stated that, in qualitative research, the sample size is infrequently predetermined, and the researcher can include as many respondents as necessary to gain a comprehensive understanding of a phenomenon. in the present study, participants were chosen based on their qualifications and experience (cooper, 2006), with a focus on who could provide the information needed for this study. the participants comprised of 23 early career academics from a selected merged south african hei. the demographic characteristics of the participants are presented in box 1. box 1: demographic characteristics of interview participants. most of the participants were males (n = 15), employed as lecturers (n = 16), had a master’s degree qualification (n = 13) and were representative of the black african ethnic group (n = 14). data collection data were collected through individual and group interview sessions. the interviews were conducted using structured questions, allowing consistency throughout the interviews. according to neuman (2003), structured questions assist the researcher in guiding participants in their discussions, which allow for the systematic collection of data on a defined area of interest. data recording and storing the interviews were tape-recorded, which served as a backup system during data analysis. this helped to ensure that the researcher did not draw incorrect conclusions from responses. extensive notes were taken, allowing recording of reactions to information by the participants. rubin and rubin (1995) stated that the above method gives respondents an indication that their input is important. the notes taken during the interviews provide the researcher with an opportunity to monitor the process of data collection and subsequent data analysis. ensuring the quality and rigour of the research in this study, the recorded interviews of both the individual and the group sessions were transcribed. although there were challenges in transcribing all the recordings, all efforts were directed at ensuring that all relevant and important information was captured to ensure the accuracy of data analysis. the quotes provided were verbatim. in creating a framework for analysis, the researcher extracted themes and subthemes for the categorisation of information from the transcripts. saunders, lewis and thornhill (2003) stated that this method allows the altering of themes and subthemes or relationships in the re-arranged data while searching for more information in the data. furthermore, this method allows for the identification of missing statements and justification of the alterations to the original implementation scheme, while allowing an up-to-date definition of each theme and subtheme, to sustain consistency during data capturing and analysis (saunders et al., 2003). the approach to the analysis entailed the researcher counting how many respondents mentioned the same issue, which is supported by seidman (2012). reporting the findings of this research are reported in a table. the themes and subthemes extracted from the interviews are substantiated by direct quotes. this method is in line with the suggestion of cresswell (2009) that a researcher should seek for support that a conclusion applies in a specific research context. ethical consideration ethical clearance was obtained before the commencement of the research. findings table 1 presents the themes that emerged from the interview sessions and the frequency with which the themes emerged. the researcher identified nine themes from the combined responses of the participants. from the table it is evident that career development and advancement, opportunities to make a contribution and employer branding and prestige were the themes that occurred most often. table 1: frequency of themes. theme 1: career development and advancement combined themes relating to career development and advancement occurred most often in this study. the participants mentioned that they were attracted to higher education by the opportunity to develop in an area of their research interest, for example, teaching. some of the participants were more interested in establishing themselves as researchers. one of the participants stated: ‘there are a lot of structures and interventions that is available through the university, so i would like to develop as a researcher very strongly. i’ve got a really clear picture of what it is that i want to do in my research going into the future. the university offers a number of fantastic opportunities for you to develop’. (participant 11, male, lecturer, master’s degree) other participants highlighted their interest in becoming educators. one participant stated: ‘the thing that influenced me was this urge of contributing towards the educational and academic development. and then, also, to fulfil my need, my personal need as an educator’. (participant 7, male, senior lecturer, doctorate degree,) the participants furthermore highlighted that opportunities should be created to attract students to academic positions. one of the participants stated: ‘we can grow our team by developing those good students who obtain master’s and phds to become junior academics’. (participant 12, female, lecturer, master’s degree) the participants also mentioned the availability of promotional opportunities and rapid career advancement as factors that would attract them to academia: ‘the university systems are unlike the systems in government, where it is on [sic] the availability of the post, but, in academia, people get promoted depending on certain qualifications and meeting certain requirements’. (participant 1, male, senior lecturer, doctorate degree) participant 1 also mentioned about opportunities for rapid career advancement and the benefits associated with it: ‘yes, if they are ready to work, it is an earlier way you can rapidly progress … for every stage that you are promoted to, you definitely get better packages associated with it’. another participant mentioned: ‘for phd, definitely, because that was the ultimate of getting my phd, and then i … from here, it is now associate professor and then professor, and where else would you go then to a university’? (participant 10, female, senior lecturer, doctorate degree) the above comment was supported by participant 2: ‘for now, i’m really very busy with the phd, and i think one is going to continue until you get to the highest level, to the professorship, and, when you get there, many opportunities open up for you’. (participant 2, female, lecturer, master’s degree) the participants also highlighted the opportunity to extend their educational qualifications as a reason for joining higher education. one participant stated: ‘i think the opportunity to further my own studies and the fact that i have a passion to work with young people. i want to make a difference’. (participant 10, female, senior lecturer, doctorate degree) theme 2: opportunities to make a contribution combined themes related to opportunities to make a contribution occurred as the second most theme (mentioned ten times). these participants mostly joined higher education to make a difference in the lives of their students. one participant told: ‘the interest of being an academic started when i was a supplementary instructor, so that’s where i got my basis of being able to interact with students. i actually started loving the whole idea of being able to help students and the appreciation that you also get from the students, that’s what motivated me to study further to become an academic’. (participant 3, male, junior lecturer, honours degree) in support of the above statement, participant 5 added: ‘number 1 is my interest in empowering the students and making a difference and also inspiring them … number 2 is more career-wise… number 3 is all about passion. i’m not here by chance, i’m here by choice’. (participant 5, female, lecturer, master’s degree) the participants were also attracted to higher education to make a difference to the broader community and knowledge society. in this regard, some participants stated: ‘the benefits are… it gives me a sense of knowing that i make a particular contribution towards the social economic development of our young and old. (participant 7, male, senior lecturer, doctorate degree) and ‘it’s nice to be called to give lecturers’ interviews, telling the whole world what certain issues are by giving you an opportunity to express your views. you have an opportunity to show what you have and who you are’. (participant 2, female, lecturer, master’s degree) theme 3: employer brand and prestige employer branding and prestige was the theme that occurred third most (mentioned four times). some of the participants stated: ‘we must become the university, an employer, of choice, so that if you are an employer of choice, your employees are going to show commitment and engagement, and it seems as we are on that way. i hope that we are going to continue in a manner of building our branding’. (participant 10, female, senior lecturer, doctorate degree) and ‘i think the money aspect is not very attractive, but, comparatively, we will say the financial reward also makes one feel like joining here, and the prestige attached. at least, nobody would see you as an ordinary teacher and lecturer’. (participant 2, female, lecturer, master’s degree) other themes other themes that were mentioned to a lesser extent included job security, flexible working hours (work–life balance) and intellectual stimulation (all mentioned twice), and opportunity to apply skills and autonomy (both mentioned once). the participants in this sample experienced job security because of contractual obligations to their institution, related to their studies. one of the participants stated: ‘…because of a certain contract we signed, that we have to be here for a certain number of years… we have already taken up some grants from the university, which we need to stay for about 4 or 5 years’. (participant 2, female, lecturer, master’s degree) one of the participants mentioned flexible working hours and a sense of belonging to her department: ‘flexibility, as well… there’s flexibility in terms of, you know, when you’re at a 95-drop. here it’s more flexible, and growth, as well, in your department. you get so recognised that you just feel at home. you become a part of the family, and i think that is what you want the most’. (participant 3, male, junior lecturer, honours degree) the participants indicated that they were intellectually stimulated by the opportunity to gain knowledge. in this regard, one participant noted: ‘i think, for me, it’s all about trying to get as much knowledge as i can when it comes to academics, so, that’s why i’m just pushing up until i get tired. once getting that knowledge, i will impart it to other people’. (participant 4, male, junior lecturer, honours degree) discussion the main objective of this research was to determine the factors that would attract early career academics to south african heis. the participants identified nine factors that could be instrumental in the attraction of early career academics: career development and advancement, opportunities to make a contribution, employer branding and prestige, job security, flexible working hours, intellectual stimulation, innovation, opportunity to apply skills and autonomy. career development and advancement was the practice that appeared to be the main factor in attracting early career academics to heis. the participants further mentioned specific needs, such as development in their area of academic interest, opportunities to improve their academic qualifications, the availability of promotional opportunities and rapid career advancement opportunities, as important for their career development. although the heis had sufficient research infrastructures available (see singh, 2015), higher education management should create career development opportunities, such as mentorship, networking, transnational collaboration, specific training and development for teaching, and promotion opportunities that will assist novice scholars to become teachers and researchers of excellence (see ansmann et al., 2014; botha & potgieter, 2009; coldwell et al., 2016; schulze, 2015; thomas et al., 2015). some participants also indicated the benefit of the possibility of obtaining further qualifications as part of being an employee at a hei (bhatt, 2011). opportunity to make a contribution occurred second most in this study. the participants specifically indicated that they wanted to make a contribution to students’ lives, their community and the knowledge society. these findings indicate that these academics had clarity regarding the career expectations of an academic scholar and the purpose of their role as an academic (grobbelaar & de wet, 2016; van heerden et al., 2007). as found in previous research, the participants in this sample enjoyed interacting with students. they were also aware of social problems that students were exposed to, and were interested in empowering them to make a better life for themselves (strauss, 2012). the participants also believed that the knowledge that they were disseminating could make a significant contribution towards enhancing the broader society (pienaar & bester, 2008). employer branding and prestige emerged as the third most important factor. the participants highlighted the need for higher education to improve its employer brand to ensure commitment by employees. these results are in line with the findings of hanover research (2014), which indicated that heis should continue to improve their brand to attract quality academic staff. the participants also highlighted the improvement of the evp of heis so that academics are rewarded sufficiently for their work efforts (saurombe et al., 2017). the factors that were mentioned to a lesser extent included job security, flexible working hours, intellectual stimulation, innovation, opportunity to apply skills and autonomy. in line with previous research it appears that early career academics do not perceive higher education as an employer that will provide job security (see schulze, 2008; viljoen & rothmann, 2009). in the present study, autonomy was also not highlighted as a factor in the attraction of early career academic staff. one possible explanation is that, unlike their senior colleagues, novice researchers do not yet have the responsibility to make independent decisions about their research endeavours (schmidt & landberg, 2008). the findings of the present study further confirm the importance of opportunity to apply skills and intellectual stimulation (see foreman, 2007). in contrast with previous studies, the early career academics in the present study did not consider work–life balance as a factor that would attract them to a hei (padmasiri & mahalekamge, 2016). practical implications this research makes important practical contributions. firstly, it sheds light on the factors that will attract a new generation of early career academics to south african heis. these findings challenge some traditional notions, suggesting that work–life balance and autonomy are not the main factors that would attract early career academics to higher education. from a practical point of view, this study therefore challenges the traditional structures of heis and indicates that hei management should adopt talent management practices that cater for the diverse needs of early career academics. the results also challenge heis to develop a superior employer brand with a strong evp that would attract, develop and reward early career academics for their work efforts. limitations and recommendations this research has some limitations. firstly, the data consisted only of the perceptions of early career academics. as a result, the findings cannot be generalised to other academics. secondly, the study focused on the academic profession and thus the findings cannot be generalised to other industries. thirdly, the lack of research on the attraction of early career academics posed challenges in interpreting the results. for future research, it is recommended that hei managers should also be included in the sample in order to determine their perceptions of talent attraction, compared to those of academics. likewise, a comparative study could be conducted between different academic groups to gain a holistic perspective on the factors that could attract academic staff to south african heis. it is also recommended that more research should be conducted on the attraction of academics for purposes of theory building. conclusion this research provided important information on the factors that will attract early career academics to heis. as mentioned previously, the findings of this study challenge traditional knowledge and practices of recruitment in heis. therefore, it is advisable that hei management and hr departments redevelop talent management practices to ensure that the best-quality novice scholars are attracted, developed and retained in support of the sustainability and competitiveness of south african heis. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions d.l. is a phd student and this article is based on her phd thesis. she compiled the article. n.e.b. was the supervisor and n.e.s. was the co-supervisor of this study, and both provided editorial inputs for the article. references adegbenro, b.j., & gumbo, t.m. (2015). exploring the conceptual relations between teachers’ procedural functional knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. south african journal of higher education, 29(5), 29–47. annapoorna, m.s. (2015). a study on employer branding with reference to higher education sector in tumkur city with special focus on management colleges tumkur city. international multidisciplinary e-journal, 4(8), 285–294. ansmann, l., flickinger, t., barello, s., kunneman, m., mantwill, s., quilligan, s., … aelbrecht, k. (2014). career development for early career academics: benefits of networking and the role of professional societies. patient education and counseling, 97, 132–134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2014.06.013 alvarez, s. (2003). towards an interpretative integrative framework to conceptualise social processes in large information systems implementations. information technology for development, 10, 233–247. https://doi.org/10.1002/itdj.1590100403 amarasena, t.s.m., ajward, a.r. & ahasanul haque, a.k.m. (2015). the effects of demographic factors on job satisfaction of university faculty members in sri lanka. international journal of academic research and reflection, 3(4), 89–106. badat, s. (2017). deciphering the meanings, and explaining the south african higher education student protests of 2015–16. unpublished research paper. barrett, b. (2011, october). international conference on intellectual capital, knowledge management & organisational learning. paper published in the peer reviewed conference proceedings of the 8th international conference on intellectual capital, knowledge management & organisational learning, pp. 75–82. reading, uk: academic publishing ltd. bell, a.s., rajendran, d., & theiler, s. (2012). job stress, well-being, work-life balance and work-life conflict among australian academics. electronic journal of applied psychology, 8(1), 25–37. bendaraviciene, r., kristolatitis, r., & turauskas, l. (2013). exploring employer branding to enhance distinctiveness in higher education. european scientific journal, 9(19), 45–78. bhatt, a.s. (2011, july). a career anchor perspective of employees in a large company. in 2011 international conference on advancements in information technology (pp. 265–270). with workshop of icbmg 2011. ipcsit vol. 20 (2011)© (2011). singapore: iacsit press. black, j.s., manohar, m., & stehli, s. (2013). the war for leadership talent: creating a superior employee value proposition. lausanne, switzerland: international institute of management development. botha, l.s., & potgieter, f.j. (2009). understanding skills development in south african higher education institutions. south african journal of higher education, 23(2), 28–45. busch, r., & ledingham, m. (2016). bothered bloggings and troubled tweets: constructions of stress and concerns for early-career academics. first international conference on advanced business and social sciences, 1, 1–12. clare, j., & sivil, r. (2014). autonomy lost: the bureaucratisation of south african he. south african journal of higher education, 28(1), 60–71. coldwell, d., papageorgiou, e., callaghan, c., & fried, a. (2016). academic citizenship and wellbeing: an exploratory cross-cultural study of south african and swedish academic perceptions. south african journal of education, 30(1), 80–105. https://doi.org/10.20853/30-1-555 cooper, d. (2006). knowledge workers. canadian business, 79, 1–2. cresswell, j.w. (2009). research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (3rd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. de vos, a., dewettinck, k., & buyens, d. (2007). to more or not to move? the relationship between career management and preferred career moves. employee relations, 30(2), 156–175. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425450810843348 du preez, r. (2015). towards a 21st century university: teachings from consumer behaviour applicable to higher education. south african journal of higher education, 29(5), 140–155. ekundayo, h.t., & adedokun, m.o. (2009). the unresolved issue of university autonomy and academic freedom in nigerian universities. humanity and social sciences journal, 4(1), 61–67. fisher, s. (1994). stress in academic life: the mental assembly line. buckingham: open university press. foreman, d.c. (2007). harnessing the elusive asset: developing intangible organizational capital. retrieved march 20, 2016, from http://www.workinfo.com/free/downloads/librarypaper_9864.pdf gillespie, n.a., walsh, m., winefield, a.h., dua, j., & stough, c. (2001). occupational stress in universities: staff perceptions of the causes, consequences and moderators of stress. work and stress, 15, 53–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370117944 goff, s. (2008). finding, developing and managing project talent: in today’s top enterprises, everyone’s a talent scout. retrieved march 12, 2017 from www.projectexperts.com gong, y., & chang, s. (2008). institutional antecedent and performance consequences of employment security and career advancement practices: evidence from the people’s republic of china. human resource management, 47(1), 33–48. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20196 gratton, l. (2011). workplace 2025 – what will it look like? organizational dynamics, 40(4), 246–254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2011.07.002 grobbelaar, s., & de wet, g. (2016). exploring pathways towards an integrated development role: the university of fort hare. south african journal of higher education, 30(1), 162–187. https://doi.org/10.20853/30-1-558 hanover research. (2014). trends in higher education marketing, recruitment and technology. retrieved december 05, 2016 from http://www.hanoverresearch.com/media/trends-in-higher-education-marketing-recruitment-and-technology-2.pdf heerde, j., & murphy, b. (2009). work-integrated learning: an annotated bibliography of recently published refereed journal articles (2000–2008). melbourne, australia: deakin university. higher education south africa. (2014). remuneration of academic staff at south african universities: a summary report of the hesa statistical study of academic remuneration. pretoria, south africa: higher education south africa. lichy, j., & pon, k. (2015). for better or for worse: the changing life of academic staff in french business schools. journal of management development, 34(5), 536–552. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd-03-2014-0022 macgregor, k. (2009, august 16). south africa: shocking results from university tests. university world news. retrieved from http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php? mcalpine, l., & akerlind, g. (2010). becoming an academic: international perspectives. basingstoke, uk: palgrave macmillan. mouton, n., louw, g.p., & strydom, g.l. (2013). present-day dilemmas and challenges of the south african tertiary system. international business & economics research journal, 12(13), 285–300. munsamy, m., & bosch venter, a. (2009). retention factors of management staff in the maintenance phase of their careers in local government. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.198 neuman, w.l. (2003). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. boston, ma: pearson education. noor, k.m. (2011). work-life balance and intention to leave among academics in malaysian public higher education institutions. international journal of business and social science, 2(11), 240–248. ondari-okemwa, e. (2011). knowledge production and distribution by institutions of higher learning in sub-saharan africa: opportunities and challenges. south african journal of higher education, 25(7), 1447–1469. padmasiri, m.k.d., & mahalekange, w.g.s. (2016). impact of demographical factors on work life balance among academic staff of university of kelaniya, sri lanka. journal of education and vocational research, 7(1), 54–59. pienaar, c., & bester, c.l. (2008). the retention of academics in the early career phase: empirical research. sa journal of human resource management, 6(2), 32–41. rana, s., & panchal, s. (2014). work life balance of academic sector employees: a study in vadodara city. indian journal of applied research, 4(6), 290–201. https://doi.org/10.15373/2249555x/june2014/91 rubin, h., & rubin, i. (1995). qualitative interviewing: the art of hearing data. thousand oaks, ca: sage. sanjobo, n., lukwesa, m., kaziya, c., tepa, c., & puta, b. (2016). evolution of hiv and aids programmes in an african institution of higher learning: the case of the copperbelt university in zambia. open aids journal, 10, 24–33. https://doi.org/10.2174/1874613601610010024 saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2003). research methods for business students. london: pearson education limited. saurombe, m., barkhuizen, e.n., & schutte, n. (2017). management perceptions of a higher educational brand for the attraction of talented academic staff. south african journal of human resource management, 15, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.831 schmidt, e.k., & langberg, k. (2008). academic autonomy in a rapidly changing higher education framework. european education, 39(4), 80–94. https://doi.org/10.2753/eue1056-4934390406 schulze, s. (2008). academic research at a south african higher education institution: quality issues. south african journal of higher education, 22(3), 629–643. schulze, s. (2015). the doctoral degree and the professional academic identity development of female academics. south african journal of higher education, 29(3), 260–276. seidman, i. (2012). interviewing as qualitative research: a guide for researchers in education and the social sciences. new york: teachers college press. silverman, d. (2000). doing qualitative research: a practical handbook. london: sage. singh, r.j. (2015). current trends and challenges in south african higher education. south african journal of higher education, 29(3), 1–7. strauss, m. (2012). talent attraction and retention of quality secondary school teachers to the rural areas of the northern cape province of south africa. dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree m com industrial psychology, faculty of economic and management sciences, university of pretoria. stromquist, n.p. (2017). twenty years later: international efforts to protect the rights of higher education teaching personnel remain insufficient. md: education international, brussels, belguim. tessema, k.a. (2009). the unfolding trends and consequences of expanding higher education in ethiopia: massive universities, massive challenges. higher education quarterly, 63(1), 29–45. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2273.2008.00408.x the south african council on higher education. (2016). annual report 2015/6. tshwane, south africa: shereno printers. thomas, j.d., lunsford, l.g., & rodrigues, h.a. (2015). early career academic support: evaluating mentoring networks. journal of higher education policy and management, 37(3), 320–329. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080x.2015.1034426 tlou, s.s. (2014). job insecurity, job satisfaction and general health in a higher education institution. unpublished doctoral thesis. vanderbijlpark, south africa: department of industrial psychology, north-west university. turner, r., spowart, l., winter, j., muneer, r., harvey, c., & kneale, p. (2017). the lecturer should know what they are talking about: student union officers’ perceptions of teaching-related cpd and implications for their practice. innovations in teaching international, 54(2), 143–151. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2016.1257948 tynan, b.r., & garbett, d.l. (2007). negotiating the university research culture: collaborative voices of new academics. higher education research and development, 26(4), 411–424. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360701658617 vale, r.d. (2010). it’s a wonderful life: a career as an academic scientist. molecular biology of the cell, 21(1), 11–14. https://doi.org/10.1091/mbc.e09-08-0678 van heerden, j., bohlmann, h., giesecke, j., makochekanwa, a., & roos, l. (2007). higher education impact: universities in the south african economy. pretoria, south africa: human sciences. viljoen, j. p., & rothmann, s. (2009). occupational stress, ill health and organisational commitment of employees at a university of technology. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 35(1), art. #730, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v35i1.730 vishnevsky, t., & beanlands, h. (2004). interpreting research in nephrology nursing. nephrology nursing journal, 31, 234–238. walker, e., & dewar, b. (2000). moving on from interpretivism: an argument for constructivist evaluation. journal of advanced nursing, 32, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2000.01532.x yin, r.k. (2003). case study research: design and methods (3rd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. abstract introduction research methodology results and discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) zamokuhle w. shabane department of defence, pretoria, south africa cecile m. schultz department of people management and development, tshwane university of technology, south africa catharina e. van hoek department of people management and development, tshwane university of technology, south africa citation shabane, z.w., schultz, c.m., & van hoek, c.e. (2017). transformational leadership as a mediator in the relationship between satisfaction with remuneration and the retention of artisans in the military. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a923. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.923 original research transformational leadership as a mediator in the relationship between satisfaction with remuneration and the retention of artisans in the military zamokuhle w. shabane, cecile m. schultz, catharina e. van hoek received: 06 mar. 2017; accepted: 27 sept. 2017; published: 28 nov. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the field of leadership has been extensively researched over the last couple of decades, with a particular emphasis on the different types of leadership styles. the most valuable resource that any manager works with is human resources. studies have indicated that the way in which people are managed is influenced by the leadership styles of managers. this, in turn, influences employee behavioural intention, including intention to quit. retention is, in turn, influenced by a number of factors, including remuneration. this study considers the relationship between satisfaction with remuneration and retention and the mediating role that a transformational leadership style may play in this regard. research purpose: the objectives of this study were twofold. firstly, to determine whether transformational leadership played a mediating role in the relationship between satisfaction with remuneration and intention to stay amongst artisans employed in the military. secondly, to determine whether there were demographic differences for these findings. motivation for the study: this study was conducted to determine whether a perceived lack or presence of transformational leadership influences the intention to quit amongst employees in relation to their level of satisfaction with their remuneration. in this way, the study may assist in determining strategies to improve artisan retention levels. research methodology: the study was quantitative in nature. a survey research design was applied to collect data, using a questionnaire as the survey instrument, from artisans (n = 108) employed at a military unit in pretoria. main findings: the results revealed that the participants, regardless of gender or race, were generally unsatisfied with their remuneration. transformational leadership was found to play a mediating role in the relationship between satisfaction with remuneration and intention to stay. practical/managerial implications: organisations should develop the transformational leadership skills of their managers in order to increase talent retention levels and reduce employees’ intentions to quit. contribution and value additions: the results of the study could assist military base commanders in improving artisan retention levels through implementing effective transformational leadership development programmes. introduction talent attraction and retention is a challenge for organisations across the world. the first step in the process of increasing employee retention is often the administration of a satisfaction survey that seeks to measure employee perceptions of retention strategies (rust & pielack, 1996). employee retention is defined as the development and implementation of integrated strategies or systems designed to increase workplace productivity by developing improved processes for attracting, developing, retaining and utilising people with the required skills and aptitude to meet current and future business needs. this can result in employees liking and identifying with their employer, and displaying commitment, trust and readiness to recommend them to other potential employees and clients (sinha & sinha, 2012). transformational and charismatic leadership are highly associated with individual and organisational performance. the effectiveness of leaders is measured by their ability to provoke or lead followers towards a common or shared goal (ahmad, abbas, latif & rasheed, 2014). transformational leadership has the effect of ‘transforming’ followers’ attitudes, beliefs and behaviours (ehrich & ehrich, 2012). the focus of this study is to understand whether the absence or presence of transformational leadership has a mediating effect on artisans’ level of satisfaction with remuneration and their intention to stay with or quit their employer. purpose the objectives of this study are: to determine whether there are significant relationships between transformational leadership, retention and satisfaction with remuneration to determine whether transformational leadership is a mediator in the relationship between satisfaction with remuneration and retention to determine whether categories of artisan groups perceive transformational leadership, retention and satisfaction with remuneration differently. literature review employee retention employers seek to attract and retain talented employees. before any employee may be acquired and retained by any organisation, he or she must possess the set of skills that no other person possesses or where it is difficult to recruit such a scarce-skilled employee. this is referred to as talent. talent is defined as an individual’s differentiated potential or ability to execute his or her functions and duties against the organisation’s growth strategy (botha, bussin & de swardt, 2011). employee retention is defined as a process that ensures that the organisation at all times has access to human capital capacity (competence, capability), including leadership, to execute its business strategy and operations effectively and efficiently, both now and in the future (bussin, 2014). the author emphasises the importance of talent management as a retention strategy to ensure the continuous supply of the necessary workplace skills in a rapidly changing work environment. talent and talent management are directly linked to the ability of an organisation to attract, acquire, manage and retain personnel for longer, thus maximising profit and achieving the organisational vision (bussin, 2014). employee retention refers to the efforts by an organisation to keep in employment those employees of whom the organisation has a positive evaluation and who would normally only leave the organisation through voluntary resignation (van rooyen, du toit, botha & rothmann, 2010). despite south africa’s potential to compete globally, numerous challenges remain. skills shortages have a negative effect on the availability of competent people in the country (van schalkwyk, du toit, bothma & rothmann, 2010). in particular, there is a critical shortage of artisans in south africa (van rooyen et al., 2010) and artisan retention is thus a particular challenge. the artisan is described as a highly skilled person working with hands, with emphasis on practical skills in a technical field that are manual in nature. they include trades such as millwright, electrician, plumber, boilermaker, mechanic, patternmaker and injection moulder, welder, fitter, turner, sheet metal worker, mechatronics, toolmaker, patternmaker, bricklayer, carpenter, joiner, shutter hand, steel fixers, glaziers, plasterer, tillers, sound technician and instrumentation and electronics technician (jordaan & barry, 2009; the skills portal, 2017a). artisan retention is of key importance not only because the country is facing a critical shortage of artisans, but also because the average age of an artisan is of concern. in a study conducted by jordaan and barry in 2009, this age was 54 years (jordaan & barry, 2009). therefore, 70% of the artisans who were employed at the time of jordaan and barry’s research would have exited the labour force within 5–6 years after their research, which would only have aggravated the shortage of artisans and intensified the competition for talent. organisations will have to implement strategies to keep artisans in their service. van rooyen et al. (2010) report that many artisans are being recruited intensively by canada and australia, which has led to local organisations trying to counter this by offering more competitive salaries and retention bonuses. factors contributing to employee retention in their study, ‘employee satisfaction, entrepreneurship and firm growth: a model’, antoncic and antoncic (2011) identified the factors listed below as having a crucial role in increasing employee satisfaction and ensuring high employee retention. general satisfaction according to antoncic and antoncic (2011), general satisfaction pertains to employees who are relatively well rewarded financially for their work, and find their work challenging, exciting and providing them with a sense of accomplishment. these employees are committed to the organisation, feel a great sense of personal satisfaction and are proud to tell others that they are part of their organisation. general satisfaction is further characterised by an organisation in which most employees are very satisfied with their job, feel that they have the opportunity to be independent through their actions in their positions and feel the prestige of their position inside the company. employee relationships antoncic and antoncic (2011) further outline that the employee relationships, which occur when employees feel that their colleagues are kind to them, get along with them and stimulate them, have an influence on job satisfaction and retention. this can be enhanced by the company’s efforts to manage the relationship between themselves and employees, and by providing fair and consistent treatment to all employees (study.com, 2017). employee loyalty employee loyalty occurs when employees are not actively searching for alternative employment and are not responsive to offers (k@w, 2012). employee loyalty is found when employees are able to talk about their organisation to their friends, and portray it as a great organisation to work for (antoncic and antoncic, 2011) remuneration schlechter, hung and bussin (2014) stress the point that the money consists of three components, namely affective, symbolic and behavioural components. the affective component suggests that on one end of a continuum, there are some people who view money as important and valuable, whilst on the other end, some people perceive the value of money as bad and evil. symbolically, money is associated with attributes that most people strive for. these include achievement and recognition, status and respect, freedom and control and power. money is often used to recognise accomplishments; it can provide the luxury of time and autonomy as well as power and access to resources. the behavioural component focuses on people’s actions such as investing money, concludes schlechter et al. (2014): from the employer’s point of view, pay is a powerful tool for furthering the organisation’s strategic goals. firstly, pay has a large impact on employee attitude and behaviour. it influences what kind of employees are attracted to the organisation and remain and it helps in aligning their interests with those of the company. (noe et al., 2015, p. 25) table 1 illustrates the phases of rewards. table 1: phases of rewards. factors mediating the role between retention and satisfaction with remuneration there are many factors that could play a mediating role in the relationship between retention and satisfaction with remuneration. coomber and barriball (2006) outline a few factors below: economic factors: they include sub-factors such as pay or remuneration, job market and training provided by the employer. structural factors: work environment and work context. psychological factors: individual characteristics and employee demographic and leadership. based on the above discussion, one of the most critical factors is psychological factor and it encompasses leadership, more specifically transformational leadership. this form of leadership is discussed next. transformational leadership transformational leadership is described as an ability to network and remain functionally separate from execution-focused elements of the organisation, for example, business units, divisions and departments (deiser, 2012). transformational leaders take personal and collective ownership for visioning the future state of the organisation and championing transformational change throughout the organisation (deiser, 2012). deiser (2012) elaborates that transformational leaders demand much from their employers, such as freedom to create, make mistakes, learn, an unambiguous remit to drive transformation, a collaborative leadership ethos and access to diverse talent. they further expect clarity about the opportunity and potential for their contribution within the organisation, the opportunity to leave a positive and sustainable footprint, significant learning and development opportunities, as well as stimulation and challenge (intellectually and emotionally). transformational leadership is further defined by van zyl et al. (2013) as the ability of an individual to focus on transforming the organisation. these authors’ focus is on the leader’s accomplishments, and not on his or her personal characteristics or relationships with his or her followers. northouse (2013) agrees with the argument by van zyl et al. (2013) but adds that transformational leadership is the process that transforms and changes people. northouse (2013) says transformational leadership is concerned with emotion, values, ethics, standards and long-term goals. transformational leadership also includes assessing followers’ motives and intentions, satisfying their needs and treating them as full human beings. jeanine (2009) argues that transformational leaders strive to align their own interests and those of others with the interests of the group, organisation and society. bass and avolio (2004) add that transformational leaders are high on morals through their use of altruistic empowering strategies as a means of transforming followers’ self-interest into collective values and interdependent goals that support organisational interests. transformational leaders have been described as those who alter or manipulate the way their followers think about themselves such that feelings of commitment and involvement are enhanced (brian, gregory, nathan & sean, 2011). transformational leadership may be perceived when a leader and a follower enable each other to advance to a higher level of morale and motivation (nemanich & keller, 2007). through the strength of their vision and personality, transformational leaders are able to inspire followers to change their expectations, perceptions and motivations and to work towards common goals. the evidence suggests that transformational leadership is linked to the outcomes that most organisations, individuals and leaders would value. mokgolo, mokgolo and modiba (2012) found that engaging in transformational leadership behaviour is an effective strategy to empower line managers to meet the challenges they face. mokgolo et al. (2012) suggest that leaders must develop a vision that stakeholders share and to which they aspire, and that leaders should be able to use inspirational language in doing so. leaders must engage in acts that involve personal risk and sacrifice. furthermore, leaders must strive to gain the trust of subordinates and they must be role models and show total commitment to achieving the objectives of their organisation. the attributes of a transformational leader are depicted in box 1. box 1: transformational leadership attributes. it is clear, after considering all that is mentioned above, that transformational leadership is a non-self-serving action. it focuses on followers as the basic ingredients to achieve great success, and the well-being of followers is a priority for transformational leaders. followers must do what they do voluntarily and willingly, regardless of the presence or absence of rewards and punishment. research methodology research design and approach the study was quantitative in nature and a questionnaire was used as the data collection instrument. bless, higson-smith and sithole (2014) state that a quantitative research design provides a detailed outline for the testing of the hypothesis, spelled out in clear and definite terms. quantitative research is focused predominantly on collecting numerical data, and quite often relies on deductive reasoning, to form a view about the likelihood of an event occurring and its nature, and then tests whether the view is correct, partially correct or incorrect (mncwabe, 2013). therefore, a quantitative research approach was chosen as the most appropriate technique for this study. this project could also be typified as a correlational study. bless et al. (2014) believe that correlational research is used when a researcher can make a statement or hypothesis predicting the relationship between two or more variables. the results obtained will be able to provide a precise description of reality. therefore, the survey design was correlational as it sought to measure the relationships between three variables (namely transformational leadership, employee retention and satisfaction with remuneration). a cross-sectional design was used to gather the data in order to achieve the specific aims of this study. measuring instruments the measuring scales used in the questionnaire were developed by combining questions from three existing questionnaires. the adapted questionnaire was divided into four sections, namely demographical information, satisfaction with pay, transformational leadership and employee retention. the first questionnaire used to source questions was the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire, which was developed in 1967 by the department of vocational psychology research at the university of minnesota (see martins & proença, 2012). the questionnaire measures the level of all aspects of satisfaction in the workplace (martins & proença, 2012). of 100 questions measuring employees’ satisfaction with their supervisors’ leadership styles, working conditions, remuneration, development, employee relations and more, seven questions related to remuneration were extracted and derived from the themes identified in the literature review. the scale was developed as a unidimensional measure of the respondents’ satisfaction with remuneration. in order to investigate the unidimensionality of the adapted scale, a factor analysis was performed. kaizer–meyer–olkin (kmo) and bartlett’s test were used and a result of 0.753 was achieved, which is acceptable for sampling adequacy, as concluded by kaiser (1970). bartlett’s test of sphericity (kaiser, 1970) was significant at p = 0.000. the transformational leadership questionnaire (bass & avolio, 2004; lievens, van geit & coetsier, 1997) was the second questionnaire with 22 questions related to transformational leadership, and factor analysis was conducted to ensure its validity. the questionnaire was a combination of information from bass and avolio (2004) and lievens et al. (1997), where transformational leadership was measured based on how leaders think, treat followers, advance the careers of subordinates, develop followers and manage performance of followers and so on. four sub-factors (bass & avolio, 2004; lievens et al., 1997) were extracted: sub-factor 1: idealised influence or charisma. sub-factor 2: intellectual stimulation. sub-factor 3: individualised consideration. sub-factor 4: inspirational leadership. the third scale was developed with questions sourced from sinha and sinha (2012, pp.153–154) and consisted of 10 questions designed to measure the retention intentions of employees through identifying critical aspects of organisational actions that employees deem necessary for them to remain in the employ of the organisation. the scale measures aspects such as the employer’s flexibility, working times, fringe benefits as well as compensation in general. all 10 questions focus on the reasons why employees are prepared to leave or stay in the organisation based on the presence or absence of transformational leadership. upon conducting factor analysis, two sub-factors emerged from the 10 questions, namely motivation and supervisor relationship as well as compensation and benefits. the initial principle components analysis showed that two factors reached an eigenvalue of more than 1. a total of 59.08% of variance was explained by these two factors. the reliability of these factors was investigated by means of cronbach’s alpha. the value was 0.762, which was acceptable. according to bryman and bell (2007), cronbach’s alpha values of 0.70 and above are typically employed as a rule of thumb to denote a good level of internal reliability. clark and watson (1995) suggest that the average inter-item correlation of items should be between 0.1 and 0.5. in this case, the value was 0.306. the employee retention scale may thus be regarded as valid and reliable, although it did not follow the original scale structure. the reliability of the two factors was also determined. reliability was guaranteed by determining the cronbach’s alpha for sub-factor 1, which was 0.869 and the average inter-item correlation was 0.475, whilst for sub-factor 2 and sub-factor 3, it was 0.804 and for sub-factor 4 it was 0.578. participants the population comprised 275 artisans in the military unit. a purposive sampling method was used. a total of 108 questionnaires were completed and returned, representing a 56.8% response rate, which was found to be acceptable (bless et al., 2014). a representative sample could also be confirmed on account of the diverse nature of the respondents in terms of age, trade, employment length, service period, academic qualifications as well as ranks. of the 105 respondents who indicated their gender, 73 (69.5%) were male respondents and 32 (30.5%) female respondents. the youngest respondent was 20 years old and the oldest was 57 years old. the average age of the sample was 37.1 years. this indicates a largely male and relatively young group of respondents. analysis a correlation analysis using spearman’s rho correlation (bless et al., 2014) was conducted to determine the relationship between transformational leadership, satisfaction with remuneration and retention. regression analysis was used to determine whether leadership is a mediator between employee’s retention and satisfaction with remuneration. results and discussion the study was directed at qualified artisans and apprentices (student artisans). the study also focused on different trades within the technical mustering. the average response per sub-factor from all respondents was 3, which is moderate, as shown in figure 1. figure 1: descriptive statistics per factor. categories of trade in the sample diesel mechanics dominated the artisans’ trade at 51 (47.2%), followed by other trades at 22 (20.4%). the minority comprised refrigerator mechanics with 2 (1.9%). the occupational classes consisted of 79 (73.1%) artisans and 28 (25.9%) apprentices. the service length was evenly distributed from 1 to 35 years. most respondents had at least 4 and 5 years’ service, with the average years of service being 13.7 years. this may be indicative of a high labour turnover. significant differences (trade) analysis of variance was used to determine whether differences existed amongst different trade groupings of the population on their mean scores for each of the sub-factors identified above (bless et al., 2014). the results of this analysis are presented in table 2. table 2: analysis of variance comparison – between and within groups of motor (diesel) mechanics, auto electricians, welders or refrigerator mechanics or carpenters as well as other trades. analysis of variance this analysis revealed a significant difference in the population means of motor (diesel) mechanics, auto electricians, welders, refrigerator mechanics or carpenters as well as other trades as the probability value of p = 0.001, which was less than 0.05 when it comes to satisfaction with remuneration. on the basis of this finding, further statistical analysis, in the form of multiple correlations, was conducted to determine whether significant differences existed between the trade musterings for the sub-factor ‘satisfaction with remuneration’. these results are presented in table 3. table 3: multiple comparison tests between the mustering codes groups (post hoc). the results of this analysis revealed that the satisfaction with remuneration of diesel mechanics differed to that of welders, refrigerator mechanics, carpenters and other trades. in addition, this difference was also found to exist when comparing the latter group to diesel mechanics and auto electricians. these differences were found to be significant (p = 0.002). this seems to suggest that there are other factors influencing satisfaction with remuneration of diesel mechanics when compared to other trades. correlations cohen (1988) argues that correlations can vary in magnitude from -1 to 1, with -1 indicating a perfect negative linear relationship (as one variable increases, the other decreases), 1 indicating a perfect positive linear relationship (as one variable increases, the other decreases and the inverse) and 0 indicating no linear relation between two variables. as statistical significance of this value is largely influenced by sample size, cohen (1988) suggests that a correlation of 0.5 is large, 0.3 is moderate and 0.1 is small. table 4 indicates the results obtained in performing correlations between the four sub-factors. table 4: correlations between all four sub-factors. the correlation between transformational leadership and satisfaction with remuneration was found to be at 0.380 with a significance level of 0.01. the correlation between motivation and supervisor relationship and satisfaction with remuneration was found to be at 0.389 with the significance level set at 0.01. these correlations translate to moderate correlations based on cohen’s (1988) guidelines. the correlation between motivation and supervisor relationship and transformational leadership was found to be at 0.528 and the correlation between compensation and benefits and satisfaction with remuneration was found to be at 0.508. because any correlation that is greater than 0.5 is considered large, according to cohen (1988), this correlation was classified as large correlation. lastly, the correlation between compensation and benefits and transformational leadership was found to be at 0.458. this correlation was moderate. this means that when supervisors display a transformational leadership style, satisfaction with remuneration is likely to increase significantly and the motivation–supervisor relationship improves. regression regression is a technique use to predict the value of a dependent variable using one or more independent variables. there are two types of regression analysis, namely simple and multiple regressions. simple regression involves two variables: dependent variable and independent variable. multiple regressions involve many variables, one dependent variable and many independent variables (tyrrel, 2009). in this study, simple regression between retention and leadership was used. hayes (2009) defines mediation as a sequence of causal relations by which x exerts its effect on y by influencing intervening variables. a regression analysis was conducted to determine the mediating influence of leadership between satisfaction with remuneration and retention. there are four steps in measuring the mediation by leadership between satisfaction with remuneration and retention. the variables that were measured are depicted below where x = satisfaction with remuneration, y = retention and m = leadership. figure 2 depicts the effect transformational leadership (c’) has on the relationship between satisfaction with remuneration (x) and employee retention (y). the effects are discussed in figure 3. figure 2: a simple mediation model effect. figure 3: leadership mediation model. number of bootstrap samples for bias corrected bootstrap confidence intervals: 5000 and level of confidence for all confidence intervals in output: 0.95. step 1: this step establishes the direct effect of x on y. in an intervening variable model, variable x is postulated to exert an effect on an outcome variable y through one or more intervening variables, sometimes called mediators. this represents path c in the model in figure 2. in step 1 of the mediation model, the regression of satisfaction with remuneration on retention, ignoring the mediator, was significant (b = 0.4151, p = 0.000). step 2: next, it needs to be shown that the independent variable is correlated with the mediator. this step essentially involves treating the mediator as if it were an outcome variable and represents path a above. step 2 showed that the regression of the satisfaction on the mediator, leadership, was also significant (b = 0.370, p = 0.000). step 3: now it must be demonstrated that the mediator affects the outcome variable (estimate and test path b). however, it needs to be controlled for the independent variable. in this case, the relationship between leadership and retention is significant (b = 0.463, p = 0.000), controlling for satisfaction. step 4: to establish path c’, namely that m mediates the x–y relationship, the effect of x on y controlling for m should be zero. this would mean that there is complete mediation. this analysis revealed that, controlling for the mediator (leadership), satisfaction with remuneration was still a significant predictor of retention (b = 0.244, p = 0.000), which suggests partial mediation. satisfying all four conditions provides evidence for complete mediation, whereas satisfying the first three conditions indicates partial mediation. put in another way, if the effect of x on y is reduced when the mediator is included (c’< c), then the direct effect is said to be partially mediated. the b coefficient for c is 0.415 and for path c’, it is 0.244. the effect is thus reduced. this is confirmed by the indirect effect in the output. zero does not fall within the confidence intervals of the beta coefficient bci= 0738; 0.299; therefore, mediation can be assumed. a sobel test was conducted and found significant with mediation (z = 3.614, p = 0.0003). it was found that leadership mediated the relationship satisfaction with remuneration and retention. in essence, this implies that any changes in either improving or deterioration in transformational leadership will increase the level of artisans desire to remain in the organisation or leave, regardless of the improvement in the levels of remuneration. limitations the following limitations were encountered in conducting this study: some respondents who were identified as part of the sample were not available during the data collection phase as they were deployed for a period of 1 year to the democratic republic of congo (drc); thus, their opinions could not be obtained. the number of officers who responded was very small compared to the number of available officers in the unit and their response rate was not representative of their ranks within the unit and the south african (sa) army as a whole as the proportionality was skewed. a number of respondents did not indicate their age and length of service in the sa army. recommendations based on the study, the following recommendations are made in terms of enhancing the retention of artisans within the military services: the south african national defence force (sandf) and the sa army need to revise the remuneration policy taking into consideration the different rank groups as there was a discrepancy in the way participants felt about remuneration. the sa army should consider recruiting more women into the technical service mustering in order to enhance government imperatives and inclusivity. the sa army should consider recruiting or developing an adequate number of officers by equipping them with a qualification beyond grade 12 (for instance, bachelor’s degrees) as these qualifications equip senior leaders with strategic managerial and leadership skills. working conditions should be improved. this could be done by revising policies and procedures involved when artisans perform their job. artisans should be empowered to find and fix technical and mechanical faults instead of only being limited to find and replace faulty parts. the facilities, such as workshops and kitchens, need to be revamped to the acceptable standard and be furnished with modern technology. workshops need to be upgraded with the latest industry technology in order to ensure that artisans gain the same level of experience as their counterparts in the private sector. the sa army should consider revising the promotion policy, so that it would be performance-based, as opposed to seniority-based. this will encourage quality output amongst artisans rather than keeping the status quo and passing time until the next promotion. the sa army, and particularly the unit concerned, should provide more training interventions aimed at transformational leadership development, as well as create more awareness of the influence of leadership on employee retention. conclusion the main aim of this study was to determine whether transformational leadership is a mediator in the relationship between satisfaction with remuneration and retention amongst artisans. the results clearly indicated that there is significant mediation between satisfaction with remuneration and compensation and transformational leadership. the results of the study could assist military base commanders in improving artisan retention levels through implementing effective transformational leadership development programmes. talent management is a comprehensive, multidimensional concept with a myriad of perceptions that influence its effectiveness. it holds the potential to influence talent retention amongst military artisans. the effect of work prospects and preferences on turnover intentions changes consistently, which implies that enriching artisans’ expectations of a ‘brighter tomorrow’ in their jobs could improve the probability of retention. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions c.m.s. was the academic supervisor and was responsible for the design of the project. she also helped with the preparation of the manuscript. c.e.v.h. was the co-supervisor and was also responsible for the design of the project. z.w.s. was responsible for the research and fieldwork and wrote this article. references ahmad, f., abbas, t., latif, s., & rasheed, a. (2014). impact of transformational leadership on employee motivation in telecommunication sector. journal of management policies and practices, 2(2), 11–25. antoncic, j.a., & antoncic, b. (2011). employee satisfaction, entrepreneurship and firm growth: a model. industrial management & data systems, 111(4), 589–607. https://doi.org/10.1108/02635571111133560 bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (2004). transformational leadership: multifactor leadership questionnaire. mind garden. retrieved 05 april, 2015, from http://www.statisticssolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/wp-post-to-pdf-enhanced-cache/1/multifactor-leadership-questionnaire-mlq.pdf bless, c., higson-smith, c., & sithole, s.l. (2014). fundamentals of social research methods: an african perspective (5th ed.). cape town: juta. botha, a., bussin, m., & de swardt, l. (2011). an employer brand predictive model for talent attraction and retention. south african journal of human resource management, 9(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.388 brian, t., gregory, k., nathan, m., & sean, t. (2011). an exploration of perspective taking as an antecedent of transformational leadership behaviour. leadership & organization development journal, 32(8), 807–816. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437731111183748 bryman, a., & bell, e. (2007). research methodology in a business and management context. cape town: oxford university press. bussin, m. (2014). remuneration and talent management: strategic compensation approaches for attracting, retaining and engaging talent. cape town: knowledge resources. clark, l.a., & watson, d. (1995). constructing validity: basic issues in objective scale development. psychological assessment, 7, 309–319. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.7.3.309 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioural sciences. orlando, fl: academic. coomber, b., & barriball, k.l. (2006). impact of job satisfaction components on intent to leave and turnover for hospital-based nurses: a review of the research literature, king’s college london, london, uk. international journal of nursing studies, 44(2), 297–314. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2006.02.004 deiser, r. (2012). building the towers of babel? developing leaders: executive education in practice, 9. retrieved may 14, 2015, from https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/fileadmin/user_upload/faculty/downloads/trevor-jon-developing-transformational-leadership.pdf ehrich, l.b.j. & ehrich, l.c. (2012). confucius as transformational leader: lessons for esl leadership. international journal of educational management, 26(4), 391–402. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513541211227791 gregory, a., stone, r.f., & patterson, r.k. (2004). transformational versus servant leadership: a difference in leader focus. leadership & organization development journal, 25(4), 349–361. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730410538671 hayes, a.f. (2009). beyond baron and kenny: statistical mediation analysis in the new millennium. communication monographs, 76(4), 408–420. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637750903310360 jeanine, p. (2009). distinguishing between transformational and servant leadership. leadership & organization development journal, 30(3), 274–291. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730910949544 jiang, z., xiao, q., qi, h., & xiao, l. (2009). total reward strategy: a human resources management strategy going with the trend of the times. international journal of business and management, 4(11), 177–183. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v4n11p177 jordaan, n., & barry, m.l. (2009). investigating the reasons for lack of skilled artisans in south africa: the perspective of artisans. south african journal of engineering, 20(1), 173–184. kaiser, h.f. (1970). a second generation little jiffy. psychometrika, 35(4), 401–415. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02291817 k@w. (2012). declining employee loyalty: a casualty of a new workplace. retrieved july 21, 2017, from www.knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/declining-employee-loyalty-a-casualty-of-the-workplace/ lievens, f., van geit, p., & coetsier, p. (1997). identification of transformational leadership qualities: an examination of potential biases. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 6(4), 415–430. https://doi.org/10.1080/135943297399015 martins, h., & proença, t. (2012). minnesota satisfaction questionnaire, psychometric properties and validation in a population of portuguese hospital workers. fep working paper no. 471. retrieved april 12, 2016, from http://wps.fep.up.pt/wps/wp471.pdf mncwabe, s.h.p. (2013). staff recruitment and selection at a university of technology. unpublished mtech dissertation. tshwane university of technology, pretoria. mokgolo, m.m., mokgolo, p., & modiba, m. (2012). transformational leadership in the south african public service after the april 2009 national elections. south african journal of human resource management, 10(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i1.334 nemanich, l.a., & keller, r.t. (2007). transformational leadership in an acquisition: a field of study of employees. leadership quarterly, 18, 49–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2006.11.003 noe, r.a., hollenbeck, j.r., gerhat, b., & wright, p.m. (2015). human resources management: gaining a competitive advantage (9th ed.). berkshire, uk: mcgraw-hill education. northouse, p.g. (2013). leadership theory and practice (6th ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. rust, r.t., & pielack, s.h.m.d. (1996). the satisfaction and retention of frontline employees. international journal of service industry management, 7(5), 62–80. https://doi.org/10.1108/09564239610149966 schlechter, a., hung, a., & bussin, m. (2014). understanding talent attraction: the influence of financial rewards elements on perceived job attractiveness. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), 647–660. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.647 sinha, c., & sinha, r. (2012). factors affecting employee retention: a comparative analysis of two organizations from heavy engineering industry. european journal of business and management, 4(3), 145–162. study.com. (2017). what is employee relations?-definition and concept. retrieved july 21, 2017, from www.study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-employee-defination-lesson-quiz.html the skills portal. (2017a). engineering and artisans. retrieved july 21, 2017, from https://www.skillsportal.co.za/skills-portal-categories/training-training-categories/engineering-and-artisans the skills portal. (2017b). learning to be an artisan. retrieved july 21, 2017, from https://www.skillsportal.co.za/content/learning-become-artisan tyrrel, s. (2009). spss: stats practically short and simple. sydney: tyrrel & ventus. van rooyen, l., du toit, d.h., botha, e., & rothmann, s. (2010). artisan retention in an organisation in south africa. south-african journal of human resource management, 8(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.300 van schalkwyk, s., du toit, d.h., bothma, a.s., & rothmann, s. (2010). job insecurity, leadership empowerment behaviour, employee engagement and intention to leave in a petrochemical laboratory. south-african journal of human resource management, 8(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.234 van zyl, e., dalglish, c., du plessis, m., lues, l., & pieterson, e. (2013). leadership in the african context. cape town: juta. abstract introduction methods results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) colleen bernstein department of psychology, university of the witwater srand, south africa leanne trimm department of psychology, university of the witwater srand, south africa citation bernstein, c., & trimm, l. (2016). the impact of workplace bullying on individual wellbeing: the moderating role of coping. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a792. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.792 original research the impact of workplace bullying on individual wellbeing: the moderating role of coping colleen bernstein, leanne trimm received: 25 jan. 2016; accepted: 25 aug. 2016; published: 31 oct. 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: workplace bullying has deleterious effects on individual well-being and various organisational outcomes. different coping styles may moderate the relationship between workplace bullying and individual and organisational outcomes. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to investigate the moderating role of four coping styles – seeking help, assertiveness, avoidance and doing nothing – in the relationship between workplace bullying and individual and organisational outcomes. motivation for the study: there is a lack of south african research exploring the moderating role of different coping styles in the relationship between workplace bullying and individual and organisational outcomes. research design, approach and method: the study used a cross-sectional design, quantitative approach and a convenience sampling method. one hundred white-collar respondents from a construction organisation in south africa participated in this research. moderated multiple regression (mmr) was used to analyse the data. main findings: results of the mmr indicated a direct negative impact of workplace bullying on psychological well-being, self-esteem, job satisfaction and intention to leave. seeking help and assertiveness moderated the relationship between bullying and psychological well-being. avoidance and doing nothing also moderated the relationship between bullying and psychological well-being but in a counterintuitive manner, exacerbating the negative impact of bullying on psychological well-being. similarly, avoidance exacerbated the negative impact of bullying on self-esteem. direct effects were also found for the coping strategy of seeking help on psychological well-being and for avoidance on job satisfaction. however, while seeking help improved psychological well-being, avoidance had a negative impact on job satisfaction. practical/managerial implications: different coping strategies may have different effects. some may be productive in terms of leading to improved outcomes, while others may not. these findings have particular relevance for human resource departments and practitioners. contribution/value-add: the findings of this research contribute to the limited body of south african research investigating different types of coping in moderating the bullying–well-being relationship. introduction the key focus of this study was to explore workplace bullying within the south african context and the key coping methods that bullied individuals utilise to manage bullying interactions. the need to examine bullying has been motivated by research conducted over the past three decades that has indicated that it is a crippling and severe social problem for employees and organisations (nielsen & einarsen, 2012). while prevalence rates vary from 2% to 27%, the mental and physical implications for individuals may be so devastating that the organisations in which such bullying is taking place are duty-bound to address them (nielsen & einersen, 2012). trends from the research literature defining workplace bullying workplace bullying is defined as a form of aggression where direct or indirect acts lead to an employee being systematically subjected to degrading and disrespectful treatment (einarsen, hoel & nielsen, 2005). workplace bullying is a social interaction in which perpetrators use verbal and/or non-verbal communication that is characterised by negative and aggressive elements directed towards the targeted individual. typical workplace bullying behaviours entail exposure to verbal aggression, physical intimidation, being attacked personally or professionally, having one’s work obstructed, being socially isolated from the rest of one’s work group, having rumours spread about oneself, or being made the ‘laughing stock’ by being subjected to verbal or physical acts of humiliation and denigration (nielsen & einersen, 2012; nielsen & knardahl, 2015). nielsen and knardahl (2015) distinguish between targets and victims with those that are targets being exposed to bullying behaviour without necessarily feeling threatened and victimised while those that are victims do feel threatened beyond their ability to cope with and defend themselves against the threat. workplace bullying is conceptualised to take place relatively often, and over a period of time, and is thus a chronic stressor, with persistent exposure leaving the targeted individual feeling unable to defend himself or herself from the menace of such actions (einarsen, hoel, zapf & cooper, 2003). however, it has been argued that bullying can be a single event or a few events, the severity of which may be sufficient to ensure that the individual exposed suffers the same extent of negative outcomes as those bullied on a more regular basis (capponecchia & wyatt, 2009). consequences of workplace bullying agervold and mikkelson (2004) note that bullied individuals suffer from impaired psychological well-being, increased levels of anxiety and fear, lowered self-esteem, lowered self-efficacy and lowered belief in their professional competence. bullying has also been implicated in severe mental health problems such as major depressive disorder, symptomology that resembles post-traumatic stress disorder and even suicide (rugulies et al., 2012). physiological outcomes may manifest in sleep disorders and musculoskeletal problems (hoch, mikkelsen & hansen, 2011). some longitudinal studies have gone so far as to implicate chronic bullying in the development of coronary heart disease (nielsen, hetland, mathhiesen & einersen, 2012; notelaeres, baillien, de witte, einersen & vermunt, 2012; matthiesen & einarsen, 2004). such severe individual implications, in turn, have serious organisational outcomes as victims experience reduced job satisfaction and increased intention to leave the organisation. to the extent that the individual is bullied by co-workers and supervisors, creating a situation in which such relationships become fraught with aggressive interactions, so can this have a negative impact on bullied individual’s experience of job satisfaction. this outcome is further exacerbated by victims’ perception of a lack of protective conditions provided by the organisation in which bullying is being experienced (nielsen & einersen, 2012). in this regard, victims of bullying often report little or no support from the human resource (hr) departments in their organisation, experiencing being pushed from person to person when they complain. feelings of shame, alienation and possible relocation because of hr, in some instances, supporting the bully instead of the victim are also reported. in such untenable situations, victims often resign from their positions. bullied individuals may also engage in increased absenteeism because of physical or mental illness or in order to avoid exposure to bullying incidents. they may also show lower organisational commitment, especially in the event of their feeling that the organisation has done nothing or has not done enough to protect them (balducci, allfano & fraccaroli, 2009; nielsen, tangen, idsoe, matthiesen & mageroy, 2015). lower job satisfaction and organisational commitment, and increased absenteeism, in turn, can affect the organisation negatively by reducing employee productivity. victims may put in less effort because of feelings of inadequacy and continued criticism. similarly, turnover affects productivity. loss of production time because of absenteeism and turnover and possible legal costs because of unfair or constructive dismissals can be seen as severe economic costs to the organisation as a whole (turney, 2003). the list of consequences is thus enormous and the negative effects of bullying serve as further evidence that both individuals and organisations suffer from bullying in the long term. coping with workplace bullying although a large body of research has demonstrated that bullying has direct effects on individual and organisational outcomes, the coping capacity of the bullied individual may serve to moderate the relationship between bullying and individual and organisational outcomes (d’cruz & noronho, 2010). nielsen and einersen (2012) note that the consequences of bullying do vary between individuals, with the nature and severity of responses post-exposure being a ‘function of the dynamic interplay between event characteristics, individual appraisal and coping processes’ (p. 314). coping is defined as ongoing cognitive and behavioural efforts to manage specific demands or threats that are perceived to be taxing or exceeding the resources of the person (lazarus, 1993; lazarus & folkman, 1984). coping with bullying consists of a target’s cognitive and behavioural efforts to master, reduce or tolerate the demands created by stressful bullying interactions (d’cruz & noronho, 2010) (the qualitative report, 15[3]507–534). olafsson and johannsdottir (2004) examined coping specifically in relation to bullying and described four types of coping with bullying, namely, seeking help, assertiveness, avoidance and doing nothing. seeking help and assertiveness are active strategies, whereas avoidance and doing nothing are passive strategies. active strategies are engaged with in order to reduce the extent of the actual threat or eliminate it. in this regard, typical active strategies that could be utilised to deal with bullying would be seeking help, which would require the enlistment and assistance of others and assertiveness, in which the individual would rely on his or her own resources in an attempt to resist the bully by ‘standing his or her ground’. assertiveness thus takes the form of active coping where the individual will attempt to confront their source of stress. depending on the degree of assertiveness, it may not always be appropriate. in certain instances, being strongly assertive may exceed the bounds of what is perceived of as assertion and may rather be perceived of as aggression. although in some instances aggressing against the bully may lead to the perpetrator ‘backing down’, in other instances it may inflame the bully even further, leading to an interaction between the bully and the target that becomes excessively confrontational and thereby destructive (upton, 2009). passive strategies would be doing nothing in the hope that the bully or bullies may eventually tire of their behaviour and stop. by doing nothing, ‘pretending that you don’t care’ and that ‘nothing is wrong’, that is, by not reacting, there is hope that the bully will lose interest and ‘go away’ (dehue, bolman, vollink & pouwelse, 2012). an additional passive strategy could involve avoidance (also known as escape). although avoidance involves engaging in some form of action, this action is regarded to be passive in that it entails no resistance. while assertiveness, aggression and avoidance are aligned to the ‘fight or flight’ response to stress (selye, 1976), avoidance is considered as an ‘inactive’ behaviour as it involves running away from, rather than confronting, the problem (dehue et al., 2012). murray-harvey, skrzpiec and slee (2012) in their examination of bullying amongst students note that certain coping strategies are productive while others are non-productive with regard to the extent to which they serve to ameliorate the negative impact of bullying on individual outcomes. in this regard, they indicate that seeking help is productive, whereas avoidance or doing nothing is non-productive. similarly, they also note that although assertiveness can be productive, if it becomes excessive it can deteriorate into aggression which may be counterproductive. in light of the above discussion, it is apparent that there are a number of coping strategies that targeted individuals may utilise. consequently, the following research questions were proposed: (1) do different coping styles moderate the relationship between perceived bullying and individual and organisational health and well-being, that is, the dependent variables of psychological well-being, self-esteem, job satisfaction and intention to leave? (2) does perceived bullying have a direct effect on psychological well-being, self-esteem, job satisfaction and intention to leave? no predictions were made regarding the extent to which certain types may be more or less productive as the research was exploratory in nature. based on the literature review and the aforementioned research questions, the researchers of this study established the following hypotheses: hypothesis 1a: perceived bullying would have a direct effect on psychological wellbeing; that is, the greater the perception of bullying the lower the psychological wellbeing. hypothesis 1b: perceived bullying would have a direct effect on self-esteem; that is, the greater the perception of bullying the lower the self-esteem. hypothesis 1c: perceived bullying would have a direct effect on job satisfaction; that is, the greater the perception of bullying the lower the job satisfaction. hypothesis 1d: perceived bullying would have a direct effect on intention to leave; that is, the greater the perception of bullying the greater the intention to leave. hypothesis 2a: different coping styles (seeking help, assertiveness, avoidance and doing nothing) would moderate the relationship between perceived bullying and psychological wellbeing; that is, higher levels of coping would reduce the negative impact of bullying on psychological wellbeing. hypothesis 2b: different coping styles (seeking help, assertiveness, avoidance and doing nothing) would moderate the relationship between perceived bullying and self-esteem; that is, higher levels of coping would reduce the negative impact of bullying on self-esteem. hypothesis 2c: different coping styles (seeking help, assertiveness, avoidance and doing nothing) would moderate the relationship between perceived bullying and job satisfaction; that is, higher levels of coping would reduce the negative impact of bullying on job satisfaction. hypothesis 2d: different coping styles (seeking help, assertiveness, avoidance and doing nothing) would moderate the relationship between perceived bullying and intention to leave; that is, higher levels of coping would reduce the negative impact of bullying on intention to leave. in the following, a discussion of the research design and research method is presented, followed by a presentation and discussion of results. the study will conclude with a discussion of its limitations and theoretical and practical implications. methods research approach a quantitative non-experimental cross-sectional research design was used. thus, data were gathered at a single point in time. self-report questionnaires were utilised for data collection. research participants the participants consisted of a convenience sample of 200 white-collar workers employed at a large south african construction company. of the prospective sample of 200 within head office, 100 responses were received, thus indicating a 50% response rate. of the respondents, 53 were males and 47 were females. ages of the participants varied between 22 and 62 years (m = 40 years). of the participants, 41% were white, 38% were black, 14% were indian and 7% were mixed-race participants. of the participants, 41% reported english as their home language, 21% reported afrikaans as their home language and 36% reported an african language as their home language. the two highest levels of education indicated were matric (37%) and a diploma or certificate (29%). the majority of the sample (65%) indicated that they were married and the number of years employed in the current organisation ranged from 3 months to 40 years (m = 8 years) (see table 1a and table 1b). table 1a: demographic characteristics of participants. table 1b: demographic characteristics of participants. measuring instruments bullying was measured using the negative acts questionnaire-revised (naq-r) (einarsen & hoel, 2001). the instrument consists of 23 items scored on a five-point likert format ranging from (1) ‘never’, (2) ‘now and then’, (3) ‘monthly’, (4) ‘weekly’ and (5) ‘daily’. in this study, an internal reliability of 0.89 was obtained. determination of the type of coping strategy used in bullying situations was made using the coping with bullying scale developed by olafsson and johannsdottir (2004). the measure consisted of a single question: ‘how would you react if you were subjected to bullying in your workplace?’ participants were given options of four coping strategies, each scored on a four-point likert scale (1 = i would do it; 2 = i would probably do it; 3 = i would probably not do it and 4 = i would never do it). examples of seeking help are ‘tell my boss’ and ‘tell the hr director about it’. examples of assertiveness are ‘stand my ground and answer back’ and ‘publicly confront the bully’. examples of avoidance are ‘take sick leave’ and ‘look for a transfer within the company’. examples of doing nothing are ‘wait it out’ and ‘hope it stops’. from these items, the four types of coping strategies can be derived: seeking help, assertiveness, avoidance and doing nothing. the reliability of the coping strategies for each subscale in the study was, respectively, 0.70, 0.67, 0.73 and 0.66. psychological well-being was measured using the general health questionnaire (ghq) (goldberg, 1972). this study used the 12-item format. responses were recorded on a four-point likert scale that ranges from (1) ‘less than usual’ to (4) ‘much more than usual’ (goldberg, 1972), with examples of items being ‘have you recently lost much sleep over worry?’ and ‘have you recently felt you could not overcome your difficulties?’. in this study, an internal reliability of 0.87 was obtained. a high(er) score on this scale indicates poor well-being, while a low(er) score indicates good well-being. self-esteem was measured using the self-esteem at work scale (quinn & shepard, 1974). the four-item scale comprises items that refer to self-esteem within a job-related context and are bipolar adjectival descriptors, for example, i feel ‘not successful’/’successful’ separated on a seven-point likert scale. a high score on the scale represents a high sense of self-esteem, while a low score represents a low sense of self-esteem. in this study, an internal reliability of 0.76 was obtained. job satisfaction was measured using the overall job satisfaction scale (warr, cook & wall, 1979). the scale includes a total of 16 items designed to measure satisfaction with both intrinsic and extrinsic job features. reponses are recorded on a seven-point likert format which ranges from (1) ‘extremely dissatisfied’ to (7) ‘extremely satisfied’. a high(er) score on this scale indicates high job satisfaction, while a low(er) score indicates poor job satisfaction. in this study, an internal reliability of 0.93 was obtained. item examples are ‘how satisfied are you with your fellow workers, your colleagues and your job security?’ intention to leave one’s job was assessed using the intention to leave scale (lyons, 1972). the scale actually assesses the intention of respondents to stay with their organisation. the three items refer to (1) how long respondents would like to continue working in their present place of employment, (2) whether they would continue to work in their present place of employment if they were given the freedom to choose and (3) whether they would return to their present place of employment if, for some reason, such as ill-health and pregnancy, they had to leave for a period of time. a high or high(er) score on this scale indicates low intention to leave, while a low(er) score indicates increased intention to leave. in this study, an internal reliability of 0.70 was obtained. research procedure data were collected by means of a hard copy self-administered self-report questionnaire handed out to prospective participants. permission was granted by the hr director of the construction company. the questionnaire contained a covering letter, biographical information sheet and the measuring instruments outlined above. participants were informed within the covering letter about the purpose of the study and that participation was confidential and anonymous. all potential participants were informed that their participation was voluntary and that they would not be advantaged or disadvantaged in anyway by choosing to participate or not to participate. potential participants were informed that by completing and submitting the survey into a sealed box (placed in a conveniently private position within the organisation) they were deemed to be providing consent to participate. however, they were also informed that prior to submitting the survey they could withdraw at any time by not completing or not submitting the survey. potential participants were also informed that they were not required to provide any identifying information, that no one other than the researcher would have access to their responses and that no single person’s response could be identified as the results of the survey would be reported as a summary of general trends. thus, ethical considerations were taken into account. on completion, respondents were instructed to seal their responses in the unmarked envelope provided and return it to the sealed box placed in a conveniently private location within the organisation’s offices. statistical analysis statistical analysis was conducted by means of the sas enterprise guide 4 program. cronbach’s alpha was used to assess the reliability of the measuring instruments. descriptive statistics were used to describe the data and pearson’s product–moment correlation coefficients were used to assess the relationships between the variables. moderated multiple regression (mmr) was used in order to assess the contribution of the independent variable and the moderator variable to the dependent variables. the 0.05 level of significance was selected to determine the presence of significant effects. table 2 gives the descriptive statistics, reliabilities and correlations between the variables under study. pearson’s correlations between workplace bullying and the dependent variables were all significant and in the expected direction. as high scores on the ghq and on the self-esteem scale indicated poor psychological well-being and poor self-esteem, positive correlations with bullying were expected. high scores on the job satisfaction scale and intention to leave scale indicated high levels of job satisfaction and a low intention to leave, and thus inverse correlations were expected. table 2: means, standard deviations, cronbach’s alpha and intercorrelations between variables. table 3 gives an overview of the findings with regard to bullying or negative acts occurring within the organisation. table 3: reported experience of negative acts in the workplace compared to reported experience of being bullied in the workplace. in table 3, 28% of the sample reported experiencing bullying, which ranged in terms of the extent of occurrence from 21% (now and then) to as many as 4% experiencing bullying or negative acts daily or weekly. results main effects of workplace bullying on the dependent variables direct relationships were found on all four of the dependent variables in that the greater the perceived bullying the poorer the psychological well-being, self-esteem and job satisfaction and the greater the intention to leave. as mentioned, the relationships were positive between psychological well-being and self-esteem as high scores on these instruments indicate poor psychological well-being and low self-esteem. inverse relationships were indicated between job satisfaction and intention to leave as low scores on these instruments indicate low job satisfaction and high intention to leave. tables 4 and 5 show the results of the mmr analysis, with workplace bullying (as measured by the naq-r) as the independent variable, and seeking help, assertiveness, avoidance and doing nothing (as measured by the coping with bullying scale) as the moderator variables. psychological well-being, self-esteem, job satisfaction and intention to leave were the dependent variables. table 4: regression of psychological well-being and self-esteem onto bullying, seeking help, avoidance, assertiveness and doing nothing. table 5: regression job satisfaction and intention to leave onto bullying, seeking help, avoidance, assertiveness and doing nothing. seeking help moderated the relationship between bullying and psychological well-being and, independent of the level of bullying experienced, had a direct impact on psychological well-being. the overall r-squared obtained was 0.1934, indicating that 19.34% of the variance in psychological well-being was explained by bullying, seeking help and the interaction between bullying and seeking help. to determine the contribution of each of these independent variables to the variance in the dependent variables, further regression analyses were conducted for all regressions in which each variable and the interaction term were taken out of the regression in order to determine their individual contribution to the variance. results of this procedure indicated that for seeking help bullying on its own added 11.50% to the variance explained, while seeking help increased this variance to 14.50% and the interaction term increased the total variance explained to 19.34%. no main effect for assertiveness coping on the dependent variables was found; however, assertiveness coping moderated the relationship between bullying and psychological well-being. the overall r-squared obtained was 0.2074, indicating that 20.74% of the variance in psychological well-being was explained by bullying, assertiveness and the interaction between bullying and assertiveness. bullying on its own added 11.10% to the variance explained, and while assertiveness did not contribute to any variance on its own, the interaction term increased the total variance explained to 20.74%, therefore explaining 9.64% of the variance. avoidance had had only one main effect on the dependent variables, namely, on job satisfaction. the overall r-squared obtained was 0.2654, indicating that 26.54% of the variance job satisfaction was explained by bullying, avoidance and the interaction between bullying and avoidance. bullying on its own added 22.22% to the variance explained, and while the interaction terms did not contribute to any variance, avoidance had a main effect, increasing the total variance explained to 26.54%, thereby contributing 4.32% to the variance. furthermore, avoidance moderated the relationship between bullying and psychological well-being and bullying and self-esteem. for psychological well-being, the overall r-squared obtained was 0.1890, indicating that 18.90% of the variance in psychological well-being was explained by bullying, avoidance and the interaction between bullying and avoidance. bullying on its own added 15.99% to the variance explained, and while avoidance did not contribute to any variance, the interaction term increased the total variance explained to 18.90%, thereby contributing 2.91% of the variance. for self-esteem, the overall r-squared obtained was 0.2440, indicating that 24.40% of the variance in psychological well-being was explained by bullying, avoidance and the interaction between bullying and avoidance. bullying on its own added 18.45% to the variance explained and while avoidance did not contribute to any variance, the interaction term increased the total variance explained to 24.40%, thereby adding 5.95% to the variance. yet these moderating effects were counterintuitive in that when individuals experienced bullying, avoidance coping worsened psychological well-being and self-esteem. these findings suggest that avoidance coping does not act as a moderator in the expected way in that it does not ameliorate the relationship between bullying, psychological well-being and self esteem. rather when bullying is experienced, it tends to exacerbate the impact on the well-being and self-esteem. doing nothing demonstrated no main effects on the dependent variables; however, in terms of moderating effects, doing nothing as a coping strategy was shown to moderate the relationship between bullying and psychological well-being, again not in the expected direction. as with avoidance, when people experience bullying and utilise the coping strategy of doing nothing, this was related to poorer psychological well-being. that is, if one tended to do nothing about the situation, psychological well-being worsened. for psychological well-being, the overall r-squared obtained was 0.1801, indicating that 18.01% of the variance in psychological well-being was explained by bullying, doing nothing and the interaction between bullying and doing nothing. bullying on its own added 15.28% to the variance explained, and while doing did not contribute to any variance, the interaction term increased the total variance explained to 18.01%, thereby contributing 2.73% of the variance. discussion the aim of this study was to investigate whether different coping styles moderated the relationship between perceived bullying and individual and organisational health and well-being (i.e. the dependent variables of psychological well-being, self-esteem, job satisfaction and intention to leave) and whether perceived bullying had a direct effect on psychological well-being, self-esteem, job satisfaction and intention to leave. results indicated that the hypotheses were largely supported in that bullying had a deleterious impact on all the outcome variables. however, coping did not always moderate the relationships examined. in addition, when moderation was observed, these effects were not always in the expected direction. the main effects of the workplace bullying on the dependent variables were found to be consistent with results from previous research which has demonstrated that bullying impairs psychological well-being, erodes self-esteem and has deleterious organisational outcomes. for example, nielsen and einersen (2012) in a meta-analyses of 66 independent studies (n= 77 721) indicated that workplace bullying manifested in outcomes of poor psychological well-being, that is, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, burnout, negative core self-evaluations and physical health problems. furthermore, they indicated that across these studies there was reported increased intention to leave and absenteeism, lowered job satisfaction and organisational commitment, and lowered job performance and productivity. similarly, the main effect of seeking help on psychological well-being was found to be consistent with results from the literature, more particularly the literature on social support that indicates that people who have access to help and resources tend to have improved well-being, irrespective of whether stress is experienced (lakey & orehek, 2011; schirey, 2004; schroevers, helgeson, sanderman & ranchor, 2009; schwarzer & guiererez-dona, 2005; taylor, 2007; taylor, sherman, jarcho, takagi & dunagan, 2004; zachariah, 2009). seeking help also aligns with the conservation of resources model proposed by hobfoll, freedy, lane and geller (1990) within which targets may find their personal resources deplete when they are compelled to deal with the unwanted aggression of bullies (lee & brotheridge, 2006). in such an instance, targets may seek to bolster their personal resources by drawing on available social resources, that is, by seeking help and social support from others. within the context of the bullying literature, seeking help is also noted as an effective strategy to deal with bullying. for example, murray-harvey et al. (2012) explored ratings by professionals of ineffective and effective coping strategies and the degree to which students utilise these strategies. seeking help was deemed to be the most productive ‘other-focused strategy’ by professionals, that is, by researchers, teachers and counsellors who had worked with bullied adolescents. assertiveness as a moderator between bullying and well-being is also supported within the bullying literature. murray-harvey et al. (2012) note that assertiveness is an effective strategy in that it enables individuals to ‘take control of the situation’ and facilitates the development of resilience within the individual if utilised successfully. moreno-jimenez et al. (2007) report similar moderating effects for assertiveness in their study of latin-american immigrants working within spanish organisations. with regard to avoidance and doing nothing, while avoidance moderated between bullying and well-being and bullying and self-esteem, and doing nothing moderated between bullying and well-being; the direction of these effects was counterintuitive in that avoidance and doing nothing had a deleterious impact on self-esteem and wellbeing. thus, while seeking help and assertiveness were constructive coping strategies, avoidance and doing nothing were not so. these counterintuitive findings for avoidance and doing nothing are also noted by dehue et al. (2012). in their study of 361 dutch employees, they indicated that bullied individuals who engaged in avoidant coping strategies, denial and doing nothing suffered from a high degree of health-related problems and poor psychological well-being. more specifically, they noted that targets using such strategies suffered from poor psychological well-being (as measured by the ghq), increased depressive symptoms (as measured by beck’s depression inventory), increased physical health complaints (as measured by the voeg, that is, the dutch physical health questionnaire) and engaged in the highest degree of absenteeism. thus, they similarly reported that these coping strategies were not efficacious in that although they moderated the bullying–well-being relationship, they were detrimental, exacerbating the impact of bullying on well-being outcomes. similar findings for the negative effects of lack of assertiveness and avoidance were reported by zapf (1999) and jiminez et al. (2007). both these studies noted that evasive and negatory coping styles of avoidance and doing nothing in the face of bullying were non-productive strategies that could exacerbate the impact of bullying on well-being. salin, tenhiala, roberge and berdahl (2014) and dijkstra, de dreu, evers and van dierendonck (2009) also note that those who engage in passive strategies of avoidance, denial and doing nothing, enduring their bullying in silence, suffer the greatest amount of psychological strain and impairment to self-esteem. however, while seeking help and assertiveness moderated the relationship between bullying and psychological well-being in a beneficial way, these strategies only contributed a small proportion to the variance in well-being. this may be because of a number of factors, namely, organisational structure and power differentials and hr responsiveness and hr policies and procedures. with regard to organisational structure and power differentials, these factors could have limited the extent to which individuals felt capacitated to seek help or be assertive (d’cruz & noronho, 2010; olafsson & johannsdottir, 2004). because of power differentials, assertiveness and seeking help may not always be possible and may compel and account for individuals engaging in avoidance and doing nothing (salin et al., 2014). power differentials are of special importance in that how the target chooses to react will depend on whether he or she is being bullied vertically or horizontally. while vertical bullying describes situations in which an individual may be bullied by subordinates (vertical-upward), the vast majority of vertical bullying occurs when a subordinate is bullied by a superior (cunniff & mostert, 2012). according to namie (2000), almost 80% of the time bullies are in superior positions to the victim and, therefore, the bullying is vertical-downward. horizontal bullying refers to bullying by colleagues. within south african research, cunniff and mostert (2012) note that while it is twice as likely individuals will be bullied by superiors as opposed to colleagues, the prevalence of horizontal bullying is still high. in instances of vertical-downward bullying, the power differential is often considered to be too high and as such this is likely to curtail the individuals’ choice of coping. thus, when power differentials are high, assertiveness and seeking help may be less likely, while avoidance or simply doing nothing are far more probable. salin et al. (2014) refer to the capacity to exercise ‘voice’ against bullying, noting that those who are in positions of greater power and status are more likely to exercise strategies of voice, that is, assertion or advocacy, as opposed to those with less power who are more likely to self-silence and engage in avoidance, denial or doing nothing. furthermore, they note that power differentials relate to fears of retaliation with regard to choosing to use active voice strategies as opposed to passive strategies. those who have greater power have less concern about retaliation and feel more assured that seeking help and advocacy will elicit the required degree of support for their cause. those who have less power may be afraid that using voice as ‘going up against’ the bully may be too risky in that it could lead to increased aggression on the part of the bully or censure from organisational members and superiors if they ‘side’ with the more powerful aggressor. in the construction company under study, there was a strict line of authority and control which may have encouraged perceived high power differentials. in such organisations with their emphasis on hierarchical control of employees and downward pressures to gain compliance and increased productivity, the ‘perfect storm’ is created in which there is a climate of fear and thereby within which bullying can flourish (beale & hoel, 2011). with horizontal bullying, when one is bullied by a peer, power differentials may be reduced, and more active coping strategies may be utilised. however, if the bully is supported by other members within the bullied individual’s cohort, such active strategies may be curtailed. to the extent that an individual is ‘ganged up on’ by a group of his or her peers, so will the power differentials be increased and so may it be more likely that the target will rather avoid or do nothing. however, if the bullied individual can gather around him or her a cohort of supportive individuals against the bully, so will power differentials be reduced. by seeking help in this manner, the targeted individual has not only utilised the seeking help strategy but may be emboldened to be more assertive in actual interactions with the bully. turning to sympathetic co-workers for support in order to enhance one’s power base through a ‘collective voice of resistance’ may thus serve to reduce the power differential and enables the individual to engage in a more assertive coping strategy (branch, ramsay & barker, 2013, p. 288). it can thus be seen that power differentials can affect the nature of the relationship between the bully and the bullied and can, in turn, influence what strategy is chosen. as both the source of bullying and the numbers of bullies by which the individual was targeted were not established in this research, if high power differentials were indeed evident, this could have accounted for the (smaller) contribution to the variance in outcomes of the moderating effects of assertiveness and seeking help. with regard to hr policies and procedures and hr responsiveness, the degree to which hr was perceived to be responsive to and effective in dealing with bullying grievances could also have determined the extent to which targets would seek help from this resource. if individuals perceived that hr would not be responsive to dealing with complaints, so would it have been unlikely that individuals would seek help from this ‘resource’. although they may still have sought out social support from significant others, in the event of being bullied, reporting the matter to the hr department may not have been perceived of as a viable option. in this regard, d’cruz et al. (2010) distinguish between organisations that adopt ‘soft’ or ‘hard’ hrm practices. within hard hrm practice, ‘utilitarian instrumentalism’ is stressed with employees being seen as mere headcount whose purpose is to support business objectives and who are managed in an impersonal and rational, if not exploitative, manner. soft hrm is aligned more with ‘developmental humanism’, which while still associated with business objectives sees employees more as valued assets. although d’cruz et al. (2010) note that often soft hrm is ‘spoken’ but not necessarily ‘practiced’, it is likely that organisations that adopt a soft hrm approach might demonstrate more concern in assisting bullied employees as compared to those that are more aligned to hard hrm practices. furthermore, it is likely that in organisations that adopt hard hrm, the structure and leadership of the organisation along with culture and climate would be more authoritarian and task-centred as opposed to those that adopt soft hrm who may be more likely to lean towards leadership and practices that are more employee-centred. as the policies and procedures of hrm in terms of hard or soft practices were not assessed within the present research, it could not be ascertained whether the manner of dealing with matters of bullying would be more responsive and therefore whether targets felt able and willing to utilise this resource for help. consequently, the possible inhibiting effect of power differentials and non-responsive hr policies and procedures within the organisation with regard to dealing with bullying may have left targeted individuals with no other options but to utilise strategies of avoiding or doing nothing, both of which were shown to exacerbate the bullying–well-being relationship. counterintuitive findings for avoidance and doing nothing may also be explained by the masculine culture and climate of the organisation. loosemore and waters (2004) note that the organisational culture and climate in the construction industry is traditionally male-dominated, demonstrating a culture of competitive, confrontational practices and high levels of conflict. similarly, lingard, brown, bradley, bailey and townsend (2007) note that the construction industry is regarded to be a tough, masculine work environment characterised by long work hours and following the traditional work patterns of gender assumptions, that is, construction is ‘men’s work’. consequently, the coping styles of avoidance and doing nothing are styles that are likely to be less efficacious within this culture and climate. not fighting back or ‘running away’, particularly in an environment where one is expected to ‘man-up’, may have far more deleterious consequences in that such an approach may be perceived of as weak and cowardly. thus, the inverse effects of such coping styles on selected outcomes within the present sample were not entirely surprising. engaging in behaviours that may be perceived of as ‘unmanly’, particularly for males, could negatively affect one’s sense of self-esteem and overall psychological well-being (schippers, 2007). thus, those who engaged in the coping response of avoidance and doing nothing may have found that their sense of well-being and self-esteem eroded in the face of a humiliating inability to fight back. such negative self-evaluations may also have, in turn, been more likely to leave provoke their desire to leave their employment (agervold & mikkelson, 2004). limitations of the study although the focus of this study was on the moderating role of coping styles in the bullying–well-being relationship, it had a number of limitations. most pertinent of these limitations was the sample size. although the number of participants in the study was adequate for the analysis conducted, the sample size was small. in addition, the sample examined was obtained from within a construction organisation and, as such, the culture within this organisation may have influenced the type of coping strategy used. furthermore, the cross-sectional nature of the research would have precluded a determination of where, in the lifecycle of bullying, participants were situated. another limitation is the exclusive use of self-report questionnaires. research recommends the use of both questionnaires and personal interviews (pietersen, 2007) in order to gain more in-depth accounts of bullying experiences from respondents. a further limitation may pertain to common method variance. as the data were collected utilising self-report measures, the relationship between variables may have been biased by common method variance. although, it has been noted that common method variance may be more likely to deflate interaction terms, therefore some confidence can be placed in the few interactions found (siemsen, roth & oliveria, 2010). recommendations from a research perspective, this research has discussed and highlighted a number of factors that still remain to be studied in order to better understand how they contribute to bullying and the life cycle of the bullying process. these pertain to organisational climate and culture, organisational structure, power differentials, hr policies and procedures and hr responsiveness. research has also indicated that demographic factors such as race, gender and education along with personality predispositions may play a role in coping strategies utilised (branch et al., 2013; cunniff & mostert, 2013; murray-harvey et al., 2012; nielsen & knardahl, 2015; salin et al., 2014). as the main focus of this study was to assess the efficacy of four coping styles on the bullying–well-being relationship at particular point in time, attention was not focused on addressing these factors and, consequently, their role in affecting the coping strategy that an individual will feel capacitated to or more likely to utilise still needs to be examined. furthermore, it has been recommended that longitudinal research should be conducted as such research may be able to examine the unfolding of the bullying process over time. from a practical perspective, according to cooper-thomas et al. (2013), organisations need to create a positive safety climate (psc) and systems of perceived organisational support (pos) in order to eliminate or reduce bullying and its deleterious effects on employees and organisations. organisations should commence with constructive leadership behaviours whereby leaders model constructive behaviours, displaying and making clear what are appropriate and inappropriate behaviours with regard to bullying, thereby creating awareness of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. constructive leadership further ensures that there is consistent intervention and punishment whenever bullying occurs. also the development of both primary and secondary interventions is required, which are championed from the top and filtered down throughout the organisation (cooper-thomas et al., 2013). primary interventions would entail introducing legislation, policies and procedures that will assist management in reducing the occurrence and recurrence of bullying incidents in the organisation, as well as overtly expressing that bullying in the workplace will not be tolerated (djurkovic, mccormack & casimir, 2006; fox & stallworth, 2005). secondary interventions would entail training of all stakeholders: management, employees and trade union representatives, sensitising them to the values and behaviour that are expected as well as the company culture that the organisation endeavours to uphold in order to limit bullying behaviour in the workplace (pearson, andersson & porath, 2000; pietersen, 2005). in addition, certain personality traits, for example, being high on aggression and being overly sensitive in terms of the need to protect and conserve one’s own self-esteem and position from any perceived threat, are regarded as perpetrator traits that can lead to bullying behaviour. thus, ensuring that individuals who have the potential to clash in terms of personality traits are not expected to work too closely with one another may be another avenue to limit bullying. however, this may not always be possible. therefore, training should try to ensure that potentially aggressive individuals are better able to manage this personality trait within the context of their interactions with others within the organisation. by creating awareness that aggression will not be tolerated and by enhancing the communication styles of such individuals, the potential for their bullying behaviour in the future may be curtailed. in the event of bullying occurring, in spite of these interventions it is advocated that the organisation goes beyond mediation, adopting a punitive approach towards the bully in terms of applied sanctions underpinned by the organisation’s legislative framework. a legislative framework, which outlines a formal grievance procedure and the sanctions to be imposed when bullying occurs, facilitates an organisational culture in which bullying is not tolerated and in which values of civility, respect and engagement as opposed to aggression and excessive competitiveness are emphasised if not enforced (dao et al., 2006; lingard et al., 2007; richards & daley, 2003). employee assistance programmes that provide coaching and counselling for both targets and bullies could also be utilised (branch et al., 2013). these programmes could be used to facilitate the development of behavioural and emotional skills to better manage interpersonal interactions. for the bully, reduction of aggressive interactions that are lacking in civility and respect would be targeted, whilst for the victim skills would entail how to manage bullying interactions both currently and in the future if they occur. in addition, for victims, support may need to extend long after the bullying has actually ceased. lutgen-sandvik (2008) notes that even when there is intervention and there is a cessation of bullying, the aftermath of the bullying can take months and even years for individuals to overcome. he notes that the post-bullying phase is one of intense grieving in which individuals have to struggle to rebuild themselves and their sense of loss, the latter revolving around their loss of reputation, loss of self-confidence and feelings of lack of justice and fairness in terms of how they were treated up until the time the intervention to stop the bullying was enacted. investment in and the adoption of such anti-bullying initiatives could go a long way in fostering a culture in which there is a high degree of psc and pos (cooper-thomas et al., 2013). in this manner, a proactive health and safety approach to bullying is adopted as opposed to a reactive complaints-based approach only (branch et al., 2013). within this context, if and when individuals are bullied, they will be far more inclined to engage in coping mechanisms of seeking help. in addition, within the context of a rights-based organisation in which acceptable behaviours are clearly outlined and reinforced and unacceptable behaviours are clearly outlined and sanctioned, victims may be far more comfortable in asserting themselves. thus, more efficacious forms of coping may be fostered as opposed to maladaptive forms such as avoidance and doing nothing, which individuals engage in when they feel they have no other options. research also needs to be directed towards examining the efficacy of interventions (branch et al., 2013). in this regard, branch et al. (2013) note that very little empirical research has been conducted evaluating bullying interventions and this remains a critical area in which future research must be undertaken. conclusion in conclusion, this research has added to the body of literature on workplace bullying within the south african context by noting that certain types of coping may be efficacious whilst other types may have a maladaptive effect, thereby promoting the vicious cycle of bullying and its aftermath even further. the results presented here are based on an empirical study of a sample of employees within the construction industry. however, as mentioned before, there is a need for further research to be conducted across a broader range of industries, including the examination of additional variables within the bullying process in order to enhance the understanding of bullying and its implications for both individuals and organisations. acknowledgements competing interest the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions c.b. was primarily responsible for authoring the manuscript and acted as supervisor to l.t. who was a masters student at the university of the witwatersrand. l.t. completed this research for her masters’ thesis in partial fulfilment of her ma degree in psychology. l.t was primarily responsible for data collection and the analysis of the data. references agervold, m., & mikkelson, e.g. (2004). relationships between bullying, psychosocial work environment and individual stress reactions. work & stress journal, 18, 336–351. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02678370412331319794 balducci, c., allfano, v., & fraccaroli, f. (2009). relationships between mobbing at work and the mmpi-2 personality profile, post-traumatic stress symptoms and suicidal ideation and behaviour. violence and victims, 24(1), 52–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1891/0886-6708.24.1.52 beale, d., & hoel, h. (2011). workplace bullying and the employment relationship: exploring questions of prevention, control and context. work, employment and society, 25, 61–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0950017010389228 branch, s., ramsay, s., & barker, m. (2013). workplace bullying, mobbing and general harassment: a review. international journal of management review, 15, 280–299. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2012.00339.x capponecchia, c., & wyatt, a. (2009). distinguishing between workplace bullying, harassment and violence: a risk management approach. journal of occupational health and safety australia and new zealand, 25, 439–449. cooper-thomas, h., gardner, d., o’driscoll, m., catley, b., bentley, t., & trenberth, l. (2013). neutralizing workplace bullying: the buffering effects of contextual factors. journal of managerial psychology, 28(4), 384–407. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/jmp-12-2012-0399 cunniff, l., & mostert, k. (2012). prevalence of workplace bullying of south african employees. south african journal of human resource management, 10(1), 1–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i1.450 d’cruz, p., & noronho, e. (2010). protecting my interests: hrm and targets’ coping with workplace bullying. the qualitative report, 15(3) 507–534. dao, t.k., kerbs, j.j., rollin, s.a., potts, i., gutierrez, r., choi, k., et al. (2006). the association between bullying dynamics and psychological distress. journal of adolescent health, 39, 277–282. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2005.11.001 dehue, f., bolman, c., vollink, t., & pouwelse, m. (2012). coping with bullying at work and health related problems. international journal of stress management, 19(3), 175–197. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0028969 dijkstra, m.t.m., de dreu, c.k.w., evers, a., & van dierendonck, d. (2009). passive responses to interpersonal conflict at work amplify employee strain. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 18(4), 405–423. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594320802510880 djurkovic, n., mccormack, d., & casimir, g. (2006). neuroticism and the psychosomatic model of workplace bullying. journal of managerial psychology, 21(1), 73–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940610643224 einarsen, s., & hoel, h. (2001). the negative acts questionnaire: development, validation and revision of a measure of bullying at work. paper presented at the 10th european congress on work and organisational psychology, 16–19 may, 2001, prague. einarsen, s., hoel, h., & nielsen, m.b. (2005). mobbing iarbeidslivet [workplace bullying]. oslo, norway: gyldendal akademiske. einarsen, s., hoel, h., zapf, d., & cooper, c.l. (2003). the concept of bullying at work: the european tradition. in s. einarsen, h. hoel, d. zapf, & c.l. cooper (eds.), bullying and emotional abuse in the workplace. international perspectives in research and practice (pp. 3–30). london: taylor & francis. fox, s., & stallworth, l.e. (2005). racial/ethnic bullying: exploring links between bullying and racism in the us workplace. journal of vocational behavior, 66, 438–456. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2004.01.002 goldberg, d.p. (1972). the detection of psychiatric illness by questionnaire: a technique for the identification and assessment of non-psychotic psychiatric illness. london: oxford university press. murray-harvey, r., skrzpiec, g. & slee, p.t. (2012). effective and ineffective coping with bullying strategies as assessed by informed professionals and their use by victimised students. australian journal of guidance and counselling, 22(1), 122–138. hobfoll, s.e., freedy, j., lane, c., & geller, p. (1990). conservation of social resources: social support resource theory. journal of social and personal relationships, 7, 465–478. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0265407590074004 hoch, a., mikkelsen, e.g., & hansen, a.m. (2011). individual consequences of workplace bullying/mobbing. in s.h. einersen, h. hoel, d. zapf, & c. cooper (eds.), workplace bullying: developments in theory research and practice (2nd edn., pp. 129–148). london: taylor and francis. lazarus, r.s. (1993). coping theory and research: past, present, and future. psychosomatic medicine, 55, 234–247. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00006842-199305000-00002 lazarus, r.s., & folkman, s. (1984). stress, appraisal and coping. new york: springer. lakey, b., & orehek, e. (2011). relational regulation theory: a new approach to explain the link between perceived social support and mental health. psychological review, 118(3), 482–493. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0023477 lee, r.t., & brotheridge, c.m. (2006). when prey turns predatory: workplace bullying as a predictor of counteraggression/bullying, coping and wellbeing. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 15(3), 352–377. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13594320600636531 lingard, h., brown, k., bradley, l., bailey, c., & townsend, k. (2007). improving employees’ work-life balance in the construction industry: project alliance case study. journal of construction engineering and management, 133(10), 807–815. http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:10(807) loosemore, m., & waters, t. (2004). gender differences in occupational stress among professionals in the construction industry. journal of management in engineering, 20(3), 126–132. http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2004)20:3(126) lutgen-sandvik, p. (2008). intensive remedial identity work: responses to workplace bullying trauma and stigmatization. organizations, 15, 97–119. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1350508407084487 lyons, t.f. (1971). roe clarity, need for clarity, satisfaction, depression and withdrawal. organizational behavior and human performance, 6, 99–100. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(71)90007-9 matthiesen, s.b., & einarsen, s. (2004). psychiatric distress and symptoms of ptsd among victims of bullying at work. british journal of guidance & counselling, 32(3), 335–356. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03069880410001723558 murray-harvey, r., skrzpiec, g., & slee, p.t. (2012). effective and ineffective copying with bullying strategies as assessed by informed professionals and their use by victimised students. australian journal of guidance and counselling, 22(1), 122–381. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jgc.2012.5 namie, g. (2000). us hostile workplace survey 2000. retrieved february 23, 2009, from http://www.workplacebullying.org/res/n-n-2000.pdf nielsen, m.b., & einarsen, s. (2012). outcomes of workplace bullying: a meta-analytic review. work and stress, 26(4), 309–322. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2012.734709 nielsen, m.b., hetland, j., mathhiesen, s.b., & einersen, s. (2012). longitudinal relationships between workplace bullying and psychological distress. scandinavian journal of work and environmental health, 38(1), 38–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3178 nielsen, m.b., & knardahl, s. (2015). is workplace bullying related to the personality traits of victims? a two-year prospective study. work and stress, 29(2), 128–149. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2015.1032383 nielsen, m.b., tangen, t., idsoe, t., matthiesen, s.b., & mageroy, n. (2015). post-traumatic stress disorder as a consequence of bullying at work and at school. a literature review and meta-analysis. aggression and violent behavior, 21, 17–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2015.01.001 notelaeres, g., baillien, e., de witte, h., einersen, s., & vermunt, j.k. (2012). testing the strain hypothesis of demand control model to explain severe bullying at work. economic and industrial democracy, 34(1), 69–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0143831x12438742 olafsson, r.f., & johannsdottir, h.l. (2004). coping with bullying in the workplace: the effect of gender, age and type of bullying. british journal of guidance & counselling, 32(3), 319–333. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03069880410001723549 pearson, c.m., andersson, l.m., & porath, c.l. (2000). assessing and attacking workplace incivility. organizational dynamics, 29(2), 123–138. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0090-2616(00)00019-x pietersen, c. (2005). a diagnostic approach to measuring and managing workplace aggression. south african journal of human resource management, 3(1), 1–5. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v3i1.52 pietersen, c. (2007). interpersonal bullying behaviours in the workplace. south african journal of industrial psychology, 33(1), 59–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v33i1.256 quinn, r., & shepard, l. (1974). the 1972–73 quality of employment survey. ann arbor, mi: university of michigan, survey research centre. richards, j., & daley, h. (2003). bullying policy: development, implementation and monitoring. in s. einarsen, h. hoel, d. zapf, & c. cooper (eds.), bullying and emotional abuse in the workplace: international perspectives in research and practice. (pp. 247–258). london: taylor &francis. rugulies, r., madsen, i.e., hjarsbech, p.u., hogh, a., borg, v., carneiro, i.g., et al. (2012). bullying at work and onset of a major depressive episode among danish female eldercare workers. scandinavian journal of work, environment and health, 38(3), 218–227. http://dx.doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3278 salin, d., tenhiala, a., roberge, m.e., & berdahl, j.l. (2014). ‘i wish i had…’: target reflections on responses to workplace mistreatment. human relations, 67(10), 1189–1211. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0018726713516375 schippers, m. (2007). recovering the feminine other: masculinity, femininity and gender hegemony. theory and society, 36, 85–102. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11186-007-9022-4 selye, h. (1976). the stress of life (revised edition). new york: mcgraw-hill. schirey, m.r. (2004). social support in the workplace: nurse leader implications. nursing economics, 22(6), 313–415. schroevers, m.j., helgeson, v.s., sanderman, r., & ranchor, a.v. (2009). type of social support matters for prediction of posttraumatic growth among cancer survivors. psycho-oncology, 19, 46–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pon.1501 schwarzer, r., & guiererez-dona, b. (2005). more spousal support for men than for women: a comparison of sources and types of support. sex roles, 52(7/8), 523–532. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-005-3718-6 siemsen, e., roth, a., & oliveria, p. (2010). common method bias in regression models with linear, quadratic and interaction effects. organizational research methods, 13(3), 456–476. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1094428109351241 taylor, s.e. (2007). social support. in h.s. friedman, & r.c. silver (eds.), foundations of health psychology (pp. 145–171). london: oxford university press. taylor, s.e., sherman, d.k., jarcho, j., takagi, k., & dunagan, m.s. (2004). culture and social support: who seeks it and why? journal of personality and social psychology, 87(3), 354–372. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.87.3.354 turney, l. (2003). mental health and workplace bullying: the role of power, professions and ‘on the job’ training. australian e-journal for the advancement of mental health, 2(2). http://dx.doi.org/10.5172/jamh.2.2.99 upton, l. (2009). the impact of workplace bullying on individual and organisational wellbeing in a south african context and the role of coping as a moderator in the bullying-wellbeing relationship. unpublished masters dissertation, university of the witwatersrand. warr, p., cook, j., & wall, t. (1979). scales for the measurement of some work attitudes and aspects of social wellbeing. journal of occupational psychology, 52, 129–148. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1979.tb00448.x zachariah, r. (2009). social support, life stress, and anxiety as predictors of pregnancy complications in low income women. research in nursing and health, 32, 391–404. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/nur.20335 zapf, d. (1999). organisational, work group related and personal causes of mobbing/bullying at work. international journal of manpower, 20(1/2), 70–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01437729910268669 8jvrensburg.qxd the transport organisation in the current study, like most other organisations today, is striving to become a world-class organisation and to compete globally (el toukhy, 1998; ensor, 1997). in order to achieve this, organisations need committed employees (mayfield & mayfield, 2002; roodt, 2004; rosen, 1992). this commitment is a desirable organisational outcome (luthans, baack & taylor, 1987) in order to achieve organisational performance. this argument provides the rationale and motivation for the current study. having committed employees is, however, not the only prerequisite for organisational performance. organisations have to be able to adapt successfully to internal and external forces of change (robbins, odendaal & roodt, 2003). government legislation is also such an external force of change (pfeffer, 1994). the management of the transport organisation is also experiencing pressure to change. one force of change in the form of government legislation is the employment equity (ee) act. the ee act (no 55 of 1998)(republic of south africa, 1998) was implemented with the purpose of promoting equal employment opportunity and the fair treatment of people. black economic empowerment (recently promulgated) is a multi-layered, multi-pronged strateg y that requires achievement at a higher level while simultaneously contributing to the development of disadvantaged individuals and groups (de witt, 2003). different employees may respond differently to a particular force of change. for some it may be satisfactory, but for others it will bring pain, stress and disadvantages (human, 2000; yousef, 2000). research shows that higher committed employees will accept change more easily (guest, 1995; iverson, 1996; lau & woodman, 1995). for south african organisations to be successful, their employees must also accept the legislation and the change that goes along with it. with the ee act aiming at providing a more productive workforce, that is better trained and motivated employees and helping to make a company more efficient and competitive (republic of south africa, 1998), the question that can be asked is whether all employees are experiencing the outcome of the implemented act as posit ive and equally challenging. this study will empirically test which biographical variables are significantly related to the perceptions of ee (see figure 1). figure 1: predictive model of employee commitment [adapted from guest (1995); innes (2002); iverson (1996); lau and woodman (1995); müller and roodt (1998); republic of south africa (55 of 1998); roodt et al. (1993) and storm and roodt (2002).] with the aim of the broad-based black economic empowerment (bbee) act to transfer the ownership of assets into black hands (innes, 2002), the same question as with the karen janse van rensburg gert roodt gertr@uj.ac.za department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract the purpose of the study was to test whether the perceptions of employment equity (ee) and black economic empowerment (bee) are related to organisation-related commitment and whether the perceptions about the mentor’s role significantly mediate this said relationship. the sampling frame for the study constituted 1200 employees of a division of a large transport organisation and a convenience sample including all 1200 employees yielded 637 fully completed records (a 53% response rate). the results of the study indicate that the perceptions of ee and bee are significantly related to organisation-related commitment and that perceptions of the mentor’s role do not mediate this relationship. more detailed findings on the study are reported. opsomming die doel van die studie was om vas te stel of die persepsies van werkgelykheid (ee) en swart ekonomiese bemagtiging (bee) verband hou met organisasie-verwante verbondenheid en of die persepsies omtrent die mentorrol hierdie verhouding beduidend medieer. die steekproefraamwerk van die studie het bestaan uit 1200 werknemers uit ’n divisie van ’n groot vervoeronderneming en ’n gerieflikheidsteekproef wat al 1200 werknemers ingesluit het, het 637 volledige rekords opgelewer (’n 53% responskoers). die resultate van die st udie dui daarop dat die persepsies van ee en bee beduidend verwant is aan organisasie-verwante verbondenheid, maar dat persepsies van die mentorrol nie hierdie verhouding medieer nie. meer gedetaileerde bevindinge van die studie word gerapporteer. the perceptions of employment equity and black economic empowerment as predictors of organisation-related commitment requests for copies should be addressed to: gert roodt, gertr@uj.ac.za 49 sa journal of human resource management, 2005, 3 (3), 49-60 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2005, 3 (3), 49-60 employment equity act can be asked. experience in practice has shown that employees are not equally enthusiastic about the change and that this might also affect their commitment levels. this study will empirically test which biographical variables are significantly related to the perceptions of bee (see figure 1). the next section will provide some research evidence on the relationship between biographical variables, ee and bee. biographical variables, ee and bee some of the research that has been published will highlight the relationship between biographical variables and ee and, to a lesser extent, bee because this legislation has just recently been promulgated. race easton-leadly (1994) has reported that the perceptions of racism are more negative and black respondents claim even more experiences of discrimination. jordaan (2002) is of the opinion that whites are to experience reverse discrimination, because black workers are given preference. mahanyele (1993) reflects the frustration that organisations only talk about ee, but deny blacks the opportunity. gender müller and roodt (1998) found women to be more negative than men about affirmative action (ee), because they have fewer opportunities. contrary to this, van zyl and roodt (2003) found women to be more positive than men about ee. this inconsistency is probably attributable to the differences in the country’s development stages. age walbrugh and roodt (2003) reported that younger groups (<35 years) feel progressively more positive about ee than older groups (35-50). the older group (>50) again felt more positive about ee. tenure tenure is strongly related to age. the reason for the group in their mid-career to be more negative about ee may be related to their career demands and the typical mid-career crisis as pointed out by walbrugh and roodt (2003). marital status no research could be found to shed more light on this relationship. education levels no research was found to shed more light on this relationship. home language müller and roodt (1998) found that englishand afrikaansspeaking respondents were more negative about affirmative action (ee) than the group speaking african languages. job level several authors have commented on the excessive job mobility of black managers (matuna, 1996; primos, 1994; sibanda, 1995). innes (2001) and roberts (1997) found that black managers were poached at high salaries that are higher than those paid by the market. vallabh and donald (2001) reported on the following perceptions of black managers: a. they place a high value on being trusted and recognised for their work, though their values are not recognised. b. they are placed in positions that do not meet their academic background. c. they do not have the opportunity to use their knowledge and skills. d. they are second-guessed by their colleagues and supervisors. the above research results indicate that people have different experiences and expectations regarding ee and bee, which will have a definite impact on their commitment. commitment is an integral part of a successful organisation (mowday, porter & steers, 1982). for the purpose of this study organisation-related commitment is defined as: ‘a cognitive predisposition towards a particular focus (the organisation), insofar this focus has the potential to satisf y needs, realise values and achieve goals’ (roodt, 2004, p. 85). if companies want to remain competitive, they have to incorporate black economic empowerment (de witt, 2003). for this reason, it is essential that employees are committed, not only in terms of their jobs and the organisation, but also in terms of the perceptions of the ee act and the bbee act. the role of the mentor as a vehicle to assist the organisation in the successful implementation of the ee act and the bbee act and increased commitment will be vital. with reference to the theoretical model (figure 1) the next section deals with the relationship between biographical variables and commitment. biographical variables and commitment race vallabh and donald (2001) found that white employees are more committed than their black colleagues. gender there are contradictory research findings with regard to gender and commitment. a significant relationship exists bet ween gender and organisation commitment (roodt, 1992). some researchers found that women are more committed than men (angle & perry, 1981; gould, 1975; grusky, 1966; hrebiniak & alutto, 1972; mathieu & zajac, 1990; mcfarlin & sweeney, 1992). other researchers have found no relationship bet ween gender and commitment (aven, parker & mcevoy, 1993; blau & boal, 1989; cohen & lowenberg, 1990; kacmar & carlson, 1999). finally, other researchers have found that men are more committed than women (graddick & farr, 1983; lacy, bokemeier & shepard, 1983; mathieu & hamel, 1989). age there are inconsistent findings in the relevant literat ure about the relat ionship bet ween age and commitment. some studies have reported no relationship bet ween age and commitment. this was supported by batlis (1978); cohen and lowenberg (1990); gechman and wiener (1975); kanungo (1982); knoop (1986); mannheim (1975); müller and roodt (1998); roodt (1992) and roodt, bester and boshoff (1993). other researchers have found that commitment has been related positively to age (angle & perry, 1981; arnold & feldman, 1982; buchanan, 1974; decotiis & summers, 1987; dornstein & matalon, 1989; hrebiniak, 1974; hrebiniak & alutto, 1972; jones, james & bruni, 1975; kacmar & carlson, 1999; lee, 1971; lodahl & kejner, 1965; lok & crawford, 1999; luthans et al., 1987; mathieu & zajac, 1990; mckelvey & sekaran, 1977; morris & sherman, 1981; newton & keenan, 1983; rabinowitz, hall & goodale, 1977; saal, 1978, 1981; schwyart & smith, 1972; sekaran & mowday, 1981; sheldon, 1971; staw & ross, 1977; steers, 1977; van rooyen, 1981; williams & hazar, 1986). lacy et al. (1983) and mathieu and hamel (1989) have found a negative relationship between age and commitment. tenure inconsistent findings are reported in the relevant literature. angle and perry (1981); brown (1969); buchanan (1974); decotiis and summers (1987); grusky (1966); hall, schneider and nygren (1970); hrebiniak (1974); hrebiniak and alutto (1972); lee (1971); luthans et al. (1987); march and simon (1958); meyer and allen (1984); morris and sherman (1981); mowday et al. (1982); mowday, steers and porter (1979); porter, steer, mowday, boulian (1974); sheldon (1971) and welsch and la van (1981) reported that the longer employees worked in an janse van rensburg, roodt50 organisation the higher the levels of commitment. contradictory to the above findings, in a south african study roodt (1992) found no significant relationship bet ween tenure and organisation commitment. cohen and lowenberg (1990) also found no relationship bet ween tenure and organisation commitment. marital status while some studies show a positive relationship between married people and organisation commitment (angle & perry, 1981; hrebiniak & alutto, 1972; kacmar & carlson, 1999; kanungo, misra & dayal, 1975; knoop, 1986; luthans et al., 1987; mathieu & hamel, 1989; mathieu & zajac, 1990; meyer & allen, 1988), others have indicated no relationship between marital status and commitment (cohen & lowenberg, 1990; lodahl & kejner, 1965; rabinowitz et al., 1977; roodt et al., 1993; saal, 1978, 1981). educational level there is conflicting evidence with regard to education and commitment level (angle & perry, 1981; decotiis & summers, 1987; koch & steers, 1978; lee, 1971; lok & crawford, 1999; mathieu & zajac, 1990; morris & sherman, 1981; morris & steers, 1980; mowday et al., 1982; staw & ross, 1977; steers, 1977; steers & spencer, 1977). some studies have shown that education is inversely related to commitment (angle & perry, 1981; decotiis & summers, 1987; koch & steers, 1978; mathieu & hamel, 1989; mathieu & zajac, 1990; meyer & allen, 1988; morris & sherman, 1981; mowday et al., 1982; ruh, white & wood, 1975; saal, 1978, 1981; sekaran & mowday, 1981; staw & ross, 1977; steers, 1977). lee (1971) and steers and spencer (1977) have found these results to be inconsistent. lacy et al. (1983) found higher educated people to be more committed to work. knoop (1986); luthans et al. (1987); mannheim (1975); newton and keenan (1983) and siegel and ruh (1973) found a positive relationship bet ween education and commitment. lok and crawford (1999) found a near zero relationship bet ween education and commitment. a similar finding was obtained by cohen and lowenberg (1990); gould and werbel (1983); jones et al. (1975); kanungo (1982) and rabinowitz et al. (1977) who found no relationship bet ween education and commitment. home language research findings in this category are also contradictory. müller and roodt (1998) found in their st udy that proport ionally more englishthan afrikaans-speaking respondents were less committed to their work than the black language respondents. the results of the study of müller and roodt (1998) were partially supported in the studies that roodt (1991, 1993) undertook on mainly englishand afrikaans-speaking people. roodt et al. (1993) also supported the findings that afrikaans-speaking employees are more committed to their jobs than englishspeaking employees. job level in this category the research findings are also contradictory. müller and roodt (1998) found that there is a relationship between commitment and work status. they found that clerks were more committed than seniors as a result of too high work expectations and the hope of being promoted quickly. this is in opposition to the results of mannheim (1975). roodt et al. (1993) also found that higher-level jobs lead to higher work commitment. commitment and mentorship one of the key success factors in managing change and diversity is mentorship (clutterbuck & abbott, 2003; jordaan, 2002; singh, bains & vinnicombe, 2002; wingrove, 2002). mentors influence the level of the commitment of protégés (clutterbuck, 1997; mowday et al., 1979). wingrove (2002) pointed out that it is a demographic imperative for organisations to have skilled employees ten years from now and that mentorship can assist in this respect. jordaan (2002) concurred by suggesting that promotable black candidates should work with mentors on strategic projects in order to develop their skills. one context in which mentorship can work is within bee. if one departs from the vantage point that mentoring is an equal relationship bet ween the mentor and protégé, then entrepreneurial and managerial skills can be transferred while allowing the new manager or entrepreneur to develop the right competencies (clutterbuck & abbott, 2003). according to storm and roodt (2002) and wingrove (2002), white, middle-aged mentors may be cynical and negative about ee and this negativit y may be projected to the protégé, which can again lead to lower commitment levels. little empirical evidence could be found to support this rationale, except for the exploratory research by storm and roodt (2002). objectives of the study against this background, the primary objective of this research will be to determine whether the perceptions of ee and bee are related to organisation-related commitment. the secondary objectives of the study will be: a. to determine whether this relationship is mediated by the perceptions of the mentor’s role; and b. to determine which biographical variables are significant predictors of the perceptions of ee and bee. the objectives of the study can be inferred from the theoretical model (figure1) compiled from the research literature. research design research approach the research approach followed in the study is from the quantitative paradigm and the application of measuring instruments in a cross-sectional, non-random field survey generated the primary data for the study. an ex post facto approach to data analysis was used in exploring the interrelationships between variables in the data set. research methodology the research methodology followed, is described according to the following three headings: sample of participants the largest division of this organisation was targeted for the research. a convenience sample including all employees from a sampling frame of 1200 employees yielded 637 completed questionnaires. a response rate of 53% was obtained. only fully completed records were used for the data analyses. as indicated in table 1, the majority of the respondents were whites (62%) followed by africans (24%) and coloureds/indians/asians (13,5%). most of the respondents were male (80,5%) and a smaller group (19,5%) female. measuring instrument a comprehensive measuring instrument was designed for the purposes of the study. the employee commitment questionnaire consisted of 127 items measured on a five-point intensity scale (excluding the biographical questions). examples of the items can be seen in figure 2. employment equity, black economic empowerment, organisation-related commitment 51 table 1 background information of the respondents background information respondents percentage (%) race africans 154 24,2 coloureds/indians/asians 86 13,5 whites 397 62,3 total 637 100% gender males 513 80,5 females 124 19,5 total 637 100% age 30 years and younger 104 16,3 31-35 92 14,4 36-40 82 12,9 41-45 141 22,1 46-50 115 18,1 older than 50 103 16,2 total 637 100% tenure 10 years or less 158 24,7 11-20 years 130 20,4 21-25 years 124 19,5 26-30 years 100 15,7 more than 30 years 125 19,7 total 637 100% marital status single, divorced or widowed 171 26,8 married or living together 466 73,2 total 637 100% educational level standard 9 or lower 131 20,6 standard 10 179 28,1 post-matric diploma/certificate 218 34,2 degree or higher 109 17,1 total 637 100% home language afrikaans 320 50,2 english 162 25,4 african 155 24,4 total 637 100% job level junior employees 173 73 management 464 27 total 637 100% union membership do not belong to a union 188 29,5 belong to a union 449 70,5 total 637 100% type of mentor hierarchical mentor in a higher grade 119 18,7 hierarchical mentor in a lower grade 11 1,7 supervisor as mentor 88 13,8 peer mentor (same grade) 30 4,7 executive mentor 13 2,1 no mentor 376 59 total 637 100% mentor type same race 98 15% different race 63 10% same sex 61 10% opposite sex 39 6% no mentor 376 59% total 637 100% mentor phase initial 61 10% learning 72 11% independency 64 10% redefinition 64 10% no mentor 376 59% total 637 100% mentor age <25 6 1% 25-30 17 3% 31-35 41 6% 36-40 31 5% 41-45 61 10% 46-50 45 7% 51-55 45 7% 56-63 15 2% no mentor 376 59% total 637 100% the organisation-related commitment questionnaire examples question c5: to what extent does your occupation have special personal value to you? no personal value 1 2 3 4 5 extreme personal value question c7: how much do you give to your career? i don’t give anything 1 2 3 4 5 i give everything the perceptions of employment equity questionnaire examples question e5: to what extent do all employees at the organisation have the same opportunities for promotion? to no extent 1 2 3 4 5 to a very large extent question e3: to what extent does your supervisor know what your training needs are? to no extent 1 2 3 4 5 to a very large extent the perceptions of black economic empowerment questionnaire examples question f5: in your opinion how much does the organisation benefit from applying black economic empowerment strategies? no benefit 1 2 3 4 5 benefit largely question f15: how much do you think black women will benefit from black economic empowerment? little benefit 1 2 3 4 5 large benefit the perceptions of the mentor’s role questionnaire examples question g18: to what extent should a mentor encourage one to communicate openly about anxiety and fears that distract one from work? to no extent 1 2 3 4 5 to a very large extent question g23: to what extent should a mentor serve as a role model for protégés? to no extent 1 2 3 4 5 to a very large extent figure 2: item examples of the employee commitment questionnaire the questionnaire consisted of seven sections: section a and b the background information of the respondent; section c – the 18 item organisation-related commitment questionnaire (roodt, 1997); section d – the 16 item union commitment questionnaire (roodt, 1997) (not discussed for the purposes of this article); section e – the 25 item perceptions of employment equity scale [a radically adapted version based on martins’ (1999) employment equity questionnaire]; section f – an 18 item perceptions of black economic empowerment scale; and section g – the perceptions on the mentorship role scale a 26 item questionnaire. the perceptions on ee, bee and the role of the mentor scales were designed by the authors. janse van rensburg, roodt52 the questionnaires will be discussed in more detail next focussing on the rationale for inclusion in the study, the composition of the questionnaire as well as the reliability and validity of the instruments. organisation-related commitment questionnaire (roodt, 1997) the organisation-related commitment questionnaire of roodt (1997) was used, which initially consisted of 38 items, but was reduced to 18 items for purposes of this study. the questionnaire is based on kanungo’s (1979, 1981, 1982) theorisation of involvement, which proposes a motivational approach to commitment as a cognitive predisposition (kanungo, 1982). the organisation-related commitment questionnaire will be used to measure an employee’s level of commitment to work-related foci such as job, work, career, occupation and organisation. given the findings of roodt (1997) and storm and roodt (2002) as well as the feedback from the pilot group, it was decided not to differentiate between organisation-related commitment foci like work, job, occupation, career and organisation. the cronbach alpha coefficient of 0,914 by roodt (1997) indicates an acceptable reliability. the construct (factorial) validity can be inferred from the results of the factor and reliability analysis. the perceptions of employment equity questionnaire (adapted from martins, 1999) a radically, adapted version of the employment equity questionnaire based on martins’ (1999) theorisation was used for this study. statements were converted into questions and most of the limitations in items-construction as identified by smith and roodt (2003); van zyl and roodt (2003) and walbrugh and roodt (2003) were addressed. the 41 statements that were used in the initial instrument were adapted into 25 items in question format. martins’ (1999) questionnaire has a cronbach alpha of 0,959 and it can be concluded that this questionnaire measures employment equity practices consistently and reliably. construct validity is defined as the extent to which the instrument measures the theoretical contract that is designed to measure (allen & yen, 1979; schepers, 1992). according to smith and roodt (2003), the employment equity questionnaire meets this requirement. according to smith and roodt (2003), the employment equity questionnaire has face validity, because it seems that the instrument covers the practices as indicated in the employment equity act. walbrugh and roodt (2003) also support the face validity of the instrument. there is also evidence of limited discriminant validity (smith & roodt, 2003), but the discriminant validity is also questioned by van zyl and roodt (2003) and walbrugh and roodt (2003). the perceptions of black economic empowerment questionnaire the questionnaire developed by the authors consists of 18 items and was based on existing literature on black economic empowerment. no information regarding the reliability and validity (except face and content validity) of the questionnaire is available yet, but findings of this study will be reported under the results section. the perceptions of the mentor’s role questionnaire (adapted from dreher & ash, 1990) the questionnaire of dreher and ash (1990) was adapted for this study, because it supported the theory of kram (1988) – nine roles of a mentor and it was a shorter version of noe’s (1988) questionnaire based on the same theory. twenty-nine items in question format were included in this questionnaire. no information on the reliability is available on this instrument, but findings of this study will be reported under the results section. this instrument seems to have content and face validity based on the item content. research procedure the measuring instrument was distributed via the organisation’s intranet to all individuals in the division, excluding those on the lowest levels who were not able to read or write. a hard copy was also sent to employees via human resources practitioners. all the ethical codes, e.g. control procedures, were adhered to. a letter of reminder was sent at a later stage to urge individuals to participate in the study. individuals could respond anonymously and all the returned responses were treated with the utmost confidentiality. the identity of all the individuals was thus protected to ensure reliable responses. results the data analyses were conducted in two stages. the objective of the first stage was to establish whether all the variables were robust and reliable. in order to achieve this objective, all the measuring instruments were factor analysed separately on two levels. this procedure, as suggested by schepers (1992) was followed to avoid the creation of artificial factors, resulting from differential item skewness. in the first level factor analyses, all the items of each instrument were intercorrelated and an anti-image correlation was executed to test the suitability of the matrices for factor analyses by referring to the kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy and bartlett’s test of sphericity. eigenvalues were calculated on the unreduced item inter-correlation matrix and a number of factors were postulated according to kaiser’s (1970) criterion of eigenvalues larger than unity. in the second level factor analyses, sub-scores for each postulated factor were calculated and the same procedure as explained above was again conducted on the sub-score intercorrelation matrices. items on each of the obtained second level factors (scales) were subjected to an iterative item analysis to establish the internal consistency of each scale. based on this procedure, the following reliabilities were obtained for each scale: the organisation-related commitment (oc) questionnaire of roodt (1997) yielded a cronbach alpha of 0,89. the perceptions of employment equity questionnaire yielded a cronbach alpha of 0,92 and the perceptions of black economic empowerment yielded a cronbach alpha of 0,91. the perceptions of the mentor’s role scale yielded a high cronbach alpha of 0,97. all the scales thus have acceptable reliabilities and can therefore be included for further analyses. the second stage of the analyses was focused on the coefficients of association (cramer’s v) between biographical variables and the intercorrelations of the different scales’ total scores. from table 2 it can be seen that race and home language are associated as well as job level and level of education. tenure and race and tenure and age are also strongly associated. it is highly unlikely that variables that are strongly related, will display interactive effects. table 2 coefficients of association (cramer’s v) between biographical variables race gender age temarilevel of home job mentor nure tal educalanglevel y/n status tion uage race gender 0,160 age 0,447 0,273 tenure 0,509 0,324 0,590 marital 0,324 0,194 0,466 0,455 status level of 0,130 0,158 0,185 0,167 0,125 education home 0,681 0,051 0,304 0,351 0,285 0,132 language job level 0,098 0,160 0,159 0,072 0,131 0,653 0,111 mentor y/n0,193 0,090 0,214 0,185 0,057 0,053 0,116 0,049 key for interpreting effect sizes: < 0,1 – no effect 0,1 to 0,3 – small effect 0,3 to 0,5 – moderate effect > 0,5 – large effect employment equity, black economic empowerment, organisation-related commitment 53 the intercorrelation matrix of scale total scores (table 3) indicates that oc is significantly related to the perceptions of ee (0,642) and bee (0,377) as well as the mentor’s role (0,205). ee and bee are positively correlated (0,509). all the correlations are significant on the 0,01 level. table 3 intercorrelations of scale total scores of the employee commitment questionnaire organisaemployblack mentor tion ment economic role commitequity empowerment ment organisation pearson correlation 1 commitment employment pearson correlation 0,642 1 equity black economic pearson correlation 0,377 0,509 1 empowerment mentor role pearson correlation 0,205 0,237 0,220 1 all correlations are significant at the 0,01 level (2-tailed). for the next stage in the analyses, a multi-factor analysis of variance (anova) was applied to predict a particular criterion variable. a model modificat ion process was followed whereby the most parsimonious model was extracted. residuals were systemat ically invest igated to establish any possible interact ion effects with the predictor variables. the following biographical variables were included in the final summary model of the mult i-factor analysis of variance (anova) for predicting the perceptions of ee, namely gender, race and mentor y/n. no significant interaction effects were detected. these three variables explain 7,4% of ee’s variance. see figures 3-5 for the significant predictors. figure 3: biographical variable: gender as predictor of the perception of employment equity as can be seen from figure 3, females are more positive in terms of their perceptions of employment equity than males. as can be seen from figure 4, coloured/indian/asian employees are the most positive in terms of their perceptions of employment equit y, than african employees, and white employees are the least positive in terms of their perceptions of employment equity. figure 4: biographical variable: race as predictor of the perception of employment equity figure 5: biographical variable: having a mentor or not as predictor of the perception of employment equity as can be seen from figure 5, employees who have a mentor are more positive in terms of their perceptions of employment equity than those without a mentor. the following biographical variables were included in the final summary model of the multi-factor analysis of variance (anova) for predicting the perceptions of bee, namely race, home language, gender x race, age x race and age x home language. these variables explain 40% of bee’s variance. see figures 6-10 for the significant predictors. figure 6: biographical variable: race as predictor of the perceptions of black economic empowerment janse van rensburg, roodt54 as can be seen from figure 6, coloured/indian/asian employees are more positive in terms of their perceptions of black economic empowerment than african employees, and white employees are the least positive in terms of their perceptions of black economic empowerment. figure 7: biographical variable: home language as predictor of the perceptions of black economic empowerment as can be seen from figure 7, employees speaking african languages are more positive in terms of their perceptions of black economic empowerment than english-speaking employees, and afrikaans-speaking employees are the least positive in terms of their perceptions of black economic empowerment. figure 8: biographical variables: gender × race as predictors of the perceptions of black economic empowerment as can be seen from figure 8, white female employees are more positive in terms of their perceptions of black economic empowerment than white males. coloured/ indian/asian and african male and female employees are equally positive in terms of their perceptions of black economic empowerment, but more than white male/female employees. as can be seen from figure 9, african employees in the age group 31-35 years of age are the most positive in terms of their perceptions of black economic empowerment and 36-40 years of age are the least positive in terms of their perceptions of black economic empowerment. coloured/indian/asian employees are the most positive in terms of their perceptions of black economic empowerment in the age group 30 years of age and younger and the coloured/indian/asian employees in the age group 31-35 years of age are the least positive in terms of their perceptions of black economic empowerment. white employees 31-35 years of age are the most positive in terms of their percept ions of black economic empowerment and white employees in the age group 30 years of age and younger are the least posit ive in terms of their perceptions of black economic empowerment. african and coloured/indian/asian employees are also more positive in terms of their perceptions of black economic empowerment than the white employees. figure 9: biographical variables: age × race as predictors of the perceptions of black economic empowerment figure 10: biographical variables: age × home language as predictors of the perceptions of black economic empowerment as can be seen from figure 10, afrikaans-speaking employees in the age group 31-35 years of age are the most positive in terms of their perceptions of black economic empowerment and afrikaans-speaking employees 36-40 years of age are the least positive in terms of their perceptions of black economic empowerment. english-speaking employees in the age group 41-45 years of age are the most positive in terms of their perceptions of black economic empowerment and englishspeaking employees 31-35 years of age are the least positive in terms of their perceptions of black economic empowerment. employees speaking african languages bet ween 30 years of age and younger are the most positive in terms of their perceptions of black economic empowerment and employees 31-35 years of age speaking african languages are the least positive in terms of their perceptions of black economic empowerment. employment equity, black economic empowerment, organisation-related commitment 55 in applying a univariate general linear model (glm) (ancova) with all biographical variables, the perceptions of employment equit y (ee) and the perceptions of black economic empowerment (bee) as well as the perceptions of the mentor’s role (mr) as predictors of organisation-related commitment, the following emerged from the model modification process: 44% of the variance was explained by respectively educational level, the perceptions of employment equity (ee), and the interaction between the perceptions of black economic empowerment (bee) and the perceptions of the mentor’s role (mr). the results of the final summary model are depicted in table 4. table 4 results of the final summary model for organisation-related commitment model r r square adjusted r std. error of square the estimate 1 0,641a 0,411 0,410 0,54240 2 0,656b 0,431 0,429 0,53379 3 0,661c 0,438 0,435 0,53096 4 0,665d 0,442 0,438 0,52930 a. predictors: (constant), (new factor) e: employment equity b. predictors: (constant), (new factor) e: employment equity, std9 c. predictors: (constant), (new factor) e: employment equity, std9, std10 d. predictors: (constant), (new factor) e: employment equity, std9, std10, gf (mrxbee) e. dependent variable: (new factor) c: organisation the statistical parameters of the final summary model are depicted in table 5. table 5 statistical parameters for predicting organisation-related commitment coefficientsa unstandardised standardised t sig. coefficients coefficients model b std. error beta (constant) 1,482 0,089 16,590 0,000 std9 0,599 0,034 0,600 17,523 0,000 std10 0,296 0,055 0,169 5,394 0,000 (new factor) e: 0,145 0,049 0,092 2,934 0,003 employment equity gf (mrxbee) 0,0118 0,005 0,076 2,230 0,026 dependent variable: (new factor) c: organisation as can be seen from table 5, the statistical parameters for the prediction of organisation-related commitment (oc) are as follows: oc = 1,482 + 0,296 [std. 9] + 0,145 [std. 10] + 0,599 [e] + 0,0118 [gf (mrxbee)]. the results of the above model can be graphically illustrated in figure 11. figure 11: graphical representation of the predictors of organisation-related commitment it is clear from the above figure that commitment levels vary according to education levels. discussion the first and second level factor analyses of the different measuring instruments, followed by iterative item analyses, yielded scales with acceptable coefficient alphas (ranging from 0,89 to 0,97), indicating that the variables were suitable for inclusion in the second phase of the data analysis. the second phase of the data analysis indicated the following significant associations (cramer’s v) or effect sizes (displayed in table 2): a. race and home language – the africans speak african languages, the coloureds/indians/asians speak english and the majority whites speak afrikaans, which were expected from the culture of this organisation. b. job level and education – the majority of managers have a higher level of education, which is expected. c. tenure and race – the african employees have less years of service compared to the white employees with longer years of service. d. tenure and age – the younger employees have less years of service, which is self-explanatory. as a result of these associations, one would expect that there would be no interaction effects between these mentioned variables. the intercorrelations of the scale total scores (displayed in table 3) indicated that the mentioned variables were all significantly correlated, ranging from 0,205 to 0,642. bee and ee were positively correlated. if ee was predicted with all biographical variables by using a multi-factor analysis of variance (anova), only the following biographical variables emerged as predictors in the final summary model, namely gender, race and mentor y/n. these variables explain 7,4% of the variance in ee. if bee was predicted with all biographical variables by using a multi-factor analysis of variance (anova), only the following biographical variables emerged as predictors in the final summary model, namely race, home language, gender x race, age x race and age x home language where 40% of the variance was explained. the findings of the above two multi-factor anova’s indicated that biographical variables were predictors of ee and bee. hereby, the second secondary objective of the study was achieved. janse van rensburg, roodt56 figure 12: biographical variables as predictors of the perceptions of employment equity figure 13: biographical variables as predictors of the perceptions of black economic empowerment when a univariate general linear model (glm)(ancova) was used, educational level, the perceptions of ee and the interaction between the perceptions of bee and the role of the mentor were significant predictors of oc in the final summary model where 44% of the variance was explained. see figure 14 for a graphic illustration of this relationship. figure 14: results of a predictive model for organisationrelated commitment limited literat ure was found that could shed light on this finding. the finding indicates that ee and the interaction bet ween bee and the mentor’s role are important predictors of oc. what is dist urbing, however, is the possible role mentors play in lowering commitment levels. these findings support the views of mowday et al. (1979) and partially of storm and roodt (2002). it also seems that people with higher qualifications show lower commitment levels. these findings support the views of mowday et al. (1982) and many others. it is nearly impossible to envisage an organisation where the leadership is not committed to its vision. this clearly spells trouble for the organisation. this sit uation needs specific management attention to create an organisational setting where all individuals feel equally valued. the findings on the prediction of organisation commitment suggest that the perceptions of ee and bee are significant predictors of the criterion variables. these findings support the primary objective of the study. however, no empirical proof was obtained that perceptions of the mentorship role mediate the relationship bet ween ee, bee and oc. however, perceptions of the mentorship role interacted with bee in the prediction of oc. this finding does not support the first secondary objective of the study. this situation creates an unique challenge for the top management of organisations to create a context that will address this dichotomy between lower and higher education levels, those who have a mentor or not in the organisation as well as the polarising perceptions of ee and bee. another way needs to be explored as a solution that will engage people at all levels of the organisation. this solution must involve all employees and pose a challenge for everyone in the organisation, and should not be viewed as punitive or as livelihood threatening. the current ee and bee approach is heading for a disaster, if those who are supposed to provide leadership are alienated from the very organisation they are supposed to lead and the organisational vision they are supposed to create. if the different models as displayed in figures 12-14 are combined, the following empirical model as displayed in figure 15 emerges from the data: figure 15: an integrated predictive model of organisation commitment this model indicates that organisation-related commitment is mainly predicted by the perceptions of employment equity (ee) and the perceptions of black economic empowerment (bee) in interaction with perceptions of the mentor’s role. these perceptions probably have a strong bearing on people’s beliefs, values and needs. this could be a possible reason for the large amount of variance that is explained. this model is also different from the initial theoretical model that was used as a basis of departure for the study. the study has little nomothetic value, as it was limited to a single organisation. further research needs to be conducted across different organisations in similar contexts to establish the external validity of the findings. the findings have some theoretical value as the perceptions of employment equity and the perceptions of black economic empowerment were for the first time included as predictors of organisation-related commitment. furthermore, a more sophisticated multi-variate general linear model (glm) was used for the prediction of organisation-related commitment. besides providing a parsimonious prediction model by isolating predictors that are significantly explaining variance in the criterion, this model also illustrates possible significant interaction effects between the different predictor variables. in doing so the model serves as a good point of departure for understanding and explaining organisation-related commitment in a diverse workforce setting, where the perceptions of employment equity (ee) and the perceptions of black economic empowerment (bee) are applied. employment equity, black economic empowerment, organisation-related commitment 57 references allen, m.j. & yen, w.m. (1979). introduction to measurement theory. monterey, ca: brooks/cole publishing company. angle, h.l. & perry, j.l. (1981). an empirical assessment of organizational commitment and organizational effectiveness. administrative science quarterly, 26, 1-14. arnold, h.j. & feldman, d.c. (1982). a multivariate analysis of the determinants of job turnover. journal of applied psychology, 67, 350-360. aven, f.f., parker, b. & mcevoy, g. (1993). gender and attitudal commitment in organizations: a meta-analysis. journal of business research, 26, 63-73. batlis, n.c. (1978). job involvement as predictor of academic performance. education and psychological measurement, 38, 1177-1180. blau, g. & boal, k. (1989). using job involvement and organizational commitment interactively to predict turnover. journal of management, 15, 115-127. brown, m.e. (1969). identification and some conditions of organizational involvement. administrative science quarterly, 14, 346-355. buchanan, b. ii. (1974). building organizational commitment: the socialization of managers in work organizations. administrative science quarterly, 19, 533-546. clutterbuck, d. (1997). everyone needs a mentor: fostering talent at work (2nd edition). london: institute of personnel and development. clutterbuck, d. & abbott, p. (2003). mentoring as an empowerment tool. people dynamics, 21 (4), april, 24-25. cohen, a. & lowenberg, g. (1990). a re-examination of the sidebet theory as applied to organizational commitment: a metaanalysis. human relations, 43 (10), 1015-1050. decotiis, t.a. & summers, t.p. (1987). a path analysis of a model of the antecedents and consequences of organizational commitment. human relations, 40 (7), 445-470. de witt, d. (2003). black economic empowerment: hand-outs of business sense. hr future, february, 36-37. dornstein, m. & matalon, y. (1989). a comprehensive analysis of the predictors of organizational commitment: a study of voluntary army personnel in israel. journal of vocational behavior, 34, 192-203. dreher, g.f. & ash, r.a. (1990). a comparative study of mentoring among men and women in managerial, professional and technical positions. journal of applied psychology, 75 (5), 539-546. easton-leadly, s. (1994). managing polarisation: a dose of reality. people dynamics, 12 (10), 44-48. el toukhy, m.m. (1998). globalisation and developing countries. the south african journal of economics, 66 (4), 464-491. ensor, l. (1997). jobless figure not as bad as generally believed – survey. business day, december 7, 15. gechman, a.s. & wiener, y. (1975). job involvement and satisfaction as related to mental health and personal time devoted to work. journal of applied psychology, 60 (4), 521-523. gould, s. (1975). correlates of organization identification and commitment. unpublished doctoral dissertation. east lansing, michigan: michigan state university. gould, s. & werbel, j.d. (1983). work involvement: a comparison of dual wage earner and single wage earner families. journal of applied psychology, 68 (2), 313-319. graddick, m.m. & farr, j.l. (1983). professionals in scientific disciplines: sex-related differences in working life commitments. journal of applied psychology, 68 (4), 461-465. grusky, o. (1966). career mobilit y and organizational commitment. administrative science quarterly, 10, 488-503. guest, d. (1995). employee commitment and control. in j.f. hartley & g.m. stephenson (eds), employment relations (pp. 111-135). oxford: blackwell publishers. hall, d.t., schneider, b. & nygren, h.t. (1970). personal factors in organizational identification. administrative science quarterly, 15, 176-190. hartley, j.f. & stephenson, g.m. (eds). (1995). employment relations. oxford: blackwell publishers. hrebiniak, l.g. (1974). effects of job level and participation on employee attitudes and perception of influence. academy of management journal, 17, 649-662. hrebiniak, l.g. & alutto, j.a. (1972). personal and role-related factors in the development of organizational commitment. administrative science quarterly, 17, 555-573. human, l. (2000). equity and efficacy: the business case for employment equity. talk delivered at the ipm eastern cape regional conference, port elizabeth. innes, d. (2001). tracking progress on employment equity. innes labour brief, 13 (2), october, 10-21. innes, d. (2002). black economic empowerment. innes labour brief, 13 (7), july, 10-12. iverson, r.d. (1996). employee acceptance of organizational change: the role of organizational commitment. the international journal of human resource management, 7 (1), 122-149. jones, a.p., james, l.r. & bruni, j.r. (1975). perceived leadership behavior and employee confidence in the leader as moderated by job involvement. journal of applied psychology, 60 (1), 146-149. jordaan, j. (2002). employment equity can mean money in the bank. hr future, april 28, 28-31. kacmar, k.m. & carlson, d.s. (1999). antecedents and consequences of organizational commitment: a comparison of two scales. educational and psychological measurement, 59 (6), 976-994. kaiser, h.f. (1970). a second-generation little jiff y. psychometrika, 35, 401-415. kanungo, r.n. (1979). the concepts of alienation and involvement revisited. psychological bulletin, 86 (1), 119-138. kanungo, r.n. (1981). work alienation and involvement problems and prospects. international review of applied psychology, 30, 1-15. kanungo, r.n. (1982). work alienation: an integrative approach. new york: preager. kanungo, r.n., misra, s.b. & dayal, i. (1975). relationships of job involvement to perceived importance and satisfaction of employee needs. international review of applied psychology, 24 (1), 49-59. knoop, r. (1986). job involvement: an elusive concept. psychological reports, 59, 451-456. koch, j.d. & steers, r.m. (1978). job attachment, satisfaction and t urnover among public sector employees. journal of vocational behavior, 12, 119-128. kram, k.e. (1988). mentoring at work: developmental relationships in organizational life. lanham: university press of america. lacy, w.b., bokemeier, j.l. & shepard, j.m. (1983). job attribute preferences and work commitment of men and women in the united states. personnel psychology, 36, 315-329. lau, c. & woodman, r.c. (1995). understanding organizational change: a schematic perspective. academy of management journal, 38 (2), 537-554. lee, s.m. (1971). an empirical analysis of organizational identification. academy of management journal, 14, 213-226. lodahl, t.m. & kejner, m. (1965). the definition and measurement of job involvement. journal of applied psychology, 49, 24-33. lok, p. & crawford, j. (1999). the relationship between commitment and organizational culture, subculture, leadership style and job satisfaction in organizational change and development. leadership and organization development journal, 20 (7), 365-373. luthans, f., baack, d. & taylor, l. (1987). organizational commitment: analysis of antecedents. human relations, 40 (4), 219-236. mahanyele, m. (1993). black economic empowerment underpinning post apartheid era. human resource management, october, 8-13. janse van rensburg, roodt58 mannheim, b. (1975). a comparative study of work centrality, job rewards and satisfaction. sociology of work and occupations, 2 (1), 79-102. march, j.g. & simon, h.a. (1958). organisations. new york: wiley. martins, n. (1999). questionnaire on employment equity in association with ernest and young. unpublished document. johannesburg: organisational diagnostics. mathieu, j.e. & hamel, k. (1989). a causal model of the antecedents of organizational commitment among professionals and nonprofessionals. journal of vocational behaviour, 34, 299-317. mathieu, j.e. & zajac, d.m. (1990). a review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates and consequences of organizational commitment. psychological bulletin, 108 (2), 171-194. matuna, j.m. (1996). excessive job mobility among black managers. unpublished masters thesis. johannesburg: university of the witwatersrand. mayfield, j. & mayfield, m. (2002). leader communication strategies critical paths to improving employee commitment. american business review, 20 (2), 89-94. mcfarlin, d.b. & sweeney, p.d. (1992). distributive and procedural justice as predictors of satisfaction with personal and organizational outcomes. academy of management journal, 35, 626-637. mckelvey, b. & sekaran, u. (1977). toward a career-based theory of job involvement: a study of scientists and engineers. administrative science quarterly, 22, 281-305. meyer, j.p. & allen, n.j. (1984). testing a “side bet theory” of organizational commitment: some methodological considerations. journal of applied psychology, 69 (3), 372-378. meyer, j.p. & allen, n.j. (1988). links between work experiences and organizational commitment during the first year of employment: a longitudinal analysis. journal of occupational psychology, 61, 195-209. morris, j.h. & sherman, j.d. (1981). generalizability of an organizational commitment model. academy of management journal, 24 (3), 512-526. morris, j.h. & steers, r.m. (1980). structural influences on organizational commitment. journal of vocational behavior, 17, 50-57. mowday, r.t., porter, l.w. & steers, r.m. (1982). employeeorganization linkages: the psychology of commitment, absenteeism and turnover. san diego, ca: academic press. mowday, r.t., steers, r.m. & porter, l.w. (1979). the measurement of organizational commitment. journal of vocational behavior, 14, 224-247. müller, s.m. & roodt, g. (1998). die verband tussen werknemers se houding jeens regstellende aksie en hul werksbetrokkenheid: ‘n eksploratiewe studie (the relationship between employees’ attitudes against affirmative action and their work involvement: an explorative study). journal of industrial psychology, 24 (1), 26-32. newton, t.g. & keenan, a. (1983). is work involvement an attribute of the person or the environment? journal of occupational behavior, 4, 169-178. noe, r.a. (1988). an investigation of the determinants of successful assigned mentoring relationships. personnel psychology, 41, 457-479. pfeffer, j. (1994). competitive advantage through people: unleashing the power of the work force. boston, ma: harvard business school press. porter, l.w., steers, r.m., mowday, r.t. & boulian, p.v. (1974). organizational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover among psychiatric technicians. journal of applied psychology, 59 (5), 603-609. primos, l. (1994). searching for gold: the challenge for affirmative action recruitment. people dynamics, 32-35. rabinowitz, s., hall, d.t. & goodale, j.g. (1977). job scope and individual differences as predictors of job involvement: independent or interactive? academy of management journal, 20 (2), 273-281. renesch, j. (ed.). (1992). new traditions in business. san francisco: berrett-koehler publishers. republic of south africa. (1998). employment equity act no. 55 of 1998. government gazette, 450 (22209). robbins, s.p., odendaal, a. & roodt, g. (2003). organisational behaviour: global and southern african perspectives. cape town: pearson education. roberts, a. (1997). affirmative action. hell for blacks too? financial mail, 144, february 21, 18-22. roodt, g. (1991). die graad van werkbetrokkenheid as voorspeller van persoonlike welsyn: ‘n studie by bestuurders (the degree of employee involvement as predictor of personal wellbeing: a study of managers). d admin-proefskrif. bloemfontein: universiteit van die oranje-vrystaat. roodt, g. (1992). organisasieklimaat as voorspeller van organisasie-verbondenheid: getuienis van ‘n suiwer kognitiewe definisie? (organisation climate as predictor of organisational commitment: evidence of a pure cognitive definition?) acta academica, 24 (4), 109-122. roodt, g. (1997). theoretical and empirical linkages between work-related commitment foci. sa journal of industrial psychology, 23 (2), 6-13. roodt, g. (2004). concept redundancy and contamination in employee commitment research: current problems and future directions. journal of industrial psychology, 30 (1), 82-90. roodt, g., bester, c.l. & boshoff, a.b. (1993). die verband tussen biografiese veranderlikes en bestuurders se werkbetrokkenheid (the relationship bet ween biographical variables and managers work involvement). acta academica, 25 (2 & 3), 155-172. rosen, r.h. (1992). the anatomy of a healthy company. in j. renesch (ed.), new traditions in business (pp. 109-122). san francisco: berrett-koehler publishers. ruh, r.a., white, j.k. & wood, r.r. (1975). job involvement, values, personal background, participation in decision making and job attitudes. academy of management journal, 18 (2), 300-312. saal, f.e. (1978). job involvement: a multivariate approach. journal of applied psychology, 63 (1), 53-61. saal, f.e. (1981). empirical and theoretical implications of a purely cognitive definition of job involvement. international review of applied psychology, 30, 103-120. schepers, j.m. (1992). toetskonstruksie: teorie en praktyk (test construction: theory and practice). johannesburg: rand afrikaans universiteit. schwyart, w.r. & smith, p.c. (1972). factors in the jobinvolvement of middle managers. journal of applied psychology, 56 (3), 227-233. sekaran, u. & mowday, r.t. (1981). a cross-cultural analysis of the influence of individual and job characteristics on job involvement. international review of applied psychology, 30, 51-64. sheldon, m.e. (1971). investments and involvements as mechanisms producing commitment to the organization. administrative science quarterly, 16, 142-150. sibanda, m. (1995). taking a tilt at pinball wizards. weekly mail & guardian, march 31april 6, 13. siegel, a.l. & ruh, r.a. (1973). job involvement, participation in decision making, personal background and job behavior. organizational behavior and human performance, 9, 318-327. singh, v., bains, d. & vinnicombe, s. (2002). informal mentoring as an organisational resource. long range planning, 35, 389-405. smith, h. & roodt, g. (2003). are industries’ responding differently to the employment equity challenge? sa journal of human resource management, 1 (1), 32-41. staw, b.m. & ross, j. (1977). commitment to a policy decision: a multi-theoretical perspective. administrative science quarterly, 23, 40-64. steers, r.m. (1977). antecedents and outcomes of organizational commitment. administrative science quarterly, 22, 46-56. employment equity, black economic empowerment, organisation-related commitment 59 steers, r.m. & spencer, d.g. (1977). the role of achievement motivation in job design. journal of applied psychology, 62 (4), 472-479. storm, l. & roodt, g. (2002). die verband tussen organisasiesosialisering en organisasieverbondenheid (the relationship between organisation socialisation and organisation commitment). sa journal of industrial psychology, 28 (1), 14-21. vallabh, m. & donald, f. (2001). a comparison of black and white managers on intent to leave and job mobility. sa journal of industrial psychology, 27 (2), 37-42. van rooyen, j. (1981). female career commitment (a lifespan perspective). special report. pers 327, johannesburg: nipr. van zyl, b. & roodt, g. (2003). female perceptions on employment equity: is the glass ceiling cracking? sa journal of human resource management, 1 (2), 13-20. walbrugh, a. & roodt, g. (2003). different age groups’ response to employment equity practices. sa journal of human resource management, 1 (2), 28-39. welsch, h.p. & la van, h. (1981). inter-relationships between organizational commitment and job characteristics, job satisfaction, professional behavior and organizational climate. human relations, 34, 1079-1089. williams, l.j. & hazar, j.t. (1986). antecedents and consequences of satisfaction and commitment in turnover models: a reanalysis using latent variable structural equation methods. journal of applied psychology, 71 (2), 219-231. wingrove, t. (2002). mentoring challenges to sweeten the medicine. hr future, 2 (11), november/december, 10-12. yousef, d.a. (2000). organizational commitment and job satisfaction as predictors of attitudes toward organizational change in a non-western setting. personnel review, 29 (5), 567-592. janse van rensburg, roodt60 abstract introduction background to the pay ratio provision of the dodd-frank act 2010 acknowledgements references appendix 1 about the author(s) stanley paulo department of accounting, economics and finance, lincoln university, new zealand pierre le roux department of economics, nelson mandela metropolitan university, south africa citation paulo, s., & le roux, p. (2016). the ‘pay ratio’ provision of the dodd-frank act 2010 and presentation of the paulo–le roux index. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a803. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.803 original research the ‘pay ratio’ provision of the dodd-frank act 2010 and presentation of the paulo–le roux index stanley paulo, pierre le roux received: 25 feb. 2016; accepted: 13 may 2016; published: 19 aug. 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: this article addresses the issues of executive remuneration and whether it was excessive or not. research purpose: on 05 august 2015, the us securities and exchange commission (sec) adopted a rule to operationalise section 953(b) of the dodd-frank wall street reform and consumer protection act 2010 (dodd-frank or the dodd-frank act 2010), the ‘pay ratio provision’, as part of a process to ensure sound corporate governance and shed light on assertions that corporate executive remuneration was excessive and detrimental to the economic wellbeing of the usa. this pay ratio rule will be operative starting from 2017 and requires public firms to publish the ratio of chief executive officer (ceo) remuneration to the median remuneration of all its employees. hence, it is a measure of income distribution. it does not reveal the relationship between executive compensation and the value added to the firm by executives. in anticipation of this rule becoming mandatory and as part of a quest to quantify the value of executives to the firm, paulo and le roux (2014) developed an approach to measure the value executives add to the firm, drawing from audited financial statements and thereby demonstrating that the value added by executive management could be measured according to the requirements of sound research methodology and rigorous epistemology. motivation for the study: statutory enactment of the pay ratio provision provided the impetus to create an index, the paulo–le roux index, that shows how much executives are paid in relation to how much value they add to the firm. research design, approach and method: paulo and le roux (2014) developed an approach to measure the value executives add to the firm, drawing from audited financial statements and thereby demonstrating that the value added by executive management could be measured according to the requirements of sound research methodology and rigorous epistemology. statutory enactment of the pay ratio provision provided the impetus to create an index, the paulo–le roux index, that shows how much executives are paid in relation to how much value they add to the firm. the value added to the firm is a composite of the value drivers, sales, growth, capital requirements (cr), operating profitability (op), and the discount rate in the form of a weighted average cost of capital (wacc). main findings: discussions that hitherto have been normative regarding executive remuneration, and unrelated to the value created by executives, can now be based on rigorous valuations that draw from audited financial statements. practical/managerial implications: numerous advantages accrue from the use of this index for all stakeholders, managers, organised labour, investors, as well as for asset allocation and corporate restructuring, the risk incurred in adding value, and the strategies applied. this index can be used for any enterprise, division, functional area, or project, and for any financial period for which audited financial statements are available. contribution: using the index ensures sound corporate governance and shed light on assertions that corporate executive remuneration was excessive and detrimental to the economic wellbeing. introduction on 05 august 2015, the us securities and exchange commission (sec) adopted a rule that requires public companies to disclose the ratio of chief executive officer (ceo) compensation to the median compensation of its employees. section 953(b) of the dodd-frank wall street reform and consumer protection act 2010 (dodd-frank or the dodd-frank act 2010), known as the ‘pay ratio provision’, required the sec to prepare and implement this rule. for the fiscal year beginning on or after 01 january 2017, public companies will be required to disclose their pay ratios. in anticipation of the pay ratio provision becoming mandatory in the usa, paulo and le roux (2014), drawing from paulo (2011), presented an approach to the calculation of the value added by corporate executives. whereas the core problem addressed in paulo and le roux (2014) was the measurement of the intrinsic value added by corporate executives to the intrinsic value of the firm, or any sub-part of the firm for which audited financial statements were available, the core problem of this article is to provide an index of executive remuneration to corporate value, added as part of the development and evolution of the pay ratio provision. the pay ratio provision focuses on reporting income distribution disparities between corporate executives and the median income of employees and hence can be associated with agency theory. in contrast, the approach under discussion herein establishes the relationship between executive remuneration and the value added by executives to the firm. the many benefits of this approach, for all stakeholders, are presented in this article. this article briefly presents the background to the pay ratio provision, followed by the debate for and against it. this debate provides a motivation for the paulo–le roux index, which is then presented and discussed. even though screening and ranking controls are inherent in the application of this index, it is not the intention of this article to prescribe or even suggest control limit values. that issue requires an extensive empirical survey of corporate executive behaviour followed by an appropriate period of consultation, discussion, and public comment with the nation’s stakeholders and legislature regarding appropriate norms and guidelines. the fraction of value added by executives that can or should be distributed to corporate executives or the way in which such distributions can or should be made through time are not the purpose of this article. these are matters for future study. background to the pay ratio provision of the dodd-frank act 2010 the dodd-frank act 2010, the financial stability forum 2009 (fsf, 2009) (paulo, 2011, pp. 448–461), and king codes i, ii, and iii (paulo & le roux, 2014) specifically seek to improve corporate governance, in part, by ensuring sound executive compensation practices against the backdrop of the sarbanes-oxley act 2002 (sox), rule 702 of the federal rules of evidence 2000 of the usa (rule 702), the uk companies act 2006 (ukca, 2006), and the south african companies act 2008 (saca, 2008). the critical comment from many sectors of society that has accompanied executive remuneration, especially bonuses since the global financial crisis, has raised discussion about the insufficiencies of corporate governance, and former british prime minister david cameron has called for more active shareholder participation to curb executive remunerative excesses (the guardian, 2012). more recently, cameron’s business former secretary vince cable told top uk firms to crack down on bonuses or face new laws (treanor, the guardian, 22 april 2014). efforts to improve corporate governance must be supported by robust and rigorous financial valuations that can be used to guide decision making in a manner consistent with the goals of the firm and mindful of agency issues. the value added by corporate executives should form the basis for the estimation and allocation of executive remuneration, in particular incentive-linked remuneration, such as bonuses. in essence, effective incentive-based compensation is contingent on being able to identify, define, and estimate value added by corporate executives. valuations drawn from audited financial statements, focusing on the intrinsic value rather than the market pricing of the firm, provide a credible motivation for an alternative approach if financial markets are experiencing high levels of turbulence and excess volatility in security prices. recourse to intrinsic valuation during periods of financial turbulence can improve corporate governance, in part, by ensuring sound executive compensation practices, especially in light of the widespread public invective that has accompanied executive remuneration, particularly bonuses, during and in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. the pay ratio provision debate section 953(b) of the dodd-frank act 2010, the pay ratio provision, required the sec to draft rules for implementation of the provision. the debate concerning executive remuneration is long-standing and well established (knowledge@wharton, 2010; moody’s, 2006). it seeks to establish whether corporate executives are overpaid (shorter, 2013, p. 1). in the absence of an appropriate measure of what corporate executives add to the value of the firm, it is not possible to meaningfully address the issue of whether corporate executive remuneration is reasonable or excessive. the executive pay debate of the 1980s initially sought to contain and, if possible, neutralise the excesses of agency theory (’agency on steroids’) by aligning executive remuneration to corporate value added by means of a tighter focus on corporate governance. however, it did not attempt to estimate the value added by executives. this debate received prominence in the 1980s when peter drucker argued that companies should try to maintain a ceo-to-average worker pay ratio of 25:1, which he later changed to 20:1 (drucker, 2011). in defence of this target ratio, drucker contended that ‘… ratios with higher values could impede teamwork and trust…’ (drucker, 2011) (shorter, 2013, p. 5). a defence based on the measurement of the value added by executives would have been a notable step forward for the debate. the us economic policy institute found that ‘… from 1978 to 2012 ceo compensation measured with [stock] options realized increased about 875%, a rise more than double stock market growth’ (shorter, 2013, p. 4). if the stock market was inefficient in ensuring that market prices fairly reflected intrinsic values, and executive compensation was based, fully or even partially on intrinsic value added, then to some extent this finding would need to be re-estimated. there are periods during which stock prices trade at levels higher than intrinsic value and, similarly, there are periods during which stock prices trade at levels lower than intrinsic value. in the absence of an appropriate measure of what corporate executives add to the value of the firm, it is not possible to meaningfully evaluate these findings. kaplan (2012) concluded that the average and median inflation-adjusted remuneration of the ceos of the firms that comprised the standard and poor’s 500 index (s & p 500 or s & p) did not rise continuously, but yet again these findings were not related to the value added by corporate executives. bloomberg estimated that the ratio of ceo pay-to-average-worker pay for the average firm in the s&p was 204:1 in 2012, a 20% increase over their 2009 estimate of 170:1 (smith & kuntz, 2012). the historical estimates of this ratio for the firms comprising this index were approximately 20:1 in the 1950s, 42:1 in 1980, and 120:1 by 2000 (smith & kuntz, 2012). the relationship of executive value added to executive remuneration was not even contemplated in order to better understand and investigate the growth in executive remuneration vis-à-vis other employees. morrissey (2012) described executive compensation as having reached scandalous levels, thereby making it the number one problem in corporate law, and a major threat to the economic wellbeing of the usa. reports of the acceleration of increases in executive remuneration continue, and prompt concern about the possibility of asset stripping to fund executive remuneration, a concern that cannot be verified in the absence of appropriate measurement. in 2013, within the us congress, huizenga (h.r. 1135) sought the repeal of the pay ratio provision, section 953(b) of the dodd-frank act 2010, similar to the repeal sought earlier by hayworth (h.r. 1062) in 2011 (huizenga 2013). in contrast, senator robert mendez (shorter 2013), the original sponsor of this provision, continued to vigorously defend it. mendez was supported by representative barney frank, sponsor of the dodd-frank act 2010, even though frank wanted to relax the definition of executive remuneration to include only cash compensation and not all compensation. mendez received further support from representative maxine waters (2013). outside of the us congress, the pay ratio provision has been criticised by the business lobby, including the american benefits council, american insurance association, the business roundtable, the national association of manufacturers, the national retail federation, the financial services roundtable, the securities industry, and the financial markets association, ibm, mcdonald’s, at&t, the new york stock exchange, the us chamber of commerce, and the center on executive compensation (shorter, 2013). supporters of the pay ratio provision outside of the us congress are unions, civil rights groups, consumer advocacy groups, social justice groups, and liberal think tanks, including the aarp (formerly the american association of retired persons, one of the most powerful us lobbying organisations), the american federation of labor and congress of industrial organizations afl-cio), the american federation of state, county and municipal employees (afscme), the alliance for justice, the americans for democratic action, the center for economic and policy research, the center for economic progress, common cause, the communication workers, the consumer federation of america, the economic policy institute, the international federation of teamsters, the national association for the advancement of colored people (naacp), and the united food and commercial workers (americans for financial reform in opposition to h.r. 1135, may 22, 2013). support for the dodd-frank pay ratio provision is based largely on whether the provision will provide material information to investors and other stakeholders, and whether the benefits will exceed the costs. the benefits refer to whether the information provided will be necessary to ascertain the reasonableness or acceptability of executive remuneration. yet again, it must be emphasised that, in the absence of a financial measure of the value added by executives, it is not possible to evaluate with any semblance of objectivity the reasonableness or unreasonableness of executive remuneration. although section 951 of the dodd-frank act 2010 requires listed companies to provide shareholders with an advisory vote on executive compensation, the ‘say-on-pay’ provision, this is a non-binding vote. moreover, the basis for ‘reasonableness’, in terms of executive value added, is missing from the discussion. reasonable, in terms of ‘what’, must be addressed, or ‘reasonable’ has little meaning. critics of the pay ratio provision contend that it will not provide meaningful investor information because it lacks a meaningful comparative context (shorter, 2013, p. 15). the sec summarised its view on the usefulness of the pay ratio provision as ‘… not quantifiable’ (shorter, 2013, p. 15). in other words, there is no objective quantifiable criterion upon which to base the merits or otherwise of the pay ratio provision. without such a criterion, discussions of reasonableness and unreasonableness, as well as what is acceptable, cannot be satisfactorily sustained. moreover, this costly and time-consuming debate is not well anchored because it lacks the kind of measurement that could shed light on the issues surrounding executive remuneration. the dodd-frank act 2010 – compliance: accountability and executive compensation compliance, in terms of accountability and executive compensation, is contained in sections 951–956 of the dodd-frank act 2010, which amend sections 10b, 14, and 16 of the securities and exchange act 1934 (sea, 1934). these amendments are presented and discussed because they impact corporate governance and contribute to the basis upon which incentive-based remuneration is to be estimated. annual shareholder approval of executive compensation: section 951 of dodd-frank amends sea 1934 by inserting after section 14a regarding annual shareholder approval of executive compensation by means of a separate non-binding shareholder vote. in so doing, shareholders can express and formally record, in a transparent way, their opinions on executive compensation. in essence, this is what then british prime minister david cameron called for in his statements reported on january 09, 2012 (the guardian, 2012). independence of compensation committees: section 952 of dodd-frank amends sea 1934 by inserting after section 10b, section 10c regarding (1) the independence of compensation committees, by prohibiting the listing of any security of an issuer that does not comply with statutory requirements; (2) the independence of compensation consultants and other compensation committee advisors; (3) compensation committee authority relating to compensation consultants that includes inter alia direct responsibility for the appointment, compensation, and oversight of the work of a compensation consultant; (4) the authority to engage independent legal counsel and other advisors and (5) the compensation of compensation consultants, independent legal counsel, and other advisors. thus, section 952 of dodd-frank requires this committee be accountable for formal and transparent processes, procedures, and outcomes regarding executive compensation. how this can be done in the absence of a measure of the value added by executives is by no means clear. the disclosure of pay versus performance linked remuneration: section 953 of dodd-frank amends sea 1934 by inserting in section 14 paragraph (j) regarding disclosure of pay versus performance linked remuneration by: … including information that shows the relationship between executive compensation actually paid and the financial performance of the issuer, taking into account any change in the value of the shares of stock and dividends of the issuer and any distributions … and may include a graphic representation of the information required to be disclosed … this statutory requirement therefore necessitates a valuation of the change in the value of the company based on factors such as share price, dividends, and other distributions that, in an efficient market, would reflect the value added by executives to the market value of the company, in order to determine the financial basis for performance linked remuneration. in inefficient or manic-depressive markets, this would not hold. no mention is made of the fraction of the value added by executives that can or should be allocated to a bonus pool from which performance linked remuneration can be distributed. the issues regarding value added by executives, the fractional share of this quantum that can or should be distributed, the way in which such distributions are made, and valuations in which financial security prices do not reasonably correspond to their intrinsic values cannot but constitute an important part of the work of the compensation consultant. recovery of erroneously awarded compensation: section 954 of dodd-frank relates to the recovery of erroneously awarded compensation, and amends section 19 of sea 1934 by adding paragraph (h), which requires the issuer to disclose the basis of incentive-based compensation that is to be based on the financial information required to be reported under the securities laws. in the event that an accounting restatement is required, due to material noncompliance with any financial reporting requirements, the recovery of erroneously awarded compensation is to be made from any current or former executive officer during the 3-year period preceding the date on which the issuer is required to prepare an accounting restatement. the disclosure of hedging by employees and directors: section 955 of dodd-frank requires the disclosure of hedging by employees and directors, and amends section 14 of sea 1934 by requiring the disclosure by issuers of permission granted to employees, directors, or their designees, to purchase financial instruments designed to hedge or offset any decrease in the market value of equity securities. in the uk, the fsf 2009 proposed nine principles as part of an effort to ensure the effective governance of executive compensation and accountability. these nine principles are presented, discussed, and compared with sections 951–956 of dodd-frank. principles of the financial stability forum 2009 and the dodd-frank act 2010 as noted by paulo (2011, pp. 448–461), the fsf 2009 enunciated its principles for sound compensation practices as part of an effort to ensure the effective governance of compensation in april 2009 (fsf, 2009, p. 2) after the fsf found that more than 80% of market participants believed that compensation practices at large financial institutions were instrumental as one among many factors that combined to contribute to the financial crisis that began in 2007 (fsf, 2009, pp. 1, 4). the fsf grouped its nine principles for sound compensation practices (fsf, 2009, pp. 2–3) into three categories, designated a, b, and c (paulo 2011, pp. 448–461). category a: the effective governance of compensation principle 1: the firm’s board of directors must actively oversee the compensation system’s design and operation. principle 2: the firm’s board of directors must monitor and review the compensation system to ensure the system operates as intended. principle 3: staff engaged in financial and risk control must be independent, have appropriate authority, and be compensated in a manner that is independent of the business areas they oversee and commensurate with their key role in the firm (paulo 2011, pp. 448–461). category b: the effective alignment of compensation with prudent risk taking principle 4: compensation should be adjusted for all types of risk. principle 5: compensation outcomes must be symmetric with risk outcomes. principle 6: compensation pay-out schedules must be sensitive to the time horizon of risks. principle 7: the mix of cash, equity, and other forms of compensation must be consistent with risk alignment (paulo 2011, pp. 448–461). category c: effective supervisory oversight and engagement by stakeholders principle 8: supervisory review of compensation practices must be rigorous and sustained, and deficiencies must be addressed promptly with supervisory action. principle 9: firms must disclose clear, comprehensive, and timely information about their compensation practices to facilitate constructive engagement by all stakeholders (paulo 2011, pp. 448–461). in drawing a comparison, it is evident that sections 951–956 of dodd-frank and the principles of category a and c of fsf 2009 have notable similarities and are both substantially procedural in nature. the principles of category b of fsf 2009, namely principles 4, 5, 6, and 7, that require valuations (unspecified in terms of variables and functional format), so that compensation can be aligned with prudent risk taking, and hence the valuation of the value added by corporate executives, is addressed under section 953 dodd-frank by stating that the basis of incentive compensation, bonuses, are to be factors such as share price, dividends, and other distributions (without stating the functional format, formula, or methodology). in comparison, fsf 2009, principle 4 states: ‘compensation should be adjusted for all types of risks including difficult to measure risks such as liquidity risk, reputation risk and cost of capital’ (fsf, 2009, p. 2). also consider fsf 2009, principle 5: compensation systems should link the size of the bonus pool to the overall performance of the firm … employees incentive payments should be linked … bonuses should diminish or disappear in the event … (fsf, 2009, p. 3) consider, too, principle 6, ‘variable compensation payments should be deferred … management should question pay-outs for income that cannot be realized …’ (fsf, 2009, p. 3), and principle 7, ‘the firm should be able to explain the rationale for its mix [of rewards by way of cash, equity and other forms of compensation]’ (fsf, 2009, p. 3). these ‘ought to’, ‘should’, and other normative directives are unsatisfactory because they do not provide a metric against which executive management can be assessed. principles 4, 5, and 6 focus on making compensation sensitive to risk, and in this regard the fsf reported that ‘… in years of losses by the firm as a whole, most employees’ bonuses at most firms have continued as a significant portion of boom-year levels. in other words, the size of the firms’ bonus pools showed much more inertia than did economic performance’ (fsf, 2009, p. 11). taxpayers have had to bail out firms that have incurred large financial losses, have had their equity bases depleted of substantial quantities of capital, and have continued to pay large bonuses despite the subsidies and guarantees provided on their behalf by politicians. therefore, taxpayers have functioned as lenders of last resort, and need clarity as to the basis of bonuses and other forms of executive remuneration. other stakeholders, such as shareholders, politicians who have distributed taxpayer resources to subsidise financially distressed firms, and employees at all firms, should know the basis upon which executive remuneration is calculated. unless and until the value added by corporate executives can be identified, defined, and estimated in a rigorous and robust way, both fsf 2009 and dodd-frank will be substantially frustrated in making meaningful incentive-linked remuneration determinations that are above suspicion by organised labour, politicians, the electorate, and taxpayers, who have had to foot the bill (paulo 2011, pp. 448–461). in comparison with dodd-frank, fsf 2009 has some worthwhile and specific principles concerning the estimation of executive value added with regard to risk, return, and time horizons. these principles help provide clearer guidelines as to the criteria upon which to base executive incentive-linked remuneration. moreover, fsf 2009 leaves the door open for other approaches to the estimation of executive value added when determining the potential bonus pool by not linking executive remuneration explicitly to market prices of financial securities – to the extent that the market prices of financial securities, dividends, and other types of distributions may not at all times correspond meaningfully to the intrinsic values of those securities. this has merit in financial markets in which security prices do not correspond reasonably to intrinsic values. the valuations that are required by dodd-frank need to conform to the requirements of rule 702 of the federal rules of evidence of the usa (rule 702), the sox, especially as regards sound research methodology, because of their implications for performance measures such as those of treynor (1965), jensen (1968, 1969), fama (1972), treynor and mazuy (1966), and cahart’s alpha (1997). in contrast, valuations based on audited financial statements, whilst not perfect, are easier to reconcile with rule 702 and sox, if the main objective of sox is upheld, namely ‘… to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures …’. the use of market prices for valuations of executive performance when the markets are substantially distorted by behavioural phenomena such as excess volatility and momentum, especially during financial crises and market bubbles, cannot reasonably provide a satisfactory basis for valuation purposes. a methodologically rigorous and empirically supported process for adjusting for behavioural phenomena has yet to be documented in the literature. rule 702 of the federal rules of evidence 2000, the sarbanes-oxley act 2002, and executive performance measurement in 2000, with the enactment of the ‘new’ rule 702 that replaced the daubert rule, an important change was made to the rules of evidence concerning expert witness testimony. scientific, technical, or other specialised evidence that does not satisfy the criteria prescribed by rule 702 has a substantial impact on the admissibility of expert witness testimony and the role of the trial court in the usa. the new rule 702 states: if scientific, technical, or other specialised knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training or education, may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise if: the testimony is based upon sufficient facts of data, the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods, and, the witness has applied the principles and methods reliably to the facts of the case. thus, in terms of rule 702, an expert witness needs to provide sufficient supportive empirical evidence and reliable methodology in order to provide a sufficient basis for application to the facts of the case under consideration. the application of unreliable principles and methods that lack empirical validity cannot be applied purposefully or meaningfully interpreted. apart from rule 702, the valuations of listed corporations based on unsound research methodology may infringe sox. it is likely to contravene sox section 807, §1348 regarding securities fraud if a person possessed of expert skills and knowledge, by education, training, or practice, has made use of unreliable and invalid methodologies to perform valuations, and accordingly allocated capital, or made financial representations or decisions for listed corporations: §1348 whoever knowingly executes, or attempts to execute, a scheme or artifice … to obtain, by means of false or fraudulent pretences, representations, or promises … shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned not more than 25 years, or both. in terms of §1348 of sox, theories, models, criteria, and decision rules that are mis-specified, lack empirical validity, are not epistemologically rigorous, and defy sound research methodology, are an abstraction from reality and cannot be satisfactorily operationalised are subject to scrutiny. they may be construed as an attempt to commit a false or fraudulent pretence, particularly in the case of an expert professing specialised knowledge, skills, and competence (paulo 2011, pp. 448–461). it is difficult to defend the use of market prices as a suitable and sole basis for the estimation of value 4, given that such approaches fall within the ambit of value added by corporate executives. the market prices of financial securities correspond to their intrinsic values only under constructs such as perfect competition and the efficient market hypothesis, that, by definition, are not operationally valid. consequently, it is not entirely clear how constructs such as perfect competition or the efficient market hypothesis could be reconciled with either rule 702 or sox. both rule 702 and sox are concerned with sound research methodology, which requires performance and valuation metrics to ethically and accurately report, describe, and explain the phenomena being researched (cavana, delahaye & sekaran, 2000, pp. 27–44; cooper & emory, 1995, p. 9; sekaran, 2000, pp. 19–34). these metrics need to be valid, reliable and unambiguously interpretable (cavana et al., 2000, pp. 210–215; cooper & emory, 1995, pp. 148–156; davis, 1996, pp. 172–180; ghauri, gronhaug & kristianslund, 1995, pp. 46–51; sekaran, 2000, pp. 204–210). an operational performance metric that is used by economists, statisticians, actuaries, managers, analysts, bankers, consultants, accountants, and other professionals, whether for appraisals, valuations, asset pricing, or asset allocation, needs to satisfy the minimum requirements of sound research methodology and sound ethics (paulo 2011, pp. 448–461) and comply with the statute. intrinsic values, however imperfect, are based on accounting conventions and doctrines, ifrs (international financial reporting standards), gaap (generally accepted accounting principles), and the determinations of the fasb (financial accounting standards board). consequently, these intrinsic values offer an alternative that is influenced less by behavioural issues such as excess volatility, momentum, financial herding, contagion, and the great moderation. the paulo–le roux index paulo and le roux (2014) presented an approach (appendix 1) that gives explicit recognition to the role of executive management in determining value by showing how they apply a firm’s capital to generate revenue (sales) and thereby affect the value of the firm through capital requirements (cr), operating profitability (op), growth (g), and the discount rate (cost of capital) constituted as a weighted average cost of capital (wacc). typically, the revenue is generated by means of sales, which management seeks to increase or improve by utilising the currently existing or starting capital base of the firm. the expansion of sales from one period to the next period may require additional capital with the proviso that the profitability of these sales should exceed the weighted average cost of generating them. brigham and ehrhardt (2011, p. 526) expressed this approach, which is the corporate valuation model: where: vop(time n) = the intrinsic value of operations; captialn = quantity of capital in place at time n; = the value of sales generated after time period n, estimated by increasing sales in time period n by the growth rate g, and discounting them at the difference between the wacc, and the growth rate g; and = the difference between op and wacc, the discount rate, multiplied by the capital required, cr, to generate and sustain the increase in sales from time period n onwards. equation 1 was used by paulo and le roux (2014) to illustrate the estimation of value added by executive management to the intrinsic value of the firm by drawing from audited financial statements in a manner that supports the purposes of saca 2008, king codes i, ii and iii, and is compliant with dodd-frank, the uk’s fsf 2009, and the ukca 2006. at an intrinsic level, value added by corporate executives is reflected in the intrinsic values of the issuer’s investments and their financing. market prices of issuers’ assets and securities may deviate from their intrinsic values for a variety of reasons such as market frictions, preferred habitats, or market segmentation theory (fabozzi, 1993, pp. 208–209; hull, 1993, p. 87; o’hara, 1997, p. 190; van horne, 1998, pp. 90–91, 135–137), and behavioural issues such as are occasioned by excess volatility (haugen, talmor & torous, 1991, pp. 985–1007; ineichen, 2000, pp. 93–101; reilly, wright & chan, 2000, pp. 82–92; schwert, 1989, pp. 1115–1153), momentum trading (connolly & stivers, 2003, pp. 1521–1555; cooper, gutierrez & hameed, 2004, pp. 1345–1365; figelman, 2007, pp. 71–78; george & hwang, 2004, pp. 2145–2176; griffin, ji & martin, 2003, pp. 2515–2547; sias, 2007, pp. 48–54), contagion (pritsker, 2000, pp. 1–26; van rijckeghem & weder, 1999, pp. 1–28), financial herding (bikchandani & sharma, 2000, pp. 1–32; christie & huang, 1995, pp. 31–37; graham, 1999, pp. 237–268), and the great moderation (ahmed, levin & wilson, 2004, pp. 824–832; campbell & cochrane, 1999, pp. 205–251; clarida, gali & gertler, 2000, pp. 147–180), which, if improperly appreciated, can distort the valuations upon which managerial decisions are made. the paulo–le roux index is defined: where, using the notation of (1): er = executive remuneration; and: this index, defined as the ratio of executive remuneration to value added by executives to the intrinsic value of the firm, shows how much executives were paid in relation to how much value they added to the firm. it is an expression of a cost/benefit ratio with the costs corresponding to er and the benefits explicitly constituted in terms of the four main drivers of value based corporate management, namely, growth (g), cr, and the discount rate in the form of a wacc and op. the purpose of this index is to provide a meaningfully measurable basis for analysis and discussions concerning what until now has been an imprecise hermeneutical discussion of the widely reported and publicised assertions and counter assertions of ‘executive greed, reasonableness, acceptability, satisfactory and excessive remuneration’ presented and discussed as part of the debate on the dodd-frank pay ratio provision. the prime function of this index is to provide a financial valuation to guide resource allocation in a manner consistent with the goals of the firm, the objectives of the company, other statutes, and the requirements of sound research methodology and rigorous epistemology. to accomplish this, in particular since the dot.com bubble and the advent of the financial crisis that started in 2007–2008, metrics need to satisfy rule 702, and important legislation such as sox, ukca 2006, saca 2008, as well as king codes i, ii, and iii, and be consistent with fsf 2009. the paulo–le roux index is useful because, in drawing inputs from audited financial statements, it complies with the legislative requirements of financial accounting. this applicability is from the perspective of financial accounting that focuses on reporting externally, and the performance of the firm in a manner consistent with numerous reporting and legislative requirements. the index provides a criterion that relates executive remuneration to the value executives have added to the firm. when re-arranged and disaggregated as [v(op time n) – er], the value added after er and retained earnings are revealed and available for workers and shareholders. retained earnings are an important basis of capital formation. for example, [v(op time n) – er – dividends – retained earnings = value added for workers]. thus, it provides an indication of the income distribution between executives and other employees, and also reveals the distribution to workers, shareholders, and retained earnings. firms can be screened and ranked cross-sectionally and time-serially in terms of the allocation of value added, on a divisional, functional, or matrix basis, by product line, production unit, and project. from the perspective of management and cost accounting, where the focus is on internal valuations for resource allocation and pricing, this index provides a guide for a wide range of managerial decisions, including promotion, restructuring, outsourcing, split-offs, spin-offs, and corporate restructuring. flexibility: executive remuneration, er, within the context of the paulo–le roux index, can be the total remuneration of a ceo; the aggregate remuneration of all executives; the remuneration of specific executives with regard to the division, function, production unit, or project they head. it thus has considerable flexibility. for illustrative purposes, the value of this index could range from a very low number, such as 5% of value added, to more than 100% of value added. values in excess of 100% are consistent with asset stripping and corporate raiding. by presenting the values clearly, transparently, and unambiguously in a way that can be widely understood, a more informed and responsible debate on what is happening to income and wealth creation is possible. the share of value added that should go to the various stakeholders is a matter that requires research, discussion, and informed debate in appropriate forums, including sovereign legislatures. industry norms and guidelines cognisant of specific circumstances and national needs can be developed and modified through time. as already noted, it is not the intention of this article to prescribe or even suggest control limit values even though screening and ranking controls are inherent in the application of this index. that requires an extensive empirical survey of corporate executive behaviour, followed by an appropriate period of consultation, discussion, and public comment with the nations’ stakeholders and legislature regarding appropriate norms. it is not the purpose of this article to address the fraction of value added by executives that can or should be distributed to corporate executives, or the way in which such distributions can or should be made through time, though these topics are undoubtedly important. conclusion this article presents and discusses the paulo–le roux index that measures the relationship of executive remuneration to value added by executives. it is a response to the pay ratio provision in section 953(b) of dodd-frank that the sec announced on august 05, 2015, regarding the implementation, from 2017 onward, of the mandatory reporting by all public companies of the ratio of ceo remuneration to the median compensation of its employees. the background and extensive debate, in and outside of congress with roots going back to the 1980s, that led to the 2015 implementation of this provision was an incentive for the paulo–le roux index. this debate and the preceding discussions of agency theory and corporate governance in the 1980s would have benefited substantially from being anchored in the type of measurement that quantifies in financial terms and can express the ratio of executive remuneration to value added by executives as a percentage. this index has widespread and flexible application because it provides a quantitative basis for managerial decision making consistent with the goal of the firm, sound research methodology, and rigorous epistemology, by drawing from audited financial statements. the next stage comprises extensive empirical surveys, to be followed by discussions and consultations with all stakeholders in the south african economy, including the legislature. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions both authors contributed equally to this article. references ahmed, s., levin, a., & wilson, b. (2004). recent us macroeconomic stability: good policies, good practices, or good luck? review of economics and statistics, 86(3), 824–832. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/0034653041811662 bikchandani, s., & sharma, s. (2000). herd behaviour in financial markets: a review. international monetary fund working paper wp/00/48. washington: international monetary fund. brigham, e.f., & ehrhardt, m.s. (2011). financial management: theory and practice. mason, ia: south-western. cahart, m.m. (1997). on persistence in mutual fund performance. journal of finance, 52(1), 57–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.1997.tb03808.x campbell, j.y., & cochrane, j.h. (1999). by force of habit: a consumption-based explanation of aggregate stock market behaviour. journal of political economy, 107(2), 205–251. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/250059 cavana, r.y., delahaye, b.l., & sekaran, u. (2000). applied business research. brisbane: wiley. coase, r.h. (1937). the nature of the firm. economica, 4(16), 386–405. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0335.1937.tb00002.x connolly, r., & stivers, c. (2003). momentum and reversals in equity-index returns during periods of abnormal turnover and return dispersion. journal of finance, 58(4), 1521–1555. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1540-6261.00576 cooper, d.r., & emory, c.w. (1995). business research methods (5th edn.). chicago, il: irwin. cooper, m.j., gutierrez, r.c., jr., & hameed, a. (2004). market states and momentum. journal of finance, 59(3), 1345–1365. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.2004.00665.x christie, w.g., & huang, r.d. (1995). following the pied piper: do individual returns herd around the market? financial analysts journal, 51(4), 31–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.2469/faj.v51.n4.1918 clarida, r., gali, j., & gertler, m. (2000). monetary policy rules and macroeconomic stability: evidence and some theory. quarterly journal of economics, 115(1), 147–180. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/003355300554692 davis, w.d. (1996). business research for decision making. (4th edn.). belmont, ca: duxbury. drucker institute of the claremont graduate university to the sec chair mary shapiro. (2011). retrieved from http://thedx.dreamhosters.com/wp_content/uploads/2011/02/seccomment.pdf fabozzi, f.j. (1993). bond markets: analysis and strategies. (2nd edn.). englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. fama, e.f. (1972). components of investment performance. journal of finance, 27(2), 551–567. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.1972.tb00984.x figelman, i. (2007). interaction of stock return momentum with earnings measures. financial analysts journal, 63(3), 71–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.2469/faj.v63.n3.4692 financial stability forum. (2009). report of the financial stability forum on addressing procyclicality in the financial system, basel, april. george, t., & hwang, j.c. (2004). the 52-week high and momentum investing. journal of finance, 59(5), 2145–2176. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.2004.00695.x ghauri, p., gronhaug, k., & kristianslund, i. (1995). research methods in business studies. new york: prentice hall. graham, j.r. (1999). herding among investment newsletters: theory and evidence. journal of finance, 54(1), 237–268. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/0022-1082.00103 griffin, j.m., ji, x., & martin, j.s. (2003). momentum investing and business cycle risk: evidence from pole to pole. journal of finance, 58(6), 2515–2547. http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1540-6261.2003.00614.x haugen, r.a., talmor, e., & torous, w.n. (1991). the effect of volatility changes on the level of stock prices and subsequent expected returns. journal of finance, 46(3), 985–1007. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.1991.tb03774.x huizenga, b. (2013). dodd-frank pay ratio provision not worth the cost, needs to be repealed. press release from the office of congressman bill huizenga. retrieved from http://huizenga.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?docuemntid=325003 hull, j.c. (1993). options, future, and other derivative securities. (2nd edn.). englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. ineichen, a.m. (2000). twentieth century volatility. journal of portfolio management, 27(1), 93–101. http://dx.doi.org/10.3905/jpm.2000.319787 jensen, m.c. (1968). the performance of mutual funds in the period 1945–1964. journal of finance, 23(2), 389–416. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.1968.tb00815.x jensen, m.c. (1969). the pricing of capital assets and the evaluation of investment portfolios. journal of business, 42(2), 167–247. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/295182 kaplan, s.n. (2012). executive compensation and corporate governance in the us: perceptions, facts and challenges. national bureau of economic research working paper 18395. cambridge, ma: nber. king codes i, ii, and iii, south africa. institute of directors, southern africa. (2009). king code of governance, the institute of directors in southern africa knowledge@wharton. (2010). executive compensation: more regulations, or just more transparency? retrieved from http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articlleid+2431 mishel, l., & sabadish, n. (2013). ceo pay in 2012 was extraordinarily high relative to typical workers and other high earners. economic policy institute. retrieved from http://epi.org/publications/ceo-pay-2012-extraordinarily-high/ moody’s. (2006). us executive pay structure and metrics. retrieved from http://www.moodys.com/sites/products/aboutmoody’sratingsattachments/2005700000426959.pdf morrissey, d. (2012). executive compensation and income equality. gonzaga university school of law legal studies research paper no. 2012-2. retrieved from http://ssrn.com/abstract=2048698 o’hara, m. (1997). market microstructure theory. oxford: blackwell. paulo, s. (2011). executive remuneration and the principles of the financial stability forum of 2009. international journal of law and management, 53(6), 448–461. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17542431111185204 paulo, s., & le roux, p. (2014). executive remuneration and corporate governance in south africa: the challenge of measurement. journal for development and leadership, 3(2), 35–44. pritsker, m. (2000). the channels for financial contagion. washington, dc: the federal reserve board. reilly, f.k., wright, d.j., & chan, k.c. (2000). bond market volatility compared to stock market volatility. journal of portfolio management, 27(1), 82–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.3905/jpm.2000.319786 republic of south africa. (2008). south african companies act, of 2008. south africa. schwert, g.w. (1989). why does stock market volatility change over time? journal of finance, 44(5), 1115–1153. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.1989.tb02647.x securities and exchange act 1934, usa. retreived n.d., from https://www.sec.gov/about/laws/sea34.pdf sekaran, u. (2000). research methods for business. (3rd edn.). new york: wiley. shorter, g., 2013. the ‘pay ratio provision’ in the dodd-frank act: legislation to repeal it in the 113th congress. congressional research service, 7-5700. retrieved n.d., from http://www.crs.gov r43262 sias, r. (2007). causes and seasonality of momentum profits. financial analysts journal, 63(2), 48–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.2469/faj.v63.n2.4521 smith, e.b., & kuntz, p. (2012). ceo pay 1, 795-1 multiple of wages skirts us law. bloomberg. retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-30/ceo-pay-1-795-1-multiple-of-workers-skirts-law-as-sec-delays.html the guardian, david cameron’s plans for executive pay may not end spiralling bonuses. retrieved january 09, 2012, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/video/2012/jan/09/david-cameron-executive-pay treanor, j. (2014). vince cable tells top uk firms: crack down on bonuses or face new laws. the guardian. retrieved n.d., from http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/apr/22/vince-cable-tells-uk-firms-cracktreynor, j.l. (1965). how to rate management of investment funds. harvard business review, 43(1), 63–75. treynor, j.l., & mazuy, k. (1966). can mutual funds outguess the market? harvard business review, 44(4), 131–136. united kingdom. (2006). uk companies act, of 2006 (c. 46). united kingdom. united states of america. (2002). sarbanes-oxley act, of 2002, public law 107–204, july 30. united states of america. united states of america. (2010). dodd-frank act of 2010. united states. van horne, j.c. (1998). financial market rates and flows. (5th edn.). nj: prentice hall. new jersey. van rijckeghem, c., & weder, b. 1999. sources of contagion: finance or trade. international monetary fund working paper wp/99/146. washington, dc: international monetary fund. waters, j. (2013). amendments to h.r. 1135 offered by ms. waters. retrieved from http://financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/bills-113-hr1135-w000187-amdt-001.pdf appendix 1 extract from paulo and le roux (2014, pp. 37–38): where: vops = the value of operations; and pv = present value of expected future cash flow. in other words (brigham & ehrhardt, 2011, p. 515), where: wacc = weighted average cost of capital of all the firm’s financing components; and fcft = free cash flows for all periods t and which can have positive, zero, or negative values. to accommodate growth, the value of the firm’s operations can be rewritten adapted from brigham and ehrhardt (2011, p. 517): where: g = the growth rate. since fcf is determined by capital already invested, sales and the growth in sales, as well as the profitability of sales in relation to the capital required to generate those sales, equation (a2) can be rewritten (brigham & ehrhardt, 2011, p. 526): equation (a3) comprises two main components, capitaln, the monetary amount of operating capital already invested in the firm, as well as the value management has added or subtracted: . the term: shows the present value of the growth in sales discounted at the firm’s wacc. since an increase in sales often necessitates an increase in cr over and above the cost of sales, the term: is needed because it shows the difference in op, and the firm’s discount rate or cost of capital, wacc, multiplied by the firm’s additional capital requirement to finance the growth in sales. thus, this term shows the return over and above the cost of capital earned in relation to the additional capital investment needed to fund the growth in sales. abstract introduction research purpose literature review research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) rennie naidoo department of informatics, university of pretoria, south africa citation naidoo, r. (2018). role stress and turnover intentions among information technology personnel in south africa: the role of supervisor support. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a936. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.936 original research role stress and turnover intentions among information technology personnel in south africa: the role of supervisor support rennie naidoo received: 21 mar. 2017; accepted: 30 nov. 2017; published: 04 apr. 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: high turnover of information technology (it) personnel is a major problem facing many global and local organisations. an increasingly important area of turnover research of it personnel experiencing role stress involves examining their perceptions of supervisor support. research purpose: this study aimed to examine the effects of role-related stress and supervisor support on job satisfaction, job performance and it turnover intentions. motivations for the study: it is important to assess from both a theoretical and a practical perspective the extent to which turnover can be explained by relational factors such as supervisor support. research design, approach and method: an online voluntary survey yielded a sample of 163 respondents. six constructs were measured: turnover intention, job performance, job satisfaction, supervisor support, role ambiguity and role conflict. a total of 158 usable responses were subjected to descriptive, correlation and regression analysis. mediation and moderation effects were assessed using a multiple regression bootstrapping procedure. main findings: role ambiguity has a greater impact on job satisfaction than role conflict. job satisfaction fully mediated the relationship between role stress and turnover intention. supervisor support mediated the relationship between role stressors and job satisfaction and role stressors and job performance. there was no evidence in favour of a moderating role of supervisor support. practical and managerial implications: higher priority should be given to tackling role ambiguity. supervisor support can increase job satisfaction, improve job performance and ultimately reduce turnover intentions, despite the presence of role stress. contribution or value-add: human resource managers and it managers could use these results to improve job performance and staff retention. introduction studies globally characterise information technology (it) personnel as being part of the ‘turnover culture’ (moore & burke, 2002). these norms of high turnover of it personnel are also a persistent challenge facing many south african organisations (igbaria, meredith & smith, 1995; smith & speight, 2006; naidoo, 2016). factors such as role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload, exhaustion, stress and burnout offer useful explanations for turnover decisions in it (johnson & stinson, 1975). a number of studies report that role-related demands, insufficient time to keep abreast with changing technologies, lack of resources and lack of support are among the primary sources of stress facing it personnel (ghapanchi & aurum, 2011). in fact, role ambiguity and role conflict are the most often cited drivers of it turnover (lee, 1999). the increasingly complex and demanding nature of it work is not surprising given the rapid technological changes and concomitantly greater expectations of end users, managers and government policymakers that it employees keep up with these changes in technology (lim & teo, 1999). in its national integrated information and communication technology (ict) policy white paper (telecommunications & postal services, 2016), the south african government recognises the importance of developing and retaining it skills. government policymakers recognise that the it skills supply–demand gap is a major barrier to realising their social objectives. the it skills gap also potentially impedes private sector companies from competing effectively in local and global markets. against this context of insufficient staff and resources, it is important to understand the different types of stressors experienced by it personnel who are forced to work longer hours and serve in varied organisational roles (ahuja, chudoba, kacmar, mcknight & george, 2007). role-related stress is of growing concern because it has significant economic implications for the national ict sector. role-related stress can lead to strain on emotional and physical health of it personnel, work exhaustion, depersonalisation, job dissatisfaction, career switching and consequently a decline in productivity in the national ict sector (armstrong, brooks & riemenschneider, 2015). more specifically, the withdrawal behaviours of stressed it personnel are also costly to organisations in terms of tardiness, rework, workdays lost, lateness, increased absenteeism, retirement and health costs (jamal, 1984). stressed it personnel are more likely to show withdrawal behaviours such as cynicism, lack of organisational commitment, intention to leave and turnover (moore, 2000). moreover, those who leave add to hiring and training costs as well as investment in training and social capital losses. meanwhile, although skilled it workers can easily find new jobs, they also incur costs in adjusting to a new job. while moderate levels of role-related stress can stimulate creativity and productivity (qasim, javed & shafi, 2014), excessive levels of stress in the it work environment may hinder industry competitiveness (cho & huang, 2012). however, the literature claims that strong supervisor support can relieve employee stress by improving the it work environment (de clercq, dimov & belausteguigoitia, 2016). for example, supervisors can address employee complaints and provide them with the required resources to complete their tasks (firth, mellor, moore & loquet, 2004). according to the buffering model of social support, employees that have good relationships with their supervisors can be productive even when they experience severe job stress (cummins, 1990; de clercq et al., 2016). given the scarcity of it talent, the critical importance of it personnel well-being and arguably high levels of role stressors they experience, the general aim of the study is to investigate the effect of role-related stressors on turnover intentions. furthermore, the it literature has not addressed the role of job satisfaction as a mediator of job stressors on turnover intentions adequately. in addition, although supervisor support is important in reducing role stress, few it studies have investigated this mediating relationship. research purpose the main purpose of this study was to examine how well job role stressors influence job satisfaction in it. it also examined the relationship between supervisor’s support, job satisfaction, job performance and turnover intentions. specifically, it addressed these four research questions: which role stressor, role ambiguity or role conflict has the biggest negative influence on job satisfaction? to what extent is the role stressor–turnover intentions relationship mediated by job satisfaction? does supervisor support moderate and/or mediate the relationship between role stressors and job satisfaction? does supervisor support mediate the relationship between role stressors and job performance? literature review turnover and turnover intentions in the last 50 years, more than 1500 articles have been published on voluntary turnover (holtom, mitchell, lee & eberly, 2008). since 1980, close to 100 studies focused on the voluntary turnover of it personnel alone, further reinforcing the importance of this problem in the it sector (ghapanchi & aurum, 2011; joseph, ng, koh & ang, 2007). voluntary turnover occurs when the decision to leave the organisation is at the employee’s discretion. this is different from involuntary turnover (layoffs, forced resignations, firing) where the organisation enforces the decision. according to human capital theory, while some voluntary turnover can be functional, it generally has a negative influence on workforce performance. firstly, voluntary turnover depletes the organisation-specific human capital accumulated by an employee. secondly, turnover eliminates the organisation’s return on its investment from a productive employee. thirdly, high turnover can disrupt the organisation’s operations, for example, managers need to redirect human resources away from maintenance and safety to product or service delivery activities. for practical reasons, most studies focus on voluntary turnover intention as opposed to voluntary turnover. voluntary turnover intention is the estimated probability that the employee will leave the organisation (nzukuma & bussin, 2011). not surprisingly, voluntary turnover intention is also the best predictor of voluntary turnover and is a popular dependent variable for actual voluntary turnover. although theoretical expansion of voluntary (avoidable or sometimes referred to as dysfunctional) turnover has been fruitful over the years, there continues to be a focus on stress, working relationship issues and job dissatisfaction. job satisfaction given the practical benefits for enhancing employee lives and improving the effectiveness of organisations, job satisfaction has been studied extensively in the hr literature. a popular theory of job satisfaction is the value-percept model (judge & klinger, 2007). the value-percept model expresses job satisfaction in terms of what employees value and the job outcomes (locke, 1969). this model predicts that discrepancies between employee desires and what is received are dissatisfying only if the job facet is important. while job satisfaction has several definitions, locke (1976) defines job satisfaction as ‘a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job experiences’ (locke, 1976:1304). while this definition emphasises a cognitive (evaluative) and affective (or emotional) perspective, other conceptualisations include a behavioural component. a review by judge and klinger (2007) found that job satisfaction is related to a number of workplace behaviours. these include attendance, turnover decisions, decisions to retire, psychological withdrawal behaviours, prosocial and organisational citizenship behaviours, workplace deviance behaviour and job performance. job satisfaction also shows a strong relationship with employee well-being (goswami, 2014; judge & klinger, 2007). however, while the literature recommends that organisations should value job satisfaction and employee well-being, it does not follow that these insights are generally applied by organisations. role stressors and job performance employees generally accept job roles because they provide important psychological benefits such as status, ego gratification and self-esteem (chang, jiang, klein & chen, 2012; cho & huang, 2012; jiang & klein, 2001). task identity, task significance, skill variety, autonomy and feedback are intrinsically motivating job characteristics (mcknight, phillips & hardgrave, 2009; payne, fineman & wall, 1976) that produce positive outcomes such as job satisfaction and job performance. however, roles can also be costly when employees are not able to perform them as expected. according to role stress theory (katz & kahn, 1978), employee role expectations experienced as prolonged pressure can create symptoms of ill health owing to strain and fatigue (driscoll, beehr, journal & mar, 2016; jamal, 1984). employees experience role stressors in the form of increasing demands and constraints. role stressors are composed of three distinct but related constructs: role overload, role ambiguity and role conflict. role overload occurs when a person cannot fulfil the work within the time available. in this case, role expectations are greater than the employee’s abilities and motivation to perform a task (goswami, 2014; holtom et al., 2008). role ambiguity occurs when a person has inadequate information to accomplish his or her role in a satisfactory manner. in this case, the employee does not have clear authority or knowledge about how to perform the assigned job (raman, vijayakumar bharathi, sesha & joseph, 2013). role conflict occurs when complying with one role makes it difficult or impossible to comply with another role. this suggests incompatible expectations and demands (rutner et al., 2008). it is plausible that role stressors are being experienced by local it personnel. this concept could illuminate more about it turnover in the south african context. it is also important to investigate the relationship between role stressors and job performance. supervisor support an increasingly important area of human resource management research involves examining employee perceptions of support at work (cummins, 1990; erturk, 2014; karasek, triantis & chaudhry, 1982). prior research argues that employees value support from their co-supervisor more than from their co-workers or organisation (kottke & sharafinski, 1988). supervisor support is the degree to which employees perceive that supervisors care about their well-being (de clercq et al., 2016). the perception of care and the provision of positive social interaction and resources support role demands. turnover research has begun to consider relational variables such as supervisor support (holtom et al., 2008; king & bu, 2005). perceived supervisor support and the quality of the leader–member exchange relationship have been found to predict employee turnover (erturk, 2014; wayne, shore & liden, 1997). in these studies, perceived supervisor support was negatively related to turnover. furthermore, employees who perceive greater social support have greater emotional and psychological resources for coping with role stressors (hoonakker, carayon & korunka, 2013). therefore, this study expects that the supervisor’s support of it personnel will mitigate the relationship between the role stressors that it personnel experience and their levels of job satisfaction. the research model and hypotheses figure 1 depicts a conceptual model of role stressors, supervisor support, job satisfaction and turnover intention in it drawn from the hr, organisational and psychology literature. figure 1: hypothesised model of the relationships between role stressors, supervisor support, job satisfaction, job performance and turnover intention in information technology. hypotheses role stressors are one of the ongoing challenges facing it personnel (ghapanchi & aurum, 2011). a number of it researchers make a strong case that role stressors result in emotional exhaustion, job dissatisfaction and turnover intention (dhar & dhar, 2010; lim & teo, 1999; moore, 2000). tedium factors, such as emotional exhaustion and fatigue, are also linked to role stressors and some studies have examined similar effects of technology advancements and threats of professional obsolescence (kim, 2005). studies have found that role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload reduce job satisfaction and hence increase it employee turnover intention (calisir, gumussoy & iskin, 2011). it personnel tend to also serve multiple user communities as it roles generally involve a high level of boundary spanning activities because of the nature of the job and the limited resources (lim & teo, 1999; moore, 2000; mourmant, gallivan & kalika, 2009; levina & vaast, 2014). studies show that it personnel involved in boundary spanning roles are more vulnerable to role stressors. for parsimony, the two role stressors (role ambiguity and role conflict) considered here are likely to influence job satisfaction differently (calisir et al., 2011). to test if role stressors are a determining factor in relation to job satisfaction, the first hypothesis states: hypothesis 1 (h1): there is a negative association between the employee’s role stress as a result of role ambiguity and role conflict on their job satisfaction, but the effects (size) will be different. a number of it studies have shown that role stressors are related to lower job satisfaction (calisir et al., 2011; joseph et al., 2007). substantial evidence from two recent systematic reviews found that job satisfaction is negatively related to turnover intentions (ghapanchi & aurum, 2011; joseph et al., 2007). however, few studies have tested the possibility of a meditational nature of job satisfaction (yousef, 2014). for example, joseph et al. (2007) found that job satisfaction significantly mediated the effects of role ambiguity and role conflict on it turnover intention. in this study, we test the possibility of it employees’ perceptions of role stressors and turnover intentions being mediated through job satisfaction (lerouge, nelson & blanton, 2006). this leads to the second hypothesis: hypothesis 2 (h2): the negative relationship between role stressors and turnover intention is mediated by job satisfaction. supervisor support is important in helping employees cope with stress (jamal, 1984) and stressful situations (karasek et al., 1982). as a result, stress does not have strong negative effects on their job satisfaction (harris, harris & harvey, 2008). on the contrary, individuals who lack supervisory support are vulnerable to the effects of role stress (visser & rothmann, 2009). empirical evidence regarding the effects of role stress is mixed (holtom et al., 2008). some studies have indicated that supervisor support interacts with role stressors in predicting job satisfaction, whereas other studies have not found evidence for such an interaction (kirmeyer & dougherty, 1988). other studies found that individuals who receive high levels of supervisor support cope better with stress and are more satisfied with their jobs (erturk, 2014; ghapanchi & aurum, 2011). while some studies suggest that supervisor support acts as a buffer that moderates the relationship between role stressors and job satisfaction, other studies have failed to replicate these results (baloyi, van waveren & chan, 2014). as indicated in figure 1, supervisor support may also play a role by linking role stress to job satisfaction. in other words, supervisor support may intervene between role stress and job satisfaction by attenuating or preventing negative role stress outcomes such as a reduction in job satisfaction. similarly, results are equally conflicting regarding the possibility of supervisor support mediating the relationship between role stressors and job satisfaction (baloyi et al., 2014). this study strives to clarify these results by verifying the possibility of the quality of supervisor support probably moderating and/or mediating the association between role stressors (role conflict and ambiguity) and job satisfaction. more precisely, two hypotheses will be assessed: hypothesis 3 (h3): supervisor support will moderate the relationship between role stress and job satisfaction, such that the negative relationship between role stress and job satisfaction will be weakest when supervisor support is the highest. hypothesis 4 (h4): the negative relationship between role stressors and job satisfaction is mediated by supervisor support. a few studies have suggested that supervisor support has been associated with improvements in job performance in stressful professions (abualrub, 2004). the relationship between supervisor support and job performance among it professionals requires further investigation (igbaria & baroudi, 1995). figure 1 proposes that supervisor support may intervene between role stress and job performance by attenuating or preventing negative effects on job performance (baloyi et al., 2014). to test if supervisor support plays a determining factor in the role stressor–job performance relationship, the fifth and final hypothesis states: hypothesis 5 (h5): the negative relationship between role stressors and job performance is mediated by supervisor support. research design a quantitative survey was employed to collect empirical data for hypothesis testing. many turnover studies employed a similar approach (ghapanchi & aurum, 2011). information technology personnel were targeted for this study. the target population of this study’s sample was derived from the e-mailing lists of a few local it professional bodies. five academic researchers as well as two experienced human resource development (hrd) practitioners pre-tested the survey for face and content validity. prior to the main survey, 20 postgraduate it students volunteered to complete the pilot survey to ensure face validity of the online questionnaire. the objective of this pilot was to test if the participants understood the questions and that the full spectrum of the scale were used. only minor changes to the questionnaire instructions and the design of the survey form were made as a result of the pre-test and pilot. the final questionnaire was divided into two main sections. section a dealt with the demographic information of the respondents, for example, age, tenure, gender and highest educational qualification. section b measured the research model’s six constructs. construct measures were adapted from prior studies. items for measuring job satisfaction were adapted from pond and geyer (1991). the construct’s four indicators were: all things considered, how satisfied are you with your current job? 1 (‘very dissatisfied’) to 5 (‘very satisfied’). in general, how much do you enjoy your job? 1 (‘don’t like it at all’) to 5 (‘like it very much’). knowing what you now know, would you take up your current job again? 1 (‘definitely would not take this job’) to 5 (‘would take this job without hesitation’). how does this job compare with your ideal job? 1 (‘far from ideal’) to 5 (‘close to ideal’). the remaining items were measured using a 5-point likert scale which ranged from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). the turnover intention construct’s three indicators adapted from allen and meyer (1990) were: i often think about quitting my job. as soon as i find a better job, i will leave this organisation. i will probably look for a new job in the near future. the job performance construct’s three indicators adapted from welbourne and johnson (1997) were: i am achieving my personal career goals at my current organisation. i am developing skills needed for my future career. i am making progress in my career. items measuring supervisor support were adapted from steelman, levy and snell (2004). the construct’s four indicators were: my supervisor actively listens to my suggestions. my supervisor enables me to perform at my best. my supervisor promotes an atmosphere of teamwork. overall, my supervisor does a good job. role stressors consisted of two constructs, namely, role conflict and role ambiguity (firth et al., 2004). role conflict consisted of three indicators: i work with two or more groups who operate quite differently. i receive incompatible requests from two or more people. i do things that are sometimes accepted by some people and not by others. the role ambiguity construct’s three indicators were: clear, planned goals and objectives exist for my job. i know what my responsibilities are. i know exactly what is expected of me. the combined email lists had approximately 1000 unique email addresses. subjects were prompted to complete the online questionnaire via a short email. the online survey was appropriate as it professionals were the focus of the study. following a single round of data collection, 163 responses were collected, giving an estimated response rate of 16.3%. five of these responses were incomplete and hence were discarded. the remaining responses were screened to identify any data entry errors as well as outliers. the final data for analysis consisted of 158 usable responses. these responses were sufficient given the number of variables and the correlation and multiple regression analysis techniques that were to be used to test the hypotheses (hair, anderson, babin & black, 2010). the data were analysed using the statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 24 and the process program. the process program developed by hayes (2012) was installed to conduct the mediation and moderation analyses. skewness of the constructs (ranging between −0.826 for supervisor support and 0.372 for role stressors) showed that the data were not highly skewed and kurtosis (ranging from −0.901 for turnover intentions to 0.611 for role stress) would not affect the results of the statistical analysis. statistical analysis principal component analysis (pca) with a direct oblimin rotation of the 20 scale items reflecting the variables of the study (role ambiguity, role conflict, supervisor support, job satisfaction, job performance and turnover intention) was conducted to identify their linear combinations (hair et al., 2010). the cronbach’s alpha test was used to test the internal consistency of the scale items (hair et al., 2010). as the job stressor variables measured the same concept, a composite variable was created using the average score of the summed variables. a minimum factor loading of 0.70 would be deemed to be acceptable (nunnally, 1967). to test hypotheses 1, standard multiple regression was used to determine how much of variance was explained by the two job stressor constructs. hayes (2012) process procedures were used to assess hypothesis 2, 4 and 5 (mediational) and hypothesis 3 (moderation). ethical considerations permission was granted by the university’s ethics committee as the study complied with protocols relating to voluntary participation and anonymity of respondents. results table 1 presents the profile of the respondents. the age of the respondents varied from 20 to 65 years with a mean age of 36 years (table 1). of these, 67.8% were male and 32.2% were female. although the sample consisted of a greater spread of male compared to female respondents, this response is perhaps not atypical of the south african it work context. only 22.8% of the sample consisted of it professionals younger than 30 years of age. over 70% of the respondents had 8 or more years total work experience. although respondents had diverse educational levels (high school to doctoral study), 94.2% of the respondents reported having at least some form of tertiary education. table 1: profile of the respondents. prior to performing pca, the suitability of the data for factor analysis was assessed. inspection of the correlation matrix revealed the presence of many coefficients of 0.3 and above. the kaiser–meyer–oklin value was 0.852. this exceeds the recommended value of 0.60. the bartlett’s test of sphericity reached statistical significance (p = 0.000), supporting the factorability of the correlation matrix. all components were retained for eigen value greater than 1. a stable 6-factor and 20-item solution emerged and the minimum values are shown in table 2, which shows that results for the constructs revealed sufficiently high internal consistency for most of the scales, ranging from 0.605 to 0.924. the response pattern for role conflict was slightly inconsistent. although this construct was below the cut-off value of 0.70, patterns like this sometimes occur with constructs involving few scale items. the construct was retained for further analysis. table 2: mean, standard deviation and construct reliabilities. results of the analysis, along with descriptive statistics (item means and standard deviations), are presented in table 2. while the mean score for turnover intention (mean = 3.16, sd = 1.19) appeared neutral, the sd score suggest a wide difference of opinion among respondents. job performance scores (mean = 3.34, sd = 0.99) appeared somewhat neutral. role ambiguity scores (mean = 2.19, sd = 0.82) were generally low. role conflict scores (mean = 3.65, sd = 0.82) suggest that this stressor was prevalent in their jobs. scores for job satisfaction (mean = 3.42, sd = 0.93) suggest that many respondents were only slightly satisfied with their jobs. supervisor support had the highest performance score (mean = 3.69, sd = 0.99). table 3 shows that the scales were tested for independence using pearson’s product-moment correlation. all correlations were significant at p < 0.01 levels. the composite role stressor construct had a small positive relationship with turnover intention (r = 0.257, n = 158, p < 0.01). job satisfaction has a strong negative relationship with turnover intention (r = −0.520, n = 158, p < 0.01). job performance has a moderately negative relationship with turnover intention (r = −0.368, n = 158, p < 0.01) and a moderately positive relationship with supervisor support (r = −0.475, n = 158, p < 0.01). supervisor support has a moderately negative relationship with turnover intention (r = −0.402, n = 158, p < 0.01). the correlation between job satisfaction and supervisor support (r = 0.448, n = 158, p < 0.01) was also moderate. preliminary analyses were performed to ensure no violation of the assumptions of normality, linearity and homoscedasticity existed. intercorrelations among scales did not exceed 0.70, therefore the independence of the scales was considered adequate for this study. table 3: correlation matrix for job stressors, supervisor support, job satisfaction and job performance on employee turnover intention. hypothesis 1 predicted a negative relationship between role stressors and job satisfaction. the standard regression analysis presented in table 4 supports hypothesis 1. further analysis compared the independent contribution of role ambiguity and role conflict to job satisfaction. the beta-value for role ambiguity (beta = −0.273, p < 0.001) was higher than role conflict (beta = −0.123, p < 0.174, ns, nonsignificant) and statistically significant, suggesting that only role ambiguity made a unique contribution to predicting job satisfaction. table 4: regression analysis of role stress on job satisfaction. hypothesis 2 proposed that job satisfaction mediates the relationship between role stressors and turnover intention. hayes’ (2012) process macro for statistical mediation analysis was applied once it was verified that the data had met the assumptions of linearity, normally distributed errors and uncorrelated errors. table 5 shows the means, standard deviations and intercorrelations. figure 2 shows the values of b and p for the effects. as figure 3 illustrates, the standardised regression coefficient between role stress and job satisfaction was statistically significant, as was the standardised regression coefficient between job satisfaction and turnover intentions. these results support the mediational hypothesis. role stressor was no longer a significant predictor of turnover intentions after controlling for the mediator, job satisfaction, b = 0.262, se = 0.146, ns, consistent with full mediation. the indirect effect of x on y, the model with the relationship between role stressor and turnover intentions being mediated by job satisfaction, were computed for 1000 bootstrapped samples at the 95% confidence interval (hayes, 2013). the indirect effect was statistically significant. thus, this analysis confirms that job satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between role stressors and turnover intentions, b = 0.27, bias-corrected and accelerated (bca) bootstrap confidence interval (ci) (0.1268, 0.473). figure 2: diagram of the job satisfaction mediation model with regression coefficients, indirect effects and bootstrapped confidence intervals. figure 3: diagram of the job satisfaction moderation model with regression coefficients and interaction effect. table 5: means, standard deviations and intercorrelations for job satisfaction, role stressors and turnover intentions. hypothesis 3 proposed that supervisor support would moderate the relationship between role stressors and job satisfaction. once again, the data met the assumptions of linearity, normally distributed errors and uncorrelated errors. hayes’ (2012) process macro for statistical moderation analysis was applied to determine if supervisor moderates the relationship between role stressors and job satisfaction. a statistically significant interaction was found [f(3,154) = 16.54, p < 0.001, r squared = 0.21] for the model of supervisor support, role stress and the interaction of role stress and supervisor support. this model predicts 21% of the variance in job satisfaction. table 6, however, shows that the interaction effect of role stress × supervisor support was not significant, suggesting that supervisor support was not moderating the relationship between role stressors and job satisfaction. table 6: multiple regression analysis’ summary for role stressors and job satisfaction moderated by supervisor support. there was no statistically significant negative relationship between role stress and job satisfaction [b = −0.87, 95% ci (−0.349, 0.176), t = −0.6516, p = ns]. when supervisor support was at the mean, there was no statistically significant negative relationship between role stress and job satisfaction [b = −0.16, 95% ci (−0.447, −0.1374), t = −1.0471, p = ns]. finally, when supervisor support was high, there was no statistically significant negative relationship between role stress and job satisfaction [b = −0.22, 95% ci (−0.627, −0.1801), t = −1.0937, p = ns]. both sets of predictor data were centred using the process command to conduct a slope analysis (hayes, 2012). the pattern derived from the results diagrammed in figures 4 and 5 confirms the existence of a main effect for supervisor support but not for an interaction effect of role stress (rst) × supervisor support (sups) on job satisfaction (js). figure 4: graphing the interaction effects of role stressors and supervisor support in the prediction of job satisfaction. figure 5: diagram of the supervisor support mediation model with regression coefficients, indirect effects and bootstrapped confidence intervals. hypothesis 4 proposed that supervisor support would play a mediating role between role stressors and job satisfaction. table 7 shows the means, standard deviations and intercorrelations. figures 4 and 5 confirm that supervisor support fully mediates the relationship between role stressors and job satisfaction [b = −0.29, bca ci (−0.4634, −1.694)]. table 7: means, standard deviations and intercorrelations for supervisor support, role stressors and for job satisfaction. hypothesis 5 proposed that supervisor support would also play a mediating role between the role stressors and job performance. table 8 shows the means, standard deviations and intercorrelations. figure 6 shows the values of b and p for the effects. the analysis confirms that supervisor support fully mediates the relationship between role stressors and job performance [b = −0.35, bca ci (−0.533, −0.208)]. figure 6: diagram of the supervisor support mediation model with regression coefficients, indirect effects and bootstrapped confidence intervals. table 8: means, standard deviations and intercorrelations for supervisor support, role stressors and for job performance. discussion this research examined how role stressors influenced job satisfaction among it personnel, the extent to which the role stressor–turnover intentions relationship is mediated by job satisfaction, the extent to which the role stressor job satisfaction relationship is moderated and/or mediated by supervisor support and the extent to which the role stressor–job performance relationship is also mediated by supervisor support. the results from the empirical study of 158 it personnel supports hypotheses 1, 2, 4 and 5. the results provided no evidence in favour of hypotheses 3 which proposed a moderating role of supervisor support. as predicted, there was a negative relationship between role stressors and job satisfaction. furthermore, in this study, the role stressor, role ambiguity, was the sole predictor of turnover intention (and not role conflict). the negative influence of role ambiguity compared with other role stressors has been noted by other researchers (zhao & rashid, 2010). still, it is interesting that it personnel in south africa have a higher tolerance for role conflict than for role ambiguity. role ambiguity issues around aspects, such as unclear or inadequate information or lack of authority to accomplish tasks, remain a major concern. furthermore, this study emphasises the importance of adopting strategies to deliver more supervisor support for it personnel in the workplace (krishnan & singh, 2010; lacity, iyer & rudramuniyaiah, 2009; thatcher, liu, stepina, goodman & treadway, 2006). there is clear evidence that role stressors are a risk that leads to turnover intentions among it personnel. however, the findings in this research suggest that supervisor support and job satisfaction function as mediators in this relationship. the results provided no evidence in favour of the so-called buffering effect or moderating role of supervisor support. the mediating role of supervisor support on influencing role conflict and role ambiguity on job satisfaction suggest that employees who perceive higher levels of role conflict and role ambiguity would be less satisfied with their job and consequently have higher intentions to leave the organisation. supervisor support considerably increased job satisfaction despite the presence of role stress. it is likely that the it staff’s relationship with supervisors enabled them to handle the presence of role stress by either decreasing the threats associated with role-related issues or by increasing the motivational resources available to cope with role-related issues. information technology personnel who report higher levels of supervisor support and greater job satisfaction have better relational and psychological resources for coping with role stressors. these forms of coping, in turn, lead to lower intentions to leave among employees. so supervisor support and job satisfaction are two mechanisms that the organisation can use to mitigate the risk of role stressors. the role of supervisor support is not limited to reducing the effects of role stressors on turnover intentions. supervisors also need to play an active role in the career development opportunities for employees. there is clear evidence from this study that supervisor support also encourages better job performance even in the presence of job stressors. finally, despite innovative job designs based on concepts such as self-management, agility and autonomous work teams, this study provides evidence that supervisor support remains vital in reducing the impact of role stress, increasing job satisfaction and improving the job performance of it personnel. practical implications the current social and business climate places extra demands on it employees and involves various role stressors, especially role ambiguity. one practical implication of this research is that role ambiguity has a much greater impact on turnover intention than role conflict, so organisations should give the highest priority to tackling role ambiguity in managing role stress. the second practical implication of the findings is the importance of supervisor support as an intervention in the presence of role stress. the third practical implication of these findings is the importance of keeping job satisfaction as high as possible in the presence of role stressors. the findings suggest that much of the impact of role stressors on turnover intentions goes through job satisfaction and if management can find ways to increase job satisfaction, they may be able to retain their employees even though role stress is present. supervisor support and being sensitive to job satisfaction needs can go a long way in compensating for the negative effects of role stressors. limitations and recommendations the present research has several limitations that should be noted. firstly, the study drew from a sample frame of it professionals. therefore, these findings must be confirmed for other types of it workers. secondly, the study also suffered from biases inherent in most voluntary survey-based research. in the case of this survey, the responses were skewed towards respondents who were receiving high degrees of supervisor support. furthermore, this survey was limited to views of relatively older and more experienced it professionals. thirdly, supervisor support was the only relational resource investigated in reducing role stress. there are potentially more valuable relational resources. for example, future studies can examine the influence of organisational support, co-worker support, supervisor support and even family support. prior research has also shown that the relationship between role stressors and intention to quit may vary widely, depending on the functional role and level of employees. future studies could focus on the broader organisational hierarchy in it and it job types, and investigate how these differences may influence role stress and turnover. finally, this study assumes that role stressors are generally constraining in nature. however, sometimes stressful demands can lead to personal development (qasim et al., 2014). future research could investigate the potential gains of role stress for individuals under certain conditions. conclusion despite the recent innovative job designs in it, based on concepts such as self-management, agility and autonomous work teams, this study provides evidence that traditional relational support structures such as supervisor support are still vital in improving overall job satisfaction and job performance of it personnel, in the presence of role stress. supervisors are crucial in helping it personnel to remain satisfied and to perform well in spite of role stress. this relational support ultimately contributes to the retention of scarce it talent. to improve staff retention, human resource managers, it managers as well as it supervisors could use these results to manage role stressors by also increasing job satisfaction to prevent unwanted turnover. studies of relational support in it can provide it leaders in this era of increasing role changes and work-related stress with new insights on how to improve employee performance and it talent retention. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. references abualrub, r.f. (2004). job stress, job performance, and social support among hospital nurses. journal of nursing scholarship, first quarterv, 36(1), 73–78. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1547-5069.2004.04016.x ahuja, m.k., chudoba, k.m., kacmar, c.j., mcknight, d.h., & george, j.f. (2007). it road warriors: balancing work-family conflict, job autonomy, and work overload to mitigate turnover intentions. mis quarterly, 31(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.2307/25148778 allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization. journal of occupational psychology, 63(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.x armstrong, d.j., brooks, n.g., & riemenschneider, c.k. (2015). exhaustion from information system career experience: implications for turn-away intention. mis quarterly, 39(3), 713–727. https://doi.org/10.25300/misq/2015/39.3.10 baloyi, s., van waveren, c., & chan, k.-y. (2014). the role of supervisor support in predicting employee job satisfaction from their perception of the performance management system. south african journal of industrial engineering, 25(1), 85–95. https://doi.org/10.7166/25-1-739 calisir, f., gumussoy, c.a., & iskin, i. (2011). factors affecting intention to quit among it professionals. personnel review, 40(4), 514–533. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481111133363 chang, c.l.h., jiang, j.j., klein, g., & chen, h.g. (2012). career anchors and disturbances in job turnover decisions – a case study of it professionals in taiwan. information and management, 49(6), 309–319. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2012.08.002 cho, v., & huang, x. (2012). professional commitment, organizational commitment, and the intention to leave for professional advancement: an empirical study on it professionals. information technology & people, 25(1), 31–54. https://doi.org/10.1108/09593841211204335 cummins, r.c. (1990). job stress and the buffering effect of supervisory support. group & organization management, 15(1), 92–104. https://doi.org/10.1177/105960119001500107 de clercq, d., dimov, d., & belausteguigoitia, i. (2016). perceptions of adverse work conditions and innovative behavior: the buffering roles of relational resources. entrepreneurship: theory and practice, 40(3), 515–542. https://doi.org/10.1111/etap.12121 dhar, r.l., & dhar, m. (2010). job stress, coping process and intentions to leave: a study of information technology professionals working in india. social science journal, 47(3), 560–577. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soscij.2010.01.006 driscoll, m.p.o., beehr, t.a., journal, s., & mar, n. (2016). supervisor behaviors, role stressors and uncertainty as predictors of personal outcomes for subordinates. jst, 15(2), 141–155. erturk, a. (2014). influences of hr practices, social exchange, and trust on turnover intentions of public it professionals. public personnel management, 43(1), 140–175. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026013517875 firth, l., mellor, d.j., moore, k.a., & loquet, c. (2004). how can managers reduce employee intention to quit? journal of managerial psychology, 19(2), 170–187. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940410526127 ghapanchi, a.h., & aurum, a. (2011). antecedents to it personnel’s intentions to leave: a systematic literature review. journal of systems and software, 84(2), 238–249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2010.09.022 goswami, s. (2014). work-life conflict among it professionals. the iup journal of organizational behavior, xiii(4), 38–59. hair, j.f., anderson, r.e., babin, b.j., & black, w.c. (2010). multivariate data analysis: a global perspective. cape town: pearson. harris, r.b., harris, k.j., & harvey, p. (2008). an examination of the impact of supervisor on the relationship between job strains and turnover intention for computer workers. journal of applied social psychology, 38(8), 2108–2131. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2008.00383.x hayes, a.f. (2012). process: a versatile computational tool for observed variable mediation, moderation, and conditional process modeling. retrieved october 14, 2017, from http://www.processmacro.org/index.html hayes, a.f. (2013). introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: a regression-based approach. new york: guilford press. holtom, b.c., mitchell, t.r., lee, t.w., & eberly, m.b. (2008). turnover and retention research: a glance at the past, a closer review of the present, and a venture into the future. the academy of management annals, 2(1), 231–274. https://doi.org/10.1080/19416520802211552 hoonakker, p., carayon, p., & korunka, c. (2013). using the job-demands-resources model to predict turnover in the information technology workforce – general effects and gender differences. horizons of psychology, 22, 51–65. igbaria, m., & baroudi, j. (1995). the impact of job performance evaluations on career advancement prospect : an examination of gender differences in the is workplace. mis quarterly, 19(1), 107–123. https://doi.org/10.2307/249713 igbaria, m., meredith, g., & smith, d.c. (1995). career orientations of information systems employees in south africa. journal of strategic information systems, 4(4), 319–340. https://doi.org/10.1016/0963-8687(95)80002-8 jamal, m. (1984). job stress and job performance controversy: an empirical assessment. organizational behavior and human performance, 33(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(84)90009-6 jiang, j., & klein, g. (2001). supervisor and career anchor on the career satisfaction of the entry-level information systems professional. journal of management information system, 16(3), 219–240. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421222.1999.11518262 johnson, t.w., & stinson, j.e. (1975). role ambiguity, role conflict, and satisfaction: moderating effects of individual differences. the journal of applied pychology, 60(3), 329–333. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0076752 joseph, d., ng, k., koh, c., & ang, s. (2007). turnover of information technology professionals: a narrative review, meta-analytic structural equation modeling, and model development. mis quarterly, 31(3), 547–577. https://doi.org/10.2307/25148807 judge, t.a., & kinger, r. (2007). job satisfaction: subjective well-being at work. in m. eid & r. larsen (eds.), the science of subjective well-being (pp. 393–413) new york: guilford publications. karasek, r.a., triantis, k.p., & chaudhry, s.s. (1982). coworker and supervisor support as moderators of associations between task characteristics and mental strain. journal of organizational behavior, 3(2), 181–200. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030030205 katz, d., & kahn, r. (1978). the social psychology of organizations. new york: wiley. kim, s. (2005). factors affecting state government information technology employee turnover intentions. the american review of public administration, 35(2), 137–156. https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074004273150 king, r.c., & bu, n. (2005). perceptions of the mutual obligations between employees and employers: a comparative study of new generation it professionals in china and the united states. the international journal of human resource management, 16(1), 46–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/0958519042000295948 kirmeyer, s.l., & dougherty, t.w. (1988). work load, tension, and coping: moderating effects of supervisor support. personnel psychology, 41(1), 125–139. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1988.tb00635.x kottke, j., & sharafinski, c. (1988). measuring perceived supervisory and organizational support. educational and psychological measurement, 48(4), 1075–1079. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164488484024 krishnan, s.k., & singh, m. (2010). outcomes of intention to quit of indian it professionals. human resource management, 49(3), 421–437. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20357 lacity, m.c., iyer, v.v., & rudramuniyaiah, p.s. (2009). turnover intentions of indian is professionals. information systems outsourcing (third edition): enduring themes, global challenges, and process opportunities, 2004, 393–421. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-88851-2_18 lee, p.c.b. (1999). turnover of information technology professionals: a contextual model. accounting, management and information technologies, 10(2), 101–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0959-8022(99)00016-8 lerouge, c., nelson, a., & blanton, j.e. (2006). the impact of role stress fit and self-esteem on the job attitudes of it professionals. information and management, 43(8), 928–938. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2006.08.011 levina, n., & vaast, e. (2014). innovating or doing as told? status differences and overlapping boundaries in offshore collaboration. mis quarterly, 32(2), 307–332. https://doi.org/10.2307/25148842 lim, v.k.g., & teo, t.s.h. (1999). occupational stress and it personnel in singapore: factorial dimensions and differential effects. international journal of information management, 19(4), 277–291. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0268-4012(99)00027-4 locke, e.a. (1969). what is job satisfaction? organizational behavior and human performance, 4, 309–336. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(69)90013-0 locke, e.a. (1976). the nature and causes of job satisfaction. in m.d. dunnette (ed.), handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 1297–1349), new york: holt, reinhart & winston. mcknight, d.h., phillips, b., & hardgrave, b.c. (2009). which reduces it turnover intention the most: workplace characteristics or job characteristics? information and management, 46(3), 167–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2009.01.002 moore, j.e. (2000). one road to turnover: an examination of work exhaustion in technology professionals. mis quarterly, 24(1), 141–168. https://doi.org/10.2307/3250982 moore, j.e., & burke, l.a. (2002). how to turn around ‘turnover culture’ in it. communications of the acm, 45(2), 73–78. https://doi.org/10.1145/503124.503126 mourmant, g., gallivan (mike), m.j., & kalika, m. (2009). another road to it turnover: the entrepreneurial path. european journal of information systems, 18(5), 498–521. https://doi.org/10.1057/ejis.2009.37 naidoo, r. (2016), a communicative-tension model of change-induced collective voluntary turnover in it, the journal of strategic information systems, 25(4), 277–298. nunnally, j.c. (1967). psychometric theory. new york: mcgraw-hill series in psychology. nzukuma, k.c.c., & bussin, m. (2011). job-hopping amongst african black senior management in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 9(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.360 payne, r.l., fineman, s., & wall, t.d. (1976). organizational climate and job satisfaction: a conceptual synthesis. organizational behavior and human performance, 16, 45–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(76)90006-4 pond, s.b., & geyer, p.d. (1991). differences in the relation between job satisfaction and perceived work alternatives among older and younger blue-collar workers. journal of vocational behavior, 39(2), 251–262. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(91)90012-b qasim, t., javed, u., & shafi, m.s. (2014). impact of stressors on turnover intention : examining the role of employee well-being, international journal of social, management, 8(1), 176–184. raman, r., vijayakumar bharathi, s., sesha, v., & joseph, s. (2013). use of structural equation modeling to empirically study the turnover intentions of information technology professionals in pune city. indian journal of science and technology, 6(12), 5612–5624. rutner, p.s., rutner, p.s., hardgrave, b.c., hardgrave, b.c., mcknight, d.h., & mcknight, d.h. (2008). emotional dissonance and the information technology professional. mis quarterly, 32(3), 635–652. https://doi.org/10.2307/25148859 smith, d.c., & speight, h.l. (2006). antecedents of turnover intention and actual turnover among information systems personnel in south africa. in proceedings of the 2006 acm sigmis cpr conference on computer personnel research forty four years of computer personnel research: achievements, challenges & the future – sigmis cpr ’06 (p. 123–129), claremont, california, april 13–15, acm press, germany. https://doi.org/10.1145/1125170.1125205 steelman, l.a., levy, p.e., & snell, a.f. (2004). the feedback environment scale: construct definition, measurement, and validation. educational and psychological measurement, 64(1), 165–184. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164403258440 telecommunications & postal services. (2016). national integrated ict policy white paper. pretoria. retrieved january 14, 2017, from https://www.dtps.gov.za/images/phocagallery/popular_topic_pictures/national_integrated_ict_policy_white.pdf thatcher, j.b., liu, y., stepina, l.p., goodman, j.m., & treadway, d.c. (2006). it worker turnover: an empirical examination of intrinsic motivation. acm sigmis database, 37(2–3), 133–146. https://doi.org/10.1145/1161345.1161361 visser, w., & rothmann, s. (2009). the development of a hassle-based diagnostic scale for predicting burnout in call centres. sa journal of human resource management, 7(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.181 wayne, s.j., shore, l.m., & liden, r.c. (1997). perceived organizational support and leadermember exchange: a social exchange perspective. academy of management journal, 40(1), 82–111. https://doi.org/10.2307/257021 welbourne, t.m., & johnson, d.e. (1997). the role-based performance scale: validity analysis of a theory-based measure (no. #97-05). ithaca, ny. retrieved july 25, 2009, from http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrswp/147 yousef, d.a. (2002). job satisfaction as a mediator of the relationship between job stressors and affective, continuance, and normative commitment: a path analytical approach. international journal of stress management, 9(2), 99–112. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1014954703735 zhao, l., & rashid, h. (2010). the mediating role of work-leisure conflict on job stress and retention of it. academy of information and management sciences journal, 13(2), 25–41. 3smith.qxd although van tonder (2004:7) asserts that south african entrepreneurs could create one million new job opportunities and therefore reduce the unemployment rate from 31,2% to 25%, it appears that the entrepreneurial activity ratio in south africa (4,3%) has declined as compared to other developing countries (an average of 21,5%). the two most important factors contributing to this scenario are: lack of financing facilities and a shortage of skills due to poor education and training. orford, wood, fisher, herrington and segal (2003:56) concur that education, training and experience are the key elements in successful vent ure creation. state of small business development annual review (2002:47) also viewed limited appropriate skills as the major deterrent to survivalist and micro enterprises, besides inadequate finance. according to erasmus and van dyk (2003:1), a large percentage of south africa’s population is unskilled and the numbers are too great for the formal education system to bear. this emphasizes the importance of acquisition of skills and therefore the need for training to acquire these skills. for the purpose of this study, micro entrepreneurs can be regarded as being informal, have less than five employees and very little assets (white paper on national strategy for the development and promotion of small businesses in south africa, 1995:9). maundu (1997) postulates that, the major factor in sustaining employment in the informal sector, is training in entrepreneurial skills. the peterman circle (2000:1) claims “the training of young entrepreneurs is a key to south africa’s economic fut ure who can create their own wealth and business and jobs for others.” the important role of training is further highlighted by eagar (1996:61) and nasser (1984:105) who contend that there is a growing need to develop people and their skills. the challenge of achieving higher productivit y and skills levels places increasing demands on the capacity to educate and train large numbers of people in south africa. although the research literature on the topic of training appears to be quite extensive, garavan and o’cinneide (1995:1) is of the opinion that research on entrepreneurship education and training is sparse with the development of the literature in the area only in the past two decades. teke (1997:24) further emphasises the important role of training in empowering the workforce to be creative and innovative in meaningful business activities. manning (1996:10) also stresses that of all tasks, training and development of people is the most crucial – there is no other way to productivity, profitability or survival in the new business arena. bartle (2003:1) further argues that “micro enterprise training mainly focuses on developing skills necessary for generating growth and wealth and that beyond the set of skills which can be taught by others and learned by the entrepreneur, there are some important things one need to have (values) – they cannot be taught but need the willingness to practice them”. this statement leads to the research question to be addressed in this study: which micro-entrepreneurial skills are important for black micro entrepreneurs, and which training inter ventions could facilitate the acquisition of these skills? in this article, a theoretical exposition of entrepreneurial training and skills will first be given. thereafter, the research methodology of the qualitative study will be outlined, as well as the research results. lastly, the main conclusions and recommendations will be highlighted. objectives the main objective of this article is to investigate the need for training interventions in developing black micro ee smith s perks elroy.smith@nmmu.ac.za department of business management nelson mandela metropolitan university vista campus port elizabeth abstract this article outlines the results of a qualitative study, which investigates the nature of training interventions needed for developing black micro entrepreneurial skills in the informal sector. as this is a qualitative study, an empirical survey was conducted by means of a series of in-depth interviews with ten black micro entrepreneurs. a control group was used to verif y the results of the initial sample selected. four main types of entrepreneurial skills were identified, namely personal, technical, business operations and management skills. a model is developed indicating which training interventions and methods could be used to upgrade black micro entrepreneurial skills. general guidelines are also provided as to how training could be used to facilitate the acquisition of these microentrepreneurial skills. key words developing black micro-entrepreneurial skills, informal sector, training interventions training interventions needed for developing black micro-entrepreneurial skills in the informal sector: a qualitative perspective 17 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (1), 17-26 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (1), 17-26 entrepreneurial skills in the informal sector. to help achieve this main objective, the following secondary goals are identified: � to highlight the role and nature of entrepreneurial training. � to examine the skills levels of black micro entrepreneurs in the informal sector. � to investigate the type of training interventions needed in developing black micro entrepreneurial skills. � to develop a model of training interventions and methods needed for upgrading black micro entrepreneurial skills. � to provide general guidelines on how training interventions can facilitate the acquisition of black micro entrepreneurial skills. a theoretical overview of training and entrepreneurial skills definition of training according to de cenzo and robbins (1996:237), training is basically a learning experience, which seeks a relatively permanent change in an individual's skills, knowledge, attitudes or social behaviour. hellriegel, jackson, slocum, staude, klopper, louw & oosthuizen (2001:251) refer to improving an employee’s skills to the point where he or she can do the current job more effectively. training interventions and methods are thus aimed at changing the current level of skills and knowledge regarding a job. perspectives on entrepreneurial education and training rodrigues (2006:61) states that south africa has not yet had enough black people going through the education system and getting the necessary experience. for entrepreneurship training and education to be effective, it must not only be through factual knowledge and limited skills acquired in the classroom, but also through other more practical interventions (the foundation of economic and business development, 2006:1). fayolle (1998:1) asserts that entrepreneurship training programmes mostly focus on two areas: training for business start-ups, which centres mainly on the domain of knowledge, experience and aptit udes of entrepreneurs, and training those who will start-up businesses by creating entrepreneurs. garavan and o’cinneide (1995:4) state that the following are some commonly cited objectives of entrepreneurship education and training: to acquire knowledge relevant to entrepreneurship; to acquire skills in the use of techniques, analysis of solutions and synthesis of action plans; to identif y and stimulate entrepreneurial drive, talent and skills; to develop empathy and support for all unique aspects of entrepreneurship; to devise attit udes towards change and to encourage new start-ups and other entrepreneurial ventures. curran and stanworth (1989:2) highlight some deficiencies related to entrepreneurial education and training. although many established programmes can identif y participants who are highly successful and generated genuinely an entrepreneurial business, a hard-headed assessment might question the resource effectiveness of producing a few successes for the large throughput of participants usually involved. most of these training programmes last only for a few days, and not for longer periods. the mental preparation of the entrepreneur is often ignored in these training programmes. garavan and o’cinneide (1995:1) postulates that the paradigm behind most entrepreneurship education and training programmes is of a technical nature, by giving a quick-fix programme in those areas and disciplines which the participants are not familiar with. however, what is needed is to develop a new learning style which encourages participants to cope in new ways with the real world. aspects to focus on are: learning by doing; encouraging participants to solve problems from a multi-disciplinary viewpoint; developing more independence from external sources and to think for themselves; providing greater opport unit y for building networks and to develop emotional responses when dealing with conflict situations and uncertainty. a shift from a traditional teaching approach to an entrepreneurial-directed alternative is required where the instructor becomes a learning process facilitator. such an approach entails extensive use of learning exercises such as role playing, management simulations, struct ured exercises or focussed learning feedback sit uations in which the participant must take an active role. the major challenge of entrepreneurship education and training is therefore the appropriateness of curricula and training programmes for learning in the outside world. bolton and thompson (2001:280) concur that most entrepreneurs prefer learning by doing and do not respond to well to formal training programmes. henry (2003:1) mentions that effective entrepreneurship training and education programmes are those, which allows for early awareness-raising, securing proper funding and ensuring wide access. training interventions van dyk, nel, loedolff and haasbroek (2001:15) argue that the government is ultimately responsible for developing policies and laws aimed at the promotion of economic growth and social development of all its citizens. its role in education and training is reflected in these policies and laws, aimed at developing skills. as traditional private training markets could not keep up with the broader skills needed for economic development and growth, government emerged as a major role player in the education and training sector, deployed in three broad areas: providing supportive services, providing education and training itself and providing finances. the focal point of this article is on this second broad area, namely providing education and training. the government as the major stakeholder in education and training has implemented the training interventions mentioned below. outcomes-based education and training nel, van dyk, haasbroek, schultz, sono and werner (2004:427) post ulate that in terms of the national qualifications framework and the skills development act, the current national approach with regards to education and training is outcomes-focused. the focal point is on the mastering of knowledge and skills which are required to achieve a certain outcome and not on the inputs of traditional curriculum-driven education and training. it therefore emphasises the end result of the learning process (learners must demonstrate competency with a prescribed outcome) and the learning process and transfer of information itself (meyer, 2000:1). a learner-based and result-orientated approach to learning is followed, based on the following principles: entrepreneurs should be able to learn to their full potential; the success entrepreneurs achieves motivates them for greater success; a learner-friendly environment should be provided to entrepreneurs, thus creating a cult ure of life-long learning; learning of entrepreneurs is more than mere memorising of knowledge or rote learning of skills and all stakeholders, including the government, community and entrepreneurs themselves, must share the responsibility of learning. adult-based education and training (abet) adult learning (andragogics) refers to the education of and learning by adults to fulfil their roles as educators, workers, citizens and parents (erasmus and van dyk, 2003:128). adult learning is regulated by the adult basic education and training act, 52 of 2000, under the auspices of the national training board. adult basic education refers to education and training provision for people over the age of 15, not engaged in formal schooling or higher education and who have an educational level of less than grade nine (aitchison, 1997:2). abet includes training in: language, literacy and communication; smith, perks18 mathematical; literacy; natural sciences, art and culture; life orientation; technology; economic and management science; small, medium and micro enterprises and tourism. as the focus of this study is on entrepreneurs, one can assume that they are adult learners. nel et al. (2004:451) concur that workplace training and development programmes must recognise that learners are adults, often illiterate, requiring different teaching methods as compared to children. developers of learning and training programmes for entrepreneurs, need to account for the following adult learning characteristics: prefer to plan their own learning projects by means of a self-directed approach; possess a wide range of experiences which could facilitate the learning process; act from internal motivation with a need to grow and develop to self-realisation and are problemand task orientated during the learning process. national skills development strategy government intervened by establishing the national skills authority who developed a national skills development strategy, indicating priorities for skill development in south africa. according to nel et al. (2004:413), south africa has a poor skills profile as a result of the poor quality of general education, the inappropriateness of publicly funded training and the low level of private investment in training. this directly impact on the sustainability of small and medium-sized enterprises. the national skills development strategy was formed out of a compilation of the skills development act, 97 of 1998 and the skills development levies act, 9 of 1999. this initiative introduced new institutions, programmes and funding policies to increase investment in skills development. paterson (2004:1) concurs that the central focus of the national skills development strategy is to address huge disparities in educational, skill and wage levels in the working population and to utilise the workplace as an active learning environment. the overall intention is to equip south africa with skills to succeed in the global market and to address the challenges of an unequal society. to fulfil this mission five objectives have been identified to drive the national skills development strategy (erasmus & van dyk, 2003:29): developing a culture of life-long learning; fostering skills development in the formal sector for productivit y and employment growth; stimulating and supporting skills development in small, medium and micro enterprises; promoting opportunities for skills development in social development initiatives and assisting new entrants into employment in the labour market. mentorship clark and toto (2006:1) define mentorship as a structured oneto-one relationship or partnership that focuses on the needs of the mentored participant or entrepreneur. this requires a supportive relationship sustained over a period of time, usually between a novice and expert. entrepreneur nous (2006:1) states that mentorship is one of the key success factors for young entrepreneurs and further concurs that mentors and entrepreneurs launch their relationship by participating together in a program orientation where they increase their mentoring knowledge, hone their communication skills and establish the parameters of their mentoring relationship. generalised approaches to training interventions various generalised approaches to training interventions could be used to upgrade micro entrepreneurial skills for example: learning by exposure; educational; systems; problem-centred; action learning; analytical; incompetence and procedural (see for example erasmus & van dyk, 2003:50 and reid & barrington, 1997:115). not all of these approaches can be utilised for black micro businesses as their economic activities and education and skills levels are too low (nieman, hough & nieuwenhuizen, 2003:38). the following approaches are being discussed: � learning by exposure approach – it involves individual learning, whereby the entrepreneur is assumed to gather knowledge and to use it without any help, other than that offered by other entrepreneurs (reid & barrington, 1997:115); � educational approach – it is a long-term process and requires entrepreneurs to attend classes or by means of correspondence teaching to obtain formal recognised qualifications (reid & barrington, 1997:115); � experimental learning approach – the entrepreneur learns by means of exploring new initiatives and to experiment with new ideas, concepts and activities focussing on both the emotional and intellectual side of the learner (erasmus & van dyk, 2003:110); � experiential learning approach – experience precedes learning and it involves entrepreneurs in their own learning and to increase their awareness of the dynamics present in all human interactions (van dyk et al., 2001:292). the above-mentioned training interventions could therefore be used to upgrade the skills levels of black micro entrepreneurs in the informal sector. it should be noted that during these training interventions, various training methods or techniques could be used (e.g. lectures, case studies, role-playing, apprenticeship and computer-based training). an in-depth discussion of these training methods, however, falls beyond the scope of this article. the following section provides an overview of important entrepreneurial skills needed by micro entrepreneurs in the informal sector. definition of a skill wickham (1998:41) defines skills as knowledge, which is demonstrated by action – an ability to perform in a certain way. synonymous with skills are the words competencies and abilities. a literature search on skills, competencies or abilities revealed that skills can be classified into four categories, namely personal-, technical-, business operationsand management skills. categories of skills � personal skills most literature on entrepreneurship (evenden & anderson, 1992; pearson & thomas, 1991; van aardt & van aardt,1997 and vosloo,1994) identifies the skills necessary for starting a business. a combination of the lists compiled by van aardt and van aardt (1997:9) and vosloo (1994:38) include the following personal skills: good organisers; good problem-solving abilities; good communication skills; the abilit y to handle stress effectively; good leadership qualities; high degree of independent decision-making, and negotiation skills. � technical skills most secondary sources define technical skills as the ability to use the tools, procedures and techniques of a specialised field (hellriegel et al., 2001:34; robbins & de cenzo, 1998:13 and smit & cronje, 1997:19). according to hodgetts and kuratko (1989:46), technical knowledge enables one to “understand how specific things work”. the five categories identified by hirschowitz, slabbert, clark and van der walt (1989:60) consist of the following broad, but interrelated categories: product knowledge or what the particular product could do and what it could be used for; process knowledge or how to manufacture the relevant product and all the steps that need to be taken to do so; knowledge of the service being offered and how to perform the tasks necessary to render the service; knowledge of the market and the type of firm or person who would actually need or who could find a use for the product or service and knowledge of methods of communication to inform customers of the product or service. � business operations skills the following are comprehensive groups of basic business operations skills identified by smart force (2002:1) and van dyk developing black micro-entrepreneurial skills 19 et al. (2001:452): general business management for example, short-term planning, budgeting, handling security and safety; record-keeping for example, stock and inventory control and bookkeeping; financial management for example, handling of credit, debt and repayments; interpersonal relations for example, handling employees, and customer relations for example, selling, and dealing with customers. � management skills hatten (1997:314), robbins and de cenzo (1998:10) and whetten and cameron (1991:8) identified various skills of an efficient and effective manager. epstein and rogers (2002:183) summarise the competencies of a skilled manager as follows: manages rewards; recognising achievement; communicates effectively; presenting a clear vision; manages teams effectively; manages the environment; matches people’s skills with tasks; provides ongoing training; allocates resources generous and fair, and demonstrates high motivation and enthusiasm in their work. nieman and bennett (2002) describe the above-mentioned skills in terms of the management process of planning, organising, leading and control. a literature survey by van der wal (2001:37) on the critical skills that managers need to perform their management tasks, confirms the need for specific skills to execute the four management activities. all the above-mentioned skills were used during the empirically study in compiling interview schedules for the interviews and observations with the black micro business entrepreneurs. research results are also analysed and presented according to these categories of skills. research design research approach a qualitative research method was used, as the main concerned was to collect and analyse information in as many forms as possible, intended to be explorative (blaxter, hughes & tight, 1997:60). the qualitative research approach being used in this study is a combination of content analysis and grounded theory. grounded theory aims to construct theory by producing concepts that fit the data, whereas content analysis refers to the gathering and analysis of textual data. content analysis can, however, include quantitative and qualitative evaluations of text (struwig and stead, 2001:14-15). information was acquired mainly from primary sources. a preliminary secondary literat ure search was conducted to assist in categorising entrepreneurial skills for each interview and to compile the interview schedules. each interview schedule was semistructured, guided by a set of skills to be explored. observations and on-site experiences were also noted. the interviewing process usually started with introducing and explaining the set of skills to be investigated. thereafter, an opening question was asked to encourage in-depth discussions. the researchers did all the fieldwork themselves to find out if an issue was relevant to ensure validity. if during the interviews the participant failed to address an issue, the researchers explored whether the issue was applicable to the type of business and skill, or not. the aim of each interview was to investigate how micro entrepreneurs have developed their entrepreneurial skills, what training needs they have and how they think they could obtain the skills which they are lacking. as the in-depth study was qualitative and descriptive in nature, it was restricted to a maximum of ten black micro entrepreneurs in the informal sector. participants/respondents the population for this study could be regarded as all micro entrepreneurs in the informal sector, in the port elizabeth region, meeting the criteria of the study. snowball sampling was used, whereby the first few entrepreneurs provided the researcher with the names of other entrepreneurs. this sampling method was chosen, because one of the difficulties in this type of investigation was to ascertain the names of black micro entrepreneurs that complied with all the criteria for inclusion in the sample. information on the background of black micro entrepreneurs could not be obtained from any data basis. the micro entrepreneurs had to meet the following criteria for inclusion in the sample: owner-managed; less than three employees; geographical proximity limited to the port elizabeth region; foundation date of business venture from 1997 (must have had enough time for growth) and entrepreneurs from previously disadvantaged groups. the final sample thus selected was a convenience sample. the first few micro entrepreneurs were mainly street vendors and were identified during the normal day-to-day travelling of the researchers, according to their skills’ level and communication abilities. although some of the chosen micro entrepreneurs had to be eliminated from the study because of their inability to speak english, one was retained, as the researchers were able to use an interpreter during the in-depth interviews. the researcher attempted to include a diverse sample representing the service-, retailand manufacturing sector. measuring instrument(s)/methods of data collection as this is a qualitative study, in-depth interviews were conducted by means of a semi-structured interview schedule and observations and extensive on-site experiences on the premises of the black micro entrepreneurs. five interview schedules were constructed. procedure data was collected over a two-year period. although the period could appear to be lengthy, the reason behind it was to ensure reliability, as this is a qualitative study. the observations and onsite experiences often confirm the findings of the interviews. table 1 provides a summary of how the initial sample was compiled and the number of in-depth interviews conducted. table 1 summary of initial sample compilation and in-depth interviews conducted number of sample skills investigated number total businesses size during the interviews of in-depth number of interviews interviews 10 12 � interview 1: life1 12 story grid � interview 2: personal 1 12 skills � interview 3: technical 1 12 skills � interview 4: business 1 12 operation skills � interview 5: 1 12 management skills total number of 60 interviews conducted as can be seen from table 1, during the first interview a life story grid was obtained from the ten micro businesses, consisting of 12 black micro entrepreneurs. the biographical interview method was used to obtain information to document information on the entrepreneur’s life before inception of the business. this interview also gave an indication of the entrepreneur’s skills before starting the business. in the second to fifth interview the different skills acquired before and after start-up were explored, specifically focusing on how these micro entrepreneurial skills have been acquired. the skills investigated in these interviews are summarised in figure 1. the following example indicates how the semi-structured interview schedules were used during the interviewing process. during an investigation of personal skills, the participant was smith, perks20 asked to describe a normal working day. this gave an indication of how they manage their time. the participant would respond that the working day starts at 8:00 and often does not end before 20:00 at night, while highlighting all activities taking place during this time. the researchers took extensive field notes on these activities and then explored each one of them. the researchers also linked some issues such as a need for working late with the impact it could have on family life, thus link it to time management skills and stress management skills. the researchers then explored when the participant has acquired these skills (before or after start-up of the business) or if having acquired the skills at all. if the participant has not acquired the skills, the researchers explored how the participant suggests overcoming problems such as managing time or stress. some of these responses then have led to the next question(s). for example, if a participant suggests that they could manage time better if somebody else could do the work, the researchers would then explore how it can be organized, thus investigating delegation, decision-making and organising skills. technical product knowledge process knowledge service knowledge market knowledge communication knowledge personal stress management good organiser management persuasive approach planning delegation organising problem solving leading oral communication control leadership abilities decision-making negotiation business operations presentation general business management teambuilding record-keeping time management financial management interpersonal relations customer relations figure 1: categories of micro entrepreneurial skills empirically investigated as can be seen from the above-mentioned example, despite using a semi-structured interview schedule, the interviews were mostly unstructured, non-directive and in-depth in nature. informal discussions were initiated and conducted in each interview, allowing the participants freedom of expression. probing questions were asked so as to explore the meaning of some actions. the intention was to uncover the beliefand thinking structure of the participants. as the interview progressed, questions were generated and developed and participants were permitted to deviate from these questions. important aspects regarding entrepreneurial skills lead to further discussions around these aspects identified. the researchers offered no opinions on issues raised by the interviewees. if the participant mentioned a workshop as a training method, the researcher explored how this workshop could be conducted to provide the most effective results. central to each interview were incidents taking place. these incidents were further explored. observations during the interview and on-site experiences were also noted. statistical analysis/analysis of the data the skills level of black micro entrepreneurs were established during the introductory interview, which gave an indication of their skills level before inception of the business. the results of these introductory interviews were the only way to determine the extent of their skills level prior to start-up, as they were already established at the time of the interviews. these skills acquired before the inception of the business were compared and analysed with the skills level after being in the business for at least two years. these results were then analysed using conceptualisation to determine categories on the basis of themes, concepts or similar features. the constant comparison method was used to examine possible activity trends and the relationship among concepts. this process entailed four steps by summarising: which skills the micro entrepreneurs acquired before starting the business; which skills the micro entrepreneurs acquired after starting the business; which skills the micro entrepreneurs still do not possess, or possess to a certain extent and how these skills could be acquired. the summaries of the findings of these four steps were compared against the life story grid, which provided an indication whether education level, working experience or entrepreneurial background played a role in obtaining or lacking these skills. this process ensured that the correct training intervention could be linked to the various skills. in conducting this analysis, a conscious effort was made to set aside rigid presuppositions about the theoretical framework, so as to allow new training trends and methods to emerge from the data. in order to ensure consistency in coding, an initial coding scheme was developed during the analyses of the field notes, notes made from observations and critical incidents. these codes were then utilised for comparisons and modifications until all interviews had been analysed. reliability was ensured by using an intercoder reliability check. this entailed that the co-researcher reviewed the codes in order to improve the validity of interpretation of training interventions described. in event of a disagreement, the help of training experts in adult basic education and microand small businesses consultants were employed. the results of the interviews revealed that black micro entrepreneurs could not provide much input in terms of what training inventions could assists them in overcoming their lack of skills. a new sample of five black micro entrepreneurs in the formal sector (registered businesses) were interviewed for further suggestions (referred to as the control group). this new sample had to meet the same requirements as the original sample, with the exception of not having more than five employees. this control group, being more educated than the micro entrepreneurs in the informal sector, provided further suggestions regarding the training interventions that could assist micro entrepreneurs as to how to grow their business ventures and to acquire entrepreneurial skills. results the results of the five interviews conducted, are outlined below. for ease of reading and presentation purposes, the different categories on the basis of themes, concepts or similar features were presented in tabular format. no attempt was made to quantif y results, due to the qualitative nature of the study. life-story grid the results of the first interview on the life-story grid of the 12 black micro entrepreneurs and 10 micro businesses are outlined in table 2. table 2 clearly indicates which biographical characteristics of participants contribute to the low skills levels of these black micro entrepreneurs. factors such as a lack of education and working experience emphasise the need for entrepreneurial training. it seemed that those micro entrepreneurs with more skills had a tendency towards managing their businesses more formally (these two participants also had employees and had an entrepreneurial background). the micro entrepreneurs seemed to favour sole proprietorship as a form of ownership. it must be mentioned though that all these businesses were informal businesses, as none was registered. the two businesses, which were partnerships, had no formal partnership agreement but merely had a “gentlemen’s agreement”. the products and services offered by these businesses developing black micro-entrepreneurial skills 21 e n t r e p r e n e u r i a l s k i l l s were windscreen repairs; mohair products; exhausts and gaskets; knitted jerseys; fruit; flowers; dressmaking; wooden animals and pottery; tyre repairs and new tyres, and a spaza shop. as can be seen from the above analysis, the sectorial business profile comprises the service sector (three businesses), manufacturing sector (two businesses), retailing sector (three businesses), a combination of manufacturing and service (one business), and a combination of manufacturing and retailing (one business). table 2 results of the life-story grid of the black micro entrepreneurs biographical description frequency characteristics age 21 – 30 years 2 31 – 40 years 3 41 – 50 years 6 51 years 1 gender male 5 female 7 qualifications grade 12 7 grade10 1 grade 8 3 grade 6 1 working experience work in relatives shop 4 previous self-employment 1 work in related field 3 none 4 years in existence 2 – 5 years 6 6 – 10 years 4 employment size no employees 8 two employees 2 location township 5 close to smaller shopping centres 2 residential area 1 community self employment 2 centre grounds assistance received financed by husbands 3 got a partner 1 borrowed father’s equipment 1 family members manage and work 1 in business none 4 infrastructure savings/pension fund 3 use private/partner’s/brother’s vehicle 4 for deliveries public transport 5 form of ownership sole proprietor 8 partnership 2 personal skills level results of black micro entrepreneurs table 3 summarises the results of the second interview on personal skills that black micro business participants possessed before starting the business, and those personal skills acquired after start-up. table 3 further indicates which skills the participants are still lacking. these skills were placed in specific categories to prevent replication. some of these skills could be classified in more than one category. for example, being a good organiser, having leadership abilities, problem-solving, negotiation, delegation, team building could all be regarded as management skills. having a persuasive approach could be linked to customer relations skills. it should be noted that although there were only ten micro businesses, there were 12 participants as two businesses had two members. from table 3 it can be seen that black micro entrepreneurs mostly do not possess personal skills at all. some participants acquired good organisationand oral communication-, decisionmaking-, problem solvingand presentation skills prior to startup. they have acquired these skills prior to start-up mainly through previous working experience and if being previously self-employed. the only personal skills acquired after start-up are delegationand team building skills. table 3 results of the personal skills level of black micro entrepreneurs specific skills before after not at how acquired all stress management 0 0 12 good organizer* 5 0 6 previous working experience (4) previous self employment (1) persuasive approach 0 0 12 problem-solving 2 0 10 previous working experience (1) previous self employment (1) oral communication 7 0 5 previous working experience (7) leadership abilities 0 0 12 decision-making 1 0 11 previous self employment (1) negotiation 0 0 12 presentation 2 0 10 previous self employment (1) previous working experience (1) time management 0 0 12 delegation 0 2 10 experimental learning (1) previous self employment (1) team building 0 2 10 experimental learning (2) * one participant possess this skill to a certain extent technical skills level of black micro entrepreneurs the third interview investigated the technical skills of micro entrepreneurs. all participants acquired product-, process-, service-, marketand communication knowledge before start-up. they acquired these skills through: working in a related field (4 participants); previous self-employment (1 participant); working in relatives’ shop (4 participants); being involved in community projects (1 participant) and parents having a business in the same field (2 participants). business operations skills level of black micro entrepreneurs table 4 summarises the results of the fourth interview regarding business operations skills that black micro business participants possessed before starting their businesses and those acquired after start-up. it also indicates which skills the participants are still lacking and which skills they possess to a certain extent. table 4 results of business operations skills level of black micro entrepreneurs specific skills before after not at how acquired all general business management planning (short-term)* 0 0 11 budgeting* 0 0 11 handling security 0 0 12 record-keeping inventory control 0 0 12 filing 0 0 12 bookkeeping 0 0 12 financial management extension of credit 0 0 12 sources of finance* 0 0 11 interpersonal relations handling employees 0 2 10 exposure learning (2) employee procedures 0 0 12 customer relations all the customer relations dealing with customers 12 0 0 skills were acquired prior listening 12 0 12 to start-up through understanding needs of 12 0 0 either: customers working experience (7) perception of customers 12 0 0 personality (5) * one participant possesses this skill to a certain extent smith, perks22 table 4 clearly indicates that micro entrepreneurs do not have general business management-, record-keepingand financial management skills (not before or after start-up). only two micro entrepreneurs, who had employees, know how to handle employees. all micro entrepreneurs had customer relations skills. they have acquired all these customer relations skills prior to start-up through previous working experience (7 participants) and because it is part of their personality (5 participants). one participant has to a certain extent planning and budgeting skills, for example providing for lean times. one micro business participant has to a certain extent financial management skills, as money was borrowed from the family and had to be paid back. in summary one can deduce that business operations skills were not much evident amongst participants, with the exception of customer relations skills, which were acquired before start-up. management skills level of black micro entrepreneurs the fifth interview explored management skills possessed by micro entrepreneurs. table 5 shows how micro business participants acquired management skills after start-up. table 5 results of management skills level of black micro entrepreneurs specific skills after not at how acquired all planning 1 11 self-employment (1 participant) organising 5 7 experimental learning (5 participants) leading 3 9 experimental learning (1 participant) having employees (2 participants) control 4 8 experimental learning (3 participants) self-employment (1 participant) * no participants acquired these skills before start-up, or do posses it to a certain extent. long-term planning skills were acquired af ter gaining experience through owning a previous business. organising skills were acquired through making mistakes and learning from it. leadership skills have been acquired by having employees and learning to deal with them. control skills were mostly acquired through making mistakes and learning and owning a previous business. in summary, most participants do not possess management skills at all. results of the control group table 6 summarises the results on how personal-, business operationsand management skills can be acquired. the number of responses was not indicated, as the purpose of the results of the control group was merely to validate the results of the initial sample. furthermore, the technical skills were excluded from these interviews, as the results of the initial sample found that these skills are mostly needed for start-up, whereas the focus of this study is on growth and development. as can be seen in table 6, participants had various suggestions on how the various entrepreneurial skills could be acquired. it appears that almost all skills can be acquired through learning from mistakes (experimental learning) and previous working experiences. it was clear from the interviews that educational level contributes considerably as to how micro entrepreneurs manage their businesses and also to the successful growth thereof. table 6 results of the control group on how to acquire micro entrepreneurial skills main skills how to acquire micro entrepreneurial skills personal � attending seminars, workshops, short courses � learning from mistakes � self development � using a mentor � reading books on relevant topics � post matric studies, particularly in business field � stress management techniques such as meditation, exercise and diet � previous working experience � copying ideas implemented from other similar shops business � previous working experience operations � learning from mistakes management � previous working experience � learning from mistakes � reading books on relevant topics discussion as this is a qualitative study and the purpose is to generate new theory, the recommendations do not necessarily directly flow from the literature study and/or results. it should also be noted that the results of the study cannot be generalised to all micro entrepreneurs, but could be used as guidelines for upgrading skills of black micro entrepreneurs. conclusions in general, it can be concluded that black micro entrepreneurs in the informal sector have very limited skills. this is mainly due to a lack of formal education and training, which was apparent from the life story grid. from the results of the life story grid, it seems that previous working experience in a related field can contribute to the success of a micro entrepreneur’s business. it appears that skills competencies had been acquired mostly after start-up, through experimental learning (learning by making mistakes). as all micro business participants acquired technical skills prior to starting a business, it can be concluded that technical skills is a prerequisite for starting a micro business, or any business for that matter. previous working experience and growing up in an entrepreneurial environment contribute to obtaining all these entrepreneurial skills prior to start-up. training interventions is needed for developing personal skills and all business operation skills (especially the acquisition of financial management skills). of all the entrepreneurial skills, the lack of management skills appears to be the most obvious. the results of some of the personal skills, which could also be regarded as management skills (e.g. being a good organiser, problem-solving, leadership abilities, decision-making, delegation and team building) indicate the need for some form of training intervention to acquire these skills. the results of the control group confirm the need for training interventions to develop these entrepreneurial skills. recommendations figure 2 provides an overview of the recommended training interventions that could assist in improving the skills level of black micro entrepreneurs. it further indicates which specific training methods seem to be the most appropriate for micro entrepreneurs with low education levels and a lack of previous working experience. as can be seen from figure 2, learning by exposure as a training intervention, using interactive workshops, appear to be a highly recommendable training intervention. as the developing black micro-entrepreneurial skills 23 literacy level of these black micro entrepreneurs are very low, traditional training methods such as lectures, seminars and short courses may not always be suitable to develop these entrepreneurial skills. it must be noted that although the control group indicated they have acquired these skills through traditional methods such as education, workshops, or short courses, they had educational levels of matric and higher, and could thus justif y the use of these traditional training methods. furthermore, the interactive workshop method, through role-play, action learning, simulationand case study scenarios are favoured, as it will make it easier for these micro entrepreneurs to relate to what is really happening in their businesses. the pictorial study material method could assist in making the “message” more clearly and understandable to these micro entrepreneurs with low literacy levels. pictorial study material could also be used as a reference after the interactive workshops, if the micro entrepreneurs want to refresh their memories. the control group also indicated experimental learning as a favourable training intervention. this method could, however, be costly for the micro entrepreneur, as learning by mistakes, could drain the little monetary resources micro entrepreneurs have, or even lead to eventual bankruptcy. mentorship is a more preferred method, as the micro entrepreneurs do not have to leave their businesses and can acquire working experience whilst working in their own businesses. with the help of mentorship, the micro entrepreneurs can also gain experience in their particular field, without being exposed to a generic training approach, such as in conventional workshops, seminars and short courses. abet education could be useful to upgrade their qualifications towards a matric-level. this could be done on a part-time basis or through correspondence education. as most micro entrepreneurs cannot afford to pay for training, it is further recommended that the government initiates a fund through the budget to make skills training more accessible. the government could also encourage larger established businesses, through special incentives, to “adopt” a micro business which could grow and develop into more formal businesses. micro entrepreneurs should also adopt a culture of life-long learning. acquisition of entrepreneurial skills could also serve as a safeguard against business failure. ultimately, not only the micro business entrepreneur could benefit, but it could also stimulate the economic growth of the country as a whole. table 7 outlines some general guidelines that could be used to upgrade black micro entrepreneurial skills. limitations it should also be noted that the results of the study cannot be generalised to all micro entrepreneurs, but could be used as guidelines for upgrading skills of black micro entrepreneurs. the study was limited to black micro entrepreneurs in the informal sector, only in the port elizabeth region and did not include micro entrepreneurs from other regions in the country. the nature of qualitative research limits the sample size used in the empirical study. suggestions for further research it is suggested that the study is also conducted in other regions to include micro informal entrepreneurs from other areas. the study could also be expanded to include micro entrepreneurs in the more formal sector. smith, perks24 figure 2: a model of suggested training interventions/methods for upgrading black micro entrepreneurial skills table 7 general guidelines for using training interventions to upgrade black micro entrepreneurial skills number description of guidelines 1 important directions in the field of training that could impact on entrepreneurial training interventions are the following: a shift from rote, passive learning to active and experiential learning and a need for a problem-solving, practical orientation, instead of a textbook orientation. 2 although the content of entrepreneurial training programmes should focus on the black entrepreneur’s environment, the mental preparation of the entrepreneur should not be ignored. 3 most entrepreneurship education and training interventions are of a technical nature, providing a quick-fix programme in those areas that the entrepreneur is not familiar with (instead of focussing on developing new learning styles and coping mechanisms). 4 designers of entrepreneurial training interventions and programmes should focus on encouraging entrepreneurs to solve problems from a multi-disciplinary viewpoint and how to build networks. 5 a shift from a traditional teaching approach to an entrepreneurial-directed alternative is required where the instructor becomes a learning process facilitator, making extensive use of learning exercises such as role playing, management simulations and structured exercises in which the entrepreneur should take an active role. 6 an outcomes-based orientation towards entrepreneurial training should provide a learner-friendly environment to entrepreneurs, thus creating a culture of life-long learning. 7 all stakeholders, including the government and community, should share the responsibility of learning new skills. 8 training interventions for upgrading black entrepreneurial skills should be based on the following foundations of adult-based education and training: adults prefer a self-directed approach towards learning; their wide range of experiences could facilitate the learning process and they act from internal motivation with a need to develop to self-realisation. 9 active involvement in the national skills development strategy of the government could address huge disparities in educational, skill and wage levels of the working population and therefore utilise the workplace as an active learning environment – thus improving employment prospects of previously disadvantaged persons. 10 training interventions selected for upgrading black entrepreneurial skills should take into account the educational level of these entrepreneurs, their cultural background, level of working experience and nature of their business venture. references aitchison, j.j.w. (1997). a review of adult basic education and training in south africa. retrieved may 10, 2005, from the world wide web: http://www.adeanet.org/wgnfe/publications. bartle, p. (2003) micro enterprise training. retrieved january 29, 2004 from the world wide web: http://www.scn.org/ ip/cds/cmp/modules. blaxter, l., hughes, c. & tight, m. (1997). how to research. buckingham: open university press. bolton, b. & thompson, j. (2001). entrepreneurs: talent, temperament, technique. oxford: butterworth & heinemann. clark, y. & toto, r. 2006. mentoring students online. retrieved february 22, 2006 from the world wide web: www.tlt.psu.edu/suggestions/mentor curran, j. & stanworth, j. (1989). education and training for enterprise: some problems of classification, evaluation, policy and research. international small business journal, 7 (2). de cenzo, d.a. & robbins, s.p. (1996). human resource management. new york: john wiley and sons, inc. eagar, m. (1996). workplace learning as a tool for transformation. people dynamics, 14 (11), 60-64. entrepreneur nous. (2006). welcome to entre nous. retrieved february 22, 2006, from the world wide web: www.mentoringyoungentrepreneurs.com epstein, r. & rogers, j. (2002). get psyhed. fairlady health, 775, 181. erasmus, b.j. & van dyk, p.s. (2003). training management in south africa. cape town: oxford university press. evenden, r. & anderson, g. (1992). management skills: making the most of people. cambridge: addison-wesley. fayolle, a. (1998). training of entrepreneurship: outcomes from an innovative experience. retrieved january 29, 2004, from the world wide web: http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/ research/1998/icsb. garavan, t.n. & o’cinneide, b. (1995). entrepreneurship education and training programmes: a review and evaluation. retrieved january 29, 2004, from the world wide web: http://www.entrepreneur.dk/entrprnship.htm. hatten, t.s. (1997). small business: entrepreneurship and beyond. new jersey: prentice hall. hellriegel, d., jackson, s.e., slocum, j., staude, g., klopper, h.b., louw, l. & oosthuizen, t. (2001). management: south african edition. cape town: oxford university press. henry, c. (2003). developing a coherent enterprise support policy: a new challenge for governments. retrieved february 3, 2004, from the world wide web: http://www.envplan.com/ epc/abstracts. hirschowitz, r. slabbert, i., clark, i. & van der walt, s. (1989). skills training for small business development. pretoria: human science research council. hodgetts, k.m. & kuratko, d.f. (1989) effective small business management. diego: harcourt brace jovanovich publishers. manning, t. (1996). managing minds – something different. productivity south africa, 22 (4), 7-10. maundu, j.n. (1997). towards meeting local training requirements of jua kali artisans in kenya: some lessons of experience. paper presented at fsu/adea conference, 12-15 august 1997, zimbabwe. meyer, m. (2000). outcomes-based education: back to the basics or a new paradigm for training staff. retrieved may 17, 2005, from the world wide web: http://www.astd.co.za. nasser, m.e. (1984). achievement training – a re-assessment of the technique and its impact on the development of supervisory and managerial talent in south africa. south african journal of business management, 15 (2), 105-108. nel, p.s., van dyk, p.s., haasbroek, g.d., schultz, h.b., sono, t. & werner, a. (2004). human resources management. cape town: oxford university press. nieman, g. & bennett, a. (2002). business management: a value chain approach. pretoria: van schaik. nieman, g., hough, j. & nieuwenhuizen, c. 2003. entrepreneurship: a south african perspective. pretoria: van schaik. orford, j., wood, e., fischer, c., herrington, m. & segal, n. (2003). global entrepreneurship monitor: south african executive report. university of cape town: the graduate school of business. paterson, a. 2003. employee training in south african private enterprises: findings from the national skills sur vey of 2003. human science research council. retrieve may 11, 2005, from the world wide web: www.hsrc.ac.za pearson, b. & thomas, n. (1991). the shorter mba. london: thomsons. reid, m.a. & barrington, h. (1997). training management in south africa. training inter ventions: managing employee development. london: ipd. robbins, s.p. & de cenzo, d.a. (1998). fundamentals of management: essential concepts and applications ( 2nd ed.). new jersey: prentice-hall. rodrigues, m. (2006). haemorhageing on a skills deficit. business in africa, february 2006, pp. 60-62. smart force. (2002). the e-learning company: business skills. retrieved june 24, 2002, from the world wide web: http://cbt.rec.on.ca/cbtlib/htmlplan/cbtweb. smit, p.j. & cronjé, g.j. de j. (1997). management principles (2nd ed.). kenwyn: juta. developing black micro-entrepreneurial skills 25 state of small business development in south africa. (2002). annual review. report compiled by ntsika and the dti. struwig, f.e. & stead, g.b. (2001). planning, designing and reporting research. cape town: pearson education south africa. teke, m. (1997). empowering the south african worker. people dynamics, 15 (10), 23-31. the foundation of economic and business development. 2006. retrieved february 21, 2006, from the world wide web: http://www.iconnect-online.org the peterman circle. (2000). training of young entrepreneurs – the role of schools. retrieved february 3, 2004, from the world wide web: http://www.peterman.co.za. van aardt, i. & van aardt, c. (1997). entrepreneurship and new venture management. cape town: oxford university press. van der wal, r. (2001). critical management skills for new south african managers. management today, 17 (9), 37. van dyk, p.s., nel, p.s., loedolff, p. van z. & haasbroek, g.d. (2001). training management: a multidisciplinary approach to human resources development in southern africa. cape town: oxford university press. van tonder, j. (2004). entrepreneurs kan baie werk skep. rapport sake, p.7. (29 february). vosloo, w.b. (1994). entrepreneurship and economic growth. pretoria: human science research council. whetten, d.a. & cameron, k.s. (1991). developing management skills. new york: harper collins. white paper on national strategy for the development and promotion of small business in south africa. (1995). government gazette. cape town: government printers. wickham, p.a. (1998). strategic entrepreneurship: a decisionmaking approach to new venture creation and management. london: pitman. smith, perks26 abstract introduction a review of talent concepts an overview and model of talent measurement element 1: theoretical foundations of talent measurement element 2: choices of measurement design elements element 3: final talent choices element 4: further talent measurement considerations element 5: subsequent talent management implications for research acknowledgements references about the author(s) gregory j. lee wits business school, university of the witwatersrand, south africa citation lee, g.j. (2018). talent measurement: a holistic model and routes forward. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a990. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.990 original research talent measurement: a holistic model and routes forward gregory j. lee received: 17 aug. 2017; accepted: 24 apr. 2018; published: 16 july 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: talent measurement is a critical input to talent management (tm). involving the application of measurement methodologies in order to determine the current and longer-term potential, competencies and contribution of employees and their roles, talent measurement is a growing field of interest in human resources. research purpose: this article reviews and integrates the practice of talent measurement, including developing a model of talent measurement, rooting the practice in theory and suggesting several relatively unexplored aspects of talent measurement that may have potential for improvement or controversy. motivation for the study: talent measurement has not been adequately discussed and critiqued. research approach/design and method: a theory review and development approach is taken in this article. main findings: a holistic model for talent measurement is presented, including elements that have not received much prior attention such as theoretical foundations, the practicalities of including a role element, the advisability of using talent pools, the question of whether talent measures or status should be revealed to employees, the integration of talent pools with diversity or transformation imperatives, and others. practical/managerial implications: managers who employ tm should benefit from this review and set of challenges regarding the practice of talent measurement. contribution/value-add: although tm has been extensively discussed, the specific measurement options involved have been less well examined. development of a holistic model and identification of outstanding controversies within it provide value to practitioners and to the evolution of tm. introduction the notions of talent and talent management (tm) have become prevalent thrusts within modern human capital management. talent management generally requires organisations to employ formalised talent measurement methodologies, which can be defined as the application of measurement methodologies in order to determine the current and longer-term potential, competencies and contribution of employees (boudreau & ramstad, 2005a, 2005b; nijs, gallardo-gallardo, dries, & sels, 2014). such measurement exercises can become critical inputs to tm, as evaluation of individuals or identification of appropriate segments of the workforce guides the decisions required in such programmes. talent measurement is a growing field of interest in the human resources field, given its importance to critical input to tm. however, little systematic writing or empirical research exists on talent measurement. specifically, the practice has not been rooted in management theory, nor has it been seen or modelled as a whole system, and several areas of uncertainty remain. this article discusses the practice of talent measurement in general and develops a comprehensive model of talent measurement that is capable of acting as a guide for practitioners as well as a theory development template. this model is a unique contribution and contains within it several substantive contributions as well, such as a discussion of the theoretical foundations of talent measurement (which has been lacking) as well as discussions on many underdeveloped possibilities such as role and team foci, systematic methodological options and integration of talent measurement with other imperatives such as transformation. a review of talent concepts this section defines key terms, discusses talent measurement in broad terms, locates the practice of talent measurement within a theoretical framework and reviews the nine-box grid as an example. defining talent and talent management it is helpful to begin with some related definitions to clarify key concepts. for the purpose of this article, the following definitions will apply. defining talent talent has become a particularly fluid and contested concept (e.g. gallardo-gallardo, dries, & gonzález-cruz, 2013; iles, chuai, & preece, 2010; lewis & heckman, 2006; tansley, 2011). ultimately this article will employ the wording of nijs et al. (2014), which may provide the most systematically useful and comprehensive definition: talent refers to systematically developed innate abilities of individuals that are deployed in activities they like, find important, and in which they want to invest energy. it enables individuals to perform excellently in one or more domains of human functioning, operationalized as performing better than other individuals of the same age or experience, or as performing consistently at their personal best’. (p. 182) although there are many elements of talent, practically, the concept is treated on a continuum. on one extreme, the exclusive approach considers talent as one or more elite subsets (‘talent pools’) of employees whose combination of human capital, attitudinal elements (such as engagement) and behaviour entails a high potential of current or future value and productivity to an organisation, in the context of both the individual’s role, identity and profession and the organisation’s specific requirements (cipd, 2009; iles et al., 2010). on the other extreme, an ‘inclusive’ approach considers all employees as talent (notably based on the notion that it is systems and interactions of people that create real long-term sustainable competitiveness, see, for instance, iles, 2008; iles & preece, 2006; swailes, downes, & orr, 2014). a hybrid approach seems to be to segment all employees into talent pools, with some pools being identified as more critical or specialised but with a general ethos of good human resource management (hrm) applied to all (e.g. boudreau, 2013; ulrich & smallwood, 2012). the definition and practical treatment of talent will fundamentally affect both measurement, as discussed later, and management. in all cases, however, it is a commonly held belief in modern day hrm that talent forms a core sustained competitive advantage for firms. defining talent management talent management then refers to: […] the identification, development, engagement/retention and deployment of those employees who are particularly valuable to an organization – either in view of their ‘high potential’ for the future or because they are fulfilling business/operation-critical roles. (iles, 2008: 215; cipd, 2016) and similarly (collings & mellahi, 2009): […] activities and processes that involve the systematic identification of key positions which differentially contribute to the organisation’s sustainable competitive advantage, the development of a talent pool of high potential and high-performing incumbents to fill these roles, and the development of a differentiated architecture to facilitate filling these positions with competent incumbents and to ensure their continued commitment to the organisation. (p. 305) talent management therefore entails targeted human resource policies designed to increase and improve the talent pool. within the exclusive view of talent, a talent pool is often first identified through talent measurement, as discussed next, and specific hrm interventions targeted at them, such as enhanced learning opportunities, retention bonuses and the like (iles et al., 2010). within the inclusive approach, the task becomes either to identify each individual’s current capabilities and opportunities for growth and maximise these or to optimise the social capital inherent within organisational structures and systems that over time produces and nurtures talent, with organisational culture and leadership being core examples (iles et al., 2010). it is within the context and requirements of tm that talent measurement has its place as an analytical methodology, as discussed next. an overview and model of talent measurement having defined talent and tm, this section overviews the use and practice of talent measurement. talent measurement is defined broadly here as the practice of applying specific measurement methodologies to employees in order to determine their potential current and longer-term competencies and contribution to the organisation, for the purposes of facilitating talent management. despite the fact that talent measurement has implicitly or explicitly always been a part of tm, little systematic writing exists to develop the measurement itself as a focus and field. indeed, the measurement part of tm has arisen unevenly, mostly from practice exemplars like the general electric nine-box grid, which will be discussed briefly later. theoretical foundations and drivers have not been developed, and aside from recent contributions (notably nijs et al., 2014) little systematic writing exists on the concept. accordingly, this article seeks to add to the literature reviewing and conceptualising talent measurement. it does so firstly by presenting a conceptual framework for the elements involved in a talent measurement and execution system, as shown in figure 1. figure 1: a framework of the talent measurement process and elements. as can be seen, the model suggested in figure 1 arises from certain theoretically derived drivers, something that has lacked systematic discussion in tm literature. then, measurement design elements must be chosen, with a variety of options available. a point discussed below is that not all of these are always considered in contemporary systems. final system design can broadly be classified as exclusive, hybrid or inclusive. further issues could be explored, which again are often not considered adequately and therefore form areas of controversy or opportunity. this article adds some unique perspectives on these additional areas. finally, the system chosen must facilitate tm, which according to this article is not always optimally considered. the article proceeds by considering each of the areas shown in figure 1. element 1: theoretical foundations of talent measurement as noted in the introduction, although tm has to some extent been given theoretical foundations, the practice of talent measurement specifically has yet to be rooted in management theory. this section suggests some theoretical foundations. as for tm, resource-based theory as applied within strategic human resource theory provides one theoretical basis for talent measurement. the broadly defined resource-based view (barney, 1991; wernerfelt, 1984) proposes that firms gain and sustain competitive advantage through the cultivation of resources that are valuable, rare and hard to imitate or substitute. arguments have been made for both human capital itself and systems of hrm to fulfil these conditions for competitive resources (barney & wright, 1998; boxall, 1996; lado & wilson, 1994; wright, dunford, & snell, 2001; wright, mcmahan, & mcwilliams, 1994). these contributions argue convincingly that features of human capital and hrm systems such as the fundamental value of human competence, complex and causally ambiguous social and team systems, the influence of firm history and culture on the use of human capital, the role of organisational learning and other elements create the potential for sustained competitive advantage. however, an important set of evolutions in the application of resource-based theory, notably the ‘hr architecture’ view, moved beyond a simplistic perspective of equal contribution across a firm’s human capital (kang, morris, & snell, 2007; lepak & snell, 1999, 2002; liu, lepak, takeuchi, & sims, 2003; martin, 2009; palthe & kossek, 2003; also see kulkarni & ramamoorthy, 2005). this type of view argues for differential value and uniqueness between human capital resource types and calls, therefore, for concomitant differences in employment mode, relationship and hr configurations. it is within this framework that talent measurement has its first theoretical location, as a critical tool in the organisation’s ability to locate value and uniqueness. furthermore, adverse selection theory provides a second theoretical foundation for the practice of talent measurement (akerlof, 1976; wright & mcmahan, 1992). this branch of information economics focuses on the transactional problems of asymmetric information, which in the context of employment relationships refers to employers’ challenges of accurately knowing and acting on the productive potential of employees, applicants, or hiring prospects. in the context of a current employee pool, one particular challenge includes accurately assessing employees for future contribution, especially where promotion or alternate future roles is a key consideration. in such longer-term considerations, current employee performance or expressed desire for advancement may not be sufficient or desirable as a sole indicator – for instance, the ‘rat race’ conceptions of adverse selection (e.g. akerlof, 1976; landers, rebitzer, & taylor, 1996) suggest theoretically and empirically that promotion races based exclusively on output may lead to inefficiently high levels of competition. however, the more that a current employer firm can screen its employees for hard-to-observe future potential and capability, the more that it potentially gains advantages over labour market competitors and is able to retain and utilise such talent (e.g. greenwald, 1986; kahn, 2013). in addition, attraction-selection-attrition theory (schneider, 1987) may be used to suggest that policies such as talent assessment criteria (e.g. definitions of what the firm sees talent in an exclusionary context and methodologies for assessing it) may act as powerful signals (king, 2016), enabling not only systematic recruitment and selection of such individuals over time but also retention of such individuals and turnover of individuals who fit such ‘moulds’ to a lesser extent. individuals with less talent ‘fit’ are thereby not only systematically weeded out of the workforce, but may even self-select out of the application stage to the mutual benefit of both the individual and the firm, given that poor person–organisation fit is generally an undesirable outcome (kristof-brown, zimmerman, & johnson, 2005). screening, signalling and self-selection are ultimately seen as solutions for the adverse selection problem and may be facilitated by talent measurement systems. element 2: choices of measurement design elements as noted in figure 1, several design elements can be considered in a talent measurement system, including the measurement foci, criteria and methodological elements. measurement foci as noted in figure 1, a fundamental set of methodological choices involves the foci of analysis. a primary focus on the individual almost always accords with the core definition of talent and focus of tm and would seem to be a given staple for any tm programme. however, nascent literature may suggest additional foci that are certainly not common to contemporary tm practice but that may add enormous value. this article will briefly discuss roles and teams as two options. explicitly including a role focus in measurement a point that has often been made in talent and tm definitions but that has not fully penetrated measurement practices is that the role currently fulfilled by individuals may also impact their treatment in tm, or in fact that the role may be the foremost issue of concern (boudreau & ramstad, 2005b; collings & mellahi, 2009; huselid, beatty, & becker, 2005; iles et al., 2010; martin, 2009; minbaeva & collings, 2013). this point has been surfaced explicitly by huselid et al. (2005), who argue convincingly that organisations should first identify segments of roles (in their conception, these would be ‘a’, ‘b’ and ‘c’ roles hierarchically defined by importance), and then assess and optimise individual and resource allocations between these roles, favouring critical roles, as well as prioritise acquisition for vacancies in critical roles, a position echoed and expanded by others (boudreau & ramstad, 2005b; collings & mellahi, 2009). similarly, iles et al. (2010) distinguish four types of tm by combinations of exclusive/inclusive and position/person foci, therefore explicitly incorporating the role focus. similar sentiments are implicit elsewhere. for instance, in the definition of tm explored earlier, tm was extended to ‘those employees who are particularly valuable to an organization – either in view of their “high potential” for the future or because they are fulfilling business/operation-critical roles’ (cipd, 2016; iles, 2008). similarly, collings and mellahi (2009) define strategic tm as: […] activities and processes that involve the systematic identification of key positions which differentially contribute to the organisation’s sustainable competitive advantage, the development of a talent pool of high potential and high-performing incumbents to fill these roles, and the development of a differentiated architecture to facilitate filling these positions with competent incumbents and to ensure their continued commitment to the organisation. (p. 305) the inclusion of a role element also accords with theory. as discussed earlier in the ‘element 1: theoretical foundations of talent measurement’, resource-based theory would define critical roles as those high in value, rarity, non-imitability and non-substitutability. lepak and snell (1999) apply such concepts to the hr architecture, which delineates roles not in fact individuals, and similar approaches have been used by others since in the tm literature (e.g. martin, 2009). however, despite recognition that the role may have a profound influence on tm, there is practically no formal guidance or debate on how practically to include such considerations into a measurement system. clarifying the ways in which roles could be assessed and integrated with individual talent measurement may be a substantive possibility for future elaboration and improvement of talent measurement systems. more discussion on this point follows below under measurement criteria and methods. including a team focus a team focus could, perhaps, also form part of some talent measurement systems. on one extreme, teams could form a primary focus, for example in project management or research and development environments. in such cases, the synergies within teams may even lead to an abandonment of individual focus and a development of systems seeking to identify and nurture high-talent teams, even where individual contributions to the teams may vary (again, it may be a delicate and complex interdependence that enables the team to work). another possibility could consider individuals within the context of teams. further discussion on this is presented below when considering measurement criteria. talent measurement criteria this element considers which criteria should be used when assessing talent. it is not unusual for multiple criteria to enter into the measurement of talent, whether explicitly or implicitly considered. criteria for individual talent assessment: performance, potential and beyond the two elements most commonly employed as criteria in talent measurement are performance and potential. the measurement of performance, although perennially problematic, is a well-known concept for managers. performance appraisals are often used, although the methodological section next discusses various options in this regard. the measurement of potential, on the other hand, is less traditional. various suggestions have been made, such as the following question banks (e.g. mccarthy, 2009): could the employee perform at a higher level, in a different position or take on increased responsibilities in the short term (consider the person’s ability only, not whether there is a position available to support this growth)? can the employee perform two levels above his or her current position in the medium term? is the organisation likely to value growth of the skills and competencies of this employee over the next several years? could the employee learn the additional skills and competencies he or she needs to be able to perform at a higher or different level? does the employee demonstrate leadership ability by showing initiative and vision, delivering on promised results, communicating effectively and taking appropriate risks? does the employee demonstrate an ability to comfortably interact with people at a higher level or in different areas? does the employee demonstrate comfort with a broader company perspective than his or her job currently requires? does the employee demonstrate flexibility and motivation to move into a job that might be different than any that currently exists? does the employee welcome opportunities for learning and development? when would this employee be ready for a promotion? while performance and potential are perhaps the leading considerations used in talent measurement, there may be others that may be considered, some of which are under-researched. perhaps the most systematic suggestions regarding the domains of talent measurement can be found in the work of nijs et al. (2014), who noted that in addition to performance and potential other elements can be measured, such as innate ability (notably through psychometric tests), developmental ability and trajectory (which in addition to performance and potential may include assessments of past education and experience), motivation (through self-assessment tools and self-reflection exercises), interests (assessed as for motivation), interpersonal excellence (typically employing identification of elite upper percentiles of employees) or intrapersonal excellence in which the individual is benchmarked against his or her own personal benchmarks (e.g. through trajectories of personal performance over time, with an emphasis on improvement). an anonymous reviewer noted that many of these may be seen as elements or elaborations on performance (e.g. interor intra-personal excellence) and potential (e.g. innate ability), although some – like motivation – may stand alone, as argued by ulrich and smallwood (2012). age may be another consideration, with older employees who are near mandatory retirement sometimes downgraded in potential merely because time to contribute is short. as contended by an anonymous referee: […] typically these criteria normally manifest in the intersubjective conversation and agreement of the talent board/forum and in alignment with the organisation’s workforce plan, rather than using them as baseline selection data. however, firms may wish to create a ‘mentor’ talent pool of more experienced employees, which is given time, mandate and tools to engage in extensive mentoring. in countries where legislative and social contexts dictate a high premium on the attraction, development and retention of specific types of employees (usually based on race, gender and considerations such as disability), these demographics may enter into the value attribution placed on employees and therefore the talent measurement system. this issue is discussed further below. in brief, there may be a variety of added aspects of the individual which could be employed to score talent. having said this, clearly too many aspects could add confusion and difficulty to the measurement system. therefore, a balance would have to be achieved. measurement criteria for roles measurement criteria for assessing roles is another area, should tm professionals heed the call of huselid et al. (2005) to, in fact, make this a primary concern. huselid et al. suggest segmenting roles into ordinal (a, b and c) levels; however, they provide no concrete criteria for doing so. perhaps the leading suggestion is the ‘hr architecture’ approach of lepak and snell (1999), in which roles are differentiated by value and uniqueness. however, even here little explicit guidance exists on exactly what is the best ways to score these elements, and the concept of uniqueness is arguably one with which managers may struggle. existing job evaluation systems could aid in this process, the literature for which has developed good measures for role complexity, level of responsibility, and/or scarcity. ultimately, choices and combinations of such criteria may add value not only to the talent measurement landscape but also notably to its usefulness in tm. measurement criteria for teams like individuals, team performance would seem to be an important criterion where teams are to be considered as a tm focus. in addition, however, teamwork itself could form a measure, as could other aspects such as team demography (for instance, team age, gender and race profiles where these facilitate other imperatives such as forward-looking diversity or innovation philosophies). measurement methodology in addition to underlying criteria, there exist a variety of methodological elements from which to choose, including scaling, time series versus cross-sectional considerations, mix of quantitative versus qualitative assessment, and combinatorial methodology in the case of multiple criteria. scaling choices scaling choices must be made both at the criteria level and at the final talent assessment level if talent pooling is used. as usual for data analysis, basic choices are categorical, ordinal, interval or ratio scaling. choices made at this stage will fundamentally affect the types of outcomes that can be achieved. the simplest methodology involves simple in-out decisions regarding membership in certain talent pools (which is also the implied system where a certain percentage of employee groups or departments are identified for talent status, a relatively common approach). such decisions implicitly still employ one or more of the criteria such as performance and potential, but with a binary measurement outcome. in/out decisions may facilitate exclusive tm, in which one outcome is to isolate one or more specific pools of ‘top talent’ to which specific tm strategies are applied, such as retention incentives and additional longer-term development opportunities. in the hybrid system, too, the choice to create some pools while still treating all employees as talent may employ such a simplistic system. the actual criteria involved in such binary scaling may still involve explicit or implicit attention to the aforementioned issues such as performance or potential. in-out decisions do not work for inclusive tm which implicitly treats everyone as ‘in’ talent (nijs et al., 2014), and lack information for later management of talent; their use is accordingly debatable although they are used. organisations requiring more complexity might choose to measure criteria dimensions along continuous or ordinal measurement scales and perhaps even as the outcome of multi-item scales, ultimately using some combinatory system to adjudicate talent status. as a concrete example, certainly the most written about and seemingly the most practiced exemplar of talent measurement systems is the nine-box grid (silzer & church, 2009), pioneered by general electric in the 1970s. in this system, employees are rated on performance and potential and placed into categories. figure 2 depicts one version of the nine-box system. these elements are discussed further below. figure 2: a version of the general electric nine-box talent measurement grid. a few variations on this grid currently exist. the nine-box grid is not necessarily a set methodology, as organisations could certainly tailor it to their own requirement. however, as shown in figure 2, it is commonly presented as the result of two 3-level ordinal attributions along the performance and potential dimensions (‘low’, ‘moderate’ and ‘high’ for potential, and ‘poor’, ‘moderate’ and ‘high’ for performance). the measurement methodology is therefore explicitly categorical with ordinal inputs. in role scoring, another prominent ordinal choice is that of huselid et al. (2005), who, as discussed earlier, suggest a simple three-level ranking of roles. other options of course exist. continuous data scoring systems can be used, although their use is far less documented than the grid-type approach. an example of continuous scaling can be to use continuous performance scores and some form of continuous potential index and then combine these into an overall index. however, one question with continuous outcome measures is how and whether they facilitate talent pools. in such cases, cut-points would be needed. for instance, as noted previously, analysts may utilise a certain percentage of the most highly rated employees, perhaps with discretionary, qualitative elements to determination of the final choices (as discussed later). one advantage of such systems is that the more metric the scale, the more information is created for subsequent tm, as discussed below. time series versus cross-sectional considerations many talent measurement systems employ only recent, cross-sectional data for assessment. this approach may make sense in certain contexts; however, the more data that are gathered and employed over time, the better and more complete the measure of the employees. one example of this, noted by an anonymous reviewer, is a refinement to the use of performance appraisals, namely, aggregating multiple performance appraisals into ‘performance tendency’ scores to get a longer-term sense of the employee. one possibility not well mentioned in the literature is to use trajectories of scores instead of averages. for instance, especially within lower level developmental talent, employees showing exceptional trajectories of learning off even a low base may be identified as talent. in this approach, averages do not serve well; instead, slope-type analyses at the individual-level, for example, achieved through latent growth modelling (chan, 2002) would better serve the needs of talent measurement. there exists no current literature suggesting latent growth modelling as a talent methodology; therefore, this may be an area of potential methodological improvement. qualitative assessment talent measurement may be either quantitative or essentially qualitative in nature, or both. in the example mentioned previously, a ‘top percentage’ identification of managers – based on certain criteria such as performance, potential, development scope and age – could be quantitatively measured, left to entirely subjective choice, or both. this is also true for systems in which employees are placed into categories, such as ‘rising star’ or ‘rough diamond’ based on certain criteria and with certain tm consequences. as noted by an anonymous referee, it is not uncommon for quantitative systems to provide data to talent committees, who then make final choices based on global impressions that inherently contain subjective choices. providers of data the performance and potential attributions underlying the grid are typically made by employees’ direct supervisors. hypothetically, this could also be achieved by other means, such as a 360-degree feedback mechanism. however, little evidence exists to suggest that such a practice is common aside from its implementation in performance management. combinatorial approach to the extent that different foci and criteria for talent exist, a question that has in some respects already been discussed is how one combines the data into a usable system. as discussed, a purely qualitative attribution relies on the mental schema of managers to make attributions regarding talent, which opens up the system to a variety of decision-making flaws that have been well documented in the performance appraisal literature, such as halo effects. one particularly damaging issue in this regard which may affect the ability of talent and diversity systems to align is homophily, which may cause managers to rate others similar to themselves as talent, thereby limiting the diversity. quantitative combinatory strategies rely on two things. firstly, the characteristics of input or criteria data (e.g. as seen with the nine-box grid ordinal, categorical inputs can only combine into categorical outputs). secondly, the mechanisms for combination will profoundly affect the final outcomes (e.g. whether certain criteria or foci are explicitly or implicitly weighted higher than others). for example, do we weight potential higher than performance? are individuals currently in critical roles given a higher chance of being identified for talent pools? if so, how is this physically done? this article does not have the space to discuss many of these issues in detail; however, an overarching comment can be made, namely, that such issues are extensively dealt with in the operations research literature (e.g. in the extensive literature on multi-criteria decision analysis [mcda] or data envelopment analysis [dea]). it may be a fruitful route to develop tm professionals with operations research training or courses to enable them to approach the mechanisms of data combination for decision purposes more systematically. element 3: final talent choices as shown in figure 1, the pivotal outcome of talent measurement is actual attributions along the lines of broad philosophies regarding talent. the introductory section discussing the definition of talent has already developed the core distinctions between the exclusive approach (developing talent pools in juxtaposition to ‘non-talent’), the rarer inclusive approach (at an extreme, seeing all employees as talent and managing each person to their maximum potential) and a hybrid approach that attempts to give some attention to all employees while still identifying specific talent pools. with regard to talent pools, this seems to be the predominant approach. as a key elaboration, it is sometimes necessary for firms to create different talent pools or segments, for instance, leadership talent pools, international talent pools, technical and/or specialist segments, and so on (boudreau & ramstad, 2005a). others suggest alternative options such as differentiated talent pools based on predominant individual need (e.g. uren, 2011). the notion of talent pools implies differential management and, usually, expenditure. often, firms enact talent pools because of the belief that specific high-value development opportunities with broad and long-term advancement aims cannot typically be given to everyone as a result of resource constraints, so they will seek to identify individuals under some talent measurement rubric to send on such opportunities. likewise, specific and costly retention incentives such as retention bonuses may only be targeted to those believed to have long-term value and growth potential within the organisation. it should be noted that talent measurement does not necessarily obviate movements over time between states by a given individual. as with shorter-term appraisals, just because a certain individual is categorised or scored in a certain way (say, as non-top-talent) does not mean that the individual cannot either improve in various inputs to the system (say, performance and potential) or that the organisation re-evaluates its own needs relative to the individual’s offering. a challenge for inclusive tm is whether it implies anything more than good hrm, which, after all, seems to encompass any possible tm intervention and which traditionally has been seen as applied to all employees. collings and mellahi (2009) summarise arguments for why inclusive tm may be different. on the measurement front, the point made earlier applies here: talent measurement for inclusive tm must by necessity provide some more complex information than in/out attributions which by definition do not apply to it. having settled on a final talent measurement outcome, further considerations that have not been well researched may arise, as discussed next. element 4: further talent measurement considerations there exist several further areas of possible uncertainty or controversy within talent measurement. this final section discusses some of these issues, including some that have not been discussed before. figure 1 lists areas of possible uncertainty or controversy them and differentiates their impact by talent measurement system, although this is a rough allocation. should individuals be told about their talent status? one area of controversy that has been subjected to some analysis and debate is whether individuals should be told about their talent status or score, especially early in their progression. as indicated in figure 1, however, this is a factor faced only by organisations using talent pool concepts, notably in the exclusive approach where talent is contrasted implicitly with ‘non-talent’. the advantage of revealing talent status to individuals is that this potentially affords motivation and commitment to those identified in talent pools or higher measurement categories (gelens, dries, & hofmans, 2013; swailes & blackburn, 2016), creating an enhanced perception of social exchange within the psychological contract (king, 2016). of course, those identified as ‘non-talent’ or in lower measurement categories may experience negative reactions such as loss of engagement or withdrawal behaviours (gelens et al., 2013; swailes, 2013; swailes & blackburn, 2016), although for others this may act as a spur to improve. in addition, explicit identification as talent creates high exchange expectations, which, if not met, may cause psychological contract breach (king, 2016; swailes & blackburn, 2016). an alternative to revealing talent ‘status’ is simply for managers to enact tm strategies appropriate for the measurement of the individual, without discussing the measurement basis. for instance, managers may tell high-talent individuals that they are to be developed in certain ways or offered retention bonuses, inferring talent status without the need for a label, while lower measurement individuals may be given guidance as to where they are performing well and how they may improve, again, however, without the need of unnecessary labels such as ‘adequate member’ or the like. either way, recent evidence suggests that it is important to avoid incongruent messages regarding talent status, which ultimately may lead to the risk of psychological contract breach (sonnenberg, van zijderveld, & brinks, 2014). the marriage of talent and diversity and/or transformation one question that has received little attention is whether talent and diversity management are necessarily easy bedfellows, especially if the latter manifests as pressure to implement short-term transformative targets based on narrow definitions of diversity. south africa’s black economic empowerment and affirmative action legislation presents examples of such regulatory-driven pressures, which especially with respect to management require rapid consideration of race and gender transformation in particular. such considerations will naturally affect talent identification, notably within leadership and/or succession pools. the effects of such policy interactions on talent measurement mechanisms are not entirely self-evident. one obvious approach is to engage in excellent diversity attraction, development and retention such that talent pools are naturally stocked with appropriately diverse individuals, in which case measurement can essentially ignore the issues of diversity. however, especially in the context of skills shortages, this strategy may be too long term and uncertain to ensure an appropriate mix of individuals in affected talent pools. shorter-term, more deliberate mechanisms may be required. let us consider a typical south african company which faces transformation pressures to increase percentages of black and female staff in middle to senior management positions in particular, and must primarily achieve this by working with an equivalently staffed talent leadership pool which will be groomed for leadership through mechanisms such as expensive business school courses, mentoring and the like. how does it adjust a traditional talent measurement system to achieve the extra end of transformation? if, say, it used a performance or potential system with no other considerations, it cannot be guaranteed that the system will produce the required profiles of staff. one option is first to segment the talent pool by quotas of required groups, and then pick the best available performers or potentials within each subgroup. however, this may leave top candidates unchosen for the pool, given the need to limit segment sizes. with unlimited resources, the firm could hypothetically expand the talent pool to include all relevant candidates, while still ensuring adequate numbers of desired candidates for ultimate transformation of the management levels; however, such a strategy is prohibitively expensive for more constrained firms and may lead to resentment by those chosen for such a talent pools but who ultimately may find their ability to progress limited by transformation imperatives (e.g. cappelli, 2008). another approach may be to redefine the actual measurement bases for this talent pool, perhaps focusing more on potential and specifying potential to have a transformation requirement or weighting (a possibility hinted at by swailes et al., 2014, p. 531). one promising area that may help is the addition of an environmental aspect to talent criteria, which has been noted as a potentially key aspect of talent development (meyers, van woerkom, & dries, 2013). explicitly building consideration of background environment into talent measurement may provide options for increased diversity. however, no explicit guidelines exist for this in measurement systems, suggesting another area for exploration. little has been explicitly discussed on this issue despite transformation and talent forming dual imperatives for organisations in many countries such as south africa. integrating individual and role measurement systems this issue has been discussed to some extent in the preceding sections. if role measurement is even included, the question at this stage is whether to integrate individual and role measurement at the measurement stage or to leave them separate but align their information at the tm stage, or in essence both. an example of the former approach is using role information in scoring employees for talent pool membership, for instance, requiring higher performance or potential scores from individuals in non-critical roles than in critical roles. the latter approach is that of huselid et al. (2005), in which they suggest moving ‘a’ talent to ‘a’ positions over time, removing ‘c’ players from ‘a’ positions, and so on. this really places role measurement in the hr planning realm. element 5: subsequent talent management various suggestions exist for linking such measurement systems to managerial implications. a basic approach word that is commonly referenced (e.g. ‘stretch’ for the high-performing high-potential ‘star performer’ group) has already been suggested in figure 1. figure 3 adds detail to such suggestions, based on suggestions by sources ranging from the academic to the practitioner (e.g. caruso, 2012). figure 3: some possible reactions to employees in nine-box grid positions. in organisations that also work off a ‘top talent pool’ concept, models such as the nine-box grid can act as an intermediate measurement step, with top talent then identified potentially as consisting only of those in certain of the categories (for instance, an organisation might define ‘top talent’ as star performers, rising stars and key contributors). a further issue is whether the broad talent measurement criteria generally used – typified either by general ‘top talent pool’ allocation or by performance and potential measurement – are helpful to the tm processes that they are meant to initiate. for instance, talent managers may wish to target specific development and training initiatives to individuals, know whether to apply retention options and the like. simply being placed in a top talent pool gives no useful individual-level information for tm and would therefore have to be supplemented with further analysis, unless organisations are content to apply generic policies to talent. while discrepancies between performance and potential may lead to some differentiation of strategies, as seen earlier with the nine-box grid, these guidelines are still quite general. it is desirable that explicit analysis of individual positioning within tm areas should be done to provide a more direct route for tm. for instance, within training and development, individuals could be scored with regard to the applicability of management development, leadership training or the like. managers could score individuals on the desirability of retaining for the long term. such analysis would therefore not only provide the basis for talent differentiation but also give individual-level guidance for subsequent tm. a final note again supports the use of role analysis: such information supports a great many tm processes from recruitment (with more effort put into critical jobs and aligning talent to them), succession and retention (with, again, more focus on critical positions) and the like. implications for research many research agendas arise from this article. firstly, it would be desirable for research to survey current usage of talent measurement in south african organisations. furthermore, employee, manager and talent professional views on the success and desirability of various approaches would be desirable (for instance, in exclusive vs. more inclusive systems). one important point arising from the model in figure 1 is that despite its popularity the purely exclusive approach (especially where initiated through in/out measurement only) has many potential disadvantages, such as being less likely to integrate with transformation imperatives, creating in-out groups and subsequent tensions, and being less likely to facilitate subsequent tm with quality information. having said this, managers may prefer the capacity of exclusive tm to focus budgets and effort sharply, rather than attempt to split the attention of tm initiatives. given these tensions, in south africa particularly, methods for integrating diversity and tm should be surfaced in case studies and should be disseminated. controversial areas such as whether to reveal talent status in south africa should also be studied, with one possibility being experimental approaches. conclusion talent measurement has become pervasive as part of tm, but has remained relatively poorly discussed. this article has provided a holistic framework for talent measurement, rooted the practice in management theory, reviewed common usage and suggested several areas of research and possible consideration as organisations seek to enhance their analysis and deployment of talent. acknowledgements this work is based on the research supported by the national research foundation of south africa (grant number 103588). competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. references akerlof, g. (1976). the economics of caste and of the rat race and other woeful tales. the quarterly journal of economics, 90(4), 599–617. https://doi.org/10.2307/1885324 barney, j.b. (1991). firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. journal of management, 17, 99–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700108 barney, j.b., & wright, p.m. (1998). on becoming a strategic partner: the role of human resources in gaining competitive advantage. human resource management, 37(1), 31–46. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-050x(199821)37:1<31::aid-hrm4>3.0.co;2-w boudreau, j.w. (2013). appreciating and ‘retooling’ diversity in talent management conceptual models: a commentary on “the psychology of talent management: a review and research agenda.” human resource management review, 23, 286–289. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2013.08.001 boudreau, j.w., & ramstad, p.m. (2005a). talentship and the new paradigm for human resource management: from professional practices to strategic talent decision science. human resource management planning, 28(2), 17–26. boudreau, j.w., & ramstad, p.m. (2005b). talentship, talent segmentation, and sustainability: a new hr decision science paradigm for a new strategy definition. human resource management, 44(2), 129–136. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20054 boxall, p.f. (1996). the strategic hrm debate and the resource-based view of the firm. human resource management journal, 6(3), 59–75. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.1996.tb00412.x cappelli, p. (2008). talent management for the twenty-first century. harvard business review, 86(3), 74–81. caruso, k. (2012, april 12). development at the top – use the 9 box to develop talent in succession planning. via people discover the talent within. retrieved from http://web.viapeople.com/viapeople-blog/bid/81566/development-at-the-top-use-the-9-box-to-develop-talent-in-succession-planning chan, d. (2002). latent growth modeling. in f. drasgow & n. schmitt (eds.), the jossey-bass business & management series. measuring and analyzing behavior in organizations: advances in measurement and data analysis (pp. 302–349). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. cipd. (2009). talent management: factsheet. london: cipd. cipd. (2016). talent management overview: factsheet. talent management overview: factsheet. retrieved from https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/strategy/resourcing/talent-factsheet collings, d.g., & mellahi, k. (2009). strategic talent management: a review and research agenda. human resource management review, 19(4), 304–313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2009.04.001 gallardo-gallardo, e., dries, n., & gonzález-cruz, t.f. (2013). what is the meaning of ‘talent’ in the world of work? human resource management review, 23, 290–300. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2013.05.002 gelens, j., dries, n., & hofmans, j. (2013). the role of perceived organizational justice in shaping the outcomes of talent management: a research agenda. human resource management review, 23, 341–353. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2013.05.005 greenwald, b.c. (1986). adverse selection in the labour market. the review of economic studies, 53(3), 325–347. https://doi.org/10.2307/2297632 huselid, m., beatty, r., & becker, b. (2005). ‘a’ players or ‘a’ positions? the strategic logic of workforce management. harvard business review, 83(12), 110–117. iles, p. (2008). talent balancing: staffing your company for long-term success. human resource development international, 11(2), 215–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678860801933020 iles, p., chuai, x., & preece, d. (2010). talent management and hrm in multinational companies in beijing: definitions, differences and drivers. journal of world business, 45(2), 179–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2009.09.014 iles, p., & preece, d. (2006). developing leaders or developing leadership? the academy of chief executives’ programmes in the north east of england. leadership, 2(3), 317–340. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715006066024 kahn, l.b. (2013). asymmetric information between employers. american economic journal: applied economics, 5(4), 165–205. https://doi.org/10.1257/app.5.4.165 kang, s.c., morris, s.s., & snell, s.a. (2007). relational archetypes, organizational learning, and value creation: extending the human resource architecture. academy of management review, 32(1), 236–256. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2007.23464060 king, k.a. (2016). the talent deal and journey: understanding how employees respond to talent identification over time. employee relations, 38(1), 94–111. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-07-2015-0155 kristof-brown, a.l., zimmerman, r.d., & johnson, e.c. (2005). consequences of individuals’ fit at work: a meta-analysis of person–job, person–organization, person–group, and person–supervisor fit. personnel psychology, 58(2), 281–342. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2005.00672.x kulkarni, s.p., & ramamoorthy, n. (2005). commitment, flexibility and the choice of employment contracts. human relations, 58(6), 741–761. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726705057170 lado, a.a., & wilson, m.c. (1994). human resource systems and sustained competitive advantage: a competency-based perspective. academy of management review, 19(4), 699–727. landers, r.m., rebitzer, j.b., & taylor, l.j. (1996). rat race redux: adverse selection in the determination of work hours in law firms. the american economic review, 86(3), 329–348. lepak, d.p., & snell, s.a. (1999). the human resource architecture: toward a theory of human capital allocation and development. academy of management review, 24(1), 31–48. lepak, d.p., & snell, s.a. (2002). examining the human resource architecture: the relationships among human capital, employment, and human resource configurations. journal of management, 28(4), 517–543. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630202800403 lewis, r.e., & heckman, r.j. (2006). talent management: a critical review. human resource management review, 16(2), 139–154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2006.03.001 liu, w., lepak, d.p., takeuchi, r., & sims, h.p. (2003). matching leadership styles with employment modes: strategic human resource management perspective. human resource management review, 13(1), 127–152. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(02)00102-x martin, g. (2009). driving corporate reputations from the inside: a strategic role and strategic dilemmas for hr? asia pacific journal of human resources, 47(2), 219–235. https://doi.org/10.1177/1038411109105443 mccarthy, d. (2009). how to ‘score’ leadership potential when using the performance and potential matrix. retrieved from http://www.greatleadershipbydan.com/2009/02/how-to-score-leadership-potential-when.html meyers, m.c., van woerkom, m., & dries, n. (2013). talent – innate or acquired? theoretical considerations and their implications for talent management. human resource management review, 2(4), 305–321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2013.05.003 minbaeva, d., & collings, d.g. (2013). seven myths of global talent management. the international journal of human resource management, 24(9), 1762–1776. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.777539 nijs, s., gallardo-gallardo, e., dries, n., & sels, l. (2014). a multidisciplinary review into the definition, operationalization, and measurement of talent. journal of world business, 49(2), 180–191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2013.11.002 palthe, j., & kossek, e.e. (2003). subcultures and employment modes: translating hr strategy into practice. journal of organizational change management, 16(3), 287–308. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810310475532 schneider, b. (1987). the people make the place. personnel psychology, 40(3), 437–453. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1987.tb00609.x silzer, r., & church, a.h. (2009). the pearls and perils of identifying potential. industrial and organizational psychology, 2, 377–412. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2009.01163.x sonnenberg, m., van zijderveld, v., & brinks, m. (2014). the role of talent-perception incongruence in effective talent management. journal of world business, 49(2), 272–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2013.11.011 swailes, s. (2013). the ethics of talent management. business ethics: a european review, 22(1), 32–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12007 swailes, s., & blackburn, m. (2016). employee reactions to talent pool membership. employee relations, 38(1), 112–128. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-02-2015-0030 swailes, s., downes, y., & orr, k. (2014). conceptualising inclusive talent management: potential, possibilities and practicalities. human resource development international, 17(5), 529–544. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2014.954188 tansley, c. (2011). what do we mean by the term “talent” in talent management? industrial and commercial training, 43(5), 266–274. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197851111145853 ulrich, d., & smallwood, n. (2012). what is talent? leader to leader, winter, 55–61. https://doi.org/10.1002/ltl.20011 uren, l. (2011). what talent wants: the journey to talent segmentation. strategic hr review, 10(6), 31–37. https://doi.org/10.1108/14754391111172805 wernerfelt, b. (1984). a resource-based view of the firm. strategic management journal, 5, 171–180. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250050207 wright, p.m., dunford, b.b., & snell, s.a. (2001). human resources and the resource based view of the firm. journal of management, 27(6), 701–721. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630102700607 wright, p.m., & mcmahan, g.c. (1992). theoretical perspective for strategic human resource management. journal of management, 18(2), 295–320. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639201800205 wright, p.m., mcmahan, g.c., & mcwilliams, a. (1994). human resources and sustained competitive advantage: a resource-based perspective. international journal of human resource management, 5, 301–326. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585199400000020 4mcdonald.qxd it is expected of today's business organisations to display ethical and moral management in their overall business strategy. increasing demands on business to respond to social problems and issues are important components of the current business environment. “beyond the traditional obligation of supplying goods and services, firms now face increasing pressure on the social front” (quazi, 2003, p. 822). over the last few years, south african organisations are being particularly pressured into adhering to ethical and moral standards as part of their corporate governance structure (de jongh, 2004). in addition, the terms “social responsibility”, “corporate citizenship” and “corporate philanthropy” are increasingly appearing in company strategic documents and mission statements. business leaders are thus being called to accept some accountability for social welfare (lantos, 2001) and some are responding by embracing csr programmes and agreements, such as the ethical trading initiative (eti) (doonar, p. 24). it can be argued that corporate social responsibility (csr) has arisen to enable companies to allay their feelings of guilt (diale, 2003; moir, 2003; rossouw, 2002). this guilt may emerge as a result of the pure profit motive of companies – often at the expense of the environment and the labour exploited in the process. this has probably been influenced by the power corporations currently wield, and the challenges that accompany this power. as korten states (in valor, 2005, p. 192) “corporations have been acquiring increasing power, in certain cases, even more power than some states without engaging in the advancement of the common good”. however, moir (2003, p. 7) states that “contrary to popular belief csr is not a product of 1990s mismanagement of guilt, but has been studied as far back as the 1950s”. in fact, he believes that the concept of csr is a result of a “post-war re-examination of the nature of the relationship between business, society and governments” (2003, p. 7). financial markets are also starting to rate organisations in terms of their impact on society – be it environmental or social. “corporate social responsibilit y theorists argue that management should incorporate ethics into strategic goals because it is the right thing to do” (key & popkin, 1998, p. 331). it enables companies to use their resources to develop solutions to economic and social problems. the need for and purpose of research into csr south africa is a developing country faced with changes on both the business and social front. organisations are directly affected by many of the social problems of the nation, such as the impact of hiv/aids on the workforce, economy and customers, and the lack of education under the previous dispensation. while government puts additional pressure on organisations to implement targeted affirmative action programmes, there is a dearth of skilled resources from which to draw as a result of the previous education disparities in the country. poverty alleviation is a target of the current anc government, and businesses are expected to contribute to this process. the recently launched jse socially responsible investment index and the king report on corporate governance are indications of the pressure on the south african corporate sector to be socially responsible (de jongh, 2004; hamann, agbazue, kapelus & hein, 2005). as it is, research conducted by trialogue shows that south african businesses spent r2,35 billion on csr in 2003, (the csi handbook, 2003). diale (2003) states that there is growing evidence of corporate social investment (csi) practice within the south african societ y at large. he further observes that a number of business-run foundations are being established to support this trend. south african organisations are making progress towards more csr and similar investments, but many businesses still need to see whether benefits are in store for them as a result of these investments. hamann et al (2005) argue that sustainable development challenges are not unique to the south african situation and that the debates related to csr in south africa are characterized by the particular prominence of certain priority issues, such as affirmative action, skills development and hiv/aids” (2005, p. 5). research conducted in other parts of the world shows that there are differing perceptions of the role that business should play in the csr arena. as saha and darnton (2005) have investigated, organisations have varying responses to socially responsible issues, such as “putting their head in the sand, taking a defensive approach, paying lip service to concerns, reactive approaches, following competitors” etc. (p. 117). according to the csi handbook (2003), education is top of the list of social investment, with 39% of all csr spend in south africa targeted at this sector. fiona mcdonald jacques liebenberg staatses@tut.ac.za department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract this article explores the perceptions a private higher education institution’s employees have of corporate social responsibility (csr). results were gathered from a selection of 19 employees at the organisation, through in depth face-to-face interviews and one focus group. results were substantiated across both groups. a brief analysis of secondary unsolicited data was conducted to further explore the organisation’s role in csr. it was found that employees of the organisation are not positively predisposed to csr and that many of them lack an understanding of the concept. key words corporate social responsibility, private higher education institution the perceptions of employees in a private higher education institution towards corporate social responsibility 27 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (1), 27-35 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (1), 27-35 a need thus exists to show the benefits, both socially and economically, of investing in csr projects. in fact, patricia aburdene (2005) identifies the socially responsible investment boom as being one of the ‘megatrends’ of 2010, highlighting the importance of investigating the concept further. however, the attitude towards csr still needs to be determined among south african organisations and their workforces. if there is an attitude that csr is now the responsibility of the business sector because the government is ill equipped to solve the country's problems, moves towards creating more csr investment in the country will be unsuccessful. dominique bé, of the european union’s directorate-general for employment, social affairs and equal opport unities, states that “the discussion about the business case (for csr) is behind us” (in czerny, 2005, p. 14). through this, he implies that we need to move towards more practical actions and away from philosophizing about csr (in czerny, 2005). even as legislation around the world shows more government moves to ensure businesses engage in socially responsible conduct and investments, complete participation in addressing the social problems of the country will never be reached until the correct interpretations and benefits of such csr are explained. therefore, exploratory studies need to be conducted to determine the perceptions of south african business leaders and their workforce of csr, before explanations can be made as to why these perceptions exist. such research has been conducted in more economically developed nations to enable these attitudes to be changed. only with the right attitude, can true csr show benefits to both society and the corporate sector. thus, this research could provide practitioners and other researchers with the foundation information they may need to investigate the reasons behind differing perceptions. this st udy only focusses on perceptions of csr. the purpose of this research was to conduct an exploratory study into the perceptions that the organisation’s employees have of csr, to address the need to examine these perceptions before investigating the reasons behind such perceptions. now that these perceptions have been determined, further studies could be conducted to explain the reasons for such perceptions as an aid to developing the role business can play in csr in south africa. previous research there is a certain amount of criticism in the management arena as to whether csr is merely the latest politically correct management practice, especially considering that the notion of triple bottom line (3bl) accounting has become more prevalent, where “a corporation’s ultimate success or health can and should be measured not just by the traditional financial bottom line but also by its social/ethical and environmental performance” (norman & macdonald, 2004, p. 243). researchers such as peter frankental (2001) argued that csr is a public relations invention. he stated this because he believed that organisations did not take it seriously enough that they did not write csr into the policies etc. "if socially responsible behaviour does not feed into a company's share price or its profits, what is the incentive for a company's leadership to pursue socially responsible policies?" (frankental, 2001, p.19). a study conducted in 1976 into the perceptions of csr of executives in the usa showed that these business leaders believed that their opinions and the philosophies had changed in that businesses should help to solve social problems whether or not business helps to create the problems even if there is probably no short or long term profit potential (abdul rashid, 2002, p. 11). in 1984, a similar study was conducted in the usa, by ford and mclaughlin (abdul rashid, 2002) comparing perceptions of ceo's and academic leaders in the higher education sector. this study showed high agreement in both samples of corporate acceptance for social responsibility. in 2001, abdul rashid's comparable study in malaysia showed that the majorit y of participants agreed that “socially responsible corporate behaviour can be in the best interest of the economic shareholders” and “that efficient production of goods and services is no longer the only thing society expects from business” (2002, p. 13). in the same study, 66,2% of participants disagreed that “business already has too much social power and should not engage in social activities that might give it more”. nearly 64% of participants disagreed with the negative statement that “business leaders are trained to manage economic institutions and not to work effectively on social issues” (abdul rashid, 2002, p. 13). the abovementioned research by abdul rashid showed that managers in malaysia had a positive attitude towards csr, consistent with the research conducted by ford and mclaughlin among ceos and deans of business schools in the us in 1984. quazi (2003) conducted research in australia with more investigation into the reasons for the positive attitudes of business leaders towards csr. his research showed a high degree of positive attitudes towards csr in australian businesses, with a strong link to educational qualification and training, rather than physical maturity of managers. in addition, this study showed a strong correlation between religious commitment and a positive perception of social involvement. diale (2003, p. 1) believes that “radical change in the approach of how we go about our csi business in south africa needs to be revisited”. he adds that certain south african businesses have done well in the csi arena – but this cannot be said for all organisations in the country. csr in south africa is becoming more prominent. he states that it is not only csr practitioners in south africa who are interested in the subject. “how profits are generated has become a subject of scrutiny and enquiry by all those who are affected, directly or indirectly” (2003, p 1). this can be compared to mcclenahen’s view of american organisations where “there’s a tendency to think of corporate social responsibility as philanthropy and not thinking of it in terms of what it is fundamentally about” (2005, p. 64). further, de jongh (2004) believes that the increased focus on csr in south africa has started “shifting consumers’ attention towards corporate behaviour and whether it’s responsible and accountable” (p. 34). attention is being given to the concept of csr by the south african academic sector too, with the university of south africa (unisa), and the university of natal both setting up centres and programmes respectively, dealing with corporate citizenship (diale, 2003). such research is necessary in the south african business sector as businesses are compelled to embrace change on all levels. according to tlakula (1999), the processes of political reform in south africa warrant renewed attention to social problems. government alone is not equipped to address this. however, he argues that it should be a partnership – where government and business jointly use the available resources and address social problems. as such, "renewed interest in social responsibility could emerge which will require professional management" (tlakula, 1999, p. 8). in fact, mattson and wood (2003, p. 61) state that businesses could “supplant governments in fostering a self-reliant wellbeing in society”. if, according to them, the rules of business are changing, organisations should not wait until csr is legislated. they need to take ownership of the society in which they operate, and in which their stakeholders exist, and proactively drive positive social change. in doing this, large-scale organisational change may also occur. one can compare the role of csr today to the role played by affirmative action in the early 1990s (diale, 2003). this mcdonald, liebenberg28 concept was not always managed. companies who had implemented targeted affirmative action plans before it was legislated realised far better ret urns on their human investments than those who did not. furthermore, companies that embraced and managed the process of affirmative action saw the direct and indirect benefits more than those organisations that applied such principles because it was required, and because it was politically correct. nicky newton-king, deputy ceo of the jse, and a contributor to the jse sustainability index, believes that most companies are already doing more than necessary to tackle the country's unique challenges, and this should be recognised" (as cited in starke, 2003, p. 30). as such, if we take this example of affirmative action, sound research on csr is required to ensure that companies are responsive to the changing face of business, and ensure that csr is a well-managed function in every south african organisation. previous research has shown a need to further examine the concept of csr to accommodate the increased and potential csr practices in south africa (diale, 2003; de jongh, 2004; hamann et al, 2005; tlakula, 1999). “companies, like individuals, are expected to possess a social conscience and not only to achieve economic goals but also to use their power and influence to foster the welfare of the communit y” (tlakula, 1999, p. 1). most corporate organisations will have some kind of social responsibility programme in place – depending on what they define as csr. it has become worthwhile to have csr somewhere in the company activities for its reputational impact. “no corporate affairs manager will admit that their company is not socially responsible” (frankental, 2001, p. 19). as van de ven and jeurissen (2005, p. 301) assert: “maybe the members of the board of directors are truly motivated by a sense of moral duty, maybe they are only backing the csr efforts because it is good for business or themselves”. the fact remains though, that there are still many companies that have a negative impact on the community in which they operate, and appear to do nothing about it. this is especially prevalent in areas, which are more remote and/or rural, and practices such as the exploitation of child labour, for example, are common. frankental (2001) further asserts that csr is no more than a public relations function because of where it is situated in the organisational structure. most often, it is located within external affairs, community affairs or corporate affairs. therefore, research into csr is necessary to determine how csr is perceived by the corporate sector, to enable further research into explaining attitudes and perceptions. research objectives this study sought to research the perceptions towards csr of the organisation’s employees to identif y the company's future csr strategy. the organisation is currently involved in csr, but not to the degree that it affords large-scale publicity or large-scale profit returns. this research aimed to identif y the extent to which employees are aware of the organisation’s various csr interventions and whether they believe this is something they, as employees, should be more involved in? issues to be addressed the research question for this study was: what do employees of the organisation perceive csr to be? the main objective was to determine the perceptions of employees of the organisation towards csr. a definition of csr was provided to participants. in brief, the objectives were: � to determine the perceptions of the organisation’s employees in terms of what they believe csr to be; � to determine whether these are positive or negative perceptions; � to determine whether perceptions differ across levels of employees in the organisation. assumptions it cannot be assumed that all parties have the same definition of csr (benson, 1978; eberstadt in carroll, 1977; mcclenahen, 2005). as has already been stated, some organisations interpret csr as a publicity tool, partnering with the public relations department of the business. on the other hand, there are strong views regarding the expectations of businesses when it comes to csr. corporate citizenship is also a term that has been associated with csr and leads to an extended understanding of csr (matten & crane, 2005). some authors believe that csr should be adopted by an organisation, at all costs. in other words, returns to shareholders must be considered secondary to the investment in society. this is what lantos (2001, p. 606) terms altruistic csr – “genuine optional caring, even at possible personal or organisational sacrifice”. for example, setting up a day care centre in a rural area would have no financial or direct benefit to the organisation at all. as such, it is important to state clearly what csr is – and then to allow the research results to determine whether employees see the organisation's csr projects as altruistic or strategic. definition of csr for purposes of this research, the researcher provided the following definition to all participants: for purposes of conceptualising csr, it can be seen as an organisation's pursuit of profit and economic progress by serving all its stakeholders – government, employees, investors, customers and society, by maximising the use of its profits for the advancement of all these stakeholders. csr in south africa “the term social responsibility was introduced to south africa in the early seventies as a result of the involvement of multinational corporations, which operated in terms of codes of employment practice” (tlakula, 1999, p. 7). actually, csr, during this phase, was considered the domain of the 'personnel people' and not the 'industrialists' of business. alternately, welfare officers were appointed to deal with the 'problem'. renewed interest in csr in south africa probably stems from the political past and the resultant social inequities and problems. as south africa continues its process of political reform, more organisations are viewing csr as an area of business that requires professional management. ethical considerations as the research conducted dealt with the perceptions of individuals, and investigated personal tendencies towards a sensitive issue, ethical considerations were borne in mind. babbie and mouton (2002, p. 520) argue that “the scientist has the right to search for the truth but not at the expense of the rights of other individuals in society”. this was particularly pertinent when conducting interviews as part of the research, as the guarantee of anonymity is in the hands of the researcher. babbie and mouton (2002) state that qualitative research designs have the following features: � a detailed encounter with the object of study; � selecting a small number of cases to be studied; � an openness to multiple sources of data; and � flexible design features that allow the researcher to adapt and make changes to the study where and when necessary. the research design for this study was based on these principles. corpor ate social responsibility 29 while the modernist approach to research advocates valuefreedom and objectivity in social research in a quest for the truth, it also rejects any moral responsibility in an effort to make social research more scientific (babbie & mouton, 2002). the post-modernist approach, however, argues that “social scientists are intrinsically linked to their social and historical contexts” and thus value-free social research is unattainable (babbie & mouton, 2002, p. 40). further, neuman (1997) asserts that postmodernism has a strong reliance on intuition, imagination and personal experiences and that research can never completely represent what happens in the social world. post-modern principles have guided this study in that all social reality cannot exist outside of human reflection and inquiry (babbie & mouton, 2002). research paradigm the aim of phenomenological research is to understand a phenomenon from the point of view of those people who experience it. according to babbie and mouton (2002, p. 271) a qualitative researcher in the phenomenological paradigm should attempt “to become more than just a participant observer in the natural setting that is being investigated”. a researcher in this context needs to put him or herself in the shoes of the people under observation to understand their perceptions. stones (in kruger, 1998) argues that regardless of the researcher’s orientation, it is not possible to remain uninvolved when conducting social research, “for the human element is inextricably present even in the most mechanized and automated research designs, as in the interpretation and discussion of results” (p. 142). as such, in this study, i have adopted an approach which acknowledges that all the knowledge gained from this study, is influenced by my own particular point of view. my personal world-view determines my attitude towards the phenomenon of csr, and thus supports the notion of researching a subjective reality (stones in kruger, 1988). the choice to explore this phenomenon in a qualitative environment was guided by my personal scientific values of human subjectivity, and evidence suggesting that such research may uncover multiple dimensions of the topic under research (neuman, 1997). in addition, to determine how subjects experience the world in which they work, and how actions and events in this environment directly impact on the meaning they give to this world, a qualitative methodology was appropriate. lemon (in du plooy, 1995, p. 33) states that qualitative researchers believe that there is no one “objective 'reality' which can be observed and neutrally quantified. nor do they believe that human beings are homogenous and that they can be simply categorised”. perceptions are highly individual, and it is thus not always possible to capture these in a highly generalised manner. the aim of this research was to determine such perceptions only – not to show any correlation with any other variables. case study design de vos (2002) believes that a case study can examine processes or events, or people and cites stake (in de vos, 2002, p. 275) as stating that “the sole criterion for selecting cases for a case study should be ‘the opportunity to learn’”. it enables an investigation of a single unit – in this case an organisation (babbie & mouton, 2002). the selection of a case study setting was guided by the purpose of the research, as it allows for exploration and differing methods of data collection. the decision to examine this phenomenon of csr in a case study setting was further guided by my personal circumstances. at the time the research was conducted, i was employed by the case study organisation and was responsible for its csr activities. thus, it was beneficial to me as well as to the organisation to study csr in this particular organisation. research design research approach the organisation selected for this study was a private higher education institution, part of a larger private education group, based in johannesburg, south africa. at the time of the study the organisation had 100 employees across executive, management, academic, administrative and elementary levels. at the time of the research the organisation was undergoing significant change and restructuring, as a result of a merger. selection of participants the population identified for this study was all functionally literate employees of a private higher education institution. employees with low literacy were excluded in this study. as the focus of this study was on the perceptions of all employees across all levels, it was important that the sample included a range of employees from the elementary levels to senior management, within the defined parameters, to ensure representativeness (durrheim, 1999). purposive sampling was used to ensure that the sample was representative of these levels, as this study was assessing perceptions of csr across all organisational levels (strydom & delport, 2002). babbie & mouton (2002) state that purposive sampling is appropriate when the researcher’s knowledge of the population will enable him/her to ensure that the sample is most representative of the population. de vos (2002, p. 207) further argues that purposive sampling enables a sample that contains “the most characteristic, representative or typical attributes of the population”. thus, it ensures that the techniques used to construct the sample will ensure that the purpose of the research is upheld. therefore a sample of 19 participants was selected on the following basis: � 4 elementary employees � 5 administrative employees � 3 academic employees � 2 academic heads of department � 3 administrative heads of department � 2 executive employees bearing these criteria in mind, participants were selected on a random basis within each department provided they met the purposive sampling criteria. entry to the research setting entry to the research setting was gained via permission from the then managing director and executive committee. the purpose and context of the research was explained to selected participants as was the method of participant selection. as i, as researcher, was known to all participants, there was no resistance to me using these participants in the study. thus permission was gained at the organisational level as well as the individual level (schurink, 2005). research methodolgy multiple methods of data collection were used in this study. data was collected by means of in-depth face-to-face interviews with the sample selected, followed up with focus groups comprising different participants. in addition, participant observation was selected to reveal important information not overt in an interview or focus group (cresswell, 1998; greef, 2002; neuman, 1997). interview questions were open-ended to encourage further discussion by the participants. similar types of questions were used in the focus groups. participant observation was particularly relevant to this study as the researcher was “somewhat socialised into the social setting in which the observation was being done” (baker, 1999, p. 246). mcdonald, liebenberg30 as a result of my role as both executive in the organisation, as well as researcher, i was able to approach the research as both participant and observer. this participation was overt. secondary sources of information used included available unsolicited documents at the company, including strategic plans, the company mission statement, the company values charter, and the company csr budget allocation, to ensure triangulation of the data collected (de vos, 2002; strydom & delport, 2002). limitations one of the major potential limitations of the data collection is that the participants were not anonymous. certain participants may have been intimidated in the research setting, particularly in the presence of the researcher who previously occupied an executive position at the organisation. in an attempt to overcome this potential limitation, the context of the research was explained to all participants so that they understand that any implications arising from the data gathered would not reflect negatively on them. it was not considered necessary to conduct formal peer debriefing at the conclusion of the data collection phase, as the researcher had since left the employ of the organisation and would not be interacting with the subjects in any way thereafter. research procedure the procedures used for gathering data were guided by phenomenological principles. unstructured in-depth interviews were conducted with individual participants. after analysis of this data, focus group sessions were held with the participants in a group setting. concurrent analysis of unsolicited documents was analysed throughout the data collection phase. the company has in existence an organisational strategic plan, a values charter, a mission statement and financial reports indicating csr spend at the company. an in-depth analysis of this data took place to determine the strength of the csr profile. results were recorded on tape and then transcribed into paper documents, thus minimizing the need to take notes during the interviews and focus group. secondary unsolicited documents were duplicated and kept for analysis. athens (as cited in schurink, 2005) asserts that “the way in which a researcher makes a study credible is by supplying an adequate account of his or her research along with the description of its results”. while a complete account of all observations was not possible in this context, the recording of data in this way contributes to ensuring the soundness and qualit y of the research (schurink, 2005). data explicitation data collected was analysed by means of identif ying similar emergent themes around the concept of csr. individual and common meanings were sought as a means of exploring the perceptions participants have of csr (mouton, 2002). reasons for these meanings will not be analysed in any way. this is an area for further research for explanatory purposes. in keeping with the methodology for data explicitation of groenewald and schurink (2003), the term “explicitation” has replaced the term “analysis” on hycner's (1999, p. 161) recommendation. hycner (1999, p. 161) argues that the term “analysis” has dangerous connotations for phenomenology in that it implies a “‘breaking into parts’ and therefore often means a loss of the whole phenomenon”. the term ‘explicitation’ implies an “investigation of the constituents of a phenomenon while keeping the context of the whole” (1999, p. 161). this method lends itself to a more interpretative manner of scrutinising the data. data explicitation thus took place within a phenomenological paradigm, as used by groenewald and schurink (2003), and followed five distinct stages: � bracketing and phenomenological reduction � delineating units of meaning � clustering units of meaning to form themes � summarise each interview, validate and modif y � general and unique themes for all the interviews results interviews and focus group the results of the study show that the perceptions of csr amongst the organisation’s employees differ significantly. there was a discrepancy as to how the participants understood the concept of csr. very few participants had actually given some thought to the concept prior to the interview/focus group. this said however, most participants agreed with the definition presented to them for the purposes of this study. some of them were not familiar with the profit motives behind the practices of csr and questioned the relevance thereof. for example, one participant stated the following: “i am concerned about using the words ‘maximising the use of profits’ – i am not sure my organisation is doing that”. another participant used the words: “i don’t know how csr is linked to economics”. most participants agreed with all the listed stakeholders but some suggested that the order in which stakeholders are listed in the definition is misleading and ranks stakeholders in terms of priority. there was some confusion as to whether csr should be a budgeted expense, or should come after profit is declared, and only if profit is realized. participants generally felt that it should be budgeted for, but at the same time, csr should not be at the expense of the company. any company needs to make a profit first, and then engage in social investment. one such participant stated: “i think organisations should invest in csr before they take a profit. it should be seen as an everyday expense”. however, it is my belief that without profit, an organisation will not be in a position to engage in csr projects. furthermore, almost all participants see csr as somewhat internally focussed, and i observed that there was often confusion between human resource practices and csr. while there seems to be some understanding of the role of an organisation as being socially responsible to its employees, the practices associated with this are confused with human resources practices. for example, what would normally be considered an employee benefit is confused with being a csr intervention for employees. participants felt that staff morale was low, and that caring for one’s staff was a social responsibility intervention as opposed to being a human resource practice. one participant also noted that the salary one is paid for work done is a socially responsible practice on the part of the employer. some participants were not knowledgeable about csr in south africa. most participants could identif y south african, and even international, organisations who have a high csr profile, but very few could actually provide details on the kinds of projects in which these organisations are involved. organisations listed were mostly large sa organisations such as vodacom, shell, nedbank, standard bank, mtn, and absa. furthermore, participants had differing perceptions on the role and prevalence of csr in sa. many felt that sa is still a developing nation in this respect, and is doing as much as is possible to address the social issues of the country. however, there was a strong perception that sa organisations are investing in csr for their own benefit, rather than for the country to benefit. one participant referred to it has evoking corpor ate social responsibility 31 a “fuzzy, warm feeling” of doing good, but it is not necessarily perceived as doing good for the right reasons. very few participants recognised it as being a compliance issue in terms of corporate reporting. many participants also felt that customers are putting pressure on organisations to become more socially responsible. customers may prefer to patronize suppliers who are known for investing in the community. participants also believed that this was linked to the profit motive behind csr, as more csr will result in more customers. participants cited reasons for corporations becoming involved in csr as anything related to publicity, marketing, free advertising, ethics, legislative compliance and exposure. participants did not believe that organisations invested in csr projects for pure philanthropic reasons. one participant stated: “well i think it is an image thing – they think it is good for their image. they wouldn’t do it if they won’t benefit from it”. it was largely felt that these organisations invest as such to obtain some kind of exposure and to be seen as doing the ‘right’ thing or keeping up with global best practices and international pressure. furthermore, one participant referred to csr as being a reaction to “white guilt”, while another stated that “it touches on ethics”. on an individual level, csr was important to all participants. many felt that any small contribution classifies as socially responsible behaviour, and that people should look to their own immediate environment before trying to reach out to a larger communit y. however, there was no consistency in the participants perception of how important csr was to an individual seeking a job in sa. for example, when asked whether an organisation’s csr profile would influence whether they accepted employment at that organisation or not, the responses were varied. for some participants, it was felt that an organisation that has a strong commitment to csr will also have a strong commitment to its employees, and association with that organisation will instill a sense of pride in employees. however, many participants also commented that the current economic climate in sa does not make it possible for people to choose employers based on csr profiles. it was felt that the sa commercial environment is not ‘mature’ enough yet for such trends. while csr was important to the individual, most people are not in a position to choose between jobs – they take what they can get. when questioned on the potential beneficiaries of csr in sa, most participants required additional information. i observed that participants were not entirely clear on the definition and thus could not easily identif y stakeholders. however, for the most part, it was agreed that the community, ngo’s, npo’s, the underprivileged and employees benefited directly from csr interventions. there was much debate surrounding the notion of the government benefitting from csr. some participants felt that the private sector organisations are doing the job of the government when the government should be using tax income to uplift society. others felt that the government did benefit from csr, and that this was not necessarily negative. these participants believe that all members of sa society should be contributing to csr in some way as the country as a whole will benefit in the long term. participants generally agreed on the high need areas requiring csr intervention. responses covered areas such as hiv/aids, crime, rape, child abuse, and education. education and skills development featured most prominently. one participant also referred to the needs of the elderly as an area requiring attention. the environment featured in a minor way. on a more specific level, participants mostly felt that their own organisation was sufficiently contributing to community projects and csr interventions. none of the participants felt that the organisation should be doing less csr. however, this must be interpreted in conjunction with how participants understood csr in terms of employee benefits. after some discussion and probing, participants agreed that some practices at the organisation are more csr issues, and they agreed that others were purely human resource issues. in general, participants felt that the organisation’s csr had both an internal and external impact. themes several themes were addressed around the organisation’s csr activities and how staff perceived these. this was done to determine the culture of acceptance of csr at the organisation. all participants felt that the organisation was engaged in good practices, but they agreed that there were employees who feel that the investment should go to staff first, before the community is assisted. from the results, the following 3 themes emerged as significant to the results: � definitions of csr � perceptions of csr in south africa � participant’s perception of the organisation’s role in csr all results gathered can be clustered into the following themes from which to draw analyses. figure 1 shows responses from interviewees according to the above themes: figure 1: interview responses to themes table 1 refers to the overall impressions of focus group participants and compares these responses to the majority responses of interview participants. table 1 comparison of focus group and interview repsondents to theme interview focus average group do not understand definition of csr no no agree with csr definition provided yes yes very knowledgeable of csr in sa no no very familiar with csr projects in sa no yes perceive csr to be for marketing/ethical/pr reasons yes yes believe csr in sa is adequate no no believe the organisation is adequately involved yes/no no familiar with the organisation’s csr projects yes yes supportive of the organisation's role in csr yes yes mcdonald, liebenberg32 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 u nd er st an ds d ef in iti on o f c s r a gr ee s w ith c s r d ef in iti on p ro vi de d v er y kn ow le dg ea bl e of c s r in s a v er y fa m ili ar w ith c sr p ro je ct s in s a p er ce iv es c s r to b e fo r m ar ke tin g/ et hi ca l/p r r ea so ns b el ie ve s c s r in s a is a de qu at e be lie ve s th e or ga ni sa tio n is a de qu at el y in vo lv ed f am ili ar w ith th e or ga ni sa tio n' s c s r p ro je ct s s up po rt iv e of th e or ga ni sa tio n' s ro le in c sr themes yes unsure no n o . o f re sp o n d e n ts yes unsure no u n d e rs ta n d s d e fi n it io n o f th e c s r a g re e s w it h c s r d e fi n it io n p ro v id e d v e ry k n o w le d g e a b le o f c s r i n s a v e ry f a m il ia r w it h c s r p ro je c ts i n s a p e rc e iv e s c s r t o b e fo r m a rk e ti n g /e tc ic a l /p r r e a so n s b e li e v e s c s r i n s a i s a d e q u a te b e li e v e t h e o rg a n is a ti o n is a d e q u a te ly i n v o lv e d f a m il ia r w it h t h e o rg a n is a ti o n ’s c s r p ro je c ts s u p p o rt iv e o f th e o rg a n is a ti o n ’s r o le in c s r themes what becomes evident after the above comparison is that data gathered from the focus group mostly supports data gathered from the interviews. a significant conclusion may be drawn from the two themes where there was a discrepancy in the overall response. the focus group participants proved to be more familiar with csr in south africa than the interview participants. i assume that the dynamics of a focus group have caused this difference in perception. there was more discussion around csr in sa in the focus group, thus triggering more thoughts about the theme. i observed that when examples of sa companies involved in csr were mentioned in the focus group, more ideas emanated from participants. this is a natural phenomenon occurring in focus groups. however, in the interviews, i did not give any examples of sa companies involved in csr projects, hence forcing participants to develop responses based on their own knowledge and not on that of fellow participants. the focus group results also differed from the interview results with regard to the involvement of the organisation in csr. the focus group participants did not believe that the organisation was adequately involved in csr, whereas the interview participants were divided on their responses. i can assume that the focus group scenario may be more intimidating for an individual who reveals personal perceptions on a sensitive issue. the focus group was of the opinion that not enough was being done by the organisation, and some of the stronger participants in the focus group stressed this more than others. participants were generally aware of csr projects running at the organisation but felt that the communication around these projects could be better to ensure that all employees knew what interventions were in place. in addition, participants felt that very little involvement was required of employees in the organisation’s csr projects, and expressed that this was an area for improvement. one or two main projects emerged as most significant for participants. several questions were directed towards the participants with regard to their perceptions of the organisation being a caring company. i did this to determine perceptions towards the organisation and to determine whether this has an impact on how staff perceive csr. the participants were again polarised on this issue. while some felt that the organisation was a very caring company, others felt that it did not treat its staff well. while some participants had limited involvement in community work or csr projects, most participants were not formally involved in any such projects. this issue was addressed with participants to determine a predisposition towards csr, or prior knowledge, as this may affect perceptions of csr. one of the objectives of the study was to identif y whether perceptions differ across employment levels. the results gathered reveal that lower level employees are not as aware of the concept of csr as the higher level employees. they view it on a micro environmental level only, and not in the broader sa society. in addition, each participant at an elementary or lower administration level in the organisation perceives csr as a good thing, and believes it is important to them. academic staff were more verbal about the role of csr as well as the definition of csr presented to them. these participants questioned the definition of csr more than the elementary employees did, and also demonstrated a higher level of comprehension of the definition of csr and the associated interview questions. the focus group conducted after the interviews showed the same trends. elementary staff knew less about the concept and offered less opinion during the discussion. secondary data the organisation does not have a dedicated csr strategy guiding its csr activities. csr is also not mentioned in its overall strategic planning documentation. however, the organisation embarked on a values charter planning project in 2003, out of which emerged a set of core values guiding all organisational behaviour, planning and strategies. a list of values were identified by executive staff, after which this list was presented to staff for the final decision. staff voted on the values and social responsibility was identified as a core value for the organisation. there is no dedicated csr budget as most of the projects in which the organisation is involved focus on the provision of free education, which requires no financial outlay by the organisation. further, most employees volunteer their time and services in such projects. however, around 1% (r500 000) of the total revenue of the organisation is allocated to the provision of bursaries to, among others, financially needy students. discussion emerging perceptions once captured, all results were examined to extricate patterns and themes around the perceptions of csr. the main areas of focus were guided by the research objectives and thus were grouped according to theme. importance of csr the results suggest that the organisation’s employees’ perceptions of csr overall are neither informed, nor overtly positive, and that the organisation’s employees are not particularly positively predisposed to csr. while most participants felt that csr was considered important to them as individuals, they did not feel so strongly to allow it to influence their choice of employment. the same trends emerged from the focus group. very few participants were, or had been, involved in community work or csr-type projects at the time of the interviews and focus groups. i can thus assume that the participants want to believe csr is important to them, but on probing with related questions, it emerged that very few participants put into practice what they state are their beliefs. figure 2 indicates the breakdown of responses gathered. figure 2: interview responses to importance of csr participants gave the impression that the organisation should be focussing more internally before engaging in external csr interventions. i assume from the data gathered that participants would prefer the broader organisational issues to be resolved before csr is afforded priority. based on the results, participants were not overtly resentful of the csr activities of the organisation, yet their responses to certain statements indicated that staff were not as predisposed to csr as they intended to convey. corpor ate social responsibility 33 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 csr very important to individual would choose a job based on company's csr profile involved in csr sub theme n u m b e r o f re s p o n s e s n u m b e r o f re sp o n se s sub theme csr very important to individual would choose a job based on company’s csr profile involved in csr from this emerges the notion that participants need to move away from feelings of guilt, to a level of understanding of csr. when this is achieved, the concept of csr as being a way of sharing resources and wealth will be better understood. reasons for engaging in csr the results gathered lead to the assumption that csr is considered to be a marketing or publicity opportunity for companies engaging in such interventions. this supports some research already conducted in this area, as discussed in the literature survey. the evidence further suggests that the csr activities at the organisation are not co-ordinated in any manner, and that there is no clear communication strategy with regards to csr. in addition, secondary document analysis revealed that there is no targeted csr strategy at the company, neither is there a dedicated csr budget. these results indicate that the participants in the interviews and focus groups were correct in their perception that the organisation’s csr is lacking direction. i can thus assert that csr at the organisation is not part of the organisation’s policy and is thus perhaps not “taken seriously enough” (frankental, 2001). csr in south africa the research conducted in this study shows that participants perceive the sa corporate industry to not yet have reached a level of maturity with regards to csr to see it as a strategic and significant part of the business. this supports prior research into csr in sa that indicates that sa organisations should be managing csr in a more professional manner. from the results of the study, i can assume that either there is not enough csr happening in sa to have a significant impact on participants, or that such projects are not communicated as widely as they should be. in addition, some participants suggested that the public never hear of the direct beneficiaries of csr in sa. this again supports my assumption that the exposure gained for a company through such projects is more important to the company than the actual benefits to the stakeholders, thus contributing to the negative perceptions of csr held by participants. summary of perceptions from these results, i believe that there is no common understanding of csr in sa amongst participants, or a common appreciation of the need for csr. participants generally confused csr with human resources issues and felt that employee benefits and employee assistance programmes should be primary areas of csr focus within the organisation. there was also a general tendency amongst participants to assume that csr was more about spending money, than investing in a socially responsible manner. it is important to note that at the time of the interviews and focus groups, the organisation was involved in a large scale restructuring and change intervention, resulting in instability and uncertainty within the workforce. this could explain why many human resources issues emerged in the discussions, and why there seemed to be hidden negativit y towards the organisation’s support for its own staff. that aside, however, the emerging themes as listed above can be cross referenced as follows: there was no clear understanding of csr amongst recipients, resulting in somewhat negative or uninformed perceptions of csr in sa. this further resulted in the same perceptions emerging with regards to the organisation itself, however, these were not overtly expressed. i can assume that this was because i was a senior executive at the organisation and participants may not have felt comfortable making negative comments about their organisation. figure 1 compares the overall positive and negative responses given. responses were classified according to table 1. for purposes of this research, all uncertain responses were classified as negative, as they indicated an inherent lack of understanding or knowledge. figure 3: comparison of positive and perceptions of csr i may make assumptions as to the reasons for the lack of understanding of csr, based on the participants’ limited knowledge of the concept. for many participants, they only developed a rudimentary understanding of the term after the interview or focus group commenced. conclusion my own perceptions reveal that csr is a concept that is not well understood, and thus the negative perceptions surrounding it beg explanation. i also believe that the emotional context of the participants played a role in conveying a negative perception, and it was extremely difficult for both myself, as well as participants to create an element of distance. from this research, however, my own view of the role csr plays in society is somewhat different. the lack of awareness around this concept has highlighted the shortcomings of both government and the corporate sector, and the role they play in the csr arena. this said, i still believe that the research is sound, and represents the perceptions of the selected participants accurately. there are still differing understandings of the meaning of csr, which causes certain perceptions to emerge. the study set out to establish what these perceptions were, to explore the concept of csr in sa in a more scientific manner. reasons for these perceptions cannot be scientifically assumed at this point and further explanatory research must be conducted to examine these reasons. references abdul rashid, z. (2002). executive and management attitudes towards corporate social responsibility in malaysia. corporate governance, 2, (4). aburdene, p. (2005). megatrends 2010: the rise of conscious capitalism. charlottesville: hampton roads publishing company. babbie, e & mouton, j. (2002). the practice of social research. cape town: oxford university press. baker, t.l. (1999). doing social research. usa: mcgraw-hill. benson, c.s. (1978). business ethics in american society. usa: claremont men's college publishers. carroll, a (1977). managing corporate social responsibility. boston: little, brown and company. cresswell, j.w. (1998). qualitative inquiry and research design. thousand oaks: sage. czerny, a. (2005). time for action on proven business case for csr. people management, june 2005. de jongh, d. (2004). know your stakeholders. finance week, june 2004. de vos, a.s. (ed). (2002). research at grass roots. pretoria: van schaik. diale, t. (2003, september). relooking at corporate social investment in south africa. moneyweb. pp 1-4. retrieved january 29, 2004 from the world wide web: http://m1.mny.co.za/mnsbx.nsf. mcdonald, liebenberg34 positive negative doonar, j. (2005). a question of ethics. brand strategy, june 2005. du plooy, g.m. (ed.) (1995). communication research. cape town: juta. durrheim, k. (1999). research in practice: applied methods for the social sciences. cape town: university of cape town press. frankental, p. (2001). corporate social responsibility – a pr invention. corporate communications: an international journal, 6, (1). greeff, m. (2002). research at grass roots. pretoria: van schaik. groenewald, t & schurink, w. (2003). the contribution of cooperative education in the growing of talent in south africa: a qualitative phenomenological exploration. sa journal of human resource management, 1 (3). hamann, r. agbazue, t. kapelus, p & hein, a. (2005). universalising corporate social responsibility? south african challenges to the international organisation for standardisation’s new social responsibility standard. business and society review, 110 (1). hycner, r.h. (1999). some guidelines for the phenomenological analysis of inter view data. london: sage. key, s & popkin, s.j. (1998). integrating ethics into the strategic management process: doing well by doing good. management decision, 36, (5). kruger, d. (1988). an introduction to phenomenological psychology. johannesburg: juta. lantos, g.p. (2001). the boundaries of strategic corporate social responsibility. journal of consumer marketing, 18, (7). matten, d & crane, a. (2005). corporate citizenship: toward and extended theoretical concept ualization. academy of management review, 30 (1). mattson, m & wood, d. (2003). beyond the triple bottom line: towards a conscious model of corporate governance. leadership, october 2003. mcclenahen, j.s. (2005). defining social responsibility. industry week, march 2005. moir, l. (2003). the business world's latest buzzword?: csr and what it means to you. strategic direction, 19, (6). mouton, j. (2002). understanding social research. pretoria: van schaik. neuman,w.l. (1997). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. usa: allyn & bacon. norman, w & macdonald, c. (2004). getting to the bottom of ‘triple bottom line”. business ethics quarterly, 14 (2). quazi, a.m. (2003). identif ying the determinants of corporate managers' perceived social obligations. management decision, 41, (9). rockey, v. (ed.) (2003). csi handbook. cape town: trialogue. rossouw, d. (2002). business ethics in africa. cape town: oxford university press. saha, m & darnton, g. (2005). green companies or green conpanies: are companies really green or are they pretending to be? business and society review, 110 (2). schurink, w. (2005). evaluating qualitative research. unpublished lecture notes.starke, a. (2003). socially responsible investing and the launch of a south african index. leadership, september 2003. starke, a. (2003). socially responsible investing and the launch of a south african index. leadership, september 2003. strydom, h & delport, c.s.l. (2002). research at grass roots. pretoria: van schaik. tlakula, l.b. (1999). an investigation into corporate social responsibility: the case of coca-cola. masters dissertation: milpark business school. valor, c. (2005). corporate social responsibility and corporate citizenship: towards corporate accountability. business and society review, 110 (2). van de ven, b & jeurissen, r. (2005). competing responsibly. business ethics quarterly, 15 (2). corpor ate social responsibility 35 abstract introduction research design research method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) ebben s. van zyl department of industrial psychology, university of the free state, south africa rose b. mathafena sasria insurance company, johannesburg, south africa joyce ras department of industrial psychology, university of the free state, south africa citation van zyl, e.s., mathafena, r.b., & ras, j. (2017). the development of a talent management framework for the private sector. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a820. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.820 original research the development of a talent management framework for the private sector ebben s. van zyl, rose b. mathafena, joyce ras received: 20 may 2016; accepted: 23 jan. 2017; published: 13 apr. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: talent management is a strategic priority especially for profit-generating organisations in the private sector. limited research has been conducted on the theoretical development of talent management. the need for talent management is also triggered by a need to align and integrate people management practices with those of the organisation in order to achieve strategic execution and operational excellence. research purpose: the primary aim of the study was to develop a talent management framework for the private sector. the research proposed to conduct an in-depth exploration of talent management practices in key and leading organisations already in the mature stages of talent management implementation in south africa. motivation of the study: there is a need for the development of best practices in talent management – where talent management strategy is designed to deliver corporate and human resource management strategies. the formal talent management initiative would be linked to the human resources management function and will flow vertically from the corporate strategy-making process. research approach, design and method: the modernist qualitative research approach was applied to the study. data were collected through semi-structured interviews (18 persons were interviewed in total). analytical induction method was instrumental in facilitating the overall data analysis, while constructivist grounded theory assisted with the operationalisation of the data analysis. main findings: the study has mapped out key dimensions which are essential for the implementation of talent management. the dimensions of talent management are attraction, sourcing and recruitment, deployment and transitioning, growth and development, performance management, talent reviews, rewarding and recognising, engagement and retention. with each of the above-mentioned dimensions, the activities that are to be carried out to achieve the outcome of each dimension are specified. practical and managerial implications: role clarifications pertaining to talent management responsibilities and accountabilities are still unclear in most instances. early identification of key role players and articulation of duties will lead to ownership and clear accountabilities for the successful implementation of talent management. contribution/value add: the study brought to light critical factors for organisations in the private sector to consider for the successful implementation of an integrated, holistic and comprehensive talent management framework. the proposed framework guides talent management practices within companies in the private sector by highlighting activities to be carried out to achieve outcomes per talent management dimension. introduction key focus of the study this study focuses on the development of a talent management framework for the private sector. there seems to be a lack of a uniform theoretical talent management framework in the private sector, which can be used as a guideline to drive talent management. background collings and mellahi (2009) asserted that since a group of mckinsey consultants coined the phrase ‘war for talent’ in 1997, the topic of talent management has received a remarkable degree of practitioner and academic interest. this relatively recent emphasis on talent management represents a paradigm shift from more traditional human resource to strategic talent management, which according to silzer and dowell (2009) is driven by corporate strategy, incorporated with other processes, managed as a core business practice and deep-seated as a talent mindset. the chartered institute of personnel and development (2006) further views excellent and best practice level of talent management as a strategy designed to deliver corporate and human resource management strategies. often there is a formal talent management initiative linked to the human resources management function and flowing vertically from the corporate strategy-making process. according to powell and lubitsh (2007), talent management has moved rapidly up the corporate agenda in recent years, and this is evident in the amount of research papers published over the last decade (e.g. ashton & morton, 2005; bersin, 2006; chikumbi, 2011; church, rotolo, ginther & levine, 2015; collings, 2014; festing & shafer, 2014; nijs, gallardo-gallardo, dries & sels, 2014; meyer, 2005; odierno, 2015; prinsloo, 2012). egerova (2014) is of the opinion that the increasing attention to talent is affected by factors including globalisation, knowledge-based competition, changing the world of work as well as new forms of organisations and demographic changes. despite the growing popularity of talent management and over a decade of debate and hype, the concept of talent management remains unclear (collings & mellahi, 2009; festing & schafer, 2014; nijs et al. 2014). furthermore, the current state of talent management literature is exacerbated by the fact that in addition to ambiguities around the definition of the concept, there is also alarmingly limited theoretical development in the area as highlighted in the research conducted by arris, cascio and paauwe (2013). consequently, even though business and consulting firms in the private sector have been driving talent management as a strategic priority, there seems to be an overall lack of theoretical frameworks in the academic field. overall, there also seems to be a lack of linkage between talent management practices and the broader human resource systems (ntonga, 2007), as well as an absence of clear succession planning, skills audits and organisational culture driving talent management (chikumbi, 2011). this study attempted to bring to light critical factors which must be taken into account to ensure that organisations can achieve successful implementation of an integrated, holistic and comprehensive talent management framework. the framework will strive to guide talent management practices within companies in the private sector, and also improve and advance the maturity of talent management application. purpose the primary aim of the study was to develop a talent management framework for the private sector. the secondary aim of this study was to conduct a modernist qualitative research study in order to explore and gain in-depth knowledge on talent management and what it entails. more specifically, the study aimed to: bring to light the understanding of the concept of talent management through moving towards a clear language of defining talent management as well as the content thereof apply qualitative research and the use of analytic induction as an overall data analysis strategy, while using constructionist grounded theory to operationalise the data analysis, thus elucidating how these approaches can be used in talent management studies inform human resource practitioners and business managers on how to plan, implement and evaluate talent management in their business in the most comprehensive, systematic, integrated, strategically driven and flexible manner while realising the benefits for the business. contribution to the field the study will contribute theoretically and practically to the operation of businesses in the private sector. from a theoretical perspective, the concept of talent management is illuminated, and knowledge in the field of talent management is extended through the development of a talent management framework. the practical contribution includes access to a well-integrated talent management framework, the purpose of which is to facilitate the implementation and improvement of talent management. furthermore, human resource practitioners and talent management specialists will benefit from the developed talent management framework as it will aid and guide the best practice of talent management. the implementation of the best practice of talent management will work only if the planning, implementation, tools, practices, tactics and dimensions of talent management are correctly applied as advised by the research insights. lastly, the current status of qualitative research, analytic induction and constructivist grounded theory will be expanded in the areas of talent management and human resource studies in south africa. what will follow a conceptual overview of talent management is provided below, as well as a discussion on key aspects linked to talent management, followed by a description of the research design and results. conceptual overview of talent management meyers and van woerkom (2013, p. 23) refer to talent management as ‘the systematic utilisation of human resource management (hrm) activities to attract, identify, develop, and retain individuals who are considered to be “talented”’. meyer (2005) highlights that the attraction, growth and retention of talent are key factors for modern organisations that are knowledge driven. to be known as an employer of choice is considered a key organisational goal with direct benefits. chikumbi (2011) in a quantitative study investigating talent management and staff retention at the bank of zambia reveals that successful management of talent and employee retention leads to the organisation attaining a competitive edge. the study highlights that improved talent management leads to increased productivity, motivated staff, innovation and high employee contribution towards the organisation. odierno (2015) states that talent management offers real and tangible benefits of reducing recruitment costs, effective knowledge transfer, realisation of business strategy, delivery of cutting-edge services and products and the creation of a competitive advantage, in spite of the many challenges that organisations face in order to be sustainable. ashton and morton (2005) argue that good talent management is of strategic importance and can differentiate an organisation when it becomes a core competence, and its talent significantly improves strategic execution and operational excellence. prinsloo (2012), in her study of talent management and the psychological contract, provides evidence that management can use talent management practices to strengthen the psychological contract, leading to lower turnover, improved motivation productivity and loyalty. bersin (2006) asserts that entry into the new era of talent management was because of more challenging people-related issues requiring tighter integration between human resource silos and the business. as an organisation strives to meet business goals, it must ensure that it has continuous and integrated processes for recruiting, training, managing, supporting and remunerating these people, and thus the need for talent management. key aspects linked to talent management the next section will highlight the key aspects that could be linked to talent management (as identified out of the literature). employer of choice, best company to work for and employer brand the branding of a company as ‘employer of choice’ and ‘best company to work for’ is important in supporting talent management initiatives, as the company will have a reputation of being a great place to work for (gatherer & craig, 2010). li and bryan (2010) emphasised that in the quest to become employer of choice, organisations need to create and sustain a workplace which brings a deeper understanding of elements contributing to the workplace climate. employee engagement tucker and williams (2011) believe that various actions taken at different points of the talent management cycle boost employee engagement. effron and ort (2010) suggested that most talent management practitioners believe that increasing engagement achieves the business objectives of improving key financial and operational results. furthermore, caplan (2011) claims a link between talent management and employee engagement in that talent management significantly impacts employee engagement, as they have common and similar indicators such as employee development, utilisation of employees’ capability and so on. employee value proposition collings (2014) asserted that employees who create and contribute value to the organisation should get value back from their organisation in the form of employee value proposition (employee value proposition). bell (2005) views the employee value proposition as a key differentiator of success for organisations competing to recruit, develop, inspire and retain talented people. the best practice is to develop a convincing, credible and competitive employee value proposition which can be responsive to the expectations of talent. organisational culture and core values (healthy climate) delong and trautman (2011) highlighted that organisational culture can be used to drive talent management, as culture is a major factor in determining the success of projects and programmes. you can have the most elegant leadership development plans and talent management initiatives imaginable, but if they are not supported by company cultural practices, norms, values and assumptions, then these programmes will have little impact. pellant (2011) perceived culture as the way people behave, as culture is in the behaviour that is permitted and in the attitudes that are allowed. in organisations, culture exists in how people treat each other, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders. therefore, a set of behaviours and actions which encourages and supports talent management has to be cultivated and promoted. haid, sims, schroeder-saulnier and wang (2010) are of the view that the shared assumptions and values of how to behave and carry out work activities in the organisation must be aligned with the desired culture to achieve business objectives and also support talent and people management practices. alignment of business strategy to talent management hatum (2010) emphasised the importance of aligning talent management strategies with those of the overall organisational strategy. johnson, scholes and whittington (2011) view strategy as the direction and scope of an organisation over the long term, which achieves advantage in the changing environment through its configuration of resources and competencies with the aim of fulfilling stakeholder expectations. the firm needs to have the ability to deliver a holistic talent management strategy which supports the overall business strategy, and in turn allows the firm to perform strongly in the market. according to johnson et al. (2011), this means that the firm has one coherent plan that brings all areas together in a consistent manner. internal alignment in areas of information technology, communication, finance, legal, marketing, human resources and talent management is critical in sending clear, reliable and consistent messages to employees. career life stages and phases knowledge of the various career life stages and phases is important, particularly in relation to talent management processes as it creates an understanding of the particular needs and preferences of the talent, for example, what learning programmes, reward systems, engagement, branding and attraction tactics can be employed for the talented at various career and life stages (cron & slocum, 1989). hess and jepsen (2009) acknowledged that there are age-related differences related to differences in individual needs based on their career stage. the specific needs for career development, promotions and success of each career stage need to be identified. in the early stages, employees are focused on achievement, getting ahead, personal growth, self-esteem and competence as these are key priorities (hess & jepsen, 2009). generational theory and multiple generational workforce boshard and louw (2011) projected that half of the retiring baby boomers in senior management positions would widen the gap of talent availability and supply, which would result in most companies turning to generation x and y employees in search of talent and skills. the white paper released by the united nations secretariat headquarters (boshard & louw, 2011) strongly proposed that managing a multigenerational workforce is a challenging art in itself and that understanding the differences between the generations is fundamental in building a successful multigenerational workplace. organisations must seek to optimise the talents of all age groups, while reconciling differences in the workplace, educating and allowing employees to utilise this diversity for individuals and for organisational advantage. stratified systems theory, levels of work and complexity talent management goes hand in hand with placing high potential employees on highly critical work projects, and also progressively growing and promoting people. careful thought has to be placed on the complexity of the role against a set of skills and competence possessed by the employee at a particular career and life stage (greene, 2010). stratified systems theory and levels of work and complexity theory help to shed light on identifying the required skills for each complex role (greene, 2010). ethics in talent management rose (2007) views ethics as a key branch of philosophy concerned with analysing what is right and wrong in people’s behaviour or conduct. ethics and morality are terms that are often used interchangeably in discussions of good and evil. talent management as a practice needs to incorporate a moral and ethical stance, while adding value to the organisation. a high degree of standards, credibility, fairness, justice, taking responsibility and professionalism have to be exhibited in all activities related to talent management (hess & jepsen, 2009). research design research approach the qualitative research approach was selected because of the nature of the research process being flexible and emergent. leedy and ormrod (2010) indicate that qualitative research seeks a better understanding of complex situations and is sometimes exploratory in nature. a modernist qualitative research method was utilised in order to explore and gain in-depth knowledge on talent management and what it entails. with the study, the researcher hopes to further examine effective and leading best practices and challenges in the implementation process of talent management. analytic induction and constructivist grounded theory was applied to analyse the data. case selection strategy a multiple site case study design was adopted as the research was conducted in two different companies, mainly for the purposes of comparison and verification and to observe similarities and characteristics in the data sets collected (moore, lapan & quartaroli, 2012). according to bromley (1990), case study research is a systematic inquiry into an event or a set of related events which aims to describe and explain the phenomenon of interest. leedy and ormrod (2010) explain that in other instances researchers study two or more cases, often cases that differ in certain key ways in order to make comparisons, build theory or propose generalisations. such studies are called multiple or collective case studies. research method research setting the field setting can be described as those companies who are identified as ‘best employers’ and are certified as such because they meet the requirements of being competitive in the areas of human resource management. they are serious about distinguishing themselves amongst industry peers in the critical areas of pay and benefits, training and development, career opportunities, working conditions and company culture. according to the corporate research foundation (2011), widely known as the corporate research foundation institute, both the companies are listed in the top 10 ranking as best employers in the private sector. entrée and the research roles establishment quandt, mcdonald, bell and arcury (1999) indicated that gaining entry into the research field is quite an intensive process which requires perseverance, persistence and a lot of planning and communication skills. yin (2011) stated that doing research implies interacting with the real world, situations and the people in them. in order to enter and exit research settings, some formality is required, particularly in obtaining the necessary permissions to do the study. in gaining entry to the field, key informants who provided authorisation and permission to conduct the study in the two identified companies provided a list of potential participants for the study. the potential participants were approached through electronic mail to communicate the purpose of the study, and thereafter the interviews were scheduled. the researcher adopted a formal interviewer role, attempting to elicit responses from the interviewees. the researcher used notes, as participants did not feel comfortable with the use of a voice-recording device. the researcher also assumed the role of an observer of the participants, the work environment and of the general company employees. sampling the purposive non-random or non-probability sampling method was selected for the study. in addition, convenience sampling was used with regard to the unsolicited documents issued to support the interview data. in this type of sampling, the researcher determines the most typical characteristics of the participants that could be included in the sample. inclusion criteria are created based on the judgement of the researcher and are used to deliberately include specific participants in the study (botma, greeff, mulaudzi & wright, 2010). characteristics essential for membership in the sample were as follows: the participant must be employed in an organisation that clearly practices talent management or must have been exposed to talent management practices as a manager, human resource practitioner or a beneficiary of the talent management programme. research participants the participants identified for the study were human resource practitioners, management members and beneficiaries of the talent management programmes. the selected organisations are widely and publicly recognised for having effective talent management programmes. from company a, nine participants took part in the first round of interviews, of which five were white females, two indian females, one african female and one african male, all aged between 31 and 55 years, with one exception aged below 30. four participants from company b took part in this first round of interviews, of which all were white, two males and two females aged between 36 and 45. interviews with participants lasted for 60–90 min. the second round of interviews (to test the framework and collect additional data) were conducted with one person from company a, who issued the researcher with seven documents, while from company b four participants were interviewed. four of the participants had a degree and had completed postgraduate studies. four of the participants were already at middle and senior management levels in their careers, while one was at junior management and executive level. data collection methods to achieve the objectives and aims of the research, the researcher opted to combine a few methods of data collection. botma et al. (2010) stated that qualitative researchers typically gather multiple forms of data and thus make use of a combination of research methods. the data collection methods refer to interviewing, observations, document collection and field notes. during the first round of the one-on-one interviews, the researcher followed a semi-structured approach of interviewing (at the organisations’ premises) in order to ensure that the open-ended questions were aligned with the research questions. this allowed flexibility and additional questions to arise during the interview process. the unstructured, in-depth interview was used during the second round of interviews to verify the initial proposed framework and the initial data analyses and coding of themes. furthermore, the researcher conducted informal and unstructured observations of the participants, the settings, the environments and how people interacted in the company environment. the unsolicited documents in the form of internal company publications (agendas and minutes of meetings, internal office memos, financial records and annual reports) were issued to the researcher to support the data. data recording and storage leedy and ormrod (2010) suggested that in conducting a productive interview, the researcher needs to record all responses verbatim, whether through the use of handwritten notes, shorthand and tape recordings or via direct capturing onto a computer, especially if it is an unstructured, in-depth interview. interview data (from conversations, responses and information given by the research participants during the semi-structured interviews) were recorded in a written format. all the handwritten data were transferred and converted into an electronic format through a word processor. furthermore, precautions were taken to safeguard data through backup on a compact disk, flash drive or a storage device that can be kept in a safe place. data analysis in the current study, johnson’s (2004) analytical induction procedure was applied, as implemented in bondas (2006), as well as charmaz’s (2000) constructivist grounded theory for operationalisation of data analysis. findings of marshall and rossman (1995) were incorporated to cover the data testing, validation and verification phase. analytical induction according to smelser and baltes (2001) is a research logic used to collect data, develop analysis and organise the presentation of research findings. its formal objective is causal explanation, a specification of the individually necessary and jointly sufficient conditions for emergence of some part of social life. a slightly modified approach of analytical induction was applied as an overall and overarching data analysis method. charmaz (2006) defines grounded theory as an inductive, iterative and comparative method geared towards theory construction. grounded theory served the purpose of operationalisation of the data analysis, more specifically for coding purposes. the analysis process entailed a movement between deductive (theory and literature) and inductive analysis approaches (emergent insights from the data), resulting in the development of the talent management framework. thomas (2006) views deductive data analysis as set out to test and illuminate consistency with prior assumptions, knowledge and theory. the initial coding process achieved the clustering of similar data sets, and also the naming of these. once the initial coding was completed, the researcher then progressed to the focused coding where the dense data were further de-layered into simpler and more specific sub-themes. these sub-themes are substantiated and supported by excerpts from the interview scripts. the focused coding stage resulted in the reduction of the data even further to identify and develop relevant sub-themes. theoretical coding consequently led to identification of the interrelatedness and the relationships between the concepts, themes and sub-themes, leading to the development of the talent management framework. furthermore, the sense-making of the data which resulted in the initial and proposed talent management framework was supported and influenced by a combination of prior knowledge (deductive) as well as emergent insights (inductive) from the data. thomas (2006) refers to inductive analysis as a detailed process of reading the data to derive concepts, themes, models and frameworks. thomas (2006) views deductive data analysis as set out to test and illuminate consistency with prior assumptions, knowledge and theory. validation, verification and triangulation of the initial talent management framework following the analytic induction process, the researcher visited companies a and b to verify, test, triangulate and validate the initially developed framework through unstructured follow-up interviews with the five participants. the initially proposed talent management framework was electronically mailed to the participants in order for them to advise on whether the framework could be improved, and to indicate the aspects needing improvement. the sixth participant opted not to have an interview but confirmed via electronic mail that the framework and the analysed data constituted a true reflection of what was discussed in the initial round of the interviews conducted. out of the six participants, two took part in the initial interviews and confirmed and validated the data in comparison to the initially proposed framework. while the other four were not involved in the initial interviews, they could only comment mostly on the comprehensiveness and relevance and could also advise on what concepts should be incorporated into the initially proposed framework to improve it further. furthermore, the two companies offered the researcher eight documents in the form of internal publications. the offering of these documents was completely unsolicited. therefore, the researcher applied initial, focused and theoretical coding principles to analyse the unstructured interviews and the documents. ensuring quality of the study in conducting the study, the researcher had to ensure the quality of the study in every step of the research, while also adhering to ethical conduct and standards. for the trustworthiness of the study, the researcher had to ensure that the insights were that of the research participants and not her own. the researcher ensured the correct meaning and wording of what participants shared with her, by writing down and repeating it in the presence of the interviewee. credibility triangulation was applied through collecting data from the two cases or companies as a basis for comparison. furthermore, the researcher conducted the second round of interviews at the same companies with a mix of old and new participants. in addition, unsolicited documents were also used as a source of triangulation, verification and validation of the data, as well as for testing the proposed talent management framework. results to develop a talent management framework for the private sector, the researcher formulated key and central research questions, which were answered by the research participants and are reflected in the themes and sub-themes. the research questions are listed below: what are talent and talent management? what does the content of talent management entail? what are the typical challenges experienced in the implementation of a talent management programme? what are effective talent management practices which are working, and why are they working? what can be done to improve the effectiveness of talent management programmes? what are the leading best practices regarding recruitment, deployment, development, engagement and retention of talent? what value does talent management add to the organisation? how do individual career life cycles influence the approach to talent management? what is the link between diversity management and talent management? according to lacey and luff (2009), the initial coding process entails the beginning of identification of themes and emergent concepts, which will later lead to the engagement of recoding to develop more well-defined categories. familiarisation with the data by reading and rereading is essential. the researcher read through the data to get a general sense of what the participants had said. she then started putting similar ideas together into chunks. the chunks of data were grouped together based on an answer to a particular question, idea or theme. the researcher had found that questions from the semi-structured interviews shaped the formation of the data because similar data sets were clustered around a particular question. the researcher then decided on an initial label, code or descriptive wording to name the chunks of data brought together. she then came up with nine data labels, namely, defining talent and talent management, talent management programme content, information technology and systems, organisational climate and culture, role players in talent management, challenges in talent management, business case for talent management, optimising talent management and career life stages. defining talent and talent management table 1 represents excerpts from interviews with all participants on how they defined talent. there seemed to be strong cohesion and consensus about the definition of talent. no conflicting views about the profiling of talent, even between companies a and b, were noted. the data were further clustered into sub-themes to highlight the important concepts which led to the overall definition of talent. table 1: defining talent. table 2 gives a brief definition of talent management as per the participants’ data input. the most important view arising from the data is the perception of talent management in the context of the overall employee life cycle (from hiring to exiting). table 2: defining talent management. talent management programme content table 3 demonstrates the participants’ views on what a talent management programme should entail in the best practice environment. the various sub-themes are segmented and supported by ideas and insights from the participants. the content of talent management and sub-themes are critical in the ultimate formulation of talent management dimensions or elements. table 3: talent management programme content. information technology and systems in table 4, the participants and sources indicated how information technology and systems can assist and support the talent management processes and implementation. having systems and processes will not necessarily make the practice of talent management successful but will enable the effectiveness of the process. these systems are mainly for reporting and data management purposes. table 4: information technology and systems. organisational climate and culture in this theme (see table 5), the participants emphasised the importance of the overall culture, values and behaviour at work, which set the mood or temperature of the workplace environment. the point that is driven is that it is important to create a healthy and humane work environment where people can look forward to coming to work. table 5: organisational climate and culture. role players in talent management in table 6, the participants and sources highlighted the importance of role clarity in the implementation of talent management. clear accountabilities and deliverables need to be set, as to who does what, and who is responsible for what with regard to talent management. table 6: role players in talent management. challenges in talent management participants with exposure to talent management practices have reflected on the potential and the real challenges that come with the implementation of talent management (see table 7). issues that could potentially derail talent management implementation are flagged, thus creating awareness to help prevent future pitfalls. much as the companies strive for people management best practices, certain areas still need improvement. table 7: challenges in talent management. business case for talent management in this section (see table 8), talent management is not viewed in isolation from the business operations. the importance and necessity of talent management is shared by the participant as a business imperative necessary for continuity and success of the business. the value add of talent management is highlighted below in the sub-themes that arose. table 8: business case for talent management. optimising talent management the participants shared their views on how to further enhance and improve current talent management practices by applying sophisticated measures relating to marketing and communication skills (see table 9). in other words, talent management needs to be packaged attractively to appeal to the relevant audience. table 9: optimising talent management. career life stages the focus of this section (see table 10) is to assess and determine talent management needs at various career life stages. in other words, what talent management interventions are needed for talent at various career life stages or cycles? this is extremely important as a blanket approach and one-glove-fits-all approach to talent management delivery must be avoided. table 10: career life stages. discussion the primary aim of the study was to develop a talent management framework for the private sector. the proposed talent management framework (based on constructs brought forward by research participants as well as information from the literature or documents) will be discussed next. the proposed talent management framework the proposed talent management framework is discussed in figure 1. figure 1: a talent management framework for the private sector. the framework consists of the following: planning (consists of external environmental analysis, business strategy, talent strategy and talent success profile) dimensions of talent management (consists of attraction, sourcing and recruitment, deployment and transition, grow and develop, performance management, talent reviews, rewarding and recognition, engage and retain) implementation with reference to career stages (early career: generation y; mid-career: generation x; late career: baby boomers) best practise enablers (consists of talent management communication tactics, internal organisational practices and information technology for talent management) role players (focuses on the responsibilities of human resources, talented candidates and leadership) evaluation of effectiveness (focuses on evaluating how talent management is being implemented in the organisation). planning according to robbins and coulter (2010), planning involves the process of defining goals, establishing a strategy for achieving those goals and developing the plans to coordinate and integrate the activities: external environmental analysis: the organisation needs to be knowledgeable about external dynamics to allow change and adaption in order to stay abreast and survive in the dynamic and complex environment. therefore, variables such as competition, business trends, markets and customer needs need to be continuously analysed. business strategy: once the organisation has analysed all the external variables, it can begin to devise an informed business strategy. this strategy defines the purpose and reason for being of the organisation, often expressed in the form of a vision, mission and values. talent strategy: the talent strategy only emerges from a firm knowledge of the overall business strategy, to ensure alignment. where the organisation has articulated which markets, products and services they need to pursue, it is only then that a decision can be made about the type of skills, capabilities and core competencies required in order to drive strategy. talent success profile: the success profile provides a blueprint of the makeup and characteristics of talent in attitude, behaviour, actions, achievements and capability. dimensions of talent management once the organisation decides on what talent strategies they are going to pursue, it becomes even more critical to develop action plans for implementation purposes. the process entails how activities will be carried out to support the plans. johnson et al. (2011) view implementation as a plan to translate the formulated strategy into workable strategies and tactics filtering down through the organisation. robbins and coulter (2010) indicated that implementation includes conveying the decisions and plans to those affected by it and getting their commitment to carry it out: attraction: the ultimate aim of the attraction activity is to interest the external candidates and motivate them to join the organisation, while creating a long-term intention to retain and encourage their intention to stay with the organisation. the same rigour that is applied to marketing and selling products and services must be applied in marketing and advertising the employer brand and value proposition for current and future employees. social media may be utilised as a tool to communicate, do the marketing and build the employer branding concept (robbins & coulter, 2010). sourcing and recruitment: there is a big opportunity for companies to use the internet and social media for sourcing talent and managing the recruitment processes of job profiling, advertising of vacancies and managing of job applications. technology tools are now readily available to remove and eliminate tedious, old and lengthy paper-driven processes of recruitment (robbins & coulter, 2010). deployment and transition: the purpose of this dimension is to ensure that the new recruits become familiar with the new organisation where they are employed quickly, through a socialisation process. furthermore, the employees can effectively transition into the new role whether it is an internal transfer, a new recruit or a recent promotion. at this early stage, the new recruit can be strongly influenced to form a positive image and good impressions about the organisation. it is also recommended that a social mentor be appointed for the new recruit in order to assist with manoeuvering through the organisation in dealing with offbeat, difficult people, politics and sociocultural nuances (johnson et al., 2011). performance management: performance management is a vital part of the process of development and the identification of talent. it is a fully participative process in goal and objective setting in alignment with the interpretation of the business strategy. the communication and giving of feedback constitute the leading ingredients of performance management, which leads to continuous improvement in the organisation. this participative communication is between the employee and the immediate supervisor or line manager (caplan, 2011). grow and develop: training is beneficial only when it is linked to the overall business goals and it supports the achievement of business objectives like improving quality, increasing productivity and improving customer service; otherwise, training becomes an expensive hobby for the organisation. line management, in collaboration with human resource or talent management specialists, may design learning and development programmes which address the knowledge and skills needed currently and in the future by the organisation, for example, graduate development programmes (li & bryan, 2010). rewarding and recognising: importantly, remuneration strategies have to be tied to overall business objectives. the business rightly pushes for high performance in areas of financial performance, increased sales, cost-saving initiatives and customer satisfaction. when the objectives and targets are achieved, the high performers who contributed to the success have to be rewarded and recognised according to their value add (caplan, 2011). engage and retain: successful retention of the employees is really determined by how engaged the employees are with the job, role and the overall organisational activities. in order to determine factors which enhance employee engagement, the employer needs to run an assessment and get input from the employees about the matter. a blend of financial rewards, with creation of a sense of purpose and meaning about the job, giving direction, communication and fair human resources practices, improves engagement substantially. career pathing, succession planning and management are important in improving both retention and employee engagement (li & bryan, 2010). talent reviews: talent reviews usually constitute a meeting between human resources and senior management to discuss all matters relating to talent management. the conversations are structured around overall high performance and high potential (capability to grow into a senior role) of individuals in the talent pool. furthermore, individuals admitted to the talent pool must have relevant experience, qualifications, outstanding performance track record and demonstrable capability and potential to be promoted to a senior or highly critical role within a specified timeframe (caplan, 2011). implementation of the dimensions of talent management in implementing talent management dimensions across the organisations in various functions, managers and human resources need to be aware of the needs and characteristics of specific talent pools in relation to their career life stages: early career stages: focus on intensive and structures learning interventions to support professional specialist development and growth. job design and structuring of work should allow working in highly interactive teams and intensive use of new technology. mid-career stage: relevant leadership development interventions should be provided focusing on executive development, advanced management and leadership development programmes to support succession and career path planning. create meaningful and purpose-driven work and careers. late career stage: provide counselling to help employees to prepare for retirement. reduce the involvement in projects requiring an investment in long hours. best practice enablers in order to improve the implementation of talent management projects, the following can be looked at: talent management communication tactics: it is important to communicate the purpose of the talent management programme to all the stakeholders clearly when making it known. this will create openness and acceptance. ways of communication can include company magazines, updates on intranet, posters, video clips, communication forums, meetings, social media, suggestion boxes and focus groups. internal organisational practices: efforts should be made to develop a people-oriented culture which focuses on individual success, and where technology is integrated into the work processes. diversity should be valued and innovation and continuous improvement should be welcomed. wellness programmes should be implemented and financial resources should be made available to successfully initiate and implement talent management programmes. reporting relationships must be managed professionally, ethically and fairly. much responsibility is placed on the direct supervisor to create healthy ways of relating to employees. talent management information systems are critical in supporting the alignment, coordination and integration of the entire talent management process from start to end. the use of the system may vary from data input, electronic filing and information processing to providing management reporting and data analytics. role players role players are the key stakeholders in the business who are responsible for the development, planning, implementation and improvement of talent management projects in the organisation: management: line managers are directly responsible for identifying, selecting and recommending the high potential and high performing talented employees in their teams to become part of the official talent management pool. talent pools: talented employees have an active role to play in order to ensure that they have acquired the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to assist their career growth aspirations. leadership: organisational leaders are solely responsible for developing strategic initiatives which drive the business, and ensure that it is cascaded to the implementers. these strategic initiatives include giving direction to human resource leadership in aligning talent management strategies and tactics with that of the business. human resources: human resources is responsible for developing the talent strategy in line with the business strategy, as well as guiding management and the leadership team in applying the tools, systems and processes of talent management. evaluation of the effectiveness of talent management talent management needs to be evaluated against a set of criteria in order to track success as well as areas needing improvements. measures for testing the effectiveness of talent management are through monitoring talent retention statistics and acquiring lessons or narrations for the state of statistics. the evaluation may be used as a basis for continuous improvement. practical implications role players are the key stakeholders in the business who are responsible for the development, planning, implementation and improvement of talent management projects in the organisation. it is therefore critical to set key performance indicators for all the role players which pertain to talent management activities, and set reward systems which encourage strong performance. management line managers are directly responsible for identifying, selecting and recommending the high potential and high performing talented employees in their teams to become part of the official talent management pool. they have a much greater responsibility in the recruitment, supporting, on-boarding and induction to new roles, managing performance and identification of learning and development needs. retention of employees is highly influenced by the quality of direct line management, as employees interact frequently with the direct line manager. to the employee, the immediate line manager creates the impressions about the company culture, values and practices. line management needs to assume responsibility and accountability for the outcomes of managing talent in their respective units and departments. career and succession planning, coaching, communication and feedback to the employee are to be carried out continuously by the direct manager with the employee in a professional, open and honest manner. talent pools talented employees have an active role to play in order to ensure that they acquire necessary skills, knowledge and experience to assist their career growth aspirations. they have to be agile, flexible and mobile in their approaches to work and conduct. furthermore, talented employees need to partake in stretch projects, management and leadership development programmes and must travel to some extent. continued high performance is important as it will ensure them a place in the talent pool, as well as career growth. leadership organisational leaders are solely responsible for developing strategic initiatives which drive the business, and ensure that it is cascaded to the implementers. these strategic initiatives include giving direction to human resource leadership in aligning talent management strategies and tactics with that of the business. furthermore, the leadership team needs to hold management accountable for the delivery of talent management initiatives. leadership has to ensure that talent management strategies are effective, support the business objectives and add value to the business imperatives. if the leadership is not involved actively in being a sponsor of talent management initiatives, the talent management practices will not take priority in the organisation – it will just be one of those human resources activities. human resource the senior human resource executive (from the human resource management department) is responsible for developing the talent strategy in line with the business strategy, as well as guiding management and the leadership team in applying the tools, systems and processes of talent management. human resources executives will most likely lead and facilitate the talent review meetings and conduct audits in the organisation to drive the implementation of talent management dimensions and tactical plans. it is a human resource deliverable to procure assessment tools and information systems, to monitor culture, to improve the employer brand and to champion talent-centric practices in the organisation. talent-centric practices are reward programmes, the creation of a healthy work environment, learning and growth initiatives, and so on (caplan, 2011). organisations need to go as far as allocating talent management activities, tasks and deliverables to the performance management process in the form of key performance indicators. when the talent management key performance indicators are met, the role players must be rewarded to support and reinforce commitment and implementation. limitations of the study the limitations of the study are mainly because of the purposive non-probability sampling method used. consequently, the sampling method does not allow for generalisation of the findings to the general population (thomas, 2006). furthermore, it would have been preferred to include a much bigger and broader sample (participants) and more cases (companies in the private sector), but this was not possible. the study is not rendered invalid and insufficient because of the elements stated above. with the few participants and two cases consulted in the study, the researcher has managed to collect comprehensive and detailed data, referred to as ‘thick’ descriptions. during the interviews and the data analysis process, the researcher realised and confirmed data saturation and sufficiency, as concepts, themes and patterns were repeated by the participants. recommendations for future research anecdotally, it is known that talent management is a valuable best practice to have in an organisation. it would be of substantial value to have a set, defined, specific and consistent formulae to calculate the real economic value of investing in talent management activities quantitatively. often, the investment in certain assets or finances spent in business activities is justified by possible financial and economic benefits that might be realised, and these financial returns are easy to track. therefore, the practice of talent management will benefit from the ability to report on the actual economic value realised. this capability will improve buy in and a willingness to invest in high-quality talent management initiatives and resources. conclusion in conclusion, the dimensions of talent management were identified and developed. the delivered talent management framework will guide and support the elevation of talent management practices in organisations in the private sector. the framework is comprehensive enough to cover all key and core dimensions of talent management practice. ultimately, the framework is developed in such a way that it can lead to best practice. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions e.s.v.z. was responsible for the overall conceptualisation and co-writing of the article, while r.b.m. executed the study and helped with the writing of the article. j.r. was responsible for co-writing the article and contributed to the list of references. references arris, a.a., cascio, w.f., & paauwe, j. (2013). talent management: current theories and future directions. journal of world business, 49, 173–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2013.11.001 ashton, c., & morton, l. (2005). managing talent for competitive advantage: taking a systematic approach of talent management. strategic human resource review, 4(5), 28–31. https://doi.org/10.1108/14754390580000819 bell, a. (2005). the employee value proposition redefined. strategic hr review, 4(4), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1108/14754390580000792 bersin, j. (2006). talent management: what is it? why now? oakland, ca: bersin & associates. bondas, m. (2006). paths to nursing leadership. journal of nursing management, 14(1), 332–339. boshard, d., & louw, a. (2011). talent – trends impacting its availability and what your business should do about it. in i. boninelli & t. meyer (eds.), human capital trends: building a sustainable organisation (pp. 44–58). randburg: knowres publishing. botma, y., greeff, m., mulaudzi, f.m., & wright, s.c.d. (2010). research in health sciences. cape town: heinemann. bromley, d.b. (1990). academic contributions to psychological counselling: i. a philosophy of science for the study of individual cases. counselling psychology quarterly, 3(3), 299–307. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515079008254261 caplan, j. (2011). the value of talent: promoting talent management across the organisation. london: kogan page. charmaz, k. (2000). grounded theory: objectivist and constructivist methods. in n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds.), handbook of qualitative research (pp. 509–535). thousand oaks, ca: sage. charmaz, k. (2006). constructing grounded theory: a practical guide to through qualitative analysis. london: sage. chikumbi, c. (2011). an investigation of talent management and staff retention at the bank of zambia. unpublished mba dissertation, nelson mandela metropolitan university, port elizabeth. church, a.h., rotolo, c.t., ginther, n.m., & levine, r. (2015). how are companies designing and managing their high potential programmes? psychology, 67, 17–47. collings, d.g. (2014). towards mature talent management. human resources development quarterly, 25, 301–312. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21198 collings, d.g. & mellahi, k. (2009). strategic talent management: a review and research agenda. human resource management review, 19(4), 304–313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2009.04.001 corporate research foundation. (2011). best employers: south africa 2011/12. (12th edn.). cape town: crf institute. cron, w.l., & slocum, j.w. (1989). the career stages on salespeople’s job attitudes, work perceptions, and performance. journal of marketing research, 23(2), 119–129. https://doi.org/10.2307/3151659 delong, d., & trautman, s. (2011). the executive guide to high impact talent management: powerful tools for leveraging a changing workforce. new york: mcgraw-hill. effron, m., & ort, m. (2010). one page talent management: eliminating complexity, adding value. boston, ma: harvard business press. egerova, d. (2014). talent management: towards new perspectives. problems of management in the 21st century, 9(2), 114–128. festing, m., & shafer, l. (2014). generational challenges to talent management. journal of world business, 49, 262–271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2013.11.010 gatherer, j., & craig, d. (2010). i am talent: a comprehensive guide to optimise your potential and achieve your personal and career aspirations. randburg: knowres publishing. greene, j. (2010). case study: southern company. in m. goldsmith & l. carter (eds.), best practice in talent management: how the world’s leading corporations manage, develop, and retain top talent (pp. 241–256). san francisco, ca: pfeiffer. haid, m., sims, j., schroeder-saulnier, d. & wang, h. (2010). organisational effectiveness: discovering how it happens. leadership insights incorporated. retrieved august 15, 2013, from http://www.right.com hatum, a. (2010). next generation talent management: talent management to survive turmoil. hampshire: mcmillan. hess, n., & jepsen, d.m. (2009). career stage and generational differences in psychological contracts. career development international, 14(3), 261–283. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430910966433 johnson, g., scholes, k., & whittington, r. (2011). exploring corporate strategy: text and cases. (9th edn.). london: prentice hall financial times. johnson, p. (2004). analytic induction. in c. cassell & g. symon (eds.), essential guide to qualitative methods in organisational research (pp. 165–179). london: sage. lacey, a., & luff, d. (2009). qualitative data analyses. the national institute of health research. university of nottingham. retrieved september 16, 2012, from http://www.rds-eastlands.nirh.ac.uk leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2010). practical research: planning and design. (9th edn.). boston, ma: pearson education international. li, x., & bryan, l. (2010). on becoming an employer of choice: gauging employee satisfaction through climatequal. library trends, 58(2), 256–268. marshall, c., & rossman, g. (1995). designing qualitative research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. meyer, t. (2005). talent management. fasset leadership sa, 1–12. meyers, m.c., & van woerkom, m. (2013). the influence of underlying philosophies on talent management: theory, implications for practice and research agenda. journal of world business, 49, 192–2013. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2013.11.003 moore, t.s., lapan, s.d., & quartaroli, m.t. (2012). case study research. in s.d. lapan, m.t. quataroli, & f.j. riemer (eds.). qualitative research: an introduction to methods and design (pp. 231–251). san francisco, ca: jossey bass. nijs, g., gallardo-gallardo, g., dries, s., & sels, m. (2014). what is the meaning of talent in the world of work? human resource management review, 23, 290–300. ntonga, s. (2007). the impact of talent management practices on business performance. unpublished mba dissertation, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. odierno, r.t. (2015). leader development and talent management. military review, 9–14. pellant, a. (2011). linking culture and talent management. in l.a. berger & d.r. berger (eds.), talent management handbook: creating a sustainable competitive advantage by selecting, developing, and promoting the best people (pp. 315–320). new york: mcgraw hill. powell, m., & lubitsh, g. (2007). courage in the face of extraordinary talent: why talent management has become a leadership issue. strategic human resource review, 6(5), 24–27. https://doi.org/10.1108/14754390980000998 prinsloo, l. (2012). talent management and psychological contract. unpublished mcom dissertation, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa. quandt, s.a., mcdonald, j., bell, r.a., & arcury, t.a. (1999). aging research in multi-ethnic rural communities: gaining entrée through community involvement. journal of crosscultural gerontology, 14(1), 113–130. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1006625029655 robbins, s.p., & coulter, m. (2010). management. (11th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice-hall. rose, a. (2007). ethics in human resources management. new york: mcgraw-hill. silzer, r., & dowell, b.e. (2009). strategy driven talent management: a leadership imperative. new york: wiley. smelser, n.j., & baltes, p.b. (2001). analytic induction. in n.j. smelser & p.b. baltes (eds.). international encyclopaedia of the social and behavioural sciences. amsterdam: elsevier. the chartered institute of personnel and development (cipd). (2006). change agenda: talent management – understanding the dimensions. london: cipd. thomas, d.r. (2006). a general inductive approach to analysis qualitative evaluation data. american journal of evaluation, 27(20), 237–246. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098214005283748 tucker, e., & williams, r. (2011). the intersection of talent management and engagement. the international resource for benchmarks and best practices. houston, tx: apqc international. yin, r.k. (2011). qualitative research from start to finish. new york: the guildford press. 7sieff.qxd the role of the organisation leader requires by most definitions a multifold focus across the various elements of the organisation and the environment within which the organisation operates. the effective leader is expected to address stakeholder needs, be an agent of change, instill followership amongst staff, and set the course for the organisation. to realise these expectations, the organisation leader must manage both the complexity of trends, shocks and uncertainties in the external environment that may affect the organisation, and the internal human and organisational dynamics that will maximise organisation potential. a number of skill-sets are needed for the leader to be able to manage such complexity. moreover, a meta-skill may need to be evident to achieve the most appropriate balance of focus across the various areas demanding leadership attention. leadership skills can be considered in two broad categories (patterson, grenny, mcmillan and switzler, 1996). firstly, there are those skills concerning what happens within the organisation. these internal factors include managing and motivating people, organising staff into effective structures, communicating direction, and developing or recruiting the necessary skills required for organisation effectiveness. then there are the skills necessary to notice, understand and respond to the various external factors that affect the organisation. these factors may include developments in the areas of technology, government, environment, society and the economy. they are also likely to include global trends, shocks and uncertainties, as well as competitor responses to the external environment. it has become common parlance in the arena of business leadership that leadership is a multiple. most organisations of substance have an executive team and/or a board that work together to lead and direct the organisation's activities. the effective leader leverages this team and delegates effectively in order to best compensate for those leadership attributes that are subordinate or weaker in that leader's personality and competency make-up. such leveraging and delegation most likely demonstrates a meta-skill of the effective business leader. the problem of managing complex choices and achieving balance as a leader needs to be considered seriously, for the sake of both effective leadership and economic growth, for the general wellbeing of leaders across organisations, and for the quality of the organisational environment in general across organisations. self-awareness and self-management are important attributes for leadership success. a greater awareness of personality type and operational style will assist leaders to understand their behaviour preferences in addressing the complexity of decision making choices and the focusing of energy and attention. in discovering more about the nature of issues that each leader prefers to address, better choices may be made by the leader about 1) prioritising strategic focus areas, 2) allocation of time to various internal and external matters, and 3) enlisting support staff with complementary strengths. organisation effectiveness may be enhanced through attention to 1) personal development for the leader, 2) the most appropriate delegation of responsibility to a leadership team, and 3) the organisation type most suited to the leader. the research problem concerns how best to address the challenges of optimising focus and managing risk that is inherent in strategic leadership. these challenges can be encapsulated by a three-fold definition of the problem. firstly, the personality type of the leader affects his or her approach to most effectively balance the focus on external versus internal factors in decision-making. secondly, the personality type of a leader can influence his or her effectiveness, depending on organisation type. thirdly, strategic leaders must demonstrate behavioural preferences that allow for a multiple focus in managing complex choices. a number of moderating variables need to be considered in relation to each of these three primary hypotheses, as is illustrated in figures 1, 2 and 3. the research aims to provide insight for leaders to identif y where they may lack sufficient focus, and what actions they need to take to optimise their balance of focus. the qualities of strategic leadership depend on the leader developing such awareness in both thought and action. the complexity of leadership has been explored extensively in the literat ure, with particular reference to the role of personality. research areas into leadership personality have included, amongst others � capacity for cognitive complexity (boal and hooijberg, 2001) � style diversity (shelton, mckenna and darling, 2002; politis, 2003; gill, 2004) grant sieff grant@infochoice.co.za louis carstens department of human resources management university of johannesburg abstract optimising focus is a key success driver for many organisation leaders. the relationship between personality type and leadership focus is examined. personality type is assessed with form m of the myers-briggs type indicator instrument, and leadership focus is explored through the development and application of a leadership focus questionnaire. south african executives form the target population for this study. both functionalist and interpretive approaches are applied. three primary theoretical hypotheses about leadership focus, concerning (1) optimising the balance of focus between external and internal priorities, (2) the fit between the leadership personality type and the organisation type, and (3) the capacity to manage a multiple focus, are considered. results show that extraverted personality types are more comfortable with the challenges of focus in the leadership role than are introverted types, and extraverted, sensing, thinking and judging types experience a greater degree of fit with their organisations than do introverted, intuitive, feeling and perceiving types. key words personality type, leadership the relationship between personality type and leadership focus 52 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (1), 52-62 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (1), 52-62 � building a cohesive culture (shelton et al., 2002; schein, 1985) � forming successful and sustainable relationships (testa, 2002; weymes, 2003) � achieving congruence bet ween self and stakeholder perceptions (testa, 2002) � personal effectiveness (klagge, 1996; kets de vries, 2001) � ability to balance conflicting priorities (patterson et al., 1996) � capacity to transform (barling, slater and kelloway, 2000; carless, 2001; denton and vloeberghs, 2003) � traits, such as humility and determination (collins, 2001). figure 1: primary hypothesis one figure 2: primary hypothesis two figure 3: primary hypothesis three while no one framework can yet claim to offer an incontestably definitive basis for understanding the personality of a leader, jungian personality theory, incorporating the following three pervasive principles, provides a basis for understanding the complexity of leadership: 1) the principle of opposites – every wish immediately suggests its opposite; 2) the principle of equivalence – the energy created from opposition is shared equally by both sides; and 3) the principle of entropy – the tendency for oppositions to come together, and for energy to decrease over a person's lifetime. these three principles implicitly recognise the complexity of personality and the related dilemmas that inevitably arise around the tensions of opposites and the wisdom of balance. the myers-briggs type indicator ® assessment methodology that arises from jungian theory provides a means to understand some of this complexity. fitzgerald and kirby (1997) note that the myers-briggs type indicator instrument has become an important tool to assist in valuing and understanding how to take best advantage of diversity and understand and value differences, because: (® myers-briggs type indicator, myers-briggs, mbti, and introduction to type are trademarks or registered trademarks of the myers-briggs type indicator trust in the united states and other countries.) 1) the workplace is becoming increasingly diverse; 2) there continues to be both expansion in scope and refinement in focus of target markets; 3) the tendency to reduce staff and need to deal with higher stakeholder expectations requires high performance levels, best achieved through recognising individual uniqueness; and 4) organisations are becoming more internally complex to deal with increasingly complex external environments. with regard to point four, above, internal complexity is better managed with a perspective on valuing and accommodating differences, which is facilitated by the myers-briggs type indicator instrument. the myers-briggs type indicator instrument considers four separate dichotomies of individual personality type, namely: 1) extraversion (e) versus introversion (i); 2) sensing (s) versus intuition (n); 3) thinking (t) versus feeling (f); and 4) judging (j) versus perceiving (p) for each of these dichotomies, an individual is assumed to have a preference for one of each pair of opposites over the other. with the myers-briggs type indicator instrument, “… the four preferences direct the characteristic use of perception and judgment by an individual ... (and) ... affect not only what is attended to in any given situation but also how conclusions are drawn about what has been perceived” (myers, mccaulley, quenk, and hammer, 1998, p6). the concept of strategic leadership extends beyond the personality of the leader. it has been linked to strategic thinking, strategic planning and strategic alignment. it is a concept also associated with the management of balance, focus, context and complexity. the focus on complexity has included addressing issues of uncertainty, and tools such as force-field analysis. a self-awareness relationship to strategic leadership has also been suggested, particularly in relation to ‘whole-brain’ thinking and 360 degree assessments. sieff and nurick (1997) have linked the role of strategic leadership to that of the integrator, with the responsibility of integrating the complex and disparate elements of stakeholder needs, while planning for the future and managing in the present. literature supporting the three primary hypotheses relating to leadership focus can be summarised as follows: optimising the balance of focus between internal and external factors a recurring theme in the literature (holt and self, 2003; testa, 2002; may, 1999; gregersen, morrison and black, 1998) is the need to balance competing demands from internal and external factors. 360-degree tools are proposed to assist leaders to discover their gaps and blind spots to improve this balance. attributes of strategic global leaders who do optimise balance include inquisitiveness, staying connected to employees, integrity, ability to manage uncertainty, ability to balance tensions, and business and organisational savvy (gregersen et al.). other attributes that facilitate an optimal balance in relation to change are 'appropriateness' and 'extrinsic valence' personality type and leadership focus 53 (expectation that external factors would have an influence on the respondent) (holt et al.). leadership fit with organisation culture and type the literat ure contains much that links leadership with organisation culture and organisation type (chorn, 2004; block, 2003; hartley, 2002; bridges, 2000; lok and crawford, 1998). this link is considered in a number of forms, including inquiries into subcultures, country cultures, the relationship between culture, type and commitment, role modeling and culture, culture and ethics and a culture of education. this study postulates that leadership personality type can have a greater or lesser fit with organisation type and culture, and that the degree of fit can influence the effectiveness of the leader in acting strategically to optimise the balance of focus. in building a link between personality type and organisation type in the context of this study, it must be noted that the theoretical basis for the myers-briggs type indicator instrument has been applied to organisations as well as individuals (chorn, 2004; bridges, 2000). bridges (2000) used the myers-briggs type indicator instrument in its current form to categorise organisational types, where, for example: 1) extraverted organisations look outward, creating strategies driven by market forces, while introverted organisations typically look inward, organising strategy around internal core competencies or leadership values; 2) sensing organisations are attuned to the concrete details and tried-and-true realities of the business, while intuitive organisations are more interested in the big picture and possibilities; 3) thinking organisations use objective principles and logical analysis, while feeling organisations make decisions based primarily on the personal values of the people involved; and 4) judging organisations deal with the external environment by preferring to reach closure and place great value in firm decisions, while perceiving organisations consider the external environment by placing more emphasis on discussion, flexibility, and the ability to gather additional information. chorn (2004, 1987) developed a strategic alignment framework that considers the leadership function as one of four main elements of an organisation (the others being cult ure, strateg y and the operating environment). this strategic alignment framework provides a basis for considering the behaviour of groups of people, rather than individuals. leadership success in this framework is associated with efforts to bring the four elements into alignment, given the premise that organisation effectiveness depends on alignment. each organisation element in chorn's framework can be described in terms of a mix of four logics: performance, administration, development and intimacy. these logics are related directly to the myers-briggs type indicator instrument principal axes, st, sf, nt and nf. the strategic alignment framework developed by chorn does not extend to an exploration of how to go about an examination and adjustment of leadership behaviour to best respond to the strategic complexit y of the functional responsibilities in the leadership role, and does not address the relationship between personality type and leadership focus. this research considers this relationship, and goes further by focusing on the other leadership behaviour preferences needed to focus optimally across chorn's four logics, given an understanding of the personality type of the leader, the approach of the leader to manage a multiple focus, and the type of organisation being led. it is the relationship between the personality type of the leader and the organisation type, particularly in terms of alignment or fit, that is considered in this study as a part of what constitutes leadership focus. leadership capacity for a multiple focus increasing stakeholder expectations increases the need for the strategic leader to hold a multiple focus. gabel (2002) suggested that successful leaders nearly always function from a middle position in which they understand the internal contexts of subordinates as well as those of more senior management and other stakeholders. patterson et al. (1996) argued that a common denominator amongst all leaders is the need to find a way to keep the competing demands of stakeholders in balance. a variety of tools and aids have been suggested to assist leaders to manage a multiple focus in the face of complex demands and choices (schwering, 2003). a multiple focus is particularly necessary in times of change, for the execution of strategic plans, re-engineering efforts, quality improvement programmes, mergers and acquisitions and other major implementation efforts. research design research approach the following methodological approach was used in the design of this study: multiple phases a multiple phase approach was used to allow for the inclusion of a pilot study and to contribute to the generation and fleshing out of research concepts, the operationalising of key variables, and the testing of research concepts in the target population. this approach has enabled an understanding of the research area to be built up in stages. methodological triangulation methodological triangulation was considered relevant for this study, given the complexity of the research variables. the research design combined both quantitative and qualitative data sources in response to the challenge of operationalising key complex variables within the study. survey-based, primarily quantitative methodology survey construction allowed for responses that can be analysed quantitatively. open-ended questions were also included at the end of the survey to capture thoughts, opinions and other suggestions. participants the target population was the group of managers and leaders attending university business school executive education programmes at wits business school (wbs), university of witwatersrand, in south africa. these programmes are held in either johannesburg or cape town as public or in-company events. in the study period, the population of delegates attending programmes numbered approximately 800. of these, a target of 25% or 200 respondents formed the sample for the study. this sample size was slightly larger than that required by standard guidelines for determining sample sizes, based on stoker (1981), in roodt (2004). stoker's sampling ratio for a population of 500 is 20%, and for a population of 1,000 is 14%. the population was stratified on the basis of the participant's current management development interest, indicated by the topic of the management programme being attended. measuring instruments/methods of data gathering the independent variable, personality type, was assessed via the myers-briggs type indicator instrument, an instrument that is widely validated. the dependant variable, leadership focus, was assessed via the leadership focus questionnaire (lfq), developed by the author. the lfq is a survey instrument designed to discover more about the relationship bet ween personalit y t y pe and sieff, carstens54 leadership focus. it consists of three sections. section a contains 41 quantitative questions covering various elements of the three theoretical hypotheses on leadership focus, and 5 placebo questions. the questions are answered on a likert scale. section b consists of a number of open-ended qualitative questions on leadership focus, designed to capture other thoughts and feelings that the respondent may want to share. section c requests demographic and work-related information from the respondent. a content analysis was applied to the qualitative responses to section b of the lfq. procedure the lfq was first applied in a pilot study, where the logistics of survey administration were tested, in terms of time taken for completion (acceptable to the participants, at 2030 minutes), ease of use, and clarity of questions (also found to be acceptable, based on user questions and comments). the pilot study was conducted in june 2004. the main study was conducted over the period august to november 2004. in both studies, form m of the myers-briggs type indicator instrument was administered first, followed by the lfq. statistical analysis a process of factor analysis was applied to the data generated from the themes identified in the literat ure associated with leadership focus. the derived leadership focus factors were tested against the myers-briggs type indicator attitudes, rocesses, functions and types to identif y differences in response based on personality type. the following steps were taken: 1) of the forty-six questions in section a of the lfq considered for inclusion in the factor analysis, all were answered on a six-point likert scale (with one exception: question 46, addressing an aspect of organisation type, was asked on a four-point scale since this best approximated findings from related research on organisation type; it was eliminated from the factor analysis, to be addressed separately). five placebo questions were eliminated. forty questions were retained for the first-order factor analysis. 2) in the first-order (orthogonal) analysis, a further eight questions were omitted due to a low msa (measure of sampling adequacy) < 0,6. 3) the remaining thirty-two questions yielded 10 factors. of these, 5 were meaningful groupings with cronbach alpha values of > 0,6 but < 0,7. these were named and retained for further analysis. the other 5 had alpha values < 0,6, and were discarded. 4) a second-order (oblique) analysis was then applied. three first-order factors were excluded due to low msa values < 0,6, and twenty-six questions were retained. two second-order factors were identified, both with cronbach alpha values > 0,7. one factor contained 12 questions, the other 14 questions. 5) the firstand second-order retained factors are displayed in table 1. the relationships between the factors, the three primary hypotheses used to construct the lfq, and the lfq questions are displayed in tables 2, 3, and 4. table 1 first and second order factors second-order first-order factors factors 2nd-order factor 1 1st-order factor 4 challenge with stress of balancing leadership focus competing demands (37,666% of (4,878% of variation explained) variation explained) 2nd-order factor 2 1st-order factor 1 1st-order factor 2 1st-order factor 5 comfort with comfort with future and strategic communicating leadership focus organisation fit thinking strategy to stakeholders (14,339% of (16,451% of (8,924% of (4,648% of variation explained) variation explained) variation explained) variation explained) 1st-order factor 3 demands of external stakeholders (6,176% of variation explained) personality type and leadership focus 55 table 2 relationship between challenge with leadership focus and the lfq 2nd-order factor 1st-order factor lfq questions theory-based preliminary factor challenge with stress of balancing 30. i take on too much and cannot do justice to everything; some priorities are balancing internal and leadership focus competing demands not properly dealt with by me (variable 19) external priorities 16. i find the challenge of dealing with the competing and conflicting demands approach to managing a of different stakeholders stressful and draining of my energy (variable 31) multiple focus 32. i tend to prefer to address some important issues at the expense of others in balancing internal and my current role (variable 12) external priorities 1. my colleagues would say that i am good at balancing my time across competing balancing internal and priorities (variable 14 – inverted) external priorities 24. i prefer a working lunch at my desk or with staff than dining with balancing internal and prospective customers (variable 3) external priorities 11. urgent rather than important tasks tend to take up my time (variable 17) balancing internal and external priorities 31. i tend to give priority to issues that are mostly different from those given fit with organisation type priority to by the organisation (variable 26) 36. in our organisation we only reveal new strategic initiatives to staff when approach to managing a they are being implemented (variable 42) multiple focus 37. increasing due diligence requirements has resulted in less time for staff balancing internal and management (variable 9) external priorities 39. more of my time is taken up with internal issues than marketing and balancing internal and sales issues (variable 1) external priorities 43. my personal style is significantly different from the culture of the fit with organisation organisation (variable 23) type 7. i am often frustrated by my organisation giving priority to the wrong kinds fit with organisation of issues to the allocation of time, resources & executive focus (variable 27) type 6) for the purposes of comparing lfq responses across the 16 myers-briggs type indicator instrument types, each type was coded into a table in a sequence consistent with other studies on type (kirby, 1997, pp22-25). the table, along with the distribution of type responses for this study, is shown in table 5. table 5 distribution of main study mbti types sensing types intuitive types introverts istj isfj infj intj introverts 13,2% 1,5% 2,0% 9,8% istp isfp infp intp 3,4% 0,5% 3,9% 8,3% extravertes estp esfp enfp entp extraverts 3,9% 0,0% 6,3% 11,2% estj esfj enfj entj 17,6% 1,5% 2,9% 13,7% representativeness of sample while the sample frame excluded a number of specialist programme topics offered by wbs that were either not being offered during the survey period or did not fall into one of the five defined strata for programme topics, the five strata in the sample (certificate programmes, general management, finance, human resources and marketing) do cover a wide range of executive programme topics, and are arguably the primary areas of interest and concern for executives, based on 2004 attendance figures (82% of all wbs delegates in cape town attended programmes that fell within the five strata defined in this study). the sample only included delegates on wbs programmes, although there are a number of business school executive education providers in south africa. wbs may be considered to be the most representative provider of executive education in the country, in that it offers the largest selection of programmes relative to other providers, and was the only south african business school to be ranked by the uk-based financial times in its top 45 executive education programme provider rankings in 2003 (bradshaw, 2003). sieff, carstens56 table 3 relationship between comfort with leadership focus and the lfq 2nd-order factor 1st-order factor lfq questions theory-based preliminary factor comfort with comfort with 35. in attending to pressing issues i adjust my focus to best fit with the priority fit with organisation type leadership focus organisation type given by the organisation (variable 25) 34. i work in a team environment where we allocate responsibility for pressing balancing internal and issues in a way that ensures that the most important issues are addressed external priorities (variable 18) 40. my organisation can be best described as having a well developed process fit with organisation type improvement focus (variable 21) 20. i make a point of encouraging two-way communication sessions with staff approach to managing a about strategic initiatives (variable 39) multiple focus focus on future and 22. i try to match emerging opportunities in the market-place with the inherent approach to managing a strategic thinking potential of the organisation (variable 36) multiple focus 23. i often think about future challenges and opportunities we need to prepare approach to managing a for in the organisation (variable 32) multiple focus 15. i enjoy the challenge of dealing with multiple issues (variable 30) approach to managing a multiple focus 21. i make sure that i balance my time appropriately across operational and balancing internal and competitive issues (variable 11) external priorities 3. i allocate sufficient time to internal and external stakeholders associated with approach to managing a the organisation (variable 28) multiple focus communicating 17. i engage in regular feedback sessions with my staff (variable 38) approach to managing a strategy to stakeholders multiple focus 12. i keep everyone informed about those strategic initiatives under my control approach to managing a (variable 37) multiple focus 18. i try to develop each staff member to his/her full potential (variable 33) approach to managing a multiple focus 41. i tend to focus on those job responsibilities that interest me) variable balancing internal and 15 – inverted) external priorities 2. i have been criticised for not paying attention to certain important aspects of balancing internal and the business (variable 13 – inverted) external priorities table 4 relationahip between demands of external stakeholders and the lfq 2nd-order factor 1st-order factor lfq questions theory-based preliminary factor n/a demands of external 33. i tend to spend more time addressing issues external to the organisation fit with organisation type stakeholders (e.g. competitive, legislative, global, technological factors) than internal to the organisation (those concerning staff, roles, processes, operations) (variable 24) 42. my personal performance is influenced more by my ability to address the balancing internal and needs of external stakeholders than those of staff and internal efficiencies external priorities (variable 8) 29. i spend more time with external stakeholders than with staff (variable 2) balancing internal and external priorities in order to confirm that the sample of executives participating in this study follow a similar pattern to that observed in other studies, a cross-tabulation over nine international studies (reported by kirby, 1997), along with the sample from this study, was conducted. two chi-square based measures of association were applied, phi and cramer's v. for both measures of association, the effect size had a value of zero, indicating that there are no statistically significant differences in the distribution of myers-briggs type indicator instrument types between this study and the other studies of managers, executives and leaders. this finding further strengthened the representativeness of this study sample. bias in sample given the range of organisations represented and the seniority levels of executives participating in the study, it is prudent to consider the possibility of bias manifesting in the sample, in that: 1) not all organisations invest in sending their executives on education programmes; the sample may therefore carry some bias towards executives employed by those organisations who do; and 2) the respondents were mostly middle to senior level managers in their respective organisations; although it is these managers who are predominantly in leadership roles in south african businesses, they are not necessarily representative of executives at even more senior levels of management. generalisations made from the research propositions should therefore be treated with caution. further study amongst executives from a broader range of organisations and at more senior levels in their organisations is recommended. results lfq relationship with mbti attitudes and processes 1.4.8. the five lfq first-order factors and two second-order factors, seven factors in all, were correlated against the four attitudes (extraversion, introversion, judging and perceiving), and the four processes (sensing, intuition, thinking and feeling) of the myers-briggs type indicator instrument using the pearson correlation coefficient to determine any statistically significant relationships. in all instances, the hypothesised proposition was that there is a statistically significant relationship between each lfq factor and myers-briggs type indicator instrument attitude or process, as follows: ho: there is no relationship between the lfq first-order factor (×1..×5) or second-order factor (×6..×7) and the myersbriggs type indicator instrument attitude or process (e, i, j, p, s, n, t, f) h1: there is a statistically significant relationship between the lfq first-order factor (×1..×5) or second-order factor (×6..×7) and the myers-briggs type indicator instrument attitude or process (e, i, j, p, s, n, t, f) the notation used in the hypotheses (e.g. “(×1..×5)” above) requires that the hypothesis be considered for each of the variables included in the hypothesis. for example, the null and alternate hypotheses above apply for each of the five first-order factors and two second-order factors. the research proposition, h1, may be accepted at the 0,01 level of significance in the following instances: 1) first-order factor 4, 'stress of balancing competing demands', is positively correlated to i and inversely correlated to e 2) second-order factor 1, 'challenge with focus in the leadership role', is positively correlated to i and inversely correlated to e 3) second-order factor 2, 'comfort with focus in the leadership role', is inversely correlated to f the research proposition, h1, may also be accepted at the 0,05 level of significance in the following instances: 1) first-order factor 2, 'future and strategic thinking', is positively correlated to e, and inversely correlated to i 2) first-order factor 4, 'stress of balancing competing demands', is positively correlated to f and inversely correlated to t 3) first-order factor 5, 'communicating strateg y to stakeholders', is positively correlated to e and inversely correlated to i 4) second-order factor 1, 'challenge with focus in the leadership role', is positively correlated to f and inversely correlated to t 5) second-order factor 2, 'comfort with focus in the leadership role', is positively correlated to e, t, and j, and inversely correlated to i and p in all other instances, the null hypothesis, ho, must be accepted with regard to the relationship between lfq factors and myersbriggs type indicator instrument attitudes and processes. measure of sample effect (eta) while the pearson correlation coefficients provide an indication of statistical significance that allow for the rejecting of the null hypothesis, eta takes the effect of sample size out of the measure for significance, and provides an indication of practical significance of differences in the sample. given that the sample size in this study was high in terms of influencing statistical significance, eta values have also been computed for the five first-order and two second-order lfq factors in relation to the myers-briggs type indicator instrument attitudes and processes. an eta value of 0 indicates ’no effect'; 0 < eta < 0,3 indicates a 'small effect'; 0,3 <= eta < 0,5 indicates a 'medium effect'; and eta => 0,5 indicates a 'large effect'. in all instances, the eta values of attitude and process dichotomies in relation to the lfq factors indicate a small effect, as is illustrated in table 6 below. table 6 eta values for mbti attitudes and processes lfq factor e-i s-n t-f j-p comfort with organisation fit 0,057 0,066 0,062 0,062 future and strategic thinking 0,177 0,105 0,044 0,054 demands of external stakeholders 0,062 0,084 0,019 0,003 stress of balancing competing demands 0,172 0,127 0,087 0,072 communicating strategy to stakeholders 0,132 0,026 0,027 0,023 challenge with focus in the leadership role 0,174 0,141 0,131 0,119 comfort with focus in the leadership role 0,150 0,029 0,141 0,105 while all four myers-briggs ty pe indicator instrument dichotomies have a small effect in response to each of the lfq factors, the extravert (e) – introvert (i) attit ude dichotomy has a bigger effect than the other three dichotomies. thus the practical significance of differences in responses to leadership focus between e and i is greater han that for similar differences in responses between s and n, t and f, and j and p. analysis of organisation responsiveness to external environment lfq question 46 asks about the responsiveness of the organisation to changes in the external environment, using a four-point scale. this question contributes to information about leadership fit with organisation type. a four point scale was used, in contrast to the six-point likert scale applied to the other questions in the lfq, because it captures more readily the organisation type logics defined in other related research, such as chorn (2004, 1987). the four logic categories defined by chorn (performing or pragmatic; administrative; developmental or divergent; intimate or integrative) also define four logical personality type and leadership focus 57 divisions on the sigmoid curve often associated with the lifecycle of an industry or organisation (chorn, 2004; roxburgh and huyett, 2002). see figure 4. figure 4: organisation logic across life-cycle the four points of the scale used for question 46, along with the percentage distribution of responses from this study, are as follows: 1) a market innovator & shaper (divergent): 42,5% 2) a quick adapter of new trends (pragmatic): 33% 3) a reluctant follower of only well proven trends (administrative): 18% 4) mostly resistant to any form of innovation or change (integrative): 6,5% figure 4 illustrates the theoretical overlay of a typical life-cycle curve with chorn's organisation logics and the four points of the scale used for question 46. given the small representation of responses in category four of question 46, it was merged with category three for the purposes of a chi-square analysis of the responses to this question in relation to myers-briggs type indicator instrument attitudes and processes. two chi-square based measures of association were applied, phi and cramer's v, for each of the four dichotomies, e-i, s-n, t-f and j-p. for both measures of association, the effect size was small or very small, indicating that there are no strong or even medium level measures of association for this question, based on the four myers-briggs type indicator instrument dichotomies. lfq relationship with mbti axes the five lfq first-order factors and two second-order factors were correlated against the four axes (these are the two-element combinations of the two process dichotomies: nt, nf, st, and sf) of the myers-briggs type indicator instrument to determine any statistically significant relationships using the pearson correlation coefficient. in all instances, the hypothesised proposition was that there is a statistically significant relationship between each lfq factor and myers-briggs type indicator instrument axis, as follows: ho: there is no relationship between the lfq first-order factor (×1..×5) or second-order factor (×6..×7) and the myers-briggs type indicator instrument axis (nt,st, nf, sf) h1: there is a statistically significant relationship between the lfq first-order factor (×1..×5) or second-order factor (×6..×7) and the myers-briggs type indicator instrument axis (nt,st, nf, sf). the research proposition, h1, may be accepted at the 0,01 level of significance in the following instances: 1 first-order factor 2, 'future and strategic thinking', is positively correlated to nt and inversely correlated to sf. the research proposition, h1, may also be accepted at the 0,05 level of significance in the following instances: 1) second-order factor 1, 'challenge with focus in the leadership role', is positively correlated to nf and inversely correlated to st 2) second-order factor 2, 'comfort with focus in the leadership role', is positively correlated to nt and inversely correlated to sf in all other instances, the null hypothesis, ho, must be accepted with regard to the relationship between lfq factors and myersbriggs type indicator instrument axes. lfq relationship with mbti types the respondents were each assigned one of sixteen possible myers-briggs type indicator types, based on their completion of form m. of these sixteen type categories, only six had a sufficiently high sample weighting (either 10% or more of the study sample, or at least 18 respondents) to warrant inclusion in an anova analysis. the six included t y pes (percentage of st udy sample in brackets) are: istj (13,2%); intj (9,8%); intp (8,3%); entp (11,2%); estj (17,6%); and entj (13,7%). these six types are t y pically most prevalent in business management and leadership studies (kirby, 1997). four of the six types, istj, entp, estj and entj were each selected by more than 10% of the total sample. the anova was applied t wice for each of the five firstorder-factors and t wo second-order factors of the lfq, first to the six qualif ying myers-briggs type indicator t ypes, and then to the smaller set of four qualif ying myersbriggs ty pe indicator t y pes, to determine stat istically significant differences in factor response by myers-briggs type indicator t ype. for the first application of the anova to the six qualif ying types, the null hypothesis was accepted for all lfq factors. for the second application of the anova to the smaller set of four qualif ying types, the hypothesised proposition was that there are statistically significant differences between myers-briggs type indicator types in relation to each lfq factor, as follows: ho: there is no difference between myers-briggs type indicator qualif ying types (x1..x4) for the lfq first-order factor (×1..×5) or for the lfq second-order factor (×6..×7) h1: there are statistically significant differences between myers-briggs type indicator qualif ying types (×1..×4) for the lfq first-order factor (×1..×5) or for the lfq secondorder factor (×6..×7) the research proposition, h1, may be accepted at the 0,05 level of significance for differences between the four qualif ying types for the lfq first-order factor, 'future and strategic thinking'. relationship between strata and lfq the five strata within the stratified sample were analysed for statistically significant difference in relation to each of the two second-order lfq factors. the eta values for these second-order factors were as follows: � second-order factor 1: challenge with focus in the leadership role: eta = 0,134 � second-order factor 2: comfort with focus in the leadership role: eta = 0,219 in both instances, the eta value suggests a small effect size. there are small differences in responses to these lfq factors based on the stratification of the sample in this study. incorporation of qualitative responses from the lfq for all four questions, the clear majority of responses were framed in positive terms. a content analysis of the answers reveals that only sieff, carstens58 � 27% of the respondents chose to mention reactive issues or people difficulties among the issues regularly competing for their attention (question 47) � 10% of the respondents chose to identif y people or other difficulties in going about prioritising issues that needed to be addressed (question 48) � 9% of the respondents described some aspect of difficulty in managing situations where there are too many issues competing for attention (question 49) � 35% of the respondents suggested that the fit between themselves and their organisation was less than ideal (question 50) in order to discern differences between the myers-briggs type indicator instrument types and the qualitative responses to these lfq questions, the content analysis focused on the minority of responses that expressed some dissatisfaction or negative feeling across the four dichotomies. the details of this analysis are described for each of the four questions below. content analysis questions 47–50 of the lfq were subjected to a qualitative content analysis, as follows: question 47 of the lfq asked the question 'what kinds of issues compete for your attention on a regular basis?’ the content analysis suggests that introverted (i), thinking (t) and perceiving (p) types in this study report more difficulty in dealing with reactive staff issues (“regular moaning and groaning” – istj; “staff issues – personal and work related” – intp; “staff problems” – entp; “issues in the team, e.g. new business consultants perhaps working on the same deal” – estj), and that sensing (s) types report more difficulty in dealing with reactive operational issues other than staff issues (“frequent interruptions by customers” – estj; “internal processes and restrictions” – estp). question 48 of the lfq asked the question 'how do you go about prioritising which issues to address?' the content analysis suggests that intuitive (n), feeling (f) and perceiving (p) types in this study report more difficulty in prioritising in general (“line partnership takes top priorit y and can sometimes (most often) disrupt my plans for the day” – enfp; “what the boss wants” entp; “i put out the biggest fires first” – estp; “external and internal demands take priority to planning” – infp). question 49 of the lfq asked the question ‘how do you manage situations where there are too many issues competing for your attention?’ no particular pattern of differences in response emerges across the four myers-briggs type indicator instrument dichotomies. question 50 of the lfq asked the question ‘how would you describe the fit between yourself and your organisation?’ the content analysis suggests that introverted (i), intuitive (n), feeling (f) and perceiving (p) types in this study report a greater lack of fit between themselves and their organisation (“at times out of line; don't always agree with the autocratic style” – enfj; “at strategy execution level, the fit is poor” – entp; “i am values-driven in my approach to work and interacting with the cult ure and i find this sometimes conflicts with the current status quo” – esfp; “i am too wild for the company culture” – estp; “i am a mismatch for the organisation in its current state, but i represent the desired future state” – infj; “the company focus is performance and administration, mine is performance and building relationships” – infp; “don't agree with some of the internal political agendas of late” – intj; “so far no fit, but still working on it. only the ideal is talked about.” – isfp; “the lack of speed in implementation is my major frustration” – istj). discussion personality type and leadership focus factors 1.8.2.1.2. in relation to the derived leadership focus factors, a number of the differences in response between personality types are worthy of discussion. approach to future and strategic thinking there is a statistically significant relationship between the personality type of a leader and his or her approach to future and strategic thinking. this is evident in relation to the attitude dimension e-i, and in relation to the axes nt and sf, where e and nt are positively correlated and i and sf are negatively correlated to this factor. while the differences in response between nt and sf may be easily explained (n and t may be more naturally drawn to a logical consideration of big picture possibilities while s and f may be better attuned to the values and specifics of the here and now), the differences in response between e and i are not obvious. it may be that extraverts are more comfortable than introverts in engaging with external stakeholders and are thus more likely to discover new trends and future opportunities. there, however, many other avenues for introverted types to relate positively to future and strategic thinking. dealing with the stress of competing demand there is a statistically significant relationship between the personality type of a leader and his or her approach to dealing with the stress of competing demands. this is evident in relation to the process dimension t-f, where f is positively correlated and t is negatively correlated to this factor. the differences in response between the feeling and thinking processes may be explained in terms of thinking types applying logical, rational criteria to prioritise competing demands, while feeling types are more likely to be attuned to competing values that cannot be easily prioritised. this difference can be explained in terms of the relative ease that extraverts may have over introverts in engaging others to assist in addressing competing demands. the qualitative content analysis supports the statistical findings for this factor, suggesting that intuitive, feeling, and perceiving types in this study report more difficulty in prioritising in general (“line partnership takes top priority and can sometimes (most often) disrupt my plans for the day” – enfp; “i put out the biggest fires first” – estp; “external and internal demands take priority to planning” – infp). communicating strategy to stakeholders there is a statistically significant relationship between the personality type of a leader and his or her approach to communicating strategy to stakeholders. this is evident in relation to the attitude dimension e-i, where e is positively correlated and i is negatively correlated to this factor. these differences in response can be explained by the likelihood that extraverts are more comfortable than are introverts in communicating with others, whether it be with internal or external stakeholders. challenge with focus in the leadership role this second-order factor is comprised of the first-order factor, stress of balancing competing demands, and five other lfq questions. there is a statistically significant relationship between the personality type of a leader and his or her approach to dealing with the challenges of focus in the leadership role. this is evident in relation to the attitude dimension e-i, where i is positively correlated and e is negatively correlated, and the nf-st axes, where nf is positively correlated and st is negatively correlated. the differences in response between nf and st can be understood in that st types are more likely to focus on the details and apply a logical rational approach to dealing with conflicting challenges, while nf types are more likely to focus on the big picture, and may not pay attention to personality type and leadership focus 59 the detailed challenges in the leadership role. nf types may find it more difficult to use logical rather than value-based processes for prioritising conflicting priorities. the e-i attitude differences may once again be explained by the relative ease of extraverts, in contrast to introverts, to engage others for assistance in addressing challenges with focus. comfort with focus in the leadership role this second-order factor is comprised of three first-order factors, communicating strateg y to stakeholders, comfort with organisation fit, future and strategic thinking, and two other lfq questions. there is a statistically significant relationship between the personality type of a leader and his or her comfort with focus in the leadership role. this is evident in relation to the attitude dimension e-i, where e is positively correlated and i is negatively correlated, and the nt-sf axes, where nt is positively correlated and sf is negatively correlated. the differences in response between nt and sf can be understood in that sf types are more likely to attune to a detailed appreciation of relative, possibly vexing and competing, values of various aspects of the leadership role, while the nt function is more likely to want to logically attune to the big picture and lead the organisation forward in terms of logical possibilities. the e-i attitude differences are opposite to the first second-order factor, and can be explained similarly by the relative ease of an extravert compared to an introvert in engaging others to assist in realising the potential of the leadership role. impact of sample stratification stratified sampling provides a method for obtaining a greater degree of representativeness by ensuring that appropriate numbers of elements are drawn from homogeneous subsets of the population under review. in the case of this study, the five strata each represent executives with similar specific management development needs, and on this basis each of these strata form homogenous subsets. an anova was used to test for between-strata effects on the two second-order factors. a small practical effect was found, based on sample stratification, for both second-order factors. an eta of 0,134 for challenge with focus in the leadership role, and 0,219 for comfort with focus in the leadership role confirms that management development subject choice is an indicator, albeit small, of how participating executives go about optimising leadership focus. such effects may be due to different personalit y t y pes preferring different management development topics, or having different approaches to optimising leadership focus, based on their different management development needs. relating the study to previous research this study introduces a rationale for why extraverted types are more commonly found in leadership roles. their comfort with the challenges of leadership focus, perhaps the most pressing and complex of leadership challenges, and their confidence in their ability to succeed in optimising their focus, contributes to an explanation of why extraverted types, more than introverted types, are likely to seek out and succeed in positions of leadership. this supports work by kets de vries (2001) that pointed to the prevalence of extraverted attitudes amongst organisation leaders in a study on their psychodynamic attributes. while fitzgerald and kirby (1997) rightly acknowledged that a diversity of myers-briggs type indicator instrument types serves to assist organisations dealing with increasing internal complexity, this study demonstrates varying levels of comfort with the challenge of focus in the leadership role across the key myers-briggs ty pe indicator instrument axes. nf t y pes reported that they are more challenged by focus in the leadership role than are st types, and nt types reported that they are more comfortable than are nf types with focus in the leadership role. there is much disquiet about the view of ramaprasad and mitroff (1984, in walck, 1997) that holds a privileged position for nt types, based on their superiority in conditions valuing strategic problem solving. while this study does not make a judgment on ability, it does also reveal a significantly greater propensity amongst nt types for future and strategic thinking than sf types. a comfort and preference for future and strategic thinking may lead nt types, more than other personality types, to engage in this kind of thinking more frequently, and thereby better enable them to realise their potential. thus nt types may have some advantages over other t y pes in optimising leadership focus in traditional organisational settings that favour these preferences. block (2003) suggested that transformational leadership has a greater impact on organisation culture than does transactional leadership. the findings from this study suggest that, regardless of (transformational or transactional) leadership st yle, introverted, intuitive, feeling and perceiving types are less likely to experience optimal fit with their organisation than are their opposite counterparts. it may be induced that personality types with these preferences are more likely to try to transform the organisation, given their more common experience of a lack of fit with the status quo. estj personality types, more likely to experience a comfortable fit with organisation type, are also more likely to engage in transactional leadership behaviour, in terms of personality type preferences. in an environment of business that increasingly demands transformational behaviour, there is a more pressing need for leadership personality types with a propensity to transform their organisations. yet this study suggests that these personality types are less likely to be as comfortable with stepping into the leadership role as are those types who are more inclined to transactional leadership. this finding highlights the need for organisational settings that are more flexible and adaptive, open to change, and welcoming of non-traditional leaders who will be more comfortable with engaging in transformational leadership. recommendations for organisation leaders the findings of this study highlight a number of recommendations for organisation leaders in this regard. firstly, an understanding of personality type is a first step to effective self-management in the leadership role. secondly, without prejudice to any personality type, the organisation leader would be well served to consider which behaviour preferences associated with his or her personality type help to optimise focus in the leadership role, and which behaviour preferences may increase difficulty with leadership focus. extraverted types (in contrast to introverted types) in this study of south african executives report: 1) a greater comfort with organisation fit 2) a greater preference for future and strategic thinking 3) less stress with balancing competing demands 4) a greater ease with communicating strategy to stakeholders, 5) a greater comfort and lesser challenge with focus in the leadership role. the five sentiments above are also more commonly reported by thinking types (in contrast to feeling types), with the exception of communicating strategy to stakeholders, where no significant differences were found with this dichotomy. in the qualitative content analysis, sensing and judging types express a greater comfort with their fit with their organisations than do intuitive and perceiving types. the recommendation for organisation leaders who may have myers-briggs type indicator instrument type preferences for introversion, intuition, feeling or perceiving, is to consider how they can give more attention to their less preferred behaviour for each of the associated dichotomies, to benefit from a greater comfort with the leadership focus factors defined in this study. equally, it must be noted that these findings do sieff, carstens60 not ascribe an optimal leadership focus to organisation leaders with extravert, sensing, thinking and judging type preferences in their reported personality types. the myers-briggs type indicator instrument measures preferences, not aptitudes or capabilities. all organisation leaders, regardless of personality type, have the opportunity to optimise their leadership focus through a conscious application of the requisite personality and behaviour attributes. recommendations for hr professionals the study findings present hr professionals with important challenges in relation to those high-potential leaders with preferences for introversion and feeling. a strategic hr development role would be assist such leaders to develop and balance their less preferred behaviours in order to find a more comfortable fit in dealing with the challenges of leadership focus, without letting go of the gift that their natural preference for introversion and feeling may bring to the leadership role. equally, hr professionals need to encourage a more rounded set of behaviours that include more practice of introversion (or introspection and reflection) and feeling behaviours in those leaders who are comfortable with taking on the challenges of focus, who have a natural preference for extraversion and thinking. limitations of this research the limitations of this study are that: 1) the sample size and make-up is limited to south african executives attending management education programmes over a 6 month period in cape town and johannesburg; 2) other tools for assessing personality are not included in the research design; 3) the research findings, while statistically significant in a number of instances, have a smaller practical significance, based on measures of sample effect, eta; and 4) the research does not provide a practical formula or model for use by an individual leader to develop the skills for optimal strategic focus. future research opportunities the relationship between personality type and the seven lfq research factors provides a basis for extending chorn's (2004) strategic alignment framework that considers personality type in relation to organisation type. by exploring those elements other than fit with organisation type necessary to optimise strategic alignment, chorn's model may be enriched with additional dimensions. for example, the extravert-introvert dichotomy reveals a third dimensional element to the role of the leadership logic in influencing the internal and external environments associated with the organisation. introverted leaders need to overcome their relatively lower desire to engage with internal and external stakeholders, or delegate effectively. there is, in the opinion of the author, scope to extend chorn's model to include recognition of the role of the e-i attitude dichotomy and the j-p lifestyle dichotomy. the enhanced model would address more effectively the relationship between personality type and leadership focus that facilitates movement towards strategic alignment. in relation to extraversion versus introversion, questions worthy of future research concern why organisations appear to favour extraverted t ypes in the leadership role, and what the implications may be for optimising leadership focus. similarly with thinking versus feeling: why is there a strong preference for thinking types amongst organisation leaders, and what are the implications for optimising focus? references barling, j., slater, f., & kelloway e.k. (2000). transformational leadership and emotional intelligence: an exploratory study. leadership & organisation development journal, 21 (3). block, l. (2003). the leadership-culture connection: an exploratory investigation. leadership & organisation development journal, 24 (6). boals k.b. & hooijberg r. (2001). strategic leadership research: moving on. leadership quarterly, 11 (4). bridges, w. (2000). the character of organisations: using personality type in organisation development. palo alto: daviesblack. carless, s.a. (2001). assessing the discriminant validity of the leadership practices inventory. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 74 (2). carless, s.a. (2000). assessing the discriminant validity of transformational leader behaviour as measured by the mlg (multifactor leadership questionnaire). journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 71 (4). chorn, n.h. (2004). strategic alignment. sydney: richmond. chorn, n.h. (1987). the relationship between business-level strategy and organisational culture. unpublished doctoral dissertation, university of witwatersrand, johannesburg, south africa. collins, j. (2001). good to great. london: random house. denton, m. & vloeberghs, d. (2003). leadership challenges for organisations in the new south africa. leadership & organisational development journal, 24 (2). fitzgerald, c. (1997). the mbti and leadership development: personality and leadership reconsidered in changing times. in c. fitzgerald & l.k. kirby (ed.), developing leaders. palo alto: davies black. gregersen, h.b., morrison, a.j. & black, j.s. (1998). developing leaders for the global frontier. sloan management review, 40 (1). hartley, j. (2002). leading communities: capabilities and cultures. leadership & organisation development journal, 23 (8). holt, d.t. & self, d.r. (2003). facilitating organisational change: a test of leadership strategies. leadership & organisation development journal, 24 (5). ingalls, j.d. (2000). genuine and counterfeit leadership: the root causes and cures of human capital flight. strategic leadership, 28 (6). jung, c.g. (1923, 1971). psychological types. princeton: princeton university press. kets de vries, m.f.r. (2004). dysfunctional leadership. berkshire: sage. kets de vries, m.f.r. (2001). the leadership mystique: a user's manual for the human enterprise. london: prentice hall. kets de vries, m.f.r. (2001). meditations on happiness. london: elbury press. kets de vries, m.f.r. (1993). leaders, fools, and impostors. san francisco: jossey-bass. kirby, l.k. (1997). introduction: psychological type and the myersbriggs type indicator. in c. fitzgerald & l.k. kirby (ed.). developing leaders. palo alto: davies black. klagge, j. (1996). defining, discovering and developing personal leadership in organisations. leadership & organisation development journal, 17 (5). kummerow, j.m. & olson, r.d. (1997). using the mbti step ii with leaders and managers. in c. fitzgerald & l.k. kirby (ed.). developing leaders. palo alto: davies black. lok, p. & crawford, j. (1990). the relationship between commitment and organisation culture, subculture, leadership style and job satisfaction in organisational change and development. leadership & organisation development journal, 20 (7). may, a. (2003). developing management competencies for fastchanging organisations. career development international, 4 (6). mccauley, c.d. & van velsor, e. (2003). the center for creative leadership handbook of leadership development. (2nd ed.). san diego: center for creative leadership. myers, i.b., mccaulley, m.h., quenk, n.l. & hammer, a.l. (1998). mbti manual: a guide to the development and use of the myers-briggs type indicator. (3rd ed.). palo alto: consulting psychologists press. patterson, k., grenny, j., mcmillan, r. & switzler, a. (1996). the balancing act. cincinnati: thomson executive press. personality type and leadership focus 61 politis, j.d. (2003). qfd: the roles of various leadership styles. leadership & organisation development journal, 24 (4). politis, j.d. (2001). the relationship of various leadership styles to knowledge management. leadership & organisation development journal, 22 (8). roodt, g. (2004). quantitative research. unpublished slide presentation. to doctoral students in leadership in performance and change, facult y of economic and management science, university of johannesburg, south africa. schein, e. (1985). organisational culture & leadership. san francisco: jossey-bass. shelton, c.k. & darling, j.r. (2001). the quantum skills model in management: a new paradigm to enhance effective leadership. leadership & organisation development journal, 22 (6). shelton c.k., mckenna m.k., & darling j.r. (2002). leading in the age of paradox: optimising behavioural style, job fit and cultural cohesion. leadership & organisation development journal, 23 (7). sieff, g. & nurick, i. (1997). practising strategic integration. management, australian institute of management journal, january/february 1997. testa, m.r. (2002). a model for organisation-based 360-degree leadership assessment. leadership & organisation development journal, 23 (5). walck, c.l. (1997). using the myers-briggs type indicator instrument in management and leadership: a review of the literature. in c. fitzgerald & l.k. kirby (ed.). developing leaders. palo alto: davies black. weymes, e. (2003). relationships, not leadership, sustain successful organisations. journal of change management, 3 (4). sieff, carstens62 1vantonder.qxd the notion of risk and its containment through effective governance structures and practices is a central consideration of the king ii report on corporate governance (iod, 2002). risk management is clearly entrenched as an important parameter of corporate governance, in particular the careful and considered engagement of risk in exchange for corporate rewards and is defined as the identification and evaluation of potential risk areas as they pertain to the organisation, as well as the process to remove or minimize the risk (iod, 2002, p.73). in this regard the king ii report also stipulates that the risk management process entails the planning, arranging and controlling of activities and resources to minimise the impact of risk and, in this instance, internal control measures constitute a central consideration. yet, despite the clarity with which the king report directs the identification and interpretation of risk to all instit utional processes and practices, risk is by and large taken to refer more narrowly to financial practices and their management. if risk in organisations is viewed as conditions or behaviours that affect a company either beneficially or detrimentally (rossouw & van vuuren, 2004) it should be clear that financial practices constitute a very small component of those conditions or behaviours that could materially impact the organisation’s functioning. indeed, rossouw et al., (2004, p.199) present organisational risk t ypologies that differentiate bet ween business risks typically implicit in competition, efficiency of production factors, supply and demand considerations and economic factors; financial risks, which relate to credit, foreign exchange, cash flow, gearing and liquidity, but then in particular also operational risks as a specific approach to articulating business risks. operational risks for example are often embedded in issues of technology, compliance, people, the business community, and what the authors term “ethical risk”. ethical risk, in turn, is defined as the potentially detrimental/beneficial outcomes of unethical or ethical conditions or behaviours (rossouw & van vuuren, 2004, p.200) and is viewed as part of the expanded responsibilities of boards of directors an artefact of the shift towards “triple bottom line reporting”. rather than merely accounting for financial and economic functioning of the organisation, triple bottom line reporting also requires formal accounting for the social and environmental performance of the organisation. this expanded accounting and reporting perspective, which is often referred to as “sustainability risks” (rossouw et al., 2004, p.199), together with the king ii report (iod, 2002) provides the platform and focus for considering risk and ethics in organisational change practices. organisational change as “risk” organisational change is one of the most frequently recurring organisational phenomena of our times and has truly become a consistent feature of the organisational landscape. organisations, by necessity, have to adapt to continuously changing environmental, and in particular, competitive operating conditions. this they do through a variety of change initiatives and processes which include transformation, culture change, downsizing, reengineering, mergers and acquisitions, major refocusing and strategic change. with the majority of organisational change scholars forecasting continued turbulence and accelerating organisational change (burnes, 2003; cummings & worley, 2001; johnson, 1996; schabracq & cooper, 2000; vakola, tsaousis & nikolaou, 2004), the challenge of organisational adaptation will increase and intensify, and employees can expect to be exposed to continuous waves of organisational change. at the same time however it appears that organisations, despite the prevalence of change and their presumed competence in dealing with it, are (still) not succeeding at instituting change processes effectively and dismal change success rates2 are continuously recorded. indeed, major change initiatives are more frequently deemed unsuccessful and approximately 65% to 75% fail (cf. applebaum & wohl, 2000; beer & nohria, 2000; mariotti, 1998; mourier & smith, 2001; smith, 2002; van tonder, 2005). the latter includes among other reorganisations (ross, 1997), downsizings (henkoff, 1990; skilling, 1996), improvement programmes and initiatives (pascale, millemann & gioya, 1997; schaffer & thompson, 1992), mergers and acquisitions (balmer & dinnie, 1999, gilkey, 1991), and culture change (smith, 2002, 2003). it is equally widely acknowledged that the cost3 of institutional transformation or organisational change (regardless of how it is conceptualised) is exceedingly high (cf. offerman & gowing, 1990; hattingh, 2004; korten, 1995; smith 1995, van tonder, 2005a) and, while the financial consequences of unsuccessful and poorly planned and executed change initiatives are difficult to calculate, they are commonly accepted as being substantial. even in those rare instances where change initiatives are likely to be considered more successful, there will still be undesirable side effects or unintended consequences (applebaum, henson & knee, 1999; schein, 1985) and consequently an inevitable downside to the change (armenakis & bedeian, 1999). moreover, major organisational change initiatives of this nature generally appear to have an enduring detrimental impact on the organisation, its workforce and their dependents, and society at large (van tonder, 2004a; 2005a). the catastrophic demise of high profile corporate entities such as barings, drexel, enron, cl van tonder1 clvt@eb.rau.ac.za department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract although the pace of organisational change is escalating, the reported success rate of large-scale change efforts remains disappointingly low. this suggests a level of risk that remains largely under acknowledged. the current study explored employee perceptions of risk in organisational change practices. statements provided by a convenience sample of 111 respondents from seven institutions revealed a distinct awareness of change risk among employees. identified risk areas align with the planning, involvement and implementation stages of organisational change processes. it is furthermore proposed that an ethical approach to change will minimise resistance to change and substantially reduce change risk. key words change management, change risk, ethical change change risk and ignorance: attempting to cross chasms in small steps 1 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (3), 1-11 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (3), 1-11 1 the constructive comments of two anonymous reviewers are greatfully acknowledged. 2 success (and failure for that matter) are seldom explicitly defined by the authors but are typically stated in terms of the nonachievement of the objectives posed for the change initiative (van tonder, 2004a). in the majority of cases these objectives arise from financial reasons and the change initiative consequently has to ensure, for example, improved return on investment and value add, business growth (improved sales and market share), improved profits, reduced costs and a variety of related objectives. 3 cost in this context for example referes to financial “spend” or investment in the change, loss of employment opportunities, and other adverse effects of major change. parmalat international, leisurenet, regal bank, saambou, worldcom and others, although extreme examples nonetheless illuminate the harsh realities of the cost and consequences of major change (“corporate failure” being a manifestation of change for the worse and more specifically inappropriate or inadequate adaptive change). these examples indicate that organisational change is an area of risk, but as it is a seldomrecognised facet of major organisational change, it remains largely undetected at managerial levels. to an extent disheartening, is the realisation that ineffective change practices on this scale continue to unfold in a consistent fashion despite an extensive and prolifically growing literature base on the subject (van de ven & poole, 1995; van tonder, 2004a). this paradox of intensif ying change and a mushrooming “knowledge” base, yet exceptionally poor change success rates is perplexing and management’s persistence with entrenched archaic change practices, despite the inefficiency, costs, and risks that accompany such change (irvin, 2002), defies logic. in this regard the ignorance-incompetence thesis (van tonder, 2005a) offers one possible account for this phenomenon. it posits that those who initiate and lead the change are essentially ignorant of the fundamental nature of change, how employees perceive, experience and react to change, and the enduring impact / consequences and ramifications of change over an extended period. they effectively underestimate the challenges and complexities of organisational change. this ignorance in turn prevents skills building (training”) in relevant change competencies from attaining a significant priorit y on managerial agendas. as a result change “training” seldom assume a format beyond a superficial three to five-day short course, and is likely to enjoy a lower ranking for resource allocation when compared to legal, financial, and general management education and training. change risk and the ignorance-incompetence thesis evidence for the ignorance-incompetence argument is abundant and proceeds from the premise that the extensive (scholarly) literat ure on change consistently singles out management (cf. applebaum, henson & knee, 1999; buch & aldridge, 1990; christensen & overdorf, 2000; jewell & linard, 1992; kotter, 1995; stuart, 1996; worrall, cooper & campbelljamison, 2000) and resistance to change (cf. martin, 1975; maurer, 1997; reger, mullane, gustafson & demarie, 1994; spiker & lesser, 1995; waldersee & griffiths, 1997) as the most prominent and influential factors that contribute to “failed” change. resistance to change is itself a reaction to, and a comment on ill-considered managerial attempts at brokering organisational change. while several other reasons are regularly cited as contributing to failed change initiatives (beer & eisenstat, 2000; covin & kilmann, 1990; eales-white, 1994), these recede into the background when compared to the volume of studies that accentuate these two primary causes. apart from this perspective, management by its very nature but also from an organisational theory perspective is centrally responsible and accountable for change success or otherwise. in this regard the literat ure, generally, is consistently unflattering when it comes to managerial capabilities for dealing with change. so, for example, management is considered to be ill-equipped for dealing with change (buch & aldridge, 1990), lacks requisite change knowledge (applebaum et al., 1999; armenakis & harris, 2002; church, siegal, javitch, waclawski & burke, 1996) and a solid grasp of change dynamics (kets de vries & balazs, 1998), do not understand change implementation (armenakis & harris, 2002), and are unable to comprehend and attend to the more psychological aspects of the change (dehler & welsh, 1994). managerial perspectives on organisational change have not kept abreast with contemporary developments and perspectives and appear to have outlived their practical usefulness (collins, 1998; nortier, 1995; van tonder, 2004a). it comes as no surprise then that scholars have called for the re-education and training of managers with regard to the implementation and management of change (belasen, benke, di padova & fortunato, 1996; francis, bessant & hobday, 2003; worrall et al., 2000). given this context, it is not difficult to understand why it is argued in some quarters that many of the major organisational change initiatives are uninformed or ill-informed (cameron, 1994, doyle, 2002). this view is bolstered by the fact that the impact and ramifications of change, unlike financials, are not adequately measured (burns, 2003) and, as a result, the damage inflicted by less than optimal change initiatives are not adequately accounted for in financial audits, financial statements, and the balance sheet. in a similar vein hattingh (2004) expressed the view that mergers and acquisitions decisions were based on assumption and speculation rather than knowledge and insight, and asserts that historical evidence has revealed that organisations failed to measure and manage the risks involved in mergers and acquisitions. yet despite the “dismal success rates” and “lacklustre performance of these costly [change] interventions” management persists in these unproductive practices (irvin, 2002). barker’s (1994) view that most change initiatives are dealt with in an unreflective manner provides an eloquent if understated account for this phenomenon. irvin (2002, p.360) is substantially more direct and explicit when she argues that management’s clinging to outdated and ineffective change practices despite poor results, is a result of their failure to comprehend the realities of among other, relentless change, unpredictable occurrences and increasing complexity of the world. it may well be that these authors’ accounts of managerial practice may apply to a more pervasive general management orientation, but for now it is reasonable to conclude that organisational change and transformation are certainly not adequately recognised as areas of substantial risk to the organisation and its stakeholders. organisations however do not have to succumb to the undesirable consequences of poorly managed change risks even if their management cadres are unable to detect and deal with the change risk, or so van tonder and van vuuren (2004) argue. in keeping with the general parameters of the king ii report (iod, 2002), they have argued that the implicit risk in organisational change processes could be mitigated substantially if an ethical approach towards change is adopted for example the adoption of ethical principles and practices to guide change practices. in this regard they suggested specific ethical nodes in the generic change management process where an ethical approach in particular would minimise the risks implicit in change initiatives. this however presupposes knowledge of moments of greater and lesser risk during change initiatives. in this regard the bulk of the literature on change management is not particularly helpful as it is focused predominantly on pragmatic considerations – informed largely by management and change practitioner needs. understandably the literature base is exceptionally lean in the areas of change risk and ethical change and, except for a few more embracing and general perspectives with regard to the latter (e.g. calabrese, 2003; mayon-white, 1994; miller, 1998), very little guidance can be derived from the literature. given this setting, and acknowledging that the literature is substantially critical of management’s ability to identif y change risks, the focus of the current study was concerned with risk during self-imposed or self-initiated organisational change initiatives. this delineation is necessary as it can be argued that organisations, in one sense, are continuously subjected to an increasingly turbulent and ever evolving operating context and therefore need to engage in continuous adaptive change. such change embodies risk on a constant basis. the current study more specifically focused on the typical stage-bound change programmes and aimed to establish where (at what points/ nodes) in organisational change processes employees perceive van tonder2 the greatest risk for the organisation, that is, if they perceive risk at all. the study therefore, and from an employee perspective, essentially endeavoured to isolate those critical risk nodes in a generic change process. the remainder of the paper briefly highlights the methodology that was employed, reports the results of this study and discusses the implications of the findings for the management of institutional change practices and the containment of risk implicit in these practices. research design research approach the study was approached from within the interpretive sociological research paradigm (burrell & morgan, 1979) as it implicitly assumes that risk within change processes is a socially constructed phenomenon that is enacted through perceptions and therefore as morgan (1997) argues, more a result of members’/employees’ actions than they may recognise. it sought to explore the perceptions of risk at the level where employees experience the organisation and organisational change initiatives in particular. accordingly, whether change is deemed to be an issue of risk or otherwise, depends on how it is viewed by those who are subjected to it, or are involved in the change process. this “emergent” concept of change risk is the central focus of this research. subjectivity in the traditional sense is not a concern as it is precisely the idiosyncratic meanings that each employee constructs that ultimately define the collectively shared meaning structures from which an organisation is defined and enacted. given its focus, the study is primarily concerned with exploration, description and understanding, and is consequently pursued through qualitative methodologies of limited scope (cf. crabtree & miller, 1992; mouton, 1996). a field study was undertaken during which participant perceptions were sampled through a survey method which in turn employed open-ended yet focused questions to solicit respondent meaning attribution to the construct change risk. research methodology the methodology employed during the study is briefly described in terms of respondents, data gathering methods, procedure, and data analysis. respondents respondents from seven institutions participated voluntarily in the study. participating companies were representative of the retail sector (food distribution; office supplies), private health care, the motor industry, education and training, and public service. respondent eligibility for participation was based on two requirements namely; the respondent should have been exposed to (as opposed to being aware of) an internal organisational change event and secondly, all respondents from an organisation should have been exposed to the same specific change event. it was argued that these criteria would ensure that respondents were fairly knowledgeable about the change process or initiative, and would base their responses on a common change experience. working with postgraduate human resource management students who were linked to or associated with the seven institutions, attempts were made to secure a minimum of 15 but preferably 20 respondents per participating organisation. as is evident from table 1 these requirements were reasonably met, with variance in the numbers of representatives per organisation reflecting the final number that did succeed in submitting a completed questionnaire within the stated timeframe. the methodology that was followed in the study precludes accounting (statistically) for the impact of sample characteristics, but, sample characteristics nonetheless define the interpretation frame and for this reason the key features of the sample are profiled (see table 1). in this regard it is worthwhile noting that the distribution of the sample revealed a dominance of male respondents (59,5%), predominantly english speaking (31,5%) with afrikaans and zulu representing 14,4% and 12,6% of the sample respectively. the remaining portion of the sample was spread across various indigenous and some nonindigenous language categories (e.g. german). the majority of the respondents were between 26 and 35 years of age (50%) while 32% were between 36 and 45 years of age. in terms of job tenure the majority had between 2 and 5 years service (38,2%), followed by those with less than two years service (20%), and respondents with between 6 and 10 years (17,3%) and 11 and 15 years (17,3%) service respectively. the largest proportion of the sample (47,7%) possessed either a three year diploma or a bdegree while 14,4% had an honours degree. of the remainder, 10,8% possessed a grade 12 certificate, 9,9% a one-year diploma and 9,0% a masters degree. the research sample consequently constitutes a reasonably balanced, quite diverse and substantially educated convenience sample. methods of data gathering an existing organisational change questionnaire which was designed to record respondents’ perceptions and experiences of organisational change processes (cf. van tonder, 2004b), was modified with the addition of two open-ended questions that aimed to elicit respondent perceptions and understanding of risk within a change management context. wary of the potential influence of context and the possibility of an order-effect, the open-ended questions followed immediately after the first section which dealt with respondent particulars, and consequently preceded all other questions in the questionnaire. the questions that followed, sampled data on change as an objectively observed phenomenon, and is beyond the scope of this paper. the focus of this paper is however captured by the two open-ended questions, which dealt with perceived risk during change initiatives or processes. the questions were formulated as: � which areas (stages) of an organisational change process contain the greatest risk for the organisation? � why do you regard this as the area of greatest risk? procedure with the assistance of postgraduate students in the human resource management field, change questionnaires were distributed to respondents who were exposed to the same (recent) change in their organisation. as part of their formal postgraduate training in change management these students were recently exposed to survey-based research and the critical research objective of securing valid and reliable data – a function not only of the design properties of the instrument, but a consequence of the entire research process involving sourcing, briefing, supporting, and monitoring respondents during the research process. for postgraduate students to participate in the administering of the questionnaire, they had to comply with the provided procedure to secure voluntary yet valid and reliable research protocols from participants. this procedure entailed various steps and requirements and had to be open to formal verification by the researcher. this was clearly stipulated before students were involved in the research. respondents of participating organisations were consequently prepared in advance for the survey and briefed on its purpose and likely contribution, its structure and nat ure, the principles of anonymity and confidentiality of data, and the requirements for completion, after which they were instructed to individually complete the questionnaire. an open invitation was extended to participants to contact the administrator should questions crop up when they completed the questionnaire. upon receipt of the completed questionnaires comments (descriptions) in response to the open-ended questions were captured verbatim on the database, and the consolidated list of descriptive statements was subjected to content analysis. a few randomly selected statements nominated by respondents are provided in table 2 as examples. they illustrate the nature and format of “risk” responses received from respondents. change risk and ignor ance 3 analysis of the data the selected vehicle for analysing descriptive statements on perceived risk and areas of greatest risk was basic content analysis. consistent with corbin and straus’ (1990) grounded theory approach, an open, axial and selective coding convention was utilised to surface data categories, identif y relations and linkages bet ween categories, and construct a tentative cause-and-effect account of perceived risk during change. apart from the customary codebook approach that was used to structure and organise data during the open coding round (in particular), observations were later quantified by counting frequencies of occurrence (cf. huberman & miles, 1994) for subsequent interpretation. in this study the so-called “editing style” was used to develop the codebook (cf. crabtree & miller, 1992). the researcher made observations of segments of text as the material was read, jotting down comments in the margins of the text from which further abstractions were made. in order for categories to emerge, an open-ended approach to analysis was followed, which in this study utilised a single phrase (“short sentence”) as unit of meaning and analysis. the code list was reviewed and revised with every subsequent phrase that did not fit the coding categories or suggested new “unique” categories. the final consolidated “codebook” was employed to revisit and code all phrases and to assist with the calculation of frequencies per category. frequencies were then converted to proportions of total responses and expressed as percentages and rank ordered to enable a consideration of the relative salience of the different categories (and themes or sub themes). following this, a generic change process (van tonder, 2004a) was used as a change framework and template for matching employee response frequencies with regard to risk, to change stage or node (results reported in table 3). this change process, developed from an analysis of 12 popular change models, views the change management process as consisting of eight primary stages: � identif ying and articulating the change need; � data-gathering and analysis with regard to the change need; � establishing the change vision; � extensive communication and securing participation; � planning the change initiative; � implementing the change plan; � evaluation and consolidation of change progress; and � institutionalising the change. a similar framework was used by van tonder and van vuuren (2004) to identif y nodes of ethical significance within change processes, and consequently a comparison of theoreticallydetermined ethical change nodes with employee-perceived risk moments during change (this study) was possible (see table 5). during axial coding it was observed that respondents, in highlighting areas of greatest risk during change, also provided the rationale for their choice of risk area and, in the vast majority of cases, this rationale clearly encapsulated a cause-effect argument. this justification by respondents suggested neglect of the specific risk area would ultimately result in specific undesirable consequences for the organisation (see table 4). results respondents generated a substantial number of responses often consisting of several phrases, which account for the variation in the number of phrases used in the various analyses and reported in the different data tables. table 1 highlights sample characteristics while table 2 presents illustrative statements provided by participants in response to the open-ended question on perceived areas of greatest risk during change initiatives or processes. table 1 sample characteristics dimension participating organisations4 total (%) a b c d e f g number of 15 15 15 20 20 17 9 111 respondents gender male 7 8 13 12 12 8 6 66 (59,5) female 8 7 2 8 8 9 3 45 (40,5) age <25 1 5 6 26-35 10 3 7 10 7 4 9 50 (45) 36-45 3 6 5 6 10 6 36 (32) 46-55 2 4 2 4 12 56-59 1 1 1 1 4 60-65 1 1 66+ 0 tenure5 < 2 4 4 5 2 1 5 1 22 (20,0) 2-5 7 1 7 1 7 11 8 42 (38,2) 6-10 2 5 1 8 3 19 (17,3) 11-15 1 4 2 7 5 19 (17,3) 16+ 1 1 2 4 8 (7,2) language english 9 8 10 5 3 35 (31,5) afrikaans 2 1 3 10 16 (14,4) n-sotho 4 1 5 ndebele 1 1 s-sotho 6 2 8 swati 1 1 tsonga 3 1 4 tswana 1 2 1 2 1 7 venda 1 1 1 2 5 xhosa 3 2 5 zulu 1 1 3 2 3 4 14 (12,6) other 2 3 2 2 1 10 education gr 11 1 1 2 4 gr 12 2 5 3 1 1 12 (10,8) 1 yr dip 2 2 4 2 1 11 (9,9) 3 yr dip 4 2 3 6 4 5 24 (21,6) b-degree 3 3 2 5 8 4 4 29 (26,1) hons 1 2 1 5 2 2 3 16 (14,4) masters 2 1 1 5 1 10 (9,0) doctorate 0 other/none 2 3 5 apart from incorporating the 8-stage change management or process model and listing the primary elements that characterise each of the eight stages, table 3 conveys the perceived risks that respondents identified. these are summarised in column three (the gist of the theme is presented), while the frequency with which a specific risk theme occurred, expressed as a proportion (percentage) of overall responses to this question, are indicated in columns four and five. respondents were unaware of the theoretical change management or process model and received no guidance or direction about change whatsoever. it is only after analysis that the researcher could compare themes and fit these to the relevant corresponding change categories (stages/nodes). although risk areas are indicated for all but two stages of the generic change management process (table 3), the data essentially indicates that the key risk themes are poor change implementation; employee resistance to change; inadequate involvement of stakeholders (employees in particular), and inadequate communication with stakeholders during the change process. when these themes are fitted to the change model, the communication and participation stage emerges as the most critical risk area (54.6% of the responses), which is followed by poor implementation (23.7% of responses) and poor planning (10.1%). van tonder4 4 company a: retail (food); b: stationary; c: health care; d: education; e: motor industry; f: education & training; g: public service. 5 as with “age”, tenure is measured in years and reported per category. table 2 illustrative responses: greatest risk in organisational change initiatives respondent statement provided in response to question on areas of no. greatest risk in an organisational change process a1 lack of openness, lack of communication, lack of employee participation b8 implementation, resistance can occur c1 resistance to change by employees as nobody likes to move outside of their comfort zone… d20 the management because they have to make the subordinates accept change e12 might take a long time to implement the change, no immediate gain, … f12 full and meaningful engagement of all stakeholders is often neglected in change processes g4 a change which is not well communicated a11 poor implementation of the necessary changes due to poor planning, resistance from employees concerned or affected by the change b10 pre-implementation phase, this has to be properly discussed before implementation c14 the greatest risk is the unsettling of staff, this could lead to a mass exodus … d1 if the process is sabotaged e17 the initial communication process in making sure there is 100% understanding, the implementation phase when there is deviation from the plan f5 ignoring the bulk of the employees who are actually doing the work in the organisation g5 it is the first stage (planning process and diagnosis of the need for change)… analysis of the reasons advanced by respondents’ in support of their selection of change risk areas, without exception highlighted a clear cause-and-effect logic that links neglect of specific change stages to specific undesirable consequences at both the individual and organisational levels and hence their designation of these stages as “risk”. at the individual level the impact of poorly conducted change stages or tasks in those areas that are designated as risk areas, is predominantly of an emotional nature (93.8%) with tangible impact (e.g. workload increase or actual job loss) representing only 6.2% of responses. the most pronounced emotional experiences are anxiet y and fear (29.2% of responses), followed by declining levels of motivation (18%) and resistance to change (17.4%). the emotional impact of poorly conducted change stages (or tasks) in turn facilitates a variety of undesirable organisation-level outcomes of which staff t urnover (28.3% of responses), delayed and/or compromised (“failed”) change (14.2%), a decline in all organisational performance levels (13.4%), and financial losses (11.8%) are the most prominent. the impact of unattended risk on the individual employee and the organisation, during the change stages designated by respondents as risky, is highlighted in table 4. in essence the results of tables 3 and 4 indicate that the areas of greatest risk during change processes are that of employee involvement (communication and participation), planning, and execution of the change initiative or process. if neglected, the organisation is bound to encounter substantial emotional upheaval that typically assumes the form of fear, deteriorating motivation and resistance, which in turn will compromise organisation-level performance in a variet y of domains ranging from staff turnover, to compromised/failed change, decline in productivity and service levels, and escalating costs/financial losses. table 3 degree of correspondence: generic change stages and participant indicators of risk during change processes no stage in change management perceived risk area ƒ7 % process6 1 the change need no suggestion of risk � compelling (business) need � sense of urgency � powerful & positive individual to embrace the change 2 data gathering � diagnosis & analysis � inadequate research 6 4,3 � consulting with experts � inadequate or misdiagnosis � propositions & (& consequently recommendations misdirection) 3 change vision � vision of the change � absence of a clear vision 4 2,9 end-state & objectives; shifting � aligned with vision; failure to organisation’s culture communicate change � exciting vision � secured through broad participation � with clear goals & objectives 4 communication and participation � continuous communication � lack of, poor, or 76 54,6 & dissemination of inadequate communi information/feedback cation and communi� acceptance through cation channels; poorly participation & involvement informed employees, of employees, which include: distorted messages, � empowerment to act on misinterpretation and the vision lack of consultation and � care-taking, dealing openness (21 or 15.1%) with resistance (rc � inadequate/poor factor) participation; not full involvement/engagement of all stakeholders (27 or 19,4%) � resistance to change (28 or 20.1%) 5 planning � goals & detailed action � poor/bad planning, 14 10,1 plans strategising & � planning implementation/ preparation (14) “roll-out” 6 implementation (taking action) � pilot implementation � poor implementation/ 33 23,7 � implementation/ execution (delays, “rolling out” insufficient commitment, staff unprepared, practical difficulties, poor management) (33) 7 evaluation and consolidation no suggestion of risk � data gathering & measurement of progress i.t.o. goals � considering gains 8 institutionalisation (of the new state) � entrenching the change � insufficient support and 3 2,2 � reinforcing/rewarding ) monitoring of the process change gains (3) � publicising/celebrating) change successes � refining the change the overall process � process in general poor, 3 2,2 too many changes and unknown factors total responses 139 100 with clearly designated change risk categories emerging from respondents’ statements, the question arose as to how these risk areas compare with the key ethical nodes during change processes which were identified by van tonder and van vuuren (2004)? table 5, which juxtaposes ethical nodes with change risk and ignor ance 5 6 adapted from van tonder (2004a, p. 203). 7 frequency (number of valid responses). risk areas, reveals that the only obvious area of concurrence is stage four of the change model, which entails the involvement (communication and participation) of stakeholders. this is the most critical change stage from an employee perspective of change risk and a central ethical node when viewed from a theoretically-inductive platform. at first glance the comparison in table 5 reveals very limited alignment bet ween theory-informed ethical nodes and empirically-derived risk moments, but this would be an inappropriate conclusion as the discrepancy is bound to be an artefact of vantage point i.e. reflecting the profile of the respondents that participated in the study (predominantly employees who were subjected to/ experienced the change as opposed to driving, facilitating and implementing the change). this observation is further elaborated in the ensuing section. van tonder6 table 4 respondent perceptions: perceived impact perceived risk areas8 impact: individual impact: organisation ƒ (%) 1. the change need no suggestion of risk – 2. data gathering � inadequate research � inadequate or misdiagnosis (& consequently misdirection) (6) 3. change vision � uncertainty, insecurity (10), distrust, 14 (8,7) � workplace & atmosphere change, � absence of a clear vision & suspicion (4) conflict, unrest, disruption (8) objectives; shifting vision; failure to � disinterest, apathy (3) 14 (8,7) � loss of faith in management and hr communicate change vision (4) � difficulty: adjustment/coping (5) 47 (29,2) function (4) 4. communication and participation � psychological distress, pressure (14) 28 (17,4) � decline: productivity, service levels; 17 (13,4) � lack of, poor, or inadequate 48 (43,2) � anxiety, fear (of unknown, job 29 (18,0) increase in absenteeism (17) communication and communi36 (28,3) losses/retrenchments, loss of � staff changes: changes in leadership, cation channels; poorly informed income) (47) management, management style (8) employees, distorted messages, � resistance to change (28) 10 (6,2) � staff turnover, resignations, misinterpretation and lack of � anger, discontent (4) retrenchments, loss of skills (36) consultation and openness (21) � demotivation, low morale (29) � loss of clients, deteriorating � inadequate/poor participation; � loss of status, salaries, career customer relations, loss of market not full involvement/engagement opportunities, sense of “loss”; position/competitiveness (11) 11 (8,7) of all stakeholders (27) increase in responsibility, workload, � escalating costs, financial losses (15) 15 (11,8) 5. planning pressure (10) � change delayed, benefits not realised, � poor/bad planning, strategising 14 (12,6) “fails”, change abandoned, prompting & preparation (14) further change (18) 6. implementation (taking action) 33 (29,7) � change in character of business, target 18 (14,2) � poor implementation/execution for takeovers, etc. (4) (delays, insufficient commitment, staff unprepared, practical difficulties, poor management) (33) 7. evaluation and consolidation – no suggestion of risk 8. institutionalisation (of the new state) � insufficient support and monitoring of the process (3) the overall process � negative perceptions, � negative impact (2) � process in general poor, too many emotions, reaction (7) � organisation not coping, changes and unknown factors (3) ollapses (4) total responses: 111 total responses: 161 total responses: 127 8 number corresponding with stages of generic change management process (refer to table 3). discussion change management as arena of risk the central thesis of this paper is that organisational change practices (commonly referred to as “change management”) is a significant area of risk for any institution (whether private or public) simply as these change practices embrace a very real possibility of compromising institutional performance, success and ultimate survivial. relatively recent high profile corporate collapses have amply demonstrated the devastating impact of unanticipated major change combined with an ineffectual approach for dealing with and containing the fallout of these changes. however, as recently argued by van tonder (2005a), it is not only the dramatic and catastrophic change processes that bode ill for organisational functioning, but most large scale change processes appear to generate dismal results – effectively fail – and consequently these also represent a significant risk. initially these change risks may surface as non-financial risk, however, and as most analyses will reveal, non-financial risk eventually and inevitably translate into financial risk with its accompanying consequences if it is inadequately attended to. indeed, this relationship between “sustainability risks”, and we will argue essentially ethical risk (cf. rossouw & van vuuren, 2004), and the resultant financial consequences, are certainly well entrenched in the mindset of the respondents engaged in this study (refer table 3). the relative ease and clarity with which respondents succeed in identif ying risk areas in change and the clarity and logic with which they account for the impact of these risk areas (were they to be neglected) is noteworthy. once again the results reaffirm that employees are more perceptive and have a greater insight into organisational dynamics than they are generally credited with by management. moreover, the workforce can anticipate probable change outcomes with remarkable accuracy, which stands in sharp contrast to that suggested by the actions most commonly enacted by management and the change team during change initiatives (refer earlier discussion of the poor success rate of change initiatives and the role of management during change initiatives). though not the intended aim of the study, these results (table 3) provide further intuitive support for the primary causes of change failure cited in the literature i.e. management and resistance to change. the key risk areas identified in this study, namely; the initiative and responsibility for planning the change (10,1% of responses), communication during the change (15,1%), employee involvement (19,4%), and effective change implementation (23,7%), all fall within the ambit of management responsibility. although employees need to be involved in all stages of the change process, it is management who have to ensure that employees are involved. managers cannot delegate this task and hence the results from this study constitute a comment on management’s role and contribution in these change processes. resistance to change (20.1%) in turn is itself a reflection of how the change initiative has been approached, introduced, and effected. the observed convergence of risk areas with primary causes for change failure cited in the literature, suggests support for the construct and criterion validity of the notion of change risk. apart from the main risk areas (table 3), it is noteworthy that stages 1 and 7 (the change need and the evaluation of the change respectively) were not perceived as stages that entail risk. this absence of responses however does not suggest that these stages are in fact risk-free…it may simply indicate that participants have a limited awareness and/or understanding of these stages (and the change process in its entirety). it is no coincidence that the perceived risk areas are concrete, visible, action stages in the change process. employees are seldom consciously involved in the initial stages when the case for change or the change need is contemplated, or when the change initiative is evaluated …to them these stages are technically “invisible” and might as well not exist …it is essentially a case of the idiomatic “out of sight, out of mind”. the few comments that suggested risk in stages 2, 3 and 8 (datagathering and diagnosis, creating a change vision, and institutionalising the change) suggest that a few respondents had a richer and deeper insight into change processes and although these comments are valid and highly appropriate, they did not represent the majority sentiment and consequently did not impact the final list of key risk factors. if the argument for no response in categories 1 and 7 is accepted and the frequency of responses in all categories are momentarily discarded, respondent comments effectively reveal that each stage of the generic change management model embodies distinct risks, which, if left unattended, could materially influence the entire process for the worse. it can be argued that the notion of change risk is not so much an issue of identif ying where the areas of risk are located (for risk is implicit in the entire change process) but is essentially an issue of acknowledging (seeing/ detecting) the risk. the logic of change risk reflecting on the observations and “risk areas” highlighted in tables 3 and 4 it becomes apparent that these emerge from failures of process and interaction among different stakeholder constituencies during the change initiative – most notably management and employees, and to a lesser extent organised labour, shareholders and those representing the legal and regulatory framework within which organisations conduct their business and undertake change initiatives. respondent views on the risk areas in change processes suggest that these processes are more often than not pursued by change risk and ignor ance 7 table 5 degree of alignment: change stage, primary ethical nodes, and perceived areas of greatest risk stage in change management process9 primary ethical nodes10 perceived areas of greatest risk 1. the change need 1. decisions relating to the need for and nature of the change to be initiated. – 2. data gathering – – 3. change vision – – 4. communication and participation 4. decisions relating to the involvement and 4. poor/insufficient communication (within category participation of stakeholders: who, how and rank: 3) inadequate involvement/participation when to engage. (within category rank: 2) resultant resistance to change (within category rank: 1) (overall rank: 1) 5. planning – 5. poor planning (overall rank: 3) 6. implementation (taking action) – 6. poor execution/implementation (overall rank: 2) 7. evaluation and consolidation 7. decisions relating to the evaluation of the – change: who, how, when, and actions following from the evaluation (e.g. future change practices) 8. institutionalisation (of the new state) – – 9 adapted from van tonder (2004a, p. 203). 10 all stages contain important ethical decision making nodes but “primary” nodes indicate decision making that are irreversible and materially impact on the subsequent nature of the process (cf. van tonder & van vuuren, 2004). management from a predominantly unilateral decision making stance, which together with resistance to change, are considered the primary causes of failed organisational change initiatives. moreover, as was previously argued (van tonder 2004a) resistance to change is a natural, human response to perceived threat and as such very high levels of resistance constitutes an indictment of managements’ capabilit y for creating circumstances conducive to smooth and effective change. management action or, more appropriately, deficiencies in management action, evoke a “resistance” response, which is probably one of the most powerful derailing factors at work during large-scale organisational change. from a respondent perspective, the risk in change is unavoidably a ”social risk” …people constitute the main source of change risk. the emphasis respondents place on transparent communication during the change, extensive involvement and consultation of the different stakeholder constituencies, and the manner in which the change process is executed, convey an imbalance in the consideration of the interests of the different stakeholders that are party to the change initiative. this would constitute an unethical change practice when viewed from the earlier definition of business ethics and in particular the definition of ethics in general (as the triangulation of that which is considered “good” to self and others i.e. a balanced consideration of “own” or self-interest and the interest of “others” rossouw & van vuuren, 2004). these authors emphasise the human interaction dimension of ethics in which the three concepts “good/right”, “self”, and “other” take centre stage. this is essentially the subtext of the collective response obtained from respondents in this study. moreover, employee perceptions of the cause-and-effect dynamics during major change (portrayed in table 4) align substantially with the prevailing literature on the subject (cf. elrod ii & tippett, 2002; van tonder, 2004a). inspection of table 4 will indicate that inadequate communication and involvement, and inconsiderate implementation of change initiatives (viewed from a respondent perspective) prompt an array of psychological experiences that fuel resistance to change. the latter in turn delays and/or derails the change process with significant organisation-level consequences. these can range from the loss of valued human capital, to the loss of future business, a compromised reputation and competitive position, and the possibility of ultimate institutional collapse – a less often outcome, but nonetheless one that cannot be excluded. ameliorating change risk with change ethics business ethics can be viewed as “… identif ying and implementing standards of conduct that will ensure that, at a minimal level, business does not detrimentally impact on the interest of its stakeholders. at an optimum level, business ethics is about standards of behaviour that will enhance the interest of all who are affected by business.” (rossouw & van vuuren, 2004, p.4). if we then juxtapose the response pattern for areas of “greatest risk” in change processes (highlighted in table 2) with this view of business ethics, we have to conclude that respondents viewed the reported change practices as essentially unethical. we argue this on the basis that participants provide a lucid and consistent account of the primary phases of the generic change management process, the typical areas of failure presented as areas of “greatest risk”, but in particular, the impact this has on employees and stakeholders, and ultimately the consequences for the institution/organisation. van tonder and van vuuren (2004) argued that critical ethical nodes in the change process are the decision to change (stage 1, table 5), participation by stakeholders (stage 4), and the evaluation of the impact of change initiatives (stage 7). respondent views partially validate this perspective. we say “partly” as respondent views on change risk areas converge with ethical nodes only on the issue of “participation” (involvement) during change processes. respondents do not address the “evaluation” stage and, significantly, the decision to change (“the need for change” stage). this can be understood from the perspective that respondents are not fully aware of, or informed of the change process. they have commented from their vantage point which is informed by their experience of and exposure to organisational change. they are seldom (if ever) engaged in the initial deliberations during which the first inklings for a “case for change” emerge and from which the change is sanctioned (stage 1). in a similar vein, employees are infrequently engaged (if at all) in the evaluation of the change initiative (stage 7) when successes and failures during the change initiative should be interrogated and from which key “learnings” should emerge, to drive future change processes. this stage appears to be a substantially neglected stage in change practices. stages 1 and 7 are however viewed as prominent ethical nodes (van tonder & van vuuren, 2004) and entail areas where the ethical nature or otherwise of the actions / decisions taken may not necessarily have an immediate visible impact but could substantially derail the change process further downstream. indeed, the case for change (ethical node 1) is often underresearched (van tonder, 2004a) and constitutes the initial seeds for the perceived credibility or otherwise of the change process at subsequent stages in its unfolding. to illustrate; the effective, efficient and considerate implementation of a change process cannot overrule a “senseless” change (decision). moreover, it is submitted that the evaluation stage is significantly neglected by organisations, which constitute one reason for the absence of meaningful comments from respondents and provides a plausible hypothesis for the continued emphasis on communication, participation and implementation – common ailments of change management processes for several decades now. not detracting from the aforementioned, it is of course possible to identif y certain nodes where the weight of the ethical decision is such that it assumes greater prominence (e.g. stages 1, 4 and 7see table 5). these nodes signif y moments when the application or non-application of an ethical frame or perspective is likely to produce irreversible ramifications downstream in the change management process. it is here where stakeholder interests are most at risk of being negated and the consequences of such action could promote rather than reduce further, significant risk. conclusion and recommendations respondent perceptions of risk moments during change management processes echo the pattern and stages of the generic change management process and to a reasonable extent align with the perceived critical ethical nodes during change processes – as conceived by van tonder and van vuuren (2004). for the study to comment more precisely on ethical nodes that relate to the “participation” stage in the change process, it should in all probability have invited commentary also from senior management representatives and independent third parties who are often involved in change facilitation and management. noteworthy, is the clarity and consistency with which respondents identif y and demarcate risk and cause and effect in change processes – in a manner that clearly reveals the pronounced emotional content of experienced change and its consequences for organisational functioning. the employees in this study are quite perceptive and able to sense and identif y risk to a greater extent than they may be credited with. this perceptiveness is substantially at odds with the generally reported poor change success rates… if employees can anticipate change risk to this extent, this in itself should lead to actions that reduce the risk and hence improve the success prospects for the change effort. this observation of risk-aware employees, yet continued poor change results, raises questions about management’s willingness and/or capabilities for adequately detecting and acknowledging the implicit risk in major change processes. van tonder8 on the reasonable assumption that managers are at least as perceptive as their employees, it follows that it is both illogical and inconceivable to persist with change practices that engender risk and hold promise of poor results. yet, the dismal success rates of reported major change initiatives in general, and the experience base of employees surveyed in this study in particular, suggest otherwise. this seems to be consistent with the views (stated earlier) of, among other, barker (1994), hattingh (2004) and irvin (2002), and indeed the ignoranceincompetence thesis. if we accept the assumption that managers should be at least as perceptive as their employees but recognise that they do not act on this, then a strong argument can be made for an arrogance-incompetence thesis. this alternate thesis would posit that management is perceptive enough (has the capability), and indeed detects the risk in change, but elects to disregard such risk for a variety of reasons. while managerial “blindness”, linked to managerial arrogance, have surfaced in several high profile organisational collapses (van tonder, 2005b), this will have to be the subject of further research. in view of the preceding it is submitted that the adoption of an inclusive stakeholder approach to change management, as argued by van tonder and van vuuren (2004), should significantly mitigate the risk implicit in major change processes. this is premised not so much on popular calls for an inclusive stakeholder approach, but because such an approach entrenches significant interaction with stakeholders and attends substantially to stakeholder interests. the dynamics that are part and parcel of an inclusive stakeholder approach consequently promote � increasing understanding which stem from intensified contact and information transmission that could alter stakeholder beliefs about the change process, management’s role and the intentions of key functionaries, and � decreasing psychological discomfort and a growing sense of safety and trust which is an indicator of the quality of the relationship, and which will emerge over time from continued exposure of the parties (stakeholders e.g. management and non-managerial employees) to one another. an inclusive stakeholder approach, as a result, should substantially reduce the probability and magnitude of resistance to change, which is a major source of change risk. in essence an inclusive stakeholder approach, which is commonly acknowledged and advocated but unfortunately less commonly practiced, will direct focus to the balanced consideration of the interests of all relevant stakeholders during the unfolding of the change process. the primary concerns (or risk areas) identified by respondents in this study have emphasised involvement/participation, being kept informed, and a considerate engagement of employees during the implementation of change. these concerns strongly underscore the importance of “an appropriate manner of conduct” which is best articulated as an ethical approach to change management. from a change management perspective it furthermore follows that adequate guidelines and principles for the conduct of managers and change agents during change processes, which are informed by the company’s code of ethics, should substantially reduce the risk and negative fallout commonly associated with change processes. it should however be noted that prevailing knowledge levels and awareness of ethics during change practices are substantially impoverished. an intensified effort at education and “training”, and the institutionalisation and management of ethics is therefore much needed. this in itself has significant consequences for the tertiary and business education sector. research constraints and suggestions for further research the objective of this study renders the non-probability sample employed, and the limited representation of the participating companies, irrelevant in this study. however, as it is only natural to consider different or broader settings, it must be stressed that caution has to be exercised when interpreting and extrapolating to these settings. for example, although substantial effort was invested in securing respondents that were exposed to the same type of change process within a specific organisation, these change events differed from organisation to organisation and consequently the findings reflect a response pattern that does not allow conclusions about risk beyond a general concept ualisation of the change process…specific forms of organisational change may structurally embody greater or lesser risk. this constraint argues substantially for continued and intensified research in this area. in addition to much needed replication studies, comparative studies and studies of causality that will allow analysis of the impact of strong and weak institutional ethical orientations on the typical outcomes of major change processes, in relation to risk awareness and orientation, are needed. research of this nat ure would substantially advance knowledge and awareness levels and over time will foster more risk-sensitive and ethically-orientated change management practices. indeed, because of the pervasiveness of institutional change and the increasing pace with which organisational change is unfolding, organisational change dynamics offer an excellent and continuous window of opportunity to not only assess the organisation’s commitment to risk management and corporate ethics, but also to examine its prowess and to test its resolve in this domain. finally, it is interesting to note that fulmer (2004) draws parallels between the chinese symbol for change (which contains elements or symbols for both danger and opportunity) and contemporary organisational change practices. he reconfirms that change comprises both the features of danger (risk) and opportunity. from this vantage point it seems that those charged with the responsibilit y for effecting organisational change have long since recognised and acted on the opportunities presented by change, yet has been unwilling or blind to the implicit “danger” or risk component of change … and continues to pay the penalty for this oversight. the issue, however, is not whether to change. rather, it is about acknowledging and dealing effectively with risk when taking up the opportunities offered by change, and in this regard a commitment to ethical change could well signif y the axis on which change success and change failure, i.e. change risk, turns. references applebaum, s.h., henson, d., & knee, k. (1999). downsizing failures: an examination of convergence/reorientation and antecedents – processes – outcomes. management decision, 37 (6), 473-490. applebaum, s.h., & wohl, l. (2000). transformation or change: some prescriptions for health care organizations. managing ser vice quality, 10 (5), 279–298. armenakis, a.a., & bedeian, a.g. (1999). organizational change: a review of theory and research in the 1990s. (yearly review of management). journal of management, 25 (3), 293-313. armenakis, a.a., & harris, s.g. (2002). creating a change message to create transformational readiness. journal of organizational change management, 15 (2), 169-183. balmer, j.m.t., & dinnie, k. (1999). corporate identity and corporate communications: the antidote to merger madness. corporate communications: an international journal, 4 (4), 182-192. barker, r. (1994). relative utility of cultural and climate analysis to an organisational change agent: an analysis of general dynamics electronics division. the international journal of organisational analysis, 2, 68-87. beer, m., & eisenstat, r.a. (2000). the silent killers of strategy implementation and learning. sloan management review, summer 2000, 29-30. change risk and ignor ance 9 beer, m., & nohria, n. (2000). cracking the code of change. har vard business review, may-june, 133-141. belasen, a.t., benke, m., di padova, l.n., & fortunato, m.v. (1996). down-sizing and the hyper-effective manager: the shifting importance of managerial roles during organizational transformation. human resource management, 35 (1), 87-118. buch, k., & aldridge, j. (1990). downsizing challenges and od interventions: a matching strategy. journal of managerial psychology, 5 (4): 32–37. burnes, b. (2003). managing change and changing managers from abc to xyz. journal of management development, 22 (7), 627-642. burrell, g., & morgan, g. (1979). sociological paradigms and organisational analysis: elements of the sociology of corporate life. aldershot: gower. calabrese, r.l. (2003). the ethical imperative to lead change: overcoming the resistance to change. the international journal of educational management, 17 (1), 7-13. cameron, k.s. (1994). guest editor’s note: investigating organizational downsizing – fundamental issues, human resource management, 33 (2), 183-188. christensen, c.m., & overdorf, m. (2000). meeting the challenge of disruptive change. har vard business review, march-april, 67-76. church, a.h., siegal, w., javitch, m., waclawski, j., & burke, w.w. (1996). managing organizational change: what you don’t know might hurt you. career de velopment international, 1/2, 25–30. collins, d. (1998). organizational change: sociological perspectives. london: routledge. corbin, j., & straus, a. (1990). grounded theory research: procedures, canons, and evaluative criteria. qualitative sociology, 13 (1), 3-21. covin, t.j., & kilmann, r.h. (1990). participant perceptions of positive and negative influences on large-scale change. group and organization studies, 15 (2), 233 – 248. crabtree, b.f., & miller, w.l. (1992). a template approach to text analysis: developing and using codebooks. in b.f. crabtree & w.l. miller (eds.), doing qualitative research. newbury park: sage. cummings, t.g., & worley, c.g. (2001). organization development and change (7th ed.). cincinatti, oh: southwestern college publishing. dehler, g.e., & welsh, m.a. (1994). spiritualit y and organizational transformation: implications for the new management paradigm. journal of managerial psychology, 9 (6), 17–26. doyle, m. (2002). from change novice to change expert: issues of learning, development and support. personnel review, 31 (4), 465-481. eales-white, r. (1994). creating growth from change: how you react, develop and grow. london: mcgraw-hill. elrod ii, p.d., & tippett, d.d. (2002). the “death valley” of change. journal of organizational change management, 15 (3), 273-291. francis, d., bessant, j., & hobday, m. (2003). managing radical organisational transformation. management decision, 41 (1), 18-31. fulmer, r.m. (2004). the challenge of ethical leadership. organizational dynamics, 33 (3), 307-317. gilkey, r. (1991). the psychodynamics of upheaval: intervening in merger and acquisition transitions. in m.f.r. kets de vries (ed.), organizations on the couch: clinical perspectives on organizational behavior and change. san francisco: jossey-bass. hattingh, b. (2004). ups and downs of mergers, acquisitions. business day, july 19, 1st edition. henkoff, r. (1990). cost cutting: how to do it right. fortune, 27, 40-47. huberman, a.m., & miles, m.b. (1994). data management and analysis methods. in n.k. denzin & s. lincoln (eds.), handbook of qualitative research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. iod. (2002). second king report on corporate governance for south africa. johannesburg: institute of directors (iod). irvin, l. (2002). ethics in organizations: a chaos perspective. journal of organizational change management, 15 (4), 359381. jewell, r.e., & linard, k.t. (1992). evaluating corporate plans and the corporate planning process. evaluation – making it work: proceedings of the international conference of the australian evaluation society, 2, paper 59, melbourne. johnson, m. (1996). managing in the next millennium. oxford: butterworth-heinemann. kets de vries, m., & balazs, k. (1998) the human side of downsizing. european management journal, 14 (2), 111-120. korten, d.c. (1995). when corporations rule the world. san francisco: berrett-koehler publishers. kotter, j.p. (1995). leading change: why transformation efforts fail. har vard business review, 73 (2), 59-67. mariotti, j. (1998). 10 steps to positive change. industry week, 247 (14), 82. martin, h.h. (1975). how we shall overcome resistance. training and development journal, 29 (9), 32-34. maurer, r. (1997). transforming resistance. hr focus, 74 (10), 910. mayon-white, w.m. (1994). focus on business change and ethics: the ethics of change management: manipulation or participation? business ethics, 3 (4), 196-200. miller, r.a. (1998). lifesizing in an era of downsizing: an ethical quandary. journal of business ethics, 17, 1693-1700. morgan, g. (1997). images of organization. thousand oaks: sage. mourier, p., & smith, m. (2001). conquering organizational change: how to succeed where most companies fail. atlanta: cep press. mouton, j. (1996). understanding social research. pretoria: j.l. van schaik publishers. nortier, f. (1995). a new angle on coping with change: managing transition! journal of management development, 14 (4), 3246. offerman, l.r., & gowing, m.k. (1990). organizations of the future: changes and challenges. american psychologist, 45(2), 95-108. pascale, r., millemann, m., & gioja, l. (1997). changing the way we change (organisational change). har vard business review, 75 (6), 126–139. reger, r.k., mullane, j.v., gustafson, l.t., & demarie, s.m. (1994). creating earthquakes to change organizational mindsets. academy of management executive, 8 (4), 31-46. ross, j.a. (1997). does shuffling the deck work? (effectiveness of corporate reorganization). har vard business review, 75 (6), 17-18. rossouw, g.j., & van vuuren, l.j. (2004). business ethics. cape town: oxford university press. schabracq, m.j., & cooper, c.l. (2000). the changing nature of work and stress. journal of managerial psychology, 15 (3), 227241. schaffer, r.h., & thompson, h.a. (1992). successful change programmes begin with results. har vard business review, 70 (1), 80–89. schein, e.h. (1985). organizational culture and leadership: a dynamic view. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. skilling, d. (1996). beyond the quick fix: how to manage more effectively in the heart of change. industrial and commercial training, 28 (4), 3-7. smith, d.r. (1995). change: still an enigma to be faced. hosp materiel manage q, 16 (4), 76-82. smith, m.e. (2003). changing an organisation’s culture: correlates of success and failure. leadership & organization development journal, 24 (5), 249-261. smith, m.e. (2002). success rates for different types of organizational change. performance improvement, 41 (1), 2633. spiker, b.k., & lesser, e. (1995). we have met the enemy. journal of business strategy, 16 (2), 17-21. van tonder10 stuart, r. (1996). the trauma of organizational change. journal of european industrial training, 20 (2), 11-15. vakola, m., tsaousis, i., & nikolaou, i. (2004). the role of emotional intelligence and personality variables on attitudes toward organisational change. journal of managerial psychology, 19 (2), 88-110. van de ven, a.h., & poole, m.s. (1995). explaining development and change in organizations. academy of management review, 20 (3), 510 – 540. van tonder, c.l. (2005a). the unacknowledged contribution of organisational change practice to organisational and employee wellness. proceedings of the 2005 international conference on the changing world of work, 8-9 march, vanderbijl park, south africa, 102-115. van tonder, c.l. (2005b). complex, chaotic and catastrophic: the advent of nonlinear change. paper delivered at the fifth international conference on knowledge, culture and change in organisations, university of the aegean, island of rhodes, greece, 19-22 july. van tonder, c.l. (2004a). organisational change: theory and practice. pretoria: van schaik. van tonder, c.l. (2004b). “organisational transformation”: wavering on the edge of ambiguity. sa journal of industrial psychology, 30 (3): 53-64. van tonder, c.l., & van vuuren, l.j. (2004). recognising ethical nodes in organisational change: a conceptual framework. paper presented at the 4th annual conference of the business ethics network of africa, zanzibar, tanzania, september 1-3. waldersee, r., & griffiths, a. (1997). the changing face of organisational change. ccc paper no. 065, centre for corporate change, australian graduate school of management, the university of new south wales, sydney. worrall, l., cooper, c.l., & campbell-jamison, f. (2000). the impact of organizational change on the work experiences and perceptions of public sector managers. personnel review, 29 (5), 613-636. change risk and ignor ance 11 8piedade2.qxd corporate responsibility is often regarded as a response to the imbalances resulting from the acceleration of the globalisation process and the underdeveloped international governance systems on environmental and social issues when compared to those for economic governance (swift & zadek, 2002; zadek, 2004). the decision to include corporate responsibility criteria as part of organisational strategy has largely been the result of discretionary corporate initiatives based on philanthropic or paternalistic attitudes (sarre, doig & fiedler, 2001). matten and crane (2005) highlight the confusion in terminology that includes terms such as ‘corporate citizenship’, ‘corporate social responsibility’, ‘corporate social responsiveness’, and the corresponding underlying philosophies and practice foci of such concepts. more recently, a growing convergence between corporate governance and corporate responsibility issues can be observed. in the past, the two fields of study converged on issues such as board diversit y, director independence and executive compensation. now corporate governance advocates and codes increasingly refer to a number of corporate responsibility issues as falling within the fiduciary responsibility of boards and directors and being imperative to good risk management practices. recognition has also been given to the fact that without proper governance and management accountability, corporate responsibility will not be able to be effectively institutionalised within organisations (business for social responsibility, 2002). changes in the organisational environment appear to be forcing organisations to approach corporate responsibilit y more scientifically, requiring them to effect and measure initiatives as dictated by recent regulation in this area, for example by the code of the king committee on corporate governance (institute of directors, 2002). these changes include: a growing media focus on corporate practices, an increase in voluntary codes (such as the global compact, iso 14001, the global reporting initiative and the a a1000 series), tightening of legislation, a more socially-engaged and better educated population with higher expectations around corporate conduct, increased willingness of investors to invest in companies that promote socially responsible practices and increased activism from non-governmental organisations (mckinsey & company, 2002; paine, deshpande, margolis & bettcher, 2005; visser, 2005; vogl, 2003). increasingly, organisations are being obliged by regulation to produce codes of ethics and to report on their social and environmental as well as financial performance (paine et al., 2005). for instance, the sarbanes-oxley act (2002) requires us companies to disclose whether they have a code of ethics in place. some jurisdictions now legislate for the disclosure of social and environmental performance in financial statements and it appears that more governments are considering legislation in this regard (vogl, 2003). indices for corporate responsibility, such as the ftse4good and the dow jones sustainability world index, now allow socially responsible investors to invest in companies with good citizenship records (european commission, 2003; vogl, 2003). in south africa, companies listed on the jse securities exchange are obliged to report on their activities in the economic, social and environmental arenas. in this regard, company adherence to the recommendations furnished by the king report on corporate governance (institute of directors, 2002) have been made admission requirements for listed companies. there are currently a myriad of corporate responsibility initiatives across the world and almost as many codes of good conduct that have been devised by various international organisations. the most prominent of these are: the united nations global compact; the international labour organisation conventions; the oecd guidelines for multinational enterprises, the international standards organisation 14000 series, accountability 1000, the global reporting initiative, the global sullivan principles and social accountability 8000 (ethical corporation, 2003). most corporate responsibility advocates are calling for a rationalisation of these initiatives and more guidance for organisations on which standards to adopt (locke, http://mitsloan.mit.edu/50th/corpcitizenship). the danger currently exists that corporate responsibility will become merely another reporting requirement and will not be integrated into corporate strategy (paine et al., 2005; straughan, 2003). grayson and hodges (2001) point to the interaction of four forces or signposts that make corporate responsibility a mainstream business issue, namely: 1) the development of technology and communications which result in companies ‘having no place to hide’, 2) the increased prominence of multinationals globally and the growth in the value and visibility of their brands which make them more susceptible to lucy da piedade adèle thomas adelet@uj.ac.za department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract stakeholder demands and the introduction of the ‘triple bottom line’ as a means of reporting corporate performance, make it critical that south african companies assess why they should undertake corporate responsibility initiatives. this exploratory study (part two of a two-part study) investigated the issues that are being or should be addressed by companies under the banner of corporate responsibility and the reasons for this. the views of a convenience snowball sample of consultants, academics and practitioners of corporate responsibility, was gained by means of a delphi technique. content analysis was employed to categorise the views into themes. the findings indicate the need for corporate responsibility action in the areas of ecology, the environment, health and well-being, building human capital and in the encouragement of economic development. cost benefit and defensive arguments dominate the case for corporate responsibility. there is little indication that organisations have identified the opportunity of corporate responsibility initiatives to increase innovation and organisational learning and its contribution to risk management. recommendations are made regarding the assessment of investment in this area. key words corporate responsibilty, issues, exploratory study the case for corporate responsibility: an exploratory study 65 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (2), 65-74 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (2), 65-74 scrutiny; 3) demographic change and development which encompasses issues such as an ageing population in the developed world, skewed income distribution, limited access to health, education and jobs; and 4) the revolution of values and the decline in deference for institutions. zadek (2001; 2004) has identified four broad, interrelated categories that may be adopted by organisations in the name of the ‘business case’ for corporate responsibility. he notes that these exist on a continuum from the defensive case through the traditional or cost-benefit case and the strategic case to the new economy business case. the organisation is reactive in the first two cases, ensuring legal compliance or adherence to basic stakeholder requirements only. with regard to the strategic business case, corporate responsibility becomes an integral strategic component of long-term organisational performance. the new economy business case or civil stage involves learning, innovation and risk management of acquiring and acting on stakeholder information in a way that builds new competencies or products in the organisation, and provides innovative ideas about how to manage risk and increase profits (waddock & smith, 2000; zadek, 2001; 2004). in this regard de jongh (2004) notes the challenges of managing social risk, such as hiv/aids in south africa. most scholars agree that there is no universally accepted definition of corporate responsibility or a definitive framework of how it should be applied (carroll, 1979; clarkson, 1995; grayson, 2005; matten & crane, 2005; mirvis & googins, 2004; wood, 1991) and according to carroll and buchholtz (2000) the responsibilit y of organisations entails the simultaneous fulfilment of the organisation’s economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities. in the context of this study corporate responsibility is defined as the commitment of organisations to act in the interest of both business and sustainable economic development based upon ethical values, compliance with legal requirements, and respect for and engagement with people, communities and the environment. elements of a corporate responsibility strategy an ever-increasing number of issues are being incorporated in the concept of corporate responsibility making it difficult for organisations to prioritise action in this area. grayson and hodges (2001) point to the growing importance of doing business in emerging economies and to the growing need for transnational organisations in these regions to demonstrate the added value of their presence and maintain high corporate responsibility standards regardless of less stringent local legislation. the authors point to ways in which value can be demonstrated in these economies by addressing stakeholder expectations and needs which often tend to be very different from responsibility issues in developed economies. examples include building human capital by investing in education and transferring skills, encouraging good governance, assisting social cohesion, strengthening economies, protecting the environment, and addressing health-related matters, in particular hiv/aids, issues noted also by vermier, van de velde and corten (2005). speaking of south africa, white (2004, p.21) states that “(i)ssues unknown and/or unspoken only a decade ago now regularly appear on the corporate agenda, either by choice of corporations themselves or through initiatives of governments, activists and, increasingly, investors. human rights, hiv/aids, drug pricing, climate change, outsourcing, sweatshops – these and many others are moving to centre stage … and are challenging business in ways unthinkable even five years ago”. social responsibility is increasingly being seen as a necessity for doing business in developing economies that lack the infrastructure and capacity to build social capital. investment in local communities is seen to be a prerequisite in contributing to a sustainable, healthy and stable business environment in which investments will be protected and produce returns (world business council for sustainable development, 2003). in this regard, hamann (2003, p.239) notes that “(t)o embrace economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainability in a holistic manner, and to provide maximum development benefits, corporate social responsibility must be integrated into the core activities and decision making of a company. hence, sustainability needs to be seen as a key concern by top management”. issues critical to economic development, sustainability and stabilit y in the south african context, include: povert y alleviation, addressing of health issues such as hiv/aids, improving education, controlling industrial pollution, promoting environmental conservation, preventing resource depletion, addressing land redistribution, improving governance and government capacity to manage development processes, housing and access to credit (african institute for corporate citizenship, undated; de jongh, 2004; visser, middleton and mcintosh, 2005). these issues have traditionally not been considered to be the responsibility of business. however many companies are attempting to address these issues and that of poverty generally and not necessarily from a philanthropic perspective but because they believe it benefits their organisations (forstater, 2002). hamann (2003) believes that social responsibility initiatives in south africa necessarily must go beyond philanthropic investment to embrace developmental initiatives due to the country’s history of apartheid and concomitant lack of previous state support for social development and hamann and acutt (2003, p.255) note that, in the south african context, social responsibility “is meant to link the market economy to sustainable development”. the broad conclusion drawn at the 2002 world summit on sustainable development was that "greater involvement from the business community is the key to sustainable development and issues such as biodiversity and climate change, health and in particular the challenges regarding hiv/aids, water and sanitation, education, and economic development are either intrinsic to or inseparable from that overarching goal” (blyth, 2002, p. 26). a survey conducted by environics international (2002) in 25 developed and developing countries sought to highlight which of the following five categories respondents believed business was able to make the most impact: cleaning up the environment, improving education, reducing poverty and homelessness, improving healthcare and addressing crime. respondents in developing countries, including south africa, indicated that they believed that corporations could make their greatest contribution to society in the area of reducing poverty and homelessness and improving education. this was in contrast to the participants from developed countries who mostly voted for more action in the area of protecting the environment. post (2002) and visser and sunter (2002) note how, in south africa, the focus of corporate responsibility has shifted from that, primarily, of environmental responsibility to the incorporation of issues such as health and safety as well as social and economic issues. rationale for the study the present exploratory study investigates the elements of corporate responsibility strategy in south africa and the justification for that strategy with a view to making recommendations to south african organisations. the study seeks to understand, in descriptive terms, what elements are included in corporate responsibility strategy. while that which organisations are doing and that which they should be doing may be completely different, the study aims to integrate the descriptive findings with a normative interpretation of what organisations should be doing by considering the findings together with the major challenges for corporate responsibility in south africa identified in the literature, in this way reflecting the ‘contrasting/combining’ approaches discussed by donaldson and preston (1995). the study is significant now in view of increased opposition to business influence in various areas of policy development. critics da piedade, thomas66 of the corporate responsibility or citizenship movement believe that it is a public relations exercise devised by organisations to appease growing dissatisfaction with the increasing transnational reach of multinational companies and their subversion of the ability of governments to make and enforce development policies (vogl, 2003). still others have pointed to the fact that lack of consensus for management, measurement and verification of corporate responsibility contributes to the perception that these initiatives in organisations are merely window dressing (ethical corporation, 2002). there is a growing body of evidence however, that suggests that organisations can be socially responsible as well as profitable and that a lack of responsiveness to gross imbalances in access to basic amenities and opportunities results in an unsustainable business environment (amalric & hauser, 2005; aqueveque, 2005; chiang & chia, 2005; ethical corporation, 2002; hall & vredenburg, 2005; klein, smith & john, 2004; mckinsey & company, 2002; orlitsky, 2005; vermeir et al., 2005). it has also become clear that the value of intangible assets in organisations today is growing. according to macmillan and joshi (1997), chief executive officers regard reputation as the most valuable intangible asset, a finding supported by dowling (2004), mirvis and googins (2004) and werther and chandler (2004). organisational success now depends as much on production facilities and capital as it does on relationships with suppliers, the management of brands, the quality of business processes, the retention of talented employees and a corporate culture that is conducive to success in a particular industry (ethical corporation, 2002; grayson, 2005; roberts, keeble & brown, 2002). aim of the study the objective of this study was to shed light on which corporate responsibility issues south african corporations should be focusing upon and why they consider these to be important to their corporate strategy. the study seeks answers to the following questions: 1. which issues should be addressed by a corporate responsibility strategy in the south african context? 2. which factors constitute the business case for corporate responsibility in south african organisations? the following propositions are posited: proposition no 1: south african companies do not incorporate into their corporate responsibility strategies, issues that are critical to sustainable business such as hiv/aids, economic development and education (de jongh, 2004; hamann, 2003; hamann and acutt, 2003; visser, middleton and mcintosh, 2005, visser, 2005). proposition no 2: south african companies base their case for corporate responsibility mainly on defensive or cost-benefit arguments (zadek 2001; 2004). proposition no 3: south african companies develop corporate responsibility strategies in order to promote innovation and learning and risk management (de jongh, 2004; waddock & smith, 2000; zadek, 2001; 2004). research design research approach data were collected from consultants, academics and practitioners of corporate responsibility and sustainability by means of a delphi technique. information gathered in this way was subjected to qualitative content analysis. the study dealt with poorly defined concepts and a highly uncertain environment where the past has very little bearing on the understanding of these concepts in the future. expert opinion that documents both facts and opinion (rowe & wright, 1999) was used to capture a wide range of interrelated variables common to complex research problems. anonymity makes panellists more inclined to revise their views if necessary (tersine & riggs, 1976). this method is also useful when experts are geographically dispersed (story, hurdley, smith & saker, 2001). moreover, it is relatively inexpensive to organise and allows for the participation of larger groups than can normally be brought together for a meeting (williams & webb, 1994). research methodology participants/respondents the research population comprised all academics, consultants and practitioners who are involved in the study or field of governance, ethical business practices and corporate responsibility in south africa and who are able to express expert opinion on these issues. snowball sampling was applied in order to include recommended specialists on the panel. the principal selection criteria were expertise and diversit y. factors such as location, gender, social and political orientation were considered in the selection of experts in order to ensure sufficient diversity of response and in order to minimise the subjective bias of response prevalent in this method. experts chosen were not necessarily equally qualified in the same areas, but were qualified in subparts of the research question. according to linstone and turoff (1975) there are no experts on policy issues but merely informed advocates and referees and their opinions contribute to a deeper understanding of the issue but do not necessarily result in resolution of the policy question. the panel was selected on an access/availabilit y basis and, as such, a convenience sample was used (linstone & turoff, 1975). expertise was adjudicated by the researchers based on years of experience in the fields of governance, ethics and corporate responsibility as well as on published works and referrals from organisations active in the field and in academia. the objective was to retain at least fifteen panellists in the final round of the study, based on the recommendations of story et al. (2001) who note that participation rates typically reduce by between a third and one-half after each round of the study. as a result, 30 panellists were targeted to constitute the panel. a total of eighteen panellists participated in the first round of the study. twelve of these proceeded to complete the second round of the study. table 1 profiles the panellists and provides an indication of who participated in each round of the study. method of data collection the delphi method involves a number of rounds of data collection. the first round is unstructured to allow individual experts relative freedom to identif y and elaborate on the pertinent issues from their point of view (story et al., 2001). issues are then consolidated by the researcher and re-sent to the panellists for further comment and discussion. the number of rounds seldom goes beyond one or two iterations (rowe & wright, 1999). although delphi was originally devised as a forecasting tool where parameters of estimation are largely unknown, it is also used for the analysis of social or policy issues. the policy delphi is based on the premise that the decision-maker is not interested in reaching consensus on a particular issue, but rather, to have an informed group present all the options and supporting evidence for his consideration (linstone & turoff, 1975). as a result, the study aims to obtain a clear definition of the various standpoints taken by panelists and identif y the main arguments for those positions (story et al. 2001). the case for corpor ate responsibility: an explor atory study 67 table 1 profile of respondents respondent industry/sector position round round 1 2 1 ngo corporate citizenship y n manager 2 development social impact specialist y y finance 3 international ngo facilitator y y 4 law associate y n 5 retail corporate affairs manager y y 6 consultancy director y y 7 automotive corporate affairs manager y n 8 sme ngo director y y 9 audit/consulting partner y n 10 academia director y y 11 mining ngo advisor y y 12 banking csr manager y n 13 mining csr manager y n 14 pharmaceuticals corporate affairs manager y y 15 ethical business director y y benchmarking ngo/consultancy 16 beverage group social officer y y production/ distribution 17 ngo director y y 18 sustainability managing director y y consultancy legend y = participated n = did not participate procedure the study was performed in two iterations: round 1 in the first round the 30 panellists who agreed to participate in the study were presented with an unstructured questionnaire containing open-ended questions based on the research questions posed above: 1. what issues are being addressed or do you believe should be addressed in a corporate responsibility strategy in south africa? 2. what constitutes the business case for action in this area? panellists were asked to return their answers via email and were encouraged to identif y additional issues that they believed should be included in the next round of the study as recommended by story et al. (2001). eighteen responses were received in this round, representing a response rate of 60 percent. responses from round 1 were summarised and grouped into 12 nominal themes using content analysis and were sent to the panellists for consideration and comment in round 2. round 2 panelists who participated in round 1 were requested to study the two tables that contained the summaries of the responses in round 1 and to indicate their agreement or disagreement with the results, re-evaluate their choices, provide reasons to support their opinions and to make any additional comments or add any additional factors or issues. twelve panellists responded in round 2 of the study and all responses were usable. the objective of this study was not to obtain consensus on a determining factor or to rank factors in order of importance but to elucidate ideas pertaining to the research problem, and ranking of responses or determining the statistical variance in responses was not considered to be appropriate. originally it was planned to conduct three rounds of the delphi study. however, it was decided to terminate the research process after round 2 for the following reasons: 1. after the second round of the research, the respondents had reached reliable consensus on the research question; 2. the issues identified by the panellists related closely to those that had been obtained from the literature; 3. the panellists did not make any changes or additions to the issues that had been identified in round 2 of the study. analysis of data the data collected from rounds 1 and 2 of the study were analysed using a content analysis technique whereby many words of text are compressed into fewer content categories based on explicit rules of coding (stemler, 2001), devised from words, phrases, sentences or themes. a thematic coding system was applied in this study. themes and constructs regarding issues which should be or are included in a corporate responsibility strategy were identified as well as constructs as to why the application of corporate responsibility in the corporate arena was considered important and necessary in south africa. results the results of round 1 are presented in two tables. the first table (table 2) lists the issues identified by the panellists that do or should form part of a corporate responsibility strategy in south africa, classified into categories. the frequency of the category issues listed by the panellists is also shown. table 2 corporate responsibility issues identified in round 1 theme statement frequency % ecology & biodiversity, emissions & pollution, environment waste management, environmental issues generally total for category 13 10,8% health & hiv/aids (awareness and provision well-being of anti-retrovirals), safety, employee well-being and quality of life issues, health issues generally total for category 22 18,3% diversity & employment equity, human rights human rights total for category 6 5% communities community development in business vicinity or making company skills available, community development generally (donations and other) total for category 7 5,8% education, education & training (within field of training and interest to company), leadership/ skills management skills development/ development mentoring, skills and human capital development (generally), education infrastructure and management, development of entrepreneurship skills) total for category 20 16,7% transformation black economic empowerment, land distribution, preferential procurement/ market access total for category 13 10,8% infrastructure housing, schools, clinics, roads etc. total for category 3 2,5% transparency/ supply chain compliance (ensuring reporting/ acceptable standards), responsible compliance & practices in promoting and selling measurement products, accountability processes & corporate transparency on non-financial issues (sustainability reporting), reporting on stakeholder engagement, embedding corporate responsibility practices (reporting and other) total for category 12 10% governance governance practices monitoring and structures total for category 3 2,5% economic enterprise development (particularly development/ smes) and job creation, crime job creation prevention, promotion of tourism, service delivery and capacity building, engagement on poverty reduction as opportunity or risk, access to finance total for category 12 10% da piedade, thomas68 regionalism nepad & african development, promotion of human rights in african countries total for category 2 1,6% labour/stakeemployee/labour relations, stakeholder holder relations engagement total for category 7 5,8% total scores 120 100% twelve categories or themes were identified as those that the respondents considered already form or that should form the basis for a corporate responsibility strategy in south africa. some of these themes correspond to those identified in the literature as emerging management issues, such as ecology and the environment, health and well-being, diversity and human rights and communities (blyth, 2002). other categories are identified in the literature as areas in which companies can demonstrate added value in emerging economies such as education, training and skills development, encouraging good governance, economic development and job creation, and the promotion of diversity and human rights in the interests of promoting social cohesion (hollender, 2004; institute of directors, 2002). still other statements were grouped into themes to reflect the responses received and these are discussed below. transformation is covered to some extent by promoting diversit y and human rights and supporting economic development but this was referred to specifically in the responses as an important issue in the south african context and for that reason has been nominated as a separate category. infrastructure emerged as an issue in round 1 although the relevance of this category was later questioned by the panellists in round 2. transparency and reporting, although not strictly speaking elements of corporate responsibility, were seen by some of the respondents as being an essential component in the implementation of a corporate responsibility strategy. regionalism also emerged as an issue, although this was considered to be irrelevant by the majority of the respondents in round 2. consideration of labour and stakeholder relations was also identified by some of the respondents as a necessary element of corporate responsibility. table 3 lists the business case arguments for a corporate responsibility strategy, classified into four categories, based on the literature on this topic. frequencies with which the various business case arguments were mentioned are also indicated. while the researchers had to make judgments in the classification process, those items categorised as ‘cost-benefit’ were seen as being part of the most reactive strategy with basic tangible, immediate and measurable outcomes for organisations as noted by zadek (2001; 2004). it can be argued that the items categorised as ‘defensive’, while also being part of a reactive strategy as articulated by zadek (2001; 2004), tend towards greater ‘future orientation’ with less immediate payoff and bottom-line benefit to the organisation. in round 2 the panellists indicated their agreement or disagreement with the issues listed in round 1 and were presented with the opportunity to include additional issues. content analysis was used to distil the responses and the responses were evaluated with a view to establishing whether there was reliable consensus that 1) the issues listed were those that companies should address in their corporate responsibility strategy and 2) the arguments raised constituted the case for corporate responsibility in the opinion of the panel. table 3 business case rationale identified in round 1 theme statement frequency % cost-benefit obtain/maintain licence to operate, attract/retain business partners & investors, gain access to capital, mandated by legislation, recruit and retain quality employees, labour productivity, labour stability, participate in state tenders & contracts, cost reduction total for category 28 49% defensive reputation & brand equity, maintain competitiveness, in order to participate in social responsibility index, to maintain a stable economic and social environment, improve relationship with stakeholders/build goodwill total for category 15 26% strategic new market/product opportunities sustainable development total for category 10 18% learning, risk management innovation & risk management (new economy business case) total for category 4 7% total scores 57 100% no additional business case arguments were added during round 2. certain constructs were however eliminated as a result of the feedback of the majority of the panellists who felt that they were irrelevant to the research question, as noted above. the changes arising from round 2 are depicted in table 4. table 4 corporate responsibility issues identified in round 2 theme statement frequency % ecology & biodiversity, emissions & pollution, environment waste management, environmental issues generally total for category 13 11,5% health & hiv/aids (awareness and provision of well-being anti-retrovirals), safety, employee well-being and quality of life issues, health issues generally total for category 22 19,47% diversity & employment equity, human rights human rights total for category 6 5,3% communities community development in business vicinity or making company skills available, community development generally (donations and other) total for category 7 6,1% education, education & training (within field of training and interest to company), leadership/ skills management skills development/ development mentoring, skills and human capital development (generally), education infrastructure and management, development of entrepreneurship skills total for category 20 17,7% transformation black economic empowerment, preferential procurement/market access total for category 12 10,6% infrastructure schools, clinics, roads etc. total for category 1 0,8% the case for corpor ate responsibility: an explor atory study 69 transparency/ supply chain compliance (ensuring reporting/ acceptable standards of governance and compliance & csr in supply chain), responsible measurement practices in promoting and selling products, accountability processes & corporate transparency on non-financial issues (sustainability reporting), reporting on stakeholder engagement, embedding corporate responsibility practices (reporting and other) total for category 12 10,7% governance governance practices monitoring and structures total for category 3 2,7% economic enterprise development (particularly development/ smes) and job creation, service delivery job creation and capacity building in government, engagement on poverty reduction as opportunity or riskaccess to finance/ community banking total for category 10 8,8% labour/ employee/labour relations, stakeholder stakeholder engagement relations total for category 7 6,2% total scores 113 100% discussion proposition 1 posited that: south african companies do not incorporate into their corporate responsibility strategies, issues that are critical to sustainable business such as hiv/aids, economic development and education. this proposition is not supported by the findings. as indicated in table 4, the following issues constituted ten percent or more of the total responses: health and well-being (19.5%), education, training and skills development (17.7%), and ecology and the environment (11.5%). economic development/job creation, however, only constituted 8.8% of the total responses. transformation (primarily economic in nature) constituted 10.6 percent of responses. almost twenty percent of the respondents cited issues of health and well-being as being essential to consider, with the majority of these responses indicating that hiv/aids, as it pertains to creating awareness around the issues and the provision of antiretroviral drugs, was an issue that must be addressed in a corporate responsibility strategy in south africa. the issues of hiv/aids, education and investment in human capital and environmental issues were all highlighted in the literature as issues where the business community has a responsibility in the interests of creating and maintaining a stable and productive business environment (african institute of corporate citizenship (undated); blyth, 2002; de jongh, 2004; forstater, 2002; hamann, 2003; hamann & acutt 2003; visser, middleton and mcintosh, 2005; world business council for sustainable development, 2000). given that over forty two million people worldwide are living with hiv/aids (petkoski & kersemaekers, 2003), the impact on business and economic development is easy to discern. research conducted under the auspices of the world bank institute and the united nations global compact (petkoski & kersemaekers, 2003) indicates that in countries with a high prevalence of hiv, companies are increasingly becoming important players in providing education, initiating awareness campaigns and intervention strategies. the business case, in cost-benefit or defensive terms, for corporate intervention in the face of such a crisis is self evident and more readily measured in terms of return on investment. organisations operating in these environments are facing more pressure than ever to disclose information on their hiv/aids initiatives since the issue has become relevant for the risk analysis of investors. economic development, predicted in the literature (blyth, 2002; hamann, 2003; hamann & acutt 2003; grayson & hodges, 2001; vermier et al., 2005; visser, middleton and mcintosh, 2005), did not emerge as strongly from the findings as expected. economic development was mentioned by just under ten percent of the respondents as an essential factor to be included. some of the panellists expressed surprise in round 2 that the issue of economic development had not featured more prominently in the participants’ responses and re-emphasised the importance of this issue in the comments during round 2. the category ‘transformation’ refers essentially to economic transformation and together with the category ‘infrastructure’ these categories might also reasonably be considered to reside under ‘economic development’. education, training and skills development emerged as an important corporate responsibilit y theme identified by approximately 18 percent of the respondents. both blyth (2002) and grayson and hodges (2001) discuss the responsibility of organisations to create jobs and encourage economic development at length. by creating jobs and generating export revenues and taxes, expanding local infrastructure, transferring technology and international standards, and supporting local business development, organisations can demonstrate added value in emerging economies (grayson & hodges, 2001). a theme that unexpectedly arose was that of transparency, reporting and measurement. the researchers had deemed these issues to be aspects of implementation of corporate responsibility strategy rather than a social or economic issue in itself. the fact that these issues were identified and represented over ten percent of the responses points to the growing importance of implementation and embedding of corporate responsibility in organisations and the extent to which this was being emphasised in the corporate responsibility debate. the inclusion of both these categories under economic development elevates the importance of the issue as predicted. the constructs that emerged from the findings centred around enterprise development and job creation, access to finance and the responsibility of organisations to address the issue of poverty reduction generally. the results were not surprising in the south african context given the high unemployment rates and the recent prominence of the issue of access to finance and the responsibility of the financial sector in this area. the findings confirm grayson and hodges’ (2001) assertion that organisations should be led by the cultural and societal norms of a country in determining the extent of their corporate responsibilities. stigson (2003) confirms that the expectations of an organisation’s responsibility for addressing a particular issue are likely to vary between different stakeholders depending on their country and culture. to this consideration can be added the argument advanced by donaldson and preston (1995) indicating that the theoretical approach adopted by organisations when dealing with a concept, whether descriptive (in this case, describing or explaining organisational practices), normative (in this case, identification of practice guidelines), or instrumental (identif ying connections) will determine how an organisation approaches the issue, for example its strategy of corporate responsibilit y. setting the boundaries of the role and responsibility of an organisation is therefore often a question of internal and external dialogue and negotiation. another factor in the boundary-setting process is the recognition that governments cannot address social challenges such as poverty and corruption, alone. in emerging markets where the institutional frameworks are weak, companies have to promote their own values and ethical systems and ensure that these meet responsibility requirements (grayson & hodges, 2001; stigson, 2003). da piedade, thomas70 the findings indicate that south african organisations are attempting to define what the responsibility of business is in the country given the social and economic issues that exist and how this responsibility can be balanced with their own corporate priorities. proposition 2 stated: south african companies base their case for corporate responsibility mainly on defensive or cost-benefit arguments. this proposition is supported by the findings with almost half of the responses (49%) pointing to cost-benefit arguments for having and implementing corporate responsibility strategies and 26 percent of the responses indicating that organisations undertake corporate responsibility initiatives for defensive reasons, in line with the findings of petersen (2005). costbenefit factors that were mentioned by the participants include obtaining and maintaining a license to operate, attracting and retaining partners and investors, gaining access to capital, fulfilling legislative requirements and recruiting and retaining employees. twenty six percent of the respondents believed that the business case for corporate responsibility is based on defensive arguments such as protecting reputation and brand equity and improving and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders, a finding reported by grayson and hodges (2001) and zadek (2004). reputation management and enhancing the relationship of an organisation with its stakeholders is one of the key motivators for responsible conduct. a market & opinion research international study (2002) indicated that in 1998, 28 percent of british consumers believed that their purchasing decisions were influenced by the level of corporate responsibility demonstrated by companies. by 2002 this had risen to 44 percent of consumers. similarly, a study by business in the community (2003) found that 86 percent of consumers have a more positive impression of an organisation if it is seen to be contributing towards making the world a better place. research published by the global csr monitor in 2001 (business in the community, 2001), showed that organisational responsibility to social, environmental and labour practices were perceived to be more important than its economic contribution in 20 countries. similarly, a study by mckinsey and company (2002) notes the positive relationship between investment and perceived sound corporate governance that includes social responsibility. faruk (2002) indicates that the overwhelming majority of senior managers in the united kingdom (77 percent) believe that responsible business practice is ‘very important’ to the long-term commercial success of an organisation and issues rated as the key business drivers include protecting corporate reputation and employee recruitment and retention. the finding relating to the recruitment and retention of employees corresponds to research undertaken by business in the community (2003) and zadek (2001; 2004), indicating that people wish to work for responsible organisations whose values reflect those of their own. engaging in responsible corporate practices is increasingly viewed as a means of facilitating access to capital. studies by business in the community (2001) and mckinsey and company (2002) confirm that investors are progressively analysing corporate social and environmental performance as part of their investment criteria and that a strong corporate responsibility record makes an organisation more attractive to investors. measuring the value of corporate responsibility initiatives merely in cost-benefit terms is problematic. value is measured in a variety of ways, many of which are not immediately visible in a cost-benefit calculation (grayson, 2005). examples include: reputation and trust, employee morale, relationships with business partners and learning and innovation (grayson, 2005; grayson & hodges, 2001; roberts et al., 2002). the results of the present study also suggest that corporate responsibility initiatives are seldom undertaken unless a cost benefit or defensive imperative can be found. in the first instance it is difficult to prove that corporate responsibility and financial performance are correlated (abbott & monsen, 1979; amalric & hauser, 2005; aqueveque, 2005; aupperle, carroll, & hatfield, 1985; martin, 2002; vogl, 2003). second, most research on the subject indicates that companies are often forced to respond to corporate responsibility issues in order to be recognised as trustworthy business partners (pearson, 2000), to protect their reputations (world business council for sustainable development, 2000) or because of pressure by institutional investors (newell & wilson, 2002; mckinsey & company, 2002), communities and activists (waddock, bodwell & graves, 2002). in many of these instances no short term, positive relationship between cost and benefit exists. the traditional cost benefit argument is also not a viable option in countries where extreme poverty exists and the social challenges are more marked (forstater, 2002). increasingly there is an expectation that organisations deliver shareholder value as well as societal value to a broader range of stakeholders (freeman & liedtka, 1991; freeman & reed, 1983; mahon & mcgowan, 1991; mintzberg, simons & basu, 2002; moir, 2002). proposition 3 posited that: south african companies develop corporate responsibility strategies in order to promote innovation and learning and risk management. this proposition was not unequivocally supported by the findings of the study. although a small percentage of the respondents admitted that risk management constituted an element of the case for corporate responsibility (7%), no mention was made by any of the respondents of opportunities for learning and innovation which corporate responsibility, through meaningful stakeholder engagement and the concomitant development of market signals, may create. this is in contrast to research that asserts that competitive advantage may be gained when using stakeholder information to build new competencies or products that ultimately increase profits (de jongh, 2004; grayson, 2005; handy 2002; hart & milstein, 2000; prahalad & hart, 2002; waddock & smith, 2000; zadek, 2001; 2002; 2004). senge (1990) notes that although shorter organisational life spans may be attributable to economic change and redistribution of resources, high corporate mortality is a symptom of the fact that most organisations learn poorly. corporate responsibility can be a means by which companies can better understand and manage their risk and comprehending the needs and expectations of stakeholders can be an integral aspect of risk assessments (keeble & turner, 2003). speaking of south africa, de jongh ((2004, p. 29) states that there is “a fundamental ‘new order of doing business’ … which ultimately requires original and unconventional strategies to develop riskcontrol measures required to manage the new order of risks”. limitations of the study inherent in this exploratory study are the following limitations that impact on the generalising of the findings: 1. panellists were selected based on nominations and referrals from organisations and institutes active in the field of corporate responsibility and business and academic contacts and were ones who indicated their willingness to participate in the research. this sample may not be representative of the population of practitioners, consultants or academics involved in the area of corporate responsibility. similarly, the cross section of business sectors represented in the sample may not be representative of south african organisations in general; 2. only twelve panellists completed the second round of the study which is a smaller sample than that which is recommended in the literature (story, hurdley et al., 2001) again impacting on the generalisation of the findings; the case for corpor ate responsibility: an explor atory study 71 3. no specific propositions about the factors identified were tested and no attempt was made to identif y any causalities or dependence between the factors; 4. the research did not explore any distinguishing characteristics applicable to different industry segments; 5. the following limitations are inherent in the delphi technique (rowe & wright, 1999; williams & webb; 1994): there is no recommendation regarding acceptable panel size and sampling technique and the range of panel size seems to vary arbitrarily; the follow-up response rate decreases in inverse proportion to the size of the panel which means that the validity of the result is subject to response bias; there is no rule regarding the number of iterations and some authors warn of the effects of boredom on the results of the study; the averaging process which is forced after each iteration, can also weaken the potential of group judgement; replicability of results is difficult to verif y; the possibility of bias being introduced by the researchers, in the interpretation of the findings is high. conclusion this exploratory study investigated what issues should be addressed by organisations in south africa under the banner of corporate responsibility and the reasons for this. although the study does not purport to establish the corporate responsibility strategies that should be addressed by every organisation in south africa, nor the motivations for such strategies, it does shed some light on what the current thinking is in this area. the study also gives an indication of the reasons for corporate action in this area. the results indicate that issues identified in the literature as emerging issues and ones that should concern managers in the area of corporate responsibilit y, were identified by the participants as those that should be incorporated in a corporate responsibility strategy in south africa. in particular, the respondents emphasised the categories ecolog y and environment and health and well-being. in addition, issues that arose from the literat ure as being those which organisations operating in emerging markets need to pay attention to in order to demonstrate that they were adding value in their organisational environments also emanated from the findings. specifically, the issues of building human capital and economic development appeared to be uppermost in the minds of most of the panellists. the rationale for adopting corporate responsibility strategies and, consequently, where organisations perceive value in adopting these strategies was revealed in the study and cost benefit arguments dominate the framing of the business case. if companies in south africa continue to assess their responsibility to societ y merely in cost-benefit terms they could be jeopardising the future of their organisations both in terms of a failure to consider non-financial risks to their organisations and the needs of their stakeholders and a failure to harness the opportunities that a progressive approach to corporate responsibility can produce. the notion of measuring the value of corporate responsibilit y practices in terms of the opportunities that they present for learning and innovation as well as effective risk management did not emerge from the findings. this is in contrast to literature that indicates that corporations that are able to acquire and act on high quality information about stakeholder interests that are likely to impact their organisations and translate into market signals, are more able to build new competencies and understand and learn how to respond to business risk (de jongh, 2004; zadek, 2001; 2004). conclusions that can be drawn from the research are: first, that organisations need to determine which issues to address in their corporate responsibilit y strategies based on their understanding of their relationship with the societies in which they operate, the needs of their stakeholders and the theoretical underpinnings of their understanding of corporate responsibility; and second, the way in which value of corporate responsibility initiatives is measured will need to be assessed differently since value in this area is difficult to establish in absolute short term cost benefit terms. in its determination of what it should be doing and how it should be responding to society’s expectations, the organisation must establish how its stakeholder relationships add value. analysing the strength of its stakeholder links as the principal means through which organisations create social capital will enable the organisation to measure the value of corporate responsibility and make the appropriate case for action. information from stakeholders can be used to create competitive advantage in the areas of risk management, innovation, creating new markets, reputation and brand value. suggestions for further research the following issues should be considered in future research endeavours: 1. a more specific industry-based study could yield richer results since corporate responsibility initiatives must be formulated bearing the needs of organisational stakeholders in mind that may differ from industry to industry and even perhaps from region to region; 2. a study using a bigger and more diverse sample could more adequately be representative of south african business opinion; 3. a case study examining the successful implementation of a corporate responsibility strategy could produce useful results and benchmarks for other organisations. in the same way case studies on corporate responsibilit y measurement and reporting could provide practical solutions to an issue that is still very much in the developmental stage; 4. measurement techniques identif ying how to implement corporate responsibility strategies effectively and how to measure for corporate responsibility success in south africa could advance the meaningful implementation of corporate responsibility. most of the existing research has not been able to establish a correlation between increased profitability and the assumption of socially responsible practices (martin, 2002). however, as investors and stakeholders begin to pay closer attention to nonfinancial corporate performance indicators, organisations will be expected to put corporate responsibility on its strategic agenda. the consensus appears to be that the value created by effective corporate responsibility management goes beyond cost savings and increased efficiency. corporations are beginning to understand that addressing and learning from social and environmental challenges can enhance their competitiveness. references abbott, w.f.& monsen, j.r. (1979). on the measurement of corporate social responsibility: self reported disclosures as a method of measuring corporate social involvement. academy of management journal, 22 (3), 501-515. african institute of corporate citizenship (undated). corporate citizenship. http://www.aiccglobal.com/images/ corporatecitizenship.pdf (accessed 12 december 2003) amalric, f. & hauser, j. (2005). economic drivers of corporate responsibility activites. the journal of corporate citizenship, winter, 20, 27-38. aqueveque, c. (2005). marketing and market development: signalling corporate values – consumers’ suspicious minds. corporate governance, 5 (3), 467-479. aupperle, k.e., carroll, a.b. & hatfield, j.d. (1985): an empirical examination of the relationship between corporate social responsibility and profitability. academy of management journal, 28 (2), 446-463. da piedade, thomas72 blyth, a. (2002): investing in africa, challenges and initiatives. ethical corporation, november, 26-30. business for social responsibility (2002): overview of corporate social responsibility. http:www.bsr.org/bsrresources/ issuebriefdetail.cfm?documentid=48809 (accessed 14 may 2004). business in the community (2001). investing in the future: cit y attitudes to environmental and social issues. http://www.bitc.org.uk/resources/research/research_publica tions/bie1.html (accessed 7 january 2004). business in the community (2003). responsibility driving innovation, inspiring employees. http://www.bitc.org.uk/ docs/fastforward2003_report_pdf.pdf (accessed 7 january 2004). carroll, a.b. (1979). a three-dimensional model of corporate performance. academy of management review, 4 (4), 497-505. carroll, a.b. & buchholtz, a.k. (2000). business & society. fourth edition, cincinnati: south-western college publishing. chiang, h.t. & chia, f. (2005). an empirical study of corporate governance and corporate performance. journal of american academy of business, 6 (1), 95-101. clarkson, m.b.e. (1995). a stakeholder framework for analyzing and evaluating corporate social performance. academy of management review, 20 (1), 92-117. de jongh, d. (2004). a stakeholder perspective on managing social risk in south africa: responsibility or accountability? the journal of corporate citizenship, autumn (15), 27-31. donaldson, t. & preston, l.e. (1995). the stakeholder theory of the corporation: concepts, evidence. the academy of management review, 20 (1), 65-91. dowling, g.r. (2004). corporate reputations: should you compete on yours? california management review, 46 (3), 19-36. environics international (2002). global csr monitor. http://www.globescan.com. ethical corporation (2002). the business of business: managing corporate social responsibility: what business leaders are saying and doing, 2002-2007. http:www.ethicalcorp.com (accessed 2 may 2003). ethical corporation (2003). analysis international standards for corporate responsibility. http://www.ethicalcorp.com (accessed 2 may 2003). european commission (2003). getting returns on social responsibility. csr magazine, 2 (2,) 12-15. faruk, a. (2002). corporate responsibility: beyond niceness. the ashridge journal, summer, 28-31. freeman, e.r. & liedtka, j. (1991). corporate social responsibility: a critical approach. business horizons, 34 (4), july-august, 92-99. freeman, e.r. & reed, d.l. (1983). stockholders and stakeholders: a new perspective on corporate governance. california management review, 25 (3), spring, 88-106. forstater, m. (2002). what can corporate responsibility do in the fight against poverty in africa? ethical corporation magazine, november, 37-40. grayson, d. (2005). from responsibilit y to opportunit y. corporate responsibility management, 2 (2) 34-37. grayson, d., & hodges, a. (2001). everybody’s business. first edition, london: dorling kindersley limited. hall, j. & vredenburg, h. (2005). managing stakeholder ambiguity. mit sloan management review, 47 (1), 11-13. hamann, r. (2003). mining companies’ role in sustainable development: the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ of corporate social responsibility from a business perspective. development southern africa, 20 (2), 237-254. hamann, r. & acutt, n. (2003). how should civil society (and the government) respond to ‘corporate social responsibility’? a critique of business motivations and the potential for partnerships. development southern africa, 20 (2), 255-270. handy, c. (2002). what’s a business for? har vard business review, 8 (12), 49-55. hart, s. l. (1997). beyond greening: strategies for a sustainable world. har vard business review, january, 75 (1), 66-76. hart, s & milstein, m. b. (2000). global sustainability and the creative destruction of industries. mit sloan management review, fall, 41 (1), 23-33. hollender, j. (2004). what matters most: corporate values and social responsibility. california management review, 46 (4), 111-119. institute of directors (2002). king report on corporate governance for south africa. johannesburg: iod. keeble, j. & turner, c. (2003). the business case for corporate responsibilit y. http://www.bitc.org.uk/docs/aurr_a4_ the_business_case_2003.pdf (accessed 4 january 2004). kline, j.g., smith, n.c. & john, a. (2004). why we boycott: consumer motivations for boycott participation. journal of marketing, 68 (3), 92-109. linstone, h. & turoff, m. (1975). the delphi method, techniques and applications. massachussetts: addison-wesley publishing company. locke, r.m. (undated). note on corporate citizenship in a global economy. http://mitsloan.mit.edu/50th/corpcitizenship.pdf (accessed 2 may 2003). macmillan & joshi (1997). sustainable competitive advantage and firm performance: the role of intangible resources. corporate reputation review, 1 (1), summer/fall, 81-86. mahon, j.f. & mcgowan, r.a. (1991). searching for the common good: a process oriented approach. business horizons, 34 (4), july-august, 79-87. market & opinion research international. (2002). annual csr study. http://ww.mori.com/csr/annual (accessed 15 april 2004). martin, r.l. (2002). the virtue matrix: calculating the return on corporate responsibility. har vard business review, march, 511. matten, d. & crane, a. (2005). corporate citizenship: toward an extended theoretical concept ualisation. academy of management review, 30 (1), 166-179. mckinsey & company (2002). investor opinion sur vey on corporate governance. london: mckinsey & company. mirvis, p. & googins, b. (2004). the best of the good. harvard business review, december, 1-2. mintzberg, h, simons, r, basu, k (2002). beyond selfishness. mit sloan management review, fall, 44 (1), 67-74. moir, l. (2001). what do we mean by corporate social responsibility? corporate governance, 1 (2), 16-22. newell, r. & wilson, g. (2002) a premium for good governance. the mckinsey quarterly, 3, http://www.ckinseyquarterly.com (accessed 8 april 2003). orlitsky, m. (2005). payoffs to social and environmental performance. journal of investing. 14 (3), 48-52. paine, l., deshpande, r, margolis, j.d. & bettcher, k.e. (2005). up to code: does your company’s conduct meet world-class standards? har vard business review, december, 122-133. pearson, g. (2000). making profits and sweet music. business ethics: a european review, 9 (3), july, 191-199. petersen, r. (2005). responding to changing stakeholder expectations. marketing, june, s8. petkoki, d. & kersemaekers, s. (2003). the role of business in fighting hiv/aids. world bank institute series on corporate responsibility, accountability and sustainable competitiveness, 21 april – 9 may, http://www.worldbank. org/wbi/corpgov/csr/econferences/hivaids/pdf/hivaids_econ ference_report.pdf (accessed 6 march 2004). post, j.e. (2002). the ‘iron law’ of business responsibility revisited: lessons from south africa. business ethics quarterly, 12 (2), 265-276. prahalad, c.k. & hart, s.l. (2002). the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. strategy & business, 26 (1), 55-67. roberts, s. & keeble, j. & brown, d. (2002). the business case for corporate citizenship. http:www.csrwire.com/pdf/businesscase-for-corporate-citizenship.pdf (accessed 10 may 2004). rowe, g. & wright. g. (1999). the delphi technique as a forecasting tool: issues and analysis. international journal of forecasting, 15, 353-375. the case for corpor ate responsibility: an explor atory study 73 sarbanes-oxley act (2002). http//news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/ gwbush/sarbanesoxley072302.pdf (accessed 13 may 2003). sarre, r., doig, m. & fiedler, b. (2001). reducing the risk of corporate irresponsibilit y: the trend to corporate social responsibility. accounting forum, 25 (3), september, 300-317. senge, p. (1990). the fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organisation. london: century business. stemler, s. (2001). an overview of content analysis. practical assessment, research & evaluation, 7 (17), http:pareonline. net/getvn.asp?v=7&n=172004 (accessed 17 february 2004). stigson, b. (2003). the business case for csr. http://www.responsiblepractice.com/english/issues/wdcsdbusiness (accessed 11 april 2004). story, v., hurdley, l., smith, g. & saker, j. (2001). methodological and practical implications of the delphi technique in marketing decision-making: a re-assessment. the marketing review, 1, 487-504. straughan, a. (2003). corporate social responsibility: an evolving view of the field. mhc international monthly feature, may, 1-5. swift, t. & zadek, s. (2002). corporate responsibility and the competitive advantage of nations. http:www.accountability. org.uk (accessed 13 may 2003). tersine, r. j. & riggs, w. e. (1976). models: decision tools for management. journal of systems management, october, 30-34. vermier, w., van de velde, e. & corten, f. (2005). sustainable and responsible performance. journal of investing, 14 (3), 94-99. visser, w. (2005). corporate citizenship in south africa: a review of progress since democracy”, the journal of corporate citizenship, summer (2005), 29-38. visser, w., middleton, c. & mcintosh, m. (2005). introduction. the journal of corporate citizenship, summer (18), 18-20. visser, w. & sunter, c. (2002). beyond reasonable greed. why sustainable business is a much better ideal. cape town: tafelberg, human & rousseau. vogl, a.j. (2003): does it pay to be good? across the board, jan/feb, 16-23. waddock, s.a., bodwell, c. & graves, s.b. (2002). responsibility: the new business imperative. academy of management executive, 16 (2), 132-150. waddock, s. & smith, n. (2000). corporate responsibility audits: doing well by doing good. sloan management review, winter, 75-82. werther, w.b. & chandler,d. (2004). strategic corporate social responsibility as global brand insurance. business horizons, 48, 317-324. white, a.l. (2004). lost in transition? the future of corporate social responsibility. the journal of corporate citizenship, winter (16), 19-24. williams, p.l. & webb, c. (1994). the delphi technique: a methodological discussion. journal of advanced nursing, 19, 180-186. wood, d. (1991). corporate social performance revisited. academy of management review, 16 (4), 691-718. world business council for sustainable development (2000). csr: making good business sense. http:www.wbcsd.ch/ docroot/5mbuksfwpqagppppuq/ue/csr2000.pdf (accessed 13 may 2003). world business council for sustainable development. (2003). sustainable de velopment reporting, striking the balance. http:www.wbcsd.ch/docroot/ggfpsq8dgngt5k56saw/200 30106_sdreport.pdf (accessed 13 may 2003). zadek, s. (2001). the civil corporation, the new economy of corporate citizenship. first edition. london: earthscan publications. zadek, s. (2002). the impact of public reporting. ethical corporation magazine, october, 8-9. zadek, s. (2004). the path to corporate responsibility. har vard business review, december, 1-8. da piedade, thomas74 6els.qxd in this article, the development of a theoretical holistic model that explained wellness was initially described. the contents of this wellness model provided a conceptual understanding of all the relevant factors that explain holistic wellness. the holistic wellness model contributed to theory building in the fields of organisational and positive psychology (psychofortology). the indivisible self: an evidence-based model of wellness that consists of 17 wellness and 4 contextual factors is an existing inventory that was successfully used abroad as a clinical wellness model in an organisational context (myers and sweeney, 2005). this wellness model served as base for the empirical assessment of the tenability of the 5 factor wellness inventory. a principalaxes factor analysis of a data set obtained by means of the new wellness inventory, for the first time ever in a south african study, confirmed the factor structure of previous wellness research done abroad. statistics of the wellness model, produced by structural equation modelling, confirmed a 19-factor model with reasonably goodness-of-fit indices. the empirical research data confirmed the appropriateness of the indivisible self: an evidence-based model of wellness for the insurance organisation. this wellness model could therefore be used as an independent model to explain wellness in terms of existing theory as well as from the results of the current empirical study. research applications in the field of positive organisational behaviour as part of the paradigm of fortology are rapidly increasing. both psychofortology and positive psychology support the development of strengths inherent in human behaviour. research into health and wellness in working contexts contribute to the building of theory in the field of industrial psychology. current research into the phenomenon of wellness is fragmented. relevant studies, furthermore, usually focus on analyses of patterns of relationship between the constituent components of well-being. studies of this nature inevitably require co-relational research designs. in addition, generation of theory regarding the phenomenon of wellness, as a scientific objective, especially in organisations, is limited and generally lacks a holistic and systemic perspective. several wellness models were developed in the field of clinical psychology. these models seldom were appropriate for working environments. the wheel of wellness (sweeney & witmer, 1991; witmer & sweeney, 1992), the indivisible self: an evidencebased model of wellness (myers & sweeney, 2005) and the perceived wellness model (adams, bezner and steinhardt, 1997) are some of the more recent wellness models. the wheel of wellness model, as was the case with the other models referred to, has evolved from existing theories that described and analysed components of wellness (myers & sweeney, 2005). counselling psychology has also produced a number of wellness models. wellness models and the many theories that support them, that were generated by the two aforementioned disciplines, however, need to be adapted and incorporated into systemic employee-wellness models if they are to make meaningful contributions to the field of industrial psychology. scientific objective of the study the scientific objective of the current study was to construct and psychometrically assess the validity of a holistic wellness model that might serve as frame of reference for a major life insurance organisation in south africa that wanted to implement a series of health and wellness care interventions on behalf of its employees. innovative research that focuses on a holistic, integrated and systemic understanding of employee wellness is certainly needed if human scientists are to assist organisations to manage health and wellness care of employees effectively. a holistic employee-wellness model that could contribute to a clearer understanding of the concept work wellness would require integration of a wide range of components of the construct wellness. a systemic model of work wellness that would be widely accepted in the scientific community and working environment, has to be based on an understanding of preceding, independent, moderating and antecedent variables that relate and contribute to the phenomenon of work wellness. wellness as a dependent variable is conceptualised within the life domains of the: (i) family and social interaction; (ii) work; (iii) spirituality; (iv) emotionality; (v) intellectuality; and (vi) physicality. several shortcomings in existing scientific knowledge of wellness in general and work wellness in particular, were briefly mentioned in the introductory remarks in this paper. besides addressing and eliminating many of these shortcomings, the envisaged work-wellness model also would clarif y the applicabilit y of the illness-health-wellness continuum to working environments. the intended wellness model ought to lead to a more accurate assessment of work-wellness levels among employees in organisations. although the illness side of the continuum was not completely ignored, the existing study mainly focused on the positive elements of the illness-healthwellness continuum. da els dels@momentum.co.za rp de la rey rdelarey@icon.co.za dept of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract the objective of the present study was the development of a holistic theoretical wellness model that served as frame of reference for the construction of a valid and reliable inventory that was considered suitable for the assessment of wellness of employees of a south african life insurance organisation. the 5 factor wellness inventory was developed from existing proven wellness inventories. a non-random sample of 673 employees of the organisation concerned participated in a cross-sectional survey by completing the inventory and a biographical questionnaire. goodness of fit between the holistic wellness model and a data set derived from the application of the 5 factor wellness inventory was determined empirically. the structural equation modelling statistics produced acceptable goodnessof-fit indices albeit with some scope for improvement. the root mean square error of approximation indices supported acceptance of the holistic work-wellness model. the validity of the inventory was also estimated. key words holistic, theoretical, wellness model, assessment of wellness developing a holistic wellness model 46 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (2), 46-56 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (2), 46-56 |----------------------------------------|------------------------------------------| illness health wellness figure 1: illness-health-wellness continuum problem statement the fact that wellness is not researched in a positive, holistic, systemic and integrated manner is a cause for concern (wissing & van eeden, 1997, wissing, 2000). researchers in the health and social sciences traditionally used a pathogenic paradigm as point of departure for their investigations and interventions, which implied an orientation towards abnormality, sickness, disease and dysfunction as the direct opposite of wellness (strümpfer, 1995, 2002). knowledge thus generated was used to develop ways for treating and preventing each of these undesired states of health. businesses, institutions and professions, ranging from everyday medical practice to pharmaceutical companies, from the insurance industry to mass media, all turned handsome profits by assisting clients to cope with physical, emotional and behavioural threats as well as by providing the required treatments (saleebey, 1997). this onesided approach verifies the fact that attention should also be given to wellness research – an approach implied by the opposite side of the illness-health-wellness continuum (antonovsky, 1987; seligman & csikszentmihalyi, 2000; strümpfer, 1995; wissing, 2000). this second approach would thus focus on developing the positive aspects and strengths of human behaviour. recently there has been a growing trend among organisations to realise the importance of the so-called human factor (snyder & lopez, 2002). various disciplines highlight the importance of a “good life” and attend to the total well-being or wellness of people. multidisciplinary research merges different theoretical perspectives into a more realistic wellness paradigm. interdisciplinary teams are further better equipped to achieve holistic integration and a better understanding of wellness issues. members of study disciplines other than psychology, all focus on wellness from their own school of thought and could contribute meaningfully to joint theory building. dietary, nutritional, health and fitness management are examples hereof but they all tend to avoid a holistic interdisciplinary approach (adams et al., 1997). research into and promotion of holistic health and wellness requires an integrated and multidisciplinary approach, even in the case of existing inputs by research psychologists. psychology as a profession acknowledges the importance of a holistic understanding of the strengths, coping patterns, adaptive abilities and growth potential of individuals (antonovsky, 1987; strümpfer, 1995; seligman & csikszentmihalyi, 2000). it is crucial for psychologists to assist people to achieve higher levels of psychological well-being and wellness (dunn, 1961, 1977; wissing & van eeden, 1997). this requires acceptance of the origins of health and psychological strengths as a point of departure. behavioural activities and personality characteristics that promote wellness and prevent sickness require sound scientific research. research should focus on the nature, dimensions and dynamics of wellness at individual, group, organisational and general population levels. it is important to understand how these manifest themselves in various phases of the human life cycle (childhood, adolescence, adulthood, old-age) in different contexts (cultural, interpersonal, work or technological surroundings) and by taking into account internal as well as external risks and protective factors, demographics and other moderating or mediating variables (dunn, 1961). socially responsible and ethically respectable programmes based on scientifically validated knowledge (theories and models) must be developed, and the effectiveness and efficacy thereof analysed and evaluated. complex philosophical, theoretical and empirical analyses are essential to research of wellness. both extensive quantitative studies using sophisticated research designs and statistical procedures, as well as rich qualitative investigations exploring new fields of psychological strengths, are needed (strümpfer, 2002). many constructs related to the hypothesised main constituent components and clusters of wellness also need clarification (wissing, 2000) in order to determine to what degree they share common empirical denotation even though their basic conceptualisations might differ. some of these constructs are well operationalised but others still need more empirical clarification and verification. wellness is understood as a total person’s approach towards improving the quality of his or her life, health and psychological strengths in proactive and positive ways both as member of a community and as an employee (witmer & sweeney, 1992). it is acknowledged that wellness is characterised by optimal physical health as well as psychological and social well-being and not by the mere absence of illness. researching wellness requires an understanding that wellness forms part of a holistic integrated system and that it is not only a subpart of a system (strümpfer, 2002). a better understanding of wellness, its theoretical and conceptual base and its application in organisations is therefore required. the study under consideration attempted to contribute to this understanding of wellness in working environments, especially from a systemic and holistic perspective. widespread attempts had been made to stimulate research into the origins of strengths in all areas of human well-being (antonovsky, 1987, strümpfer, 1995 and seligman & csikszentimihalyi, 2000). maslow (1970) provided direction with his research on growth, self-actualisation and the pursuit of psychological health that should be acknowledged as the beginning of a universal human trend. in the fifties wellness was frequently referred to as wholeness (adler, 1954) while some theorists mentioned the human psyche’s need for integration towards wholeness and health (jung, 1958, 1960). organisations, like individuals, have to take into account a continuum that depicts a state of healthy or normal performance in the middle, with illness and wellness forming the opposing ends of the same continuum (cameron, dutton & quinn, 2003). conditions of negative or deviating performance that occur on the left of the continuum and states of positively deviating performance that appear on the right (representing wellness), illustrate different options to consider in approaching organisational development (cameron, 2003). negative (illness-health) and positive (health-wellness) deviance refer to aberrations of harmfulness or healthy functioning, at one end of the continuum and virtuous (flourishing) organisations and individuals at the other end (keyes & haidt, 2003). south african organisations mainly apply a negative (illnesshealth) approach to human resource management by focusing only on the promotion of health, creation of wealth and peak performance as the key indicators of business success (cameron, dutton & quinn, 2003). they operate in a “negative” domain and rely on a medical-remedial paradigm. these organisations are t y pified by greed, selfishness, manipulation, secrecy and single-minded focus on winning (cameron, 2003). it is further reported that the behaviour of individuals working in these organisations are characterised by distrust, anxiet y, self-absorption, fear, burnout and feelings of abuse (illness). industrial conf lict, lawsuits, contract breaking and retribution arise while disrespect for others is observable in many interpersonal interactions and relationships within these organisations (harter, schmidt & keyes, 2003). appreciation, collaboration, virt uousness, vitalit y and meaningfulness typif y behaviour at the other extreme of the holistic wellness model 47 continuum, namely the health-wellness approach. creating wealth and promoting human wellness are key indicators of success in those organisations that flourish as a result of their employee’s wellness (keyes & haidt, 2003). employee behaviour in these organisations are characterised by trustworthiness, resilience, wisdom, humaneness and high levels of positive energy application. self-efficacy, optimism, hope, happiness and joy, generosity, perseverance, courage, coping and flow are all indicators of positive organisational behaviour (seligman, 1998). interpersonal relationships are based on compassion, loyalt y, honest y, respect and forgiveness. significant attention is thereby given to what makes life, and working life per se, meaningful, optimal and worth living for and these are all emphasised (cameron, dutton & quinn, 2003). clarification of wellness terminology and careful defining of work wellness will explain some of the ambiguity that is often observable among psychologists and developmentalists. in this article, the researcher set out to clarif y the phenomenon of wellness with the development of a holistic wellness model specifically of worth to employees. impact of the problem the illness-health-wellness problems that organisations face influence all life domains of employees (hettler, 1984). problems that workers perceive and experience as arising from their physical, emotional, intellectual, social and familial as well as spiritual life domains are currently becoming dilemmas that organisations have to face. all of these quandaries emphasise the fact that wellness is being neglected and that organisations are preoccupied with only illness management. the economic impact of illness-health-wellness mismanagement can be disastrous. the condition of health of employees and their family members significantly affect absenteeism, productivity in the workplace and employment costs (gemson & eng, 2004). gemson and eng reported a loss of $4.9 million per year as a result of the prevalence of allergic rhinitis and hay fever. a total cost of $1 141 per employee per annum in lost productivity occurred in america. two conditions of illness were accountable for the largest part of this significant loss, namely absenteeism ($496 per employee per annum) and presenteeism ($645 per employee). total paid expenses in terms of medical aid, sick leave pay, severance pay, pension contributions, legal benefits, employee insurance and life cover benefits should all be included in any calculation to understand the total economic impact (wyatt, 2004). the business and health care archive (2004) had concerned itself with the impact of unscheduled absence. the archive reported that employers spent about 4.4% of their annual payroll on incidental absence-related benefits such as leave taken for sick days. this survey indicated that employee withdrawal from the workplace led to a large percentage of staff members not being committed to the goals of their employers. van der westhuizen (2004) reported that one hundred and fifty million rand per annum was lost by municipal workers in the cape metropolis, due to 29% of the permanent staff taking leave without permission on fridays and mondays. awareness of the negative impact of illness-health-wellness mismanagement clarifies the importance of and economic benefit derived from the prevention of illness and the promotion of wellness. too many organisations use a pathogenic approach and accordingly resort to illness recovery models of health: millions are lost because organisations simply do not promote wellness. it is therefore crucial that industrial psychologists take the lead by making available practical and empirically tested wellness models and programmes that promote optimal productivity and that at the same time equip employees with interpersonal flourish and personal thriving. if management is prepared to invest some of its resources in work wellness, the implementation of strategies and organisational development interventions that focus on managed health and wellness care will contribute a great deal to the bottom line of achieving excellence in organisations. the current research project attempted to address the above and other related issues because of the fact that at this stage management in south africa generally appeared and still seems to be uninformed about the impact that employee wellness programmes could have on the development of their organisations. this obvious lack of knowledge among managers leads to mismanagement of the health and wellness of employees. this in turn limits growth opportunities for employees, a development that event ually results in undercommitment of staff within organisations. optimum health and wellness management can lead to optimal productivit y and flourishing organisations. the required interventions should be based on recognition of and support for the rights of individuals to determine and manage their own quality of life and the promotion of it in the working environment (huiskamp, 2004). this early in the new millennium particular organisations should accept responsibility by supporting employed individuals to develop their own wellness, and by doing so, also enabling their respective organisations to also benefit financially and otherwise from this. a proactive approach to develop employees’ wellness is generally lacking in south africa and elsewhere; research studies need to be undertaken to promote its potential benefits actively among organisations. development of the intended holistic wellness model in the current research project would therefore provide support to studies that focus on the evaluation of managed health and wellness care interventions. the stated need of the current research to develop a holistic wellness model is attributable to the fact that wellness is an integrated construct that cannot be researched in bits and pieces at any particular time. the development of an integrated wellness model would help managers to understand wellness as a holistic system and would also enable human resources consultants to design and implement specific programmes that address illness, health and wellness needs in particular organisations. a quasi-model of holistic wellness would make assessment of interactions that occur between constructs of wellness possible while a true holistic wellness model would integrate the effects of all of these dynamic wellness factors into an integrated experience of wellness. the envisaged model to some extent would involve the research discipline of positive organisational scholarship. its particular contributions towards managed health and wellness care as well as building of theory are seen as essential. health and wellness the world health organisation had defined optimal health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. wissing (2000) added further perspective by stating that the salutogenic/fortigenic paradigm at metatheoretical level implies that it is important to focus on the health, strengths and capabilities of human beings. many researchers (adams et al., 1998; dunn, 1961) have contributed various useful definitions of the term wellness but for the purposes of this research project, the comprehensive definition provided by myers and sweeney (2005) was preferred. they defined wellness as a way of life aimed at optimal health and well-being in which an individual integrates body, mind and spirit so as to live more fully within the human and natural context. ideally, it is an optimal state of health and well-being that each els, de la rey48 individual is capable of achieving in all domains of his or her life (myers, sweeney and witmer, 2001). an important prerequisite for the intended development of a wellness model is the acquisition of optimal physical, emotional and mental states while working. acquiring wellness at work could be described as a total systems approach that incorporates development of an optimal self and pursuit of quality of life by applying all constructs that are observable in and relevant to a working environment. a focus on strengths as well as contextual variables that influence human behaviour at work is required. this would ensure that all human and other subsystems are integrated into a holistic and systemic perspective on both the theory of work wellness and on wellness models. knowledge derived from such holistic wellness theories would enable business leaders to understand a systemic approach to manage wellness of employees better and to equip them to judge the merits of its application. managers often attend meticulously to an analysis of organisational culture and climate as indices and measures of staff morale. organisational leadership that diagnose their companies in this way invariably get valuable snapshots of important indicators that enable them to intervene and transform their organisation’s culture towards an ideal state (keyes & haidt, 2003). such measures are of limited use in any assessment since they do not necessarily help management to understand the health and wellness needs of the human capital employed in their company. the result is that the potential of employees is not utilised to its fullest extent. any reactive approach would lead to a depletion of individual and organisational resources, and in time to come would result in burnout of both management and staff (redelinghuys & rothmann, 2004). effective meeting of strategic needs also requires a focus on what is not so clearly visible below the “waterline” of the human capital “iceberg”. the full development of the underlying competence and internal psyche of employees is of great importance in organisational health and wellness care. it also suggests that organisations should rely on a proactive approach to development instead of turning to a reactive pathogenic paradigm that aims to develop human capital according to a model of treatment of illness. the present research project addressed the particular dilemmas that management is facing in order to assist it to understand holistically how both individuals and organisations could move towards wellness (crose, nicolas, gobble & frank, 1992). the paradigm of positive psychology provided a valuable framework for studying wellness in organisations as an emerging field. controlled venture into to this field of study could lead to the formulation of new theories and to an expansion of existing ones, thus enabling researchers of wellness to broaden their understanding of the functioning of human wellness. research that could analyse and describe how people develop wellness could lead to a richer and deeper understanding of their experiencing of wholeness and their awareness of their own inner strengths (adler, 1954, 1973; antonovsky, 1987, 1993). whenever research outcomes improve scientist’s understanding of wellness in organisational contexts, such contributions at the same time add value to the field of organisational psychology as well. overall, existing conceptual foundations, models and theories of wellness, for several reasons, so far have had limited impact on wellness research. underutilisation of these research tools in research projects, unfortunately, led to a scarcity of research outcomes on wellness for use in further research: their appropriateness and possible applications thus lacked adequate empirical evaluation. wellness concepts, models and theories seldom in any meaningful way led to the phrasing of vital research questions or to the directing of programme contents, design and development. despite these shortcomings, several theories and models of wellness, nonetheless, guided the present researcher who was interested in the origins, dynamics and the possibilities of wellness enhancement, by making him sensitive to the complex struct ures, sit uations and circumstances that characterise this psychological phenomenon. the researcher used existing theories to test specific hypotheses on wellness while available models were adapted to produce a work-related model of the phenomenon. a st udy of causal interdependencies between psychological constructs and organisational factors as well as their practical applications, produced a new work-wellness model. this new holistic model of work wellness also required proper validation. research design research approach in general research of excellence requires a careful validation of any new conceptual model (or theory) to ensure that all relevant constructs, components, concepts and principles are fully integrated into it before an attempt is made to put into practice. the aforementioned brief guidelines were followed in the current project. in practice, research ideals are sometimes not met while limitations become apparent as the research process evolves. these and other confounding factors and events in the current project were acknowledged, accepted and duly reported on. the research project under consideration was broadly conducted in four phases. at first, it was investigative by nature and consisted of an extensive survey of available literature on work wellness. in the second stage, the outcome of this overview of literature was used to assess the complexity, nature and interrelatedness of components of wellness and also to identif y measurable variates (a variate is a variable and a set of individual test scores linked to it) that were likely to be considered for inclusion in a preliminary model of employee wellness. thirdly, this prior model of employee wellness was converted into a brief wellness questionnaire that was researched and validated by means of a cross-sectional survey design (bethlehem, 1999). finally, a new holistic wellness model was formulated from the results of an extensive empirical investigation involving advanced statistical methods. the current research project thus contributed towards an expansion of both theoretical and applied behavioural science by initially identif ying and mapping variables linked to a holistic wellness model and by finally integrating these into an empirically verified model that could be used in working environments. the cross-sectional survey design lent itself to the examination of stable, long-term states or conditions and allowed the researcher to make inferences from the sample that could be generalised to different populations. the empirical study identified connections between variates and wellness constructs that were not ascribable to any planned intervention as these were measured and assessed by means of a validated and unbiased work-wellness inventory. practical research problems that were addressed in the design included errors of measurement. respondents for instance did not understand specific questions in the measuring instrument, processing errors occurred, coding mistakes were made during data capturing and the thirdvariable problem (where a high correlation between two variables could have been attributed to a third variable that correlated significantly with them) had to be managed. one of the profound practical problems of the chosen design was the fact that it was almost impossible to establish causation between co-related variates. a pilot study was conducted to identif y important sources of error of measurement. the statistical consultation services of the universit y of holistic wellness model 49 johannesburg suggested several controlling techniques to limit processing errors. techniques such as multiple regression and struct ural equation modelling are normally used to compensate and account for third-variable problems. participants the st udy population of the current research project consisted of employees of a major life insurance company in south africa. the staff complement of this organisation consisted of 2 523 employees. a non-random sampling strategy based on availability, determined the composition of the sample. all participants, drawn from the different business units within the organisation under consideration, volunteered to partake in the present study. none of them had previously participated in wellness studies. altogether 673 employees (26.70% of the total staff count) were included in the actual sample. the sample of participants was judged as being representative of the staff complement of the organisation. detailed assignment of subjects from the population to the sample approximated the distribution of biographic attributes of the former in terms of race, marital status, gender, qualifications and years of service. the sample drawn in the st udy mainly consisted of employees from the company’s business area client services. married employees (n=377) formed about 50% of the sample. females made up 63% of the sample. the actual sample predominantly consisted of whites while lesser numbers of coloured, african and indian employees were included. the allotment of afrikaans, english and african speaking employees was similar to that of the organisation. the sample was also representative in terms of age distribution: most participants were in the twenty-six to thirty (n=191) age group. the age category thirty-six to forty (n=171) formed the second biggest age group. the characteristics of the sample were detailed in table 1. table 1 characteristics of the sample completed years of service less than 1 year 70 one to two years 51 two to three years 133 three to five years 139 five to ten years 156 ten years and more 121 missing 3 highest academic qualification less than matriculation 22 matric 402 bachelors degree 161 honours degree 58 masters degree 10 missing 20 home language african 183 english 202 afrikaans 276 other 9 missing 3 race african 125 white 402 coloured 76 indian or asian 63 missing 7 marital status single 219 married 377 separated 6 divorced 57 widowed 10 missing 4 gender male 245 female 424 missing 4 the contents of table 1 in some instances reflected missing values. some participants had left out biographical information or did not respond to all questions in the measuring instrument. in these cases, incomplete data was termed missing data. measuring instrument a single questionnaire, the 5 factor wellness inventory (5f-wel inventory) was used to measure and assess the different wellness factors. the validity of this measuring device was empirically assessed in terms of its rationale, development, contents, psychometric properties, administration, scoring and reliability. the wellness-measuring device took approximately thirty minutes to complete. variables such as the age of participants and others could have had an effect on the results of the study. a biographical questionnaire was therefore included to control for possible bias effects from variables such as age, gender, length of service and educational background. the original 5 factor wellness inventory was specifically designed to assess the characteristics of wellness and to help individuals in making choices toward healthier living (myers & sweeney, 2005). an early version of the instrument, the wellness evaluation of lifestyle (wel), was published in 1998 (myers & sweeney, 2003, 2005). the wel was constructed from the results of a number of cross-disciplinary research studies to assess 17 wellness areas identified as correlates of health, quality of life, and longevity that were depicted in a theoretical wheel model. the wellness inventory is based on confirmation of a single higher-order wellness factor, five second-order factors as well as 17 third-order factors representing the original hypothesised areas of wellness. the seventeen areas are grouped as follows within the five second-order factors: � creative self thinking, emotions, control, work, positive humour. � coping self leisure, stress management, self-worth, realistic beliefs. � social self friendship, love. � essential self spirituality, gender identity, cultural identity, self-care. � physical self nutrition, exercise. the original wellness model and inventory by construction and nature are ecological as both include local, institutional, global, and chronometrical items as context ual variables. the 5f-wel inventory contained 73 items that were scored on scales representative of the higher-order total wellness, the five factors of the self, and the 17 third-order factors. contextual variables in turn were assessed by 18 items that at present are considered experimental since norms for these are not yet available. american norms for both genders and ethnic minority groups are available and are based on data provided by more than 2 093 individuals of varying ages across the full lifespan. previous reliability estimates provided alpha coefficients that were uniformly high for the firstand second-order factors: total wellness, 0.90; creative self, 0.92; coping self and social self, 0.85; and essential self and physical self, 0.88. third-order factor alpha coefficients ranged from 0.70 to 0.87 for all but two of the scales: self-care, 0.66 and realistic beliefs, 0.68. use of the scales in numerous dissertation and other studies provided evidence of both convergent and divergent validity when compared with constructs such as ethnic identity, acculturation, body image, self-esteem, and gender role conflict. researched literature confirmed that the 5f-wel was the instrument that best supported the assessment of holistic wellness. this inventory had produced satisfactory reliability and validity coefficients in previous studies. the original 5f-wel measuring instrument was slightly adjusted to improve its fit to and application in south african circumstances. items that were obviously developed for race groups in the united states of els, de la rey50 america were changed to refer to race groups in the south african context. use of the 5f-wel inventory in the current study was its first use ever with a south african population. research procedures the scientific objective of the current research project required a dedicated research design that was based on ten methodological considerations that also included several practical steps namely: � step 1: the researcher did a survey of literature to extract knowledge that would lead to a clear holistic conceptualisation of wellness and further the identification of constituent components and elements of wellness that influenced the behaviour and functioning of employees. � step 2: retrieved information about the components and elements of wellness guided the choice of items from existing psychometric tests of general wellness. items that were provisionally judged as suitable for inclusion in a wellness test appropriate for use in a working environment, were identified. selected items were mostly taken from the original 5 factor wellness inventory and included in a shortened psychometric test called the 5f-wel inventory. availability and administration of the 5f-wel inventory guided several aspects of the empirical study, such as the research design as well as the construction, assessment and validation of the final version of the holistic model. � step 3: a formal sample was drawn; the research group was introduced to the researcher, informed of the purpose, method, and procedures of the study while participant’s consent to data access were obtained. � step 4: the 5f-wel inventory was taken down individually. participants responded to all variables included in this measuring device by answering all questions in the inventory in a single test session. � step 5: test-generated raw data, namely the original individual responses of sampled participants to the test items in the 5f-wel inventory, was captured in a data set. this data set of 5f-wel inventory variates was observable and unfactored, since it had not yet been subjected to structural change through statistical manipulation. � step 6: the unfactored set of variates was statistically analysed to generate provisional feedback for participants. participants’ personal results were confidential and handled as such. � step 7: the unfactored set of variates next was transformed by means of principal-axis factor analysis into a factored data set that included the factor scores of participants. this method extracts latent factor structures that underlie an original set of variates. latent scores are not directly observable in an unfactored data set. the extracted latent factor structures and weights or loadings, produced factor scores for each participant. � step 8: the factor structures produced by the principal-axis factor analysis were also used to construct and describe the new wellness model that was the principal scientific objective of the current study. the validity of the constructs linked to the new wellness model was also verified by means of visual and verbal inspection of the wellness structures. reliability estimates, such as the consistency of factor scores produced by the 5f-wel inventory, provisionally were made by using cronbach’s formula for the calculation coefficient alpha. � step 9: the validit y of the wellness model was also determined by means of statistical structured equation modelling. this approach to modelling determined the goodness of fit between the observable or unfactored sets of variates and the latent or factored data set. from a statistical perspective, good fit between the two data sets would confirm the validity of the holistic wellness model. � step 10: all available research information on wellness was integrated into a single body of scientific knowledge that was handed over to the south african insurance organisation that became involved in the research project. a number of conclusions and recommendations were made while guidelines for future research regarding the implementation of wellness interventions were provided. statistical analysis parts of the statistical analysis were done with the sas programme (sas institute, 2000). three types of statistics were calculated with the sas programme, namely descriptive statistics, correlation coefficients and cronbach estimates of reliability. all factor analytic calculations that were needed to examine factor structures were done by means of the spss windows programme (ferguson & takane, 1989). the extraction method used to determine the factor structure was that of principal-axes factoring. the oblimin approach with kaiser’s normalisation was used for the purpose of rotation. the amos programme (arbuckle, 1999) was used for the structural equation model. the statistical methods were explained in more detail elsewhere. the scientific study of wellness is a difficult assignment. the construct is multifaceted; studying it involves a multitude of variables and variates as well as requiring use of advanced multivariate statistics. high-level research focuses on examining and understanding of patterns of co-relatedness or interdependence between sets of variates. several indices of corelation are available to describe and analyse patterns of interrelatedness. inspection of any large matrix of indices of corelation immediately shows that no simple int uitive interpretation of the pattern of co-relations among a set of variables is possible (ferguson & takane, 1989). two issues complicate analysis. firstly, two kinds of co-relationships or covariance occur. variates might co-relate with several other variates in a data set. variates of this type appear to measure part of a common construct since they share communality. their mere presence in a data set suggests duplication of observed variates. a particular variate might not co-relate at all with any other remaining variates. it thus might measure a unique component of a construct that is limited to one variate in the set. secondly, aggregates of variates tend to form clusters or patterns of co-relationship: some of these patterns are observable while others underlie or are latent in a set of variates and thus are difficult to observe. factor analysis is a statistical method that assumes that any set of m variates contains both communality and uniqueness. the method employs these two properties to convert the original scores linked to the variates (raw or unfactored data) into factor scores (factored data) and uses these to reduce the variables to create a simplified structure. reduction implies that the patterns of the original variates and transformed factor scores differ noticeably: the converted set carries the latent structure (harris, 1975). factor analysis requires an unfactored or raw data set consisting of an aggregate of individual test scores linked to a set of m variates. the statistical method converts the original raw data into either an m × m intercorrelation matrix or variancecovariance matrix. statistical data that forms the elements of a matrix is obtained by pairing off each variable with every other in the set to calculate their communality or uniqueness. the elements of a matrix thus reflect the patterns of co-relation between all of the available m variates. the m x m matrix next is transformed into a factor matrix. an index, such as r2 that estimates communality of variates, is selected from the contents of a matrix. one variate at a time is compared with all remaining variates in the set. their indices of co-relatedness in the matrix are then converted into factor scores by multiplying the element values by the estimated index of communality to produce a set of weights or loadings that describes the latent or underlying structure of the original variates in the derived factor. summation of the factor loadings produce sets of eigen values or � values. the calculation procedures are iterative. once a set of factor loadings for a particular variate is extracted, the procedure reduces the intercorrelation or variancecovariance matrix before a next set of factors for a second holistic wellness model 51 variate is calculated. the matrix with its factor loadings, form an unrotated matrix. the contents of the unrotated factor matrix are plotted on a graph where after some method of axis rotation transforms it into a new set of factor loadings. the new loadings form a rotated factor matrix that simplifies and improves the interpretation of factor structures. these steps produce a firstorder factor analysis. a next factor analysis of a matrix of factor loadings obtained from a previous factor analysis produces a second-order factor analysis. in theory, the number of factors extracted by means of factor analysis usually equals the original number of variates in the data set. reduction or simplified structure is achieved by means of the size of the eigen values. a researcher can reduce the number of factors in a data set by comparing their � values with some or other criterion, such as that of kaiser. kaiser suggests use of � > 1.00 as cut-off point to isolate the more important factors that explain significant amounts of individual differences from those that are considered trivial because they contribute very little (ferguson & takane, 1989). some final comments on the use of factor analysis in the current study were necessary. in this article, only the results of the firstorder factor analysis were reported. all eigen values related to the factors were omitted purposefully. any attempt to reduce and simplif y underlying factor structures was considered as inconsistent with a holistic approach to the proposed wellness � model. the omission of � values, however, could be problematic. factors that play a trivial role by design are included in the results. these factors usually are the latter ones that contribute towards a model or a factor structure. their interpretation could confound the quality of the holistic model of wellness. different types of factor analyses achieve different outcomes. for the purposes of the current study principal-axes, factor analysis was used to convert the initial matrix. this type of factor analysis was a prerequisite for the intended study as it analyses the relationship between a set of test variates and its derived factors (overall & klett, 1972). cronbach’s alpha coefficients (also called coefficients �) as well as interitem correlation coefficients were calculated to assess the internal consistency of the measuring instrument (clark & watson, 1995). a psychometric test measures consistently when all items in an instrument measure a common characteristic; it describes the extent to which a set of test items are consistent with the construct that it is supposed to measure (huysamen, 1994). multiple measures with the same test are judged as reliable if they reproduce consistent values. reliability differs from validity in that it relates not to what is being measured but instead how dependable it is measured. cronbach’s coefficient alpha is a measure of reliability and ranges from 0,00 to 1,00, with values of 0,60 to 0,65 suggested as lower limit of acceptance. interitem correlation coefficients were used to determine whether the internal consistencies of the constructs were not so high as to affect the validity of the 5 factor wellness scale. clark and watson (1995) regarded interitem correlations between 0,15 and 0,50 as acceptable. descriptive statistics that included the arithmetic mean (m), standard deviation (sd), skewness and kurtosis were calculated for both the questionnaire and its underlying factor structures. means, standard deviations, skewness and kurtosis are techniques used to describe characteristics of the variables in a data set and to compare results. the arithmetic mean is the bestknown measure of central tendency. this specific value is most representative of the original set of scores from which it was calculated. a standard deviation denotes the distribution of individual scores above and below the arithmetic mean; a high standard deviation infers that this distribution of scores are widely scattered around the mean (steyn, smit, du toit & strasheim, 1995). two components of normality were calculated, namely skewness and kurtosis. an index of skewness points to symmetry or asymmetry in the spread of individual scores around the arithmetic mean of a data set. the kurtosis index describes the peak of the distribution of a tabulated set of individual scores that might be mesokurtic (normal bell-shape), platykurtic (flatter that normal) or leptokurtic (higher-peaked than normal). a psychological theory of a phenomenon (construct) consists of a number of propositions or statements, called indicators of the construct that links a set of construct-related test variates in a pattern of causal relationship. structural equation modelling (sem) is a statistical method that examines the plausibility of complex behavioural theories or models about noteworthy constructs that researchers have formulated for testing and verification. the method uses linear structural equation to test and assess interrelationships between a reproducible set of observable or measurable individual scores on a number or variates and an underlying or latent operational definition of an important construct to which the set of variates presumably relates. structural equation modelling eventually demonstrates the consistency and tenability of propositions about causal relationship that a model or theory implies. the statistical method calculates structural equations by means of linear analysis that yield constants, regression weights, path coefficients, intercorrelations, errors of measurement and estimates of latent variables to determine the plausibility of a particular model. the complex interrelations between the test variates and the construct scores of the latent variables of a testable model or theory might be stated verbally, presented graphically and visually as a path diagram or be converted into a linear equation formula. sem analysis requires sound and logical reasoning to formulate statements that clearly express assumed relationships between the set of observed scores of a set of variates and the operationalised latent construct as well as the setting of important parameters. the amos method also calculates several goodness-of-fit statistics that assess the plausibility and acceptability of models. hypothesised relationships were tested empirically for goodness of fit with the wellness data. according to jöreskog and sörbom (1993) the chi-square statistic and several other goodness-of-fit indices, best summarised the degree of correspondence between implied and observed covariance matrices. byrne (2001) suggested goodness-of-fit indices that require a more pragmatic approach to the evaluation process. the chi-square (�2), the �2/ degrees of freedom ratio (cmin/df), normed fit index (nfi), tucker-lewis index (tli), comparative fit index (cfi) and the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) were used in the process. goodnessof-fit statistics use different statistical and mathematical points of departure and therefore vary in terms of the outcomes they produce. conclusions based on structural equation modelling often are contradictory and confusing. the amos programme checked for the presence of confounding variables in interrelationships and assessed the contribution of each variable to the work-wellness model by means of a maximum likelihood method. sem, in general, is a statistical method that requires a confirmatory approach that involves hypothesis testing in the analysis of a structural theory that has a bearing on some phenomenon (byrne, 2001). all tests of structural equation modelling require sets off parameters that asses a logical order that increases restrictions in every step and by doing so, improves eventual goodness of fit. results the 5 factor wellness survey was used to measure the degree to which the test responses of employees in this study complied with the theoretical definition of wellness, as it is defined by the indivisible self: an evidence-based model (myers & sweeney, 2005). the reported 5f-wel descriptive statistics and els, de la rey52 results of the factor analysis were produced by the first empirical application ever of this measuring instrument in south africa. a search for cronbach alpha coefficients and interitem correlation coefficients from earlier south african studies produced nothing. the initial factor analysis was explorative by nature (clark & watson, 1995). this exploratory analysis produced sixteen wellness factors and three contextual factors. the rotated factor structure matrix together with the loadings on each factor was presented in table 1. all outcomes that were derived from the first-order factor analysis were reported as the underlying factor structure. according to the results the 91 items of the 5f-wel loaded on 19 factors (16 wellness factors and 3 contextual factors). ten factors were valid and reliable with á values in excess of 0.65. the factor structure produced by the principal-axes factor analysis was interpreted as follows: � factor i – self-worth was formed out of items that suggested acceptance and satisfaction with one-self. this factor was based on items 44, 38, 36 and 60. � factor ii – exercise consisted of items 53, 9, 62, 72 and 33 that had to do with regular and frequent physical exercise and activities. � factor iii – spirituality had to do with spiritual beliefs, religious activity and spiritual growth. items that loaded on this factor were numbers 51, 35, 69, 37 and 65. � factor iv – stress management measured coping with stress and resilience by means of items 2, 18 and 50. � factors v – love was derived from items 52, 26, 73, 49 and 47. this factor measured stimulation of growth as well as intimate, secure and lasting relationships. � factor vi – gender identity measured positive attributions related to gender identification as a source of strength and support. test items 6, 10 and 22 loaded on this factor. � factor vii – realistic beliefs were construed from items 12, 28, 46, 56 and 39. being in touch with reality, setting realistic expectations and drawing fair conclusions were measured by these items. � factor viii – leisure was clustered in the factor analysis around items 41, 1, 61, 34 and 23. leisure referred to the amount of relaxation, absorption in activity and the quality of leisure that one experienced. � factor ix – humour was reflected in items 4, 54, 42 and 21. this factor measured positive humour and the ability to laugh at oneself. � factor x – intelligence referred to comprehension, problem solving, taking of control, goal attainment, creativity and utilisation of skills. items that measured the aspects of intelligence were items number 27, 48, 32, 43, 20, 30, 7, 57 and 59. � factor xi – nutrition was inferred from items 3, 14, 5, 68 and 63. this factor measured the perception of the value of quality food, vitamins, minerals and fibre in a diet. � factor xii – emotion clustered around items referring to regular and appropriate expression of emotion. this factor consisted of items 13, 40 and 71. item 71: “i am proud of my cultural heritage” could be used as an item suggesting an emotional reaction since pride was mentioned in it. in earlier studies elsewhere, this item loaded on cultural identity. � factor xiii – friendship as a factor clustered around items 11, 25, 70, 8, 55 and 66. this factor measured experiencing support from others, sharing of emotion with others (item 66), enjoyment of leisure without guilt (item 55) and consumption of moderate amounts of alcohol (item 8). � factor xiv – self-care referred to the degree to which physical health was protected by preventative actions and was measured by items 64, 15 and 19. � factor xv – work referred to satisfaction with work, use of abilities and skills as well as autonomy attached to work. it consisted of items 24, 29, 58 and 17. � factor xvi – social identity loaded on items 45, 31 and 16. this factor referred to gender and cultural identification as a source of strength. item 57 (gender identity): “i feel a positive identity with others of my gender” did not load significantly on any of the factors. � factor xvii – local safety was a contextual variable that measured feelings of security in the home, neighbourhood, work and in one’s daily life. items 78, 76, 79, 77, 74 and 75 were designated as contributing to this factor. item 74 as a general life satisfaction item also loaded on this factor. � factor xviii – institutional concern was measured by items 88, 82, 85, 81, 83 and 91. this factor pointed to attributions towards the government, education, future perspective, other cultures and change as contextual wellness factors. item 86 (global): “i watch tv less than two hours each day” did not load significantly on any of the factors. � factor xix – personal attributions measured by items 90, 80, 89, 87 and 84 referred to items related to personal contributions towards happiness and wellness. table 2 first-order descriptive statistics for the various items of the 5 factor wellness survey (5f-wel) factor mean sd skewness kurtosis �� i 13,65 1,77 -0,25 -0,80 0,70 ii 10,45 3,11 0,02 -0,65 0,81 iii 8,01 2,86 1,22 1,96 0,86 iv 9,36 1,52 -0,38 1,24 0,79 v 7,06 2,10 0,99 0,56 0,77 vi 6,62 1,04 1,00 2,85 0,64 vii 12,10 2,32 -0,13 0,30 0,60 viii 9,36 2,51 0,38 0,24 0,73 ix 1,88 0,61 0,31 0,66 0,58 x 27,97 2,61 0,12 -0,12 0,64 xi 10,41 3,08 0,21 -0,28 0,82 xii 7,31 1,10 -0,03 0,47 0,47 xiii 10,72 2,57 0,28 -0,22 0,57 xiv 8,81 1,46 -0,37 0,06 0,18 xv 11,77 2,03 -0,39 0,68 0,68 xvi 5,51 1,54 0,40 0,32 0,56 xvii 11,82 2,81 0,99 0,56 0,75 xviii 12,55 2,54 0,12 -0,12 0,66 xix 9,94 2,01 -0,03 0,47 0,40 from the contents of table 2, it was concluded that most of the factors statistically were reliable and valid in assessing the wellness of employees in a life insurance organisation in south africa. the goodness-of-fit indices of the wellness model were reported in table 3. table 3 goodness-of-fit statistics for the welness model model �2 �2/df nfi tli cfi rmsea model 1:19 factors 16 828,18 4,32 0,27 0,32 0,33 0, 07 it could be seen from table 3 that the rmsea confirmed that the variates in the data set showed good fit to the model. browne and cudeck (1993) regard this value as an acceptable and reasonable error of approximation. the �2-based goodness-of-fit statistic was sensitive to the dimensions of the moment matrix derived from a data set of large proportions: this anomaly produced an unreliable index of model fit. most �2 tests and �2-based indices are n-sensitive, that is sensitive to sample size. the calculated holistic wellness model 53 �2/df value deviated significantly from the expected value for the theory that was being assessed. the numerical value was therefore rejected as being statistically untenable. in some instances, non-significant chi-square values are desired in order to prove the null hypothesis. the nfi value (0,27) indicated that the model fit could be improved substantially. a nfi of 1.00 would have indicated a perfect fit. the tucker-lewis index (lti) and comparative fit index (cfi) both pointed to poor fit with values lower than 0,90 (arbuckle and wothke, 1999). the most important test, namely rmsea, indicated a good fit with a value of 0,07. browne and cudeck (1993) stated that a value of 0,08 or less for the rmsea indicated a reasonable error of approximation. using the 5f–wel model as theoretical point of reference, the final wellness model was presented in figure 2. the proposed model was an explorative model that was constructed to serve as basis for the development of a holistic work-wellness model. a single value that was produced by an important goodness-of-fit index from the available range of indices, confirmed the validity of the preliminary model. the proposed multivariate wellness model was arrived at from the factor analytic structure produced by a principal-axes factor analysis of the original data set. the goodness of fit between this factor analytic description of a wellness construct and the theoretical approach to it that was represented in the original data set had been tested with the amos basic programme. the results had confirmed and validated good fit for the purposes of future application. the structural model in figure 2 showed that the insurance organisation might consider all sixteen wellness factors as well as the three contextual factors as components of an independent wellness model for future interventions. a final word of warning, however, was necessary. as was stated earlier in explaining the statistical analysis, the usual provision of eigen or � values with the results of the principal-axes factor analysis and use of these to eliminate trivial factors from the model, were done away with for the purposes of the current study to ensure a holistic model of wellness. the negative impact of the two decisions mostly would have affected the latter factors in the wellness construct. from a statistical point of view, this approach would cast some doubt on the tenability of the contextual variates, possibly the social identity variate and perhaps one or two others as well. conclusions conclusions in terms of the results on this section of the study were based on the statistics from the factor analysis and the goodness-of-fit statistics. the factor analysis, with some reservations, pointed to love, leisure, local safety, institutional concern, nutrition, social identit y, stress management, spirituality, exercise and self-worth as reliable factors as measured by the 5f–wel instrument. goodness-of-fit statistics confirmed good fit (rmsea) for a wellness model for use in an insurance organisation. however, some indices suggested that modification might be considered to improve the chi-square value, nfi, the tucker-lewis index and the comparative fit index (cfi). recommendations based on the literature and empirical findings in this research some recommendations for the organisation and future research were made. the current study did not consider wellness within the context of selection of staff. further research was thus required to validate the appropriateness of wellness in this particular organisational context. measurement of wellness might be used in conjunction with other measures of staff selection to ensure that healthy and well employees are appointed to the organisation. with regard to the existing staff members of the organisation that had participated in this study, the results indicated that els, de la rey54 figure 2: wellness model enhancement of the wellness characteristics of current employees would likely to result in an increase in their productivity, effectiveness, quality of work life and workhome life balance. the researcher, therefore, recommended that employees be made aware of their own wellness dispositions. this might help them to develop their own coping resources that they could use to cope with the demands of corporate working conditions. the organisation in future would also benefit if it designed and implemented interventions that addressed the enhancement and development of employee wellness. the organisation could further contribute to the development of employee wellness by presenting developmental interventions in a consistent, structured and focused way. by providing employees with the necessary knowledge, skills, material, instruments, support and other resources, the staff members might experience that their job demands are under their personal control. it could well be that employees who were allowed a degree of independence and freedom of choice to selfmanage their own health status, were more likely to act autonomously while at work. future research needed to focus on the application of the indivisible self: an evidence-based model of wellness as well as the 5 factor wellness survey and needed to be validated for different age, race and culture groups to provide statistical norms for south african populations and conditions. the moderating influence of organisational factors and other individual dispositions on wellness need investigation to expand on the holistic wellness model presented in this study in conclusion, greater focus had to be directed at achieving overall wellness and improving the wellness dispositions of employees. implementation of a strategic health and wellness programme that incorporated all wellness factors that contributed to holistic wellness might reduce sick leave in organisations whilst increasing their profitability at the same time. limitations the researcher experienced difficulty in finding available research material applicable to the study that focused on holistic organisational wellness. many fragmented measuring instruments and research studies were found that focused only on some aspects of wellness. because of this scientific obstacle, the researcher experienced the limitation of applying wellness as opposed to well-being instruments in the study. the wellness instrument that was used, furthermore, was not validated for extensive use in south africa, as it was the first-ever application of it in this country. the future challenge, therefore, is to experiment with it in conjunction with the american-based 5 factor wellness. holistic wellness research in general was also lacking in south africa. this resulted in a limitation of having to base local research needs on previous studies of holistic workwellness done abroad. reliance on the sole use of self-report data was seen as another limitation, since it was only quantitative by nature. this might have affected or artificially inflated relationships among wellness constructs, individual states and organisational factors. a distinct possibility existed that more objective and explorative indicators of quality of work wellness might yield a different set of outcomes; a combination of self-report measures and qualitative indicators of wellness might have provided richer results. references adams, t.b., bezner, j.r. & steinhardt, m. (1997). the conceptualisation and measurement of perceived wellness: integrating balance across and within dimensions. american journal of health promotion, 12 (3), 380-388. adams, t. b., bezner, j.r. & whistler, l.s. (1998). the relationship between physical activity and indicators of perceived wellness. american journal of health studies, 15 (3), 130-138. adams, t. b., bezner, j.r., garner, l. & woodruff, s. (1998). construct validation of the perceived wellness survey. american journal of health studies, 14 (4). 212-219. adler, a. (1973). the problem of homosexuality. frankfurt am main: fischer. (original work published 1917). adler, a. (1973). social interest: a challenge to mankind. 3rd ed. london: faber & faber ltd. (original work published 1933). adler, a. (1954). understanding human nature. 5th ed. (w.b. wolf, trans.). new york: fawcett premier. (original work published 1927). antonovsky, a. (1987). unravelling the mystery of health: how people manage stress and stay well. san francisco, ca.: jossey-bass. antonovsky, a. (1993). the structure and properties of the sense of coherence scale. social science and medicine, 36 (6), 725-733. arbuckle, j.l. (1999). amos 4.0. chicago, il:smallwaters. bethlehem, j. (1999). cross-sectional research. in h.j. adér & g.j. mellenbergh. (eds.), research methodology in the social, behavioural and life sciences, 110-142. london: sage. browne, m.w. and cudeck, r. (1993). single sample crossvalidation indices for covariance structures. multivariate behaviour research, 24, 445-455. byrne, b.m. (2001). structural equation modelling with amos: basic concepts, applications and programming. mahwah, nj: erlbaum. cameron, k.s., dutton, j.e. & quinn, r.e. (2003). positive organisational scholarship: foundations of a new discipline. san francisco: berrett-koehler publishers, inc. clark, l.a., & watson, d. (1995). constructing validity: basic issues in objective scale development. psychological assessment, 7 (3), 309-319. crose, r., nicholas, d.r., gobble, d.c. & frank, b. (1992). gender and wellness: a multidimensional systems model for counselling. journal of counselling and de velopment. november/december, 71. dunn, h.l. (1961). high level wellness. washington, dc: mt vernon. dunn, h.l. (1977). what high level wellness means. health values: achieving high level wellness, 1, 9-16. ferguson, g.a. & takane, y. (1989). statistical analysis in psychology and education. new york: mcgraw-hill. gemson, d.h., & eng, b. (2004). the impact of allergic rhinitis on employee health and productivity. the business and health institute. august. harris, r.j. (1975). a primer of multivariate statistics. academic press. new york. harter, j.k., schmidt, f.l. & keyes, c.l.m. (2003). well-being in the workplace and its relationship to business outcomes: a review of the gallup studies. flourishing positive psychology and the life well-lived. washington. american psychological association, 36, 29-33. hettler, b. (1984). presenting the wellness concept to the uninitiated. in j.p. opatz. wellness promotion strategies. 28-38. huysamen, g.k. (1994). methodology for the social and behavioural sciences. halfway house: southern book publishers. huiskamp, a.a. (2004). a framework for an empowerment approach to workplace health promotion of wellness. paper presented at 2nd south african work wellness conference. potchefstroom. south africa, 26 may 2004. jöreskog, k.g. & sorbom, d. (1993). testing structural equation models. in k.a. bolllen & j.s. long (eds) testing structural equation models. 294-316. newbury park, ca: sage. jung, c.g. (1960). the structure and dynamics of the psyche. collected works: vol. 8. london: routledge & kegan paul. jung, c.g. (1958). the undiscovered self. new york: mentor books. keyes, c.l.m. & haidt, j. (2003). flourishing positive psychology and the live well lived. washington: american psychological association. holistic wellness model 55 maslow, a.h. (1970). motivation and personality. (2nd ed.). new york: harper & row. myers, j.e. & sweeney, t.j. (2005). counselling for wellness: theory, research and practice. american counselling association. myers, j.e. & sweeney, t.j. (2003). the indivisible self: an evidence-based model of wellness. manuscript submitted for publication. myers, j.e., sweeney, t.j. & witmer, j.m. (2001). optimisation of human behavior: promotion of wellness. the handbook of counselling. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. 641-652. mullins, j.l. (1999). management and organisational behaviour. 5th ed. financial times. pitman publishing. overall, j.e. & klett, c.j. (1972). applied multivariate analysis. new york: mcgraw-hill. redelinghuys, f.j. & rothmann, s. (2004). koherensiesin, coping, uitbranding en begeestering in die bediening. paper presented at the 2nd south african work wellness conference, potchefstroom, south africa, 25 march 2004. saleebey, d. (1997). the strengths perspective in social work practice. 2nd ed. new york: longman. sas institute. (2000). sas users guide: basics (release 8.01). cary, nc.: sas institute inc. seligman, m.e.p. & csikszentmihalyi, m. (2000). positive psychology: an introduction. american psychologist. january, 55 (1), 5-14. snyder, c.r., irving, l.m. & anderson, j.r. (1991). hope and health. in c.r. snyder & d.r. forsyth (eds.), handbook of social and clinical psychology: the health perspective. p. 285305. new york: pergamon. snyder, c.r. & lopez, s.j. (2002). handbook of positive psychology. new york: oxford university press. steyn, a.g.w., smit, c.f., du toit, s.h.c. & strasheim, c. (1995). moderne statistiek vir die praktyk. 5de uitgawe. pretoria: jl van schaik. strümpfer, d.j.w. (2002). psychofortology: review of a new paradigm marching on. retrieved from http:/www.general. rau.ac/psych. strümpfer, d.j.w. (1995). the origins of health and strength: from salutogenesis to fortigenesis. south african journal of psychology, 25 (2), 81-89. sweeney, t.j. & witmer, j.m. (1991). beyond social interest: striving toward optimum health and wellness. individual psychology, 47, 527-540. the business and health care archive. (2004). “i won’t be in today – the dilemma of incidental absence”. business and health institute. august. van der westhuizen, t. (2004). monday blues costing r 150m. cape aurgus. november. (3). wissing, m.p.w., & van eeden, c. (1997). psychological wellbeing: a fortigenic conceptualisation and empirical clarification. paper presented at the 3rd annual congress of the psychological society of south africa. durban, south africa, 10-12th sept. wissing, m.p.w. (2000). wellness: construct clarification and a framework for future research and practice. paper presented at the first south african national wellness conference. port elizabeth, south africa, 2-5 may. witmer, j.m. & sweeney, t.j. (1992). a holistic model for wellness and prevention over the life span. journal of counselling & development, november/december, 71, 22-35. wyatt, w. (2004). cutting health care cost by creating a culture of wellness. els, de la rey56 abstract introduction research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) marita m. heyns optentia research focus area, north-west university, south africa marilyn d. kerr north-west university business school, north-west university, south africa citation heyns, m.m., & kerr, m.d. (2018). generational differences in workplace motivation. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a967. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.967 original research generational differences in workplace motivation marita m. heyns, marilyn d. kerr received: 21 june 2017; accepted: 10 may 2018; published: 08 aug. 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: despite increasing age diversity in the workforce, organisations still know relatively little about how potentially diverging motivational needs of the various generations might influence motivational strategies and organisational performance. research purpose: to explore the relationship between multigenerational workforces and employee motivation within a south african workplace setting from a self-determination theory perspective. motivation for the study: the pursuit of performance excellence requires an understanding of the enablers of optimal performance. in south africa, the workplace landscape is changing fast as younger generations are joining the workforce in rapidly growing numbers. these younger employees are often believed to differ quite drastically from the older generations in terms of their values and priorities, which necessitates a deeper understanding of the motivational drivers of the different cohorts as these manifest within a workplace environment. research approach/design and method: a cross-sectional survey approach and a quantitative research design were used (n = 164). two questionnaires founded on self-determination theory were administered, namely the work-related basic need satisfaction scale and the work extrinsic and intrinsic motivation scale. main findings: findings contradict the popular notion that generational cohorts differ significantly from each other in terms of diverging intrinsic and extrinsic motivational preferences that may influence their behaviour at work. with regard to the degrees of satisfaction of the basic psychological needs that drive autonomous, intrinsically motivated behaviour specifically, no practically significant differences were found either. there was, however, one notable difference, namely in the indicated degree of satisfaction of the psychological need for autonomy between generation y and generation x cohorts. practical/managerial implications: management is advised to cultivate a motivational climate that promotes autonomously motivated behaviour in general and to focus on specific known individual motivational preferences that may exist within groups rather than approaching generational cohorts as homogenous groups. contribution/value-add: this study contributes to the limited research regarding similarities and differences in the intrinsic versus extrinsic motivational stance of three different generations as these manifest within a workplace setting in an emerging economy country. findings afford management insight into motivational processes that are most influential among generational cohorts and assist them in adapting suitable motivational strategies that can ultimately improve retention of valued employees. introduction key focus of the study this study seeks to extend generational research by employing a self-determination theory (sdt, deci & ryan, 2000; gagné & deci, 2005) perspective to examine the relationship between multigenerational workforces and employee motivation within a south african workplace setting. background the pursuit of performance excellence requires an understanding of the enablers of optimal performances (linley, harrington & garcia, 2013), especially in view of a changing workplace landscape where increasing age diversity necessitates a deeper understanding of the needs and values of the different cohorts (martins & martins, 2014). changing workforce demographics has become a particular concern for leadership because now, for the first time, there exists the possibility of four age generations working side by side in today’s work environment (ballone, 2007; haynes, 2011). the increasing mix of generations has added both cherished diversity as well as complexity to the workplace (linley et al., 2013) because of more pronounced differences between cohorts that influence their attitudes and behaviour at work as compared to previous generations, which were more similar to each other (burke, cooper & antoniou, 2015). the different cohorts – veterans, baby boomers, generation xers and generation y (also known as the millennials) – are often described as each having their own distinct characteristics, work values and motivators that may have an effect on both individual and organisational performance (burke et al., 2015) and that may have far-reaching implications, including for organisational human resource processes (jonck, van der walt & sobayeni, 2017), motivation and retention strategies (burke et al., 2015). a longitudinal study by krahn and galambos (2014), for example, associated generation y with a stronger emphasis on extrinsic work values and more job entitlement, while other studies associated this generation with a greater preference for materialistic rewards and work–life balance (burke et al., 2015). in line with this view, twenge and donnelly (2016) found that younger generations increasingly emphasise extrinsic values. the perceived uniqueness of the generations suggests each is likely driven by different motivators, which, in turn, accentuates the need to have insight into how to best motivate each generational group (durkin, 2011). organisations still know relatively little about the impact of age diversity on their performance and how to deal with generational diversity in the workplace (burke et al., 2015; martins & martins, 2014). linley et al. (2013) illuminate this point by warning that, although some differences across generations do affect each cohort in distinctive ways, there are also indications that many of the perceived differences – including those in values and attitudes towards work, colleagues and use of technology – across generations can actually be ascribed to stereotypical myths or, at best, to the influence of different contexts. there is a specific need to conduct generational cohort studies in developing countries (jonck et al., 2017; martins & martins, 2014) and especially in a south african context, for it has faced some unique challenges because of its politically and socially divided past, which has caused fragmentation – not all social groups, including generations, have been affected by historical events in the same way. also, most of the existing generational research studies have been conducted in developed western countries, which raises concern regarding the generalisability of findings to developing countries such as south africa (jonck et al., 2017). in addition, previous research focused on broad differences in motivational drivers across generations but paid scant attention to how these manifest within the workplace or, at best, tended to focus on work values but not on generational differences in work motivation per se (burke et al., 2015; wong, gardiner, lang & coulon, 2008). this study focused on motivational levels of the multigenerational workforce of rand water, a parastatal and a national key point that is responsible for supplying quality water to millions of households in south africa. rand water is invested in supporting the development of the younger generations and those previously disadvantaged in south africa. older employees also remained loyal to rand water, which has resulted in a work environment that sees employees representing a broad range of age groups. as rand water continued to focus on the empowerment of staff across generations, they found themselves in a situation where an abundance of resources was a thing of the past, and they were forced to work with less to create higher levels of output. this global trend aims towards increasing work output levels among employees, while facing challenges such as increased multigenerational workforces and the need to effectively motivate each generation, has created an urgent need for an understanding of how to motivate employees to the point that they bring 100% of themselves to their work. self-determination theory is a prominent, macro theory of motivation (deci & ryan, 2014; gagné & deci, 2005) that offers a potentially useful lens through which potential differences in the motivational stance across generations can be studied within the organisation of interest. this theory distinguishes itself from more conventional motivation theories because sdt not only expanded on the cognitive evaluation theory to include extrinsic motivation, but it further provides a distinction between autonomous and controlled motivation that does not focus on the total amount of motivation as such but rather on the relative strength of controlled versus autonomous motivation a person experiences. in other words, sdt does not merely focus on motivation as internally or externally driven but further differentiates between subtypes of motivation that are seen as falling along a continuum of internalisation (deci & ryan, 2000; 2014; gagné & deci, 2005). as such, sdt can offer more precise information regarding how generational groups relate to specific drivers of motivation. research objectives the general aim of this research was to explore the nature of motivational processes from a multigenerational workforce perspective by using sdt (deci & ryan, 2000) as a point of departure. to be more precise, this study assesses whether generations differ in terms of their extrinsic versus intrinsic motivational stance and their basic intrinsic motivational needs for autonomy, relatedness and competence as these manifest among the workforce of an organisation that supplies quality water to millions of households in south africa. trends from the research literature a generation, also known as a cohort, shares a collective identity that was brought about by shared life stages that shaped the culture of a particular historical period (hoole & bonnema, 2015). although there is no specific consensus among researchers regarding the precise birth years for each of the different generations (wong et al., 2008), there is agreement that there are four broad generations of employees that can be classified, of which the three groups most represented in the workplace are the baby boomers (generally accepted to be born between 1945 and 1964), generation xers (born 1965–1981) and the millennials (born 1982–2000). a strong internalised work ethic and career-focused approach to life have meant a perception of the baby boomers as ambitious, driven employees who are status conscious (ballone, 2007; hoole & bonnema, 2015) and define their identity as an extension of their careers (durkin, 2011). a review of the existing literature (e.g. hart, 2006; loomis, 2000;) suggests that this group of employees is seen as preferring stability and job security, that they respect a corporate hierarchal structure and prefer a leadership style that is unified and consistent in the work environment (ballone, 2007). baby boomers gravitate towards building consensus among their colleagues (hart, 2006:26). valuing the personal touch (haynes, 2011) and preferring face-to-face contact (hammill, 2005) mean that this generation is more likely to act as effective mentors. it is through work and personal sacrifice (glass, 2007) that baby boomers believe they will attain financial success. they are motivated by raises and promotions (ballone, 2007). it is likely that baby boomers feel the younger generations do not work as hard as they do, partially derived from the latter group’s preference for flexible hours, working from home and for having virtual offices (glass, 2007). in stark contrast with the baby boomers, generation xers value the life–work balance above all else (glass, 2007; hoole & bonnema, 2015). as a group, they are classified as showing a higher degree of scepticism, less loyalty and being strongly independent (burke et al., 2015; glass, 2007), as well as demonstrating a higher level of self-sufficiency than shown by previous generations (hart, 2006). although a tendency to question and challenge their colleagues in the workplace is apparent, thus potentially leading to conflict, this quality also acts to encourage entrepreneurial behaviour (hammill, 2005). generation xers expect recognition and rewards to be realised within a short time frame, they expect to be included in all aspects of the business and to be provided with regular opportunities for career growth (ballone, 2007). placing their own personal goals above their work-related goals, this group goes where the challenges, higher earning potential and better benefits exist (loomis, 2000). flexibility in work life is greatly valued by generation xers and they are likely to pass up a promotion if they believe it will infringe on their home life in any way (ballone, 2007). from their viewpoint, it does not matter how or where the work is done; the outcome is what should be valued and not the process to get there (glass, 2007). the most confident of the generational groups, the millennials, grew up with child-focused parents, who were intent on building their children’s self-esteem and showing continuous dedication in raising them (glass, 2007). as a consequence, this generation is characterised by their expectation to be recognised on an equal footing with their peers and to be involved in a work environment that is diverse and encourages participation in work teams (ballone, 2007; hoole & bonnema, 2015). they have developed the ability to multitask, a consequence of 24/7 connectivity (hammill, 2005). skills development and the challenges afforded by new opportunities typify millennials (hart, 2006). demonstrating some similarity with the baby boomer generation, millennials are seen as optimistic and driven employees who are demanding of their work environment (burke et al., 2015). ultimately, for this generation technology forms a natural part of their lives, and as such they prefer to communicate and live in real time, through the use of cell phones, text messages and so on (ballone, 2007), rather than picking up the telephone or having a face-to-face conversation (glass, 2007). self-determination theory according to sdt, motivation can be internally or externally driven. extrinsic motivation occurs when individuals partake in activities not because they have a particular interest in them but because those activities function as a means to an end. the actions undertaken by individuals driven by intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, are fuelled by the want to do the activity and the satisfaction derived from the successful completion of the task; thus, intrinsic motivation can be said to be autonomous motivation (deci & ryan, 2014; ryan & deci, 2000). the key to autonomous regulation is based on satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness. autonomy is the need to feel that you have a choice in the decision to be made; competency is a belief in one’s ability to complete a task, and relatedness is the need for relationships that are supportive and meaningful in nature (deci & ryan, 2014; meyer & gagné, 2008; ryan & deci, 2000). autonomously motivated employees are likely to realise better outcomes for both themselves and their employers, through improved effective performance and higher levels of well-being (gagné & deci, 2005; nel, 2014). limited satisfaction of the psychological needs is likely to result in a decreased level of performance and even a reduction in an individual’s physical and psychological well-being (meyer & gagné, 2008). many organisational studies using the sdt have provided support for the hypothesised contention that environments that are autonomy-supportive facilitate the promotion of intrinsic motivation, as well as the internalisation of extrinsic motivation, thus acting to increase satisfaction and performance outcomes (deci & ryan, 2014; van den broeck, vansteenkiste, de witte, soenens & lens, 2010; vansteenkiste et al., 2007). organismic integration theory is a sub-theory of sdt that aims to explain how behaviours once extrinsically motivated through external forces can become internally regulated via an internalisation process. figure 1 illustrates the relationship between the various motivational aspects and describes the degree to which external regulation can be internalised in a self-determination continuum (ryan & deci, 2000). it is not suggested the continuum is developmental in such a way that employees need to progressively move from controlled motivation to autonomously motivated behaviour through each stage of internalisation; rather that internalisation of a more autonomous behavioural regulation can occur at any point on the sdt continuum given specific individual life experiences and opportunities presented by the immediate environmental circumstances (ryan & deci, 2000). figure 1: the self-determination continuum. amotivation and intrinsic motivation, being the two extremes of the continuum, respectively represent the total lack of intention to act (amotivation), that is, going through the motions, and a highly autonomous state (intrinsic motivation) characterised by the desire to perform a task purely for its inherent satisfactions (ryan & deci, 2000). in the centre of the continuum are the extrinsically motivated behaviours, which range from lowest self-determined behaviour to the highest – specifically, from external regulation through to integrated regulation. external regulation refers to behaviours that are controlled by external contingencies – the individual feels forced to comply. each progressive rightward move along the continuum involves increased levels of personal acceptance and ownership of an external regulation, into the creation of an autonomous form of extrinsic motivation. introjected regulation refers to behaviours that are still motivated by external rewards or punishments, but performance of the activities are controlled by the individual self rather than by others, that is, for an internally pressing reason. identified regulation refers to a process that involves accepting the underlying value of an activity, such as when the goal of behaviour is personally endorsed and considered important, but extrinsic factors still play some role. integrated regulation refers to the most complete form of internalisation of extrinsic motivation, namely, an acceptance of an activity because it fits into the individual’s set of values and beliefs and is congruent with the true self (nel, 2014; ryan & deci, 2017). ultimately, the basic premise of sdt is the degree to which behaviour may be autonomous versus the degree to which it is controlled, where autonomous motivation includes intrinsic motivation as well as identified and integrated regulation and controlled motivation encompasses external and introjected regulation (gagné & deci, 2005). quoting kasser et al. (2004), vansteenkiste et al. (2007) state that individuals who are more likely to be intrinsically rather than extrinsically orientated will engage in those activities that function to satisfy their psychological needs, ultimately leading to positive job outcomes. for the converse, a mindset that is extrinsically orientated may hinder or interfere with growth (vansteenkiste et al., 2007). relationship between motivation and age groups no previous studies could be identified that examined potential generational differences specifically from an sdt motivational perspective. when considering motivation in general, previous research seems to produce conflicting results regarding the extent to which generations differ in what they consider as important motivational drivers. kooij, de lange, jansen, kanfer and dikkers (2011) and de lange, bal, van der heiden, de jong and schaufeli (2011) have provided empirical evidence that supports the viewpoint that, while extrinsic work motivation decreases with age, intrinsic work motivation does the opposite and in fact increases. in examining demographic correlations that may exist among age groups and intrinsic motivation, a significant positive correlation was demonstrated between age and intrinsic motivation; however, no such parallel correlation was observed for age groups and extrinsic motivation. giancola (2006) provided an opposing viewpoint and stated that the differences perceived among the different generations were not substantiated by empirical evidence and in fact motivational drivers among the cohorts are actually surprisingly similar. support for giancola’s viewpoint was provided by wong et al. (2008), who, after conducting a large-scale cross-sectional study, were able to conclude that the differences identified among motivators were better explained by age differences rather than generational differences. finegold, mohrman and spreitzer (2002) were able to identify significant differences among different age groups regarding a number of working relationships, including satisfaction with work–life balance, but found no significant relationship between generational groups and motivation. brislin, kabigting, macnab, zukis and worthley (2005) and travis (2007), in an examination of demographic correlations and intrinsic motivation among a sample population, found no significant correlation between the variables of age and motivation. in view of seemingly conflicting results found in previous literature, this study sets out to investigate the following research questions: do generational cohorts employed by rand water at the site of interest differ significantly from each other in terms of (1) their extrinsic versus intrinsic motivational stance and (2) the three basic intrinsic motivational needs for autonomy, relatedness and competence? potential value-add of the study this research contributes to the existing generational literature by extending its focus to an emerging economy, specifically by highlighting similarities and differences in motivational stance between three generations – baby boomers, generation xers and millennials – in a workplace setting that is considered to be of national interest to south africa. to the best of our knowledge, no previous empirical research exists that employed the sdt of motivation as proposed by deci and ryan (2000) to examine potential differences between generational groups within an emerging economy setting. gaining a better and more specific understanding of what underlying motivational processes drive each generational cohort – whether it be an equal combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors, or with one dominating the other – can support managers in finding suitable motivational strategies that are properly aligned with the needs of each cohort so that staff are more likely to function to their full potential and remain with an organisation in the longer term. findings may further afford management with insight into motivational processes that are most influential among generational cohorts at rand water, an important national asset of the country, and assist management in adapting suitable motivational strategies to enhance performance and ultimately improve retention of valued employees. research design research approach a quantitative, cross-sectional survey design was used. research participants the target population consisted of employees of a rand water pump station that is situated in gauteng province, south africa. a total of 488 questionnaires were distributed, and 164 questionnaires were completed and returned, which represents a response rate of 33.6%. more males (65%) than females participated; 77% of the sample group indicated that they were black people. the majority (48%) of the respondents indicated that they had a matric certificate as their highest qualification. when reviewing the duration of employment, 48% of the respondents indicated that they had been employed in excess of 10 years. generation xers represented the majority, with 59% of respondents falling within this category, followed by the millennials (22%) and the baby boomers (19%). measuring instruments a biographical questionnaire and two measuring instruments were used. the work extrinsic and intrinsic motivation scale (weims, tremblay, blanchard, taylor, pelletier & villeneuve, 2009) was employed to determine employees’ motivational stance in terms of extrinsic versus intrinsic motivation. the weims is an 18-item measure of work motivation theoretically grounded in sdt (deci & ryan, 2000). the weims is divided into six sub-scales (each with three corresponding items), corresponding to the six types of motivation postulated by sdt, namely, intrinsic motivation (e.g. ‘because i derive much pleasure from learning new things’), integrated regulations (e.g. ‘because it has become a fundamental part of who i am’), identified regulations (e.g. ‘because this is the type of work i chose to do to attain a certain lifestyle’), introjected regulations (e.g. ‘because i want to succeed at this job; if not i would be very ashamed of myself’), external regulations (e.g. ‘for the income it provides me’) and amotivation (e.g. ‘i don’t know; too much is expected of us’). the instrument makes use of a likert-type scale ranging from 1 (does not correspond at all) to 5 (corresponds exactly), representing the reasons that the participants are presently involved in their work. satisfactory alpha-coefficients with values > 0.7 (field, 2014) for each of the subsections were initially established by tremblay et al. (2009). in addition, the work-related basic need satisfaction scale (wbnss; van den broeck et al., 2010) was used to measure each participant’s satisfaction with three intrinsically motivating psychological needs, namely autonomy (e.g. ‘i feel like i can be myself at my job’), competence (e.g. ‘i am good at the things i do in my job’) and need for relatedness (e.g. ‘at work, people involve me in social activities’). the scale made use of a five-point rating scale, varying from 1 (totally disagree) to 5 (totally agree). cfa results favoured the three-factor structure of the questionnaire, and reliabilities of the autonomy, competence and relatedness satisfaction scales were on average 0.81, 0.85 and 0.82, respectively (van den broeck et al., 2010). research procedure ethical clearance to conduct the study was approved by the school for business and governance of the north-west university of south africa. the human resources director of the selected rand water plant provided permission for the questionnaire to be administered, in printed form, to the participants. the aggregated results of the study had to be provided to rand water for their own internal review. participation was entirely voluntary and participants were aware that they could withdraw at any stage without penalty. after obtaining written consent, completion of the questionnaire took place during a predetermined time session following an introduction to the research content and purpose of the questionnaire by the researcher. statistical analysis two statistical programs – spss and amos – were employed. descriptive statistics were used to describe the demographic data. validity and reliability were tested by means of confirmatory factor analyses and the calculation of cronbach’s alpha values (clark & watson, 1995) for all scales. spearman’s coefficient and analysis of variance (anova) were used to analyse relationships between the sub-scales of the wbnss and the weims, respectively (field, 2009). to interpret the practical significance of the findings, interpretation guidelines for cohen’s d-values (ellis & steyn, 2003; field, 2009) were followed, that is, d ≈ 0.2 was regarded as a small effect (no practically significant difference), d ≈ 0.5 as a medium effect (practically visible difference) and d ≈ 0.8 as a large effect (practically significant difference). results descriptive statistics, internal consistencies and correlations table 1 depicts the overall mean and standard deviation results per sub-scale for each of the two measurement instruments that were used to obtain an overall indication of the respondents’ motivations for being involved in their work as postulated by sdt. table 1: descriptive statistics for employee motivation as measured by the work extrinsic and intrinsic motivation scale and work-related basic need satisfaction scale. it is evident from the information provided on standard deviations in table 1 that participants do not seem to differ drastically in their responses on the scales. the weims results as shown in table 1 implicate amotivation as the lowest ranking dimension with an average score of 3.28, implying the relative absence of motivation. in contrast, intrinsic motivation ranked higher than average. these results indicate that the respondents generally experienced a higher than average degree of intrinsic motivation towards their work. however, when reviewing the stages of the extrinsic motivation demonstrated on the sdt continuum, we find that introjected regulation ranks highest with a mean score of 5.43. this suggests that many employees are still in a process of adopting organisational rules but have not yet incorporated them into a sense of self – employees go along with the task because they believe they should and experience feelings of guilt if they do not. the overall results for the wbnss demonstrates that respondents are experiencing neutral feelings as far as the stimulation of intrinsic motivation is concerned. competence – a belief in one’s ability to complete a task – with a mean value of 3.48 ranked the highest but also had the greatest standard deviation value, 1.02. the variation in the respondents’ evaluation of the satisfaction of this need shows that although the majority of respondents feel neutral regarding competence, some employees feel less competent than the majority of employees. confirmatory factor analyses results supported the six-factor structure of the weims as previously established by tremblay et al. (2009) as well as the three-factor structure of the wbnss as previously established by van den broeck et al. (2010). considering the fact that psychological constructs were being measured and that cronbach’s alpha values for all scales were above or near the minimum required (0.7 as proposed by field [2009]), the reliability of all the scales was considered acceptable. spearman’s rho correlations were then analysed to determine whether there was a relationship between the drivers of intrinsic motivation as derived from the wbnss and the motivation sub-scales as outlined by the weims on the sdt continuum. as expected, the correlation coefficient (r) analyses showed that intrinsic motivation had a medium (positive), practical and visible relationship with the three dimensions of autonomy, competence and relatedness. the results also showed medium, practically visible positive relationships across all three psychological needs for integrated regulation. the relationship observed between the drivers of intrinsically motivated behaviour and integrated regulation align with the literature, which states that integrated regulation is the stage on the sdt continuum that is closest to the fully autonomous intrinsic motivation. further examination showed that amotivation was inversely related to all three key psychological motivational needs. more specifically, amotivation had a medium (negative), practical and visible relationship with the psychological needs for autonomy and relatedness. in agreement with the sdt literature, external regulation demonstrated no practically significant relationship with the drivers of intrinsic motivation, as according to the continuum this stage is still predominantly a controlled behaviour. basic psychological needs and generational groups anova tests were used to compare the mean scores of the three generational cohorts in terms of intrinsic motivational drivers as measured by the wbnss, extrinsic and intrinsic motivation at work and for the consideration of the sub-scales of extrinsic motivation measured in the weims. table 2 gives an overview of differences among the cohorts for the entire motivational spectrum including intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and amotivation as measured by the weims. although small effect size differences were noted for both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation between generation x and the millennials, these were neither statistically significant nor would differences be observable between groups in practice. table 2: descriptive statistics, analysis of variance and effect size results for extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. table 3 provides the results of each generation’s answers for the sub-scales of extrinsic motivation as presented in the weims questionnaire. these four sub-scales represent the internalisation of external regulation. the sub-scales move progressively from controlled (external regulation) to autonomous (integrated regulation) motivation. on average, introjected regulation was ranked the highest, suggesting that respondents take in a regulation but do not fully accept it as their own. table 3: descriptive statistics, analyses of variances and effect size results for the sub-scales of extrinsic motivation. wbnss results for basic intrinsic motivational needs are displayed in table 4. table 4: descriptive statistics and analysis of variance results for basic intrinsic motivational needs. as is evident from table 4, there was no statistically significant difference in the way the different age groups responded to the relevant questions (all p-values > 0.05) pertaining to the measurement of intrinsic motivational need satisfaction. the largest effect size difference (d = 0.36) was noted for the autonomy need, namely, between millennials and generation xers. the difference highlights that millennials express a higher satisfaction with the psychological need of autonomy than shown by generation xers. in other words, millennials felt that they had a higher sense of autonomy and that they had a choice in matters affecting them. all cohorts ranked the satisfaction of the psychological need for competence the highest, indicating that the respondents considered the ability to complete a task as highly important. in sum, no statistically significant generational differences based on p-values and no medium or large differences indicated by the effect sizes were observed. small effect size differences were noted between millennials and generation x on the identified regulation scale and between the millennials and generation x as well as baby boomers on the introjected regulation scale; however, none of these are of a practically significant magnitude. from these results, it appears that the generations are motivated similarly by intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. overall, the millennials presented higher average scores for both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and the lowest means value for amotivation. discussion the study tested whether there were generational differences among the workforce of a rand water plant in gauteng in terms of their intrinsic and extrinsic motivation at work. the proposed theoretical research model considered motivation in terms of autonomous and controlled motivation. for autonomous motivation, the degree of satisfaction of the psychological needs autonomy, competence and need for relatedness was considered. the stages of internalisation of extrinsic motivation were subdivided into autonomous and controlled forms of extrinsic motivation. prior to comparing cohorts, the relationship between the drivers of intrinsic motivational psychological needs and the motivation sub-scales on the sdt continuum was verified. as expected, the calculated correlation coefficients showed positive medium, practically visible relationships across all three psychological needs for integrated regulation. in further agreement with the sdt literature, external regulation demonstrated no practically significant relationship with the drivers of intrinsic motivation, as according to the continuum this stage is still predominantly a controlled behaviour. from the literature, studies on the relationship between work motivation and age groups indicated two distinct strains of thought: firstly there are those who have identified differences and secondly those who believe the differences are negligible. this study found support for the latter of the two trains of thought, in that negligible differences between the groups were identified. in fact, a sdt perspective analyses showed that all three generational groups were motivated similarly by intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and all three groups indicated similar degrees of satisfaction with the three psychological needs related to autonomous, intrinsically motivated behaviour. when contrasting specific cohorts in terms of their satisfaction of the basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and relatedness), all groups indicated a strong belief in their ability to complete a task, as seen with the high ranking of the competency dimension. similarly, all cohorts indicated a strong need for relatedness satisfaction. the only notable difference was found between the millennials and generation x respondents in terms of the autonomy dimension. the millennials indicated a higher sense of autonomy in their work when compared to the responses of the generation x cohort; however, the effect size indicated that the difference was still not of a practically visible magnitude. it is possible that because generation xers expect to be included in all aspects of the business (ballone, 2007), which may prove difficult for the organisation to facilitate, the respondents may not feel like this need is being optimally fulfilled. the fact that the generational cohorts experienced similar degrees of satisfaction of the basic intrinsically motivated psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness provides further support for findings by brislin et al. (2005) and travis (2007), who found no significant correlation between the variables of age groups and motivation. findings further suggest that the cohorts are influenced similarly by intrinsic as well as extrinsic motivation. this finding echoes the viewpoint set forward by giancola (2006), where empirical evidence demonstrated that motivational drivers among generations were very similar. findings also seem to resonate well with previous research by the center for creative leadership, which found that younger and older generations seem to want similar things from their work and actually share many values in common (linley et al., 2013). overall, the millennials presented higher average scores for intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and the lowest mean value for amotivation. the aforementioned lends itself in support of the belief that intrinsic and extrinsic motivational rewards do not cancel out each other but work to maintain each other in a synergistic relationship (khan & iqbal, 2013). the millennials indicate on average the highest level of motivation, and the presented results show this is based on a relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. this conclusion indicates that in order to maintain the current motivation levels among the millennials, the organisation needs to focus on both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. recommendations for the organisation because findings concerning the organisation of interest revealed that younger and older generations actually are influenced similarly by extrinsic and extrinsic motivational drivers, managers are advised to refrain from relying on popular stereotypical ideas of generational differences when devising motivational strategies. according to sdt, motivational organisational contexts are best created by focusing on those psychological needs that form the basis for the direction and resolve for human behaviour – the needs for autonomy, relatedness and competence (deci & ryan, 2000) – and satisfaction thereof will enhance both intrinsic motivation as well as the internalisation of extrinsic motivation (gagné & deci, 2005). enduring autonomous motivation can be promoted, for example, by creating psychologically safe and supportive yet challenging contexts that stimulate intrinsic interest, curiosity and creativity; by having meaningful discussions with employees regularly; allowing freedom of choice within a structure of clarified responsibilities; by providing a rationale for tasks and giving sincere feedback in a competent manner that is factual, non-judgmental and free from demeaning criticism (nel, 2014; stone, deci & ryan 2009). because the observed trends in this study were not statistically significant, differences between individuals in terms of what motivates them may actually be of a greater magnitude within the same age group than those perceived between generations and warrants an exploration of the relative strength of specific motivational needs of individuals within a particular job context irrespective of age group. discussions intended to motivate specific employees should seek to explore opportunities to satisfy intrinsic basic psychological needs according to the relative strength of those needs within the particular individual and as matched to the individual’s specific work context. this implies that the organisation will have to invest more into understanding individuals’ perspectives. according to stone, deci and ryan (2009), meaningful discussions with employees are characterised by asking open questions, listening attentively, acknowledging employee perspectives and by refraining from pressure, threats and directives to perform. it should nevertheless be noted that workplaces will continue to become even more multigenerational in the future (haynes, 2011) and it is likely that stereotypes among age groups themselves will persist and may cause heightened sensitivity to perceived age discrimination (burke et al., 2015). it is therefore recommended that the organisation should look for ways to foster a generational-friendly environment (hoole & bonnema, 2015), such as to increase interaction among employees of different ages through inter-group activities, mentorship programmes and other initiatives. according to next step growth (2013), the top suggestions for bridging generational gaps within the work environment include collaborative work styles and tools, team-building events, the use of the latest technology, leadership coaching and mentorship programmes. study limitations and recommendations for future research the relatively small sample size and the sampling procedure used in the study did not ensure proportionate representation within each cohort and limits generalisations to the larger population. for future studies, the use of a stratified random-sample design may be beneficial in that it could ensure sufficient representation of the different generational groups in the larger selected population. it is also acknowledged that a cross-sectional study cannot decisively establish whether observations of small differences that have been noted in some instances are a result of generation or age. although a once-off measurement is useful as a starting point, it is necessary to explore the trends over time through longitudinal follow-up studies. another limitation of the study is that it applied age categorisations presented by the literature that tend to be used across the globe, yet this universal typology of generations may prove to be too simplistic. because burke et al. (2015, p. 156) emphasised that ‘generational attributes by their very nature are specific to the socio-political events that create and shape these cohorts’, more rigorous scientific verification is necessary to determine whether the broad age cut-off points used to differentiate cohorts from each other are indeed justifiable and applicable to the south african context. if potentially more appropriate cut-off points for age could be verified and used in future studies, it may for instance transpire that the current statistically non-significant yet consistent differences observed between generation y and both generation x and the baby boomers in terms of the relative strength of their motivational needs may reveal itself more clearly. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.h. was the project leader and is the corresponding author. m.k. prepared the initial analyses of results. both authors made substantial conceptual contributions to this article. references ballone, c. (2007). consulting your clients to leverage the multi-generational workforce. journal of practical consulting, 2(1), 9–15. brislin, r. w., kabigting (jr), f., macnab, b., zukis, b., & worthley, r. (2005). evolving perceptions of japanese workplace motivation: an employee-manager comparison. international journal of cross cultural management, 5(1), 87–104. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470595805050829 burke, r. j., cooper, c. l., & antoniou, a. g. (2015). the multi-generational and aging workforce: challenges and opportunities. cheltenham, uk: edward elgar publishing ltd. clark, l.a. & watson, d. 1995. constructing validity: basic issues in objective scale development. psychological assessment, 7(3): 309-319 deci, e. l., & ryan, r. m. (2000). the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of goal pursuits: human needs and the self-determination of behavior. psychological inquiry, 11, 227–268. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1104_01 deci, e. l., & ryan, r. m. (2014). the importance of universal psychological needs for understanding motivation in the workplace. in m. gagné (ed.), the oxford handbook of work engagement, motivation, and self-determination theory (pp. 13–32). new york, ny: oxford university press. de lange, a. h., bal, p. m., van der heiden, b. i. j. m., de jong, n., & schaufeli, w. b. (2011). when i’m 64: psychological contract breach, work motivation and the moderating roles of future time perspective and regulatory focus. work & stress, 25(4), 338–354. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2011.632610 durkin, d. (2011). effectively managing the multigenerational workforce. retrieved from http://under30ceocom/effectively-managing-the-multigenerational-workforce.html ellis, s. m., & steyn, h. s. (2003). practical significance (effect sizes) versus or in combination with statistical significance (p-values). management dynamics, 12(4), 51–53. field, a. 2014. discovering statistics using ibm spss statistics. 4th ed. london: uk. sage finegold, d., mohrman, s., & spreitzer, g. m. (2002). age effects on the predictors of technical workers’ commitment and willingness to turnover. journal of organizational behavior, 23, 655–674. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.159 gagné, m., & deci, e. l. (2005). self-determination theory and work motivation. journal of organizational behavior, 26(4), 331-362. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.322 giancola, f. (2006). the generation gap: more myth than reality? human resource planning, 29(4), 32–37. glass, a. (2007). understanding generational differences for competitive success. industrial and commercial training, 39(2), 98–103. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197850710732424 hammill, g. (2005). mixing and managing four generations of employees. retrieved from http://www.fdu.edu/newspubs/magazine/05ws/generations.htm hart, k. a. (2006). generations in the workplace: finding common ground. medical laboratory observer, 38(10), 26–27. haynes, b. p. (2011). the impact of generational differences on the workplace. journal of corporate real estate, 13(2), 98–108. https://doi.org/10.1108/14630011111136812 hoole, c., & bonnema, j. (2015). work engagement and meaningful work across generational cohorts. sa journal of human resource management, 13(1). art. #681, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.681 jonck, p., van der walt, f., & sobayeni, n. c. (2017). a generational perspective on work values in a south african sample. sa journal of industrial psychology, 43, a1393. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v43.1393 khan, w., & iqbal, y. 2013. an investigation of the relationship between work motivation (intrinsic & extrinsic) and employee engagement. umea university: umea school of business (thesis – ma). kasser, t., ryan, r. m., couchman, c. e., & sheldon, k. m. (2004). materialistic values: their causes and consequences. in t. kasser, & a. d. kanner (eds.), psychology and consumer culture: the struggle for a good life in a materialistic world (pp. 11–28). washington, dc: american psychological association. kooij, d. t. a. m., de lange, a. h., jansen, p. g. w., kanfer, r., & dikkers, j. s. e. (2011). age and work-related motives: results of a meat-analysis. journal of organizational behavior, 32(2), 197–225. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.665 krahn, h. j., & galambos, n. l. (2014). work values and beliefs of ‘generation x’ and ‘generation y’. journal of youth studies 17(1), 92–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2013.815701 linley, p. a., harrington, s., & garcea, n. (2013). the oxford handbook of psychology and work. new york: oxford university press. loomis, j.e. (2000). gen x, rough notes co., indianapolis, in. martins, n., & martins, e. c. (2014). perceptions of age generations regarding employee satisfaction in a south african organisation. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(21), 129–140. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n21p129 meyer, j. p., & gagné, m. (2008). employee engagement from a self-determination theory perspective. industrial and organizational psychology, 1, 60–62. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2007.00010.x nel, l. (2014). theories on character strengths, hope and self-determination. in m. wissing, j. potgieter, t. guse, t. khumalo, & l. nel (eds.), towards flourishing: contextualising positive psychology, (pp. 115–140). pretoria: van schaik publishers. next step growth. (2013). the multi-generational workforce challenge. retrieved from http://www.nextstepgrowth.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/researchsummary09.pdf ryan, r. m., & deci, e. l. (2000). self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. american psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.55.1.68 ryan, r. m., & deci, e. l. (2017). self-determination theory: basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness. new york: the guilford press. stone, d. n., deci, e. l., & ryan, r. m. (2009). beyond talk: creating autonomous motivation through self-determination theory. journal of general management, 34, 75–91. https://doi.org/10.1177/030630700903400305 travis, d. j. (2007). is doing good enough? a path analytic model of intrinsic job satisfaction among human service workers. journal of workplace behavioral health, 22(1), 13-32. https://doi.org/10.1300/j490v22n01_02 tremblay, m. a., blanchard, c. m., taylor. s., pelletier, l. g., & villeneuve, m. (2009). work extrinsic and intrinsic motivation scale: its value for organisational psychology research. canadian journal of behavioural science, 41(4), 213–226. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015167 twenge, j. m & donnelly, k. (2016). generational differences in american students’ reasons for going to college, 1971–2014: the rise of extrinsic motives. the journal of social psychology, 156(6), 620–629. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2016.1152214 van den broeck, a., vansteenkiste, m., de witte, h., soenens, b., & lens. w. (2010). capturing autonomy, competence, and relatedness at work: construction and initial validation of the work-related basic need satisfaction scale. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 83, 981–1002. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317909x481382 vansteenkiste, m., neyrinck, b., niemiec, c. p., soenens, b., de witte, h., & van de broeck, a. (2007). on the relations among work value orientations, psychological need satisfaction and job outcomes: a self-determination theory approach. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 80, 251–277. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317906x111024 wong, m., gardiner, e., lang, w., & coulon, l. (2008). generational differences in personality and motivation. journal of managerial psychology, 23(8), 878–890. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940810904376 abstract introduction research method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) crizelle els workwell research unit for economic and management, north-west university, south africa karina mostert workwell research unit for economic and management, north-west university, south africa marianne van woerkom department of human resource studies, tilburg university, the netherlands citation els, c., mostert, k., & van woerkom, m. (2018). investigating the impact of a combined approach of perceived organisational support for strengths use and deficit correction on employee outcomes. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a882. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.882 note: this article is partially based on the author’s thesis for the degree of philosophiae doctor in industrial psychology at the potchefstroom campus of the north-west university, south africa, with promoter prof. k. mostert and co-promoter dr m. van woerkom, received october 2015, available here: http://repository.nwu.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10394/15211/els_c_2015.pdf?isallowed=y&sequence=1 original research investigating the impact of a combined approach of perceived organisational support for strengths use and deficit correction on employee outcomes crizelle els, karina mostert, marianne van woerkom received: 02 nov. 2016; accepted: 08 nov. 2017; published: 28 mar. 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the positive psychology paradigm suggests a balanced focus on employee strengths and deficits. however, an overemphasis on strengths has raised questions regarding the value of a focus on strengths use, deficit improvement or a combined approach with a balanced focus on both. research purpose: the primary objective was to examine whether perceived organisational support (pos) for strengths use, pos for deficit improvement or a combined approach would be the strongest predictor of work engagement, learning, job satisfaction and turnover intention. motivation for the study: in the literature, there is little empirical evidence to support an approach where both employees’ strengths are used and their deficits improved. research design, approach and method: this study was conducted among 266 teachers from four public schools in the western cape. a cross-sectional survey design was used. main findings: the results suggest that both strengths use and deficit improvement are important predictors of work engagement, learning, job satisfaction and turnover intention. learning was higher and turnover intention lower for individuals experiencing a combined approach compared to those believing that their school did not support them in either using their strengths or improving their deficits. furthermore, a combined approach was associated with higher job satisfaction than a strengths-based approach, and a deficit-based approach was shown to be associated with higher levels of work engagement and lower turnover intentions compared to an environment where neither employees’ strengths nor deficits were addressed. practical or managerial implications: the results urge organisations to invest an equal amount of resources in their employees’ strengths and deficits, as opposed to neglecting either one. such a combined approach may be associated with increased work engagement, learning and job satisfaction and lower turnover intention. contribution: this study provides empirical evidence that supports a combined approach where both employees’ strengths are used and their deficits developed. introduction scholars in the field of positive psychology are promoting an equal focus on individuals’ deficits and strengths (seligman, 2002; seligman & csikszentmihalyi, 2000). in a work-related context, van woerkom mostert, els, bakker and de beer (2016) argue that employees are dependent on their organisations to support them to improve or develop their deficits and to use their strengths. in their research, van woerkom et al. (2016) refer to perceived organisational support (pos) for strengths use to indicate the extent to which employees believe that their organisations are supportive of them applying their strengths in the workplace. similarly, pos for deficit correction refers to the extent to which employees perceive their organisation as supportive of them in developing their deficits. although van woerkom et al. (2016) and other scholars promote a combined approach, studies usually focus on either strengths or deficits and rarely on a combined approach where both constructs are included. in the literature it is found that organisations often take a deficit-based approach towards employee development by identifying employee deficits that compromise their performance in a performance appraisal and by providing support in narrowing the gap between actual and desirable performance through training, coaching or feedback (e.g. carr, 2004; slade, 2010; swanson & holton, 2001; wood & tarrier, 2010). the focus on deficits or performance problems becomes evident in systematic approaches to human resources development that depart from a needs analysis, in which actual and desired end states are compared (swanson & holton, 2001), or in the competence management approach, in which employees are assessed and developed against a fixed set of competencies (hall, 2004). although such a deficit-based approach may indeed lead to considerable performance improvement (dunn & shriner, 1999; ericsson, nandagopal & roring, 2009; lafleur & hyten, 1995), it does not acknowledge the fact that employees also have strengths, individual characteristics, traits and abilities that, when used, are energising and allow a person to perform at his or her personal best (linley & harrington, 2006; wood, linley, maltby, kashdan & hurling, 2011). research has suggested that individuals can greatly benefit from using their strengths, because these refer to tasks for which the individual has an innate ability (buckingham & clifton, 2001). previous research has found that strengths use is related to higher levels of self-efficacy (falender & shafranske, 2004; van woerkom, oerlemans & bakker, 2015b), increased happiness and vitality (govindji & linley, 2007), subjective well-being (proctor, maltby & linley, 2011), increased work engagement (harzer & ruch, 2012, 2013; linley & harrington, 2006), goal attainment (linley, nielsen, wood, gillett & biswas-diener, 2010), increased in-role and out-role performance (van woerkom & meyers, 2015) and lower levels of sick leave (van woerkom, bakker & nishii, 2015a). recently, however, some scholars have objected that the positive psychology movement has again created an imbalance by focusing almost exclusively on employee strengths while failing to pay an equal amount of attention to employee deficits (rust, diessner & reade, 2009; sirmon, hitt, arregle & campbell, 2010). thus, from the above arguments, it is suggested that in organisations there seems to be either an overemphasis on employee strengths or on deficits. previous research, however, has not investigated empirically whether a focus on strengths use, a focus on deficit correction or a combined approach (focusing on both strengths use and deficit correction) may be more advantageous to the organisation. it therefore seems as if organisations are not grasping the possible positive outcomes that a combined approach (considering both strengths use and deficit correction as equally important) may offer. this study aims to address this issue by empirically investigating three possibilities: whether (1) pos for strengths use on its own, (2) pos for deficit correction on its own or (3) a combined approach including both pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction will best predict employee outcomes, including work engagement, learning, job satisfaction and turnover intention. all these outcomes have been proven to affect the bottom line of the organisation and are therefore important constructs for organisational and individual performance (bakker & bal, 2010; cropanzano, rupp & byrne, 2003; judge, thoresen, bono & patton, 2001; porath, spreitzer, gibson & garnett, 2012). it can also be argued that the teaching profession in particular is in need of a study where the effects of pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction on employee outcomes are investigated. this profession is typically characterised by high levels of burnout (johnson, 2015), low work engagement (buron & lassibille, 2016), psychological distress and depression (domingo et al., 2015), low job satisfaction and high turnover (shaw & newton, 2014; skaalvik & skaalvik, 2011). this clearly illustrates the need to examine whether intervention strategies, namely a strengths-based approach, a deficit-based approach or a combination of the two, may improve outcomes relevant to the teaching profession. purpose the primary objective of this study was to examine which approach will best predict employee outcomes (i.e. work engagement, learning, job satisfaction and turnover intention): (1) an exclusive focus on pos for strengths use; (2) an exclusive focus on pos for deficit improvement or (3) an approach where both pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction is combined. literature review perceived organisational support for deficit correction and for strengths use perceived organisational support refers to employees’ overall beliefs about the extent to which the organisation values their contributions and cares about their well-being (rhoades, eisenberger & armali, 2001). although pos for strengths use and deficit correction is related to general pos, the latter construct is much broader. for example, the organisation can also value the employee’s contribution by appreciating the fact that the employee is working overtime or care about employees’ well-being by encouraging a healthy work–home balance. employees will perceive organisational support for strengths use when they believe that the organisation actively supports them in applying their strengths at work (keenan & mostert, 2013), for instance by making use of complementary partnering with colleagues or by adapting the task allocation to employees’ individual strengths (linley & harrington, 2006). this may implicate that the performance requirements for two individual employees may change, while together they are still responsible for the same tasks, making individual deficits less important for their performance. employees will perceive organisational support for deficit correction when they believe that their organisation actively supports them in correcting their deficits. an example of this is when employee deficits that compromise performance are identified in a performance appraisal (swanson & holton, 2001) and when the organisation supports the employee in narrowing the gap between the actual and desirable performance by providing training, coaching, feedback or on-the-job learning processes. both pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction may be conceptualised as job resources that are instrumental in achieving organisational and personal work goals, and that may stimulate employees’ growth, learning and development (bakker & demerouti, 2007; van woerkom et al., 2016). when employees are able to use their unique strengths, they are more likely to achieve performance goals. also, it is likely that these performance goals will be more self-concordant (sheldon & elliot, 1999) and therefore that employees will be more persistent in achieving these goals (koestner, lekes, powers & chicoine, 2002). moreover, using one’s strengths enhances feelings of competence (peterson & seligman, 2004), which will support employees in coping with job demands (folkman & moskowitz, 2004; van woerkom et al., 2015a). in addition, furthering one’s best skills and abilities leads to steep learning curves, thereby stimulating employee development (peterson & seligman, 2004). perceived organisational support for deficit correction may also be seen as a job resource because remediating one’s weaknesses facilitates goal attainment and employee development. as workers who feel incompetent report higher levels of stress or burnout (e.g. brouwers & tomic, 2000; maslach, schaufeli & leiter, 2001), correcting performance deficits by engaging in learning opportunities may reduce job demands, alleviate stress and provide opportunities for growth and development. employee outcomes of perceived organisational support for strengths use and for deficit correction following the conceptualisation of pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction as job resources, these two concepts may be associated with the positive outcomes that are associated with job resources. according to the job demands–resources (jd-r) model, job resources are related to positive outcomes, including work engagement (bakker & demerouti, 2007), learning opportunities (van ruysseveldt, proost & verboon, 2011), job satisfaction and the intention to stay with the company (jones, chonko, rangarajan & roberts, 2007; skaalvik & skaalvik, 2009). work engagement is described as a positive, fulfilling work-related state that can be characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption (schaufeli & bakker, 2004; schaufeli, salanova, gonzález-romá & bakker, 2002). vigour is characterised by high levels of energy and mental resilience while working, the willingness to invest effort in one’s work and persistence even in the face of difficulties (schaufeli et al., 2002). dedication refers to being strongly involved in one’s work and experiencing a sense of significance, enthusiasm and challenge (schaufeli et al., 2002). recent studies suggest that vigour and dedication are the core dimensions of work engagement (llorens, schaufeli, bakker & salanova, 2007; schaufeli & bakker, 2004). according to the jd-r theory, job resources are the strongest drivers for work engagement. more specifically, aspects of the job like autonomy, supervisory relationships, opportunities for growth, colleague support, et cetera, greatly influence an employee’s levels of work engagement (bakker, 2011; bakker & bal, 2010). this argument is built on the hypothesis that job resources influence work engagement because of the motivational nature of these resources. it is believed that job resources may play an intrinsic motivational role because they foster growth and learning, or they can play an extrinsic motivational role because they are instrumental in achieving work goals (bakker & demerouti, 2007). therefore, job resources have a motivational potential and are associated with increased work engagement (bakker & bal, 2010). it can therefore be expected that the two job resources, pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction, may lead to increased work engagement. when employees apply their strengths at work and can do what comes naturally to them, they will feel more energised and intrinsically motivated, making them more vigorous and dedicated to their work (biswas-diener, 2010). similarly, when employees feel supported to develop competencies that do not come naturally to them, this may foster their feeling of learning, growth and personal development, which have been found to be associated with work engagement (bakker, 2011; mauno, kinnunen, mäkikangas & feldt, 2010). within the teaching profession, research has also indicated that support by the school and opportunities for development may increase teachers’ work engagement (bakker & bal, 2010). similarly, it can be argued that when teachers feel competent in what they do and thus experience self-efficacy, they tend to experience higher levels of work engagement (skaalvik & skaalvik, 2014). for these reasons, we expect that both pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction will increase employees’ levels of work engagement. learning can be described as the acquisition and application of knowledge and skills and is defined as an important component of thriving (spreitzer, sutcliffe, dutton, sonenshein & grant, 2005). on the one hand, pos for deficit correction can be expected to foster the acquisition of new skills, for example, by providing employees with opportunities for training or coaching. on the other hand, providing employees with the opportunity to use their strengths is likely to lead to the application of knowledge and skills. also, learning curves tend to be steep when people get the chance to practice their best skills and abilities (peterson & seligman, 2004). this was confirmed in a study by meyers, van woerkom, de reuver, bakk and oberski (2015), who found that both an intervention to promote strengths use and an intervention to promote deficit correction led to increases in students’ personal growth initiative, although these increases were bigger for the strengths intervention group. the extent to which employees feel that their organisation provides them with the desired support to use their strengths or remediate their deficits may also influence employees’ attitudes regarding their work. when organisations are committed to employee development, employees may feel that they are important to the organisation and may feel more optimistic about the future (xanthopoulou, bakker, demerouti & schaufeli, 2007), which may increase their satisfaction with their job and reduce their intention to leave the organisation. similarly, when employees feel that their work is designed in such a manner that they can do what they are good at, they may find their work more meaningful and may derive more pleasure from their daily activities (harzer & ruch, 2013; littman-ovadia & steger, 2010). this in turn may influence their satisfaction with their work environment and reduce the risk of them leaving the organisation. also, using strengths at work and mastering new skills may foster a sense of competence and self-efficacy, making employees feel more in control over their own performance (bell & kozlowski, 2008; peterson & seligman, 2004). this positive attitude may lead to higher levels of job satisfaction and a lower turnover intention. it can therefore be argued that, when teachers feel competent and skilled in what they are doing (i.e. either by means of applying their strengths or by training and learning activities to develop the work-related aspects they are not good at), they are likely to experience stronger job satisfaction and are less likely to want to leave the profession (høigaard, giske & sundsli, 2012). based on the arguments above, it is proposed that both pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction may be associated with higher levels of work engagement, learning and job satisfaction and lower levels of intention to leave. what we do not know, however, is to what extent one of these approaches is more beneficial than the other, or to what extent a combined approach, focusing on both strengths use and deficit correction, is even more advantageous to the organisation. for this reason we tested three different conceptual models (see figure 1). in model a the path from pos for deficit correction was constrained to zero, and the unique contribution of pos for strengths use to each of the outcome variables was examined. in model b the path from pos for strengths use was constrained to zero, and the unique contribution of pos for deficit correction to each of the outcome variables was examined. finally, in model c none of the paths were constrained to zero, and thus the covariance between pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction were also taken into account. figure 1: conceptual models. (a) model a, (b) model b and (c) model c. research method research approach this study followed a quantitative research design and cross-sectional data were collected by means of surveys. therefore, data were collected at one particular point in time (trochim & donnelly, 2007). measures participants the study population consisted of teachers from public schools in the western cape, south africa. according to the department of basic education of the republic of south africa (2014), there are approximately 11 062 educators employed in secondary schools in the western cape. a convenient sample of 266 teachers was drawn for the purpose of this study (n = 266). the characteristics of the participants are presented in table 1. the majority of the sample consisted of females (64.6%). the majority were afrikaans speaking (94.50%), followed by english speaking (3.7%). the mean age of the sample was 48.28 years, and almost one-third of the participants (34.70%) held a university degree. the majority of the teachers had been with their current school for less than 5 years (34.20%). table 1: characteristics of participants. measuring instruments the strengths use and deficit correction questionnaire (van woerkom et al., 2016) was used to measure pos for strengths use and pos for deficit improvement. these constructs were measured on a seven-point likert-type scale ranging from 0 (never) to 6 (almost always). pos for strengths use was measured with five items (e.g. ‘this organisation ensures that people can apply their strong points in their jobs’; α = 0.96) and pos for deficit correction was also measured with five items (e.g. ‘in this organisation i receive training to improve my weak points’; α = 0.93). the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) was used to measure the two core dimensions of work engagement, namely vigour and dedication (see schaufeli & bakker, 2004). vigour was measured with six items (e.g. ‘at my work, i feel i am bursting with energy’) and dedication with five items (e.g. ‘i am enthusiastic about my job’). all items were measured on a seven-point frequency-rating scale, varying from 0 (never) to 6 (every day). the reliability for use of the uwes within the south african context has been confirmed with cronbach’s alpha coefficients for vigour (α = 0.78) and dedication (α = 0.89; storm & rothmann, 2003). learning, as a dimension of thriving, was measured with the thriving at work scale developed by porath et al. (2012). this questionnaire measures learning with five items (e.g. ‘i continue to learn more and more as time goes by’) on a scale from 0 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). the internal consistency of the instrument was confirmed in previous studies, with cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranging from 0.88 to 0.93 (porath et al., 2012). the job satisfaction scale, developed by hellgren, sjöberg and sverke (1997) (based on brayfield & rothe, 1951), was used to examine job satisfaction. this instrument consists of three items (e.g. ‘i am satisfied with my job’) rated on a likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). the reliability of this instrument has been confirmed in south africa (α = 0.75; masia & pienaar, 2011). turnover intention was measured with a scale developed by sjöberg and sverke (2000). the items are measured with a total of three items (e.g. ‘i am actively looking for other jobs’). the items are measured on a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). this scale has been proven to be reliable within the south african context, with cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranging between 0.74 (pienaar, sieberhagen & mostert, 2007) and 0.79 (diedericks & rothmann, 2014). in the current study all scales showed a good internal consistency with cronbach’s alpha coefficients ≥ 0.72 (see table 2). additionally, confirmatory factor analysis including all variables indicated that the overall measurement model showed an acceptable fit to the data (χ2 = 1177.00; df = 572; p = 0.00; comparative fit index [cfi] = 0.91; tucker–lewis index [tli] = 0.90; root-mean-square error of approximation [rmsea] = 0.06; standardised root-mean-square residual [srmr] = 0.05). table 2: correlation matrix (r) of the latent variables. analysis the data were analysed by means of the spss program (ibm spss inc., 2009) and mplus 7.2. structural equation modelling was used to assess prediction of the dependent variables (employee outcomes) by the independent variables (pos for strengths use and pos for deficit development). the goodness of fit of the models was tested using the traditional χ2 statistic, the cfi, the tli, the rmsea and the srmr. general guidelines were followed and fit was considered adequate if cfi and tli values were larger than 0.90 (byrne, 2010). a rmsea value of 0.05 or less indicates a good fit, whereas values between 0.05 and 0.08 represent a moderately good model fit (van de schoot, lugtig & hox, 2012). according to hu and bentler (1999), the srmr value should be smaller than 0.05. the akaike information criterion and sample adjusted bayesian information criterion were used to compare the fit of competing models, where the model with the lowest value suggests superior fit (van de schoot et al., 2012). one-way multivariate analysis of variance (manova) was used to assess whether differences exist in work engagement, learning, job satisfaction and turnover intention between different groups (representing different levels of pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction). the wilks’ lambda statistic was used as an indicator of the significance of group differences (mayers, 2013). subsequent analysis of variance (anova) was then conducted to examine the differences for each outcome variable. where significant differences were found, the games-howell post hoc test was used to examine the nature of these differences. results relationships between the variables the correlations between the study variables are presented in table 2. the means for the scales (and not the latent variables that were standardised), standard deviations and cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the scales are also presented. all the correlations between all the variables were statistically significant. structural equation modelling to test whether pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction were significant predictors of our outcome variables, separate structural models were tested for each of these outcome variables (work engagement, learning, job satisfaction and turnover intention). in all models, both pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction were included, but three competing models were tested for each outcome variable: in model a, the path from pos for deficit correction to the outcome variable was constrained to zero. in model b, the path from pos for strengths use to the outcome variable was constrained to zero. in model c, paths from both pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction were specified to the outcome variable (none of the paths in this model were constrained). in addition, a covariance between pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction was included in the model. the model fit indices and structural paths for each of the outcome variables are presented in table 3. as can be seen from table 3, model c was a significantly better model compared to models a and b for all outcome variables. also, the results indicate that for work engagement, in model c both pos for strengths use (β = 0.18; p ≤ 0.01) and pos for deficit correction (β = 0.35; p ≤ 0.01) were significant predictors of work engagement, with pos for deficit correction being the strongest predictor. with regard to the results for learning, model c suggests that pos for strengths use was not a significant predictor of learning in the presence of pos for deficit correction. pos for deficit correction, however, significantly predicted learning (β = 0.29; p ≤ 0.01). the results for job satisfaction indicate that in model c, pos for strengths use (β = 0.35; p ≤ 0.00) significantly predicted job satisfaction, whereas pos for deficit correction did not significantly predict job satisfaction. the results with regard to turnover intention indicate that in model c, both pos for strengths use (β = -0.21; p ≤ 0.01) and pos for deficit correction (β = -0.19; p ≤ 0.05) were significant predictors of turnover intention. table 3: goodness of fit indices and structural paths investigated for the different outcome variables. the results from table 3 suggest that for all the employee outcomes (i.e. work engagement, learning, job satisfaction and turnover intention), model c showed a significantly better fit to the data compared to models a and b, suggesting that the model where pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction are combined is a better model compared to the other two models, where only pos for strengths use or pos for deficit correction is included. multivariate analysis of variance and analysis of variance multivariate analysis of variance analysis was conducted to compare four different groups of respondents on their levels of work engagement, learning, job satisfaction and turnover intention. the sample was divided into groups based on the mean scores of pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction, in which responses below the mean were categorised as ‘low’ and responses above the mean were categorised as ‘high’. consequently, the following four groups were created: group 1 consisted of employees experiencing low pos for strengths use and low pos for deficit correction, implying that the organisation does not provide support for employees in using strengths or developing their weaknesses. group 2 consisted of employees with high pos for strengths use but low pos for deficit correction, implying mainly a strengths-based approach. group 3 consisted of employees with low pos for strengths use but high pos for deficit correction, for example, following mainly a deficit-based approach. group 4 comprised employees experiencing high pos for strengths use and high pos for deficit correction, meaning that these organisations followed a combined approach. the results of the wilks’ lambda test indicated that statistically significant multivariate group differences were found [f(15.657) = 4.14, p ≤ 0.01; wilks’ λ = 0.78; partial η² = 0.08]. the results of the follow-up anova indicated significant differences for each of the five outcomes. group comparisons were made by means of the games–howell procedure, because the group sizes were unequal (mayers, 2013). the results are presented in table 4. table 4: between-group differences based on work engagement, learning, job satisfaction and turnover intention. the anova results indicate that for all outcome variables, group 1 (low pos for strengths use; low pos for deficit correction) differed significantly from group 4 (high pos for strengths use; high pos for deficit correction). in each of these cases the high pos for strengths use and high pos for deficit correction group showed significantly higher levels of work engagement, learning and job satisfaction and lower levels of turnover intention compared to the low pos for strengths use and low pos for deficit correction group. in addition, interesting group differences were found for work engagement and job satisfaction, with results indicating a significant difference between group 1 (low pos for strengths use; low pos for deficit correction) and group 3 (low pos for strengths use; high pos for deficit correction), indicating that individuals who believe their organisation provides support to remediate their deficits but does not provide support to use their strengths have significantly higher work engagement and job satisfaction when compared to employees who perceive their organisation as neither using their employees’ strengths not correcting their deficits. similarly, group 2 (high pos for strengths use; low pos for deficit correction) showed significantly lower job satisfaction levels compared to group 4 (high pos for strengths use; high pos for deficit correction), suggesting that employees who believe their organisation provides strengths use support but does not help them to improve their deficits reported significantly lower job satisfaction than those employees who indicated that their organisation provides support for both strengths use and deficit correction. discussion outline of the results the primary objective of this study was to test three approaches and determine which approach would best predict employee outcomes (i.e. work engagement, learning, job satisfaction and turnover intention): (1) an exclusive focus on pos for strengths use; (2) an exclusive focus on pos for deficit improvement or (3) an approach where both pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction were combined. our results indicate that both pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction predict work engagement, learning and job satisfaction and are negatively related to turnover intention. this implies that when employees perceive their organisation to be supportive of them using their strengths or improving their deficits, they are more likely to experience increased levels of work engagement, learning and job satisfaction and lower intentions to leave the organisation. these results are in line with the results from previous research. a recent study by botha and mostert (2014) found that employees who are allowed to use their strengths at work experience higher work engagement. other studies indicate that when individuals are given the opportunity to use their strengths (falender & shafranske, 2004; peterson & seligman, 2004) or master new skills (bell & kozlowski, 2008) these individuals may develop a sense of competence and self-efficacy, giving them the feeling that they have control over their own performance and that they can positively influence their environment. in a work context, such positive attitudes as a result of using one’s strengths at work may potentially lead to higher levels of job satisfaction and lower levels of turnover intention. also, research has shown that in organisations where employees receive opportunities for development, they may feel valued by the organisation (xanthopoulou et al., 2007), which may influence their job satisfaction. similarly, employees who feel they apply their strengths at work may feel more optimistic about their job, find their work more meaningful, and may derive more pleasure from their daily activities (harzer & ruch, 2013; littman-ovadia & steger, 2010), which may influence their job satisfaction. finally, our study supports advocacy for a combined approach focusing on both individuals’ strengths and their deficits, as suggested by leaders in the field of positive psychology. these authors all agree that for optimal human functioning there should be an equal focus on nurturing people’s strengths and repairing their weaknesses (linley, joseph, harrington & wood, 2006; rust et al., 2009; seligman, parks & steen, 2004). it is not surprising that a combined approach yields better employee results compared to an exclusive focus on pos for strengths use or pos for deficit correction. it is reasonable to expect that an organisation that both improves their employees’ deficits and uses their strengths may have employees with more positive attitudes towards the organisation, because these employees feel more valued and appreciated by the organisation (santos & stuart, 2003; xanthopoulou et al., 2007) and enjoy their work more (harzer & ruch, 2013; schmidt, 2007), because they can do what comes naturally to them and can work on the things that they are less skilled at. it is worthwhile to note that in our results with learning and job satisfaction as outcome variables, pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction were both significant predictors of these two outcomes when examined separately. however, when both pos variables were included in one model and the covariance between these two variables was taken into account, the path between pos for strengths use on the one hand and learning and job satisfaction on the other hand became insignificant. thus, in this study pos for strengths use is a significant predictor of learning and job satisfaction when pos for deficit correction is not accounted for in the model. however, in the case where both strengths use and deficit improvement are present, pos for deficit correction may play the predominant role in increasing learning and job satisfaction, while pos for strengths use may become less significant in predicting these outcomes. a possible explanation for these results may be the nature of our sample, which consisted of secondary school teachers, who may have a predominant orientation on learning and development. future research needs to explore to what extent these findings can be generalised to other populations. also, because of our cross-sectional research design, we cannot rule out the possibility that reversed causality played a role in our results. this could mean that engaged and satisfied employees perceive more support for deficit correction compared to other employees, possibly because they have the energy to invest in learning processes that address their weaknesses. our results also suggest that for all outcome variables, the high pos for strengths use and high pos for deficit correction group showed significantly higher levels of work engagement, learning and job satisfaction and lower levels of turnover intention compared to the low pos for strengths use and low pos for deficit correction group. it can thus be expected that it will always be better to follow a combined approach of pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction compared to a lack of support for either strengths use or deficit correction. our results further indicate that for engagement and job satisfaction an exclusive deficit approach is also more beneficial than an absence of a strengths-based approach or a deficit-based approach. our results also show that for increased satisfaction a combined approach focusing on both pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction is better than an exclusive strengths-focused approach. these findings indicate that ‘fixing’ weaknesses is not by definition demoralising and demeaning (hodges & clifton, 2004) and may even contribute to employee well-being. it is thus strongly suggested that researchers acknowledge the importance of both the use of employees’ strengths and the correction of their deficits, rather than overemphasising or neglecting one or the other. using one’s strengths and successfully addressing one’s deficits may improve an individual’s level of functioning and essentially contribute to a sense of self-actualisation. self-actualisation is described as being the best an individual is capable of being (maslow, 1968). therefore, it is plausible that using one’s strengths and also remediating one’s deficits gives an individual a sense of competence and the feeling that their potential is realised. therefore, positive psychology should not just concern itself with amplifying strengths but also with supporting people in overcoming their weaknesses (linley et al., 2006; seligman et al., 2004). practical implications whereas in the past human resource practices were almost exclusively aimed at identifying and correcting employees’ weaknesses or deficits, the positive psychology approach has made a case for the importance of employee strengths. our study can be seen as an investigation of the relative importance of both deficits and strengths-based approaches for promoting employee outcomes such as engagement, learning and satisfaction. the results of our study point out that a combined approach of supporting employees both in leveraging their strengths and remediating their weaknesses leads to the most favourable results in terms of important employee outcomes. thus, it is demonstrated that, rather than overemphasising or neglecting either strengths use or deficit improvement, organisations are likely to enhance employee outcomes by investing equally in their employees’ deficits and their strengths. limitations and recommendations this study is not without limitations. the cross-sectional design followed cautions the reader to prudently interpret the findings. in order to make sound inferences regarding causal relationships it is suggested that future studies examine these relationships longitudinally. another limitation in this study was the use of self-report measures, as this threatens the validity of the findings through possible response bias (bolt & johnson, 2009). although it would be ideal to assess strengths use and deficit improvement of employees with objective measures, this would likely prove to be time and resource intensive. conclusion to conclude, the results of this study clearly suggest that in an environment where the organisation follows a combined approach – focusing on both pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction – employees are likely to experience higher levels of work engagement, learning and job satisfaction and lower turnover intention, compared to organisations where neither strengths use nor deficit improvement receive much consideration. therefore, focusing on both strengths use and deficit improvement may benefit the individual and organisation greatly, indicating the need for employees to both use their strengths and improve their deficits in the work. acknowledgements we acknowledge the financial assistance of the national research foundation (nrf) towards this research. opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at in the study are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the nrf. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the first author, c.e., fulfilled the role of the primary researcher, and this study formed part of her phd research. she was responsible for the conceptualisation of the article, collection and statistical analysis of the data, interpretation of the research results and writing of the article. k.m. acted as promoter and m.v.w. as co-promoter of this study and thus played an advisory role and assisted in the conceptualisation of the study and writing of the research article. references bakker, a.b. (2011). an evidence-based model of work engagement. current directions in psychological science, 20(4), 265–269. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721411414534 bakker, a.b., & bal, m.p. (2010). weekly work engagement and performance: a study among starting teachers. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 83(1), 189–206. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317909x402596 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2007). the job demands-resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22(3), 309–328. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 bell, b.s., & kozlowski, s.w. (2008). active learning: effects of core training design elements on self-regulatory processes, learning, and adaptability. journal of applied psychology, 93(2), 296–316. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.93.2.296 biswas-diener, r. (2010). practicing positive psychology coaching: assessment and strategies for success. hoboken, nj: wiley. bolt, d.m., & johnson, t.r. (2009). addressing score bias and differential item functioning due to individual differences in response style. applied psychological measurement, 33(5), 335–352. botha, c., & mostert, k. (2014). a structural model of job resources, organisational and individual strengths use and work engagement. sa journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1135 brayfield, a., & rothe, h. (1951). an index of job satisfaction. journal of applied psychology, 35(5), 307–311. brouwers, a., & tomic, w. (2000). a longitudinal study of teacher burnout and perceived self-efficacy in classroom management. teaching and teacher education, 16(2), 239–253. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0742-051x(99)00057-8 buckingham, m., & clifton, d.o. (2001). now, discover your strengths. new york: free press. buron, c.g., & lassibille, g. (2016, june). work engagement among school directors and teachers’ behavior at work. in xxv meeting of the economics of education association. retrieved july 29, 2016, from http://2016.economicsofeducation.com/user/pdfsesiones/166.pdf byrne, b. (2010). structural equation modeling with amos. new york: routledge. carr, a. (2004). positive psychology: the science of happiness and human strengths. east sussex, england: brunner-routledge. cropanzano, r., rupp, d.e., & byrne, z.s. (2003). the relationship of emotional exhaustion to work attitudes, job performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors. journal of applied psychology, 88(1), 160–169. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.1.160 department of basic education of the republic of south africa. (2014). education statistics in south africa. retrieved july 29, 2016, from https://www.education.gov.za/programmes/emis/statisticalpublications.aspx diedericks, e., & rothmann, s. (2014). flourishing of information technology professionals: effects on individual and organisational outcomes. south african journal of business management, 45(1), 27–41. domingo, a.k., asmal, l., seedat, s., esterhuizen, t.m., laurence, c., & volmink, j. (2015). investigating the association between diabetes mellitus, depression and psychological distress in a cohort of south african teachers. south african medical journal, 105(12), 1057–1060. https://doi.org/10.7196/samj.2015.v105i12.9843 dunn, t.g., & shriner, c. (1999). deliberate practice in teaching: what teachers do for self-improvement. teaching and teacher education, 15(6), 631–651. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0742-051x(98)00068-7 ericsson, k.a., nandagopal, k., & roring, r.w. (2009). toward a science of exceptional achievement: attaining superior performance through deliberate practice. in w.c. bushell, e.l. olivo, & n.d. theise (eds.), longevity, regeneration, and optimal health: integrating eastern and western perspectives (vol. 1172, pp. 199–217). hoboken, nj: wiley-blackwell. falender, c.a., & shafranske, e.p. (2004). clinical supervision: a competency-based approach. washington, dc: american psychological association. folkman, s., & moskowitz, j.t. (2004). coping: pitfalls and promise. annual review of psychology, 55(1), 745–774. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.55.090902.141456 govindji, r., & linley, p.a. (2007). strengths use, self-concordance and well-being: implications for strengths coaching and coaching psychologists. international coaching psychology review, 2(2), 143–153. hall, d.t. (2004). the protean career: a quarter-century journey. journal of vocational behavior, 65(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2003.10.006 harzer, c., & ruch, w. (2012). when the job is a calling: the role of applying one’s signature strengths at work. journal of positive psychology, 7(5), 362–371. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2012.702784 harzer, c., & ruch, w. (2013). the application of signature character strengths and positive experiences at work. journal of happiness studies, 14(3), 965–983. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-012-9364-0 hellgren, j., sjöberg, a., & sverke, m. (1997). intention to quit: effects of job satisfaction and job perceptions. in f. avallone, j. arnold, & k. de witte (eds.), feelings work in europe (pp. 415–423). milano, italy: guerini. hodges, t.d., & clifton, d.o. (2004). strengths-based development in practice. in p.a. lindley & s. joseph (eds.), international handbook of positive psychology in practice: from research to application (pp. 256–268). hoboken, nj: wiley & sons. høigaard, r., giske, r., & sundsli, k. (2012). newly qualified teachers’ work engagement and teacher efficacy influences on job satisfaction, burnout, and the intention to quit. european journal of teacher education, 35(3), 347–357. hu, l., & bentler, p.m. (1999). cut off criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus structural equation modeling. a multidisciplinary journal, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 ibm spss inc. (2009). spss 22.0 [computer software; 2013]. chicago, il: spss. johnson, s.m. (2015). reducing teacher stress and burnout in high-risk secondary schools in south africa using transactional analysis. international journal of transactional analysis research & practice, 6(1), 1–16. jones, e., chonko, l., rangarajan, d., & roberts, j. (2007). the role of overload on job attitudes, turnover intentions, and salesperson performance. journal of business research, 60(7), 663–671. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2007.02.014 judge, t.a., thoresen, c.j., bono, j.e., & patton, g.k. (2001). the job satisfaction–job performance relationship: a qualitative and quantitative review. psychological bulletin, 127(3), 376–407. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.127.3.376 keenan, e.m., & mostert, k. (2013). perceived organisational support for strengths use: the factorial validity and reliability of a new scale in the banking industry. south african journal of industrial psychology, 39(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i1.1052 koestner, r., lekes, n., powers, t.a., & chicoine, e. (2002). attaining personal goals: self-concordance plus implementation intentions equals success. journal of personality and social psychology, 83(1), 231–244. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.83.1.231 lafleur, t., & hyten, c. (1995). improving the quality of hotel banquet staff performance. journal of organisational behavior management, 15(1–2), 69–93. https://doi.org/10.1300/j075v15n01_05 linley, p.a., & harrington, s. (2006). strengths coaching: a potential-guided approach to coaching psychology. international coaching psychology review, 1(1), 37–46. linley, p.a., joseph, s., harrington, s., & wood, a.m. (2006). positive psychology: past, present, and (possible) future. the journal of positive psychology, 1, 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760500372796 linley, p.a., nielsen, k.m., wood, a.m., gillett, r., & biswas-diener, r. (2010). using signature strengths in pursuit of goals: effects on goal progress, need satisfaction, and well-being, and implications for coaching psychologists. international coaching psychology review, 5(1), 6–15. littman-ovadia, h., & steger, m. (2010). character strengths and well-being among volunteers and employees: toward an integrative model. the journal of positive psychology, 5(6), 419–430. http://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2010.516765 llorens, s., schaufeli, w.b., bakker, a.b., & salanova, m. (2007). does a positive gain spiral of resources, efficacy beliefs and engagement exist? computers in human behavior, 23(1), 825–841. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2004.11.012 masia, u., & pienaar, j. (2011). unravelling safety compliance in the mining industry: examining the role of work stress, job insecurity, satisfaction and commitment as antecedents. sa journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i1.937 maslach, c., schaufeli, w.b., & leiter, m.p. (2001). job burnout. annual review of psychology, 52(1), 397–422. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397 maslow, a.h. (1968). towards a psychology of being (2nd edn.). new york, ny: van nostrand. mauno, s., kinnunen, u., mäkikangas, a., & feldt, t. (2010). job demands and resources as antecedents of work engagement: a qualitative review and suggestions for future research. in s. albrecth (ed.), handbook of employee engagement: perspectives, issues, research and practice (pp. 111–128). cheltenham, england: elgar. mayers, a. (2013). introduction to statistics and spss in psychology. london: pearson. meyers, m.c., van woerkom, m., de reuver, r.s.m., bakk, z., & oberski, d.l. (2015). enhancing psychological capital and personal growth initiative: working on strengths or deficiencies. journal of counseling psychology, 62(1), 50–62. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000050 peterson, c., & seligman, m.e.p. (2004). character strengths and virtues: a handbook and classification. new york: oxford university press. pienaar, j., sieberhagen, c.f., & mostert, k. (2007). investigating turnover intentions by role overload, job satisfaction and social support moderation. sa journal of industrial psychology, 33(2), 62–67. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v33i2.378 porath, c., spreitzer, g., gibson, c., & garnett, f. g. (2012). thriving at work: toward its measurement, construct validation, and theoretical refinement. journal of organizational behavior, 33(2), 250–275. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.756 proctor, c., maltby, j., & linley, p.a. (2011). strengths use as a predictor of well-being and health-related quality of life. journal of happiness studies, 12(1), 153–169. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-009-9181-2 rhoades, l., eisenberger, r., & armali, s. (2001). affective commitment to the organization: contribution of perceived organizational support. journal of applied psychology, 86(5), 825–836. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.5.825 rust, t., diessner, r., & reade, l. (2009). strengths only or strengths and relative weaknesses? a preliminary study. the journal of psychology: interdisciplinary and applied, 143(5), 465–476. https://doi.org/10.3200/jrl.143.5.465-476 santos, a., & stuart, m. (2003). employee perceptions and their influence on training effectiveness. human resource management journal, 13(1), 27–45. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2003.tb00082.x schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organizational behaviour, 25(3), 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.248 schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzález-romá, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3(1), 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 schmidt, s.w. (2007). the relationship between satisfaction with workplace training and overall job satisfaction. human resource development quarterly, 18(4), 481–498. https://doi.org/10.1002?hrdq.1216 seligman, m.e.p. (2002). authentic happiness: using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for lasting fulfillment. new york: free press. seligman, m.e.p., & csikszentmihalyi, m. (2000). positive psychology: an introduction. american psychologist, 55(1), 5–14. https://doi.org/10.1037//0003-066x.55.1.5 seligman, m.e.p., parks, a.c., & steen, t. (2004). a balanced psychology and a full life. philosophical transactions-royal society of london series b biological sciences, 359, 1379–1382. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2004.1513 shaw, j., & newton, j. (2014). teacher retention and satisfaction with a servant leader as principal. education, 135(1), 101–106. sheldon, k.m., & elliot, a.j. (1999). goal striving, need satisfaction, and longitudinal well-being: the self-concordance model. journal of personality and social psychology, 76(3), 482–497. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.76.3.482 sirmon, d.g., hitt, m.a., arregle, j.l., & campbell, j.t. (2010). the dynamic interplay of capability strengths and weaknesses: investigating the bases of temporary competitive advantage. strategic management journal, 31(13), 1386–1409. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.893 sjöberg, a., & sverke, m. (2000). the interactive effect of job involvement and organizational commitment on job turnover revisited: a note on the mediating role of turnover intention. scandinavian journal of psychology, 41(3), 247–252. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9450.00194 skaalvik, e.m., & skaalvik, s. (2009). does school context matter? relations with teacher burnout and job satisfaction. teaching and teacher education, 25(3), 518–524. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2008.12.006 skaalvik, e.m., & skaalvik, s. (2011). teacher job satisfaction and motivation to leave the teaching profession: relations with school context, feeling of belonging, and emotional exhaustion. teaching and teacher education, 27(6), 1029–1038. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2011.04.001 skaalvik, e.m., & skaalvik, s. (2014). teacher self-efficacy and perceived autonomy: relations with teacher engagement, job satisfaction, and emotional exhaustion. psychological reports, 114(1), 68–77. https://doi.org/10.2466/14.02.pr0.114k14w0 slade, m. (2010). mental illness and well-being: the central importance of positive psychology and recovery approaches. bmc health services research, 10(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-10-26 spreitzer, g., sutcliffe, k., dutton, j., sonenshein, s., & grant, a.m. (2005). a socially embedded model of thriving at work. organization science, 16(5), 537–549. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1050.0153 storm, k., & rothmann, s. (2003). a psychometric analysis of the utrecht work engagement scale in the south african police service. sa journal of industrial psychology, 29(4), 62–70. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v29i4.129 swanson, r.a., & holton, e.f., iii. (2001). foundations of human resource development. san francisco, ca: berret-koehler. trochim, w.m.k., & donnelly, j.p. (2007). the research methods knowledge base (3rd edn.). mason, oh: thompson custom solutions. van de schoot, r., lugtig, p., & hox, j. (2012). a checklist for testing measurement invariance. european journal of developmental psychology, 9(4), 486–492. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2012.686740 van ruysseveldt, j., proost, k., & verboon, p. (2011). the role of work-home interference and workplace learning in the energy-depletion process. management revue, 22(2), 151–168. https://doi.org/10.1688/1861-9908 van woerkom, m., bakker, a.b., & nishii, l.n. (2015a). accumulative job demands and support for strength use: fine-tuning the job demands-resources model using conservation of resources theory. journal of applied psychology, 101(1), 141–150. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000033 van woerkom, m., & meyers, m.c. (2015). my strengths count! effects of a strengths-based psychological climate on positive affect and job performance. human resource management, 54(1), 81–103. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21623 van woerkom, m., mostert, k., els, c., bakker, a.b., & de beer, l.t. (2016). strengths use and deficit correction in organizations: development and validation of a questionnaire. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 25(6), 960–975. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2016.1193010 van woerkom, m., oerlemans, w.g.a., & bakker, a.b. (2015b). strengths use and work engagement: a weekly diary study. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 25(3), 384–397. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2015.1089862 wood, a.m., linley, p.a., maltby, j., kashdan, t.b., & hurling, r. (2011). using personal and psychological strengths leads to increases in well-being over time: a longitudinal study and the development of the strengths use questionnaire. personality and individual differences, 50, 15–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.08.004 wood, a.m., & tarrier, n. (2010). positive clinical psychology: a new vision and strategy for integrated research and practice. clinical psychology review, 30(7), 819–829. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2010.06.003 xanthopoulou, d., bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2007). the role of personal resources in the job demands-resources model. international journal of stress management, 14(2), 121–141. https://doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.14.2.121 abstract introduction literature review research design research method results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) magda l. bezuidenhout department of human resource management, university of south africa, south africa mark h.r. bussin department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa mariette coetzee department of human resource management, university of south africa, south africa citation bezuidenhout, m.l., bussin, m.h.r., & coetzee, m. (2018). the chief executive officer pay–performance relationship within south african state-owned entities. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a983. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.983 original research the chief executive officer pay–performance relationship within south african state-owned entities magda l. bezuidenhout, mark h.r. bussin, mariette coetzee received: 31 july 2017; accepted: 12 feb. 2018; published: 14 may 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: over the years, the increase in executive remuneration in state-owned entities (soes) has been the subject of intense discussions. the poor performance of some soes with highly remunerated executives begs the question of whether chief executive officers in south african soes deserve the high levels of remuneration they receive. research purpose: this study examined the relationship between chief executive remuneration and several measures of company performance across schedule 2 soes within south africa. motivation for the study: notwithstanding the widely publicised poor performance of south african soes, their importance and relevance remains evident. regrettably, the literature on what fundamentally drives their performance is lacking. research design, approach and method: this quantitative, longitudinal study, conducted over a 9-year period, collected secondary data from the annual reports of 18 schedule 2 soes. the primary statistical technique used in the study was ordinary least square (ols) multiple regression analysis on a pooled dataset. chief executive remuneration consisted of fixed salary and total remuneration. main findings: a relationship was found between chief executive remuneration and company performance, although mainly an inverse relationship. practical and managerial implications: the improved understanding and knowledge of the relationship between chief executive remuneration and soe performance may be used by the organisation and hr practitioners to direct and inform strategies for organisational effectiveness and business excellence. contribution or value-add: this research provides new knowledge to the limited research available on soes in south africa. further, it reveals an unexplored area of potential research, that is, the importance of irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure as a performance measure in soes. introduction key focus of the study questions such as ‘are south african executives’ packages linked to performance?’ come to mind when reading various newspapers, as well as academic and business articles. concerns regarding excessive remuneration packages of chief executive officers (ceos) have been added to an ongoing concern about the widening gap between the remuneration of executives and ordinary employees, as well as their large termination payments with a perceived lack of justification (theunissen, 2010). the focus of this study was schedule 2 state-owned entities (soes) in south africa. state-owned entities play a vital role in the economies of many countries, and the outrage over what many consider to be excessive ceo remuneration warrants research and plays an important role throughout south africa (corporate governance of state-owned enterprises in africa, 2009). despite the highly publicised incompetence and poor performance of some soes, convincing evidence proposes that soes remain relevant (boko & yuan jian, 2011; mbo & adjasi, 2017). crafford (2012) postulates that various stakeholders hold diverse views regarding how soes should benchmark their remuneration. state-owned entities have mostly ignored the remuneration guidelines of the department of public enterprises (dpe), which insists that they need to be benchmarked against the private sector (crafford, 2012). in 2011, a new guideline was established, intended to serve as an improvement on the 2007 guideline. however, not all south african soes adopted and implemented the guidelines (maloa & bussin, 2016, p. 10). background to the study the link between pay and performance has for some time now come under increased scrutiny, from the media and the public as well as from an academic perspective, that excessive remuneration is not aligned with soe performance (21st century pay solutions, 2012). two cases in point follow, the first being the r9467 million total remuneration (tr) that brian molefe – eskom’s former acting ceo – received during the 2015/2016 financial year (peyper, 2016). the tr packages that eskom executives received during the 2015/2016 financial year amounted to r75.33m, compared to the r50.61m paid in the previous financial year (peyper, 2016). second, south african airways’ (saa) former suspended ceo, monwabisi kalawe, received almost r2.7m after his resignation (majangaza, 2015). over and above the millions of rands paid out to soe ceos, government has had to ‘bail out’ a number of soes over the years to keep them afloat. for example, during 2015, eskom received a r23 billion bailout from government (fripp, 2015). south african airways has been surviving on state-guaranteed loans for the past few years. in addition, saa posted a loss of r1.5bn in the 2015/2016 financial year (gerber, 2016). during 2017, the south african government announced that saa will receive an undisclosed sum from the national revenue fund in order to pay back loans of approximately r2.3bn to standard chartered bank (rothpletz, 2017). rothpletz (2017) reports that saa, in total, has borrowed r19bn from government. state-owned entities, unlike private companies, receive the larger part of their revenue from the national treasury (who collects from the taxpayer) and are supposed to serve the public. however, the remuneration of top executives in soes seems to be competing with that of private companies. consequently, consumers pay high tariffs for the products and services of soes such as eskom, while consumers should be benefiting from the funding paid to eskom by south africa’s national treasury (ngwenya & khumalo, 2012). in addition, the remuneration of ceos of soes is of special importance to sustainable public service provision (ngwenya & khumalo, 2012; papenfuss & schmidt, 2016). research purpose the focus of this study was on schedule 2 soes in south africa. taking into consideration the important role that soes play in the economic prosperity of a country, the outrage over what many consider to be excessive ceo remuneration warrants research. the main problem, which informed the present study, is therefore the excessive remuneration packages that ceos in soes receive, despite poor performance, and government ‘bail out’ of some of these soes. trends from the research literature from past research on executive remuneration and company performance, there seems to be no real consensus on the relationship between executive remuneration and company performance. this is partially because of the diverse set of disciplines involved in these studies and the wide variety of methods used to investigate the questions (florin, hallock & webber, 2010). in addition, for the private sector there are numerous studies in scientific journals on the level, design and determinants of executive directors’ remuneration (bussin & nel, 2015; jensen & murphy, 2004; jeppson, smith & stone, 2009; ngwenya & khumalo, 2012). however, with regard to studies on soes, the literature reports on very few empirical studies (papenfuss & schmidt, 2016). research objectives the primary research objective was to determine whether there is a relationship between ceo remuneration and soes’ performance over a 9-year period (2006–2014). further, in view of the importance and the important role soes play, it becomes important to understand the measures that drive their performance. however, this remains a poorly researched area in organisational science (mbo & adjasi, 2017). the secondary research objectives were to determine the following: the relationship between ceos’ fixed pay (fp) and the soes’ performance the relationship between ceos’ tr and the soes’ performance. potential value-add of the study this study contributes to the knowledge on the relationship between ceo remuneration and the performance of schedule 2 soes in south africa. in addition, there is insufficient understanding of what combination of variables positively influences soe performance (mbo & adjasi, 2017). this research therefore sought to contribute to an enhanced understanding in this respect. this research will be of particular interest to investors and other stakeholders, such as unions and regulators, who expect ceos’ remuneration to be aligned with the soes’ performance. a contemporary statistical package, named eviews, was used in analysing the data. eviews is specifically designed to analyse longitudinal panel data, unlike the traditional spss, which is not specifically designed for this set of data. a more detailed review of the literature follows in the next section. the research design section outlines the longitudinal, quantitative, archival research method selected and describes the statistical analysis employed. the results of the study are then presented and discussed. the article concludes with a brief discussion of the research limitations and practical implications for remuneration practitioners. literature review chief executive officer remuneration constructs executive remuneration refers to the fp, short-term incentives and long-term incentives (ltis), and related benefits awarded to those who occupy the most senior decision-making positions in private and public-sector enterprises (bussin, 2011). the design of remuneration schemes is a key factor that affects the behaviour and awareness for acting in accordance with the overriding aims of the public authority. moreover, pay seems key in attracting, recruiting and retaining executives in the public management environment. this is especially true where executives need to be recruited from the private sector (jerry, pan & tian, 2011; ngwenya & khumalo, 2012; papenfuss & schmidt, 2016). walker (2010) concurs with this notion and postulates that companies can attract the best executives by providing a competitive remuneration package. for the purpose of this article, the focus is on fp and tr. these can be defined as follows: fp/salary: it is the guaranteed base pay that executives receive. this is normally a risk-free monthly payment (ellig, 2007). tr: it includes fp plus short-term incentives (21st century pay solutions, 2010). this component is also known as the total cost of employment. attractive ceo remuneration packages are created to ensure that the company is able to attract and retain the best possible ceos (bussin & modau, 2015). in their study, maloa and bussin (2016) found that attractive remuneration packages are determined to a large extent by the size of the organisation, type of industry and job function. organisational performance measures researchers generally use financial performance as a measure of company performance (demirer & yuan, 2013). numerous studies have used accounting-based measures, such as net profit (np), return on equity (roe) and return on assets (roa), together with market-based measures, such as stock price and total shareholder return, as measures of company performance (nourayi & mintz, 2008). papenfuss and schmidt (2016) posit that 9 out of 11 studies on soes used financial performance ratios (measures by accounting and/or stock return) to examine the pay–performance relationship. nearly all studies of soes used financial figures to examine associations between company performance and the level of ceo remuneration, for example, otieno (2011), minhat and abdullah (2014), he, conyon and shaw (2013), ngwenya and khumalo (2012) and mbo and adjasi (2014). however, despite the numerous studies, there seems to be limited consensus on the optimal measure of company performance (bussin & modau, 2015). the link between chief executive officer remuneration and company performance pay–performance sensitivity refers to the relationship between remuneration outcomes and measures of company performance, with not one conclusive measure but rather a broad set of variables (bussin, 2015). several research studies have shown the diverse nature and contrasting results of the study. with regard to the private sector, many south african empirical studies (i.e. bradley, 2011; bussin & blair, 2015; bussin & modau, 2015; scholtz & smit, 2012; theku, 2014) and international empirical studies (inter alia, gigliotti, 2012; murphy, 1985; otieno, 2011; tariq, 2010; tian, 2013) have investigated the pay–performance relationship of ceo remuneration. the majority of these scientific studies did not provide evidence of a concrete pay–performance relationship with regard to the private sector. as opposed to studies that focused on the private sector, there are very few empirical studies for soes regarding the relationship between ceo remuneration and company performance. in fact, maloa and bussin (2016) concluded that the literature in scientific journals on the subject of the investigation of executive remuneration in south african soes is limited. international studies, such as minhat and abdullah (2014), he et al. (2013), jerry et al. (2011) as well as kato and long (2006), considered listed soes from the national government level of asian countries. from a south african perspective, studies conducted on soes include otieno (2011), ngwenya and khumalo (2012) and maloa (2015). however, maloa’s study focused on the transformation as an element of executive remuneration in south african soes. interestingly, mbo and adjasi (2017) argue that a developing view could be that soes do perform well depending on the variables used to measure performance. a number of researchers concluded that there is a positive relationship between ceo remuneration and company performance (dai, 2014; demirer & yuan, 2013; jensen & murphy, 1990; murphy, 1985; ozkan, 2011; zigler, 2011). the bulk of these studies were conducted in the uk and the usa. studies conducted on soes, and where a positive relationship was found between ceo remuneration and company performance, are those reported by xin and tan (2009) and chen, ezzamel and cai (2011). otieno (2011) and ngwenya and khumalo (2012) conducted studies on south african soes. otieno (2011), aimed to determine the relationship between financial performance and executive remuneration in south african soes within the context of the agency theory. otieno’s (2011) findings revealed a positive relationship between executive remuneration and company performance. ngwenya and khumalo (2012) found a positive relationship between ceo remuneration (base salary) and the size of soes as measured by total revenue and number of employees. in a brazilian study conducted by krauter and de sousa (2013) during the period 2006–2007, no significant relationship was found between executive remuneration and corporate financial performance of sales growth and roe. in south africa, bussin and nel (2015) found a negative relationship between roe and the guaranteed cost to company of the ceos in the south african retail and consumer goods sector. supporting this evidence, kyalo (2015) found a weak negative relationship between executive remuneration and financial performance. minhat and abdullah (2014) found no evidence of a pay-performance relationship in listed chinese soes. ngwenya and khumalo (2012) found no positive relationship between ceo remuneration and soe performance in south africa (measured with roa). in another south african study, bradley (2013) investigated the relationship between ceo remuneration and company performance in the 40 largest public companies listed on the johannesburg stock exchange for a 5-year period. bradley (2013) found no relationship between ceo remuneration and measures of performance such as roe, roa, and earnings per share. osei-bonsu and lutta (2016) examined the effectiveness of using ceo cash remuneration schemes in improving company performance in emerging markets. osei-bonsu and lutta (2016) found no significant relationship between cash remuneration and roa or roe. papenfuss and schmidt (2016) examined the pay-performance relationship of executive directors from 176 soes in 11 sectors. they found no significant link between financial performance ratios (roa and roe) and the remuneration of executive directors. it is evident that research conducted to establish the link between ceo remuneration and company performance metrics is inconclusive and that the results vary depending on the country, industry sector and the selected performance measures that were investigated (bussin & blair, 2015). furthermore, the extent to which previous studies can aid the understanding of company performance in the context of soes remains a relatively unexplored area. research design research approach the research approach decided upon was a longitudinal, empirical quantitative study aimed at assessing the relationship between ceo remuneration and measures of company performance. this research was further a desktop study, archival in nature, using secondary data gathered from annual reports. research method research participants the research data utilised were obtained from schedule 2 soes in south africa for the period 2006–2014. the combined number of schedule 2 soes were 21 as per the department of national treasury as on 30 april 2015 (see table 1). the reason for using schedule 2 soes for the purposes of this study was because these soes were (1) financially and operationally independent, (2) able to operate according to ordinary business principles and (3) self-funded (public financial management act, 1999). the number of schedule 2 soes, the number of company performance measures used and the 9-year period (a large enough period) were seen as being sufficient for the research. table 1: schedule 2 public entities as at 30 april 2015. because of the small target population, a sampling methodology was not employed and the entire population of 21 soes was used in the study. these 21 soes were subjected to the following criteria for inclusion in the study: the annual reports had to be available on either the mcgregor bfa database or the soe’s website. soes had to have a 9-year financial history, which had to include the ceos’ remuneration. after implementing the selection criteria, 18 of the 21 schedule 2 soes were included in the study. measuring variables the dependent variables for this study were the various components of ceo remuneration such as fp and tr. in studies with the aim of determining the relationship between ceo remuneration and the financial performance of an organisation, it would be ideal to include ltis (lippert & porter, 1997; murphy, 1985). yet, as bussin and modau (2015) concluded, measuring ltis has proven to be difficult and uncertain. long-term incentives are based on future performance targets only by the time tr is awarded. it has therefore become standard practice to omit ltis in analysing pay–performance relationships (bussin & modau, 2015). in addition, soes are not listed on the johannesburg stock exchange and only a few soes provide lti schemes. the independent variables considered were the financial performances of the soes. this research approached the analyses of company performance from an organisational theory perspective, borrowing from research conducted by the dpe on variables known to drive soe performance under its jurisdiction. the performance measures used in the study included the following: turnover is the money generated by a company through its business activities during a specific period. operating profit/loss (also termed operating income) is the profit/loss from a company’s regular primary business operations. it is an indicator of the profitability of a company’s basic business activities and displays the relationship between revenue earned and expenses incurred in producing this revenue (williams, haka, bettner & carcello, 2006). np/loss (also termed net income) represents the overall increase (or decrease) in owners’ equity from all profit-directed activities during a period. this measurement offers an indication of management’s proficiency in controlling expenses and retaining a realistic share of its revenue as profit (williams et al., 2006). liquidity ratio (lr) is a company’s ability to pay its short-term liabilities with its current assets (williams et al., 2006). literature suggests that company liquidity is a critical resource in influencing performance in the context of a generic enterprise (see mbo & adjasi, 2017). solvency ratio is the ratio between the total liabilities of a business and its total assets. it is a measure of solvency and of a creditor’s long-term risk. return on capital employed (roce) is a financial ratio that measures a company’s profitability and the effectiveness with which its capital is employed. return on capital employed is particularly useful for comparing the performance of companies in capital-intensive sectors such as utilities and telecoms. return on equity is the amount of net income returned as a percentage of shareholders equity (bussin & modau, 2015). papenfuss and schmidt (2016) posit that roe is commonly used as a financial goal/criteria for soes as well as in day-to-day operations. audit opinion (ao) is a certification of financial statements prepared by an independent auditor. the auditor’s opinion will set out the scope of the audit and the auditor’s opinion of the procedures and records used to generate the financial statements. an ao is a good indication of how responsibly the soe applies accounting and financial controls. no previous studies included the ao as a company performance measure. audit opinion was tested using dummy variables, because of its categorical nature, with ao 3 (adverse opinion) being the reference category. irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure (ifwe) is an expenditure made in vain, which could have been avoided had reasonable care been exercised. in most part, such expenditure is incurred because of non-compliance with legislation (auditor-general south africa, 2012). for the purpose of this research, total ifwe was used. table 2 shows how each of the independent variables were calculated and recorded. table 2: measurement of independent variables. research procedure the relationship between the ceo remuneration and measures of company performance were observed over a period of 9 years (2006–2014.) the 9-year period was considered adequate to ensure limited influence of short-term irregularities, while being short enough to provide reliable estimates of the research concepts (bussin & modau, 2015). the researchers sourced data from annual financial statements in the annual reports of the soes under study. using secondary data ensured that the data was readily available and would be of a higher quality than primary data because of the data being reported in a standardised manner, rather than for a particular objective (otieno, 2011; swatdikun, 2013). the remuneration and financial data used were reflected as at 31 march of each year (the financial year-end of the soes). in calculating fp and tr, ceo turnover was taken into account because ceos changed during some financial years. chief executive officer remuneration values may therefore not have been in respect of a full financial year (01 april–31 march) or of their functions as ceo. of the 162 (18 soes, 9 years) panel observations, there were 36 cases where ceo positions changed. to compensate for these changes, the researchers included the information of the ceo who had been in the position for the longest time during the financial year. in order to (1) not exclude these observations from the sample, and because the calculations involved were straightforward and (2) for remuneration data not to be misrepresented, the researchers annualised the remuneration to reflect a full year’s remuneration. there were 36 cases where the researchers annualised ceo remuneration (fp and benefits). baptista (2010) applied the same methodology. in six cases the remuneration of the acting ceos was used. in these cases the unadjusted ceo remuneration data were employed. there were also three cases where termination payments were included in the fp portion of the package. in order to not distort the remuneration data, the researchers used fp of the previous year and a percentage package increase calculated for that year. in each of these three cases, the researchers applied the expected salary increase provided in the relevant soes’ annual reports. this method prevented a misrepresentation of the ceo remuneration data, as the remuneration values calculated were in line with the rest of the ceo remuneration data collected for the soes (previous and subsequent years). statistical analysis data were analysed using spss (version 22, for the descriptive analysis) and eviews (version 8) to determine the relationship between ceo remuneration and soe performance. polakow (2015) raised concerns regarding the use of standard statistical techniques in financial analysis that ignore autocorrelation and stationarity. by using eviews, which accommodates panel data and provides the necessary econometric analysis required for this type of data, this research addressed polakow’s (2015, p. 53) concern, which contributes to ‘broad market inefficiency’. the dataset consisted of a panel of 162 observations (18 soes × 9 years). chief executive officer remuneration and company performance components were tested for normality, stationarity (using the augmented dickey–fuller test) and autocorrelation (using the durbin–watson [dw] test). the results of the assumption testing were taken into account in the analysis conducted by choosing the appropriate estimation method. further, the tolerance and variance inflation factor (vif) information in the regression models was used to test for the presence of multicollinearity. multicollinearity occurs when two explanatory variables are highly correlated (r = 0.90) (westhoff, 2013). the presence of such high correlations indicates that variables do not hold any additional information needed in the analysis (tabachnick & fidell, 2013). as a rule of thumb, if the vif of a variable is greater than 10, multicollinearity is present. no multicollinearity problems were identified in the present research. inferential and multivariate statistics were used to permit the researcher to draw conclusions pertaining to the data. for this research, multiple regression analysis was performed to determine the proportion of variance explained by the independent variables (company performance components) in predicting the dependent variables (ceo remuneration components). the pooled ordinary least square (ols) regression model was used and assumed that the independent variables were strictly exogenous to the error terms of the model (gujarati & porter, 2009). further, the multiple regression analyses entered all the independent variables into the equation concurrently. various regression models were run until an optimum model, with the highest adjusted r square value and f-statistic value, was reached. the approach to determine the optimum regression model is an iterative process whereby non-statistical significant independent variables are deleted until the explanatory power does not show an increase and the associated f-statistics of the regression do not show a decrease. it is important to note that a regression model can include statistically significant predictors and non-statistically significant predictors, as the aim of a regression is to determine the optimal set of independent variables that optimise the percentage variance explained. thus, even if some of the measures were not statistically significant, they still contributed to a higher percentage of variance explained, thereby justifying their inclusion. results descriptive statistics the target population was south african schedule 2 soes (n = 21). after applying the elimination process, a sample of 18 schedule 2 soes was identified as usable for the purpose of the study (n = 18). because there were various instances of significant differences in the descriptive results between the means and medians for the ceo remuneration components and company performance, the researchers reported on the medians. medians are not affected by outliers compared to means, and generally when data sets have outliers, reporting the median as the central tendency of the data often gives a better ‘typical’ data value than the mean (weiers, 2010). chief executive officer remuneration components table 3 presents a summary of the descriptive statistics for fp received by ceos in the 18 soes between 2006 and 2014. it is clear that there was an average year-on-year increase of 8% in fp. because fp is often determined according to industry market surveys (murphy, 1999), in most cases fp was not expected to decline during periods of poor financial performance (kuboya, 2014). table 3: chief executive officer fixed pay summary (r’000). figure 1 shows a graphical presentation of the descriptive statistics for ceo fp. while the researcher did not consider inflation, it is evident from the graph that the increase in the mean and median fluctuated throughout the period of analysis. from figure 1 it is evident that ceo fp did not experience the runaway growth claimed in the media. there was a slight increase in the median of fp during 2007, with the highest median of fp being in 2012. figure 1: graphical presentation of the descriptive statistics for chief executive officer fixed pay (2006–2014). table 4 contains a summary of the descriptive statistics for tr received by ceos in the 18 soes between 2006 and 2014. total remuneration experienced an average year-on-year increase of 9% and a total increase of 93% over the period. table 4: chief executive officer total remuneration summary (r’000). figure 2 shows a graphical presentation of the descriptive statistics for ceo tr. from figure 2 it is clear that tr fluctuated during the period under study. the decrease in tr during the 2009/2010 financial year could have been the fallout from the economic recession, while the decline during the 2012/2013 financial year could be attributed to the great number of acting ceos during that period across the 18 soes. figure 2: graphical presentation of the descriptive statistics for chief executive officer total remuneration (2006–2014). company performance measures table 5 presents a summary of the medians (averages) of the descriptive statistics of the company performance components selected for this research study: turnover (t), operating profit (op), np, roce, roe, lr, solvency ratio (sr), ao and ifwe. table 6 contains a summary of the standard deviations for the company performance components. table 5: company performance measures medians. table 6: company performance measures standard deviation. from the descriptive statistics, it is clear that most of the performance measures declined over the 9-year period. the decline in the median measures was as follows: t = 111%, op = 56%, np = 29%, roce = 74% and roe = 52%. on the other hand, median lr rose by 56%, and sr increased by a mere 2% over the period. the relationship between chief executive officer remuneration and company performance the objective of this research was to determine the relationship between ceo remuneration (fp and tr) and the financial performance of south african schedule 2 soes. the results of each of the remuneration components will be discussed in subsequent paragraphs. relationship between fixed pay and company performance the regression model included 144 balanced panel observations and 18 cross-sectional units over a period of 8 years, because of the inclusion of the ar (1) term. five iterations were run to determine the optimum final regression model for fp, with the fifth model being regarded as the optimum model. table 7 provides a summary of each individual regression model (with the t-statistics in parentheses). table 7: regression model: fixed pay and company performance measures. as can be seen in table 7, the dw test statistic was 2.5, indicating no serious serial correlation. model 5 was regarded as the optimum model as the f-statistic increased to 62.54, in conjunction with an improvement of the adjusted r2. the optimum model indicated that 63% (adjusted r2 = 0.63) of the variation in fp was explained by company performance. table 7 further indicates that audit opinion does not play a role in the determination of fp. it was also noted that the coefficient of np was negative for all the models tested. relationship between total remuneration and company performance it is important to note that an amount of r19m tr for one of the soes in the year 2008 was omitted from the regression analysis, as it was identified as an outlier that had a significant impact on the fitting of a representative regression model. the regression model included 142 unbalanced panel observations and 18 cross-sectional units over a period of 9 years. five iterations were run to determine the optimum final regression model for tr. the results of each individual regression model are summarised and presented in table 8 (with the t-statistics in parentheses). table 8: regression: total remuneration and company performance measures. as can be seen from table 8, the dw test statistic was 2.74, indicating no serious serial correlation. the last regression, model 5, in table 8, was regarded as the optimum model, as the f-test statistic increased to 43.41, indicating an optimal fit for the model. further reduction of independent variables resulted in a decrease in the f-statistic and adjusted r2 value. the optimum model also explained 64% (adjusted r2 = 0.64) of the variance in tr. the findings from model 5 indicate that there is a relationship between tr and each of the following components: op, np, lr, roce and ifwe in south african soes. discussion the primary objective of this research study was to determine whether a relationship existed between ceo remuneration components and company performance within schedule 2 south african soes between 2006 and 2014. understanding this relationship is important to justify why ceos receive high remuneration despite the poor performance of soes. the expectation was that there would be a negative (or no relationship) between ceo remuneration components and company performance measures. results indicate that the major determinants of fp among company performance measures were turnover, np and ifwe. however, only the p-values of np and turnover were statistically significant (p < 0.05), suggesting a stronger relationship between fp and these two company performance components. this finding is supported by that of modau (2013) and ndofirepi (2015). however, findings from this research are contrary to that of osei-bonsu and lutta (2016), who found that ceos’ salaries are not linked to company performance. based on the findings of a statistically strong positive relation between fp and turnover, it could be argued that a ceo who generates a higher income for the soe is considered to perform well, for which he or she is rewarded. this could explain the connection between ceo remuneration and company performance, as posited by andersson and andersson (2006). the negative relationship between fp, and np and ifwe, could suggest that ceos were paid for poor performance. this could have created a misalignment between what ceos are being paid and the performance of the soes. the negative relationship of np and ifwe with fp was expected. a possible explanation for the negative relationship could be that the soes’ nps decreased during the study period, and labour costs (such as salaries) increased. the results suggest that for every r1m increase in np, fp decreased by r491 000.00. turnover was positively significantly linked to fp, suggesting that for every r1m increase in turnover, fp increased, on average, by r335 000.00. the results further suggest that higher ifwe will result in lower fp, and vice versa. from the results it is clear that tr had a statistically significant positive relationship with op, a statistically significant negative relationship with np, a positive, non-statistically significant relationship with lr and roce, and a negative, non-statistically significant relationship with ifwe. the statistically significant relationship with op and np suggests a stronger relationship with tr than the other variables. findings of a relationship between tr and liquidity are supported by findings by mbo and adjasi (2017), who found that soe performance is positively correlated to liquidity. tan and peng (2003), as well as miller and leisblein (1996), posited that the positive impact of company liquidity on soe performance can be attributed to the soes’ ability to negotiate early payment discounts and take advantage of resourceful procurement as well as negotiating better supplier terms. the negative relationship between tr and ifwe could suggest that boards and stakeholders reduced tr to penalise soes for loss of crucial political connections as posited by fan, wong and zhang (2007). a company’s political connections may have both direct and indirect effects on changes in executive remuneration (conyon & he, 2016, p. 689). the findings of this research support the findings of previous studies on executive remuneration that found a relationship between tr and company performance (although those authors conducted these studies in the private sector or in different sectors to that of the present study). for example, jeppson et al. (2009) found that company revenue was the only statistically significant variable that predicted tr (with an r2 of only 0.10). in his study, modau (2013) found a positive relationship between tr and roe. scholtz and smit (2012) found a strong relationship between tr and turnover. the findings of the present research – that there is a positive relationship with op – support the findings of sigler (2011), nel (2012), van blerck (2012) and modau (2013). the results regarding the relationship between tr and some of the components of company performance are worrying because of their inverse relationship. this is especially true for np and roce. roce is a good indication of the financial performance of soes with significant debt. peyper (2017) reported that nine soes had debts of close to r700bn in the 2015/2016 financial year. because roce decreased by 73% over the 9-year period, the inverse relationship with tr suggests that even though soes could not manage their debt and pay back their loans, tr increased. practical implications from a practical point of view, this research identified certain performance measures that are of importance in determining ceo remuneration. state-owned entity boards and remuneration committees should meticulously consider turnover, op, np, liquidity and ifwe when determining ceo remuneration. this study therefore determined specific performance indicators affecting ceo remuneration in soes. by using these performance measures, soe remuneration committees can determine the relationship between ceo remuneration and company performance based on reliable and statistically defensible measures. further, by using these measures, soe management can ensure that the correct measures are used to determine the remuneration components. in addition, the value of this research is that remuneration committees and soe boards now have empirical evidence to determine ceo remuneration according to performance measures that are positive and significant to schedule 2 soes. if these measures are implemented within soes, they could be considered to enhance the code in king iv. based on the research findings, a framework merging financial measures needs to be developed and formalised with a link to soe objectives. the frameworks, with clear performance measures linked to them, should be effectively monitored under a governance structure. limitations and recommendations the research was limited to south african schedule 2 soes and therefore excluded all other public entities. the conclusions may therefore not be generalisable to other entities without more research. in addition, this research only investigated the specific relationship between company performance and ceo pay and did not include information on the causal factors influencing ceo remuneration and the financial performance of the organisation. another limitation could be the use of profitability as a measure of company performance. this is subject to criticism, as executives can manipulate profitability indicators (attaway, 2000; ngwenya & khumalo, 2012). therefore, the use of these measures in the present study could have had an effect on the results. it is recommended that future studies focus on the specific industries within which soes operate. this recommendation is based on findings from, for example, duffhues and kabir (2008), as well as goh and gupta (2010), who found that the type of industry within which a company operates significantly influences the ceos’ remuneration. in addition, the relevance of ifwe in relation to the components of ceo remuneration in soes was noted. however, there is a paucity of literature that either supports or disagrees with this finding. it is therefore recommended that future studies explore this relationship in more depth. as conyon (2006) suggested, financial incentives are only one factor motivating executives. executives are as likely to be motivated by other factors such as intrinsic factors of the job, career concerns, social norms and the like. it is therefore recommended that future studies include these factors in their study. conclusion in this study, the researchers sought to contribute to the understanding of the relationship between ceo remuneration and the performance of south african soes. the results of abundant empirical research examining the relationship are surprisingly inconsistent and, at times, even contradictory. this research contributes towards filling an important gap in organisational performance literature. it does so from two unique perspectives. firstly, it introduces an soe-specific focus to the examination of organisational performance measures. secondly, it reviews multiple performance variables in determining company performance with emphasis on how the multiple variables are linked. while the results of the present study suggest that there is a relationship between the ceos’ remuneration and soes’ performance, the high ceo remuneration despite declining soe performance during the study period is a concern. moreover, the evidence of a negative relationship between the ceos’ remuneration and measures of the soes’ performance suggests that the ceos’ remuneration is not aligned with all of the soes’ performance measures. this may be a contributing factor with regard to poor performance of south african soes. even though ceo remuneration may not be excessive, the absence of a link between company performance and the remuneration of ceos is concerning. the results therefore confirm that dissatisfaction with the ceos’ remuneration may be justified. this indicates that challenges still exist in maintaining a link between company performance and ceo remuneration. furthermore, the results of this research indicate that there is a need in south africa to link company performance with ceos’ and executives’ pay through adherence to the recommendations of king iv. never in the history of south africa has it been more important to ensure that executive remuneration is aligned to company performance. this is because of the prevailing economic climate, as well as the high levels of unemployment and social unrest. high executive remuneration that is not linked to company performance poses a long-term risk, not only to the continued existence of soes, but also to broader society. until executive remuneration is perceived to be fair and aligned with company performance, it will continue to receive intense criticism from unions, regulators, shareholders and the public. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge and thank dr marthi pohl for the valuable contribution and assistance with regard to the statistical analysis. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions this research is based on the phd study of m.l.b., of which m.h.r.b. was the supervisor and m.c. was the co-supervisor. m.l.b. wrote the article and m.h.r.b. and m.c. provided editorial inputs. references 21st century pay solutions. (2010). global reward trends. johannesburg. retrieved from https://www.21century.co.za/global-reward-trends/ 21st century pay solutions. (2012). presidential review committee on state-owned entities: strategic management and operational effectiveness (‘some’) work streams of state-owned entities: development of remuneration practices and policies in soes to enable harmonisation amongst soes in south africa. retrieved from http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/electronicreport/downloads/volume_4/strategic_management_operational_effectiveness/prc_project_document_february_2012.pdf andersson, c., & andersson, j. (2006). are ceos paid for performance? or do they expropriate shareholders wealth? master’s thesis, school of economics and management, lund university. retrieved from http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadfile&recordoid=1341526&fileoid=2434764 attaway, m. c. (2000). a study of the relationship between company performance and ceo compensation. american business review, 18(1), 77–85. auditor-general south africa. (2012). consolidated general report on the national and provincial audit outcomes. pfma 2012–2013. retrieved from http://www.agsa.co.za/portals/0/pfma2012-3/2012_13_pfma_consolidated_general_report.pdf auditor-general south africa (agsa). (2014). audit terminology: the three aspects we audit. retrieved from http://www.agsa.co.za/auditinformation/auditterminology.aspx baptista, m. (2010). ceo compensation and firm performance. unpublished msc thesis, hec, paris. boko, f., & yuan jian, q. (2011). failure of state-owned enterprises in benin. in management and service science, proceedings of the international conference, (pp. 1–4). wuhan: ieee. bradley, s. (2011). chief executive compensation and the effect on company performance in a south african context. master of commerce thesis, rhodes university. bradley, s. (2013). the relationship between ceo compensation and company performance in a south african context. journal of economic and financial sciences, 6(3), 539–564. bussin, m. (2011). the remuneration handbook for africa: a practical and informative handbook for managing and recognition in africa. randburg: knowres publishing. bussin, m. (2015). ceo pay-performance sensitivity in the south african context. sajems, 18(2), 232–244. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v18i2.838 bussin, m., & blair, c. (2015). financial indicators of company performance in different industries that affect ceo remuneration in south africa. sajems, 4, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v18i4.1249 bussin, m., & modau, m. f. (2015). the relationship between chief executive officer remuneration and financial performance in south africa between 2006 and 2012. sa journal of human resource management, 13(1), art. #668, 1–18. https://doi.org/10/4102/sajhrm.v13i1.668 bussin, m., & nel, m. (2015). relationship between ceo remuneration and company financial performance in the south african retail and consumer goods sector. south african journal of human resource management, 15(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v15i1.240 chen, j., ezzamel, m., & cai, z. (2011). managerial power theory, tournament theory and executive pay in china. journal of corporate finance, 17(4), 1176–1199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2011.04.008 conyon, m. (2006). executive compensation and incentives. academy of management perspectives 25–43. retrieved from http://www.lse.ac.uk/fmg/researchprogrammes/corporatefinance/corporategovernance/pdf/executivecompensationandincentives.pdf conyon, m. j., & he, l. (2016). executive remuneration and corporate fraud in china. journal of business ethics, 134(4), 669–691. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2390-6 corporate governance of state-owned enterprises in africa. (2009). retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/daf/ca/corporategovernanceofstate-ownedenterprises/42713426.pdf crafford, d. (2012). soe remuneration and wage gap analysis. position paper prepared for the presidential soe review committee. retrieved from http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/electronicreport/downloads/volume_3/strategic_management_operationala_effectiveness/remuneration_policies_of_soes_taking_into_account_wage.doc dai, y. (2014). research on influencing factors of executive compensation in china’s monopoly industries. open journal of business and management, 2(3), 210–218. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojbm.2014.23026 demirer, i., & yuan, j. j. (2013). executive compensation structure and firm performance in the u.s. restaurant industry: an agency theory approach. journal of foodservice business research, 15(5), 421–438. duffhues, p., & kabir, r. (2008). is the pay-performance relationship always positive? evidence from the netherlands. journal of multinational financial management, 18, 45–60. retrieved from http://www:elsevier.com/locate/econbase ellig, b. r. (2007). the complete guide to executive compensation. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill. fan, j., wong, t. j., & zhang, t. (2007). politically connected ceos, corporate governance, and post-ipo performance of china’s newly partially privatized firms. journal of financial economics, 84, 330–357. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2006.03.008 florin, b., hallock, k. f., & webber, d. (2010). executive pay and firm performance: methodological considerations and future directions. conrnell university, ilr school. retrieved from http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=cri fripp, c. (2015, june 25). eskom to receive r23 billion-government bailout. htxt.africa. retrieved from http://www.htxt.co.za/2015/06/25/eskom-to-receive-r23-billion-government-bailout/ gerber, j. (2016, september 30). saa’s financials for 2016 show a ‘pleasing’ r1.5bn loss. city press. retrieved from http://city-press.news24.com/news/saas-financials-for-2016-show-a-pleasing-r15bn-loss-20160930 gigliotti, m. (2012). the compensation of top managers and the performance of italian firms. the international journal of human resource management, 889–907. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.702317 goh, l., & gupta, a. (2010). executive compensation, compensation consultants, and shopping for opinion: evidence from the united kingdom. journal of accounting, auditing and finance, 25, 607–643. https://doi.org/10.1177/0148558x1002500407 gujarati, d. n., & porter, d. c. (2009). basic econometrics (5th edn.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill international edition. he, c. j., conyon, m. j., & shaw, t. s. (2013). informativeness of performance measures and chinese executive compensation measures and chinese executive compensation. asia pacific journal of management, 30(4), 1031–1058. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-013-9353-9 henderson, k. j. (2014). what are the 4 types of audit reports? retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/4-types-audit-reports-3794.html international standard on auditing 706 (revised). (2016). emphasis of matter paragraphs and other matter paragraphs in the independent auditor’s report. retrieved from https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:fmjsnezei3uj:https://www.irba.co.za/upload/isa-706-revised.pdf+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=za jensen, m. c., & murphy, k. j. (1990). performance pay and top management incentives. journal of political economy, 98(2), 225–264. https://doi.org/10.1086/261677 jensen, m. c., & murphy, k. j. (2004). remuneration: where we’ve been, how we got to here, what are the problems, and how to fix them. finance working paper no, 44/2004. retrieved from http://www.nccr-finrisk.uzh.ch/media/pdf/jensenpaper.pdf jeppson, c. t., smith, w. w., & stone, r. s. (2009). ceo compensation and firm performance: is there any relationship? journal of business & economics research, 7(11), 81–93. jerry, c., pan, x., & tian, g. (2011). disproportional ownership structure and pay-performance relationship. china journal of corporate finance, 17(3), 541–554. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2011.02.006 kato, t., & long, c. (2006). corporate governance in china: evidence from firms listed in shanghai and shenzhen stock exchanges. economic development and cultural change, 54(4), 945–983. https://doi.org/10.1086/503583 krauter, e., & de sousa, a. f. (2013). executive compensation and corporate financial performance: empirical evidences on brazilian industrial companies. journal of modern accounting and auditing, 9(5), 650–661. kuboya, d. (2014). a critical analysis of executive remuneration and company performance for south african listed companies. unpublished master’s of business administration thesis, university of stellenbosch. kyalo, b. m. (2015). relationship between executive compensation and financial performance of commercial state-owned enterprises in the energy sector in kenya. unpublished mba research report. school of business, university of nairobi, kenya. retrieved from http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/bitstream/handle/11295/94500/kyalo_relationship%20between%20executive%20compensation.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y lippert, r. l., & porter, g. (1997). understanding ceo pay: a test of two pay-to-performance sensitivity measures with alternative measures of alignment and influence. journal of business research, 40(2), 127–138. https://doi.org.10.1016.2963(96)00283-4 majangaza, s. (2015, april 29). saa ceo settles for r2.7m pay-out. dispatch live. retrieved from http://www.dispatchlive.co.za/business/2015/04/29/saa-ceo-settles-for-r2-7m-payout/ maloa, f. (2015). transformation as an element of executive remuneration in south african state-owned entities. problems and perspectives in management, 13(4), 43–52. retrieved from https://businessperspectives.org/journals_free/ppm/2015/ppm_2015_04_maloa.pdf maloa, f., & bussin, m. (2016). determinants of executive compensation in south african state-owned enterprises. south african journal of labour relations, 40(1), 8–24. mbo, m., & adjasi, m. j. (2014). drivers of organisational performance: a state-owned enterprise’s perspective. the biennial convergence of the economic society of south africa. university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa. mbo, m., & adjasi, c. (2017). drivers of organizational performance in state-owned enterprises. international journal of productivity and performance management, 66(3), 405–423. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-11-2015-0177 miller, k. d., & leisblein, m. j. (1996). corporate risk-return relations: returns variability versus downside risk. academy of management journal, 39(1), 91–122. https://doi.org/10.2307/256632 minhat, m., & abdullah, m. (2014). executive compensation in government-linked companies: evidence from malaysia. applied economics, 46(16), 1861–1872. https://doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2014.887192 modau, m. f. (2013). the relationship between chief executive officer (ceo) remuneration and financial performance of an organisation. unpublished mba thesis, gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria. murphy, k. j. (1985). corporate performance and managerial remuneration: an empirical analysis. journal of accounting and economics, 7(1), 11–42. https://doi.org.1016-4101(85)90026-6 murphy, k. j. (1999). executive compensation. in o. c. ashenfelter & d. card (eds.), handbook of labor economics (pp. 2485–2536). part b. elsevier. retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s15744699300249 national treasury. (2015). public institutions listed in pfma schedule 1, 2, 3a, 3b, 3c and 3d. retrieved april 30, 2015, from http://www.treasury.gov.za/legislation/pfma/public%20entities/2015-04-30%20public%20institutions%20sch%201-3d.pdf ndofirepi, t. p. (2015). the relationship between ceo compensation and various performance indicators in south africa. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of the witwatersrand, south africa. nel, m. (2012). sensitivity of guaranteed cost to company of ceos in the south african retail and consumer goods sector. unpublished master’s dissertation, gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, pretoria. ngwenya, s., & khumalo, m. (2012). ceo compensation and performance of state-owned enterprises in south africa. corporate ownership and control, 10(1a), 97–109. https://doi.org/10.22495/cocv10i1art9 nourayi, m. m., & mintz, m. (2008). tenure, firm’s performance, and ceo’s compensation. managerial finance, 34(8), 524–536. https://doi.org/10.1108/03074350810874055 osei-bonsu, n., & lutta, j. g. m. (2016). ceo cash compensation and firm performance: an empirical study from emerging markets. business and economic research, 6(2), 79–99. retrieved from http://www.macrothink.org/ber otieno, d. o. a. (2011). the relationship between financial performance and executive remuneration in south african state-owned enterprises: an agency theory perspective. unpublished mcom minor dissertation. university of johannesburg, johannesburg. ozkan, n. (2011). ceo compensation and firm performance: an empirical investigation of uk panel data. european financial management, 17(2), 260–285. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-036x.2009.00511.x papenfuss, u., & schmidt, c. (2016). pay-performance relationship in german state-owned enterprises: evidence and reflection for organizational success research with undistorted and ‘right’ data. corporate ownership & control, 13(2), 336–350. https://doi.org/10.22495/cocv13i2clp3 peyper, l. (2016, october 21). no raise on top of eskom boss brian molefe’s r9.4m salary. fin24. retrieved from http://www.fin24.com/economy/eskom/no-raise-on-top-of-eskom-boss-brian-molefes-r94m-salary-20161021 peyper, l. (2017, june 07). gigaba: (9 soes have debt of close to r700bn. fin24. retrieved from http://www.fin24.com/economy/gigaba-9-soes-have-debt-of-close-to-r700bn-20170607 polakow, d. a. (2015). if a portfolio manager who cannot count fields as a four-leaf clover, is he still lucky? investment analysts journal, 39(72), 53–71. public finance management act 1. (1999). retrieved from http://www.treasury.gov.za/legislation/pfma/act.pdf rothpletz, p. (2017, july 01). treasury announces saa bailout to settle r2.3bn debt. mail & guardian. retrieved from https://mg.co.za/article/2017-07-01-saa-receives-r23bn-bailout scholtz, h. e., & smit, a. (2012). executive remuneration and company performance for south african companies listed on the alternative exchange (altx). southern african business review, 16(1), 22–38. sigler, k. j. (2011). ceo compensation and company performance. business and economics journal, bej-31. retrieved from http://astonjournals.com/manuscripts/vol2011/bej-31_vol2011.pdf south african qualifications authority. (2013). policy on avoidance of irregular, unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful expenditure. retrieved from http://www.saqa.org.za/docs/pol/2014/fpg%2003%20avoidance%20of%20irregular,%20unauthorised,%20fruitless%20and%20wasteful%20expenditure%20-approved%202013-12-04.pdf swatdikun, t. (2013). executive pay-performance sensitivity and its consequences: empirical evidence on the role of ownership in thailand. unpublished doctor of philosophy thesis, university of southampton, school of management. tabachnick, b. g., & fidell, l. s. (2013). using multivariate statistics (6th edn.). boston, ma: pearson. tan, j. & peng, m. w. (2003). organizational slack and firm performance during economic transitions: two studies from an emerging economy. strategic management journal, 24, 1249–1263. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.351 tariq, u. (2010). ceo compensation: relationship with performance and influence of board of directors. unpublished master’s thesis, gotland university, sweden. theku, m. (2014). ceo compensation sensitivity to performance in the south african mining industry. unpublished master’s dissertation, gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria. theunissen, p. (2010). is executive remuneration out of control? computus, bethlehem. retrieved from http://www.computus.co.za/publikasies/ceovreportpdf.pdf tian, y. s. (2013). ironing out the kinks in executive compensation: linking incentive pay to average stock prices. journal of banking and finance, 37, 415–432. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2012.09.025 van blerck, t. g. (2012). the relationship between executive remuneration at financial institutions and economic value added. unpublished master’s of business administration thesis, gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria. walker, d. i. (2010). the law and economics of executive compensation: theory and evidence. boston university school of law working paper no. 10-32, pp. 1–23. retrieved from http://www.bu.edu/law/workingpapers-archive/documents/walkerd100610.pdf weiers, r. m. (2010). introduction to business statistics (7th edn.). mason, ia: south-western cengage learning. westhoff, f. (2013). an introduction to econometrics. cambridge, ma: massachusetts institute of technology. williams, j. r., haka, s. f., bettner, m. s., & carcello, j. v. (2006). financial accounting (12th edn.). new york, ny: mcgraw-hill international edition. xin, q. q., & tan, w. q. (2009). market-oriented reform, firm performance and executive compensation in chinese state-owned enterprises, economic research journal, 11, 99–108. zigler, k. j. (2011). ceo compensation and company performance. business and economics journal, bej-31, 1–8. retrieved from http://astonjournals.com/manuscripts/vol2011/bej-31_vol2011.pdf abstract introduction research method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) nelesh dhanpat department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa faith d. modau department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa phokela lugisani department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa rethabile mabojane department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa mbail phiri department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa citation dhanpat, n., modau, f.d., lugisani, p., mabojane, r., & phiri, m. (2018). exploring employee retention and intention to leave within a call centre. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a905. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.905 original research exploring employee retention and intention to leave within a call centre nelesh dhanpat, faith d. modau, phokela lugisani, rethabile mabojane, mbail phiri received: 24 jan. 2017; accepted: 30 oct. 2017; published: 20 mar. 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: call centre organisations are plagued with high levels of employee turnover and are challenged by effectively retaining their staff. research purpose: the study sets out to establish factors that affect the retention of call centre agents and to determine call centre agents’ intention to leave. research design, approach and method: the study is quantitative in nature, which follows a cross-sectional approach. data were collected using an established questionnaire, the retention factor management scale. psychometric properties of the questionnaire for validity and reliability were assessed using factor analysis and cronbach’s alpha coefficient, respectively, to ensure internal consistency. data were collected using a convenience sample, and the participants of the study are call centre agents. the sample yielded a response rate of 282 respondents. subsequently, data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. main findings: the findings reflect that a relationship between the retention factors and intention to leave exists, whereby compensation contributes the most towards intention to leave. practical and managerial implications: recommendations are made for the retention factors of call centre agents, which when implemented have the potential to enhance employee retention. contribution: the study provided valuable insights to management within call centre organisation towards employee retention and provided recommendations and strategies aligned to factors that will enhance retention, which human resource practitioners need to be cognisant of. introduction the investment in human capital has profound implications for organisations. it is with this in mind that employees are viewed as an asset in any organisation. it can be said that ‘no technology can replace skilled communication, problem solving, and customer focus’ (jacobs & roodt, 2011, p. 1). organisations may find it easier to attract people; however, retaining them may be a great challenge as people are motivated by various factors (grobler, wӓrnich, carrell, elbert & hatfield, 2011). employee retention is considered to be one of the biggest challenges affecting organisations (das, nandialath & mohan, 2013). turnover is a concern in organisations worldwide (amah 2009) which reduces the operating costs of organisations, leaving significant implications with regard to the loss of human capital and interruptions in organisational activities (takawiara, coetzee & schreuder, 2014). issues affecting employee retention include job satisfaction, organisational commitment, emotional labour, person–organisation fit, sense of coherence, perceived organisational support and leader–member relationship (das et al., 2013; goodwin, groth & frenkel, 2011; harry & coetzee, 2013; joāo & coetzee, 2012; mcculloch & turban, 2007; wang, wang, xu & ji, 2014). there are several factors that affect employee retention, which include compensation, career opportunities, material working conditions and training and development (pierre & tremblay, 2011). it is essential that organisations retain talent in order to gain a competitive advantage. essentially, organisations need to focus on retaining skilled employees and keeping them engaged in their jobs. background to study the call centre industry is the world’s fastest growing industry from the beginning of the 21st century (pillay, buitendach & kanengoni, 2014). according to simons and buitendach (2013), the number of employees within the south african call centre sector increased from 50 000 in 2005 to 180 000 in 2010. furthermore, it was predicted that by 2015 approximately 100 000 new jobs would be created in south africa. a call centre is defined as an interactive work environment, whereby call centre agents are the main mediators of business by means of computer-based and telephone-based technologies (pierre & tremblay, 2011). the computer-based and telephone-based technologies enable the fast and efficient distribution of incoming calls and/or allocation of outgoing calls to available staff, and allow for interaction between customer and call centre agent to occur simultaneously with the use of display screen equipment and the instant access to, and inputting of information. the levels of complexity in call centre jobs vary and they comprise unskilled call centre agents and/or highly skilled agents (jacobs & roodt, 2011; pierre & tremblay, 2011). call centre organisations are characterised by high technology-based work, high work pressure and work overload, which lead to stress and burnout, absenteeism and performance problems (simons & buitendach, 2013). this results in employees seeking alternative employment. therefore, call centres need to find ways of retaining their staff. management within the call centres is seen to have power, which is closely linked with that of taylorism (taylor & bain, 1999). with an increase in managerial power, their work is often fragmented by extensive monitoring and controlling of agents through the use of technology, whilst defining practices that may enhance employee well-being and customer satisfaction (neely, bourne & kennerly, 2003). effective managerial skills assist in reducing employee turnover (gayathri, sivaraman & kamalambal, 2012). consequently, ineffective management skills will result in agents becoming frustrated and hence leaving their organisation (tse, huang & lam, 2013). focus of the study the call centre industry is growing enormously. a challenge that exists in most call centre organisations is the extreme employee turnover rates (van rensburg, boonzaier & boonzaier, 2013). according to pierre and tremblay (2011), turnover rates of call centres were 70% and increased by 30% from 2008 to 2011. the work environment is associated with impaired employee well-being, namely, shift work resulting into absenteeism and increased turnover rates. likewise, van rensburg et al. (2013) indicated high stress levels, high employee turnover and emotional burnout as factors associated with call centres. call centre work places a high burden on employees (pillay et al., 2014). previous research identified different factors that contribute to the retention of call centre agents (das et al., 2013; goodwin, groth & frenkel, 2011; harry & coetzee, 2013; joāo & coetzee, 2012, p. 69; mcculloch & turban, 2007; wang et al., 2014). the call centre industry is in a poor state regarding people management practices. managers’ unwillingness to compromise efficiency for quality customer service on the expense of call centre representatives affects the well-being of those representatives (van rensburg et al., 2013). however, it was not indicated which of those factors contributes to the retention of call centre agents within the south african context. therefore, this study aims to identify factors that affect the retention of call centre agents, determine their intention to leave and explore the differences among biographical groups. literature review employee retention fluctuations in the economy, changes in demographics and in businesses locally and abroad, have caused organisations to shift their attention towards the retention of staff. the underlying reason for this is that employees carry the skill sets and knowledge required for optimal organisational functioning (kyndt, dochy, michielsen & moeyaert, 2009). according to kyndt et al. (2009), employees’ knowledge and skills are central to an organisation’s ability to remain economically competitive. jacobs and roodt (2011) stated that the retention of employees has become a challenge. there is a need for retention strategies to keep employees in the organisation by reducing their intention to leave. notably, such strategies are used for managing employees who are talented by trying to keep them in the organisation for a longer period compared to competitors by using strategic retention management initiatives (dhanpat & parumasur, 2014). for an organisation to thrive in the changing world of work, there is a need to attract, develop and retain talent with the right skills and knowledge that will enhance organisational effectiveness and efficiency. pierre and tremblay (2011) argued that call centre managers face the difficulty of retaining their employees, resulting in high turnover rates. in the call centre industry, employee retention still lacks management support and fair labour practices. hence, turnover rates are increasing because of unsatisfactory psychosocial states of call centre agents and work-related stressors. notably, in understanding the challenges faced by organisations to retain employees, it is essential to understand turnover. turnover employee turnover refers to an organisation’s inability to retain their employees. a challenge that exists is the high rate of employee turnover (van rensburg et al., 2013). employee turnover is defined as: the rate at which employees leave the organisation on an annual basis, and this can be expressed as a percentage, by dividing the number of employees who have left over the year by the total number of employees who were with the organisation at the beginning of the year. (altarawmneh & al-kilani, 2010, p. 47) notably, employee turnover stems from employees’ intentions to leave the organisation. intention to leave is defined as ‘an employee’s decision to leave the current job and look onwards to find another job in the near future’ (rizwan, arshad, munir, iqbal & hussain, 2014, p. 4). this decision may be initiated by job dissatisfaction that is caused by work conditions such as lack of work–life balance, less money, boring work, poor supervision and lack of advancement opportunities (smit, stanz & bussin, 2015). call centre work is commonly characterised by such work conditions. the way employees view work has changed in such a way that it is no longer about working just to get paid. rather, employees prefer work that is challenging, offers growth opportunities, compensates fairly and enables them to achieve work–life balance (meier, austin & crocker, 2010). failure for an organisation to meet these needs may lead to an employee’s intention to leave. however, call centre organisations may not be able to meet such needs (simons & buitendach, 2013). hence, managers need to understand why employees want to leave the organisation in order to develop programmes to mitigate their intentions (khan & du, 2014). by doing so, organisations will avoid potential costs associated with replacing employees (van rooyen, du toit, botha & rothmann, 2010). for the purpose of this study, the definition is simplified as the process by which employees move out of the organisation. turnover can be differentiated into voluntary and involuntary, functional and dysfunctional, and avoidable and unavoidable (fleisher, 2011). types of turnover voluntary turnover and involuntary turnover refer to whether or not the termination of contract was initiated by the individual or the organisation (fleisher, 2011; nagadevara, srinivasan & valk, 2008; takawira, coetzee & schreuder, 2014). the process of voluntary turnover begins with the employee, whilst involuntary turnover is initiated by the organisation (allen, bryant & vardaman, 2010). functional turnover and dysfunctional turnover refer to turnover that is desirable in contrast to turnover that is not desirable. functional turnover results when poor performers or employees who do not fit into the culture of the organisation leave the organisation. functional turnover involves employees who can be easily replaced (allen et al., 2010). avoidable turnover and unavoidable turnover involve the viability of an organisation to avoid or prevent turnover (fleisher, 2011). avoidable turnover takes place because of factors that are within the organisation’s capability to change, for example, higher rewards. in contrast, unavoidable turnover takes place because of factors the organisation has no control over such as death of an employee (allen et al. 2010). high turnover rates are a gateway to understaffing resulting in increased workloads to the remaining employees and continuous drain in programme funds, as new employees will need to be recruited, and the entire process of interviews, hiring, placement and induction further strains organisational finances (marinucci et al., 2013). an investigation into retention factors and intention to leave begins to unpack the causes of voluntary, avoidable and dysfunctional turnover. turnover intention turnover intention is defined as ‘the subjective estimation of an individual regarding the probability of leaving the organisation in the near future’ (kashyap & rangnekar, 2014, p. 224), and it focuses on an employee’s decision to quit their job. the decision may be initiated by job dissatisfaction because of lack of appreciation, less money, boring work, poor supervision or inability to take time off (leave) (smit et al., 2015). turnover intention results from a mismatch between the organisation and the individual employee from the concept of person–organisation fit that leads to job dissatisfaction. when an organisation cannot supply what the employee needs, or when the employee cannot supply what the organisation needs, then there is imbalance in the person–organisation relationship (jacobs & roodt, 2011). turnover intentions are likely to lead to voluntary turnover because the decision is initiated by the employee, as compared to the decision being initiated by the organisation, whereby the employer terminates the contract of the employee (allen et al., 2010). the root cause of voluntary turnover may be because of organisational practices such as unfair treatment of employees, and involuntary turnover may be because of the employee’s own doing such as theft or damage of the employer’s property leading the employer to terminate the employment relationship. employees’ general decision to leave the organisation results in them seeking alternative employment or accepting a job offer from another organisation (kashyap & rangnekar, 2014). thus, the retention of employees is necessary as the decision of an employee to stay or leave is potentially costly to the organisation (van rooyen et al., 2010). retention and turnover in the south african call centre industry the growth of the south african call centre industry has been exponential and had an estimated growth of 50 000–180 000 from 2005 to 2010. it was estimated that approximately 100 000 new jobs were created in 2015. in other countries, call centre work is characterised by work overload, fast changing technology, change in product and services, and employees working under pressure. such a working environment is likely to lead to stress, burnout and performance problems (simons & buitendach, 2013). barnes (2013) noted that retaining call centre agents in the industry is challenging because turnover is much higher than in other fields of employment. according to van rensburg et al. (2013), negative issues related to call centre work environments impact the well-being of employees in terms of long hours of work. this results in absenteeism, increased turnover and negative health-related issues leading to high stress levels and hence results in burnout. notably, favourable working conditions create higher job satisfaction and a lower intention to leave. however, the call centre environment is characterised by repetitive and monotonous work, unchallenging work, rigid procedures, use of surveillance, lack of resources, restricted work procedures, unfair labour practices and uninteresting organisation culture. all these correlate with the intention to leave the organisation (barnes, 2013). this background highlights the necessity to identify the factors that influence the retention of call centre agents so that the costs associated with the exiting of employees in the organisation can be reduced (barnes, 2013). there is a need to identify factors affecting the retention of employees, and hence it may enhance retention strategies such as compensation, job content, training and development, supervisory support, career advancement and work–life balance. compensation is critical in contractual and implied agreements between the employer and the employee (chew & chan, 2005). it is largely known to play a vital role in attracting employees; it enhances employee’s organisational commitment and ensures employee retention. armache (2014) stated that compensation includes wages and other forms of payments such as bonuses, profit sharing, overtime pay and sales commission. it may also include non-cash assets such as a car, housing paid by the company, company benefits and stock options. a call centre environment comprises of younger individuals who are at an early stage of their careers. furthermore, it is characterised by low pay (harry & coetzee, 2013). therefore, salary matters are a primary precursor of employee turnover in most call centres. research by pierre and tremblay (2011) indicated an external and internal salary comparison done by agents in their work environments as a confirmation of their low cash pay levels, results to dissatisfaction, absenteeism and increased turnover. job content refers to the nature of the job, and this may have an influence on employee’s decision to leave or stay within the organisation. a mismatch between the employee’s knowledge and skills and the job demands leads to stress (jacobs & roodt, 2011). if an employee does not have the necessary skills, knowledge and attitude to perform his or her job, it may lead to frustration and job dissatisfaction. call centre jobs are characterised as repetitive in nature, lacking creativity and flexibility which leads to an increase in stress levels and boredom (harry & coetzee, 2013). call centre work is also stressful in nature because it is driven by targets. notably, call centre agents’ work is constantly monitored electronically and agents are often exposed to abusive callers (filwood, 2014). such negative characteristics of a call centre work may lead to employees leaving the organisation. training and development provide opportunities for employees to develop in their career (van dyk & coetzee, 2012). it has a positive psychological effect to employees because they might perceive that the organisation value them and in turn they will remain committed to the organisation. döckel, basson and coetzee (2006) stated that employees will stay in the organisation that provides an opportunity to grow by training and developing them and thus applying their acquired skills and knowledge. furthermore, companies that provide training and development opportunities to their employees may have a psychological influence on them. training equips employees with the skills and knowledge that are required to perform their work effectively, and hence, employees become satisfied with their work because they know what they are doing (armache, 2014). call centre work is associated with minor room for progression and individual growth as vocational development is infrequent in such institutions (coetzee & harry, 2015). it is likely that a lack of growth and continuous development may result in boredom and in employee intentions to seek alternative employment elsewhere. supervisory support refers to behaviour of the supervisor that upholds the continuous high performance of employees, such as reward, recognition and feedback (döckel et al., 2006). proper and frequent feedback is important to retain employees because perceived organisational support increases the affective commitment of employees in the long term. van dyk and coetzee (2012) emphasise that supervisory support can be viewed as a source of trust in an employee’s willingness or drive to be the best in whatever they do. support from their supervisors reduces work-related stress levels and may create a sense of belonging which provides employees with enough reasons to stay in the organisation. personal outreach of supervisors to employees plays a vital role in employee retention, as focus has shifted from monetary factors (i.e. compensation) to more intrinsic factors (i.e. organisational support) (cianni & guddy, 2012). pierre and tremblay (2011) also elaborated that extensive authoritative measures used by managers to monitor employees in their organisation, managers of most call centres listen during calls, which generally are recorded. the record keeping of agents’ calls results in high levels of uncertainty and discomfort as agents experience feelings of being watched which decreases their levels of job satisfaction. this is indicative of uncomfortable emotional work which is embedded in most call centres. career advancement refers to an organisation’s adherence to career-oriented practices and job security which leads to employee commitment (döckel et al., 2006). shoaib, noor, tirmizi and bashi (2009) described career advancement as an organised and formalised system with planned efforts to the success of both individual career needs and organisational objectives in order for the organisation to gain and maintain a competitive advantage. van dyk and coetzee (2012) emphasised that career advancement may be internal or external career opportunities. internal career advancement improves the employees affective commitment to the organisation and hence less intention for employees to leave the organisation. the outcomes of career development are beneficial to both individual employees and the organisation. employees need new challenges to gain new competencies, and at the same time, promotion comes with extra income; on the contrary, the organisation will have talented and motivated employees who will contribute to organisational sustainability and competitive advantage. if employees perceive that they have a better chance to grow or get promoted within the organisation, then they could perform better and reduce their intention to leave. not all employees may enjoy performing the same job forever, some employees may want to grow and get promoted to more challenging work with more money. lack of opportunities to grow may result in job dissatisfaction and lead to employees seeking for better and more challenging to stimulate their growth. in call centre work, not many skills acquired are relevant for progression into other fields as their type of work is governed by routinised activities (harry & coetzee, 2013). with the objective to influence agents to stay longer, some call centres guarantee security at least for a medium term whilst agents with least extensive experience and lack of efficiency are not retained (pierre & tremblay, 2011). work–life balance refers to a synchronised balance between work life and family life, and hence, there is no conflict between these two dimensions of an employee’s life (mafini & dlodlo, 2014). work–life balance is described as the ability of employees to integrate their work and family commitments as well as other non-work responsibilities and activities (van dyk & coetzee, 2012). it has been noted that organisational work–life balance policies positively influence employees’ psychological attachment to their organisations as they perceive that the organisation cares for them. döckel et al. (2006) emphasised the importance of work–life balance policy by indicating that a flexible work scheduling is necessary, with policies allowing periods away from work for employees to take care of their family matters. coetzee and harry (2015) noted that high levels of hardiness and career adaptability are significant aspects that call centre agents can use to balance their lives and their demanding work life. hardiness is regarded as a set of stress-resilient personality characteristics, whilst career adaptability is the ability to adjust to the working prescriptions and demands of call centre environment (coetzee & harry, 2015). the call centre environment is characterised by work pressure and high workloads, causing an employee to work longer hours to meet deadlines (simons & buitendach, 2013). this may cause conflict in work–life balance, leading to exhaustion and employees exiting the organisation. gender differences in call centres and links to retention and turnover intention call centre work can be characterised as female dominated. according to bonds (2006), approximately 70% of the call centre agents are made up of a female staff complement. notably, female call centre agents display effective interpersonal and communication skills. although male and female call centre agents perceive the work environments differently, it can be noted that male call centre agents are better at call centre work (korvajärvi, 2009). hence, there may be a need that call centre organisations equally retain both male and female call centre agents. there are limited studies on gender and employee retention. for example, du plooy and roodt (2013) indicated that genders differ in how they respond to stimuli which are likely to lead to different withdrawal behaviours. in terms of turnover intentions, gender moderates this relationship intentions (burke, koyuncu & fiksenbaum, 2008; karatepe & aleshinloye, 2009). with regard to career advancement, female employees differ from male employees, as their counterparts advance faster in organisations with higher levels of pay (phillips & irmhoff, 1997). strategies to enhance employee retention it is important to note that when organisations recruit people with the appropriate skills, they develop and implement retention strategies to prevent them from leaving (smit et al., 2015). retention strategies include measures taken by the organisation to keep employees. organisations can gain a competitive advantage by being proactive in terms of introducing innovative human resource practices that can be used as strategies to retain employees, namely, offering a great work environment that is safe and healthy, competitive compensation and benefit packages, allowing employees freedom to make choices on how they will perform their duties. furthermore, training opportunities, career development, trust and fairness between employees and the employer, regular and fair performance appraisals, potential development and succession planning (kashyap & rangnekar, 2014) assist with better retention. filwood (2014) emphasised on job security as a strategy to retain employees. call centre jobs are characterised by short-term contracts, and contracts that are on a permanent basis motivate employees to stay in the organisation (harry & coetzee, 2013). armache (2014) also emphasised that by using retention strategies, employees will be highly satisfied and motivated, leading to higher productivity and decreased employee turnover. although organisations may try to implement those retention strategies, it does not guarantee that all employees will stay with the organisation because an employee can still choose to leave (kyndt et al., 2009). the reason behind this may be because the employee dislikes the manager or encounters conflict with other colleagues. research objectives the objective of the study was to look at the relationship between retention factors and intention to leave which were tested empirically. the following are sub-objectives of the study: to determine whether male or female call centre agents experience higher or lower intention to leave to explore the link between retention factors and intention to leave to understand which factors male and female employees perceive as an important factor of retention. value-add of the study this study contributes to the existing body of knowledge regarding employee retention and human resource practices surrounding this phenomenon. insights are provided within a south african context of a call centre. the study contributes theoretically and empirically towards research on employee retention and intention to leave, whilst noting relationship between the retention factors and intention to leave. the study further determines the best predictor for the retention of call centre agents. research method research approach this study used a quantitative research approach and is cross-sectional in nature which is characterised by studying a particular phenomenon at a particular time. the research investigated the relationship between retention factors and intention to leave. participants the target population of the study were call centre agents. participants of the study were from a large insurance call centre situated in johannesburg. the company had approximately 500 call centre agents as employees. a non-probability sampling design was selected and a convenience sample was utilised. questionnaires were handed out to agents on two consecutive days. out of 347 questionnaires handed out, 282 (81.27%) completed questionnaires were received. according to sekaran and bougie (2013), the acceptable sample size for a population of 500 is 260. the sample of the population was made up of 66% female employees and 34% male employees. in terms of age, 49% were 18–24 years old, 46% were between 25 and 34 years old and 12% were 35–44 years old. the majority of participants (70%) had a length of service of 1 year or less. measuring instrument the retention factor measurement scale (rfms) was utilised for the study, as it aptly measures the retention factors supported by the literature. this scale was developed by döckel et al. (2006) and measured retention factors and intention to leave. the scale consisted of 35 items. all items in the scale were presented on a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree. the instrument measured the participants’ satisfaction with six retention factors: compensation, job characteristics, opportunities for training and development, supervisor support, career opportunities and work–life balance. in terms of measuring employee retention, the dimension intention to leave was used. the instrument measured the participants’ satisfaction with six retention factors, and an example of the item is included next to each factor in brackets: compensation (‘on my present job this is how i feel about my benefits package’). job characteristics (‘the job gives me considerable opportunity for independence and freedom in how i do the work’). opportunities for training and development (‘there are enough development opportunities for me in this company’). supervisor support (‘i feel valued by my supervisor’). career opportunities (‘my chances of being promoted are good’). work–life balance (‘my work schedule is often in conflict with my personal life’). intention to leave (‘do you intend to leave this company voluntarily in the near future?’). the reliability and validity of the rfms were acceptable by döckel et al. (2006, p. 23). the following cronbach’s alpha coefficients were reported: compensation 0.90, job characteristics 0.41, opportunities for training and development 0.83, supervisor support 0.90, career opportunities 0.76, work–life balance 0.87 and commitment to the organisation 0.89. in another study, van dyk and coetzee (2012) reported acceptable cronbach’s alpha, namely compensation 0.95, job characteristics 0.67, opportunities for training and development 0.88, supervisor support 0.83, career opportunities 0.73, work–life balance 0.88 and intention to leave 0.89. in assessing reliability through cronbach’s alpha coefficient, this study utilised 0.70 as the level of acceptance. nunnally and bernstein (1994) suggest this as a rule of thumb that a level higher than 0.70 is considered for internal consistency. research procedure data were collected using a paper and pencil questionnaire over 2 days. the researchers went to the organisation and distributed the questionnaires to the station managers and agents. the respondents completed the questionnaires during their work time. the researchers obtained permission from the organisation to conduct the study. the organisation was provided with complete disclosure of the study and its purpose, objectives and benefits of the research, and guaranteed that the best interests of the organisation are protected. in addition, the researchers ensured that agreed time frame of the study was kept (in terms of data collection). all findings of the research will be shared with the organisation. in terms of participation in the study, respondents completed an informed consent noting that participation in the study was voluntary and anonymity was ensured. respondents were made aware that they can withdraw from the study at any time. the researchers ensured that the instructions provided were clear and concise. data were not shared with unauthorised people, thereby ensuring that the identities of respondents are protected. statistical analysis the statistical programme for social sciences (spss, version 22) was used to analyse the data. descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were calculated. in order to assess internal consistency and reliability, cronbach’s alpha coefficients were measured. factor analysis was computed to ensure validity. factor analysis was conducted by using the pattern matrix of the principal axis factor analyses using varimax rotation with kaiser normalisation. it identified five retention factors and an intention to leave factor. these factors accounted for 55% of the total variance. the reliability of the questionnaire was statistically assessed using cronbach’s alpha coefficient. in order to determine the direction and strength of the relationships between the variables, pearson’s product–moment correlations were calculated. multiple regression analysis was utilised to assess the way in which a set of variables are able to predict a particular outcome (pallant, 2007). this study looks at the way in which retention factors (independent variable) predict intention to leave (dependent variable). analysis of variance was used to assess whether employees differing in biographical profiles (age, type of work, race, tenure and levels of contract significantly differ in their perceptions of the factors that affect retention). t-tests were used to determine whether male or female call centre agents experience higher or lower intention to leave and to understand which factors do male and female employees perceive as an important factor of retention. results descriptive statistics from table 1, the study identified that having supervisor support is an important retention factor (mean = 3.69); this is closely followed by training and development (mean = 3.65). however, employees believe that experiencing work–life balance (mean = 3.45) is as important. furthermore, employees perceived career advancement (mean = 2.94) to be a fair retention factor, closely followed by compensation (mean = 2.85). the low mean value for intention to leave (mean = 2.74) accounts for the aforementioned retention factors; employees are not likely to remain in the organisation. all items received the minimum and maximum responses on the likert scale. the mean ranged from 2.74 to 3.69 and the standard deviation ranged from 0.71 to 1.06. table 1: descriptive statistics for retention factors and intention to leave dimensions. frequency analyses for the possibility of enhancing retention based on the frequency analyses, call centre organisations should be cognisant of the following as a possibility of enhancing employee retention: in terms of compensation, 56.23% of respondents reflected dissatisfaction with their most recent pay increase. many respondents remained neutral in terms of compensation, namely, 51.6% of respondents were neutral in terms of supervisors’ influence on their pay. with regard to training and development, 84.4% of respondents felt that their organisation provides them with training specific to their jobs. however, 36.1% of respondents remained neutral on whether sufficient money is allocated for product and solution training. in terms of supervisor support, 67.4% of respondents reflected that their supervisor lets them know how well they are performing on the job, whilst 38.7% of respondents remained neutral on whether their supervisor rewards a good idea by implementing it and giving the responsible employee(s) credit. in terms of career advancement, 52.1% of respondents felt that an employee who applies for another job in the organisation has a better chance of getting that job than someone from outside the organisation who applies for the same job; 44.1% of respondents were neutral in terms of whether it would be easy to find a job in another department. in terms of work–life balance, 63.9% of respondents indicated that their work schedule is often in conflict with their personal life. with regard to intention to leave, 40% of respondents expressed that they are not likely to have plans to stay with the organisation, 31.9% remained neutral on how they would rate their chances of still working in the organisation a year from now and 21.4% indicated that they are likely to leave the organisation voluntarily in the near future. based on the frequency analysis, it is suffice to say that call centre agents place emphasis on the retention factors. however, there were instances where a significant amount of call centre agents remained neutral, namely, supervisors’ influence on their pay, allocation of money for training and rewarding a good idea by their supervisor. respectively, this could allude to that employees within the call centre are uncertain in terms of pay practices and the administration of having budgets for training. on the contrary, it should be noted that most call centre agents are satisfied with training and development provided by the organisation. most call centre organisations provide job-specific training to their employees to equip them with the necessary skills required to perform their jobs. when employees are confident with performing their work, they tend to be motivated to work harder and are more likely to commit themselves to the organisation (armache, 2014). table 2 indicates that a relationship between the dependent and independent variables exists. according to pallant (2007), a correlation of 1.0 suggests that there is a perfect relationship between the variables regardless of the direction of the relationship. the closer the r value is to 1.0, the more satisfied the employees are with the retention factors and the more likely they are to remain in the organisation. the r value ranged from 0.35 to 0.52, representing moderate to strong relationship. work–life balance had a significant negative relationship with intention to leave, as opposed to other retention factors which had a positive correlation. table 2: pearson correlation. a multiple regression analysis was calculated to predict intention to leave based on the retention factors. a significant retention equation was found [f(4.267) = 46.082, p < 0.000], with an r2 of 0.408. table 3 indicates that the total variance in the dependent variable (intention to leave) explained in the model was 40.8% (r2), and presents the significant results. in terms of multicollinearity, the current study yielded tolerance values close to 1.0 (between ≥ 0.642 and ≤ 0.841) and variance inflation factor (vif) values of ≤ 1.55. they are lower than the cut-off of ≥ 2.5 to ≥ 4.0, suggested for small samples. therefore, multicollinearity was not a particular concern in the context of the current study, and hence beta (β) values are interpreted with more confidence. table 3: multiple regression analysis. table 3 also indicates how the variables contributed to the prediction of the dependent variable (intention to leave). compensation had the largest beta coefficient (0.268), suggesting that compensation contributes towards intention to leave more than the other factors, followed by work–life balance (−0.237) which negatively contributed, then career advancement (0.240) and lastly supervisory support which had the smaller beta coefficient (0.112). training and development was excluded from the model as it did not contribute to intention to leave as it had a beta coefficient of −0.009. it is evident that the retention factors contribute significantly and positively to the variance of intention to leave. from table 4, it is evident that all factors scored relatively high reliability coefficients, ranging from 0.717 (the lowest) to 0.933 (the highest). the current study utilised 0.70 as the level of acceptance. it is evident that retention factors and intention to leave show a high level of internal consistency and stability. table 4: factor analysis for retention factor scale. internal consistency for all factors was also noted and so were the average inter-item correlation coefficients. the values ranged between 0.337 and 0.702. a reasonably high correlation between the factors and their component items was noted. notably, all items loaded on a factor loading > 0.3. the kaiser–meyer–olkin measures of sampling adequacy ranged from 0.702 to 0.939 for each factor which exceeds the recommended value of 0.6. barlett’s test of sphericity also reached statistical significance (p < 0.001) and supports the factorability of the correlation matrix (pallant, 2007). it is notable that normality and homoscedasticity preconditions for the study are fulfilled. it must be noted that the factor of job content was removed for the following reasons, namely, the kaiser–meyer–olkin measures of sampling adequacy value reported was less than 0.6 and had communalities of less than 0.3. inferential statistics an independent samples t-test was conducted to compare the retention factors and intention to leave for male and female employees. from table 5, it is evident that there was no significant difference in scores for male and female employees with regard to retention factors. notably, the effect sizes for the retention factors are small and ranged from 0.00 (smallest) to 0.09 (largest). in terms of intention to leave, male participants experienced higher intention to leave than women participants (mean = 3.077 vs. mean = 2.570). cohen’s d refers to an appropriate effect size for the comparison between two means, whereby the standardised difference between two means, and expresses this difference in standard deviation units. table 5: independent samples t-test – significant mean differences (gender). discussion the study provided insights on how retention factors relate to intention to leave in the context of a south african call centre. in addition, the study further provided insights into which retention factor best predicts intention to leave. the study examined the retention factors identified by döckel et al. (2006) and how various biographical factors differed in terms of these factors. in terms of the frequency analysis, the discussion below presents the way in which call centre agents perceived the retention factors. notably, line managers and human resource practitioners need to be cognisant of such factors as this will enhance the retention of call centre agents. supervisor support with regard to supervisor support, an average mean value of 3.69 (maximum = 5) was obtained. this indicates that most of the respondents agree that they receive support from their supervisors. by contrast, pierre and tremblay (2011) found that supervisors in call centre organisations use authoritative measures to monitor and keep records of agents’ calls and, as a result, agents experience high levels of uncertainty and discomfort which decrease their levels of job satisfaction. even though strict measures are used to manage the call centre environment, in most organisations supervisors take it upon themselves to ensure that employees work in an environment where they are supported (russel, 2008). work–life balance with regard to work–life balance, an average mean value of 3.45 (maximum = 5) was obtained. this indicates that employees agree that they do not have a balance between work and their personal lives. scott-ladd, travaglione, perryer and pick (2010) found that employees experienced conflict between their work and personal responsibilities as a result of working long hours and shifts that limit them from focusing on other life commitments. this may then hinder the organisations’ progress in terms of the retention of employees as employees prefer to live a more flexible lifestyle (snelgar, renard & venter, 2013). it is important that organisations implement strategies aimed at enhancing work–life balance to assist employees in the pressures of their family and work areas (amah, 2010). career advancement in terms of career advancement, an average mean value of 2.94 (maximum = 5) was obtained. this indicates that employees disagree that they receive opportunities to grow within the organisation. a lack of growth opportunities (career advancement) has been found to have a negative influence on an individual’s attitude towards the organisation, which in turn influences their intention to leave (van dyk, coetzee & takawira, 2013). likewise, shoaib, noor, tirmizi and bashir (2009) also emphasised the importance of career development as they indicated that the development of the employee plays a crucial part in the development of the organisation and therefore the organisation has to create an environment that enhances this development and growth. organisations need to attend to employees’ career advancement needs as they greatly affect employee’s decisions in terms of whether they see a future with the organisation (das et al., 2013). compensation in terms of compensation, an average mean value of 2.85 (maximum = 5) was obtained. this indicates that employees are not satisfied with the compensation they receive from the organisation. likewise, harry and coetzee (2013) found that call centre organisations are characterised by low pay, and as a result, employees may look for alternative work elsewhere with a better compensation plan, thus increasing employees’ intentions to leave the organisation. employees are motivated by an attractive salary package; it provides a greater reason to perform tasks to the best of their abilities which then also benefits the organisation positively (nagadevara et al., 2008). the study provided insights on male or female call centre agents’ intention to leave and if there is a difference in views of employees varying biographical data regarding relationship retention factors. intention to leave and biographical data the biographical variables, gender and level of education are strong predictors of employee turnover. in this study, it was found that male participants experience higher intention to leave than women. the study revealed that male call centre agents experienced higher intention to leave than their female counterparts. scholarios and taylor (2008) alluded that call centre work is typically seen as female-oriented work. this alludes to the fact that women display higher levels of interpersonal skills than their male counterparts. according to bonds (2006, p. 31), ‘women are more patient, have better telephone conduct, and the ability to communicate well with customers’. it was also added that men tend to distance themselves from this type of work and pursue advancement opportunities (scholarios & taylor, 2008). a study by miller and hendrickse (2016) revealed that within a call centre environment, men experienced a higher level of exhaustion than women. exhaustion is a result of being continuously exposed to high work pressures and work overload which are some of the characteristics of call centre work (simons & buitendach, 2013). this may lead to men constantly feeling drained after work, thereby increasing their intentions to leave. in terms of intention to leave, those participants who are in possession of a grade 12 or equivalent experience higher intention to leave than those with a higher level of education. this may be because they want to go to further their studies. intention to leave the study emphasised the significance of employee retention, which is explained as a way of keeping employees within the organisation by reducing or terminating their intentions to leave. pierre and tremblay (2011) noted the difficulty of managers to retain employees (in this case, call centre agents), resulting in high rates of turnover within the call centre organisation. intention to leave obtained an average mean value of 2.74 (maximum = 5) was obtained. this indicates that majority of the respondents are not likely to stay with the organisation in the near future owing to dissatisfaction with the retention factors. likewise, van rensburg et al. (2013) found that there was a high rate of employee turnover in call centre organisations. retention factors such as compensation, career advancement, work–life balance and supervisor support contributed significantly in motivating employees to stay in the organisation and it is advised that management focus on them in order to retain their employees. retention factors and intention to leave the results revealed that there is a significant relationship between the retention factors (compensation, career advancement, work–life balance and supervisor support) and intention to leave in the context of a south african call centre. work–life balance had a negative significant relationship to intention to leave. as work–life balance decreases call centre agents’ intention to leave will increase. in this likelihood, call centre organisations need to provide opportunities for their agents to have a balanced lifestyle. in terms of the overall fit of the model, as indicated by the r², compensation contributed the most towards employee’s intentions to leave the organisation and can be regarded as the best predictor of intention to leave. compensation plays a vital role in attracting employees and influencing individuals to greatly commit to the organisation (chew & chan, 2008). it was also emphasised that employees work for the sake of earning a salary or wage. hence, if they are not paid well, they may seek alternative employment that compensates well. subsequently, career advancement contributed as a predictor of intention to leave. meier et al. (2010) emphasised that it is not all employees who do not mind doing the same job forever; most employees, especially younger generation, want to advance in their careers and develop their skills and knowledge. if an organisation does not provide them with such opportunities, they may seek those opportunities in other organisations regardless of whether they are paid well or not. work–life balance had a negative contribution towards intention to leave. as work–life balance decreases for call centre agents, their chances of leaving the organisation increase. employees need enough time to take care of other personal commitments such as spending time with family to ensure that both their work life and personal life is balanced. if there is conflict between their work and personal life, they may experience exhaustion and end up not being able to cope with their work and it may lead to job dissatisfaction and increase employee’s intention to leave the organisation (simons & buitendach, 2013). supervisor support was the least important factor. however, this does not mean that it does not contribute to the retention of employees. van dyk, coetzee and takawira (2013) indicated that supervisor support positively enhanced the participants’ feelings of organisational fit. such feelings include satisfaction with the feedback provided by the supervisor, feeling valued and being rewarded and recognised for ideas and work well done. these feelings motivate employees to stay with the organisation. limitations of the study this study has a few limitations. firstly, the scope of the study limited the generalisation of the results in that it only focused on one call centre organisation in gauteng and cannot be generalised to other industries. hence, future studies should incorporate other call centres in varying industries. secondly, the use of hard copy questionnaires resulted in participants not answering some of the questions. quantitative studies are characterised by the potential of common method bias as a result of influences such as social desirability and transient mood states (podsakoff, mackenzie, lee & podsakoff 2003; spector 1994). the design of the study looked at one point in time. in addition, using a convenience sample results in possible bias in data gathering and difficulties in generalising the results. lastly, future studies on this topic should adopt a qualitative stance to gain insights into employee experiences. recommendation and managerial implications based on the findings of the study, recommendations for the study are diagrammatically represented in figure 1, which when implemented have the potential to enhance employee retention within call centres. figure 1: recommendations on how to enhance employee retention. the study can be utilised by human resource practitioners in call centre organisations to develop and implement strategies to enhance employee retention. this study concentrates on one sector; however, the findings of the study can be applied to other industries, depending on the work environment. human resource practitioners need to be cognisant of retention factors that enhance employee retention. recommendations for future research future research may focus on more than one organisation in order to enhance the generalisation of results. factors (training and development and job content) that were excluded from the results may be repeated to determine if they will add value for future study. future researchers should undertake a qualitative research design which will assist in providing a deeper understanding of retaining call centre agents and provide greater context into reasons they leave. conclusion this study provided insights in terms of factors affecting retention of call centre agents and their levels of intention to leave. the findings of the study suggest that certain retention factors are crucial in influencing employees’ intention to leave. such factors include compensation, career advancement, supervisor support and work–life balance. nonetheless, the importance of other factors (job content and training and development) should not be taken for granted when developing retention strategies. the study contributed theoretically and empirically towards the literature on employee retention. from this, it is evident that human resource practitioners and management staff of call centre organisations need to be cognisant of such factors and heed the recommendations provided. in order to enhance retention and yield low turnover rates, call centre organisations are encouraged to ensure that agents are remunerated well, and are provided with a work environment where they are able to grow and advance, in addition to a work environment that supports their work and personal life. acknowledgements we thank ms. juliana van staden (statistical consultation services at the university of johannesburg) for assisting with the statistical analysis. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions n.d. was the supervisor of the study and was responsible for consolidating and preparing the manuscript. f.d.m. was responsible for assisting in preparing the manuscript. f.d.m, p.l., r.m. and m.p. were students and contributed to the report for their research project. references allen, d.g., bryant, p.c., & vardaman, j.m. (2010). retaining talent: replacing misconceptions with evidence-based strategies. academy of management perspectives, 24(2), 48–64. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2010.51827775 altarawmneh, i., & al-kilani, m.h. (2010). human resource management and turnover intentions in the jordanian hotel sector. research and practice in human resource management, 18(1), 46–59. amah, o.e. (2009). satisfaction and turnover intention relationship: the moderating effect of job role centrality and life satisfaction. research and practice in human resource management, 17(1), 24–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.665067 amah, o.e. (2010). family-work conflict and the availability of work-family friendly policy relationships in married employees: the moderating role of work centrality and career consequence. research and practice in human resource management, 18(2), 35–46. armache, j. (2014). ways and means to keep employees motivated, productive, and loyal. journal of international diversity, 2014(2), 87–103. barnes, n. (2013). the retention factors of call centre agents at a financial institution in the western cape. master administrationis faculty of economic and management sciences department of industrial psychology university of the western cape, south africa: university of western cape, pp. 1–159. bonds, a. (2006). calling on femininity? gender, call centers, and restructuring in the rural american west. acme: an international journal for critical geographies, 5(1), 28–49. burke, r.j., & cooper, c.l. (2009). the peak performing organization. new york: routledge. chew, j & chan, c.c.a. (2008). human resource practices, organizational commitment and intention to stay. international journal of manpower, 29(6), 503–522. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720810904194 cianni, m. & gundy, p. (2012). putting performance back into retention. financial executive, 28(9), 72–77. coetzee, m., & harry, n. (2015). gender & hardiness as predictors of career adaptability: an exploratory study among black call centre agents. sa journal of psychology, 45(1), 81–92. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246314546346 cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). new york: lawrence earlbaum associates. das, d., nandialath, a., & mohan, r. (2013). feeling unsure: quit or stay? uncovering heterogeneity in employees’ intention to leave in indian call centers. the international journal of human resource management, 24(1), 15–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.665067 dhanpat, n., & parumasur, s.b. (2014). re-establishing the psychological contract as a precursor to employee retention. problems and perspectives in managemement, 12(4), 78–90. döckel, a., basson, j.s., & coetzee, m. (2006). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. sa journal of human resource management, 4(2), 20–28. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v4i2.91 du plooy, j., & roodt, g. (2013). biographical and demographical variables as moderators in the prediction of turnover intentions. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(1), 12–24. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i1.1070 filwood, d. (2014). why do your call center agents quit? may 18, retrieved april 12, 2016, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140518182546-3995896-why-do-your-call-center-agents-quit/ fleisher, m.s. (2011). temporal patterns of functional and dysfunctional employee turnover. doctoral dissertations. university of tennessee. retrieved 19 august, 2016, from http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/1181 gayathri, r., sivaraman, g.g., & kamalambal, r.r. (2012). employee retention strategies in bpo’s: an empirical investigation. interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, 3(12), 572–583. goodwin, r.e., groth, m., & frenkel, s.j. (2011). relationships between emotional labor, job performance, and turnover. journal of vocational behavior, 79(2), 538–548. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.03.001 grobler, a.p., wӓrnich, s., carrell, m.r., elbert, n.f., & hatfield, r.d. (2011). human resource management in south africa (4th ed.). hampshire: cengage learning. harry, n., & coetzee, m. (2013). sence of coherence, career adaptability and burnout of early-career black staff in call centre environment. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v3912.1138 jacobs, c., & roodt, g. (2011). a human capital predictive model for agent performance in contact centres. sa journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i1.940 joāo, t.f., & coetzee, m. (2012). job retention factors, perceived career mobility and organisational commitment in the south african financial sector. journal of psychology in africa, 22(1), 69–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2012.10874523 karatepe, o. & aleshinloye, k. (2009). emotional dissonance and emotional exhaustion among hotel employees in nigeria. international journal of hospitality management, 28, 96–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2008.12.002 kashyap, v., & rangnekar, s. (2014). a structural equation model for mearsuring the impact of employee retention practices on employee’s turnover intentions: an indian perspective. south asian journal of human resources management, 1(2), 221–247. https://doi.org/10.1177/2322093714549109 khan, m.a.s., & du, j.g. (2014). an empirical study of turnover intentions in call centre industry of pakistan. journal of human resource and sustainability studies, 2(4), 206–214. https://doi.org/10.4236/jhrss.2014.24021 korvajärvi, p. (2009). attracting customers through practising gender in call-centre work. work organisation, labour & globalisation, 3(1), 131–143. https://doi.org/workorgalaboglob.3.1.0131 kyndt, e., dochy, f., michielsen, m., & moeyaert, b. (2009). employee retention: organisational and personal perspective. vocations and learning, 2(1), 195–215. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-009-9024-7 mafini, c., & dlodlo, n. (2014). the linkage between work-related factors, employee satisfaction and organisational commitment. insights from public health professionals. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.616 marinucci, f., majigo, m., wattleworth, m., paterniti, a.d., hossain, m.b., & redfield, r. (2013). factors affecting job satisfaction and retention of medical laboratory professionals in seven countries of sub-saharan africa. human resources for health, 11(1), 38. https://doi.org/10.1186/1478-4491-11-38 mcculloch, m.c., & turban, d.b. (2007). using person – organization fit to select employees for highturnover jobs. international journal of selection and assessment, 15(1), 63–71. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2389.2007.00368.x miller, n., & hendrickse, r. (2016). differences in call centre agents’ perception of their job characteristics, physical work environment and wellbeing. problems and perspectives in management, 14(1), 51–63. https://doi.org/10.21511/ppm.14(1).2016.06 meier, j., austin, s.f., & crocker, m. (2010). generation y in the workforce: managerial challenges. the journal of human resource and adult learning, 6(1), 68–78. nagadevara, v., srinivasan, v., & valk, r. (2008). estanlishing a link between employee turnover and withdrawal behaviours: application of data mining techniques. research and practive in human resource management, 16(2), 81–99. neely, a., bourne, m., & kennerley, m. (2003). dysfunctional performance through dysfunctional measures. cost management, 17(5), 41–45. nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory (3rd ed.). new york: mcgraw-hill. pallant, j. (2007). spss survival manual, a step by step guide to data analysis using spss (4th ed.). new york: mcgraw hill phillips, s., & irmhoff, a. (1997). women and career development: a decade of research. annual review of psychology, 48(32), 31–59. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.48.1.31 pierre, x., & tremblay, d.g. (2011). levels of involvement and retention of agents in call centres: improving well-being of employees for the better socioeconomic performance. journal of management policy & practice, 12(5), 53–71. pillay, k., buitendach, j.h., & kanengoni, h. (2014). psychoplogical capital, job demands and organisational commitment of employees in a call centre in durban, south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1). 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.599 podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., lee, j.y., & podsakoff, n.p. (2003). common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. journal of applied psychology, 88(5), 879. rizwan, m., arshad, m.q., munir, h.m., iqbal, f., & hussain, a. (2014). determinants of employees intention to leave. international journal of human resource studies, 4(3), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijhrs.v4i3.5871 russel, b. (2008). call centres: a decade of research. international journal of management reviews, 10(3), 195–214. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2008.00241.x scott-ladd, b., travaglione, a., perryer, c., & pick, d. (2010). attracting and retaining talent: social organisational support as an emergent concept. research and practice in human resource management, 18(2), 1–10. scholarios, d., & taylor, p. (2010). gender, choice and constraint in call centre employment. new technology, work and employment, 25(2), 101–116. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-005x.2010.00242.x sekaran, u., & bougie, r. (2013). research methods for business. a skill building approach (6th ed.). west sussex: wiley. shoaib, m., noor, a., tirmizi, s.r., & bashi, s. (2009). determinants of employee retention in telecom. proceedings of the 2nd cbrc 14, 1–18. simons, j.c., & buitendach, j.h. (2013). psychological capital, work engagement and organisational commitment amongst call centre employees in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1071 smit, w., stanz, k., & bussin, m. (2015). retention preferences and the relationship between total rewards, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor support. sa journal of human resource management, 30(2), 1–13. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.665 snelgar, r.j., renard, m., & venter, d. (2013). an empirical study of the reward preferences of south african employees. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.351 spector, p.e. (1994). using self-report questionnaires in ob research: a comment on the use of a controversial method. journal of organizational behavior, 15(5), 385–392. takawiara, n., coetzee, m., & schreuder, d. (2014). job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention of staff in a higher education institution: an exploratory study. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.524 taylor, p., & bain, p. (1999). an assembly line in the head: work and employee relations in the call centre. industrial relations journal, 30(2), 101–117. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2338.00113 tse, h.h., lam, c.k., lawrence, s.a., & huang, x. (2013). when my supervisor dislikes you more than me: the effect of dissimilarity in leader–member exchange on coworkers’ interpersonal emotion and perceived help. journal of applied psychology, 98(6), 974. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033862 van dyk, j., & coetzee, m. (2012). retention factors in relation to organisational commitment in medical and information technology services. sa journal of human resource management, 10(2). 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.433 van dyk, j., coetzee, m., & takawira, n. (2013). satisfaction with retention factors as predictors of the job embeddedness of medical and information technology services staff. southern african business review, 17(1), 57–75. van rensburg, y., boonzaier, b., & boonzaier, m. (2013). the job demands-resources model of work engagement in south african call centres. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.484 van rooyen, l., du toit, d. h., botha, e., & rothmann, s. (2010). artisan retention in an organisation in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 8(1), 1–8. http://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.300 wang, x., wang, l., xu, x., & ji, p. (2014). identifying employee turnover risks using modified quality function deployment. journal of systems research and behavioural science, 31(3), 398–404. https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.2282 abstract introduction research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) dorcas l. lesenyeho global innovative forefront talent, research niche area, north-west university, south africa nicolene e. barkhuizen global innovative forefront talent, research niche area, north-west university, south africa nico e. schutte global innovative forefront talent, research niche area, north-west university, south africa citation lesenyeho, d.l., barkhuizen, n.e., & schutte, n.e. (2018). exploring the causal relationship between the antecedents and consequences of talent management for early career academics in south african higher education institutions. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a912. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.912 original research exploring the causal relationship between the antecedents and consequences of talent management for early career academics in south african higher education institutions dorcas l. lesenyeho, nicolene e. barkhuizen, nico e. schutte received: 12 feb. 2017; accepted: 12 apr. 2018; published: 12 july 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: south african public higher education institutions (heis) are facing significant challenges to attract and retain quality early career academics. therefore, the need exists to explore the potential antecedents and consequences of effective talent management practices for early career academics. research purpose: the objective of this study was to explore the causal relationship between the antecedents (i.e. talent attraction; management support) and consequences (organisational commitment; intention to quit) for early career academics employed in selected south african public heis. motivation for the study: research using a holistic approach for the effective talent management of early career academics is lacking. research approach/design and method: quantitative data were gathered by administering a talent attraction tool, a talent development measure, a talent retention diagnostic tool and the organisational commitment measure, using a sample of early career academics in public south african heis (n = 117). main findings: the results showed that management support, talent development, compensation and recognition, and satisfaction with institutional practices significantly enhances the organisational commitment of early career academics and reduces their turnover intentions. practical/managerial implications: the results highlight the importance of management support in enhancing the effective application of talent management practices among early career academics. higher education managers are encouraged to implement talent development opportunities and adequate compensation and recognition practices to retain early career academics. contribution/value-add: the research provides useful information on how talent management practices can be effectively applied to enhance the commitment and retention of early career academics. introduction higher education institutions (heis) are finding it increasingly difficult to attract and retain skilled, innovative and talented individuals in the global war for academic talent (mokgojwa, barkhuizen, & schutte, 2017). the lack of younger individuals entering south african heis is concerning and can hinder its future stability and contribution to a developing country (the south african council on higher education, 2014). the changing context of academia further challenges early career academics to understand and negotiate their career pathways (price, coffey, & nethery, 2015). clearly, it becomes the responsibility of institutions of higher learning to ensure that they address the dilemmas experienced by academics in their early career phase (makondo, 2014; onah & anikwe, 2016). the effective talent management of early career academics is important for several reasons. firstly, globalisation has resulted in many south african scholars leaving the country for greener pastures elsewhere (makondo, 2014). south african higher education will soon be facing a critical shortage of academic skills, if no succession planning is done to provide academics who can fill these positions (robyn & du preez, 2013). secondly, many older-generation academics will be retiring soon. a report by the department of higher education and training (2015) shows that more than 2500 academic staff members will retire within the next 3–5 years from south african public heis. further estimates show that more than 6000 new academics will be required in the next five years to cater for increased student numbers and to replace staff who retire. the absence of a pipeline of upcoming scholars will result in a critical loss of knowledge because of a lack of transfer of knowledge from seasoned academics (pienaar & bester, 2008). thirdly, there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that heis do not compensate early career academics adequately (onah & anikwe, 2016). research by higher education south africa (2014) showed that academics employed as junior lecturers and lecturers earned moderately less than their counterparts in the public sector. younger generation employees are likely to leave higher education for better rewards and benefits (erasmus, grobler, & van niekerk, 2015). higher education managers are therefore challenged to develop innovative talent management strategies that will attract and retain early career talent. purpose of the study a truly holistic perspective on talent management for academic staff is still lacking, which limits higher educational management to effectively manage the careers of early career academics from start to finish (saurombe, 2017). this research attempts to provide a holistic perspective on the talent management of early career academics by exploring the causal relationships between the antecedents of talent management (i.e. talent attraction, management support), talent management practices (i.e. talent development, compensation and recognition, institutional practices) and consequences of talent management (i.e. intention to quit; organisational commitment). currently there is no agreement on the classification of early career academics. mcalpine and akerlind (2010) highlighted the difficulties in terms of determining who early career academics are and their development as academics. historically it was believed that early career academics include those within their first five years of appointment (bazeley, 2003). others view early career scholars as ranging from post-doctoral researchers or teaching fellows, probationary academics, pre-tenured faculty members, to phd students with teaching responsibilities (gale, 2011). consequently, the diversity of definitions and opinions regarding early career academics makes it difficult to pinpoint the exact years of tenure and qualifications required for novice scholars. bosanquet, melly, matthews and lodge (2017) argue that the employment context in higher education necessitates the redefinition of ‘early career’ in academia. for purposes of this research we regarded early career academics as those who had between 1 and 15 years’ work experience in higher education and were employed as a junior lecturer, lecturer or senior lecturer. our classification was based on the unequal application of promotion practices in south african heis (bitzer, 2009), blurred differentiation between academic job levels (mouton, louw, & strydom, 2013) and historical racial imbalances (archer, 2017). this research article is structured as follows. first a literature review is presented on the antecedents and consequences of talent management for early career academics. this is followed by a discussion of the research method applied in this study and the results. this article concludes with a discussion of the results and the recommendations for practice and further research. literature review talent management defined talent management involves the implementation of integrated human resource management (hrm) strategies to attract, develop, retain and productively utilise employees ‘with the required skills and abilities to meet current and future business needs’ (kontoghiorghes & frangou, 2009). it is a culture that contributes to and unleashes the passion, commitment and performance of people, which in turn contributes to the organisation achieving its mission, vision and business goals (barkhuizen & stanz, 2010). heis should create a talent culture conducive for the achievement of multiple priorities relating to the working environment, such as recruitment and retention, performance management, succession planning and engagement, and should ensure that these become strategic talent management imperatives (pienaar & bester, 2008; netswera, rankhumise, & mavundla, 2005). talent management models for higher education institutions barkhuizen and schutte (2016) developed the comprehensive talent life-cycle model that can be used to guide the entire process of talent management in higher education. this model proposes that talent management starts with a higher educational leadership mindset and commitment towards academic talent. flowing from that, institutions of higher learning need to prepare their branding to attract talented scholars. once acquired, talented individuals should be mapped and fitted into the positions that best meet their skills, to further ensure their engagement with and commitment to the workplace. effective talent development opportunities and proper performance management systems should be put in place to ensure the career growth and subsequent retention of talent. barkhuizen (2014) developed a model that can be used to guide strategic talent management in heis. according to the strategic talent management model, an integrated talent management strategy needs the human resource strategy and business strategy of heis to be aligned. once this is in place, higher education can focus on attracting and recruiting a desirable pool of talent. higher education also needs to develop a brand that will attract the right employees (saurombe, barkhuizen, & schutte, 2017). furthermore, heis need to acknowledge and value talented individuals as a key resource. the right people need to be selected and deployed in suitable positions. thereafter, sound talent management practices, specifically talent development, rewards and performance management, should be maintained through continuous management commitment (mokgojwa et al., 2017). appling talent management practices effectively leads to reduced turnover and improved individual outcomes in terms of the psychological contract, specifically work engagement, vigour, job satisfaction and motivation (barkhuizen, 2015). this in turn has a positive influence on organisational outcomes, such as increased service quality and performance, which eventually lead to overall organisational success. saurombe (2017), in her study among higher educational management, developed the talent value proposition model to assist with the effective talent management of academic staff. the model depicts the following aspects, all of which collaborate towards the establishment of a talent value proposition for academic staff: organisational brand (consisting of reputation and image, culture and identity, strategic vision, corporate social responsibility, and work environment and surrounds) employment brand (consisting of fringe benefits, incentives and remuneration; leadership and managerial support; work-life balance; management and development of performance; occupational health and safety, job security; and fulfilment and purpose) talent life-cycle. at last, the model depicts that after the organisational brand, employment brand and talent life-cycle processes have unfolded within the institution, these concepts then collaborate towards the establishment of a talent value proposition for academic staff members. in order for this talent value proposition to be most effective, it must take the following elements into consideration: the importance of having a talent value proposition, the mutual expectation involved in a talent value proposition, as well as the challenges involved in implementing a talent value proposition. antecedents of talent management for purposes of the present study, the antecedents of talent management are identified as management support and talent attraction practices. management support management’s mindset is important for the effective management of talent in organisations. according to mcardle and ramerman (2008), management commitment towards talent unleashes the passion, commitment and performance of people, which in turn contributes to the organisation achieving its mission, vision and goals. according to garrow and hirsh (2008), most senior managers have a tendency to support a programme that is aligned with the business strategy. the business strategy serves as a guide for the organisation’s choice of the kind of talent to attract, develop and retain in order to have correctly skilled, committed and engaged employees to deliver excellent services or quality goods (armstrong, 2006). human resource and talent managers are tasked to align human capital and business strategies to ensure the successful implementation of any talent management model (schutte, 2015). a study by theron, barkhuizen and du plessis (2014) showed that academic staff experienced sufficient support from their managers but felt that performance management and feedback needed improvement. in contrast, netswera et al. (2005) found that hei managers were more focused on profits, business sustenance and justification for spending, whereas employees were driven by introverted interests, such as development, monetary rewards and personal fulfilment. according to phillips and connell (cited in pienaar & bester, 2008), top management underestimates the value and gravity of talent retention, and consequently the reasons for and solutions to labour turnover are not correctly identified. talent attraction according to myburgh (2015) a solid employer-branding component is the foundation of talent attraction. a study by botha, bussin and de swart (2011) showed that factors such as employee value proposition, people strategy, brand consistency, communication of employer brand and measurement of employer brand efforts are important for the attraction of prospective talent to organisations. selesho and naile (2014) found that the reputation of the academic profession in society attracts potential scholars to heis. onah and anikwe (2016) postulated that a conducive learning and working climate, job flexibility, recognition, rewards and compensation, and effective employee training and development will attract academics to heis. a study by makondo (2014) showed that professional support, remuneration and teaching load contribute to the attraction of academic staff. talent management practices for purposes of the study, talent management practices are divided into talent development, compensation and recognition, and institutional practices. talent development talent development refers to a process of providing individuals with an opportunity to grow through challenging experiences, coaching and mentoring (o’callaghan, 2008). according to garrow and hirsh (2008), organisations should develop employees who will be able to advance in their careers. phillips and edwards (cited in mukweyi, 2016) maintain that, when organisations develop their people’s talent, the overall talent pool increases and the war for talent decreases. the importance of talent development opportunities for academic staff is well documented. singh (2015) found that the availability of talent development resulted in an increased number of accredited publications by staff members, an increased number of staff with doctorates, increased awareness of funding opportunities and increased postgraduate supervision output. studies by busch and ledingham (2016) and selesho and naile (2014) showed that a lack of infrastructure for talent development and a lack of talent development opportunities were key factors in the turnover intentions of early career academics. compensation and recognition smit, stanz and bussin (2015) emphasised the need to develop and implement a relevant compensation and reward strategy for effective talent management. according to munsamy and bosch venter (2009), non-monetary factors should not be overlooked, as these might also have an impact on the retention and attraction of employees. remuneration practices are important factors in the attraction and retention of new academics, especially from historically disadvantaged ethnic groups in south africa (netswera et al., 2005). in south africa, there is a critical need for black academics who can make contributions to their disciplines and professional associations, and through publications address matters of national concern (nkomo, in bitzer, 2008). institutional practices the retention of academic staff is affected by various institutional shortcomings, such as a lack of mentorship, a lack of adequate state and research funding, uncompetitive research incentives and employment equity initiatives (see bitzer, 2008; netswera et al., 2005). over the past two decades, state and private sector research funding of public universities has significantly declined (de villiers, & steyn, 2009). as a result, public university academics have been compelled to become ‘academic capitalists’ and to generate a third stream of income that will benefit the individual and the institution (ntshoe, higgs, higgs, & wolhuter, 2008). according to deem (cited in ntshoe et al., 2008), academic staff of publicly funded universities operate in an increasingly competitive environment, deploying their academic capital, which may comprise teaching, research, consultancy skills or other applications of form academic knowledge. the work of academics has thus become more emotionally demanding and fragmented, which implies a loss of professional autonomy, scholar identity and psychological ownership (bitzer, 2008). this could result in academic careers becoming less attractive and public heis not being preferred employers. consequences of talent management the present research focused on organisational commitment and turnover intentions as outcomes of talent management. organisational commitment organisational commitment continues to be one of the most frequently researched attitudinal variables in the workplace with which to understand human behaviour. porter, steers, mowday and boulian (1974) originally defined organisational commitment as ‘the relative strength of an individual’s identification with and involvement in a particular organisation’. allen and meyer (1990) expanded on the theory of porter and colleagues by conceptualising organisational commitment as a three-dimensional construct consisting of the following dimensions: affective commitment (i.e. the extent to which an employee identifies with the organisation and enjoys being part of the organisation), continuance commitment (i.e. the extent to which an employee believes he or she should remain with the organisation, because he or she made an investment in the organisation) and normative commitment (i.e. the extent to which an employee feels obliged to remain with the organisation). mohamed and el-shaer (2013) postulated that the strength of the academic profession depends on the commitment of its members. these authors further stated that professional commitment can assist academic staff to persist in their profession and to develop specialised skills. according to hundera (2014), the extent to which academics are satisfied with aspects such as work in general, their supervisor, co-workers, compensation and promotion could have a significant impact on their level of organisational commitment. intention to quit according to schlecther, syce and bussin (2016) it is continuously important for organisations to adopt turnover risk management strategies to ensure organisational stability and promote the effective retention of employees. intention to quit is regarded as the most immediate determinant factor of the actual behaviour of employees (barkhuizen & rothmann, 2006). voluntary turnover intentions of academic staff have emerged as a significant problem for south african heis (theron et al., 2014). a study by barkhuizen, schutte and nagel (2017) showed that talent management practices such as talent acquisition, talent deployment, talent development, executive support and remuneration were significant predictors of academic staff turnover intentions. according to pienaar and bester (2008) labour turnover of academics has negative consequences for heis in terms of the loss of knowledge and experience and the time and cost related to training novice academics. toward a hypothesised model for this study: relating talent antecedents, practices and outcomes the relationship between talent management practices and turnover intentions is well documented. a study by theron et al. (2014) showed that more than half of academics considered quitting their jobs for better compensation elsewhere. other studies found that a lack of talent management practices relating to talent development and performance management exacerbated employees’ intentions to quit their jobs in government institutions such as heis (barkhuizen, diseko, & schutte, 2015; magolego, barkhuizen, & lesenyheo, 2013; mpofu & barkhuizen, 2013). research has shown that practices relating to talent attraction, such as a lack of preparation for talent, poor recruitment, poor workforce planning and ineffective talent deployment, are significant predictors of employees’ intentions to leave an organisation (pienaar, 2013; veldman, 2011). onah and anikwe (2016) found that the brain drain, the gender pay gap, unattractive salaries and a lack of adequate training are important factors that hamper the attraction and retention of academic staff. a lack of management support towards talent has been consistently linked to high turnover intentions of employees (barkhuizen, 2014). barkhuizen, welby-cooke, schutte and stanz (2014) found that executives do not spend sufficient time strengthening talent pools and are not trained in the best practices and latest techniques to develop, mentor and nurture talent. on the other hand, the availability of supervisor support has been found to enhance the affective commitment of part-time academic staff members (matata, elegwa, & maurice, 2014; mohamed & el-shaer, 2013). studies have also highlighted the positive effects of talent management on academic staff, if effectively applied. according to joiner and bokalis (2006), factors such as role clarity, resource availability, supervisor support, co-worker support, tenure and opportunities to study enhance the organisational commitment of academic staff (joiner & bokalis, 2006). rungruang (2012) found several antecedents of the organisational commitment of academic staff, which includes, among others, relationship with co-workers, support from the university, relationship with management and students, compensation, professional status and welfare benefits. organisational commitment reduces academic staff members’ intention to quit their jobs when organisational support and hrm practices (i.e. career development) are available (hundera, 2014; khan et al., 2014; lew, 2010). based on the above, a hypothesised model for this study is presented in figure 1. figure 1: hypothesised model for the study. this model leads to the following integrated hypothess for the study: h1: antecedents there would be a significant positive relationship between the antecedents of talent management (i.e. talent attraction and management support) and organisational commitment. h2: there would be a significant, positive relationship between talent management practices (i.e. talent development, compensation and recognition and institutional practices) and organisational commitment. h3: there would be a significant negative relationship between the antecedents of talent management (i.e. talent attraction and management support) and intention to quit. h4: there would be a significant negative relationship between talent management practices (i.e. talent development, compensation and recognition and institutional practices) and intention to quit. h5: organisational commitment moderates the relationship between the antecedents of talent management (i.e. talent attraction and management support) and intention to quit. h6: organisational commitment moderates the relationship between talent management practices (i.e. talent development, compensation and recognition and institutional practices) and intention to quit. research design research approach a quantitative research approach was followed in this study, using surveys to collect the data. this research was cross-sectional in nature, which, according to field (2009), is ideal for the testing of cause-and-effect relationships between variables. research method research participants the respondents were academic staff from 11 public heis in south africa. a total of 294 surveys were distributed to a purposive convenience sample of early career academics. a response rate of 40% (n = 117) was achieved. fifty-one point three per cent of the sample consisted of women, while male respondents made up 46.2% of the sample. the ethnicity of the sample was divided into 47.9% white, followed by black africans (37.6%), 7.7% indians and 3.4% mixed race. the age group with the highest number of respondents was 40–49 years (34.0%), while, on an accumulative basis, 82.0% of the respondents were older than 40 years. the largest single group of respondents was those in possession of a master’s degree (49.6%), and, combined, 75.4% of the respondents had either a master’s degree or a doctorate. the largest group of respondents was employed on the lecturer level (54.7%), followed by the senior lecturer level (33.3%). the majority of respondents had 0-5 years’ work experience in academia (53.0%) and had been employed for 0-5 years in their current job (70.9%). measuring instruments the following measurements were used in this study: talent attraction: the talent attraction scale was developed by the authors. the scale consists of 25 items and measures eight factors: opportunity to apply skills, career advancement, autonomy, job security, innovation, contribution, intellectual stimulation and work-life balance. responses were measured on a five-point likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (6). talent development: a talent development scale was developed by the authors. the talent development scale consists of 15 items, and measures three dimensions: opportunities for growth and development, influence in career decisions and role clarity. responses were measured on a four-point likert scale ranging from never (1) to always (4). talent retention factors were measured by following the talent retention diagnostic tool as developed by theron et al. (2014). the tool consisted of the following four sections: compensation and recognition scale: this section of the questionnaire measured nine items related to compensation and recognition on a six-point scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (6). this questionnaire obtained an acceptable internal consistency of 0.882. management support scale: the respondents were requested to indicate how they rated their relationship with their immediate supervisor or direct line manager. nine items referring to trust, communication, feedback, career development, communication and performance appraisals were presented, measured on a six-point scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (6). this questionnaire obtained an acceptable internal consistency of 0.934. satisfaction with institutional practices scale: this adapted questionnaire measured general satisfaction with institutional practices, that is, institutional leadership, values, strategies, communication, talent management (nine items) and satisfaction with research funding (four items). responses were measured on a four-point likert scale ranging from extremely dissatisfied (1) to extremely satisfied (4). this questionnaire obtained an acceptable internal consistency ranging from 0.783 to 0.923. intention to quit scale (cohen, 1993). the questionnaire consisted of three items and assessed early career academics’ intention to leave. responses were measured on a six-point likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (6). acceptable internal consistencies were obtained of above 0.90 for this in several south african studies. organisational commitment: the questionnaire consisted of 15 items and was developed by allen and meyer (1990) to measure affective, normative and continuous commitment. responses were measured on a six-point likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (6). acceptable internal consistencies were found for this measure (sage, 2012). research procedure permission for the project was first obtained from the head of skills development of higher education south africa. the questionnaires for the research project were distributed via the skills development facilitators, in hard copy, to a purposive convenience sample of academics in the identified heis. permission to use the questionnaires was obtained from the relevant developers and subjected to an ethical clearance process. completed questionnaires were treated anonymously, to protect the identity of the respondents. data analyses data analyses were carried out with the aid of spss software (spss, 2016). exploratory factor analyses were applied to determine the factor structure of the measurements. cronbach’s alphas were used to determine the reliability of the scale and its items. a cut-off point of 0.7 was used as a guideline for acceptable reliabilities (field, 2009). pearson correlation analyses were performed to test for the significance of relationships between the variables. multiple regression analyses were applied to test for the moderating effect between the variables. ethical consideration ethical clearance for the research was provided by north-west university. results factor and reliability analyses talent attraction scale principal component analyses were performed on the 25 items of the talent attraction scale. the initial results showed that eight factors could be extracted, based on the eigenvalues. a subsequent principal component analysis was performed using varimax rotation to specify eight factors. one item was deleted because of problematic loadings. the eight factors explained 75.087% of the variance and were labelled job security (factor 1), autonomy (factor 2), innovation (factor 3), contribution (factor 4), career advancement (factor 5), intellectual stimulation (factor 6), work-life balance (factor 7) and opportunity to apply skills (factor 8). the eight factors were subjected to a second-order factor analysis. three factors (opportunity to apply skills, work-life balance and intellectual stimulation) were excluded because of low reliability loadings. the factor analysis resulted in one factor that explained 47.684% of the variance, which was labelled talent attraction. the career advancement factor was further excluded because of problematic loadings. talent development scale principal component analyses were performed on the 15 items of the talent development scale. the initial results showed that three factors could be extracted based on the eigenvalues. a subsequent principal component analysis was performed using varimax rotation to specify three factors. four items were deleted because of problematic loadings. the three factors explained 68.050% of the variance and were labelled role clarity (factor 1), skill utilisation (factor 2) and participation in career decisions (factor 3). the three factors were subjected to a second-order factor analysis. the factor analysis resulted in one factor that explained 59.976% of the variance, which was labelled career development. compensation and recognition exploratory factor analysis using the principal component method was conducted on the nine items of the compensation and recognition scale. the results showed one underlying factor that explained 53.514% of the variance. the item loadings were acceptable, ranging from 0.639 to 0.820. the factor was labelled compensation and recognition. management support an exploratory factor analysis using the principal component method was conducted on the nine items of the management support scale. the results showed one underlying factor that explained 69.333% of the variance. the item loadings were acceptable, ranging from 0.865 to 0.901. the factor was labelled management support. satisfaction with institutional practices exploratory factor analyses using the principal component method were performed on the 13-item measure. the results showed two underlying factors that explained 61.529% of the variance. the factors were labelled satisfaction with general institutional practices (factor 1) and satisfaction with institutional funding opportunities (factor 2). all items showed acceptable loadings, ranging from 0.520 to 0.856. a second-order factor analysis was performed on the two factors. the factor analysis resulted in one factor that explained 73.261% of the variance, which was labelled satisfaction with institutional practices. intention to quit exploratory factor analysis using the principal component method was performed on the three-item measure. the results showed one underlying factor that explained 85.478% of the variance. the factor was labelled intention to quit. organisational commitment exploratory factor analysis using the principal component method was conducted on the 15-item measure. four items were deleted because of problematic loadings. the results showed one underlying factor that explained 85.478% of the variance. the factor was labelled organisational commitment. descriptive statistics of the measurements are reported in table 1. table 1: descriptive statistics of the measurements. the results in table 1 show very good to excellent reliabilities for the measurements, where the guideline is α ≥ 0.70. the respondents were in agreement that talent attraction factors, management support and career development opportunities were available. respondents were slightly satisfied with compensation and recognition and institutional practices. about half of the participants (49%) considered quitting their institution. most the participants appeared to be committed to their respective institutions. next, the results of testing of the hypotheses are reported. testing of hypotheses the results of the pearson correlations are reported in table 2. table 2: pearson correlation analyses between variables. the results in table 2 show that compensation and recognition is significantly positively related to organisational commitment (medium effect) and negatively related to intention to quit (large effect). management support is significantly positively related to organisational commitment (medium effect) and significantly negatively related to intention to quit (small effect). institutional factors are significantly positively related to organisational commitment (large effect) and significantly negatively related to intention to quit (medium effect). talent development is significantly positively related to organisational commitment (medium effect) and significantly negatively related to intention to quit (small effect). talent attraction is significantly positively related to intention to quit (medium effect). organisational commitment is significantly negatively related to intention to quit (large effect). the above results partially confirm hypotheses 1, 2, 3 and 4, that the antecedents of talent management (such as management support, talent development, compensation and institutional practices) can enhance organisational commitment and reduce turnover intentions of early career academics. no significant relationships were found between talent attraction, organisational commitment and turnover intentions. next, the multiple regression analyses for the interactive relationship of organisational commitment as moderator are presented. all the independent variables were centred. in models 1 and 2, the effects of the independent variables were entered, while in the third model the interaction term was also entered. the results are reported in table 3. table 3: multiple regression analyses with organisational commitment as moderator between variables. the results in table 3 show no significant relationship when adding organisational commitment as moderator in the interactive relationship between talent attraction, talent development, compensation and recognition, management support, institutional factors and intention to quit. organisational commitment, therefore, does not moderate the relationships between these variables. based on these results, hypotheses 5 and 6 are rejected. discussion the main objective of this research was to explore the causal relationships between the antecedents and consequences of talent management for early career academics in public south african heis. the antecedents were identified as talent attraction factors and management support, and the consequence factors were identified as organisational commitment and intention to quit. talent management practices (i.e. talent development, compensation and recognition and institutional practices) were used as moderating factors between the antecedent and consequence factors the results showed no significant relationship between talent attraction factors and organisational commitment. in contrast with previous studies (see matata, elegwa, & maurice, 2014; mohamed & el-shaer, 2013), the availability of talent attraction factors in this study will not influence positive organisational behaviours such as the organisational commitment of early career academics. talent attraction was significantly positively related to turnover intentions of the participants. this is an interesting finding, as one would expect early career academics to remain within heis when talent attraction practices are available. however, it is worth mentioning that almost half of the respondents in this study considered quitting their jobs. in this study it was evident that early career academics perceived high levels of management commitment towards talent management in their respective institutions. the availability of management support enhanced the organisational commitment of the early career academics in this sample and reduced their turnover intentions. the presence of management support for talent management in this study is an indicator that early career academics are considered as important drivers for the execution of the business strategy of heis (see armstrong, 2006; garrow & hirsch, 2008). in line with previous studies, the results confirm that management support can have positive work-related outcomes for novice scholars (see joiner & bokalis, 2006; matata et al., 2014) and plays an important role in the retention of this occupational group (hundera, 2014). the results further show that talent management factors such as talent development, compensation and recognition and satisfaction with institutional practices are significantly positively related to organisational commitment of early career academics. in line with other research findings, opportunities for career development, adequate remuneration and recognition and support from the university will enhance positive work-related behaviours such as the organisational commitment of early career academics (rungruang, 2012). the present study also confirms that the availability of talent management practices will reduce the turnover intentions of academics (see hundera, 2014). no moderating relationships were found in this study. practical implications the results of this research lend themselves to several practical applications for heis to manage early career talent more effectively. the results showed that management support for talent is an important antecedent variable that reinforces positive work-related behaviours such as organisational commitment and reduces the turnover intentions of early career academics. the availability of management support towards talent in this study provides an opportunity for human resource practitioners to develop academic talent management strategies that are aligned with the business strategy of higher education. although the management support towards talent in this study seemed promising, further results emphasised the need to improve the career development prospects and compensation and recognition practices for early career academics. talent management entails a strategic integrated process whereby the complete talent life-cycle of academics needs to be managed effectively from start to finish. limitations and recommendations this research had some limitations. firstly, a cross-sectional research approach was followed whereby responses were collected at one point in time. given the current changing situation of heis, these perceptions are likely to change over the long term. therefore longitudinal research should be applied to detect turnover intentions of early career academics over the long term. secondly, this research only focused on early career academics. as a result the findings cannot be generalised to other academic job levels. for future research it is recommended that the sample size be expanded to other academic job levels to do a comparative analysis on the antecedents and consequences of all academic cohorts in higher education. this research should also be expanded to include higher education management and hrm departments to obtain a more holistic stakeholder perspective on talent management and how it can best be aligned with the business strategy. future studies can also benefit from applying mixed method research methodologies. this research yielded some interesting results, which could further be explained by follow-up interviews or focus groups. conclusion in conclusion, this research presented an overview of the factors that can advance and constrain the effective talent management of early career academics in south african heis and the potential outcomes thereof. the results of this research suggest that heis need to focus on the redesign of compensation and recognition practices, as well as training and development initiatives, to reduce the turnover intentions of early career academics. this research again highlighted the importance of management support and commitment towards talent management initiatives. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions d.l.l is a phd student – this article is based on her phd thesis and she compiled the article. n.e.b. was the supervisor for this study and n.e.s. the co-supervisor. both supervisors provided editorial inputs for the article. references allen, n. j. & meyer, j. p. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization. journal of occupational psychology, 63, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.x archer, s. (2017). the function of a university in south africa: part 1. south african journal of science, 113(5/6), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2017/a0190 armstrong, m. (2006). armstrong’s handbook on human resource management practice (11th ed.). london: kogan page. barkhuizen, e. n. (2014). project talent management. in y. du plessis (ed.), project management: a behavioural perspective: theoretical principles, advanced practices and cases. pearson education (chapter 13, pp. 370–408). isbn 978 1 775 8495 1. barkhuizen, e. n. (2015, march). talent management: the catalyst for the 21st century business world. inaugural lecture at north-west university. retrieved from http://www.nwu.ac.za/sites/www.nwu.ac.za/files/files/mc/documents/2015%20-%20inaugural%20lecture%20prof%20barkhuizen.pdf barkhuizen, e. n., diseko, e., & schutte, n. e. (2015). the relationship between talent management and turnover intentions of teachers in botswana. proceedings of the 20th international academic conference, madrid, spain, pp. 37–47. isbn 978-80-87927-17-5. barkhuizen, e. n., & rothmann, s. (2006). work engagement of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. management dynamics, 15, 38–48. barkhuizen, e. n., & schutte, n. e. (2016, april). the development of a talent life cycle for government institutions. paper presented at world business conference, london, uk. barkhuizen, e. n., schutte, n. e., & nagel, l. (2017). talent management, organisational satisfaction and turnover intentions of academic staff. in n. delener, l. & c. schweikert (eds.), 19th global business and technology association conference, vienna, austria, pp. 22–30. gbata, ny. isbn: -932917-13-6. barkhuizen, e. n., & stanz, k. j. (2010). linking organisational energy and individual well-being: the influence of leader’s talent mindset. paper published in the peer reviewed conference proceedings of the 12th annual conference of global business and technology association, kruger national park, south africa, 5–9 july, pp. 50–57, gbata, usa. isbn: 1-932917-06-3. barkhuizen, e. n., welby-cooke, g., schutte, n. e., & stanz, k. j. (2014). talent management and leadership reciprocity: the case of the south african aviation industry. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(9), 11–17. bazeley, p. (2003). defining ‘early career’ in research. higher education, 45(3), 257–279. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1022698529612 bitzer, e. m. (2008). the professoriate in south africa: potentially risking status inflation. south african journal of higher education, 22, 265–281. bitzer, e. m. (2009). higher education in south africa: a scholarly look behind the scenes. stellenbosch, south africa: sun media. bosanquet, a., mailey, a., matthews, k. e., & lodge, j. m. (2017). redefining ‘early career’ in academia: a collective narrative approach. higher education research and development, 36(5), 890–902. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2016.1263934 botha, a., bussin, m., & de swart, l. (2011). an employer brand predictive model for talent attraction and retention. south african journal of human resource management, 9(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.388 busch, r., & ledingham, m. (2016). bothered bloggings and troubled tweets: constructions of stress and concerns for early-career academics. first international conference on advanced business and social sciences, (pp. 1–12). university of notre dame, australia. cohen, a. (1993). work commitment in relation to withdrawal intentions and union effectiveness. journal of business research, 26, 75–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/0148-2963(93)90044-p department of higher education. (2015). staffing south africa’s universities framework. a comprehensive, transformative guide to developing future generations of academics and building capacity. department of higher education, pretoria, south africa. de villiers, a. p., & steyn, a. g. w. (2009). effect of changes in state funding of higher education output in south africa: 1986–2007. south african journal of higher education, 22, 43–68. https://doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v23i1.44801 erasmus, b. j., grobler, a., & van niekerk, m. (2015). employee retention in a higher education institution: an organisational development perspective. progression, 37(2), 32–62. https://doi.org/10.25159/0256-8853/600 field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss (2nd ed.). london: sage. gale, h. (2011). the reluctant academic: early career academics in a teaching oriented university. international journal for academic development, 3, 215–227. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144x.2011.596705 garrow, v., & hirsh, w. (2008). talent management: issues of focus and fit. public personnel management, 37, 389–402. https://doi.org/10.1177/009102600803700402 higher education south africa. (2014). remuneration of academic staff at south african universities: a summary report of the hesa statistical study of academic remuneration. higher education south africa, pretoria, south africa. hundera, m. b. (2014). factors affecting academic staff turnover intentions and the moderating effect of gender. international journal of research in business management, 2(9), 57–70. joiner, t. a., & bokalis, s. (2006). the antecedents of organisational commitment: the case of australian causal academics. international journal of educational management, 20(6), 439–452. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513540610683694 khan, i., nawaz, a., khan, s., khan, f., khan, m. s., yar, n. b. (2014). the impact of organisational commitment on the intention to leave among academicians in higher education institutions in pakistan. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 24(2), 243–254. kontoghiorghes, c., & frangou, k. (2009). the association between talent retention, antecedent factors and consequent organizational performance. sam advanced management journal, 74(1), 29–58. lew, t. y. (2010). affective commitment and turnover intention of academics in malaysia. proceedings of international conference on business and economics research, 1(1), 110–114. magolego, h., barkhuizen, e. n., & lesenyeho, d. l. (2013). talent management and job performance: the mediating role of job satisfaction. in s. m. lee & g. roodt (eds.), 30th pan pacific conference, johannesburg, south africa (pp. 132–135). pan pacific business association, china. isbn: 1-931649-27-3. makondo, l. (2014). academics attraction and retention trends at a south african university. journal of sociology anthropology, 5(2), 169–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/09766634.2014.11885621 matata, k., elegwa, k., & maurice, s. (2014). job-related factors and their influence on organisational commitment of part-time academic staff in institutions of higher education in nairobi and mombasa cities in kenia. international journal of business and social science, 5(8), 110–119. mcalpine, l. & akerlind, g. (2010). becoming and academic: international perspectives, basingstoke, palgrave macmillan. mcardle, s. & ramerman, j. (2008). strategic talent management. retrieved from http://www.managesmarter.com/msg/content_display/training/e3i826839942e5a637a4e243acf654f6e48 mohamed, l. k., & el-shaer, a. m. (2013). professional commitment and perceived organisational support among nursing academic staff: a comparative study. the medical journal of cairo university 81(1), 235–243. mokgojwa, d., barkhuizen, e. n., & schutte, n. e. (2017). the development of a talent risk management tool for academics in south african education institutions. in n. delener, l. & schweikert, c. (eds.), 19th global business and technology association conference, vienna, austria (pp. 553–539). new york, usa, gbata. isbn: -932917-13-6. mouton, n., louw, g. p., & strydom, l. p. (2013). present-day dilemmas and challenges of the south african tertiary system. international business and economics research journal, 12(3), 285–300. mpofu, l., & barkhuizen, e. n. (2013). the impact of talent management practices on employees in a government institution. in s. m. lee & g. roodt (eds.), 30th pan pacific conference, johannesburg, south africa (pp. 129–131). ppba. isbn: 1-931649-27-3. mukweyi, a. s. (2016). an investigation of the influence of talent management practices on the retention of healthcare professionals at kijabe mission hospital, kiambu. unpublished doctoral thesis, strathmore business school, strathmore university, uk. munsamy, m., & bosch venter, a. (2009). retention factors of management staff in the maintenance phase of their careers in local government. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 7(1), art. #198, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.198 myburgh, h. (2015). white paper: talent attraction. strategic staffing solutions. retrieved from www.dav.co.za ntshoe, p., higgs, l. g., higgs, c. c., & wolhuter, i. (2008). the changing academic profession in higher education and new managerialism and corporatism in south africa. south african journal of higher education, 22(2), 391–403. https://doi.org/10.4314/sajhe.v22i2.25793 o’callaghan, a. (2008). talent management review. fasset, seta. retrieved from http://www.fasset.org.za/downloads/events/talent_man_sdf_long_article_website.pdf onah, f. o., & anikwe, o. s. (2016). the task of attraction and retention of academic staff in nigeria universities. journal of management and strategy, 7(2), 9–20. https://doi.org/10.5430/jms.v7n2p9 pienaar, c., & bester, c. (2008). addressing career obstacles within a changing higher education work environment: perspectives of academic. south african journal of psychology, 39(3), 376–385. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124630903900311 pienaar, y. (2013). a structured model of the relationship between talent mindset, organizational energy and work wellness. (unpublished doctoral dissertation). department of human resource management, university of pretoria, south africa. porter, l. w., steers, r. m., mowday, r. t., & boulian, p. v. (1974). organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover among psychiatric technicians. journal of applied psychology, 59, 603–609. price, e., coffey, b., & nethery, a. (2015). an early career academic network: what worked and what didn’t. journal of further and higher education, 39(5), 680–698. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877x.2014.971106 robyn, a., & du preez, r. (2013). intention to quit amongst generation y academics at higher education institutions. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i1.1106 rungruang, p. (2012). antecedents of organisational commitment of academics in thailand: qualitative analyses. research journal of business management, 6(2), 1–12. sage, n. (2012). the effect of expatriate salary on host country nationals in south africa: a study involving perceived compensation disparity, organisational commitment and job satisfaction. (unpublished masters dissertation). department of human resource management, university of pretoria, south africa. saurombe, m. (2017). management perspectives on a talent value proposition for academic staff in a south african higher education institution. (unpublished doctoral dissertation). department of industrial psychology, north-west university, mmabatho. saurombe, m., barkhuizen, e.n., & schutte, n.e. (2017). management perceptions of a higher educational brand for the attraction and of talent academic staff. south african journal of human resource management, 15, 1–10. schlecther, a. f., syce, c., & bussin, m. (2016). predicting voluntary turnover in employees using demographic characteristics: a south african case study. acta commercii, 16(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v16i1.274 schutte, n. e. (2015). the development of a diagnostic tool for the assessment of competencies for human resource management practitioners in south africa. (unpublished doctoral dissertation). department of industrial psychology, north-west university, mmabatho. selesho, j. m., & naile, i. (2014). academic staff retention as a human resource factor: university perspective. international business & economic research journal, 13(2), 295–303. https://doi.org/10.19030/iber.v13i2.8444 singh, r. j. (2015). current trends and challenges in south african higher education. south african journal of higher education, 29(3), 1–7. smit, w., stanz, k., & bussin, m. (2015). retention preferences and the relationship between total rewards, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor support. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #665, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.665 spss inc. (2016). spss 23 for windows. chicago, il: spss inc. the south african council on higher education. (2014). annual report 2013/4. the south african council on higher education. theron, m., barkhuizen, e. n., & du plessis, y. (2014). managing the academic talent void: investigating factors in academic turnover and retention in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1117 veldman, g. (2011). the impact of talent management practices on the retention of employees. (unpublished masters dissertation). university of pretoria, south africa. abstract introduction method findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) lishani letchmiah department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa adèle thomas department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa citation letchmiah, l., & thomas, a. (2017). retention of high-potential employees in a development finance company. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a924. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.924 original research retention of high-potential employees in a development finance company lishani letchmiah, adèle thomas received: 04 mar. 2017; accepted: 01 aug. 2017; published: 28 sept. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the loss of high-potential employees was a concern to leaders at a south african development finance company. the research question that guided the study was: how can high-potential employees be retained in the company? research purpose: the objective of the study was to identify factors that positively impact the retention of high-potential employees in a development finance company. motivation for the study: the organisation that comprised the unit of study had prioritised employee development to retain high-potential employees, thereby aiming to build a strong talent pipeline and a sustainable knowledge base. a prevalent concern was that there were no formal retention programmes for high-potential employees. accordingly, organisational leaders could benefit from understanding those retention factors that may serve to retain such employees. research design, approach and method: a qualitative methodology promoted a deeper understanding of a social problem through a case study. eleven purposefully chosen high-potential employees provided insights into factors they considered to be important in their retention. a content analysis of the data resulted in clusters of themes that addressed the research objective. main findings: the following factors appeared to influence the retention of high-potential employees: leadership and organisational culture, organisational purpose, developmental opportunities, meaningful work and collegiality. practical and managerial implications: leaders in the company should consider factors that could influence the retention of high-potential employees. such factors should be built into formal retention strategies based on the intrinsic needs of employees; the strengths that the organisational culture provides could be leveraged in this regard. contribution: the practical value of the study was the highlighting of the factors that can be leveraged to retain high-potential employees in a development finance company. introduction the inability to retain high-potential employees poses a concern to many organisations (castellano, 2013), which are at risk of losing business knowledge when an employee leaves (ortlieb & sieben, 2012). in this process, leadership strength is damaged (hausknecht, rodda & howard, 2009) and the organisation has to incur unnecessary costs by constantly replacing staff with those of the same calibre (fritz, o’neil, popp, williams & arnett, 2012). retention is ‘the ability to hold onto those employees you want to keep, for longer than your competitors’ (johnson, 2000, p. 34). the present case study focused on understanding retention factors for high-potential employees at a niche south african development finance institution with a complex business model, different from that of traditional asset-backed financiers. such an institution is one that provides access to financial and support services to an underserved market with the aim of contributing to the sustainable growth of the economy (association of development financing institutions in asia and the pacific, 2013). a development finance institution is ‘an alternative financial institution which includes microfinance institutions, a community development financial institution and revolving loan funds’ (levere, schweke & woo, 2006, p. 2). these loans carry a higher risk in comparison to those offered by traditional lending institutions in developing countries. the environment in which the company operates is competitive, tightly regulated and high risk. because of its entrepreneurial nature, organisational structure and the industry in which it operates, retention of high-potential employees has become a crucial objective in the last 3 years and this objective has been translated into a key focus area for the human capital team. the company defines a high-potential employee as someone who is aligned to the organisation, who fulfils a critical role or has scarce skills, who fits into the organisational culture, who has a positive outlook and who is resilient. purpose ingham (2006) suggests that retention of good employees is important for organisational success. there is scope for further research to understand the complexities of retention strategies and how they may influence retention of high-potential employees at a south african development finance company, with some cautious extrapolation, perhaps, to the broader industry. in light of this motivation, the research problem that the present study sought to address was to understand factors that may aid the retention of high-potential employees within the company. the research question, thus, was: what factors retain high-potential employees within a development finance company? literature review the importance of retaining high-potential employees employee retention has become a global quest because employees contribute to organisational success (ortlieb & sieben, 2012). for an organisation to remain competitive, it must employ the most talented people within the market (castellano, 2013). this is particularly relevant to the financial sector (mohlala, goldman & goosen, 2012). however, top-performing employees are sometimes overlooked as organisational assets. as a result, they may become dissatisfied with and disengaged from their current employers and begin to look for new opportunities where they feel more highly valued (hughes & rog, 2008). trying to replace talent and train new employees to function as productively as their predecessors is a growing challenge for financial institutions (vasishtha, 2009). characteristics of high-potential employees a talented individual is one who drives exceptional business performance through competence, commitment and contribution (hayashi & dolan, 2013). mckinsey and company (2001) offer a similar description, explaining that a high-potential employee is someone who demonstrates consistent levels of high performance, is capable of lateral or upward movement and has reached the potential to move upward, more commonly into management or supervisory positions. to this list, allen, bryant and vardaman (2010) add that the individual must possess robust business knowledge and contribute soundly to the business. high-potential employees are more likely to become the future leaders of an organisation (hausknecht et al., 2009) and possess several core characteristics including, but not limited to, creativity, autonomy, resilience and learning potential (kyndt, dochy, michielsen & moeyaert, 2009). joo and mclean (2006) note that employees who are engaged and committed should be considered strategic assets in an organisation as they possess ‘the set of difficult-to-trade-and-imitate, scarce, appropriable and specialized resources and capabilities that bestow a firm’s competitive advantage’ (amit & schoemaker, 1993, p. 36). factors that impact retention of high-potential employees it is important that employers endeavour to retain high-potential employees and replace the low performers with new employees with diverse skills and strong ability (holtbrugge, friedman & puck, 2010). turnover can be considered positive if talented employees are retained while lower performers leave the organisation (hausknecht et al., 2009). the term ‘talent management’ relates to: the implementation of integrated strategies or systems designed to increase workplace productivity by developing improved processes for attracting, developing, retaining, and utilising people with the required skills and aptitude to meet current and future business needs. (lockwood, 2006, p. 2) talent management implies that companies are purposeful in the methods used to engage with new employees who are considered to have high potential. these strategies include selection techniques, the provision of developmental opportunities, promotion and mobility in the organisation (ingham, 2006). talent management also includes the manner in which performance is driven (schiemann, 2013). blanket retention policies are often unsuccessful and disadvantageous to an organisation if they appeal to employees at all levels and are not segmented (vaiman, scullion & collings, 2012). it is crucial that organisational leaders or human resource practitioners understand which factors help to retain employees specific to their own organisations. retention schemes that are successful in one organisation may not necessarily achieve retention at another (sinha, 2012). some of the key factors that have been shown to impact the retention of high-potential employees include organisational culture and values, self-actualisation, leadership, communication, work–life balance and reward and recognition (trevisan, veloso, da silva, dutra & fischer, 2014). the variation in employee retention across organisations may be related to organisational culture (kerr & slocum, 2005). organisational culture is described by schein (2006, p. 236) as a ‘set of shared, implicit assumptions that a group holds and that determines how it perceives, thinks about, and reacts to its various environments’. similarly, chatman and cha (2003) explain culture to be a system of shared values and norms. employees become energised when the culture appeals to their higher ideals and values (liden, wayne, lioa & meuser, 2014). linked to organisational culture, organisational commitment is often enhanced by the relationship the employee has with the organisation, especially if the employee is aligned to the organisation (messmer, 2004). leaders should ideally enhance employees’ personal links to the company, thereby enabling employees to better understand how their individual successes contribute to the overall success of the organisation (sun & anderson, 2012). if employees are well socialised into the organisation and identify with the corporate culture, their commitment is likely to be enhanced (kinicki & fugate, 2012). personal values of individuals influence their beliefs, behaviour and the decisions they make in the workplace (alfes, shantz, truss & soane, 2013). if employees identify with the values of the organisation and believe them to be similar to their own, they are more likely to stay with the organisation (grojean, resick, dickson & smith, 2004). high-potential senior employees often try to achieve a level of self-actualisation (gupta & tayal, 2013). they are on a constant journey to be the best possible versions of themselves (ramlall, 2004). they need to feel that they are learning, advancing and remaining competitive in relation to their industry peers and see this as leading to opportunities for promotion and career advancement (kyndt et al., 2009). if they do not feel this way, the likelihood of them exploring new external job opportunities increases (sageer, rafat & agarwal, 2012). leadership is fundamental to the retention of high-potential employees and should be reflective of the organisational culture (paul & berry, 2013). kaiser and hogan (2010) argue that standing by business ethics and displaying personal integrity are prerequisites for good transformational leadership. if leaders are perceived to be lacking integrity, it is likely to harm the trust and the relationships required to build and sustain effective working relationships with high-potential employees (kaiser & hogan, 2010). leaders, through the organisational culture, provide employees with informal direction on how to execute their roles to achieve the strategic objectives (grojean et al., 2004). they also encourage employees to take ownership of their actions and consequently, high performers are likely to excel (chatman & cha, 2003). effective communication is linked to leadership (effelsberg, solga & gurt, 2012) and is considered one of the best tools for leaders to increase retention (masibigiri & nienaber, 2011). open and honest communication can contribute to employee commitment and thereby promote retention and by reminding employees of their value and importance to an organisation, high commitment can be fostered (tillott, walsh & moxham, 2013). thus, an inclusive organisational culture that promotes open and honest communication, and one that places a strong emphasis on knowledge equality, is likely to contribute to the retention of employees (pyszka & pilat, 2011). if employees feel that they are unable to attain a work–life balance, they may be more predisposed to leave for an environment that can support this expectation, necessitating that both employees and organisations reach an agreement on this issue (greenhaus & allen, 2012). organisational leaders should focus on providing policies that promote a healthy work–life balance to assist in the retention of top potential employees (nadeem, 2009). the culture of the company determines the organisational mindset around opportunities offered internally (chatman & cha, 2003). high-potential employees appreciate organisational investment in training and skills development that generally lower an employee’s need to leave (allen, 2008). this is particularly relevant for professions where incumbents require constant skills updating or continuous professional development (doh, smith, stumpf & tymon, 2011). growth opportunities and long-term career prospects are crucial for high-potential employees (rondeau & wager, 2001). extrinsic and intrinsic rewards and advancement opportunities are central to the retention of high-potential employees (caldwell et al., 2012). employees need to feel equitably remunerated and see potential to grow within organisations (mansel, brough & cole, 2006). ryan (2010) discusses the results of a top talent survey in which partners of various organisations were asked what they considered to be the top tools to retain high-potential employees. all partners stated that compensation would retain talent. however, the results revealed that compensation ranked number four by high-potential employees while developmental opportunities ranked number one. if employees perceive that contributions are equal to the benefits they receive, they are less likely to leave the organisation (lee, liu, rousseau, hui & chen, 2011). these benefits may be in the form of remuneration, the feel of the workplace environment and opportunities for promotion and development. if the culture of the organisation allows for flexibility regarding working conditions and benefits, whether tangible or intangible, this can aid retention strategies (chatman & cha, 2003). method research approach the study adopted a qualitative approach to assist in an understanding the experiences of the participants, all of whom had been identified as high-potential employees in the company; it sought to promote the understanding of a social problem through rich description (creswell, 2014). research design a case study design in a single organisation was used to explore the way in which participants construct meaning within their own live contexts (yin, 2009). in this way, an attempt was made to learn more about an unknown or inadequately understood subject by means of gathering in-depth data (leedy & ormrod, 2001). population and sample the population comprised 15 senior high-potential employees from whom 11 participants were selected through purposive sampling. all participants had to display the characteristics of a high-potential employee as determined by the company: alignment to the organisation, performing a critical role or having scarce skills, fitting into the organisational culture, possessing a positive outlook and resilience. they were employees with diverse skills and business knowledge who could be rotated within the company and added value to numerous business areas. because of their skills transferability and scarce skills, these employees are marketable and thus are ‘key informants’ (maxwell, 2013, p. 73) or respected or knowledgeable people in terms of the research subject and ones who are able to provide a deeper understanding of the issues under consideration. research instrument based on the literature, an interview guide was constructed that included open-ended questions. care was taken to ensure that the questions were fully understood by the participants. the questions were organised and worded in a way to encourage participants to provide accurate, unbiased and complete information in relation to the research problem. probes were used if participants appeared unsure of the questions. examples of questions included ‘please describe your level of commitment to the company’, ‘please explain the degree to which accurate information is shared throughout the organisation’, ‘what opportunities are there for you to participate in decision-making regarding organisational goals and objectives?’ and ‘if you could describe the corporate culture of the company in three words, what would they be?’ data collection access to participants was gained by obtaining consent from the organisation and participants were approached individually through personal emails to set up convenient meeting times and at venues that ensured confidentiality. data analysis and interpretation in line with qualitative research methodology, the data were subjected to content analysis where themes, or recurring ‘threads of meaning’ (baxter, 1991, p. 250) and categories, or groups of content-sharing commonalities (krippendorff, 1980) were used to assemble the first-order concepts and to understand the information at a higher logical level (graneheim & lundman, 2004). to ensure reliability of the data, all semi-structured questions were posed in the same way to participants by the first author, and responses were not influenced in any way (myers, 2010). the soundness of a study is influenced by credibility, internal validity and transferability (bowen, 2005). credibility is determined by establishing whether the information provided by participants speaks to the findings of the study (esterberg, 2002), which was the case in the present study. golafshani (2003, p. 600) indicates that credibility in qualitative studies refers to the ‘ability and effort’ of the researcher. selecting the most appropriate method of data collection, as well as the amount of data collected, was important in establishing such credibility. the units of data acquired through content analysis were not too broad with multiple meanings and not too narrow as to risk fragmentation. in addition, representative quotations from the transcribed text were used to illustrate the input provided by participants (graneheim & lundman, 2004). transferability is the ability to use the same research method and approach in another setting and obtain a similar result (pidgeon & henwood, 1997). transferability was ensured through providing rich descriptions of data (bowen, 2005), thus allowing other researchers to use the current study as a framework for reflection on the findings (terre blanche & durrheim, 1999). ethical considerations the necessary authorisation was obtained from the company at which the study was conducted. the company’s name remained anonymous and no identifying details of participants were disclosed. written consent was obtained from all participants and the information gathered was kept confidential in accordance with the guidelines of leedy and ormrod (2001). participants were informed of the nature of the study, that participation was voluntary and that they could withdraw from the study at any time should they not feel comfortable. findings the purpose of the study was to understand, from 11 high-potential employees, what factors could be used to retain such employees within the company. the following themes emerged. leadership five participants attributed poor leadership as the reason why they had left previous organisations. participants mentioned that supportive leadership was an overarching reason why they stayed with their current employer: for me leadership is the differentiating factor for staying in an organisation. that’s why i decided to stay here. the ceo is phenomenal. since he joined in 2010, i’ve been more engaged and excited to be at work. (participant 5, indian male, 9 years’ service) participant 10 cited the open management style in the business as being the reason for his retention: no manager is unapproachable in the organisation. my manager is inclusive and entrenched in the business. he includes our team in everything and values our opinion. i appreciate that the ceo is someone who wants everyone to be happy and lives the culture he is trying to create in the organisation. (participant 10, white male, 5 years’ service) participant 8 echoed this sentiment: i have a great manager. i report to a manager who goes beyond his call of duty to build relationships and support his employees both personally and professionally. i’m privileged to work so closely with the executive team. one of the executives is an inspiration to women. she holds her own in a male dominated environment while running the department. she’s approachable, independent and objective. she acts with high integrity. i really respect her. (participant 8, black female, 5 years’ service) organisational purpose the majority of participants had a clear understanding of the company’s mission and organisational purpose. they emphasised that the business is focused on being a true development financier: what other organisation allows you to uplift previously disadvantaged people who did not have access to finance and provide them with an opportunity to create their own business? we are giving people access to the formal and mainstream economy. (participant 11, white male, 3 years’ service) the organisation does what i feel is really important. [it] creates value by empowering people to create value for themselves. (participant 3, black male, 2 years’ service) i truly believe in what we do in this business. being part of a development finance organisation that directly impacts millions of south africans every day is why i come to work. the purpose and concept of what we do is really cool. (participant 1, black female, 2 years’ service) developmental opportunities all participants expressed their appreciation for being invited to attend courses. all mentioned that they valued the organisation for providing a diverse range of developmental opportunities geared to every level of the organisation: the current leadership initiatives being run internally have impacted me positively. i’ve learnt a lot and gained valuable work experience. it’s a fantastic opportunity. the organisation has arranged a formal coaching programme for me that has influenced me hugely, both personally and professionally. the fact that the organisation is willing to spend money on developing me increases my commitment. (participant 6, white male, 4 years’ service) participant 6 appreciated the recognition and developmental opportunities he receives within the company. he described the internal and external opportunities as well thought out, thus ensuring that they were adding value to every employee. participant 3 added: i really value the opportunity to learn and not being intellectually bored. (participant 3, black male, 2 years’ service) meaningful work five participants felt that their jobs added value to both themselves and the company, and they were able to see how their roles contributed towards the company’s success. because of the dynamic nature of the business and the complexity of their jobs, they found their work challenging and intellectually stimulating, which participants highlighted as being important for them. participants 1 and 7 emphasised that meaningful work was a major retention factor for them at this stage of their careers: if i’m not challenged, i’ll leave. i must enjoy what i’m doing and be able to see the value of my work. (participant 1, black female, 2 years’ service) the work is always challenging. this is a driving factor for me. i need to be challenged. the way we do things is constantly evolving. there’s always something to improve on or to implement and that excites me. i stay because i can add value and people ask for my opinion. it’s magic. (participant 7, white male, 4 years’ service) environment the physical and cultural environment created by the company was a prominent theme in almost every interview. seven participants used words such as ‘dynamic’, ‘fun’ and ‘energetic’ when describing the company’s environment. many of the participants referred to the positive environment specifically of the customer-consulting area and the vehicle warehouse business unit, which they felt truly differentiated this company from any other company. the culture was described as being reflective of the values and purpose of the company. the participants felt the environment fostered collaboration and innovation among employees, departments and customers: in my previous organisation i struggled. going to work took more effort and my energy was depleted at the end of every day. i woke up in the morning thinking, do i really have to go to work? whereas now, on a monday morning, i wake up and think, awesome, i’m going to work. (participant 6, white male, 4 years’ service) participant 5 described the environment as fast paced and energetic. participant 3 shared a similar view: the environment is cool and very unique to this business. if you walk into the welcome centre, customer service consultants are friendly and have created a happy and welcoming space. the area is a representation of how client focused the business is. but, if i had to show someone our business i would take them to the vehicle workshop purely because of its grandeur and pace. it’s really amazing. (participant 3, black male, 2 years’ service) collegiality the participants all valued and respected the people who work for the company. they enjoyed coming to work because of the people with whom they interacted. they respected the teams in the business and those who they called their organisational heroes. most of the heroes mentioned were not executives but teams and people in specific roles. where possible, team names or job titles were used to show that, regardless of level, participants felt they were surrounded by great people in the organisation: they’re able to do a job that’s really unpleasant but have such a good ethic and sense of community. (participant 6, white male, 4 years’ service) the people are the reason i decided to join this company. i had such a great experience and interactions during my interview that i wanted to work here. i wanted to work with the people. people are so passionate, it’s infectious. (participant 3, black male, 2 years’ service) i’m privileged to be a part of the team. (participant 7, white male, 4 years’ service) participant 11 referred to the resilient nature of the people within the company: the environment can be tough but the people are passionate, smart and strong. i enjoy interacting with the people at work. our passion towards the business unites us and all of us can really relate to each other. (participant 11, white male, 3 years’ service) discussion outline of the findings the study aimed to identify factors that could positively impact the retention of high-potential employees in a development finance company. the question which was answered was: what factors positively impact the retention of high-potential employees in a development finance company? five major themes emerged in this regard: leadership and organisational culture, organisational purpose, developmental opportunities, meaningful work and collegiality. the factors are listed in order of importance as ranked by participants. leadership and organisational culture participants valued the good leadership they experience in the company. this was the leading retention factor expressed. leaders who are accessible and inclusive inspire and motivate high-potential employees within organisations (trevisan et al., 2014). many of the participants cited leadership as the reason why they chose to leave previous organisations and why they remain with their current employer. participants appeared to respect their current leaders and, in particular, the ceo who was described as a people’s person who lives the culture he has created. this finding supports the view that leaders reflect culture (paul & berry, 2013). participants trusted leadership as a result of the good business ethics and personal integrity they observed (kaiser & hogan, 2010). such identification appeared to influence retention positively. participants stressed the importance of having leaders who motivate them, allow them the freedom to make decisions and enable them to work independently, but who are available and approachable if assistance is required. such a leadership approach allows employees to take ownership of their actions, with the result that they remain engaged and committed to the company (chatman & cha, 2003). the physical and cultural environment created by the company was a prominent theme in almost every interview. participants agreed that the organisational culture encourages an environment that promotes innovation and collaboration (grojean et al., 2004). the physical environment was seen as a differentiating factor and one that fosters collaboration and innovation among employees, departments and customers. from the findings one can see that high-potential employees prefer to work in environments that are productive, respect employees, value diversity and are inclusive and sociable (ramlall, 2004). organisational purpose participants made reference to the importance of belonging to an organisation that has a motivational purpose to which they are able to relate. participants mentioned that, as they live and work in a developing country, it is important for them, at this stage of their careers as senior managers or specialists, to see the value in what they do. they want to belong to an organisation that is committed to improving the country and one that focuses on sustainability. many of the participants enjoyed the direct impact that the organisation has on communities and the economy and, for them, this was a powerful motivator, increasing their desire to stay at the company. the findings confirmed that if high-potential employees identify with the organisation’s purpose and recognise their role in fulfilling that purpose, they are likely to remain with the organisation (messmer, 2004). developmental opportunities the need to develop was evident among these high-potential participants. all expressed appreciation for the developmental opportunities provided, which they considered to be abundant in assisting them to grow, achieve and advance in their careers. similarly, ryan (2010) found that it is important for high-potential employees to work for a company that provides them with such opportunities. although developmental opportunities did not appear to be the leading retention factor for the participants, it emerged within the top three factors. many of the participants felt that the organisation offered a variety of developmental opportunities that were tailored and customised to their differing needs. they appreciated that the organisation supported continuous learning and development. allen (2008) and mohlala et al. (2012) also found that high-potential employees appreciate organisational investment in training and skills development with allen (2008) noting that providing training and developmental opportunities generally increases retention of high-potential employees. meaningful work a common theme that emerged was the meaningfulness of the work which the company provides. participants felt that their jobs add value and that they are able to see the value of their roles in the company’s success. their jobs allow them to be integrally involved in the business and they are able to make strategic business decisions. participants alluded to the fact that if they were no longer challenged or if they could not see the value of their work, they would leave the company (gupta & tayal, 2013). participants expressed a similar view to that of ramlall (2004), stating that at this stage of their careers they were on a constant journey to become better versions of themselves in the work place. they needed to add value and fulfil their personal passion. their roles are meaningful to them personally and this motivates them. participants explained that the meaningfulness of their work drives their commitment to the organisation and because of their involvement in the business they do not wish to seek other employment. collegiality participants explained how they value and respect the people who work for the organisation. they enjoy coming to work because of the people with whom they work and interact. they respect the teams in the business and those who they referred to as their organisational heroes. high-potential employees need to work in an organisation where they feel respected and, more importantly, where they respect the people they work with (ramlall, 2004). relationships appeared to be a factor that influences the retention of high-potential employees. participants enjoyed being surrounded by people who are hardworking and passionate. employees enjoy working with people who are like-minded and share the same behavioural norms (kinicki & fugate, 2012). participants were complimentary about both teams and individuals employed within the company. there was a clear level of respect and appreciation for different people, teams and qualities within the business, reflective of the culture created to which high-potential employees relate. this finding is aligned to the prior research of paul and berry (2013) and ramlall (2004). practical implications the findings have implications for the advancement of knowledge in the field of managing and retaining high-potential employees in the organisation. the organisation should develop retention strategies based on the needs of its top potential employees as well as leverage the strengths that the organisational culture of the company provides. the findings of the study indicate that high-potential employees are intrinsically motivated. therefore, the outcomes of this study could assist line and human resource managers in developing retention strategies that will not only increase the commitment of high-potential employees but also assist the organisation in retaining them as well. it is important for the leaders in the company to be aware, further, that the needs of high-potential employees may vary (chatman & cha, 2003). accordingly, efforts should be made to tailor retention strategies targeted at high-potential employees to ensure that their individual needs are met. leaders should focus on developing the organisational culture so that it is strong and promotes the organisational purpose, encourages continuous development of employees, continues to create a cohesive environment and thus fosters and attracts the right people. limitations and recommendations while this study provided insights into the factors that motivate high-potential employees within the development finance industry, the information obtained was based on the participants’ subjective views. this, coupled with the fact that the study was conducted in one organisation only, means that the findings must be generalised with caution. nevertheless, the study provides pointers that can be considered and further explored with a view to retaining high-potential employees in this industry. understanding the factors that retain high-potential employees is a complex task (chatman & cha, 2003). future research could seek to understand the balance that is required between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards in order to retain high-potential employees. the participants in this study were all senior high-potential employees. future research could consider retention strategies for high-potential employees at different levels in the company with a view to retaining and developing such employees into senior levels. research may also indicate differences in retention strategies for different demographic groups including the retention requirements of high-potential employees at different stages in their careers. conclusion there is increasing focus on retaining high-potential employees (castellano, 2013) because of the organisational costs associated with losing such employees (hausknecht et al., 2009; ortlieb & sieben, 2012). organisational leaders and human resource practitioners are also concerned about the costs and the time it takes to replace high performers (fritz et al., 2012). retaining high-potential employees is cost effective and can impact organisational success (ortlieb & sieben, 2012). accordingly, factors such as leadership, organisational culture, organisational purpose, developmental opportunities, meaningful work and collegiality should be explored as potential factors that promote retention of high-potential employees. acknowledgements the authors wish to thank the management of the company as well as the participants who contributed to this case study. the comments of the two anonymous reviewers are also acknowledged. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the study was based on the research dissertation of the first author, l.l., completed at the university of johannesburg for the degree mphil in leadership in performance and change. a.t. was the supervisor of the study. a.t. converted the dissertation into the present manuscript. references alfes, k., shantz, a.d., truss, c., & soane, e.c. (2013). the link between perceived human resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation model. the international journal of human resource management, 24(2), 330–351. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.679950 allen, d.g. (2008). retaining talent: a guide to analyzing and managing employee turnover. effective practice guidelines series, 1–43. alexandria, va: society for human resource management. allen, d.g., bryant, p.c., & vardaman, j.m. (2010). retaining talent: replacing misconceptions with evidence based strategies. academy of management perspectives, 24(2), 48–64. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2010.51827775 amit, r., & schoemaker, p. (1993). strategic assets and organizational rent. strategic management journal, 14, 33–46. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250140105 association of development financing institutions in asia and the pacific. (2013). adfiap crafts own definition of development financing. retrieved september 23, 2015, from http://www.adfiap.org/news/association-news/adfiap-crafts-own-definition-of-development-financing/ baxter, l.a. (1991). content analysis. in b.m. montgomery & s. duck (eds.), studying interpersonal interaction (pp. 239–254). london: the guilford press. bowen, g. (2005). preparing a qualitative research-based dissertation: lessons learnt. the qualitative report, 10(2), 208–222. caldwell, c., dixon, r.d., floyd, l.a., chaudoin, j., post, j., & cheokes, g. (2012). transformative leadership: achieving unparalleled excellence. journal of business ethics, 109, 175–187. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1116-2 castellano, s. (2013). talent retention is a global challenge. training and development, 67(11), 18–19. chatman, j.a., & cha, s.e. (2003). leading by leveraging culture. california management review, 45(4), 20–33. https://doi.org/10.2307/41166186 creswell, j.w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. (4th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. doh, j.p., smith, r.r., stumpf, s.a., & tymon, w.g., jr. (2011). pride and professionals: retaining talent in emerging economies. journal of business strategy, 32(5), 35–42. https://doi.org/10.1108/02756661111165453 effelsberg, d., solga, m., & gurt, j. (2012). transformational leadership and followers’ unethical behavior for the benefit of the company: a two-study investigation. journal of business ethics, 120, 81–93. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1644-z esterberg, k.g. (2002). qualitative methods in social research. new york: mcgraw-hill. fritz, j.h., o’neil, n.b., popp, a.m., williams, c., & arnett, r.c. (2012). the influence of supervisory behavioral integrity on intent to comply with organizational ethical standards and organizational commitment. journal of business ethics, 114(2), 251–263. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1345-z golafshani, n. (2003). understanding reliability and validity in qualitative research. the qualitative report, 8(4), 597–607. graneheim, u.h., & lundman, b. (2004). qualitative content analysis in nursing research: concepts, procedures and measures to achieve trustworthiness. nurse education today, 24, 105–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2003.10.001 greenhaus, j.h., & allen, t.d. (2012). work-family balance: a review and extension of the literature. in j.c. quick & l.e. tetrick (eds.), handbook of occupational health psychology (2nd edn., pp. 165–183). washington, dc: american psychological association. grojean, m.w., resick, c.j., dickson, m.w., & smith, d.b. (2004). leaders, values, and organizational climate: examining leadership strategies for establishing an organizational climate regarding ethics. journal of business ethics, 55(3), 223–241. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-004-1275-5 gupta, a., & tayal, t. (2013). impact of competing force of motivational factors on employees at work place. information and knowledge management, 3(5), 143–148. hausknecht, j.p., rodda, j., & howard, m.j. (2009). targeted employee retention: performance based and job-related differences in reported reasons for staying. human resource management, 48(2), 269–288. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20279 hayashi, d., & dolan, s.l. (2013). talenting: towards a new processual approach to talent management. esade working papers series, 243, 3–28. holtbrugge, d., friedman, c.b., & puck, j.f. (2010). recruitment and retention in foreign firms in india: a resource-based view. human resource management, 49(3), 439–455. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20353 hughes, j.c., & rog, e. (2008). talent management: a strategy for improving employee recruitment, retention, and engagement within hospitality organizations. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 20(7), 743–757. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596110810899086 ingham, j. (2006). closing the talent management gap. strategic hr review, 5(3), 20–23. https://doi.org/10.1108/14754390680000877 johnson, m. (2000). winning the people war: talent and the battle for human capital. london: the financial times. joo, b., & mclean, g.n. (2006). best employer studies: a conceptual model from a literature review and a case study. human resource development review, 5(2), 228–257. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484306287515 kaiser, r.b., & hogan, r. (2010). how to (and how not to) assess the integrity of managers. consulting psychology journal: practice and research, 62(4), 216–234. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022265 kerr, j., & slocum, j.w. (2005). managing corporate culture through reward systems. academy of management executive, 19(4), 130–138. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2005.19417915 kinicki, a., & fugate, m. (2012). organizational behaviour: key concepts, skills and best practices. (5th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. krippendorff, k. (1980). content analysis: an introduction to its methodology. beverly hills, ca: sage. kyndt, e., dochy, f., michielsen, m., & moeyaert, b. (2009). employee retention: organisational and personal perspectives. vocations and learning, 2(3), 195–215. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-009-9024-7 lee, c., liu, j., rousseau, d.m., hui, c., & chen, z.x. (2011). inducements, contributions and fulfilment in new employee psychological contracts. human resource management, 50(2), 201–226. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20415 leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2001). practical research: planning and design. upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. levere, a., schweke, b., & woo, b. (2006). development finance and regional economic development. washington, dc: cfed. retrieved october 15, 2015, from http://staging.community-wealth.org/sites/clone.community-wealth.org/files/downloads/paper-levere-et-al-2.pdf liden, r.c., wayne, s.j., lioa, c., & meuser, j.d. (2014). servant leadership and serving culture: influence on individual and unit performance. the academy of management journal, 57(5), 1434–1452. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2013.0034 lockwood, n.r. (2006). talent management: driver for organization success. hr magazine, 51(6), 1–13. mansel, a., brough, p., & cole, p. (2006). stable predictors of job satisfaction, psychological strain, and employee retention: an evaluation of organizational change within the new zealand customs service. international journal of stress management, 13(1), 84–107. https://doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.13.1.84 masibigiri, v., & nienaber, h. (2011). factors affecting the retention of generation x public servants: an exploratory study. sa journal of human resource management, 9(1), 44–54. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v27i4.318 maxwell, j.a. (2013). research design. an interactive approach. (3rd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. mckinsey & company. (2001). organization and leadership practice, ‘the war for talent’. seattle, wa: mckinsey and company. messmer, b.m. (2004). retaining your top performers. starategic finance, 85(10), 11–13. mohlala, j., goldman, g.a., & goosen, x. (2012). employee retention within the information technology division of a south african bank. sa journal of human resource management, 10(2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.438 myers, m.d. (2010). qualitative research in business and management. london: sage. nadeem, m.s. (2009). the impact of work life conflict on job satisfaction of employees in pakistan. international journal of business and management, 4(5), 63–83. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v4n5p63 ortlieb, r., & sieben, b. (2012). how to safeguard critical resources of professional and managerial staff: exploration of a taxonomy of resource retention strategies. the international journal of human resource management, 23(8), 1688–1704. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.610341 paul, g.w., & berry, d.m. (2013). the importance of executive leadership in creating a postmerged organisational culture conducive to effective performance management. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.446 pidgeon, n., & henwood, k. (1997). using grounded theory in psychological research. in n. hayes (ed.), doing qualitative analysis in psychology (pp. 245–273). hove: psychological press. pyszka, a., & pilat, m. (2011). applying trompenaar’s typology of organizational culture to the implementation of csr strategy. journal of intercultural management, 3(2), 113–125. ramlall, s. (2004). a review of employee motivation theories and their implications for employee retention within organizations. journal of american academy of business, 5, 52–64. rondeau, k.v., & wager, t.h. (2001). impact of human resource management practices on nursing home performance. health service management research, 14(3), 192–202. https://doi.org/10.1177/095148480101400306 ryan, r. (2010). hanging onto high potentials. accounting today, 24(10), 38. sageer, a., rafat, s., & agarwal, p. (2012). identification of variables affecting employee satisfaction and their impact on the organization. journal of business and management, 5(1), 32–39. https://doi.org/10.9790/487x-0513239 schein, e. (2006). organizational culture and leadership. (3rd edn.). san francisco, ca: jossey bass. schiemann, w.a. (2013). from talent management to talent optimization. journal of world business, 49(2), 281–288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2013.11.012 sinha, r. (2012). factors affecting employee retention: a comparative analysis of two organizations from the heavy engineering industry. european journal of business and management, 4(3), 145–162. sun, p.y.t., & anderson, m.h. (2012). the importance of attributional integrity for transformational leadership studies. journal of management studies, 49, 1001–1022. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2011.01037.x terre blanche, m., & durrheim, k. (1999). interpretive methods. in m. terre blanche & k. durrheim (eds.), research in practice: applied methods for the social sciences (pp. 123–146). cape town: university of cape town press. tillott, s., walsh, k., & moxham, l. (2013). encouraging engagement at work to improve retention. nursing management, 19(10), 27–31. https://doi.org/10.7748/nm2013.03.19.10.27.e697 trevisan, l.m., veloso, e.f.r., da silva, r.c., dutra, j.s., & fischer, a.l. (2014). talent retention strategies in different organizational contexts and intention of talent to remain in the company. journal on innovation and sustainability, 5(1), 49–61. vaiman, v., scullion, h., & collings, d. (2012). talent management decision-making. management decision, 50(5), 925–941. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251741211227663 vasishtha, p. (2009). why you need an employee-retention programme. advisor today, retrieved august 11, 2017 from http://www.advisortoday.com/digital-magazine-archive yin, r.k. (2009). case study research: design and methods. beverly hills, ca: sage. abstract introduction coaching as a method of support for postgraduate students research method findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) ingrid le roux department of business management, university of pretoria, south africa citation le roux, i. (2018). coaching as support for postgraduate students: a case study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a939. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.939 original research coaching as support for postgraduate students: a case study ingrid le roux received: 04 apr. 2017; accepted: 31 jan. 2018; published: 07 may 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract background: undergraduate students as a group are well researched, with focus on enhancing student engagement and improving learning and teaching methods. however, working postgraduate students have become a growing trend in the higher education sector, with little known about their experience. the purpose of this research is to better understand and to gain insight into the inter-role conflict experienced by postgraduate students owing to managing the multiple roles of work, personal life and studies. this article reports the case study of a coaching intervention administered to a group of postgraduate students over a 5-month period. the study concludes that the inclusion of a coaching intervention to assist postgraduate students in dealing with inter-role stress can no longer be ignored. coaching support is an authentic way to support these students, with benefits reaching beyond the classroom. research purpose: the purpose of this research is to better understand the inter-role conflict emanating from managing work, personal life and studies, and to gain insight into the role of coaching as a support function. motivation for the study: there is limited research focusing on the experiences of postgraduate students, who are often working either part-time or full-time while pursuing their studies, and navigating three overlapping role domains simultaneously. furthermore, even less is known about coaching as a support function to strike a balance between these three demanding roles. research design, approach and method: this study is qualitative in nature. a coaching intervention over a 5-month period was used to assist postgraduate students in managing inter-role conflict. main findings: the study suggests that coaching can be used as a method to address the interface between work, personal life and study demands for the working postgraduate student. to ensure successful throughput rates in the allocated time, a new support framework is required to complement the often insufficient academic interventions. contribution: the contribution of the research is twofold: firstly, it focuses on working postgraduate students to gain insight into and a better understanding of the potential of coaching. secondly, it highlights coaching as a potential support function. very little research exists in the general literature on how to support working postgraduate students in higher education. the research also shows the potential of coaching as a support function to help postgraduate students navigate the three demanding role domains. introduction there is a considerable amount of research on the challenges such as underpreparedness for class and basic academic writing skills (shay, 2017) that undergraduate students encounter to successfully complete their studies. this is often addressed by improving teaching methods (balan & metcalfe, 2012), enhancing student engagement (o’connor, 2013) and improving academic performance through student support in order to overcome specific literacy or learning difficulties (grant, green & rynsaardt, 2010). studies on coaching as a support approach can be found to focus on the impact of developmental coaching (grant et al., 2010), coaching that benefits the performance of first-year students (franklin & doran, 2009) and the effectiveness of coaching programmes for first-year students (franklin & franklin, 2012). for example, mühlberger and traut-mattausch (2015) addressed procrastination in an intervention among university students because it is perceived to be a problem associated with performance for many students. however, less is known about the experiences of postgraduate students who are often working either part-time or full-time while pursuing their studies. the working postgraduate student has become a growing trend in the higher education sector. yet, there has been little research to understand the expectations of postgraduate students who need to navigate three overlapping role domains simultaneously – work, personal life and studies. furthermore, i wanted to know how coaching may support them in terms of the conflicts arising from their efforts to achieve balance between these three demanding roles. thus, the purpose of this research is to better understand postgraduate student inter-role conflicts that emanate from managing these multiple roles. the article acknowledges the belief that people engage in a multitude of social contexts owing to a strong belief that the achievement of multiple roles may enhance individual well-being (pluut, 2015). the researcher comes from an interpretivist paradigm and believes that multiple social realities exist rather than only one truth. reality is therefore subjective and depends on the experience, perception, social context and interaction between the individual and the researcher. the aim is to gain an insight into and a better understanding of the realities of working postgraduate students in order to make recommendations on the support needed to successfully balance the multiple roles of work, personal life and studies. the article reports a case study of a coaching support intervention that was administered to a group of working postgraduate students over a period of 5 months. the case provides better insight into the role conflict experienced among the three domains. it also informed a better understanding of how coaching as a support function can minimise the different types of role conflict. the contribution of the research is twofold: firstly, it highlights the neglected group of postgraduate students in the general literature in higher education. secondly, it demonstrates the potential of coaching as a support function to help postgraduate students navigate the three demanding role domains. the findings suggest (for this group) that a great deal more support is needed than just academic interventions. to ensure a successful throughput rate in the allocated time, a new support framework is required. coaching is a method that can be used to address the interface between work, personal life and study demands which are much greater for working postgraduate students. the article is structured as follows: i firstly began by examining the relevant constructs. then, i focused on the research design and illustrated the sample and data collection procedure. this was followed by a discussion of the findings as well as an overview of the practical implications and limitations of the study. literature review on role and conflict theory the domain of work–family conflict is fast growing, with many studies examining the relationship between work and family conflict and several potential consequences (amstad et al., 2011; pluut, 2015). work provides the means to take care of our families and ourselves and is of great importance for individuals and societies. however, work can also be stressful and work-induced strain is often taken home (pluut, 2015). juggling between work and family roles has become part of the everyday routine for individuals in many professions. the perceived imbalance between the demands of work and the demands of family life presents a complex phenomenon also referred to as the time-bind (hochschild, 1997, in tausig & fenwick, 2001). this is reflected in simultaneous time and energy demands of the workplace and family life, both of which are considered to be greedy institutions (tausig & fenwick, 2001). the opposite of time-bind, or a lack of time in meeting both the demands of work and family life, is a sense of work–life balance. the notion stems from the changing nature of work and families, relating to longer work hours and a lack of flexible schedules (tausig & fenwick, 2001). role theory provides us with a lens to look at the above imbalance. role theory is rooted in sociology and social psychology, and its basic tenets can be explained through concepts such as role, social position and expectation (biddle, 1986; pluut, 2015). conflict theory and role theory are often used as interchangeable frameworks. for the purpose of this study, role theory refers to a set of socially acceptable roles relating to work, spouse, parent, member, friend or student, resulting in the two concepts of conflict and overload. inter-role conflict is seen as the result of incompatible demands or an overload of demands owing to the multiple roles that people need to fulfil. strain, feelings of work overload and inter-role conflict can present themselves if any competing demands are made on the roles that are simultaneously balanced by an individual (pluut, 2015). inter-role conflict can interfere with both the work role and the family role, thus creating a two-way interference. work–family conflict is considered to have a potential for stress and may have a negative effect on the well-being and behaviour of individuals (amstad et al., 2011). the composition of the workforce has changed dramatically in recent decades (eby et al., 2005), with many employees doing postgraduate studies to enable them to stay ahead in the intensely competitive global job market. this results in an additional domain to manage simultaneously with that of work and personal life. for postgraduate students, their role set therefore also includes studies as a third domain that may influence the already strained situation of work and personal life. the third domain may further complicate and add to the potential inter-role conflict as well as contribute to the role overload. this study uses role theory and inter-role conflict theory to explain the cross-domain relationships that exist because of the three roles that postgraduate students need to balance. for the purpose of this study, the role set comprises work, personal life and study, resulting in increased inter-role conflict. working or work is seen as an individual pursuing a career, working to support themselves financially on a full-time or part-time basis. because of the age group of the respondents (see sample description), and the fact that they are not married, do not have children and do not live with or look after family members, the focus is on the personal life role, which also includes social life, instead of the family life role. the focus of this study is on the different roles that postgraduate students play, balancing the roles of work, personal life and studies. coaching as a method of support for postgraduate students the demand for coaching and interest in coaching research has increased over the last two decades (grant, 2011; mühlberger & traut-mattausch, 2015; theeboom, beersma & van vianen, 2014). previous research examining the impact of coaching indicates that coaching in general has a positive impact on several individual and organisational outcomes such as academic performance and goal attainment, as well as well-being (mühlberger & traut-mattausch, 2015). coaching the coaching process is described as a solution-focused, systematic process that supports reflective learning (mühlberger & traut-mattausch, 2015). coaching as a construct is defined as a professional, collaborative and outcomes-driven method of learning that seeks to develop an individual and raise self-awareness so that specific goals might be achieved at a more effective level (comensa, 2016). coaching aims to foster the ongoing performance, self-directed learning and personal growth of the client (grant & o’connor, 2010; stober & grant, 2006). coaching for the purpose of this study is seen as a personal or situational factor that aims to reduce inter-role conflict. coaching relationships inherently provide the opportunity to interact with a client on more than one level of engagement, namely, on a cognitive, behavioural and emotional level. this ‘helping process’ provides a context where learning can take place (parker et al., 2015). trust between the coach and the client is of utmost importance and emerging literature on coaching has now begun to recognise trust as one of the crucial elements for an effective coaching relationship (kim & kuo, 2015). in this study, trust refers to ‘the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the action of another party’ and is based on individuals’ expectations that other people will behave in certain ways that are helpful and supportive (mayer, davis & schoorman, 1995:172 as cited by kim & kuo, 2015). however, the crucial ability of a coach to lead the client through the coaching process in order to promote the client achieving their goals is of utmost importance (mühlberger & traut-mattausch, 2015). therefore, the aim is ultimately to gain insight and a better understanding of the people (postgraduate students) that are the focus of this study. based on the above overview, the following two research questions were formalised: what are the relationships between work, personal life and study as role conflict? can coaching as a support function reduce the level of inter-role conflict experienced? research method the purpose of the study was to explore the potential contribution of coaching support to working postgraduate students. the research specifically aims to gain insight and a better understanding of the inter-role conflict students experience and the role of coaching as a support function. this is in line with an interpretivist paradigm to understand human behaviour (babbie & mouton, 2014). research approach the study followed a qualitative inductive methodology approach using structured dyadic coaching sessions to understand and make sense of the experiences of postgraduate students in achieving a balance in their work, personal life and studies. the primary goal of the research was to describe and understand human behaviour rather than to explain human behaviour (babbie & mouton, 2014). research design in an attempt to achieve the aims and objectives of this study, a case study design was used to understand the coaching experience. according to stake (1995, 2005), case studies are understood as an in-depth study of how people experience a particular situation or phenomenon. a free coaching intervention was offered to support students in dealing with the multiple roles they may experience. the sample consisted of 10 postgraduate university students purposefully recruited from the students enrolled for honours or master’s degrees in business management. the description of the sample is five males and five females: four of mixed race and six caucasians. the nationalities of the sample included those from uganda (1), tanzania (1), mozambique (1) and south africa (7). an open invitation was communicated to all students (n = 35) enrolled during their first contact session. the lecturer invited the students to take part in a coaching intervention for a 5-month period. the only brief provided to the students was that coaching is widely used in organisations to support employees. eleven students decided to take part voluntarily in the coaching intervention. one of the students dropped out owing to the work overload as a full-time employee. a unique feature of the sample was that none of the subjects were married, had children or needed to financially support any other individual. the ages of the respondents varied between 22 and 26 years. the study design has two layers: to better understand the inter-role conflict experienced; and to gain insight into coaching as a support function for working postgraduate students. coaching is increasingly seen as a mode to enhance performance, development and well-being, and effective questioning lies at the heart of the coaching conversation. the result of effective questioning is analysing problems and exploring unhelpful thinking patterns (grant & o’connor, 2010). the intervention took place over a 5-month period. the duration of the sessions was between 1 h and 1.5 h, depending on the specific need of the student. five coaching sessions per student were administered. thus, the data for analysing student–work life demands were drawn from 50 coaching sessions. data collection each student who had volunteered to be part of the coaching intervention was asked to hand in a written document that answered the following question: ‘what do you expect from the coaching sessions?’ no guidelines were given. a second report written after the completion of all the sessions asked students to reflect on the following open-ended question: ‘reflect on your experience of taking part in the intervention’. again, no guidelines were given to avoid any bias. the coach made observational notes during each session, which also formed part of the data collected. the respondents gave ethical consent and agreed that the data collected could be used. data analysis the analysis process began by a careful reading of the students’ pre-coaching and post-coaching written reports as well as reflecting on the observational notes. the data were analysed using an inductive approach. the written responses to both the pre-coaching expectations and post-coaching reflections were captured on a spreadsheet which was analysed through first-order coding, followed by second-order coding where the data were collated into three role domain categories (work, personal life and studies as well as a new emerging category labelled ‘managing role overlaps’). trustworthiness and transparency the coding process and the resulting themes were shared with two independent academic colleagues. based on their reviews, some refinements were made on the second-order categories. the findings were further discussed by conducting member checking with a smaller group of the participants in the coaching sessions, who agreed with the interpretation with minor additions. findings this section of the article reports on participants’ responses before and reflections after the support intervention, as well as notes from the coach as the observer. expectations findings derived from respondents’ expectations follow: the themes resulting from the coding could be linked to role theory as well as to inter-role conflict theory. the expectations before starting the coaching support process could be categorised into three domain roles: work, personal life and studies. data also emerged that were categorised as ‘managing role overlaps’. no dominant domain emerged from the reports on what was expected from the coaching support intervention. an equal distribution between the domains and managing the role overlaps was reported. the work responses varied from issues such as handling stress and functioning in a team to advice on handling management at work and time management at work. the personal life expectations varied from managing students’ personal lives better and dealing with stress and change to building confidence and controling their lives. the study expectations varied from support in managing the transition to a student and emotional support to time management for sufficient study and support in clarifying study goals. managing the role overlaps received one response more than the other three categories, respectively, and focused on finding balance, managing all roles and gathering support to deal with added responsibilities owing to the many roles. the data suggest that participants felt equally consumed by the work, personal life and study roles, expressing a need for support to find a balance in managing all three simultaneously. the coaching support expected was perceived as an aid to help build confidence, grow as a person and cope with additional stress, time management and decision-making. the following section reports on the reflections after the completion of the support intervention: the categories derived from the coding could again be linked to role theory with its tenets, namely, conflict and overload. the reflections after the coaching support intervention confirmed the three domain roles, namely, work, personal life and studies. data categorised as managing role overlaps were also present. however, unlike in the expectations findings, a clearly dominant role domain, namely, personal life, emerged from the reflections. this constituted 70% of the written feedback. within the personal life domain, two sub-categories emerged: ‘self’ and ‘relationship issues’. the sub-category self constituted approximately 80% of the feedback in the personal life domain. the following is a short summary of anecdotes that were reported: ‘coaching helped me realise i can achieve my goals; the session made me feel excited and a sense of relief to speak about things hampering my progress.’ ‘it helped me deal with pressures, helped me to feel more relaxed and deal with stress.’ ‘it helped me realise that i do not have any “me” time, helped me to believe in myself, helped me to focus on what is important, time management, goal-setting, to prioritise.’ the data suggest that participants felt consumed by the work and student roles to the extent of feeling a loss of self. related to this was a sense of being out of control. the findings are in line with pluut (2015), who argues that juggling social roles in multiple domains can become overly demanding and stressful in such a way that a person’s psychological well-being is affected. amstad et al. (2011) postulate that the interests in the challenges taking place in the economic environment is not likely to fade and suggest the trend will continue in the coming years. the coaching sessions were perceived as supporting participants to identify strategies for regaining some sense of being in control by setting goals, prioritising and managing time. as one student said: ‘the sessions helped me feel more relaxed about things i cannot control, and helped me to focus on what was really important at that specific moment.’ the sub-category relationships constituted 20% of the feedback on the personal life domain. pluut (2015) mentioned that although work and family dominate a large part of our lives, the role of family member and employee are not prominent social roles for young adults. instead, social life roles become prominent but often conflicting in late adolescence. the following is a short summary of what was reported by participants: ‘it was good talking to somebody about the stress between me and my boyfriend; thanks to the sessions i ended a 6-year relationship that did not encourage what i want from life; my relationship was strained due to the extra pressure of studies and talking about it helped; the sessions helped me through a grieving process after the end of a 3-year relationship.’ the data suggest that participants felt overwhelmed and lost when relationships went wrong. related to this was a sense of being out of control. the coaching sessions appeared to help participants deal with emotions and separate their work, personal life and study roles. it is therefore important to note the need for studying social study conflict when studying the well-being of students, specifically that of postgraduate students who need to balance work–personal life and study roles simultaneously. as one student reported: ‘i almost derailed and lost focus after the break-up (6 years), but the coaching sessions helped me to separate my emotions from what is needed to complete my studies and function at work.’ the second category that emerged from the reflections was that of work, which also constitutes 10% of the overall feedback. the following is a short summary of what was reported: ‘i could discuss work-related problems which hampered my progress and caused additional stress.’ ‘i felt supported through all the stressful times when my work and study loads increased; talking about interpersonal problem experienced at work.’ ‘it helped me to sharpen my problem-solving skills.’ the data suggest that participants felt supported when they experienced increased work commitments as well as interpersonal problems at work. strategies that foster a family/relationship-friendly working environment are therefore likely to result in benefits for both the organisation as well as the employee (amstad et al., 2011). the coaching sessions appeared to help participants to better deal with challenges and issues at work. one student reported: ‘the session helped me to see the bigger picture and not only focus on issues at work.’ the third category that emerged from the reflections was that of studies, which also constituted 10% of the overall feedback. the following is a short summary of what was reported: ‘the sessions made me feel more relaxed about balancing studies and work pressures; helped me to plan better for assessments; helped me to accept the outcome of a test i failed and to plan ahead; the sessions helped me to realise i was not defined by the marks received in my study.’ the data suggest that participants perceived the sessions as beneficial to them in study-related matters such as dealing with marks and planning for assessments. one student reported: ‘the sessions helped me to structure, set goals and prioritise what needs to be done to complete my studies successfully.’ the fourth category that emerged from the reflections was that of managing the different role overlaps, which also constituted 10% of the overall feedback. the following is a short summary of what was reported: ‘the sessions helped me to realise that i have attained good time management habits to balance all i have to do; the sessions helped me to balance the different roles i have to play; doing a work–life activity helped me to balance studies with what was already on my plate; the sessions helped me to set specific goals not only for studies and work but also my life.’ the data suggest that participants experienced the coaching support as beneficial in managing the three roles. it helped them to create a work–personal, life–study balance and to minimise stress. the inter-role conflict created an imbalance that can take three directions and is seen as a potential source of stress, well-being and burnout (amstad et al., 2011). developing goals and strategies to find a balance was perceived as an outcome of the coaching support. one student reported: ‘the sessions helped me to develop a better understanding of the roles i have to manage and find a better balance between my studies, personal life and work.’ according to the findings, the inter-role conflict in a work–personal, life–study relationship can take three directions. however, coaching support was perceived as a positive experience and an enabler to assist participants in dealing with many issues, such as time management, managing change, setting goals and prioritising, and meeting relationship demands in spite of the other two roles students’ needed to balance. coaching as a method to extract the data served the research well. writing their own expectations and reflections allowed the subjects to voice their apprehensions and experiences without bias. as the researcher and facilitator of the coaching process, i also made observations that contribute to the credibility and resonate with the role and inter-role conflict theory. initially, the participants looked uncomfortable to speak about personal issues and it took time to build a trust relationship between the coach and the client. however, the reflections reported a positive working relationship, showing a working alliance that developed in the process of the support relationship. this is in line with lai and mcdowall (2014) who postulated that a coach’s attributes have a significant influence on the effectiveness of the coaching process and results. the participants reported: ‘i appreciated the opportunity to have somebody who really cared about what is going on in my life.’ ‘i discussed things in the sessions i have never discussed with anyone before.’ ‘speaking to my coach made me realise i am doing okay.’ ‘i appreciated the opportunity to speak freely.’ ‘i felt comfortable to discuss private things in the session.’ as one student said: ‘i felt more relaxed after each session and experienced the coach as somebody who really listens.’ over the five sessions, the participants revealed more and became more forthcoming as a result of the trust relationship that developed over time. this is in line with gessnitzer and kauffeld (2015) who argued that a working alliance develops in the process of all helping relationships and consists of a mutual agreement about goals and tasks needed to be achieved as well as the bond between the coach and the client. the findings provide support for the existence of interrelationships as well as potential benefits from coaching as an intervention. discussion outline of the results the overall results provide confirmation of the inter-role conflict theory, particularly the effects of role overload and role overlap on individuals. the study highlights the apparent incompatibility of study, social or personal life and work roles if not supported by one or other intervention. the value of the coaching support lies not in offering participants specific solutions but a dyadic conversation that fosters self-reflection and problem-solving. from the students’ reports, the coaching sessions had a dramatic effect on their well-being. while the results suggest a strong effect for the coaching intervention on the ‘self’ or individual, there was a positive effect on the work and study roles, as well as embracing strategies to manage the different roles. therefore, cross-domain effects are not only negative but can also potentially be positive, as was experienced by the students in this study. the results provide a strong indication that if the personal life of the individuals, specifically the ‘self’, is balanced, it would have a effect in minimising the conflict experienced in the other domains (see figure 1). figure 1: framework for personal life as a mediator for study and work domains. practical implications the results of this research have implications for universities as well as organisations that have employees pursuing studies. for academic institutions, the results signal the importance of providing postgraduate students with support to reduce personal life stressors and conflicts. most supervisors are neither equipped nor comfortable with engaging students on such issues. supervisors can provide instrumental assistance with respect to academic success, whereas coaching can provide a platform for socio-emotional coping to help postgraduate students to balance and navigate concurrent student–work life role demands. the second implication is for companies and employers: financial and leave support is not enough; in addition to bursaries, employers might consider whether providing employees engaged in studies with coaching support may lessen work stress and improve work performance. limitations and recommendations there is no research without limitations and it is the same in this study. however, its limitations give direction to suggestions for future research. firsrly, the composition of the current sample (eight part-time employed students and only two full-time employed students) suggests that researchers should be thoughtful about choosing their sample to represent a more even distribution. of course, the sample size and diversity (i.e. married vs. single, children and the impact of age) should be increased to improve generalisability of findings. finally, a comparison between undergraduate and postgraduate students would help to determine whether differences exist in inter-role conflict and consequently whether there is a need for different interventions for each group. conclusion figure 1 provides a visual framework of the dominant role of personal life compared to the work and study domains. the coaching intervention addressed the personal life domain, resulting in less conflict being experienced in the work and study domains. the results of the coaching intervention suggest that coaching has a bigger effect on personal life than on the other two domains. this confirms the interrelationships that exist between personal life, work and studies. if the ‘self’ is in control, then one feels supported or in balance. this in turn has a direct relationship with the degree of stress experienced in the work and study domains. the more the individual feels balanced, the better they deal with the other domains. working postgraduate students experience inter-role conflict between studies, personal life and work. to manage the three domains, different interventions other than just academic support are required. furthermore, institutions need to understand how to better support such students to improve timely throughput. coaching is one such way to support postgraduate students in inter-role conflict. this particular study demonstrated coaching interventions that empower students, which has a direct effect on assisting them in managing inter-role conflict in the work and study domains through addressing personal life issues. the study concludes that the inclusion of a coaching intervention as a support function to assist postgraduate students in dealing with inter-role stress can no longer be ignored. coaching support is an authentic way to support postgraduate students and leads to rich and robust learning about the self and other issues to be managed, giving a better understanding and serving graduates long after leaving higher education institutions. the benefit added by coaching support thus extends far beyond the higher education classroom. in the words of a student: ‘the sessions were important to me, helping me to focus on my goals and not that of other people. i felt supported through all the stressful times when my work and study load increased. the sessions helped me to find balance between life, work and studies.’ acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that she has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article. references amstad, f.t., meier, l.l., fasel, u., elfering, a., & semmer, n.k. (2011). a meta-analysis of work-family conflict and various outcomes with a special emphasis on cross domain versus matching-domain relationships. journal of occupational health psychology 16(2), 151–169. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022170 babbie, e., & mouton, j. (2014). the practice of social research. oxford university press southern africa: cape town. balan, p., & metcalfe, m. (2012). identifying teaching methods that engage entrepreneurship students. education & training 54(5), 368–384. https://doi.org/10.1108/00400911211244678 biddle, b.j. (1986). recent developments in role theory. annual review of sociology 12, 4–92. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.12.080186.000435 coaching and mentoring south africa (comensa) (2016). comensa coaching. retrieved from: http://www.comensa.org.za/information/coaching eby, l.t., casper, w.j., lockwood, a., bordeaux, c., & brinley, a. (2005). work and family research in 10/0b: content analysis and review of the literature (1980–2002). journal of vocational behaviour 66(1), 124–197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2003.11.003 franklin, j., & doran, j. (2009). does all coaching enhance objective performance independently evaluated by blind assessors? the importance of the coaching model and content. international psychology review 4(2), 128–245. franklin, j., & franklin, a. (2012). the long-. a controlled 18 months follow up of two methods, term independently assessed benefits of coaching. international coaching psychology review 7(1), 33–38. gessnitzer, s., & kauffeld, s. (2015). the working alliance in coaching: why behaviour is key to success’, journal of applied behavioural science 5(2), 177–197. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886315576407 grant, a.m., (2011), workplace, executive and life coaching: an annotated bibliography from the behavioural science and business literature (1st jan 2011), coaching psychology unit. australia: university of sydney. grant, a.m., green, l.s., & rynsaardt, j. (2010). developing coaching for high school teachers: executive coaching goes to school. coaching psychology journal: practice and research 62(3), 151–168. grant, a.m., & o’connor, s.a. (2010). the differential effects of solution-focused and problem-focused coaching questions: a pilot study with implications for practice. industrial and commercial training 42(2), 102–111. https://doi.org/10.1108/00197851011026090 kim, s., & kuo, m.h. (2015). examining the relationship among coaching, trustworthiness and role behaviour: a social perspective. journal of applied behavioural science 5(2), 152–176. lai, y.l., & mcdowall, a. (2014). a systematic review (sr) of coaching psychology: focusing on the attributes of effective coaching psychologists. international coaching psychology review 9(2), 118–134. mühlberger, m.d., & traut-mattausch, e. (2015). leading to effectiveness: comparing dyadic coaching and group coaching. journal of applied behavioural science 5(2), 198–230. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886315574331 o’connor, k.j. (2013). class participation: promoting in-class student engagement. education 133(3), 340–345. parker, p., wasserman, i., kram k.e., & hall, d.t. (2015). a relational communication approach to peer coaching. journal of applied behavioural science 51(2), 231–252. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886315573270 pluut, h. (2015). a balanced examination of inter-role conflict. doctoral thesis, tilburg university, netherlands, pp. 1–147. shay, s. (2017). education investment towards the ideal future: south africa’s strategic choices. south african journal of science 113(1–2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2017/20160227 stake, r.e. (1995). the art of case study research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. stake, r.e. (2005). qualitative case studies. in n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds.), the sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed.) (pp. 443–466). thousand oaks, ca: sage. stober, d.r., & grant, a.m. (2006). towards a conceptual approach to coaching models. in d.r. stober & a.m. grant (eds.), evidence based coaching handbook, (pp. 355–366). wiley, new york: wiley. tausig, m., & fenwick, r. (2001). unbinding time: alternate work schedules and work-life balance. journal of family and economic issues 22(2), 101–119. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1016626028720 theeboom, t., beersma, b., & van vianen, a. (2014). does coaching work? a meta-analysis on the effects of coaching on individual level outcomes in an organisational context. journal of positive psychology 9(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2013.837499 abstract introduction trends from the research literature problem statement and research objectives potential value-add of the study method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) debbie roberts department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa rené van wyk department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa nelesh dhanpat department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa citation roberts, d., van wyk, r., & dhanpat, n. (2017). validation of the thomson, perry and miller (2007) collaboration instrument in the south african context. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a793. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.793 original research validation of the thomson, perry and miller (2007) collaboration instrument in the south african context debbie roberts, rené van wyk, nelesh dhanpat received: 25 jan. 2016; accepted: 22 nov. 2016; published: 27 feb. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: collaboration is deemed important in today’s connected and complex business environment. people’s ability to collaborate with each other in organisations is becoming a business imperative. this study focuses on a valid measurement of collaboration within organisations. research purpose: thomson, perry and miller (2007) developed a collaboration measurement instrument in the united states. the aim of this study was to validate this instrument for a south african context. motivation for the study: south african organisations face unique challenges that require optimal use of resources to improve business results. effective collaboration is considered a powerful strategy to achieve this. measuring the extent of collaboration can help to identify required changes in business practices. as far as could be established, there is no evidence of collaboration instruments developed and validated in south africa. research design, approach and method: additional items were designed for further development of the thomson, perry and miller (2007) collaboration instrument sub-scales, as suggested by the authors. the revised questionnaire consisting of 31 (17 existing, 14 new) items was distributed electronically to 4200 employees in two organisations, with 343 valid responses received. reliability and construct validity were tested, as was convergent validity of the norms factor with the trust in teams scale. main findings: the results of the study support a four-factor, 29-item model of collaboration when applied to a south african sample. cronbach’s alpha ranged between 0.85 and 0.95. confirmatory factor analysis fits were at an acceptable level. convergent validity showed a moderate fit with the data. practical/managerial implications: south african managers and human resources practitioners can utilise results to foster a collaborative environment. contribution/value-add: this study builds on the theoretical concept of collaboration as defined by thomson, perry and miller (2007). introduction people’s ability to collaborate with each other in organisations is becoming a business imperative. effective collaboration can enhance product innovation and service delivery, and increase efficacy (barber & goold, 2014; miller & katz, 2014; patel, pettitt & wilson, 2012; sanker, 2012; simatupang & sridharan, 2005). leveraging these benefits could be of considerable value to south african businesses. a valid measure of collaboration could help south african business leaders optimise opportunities and address obstacles to effective collaboration. globalisation, technology advancements and the fast rate of change are all catalysts for increased complexity in the business environment (barber & goold, 2014; kaats & opheij, 2014; miller & katz, 2014; sanchez, 2012). south african organisations face the same complexities as the rest of the world. the country also faces unique challenges, such as electricity shortages, labour unrest, poor quality of education and increasing debt (international monetary fund, 2013; world economic forum, 2015). higher education enrolment rates are not foreseen to produce the level of skills required for future competitiveness (world economic forum, 2015). these issues place additional pressure on businesses to operate efficiently and innovatively. coping with this complexity requires staying abreast of new developments, solving difficult problems and at the same time seizing opportunities. this is not easy for individual entities to achieve alone (barber & goold, 2014; kaats & opheij, 2014; woodland & hutton, 2012). to deal with this complexity, many organisations are moving from hierarchies to network systems. this change is necessary but can involve complicated interactions, meaning that communication, learning and innovation must be fast and effective (kaats & opheij, 2014; miller & katz, 2014). a powerful strategy to attain improved results under these conditions is through collaborative partnerships (barber & goold, 2014; kaats & opheij, 2014; miller & katz, 2014; sanchez, 2012; thomson, perry & miller, 2007; woodland & hutton, 2012). this necessitates establishing an environment that fosters a collaborative culture. further to improving business results, a collaborative culture can also improve employee morale and retention (murphy, arenas & batista, 2014). exposure to collaboration allows individuals to perform roles other than their own, enhancing self-development (sanchez, 2012). people also experience expanded thinking, broadened and diverse networks and inspiration from co-collaborators (bushe, 2006). collaboration can also provide strong social connections, which have been found to promote positive mental health (bond, lusher, williams & butler, 2014). conversely, efforts to collaborate can result in failure. there are several potential obstacles to achieving a collaborative environment. poorly designed partnership agreements usually result in ambiguous roles and the likelihood of poor communication (patel et al., 2012). structures, processes and technologies that do not support collaboration can create difficulties (hudson, hardy, henwood & wistow, 1999; kaats & opheij, 2014) as can weak knowledge management (patel et al., 2012). collaboration requires significant energy in managing varying priorities, conflicts and territory issues (sanchez, 2012). given these challenges, before embarking on collaboration, leaders should assess whether the reward outweighs the effort and establish that all stakeholders share this perception (marek, brock & savla, 2015; patel et al., 2012). evaluation and feedback on how the organisation is progressing towards a collaborative culture is considered to be a valuable endeavour (majchrzak, jarvenpaa & bagherzadeh, 2015; marek et al., 2015; murphy et al., 2014; wong, 2006). several measurement instruments have been developed over the years, many of which apply to specific industries or disciplines. this study reviewed various collaboration instruments for their suitability for validation in a south african context and application to a general business environment. the collaboration instrument selected for this study was the thomson, perry and miller (2007) collaboration instrument. this instrument was based upon a five-factor model of collaboration as illustrated in figure 1. figure 1: thomson, perry and miller (2007) model of collaboration. trends from the research literature collaboration has been the focus of much scholarly research. the volume of literature suggests a keen interest in exploring this construct. despite this interest, it is apparent that a common and accepted definition does not exist. in some cases, definitions are specific to certain environments such as education or nursing. this lack of clarity around collaboration is considered an obstacle to supporting and improving collaboration (hudson et al., 1999; patel et al., 2012; thomson et al., 2007). however, there are generic definitions that support similar themes. the following operational definition, highlighting these themes, is suggested for the purpose of this study: collaboration is a combined undertaking between mutually dependent parties that have shared responsibilities on an agreed process with an envisaged outcome to deliver a result considered superior to what the parties could achieve individually (kaats & opheij, 2014; mattessich, murray-close & monsey, 2001; sanker, 2012; schwarz, 2006; thomson et al., 2007). the literature discussion that follows is framed within: stages of collaboration theoretical perspectives that have contributed to collaboration collaboration measurement instruments. stages of collaboration there is a perspective that collaboration occurs in different stages, and hence, it is a developmental process that requires reflection, review and learning (frey, lohmeier, lee & tollefson, 2006; gajda, 2004; peterson, 1991). peterson (1991) developed a three-stage model of collaboration, namely, cooperation, coordination and collaboration. the premise is that effective collaboration cannot ensue in the absence of cooperation and coordination. this implies that as the group progresses through the stages, effectiveness increases. gajda (2004) expanded the three stages to five, identifying ‘networking, cooperating, partnering, merging and unifying’ (gajda, 2004, p. 71). these are referred to as levels of integration. for each of these levels, there are descriptors under the categories of ‘purpose, strategies and tasks, leadership and decision making, and interpersonal communication’ (gajda, 2004, p. 71). these stage descriptors provide a tool to identify current reality and the desired state of collaboration. they also facilitate the design of an implementation plan to work towards each stage of collaboration. frey et al. (2006) proposed an additional stage in the collaborative process, called ‘co-existence’. this is based on the premise that it is possible for a group to exist with no level of collaboration. theoretical perspectives contributing to collaboration a number of organisational theories or concepts explain different facets of collaboration. gray and wood (1991) examined specific theories in terms of their contribution and limitations in this regard. d’amour, ferrada-videla, san martin rodriguez and beaulieu (2005) also identified particular theories that they deem as contributors to explaining collaboration. an additional concept that is considered to be linked to collaboration is social capital, which is described as the value gained through reciprocal and trusting relationships, with an important emphasis on mutually beneficial outcomes (campbell, 2006; ofori & sackey, 2010; pastoriza, arin & ricart, 2009; wollebæk & selle, 2007). most of these contributive theories provide insight into some of the reasons why individuals and organisations choose to collaborate. elements that should be considered prior to entering into a collaboration are highlighted. they also allude to certain conditions that can enable successful collaboration. table 1 maps these theories against (1) reasons to collaborate, (2) issues to consider prior to collaborating and (3) designing and maintaining conditions for effective collaboration. table 1: mapping theories of collaboration against reasons, considerations and conditions. collaboration measurement instruments several collaboration measurement instruments as listed below have been developed, which were reviewed for their suitability for this study. most of these instruments apply to specific disciplines, with few for application in a multi-disciplinary context: collaboration and satisfaction about care decisions (gedney baggs, 1994): an instrument to measure nurse and doctor collaboration while making decisions on patient care. collaboration and trust in an education context (tschannen-moran, 2001): a measure of collaboration between principals, teachers and parents. wilder collaboration factors inventory (mattessich et al., 2001): a general measure of collaboration. collaboration index: a measure for supply chain collaboration (simatupang & sridharan, 2005): a scale to measure collaboration amongst participants involved in supply chains. collaboration measurement instrument (thomson et al., 2007): an instrument to measure collaboration in a general business context. collaborative culture scale (perez, peon & ordas, 2011): a scale that measures the values attributed to a collaborative culture. assessment of inter-professional team collaboration scale (orchard, king, khalili & bezzina, 2012): an instrument to measure collaboration between teams of health professionals. cospaces collaborative working model (patel et al., 2012): an instrument designed in the aerospace, automotive and construction industries, applicable to a general business context. the thomson, perry and miller collaboration instrument (thomson et al., 2007) was selected for this study. this instrument was developed to address the lack of a common theory of collaboration, in order to inform practice. a theoretical framework was developed based on an extensive literature review and field research from which five factors were developed. construct validity was tested on a sample in a national service program in the united states. pre-testing of the questionnaire construction included expert reviews in five iterative stages. a seven-point likert scale was used to explore the extent to which the participants or partner organisations engage in certain behaviours or display particular attitudes. the results indicated that confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) fits at an acceptable level: root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) 0.063, goodness of fit index (gfi) 0.97 and adjusted goodness of fit index (agfi) 0.96 (thomson et al., 2007). of the 56 items tested, 17 proved to have overall and component fit. the authors present their study as a preliminary attempt to measure collaboration with scope for further research. they encourage cross-validation of their instrument on other independent samples. in contrast to other measures, the thomson, perry and miller collaboration instrument (thomson et al., 2007) measures collaboration in general business and not industry-specific settings. for these reasons, this instrument is considered suitable for a validation study. problem statement and research objectives because there is no evidence of an existing collaboration measure in south africa, use of an international instrument was considered appropriate. with a limited number of tests developed specifically for south africa, it is not unusual to make use of international instruments (foxcroft & roodt, 2005; gajda, 2004; orchard et al., 2012). it is, however, necessary to be cautious when using a measurement instrument originally validated in a different setting (gregory, 2005). certain instruments developed in other countries have been empirically tested and proved to have good portability to a south african context (campbell & young, 2011; collings, valjee & penning, 2013; de bruin, swartz, tomlinson, cooper & molteno, 2004; vermeulen, schaap, mitchell & kristovics, 2009). however, specific studies support the assertion that not all assessment instruments are suitable for testing in a south african environment without some adjustment (de klerk, boshoff & van wyk, 2009; meiring, van de vijver & rothmann, 2006; van eeden & wissing, 2008). for these reasons, it is required that instruments are appropriately tested for each setting (donald, thatcher & milner, 2014; foxcroft & roodt, 2005; gregory, 2005). this study therefore aimed to validate the thomson, perry and miller collaboration instrument (thomson et al., 2007) in the south african context, with the objective of using it in south african organisations. a secondary objective was to test convergent validity with the norms factor of the thomson, perry and miller collaboration instrument (thomson et al., 2007) with the trust in teams scale (adams, waldherr & sartori, 2008). potential value-add of the study this study could further the body of knowledge on collaboration through testing a conceptual model’s reliability and construct validity in the south african context. validation of the existing instrument could contribute to more reliable measures in the south african context. this may enable organisations to understand the extent to which the factors of collaboration are a strength or weakness in their organisation. equipped with this knowledge, leaders could prioritise initiatives to create the conditions that enable improved collaboration. human resources functions are being called upon to enhance their contribution and become strategic partners to business (beatty, huselid & schneier, 2003). an area where human resources practitioners can increase their value-add to companies is through the provision of human capital measures that support implementation of the business strategy (beatty et al., 2003; chrysler-fox & roodt, 2014). collaboration is an example of one such measure. this is particularly true for south africa where human resource management has predominantly focused on industrial relations as opposed to increasing organisational effectiveness (horwitz, 2008). method research approach a cross-sectional quantitative design was deemed suitable for this study because a numeric description of the opinions of the participants at a specific point in time was required (cresswell, 2014). the data were subjected to statistical analysis to test the reliability and construct validity of the thomson, perry and miller collaboration instrument (thomson et al., 2007). in order to further establish the strength of the scale, it was deemed of interest to ascertain convergent validity of one of the factors with an existing valid instrument. for this purpose, the trust in teams scale (adams et al., 2008) was selected to ascertain convergent validity with the norms factor of the thomson et al. (2007) instrument. research design research participants this study was conducted in two organisations, an industrial services company and an information and communications technology company. the criterion utilised for the target population was that the respondents needed to be employees who are required to collaborate with other teams or business units. a census sampling approach was deployed, inviting all members of the target population of 4200 employees. the number of valid responses was 343. the largest number of responses (83.7%) was from the information and communications technology company. the respondents’ ages varied between a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of 66 years with a mean of 38 years. the majority of the respondents were men representing 61.0% of the sample. the largest group of respondents (65.6%) possessed a grade 12 or bachelor’s degree or equivalent. english speakers made up 58.5% of the sample while the second largest home language being afrikaans at 28.7%. the african languages made up 12.9% with isizulu speakers forming the largest group (5.0%). the number of years and months employed in the current organisation varied between a minimum of 1 month and a maximum of 29 years with a mean of 6 years and 3 months. there was a relatively even spread across respondents from various business units, with the highest group being 12%. the largest group of respondents (62.7%) held positions at a non-management level. of those at a management level, 43.2% were at a middle management level. the largest group of respondents (56.3%) were based in south africa, gauteng. the majority of respondents (90.9%) were based in south africa. the remainder (9.1%) were from african countries, namely, botswana, kenya, nigeria, united arab emirates, namibia and morocco. measuring instruments the existing questionnaire devised by thomson et al. (2007) was used for this study. the authors originally developed 56 items for their five-factor collaboration scale. these factors are governance, administration, mutuality, autonomy and norms. items such as ‘your organisation relies on a formal agreement that spells out relationships between partner organisations’ and ‘your organisation feels it’s worthwhile to stay and work with partner organisations rather than leave the collaboration’ were included. the items are measured on a 7-point scale, varying from ‘not at all’ to ‘to a very great extent’. the scale was subject to validity studies and 17 items were retained for their statistical or theoretical relevance. standardised lambda coefficients of 0.75 or greater were reported for 14 of the items. the cfa fits were at an acceptable level: rmsea 0.063 (p = 0.01); rmsea cl 0.055–0.072, gfi 0.97 and agfi 0.96. the five factors were applied in this study. the original survey was designed for cross-organisational collaboration. because this study was conducted within organisations, the word ‘organisation’ was replaced with ‘team’. in their recommendations for future research, thomson et al. (2007) encouraged the addition of new items to enrich the instrument or drawing from the original 56 if deemed appropriate. in this study, 14 items were added to the scale, resulting in 31 items in total. two items were drawn from the original 56, because of their perceived theoretical relevance. the commitment of resources by collaborative parties is cited as a key factor in effective collaboration (kaats & opheij, 2014; mattessich et al., 2001; patel et al., 2012). subsequently, the item ‘my team knows what resources (i.e. money, time, expertise) other teams contribute to collaborative endeavours’ was re-instituted in the factor: governance. because effective collaboration is based on the development of relationships (frey et al., 2006; gajda, 2004; mattessich et al., 2001; peterson, 1991), the item ‘developing long-term personal relationships with other teams is the most important part of collaborating’ was re-instituted in the factor: norms. the remaining 12 new items are discussed below: factor: governance. ‘the leaders of this organisation support collaboration’ supporting the theory that leaders perform a critical role in creating and maintaining a collaborative environment (kaats & opheij, 2014; patel et al., 2012). factor: governance. ‘rules of engagement are agreed for all collaborative endeavours i am involved in’. the theory suggests that the dynamics of the group can make or break collaboration (kaats & opheij, 2014). hence agreeing the values, norms and communication style of the group can help to reduce anxiety (kaats & opheij, 2014; wheelan, 2005). factor: governance. ‘other teams adhere to agreed rules of engagement during collaboration’. it is necessary to provide a reference for group process monitoring and feedback (kaats & opheij, 2014; wong, 2006) which the rules of engagement serve as. factor: administration. ‘the existing organisational structure supports collaboration between teams’. a supporting organisational design and policies and processes are cited as important structural considerations of effective collaboration (hudson et al., 1999; kaats & opheij, 2014; patel et al., 2012). it was decided to separate policies and procedures from structure in the items, because they are different dimensions. number 5 that follows relates to the policies and procedures item. factor: administration. ‘the existing organisational policies and procedures support collaboration between teams’. factor: administration. ‘regular monitoring and feedback occurs between teams to establish achievement of collaborative goals’. theoretically, the suggestion is that regular monitoring and feedback of the performance of the collaboration is critical for continuous improvement (frey et al., 2006; gajda, 2004; peterson, 1991). factor: autonomy. ‘i can commit to collaborative endeavours, without first getting approval’. empowerment of individuals representing their groups helps in facilitating more timeous decisions (thomson et al., 2007). the empowerment concept was added in two items, related to the initial commitment to the collaboration and decision-making during the collaboration, as illustrated in the next point (8). factor: autonomy. ‘as team member i am aware of what decisions i am mandated to make in collaborative endeavours’. factor: mutuality. ‘other teams share knowledge with my team that strengthens our operation’. the original scale contained the item ‘my team shares knowledge with other teams that strengthens their operation’. this was retained, but it was considered important to include a question testing reciprocity on knowledge sharing. factor: mutuality. ‘the individuals in other teams put the collective interests of collaboration above their individual interests’. this concept is cited as a key success factor for successful collaboration in the literature (hudson et al., 1999; mattessich et al., 2001; srivastava & banaji, 2011; tsasis, 2009). factor: norms. ‘the people who represent other teams in collaborative endeavours are competent’. the norms factor of the scale relates to trust. competence and consistence (see next point) are important components of trust (adams et al., 2008; barczak, lassk & mulki, 2010; johnson & grayson, 2005). factor: norms. ‘the people who represent other teams in collaborative endeavours are consistent’. the trust in teams scale (adams et al., 2008) was applied to test convergent validity with the norms factor of the thomson, perry and miller collaboration instrument (thomson et al., 2007). the trust in teams scale (adams et al., 2008) was designed to measure four dimensions of trust, namely, competence, integrity, benevolence and predictability. the scale was originally designed for testing in a military context but the items are generic and hence applicable to any team. the questionnaire consists of 20 items with a seven-point likert scale ranging from completely disagree to completely agree. the trust in teams scale (adams et al., 2008) performed with cronbach’s alpha ranges from 0.89 to 0.95. cfas confirmed the construct validity of the four-factor model, though indices were not provided by the authors (adams et al., 2008). for the purpose of consistency with the thomson, perry and miller collaboration instrument (thomson et al., 2007), the scale was re-worded to ‘strongly’ disagree and ‘strongly’ agree. because trust can be considered a socially desirable concept (adams et al., 2008), it was not explicitly stated in the overview to participants as a measurement dimension. research procedure the revised version of the thomson, perry and miller collaboration instrument (thomson et al., 2007) was distributed to a pilot group of eight professionals in organisations for feedback on face validity. they were requested to provide feedback as to whether they had any difficulties in understanding the questions and agreed with the wording and representativeness of the items on identified factors. feedback was received from six people. minor appropriate adjustments were made to the questionnaire and resent to this group. the second round of feedback resulted in no additional changes to the questionnaire. two survey software programs were investigated for their suitability for data collection, namely, survey monkey (n.d.) and question pro (n.d.). the survey was loaded onto both platforms and test data were inputted. question pro was selected for its capability to customise, filter and export the data most efficiently. a senior member in each organisation compiled an email with a brief note encouraging staff participation in the survey. participants were requested to respond to the questionnaire within 2 weeks. an email reminder was sent after week one. statistical analysis exploratory factor analysis and cfa was conducted to test for construct validity, in order to indicate how well the instrument aligns to the theoretical assumptions on collaboration. exploratory factor analyses explored possible alternative factor structures with no constraints on variable loading (blumberg, cooper & schindler, 2008). this was followed by principal factor analysis with varimax rotation. cronbach’s alpha was used to test for reliability for each of the five factors (sekaran & bougie, 2013). this was to test for items that have strong relationship with each other and the relative factors of collaboration. cfa examined the fit of the adjusted theoretical model through specifying which items define each factor (blumberg et al., 2008). the trust in teams scale (adams et al., 2008) was applied to test convergent validity with the norms factor of the thomson, perry and miller collaboration instrument (thomson et al., 2007). results descriptive statistics for the items in the revised thomson, perry and miller (2007) collaboration instrument show that all items received the minimum and maximum responses on the likert scale. the mean ranged from 2.63 to 5.92 with standard deviations ranging from 1.220 to 1.648. all items in the trust in teams scale (adams et al., 2008) also received the minimum and maximum responses on the likert scale. one item was removed as a duplication. the mean ranged from 4.90 to 5.89 with standard deviations ranging from 1.111 to 1.637. the mode and median indicated a high predominance of the 6 rating. exploratory factor analysis of the revised thomson, perry and miller (2007) collaboration instrument indicated kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) measure at an acceptable level of 0.95, which is above the value (0.6) suggested by tabachnick and fidell (2007). the bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant at 7584.2 (df = 465; p = 0.00). principal components analysis with varimax rotation indicated five factors with eigenvalues above one. the five factors explained 65.3% of the total variance. the rotated factor matrix for the revised thomson, perry and miller (2007) collaboration instrument on a five-factor model resulted in only two items loading on factor five. these two items were not theoretically relevant and it was decided to delete the two items for further analyses. governance and administration loaded on one factor, as well as two autonomy items, which was considered theoretically relevant. rotation converged in 10 iterations. this model was further analysed by means of principal components analysis with varimax rotation on four components. eigenvalues above one were indicated as: component 1 = 14.529, component 2 = 2.446, component 3 = 1.795 and component 4 = 1.516. the total variance explained by the four components is 69.95%, with component 1 explaining 25.25%, component 2, 21.38%, component 3, 15.13% and component 4, 8.20% of the variance in the data space. the rotated factor matrix for the revised thomson, perry and miller (2007) collaboration instrument on a four-factor model confirmed governance and administration as one factor. rotation converged in eight iterations. principal components analysis with varimax rotation of the revised thomson, perry and miller (2007) collaboration instrument on a four-factor model is reported in table 2. table 2: principal components analysis with varimax rotation of the revised thomson, perry and miller (2007) collaboration instrument on a four-factor model. exploratory factor analysis of the trust in teams scale (adams et al., 2008) indicated the kmo measure (kmo) above 0.6, at an acceptable level of 0.96. the bartlett’s test of sphericity was at a significant level chi-square = 9064.85 (df = 171; p = 0.000). two factors with eigenvalues were above one, explaining 78.3% of the total variance. the two components of the trust in teams scale (adams et al., 2008) were named component 1: integrity and component 2: competence. reliability of both the revised thomson, perry and miller (2007) collaboration instrument and the trust in teams scale (adams et al., 2008) was calculated using cronbach’s alpha coefficient. cronbach’s alpha values for the revised thomson, perry and miller (2007) collaboration instrument are factor 1: governance (α = 0.95), factor 2: mutuality (α = 0.92), factor 3: norms (α = 0.9) and factor 4: autonomy (α = 0.85) and for the trust in teams scale (adams et al., 2008) are factor 1: integrity (α = 0.97) and factor 2: competence (α = 0.95). the cfa was done by means of eqs. the cfa of both the revised thomson, perry and miller (2007) collaboration instrument and the trust in teams scale (adams et al., 2008) are reported in table 3. items that cross loaded and were initially omitted though did not increase fit indices. this could be due to similarity of questions. the final factors thus included the cross loading items. none of the mardia’s coefficients were less than three, which is an indication of a significant non-normality. chi-square indices of the different factors showed a weak to good fit with the data. weak fits are indicated in governance, integrity and competence. collaboration total has a good fit of 4.3. trust in teams total has a weak fit of 10.01. comparative fit indices are between 0.86 and 0.99, which is between a reasonable and good fit (hair, black, babin, anderson & tatham, 2006). no cfa was performed on autonomy as there were only three items. table 3: confirmatory factor analysis for the revised thomson, perry and miller (2007) collaboration instrument and the trust in teams scale. convergent validity convergent validity of only the norms factor of the revised thomson, perry and miller (2007) collaboration instrument was tested in relation to the trust in teams scale (adams et al., 2008) by means of structural equations modelling. this is illustrated in figure 2. figure 2: structural equation model of the prediction of trust in teams scale (adams et al., 2008) by means of the norms factor of the revised thomson, perry and miller (2007) collaboration instrument. cfa of the structural equation model in figure 1 shows significant path coefficients at the 5% level of confidence. goodness of fit indices showed a moderate fit with the data with bentler-bonnett normed fit index = 0.84, comparative fit index (cfi) = 0.85, bollen’s fit index = 0.85, and rmsea = 0.15 within the 90% confidence interval of 0.14 and 0.15. discussion the results of this study provide acceptable indices of the revised thomson, perry and miller (2007) collaboration instrument when applied to a south african sample. it affirms the premise by foxcroft and roodt (2005) that instruments used in alternative countries must be validated for a south african context. it addresses the recommendations of thomson et al. (2007) to refine their scale with the addition of items and subsequent testing of construct validity in other contexts. thirteen of the fourteen new items were retained. only two items in total were eliminated, both which loaded on factor five in the initial principal components analysis. these items were eliminated as they could not be theoretically explained. the moderate convergent validity with the prediction of norms on the trust factors of integrity and competence could be due to the different reference to team collaboration of the two instruments. the revised thomson, perry and miller (2007) collaboration instrument refers to participants’ experience of individuals in other teams, for example, ‘the people who represent other teams in collaborative endeavours are competent’. the trust in in teams scale (adams et al., 2008) makes reference to participants’ experience of own teammates, for example, ‘my teammates are capable at their jobs’. linking findings to the literature thomson et al. (2007) defined five factors of collaboration, namely, governance, administration, mutuality, autonomy and norms. in this study, governance and administration loaded on one factor; hence, the results support a reliable four-factor model of collaboration. the high inter-correlation between these factors is an indication that items are too similar. this is an indication that future research should phrase items for these factors to create a clearer distinction. thomson et al. (2007) made the following distinction between governance and administration: governance is based on the creation of rules and structures around decisions for the collaboration, and administration focuses on implementation and management. the administration items of the revised thomson, perry and miller (2007) collaboration instrument reference the existence of supporting structures, policies, clarity of roles, goals and tasks and the existence of meetings and monitoring mechanisms. as far as could be ascertained from existing literature, the essence of governance and administration is not categorised as distinctly as the thomson et al. (2007) model (kaats & opheij, 2014; mattessich et al., 2001; oziewicz, 2007; patel et al., 2012). theoretically, these components could be considered part of governance and hence in this study were interpreted as one factor. the four-factor model is well supported by the literature. the factor of governance (including administration) measures the creation and implementation of rules and structures that govern the collaboration. this supports the assertion that establishing structural processes, work standards, methods and frameworks to guide collaborative relationships is important (campbell, 2006; kaats & opheij, 2014; patel et al., 2012; sanchez, 2012; thomson et al., 2007). this factor also encompasses the notion that clear goals, roles, policy guidelines and communication channels are important components in collaboration as identified by various authors (kaats & opheij, 2014; mattessich et al., 2001; patel et al., 2012; petri, 2010; quicke, 2000; sanchez, 2012). the factor of mutuality is supported by the concept that mutual dependence provides the most suitable conditions for collaboration (henneman, lee & cohen, 1995; petri, 2010). furthermore, perceived mutually beneficial outcomes are cited as important in collaborative endeavours (campbell, 2006; ofori & sackey, 2010; pastoriza, arin & ricart, 2009; wollebæk & selle, 2007). managing conflict is a component of the mutuality factor which is supported by gajda (2004) who proposed that conflict can even be constructive, however proper management thereof is important. the factor of norms is underpinned by the perceptions of individuals that collaborative partners can be trusted. this supports the assertion that trust plays a key role in collaborative relationships (kaats & opheij, 2014; mattessich et al., 2001; patel et al., 2012; thomson et al., 2007). both affective and cognitive trust elements (johnson & grayson, 2005) are represented in the items. cognitive trust relates to the perception that the other party is capable and likely to deliver on their commitments. affective trust is based on positive relational experiences. the factor of autonomy refers to the tension between the collective interests of all parties and the self-interest of groups (thomson et al., 2007). hudson et al. (1999) supported the existence of this tension through encouraging collaborative parties to recognise where interdependence is appropriate and respect where independence is warranted. tsasis (2009) also proposed that a balance between autonomy and dependence is required for effective collaboration. implications for practice the revised thomson, perry and miller (2007) collaboration instrument provides a measure for leaders and hr practitioners to explore the status of collaboration in organisations and across organisations in south africa. the results could provide hr practitioners information that helps them to identify opportunities for leadership development, knowledge sharing, inter-team effectiveness and bottom-up collaboration. this could help to promote the positioning of the human resource function as a strategic business partner. the theoretical model alone can be used by organisations as a conversational framework to explore perceptions on collaboration in different contexts. the results of a collaboration assessment could suggest courses of action for leaders to address obstacles and challenges associated with collaboration such as varying priorities, conflicts and territory issues (sanchez, 2012) and create mechanisms to mitigate these. this should enable organisations to leverage the benefits of effective collaboration. limitations of the study and implications for future research although the study shows the four-factor revised thomson et al. (2007) to be valid for a south african sample, various limitations should be considered. this study was done only in two organisations in south africa, in two industries, information technology and industrial services. a larger variety of organisations and other countries should be considered in future research. the sample obtained was predominantly english and afrikaans speaking (87.5%), with a small percentage representing the remaining nine official languages of south africa. future studies should aim to acquire a more south african demographically representative sample. cross-loadings of items indicate a lack of variety between questions, especially in the case of governance and administration. future measure of this instrument should phrase items to show more variety between questions. specifically, the governance and administration items should be phrased in a manner that would make a clearer distinction between these two factors. future studies on convergent validity of the norms factor of the thomson, perry and miller collaboration instrument (thomson et al., 2007) and trust instruments should phrase participants’ team experience and observation in a similar fashion to address the moderate results of the convergent validity. this study has only examined the validity of one instrument in a south african context. subsequent to completion of this research, an article by marek et al. (2015) was published. the authors developed and validated a collaboration assessment tool for use in a general business context. internal consistency of the instrument was 0.97. cfa fits were at an acceptable level: rmsea = 0.06. it is evident that this instrument would have also been suitable for validation for the south african context had it been published prior to the planning of this study. future research could therefore focus on validation of other appropriate instruments for south africa. a beneficial future research focus would be to conduct longitudinal studies to explore the impact of time and other contextual changes on collaboration processes. longitudinal studies could also further test the premise that collaboration occurs in a series of stages (frey et al., 2006; gajda, 2004; peterson, 1991). conclusion this research demonstrated the importance of collaboration between and within organisations. south african businesses face many external and internal challenges that necessitate the optimal use of resources for increased efficiency and innovation. it is evident that this can be achieved through collaborative partnerships. if south african leaders are to leverage the benefits of their workforce through collaboration, they require insight into the status of collaboration in order to initiate change. as far as could be ascertained, there is no evidence of a measurement instrument to provide this insight in south africa. organisations place themselves at risk when using an instrument developed in another country and not tested for use with their specific population. the revised thomson, perry and miller collaboration instrument addresses the need for a collaboration instrument validated for a south african sample. in conclusion, this study contributes to the understanding of collaboration and how to maximise its practical benefits. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions d.r. was responsible for the project design, r.v.w. and n.d. were the project leaders and made conceptual contributions. references adams, b.d., waldherr, s., & sartori, j. (2008). trust in teams scale trust in leaders scale manual for administration and analyses. toronto, on: humansystems inc. barber, f., & goold, m. (2014). collaboration strategy – how to get what you want from employees, suppliers and business partners. london, uk: bloomsbury. barczak, g., lassk, f., & mulki, j. (2010). antecedents of team creativity: an examination of team emotional intelligence, team trust and collaborative culture. creativity and innovation management, 19(4), 332–345. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8691.2010.00574.x beatty, r.w., huselid, m.a., & schneier, c.e. (2003). new hr metrics: scoring on the business scorecard. organizational dynamics, 32(2), 107–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0090-2616(03)00013-5 blumberg, b., cooper, d.r., & schindler, p.s. (2008). business research methods (3rd edn.). berkshire, uk: mcgraw-hill. bond, l., lusher, d., williams, i., & butler, h. (2014). friends or foes? relational dissonance and adolescent psychological wellbeing. plos one, 9(2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0083388 bushe, g.r. (2006). sense making and the problems of learning from experience: barriers and requirements for creating cultures of collaboration. in s. schuman (ed.), creating a culture of collaboration (pp. 151–171). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. campbell, j.m. (2006). renewing social capital. in s. schuman (ed.), creating a culture of collaboration (p. 41–55). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. campbell, m., & young, c. (2011). introducing the core-om in a south african context: validation of the core-om using a south african student population sample. south african journal of psychology, 41(4), 488–502. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124631104100408 chrysler-fox, p.d., & roodt, g. (2014). changing domains in human capital measurement. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.585 collings, s.j., valjee, s.r., & penning, s.l. (2013). development and preliminary validation of a screen for interpersonal childhood trauma experiences among school-going youth in durban, south africa. journal of child and adolescent mental health, 25(1), 23–34. https://doi.org/10.2989/17280583.2012.722552 cresswell, j.w. (2014). research design: qualitative, quantitative & mixed methods approaches (4th edn.). london, uk: sage. d’amour, d., ferrada-videla, m., san martin rodriguez, l., & beaulieu, m.d. (2005). the conceptual basis for interprofessional collaboration: core concepts and theoretical frameworks. journal of interprofessional care, 19(suppl 1), 116–131. https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820500082529 de bruin, g.p., swartz, l., tomlinson, m., cooper, p.j., & molteno, c. (2004). the factor structure of the edinburgh postnatal depression scale in a south african peri-urban settlement. south african journal of psychology, 34(1), 113–121. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124630403400107 de klerk, j.j., boshoff, a.b., & van wyk, r. (2009). measuring meaning in life in south africa: validation of an instrument developed in the usa. south african journal of psychology, 39(3), 314–325. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124630903900306 donald, f., thatcher, a., & milner, k. (2014). psychological assessment for redress in south african organisations: is it just? south african journal of psychology, 44(3), 333–350. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246314535685 foxcroft, c., & roodt, g. (2005). an introduction to psychological assessment in the south african context (2nd edn.). cape town, south africa: oxford university press. frey, b.b., lohmeier, j.h., lee, s.w., & tollefson, n. (2006). measuring collaboration among grant partners. american journal of evaluation, 27(3), 383–392. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098214006290356 gajda, r. (2004). utilizing collaboration theory to evaluate strategic alliances. american journal of evaluation, 25(1), 65–77. https://doi.org/10.1177/109821400402500105 gedney baggs, j. (1994). development of an instrument to measure collaboration and satisfaction about care decisions. journal of advanced nursing, 20, 176–182. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.1994.20010176.x gray, b., & wood, d.j. (1991). collaborative alliances: moving from practice to theory. journal of applied behavioural science, 27(2), 3–22. https://doi.org/0803973233 gregory, r.j. (2005). the history of psychological testing. in s. frail (ed.), psychological testing: history, principles and applications (5th edn., pp. 45–75). boston, ma: pearson. hair, j.f., jr., black, w.c., babin, b.j., anderson, r.e., & tatham, r.l. (2006). multivariate data analysis. upper saddle river, nj: pearson. henneman, e., lee, j., & cohen, j. (1995). collaboration: a concept analysis. journal of advanced nursing, 21, 103–109. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.1995.21010103.x horwitz, f. (2008). key issues facing human resource management. leader. retrieved july 31, 2015, from http://www.leader.co.za/article.aspx?s=1&f=1&a=393 hudson, b., hardy, b., henwood, m., & wistow, g. (1999). in pursuit of inter-agency collaboration in the public sector. public management review, 1(2), 37–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719039900000005 human resource development strategy for south africa 2010–2030. (2009). retrieved july 31, 2015, from http://www.gov.za international monetary fund. (2013). south africa: imf country report. washington, dc: international monetary fund. johnson, d., & grayson, k. (2005). cognitive and affective trust in service relationships. journal of business research, 58(4), 500–507. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0148-2963(03)00140-1 kaats, e., & opheij, w. (2014). creating conditions for promising collaboration. london: springer. majchrzak, a., jarvenpaa, s.l., & bagherzadeh, m. (2015). a review of interorganizational collaboration dynamics. journal of management, 41(5), 1338–1360. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314563399 marek, l.i., brock, d.-j.p., & savla, j. (2015). evaluating collaboration for effectiveness: conceptualization and measurement. american journal of evaluation, 36(1), 67–85. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098214014531068 mattessich, p.w., murray-close, m., & monsey, b.r. (2001). collaboration: what makes it work. v. hyman (ed.) (2nd edn.). saint paul, mn: fieldstone alliance. meiring, d., van de vijver, f.j.r., & rothmann, s. (2006). bias in an adapted version of the 15fq+in south africa. south african journal of psychology, 36(2), 340–356. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124630603600208 miller, b.f.a., & katz, j.h. (2014). 4 keys to accelerating collaboration. od practitioner, 46(1), 6–12. murphy, m., arenas, d., & batista, j.m. (2014). value creation in cross-sector collaborations: the roles of experience and alignment. journal of business ethics, 130, 145–162. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2204-x ofori, d., & sackey, j. (2010). assessing social capital for organisational performance: initial exploratory insights from ghana. organizations and markets in emerging economies, 1(2), 71–91. orchard, c.a., king, g.a., khalili, h., & bezzina, m.b. (2012). assessment of interprofessional team collaboration scale (aitcs): development and testing. journal of continuing education in the health professions, 32(1), 58–67. https://doi.org/10.1002/chp oziewicz, m. (2007). joseph campbell’s ‘new mythology’ and the rise of mythopoeic fantasy. the anachronist, 13, 114–130. pastoriza, d., arin, m.a., & ricart, j.e. (2009). creating an ethical work context: a pathway to generate social capital in the firm. journal of business ethics, 88, 477–489. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0121-1 patel, h., pettitt, m., & wilson, j.r. (2012). factors of collaborative working: a framework for a collaboration model. applied ergonomics, 43(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2011.04.009 perez, s., peon, j., & ordas, c. (2011). managing knowledge: the link between culture and organizational learning. journal of knowledge management, 8(6), 93–104. https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270410567657 peterson, n.l. (1991). interagency collaboration under part h: the key to comprehensive, multidisciplinary, coordinated infant/toddler intervention services. journal of early intervention, 15(1), 89–105. https://doi.org/10.1177/105381519101500111 petri, l. (2010). concept analysis of interdisciplinary collaboration. nursing forum, 45(2), 73–82. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6198.2010.00167.x question pro. (n.d.). retrieved august 29, 2015, from http://www.questionpro.com/ quicke, j. (2000). a new professionalism for a collaborative culture of organizational learning in contemporary society. educational management administration & leadership, 28(3), 299–315. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263211x000283005 sanchez, m. (2012). a collaborative culture. od practitioner, 44(2), 7–12. sanker, d. (2012). collaborate: the art of we. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. schwarz, r. (2006). using the facilitative leader approach to create an organizational culture of collaboration. in s. schuman (ed.), creating a culture of collaboration (pp. 281–301). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. sekaran, u., & bougie, r. (2013). research methods for business: a skill-building approach (6th edn.). west sussex: wiley. simatupang, t.m., & sridharan, r. (2005). the collaboration index: a measure for supply chain collaboration. international journal of physical distribution & logistics management, 35(1), 44–62. https://doi.org/10.1108/09600030510577421 srivastava, s.b., & banaji, m.r. (2011). culture, cognition, and collaborative networks in organizations. american sociological review, 76(2), 207–233. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122411399390 survey monkey (n.d.). retrieved august 29, 2015, from https://www.surveymonkey.com/ tabachnick, b.g., & fidell, l.s. (2007). using multivariate statistics. yuba county, ca: pearson. thomson, a.m., perry, j., & miller, t. (2007). conceptualizing and measuring collaboration. journal of public administration research and theory, 19(1), 23–56. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mum036 thomson, a.m., perry, j., & miller, t. (2008). linking collaboration processes and outcomes foundations for advancing empirical theory. in r. o’leary & l. bingham (eds.), collaborative public management: the big questions (pp. 97–120). new york: sharpe. tsasis, p. (2009). the social processes of interorganizational collaboration and conflict in nonprofit organizations. nonprofit management and leadership, 20(1), 5–21. https://doi.org/10.1002/nml.238 tschannen-moran, m. (2001). collaboration and the need for trust. journal of educational administration, 39(4), 308–331. https://doi.org/10.1108/eum0000000005493 van eeden, c., & wissing, m.p. (2008). karaktersterktes herontdek in die sielkunde. tydskrif vir geesteswetenskappe, 48(1), 78–95. vermeulen, l.p., schaap, p., mitchell, j.i., & kristovics, a. (2009). exploring the equivalence of the aviation gender attitude questionnaire for south african and australian pilots: a cross-cultural comparison. the international journal of aviation psychology, 19(4), 367–390. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508410903187604 wheelan, s.a. (2005). group processes – a developmental perspective (2nd edn.). boston, ma: pearson. wollebæk, d., & selle, p. (2007). origins of social capital: socialization and institutionalization approaches compared. journal of civil society, 3(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/17448680701390638 wong, p.t.p. (2006). is your organization an obstacle course or a relay team: a meaning-centred approach to creating a collaborative culture. in s. schuman (ed.), creating a culture of collaboration (pp. 229–256). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. woodland, r.h., & hutton, m.s. (2012). evaluating organizational collaborations: suggested entry points and strategies. american journal of evaluation, 33(3), 366–383. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098214012440028 world economic forum. (2015). the global competitiveness report 2015–2016 (vol. 5). geneva: world economic forum. abstract introduction literature review research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) monica pregnolato school of management studies, organisational psychology, university of cape town, south africa mark h.r. bussin department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa anton f. schlechter school of management studies, organisational psychology, university of cape town, south africa citation pregnolato, m., bussin, m.h.r., & schlechter, a.f. (2017). total rewards that retain: a study of demographic preferences. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15, a804. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15.804 original research total rewards that retain: a study of demographic preferences monica pregnolato, mark h.r. bussin, anton f. schlechter received: 01 mar. 2016; accepted: 21 oct. 2016; published: 30 jan. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: changing workplace demographics and a dearth of employees with scarce skills have forced employers to better understand the various factors that retain talented employees. research purpose: in this empirical study, the reward preferences and ideal combination of total reward elements (based on an estimation of their relative importance) that retain employees from various demographic groups, including employees of different race, gender and age groups, were investigated. motivation for study: organisations are competing for talented employees and to benefit from the value these individuals add, it is required of them to stay at the respective businesses. previous studies have indicated that employees who are offered a reward package that is aligned to their personal preferences are prone to stay longer at the organisation and to be more engaged at work. however, new and novel ways need to be found to identify the reward preferences of employees. research design, approach and method: a quantitative approach and descriptive research design was employed to estimate the individual reward preferences and identify an ideal mix of total reward elements that retain different cohorts of employees. three questionnaires were distributed, including a remuneration managers questionnaire (n = 7), a remuneration preference questionnaire (n = 368) and a choice-based conjoint task questionnaire (n = 368). the latter two questionnaires were distributed as an online questionnaire to south african businesses and consisted of eight choice-based conjoint tasks, as well as a field survey. main findings: the results of the choice-based conjoint analysis revealed that all respondents considered financial rewards (benefits, performance and recognition, remuneration, career, in that order) as relatively speaking, the most important components in their total rewards package that would lead to their retention. for most demographic groups, the remaining three places (i.e. ranked) were career advancement, learning and work–life balance. work–life balance was found to be relatively more important for generation y than career advancement. for those employees with only a matric qualification and those in non-managerial positions, access to learning opportunities were the least important in their retention. practical/managerial implications: human resource managers and line managers should note that reward elements should be chosen and offered as total reward packages in such a way as to best be able to attract, engage and retain talented employees. contribution/value-add: the findings of the present study adds value in a sense that it assists organisations in creating customised reward packages that best suit the needs of both employees and them as employers. providing a more ideal or preferential combination of reward elements can, by increasing retention and engagement, provide a competitive advantage for organisations. introduction key focus of the study employee engagement and retention are overwhelmingly cited by the chief executive officers of some of the largest and fastest growing companies, as the number one priority on the human resource or human capital agenda (frank, finnegan & taylor, 2004; schlechter, faught & bussin, 2014). business strategies, products and services can often be replicated, but it is nearly impossible to replicate a company’s talent pool, a fundamental aspect whereby a business distinguishes itself from its competitors (jensen, mcmullen & stark, 2007). background of the study the turnover of critical or key staff members, often referred to as talent, is associated with significant direct and indirect costs to an organisation. these costs include, for example, the costs associated with recruitment and selection, as well as intangible costs such as the loss of productivity, quality shortfalls, poor morale among the remaining employees, negative impact on customers/clients and loss of organisational knowledge when employees leave (krishnan, 2009). the tangible and intangible costs to the company are estimated to be higher than the annual salary of a departing employee (corporate leadership council, 2004). for such reasons, the retention of human capital or human resources has become a business imperative, in terms of running a successful and sustainable business. to succeed in the so-called war for talent, employers need to have a clear understanding of how various reward factors influence whether talented employees choose to stay or leave an organisation (dibble as cited in kotze & roodt, 2005). cohorts of employees, such as those coming from diverse demographic groups, have different expectations and demands of their work environment. as a result, a one-size-fits-all retention strategy has proven not to be effective (bussin, 2012). the primary research question in the present study was ‘what is the ideal total reward mix of reward elements that will retain skilled employees from specific demographic groups?’ trends from the research literature the successful retention of human capital in the global workplace has been affected by extensive changes in workforce demographics, as organisations are required to manage more diverse groups of talent pools (snelgar, renard & venter, 2013). in the united states, growing numbers of ethnic minorities are entering the labour market. in the south african context, the employment equity act (no. 55 of 1998) has been instrumental in changing the demographic profile of the local labour market. south african businesses act, or should act, as catalysts for developing equity employees who were under-developed during the apartheid era (maisela, 2001; nzukuma & bussin, 2011; tucker, kao & verma, 2005). the transformation of the workforce is therefore high on the agenda in south african organisations. the dearth of black talent and the resulting competition between companies to attract such individuals as necessitated by redress legislation, adds a further dimension to the retention challenge within the south african context. the notion that organisations should develop relevant and targeted reward packages and retention strategies to best suit multiple needs, across different demographic cohorts (e.g. generations, genders or race groups), has been the focus of research over the last few years (codrington, 2008; schlechter et al., 2014; snelgar et al., 2013; sutherland, 2004). within the south african context, it has been found that specific reward strategies are related to the retention of generation x, female employees and black professionals (bussin & toerien, 2015; kotze & roodt’s, 2005; krishnan, 2009; masibigiri & nienaber, 2011; schlechter et al., 2014). research objectives the present study had two main research objectives: (1) to develop a better understanding of the total reward preferences within a south african business context; and (2) to identify the ideal or most desirable mix of total reward elements or total reward packages that would specifically retain employees from various demographic groupings. the potential value-add of study the findings of the present study contribute to the literature on reward preference. the findings have relevance and are important for workplaces, given the scarcity of skills and high competitiveness among companies in needing to retain such employees. organisations will hopefully benefit from the findings of this study by using the results to customise reward packages in such a manner that they are based on demographic preferences and so allow them to more effectively retain key employees. what will follow the following literature review indicates different reward types from which the framework of the study was developed. furthermore, the reward preferences for different race, age and gender groups are described. after this, the research method is explained and the results illustrated. the article concludes with a discussion of these results and the practical suggestions/recommendations that follow from these. literature review a total rewards model that involves the integration of five key elements that attract, motivate and retain the talent required to achieve desired business results and lead to employee job satisfaction and engagement namely was developed by worldatwork (2007) and comprises the following elements: remuneration: cash provided by an employer to an employee for services rendered. benefits remuneration: programmes that an employer uses to supplement the cash remuneration an employee receives. these satisfy protection needs. work-life balance: organisational practices, policies and programmes as well as a philosophy that actively supports an employee’s efforts to be successful within and outside the workplace. performance and recognition: involves the alignment and subsequent assessment of organisational, team and individual efforts towards the achievement of business goals and organisational success. recognition gives special attention to employee action, efforts, behaviour and performance. development and career opportunities: comprises learning experiences designed to enhance employee skills and competencies. career opportunities involve plans to help employees pursue their career goals. these are relational needs that bind workers more effectively to an organisation as they satisfy individual’s needs such as personal development and fulfilment. pay (compensation or remuneration) is the most commonly cited reward element used in retention strategies (bussin, nicholls & nienaber, 2016). in reality though, pay has been found to be the fifth most common reason for leaving an organisation (bussin, 2012). the most important rewards that retained talented workers from the fields of science, technology, financial services and information technology were financial rewards, recognition and developmental opportunities (bussin & toerien, 2015; kinnear & sutherland, 2000). these findings were corroborated by de vos and meganck (2008); horwitz, heng and quazi (2003); horwitz et al. (2006) as well sutherland and jordaan (2004). in a study of employees in south africa and singapore, it was found that employees were retained most effectively when provided with challenging assignments and fulfilling work, as well as incentive and performance bonuses (horwitz et al., 2006). others found that reward elements relating to personal comfort including medical aid benefits, social relations at work, pension and contractual obligations did not retain employees (sutherland & jordaan, 2004; van rooy & bussin, 2014). the lack of value placed on traditional retention strategies such as work–life balance practices, for example, extra vacation time, childcare facilities or teambuilding exercises was reported by birt, wallis and wintermitz (2004). rewards that retain employees of different races limited social science and business literature exists in south africa to indicate the mix of total rewards that retain previously disadvantaged individuals (pdis), as described in the employment equity act (no. 55 of 1998). black professionals considered work environments with strong employment equity (ee) initiatives and diverse work groups as key retention factors (maisela, 2001). in a study of demographic differences in retention factors affecting managerial and specialist bank staff indicated that pdis rated performance standards, diversity, competitive remuneration and employer of choice perception as rewards that were less likely to retain them, than non-pdis (kotze & roodt, 2005). in a study of black professionals, it was noted that this group was more likely to remain in their current job because they valued the work they were engaged in rather than the company they worked for (booysen, 2007; khanyile & mapongo, 2007; mmolaeng & bussin, 2012). rewards that retain different genders in south africa, women are classified as equity candidates under the employment equity act (no. 55 of 1998). limited literature exists both in south africa and internationally to indicate the reward elements that specifically retain female employees. a study that investigated the career paths of women who had left organisations discovered that in 51% of the cases women joined rival organisations in more prestigious positions (krishnan, 2009). rewards that retain employees of different age groups generation is a term used to refer to people born in the same general time span and who share historical or social life experiences. because of similar life experiences, each generation develops a unique personality that determines their feelings towards authority and organisation. this generational personality also is thought to influence what individuals expect from their employer and how they intend to satisfy such needs (bussin, 2012; gursoy, maier & chi, 2008; snelgar et al., 2013; towers perrin, 2003). in south africa, experienced non-pdi employees aged 50+ will be exiting the labour market over the next 10 years, leaving a large skills gap, which the current education system is failing to address (d’amato & herzfeldt, 2008). this has created a situation where employers need to ensure that they can grow and retain their young talent, even though this is becoming an increasingly difficult task with skilled professionals of all races increasingly choosing to frequently change jobs in an effort to satisfy their need for quick career development and progression (nzukuma & bussin, 2011; temkin, 2008; van rooy & bussin, 2014). according to a study conducted by towers perrin (2003), employees aged between 18 and 29 typically value base salary, variable pay and company shares the most, while employees aged between 30 and 44 typically value medical aid, base salary and deferred remuneration. employees aged between 45 and 54 are thought to view base salary, deferred remuneration and retirement funding as important while employees of 55 years or older value retirement funding and base salary equally together with medical aid. baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) make up a sizeable portion of the current workforce and have extensive knowledge and business experience. literature indicates that this generation is retained by benefits programmes such as medical aid and retirement benefits and initiatives to assist in preparing for their retirement (tiku, 2007). these findings are supported by wallace (2006) in a study of generational differences across the legal profession where pay was deemed to be more important to baby boomers than to generation x’ers (those born between 1965 and 1980). instead, generation x and generation y (those born between 1981 and 2000) employees are believed to be more independent and self-reliant than baby boomers; they are likely to have multiple careers; are prepared to make rapid career transitions and leave an organisation when their needs are not being met; and emphasise work–life balance (d’amato & herzfeldt, 2008). the most successful reward elements to retain generation x employees include the offer of career development opportunities, including jobs that aid this generation in advancing to the next job, career ladders and providing challenging assignments (d’amato & herzfeldt, 2008; smit, stanz & bussin, 2015). these rewards are in alignment with this generation’s need to be loyal to their own skills as opposed to a particular company. a focus group study of generation x’ers highlighted their need to leave work at work, as well as trying to strike a balance in their lives (gursoy et al., 2008). these findings were supported in a study where work–life programmes such as sabbaticals and flexitime were popular among generation x’ers (gabriel, 1999). work–life balance and flexibility options such as flexitime, encouraging the use of online social networks like facebook and twitter or flexi office are seen as ways to satisfy the generation y’s need for loyalty to their lifestyle rather than their job (roy, 2008). therefore, the current study has two main research questions that it aims to address: what is the mix and the desired amount of total rewards that retain employees from various demographic groups, which – in the context of the current study – refers to knowledge workers and employees from different race, gender and age groups. the second question is what elements of total rewards do employees deem important in their retention. research design research approach a descriptive research design, following a quantitative approach was employed to address the research objectives. research method six total reward elements were identified using the worldatwork total rewards model (2007). even though the model suggests five reward elements, it was decided to split training and development (learning) opportunities from career advancement. these reward elements were identified as commonly applicable in many large organisations according to a remchannel south african benefits guide survey (2007). a field survey and choice-based conjoint analysis, also referred to as choice-based modelling, was used to investigate the relative importance of the reward elements in retaining employees of different demographic groups. rather than asking survey respondents directly what attributes they find most important (as is done in the field survey), conjoint analysis utilises a more realistic context of respondents evaluating potential profiles. conjoint analysis is based on the assumption that individuals perceive products, reward packages in this instance, as consisting of a number of attributes (each with levels) that each offer a measure of worth or value or utility. conjoint analysis identifies the relative worth of each of the attributes making up a product or service or concept in order to find the offering or combination that contains the most desirable constellation of attributes. this method replicates real-life decision making in that individuals cannot obtain everything that they desire and have to psychologically make trade-offs between various combinations, unlike typical survey approaches were items are considered one at a time (i.e. can obtain everything that they desire). measuring instruments questionnaire 1: remuneration managers questionnaire the purpose of the first questionnaire was to receive expert input from remuneration managers as to the reward package they would construct to retain three hypothetical employees, namely employee a – someone with critical skills, employee b – someone with technical skills and employee c – someone who is not considered key talent and readily replaceable. employee a was classified as scarce talent and thought to pose a high retention risk to the company were they to resign. employee b was considered to pose a moderate retention risk. employee c was not considered key talent. employee c was considered to be the recipient of the lowest level of rewards and would equate to level 3 (low) in the choice-based conjoint task. employee a, the recipient of the highest level of rewards, would equate to level 1 (high) and employee b to the intermediate level or level 2 (medium) in setting up the choice-based conjoint tasks. questionnaire 2: total rewards preference questionnaire a second questionnaire was developed and was based on the worldatwork total rewards model (2007). this scale was designed to measure which total rewards respondents deemed most important in deciding whether to stay or leave their current organisation. responses were recorded on a 5-point likert-type scale where 1 represented ‘not at all important’ and 5 indicated ‘very important’. the scale comprised 20 questions covering 6 total rewards namely: (1) performance and recognition, (2) work-life balance, (3) learning, (4) career advancement, (5) remuneration and (6) benefits. questionnaire 3: choice-based conjoint task questionnaire the third questionnaire comprised computer-generated conjoint tasks. each conjoint task is a random combination of the various levels of the reward elements (attributes). this was used to assess employee preferences by determining the relative importance of reward elements (by calculating part-worths). research procedure before administration, ethics clearance was obtained and the online questionnaire piloted on a small group of employees who are members of south african reward association (sara). the survey was amended using the results from the pilot group. the survey was completed online and respondents were given 3 weeks to do so. an email reminding the employees of the closing date was sent after the first week to encourage participation. research participants a non-probability sampling method, namely convenience sampling, was employed throughout. descriptive statistics for demographic characteristics of the respondents questionnaire 1: the first questionnaire was circulated to 15 remuneration managers across a variety of industries in south africa and seven usable responses were received (47% response rate). the majority (86%) of the companies represented by them were from the private sector, while the remaining 14% were from the government or quasi government sectors. questionnaires 2 and 3: the second and third questionnaires were distributed within a multinational oil company based in cape town, as well as companies who are corporate members of the sara. approximately 600 of the second and third questionnaires were distributed and 361 usable responses were received, representing a 60% response rate. a description of the demographic composition of the realised sample for the second and third questionnaires is provided in table 1. table 1: demographic characteristics sample for questionnaires 2 and 3. the majority of respondents (56%) were women, and these results are considered typical of the gender demographics of the south african workplace. the sample consisted of predominantly white respondents (54.3%) with african and mixed race groups, collectively, having nearly equal representation. the majority of the sample (79%) were 31 years and older. eighty-six percent of the sample had obtained a post matric qualification. the single largest groupings of respondents (36.6%) were in non-managerial roles with the majority operating in individual contributor or specialist roles. for the purposes of analysis, the following groups were combined to ensure a more balanced sample: mixed race and indians were combined into african under the race group sample (i.e. creating more balanced black and white respondent groups). education level was revised to reflect the education classifications of degree (3 years) and diploma as undergraduate-level qualification, while honour’s, master’s and doctorates were reclassified as postgraduate-level qualification. job-level categorisation was altered to combine the categories of middle management with supervisor or team leader to form one category labelled middle management, while senior management and executive categories were collapsed into one job level. statistical analysis the data obtained with questionnaire 1 were analysed using descriptive statistics, while the data obtained from questionnaire 2 were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, including t-tests and analysis of variance. the unidimensionality of the scale was also assessed. the data obtained from questionnaire 3 were analysed using choice-based conjoint analysis. individual part-worths were calculated based on hierarchical bayes modelling. results questionnaire 2: total rewards preference questionnaire principle component analysis (pca) using varimax, with kaiser normalisation rotation was used to establish the underlying factor structure of the scale, which was based on the worldatwork total rewards model (2007). pca is indicative of the construct validity of the measure (hair, babin, money & samouel, 2003). reliability was assessed using cronbach’s alpha and following the spss item analysis technique. the results obtained from the pca suggested that the questionnaire was valid (factor loadings ranged from 0.669 to 0.872) and reliable (cronbach’s alphas ranged from 0.68 to 0.73). descriptive statistics were calculated based on the composite scores for the factors, based on the pca-derived scale’s measurement model. figure 1 provides a graphical representation of the means of the total reward elements for the various demographic groups. the results indicate that overall, remuneration and benefits were rated as the most important total reward elements in retention. performance and recognition was rated second most important, although baby boomers rated this factor lower than other respondents. work–life balance practices, learning and career advancement were rated similarly in overall preference while work–life balance climate was rated lowest overall in terms of its importance in retention. figure 1: comparison of the means of total rewards across demographic groups based on survey data. differences between genders an independent-samples t-test revealed there was a statistically significant difference between men (m = 4.19, sd = 0.64) and women [m = 4.33, sd = 0.61; t (359) = 2.18, p = 0.02, two tailed] for the measure of learning and career advancement (p < 0.05), with women seemingly placing greater importance on this factor in their retention than men. differences between race groups there was a statistically significant difference between white people (m = 4.13, sd = 0.64) and black people [m = 4.43, sd = 0.58; t (351) = 4.55, p = 0.00, two tailed] for the learning and career advancement measure (p < 0.05) where black people considered this factor to be more important in their retention than white people. the second statistically significant difference that was noted between white people (m = 4.41, sd = 0.48) and black people [m = 4.54, sd = 0.46; t (351) = 2.64, p = 0.00] pertained to the measure of performance and recognition (p < 0.05), where black employees considered this factor key in their retention. the third statistically significant difference was noted between white people (m = 3.19, sd = 0.94) and black people [m = 3.57, sd = 0.85; t (351) = 3.94, p = 0.00, two tailed] for the measure of work–life balance climate (p < 0.05), where black people considered this factor to be more relevant in their retention than white people. questionnaire 1: remuneration manager questionnaire the results of questionnaire 1 were used to design the conjoint tasks used in questionnaire 3. the data were analysed by first focusing on the question with the highest percentage of responses under the category of employee c and was eliminated and classified as level 3 in the conjoint task. the question with the highest percentage of responses for employee b was then used to establish level 2 of the conjoint task, before being removed for further analysis. the remaining questions with the highest percentage for employee a were then translated into level 1 of the conjoint task. where the results were equal across employees, a judgement was made as to whether the item should be classified as level 1, 2 or 3. the final set of attributes and levels are indicated in table 2. table 2: relative importance of the attributes. questionnaire 3: choice-based conjoint task questionnaire a method of assessing the reliability of a conjoint model is to determine the goodness-of-fit of the estimation model and is done by using the multinomial logit model. for each iteration, the log-likelihood is reported together with a value of rlh (root likelihood). this is a measure of how well the model fits the choice data, which means a respondent who answered inconsistently would have a low rlh value of 0.25 and the best possible value is 1.0 (eggers, farsky & gerber, 2009; sawtooth software, 2008). an rlh below 0.25 was reported for one respondent. all other respondents scored above this value, with 0.93 being the highest rlh value. this indicates that there was a high level of reliability for this model. the ratio of correctly predicted choices is called the hit rate, which is a common validity measure (eggers et al., 2009; schlechter et al., 2014). the hit rate for the conjoint model in this study was 38.5%, which means that the model was able to produce 38.5% correct predictions from the holdout set. with four alternatives in the holdout set, a chance model would have resulted in 25% of predictions being correct (schlechter et al., 2014). the hit rate for this study needs to be interpreted in the context of the holdout stimuli being developed on the basis of chance given that no previous research existed to guide the design of the stimuli. as such, a 38.5% hit rate is considered reasonable. as a second measure of validity, the absolute sum of differences between actual choice shares and predicted choice shares on an aggregated level were calculated, resulting in a mean absolute error of prediction of 3.2%. this indicates that deviation in the share prediction per alternative is very low and is considered satisfactory (eggers et al., 2009). based on this basket of evidence, it was concluded that the conjoint study was valid and reliable. derived utilities are used to calculate the relative importance of individual attributes. the range of utilities within each attribute was calculated using the difference between the highest and lowest utilities per attribute, divided by the sum of the ranges across all attributes. each attribute’s utility range is expressed as a percentage of the sum of the utility ranges across all attributes. these percentages provide an indication of the importance employees attach to the various total reward attributes in their ability to retain employees (schlechter et al., 2014). attributes with a larger range have a greater impact on the calculated utility values and are therefore deemed to be of greater importance. the part-worths and relative importance of the attributes that are based on these for the total sample (n = 368) are summarised in table 2. separate relative importance tables were then calculated for each of the demographic groups of employees. the results indicated a relatively consistent preference across all groups with respect to the ideal total rewards mix. table 3 provides a summary of the ranked attributes per demographic group. table 3: ranked attributes per demographic group based on choice-based conjoint tasks. the conjoint task produced an ideal mix of total rewards, of which three reward elements were consistently classified as highly valued and important in the retention of employees. these were: benefits, performance and recognition, and remuneration, respectively. benefits were considered twice as important as remuneration in deriving utility scores and preferences within the overall sample, as well as in all the demographic groups (benefits = 35%, remuneration = 17%). the highest level of benefits, namely a 100% employer contribution towards retirement funding, and the highest level of medical cover, were deemed most important in the retention of employees. these findings are consistent with the results of the worldatwork attraction and retention survey (2007), whereby 90% of participants rated medical aid as having a moderate to high impact on retention. variations of the relative importance of attributes can be noted across demographic groups. results for gender indicate that benefits were considered to be important in retention for both men and women; however, the relative importance was greater for men (37.1%) than for women (33.7%), while performance and recognition was deemed slightly more important for women (21.0%) than for men (18.6%). few differences were noted across different generation and race groups with all three groups indicating a preference for benefits, while generation y assigned a slightly lower level of importance to remuneration (15%) versus generation x (17%) and baby boomers (18%). generation y also specified work–life balance as being slightly more important (12%) in their retention compared to generation x (8%) and baby boomers (7%). discussion the two main research objectives, firstly to develop a better understanding of the total reward preferences within a south african business context and secondly to identify the ideal or most desirable mix of total reward elements or total reward packages that would specifically retain employees from various demographic groupings, were investigated using both the conventional method of using a reward preference survey responded to on a likert-type response scale as well as choice-based conjoint analysis (choice-based modelling). the latter method, which is novel in this field of the study more closely replicates real-life decision making in that individuals cannot obtain everything that they desire and have to psychologically make trade-offs between various combinations, unlike typical survey approaches where items are considered one at a time. the results of the choice-based conjoint analysis revealed that all respondents considered financial rewards (benefits, performance and recognition, remuneration, career, respectively) as the most important component in their total rewards package that would lead to their retention. for most demographic groups, the remaining three places (ranked) were career advancement, learning and work–life balance. work–life balance was found to be more important for generation y than career advancement. for those employees with only a matric qualification and those in non-managerial positions, access to learning opportunities were the least important in their retention. previous studies of total rewards that retain black employees in south africa are limited. benefits were consistently found to be the most important reward element in retention. given the high cost of benefits such as medical aid, these are very important factors in retention, especially in south africa, where a large portion of the population does not have access to benefits and public healthcare and social welfare pensions are inadequate. this sentiment was noted in a study carried out by kochanski and ledford (2001). baby boomers, as the oldest generation and nearing retirement, valued retirement benefits, medical aid and base pay (bussin, 2012; tiku, 2007; wallace, 2006). the current study corroborated these findings, as the highest level of benefits were the most valued reward element in the total rewards mix, followed by performance and recognition and remuneration. in south africa, employees aged 50 and above are also likely to be the first generation who will be retiring out of a defined contribution plan as opposed to previous generations who received a pension from a defined benefit plan. such arrangements have shifted the responsibility of retirement funding to the employee and subsequently heightened the awareness that employees have around the adequacy of their retirement funding. generation x is retained by financial rewards such as base salary, medical aid and deferred compensation (bussin, 2012). the current study supports these findings, as the highest level of benefits, performance, recognition and remuneration were deemed to be the most attractive elements in the reward mix and the most effective in the retention of these employees. possible reasons for generation x favouring these rewards could be attributed to this group’s family focus, as they are likely to have young dependants for whom provision must be made in respect of medical aid. the current study further corroborates the findings of the towers perrin (2003) survey where base salary and variable pay were identified as factors that retained generation y employees (bussin, 2012). within the current study, performance and recognition (i.e. short-term incentives linked to your performance plus stock options or shares) and remuneration (i.e. base salary targeting the upper end of the market) were deemed important in generation y’s retention. unlike baby boomers and generation x however, generation y selected the second level of the remuneration reward element which was comparatively lower than the first level selected by baby boomers and generation x. benefits seem to retain generation y employees in the united states (willmer, 2008). the current study supports these findings. the reason for this preference may be similar to that of the generation y employees in the united states who grew up in an environment where the u.s. healthcare system delivered fewer services at higher costs (willmer, 2008). in south africa, generation y employees are also likely to have been exposed to an inadequate public healthcare system and ever increasing health costs. furthermore, the parents of generation y employees may have made inadequate provision for their retirement and not received a reasonable pension or, in some cases, received no pension and were dependent on social welfare. such experiences may have heightened generation y employees’ awareness of the need to make adequate provision for their retirement, and for this reason, they may have an appreciation for the value of a company’s contribution to benefits such as retirement funding and medical care. for most demographic groups, the remaining three places (ranked) were career advancement, learning and work–life balance. work–life balance was found to be more important for generation y than career advancement. for those employees with only a matric qualification and those in non-managerial positions, access to learning opportunities was the least important in their retention. other studies indicated that career advancement and opportunities formed a strong retention factor for all employee categories (booysen, 2007; khanyile & mapongo, 2007). career advancement opportunities as well as work–life balance practices were noted in the literature as significant factors in the retention of female employees. turnover among women was often related to salary inequities (krishnan, 2009; mcmullen, 2010; sicherman, 1996; stroh, brett & reilley, 1996). another study indicated that talent development and the prospects of better pay served as retention factors for women (kotze & roodt, 2005). findings from the current study partially support those of sicherman (1996) and kotze and roodt (2005), as the highest levels of financial rewards, that is, benefits, remuneration, and performance and recognition were all valued by women as part of their total rewards mix. the findings of the current study did not support previous research, which indicated that generation x employees value work–life balances as a retention tool (gabriel, 1999; gursoy et al., 2008). the lowest level of work–life balance was selected by generation x employees, while a greater level of importance was placed on career advancement and learning in determining the ideal total rewards mix. this could be because of the different method employed here, one where reward elements needed to be traded-off with one another. generation y employees on the other hand assigned more importance to non-financial factors such as work–life balance in their total rewards mix. work–life balance was deemed more attractive than career advancement in generation y’s total rewards mix. this finding is supported by that of the 2005 south african graduate recruitment association survey, which indicated that the youngest generation, namely generation y, was retained by career advancement opportunities, challenging assignments and work–life balance. generation y employees were retained by organisations that allowed them to be loyal to their lifestyle rather than their jobs (roy, 2008; ruch, 2000). limitations and directions for future research the main limitation of this study is the issue of confounding variables. in particular, this refers to the current economic environment and associated factors, such as job stability. these factors are likely to have had a moderating effect on the results, as employees will elect rewards that meet basic physical and safety needs above esteem needs or self-actualisation needs (robbins, odendaal & roodt, 2001). the results may have been further influenced by the effects of the economic recession, as one of the organisations from which the largest proportion of the sample was drawn was undergoing an extensive retrenchment exercise at the time. it is recommended that further research be conducted during a period of greater economic stability, as it is likely to produce different responses. additional relevant factors were not taken into account. future research might thus want to examine whether personality variables affect the relationship between rewards and employees’ decisions to stay at the organisation. conclusion the research confirms that rewards are important in every employment relationship. offering customised reward packages that are fair, reasonable and regular can be an aid in the retention of talented employees. the overall ideal total reward mix includes financial and non-financial rewards when offered to employees in a manner that is reliable with preferences to gender, race and age cohorts. the results from the study can be used to guide the employer’s reward strategy in their approaches of engaging or retaining their key employees. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the study was conducted by m.p. as part of her masters in organisational psychology research project at the university of cape town. a.f.s. was supervisor for m.p. and m.h.r.b edited the work for publication. references birt, m., wallis, t., & winternitz, g. (2004). talent retention in a changing workplace: an investigation of variables considered important to south african talent. south african journal of business management, 35(2), 25–31. booysen, l. (2007). barriers to employment equity implementation and retention of blacks in management in south africa. south african journal of labour relations, 31(1), 47–71. bussin, m. (2012). the remuneration handbook for africa: a practical and informative handbook for managing and recognition in africa (2nd edn.). randburg: knowres publishing. bussin, m., nicholls, m., & nienaber, r. (2016). the relationship between occupational culture dimensions and reward preferences: a structural equation modelling approach. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a737. https://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.737 bussin, m., & toerien, w.c. (2015). influence of reward preferences in attracting, retaining, and motivating knowledge workers in south african information technology companies. acta commercii, 15(1), art. #290, 1–13. https://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ac.v15i1.290 codrington, g. (2008, 10 may). generation comparisons? @tomorrowtoday. retrieved september 25, 2009, from https://www.tmtd.biz/2008/05/10/generation-comparisons/#more-1562 corporate leadership council. (2004). retention drivers and strategies at employers of choice. retrieved 15 july 2014, from https://www.clc.executiveboard.com d’amato, a., & herzfeldt, r. (2008). learning orientation, organizational commitment and talent retention across generations: a study of european managers. journal of managerial psychology, 23(8), 929–953. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940810904402 de vos, a., & meganck, a. (2008). what hr managers do versus what employees’ value: exploring both parties’ views on retention management from a psychological contract perspective. personnel review, 38(1), 45–60. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00483480910920705 eggers, f., farsky, m., & gerber, c. (2009). monetary assessment of brand positioning. unpublished manuscript, university of stellenbosch, south africa. frank, f.d., finnegan, r.p., & taylor, c.r. (2004). the race for talent: retaining and engaging workers in the 21st century. human resource planning, 27(3), 12–25. gabriel, a.r. (1999). retaining gen xers: not such a mystery anymore. commercial law bulletin, 14(4), 32. gursoy, d., maier, t.a., & chi, c.g. (2008). generational differences: an examination of work values and generational gaps in the hospitality workforce. international journal of hospitality management, 27(3), 448–458. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2007.11.002 hair, j.f., babin, b., money, a.h., & samouel, p. (2003). essentials of business research methods. hoboken, nj: wiley. horwitz, f.m., heng, c.t., & quazi, h.a. (2003). finders keepers: what works best? attracting, motivating and retaining knowledge workers. human resources management journal, 13(4), 23–45. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2003.tb00103.x horwitz, f.m., heng, c.t., quazi, h.a., nonkwelo, c., roditi, d., & van eck, p. (2006). human resource strategies for managing knowledge workers: an afro-asian comparative analysis. international journal of human resource management, 17(5), 775–811. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585190600640802 jensen, d., mcmullen, t., & stark, m. (2007). the manager’s guide to rewards: what you need to know to get the best for – and from – your employees. new york: amacom. khanyile, n., & mapongo, r. (2007, june). the rolling stones-exploring the job-hopping phenomenon among black professionals. paper presented at the 28th sa marketing research association conference, stellenbosch. kinnear, l., & sutherland, m. (2000). determinants of organisational commitment amongst knowledge workers. south african journal of business management, 31(3), 106. kochanski, j., & ledford, g. (2001). ‘how to keep me’ – retaining technical professionals. research technology management, 44(3), 31–38. kotze, k., & roodt, g. (2005). factors that affect the retention of managerial and specialist staff: an exploratory study of an employee commitment model. south african journal of human resources management, 3(2), 48–55. https://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v3i2.65 krishnan, h.a. (2009). what causes turnover among women on top management teams? journal of business research, 62, 1181–1186. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2008.09.001 maisela, j.m. (2001). success factors for attracting and retaining highly skilled black professionals. unpublished master of management research report, university of witwatersrand, johannesburg. masibigiri, v., & nienaber, h. (2011). factors affecting the retention of generation x public servants: an exploratory study. sa journal of human resource management, 9(1), art. #318, 1–11. https://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.318 mcmullen, t. (2010). reward next practices. philadelphia, pa: hay group. retrieved february 21, 2014, from https://www.haygroup.com mmolaeng, m., & bussin, m. (2012). drivers of public sector unions’ wage demands in a low-inflation and recessionary environment in south africa. south african labour relations, 36 (1), 1–17. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc120857 nzukuma, k. & bussin, m. (2011). job hopping among senior black african managers in south africa. south african journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 9(1). art #360, 1–12. https://dx.doi.org/10.4102 remchannel. (2007, november). south african employee benefits guide [survey]. johannesburg: remchannel. robbins, s.p., odendaal, a., & roodt, g. (2001). organisational behaviour. global and southern african perspectives (9th edn.). cape town: pearson education. roy, j.g. (2008). ten tips for retaining the next generation. utility automation & engineering t&d, 13(12), 8–11. ruch, w. (2000). how to keep gen x employees from becoming x-employees, (cover story). training & development, 54(4), 40. sawtooth software, technical paper series. (2008). cbc v6.0. retrieved november 24, 2014, from https://www.sawtoothsoftware.com/download/techpap/cbctech.pdf schlechter, a., faught, c., & bussin. m. (2014). total rewards: a study of artisan attraction and retention within a south african context. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulbron bestuur, 12(1), art # 648, 1–15. https://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.648 sicherman, n. (1996). gender differences in departures from a large firm. industrial and labor relations review, 49(3), 484–505. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001979399604900307 smit, w., stanz, k., & bussin, m. (2015). retention preferences and the relationship between total rewards, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor support. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 13(1), art. #665, 1–13. https://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.665 snelgar, r.j., renard, m., & venter, d. (2013). an empirical study of the reward preferences of south african employees. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), art. #351. https://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.351 south african graduate recruitment association. (2005). talent retention survey [survey]. cape town: sagea. stroh, l.k., brett, j.m., & reilley, a.h. (1996). family structure, glass ceiling, and traditional explanations for differential rate of turnover of female and male managers. journal of vocational behaviour, 49, 99–118. https://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1996.0036 sutherland, m.m. (2004). factors affecting the retention of knowledge workers. unpublished doctor in commerce, rand afrikaans university, johannesburg. temkin, s. (2008). black women getting top management jobs. business day. retrieved october 10, 2009, from https://www.businessday.co.za/articles/content.aspx?id=57820 tiku, n. (2007, august). boomer benefits: as workers retire, small companies face a talent crunch. inc magazine, pp. 44–46. towers perrin. (2003). working today: understanding what drives employee engagement. retrieved october 15, 2009, from https://www.towersperrin.com tucker, e., kao, t., & verma, n. (2005). next generation talent management: insights on how workforce trends are changing the face of talent management. retrieved june 06, 2013, from https://www.hewitt.com van rooy, r., & bussin, m. (2014). total rewards strategy for a multi-generational workforce. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 12, art # 606, 1–11. https://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.606 wallace, j.e. (2006). work commitment in the legal profession: a study of baby boomers and generation xers. international journal of the legal profession, 13(2), 137–151. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09695950600961293 willmer, d. (2008). gen 101: what you need to know about recruiting and retaining the workforce of tomorrow. stellenbosch: officepro, executive edition, pp. 8–11. worldatwork. (2007). attraction and retention: the impact and prevalence of work-life and benefit programs. scottsdale, az: worldatwork press. 6vanzyl.qxd the aim of the paper is to introduce a human resource efficiency model in order to rank the most important human resource driving forces for project management best practices. the department of public enterprises (hereafter referred to as the dpe) was used as a case study. “project management is in essence a human resource exercise and in a project-driven organisation it is becoming more and more visible and more and more money is being spent to support the discipline of project management. like you, top management is going to start asking where this money is going and what they are getting out of it. we’d better be ready to answer.” (knutson, 2001, p. 456). there is an assumption that the average citizen and shareholder expect to receive more in terms of the delivery of services and products for less money. this desirable outcome can only be achieved if the organisation work more efficiently and provide more effective services and products at a lower cost to its citizens. to be able to deliver these improved services and products at lower cost, it is required that an organisation implement its integrated strategic development plan and the programmes attached thereto through a clearly defined project-management approach. the course of action to establish a best practise projectmanagement methodology, process and procedure can be supported by a corporate central project-management office, headed by a professional project manager with sufficient authority within the department. literature study a thorough literature study was performed in order to identif y all the human resource driving forces for optimal project management that could be included as independent variables in the econometric model. the major part of the literature that deals with the human resource component of optimal project management relates to the methodology of project management, effective learning and authority structures and the adequacy of human resources. the next few paragraphs deal with these important aspects of the human resource component of optimal project management. portfolios and programmes the methodology of project management encompasses in main portfolios and programmes. a portfolio is a compilation of projects within a department, related to a specified time-frame that needs to be co-managed, whether they are interconnected or autonomous. a rigorous project-priority system should be used to select which projects will be budgeted for and staffed in the department (gray and larson, 2003, p. 33). three different kinds of projects that can be found in a department’s portfolio are i) compliance and priority/emergency projects (must do), ii) operational projects (daily, routine projects needed to support current operations) and iii) strategic projects (creation of new assets, recapitalisation of parastatals). gray and larson (2003, p. 43) also state that, using the portfolio management system in a department, projects are assessed within the context of existing projects. two major inputs are required from management in this process. firstly, senior leadership must provide guidance in establishing and defining selection criteria of projects that strongly align with the current departmental strategies. secondly, senior management must annually decide how they wish to bring equilibrium to available departmental resources among the different types of projects. according to knutson (2001, p. 188) portfolio management restores manageability by providing a department with an answering evaluation method that can be applied objectively to each proposed project. every project must be properly scoped, planned and managed for the department to implement successful portfolio management. projects are major investments for most departments. investments must be managed on a portfolio-basis (archibald, 2003, p. 11). multiple projects can form a programme with a single business objective. it is feasible for all the individual projects, many of which interface with each other, to contribute to this programme. these related projects could be managed with relative ease in the project-management environment. however, if the project manager has to manage multiple unrelated projects, the effort becomes much more complicated and difficult. g van zyl gvz@eb.rau.ac.za department of economics university of johannesburg p venier venier@capetown.gov.za the department of public enterprises abstract the aim of the paper is to introduce a human resource efficiency model in order to rank the most important human resource driving forces for project management best practices. the results of the model will demonstrate how the human resource component of project management acts as the primary function to enhance organisational performance, codified through improved logical end-state programmes, work ethics and process contributions. given the hypothesis that project management best practices involve significant human resource and organisational changes, one would reasonably expect this process to influence and resonate throughout all the dimensions of an organisation. key words project management, efficiency, econometric modelling compilation of an econometric human resource efficiency model for project management best practices 44 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (3), 44-47 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (3), 44-47 an econometric hr efficiency model 45 factors making the management of multiple projects different to that of single projects, even though they may be obvious, need to be spelled out. with single projects one has one single objective to reach, one to do list, a focussed work-breakdown structure and a defined resource pool to draw from. in a multiple-project environment one has a totally different situation where each project has its own objective and where resources come from all over and require different functions in the department. a general problem experienced with traditional project management, according to frame (2002, p. 7), is the fact that it can be focussed only on the product life cycle from starting the project to completion thereof. this does not take into consideration customer satisfaction and ignores the life after the project-realisation of benefits. the basic criteria for projects that lend themselves to project management (knutson, 2001, p. 7) are i) a well-defined deliverable that is neither vague nor ambiguous, documented in a scope definition or statement of work ii) a collection of activities that will culminate in the end product iii) activities with starting and finishing points and iv) activities that can be scheduled. project team and project-management office effective learning and authority structures and the adequacy of human resources in optimal project management can best be described in the manner in which project teams operate and how well the projectmanagement office is staffed. a project team is often a frequently variable body of people from different levels of the department, many of whom may never meet each other. departmental team work describes this type of collaboration. breiner et al (1990, p. 7) continues to define the project team as: “all those individuals who have a significant contribution to make to the successful achievement of the project through one or more of i) their technical or specialist expertise ii) their sponsorship, political support or commitment and ii) their expectations of and interest in its outcome. to create a sense of teamwork among people who previously did not even know each other, each with their own speciality, is a very difficult and complex task. the project leader needs to build a committed project group, achieve the full benefits, both personally and to the department, by cross-functional collaboration. departmental teamwork (breiner et al., 1990, p. 9) incorporates three dimensions in the project leader’s role namely i) management of stakeholders in the project ii) management of the project life cycle and iii) management of the performance of individuals. knutson (2001, p. 431) refers to the project-management office as an autonomous group that provides project-management support services. this group should be viewed as a service to be shared by all functions within the department. the job of this group is focussed on the discipline of project management. according to crawford (2002, p. 10) the project-management office makes the lives of project team members easier by supporting the team in the areas of, among others, scheduling, status reporting, project tool operation and training. some of the key items of support provided by the project-management office include consulting and mentoring of current staff, developing and promulgating methodologies and standards relating to project management, and servicing as the central source for help in planning and managing efforts. the project-management office facilitates the improvement in project-management maturity by being the focal point for consistent application of processes and methodologies. without a project-management office it might be possible that the project-management efforts of the department are not consistent and are not focussed on a common vision. the projectmanagement office is the proverbial glue that holds the projectmanagement efforts of the department together. the human resource efficiency model data a survey was developed in order to capture the required data. the survey was designed for simplicity of response in order to capture the greatest level of accuracy in the shortest possible time. the answers were divided into interval ranges as opposed to point estimators. this greatly simplified the interview process and reduced subjective interpretation to a bare minimum. the survey was divided into dispersed or scattered groups, focussing independently on each of the categories that make up the model for human resource project management efficiency. each category was laid out in order to create a degree of continuity from statement to statement. the survey contained seventeen statements that were divided into three different categories (annexure a). the statements were taken from project management literature and interviews with managers, project managers and project co-ordinators within the dpe. the survey was sent to thirty five existing managers, project managers and project co-ordinators within the dpe, chosen from a list of current project users. respondents were chosen in such a manner that a representative sample group for each of the following six functions were included in the project. the different functions of respondents were divided into the following six areas, namely a) functional manager/departmental head b) part-time project co-ordinator c) full-time project coordinator d) part-time project manager e) full-time project manager and f) project team member. the respondents were requested to indicate on a scale of 1-5 the importance of each statement in attaining a high level of efficiency in project management (annexure a). the average values of the statements per category and per respondent were recorded in the different data series. the survey was also designed to facilitate the conversion of responses into data points in order to transfer them easily into a database and then interpret them with the assistance of a statistical package called spss version 11 for windows. in terms of the spss package the data results were tested by employing the kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy and the establishment of a covariance matrix in which a reliability analysis can be performed. the univariate properties of the data were also tested. the adf test, phillips-perron test and correlogram tests were used to test for stationarity and the level of integration of each of the variables in the regression. the tests were performed on the data in their logarithmic form. from the adfphillips-perron tests it has been determined that all the variables were integrated of the order 1. model a power function was specified in order to determine the average elasticities of the three efficiency categories (independent variables). the average elasticities would indicate the relative magnitude of the impact of a specific category on the efficiency of project management. u = a(cat1 b)(cat2 c)(cat3 d) ….equation 1 (where u is the efficiency variable, cat1 represents appropriate project-management methodology, cat2 represents effective learning and authority structure and cat3 represents adequacy of human resources). the power function was transformed into a double log equation which is linear in logarithms and was then run on the log of the variables. van zyl, venier46 ln u = ln a+b ln cat1 + c ln cat2 + d ln cat3 …equation 2 the estimation results were: u = 12,25 (cat1 4,74) (cat2 8,44) (cat3 7,11) (3,87) (4,88) (4,68) (3.97) …equation 3 number of observations: 35 r2: 0.91 f-statistic: 188.24 d-w: 3.38 the good overall explanatory power of the entire regression is indicated by high r2 and f-statistic values and all the t-statistics of estimated parameters clearly exhibits explanatory power. econometric tests were conducted to determine any traces of autocorrelation and heteroscadacity. the d-w statistic exceeds du clearly indicating no autocorrelation. the arch test conducted indicates no heteroscedasticity present in the error terms, therefore the estimators are asymptotically efficient. the error terms were not serially correlated and it can be stated that all the explanatory variables have been included in the equation. the positive signs of all the estimated average elasticities indicate a positive relation bet ween the three different categories of project management and the attainment of project management efficiency. from the estimated results it is clear that effective learning and authority structures (an elasticity coefficient of 8,44) can be ranked as the most important human resource driving force followed by the adequacy of human resources needed to execute projects (an elasticity coefficient of 7,11) and only then appropriate project management methodology (an elasticity coefficient of 4,74). management implications the organisation needs to foster a learning culture in which the participants in the different projects are able to learn from mistakes made in other similar projects and also develop natural competitive skills in order to improve performance. this learning culture can only be effective in an environment where bureaucratic systems are kept to a bare minimum. project managers must also be awarded the necessary authority structures to execute projects, to have full control over their projects and be held responsible for the successful execution of their projects. the organisation should make sure that sufficiently skilled people in project management practices are employed, that they have sufficient problem-solving skills and that they are able to act as competent project leaders. project managers should be allowed to take initiative and to be rewarded in accordance with their performance. lastly, much more than just training will be required to acculturate the organisation into being supportive of project management. several mechanisms will be required, in conjunction with the suggested training to address the outcomes highlighted by the questionnaire. these are i) implementation of proper change-management ii) relevant process changes iii) appropriate leadership to bring about change iv) culture changes to accept project-management methodology within the dpe and v) departmental changes to accommodate project management into the dpe structure. conclusion the paper has dealt with the econometric modelling of the important human resource drivers for project management best practices. the results of the efficiency model will impact on the manner in which the human resource priorities for optimal project management are ranked and finally addressed and implemented. references archibald, r.d. 2003. managing high-technology programmes and projects. 3rd edition. hoboken : john wiley & sons, inc. breiner, w., geddes, m & hastings, c. 1990. project leadership. new york : van nostrand reinhold. crawford, j.k. 2002. project management maturity model. new york : marcel dekker ag. frame, j.d. 2002. the new project management. 2nd edition. san francisco : jossey-bass, inc. gray, c.f. & laron, e.w. 2003. project management: the managerial process. new york : mc’graw-hill. kerzner, h. 2001. strategic planning for project management using a project management maturity model. new york: john wiley & sons, inc. knutson, j. 2001. succeeding in project-driven organisations. new york : john wiley & sons, inc. an econometric hr efficiency model 47 annexure a using the following 5 point scale, indicate in a range between 1 and 5 which of the following best describes your attitudes towards the listed statements in terms of project management. not important at all limited contribution neutral important very important 1 2 3 4 s the different categories and statements are listed in the following set of tables. category 1: appropriate project-management methodology. this category describes the degree to which the department follows a standardised and formal methodology of project management with appropriate systems and processes. statements 1. projects across the department are measured on a standarised basis against performance achievement. 2. projects across the department are measured on a standarised basis against time. 3. projects across the department are measured on a standarised basis against budget. 4. standardised project management methodology supports the successful completion of projects within the department. 5. project managers execute their projects in a disciplined and structured manner. category 2: effective learning and authority structure. this category describes the extent to which there are effective ways of organising project teams, learning from previous project mistakes, assigning project responsibilities, and delegating authority to make decisions. statements 6. project managers do have the necessary authority to execute their projects. 7. project managers are able to learn from mistakes made on other, similar projects. 8. natural competitiveness of project managers is used to improve performance. 9. project managers have full control of their projects. 10. project managers are held responsible for their project management success. 11. project managers can execute their projects effectively due to minimum bureaucratic systems in the department. category 3: adequacy of human resources. this category describes the extent to which people assigned to projects are generally competent in their line of specialisation and display a sufficient commitment to delivering quality work. statements 12. projects managers are rewarded in accordance with their performance. 13. the department allows for project managers to take initiative. 14. project managers are trained sufficiently to be competent project leaders. 15. people who train project managers in the department are sufficiently skilled in project management related skils. 16. project team members have adequate project management related skills. 17. project managers have sufficient problem-solving abilities. abstract introduction purpose the relationship between the constructs of work values and work ethics method analysis results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) petronella jonck research and innovation unit, national school of government, south africa freda van der walt faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, south africa nthombi sobayeni faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, south africa citation jonck, p., van der walt, f., & sobayeni, n. (2017). investigating the relationship between work values and work ethics: a south african perspective. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a780. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.780 original research investigating the relationship between work values and work ethics: a south african perspective petronella jonck, freda van der walt, nthombi sobayeni received: 27 dec. 2015; accepted: 23 nov. 2016; published: 28 feb. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: as a result of the proliferation of unethical behaviour in the workplace, the study of work ethics has received new impetus. research purpose: the research study sought to determine the relationship between work ethics and work values, with the objective of determining whether work ethics statistically significantly predict work values. motivation for the study: as work ethics (i.e. behavioural intent) are a determinant of work values (i.e. overt behaviour), researchers are investigating their potential in preventing unethical behaviour. research design, approach and method: a descriptive quantitative research design was employed in the study. a survey was conducted using the multidimensional work ethic profile and the values scale, which in previous studies have produced acceptable cronbach’s alpha coefficients. data were collected from 301 respondents in one geographical area in south africa. main findings: work values did not appear to be highly esteemed by respondents, as only 6 of the 22 dimensions had a positive score. however, all seven dimensions of work ethics had positive scores. a negative correlation was found between work ethics and work values. in addition, work ethics predicted 9% of the variance in work values, providing sufficient evidence to accept the postulated research hypothesis. practical implications: the findings of the study could be used by human resource managers to promote ethical behaviour, by focusing not only on work ethics but also on the relationship between work ethics and work values. contribution: the study provides evidence of a relationship between work ethics and work behaviours, such as work values, within the south african context, and it thus addresses a research gap in this area. introduction unethical behaviour is a worldwide phenomenon, within increasingly unethical societies. within these societies, individuals are required to make decisions on many different matters on a daily basis, where it is not always easy to distinguish a good decision from a bad decision. vyas-doorgapersad (2007) argues that developing countries, such as south africa, are more susceptible to unethical behaviour because of widespread poverty, relatively low public-sector compensation, a lack of risk mechanisms (e.g. insurance and a well-developed market), opportunities created by complex, poorly defined, continually changing, and inadequate rules and regulations, a lack of properly established laws and principles, a lack of institutions to enforce a code of conduct and an absence of watchdog agencies. unethical behaviour in south africa, mainly in the form of corruption through bribery, has reached crisis proportions (patel, 2013) and, as such, on a daily basis, citizens are confronted with media reports of corruption, fraudulent activities and bribery, among other things. a study by boshoff and van zyl (2011) reports that south africa has the highest rate of white-collar crime in the world, and that south african organisations had an average loss of income of r7.4 million due to fraud for the period 2006/2007. the global economic crime survey 2016 reports that 69% of south african organisations have experienced economic crime, and that 15% have been asked to pay a bribe (pwc, 2016). in response to recent ethics scandals, organisations are emphasising ethics awareness, or work ethics (quesenberry, woodburne & yang, 2013). however, even if an organisation has a code of ethics, ethical leadership and internal support for ethical management, this would not necessarily produce ethical behaviour (van vuuren, 2002). the reason for this is that while work ethics as a construct refer to attitudes and beliefs regarding what is ethical and what is unethical behaviour, presence or absence of work ethics does not necessarily lead to ethical or unethical behaviour (miller, woehr & hudspeth, 2002; ravangard et al., 2014). however, previous research studies have confirmed that behavioural intent predicts actual behaviour (kurland, 1995). studies have also confirmed that an individual’s personal values are a significant predictor of ethical behaviour (quick & nelson, 2011). in addition, personal values are associated with and influence decision-making behaviour, and, consequently, ethical behaviour (ivaniš & šturlić, 2016). purpose previous research studies have not established a consistent causal relationship between work ethics and work behaviours, such as work values (mann, taber & haywood, 2013). as such, there is a paucity of research studies that have investigated the relationship between work ethics and work values, particularly in the south african context. given that to date no study within the south african context has been identified that has studied the aforementioned relationship, the primary objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between work ethics and work values in a south african sample. in addition, it was hypothesised that a proportion of the variance in work values can be explained by work ethics. the secondary objective was to establish which work values and which dimensions of work ethics are important in the south african work environment. literature review work ethics the origin and make-up of the construct of ethics has been the subject of debate for millennia, and myriad philosophers has offered opinions on the topic. although not all scholars agree, it seems reasonable to conclude that the concept of ethics is derived from the greek word ethos, which originally referred to customs, habitual conduct, usages and character (melden, 1967). the concept of ethics refers to the pattern, norm, or code of conduct adopted by a group of people, although the group will not necessarily obey this code of conduct (jones, sontag, beckner & fogelin, 1977). thus, as deviant workplace behaviour refers to violation of the norms of an organisation, one can argue that unethical behaviour equates to deviant behaviour. however, rogojan (2009) maintains that deviant work behaviour and unethical behaviour do not necessarily constitute the same thing, as unethical behaviour is judged as wrongdoing when societal guidelines determine the morality of behaviour, not organisational norms. for the purposes of this study, however, unethical behaviour will be regarded as behaviour that is both unethical and deviant. the construct of work ethics has its origins in the writings of the twentieth-century scholar max weber, which saw the conception of the construct of the protestant work ethic (pwe) (van ness, melinsky, buff & seifert, 2010). the pwe, in its original manifestation, was based on four principal beliefs, namely (1) working hard is honourable and a calling from god, (2) economic success is a sign of god’s grace, (3) an individual is responsible for controlling their own actions and (4) an individual should avoid any wasteful materialism that could result from hard work (cokley et al., 2007, p. 76). the pwe has a strong religious undertone, and some may argue that it is not relevant in contemporary workplaces. however, as south africa is still a very religious society, with people generally having strong religious convictions (van der walt & de klerk, 2015), it seems appropriate to use the pwe as the theoretical underpinning to investigate work ethics for a south african sample. work ethics can be defined as a productive orientation that values work as compulsory and a worthwhile life interest in order to achieve certain objectives (bergh & theron, 2009). miller et al. (2002), as well as ravangard et al. (2014), have asserted that work ethics consists of attitudes and beliefs regarding work behaviour, and that they are a multidimensional construct that is reflected in decision-making and behaviour. thus, the work ethics of employees may be regarded as the overall framework from which values emanate, where work values, in turn, potentially influence the behaviour of individuals at work. within the context of max weber’s original pwe theory, miller et al. (2002) developed the multidimensional work ethic profile (mwep) to measure seven dimensions of the construct of work ethics, namely self-reliance, morality or ethics, leisure, hard work, centrality of work, wasted time and delay of gratification (miller et al., 2002). self-reliance refers to striving for independence in one’s everyday work (miller et al., 2002), or depending on oneself, and not relying on others (dwyer, 2012) (also see van der walt, jonck & sobayeni, 2016). morality and ethics, as measured by the mwep, is regarded as one dimension of work ethics, and it refers to ‘beliefs pertaining to a just and moral existence’ (miller et al., 2002, p. 11). however, morality and ethics are often considered as separate constructs, where morality refers to customs or manners that are usually applied to one’s behaviour, and ethics relates to an individual’s character (chidi, ogunyomi & badejo, 2012). nevertheless, these two concepts are often used interchangeably to refer to the way individuals behave in the work context, or the way they are expected to behave (van ness et al., 2010) (also see van der walt et al., 2016). leisure refers to pro-leisure attitudes and a belief in the importance of non-work activities, such as spending time relaxing (miller et al., 2002) or indulging in personally meaningful and pleasurable activities (chun, lee, kim & heo, 2012) (also see van der walt et al., 2016). hard work may be understood as a belief in the virtue of hard work (miller et al., 2002), or the belief that one can become a better person and achieve objectives through commitment to the value and importance of work (van ness et al., 2010) (also see van der walt et al., 2016). centrality of work refers to a belief in work for work’s sake (miller et al., 2002), the degree of importance that working has in the life of an individual at any given point in time, or the meaning of work (schreuder & coetzee, 2011) (also see van der walt et al., 2016). wasted time relates to attitudes and beliefs that reflect an active and productive use of time (miller et al., 2002), that is, not wasting time on activities that will not result in production of valuable goods or services (horman & kenley, 2005). van ness et al. (2010) explain that wasted time in the context of work ethics can be conceived of as part of a continuum, where high commitment to time management occupies one end of the continuum, and low commitment to time management occupies the other end of the continuum. delay of gratification relates to a future orientation and postponement of rewards (miller et al., 2002), in other words, sacrificing short-term rewards to achieve long-term objectives (abd-el-fattah & al-nabhani, 2012) (also see van der walt et al., 2016). as the aforementioned dimensions of work ethics were measured, the pwe theory represents the theoretical underpinning of the study. it should be noted, however, that stones and philbrick (2001) cautioned that there is a paucity of systematic exploration of the pwe theory in the african context. work values the literature on work values is characterised by a plethora of definitions (steyn & kotze, 2004). wils, saba, waxin and labelle (2011) attribute this lack of synthesis to incomplete and inconsistent theorisation regarding the mentioned construct. as such, wong and yuen (2015, p. 31), citing ros, schwartz and surikiss (1999), indicated that ‘work values’ is a term used to describe feelings, attitudes and beliefs held in regard to employment in general, and specifically various types of occupations, in addition to particular attributes, such as prestige, remuneration, job security and the work environment. hattrup, mueller and joens (2007, p. 481) defined work values as beliefs about the desirability of specific outcomes related to employment. consistent with these definitions, ho (2006, p. 11) and uçanok (2008, p. 157) defined work values as the goals that employees attempt to achieve through working. wils et al. (2011), based on research conducted by various authors, stated that work values are desirable and trans-situational goals that represent a frame of reference for employees at work. pek, lim and yee’s (2008, p. 147) definition of work values is more comprehensive, and it states that work values consist of individual preferences for the type of work or work environment, views about the importance of the prerequisites in a work situation, and the guiding principles for job-related decision-making, action and overt behaviour. notwithstanding the fact, mentioned above, that wils et al. (2011) have attributed incomplete theorisation to work values, cogin (2012) used congruence theory as theoretical underpinning to investigate work values. congruence theory posits that work values have a significant influence on organisational functioning, in that misalignment of the needs, demands, goals and objectives of various components within the organisation can impede organisational functioning (cogin, 2012). however, previous research regarding work values has mostly focused on determining the dimensionality of these values, and identifying the factors that influence, or the factors that are influenced by, work values (ueda & ohzono, 2013). as such, nord, brief, atieh and doherty (1990), cited in uçanok (2008, p. 158), suggested a two-dimensional classification for work values, namely intrinsic and extrinsic work values. intrinsic work values include values such as self-actualisation, personal growth and development, the opportunity to be creative, and use of initiative (steyn & kotze, 2004). hirschi (2010) indicated that extrinsic work values refer to high income, job security, fast and easy entry to the job, leisure time besides work, and prestigious work. thus, intrinsic work values refer to the work that an employee does, while extrinsic work values are regarded as the outcome or consequence of employment (twenge, campbell, hoffman & lance, 2010). various scholars (i.e. hirschi, 2010; liu & lei, 2012; twenge et al., 2010) have supported this dichotomous classification of work values into intrinsic and extrinsic work values. elizur, cited in uçanok (2008, p. 158), developed a trichotomous classification for work values, and labelled the three categories ‘instrumental values’ (e.g. work conditions and benefits), ‘cognitive values’ (e.g. interests and achievement) and ‘affective values’ (e.g. relations with others). although the terminology used for the three categories of work values posited differs among researchers, it seems that most researchers use the labels ‘intrinsic values’, ‘extrinsic, or materialistic, values’ and ‘social values’ to refer to the three types of work values (sergio, dungca & ormita, 2015). ros et al. (1999) identified four dimensions of work values, namely extrinsic, intrinsic, social and power values. power values can be defined as how much authority, influence, and prestige an employee has over others (liu & lei, 2012, p. 50). salamzadeh, nejati and salamzadeh (2014) proposed five dimensions of work values, including self-development, contribution to society, job satisfaction, interpersonal harmony, and work-life balance. o’connor and kinnane (1961), cited in liu and lei (2012, p. 51), considered a six-dimensional classification for work values, and proposed the following classifications: security-economic-material values, social-artistic values, work conditions and associates, heuristic-creative values, achievement-prestige values and independence-variety values. in light of the above discussion relating to the classification of work values, the lack of synthesis that was attributed by wils et al. (2011) is clearly evident. hence, it is essential that further research be conducted regarding work values, specifically with the aim of developing appropriate theories (ueda & ohzono, 2013). the relationship between the constructs of work values and work ethics an individual’s values predict attitudinal and behavioural outcomes (rohan, 2000, cited in montgomery, 2011) and are also regarded as a significant predictor of ethical behaviour (quick & nelson, 2011). it has also been established that personal values are associated with and influence decision-making behaviour and, consequently, ethical behaviour (ivaniš & šturlić, 2016). although it has previously been established that personal values predict attitudinal and behavioural outcomes (rohan, 2000, cited in montgomery, 2011) and ethical behaviour (ivaniš & šturlić, 2016; quick & nelson, 2011), the current study will investigate whether work ethics predict work values. while work values are associated with work and work-related activities, work ethics, as such, refers to attitudes and beliefs, as opposed to behaviour (miller et al., 2002; ravangard et al., 2014). previous research has found that attitude is the most influential factor in behavioural intent (jafarkarimi, saadatdoost, sim & hee, 2016). this finding is consistent with the theory of reasoned action, which posits that attitude towards behaviour, together with subjective norms regarding behaviour, determines behavioural intent. thus, employees’ work ethics may be regarded as the overall framework from which work values emanate, where work values, in turn, influence individuals’ behavioural intent, and potentially their behaviour at work. schwartz and bilsky (1990) suggest that work ethics, specifically the pwe, are correlated with components of value systems. quesenberry et al. (2013), richards, gilbert and harris (2002), and wittmer (2000) found that work ethics (i.e. ethical perception and intention to do the ethical thing) correlated with work values. mann et al. (2013) indicated that research findings to date have found small but significant correlations between espousal of a work ethic and willingness to work hard, regardless of external reward (tang, 1990), which indicates presence of intrinsic work values. method a fundamental part of the research project is the research methodology employed. the methodology used in this study will be explicated in the following subsections. research approach the authors used a quantitative research approach within a positivistic research orientation to achieve the research objective. more specifically, a descriptive quantitative research design was employed, so as to describe the relationship between work values and work ethics as accurately as possible at a particular point in time (salkind, 2012). because of the synchronic nature of this research, it could also be characterised as having employed a cross-sectional research design (leedy & ormrod, 2013). wagner, kawulich and garner (2012) asserted that descriptive research provides a detailed picture of a relationship. the sampling design used in the research was a non-probability sampling design. measures participants the final sample consisted of 301 respondents. individuals were the unit of analysis, and the population parameter was working-age individuals who were either working or who had work experience, but currently unemployed. the population consisted of organisations in different sectors but situated in the same geographical area within south africa. a convenience sampling method was employed to generate the sample, in that readily accessible potential respondents were requested to participate in the research project (jordan, werner & venter, 2015). hence, caution is advised when generalising the findings to the larger population, due to the fact that a non-random sampling technique was employed, which would adversely affect the external validity of the study (wagner et al., 2012). of the 540 questionnaires distributed, 301 were completed and returned, which translates to a response rate of 55.7%. the self-administered questionnaire was distributed (to be returned anonymously) by the researcher. where possible, the researcher personally collected the questionnaires, which were placed in a sealed envelope, on a pre-arranged day and time. respondents were given 14 days to complete the questionnaire at their own convenience. measuring instrument two unabridged questionnaires were administered, accompanied by a self-constructed biographical questionnaire. biographical questionnaire: the biographical questionnaire was designed by the researchers in a way that it would solicit relevant demographic information from the participants in terms of their age, sex, race, employment tenure, generational cohort and highest academic qualification. the values scale: when it was first developed, the aim of the values scale (vs) was to understand the needs that respondents experience, and to assess the relative importance of the work role as a means of needs satisfaction, given the context of other life roles (langley, du toit & herbst, 1992). thus, the aim of the vs is to determine the value of certain work-related aspects to individual respondents. the vs (langley et al., 1992) comprises 110 items in a likert-scale format, with response categories ranging from 1 (‘of little importance’) to 4 (‘very important’). the vs measures 22 aspects relating to work, namely ability utilisation, achievement, advancement, aesthetics, altruism, authority, autonomy, creativity, cultural identity, economic rewards, economic security, own lifestyle, personal development, physical activities, physical prowess, prestige, risk, social interaction, social relationships, spirituality, variety and agreeable working conditions. a sample item is ‘i find pleasure in the beauty of my work’, which is an example from the aesthetics dimension. another example is ‘i make my own decisions at work’, which represents the autonomy dimension of work values. within a south african context, boonzaier (2008) and langley et al. (1992) reported acceptable cronbach’s alpha coefficients. langley et al. (1992) reported an inter-item correlation coefficient of 0.7. the multidimensional work ethic profile: the 65-item mwep was developed by miller et al. (2002, p. 1), and it ‘measures seven conceptually and empirically distinct dimensions of the work ethic construct’. items for each subscale include the following: ‘to be truly successful, a person should be self-reliant’ (self-reliance), ‘one should always take responsibility for one’s actions’ (morality or ethics), ‘life would be more meaningful if we had more leisure time’ (leisure), ‘nothing is impossible if you work hard enough’ (hard work), ‘i feel uneasy when there is little work for me to do’ (centrality of work), ‘it is important to stay busy at work and not waste time’ (wasted time), and ‘if i want to buy something, i always wait until i can afford it’ (delay of gratification). the questionnaire followed a likert-type format, with response categories ranging from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’. the instruction to participants was to provide responses based on their opinion or belief about each item. the mwep has previously been subjected to psychometric validation (van ness et al., 2010). miller et al. (2002) reported the following cronbach’s alpha values: 0.89 (self-reliance), 0.80 (morality or ethics), 0.85 (leisure), 0.83 (hard work), 0.81 (centrality of work), 0.80 (wasted time) and 0.76 (delay of gratification). reliability and validity of the study: cronbach’s alpha coefficients were used to calculate the inter-item consistency of the two measuring instruments (the results are depicted in table 1). from these results, it can be concluded that the scores obtained from the two instruments used were very reliable, as scores of 0.95 and 0.94 were obtained for the vs and the mwep, respectively. more specifically, the reliability values for the various dimensions of the vs were as follows: α = 0.64 (ability utilisation), α = 0.66 (achievement), α = 0.61 (advancement), α = 0.63 (aesthetics), α = 0.75 (altruism), α = 0.63 (authority), α = 0.62 (autonomy), α = 0.69 (creativity), α = 0.72 (cultural identity), α = 0.73 (economic reward), α = 0.69 (economic security), α = 0.64 (own lifestyle), α = 0.60 (personal development), α = 0.73 (physical activities), α = 0.76 (physical prowess), α = 0.68 (prestige), α = 0.67 (risk), α = 0.65 (social interaction), α = 0.66 (social relations), α = 0.65 (spirituality), α = 0.70 (variety) and α = 0.55 (agreeable working conditions). the reliability values for each sub-construct of the mwep were as follows: α = 0.66 (self-reliance), α = 0.87 (leisure), α = 0.75 (hard work), α = 0.78 (centrality of work), α = 0.77 (wasted time) and α = 0.71 (delay of gratification). table 1: cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the scales. validity refers to the degree to which a measuring instrument determines what it is supposed to determine, by gathering relevant data on the constructs under investigation (jordan et al., 2015). in this research, the relevant constructs are work ethics and work values. two types of validity were pursued, namely content validity and face validity, particularly considering that previous research findings have confirmed the psychometric properties of the unabridged questionnaires. to ensure face validity of the questionnaires, they were distributed to two experts in the field of human resource management, who also confirmed the content validity of the instruments. a pilot study with ten respondents from the target population was conducted to further ensure the face validity of the questionnaires. the aim was to check for any ambiguous, biased or leading questions, and to determine the minimum time required to complete the questionnaire. no changes to the measuring instrument were indicated by the pilot study participants. in addition, a statistician reviewed the questionnaire in terms of its format and layout, and the suitability of the items for statistical analysis. factor analysis results to determine the construct validity of the vs indicated that the data were factorable, as the kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) test for sampling adequacy returned a value of 0.824, and bartlett’s test of sphericity returned a statistically significant value, on the 99th percentile (x2 = 15 701.176; df = 5995; p = 0.000**). an exploratory factor analysis with oblique (oblimin) rotation was employed, and it was determined that 30 components had an eigenvalue exceeding 1, accounting for 68.160% of the total variance. however, an inspection of the scree plot indicated a clear break after the fourth factor. it was thus decided to retain four components for purposes of further investigation in a monte carlo parallel analysis. results obtained from the analysis indicated that four components had eigenvalues exceeding the corresponding criterion value for a randomly generated data matrix of the same size (110 variables × 301). the aforementioned results lend support to the notion that the subscales can be used as unidimensional factors. in the same way, a factor analysis was performed to determine the construct validity of the mwep. the results indicated that the data were factorable, with a kmo of 0.830, and a bartlett’s test of sphericity value that was statistically significant, on the 99th percentile (x2 = 7442.558; df = 2080; p = 0.000**). the exploratory factor analysis with oblique rotation indicated that 19 components had an eigenvalue exceeding 1, accounting for 65.662% of the total variance. the scree plot, however, indicated the presence of seven factors, while the monte carlo parallel analysis results indicated that eight components had eigenvalues exceeding the corresponding criterion value for a randomly generated data matrix of the same size (65 variables × 301). the results should be interpreted in the light of the fact that the mwep measures seven conceptually and empirically distinct dimensions of the work ethic construct (miller et al., 2002) with one general dimension that all the items load onto. analysis data were analysed using statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 20. first, cronbach’s alpha coefficients were computed for the vs and the mwep. descriptive statistics included frequency distributions, measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion. inferential statistics included a pearson product-moment correlation, to ascertain the relationship between the constructs, and a multiple regression analysis, to assess whether work values predicted work ethics. ethical considerations: prior to data collection, ethical clearance was obtained from the research faculty committee of the institution concerned. permission was also granted by the organisations at which the respondents were employed at the time of data gathering. lastly, participant signed consent was obtained before commencing with data collection. standard ethical guidelines were adhered to. results the descriptive statistics and the inferential statistics results are reported separately in this section. demographic characteristics the sample group consisted of mostly african (91.4%) female (62.5%) respondents between the ages of 18 and 23 years (51.5%). respondents with 1 year or less of service made up 44.2% of the sample, and those with a grade 12 qualification made up 62.8% of the sample. table 2 depicts the demographic profile of the sample. table 2: demographic profile of the sample group. prevalence of work values and work ethics the findings of the study, as illustrated in table 3, reveal that respondents did not esteem work values highly. table 3: measures of central tendency and dispersion – work values and work ethics. the mean scores of the following dimensions of work values were above the median, and were thus positive: authority (m = 14.23; sd = 2.780), creativity (m = 16.07; sd = 2.541), economic security (m = 17.02; sd = 2.408), prestige (m = 16.12; sd = 2.894), risk (m = 12.11; sd = 3.377), social relationships (m = 13.20; sd = 3.116). however, the mean scores of the following work value subscales were below the median, and these dimensions of work values were thus not highly valued by the respondents: ability (m = 17.73; sd = 2.228), achievement (m = 17.41; sd = 2.251), advancement (m = 17.47; sd = 2.235), aesthetics (m = 15.75; sd = 2.805), altruism (m = 16.48; sd = 2.723), autonomy (m = 14.46; sd = 3.019), cultural identity (m = 14.83; sd = 3.282), economic rewards (m = 16.87; sd = 2.856), own lifestyle (m = 15.31; sd = 2.873), personal development (m = 17.40; sd = 2.173), physical activities (m = 14.86; sd = 3.111), physical prowess (m = 12.71; sd = 3.526), social interaction (m = 14.66; sd = 2.825), spirituality (m = 15.81; sd = 2.645), variety (m = 14.79; sd = 2.967) and working conditions (m = 15.52; sd = 2.669). from the above findings, it would appear that respondents indicated the above values as ‘very important’, except for the values of cultural identity, risk, social interaction, social relationships, and variety, which were perceived as ‘important’. as far as the mean scores for the dimensions of work ethics are concerned, respondents scored positively on all the dimensions, namely self-reliance (m = 20.50; sd = 5.283), morality or ethics (m = 23.21; sd = 4.363), leisure (m = 28.20; sd = 8.110), hard work (m = 16.10; sd = 5.183), centrality of work (m = 20.94; sd = 5.980), wasted time (m = 15.60; sd = 4.663), and delay of gratification (m = 14.82; sd = 4.514). pearson correlation analysis to investigate the intercorrelations between the various work values and work ethics subscales, a pearson product-moment correlation was calculated, to identify significant relationships between the subscales of work values and those of work ethics. it should be noted that normality was assumed. due to the high number of variables involved in the research, 29 altogether, results will only be discussed, and not illustrated. most of the correlations were significant and negative on either the 99th or the 95th percentile, for example, the work ethics dimension of self-reliance had weak intercorrelations (according to guidelines as given in pallant [2011, p. 134], who indicated that an r-value of between 0.10 and 0.29 can be considered as weak) with ability utilisation (p ≤ 0.037*; r = -0.120), achievement (p ≤ 0.039*; r = -0.119), aesthetics (p ≤ 0.004**; r = -0.168), authority (p ≤ 0.017*; r = -0.138), autonomy (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.207), cultural identity (p ≤ 0.003**; r = -0.172), economic security (p ≤ 0.003**; r = -0.170), own lifestyle (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.205) and working conditions (p ≤ 0.006**; r = -0.157), to mention a few. as far as the dimensions of work ethics are concerned, morality/ethics had weak intercorrelations with, among others, aesthetics (p ≤ 0.006**; r = -0.157), own lifestyle (p ≤ 0.006; r = -0.158), physical prowess (p ≤ 0.009**; r = -0.151), risk (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.240), social interaction (p ≤ 0.001**; r = -0.183), social relationships (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.230) and spirituality (p ≤ 0.002**; r = -0.179). the work ethics dimension of leisure had weak intercorrelations with autonomy (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.237), cultural identity (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.201), own lifestyle (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.209), risk (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.219), and social relationships (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.280). similarly, the work ethics dimension of hard work correlated weakly with ability utilisation (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.267), achievement (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.266), advancement (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.263), creativity (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.202), economic security (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.225), personal development (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.234), prestige (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.209), spirituality (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.234) and variety (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.212). the dimension of centrality of work correlated weakly with aesthetics (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.208), altruism (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.291), physical activities (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.246), physical prowess (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.215), and spirituality (p ≤ 0.000; r = -0.283). the dimension of wasted time correlated weakly with altruism (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.243), physical activities (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.218) and spirituality (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.252), to mention a few. lastly, the dimension of delay of gratification correlated weakly with aesthetics (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.213), altruism (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.219), physical prowess (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.239), risk (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.222) and spirituality (p ≤ 0.000**; r = -0.256). because of the large amount of information, the data were reduced by categorising the 22 work values into four categories (ros et al. [1999] recommend that data be reduced when there is a large amount of information), on the basis of the factor analysis results reported on in the methodology section. the factor analysis results indicated the presence of four factors. the four dimensions of work values were extrinsic, intrinsic, social and power values. the category of intrinsic work values consisted of ability utilisation, achievement, creativity, own lifestyle, personal development, spirituality and variety. the extrinsic work values category included advancement, aesthetics, economic rewards, economic security, physical activities, physical prowess, risk and agreeable working conditions. the social work values category consisted of altruism, cultural identity, social interaction and social relationships. lastly, the power work values category included authority, autonomy and prestige. the reliability for the total scale was 0.88, while the reliability for the four dimensions of work values was as follows: α = 0.86 (intrinsic work values), α = 0.78 (extrinsic work values), α = 0.70 (social work values), and α = 0.66 (power work values). the results of the pearson product-moment correlations for the four dimensions of work values and the seven work ethics subscales are depicted in table 4. table 4: pearson product-moment correlations between measures of work values and work ethics. as can be seen from table 4, most of the work ethics dimensions exhibited medium to strong correlations with each other, with the exception of the dimension of leisure. leisure did not correlate with hard work, centrality of work and wasted time. these results can be expected. the four dimensions of work values displayed strong positive relationships with each other. for example, extrinsic and intrinsic work values were found to intercorrelate, with an r-value of 0.735, which indicates a strong positive relationship (pallant, 2011), and the relationship was statistically significant, on the 99th percentile. there was also a strong positive correlation between power work values and intrinsic work values (r = 0.703; p ≤ 0.000**). it is interesting to note that the four dimensions of work values correlated negatively with the seven dimensions of work ethics. this means that if work values increase, there is a decrease in work ethics, and vice versa. the correlations were mostly weak. for example, there was a weak negative relationship between power work values and self-reliance, as is evident from the r-value of -0.200. however, the relationship was statistically significant, on the 99th percentile. multiple regression analysis multiple regression analysis was conducted to investigate the multivariate relationship between the independent variable of work ethics and the dependent variables of intrinsic work values, extrinsic work values, social work values, and power work values. it was hypothesised that work ethics statistically significantly predict the various work values, as stated above. the results of the multiple regression analysis are presented in table 5. table 5: multiple regression analysis results. the results presented in table 5 indicate that work ethics predicted 5.7% of the variance in intrinsic work values, as is evident from the multiple r2-value of 0.057 (ß = -0.239; p = 0.000**). in addition, work ethics was responsible for 8.7% of the variance in extrinsic work values (multiple r2 = 0.087; ß = -0.296; p = 0.000**), 7.9% of the variance in social work values (multiple r2 = 0.079; ß = -0.280; p = 0.000*), and 4.3% of the variance in power work values (multiple r2 = 0.043; ß = -0.207; p = 0.000*). the relationship was statistically significant, as the p-values were all less than 0.01, which indicates statistical significance, on the 99th percentile. the negative coefficient implied that positive work ethics will most probably result in negative work values in an organisation. the results provide support for the assumption that there is a significant relationship between work ethics and work values in respondents included in the sample. discussion outline of results the findings suggest that not all the work values that were measured were highly regarded by respondents. this is evident from the fact that respondents had positive scores on only 6 of the 22 work values measured, namely authority, creativity, economic security, prestige, risk and social relationships. it is somewhat unusual for employees to value both authority and social relationships, because authority is positively related to machiavellianism, which is regarded as an antisocial interpersonal style associated with strategic manipulation (niemi & young, 2013). palmer (1983) offers a similar argument, when she states that authority is associated with power (i.e. the capacity to control the behaviour of others), which impedes helping or caring relationships. furthermore, while people often gain power through traits and actions such as empathy, collaboration, openness, fairness, and sharing, once they wield power, they are more likely to engage in rude, selfish, and unethical behaviour (keltner, 2016). in terms of work ethics, respondents had positive scores on all seven dimensions of work ethics that were measured, namely self-reliance, morality/ethics, leisure, hard work, centrality of work, wasted time and delay of gratification. this shows that the pwe is still relevant. having said this though, the majority of the sample was african (91.4%), and african values include being a good member of the community, living and enjoying life, belonging to a group, group recognition, accountability towards the community and ‘ubuntu’ (the belief that a person is only a person through their relations with other people) (du plessis & rousseau, 2005). in contrast with traditional african values, european (or western) values focus more on individualism, materialism, achievement, success, self-reliance, self-interest, self-confidence, self-esteem and self-fulfilment, which have a pwe undertone (du plessis & rousseau, 2005). one may argue that africans have had to conform to and adopt western values, which are subscribed to in many south african organisations, to be recognised and rewarded in these workplaces, and that this may consequently influence their ethical behaviour. in terms of the specific dimensions of work values that were measured, valuing delay of gratification may show that individuals are becoming increasingly concerned about the future, as a result of the global and national economic decline. showing high regard for self-reliance and hard work in a capitalist country, such as south africa, is not surprising, as capitalism promotes and rewards individualism. despite centrality of work and hard work being held in high regard by the sample, leisure and wasted time were also regarded as important. this shows that although the sample values work and working hard, they also enjoy spending time on personal activities that are meaningful, pleasurable and relaxing. the positive scores on morality or ethics are surprising, but pleasing if one considers that ethics and morality are essential to make ethical decisions and uphold moral behaviour in the workplace (bowden & smythe, 2008; bowen, 2005). furthermore, it would seem that ethics and morality are particularly important in a country such as south africa, where societal and business leaders are increasingly encountering unethical behaviour. therefore, creating strong ethical organisational cultures is necessary to support ethical behaviour. in addition, employees need to be coached by mentors in morality and/or ethics, so as to create a common understanding thereof. in a study by mcmanus and subramaniam (2009), it was found that unethical behaviour is affected by mentoring support and the perceived standard of ethical conduct by peers. similarly, new employees entering the workplace need to be coached during induction programmes, so as to preserve strong ethical organisational cultures, which are embraced by all organisational members. the initial correlation coefficient indicated various intercorrelations ranging from strong (e.g. between achievement and ability utilisation – r = 0.73; p ≤ 0.000) to weak (e.g. between economic rewards and altruism – r = 0.217; p ≤ 0.000). to reduce the large amount of data, the 22 work values were categorised into four overarching values, namely extrinsic, intrinsic, social and power work values. a second pearson product-moment correlation revealed a weak negative correlation between the four work values and the seven dimensions of work ethics. despite the weakness of the relationship, the p-value did indicate statistical significance. the aforementioned finding confirms schwartz and bilsky’s (1990) finding that there is a correlation between work ethics and work values. similarly, quesenberry et al. (2013), richards et al. (2002), and wittmer (2000) found that work ethics (i.e. ethical perception, and intention to do the ethical thing) correlated with work values (i.e. overt behaviour), while tang (1990), as cited in mann et al. (2013), reported a small but significant correlation between work ethics and intrinsic work values. however, the direction of the relationship was not mentioned. the results from the regression analysis confirm negative statistically significant relationships between work ethics and the four dimension of work values. it should, however, also be noted that the respondents did not place a high value on the work values measured, which may have influenced the results. as far as could be established, this finding has not been reported before. based on the results discussed, the formulated hypothesis, namely that work ethics statistically significantly predict work values, is accepted. practical implications in order to preserve strong ethical organisational cultures, which are embraced by all organisational members, new employees entering the workplace need to be coached during induction programmes. moreover, to avoid current employees from engaging in unethical behaviour when appointed in positions of power, it is important to create greater self-awareness, through reflection and engaging in spiritual practices, to develop mindfulness (keltner, 2016). furthermore, south african organisations need to consider whether current human resource practices and interventions are still relevant and supportive of the personal values that are subscribed to by the majority of the population. the results also imply that human resource specialists need to consider creative initiatives that will advance the work-life balance of employees. limitations and recommendations the following caveats are made. first, the study was cross-sectional, and data were collected at a specific point in time. in addition, the study was localised, and a non-probability sampling technique was used to generate the sample. as a result, the external validity of the research may be compromised. caution is advised when generalising the findings to a larger population. because the research was only conducted in one geographical area in south africa, it is recommended that the study be replicated nationally. conclusion as a result of the proliferation of unethical behaviour, and the concomitant decline in work ethics, there is renewed interest in work ethics. however, the contemporary construct of work ethics is based on outdated theories and measuring instruments, which may not be relevant in the current workforce, which is characterised by continual change. in addition, the pwe may not be relevant to the african context. furthermore, studying behavioural intent (i.e. work ethics) in isolation from overt behaviour (i.e. work values) may not result in the envisioned change. based on the results, and particularly as the respondents did not score high on the measured work values, it is recommended that future research should focus not only on work ethics but also on the relationship between work ethics and work values. thus, it could be concluded that respondents may have the intention to exhibit ethical behaviour, but that this behavioural intent does not seem to find expression in overt behaviour. therefore, it is important to continue research regarding ethical behavioural intent, since behavioural intent predicts actual behaviour. future research studies could focus on the relationship between cognitive moral development and behavioural control of employees, and the various individual characteristics and situational factors that may possibly influence this relationship. acknowledgements this article was language-edited by a freelance language editor, anthony sparg. he has edited several academic journal articles and master’s theses in the discipline of human resource management. he has an ma cum laude in african languages (isixhosa), an ma cum laude in linguistics and a higher diploma in education. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions p.j., f.v.d.w. and n.s. were equally responsible for the research project, all contributing towards the literature review, data analysis and data interpretation. references abd-el-fattah, s.m., & al-nabhani, h.z. (2012). from self-theories of intelligence to academic delay of gratification: the mediating role of achievement goals. australian journal of educational and developmental psychology, 12, 93–107. bergh, z., & theron, a. (2009). psychology in the work context. (4th edn.). cape town: oxford university press. boonzaier, a. (2008). the influence of transactional, transformational leadership on leader-follower value congruence and leadership success. unpublished master’s thesis, university of stellenbosch, stellenbosch. boshoff, e., & van zyl, e.s. (2011). the relationship between locus of control and ethical behaviour among employees in the financial sector. koers, 76(2), 283–303. https://doi.org/10.4102/koers.v76i2.17 bowden, p., & smythe, v. (2008). theories on teaching & training in ethics. ejbo – electronic journal of business ethics and organization studies, 13(2), 19–26. bowen, s.a. (2005). a practical model for ethical decision making in issues management and public relations. journal of public relations research, 17(3), 191–216. https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532754xjprr1703_1 chidi, o.c., ogunyomi, o.p., & badejo, a.e. (2012). promoting ethical human resource management practices in work organisations in nigeria: roles of hr professionals. international journal of human resource studies, 2(2), 116–131. chun, s., lee, y., kim, b., & heo, j. (2012). the impact of leisure participation and leisure satisfaction on stress-related growth. leisure sciences, 34(5), 436–449. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2012.714704 cogin, j. (2012). are generational differences in work values fact or fiction? multi-country evidence and implications. the international journal of human resource management, 23(11), 2268–2294. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.610967 cokley, k., komarraju, m., pickett, r., shen, f., patel, n., belur, v. et al., (2007). ethnic differences in endorsement of the protestant work ethic: the role of ethnic identity and perceptions of social class. the journal of social psychology, 147(1), 75–89. https://doi.org/10.3200/socp.147.1.75-89 du plessis, p.j., & rousseau, g.g. (2005). buyer behaviour: a multi-cultural approach. (3rd edn.). oxford: oxford university press. dwyer, t. (2012). legal and ethical issues in the media. basingstoke, uk: palgrave macmillan. hattrup, k., mueller, k., & joens, i. (2007). the effects of nations and organizations on work value importance: a cross-cultural investigation. applied psychology: an international review, 56(3), 479–499. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2007.00268.x hirschi, a. (2010). positive adolescent career development: the role of intrinsic and extrinsic work values. career development quarterly, 58(3), 276–287. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-0045.2010.tb00193.x ho, c.-c. (2006). a study of the relationships between work values, job involvement and organisational commitment among taiwanese nurses. unpublished doctoral thesis, queensland university of technology, australia. horman, m.j., & kenley, r. (2005). quantifying levels of wasted time in construction with meta-analysis. journal of construction engineering and management, 131(1), 52–61. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:1(52) ivaniš, m., & šturlić, r.m. (2016). influence of managers personal values and ethical behaviour on business success of hotel entrepreneurs. in tourism & hospitality industry conference proceedings, 28–29 april 2016 (pp. 80–94). opatija, croatia. jafarkarimi, h., saadatdoost, r., sim, a.t.h., & hee, j.m. (2016). behavioral intention in social networking sites ethical dilemmas: an extended model based on theory of planned behavior. computers in human behavior, 62, 545–561. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.04.024 jones, w.t., sontag, f., beckner, m.o., & fogelin, r.j. (1977). approaches to ethics. (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. jordan, p.j., werner, a., & venter, d. (2015). achieving excellence in private intensive care units: the effect of transformational leadership and organisational culture on organisational change outcomes. south african journal of human resource management, 13(1), art. #707, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.707 keltner, d. (2016, october 1). managing yourself: don’t let power corrupt you. harvard business review, 1 october, pp. 112–115. kurland, n.b. (1995). ethical intentions and the theories of reasoned action and planned behavior. journal of applied social psychology, 25(4), 297–313. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1995.tb02393.x langley, r., du toit, r., & herbst, d.l. (1992). manual for the values scale (vs). pretoria: human sciences research council. leedy, p.d., & ormrod, j.e. (2013). practical research: planning and design. (10th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson education. liu, y., & lei, y. (2012). the connotation of work values: a preliminary review. asian social science, 8(1), 47–53. mann, m.j., taber, t.d., & haywood, k.j. (2013). work ethics revisited: identification and operationalising new dimensions of work ethic a century after weber. journal of business discipline, 11(1), 65–101. mcmanus, l., & subramaniam, n. (2009). ethical evaluations and behavioural intentions of early career accountants: the impact of mentors, peers and individual attributes. accounting & finance, 49(3), 619–643. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-629x.2009.00301.x melden, a.i. (1967). ethical theories: a book of readings. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. miller, m.j., woehr, d.j., & hudspeth, n. (2002). the meaning and measurement of work ethic: construction and initial validation of a multidimensional inventory. journal of vocational behavior, 60(3), 451–489. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.2001.1838 montgomery, w. (2011). human value structure and emotions. dissertation. göteborg, sweden: department of psychology, university of gothenburg. niemi, l., & young, l. (2013). caring across boundaries versus keeping boundaries intact: links between moral values and interpersonal orientations. plos one, 8(12), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0081605 nord, w.r., brief, a.p., atieh, j.m., & doherty, e.m. (1990). studying meanings of work: the case of work values. in a. brief & w. nord (eds.), meanings of occupational work: a collection of essays. lexington, ky: lexington books. o’connor, j.p., & kinnane, j.f. (1961). a factor analysis of work values. journal of counseling psychology, 8(3), 263–267. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0047440 pallant, j. (2011). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using spss. (4th edn.). canberra, australia: allen & unwin. palmer, s.e. (1983). authority: an essential part of practice. social work: a journal of the national association of social workers, 28(2), 120–125. patel, k. (2013, december 05). analysis: perceptions and reality of corruption in south africa. daily maverick. retrieved august 13, 2014, from http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-12-05-analysis-perceptions-and-reality-of-corruption-in-south-africa/#.u-tpt-osyso pek, c.-k., lim, y.-m., & yee, a.-p. (2008). work values of baby-boomers and generation x of the chinese community in malaysia. international journal of business and management, 3(10), 147–153. pwc. (2016). global economic crime survey 2016. (5th south african edn.). retrieved october 15, 2016, from http://www.pwc.co.za/en/assets/pdf/south-african-crime-survey-2016.pdf quesenberry, l., woodburne, p.r., & yang, c. (2013). assessment of ethical reasoning at a public university. journal of business disciplines, 11(1), 1–36. quick, j.c., & nelson, d.l. (2011). principles of organizational behavior: realities and challenges. (7th edn.). mason, oh: south-western. ravangard, r., sajjadnia, z., jafari, a., shahsavan, n., bahmaie, j., & bahadori, m. (2014). the association between work ethics and attitudes towards organizational changes among the administrative, financial and support employees of general teaching hospitals. journal of medical ethics and history of medicine, 7(12), 1–9. richards, c.h., gilbert, j., & harris, j.r. (2002). assessing ethics education needs in the mba program. teaching business ethics, 6(4), 447–476. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1021183009537 rogojan, p.t. (2009). deviant workplace behavior in organizations: antecedents, influences and remedies. master’s dissertation, university wien, austria. rohan, m.j. (2000). a rose by any name? the values construct. personality and social psychology review, 4, 255–277. ros, m., schwartz, s.h., & surkiss, s. (1999). basic individual values, work values, and the meaning of work. applied psychology: an international review, 48(1), 49–71. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.1999.tb00048.x salamzadeh, y., nejati, m., & salamzadeh, a. (2014). agility path through work values in knowledge-based organizations: a study of virtual universities. innovar, 24(53), 177–186. https://doi.org/10.15446/innovar.v24n53.43942 salkind, n.j. (ed.). (2012). exploring research. (8th edn.). new york: pearson. schreuder, a.m.g., & coetzee, m. (2011). careers: an organisational perspective. (4th edn.). cape town: juta. schwartz, s.h., & bilsky, w. (1990). toward a theory of the universal content and structure of values: extensions and cross-cultural replications. journal of personality and social psychology, 58(5), 878–891. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.58.5.878 sergio, r.p., dungca, a.l., & ormita, l.a.g-l. (2015). the demographic variables and emotional intelligence as correlates of work values: a cross-cultural examination towards organizational change. journal of economics, business and management, 3(2), 167–175. https://doi.org/10.7763/joebm.2015.v3.175 steyn, c., & kotze, h. (2004). work value change in south africa between 1995 and 2001: race, gender and occupations compared. south african journal of labour relations, 28(1), 4–33. stones, c.r., & philbrick, j.l. (2001). work attitudes among a sample of black south african students. the journal of social psychology, 132(2), 281–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1992.9922984 tang, t.l.-p. (1990). factors affecting intrinsic motivation among university students in taiwan. the journal of social psychology, 130(2), 219–230. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1990.9924572 twenge, j.m., campbell, s.m., hoffman, b.j., & lance, c.e. (2010). generational differences in work values: leisure and extrinsic values increasing, social and intrinsic values decreasing. journal of management, 36(5), 1117–1142. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206309352246 uçanok, b. (2008). the effects of work values, work-value congruence and work centrality on organizational citizenship behavior. international journal of behavioral, cognitive, educational and psychological sciences, 1(1), 1–14. ueda, y., & ohzono, y. (2013). differences in work values by gender, marital status, and generation: an analysis of data collected from “working persons survey, 2010.” international journal of human resource studies, 3(2), 28–41. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijhrs.v3i2.3131 van der walt, f., & de klerk, j.j. (2015). the experience of spirituality in a multicultural and diverse environment. journal of asian and african studies, 14(4), 253–288. https://doi.org/10.1163/15692108-12341346 van der walt, f., jonck p., & sobayeni, n.c. (2016). work ethics of different generational cohorts in south africa. african journal of business ethics, 10(1), 52–66. van ness, r.k., melinsky, k., buff, c.l., & seifert, c.f. (2010). work ethic: do new employees mean new work values? journal of managerial issues, 22(1), 10–34. van vuuren, l.j. (2002). institutionalising business ethics: a multi-level ethics strategy. management dynamics, 2(2), 21–27. vyas-doorgapersad, s. 2007. corruption in the public sector: a comparative analysis. journal of public administration, 42(5), 285–299. wagner, c., kawulich, b., & garner, m. (eds.). (2012). doing social research: a global context. maidenhead, uk: mcgraw-hill higher education. wils, t., saba, t., waxin, m.-f., & labelle, c. (2011). intergenerational and intercultural differences in work values in quebec and the united arab emirates. industrial relations, 66(3), 445–469. https://doi.org/10.7202/1006347ar wittmer, d.p. (2000). ethical sensitivity in management decisions: developing and testing a perceptual measure among management and professional student groups. teaching business ethics, 4(2), 181–205. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1009866315139 wong, s.-w., & yuen, m. (2015). super’s work value inventory: issues of subtest internal consistency using a chinese university student sample in hong kong. journal of employment counseling, 52(1), 29–35. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1920.2015.00054.x abstract introduction method results discussion acknowledgements references footnote about the author(s) massad a. alatawi department of management, taibah university, saudi arabia citation alatawi, m.a. (2017). can transformational managers control turnover intention? sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a873. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.873 original research can transformational managers control turnover intention? massad a. alatawi received: 09 oct. 2016; accepted: 18 apr. 2017; published: 30 may 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation and research purpose: employee turnover is a complex phenomenon that has negative consequences for organisations. the purpose of this study was to measure the correlation between transformational leadership style and turnover intention to control the employee turnover rate in organisations. research method: this study utilised a two-stage clustering method and web-based survey research with a correlational design to collect the data. a total of 356 responses were collected from 14 clusters in southern california; however, the final selected data for analysis came from 210 subjects with a cluster-sampling design of (14 × 15). main findings and managerial implications: this study concluded that the transformational leadership style has a negative correlation with turnover intention. managers who adopt this style of leadership can expect lower rates of turnover; thus, they can stay competitive in an unstable economy and achieve enhanced productivity, improved performance and reduction in expenses. introduction employee turnover is a complicated, continuous issue that affects the stability of the organisational climate, performance, productivity and the retention of the qualified employees. abassi and hollman (2000) represented employee turnover as the rotation of workers around the labour market; between organisations, jobs and occupations; and between the conditions of employment and unemployment. the expenses identified with employee turnover were evaluated to run from 25% to 500% of the annual compensation of a worker, with an average of $13 996 per worker. the high cost of employee turnover comprises human resources (hr) expenses such as recruiting, hiring and training costs and is connected with measures of productivity and performance of organisations (ballinger, craig, cross & gray, 2011; o’connell & mei-chuan, 2007). thus, controlling the employee turnover rate ought to be a priority amongst the most essential organisational goals. organisations must minimise expenses, maximise profits, expand productivity and deliberately plan to retain workers with the end goal to stay competitive in an unstable economy. excessive employee turnover negatively influences organisations by delaying services and minimising profits as organisations attempt to recruit new workers as well as decreasing innovation as qualified workers leave. most likely, excellent, talented workers are key employees. if they quit their jobs, then their organisations may not be able to finish key business transactions. to the contrary, employee turnover opens doors for newcomers who may carry with them experience, knowledge and innovation. job changers may find a more advantageous workplace and better compensation (fitz-enz & davison, 2001; lee, hsu & lien, 2006; mobley, 1982; stovel & bontis, 2002). numerous determinants affect the choice of workers to stay in or quit their jobs; nonetheless, managerial style is known to significantly affect their decisions. managerial style alludes to a general form of leadership used by a manager: transformational, transactional or laissez-faire (rensselaer polytechnic institute, 2000). it acts as a principal stimulus for turnover intention inside of organisations. the backgrounds and experiences of managers affect the workers’ intention to quit their jobs. managers with a narrow-minded vision encounter a high employee turnover rate. they may wind up with an untalented workforce because of the loss of talented employees. workers who stay may be disappointed, unfaithful and perform their undertakings inadequately. they may convey less customised services to clients. at the point when conditions seem to be intolerable, they may consider options and look to change their employment (abassi & hollman, 2000; lee et al., 2006; mobley, 1982; price, 2001; stovel & bontis, 2002). employee turnover is a complex issue to examine. researchers examining employee turnover have experienced difficulty following the individuals who left their organisations; accordingly, this study measured the turnover intention rather than the actual turnover behaviour of employees. turnover intention alludes to the extent to which employees plan to cease their membership with their organisations (price, 2001). as it was stated earlier, turnover intention is a complex phenomenon that has negative consequences for organisations and needs close managerial attention. this study researched whether there was a connection between transformational leadership style and turnover intention to improve employee retention in southern california. subsequently, managers can adopt this managerial style with the aim to lower turnover rates amongst their workers, accordingly enhancing productivity, improving performance and reducing expenses. the purpose of this study was to measure the correlation between transformational leadership style and turnover intention to control the employee turnover rate in organisations. some studies (e.g. griffith, 2004; kleinman, 2004; walumbwa & lawler, 2003; walumbwa, wang, lawler & shi, 2004) have examined the relationship between transformational leadership style and turnover intention. insufficient information is known about the impact of transformational leadership style on turnover intention (griffith, 2004; kleinman, 2004; walumbwa & lawler, 2003; walumbwa et al., 2004). in one study, griffith (2004) revealed that school principal transformational leadership has an indirect negative impact, through job satisfaction, on school staff turnover. in addition to the effect measured in schools, walumbwa and lawler (2003) and walumbwa et al. (2004) stated that transformational leadership style is negatively related to turnover intention in other work settings. dissimilarly, kleinman (2004) showed that transformational leadership style is not significantly linked to staff nurse turnover. certainly, previous studies are contradictory in their conclusions regarding the association of transformational leadership style with turnover intention. besides the attempt to remove the contradiction in previous research regarding the linkage between transformational leadership style and turnover intention, one of the significances of this study was its diverse sample of organisations, because occupational diversity would increase the probability of class diversity, as suggested by price (2001). another significance was its focus on only one causal factor of turnover intention, namely managerial style, as suggested by ongori (2007). literature review managerial style – the characteristic decisions, relationships and behaviours of managers – has a considerable effect on the turnover intention of employees (lee et al., 2006; price, 2001; stovel & bontis, 2002). dr lindsay ryan expressed that the primary reason labourers leave an occupation is that they have been assigned to work under ineffective supervisors (as cited in lund, 2011). as indicated in an article in accountancy (‘bad month’, 2009), more than half of employees in the banking industry quit their jobs because of ineffective administration, and around half would have been willing to take a pay cut to work with an effective manager. changing the managerial style of insufficient managers could prompt better employee retention. managers handle a scope of circumstances all through their day-to-day business schedules and perform numerous functions in their organisations. the basic functions of management include planning, organising, leading and controlling; in any case, these managerial functions no longer fit the 21st century. employee retention is one of the top undertakings of managers and more essential today than at any other time (daft, 2012; lussier & achua, 2012). managers ought to change their managerial style throughout today’s period of nanotechnology. the current literature has demonstrated that transformational leadership style is an effective managerial style in all kinds of organisations. the most practiced managerial style by effective managers is transformational. transformational leadership style is not reserved for exceptional individuals with certain leadership qualities and capacities; anybody can be a transformational leader through education, desire and practice. organisations can benefit by offering transformational leadership training to their supervisors. the transformational leadership style is an approach that changes workers to fulfil more than what is expected of them and is concerned with vision, staff development, supportive leadership, empowerment, innovative thinking, leading by example and charisma (avolio, 2011; carless, wearing & mann, 2000; lussier & achua, 2012; northouse, 2010). these seven variables compose the dimensions of the global transformational leadership (gtl) scale, which was developed by carless et al. (2000; table 1). table 1: dimensions of global transformational leadership. transformational managers provide employees with a vision, act as coaches, provide a supportive climate, listen for employees’ needs, recognise employees’ achievements and delegate work to employees. they offer meaning and challenge to employees’ work, involve employees in decision-making, encourage teamwork, support autonomy and stimulate excellent task performance. they inspire innovation and promote problem-solving in new ways. they behave as models for employees and follow through with their promises. they demonstrate enthusiasm and can be trusted and respected to make good decisions for the organisation. one component that distinguishes transformational leadership style from other managerial styles is the inclusion of supportive leadership or supervisory support (avolio, 2011; carless et al., 2000; northouse, 2010). the causal model of turnover (figure 1; introduced in 1981 by price & mueller) shows supervisory support as a determinant of turnover intention. supervisory support, meaning help with job-related problems, decreases turnover by its positive influence on both job satisfaction and organisational commitment. job satisfaction and organisational commitment reduce turnover intention, whereas search behaviour increases turnover intention. for the purpose of this study, transformational leadership style was considered as equivalent to supervisory support. it influences turnover intention through the intervening variables of job satisfaction, organisational commitment and search behaviour (see figure 1). it decreases turnover intention indirectly by means of a positive influence on job satisfaction and organisational commitment (price, 2001). figure 1: a portion of the causal model of turnover. the current literature confirms that transformational leadership style correlates positively with job satisfaction and organisational commitment. in addition, it shows that turnover intention correlates negatively with job satisfaction and organisational commitment. several studies have demonstrated that workers want to stay with transformational managers. satisfied workers are less inclined to quit their jobs. labourers who are supervised by transformational managers are willing to stay with and are loyal to their organisations, even under tough circumstances. transformational managers encourage employees to overcome difficulties and to be effective in their work, resulting in a decrease in the turnover intention rate (avolio, 2011; hetland & sandal, 2003; judge & piccolo, 2004; kearney, 2008; lee et al., 2006; price, 2001; walumbwa et al., 2004). method data and sample this quantitative investigation of the anticipated relationship of a variable thought to be related to turnover intention used survey research with a correlational design and utilised a cluster-sampling method. the sample for this study comprised workers whose managers were members of the professionals in human resources association (pihra). pihra is an association that trains its members on perspectives of leadership and hr. it has roughly 3000 members who work in southern california organisations from all ranges of industry inside of the most financially diverse territory in the nation (pihra, 2012). as proposed by henderson and sundaresan (1982) and the north carolina center for public health preparedness (2012), this study used a two-stage cluster-sampling method. in the first stage, 150 managers (clusters) were chosen randomly, and the final response rate was 51%; however, just 14 clusters were utilised because of the research criteria.1 in the second stage of cluster sampling, and particularly in december 2012, a total of 356 responses were collected from 14 clusters with a sample error of 5%. nevertheless, the final selected data for analysis came from 210 subjects with a cluster-sampling design of (14 × 15) because the process was controlled to limit overor under-represented clusters. therefore, the participants were thought to be representative of all workers in southern california. confidentiality was maintained by all means and especially by ensuring information that could be tracked to an individual participant was not included in any reports of this article. hypothesis the hypothesis (h1) of this study was that the transformational leadership style of pihra members is negatively correlated with turnover intention of their subordinates; that is to say that transformational leadership style is predictive of lower levels of turnover intention. variables and instrumentation this study measured the transformational leadership style, the independent variable, through the 7-item gtl scale using a 5-point likert scale ranging from rarely or never to very frequently, if not always. summing the scores of each item and then dividing the sum by seven resulted in a final score for transformational leadership style. a higher score showed that a pihra member often demonstrated transformational leadership style. the item ‘how often have you seriously considered quitting your present job?’ developed by spector (1985) measured turnover intention, the dependent variable, using a 5-point likert scale ranging from rarely or never to very frequently, if not always. a lower score of this item showed that a subordinate of a pihra member intended to keep his or her job. to analyse data, the major statistical tests were correlation and regression analytical techniques. results table 2 shows the aftereffects of the spearman rho correlation analysis, which demonstrated that there was a moderate, negative significant correlation between transformational leadership style utilised by pihra members and the levels of turnover intention amongst their subordinates (rs = -0.41, p < 0.01). higher transformational leadership style scores (m = 4.42) were connected with lower levels of turnover intention (m = 1.09). further calculation concluded that 17% of the variance in the levels of turnover intention amongst pihra subordinates was explained by transformational leadership style utilised by pihra members. table 2: correlations between transformational leadership style and turnover intention. table 2 shows characteristics of the spearman rho correlation coefficient, which is a descriptive measure of the correlation of the transformational leadership style and turnover intention. the t-test value is a measure of the hypothesis that the correlation between transformational leadership style and turnover intention found in the study sample exists in the population comprising subordinates of all pihra members. the hypothesis (h1) was that the two variables are correlated; the null hypothesis (h0) was that the two variables are not correlated. with 208 degrees of freedom [(n – 2) = (210 – 2) = 208], testing for significance at the 0.01 level, the critical values of ± 2.576 and a calculated t-test value of -6.40, the null hypothesis was rejected. the observed value of rs is large enough to indicate a statistically significant correlation between transformational leadership style and turnover intention. this finding is corroborated by the calculated p-level of less than 0.01. the outcomes of bivariate linear regression analyses are demonstrated in table 3 and indicate that the transformational leadership style used by pihra members explained 17% of the variance (r2 = 0.17, t = -9.45, p < 0.01) in the levels of turnover intention amongst their subordinates. as explained in the above paragraph, the t-value of less than -2.576 and the calculated p < 0.01 showed a regression model with statistically significant predictive power. the outcomes also suggested a regression model in which a one-percentage-point increase in transformational leadership style used by pihra members leads to a 0.32% reduction in turnover intention levels of their subordinates (b = -0.32, p < 0.01). table 3: linear regression of transformational leadership style and turnover intention. discussion this study revealed that the transformational leadership style of pihra members is negatively linked to turnover intention of their subordinates. this specific finding is not the same as that of kleinman (2004), who found that transformational leadership style is not correlated with staff nurse turnover. notwithstanding, this study’s finding is in line with what griffith (2004), walumbwa and lawler (2003) and walumbwa et al. (2004) concluded about transformational leadership style and its negative correlation with turnover intention. this study’s result removes the contradiction in previous research and creates a clearer context for the significance of transformational leadership style and its linkage to controlling employee turnover rate in organisations. this study contributed that the transformational leadership style of pihra members is negatively correlated with turnover intention of their subordinates; that is to say that transformational leadership style is predictive of lower levels of turnover intention. the after-effect of this study can be generalised to most of the organisations in southern california. this study adds insight to the body of knowledge concerning transformational leadership style and its significance to the retention of employees. it recognises the negative relationship between transformational leadership style and turnover intention; hence, managers can apply transformational leadership as their managerial style with the expectation of a lower turnover rate. consequently, they can stay competitive in an unstable economy and achieve enhanced productivity, improved performance and reduction in expenses. this study revealed that supervisors with a transformational leadership style could be recruited. it found that the mean score of transformational leadership style was high (m = 4.42), showing that the participants’ managers every now and again apply transformational leadership style in their organisations and that their enrolment in pihra has paid off. this outcome is in accordance with the current literature that shows transformational leadership is not reserved for individuals with exceptional attributes and capacities; rather, anyone can be transformational (avolio, 2011; carless et al., 2000; lussier & achua, 2012; northouse, 2010). managers can be transformational by (1) planning for the future, (2) coaching workers, (3) supporting workers to develop in their jobs and acknowledging their effort and achievement, (4) including employees in the decision-making process, (5) inspiring innovation, (6) being honest and following the rules and (7) acting as change specialists. finally, they must practice regularly because mastering transformational leadership style takes time, exertion and commitment. this study inferred that transformational leadership style is an effective managerial style. managers should change their managerial style for the high-tech business world. they ought to enhance their transformational leadership abilities and skills. it is recommended that managers attend seminars, webinars or workshops, or join associations that teach and train their members on concepts of transformational leadership style. when recruiting new managers, hr managers ought to select transformational candidates keeping in mind the end goal to profit by enhancing the retention of employees. organisations should train their current managers on transformational leadership style to improve the organisational climate. business pioneers must be transformational; otherwise, the small-business labourers may leave, and as an outcome, the business may shut down. the literature showed that a disagreeable managerial style is perhaps one of the reasons for the turnover intention phenomenon. however, if ineffective managers drive workers to intend to quit their jobs, it does not imply that effective managers drive workers to keep their jobs. consequently, a suggested study would comprise experimental research to explore the cause–effect relationship of transformational leadership style and employee retention. the low mean score of intention to quit (m = 1.09) shows that the state of the economy (whilst conducting this research in 2012) may have impacted the members’ choices about keeping their occupations and, consequently, may have affected the correlation measured between transformational leadership style and turnover intention. further research is recommended to duplicate this study when the economy has recovered. future studies concerning transformational leadership ought to utilise the gtl scale because it is reliable, valid, short and practical. finally, future research is suggested to replicate this study and look at a nondemocratic country to see if similar conclusions would be found about the relationship between transformational leadership style and turnover intention. this study has been carried out in the united states; therefore, it is reasonable to suppose that democratic, capitalistic countries are the areas to which the outcomes of this study apply. yet, it would be interesting to see whether or not similar findings would be found in nondemocratic countries. conclusion to conclude, this study made a contribution to the knowledge on the significance of transformational leadership style to the employee retention. it found a negative correlation between transformational leadership style and turnover intention. it found that a slight increase in transformational leadership style leads to a decrease in the levels of turnover intention among employees. hiring or training transformational managers supports essentially control turnover. managers should obtain transformational leadership behaviors and skills in order to reduce the turnover intention among their employees. everyone can be transformational by practicing the behaviours and skills of this style. acknowledgements the author thanks dr casey goodall for comments that greatly improved the manuscript. without dr goodall’s thoughts and ideas, this manuscript would not appear in its great shape as it does. competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. references abassi, s.m., & hollman, k.w. (2000). turnover: the real bottom line. public personnel management, 29(3), 333–342. https://doi.org/10.1177/009102600002900303 avolio, b.j. (2011). full range leadership development. (2nd edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. bad month: british managers. (2009). accountancy, 144(1396), 12. ballinger, g., craig, e., cross, r., & gray, p. (2011). a stitch in time saves nine: leveraging networks to reduce the costs of turnover. california management review, 53(4), 111–133. https://doi.org/10.1525/cmr.2011.53.4.111 carless, s.a., wearing, a.j., & mann, l. (2000). a short measure of transformational leadership. journal of business and psychology, 14(3), 389–405. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1022991115523 daft, r.l. (2012). management. (10th edn.). mason, oh: south-western. fitz-enz, j., & davison, b. (2001). how to measure human resource management. (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. griffith, j. (2004). relation of principal transformational leadership to school staff job satisfaction, staff turnover, and school performance. journal of educational administration, 42(3), 333–356. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578230410534667 henderson, r.h., & sundaresan, t. (1982). cluster sampling to assess immunization coverage: a review of experience with a simplified sampling method. bulletin of the world health organization, 60(2), 253–260. hetland, h., & sandal, g.m. (2003). transformational leadership in norway: outcomes and personality correlates. european journal of work & organizational psychology, 12(2), 147. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320344000057 judge, t.a., & piccolo, r.f. (2004). transformational and transactional leadership: a meta-analytic test of their relative validity. journal of applied psychology, 89(5), 755–768. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.5.755 kearney, e. (2008). age differences between leader and followers as a moderator of the relationship between transformational leadership and team performance. journal of occupational & organizational psychology, 81(4), 803–811. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317907x256717 kleinman, c. (2004). the relationship between managerial leadership behaviors and staff nurse retention. hospital topics, 82(4), 2–9. https://doi.org/10.3200/htps.82.4.2-9 lee, c., hsu, m., & lien, n. (2006). the impacts of benefit plans on employee turnover: a firm-level analysis approach on taiwanese manufacturing industry. international journal of human resource management, 17(11), 1951–1975. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190601000154 lund, m. (2011, august). how bad managers lose good staff. the courier mail (brisbane), p. 4. lussier, r.n., & achua, c.f. (2012). leadership: theory, application, and skill development. (5th edn.). cincinnati, oh: south-western college. mobley, w.h. (1982). employee turnover: causes, consequences, and control. reading, ma: addison-wesley. north carolina center for public health preparedness. (2012). two-stage cluster sampling: general guidance for use in public health assessments. retrieved january 06, 2012, from http://cphp.sph.unc.edu/phrst5/twostagesampling.pdf northouse, p.g. (2010). leadership theory and practice. (5th edn.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. o’connell, m., & mei-chuan, k. (2007). the cost of employee turnover. industrial management, 49(1), 14–19. ongori, h. (2007). a review of the literature on employee turnover. african journal of business management, 49–54. retrieved june 13, 2011, from http://www.academicjournals.org/ajbm/pdf/pdf2007/jun/ongori.pdf price, j.l. (2001). reflections on the determinants of voluntary turnover. international journal of manpower, 22(7/8), 600–624. https://doi.org/10.1108/eum0000000006233 price, j.l., & mueller, c.w. (1981). a causal model of turnover for nurses. academy of management journal, 24(3), 543–565. https://doi.org/10.2307/255574 professionals in human resources association (pihra). (2012). about pihra: facts. retrieved january 05, 2012, from http://pihra.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=194 rensselaer polytechnic institute. (2000, july 17). management styles. retrieved december 12, 2011, from http://www.rpi.edu/dept/advising/free_enterprise/business_structures/management_styles.htm spector, p.e. (1985). measurement of human service staff satisfaction: development of the job satisfaction survey. american journal of community psychology, 13(6), 693–713. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00929796 stovel, m., & bontis, n. (2002). voluntary turnover: knowledge management friend or foe? journal of intellectual capital, 3(3), 303–322. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930210435633 walumbwa, f.o., & lawler, j.j. (2003). building effective organizations: transformational leadership, collectivist orientation, work-related attitudes, and withdrawal behaviors in three emerging economies. international journal of human resource management, 14(7), 1083–1101. https://doi.org/10.1080/0958519032000114219 walumbwa, f.o., wang, p., lawler, j.j., & shi, k. (2004). the role of collective efficacy in the relations between transformational leadership and work outcomes. journal of occupational & organizational psychology, 77(4), 515–530. https://doi.org/10.1348/0963179042596441 footnote 1. some of pihra members (clusters) were students and self-employed individuals; thus, the criterion for selecting the managers (clusters) was that each one had to have at least seven employees, and the criterion for selecting the employees (units) was that all the employees had to work full time. although it was very difficult to secure permission from managers to study their subordinates in many organisations, the desire was to secure a sample size of at least 210 subjects with a (30 × 7) design. abstract introduction research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) dzivhuluwani mavhungu department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa mark h.r. bussin department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa citation mavhungu, d., & bussin, m.h.r. (2017). the mediation role of motivation between leadership and public sector performance. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a840. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.840 original research the mediation role of motivation between leadership and public sector performance dzivhuluwani mavhungu, mark h.r. bussin received: 17 july 2016; accepted: 08 aug. 2017; published: 05 oct. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: as a result of poor performance in 2013, five departments in the limpopo province were placed under administration in terms of section 100 (1) (b) of the constitution of the republic of south africa. research purpose: the main purpose of this study was to investigate the importance of the individual level of performance when diagnosing performance issues in the public sector by focusing on the mediatory role of motivation in the relationship between leadership and public sector performance. motivation for the study: the diagnosis conducted focused more on the analysis of administrative and operational systems. the solutions were based on normalising financial statements and systems to improve performance. research design, approach and method: the study took a positivist approach as the philosophy of the study. using quantitative methods, a cross-sectional survey was used to collect data from 65 employees working in one of the departments that were affected by the intervention. main findings: the study confirmed the existence of a relationship between leadership and performance in the public sector. it was also found that public sector motivation plays a mediatory role between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance. practical/managerial implications: the findings imply that it is important that the limpopo provincial government makes an effort to employ and retain employees who are readily showing high levels of public sector motivation. contribution or value additions: the study focused on an overlooked area in the study of performance in the public sector. the study was able to produce a tool that should be able to provide information to assist managers to make better performance improvement strategy decisions. introduction key focus of the study there has been notable increase in the academic interest in public service motivation in the last 12 years (bozeman & su, 2014; van der wal, 2014). public sector motivation (psm) has been generally defined by paarlberg and lavigna (2010) as: the beliefs, values, and attitudes that go beyond self-interest and organisational interest to energise employees to do good for others and to contribute to the well-being of organisations and society. (p. 710) scholars such as moynihan and pandey (2010) have linked general motivational levels that were a result of supportive and constructive leadership styles to superior organisational performance. the individual and team performance of public sector employees, especially those who interact with the recipients of public sector services, is crucial as their level of performance is usually perceived as that of the entire public sector. in this regard, it also becomes crucially important that public sector policies and strategies be established and implemented to maximise public sector employee performance for the purpose of improving public service delivery. therefore, a public sector–based study covering three variables that contribute to organisational performance in the public sector; perceived leadership styles, psm and individual job performance was deemed necessary for the purpose of improving the performance of individuals, teams and, consequently, the public sector output to society. background to the study in 2013, five departments in the province were placed under administration in terms of section 100 (1) (b) of the constitution of the republic of south africa. this intervention was the result of poor performance in the financial administration and management functions within these departments. the section 100 (1) (b) national government intervention led to the conclusion that there were performance issues in the limpopo province, specifically in the departments that were directly affected by administrative issues. the main problem lay in the diagnosis of performance problems and the solutions that were recommended based on the findings of the diagnostic investigations. neglecting the individual level of performance improvement, the diagnosis and both short-term recovery plans and long-term turn-around strategies prioritised the group processes and organisational levels of performance improvement. the diagnosis process flows from the organisational to the individual performance improvement context (ulrich, brockbank, johnson & younger, 2009). it was found necessary, as suggested in ulrich et al. (2009), to diagnose and improve performance at individual level by focusing on two psychological aspects that drive individuals’ performance: their perceptions of their supervisors (moynihan, pandey, & wright, 2011) and individual motivation levels (hasnain, manning & pierskalla, 2014). trends from the research literature in recent literature, performance has been explained as having a relationship with both leadership (jacobsen & andersen, 2014) and motivation (belle, 2012). experimental studies were also able to demonstrate the positive effect of perceived leadership styles on employee motivation (belle, 2013; frey, homberg & osterloh, 2013; hasnain et al., 2014; paarlberg & lavigna, 2010; wright, moynihan & pandey, 2012). however, publicand private-sector employees do not respond to the same motivation orientations (frey et al., 2013). public sector employees are intrinsically motivated, while private-sector employees are extrinsically motivated (ritz, 2009). thus, as noted, the dimensions of psm possess elements that are similar to those of intrinsic motivation. research objectives voids and conflicts the purpose of this section is to discuss voids and conflicts found in empirical and literature findings as per the three variables of the study. leadership and performance in addition to the necessity to address the gap of a clear definition of public sector leadership concept, scholars also need to focus on engaging in comparative studies that compare public sector specific leadership dimensions in different countries that have different cultures and values (tummers & knies, 2014). this is important as the value of organisational support and perceived leadership styles may differ from one country to another. in a study of the effects of leadership styles and performance, obiwuru, okwu, akpa and nwankwere (2011) found a significant positive relationship between transactional leadership style and performance. the transactional leadership style was first defined in burns (1978) as a style of leadership where the leader uses tangible rewards that are valued by followers to motivate them to achieve goals desired by the leader and subsequently by the organisation. the transformational leadership style had a positive impact on performance, its effect was insignificant. the transformational leadership style is heavily based on trust between leaders and followers, which instils confidence that either party in the relationship knows and will do what is necessary to achieve success as defined by both parties (schaubroek, lam & peng, 2011). arham (2014) found contradictory results to those of obiwuru et al. (2011), showing that transformational leadership style resulted in a more significant impact on performance than the transactional leadership style. however, bro et al. (2014) adopt an alternative stance to either of the authors just mentioned in that transactional and transformational leadership styles complement rather than oppose each other. when implemented simultaneously, the two leadership styles are capable of achieving higher performance than when one style is used and the other ignored. motivation and performance in terms of psm and context, bozeman and su (2014) share similar sentiments to those of tummers and knies (2014). bozeman suggests environmental aspects such as individual attitudes and organisational socialisation should be considered when studying psm. furthermore, there is a need for experimental studies to reach heights that empirical studies in the field could not (belle, 2012; bozeman & su, 2014). belle (2012) undertook an experimental study that measured the relationship between psm and individual job performance. the findings of belle (2012) were that psm which positively affected the individual job performance of subordinates is manifested in their persistence, output, vigilance and productivity. belle (2012) also reported that public sector employees are also likely to perform better at their job if their purpose is awakened by direct contact with the people that they serve. however, contrary to the latter findings of belle (2012), in their study of police, municipality, school, hospital and prison employees, van loon, vandenabeele and leisink (2015) established that higher psm amongst employees whose jobs impacted directly on the society resulted in higher job burnout and lower and lower job satisfaction, especially in cases where they could not do much to impact or improve the situations of those that they serve. research problem and objectives in light of the above voids and conflicts in the literature, the research problem and objectives are discussed below. research problem it was believed that the general diagnosis of performance problems in the limpopo province overlooked the individual level of performance improvement. it was therefore necessary to conduct a further diagnosis that focused specifically on the people factor of performance improvement in order to avoid future performance relapses. perceptions and motivation of employees are created by the leadership behaviours of their supervisors (moynihan et al., 2011). hence, it was proposed that at the individual level of performance, a diagnosis should be conducted by means of analysing the leadership styles of supervisors as perceived by their subordinates and, most importantly, the mediatory role played by the subordinate’s levels of psm in the relationship between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance in the public sector. objectives of the study the objectives of the study were twofold. each is briefly discussed below. theoretical objectives the first objective was to find theoretical grounds to justify the relationship between the three broad variables of the study: leadership (independent variable), performance (dependent variable), and motivation (confounding variable) of the study. the aim was to test and have in place a theoretical model that diagnosed public sector performance issues at individual level. practical objectives the primary objective was to bring about practical solutions to improve performance in the public sector by focusing on improving performance at the individual level of the performance improvement context. the purpose of the study was to be achieved when the study was able to provide people professionals in the field of performance management with a practical tool, in a form of a model and a set of questionnaires, which could be used to detect public sector performance issues at the individual level of the performance improvement context. the potential value-add of the study the potential value-add of the study was twofold. each is discussed below. theoretical contribution as mentioned by hartog, boselie and paauwe (2004), the significance of individual job performance for organisational success is in most cases assumed, rather than tested. given that the majority of studies in the field of leadership, motivation and performance were conducted in american and european environments, the current study proposed to investigate the associations and relationships between the three variables of the current study using locally collected data that are influenced by the south african public sector environment. the current study proposed a research agenda that was more specific regarding the factors that affect individual job performance. the confirmed relationships between variables could then be used to solve practical performance issues in the south african public sector, especially at the individual level of performance. practical contribution one of the most prominent challenges of performance improvement at individual level has been to establish how leaders and managers can manipulate employee motivation in order to foster greater organisational performance (paarlberg & lavigna, 2010). the current study therefore proposed a value-add in terms of practical solutions that would provide people management professionals and line-managers responsible for performance management with a framework that could be used to detect or diagnose individual job performance issues at the individual level of performance. in the sections below, the following three sections will be discussed; research design, results, and discussion. firstly, the research design section will discuss the research approach, method, participants, procedure, measuring instruments, and statistical analysis of the study. secondly, the results section will cover the descriptive statistics of the scales used in the study and inferential statistics relating to the hypotheses of the study. thirdly, the discussion section will provide an overview of the study’s main objectives and contributions, summary of literature and empirical findings, conclusions and recommendations, and limitations and of the study and suggestions for future research. synthesis and critical evaluation of literature leadership in recent literature, leadership has been defined as a skill used by trusted leaders (schaubroek et al., 2011), to influence followers within a specific context to achieve predetermined organisational goals by using transactional and transformational styles that depend on role expectations of leaders, followers and peers (arham, 2014). leadership that is good, effective and efficient can have a positive impact on and improve organisational performance (arham, 2014). therefore, studying various leaders clears the path that leads to the understanding of the success of organisations, be these in the public or private sector. in a study of teacher performance in danish schools, jacobsen and andersen (2014) reported a weak correlation between intended and perceived transformational and transactional leadership styles. however, the perceived transactional and transformational leadership styles were found to be related to performance. previous empirical and theoretical research has demonstrated that transactional and transformational leadership styles have an impact on employee motivation (belle 2013; hasnain et al., 2014). motivation is accordingly discussed below. motivation the quest to understand human motivation was initiated thousands of years ago by greek philosophers who argued that the concept of motivation (kanfer, 1990), which cannot be observed directly, was a driving force behind all human behaviours (steers, mowday & shapiro, 2004). motivation levels of employees have been said to be the bridge through which leaders can influence the performance of individuals and subsequently of the organisation as a whole (aslayed, motaghi & osman, 2012). several studies have also explored the relationship and identified a link between the motivation levels of employees and their performance (hasnain et al., 2014; moynihan & pandey, 2010). however, a study that compared psm research in europe, the united states, and non-western countries showed that theoretical and methodological approaches that are used in western countries are at times not suited for non-western contexts (van der wal, 2014). the mediating role of public sector motivation between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance a number of previous empirical studies have demonstrated the relationship between psm and both perceived leadership styles (belle, 2013; frey et al., 2013; hasnain et al., 2014; houston, 2009; paarlberg & lavigna, 2010; wright et al., 2012), as well as individual job performance (belle, 2012; van loon et al., 2015) in the public sector. however, there is not enough literature, to the researcher’s knowledge, that investigated the psm as a confounding variable in the relationship between the variables of perceived leadership styles and individual job performance. although previous studies have explored the relationship between psm and the variables of perceived leadership styles and individual job performance, separately, belle (2013) reported that psm influenced the relationship between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance in the public sector. stating hypotheses hypothesis 1 belle (2013), frey et al. (2013), hasnain et al. (2014), paarlberg and lavigna (2010), and wright et al. (2012) have demonstrated, through experimental research, the positive effect of perceived leadership styles on employee motivation. thus the first hypothesis proposed was as follows: null hypothesis 1: there is no positive linear association between perceived leadership styles and public sector motivation. hypothesis 2 the second hypothesis was inspired by belle (2012) who is convinced, based on experimental research findings, that the relationship between public service motivation and employee performance is directly proportional. therefore, the second hypothesis is summarised below: null hypothesis 2: there is no positive linear association between public sector motivation and individual job performance. hypothesis 3 in empirical studies conducted mainly in western countries, bro et al. (2014) and jacobsen and andersen (2014) found a relationship between leadership and public sector employee performance. accordingly, this motivated the third hypothesis provided below: null hypothesis 3: there is no positive linear association between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance. hypothesis 4 the fourth hypothesis was proposed as a result of the empirical findings by obiwuru et al. (2011) who are of the belief that transactional leadership behaviour leads to better performance in the public sector. the hypothesis is stated as follows: null hypothesis 4: subordinates who perceive their supervisor’s leadership style as dominantly transactional, have higher individual job performance ratings compared to subordinates who perceive their supervisor’s leadership styles as dominantly transformational. hypothesis 5 based on the empirical findings of arham (2014), who argues that transformational leadership behaviour is a reliable predictor of public sector performance, the fifth hypothesis reads as follows: null hypothesis 5: subordinates who perceive their supervisors’ leadership style as dominantly transformational show higher individual job performance ratings compared to subordinates who perceive their supervisor’s leadership style as dominantly transactional. the research design is discussed below. research design research approach the study took a positivist approach to be the philosophy of the study. the positivists approach is known to be objective in nature. with the objective nature of its premise, the positivist approach is aligned to quantitative methods (collis & hussey, 2014), which made it more suitable for the current study. the premise of the positivist approach made it suitable for the study given that the ultimate methodological objective of the study was to use objectives-aligned statistical methods to test existing theory and hypotheses on the catalytic role of public service motivation in the relationship between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance in the public sector. research method with the assumption made in the research approach section above, quantitative methods were selected to also allow for the generalisation of findings to the population from which the sample under study was sourced, that is, the generalisation of findings from the sample to the population of the five limpopo province departments which were placed under administration. in addition to their explainable accurate and precise prediction of cause and effect between dependent and independent variables under study, quantitative methods are widely primarily hailed for their reliability and validity in measurement. numerical data associated with the quantitative method can be obtained quickly, thus saving time and resources (choy, 2014). numerical data associated with the current study were obtained quickly by sending out short questionnaires that participants could complete in little time. the premise of the positivist approach made it suitable for the study as this approach offered the opportunity to use statistical methods such as spearman’s correlation, partial correlation, and linear regression, to test existing theory and hypotheses on the mediatory role of psm in the relationship between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance in the public sector. research participants the population for the research was located in one of the 13 departments of the limpopo provincial government of south africa. the target organisation, as mentioned, was one of the five limpopo province departments which were placed under administration in terms of section 100 (1) (b) by the cabinet of south africa, making it a desirable location for the study. random sampling was adopted as the sampling design for the study. with the researcher using this design, all the members of the population had an equal opportunity of participating in the study (collis & hussey, 2014). with a sampling frame of 198 employees undertaking production and craft jobs, the targeted minimum sample size, as suggested by collis and hussey (2014), was 132 participants. the total sample size for the study was 65. the profile of the sample in terms of age, gender and years working in the public service is illustrated in frequency tables briefly discussed below. firstly, the sample was classified in terms of the age of participants. in table 1, the largest number of participants, at 44.60%, were between the ages of 20 and 30. forty per cent of participants were between the ages of 31 and 40, while 9.20% were between the ages of 41 and 50. lastly, only 6.20% of the participants were of age 51 and above. table 1: frequencies of participants’ age. secondly, the gender of the participants was also important for the study, thus being recorded in table 2. table 2: frequencies of participants’ gender. table 2 shows the frequencies of participants’ gender. the majority of participants were females at 50.80%, while the male gender represented 49.20% of the participants. thirdly, the participants were profiled in terms of their years of employment in the public sector. table 3 shows the profile of the participants in terms of their number of years in public sector employment. 73.80% of participants had worked for a period of 1–10 years in the public sector, while 21.50% had done so for 11–20 years. only 3.10% of the participants had worked for this sector for 21–31 years, while a mere 1.50% had worked for 31 years and longer in it. table 3: frequencies of participants’ years of public service. measuring instruments in addition to the collection of biographical data, two self-reporting instruments were used to collect data on perceived leadership styles and public service motivation. each of these is briefly discussed below. leadership to measure the perceived leadership styles, the multi-factor leadership questionnaire (mlq) form (5x-short) was used. the mlq (5x-short), consisting of 45 items, was originally developed by bass and avollio (1995). with cronbach’s alpha values ranging between 0.89 and 0.95, the questionnaire was also employed in recent studies (belle, 2013; park & rainey, 2007). the questionnaire was rated according to a 5-point likert-scale ranging from 0 (not at all) to 4 (frequently if not always). motivation for the purpose of the current study, the original psm scale, which has been employed in similar recent studies (belle, 2013; moynihan & pandey, 2010) with an overall cronbach’s alpha of 0.90, was used. the cronbach’s alpha for the four independent dimensions ranged between 0.69 and 0.74 (perry, 1996). the 5-point likert-scale ranged from 0 (not at all) to 4 (frequently if not always). research procedure the study was conducted in one organisation, the limpopo provincial treasury. two instruments were combined into one questionnaire of two pages in length. data were collected in two rounds. in the first round, the questionnaire was distributed to the entire sampling frame of 292 using the internal e-mailing system. for the second round, the hard copies of the questionnaire were printed and distributed to participants during arranged one-on-one meetings to improve the response rate. the completed copies of the questionnaires were collected and safely stored. statistical analysis the statistical package for the social sciences (ibm spss statistics 22) in consultation with the statkon office at the university of johannesburg, was employed to analyse the data from both the first and second rounds of data collection. the software was used so as to maximise accuracy and reliability of findings. it was utilised to generate the following groups of statistics. inferential statistics factor analysis factor analysis was made use of as a technique to reduce the number of items in the questionnaire, thus reducing the data to be collected for the study. factor analysis summarises a large number of variables into smaller factors that are manageable (pallant, 2013). factor analysis was run to generate factor loadings that determined the correlations between the factors of each of the three variables, which were measured on rating scales. scale validity and reliability two of the variables of the study, perceived leadership styles and psm, were explanatory. explanatory variables are abstract and contain hypothetical constructs that are not directly observable, thus providing ground for the necessity of validity and reliability tests (collis & hussey, 2014). validity testing was conducted to determine whether the instruments used in the study measured what they were intended to (collis & hussey, 2014). the said instruments were validated by previous extensive research conducted by bass and avolio (1995) and perry (1996) and, as noted, measured perceived leadership styles and psm, respectively. for the current study, cronbach’s alpha coefficients were generated to determine the internal reliability and inter-item correlations of each of the two multiple-item scales used in the study, the mlq (5x-short) and psm scale. descriptive statistics descriptive statistics allow for the measuring of central tendency, dispersion of data, and examination of frequency distributions (collis & hussey, 2014). for the purpose of the current study, descriptive statistics were generated to allow for the summarising of data into frequency tables of the biographical data collected. spearman’s correlation to measure the linear association between variables, the spearman’s correlation was utilised. this required the availability of non-parametric data for two variables collected using an interval, ratio or ordinal scale (collis & hussey, 2014). for the purpose of the current study, this technique was applied to measure the association between the independent variable of perceived leadership styles and the dependent variable of individual job performance. linear regression provided that there is a linear relationship between two variables under study, linear regression is employed to measure the extent to which the independent variable can predict the outcome of the dependent variable (collis & hussey, 2014). for the purpose of the current study, linear regression was generated to measure the ability of perceived leadership styles and to predict the outcome of individual job performance. partial correlation the generation of partial correlation is necessary if there is a confounding variable that is suspected to be influencing the two variables that are of main interest. the variable can be statistically removed in order to determine the relationship between the two variables of interest with accuracy (pallant, 2013). in the current study, psm was identified and used as a confounding variable. this variable was suspected to influence the relationship between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance. thus, partial correlation was generated to control the impact of psm on the relationship between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance. results descriptive and reliability statistics of scales the results of the reliability tests for the two instruments used in the current study are discussed below. public sector motivation scale the reliability statistics of the public service motivation scale are shown in table 4. table 4: reliability statistics of the public sector motivation scale. in the current study, as evident in table 4, the overall cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the psm scale with a total of 14 items and 4 dimensions is 0.46. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient failed to meet the minimum value of 0.70 for internal consistency as recommended by pallant (2013). indeed, only one dimension of the scale met the conditions that are required for good internal consistency. the self-sacrifice dimension had a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.71, while the other remaining three dimensions had coefficients that ranged from −0.23 to 0.63. the negative cronbach’s alpha value indicates a weak negative inter-item correlation between the items of the attraction to public policy variable. to address the weak internal consistency, the reliability analysis was rerun using the reverse-coding method. however, even with the reverse-coding of the variable, the cronbach’s alpha value stayed the same at −0.23. for this reason, the attraction to public policy construct and its two items were discarded. the three constructs of self-sacrifice, compassion and commitment to public interest were retained. multi-factor leadership questionnaire the reliability statistics of the mlq are depicted in table 5. table 5: reliability statistics of the multi-factor leadership questionnaire. table 5 illustrates the reliability statistics of the mlq that consisted of a total of 22 items and 7 dimensions. the overall cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.73 which, according to collis and hussey (2014), means that the scale can produce reliable findings that are accurate and precise. three individual dimensions had a coefficient value of more than 0.8, exceeding the cronbach’s alpha coefficient recommended by collis and hussey (2014). the remaining individual four dimensions recorded coefficient values that ranged between 0.61 and 0.69, which is slightly lower than the minimum recommended cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.70 as recommended by pallant (2013). inferential statistics the purpose of this section is to test hypotheses using the correlation analysis method. the overall results of this analysis are found in table 6. table 6: the overall correlation analysis of the three variables in the study. the testing of hypotheses of the study is based on the correlation analysis results in table 6. the subsections below highlight these results. hypothesis 1 hypothesis 1 was tested using the correlation analysis of the association between perceived leadership styles and psm. the results are depicted in table 7. table 7: correlation analysis between perceived leadership styles and public sector motivation. the results in table 7 are based on perceived leadership styles as an independent variable and psm as a dependent variable. for a sample size of 65 participants, the results showed a correlation coefficient of 0.02 and a p-value of 0.89. the findings of r = 0.02, n = 65, p < 0.01 indicate that there is a low positive correlation between perceived leadership styles and psm. however, the p-value of 0.89 indicates that the results are insignificant at the 1% level. therefore, the researcher fails to reject the null hypothesis at p ≤ 0.01 because of the results being insignificant at 1% significance level. hypothesis 2 hypothesis 2 was tested using the correlation analysis of the association between psm and individual job performance. the results of the analysis are reported in table 8. table 8: correlation analysis between public sector motivation and individual job performance. the results in table 8 are based on psm as an independent variable and individual performance as a dependent one. the results indicate a correlation coefficient of 0.14 and a p-value of 0.25. the r = 0.14, n = 65, p < 0.01, indicate that there is a low positive correlation between perceived leadership styles and psm. however, the p-value of 0.25 means that one must fail to reject the null hypothesis at p ≤ 0.01 as the results are insignificant at 1% significance level. hypothesis 3 correlation analysis was used to test hypothesis 3 on the association between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance. the results are presented in table 9. table 9: correlation analysis between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance. the results depicted in table 9 are based on leadership as an independent variable and individual performance as a dependent one for a sample size of 65 participants. the results yield a correlation coefficient of −0.04 and a p-value of 0.76. the r = −0.04, n = 65, p < 0.01 means that there is a low negative correlation between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance. however, the p-value of 0.76 indicates that the results are insignificant at the 1% level. for this reason, the researcher fails to reject the null hypothesis at p ≤ 0.01. hypothesis 4 hypothesis 4 was tested using the correlation analysis of the association between transactional leadership and individual job performance. such leadership, as mentioned, is divided into three dimensions: management by passive exception (mep), management by active exception (mea), and contingent reward (moynihan et al., 2011). for the purposes of the current study, only the dimensions mep and mea were combined to make up transactional leadership as shown in table 10. table 10: correlation analysis between transactional leadership and individual job performance. the results of the analysis in table 10 are such that transactional leadership is the independent variable and individual job performance the dependent one. the correlation coefficient of transactional leadership is a combination of the correlation coefficients of mep (r = −0.03, p = 0.80) and mea (r = −0.13, p = 0.31). thus, for a sample size of 65 participants, transactional leadership shows a correlation coefficient value of −0.22 and a p-value of 0.56. the results of r = −0.22, n = 65, p < 0.01 indicate that there is a low negative correlation between the transactional leadership style and individual job performance. the p-value of 0.56 indicates that the results are insignificant at the 1% level. thus, the researcher fails to reject the null hypothesis at p ≤ 0.01. hypothesis 5 correlation analysis was again used to test hypothesis 5. the focus was to analyse the association between transformational leadership and individual job performance. it has been pointed out that transformational leadership comprises four dimensions: inspirational motivation (im), individualised consideration (ic), idealised influence (ii), and intellectual stimulation (is). the results of the analysis are provided in table 11. table 11: correlation analysis between transformational leadership and individual job performance. the results in table 11 are based on transformational leadership as an independent variable and individual job performance as a dependent one. the transformational leadership correlation coefficient is a total combination of the correlation coefficients of ii (r = −0.10, p = 0.44), is (r = −0.14, p = 0.28), im (r = −0.04, p = 0.74), ic (r = −0.03, p = 0.81). thus, the results of transformational leadership are as follows: r = −0.08, p = 0.57, n = 65. the r = −0.08, n = 65, p < 0.01 indicates a perceived low negative correlation between transformational leadership and individual job performance. however, the p-value of 0.57 indicates that the results are insignificant at the 1% level. the p-value leads to the rejection of the null hypothesis at p ≤ 0.01. discussion the main objectives of the study the objectives of the study were grouped into three categories: theoretical, methodological and practical. firstly, given that the majority of theory in the literature related to the problem statement of the current study stemmed mostly from western countries, the main theoretical objective was to produce findings that would allow for the generation of theory which explained the relationship of the variables of the current study in a south african context. lastly, the practical objective was to produce findings that could be used on a daily basis by managers who sought to enhance the performance of the organisation through improving the individual job performance of their subordinates. the main contributions of the study theory it will be recalled that the theoretical objective of the study was to investigate the theoretical relationship between perceived leadership styles, psm, and individual job performance. the study was able to explore the relationship between perceived leadership styles and psm, and individual job performance in the public sector. however, there was not enough previous literature that explicitly investigated psm as a confounding variable in the relationship between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance in the public sector. therefore, the current study added value to theory in that its investigation focused on an overlooked area in the study of performance in the public sector, that is, the role of psm as a confounding variable in the relationship between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance in the public sector. practice the practical objective of the study was to contribute to public sector performance improvement by producing a framework that could be used to detect performance problems at the individual level. the current study was able to meet the objective as it managed to produce a single questionnaire that could be used to measure how the perceived leadership styles of supervisors may affect the individual job performance of subordinates while taking into account the subordinate’s psm levels. the current study has added a practical value in that it was able to produce a tool that should be able to provide information to assist people professionals in the field of performance in the public sector to make better performance improvement strategy decisions. summary of results the study consisted of five hypotheses which were informed by previous literature and empirical findings. the hypotheses and findings were as follows: null hypothesis 1: there is no positive linear association between perceived leadership styles and public sector motivation. a low positive correlation was found between perceived leadership styles and public service motivation. null hypothesis 2: there is no positive linear association between public sector motivation and individual job performance. the results showed that there was a low positive correlation between psm and individual job performance. null hypothesis 3: there is a no positive linear association between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance. it was established that there was a low negative correlation between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance. null hypothesis 4: subordinates who perceive their supervisor’s leadership style as dominantly transactional, have higher individual job performance ratings compared to subordinates who perceive their supervisor’s leadership styles as dominantly transformational. the results demonstrated a low negative correlation between transactional leadership style and individual job performance. null hypothesis 5: subordinates who perceive their supervisors’ leadership style as dominantly transformational show higher individual job performance ratings compared subordinates who perceive their supervisor’s leadership style as dominantly transactional. a low negative correlation was found between transformational leadership style and individual job performance. however, because of p values that were greater than 0.01, the five hypotheses were rejected at p ≤ 0.01, and all the findings were insignificant at the 1% significance level. conclusion and recommendations perceived leadership styles versus individual job performance both the literature review and empirical findings indicate that a correlational relationship exists between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance. however, the findings from the literature review show a positive correlation between the two variables while the empirical findings of the current study yield a negative correlation. based on the findings from the literature review, it is concluded that employees who rate the leadership styles of their supervisors positively tend to exhibit high individual job performance. therefore, it is recommended that to avoid future performance difficulties, the limpopo provincial government should focus on the development of leadership competencies of managers and supervisors within their departments. through customised management development programmes, managers and supervisors must be made aware of the impact of their leadership styles on the performance of their subordinates. transactional and transformational leadership styles versus individual job performance similar to the correlational findings of the relationship between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance, the breaking down of the perceived leadership styles variable into transactional and transformational leadership styles in the current study pointed to conflicting findings from the literature review and the empirical research. by means of establishing positive correlation coefficients, the reviewed literature indicated that the transformational leadership style had more impact, compared to the transactional leadership style, on individual job performance. however, by means of determining a negative correlation coefficient, the empirical findings of the current study revealed that a transactional leadership style, as opposed to a transformational leadership style, had more impact on individual job performance. based on both the literature and empirical findings, it is concluded that both transactional and transformational leadership styles have a role to play in inspiring greater individual job performance. thus, it is recommended that the management development programmes which should be implemented to prevent future performance issues in the limpopo provincial government should emphasise the importance of both transactional and transformational leadership styles. public sector motivation versus individual job performance the findings from the literature review indicated that high levels of psm had a negative impact on individual job performance. because of undesirable working conditions and lack of resources, public sector employees with high levels of psm are most likely to experience high stress levels, which then affect the execution of their tasks; thus, they perform poorly in their jobs. however, the empirical findings of the current study produced results that were opposite to those in the reviewed literature, in other words that psm was positively correlated to individual job performance. based on both the literature review and the empirical findings, it is concluded that psm plays an important role in determining individual job performance in the public sector. therefore, it is recommended that the limpopo provincial government should minimise the demotivation of public service employees by improving working conditions and the availability of resources, to allow public sector employees to be motivated to do their work more effectively. perceived leadership styles versus public sector motivation both literature review and empirical findings are in line regarding the relationship between perceived leadership styles and psm. both sets of findings showed a positive correlation between these variables. guided by both sets, it is concluded that high levels of psm are likely to be witnessed in subordinates who perceive the leadership style of their supervisors positively. therefore, it is recommended that the limpopo provincial government should focus on developing leadership competencies of managers and supervisors within their departments for the purpose of evoking psm in their subordinates. the existence and importance of psm should be embedded in the recommended management development programme for managers and supervisors. the mediatory role of public sector motivation in the relationship between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance although previous studies have explored the relationship between psm and the variables of perceived leadership styles and individual job performance, separately, belle (2013) reported that psm influenced the relationship between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance in the public sector. the empirical findings of the current study confirmed the findings in literature by demonstrating that psm was indeed a confounding variable in the relationship between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance. based on both the empirical and literature review findings, it is concluded that psm plays a mediatory role between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance. therefore, it is important that the limpopo provincial government makes an effort to employ and retain employees who are readily showing high levels of psm. it is recommended that the limpopo provincial government uses the public service motivation scale as an assessment to assist in the selection of new employees and retaining existing ones. limitations of the study both literature review and empirical findings of the study had contextual and applicability limits. the literature review findings, as acknowledged, were based on environmental contexts that were different from the local south african context, therefore making the applicability of such findings in the local context questionable. the majority of the empirical findings were insignificant at 1% significance level, consequently limiting the applicability of the findings in practice. suggestions for future research the literature review findings reveal that more research is needed into the impact of psm as a confounding variable in the relationship between perceived leadership styles and individual job performance, specifically in the public sectors of african countries. from an empirical finding’s perspective, future research should ensure that the collected data are gathered from sample sizes that are congruent with the population under study. larger samples will assist in boosting the significance and generalisability of findings. future studies should also employ electronic means of collecting data to access larger numbers of participants. most importantly, future studies should use data collection instruments that are language-adapted to minimise any ambiguity of items and maximise the common understanding of such items by the targeted samples. the adaptation could also assist in maximising the questionnaire response rate of the studies. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the study was conducted by d.m. as part of his master’s thesis at the university of johannesburg. m.h.r.b. was the supervisor and co-wrote the article. references arham, a.f. (2014). leadership and performance: the case of malaysian smes in the service sector. international journal of asian social science, 4(3), 343–355. aslayed, a.k., motaghi, m.h., & osman, i.b. (2012). the use of the multifactor leadership questionnaire and communication satisfaction questionnaire in palestine: a research note. international journal of scientific and research publications, 2(11), 1–9. bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1995). mlq multi-leadership questionnaire. redwood city, ca: mind garden. belle, n. (2012). experimental evidence on the relationship between public service motivation and job performance. public administration review, 73(1), 143–153. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2012.02621.x belle, n. (2013). leading to make a difference: a field experiment on the performance effects of transformational leadership, perceived social impact, and public service motivation. journal of public administration research and theory advance access, 1(1), 1–28. bozeman, b., & su, x. (2014). public service motivation concepts and theory: a critique. public administration review, 1(1), 1–11. bro, l.l., andersen, l.b., bollingtoft, a., eriksen, t., holten, a., jacobsen, c.b., et al. (2014). leadership training, leadership strategies and organisational performance: designing an experiment to test the causal effect of leadership on performance. ottawa: paper presented on the irpsm conference. burns, j.m. (1978). leadership. new york: harper & row. choy, l.t. (2014). the strengths and weaknesses of research methodology: comparison and complimentary between qualitative and quantitative approaches. journal of humanities and social science, 19(04), 99–104. collis, j. & hussey, r. (2014). business research: a practical guide for undergraduate & postgraduate students. new york: palgrave mcmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-03748-0 frey, b.s., homberg, f., & osterloh, m. (2013). organisational control systems and pay-for-performance in the public service. organisations studies, 34(7), 949–972. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840613483655 hartog, d.n., boselie, p., & paauwe, j. (2004). performance management: a model and research agenda. journal of economic literature, 1–21. retrieved may 20, 2015, from http://www.scribd.com/doc/2530136/hartog-d-n-boselie-p-paauwe-j-2004-performance-management-a-model-and-research-agenda hasnain, z., manning, n., & pierskalla, j.h. (2014). the promise of performance pay? reasons for caution in policy prescriptions in the core civil service. international bank for reconstruction and development, 29, 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1093/wbro/lku001 houston, d.j. (2009). motivating knights or knaves? moving beyond performance-related pay for the public sector. public administration review, 69(1), 43–57. jacobsen, c.b., & andersen, l.b. (2014). is leadership in the eye of the beholder? a study of intended and perceived leadership strategies and organisational performance. copenhagen: the rockwool foundation research unit. kanfer, r. (1990). motivation theory and industrial and organisational psychology. palp alto: consulting psychologists press. moynihan, d.p., & pandey, s.k. (2010). the big question for performance management: why do managers use performance information? journal of public administration research and theory, 20, 849–866. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muq004 moynihan, d.p., pandey, s.k., & wright, b.e. (2011). setting the table: how transformational leadership fosters performance information use. journal of public administration research and theory, 22, 143–164. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mur024 obiwuru, t.c., okwu, a.t., akpa, v.o., & nwankwere, i.a. (2011). effects of leadership style on organisational performance. journal of business and management research, 1(7), 100–111. paarlberg, l.e., & lavigna, b. (2010). transformational leadership and public service motivation: driving individual and organisational performance. public administration review, 70(5), 710–716. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2010.02199.x pallant, j. (2013). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using ibm spss. crows nest: allen & unwin. park, s.m. & rainey, h.g. (2007). antecedents, mediators, and consequences of affective, normative, and continuance commitment: empirical tests of commitment effects in federal agencies. review of public personnel administration, 27(3), 197–226. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x06296866 perry, j.l. (1996). measuring public service motivation: an assessment of construct reliability and validity. the journal of public administration research and theory, 6(1), 5–22. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.jpart.a024303 ritz, a. (2009). public service motivation and organisational performance in swiss federal government. international review of administrative sciences, 75(1), 53–78. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852308099506 schaubroek, j., lam, s.s.k., & peng, a.c. (2011). cognition-based and affect-based trust as mediators of leader behaviour influences on team performance. journal of applied psychology, 96(4), 863–871. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022625 steers, r.m., mowday, r.t., & shapiro, d.l. (2004). introduction to special topic forum: the future of work motivation theory. academy of management review, 29(3), 379–387. https://doi.org/10.2307/20159049 tummers, l., & knies, e. (2014). the public leadership questionnaire: the development and validation of five dimensions of public leadership behaviours. conference proceedings of the irspm conference held in ottowa. conducted by panel “new directions in public leadership, innovation and change research”, canada, ottowa. ulrich, d., brockbank, w., johnson, d., & younger (2009). human resource competencies: rising to meet the business challenge. the rpl white paper series. retrieved march 30, 2016, from http://www.hrnorge.no/wpcontent/uploads/2013/07/humanresourcecompetenciesrisingtomeetthebusinesschallenge.pdf van der wal, z. (2014). “all quiet on the non-western front?” a systematic literature review of public service motivation scholarship in non-western contexts. asia pacific journal of public administration, 1(1), 1–19. van loon, n., vandenabeele, w., & leisink, p.l.m. (2015). on the bright and dark side of public service motivation: investigating the relationship between psm and employee wellbeing from an institutional perspective. public money and management, 1(1), 1–30. wright, b.e., moynihan, d.p., & pandey, s.k. (2012). pulling the levers: transformational leadership, public service motivation, and mission valence. public administration review, 72(2), 206–215. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2011.02496.x abstract introduction research design findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) charlotte pietersen department of business management, university of limpopo, south africa citation pietersen, c. (2018). research trends in the south african journal of human resource management. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a825. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.825 original research research trends in the south african journal of human resource management charlotte pietersen received: 07 june 2016; accepted: 29 nov. 2017; published: 28 mar. 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: a comprehensive framework for research in human resource management (hrm) in terms of fundamental knowledge orientations was found lacking. research purpose: the aim was to perform a typological review of research trends in the field of hrm, specifically of publications in the south african journal of human resource management (sajhrm). motivation for the study: no previous research in the field of hrm in south africa adopted a fundamental theory of knowledge. research design, approach and method: a qualitative design was followed, consisting of a documentary analysis of articles that were published in the sajhrm for the period from 2003 to 2015. a detailed content analysis of published articles was performed in terms of a number of criteria, namely knowledge type, race, gender, authorship, author contribution and representation according to author institution and country of origin. main findings: an analysis of a final selection of 289 articles indicated that research in the sajhrm was mostly on the following lines: research was mostly of the hypothesis-testing (type ii) knowledge type; involved multiple authorship; and was conducted by mostly white, male researchers, based at a relatively few south african academic institutions. practical and managerial implications: the sajhrm should, in partnership with the hrm profession, promote and publish research that more prominently addresses the gap between academic hrm and hrm practice, especially in terms of the participatory or action research (type iv) mode of knowledge generation. contribution: the present analysis of research trends in the sajhrm provides a broader and more nuanced perspective on forms of research required for the hrm field in south africa. introduction the question that guided this investigation concerns the nature of research published in the south african journal of human resource management (hereafter: sajhrm) and what changes occurred since its inception 13 years ago. in addition to an analysis of certain demographic trends, some comparisons with a similar analysis performed for research trends in the south african journal of industrial psychology (sajip) were also made. contrary to a review of specific subject matter areas and methodological aspects in its sister journal, the sajip, by coetzee and van zyl (2014), as well as the recent review of the business coaching literature by schutte and steyn (2015) and of the review of professional human resource competencies by schutte, barkhuizen and van der sluis (2015), the present analysis was conducted with the aid of a four-fold framework of interrelated knowledge orientations. janićijević (2011) is of the opinion that the understanding and management of complex phenomena could be augmented by expanding the array of research approaches currently in use in various disciplines. purpose the aim of the study is a typological review of research trends in the field of human resource management (hrm) in south africa, specifically as reflected in the type of publications that appear in the flagship journal, the sajhrm. given this focus, attention was not directed to other outlets for hrm research, locally or abroad. no previous study, using the current broad typology of fundamental knowledge orientations, has been conducted on research published in the sajhrm. literature review there is a tendency in the field of hrm to divide the historical evolution of hrm into distinct stages (ferris et al., 2007). recently, cleveland, byrne and cavanagh (2015), and ulrich and dulebohn (2015) distinguished among four consecutive phases in the development of hrm, namely (1) hrm administration, (2) hrm practice (the design of innovative practices), (3) hrm strategy (alignment of hrm practices to business strategy) and (4) hrm and context (connecting hrm to the broader context in which businesses operate). the anticipated fourth phase, according to ulrich and dulebohn (2015), is driven by an ever-increasing demand to add value to organisations. in future, hrm will only be relevant as a key organisational resource and role player by adopting ‘… an outside/inside approach where the external environment and stakeholders influence … is recognised’ (ulrich & dulebohn, 2015, p. 188). this evolution does not only place new demands on the practice of hrm in organisations but also has implications for research in hrm. the ever-increasing complexity of hrm has and will in future compel a change of focus in hrm (stone & deadrich, 2015). articles published in scholarly journals, irrespective of a journal’s specific focus, not only provide evidence of the development of a discipline but also furnish insight into research trends and foci in a field of study (casper, eby, bordeaux, lockwood & lambert, 2007; watkins & labuschagne, 1991). a number of recent reviews in the international arena are also beginning to pay attention to the relationship between research on and the practice of hrm (see, for example, markoulli, lee, byington & felps, 2017; stone & deadrich, 2015; ulrich & dulebohn, 2015). a key issue that is frequently mentioned is that hrm practice in organisations, for the most part, does not inform academic research and vice versa (björkman, ehrnrooth, mäkelä, smale & sumelius, 2014; denisi, wilson & biteman, 2014; tenhiäla et al., 2016; tucker & lowe, 2014). research findings are not implemented in practice because practitioners often do not have access to, or are unaware of, such findings (deadrich & gibson, 2009; shapiro, kirkman & courtney, 2007). in addition, they may be familiar with the content of the academic literature but, nonetheless, prefer not to implement such knowledge (deadrich & gibson, 2007; pfeffer & sutton, 2000) because researchers focus on topics that are not perceived as important by practitioners, or they fail to conduct research relevant to the practice of hrm (meyer, 2014; panda & gupta, 2014). the last issue is of particular importance because research conducted by academics has a key role to play in the future of hrm and in influencing the quality and relevance of hrm practice (cohen, 2015). traditionally, theory construction and theory verification in the sciences has been the domain of researchers attached to higher education institutions (panda & gupta, 2014; vincent-lancrin, 2006). scholars in these institutions conducted research to satisfy their own curiosity and particular interests. many of them still are not really interested in knowledge application in practice. this emphasis on basic and theoretical research, instead of applied research, could further deepen the divergence between hrm research and practice (denisi et al., 2014). the commercialisation of research and the resulting pressure on academics to increase their research productivity has also impacted on the development of theory and knowledge production to support good practice in hrm. in the contemporary academic milieu, publications in accredited, peer-reviewed journals are essential to sustain or further the careers of academics (winslow, 2011; wissing, du toit & rothmann, 2002). in south africa, academics are increasingly pressurised to publish in journals accredited and incentivised by the department of higher education and training (dhet) in order to be recognised and rewarded for their work (department of education, 2015). the so-called ‘publish or perish’ credo, coined many years ago by boyes, happen and higan (1984), compels academics to, for example, focus on research topics currently in vogue or to use readily accessible data or populations (usually students or academic peers). in other words, the thrust is to conduct research in order to survive in the academic milieu or for financial gain, without considering the practical implications of their research in the work context (hulin, 2001). on the contrary, instead of academics influencing practice, hrm practitioners could conduct and publish research to influence their own practice as well as to inform academic research. their research outputs are as valuable as research conducted by academics to narrow the research–practice gap. the probability of implementing findings of research conducted by practitioners themselves, or of research informed by them, is higher compared with the use of research conducted by academics in isolation (anderson, 2011). therefore, it is imperative for the hrm community of scholars and practitioners to create a dynamic balance between research and practice. they have to monitor their research output to determine if it is time to refocus their research efforts to ensure that they remain relevant in an ever-changing environment. the south african board of people practice (sabpp) took note of this need and in 2007 a research agenda was formulated with the aim of increasing the flexibility and responsiveness of the hrm profession in dealing with new issues and to support institutions of higher education with relevant research to meet the needs of the hrm professional community (meyer, 2016). the flagship hrm journal in south africa, the sajhrm, recognises that hrm research and practice have a key role to play in adding value to organisations in the future. the journal is dedicated to provide a platform for both academics and practitioners (and other scholars) in hrm and related disciplines to publish quantitative, qualitative or theoretical articles focused on the broad field of hrm. the journal also aims at addressing the gap between research and practice in hrm, in particular in south africa and the rest of the african continent, and to stimulate theory and good practice (aosis publishing, 2017). the stimulation of theory and good practice and bridging the well-documented gap between research and hrm practice could contribute to the effectiveness of hrm, which, in turn, could add value to organisational performance and functioning (sanders, van riemsdijk & groen, 2008). in the present study, a four-fold framework was utilised to describe the nature of research reported in the sajhrm. the framework is the result of an historical analysis of fundamental modes of understanding that shapes and directs the products of the human intellect (pietersen, 2005). subsequent analyses of knowledge production demonstrated similarities in terms of underlying intellectual mindsets in a number of disciplines (pietersen, 2014, 2016). the usefulness of the typology to identify types of research was, for instance, demonstrated in the field of industrial psychology (pietersen, 2005). the typology was also used to analyse fundamental research orientations in organisational culture research (pietersen, 2017). briefly stated, four knowledge orientations were identified, namely the theoretical-integrative (conveniently designated as the type i) mode, the systematic-analytical (type ii) mode, the narrative-interpretive (type iii) mode and the pragmatic or action (type iv) mode (pietersen, 2017). types i and ii are associated with abstract theory building, and positivist empirical research, respectively. in contrast, the other two types are primarily associated with understanding and with first-hand descriptions of the meaning of phenomena (typically referred to as qualitative research) (type iii) and with action research in the interventionist mode (type iv). in general, researchers involved in theoretical (type i), quantitative (type ii) and qualitative (type iii) research in hrm are familiar with the distinction between theoretical, quantitative and qualitative research. however, it is contended that type iv research needs much greater emphasis. action research in hrm is participatory in nature. in this mode, researchers and practitioners come together, inter alia, in an ongoing and collaborative process of research within the organisation to improve various aspects of hrm and its contribution to the effectiveness of the organisation (van der horst, 2015), instead of merely studying workplace phenomena at a distance, as in the type i and ii modes of knowledge. research design research approach the researcher followed a qualitative design of document analysis by downloading, scrutinising and classifying articles that were published in the sajhrm during 2003–2015, using a number of criteria, namely knowledge type, race, gender, authorship, author contribution and representation according to author institution and country of origin. method sampling in view of the strict delimitation of the topic, confinement of the study to a single source of information, and of the specific purpose of the present review, no sampling was done. instead, the population of all sajhrm articles for the period from 2003 to 2015 were downloaded from the archives of the open access aosis website for this journal. data collection method the first step was to obtain full-text sajhrm articles for the period under review. all articles (pdf format) were electronically downloaded and stored in folders for each of the years, from 2003 up to and including 2015. the second step was a detailed inspection of each downloaded file in order to arrive at a final selection of articles. articles that used student samples and populations were excluded, as they were, for present purposes, not regarded as hrm research that directly involved and represented employee populations or hrm functions in work organisations. these were mostly psychometric validation studies of research instruments (questionnaires). also excluded were editorials, book reviews and tributes. of an overall count of 289 articles, 9 were excluded from further analysis at this stage. the third step, which formed the core procedure, consisted of a systematic process of analysis in which each of the final selection of articles were thoroughly and repeatedly studied to determine its content in terms of the following categories: type or mode. an article’s primary suitability, as evidenced by the research design that was followed in each case, for one of the four types of research chosen as template for the present review. a small number of articles reported the use of a mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology. in the event, 13 articles (less than 5% of the total) were included in more than one meta-category (mostly types ii and iii). race. articles were inspected with regard to the racial composition of its authorship. it was possible to classify authors in terms of the designations: white people, black people and others. given the multiple authorship of the vast majority of articles, the total count for this category exceeds the actual number of published articles selected for study. gender. in view of the sajhrm practice of reporting full names of authors, it was possible to determine the gender of participating authors. as in the case of race, the total count for the gender category exceeds the actual number of selected publications. authorship. articles were inspected to identify the number of participating authors. authorship varied between one and four authors per article, as the case may be. institution. the institutional origin of the authors of sajhrm articles was determined. sixteen south african academic institutions are represented, with about 13% of the articles submitted by non-south african authors. country of origin. the country of origin of authors of sajhrm articles for the period under consideration includes south africa, the united kingdom, australia, india, malaysia, iran, bangladesh, finland, kenya and botswana. findings demographic indicators the results for the demographic indicators are depicted in tables 1–3. the following is evident from the findings: the predominance of white people (74%), male (59%) hrm researchers (table 1). the majority (86%) of sajhrm publications being authored by three or four researchers (table 2). many sajhrm contributions since the journal’s inception in 2003 were produced by a small number of authors/co-authors (table 3 shows the top five authors in terms of frequency of participation). five universities (university of johannesburg, university of south africa, university of pretoria, north-west university and university of cape town accounted for 72% of sajhrm publications, uuniversity of johannesburg being represented in 43% of the cases. in terms of country of origin of sajhrm authors, south africa accounted for 96% of the publications. table 1: author demographics (gender and race) for the south african journal of human resource management: 2003–2015. table 2: multiple authorship in south african journal of human resource management: 2003–2015. table 3: top five author statistics: south african journal of human resource management, 2003–2015. research types research exemplars for each of the four types of knowledge in the sajhrm are shown in table 4. table 4: four foundational types of knowledge exemplars. a comparison of research approaches used in articles published in the 2003 and 2015 issues of the sajhrm is shown in table 5, and a comparative analysis of the presence of the four types of research in the sajhrm and the sajip is provided in table 6. the following is evident from these tables: the predominance of empirical research (56% overall) that reflects the hypothesis-testing nature of contributions to the journal, in the scientific (type ii) mode of knowledge. the substantial presence (31%) of qualitative research contributions, which compares favourably with that found for the sajip, in a much lesser period of time. a marked absence of type i and type iv research in recent years. even though the time frames are different, it is interesting to note that a comparable picture emerges regarding the dominance of type ii (empirical, hypothesis-testing) research published in the sajip and sajhrm, with the noteworthy exception being qualitative (type iii or narrative-interpretive) research, where the sajhrm is substantially in the lead. table 5: a typology of south african journal of human resource management contributions: 2003 and 2015. table 6: a comparative analysis of south african journal of human resource management and south african journal of industrial psychology contributions. theoretical–conceptual (type i research in the sajhrm) examples of publications in the sajhrm that are predominantly theoretical–conceptual in nature are outlined as follows: a literature study and conceptual analysis by lombard and crafford (2003) identified a number of skills, knowledge and personal competency requirements for planning and dealing with change and resistance to change. clutterbuck (2005) proposed the following competencies, namely building rapport, setting direction, progression, winding down and professional friendship. a number of mentee competence categories are also identified, namely relationship initiation, relationship management and learning maturity/disengagement. akinnusi (2008) identified and described four types of benchmarking, namely internal benchmarking, competitive benchmarking, functional benchmarking and generic benchmarking. empirical–scientific (type ii research in the sajhrm) examples of publications in the sajhrm that are predominantly empirical and hypothesis-testing in the standard scientific approach (type ii) are as follows: stander and rothmann (2008) used a cross-sectional survey design based on a random sample to test hypotheses concerning the relationship between the three variables of leadership, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. mclaggan, bezuidenhout and botha (2013) used a cross-sectional, correlational survey design with random sampling to determine the relationship between leadership style and various types of organisational commitment. madu and urban (2014) used a cross-sectional survey design using a web-based instrument to test hypotheses concerning compensation practices and intrapreneurial behaviour. narrative–interpretive (type iii research in the sajhrm) examples of publications in the sajhrm adopting a narrative–interpretive paradigm, characteristic of what is often referred to as qualitative research, are as follows: hall and fourie (2007) followed a social constructionist approach in interviewing 10 human resource managers. application of the grounded-theory method revealed three core sets of themes: industry-specific organisational challenges, role of the hr function and effect of hr roles on individuals in hr. van rooyen, du toit, botha and rothmann (2010) used a purposive sample of 14 artisans who were interviewed, showing that remuneration and development opportunities were important factors. malambe and bussin (2014) used a purposive sample of 19 hospital managers who were interviewed using thematic content analysis. results revealed that short-term incentives were not particularly attractive to hospital managers. action research (type iv research in the sajhrm) examples of publications in the sajhrm that typify the action research approach are as follows: serfontein, basson and burden (2009) using a qualitative methodology evaluated a transformational change project in a south african organisation by exploring employees’ experiences of the programme. buys and louw (2012) used interviews and internal project documentation to obtain data provided by 69 participating supervisors to evaluate the success of the programme. o’neil and horne (2012) using survey methodology measured the extent of value internalisation after the implementation of a long-term change strategy. a large sample was obtained with lower than expected levels of change. discussion outline of findings the review of research trends in the sajhrm over the past 13 years of its existence, in the main showed that quantitative, hypothesis-testing research (type ii) is well-represented in the journal. this trend is evident in other peer-reviewed journals too (colquitt & zapata-phela, 2007; hambrick, 2007). however, if the journal wants to stay true to the content of its publication policy (aosis publishing, 2017), this is not necessarily a good thing. in order to produce applicable, relevant theoretical and practical knowledge to narrow the gap between research and practice in hrm, more is needed than just theory verification, or as explained by ridder and hoon (2009), describing, explaining and testing the relationships among variables by means of hypotheses and statistical analysis is required. conceptual and/or theoretical knowledge as well as empirical, qualitative and action research are needed to achieve a better, all-round knowledge corpus for the hrm profession. with some exceptions, very few of the authors who published in the sajhrm engaged in conceptual, theoretical research (type i). this is so, despite the fact that theory-driven empirical research provides the foundation of hrm as a science (ferris, hall, royle & martocchio, 2004). both theory construction and theory verification in the sciences is primarily the domain of researchers attached to higher education institutions (panda & gupta, 2014; vincent-lancrin, 2006). despite this, a very limited number of scholars engage in generating new theories (ferris et al., 2004). they rather attempt to add on to or refine existing theories, or to incorporate conceptual schemes from other disciplines. this is probably the reason why original contributions in theory development have been sporadic in hrm research. early in the history of hrm, researchers have opted to use theories from other disciplines such as business management, industrial/organisational psychology, industrial sociology and labour economics instead of developing discipline-specific theories (deadrich & gibson, 2007). theoretical research in hrm has mainly focused on theory refinement instead of on theory construction and so far efforts to develop a grand hrm theory have failed and, in the view of ferris et al. (2007), will likely continue to fail in future. theory construction is intellectually demanding and may not be the preferred scholarly orientation of many academics. in addition, workload demands may leave little time for theorising. academics have to produce publications annually and type ii research is arguably the approach of choice because reputable research journals tend to emphasise theory verification (colquitt & zapata-phela, 2007; hambrick, 2007). on the contrary, theory development ‘is fundamental for any field, because it ostensibly is the basis on which ideas are tested and new knowledge and insight are gained’ (ferris et al., 2004, p. 238). therefore, hrm scholars have to continue in their theory development efforts (paauwe, 2009) which may or may not have direct relevance to organisations. another reason why theory construction is so important is that the development of hrm theory is of particular importance in south africa and other african countries. much of the content of hrm is based on ethnocentric western-style theories and methodology (kiessling & harvey, 2005). contextualised knowledge systems embedded in regional and local communities are needed within the african context (emeagwali & shizha, 2016). this will complement western knowledge as it has the potential for research, development and innovation (le grange, 2004). in order to practice hrm, ground-breaking local and/or indigenous theories have to be constructed to supplement current conceptions of hrm in the african organisational arena. furthermore, indigenous cultures in sa have a predominantly oral tradition (foxcroft, paterson, le roux & herbst, 2004). in order to build an indigenous knowledge base, researchers have to move away from a more traditional positivistic research tradition to a more qualitative approach in which the voice of people in organisations could be heard. orlikowski (2010) suggests that hrm would benefit from a shift towards a more practice-oriented approach, incorporating an increased focus on role players involved in or affected by the practice of hrm and their activities. the use of qualitative research (type iii), in particular narratives, to investigate the experiences of role players in hrm and the meaning of events and processes in organisations are recommended by various authors (fenton & langley, 2011; hormuth, 2009; kaudela-baum & endrissat, 2009; orlikowski, 2010). fortunately, the findings show that qualitative research formed a substantive component of publications in the sajhrm so far. it would appear that many of the authors who published in the journal are comfortable with conducting qualitative research. however, local, experienced scholars should continue to mentor and develop promising young researchers to not only conduct qualitative research but also to sustain and develop this approach to research further (schurink, 2003). the use of action research would also help to narrow the research–practice gap. boselie, dietz and boon (2005) recommend that the quality of hrm ‘practice in action’ (actual, functioning, observable activities and interventions) has to be assessed. this type of research could only be conducted inside organisations. research by van der horst (2015) demonstrates that research in hrm hardly uses the action research methodology in comparison to other disciplines such as information systems and education. it is not surprising, therefore, that articles with an action research (type iv) focus are severely under-represented in the sajhrm. this means that there is a critical gap in knowledge production in the field. although it is beyond the scope of the present study, more research is needed to investigate why both academics and practitioners fail to conduct hrm action research in organisations and/or publish their research findings in the sajhrm. demographic trends the findings show that contributions by non-academics in the sajhrm are negligible. it would appear that hrm practitioners in south africa prefer to leave research activities to their academic counterparts. practitioners, most probably, prefer to publish in practitioner-orientated journals (deadrich & gibson, 2007, 2009). more research is needed to understand why they are not as research active as they should be. the overwhelming majority of authors in the journal are academics attached to universities in south africa. academics at the university of johannesburg are responsible for almost half of the articles published in the journal and the vast majority of authors publishing in the journal represent only five universities in the country. this rather skewed trend is offset by some promising findings. there is a decrease, but still marked dominance, of white male authors. for example, the most prolific authors who publish in the journal are, with the exception of one female scholar, all white males. in general, senior white, male academics (older than 50) are largely responsible for research publications in the country (robyn & du preez, 2013). however, the dominance of white (both male and female) authors in the sajhrm is on the decrease, while female authorship and publications by non-caucasian researchers are on the increase. these findings are promising and replicate similar previous research (ruggunana & sooryamoorthy, 2016) about the changing demographics of authors who publish in the journal. it may be concluded that one of the critical challenges for hrm research by institutions of higher education in the country, namely the need to expand the pool of researchers to represent south africa’s cultural diversity (kleinveldt, 2009), is slowly but surely being addressed. the slow progress may be attributed to many factors, including the entrenched patriarchy and unequal relations of power in institutions of higher education (soudien, mthembi-mahanyele, nkomo & nyoka, 2008) and the influence of work-to-family and family-to-work spillovers (callaghan, 2016). multiple authorship is on the increase and this could be a contributing factor to the increase in authorship by female and non-caucasian researchers. multiple authorship may also be attributed to, among other initiatives, the mentoring of novice researchers, including females and non-caucasian protégés, by senior academics (schulze, 2009). in sum: the increase in publications by researchers from previously disadvantaged groupings is still slow and the pace of transformation needs to be accelerated. another concern is that the number of sajhrm authors from outside the country is negligible with only two articles published by african countries other than south africa. previous research indicated that many mainstream journals are controlled by the so-called ‘old boys network’ (govinder, zondo & makgoba, 2013). the question may be asked: is this also the case for the sajhrm, or are authors from the five universities mentioned in the present study just more prolific knowledge producers? it is also possible that south african scholars prefer to publish internationally to gain greater recognition and scholarly standing. in addition, subsidy earnings are much higher for international publications. the turnaround time for submissions (in some cases 18 months) may also discourage academics and practitioners from submitting articles to the sajhrm. furthermore, the increasing importance of local issues in hrm practice and research may influence other african scholars to publish in journals in their own countries. practical implications the use of a four-fold typology to identify basic research approaches in the sajhrm provides a more comprehensive perspective on research in the hrm field in south africa. the research trends in the journal have some repercussions for the production, dissemination and application of hrm knowledge in south africa. as it is envisioned in its publication policy, the journal does provide a platform for researchers and practitioners to disseminate their research. it provides an opportunity for academics to produce accredited peer-reviewed publications. however, the editors of the journal may need to reflect on reasons as to why academics at many universities in the country, as well as researchers in the rest of africa, do not make use of this opportunity. it could be that researchers prefer to seek exposure for their work elsewhere, that the publication fees are too high or that it takes too long to get an article reviewed by the journal. the journal should also (if it is not already doing so) encourage and assist novice researchers who submit research with publication potential. it is of particular importance to assist researchers who submit articles with a theoretical and/or conceptual and/or action-orientated focus to make their articles publishable. it may be observed that the journal will not be able to really contribute to theory and good practice and eradicating the research–practice gap if it primarily publishes quantitative research rather than qualitative research. if researchers in the field do not expand and increase their research focus to develop relevant theories and to address problems experienced in the real-world practice of hrm, then the hrm field will stagnate and will increasingly become irrelevant. as a result, the discrepancy between hrm research and hrm practice will continue to increase. unless researchers in academia and in hrm practice take note of the need to produce theoretical and, especially, action research, current publication trends in the journal are likely to remain unchanged. human resource management interest groups and the sabpp could also play a role in this regard by working closely with universities to meet the research needs of hrm practice and vice versa (meyer, 2016). better communication, dialogue, close alliance and formal and/or informal partnerships between academics and practitioners are needed to increase the rigour and relevance of hrm research and to turn knowledge into action (deadrich & gibson, 2007, 2009; gray, iles & watson 2011). limitations and recommendations the analysis of research trends in the sajhrm largely focused on types of research and selected demographic indicators. the specific topics investigated by researchers and changes in topical focus of researchers who published in the journal were not analysed. the analysis of demographic trends may require further investigation. it is recommended that the basic framework of knowledge and research that was introduced here be considered by hrm academics and practitioners alike in order to advance knowledge in the field even further. conclusion the research–practice gap is a worldwide phenomenon (tenhiälä et al., 2016). denisi et al. (2014) observed that organisations today face problems that were non-existent a generation ago. to bridge the now generally acknowledged gap between research and practice, and to promote both theory and good practice in hrm, scholars, irrespective of whether they are academics and/or practitioners, must endeavour to offer real solutions to real problems in the world of work. an analysis of publication trends in the sajhrm provides a foundation for identifying promising research opportunities to ensure the future relevance of hrm research and practice. it is clear that unless academics expand their research agendas to produce knowledge useful to practitioners, and become involved in real-life practice issues, the gap between the practice of hrm and hrm research will not easily be bridged. be that as it may, the sajhrm has the opportunity to provide leadership and be in the forefront of the needed changes in research focus. acknowledgements competing interests the author declares that she has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article. references akinnusi, d. (2008). benchmarking of human resource management in the public sector: prospects, problems, challenges. sa journal of human resource management, 6(2), 25–31. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v6i2.151 anderson, v. (2011). research methods in human resource management: investigating a business. london: chartered institute of personnel and development. aosis publishing. (2017). south african journal of human resource management. retrieved november 13, 2017, from http://www.sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/pages/view/about björkman, i., ehrnrooth, m., mäkelä, k., smale, a., & sumelius, j. (2014). from hrm practices to the practice of hrm: setting a research agenda. journal of organizational effectiveness: people and performance, 1(2), 122–140. https://doi.org/10.1108/joepp-02-2014-0008 boselie, j.p., dietz, g., & boon, c. (2005). commonalities and contradictions in research on human resource management and performance. human resource management, 15(3), 67–94. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2005.tb00154.x boyes, w.j., happen, s., & higan, t. (1984). publish or perish: fact or fiction? journal of economic education, 15, 136–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220485.1984.10845061 buys, j., & louw, j. (2012). a process evaluation of a supervisory development programme. sa journal of human resource management, 10(3), 2–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i3.423 callaghan, c.b. (2016). ‘publish or perish’: family life and academic research productivity. sa journal of human resource management, 14(1), a727. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.727 casper, w.j., eby, l.t., bordeaux, c., lockwood, a., & lambert, d. (2007). a review of research methods in io/ob work–family research. journal of applied psychology, 92(1), 28–43. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.1.28 cleveland, j.n., byrne, z.s., & cavanagh, t.m. (2015). the future of hr is rh: respect for humanity at work. human resource management review, 25, 146–166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.01.005 clutterbuck, d. (2005). establishing and maintaining mentoring relationships: an overview of mentor and mentee competencies. sa journal of human resource management, 3(3), 2–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v3i3.70 coetzee, m., & van zyl, l.e. (2014). a review of a decade’s scholarly publications (2004–2013). south african journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1227 cohen, d.j. (2015). hr past, present and future: a call for consistent practices and a focus on competencies. human resource management review, 25(2), 205–215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.01.006 colquitt, j.a., & zapata-phela, c.p. (2007). trends in theory building and theory testing: a five decade study of the academy of management journal. academy of management journal, 50, 1281–1303. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2007.28165855 deadrich, d.l., & gibson, p.a. (2007). an examination of the research–practice gap in hr: comparing topics of interest to hr academics and hr professionals. human resource management review, 17, 131–139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2007.03.001 deadrich, d.l., & gibson, p.a. (2009). revisiting the research-practice gap in hr: a longitudinal analysis. human resource management review, 19(2), 144–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2009.01.003 denisi, a.s., wilson, m.s., & biteman, j. (2014). research and practice in hrm: a historical perspective. human resource management review, 24, 219–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2014.03.004 department of education. (2015). research output policy, vol. 597, no 2. pretoria: government gazette. emeagwali, g., & shizha, e. (2016). african indigenous knowledge and the science. rotterdam: sense publishers. fenton, c., & langley, a. (2011). strategy as practice and the narrative turn. organization studies, 32(9), 1171–1196. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840611410838 ferris, g.r., hall, a.t., royle, m.t., & martocchio, j.j. (2004). theoretical development in the field of human resources management: issues and challenges for the future. organizational analysis, 12(3), 231–254. ferris, g.r., perrewé, p.l., ranft, a.l., zinko, r., stoner, j.s., brouer, r.l., et al. (2007). human resources reputation and effectiveness. human resource management review, 17, 117–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2007.03.003 foxcroft, c., paterson, h., le roux, n., & herbst, d. (2004). psychological assessment in south africa: a needs analysis. test use patterns and needs of psychological assessment practitioners. pretoria: hpcsa. govinder, k.s., zondo, n.p., & makgoba, m.w. (2013). a new look at demographic transformation for universities in south africa. south african journal of science, 109(11/12), art. #2013-0163, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1590/sajs.2013/20130163 gray, d.e., iles, p., & watson, s. (2011). spanning the hrd academic-practitioner divide: bridging the gap through mode 2 research. journal of european industrial training, 34(3), 247–263. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090591111120403 hall, c., & fourie, l. (2007). exploring the role of the human resource function in the south african information technology industry. sa journal of human resource management, 5(1), 54–64. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v5i1.108 hambrick, d.c. (2007). the field of management’s devotion to theory: too much of a good thing? academy of management journal, 50, 1346–1352. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2007.28166119 hormuth, j. (2009). the benefits of discourse analysis for human resource management. german journal of human resource management, 23(2), 147–165. https://doi.org/10.1177/239700220902300204 hulin, c.l. (2001). applied psychology and science: differences between research and practice. applied psychology: an international review, 5, 225–234. janićijević, n. (2011). methodological approaches in the research of organizational culture. economic annals, lvi(189), 69–99. https://doi.org/10.2298/eka1189069j kaudela-baum, s., & endrissat, n. (2009). practicing human resource strategy: understanding the relational dynamics of strategic hr work by means of a narrative approach. german journal of human resource management, 23(2), 93–106. https://doi.org/10.1177/239700220902300203 kiessling, t., & harvey, m. (2005). strategic global human resource management research in the twenty-first century: an endorsement of the mixed-method research methodology. international journal of human resource management, 16(1), 22–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/0958519042000295939 kleinveldt, l. (2009). academics’ experience of and perceptions of the role of the academic library in research at the cape peninsula university of technology. mini dissertation, university of the western cape, cape town. le grange, l. (2004). western science and indigenous knowledge: competing perspectives or complementary frameworks? south african journal of higher education, 18(3), 82–91. lombard, c.n., & crafford, a. (2003). competency requirements for first-line managers to deal with resistance to change. sa journal of human resource management, 1(1), 42–52. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v1i1.3 madu, u.o., & urban, b. (2014). an empirical study of desired versus actual compensation practices in determining intrapreneurial behaviour. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.592 malambe, l., & bussin, m. (2014). short-term incentive schemes for managers. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–9. markoulli, m., lee, c.i.s.g., byington, e., & felps, w.a. (2017). mapping human resource management: reviewing the field and charting future directions. human resource management review, 27, 367–396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2016.10.001 mclaggan, e., bezuidenhout, a., & botha, c.t. (2013). leadership style and organisational commitment in the mining industry in mpumalanga. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), 2–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.483 meyer, m. (2014). human resource management in the republic of south africa. in b.e. kaufman (ed.), the development of human resource management across nations: unity and diversity (pp. 387–409). pretoria: sabpp. meyer, m. (2016). a’s plan for the year. hr voice, february, pp. 3–5. o’neil, s.m., & horne, m.l. (2012). evaluating the internalisation of core values at a south african public service organisation. sa journal of human resource management, 10(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i1.371 orlikowski, w.j. (2010). practice in research: phenomenon, perspective and philosophy. in d. golsorkhi, l. rouleau, d. seidl, & e. vaara (eds.), cambridge handbook of strategy as practice (pp. 23–33). cambridge: cambridge university press. paauwe, j. (2009). hrm and performance: achievements, methodological issues and prospects. journal of management studies, 46(1), 129–142. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2008.00809.x panda, a., & gupta, r. (2014). making academic research more relevant: a few suggestions. iimb management review, 26, 156–169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iimb.2014.07.008 pfeffer, j., & sutton, r.i. (2000). the knowing–doing gap: how smart companies turn knowledge into action. boston, ma: harvard business school press. pietersen, c. (2017). organisational culture: a foundational perspective. african journal of economic and management studies, 18(3), 262–273. https://doi.org/10.1108/ajems-06-2016-0085 pietersen, h.j. (2005). knowledge development in industrial/organisational psychology (south africa). south african journal of industrial psychology, 31(2), 78–85. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v31i2.194 pietersen, h.j. (2014). the four archetypal orientations of the mind: foundational, experiential, organizational and actional. new york: edwin mellen. pietersen, h.j. (2016). the parting of the ways: foundational orientations in human thought. johannesburg, south africa: kr publishing. ridder, h., & hoon, c. (2009). introduction to the special issue: qualitative methods in research on human resource management. german journal of human resource research, 23(2), 93–106. https://doi.org/10.1177/239700220902300201 robyn, a., & du preez, r. (2013). intention to quit amongst generation y academics in higher education. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(1), art. #1106, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i1.1106 ruggunana, s., & sooryamoorthy, r. (2016). human resource management in south africa: a bibliometric study of authors and their collaboration patterns. journal of contemporary management, 13. retrieved november 17, 2017, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311588804 sanders, k., van riemsdijk, m., & groen, b. (2008). the gap between research and practice: a replication study on the hr professionals’ belief about effective human resource practices. the international journal of human resource management, 19(10), 1976–1899. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190802324304 schulze, s. (2009). mentoring novice researchers in higher education: a ‘community of practice’ perspective. koers, 74(1 & 2), 117–137. https://doi.org/10.4102/koers.v74i1/2.119 schurink, e.m. (2003). qualitative research in management and organizational studies with reference to recent research. south african journal of human resource management, 1(3), 2–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v1i3.25 schutte, f., & steyn, r. (2015). the scientific building blocks for business coaching: a literature review. south african journal of human resource management, 13(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.657 schutte, n., barkhuizen, n., & van der sluis, l. (2015). exploring the current application of professional competencies in human resource management in the south african context. south african journal of human resource management, 13(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.724 serfontein, s., basson, j.s., & burden, j. (2009). mapping a transformation from a traditional to an entrepreneurial organisation: a south african case. sa journal of human resource management, 7(1), 49–62. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.155 shapiro, d.l., kirkman, b.l., & courtney, h.g. (2007). perceived causes and solutions of the translation problem in management research. academy of management journal, 50(2), 249–266. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2007.24634433 soudien, c., mthembi-mahanyele, s., nkomo, m., & nyoka, n. (2008). report of the ministerial committee on transformation and social cohesion and the elimination of discrimination in public higher education institutions. pretoria: department of education. stander, m.w., & rothmann, s. (2008). the relationship between leadership, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. sa journal of human resource management, 7(3), 7–13. stone, d.l., & deadrich, d.l. (2015). challenges and opportunities affecting the future of human resource management. human resource management review, 25, 139–145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.01.003 tenhiälä, a., giluk, t.l., kepes, s., simón, c., oh, i., & kim, s. (2016). the research-practice gap in human resource management: a cross-cultural study. human resource management, 55(2), 179–200. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21656 tucker, b.p., & lowe, a.d. (2014). practitioners are from mars; academics are from venus?: an investigation of the research-practice gap in management accounting. accounting, auditing & accountability journal, 27(3), 394–425, https://doi.org/10.1108/aaaj-01-2012-00932 ulrich, d., & dulebohn, j.h. (2015). are we there yet? what’s next for hr? human resource management review, 25, 118–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.01.004 van der horst, m. (2015). action research in the hrm field: a critical perspective. in 5th iba bachelor thesis conference, 02 july 2015. enschede, the netherlands. retrieved november 17, 2017, from http://essay.utwente.nl/67429/1/vanderhorst_ba_bms.pdf van rooyen, l., du toit, d.h., botha, e., & rothmann, s. (2010). artisan retention in an organisation in south africa. sa journal of human resource management, 8(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.300 vincent-lancrin, s. (2006). what is changing in academic research? trends and future scenarios. european journal of education, 41(2), 169–202. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-3435.2006.00255.x watkins, m.l., & labuschagne, h.a. (1991). die navorsingsprestasie van akademici in suid-afrika. south african journal of industrial psychology, 17(2), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v17i2.522 winslow, l. (2011). the stress of academia in the publish or perish encapsulated world. retrieved august 24, 2015, from http://ezinearticles.com/?the-stress-of-academia-in-the-publish-or-perish-encapsulated-world&id=6644904 wissing, m.p., du toit, m., & rothmann, s. (2002). faktore wat die navorsingsproduktiwiteit van universities personeel beïnvloed. south african journal of industrial psychology, 28(3), 92–98. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v28i3.58 abstract introduction problem statement literature review methodology reliability and validity of the instruments results content selection discussion implications for future research and conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) patient rambe department of business support studies, central university of technology, south africa citation rambe, p. (2018). using work integrated learning programmes as a strategy to broaden academic and workplace competencies. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a999. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.999 original research using work integrated learning programmes as a strategy to broaden academic and workplace competencies patient rambe received: 20 sept. 2017; accepted: 07 mar. 2018; published: 28 may 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: work integrated learning (wil) is often hailed for leveraging students’ swift and flexible adaptation to organisational work demands and accentuating the relevance of knowledge acquired in academic environments to work contexts. however, an inclusive view of wil’s impact on students’ academic life, especially the broadening of their academic competences, is often occluded by a selective approach to wil, which emphasises employers’ professional expectations and ignores the nature and process of competence development of students. research purpose: to bridge the research gap created by employer-centred approaches, this study explores particular south african university of technology (uot) ‘students’ perceptions’ on the influence of wil programmes on the broadening of office management and technology (omt) competencies (i.e. knowledge, skills and abilities). motivation for the study: to promote an alternative approach to unravelling omt competencies, which takes cognisance of the perceptions of students, who are the actual participants in wil. research design, approach and method: the study drew on a quantitative case study of 94 omt students from the uot’s two campuses who had been successfully placed at 20 organisations in south africa. main findings: the findings demonstrated that students’ participation in wil enhanced their practical knowledge of space management, encouraged swift learning of work-based skills and abilities as well as facilitated the transfer of these competencies across a wide range of contexts, activities and tasks. practical and managerial implications: the strong correlation between course organisation and wil’s enhancement of space management knowledge, skills and abilities implies that educators and employers need to place more emphasis not just on their delivery methods but also on the selection and organisation of content, which is critical to such delivery. recommendations: the study recommended the strengthening of the entire wil conceptualisation and implementation process (i.e. content selection, content organisation, teaching modalities and computer-assisted delivery) and its delivery regime to ensure sustained improvement of student competencies. introduction the south african government and higher educational institutions regard the high youth employment rate and bleak job prospects in the country as reasons for extreme concern. national employment statistics reveal that about 48% of south africans aged between 15 and 34 years were unemployed in the third-quarter of 2016 (graham & de lannoy, 2016). the statistics south africa (stats sa, n.d.) quarterly labour force survey (qlfs) highlights a national unemployment rate of 27.7% between january and march 2017, which is a 1.2 percentage points increase from the fourth-quarter of 2016. as the year progressed, the youth unemployment rate escalated by 1.6 percentage points to 38.6%‚ with 58.0% of unemployed people between aged between 15 and 34 years (menon, 2017), thus further widening the gap of reaching the national development plan (ndp) target of 24 million employed people by 2030 (lehohla, 2017). the 2017 qlfs further elaborates that men from previously marginalised groups, comprising black and mixed race, remain employed in semi-skilled and low-skilled occupations. these disconcerting statistics raise critical questions about the role of the university curriculum in sufficiently preparing students for gainful employment. the aforementioned soaring youth unemployment rate raises interest as to how university curricula interventions, such as work integrated learning (wil), could be harnessed as a strategy for increasing student employability, through improving their academic and career management capabilities. work integrated learning describes ‘the practice of combining traditional academic study or formal learning, with student exposure to the world-of-work in their chosen profession’ (jackson, 2015, p. 350). this academic practice is often hailed for fostering employability skills critical to student entry into the workforce (jackson, 2015); leveraging career management competencies (jackson & wilton, 2016; puncreobutr, malee, & somjate, 2016); improving student–teacher relationships, which improve student performance (salm, johner, & luhanga, 2016); and improving self-reliance in complex work contexts (organ, 2017). problem statement studies on the impact of wil on broadening student work-related competences highlight some improvements in graduate employability and development of skills (wilton, 2012), as well as the acquisition of professional competencies of practicum students (salm et al., 2016). these studies either emphasise the employers’ professional needs in relation to the development of workplace competencies or fail to tackle the nature and process of development of academic competencies of students. as such, the evaluation of the influence of wil programmes on enhancing skills development remains predominantly outcomes-focused, with an employability bias and often ignores the mechanical processes in terms of the what, how and from whom students acquire these essential skills (atkinson, 2016; jackson, 2015). in other studies, the focus of attention often gravitates towards the enhancement of acquired competencies and the overall student experience (simpson, thyer, van nugteren, mitchell, & werner, 2016), rather than on specific processes such as knowledge development and skill enhancement leading to the acquisition of particular competencies (puncreobutr et al., 2016). beckett (2004) and jackson (2015) contend that competencies and generic skills are shaped as much by sensitivity to the ‘processes’ of learning, as they are by concerns over the outcomes of learning. smith and worsfold (2014) highlight that the success of wil programmes is contingent on a variety of accidental or contextual, as well as deliberately designed, curriculum factors and hence the importance of measuring both the ‘outcomes’ of these programmes and the ‘processes’ by which these outcomes are generated. consistent with the need to capture the process of competence development, this study explores a south african university of technology (uot) ‘students’ perceptions’ on the effect particular of wil programmes on the broadening of their office management and technology (omt) competencies. literature review work integrated learning and its variants from a university perspective, wil describes (atkinson, 2016): learning that comprises a range of programmes and activities in which the theory of the learning is intentionally integrated with the practice of work through specifically designed curriculum, pedagogic practices and student engagement. (p. 2) this means that wil allows for the practical application of knowledge, concepts and skills in a simulated or actual work environment, as much as for the transfer of practical experience acquired from authentic work contexts into a university learning context to improve student performance. although wil often manifests in diverse formats and covers varying durations, intensity and foci areas, the commonly articulated formats include ‘pre-course experience, sandwich course, cooperative education, cognitive apprenticeship or job shadowing, joint industry–university course, new traineeship or apprenticeship, placement or practicum, fieldwork, post-course internship’ (puncreobutr et al., 2016, p. 121). although work-based practices such as job shadowing, career fairs and work-study are credited with providing students with exposure to workplace and career-oriented experiences, they are often not directly integrated into students’ programmes of study and, as such, unfold as coor extra-curricular engagements (mcrae & johnston, 2016; sattler, wiggers, & arnold, 2011). it is beyond the scope of this article to unravel the individual traits of each wil format because of its exclusive focus on work placements. suffice to acknowledge that the location of each wil format in the formal programme, its organisation, extent of formality, level of integration, duration and intensity of competence development vary considerably. work integrated learning and competence development the growing body of literature on the benefits of wil on competence development tends to intersect in the following areas: improving academic performance (crawford & wang, 2015; milne & caldicott, 2016), improving academic knowledge (dressler & keeling, 2011), expanding the work-based knowledge of students (maher, pelly, swanepoel, sutakowsky, & hughes, 2015; peters, sattler, & kelland, 2014) and increasing the employability of graduates through broadening their professional skills (biasini, bohm, & rabadán-gómez, 2016; brimble & freudenberg, 2010; tai, molloy, haines, & canny, 2016). other studies have placed their emphasis on developing a professional identity and language of students (burgess, roberts, blackr, & mellis, 2013), increasing the career management competencies of students and increasing local and regional collaborative engagement between the university, employers and industry (atkinson, 2016; henderson & trede, 2017; khuong, 2016). with regard to the wil-academic performance relationship, crawford and wang (2015) highlighted that chinese students who undertook placements in their third year of study were seven times more likely to achieve good grades than those who opted out of work placements. the authors further reported that students with good grades in their first and second years of study were more likely to undertake placements than those with poor grades. much of the aforementioned research seems to lay emphasis on strengthening the learning outcomes of students, for example, targeting particular authentic competencies and improving the quality of industrial experience and exposure (smith & worsfold, 2014), rather than focussing on the nature of programmes, including the selection of appropriate content, and the processes, such as course organisation and teaching modalities, which trigger and culminate in the acquisition of such competencies. as such, this outcomes-focused approach may be regarded as propagating a pre-occupation with the final ‘product’, rather than focussing on the processes involved in ‘developing the product’. this may lead to educators who are not sufficiently preparing students for the world of work and nurturing students who harbour unrealistic expectations of an industry where operational competence is prioritised over academic competences (barrows & johan, 2008; khuong, 2016). work integrated learning content selection and organisation the selection and organisation of relevant learning content to prepare students sufficiently for work place demands is fundamental to student success in wil for two important reasons: (1) the reality that, while universities take charge of the management of the work-based programme, the learning environment is distant to the university campus; and (2) processes that enable student participation and attainment of learning outcomes occur within the ‘workplace’ or ‘industry’ (henderson & trede, 2017). as the success of the evaluation of wil lies at the intersection of the industry and the university (henderson & trede, 2017; henderson et al., 2010), the university should play a critical role in both the formative processes of content development (in preparation for wil) and course organisation to ensure that they are sufficiently and seamlessly integrated into the wil programme. this means that wil learning experiences should deliberately integrate knowledge and understandings previously encountered by the student through various teaching and learning modalities with practices encountered in the workplace setting (yorke, 2011). therefore, sufficient preparation of knowledge, skills and understanding of learning outcomes prior to work-based learning; the rendering of support from academics and workplace supervisors; and the provision of facilitative conditions of the real-world context are all integral to meaningful student learning (henderson & trede, 2017). although the provision of relevant learning content and its appropriate organisation is fundamental to preparing the climate for knowledge transfer across diverse contexts, the responsibility of students is to reflect and document their experiences and apply them across different work-related contexts. work integrated learning and teaching modalities billet (2011) and jackson (2015) emphasise the development of curricula and pedagogical practices that focus on the integration of workplace practice with classroom learning to ensure sufficient transfer of workplace skills to learning concepts acquired through direct instruction. the emphasis of such transfer is on appraising certain concepts, reinforcement of specific workplace behaviours and how these behaviours could inform critical problem-solving within work contexts. although billet’s theorisation of knowledge integration emphasises pre-placement preparation, provision of support to allow for critical reflection in practice and seamless integration of these processes, there is no guarantee that provision of such support always translates into meaningful transfer of workplace technical skills. another instructional model that constitutes a variant of wil is the sandwich programme, offered in the united kingdom. the sandwich degrees constitute 4-year study programmes with a year-long industry or work placement sandwiched between the second and final years of the degree study period (crawford & wang, 2015; little & harvey, 2006). this model is founded on the assumption that industrial attachment and exposure increases experiential learning (kolb, 1984; jackson, 2015) through the practical application of concepts visualised and learned in university classrooms. although experiential learning offered through clinical practicums and industrial placements is integral to ‘procedural’ learning, the model does not provide clear mechanisms for integrating and transferring concepts learned in classrooms into workplace contexts. that said, there is evidence to support the view that international students who undertake placements based on the sandwich model tend to improve their academic performance in their final year (jones, green, & higson, 2017). a further approach to integrating practice with theory is that of simulations, which are pedagogical practices credited with increasing student articulation and executing work-related tasks in classroom environments. they are considered effective and beneficial to students when they render ‘realistic’ experiences of the workplace or the commercial environment (atkinson, 2016). these experiences can take the form of simulating ‘real’ business entities for business students, operationalisation of greenhouse environment for horticulture students and holding legal debates in a simulated court of law for law students. methodology the sample comprised 94 omt third year students from a uot in south africa who had successfully participated in, and completed, their wil programme. the choice of omt students was based on the impending reality of discontinuing the omt bachelor of technology (btech) course at this university in 2018 and replacing it with an advanced diploma, because of a shrinking job market for secretaries and administrators and student demands for greater value for money in the recession ridden south african economy. brookfield (2012, p. 45) highlights that employers often prefer employing individuals with sophisticated office management experience and skills for the good reputation of their organisations and to increase organisational profit. the need to discontinue and re-brand the omt course also arose from the rapid expansion of omt competencies in the information age to include managing of computer documents, basic programming and computer-based communication such as skype (voice over internet protocol). these competences are reported to require substantial levels of ‘analysis and reasoning, […] research, problem solving, and oral communication skills’ (van zyn, 2005, p. 162) critical to preparing students adequately for the complex work environment. procedures a survey approach was employed to collect data on students’ perspectives on the influence of wil programmes on broadening their omt competencies. the wil lecturers and coordinators provided the list and email addresses of students who had been successfully placed at particular organisations and participated in wil (n = 94). measures section a: this section covered generic demographic data of the students, such as their gender, age, educational background and year of experience on attachment. sections b and c: in addressing students’ perceptions, the researcher relied on retrieving as much information as possible from the questionnaires distributed to students. these sections’ questions focused on the influence of content and participation in wil programmes on the broadening of their competencies and the role of students in the assessment process. reliability and validity of the instruments for adequate reliability, a construct’s items must have cronbach’s alpha values of at least 0.700. any value less than 0.700 is indicative of a low internal consistency or reliability. the american public human service association (2012, p. 45) articulates that reliability pertains to the consistency of scores obtained for a particular item. the less the consistency within a given measurement, the less useful the data may be for purposes of analysis. table 1 shows that all items in the questionnaire had high internal consistency as indicated by cronbach’s alpha values greater than 0.7. overall, the whole questionnaire had a very high cronbach’s alpha value, thus making it highly reliable. pretorius (2012) states that there are different reports about the acceptable values of alpha, ranging from 0.70 to 0.95. table 1: reliability. factor analysis was conducted to determine the validity of each item measuring the constructs, namely knowledge of time management, knowledge of space management, skills learning and abilities enhancement. the results in table 3 to table 6 indicate that the latent factor (principal component) coefficients for the items measuring each construct were predominantly above 6. bagozzi (2011) states that even though factor loadings greater than 0.7 are preferred, factor loadings less than 0.7 but above 0.6 are still acceptable. this means that many of the items were valid and sufficiently measured the constructs in question. results students’ biographical summary this section analyses the general biographical profile of the students who responded to this study. demographic composition of the participants the results in table 2 illustrate that the gender composition of respondents was 51% (n = 48) males and 49% (n = 46) females. the students were self-selected on the grounds that both genders were expected to participate in wil in accordance with the requirements of the curriculum. table 2: biographical information for students. most students who participated in this study were mainly below the age of 25 (96%). only 4% of the students were in the age group of 25–34 years. the dominance of those below 25 years of age is indicative of the fact that most students who enrol for undergraduate university studies would typically be younger, as opposed to more mature adults. a sizeable percentage (32%) of respondents were sesotho speaking followed by those afrikaans (22%), english (19%), isixhosa (17%) and isizulu speaking (11%). in spite of the linguistic diversity reflected in the results, it is apparent that a majority of respondents were sesotho and afrikaans speaking. this demographic can be attributed to the site of investigation, where the majority of students enrolled are sesotho, afrikaans and english language speakers (ferreira, 2011). in terms of education, a majority (89%) of respondents possessed a matric qualification and below as their highest qualification. nine per cent (9%) of the respondents indicated that they possessed further education and training (fet) or equivalent qualifications, with only 2% possessing university degrees or diplomas. knowledge of time management the study examined the overall influence of wil on the enhancement of the competencies of omt students who had been attached to organisations through wil. as students had overwhelmingly positive responses to most items on the questionnaire, only those responses with the highest percentages and mean scores are reported in this study. as competencies comprise individuals’ knowledge, skills and abilities, omt student responses to questions that dealt with the influence of wil on the enhancement of knowledge of time management are summarised in table 3. table 3: enhancement of knowledge of time management. the cronbach’s alpha value of 0.875 indicates that the items that make up the construct of the overall influence of wil on the enhancement of knowledge of time management have a high internal consistency. hence, they can be summarised by a single measure and still represent all the items of this construct reliably. all respondents strongly agreed that participation in wil had a positive impact on their knowledge of planning of current and future task or work activities. the result demonstrates that 98.9% of the respondents strongly agreed that participation in wil impacted positively on their knowledge of general time consciousness. similarly, 97.9% of them claimed that participation in wil positively impacted on their knowledge of appropriate allocation of time to tasks. these finding demonstrate that students’ time consciousness is enhanced through wil placement practices such as the requirement for these individual attaches to keep a time log to determine how they expended their time productively and observe punctuality at work. of the respondents, 97.9% indicated that their participation in wil assisted them in managing multiple conflicting priorities and in managing their time, which are key considerations in leveraging organisational productivity. this somewhat contradicts literature which suggests that multitasking causes serious productivity decline – loss of productivity as high as 40.0% when compared to single-tasking (rubinstein, meyer, & evans, 2001). the measures of central tendency provided in table 3 demonstrate high means score and low standard deviations, showing evidence of consistency of responses. most of the mean scores on the impact of wil on knowledge of time management were high: time consciousness (mean, m = 4.83, sd = 0.41), appropriate allocation of time to tasks (m = 4.79, sd = 0.46) and general time management (m = 4.78; sd = 0.47). space management knowledge table 4 illustrates the results of the students’ responses on wil’s effect on their knowledge of space management. table 4: space management knowledge. the cronbach’s alpha value of 0.918 indicates that the items that constitute the construct of space management knowledge have a high internal consistency. hence, they can be summarised by a single measure and still represent all the items of this construct reliably. a majority (98.9%) of students indicated that wil enhanced their knowledge of how to handle appropriately all paperwork in the office. this dominant percentage could mean that wil opportunities improve the employment readiness of these future office managers, office administrators and secretaries. participation in wil was conceived to impact on student management of office resources such as office space and technology. about 97.9% and 95.7% of students were of the opinion that participation in wil positively impacted on their knowledge of adapting to new technology and managing tasks. the results indicate that 96.8% of the respondents were of the opinion that wil had positively impacted their knowledge of managing space and creating an organised omt office. the high mean scores and low standard deviations in table 4 show evidence of consistency of responses. most mean scores on the impact of wil on knowledge of space management were high: control over physical environment (m = 4.84, sd = 0.42), organisational functions and procedures of the office (m = 4.83, sd = 0.43) and appropriate handling of paperwork (m = 4.80, sd = 0.43). skills learning table 5 illustrates a summary of the results on the learning skills ingrained in the wil programme. table 5: skills learning. the cronbach’s alpha value of 0.923 indicates that the items that constitute the construct of skills have a high internal consistency. hence, they can be summarised by a single measure and still measure the skills factor (construct) reliably. all (100%) students concurred that participation in wil improved their presentation skills, especially their articulation using relevant content owing to good oral presentation skills learnt in the workplace. all respondents (100%) strongly agreed that participation in wil enhanced their oral skills such as speaking with confidence and using clear and concise sentences. a total of 97.9% of the students strongly agreed that participation in wil impacted positively on their computer and technical skills. this highlights that students’ computer skills, such as word processing, powerpoint presentations, emailing and technical drawing, improved through participation in wil. table 5 also shows consistency of responses judging from the high means and small deviations from the means. most mean scores on the impact of wil on skills learning were high: communication skills (m = 4.87, sd = 0.39), writing skills (m = 4.83, sd = 0.43) and oral skills (m = 4.83, sd = 0.38). abilities enhancement the summary statistics on the effect of wil on the enhancement of abilities are presented in table 6. the table indicates that, in general, the students’ participation in wil affected their abilities positively. table 6: abilities enhancement. the cronbach’s alpha value of 0.846 indicates that the items that constitute the construct of abilities have a high internal consistency. hence, they can be summarised by a single measure and still measure the abilities factor (construct) reliably. there was a strong affirmation (98.9%) among students of the potential of wil to improve their capacity to provide leadership to clerical and support staff. a similar percentage (98.9%) also reiterated the capacity of wil to engender their confidence in the delivery of their duties. a demonstrable percentage (97.9%) agreed to the capacity of wil to improve their ability to follow procedures in the preparation of administration forms and managing their relationships with all other stakeholders. consistency of responses manifested in high means and low standard deviations. most mean scores on the impact of wil on abilities enablement were high: maintaining good working relationships (m = 4.90, sd = 0.36), following procedures for preparing forms (m = 4.88, sd = 0.38) and maintaining confidentiality of documents (m = 4.87, sd = 037). as the study emphasises the role of wil processes rather than concentrating on wil outcomes, the study also factors in content selection, content organisation, teaching methodologies and curricula delivery into the wil process. content selection the questions on content selection related to the relevance and appropriateness of the academic content that the students learnt in their lectures. the content selection construct is presented first and its relationship with wil is presented later in a cross tabulation that shows correlations between constructs. the cronbach’s alpha value of 0.899 indicates that the items that constitute the construct of lecture content selection have a high internal consistency. hence, they can be summarised by a single measure and still measure the construct reliably. the high mean and low standard deviations in table 7 also demonstrated the consistency of responses. most responses on lecturers’ choice of content had high mean scores: familiarising students with space management (m = 4.87, sd = 0.34), familiarising students with office management knowledge (m = 4.86, sd = 0.40) and familiarising students with time management (m = 4.85, sd = 0.39). table 7: lecturers’ content selection. course organisation – factor 1 as the study highlighted the value of understanding wil processes and not just its outcomes, it considered course organisation as a typical factor integral to developing such wil processes. therefore, student perceptions on the effects of course organisation on wil were examined. the cronbach’s alpha value of 0.940 indicates that the items that constitute the first sub-construct of course organisation have very high internal consistency. hence, they can be summarised by a single measure and still represent all the 10 items of the construct reliably (table 8). table 8: effects of course organisation 1. the results of the kaiser–meyer–olkin measure of sampling showed sampling adequacy (0.877; df = 253, sig. = 0.000), supported the conduct of factor analysis and that the questionnaire items can be split into sub-constructs as they were highly correlated. the factors were split into three sub constructs. the result of exploratory factor analysis showed that the factors for most items ranged from 0.561 to 0.775, thus ranged from acceptable to adequate. the high means scores and low standard deviations demonstrated consistency of responses. most responses on the effects of course organisation on wil had high mean scores: ability to follow guidelines for preparing forms (m = 4.90, 0.33), enhancing ability to operate machines (m = 4.89, sd = 0.31) and enhancing critical thinking abilities (m = 4.86, sd = 038). course organisation – factor 2 the results for the second sub-construct of course organisation are presented in table 9. table 9: effects of course organisation 2. a cronbach’s alpha value of 0.929 indicates that the items that constitute the second sub-construct of course organisation have a very high internal consistency. hence, they can be summarised by a single measure. most mean scores on the effect of course organisation were high demonstrating consistency of responses. these means and standard deviations were as follows: knowledge of sequencing omt tasks (m = 4.95, sd = 0.23), grasping omt practicals (m = 4.89, sd = 0.32) and listening skills (m = 4.89, sd = 0.32). course organisation sub-construct 3 – factor 3 the results for the third sub-construct of course organisation are presented in table 10. table 10: effect of course organisation 3. the results also showed high means and low standard deviations showing consistency of responses. teaching modalities – 1 the construct of teaching modalities had 14 questionnaire items, which needed to be split into sub-constructs using exploratory factor analysis. the results of the kaiser–meyer–olkin measure of sampling adequacy are high (0.916) and the bartlett’s test of sphericity is significant (chi-square = 1109.586, df = 91, p = 0.000). this shows that the questionnaire items for teaching modalities can be split into sub-constructs as they are highly correlated. the results of reliability test demonstrate that the two sub-constructs of teaching modalities are reliable (cronbach’s alpha > 0.700). the results of the first teaching modalities sub-construct (factor 1) are presented in table 11. table 11: influence of teaching modalities (1). the first construct of teaching modalities has a very high internal consistency (cronbach’s alpha = 0.938). all the mean scores on the effects of teaching modalities were high suggesting consistency of responses: improvement in omt space management knowledge (m = 4.87, sd = 0.37) and task management knowledge (m = 4.87, sd = 0.37). teaching modalities – 2 the results of the second teaching modalities sub-construct (factor 2) are presented in table 12. table 12: influence of teaching modalities (2). the second construct of teaching modalities also had a very high internal consistency (cronbach’s alpha = 0.878) and accounts for 73.47% of the information contained in the original questionnaire items before they are combined into one variable. the mean scores were high for all items of this sub-construct. technology-assisted curricula delivery as with the aforementioned teaching-related components, the construct of technology-assisted curricula delivery also received a very high positive feedback from the students who participated in this study. correlations between work integrated learning and student competencies having presented the different competencies (i.e. space management knowledge, skills learning and abilities enhancement) independently in the previous sections, this section presents the results of correlations between these constructs (see table 7). these constructs are reliable representatives of the questionnaire items that fall under them as indicated by the cronbach’s alpha values for each item, which indicated high reliability. the correlations show that all the wil variables, in relation to overall influence of wil on the enhancement of work place competencies (i.e. knowledge, skills and abilities), are significantly correlated with the variables that fall under the students’ perspectives on the effect of the wil programme on the broadening of omt competencies. table 14 contains the correlations between the various constructs of wil and students’ perspectives on the effect of the wil programme on the broadening of omt knowledge, skills and abilities. table 13: influence of technology assisted curricula delivery. table 14: correlations between work integrated learning and students’ perspectives. the four constructs of wil are also highly correlated among themselves and have high effect sizes. likewise, the seven constructs of students’ perspectives on the effect of the wil programme on the broadening omt knowledge, skills and abilities are also highly and significantly correlated and have large effects sizes. discussion influence of work integrated learning on the enhancement of knowledge of time management the dominant consensus (100%) on the capacity of wil to promote planning of tasks suggests that student immersion in work contexts contributed to their knowledge of professional work practices such as proper scheduling of routine work tasks and activities, which enhanced timeous execution of tasks. therefore, the inculcation of knowledge on task planning transformed their work planning styles and reduced slack. task planning is considered vital to increased production in work environments because regardless of the job role or responsibilities, every worker is a component of a group or team vital for the smooth functioning of an organisation (kundasami, 2007, p. 45). time management knowledge concepts comprised knowledge of timeous execution of business functions, management of multiple conflicting priorities and proper allocation of time to various activities. the affirmative responses on student knowledge of timeous execution of business functions resonate with the claim that wil ethos and practices are founded on the theory of experiential learning. the theory emphasises learners’ transition from listening and visualising job-related concepts and constructs to the practical application of what they have been taught (kolb & kolb, 2005, p. 45) and timeous execution of tasks is no exception. the finding on wil’s influence on students’ timeous execution of business functions also corroborates smith’s (2012, p. 89) finding that participation in wil impacted on student undertaking of authentic work activities such as knowing how business should operate and student interaction with a real-work context. the affirmative responses on the potential of participation in wil to improve the management of multiple conflicting priorities and proper allocation of time to tasks corroborate clouder, broughan, jewell and steventon’s (2012, p. 78) claim that wil is an educational approach that aligns academic and workplace practices for the mutual benefit of students and workplaces. authentic work environments are considered to generate cognitive authenticity (herrington & herrington, 2006) where students engage in personally meaningful and relevant learning (smith, 2012; stein, andrews, & isaacs, 2001) through participation in real tasks. in the same vein, the capacity of wil to influence students’ time consciousness reinforces martin, hughes and edwards’ (2011, p. 66) finding that when students’ omt competencies are improved, their overall performance in any identified area and overall quality of their work in different learning contexts are also enhanced. influence of work integrated learning on space management knowledge the almost universal response on the wil’s capacity to improve student knowledge of space management mirrors cooper, orrel and bowden’s (2010, p. 99) claim that wil experiences provide students with the knowledge requisite for the management of space such as keeping the office clean all the times. the same finding also confirms the finding on the capacity of clinical practice (another form of wil) to improve occupational therapy (ot) students’ sound knowledge of occupational health and safety principles, which allows them to assess the (cleanliness of) environment including clients’ safety (richmond, richards, & britt, 2015). the claim on the potential of wil participation to enhance presentation skills could mean that activities prior to the presentation itself such as the planning for their presentation and conduct of rigorous research to ensure the delivery of a well-constructed message were also integral to delivering a good presentation. this finding resonates with smith’s (2014, p. 69) view on the need for business graduate employees to be equipped with an understanding of workplace oral communication skills. the fact that participation in wil was conceived to improve the oratory abilities of students seems to cohere with richmond et al.’s (2015) evidence on the potential of clinical practice (a form of wil) to improve ot’s communicative abilities such as self-introduction, building rapport and explaining the constitution of the ot discipline to clients. the same finding also mirrors organ’s (2017) finding on the impact of work placements on the transformation of english language learners’ knowledge. his study reported that, upon completion of their placements, students had acquired fundamental work knowledge critical to their improved confidence and negotiation skills to work in other international educational contexts. the popularity of the view that wil participation improved students’ computer skills resonates with the claim that students’ participation in wil enhanced their technology skills, which serves as an advantage in the contemporary business environment (smith, 2012, p. 46). at the same time, the overwhelming consensus on the capacity of wil participation to improve student adaptation to technology gels with the premise that, despite the variations in the terminologies used to describe wil programmes and practices, they are all premised on the importance of enabling students to integrate theoretical knowledge gained through formal study into technical and practically oriented work contexts (kundasami, 2007, p. 4). by the same token, the popular view that work placements contributed to students’ technical ability to operate machines (e.g. printers, scanners and binding machines) and other digital competencies such as word processing, faxing and photocopying documents points to the broad repertoire of technological skills that work placements foster and sustain. this finding also corresponds with van zyn’s (2005, p. 163) observation that, while omt focused traditionally on file handling and typing, the profession has since expanded with the advent of information and communication technologies to include managing computer documents and computer-based communication such as skype (van zyn, 2005, p. 163). the affirmative responses on wil’s influence on student leadership imply that, when fully developed and integrated into the work environment, such leadership can motivate fellow employees and transform the corporate world. the compelling evidence of leadership skills among students contradicts the popular employer discourse on graduate possession of ‘discipline-specific’ skills and their grappling with soft skills such as leadership and communication, in particular their application in work contexts (business, industry and higher education collaboration council report [bihecc], 2007; smith & worsfold, 2014). perhaps, the academic levels at which students enrol for wil and the varying context of application of such skills explain these differences. nevertheless, the thriving of leadership skills gels well with trede’s (2012) claim that the great leaders’ creation of a vivid and compelling vision of the future motivates fellow employees to want to achieve it, and more importantly, it is everyone’s dream to work for a company that makes a difference in the world. students also gave very affirmative responses on the potential of wil to increase their confidence levels in the work environment. according to grabe (2010), the development of students’ abilities during their participation in wil depends on the capacity of employers to invest in the betterment of such abilities to increase their competence in the world of work. these findings resonate with mcilveen et al.’s (2012, p. 26) claim that wil tends to emphasise the concerns of employers and the workplace rather than those of students, and the balance is often tilted in favour of learning to work as opposed to learning to learn (mcilveen et al., 2012, p. 26). nevertheless, there was no hard evidence to support the view that students’ academic competencies were compromised by their placements on the wil programme. the overwhelming responses on the potential of wil to impact student inclination to follow work-based procedures cohere with the reasonable expectation for most business operations to rely on accurate procedures including complete and accurate workplace documents for communication, information management and record keeping to occur. as such, procedures may cohere with employers’ expectations of students know how to write emails and letters, and complete documents and reports while avoiding mistakes (van zyn, 2005, p. 163). correlations between work integrated learning and students’ work-related competencies the results of correlation analysis between learning content and wil demonstrate that lecture content selection is significantly and positively correlated with the overall influence of wil on the enhancement of knowledge of time management, space management knowledge, skills and abilities. the high effect sizes of the correlations between wil and lecture content selection suggest the strong integration of content selection with the workplace context activities. as smith and worsfold (2014) observe, a central trait of wil approaches is the close integration of university study and professional or workplace practice, allowing integrative learning activities to engender the practical application of disciplinary knowledge learned at university to real-world work contexts. the correlation between the first construct of course organisation (course organisation 1) and wil demonstrates that course organisation is significantly and positively correlated with the overall influence of wil on the enhancement of knowledge of time management, space management knowledge, skills and abilities. the correlations had high effect size demonstrating that there is a strong relationship between wil and course organisation 1. when wil is wholly embedded into university programmes, these programmes tend to create more than just work experience and improve university-occupational links (atkinson, 2016). the results of this study also revealed that the second construct of course organisation (course organisation 2) is significantly and positively correlated with the overall influence of wil on the enhancement of knowledge of time management, space management knowledge, skills and abilities, and the correlations had high effect sizes. although the relationships demonstrated high level of student proficiency and high level of significance, there is a need to gauge student levels of competencies from the employers, and educators’ perspectives to determine students’ work readiness, levels of intellectual rigor, critical analysis, and application and cultural awareness (whelan, 2017). the study noted marked differences between employers’ and and educators’ perceptions on students’ skills acquired from their participation in wil – while teaching staff perceived students’ skills as ‘adequate’, the students and host supervisors perceived students’ skills to be approaching the ‘proficient’ level. the results of the study also demonstrated that the first construct of teaching modalities (teaching modalities 1) is significantly and positively correlated with the overall influence of wil on the enhancement of time management knowledge, space management knowledge, skills and abilities. the correlations are of high effect size; hence, there is a strong relationship between wil and teaching modalities 1. this could imply that good pedagogical practices trigger improved knowledge production in the work environment during and after the wil programme. henderson and trede (2017) highlight that some tangible benefits of wil include development of good practices based on students’ knowledge and research evidence, such as the opportunity to glean their fresh ideas, knowledge, skills and approaches. more so, after students’ workplace experience, industry staff can also reflect upon these new ideas and approaches introduced and consider how these may be useful to the industry (henderson & trede, 2017). recommendations the strong correlation between course organisation (course organisation 1) and overall influence of wil on the enhancement of knowledge of time management, space management knowledge, skills and abilities implies that educators and employers need to place more emphasis not just on their delivery methods but also on the selection and organisation of course materials, which is critical to such delivery. the strong correlation between teaching modalities and the overall influence of wil on the enhancement of knowledge, space management knowledge, skills and abilities demonstrates the central role that pedagogical delivery plays in the enhancement of student competencies. as such, educators should put equal attention on the delivery mechanisms and modes to ensure that the choice of the delivery mode coheres with the discipline students are enrolled in, their learning styles and their academic levels and the rationale of the wil programmes. the results also showed that technology-assisted curricula delivery is significantly and positively correlated with the overall influence of wil on the enhancement of various competencies. although this may demonstrate the high technology-dependent nature of omt activities and tasks, it also demonstrates the centrality of technology in catalysing the effective implementation of wil. therefore, rather than adopting technology as an appendage (an ‘add on’) of wil conceptualisation and implementation processes, educators should make technology more integral to their administration of wil programmes by incorporating technology at wil conceptualisation, integrating it at wil content selection, organisation and delivery. implications for future research and conclusion although the current research focused on students’ perspectives in resource-constrained contexts, future studies should incorporate educators and employers’ perspectives on the capacity of wil to broaden student competences and compare them with student perspectives. this will provide a more integrated view of such perspectives of wil that will be beneficial to universities’ student-supported career planning, students’ academic and professional growth and employers’ aspirations about student competencies. although this focus foregrounded third year students who already had a detailed experience of university education, it may not be clear whether their positive affirmation of wil was a consequence of their extended university experience or an outcome of their genuine and authentic interaction with the work environment. as such, exposing junior students (e.g. first or second year students) to wil, and then comparing their experiences to those of third years, will provide a more comprehensive picture of the motivations for the overly positive affirmations of wil. although the omt competences were the main focus of the research, future studies should investigate the impact of wil on the improvement of broader competencies such as general management and strategic competencies. the study criticised employability-centric and employer-centric perspectives adopted by most of wil studies, which tend to negate the perspectives of the students who actually participate in such programmes. the study took a student perspective by concentrating on the extent to which student participation in wil positively influenced a broad range of student competencies. the findings demonstrated that a variety of knowledge, skills and abilities were positively influenced by student participation in wil programmes. acknowledgements the author thanks nomfundo gladys khoza for the collection of data that contributed to the write up of this article. competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. references american public human service association. (2012). a guidebook for building organisational performance capacity: a training system example. washington, dc: american public human service association. atkinson, g. (2016). work-based learning and work-integrated learning: fostering engagement with employer. adelaide: national centre for vocational education research. bagozzi, r.p. (2011). measure and meaning in information systems and organisational research: methodological and philosophical foundations. mis quarterly, 35(2), 261–292. https://doi.org/10.2307/23044044 barrows, c., & johan, n. (2008). hospitality management education. in b. brotherton & r. wood (eds.), the sage handbook of hospitality management (pp. 146–162). london, uk: sage. beckett, d. (2004). embodied competence and generic skills: the emergence of inferential understanding. educational philosophy and theory, 36(5), 497–508. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2004.086_1.x biasini, r., bohm, a., & rabadán-gómez, m. (2016). independent work placements as a gateway to the world of work. in e. corradini, k. borthwick, & a. gallagher-brett (eds.), employability for languages: a handbook (pp. 39–42). dublin: research-publishing. billet, s. (2011). curriculum and pedagogical bases for effectively integrating practice-based experiences. strawberry hills, nsw: australian learning and teaching council (altc). brimble, m., & freudenberg, b. (2010, april 28). will wil’ing work? b-hert news, pp. 2–4. brookfield, s.d. (2012). teaching for critical thinking: tool and techniques to help students question their assumptions. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. burgess, a.w., roberts, c., black, k.i., & mellis, c. (2013). senior medical student perceived ability and experience in giving peer feedback in formative long case examinations. bmc medical education, 13(1), 79–84. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-13-79 business, industry and higher education collaboration council (bihecc). (2007). graduate employability skills. canberra: bihecc. clouder, l., broughan, c., jewell, s., & steventon, g. (2012). improving student engagement and development through assessment (1st edn.) london: routledge. cooper, l., orrel, j., & bowden, m. (2010). work integrated learning: a guide to effective practice. london: routledge. crawford, i., & wang, z. (2015). the effect of work placements on the academic performance of chinese students in uk higher education. teaching in higher education, 20(6), 569–586. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2015.1045860 dressler, s., & keeling, a. (2011). benefits of cooperative and work-integrated education for students. in r. coll & k. e. zegwaard (eds.), international handbook for cooperative and work-integrated education (pp. 261–275). lowell, ma: world association for co-operative education. ferreira, d. (2011). terminology measurement in south africa. a review of three working methods. in t. kruit, e. ruijsendaal, w. martin, & h. van der vliet (eds.), terminology for europeans (and beyond). proceedings of the international symposium of terminology service centres (pp. 47–54). gent: association for dutch terminology and dutch language union, academia press. grabe, w. (2010). fluency in reading-thirty-five years later. reading in a foreign language, 22(1), 71–83. graham, l., & de lannoy, a. (2016). south africa’s youth unemployment rates are now considered to be chronic. the latest figures show that about 48% of south africans between 15 and 34 were unemployed in the third quarter of 2016 retrieved december 07, 2017, from http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2017/02/14/what-south-africa-can-do-about-youth-unemployment-in-the-short-run henderson, a., alexander, h., haywood, a., stapleton, p., cooke, m., patterson, e., … creedy, d. (2010). promoting and providing expert guidance in work-intensive clinical settings. vocations and learning, 13(2), 141–150. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-010-9036-3 henderson, a., & trede, f. (2017). strengthening attainment of student learning outcomes during work-integrated learning: a collaborative governance framework across academia, industry and students. asia-pacific journal of cooperative education, 18(1), 73–80. herrington, a., & herrington, j. (2006). authentic learning environments in higher education. hershey, pa: information science publishing. jackson, d. (2015). employability skill development in work-integrated learning: barriers and best practice. studies in higher education, 40(2), 350–367. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2013.842221 jackson, d., & wilton, n. (2016). developing career management competencies among undergraduates and the role of work-integrated learning. teaching in higher education, 21(3), 266–286. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2015.1136281 jones, c.m., green, j.p., & higson, h.e. (2017). do work placements improve final year academic performance or do high-calibre students choose to do work placements? studies in higher education, 42(6), 976–992. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1073249 khuong, c.t. (2016). work-integrated learning process in tourism training programs in vietnam: voices of education and industry. asia-pacific journal of cooperative education, 17(2), 149–161. kolb, a., & kolb, d. (2005). learning styles and learning space: enhancing experiential learning in higher education. academy of management learning & education, 4(2), 193–212. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2005.17268566 kolb, d. (1984). experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. kundasami, v. (2007). the assessment of work-integrated learning at a university of technology. pretoria: university of pretoria. lehohla, p. (2017). statistician-general speech at the release of statistics sa’s quarterly labour force survey. statistics south africa, pretoria. little, b., & harvey, l. (2006). learning through work placements and beyond. york: centre for research and evaluation and centre for higher education research and information. maher, j., pelly, f., swanepoel, e., sutakowsky, l., & hughes, r. (2015). the contribution of clinical placement to nutrition and dietetics competency development: a student-centred approach. nutrition and dietetics, 72, 156–162. https://doi.org/10.1111/1747-0080.12163 martin, s., hughes, l., & edwards, e. (2011). writing in the business profession. cape town: dannels. mcilveen, k., mcnamara, j., kift, k., butler, s.d., field, k., brown, w., & gamble, d. (2012). training management in south africa. cape town: oxford university press. mcrae, n., & johnston, n. (2016). the development of a proposed global work-integrated learning framework. asia-pacific journal of cooperative education, 17(4), 337–348. menon, s. (2017). sa’s unemployment rate hits a 13-year high. retrieved from https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2017-06-01-sas-unemployment-rate-hits-a-13-year-high/ milne, l., & caldicott, j. (2016). exploring differences in industry supervisors’ ratings of student performance on wil placements and the relative importance of skills: does remuneration matter? asia-pacific. journal of cooperative education, 17(2), 175–186. organ, a. (2017). languages in the workplace: embedding employability in the foreign language undergraduate curriculum. in c. álvarez-mayo, a. gallagher-brett, & f. michel (eds.), innovative language teaching and learning at university: enhancing employability (pp. 37–45). research-publishing.net. retrieved november 05, 2017, from https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2017 peters, j., sattler, p., & kelland, j. (2014). work-integrated learning in ontario’s postsecondary sector: the pathways of recent college and university graduates. toronto, canada: higher education quality council of ontario (heqco). pretorius, j. (2012). a language act for south africa? principles, viability and practice. bloemfontein: university of free state. puncreobutr, v., malee, & somjate. (2016). linking work integrated learning and competency of graduates pursuing graduate diploma in teaching profession. journal of education and practice, 7(10), 121–127. richmond, k., richards, k., & britt, k. (2015). the impact of an authentic, simulated learning activity on student preparedness for work-integrated learning. asia-pacific journal of cooperative education, 16(4), 343–354. rubinstein, j.s., meyer, d.e., & evans, j.e. (2001). executive control of cognitive processes in task switching. journal of experimental psychology, 27(4), 763–797. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.27.4.763 salm, t.l., johner, r., & luhanga, f. (2016). determining student competency in field placements: an emerging theoretical model. the canadian journal for the scholarship of teaching and learning, 7(1), article 5. retrieved november 07, 2017, from http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cjsotl_rcacea/vol7/iss1/5 sattler, p., wiggers, r., & arnold, c. (2011). combining workplace training with postsecondary education: the spectrum of workintegrated learning (wil) opportunities from apprenticeship to experiential learning. canadian apprenticeship journal, 5. retrieved november 13, 2017, from http://journals.sfu.ca/caj/index.php/caj-jca/article/view/74/131 simpson, p., thyer, l., van nugteren, b., mitchell, g., & werner, s. (2016). reflections and experiences of student paramedics undertaking international work-integrated learning placements. asia-pacific journal of cooperative education, 17(2), 187–196. smith, c., & worsfold, k. (2014). wil curriculum design and student learning: a structural model of their effects on student satisfaction. studies in higher education, 39(6), 1070–1084. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2013.777407 smith, c.d. (2012). evaluating the quality of work-integrated learning curricula: a comprehensive framework. higher education research and development, 31(2), 247–262. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2011.558072 statistics south africa. (2017). quarterly labour force survey quarter 1: 2017. statistical release p0211. pretoria, south africa: statistics south africa. stein, s., andrews, t., & isaacs, g. (2001). incorporating authentic learning experiences within a business management course, australian association for research in education. queensland: the university of notre dame fremantle australia: university of queensland, queensland. tai, j., molloy, e., haines, t., & canny, b. (2016). same-level peer-assisted learning in medical clinical placements: a narrative systematic review. medical education, 50, 469–484. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.12898 trede, f., 2012. role of work integrated learning in developing professionalism and professional identity. asia-pacific journal of cooperative education, 13(3), 159–167. van zyn, d. (2005). marketing research. cape town: johnson. whelan, m. (2017). road testing graduate attributes and course learning outcomes of an environmental science degree via a work integrated learning placement. asia-pacific journal of cooperative education, 18(1), 1–13. wilton, n. (2012). the impact of work placements on skills development and career outcomes for business and management graduates. studies in higher education, 37(5), 603–620. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2010.532548 yorke, m. (2011). work-engaged learning: towards a paradigm shift in assessment. quality in higher education, 17(1), 117–130. https://doi.org/10.1080/13538322.2011.554316 abstract introduction and background problem statement research objectives study results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) wiseman ndlovu department of human resource management and labour relations, university of venda, south africa hlanganipai ngirande department of human resource management and labour relations, university of venda, south africa sam t. setati department of human resource management and labour relations, university of venda, south africa simbarashe zhuwao department of human resource management and labour relations, university of venda, south africa citation ndlovu, w., ngirande, h., setati, s.t., & zhuwao, s. (2018). transformational leadership and employee organisational commitment in a rural-based higher education institution in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a984. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.984 original research transformational leadership and employee organisational commitment in a rural-based higher education institution in south africa wiseman ndlovu, hlanganipai ngirande, sam t. setati, simbarashe zhuwao received: 31 july 2017; accepted: 28 mar. 2018; published: 27 june 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: transformation is a topical issue in south african higher education institutions. the slow and sluggish progress in attempts to transform the sector can be attributed to leadership and commitment of staff in these institutions. research purpose: the study investigated perceptions of employees and managers on the connection between transformational leadership style and employee organisational commitment in a selected rural-based higher education institution in south africa. motivation for the study: this study was conducted to determine whether a perceived lack or the presence of transformational leadership style influences the level of organisational commitment of academic and non-academic staff members of a rural-based university. it is believed that in this way, the study may assist in determining and identifying the strategies to be used to improve the commitment of the staff members to attain the much needed transformation in higher education institutions. research design, approach and method: a self-administered questionnaire was used to gather data following a quantitative research design. the target population was divided into academic and non-academic strata. pearson product moment correlation and multiple regression analysis were performed. main findings: the study found that transformational leadership style has a positive and significant relationship with affective commitment and moderate relationship with continuance commitment. on the contrary, it had no relationship with normative commitment. the study further revealed that perceived transformational leadership style explained the variance on employee organisational commitment. therefore, the study concludes that effects of perceived transformational leadership style on employee commitment cannot be the same in different institutions and settings. practical and managerial implications: the study recommends that each institution should diagnose its situation for a better pictorial view of how transformational leadership affects employee organisational commitment in their organisation. contribution: the results of the study may assist leaders and employees in higher education institutions to enhance commitment for both academic and non-academic staff members through transformative leadership style to attain transformational goals of the south african higher education institutions as projected by the national government. furthermore, this study will ensure the promotion and creation of transformative leaders who are adaptive and proactive in dealing with challenges of transformation in the former ‘black’ higher education institutions in south africa and who also have staff members committed to this higher education transformation agenda. introduction and background the modern trends of more dynamic and prompt change are cultivated by globalisation and adaptive human capital development and this has become the most important aspect of any organisation and government globally (tremblay, lalancette, & roseveare, 2012). governments and organisations have invested extensively in human capital development as part of their strategic objective to address these hasty changes and to be ready to meet future human resource needs (tremblay et al., 2012). however, in south africa, equitable empowerment and accomplishment of higher education objectives cannot be possible without addressing the past injustices and imbalances in the education sector which among others excluded the black majority from acquiring a quality education (nel et al., 2014; tremblay et al., 2012). since 1994, the south african government has put its attention to redressing these challenges brought by the exclusionary regime (badat, 2010). thus, the government formulated programmes for restructuring and transforming the education system (mainly former ‘bantu universities’) based on the principles of equity, human rights, democracy and sustainable development (ministry of education, 2002). employee organisational commitment to propel this strategic objective, committed employees are the key. commitment to the organisation by employees or staff ensures that the company or institutions are more adaptive and productive. various authors see employee organisational commitment as the relationship that exists between an individual and an organisation, attachment, identification with the organisation, the need to remain and the will to work hard to meet the organisational goals (benligray & sonmez, 2012; huey yiing & bin ahmad, 2009; lo, ramayah, min, & songan, 2010). ozsahin, zehir, acar, and sudak (2013) have stated that employee organisational commitment is an employee’s strong desire to remain a member of a certain organisation, his or her willingness to put up more effort on behalf of the organisation to achieve more, and acceptance of what the organisation stands for. employee organisational commitment takes three faces: normative, continuance and affective commitment (ac). meyer and allen (1984) defined ac as a positive feeling of identification, attachment and involvement by an employee to the organisation or work with which he or she is involved. continuance commitment is the extent to which the employee or an individual is willing to remain in the organisation as compared to the costs of leaving the organisation (dhar, 2014). on the contrary, normative commitment refers to the obligation to remain with the organisation (mignonac, vandenberghe, perrigot, el akremi, & herrbach, 2015). employee commitment is broadly affected by various factors, and among these factors, leadership is the key determinant to employee commitment to the organisation. transformational leadership transformational leadership is said to be a new paradigm, and leaders can use it to create an adaptive organisation (bagraim, cunnigham, pieterse-landman, potgieter, & viedge, 2011). bagraim et al. (2011) further state that a transformational leader is a futurist who creates a compelling vision that inspires total commitment to, and acceptance of, change by followers. also, transformational leadership stimulates creativity, innovation and new ideas, which help the organisation to grow faster and adapt well to the dynamic environment (avolio, 1999). bushra, usman, and naveed (2011) further added that transformational leaders develop the vision, communicate it to employees and show consistency in the implementation of a vision, thereby generating or developing commitment from employees towards the organisation’s vision. roueche, baker, and robert (2014) further pointed out that perceived transformational leadership style ignites a positive change in employees’ attitudes towards the strategies and goals of the organisation. therefore, with the ever-changing environment, it will be important that organisations, including higher education institutions, adopt a flexible and adaptive leadership style to pursue transformation in these institutions. thus, the mission of transforming higher education institutions in south africa can be achieved through a shared vision between leadership and employees (avolio, 1999; ozsahin et al., 2013). hence, the study adopted perceived transformational leadership style. transformational leadership is a multifaceted concept, and it has four distinct but interrelated constructs. these are discussed below. charisma or idealised influence this is the extent to which the leader acts in a pleasant way that stimulates employees or followers to develop an attachment with the leader. idealised leaders exhibit views, believe in their followers and appeal to their employees (van knippenberg & sitkin, 2013). thus, leaders set clear values and live up to them on a day-to-day basis and being a role model to their employees. building genuine rapport between the leaders and the followers is the key to this kind of leadership style, and trust should be built on strong grounds of morality and ethics (roueche et al., 2014; van knippenberg & sitkin, 2013). inspirational motivation according to balley (2007), the leader inspires and appeals to his followers through articulating the vision in a charismatic manner. inspirational leaders challenge their employees by setting high standards, communicating about the future goals and giving the meaning to the job at hand (ndunge, 2014). inspirational motivation (im) raises enthusiasm and optimism; intellectual stimulation (is) inspires rationality and reasoning; individualised consideration (ic) focuses on the personal attention; and idealised influences give visions and drive to accomplish a set goal or mission (dubinsky, jolson, & spangler, 1995; hackman & craig, 2013; ndunge, 2014). intellectual stimulation intellectual stimulation refers to the extent to which the leader challenges perceptions, lobbies followers’ ideology and takes risks (northouse, 2015). these leaders arouse and encourage creativity from their subordinates. the main goal of this leadership feature is to provide a structure to the followers on how they connect to the leader, the company, objectives and one another (northouse, 2010, 2015). individualised consideration individualised consideration refers to the extent to which the leaders attend to the individual needs of employees and guide employees in overcoming or dealing with these concerns (northouse, 2015). the leader respects and shows appreciation of the contributions made by each member of the team in the organisation (northouse, 2010, 2015). this approach also gives leaders the opportunity to propel greater achievement and growth in the organisation. transformational leadership and employee organisational commitment studies have established varied links between transformational leadership behaviour and employees’ organisational commitment (ananthi & subramaniam, 2011; bushra et al., 2011; clinebell, skudiene, trijonyte, & reardon, 2013; sušanj & jakopec, 2012). earlier studies such as shamir, zakay, breinin, and popper (1998) revealed that transformational leaders have the ability to influence employees’ organisational commitment by stimulating higher levels of intrinsic value associated with the attainment of goals and by emphasising the connection between employees’ effort and goal achievement. leaders of this type also generate a higher level of individual commitment on the part of the leader and followers to follow a common vision, mission and organisational objectives. a study by fasola, adeyemi, and olowe (2013) in the banking sector found that overall transformational leadership behaviour was positively and significantly related to employee organisational commitment (r = 0.507, p < 0.01). furthermore, the study established that perceived transformational leadership style facets had a positive and significant relationship with employee organisational commitment constructs: idealised influence and organisational commitment (r = 0.915, p < 0.01), im and organisational commitment (r = 0.793, p < 0.01), is and organisational commitment (r = 0.842, p < 0.01), ic and organisational commitment (r = 0.901, p < 0.01). similarly, an earlier study by kent and chelladurai (2001) found that ic has a positive correlation with both ac and normative commitment, however, with no relationship with continuance commitment. on the same study, kent and chelladurai (2001) found that there was a positive correlation between is and both ac and normative commitment. correspondingly, dunn, dastoor, and sims (2012) established that there was a relationship between transformational leadership behaviour and employee affective and normative organisational commitment. on the contrary, the same study by dunn et al. (2012) revealed that there was no significant relationship between transformational leadership behaviour and employee continuance commitment. literature has shown varied relationships between transformational leadership behaviour and employee organisational commitment with different environment and settings. hence, the study was conducted in higher education institution based in rural areas. problem statement transformation of higher education institutions in south africa remains a challenge, and in terms of overall output and equity of outcomes, graduate production remains very low (cloete & maasen, 2015; ministerial oversight committee on transformation, 2015; higher education, 2015). these challenges pose a great threat to both development and social cohesion in a small democracy like south africa as it breeds high inequality rates (soudien, 2013). thus, less skilled people in the country feel left out by the rest of the world community who are perceived or seen as better off (department of higher education and training, 2015). in response to the ever-changing and growing lacuna between the poor and the rich, leaders need to spearhead transformation especially in rural-based higher education institutions, and this cannot be achieved by leaders alone without committed staff (aydin, sarier, & uysal, 2013). as studies have shown, that leadership style(s) chosen have great influence on the degree of employee organisational commitment of an organisation. therefore, there is a need to explore the connection between perceived transformational leadership style and employee organisational commitment in a rural-based higher education institutions in south africa. research objectives the objectives of the study are as follows: to determine the relationship between perceived transformational leadership style and employee organisational commitment (affective, continuance and normative) in a rural-based higher education institution. to determine which of the perceived transformational leadership style constructs predicts the most employee organisational commitment (affective, continuance and normative) in a rural-based higher education institution. study hypotheses h1: there is a relationship between the perceived transformational leadership style and affective commitment. h2: there is a relationship between the perceived transformational leadership style and normative commitment. h3: there is a relationship between the perceived transformational leadership style and continuance commitment h4: transformational leadership constructs predict the facets of employee organisational commitment study methodology this study used a survey research technique following the quantitative approach. the university of venda has (n = 800) staff members who are both academic and non-academic, and these formed the total target population. to determine the sample size from each stratum, the researcher used a raosoft sample size calculator, which calculates sample based on 95% confidence interval, 5% margin of error and with the assumption of 50% response rate. based on the raosoft sample calculator, the recommended sample size for the university of venda is 260. thus, the total sample size was (n = 260) for this study. measuring instruments a multifactor leadership questionnaire (mlq) (bass & avolio, 1993) revised by avolio, bass and jung (1995) was used to measure perceived transformational leadership style. this is a 24-item questionnaire that measures transformational leadership and is scored on a 5-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). it has sub-scales under transformational leadership, which are charisma, im, is and ic. acar (2012) found that this instrument has a reliability cronbach’s alpha coefficient of between 0.893 and 0.895 for transformational leadership sub-scales. the instrument has been used previously, and it has been proved applicable and valid (acar, 2012; covey, 2007; munyeka & ngirande, 2014). employee organisational commitment questionnaire (ocq) (allen & meyer, 1990) was used to assess employee organisational commitment. this is a 15-item questionnaire that measures the three dimensions of employee organisational commitment (normative, affective and continuance commitment). it is scored on a 5-point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). this questionnaire has a reliability of 0.977 using a strict test (top, oge, atan, & gumus, 2015). this is a valid and reliable instrument, which has been used by various scholars in testing and checking employee organisational commitment (munyeka & ngirande, 2014; top et al., 2015). data analysis the statistical package for social sciences programme (spss) version 23 was used to analyse and draw meaning from the data collected (ibm-spss institute, 2013). in this study, the pearson’s correlational analysis was used to check the relationship between the perceived transformational leadership style and employee organisational commitment (normative, affective and continuance). regression analysis was further used to test if transformational leadership can predict different facets of employee organisational commitment (affective, continuance and normative). factor analysis as a result of using the existing questionnaires that have been applied in many different situations and environments, factors to these variables are already known. based on this, it is believed in this study that the systematic inter-dependence of the latent factors of commonality is known, and hence, factor analysis was not performed in this regard. demographic profile of the respondents table 1 shows the demographic variables of the study recipients. as shown, the majority of the respondents were males 93 (52.2%), and females were 82 (46.1%). also, most of the respondents (64) were between the ages of 40 and 49 years (64; 36.3%), followed by 50 and 59 years (46; 25.8%) and the least being those in the age of 60 years and above (10; 5.6%). table 1: characteristics of the participants (n = 176). reliability analysis a reliability analysis was performed to determine the internal consistency of the items, using spss for reliability analysis, and all items that had total-correlation value below 0.30 were deleted. pallant (2010) pointed out that cronbach’s alpha of α = 0.70 is the acceptable value. results in table 2 show that all the constructs were reliable as they surpassed the alpha coefficient of 0.70. continuance commitment had the highest alpha coefficient value (α = 0.921), followed by is (α = 0.854). the reliability analysis paved the way for pearson’s correlation and regression analysis. the reliability scores were acceptable (α = 0.70). table 2: reliability of the perceived transformational leadership style and employee organisational commitment constructs. study results the results in table 3 show that perceived transformational leadership style is positively and significantly related to ac (r = 0.521*, p = 0.004) and continuance commitment (r = 0.472*, p = 0.003), respectively. however, perceived transformational leadership style is not significantly related to normative commitment (r = 0.165, p = 0.072). table 3: the relationship between perceived transformational leadership style and employee organisational commitment constructs. the correlational analysis between ac and perceived transformational leadership style constructs in table 3 shows that ac has a strong positive significant relationship with is (r = 0.844*, p = 0.007) and a moderate positive relationship with ic (r = 0.451*, p = 0.005). moreover, ac has no significant relationship with idealised influence (r = 0.570, p = 0.088) and im (r = −0.728, p = 0.001). furthermore, correlation results showed that normative commitment and continuance commitment were significantly related to is ([r = 0.563*, p = 0.002] and [r = 0.232*, p = 0.000], respectively). transformational leadership style and affective commitment table 5 shows the multiple regression results for perceived transformational leadership style constructs and ac. the results indicate that perceived transformational leadership style significantly predicts ac (f = 4.238, sig. = 0.002, r2 = 0.496). the table further shows that ic and is significantly predict ac ([β = 0.144, sig. = 0.007] and [β = 0.129, sig. = 0.016], respectively). this is shown by the comparison of beta standardised coefficients values. the results show that im and idealised influence do not predict ac ([β = 0.066, sig. = 0.214] and [β = −0.055, sig. = 0.297], respectively). table 4: relationship between perceived transformational leadership style constructs and employee organisational commitment facets. table 5: transformational leadership style constructs as predictors of affective commitment. transformational leadership style and normative commitment table 6 shows that perceived transformational leadership style significantly predicts normative commitment (f = 2.563, sig. = 0.038, r2 = 0.009). one variable of transformational leadership style is statistically significant to the regression model: is (β = 0.169, sig. = 0.002). table 6: transformational leadership style constructs as predictors of normative commitment. transformational leadership style and continuance commitment as shown in table 7, perceived transformational leadership style significantly predicted continuance commitment in higher education institutions (f = 5.853, sig. = 0.000, r2 = 0.463) and only is contributed to the significance of the regression model (β = 0.232, sig. = 0.000). individualised consideration, individualised influence and im show that they do not predict continuance commitment ([β = −0.009, sig. = 0.866], [β = 0.074, sig. = 0.158] and [β = −0.066, sig. = 0.212], respectively). table 7: transformational leadership style constructs as predictors continuance commitment. discussion the results show that perceived transformational leadership style has a positive and significant relationship with ac (r = 0.521*, p = 0.004). we therefore reject the null hypothesis that there is no relationship between perceived transformational leadership style and ac. thus, the results indicate that leaders who stimulate employee morale can boost the emotional attachment to the organisation (roueche et al., 2014). this helps the organisation in the preparation for adoption of new strategies or plan (roueche et al., 2014). therefore, higher education institutions in south africa can capitalise on this by stimulating morale to prepare their staff for higher education transformation. the findings of this study are similar to the study conducted by abdo saeed, gelaidan, and ahmad (2013) in the higher educational institutions in yemen. the study by abdo saeed et al. (2013) found that perceived transformational leadership style was positively related to ac (r = 0.389*). the overall correlation analysis showed that there was no relationship between perceived transformational leadership style and normative commitment (r = 0.165, p = 0.752). therefore, we do not reject the null hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between perceived transformational leadership style and normative commitment. the findings of this study are in contrast to the findings by dillen (2012) who found a weak and positive relationship between perceived transformational leadership style and normative commitment in the nuclear energy cooperation. this exhibits the differences on how leadership styles in different industries influence employee organisational commitment. the overall analysis showed that there is a moderate and significant relationship between perceived transformational leadership style and continuance commitment (r = 0.472*, p = 0.003). therefore, we reject the null hypothesis that there is no relationship between perceived transformational leadership style and continuance commitment in higher education institutions. the results tell us that employees who have long stayed or invested a lot in the development of the organisation are more likely to stay or remain with the organisation (ranaweera & menon, 2013). thus, if employees are encouraged to be involved in higher education institutions, they are more likely to contribute more and remain with the organisation in the long run. the findings of this study agree with a study conducted in south african higher education institutions by munyeka and ngirande (2014) as well as another study conducted in addis ababa’s private higher education institutions by teshome (2012). furthermore, the construct correlation result shows that continuance commitment is positively related to is (r = 0.232*, p = 0.000). transformational leadership style and affective commitment the results show that 49.6% of ac can be explained by perceived transformational leadership style (r2 = 0.496). also, in the same analysis, beta standardised coefficients values show that is is the only perceived transformational leadership style construct which predicts ac. r2 value of 0.496 shows that a significant amount of ac can be attributed to ac. therefore, we can conclude that leaders who continuously challenge their employees with perceptions can influence the emotional attachment of their employees. transformational leadership style and normative commitment intellectual stimulation showed that it is the only sub-scale of perceived transformational leadership style that predicts normative commitment (β = 0.169, p = 0.002). according to regression results in table 6, idealised influence, ic and im predict normative commitment with no significant predictions. it should also be noted that overall, transformational leadership has the least predicational power to normative commitment (r2 = 0.029). transformational leadership style and continuance commitment as the results show, perceived transformational leadership style has a moderate predicational power to continuance commitment (r2 = 0.463). thus, 46.3% of continuance commitment can be explained by transformational leadership. results further show that is predicts continuance commitment (β = 0.232, p = 0.000) unlike other sub-scales. conclusion the dynamic nature of higher education recommends the need for effective leadership and committed employees to keep up with the demand put upon higher education institutions. in consideration of the various changes and reforms in higher education in several nations, it is crucial for higher education institutions to investigate the effectiveness of leadership as well as the level of commitment among employees. the plethora of literature on the transaction and perceived transformational leadership styles and employee organisational commitment addresses the issues in developed countries. very few studies on this topic have been conducted in the developing countries, particularly in south africa. correlation and regression analysis were used to determine the relationship between leadership styles and employee organisational commitment in higher education institutions. the results revealed varied results in the overall analysis. based on the study’s outcomes, it is difficult to outwardly conclude that there is a relationship between perceived transformational leadership styles sub-scales and employee organisational commitment constructs. however, it is safe to say that transformation leadership style constructs are variedly related to employee organisational commitment facets. regression analysis revealed that, to a greater extent, perceived transformational leadership style predicts employee organisational commitment. therefore, from the results, one can conclude that each institution should conduct its own institutional diagnosis to establish which of the leadership styles or sub-scales contribute to what facet of employee organisational commitment. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions w.n. was the main author of the article based on his master’s thesis. s.t.s. was the main supervisor and h.n. was the co-supervisor of the work. s.z. made the conceptual contribution and subject alignment. references abdo saeed, s.a., gelaidan, h.m., & ahmad, f. (2013). new leadership style and lecturers’ commitment in yemen higher education institutions. world applied sciences journal, 21(10), 1460–1467. acar, z.a. (2012). organisational culture, leadership styles and organisational commitment in turkish logistics industry. procedia – social and behavioural sciences, 58, 217–226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.995 allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organisation. journal of occupational psychology, 63(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.x ananthi, p., & subramaniam, b. (2011). the influence of leadership styles on organizational commitment. master thesis. university utara malaysia. avolio, b.j. (1999). full leadership development: building the vital forces in organisations. newbury, ca: sage. avolio, b.j., bass, b.m., & jung, d.i. (1995). mlq multifactor leadership questionnaire. redwood, ca: mind garden. aydin, a., sarier, y., & uysal, ş. (2013). the effect of school principals’ leadership styles on teachers’ organizational commitment and job satisfaction. educational sciences: theory & practice, 13(2), 806–811. badat, s. (2010). the challenges of transformation in higher education and training institutions in south africa. development bank of southern africa. bagraim, j., cunnigham, p., pieterse-landman, e., potgieter, t., & viedge, c. (2011). organisational behaviour: a contemporary south african perspective. a. werner (ed.). pretoria, sa: van schaik. balley, j.m. (2007). the role of nursing leadership in creating a mentoring culture in acute care environment. nursing economics, 25(3), 143–149. bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1993). transformational leadership and organisational culture. public administration quaterly, 17(1), 112–117. benligray, s., & sonmez, h. (2012). analysis of organisational commitment and work–family conflict in view of doctors and nurses. the international journal of human resource management, 23(18), 3890–3905. bushra, f., usman, a., & naveed, a. (2011). effect of transformational leadership on employees’ job satisfaction and organisational commitment in banking sector of lahore (pakistan). international journal of business and social science, 2(18), 261–267. clinebell, s., skudiene, v., trijonyte, r., & reardon, j. (2013). impact of leadership styles on employee organizational commitment. journal of service science, 6(1), 139–152. https://doi.org/10.19030/jss.v6i1.8244 cloete, n., & maasen, p. (2015). knowledge production and contradictory functions in african higher education. cape town: african minds. council on higher education. (2013). a proposal for undergraduate curriculum reform in south africa: the case for a flexible curriculum structure. pretoria: che. covey, s. (2007). the transformational leadership report. retrieved from https://www.transformationalleadership.net department of higher education and training. (2012). strategic plan: revised version for 2010/11–2014/15. pretoria: department of higher education and training. dillen, r. (2012). the relationship between leadership styles and organisational commitment. unpublished dissertation, tshwane university of technology, pretoria. dhar, r.l. (2014). service quality and the training of employees: the mediating role of organisational commitment. tourism management, 46, 419–430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.08.001 dubinsky, a.j., yammarino, f.j., jolson, m.a., & spangler, w.d. (1995). transformational leadership: an initial investigation in sales management. journal of personal selling and sales management, 15(6), 17–29. dunn, m., dastoor, b., & sims, r. (2012). transformational leadership and organizational commitment: across-cultural perspective. journal of multidisciplinary research, 4(1), 45–60. fasola, o.s., adeyemi, m.a., & olowe, f.t. (2013). exploring the relationship between transformational, transactional leadership style and organizational commitment among nigerian banks employees. international journal of academic research in economics and management sciences, 2(6), 96–107. hackman, m.z., & craig, j.e. (2013). leadership: a communication perspective. colorado springs, co: waveland press. higher education. (2015, may 30). discussion paper prepared for the second national higher education transformation summit. t.i. education, producer. retrieved from https://www.gov.za huey yiing, l., & bin ahmad, k.z. (2009). the moderating effects of organisational culture on the relationships between leadership behaviour and organisational commitment and between organisational commitment and job satisfaction and performance. leadership & organization development journal, 30(1), 53–86. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730910927106 ibm-spss institute. (2013). spss 12.0 for windows. chicago, il: spss. kent, a., & chelladurai, p. (2001). perceived transformational leadership, organizational commitment, and citizenship behaviour: a case study in intercollegiate athletics. journal of sport management, 15(2), 135–159. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.15.2.135 lo, m. c., ramayah, t., min, h.w., & songan, p. (2010). the relationship between leadership styles and organisational commitment in malaysia: role of leader-member exchange. asia pacific business review, 16(1), 79–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/13602380903355676 meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1984). testing the ‘side-bet theory’ of organisational commitment: some methodological considerations. journal of applied psychology, 69(3), 372. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.69.3.372 mignonac, k., vandenberghe, c., perrigot, r., el akremi, a., & herrbach, o. (2015). a multi-study investigation of outcomes of franchisees’ affective commitment to their franchise organization. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 39(3), 461–488. https://doi.org/10.1111/etap.12050 ministerial oversight committee on transformation. (2015). the transformation of south african higher education. pretoria, sa: government printer. ministry of education. (2002). transformation and restructuring: a new institutional landscape for higher education. pretoria: department of higher education and training. munyeka, w., & ngirande, h. (2014). the impact of leadership styles on employee organisational commitment in higher learning institutions. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(4), 135–143. ndunge, w.e. (2014). strategic leadership and change management practices at the kenya wildlife service. doctoral dissertation. university of nairobi. nel, p., werner, a., du plessis, a., ngalo, o., poisat, p., sono, t., … botha, c. (2014). human resources management (8th ed.). cape town, sa: oxford university press. northouse, p.g. (2010). leadership: theory and practice (5th ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. northouse, p.g. (2015). leadership: theory and practice (6th ed.). london, uk: sage. ozsahin, m., zehir, c., acar, a.z., & sudak, m.k. (2013). the effects of leadership and market orientation on organisational commitment. procedia-social and behavioural sciences, 99, 363–372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.504 pallant, j. (2010). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using spss (4th ed.). london, uk: mcgraw-h. ranaweera, c., & menon, k. (2013). for better or for worse? adverse effects of relationship age and continuance commitment on positive and negative word of mouth. european journal of marketing, 47(10), 1598–1621. roueche, p.e., baker iii, g.a., & robert, r.r. (2014). shared vision: transformational leadership in american community colleges. tx: rowman & littlefield. shamir, b., zakay, e., breinin, e., & popper, m. (1998). correlates of charismatic leader behaviour in military units: subordinates’ attitudes, unit characteristics, and superiors’ appraisals of leader performance. academy of management journal, 41(4), 387–409. https://doi.org/10.2307/257080 soudien, c. (2013). managing the planning of transformation. unpublished paper. sušanj, z., & jakopec, a. (2012). fairness perceptions and job satisfaction as mediators of the relationship between leadership style and organizational commitment. psychological topics, 21(3), 509–526. teshome, t. (2012). the relationship between leadership styles and employee commitment in private higher education institutions at addis ababa city. (unpublished dissertation). addis ababa university, ethiopia. top, s., oge, e., atan, o., & gumus, s. (2015). investigation relational levels of intensity between paternalistic and servant leadership styles and national culture, organizational commitment and subordinate responses or reactions to the leaders style. procedia – social and behavioural sciences, 181(1), 12–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.861 tremblay, k., lalancette, d., & roseveare, d. (2012). assessment of higher education learning outcomes feasibility study report. oecd. retrieved from www.oecd.org van knippenberg, d., & sitkin, s.b. (2013). a critical assessment of charismatic – transformational leadership research: back to the drawing board? the academy of management annals, 7(1), 983–1007. https://doi.org/10.1080/19416520.2013.759433 abstract introduction literature review method findings discussion acknowledgements references footnotes about the author(s) catherine a. van der horst department of management coaching, university of stellenbosch business school, south africa ruth m. albertyn department of management coaching, university of stellenbosch business school, south africa citation van der horst, c.a., & albertyn, r.m. (2018). the importance of metacognition and the experiential learning process within a cultural intelligence–based approach to cross-cultural coaching. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a951. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.951 original research the importance of metacognition and the experiential learning process within a cultural intelligence–based approach to cross-cultural coaching catherine a. van der horst, ruth m. albertyn received: 23 may 2017; accepted: 16 mar. 2018; published: 31 may 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: research on cultural intelligence (cq) is increasingly used to evaluate, explain and predict the cross-cultural efficacy of management behaviour in everyday cross-cultural interactions. however, there is limited evidence in cross-cultural coaching of the use of a cq-based approach incorporating metacognition and experiential learning theory (elt). research purpose: this article explored the theoretical linkages, benefits and directions of cq for enhancing cross-cultural coaching. motivation for the study: exploration of theoretical perspectives of cq for application in cross-cultural coaching. research design, approach and method: a critical interpretative synthesis research methodology was employed to identify and study key concepts. the methodology is sensitive to the emergence of meaning in a diverse body of literature from adjacent disciplines. main findings: this research suggests four findings motivating a cq-based approach for cross-cultural coaching: firstly, the recognition of the use of metacognitive strategies in (cross-cultural) coaching; secondly, the usefulness of metacognition to cross-cultural coaching for grasping and transforming cultural experience and insights into culturally appropriate behaviour; thirdly, an understanding of the significance of suitability and predisposition of certain learning styles to cross-cultural learning effectiveness and lastly, acknowledging the importance of a heightened focus on the experiential learning process within the cross-cultural coaching engagement. practical and managerial implications: key concepts and insights from research on cq have application in cross-cultural coaching in pursuit of the transformation of cultural awareness and insight into culturally appropriate behaviour. contribution/value-add: this research motivates the use of a cq-based approach incorporating metacognition and elt to cross-cultural coaching. introduction cross-cultural coaching is an emerging and increasingly important field owing to the acceleration of globalisation and increased labour mobility. intercultural collaboration has become essential in the everyday workplace, and management behaviour has been recognised as a key driver for navigating and overcoming some of these cross-cultural challenges (deng & gibson, 2008; dickson, den hartog, & mitchelson, 2003; rosinski, 2003). reflective practice is used extensively in coaching to cultivate insight and facilitate personal development. this article focuses on the metacognitive strategies of awareness, mindfulness and perspective-taking (established forms of reflective practice) that can lead to improved mental agility, contextual thinking and cognitive flexibility necessary to transform knowledge and experience into culturally appropriate behaviour. furthermore, this article examines the integration of cultural intelligence (cq) and kolb’s experiential learning theory (elt), and the contribution that this can potentially make to the efficacy of cross-cultural coaching. insights from this article could provide cross-cultural coaches with a more-integrated mechanism and tools to facilitate the development of cq in a multicultural setting. purpose failure to understand and respect cross-cultural difference invariably leads to personal and professional frustration, an inability to build trust and achieve consensus, wasted time, missed business opportunities and loss of revenue. when the nuances in culturally diverse settings are not fully appreciated, misread or overlooked, it can lead to delays in getting agreement and contracts concluded, sometimes leading to the overall failure of a transaction (rowland, 2016). although the importance of addressing these challenges is clear, it remains unclear how this skill can be learnt and adopted. cross-cultural coaching is a response to navigating culturally diverse situations. coaching stands in conjunction with and is complementary to other support services to improve cq, such as training and mentoring. the literature offers many definitions of cultural or cross-cultural competence that generally include ‘the ability to function effectively in another culture’ (johnson, lenartowicz, & apud, 2006; tan & chua, 2003). rosinski (2003) states that cultural differences should be embraced and not dismissed. coaching in a cross-cultural setting can make a contribution by assisting the client to engender culturally appropriate behaviour through an increased sense of awareness, resulting in greater mental agility in a given situation. booysen (2015) defined cross-cultural coaching as: … a meaning making process, in which the coach helps the coachee to surface and address deeply held beliefs and behaviors, based on cognitive schemas and frameworks shaped by culture and identity constructions, that inhibit their performance in their current context. (p. 242) plaister-ten (2009) adds that cross-cultural coaching focuses on awareness of cultural difference and working within these differences to find culturally appropriate steps to address issues. the mechanism whereby experience and knowledge are transformed into culturally appropriate behaviour has not been meaningfully integrated into cross-cultural coaching. the aim of this article is to provide theoretical perspectives on the use of a cq-based approach to cross-cultural coaching. it is argued that three insights from the research on cq are applicable to cross-cultural coaching. firstly, it is argued that the use of metacognitive strategies through different forms of reflective practice, namely, awareness, perspective-taking and mindfulness, facilitate the transformation of knowledge and experience into culturally appropriate behaviour. secondly, there are significant interactions and linkages between the components of cq and the stages of kolb’s experiential learning cycle. lastly, kolb’s experiential learning styles (els) have a moderating impact on the ability to improve cq. awareness of the theoretical linkages between metacognition, elt and cross-cultural coaching provides coaches with insight into ways to facilitate the development of cq in a multicultural setting. literature review the construct of cq is the psychological measure of cultural competence, defined as a person’s capability to function effectively in settings characterised by cultural diversity (earley & ang, 2003). this ability to adapt one’s behaviour to a new cultural setting, that is, the transformation of inner awareness to appropriate external behaviour, makes cq unique and is the first step to shaping a cross-cultural interaction. the concept has been developed, tested and used in research on expatriates, leadership, judgement and decision-making in culturally diverse settings (ang et al., 2007; elenkov & manev, 2009). similar to other forms of intelligence, cq has both internal (metacognitive, cognitive and motivational) and external (behavioural) components (earley & ang, 2003), and captures awareness and flexibility in intercultural situations (oolders, chernyshenko, & stark, 2008). two nascent strands of research have emerged from recent literature on cq that in part addresses the improvement of cq abilities. the first recognises the importance of metacognitive strategies (ang et al., 2007; thomas, 2006), namely, awareness, perspective-taking and mindfulness in the process of improving cq. the literature on cq and metacognition has begun to establish an empirical basis that demonstrates the positive relationship between metacognition and a number of behavioural measures in culturally diverse settings (mor, morris, & joh, 2013). the second is concerned with the connection between kolb’s elt (kolb, 1984) and cq, which investigates the linkages between kolb’s learning stages and the components of cq, and the moderating impact of kolb’s learning styles on the improvement of cq (van dyne, ang, & livermore, 2009). traditionally, cross-cultural coaching has been preoccupied with questions of cultural profiling (hampden-turner & trompenaars, 1997; hofstede, 1981; house, hanges, javidan, dorfman, & gupta, 2004; javidan & house, 2002), paradigmatic approaches (geertz, 1973; hofstede, 1981), culturally bound awareness (plaister-ten, 2013; st claire-ostwald, 2007) and cultural mapping (meyer, 2014) amongst a number of research questions. rosinski (2003, p. xix) states that coaching across cultures is a ‘more creative form of coaching’. furthermore, plaister-ten (2013, p. 54) refers to the importance of ‘culturally appropriate responsibility’ in cross-cultural coaching. cross-cultural coaching has been linked to cq by booysen (2015, p. 242) who used terms such as ‘cultural agility’ and ‘cultural humility’ during the process of coaching. plaister-ten (2013) calls for a systems approach to coaching in intercultural contexts. notwithstanding the translation of the construct of cq into accessible coaching practitioners’ concepts (livermore, 2009), the literature on cross-cultural coaching (abbott, gilbert, & rosinski, 2013; booysen, 2015; delay & dalton, 2006; jenkins, 2006; rosinski & abbott, 2006) has otherwise given limited attention to the thorough examination of the combination of the theory of cq and the role of metacognitive strategies and elt in cross-cultural coaching, which will be the focus of this article. method research approach given the decision to carry out a conceptual study, there were three high-level methodological choices necessary in selecting an appropriate method of synthesis, namely, concept analysis, interpretative synthesis and systematic review. each method represents its own school of thought and presents a set of research benefits and challenges to be considered in line with the best fit of methodology to the research question. the methods span a continuum where concept analysis, on the one hand, is founded on qualitative research, and systematic review, on the other hand, is founded on quantitative research (barnett-page & thomas, 2009, p. 59). interpretative synthesis is posited between these two research methods and demonstrates elements of both qualitative and quantitative research. the critical interpretative synthesis (cis) methodology, developed by dixon-woods et al., is ‘sensitised to the process of conventional systematic review and draws on recent advances in methods for interpretative synthesis’ (dixon-woods et al., 2006, p. 2). critical interpretative synthesis supports the analysis of a large, diverse and complex body of literature where definitions were not consistently operationalised, and which generates theory with strong explanatory power (dixon-woods et al., 2006). in this research, it was neither the intention to exclusively track the development of concepts nor was it possible to conduct a systematic review, as this requires a basic comparability of data, a priori definition of key concepts and clearly defined inclusion and exclusion criteria (dixon-woods et al., 2006). the intention was to examine, through an iterative process, the emergence of meaning of key and supporting concepts scattered across a body of literature from overlapping research disciplines – in this case, studies of intelligence and cognition, psychology, anthropology, and coaching. this method allowed recurring themes to emerge and a critique to be developed. critique of the literature was undertaken in a dynamic, recursive and reflexive manner and recognised the ill-defined boundaries and overlapping fields presented in this emerging field of study. the analysis developed a synthesizing argument, which was to connect the insights on cq to cross-cultural coaching and to link key concepts and constructs meaningfully, through newly developed synthetic constructs, in a coherent theoretical framework. design this cis design was selected for its flexibility and ability to deal meaningfully with the many exploratory dimensions of the research on cross-cultural coaching and cq from the definitional issues to the extraction of the prominent themes within overlapping disciplines. coaching borrows heavily, draws widely and integrates research from fields as diverse as psychology, neuroscience, anthropology and the management sciences, amongst others. its focus is foremost on practical applications, yet there is limited empirical research available to support key ideas and practices in coaching. there is therefore little consistency in the research approach, unit of measurement or adoption of research paradigm in addressing research questions. this challenge raised questions of credibility and trustworthiness of the primary data of this research assignment. to ensure consistency and rigour, it was necessary to address the credibility of the literature related to the field of coaching. targeted body of literature the selection of relevant literature was the result of the theoretical needs of the research and the choices best suited to the research purpose (schreiber, crooks, & stern, 1997, p. 319). this research sought to further the conceptual ordering and clarification of the field of study. in this regard, the development of mid-range theory was an important outcome. the literature search and selection process evaluated a body of literature significantly larger than the listed references included in the final publication of the research.1 although, a large amount of literature was not overtly relevant to the subject, it nevertheless assisted in informing and understanding the theoretical context in which cq and key related research efforts developed. findings clarity regarding the construct of cq precedes the discussion of the metacognitive strategies which could be used in cross-cultural coaching. the theoretical construct of cultural intelligence as this article proposes a cq-based approach for cross-cultural coaching, it is important to provide a cursory introduction to the concept of cq. despite a proliferation of cq-related research and other models of cq (earley & mosakowski, 2004; thomas & inkson, 2003), the model of cq introduced by earley and ang (2003) remains at the centre of research efforts. cultural intelligence seeks to explain the dimensions of intelligence that facilitates the grasping and transforming of experience in order to create the capacity for effectiveness in cross-cultural situations. a defining feature of cq is that it is an etic construct. it is universal, independent of culture and is an intelligence capability present in all persons. by contrast, an emic construct is ethnocentric. its meaning is derived from the context and is culturally bound (earley, murnieks, & masakowski, 2007). the etic character of the construct of cq is an important attribute as the insights from cq have application in cross-cultural coaching, regardless of the cultural context. the theory and conceptual model of cq comprises four components: metacognition, cognition, motivation and behaviour, explained below in more detail. metacognition, an innate and universal attribute, is concerned with the structure and form of thought, that is, ‘thinking about thinking’ (earley & gibson, 2002, p. 100). it is the process that individuals use to acquire and understand knowledge, in other words, categories of thought, levels of analysis and strategies for information acquisition. it transcends culture and is not concerned with the content of one culture or another, but rather with the mental processes of representation (sternberg, 2004, p. 328). metacognition provides the key capability for the transformation of cognition into directed culturally appropriate behaviour. cognition is concerned with the elements that constitute a specific cultural context and account for differences in behaviour and interactions across different cultural settings (ang & van dyne, 2008). it includes the knowledge structures of ‘norms, practices, and conventions in different cultures acquired from education and personal experiences. this includes knowledge of economic, legal, sociolinguistic, and interpersonal systems of different cultures and subcultures’ (ng, van dyne, & ang, 2012, p. 33). cognition is the content of experience. the motivational component of cq is the energy and interest directed at situations marked by cultural difference (ang & van dyne, 2008). motivation plays a central role in the alignment of metacognition, cognition and behaviour, and provides the impetus for culturally appropriate behaviour. behaviour as a component of cq is the ability to enact appropriate verbal and non-verbal actions when interacting with people from different cultures (ang & van dyne, 2008). as an outward manifestation or overt action, that is, what a person does or says rather than what he or she thinks, behaviour is the basis upon which perception is formed by others in cross-cultural settings. the theory of cq has been extensively tested and validated (ng et al., 2012, pp. 30–31). as a theory with particular emphasis on metacognition, it provides numerous insights that can support the transformation of experience into culturally appropriate behaviour. applied to the domain of coaching, cq provides a robust theoretical and practical foundation for cross-cultural coaching. the literature on cq identifies and continues to confirm the empirical validity of metacognition as the key component responsible for the transformation of experience and insight into culturally appropriate behaviour (ang & van dyne, 2008; chua, morris, & mor, 2012; mor et al., 2013; thomas & inkson, 2003; van dyne et al., 2012). it comprises the processes of monitoring and adjusting one’s thoughts, planning and strategising as one learns new skills (schoenfeld, 1987; silver, 1987; thomas & inkson, 2003; triandis, 1995). metacognition is identified as the key enabling faculty in the construct of cq as it links the cognitive and behavioural elements of cq by facilitating the translation of thought into action owing to ongoing active awareness that leads to situation-appropriate behaviour. metacognition, the process involved in developing a heightened sense of cq (li & mobley, 2010; li, mobley, & kelly, 2013), is central to the process of cross-cultural coaching and can assist with the improving of cq. recent literature on cq highlights the importance of metacognition and the use of various metacognitive strategies to enhance cq (chua et al., 2012; mor et al., 2013; van dyne et al., 2012). references in the literature to the metacognitive strategies of awareness, perspective-taking and mindfulness provide numerous touch points for cross-cultural coaching. these metacognitive strategies form an integral part of the learning process (kolb, 1984). despite limited definitional clarity and a large degree of overlap, cross-cultural coaching can facilitate the individual development of metacognitive strategies by seeking to improve awareness, engaging in perspective-taking and cultivating mindfulness, leading to improved mental agility, increased agency, contextual thinking and cognitive flexibility. an understanding of the importance of developing metacognition and the usefulness of metacognitive strategies is empowering to both coach and client in the cross-cultural coaching context. metacognitive strategies metacognitive strategies provide coaching tools that allow the coach to better understand the basis of engagement with the client and areas for development. for the client, the reflective process creates an awareness of potential blind spots and enabling tools for improved cross-cultural interaction. awareness awareness, the first metacognitive strategy relevant to cq and cross-cultural coaching, can be defined as the ‘continuous monitoring of one’s internal state and the external environment’ (thomas, 2006, p. 94). it is a sense-making activity comprising self-awareness, other-awareness and situational-awareness (endsley, 1995; sheldon, 1996; triandis, 2006). the literature on coaching is replete with the importance and significance of awareness. booysen (2015) asserts that awareness of cultural understandings can help with interpreting what takes place in diverse contexts. rosinski (2003) notes that cultural awareness goes beyond a recognition of cultural difference, and that this awareness is in fact concerned with learning about, appreciating and recognising the invisible behavioural influence in everyday interactions and valuing cultures different from one’s own. whitmore describes awareness as ‘high-quality self-generated relevant input’, that is, being conscious of what is going on around one and demonstrating the self-awareness to be conscious of what one is experiencing (whitmore, 2009, pp. 33–36). perspective-taking multiple perspectives, a form of reflective practice, can also be understood as perspective-taking. cultural perspective-taking can be defined as ‘considering the typical approach that a counterpart from another culture might take’ (lee, adair, & seo, 2013, p. 390). a number of empirical studies have highlighted the importance and significance of cultural perspective-taking. mor et al. (2013) found empirical support for the idea that cultural perspective-taking can improve metacognition and intercultural effectiveness, and in turn, cq. research by galinsky (2002) and galinsky and moskowitz (2000) found that cultural perspective-taking can reduce confirmation bias and stereotyping. the literature emphasises that contextual thinking and cognitive flexibility, two important aspects of metacognition, underpin cultural perspective-taking (klafehn, banerjee, & chiu, 2008; lee et al., 2013). the former aspect is concerned with a heightened sensitivity to and awareness of the fact that culture shapes motivation and behaviour, whereas the latter denotes the selective basis upon which mental schema and behavioural scripts are used in cross-cultural situations. the literature suggests that cultural perspective-taking is an ongoing activity for persons with higher levels of metacognition (klafehn et al., 2008). booysen (2015, p. 273) refers to reflective and reflexive practice as being vital when developing metacognition. mindfulness according to the literature in the management sciences, a meaningful and positive connection exists between mindfulness and appropriate behavioural outcomes. these findings include the impact of mindfulness on positive regard, influence and relational and instrumental outcomes (kopelman, avi-yonah, & varghese, 2011), and enhanced task performance (dane, 2011). the concept of mindfulness is widely used, but with varying definitional clarity. the modern-day concept emanates from the literature on psychology (langer, 1989) and is defined as ‘the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding experience moment by moment’ (kabat-zinn, 2003, p. 145), that is, directing heightened awareness and enhanced attention to the present reality (brown & ryan, 2003). mindfulness, a conscious discipline (walsh, 1980), and a product of reflective practice, controls the cognitive processes that govern behaviour by recalling knowledge that is pertinent to the situation, preventing automatic responses, suspending inappropriate responses and constructing responses that are situation-appropriate and consistent with the motivations of the individual (logan, 1989). the metacognitive strategy of mindfulness focuses attention on the knowledge of culture and process of influence as it pertains to culture by creating new mental maps through the ongoing categorisation and -re-categorisation of experience. mindfulness draws attention to the motives, goals, emotions and external stimuli of the individual, enables the consideration of appropriate behavioural alternatives and creates the capacity for empathy and culturally sensitive and appropriate responses (thomas, 2006, pp. 85–86). discussion coaching tools, derived from metacognition, elt and cq, are applied to the cross-cultural context. cross-cultural coaching applications of metacognition awareness, perspective-taking and mindfulness, as metacognitive strategies, work hand in hand and overlap in terms of theory and reflective coaching technique. building awareness forms the starting point of the cross-cultural coaching engagement (whitmore, 2009). the coach can draw on a number of coaching techniques to challenge assumptions, recognise prejudice, acknowledge blind spots, explore stereotypes and engage in socratic questioning, to mention a few. it is important to recognise that the coach also brings assumptions and prejudices to the coaching engagement. as part of reflective practice, building awareness is an ongoing focus of the cross-cultural coaching engagement. in the case of perspective-taking, transforming the experience is an essential part of building a recognition and acceptance of the plurality of perspectives. the coach works with the client to explore, challenge and learn from direct observations and personal experiences. this is a two-step process of understanding experience and then encouraging the client to engage in experiences based on this new understanding. in this way, the learning enables the client to adapt to new ways of thinking about and engaging with their environment. it is worth noting that the coach, similarly, brings his or her perspectives to bear on the coaching engagement and that this may have an impact on the way in which the coach is able or unable to support the client. mindfulness, in cross-cultural coaching, draws together awareness and perspective-taking, by focusing attention on automatic thoughts and their effects, exploring instances where the client could have made a different or culturally appropriate choice and cultivating more deliberate and purposeful thought directed at the present. the cross-cultural coaching process facilitates the engagement of thoughts and emotions of the client with clarity and in a nonjudgemental manner that is free from emotional bias. this is typically achieved by engaging in exercises, for example, meditation, breathing and focused attention that settle the mind and provide the conditions under which cross-cultural issues can be explored. the cross-cultural coach can ask a series of incisive questions that direct the client’s attention to the thoughts, feelings and sensations in relation to a particular cross-cultural issue, and help the client to explore the issue from different perspectives by identifying automatic biases and responses. finally, the coach can assist the client in recognising that there is a range of behavioural alternatives, consistent with the client’s motivations, for a particular cross-cultural interaction, and that this is a conscious choice in the moment of interaction. metacognition, exercised through the aforementioned metacognitive strategies, more generally enables an individual to be consciously aware of the cultural preferences of others before and during interactions, to question cultural assumptions and to adjust mental models during and after interactions. as a metacognitive process, it is used to acquire and understand knowledge, suspend judgement and maintain real-time consciousness of how culture influences the mental process and behaviour of oneself and others in intercultural situations (flavell, 1979). metacognition therefore allows individuals ‘to develop heuristics for social interaction across cultural contexts’ (van dyne et al., 2012, p. 299). metacognition has two immediate applications for cross-cultural coaching. firstly, reflective practice is used in cross-cultural coaching to create insight through awareness, perspective-taking and mindfulness, and is widely used in coaching. various forms of cultural profiling are often used in reflective practice exercises. although cultural profiling is useful, it does not address the question of how knowledge and experience of culture(s) is transformed into culturally appropriate behaviour. there is limited evidence in the literature on cross-cultural coaching to suggest that the insights of metacognitive cq are meaningfully integrated into reflective practice in cross-cultural coaching. more recent literature on cross-cultural coaching continues to draw heavily on the foundational work of hofstede and subsequently the global leadership and organizational behaviour effectiveness (globe) project (house et al., 2004). these studies offer empirical data that provide useful tools for the definition and categorisation of cultural artefacts. a number of authors (abbott et al., 2013; delay & dalton, 2006; jenkins, 2006; rosinski & abbott, 2006) have acknowledged, discussed and made progress with the integration of the insight of metacognition in cross-cultural coaching. booysen (2015) has connected cq and the concept of global mindsets (javidan, teagarden, & bowen, 2010) in cross-cultural coaching, and provides a powerful cross-cultural coaching framework that inculcates cq in the development of cultural agility (2015, p. 278). abbott et al. (2013, p, 492) point out that cq and global mindsets are crucially ‘useful heuristics to promote more rigorous and high impact coaching engagements in intercultural contexts’. secondly, metacognition is useful as it provides the coach and client with a set of methods, being the metacognitive strategies, to explore cross-cultural challenges in a manner that takes cognisance of the implicit perceptions and bias built into the everyday assessment and understanding of culture, in situations characterised by cultural difference and complexity. booysen (2015) provides a coaching-specific set of practical steps for building cq. journaling and reflective and reflexive practices are identified as effective tools for developing metacognition. a cq-based approach recognises the significance and role of metacognition, can assist cross-cultural coaching in a manner that supports the ability to improve awareness by enabling experience to be grasped and transformed into learning (kolb, 1984), and ultimately translated into an adaption of one’s behaviour. booysen (2015) refers to continuous questioning of cultural assumptions when working on developing metacognition. a cq-based approach can engender the mental agility to be able to, in the moment, carry one’s experience to that situation and stand back, assessing appropriately what the situation demands, thereby enabling greater agency when faced with a culturally diverse situation. significance of cultural intelligence to experiential learning theory the second area of research, relevant to the conceptual case for a cq-based approach to cross-cultural coaching, is the relationship between cq and elt. two linkages between cq and elt are of interest: firstly, the interaction between the components of cq and the stages of kolb’s experiential learning cycle, and secondly, the moderating impact that the theory of kolb’s learning styles has on improving cq. these connections have far-reaching implications for cross-cultural coaching. the literature on cq increasingly recognises the importance of experiential approaches to development and learning in cross-cultural contexts. research has focused primarily on cross-cultural questions in the context of leadership, some of which are the impact of international experience on business outcomes (carpenter, sanders, & gregersen, 2001; daily, certo, & dalton, 2000; sambharya, 1996), individual professional development (gregersen, morrison, & black, 1998; jokinen, 2005; mccall & hollenbeck, 2002) and the importance of cultural proficiency of those in leadership positions (deal, leslie, dalton, & ernst, 2003; javidan et al., 2010). until ng, van dyne and ang (2009) proposed the link between cq and kolb’s elt, the literature said very little about how to increase cq. this link was a significant development as it brought together two distinct fields of study in a manner that has advanced the theory and practice of cq with potentially far-reaching implications for cross-cultural coaching. building on this, lorenz, ramsey and richey (2018) connect elt to metacognitive and cognitive cq to explain opportunity recognition in international contexts. kolb’s elt is a four-stage cycle, which comprises concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation (kolb, 1984). figure 1 depicts kolb’s stages of the experiential learning cycle, discussed below, and the els, discussed later in this article. concrete experience (feeling) is concerned with an immediate, tangible experience. reflective observation (perceiving) is an internal processing of experience. abstract conceptualisation (thinking) is concerned with the abstraction, aggregation, classification and symbolic representation of experience, and active experimentation (doing) comprises the testing of new behaviour through the manipulation of the external world. kolb’s learning cycle assists with understanding experience in order to transform it into useable knowledge (kolb, 1984). experiential learning and unlearning take place as a result of grasping experience (concrete experience and abstract conceptualisation) and transforming experience (reflective observation and active experimentation). figure 1: kolb’s learning cycle and experiential learning styles. kolb (1984) identified four els, namely divergent, convergent, assimilative and accommodative. each learning style, a function of individual circumstances and preference, occupies a quadrant on kolb’s learning cycle through the combination of adjacent learning stages (see figure 1). the divergent learning style combines concrete experience and reflective observation and is associated with persons that embrace multiple perspectives and are imaginative in problem resolution. the assimilative learning style combines reflective observation and abstract conceptualisation and is associated with persons that dwell in the world of abstractions and effortlessly master conceptually complex ideas in a logical and concise manner. the convergent learning style combines abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation and is associated with persons with a thought-derived practical approach to problem resolution. lastly, the accommodative learning style combines active experimentation and concrete experience and is associated with persons who are practical and intuitive (i.e. through the experience of trial and error) in their approach to problem solving. experiential learning theory is widely used in coaching. the integration of cq and elt (and by implication els) may provide a useful process for addressing the complexities associated with cross-cultural issues. ng et al. (2009, p. 520) propose a framework that identifies and integrates different stages of elt with cq, and suggest that positive outcomes from cross-cultural learning experiences can potentially lead to higher levels of cq. higher levels of cq enhance the likelihood of active involvement in all four stages of the elt cycle, resulting in better integration of the elt processes of grasping experience and transforming experience (ng et al., 2009, p. 523). this is an ongoing and mutually reinforcing process, as higher levels of cq facilitate progression through the experiential learning cycle. iterations in the completed experiential learning cycle continue to develop cq. the aforementioned research suggests that improving cq through the cross-cultural coaching process can potentially unlock the client’s ability to access kolb’s full experiential learning cycle. while an empirical foundation continues to be established for the linkages between cq and elt, ng et al. (2009) propose four key relationships: firstly, an individual with higher levels of motivational and/or behavioural cq will in all likelihood seek concrete experience and develop higher levels of self-efficacy in cross-cultural settings. motivational and behavioural cq are the operative components of cq, which make an individual open to new cross-cultural experiences, take greater interest and initiative, and learn from doing and feeling rather than thinking. research by bandura (1997) suggests that self-confidence is necessary for persistence and task completion, which is connected to motivational cq. in a cross-cultural setting or an unfamiliar environment, higher levels of motivational cq predispose the individual to seeking out, rather than avoiding, concrete experience. higher levels of behavioural cq arguably lead to culturally more appropriate and flexible behaviour as the individual values concrete experience as a form of learning and engagement with others and the environment, and seeks out such interactions with greater frequency. secondly, people with strong metacognitive and cognitive cq abilities are more likely to engage in reflective observation as a form of learning and develop ethnorelative attitudes towards other cultures (ang, van dyne, & rockstuhl, 2015; ng et al., 2009). lorenz et al. demonstrate the positive impact of metacognition and cognition on innovativeness, the product of learning and the application of experience, in an international context (2018). mental representations of culture reside within the cognitive faculties of cq. metacognition bolsters the ability to derive rich and accurate mental schema of culture and cultural interactions through the ongoing monitoring and adjustment of cognition and the structure of thought (flavell, 1979). persons with highly developed metacognitive and cognitive abilities tend to make better cultural assessments and are better equipped to engage in the process of reflective observation through a heightened understanding of the similarities and differences in culture (ang et al., 2007). thirdly, heightened levels of metacognitive and cognitive cq will in all likelihood result in improved pattern detection and abstract conceptualisation. abstract conceptualisation is concerned with deriving general propositions, theories, models, patterns and schema about interactions and the environment. metacognition supports the process of abstract conceptualisation by providing the mental wherewithal to reflect on the structure and content of thought, and monitor and adjust ongoing basic assumptions, values, feelings and representations. persons with accurate mental models and better organised knowledge structures about their environments are thought to be better equipped, in part, for effective cross-cultural interactions. lastly, ng et al. (2009) suggest that all four components of cq, in varying combinations, are necessary and contribute to an individual implementing and testing conceptualised generalisations through active experimentation, which facilitates the development of the appropriate skills and flexibility for cross-cultural interactions. the process of active experimentation employs the use of all four components of cq. both metacognitive and cognitive cq are required to organise and map out action plans. motivational cq provides the interest, focus and persistence to engage in new behaviour, and behavioural cq facilitates meaningful verbal and non-verbal interaction (ng et al., 2009, p. 517). applications for cross-cultural coaching cultural intelligence and kolb’s experiential learning theory while there has been significant theoretical development in the theory and application of cq and elt, this research has further identified a number of implications for cross-cultural coaching from the integration of cq and elt: cross-cultural coaching can assist clients in accessing and engaging all four experiential learning stages to help them improve cq (li et al., 2013; lorenz et al., 2018) by progressing through the experiential learning cycle in the grasping and transformation of experience into culturally appropriate behaviour. the literature points to concrete experience, reflective observation and active experimentation as learning stages that enhance cq. coaching can assist particularly with the process of reflective and reflexive practice (booysen, 2015). ang et al. (2015) refer to the use of cognitive and metacognitive cq abilities in reflective observation. reflexive practice includes the taking of multiple perspectives (kolb, 1984), suspending judgement (triandis, 2006), raising awareness (whitmore, 2009) and cultivating mindfulness (thomas, 2006) for positive relational outcomes (kopelman et al., 2011). in addition, the coaching conversation can create the environment in which possible forms of active experimentation can be explored. coaching can assist with abstract conceptualisation, a metacognitive process, by assisting the client with pattern recognition and thinking through the systemic aspects of cross-cultural experience. learning takes place in the contextual relevance of change situations and not because of positions of externality (su, 2011). coaching can provide an environment in which the client can reflect on previous experience; challenge mental schemata, frames and assumptions; and integrate learning. thomas (2006) and ang and van dyne (2008) propose that metacognition links the cognitive and behavioural elements of cq by facilitating the translation of thought into action owing to ongoing active awareness that leads to situation-appropriate behaviour. when this theory is overlaid with kolb’s elt theory, it becomes apparent that ‘even if people know what they should do and have the necessary motivation, it does not always mean they will enact the behaviours’ (li et al., 2013, p. 34). coaching, as an ongoing process, can, however, support the transformative learning (terblanche, albertyn, & van coller-peter, 2018) necessary for the enactment of culturally appropriate behaviour. this process assists coachees to move from ‘knowing’ to ‘becoming’ through action, learning and experience (yeo & marquardt, 2015, p. 81). cultural intelligence and kolb’s experiential learning styles in recent years, research has been directed at the development of conceptual models of learning that account for the learning processes underpinning heightened cq and improved organisational outcomes that can specify the type of individual best suited to cross-cultural interactions (ng et al., 2009). yamazaki and kayes (2004) found that certain els were better suited to particular cross-cultural contexts and resulted in more effective learning. in particular, abstract conceptualisation was found to be of lesser importance for cultural adaption than concrete experience, reflective observation or active experimentation. macnab (2012) demonstrated the positive impact of an elt-based programme on cq. li et al. (2013) investigated the extent to which learning style influences the improvement of cq in international assignments and found a positive relationship between the length of an international assignment and cq. this relationship is strengthened for persons with a divergent (not an assimilative, convergent or accommodative) learning style and enhances the likelihood that the individual engaged the four stages of the learning cycle. lorenz et al. suggest that the components of metacognition and cognition relate to the assimilation and convergent learning styles (2018). the research of kolb (1984); kolb and kolb (2005); ng et al. (2009); li et al. (2013) and lorenz et al. (2018) have four important implications for cross-cultural coaching: kolb (1984) recognises that a person does not touch all four stages of the experiential learning cycle and that elt is not a true reflection of how people learn (kolb, 1984). in the process of learning, a person does not logically and systematically step through the four stages of learning in sequence, but rather jumps around the four stages and does so on the basis of a predisposed learning style. this insight provides a valuable starting point for client and coach, as the client’s attention can be directed at potential blind spots and the coach can support the learning process on the basis of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the client’s learning style. the literature points to a positive relationship between the diverging learning style and cultural adaption (li et al., 2013). this insight can frame and support the cross-cultural coaching engagement, and direct the focus, if necessary, to developing aspects of concrete experience and reflective observation. the metacognitive strategies of awareness, mindfulness and perspective-taking offer powerful reflective tools that can be integrated with elt to develop the learning stages of concrete experience and reflective observation. lorenz et al. (2018) suggest that a focus on the development of the metacognitive and cognitive components of cq (in the coaching engagement) can lead to higher levels of metacognitive and cognitive cq, which are the capabilities underlying the mental flexibility, competence and adaptability required for the successful navigation of cross-cultural interactions the development of metacognitive cq, which is associated with the assimilative learning style, can be supported through different forms of reflective and reflexive practice in the coaching engagement. the significance of the development of cognitive cq, which is associated with the convergent learning style and idea generation, is highlighted by lorenz et al. (2018). cognitive cq can be developed by in-depth learning of other cultural contexts through the experiences of others presently or previously immersed in the cross-cultural context. the coach can support this learning process by providing the impetus for such learning and an environment for reflection that is critical of one’s own world view and the framing of other perspectives (lorenz et al., 2018) conclusion the importance of cq is increasingly recognised in the literature as leaders increasingly need a global mindset (booysen, 2015). there is substantial reference to cq in adjacent fields of study, but surprisingly limited reference in the literature on cross-cultural coaching to cq and the benefits to be gained from a cq-based cross-cultural coaching approach.2 a considerable body of research on cq and related concepts seeks to understand cultural adaption and the transformation of experience into culturally appropriate behaviour. in cross-cultural coaching, however, the question of cultural adaption continues to be addressed through static and dimensionalised cultural profiling methods that focus almost exclusively on the content of culture. apart from a number of studies cited in this article, there is limited evidence of a body of research comprising empirical evidence and the theoretical development thereof in cross-cultural coaching relating to methods that seek to transform cultural experience and knowledge into culturally appropriate behaviour. this article has made a case for the use of a cq-based approach in cross-cultural coaching by integrating metacognition and kolb’s elt. insights in this article could provide cross-cultural coaches with a more integrated mechanism and tools to facilitate the development of cq in a multicultural setting. from a theoretical perspective, the concept of cq reflects the nebulous, complex and interdisciplinary nature of this field of study. empirical research on cq is ongoing. the fields of cq and cross-cultural coaching, amongst others, stand to benefit from further empirical research on intelligence and metacognition in particular. cross-cultural coaching can benefit from further conceptual clarification and definition of the metacognitive strategies of awareness, perspective-taking and mindfulness as the terms are used widely, variously and interchangeably. further empirical research is required to investigate and validate the linkages between cq and elt. this research may provide a basis upon which quantitative and qualitative assessments can be made with respect to the likelihood of the attainment of specific cross-cultural outcomes and the suitability of certain personality types to cross-cultural assignments. these are exciting and important developments as the applications extend beyond cross-cultural coaching to the direct and, arguably, measurable attainment of individual and organisational outcomes in cross-cultural settings. from a practitioner’s perspective, a cq-based approach is proposed for cross-cultural coaching. it is argued, firstly that the metacognitive strategies of awareness, perspective-taking and mindfulness can make a meaningful contribution to the cross-cultural coaching process. these metacognitive strategies are already widely used by coaches. however, recognising the importance of metacognition for the transformation of experience into culturally appropriate behaviour significantly raises the usefulness of metacognitive strategies in cross-cultural coaching. secondly, the adoption of a cq-based approach to cross-cultural coaching can potentially lead to unlocking the full experiential learning cycle in cross-cultural coaching. experiential learning theory is widely used in coaching. understanding the linkages between cq and experiential learning stages has an impact on how coach and client approach the cross-cultural coaching engagement, and can make a meaningful difference to the usefulness of cross-cultural coaching. similarly, recognising the inherent strengths and limitations of a client’s els also has an impact on the client and opens up the cross-cultural coaching conversation to assumptions and questions of suitability. to conclude, adopting a cq-based approach could enrich and enhance the cross-cultural coaching engagement as it layers insight from cq on well-established coaching methods in addressing cross-cultural issues. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions c.a.v.d.h. was involved with the conceptual motivation for a cq-based framework for cross-cultural coaching, while r.m.a. supervised this project. references abbott, g., gilbert, k., & rosinski, p. (2013). cross-cultural working in coaching and mentoring. in j. passmore, d. b. peterson, & t. freire (eds.), the wiley-blackwell handbook of the psychology of coaching and mentoring (pp. 483–500). chichester, uk: wiley. ang, s., & van dyne, l. (2008). conceptualization of cultural intelligence: definition, distinctiveness and nomological network. in s. ang & l. van dyne (eds.), handbook of cultural intelligence: theory, measurement, and applications (pp. 3–15). new york: sharpe. ang, s., van dyne, l., koh, c., ng, k.y., templer, k.j., tay, c., & chandrasekar, n.a. (2007). cultural intelligence: its measurement and effects on cultural judgement and decision making, cultural adaption and task performance. management and organization review, 3(3), 335–371. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8784.2007.00082.x ang, s., van dyne, l., & rockstuhl, t. (2015). cultural intelligence: origins, conceptualization, evolution and methodological diversity. in gelfand, m.j., chiu, c. & hong, y. (eds.), handbook of advances in culture and psychology (vol. 5, pp. 1–45). bandura, a. (1997). self-efficacy: the exercise of self-control. new york: freeman. barnett-page, e., & thomas, j. (2009). methods for the synthesis of qualitative research: a critical review. bmc medical research methodology, 9(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-9-59 booysen, l.a.e. (2015). cross-cultural coaching. in d. riddle, e. hoole, & e. gullette (eds.), center for creative leadership handbook of coaching in organizations (pp. 241–288). san francisco, ca: wiley, jossey-bass. brown, k.w., & ryan, r.m. (2003). the benefits of being present: mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. journal of personality and social psychology, 84(4), 822. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.84.4.822 carpenter, m.a., sanders, w.g., & gregersen, h.b. (2001). bundling human capital with organizational context: the impact of international assignment experience on multinational firm performance and ceo pay. academy of management journal, 44(3), 493–511. https://doi.org/10.2307/3069366 chua, r.y.j., morris, m.w., & mor, s. (2012). collaborating across cultures: cultural metacognition and affect-based trust in creative collaboration. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 118, 116–131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2012.03.009 daily, c.m., certo, s.t., & dalton, d.r. (2000). research notes and communications: international experience in the executive suite: the path to prosperity. strategic management journal, 21, 515–523. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-0266(200004)21:4%3c515::aid-smj92%3e3.0.co;2-1 dane, e. (2011). paying attention to mindfulness and its effects on task performance in the workplace. journal of management, 37(4), 997–1018. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310367948 deal, j.j., leslie, j., dalton, m., & ernst, c. (2003). cultural adaptability and leading across cultures. advances in global leadership, 3, 149–166. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1535-1203(02)03008-3 delay, l., & dalton, m. (2006). coaching across cultures. in s. ting & p. scisco (eds.), ccl handbook of coaching: a guide for the leader coach (pp. 122–148). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. deng, l., & gibson, p. (2008). a qualitative evaluation on the role of cultural intelligence in cross-cultural leadership effectiveness. international journal of leadership studies, 3(2), 181–197. dickson, m.w., den hartog, d.n., & mitchelson, j.k. (2003). research on leadership in a cross-cultural context: making progress and raising new questions. the leadership quarterly, 14, 729–768. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2003.09.002 dixon-woods, m., cravers, d., agarwal, s., annandale, e., arthur, a., harvey, j., … sutton, a. j. (2006). conducting a critical interpretive synthesis of the literature on access to healthcare by vulnerable groups. bmc medical research methodology, 6, 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-6-35 earley, p.c., & ang, s. (2003). cultural intelligence: individual interactions across cultures. stanford: stanford university press. earley, p.c., & gibson, c.b. (2002). multinational work teams: a new perspective. new york: routledge. earley, p.c., & mosakowski, e. (2004). cultural intelligence. harvard business review, october, pp. 139–146. earley, p.c., murnieks, c., & mosakowski, e. (2007). cultural intelligence and the global mindset. advances in international management, 19(1), 75–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1571-5027(07)19004-5 elenkov, d.s., & manev, i.m. (2009). senior expatriate leadership’s effects on innovation and the role of cultural intelligence. journal of world business, 44(4), 357–369. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2008.11.001 endsley, m.r. (1995). toward a theory of situation awareness in dynamic systems. human factors: the journal of the human factors and ergonomics society, 37(1), 32–64. https://doi.org/10.1518/001872095779049543 flavell, j. h. (1979). metacognition and cognitive monitoring: a new area of cognitive-developmental inquiry. american psychologist, 34(10), 906. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.34.10.906 galinsky, a.d. (2002). creating and reducing intergroup conflict: the role of perspective-taking in affecting out-group evaluations. in h. sondak (ed.), research on managing groups and teams, vol. 4. toward phenomenology of groups and group membership (pp. 85–113). new york, ny, us: elsevier science. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1534-0856(02)04005-7 galinsky, a.d., & moskowitz, g.b. (2000). perspective-taking: decreasing stereotype expression, stereotype accessibility, and in-group favoritism. journal of personality and social psychology, 78(4), 708. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.78.4.708 geertz, c. (1973). the interpretation of cultures. new york: basic books. hampden-turner, c., & trompenaars, f. (1997). riding the waves of culture. london: nicholas brealey. gregersen, h.b., morrison, a.j., & black, j.s. (1998). developing leaders for the global frontier. mit sloan management review, 40(1), 21. hofstede, g. (1981). culture and organizations. international studies of management and organization, 10(4), 15–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/00208825.1980.11656300 house, r.j., hanges, p.j., javidan, m., dorfman, p.w., & gupta, v. (2004). culture, leadership, and organizations: the globe study of 62 societies. thousand oaks, ca: sage. javidan, m., & house, r.j. (2002). leadership and cultures around the world: findings from globe: an introduction to the special issue. journal of world business, 37(1), 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1090-9516(01)00068-2 javidan, m., teagarden, m., & bowen, d. (2010). managing yourself making it overseas. harvard business review, 88(4), 109–113. jenkins, j. (2006). coaching meets the cross-cultural challenge. leadership in action, 26(5), 23–24. https://doi.org/10.1002/lia.1182 johnson, j.p., lenartowicz, t., & apud, s. (2006). cross-cultural competence in international business: toward a definition and a model. journal of international business studies, 37(4), 525–543. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400205 jokinen, t. (2005). global leadership competencies: a review and discussion. journal of european industrial training, 29(3), 199–216. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090590510591085 kabat-zinn, j. (2003). mindfulness-based interventions in context: past, present and future. clinical psychology: science and practice, 10(2), 144–156. https://doi.org/10.1093/clipsy.bpg016 klafehn, j., banerjee, p.m., & chiu, c.y. (2008). navigating cultures. in handbook of cultural intelligence: theory, measurement, and applications (p. 318). new york: sharpe. kolb, a.y., & kolb, d.a. (2005). the kolb learning style inventory – version 3.1. technical specifications. boston, ma: hay resources direct. kolb, d. a. (1984). experiential learning. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. kopelman, s., avi-yonah, o. & varghese, a. the mindful negotiator: strategic emotion management and wellbeing (june 17, 2011). in iacm 2011 istanbul conference paper. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1866504 langer, e.j. (1989). mindfulness. reading, ma: addison-wesley/addison wesley longman. lee, s., adair, w.l., & seo, s.j. (2013). cultural perspective taking in cross-cultural negotiation. group decision negotiation, 22, 389–405. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10726-011-9272-4 li, m., & mobley, w.h. (2010, august). the role of experiential learning in the development of cultural intelligence. paper delivered at the annual meeting of the academy of management, montreal, canada. li, m., mobley, w.h., & kelly, a. (2013). when do global leaders learn best to develop ci? an investigation of the moderating role of experiential learning style. academy of management learning & education, 12(1), 32–50. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2011.0014 livermore, d.a. (2009). cultural intelligence: improving your cq to engage our multicultural world. grand rapids, mi: baker publishing group. logan, g.d. (1989). automaticity and cognitive control. in j.s. uleman & j.a. bargh (eds.), unintended thought (pp. 52–74). new york: guilford. lorenz, p.l., ramsey, j.r., & richey, r.g. (2018). expatriates’ international opportunity recognition and innovativeness: the role of metacognition and cognitive cultural intelligence. journal of world business, 53, 222–236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2017.11.004 macnab, b.r. (2012). an experiential approach to cultural intelligence education. journal of management education, 36(1), 66–94. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562911412587 mccall, m.w., & hollenbeck, g.p. (2002). developing global executives: the lessons of international experience. boston, ma: harvard business school press. meyer, e. (2014). the culture map: breaking through the invisible boundaries of global business. new york: public affairs. mor, s., morris, m., & joh, j. (2013). identifying and training adaptive cross-cultural management skills: the crucial role of metacognition. academy of management learning & education, 12(3), 453–475. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2012.0202 ng, k.y., van dyne, l., & ang, s. (2009). from experience to experiential learning: cultural intelligence as a learning capability for global leader development. academy of management learning & education, 8(4), 511–526. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2009.47785470 ng, k.y., van dyne, l., & ang, s. (2012). cultural intelligence: a review, reflections, and recommendations for future research. in a.m. ryn, f.t.l. leong, & f.l. oswald (eds.), conducting multinational research: applying organizational psychology in the workplace (pp. 29–58). washington, dc: american psychological association. oolders, t., chernyshenko, o., & stark, s. (2008). cultural intelligence as mediators of relationships between openness to experience and adaptive performance. in s. ang & l. van dyne (eds.), handbook of cultural intelligence: theory, measurement, and applications (pp. 145–158). new york: sharpe. plaister-ten, j. (2009). towards greater cultural understanding in coaching. international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring special issue (3), 64–81. plaister-ten, j. (2013). raising culturally-derived awareness and building culturally-appropriate responsibility: the development of the cross-cultural kaleidoscope. international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring, 11, 53–69. rosinski, p. (2003). coaching across cultures. international journal of coaching in organizations, 1(4), 4–16. rosinski, p., & abbott, g.n. (2006). coaching from a cultural perspective. in d.r. stober & a.m. grant (eds.), evidence based coaching handbook: putting best practices to work for your clients (pp. 255–275). hoboken, nj: wiley. rowland, d. (2016). leading across cultures requires flexibility and curiosity. harvard business review, may 30. https://hbr.org/2016/05/leading-across-cultures-requires-flexibility-and-curiosity sambharya, r.b. (1996). research notes and communications: foreign experience of top management teams and international diversification strategies of us multinational corporations. strategic management journal, 17, 739–746. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-0266(199611)17:9%3c739::aid-smj846%3e3.0.co;2-k schoenfeld, a.h. (1987). what’s all the fuss about metacognition? in a.h. schoenfeld (ed.), cognitive science and mathematics education (pp. 1–31). hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum. schreiber, r., crooks, d., & stern, p.n. (1997). qualitative meta-analysis. in j.m. morse (ed.), completing a qualitative project: details and dialogue (pp. 311 – 326). london: sage. sheldon, k.m. (1996). the social awareness inventory: development and applications. personality and social psychology bulletin, 22(6), 620–634. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167296226007 silver, e.a. (1987). foundations of cognitive theory and research for mathematics problemsolving. in a.h. schoenfeld (ed.), cognitive science and mathematics education (pp. 33–60). hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum. st claire-ostwald, b. (2007). carrying cultural baggage: the contribution of socio-cultural anthropology to cross-cultural coaching. international journal of evidence based coaching and mentoring, 25(2), 45–52. sternberg, r.j. (2004). culture and intelligence. american psychologist, 59(5), 325. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.59.5.325 su, y. (2011). lifelong learning at being: the heideggerian perspective. adult education quarterly, 61(1), 57–72. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741713610380442 tan, j.s., & chua, r.y. (2003). training and developing cultural intelligence. in p.c. earley & s. ang (ed.), cultural intelligence: individual interactions across cultures. (pp. 258 – 303). stanford: stanford university press. terblanche, n., albertyn, r.m., & van coller-peter, s. (2018). using transformative transition coaching to support leaders during career transitions. african journal of business ethics. thomas, d.c. (2006). domain and development of cultural intelligence: the importance of mindfulness. group & organization management, 31(1), 78–99. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601105275266 thomas, d.c., & inkson, k. (2003). cultural intelligence: people skills for global business. san francisco, ca: berrett-koehler publishers. triandis, h.c. (1995). individualism and collectivism. boulder, co: westview. triandis, h.c. (2006). cultural intelligence in organizations. group & organization management, 31(1), 20–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601105275253 van dyne, l., ang, s., & livermore, d. (2009). cultural intelligence: a pathway for leading in a rapidly globalizing world. in k. m hannum, b mcfeeters & l. booysen (eds.), leadership across differences: cases and perspectives. (pp. 131 – 138). san francisco, ca: pfeiffer. van dyne, l., ang, s., ng, k.y., rockstuhl, t., tan, m.l., & koh, c. (2012). sub-dimensions of the four factor model of cultural intelligence: expanding the conceptualisation and measurement of ci. social and personality psychology compass, 6(4), 295–313. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2012.00429.x walsh, r. (1980). the consciousness disciplines and the behavioral sciences: questions of comparison and assessment. american journal of psychiatry, 137(6), 663–673. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.137.6.663 whitmore, j. (2009). coaching for performance (4th ed.). boston, ma: nicholas brealey publishing. yamazaki, y., & kayes, d.c. (2004). an experiential approach to cross-cultural learning: a review and integration of competencies for successful expatriate adaptation. academy of management learning & education, 3(4), 362–379. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2004.15112543 yeo, r.k., & marquardt, m.j. (2015). (re) interpreting action, learning and experience: integrating action learning and experiential learning for hrd. human resource development quarterly, 26(1), 81–107. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21199 footnotes 1. as an example, a google scholar search reports almost 1000 articles that contain the term cultural intelligence in the title. a search of articles referencing robert sternberg, the father of modern-day studies on intelligence, and the exact term cultural intelligence, returns 920 articles. clearly, this is an impossible task. the search strategy thus required further narrowing of the search with a number of qualifying terms, for example, metacognition or coaching. once articles, possibly of interest and significance, were identified, pearl stringing was used to trace key piece of literature. this greatly assisted in understanding the emergence of key themes and academic focus. 2. a google scholar keyword search for cultural intelligence and cross-cultural coaching yielded 11 results. similarly, a keyword search for cultural intelligence and psychology returned in excess of 8000 results. abstract introduction research purpose literature review research methodology ethical considerations discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) tanja koch department of business management, university of stellenbosch business school, south africa charlene gerber department of business management, university of stellenbosch business school, south africa jeremias j. de klerk department of business management, university of stellenbosch business school, south africa citation koch, t., gerber, c., & de klerk, j.j. (2018). the impact of social media on recruitment: are you linkedin? sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a861. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.861 original research the impact of social media on recruitment: are you linkedin? tanja koch, charlene gerber, jeremias j. de klerk received: 03 sept. 2016; accepted: 16 nov. 2017; published: 07 may 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: with many organisations vying for the same talent, it is important to ensure that the correct methods are utilised in identifying and attracting the best talent to an organisation. research purpose: this research investigates the impact of social media on the recruitment process in south africa. motivation for the study: as the competition for qualified talent increases, organisations need to understand where to focus their resources to attract the best talent possible. the use of social media is growing daily and its use in the recruitment process seems to have grown exponentially. research design, approach and method: the sample comprised 12 recruiters, spanning a wide range of industries in south africa. semi-structured interviews were conducted and a thematic analysis was utilised to identify themes and subthemes. main findings: despite still utilising some traditional methods of recruiting, south african recruiters follow their international counterparts, with linkedin being central to their respective recruitment processes. the use of twitter and facebook for recruitment was found to be substantially lower in south africa than elsewhere. without following a focused approach, the volume of work that emanates from using social media may overwhelm a recruiter. practical and managerial implications: recruiters cannot execute effective recruitment without applying social media tools such as linkedin. however, training in the optimal use of social media is essential. contribution: this study indicates that linkedin has a major impact on recruitment in south africa, but that social media is not a panacea for recruitment issues. introduction attracting and retaining talent has become one of the key strategic issues in the talent management of many organisations (schlechter, hung & bussin, 2014; singh & finn, 2003). research furthermore shows that traditional, so-called ‘spray and pray’ recruitment methods are no longer sufficient in attracting talented employees to an organisation (joos, 2008). the main reasons are that these methods only focus on the small and limited active pool of potential candidates, but do not give organisations access to the highly sought-after talent that may be present in the semi-passive and passive candidate pools (dutta, 2014; khullar, pandey & read, 2017; singh & sharma, 2017). in the quest to find these candidates faster and cheaper, new sourcing tools have been created through electronic and social media (hunt, 2014; phillips & gully, 2012; tyagi, 2012). with the exponential growth in social media users, specifically the social networking sites linkedin and facebook and the microblogging site twitter, strategic tools were developed which can be leveraged to identify, attract and recruit both active and passive potential candidates (caers & castelyns, 2011; doherty, 2010; hunt, 2010; nikolaou, 2014; zide, elman & shahani-dennig, 2014). the objective of this article is to explore how social media impacts recruitment in south africa. research purpose the use of external recruiters as consultants is a common approach that many organisations apply to identify and source potential external candidates on behalf of their organisation (armstrong, 2006). it is here that the specialised use of appropriate processes and technologies becomes an important aspect of the recruitment plan and strategies of various recruitment consultants. for this reason, it is important to research how recruiters use emerging technologies like social media in order to gain a better understanding of its use and value. the very nature of social media enables recruiters to specifically identify and target talented but passive or semi-passive job candidates and to lure them to potentially attractive employment positions. it appears that south african researchers have given little or no attention to how social media has changed the recruitment processes employed by recruiters, and the ability of social media to attract talent. the question thus remains whether the use of social media in south africa is a significant development to take note of or if it is just a hype without much practical value. the objective of the research discussed in this article is to explore the possible impact of social media on recruitment in south africa. literature review recruitment recruitment is an essential part of talent management and can be defined as ‘the process of searching the right talent and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organization’ (sinha & thaly, 2013, p. 142). recruiting the wrong individual is costly. even for low-level positions, a failed hire may cost a company double the person’s annual salary, rising to around six times the annual salary at higher levels (armstrong, 2006; houran, 2017). employers are thus making an effort to address issues related to the attraction, recruitment and selection of talent (holland, sheehan & pyman, 2007). recruitment is not an isolated organisational function. rather, identifying, attracting and recruiting the right talent is a key success factor of any talent management strategy (gallardo-gallardo & thunnissen, 2016; tyagi, 2012). talent can be defined as the entirety of an employee’s ability, including attributes such as skills, knowledge, experience, intelligence and character (armstrong, 2006; stahl et al., 2012). having the right employees and talent is arguably the most important asset of any organisation (sinha & thaly, 2013). several studies have shown that organisations with better talent consistently show better performance (armstrong, 2006; kehinde, 2012; michaels, hanfield-jones & axelrod, 2001; nagpal, 2013). an organisation’s ability to attract and retain the best talent is therefore one of the most important determinants of organisational effectiveness (armstrong, 2006; kehinde, 2012; singh & finn, 2003). those organisations that differentiate themselves in their attraction, development and retention strategies are the ones that ultimately succeed (al ariss, cascio & paauwe, 2014; schlechter et al., 2014; tarique & schuler, 2010). the concept of a ‘war for talent’ is not new, and was already noted in 1998 (chambers, foulon, handfield-jones, hanking & michaels, 1998). in the current business environment, organisations are facing significant challenges in finding the correct employees (schlechter et al., 2014). the term ‘competency deficit’ is used to describe what can be seen as one of the reasons why organisations are facing these challenges in the attraction of talented employees (herman, olivio & gioia, 2003). a competency deficit refers to a situation where insufficient employees have the skills needed for performing a required task, mainly because of inadequate education and training. michaels et al. (2001) reason that the factors driving the increased competition for talent include the move from the industrial age to the information age. this has resulted in the need for an entirely different skill set and an ever-increasing demand for high-level managerial talent, as well as a growing tendency among employees to change jobs more frequently than was the case in the past. jobs (2003) argues that there is a distinct change in employees’ attitudes towards work, with a significant increase in the number of employees willing to change jobs more regularly now than in the past. it can be further argued that, while jobs and the organisational environment become more complex, birth rates are declining in some developed countries and the competition for talent is increasing globally, resulting in a chasm between skilled jobs and qualified high performers that is growing constantly (hunt, 2014). the bottom line is that there are a number of causes contributing to the difficulties that organisations have in attracting and retaining talented employees. in combination, these causes are creating a fierce competition for talent among organisations. the exponential growth of the need for scarce skills and the resulting fierce competition to attract the best and most competent people has led to the notion of the ‘war for talent’ (chambers et al., 1998), which has been the subject of much research and practical scrutiny since then (gallardo-gallardo & thunnissen, 2016; thunnissen, 2016). organisations that want to win the war for talent need to elevate talent management to a corporate priority, including the attraction and retention of smart, energetic and ambitious individuals (chambers et al., 1998). as managers are increasingly realising that running a successful organisation depends on having the right employees in the right positions to successfully execute their strategy (stahl et al., 2012), a shift is therefore taking place regarding the view of the role and importance of recruitment. it is shifting from viewing recruitment as an often-outsourced back-office function to a key differentiator in the competition for talent (hunt, 2014). it becomes apparent that the recruitment of talent is increasingly being regarded as more of a strategic function than what was once the case (phillips & gully, 2012; ready, hill & conger, 2008). what was previously regarded as an administrative task has now become a key strategic function that supports an organisation’s strategy and enhances its effectiveness. companies are thus increasingly realising the strategic importance of the identification, attraction and recruitment of talented employees into their organisations (houran, 2017). the aim of recruitment is to draw important resources into an organisation – namely, human capital (ready et al., 2008; thunnissen, 2016). thus, its purpose is to identify, attract and secure the most qualified and competent employees for an organisation’s current and future talent needs (armstrong, 2006; thunnissen, 2016). recruitment is the process of finding the right person who is interested in working for an organisation, influencing these particular individuals to apply for the job and convincing them to accept the position (phillips & gully, 2012). this can be divided into internal and external recruitment. internal recruitment refers to the recruitment of employees who are currently employed in different positions within an organisation, whereas external recruitment refers to targeting employees currently outside an organisation (breaugh, 2008; hughes & rog, 2008; stahl et al., 2010). one could assume that internal recruitment is one of the best ways to fill vacancies as employees are already immersed in the company culture, and management knows how a certain employee performs. however, this is not always possible or desirable and there are several reasons for organisations to find talented employees outside of the organisation, in order to fulfil its present and future talent needs (armstrong, 2006). for example, organisations might recruit from outside when specialised skills are not available within the organisation and/or there is a need for an increase in the diversity of the workforce (pynes, 2013). different types of candidates are motivated by different factors in making a potential career move to a new organisation. potential candidates can be classified into different categories, namely, active, semi-passive and passive candidates (joos, 2008; phillips & gully, 2012). active candidates are those candidates who are active in the process of seeking employment. this group typically ‘represents 10% or less of the total workforce at any given time’ (joos, 2008, p. 52). semi-passive candidates are those who are interested in a new position but are not actively engaged in the process of seeking new employment. passive candidates refer to those candidates who are currently employed and are not seeking a different position. at all times, but probably even more so in periods of low economic growth, organisations should endeavour to attract and entice the best talent to join, rather than only being interested in those actively looking for new employment opportunities (phillips & gully, 2012). in the battle for talent, one sometimes has to be proactive in order to be successful (thunnissen, 2016). both passive and semi-passive candidates would potentially consider making a job change if they are lured with attractive opportunities and enticing conditions (joos, 2008). to attract candidates into an organisation (especially semi-active and passive candidates), the potential candidate must firstly be identified so that the job can be brought to their attention (armstrong, 2006). of course, this requires a specific capability in identifying potentially suitable and adequately qualified candidates and then doing the selection of the most suitable potential candidates (pynes, 2013). it is only after these steps that the position and conditions must be attractive enough to persuade the potential candidate to apply for the position and to maintain their interest in the position until such a time that an acceptable offer is extended and accepted (barker, barker, bornmann & neher, 2009; breaugh, 2008). plans for identifying and attracting good candidates for which the recruiting organisation will become an ‘employer of choice’ are typically made in an organisation’s recruitment plan (armstrong, 2006). sourcing is a key initial step of the recruitment process in executing a recruitment plan. the sourcing component focuses on the actual identification of qualified candidates and the way to reach them (phillips & gully, 2012). the act of sourcing candidates is generally performed by a recruiter, who can be either an internal or a dedicated (external) recruiter (sinha & thaly, 2013). hunt (2014) argues that organisations that excel at the sourcing stage in the recruitment process show better recruitment results and, therefore, also show better financial performance than their competitors. with an appreciation of the importance of recruitment especially the importance of sourcing, the best method for recruitment remains debatable (houran, 2017). depending on what type of candidates need to be identified and attracted, there are a number of ways to source candidates, each with its own strengths and weaknesses (hunt, 2014). however, identifying and attracting the right candidates is very difficult and can become a logistical nightmare (sinha & thaly, 2013). less than a decade ago, candidate sourcing was still focused predominantly on more formal research practices, such as job advertisements, employers’ websites and job boards, with little or no focus on social media (breaugh, 2008). until recently, recruitment advertising in national and local newspapers, in trade journals and on organisations’ own career sites on corporate websites were seen as the main tools used to attract candidates. in addition, traditional sourcing activities such as asking candidates for referrals, visiting job and trade fairs and using organisations’ own candidate databases were popular (phillips & gully, 2012). however, research has shown that placing an advertisement in popular media or on an organisation’s website has a limited chance of attracting the right candidates (nikolaou, 2014). placing advertisements in popular media is not ideal for recruitment, as usually only active candidates tend to apply for the jobs in these advertisements, resulting in a small and limited candidate pool (phillips & gully, 2012). the former recruitment method, which was aimed primarily at active candidates, was predominantly the method that could be termed as the ‘spray and pray’ method. this means that recruiters ‘sprayed’ job advertisements across pages of print media and on websites, and job seekers in turn ‘sprayed’ their cv in the direction of recruiters, with both parties ‘praying’ for a positive outcome (joos, 2008). as the competition for talented employees grows, organisations are coming to the realisation that they only access a small and limited active candidate pool through traditional recruitment practices. the way organisations source candidates is changing rapidly and new sourcing tools are continuously being developed. indeed, there is a clear shift towards modern and innovative sourcing channels for various factors such as quality, cost, availability and time (sinha & thaly, 2013). the advent of the internet and social media have been key drivers in the development of new sourcing tools and the effective use of appropriate technology is becoming the dominant driver for sourcing candidates (dutta, 2014; hunt, 2014). internet, social media and recruitment in recent times, the massive growth of social media and internet capacities and capabilities has added numerous other sourcing possibilities and activities. some of these include internet job boards (internet sites that allow organisations to upload their vacancies and candidates to upload their cvs), internet data mining (the process of using boolean searches) and web crawlers (programmes that continually search the web for information about employees) (nikolaou, 2014; parez, silva, harvey & bosco, 2013; sinha & thaly, 2013). other capacities and capabilities include flip searching (a process which identifies employees that link to specific internet sites to search for passive and semi-passive candidates) and social networking (leveraging connections on social media) such as linkedin, facebook and twitter. in this world of abundant internet and social media, with so many options available, choosing which sourcing tool to use becomes a fundamental decision in the recruitment process for any organisation or recruiter (galanaki, 2002; sinha & thaly, 2013). in order to attract high-calibre passive and semi-passive potential candidates, it becomes increasingly possible and necessary to move away from the traditional ‘spray and pray’ approach and to embrace the new sourcing tools offered by the internet and social media (dutta, 2014). in the process, it is important to take cognisance of differences in the approach and philosophy between conventional and various social media recruitment tools (dutta, 2014). social media social media can be defined as the use of web-based conversational media (applications that make possible the creation and transmission of content in the format of words, pictures, videos and audios) among communities of people who meet online to share information, knowledge and opinions (safko & brake, 2009). four key motivations drive the use of social media: connect, create, consume and control (hoffman & fodor, 2010). a wide variety of social media platforms are available and well established, for example, facebook, linkedin, instagram, twitter, et cetera. however, a large body of previous research indicates that among the various social media platforms, facebook, linkedin and twitter are mainly used in the sourcing process (caers & castelyns, 2011; doherty, 2010; dutta, 2014; singh & sharma, 2014). linkedin and facebook could be classified as social networking tools, in other words, tools that allow users to share information about themselves, often through an online profile that they have created themselves (safko & brake, 2009). twitter falls under the subcategory of microblogging tools, which allow users to communicate a message in less than 140 characters. social networking and microblogging sites have shown tremendous growth over the past few years, with facebook witnessing an average of 1.32 billion daily active users in june 2017 (facebook, 2017), an increase of 23% from the figure in 2016 (zephoria, 2017), of which more than 14 million users were from south africa (2oceansvibe, 2016; business tech, 2016). linkedin had 467 million members in 2017 (chaudhary, 2017), of which 5.5 million users were from south africa (2oceansvibe, 2016). more than 1 million professionals have published a post on linkedin and the average user spends 17 min monthly on linkedin (chaudhary, 2017). twitter had 317 million users in 2017, of which more than 7.7 million users were from south africa (2oceansvibe, 2016). social media and recruitment research has indicated that placing an advertisement in popular media or on an organisation’s website has a limited chance of attracting the right candidates (phillips & gully, 2012). this is because mainly active candidates seem to apply to these advertisements, resulting in a small and limited candidate pool. as the number of users on social media increases, the use of social media channels in recruiting is gaining momentum (dutta, 2014; singh & sharma, 2014). this trend results from organisations’ ability of recognising the potential of these channels to attract not only active prospective job candidates but also passive and semi-passive candidates. social networking sites such as linkedin, facebook and twitter allow recruiters to post job advertisements to lure a wide spectrum of potential candidates to easily access and apply for such potential positions, thereby enabling recruiters to search for and screen potential job applicants – even those who do not necessarily apply (sinha & thaly, 2013). there is evidence that recruiters and organisations are realising that more and better candidates can be discovered and approached quicker and at a lower cost by utilising social networks, compared to traditional recruitment methods (armstrong, 2006; singh & sharma, 2014). specifically, a strong association has been found between the use of linkedin and the ability of identifying and attracting passive candidates (nikolaou, 2014). by using social networks for recruiting, access is enabled to a wide range of candidates who are easily accessible at any given time. for example, linkedin now has 3 million active job listings (chaudhary, 2017). moreover, utilising social networks makes this access possible at an increasingly lower cost (broughton, foley, ledermaier & cox, 2013; brown & vaughn, 2011; khullar et al., 2017). it is especially the widely sought-after pool of very competent but passive candidates that social networks give recruiters access to (doherty, 2010; joos, 2008). it is thus not surprising that recruiters and organisations regard social media and networks as attractive recruitment tools, which give recruiters a competitive edge in reaching their recruitment objectives when it is done effectively (singh & sharma, 2014). it is clear that the use of social media platforms has become the norm for sourcing in recruitment and recruiters believe that social media enables them to find better quality candidates. indeed, 93% of recruiters use social media to support their recruiting efforts (jobvite, 2014). social media is used in recruitment for a number of reasons. when inquiring into how recruiters use social media for advertising, jindal and shaikh (2014) found that 50% use social media in paid-for job advertising via social media platforms and 37% advertise vacancies via tweets or alerts, or make use of free job advertising via targeted social media platforms (e.g. facebook). furthermore, 30% of recruiters develop a database of followers and/or supporters by posting regular updates, and 18% use the social media platform’s job search engines to advertise vacancies or to accept cvs and application forms on an organisation’s behalf. surprisingly, only 7% of recruiters use it to screen the suitability of potential recruits on their social networking pages. this leads to the following question: which of the social media platforms are the most effective to use? although facebook is globally the largest social media platform, it is not the most popular or effective platform for recruitment (bullhorn, 2014). jobs posted on linkedin receive more views from potential candidates than those on facebook and twitter combined, and these posted jobs garner twice as many applications per job advertisement in general. linkedin is by far the most preferred social network when it comes to recruitment (jobvite, 2014). over 95% of recruiters who use social media in their recruitment process indicated that they use linkedin (bullhorn, 2014), compared to 66% utilising facebook and 52% engaging with candidates on twitter (jobvite, 2014). this trend is confirmed by zide et al. (2014), who found that all the respondents in their research utilise linkedin in their recruitment process. furthermore, recruiters who use linkedin more frequently in their sourcing have seen more success in the use of linkedin and therefore use it more often (caers & castelyns, 2011; ollington, gibb, harcourt & doherty, 2013). indeed, the staffing and recruitment industry is the one that is connected most on linkedin (darrow, 2017). houran (2017) found that linkedin is overwhelmingly used in the recruitment of candidates for key management positions at senior (87%) and middle management levels (80%), whereas it is very rarely used for entry positions (8%). these studies confirm the importance of linkedin in the recruitment process. it appears that one of the main reasons for the higher level of use of linkedin among the social networking sites relates to its being seen by the public as almost exclusively for building professional relationships, which is not the case with facebook and twitter, which are more general social media (zide et al., 2014). although all three of these social media platforms are being used in the sourcing process, they tend to be used differently. linkedin is generally used for posting advertisements, searching for candidates, and contacting and vetting candidates (jobvite, 2014). on the other hand, facebook and twitter are used more to showcase the employer brand and to generate referrals as well as to post advertisements (jobvite, 2014). there is a marked preference among recruiters and human resource professionals for linkedin rather than facebook for recruitment as they consider the former to be more effective than the latter (nikolaou, 2014). recruiters are of the opinion that linkedin gives the most insight into candidates’ employment history, education, years of experience as well as how they present themselves (zide et al., 2014). the jobvite annual social recruiting survey is arguably one of the most comprehensive surveys of its kind. this (2014) survey was conducted online and was completed by 1855 recruiting and human resources professionals, spanning across several industries. the difference in the application of the social media platforms also yielded different results for recruiters. overall, 79% of recruiters indicated that they placed a candidate through linkedin, 26% indicated that they did this through facebook and only 14% indicated that they placed a candidate through twitter (jobvite, 2014). although linkedin has one of the highest success rates of any website, it seems that it is still used less than more conventional recruitment platforms like job boards, career portals and corporate websites, or at least in combination with it (allden & harris, 2013; tyagi, 2012). one of the reasons why many recruiters still prefer the more conventional sourcing tools could possibly be ascribed to recruiters’ limited knowledge of how to recruit effectively on social networking sites (allden & harris, 2013). however, although web-based job portals generate many applications, they still do not necessarily reach all the candidates, especially passive or semi-passive candidates (sinha & thaly, 2013). notwithstanding the substantial increase in the use of social media for recruitment, one should be careful to think that it is the panacea that resolves all recruitment problems; it also has pitfalls (doherty, 2010). for example, with candidates uploading their own profiles it is likely to lead to profile inflation – which can be described as attempts to artificially enhance one’s profile through little white lies or using deceptively positive terms to describe oneself, past accomplishments or current status (houran, 2017). with the practice of candidate identification and screening through social media, legal implications are likely to arise due to the wrong use of information (melanthiou, pavlou & constantinou, 2015). also, although social media is extensively used for screening candidates, it is still unclear whether this screening influences a recruiter’s decision to such an extent that they would reject an applicant (melanthiou et al., 2015). dutta (2014) argues that while social media can offer various sourcing opportunities to recruiters, resulting in a profound impact on the way that recruitment functions within organisations, it should not be mistaken for a full recruitment strategy. rather, it forms merely a part of an organisation’s recruitment strategy. it could be argued that the recruitment process has been transformed from a mainly sequential process to a parallel process. in the latter process, social media tools are not used to directly replace traditional sourcing tools, but rather to supplement them to give recruiters access to the highly sought-after passive candidate pool (joos, 2008) in order to turn them into active candidates (doherty, 2010). social media and recruitment in south africa although the use of social media for recruitment has been researched extensively internationally, no studies have explored the use of social media as recruitment tools in south africa as far as this could be established. an extensive literature search, focusing on the use of social media in general and the use of facebook, linkedin and twitter in particular for recruitment or employment purposes in south africa rendered no results. not even exploratory studies could be found on how social media is used in the field of recruitment. although there are south african studies that investigated the use of social media by organisations (cilliers, chinyamurindi & viljoen, 2017), no evidence could be found that focused on how it is specifically used in recruitment. studies on the use of social media tend to focus on its informal use for personal networking, social and political commentary, et cetera. the few available studies on the use of social media in the world of business mostly focus on how it is used or could be used for aspects such as marketing, image building and teaching and training (bolton et al., 2013). this observation provides confirmation to the suggestion from roth, bobko, van iddekinge and thatcher (2016) that organisational practice has outpaced the scientific study of social media in the field of work. research methodology research approach based on the paucity of research in the field of recruitment in south africa, an exploratory research was conducted for the purposes of gaining insights into the possible impact of social media on recruitment in south africa. data on the use of social media for recruitment were gathered through semi-structured interviews with recruiters. the aim of the interviews was to explore recruiters’ sourcing techniques and obtain insights into their sourcing techniques and processes, especially relating to the use of social media. semi-structured interviews were selected as the method of data collection because of their potential to elicit rich descriptions on the subject (bloomberg & volpe, 2012). they offer the interviewer the opportunity of gathering in-depth information as they provide a situated activity that locates the observer in the world of the participant, involving an interpretive approach (denzin & lincoln, 2011). in this situation, in-depth information can be classified as understandings that are held by real-life members in some activity or event. semi-structured interviews allow the interviewer to gain in-depth information by allowing probing and follow-up questions to mine for underlying aspects to specific answers, ask more questions and observe participants (wegner, 2014). sample semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 recruiters from four different recruitment agencies. the four agencies were purposefully selected to represent a range of industries and focus areas. the participants were selected by means of judgement sampling. in this case, two groups of recruiters were identified. the first group consisted of six recruiters with more than 8 years of recruiting experience. this was done to include recruiters with substantial recruitment experience and who became involved in recruiting at a time before social media was used. the second group of six recruiters was selected to have less than four years of recruiting experience. in other words, these recruiters have only been recruiting in an age where social media was already commonly available and in use. the age of the participants ranged from 25 to 38 years. participants represented recruiters from different geographical locations, from three recruitment agencies. four of these agencies are based in gauteng and one recruitment agency is based in the western cape. the participants were also selected to represent different recruitment focus areas and industries to allow for some variation in the sample (i.e. information technology, engineering, financial services, executive and senior management, human resources, management consulting and finance). participants were contacted and invited telephonically to participate in the research, and to set up an interview date, time and location at their convenience. the interviews were personally conducted by the main researcher in face-to-face settings, and recorded and transcribed verbatim for thematic analysis. among other benefits, face-to-face interviews allowed the interviewer to establish a better rapport with interviewees and to note non-verbal responses such as body language and facial expressions when conducting the interviews (wegner, 2014). measuring instrument an interview schedule was used, with 13 specified interview questions pertaining to (1) the method of recruitment, (2) the procedure of recruitment and (3) the use of social media in recruitment. the 13 mandatory questions were developed by abstracting aspects of importance to the research purpose and trends relating to recruitment practices with social media elsewhere in the world, as identified through the literature study. the questionnaire included questions on both the traditional and present use of recruitment tools and their effectiveness. specific questions and follow-up questions pertaining to the use of social media in recruitment referred only to linkedin, facebook and twitter. this was done because previous research indicated these as the most important social media sources in recruitment (bullhorn, 2014; caers & castelyns, 2011: p. 442; ollington et al., 2013; zide et al., 2014). questions were formulated according to the language and jargon commonly used by recruiters. examples of interview questions include: can you think back – before the advent of social media – and can you tell me when you got a new job to work, what were the sourcing tools you used to find candidates? could you draw a diagram in terms of how you used to source your candidates, showing the weighting of each tool? when you get a new job to work, what are the sourcing tools you use to find candidates? which of the social media platforms do you use most frequently? please elaborate – out of 10 jobs you would on average use x% of time, y% of time, et cetera. which of the social media platforms do you use and why do you use them? how successful are you when you use social media as a sourcing tool and why do you say this? some of the questions were repeated during the interview so as to explore both the traditional and present use of social media in recruitment. strategies to ensure data integrity qualitative data analysis is a continuous process that commences while the data are being collected (marshall & rossman, 2006). the challenge for the researcher is to enter the social world of the research participants and to try and understand the world from their points of view as objectively as possible (saunders, lewis & thornhill, 2011). care was taken not to form conclusions and themes in the mind while doing the interviews, but to ground the findings of the interview data through a structured process of thematic analysis in order to ensure its trustworthiness. the process of data analysis began with the transcription of the interviews by the researcher, which allowed for building familiarity with the data (saunders, lewis & thornhill, 2011). subsequently, a structured process of thematic analysis (braun & clarke, 2006) was manually conducted by coding and categorising data, from which the key subthemes and themes emerged. creswell’s (2007) and leedy and omrod’s (2010) research suggested steps for analysing qualitative data, which were applied to analyse the transcriptions through a structured approach to ensure the trustworthiness of the findings. these steps are to (1) sift through the relevant information to identify statements that relate to the topic (open coding), (2) to group statements into ‘meaning’ categories that reflect coherent dimensions (axial coding), (3) to seek divergent perspectives and ways in which different participants experience the recruitment differently and (4) to construct key themes (code families). the interviews did not explore the use of social media by agencies but rather its use by actual recruiters. although the participants are employed by different agencies, they participated in their personal capacity rather than as a representative of the agency. the reason for this approach was that even though an agency may claim to use social media in its recruitment endeavours, and probably have a twitter and facebook account or page, active recruitment through social media does not happen practically unless the individual recruiters actually use such social media practices. this approach was deemed to provide more trustworthy findings for the objectives of this study than focusing on the official practices of an agency. findings with regard to the use of social media in recruitment processes, it was found to be high among participants overall. similar to research conducted outside of south africa (zide et al., 2014), this research found that the use of linkedin is much higher among the participants than the use of either twitter or facebook (see figure 1). figure 1: percentage of recruiters using social media in their sourcing process. only one of the 12 participants (8%) in the sample indicated that they us twitter for recruitment, which is much lower than the 52% recorded by jobvite (2014). furthermore, the use of facebook by the respondents was also shown to be much lower, with only 16% (2 of 12) mentioning the use of facebook in comparison to the 66% found in the jobvite study. participants, however, follow the international trend of using linkedin, with all of them mentioning the use of linkedin in the process in comparison to the 94% found by jobvite. although the differences can be ascribed to the comparatively small sample size of this study, they arguably still provide important and noteworthy information regarding the difference in using social media in south africa, in relation to elsewhere. thematic analysis of the interview data rendered key themes on the impact of each of the main social media sites utilised in the sourcing process (twitter, facebook and linkedin). there is also a key theme on the overall changes in the sourcing process since the advent of social media. table 1 presents the main themes and subthemes identified from the interviews. table 1: themes and subthemes identified from the interviews. the four themes are described in more detail in the sections that follow. some verbatim comments from participants are included in the discussion to demonstrate the trustworthiness of the themes and subthemes derived from the analyses. participants are identified as follows: participant number (e.g. p1), age, years of recruitment experience, location, industry specialisation for recruitment, for example, information technology (it). theme 1: twitter has little impact on recruitment although twitter is not the most popular social media platform in recruitment worldwide, a large body of research has shown that twitter is used extensively internationally by recruiters in the sourcing process (caers & castelyns, 2011; dutta, 2014; singh & sharma, 2014). however, participants in this study indicated that, of the three social media tools, they used twitter least. only one of the respondents mentioned the use of twitter in their recruitment practice. one of the main reasons mentioned by the participants for not using twitter in sourcing is that they feel they do not have sufficient knowledge of twitter or an understanding of how to use it effectively in recruitment. of the participants, 58% (7 of 12) mentioned the lack of knowledge of the use of twitter as their reason for not using it. as participants noted about twitter: ‘twitter? i don’t even know how to work it.’ (p1, 33, 9 years’ experience, johannesburg, engineering) ‘twitter – never ever. i’m so old school. i tried to use twitter just for news and then i got over it.’ (p6, 29, 7 years’ experience, cape town, financial markets) this finding is in agreement with the findings of allden and harris (2013). the lack of knowledge of twitter possibly hints towards suggesting that recruiters should be trained on how to effectively use twitter in the sourcing process. this could increase the use of twitter by recruiters. however, even those participants who have the knowledge and have been trained to use twitter in the sourcing process still do not use it in their recruitment process: ‘i have learnt how to use twitter but i have never done it. i haven’t had the time to try something new so i’m sticking with what i know works.’ (p2, 43, 14 years’ experience, johannesburg, engineering and it) participants commented that they work under significant time constraints and that a lack of available time prohibits them from adding twitter as a tool in their sourcing process: ‘we’re so busy that there’s really no time to try something new [twitter] – so it’s a bit of a catch 22.’ (p4, 35, 11 years’ experience, johannesburg, it) the reason why twitter is perceived to be overly time-consuming was not clear. one possible reason could be that it takes much time to actively manage a large twitter account, or being flooded by too many incoming tweets. one could also speculate that if time constraint is an issue for recruiters, it may apply similarly to job candidates. this is a new and unique finding that has not been reported elsewhere as far as we know. although the time constraint issue regarding the use of twitter for sourcing does not appear in international research, it is mentioned that it is important to ensure that recruiters do not merely tweet about jobs, but that the tweets reach the target job-seeking audience (jindal & shaikh, 2014). another reason for the low use of twitter relates to recruiters’ general and regular activity on twitter, which consequently impacts the size of their twitter network and number of followers: ‘i don’t do anything on twitter – i browse but i don’t have a big network there.’ (p5, 28, 5 years’ experience, cape town, financial markets) participants indicated that the size of their twitter network negatively impacts their use of twitter in their sourcing approaches. a small following on twitter gives them the feeling that they will not achieve the results they are looking for. three of the participants indicated that they feel their twitter network is not large enough to justify its use for recruitment. they also feel that they personally do not have sufficient followers and therefore do not have enough reach to warrant the use of twitter to attract potentially relevant candidates: ‘i’m not connected enough on twitter, not enough people follow me. i don’t focus enough attention on what my brand is on twitter.’ (p8, 43, 15 years’ experience, cape town, financial services) this observation is related to the view that recruiters using twitter in recruitment must actively tweet to earn traction, because occasional random tweets do not have an impact (hunt, 2010). although this finding may appear to be somewhat obvious, this aspect apparently does not attract much attention in research, apart from silliker’s (2011) observation that organisations with high numbers of followers receive a large number of applications. not using twitter actively in recruitment arguably makes recruiters focus their attention on those sourcing tools that they believe will give them a larger reach and a greater result. based on the findings of this research, the reasons noted for recruiters not using twitter more for sourcing are varied, ranging from the feeling of a too small a network with not enough reach and limited training to a lack of knowledge for using it effectively and the time it would take to learn how to use it. it would be fair to surmise that, to all intents and appearances, twitter is not regarded or used as a popular recruiting tool by recruitment agents in south africa. theme 2: facebook has little impact on recruitment similar to the use of twitter, research by jobvite (2014) indicates that facebook is globally used to showcase the employer’s brand and generate referrals as well as to post advertisements. however, in this study, only 2 of the 12 respondents (17%) mentioned that they utilise facebook as a tool for sourcing candidates. when asked why they do not use facebook more actively, one of the participants noted: ‘for me there’s a big difference between work and private life. facebook represent[s] the personal side of my life. i don’t like mixing the two, i don’t want candidates in my personal life if i’m posting pictures of me and my son or whatever.’ (p9, 42, 15 years’ experience, cape town, oil and gas/commercial) evidently, facebook is seen as a representation of the participant’s private life and there is essentially a separation between who they are or what they do at work and who they are or what they do at home: ‘facebook? i don’t use it. my perception is that facebook is social and i don’t want to be advertising or talking about work on facebook. my facebook is my personal brand.’ (p8, 43, 15 years’ experience, cape town, financial services) it would seem that participants make a clear distinction between the use of facebook for their private lives, and linkedin for the professional side of their lives, not wanting these two areas to overlap: ‘i don’t see facebook as a business tool, i always see it as more social.’ (p1, 33, 9 years’ experience, johannesburg, engineering). ‘facebook? i don’t use it because it’s my private entity.’ (p3, 40, 20 years’ experience, johannesburg, commercial/financial) as most of the participants do not utilise facebook for sourcing job candidates, it cannot be seen as an effective recruiting tool for individual recruiters in south africa. this is an important new finding, as this private and/or work life distinction has not attracted the attention of international research as far as could be established and does not appear to be an issue elsewhere. rather, this finding appears to be unique to south africa and relates to other research which found that it is quite common that employees and organisations do not consider facebook to be a legitimate work tool (cilliers et al., 2017). theme 3: linkedin has an important impact on recruitment all of the study participants indicated that they always, or often, make use of linkedin for recruitment purposes, confirming the preference for linkedin as a sourcing tool over and above other social media platforms in south africa: ‘linkedin search – 100% of the time.’ (p6, 29, 7 years’ experience, cape town, financial markets) ‘linkedin? 80% of the time.’ (p11, 45, 20 years’ experience, johannesburg, management consultants) ‘linkedin recruiter is the best tool that i ever come across.’ (p5, 28, 5 years’ experience, cape town, financial markets) this finding is in line with international research, which has shown linkedin to be the most preferred social network in recruitment (houran, 2017; nikolaou, 2014; zide et al., 2014). however, the preference for linkedin is (marginally) even stronger for this sample than what has been reported elsewhere. similar to trends reported in international research (houran, 2017), participants in this study used linkedin for different sourcing activities. of the participants, 67% (8 of 12) mentioned that they do not place advertisements on linkedin, but rather use it to search for potential candidates to approach for positions. searching linkedin for potential candidates is preferred over placing advertisements on linkedin: ‘i don’t put ads on linkedin. i only use it to find candidates.’ (p1, 33, 9 years’ experience, johannesburg, engineering) ‘100% of the time i will go on to linkedin to search for candidates.’ (p4, 35, 11 years’ experience, johannesburg, it) this finding is in line with international trends that recruiters prefer linkedin over facebook, twitter or other social media to find or identify suitable potential candidates (nikolaou, 2014). however, one of the limitations mentioned about linkedin is that it does not provide direct access to candidates’ contact numbers or email addresses. this necessitates recruiters to do more detective work and search for these contact details in a variety of different places, such as facebook and google, once they have found a potentially good candidate on linkedin: ‘for headhunting purposes i would go onto linkedin and identify candidates to call and then google the company or look on our database or on one of the career portals for their phone number.’ (p2, 43, 14 years’ experience, johannesburg, engineering and it) linkedin is therefore not used as a stand-alone tool in the sourcing process, but more for the identification of potential candidates. after a prospective candidate has been identified on linkedin, various other internet sites are utilised to find the contact details and to verify information. using linkedin to identify potential candidates when screening for headhunting purposes is bound to be subject to the risk of profile inflation by candidates (houran, 2017). however, the risk of profile inflation in the identification of potential candidates was not highlighted by any of the participants as a concern and is apparently not viewed negatively by recruiters in this sample. international research has found that recruiters believe linkedin to have one of the highest success rates of any social media platform (houran, 2017). the perceived success of linkedin was also confirmed in this study: ‘i have made 2 placements out of linkedin recruiter in the past 2 months that i would not have made if i didn’t have linkedin recruiter.’ (p8, 43, 15 years’ experience, cape town, financial services) ‘the good thing is that when you find one good guy you just go into his network and look at all of his friends. linkedin is great.’ (p1, 33, 9 years’ experience, johannesburg, engineering) the latter quotation also gives an indication of how linkedin is used to gather information about prospective candidates. this observation is in agreement with observations made elsewhere in that social media is increasingly used to gather information about potential employees (roth et al., 2016). however, it appears that linkedin is still used less than other, more conventional platforms like job boards on career portals and corporate websites, or at least in combination with them (allden & harris, 2013). this international trend was supported by the findings of this study for south africa. although all the participants mentioned using linkedin somewhere in their recruitment processes, various participants indicated that they use it between 60% and 80% of the time for advertising positions. only two participants (17%) mentioned that they use linkedin for each position they source: ‘i still write ads for the career portals and for the company website 100% of the time and i do searches on the career portals about 50% of the time. linkedin i use for about 80% of my positions.’ (p6, 29, 7 years’ experience, cape town, financial markets) based on the preceding comments and quote about the use of career portals and websites, it is clear that linkedin is seen as a key recruitment tool in the sourcing process. however, it is also evident that at least some recruiters are still utilising the more traditional way of recruiting (namely, advertising) more than using linkedin. this approach seems to be aligned with views that the use of social media in recruitment does not stand on its own but must form part of a well-crafted, comprehensive recruitment strategy (madia, 2011). theme 4: social media is an important part of recruitment previous research indicates that placing an advertisement in popular media or on an organisation’s website has a limited chance of attracting the right candidates (phillips & gully, 2012). however, the findings of this study suggest that traditional advertising approaches are still an important recruitment practice for recruiters. for all of the participants, the first step when receiving a new job to recruit a candidate for is to write an advertisement – as one would expect. the only change in this process is where the advertisement is placed; while in the past, recruiters would post their jobs in print media, 33% of the participants (4/12) indicated that they now post advertisements on their company websites and career portals, as well as on linkedin: ‘my first step is still the same – 100% of the time i would write an ad; in the past i would place it in various print media, now i place it on the company website as well as the relevant career portals and then on linkedin, depending on how senior or how technical the job is that i’m working on.’ (p6, 29, 7 years’ experience, cape town, financial markets) all the participants confirmed that they no longer place any advertisements in print media. although participants still rely heavily on advertising to find candidates, the sites where they place their advertisements have shifted towards internet media, in particular, career portals and social media such as linkedin: ‘advertisements? probably 80–90% of the time, but no more print; linkedin 100% of time, referrals 100%, pnet and cj 50%.’ (p6, 29, 7 years’ experience, cape town, financial markets) ‘advertising? now – purely online.’ (p8, 43, 15 years’ experience, cape town, financial services) this finding is in agreement with previous research that social media is used in combination with more conventional recruitment platforms like job boards, career portals and corporate websites (allden & harris, 2013; tyagi, 2012). this raises the question as to why recruiters still rely heavily on more traditional advertising methods such as career portals and organisational websites in the age of social media. previous research indicated that one of the reasons why recruiters often still prefer more conventional sourcing tools is their limited knowledge of how to effectively recruit on social networking sites (allden & harris, 2013). the findings of this study show that this holds true only for twitter. it would seem that the reason why some participants still prefer using the more conventional sourcing tools is that they have limited time and their perception is that social media adds much more work: ‘i believe we’re not using technology correctly – there are email inboxes, there are company inboxes, gmail inboxes, there are linkedin inboxes, there is facebook, there is twitter … so recruiters aren’t focused as it all seems too much.’ (p11, 45, 20 years’ experience, johannesburg, management consultants) ‘social media adds a huge amount of volume to the sourcing process.’ (p1, 33, 9 years’ experience, johannesburg, engineering) participants indicated that they feel social media is providing everyone with access to the same candidates, whereas in the past recruiters had to pay for access to search for candidates on career portals or utilise their own databases. everyone can now easily search for and connect with potential candidates through social media. however, participants feel that social media does not really give them a competitive edge, rather, it has increased competition as all recruiters now have access to the same information: ‘social media has created more competition for recruiters because everyone has access. all you need is a name and the names are on the internet, specifically on social media sites. it’s now down to who’s better at headhunting and who’s not, because everyone has access.’ (p1, 33, 9 years’ experience, johannesburg, engineering) the above finding suggests that social media is increasing the competition for top candidates in sourcing and has become the proverbial ‘ticket to the game’ in order to compete for identifying and attracting the best talent, rather than providing a competitive edge. this finding differs somewhat from notions in the recruitment literature that the use of social media in the recruitment process provides recruiters with a competitive edge in reaching their recruitment objectives (singh & sharma, 2014). it appears, and was expressed by one of the participants, that the use of social media simply levels the playing field and has become an essential part of the recruitment process just to be able to compete in the recruitment war for talent: ‘linkedin is not dav specific – 4.5 million people in sa are on linkedin – it levels the playing field.’ (dav refers to this recruiter’s managing agency) (p8, 43, 15 years’ experience, cape town, financial services) although this theme indicates that social media has become an important part of recruitment, 75% of the participants (9 of 12) agreed that they combine its use with the more traditional recruitment methods when sourcing active candidates. specifically, participants indicated that when they recruit for more technical, senior passive candidates, they use a combination of different sourcing techniques, namely, utilising linkedin to identify potential candidates and then using headhunting techniques to lure them into becoming interested in the position: ‘depending on the job – if it’s a rare skill i go directly to linkedin; if it’s a not rare skill i go to pnet first and then only, if i don’t find anyone, i go to linkedin.’ (p5, 28, 5 years’ experience, cape town, financial markets) this could possibly indicate that for lower level and non-technical positions, the sourcing approach has not changed much. however, if recruiters are trying to attract more senior or technical candidates, especially those they classify as ‘passive’, they would search less on career portals and add linkedin and headhunting to their sourcing process: ‘if i work on a lower level job, one that’s technically not that complicated, i would advertise and go to the career portals and go to the database. if it was something more technical i would do similarly, i would always advertise and go to our database, but i would then do head hunting via linkedin and to a lesser degree go to job portals because the assumption is that if you are senior and technical, you’re not really on the job portals; you’re not active, you’re more passive.’ (p8, 43, 15 years’ experience, cape town, financial services) this finding is in agreement with previous research (houran, 2017). the growth of the internet and social media has given rise to more and more ways to connect candidates and recruiters. however, this benefit adds a large volume of work to recruiters’ desks. rather than reducing work, one of the drawbacks of social media is the volume it adds to the sourcing process: ‘i’m inundated with requests – i can’t even keep up. i have about 100 requests pending. i think my [linkedin] network is close to 2000. a lot are referrals.’ (p5, 28, 5 years’ experience, cape town, financial markets) the volume of work increases as a result of various aspects, such as the vast number of available candidates whose profiles are available to search and screen. this increase is compounded by the large number of candidates who have access to job advertisements through social media, resulting in a vast number of (often unqualified) applicants. this aspect was confirmed by 67% of the participants (7 of 12) in the study. participating recruiters felt that they are already stretched for time and that utilising the various channels of social media adds more strain to their already limited available time: ‘social media is quicker, but it creates more volume, less quality. there is less quality because people take more chances because there is easier access. in general, if you were forced to post your cv, you would think twice about it, vs. just sending an email.’ (p1, 33, 9 years’ experience, johannesburg, engineering) ‘i get a lot of referrals on linkedin. i must say, the candidates haven’t been great – it just adds to the volume.’ (p3, 40, 20 years’ experience, johannesburg, commercial/financial) this finding raises an interesting perspective regarding notions in the literature that social media reduces the ‘spray and pray’ approach (dutta, 2014). social media may give better access to the passive and semi-passive candidate pool and an improved ability to attract these candidates. however, the sheer volume of work and high number of candidates that emerge from using social media may inhibit the effective use of the acquired pool of potential candidates. this finding also relates to houran’s (2017) observation that anyone using linkedin, or recruiting through social media in general, has the challenge of appraising profiles. as such, one could question to what extent the use of social media provides a more focused approach rather than the ‘spray and pray’ approach. the question is: is this not just another version of the ‘spray and pray’ approach? ethical considerations this study was conducted under the guidelines for ethical research of the relevant university after the research proposal was approved by its research ethics committee. informed institutional permission for the research was obtained from the organisations from which recruiters were invited to participate in the study. informed consent was obtained from all the participants. participants were assured that confidentiality would be maintained by treating their responses as anonymous and that no names would be disclosed. discussion the findings of this research confirm that the use of social media for recruitment in south africa is high among recruiters and is an important part of their sourcing process. this finding is in line with research conducted elsewhere, which indicates that the use of social media in recruiting gains momentum as the number of users on social media increases (dutta, 2014; khullar & pandey, 2014; singh & sharma, 2014). recruiters recognise the potential that social media provides to attract not only active but also passive and semi-passive candidates. similarly to elsewhere in the world, the use of linkedin in south africa is much higher than the use of twitter and facebook. however, the use of twitter and facebook in south africa was found to be substantially lower than for recruitment in comparison to what was recorded elsewhere (jobvite, 2014). although one can only speculate on the reason for this difference, it appears to be related to the international nature of the jobvite (2014) study and the south african focus of this study. as noted, south african recruiters appear to have a different approach towards the use of twitter and facebook for work purposes. one can thus not just assume that international trends apply indiscriminately to south africa. it was further found that south african recruiters follow the practices of their international counterparts, with all participants mentioning the use of linkedin as central to their respective recruitment processes. the findings confirm hunt’s (2010, p. 37) conclusion that ‘linkedin recruiting tools focus on finding candidates and networking online; while facebook and twitter recruiting tools focus on employer branding – an important part of engaging candidates’. however, the size of a recruiter’s personal twitter network is an important aspect when considering its use. the view is that, to be able to use it effectively, a recruiter has to be very active on twitter, with many ‘followers’. one of the deterrents of using twitter in the sourcing process is a small following and low activity, which gives recruiters the feeling that they will not achieve results that are worthwhile. as such, they rather focus their attention on those sourcing tools that they believe will offer them a larger reach and better results. this finding is similar to what was found in research elsewhere (silliker, 2011). recruiters’ twitter activity also relates to their knowledge of its use. the majority of participants mentioned that they do not use twitter because they do not know how to use it properly. if recruiters were more exposed to training on how to effectively use twitter in the sourcing process, they could arguably use it more frequently and effectively. however, even those participants who had been trained in the use of twitter in the sourcing process mentioned that they feel twitter consumes time, which they can use on more proven sourcing methods. it is clear that twitter is not seen as an effective sourcing tool in south africa for this sample of recruiters. an important aspect that influences the minimal use of facebook is its perceived image in south africa as a communication tool on a personal and private level rather than a business tool. south african recruiters make a distinction between their private lives, represented by the use of facebook for communication; and their professional lives, which is represented by linkedin. they keep these two aspects separate and seldom let the two overlap – even just in perceiving such an overlap. it is clear that facebook is not seen as an effective recruiting tool in south africa for recruiters. this finding is a new and unique perspective that holds important consequences for its use in recruitment in south africa. linkedin is clearly the most popular social media site in the sourcing process and seems to have taken over from company databases. while recruiters would have searched for candidates on their own database in the past, they now use linkedin as their new tool to search for potential candidates. however, whereas the database was often seen as a stand-alone tool, linkedin in comparison is not used as such. rather, after a candidate has been found on linkedin, various other internet sites are utilised to find the contact details and verify information about that candidate. although linkedin gives recruiters better access to the passive and semi-passive candidate pool and arguably provides an improved ability to attract these candidates, it also leads to information overload. the sheer volume of candidates that comes from using it restricts the effective and focused use of the pool. it appears that social media in the recruitment process is simply becoming a more modern ‘spray and pray’ approach. recruiters ‘spray’ their attention to combing through linkedin profiles, and job seekers in turn ‘spray’ their cvs through social media in the direction of recruiters, with both parties ‘praying’ for a positive outcome. the main difference is that the process may now be a bit easier and more elegant than before. this is because it is electronically automated, but is where the overload occurs. notwithstanding the exponential rise of social media in recruitment, recruiters still do not regard it as the answer to all of their problems. advertising on career portals and corporate websites still remains a key sourcing tool for recruiters in south africa in identifying and attracting potential candidates. however, the locations where they advertise have shifted towards the internet, specifically career portals, companies’ own websites and to some extent linkedin. this contradicts previous research findings, that placing an advertisement in popular media or on an organisation’s website seems to have only a limited chance of attracting the right candidates (phillips & gully, 2012). these findings confirm dutta’s (2014) and hunt’s (2010) argument that, while social media can be seen as opening doors and having a profound impact on the way that recruitment functions, it should not be mistaken as the full recruitment strategy. rather, the use of social media forms an essential part of an organisation’s recruitment operations. indeed, a well-designed, comprehensive recruitment strategy and process, and the effective utilisation of available information about potential candidates, may significantly assist the recruitment of employees who have the most suitable skills and competencies (melanthiou et al., 2015). limitations of the study this research was limited to the south african context and cannot therefore be applied to other settings. moreover, because of the relatively small sample size of individual recruiters, the findings of this study cannot be applied to recruitment agencies or all recruiters in south africa. in addition, only recruiters from recruitment agencies were interviewed; thus, the findings cannot be applied beyond this particular population to a broader recruitment population. the nature of the data collected through this study was specifically focused on gaining an understanding of the reasons why recruiters do or do not use social media during recruitment. as such, it did not focus on the detailed workings and impact of recruitment through the various social media tools. it also did not focus on the expectations or experiences of recruitment from the candidates’ point of view. recommendations for future research there is scope for further research relating to the use and impact of social media on recruiters in corporate companies (internal recruitment) rather than in recruitment companies (external recruitment). this study focused on individual recruiters from recruitment companies only; more research is required that focuses on the use of social media by recruitment agencies themselves. the impact of training for recruiters in the use of social media, specifically twitter, in the recruitment process is a further topic that has yet to be explored in more detail. studies in the future may seek to use quantitative methods to do research that allows a much bigger sample size in order to validate the conclusions of this study. conclusion this research set out to investigate the impact that social media has had on recruitment, specifically on the sourcing process. it provides a new insight into the impact of social media on recruitment in south africa. the findings confirm that social media has become an essential part of the recruitment process. however, recruiters should be careful not to be seduced into a hype or frenzy about the use of social media in recruitment. although recruitment through social media is useful and important, it has limitations and does not provide all the solutions to recruitment problems. indeed, it may simply become another ‘spray and pray’ approach if used unwisely. this study makes an important scientific and practical contribution to the understanding of effective recruitment processes. by confirming the importance of social media in recruitment in south africa, at least as a parallel process to more traditional recruitment processes, the study confirms the increasing role and importance of social media within the south african talent management context. the study demonstrates that recruitment through the use of social media in south africa differs from what is done elsewhere in the world – at least for this sample. one should therefore be careful not to just assume that the trends reported in international literature indiscriminately apply to south africa. the finding that the main impact of social media on the recruitment process derives from linkedin is an important aspect that should be taken note of by researchers, recruiters and potential job seekers. it suggests that in order to be part of an effective recruitment process in south africa, recruiters and job seekers have to be ‘linkedin’. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions t.k. was the main researcher and was responsible for conducting the fieldwork and writing up the research. c.g. and j.j.d.k. supervised the research and made conceptual contributions to the study. references 2oceansvibe. (2016). facebook, twitter, instagram, linkedin – all the south african stats. retrieved april 20, 2017, from http://www.2oceansvibe.com/2016/09/20/this-how-social-media-is-being-used-by-south-africans/ al ariss, a., cascio, w.f., & paauwe, j. (2014). talent management: current theories and future research directions. journal of world business, 49(2), 173–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2013.11.001 allden, n., & harris, l. (2013). building a positive candidate experience: towards a networked model of e-recruitment. journal of business strategy, 34(5), 36–47. https://doi.org/10.1108/jbs-11-2012-0072 armstrong, m. (2006). a handbook of human resource management practice (10th ed.). london: kogan page. barker, m., barker, d., bornmann, n., & neher, k. (2013). social media marketing: a strategic approach. australia: south-western cengage learning. bloomberg, l.d., & volpe, m. (2012). completing your qualitative dissertation: a road map from beginning to end (2nd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. bolton, r.n., parasuraman, a., hoefnagels, a., migchels, n., kabadayi, s., gruber, t., et al. (2013). understanding generation y and their use of social media: a review and research agenda. journal of service management, 24(3), 245–267. https://doi.org/10.1108/09564231311326987 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa breaugh, j.a. (2008). employee recruitment: current knowledge and important areas for future research. human resource management review, 18(3), 103–118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2008.07.003 broughton, a., foley, b., ledermaier, s., & cox, a. (2013). the use of social media in the recruitment process. retrieved april 20, 2017, from http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/0/b/the-use-of-social-media-in-the-recruitment-process.pdf brown, v.r., & vaughn, e.d. (2011). the writing on the (facebook) wall: the use of social networking sites in hiring decisions. journal of business and psychology, 26(2), 219–225. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-011-9221-x bullhorn. (2014). global social recruiting activity report. retrieved april 20, 2017, from http://www.bullhorn.com/resources/2014-social-recruiting-activity-report/ business tech. (2016). massive rise in facebook users in south africa. retrieved april 20, 2017, from http://businesstech.co.za/news/general/128584/massive-rise-in-facebook-users-in-south-africa/ caers, r., & castelyns, v. (2011). linkedin and facebook in belgium: the influences and biases of social network sites in recruitment and selection procedures. social science computer review, 29(4), 437–448. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439310386567 chambers, e.g., foulon, m., handfield-jones, h., hanking, s.m., & michaels, e.g. (1998). the global ‘war for talent’. mckinsey quarterly, 3, 1–8. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/03071840308446873 chaudhary, m. (2017). linkedin by the numbers: 2017 statistics. retrieved april 20, 2017, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedin-numbers-2017-statistics-meenakshi-chaudhary cilliers, l., chinyamurindi, w.t., & viljoen, k. (2017). factors influencing the intention to use social media for work-related purposes at a south african higher education institution. sa journal of human resource management, 15, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.859 creswell, j.w. (2007). qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches. (2nd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. darrow, b. (2017). linkedin claims half a billion users. retrieved april 20, 2017, from http://fortune.com/2017/04/24/linkedin-users/ denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. (2011). the sage handbook of qualitative research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. doherty, r. (2010). getting social with recruitment. strategic hr review, 9(6), 11–15. https://doi.org/10.1108/14754391011078063 dutta, d. (2014). tweet your tune – social media, the new pied piper in talent acquisition. the journal of decision makers, 39(3), 93–104. https://doi.org/10.1177/0256090920140307 facebook. (2017). facebook stats. retrieved april 20, 2017, from https://www.iea.org/about/ourmission/ galanaki, e. (2002). the decision to recruit online: a descriptive study. career development international, 7(4), 243–251. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620430210431325 gallardo-gallardo, e., & thunnissen, m. (2016). standing on the shoulders of giants. employee relations, 38(1), 31–56. https://doi.org/10.1108/09564230910978511 herman, r.e., olivio, t.g., & gioia, j.l. (2003). impending crisis: too many jobs, too few people. winchester, va: oakhill press. hoffman, d.l., & fodor, m. (2010). can you measure the roi of your social media marketing? mit sloan management review, 52(1), 41–49. retrieved april 20, 2017, from http://www.mitsmr-ezine.com/mitsmriphone11/fall2010/m2/mobilearticle.action?articleid=23732&amp;mobileweb=true&amp;lm=1285614348000%5cnhttp://www.emarketingtravel.net/resources/can you mesur the roi of your social media marketing.pdf%5cnhttp://sloanreview holland, p., sheehan, c., & pyman, a. (2007). attracting and retaining talent: exploring human resources development trends in australia. human resource development international, 10(3), 247–262. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678860701515158 houran, j. (2017). new hr study: candid recruitment experiences with linkedin. retrieved april 20, 2017, from http://www.aethoscg.com/aethos_insights/new-hr-study-candid-recruitment-experiences-with-linkedin/ hughes, j.c., & rog, e. (2008). talent management: a strategy for improving employee recruitment, retention and engagement within hospitality organizations. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 20(7), 743–757. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596110810899086 hunt, g. (2010). finders keepers: social media strategies help find top talent. journal of property management (november/december), 36–41. retrieved april 20, 2017, from http://www.irem.org/jpm hunt, s.t. (2014). common sense talent management: using strategic human resources to improve company performance. san francisco, ca: wiley. jindal, p., & shaikh, m. (2014). social networking sites – emerging as effective tools for attracting talent. gavesana journal of management, 6(2), 48–55. jobs, m. (2003). it’s only a time-out in the war for talent. leader to leader, 29, 62–63. retrieved april 20, 2017, from https://search-proquest-com.ez.sun.ac.za/docview/218306951?accountid=14049 jobvite. (2014). social recruiting survey results. jobvite, 1–17. retrieved april 20, 2017, from https://www.jobvite.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/jobvite_socialrecruiting_survey2014.pdf joos, j.g. (2008). social media: new frontiers in hiring and recruiting. employee relations today, 35(1), 51–59. https://doi.org/1002/ert.2018851 kehinde, j. (2012). talent management: effect on organization performances. journal of management research, 4(2), 178–187. https://doi.org/10.5296/jmr.v4i2.937 khullar, a., pandey, p., & read, m. (2014). effective use of social media recruiting. international journal of management, 4(4), 216–227. retrieved april 20, 2017, from http://www.inderscienceonline.com/ leedy, p.d. & ormrod, j.e. (2010). practical research: planning and design. (9th ed.). upper saddle river, nj: merrill. madia, s.a. (2011). best practices for using social media as a recruitment strategy. strategic hr review, 10(6), 19–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/14754391111172788 marshall, c. & rossman, g. (2006). the how of the study: building the research design. in c. marshall & g. rossman (eds.), designing qualitative research (pp. 51–96). thousand oaks, ca: sage. melanthiou, y., pavlou, f., & constantinou, e. (2015). the use of social network sites as an e-recruitment tool. journal of transnational management, 20(1), 31–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/15475778.2015.998141 michaels, e., handfield-jones, h., & axelrod, b. (2001). war for talent. boston, ma: harvard business school publishing. nagpal, g. (2013). talent economics. london: kogan page limited. nikolaou, i. (2014). social networking web sites in job search and employee recruitment. international journal of selection and assessment, 22(2), 179–189. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsa.12067 ollington, n., gibb, j., harcourt, m., & doherty, r. (2013). online social networks: an emergent recruiter tool for attracting and screening. personnel review, 42(3), 248–265. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481311320390 parez, m., silva, k., harvey, d., & bosco, s. (2013). linked into a job? the ethical considerations of recruiting through linkedin. in proceedings for the northeast region decision sciences institute (nedsi). retrieved april 20, 2017, from http://docs.rwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=management_theses phillips, j., & gully, s.m. (2012). strategic staffing (3rd ed.). boston, ma: pearson education. pynes, j.e. (2013). human resources management for public and nonprofit organizations. san francisco, ca: john wiley & sons, inc. ready, d.a., hill, l.a., & conger, j.a. (2008). winning the race for talents in emerging markets. harvard business review. retrieved april 20, 2017, from https://hbr.org/2008/11/winning-the-race-for-talent-in-emerging-markets roth, p.l., bobko, p., van iddekinge, c.h., & thatcher, j.b. (2016). social media in employee-selection-related decisions. journal of management, 42(1), 269–298. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206313503018 safko, l., & brake, d.k. (2009). the social media bible: tactics, tools, and strategies for business success. skin & allergy news (vol. 43). hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons. saunders, m.n., saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2011). research methods for business students. london: pearson education. schlechter, a., hung, a., & bussin, m. (2014). understanding talent attraction: the influence of financial rewards elements on perceived job attractiveness. sa journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.647 silliker, a. (2011). embracing social media for recruitment about shifting culture, knowing end user well. canadian hr reporter, pp. 18–19. retrieved april 20, 2017, from http://www.hrreporter.com/article/11200-embracing-social-media-for-recruitment-about-shifting-culture-knowing-end-user-well/ singh, k., & sharma, s. (2014). effective use of social media for talent acquisition and recruitment. international journal of intercultural information management, 4(4), 228–237. retrieved april 20, 2017, from http://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/ijiim.2014.067932 singh, p., & finn, d. (2003). the effects of information technology on recruitment. journal of labor research, 24(3), 395–408. retrieved april 20, 2017, from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2fs12122-003-1003-4?li=true sinha, v., & thaly, p. (2013). a review on changing trend of recruitment practice to enhance the quality of hiring in global organizations. management, 18(2), 141–156. retrieved april 20, 2017, from http://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=166315 stahl, g.k., björkman, i., farndale, e., morris, s.s., paauwe, j., stiles, p., et al. (2012). global talent management: how leading multinationals build and sustain their talent pipeline (no. 2007/34/ob). fontainebleau: insead. stahl, g.k., björkman, i., farndale, e., morris, s.s., stiles, p., trevor, j., et al. (2010). global talent management: how leading multinationals build and sustain their talent pipeline. fontainebleau. retrieved april 20, 2017, from http://720plan.ovh.net/~inseadpoq/knowledge2/stahl.pdf tarique, i., & schuler, r.s. (2010). global talent management: literature review, integrative framework, and suggestions for further research. journal of world business, 45(2), 122–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2009.09.019 thunnissen, m. (2016). talent management: for what, how and how well? an empirical exploration of talent management in practice. employee relations, 38(1), 57–72. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-08-2015-0159 tyagi, a. (2012). effective talent acquisition though e-recruitment: a study. international journal of multidisciplinary research, 2(3), 302–312. retrieved april 20, 2017, from http://www.zenithresearch.org.in/ wegner, t. (2014). applied business statistics. cape town: jutta and organisation ltd. zephoria digital marketing. (2017). the top 20 valuable facebook statistics – updated july 2017. retrieved april 20, 2017, from https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/ zide, j., elman, b., & shahani-dennig, c. (2014). linkedin and recruitment: how profiles differ across occupations. employee relations, 36(5), 583–604. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-07-2013-0086 abstract introduction research design research method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) walter wessels school for business management, north-west university, south africa engelina du plessis tourism, research in economic environs and society, north-west university, south africa elmarie slabbert tourism, research in economic environs and society, north-west university, south africa citation wessels, w., du plessis, e., & slabbert, e. (2017). key competencies and characteristics of accommodation managers. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a887. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.887 note: this article is partially based on the first author’s dissertation for the degree of magister atrium in tourism management at the north-west university, south africa, with supervisor prof. e. du plessis, received may 2015, available here: http://dspace.nwu.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10394/14143/wessels_wj.pdf?sequence=1 original research key competencies and characteristics of accommodation managers walter wessels, engelina du plessis, elmarie slabbert received: 21 nov. 2016; accepted: 21 sept. 2017; published: 24 nov. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: tourism employees are trained by various higher education institutions, yet industry still voices its concern regarding the readiness of potential employees entering the tourism industry. research purpose: this article aims to critically assess the key competencies and personal characteristics needed by accommodation managers in the south africa tourism industry based on the opinions of the industry itself. motivation for the study: tertiary institutions in south africa educate potential tourism employees in a variety of skills and knowledge. however, some employers are still of the opinion that these students are not adequately prepared for the demand of the industry. therefore, the tourism industry feels that students are not employable, which creates challenges for students, tertiary institutions and the tourism industry. research, design, approach and method: it was achieved by collecting 254 self-administered questionnaires from graded tourism accommodation establishments in south africa. main findings: nine key competencies needed by accommodation managers were identified and the importance of certain personal characteristics was evident. novel to this field of research, the latter was rated more important than the nine key competencies that hold implications for training institutions and the industry. practical/managerial implications: the implication of the study is that accommodation managers should be trained in a different manner and higher education institutions should revise their training methods and selection strategies to address the needs of industry. contribution: effective selection and training of accommodation managers will improve not only business success but also contribute to the success and growth of the tourism industry. introduction south africa relies on the tourism industry as an economic contributor (saayman & geldenhuys, 2003; tassiopoulos, 2011). it contributed 3% to the total gross domestic product (gdp) of south africa in 2013 and is expected to grow at a rate of 3.9% by 2024 (world travel & tourism council [wttc], 2014): tourism can be defined as an experience that begins and develops from the moment interaction takes place between tourists, job providers, government systems and communities aiming to attract, entertain, transport and accommodate tourists. (saayman, 2009a, p. 2) the accommodation sector is the largest sector within the tourism industry, employing 75 978 people (slabbert & saayman, 2003; statistics south africa, 2009). as the tourism sector in south africa continues to grow, the need for accommodation expands (george, 2013). small, medium and micro businesses, of which accommodation establishments form a large percentage, contribute not only to employment, but also to a more stable social and political climate in south africa (koens & thomas, 2015; rogerson, 2004; tassiopoulos, 2014). any business in south africa has to ensure economic growth, and thus ensure that south africa becomes a sustainable travel destination for tourists (maharaj & balkaran, 2014). to improve sustainability and remain competitive, it is important to employ the right people on all levels of the business as they are considered key stakeholders in this industry. these employees are essential in service provision, satisfying the needs of guests, creating loyalty and positive word-of-mouth about the business. the accommodation sector thus requires a very high service standard, essential for survival as quality service contributes to the return business (hartman, 2011). all employees, particularly managers, are key players in the delivery of service (lillicrap & cousins, 2006) and a hands-on management style contributes greatly to guest satisfaction, good service and organisational performance (mayaka & akama, 2007). despite the important role that managers play in the service delivery process, there seems to be a lack of well-trained and educated managers in tourism industry (jeou-shyan, hsuan, chih-hsing, lin & chang-yen, 2011). this results in poor-quality experiences by guests (kusluvan, kusluvan, ilhan & buyruk, 2010), which result in an escalating effect, thus contributing to a decrease in visitor numbers. it is the task of higher education institutions to equip future employees with key managerial competencies (baum, 2002) to be ready for the industry. while analysing skills and knowledge on a management level is not new, most of the managerial competency studies previously undertaken have been based largely on international case studies with reference to developed countries such as north america, asia and western europe (baum, 2007; killen, jugdev, drouin & petit, 2011; nolen, conway, farrell & monks, 2010). the south african business environment is, however, different from these, because of its history, diversity, geography, political climate (sewdass & du toit, 2014) and education levels. therefore, this study aims to critically assess the key competencies and personal characteristics needed by accommodation managers in the south africa tourism industry. literature review the accommodation sector is one of the primary sectors in the tourism industry (mcmanus, 2000) that contributes greatly to a guest’s satisfaction (davies, taylor & savery, 2001). accommodation establishments, in many cases fairly small, consist of different departments, inclusive of the front office, marketing and human resources, which all contribute to the overall guest experience (george & hancer, 2008; saayman, 2009b). the nature of these establishments requires managers who can handle a variety of situations and adapt to changes on a daily basis (baker, 2001). managers need to face and overcome challenges that influence the business environment (amundson, 2005). some of these challenges include working with different cultures (weiermair, 2000), serving guests who are increasingly demanding (o’neill, williams, mccarthy & groves, 2000) and satisfying the new type of tourist who demands to be part of the tourism experience, enhanced by human interaction (kandampully, 2000). the new type of tourist also insists on making their own bookings and using advanced technology. they make greater demands for unique experiences, focus on their own well-being and require more privacy when staying at accommodation establishments (lubbe, 2005; saayman, 2009a). accommodation establishments are aware of these challenges and the effects that these exert on the establishment; thus, they rely on the skills and knowledge that the employees attained even before employment to assist with future direction, success and management of the challenges mentioned above (anderson & vinceze, 2000). a certain set of skills and knowledge is thus expected from accommodation managers, and as critical as it is, the exact draft of these for accommodation establishment managers is unknown. managerial skills necessary for managers in the tourism industry given the service orientation of the tourism industry and the nature of the accommodation sector, managers need to be equipped with multiple skills and knowledge to make a difference in the business (hurd, barcekona & meldrum, 2008). various studies have identified skills and knowledge needed by managers to effectively function in the hospitality environment, but the applicability and relevance of those to accommodation managers are unknown. after an extensive literature review of previous studies regarding skills and knowledge needed by managers in the tourism industry, the following were identified as recorded in table 1. table 1: skills and knowledge needed by managers in the tourism industry based on a literature review. as evident in table 1, the first important set of skills and knowledge includes forecasting skills and knowledge. these are essential because of the extensive impact on the future development of accommodation establishments (louw, 2011; saayman & saayman, 2008). factors such as the price of service (perloff, 2007), transport costs (brakke, 2005), exchange rates (forsyth & dwyer, 2009), culture (getz, 2008) and population (hamilton, 2004) are some of the most important aspects that impact the future development of any accommodation establishment, and these can be forecast. effective forecasting will guide all decisions in the establishment and assist in assessing the industry environment to the benefit of the establishment. it is, however, not known whether this set of skills and knowledge is important to managers of smaller accommodation establishments. because of the intense focus on the daily operations of accommodation establishments, some managers might lose track of the strategic direction of the business. however, the capital and labour-intensive aspects of the accommodation industry (harrington & ottenbacher, 2010) force accommodation managers to set future goals (jeou-shyan et al., 2011) and make instant decisions that have long-term implications (connolly & mcging, 2006). these studies emphasise the importance of strategic management skills and knowledge for managers, which might also apply to the set of skills and knowledge needed by accommodation managers. service in the accommodation sector relies on good human resources (hartman, 2011; haynes & fryer, 2000). the ability of managers to effectively direct employees in knowing what is expected of them and delivering quality service is one of the core management competencies (tsaur & lin, 2003). good human resource management also contributes to a decrease in the turnover rate of employees in the accommodation sector (baum, 2012). communication skills are essential to all spheres of the establishment and various problems can arise from poor communication. managers must display the ability not only to communicate internally with employees, but also to facilitate the external flow of communication with new and existing guests (bang, 2004; brown, 2001). within the service environment, managers must be able to speak fluently directly to guests (johanson, ghiselli, shea & roberts, 2010). this skill is essential regardless of the department or level of management, according to bobanovic and grzinic (2011). saayman (2009b) identified communication barriers, inclusive of failure to analyse the needs of the receiver as well as poor listening and feedback from management, as service success influencers. these barriers can be overcome by managers if they are able to communicate using various communication channels to ensure that the right message is conveyed and received by all parties influenced by the conveyed message (ewing, 2007). according to ewan (2012), information technology enhances communication channels but there is still a lack of research on the importance and impact of information technology on communication amongst role-players in the accommodation industry. information technology is developing at a rapid rate and the tourism industry is known for the utilisation of online programmes and mechanisms as part of the management of accommodation establishments. information technology not only enables fast and flexible operation (posavec, 2008), but also allows for easy access to a large amount of stored data influencing the service encounter between guest and establishment (stamboulis & skayannis, 2003). implementing and utilising the correct information technology is therefore vital for accommodation establishments (hudson & gilbert, 2006; sun & howard, 2004) and managers must master information technology in order to ease operations. solving problems and being able to manage any crisis are essential skills for managers (brownell, 2008; richie, 2005), especially because this industry is about people. kay and russette (2000, p. 53) state that managers must ensure a win-win resolution approach for both the organisation and the guest. the ability of managers to solve problems will affect service provision of an accommodation establishment (connolly & mcging, 2006) as well as the return rate of guests. the creation of an internal service culture, focusing on serving and satisfying guest needs (kotler et al., 2006), might minimise problems. no accommodation establishment operates without encountering problems, which may include aspects such as billing errors, service catastrophes, unresponsiveness from employees and having limited product knowledge (lovelock & wirtz, 2011). these situations occur unexpectedly and the manager must demonstrate his or her ability to solve these situations. service is the foundation of the accommodation sector (chathoth et al., 2014). ensuring outstanding service provision is very costly for accommodation establishments and must be well managed (george, 2013). rajaratnam, munikrishnan, sharif and vikneswaran (2014) found that consumers who are satisfied with the service received will influence the image of the accommodation establishment positively through word-of-mouth. during the past 10 years, service quality has received the needed attention by academic institutions and hospitality practitioners (dhar, 2015). the realisation of this led to action plans being put in place in order to minimise negative service experiences and maximise effective customer experiences (allen, 2004) so as to contribute to positive financial prospects for the accommodation establishment (burgess, 2007). clearly, this is a critical aspect that needs to be managed. financial management, in the case of smaller accommodation establishments, mostly consists of monitoring the overall financial practice of an organisation (lovemore & brummer, 2010) and comparing spending patterns within a set budget (bennet, dunne & carre, 2000). even though many accommodation establishments have admitted that they outsourced their financial accounting function, it is no longer always possible because of the complexity and variety of all the internal departments and management control requirements (burgess, 2007). financial managers face certain challenges daily, which include gaining access to capital and managing the cost of employee turnover (patiar & mia, 2009). according to tassiopoulos (2010), successful financial management and projection can be ensured only if a manager possesses the skill to calculate and implement good financial practice. lastly, various authors, as evident in table 1, have emphasised marketing as an essential skill for accommodation managers (george, 2013; kotler et al., 2006; slabbert & saayman, 2003). it is not about mass marketing anymore, it is about building long-term relationships with customers (saayman, 2009a) and getting to know their needs. marketing is changing on a daily basis and the electronic environment has created exciting opportunities for managers to effectively reach their target markets. effective marketing can assist in creating a competitive advantage, which is much needed in the accommodation sector where high levels of competition are evident. understanding and utilising the correct marketing tools remain important (cant et al., 2008). personal characteristics necessary for managers in the tourism industry in addition to these skills and this knowledge, various sources have emphasised the importance of certain personal characteristics (leiper, 2004; page, 2007; patiar & mia, 2009; sternberg & zhang, 2000). according to page (2007), a manager must display an investigative personality, while patiar and mia (2009) found that managers must display trust, provide inspirational motivation and promote intellectual stimulation amongst co-employees. kay and russette (2000) as well as suh et al. (2012) identified that accommodation managers must be able to provide effective feedback to employees regarding their work performance, promote hard work, manage conflict and promote integrity in the workplace. within the accommodation sector, managers must be able to act as mentors for employees (leiper, 2004) and be able to take employee feedback into consideration to ensure personal development (sternberg & zhang, 2000). with the accommodation sector showing continuous growth (mcmanus, 2000), saayman (2009b) identified the ability to adapt in such an environment as an important characteristic for accommodation managers. however, to adapt in a changing environment brings about challenges for employees; therefore, accommodation managers must possess the ability to promote training opportunities to overcome the barriers to change (hough & white, 2001). it is clear that a challenging and ever changing external environment necessitates that managers possess a variety of skills and knowledge, enhancing certain personal characteristics enabling them to successfully manage an accommodation establishment. even with this knowledge, a gap appears to exist between the offering of tourism higher education programmes and the needs of the tourism industry (zehrer & mössenlechner, 2009). this is supported by swanson and holton (2009) in studies that revealed that employees are not supplying the industry with the necessary skills and knowledge. higher education institutions need updated insight from industry regarding these skills and knowledge in order to adapt education programmes where necessary and to present applicable programmes. this will directly contribute to the growth of the tourism industry and the employability of graduates. the question addressed by this article therefore remains: what are the key competencies needed by accommodation managers in the south african tourism industry? research design the research design for this study was twofold: firstly, a descriptive research design was chosen to describe the profile of the respondents, while, secondly, exploratory factor analyses were performed to investigate the research question. the research method used is explained below. research method population and sampling the target population consisted of tourism product managers on different management levels within the accommodation sector inclusive of all nine provinces in south africa. the tgcsa’s database, which assigns star grading to participants after assessment, was used as the sample frame for this study. the tgcsa has been in operation for the past 13 years and is a recognised quality assurance body for the accommodation sector, consisting of hotels, guesthouses, self-catering units, caravan and camping parks. the tgcsa is thus a very important role-player within the accommodation sector (tgcsa, 2013). the tgcsa grades on five levels ranging from one star status to five star status, where one star grading indicates basic room options and facilities and five star grading indicates luxury accommodation with a diverse range of facilities available to guests (tgcsa, 2013). tgcsa had 5400 graded accommodation establishments registered with the organisation in the nine provinces of south africa during 2014 (tgcsa, 2013) which served as the population for this research. the list of these establishments is public domain, and thus it was extracted from the website of tgcsa. from the complete list of graded establishments, stratification was firstly done by means of province and secondly the establishments were ordered alphabetical which resulted in a specific number of establishments per province. according to krejcie and morgan (1970), a population size (n) of 5400, as provided by tgcsa, is represented by a sample size (s) of 360. to reach the representative sample of 360, the number of expected establishments was proportionally calculated per province (one per establishment). simple random sampling was then applied where every 15th establishment on the list was selected from each provincial list to participate in the survey. if any of the pre-selected respondents declined the request to participate in the research, the next respondent on the list was chosen (berndt & petzer, 2011). in certain cases, a higher number of establishments participated because these had more than one manager. self-administered questionnaires were distributed over a period of 8 weeks (07 july 2104 – 09 september 2014). after each electronic questionnaire was sent out, a notification stating that the questionnaire had been received was sent back to the sender and a follow-up email was sent after every 5 days in order to ensure that the questionnaire was completed and received back in the allocated time. a total of 360 (table 2) questionnaires were distributed of which 254 completed questionnaires were returned by the participants in all nine provinces, resulting in a 70% response rate. table 2: population (n), expected sample size (s) and actual sample size (s). data collection methods the development of a self-administered questionnaire was based on work carried out by various researchers (cecil & krohn, 2012; nolen et al., 2010; sisson & adams, 2013; suh et al., 2012); however, it has been used in its current format for the first time. the questionnaire consisted of two sections: demographic information of respondents (consisting of open and closed ended questions related to age and qualification level of each respondent) and characteristics and managerial competencies of an effective manager (consisting of a 5-point likert scale where 1 was considered the least important characteristic and/or key competency and 5 was considered the most important characteristic and/or key competency of accommodation managers). data analysis descriptive statistics (profile of respondents) and factor analyses (characteristics and key competencies) were used to interpret the collected data. the data were processed by making use of spss© (statistical package for social sciences; version 21.0, 2011). the exploratory factor analyses were performed to determine the underlying factors of managerial competencies and characteristics in the accommodation sector. the exploratory factor analyses attempt to produce a smaller number of linear combinations of the original variables in a manner that captures most of the variability in the pattern of correlations (pallant, 2010). results the results are reported in two sections: firstly, the profile of the respondents in the study is discussed and depicted in table 3, whereas, secondly, the key competencies and characteristics are analysed and recorded in table 4. table 3: profile of the respondents. table 4: summative results of the exploratory factor analyses. profile of the respondents in table 3, it is evident that 26% of the respondents are either between 21 and 32 years of age or 65 years and older. thirty-four per cent of all respondents had obtained a bachelor’s degree at a university (49%) with 16% of respondents who had not studied towards a higher qualification of any sort. the majority of the respondents hold top management positions (64%) with 22% in middle management and 14% in entry-level management positions. the results also indicated that the respondents have been employed for less than 5 years in their current position. key competencies and personal characteristics of an accommodation manager using the principal component analysis extraction method, the exploratory factor analyses for each skills and knowledge set revealed one factor per set. the bartlett’s test of sphericity (p ≤ 0.000) was used to test for homoscedasticity (homogeneity of variances) and was verified in all cases. the kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy can be viewed as highly reliable because the kmo range is between 0.832 and 0.945 (pallant, 2010), indicating the adequacy of the data for factor analysis. in all cases, more than 63% of the variance was explained, which is highly acceptable (pallant, 2010). factor loadings higher than 0.4 were considered as adequate because of the exploratory nature of the analyses (pallant, 2010). the cronbach’s as were well above the expected 0.7 (ranging between 0.891 and 0.969), which indicates a high reliability and internal consistency of these factors (pallant, 2010, p. 249) (see table 4). this resulted in 10 factors identified in this study. the results indicated that within each factor, there were key competencies that had to be displayed by accommodation managers as discussed below. factor 1: personal characteristics the results indicated that the first factor, labelled personal characteristics, which had a mean value of 4.11 and a cronbach’s a of 0.966, is the most important factor amongst the 10 identified factors. the top three characteristics to be displayed by an effective accommodation manager include trustworthiness (m = 4.52; sd = ± 0.735), responsibility (m = 4.39; sd = ± 0.799) and self-motivation (m = 4.26; sd = ± 0.773). being sensitive was rated as the least important characteristic (m = 3.82; sd = ± 0.957). this finding supports the results of similar studies that indicated the importance of certain characteristics in a management position (baum, 2007; nieuwenhuizen & rossouw, 2012; patiar & mia, 2009; thekiso, 2011); however, the extent of its importance in comparison to management competencies is novel on a management level in this industry. according to cronje, du toit, motlatla and marais (2006), personality characteristics influence job performance; therefore, it should play a role in the selection of students applying for tourism management programmes in higher education institutions. it is evident that certain personality characteristics add significant value to the task of managers in the accommodation sector in the same vein as accountants need to be focused on detail and nurses need to be caring. to a certain extent, these characteristics cannot be trained for and can be considered as inherently part of a person (horng, tsai, yang, lui & hu, 2016; leung & law, 2010). to become a manager in the accommodation sector requires a certain set of characteristics that should play a role in selection and admission processes. more than that during job interviews, a number of questions directly relate to personality characteristics and thus there is value in taking cognisance of this as part of training. factor 2: forecasting skills the forecasting skills factor ranked eighth most important amongst the set of skills and knowledge with a mean value of 3.59 and a cronbach’s a of 0.935. the most important forecasting skills include the identification of the effect of increased operational costs (m = 3.74; sd = ± 0.866), risk prediction (m = 3.72; sd = ± 0.850) followed by the ability of a manager to predict the effect of seasonality on the accommodation establishment (m = 3.71; sd = ± 0.892), a unique attribute of the tourism industry. in a study conducted by louw (2011), it was concluded that managers in accommodation establishments must be able to predict future developments in order to successfully interpret tourist behaviour and consumer demands. given the growth of the tourism industry in south africa, the change in source markets and the development of domestic markets (wttc, 2014), management needs this skill to grow the organisation. notwithstanding the importance of forecasting skills in the literature, this ability was not amongst the top three management skills identified by respondents. factor 3: strategic management skills the strategic management skills factor, with a mean value of 3.56 and a cronbach’s a of 0.955, ranked the ninth most important factor. the important aspects in this factor included the ability of managers to react swiftly to changing external environments (m = 3.73; sd = ± 0.778), their ability to manage internal change (m = 3.69; sd = ± 0.818) and their ability to formulate goals (m = 3.66; sd = ± 0.801). even though the importance of strategic management is evident in various studies, it was not considered critical in this study. saayman (2009b) states that strategic management consists of more than just a vision and mission; it includes situational analysis that includes all aspects of the external environment, the formulation of strategic plans for an establishment to survive during any change in the external environment, the ability to implement the strategic plans and to ensure that strategic control is practised regarding the strategies implemented. jeou-shyan et al. (2011) state that a manager must be able to form goals and evaluate the applicability of these to decisions. mason (2007) stated that strategic management skills are important for accommodation managers, enabling them to create a stable internal environment, especially in an ever changing external environment. in the case of this study, either the respondents do not consider strategic management important for the accommodation establishments per se or they function on a more short-term management level, and do not realise the value of strategic management skills. factor 4: human resource skills this factor was ranked as the sixth (m = 3.64) most important factor for this study. according to tsaur and lin (2003), service orientation organisations must realise the important role of human resource management. the results in this study correlate with findings in the literature. the key competencies evident in the human resources management factor (m = 3.64), with a cronbach’s a of 0.969, include a manager’s ability to motivate employees (m = 3.85; sd = ± 0.817), facilitate teamwork (m = 3.81; sd = ± 0.794) and to facilitate problem solving amongst employees (m = 3.81; sd = ± 0.813). building a positive relationship between management and the employees is of great importance (kusluvan et al., 2010). it becomes even more important to invest in employees to ensure an effective team working at the establishment in order to minimise staff-turnover and optimise a constructive working environment (spowart, 2011). factor 5: problem solving and crisis management this factor (m = 3.85) with a cronbach’s a of 0.961 indicated that the key competencies for the factor problem solving and crisis management consisted of the ability of managers to act professionally in different situations (m = 3.97; sd = ± 0.868), followed by the ability to practise effective crisis management (m = 3.90; sd = ± 0.854). the results also indicated that it is important for managers to lead inexperienced employees within the accommodation establishment (m = 3.86; sd = ± 0.775). this was the third most important factor and supports brownell (2008, p. 138) who states that hospitality managers must implement new strategies in order to successfully solve everyday problems. these skills are essential for the rapidly changing environment that the accommodation sector faces (middleton, 2002). factor 6: communication skills the communication skills factor, ranked as the fifth factor, calculated a mean value of 3.68 and a cronbach’s a of 0.946. good communication skills are dependent on effective interaction with employees (m = 3.83; sd = ± 0.758), managers’ ability to communicate on all management levels (m = 3.78; sd = ± 0.764) and their ability to communicate in english (m = 3.76; sd = ± 0.858). this correlates with previous research which found that managers must be able to construct their message very carefully as this can be a great barrier if employees misinterpret the message provided (huebsch, 1986). mmope (2010) adds that managers must be able to communicate vertically, laterally and diagonally. clearly, effective training is critical to improve and support managers’ communication abilities. factor 7: information technology skills key competencies in the information technology factor (m = 3.60) with a cronbach’s a of 0.891 included managers’ ability to effectively use social media platforms to communicate vital information to guests (m = 3.71; sd = ± 0.847) as the most important aspect. this was followed by the ability to use different technologies within the accommodation establishment (m = 3.70; sd = ± 0.757) as well as the ability to operate ms office (m = 3.68; sd = ± 0.850). this factor ranked seventh amongst the 10 factors identified. a study conducted by ewan (2012, p. 1) found that a very limited understanding of the real effect that information technology has on an organisation is still prevalent amongst accommodation managers, as was the case in the current study. making use of information technology can act as a cost saver, allowing small accommodation establishments to play in the bigger industry (hudson & gilbert, 2006). the application of information technology to the business environment consequently becomes more and more important. factor 8: customer service skills as indicated in the literature, customer service skills were rated as highly important (second most important; m = 3.90; α = 0.949). the main contributors to this factor were managers’ ability to build customer relationships (m = 3.98; sd = ± 0.833), providing sustainable customer satisfaction (m = 3.98; sd = ± 0.845) and developing a service culture amongst employees (m = 3.96; sd = ± 0.847). these findings support kotler et al. (2006) who stated that organisations offering a service must develop an in-house service culture, and that this development starts with top management. allen (2004) adds that personal relationships can be built between the organisation and the guest, through accommodation, and service needs satisfaction. these aspects are very important because excellent customer service contributes to a customer returning to an accommodation establishment in future (hartman, 2011). factor 9: financial management skills financial management skills remain a critical aspect, even in accommodation establishments of different sizes. this factor was considered to be the fourth most important factor (m = 3.72; α = 0.955). managers must be able to monitor all financial activities of the accommodation establishment (m = 3.89; sd = ± 0.829), be able to determine the right price for products and services (m = 3.84; sd = ± 0.833) and construct and develop a budget within an establishment (m = 3.80; sd = ± 0.871). lamminmaki (2008) notes that small, medium and micro organisations (smme), under which the accommodation sector falls, tend to experience financial challenges; therefore, these competencies are extremely important for successful business management (bowdin et al., 2011). factor 10: marketing skills the marketing skills factor (m = 3.54; α = 0.960) was considered to be the least important skill for managers. this factor included the knowledge of compiling a business plan (m = 3.61; sd = ± 0.800), the ability to determine the return on investment of marketing campaigns (m = 3.60; sd = ± 0.816) and launching and managing a marketing campaign (m = 3.58; sd = ± 0.813). this differs from the literature where george (2013, p. 14) states that marketing skills are vital, especially for small accommodation establishments, in order to survive in the current competitive environment. in table 4, it is evident that the top three skills and characteristics included personal characteristics (m = 4.11): customer service skills (m = 3.90), problem solving and crisis management skills (m = 3.85). although all the identified skills and knowledge should be taught at higher education institutions, it is clear where the specific focus should fall. discussion this research supports various studies regarding important management skills needed in the tourism industry. the focus on the south african accommodation sector makes the results very focused and unique in their identification and ranking of 10 key managerial competencies and personality characteristics. the findings led to the following four implications. firstly, the most significant finding of this study was that the aspiration to be an accommodation manager requires certain personal characteristics. this is something that cannot be taught or trained: it is inherently part of one’s personality. this finding significantly changes the way higher education institutions select students for tourism management programmes. it is not only about grade 12 marks, but also about personality. now, it is thus more than ever necessary for students to undergo aptitude and personality tests before entering education institutions and the industry to fit the profile of tourism accommodation managers. secondly, it was found that most participating managers were either fairly young or close to retirement and they hold either a diploma or a degree. this emphasises the importance of developing and presenting tailor-made management programmes to the graduates who will ensure that more of the latter enter and remain in the industry. the notion of being an all-rounder was also evident, especially in the accommodation sector. this study highlights where the focus should be placed in education programmes that will support the training of the all-rounder concept of a manager. thirdly, it was found that the industry holds high expectations of its managers. these managers should immediately deliver services as expected by the industry. the more that higher education institutions can equip students with the necessary skills and knowledge, the easier it will be to access the industry, the better these students will be prepared for the challenges and the longer they will stay in the industry. training programmes that promote continuous learning while working in the industry should be supported. fourthly, the importance of customer service, problem solving and crisis management and financial management were all evident. although most of the competencies are important, these three will mainly contribute to the success of managers and ultimately of the establishment. again, the entry requirements to higher education institutions should address this finding because management programmes should require mathematics at entry level, and the structure of the programme should practise and emphasise customer service and solving problems. students should be exposed to real-life scenarios where they can practise these skills and be better prepared for the industry. programmes not currently offering work-integrated learning should consider the inclusion thereof but also plan carefully the content of these learning programmes. training institutions can even consider setting up tourism and hospitality labs where these skills can be practised and assessed on a continuous basis. these three are therefore not only about knowledge, but also include a practical component to be practised prior to employment. conclusion the aim of the article was to critically assess the key competencies and personal characteristics needed by accommodation managers in the south african tourism industry. two-hundred and fifty-four respondents from graded accommodation establishments responded to questionnaires on this important topic. these respondents were seemingly well qualified, have worked in industry between 0 and 5 years and are responsible for overall operations on various management levels. the factor analyses revealed 10 key managerial competencies and certain personal characteristics to be important. amongst the 10 factors, personal characteristics were found to be the most important factor that affects the admission requirements for students to be admitted to higher education institutions. the accommodation sector requires specific personality characteristics to fit in this sector. the importance of customer service skills, problem solving skills and financial management skills is also evident. higher education institutions should re-assess their current programmes to determine whether these topics have been extensively covered in training and whether this addresses the needs of industry currently. with that being said, it was also clear that being an all-rounder manager in the accommodation sector gives one the edge as a manager in this sector. based on these scientific research findings, managerial training programmes in tourism management can be adapted for the first time in south africa. this study contributes significantly to both the accommodation sector and higher education institutions in south africa offering tourism management programmes where significant and creative adjustments and alternative training methods might be needed. for future research, this measuring instrument may be used in other sectors of the tourism industry to determine similarities and differences between the sectors. this will exert a significant influence on the development of training programmes for specific sectors. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge and thank the tourism industry for participating in the study and providing insightful responses. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions w.w. conducted the research for his master’s degree and therefore wrote the concept paper. e.d.p. was supervisor of this study and e.s. was the co-supervisor. both these supervisors assisted in writing the final manuscript. references allen, j. (2004). marketing your event planning business: a creative approach to gaining the competitive advantage. ontario: john wiley & sons canada ltd. amundson, n. (2005). the potential impact of global changes in work for career theory and practice. international journal for educational and vocational guidance, 5(2), 91–99. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10775-005-8787-0 anderson, c.h., & vinceze, j.w. (2000). strategic marketing management: meeting the global challenge. boston, ma: houghton mimin company. baker, t. (2001). customer-focused organisations: challenges for managers, workers and hr practitioners. journal of management development, 21(4), 306–314. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710210423892 bang, s.j. (2004). the form of the sermon and effective communication: a homiletical study. unpublished doctoral dissertation, north-west university, potchefstroom. baum, t. (2002). skills and training for the hospitality sector: a review of issues. journal of vocational education and training, 54(3), 343–364. https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820200200204 baum, t. (2007). skills and hospitality sector in a transition economy: the case of front office employment in kyrgyzstan. asian pacific journal of tourism research, 12(2), 91–102. https://doi.org/10.1080/10941660701243315 baum, t. (2012). human resource management in tourism: a small island perspective. international journal of culture, tourism and hospitality research, 6(2), 124–132. https://doi.org/10.1108/17506181211233054 bennet, n., dunne, e., & carre, c. (2000). skills development in higher education and employment. buckingham: shre and open university press. berndt, a., & petzer, d. (2011). marketing research. cape town: pearson education south africa (pty) ltd. bobanovic, m., & grzinic, j. (2011). the importance of english language skills in the tourism sector: a comparative study of students/employees perspective in croatia. almatourism, 4(1), 10–23. bowdin, g.a.j., allen, j., o’toole, w., harris, r., & mcdonnell, i. (2011). events management (3rd ed.). new york: butterworth-heinemann. brakke, m. (2005). international tourism, demand and gdp implication: a background and empirical analysis. undergraduate economic review, 1(1), 1–38. brink, a., & berndt, a. (2008). relationship marketing and customer relationship management. lansdowne: juta & co ltd. brown, s.a. (2001). communication in the design process (1st ed.). london: taylor & francis. brownell, j. (2008). leading on land and sea: competencies and context. international journal of hospitality management, 27, 137–150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2007.11.003 burgess, c. (2007). is there a future for hotel financial controllers? hospitality management, 26(1), 161–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2005.10.004 cant, m., gerber-nel, c., nel, d., & kotze, t. (2008). marketing research. pretoria: van schaik. cant, m.c., & van heerden, c.h. (2008). personal selling. lansdowne: juta and co ltd. cecil, a., & krohn, b. (2012). the process of developing a competency-based academic curriculum in tourism management. journal of teaching in travel & tourism, 12(2), 129–145. https://doi.org/10.1080/15313220.2011.624417 chathoth, p.k., ungson, g.r., altinay, l., chan, e.s.w., harrington, r., & okumus, f. (2014). barriers affecting organisational adoption of higher order customer engagement in tourism service interactions. tourism management, 42, 181–193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2013.12.002 connolly, p., & mcging, g. (2006). graduate education and hospitality management in ireland. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 18(1), 50–59. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596110610641975 cronje, g.j.e.j., du toit, g.s., motlatla, m.d.c., & marais, a.d.e.k. (2006). introduction to business management. cape town: oxford. davies, d., taylor, r., & savery, l. (2001). the role of appraisal, remuneration and training in improving staff relations in the western australian accommodation industry: a comparative study. journal of european industrial training, 25(1), 366–373. https://doi.org/10.1108/eum0000000005837 dhar, r.l. (2015). service quality and the training of employees: the mediating role of organizational commitment. tourism management, 46, 419–430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.08.001 ewan, m. (2012). research area: tera-scale. retrieved february 12, 2014, from http://techresearch.intel.com/articles/tera-scale/1421 ewing, e.m. (2007). changing with the times: leveraging the web to enhance your employee communications program. public relations tactics, 1(1), 1–13. forsyth, p., & dwyer, l. (2009). the travel and tourism competitiveness report 2009. retrieved july 11, 2012, from http://www.weforum.org/pdf/ttcr09/chapter%201.6.pdf george, r. (2013). marketing tourism in south africa (4th ed.). cape town: oxford university press. george, r.t., & hancer, m. (2008). housekeeping managers and the administration of housekeeping service. international journal of hospitality and tourism administration, 9(4), 365–383. https://doi.org/10.1080/15256480802427313 getz, d. (2008). event tourism: definition, evolution and research. tourism management, 29(1), 403–428. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2007.07.017 hamilton, j.m. (2004). climate and the destination choice of german tourists. nota di lavoro, 21(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.504362 harrington, r.j., & ottenbacher, m.c. (2010). strategic management: an analysis of its representation and focus in recent hospitality research. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 23(4), 439–462. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596111111129977 hartman, r. (2011). leaders of the hospitality industry. in k. bowers (ed.), da vinci’s vault (pp. 68–76). denver: johnsons & wales university. haynes, p., & fryer, g. (2000). human resources, service quality and performance: a case study. international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 12(4), 240–248. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596110010330813 horng, j.s., tsai, c.y., yang, t.c., lui, c.h., & hu, h.d. (2016). exploring relationship between proactive personality, work environment and employee creativity among tourism and hospitality employees. international journal of hospitality management, 54, 25–34. hough, j., & white, m. (2001). using stories to create change: the object lessons of fredrick taylor’s pig tale. journal of management, 27(1), 585–601. hudson, s., & gilbert, d. (2006). the internet and small hospitality businesses: b&b marketing in canada. journal of hospitality and leisure marketing, 14(1), 99–116. https://doi.org/10.1300/j150v14n01_06 huebsch, j.c. (1986). communication (2000). durban: butterworths. hurd, a., barcekona, r.j., & meldrum, t. (2008). leisure services management. champaign, il: human kinethics. jeou-shyan, h., hsuan, h., chih-hsing, l., lin, l., & chang-yen, t. (2011). competency analysis of top managers in the taiwanese hotel industry. international journal of hospitality management, 30(1), 1044–1054. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2011.03.012 johanson, m., ghiselli, r., shea, l.j., & roberts, c. (2010). revealing key competencies of hospitality graduates demand in industry: a 25 year review. international chrie conference refereed track, 5(1), 1–10. kandampully, j. (2000). the impact of demand fluctuation on the quality of service: a tourism industry example. managing service quality, 10(1), 10–19. https://doi.org/10.1108/09604520010307012 kay, c., & russette, j. (2000). hospitality-management competencies: identifying managers essential skills. cornell hotel and restaurant administration quarterly, 41(1), 52–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/001088040004100217 killen, c.p., jugdev, k., drouin, n., & petit, y. (2011). advancing project and portfolio management research: applying strategic management theories. international journal of project management, 30(1), 525–538. koens, k., & thomas, r. (2015). is small beautiful? understanding the contribution of small businesses in township tourism to economic development. development south africa, 1, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835x.2015.1010715 kotler, p., bowen, j.t., & makens, j.c. (2006). marketing for hospitality and tourism (4th ed.). new jersey: pearson education. krejcie, r.v., & morgan, d.w. (1970). determining sample size for research activities. education and psychological measurement, 30(1), 607–610. https://doi.org/10.1177/001316447003000308 kusluvan, s., kusluvan, z., iihan, i., & buyruk, l. (2010). the human dimension: a review of human resources management issues in the tourism and hospitality industry. cornell hospitality quarterly, 51(2), 171–214. https://doi.org/10.1177/1938965510362871 lamminmaki, d. (2008). accounting and the management of outsourcing: an empirical study in the hotel industry. management accounting research, 19(1), 163–181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mar.2008.02.002 leiper, n. (2004). tourism management (3rd ed.). sidney, bc: pearson hospitality press. leung, r., & law, r. (2010). a review of personality research in the tourism and hospitality context. journal of travel and tourism marketing, 27(5), 439–459. https://doi.org/10.1080/10548408.2010.499058 lillicrap, d., & cousins, j. (2006). food and beverage service (7th ed.). london: hodder arnold. louw, r. (2011). forecasting tourism demand for south africa. unpublished master’s thesis, north-west university, potchefstroom. lovelock, c., & wirtz, j. (2011). services marketing: people, technology, strategy (7th ed.). london: pearson education limited. lovemore, f.c.h., & brummer, l.m. (2010). the abc of financial management: an introduction to financial management and analysis (2nd ed.). pretoria: van schaik. lubbe, b. (2005). tourism management in southern africa (2nd ed.). cape town: person education. maharaj, s., & balkaran, r. (2014). a comparative analysis of the south african and global tourism competitiveness models. journal of economics and behavioral studies, 6(4), 273–278. mason, r.b. (2007). the external environment’s effect on management and strategy. management decision, 45, 10–28. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740710718935 matjila, j. (2008). an analysis of technology support services for small and medium sized enterprises in selected industrial parks of pretoria. unpublished mba mini dissertation, north-west university, potchefstroom. mayaka, m., & akama, j.s. (2007). systems approach to tourism training and education: the kenyan case study. tourism management, 28(1), 298–306. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2005.12.023 mcmanus, g. (2000). the hotel industry. in m.j.s. jordaan (ed.), career guide: tourism in south africa (pp. 100–151). bloemfontein: tekskor. middleton, h. (2002). complex problem solving in the workplace setting. international journal of education research, 37(1), 67–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0883-0355(02)00022-8 mmope, p.p. (2010). the role of senior managers at the north-west university in internal communication and employee engagement. unpublished ma-dissertation, north-west university, potchefstroom. nieuwenhuizen, c., & rossouw, d. (2012). business management: a contemporary approach. claremont: juta. nolen, c., conway, e., farrel, t., & monks, k. (2010). competency needs in irish hotels: employer and graduate perspectives. journal of european industrial training, 34(5), 432–454. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090591011049800 o’neill, m.a., williams, p., maccarthy, m., & groves, r. (2000). diving into service qualitythe dive tour operator perspective. managing service quality, 10(3), 131–140. https://doi.org/10.1108/09604520010336650 page, s.j. (2007). tourism management for change (2nd ed.). oxford: butterworth-heinemann. pallant, j. (2010). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using spss (4th ed.). london: open university press. patiar, a., & mia, l. (2009). transformational leadership style, market completion and departmental performance: evidence from luxury hotels in australia. international journal of hospitality management, 28(1), 254–262. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2008.09.003 perloff, j.m. (2007). micro-economics (4th ed.). boston, ma: pearson. posavec, v. (2008). nova spivack on the future of twine and the intelligent web. retrieved may 21, 2014, from http://www.memebox.com/futureblogger/show/824 rajaratnam, s.d., munikrishnan, u.t., sharif, s.p., & vikneswaran, n. (2014). service quality and previous experience as a moderator in determining tourists’ satisfaction with rural tourism destinations in malaysia: a partial least squares approach. social and behavioural sciences, 144, 203–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.07.288 richie, b.w. (2005). chaos, crises and disasters: a strategic approach to crisis management in the tourism industry. tourism management, 25(1), 669–683. rogerson, c.m. (2004). transforming the south african tourism industry: the emerging black-owned bed and breakfast economy. geojournal, 60, 273–281. https://doi.org/10.1023/b:gejo.0000034734.81953.47 saayman, a., & saayman, m. (2008). determinants of inbound tourism to south africa. tourism economics, 14(1), 81–96. https://doi.org/10.5367/000000008783554893 saayman, m. (2009a). en route with tourism: an introduction text (4th ed.). cape town: juta & company ltd. saayman, m. (2009b). hospitality, leisure & tourism management (2nd ed.) potchefstroom: leisure publications. saayman, m., & geldenhuys, s. (2003). an analysis of skills required for selected sectors of the tourism industry. sa journal for research in sport, physical education and recreation, 25(1), 83–95. sewdass, n., & du toit, a. (2014). current state of competitiveness intelligence in south africa. international journal of information management, 34, 185–190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2013.10.006 shaw, g.k. (2010). a risk management model for the tourism industry in south africa. unpublished doctoral thesis, north-west university, potchefstroom. sisson, l.g., & adams, a.r. (2013). essential hospitality management competencies: the importance of soft skills. journal of hospitality & tourism education, 25, 131–145. https://doi.org/10.1080/10963758.2013.826975 slabbert, e., & saayman, m. (2003). guesthouse management in south africa (2nd ed.). potchefstroom: institute for tourism and leisure studies. spowart, j. (2011). hospitality students’ competencies: are they work ready? journal of human resources in hospitality & tourism, 10, 169–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332845.2011.536940 stamboulis, y., & skayannis, p. (2003). innovation strategies and technology for experience-based tourism. tourism management, 24(1), 35–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0261-5177(02)00047-x statistics south africa. 2009. key findings, quarterly labour force survey. retrieved march 17, 2013 from http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/statsdownload.asp?ppn=p0211&sch=4503 sternberg, r.j., & zhang, l.f., (2000). perspectives on cognitive, learning and thinking styles. orlando, fl: lawrence erlbaum associates. suh, e., west, j.j., & shin, j. (2012). important competency requirements for managers in the hospitality industry. journal of hospitality, leisure, sport and tourism education, 11, 101–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhlste.2012.02.005 sun, m., & howard, r. (2004). understanding i.t. in construction. london: spon. swanson, r.a., & holton, e.f. (2009). foundations of human resource development (2nd ed.). san francisco, ca: berrett-koehler. tassiopoulos, d. (2010). events management: a developmental and managerial approach (3rd ed.). claremont, ca: juta. tassiopoulos, d. (2011). new tourism ventures (2nd ed.). claremont, ca: juta. tassiopoulos, d. (2014). small, micro and medium tourism enterprises in south africa: profiling the decision-makers. proceedings of the academy of entrepreneurship, 20(2), 1–8. tgcsa. (2013). about the tgcsa. retrieved april 21, 2013, from http://www.tourismgrading.co.za/ thekiso, t.a. (2011). management performance measurement business school educated managers in the north-west and vaal triangle areas. unpublished mba dissertation, north-west university, potchefstroom. theunissen, p., & wan noordin, w.n. (2012). revisiting the concept ‘dialogue’ in public relations. public relations review, 38(1), 5–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.09.006 tsaur, s., & lin, y. (2003). promoting service quality in tourist hotels: the role of hrm practices and service behaviour. tourism management, 24(1), 471–481. weiermair, k. (2000). tourists’ perceptions towards and satisfaction with service quality in the cross-cultural service encounter: implications for hospitality and tourism management. managing service quality, 10(6), 397–409. https://doi.org/10.1108/09604520010351220 world travel & tourism council (wttc). (2014). travel and tourism economic impact. london: wttc. zehrer, a., & mössenlechner, c. (2009). key competencies of tourism graduates: the employers’ point of view. journal of teaching in travel & tourism, 9(3–4), 266–287. https://doi.org/10.1080/15313220903445215 abstract introduction research methodology results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) michelle kanonuhwa department of business management, university of fort hare, south africa ellen c. rungani department of business management, university of fort hare, south africa tendai chimucheka department of business management, university of fort hare, south africa citation kanonuhwa, m., rungani, e.c. & chimucheka, t. (2018). the association between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurship as a career choice: a study on university students in south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a907. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.907 original research the association between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurship as a career choice: a study on university students in south africa michelle kanonuhwa, ellen c. rungani, tendai chimucheka received: 29 jan. 2017; accepted: 08 nov. 2017; published: 05 apr. 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: to examine the effects of emotional intelligence on the development of entrepreneurial intentions of university students. research purpose: to determine whether emotional intelligence is a crucial antecedent of entrepreneurial intention to encourage entrepreneurial behaviour. motivation of the study: by identifying all the factors that encourage entrepreneurial behaviour, policymakers and concerned stakeholders are better equipped to improve such behaviour and guarantee its success, thereby alleviating unemployment more effectively. research design, approach and method: a positivist paradigm was used and a quantitative design used self-administered questionnaires to assess the respondents’ emotional intelligence and their intentions to start businesses. multiple regressions and correlations were computed to test the hypotheses. main findings: the findings revealed that there is a direct association between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial intention, with the strongest association recorded between regulation of emotion and entrepreneurial intention and the least significant association between use of emotion and entrepreneurial intention. practical implications: although entrepreneurship education is important, it needs to be restructured to incorporate the practical aspects. furthermore, educators should create a learning environment that could encourage the effective expression and use of emotions to nurture emotional intelligence. contribution: this article is of particular value to policymakers and educators looking for ways to improve entrepreneurial effectiveness and implementation as well as scholars contemplating entrepreneurship as a career option. introduction entrepreneurship can be seen as an emotional process as it provides an emotional context within which to study this topic (cardon, foo, shepherd & wiklund, 2012). the concept itself has become increasingly popular among academics and policymakers across the globe (keat, selvarajah & meyer, 2011). the level of dynamism in the working environment has led to an upsurge of opportunities for new entrepreneurial initiatives, making self-employment lucrative (mortan, ripoll, carvalho & bernal, 2014). in principle, implanting entrepreneurial intention in the minds of students helps build future entrepreneurial behaviour (tiago, faria, couto & tiago, 2015). furthermore, malebana and swanepoel (2015) noted that south africa needs more entrepreneurial intention studies to guide the development of interventions that could fuel entrepreneurial activity in order to reduce unemployment. as the centrality of emotions in business is becoming more apparent, the focus is slowly shifting to questioning how emotions affect entrepreneurial judgement and behaviour, hence the need to examine emotional intelligence within the context of entrepreneurship and business management at large. problem statement despite wide acclaim, entrepreneurship is still significantly low in south africa (fatoki & chindoga, 2011; luiz & mariotti, 2011; muofhe & du toit, 2011). this is particularly true for the eastern cape province (mkatshwa, 2012). this province is the poorest, despite its investment in tertiary institutions (pejovic et al., 2012). in actual fact, this province has less entrepreneurial involvement when compared to other provinces (mkatshwa, 2012). in line with this, studies estimate that the majority of graduates (who have a considerably high intelligence quotient, commonly referred to as iq) join the employment-seeking pool as opposed to establishing creative and successful entrepreneurial ventures that could strengthen the economy (altbeker & storme, 2013; farrington, gray & sharp, 2011; fatoki, 2010). meanwhile, those who have a low iq are forced into accepting poor educational prospects, menial jobs and a relatively unrewarding economic standing (zeidner, matthews & roberts, 2009). moller (2005) suggested that the problem lies with the education curricula, as they fall short in teaching learners how to meet challenges in the world of emotions or how to become more creative, how to solve problems or how to make better decisions. naturally, educational systems focus on cognitive intelligence, aimed at developing abilities and skills measured by iq, yet iq (a measurement of inert intelligence) may very well have little to do with success (moller, 2005). critics have argued that consideration needs to be given to alternative life-success factors (zeidner et al., 2009) such as emotional intelligence, which can be learnt and increased as suggested by goleman (1995). this necessitates the need to examine these life-success factors and how they can be influenced to encourage entrepreneurial behaviour. against this backdrop, questions arise: should the education system move from being cognitive intelligence-based to being emotional intelligence-based in order to encourage students towards successful entrepreneurship? if so, has emotional intelligence been the missing link in entrepreneurship? while literature has generally identified emotional intelligence as an important contribution to positive life outcomes, there is still a debate on its applicability and relevance to entrepreneurial outcomes. this study therefore bridges that gap by assessing the role that emotional intelligence plays in the development of entrepreneurial intentions by students in a province riddled with lagging entrepreneurial activity. objectives of the study the primary objective of this study was to investigate the association between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial intent among university students in the eastern cape province of south africa. this was necessitated by the realisation that emotions could actually be a more influential antecedent of entrepreneurship. the secondary objectives focused on the relationships between the four components of emotional intelligence (use of emotion, regulation of emotion, self-emotional appraisal and others’ emotional appraisal) and entrepreneurial intent to determine which of the components has high relevance. from these objectives, the following hypotheses were deduced. research hypotheses h01: there is no association between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial intention. h02: there is no relationship between self-emotional appraisal and entrepreneurial intention. h03: there is no relationship between others’ emotional appraisal and entrepreneurial intention. h04: there is no relationship between regulation of emotion and entrepreneurial intention. h05: there is no relationship between use of emotion and entrepreneurial intention. literature review this section gives a brief insight into literature pertaining to emotional intelligence and entrepreneurship as it relates to entrepreneurial intention of university students. in a bid to understand the foundation of the study, the section commenced with a brief overview of the eastern cape province. background of the eastern cape province the eastern cape province covers the southeastern part of south africa. with a population of approximately 6.9 million inhabitants, the province houses 15% of the country’s total population. despite this, the eastern cape contributes a mere 7% to the nation’s gross domestic product and is still considered one of the most underperforming provinces (hamann & tuinder, 2012; pejovic et al., 2012). according to statistics south africa (2006), this province is one of the least urbanised provinces in south africa and is faced with significant problems pertaining to unemployment, so much so that many entrepreneurial support structures have been erected to try to rectify this problem. entrepreneurship the vastness with which entrepreneurial importance is articulated might actually seem repetitive and banal, yet it only goes to show the unbridled relevance that entrepreneurship has assumed in the global economy. entrepreneurship is an important economic construct and global concern (ghina, 2013; hafer, 2013; kuratko, 2005; sasu & sasu, 2015; wiklund, davidsson, audretsch & karlsson, 2011). it is considered the fourth factor of production that combines all the other factors (land, labour, capital) to maximise profit and secure the socio-economic well-being of any nation and the globe at large (aardt et al., 2016). contrary to mass popular opinion, entrepreneurship transcends the traditional interpretations of profit motive to include social and/or corporate motivations (ahmad & hoffman, 2007). based on this, a more suitable view is by ahmad and hoffman (2007), who noted that entrepreneurship is established throughout the economy in many different forms, with many different outcomes. they explain how these outcomes are not always related to the creation of financial wealth; for example, they may be related to increasing employment, tackling inequalities or, quite possibly, addressing environmental issues. sledzik (2013) pointed out that entrepreneurship is fundamentally innovation and the actualisation of innovation. while it is generally accepted that entrepreneurship brings about positive change, some researchers differ and construe this to be a common misconception. they conclude that entrepreneurship might, in actual fact, be counterintuitive. shane (2003) expresses this sentiment by affirming that rationalising entrepreneurial ventures as the key to transforming depressed economies, generating innovation and solving all socio-economic shortfalls is a dangerous myth that has plagued numerous policymakers. encouraging more people to become entrepreneurs will not enhance economic growth or create jobs. this implies that start-ups in general are not the foundation of economic vitality or job creation. additionally, entrepreneurship could inadvertently result in job losses in the medium term through what is termed ‘creative destruction’, as entrepreneurs aim to increase their productivity. walker (2012) realised how, apart from creating wealth and innovation, entrepreneurship could also create uncertainty and competition. carree and thurik (2003) suggest that the difficulties encountered in trying to define entrepreneurship complicate the measurement of its effect on the economy, while the gains of entrepreneurship are highly dependent on the business environment’s receptiveness to innovation and are not necessarily assured (kritikos, 2014). entrepreneurial intention the entrepreneurship process is an intentional one (sasu & sasu, 2015). this means that it is highly dependent on the intention of the individual concerned and, as aforementioned, intention is considered the first step in entrepreneurship. thus, entrepreneurship could be measured in two ways: actual entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intention (pihie & sani, 2009). intentions reflect the current attitude an individual holds towards performing certain behaviour (kuehn, 2008). millman, li, matlay and wong (2010) noted that entrepreneurial intentions, among other factors, are one of the major themes in entrepreneurship literature. moreover, as pointed out by kanonuhwa and chimucheka (2016), it is rather impossible to determine with surety the number of students who will actually venture into entrepreneurship in the future because of the uncertain nature of what lies ahead; hence the need to study intentions. as actions are consequential to intentions, it is only natural to examine the factors that guide their enhancement (kuehn, 2008). fatoki (2010) suggests directing our focus onto the factors that influence graduates’ intentions to start businesses. this illuminates the notion that intentions are pivotal in understanding behaviour. however, despite intention being a consistent predictor of actual behaviour, resulting actual behaviour may deviate from intended behaviour (kuehn, 2008) and so intention should only be used as a predictive measure. emotional intelligence emotional intelligence came into prominence against a backdrop of dissatisfaction with conventional theories of intelligence. it was popularised in the 1990s by salovey and mayer (1990), who introduced the concept by defining it as the ability to recognise, evaluate and express emotion, while generating feelings that influence how one thinks. from this definition, it is evident that emotional intelligence combines various constructs that measure different traits and abilities as opposed to being an individual variable (jensen, kohn, rilea, hannon & howells, 2007). this intelligence explores our ability to calibrate and adjust our thinking so that cognitive tasks make appropriate use of emotional information (boren, 2010; hee & euna, 2016). this means that emotional intelligence provides innovative ways to understand and evaluate human behaviour (orziemgbe, chukwujioke & aondoaver, 2014). scholars and practitioners alike have shown interest in emotional intelligence and its implications for fundamental, basic life outcomes (extremera & rey, 2016). it has been identified as an important component of social cognition, being measurable across a fairly diverse set of tasks (mao et al., 2016). according to zeidner et al. (2009), emotional intelligence represents a strip of uncharted psychological terrain, and its exploration will add much to our comprehension of individual differences pertaining to emotion. however, stenhouse et al. (2016) take an opposing stance by remarking that it is, in fact, vastly theoretically conceptualised and empirically tested in psychology, and they attribute this as the reason behind the availability of numerous valid and reliable measurement instruments, which mitigate the problems of poorly defined variables. walter, humphrey and cole (2012) pointed out that there is little consensus on the true meaning of emotional intelligence, resulting from the complexity of the construct and no generalised view on its applicability or its existence. moreover, emotional intelligence has been criticised to measure nothing more than just intelligence and personality (amelang & steinmayr, 2006). the multifacet emotional intelligence scale, developed by mayer and salovey (1997), and the mayer-salovey-caruso emotional intelligence test, developed by mayer, caruso and salovey (1999), have gained prominence in performance-based measures, used in various studies. self-report measures are primarily assessed by the self-reported emotional intelligence scale by schutte et al. (1998), the wong and law emotional intelligence scale (wleis) developed by wong and law (2002), the situational test of emotional management (maccann & roberts, 2008) and the bar-on emotional quotient inventory (webb et al., 2013). the choice of measurement test depends on a wide array of factors, but mostly on the definition of emotional intelligence as either a trait or an ability. the difference between trait emotional intelligence and ability emotional intelligence is predicated by the method used for measuring the constructs and not the elements encompassed within the respective models (boyle, saklofske & matthews, 2015). however, petrides and furnham (2001) opine that there is no reason to regard emotional intelligence as either an ability or a trait as both can coexist simultaneously. this implies that, instead of attempting to measure it as either of the two, it would be more valid to use both ability and trait measures or alternatively develop an independent measure that does not lie within the two restrictions. this viewpoint is backed by fiori and antonakis (2012), who conclude that what poses concern when the construct is measured as either a trait or ability is that there is much overlap with existing personality traits, to the extent of becoming redundant. it is imperative to consider the approach that looks at emotional intelligence as an ability as more theoretically apt when compared to the trait approach (boyle et al., 2015; fiori & antonakis, 2012). nonetheless, walter et al. (2012) proposed that emotional intelligence should not replace already known predictors of leadership and performance; rather, it should complement them and as such deserves consideration. with this realisation, they suggest that emotional intelligence should have a legitimate place in leadership selection, promotion and development. empirical literature in a study investigating the relationship between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial performance, orziemgbe et al. (2014) conducted a regression analysis that showed a relationship between the four variables of emotional intelligence (self-emotional appraisal, others’ emotional appraisal, regulation of emotion and use of emotion) and entrepreneurial performance. although these findings concur with those of numerous authors (ahmetoglu, leutner & premuzic, 2011; khatoon, 2013; lackeus, 2014; leutner, ahmetoglu, akhtar & chamorro-premuzic, 2014; ngah & salleh, 2015; zampetakis, beldekos & moustakis, 2009), with mortan et al. (2014) contributing that emotional intelligence abilities affect the perceptions of being an entrepreneur as well as entrepreneurial intent, they contrast the findings by mahmood, samaneh and afeter (2012) and esfandiari and ekradi (2014), who found a statistically insignificant result and concluded that emotional intelligence was not a significant predictor of entrepreneurial performance. chin, raman, yeouw and eze (2012) discovered how both emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence must be combined to ensure successful entrepreneurship that stands out. meanwhile, yusof, ishak, zahidi, abidin and baker (2014) agreed that the relationship between emotional intelligence and personality characteristics was indeed significant, but generally there is no correlation between emotional intelligence and general intelligence, as discovered by amelang and steinmayr (2006). bahadori (2012) and zhou, estrada and bojica (2014) found that all dimensions of emotional intelligence are relevant and positively related to entrepreneurial behaviour, while zhou et al. (2014) suggested that appraisal and expression of emotion are not significantly associated with most success criteria. this study therefore examined all the dimensions and their significance to entrepreneurship. research methodology a methodology is a set of tactics and supporting steps that operationalise the chosen science and logic of the investigation under question (hallebone & priest, 2009; krauss, 2005). it is an outline that highlights situation-specific arguments and choices that involve sampling, data collection and data analysis, and eventually reports the findings (brynard, hanekom & brynard, 2014). research paradigm a paradigm is a commitment to a culture of practices and beliefs about reality and embodies a combination of the philosophy of science and logic of enquiry (hallebone & priest, 2009). with this in consideration, eriksson and kovalainen (2008) suggested that positivism is the conventional philosophical position of management studies and is closely related to the logic and ways of quantitative research. this study adopted a positivist approach. this approach only considers things to exist if they are directly observable (lee & lings, 2008) and their knowledge has a broad or general application (hallebone & priest, 2009). research design the researchers adopted a quantitative research approach. a quantitative research design produces results through statistical analysis and summary (ghauri & gronhaug, 2005). this design allows the gathering of large sums of data so that the results can be generalised to the whole population (malebana & swanepoel, 2015). population the researchers focused on university students in the eastern cape province. according to fatoki (2014), university students are a common study population because they are at the upper levels of their educational background and have unusually proficient cognitive skills. in addition, students are closer to selecting their career paths. sampling method non-probability sampling was used in selecting a sample for this study. burns and burns (2008) defined a non-probability sample as one that is selected in some less random and often deliberate way, without reliance on chance. sampling technique purposive sampling is a non-probability sampling technique in which the researcher makes specific choices about which participants to include in the sample (betram & christiansen, 2014). in this study, the researchers chose that participants must be currently registered university students in the eastern cape province. determining sample size according to betram and christiansen (2014), when selecting a sample, it has to be large enough to provide adequate results and small enough to be manageable. for the purposes of this study, the sample size was calculated using the rao soft sample size calculator. the total population of all the four universities in the eastern cape was 64 336. using a 95% confidence level and a 5% margin of error, the calculation gave a sample size of 385 participants. data collection instrument this study employed the questionnaire as a data collection instrument. betram and christiansen (2014) defined a questionnaire as a list of questions to which respondents must give an answer. furthermore, questionnaires simplify and quantify responses, and people are more inclined to tick boxes than write or type out long answers (cilliers, davis & bezuidenhout, 2014). the items used in the development of the questionnaire were based upon theoretically derived, previously validated instruments. all the constructs were assessed by self-report measures based on multi-item scales, on five-point likert scales ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). scales all scales that were used in this study were derived from past studies of a similar nature. laborde, allen and guillen (2016) suggested that short versions of comprehensive questionnaires are instrumental for studies in practical settings where time restrictions prohibit the use of longer versions. emotional intelligence was assessed using the scale adopted from wong and law (2002), popularly known as the wleis. this is a self-report, 16-item scale that measures the four major emotional intelligence dimensions. this scale was used as it is in line with the views of mayer and salovey concerning emotional intelligence (carvalho, guerrero, chambel & gonzalez-rico, 2016). entrepreneurial intention was measured using the considerably shorter yet validated nine-item scale proposed by linan and chen (2007). reliability and validity betram and christiansen (2014) define construct validity as the extent to which an instrument and data collection methods measure the construct they are intended to measure. an acceptable cronbach’s alpha coefficient ranges from 0.6 to 0.9 (cant, gerber-nel, nel & kotze, 2005). the scales were tested and table 1 shows the results. table 1: internal consistencies. table 1 illustrates reliability analyses, revealing a cronbach’s alpha exceeding 0.6 for all the constructs, indicating acceptable internal consistency. the last two in the table are overall scales of which total scores are calculable. statistical analysis both inferential and descriptive statistics were analysed using the statistical analysis software (spss) data analysis package. data was analysed using the pearson correlation, simple linear regression and multiple regression analysis. the equation for the multiple regression analysis predicting y is shown below: where y = entrepreneurial intention, measured on a five-point likert scale ranging from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’; x1-4 = self-emotional appraisal, others’ emotional appraisal, regulation of emotion and use of emotion; a = age of student measured in years; g = gender of student, measured as a dummy variable (1 = male and 0 = female); yos = year of study of the student; fos = field of study of the student; we = whether the student has any work experience, measured as a dummy variable; fb = whether the student comes from an entrepreneurial family background; ee = whether or not the student has received any form of entrepreneurship education, measured as a dummy variable (1 = yes and 0 = no); and af = whether the student has access to finance to start an entrepreneurial venture, measured as a dummy variable (1 = yes and 0 = no). ethical considerations ethics are the moral code of conduct that set the standard for attitudes and behaviour (cilliers et al., 2014). in adherence to the ethical considerations of conducting this study, ethical clearance was obtained from the university of fort hare’s ethics committee prior to carrying out the research. furthermore, the researchers ensured the fully informed consent of research participants and the confidentiality of research data. results a 100% response rate was achieved. of the respondents, 51.7% were female, while only 48.3% were male. it can therefore be concluded that an almost equal gender distribution was achieved. however, the results of this study were not dependent on any specific gender. furthermore, the majority of the respondents (68%) were below the age of 25. this is largely attributed to the nature of the sampled population, which is primarily composed of university students. only 37.7% of the respondents indicated that they came from an entrepreneurial family background. given that the target respondents were university students, the majority (56.9%) did not have any work experience. only 53% of the respondents had received any form of entrepreneurial education. pearson’s correlation revealed a positive and statistically significant relationship between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial intention. the results are presented in tables 2 and 3. table 2: correlations. table 3: generalisations from the correlations. these results were further confirmed by the multiple regressions. from the results, the joint hypotheses, that emotional intelligence measures are not related to entrepreneurial intention, were rejected, concluding that there is at least one measure that is significantly related to entrepreneurial intention. association was established between entrepreneurial intention and others’ emotional appraisal, self-emotional appraisal and regulation of emotion. however, the test showed a weak relationship between intention and use of emotion. of the four components of emotional intelligence, regulation of emotion showed a more prominent association, with a unit increase in regulation of emotion leading to a 1.163 increase in entrepreneurial intention total score. this means that a one-standard deviation increase in the regulation of emotion increases the standard deviation for entrepreneurial intention. in line with these results, hee and euna (2016) called for the development of a curriculum of subjects designed to improve emotional intelligence. teaching emotional intelligence in schools, workplaces and psychiatric centres offers a viable solution to perceived individual, community, national and global needs, as suggested by zeidner et al. (2009). a multiple linear regression analysis was projected to determine to what extent a unit increase in the calculated total scores of emotional intelligence sub scales affect the students’ intention to be entrepreneurs. the model had an r-squared of 0.375, which is in line with survey data and hence the employed explanatory variables controlled significant variation in entrepreneurial intention. as depicted in table 4, the r value represents the simple correlation and is 0.375, which indicates a high degree of correlation. however, since there were multiple independent variables, namely, use of emotion (uoe), others’ emotional appraisal (oea), regulation of emotion (roe) and self-emotional appraisal (sea), the r-squared value of 0.140 shows the degree of variation in entrepreneurial intention (dependent variable) that can be explained by the independent variables. table 4: model summary. table 5 shows how well the regression predicts the dependent variable. the table shows a p-value of 0.000, which is less than 0.05, showing that the equation significantly predicts the variable. table 5: analysis of variance. the results in table 6 show that as emotional intelligence increased, so did entrepreneurial intention, with a unit increase in emotional intelligence leading to a 0.272 increase in entrepreneurial intention. the results are statistically significant at 1%. based on this result, the null hypothesis stating that there is no relationship between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial intention was rejected. table 6: emotional intelligence coefficients. on the other hand, the high f value of 15.417, which is statistically significant, provides evidence of the goodness of fit of the model, implying that the coefficients are indeed statistically different from zero. (this means there are some variables that are statistically significant, explaining entrepreneurial intention.) the results of the study show that those with no entrepreneurship education have on average higher scores of emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial intention. the results from the multiple regression analysis show that gender has a significant impact on intention. the t-test showed that, on average, males have high entrepreneurial intention or are more entrepreneurially inclined than females (score of 34.86 compared to 32.95). on the other hand, females on average had a higher score on emotional intelligence than males, such that females are more emotionally intelligent than males in general. students with work experience are more emotionally intelligent and have higher entrepreneurial intention than those without. these results emphasise the need for industry exposure for students before they graduate. the regression analysis and the f-test show that having an entrepreneurial background has a significant impact on entrepreneurial intention. moreover, the results show that those without an entrepreneurial family background are high in emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial intention. the t-test showed that there are no significant differences in emotional intelligence between individuals with access to finance and those without. however, the results also show that individuals with access to finance generally showed entrepreneurial intent. students below 25 years of age showed higher emotional intelligence and lower entrepreneurial intent when compared to those above 25. the results show that entrepreneurial intention and emotional intelligence vary as the level of study changes, as the f-tests are high and statistically significant. these results are also cemented by the multiple regression analysis. the post hoc analysis, based on the tukey mean separation technique, shows that first years have higher entrepreneurial intention and emotional intelligence than secondand third-year students. f-test and multiple regression results show that there are some significant differences between at least two faculties. the tukey mean separation technique concluded that students from the faculty of management and commerce have higher entrepreneurial intention than science and agriculture students. furthermore, they also have higher emotional intelligence than students from the social sciences and humanities. discussion implications of the study the results carry important implications for the academic arena in a field that has widely used information on individuals’ emotional intelligence status to identify potential entrepreneurs. as such, educators should create a learning environment that encourages effective expression and use of emotions to nurture the emotional intelligence of students. intelligence goes beyond what is learnt in classrooms and one might argue that the conventional education stream suppresses creativity, an essential component of entrepreneurship, and fosters cognitive conformity. with this consideration, the education curricula might need to be readjusted. these findings also carry implications for public policies that promote self-employment in the education sector and youth demographic, with the aim of stimulating business creation and innovation to improve economic performance in lagging provinces and the country at large. recommendations for further study the arguments exposed that it would be interesting to evaluate two other dimensions: on the one hand, to extend the scope of the study to other provinces and, on the other hand, to examine the behaviour of non-university individuals in this area to evaluate not only emotional intelligence in students but also those in the general population who might be interested in entrepreneurship. this is spurred on by the increase in entrepreneurial individuals without any university qualification but only ‘street smarts’. as long as the analysis focuses on students enrolled at university, we can never fully gauge emotional intelligence. furthermore, it might be beneficial to use other measures of emotional intelligence to assess whether the results will replicate or deviate from the current findings. the goal of applying emotional intelligence to entrepreneurship was to try and encourage entrepreneurship that would succeed and influence economic growth, and from the positive results it would be beneficial to conduct further studies in this regard. theoretical implications adding to the practical implications for educators, government and students, the research findings may also have implications for individuals involved in theory building, research compilation and institutional policymaking. the review of literature on emotion and intelligence illuminated competing theoretical views, which consequently led to contrasting designs and scales of measurement. these contrasts have led to inconclusive generalisations regarding the effectiveness of intelligence, study of emotions and/or emotional intelligence. the study exposed a need for a robust, universally accepted theory upon which to base future studies. study reflection in retrospect, conducting this research has opened up a whole new way of looking at entrepreneurship and the education system as a whole. instead of looking at entrepreneurship from the traditional cognitive viewpoint, it took a different yet equally interesting stand, by looking at the role of human emotions in the development of reasoning abilities. with that in mind, it provides a framework for further studies to be developed in this area in a unified bid to encourage self-employment and individual perceptive growth. furthermore, it can be inferred that the results can aid students and other stakeholders in their psychological adaptation, posing the question that emotional intelligence can be improved. conclusion this study concludes that there is a positive association between emotional intelligence and the intention to become an entrepreneur. the study also concludes that there is a positive association between self-emotional appraisal and entrepreneurial intention, that there is a positive association between others’ emotional appraisal and entrepreneurial intention, that there is a positive association between regulation of emotion and entrepreneurial intention, and that there is a positive relationship between the use of emotion and entrepreneurial intention. the findings revealed a direct positive association between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial intention, with the strongest association recorded between regulation of emotion and entrepreneurial intention and the least significant association being observed between use of emotion and entrepreneurial intention. thus, it is clear from these findings that there is a positive relationship between dimensions of emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial intention. these findings also carry implications for public policies that promote self-employment, with the aim of stimulating business creation and innovation. the research findings also have implications for individuals involved in theory building, research compilation and institutional policymaking. acknowledgements this study was funded through the university of fort hare’s govan mbeki research and development centre (gmrdc) research seed grant. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.k. was responsible for the project conceptualisation and literature review. e.c.r. was responsible for the literature review. t.c. was the project leader. t.c. and m.k. collected data and were responsible for data analysis and interpretation. references aardt, v., barros, m., clarence, w., rensburg, j., radipere, s., rankhumise, e., et al. (2016). principles of entrepreneurship and small business management (3rd edn.). cape town, south africa: oxford university press. ahmad, n., & hoffman, a. (2007). a framework for addressing and measuring entrepreneurship. paris: entrepreneurship indicators steering group, pp. 1–31. ahmetoglu, g., leutner, f., & premuzic, t.c. (2011). eq-nomics: understanding the relationship between individual differences in trait emotional intelligence and entrepreneurship. personality and individual differences, 51, 1028–1033. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.08.016 altbeker, a., & storme, e. (2013). graduate unemployment in south africa a much exaggerated problem. johannesburg: the centre for development and enterprise. amelang, m., & steinmayr, r. (2006). is there a validity increment for tests of emotional intelligence in explaining the variance of performance criteria? intelligence, 34, 459–468. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2006.03.003 bahadori, m. (2012). the effect of emotional intelligence on entrepreneurial behaviour: a case study in a medical science university. asian journal of business management, 4(1), 81–85. betram, c., & christiansen, i. (2014). understanding research: an introduction to reading research. pretoria: van schaik. boren, a.e. (2010). emotional intelligence: the secret of successful entrepreneurship? faculty publications: agricultural leadership, education & communication department, 55(2), 54–61. boyle, g., saklofske, d., & matthews, g. (2015). measures of personality and social psychology constructs. cambridge: elsevier, pp. 381–412. brynard, d., hanekom, s., & brynard, p. (2014). introduction to research (3rd edn.). pretoria: van schaik. burns, r., & burns, r. (2008). business research methods and statistics using spss. london: sage. cant, m., gerber-nel, c., nel, d., & kotze, t. (2005). marketing research. pretoria: van schaik. cardon, m.s., foo, m., shepherd, d., & wiklund, j. (2012). exploring the heart: entrepreneurial emotion is a hot topic. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 36(1) 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2011.00501.x carree, m.a., & thurik, a.r. (2003). the impact of entrepreneurship on economic growth. in z.j. acs & d.b. audretsch (eds.), handbook of entrepreneurship research (pp. 437–471). boston, ma: kluwer academic publishers. carvalho, v., guerrero, e., chambel, m., & gonzalez-rico, p. (2016). psychometric properties of wleis as a measure of emotional intelligence in the portuguese and spanish medical students. evaluation and program planning, 58, 152–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2016.06.006 chin, s., raman, k., yeouw, j., & eze, c. (2012). relationship between emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence in nurturing creativity and innovation among successful entrepreneurs: a conceptual framework. social and behavioural sciences, 57, 261–267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.1184 cilliers, f., davis, c., & bezuidenhout, r. (2014). research matters. cape town: juta & company. eriksson, p., & kovalainen, a. (2008). qualitative methods in business research. london: sage. esfandiari, r., & ekradi, e. (2014). relationship between iranian efl learners’ emotional intelligence and their performance on cloze test. social and behavioural sciences, 98, 435–444. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.437 extremera, n., & rey, l. (2016). ability emotional intelligence and life satisfaction: positive and negative affect as mediators. personality and individual differences, 102, 98–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.06.051 farrington, s., gray, b., & sharp, g. (2011). perceptions of an entrepreneurial career: do small business owners and university students concur? management dynamics, 2, 1–16. fatoki, o. (2010). graduate entrepreneurial intention in south africa: motivations and obstacles. international journal of business management, 5(9), 87–98. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v4n2p161 fatoki, o. (2014). student entrepreneurs on university campus in south africa: motivations, challenges and entrepreneurial intention. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(16), 100–107. fatoki, o., & chindoga, l. (2011). an investigation into the obstacles to youth entrepreneurship in south africa. international business research, 4(2), 161–169. fiori, m., & antonakis, j. (2012). selective attention to emotional stimuli: what iq and openness do, and emotional intelligence does not. intelligence, 40, 245–254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2012.02.004 ghauri, p., & gronhaug, k. (2005). research methods in business studies. london: prentice hall. ghina, a. (2013). effectiveness of entrepreneurship education in higher education institutions. procedia social and behavioural sciences, 115, 332–345. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.02.440 goleman, d. (1995). emotional intelligence. new york: bantam books. hafer, r.w. (2013). entrepreneurship and state economic growth. journal of entrepreneurship and public policy, 2(1), 67–79. https://doi.org/10.1108/20452101311318684 hallebone, e., & priest, j. (2009). business & management research: paradigms & practices. london: palgrave macmillan. hamann, m., & tuinder, v. (2012). introducing the eastern cape: a quick guide to its history, diversity and culture challenges. a report by the stockholm resilience centre research for governance of social-ecological systems, stockholm university, pp. 1–39. hee, c., & euna, p. (2016). diversity of emotional intelligence among nursing and medical students. osong public health and research perspectives, 7(4), 261–265. jensen, s., kohn, c., rilea, s., hannon, r., & howells, g. (2007). emotional intelligence: a literature review, dissertation, university of the pacific. kanonuhwa, m., & chimucheka, t. (2016). the association of entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention among university students in the eastern cape province of south africa. international journal of education and science, 12(3), 200–211. keat, o., selvarajah, c., & meyer, d. (2011). inclination toward entrepreneurship among university students: an empirical study of malaysian university students. international journal of business and social science, 2(4), 206–220. khatoon, n. (2013). the impact of emotional intelligence on the growth of entrepreneurship. international journal of business management and research, 3(3), 1–8. krauss, s.e. (2005). research paradigms and meaning making: a primer. the qualitative report, 10(4), 758–770. kritikos, a. (2014). entrepreneurs and their impact on jobs and economic growth. iza world of labour, 8. https://doi.org/10.15185/izawol.8 kuehn, k. (2008). entrepreneurial intentions research: implications for entrepreneurship education. journal of entrepreneurship education, 11, 87–98. kuratko, d. (2005). the emergence of entrepreneurship education: development, trends and challenges. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 29(5), 577–598. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2005.00099.x laborde, s., allen, m., & guillen, f. (2016). construct and concurrent validity of the short and long form versions of the trait emotional intelligence questionnaire. personality and individual differences, 10, 232–235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.06.009 lackeus, m. (2014). an emotion based approach to assessing entrepreneurial education. the international journal of management education, 12, 374–396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2014.06.005 lee, n., & lings, i. (2008). doing business research: a guide to theory and practice. london: sage. leutner, f., ahmetoglu, g., akhtar, r., & premuzic, t. (2014). the relationship between the entrepreneurial personality and the big five personality traits. personality and individual differences, 63, 58–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.01.042 linan, f., & santos, f.j. (2007). does social capital affect entrepreneurial intentions? international advances in economic research, 13(4), 443–453. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11294-007-9109-8 luiz, j., & mariotti, m. (2011). entrepreneurship in an emerging and culturally diverse economy: a south african survey of perceptions. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 14(1), 47–65. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v14i1.30 maccann, c., & roberts, r.d. (2008). new paradigms for assessing emotional intelligence: theory and data. emotion, 8, 540–551. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012746 mahmood, g., samaneh, j., & afeteh, a. (2012). analysis of the relationship between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurship. middle east journal of scientific research, 11(5), 677–689. malebana, m., & swanepoel, e. (2015). graduate entrepreneurial intentions in the rural provinces of south africa. southern african business review, 19(1), 89–101. mao, w., chen, l., chi, c., lin, c., kao, y., hsu, w., et al. (2016). traditional chinese version of the mayer salovey caruso emotional intelligence test: its validation and application to schizophrenic individuals. psychiatry research, 243, 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2016.04.107 mayer, j., caruso, d., & salovey, p. (1999). emotional intelligence meets traditional standards for an intelligence. intelligence, 27, 267–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0160-2896(99)00016-1 mayer, j., & salovey, p. (1997). what is emotional intelligence? in p. salovey & d.j. sluyter (eds.), emotional development and emotional intelligence: educational implications (pp. 3–31). new york: basic books. millman, c., li, z., matlay, h., & wong, w. (2010). entrepreneurship education and students’ internet entrepreneurial intentions. journal of small business and enterprise development, 17(4), 569–590. https://doi.org/10.1108/14626001011088732 mkatshwa, t.b.l. (2012). success and challenges of the ecdc as perceived by smmes in the o.r. tambo district municipality. dissertation, university of witswatersrand. moller, c. (2005). creative intelligence. hillerod: claus moller consulting. mortan, r.a., ripoll, p., carvalho, c., & bernal, c.m. (2014). effects of emotional intelligence on entrepreneurial intention and self-efficacy. journal of work and organizational psychology, 30, 97–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rpto.2014.11.004 muofhe, n., & du toit, w. (2011). entrepreneurial education’s and entrepreneurial role models’ influence on career choice. south african journal of human resource management, 9(1), 243–257. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v9i1.345 ngah, r., & salleh, z. (2015). emotional intelligence and entrepreneurs’ innovativeness towards entrepreneurial success: a preliminary study. american journal of economics, 5(2), 285–290. orziemgbe, o., chukwujioke, a., & aondoaver, z. (2014). relationship between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial performance: the mediating effect of managerial competence. international journal of economics, commerce and management 2(10), 1–6. pejovic, v., johnson, d., zhelela, m., belding, e., parks, l., & stam, g. (2012). the bandwidth divide: obstacles to efficient broadband adoption in rural sub-saharan africa. international journal of communication, 6, 2467–2491. petrides, k., & furnham, a. (2001). trait emotional intelligence: psychometric investigation with reference to established trait taxonomies. european journal of personality, 15, 425–558. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.416 pihie, z., & sani, a. (2009). exploring the entrepreneurial mind-set of students: implication for improvement of entrepreneurial learning at university. the journal of international social research, 2(8), 341–345. salovey, p., & mayer, j. (1990). emotional intelligence. imagination, cognition and personality, 9(3), 185–211. https://doi.org/10.2190/dugg-p24e-52wk-6cdg sasu, c., & sasu, l. (2015). demographic determinants of the entrepreneurship intentions: the case of romania. economics and finance, 20, 580–585. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00111-2 schutte, n.s., malouff, j.m., hall, l.e., haggerty, d.j., cooper, j.t., & golden, c.j. (1998). development and validation of a measure of emotional intelligence. personality and individual differences, 25, 167–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0191-8869(98)00001-4 shane, s. (2003). a general theory of entrepreneurship: the individual-opportunity nexus. northhampton: edward elgar publishing. sledzik, k. (2013). knowledge based economy in a neo–schumpeterian point of view, equilibrium. quarterly journal of economics and economic policy, 8(4), 67–77. statistics south africa. (2006). annual report 2006/07. retrieved october 17, 2017, from http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/annualreport/annualreport2007.pdf stenhouse, r., snowden, a., young, y., carver, f., carver, h., & brown, n. (2016). do emotional intelligence and previous caring experience influence student nurse performance? a comparative analysis. nurse education today, 43, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2016.04.015 tiago, t., faria, s., couto, j.p., & tiago, f. (2015). fostering innovation by promoting entrepreneurship from education to intention. procedia-social and behavioural sciences, 175, 154–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.1186 walker, k. (2012). the technopreneurship process: academic entrepreneur university spinoffs. rochester institute of technology, 2(11), 11–22. walter, f., humphrey, r., & cole, m. (2012). unleashing leadership potential: towards an evidence-based management of emotional intelligence. organizational dynamics, 41, 212–219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2012.03.002 webb, c., schwab, z., weber, m., deldonno, s., kipman, m., weiner, m., & killgore, w. (2013). convergent and divergent validity of integrative versus mixed model measures of emotional intelligence. intelligence, 41, 149–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2013.01.004 wiklund, j., davidsson, p., audretsch, d., & karlsson, c. (2011). the future of entrepreneurship research. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 35(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2010.00420.x wong, c.s., & law, k.s. (2002). the effects of leader and follower emotional intelligence on performance and attitude: an exploratory study. the leadership quarterly, 13, 243–274. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(02)00099-1 yusof, r., ishak, n.m., zahidi, a.m., abidin, m.h.z., & bakar, a.y.a. (2014). identifying emotional intelligence competencies among malasian teacher educators. procediasocial and behavioural sciences, 159, 485–491. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.12.411 zampetakis, l., beldekos, p., & moustakis, v. (2009). day-to-day entrepreneurship within organisations: the role of trait emotional intelligence and perceived organisational support. european management journal, 27, 165–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2008.08.003 zeidner, m., matthews, g., & roberts, r.d. (2009). what we know about emotional intelligence: how it affects learning, work, relationships and our mental health. a bradford book. cambridge, ma: the mit press. zhou, h., estrada, i., & bojica, a. (2014). the role of emotional intelligence on entrepreneurs’ perceptions of success (summary). frontiers of entrepreneurship research, 34(5), viewed n.d., from https://digitalknowledge.babson.edu/fer/vol34/iss5/17 abstract introduction literature review results discussion implications for managers and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) calvin m. mabaso department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa bongani i. dlamini faculty of management sciences, durban university of technology, south africa citation mabaso, c.m., & dlamini, b.i. (2018). total rewards and its effects on organisational commitment in higher education institutions. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a913. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.913 original research total rewards and its effects on organisational commitment in higher education institutions calvin m. mabaso, bongani i. dlamini received: 13 feb. 2017; accepted: 14 mar. 2018; published: 17 may 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: retaining staff with special endeavours within higher education institutions has become a top priority and crucial for any organisational productivity and competiveness. attracting and retaining talent has remained a critical and complex issue for human capital management in organisations. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of total rewards on organisational commitment measured by total rewards scale and organisational commitment questionnaire. motivation for the study: there is paucity in research on the impact of total rewards on organisational commitment. commitment of academic staff is significant as higher education institutions are influential in the development of a country. research design, approach and method: this study employed the quantitative research method using a survey design. a semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect survey data. a sample of 279 academic staff, which was the total population of participants, was selected for this study. main findings: results show a positive and significant correlation between elements of total rewards (performance management, 0.387; recognition, 0.335; talent development and career opportunities, 0.328; compensation, 0.231; benefits, 0.213; work–life balance, 0.024) and organisational commitment. a variance of 52.3% of total rewards explained organisational commitment. performance management, compensation, benefits, recognition, talent development and career opportunities significantly predicted organisational commitment. however, work–life balance indicated a negative effect on organisational commitment. practical managerial implications: findings of the study has implications to managers because they have to encourage and promote total rewards in order to enforce talent retention within higher education institutions for the benefit of both institutions and employees. contribution: the results are important to managers with great interest in talent retention and can be used as guideline to develop rewards strategy. introduction key focus of the study talent retention has been reported as a significant challenge for organisations operating in a competitive environment. competing for employees with the required skillset and attracting and retaining employees with expertise has emerged as the biggest challenge for human capital managers. however, in higher education institutions, retaining of staff has become a priority. in addition, higher education is influential in the development of a country. it not only functions as a provider of knowledge but also as a pertinent sector for the nation’s grown and societal well-being. higher education institutions play a significant role in development of skills, which improves the economy; therefore, a high quality of staff is required. higher education institutions are also considered as a centre of research, knowledge, change and excellence that is skilled in acquiring, generating and transferring knowledge to society. the study aims to investigate the relationship between total rewards and retention factors in relation to organisational commitment in higher education institutions. background to the study enhancing organisational commitment among academic staff is an essential element because it will eventually result in higher employee commitment, retention and improved performance. therefore, identifying total rewards that influence organisational commitment in higher education institutions will aid the sector to foster organisational commitment, while maintaining high satisfaction and improved performance. ihionkhan and aigbomian (2014) attest that organisations are effective to the degree which it achieve its objectives through committed employees. in addition, korir and kepkebut (2016) state that committed employees have a sense of identification and belonging with an organisation. dubihlela and rundora (2014) affirm that an increase in global competition has forced businesses to ensure increased employee commitment in order to enable them to have a high level of excellence and competitiveness. wasiu and adelajo (2014) suggest that the importance of total rewards cannot be over emphasised. well-rewarded employees feel that they are valued by the organisation. anku-tsede and kutin (2013) state that rewarding employees is ideal in today’s complex human resources market, which leads to continually changing settings in which organisations compete for survival. obicci (2015) affirms that as employees are the engines of organisational vehicles, total rewards is the fuel through which organisations’ stated objectives can be achieved. ihionkhan and aigbomian (2014) state that rewards management strategies can be used to increase employee commitment by creating a sense of belonging in the organisation. increased levels of employee commitment can be achieved through effective rewards management strategies. korir and kipkebut (2016) advised organisations to take actions such that employee commitment can be obtained through total rewards management. research purpose and objectives there is a limited research investigating specifically the relationship between total rewards and organisational commitment both locally and internationally. the main purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of total rewards on organisational commitment. the objectives of the study were to investigate the relationship between total rewards and organisational commitment. in addition, the following research questions were investigated: research question 1: what is the relationship between total rewards and organisational commitment? research question 2: which total rewards elements influence organisational commitment significantly? significance of the study highly qualified and experienced employees of the academic institutions are continuously leaving in search of greener pastures and opportunities in other institutions and in the private sector. those left behind may end up underperforming owing to low motivation because of insufficient reward strategies (al-jarradi, 2011). this study aims to assist the management of universities of technology to have the opportunity to be more aware about the influence of total rewards on organisational commitment. the findings of the research should also contribute to broader understanding in both public and private sectors on the significant role of total rewards in organisational commitment among employees. the study will benefit other institutions of higher learning, that is, traditional universities, universities of technology to understand total rewards that best drive organisational commitment. literature review organisational commitment commitment in the workplace is a concept that has attracted a great deal of attention from scholars in many disciplines, including industrial psychology, organisational behaviour, management, business administration and public administration (cohen, 2007). in addition, high interest in research, which is concerned with organisational commitment of employees, has been observed within the private sector, public sector and higher education sector (dixit & bhati, 2012). khan et al. (2014) state that organisational commitment is a link, association or bond of the employee with the institution, a psychosomatic state that distinguishes the individual association with the proposition for the decision to carry on attachment to the organisation. lamba and choudhary (2013) view organisational commitment as the individual psychological attachment to the organisation, and commitment represents something beyond loyalty to an organisation and involves an active relationship with the organisation such that individuals are willing to dedicate their talents in order to contribute to the organisation’s well-being. samgnanakkan (2010) states that organisational commitment is a bi-dimensional concept that includes an attitudinal and a behavioural aspect. committed employees have an active curiosity, a passion for learning, a willingness to challenge the status quo and an eagerness to experiment with new methods and strategies (jafri, 2010). in addition, cunningham (2012) states that an employee with a high level of organisational commitment wishes to maintain membership of the organisation, and this commitment differs from other types, such as occupational commitment. welty, burton and wells (2014) reveal that employees with higher level of organisational commitment will be less likely to engage in job search behaviours as they would wish to stay and be associated with their organisation. in addition, employees with high level of commitment contributes positively to the organisation. in addition, organisational commitment encompasses an employee’s belief in an organisation’s goals and values, and reflects a desire by an employee to remain a member of the organisation and be loyal to it. committed employees have an active curiosity, a passion for learning, a willingness to challenge the status quo and an eagerness to experiment with new methods and strategies (jafri, 2010). organisational commitment is a psychological state that impels an individual towards a course of action of relevance to one or more targets (smith, mitchell & mitchell, 2009). therefore, organisational commitment results in positive attitudes to jobs and affects outcomes like employee’s intention to leave, organisational citizenship behaviour, performance and job satisfaction (neininger, lehmann-willenbrock, kauffeld & henschel, 2010). however, human resources practices like total rewards influence the commitment of employees in both positive and negative manner (döckel, 2003; lumley, 2010). hence, these practices are significant in retaining talent within organisations. total rewards that retain talent in order to attract, retain and satisfy committed employees to the organisation, employers need appropriate total rewards (obicci, 2015). owing to competition for scarce skills, the attraction and retention of quality employees has emerged as the biggest challenge in human capital management (terera & ngirande, 2014). enhancing organisational commitment among employees is an essential element because that will result in higher employee commitment, enhancing retention, increasing their job satisfaction and improving performance (omotayo, pavithra, & adenike, 2014). in addition, bringing out the effects of total rewards will assist organisations foster commitment among employees. research by armstrong, brown and reilly (2010) reveals that competitive wages and benefits have repeatedly been listed as a means of attracting and retaining employees. chelangat and gachunga’s (2016) study reveals that total rewards are considered as one of the tools for enhancing organisational commitment. obicci (2015) attests that total rewards play a vital role in job satisfaction and enhances employee commitment with their respective organisations. wages, therefore, influence the attraction and retention of the workforce. organisations need to look for alternative methods of retaining key talent to ensure organisational success (mabaso, 2016). hence, total rewards can be used in order to enforce talent retention among academic staff in higher education institutions. total rewards worldatwork (2015) recommended a total rewards model with six essential elements, which are discussed in detail below. worldatwork (2015) asserts that these elements of total rewards collectively define an organisation’s strategy to attract, motivate, retain and engage employees. compensation as element of total rewards compensation is the reward that employees receive in exchange for performing organisational tasks (omotayo, pavithra & adenike, 2014). in addition, worldatwork (2015) postulates that compensation refers to remuneration provided by the employer for services rendered by employees, which include skills, time and their efforts. worldatwork (2015) affirms that compensation consists of both fixed and variable pay, and it is sometimes tied to performance. martocchio (2013) states that compensation represents both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards employees receive for performing their jobs. intrinsic compensation reflects employee’s psychological mindsets that result from performing their jobs. extrinsic compensation includes both monetary and non-monetary rewards (martocchio, 2013). total compensation is ‘the total of all rewards provided to employees in return for their services’ (phonsanam, 2010:6). ray and ray (2011) observed that the main reason people work for is compensation. rose (2014) confirms that compensation forms part of the elements of total rewards aiming to attract and retain talent in organisations. fringe benefits as element of total rewards worldatwork (2015) states that benefits comprise non-monetary rewards to supplement financial compensation that employees receive. martocchio (2013) states that fringe benefits include any variety of programmes that provide time off, employee services and protection programmes. according to van der westhuizen (2017), fringe benefits refer to indirect forms of compensation which are intended to attract, retain and motivate employees. rose (2014) attests that fringe benefits consist of non-cash parts of the reward that are provided by the employer either to all employees or differentiated by level. employee benefits consist of arrangements made by employers to enhance their employees’ well-being. the benefits are provided in addition to pay and form important parts of the total rewards package (armstrong, 2012). benefit packages for employees are integral to the financial reward package, and for many organisations, the employer brand determines the type of benefits offered, which turn, support the messages to be delivered via the employer brand. work-life balance as element of total rewards worldatwork (2015) states that work–life programmes are intended and introduced as policies that enable employers to reach a better work–life balance. this factor includes the extent to which a specific job is interesting and challenging to an individual, the degree to which the job provides the opportunity for an individual to keep abreast of new things (worldatwork, 2015). according to mukhtar (2012), integrating and maintaining work–life balance into our lives is the current need. rumpel and medcof (2006) attest that usually the balance time spent at work and home is included in the work environment. flexible working is one of the most important aspects for a balanced life (hondor, 2014). performance as element of total rewards aguinis (2013) defines performance management as a continuous process of identifying, measuring and developing the performance of individuals, teams and aligning performance with the strategic goals of the organisation. in addition, swanepoel et al. (2014) affirm that performance management is an action based on performance measures and reporting, which results in improvement in employee behaviour, motivation and work processes as well as promoting innovation. performance management is viewed more broadly as a management tool that aims to improve the performance of an organisation (goh, 2012). recognition as element of total rewards rose (2014) states that recognition refers to a process of acknowledging or giving special attention to a high level of accomplishment or performance, such as customer care or support to colleagues, which is not dependent on achievement against a given target or objective. greene (2011) attests that recognition can be used in lieu of financial awards, as particularly it could be argued that people used time that theoretically should have been spent on other organisational businesses and that the salary provided compensation. abu bakar, mohamad and sharmeela-banu (2015) posit that recognition is the demonstration of appreciation for a level of performance, an achievement or a contribution to an objective. it can be confidential or public, causal or formal and it is always in addition to pay. the link between recognition, teamwork and job satisfaction is an important occurrence to take note of as it indicates that dimensions, which constitute job satisfaction, do not necessarily act alone in determining the job satisfaction of employees. the lack of recognition would not lead to job dissatisfaction, but employees are unlikely to be unmotivated (smerek & peterson, 2007). talent development and career opportunities as element of total rewards it is a set of learning experiences intended to improve employees’ functional expertise and capabilities. it motivates employees to complete their tasks quickly which in turn improves their productivity (hondor, 2014). worldatwork (2015) states that career opportunities involve a strategy for employees to develop their career goals, which may include advancement into a more responsible position in an organisation. greene (2011) affirms that the investment in training and development is to increase capacity among employees which will enable career opportunities in the workplace. martocchio (2013) concurs that talent development will enable employees to maintain their focus and assume greater responsibilities and advance in the organisation hierarchy. research hypothesis based on the above literature, the following hypothesis was developed: hypothesis 1 (h1): there is a positive relationship between total rewards and organisational commitment. research design research approach in the present study, a quantitative research design was employed using the survey questionnaire. the aim of the quantitative research is to describe patterns, trends and relationships in numerical data (lochmiller & lester, 2017). the main reason for choosing this method was that variables used in the present study could be easily measured quantitatively. in addition, the quantitative research method is concerned with the facts or responses of participants (creswell, 2014). the most common characteristic of quantitative studies is generalisability of the results. generalisability is the assumption that data from a sample represent the larger population from which the sample is drawn. lochmiller and lester (2017) affirm that in the quantitative research method, the research assumes that the results represent the broader population on some measures. research method research participants this study was conducted in the higher education sector of south africa. the target population in the present study comprised 279 (university of technology a = 79; university of technology b = 200) academic staff from two universities of technology (uot) in gauteng and free state (from level of lecturers, senior lecturers, head of departments and professors). of the 279 participants, 225 returned the questionnaires to the researcher. however, upon scrutiny it was discovered that 23 respondents did not answer the majority of the questions. these questionnaires were therefore discarded completely. a response rate of 72.4% was achieved. therefore, questionnaires returned for analysis equated to n = 202 questionnaires which was appropriate to be used on the study. an analysis of the demographic profile of respondents (table 1) has been distributed to as per response from both universities of technology. in addition, table 1 reveals that 50.5% (n = 102) of the respondents were female, whereas 49.5% (n = 100) were male. after collapsing the respondents’ ages, it emerged that the largest group of respondents (43.6%; n = 88) were aged between 30 and 45 years. in addition, 38.1% (n = 77) of the respondents were in possession of a master’s degree. in terms of racial group, africans (68.8%; n = 139) constituted the highest number. with regard to the position occupied, the largest group of respondents (89.6%; n = 181) were lecturers, followed by senior lecturers (6.9%; n = 14), with associate professors (0.5%; n = 1) being the least in number. table 1: demographic profile of respondents (n = 202). measuring instrument a structured questionnaire was designed to gather information from participants. the current study used two measuring instruments; that is, ‘total rewards questionnaire’ and ‘organisational commitment questionnaire’. total rewards questionnaire was adopted from worldatwork rewards (2015), while meyer and allen (1997) developed organisational commitment questionnaire. these two questionnaires were administered to the selected respondents. both these instruments are based on the five-point likert scale. the respondents were asked to indicate the extent of their agreement or disagreement with the statements on a scale of 1–5, where 1 would mean that they strongly disagreed and 5 would mean that they strongly agreed with the statement provided. ethical consideration and research procedure permission to conduct the research was obtained from the participating universities of technology. research participants were requested to participate in the study voluntarily by completing questionnaires. a covering letter accompanied each questionnaire stating the purpose of the research and guaranteeing protection of their identity as this was an anonymous survey. a total of 279 questionnaires were distributed to all academic staff using a personal method of data collection. to ensure confidentiality, questionnaires were to be returned in enclosed envelopes provided during distribution. reliability maree (2017) states that reliability refers to the consistency or dependability of a measuring instrument. a measuring instrument that is reliable will produce the same results if a variable is repeatedly measured under almost identical circumstances. the cronbach’s alpha was calculated for each construct to determine the scale reliability. thurston and mcnall (2010) reported that cronbach’s alpha should range from the lowest of 0.68 and to the highest of 0.93. the total rewards scale results (0.822). data analysis data were analysed with the aid of the statistical package for the social sciences (spss version 24). descriptive statistics was used to analyse biographical information. initially, demographic data of the subjects, frequencies and the scores of the overall work-related factors as well as measures of central tendency were established. pearson correlation analysis and linear regression were computed on all the variables. ethical considerations the study accompanied a letter explaining the ethical considerations involved, notably that participating in the study was a voluntary exercise and that the respondents could withdraw from the study at any point. results the following results will be presented: correlation and regression analysis. research question 1 and hypothesis 1 in order to answer the first research question to determine the relationship between total rewards and organisational commitment and hypothesis 1, correlation analysis was performed to test the strength and directions of the relationship between variables as illustrated in table 2. table 2: significant pearson correlations. pearson correlations allowed the researcher to identify the direction and strength of the relationship between each variable. as illustrated in table 2, significant and positive relationships were observed between variables of total rewards and organisational commitment. the results of the correlation indicate a positive and significant relationship between the elements of total rewards and organisational commitment (performance management, 0.387; recognition, 0.335; talent development and career opportunities, 0.328; compensation, 0.231; benefits, 0.213; work–life balance, 0.024). the results in table 2 reveal a positive and significant relationship between organisational commitment and four elements of total rewards (performance management, recognition, talent development and career opportunities, compensation and benefits). no significant relationship between work–life balance and organisational commitment was observed. this reveals that academic employees in higher education institutions will be committed if these elements of total rewards are provided by the employer. based on the results in table 2, the relationship between total rewards and organisational commitment is positive and the hypothesis is accepted that total rewards is positively related to organisational commitment. pallant (2010) explains that the strength of the association between variables depends on the size (whether positive or negative) of the correlation value. a value ranging from 0.10 to 0.29 denotes a small relationship, values between 0.30 and 0.49 represent a medium relationship and a value of 0.5–1.0 depicts a strong relationship between the variables. multivariate regression analysis was undertaken to determine the effects of total rewards on organisational commitment among academic staff. in table 3, the regression model summary and anova results are reported. regression analysis is a statistical technique that focuses on investigating and modelling the relationship between variables (montgomery, peck & vining, 2012). regression analysis aids to measure the relative strength of an independent variable on a dependent variable. table 3: regression and model summary and analysis of variance results. as illustrated in table 3, the significant f-ratio infers that the regression model predicts effects of total rewards. the value of r2 indicates that the model tested is significant, that is, the value of r2 is 0.523, which means that there is 52.3% relationship between independent variable (total rewards) and dependent variable (organisational commitment). cohen, manion and morrison (2011) suggested that r2 > 0.5 indicates a strong model fit. therefore, these results confirm that total rewards have a greater impact on organisational commitment. additionally, regression was conducted as to evaluate the independent variables prediction of organisational commitment and is delineated in table 4. table 4: contribution of independent variables for predicting organisational commitment. these results outlined in table 4 suggest that compensation (β = 0.103), benefits (β = 0.178), performance management (β = 0.318), recognition (β = 0.160), talent development and career opportunities (β = 0.213) all have a statistically positive effect on organisational commitment. however, work–life balance (β = −0.64) has a negative effect on organisational commitment. this means that work–life balance does not influence organisational commitment. in terms of the largest beta coefficients recorded, performance management and talent development and career opportunities seem to make the strongest contribution to explaining organisational commitment. the t-values of the independent variables are greater than 0.107. ndungu (2017) states that values greater than 0.107 indicate a strong impact of the predicting quality of the coefficient. discussion the purpose of this study was to examine the impact of total rewards on organisational commitment among academic staff in higher education institutions. this was important as there is paucity on the studies that deals with impact of total rewards in higher education institutions. the findings in the current study reveal that performance management has a significant and positive relationship with organisational commitment. this finding is in line with the results of abrokwah and ge (2017) and asamany and shaorong (2018). in addition, the findings of the present study demonstrated the relationship between total rewards and organisational commitment. moreover, these findings are in line with findings of obicci (2015); eslami and gharakhani (2012) reported strong association between job-related factors, which include compensation and organisational commitment. workand job-related features are powerfully related to organisational commitment (al-kahtani, 2012). saeed et al. (2013) reported that compensation and job characteristics have a weak positive and significant impact on organisational commitment, but career development has insignificant impact on organisational commitment. saqib, abrar, sabir, bashir and baig’s (2015) study indicated that there is a relationship between the tangible, intangible rewards and organisational commitment. the empirical results supported the relationship between the tangible rewards and organisational commitment. these findings showed that rewards had a positive and significant impact on the organisational commitment, which are in line with the literature. the ndungu (2017) study reported that recognition and career opportunities are associated with increased performance among employees, which will enable them to be committed to their employer. in addition, ndungu (2017) attests that if employees are not satisfied with salaries and fringe benefits, they will have no choice other than to look for alternative organisations that will be providing better salaries and benefits. cao, chen and song’s (2013) study confirms that total rewards elements (compensation, benefits, work–life balance, performance management and recognition, talent development and career opportunities) can be used to reduce turnover intention among employees. if total rewards are implemented fairly, employees can be committed to the organisation. performance management specialists over the years have learnt that for organisations to achieve outstanding results in the competitive environment, practice of performance management is required. thus, effective performance management system will aid organisations to improve organisational commitment and talent retention. greene (2011) concurs that rewarding performance equitably and effectively is critical for organisations that aim to enforce organisational commitment. chelangat and gachunga (2016) affirm that total reward practices play a pivotal role in organisational commitment among employees. total rewards change the way employees think about work, and attracts and retains high-performing employees. if organisations want to increase organisational commitment, they should review their reward management practices (chelangat & gachunga, 2016). the current study is in line with the study of cheah, chong, yeo and pee (2016) which revealed that talent development and compensation significantly affect organisational commitment. korir and kipkebut (2016) reported a positive significant relationship between total rewards and organisational commitment. the study suggested that financial rewards have an effect on organisational commitment and suggested that universities should carry out salary revisions in order to develop a reward management structure that is externally competitive, internally fair and consistent with the current acceptable international rates. research by zaitouni, sawalha and sharif (2011) suggests that employees who are provided with benefits, such as increased salary, bonuses and promotion, develop strong feelings of loyalty to the organisation. perceptions of fair rewards and justice lead to higher levels of satisfaction and long-term commitment too. implications for managers and recommendations the findings of this study, which support previous studies in the area, have significant implications as it further confirmed that total rewards impact organisational commitment. these results have implications to managers because they have to encourage and promote total rewards in order to enforce talent retention within higher education institutions for the benefit of both institutions and employees. moreover, higher education institutions need to create an environment in which employees can work effectively. recognising and rewarding employees effectively will further increase commitment among academics. lastly, performance management cannot be overlooked as it has been done previously, this study reveal a great influence in ensuring organisational commitment and talent retention. conclusion for higher education institutions to attract, retain and motivate talent, sound rewards strategy needs to be formulated. total rewards can be used to retain talent. in addition, performance management should be improved as it influences organisational commitment among academic staff. results of the present study can be used to craft a rewards strategy aimed at retaining high-performing resources. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank academic staff who took part in the study. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the study was conducted by c.m.m. as part of the doctor of philosophy in management sciences: human resources management research project and was responsible for preparing the manuscript. b.i.d. was the promoter and edited the article for publication. references abu bakar, j.a., mohamad, z.z., & sharmeela-banu, s.a. (2015). factors affecting female lecturer retention in private higher institution in perak. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 5(1), 17–25. abrokwah, e., & ge, y. (2017). mediating role of work motivation: does organizational commitment impact on non-governmental organizations (ngos) performances? transylvanian review journal, xxv(17), 15–38. aguinis, h. (2013). performance management (3rd ed.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson prentice hall. al-jarradi, k.s. (2011). an investigation into the effectiveness of the reward system in the government sector in the sultanate of oman and the potential for introducing a total reward strategy. (unpublished phd thesis). university of manchester, manchester. al-kahtani, s.n. (2012). an exploratory study of organisational commitment, demographic variables and job & work related variables among employees in kingdom of saudi arabia. online international interdisciplinary research journal, 3, 1–13. anku-tsede, a.o., & kitui, e. (2013). total rewards concept: a key motivational tool for corporate ghana. business and economic research, 3(2), 173–182. https://doi.org/10.5296/ber.v3i2.4291 armstrong, m. (2012). armstrong’s handbook of reward management practice. london: kogan page. armstrong, m., brown, d., & reilly, p. (2010). evidence-based reward management: creating measurable business impact from your pay and reward practices. london: kogan page. asamany, a., & shaorong, s. (2018). the ripple effects of performance management on employees’ perceptions and affective commitment among small and medium scale enterprises (smes). international journal of business administration, 9(1), 55–63. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijba.v9n1p55 cao, z., chen, j., & song, y. (2013). does total rewards reduce the core employees’ turnover intention? international journal of business and management, 8(20), 62–75. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v8n20p62 cheah, c.s., chong, w.v.s., yeo, s.f., & pee, k.w. (2016). an empirical study on factors affecting organisational commitment among generation x. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 219, 167–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.05.002 chelangat, z., & gachunga, h. (2016). effect of reward management practices on organisational commitment in state corporations in kenya: a case study of kefr. the strategic journal of business and change management, 3(3), 325–346. cohen, a. (2007). dynamics between occupational and organisational commitment in the context of flexible labor markets: a review of literature and suggestions for a future research agenda. bremen: institut technik und bildung, universitšt bremen. cohen, l., manion, l., & morrison, k. (2011). research methods in education. london: routledge. creswell, j. (2014). research design qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. cunningham, g.b. (2012). the relationships among commitment to change, coping with change, and turnover intentions. european journal of work and organisational psychology, 15(1), 29–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320500418766 dixit, v., & bhati, m. (2012). a study about employee commitment and its impact on sustained productivity in indian auto-component industry. european journal of business and social sciences, 1(6), 34–51. döckel, a. (2003). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. (unpublished master’s thesis). university of pretoria, south africa. dubihlela, j., & rundora, r. (2014). employee training, managerial commitment and the implementation of activity based costing; impact on performance of smes. the international business & economics research journal, 13(1), 27–42. eslami, j., & gharakhani, d. (2012). organisational commitment and job satisfaction. arpn journal of science and technology, 2(2), 85–91. goh, s.c. (2012). making performance measurement systems more effective in public sector organizations. measuring business excellence, 16(1), 31–42. https://doi.org/10.1108/13683041211204653 greene, r.j. (2011). rewarding performance: guiding principles; custom strategies. london, united kingdom: taylor & francis ltd. hondor, e.s. (2014). total rewards model in romanian companies. cross-cultural management journal, 16(30), 313–319. ihionkhan, p.a., & aigbomian, e.e. (2014). the influence of human resource management practices on organisational commitment: a study of manufacturing organisations in nigeria. indian journal of commerce & management studies, 5(1), 18–28. jafri, m.h. (2010). organisational commitment and employee’s innovative behaviour. journal of management research, 10(1), 62–68. khan, m.s., khan, i., kundi, g.m., khan, s., nawaz, a., khan, f., & yar, n.b. (2014). the impact of job satisfaction and organisational commitment on the intention to leave among the academicians. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 4(2), 114–131. korir, i., & kepkebut, d. (2016). the effect of reward management on employees commitment in the universities of nakuru country – kenya. journal of human resources management, 4(4), 37–48. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jhrm.20160404.12 lamba, s., & choudhary, n. (2013). impact of hrm practices on organisational commitment of employees. international journal of advancements in research and technology, 2(4), 407–423. lochmiller, c.r., & lester, j.n. (2017). an introduction to educational research connecting methods to practice (1st ed.). los angeles, ca: sage. lumley, e. (2010). the relationship between career anchors, job satisfaction and organisational commitment. (unpublished master’s dissertation). university of south africa, pretoria. mabaso, c. (2016). the influence of rewards on talent attraction and retention at a further education and training college in gauteng. (unpublished masters dissertation). vaal university of technology, south africa. maree, k. (2017). first steps in research. pretoria, south africa: van schaik publishers. martocchio, j.j. (2013). strategic compensation: a human resource management approach (7th ed.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson. meyer, j., & allen, n. (1997). commitment in the workplace: theory, research, and application. thousand oaks, ca: sage. montgomery, d.c., peck, e.a., & vining, g. (2012). introduction to linear regression analysis (5th ed.). new york: john wiley & sons. mukhtar, f. (2012). work life balance and job satisfaction among faculty at iowa state university. (unpublished doctoral dissertation). iowa state university, ames: ia. ndungu, d.n. (2017). the effects of rewards and recognition on employee performance in public educational institutions: a case of kenyatta university, kenya. global journal of management and business research: administration and management, 17(1), 43–68. neininger, a., lehmann-willenbrock, n., kauffeld, s., & henschel, a. (2010). effects of team and organisational commitment – a longitudinal study. journal of vocational behavior, 76(3), 567–579. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2010.01.009 obicci, p.a. (2015). influence of total rewards on employee satisfaction and commitment in government organization. international journal of research in management, science and technology, 3(1), 47–56. omotayo, o.a., pavithra, s., & adenike, a.a., (2014). compensation management and organisational commitment in developing economies: indian perspective. international journal of research in management, social sciences & technology, 8(8), 1–15. pallant, j. (2010). spss survival manual: a step-by-step guide to data analysis using the spss program (4th ed.). new york: mcgraw hill. phonsanam, s.t. (2010). total compensation practices and their relationship to hospitality employee retention. (unpublished master of science dissertation). university of nevada, las vegas. ray, s., & ray, i.a. (2011). human resource management practices and its effect on employees’ job satisfaction: a study on selected small and medium sized iron and steel firms in india. public policy and administration research, 1(1), 22–31. rose, m. (2014). reward management. london: kogan page. rumpel, s., & medcof, j.w. (2006). total rewards: good fit for tech workers. research technology management, 49(5): 27–35. saeed, r., lodhi, r.n., iqbal, a., nayyab, h.h., mussawar, s., & yaseen, s. (2013). factors influencing job satisfaction of employees in telecom sector of pakistan. middle-east journal of scientific research, 16(11), 1476–1482. samgnanakkan, s. (2010). mediating role of organisational commitment on hr practices and turnover intention among ict professionals. journal of management research, 10(1), 39–61. saqib, s., abrar, m., sabir, h.m., bashir, m., & baig, s.a. (2015). impact of tangible and intangible rewards on organisational commitment: evidence from the textile sector of pakistan. american journal of industrial and business management, 5(3), 138–147. https://doi.org/10.4236/ajibm.2015.53015 smerek, r.e. & peterson, m. (2007). examining herzberg’s theory: improving job satisfaction among non-academic employees at a university. research in higher education, 48(2), 229–250. smith, j.b., mitchell, j.r., &mitchell, r.k. (2009). entrepreneurial scripts and the new transaction commitment mindset: extending the expert information processing theory approach to entrepreneurial cognition research. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 33(3), 815–844. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2009.00328.x swanepoel, b.j., erasmus, b.j., schenk, h.w., & tshilongamulenzhe, t. (2014). south african human resource management: theory and practice (4th ed.). cape town, south africa: juta. terera, s.r., & ngirande, h. (2014). the impact of rewards on job satisfaction and employee retention. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(1), 481–487. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n1p481 thurston, p.w. jr., & mcnall, l. (2010). justice perceptions of performance appraisal practices. journal of management psychology, 25(3), 201–228. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683941011023712 van der westhuizen, e. (2017). human resource management in government: a south african perspective of theories, politics and processes (1st ed.). cape town, south africa: juta & co. wasiu, d.o., & adebajo, a.a. (2014). reward systems and employee performance in lagos state (a study of selected public secondary schools). kuwait chapter of arabian journal of business and management review, 3(8), 14–23. https://doi.org/10.12816/0018303 welty, j., burton, l., & wells, j.e. (2014). examining the influence of transformational leadership, leader-member exchange, organisational commitment, job embeddedness and job search on turnover intentions of division i senior administrators. leadership & organisational development journal, 35(8), 740–755. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-10-2012-0128 worldatwork. (2015). total rewards model a framework for strategies to attract, motivate and retain employees. retrieved from https://www.worldatwork.org/waw/adimlink?id=28330 zaitouni, m., sawalha, n.n., & sharif, a. (2011). the impact of human resource management practices on organisational commitment in the banking sector in kuwait. international journal business and management, 6(6), 108–123. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v6n6p108 abstract introduction literature review research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) janine victor department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa crystal hoole department of industrial psychology and people management, university of johannesburg, south africa citation victor, j., & hoole, c. (2017). the influence of organisational rewards on workplace trust and work engagement. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a853. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.853 original research the influence of organisational rewards on workplace trust and work engagement janine victor, crystal hoole received: 29 aug. 2016; accepted: 17 mar. 2017; published: 23 may 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: in volatile and competitive business environments, organisations are faced with challenges to retain talented workers. employees are increasingly leaving their jobs for a number of reasons, one of them being a perceived lack of adequate reward practices. consequently, this has impacted on employee work engagement and confidence and trust in organisations. research purpose: the study sought to determine whether there is a relationship between rewards, trust and engagement, as well as whether rewards are able to predict trust and engagement in the south african workplace. motivation for the study: organisations can no longer solely rely on extrinsic rewards to retain talent. companies must draw on both extrinsic and intrinsic reward strategies to improve retention levels through endorsing higher levels of workplace trust and work engagement levels. research design, approach and method: a quantitative, exploratory and cross-sectional research design was utilised. non-probability sampling using questionnaires consisting of scales from the job satisfaction survey, intrinsic motivation inventory, psychological meaningfulness scale, basic needs at work scale, workplace trust survey and utrecht work engagement scale were administered to a sample (n = 251) of south african employees in various industries within the gauteng region. main findings: results indicated that there is a moderate-to-strong positive relationship between the three constructs, and that rewards are able to predict trust and engagement. practical and managerial implications: the findings provide insight for behavioural practitioners to potentially draw upon when improving talent management strategies. both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards are important factors in keeping employees engaged and ultimately retaining them. contribution: the study provided insight into the influence that organisational rewards may have on workplace trust, work engagement and retaining employees. findings contribute towards improving talent management strategies. introduction the world of work has transformed drastically over the past two decades. with perpetual shifts in volatile environments, global firms are expecting their workforce to become equipped with more flexibility, new skill sets and the ability to adapt to the increasing pressures and demands that this emerging century presents (international labour office, 2006). what is more, organisations are competing with one another to attract and retain global talent (kuptsch & pang, 2006; scott, mcmulllen & royal, 2012). in the current economic climate, organisations are often forced to make changes to their reward and talent structures. this emanates as a result of organisations experiencing high turnover rates as skilled workers are increasingly leaving their current positions due to a perceived lack of adequate reward practices. this includes, for example, poor promotional opportunities, unsuitable pay structures, supervisory issues and challenges surrounding other benefits and incentives (jiang, xiao, qi & xiao, 2009; nyaga, 2015; robyn & du preez, 2013; scott et al., 2012). in an attempt to sustain organisational survival, downsizing and cost-saving practices through the use of reducing cost to company reward strategies have not only adversely impacted on employees’ levels of work engagement (scott et al., 2012) but have also reduced their confidence and trust in organisations as well (fehr & list, 2004; reinardy, 2010). exploring talent management concepts such as organisational rewards, workplace trust and work engagement has thus become crucial for the survival of organisations during competitive times (balakrishnan, masthan & chandra, 2013; enguene, 2015; hytter, 2007; kompaso & sridevi, 2010; kwenin, muathe & nzulwa, 2013; worldatwork, 2006). literature review organisational rewards organisational rewards are deemed important aspects within the workplace (aslam, ghaffar, talha & mushtaq, 2015; bussin & van rooy, 2014). rewards have been defined as the financial, non-financial and psychological benefits that an organisation provides to workers in return for their contributions and efforts (bratton & gold, 2003; haider, aamir, hamid & hashim, 2015). over the years, there has been a gradual shift in the nature of rewards towards encompassing more than just basic pay. as such, rewards may be intrinsic (internal to an individual), extrinsic (external to an individual), monetary (financial), non-monetary (non-financial) and direct (compensation for work conducted) or indirect (additional benefits) and may be used for a multitude of reasons and purposes. for example, rewards are often used to enhance motivation or performance (aktar, sachu & ali, 2012; hamukwaya & yazdanifard, 2014), attract and retain human capital (bussin & toerien, 2015; worldatwork, 2006), increase work engagement (ram & prabhaker, 2011) and heighten job satisfaction (oriarewo, agbim & owutuamor, 2013; ram & prabhaker, 2011), amongst others. extrinsic rewards as a legal obligation and inherent to a job, extrinsic rewards are those salient incentives useful for attracting and retaining members of the workforce (armstrong & stephens, 2005; nujjoo & meyer, 2012). from a traditional perspective, porter and lawler (1968) defined rewards as the tangible benefits that employees receive for conducting their work. from a growing contemporary point of view, extrinsic rewards are increasingly being recognised and distinguished as either monetary or non-monetary in nature (kimutai & sakataka, 2015; kshirsagar & waghale, 2014). weatherly (2002) and osa (2014) articulated that monetary rewards are those rewards which are tangible such as financial and money-driven incentives used to reward employee performance. examples of these types of rewards include pay, promotion (which incorporates an increase in pay) and bonuses. non-monetary rewards, on the other hand, are intangible and non-financial incentives such as fringe benefits and contingent rewards which comprise praise and personal recognition (sajuyigbe, olaoye & adeyemi, 2013; weatherly, 2002). according to malhorta, budhwar and prowse (2007) and mottaz (1985) as cited in nujjoo and meyer (2012), other types of extrinsic non-monetary rewards include social rewards which constitute the interpersonal relationships between the employee and his or her supervisors and co-workers. ample evidence exists which supports that extrinsic rewards have an influence on employee motivation (aktar et al., 2012; arnolds & venter, 2007; bowen, 2000; hafiza, shah, jamsheed & zaman, 2011). from an organisational perspective, work motivation is concerned with those aspects and forces that drive certain behaviours such as performing well (omollo & oloko, 2015; takawira, coetzee & schreuder, 2014). in past studies, it has been emphasised that extrinsic rewards are not motivators (bowen, 2000; oriarewo et al., 2013). instead, they serve as those aspects which can either satisfy or dissatisfy a person. wilson and eckel (2003) argued that employees will only do the necessary to obtain an extrinsic reward (such as minimally doing what is required to obtain pay) which results in short-term compliance and which may ultimately lead to resentment. this is further confirmed by wei and yazdanifard (2014) who argued that monetary and financial rewards lead to satisfaction over the short term. the need to explore extrinsic rewards in the workplace over the past decade has been highlighted by numerous authors. van aswegen et al. (2009) argued that leaders who place their sole focus on motivating employees by means of extrinsic rewards often come across difficulties in sustaining a motivated workforce. armstrong and stephens (2005) articulated that extrinsic rewards, and more specifically pay, may help an organisation attract and retain employees. in terms of short-term benefits, these authors both argued that tangible extrinsic rewards may help heighten levels of employee effort and reduce dissatisfaction. intrinsic rewards intrinsic rewards are commonly defined as the rewards which are generally obtained from an employee’s involvement in tasks and activities (byars & rue, 2011). intrinsic rewards constitute rewards which are associated with personal and inner fulfilment that employees’ experience when they achieve something (van aswegen et al., 2009). they are intangible and self-generated in that they are psychological, positive, meaningful and encompass an emotional, work-related experience which individuals obtain from their work (stumpf, tymon, favorito & smith, 2013; thomas, 2009). intrinsic rewards are classified in different ways (jacobs, renard & snelgar, 2014) and have been found to drive employee motivation which includes meaningful work (stumpf et al., 2013), autonomy, recognition, appreciation and challenging tasks, amongst others (hafiza et al., 2011; ozütku, 2012). according to thomas (2009), the changing motivational dynamics in the workplace have increased the need for intrinsic rewards. he proposed that employees in contemporary organisations need to be more self-managed. in this context, self-management means that employees direct their own work activities which includes a sense of meaningfulness, choice, competence and progress (jacobs et al., 2014; thomas, 2009). for the purpose of this study, the focus of intrinsic rewards is based on any experience which provides an employee with work that is meaningful and reaps interest and enjoyment. furthermore, intrinsic rewards include an employees’ perception of whether they have a sense of autonomy in their jobs (ryan & deci, 2000). the first dimension to be included in this study is meaningfulness, which is derived from thomas’s (2009) model of intrinsic rewards. a sense of meaningfulness refers to the roles, tasks and duties that employees perform, which forms part of a higher purpose and portrays job worth (jacobs et al., 2014; thomas, 2009). the second dimension included in this study is job interest and enjoyment, as derived from the self-determination theory. this theory is concerned with human motivation and personality and holds that when people perceive themselves as competent and, experience a sense of belonging and autonomy, they engage in self-determination. this allows them to become intrinsically motivated towards pursuing their interests (ryan & deci, 2000). harackiewicz and hulleman (2010), therefore, defined interest as comprising of having consideration for something, regarding it as important, and having positive feelings towards it. on the other hand, enjoyment is defined by tamborini, bowman, eden, grizzard and organ (2010) as the response of experiencing pleasure towards something. the final dimension deemed significant in the exploration of intrinsic rewards is a sense of autonomy. autonomy can be conceptualised as the amount of choice and psychological freedom that an employee has when carrying out his or her job (van den broeck, vansteenkiste, de witte, soenens & lens, 2010). autonomy has further been defined as the degree to which employees are able to make decisions and feel trusted in carrying out their work efforts and performances (zigarmi, houson, witt & diehl, 2011). owing to the changing nature of the workplace, there is an increasing need to study and explore the role that intrinsic rewards play within the workplace (thomas, 2009). it has been discovered that intrinsic rewards have a significant influence on job satisfaction (rafiq, javed, khan & ahmed, 2012), motivation (ram & prabhaker, 2011), work engagement (jacobs et al., 2014) and work performance (aktar et al., 2012). total rewards as opposed to rewarding employees solely through pay and monetary benefits, the concept of total rewards provides a holistic approach to viewing rewards that employees receive from engaging in the employment relationship (nazir, shah & zaman, 2012). total reward strategies encapsulate the sum total of those financial, non-financial, intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, which are made available to an organisation’s human resources (armstrong & stephens, 2005; tsede & kutin, 2013). moreover, total rewards encapsulate all aspects of a job that employees perceive as valuable (worldatwork, 2006). for the purpose of this study, total rewards are defined as the inclusion of all monetary and non-monetary returns (intrinsic and extrinsic rewards) that employees receive for investing their time, effort, energy, talents and results in their work (armstrong & stephens, 2005; hotz, 2014; worldatwork, 2006). from a talent perspective, total rewards’ strategies have been found to contribute towards attracting, motivating and retaining valuable talent in the workplace (bussin & toerien, 2015; makhuzeni & barkhuizen, 2015; worldatwork, 2006). while some researchers argued that total rewards have been used to improve organisational competitiveness in the rapidly changing global markets (jiang et al., 2009), other scholars have recognised that total rewards may be used as a strategy to enhance employee engagement (hotz, 2014; worldatwork, 2006). workplace trust another important behavioural-related aspect that should not be overlooked in the retention of top talent is workplace trust (chitsaz-isfahani & boustani, 2014; enguene, 2015; hytter, 2007). a commonly accepted definition of trust in literature is hard to find (bagraim & hime, 2007; bews & martins, 2002; hakanen & soudunsaari, 2012). trust is often defined in terms of one’s vulnerability to the actions of others and that the belief in others’ intentions and behaviours will lead to positive outcomes (hakanen & soudunsaari, 2012; kreitner & kinicki, 1995; mayer, davis & schoorman, 1995; o’brien, 2001). ferres, connell and travaglione (2004) stated that corporate forms of trust can be classified within three dimensions, namely, trust in the organisation, trust in management and trust in co-workers. bagraim and hime (2007) stipulated that trust in the organisation constitutes a systems form of trust. organisational trust thus entails the confidence that an individual has in the company itself rather than in a particular person or group of people (galford & drapeau, 2002; paliszkiewicz, 2011). trust in co-workers and in immediate management represents an interpersonal form of trust (bagraim & hime, 2007; galford & drapeau, 2002). interpersonal trust is often regarded as the ‘hallmark of effective relationships’ (dirks, 1999, p. 3) or the ‘social glue’ of affiliations within an organisation (abrams, cross, lesser & levin, 2003). it further refers to the perception that an individual has as to whether another person can be trusted under particular circumstances, either personally in their intentions, or in their attributes (brown, gray, mchardy & taylor, 2015; mcknight & chervany, 2001; tan & lim, 2009). ample literature has identified the need to study trust within an organisational setting. six, nooteboom and hoogendoorn (2010) argued that trust is an important aspect during change events and, as such, provides one with the ability to support change. the dynamics of trust and the potential value thereof can have a major influence on organisational functioning and behaviour. for instance, commitment and acknowledgement shown to organisational objectives and company values by employees, with a high degree of trust, tend to display more diligence and higher levels of productivity and innovation (lyman, 2003; o’brien, 2001; sonnenberg, 1994). trust is, furthermore, seen to uphold cooperation within the workplace as it allows for the encouragement of information sharing, enhanced relationships amongst individuals and teams and enriches problem-solving and conflict resolution, which leads to better organisational performance (brown et al., 2015; lyman, 2003; six et al., 2010). work engagement organisational rewards and workplace trust have been found to lead to an increase in work engagement (engelbrecht, heine & mahembe, 2014; ram & prabhakar, 2011; sundaray, 2011; thirapatsakun, kuntonbutr & mechinda, 2014). this study supports the commonly accepted definition by schaufeli, salanova, gonzalez-roma and bakker (2002, p. 74) who define work engagement as ‘the positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption’. vigour refers to elevated energy levels, the willingness to invest effort in one’s work, one’s mental resilience and one’s persistence in the face of difficulties while dedication is a sense of enthusiasm, pride, inspiration and challenge (altunel, kocak & cankir, 2015; schaufeli et al., 2002). schaufeli and bakker (2003) expressed vigour and dedication as the most important dimensions of work engagement. absorption, on the contrary, is characterised by one being satisfied with and immersed in work to the extent to which the individual encounters an optimal experience (bell & barkhuizen, 2011; csikszentmihalyi, 1990). literature has shown that employees who are engaged in their work demonstrate higher levels of productivity, efficiency and a sense of personal accomplishment in their work, take initiative and persist with challenging and demanding tasks (holbeche & matthews, 2012; rothmann & jordaan, 2006). furthermore, work engagement helps to boost employee motivation, morale, job satisfaction and psychological wellbeing. on the contrary, employees who are not engaged in their work tend to depict less commitment and are more likely to leave their organisation or quit their jobs (hoole & bonnema, 2015; rich, lepine & crawford, 2010; saks, 2006). the relationship between organisational rewards and workplace trust research about the relationship between organisational rewards and workplace trust is infrequent, fairly outdated and fragmented. burke (2002) suggested that extrinsic rewards may assist employees in developing trust. on the contrary, tzafrir (2005) argued that managers are more likely and willing to increase compensation and incentive plans when they perceive their subordinates to be trustworthy. the relationship between extrinsic rewards and workplace trust is not always optimistic. fehr and list (2004) found that employees can perceive incentives as either hostile (negatively; as a threat or punishment) or as kind (positively; incentives given out of sincerity). when employees perceived their incentives in a more negative light, they were found to have a more harmful and unfavourable influence on certain behaviours such as reduced workplace trust. similarly, brown et al. (2015) argued that when organisations limit and reduce overtime pay, workplace trust may be weakened. the relationship between intrinsic rewards and workplace trust has also been explored. in their study on self-determination in the workplace, deci, connell and ryan (1989) reported that when managers were more supportive of autonomy amongst workgroups, employees reported higher levels of trust within organisations. although not technically a reward, but useful to measure intrinsic rewards, osmani, zaidi and nilashi (2014) argued that intrinsic motivation may lead to higher levels of trust within organisations. in addition, in thomas’s (2009) model of intrinsic rewards, trust is considered an important element which falls under the sense of choice dimension (which refers to one’s ability to choose how work is accomplished, what work activities will be performed and a sense of ownership, independence and responsibility for work-related outcomes). ferrin and dirks (2004) noted that organisational rewards may have a strong and predictable influence on interpersonal trust. they suggested that rewards can influence trust by means of altering employees’ perceptions about the motives of others and evaluate their behaviours based on reward structures. organisational leaders, subordinates and rewards play an imperative role in establishing a climate of workplace trust. when subordinates can be perceived as trustworthy and valuable by their superiors, organisational leaders are more inclined to nourish and enhance their loyalty through the use of rewards (philips, 1997). in light of outdated findings, the influence of organisational rewards on trust is not only fragmented but limited. the investigation of this relationship is thus an area of research, which needs further exploration, particularly within the south african context. the relationship between organisational rewards and work engagement a number of previous studies have found a positive relationship between organisational rewards and work engagement (gill, dugger & norton, 2014; hulkko-nyman et al., 2014; jacobs et al., 2014; masvaure, ruggunan & maharaj, 2014; sanhari, 2014; yahya, isa & johari, 2012; zhijian &tianshu, 2013). while research demonstrated that extrinsic rewards lead to higher levels of work engagement, the social exchange theory further supports this relationship. this theory holds that when employees receive rewards and recognition for their efforts exerted on a job, they will participate in a fair exchange through responding with increased work engagement (gujral & jain, 2013; ram & prabhakar, 2011; waqas & saleem, 2014). in a south african study, jacobs et al. (2014) found that when organisations provided employees with heightened intrinsic rewards, they were more engaged in their work. these results were consistent with those of masvaure et al. (2014) who discovered that organisations whose employees were more intrinsically rewarded and driven demonstrated an increase in work engagement. in particular, intrinsic rewards and, more specifically, psychological meaningfulness were found to have a statistically strong relationship with employee engagement (may, gilson & harter, 2004). roberts and davenport (2002) articulated that a work environment that reaps more types of rewards for employees can lead to an increase in work engagement. in addition, ram and prabhakar (2011) found that through the use of both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, employees were more engaged in their work. although much of the research has highlighted that the use of intrinsic rewards may lead to higher levels of work engagement, the use of extrinsic rewards should not be overlooked in the exploration of drawing on both types of rewards to ensure that employees are more engaged in their work (obicci, 2015; ram & prabhakar, 2011; roberts & davenport, 2002; worldatwork, 2006). the relationship between workplace trust and work engagement literature provides ample support indicating a positive relationship between workplace trust and employee engagement (chughtai & buckley, 2008; engelbrecht et al., 2014; men, 2015; mone & london 2010; ugwu, onyishi & rodriguez-sanchez, 2014). costigan, ilter and berman (1998) noted that when employees perceive their supervisors to be competent and supportive, they are more likely to trust their superiors when workplace issues arise. similarly, ugwu et al. (2014) discovered that workplace trust has a significant and strong positive relationship with work engagement. research carried out by chughtai and buckley (2008) as well as mone and london (2010) proposed that having a good degree of workplace trust can result in increased work engagement. men (2015) confirmed this in his study in the united states, finding that the quality of employee–organisational relationships (including trust) positively influences engagement. to conclude, organisational rewards (bussin & toerien, 2015; jacobs et al., 2014; nujjoo & meyer, 2012), workplace trust (krot & lewicka, 2012; sousa-lima, michel & caetano, 2013) and work engagement (bedarkar & pandita, 2014; beukes & botha, 2013) are important behavioural-related concepts within today’s world of work. with high turnover rates and the poor global economic climate, these concepts are significant for behavioural practitioners who invest time and energy into improving their talent management strategies for the purpose of seeking to retain skilled and valuable employees. problem statement and research questions retaining a skilled workforce has become a major concern and challenge for many organisations, particularly within south africa (kerr-phillips & thomas, 2009; muteswa & ortlepp, 2011; terera & ngirande, 2014; visser 2012). organisations are moving away from traditional organisational reward practices in which salaries, bonuses and other concrete benefits are no longer being used as the only means for motivating and retaining their employees (jacobs et al., 2014). these rewards alone are no longer effective in establishing workplace trust and ensuring that employees will be more engaged in their work (jacobs et al., 2014; martins & von der ohe, 2002; scott et al., 2010). it is, therefore, important that organisations aim to create favourable conditions for employees to reduce staff turnover and retain human capital. it is for this reason that south african organisations need to continually improve and better their talent management strategies by focusing on aspects such as organisational rewards to enhance workplace trust and work engagement. against this background, the study sought to answer the following research questions: question 1: is there a relationship between organisational rewards, workplace trust and work engagement? question 2: do intrinsic rewards predict workplace trust and work engagement? question 3: do extrinsic rewards predict workplace trust and work engagement? question 4: do total rewards predict workplace trust and work engagement? objectives of the study research findings pertaining to organisational rewards, workplace trust and work engagement within the corporate south african context are limited. in addition, research is still largely growing as many gaps in the literature are prevalent. to contribute towards the body of knowledge through filling some of the recognised gaps, this research study primarily aimed to explore the relationship between organisational rewards, workplace trust and work engagement within the south african employment context. in addition, the research study sought to determine whether intrinsic and extrinsic organisational rewards predict workplace trust and work engagement. conceptual model in light of the aforementioned problem statement, literature review and overall aims of the research study, figure 1 demonstrates the conceptual model with regard to exploring whether there is a relationship between organisational rewards, workplace trust and work engagement and, additionally, to determine whether organisational rewards are able to predict workplace trust and work engagement. figure 1: conceptual model for the relationship between organisational rewards, workplace trust and work engagement. research design a quantitative, exploratory, cross-sectional research design was employed. participants were selected based on their availability and willingness to participate. to be included in the study and increase the validity of the results, participants must have had at least one full year of working experience, had completed grade 12 and been able to complete the questionnaire in english. this study sought to comprehensively investigate the relationship between the key constructs amongst a multitude of employees who acquire rewards and returns for their efforts exerted in their jobs. as such, the intention of the study was to make the sample as representative as possible through obtaining a target group consisting of both men and women, participants of all ages, races and home languages as well as having a vast range of years of working experience and education level. the findings generated from the sample can, therefore, contribute towards research in a multitude of industries, sectors and disciplines. to collect data from the participants, a non-probability convenience sampling procedure was utilised. this sampling technique entails selecting participants from a target population based on the researcher’s convenience and access to participants (ross, 2005). in addition, this technique is used to select participants who are readily available to the researcher at the time of data collection (zikmund, 2003). advantages of utilising this technique include that it is less expensive than other techniques, less time-consuming and easier to utilise when obtaining participants. a total of 350 questionnaires were distributed to employees in various industries and sectors within the gauteng region. all necessary steps in line with ethical considerations were taken to ensure anonymity and confidentiality. after a data vetting process took place, the final random sample consisted of 251 south african employees (n = 251). the final sample consisted of 42.6% men and 57.4% women. their ages ranged between 17 and 72 years, with the majority of the participants falling into the 26–36 age category. the distribution with regard to ethnicity was black people (n = 55; 21.9%); mixed race (n = 16; 6.4%); indian or asian (n = 16; 6.4%); white people (n = 163; 64.9%) and other (n = 1; 0.4%). the three main language groups were english (42.6%), afrikaans (32.7%) and isizulu (13; 5.2%). regarding education, the majority of participants had a grade 12 level education (36.3%), followed by having a diploma or certificate (25.5%) and a bachelor’s degree (12.4%). in terms of working experience, the distribution was more or less equal, representing 1–5 years’ experience (24.3%), 5–10 years (26.7%), 10–20 years (23.9%) and 20+ years of working experience (25.1%). with regard to the industry that participants were currently employed in, the sample was well distributed. measuring instruments the questionnaire consisted of seven measures including a demographic and biographical information section compiled by the researchers. to our knowledge, there is no strong instrument measuring extrinsic and intrinsic rewards available. the researchers, therefore, resorted in using different subscales to measure the different components of rewards; as was introduced in the literature review. the measures utilised in the questionnaire are briefly introduced. extrinsic rewards job satisfaction survey (jss) was developed by spector (1985). the jss is designed to measure perceptions and attitudes regarding various aspects of an individuals’ job. four subscales comprising four items each were selected from this instrument, which included pay, promotion, fringe benefits and contingent rewards. respondents were required to indicate their responses on a six-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (disagree very much) to 6 (agree very much). examples of items include: ‘i feel i am being paid a fair amount for the work i do’ and ‘i am satisfied with my chances for promotion’. spector (1985) reported a cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of 0.91 for the overall scale and coefficients of 0.75, 0.73, 0.73 and 0.76 for the subscale scores, respectively. within the south african research context, lumley, coetzee, tladinyane and ferreira (2011) reported satisfactory cronbach alpha coefficients of 0.78, 0.78, 0.72 and 0.76, respectively. intrinsic rewards intrinsic motivation inventory (imi) was developed by mcauley, duncan and tammen (1989). the imi is designed to measure participants’ subjective work-related experiences regarding intrinsic motivation. the interest or enjoyment subscale was selected from this instrument. this subscale comprised seven items, which were measured using a seven-point likert-type scale. respondents were required to indicate their responses ranging from 1 (not true at all) to 7 (very true). an example of an item includes: ‘i enjoy doing this activity very much’. previous studies yielded a cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of 0.78 (mcauley et al., 1989) and 0.89 (monteiro, mata & peixoto, 2015). within the south african context, masvaure et al. (2014) reported an alpha coefficient of 0.75. psychological meaningfulness scale (pms) was developed by spretizer (1995). the pms is designed to assess psychological meaningfulness in the workplace. it consists of six items, which are measured on a five-point likert-type scale and assess the degree to which individuals assign meaning to their job-related tasks. responses range from 1 (totally agree) to 5 (totally disagree). examples of items include: ‘the work i do on this job is worthwhile’, ‘my job activities are important to me’ and ‘i feel that the work i do on this job is valuable’. this scale has frequently been used within the south african context, where acceptable cronbach alpha coefficients have been reported. for instance, williamson (2011) and van zyl, deacon and rothmann (2009) reported a reliability coefficient of 0.85, whereas rothmann and hamukang’andu (2013) reported a reliability coefficient of 0.67. basic psychological needs at work scale (bpnws) was developed by deci and ryan (2000). the bpnws is designed to measure intrinsic need satisfaction in specific domains within one’s life. to measure autonomy at work, the autonomy at work subscale was selected from this instrument. it consists of seven items that are measured on a seven-point likert-type scale, with responses ranging from 1 (not true at all) to 7 (very true). examples of items include: ‘i feel pressurised at work’ and ‘when i am at work, i have to do what i am told’. in their study, deci et al. (2001) reported a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.85 for the autonomy at work subscale. in a more recent study, stäbler, de boer and rosema (2016) found an adequate reliability coefficient of 0.70. in addition, coetzer (2014) found a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.82 within the south african pharmaceutical industry. workplace trust workplace trust survey (wts) was developed by ferres (2001). the wts is designed to measure trust within organisations. it consists of 36 items that measure three subscales: namely, trust in organisations, trust in co-workers and trust in supervisors. these subscales comprise 12 items each, which are measured using a seven-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). examples of items include: ‘i feel that information can be shared openly’, ‘i believe that my manager follows promises through with action’ and ‘i think that my co-workers act reliably from one moment to the next’. a high measure of internal consistency was found by james (2011) who reported an alpha coefficient at 0.97. cronbach alpha reliability coefficients between 0.90 and 0.97 in both the south african and australian context have further been reported (ferres, 2001). work engagement the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes – 17 item) was developed by schaufeli et al. (2002). the uwes is designed to measure work engagement. it comprises 17 items that measure vigour, dedication and absorption (the three subscales of work engagement). to rate the items, a seven-point likert-type scale is used, with responses ranging from 0 (never) to 6 (always). examples of items include: ‘at my work, i am bursting with energy’, ‘i find the work that i do full of meaning and purpose’ and ‘i am immersed in my work’. research has shown that the uwes has satisfactory reliability. cronbach alpha reliability coefficients have been reported at between 0.68 and 0.91 (schaufeli et al., 2002). in a south africa study, de bruin, hill, henn and muller (2013) found reliability coefficients of 0.88, 0.91 and 0.85 for the subscales. statistical analysis the statistical analysis was carried out using spss version 22 (spss inc., 2013). to analyse the data from the responses in the questionnaires, descriptive statistics (means, medians and standard deviations) and reliability tests utilising cronbach alpha (cronbach, 1951) for each scale were used to determine internal consistency, validity and homogeneity of the measuring instruments. pearson’s product–moment correlation and cohen’s effect size (cohen, 1988) were selected to investigate the relationship between organisational rewards, workplace trust and work engagement. standard multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine whether intrinsic rewards, extrinsic rewards and total rewards predicted workplace trust and work engagement. results descriptive statistics to determine normal distribution and provide more information on the scales and instruments used, descriptive statistics were executed (see table 1). the scales all fell well within the generally acceptable range of < 2 and < 4 (finch & west, 1997) and were all normally distributed. table 1: descriptive statistics of the organisational rewards, workplace trust and work engagement scales. table 1 depicts the alpha coefficients and normality scores for the scales utilised. most of the scales were found to be satisfactory in accordance with the guideline of > 0.70 (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). the highest reliabilities amongst the scales included trust in organisation (α = 0.95), trust in supervisors (α = 0.95) and trust in co-workers (α = 0.96), followed by psychological meaningfulness (α = 0.93). the scales that produced the lowest reliabilities included contingent rewards (α = 0.59), fringe benefits (α = 0.61) and promotion (α = 0.62). correlation analysis to answer the primary research question, pearson’s product–moment correlations were calculated (see table 2). table 2: correlation coefficients of organisational rewards, workplace trust and work engagement. the results indicated that extrinsic rewards have a statistically and practically significant relationship with intrinsic rewards (r = 0.42; p < 0.01; medium effect), total rewards (r = 0.90; p < 0.01; large effect), workplace trust (r = 0.68; p < 0.01; large effect) and work engagement (r = 0.34; p < 0.01; medium effect). it was further found that intrinsic rewards have a statistically and practically significant relationship with total rewards (r = 0.77; p < 0.01; large effect), workplace trust (r = 0.46; p < 0.01; medium effect) and work engagement (r = 0.53; p < 0.01; large effect), whereas total rewards have a statistically and practically significant relationship with workplace trust (r = 0.69; p < 0.01; large effect) and work engagement (r = 0.50; p < 0.01; large effect). workplace trust produced a statistically and practically significant relationship with work engagement (r = 0.52; p < 0.01; large effect). multiple regression analysis in response to the secondary research questions on whether intrinsic and extrinsic rewards can predict workplace trust and work engagement, multiple regression analysis (using the method proposed by field, 2013) was utilised. table 3 summarises the regression analysis with extrinsic rewards, intrinsic rewards and total rewards as predictors of workplace trust. intrinsic rewards were entered in step 1 and proved to be a statistically significant predictor of workplace trust, explaining 21% of the variance in workplace trust. extrinsic rewards were entered in step 2 and was also shown to be a statistically significant predictor of workplace trust, explaining an additional 49% of the variance in the total model [f(2.241) = 118.41, p < 0.001]. the model demonstrated that extrinsic and intrinsic rewards combined explained 70% of the variance in workplace trust. regarding total rewards as a predictor of workplace trust, this variable was excluded from the rest of the analysis as it did not explain any additional variance. table 3: multiple regression of workplace trust as the dependent variable and intrinsic rewards, extrinsic rewards and total rewards as independent variables. table 4 summarises the regression analysis with intrinsic rewards, extrinsic rewards and total rewards as predictors of work engagement. intrinsic rewards were entered in step 1 and statistically significantly predicted work engagement, explaining 28% of the variance. thereafter, extrinsic rewards were entered in step 2 and also statistically significantly predicted work engagement, explaining an additional 29% of the variance of the total model [f(2.241) = 51.44, p < 0.001]. the model indicated that intrinsic and extrinsic rewards combined explained 57% of the variance of work engagement. regarding total rewards as a predictor of work engagement, this variable was excluded from the rest of the analysis as it did not explain any additional variance. table 4: multiple regression of work engagement as dependent variable and intrinsic rewards, extrinsic rewards and total rewards as independent variables. discussion the study sought to explore the relationship between organisational rewards, workplace trust and work engagement within the south african employment context and also aimed to determine whether intrinsic and extrinsic organisational rewards were able to predict workplace trust and work engagement. the research results in accordance with the objectives of this study encapsulate what follows. the relationship between organisational rewards, workplace trust and work engagement the first objective of this research study was to determine whether there is a relationship between organisational rewards, workplace trust and work engagement. results revealed that the relationship between extrinsic rewards and workplace trust produced a correlation of 0.68 (large effect). a correlation of 0.46 (medium effect) was found between intrinsic rewards and workplace trust. regarding the correlation between total rewards and workplace trust, a correlation of 0.69 (large effect) was found. the results indicated that the relationship between both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, as well as total rewards and workplace trust, was statistically significant. this is an encouraging result indicating that organisations can utilise their reward structures to improve their employees’ trust and work engagement levels and ultimately have a positive effect on other outcomes such as productivity, performance, organisational commitment and job satisfaction. the findings are in line with previous research reporting that organisational rewards are related to workplace trust (burke, 2002; engelbrecht et al., 2014; fehr & list, 2004; ferrin & dirks, 2004; gneezy, meier & rey-biel, 2011; tzafrir, 2005; van der berg & martins, 2013). one can, therefore, infer that higher levels of organisational rewards (intrinsic, extrinsic or both) imply a higher degree of workplace trust. a potential explanation of this finding is that organisations that promote a high trust climate are more likely to reward employee effort on the job through the use of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. in particular, organisational leaders who trust their subordinates may be more likely to perceive them as valuable and, as such, take measures to nurture and develop their loyalty (philips, 1997; chen, hwang & liu, 2012). developing and nurturing employee loyalty may be generated intrinsically through providing employees with meaningful work, autonomy and tasks, which reap interest or enjoyment and extrinsically through providing employees with recognition and through rewarding exceptional performance by means of increasing pay, promoting employees and providing them with higher levels of fringe and contingent rewards and other benefits. another possible explanation of this relationship may be that employees who have high levels of trust in their supervisors, co-workers and organisation may be more productive (sonnenberg, 1994). this can further signify higher extrinsic rewards (such as pay increases) as a result of heightened productivity and being appraised on a performance basis (njanja, maina, kibet & njagi, 2013). the relationship between organisational rewards and work engagement the relationship between organisational rewards and work engagement has extensively been explored (hotz, 2014; hulkko-nyman et al., 2014; jacobs et al., 2014; may et al., 2004; rothmann & rothmann, 2010; schaufeli & bakker, 2003; thomas, 2009; zhijian & tianshu, 2013). the findings in this study demonstrated that different types of organisational rewards, both extrinsic and intrinsic, have a statistically and practically positive relationship with work engagement. these findings support previous research, which found similar results (jacobs et al., 2014; may et al., 2004; rothmann & rothmann, 2010; schaufeli & bakker, 2003; thomas, 2009). in addition, a statistical significant correlation between total rewards and work engagement was reported, providing further support to previous findings (hotz, 2014; ram & prabhakar, 2011; worldatwork, 2006). based on the result, it can be potentially inferred that the higher the organisational reward (intrinsic and extrinsic), the more engaged employees will be in their work. interestingly, similar to the findings of schaufeli and bakker (2003) and thomas (2009), intrinsic rewards produced the highest correlation with regard to work engagement. when employees are provided with higher levels of intrinsic rewards, they tend to exert more effort, dedication and involvement in their work. the relationship between workplace trust and work engagement as outlined in the literature review, many authors support the idea that workplace trust and work engagement are related (chughtai & buckley, 2008; engelbrecht et al., 2014; ferrin & dirks, 2004; hassan & ahmed, 2011; men, 2015; mone & london, 2010; ugwu et al., 2014). in the current study, a statistically significant correlation (large effect) was found between workplace trust and work engagement. this implies that the higher employees’ level of workplace trust is, the higher their level of engagement in their work would be. this may be due to employees perceiving that there are additional resources such as support and instrumental assistance available to them, which they could potentially draw upon when needed. for example, when employees perceive their superiors to be competent, they are likely to possess more trust, confidence in and reliance on them when and if job-related challenges do arise (chughtai & buckley, 2008; costigan et al., 1998). this highlights that potential future research can explore the influence that various other job characteristics, such as work resources, may have on the relationship between workplace trust and work engagement. organisational rewards as predictors of workplace trust the secondary aim of this study was to determine the predictive significance of organisational rewards on workplace trust and work engagement. results indicated that both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards significantly predicted workplace trust. intrinsic rewards explained 21% of the variance in workplace trust and adding extrinsic rewards, an additional 49% of the variance was explained. the results highlight the importance of ensuring adequate reward structures to ensure a trusting working environment. ferrin and dirks (2004) observed that organisational rewards can have a strong and predictable influence on workplace trust and in particular, interpersonal trust, as rewards can influence trust by means of altering an employee’s perception about the motives of others and subsequently evaluate their behaviours based on reward structures. tzafrir (2005) found that when superiors perceived their subordinates to be trustworthy, they were willing, and thus, more likely to increase employee compensation and incentive plans. from an employee’s perspective, fehr and list (2004) found that if employees perceive their extrinsic rewards in a more negative light, their incentives may reap a negative influence on certain behaviours, one of them being a decline in trust. from this finding, it can be potentially inferred that when employees perceive their extrinsic rewards in a more optimistic light, a positive influence on trust can be generated. organisational rewards as predictors of work engagement the final objective of this research study was to determine whether organisational rewards were able to predict work engagement. similar to workplace trust, the results demonstrated that both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards significantly predicted work engagement. intrinsic rewards explained 28% of the variance, and extrinsic rewards explained an additional 29% of the variance. the results were in line with previous findings, which suggested that organisational rewards can predict work engagement (gujral & jain, 2013; maslach, schaufeli & leiter, 2001; may et al., 2004; ram & prabhakar, 2011; roberts & davenport, 2002; worldatwork, 2006). some evidence suggests that employees are more inclined to be engaged in their work when placing high value on intrinsic rewards and when they perceive and feel that that the organisation ‘cares’ about them at work (obicci, 2015; ozütku, 2012; silverman, 2004). in terms of extrinsic rewards, employees who feel rewarded and recognised for their efforts may feel more satisfied and, therefore, exert more effort and engagement in their work (waqas & saleem, 2014). the social exchange theory supports this result, which holds that when employees are rewarded for their work efforts, they participate in an exchange of providing their organisation with increased work engagement (gujral & jain, 2013). in light of both rewards, a rewarding work environment can help employees to be more engaged at work (roberts & davenport, 2002). limitations throughout this study, several limitations were identified. firstly, the cross-sectional research design may serve as a limitation as it makes it difficult to determine causal inferences about the relationships between the three constructs. secondly, to collect data from participants, the collection method relied exclusively on self-report measures. the utilisation of this method could potentially lead to social desirability bias as respondents may have had the tendency to respond in a more socially acceptable and positive light. thirdly, the sample size was relatively small (n = 251) and data were only collected within the gauteng region. this may have limited the generalisability of the findings. the fourth limitation of the study encapsulates the relatively low reliabilities of the promotion, fringe benefits and contingent rewards subscales used to measure extrinsic rewards. particularly, the alpha coefficients did not meet the intended cut-off value of > 0.70. a possible explanation for this could be that these variables were measured using subscales adapted from the jss and only contained four items each. the final limitation regards the scales utilised to measure organisational rewards. unfortunately, access to instruments for measuring both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards proved challenging. limited rewards instruments are available. recommendations in light of the findings, conclusions and limitations of this particular study, a number of possible recommendations for future research may be made. a significant recommendation would be to acquire a larger sample size from a vast array of demographical regions to generalise the findings to the broader south african context. furthermore, a longitudinal study could be employed to determine whether the relationships between organisational rewards, workplace trust and work engagement remain stable across time. this could further include looking at the correlations and regressions between the subscales of workplace trust and work engagement, individually, to determine with more accuracy, the particular factors that are related to and predict these two constructs. in addition, it is recommended that the impact that organisational rewards have on other variables such as job satisfaction, employee loyalty, motivation and commitment be explored as these could prove useful and valuable within the talent management domain. it might also be valuable and interesting to determine whether additional factors such as gender and age moderate this relationship. the final recommendation for this study would be to develop and validate instruments for the measurement of both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards that can ultimately be made readily available to researchers, academics and scholars within the management and behavioural sciences. as such, the above recommendations would prove valuable to human resources practitioners and industrial psychologists who wish to better their current employee strategies. practical implications the study proved useful in that it provided insight into the influence that organisational rewards may have on workplace trust and work engagement. as outlined earlier in the study, these variables all play a substantial role in retaining employees. these findings are significant in that they may contribute towards improving talent management strategies, particularly, within volatile and competitive business environments, where organisations are faced with the challenge of retaining employees who fall within a scarce talent pool. the study provided insight into the amount of interest and value that employees place on organisational rewards in their pursuit of seeking trust in their supervisors, co-workers and organisations as well as in engaging in their work. the study thus not only contributed to the existing body of knowledge but also provided significant findings, which could assist scholars, researchers and managers in better understanding the relationship between organisational rewards, workplace trust and work engagement as well. furthermore, the findings provided a platform for future researchers to explore these relationships more intricately. conclusion this study found that in the 21st century world of work, although extrinsic rewards are important to heighten trust and engagement within the workplace, intrinsic rewards should not be overlooked, as the modern workforce is increasingly intrinsically driven. in particular, a moderate-to-strong positive relationship was found between rewards, trust and work engagement, and that rewards (and more so, intrinsic rewards) were able to predict workplace trust and work engagement. the significance of exploring organisational rewards is that, in previous years, research found a link to various outcomes such as employee loyalty, performance and job satisfaction. with high turnover rates and poor economic conditions, reward practices have been in the spotlight due to organisations drastically cutting down on their costs and expenditure. this has further led to a reduction in outcomes such as in the levels of both engagement and confidence that employees portray at work. over the past few years, linking organisational rewards with workplace trust and work engagement has thus become significant. through exploring the influence that rewards might have on trust and engagement in the workplace, this study further provided relevant insight into how management and other behavioural specialists could make use of tangible, non-tangible and psychological rewards to enhance human-related strategies for the purpose of heightening employee retention within the modern world of work. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions c.h. was the supervisor of the research study. she was responsible for making conceptual contributions to the study, data analysis and writing of the article. j.v. was responsible for conceptual contributions to the study; she was the main contributor to the literature review and was responsible for data collection, data capturing and some statistical analyses. references abrams, l.c., cross, r., lesser, e., & levin, d.z. (2003). nurturing interpersonal trust in knowledge-sharing networks. academy of management executive, 17(4), 64–77. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2003.11851845 aktar, s., sachu, m.k., & ali, e. (2012). the impact of rewards on employee performance in commercial banks of bangladesh: an empirical study. iosr journal of business and management, 6(2), 9–15. https://doi.org/10.9790/487x-0620915 altunel, m.c., kocak, o.e., & cankir, b. (2015). the effect of job resources on work engagement: a study on academicians in turkey. educational sciences: theory & practice, 15(2), 409–417. https://doi.org/10.12738/estp.2015.2.2349 armstrong, m., & stephens, t. (2005). a handbook of employee reward management and practice. london: kogan page limited. arnolds, c.a., & venter, d.j.l. (2007). the strategic importance of motivational rewards for lower-level employees in the manufacturing and retailing industries. south african journal of industrial psychology, 33(3), 15–23. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v33i3.390 aslam, a., ghaffar, a., talha, t., & mushtaq, h. (2015). impact of compensation and reward system on the performance of an organization: an empirical study on banking sector of pakistan. european journal of business and social sciences, 4(8), 319–325. retrieved december 10, 2015, from http://www.ejbss.com/recent.aspx-/ bagraim, j.j., & hime, p. (2007). the dimensionality of workplace interpersonal trust and its relationship to workplace affective commitment. south african journal of industrial psychology, 33(3), 43–48. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v33i3.394 balakrishnan, c., masthan, d., & chandra, v. (2013). employee retention through employee engagement: a study at an indian international airport. international journal of business and management invention, 2(8), 9–16. retrieved august 15, 2015, from http://www.ijbmi.org/papers/vol(2)8/version-2/b028209016.pdf bedarkar, m., & pandita, d. (2014). a study on the drivers of employee engagement impacting employee performance. procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 133, 106–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.04.174 bell, e., & barkhuizen, n. (2011). the relationship between barriers to change and the work engagement of employees in a south african property management company. south african journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i1.935 beukes, i., & botha, e. (2013). organisational commitment, work engagement and meaning of work of nursing staff in hospitals. south african journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1144 bews, n., & martins, n. (2002). an evaluation of the facilitators of trustworthiness. south african journal of industrial psychology, 28(4), 14–19. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v28i4.70 bowen, r.b. (2000). recognizing and rewarding employees. new york: mcgraw-hill. bratton, j., & gold, j. (2003). human resource management: theory and practice. new york: palgrave macmillan. brown, s., gray, d., mchardy, j., & taylor, k. (2015). employee trust and workplace performance. journal of economic behavior & organization, 116, 361–378. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2015.05.001 burke, w.w. (2002). organizational change: theory and practice. thousand oaks, ca: sage. bussin, m., & toerien, w.c. (2015). influence of reward preferences in attracting, retaining, and motivating knowledge workers in south african information technology companies. acta commercii, 15(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v15i1.290 bussin, m., & van rooy, d.j. (2014). total rewards strategy for a multigenerational workforce in a financial institution. south african journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.606 byars, l.l., & rue, l.w. (2011). human resource management. (10th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. chen, t., hwang, s., & liu, y. (2012). antecedents of the voluntary performance of employees: clarifying the roles of employee satisfaction and trust. public personnel management, 41(3), 407–420. https://doi.org/10.1177/009102601204100302 chitsaz-isfahani, a., & boustani, h. (2014). effects of talent management on employee retention: the mediate effect of organizational trust. international journal of academic research in economics and management sciences, 3(5), 114–128. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarems/v3-i5/1196 chughtai, a., & buckley, f. (2008). work engagement and its relationship with state and trait trust: a conceptual analysis. journal of behavioural and applied management, 10(1), 47–71. retrieved july 02, 2015, from http://www.ibam.com/pubs/jbam/articles/vol10/no1/jbam_10_1_3.pdf coetzer, c. (2014). work-related basic need satisfaction and flourishing of employees in a corporate pharmacy environment. unpublished master’s dissertation, north west university, north west, south africa. cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. (2nd edn.). hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum. costigan, r.d., ilter, s.s., & berman, j.j. (1998). a multidimensional study of trust in organizations. journal of managerial issues, 10(3), 303–317. retrieved september 18, 2015, from http://www.ooa.nl/download/?id=16102599 cronbach, l.j. (1951). coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. psychometrika, 16, 297–334. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02310555 csikszentmihalyi, m. (1990). flow: the psychology of optimal experience. new york: harper and row. de bruin, d.p., hill, c., henn, c., & muller, k. (2013). dimensionality of the uwes-17: an item response modelling analysis. south african journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1148 deci, e.l., connell, j.e., & ryan, r.m. (1989). self-determination in a work organization. journal of applied psychology, 74(4), 580–590. retrieved july 09, 2015, from http://selfdeterminationtheory.org/sdt/documents/1989_deciconnellryan.pdf deci, e.l., & ryan, r.m. (2000). the what and why of goal pursuits: human needs and the self-determination of behavior. psychological inquiry, 11, 227–268. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1104_01 deci, e.l., ryan, r.m., gagné, m., leone, d.r., usunov, j., & kornazheva, b.p. (2001). need satisfaction, motivation, and well-being in the work organizations of a former eastern bloc country. personality and social psychology bulletin, 27, 930–942. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167201278002 dirks, k.t. (1999). the effects of interpersonal trust on work group performance. journal of applied psychology, 84, 445–455. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.84.3.445 engelbrecht, a.s., heine, g., & mahembe, b. (2014). the influence of ethical leadership on trust and work engagement: an exploratory study. south african journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1210 enguene, t. (2015). trust in the workplace: a permanent challenge for performance in an organization. international journal of management and commerce innovations, 3(1), 416–424. retrieved july 17, 2015, from http://www.researchpublish.com/download.php?file=trust%20in%20the%20workplace-1933.pdf&act=book fehr, e., & list, j.a. (2004). the hidden costs and returns of incentives – trust and trustworthiness among ceos. journal of the european economic association, 2(5), 743–771. https://doi.org/10.1162/1542476042782297 ferres, n. (2001). the development and validation of the workplace trust survey (wts). combining quantitative and qualitative methodologies. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of new castle, new castle, australia. ferres, n., connell, j., & travaglione, a. (2004). co-worker trust as a social catalyst for constructive employee attitudes. journal of managerial psychology, 19(6), 608–622. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940410551516 ferrin, d.l., & dirks, k.t. (2004). the use of rewards to increase and decrease trust: mediating processes and differential effects. organisation science, 14(1), 18–31. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.14.1.18.12809 field, a. (2013). discovering statistics using ibm spss statistics. (4th edn.). london: sage publications. finch, j.f., & west, s.g. (1997). the investigation of personality structure: statistical models. journal of research in personality, 31, 439–485. https://doi.org/10.1006/jrpe.1997.2194 galford, r.m., & drapeau, a.s. (2002). the trusted leader: bringing out the best in your people and your company. new york: free press. gill, p.s., dugger, j., & norton, f. (2014). the relationship between compensation and selected dimensions of employee engagement in a mid-sized engineering services firm. the journal of technology, management, and applied engineering, 30(1). retrieved july 02, 2015, from http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.atmae.org/resource/resmgr/articles/gill-dugger-norton-srelations.pdf gneezy, u., meier, s., & rey-biel, p. (2011). when and why incentives (don’t) work to modify behaviour. journal of economic perspectives, 25(4), 191–210. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.25.4.191 gujral, h.k., & jain, i. (2013). determinants and outcomes of employee engagement: a comparative study in information technology (it) sector. international journal of advanced research in management and social sciences, 2(5), 207–220. retrieved august 11, 2015, from http://www.garph.co.uk/ijarmss/may2013/16.pdf hafiza, n.s., shah, s.s., jamsheed, h., & zaman, k. (2011). relationship between rewards and employee’s motivation in the non-profit organizations of pakistan. business intelligence journal, 4(2), 327–334. retrieved september 18, 2015, from http://saycocorporativo.com/saycouk/bij/journal/vol4no2/article_11.pdf haider, m., aamir, a., hamid, a.a., & hashim, m. (2015). a literature analysis on the importance of non-financial rewards for employees’ job satisfaction. abasyn journal of social sciences, 8(2), 341–354. retrieved september 18, 2015, from http://www.aupc.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/v8i2-10.pdf hakanen, m., & soudunsaari, a. (2012). building trust in high-performing teams. technology innovation management review, 38–41. retrieved october 18, 2015, from https://timreview.ca/sites/default/files/article_pdf/hakanensoudunsaari_timreview_june2012.pdf hamukwaya, s.i., & yazdanifard, r. (2014). how a proper performance related reward system can contribute to work performance excellence. open journal of business and management, 2, 189–194. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojbm.2014.23023 harackiewicz, j.m., & hulleman, c.s. (2010). the importance of interest: the role of achievement goals and task values in promoting the development of interest. journal of educational psychology, 102, 880–895. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2009.00207.x hassan, a., & ahmed, f. (2011). authentic leadership, trust and work engagement. international journal of social, behavioral, educational, economic, business and industrial engineering, 5(8), 1036–1042. https://doi.org/10.1504/jgba.2013.053568 holbeche, l., & matthews, g. (2012). engaged: unleashing your organization’s potential through employee engagement. chichester: wiley. hoole, c., & bonnema, j. (2015). work engagement and meaningful work across generational cohorts. south african journal of human resource management, 13(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.681 hotz, g.j. (2014). the impact of a total rewards system on work engagement. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa. hulkko-nyman, k., sarti, d., hakonen, a., & sweins, c. (2014). total rewards perceptions and work engagement in elder-care organizations: findings from finland and italy. international studies of management & organization, 42(1), 24–49. https://doi.org/10.2753/imo0020-8825420102 hytter, a. (2007). retention strategies in france and sweden. the irish journal of management, 28(1), 59–79. retrieved july 16, 2015, from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:vxu:diva-2822 international labour office. (2006). working time in the twenty-first century. geneva, switzerland: international labour organization. jacobs, s., renard, m., & snelgar, r.j. (2014). intrinsic rewards and work engagement in the south african retail industry. south african journal of industrial psychology, 40(2), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i2.119 james, l.j. (2011). the relationship between perceived organisational support and workplace trust: an exploratory study. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of the western cape, cape town, south africa. jiang, z., xiao, q., qi, h., & xiao, l. (2009). total reward strategy: a human resources management strategy going with the trend of the times. international journal of business and management, 4(11), 177–183. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v4n11p177 kerr-phillips, b., & thomas, a. (2009). macro and micro challenges for talent retention in south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 7(1), 82–91. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.157 kimutai, k.a., & sakataka, w. (2015). effect of reward on employee engagement and commitment at rift valley bottlers company. international academic journal of human resource and business administration, 1(5), 36–54. retrieved july 15, 2015, from http://www.iajournals.org/articles/iajhrba_v1_i5_36_54.pdf kompaso, s.m., & sridevi, m.s. (2010). employee engagement: the key to improving performance. international journal of business and management, 5(12), 89–96. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v5n12p89 kreitner, r., & kinicki, a. (1995). organizational behaviour. chicago, il: irwin. krot, k., & lewicka, d. (2012). the importance of trust in manager-employee relationships. international journal of electronic business management, 10(3), 224–233. retrieved july 17, 2015, from http://ijebm.ie.nthu.edu.tw/ijebm_web/ijebm_static/paper-v10_n3/a06.pdf kshirsagar, m., & waghale, v.y. (2014). impact of financial and nonfinancial rewards on employee motivation. international research journal of management and commerce, 1(6), 61–74. retrieved october 15, 2015, from https://www.aarf.asia/download.php?filename=77uivapxm0xs459.pdf&new= kuptsch, c., & pang, e.f. (2006). competing for global talent. geneva, switzerland: international labour organization. kwenin, d.o., muathe, s., & nzulwa, r. (2013). the influence of employee rewards, human resource policies and job satisfaction on the retention of employees in vodafone ghana limited. european journal of business and management, 5(12), 13–20. retrieved 14 october, 2015, from http://www.iiste.org/journals/index.php/ejbm/article/view/5812/5879 lumley, e.j., coetzee, m., tladinyane, r., & ferreira, n. (2011). exploring the job satisfaction and organisational commitment of employees in the information technology environment. southern african business review, 15(1), 100–118. retrieved august 10, 2015, from http://www.unisa.ac.za/contents/faculties/service_dept/docs/sabview_15_1_chap%205.pdf lyman, a. (2003). building trust in the workplace: why trust brings out the best in your employees. strategic hr review, 3(1), 24–27. retrieved october 17, 2015, from http://thepeoplegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/article-building-trust-in-the-workplace.pdf makhuzeni, b., & barkhuizen, e.n. (2015). the effect of a total rewards strategy on school teachers’ retention. south african journal of human resource management, 13(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.699 malhorta, n., budhwar, p., & prowse, p. (2007). linking rewards to commitment: an empirical investigation of four uk call centres. international journal of human resource management, 18(12), 2095–2017. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190701695267 martins, n., & von der ohe, h. (2002). trust as a factor in determining how to attract, motivate and retain talent. south african journal of industrial psychology, 28(4), 49–57. retrieved august 02, 2015, from http://www.sajip.co.za/index.php/sajip/article/viewfile/79/76 maslach, c., schaufeli, w.b., & leiter, m.p. (2001). job burnout. annual review of psychology, 52, 397–422. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397 masvaure, p., ruggunan, s., & maharaj, a. (2014). work engagement, intrinsic motivation and job satisfaction among employees of a diamond mining company in zimbabwe. journal of economics & behavioral studies, 6(6), 488–499. retrieved september 03, 2015, from http://ifrnd.org/research%20papers/j6(6)6.pdf may, d.r., gilson, r.l., & harter, l.m. (2004). the psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety and availability and the engagement of the human spirit at work. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 77(1), 11–37. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317904322915892 mayer, r.c., davis, h.d., & schoorman, f.d. (1995). an integrative model of organizational trust. academy of management review, 20(3), 709–734. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1995.9508080335 mcauley, e., duncan, t., & tammen, v.v. (1989). psychometric properties of the intrinsic motivation inventory in a competitive sport setting: a confirmatory factor analysis. research quarterly for exercise and sport, 60, 48–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/02701367.1989.10607413 mcknight, d.h., & chervany, n.l. (2001). trust and distrust definitions: one bite at a time. in r. falcone, m. singh, & y.h. tan (eds.), trust in cyber-societies: integrating the human and artificial perspectives (pp. 27–54). berlin, germany: springer. men, l.r. (2015). employee engagement in relation to employee – organization relationships and internal reputation: effects of leadership communication. public relations journal, 9(2). retrieved october 16, 2015, from http://www.prsa.org/intelligence/prjournal/vol9/no2/ mone, e., & london, m. (2010). employee engagement through effective performance management: a practical guide for managers. new york: routledge. monteiro, v., mata, l., & peixoto, f. (2015). intrinsic motivation inventory: psychometric properties in the context of first language and mathematics learning. psychology/psicologia: refl exão e crítica, 28(3), 434–443. https://doi.org/10.1590/1678-7153.201528302 mottaz, c.j. (1985). the relative importance of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards as determinants of work satisfaction. the sociological quarterly, 26(3), 365–385. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1985.tb00233.x muteswa, r., & ortlepp, k. (2011). contributing factors to potential turnover in a sample of south african management-level employees. acta commercii, 11, 13–29. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v11i1.144 nazir, t., shah, s.f.h., & zaman, k. (2012). literature review on total rewards: an international perspective. african journal of business management, 6, 3046–3058. njanja, w.l., maina, r.n., kibet, l.k., & njagi, k. (2013). effect of reward on employee performance: a case of kenya power and lighting company ltd., nakuru, kenya. international journal of business and management, 8(21), 41–49. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v8n21p41 nujjoo, a., & meyer, i. (2012). the relative importance of different types of rewards for employee motivation and commitment in south africa. south african journal of human resource management, 10(2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.442 nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory. (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. nyaga, j.w. (2015). non financial reward and employee retention in private primary schools in kenya (kiambu county). international journal of management and commerce innovations, 3(1), 240–254. retrieved october 18, 2015, from https://www.google.co.za/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahukewjyoosz2bfsahujacakhzsdagmqfggnmae&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.researchpublish.com%2fdownload.php%3ffile%3dnon%2520financial%2520reward%2520and%2520employee%2520retention-1746.pdf%26act%3dbook&usg=afqjcnhjlbz2v6gdsu6riqw3tneazegq-w&bvm=bv.148747831,bs.2,d.d2s obicci, p.a. (2015). influence of extrinsic and intrinsic rewards on employee engagement (empirical study in public sector of uganda). management studies and economic systems, 2(1), 59–70. retrieved september 18, 2015, from http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=pa_obicci o’brien, r. (2001). trust: releasing the energy to succeed. chichester: wiley. omollo, p.a., & oloko, m.a. (2015). effect of motivation on employee performance of commercial banks in kenya: a case study of kenya commercial bank in migori county. international journal of human resource studies, 5(2), 87–103. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijhrs.v5i2.7504 oriarewo, g.o., agbim, k.c., & owutuamor, z.b. (2013). job rewards as correlates of job satisfaction: empirical evidence from the nigerian banking sector. the international journal of engineering and science, 2(8), 62–69. retrieved september 18, 2015, from http://www.theijes.com/papers/v2-i8/part.1/k0281062068.pdf osa, r.g. (2014). monetary incentives motivates employee’s on organizational performance. global journal of arts humanities and social sciences, 2(7), 61–69. retrieved october 06, 2015, from http://www.eajournals.org/wp-content/uploads/monetary-incentives-motivates-employee---s-on-organizational-performance.pdf osmani, m., zaidi, a.r.m., & nilashi, m. (2014). motivational factors, trust and knowledge sharing in organizations. international journal of innovation and scientific research, 12(2), 463–474. retrieved october 17, 2015, from http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:k9e5xbg11qmj:www.issr-journals.org/links/papers.php%3fjournal%3dijisr%26application%3dpdf%26article%3dijisr-14-218-03+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=za ozütku, h. (2012). the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards on employee results: an empirical analysis in turkish manufacturing industry. business and economic research journal, 3(3), 29–48. https://doi.org/10.4236/jssm.2015.84047 paliszkiewicz, j. (2011). inter-organizational trust: conceptualization and measurement. international journal of performance measurement, 1, 15–28. retrieved october 18, 2015, from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/22af/45ebc0564fa32391edb8264418745363c0cd.pdf philips, c.j. (1997). do you trust me? executive excellence, 14, 7–10. porter, l.w., & lawler, e.e. (1968). managerial attitudes and performance. homewood, il: dorsey press. rafiq, m., javed, m., khan, m., & ahmed, m. (2012). perceived competence, teacher autonomy –support and parent attachment as predictors of students’ academic achievement. european journal of business and social sciences, 1(12), 133–140. retrieved september 14, 2015, from http://www.ejbss.com/data/sites/1/marchissue2013vol12/ejbss-1217-13-perceivedcompetence.pdf ram, p., & prabhakar, g. (2011). antecedent hrm practices for organizational commitment. international journal of business and social science, 2(2), 55–62. retrieved september 14, 2015, from http://ijbssnet.com/journals/vol._2_no._2;_february_2011/6.pdf reinardy, s. (2010). downsizing effects on personnel: the case of layoff survivors in u.s. newspapers. journal of media business studies, 7(4), 1–19. retrieved july 02, 2015, from https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/handle/1808/11244/reinardy-jmbs7-4.pdf?sequence=1 rich, b.l. lepine, j.a. & crawford, j.r. (2010). job engagement: antecedents and effects on job performance. academy of management journal, 53(3), 617–635. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.51468988 roberts, d.r., & davenport, t.o. (2002). job engagement: why it’s important and how to improve it. employment relations today, 29(3), 21–29. https://doi.org/10.1002/ert.10048 robyn, a., & du preez, r. (2013). intention to quit amongst generation y academics in higher education. south african journal of industrial psychology, 39, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i1.1106 ross, k.n. (2005). sample design for educational survey research. in k.n. ross (ed.), quantitative research methods in educational planning (pp. 1–83). paris: iiep-unesco. rothmann, s., & hamukang’andu, l. (2013). callings, work role fit, psychological meaningfulness and work engagement among teachers in zambia. south african journal of education, 33(2), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v33n2a699 rothmann, s., & jordaan, g.m.e. (2006). job demands, job resources and work engagement of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. south african journal of industrial psychology, 32(4), 87–96. retrieved september 12, 2015, from http://www.sajip.co.za/index.php/sajip/article/viewfile/247/244 rothmann, s., & rothmann, s. (2010). factors associated with employee engagement in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 36(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i2.925 ryan, r.m., & deci, e.l. (2000). intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: classic definitions and new directions. contemporary educational psychology, 25, 54–67. https://doi.org/10.1006/ceps.1999.1020 saks, a.l. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169 sanhari, m.s. (2014). relationship between employee engagement and performance: a case study of health workers in tanzania. international journal of engineering and management science, 5(3), 215–219. retrieved july 06, 2015, from http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/97243510/relationship-between-employee-engagement-performance-case-study-health-workers-tanzania sajuyigbe, a.s., olaoye, b.o., & adeyemi, m.a. (2013). impact of reward on employees performance in a selected manufacturing companies in ibadan, oyo state, nigeria. international journal of arts and commerce, 2(2), 27–32. retrieved october 06, 2015, from http://www.ijac.org.uk/images/frontimages/gallery/vol._2_no._2/4.pdf schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2003). uwesutrecht work engagement scale: test manual. department of psychology, utrecht university: netherlands schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzalez-roma, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of burnout and engagement: a confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3, 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 scott, d., mcmullen, t., & royal, m. (2012). retention of key talent and the role of rewards. worldatwork journal, 21(4), 58–70. retrieved october 06, 2015, from https://www.worldatwork.org/waw/adimlink?id=62016 silverman, m. (2004). non-financial recognition: the most effective of rewards. brighton: institute for employment studies. six, f., nooteboom, b., & hoogendoorn, a. (2010). actions that build interpersonal trust: a relational signalling perspective. review of social economy, 68(3), 285–315. https://doi.org/10.1080/00346760902756487 sonnenberg, f.k. (1994). ethics: trust me…trust me not. journal of business strategy, 15(1), 14–16. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb039609 sousa-lima, m., michel, j.w., & caetano, a. (2013). clarifying the importance of trust in organizations as a component of effective work relationships. journal of applied social psychology, 43(2), 418–427. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2013.01012.x spector, p.e. (1985). measurement of human service staff satisfaction: development of the job satisfaction survey. american journal of community psychology, 13, 693–713. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00929796 spretizer, g.m. (1995). psychological empowerment in the workplace: dimensions, measurement, and validation. academy of management journal, 38(5), 1442–1465. https://doi.org/10.2307/256865 spss inc. (2013). spss 22.0 for windows. armonk, ny: ibm corp. stäbler, s.l., de boer, h., & rosema, m. (2016). basic need satisfaction with public sector internships and career aspiration of students: a self-determination theory approach. unpublished thesis, university of twente, enschede, netherlands. stumpf, s.a., tymon, w.g., jr., favorito, n., & smith, r.r. (2013). employees and change initiatives: intrinsic rewards and feeling valued. journal of business strategy, 34(2), 21–29. https://doi.org/10.1108/02756661311310422 sundaray, b.k. (2011). employee engagement: a driver of organizational effectiveness. european journal of business and management, 3(8), 53–59. retrieved october 11, 2015, from http://pakacademicsearch.com/pdf-files/ech/517/53-59%20vol%203,%20no%208%20(2011).pdf takawira, n., coetzee, m., & schreuder, d. (2014). job embeddedness, work engagement and turnover intention of staff in a higher education institution: an exploratory study. south african journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.524 tamborini, r., bowman, n.d., eden, a., grizzard, m., & organ, a. (2010). defining media enjoyment as the satisfaction of intrinsic needs. journal of communication, 60(4), 758–777. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2010.01513.x tan, h., & lim, a. (2009). trust in co-workers and trust in organizations. the journal of psychology, 143(1), 45–66. https://doi.org/10.3200/jrlp terera, s.r., & ngirande, h. (2014). the impact of rewards on job satisfaction and employee retention. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(1), 481–487. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n1p481 thirapatsakun, t., kuntonbutr., & mechinda, p. (2014). the relationships among job demands, work engagement, and turnover intentions in the multiple groups of different levels of perceived organizational supports. universal journal of management, 2(7), 272–285. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujm.2014.020703 thomas, k.w. (2009). the four intrinsic rewards that drive employee engagement. ivey business journal, 73(6), 1–12. retrieved september 18, 2015, from http://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/the-four-intrinsic-rewards-that-drive-employee-engagement/ tsede, o.a., & kutin, e. (2013). total reward concept: a key motivational tool for corporate ghana. business and economic research, 3(2), 173–182. https://doi.org/10.5296/ber.v3i2.4291 tzafrir, s. (2005). the relationship between trust, hrm, and firm performances. the international journal of human resource management, 16(9), 1600–1622. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190500239135 ugwu, f.o., onyishi, i.e., & rodriguez-sanchez, a.m. (2014). linking organizational trust with employee engagement: the role of psychological empowerment. personnel review, 43(3), 377–400. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-11-2012-0198 van aswegen, s., botha, s., kleynhans, r., lotz, o., markham, l., meyer, w., o’neil, c., & schlechter, a. (2009). human resource management: fresh perspectives. cape town, south africa: pearson education prentice hall. van den broeck, a., vansteenkiste, m., de witte, h., soenens, b., & lens, w. (2010). capturing autonomy, competence, and relatedness at work: construction and initial validation of the work-related basic need satisfaction scale. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 83, 981–1002. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317909x481382 van der berg, y., & martins, n. (2013). the relationship between organisational trust and quality of work life. south african journal of human resource management, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.392 van zyl, l.e., deacon, e., & rothmann, s. (2009). towards happiness: experiences of work-role fit, meaningfulness and work engagement of industrial/organisational psychologists in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 36(1). https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.890 visser, a. (2012). investigating the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic reward, job satisfaction, organisational commitment and turnover intention. unpublished master’s thesis. north-west university, north-west, south africa. waqas, s., & saleem, s. (2014). the effect of monetary and non-monetary rewards on employee engagement and firm performance. european journal of business and management, 6(31), 73–82. retrieved july 18, 2015, from http://www.iiste.org/journals/index.php/ejbm/article/viewfile/16530/16937 weatherly, r.l. (2002). effects of external rewards on internal motivation and job satisfaction. unpublished master’s thesis, texas tech university, texas, usa. wei, l.t., & yazdanifard, r. (2014). the impact of positive reinforcement on employees’ performance in organizations. american journal of industrial and business management, 4, 9–12. https://doi.org/10.4236/ajibm.2014.41002 williamson, j.c. (2011). engagement and meaningfulness at work: the moderating roles of life satisfaction and gender. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa. wilson, r.k., & eckel, c.c. (2003). trust and social exchange. in j.n. druckman, d.p green, h.j. kuklinski, and a. lupia (eds.), the handbook of experimental political science, 243–257. boston, massachusetts: cambridge university press. worldatwork. (2006). total rewards model: strategies to attract, motivate and retain employees. retrieved july 02, 2015, from http://worldatwork.org/pub/total_rewards_model.pdf yahya, k.k., isa, s.n., & johari, j. (2012). employees’ perception on engagement and its relationship to hrm practices. paper presented at 3rd international conference on business and economic research, bandung, indonesia. retrieved september 18, 2015, from http://repo.uum.edu.my/12246/ zigarmi, d., houson, d., witt, d., & diehl, j. (2011). employee work passion: connecting the dots. perspectives, 3, 1–10. retrieved august 10, 2015, from http://www.kenblanchard.com/img/pub/blanchard_employee_passion_vol_3.pdf zhijian, h., & tianshu, n. (2013). impact of total rewards on animation employees’ engagement. studies in sociology of science, 4(3), 58–64. https://doi.org/10.3968/j.sss.1923018420130403.z501 zikmund, w.g. (2003). business research methods (7th ed.). mason, ohio: thomson/south-western. 2baloyi.qxd in some organisations, particularly those in the public sector, the final appointment of new candidates is subject to the successful completion of a probation period. thus a trial period is required before granting permanent employment status. the probationary period refers to a discretionary period during which the suitability of a candidate for the post is determined and is generally viewed as part of the induction process (andrews, 1988; elliot & peaton, 1994; fowler, 1996). induction is defined by fowler (1996) as “all the steps an employer can take to try to ensure that new recruits settle into their new jobs quickly, happily and effectively” (p. 5). during the probation period, supervisors regularly appraise the probationers’ performance in order to check on their progress, and to alleviate problem areas as they occur. this provides a means for determining characteristics of a new employee that are not assessed by tests or other evaluation techniques, and can, to an extent, combat subjectivity involved in selection. information, normally unavailable before hiring, comes to the fore that may enable supervisors and managers to gauge the quality of fit between employees and 1. the job and 2. the organisation (masango & hilliard, 1999). this in turn provides an opportunity to remedy inappropriate placements thus improving the qualit y of the organisation’s employees (gomez-mejia, balkin & cardy 1995; loh, 1994; masango & hillard, 1999). the probation period can also be regarded as beneficial to new employees as it fulfils an important socialisation function, through which employees are inducted into the organisation and are familiarised with the work situation. this allows for a period of adaptation in which both cognitive and perceptual gaps with regard to the new work situation can be bridged. these may arise as result of differences between duties and responsibilities of the previous job and the current position, or because the person is working for the first time (masango & hilliard, 1999). in addition a probation period allows people who have no experience, the opportunity for gaining practical exposure before permanent appointment (masango & hilliard, 1999). integral to the probation period is effective performance management. new employees performance can be evaluated on a regular basis and problems resolved at an early stage before these become serious (masango & hilliard, 1999). the downside of performance evaluation during the probation period is a strong negative orientation because the focus is on non-performance (miner & miner, 1977). despite possible advantages of probation periods, several disadvantages can also be identified (gomez-meija, balkin & cardy, 1995; masango & hilliard, 1999): � many supervisors fail to see probation as the final step in the selection process. � supervisors lack the necessary training (skill) to administer the probation period. � probation periods may be abused by supervisors who allow their personal feelings to influence them when assessing and supervising probationers. � orientation (induction) is sometimes done after the employee has completed the probation period. � probation periods are normally handled in a piecemeal fashion. � periods of probation can generate anxiet y amongst probationers. � in most instances, probationers do not receive normal employee benefits. when reviewing the literat ure on the use of probation periods in work organisations, there appears to be little theoretical analysis of the practice and few empirical studies of the topic have been undertaken (loh, 1994). elliot and peaton (1994) highlight a general lack of qualitative groundwork regarding probation periods and state that research in this area is required. the south african public service has a high incidence of probation as prescribed by legislation. this practice has evolved over the years with inherent shortcomings and problems and the focus of this study is an investigation into the problems surrounding probation in a department of the public service. for this reason, a more detailed discussion of probation in the south african public service, will follow. probation in the south african public service probation periods in the south african public service are compulsory and prescribed by legislation. probationary appointments are regulated by the public service regulations no. 44 of 2001, the public service act no.103 0f 1994 and amendment section 8 of the labour relations act of 2002. the labour relations act of 1995, subparagraph 8 provides that the z baloyi a crafford craffordgd@telkomsa.net department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract the aim of the study was to investigate problems surrounding probation periods in the south african public service. a qualitative study was conducted to determine the views of both probationers and supervisors managing the probation process. data was gathered by means of focus groups and individual interviews. nine key areas were identified as being problematic, viz. clarity regarding the purpose of probation, lack of proper guidelines, the duration of probation, rotation during probation, lack of training, poor management of probation, performance management, anxiety and stress, power and authority. recommendations are made concerning possible interventions. key words problems surrounding probation, sa public service problems surrounding probation in the south african public service 12 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (1), 12-16 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (1), 12-16 probationary period must be of a reasonable duration; depending on the nature of the job and the time it takes to determine the employee's suitabilit y for continued employment. before the adoption of the public service regulations of 1999, the public service staff code (1994) governed probationary appointments. the code prescribed that all permanent appointments be effected after twelve calendar months and while the code is no longer applicable in the public service, the practice of twelve-month probation continues. the white paper on human resources management in the public service (1997), an effort to modernise human resources practices in the public service, recommends a minimum of three and maximum of six months probation period. this, however, has not had an impact on the practice of twelve-month probation periods. the public service code (1994) also introduced a system of administering quarterly reports for the purposes of tracking the progress of new employees and was intended to lay the basis from which confirmation of permanent employment; extension or termination of probation, was conducted. this practice is currently still in use. the latest amendment of the labour relations act no.12 of 2002 stipulates, that, in so far as it may be necessary, the employer of probationers must provide reasonable evaluation, instruction, training, guidance or counselling to the employee. the employer is also obliged to inform the employee of the areas in which the required performance standards have not been met. dismissal during the probationary period may only be contemplated after certain procedures have been complied with and should be followed by an opportunity for the new employee to state his/her case and to be assisted by a trade union representative or fellow employee. in addition, the white paper on human resource management in the public service (1997) indicates that clear requirements should be laid down on how newly appointed staff will be assessed during the probation period and that these criteria should be disclosed to the new employee. in the public service, supervisors are expected to play a prominent role in the management of probation. the supervisor must ensure that the probationer is properly briefed in terms of expected performance standards and other relevant requirements for obtaining confirmation of permanent appointment. they are expected to compile and submit quarterly reports on the progress of probationers and provide them with feedback regarding the level of compliance with performance requirements. the form currently used as the basis for performance evaluation assesses probationers on the following dimensions: attendance, zeal, thoroughness and accuracy, conduct, friendliness and helpfulness, willingness to learn, sobriety, appearance and dress code, and general progress. in addition to managing performance, supervisors are expected to conduct training aimed at developing the probationer, provide counselling where necessary and assist the probationer to meet the requirements for confirmation of permanent stat us. finally, the supervisor recommends confirmation of permanent stat us, and extension or termination of probation. the human resource department is responsible for managing the administrative aspects of probation by means of persal, a computerised human resources information system. hr practitioners are expected to capture the personnel particulars of a probationer, the organisational unit in which he or she is placed, the dates of a probationer’s appointment as well as the quarterly probation reports. hr practitioners must ensure that all new appointees are provided with a written contract of employment including terms and conditions of his/her service. once all four quarterly reports are captured, the hr department issues a confirmation letter to the probationer confirming permanent employment status. research problem the department under study is the custodian of legislation intended to equip south african organisations to compete globally, by developing a competitive edge. to make this vision a reality the department must attract and retain skilled personnel of a high quality, who will be able to deliver the desired outcomes. if the probation periods of the newly acquired personnel are not properly managed this may impact negatively on productivity, efficiency and effectiveness. it is against this background that the problems surrounding the management of probation periods warrant investigation. research design in exploring the effects of probation on new employees, it was decided to use a qualitative research design. the reason being that qualitative research is helpful in determining the meanings people ascribe to routine and problematic events and allows for a deeper understanding of action in context (babbie & mouton, 2001; denzin & lincoln, 1994; esterberg, 2002; silverman, 2000). selection of research participants the study was conducted at the regional office of the gauteng north provincial directorate. purposive sampling was used to ensure that research participants met the particular requirements needed for the study (esterberg, 2002). for this reason, newly appointed recruits currently serving a twelvemonth probation period were selected. the supervisors were all permanent staff of the department and have been serving in this capacity for an average of six years. none of the supervisors on probation were selected for this study. the sample group consisted of 16 probationers, and eight supervisors, in total. the composition of the focus groups was carefully chosen to ensure adequate representation in terms of race, gender and workstation. the ages of probationers varied between 21 and 32 years with the majority in entry-level positions. supervisor ages varied between 34 and 55 years. the members of the sample were recruited in the following manner. e-mails were sent to five regional offices of the gauteng north provincial directorate requesting the names of officers currently on probation. upon receiving the names of officers an invitation was sent, asking them to participate in the study. a list of supervisors was obtained from the personnel section and they were invited telephonically to participate in the study. the focus groups were conducted at a central venue that allowed easy access for all participants at no additional cost. the supervisors were interviewed collectively at a central venue. thus, supervisors and probationers were interviewed in separate focus groups. in addition to focus groups, individual interviews were scheduled with lay participants and conducted at their convenience in their own offices. data collection a decision was taken to use both focus groups and individual interviews to gather participants’ views regarding the probation period. focus groups, synonymous with “small-group interviews” (esterberg, 2002, p. 108) were chosen because they allow for the views of several participants to be gathered at once, giving them the opportunity to express their views whilst explaining these to fellow group members (babbie & mouton, 2001; oates, 2000). they also allow the researcher to observe interaction and probe respondents experiences about probation in the sa public service 13 this phenomena (babbie & mouton, 2001; oates, 2000). individual interviews were used to expand on insights gained during the focus groups. these were semi-structured, so that participants were able to express their thoughts and experiences in their own words (esterberg, 2002) while at the same time allowing the researcher to probe particular areas of interest. data collection began with a series of three focus groups involving the probationers. the first focus group was carried out as a pilot study to determine the feasibility of the study and to detect possible flaws in the approach (huysamen, 1994). each focus group began with an introduction of the researcher and the topic, and ground rules were set in place (babbie & mouton, 2001). a tape recorder was used to accurately capture the responses of the participants during the interviews. request for permission to record the interviews was obtained from participants before commencing each focus group (oates, 2000). the length of each focus group was between forty-five minutes and an hour. a total of sixteen probationers and eight supervisors were interviewed collectively in the focus groups. the focus groups were followed up by six individual interviews of both probationers and supervisors to explore individual perspectives on the probation period. the final combined interview was solution driven with joint participation of both probationers and supervisors deliberating on interventions for the problems that emerged during the initial interviews. all interviews and focus groups were conducted by one of the the researchers in person. data analysis the data was analysed using general qualitative principles outlined by baptiste (2001). baptiste presents a generic framework for analyzing qualitative data. this framework is generic, in that is can be utilized regardless of the researcher’s research paradigm. baptiste identifies and elaborates on three phases in the analysis process. the first phase entails “defining the analysis” (pp. 4-8), in which the researcher selects a research paradigm within which to work. the second phased, “classif ying data” (pp. 8-10) involves tagging the data and grouping it into categories. thirdly, the researcher engages in “making connections – constructing stories and theories” (pp.10-11). during this third and final phase, the researcher develops and connects categories into “full-fledged stories or theories” (baptiste, 2001, p. 11). data analysis in the present st udy began with reading the transcripts carefully and identif ying key statements. thereafter key statements were categorised into themes and applicable codes allocated to each. key themes were presented as the basis for the final joint focus group. reliability and validity reliability and validity are matters of concern in qualitative research and for the purpose of this study were dealt with according the guidelines prescribed by smaling (1992). the internal reliability of the investigation was enhanced by firstly, restricting data gathering to one researcher. secondly, the focus groups and interviews were conducted over a period of time to limit interviewer fatigue. finally, the data was analysed in association with an academic peer to ensure consistency in outcomes and interpretation. the external reliability of the study was managed through providing thick descriptions of the way the research was conducted for example details regarding participants, events in the field and research methods. the validit y of the study was ensured by preparing a comprehensive register of the data, notes about relevant events impacting on data gathering and interpretation, the use of member checks and providing an accurate description of the research process. results the qualitative approach used in this study yielded a wealth of data and analysis yielded nine themes or problems relating to the probation period. each of these is discussed below. all statements by participants are quoted verbatim and no corrections to grammar have been made. purpose of probation period it emerged that both probationers and supervisors had a general understanding regarding the purpose of the probation period but lacked agreement regarding the specific purpose. probationers viewed the period as a developmental opportunity. this is reflected in the following statement: “i would like to say that the purpose of probation is good, it enables you to know your weak points and strengths”. one of the supervisors interpreted the purpose of probation as establishing loyalty and commitment to the public service, and imparting good values and practices required of dedicated public servants. this indicates a clear purpose of socialisation. another supervisor defined the purpose of probation as a bridging programme for new staff. absence of an official policy on probation it was evident that both probationers and supervisors felt strongly about the fact that no official policy exists to regulate the probation period. this is reflected in the following statement by one of the probationers: "we do not know exactly the probation policy and there is no direction as to how the process is managed”. the majorit y of the probationers indicated that they were unsure about what they were expected to master as probationers as well as the processes associated with probation for example how their performance was managed. some of the probationers were of the view that a document should be drafted containing objectives of the probation period to be circulated amongst them and read in their own time. the majority, however, disagreed as they felt that it would be insufficient to have a document filed in a cabinet, and that some form of communication regarding the contents of the policy should be provided. supervisors also indicated frustration regarding the lack of policy as this created uncertainty in managing probation. one supervisor responded, “we do not know whether we are doing a right thing in accordance to policy procedures.” a significant number of both probationer and supervisory participants expressed urgency regarding the development of an official departmental policy on probation. duration of the probation period the length of the probation period was an area of contention bet ween probationers and supervisors. twelve probationers felt that the prescribed period of t welve months is extremely long and thus unreasonable. there was also disagreement amongst probationers regarding extensions to the probation period for poor performance. five probationers felt they should be given an extension to improve performance whilst the others felt that the period was long enough already. supervisors on the other hand were in agreement that the t welve-month period gave the probationers sufficient time to adjust to the work place. supervisors reacted “this t welvemonth period allows the probationer to rotate for purposes of getting multi-skilled and developing adequately to render an integrated one stop service”. rotation there appeared to be consensus bet ween supervisors and probationers on the frequency with which rotation currently take places in the department (every three months). this emerged as a sensitive issue and probationers expressed great dissatisfaction at being rotated premat urely, without having baloyi, crafford14 gained the necessary competence in a sect ion. one probationer mentioned “a bad thing is rotation, you rotate too quickly through sections, end up knowing nothing because you do not stay long enough in one task”. probationers indicated that supervisors had very different expectations of probationers and that it was difficult to adapt as they moved from supervisor to supervisor. strong emphasis was placed on the negative impact this had on them. supervisors expressed the view that the period they spent with a probationer is insufficient and this should be extended to a minimum of six months before they are re-deployed to other units. this would allow time to develop a working relationship and impart the relevant skills to probationers. typical of the reactions that emerged during the individual supervisor interviews is the following statement "the new employee on probation only stays for a short period in your section, you do not develop a working relationship and your goal is only to see them going to another section so as to relieve you”. lack of training probationers mentioned a lack of training and other developmental initiatives as a problem related to the probation period. a number of probationers reported that they had only been sent for orientation training five months into the probation period. supervisors agreed that training was not taking place as expected and was restricted to ad-hoc training in their sections. this was due to time constraints as a result of high volumes of work. for this reason, it was felt that the responsibility for training should lie with the training and development division. poor management of probation both groups mentioned a lack of competence on the part of supervisors with regard to management in general and managing probation specifically. probationers attributed the poor management of probation to a lack of skill amongst supervisors whilst supervisors blamed the department for a lack of general management training. supervisors expressed a need for training in this regard. the probationers cited a number of skills they believed were lacking in supervisors and these included communication, conflict resolution, leadership/management, training, performance management and knowledge of legislation and procedures. supervisors reported that they had not been properly oriented and trained on various aspects of managing probation. it became evident that supervisors do not normally adhere to probation period reporting time frames, reporting only when they are reminded and normally violating probation procedures. two individual supervisors in the study revealed that the quality of probation reports they compile is generally of a poor standard because they feel the dimensions on which probationers are assessed are not relevant. this is captured as follows: “on that probation form there is nothing that relates to performance. we are trying to measure something that is not relevant to our work”. performance management it was found that probationers tended to be unrealistic with regard to expectations of their own performance. for example one probationer stated, “probationers are scored lowly on performance assessments because they are on probation”. this is viewed as unrealistic because it is normal for a new person in a job to be an average performer. supervisors highlighted their frustration that managing probat ioner performance was not linked to performance management in general and expressed concern regarding the lack of integrat ion bet ween the t wo systems. one supervisor revealed that in her own performance agreement she was not contracted to manage probation and said, “it is very difficult to be measured on something that you have not been contracted to do, hence absence of accountabilit y”. anxiety and stress probationers in this study used some emotionally charged statements that indicated anxiety and fear as to whether their appointments would be made permanent. these statements should be viewed in the light of young, immature people struggling to adjust to the world of work. statements reflecting anxiety and anger included “they demean us, we are nothing”, “we are regarded as dangerous because we have honours degrees” and “they deliberately hide information so that we can fail”. power/authority probationers expressed the belief that supervisory power is exercised in an authoritative way. they viewed supervisors as having the power to decide their destiny and as one probationer put it “they decide whether you are in or out”. there was a strong feeling among probationers that their future was at the mercy of their supervisors. recommendations the findings that emerged in this study have implications for the management of probation, which requires a stringent review to make its purpose more relevant. it is recommended that the current programme be modelled along the lines of inservice training with major issues pertaining to the management of people, processes and systems being reconsidered. in this regard six key areas have been identified as requiring attention. these are, firstly, drafting an official departmental policy on probation within the public service; secondly, improving the performance management of probationers; thirdly, improving the training and development of probationers; fourthly, implementing feedback and support struct ures; fifthly, encouraging probationers to utilize existing hrm structures and finally, developing a life skills course for probationers. these six recommendations are elaborated upon below. an official departmental policy on the probation period must be drafted quite urgently to enable both supervisors and probationers to understand the main purpose of probation, to provide guidelines regarding matters pertaining to the management of probation and clarif y their roles in terms of rights, powers and responsibilities. this must be done in line with legislative requirements and it is recommended that the guidelines of the white paper on human resources management in the public service be consulted in this regard as well. although the white paper on human resources management recommends a period of between three and six months for probation, the current duration of twelve calendar months appears to be more realistic given the nature of work the probationer is expected to master. it is also recommended that the duration of rotation periods be extended from every three to every six months. this is based on the views expressed by probationers that quarterly rotation has proven to be disempowering because they are redeployed before they are competent. a major issue emerging from the study is the manner in which performance management is conducted. it is suggested that the performance of probationers be managed under the current performance management system of the department and not according to practices that had their origin in the outdated public service code. it is clear that the dimensions used to evaluate the performance of probationers are currently inappropriate and the probation in the sa public service 15 existing quarterly report format does not add value because the behavioural dimensions used are subject to a variety of individual interpretations. the current performance management system allows for joint determination of performance goals in relation to the work done by the probationer, regular feedback regarding progress and joint assessment of performance. it also makes provision for managing the underperformance of employees, should this be required, during the probation period. in the light of the above, it is recommended that the current performance management system, with slight modifications with regard to typical performance matters common to the probation period, be adopted. closely related to performance management, the issue of training and development was highlighted as requiring attention by both probationers and supervisors. to address the current adhoc training received by probationers, it is recommended that a formal training schedule be introduced specif ying minimum training to be undertaken by probationers. these would include aspects such as the prescribed legislation, departmental policies and procedures, and work processes. the training schedule should be monitored as part of probation management. it is also recommended that a holistic programme aimed at supervisors be developed with regard to managing probation periods. such a programme would cover aspects such as communication, mentorship, interviewing, knowledge of legislation, counselling, performance management and basic management skills. because the probation period can be a source of anxiety and uncertaint y amongst probationers, the following are recommended. firstly, it is suggested that feedback and support structures be implemented. these may take the form of joint feedback sessions where supervisors and probationers will address issues relating to progress in the spirit of open and honest communication. secondly, the probationers should be encouraged to utilise existing hrm structures, for example the employee assistance programme, a trade union representative or employment services practitioners (career counsellors). finally, a life skill course should be developed to equip probationers to deal with the daily demands of the work place. to address the matter of authoritative leadership amongst supervisors it is advised that a programme be developed that will equip supervisors with skills to enhance interpersonal relations and to effectively maintain sound employee relations. in addition, supervisors should be sensitised to the stress experienced by probationers, and encouraged to support the integration of probationers into the workplace. finally, the department may need to revise the current emphasis on hierarchy (“the rank mentality”) through some form of intervention aimed at developing organisational culture. discussion there are two main shortcomings of the current study. firstly, because purposive sampling was used, and a small sample was drawn only from one organization, the external validity of the findings is adversely affected. however, the goal of the research was to generalise findings to other probationers and their supervisors in the public service, who did not participate in the study, and this has been achieved. secondly, at the time that the study was conducted, one of the the researchers occupied a senior managerial position in the department of the public service in which the research was conducted. it is thus possible that the participants’ perception of the researcher influenced the way in which they responded to interview questions. for this reason, the external reliability of the study may have been adversely affected. however, because the research formed part of a master’s study it was difficult to make use independent interviewers outside of the organisation. conclusion the current study makes at least two significant contributions. firstly, it exposes the problems present in the current probation system within the public service, and suggests ways to improve the situation. secondly, given that little literature exists on probation, the research is a step towards building a comprehensive body of literature on the topic. the study was conducted based on the assumption that a probationary period would remain in place. further research should focus on whether or not probation is the most effective way to ensure best performance on the part of new employees, especially within the context of the public service. if probation is found to be the best means, the optimal structure and length of the probationary period will need to be determined, by means of further research. references andrews,y. (1988). the personnel function (1st ed.). pretoria: haum educational. babbie, e. & mouton, j. (2001). the practice of social research (sa edition). cape town: oxford university press. baptiste, i. (2001). qualitative data analysis. (on line). forum for qualitative socialr esearch. (http://www.qualitative-research. net/fqs). denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. (1994). the handbook of qualitative research. thousand oaks: sage. elliot, r.h. & peaton, a.l. (1994). the probation period in the selection process: a survey of its use at the state level. public personnel management, 23 (1),47-59. esterberg, k.g. (2002). qualitative methods in social research. boston, ma: mcgraw-hill. fowler, a. (1996). employee induction: a good start (3rd ed.). london: institute of personnel and development. gomez-mejia, l.r., balkin, d.b. & cardy, r.l. (1995). managing human resources. englewood cliffs, n.j.: prentice hall. huysamen, g.k. (1994). methodology for the social and behavioural sciences (1st ed.). halfway house: southern publishers. loh, e. s. (1994). employment probation as a sorting out mechanism. industrial and labour relations review, 47 (3), 471-486. masango, r. & hilliard, v. (1999). probation: a contentious south african public service practice. journal of public administration, 34 (2), 94-103. miner, j.b. & miner, m.g. (1977). personnel and industrial relations: a managerial approach. new york: macmillan. oates, c. (2000). in d. burton (ed.) research training for social scientists. london: sage. silverman, d. (2000). doing qualitative research: a practical handbook. thousand oaks: sage. smaling, a. (1992). objectivity, reliability and validity. in g.j.n. bruisma & m.a. zwanenburg (eds). methodolog y for management specialist: trends and methods. muiderberg: coutinho. south africa. (1995). labour relations act. (act 66 of 1995). pretoria: government printers. south africa. (2002). labour relations amendment act. pretoria: government printers. south africa. (1994). public ser vice act. (act 103 of 1994). pretoria: government printers. south africa. (1999). public ser vice regulations. pretoria: government printers. south africa. (2001). public ser vice regulations. pretoria: government printers south africa. (1994). public ser vice staff code. pretoria: office of the public service commission. south africa. (1997). white paper on human resources management in the public ser vice. pretoria: department of public service and administration. baloyi, crafford16 7verwey.qxd given the growing complexities of customer relationships, customer relationship management (crm) has become a wellknown concept within most modern-day organisations. this is especially true within the service industry and more particularly within branches thereof such as financial services and information technology. one reason for this is that the service industry has come to dominate the global economic landscape. for example, heard (2002) points out that 64 of the top 100 companies in the 2002 fortune 500 magazine are service companies. key issues include defining what precisely is meant by the term ‘relationship’ in this context and questioning the applicability of crm in the retail industry, where it might be argued that perceived customer value may be determined to a greater extent by the characteristics of the actual product. one approach to addressing the issue of customer relationships, as highlighted by wiersema (1996:7-8), describes companies that have mastered the art of customer intimacy as those that “... analyse their systems, recognise their f laws, challenge their assumptions, and assume responsibility for initiating change. in this transformed market, what counts is the human dimension. customer intimate companies craft relationships of openness and confidence...”. nalebuff & brandenburger (1996:161) suggest that organisations and their customers “... are partners in creating value .. the overall game is co-opetition”. what this implies is that business organisations no longer have carte blanche to decide on product qualities, pricing strategies, distribution channels, customer support and other aspects regarding their relationship with customers. consumers increasingly demand involvement in one form or another in deciding on these issues. as regards customer involvement, ling (2000) says “the question is, ’does the customer want to be owned? or does the customer want to own him or herself ?’ increasingly, it is the latter. it will be enlightening to see how businesses cope with this”. normann & ramirez (1993:69) also suggest that “... a company’s principal strategic task is the reconfiguration of its relationships and business systems”. from another perspective, harris (1998:362) suggests that a marketing culture, characterised by values such as team integration and competitive outcomes, forms the basis for customer orientation throughout the organisation. in short, business organisations as the intermediaries between employees and customers need to assess and reshape where necessary their relationships with these key stakeholders. to do so effectively and sustainably will by definition require a rethink also of their human capital philosophies, strategies and practices. from the perspective of business organisations, the background sketched above leads to a number of questions, such as: � what is the relationship, if any, between success as a business and the nat ure and qualit y of our relationship with customers? � what is the relationship, if any, between success as a business and the nat ure and qualit y of our relationship with employees? given the background and problem statement sketched above, the specific objectives of this study were to: � develop an extended conceptual framework of the serviceprofit chain; and � validate key elements of this extended service-profit chain within a sector of the retail industry and, more specifically: �� establish the relationship between customer-experienced value (cev) and employee-experienced climate (eec); and �� determine whether cev is a driver of store economic performance (revenue and profit). given the research objectives as set out above, the following research hypotheses were formulated: � stores ranked higher on cev will also display higher average scores for eec. � stores ranked higher on sales revenue performance as compared to budgeted performance will display higher average scores for cev. anton m verwey louis carstens dept of human resource management rand afrikaans university abstract the purpose of the study was to evaluate an extended conceptual model depicting hypothesised relationships between employee climate, customer value and financial performance. questionnaires assessing employeeexperienced climate and customer-experienced value were completed by all the employees (more than 1200) and more than 2000 customers of a single retail company operating almost 100 stores in southern africa. the major findings were that some of the components of employee-experienced climate are positively related to customerexperienced value in terms of both product and relationship quality. there was no significant relationship between customer-experienced value and the financial performance of the organisation. opsomming die doel van hierdie studie was om ‘n uitgebreide konseptuele model te toets wat gehipotetiseerde verwantskappe voorstel tussen werknemer-ervaarde klimaat, kliënt-ervaarde waarde en finansiële prestasie. vraelyste wat werknemer-ervaarde klimaat en kliënt-ervaarde waarde meet is voltooi deur meer as 1200 werknemers en meer as 2000 kliënte van ‘n enkele kleinhandelaar wat landwyd byna 100 winkels regoor suid-afrika bedryf. die hoofbevindinge is dat sommige komponente van werknemer-ervaarde klimaat positief verwant is aan kliënt-ervaarde waarde in terme van beide produk en verhoudingsgehalte. daar was egter geen beduidende verband tussen kliëntervaarde waarde en die finansiële prestasie van die organisasie nie. validation of key relationships in an extended service-profit chain model in the south africa retail industry context requests for copies should be addressed to: am ver wey, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 65 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (1), 65-76 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (1), 65-76 � stores ranked higher on sales revenue performance improvement from year 1 to year 2 will display higher average scores for cev. � stores ranked higher on sales profit contribution performance will display higher average scores for cev. � stores ranked higher on sales profit contribution performance improvement from year 1 to year 2 will display higher average scores for cev. organisational value creation key questions on organisational performance are (1) by what criteria is organisational success measured, and (2) is there a specific approach to the achievement of such success? this section will highlight the concepts of organisational (enterprise) performance and the service-profit chain from a theoretical perspective in order to: � illustrate that economic measures of enterprise performance may not provide a full picture of sustainable growth; � highlight some approaches to the achievement of sustainable enterprise performance; � show that service qualit y is related to organisational performance; and � indicate that service is also related to internal processes in the organisation. measures of organisational performance if indeed there is a purpose to organisations beyond pure economics, it would be logical to expect such a purpose to be reflected in the measures applied in assessing whether organisations create value or not. at the same time, as such measures are inherently less objective than purely economic ones, it is also to be expected that there would be much more diverse views on what such measures should be. from a financial perspective there is general agreement that profit, profitabilit y, market share, market value, revenue, and growth are all valid measures of the overall performance of the organisation. jensen (2001) argues that attempts to evaluate organisations on measures other than market value detract from their abilit y to deliver to all stakeholders, and that for this reason business performance should be the sole corporate objective. the term ‘value-based management’ describes one approach that attempts to extend economic measures beyond the purely tact ical level to include dimensions of sustainable growth. such measures (miller, 1998:11-12) would include market value added (mva), which may be defined as market value minus capital invested, and economic value added (eva), which may be defined as the difference bet ween return on invested capital minus the weighted average cost of capital multiplied by total capital invested. the danger inherent in all such value-based measures is the same as for any other measure of economic performance. short-term views on the “numbers” may still drive behaviour which detracts from longer-term sustainable performance. the mathematics involved in mva and eva will show that both indices can be improved by simply investing less capital in a business. this would clearly not be in the long-term interests of the business. the issue is therefore to a lesser extent one of the actual measure, and rather the degree to which the leadership in the organisation take a longeror shorter-term view of such measures. as business moves into the new millennium, the old methods of reporting are proving no longer to be sufficient. new forms of corporate disclosure which integrate financial, environmental and social reporting are starting to take shape. according to elkington (1997), triple bottom-line reporting is an approach which points to practical benefits for companies themselves as well as for their various stakeholders. while the american and european approach to business ethics is generally oriented towards utility, and individual interest based on the moral responsibility of the individual, an example of more inclusive measures may be found in an approach based on the ethics of kant, who emphasizes the importance of social partnerships by viewing businesses as social institutions (fülöp, hisrich & szegedi, 2000:7). this view of business is not a new one. already in 1981, peter drucker (quoted by bowman & wittmer, 2000:15) suggested that business has no special status and that common rules of ethics apply to it. allee (2000:21) says, “enterprises and organisations are not only the fabric of larger society, they are in turn dependent on that larger social system”, which would suggest that organisations are cocreators also of the rules of ethics to which drucker refers, and are therefore by definition bound to them. kaplan & norton (1996) presented the “balanced scorecard” methodology in a harvard business review article entitled, “using the balanced scorecard as a strategic management system’’. they point out that, in the business environment, organisations compete on the basis of information, and that an organisation’s abilit y to exploit intangible assets is becoming increasingly more important than its ability to exploit physical assets. the problem, according to these authors, is that most organisations’ operational and management control systems are built around financial measures and targets that do not measure the organisation’s progress towards achieving long-term strategic objectives. a gap exists between the development of strategy and its implementation. their solution is to develop a “balanced scorecard” that supplements traditional financial measures with three new perspectives, namely those of the customer, internal business processes, and learning and growth. further to the additional perspectives on organisational performance, managers must introduce four new processes that contribute to linking long-term strategic objectives with short-term goals (the performance measures): � translating the vision into actionable plans; � communicating and linking the efforts throughout the organisation; � business planning; and � feedback and learning (zeigenfuss, 2000:13). eccles (1991:137) says the following about organisational performance measurement in balanced scorecard terms: “we are not simply talking about changing the basis of performance measurement from financial statistics to something else. we are talking about a new philosophy of performance measurement”. another approach to the definition of organisational results is provided by obolensky (2000:5), who suggests that, within the context of the inclusive company, “...both hard and soft measures are important – business must measure both its contribution to society and its return for investors”. one such a “soft” measure could be corporate reputation, which caruana (1997:110) describes as follows: “just as firms have a multitude of publics they also have an array of reputations as each public often considers a different set of attributes. moreover, even if the same attribute is considered by different publics it may be given a different weighting”. in a similar vein, handy (1994:225-226) suggests that the following aspects also need to be included in the balance sheets of organisations: � intellectual assets (brands, patents, skills base), including expenditure to enhance these assets on, for example, research and development, and training; � customers (quality of goods and services, and customer satisfaction); and � the environment (investment in environmental control and improvement, expenditure on communit y work, and investment in the community). verwey, carstens66 the fundamental learning is that none of the approaches discussed disputes the validity of profit (economic) measures as an indicator of organisational performance. what is very clear is that there is a significant body of thought supporting the view that such measures are not enough, and that they need to be supplemented with dimensions that are more inclusive of the interests of various stakeholder and interest groupings. methods of achieving organisational performance: the service-profit chain an organisation’s ability to compete effectively in a particular market is increasingly seen as being dependent on its capacity to deliver offerings which comprise a competitive bundle of benefits, or value, to the consumer (devlin, 1998:1091). “the issue of highest priority today involves understanding the impact of ser vice quality on profit and other financial outcomes of the organisation” (zeithaml, berry & parasuraman, 1996:31). this statement represents a dramatic departure from organisational views of quality as recent as a decade ago. in initial explorations within the services arena, quality was primarily viewed as a problem, manifesting at the tactical level, that needed to be solved. service quality has since emerged as an irrepressible, globally pervasive strategic force (powell, 1995) as well as a key strategic issue on management’s agenda (dean & bowen, 1994). seen from this perspective, the service-profit chain represents not only a different approach to the question of how businesses achieve excellence, but also a different approach philosophically to the route taken by the business excellence model in getting there. in some part at least, it may be hypothesised that this shift is also a reaction to or a reflection of the increasing importance of service industries compared to manufacturing industries in terms of gross national product, especially in developed countries (phillip & hazlett, 1997:260). it is important to realise that the fundamental difference between services on the one hand and products on the other is that the consumption of a service is process consumption rather than outcome consumption. when consuming a physical product, customers make use of the product itself, i.e. they consume the outcome of the production process. in contrast, when consuming services, customers perceive the process of producing the service to a larger or smaller degree and also take part in the process. the consumption process leads to an outcome for the customer, which is the result of the service process. thus, the consumption of the service process is a critical part of the service experience (grönroos, 1998:322). in essence, the service-profit chain (spc) is a model integrating perceived value from three key stakeholder perspectives, i.e. those of customers, shareholders and employees. the serviceprofit chain as formulated by heskett can be diagrammatically represented as below (lau, 2000:432; payne, holt & frow, 2000:264). figure 1: service-profit chain in developing this model, heskett set out the following propositions (payne et al, 2000:263): � profit and growth are stimulated primarily by customer loyalty; � customer loyalty is a direct result of customer satisfaction; � customer satisfaction is largely influenced by the value of services (external service value) provided to customers; � external service value is created by satisfied, loyal (retained) and productive employees; and � employee satisfaction is the result of high-quality support services and policies that enable employees to deliver results to customers (internal service quality). what is also suggested through this diagram is that the marketing culture of the organisation (the organisational process of creating an external identity and “presence” for itself and its products or services) is directly related to the internal organisational culture (harris, 1998:355-360). the spc model contains at least two potential “gaps”, these being the internal service quality gap and the external service quality gap. particularly in terms of the latter, a significant volume of research has been conducted. a key aspect of the external service value gap is customers’ determination process for perceived service quality. expected service and perceived service are both directly influenced by the determinants of service quality, which finally determine the overall level of service quality (parasuraman et al, 1985). initially, ten different dimensions to the external service quality gap were identified. these were access, communication, competence, courtesy, credibility, reliability, responsiveness, security, tangibles, and customer knowledge. through further research these ten dimensions were consolidated into five (parasuraman et al, 1988), leading to the development of servqual, a 22-item scale designed to measure service quality. the five dimensions of the scale are tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. in terms of external service quality, sureshchandar, rajendran & anantharaman (2002:33) contend that servqual does not address other important constituents of service quality such as the service product or core service, the systematisation and standardisation of service delivery, and the social responsibility of the organisation. other criticism of the servqual instrument centers on both theoretical and operational levels, ranging from item formulation to scale construction (philip & hazlett, 1997:269-272; robinson, 1999:21). robinson (1999:29) later concludes that “as a result it is questionable whether servqual is a reliable measure of ser vice quality or, indeed, whether it is measuring ser vice quality at all”. despite the criticism, though, servqual continues to be one of the most widely recognised methods of measuring service quality (newman, 2001:129). validation of key relationships 67 other research related to the service-profit chain covers a variety of topics. � from a perspective of strategic benchmarking, soteriou & zenios (1999) developed a framework guided by the serviceprofit chain for combining strategic benchmarking with efficiency benchmarking of the services offered by a bank. three models were developed in order to implement the framework in a practical setting: (i) an operational efficiency model, (ii) a service quality efficiency model, and (iii) a profitability efficiency model. � imrie, cadogan & mcnaughton (2002) showed the need to view the drivers and determinants of customer value within a particular cultural context. � cuthbert (1996a; 1996b) assessed the usefulness of the servqual instrument within the setting of higher education. � mehta & durvasula (1998) and durvasula, lyons & mehta (1999) applied servqual within an industrial marketing situation. � parasuraman (1998) proposed an intriguing agenda for research within the business-to-business market, while grönroos, heinonen, isoniemi & lindholm (2000) indicated that, regardless of whether products or goods are purchased through the internet, the notion of service is still inherent to such transactions, and developed a model for the development of internet-based offerings. � huber, hermann & wricke (2001) found through empirical research that price acceptance (i.e. a price premium) is indeed related to customer satisfaction, while the research of caruana, money & berthon (2000) explored the relationship between service quality, customer value and customer satisfaction. � silvestro & cross (2000:254) applied the service-profit chain model in a retail environment, and found that their research results “lend a surprising degree of support for the ser vice-profit chain model”. � pitt, caruana & berthon (1996) developed an instrument to assess the relationship between market orientation and business performance, whilst parasuraman et al (1991, 1993, 1994) also reported further refinements to the servqual instrument. research on the spc and servqual would thus appear to focus on a number of different but related areas, such as: � the societal context (cultural); � the industry context; and � specific and extended links to the spc model, which provides support to the overall approach taken to this study. finally, silvestro & cross (2000:246) suggest that the strength of the model (the integration of various performance drivers) is also its weakness, as it makes for a complex model which can easily be disproved. the service-profit chain had its origins in the increasing importance of service rather than product consumption. while product quality could be assessed easily and perhaps even objectively, the intangibilit y of services made it almost impossible to do so. it is suggested though that this distinction has become an artificial and academic one. consumers now have such a wide choice of competitive products (and services) that the concept of service quality is as applicable to product consumption as it is to service consumption. pels (1999:19) suggests that exchange situations can be of a transaction, relationship or hybrid type. such exchange situations can clearly be related to the consumption of both products and services, so that the relationship situation can also apply to the consumption of products. johns (2000:959) also suggests that “customers do not buy goods or ser vices in the traditional sense. they buy an offering and the value [may] consist of many components, some of them being activities (ser vice) and some being things (goods). as a consequence, the traditional division between goods and ser vices is long outdated”. in conclusion the authors are of the opinion that, although the validity of the cause-effect relationship inherent in the serviceprofit chain model may be debated, there is little doubt that from a purely pragmatic perspective (1) a business can only be profitable if it has a sufficiently large customer base, and (2) getting and retaining this customer base is for most businesses at least in part a function of the contribution employees make in terms of quality, service levels, and efficiency and effectiveness. verwey, carstens68 figure 2: a model of employeeand customer-based sustainable performance an expanded service-profit chain model against the background discussed above, the operational research model for the study being reported on can now be presented. conceptual model given the content of the preceding sections, it is possible to conceptualise the service-profit chain diagrammatically within the broader parameters of macro trends and organisational performance and competitive reality. the extended model follows below. the essential features of this diagram may be described as follows: � the competitive position that an organisation achieves and is able to sustain is determined in the first instance by its entire competitive realit y. one of the consequences of this competitive realit y is that the expectations of key stakeholders of the organisation will also change. � these changed expectations give rise to the necessity to measure organisational performance not only in terms of financial measures, but also in terms of other measures of performance (whether a triple bottom-line, balanced scorecard or other approach is adopted is possibly not that important, and as has been pointed out already will at least in part be based on the particular belief systems in place within the organisation). � economic and other measures of performance are not mutually exclusive nor independent of one another. � economic measures should include revenue (marked c in the diagram), profit (marked d in the diagram), and an improvement in both these metrics to ensure that sustainable longer-term growth is possible. � delivery of excellence in terms of the economic measures (i.e. meeting or exceeding financial performance targets) will require: �� customer-experienced value (cev) or external service quality (marked b in the diagram), which is dependent upon both product and interaction qualities (marked b1 and b2 respectively in the diagram) – keeping in mind that for product qualities the organisation is at least in part dependent on suppliers; �� a positive employee-experienced climate (eec), which is primarily dependent upon internal service quality (marked a in the diagram); and �� the requisite support through processes, technologies and systems. research model in terms of the focus of this particular research, the key aspects of the model outlined above are extracted as per the following diagram. as can be seen from this diagram, essentially two sets of interactions are to be investigated, i.e.: � employee-experienced climate and customer-experienced value (the relationship between variables a and b); and � customer-experienced value and economic performance (the relationship between variables b and c and d respectively). methodology and results the research process consisted of a number of phases, namely: � construction of the two questionnaires; � execution of the data collection phase; � data capture and validation; and � statistical analyses. the sample consisted of: � 94 stores for whom revenue and profit contribution was provided for two consecutive financial years; with � a combined total of 1206 employees who completed the employee climate questionnaire; and � a combined total of 2244 customers who completed the customer value questionnaire. questionnaire dimensions through the use of item reliability and principal component analysis, the two questionnaires were found to assess the following dimensions. table 1 component names: employee questionnaire component number component name 1 management style 2 teamwork 3 strategy alignment 4 general satisfaction 5 recognition 6 values 7 participation 8 role clarity 9 structure 10 trust table 2 component names: customer questionnaire component number component name 1 interaction value 2 product value testing the research model the following procedures were followed: � for each employee, a total score per component was calculated as well as a total score for all items of the relevant questionnaire combined. � the component and total scores were averaged per store. � for each customer, a total score per component was calculated as well as a total score for all items of the relevant questionnaire combined. � the component and total scores were averaged per store. � for each store, sales revenue for the current financial year (year 2) was compared to budgeted revenue and coded either 1 (yes) or 0 (no), depending on whether budget had been exceeded (code 1) or not (code 0). � for each store, sales revenue for the current financial year (year 2) was compared to sales revenue for the preceding year (year 1) and coded either 1 (yes) or 0 (no), depending on validation of key relationships 69 figure 3: research variables whether the year 2 figure exceeded the year 1 figure (code 1) or not (code 0). � for each store, profit contribution for the current financial year (year 2) was compared to budgeted contribution and coded either 1 (yes) or 0 (no), depending on whether budget had been exceeded (code 1) or not (code 0). � for each store, profit contribution for the current financial year (year 2) was compared to profit contribution for the preceding year (year 1) and coded either 1 (yes) or 0 (no), depending on whether the year 2 figure exceeded the year 1 figure (code 1) or not (code 0). employee climate and customer value the following hypothesis was formulated with regard to this aspect of the operational research model: stores ranked higher on customer satisfaction will also display higher average scores for employee climate. in order to test this hypothesis, the following additional data manipulation was performed: � based on the total scores for both the customer and employee questionnaires respectively, stores were ranked from 1 to 94 (high to low), resulting in each store being given two rankings, one for each questionnaire’s total score; and � based on these rankings, stores were grouped into three categories on each of the two rankings, these being labelled 1 for being in the top 30, 2 for being in the middle 34, and 3 for being in the bottom 30 stores. using this method, it could now be determined whether the top 30 stores based on overall customer value had a higher average score for employee climate. the following table indicates that the stores with a higher customer value ranking (cevrog : customer experienced value rank order grouping = 1) have higher mean scores for all the employee climate components as well as for the total employee climate score. an analysis of variance further indicates that some of these differences between means are significant at the 0.005 level, as shown in the following table. in order to further analyse the differences between the three sets of means, a post hoc comparison of means using the tukey hsd test was conducted. the results of this analysis are reflected in the following table. this table indicates that for stores ranked high (group 1) versus stores ranked low (group 3) on overall customer value, there are significant differences in the mean employee climate score on the following components: � total employee climate � management; � team working; � participation; � role clarity; and � structure. given that it has been indicated that stores ranked higher on customer value also display higher mean scores for overall employee climate as well as some of its components, these results can therefore be taken to provisionally prove the first hypothesis. to obtain full acceptance of this hypothesis, the relationship between the dimensions of customer value and employee climate was also investigated. the following table contains the correlations between these components, as well as their respective significances. clearly, of interest in this situation are the correlations between the t wo customer value and the ten employee climate dimensions. for the purposes of the following diagram, only correlations significant at least at the 0.010 level are used. this diagram in figure 4 illustrates that although some employee climate components overlap (management, role clarity, structure) in terms of being related to both customer value components, there are also employee climate components that relate only to the relationship aspect of customer value, these being teamworking, general satisfaction and participation. clearly, the relationship between employeeexperienced climate and customer-experienced value is more complex than is immediately apparent. given all these findings, hypothesis one can however by accepted as proven. verwey, carstens70 table 3 employee climate mean scores per customer value grouping case summaries cevrog eectotal manage team strategy general recognition values participation role structure trust 1 mean 182.9360 53.6160 18.7147 20.1593 21.2060 13.0450 12.1150 11.1823 17.5040 9.0907 6.3040 std. 21.2625 8.2744 2.9233 3.2239 2.8478 2.3044 2.1796 2.1942 1.3836 1.3556 .9804 deviation 2 mean 177.1626 49.1124 17.4838 20.8418 20.8141 13.3715 12.2662 10.8356 17.1868 9.0756 6.1756 std. 24.7163 9.6002 2.8151 3.2971 3.5487 1.8554 1.4408 1.8426 1.4349 1.4665 1.0796 deviation 3 mean 162.7540 43.9497 16.6570 18.5143 19.2957 11.8097 12.1343 9.9850 16.3817 8.0990 5.9293 std. 24.1698 11.9044 2.4715 3.1760 3.3709 2.0048 1.5804 1.5222 1.1825 1.2260 1.0072 deviation total mean 174.4067 48.9020 17.6128 19.8812 20.4546 12.7688 12.1759 10.6748 17.0311 8.7687 6.1380 std. deviation 24.6972 10.6461 2.8415 3.3479 3.3472 2.1413 1.7352 1.9169 1.4073 1.4204 1.0262 es per customer value grouping case summaries case summaries cevrog eectotal manage team strategy general recognition values participation role structure trust 1 mean 182.9360 53.6160 18.7147 20.1593 21.2060 13.0450 12.1150 11.1823 17.5040 9.0907 6.3040 std. 21.2625 8.2744 2.9233 3.2239 2.8478 2.3044 2.1796 2.1942 1.3836 1.3556 .9804 deviation 2 mean 177.1626 49.1124 17.4838 20.8418 20.8141 13.3715 12.2662 10.8356 17.1868 9.0756 6.1756 std. 24.7163 9.6002 2.8151 3.2971 3.5487 1.8554 1.4408 1.8426 1.4349 1.4665 1.0796 deviation 3 mean 162.7540 43.9497 16.6570 18.5143 19.2957 11.8097 12.1343 9.9850 16.3817 8.0990 5.9293 std. 24.1698 11.9044 2.4715 3.1760 3.3709 2.0048 1.5804 1.5222 1.1825 1.2260 1.0072 deviation total mean 174.4067 48.9020 17.6128 19.8812 20.4546 12.7688 12.1759 10.6748 17.0311 8.7687 6.1380 std. deviation 24.6972 10.6461 2.8415 3.3479 3.3472 2.1413 1.7352 1.9169 1.4073 1.4204 1.0262 table 4 anova employee means sum df mean f sig. squar eectot 6514.27 2 3257.13 5.90 .00 between within 50211.40 91 551.77 total 56725.56 93 manage 1403.9 2 2701.96 6.99 .00 between within 9136.61 91 100.40 total 10540.53 93 teamwork 64.39 2 32.19 4.26 .01 between within 686.49 91 7.54 total 750.88 93 strategy 89.74 2 44.87 4.28 .01 between within 952.66 91 10.46 total 1042.41 93 general 61.62 2 30.81 2.86 .06 between within 980.30 91 10.77 total 1041.93 93 recognition 42.23 2 21.11 5.00 .00 between within 384.16 91 4.22 total 426.40 93 values .44 2 .22 .07 .93 between within 278.70 91 3.06 total 279.14 93 participation 22.88 2 11.44 3.26 .04 between within 164.01 91 3.50 total 184.19 93 role 20.18 2 10.09 5.60 .00 between within 164.01 91 1.80 total 184.19 93 structure 19.76 2 9.88 5.35 .00 between within 167.85 91 1.84 total 187.62 93 trust 2.18 2 1.09 1.03 .35 between within 95.76 91 1.05 total 97.94 93 customer value and financial performance the following hypotheses were formulated with regard to this aspect of the operational research model: stores ranked higher on sales revenue performance as compared to budgeted performance will display higher average scores for customer satisfaction. stores ranked higher on sales revenue performance improvement from year 1 to year 2 will display higher average scores for customer satisfaction. stores ranked higher on sales profit contribution performance will display higher average scores for customer satisfaction. stores ranked higher on sales profit contribution performance improvement from year 1 to year 2 will display higher average scores for customer satisfaction. in order to test these hypotheses the following additional data manipulation was performed: � based on the percentage deviat ion of act ual sales revenue and actual profit contribution from budgeted sales revenue and budgeted profit contribution in year 1, stores were ranked from high to low (this will indicate in relative terms the sales revenue performance of stores in year 1). � based on the percentage deviation of actual sales revenue and actual profit contribution in year 2 from actual sales revenue and actual profit contribution in year 1, stores were ranked from high to low (this will indicate in relative terms the sales revenue and profit contribution performance improvement of stores in year 2 compared to year 1). � based on these rankings, stores were grouped into three categories on each of the rankings, these being a grouping of 1 for being in the top 30, a grouping of 3 for being in the bottom 30, and a grouping of 2 for being in the middle 34 stores. using this method, it could now be determined whether stores in grouping 1 (high performers) based on each of the revenue/profit contribution rankings had a higher average score for customer value than stores in grouping 3 (low performers). the following two tables show that for both revenue and profit contributions, there is no statistically significant relationship between these measures of financial performance and customerexperienced value. none of hypotheses 2 to 5 could be proven. this is further confirmed by the following table which indicates that there are no significant correlations between the rank order scores for customer experienced value (cev), employee experienced climate (eec) and any of the sales revenue or profit contribution rank order scores. the results reported can best be summarised as per the diagram in figure 5. given that hypothesis 1 was proven, the diagram illustrates that overall employee climate, as well as some of its components, is related to customer-experienced value. the fact that hypotheses 2 through 5 could, however, not be proven is reflected in the greyed typing in the diagram. it is clear from the results that the postulated relationship between variables a and b in the diagram has been proven, but that the relationship between variables b and c and d respectively has not been proven. recommendations a number of recommendations can be made to further the understanding of the vital link bet ween suppliers, organisations and their employees, and the customer, and the impact that this has on the sustainable performance of the organisation, including its abilit y to serve the interests of all its key and relevant stakeholders. these recommendations can be classified into three levels, i.e. issues external to the organisation, those internal to the organisation, and finally issues relating to the dynamic interplay bet ween the variables. external context in the first instance, the external context of the organisation should be understood in specific detail. some of the issues to be clarified in future research include: � a single quantitative (questionnaire) measure of customerexperienced value assumes that customers have similar expectations. it is therefore recommended that future research should factor in the influence of the geographical/ cultural/social/economic context of customers of the organisation. validation of key relationships 71 verwey, carstens72 (j) cevrog 2 3 1 3 1 2 2 3 1 3 1 2 2 3 1 3 1 2 2 3 1 3 1 2 2 3 1 3 1 2 2 3 1 3 1 2 2 3 1 3 1 2 2 3 1 3 1 2 2 3 1 3 1 2 2 3 1 3 1 2 2 3 1 3 1 2 (i) cevrog 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 dependent variable eectotal management teamworking strategy general recognition values participation role structure trust mean difference (i-j) 5.7734 20.1820 –5.7734 14.4086 –20.1820 –14.4086 4.5036 9.6663 –4.5036 5.1627 –9.6663 –5.1627 1.2308 2.0577 –1.2308 .8268 –2.0577 –.8268 –.6824 1.6450 .6824 2.3274 –1.6450 –2.3274 .3919 1.9103 –.3919 1.5185 –1.9103 –1.5185 –.3265 1.2353 .3265 1.5618 –1.2353 –1.5618 –.1512 –1.9333e–02 .1512 .1318 1.933e–02 –.1318 .3467 1.1973 –.3467 .8506 –1.1973 –.8506 .3172 1.1223 –3172 .8051 –1.1223 –.8051 1.508e–02 .9917 –1.5078e–02 .9766 –.9917 –.9766 .1284 .3747 –.1284 .2463 –.3747 –.2463 std. error 5.8840 6.0651 5.8840 5.8840 6.0651 5.8840 2.5099 2.5872 2.5099 2.5099 2.5872 2.5099 .6880 .7092 .6880 .6880 .7092 .6880 .8105 .8354 .8105 .8105 .8354 .8105 .8221 .8474 .8221 .8221 .8474 .8221 .5147 .5305 .5147 .5147 .5305 .5147 .4384 .4519 .4384 .7384 .4519 .4384 .4689 .4833 .4689 .4689 .4833 .4689 .3363 .3466 .3363 .3363 .3466 .3363 .3402 .3507 .3402 .3402 .3507 .3402 .2570 .2649 .2570 .2570 .2649 .2570 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * sig. .591 .004 .591 .043 .004 .043 .177 .001 .177 .105 .001 .105 .179 .013 .179 .455 .013 .455 .678 .126 .678 .014 .126 .014 .882 .068 .882 .160 .068 .160 .802 .057 .802 .009 .057 .009 .937 .999 .937 .951 .999 .951 .741 .040 .741 .171 .040 .171 .614 .005 .614 .049 .005 .049 .999 .016 .999 .014 .016 .014 .872 .338 .872 .605 .338 .605 lower bound –8.2462 5.7310 –19.7929 .3891 –34.6330 –28.4282 –1.4767 3.5020 –10.4840 –.8176 –15.8307 –11.1430 –.4084 .3680 –2.8701 –.8124 –3.7474 –2.4661 –2.6135 –.3455 –1.2487 .3963 –3.6355 –4.2585 –1.5670 –.1089 –2.3508 –.4405 –3.9295 –3.4774 –1.5528 –2.8696e–02 –.89998 .3355 –2.4994 –2.7881 –1.1957 –1.0960 –.8933 –.9126 –1.0573 –1.1763 –.7705 4.574e–02 –1.4640 –.2666 –2.3489 –1.9678 –.4840 .2964 –1.1185 3.843e–03 –1.9482 –1.6064 –.795 .1561 –.8257 .1660 –1.8272 –1.7872 –.4838 –.2564 –.7407 –.3660 –1.0058 –.8585 upper bound 19.7929 34.6330 8.2462 28.4282 –5.7310 –.3891 10.4840 15.8307 1.4767 11.1430 –3.5020 .8176 2.8701 3.7474 .4084 2.4661 –.3680 .8124 1.2487 3.6355 2.6135 4.2585 .3455 –.3963 2.3508 3.9295 1.5670 3.4774 .1089 .4405 .8998 2.4994 1.5528 2.7881 2.870e–02 –.3355 .8933 1.0573 1.1957 1.1763 1.0960 .9126 1.4640 2.3489 .7705 1.9678 –4.5744e–02 .2666 1.1185 1.9482 .4840 1.6064 –.2964 –3.8428e–03 .8257 1.8272 .7955 1.7872 –.1561 –.1660 .7407 1.0058 .4383 .8585 .2564 .3660 95% confidence interval table 5 post hoc mean comparison for emplotee climate multiple comparisons tukey hsd * the mean difference is significant at the .05 level. table 7 post hoc comparison: customer value mean scores per sales revenue improvement grouping3 multiple comparisons tukey hsd dependent (i) (j) mean std. sig. 95% confidence variable ry2over ry2over difference error lower upper y1rog y1rog (i–j) bound bound relationship 1 2 –.5458 .8845 .811 –.26532 1.5615 3 –1.3738 .9257 .303 –3.5794 .8319 2 1 .5458 .8845 .811 –1.5615 2.6532 3 –.8280 .8926 .624 –2.9548 1.2989 3 1 1.3738 .9257 .303 –.8319 3.5794 2 .8280 .8926 .624 –1.2989 2.9548 1 2 –.3085 .3256 .612 –1.0842 .4672 product 3 –.2717 .3407 .706 –1.0836 .5402 3 –.2717 .3407 .706 –1.0836 .5402 2 1 .3085 .3256 .612 –.4672 1.0842 3 3.680e–02 .3286 .993 –.7461 .8197 3 1 .2717 .3407 .706 –.5402 1.0836 2 –3.6798e–02 .3286 .993 –.8197 .7461 cevtotal4 1 2 –.8391 1.1566 .749 –3.5950 1.9168 3 –1.6461 1.2106 .366 –4.5306 1.2383 2 1 .8391 1.1566 .749 –1.9168 3.5950 3 –.8071 1.1673 .769 –3.5884 1.9743 3 1 1.6461 1.2106 .366 –1.2383 4.5306 2 .8071 1.1673 .769 –1.9743 3.5884 3ry2overy1rog = rank order grouping for revenue year 2 compared to year 1 4cevtotal = overall customer experienced value score validation of key relationships 73 pearson correlation sig. (2-tailed) n pearson correlation sig. (2-tailed) n pearson correlation sig. (2-tailed) n pearson correlation sig. (2-tailed) n pearson correlation sig. (2-tailed) n pearson correlation sig. (2-tailed) n pearson correlation sig. (2-tailed) n pearson correlation sig. (2-tailed) n pearson correlation sig. (2-tailed) n pearson correlation sig. (2-tailed) n pearson correlation sig. (2-tailed) n pearson correlation sig. (2-tailed) n interaction product management teamworking strategy general recognition values participation role structure trust interaction 1.000 94 .787 .000 94 .369 .000 94 .329 .001 94 .180 .083 94 .241 .019 94 .198 0.56 94 .034 .742 94 .284 .006 94 .342 .001 94 .340 .001 94 .187 .071 94 ** ** ** * ** ** ** product .787 .000 94 1.000 94 .296 .004 94 .246 .017 94 .192 .064 94 .221 .033 94 .266 .009 94 .038 .718 94 .186 .072 94 .277 .007 94 .220 .033 94 .057 .583 94 management .369 .000 94 .296 .004 94 1.000 94 .626 .000 94 .651 .000 94 .692 .000 94 .643 .000 94 .344 .001 94 .741 .000 94 .476 .000 94 .560 .000 94 .609 .000 94 teamworking .329 .001 94 .246 .017 94 .626 .000 94 1.000 94 .628 .000 94 .746 .000 94 .497 .000 94 .483 .000 94 .706 .000 94 .700 .000 94 .547 .000 94 .707 .000 94 strategy .180 .083 94 .192 .064 94 .651 .000 94 .628 .000 94 1.000 94 .760 .000 94 .693 .000 94 .616 .000 94 .554 .000 94 .611 .000 94 .584 .000 94 .612 .000 94 general .241 .019 94 .221 .033 94 .692 .000 94 .746 .000 94 .760 .000 94 1.000 94 .721 .000 94 .695 .000 94 .697 .000 94 .542 .000 94 .608 .000 94 .673 .000 94 recognition .198 .056 94 .266 .009 94 .643 .000 94 .497 .000 94 .693 .000 94 .721 .000 94 1.000 94 .531 .000 94 .533 .000 94 .502 .000 94 .537 .000 94 .501 .000 94 values .034 .742 94 .038 .718 94 .344 .001 94 .483 .000 94 .616 .000 94 .695 .000 94 .531 .000 94 1.000 94 .481 .000 94 .526 .000 94 .463 .000 94 .435 .000 94 participation .284 .006 94 .186 .072 94 .741 .000 94 .706 .000 94 .554 .000 94 .697 .000 94 .533 .000 94 .482 .000 94 1.000 94 .608 .000 94 .605 .000 94 .633 .000 94 role .342 .001 94 .277 .007 94 .476 .000 94 .700 .000 94 .611 .000 94 .542 .000 94 .502 .000 94 .526 .000 94 .608 .000 94 1.000 94 .590 .000 94 .583 .000 94 structure .340 .001 94 .220 .033 94 .560 .000 94 .547 .000 94 .584 .000 94 .608 .000 94 .537 .000 94 .463 .000 94 .605 .000 94 .590 .000 94 1.000 94 .580 .000 94 trust .187 .071 94 .057 .583 94 .609 .000 94 .707 .000 94 .612 .000 94 .673 .000 94 .501 .000 94 .435 .000 94 .633 .000 94 .583 .000 94 .580 .000 94 1.000 94 ** ** * * ** ** * ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** * ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** * * ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** * ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). table 6 employee and customer component correlations correlations figure 4: employee climate and customer value component relationships table 8 post hoc comparison: customer value mean scores per profit contribution grouping5 multiple comparisons tukey hsd dependent (i) (j) mean std. sig. 95% confidence variable py2over py2over difference error lower upper y1brog y1brog (i–j) bound bound relationship 1 2 –.6881 .8923 .722 –2.8142 1.4380 3 –.3917 .9339 .908 –2.6170 1.8336 2 1 .6881 .8923 .722 –1.4380 2.8142 3 .2964 .9006 .942 –1.8493 2.4421 3 1 .3917 .9339 .908 –1.8336 2.6170 2 –.2964 .9006 .942 –2.4421 1.8493 product 1 2 –3.977 .3247 .442 –1.1713 .3759 3 –.2634 .3398 .719 –1.0731 .5463 2 1 .3977 .3247 .442 –.3759 1.1713 3 .1343 .3277 .912 –.6464 .9151 3 1 .2634 .3398 .719 –.5463 1.0731 2 –.1343 .3277 .912 –.9151 .6464 cevtotal 1 2 –1.0703 1.1629 .629 –3.8411 1.7005 3 –.6561 1.2172 .852 –3.5562 2.2440 2 1 1.0703 1.1629 .629 –1.7005 3.8411 3 .4142 1.1737 .934 –2.3822 3.2106 3 1 .6561 1.2172 .852 –2.2440 3.5562 2 –.4142 1.1737 .934 –3.2106 2.3822 5py2aoverbrog = rank order grouping for profit year 2 actual compared to budget � single instruments claiming to be adequate to measure customer value across industries may be so general in nature, that they in fact add little value to the understanding of the uniqueness of an industry, the products/services it provides, and the key stakeholders it has to interact with given its own context. instruments should be customised to reflect the unique dynamics of the industry within which the organisation operates. internal context the following recommendations can be made in terms of the organisation itself. � even if it was true that two organisations served the same customer base with similar (or even the same) products or services, each would position itself differently in terms of external communications, its internal business operating model and its culture. to assume that employee climate will have the same meaning or impact in both organisations may not be true. it is recommended that the specific drivers of employee climate within the organisation be identified and included in measures of employee-experienced climate. � the capacity of the organisation to support a customer and market orientation should be included in such measurement instruments, as also indicated by harris (2000). verwey, carstens74 table 9 spearman correlations: employee, customer and financial rankings6 correlations cev eec ry2a ry2 py2a py2 rank rank over overy over overy spearman’s correlation 1.000 .337 –.091 –.140 –.047 –.188 rho cev rank sig. (2-tailed) .001 .383 .178 .654 .070 order n 94 94 94 94 94 94 correlation .337 1.000 .023 –.010 .019 –.005 eec rank sig. (2-tailed) .001 .828 .922 .859 .963 order n 94 94 94 94 94 94 correlation –.091 .023 1.000 .933 .845 .808 ry2aover sig. (2-tailed) .383 .828 .000 .000 .000 bro n 94 94 94 94 94 94 correlation –.140 –.010 .933 1.000 .775 .866 ry2overy sig. (2-tailed) .178 .922 .000 .000 .000 1ro n 94 94 94 94 94 94 correlation –.047 .019 .845 .775 1.000 .857 py2aover sig. (2-tailed) .654 .859 .000 .000 .000 bro n 94 94 94 94 94 94 correlation –.188 –.005 .808 .866 .857 1.000 py2overy sig. (2-tailed) .070 .963 .000 .000 .000 1ro n 94 94 94 94 94 94 ** correlation is significant at the .01 level (2-tailed). 5ry2aoverbrog = rank order grouping for revenue year 2 actual compared to budget figure 5: summary of findings ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** � the phase in the lifecycle of the organisation should be considered, as it is well known that organisations display very different behaviours towards external and internal stakeholders depending on what stage it finds itself in. harris & ogbonna (2000) also refer to the impact of a marketoriented culture change on frontline employees. relationship dynamics the following recommendations can be made about the research process in terms of the relationships between various factors. � firstly, research of this kind almost by definition has to be longitudinal in nature. it is in all likelihood not so much the employee climate and customer value that are related to one another, but rather changes in employee climate over time, which will impact on customer-experienced value over time, which will impact on changes in financial measures over time. � secondly, financial measures as the only measures of performance should also be reconsidered. for example, in economic circumstances where all players in an industry are under pressure in terms of revenues and profits, they may still be delivering customer excellence through a positive workforce. in such cases, other measures of performance may be more accurate measures of the organisation’s long-term sustainability. perhaps the most telling comment on the service-profit chain comes from silvestro & cross (2000:263), who suggest that “heskett et al’s ser vice-profit chain is too simplistic a model to understand the drivers of business success, regardless of environmental and operational context”. � finally, it is suggested that all research assessing perceptions of customers, employees and other key stakeholders include qualitative research to enrich and augment “the message of the numbers”. methodologies could include the themecentered interview as described by schorn (2000), inductive category development (mayring, 2000), and grounded theory (samik-ibrahim, 2000) who says that the strongest case for the use of the latter approach is in investigations of relatively uncharted water, or to gain a fresh perspective in a familiar situation. references allee, v. 2000. the value evolution. addressing larger implications of an intellectual capital and intangibles perspective. journal of intellectual capital. vol. 1, no. 1, pp.17-32. bowman, j.s. & wittmer, d.l. 2000. the unfashionable drucker : ethical and quality chic. journal of management history. vol. 6, no. 1, pp.13-29. caruana, a. 1997. corporate reputation: concept and measurement. journal of product & brand management. vol. 6, no. 2, pp.109-118. caruana, a., money, a.h. & berthon, p.r. 2000. service quality and satisfaction the moderating role of value. european journal of marketing. vol. 34, no. 11/12, pp.1338-1352. cuthbert, p.f. 1996(a). managing service quality in he: is servqual the answer? part 1. managing ser vice quality. volume 6, number 2: pp.11-16. cuthbert, p.f. 1996(b). managing service quality in he : is servqual the answer? part 2. managing ser vice quality. volume 6, number 3: pp.31-35. dean, j.w. & bowen, d.e. 1994. management theory and total quality: improving research and practice through theory development. academy of management review. vol. 19, no. 3, pp.392-418. devlin, j.f. 1998. adding value to service offerings: the case of uk retail financial services. european journal of marketing. vol. 32, no. 11/12, pp.1091-1109. durvasula, s., lyons, s. and mehta, s.c. 1999. testing the servqual scale in the business-to-business sector: the case of ocean freight shipping service. the journal of ser vices marketing, vol. 13, no. 2, pp.132-150. eccles, r. 1991. the performance measurement manifesto. har vard business review. january-february, pp.131-137. elkington, j. 1997. cannibals with forks: the triple bottom line of 21st century business. capstone. fülöp, g., hisrich, r.d & szegedi, k. 2000. business ethics and social responsibility in transition economies. journal of management development. vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 5-31. grönroos, c. 1998. marketing services: the case of a missing product. journal of business and industrial marketing. vol. 13, no. 4/5, pp.322-338. grönroos, c., heinonen, f., isoniemi, k. & lindholm, m. 2000. the netoffer model : a case example from the virtual marketspace. management decision. vol. 38, no. 4, pp.243252. handy, c. 1994. the empty raincoat. london: hutchinson. harris, l.c. & ogbonna, e. 2000. the response of front-line employees to market-oriented culture change. european journal of marketing. vol. 34, issue 3/4, pp.2-23. harris, l.c. 1998. cultural domination : the key to marketoriented culture? european journal of marketing. vol. 32, no. 3/4, pp.354-373. heard, j. 2002. fortune 500 list proves that customer is king. sunday times business times. april 14. heskett, j. l., sasser, w.e. & schlesinger, l.a. 1997. the ser viceprofit chain. new york, the free press. huber, f., hermann, a. & wricke, m. 2001. customer satisfaction as an antecedent of price acceptance: results of an empirical study. the journal of product and brand management. vol. 10, no. 3, pp.160-169. imrie, b.c., cadogan, j.w. & mcnaughton, r. 2002. the service quality construct on a global stage. managing ser vice quality. vol. 12, no. 1, pp.10-18. jensen, m.c. 2001. value maximisation, stakeholder theory, and the corporate objective function. social science research network electronic library. [web:] http://papers.ssrn.com/ sol3/results.cfm?nxtres=21 [date of access 23 march 2002] johns, n. 2000. what is this thing called service? european journal of marketing, vol. 33, no. 9/10, pp.958-973. kaplan, r.s. & norton, d.p. 1996. using the balanced scorecard as a strategic management system. har vard business review. january-february, pp.75-85. lau, r.s.m. 2000. quality of work life and performance – an ad hoc investigation of two key elements in the service-profit chain model. international journal of ser vice industr y management. vol. 11, no. 5, pp.422-437. ling, a. 2000. crm : it’s all about customer value. [web:] ht t p://www.netassets.co.za/netassets/sitewide/content/ direct/ 1,2275,654839-5232-0,00.html [date of access 10 july 2000] mayring, p. 2000. qualitative content analysis. forum qualitative sozialforschung/forum: qualitative social research [on-line journal], 1 (2). available at: http://qualitativeresearch.net/fqs/fqs-e/2-00inhalt-e.htm [date of access: june 6, 2001] mehta, s.c. & durvasula, s. 1998. relationships between servqual dimensions and organisational performance in the case of a business-to-business service. journal of business & industrial marketing, vol. 13, no. 1, pp.40-53. miller, a. 1998. strategic management (third edition). boston: mcgraw-hill. nalebuff, b.j. & brandenburger, a.m. 1996. co-opetition. london : harper collins. newman, k. 2001. interrogating servqual: a critical assessment of service quality measurement in a high street retail bank. international journal of bank marketing. vol. 19, no. 3, pp.126-139. normann, r. & ramirez, r. 1993. from value chain to value constellation: designing interactive strateg y. har vard business review. july-august, pp.65-77. obolensky, n. 2000. an inclusive approach moving the thinking forward. news from the centre. tomorrow’s company. spring/summer issue 6. validation of key relationships 75 parasuraman, a. 1998. customer service in business-to-business markets : an agenda for research. journal of business and industrial marketing. vol. 13, no. 4/5, pp.309-321. parasuraman, a., berry, l.l. & zeithaml, v.a. 1991. refinement and reassessment of the servqual scale. journal of retailing. vol. 67, no. 4, pp.420-50. parasuraman, a., zeithaml, v.a. & berry, l.l. 1985. a conceptual model of service quality and its implication for future research. journal of marketing. no. 49, april, pp.41-50. parasuraman, a., zeithaml, v.a. & berry, l.l. 1988. servqual: a multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. journal of retailing, vol. 64, no. 1, spring, pp.12-40. payne, a., holt, s. & frow, p. 2000. integrating employee, customer and shareholder value through an enterprise performance model: an opportunity for financial services. international journal of bank marketing. vol. 18, no. 6, pp.258-273. pels, j. 1999. exchange relationships in consumer markets? european journal of marketing. vol. 33, no.1/2, pp.19-37. philip, g. & hazlett, s. 1997. the measurement of service quality: a new p-c-p attributes model. international journal of quality & reliability management. vol. 14, no. 3, pp.260-286. pitt, l., caruana, a. & berthon, p.r. 1996. market orientation and business performance: some european evidence. international marketing review. vol. 13, no. 1, pp.5-18. powell, t.c. 1995. total quality management as competitive advantage: a review and empirical study. strategic management journal. vol. 16, pp.15-37. robinson, l. 1999 . measuring service quality: current thinking and future requirements. marketing intelligence & planning. vol. 1, no. 1, pp.21-32. samik-ibrahim, r.m. 2000. grounded theory methodology as the research strategy for a developing country. forum qualitative sozialforschung/forum: qualitative social research [on-line journal], 1 (1). available at: http://qualitative-research.net/fqs [date of access: june 6, 2001]. schorn, a. 2000. the “theme-centered interview.”. a method to decode manifest and latent aspects of subjective realities. forum qualitative sozialforschung/forum: qualitative social research [on-line journal], 1 (2). available at: http://qualitative-research.net/fqs/fqs-e/2-00inhalt-e.htm [date of access: june 6, 2001] silvestro, r. & cross, s. 2000. applying the service-profit chain in a retail environment. international journal of ser vice industry management. vol. 11, no. 3, pp.244-268. soteriou, a. & zenios, s.a. 1999. operations, quality, and profitabilit y in the provision of banking services. management science september, vol. 45, issue 9, pp.12211239. sureshchandar, g.s., rajendran, c. & anantharaman, r.n. 2002. determinants of customer-perceived service quality: a confirmatory factor analysis approach. journal of ser vices marketing. vol. 16, no. 1, pp.9-34. wiersema, f. 1996. customer intimacy. london : harper collins. zeigenfuss, d.e. 2000. developing an internal auditing department balanced scorecard. managerial auditing journal. vol. 15, no. 1, pp.12-19. zeithaml, v.a., berry, l.l. & parasuraman, a. 1996. the behavioral consequences of service quality. journal of marketing. vol. 60, april, pp.31-46. verwey, carstens76 abstract introduction research methodology results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) patrick w. bwowe department of finance and management, walter sisulu university, south africa newlin marongwe division of academic affairs and research development, walter sisulu university, south africa citation bwowe, p. w., & marongwe, n. (2018). implementing a total reward strategy in selected south african municipal organisations. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a927. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.927 original research implementing a total reward strategy in selected south african municipal organisations patrick w. bwowe, newlin marongwe received: 11 mar. 2017; accepted: 24 may 2018; published: 02 oct. 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the role of total rewards in achieving business goals, employee productivity and employee retention cannot be underestimated. a total reward strategy has been linked to the entire employee proposition making it a critical factor in the attraction and retention of talent in organisations. research purpose: the study focused on investigating the extent to which municipal organisations are implementing total rewards practices. motivation for the study: the study was motivated by the desire to explore the extent south african municipalities are implementing total rewards as a basis of their reward system and to find out which total reward practices are implemented by municipalities as part of their compensation and reward strategy. research approach/design and method: the study used an internet-based survey with a questionnaire to assess managers’ perception of total reward strategy and the extent it is implemented in their organisations. a non-list-based random sampling technique was used to draw up a sample of 58 human resources managers from selected municipalities. descriptive statistics was used to analyse the survey. main findings: the study found out that few of the responding municipalities had implemented the total reward strategy. practical/managerial implications: municipalities should re-think their approach to compensation by ensuring that total rewards programmes are developed and implemented. contribution/value add: the findings contribute to new knowledge that can be used by municipal employers to attract the required talent capable of ensuring effective service delivery, through developing competitive reward strategies that can command high employee satisfaction, loyalty and commitment to the organisation. introduction reward management, as asserted by armstrong, brown and reilly (2009), is concerned with the processes of developing, implementing, operating and evaluating reward policies and practices that recognise and value people according to the efforts and contributions they make towards achieving organisational, departmental and team goals. organisations have put up reward systems consisting of the interrelated processes and practices of financial and non-financial rewards that combine into a total rewards approach to ensure that reward management is carried out to the benefit of the organisation and the people who work there (armstrong & taylor, 2014, p. 359). armstrong (2006) and jiang (2009) refer to rewards as the compensation employees receive from organisations for their services. a reward strategy describes what the organisations propose to give their employees as a reward for their performance. it constitutes a framework for developing and implementing reward policies, practices and processes. and as armstrong and taylor (2014) assert, it is intended to achieve three major objectives: performance, competitiveness and fairness. it also provides answers to two basic questions: (1) what do we need to do about our reward practices to ensure that they are fit for purpose? and (2) how do we intend to do it? the two authors further observe that a reward strategy is a declaration of intent that defines what the organisation wants to do in the future to develop and implement reward policies, practices and processes that will further the achievement of its business goals and meet the needs of its stakeholders. theoretical framework reward strategies have their root in the content and process theory of motivation. the content theory of motivation focuses on factors that energise, direct, sustain and stop behaviour. content theorists such as maslow and alderfer stressed the importance of need satisfaction in the motivation process, although there were some differences in their conceptualisation, categorisations of needs and their motivational levels (alderfer, 1989; maslow, 1943). on the other hand, the process theorists focussed on what drives, sustains and stops behaviour. skinner and belmont (1993), for instance, explained motivation to learn as consequences of teacher behaviour and student engagement while adams (1965) contends that motivational programmes should be perceived as equitable and fair to all employees. an important implication that can be derived from both the content and process theories of motivation is that decisions about rewards should be broad and holistic. they should take into account the fact that people have different needs at different times, and as such, flexible reward systems, which do not rely too heavily on financial rewards, should be developed. rewards should not only be performance orientated but also be seen by employees as being fair and developmentally orientated. reward programmes should enable employees to set goals to direct behaviour, ensure voluntary choices about how performance will occur and how it can be accomplished and what outcomes will employees choose as desirable. the study is also rooted in the national public management (npm) theory. the theory is a discrete set of ideas that can be broadly divided into two categories: firstly, where it advocates for the use of private management ideas, such as the provision of more responsive and efficient services, performance agreements including service standards, greater autonomy and flexibility for managers, new financial techniques; and secondly, the greater use of market mechanisms, such as privatisation and public–private partnerships in service provision (cameron, 2009, p. 4). the use of total rewards strategy in municipal organisations as proposed by this study thus emanates partly from the views proposed in the npm theory. in addition, the constitution of the republic of south africa, 1996 provides in section 195 (h) that ‘good human resource management and career development practices, to maximise human potential, must be cultivated’. also, section 72 makes provision that the minister of department of provincial and local government (dplg) may, after consultation with the south african local government bargaining council (salgbc), issue guidelines to provide for the development of incentives frameworks for staff members of municipalities. however, such incentive and reward system should not be in conflict with any local government legislation or binding ruling given by the dplg, south african local government association (salga) and/or salgbc. kaur (2013) points out that people need better work relationships, work life balance, job security and salary and other benefits to keep them satisfied and contented. hence intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation are important for performance of municipal tasks. creating a working environment in municipal organisations where employees do their work well, have good relations with colleagues and where they can positively influence their workplace is imperative. hence, the notion of total rewards which offers both financial and non-financial rewards comes into the picture. literature review in the last few years the concept of total rewards has received tremendous attention in the total rewards research discourse with many researchers indicating the need for its implementation in the organisations (armstrong & taylor, 2014; bussin & toerien, 2015; kaplan, 2012; makhuzeni & barkhuizen, 2015). the conceptual basis of total rewards stems from its holistic approach, or philosophy, which encapsulates the sum total of financial and non-financial rewards that an organisation may give to its employees (armstrong 2006; nazir, shah, & zaman, 2012; tsede & kutin, 2013). many authors have suggested examples of benefits that may accrue from the implementation of a total reward strategy. heneman (2007, p. 3) suggests that total rewards, do not only encompass compensation and benefits but also ‘personal and professional growth opportunities and a motivating work environment (for example, recognition, valued job design, and work/life balance)’. terera and ngirande (2014) found a positive relationship between rewards and employee retention and share a similar view with heneman by suggesting that employers should try to create a total reward structure that includes both financial and non-financial rewards as a strategy to increase retention of talent. the two researchers conclude that ‘rewards do not only fulfil financial and material needs, but also provide a social status and position of power within an organisation’. kaplan (2012) on his part suggests that through total rewards design: human resources (hr) serves as a change agent, helping to connect the dots to reveal a picture of workforce synergy, with everyone focused on the attainment of common business goals. (p. 18) total reward strategies can also afford employers an opportunity to vary rewards across generational cohorts with rewards being tailored to the needs of a specific cohort (bussin & van roy, 2014). the role of total rewards benefits and their positive effect on employee motivation and retention as suggested in the earlier discussion has contributed to the significance and increasing attention that many organisations now put on reward restructuring processes. for instance, in one of the surveys on total rewards conducted in the autumn of 2011 by aon hewitt, one-half of companies that were surveyed indicated that they expected total rewards to help them improve their ability to engage, retain and attract talent, while a similar number saw total rewards as a key lever to help drive improved business results (aon, 2012). many authors have tried to outline the principle elements that constitute total rewards. prominent among them is fernandes (1998), who lists, among others, the following: basic salary, variable pay, pension benefits, death insurance benefits, private medical insurance, vocational entitlement, company schemes, share securities and mortgages. however, the total reward strategy model (trm) that seems to be popular among hr practitioners and researchers is that of worldatwork (2012), which classifies total rewards under six categories: compensation: this provides reward for services rendered. it includes both fixed pay such as salary, variable pay like commissions and premium like the skill-based pay. benefits programmes: this includes health, income protection, savings and retirement and medicare, which provide security for employees and their families. work–life effectiveness: a specific set of organisational practices, policies and programmes such as job security and teleworking. these programmes provide work flexibility to ensure that the employee manages effectively his work responsibilities and is also able to attend to personal problems and family-related issues. recognition: formal and informal programmes that acknowledge or give special attention to employee performance and contribution to organisational success. performance management: the alignment of organisational, team and individual efforts towards the achievement of business goals and organisational success. this can be achieved through proper planning and employee evaluation. talent development: it provides the opportunity for employee to improve their skills and knowledge through created training and learning opportunities. the worldatwork total reward management (trm) model has become popular as it provides the basis for hr practitioners to experience the power of leveraging multiple factors to attract, motivate and retain talent and enable high-performing companies realise that their proprietary total rewards programmes have allowed them to excel and become more competitive (worldatwork, 2012). furthermore, it has broadened the research discourse on the total rewards by attracting researchers and hr consultants to increase their investigation on the impact of total rewards on talent retention. however, it should be noted that the worldatwork model is one but of many others that have sprung out in the literature explaining the significance of total rewards in explaining strategic reward options. the truth of the matter is that the model in essence encapsulates both the two motivational rewards factors: extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. many other total reward strategy (trs) models and many researchers agree that a (trs) should embrace these two factors. there is a consensus among researchers and hr practitioners that a trs should be constituted of both financial and non-financial rewards. the differences in the different trms are the way benefits are categorised in each model. hence, what is in the worldatwork trm is likely to be similar in other models except that naming or categorisation of these rewards may be different. for instance, another significant and well-recognised model by hr practitioners is that of tower watson (2016). unlike the worldatwork model, this one compresses employee rewards into three categories: (1) the career and environment rewards such as training and development, mentor programmes, career management programmes, talent mobility, discretionary technology, flexible work programmes, corporate social responsibility and well-being programmes (2) the performance-based rewards like base pay increases (merit, promotion), recognition, short-term incentives, long-term incentives, profit-sharing plans and lastly foundational rewards that encompass pay, health care, retirement, perquisites, allowances, life and disability, wellness benefits, wellness initiatives, employee assistance programme (eap), voluntary benefits and time off. comparatively, one would clearly see that there are great similarities between the two models. by including both financial and non-financial rewards, the trs can ensure that employees are motivated towards performance excellence while sending out a strong message about what is important to the business (jean-claude, 2007) and can also lead to more ‘personal and a stronger emotional bond between employees and the company’ (aon, 2012, p. 4). dalvi and ebrahimi (2013) also talk of a well-designed reward system that creates a sense of belonging among employees and enhances employee growth and development, thus increasing employee self-esteem and ultimately lead to healthier organisations. in other respects, organisations link rewards to performance objectives in order to promote justice and fairness among diverse groups of employees. if compensation is not linked to performance, it becomes difficult for employers to give recognition where it is deserved, and issues of unfairness may creep in. similarly, rewards as noted by molofo (2012, p. 75) are typically the outcome of performance evaluations and as such performance management system (pms) should be used as a tool or measure to reward performance in various ways; for example, non-financial rewards such as recognition of achievement should be used in municipalities. this is also echoed by baird, schoch and chen (2012) who assert that employees will feel valued if they are equitably compensated for their efforts and that without a link between performance and rewards, poor performers may not be motivated to improve the challenge though is that in most municipal organisations, pmss are very ineffective and there is low compliance in many municipalities. hence, the idea of a using a pms to promote the trs is likely to lead to impediments towards its implementation. however, this is not an excuse for municipal hr managers not to apply trss. by not undertaking reward restructuring, municipalities fall short of enjoying the benefits that are assumed to accrue from total reward strategies. there are many benefits that municipalities could exploit by using this strategy. research on compensation pay systems has advocated for reward approaches that include benefits such as fairness and recognition. for organisations such as municipalities, which comprise diverse groups of employees, issues of equity, justice and fairness are of paramount importance and an effective pay system should be informed, among others, by these attributes. this is to ensure that employees do not perceive the pay system as being unfair. moreover, ‘pay systems are strategically designed when rewards are linked to activities, attributes and work outcomes that support the organisation’s strategic direction and foster the achievement of strategic goals’ (howard & dougherty, 2004, p. 41). municipalities should create a strong performance culture with effective rewards and sanctions (engela & ajam, 2010, p. 14) and should also ensure that rewards are linked to the agreed performance goals (bussin, 2017). for instance, municipalities like cape agulhas developed a performance management policy framework, which aims not only at rewarding and recognising performance but also recognise that for this to happen good performance managements systems must be in place. the pms should be characterised by the introduction of innovations that add value to the municipality and the broader community or by performing excellently in terms of own performance. rewards that could be applicable could include improvement performance awards, merit certificates and year-end awards (cape agulhas council resolution 125/2015). problem statement the role of total rewards in achieving business goals, employee productivity and employee retention cannot be underestimated. a total reward strategy has been linked to the entire employee proposition, thus making it one of the most critical factors in the attraction and retention of talent in organisations. while there are profound arguments for organisations to develop and implement total reward strategies, many organisations, including south african municipalities, are still using traditional reward systems, where compensation is dominated by base pay and benefits. the problem with traditional reward systems is that they do not communicate or support strategic business priorities and are inflexible and not reflective of business results (jean-claude, 2007). they are based on tenure, entitlement and internal equity. furthermore, when a total reward approach is used, it can result in ‘well-structured reward systems, which can enhance satisfaction and fairness’ (howard & dougherty, 2004, p. 41). it is against the backdrop of these assertions that this paper wishes to investigate and explore the extent south african municipalities are implementing total rewards as a basis of their reward system and to find out which total reward practices are implemented by municipalities as part of their compensation and reward strategy. goal of the study the goals of the study were to: investigate the extent municipalities use total rewards as part of their reward strategy provide suggestions or recommendations as to how municipalities would establish favourable conditions for the implementation of total reward practices for their employees. research methodology research design the research design for the study was internet-based, using a questionnaire as the main data collecting tool. the main contact and response mode was e-mail. a non-list-based random sampling technique was used to draw up a sample of 58 human resources managers from selected municipalities. one hundred and fifty-eight municipalities were randomly selected from all the nine provinces to request for their contacts and willingness to participate in the survey. of the contacted municipalities, only 58 declared their intention to participate. of the 58 municipalities that participated in the online survey, only 23 returned their questionnaire, thus giving a response rate of 40%. this sampling technique was chosen because it was difficult to have an existing list of e-mail addresses of managers to serve as the sample frame for the selected municipalities. the e-mail list that was assembled by the researchers was in addition used as the sample for the study. this is in agreement with fricker’s suggestion (2008) that surveys using non-list-based sampling allows for the selection of a probability-based sample without the need to actually enumerate a sampling frame. the study was based on six itemised variables that were presented in the form of a questionnaire. one of the six items (extent to which municipalities have adopted total reward strategies) was treated as a single variable. it explored the extent to which municipalities use total reward strategies as part of their rewards practices. each of the remaining five items was identified as a reward practice that could form part of an organisational total reward strategy. therefore, respondents were asked to indicate whether each of those practices form part of their strategy. the questionnaire was first pretested to some of the researchers’ colleagues and a few of respondents to the survey. an informed consent form was sent to participants to explain to them the objectives, nature and type of research and to ensure that the main ethical issues related to this survey were clearly explained to them before they could decide to participate. permission to conduct survey was granted by either the municipal managers or hr managers depending on the protocols followed by each municipality. the overall response to the study was 40%, with the most positive response coming from the metropolitan at 80%, followed by district municipalities at 58%, and last, the local municipalities at 29%. data analysis data collected were tabulated and analysed using the descriptive statistics generated by the statistical package for social sciences. a reliability analysis was also conducted on five of the six items of this study with a view to understanding the level or degree of internal consistency and the reliability of the variables in the group scale. furthermore, this analysis established the degree of internal relatedness among items in the scale. findings indicated a high degree of internal consistency among the items in the scale with a cronbach’s alpha of 0.865. results this variable was intended to assess the extent to which municipalities are implementing total rewards as part of their compensation system. a significant number of the respondents (76.2%) indicated that their organisations do not use this strategy, while only 23.2% believed that their organisations did so (see table 1). the results show that to a large extent municipal organisations are not implementing the total reward strategy. table 1: extent to which municipalities have adopted total reward strategies. table 2 presents the results from five selected practices that the study used to explore and evaluate further the extent to which municipal organisations have implemented total rewards practices as part of their rewards strategy. table 2 shows the extent to which municipalities use selected practices as part of total reward strategy. table 2: extent to which municipalities use selected practices as part of total reward strategy. on whether components of their organisation’s rewards strategy included monetary compensation, fringe benefits and development opportunities, results were inconclusive because of the fact that those respondents who believed that their strategies did so (35.7%) were exactly the same number as those that believed their organisational reward strategy did not. however, there was a slightly reasonable percentage of those who were probably unsure or undecided (28.6%), which could probably indicate uncertainty in relation to the implementation of total reward strategies in municipalities. when respondents were asked to indicate whether their rewards strategy provided meaningful pay differentiation to high performers or high potentials through both base and variable pay, more than half (56.4%) were of the opinion that their reward strategies did not. fewer than 10.0%, agreed and over a third (35.7%) were undecided or unsure. on whether their reward strategies ensured that pay and recognition were proportional to employees’ performance, a significant number of respondents (71.5%) disagreed with this statement. this is a clear indication that municipal reward strategies of the participating municipalities do not match rewards and compensation with performance and recognition of employees. respondents were further asked to indicate whether they agree with the statement that their organisational pay system is designed to promote justice and fairness among the diverse groups of employees. results show that more than two-thirds (67.2%) of the respondents do not agree with this statement. just over a third (35.7%) agreed and 7.1% were undecided or unsure. these results clearly show that reward strategies of the responding municipalities are not perceived to promote justice and fairness through prioritising issues such as gender, age, ethnicity and so on in their remuneration strategies. on whether reward strategies were compliant to the legal prescripts and to the corporate governance of south african municipalities, more than half (54.6%) of the respondents agreed that their reward strategies were compliant. only 18.2% disagreed, while 27.3% were undecided. it would seem that this level of compliance is probably a result of other stakeholders’ intervention, such as the government and municipal councils. however, the fact that just over 50.0% agreed is a testimony that even compliance still falls far short of the ideal position that is required from municipalities to comply with the legal prescripts and corporate government discussion findings clearly indicate that to a large extent municipal reward system still relies on traditional methods of compensation. this is underlined by the key findings which revealed that more than two-thirds of the participating municipalities have not developed total reward strategies. these findings are replicated in other studies and surveys. for instance, the sara survey, a south african study by ernst & young (sika, 2014) indicates that only 45% of the investigated companies successfully implement total rewards and just 21% plan to implement total rewards. the thomson survey (2011) as indicated in sika (2011) also indicates that only 38% of those companies that participated in their survey have a written reward strategy. according to aon (2012, p. 10), organisations are putting great interest in finding ways to unlock the potential that total rewards offers as a management tool, but ‘are struggling to find the right combination’. furthermore, a total rewards strategy as aon (2012, p. 22) continues to suggest that ‘the map that guides the management of rewards programmes, yet it seems as though most firms have chosen a destination but are navigating without a map’. it is clear that in most organisations there is will to implement trs but seemingly there is a lot more for most organisations, including south african municipalities to learn before they can be able to implement successful total reward strategies. what is clear today is that many of these organisations are now spending huge sums of money and putting great effort into the re-designing of their reward strategies (aon, 2012; howard & dougherty, 2004; jean-claude, 2007). findings from the study to a large extent indicate that compensation practices in municipalities include both monetary compensation and non-monetary benefits. however, they fall short of including development opportunities for employees. in addition, a significant number of the responding organisations in the study reveal that municipal pay systems do not attract high performers (howard & dougherty, 2004). this limitation as seen in current literature is likely to undermine retention efforts in organisations (jean-claude, 2007; howard & dougherty, 2004; kaplan, 2012). high-performing organisations, as mccormick (2015, p. 5) asserts, ‘differentiate rewards to create an external competitive advantage and target critical internal populations like high-potential employees, top performers, and women to develop, engage, and retain employees’. in addition, they also actively and regularly communicate their total rewards strategy to employees. research on compensation pay systems has advocated for reward approaches that promote intangible rewards such as fairness and recognition. organisations link rewards to performance objectives and should promote justice and fairness among the diverse groups of employees. the key finding for this study reveal municipal pay systems that are not designed to promote justice and fairness. these findings tend to concur with the findings revealed in the salga study (2010) where municipal managers and managers directly accountable to the municipal managers, within the same classification of municipalities, were found to be paid very different salaries. the cogta report also shows gender salary gaps and gaps among employees belonging to different ethnic backgrounds (cogta, 2009). in addition, there are wide variations in the salary scales of employees in similar size municipalities, as noted by the national treasury budget review (cogta, 2009). this kind of perceived unfairness in pay systems may lead to stress, which may subsequently, contribute to costs of turnover, accidents and illness (howard & dougherty, 2011). in a study that was conducted in 2004 by pricewaterhouse-coopers (mccormick, 2015), pay satisfaction and perceived pay equity were identified as key drivers of retention. the perceived inequity in the municipal pay system is likely therefore to increase turnover problems and has also the capacity to worsen the scarce skills gap in these organisations. it may be argued further that perceived unfairness arouses ‘dysfunctional emotions, including anger, depression and anxiety that can contribute downstream to undesirable responses, including theft, absenteeism and alcohol use’ (howard & dougherty, 2004, p. 42). these problems mentioned may affect the level of organisational commitment (oc) of employees of municipalities (dzansi & dzansi, 2010). it is therefore imperative that municipalities being public entities should be encouraged to develop pay systems that promote justice and fairness to all employees. however, the problem, as brewer and kellough (2016) assert, will be how managers and supervisors are able to find the right balance between the need for the flexibility necessary to guide their organisations effectively and the simultaneous need to ensure fairness and equity in the way employees are treated. it is clear from the findings that municipalities’ pay systems are not aligned to employees’ performance and employees are rarely recognised for their performance. more than two-thirds of the respondents in the study perceive this to be true. according to howard & dougherty (2004, p. 43), reward strategies can be tied to ‘individual output to encourage individual work effort; group output to encourage teamwork and collective effort and human capital to encourage development of skills and flexibility…’ the feeling of individual’s performance not being recognised can have a great impact on one’s motivation and commitment to the organisation. key findings on compliance to the legal prescripts and corporate governance show average levels of compliance. however, these findings may be viewed sceptically. compliance to legal prescripts and good corporate governance would be promoted by fair and equitable elements in the pay system, which according to key findings for this study, are lacking. conclusion the researchers do not doubt the insurmountable challenges that face municipal hr managers in their quest to develop and implement total rewards strategies. the greatest challenge to municipal organisations is the severe shortage of skills as well as human resources (financial and fiscal commission policy brief, 2012; koma, 2010). the situation is even worsened by a high turnover rate and budget limitations. municipalities also suffer from political and union interference, which in some cases can influence or undermine strategic hr decisions later alone inculcating bureaucratic tendencies of municipal employees to execute established policies by politicians. added to this also is the issue of poor pmss, which are only aimed at mostly section 57 managers. section 57 is a term commonly used to refer to managers employed in accordance with the requirements of the republic of south africa (rsa, 2000) section 57 of the local government: municipal systems act, 2000 (act no. 32 of 2000). they consist of the municipal manager or the accounting officer, the chief financial officer, all senior managers and any other senior officials designated by the accounting officer. the fact that most municipalities have not cascaded their pms to other employees at the lower levels is a problem in that a large part of the employees at the lower levels do not actively go through efficient performance evaluation and monitoring processes, thus rendering them unsuitable to performance related benefits and promotions. however, researchers have pointed out that the contribution total rewards benefits can make on the motivation and retention of employees in organisations is quite immense such that it would be in the interest of municipalities to try and implement reforms dedicated at the restructuring of their rewards systems. in an environment where employees are increasingly becoming knowledgeable of competitors pay packages, where global competition continues to tighten and where many employees are becoming more and more attracted to diversified pay packages (bussin & van roy, 2014), the survival of organisations will depend on how best and most effective such organisations can design and implement rewards systems that can develop, engage, motivate and retain employees. this paper tries to offer or suggest ways in which municipalities can create favourable conditions to respond to the issue of how a total reward strategy could be implemented in the municipal sector. recommendations the current compensation and reward practices in municipalities in the study expose weaknesses in relation to the development and implementation of total reward strategies. the study findings are clear that municipalities are still using traditional remuneration policies. this to a great extent is a result of the many challenges identified in the previous section that municipal organisations face. in light of the fact that these challenges are not likely to go away soon, the paper therefore proposes the following recommendations to assist municipal hr managers in creating favourable conditions for the implementation of a total reward strategy. firstly, for municipalities to become employers of choice that can attract the required talent capable of ensuring effective service delivery, they will need to develop competitive reward strategies that can command high employee satisfaction, loyalty and commitment to the organisation. such strategies should be aligned to organisational goals; employee needs; recognition; and employee performance, evaluation, training and development. how to navigate through this undertaking, municipal organisations need to devote large amounts of resources to train and develop managers in the design and implementation of the trss. in dealing with the question of budget limitations and other external challenges such as the bureaucratic tendencies, political and union interference, managers will need to enter into corroborative efforts and partnerships with other stakeholders, such government (dplg), unions, salgbc, salga and where possible private organisations to seek a common understanding on how compensation and rewards reform decisions could be initiated and implemented. secondly, as part of internal management and control, municipalities need to consider seriously the implementation of performance evaluation and monitoring of all their employees because as already indicated in the previous sections of this paper, employee rewards need to be linked to performance in order to compensate for the top performers and also reward those that make strides to improve their performance. the cascading of pms in municipalities can be achieved through effective communication and negotiations with all stakeholders, especially trade unions and employees in their respective work units. however, in the meantime, municipal managers can also exploit the little available avenues created by legislations such as the south african constitution, the public finance management act and the local government and the municipal systems act, 2000 (act no. 32 of 2000), etc. to find out as to what extent such legislations can permit them to engage in some form of performance evaluation, monitoring and accountability at all levels. also, municipalities should strive to improve on their compliance to the implementation of pmss, accountability processes and also work hard to produce clean audits because these audits contribute to the level municipalities can be afforded to work independently and the level they can be financed. clean audits can also improve the municipal sector’s image to attract skilled employees from outside. last but not least, leveraging hr issues like employee rewards to organisational top priorities will ensure that the process is supported from the top and therefore seen as a strategic issue. this will assist hr managers to get the ‘buy in’ they need while selling the idea of total reward strategies to top officials, unions and the government and other strategic partners. acknowledgements the authors wish to acknowledge the great contribution of prof. collins miruka, formally of the mafikeng’s graduate school of business, north-west university and the university of north-west. prof. miruka guided and supervised the phd dissertation (of p.w.b.) on which some of the findings of this research paper are based. the researchers want to express their appreciation for any other assistance, be it in kind or otherwise that was received from north-west university and walter sisulu university. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions p.w.b. (principal investigator) made the conceptual contribution and theoretical framework, did literature review, did the reference section, collected data, did the analysis of data and discussion of results, did the conclusion and recommendations and compiled the first draft. n.m. compiled the abstract, did the research design, collected data, contributed to the discussion of results and recommendations, compiled the second draft, restructured and compiled the final draft and did the referencing section and the proof-reading. funding information walter sisulu university – division of academic affairs & research (the research directorate) funded the article processing page fees. references adams, j. s. (1965). iniquity in social exchange. advances in experimental psychology, 4, 267–299. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0065-2601(08)60108-2 alderfer, c. p. (1989). theories reflecting my personal experience and life development. journal of applied behavioral science, 25(4), 351–365. https://doi.org/10.1177/002188638902500404 aon, h. (2012). transforming potential into value, total rewards survey. retrieved from http://www.aonhewitt.com armstrong, m. (2006). a handbook of employee reward management and practice (2nd ed.). london: kogan page. armstrong, m., brown, d., & reilly, p. (2009). increasing the effectiveness of reward management. brighton: institute for employment studies. armstrong, m., & taylor, t. (2014). armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. new york: kogan page publishers. baird, k., schoch, h., & chen, j. (2012). performance management system effectiveness in australian local government, pacific accounting review, 24(2), 161–185. https://doi.org/10.1108/01140581211258461 brewer, g. a., & kellough, j. e. (2010). administrative values and personnel management: reflection on civil service reform. public personnel management, 45(2), 171–189. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026016644626 bussin, m. (2017). performance management reboot. randburg: kr publishing. bussin, m., & toerien, w. c. (2015). influence of reward preferences in attracting, retaining, and motivating knowledge workers in south african information technology companies. acta commercii, 15(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v15i1.290 bussin, m., & van roy, d. j. (2014). total reward strategy for a multi-generational workforce in a financial institution. south african journal of human resource management, 20(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.606 cameron, r. (2009). new public management reforms in the south african public service: 1999–2009. journal of public administration, 44(4/1), 910–942. dalvi, m., & ebrahimi, h. (2013). investigating the effects of reward on the cooperation in the sale and marketing department from managers’ perspective (isfahan food industries case study). international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 3(1), 144–153. department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs (cogta). (2009). the state of the local government: overview report (rsa). retrieved from http://www.gov.za dzansi, d. y., & dzansi, l. w. (2010). understanding the impact of human resource management practices on municipal service delivery in south africa: an organisational justice approach. african journal of business management, 4(6), 995–1005. engela, r., & ajam, t. (2010). implementing a governmentwide monitoring and evaluation system in south africa. ecd working paper series, no. 21, washington, dc: the world bank. fernandes, f. n. (1998). total reward-an actuarial perspective. actuarial research paper, no.116. faculty of actuarial science and insurance, university of london. retrieved from http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/2245 financial and fiscal commission policy brief. (2012). lack of capacity is crippling delivery of services in municipalities. retrieved from http://www.ffc.co.za/ fricker, r. d. jr. (ed.). (2008). the sage handbook of online method. london: sage. heneman, r. l. (2007). implementing total rewards strategies, a guide to successfully planning and implementing a total reward system. shrm foundation. retrieved from http://www.shrm.org/foundation howard, l. w., & dougherty, t. w. (2004). alternative reward strategies and employee reactions: compensation and benefits review. sage. retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0886368703261273 jean-claude, b. (2007). defining best practice incentive and reward strategies. insight newsletter no 5, achievement awards group. retrieved from http://www.awards.co.za/images/extra/insight_may09_iss5_3.pdf jiang, z. (2009). total reward strategy: a human resources management strategy going with the trend of the time. international journal of business management, 4(11), 177–183. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v4n11p177 kaplan, s. l. (2012). business strategy, people strategy and total rewards. benefits & compensation, 44(9), 12–19. kaur, j. (2013). the role of psychological well-being and its impact on the motivational level of the employees in it sector. kaur international journal of advanced research in management and social sciences, 2(6), 43–51. koma, s. b. (2010). the state of local government in south africa: issues, trends and options. journal of public administration, 45(1.1), 111–120. makhuzeni, b., & barkhuizen, e. n. (2015). the effect of a total rewards strategy on school teachers’ retention. south african journal of human resource management, 13(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.699 maslow, a. h. (1943). a theory of human motivation. psychological review, 50(4), 310–396. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054346 mccormick, h. (2015). rethinking total rewards. kenan-flagler business school, unc executive development. retrieved from https://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/ molofo, m. (2012). strengthening pms implementation in south african municipalities. africa’s public service delivery and performance review, 1(1), 67–80. nazir, t., shah, s. f. h., & zaman, k. (2012). literature review on total rewards: an international perspective. african journal of business management, 6, 3046–3058. republic of south africa (rsa). (1996). the constitution of the republic of south africa act, 1996 (act 106 of 1996). pretoria: government printer. republic of south africa (rsa). (2000). the local government municipal systems act, 2000 (act 32 of 2000). pretoria: government printer. sika, a. (2011). the total rewards concept: getting from theory tom practice. paper presented at sara conference october 2011, ernest and young, october 2011. retrieved from http://www.sara.co.za/sara/file%20storage/documents/arthur%20sika.pdf skinner, e. a., & belmont, m. j. (1993). motivation in the classroom: reciprocal effects of teacher behaviour and student engagement across the school year. journal of educational psychology, 85(4), 571–581. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.85.4.571 south african local government association (salga) (2010). state of south african local government: a focus on labour relations, capacity building and human resource management. paper presented for discussion at hr policy conference, limpopo. retrieved from https://www.doi.org.10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n1p481 terera, s. r., & ngirande, h. (2014). the impact of rewards on job satisfaction and employee retention. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(1), 481–487. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n1p481 tower, w. (2012). total rewards strategies for the 21st century. the 2012 – 2013 global talent management and rewards study. retrieved from http://www.towerwatson.com/en/…/total-rewards tsede, o. a., & kutin, e. (2013). total reward concept: a key motivational tool for corporate ghana. business and economic research, 3(2), 173–182. https://doi.org/10.5296/ber.v3i2.4291 worldatwork. (2012). the talent management and reward imperative for 2012: leading through uncertain times. worldatwork and tower watson. retrieved from https://www.worldatwork.org abstract introduction aim of the study the relationships between ethical climate and leader effectiveness the relationship between ethical leadership and leader effectiveness the relationship between ethical leadership and ethical climate conceptual model hypotheses research methodology research results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) amos s. engelbrecht department of industrial psychology, stellenbosch university, south africa janneke wolmarans department of industrial psychology, stellenbosch university, south africa bright mahembe department of industrial psychology, university of the western cape, south africa citation engelbrecht, a.s., wolmarans, j., & mahembe, b. (2017). effect of ethical leadership and climate on effectiveness. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15, a781. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15.781 original research effect of ethical leadership and climate on effectiveness amos s. engelbrecht, janneke wolmarans, bright mahembe received: 29 dec. 2015; accepted: 17 oct. 2016; published: 30 jan. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the increasing prevalence of theft, sabotage and other deviant behaviours in the workplace has disastrous effects for organisations, such as lowered effectiveness, escalated costs and the organisation’s declining reputation. research purpose: the purpose of the research was to design and investigate the relationships among perceived leader effectiveness, ethical climate and ethical leadership. a further objective of the investigation was to validate a conceptual model clarifying the structural associations among the latent constructs in the south african corporate domain. motivation for the study: a successful leader is both an ethical and an effective leader. an organisation’s leadership is seen as the most critical element in establishing and maintaining an ethical climate in organisations. research design, approach and method: a convenient and multi-cultural sample comprised of 224 employees from various organisations in south africa. the structure and content of the variables were analysed through confirmatory factor analysis (cfa), beside item analysis. main findings: satisfactory reliability was found for all the measurement scales. the results of cfa demonstrated acceptable fit with the data for the refined measurement and structural models. the results of structural equation modelling (sem) indicated positive relationships among ethical leadership, ethical climate and leader effectiveness. practical implications: organisational leaders should take full responsibility for cultivating ethics through ethical leader behaviour and an ethical climate. by reinforcing these aspects, perceived leader effectiveness can be advanced, which will ultimately decrease corruption and other forms of counterproductive behaviour in south african organisations. contribution: the study provides further theoretical and empirical evidence that leadership effectiveness can be realised through instilling an ethical organisational climate in which ethical leadership is exhibited and encouraged. introduction south african organisations are characterised by accelerated counterproductive behaviour (e.g. corruption, crime, anarchy and the threatening of the social framework of the communities) (van zyl, 2012). van zyl (2012) furthermore stated that the south african corporate sector, in particular, has been confronted increasingly with an absence of recognised moral norms in their procedures. negative outcomes that unethical behaviour sustains for individuals, organisations and the broader south african economy necessitate an emphasis on the factors that may have an effect on ethical behaviour (engelbrecht, heine & mahembe, 2014; naidoo, 2012; lloyd & may, 2010). ethical behaviour is becoming more essential, with organisations beginning to realise its importance (lloyd & may, 2010; mayer, aquino, greenbaum & kuenzi, 2012). lloyd and may (2010) acknowledged that to improve their productivity, organisations need to incorporate ethics in their decisions. an organisation’s leadership is seen as the most critical element in creating, establishing and maintaining an ethical organisational culture (eisenbeiss, 2012; kalshoven, den hartog & de hoogh, 2011; kuntz, kuntz, elenkov & nabirukhina, 2013). to develop an ethical culture, the leader should play a significant role in the development of the ethical strategy, convey the ethical code of behaviour and lead by example pertaining to principled leadership. in addition, naidoo (2012) asserted that effective leadership can minimise cases of corruption in south african organisations. successful leadership provides a predominant sense of guidance and vision, an orientation with the environment, a useful means for innovation and creativity, and a resource for revitalising the organisational culture. unethical leadership in south african organisations includes corruption, insensitivity to the needs of customers, slowness in the performance of tasks and manifestations of ineffectiveness and inefficiency (mafunisa, 2008; naidoo, 2012). these researchers suggested that leader effectiveness in organisations can be affected by placing greater emphasis on accountability, responsibility, transparency and adhering to rules and procedures (mafunisa, 2008; naidoo, 2012). aim of the study continuous ethical misconduct in today’s world of work results in astronomic financial losses to organisations on an annual basis (nasir & bashir, 2012; van zyl, 2012). dysfunctional consequences of unethical and counterproductive work behaviour consequently raise questions about why deviant behaviour occurs in organisations and what role effective organisational leaders can play in managing this behaviour. this raises the need to investigate the emerging role effective leaders play in shaping ethical employee behaviour (appelbaum & shapiro, 2006; brown, treviño & harrison, 2005; nasir & bashir, 2012). an effective leader has a responsibility to create and develop an environment in which followers can excel. ciulla (1995) furthermore argued that a successful leader is both an effective and moral leader. organisational leaders should be central sources of ethical behaviour because employees look to them for direction (brown et al., 2005). effective ethical leaders consequently have a considerable influence on the ethical behaviour of employees (eisenbeiss, 2012; kalshoven et al., 2011; yukl, 2013; zhu, avolio, riggio & sosik, 2011). to fully explore the emergence of unethical practices, one needs to understand the difference between effective leaders and less effective leaders to differentiate between ethical and unethical leaders. the question one should ask is why some individuals are effective as ethical leaders, while others fail. the question that initiated this study therefore concerned; why variance exists in leader effectiveness, with specific reference to the role that ethical climate and ethical leadership play in this regard, but not to the exclusion of other factors in the organisation. the relationships between ethical climate and leader effectiveness an ethical climate can be seen as a mechanism to oppose counterproductive work behaviour. the invisible ground rules of ethical climates protect organisations against pressures, opportunities and predispositions that entice employees into unethical behaviour (sims, 1992). organisations with strong ethical climates communicate norms clearly in terms of moral issues to their employees (bartels, harrick, martell & strickland, 1998). an organisation that comprises a strong ethical climate is not a random occurrence. why is it then that some organisations contain stronger ethical climates than others? the incidence of an ethics code does not automatically ensure moral conduct. it is essential, however, that the practice of creating and conveying the ethics code to all interested parties occurs in a participative and transparent way (lloyd & may, 2010; rossouw & van vuuren, 2010). it is essential furthermore to make certain that the code is implemented throughout the organisation. treviño and neslon (as cited in lloyd & may, 2010) asserted that the unsuccessful implementation of the ethics code will lead to it missing its legality and being seen as impression management. it has been proposed that the extent to which formal ethics codes are insisted on and abided by in an organisation depends largely on the perceived legitimacy of these codes, the linkage between the codes and the practices of the organisation (e.g. performance management procedures), and mainly on the existence of effective leadership to demonstrate and motivate appropriate behaviours (kuntz et al., 2013). leadership is inherently attached to issues of ethics and can hence be seen as a contributing factor in the manifestation of strong ethical climates (eubanks, brown & ybema, 2012). several studies have investigated the role of leaders in establishing ethical climates (dickson, smith, grojean & ehrhart, 2001; grojean, resick, dickson & smith, 2004; simha & cullen, 2011). leaders influence the performance of employees and prohibit certain unwanted behaviour in the workplace (henning, theron & spangenberg, 2004). leaders may elicit or block out the tendencies of organisational members to behave in an unethical or ethical manner. individuals are hence more likely to act in unethical ways when justification for unethical behaviour is presented by a legitimate authority or organisational figure. positive perceptions of leaders’ ethical conduct can therefore be regarded as pivotal for the development of an ethical climate which embodies the organisation’s vision and norms (brown, 2007; pimental, kuntz & elenkov, 2010). in addition, comprehensive models of leadership have identified key variables to explain effective leadership behaviour. in the framework for describing leader effectiveness, one such model contained the organisation context (i.e. climate) as a major variable (harshman & harshman, 2008). consequently, the efficiency of leadership in inhibiting unethical behaviours may be realised through the process of improving an employee’s perception of the work environment, which can be instilled because of the leader’s stimulation of a moral culture (mayer, kuenzi & greenbaum, 2010; neubert, carlson, kacmar, roberts & chonko, 2009). it can therefore be postulated that the moral culture of an organisation has a positive influence on the perceived effectiveness of the leader. the relationship between ethical leadership and leader effectiveness employees, from a social learning perspective, are anticipated to identify with, have a high regard for, and imitate their ethical leaders and perceive them as examples of acceptable behaviour (bandura, 1986; brown et al., 2005). such role models are likely to be perceived as effective (kalshoven & den hartog, 2009). ethical leaders are perceived as appealing, authentic and reliable role models that engage in morally acceptable behaviour and make the ethics meaning noticeable and influence employee outcomes. leaders cannot anticipate moral behaviour from subordinates if they do not act morally themselves. owing to the fact that ethical leaders are seen by their followers as legitimate and attractive role models who gain and retain their attention, they have a more effective influence on their followers. over the years, attributes of ethical leaders such as openness, consideration and fairness have been considered fundamental to perceived leader effectiveness (brown et al., 2005; yukl, 2013). employees will generally be more satisfied with leaders who discipline wrongdoers, who treat followers fairly and considerately, and who are trustworthy (brown et al., 2005). furthermore, specific morality-linked communication and encouragement can be seen to contribute to the significance of the leader’s moral initiatives (brown et al., 2005). brown et al. (2005) and de hoogh and den hartog (2008) discovered positive relationships between moral leadership and observed leader success. effective leaders function in a successful manner and try to meet the work-related needs of the followers. this suggests that ethical leaders direct employees toward responsible goals, which advance the organisation and its employees (kanungo, 2001). ethical leaders feel highly responsible for their actions, and it can be expected that followers will perceive them as effective (kalshoven et al., 2011). in general, it can be assumed that ethical leaders will usually be regarded by their followers as successful. it could hence be proposed that ethical leadership has a positive impact on leader effectiveness in an organisation. the relationship between ethical leadership and ethical climate victor and cullen (1988, p. 101) conceptualised ethical climate as ‘the prevailing perceptions of typical organisational practices and procedures that have ethical content’. organisational cultural factors (including leadership and reward systems that support ethical behaviour, fair dealing with employees, ethics integrated in regular managerial decision-making and a caring for employees) all contributed to ethics-related attitudes and behaviours (brown & treviño, 2006). from a social learning perspective, brown and treviño (2006) proposed that stronger ethical climates support the development and sustaining of ethical leadership in organisations. such organisations provide more formal policies and informal norms that support ethical behaviour and advancement of ethical conduct. in such environments, leaders have more chances to imitate models of ethical leadership, and they realise that ethical leadership is desirable and appropriate. ethical leaders’ behaviour can be seen as a critical determinant of an organisation’s ethical climate. an organisation’s ethical climate should therefore be representative of the leader’s dedication to moral values and norms conveyed in their daily effort to conduct themselves accordingly (engelbrecht, van aswegen & theron, 2005; kanungo & mendonca, 1996). ethical leaders who have intense individual viewpoints on the necessity for moral behaviour will positively influence an ethical climate (engelbrecht et al., 2005). an ethical leader additionally provides signals about what is ethical by overtly rewarding and punishing certain behaviours (brown & treviño, 2006). an ethical leader consequently determines the organisational climate, through the development of organisational policies and practices (eubanks et al., 2012; mayer et al., 2010). from the above assumptions and findings, it can be postulated that ethical leadership has a positive influence on an ethical climate in an organisation. conceptual model in accordance with the literature study and theoretical opinions discussed before, a conceptual model was developed indicating the hypothesised relationships among ethical leadership, ethical climate and leader effectiveness. ethical leadership is depicted as the exogenous or independent variable, whereas ethical climate and leader effectiveness are shown as dependent or endogenous variables. the conceptual model, demonstrated in figure 1, indicates the different linkages among the various latent variables. figure 1: the structural model representing the relationships between ethical leadership, ethical climate and perceived leader effectiveness. hypotheses hypothesis 1: the overarching substantive research hypothesis was deduced to show that the conceptual model in figure 1 presents an ideal description of the psychological process that determines the effect of ethical leadership on ethical climate and leader effectiveness. the substantive hypothesis was consequently translated into the following exact fit null hypothesis: h01: root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) = 0 ha1: rmsea > 0 hypothesis 2: if the overarching substantive hypothesis as depicted by the structural model presents an approximate account of the variance as exhibited in leader effectiveness, the substantive hypothesis could be translated to the following close fit hypothesis: h02: rmsea ≤ 0.05 ha2: rmsea > 0.05 the overarching substantive research hypothesis was separated into three more explicit substantive research hypotheses. the three detailed research hypotheses translate into the path coefficient statistical hypotheses: hypothesis 3: a significant positive relationship exists between ethical climate (η1) and leader effectiveness (η2): h03: β21 = 0 ha3: β21 > 0 hypothesis 4: a significant positive relationship exists between ethical leadership (ξ1) and leader effectiveness (η2): h04: γ21 = 0 ha4: γ21 > 0 hypothesis 5: a significant positive relationship exists between ethical leadership (ξ1) and ethical climate (η1): h05: γ11 = 0 ha5: γ11 > 0. research methodology sample a non-probability convenience sampling technique was employed in this investigation. the sample comprised of 224 employees working in different organisations in south africa. the sample comprised of 159 males (71%) and 65 females (29%). the sample presented an average age of 29.58 years. the race division was as follows: black (75%), mixed race (6.7%), indian (2.7%), white (14.7%) and other (0.9%). the majority of respondents came from non-managerial (64.3%) and lower-level management (21.4%) and mainly from the retail industry (97%). a questionnaire developed to collect data was distributed via the internet and was sent off to the obtained respondents. data were also collected by means of paper-and-pencil tests, which were distributed to employees who did not have internet access. ethical considerations respondents were expected to agree to the requirements stipulated in the directions for the questionnaire. informed consent was obtained from the respondents. participants were assured that confidentiality would be maintained by treating their responses as anonymous and that no names would be disclosed. informed institutional permission for the research was attained from the organisations that were participating in the study. the research ethics committee of stellenbosch university furthermore granted approval for the ethical clearance of the study. measuring instruments three measures were utilised to assess the variables of ethical climate, ethical leadership and perceived leader effectiveness. perceived leader effectiveness a 5-item leader effectiveness questionnaire (leq) was developed for the aim of this research. three items were revised from bass and avolio’s (1994) multifactor leadership questionnaire (mlq). the items in the leq focus on motivating team performance beyond expectations, meeting team objectives, effective team representation by the leader, team members’ satisfaction with their leader and followers’ perceived overall effectiveness of the leader (bass & avolio, 1994; hui, chiu, yu, cheng & tse, 2007; yukl, 2013). ethical climate ethical climate in the organisations was measured by the 19-item ethical climate questionnaire (ecq) of victor and cullen (1988). the internal consistencies (cronbach’s alpha) of the four subscales of the ecq were as follows: the caring, law and rules subscales all had high alpha coefficients (0.92, 0.88 and 0.85, respectively) (victor & cullen, 1988). the independence (α = 0.69) subscale was relatively lower, yet sufficient for establishing internal consistency (nunnally, 1978). ethical leadership ethical leadership was assessed through the 17-item leadership of ethics scale (les). the les was designed by engelbrecht (engelbrecht et al., 2014). the les was constructed on items from various scales of ethical leadership (brown et al., 2005, nine items; mayer et al., 2012, one item; spangenberg & theron, 2005, three items; yukl, mahsud, hassan & prussia, 2011, four items). the les measures the extent to which the leader treats his or her followers with respect, acting fairly, rewarding ethical conduct, emphasising an ethical vision and transferring ethical leadership into the organisation the les has high reliability and was assessed and confirmed through exploratory factor analysis (efa) and confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) (engelbrecht et al., 2014). the cronbach’s alpha of the les was reported to be 0.97, indicating a high level of internal consistency (nunnally, 1978). efa confirmed the uni-dimensionality of the les. all 17 items in the les loaded satisfactory (> 0.50) on the single underlying factor. the measurement model fits the data well and the quality of the fit is good (engelbrecht et al., 2014). research results missing values the data in this research met the conditions set by mels (2003) for the utilisation of the multiple imputation method, namely, that the perceived constructs should be assessed on a scale consisting of five or above scale points, the latent variables should not be too skewed (although the null hypothesis of multivariate normality had been rejected) and fewer than 30% of the data should represent missing values. reliability analysis spss (version 23) was utilised to carry out item analysis on all three measures to confirm whether the instrument was consistent with regard to measures of the specific scales in question. the summary of the reliability results for each measurement scale can be seen in table 1. all scales attained reliability scores that surpassed the suggested criterion of 0.70. the findings furthermore revealed that all items produced an item-total correlation exceeding the suggested criterion value (0.30). all measurement scales could hence be considered reliable instruments for gathering information to test the hypotheses. table 1: reliability of measurement scales. evaluating the measurement models the next section reports an outline of the goodness-of-fit indices (gfis) attained from the confirmatory factor analyses executed on every measurement model achieved from the statistics of the respondents (n = 224). different indicators were deduced to determine the goodness of fit of the measurement model. in general, a good model fit with the data was obtained. goodness of fit: the leader effectiveness questionnaire measurement model in terms of the absolute fit indices of the leq as reported in table 2, an acceptable model fit had been achieved (rmsea < 0.08) (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). based on the p-value test of close fit (rmsea < 0.05), the leq obtained a value indicative of good fit (p > 0.05) (diamantopoulos & siguaw, 2000). the standardised root mean residual (srmr) value was < 0.05, which indicated good fit. the gfi exceeded 0.9, which indicated that the model showed good absolute fit. the incremental fit indices (normed fit index, nfi and comparative fit index, cfi) surpassed the criterion ratio of 0.90. thus, the model indicated a good incremental fit. the null hypothesis of exact fit [h0: σ = σ(θ)], as well as the null hypothesis of close fit (h0: rmsea ≤ 0.05), was not rejected. the measurement model for leader effectiveness thus showed both close and exact fit. it means that the measurement model accomplished an acceptable fit with the data, in that the model reproduced the observed sample covariance matrix and provided a credible explanation of the observed covariance matrix. table 2: goodness-of-fit indices for the measurement and structural models. goodness of fit: the ethical climate questionnaire measurement model the following conclusions were drawn in terms of the ecq. based on large modification indices found, two items from the caring subscale and one item from the rules subscale were deleted. an analysis of the indicators shown in table 2 implied that the revised model of the ecq presented good fit with the data. the model achieved good fit in terms of the p-value test of close fit (> 0.05) and the rmsea (< 0.05). the null hypothesis of close fit was not declined, indicating that the measurement model of the ecq fits the data well and can reproduce the observed sample covariance matrix. the srmr value was not below the 0.05 threshold and indicated relatively poor model fit. the gfi value for the measurement model was 0.90, which demonstrated that the model showed good absolute fit. the incremental fit indices (nfi and cfi) exceeded the critical value of 0.90, which was satisfactory. the model therefore indicated good incremental fit. goodness of fit: the leadership of ethics scale measurement model the gfis for the les, as reported in table 2, indicated that satisfactory fit had been achieved. the null hypothesis of exact fit was declined, whereas the null hypothesis of close fit was not declined. another concern was that the gfi failed to exceed the 0.90 criterion, indicating good fit. however, the rmsea and the srmr values indicate good fit. in terms of the incremental fit measures, the measurement model indicates good fit. goodness-of-fit indices for the structural model a summary of the most fundamental gfi indicators for the conceptual model is shown in table 2. through a comprehensive inspection of all of the fit indices, it can be assumed that the structural model fits the data well. with reference to the findings of the absolute fit indicators, the satorra–bentler scaled chi-square statistic for the structural model, however, suggested that there was not an exact fit with the data (p < 0.001). in the light of the rmsea index, the structural model achieved reasonable fit. the obtained p-value for the test of close fit did not support the assumption of good fit. consequently, the null hypotheses of exact and close fit were rejected. the reported srmr and the obtained gfi marginally missed the criteria of good fit. with reference to the incremental fit measures, it was found that the structural model attained nfi and cfi indices that were > 0.90, indicating good comparative fit. to ensure a comprehensive validation of the conceptual model, it was furthermore important to analyse the modification indicators to verify the degree to which the model explicated the observed covariance among the latent variables. an inspection of the modification indicators of the structural model implied that no supplementary linkages among any of the manifest variables would substantially enhance the fit of the postulated conceptual model. the relationship between the latent variables an investigation of the latent variables was required to establish whether the relationships postulated at the theorising phase were confirmed by the results. the relationship between ethical climate and leader effectiveness the sem results revealed a significant path coefficient (t = 3.071, p < 0.05) between ethical climate and leader effectiveness, which led to the rejection of the null hypothesis. consequently, it can be assumed that the postulated positive relationship between these two constructs was confirmed. the positive association between ethical climate and leader effectiveness has frequently been reported in previous studies (dickson et al., 2001; eubanks et al., 2012; grojean et al., 2004; simha & cullen, 2011). kuntz et al. (2013) suggested that the enforcement of formal ethics codes in an organisation depends largely on the presence of effective leadership to model and reinforce desirable behaviours. brown (2007) considered positive perceptions of a leader’s ethical conduct as pivotal for the development of an ethical climate. this perception can be instilled through the leader’s promotion of an ethical climate as leaders have a direct effect on subordinates’ views of an ethical climate (mayer et al., 2010; neubert et al., 2009). the relationship between ethical leadership and leader effectiveness a positive relationship was obtained between ethical leadership and leader effectiveness (t = 4.681, p < 0.05). this consequently led to the rejection of the null hypothesis. it can therefore be concluded that the postulated relationship between these two constructs was confirmed in the current research. the support obtained for the positive association between ethical leadership and leader effectiveness is also portrayed in the literature (brown et al., 2005; de hoogh & den hartog, 2008; kalshoven & den hartog, 2009). the relationship between ethical leadership and ethical climate statistical support was found for a positive association between ethical leadership and ethical climate (t = 7.637, p < 0.05). a significant linkage was found in the model and the null hypothesis could therefore be declined. the findings confirmed the positive relationship between these variables found in the literature (eubanks et al., 2012; grojean et al., 2004; mayer et al., 2010). discussion the results confirmed the postulated relationships in the structural model (figure 1). positive relationships were found between ethical leadership and ethical climate, ethical leadership and leader effectiveness, and ethical climate and leader effectiveness. the results imply that ethical leaders can have a positive influence on the development of an organisation’s ethical climate. an ethical leader can determine the ethical climate through the development and implementation of ethical organisational policies and practices. it thus seems that followers would perceive their organisational climate as ethical if they can see that their leader is ethical and consistent in his or her leadership role. ethical leaders’ behaviour can hence be seen as a critical determinant of an ethical climate in organisations. the results furthermore indicate that ethical leaders can have a positive effect on the followers’ perception of the effectiveness of their leaders. employees who can identify with, respect and imitate their leader’s behaviour, perceive them as role models of ethical and appropriate behaviour and are likely to view such a leader as more effective (bandura, 1986; kalshoven & den hartog, 2009; kalshoven et al., 2011). consequently, ethical leaders have a more effective influence on their followers. employees will be more satisfied with leaders who are trustworthy and treat them fairly and considerately. in addition, the results reveal that an ethical climate in an organisation can have a positive effect on the followers’ perception of the effectiveness of their leaders. leaders who are seen as effective leaders are those who develop and promote an ethical organisational climate through developing an ethical vision for the organisation, communicating formal ethical codes of conduct to all stakeholders, developing and implementing an ethical policy, reinforcing ethical behaviour and who are role models of ethical conduct. limitations of the study and suggestions for future research some shortcomings to this research may be identified. firstly, the theoretical model was evaluated on a non-probability convenience sample, and it cannot be claimed to be representative of the target population. it is recommended that the validity of the model also be analysed in a cross-validation investigation on a different sample in other industries. it is furthermore recommended that a longitudinal study of the postulated structural model be undertaken to facilitate further convincing causal deductions. the second shortcoming relates to the problem of common method bias because the data were collected at a specific date utilising only self-reported scales (donaldson & grant-vallone, 2002). when supporting the findings of this study, future research should hence consider utilising data from multiple sources to address this issue. the third limitation concerns the fact that the structural model might have excluded other significant determinants of leader effectiveness. future studies could explore other mediating and moderating variables (e.g. trust, organisational justice, work engagement and organisational citizenship behaviour) to further clarify the relationship between ethical leadership and leader effectiveness. managerial implications employees reporting to ethical leaders might be more satisfied with their leaders and have a tendency to view their organisations as successful. ethical leadership augments views of ethical climate, which furthermore incites job satisfaction and commitment (johnson, shelton & yates, 2012; neubert et al., 2009). leaders can also establish apparent norms and strategies for handling ethical concerns (e.g. establishing ethical codes of conduct) and provide advice on dealing with ethical issues. they can initiate discussions on ethical issues and reinforce ethical behaviour by including it in the criteria for rewarding performance. the leader can also help to mediate conflicts in a way that is consistent with ethical standards. it is appropriate to look for an integrative solution, but even if one cannot be found, it is still desirable to promote trust, fairness and mutual respect among the actions (yukl, 2013). leaders should clarify ethical dimensions of management decisions. leaders should also commit to ethical principles through their influence on corporate culture and create a high degree of congruence, contributing to the ethical climate of the organisation (spangenberg & theron, 2005). it is expected that the findings of the study will have several suggestions for the live out of ethical leadership in organisations. through the results, the study emphasises the importance of ethical leadership as an important path to leadership success. the study encourages organisational leaders to improve the performance of their followers and their organisations by making ethics a precedence through modelling moral behaviour, demonstrating caring for employees, reflecting integrity behaviour, setting an irrefutable example, making ethics messages prominent and rewarding ethical behaviour (johnson et al., 2012). lastly, the findings attempt to empirically justify why behaving ethically is not only the appropriate thing to do, but how it can additionally improve an organisation’s productivity and ultimately increase its profitability (johnson et al., 2012). conclusion unethical employee behaviour is a reality in south african organisations, but through this study it has been discovered that effective leadership can minimise the prevalence of these unwanted behaviour. organisational leaders should hence take full responsibility for cultivating an ethical climate through ethical leader behaviour. by reinforcing these aspects, perceived leader effectiveness can be advanced among employees, which will ultimately effect overall organisational performance. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions a.s.e. was the project leader responsible for initiating the conceptualisation of the study, for developing the leq and les, and the primary author of the article. j.w. collected the data and was also responsible for the write-up of the article. b.m. helped with the statistical analyses and interpretation of the results. references appelbaum, s.h., & shapiro, b.t. (2006). diagnosis and remedies for deviant workplace behaviours. the journal of american academy of business, 9(2), 14–20. bandura, a. (1986). social foundation of thought and action. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. bartels, l.k., harrick, e., martell, k.m., & strickland, d. (1998). the relationship between ethical climate and ethical problems within human resource management. journal of business ethics, 17, 799–804. https://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1005817401688 bass, b.m., & avolio, b.j. (1994). improving organisational effectiveness through transformational leadership. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. brown, m.e. (2007). misconceptions of ethical leadership: how to avoid potential pitfalls. organizational dynamics, 36(2), 140–155. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2007.03.003 brown, m.e., & trevino, l.k. (2006). ethical leadership: a review and future directions. the leadership quarterly, 17, 595–616. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2006.10.004 brown, m.e., treviño, l.k., & harrison, d. (2005). ethical leadership: a social learning perspective for construct development and testing. organizational behaviour and human decision processes, 97, 117–134. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2005.03.002 ciulla, j.b. (1995). leadership ethics: mapping the territory. business ethics quarterly, 5(1), 5–28. https://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3857269 de hoogh, a.h.b., & den hartog, d.n. (2008). ethical and despotic leadership, relationships with leader’s social responsibility, top management team effectiveness and subordinates’ optimism: a multi-method study. the leadership quarterly, 19, 297–311. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2008.03.002 diamantopoulos, a., & siguaw, j.a. (2000). introducing lisrel. london: sage publications. dickson, m.w., smith, d.b., grojean, m.w., & ehrhart, m. (2001). an organisational climate regarding ethics: the outcome of leader values and practices that reflect them. the leadership quarterly, 12, 197–217. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(01)00069-8 donaldson, s.i., & grant-vallone, e.j. (2002). understanding self-report bias in organisational behaviour research. journal of business and psychology, 17, 245–260. https://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1019637632584 eisenbeiss, s.a. (2012). re-thinking ethical leadership: an interdisciplinary integrative approach. the leadership quarterly, 23(6), 791–808. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2012.03.001 engelbrecht, a.s., heine, g., & mahembe, b. (2014). the influence of ethical leadership on trust and work engagement: an exploratory study. sa journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), 1–9. https://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1210 engelbrecht, a.s., van aswegen, a.s., & theron, c.c. (2005). the effect of ethical values on transformational leadership and ethical climate in organisations. south african journal of business management, 36(2), 19–26. eubanks, d.l., brown, a.d., & ybema, s. (2012). leadership, identity and ethics. journal of business ethics, 107(1), 1–3. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1295-5 grojean, m.w., resick, c.j., dickson, m.w., & smith, d.b. (2004). leaders, values, and organizational climate: examining leadership strategies for establishing an organizational climate regarding ethics. journal of business ethics, 55(3), 223–241. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-004-1275-5 harshman, c.l., & harshman, e.f. (2008). the gordian knot of ethics: understanding leadership effectiveness and ethical behaviour. journal of business ethics, 78(1/2), 175–192. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-006-9318-8 henning, r., theron, c.c., & spangenberg, h.h. (2004). an investigation into the internal structure of the unit performance construct as measured by the performance index (pi). south african journal of industrial psychology, 30(2), 26–36. hui, c.h., chiu, w.c.k., yu, p.l.h., cheng, k., & tse, h.h.m. (2007). the effects of service climate and the effective leadership behaviour of supervisors on frontline employee service quality: a multi-level analysis. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 80, 151–172. https://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317905x89391 johnson, c.e., shelton, p.m., & yates, l. (2012). nice guys (and gals) finish first: ethical leadership and organizational trust, satisfaction, and effectiveness. international leadership journal, 4(1), 1–19. kalshoven, k., & den hartog, d.n. (2009). ethical leader behaviour and leader effectiveness: the role of prototypicality and trust. international journal of leadership studies, 5(2), 102–120. kalshoven, k., den hartog, d.n., & de hoogh, a.h.b. (2011). ethical leadership at work questionnaire (elw): development and validation of a multidimensional measure. the leadership quarterly, 22(1), 51–69. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.12.007 kanungo, r.n. (2001). ethical values of transactional and transformational leaders. canadian journal of administrative sciences, 18(4), 257–265. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1936-4490.2001.tb00261.x kanungo, r.n., & medonca, m. (1996). dimensions of ethical leadership. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. kuntz, j.r.c, kuntz, j.r., elenkov, d., & nabirukhina, a. (2013). characterizing ethical cases: a cross-cultural investigation of individual differences, organizational climate, and leadership on ethical decision making. journal of business ethics, 113, 317–331. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1306-6 lloyd, h.r., & may, m.r. (2010). an ethics model to develop an ethical organisation. south african journal for human resource management, 8(1), 1–12. https://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.218 mafunisa, m.j. (2008). the role of codes of conduct in promoting ethical conduct in the sa public service. south african journal of labour relations, 32(1), 81–92. mayer, d.m., aquino, k., greenbaum, r.l., & kuenzi, m. (2012). who displays ethical leadership, and why does it matter? an examination of antecedents and consequences of ethical leadership. academy of management journal, 55(1), 151–171. https://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2008.0276 mayer, d.m., kuenzi, m., & greenbaum, r.l. (2010). examining the link between ethical leadership and employee misconduct: the mediating role of ethical climate. journal of business ethics, 96(5), 7–16. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0794-0 mels, g. (2003). a workshop on structural equation modelling with lisrel 8.54 for windows. chicago, il: scientific software international. naidoo, g. (2012). the critical need for ethical leadership to curb corruption and promote good governance in the south african public sector. journal of public administration, 47(3), 657–683. nasir, m., & bashir, a. (2012). examining workplace deviance in public sector organisations of pakistan. international journal of social economics, 39(4), 240–253. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03068291211205677 neubert, j.j., carlson, d.s., kacmar, l.m., roberts, j.a., & chonko, l.b. (2009). the virtuous influence of ethical leadership behaviour: evidence from the field. journal of business ethics, 90, 157–170. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0037-9 nunnally, j.c. (1978). psychometric theory. new york: mcgraw-hill. pimental, j.r.c., kuntz, j.r., & elenkov, d.s. (2010). ethical decision-making: an integrative model for business practice. european business review, 22(4), 359–376. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09555341011056159 rossouw, d., & van vuuren, l. (2010). business ethics (4th edn.). cape town: oxford university press. simha, a., & cullen, j.b. (2011). ethical climates and their effects on organisational outcomes: implications from the past and prophecies for the future. academy of management perspectives, 26(4), 20–34. https://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amp.2011.0156 sims, r.r. (1992). the challenge of ethical behaviour in organisations. journal of business ethics, 11(7), 505–513. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf00881442 spangenberg, h., & theron, c.c. (2005). promoting ethical follower behaviour through leadership of ethics: the development of the ethical leadership inventory (eli). south african journal of business management, 36(2), 1–19. van zyl, e.s. (2012). utilising human resource management in developing an ethical corporate culture. african journal of business ethics, 6(1), 50–55. https://dx.doi.org/10.4103/1817-7417.104702 victor, b., & cullen, j.b. (1988). the organisational bases of ethical work climates. administrative science quarterly, 3(1), 101–125. https://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2392857 yukl, g. (2013). leading in organizations (8th edn.). boston, ma: pearson education. yukl, g., mahsud, r., hassan, s., & prussia, g.e. (2011). an improved measure of ethical leadership. journal of leadership & organizational studies, 20(10), 1–11. zhu, w., avolio, b.j., riggio, r.e., & sosik, j.j. (2011). the effect of authentic transformational leadership on follower and group ethics. the leadership quarterly, 22, 801–817. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.07.004 abstract introduction research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) desere kokt department of business management, central university of technology, south africa tommy f. dreyer department of business management, central university of technology, south africa citation kokt, d., & dreyer, t.f. (2018). expatriate mentoring: the case of a multinational corporation in abu dhabi. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a974. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.974 original research expatriate mentoring: the case of a multinational corporation in abu dhabi desere kokt, tommy f. dreyer received: 17 july 2017; accepted: 04 june 2018; published: 22 aug. 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: despite numerous studies on the adjustment challenges faced by expatriates, not much emphasis has been placed on mentoring and what mentoring plans should entail. this also pertains to research on expatriate mentoring in the united arab emirates (uae), which has experienced massive economic growth and an influx of expatriates from across the globe. research purpose: the main purpose of the study was to propose guidelines to a multinational corporation in abu dhabi on compiling an expatriate mentoring plan. motivation for the study: the prevalence of expatriate assignments to the uae and the fact that multinational companies report high failure rates served as the motivation for the study. research approach/design and method: a mixed-method approach was followed, and a case study design was applied. a structured questionnaire was administered to 391 expatriate employees, after which principles for expatriate mentoring were formulated and presented to a focus group for discussion. main findings: the findings show that expatriates faced challenges regarding work-related and personal-level adaptations, which emphasise the need for an expatriate mentoring plan. practical/managerial implications: principles for expatriate mentoring emanated from this study, namely structured interaction, clear objectives, target dates, regular reflection on challenges, formal evaluation and remedial action. these principles informed a proposed expatriate mentoring plan. contribution/value-add: the study contributes both theoretically and empirically to the compilation of an expatriate mentoring plan. introduction owing to the pervasive impact of globalisation, the contemporary business environment is highly competitive, and organisations need to employ the best talent to outperform the competition. in this regard, the united arab emirates (uae) has, because of enormous economic growth in the last decade and a deficit in local talent, embarked on the recruitment of large numbers of expatriate employees (almazrouei & pech, 2015). according to bashir (2012), more than 91% of the uae’s workforce consists of expatriates. because of the influx of expatriates into the uae, a hybrid-type culture has developed: on the one hand, islamic traditional values prevail; on the other hand, expatriates with their cultural diversity from many different nationalities are tolerated. moreover, the uae has successfully combined western management principles with traditional values and practices, for example, paternalistic leadership and customs regarding female dress code and time management, which is unique to the arab world. companies that operate within this sphere are likely to experience an array of cross-cultural and other challenges such as work performance and retention (almazrouei & pech, 2015; bock & schulze, 2016). in addition, multinational corporations (mncs) are confronted with high failure rates of expatriate assignments, which include poor performance, premature termination and expatriates who are unprepared or ill-adjusted to the new setting. these challenges are not restricted to the uae. it is estimated that there are around 889 146 mncs worldwide that employ large numbers of expatriates (unctad, 2017). according to hansen and rasmussen (2016), about 40% of expatriates are not adequately prepared for international assignments. in a 2013 survey, maurer found that 42% of expatriate assignments were unsuccessful, while purgal-popiela (2011) states that one out of three expatriates performs below expectation. pokharel (2016) reports that 7% of mncs in the united states experience a 40% expatriate failure rate; 69% a 20% failure rate; and the remaining 24% a 10% failure rate. despite numerous studies on the adjustment challenges faced by expatriates (see caligiuri & bonache, 2016; haslberger, brewster, & hippler, 2013; lee & kartika, 2014; okpara, 2016; sonesh & denisi, 2016), there is a dearth of research on expatriate mentoring plans and the issues mentoring plans should address. although formal training (e.g. pre-departure, post-arrival or cross-cultural training) has been a dominant strategy in preparing expatriates, expatriate mentoring per se has received little attention (abdullah & jin, 2015), and very few mncs have expatriate mentoring plans in place (cullen & parboteeah, 2010; sullivan, 2015). this is also the case with the corporation selected for this study: a large mnc in the oil and gas industry in abu dhabi that employs around 7150 expatriates. purpose the main purpose of the study was to propose guidelines for the compilation of an expatriate mentoring plan to assist expatriates and their families with adjusting to living and working in the uae. literature review the globalised world of work globalisation is not a new phenomenon; what is unprecedented is the accelerated speed at which information and knowledge are shared, mainly because of the internet and information communication technology, as well as the proliferation of international trade and investment (austin, chapman, farah, wilson, & ridge, 2014). globalisation has its roots in history, and humans have travelled and traded since early times. from the 16th to the 19th century, european powers expanded aggressively and colonised many parts of the world, notably africa and asia (luthans & farner, 2002). the dutch east india company (known in the netherlands as the vereenigde oost-indische compagnie or voc) was established in 1602 and is considered to be the world’s first international company. this, together with the industrial revolution (which commenced from about 1760 in great britain), has paved the way for the globalised world of the 21st century. the industrial revolution, gave rise to machines being used in production, chemical manufacturing, iron production and the like. the revolution soon spread to all major european and north american centres, essentially conquering international markets. between the 18th and 19th century, the need for raw material, and the subsequent second industrial revolution, led many industrialised countries to colonise less developed regions and countries. these developments initiated the rise of mncs (arezki, rota-graziosi, & senbet 2013). the two world wars of the 20th century and the opposing ideologies of socialism (advocated by the ussr) and capitalism (advocated by the united states and europe) brought about a great deal of contention on how economic activities should be structured. after the second world war, the global market experienced accelerated growth and development as europe recovered from the ravages of war. this also involved the liberalisation of international trade, which had been gaining momentum since 1989 following the collapse of socialism (arezki et al., 2013). since then, mncs have become gigantic in scale, influencing political, economic and social development throughout the world (okpara, 2016). in the context of increased globalisation, organisations face distinct challenges. the most prominent of these challenges occur on a technological level, where increased digitalisation and virtualisation of the workplace are evident. further challenges pertain to the increase in diversity and the continuous attempt to attract and retain the right calibre of talent (deloitte, 2017). expatriates and the complexity of adjustment in 2010 noe already noted that the exodus of highly skilled individuals was becoming a dominant part of international migration. this tendency has persisted unabated, hence the prevalence of expatriate assignments worldwide. an ‘expatriate’ could be described as an individual working and residing in a country other than their native country. there are many terms referring to the types of migration occurring across international borders. ‘immigrants’, for example, include individuals who live permanently in a foreign country; ‘shortand long-term expatriate assignees’ are nominated employees deployed internationally; ‘international commuters’ are employees who work in a foreign country, but return home regularly; ‘self-initiated foreign workers’ are individuals who undertake international work with no, or very little, organisational sponsorship; and employees undertaking extensive business trips (point & dickmann, 2012). numerous studies have focused on the adjustment issues of expatriates. according to haslberger et al. (2013), adjustment should be viewed in terms of obtaining person–environment fit, and cognition, emotion and behaviour should be considered as part of the process. ren, yunlu, shaffer, and fodchuk (2015) found that expatriates who are not adequately instructed about cultural issues could develop feelings of job deprivation. this critical finding supports the importance of cross-cultural adjustment mentioned by okpara (2016). cross-cultural adjustment is the key element of expatriate success, as individuals need to feel secure and comfortable in their new environment. another important element is the level of adjustment of family members to the new setting (lee & kartika, 2014). in their study on the work–family interfaces of expatriation, schütter and boerner (2013) found four potential antecedents for the success of expatriate assignments: social support at work, developmental opportunities at work, family social support and family adjustment. thus, it is clear that host nationals should support newcomers with regard to both work-related and personal-level adjustment. unfortunately, as sonesh and denisi (2016) note that the relationship between host nationals and expatriates is often problematic, this is a big obstacle to adjustment progress. a study by bock and schulze (2016) on cross-cultural mentoring in uae schools found that cultural, religious and language barriers posed significant challenges in the mentoring process, especially for the arab world. the adjustment challenges of expatriates could be explained by the identity development theory of chickering and reisser (1993). although it initially focused on the psychological development and adaptation of college students, this theory can also be applied to the adjustment of expatriates. the theory proposes seven stages that individuals go through in order to adapt to a new environment: developing competence involves the development of intellectual, physical and interpersonal relations which enable an individual to function in a new environment. this stage also relates to attaining cultural intelligence and the ability to work with individuals from diverse cultural groups. emotion management relates to dealing constructively with emotions such as anxiety, anger, depression, shame, guilt, etc. knowing and becoming aware of these emotions are essential, as well as constructing ways in which they can be managed. moving through autonomy towards independence pertains to the development of independence in the new environment by being able to function autonomously. this also involves attaining emotional independence and the ability to live according to own convictions. developing mature interpersonal relationships relates to the development of awareness and understanding of different ideas, backgrounds and values. mature interpersonal relationships imply that individuals have tolerance and appreciation (both interculturally and interpersonally) for innate human differences, as well as a capacity for intimacy. establishing identity refers to the maturity of individuals. this implies that they know themselves and accept themselves as unique individuals. this notion is supported by the concept of ‘emotional intelligence’, which means that individuals know and understand themselves and are able to manage their emotions and interactions with others. developing purpose is attained once individuals have a reliable sense of self and are able and willing to reach their full potential. this notion also relates to the concept of ‘self-actualisation’ promoted by abraham maslow. developing integrity refers to individuals’ rebalancing their personal values to create a match between their own value system and expectations from the new environment. this involves self-respect and respecting others. supporting expatriate adjustment through mentoring from an mnc’s perspective, the degree of adjustment of the expatriate is an important predictor of employee performance. from an expatriate’s perspective, adjustment is a determining factor of job satisfaction and psychological well-being. the following individual and organisational elements were found to be crucial in expatriates’ ability to adjust to their new environment: individual elements that influence an expatriate’s ability to adjust involve mostly personal characteristics such as flexibility, a desire to adjust, interpersonal skills, self-confidence, cultural understanding, emotional stability, previous overseas experience, ability to speak the local language and the ability of family members to adjust to the new environment (awais bhatti, mohamed battour, rageh ismail, & pandiyan sundram, 2014; caligiuri & bonache, 2016). organisational elements that influence an expatriate’s ability to adjust include pre-departure preparation, the recruitment and selection practices used by the company, and organisational support (almazrouei & pech, 2015). relocation and working in a new environment are multifaceted and complex processes, and expatriates and their families require the assistance of host organisations to succeed. the importance of assisting family members is emphasised by zhu, luthans, chew and li (2006), who found that up to 85% of expatriate assignments fail because of family dissatisfaction in the new environment. mentoring, and specifically having a mentoring plan in place, can be a strategy to provide the necessary support to expatriates and their families. the notion of a mentoring relationship originates from homer’s epic poem, the odyssey. the story tells of odysseus, the king of ithaca, who, while taking part in the trojan war, entrusted his son to his friend, mentor, who was to educate the young prince. the term ‘mentor’ has since been used to refer to a person with broad and profound knowledge who is able to teach and guide the inexperienced (zhuanga, wu, & wen, 2013). for the purposes of the study, a ‘mentor’ is a competent individual who provides guidance, advice and continuous support to assist the mentee (the expatriate) in making the necessary adaptations to the new environment (armstrong, 2010). the mentor needs to guide and support the mentee on a personal-level (i.e. living in a new environment, finding a place to stay, settling in of family members, etc.) and an organisational level (i.e. doing the job and adapting to a foreign work environment) (werner & desimone, 2012). in their study, zhuanga et al. (2013) found that the psychological support, role modelling and career development functions provided by mentors were positively related to the general adjustment of mentees, including better interaction with co-workers and job-related aspects. although authors such as cullen and parboteeah (2010) and zhuanga et al. (2013) propose mentoring as a strategy, there is a dearth of research on the issues to be addressed in expatriate mentoring plans. as alluded to above, the uae is a country deeply rooted in traditional islamic practices. however, for continued economic growth, they have made trade-offs and allowed expatriates from different nationalities and religions to join their labour force. this has led to the development of a hybrid-type culture in which western values and beliefs are accommodated. this is especially pertinent in larger centres and cities such as abu dhabi and dubai. the company investigated in this study operates in the oil and gas sector in abu dhabi – a sector which has been instrumental in ensuring the rapid growth of the uae economy. around 10% of the world’s total oil and gas reserves are situated in the uae, and it is projected that this sector will continue to grow in the coming decades. to date, the biggest deposits of oil have been found in abu dhabi compared with other uae regions. more than 85% of the total uae oil capacity and 90% of total uae reserves are controlled by the company in this study. the company employs around 7150 expatriates from over 70 different nationalities. research design method research approach a mixed-method approach was followed in the study, which involved both a quantitative and qualitative phase. in the quantitative phase a structured questionnaire was administered, and in the qualitative phase one focus group discussion was held. the mixed-method approach was deemed applicable, as the adjustment levels of a large population of expatriate employees had to be established. the focus group discussion on the principles of expatriate mentoring provided additional insight into the complexities of expatriate adjustment and informed the proposed expatriate mentoring plan. measures for the quantitative part of the study, the following measures applied: owing to the complex adjustments expatriates need to make, only individuals with tenure of two or more years were included in the data gathering process. expatriates with longer tenure were deemed better able to reflect on their experiences. the human resource department of the company provided information pertaining to the departments and positions of expatriate employees. this enabled the researchers to send all respondents a link to the questionnaire via survey monkey. participation was voluntary, and respondents were ensured that responses would be treated confidentially. for the qualitative phase, the following measures applied: participants had to have tenure of more than 2 years; they must not have participated in the quantitative part of the study; they were selected from all six departments of the company (administration, safety, operations, maintenance, projects and human resource management); and they were from different nationalities. participants for the quantitative part of the study, a structured questionnaire was administered to 391 expatriate employees. according to israel (2003), for any population between 7000 and 8000, a sample size of 378 is sufficient. the sample of 391 could thus be regarded as sufficient. simple random sampling was applied to select participants. simple random sampling, also known as chance sampling, means that all items in the population have an equal chance of inclusion in the sample. the sample included employees from all six departments in the company. for the qualitative part of the study, nine expatriate employees were initially invited to participate in one focus group discussion, but only six were available on the day of the discussion. these individuals were from different nationalities (united kingdom, india, philippines, new zealand, romania and south africa), they had not participated in the quantitative study and they represented the six departments of the company. as qualitative research is less structured and formal, participants were selected based on their availability and willingness to participate in the focus group. measuring instrument as indicated above, the identity development theory of chickering and reisser (1993) served as a conceptual guide for the development of the structured questionnaire. this theory provides a valuable basis from which to study adjustment challenges as illustrated by previous research (see coe-meade, 2015; moreau, 2017). the questionnaire was further informed by the research of awais bhatti et al. (2014) and caligiuri and bonache (2016) on the individual elements of expatriate adjustment and that of almazrouei and pech (2015) on the organisational elements. the questionnaire consisted of three sections: section a captured demographics (nationality, gender, age, employment level and tenure), section b captured work-related adjustment challenges, and section c captured personal-level adjustment challenges. the questionnaire was piloted on 26 january 2017 using five expatriate employees from the human resource management, safety and operations departments. all the respondents included in the pilot study had more than 2 years of service and were from different nationalities (arabic, british, jordanian, south african and indian). the respondents indicated that they understood the questionnaire and that the questionnaire was neither ambiguous nor difficult to understand. once the data were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics, the researchers were able to ascertain the challenges expatriates and their families were facing. the results from the quantitative study supported the need for an expatriate mentoring plan. subsequently, principles were formulated and presented to the focus group for in-depth discussion and feedback. the focus group discussion was conducted for 2 hours on 17 june 2017. as the participants did not want their responses to be electronically recorded, a research assistant took detailed notes while the main researcher facilitated the discussion. the research assistant was briefed prior to the focus group discussion, and participants were informed that their responses would be treated as confidential and anonymous. design a research design involves the framework or plan that is used in a study to guide data collection and analysis (pandey & pandey, 2015). according to leedy and ormrod (2015), a research design is a systematic process of collecting, analysing and interpreting information to increase the understanding of a particular phenomenon. the research design applicable to this study was a case study, as the focus was on a single mnc. analysis the results from the quantitative study were captured in microsoft excel and both descriptive and inferential statistics were performed on the data. statistica 13.2 was used for inferential data analysis. as indicated above, the quantitative data analysis enabled the researchers to formulate expatriate mentoring principles which were discussed in the focus group. the responses from the focus group were transcribed by the research assistant. as qualitative data analysis is often inductive in nature, the researcher aimed to elicit reflections from the participants. the data analysis was thus not very structured and procedural (saunders, lewis, & thornhill, 2016). the reflections from the participants served as valuable inputs in refining the final proposal of the expatriate mentoring plan. results figure 1 shows the country of origin of the respondents and that the majority of respondents were from the united kingdom (13%). other countries included venezuela, nigeria, ghana, bangladesh, uganda, jordan, indonesia, algeria, pakistan, united states, germany, south africa, romania, new zealand, portugal, australia, the philippines and india. figure 1: expatriates’ country of origin. table 1 displays the demographic profile of the respondents with regard to gender, age, employment levels and tenure. table 1: demographic profile of respondents. table 1 shows that most of the respondents were men, from the age group between 31 and 40 years. the majority of respondents were employed on supervisory level and most had been employed for 2–5 years. the next section presents the responses pertaining to work-related adjustments (section b of the questionnaire). the pearson chi-square test was applied, using a significance level of 0.05. the equality of proportions was tested at 1 degree of freedom. the disagree and agree columns were combined to enable the analysis. according to table 2, a significant proportion of respondents indicated in question 2.1 that they had not been well prepared on what to expect prior to arriving at their new work environment. this applies to most of the findings (e.g. question 2.2 on being well informed, question 2.4 on getting adequate training, question 2.5 on being equipped with the necessary tools, question 6.6 on the line manager being helpful, etc.). this shows that respondents were not adequately prepared for their new work environment. the exceptions, where there were no significant differences between the proportions of respondents who disagreed and those who agreed, occurred at questions 2.3, 2.8, 2.9 and 2.13 (respectively referring to whether the selection process had been fair; good work was recognised by the organisation; job satisfaction was experienced; and whether respondents felt overloaded). table 2: pearson chi-square test results for work-related adjustment. the responses pertaining to personal-level adjustments (section c of the questionnaire) are presented in table 3. the pearson chi-square test was applied, using a significance level of 0.05. the equality of proportions was tested at 1 degree of freedom. the disagree and agree columns were combined to enable the analysis. table 3: pearson chi-square test results for personal-level adjustment. table 3 indicates significant differences in proportions of agreement for all the findings, except question 3.5 on securing a permanent residence. most of the respondents agreed that the selection process had produced a suitable match (question 3.2). the findings further confirm that the organisation had assisted respondents with logistical aspects such as finding accommodation (question 3.4), obtaining work permits (question 3.9) and finding work–life balance (question 3.14). the organisation had not, however, adequately assisted with aspects such as cultural training prior to leaving the home country (question 3.1), appointing a social buddy (question 3.13, where the disagreed responses were overwhelming), providing language tuition (question 3.7), assisting with the schooling needs of children (question 3.8), finding employment for spouses (question 3.10) and providing support with accessing the social welfare programme of the country (question 3.12). discussion outline of the results quantitative study the respondents from the quantitative part of the study represented 19 countries were mostly between 31 and 40 years of age, and mostly (77%) men. this shows that the company seems to employ individuals from a variety of countries, mostly younger men. the majority of respondents were employed at supervisory level and had tenure between 2 and 5 years. regarding the work-related challenges, some aspects emerged as prominent. respondents indicated that they had not been adequately informed of the expectations of the employer before departing their home country. according to kawai and mohr (2015), proper preparation of individuals is essential prior to departure, as this can reduce confusion and frustration. only 25% of respondents agreed that they had been provided with adequate training to fulfil their new roles and responsibilities. training of newly joined expatriate employees is key to the success of an expatriate assignment (abdullah & jin, 2015). it can thus be concluded that respondents in general had not been well prepared prior to their arrival in their host country. seventy-four per cent of respondents disagreed that their new line managers assisted them in adjusting to their new work environment, and 77% disagreed that they received sufficient performance feedback from their line managers. furthermore, 84% of respondents disagreed about having received social support from their supervisors. these findings indicate a lack of proper assistance from line managers. regarding social support from work colleagues, 64% of respondents agreed that they did, in fact, receive social support from colleagues, and 64% of respondents felt secure in their current position. according to imran, majeed, and ayub (2015), job security is an important variable that directly affects employees’ organisational satisfaction and their level of commitment. however, 77% of respondents disagreed with feeling satisfied with the overall support received from the company. because perceived organisational support is crucial for effective expatriate adjustment (cole & nesbeth, 2014), this is a significant finding that needs to receive attention from management. regarding personal-level adjustments, the findings reveal that 89% of respondents disagreed that their family members had received cultural training pertaining to their new environment. forty-six per cent also disagreed to having received assistance from their organisation to ship their furniture from their home country. only 6% of respondents agreed that they received arabic language tuition for themselves and their family members. according to bock and schulze (2016), the ability to speak arabic in the uae is important in order for expatriates and their families to adjust successfully. ninety-two per cent disagreed that their employer provided assistance with employment opportunities for their spouses or partners. moreover, 90% of respondents disagreed that their families received support with accessing the social welfare programme of the country, and a further 93% indicated that the organisation did not support them with a social buddy. thus, the findings show that personal challenges were not sufficiently attended to, which could contribute to failed expatriate assignments within the company. in this regard, the literature (see cole & nesbeth, 2014; lee & kartika, 2014; mcnulty, 2012; sarkiunaite & rocke, 2015) highlights expatriate family adjustment and family satisfaction as key elements in preventing failed expatriate assignments. qualitative study based on the literature review and quantitative analysis, the following six principles of expatriate mentoring were formulated: structured interaction: expatriate mentoring should take place in a structured environment with coordinated interaction between mentors and mentees. line managers should also be part of the process, as it is imperative that they be aware of the challenges expatriate employees are experiencing. clear objectives: mentees need to set specific objectives on what they aim to achieve with mentoring. these objectives should be informed by their own work and personal goals. target dates: target dates should be articulated clearly in order for expatriates to achieve specific objectives by specific dates. regular reflection on challenges: expatriates need to reflect regularly on their work-related and personal challenges. areas of immediate concern also need to be stipulated regularly. formal evaluation: parties involved should evaluate each other formally and on a regular basis. this includes the evaluation of mentees by their mentors and line managers, and mentees evaluating their mentors and line managers. remedial action: all parties should be open to remedial action. this applies to mentees, mentors and line managers. remedial action should be committed to in writing. as indicated previously, these principles were discussed during the focus group session and the following inputs were captured: structured interaction: because the primary mentor is often not available, the mentee needs an alternative person who could assist with immediate challenges, hence, the rationale for having a secondary mentor. there was consensus that the secondary mentor be appointed and available (with no official responsibility) as a stand-in for the primary mentor. the important role of the line manager in assisting with expatriate adjustment was discussed as well, and the group agreed that the line manager needs to form part of the mentoring committee, together with the primary and secondary mentor. the group also proposed that the second-line manager forms part of the mentoring committee, if applicable. clear objectives: the need to set clear objectives were reiterated as well as aligning these objectives with the personal development plan (pdp) for each individual – as this does not always happen. concerns were also expressed with regard to the commencement of the mentoring process: it was suggested that mentoring start prior to the employment process and not form part of the induction process. mentoring should be a separate structured process, according to the group. target dates: although expatriate employees should set realistic targets for themselves, the group felt that the frequency of mentoring meetings should be stipulated. it was suggested that specific target dates be mutually agreed upon in writing. the group agreed that expatriate mentoring should apply not only to newly appointed expatriates but also to those who move to other positions. regular reflection on challenges: the principle of regular reflection also relates to the frequency of mentoring. in this regard, some focus group members reiterated that the frequency of mentoring be based on individual needs and challenges. some individuals might require more frequent interaction with the mentor or mentoring committee than others. formal evaluation: in keeping with the advantages of having a constructive relationship, some members of the focus group expressed the need for parties to formally evaluate each other. this would imply the formal evaluation of not only the mentee but also the primary and secondary mentors, as well as the line manage and second-line manager, if applicable. thus, the mentoring plan should include formal evaluation guidelines and an evaluation rubric for this purpose. remedial action: the focus group expressed concerns related to remedial action and commented that line managers also be subjected to remedial action, not only mentees. it was proposed that remedial action for mentees, mentors and line managers be formulated regularly, in writing. the assumption is that this process would enhance the reciprocity of the mentoring relationship, emphasising that both parties need to contribute to forming a constructive relationship. based on these principles, the following outline for an expatriate mentoring plan was proposed: (1) details of the mentee; (2) the mentoring objectives; (3) details of the primary and secondary mentor; (4) details of the mentoring committee which includes the line manager and second-line manager, if applicable; (5) an analysis of the mentee’s short-, mediumand long-term career goals; (6) work-related adjustment challenges of the mentee; (7) personal-level adjustment challenges of the mentee; and (8) target dates for meeting specific objectives; followed by (9) a formal evaluation of the mentor by the mentee, according to an evaluation rubric; (10) a formal evaluation of the mentee by the mentor, according to an evaluation rubric; (11) a formal evaluation of the line manager by the mentee according to an evaluation rubric; and, finally, (12) remedial action for the mentee; (13) remedial action for the mentors; (14) remedial action for the line manager; and (15) signatures of all relevant parties. practical implications based on the findings of the study, the following principles should be applied to expatriate mentoring and incorporated into expatriate mentoring plans: structured interaction, clear objectives, target dates, regular reflection on challenges, formal evaluation and remedial action. limitations and recommendations one limitation of the study is that only one mnc in the context of the uae was investigated. however, the study provides specific principles that can inform the compilation of expatriate mentoring plans, which might be useful to other mncs. based on the literature, quantitative analysis and reflections from the focus group discussion, the following guidelines are proposed for compiling expatriate mentoring plans: expatriate mentoring should ideally involve a primary and secondary mentor. an expatriate’s line manager should be part of the mentoring process, as it is necessary for the line manager to understand the work-related and personal challenges expatriates are facing. a mentoring committee should be appointed for each expatriate employee, consisting of a primary and secondary mentor, the line manager and possibly a second-line manager. the mentoring committee members should evaluate each other regularly. evaluation intervals should be mutually decided upon in writing. an expatriate mentoring plan should contain clear mentoring objectives, as well as an analysis of the mentee’s short-, mediumand long-term goals. the mentoring objectives should be aligned with the employee’s pdp and job-specific roles and responsibilities. target dates and actions should be decided upon and articulated clearly. expatriate mentoring should stimulate regular reflection on the part of the mentee pertaining to work-related and personal-level challenges. this aspect is highly personalised, as mentees will have different needs and challenges. expatriate mentoring should not only apply to newly appointed expatriate employees but also to all expatriate employees changing roles within the organisation. expatriate mentoring should be implemented during the initial stages of employment and not as part of the formal induction programme. remedial action should apply to mentees, mentors and line managers alike. these proposed guidelines for expatriate mentoring involve an intense process in which mentees, mentors and line managers are in constant interaction and the challenges expatriates face can be dealt with in a structured and coordinated way. although it is likely to be time consuming, this approach is aimed at showing the commitment of the company towards the successful adjustment of expatriate employees. this concurs with kawai and strange (2014) who found that perceived organisational support has a positive impact on expatriate adjustment. conclusion owing to the complexity of working and living in a foreign country, mncs must support expatriates in adjusting to their new environment. one way of doing this is having a formal mentoring plan in place. this paper proposed specific principles that can guide the formulation of an expatriate mentoring plan. the principles include structured interaction, clear objectives, target dates, regular reflection on challenges, formal evaluation and remedial action. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions d.k. conceptualised and wrote the article. t.f.d. assisted with the literature review and conducted the data gathering for both phases of the study. references abdullah, d. n., & jin, c. (2015). determining the types of training and development support for expatriates. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 172, 548–554. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.401 almazrouei, h., & pech, r. j. (2015). working in the uae: expatriate management experiences. journal of islamic accounting and business research, 6(1), 73–93. https://doi.org/10.1108/jiabr-08-2013-0032 arezki, r., rota-graziosi, g., & senbet, l. (2013). capital flight risk. finance & development, 50(3), 26–28. armstrong, m. (2010). armstrong’s essential human resource management practice: a guide to people management (11th ed.). london: kogan page ltd. austin, a., chapman, d., farah, s., wilson, e., & ridge, n. (2014). expatriate academic staff in the united arab emirates: the nature of their work experiences in higher education institutions. journal of business and public affairs, 68(4), 541–557. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-014-9727-z awais bhatti, m., mohamed battour, m., rageh ismail, a., & pandiyan sundram, v. (2014). effects of personality traits (big five) on expatriates adjustment and job performance. equality, diversity and inclusion: an international journal, 33(1), 73–96. https://doi.org/10.1108/edi-01-2013-0001 bashir, s. (2012). perceived organizational support and the cross-cultural adjustment of expatriates in the uae. education, business and society: contemporary middle eastern issues, 5(1), 63–82. https://doi.org/10.1108/17537981211225862 bock, w. c., & schulze, s. (2016). cross-cultural mentoring: lessons learnt from school leaders in the united arab emirates. journal for new generation sciences, 14(2), 1–15. caligiuri, p., & bonache, j. (2016). evolving and enduring challenges in global mobility. journal of world business, 51(1), 127–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2015.10.001 chickering, a. w., & reisser, l. (1993). education and identity (2nd ed.). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. coe-meade, l. (2015). relationships among student identity development, sense of community, and academic adjustment in community college distance learners. retrieved from https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=efl_etds cole, n., & nesbeth, k. (2014). why do international assignments fail? expatriates families speak. international studies of management and organisation, 44(3), 66–79. https://doi.org/10.2753/imo0020-8825440304 cullen, j. b., & parboteeah, k. p. (2010). international business strategy and the multinational company. new york: routledge. deloitte. (2017). 2017 deloitte global human capital trends. retrieved from https://www.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/global/documents/about-deloitte/central-europe/cehansen, z. n. l., & rasmussen, l. (2016). mentorship of expatriates in transnational companies. journal of global mobility, 4(2), 197–201. https://doi.org/10.1108/jgm-05-2015-0018 haslberger, a., brewster, c., & hippler, t. (2013). the dimensions of expatriate adjustment. human resource management, 52(3), 333–351. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21531 imran, r., majeed, m., & ayub, a. (2015). impact of organizational justice, job security and job satisfaction on organizational productivity. journal of economics, business and management, 9(3), 840–845. https://doi.org/10.7763/joebm.2015.v3.295 israel, g. d. (2003). determining sample size. university of florida ifas extension, 5, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2016.06.041 kawai, n., & mohr, a. (2015). the association between role ambiguity, role novelty & expatriates’ job outcomes: the moderating effects of organizational & supervisor support. british journal of management, 4(1), 589–597. kawai, n., & strange, r. (2014). perceived organizational support and expatriate performance: understanding a mediated model. the international journal of human resource management, 25(17), 2438–2462. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2014.884615 lee, l. y., & kartika, n. (2014). the influence of individual, family, and social capital factors on expatriate adjustment and performance: the moderating effect of psychology contract and organizational support. expert systems with applications, 41(11), 5483–5494. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2014.02.030 leedy, p. d., & ormrod, j. e. (2015). practical research: planning and design. upper saddle river, nj: pearson education. luthans, s., & farner, p. (2002). expatriate development: the use of 360-degree feedback. journal of management, 21(10), 780–793. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710210448048 maurer, r. (2013). survey: companies fail to train managers for overseas assignments. retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/global-hr/pages/fail-train-managers-overseas-assignments.aspx mcnulty, y. (2012). being dumped in to sink or swim: an empirical study of organizational support for the trailing spouse. human resource development international, 15(4), 417–434. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2012.721985 moreau, e. (2017). a qualitative content analysis of identity development indicators in gap year alumni survey responses. retrieved from http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/edd/91 noe, r. (2010). employee training and development. (5th ed.). new york: mcgraw-hill irwin. okpara, j. o. (2016). cross-cultural adjustment of expatriates. international journal of cross cultural management, 16(3), 259–280. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470595816671149 pandey, p., & pandey, m. m. (2015). research methodology: tools and techniques. romania: bridge center. point, s., & dickmann, m. (2012). branding international careers: an analysis of multinational corporations’ official wording. european management journal, 30(1), 18–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2011.09.001 pokharel, b. (2016). triumph over failure of expatriate in an international assignments from the international human resource management perspective. international journal of business and management, 11(5), 310–314. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2012.721985 purgal-popiela, j. (2011). adjustment of expatriates and their spouses as a challenge for international human resource management. journal of intercultural management, 3(1), 27–43. ren, h., yunlu, d. g., shaffer, m., & fodchuk, k. m. (2015). expatriate success and thriving: the influence of job deprivation and emotional stability. journal of world business, 50(1), 69–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2014.01.007 sarkiunaite, i., & rocke, d. (2015). the expatriate experience: the factors of international assignment success. transformations in business & economics, 14(34), 20–47. saunders, m. l., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2016). research methods for business students. harlow: pearson education. schütter, h., & boerner, s. (2013). illuminating the work-family interface on international assignments: an exploratory approach. journal of global mobility, 1(1), 46–71. https://doi.org/10.1108/jgm-09-2012-0012 sonesh, s. c., & denisi, a. s. (2016). the categorization of expatriates and the support offered by host country nationals. journal of global mobility: the home of expatriate management research, 4(1), 18–43. https://doi.org/10.1108/jgm-09-2015-0036 sullivan, p. (2015). how to ensure your expat leaders transition successfully. a guide for human resource leaders. retrieved from http://osullivanfield.com/expat-transitions/successful-expats-a-guide-for-hr/ unctad. (2017). world investment report 2017. retrieved from http://unctad.org/en/publicationslibrary/wir2017_en.pdf werner, j. m., & desimone, r. l. (2012). human resource development (6th ed.). mason: cengage learning. zhu, w., luthans, f., chew, i. h., & li, c. (2006). potential expats in singaporean organizations. the journal of management development, 25(8), 763–776. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710610684240 zhuanga, w. l., wu, m., & wen, s. (2013). relationship of mentoring functions to expatriate adjustments: comparing home country mentorship and host country mentorship. the international journal of human resource management, 24(1), 35–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2012.669784 7vandermerwe.qxd today we are confronted with change that is exponential, that is, change heaped upon change (eitington, 1997). the practices managers develop in order to work in a stable, predictable world, often no longer apply, and in fact are outmoded. furthermore, the guideposts for management today and in future are far from clear. according to buchanan & boddy (1992), two of the most important skills managers must acquire as change agents are the ability: � to communicate effectively to colleagues and subordinates a need or changes in project goals and in individual tasks and responsibilities � to sell plans and ideas to others, by creating a desirable and challenging vision of the future. change efforts today are guided and shaped by lessons learned over the past 30 years of trial and error in planned organisation change. judging from the practices in most organisations today, three lessons in particular have been learnt: � participation is important � according to jamieson (1999), effective communication is related to participation. this is echoed by kitchen (1997:18) when he states that ‘‘employees can only work effectively if they can participate in the organisation and they can only participate if they are fully informed’’ � teams generally perform better than individuals � process (how something is done) affects outcome (what is accomplished) (dooley, 1998). various combinations of these lessons learned have greatly influenced the entire spectrum of change methodologies, from quality circles to total quality management (tqm), from work redesign to reengineering, from task forces to large system change. with the increased use of groups in communication, there has been an exponential growth in the need for facilitation help. thus more and more people from all organisational levels and functions, as well as numerous external resources, are now in, or need to be in, facilitator roles. this study was conducted in a large listed organisation that has many projects running at any one time. as a change manager assisting project managers on projects, a lot of frustration arising as a result of the limitations of the current tools available to assist the project managers in their role as communicators and facilitators, were observed. the importance of tools to assist the project manager is highlighted by harding (1998). given the importance of change communication and the big role facilitation plays in change communication, it would be a natural assumption to make, that a tool that would address them all would be of great help for project managers. furthermore, a tool that would be able to bridge the gap between the current tools available, would add a lot of value in the business. a number of solution providers were contacted and, after consultation, it was decided that the business would evaluate mindmanager x5 pro as a solution. the rationale behind choosing mindmanager x5 pro was the fact that, on face value, the solution contains the necessary elements that would satisf y the business requirements. mindjet, the creators of mindmanager ×5 pro define it as follows: “mindmanager®, mindjet's visual tool for brainstorming and planning, offers business professionals a more effective way to electronically capt ure, organize, and communicate information and ideas. as the digital alternative to note-pads, flipcharts and white boards, mindmanager increases productivity through faster understanding, better decisions and reduced meeting time. xml-based mindmanager seamlessly integrates with microsoft® office® and enterprise data sets to harness corporate knowledge.” (www.mindjet.com) to evaluate the solution it is important to look at the claims made by the developers. the business specific culture and requirements must also be taken into account when evaluating the solution. the next section will address these two issues. claims made by developers in order to evaluate mindmanager ×5 pro, it is important to examine claims made by the developers. the developers claim that the software saves time and provides demonstrable return on investments. in addition to time-savings from the electronic capture of information, mindmanager's developers claim improvement in, visual format facilitates communication, group consensus and decision-making in much shorter periods of time. this is the result of: � faster decision-making � improved collaboration � increased success rates and accelerated projects � less time spent on preparation schalk van der merwe schalk@connect.za.net mark bussin department of human resource management university of johannesburg abstract project managers are in desparate need of a tool to help them save time and bridge the gap between different interfaces which they use to document, present to the business and manage their projecs. mindmanager x5 pro appears to be a viable solution. but it is of utmost importance that before rolling out the solution in the business that the solution be evaluated in the specific environment. mindmanager x5 pro makes certain claims that must be confirmed. furthmore the software will be evaluated against best practices criteria in the field of change communication, facilitation and project management. key words project management tool, project execution, mindmanagers x5 pro an evaluation of a communication, facilitation and project management tool to enhance the effectiveness of project execution 48 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (3), 48-54 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (3), 48-54 project management tool 49 � less time spent in meetings � increased team productivity. in addition to the above-mentioned benefits, the developers also claim that the solution software: � has time-savings and productivity benefits � increases the number of new ideas generated during brainstorming by at least 20% � increases project success rates by at least 20% � reduces time spent transcribing and distributing notes by at least 30% � moves projects from brainstorming and planning phases into implementation 20% faster � enables groups to reach consensus, make group decisions 20% faster � reduces time spent preparing for meetings by 20% � enables groups/individuals to understand concepts 30% faster the above-mentioned benefits of mindmanager ×5 pro will be taken into consideration in evaluating the software. it is also important to take into account that, given the business specific culture and context, it will be necessary to evaluate the software against the best practices of the given business requirements. the business requires a solution that will assist project managers in their role as communicators, facilitators and project managers. mindmanager ×5 pro will be evaluated against the following best practice criteria in the related fields mentioned: the research will establish how effective the tool would be in the specific business environment. as background to the study, it is necessary to look at relevant aspects of change communication, facilitation and project management. literature review change communication, the role of facilitation, project management and mind mapping will be discussed below as background to the evaluation of mindmanager x5 pro against best practices in the different focus areas. change communication any organisation implementing new technology must consider the organisational and human resource issues associated with an implementation. whether implementing specific components or wall-to-wall functionality, it is certain that a project will result in changes to some or all processes. this will potentially change job roles, responsibilit y, departmental boundaries, and organisational structure. any initiative, which requires or brings about change, carries with it a risk that the change will not be accepted by the organisation (for a variety of reasons) and as a result will prevent full realisation of the planned benefits. according to clarke (1994) change can only be sustainable and irreversible when it is rooted in effective communication. numerous scholars echo this: � “communication is key to a successful implementation” (klein, 1996:32) � project failure is directly linked to the lack in communications (collyer, 2000) � “project management, change management and communication go hand in hand” (moore, 1998:22) � “...communication is a key issue with regard to how successful change management programmes are implemented...” (kitchen and daly, 2002:53) � douglas (2003) emphasises the critical importance of change communication. if mindmanager ×5 pro were able to assist in the effectiveness of the communication, the solution would play a critical role in the change process, which would be a great asset to the business. role of facilitation in change communication attempts to “do” change to an organisation are unlikely to be successful because they do not take account of the diversity of individual responses to change nor do they respect the cognitive and personality attributes of the individual. individuals and groups must be enabled to make change happen for them. as a facilitator of change, one needs to move away from providing solutions for people towards helping them develop solutions for themselves. project management project management is the process of managing, allocating and timing resources in order to achieve a given objective in an expedient manner. alternately, project management could be defined as the process of achieving objectives by using the combined capabilities of project resources or assets (badira & whitehouse, 1989). project management and communication are seen as key success factors underlying the change process (jay & smith, 1996). ahituv & neumann (1990) see project management as one of the major factors contributing to the success of information systems development and implementation. the objective of any project is to produce an end result or product. this is achieved by means of resources and activities. the activities have definite starting points and end points. in short, a project produces unique end products by undertaking activities using resources within a period with a definite starting date and completion date. projects are generally unique and will usually result in a change in the environment in which the project operates. the objective of project management is to ensure the success of a project by delivering a quality end product on time and within budget. this can be achieved by managing the following (harding, 1998): � activities � resources � time and effort � intermediate products. the organisation should provide tools to ensure productivity of project managers. a scheduling tool is a minimum. risk analysis and process management tools should also be considered (harding 1998). currently the business, a large listed organisation, uses the following tools to assist project managers: � microsoft project as project manager, one has to keep track of numerous details, while always having an eye on the ultimate project goal. microsoft project benefits include: � the program stores details about the project in its database � the program assists the project manager in using the stored project information to calculate and maintain the project's schedule and costs, thereby creating the project plan � the program keeps the information entered and the information it calculates in fields, which contain specific types of information, such as task names or durations. like a spreadsheet, microsoft project displays results of its calculations immediately. after entering all task information, one can immediately see the targeted task, start and finish, resource requirements, and project end date. b) aris aris (architecture of integrated information systems) combines a high-level business-oriented view with layers to address document workflow, software engineering, activitybased costing, and project management. starting with a topdown business problem-definition stage, users can build views of their business in terms of organisation, data or resources, process control, and function or organisation. (http://www.moonglow.com/aris/ids01.html) van der merwe, bussin50 c) microsoft powerpoint powerpoint is a high-powered soft ware tool used for presenting information in a dynamic slide show format. text, charts, graphs, sound effects and videos are just some of the elements powerpoint can incorporate into your presentations with ease, whether it’s for project kick-off meetings, project meetings or information sessions. (http://www.actden.com/pp/guide.htm) d) microsoft outlook outlook is microsoft's mail client that includes tools to handle appointments, events, contacts, tasks and notes. with outlook one can keep track of everything on one’s calendar. microsoft outlook is a full-featured mail client that has menus, toolbars and help for sending and receiving mail, mail attachments, printing and forwarding mail, sorting and viewing the inbox, creating and managing mail folders, appointments, events, calendar views, meetings and meeting requests, contacts, tasks, journal entries, and notes. (http://www.bluestarcorp.com/what_is_outlook.cfm) integration between the applications creates a lot of additional work for the business. this is why the business is looking for a single application that could integrate the above-mentioned applications. the idea is not to replace the above-mentioned packages, but rather to acquire a solution that would enhance them. the next section sets apart how the researcher went about executing the research. this section deals with the research design, participants/location of data, the data collection process and how data will be analysed. research design the research design was conducted in two broad phases, namely the exploratory phase and the descriptive-empirical phase. a literature study provides background on all related theories and information that are relevant to the study in question. aspects relating to change communication, facilitation, project management, mind mapping and theories relevant to this study were investigated. table 1 best practice criteria communication best practice criteria communication (as identified by barrette (2002)) effectiveness visual effectiveness accessibility best practice criteria facilitation (as identified by kaner (1996)) information gathering structuring/clarification participation meeting management data capturing best practice criteria project management (as identified by loo (2003)) scheduling integration knowledge management meeting management tracking issues evaluation/monitoring documentation planning reporting tasks management mindmanager claims (www.mindjet.com) enhances decision making process saves time (accelerates project implementation) improves collaboration ensures clarity (improves communication) boosts team productivity participants/location of data eight system implementation projects were part of the evaluation. four project teams were using mindmanager x5 pro and four project teams were not using it. the project team size varied between 8 and 80 and the stakeholders involved varied between 178 and 2500. the project managers, end-users and team members were involved in the evaluation of mindmanager 5× pro against the best practice criteria regarding use and added value in project management and facilitation. table 2 sets out participants and project data that are using mindmanager ×5 pro. table 3 sets out participants and project data that not using mindmanager ×5 pro. table 2 participants and project data – using mindmanager x5 pro project team end-users members project a quality maintenance system 30 500 implementation (site 1) project b quality maintenance system 10 178 implementation (site 2) project c erp implementation (specific modules 80 2500 of the solution were implemented) project d roles and re-engineering project 8 2500 table 3 participants and project data – not using mindmanager x5 pro project team end-users members project e quality maintenance system 15 120 implementation (site 3) project f quality maintenance system 10 103 implementation (site 4) project g erp implementation (the modules 80 2500 in this implementation differ from modules implemented in project c) project h epm implementation 8 156 data collection a qualitative and quantitative approach was used to evaluate the use of mindmanager ×5 pro as a communication, facilitation and project management tool in information technology related implementations. mindmanager ×5 pro contribution to the outcome of the change process was also evaluated. a series of semi-struct ured interviews using openended questions were conducted on-site with all 8 project managers (appendix a). interview transcripts were forwarded to all project managers for comments. all project managers also completed an anonymous online questionnaire (appendix b). a series of small group feedback sessions were conducted with project teams also using open-ended questions and an anonymous online questionnaire to evaluate effectiveness of the tool. table 4 refers to act ual involvement of project management tool 51 project teams and the feedback received. table 5 shows participant feedback received from those not using mindmanager x5 pro. table 4 actual participants – team using mindmanager x5 pro project team members feedback received project a quality maintenance 30 15 system implementation project b quality maintenance 10 5 system implementation project c erp implementation 80 18 project d roles and re-engineering 8 3 project table 5 actual participants – not using mindmanager x5 pro project team members feedback received project d quality maintenance 15 10 system implementation project e quality maintenance 10 4 system implementation project f erp implementation 80 15 project g epm implementation 8 3 evaluation could be defined as the “process for gathering information to assess the worth of an event or process” (oliver, 1998:23). different evaluation methods are available, but for the purpose of this study the summative evaluation method was chosen. according to bhola (1990) and gay & diehl (1992) summative evaluation takes place at or after completion of a process and is aimed at a comprehensive evaluation of a product or result. the product in this case is mindmanager x5 pro, used by project managers over a period of 3 months. statistical analysis/analysis of data quantitative and qualitative data was collected and interpreted. results were documented and analysed. this study follows an exploratory data analysis, which looks at presenting frequencies, measuring location, and measuring dispersion (collis, 2003). the main challenge to qualitative data analysis is that there is no clear and accepted set of conventions for analysis corresponding to those observed with quantitative data (collis, 2003). bromley (1986) suggests a quasi-judicial method for analysing qualitative data. the approach is concerned with the nature, source and quality of the evidence and the argument it supports. results the following six point lickert scale was used to rate the questionnaire. table seven is a comparison between the responses of project managers using the solution (4 participants) and project managers who did not use the solution (4 non-participants). index results were added together and divided by the number of participants. table 7 shows a comparison between participants perception regarding project management on their project. table 8 shows a comparison between participants perception regarding communication on their specific project. table 9 shows a comparison between participants perception regarding facilitation on their specific project. table 10 is a comparison between the responses of project team members that experienced the solution (participants) and project teams who did not experience the solution (nonparticipants) relative to communication. only the questions relating to communication and facilitation were directed at the project teams. table 11 is a comparison between participants that experienced the solution and those who did not experience the solution in relation to facilitation. table 6 index does not partially meets exceeds exceeds exceeds meet meets requirerequirerequirerequirerequirerequirements ments on ments ments ments ments a few mostly consistently occasions 1 2 3 4 5 6 table 7 project management project managers project managers using mindmanager not using x5 pro mindmanager x5 pro scheduling 4.2 4 integration between applications 6 4 knowledge management 4,9 3 meeting management 6 2 tracking of issues 4,2 3 evaluation/monitoring 5 4 documentation 3,25 3 planning 6 3,25 reporting 4,8 3 task management 6 3 table 8 communication project managers project managers using mindmanager not using x5 pro mindmanager x5 pro communicates clearly and effectively 5 2,25 presents concepts effectively 6 3 easy to understand 5 3 easy to access information 5 2,25 table 9 facilitation project managers project managers using mindmanager not using x5 pro mindmanager x5 pro information gathering 6 3 structuring ideas and clarification 6 2 participation 6 2,25 meeting management 6 3,25 data capturing 6 3 van der merwe, bussin52 table 10 teams experience – communication project managers project managers using mindmanager not using x5 pro mindmanager x5 pro communicates clearly and 5,25 3,25 effectively presents concepts effectively 5,75 3,5 easy to understand 5,25 3 easy to access information 4,75 2,25 table 11 team experience – facilitation project managers project managers using mindmanager not using x5 pro mindmanager x5 pro information gathering 5 3 structuring ideas and clarification 5,5 3 participation 5,8 2,25 meeting management 4,8 2,8 data capturing 5,5 3,25 figure 1: did mindmanager x5 pro add any value as a project management tool? the following table is a comparison between the project manager’s perception of the claims made by the developer of the solution and those of the project team members. open-ended questions were directed at project managers and project team members who were using the tool. their responses are capt ured in the following figures. figure 1 refers to the value added by the tool in the field of project management. table 12 perceptions project management project teams enhanced decision making process 5,25 4 saved time (accelerated project 3 3,25 implementation) improved collaboration 4,85 4,25 insured clarity (improved 5,25 4,15 communication) boost team productivity 4,7 4,9 both groups had the opportunity to provide reasons for their responses. this is captured in table 13 and 14. table 13 sets out the reasons given by project managers table 13 reasons given for responses by project managers yes don’t know no help keep project on track none none reduced time of project implementation support in development of action plan tool to manage documentation helped in identif ying inefficiencies enhanced time management made information management much easier link between planning and microsoft project meeting management improved table 14 reasons given for responses by project team mebers yes don’t know no increase in personal and team did not think that the productivity experience project tool takes up a effective resource management management lot of time increase collaboration among qualities of the global offices tool (in group improved information management discussion 45% improved team morale indicated that they did not experience it) table 14 sets out the reasons provided by project team members. figure 2 refers to responses of project managers and team members regarding the value added by tool in relation to facilitation. both groups had the opportunity to provide reasons for their responses. this is captured in table 15 and 16. table 15 shows reasons given by project managers. project management tool 53 figure 2: did mindmanager x5 pro add any value as a facilitation tool? figure 3 refers to responses of project managers and team members regarding the value added by the tool in relation to communication. figure 3: did mindmanager x5 pro add any value as a communication tool? both groups had received the opportunity to provide reasons for their responses. this is captured in table 17 and 18. table 17 shows the project manager’s reasons. table 15 reasons given for responses by project managers yes don’t know no improved brainstorming and capturing of data none none capture and documentation of information increased participation and excitement around process improvement, and made meetings highly productive· improved problem solving keep track of multiple project details reporting made easier increase in personal and team productivity table 16 reasons given for responses by project team members yes don’t know no increase group participation did not just a another easy information capturing experience gadget made meetings productive facilitation qualities of the another tool to tool get used to table 17 reasons given for responses by project managers yes don’t know no reduced paper work· improved communication none none clarif y and communicate project vision and strategy improved internal project communication project team high-level communication improved improved ability to manage, communicate use of resources table 18 sets out the reasons provided by the project team members. table 18 reasons given for responses by project team members yes don’t know no bridging language barriers did not have to get used project team high-level experience to new tool communication improved communication conveying complex ideas in a very qualities of the simple, visually appealing format tool streamline communication ability to communicate complex ideas in a understandable way concise and well organised discussion it is not difficult to see the benefits mindmanager ×5 pro brought to the projects. we have to take in to consideration that there could have been other factors involved in the results, such as quality of project managers and teams, experience of project mangers and teams and the different project environments. the overwhelming difference in perception between nonparticipants and participants indicates that mindmanager ×5 pro van der merwe, bussin54 definitely played a major role in the project management, communication and facilitation process. according to project managers, major improvements took place in the following fields: � integration between applications � meeting management � task management � presentation of concepts � information management � participation � meeting management, and � data capturing. all project managers indicated that the solution exceeded requirements in the above-mentioned fields. the only instance where participants and non-participants scored their current context almost the same, was relating to documentation. mindmanagers ×5 pro does not focus on documentation and that reflects in the evaluation. all project managers indicated that the solution added value in the field of project management, communication and facilitation. project team members rated mindmanager ×5 pro between “exceed requirements mostly” and “exceed requirements consistently” in almost all fields, except in “accessibility of information” and “meeting management”. only 50% of project team members indicated that the solution adds value as a project management tool, mostly because team members could not answer for project managers. 83% indicated that the solution adds value as a facilitation tool. 65% indicated that the tool adds value as a communication tool. this is mainly because of the fact that 32% did not experience the tool. conclusion in conclusion i think it is fair to say that mindmanager x5 pro adds a lot of value for this specific project management environment. it is important to mention that the solution was evaluated in a specific business context and added value for them. one may not be able to assume that the solution would provide the same benefits in all environments would be to push the envelope. references ahituv, n. & neumann, n. (1990). principles of information systems management. dubuque: brown. badira, a.d. & whitehouse, g.e. (1989). computer tools, models and techniques for project management. new york: blue ridge summit. barrette, d. (2002). change communication: using strategic employee communication to facilitate major change. corporate communications: an international journal, 7 (4), 219-231. bhola, h.s. (1990). evaluating “literacy for development” projects, programs and campaigns: evaluation planning, design and implementation, and utilization of e valuation results. hamburg: unesco institute for education. bromley, d.b. (1986). the case study methodology in psychology and related disciplines. chichester: wiley. buchanan, d & boddy, d. (1992). the expertise of the change agent. new york: prentice-hall. clarke, l. (1994). the essence of change. hertfordshire: prentice hall international (uk) ltd. collis, j. (2003). business research: a practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. hampshire: palgrave macmillan. collyer, m. (2000). communication 0 the route to successful change management. lessons from guinness integrated business program. supply chain management: an international journal. 5, (5) , 222-225. dooley, j. (1998). a whole-person/systemic approach to organization change management. retrieved 2006 from the world wide web:http://www.well.com/user/dooley/ change.pdf douglas, c. & martin, j.s. & krapels, h.r. (2003). change communication. association of business communication convention. eitington, j. e. (1997). the winning manager: leadership skills for greater innovation, quality, and employee commitment. houston, tx: gulf. gay, l.r. & diehl, p.l. (1992). research methods for business and management. new york: macmillan publishing company. harding, a.s. (1998). change management during the implementation of information systems. unpublished masters dissertation, johannesburg: rand afrikaanse univeriteit (short dissertation: mcom). http://www.actden.com/pp/guide.htm http://www.bluestarcorp.com/what_is_outlook.cfm http://www.mindjet.com http://www.moonglow.com/aris/ids01.html jamieson, g.h. (1985). communication and persuasion. london: routledge kegan & paul. jay, k.e. & smith, d.c. (1996). a generic change model for the effective implementation of information systems. south african journal of business management, 27: 65-69 kaner, s. & lind, l. & toldi, c. & fisk, s. & berger, d. (1996). facilitator's guide to participatory decision-making. gabriola island: new society publishers. kitchen, p. (1997). public relations: principle and practice, 1st ed., thomson business press, london. kitchen, p.j. & daly, f. (2002). internal communication during change management. corporate communications. 7, (1), 46-53. klein, s.m. (1996). a management communication strategy for change. journal of organizational change management. 9, (2), 32-46. loo, r. (2003). a multi-level casual model for best practices in project management. benchmarking: an international journal. 10, 29-36. moore, c. (1998). it project manager stresses communication and learning. infoworld, 20:79, march. oliver, m. 1998. a framework for evaluating the use of educational technology. retrieved 2006 from the world wide web:http://www.unl.ac.uk/latid/elt/report1.htm 4pillay.qxd south africa suffers from a severe skills shortage. there are various reasons for this state of affairs such as deficient education and training systems, as well as a high level of emigration of skilled personnel (see corrigan, 2003). substantial unemployment figures, social and political instability, high crime rates, low productivity levels, globally uncompetitive industries, a lack of investment and high hiv-aids rates represent factors that have far-reaching implications for both labour demand and supply (see gerber, nel and van dyk, 1996). not surprisingly, various training and development strategies have been developed in an attempt to address these problems (see gouws, 1997). this is reflected in the white paper on education and training (1995) which resulted in the establishment of the south african qualifications authority (saqa) and the national qualifications framework (nqf). centred around the provision of learning and the integration of knowledge and skills these structures can be transferred to different contexts (see gerber, nel and van dyk, 2003). these initiatives are generally considered to be successful, provided that key strategic elements of training and development are in place and emphasis is placed on a foundation-training model that facilitates knowledge transfer, learning and eventually skills development. utilising what has become known as the corporate university has the potential to ensure that organisations will provide effective training and development for their employees in a continuous learning context. this model is generally regarded to be effective for delivering training in worldclass companies (see gould, 2005). training strategies outside the corporate universit y are t y pically used to implement plans based on proven theories about how people learn, and training models are often developed in terms of understanding their effectiveness and act ual outcomes (usually pertaining to something being learned). these are evident in models that have made groundbreaking inroads into the field of human resources in general and training and development in particular. an example of this is the hierarchical model of training outcomes (kirkpatrick 1967, noe 1996, kirkpatrick, 2005). corporate universities can be defined in various ways. firstly, it may be defined as a “formal entity associated with an organisation that is chartered with providing employees with the skills and understanding they need to help the organisation achieve its business objectives in both the short and the long term. it is more broadly and strategically focused than a traditional training and development function, with a direct connection to achieving the organisation’s goals” (global learning resources, inc, 2005). secondly, it relates to “continuing education, not education and training gained in the pursuit of an academic degree. courses for professional development are broadly interpreted to be any organised teaching-learning activity dealing with a topic that supports the organisation’s needs and plans and is endorsed by the organisation’s professional development programme” (roesner & walesh, 1998, p. 56). finally, a corporate university is “an educational entity existing outside academia; it is the business sector’s response to the rapid changes in information and technology that characterise our society. a companion to the concept of life-long learning, the corporate university enables businesses, both for profit and not for profit, to maintain and expand the expertise of their workforces and, as a result, to secure their positions in the marketplace” (gould, 1995, p. 508). from the preceding it is clear that the corporate university, places strong emphasis on continued training and learning together with the attainment of organisational goals and objectives. this approach was highlighted in a study by roesner and walesch (1998, p. 57) where a planned, organisation-focused approach included the establishment of a “university” as opposed to an ad hoc, individual-focused approach. table 1 below highlights the key differences between the two approaches. the corporate university provides a management structure under which an extensive array of employee learning opportunities can be developed and implemented. “the structure also brings to the table planners who are needed to create the learning vision for tomorrow’s employees” (gould, 2005, p. 512). attempting to align the training arm of companies with their vision and strategy these universities were first created in the 1980’s (frazee, 2002). taylor (2002) explains that one of the first corporate universities or corporate classrooms is the motorola university, which focuses on providing basic literacy and numeracy training to lower level employees. corporate universities have also been adapted by british telecom in the united states, which focuses on retraining in an attempt to meet changing demands and gemini, ernst and young and boeing where corporate universities are seen as strategic centre. corporate universities have grown significantly, and as much as 40% of fortune 500 companies have a corporate university (hirayama et al, 2004). k pillay danie wijnbeek dwijnbee@absamail.co.za department of human resources management university of johannesburg abstract the training and development of employees in the airline industry usually take place within a decentralised structure and may result in fragmented and costly initiatives. to improve the current practice a corporate university (cu) model to be implemented in the airline is proposed. for the purpose of the study qualitative interviews were held, human documents were studied and participant observation and the views of employees of the south african airline industry were sought regarding training in general and cus in particular. the study revealed support for the cu concept because it would encourage continuous learning at all levels in the organisation and would place emphasis on both employee and organisational needs. key words training and learning solution, south african airline industry, corporate university ‘the corporate university’ training and learning solution for a south african airline industry 29 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (2), 29-38 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (2), 29-38 table 1 spectrum of approaches to education and training programmes (roesner and walesh, 1998, pp. 57) “old” ad hoc, individual-focused “new” planned, organisationfocused, including a “university” most learning is done off-site or learning is accomplished internally in seminars and externally in a variety of ways, with the communication mechanism selected on the basis of costeffectiveness a place a process individuals in corporate or main equal access to training or education office have more training or regardless of geographic location education opportunities some participants obtain organisation is licensed by the certificates international association of continuing education and training, to award continuing education credits only employees participate stakeholders are invited to participate organisation “pays all” partnerships between individual and organisation individual selects subject matter organisation selects or approves subject matter generous time and expense limited individual time and expense budget per individual that budgets participates everyone is expected to participate some education and training is all education and training is “part of viewed as well-earned rest and the business” and expected to provide relaxation a return on the investment according to global learning resources, inc. (2005), a corporate university should ideally operate at three levels: level 1: talent planning and strategy; level 2: research, and level 3: development activity design and implementation. at level 1, emphasis is placed on identif ying skills requirements and key trends in the labour market; thus in a corporate university skills requirements are matched to trends in the external environment. at level 2, the corporate university focuses on the importance of gathering and interpreting research data; here the idea is to identif y areas of weakness that can be rectified through appropriate training and development interventions. level 3 focuses on the importance of implementing training and development initiatives and emphasises methodologies that can be used to disseminate training, such as e-learning and traditional classroom learning (global learning resources, inc., 2005). figure 1: the ten-phased corporate university model the american society for training and development (training and development, 1998, p. 38) has identified ten steps for establishing a corporate university. these stages have to be implemented over an 18-month period (training and development, 1998, p. 38) since rushing through them is seen as counterproductive and ineffective in implementing a sound corporate university model. in my opinion, the specification of the aforementioned implementation period should be viewed as a minimum time period. while it may be argued that more or less time is required for implementation, it is important to work within timeframes enabling observation and evaluation. other considerations when implementing the corporate university entail the following: firstly, securing support from executive and senior management. a system of governance is required so that the relevant managers can agree on an appropriate vision, as well as outlining the functions of the governing body (training and development, 1998). secondly, similar to a strategic plan, which is considered to be a roadmap for an organisation, the vision of the corporate university paves the way for the future of training and development (training and development, 1998). thirdly, organisations need to take cognisance of the resources required to implement corporate universities. while corporate allocations should account for most of a corporate university budget the remainder may be funded through a combination of making charge-backs to the business units, licensing training programmes and exploring the university’s capabilities, such as distance learning facilities (training and development, 1998, p. 39). fourthly, the scope of the corporate university should be viewed in terms of whether the training and development activities need to be centralised or decentralised. fifthly, traditional training departments found in organisations usually service internal employees from the organisation and does not extend or develop linkages with other stakeholders such as customers (frazee, 2002). hence, the corporate university philosophy allows for a different breadth of audience encompassing the entire value chain, including internal employees, suppliers and customers (training and development, 1998, p. 38). sixthly, it is imperative to decide on what training programmes to develop because they serve a strategic purpose and will always play a role in guiding future behaviour and best practice (phillips, 2004). seventhly, since a distinctive feature of a corporate university is the extension of its linkages, it is important that guidelines are set in place as to who becomes a learning partner to the university. whilst organisations may choose to have linkages with learning partners without the corporate university concept, i believe that learning partners are important for the successful implementation of the corporate university. the 1998 survey of corporate university future directions cited in (training and development, 1998, p.41) highlighted selection criteria for training partners. this is summarised in table 2. eighthly, the model focuses on combinations of one-on-one, classroom training and/or technolog y in delivering the interventions. in addition, some types of training may be executed utilising learning laboratories or online-based training. however, more than a one-on-one interactive approach appears to be most useful where training is required at a higher concept ual level, particularly at senior management and executive level (athey, 1998). ninthly, an evaluation system has to be set in place to assess the extent of knowledge transfer, learning and skills development. pillay, wijnbeek30 table 2 selection criteria for obtaining a learning partner 1. a shared mindset in which 2. flexibility in working with the customer service, innovation learning partner, including the and continuous improvement ability to teach on site, share are paramount to success. libraries, laboratories or equipment. 3. responsiveness and mutual 4. complementary needs and goals interest in developing a that range from funding joint particular type of curriculum. research to developing customised executive education programmes. 5. respected reputation and 6. the ability to develop prestige of the educational collaboratively a clear path of study institution. leading to a new accredited degree programme. 7. openness to experimenting 8. ownership rights to intellectual with technologies to accelerate property clearly delineated at the learning. onset of the partnership. 9. financial and non-financial 10.an infrastructure open to measures spelled out carefully experimentation, for e.g. having the in advance and agreed to by the organisation assign a full-time key players. person to work with the educational institution on partnership issues. 11. a global education network 12.commitment to fostering open and capabilities. dialogue and to continually renewing the partnership with fresh thinking. since the corporate university focuses on a long-term, strategic approach to learning, qualitative assessments are considered particularly useful in identif ying how employees have improved and applied their skills. this has been referred to as a “patient-capital” mindset in which long-term investments are made into human capital (training and development,1998, pp. 41-42). finally, in order for the corporate university to function properly information has to be communicated as to its purpose and need. it is important that employees see a link between training and the incorporation of a university system. people must be made aware of the functioning of the university, its governance, and the administering of training programmes, curricula, time frames for learning, other learning partners, the method of funding, and they must be clearly informed about how training will impact on promotion and upward mobility in the organisation (training and development, 1998, p. 42). in the light of this relatively large support for the concept abroad i argued that the south african industry generally, and its airline sector particularly may benefit by implementing a corporate university. consequently research into experiences and views of the staff of a local airline about training practices was launched, attempting to explore how the 10 steps of the model could be used to create a "training and learning academy" for the company. research approach scientific beliefs in this study my position as to the nature of social phenomena is social constructionist, i.e., perceptions of the airline are continually being created by its actors. more specifically, i viewed the reality of the airline as multiple being built up over time through communication, participants’ interactions and a shared history. my assumption of the company’s staff and stakeholders was voluntaristic, i.e., they actively interact and in order to shape their environment create reality; in this they are not determined by some outside influence(s). since i did not believe that the airline could be regarded an objective entit y which has a realit y external to the consciousness of its actors (to be studied by applying principles and procedures of the natural sciences), i opted for a qualitative methodology which respects the differences between objects and people and enables a process through which people's rich subjective meanings can be understood. such a methodology typically applies participant observation to attain an insider’s view or knowledge of people's shared meanings but also uses various other unstructured or flexible methods to capture these cultural shared meanings which are forever changing. it also enables a holistic appreciation of a particular social entity, i.e., describing its political, social, economic and cultural context . research tradition the particular variety of qualitative research i used in the study reflected the modernist tradition coined by the two esteemed qualitative researchers, denzin and lincoln (2000). according to schurink (2003) the modernist phase (from the 1940s to the 1970s) built on the works of the traditional period, social realism and nat uralism, and still prevails in recent studies is characterised by interpreting reality by means of formalised qualitative methods and by applying rigorous data analysis (e.g. analytical induction and grounded theory). he, (schurink (2003) points out that strategies of inquiry range from grounded theory and the case study, to methods of historical, biographical, ethnographic and clinical research. research perspective/paradigm in line with my social constructionist viewpoint within the modernist tradition, i applied the general paradigm of symbolic interactionism as a guide for designing and executing the study. this research paradigm emphasises the diversity of social roles and subcultures, as well as the manner in which participants construct roles and identities through interaction with others (see schurink, 2003). thus the staff and stakeholders of the airline industry tended to develop their viewpoints of the nat ure of their work based on their interactions with each other and other significant people; resulting in “shared behaviours or common definitions”. the paradigm also highlights the important concept of “self”, a construct not regarded as being situated inside the individual like personality traits, motives and needs (see schurink, 2004). people view themselves in relation to their interactions with others and how others perceive them. research design i used case study as research strategy/design. according to zonabend (1992) a case study gives special attention to completeness in observation, reconstruction and analysis of a case or cases under study. in undertaking a case study the views of the “actors” in the case under study are incorporated. case studies can be particularly useful when researching behavioural and social trends amongst small groups of people or even single individuals. they may be single or multiple-case designs, where a multiple design follows a replication rather than sampling logic (tellis, 1997). case studies may also take the form of exploratory studies, explanatory studies and descriptive studies (yin, 1993; tellis, 1997). in the case of exploratory studies, research is normally conducted before the research questions and hypotheses have been defined (tellis, 1997). they are often done in instances where an area of research is new or uncharted. research methodology research setting this research study was undertaken within a large south african airline. there were eight functional departments within this organisation. each department was responsible for its own training and conducted its training activities independently from the other departments. there were a total of 47 employees who were categorised as trainers or facilitators. in 2004, the training budget for the divisions amounted to r91.8 million. training and learning solution 31 table 3 summary of training courses (adapted from training research document 2004) course departments (schools) conducting training customer service plan safety and service customer service plan gps customer service plan cargo customer service plan voyager customer service plan reservations touch points – economy class safety and service touch points – premium class safety and service customer service touch points gps cargo touch points cargo touch points voyager customer touch points reservations crew resource management safety and service crew resource management operations axsrescheck-in staff gps axsres (5 days) reservations axsres (10 days) reservations airport passenger handling gps passenger handling reservations telephone technique gps telephone etiquette reservations personal business writing corporate development centre business writing skills reservations on-job coaching corporate development centre on-job coaching safety and service the organisation’s systems in training were clearly fragmented and not well linked to its overall strategic plan. more particularly the following core problems were identified: (i) a lack of alignment of training and development to the strategic needs of the company leading to inappropriate and/or a lack of skills, and (ii) waste created in the decentralised training structures resulting in increased costs, duplication, ineffectiveness, differing quality standards and a lack of standard evaluation practices. the organisation’s training structure was contrived according to its specified functional areas. each functional area had a training unit which operated in isolation of each other in terms of its training and development strategy. training was executed in a decentralised manner and each of the training units developed its own plans and strategies to train employees. academy schools school of leadership commercial school � executive and leadership � specialised product, systems & development technical training: gps, cc, cargo, � management & supervisory voyager, reservations, avmed. development � legislative kknowledge � coaching and mentoring � core competencies: � core organisational � customer service competencies – customer � safety & emergency service, behaviours that � sales and marketing reinforce company values � call centre skills and culture, generic � aviation medicine competencies, teams � passenger loyalty, reward & � supporting ee and diversity recognition � supporting organisational change � common product & systems � bursaries knowledge � business and industry knowledge � practitioner development school of flight operations school of aircraft maintenance � fleet training � apprenticeship training – avionics � pilot training – conversion & & mechanical recurrent � refresher training � cadet training � focus is on engine maintenance, � safety and emergency procedures avionics and interface � legislative kknowledge � 3rd party systems, programmes � aviation authority compliance & licensing � occ training � safety and emergency procedures � knowledge of regulations and llegislation figure 2: training structure of the south african airline firm (adapted f rom training and research document, 2004) the operations division was divided into the following areas: (i) safety and service; (ii) operations training; (iii) airline control training; (iv) pilot training/ simulator, and (v) global passenger services (gps) (training and research document, 2004.) an assessment of current training practices was undertaken and the following were highlighted: (i) training is not strategic or transformative, i.e. it is too rooted in the status quo; there is too little consideration of how training will support business improvement and transformation; (ii) training across schools does not support organisational change; (iii) training is dispersed and fragmented; (iv) there is limited coordination, steering and learning across schools, which results in large quality variations, duplication and waste, and limited cross learning and assimilation of best practice; (v) these problems are evident in relation to planning, designing, scheduling, procuring, managing, quality assuring and evaluating training; (vi) much training is school (versus demand) driven, which coincides with the somewhat limited ad hoc involvement in most schools; (vii) learning and development is not integrated with the human resource strategy and systems (resolve group presentation, 2004). as an employee of the organization at the time, at seniormanagement level, i had the opportunity to interact with “gatekeepers” and to reach an agreement with key figureheads to undertake the study. prior to the commencement of the fieldwork i contacted the head of the training division in which i work, as it was vital to gain permission and support for the study. in a meeting with the training department head, i discussed the nature of what i intended to research and the relevance of the study to my particular division. this was important as research involving corporate universities was presented to the organization a few months earlier by the resolve group. this allowed for ‘buy-in’ into the concept as the resolve group research highlighted serious problems in training and my research could potentially provide a solution(s) to those problems. my research was an extension of the resolve group findings and has strategic implications for the firm. as a result i received the approval of the training head. my department head then suggested that i start highlighting who would be appropriate subjects for the research and made some suggestions as well as directing me to the human resources division to obtain further information. after liaising with the human resources division, i was able to draw up a list of potential participants. thereafter, initial contacts were made telephonically and appointments were set with these potential participants for face-to-face interviews prior to the commencement of the focus group. sampling data sources the research participants chosen for the study were selected from a cross section of employees in the johannesburg office. the reasons for selecting johannesburg as location were twofold. firstly, the johannesburg office was considered the head office and secondly, the johannesburg region provided me with a convenient location in order to conduct the focus group discussions as i reside in the area. as was pointed out the airline organisation had a complex organisational structure; necessitating including managers at executive level, senior manager level and middle management level in the study. i applied theoretical sampling to identif y key managers to take part in the study. more specifically, i selected research participants from both managerial and non-managerial backgrounds. the non-managerial employees were selected on the basis that they were employee representatives. there were a large number of managers and this presented some difficulty in securing a suitable sample. as pointed out earlier 47 employees are trainers or facilitators. the human resource department was also contacted, to check if these were the key managers and nonpillay, wijnbeek32 management employees to interview. table 4, provides an outline of the research participants involved in the focus group discussion. table 4 summary of focus group research participants respondent position 1. executive vice president-operations 2. vice president-customer services 3. executive manager-training 4. senior manager 5. senior manager 6. senior manager 7. middle manager 8. middle manager 9. non-managerial employee 10. non-managerial employee various methods are available when one conducts a qualitative study. i now outline those i used in the study. unstructured inter views interviewing is one of the most common and most powerful methods used when one strives towards understanding human beings (fontana & frey, 2000). interviews are commonly used within qualitative research studies. when i made the initial contacts with the research participants, it was deemed appropriate to utilise unstructured interviews in order to obtain a more open-ended approach with the interviewees. this method allowed for easier communication and interaction between the interviewees and me. i briefed the interviewees as to the purpose of the study and took care not to highlight the corporate university concept. this was important as i did not want participants searching out information prior to the focus group session as their views and experiences might be affected. it was highlighted that training and development was the topic under investigation and that i wanted to review their thoughts and experiences. these initial interviews only involved brief note taking, as the concern was more in getting consent and participation from the interviewees. some of the information obtained during this phase was then used to develop the schedule for the focus group discussion, particularly questions that related to general training. human documents documents are also a valuable source for information and i used documents of the company such as internal training manuals and training policy documents. participant obser vation in participant observation, the researcher is typically engaged in experiencing the research setting while at the same time trying to understand it through personal experience, observations, and interactions and discussions with participants (see schurink, 2003a). participant observation can take place with the observer taking on different roles. these roles include, full participant, participant-as-observer, observer-as-participant and full-fledged observer (see schurink, 2003a). in addition, participant observation may be covert or overt. for example, a researcher may opt being overt, that is being transparent by informing his or her research participants about the study. my familiarity with the research participants and strong involvement within the training division enabled me to act overtly as participant-asobserver and observer-as-participant. finally, i used focus groups as it combines the advantages of both observation and face-to-face interviews. focus groups kreuger (1994) as well as coldwell and herbst (2004) express the advantages of focus groups as the ability to quickly and reliably get common impressions, an efficient way to get much range and depth of information in a short period of time, and lastly, being useful in conveying key information about programmes. coldwell and herbst (2004) explain that the challenges of focus groups lie in them being tough to analyse peoples’ viewpoints, the difficulty to find a good facilitator, and the scheduling of the focus group at a time suitable for the research participants. i planned the focus group session for a time and venue suitable to all participants. i also developed a focus group schedule to ensure that certain issues were covered during the discussion. hence, the discussion was based on a semi-structured format to facilitate both discussion and structure. it took four weeks to make initial and subsequent contacts with research participants and to organise the focus group session. the interviews involved 10 participants; it was conducted in a comfortable and relaxed manner, and lasted approximately 2 hours. it was necessary to provide a definition of a corporate university used in the discussion. in line with the definition espoused by gould (2005, p. 508) i defined focus groups as “a formal system of training that exists within a company…the university provides training initiatives that is based on company needs and individual needs…this is not a t ypical training department…instead, the focus is on continuous learning…the corporate university is an integral part of the organisation and it plays a strategic role in the organisation” (focus group discussions, 2005). i ensured to the best of my ability that patterns in the experiences and perspectives of the research participants were uncovered as well as similarities in opinions that the research participants shared. however, i was also looking out for “deviant” or “negative cases”. transcribed taped focus group session the focus group session was taped and was later transcribed. thereafter, i grouped further notes based on the entire transcribed session according to four categories, namely, executive management, senior management, middle management and non-managerial employee to review differences and similarities of the opinions of the research participants at various management levels. the transcriptions were considered to be a true reflection of the discussion that ensued and was stored as hard-copy. field notes i captured the data by writing field notes during the initial individuals interview sessions and the focus group session. this enabled me to identif y areas of agreement between the research participants and any differing opinions that emerged during the focus group discussion. the field notes were compiled utilising the typology suggested by schurink (2003b) and included observational notes (notes on what happened with little, if any interpretation provided); theoretical notes (self-conscious, systematic attempts to derive meanings from the observational notes) and methodological notes. these notes also ensured that there was consistency in information provided by the transcriptions and the field notes. data analysis i obtained valuable and varied data from the research participants’ experiences and views regarding training in the company and the application of the corporate university. i managed the data procedurally according to the format training and learning solution 33 presented by schurink (2003c), i.e., firstly, i recorded the data, secondly, i categorised them according to themes and topics; thirdly, i assessed patterns of understandings and finally, i linked these themes to the airline industry. the main themes identified were general viewpoints and opinions about the corporate university. i systemised all the data manually. more specifically i worked through the field notes and the transcriptions of the focus group and categorised the position of the interviewees in the organisation, their general understanding of training, their knowledge and views of the corporate university and their willingness to participate in the focus group. findings due to the complexit y of the organisational structure, particularly at management level, i now present the findings by splitting the research participants’ into 4 categories, namely, executive management, senior management middle management and non-managerial employees. executive management executive management included executive vice presidentoperations, vice president-customer services and executive manager-training. these managers were primarily responsible for strategic decision-making within their functions at board level. it was apparent from the discussion that all three executives shared similar viewpoints of training in general. training was described as being a critical and strategic function that aims to develop and up skill workers. other views were: � training serves to improve the effectiveness of individuals by the work that they deliver…training is important to the organisation as it drives a learning culture. � training is a critical and strategic function to the organisation … it enables all employees to perform their jobs more effectively. � training is meant to up skill and develop all employees…it is critical to an organisation’s sustainability. training is offered to both managerial and non-managerial staff. the general consensus in this group was that employees should be chosen for training on the basis of performance measures as well as developmental needs. it was also suggested that employees and their respective managers should be involved in determining training needs. it is interesting to note that at this level, all three managers felt that training was done on an ad hoc basis with no specific company and policy guidelines in place. in addition, training was perceived to be highly fragmented and reactive with no specific link been made to the overall strategic goals of the organisation. some of the responses included: � employees are chosen for training in a reactive way…it is based purely on numbers for training as opposed to purpose for training. � employees should be chosen for training based on developmental needs or the performance management system as this should provide information towards existing shortcomings. in terms of the corporate university concept, all managers at this level had heard of it. two felt it related to best practices in terms of learning and development. an interesting finding at executive level was that the executive vice president-operations understood the corporate university concept as applicable to management employees only; it was perceived as a useful tool to sustain long-term learning and development. the following were representative comments: � my understanding of this approach would seem pertinent or relevant to management employees…my understanding of this term would be to have an integrated strategic training and development focus on specified areas of training such as technical, leadership, pilot training and cabin-crew training. � the corporate university concept or approach is a good one as it emphasises an alignment of training and development functions within organisations. there was general consensus that the concept needed to have “buy-in” and that employees need to be made aware of the purpose and intent of the corporate university. the following reflected typical views here: � yes, all employees must understand the strategy, the process and deliverables of such an approach in order for the concept to work. � if marketed and communicated properly, it will be well received. in essence, the executive level supported the idea of the corporate university and as one executive aptly suggested: � corporate universities should be able to develop core organisational competencies to promote people performance, service excellence, customer and employee satisfaction and employer status … it should be run by a chief learning officer where all training and development resides. senior management senior management were tactical within their specific functions and were not represented at board level. within this category, views about training in general were quite similar. all three senior managers felt that training carried with it, a need to develop employees and link them to the organisation’s overall strategic plan. training was provided in-house for both managerial and non-managerial employees. the general view was that performance measures were critical in ascertaining training needs. senior management also felt that due consideration must be given to the employees’ development plan. � development. yes, it is important to the organisation … however we are working with our corporate training department that seem to be providing training with fragmented skills. � training is vital if you want to compete as a world class organisation … as long as there is no links to business objectives training will remain disjointed or irrelevant. unlike the executive level, the senior managers in this focus group felt that the immediate managers or supervisors in the department should manage the selection of employees for training. � it is important for employees to have some input into their training needs however the final decision should rest with the actual managers involved. � immediate supervisors should make recommendations to the executive according to legislative guidelines and company policy. this emphasises little interaction between the employees themselves and management as to what training is required. senior management felt that the current training system was not clearly linked to departmental and organisational goals. � no, as a financial person my needs are not really taken care off … furthermore finance skills levels are very low amongst employees and more focussed training should be given to targeted individuals. � the human resources department needs more training than others … there are always complaints on human resource processes and staff are not aware of legislative changes and updates that affects human resource policies and procedures. the word “fragmented” was used to describe the current approach to training. senior managers also highlighted an important issue of training being irrelevant for a staff member or department. pillay, wijnbeek34 some comments in this regard were: � training does not follow a structured approach with no real thought being given to the process � training is not planned and occurs on a ad hoc basis and is not linked to the department’s objectives or company goals … it is highly fragmented. in terms of the corporate university concept, only one senior manager had heard of the term. the other two had to be given further information in order to ascertain their opinions about applying the corporate university concept to their organisation. senior managers felt that it would work well if its purposes were communicated clearly. as one senior manager remarked: � the return on investment on such an initiative must be shared by all. the senior management group showed a positive response to the concept provided that there is structured coaching and mentoring systems in place to support learning and development. middle management middle management had an operation focus and refers to those managers that reported to senior management. managers at this level were in constant and direct contact with other employees. as these managers had good knowledge at a functional level as well as knowledge that were employee relevant they provided an important link between employees and senior management. it was apparent from the discussion that not many discrepancies existed bet ween the middle management research participants. the interviewees all agreed on the general purpose for training and development, namely to provide knowledge and improve business performance. � training should be targeted at employees on a continuous basis to ensure that learning becomes a vital aspect of their presence in a department. � effective training, leads to more effective performance from the employee, however, the benefits extend to the organisation as a whole because this translates into better business performance. middle management felt that training should be job specific, based on the requirements of individuals to perform more efficiently at their job. two participants commented: � training does not seem appropriate, as there is no structure or process in place … people go for training because they are told to. � training should be job specific but also tie in with the needs of the individual. it was expressed that the final decision as to the kind of training that should be provided and who should be trained should lie in the hands of the manager. middle management participants felt that their needs to be more structure in educating staff as to the guidelines of the training available, the selection process and criteria. � managers should be responsible for selecting trainees, however the ad hoc basis by which it is done is ineffective … also there is limited forums and discussion about training policy. � i have not heard or seen anything about the policy … infact, all i know about is a bursary process. middle management participants appeared to be unaware of the training processes and could not decide where training should be directed and what type of training was needed. with regard to corporate university, they never heard of the term. they seemed to caution against long term structured training, simply due to the ever-increasing changes within the industry. the group also felt that it would be a good idea although it would have to be explained properly and reviewed continuously to keep up with trends. finally they felt that this type of training should improve performance drastically and should lead to a noticeable change in trained employees. two participants put it as follows: � i have not heard of a corporate university, only what you have told me … if it is explained clearly it could be a vehicle to promote focussed training and development. � the concept is a useful one, especially for front-line staff that requires specific training. employee-non-managerial non-managerial staff including employees such as cabin crewmembers and administrators was selected because they represented employees. they expressed similar sentiments towards training and its purpose within the organisation and felt that it would provide knowledge and learning, which would aid in developing staff. comments included: � training helps to develop people within their current jobs. � training makes employees more knowledgeable as they are involved in a process of learning. the participants felt that the selection of training should lie with the managers; although one expressed the view that nonmanagerial staff should not be ignored and only managerial staff be sent for training. the following excerpts were particularly striking: � i am not sure about problems in training, but i do think that supervisors need to have more training. � the technical department requires more training, especially those in non-managerial positions. they also showed no knowledge of the training process and structure that exist within the organisation. they felt that training should be directed to hands on staff members, especially those who interact with customers. � i have no idea about training policy … i don’t think i have seen anything … but it is important that the people to whom we report directly have relationships with us and also train us. � training is not done properly…you are told on the day to go for training … there is a feeling of confusion as we are not really in touch with the people that train us … we are not quite sure who they are and they don’t seem to understand what we need. with regard to the corporate university, none of the participants in non-managerial staff category were aware of the term. they believed it to be a good idea, but stressed the need that explanation and some education about the structure and process needed to be directed at all staff to ensure its success. comments included: � it will be good … it can help employees but senior managers must tell us what it is about and the benefits of it. � i think it can help in learning better things about the airline industry but everyone needs to understand it first. non-managerial staff easily rationalised the improvement of training and development the corporate university should bring about, but stressed the need for education and explanation of the process and that selection criteria need to be developed for all levels of staff. it was believed: � it will help to improve skills and develop workers, but people have to know what it is about. � if people can get to go for training and understand the training, they can perform better. training and learning solution 35 discussion the corporate university model provided the impetus to launch the ‘training and learning academy’. within this academy, all training activities would fall under a single structure. this would allow for the centralisation of training activities, which could assist alleviating disjointed training taking place at various functional areas in the organisation. this supported the views of the participants with regard to their believing that training was fragmented. created with specific governing procedures and structures the academy would infuse a philosophy of learning and development understood by all employees. the major benefit of centralised learning is the cost savings that result from standardisation, central reporting, record keeping and quality control (ellis & mauldin, 2002). it is also suggested by these scholars that the main benefits of decentralised learning relates to the large amount of people that can be trained within a variety of areas. what is apparent here is that both approaches have significant benefits. hence, i believe that the merits of both approaches can be used within the corporate university setting. support for the “hybrid model” is evidenced in the work of ellis and mauldin (2002) who contend that the best model is one that captures the strengths of both models while effectively managing the relationship bet ween corporates and local training functions. this model can be implemented successfully if there are sufficient resources and a commonalit y in the training objectives of employees in the organisation. this illustrates a link with the second problem identified namely, waste created in the decentralised training structures resulting in increased costs, duplication, ineffectiveness, different quality standards and a lack of standard evaluation practices. “centralised versus decentralised learning? the most effective enterprise learning management and human capital development system is the right combination of both” (ellis & mauldin, 2002). hence, the combination of a centralised and decentralised system needs to be incorporated within the corporate university. i already alluded to the fragmented and highly decentralised approach to training and development of the airline industry. at this stage it is vital to centralise certain key strategic elements (overall learning philosophy, governance, core curriculum design and development, policies and procedure regarding registration, administration, measurement, marketing and distance learning) and decentralise other activities such as site of delivery (training and development, 1998, p.40). since the focus of a corporate university is not only short-term, the academy can focus on continuous education and training. this would benefit both the employee and the organisation because training is more focussed, relevant and all employees are eligible for training. this is especially important as the research findings suggested that an ad hoc approach was largely used for training with no specific link to the organisation’s overall goals. the academy could also provide opportunities for learning at higher levels of management. since such individuals would typically seek out training from a formalised education institution the academy could assist in providing such opportunities within the organisational structure. nonmanagerial employees did suggest that problems in training were found at the managerial level. this is an interesting viewpoint and reiterates the importance of training at all levels within the organisation. the academy could provide the basis for identif ying training gaps and could therefore review current trends to best inform as to what type of training and learning would be beneficial to employees. incorporating the academy would illustrate a commitment to the company’s greatest assets, its people. it could fulfil a more proactive role and could become a major differentiating factor. the strategic focus of training initiatives accompanying the implementation of the model could bring about cost savings of up to r7 million. this could establish a link between strategic training policy and the need to become competitive that was not perceived by the research participants. the academy normally sets in place a continuous training and learning imperative that could benefit the organisation immensely. the research findings indicated a rather non-targeted approach to training, where managers simply select people for training. the corporate university model being implemented through the development of the academy may be met with some objections. this is not unusual where change is being implied. employees and management may not readily “buy-in” to the concept, and may view the academy as ‘judging their performance on the ability to participate in learning, as opposed to (in part) their present skills. the merits of such an entity might be questioned and management might be concerned particularly about the kinds of decision-making power that the academy would enjoy also, a concern could be raised about how resources may be allocated to the academy. these are pertinent issues, but provided the academy is created with proper governance, policies and structures, negative connotations associated with it such as a lack of buy-in and distrust of the academy’s purpose, should be largely removed. the academy should work if all its functions are integrated. this does not imply that training is the same for everybody but that its diverse divisions need to fall under a centralised structure that is well structured and co-ordinated. the academy can facilitate linkages with other stakeholders such as universities which, could in turn, assist in the development of training and learning programmes. for example, the academy can provide on-site training and link its programmes to specific standards set out by the south african qualifications association and the national qualifications framework. the academy’s “graduates” could be considered for career advancement, which would show a link between training and development for employees. the academy would not be a training division; but instead a formal structure playing a strategic role in the learning and development of employees. derived from the internal pillay, wijnbeek36 figure 3: the ‘training and learning academy’ schools investigation by the resolve group (2004) the airline could then have the academy structured around 4 key areas including: a school of leadership, a commercial school, a school of flight operations and a school of aircraft maintenance. these schools are indicated in figure 3. conclusion this qualitative-explorative study utilised focus groups, participant observation and documents to obtain information about training and the corporate university concept first hand from employees in a local airline. i did my best from the outset to cover quality considerations in the design and execution of the study. more particularly, i ensured as far as possible "soundness" by achieving authenticity, credibility, triangulation and member validation (schurink 2005; creswell 2003; daymon & holloway 2002). authenticity was considered as an important factor and in order to achieve this, field notes were taken during the interview sessions as well as the focus group session. in addition, the focus group session was recorded and transcribed. credibility was achieved through establishing vital contacts with various department heads and liaison with the human resources division. various methods of data collection (triangulation) was used to lend greater credibilit y and authenticit y to the data being collected. finally, member validation was achieved by providing the research participants with focus group session findings to check for correctness and whether it was a true reflection of the discussion. although i believe that the research findings are of pretty good quality, no social science research is infallible (see mouton & marais 1990). this most certainly applied to the present study. one of the major shortcomings of this research is that it included a single focus group discussion amongst a few employees. regardless of these shortcomings the findings and insights i obtained not only have implications for academia but also for practice and policy. adopting a social constructionist viewpoint revealing and describing employees’ everyday subjective experiences provided scientific building blocks of their constructions shaped by their interactions with colleagues and others enabling them to attach meaning to their situation and the applicability of the academic university in the airways where they worked. this is particularly important since it adds to the current literature within the human resources, the industrial psychology and the leadership fields and presents the opportunity for further empirically driven work in this area. methodologically, by encasing the study in a qualitative research style which is still not regarded the mainstream research style locally its contributions in this particular study area is illustrated. regarding practice and policy, the employees’ views of a ‘new’ training paradigm provided greater insight into management and employee perceptions of training. corporates can strategically change training by the creation of a physical structure and entity that would result in continuous training and learning. the corporate university model carries with it a significant amount of advantage in terms of training and development. the academy build on the corporate university model not only proposes a proactive approach for this airline but could contribute tying in both strategic imperatives and individual needs. references agar, m (1996). professional stranger: an informal introduction to ethnography, second edition. academic press. athey, t.h (fall, 1998) the challenge of non-traditional universities in the 21st century higher education, pp. 41-46 http://www.supoumona.edu blanchard, p.n., thacker, j.w. & way, s.a. (2000) training evaluation: perspectives and evidence from canada, international journal of training and development, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 295-302 cant, m, gerber-nel, c., nel, d. & kotze, t. (2003) marketing research, new africa books, south africa corporate development centre airline group (1996) training and research documentinternal company policy document. coldwell, d. & herbst, f. (2004) business research, juta and co., south africa cooper, d.r. & schindler, p.s. (2001) business research methods, mcgraw-hill, singapore, pp. 142-146. corporate universities http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/corproate_ universities corrigan, a (2003) effective training http://www.trainingmag.com crainer, s. (2005) corporate views of university, management skills and de velopment magazine, http://www. managementskills.co.uk/articles/univer.htm davis, j. r. & davis, a. b. (1998). effective training strategies. san francisco: berrett-koehler. dillich, s. (2000) corporate universities, http://www. cornerstonewebmedia.com/plesman/main/subscription.asp? magazine=cca, 7:36 denzin, n.k. & lincoln, y.s. (2000) (eds) handbook of qualitative research, 2nd edition, thousand oaks: sage publications. ellis, j. & mauldin, t. (2003) learning in the large enterprise: centralised vs. decentralised, chief learning officer magazine, http://www.clomedia.com/content/anmiviewer. asp?a=128&print=yes erasmus, b.j. & van dyk, p.s. (2003) training management in south africa, oxford university press, 3rd ed. fontana, a. & frey, j. h. (2000). from structured questions to negotiated text. in n. k. denzin and y. s. lincoln (eds.), handbook of qualitative research, 2nd edition, pp. 645-672, thousand oaks: sage publications. fellis, w. (july 1997) introduction to case study, the qualitative report, vol 3, number 2. frazee, b. (2002) corporate universities: a powerful model for learning, chief learning officer magazine http://www. clomedia.com gerber, p.d., nel, p.s. & van dyk, p.s. (1996) human resources management, international thomson publishing, south africa, 3rd ed. global learning resources (2005) frequently asked questions, http://www.glresources.com/ gould, k.e. (2005) the corporate university – a model for sustaining and expert workforce in the human services, behaviour modification, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 508-520 healy, m., perry, c. (2000) comprehensive criteria to judge validity and reliability of qualitative research within the realism paradigm, qualitative market research: an international journal, vol 3, number 3, pp118-126. hirayama, m., sho, r., matsuzuka, y & kishida, m. (2004) research on corporate universities, jilpt research report, pp. 1-15. kirkpatrick, j. (2005) transferring learning to behaviour, american society for tanning and development, http://www. astd.org/astd 12:54 krueger, r. (1994). focus groups, sage publications, london. maurer, t.j., peirce, h.r. & shore, l.m. (2000) perceived beneficiary of employee development activity: a three dimensional social exchange, academy of management review, vol.29, no. 6, pp. 432-444 training and learning solution 37 meister, j.c. (1998) the chief learning officer, training and development, vol. 52, no. 11, pp. 38 minichiello, v. (1995). designing qualitative research. crc seminar series. victoria universit y of technolog y, qualitative research forum, may 19, 1995. morath, e. (2002) in house corporate universities growing in popularity, crains detroit business, http:// www. reprintbuyer.com noe, r.a. (1986) trainees’ attributes and attitudes: neglected influences on training effectiveness, academy of management review, vol. 11 no. 4, pp. 736-749 resolve group consultants, (2004) realigning learning and development. roener, l.a. & walesh, s.g. (1998) corporate university: consulting firm case study, journal of management engineering, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 56-63 phillips, j.j. (2004) twelve success factors for corporate universities, chief learning officer magazine http://www. clomedia.com/content/anmviewer.asp?a=384&print=yes schurink, w. (2005) qualitative research in management and organisational studies with reference to recent south african research, lecture notes for leadership and performance management masters at johannesburg university. schurink, w. (2004) considerations when choosing a qualitative research style, lecture 3 notes for leadership and performance management masters at johannesburg university. schurink, w. (2003a) writing the qualitative research report, lecture notes for leadership and performance management masters at johannesburg university. schurink, w. (2003b) qualitative evaluation, lecture notes for leadership and performance management masters at johannesburg university. schurink, w. (2003c) capturing and storing soft data, lecture notes for leadership and performance management masters at johannesburg university. stewart, a. (1998) qualitative research methods series 46. thousand oaks: sage publications. strauss, a. & corbin, j. (1990). basics of qualitative research: grounded theory, procedures, and techniques. newbury park, ca: sage. taylor, s. (2002) corporate universities and the redefinition of medieval brand, international higher education, http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/newsletter/news30. text002.htm training and research document (2004) internal company policy document. yin, r, (1993) applications of case study research, sage publishing, u.s.a. zonabend, f., (1992) the monograph in european ethnology, current sociology, vol 40, number 1, pp 49-60. pillay, wijnbeek38 abstract introduction method findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) michelle renard department of industrial and organisational psychology, nelson mandela metropolitan university, south africa robin j. snelgar department of industrial and organisational psychology, nelson mandela metropolitan university, south africa citation renard, m., & snelgar, r.j. (2016). the engagement and retention of non-profit employees in belgium and south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 14(1), a795. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.795 original research the engagement and retention of non-profit employees in belgium and south africa michelle renard, robin j. snelgar received: 02 feb. 2016; accepted: 24 aug. 2016; published: 21 nov. 2016 copyright: © 2016. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: a lack of qualitative research exists that investigates work engagement and retention within belgium and south africa, particularly within the non-profit sector. research purpose: the study aimed to gather in-depth qualitative data pertaining to the factors that promote work engagement and retention amongst non-profit employees working within these two countries. motivation for the study: because of scarce funding and resources, non-profit organisations are pressured to retain their talented employees, with high levels of turnover being a standard for low-paid, human-service positions. however, when individuals are engaged in their work, they display lower turnover intentions, suggesting the importance of work engagement in relation to retention. research design, approach and method: non-probability purposive and convenience sampling was used to organise in-depth interviews with 25 paid non-profit employees working on either a full-time or a part-time basis within belgium and south africa. thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data produced. main findings: participants were found to be absorbed in, dedicated to and energised by their work, and revealed numerous aspects promoting their retention including working towards a purpose, finding fulfilment in their tasks and working in a caring environment. practical/managerial implications: non-profit organisations should develop positive work environments for their employees to sustain their levels of work engagement, as well as place significance on intrinsic rewards in order to retain employees. contribution: this study provides insights into the means by which non-profit employees across two nations demonstrate their enthusiasm, pride and involvement in the work that they perform. it moreover sheds light on the factors contributing to such employees intending to leave or stay within the employment of their organisations. introduction according to schaufeli and bakker (2003), the emergence of positive organisational psychology has resulted in positive aspects of well-being becoming popular in research studies. work engagement is one such aspect (schaufeli & bakker, 2003), described as ‘a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigour, dedication, and absorption’ (schaufeli, salanova, gonzález-romá & bakker, 2002, p. 4). employees have a desire to be engaged in work that helps them feel that they are positively contributing to something larger than themselves (haygroup, n.d.). along this line, lin (2009) found that employees who worked in organisations that were perceived to demonstrate corporate citizenship behaviours exhibited high levels of work engagement. this suggests that employees who work for organisations that are socially responsible, as in the case of non-profit organisations (npos), will exhibit high levels of work engagement. consequently, one can be led to believe that npo employees would by nature be engaged in their work, especially in choosing to work in their organisations because they perceive that they are contributing to society or making a difference in the lives of others. however, glicken and robinson (2013) explain that individuals who work within helping professions are prone to compassion fatigue, a condition in which individuals experience a decline in their ability to care for others and feel joy. this typically occurs when high levels of energy and compassion are expended, yet little internal peace or positive feedback is received in return for such efforts. employees working in npos may be prone to such fatigue because their purpose is to operate to benefit the lives of others. if such fatigue is experienced, npo professionals may begin to experience what glicken and robinson (2013) refer to as secondary traumatic stress because of the emotional trauma that results from caring for others in need. such individuals bear the risk of decreased levels of engagement, which could lead to them exiting the npo sector. however, when individuals are engaged in their work, they display lower turnover intentions (bothma & roodt, 2013; park & gursoy, 2012; robyn & du preez, 2013; schaufeli & bakker, 2004). kuttner (2008) mentions that high levels of turnover are the industry standard for low-paid, human-service jobs, which provides insight into sokkie’s (2013) finding that a primary issue for human resources in the non-profit environment is the retention of highly skilled and qualified employees. surtees, sanders, shipton and knight (2014) mention that retention is as important for npos as it is for organisations operating in other sectors, because npos operate with the lowest overheads possible and, thus, cannot afford absences or potential waste in terms of employee investments. owing to the fact that npos face pressures in the form of being forced to compete for scarce funding and resources, they must be able to retain their talented employees as well as maximise their performance in order to avoid collapse (bussin, 2013). consequently, ryder (2008) states that npos must begin to focus on employee retention if they want to guarantee their own long-term sustainability and program delivery. philanthropy news digest (2012) is in agreement with this fact, mentioning that npos need stronger retention programmes, because three quarters of the npos mentioned in their article claimed to have no formal retention strategies in place. given the fact that npo employees are, on average, paid less than private sector employees (tippet & kluvers, 2009), there also exists the possibility that extrinsic rewards are not the best means to retain npo employees. purpose as service organisations, npos play a significant role in society, particularly with regard to the economic, cultural and social development of a country (lynn, 2003). despite the constraints experienced within the non-profit sector, organisations operating within this sector have managed to make significant social contributions (lynn, 2003). consequently, understanding and facilitating the engagement and retention of npo employees will assist in ensuring the sustainability of such organisations. this study therefore aimed to gather descriptive data related to work engagement and retention in an attempt to explore how these aspects might be promoted amongst non-profit employees. specifically, the authors collected data within belgium and south africa because of the limited work engagement and retention research that has been conducted on paid npo employees within these two countries (see buys & rothmann, 2010; de gieter, de cooman, pepermans & jegers, 2008; de gieter, hofmans & pepermans, 2011; leroy, anseel, dimitrova & sels, 2013 for examples of studies investigating work engagement or retention amongst non-profit employees in these countries; however, none of these studies utilised a qualitative method or investigated both work engagement and retention in their analysis). the purpose of this article is not to make a cross-cultural comparison between belgium and south africa, but merely to provide in-depth insights into factors influencing work engagement and retention amongst npo employees working within these countries. numerous empirical quantitative studies have assessed work engagement and retention within the two countries under study utilising profit organisations as a sample (see, for example, rodríguez-muñoz, baillien, de witte, moreno-jiménez and pastor [2009] and vander elst, baillien, de cuyper and de witte [2010] for belgian work engagement research; kyndt, dochy, michielsen and moeyaert [2009] and derycke et al. [2010] for belgian turnover intention research; stander and rothmann [2010] and jacobs, renard and snelgar [2014] for south african work engagement research; and bothma and roodt [2013] and van der vaart, linde, de beer and cockeran [2015] for south african turnover intention research). however, the type of work performed by employees in npos, as well as the environments and situations to which they are exposed, is often different from that of employees working in profit organisations, implying that direct inferences for npo employees cannot be made on the basis of the studies mentioned. moreover, qualitative research investigating work engagement and retention within these countries is lacking, despite the fact that making use of in-depth interviews allows researchers to gather thorough personal accounts of data, investigate personal contexts and explore issues in detail (lewis & mcnaughton nicholls, 2014). qualitative research offers a distinct advantage because it elaborates on the contextual richness of individuals’ lives, thus giving meaning to their experiences in real-world conditions (yin, 2011). taken together with the lack of research pertaining to these constructs within the non-profit sector specifically, this presents a gap in research which this study will attempt to bridge. literature review work engagement ‘to be engaged’ implies that an employee exhibits a ‘persistent and pervasive affective-cognitive state’, which is not focussed on a specific event, object, behaviour or individual (schaufeli et al., 2002, p. 74). engaged employees feel absorbed in, dedicated to and energised by their work, as opposed to employees who are burnt out and experience cynicism and exhaustion (schaufeli & bakker, 2003). being vigorous entails employees having high levels of energy and mental resilience on the job, willingly investing their effort in their work and persisting despite facing difficulties (schaufeli et al., 2002). as noted by armstrong and brown (2009), engaged employees are excited about and interested in their jobs, and put their best efforts into their performance. schaufeli et al. (2002) go on to explain that dedicated employees feel a sense of inspiration, significance, pride, enthusiasm and challenge in their work. dedicated employees are highly involved in their work (bakker & demerouti, 2008), and look for opportunities to improve organisational performance and make things better at their organisations (armstrong & brown, 2009). finally, being absorbed suggests that employees concentrate fully on their work and are deeply engrossed in it, resulting in time passing quickly (schaufeli et al., 2002). armstrong and brown (2009) mention that engaged employees are caught up in their work and, therefore, put in extra discretionary effort when working. retention and turnover ‘retention’ is defined by worldatwork (2007, p. 12) as an organisation’s ability ‘to keep employees who are valued contributors to organisational success for as long as it is mutually beneficial’. similarly, balta (2014) explains the concept of retention as the ability to keep valuable employees by creating and maintaining a working environment that supports staff and encourages them to stay with the organisation for as long as possible, such as by formulating and implementing policies and procedures that address the individual needs of employees. what is common in both these definitions is that organisations typically make efforts to retain staff who are of value to the organisation. such value typically links to the set of skills possessed by employees, their levels of experience, and/or their high levels of productivity, effectiveness and contributions. it should therefore be an aim of human resource managers not only to recruit and hire employees but also to retain individuals who possess the necessary talents and skills that the organisation requires to achieve its strategic objectives (scully, turner & gregson, 2014). however, when employees exit their organisations, turnover as opposed to retention occurs. ‘turnover’ can be explained as a permanent form of physical job withdrawal, the cause of which is usually some form of job dissatisfaction. if employees are dissatisfied at work and cannot change their job conditions, then leaving the position may be their only means of solving the problem (noe, hollenbeck, gerhart & wright, 2012). an indicator of turnover is whether or not employees intend to leave their organisations in the future. boshoff, van wyk, hoole and owen (2002) define intention to quit as the strength of employees’ views that they do not wish to stay with their current employers, thus indicating how probable it is that they will leave their organisations in the near future. it is similar to the concept of voluntary turnover, indicating separation because of employees choosing to leave their organisations for professional or personal reasons (phillips & gully, 2012). intending to quit an organisation is an internal response to numerous factors related to one’s personal and organisational life, and can be distinguished from actual turnover because it focusses on the psychological intent to quit, as opposed to the physical act of leaving one’s organisation. to ensure that valuable employees are retained within their organisations as opposed to intending to quit, aspects such as remuneration, leadership, challenging job assignments and employee empowerment should be given focus (bussin, 2011; milkovich, newman & gerhart, 2011; preenen, de pater, van vianen & keijzer, 2011; steinman, 2009). method research approach this study aimed to explore the factors underlying work engagement and retention amongst npo employees through the use of qualitative, in-depth interviews. the research was phenomenological in nature, aiming to understand as well as interpret how participants give meaning to aspects of their working lives (fouché, 2002). the function of the research was both descriptive and explanatory by identifying and describing phenomena existing in the npo work environment as experienced by the sample, as well as exploring the influences surrounding the occurrence of social phenomena, such as what underpins participants’ attitudes towards leaving the employment of the npo sector (ritchie & ormston, 2014). research strategy from an ethical standpoint, participation in the study was voluntary, with written informed consent being gained and participants being made aware that they could withdraw from the interviews at any stage. interview data have been kept confidential and made anonymous through no individual names being referred to in this article. instead, participants are identified by means of their interview slot and country; for example, participant d(be) was the fourth participant interviewed in belgium and participant b(sa) was the second participant interviewed in south africa. the authors adhered to the list of interview ethics laid out by graham, grewal and lewis (2007) before, during and after the interviews took place and obtained ethics clearance permission to conduct the study from nelson mandela metropolitan university (nmmu) in south africa. research design the sample consisted of 25 full-time or part-time employees working within npos in belgium and south africa in a paid capacity. npos in belgium cannot distribute any profits they make to their members, although they are allowed to charge membership fees and organise activities compatible with their purpose in return for payments (business belgium, 2010). in a similar manner, npos in south africa are established for public purposes, and none of their income is distributable to their members except as reasonable compensation for services rendered (department of social development, 2011). non-probability purposive and convenience sampling was utilised, with the basis of the purposive sample being self-selection. the authors’ personal npo contacts in south africa were emailed to invite them to be interviewed, and an invitation to participate was posted on a social media website. this resulted in 15 south african npo employees being willing to be interviewed. the authors’ research assistant in belgium used similar means to obtain a sample of 10 belgian employees to be interviewed, resulting in a total sample of 25 participants. table 1 provides the demographic distribution of the sample. it is apparent that the majority of the sample was female (68%), possessed a postgraduate degree or diploma (56%), occupied administrative positions (80%) and worked within the welfare and humanitarian fields (52%). table 1: demographic distribution of the sample. the authors conducted the south african interviews, whereas their research assistant conducted the belgian interviews. prior to beginning each interview, information pertaining to the nature of the study was read, including confidentiality of the data collection and participants’ rights. thereafter, an interview consent form was willingly signed by every participant. once consent had been obtained, a predetermined yet semi-structured list of questions was asked to all participants to ensure standardisation and comparability of answers. semi-structured interviews provided flexibility to explore interesting aspects that emerged during the interviews (greeff, 2002). the questions developed were based on theory relating to work engagement and retention. the questions were translated from english into dutch by a retired dutch lecturer from nmmu with experience in translation between dutch and english for the purpose of the belgian interviews. the interviews were recorded by means of dictaphones so that they could be accurately transcribed and thereafter analysed. the dutch interviews were translated into english after transcription by the same dutch academic for interpretation purposes. thematic analysis was utilised to analyse the interviews, which is a method to identify, analyse and report patterns of meaning (known as themes) that occur across a qualitative data set to organise and describe it in ‘rich’ detail (braun & clarke, 2006). the primary analytical steps that were followed, as discussed in detail by spencer, ritchie, o’connor, morrell and ormston (2014), included familiarisation with the data (including transcription of the verbal interview data); constructing an initial thematic framework (which served as a group of headings under which the experiences and views of participants could be organised); indexing and sorting the data (involving providing labels to sections of data that could be grouped together, matching data with themes and summarising data in tabular format); generating initial codes (in order to identify content that was the basis of repeated patterns across the data); reviewing the coherence of data extracts (so that labels could be amended and reapplied to the data); abstracting and interpreting the data (to categorise and classify it according to each theme) and finally, mapping linkages (to conclude how differing aspects of the data might be associated). findings the two themes that are focussed on in this article are work engagement and retention. the results of the interviews are discussed according to the categories that emerged from each theme, including the various codes comprising each category. work engagement questions regarding work engagement were asked in order to shed light on participants’ feelings of absorption, dedication and vigour at work, which formed the three categories of the work engagement theme. absorption with work three codes emerged with regard to npo employees being absorbed in their work. being engrossed in and involved with one’s work: eight participants from south africa and seven from belgium made reference to this point. for example, participant a(be) mentioned that the nature of his job in the theatre is such that it swallows him and results in him working when others are relaxing. along a similar line, participant b(be) thinks of work even when she is exercising, and participant j(be) noted that even when she is not at work, her tasks still occupy her mind. participant b(sa) finds herself absorbed when she is learning on the job and conducting research for her work, whilst participant m(sa) stated that because her npo does not have sufficient funding to employ more staff, she runs with many projects at one time, which increases her level of excitement and involvement. participant g(sa) explained her absorption in her medical work concerning the human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) as follows: when i start a task, i focus on it … when i’m engrossed in something, when i’m enjoying it, then i do get really engaged. in hiv there’s so much research that goes on. it’s always changing and you have to keep challenging yourself to keep up … nothing else has managed to keep me engaged for the amount of time that hiv has, so the more i’ve worked with it, the more passionate i’ve become about it. (participant g, female, research and technical lead) these responses suggest that employees are personally engaged with their work when they fully employ and express themselves cognitively, physically and emotionally in task behaviours during the performance of their work roles, thus connecting with and harnessing themselves to these roles (kahn, 1990). being focussed on one’s work: eight participants from south africa and one from belgium highlighted this point. participant f(sa), in his role of residential program manager, works within the lifespace of orphaned or displaced children who live at his npo. he mentioned that his job is intense and demanding because of being fully committed to the children as they continuously need his support. according to participant c(be), she offers support to children with life-threatening illnesses when they go abroad on trips that she has organised, which causes her to put in extra work and be highly involved in her tasks to ensure that nothing goes wrong whilst they are away. participant m(sa), a trauma counsellor at a psychiatric residency, switches off her mind to everything else when she is working with the residents, and participant i(sa) focusses on his tasks because he works towards deadlines and needs to get as much done as possible on a daily basis. such responses emphasise bakker’s (2015) opinion that the psychological connection that employees have with their work is of critical importance because organisations can only compete effectively when they have inspired and enabled their employees to apply their capabilities fully to their work through being engaged in it. working after hours or long hours: four participants from south africa and five from belgium made reference to this code as a means of being absorbed, which is in agreement with the findings of bakker and demerouti (2008) who highlight that absorbed employees experience difficulty in detaching themselves from their work. participant k(sa) described how she receives phone calls at all hours of the day and initially worked 7 days a week when she established her npo. participants c(sa), e(sa) and l(sa) all highlighted that they do not take tea or lunch breaks, with the latter mentioning that she is so focussed on her work that she sometimes forgets when it is time to go home at the end of a day. as noted by wissing (2014), when individuals are engaged in tasks or situations, they experience a state of flow in which they concentrate intensely and lose their sense of self. participant e(be) noted that she takes her materials home with her after work, and participant a(be) mentioned that he works erratic, irregular hours and cannot leave his job behind when he goes home. according to participant d(be), she is involved in her work during the weekends, and participant h(be) described that he hardly has a work–life balance as a director, because he struggles to switch off from his work and concentrate on his personal life, as work always looms in the background. these anecdotes align with the opinion of bruce (2011), who states that employees who feel bonded with their organisations will volunteer to stay late at work to finish important tasks, despite this interfering with personal activities. however, such absorption can result in negative effects for npo employees: as found by buys and rothmann (2010), ministers who experience increasing amounts of work are prone to becoming exhausted, a component of burnout. dedication to work this work engagement category was found to consist of four codes. being fully committed and loyal to work: this code was highlighted by seven participants from south africa and four from belgium. participant c(sa) stated that she is fully committed to her work because she feels valued by her organisation, and participant e(be) highlighted that her commitment arises from her work holding an important place in her life. participant f(sa) exhibits loyalty by putting in extra time when needed and going beyond what is required of him because he sees his work as more than just an 8:00 to 17:00 job. participant o(sa) demonstrates dedication by continuing to write new proposals for funding even when previous ones are rejected, and participant d(sa) is willing to work after hours because she knows that her work is bettering the lives of others. participant g(sa) highlighted how work is an important part of her life: i don’t know how not to be dedicated to work … if i’m not happy at work, i tend to often be unhappy generally. work is a big component so … being dedicated to my work is often what helps me to engage with it better and to enjoy it better and to do it better. when i start losing dedication to what i’m doing, then it’s probably time to be looking for a change. (participant g, female, research and technical lead) such insights into employee commitment provide evidence for work engagement affecting the mindset of employees to believe in their ability to have a positive impact, as well as promoting greater concerns for quality (rothmann, 2014). go over and above at work: six south african participants and one belgian participant made emphasis on this code. for example, participant a(sa) stated that she works for the greater good of her npo by working overtime and not only focussing on core job tasks, and participant j(sa) reported going the extra mile by working overtime without extra pay, and helping colleagues when needed. participant n(sa) described that she often works 7 days a week or longer without a day off and without receiving extra pay because she is passionate about her work. she noted that: … i know i put in extra. you know, over and above … i work consistently. by tomorrow i will have worked nineteen consecutive days without a day off … i just sort of think, ‘well, what’s the point because there’s stuff to be done. i’ve got to do this …’ (participant n, female, orchestra manager) such responses align with the code of working after hours or long hours, indicating both absorption in and dedication to their work. participant k(sa) highlighted that she has needed to invest her best efforts as well as time, energy, love and interest into the care centre that she founded for destitute adults and at-risk children to ensure that it grows and becomes a success. consequently, she has little time for her family and friends. participant m(sa) noted that she goes over and above at work by organising fun activities for residents, communicating with their families, being on call after hours, and working later than 17:00 when needed. she puts in this extra time because she desires to give her all towards helping psychiatric residents who often come from impoverished backgrounds. as mentioned by armstrong and brown (2009), dedicated employees look for, and are given, opportunities to improve organisational performance and actively work to make things better at their work. working with intensity: participant h(sa) works 11–12 hours per day as well as weekend work, which results in sacrifices to his personal life; yet, he does not receive overtime pay or bonus time. for this reason, he relies on self-motivation as opposed to being dedicated purely to receive a reward. moreover, participant e(sa) works to the best of his ability and will continue to do so until he is asked to retire because he is not working just to have a job or pass time. having a sense of pride and respect for work: this final code was mentioned by one participant from south africa and one from belgium as a reason for being dedicated to their work. participant g(be) is dedicated to his npo owing to the sense of pride, responsibility and respect he holds for the organisation, and participant k(sa)’s dedication is exhibited in the passion she holds for her work, and the manner in which she upholds standards. this correlates with schaufeli et al.’s (2002) finding, which highlights pride as an aspect of employee dedication. vigour at work twelve south african and all 10 belgian participants stated that they are energised by their work, which originated from five work-related codes. being busy at work: five south african participants demonstrated their vigour through being busy at work. participant m(sa) is energised through constantly having one thing to do after another, and participant i(sa) is most energised when having numerous tasks to complete, feeling drained when days are quieter. participant d(sa) claimed that she has no time to be idle because she is constantly busy, but despite this is always in high spirits because she is focussed on making a difference in the lives of children. participant f(sa) gains energy from developing diverse programmes and having much to do, suggesting that engaged employees experience an energetic connection with their work and perceive that they are able to handle the demands of their jobs (schaufeli et al., 2002). completing tasks, things going right at work and achieving successes at work: four south african participants reported that they gain energy from this code. according to participant h(sa), small successes such as being awarded a tender keep him vigorous in his role of senior conservation officer at an environmental npo, even though his work is physically exhausting owing to the long hours that he works. participant a(sa) works at her optimum energy level when things go well, for example, when her npo secures large training projects or when corporate social investment initiatives succeed. on the other hand, she experiences work to be emotionally draining when she expends energy yet does not experience positive results. participant d(be) is also stimulated and inspired by work-related achievements, for example, when she hears feedback about her work on the radio. as discussed by bakker and demerouti (2008), engaged employees create their own positive feedback through recognition, appreciation and success. in addition, participant f(be) is energised by exerting himself in his role as social worker because he is aware that his work changes the lives of others and holds a great meaning in his life. participant l(sa) is always aware that there are far-reaching consequences to her work, which serves to motivate her. she is energised by seeing positive changes in others and being told that she has made an impact. participant b(be) described her source of energy as follows: when i’ve done a training session or done a function assessment session and i can see that it has been of value to the people, then i do feel energised. in the same way, when i’ve done a consultation with someone at a sick-bed and he or she finds it worth their while, well then i derive energy from that as well … i have the feeling that i can do something, and that that means something to other people. (participant b, female, coordinator of volunteer training centre) these responses imply that when work is deemed to be meaningful and significant to those performing it, then employees gain energy from their work and as such are engaged in their work. this aligns with findings by jacobs et al. (2014) and buys and rothmann (2010), who discovered that job significance and meaningfulness at work are positively correlated with work engagement. high levels of excitement at work: one participant from south africa and two from belgium mentioned that they enjoy high levels of excitement at work, which aligns with findings by bakker and demerouti (2008) who note that engaged employees have positive attitudes and activity levels, and they experience positive emotions such as joy, enthusiasm and happiness. for example, participant e(be) highlighted that every time she begins a new project, she gets new ideas and becomes excited about her work all over again. work-related challenges and variety: four south african participants and one belgian participant reported that this code is an energy force for them. participant b(sa) said that she is energised by setting goals and becoming aware of what has been accomplished versus what still needs to be done. participant c(sa) told that she gains energy from the challenging nature of her work, such as organising events that are composed of varied tasks. participant g(sa) reported that she is re-energised when she takes on new, interesting challenges because these allow her to apply her mind within the scope of what she is allowed to do, thereby overcoming problems and implementing solutions. working with a variety of people: one south african participant and two belgian participants made reference to this code as a source of energy. participant f(sa) finds it exciting to work with children and supervise staff, whilst participant g(be) described how he is energised by collaborating with others and by being part of a global npo, which has given him the opportunity to develop international networks. participant a(be) remains alert in mind and spirit by working with individuals of differing ages and backgrounds, and draws energy from the stories and beliefs that they share. to summarise, this qualitative data relating to work engagement provide support for rothmann and rothmann jr’s (2010) proposition that work engagement is consisted of three components, namely, a physical component (being involved in tasks by which both vigour and a positive affective state are demonstrated), a cognitive component (comprising being alert of, absorbed in and involved at work) and an emotional component (in which employees are connected, dedicated and committed to their job and to others whilst working). retention interview data related to retention were grouped into two categories by separating responses from participants who desire to leave and those who wish to remain working at their npos. participants intending to leave their non-profit organisations seven south african participants and five belgian participants said that they would consider resigning from their npos in the future; thus, approximately 50% of participants may not be successfully retained if these aspects are not given attention by the management. the reasons provided were grouped into 12 codes. (1) personal growth was mentioned by three south african participants and one belgian participant, which is to be expected owing to the fact that employees often leave their jobs in order to pursue promotions and better advancement opportunities elsewhere (aamodt, 2010). participant a(sa) feels that her npo will outgrow her, and that a fresh perspective will be needed within her position. participant b(sa) noted that she needs to continue learning and moving forward, whereas participant i(sa) feels that his season at his npo is drawing to an end because he is growing beyond the organisation. participant h(be) specified how he believes that any employee’s productivity naturally wanes after 4 years and, thus, a move to another position is necessary to avoid negative productivity. this is related to another code that arose, namely, participants desiring (2) new experiences, which was discussed by three south african participants and one belgian participant. participant h(be) explained how employees must add value to their organisations and vice versa in order to retain work pleasure, which occurs when employees move to new positions every 5 years. the benefit for employees is that they embark on new challenges, and organisations gain fresh employees into positions, which stimulates a healthy way of thinking. participant a(sa) wants to experience working in a corporate organisation because her energy has been drained working within the non-profit sector, and participant b(sa) described how she desires to travel and work for a global humanitarian npo in the future, in the hope that she will experience new challenges and avoid stagnation by staying in one organisation for too long. (3) extrinsic rewards or money was mentioned by three south african participants and two belgian participants as influencing their intentions to quit their npos. participant b(sa) described how she wants to be independent and move out of the residence that she shares with her parents, but is unable to do so with her current salary. similarly, pay is the only factor pushing participant m(sa) to desire to leave her organisation because she is not earning enough to sustain the lifestyle that she desires. as highlighted by milkovich, newman and gerhart (2011), paying employees too little results in them feeling as if they have been unfairly treated, which further results in their leaving the organisation. this is supported by studies emanating from the npo sector, such as de gieter et al. (2008) and renard and snelgar (2015), whose findings suggest that being satisfied with one’s salary or pay level results in lower turnover intentions amongst npo employees. along this line, participant j(sa) said that she has gone without a salary for a month, and employees at her npo have the possibility of not receiving a bonus. therefore, she desires to move to a sector where pay is more stable, and where annual increases and benefits such as a provident fund, pension fund and medical aid will be provided. in addition, participant b(be) mentioned that she does not currently receive benefits such as a cell phone, laptop and bank card, which might influence her intentions to quit her npo. this provides support for perkins and white (2009) who note that employee benefits provided in non-cash form, such as company cars and paid holidays, serve the purpose of retaining employees. linked to this is another code, (4) funding, which was highlighted by three south african participants. participant j(sa), after mentioning that she has not received a salary for a month, explained how she desires financial stability, but her current job is in jeopardy because of her npo not receiving their government subsidy. she questions whether this situation will improve, and because her organisation cannot operate without funding, she will only remain working there if the board of directors commits to obtaining donors so that her salary and bonuses would be secured. along a similar line, participant n(sa) mentioned that she might have no option but to leave her npo if they do not obtain funding in the future from the national lottery in south africa, and participant o(sa) reported that she feels like leaving her job when her funding proposals are rejected, as this is disheartening and demotivating. such failed fundraising efforts would not be experienced if she worked in a different sector, which leads to the following code, namely (5) the npo environment, which was highlighted by two participants from south africa. participant i(sa) described his frustrations with his npo environment, stating that it lacks transparency, is not well regulated, has no culture of control and offers a disconnect between the board and the day-to-day running of the npo. he desires to work at some other organisation that is more structured. one south african participant [j(sa)] made mention of desiring to leave because she feels (6) under-appreciated owing to the fact that genuinely recognising, valuing and appreciating employees for their contributions is a factor that can lead to turnover if ignored (steinman, 2009). a belgian participant [c(be)] noted that she desired to quit her job soon because she was not given any important (7) opportunities at work. such opportunities might include limited employee empowerment, few opportunities for growth and poor work challenges (steinman, 2009). a belgian participant [j(be)] highlighted her (8) colleagues as a reason for intending to quit her npo because she does not have much contact with her coordinator and her colleagues are not easy to work with, which put a dampener on her work atmosphere. finally, a different belgian [participant f(be)] was the only participant to mention the reasons of (9) administration, (10) lack of vision, (11) teamwork and (12) workload or pressure regarding why he desired to leave his npo as social worker. he noted that for the sake of efficiency and effectiveness, there is often more concern for the completion of forms than for the content of his caregiving and counselling, which can be demotivating. changes in structures at his npo have caused problems, and organisational growth placed employees under considerable pressure, with increased workloads for which there was seemingly no solution. the organisation lacked care and a vision, with operations not running smoothly. internal collaboration between team members was difficult, and changes took place within teams. aamodt (2010) put forward similar causes of concern when mentioning that employees may quit in order to escape from colleagues, conflict, poor working conditions and/or stress when these become unbearable. regarding where participants would choose to work if they left the npo sector, four south african participants and two belgian participants specified that they would choose to work in the corporate sector, whilst two south african participants mentioned working for the government. however, three participants from south africa and four from belgium would choose to remain working in the non-profit sector. one south african participant and two belgian participants commented that they would simply desire to work in a position that fulfilled them and which upheld a strong purpose, value and standard, as opposed to a job that focussed solely on making a profit. participants desiring to remain working at their non-profit organisations eleven codes emerged with regard to participants being retained within their npos, such as (1) being happy, or enjoying or loving one’s job or work, which was mentioned by three south african and four belgian participants. participant d(sa) said that she would not leave because she loves her job, and experiences happiness from within as a result of her work. participant a(be) finds energy and beauty within his work daily, whereas participant e(be) derives a great deal of work-related pleasure. one south african participant [f(sa)] commented that he will not look to move jobs because his current position is (2) where he is meant to be. along this line, three participants from south africa discussed that they have been (3) called by god to work in their npos and thus would not leave. in particular, participant f(sa) described how god had placed him at his npo for a reason, and he consequently has faith that it is where he should be working. if ever he entertains the idea of leaving, his relationship with god reminds him of why he is there. two south african participants highlighted that they are (4) working towards a purpose at their npos and thus would not yet consider leaving; for example, participant k(sa) discussed how her purpose on earth is to help those in need, and that is why she started her organisation and has a heart for it. this participant was the only one to state that her (5) work at the npo is not yet finished, and therefore she would never run away from the problems that her npo faces as this would not solve them. she explained that when she starts something, she must end it and remain motivated throughout, especially because her work directly influences the lives of others. furthermore, being given (6) room for growth, or the potential for such growth, encouraged three south african participants to stay at their organisations. for example, participant h(sa) sees himself growing in the long term within his npo, provided that opportunities for development continue to be present. participant m(sa) highlighted that she has future opportunities to be promoted into a management position, which makes it worthwhile to stay within the organisation. participant h(sa) does not intend to leave his npo owing to the (7) autonomy afforded to him in his daily work, as well as because he is (8) fulfilled by the projects he runs, which creates a sense of direction and energy in his life. he was the only participant to mention these reasons. moreover, only one south african participant [c(sa)] noted that (9) a caring environment encourages her to remain working at her npo. one of the reasons that participant e(sa) mentioned for choosing to stay at his organisation is that he (10) does not wish to be self-employed, which would be his alternative upon resigning. participant g(be), when asked about what he would do upon resignation, stated that if he were younger he would look for new challenges elsewhere, but because he is (11) close to retiring, he will remain at his current organisation. many of these factors align with steinman’s (2009) commentary that employees choose to stay at an organisation because of the fulfilment they gain from their positions, opportunities given to them for personal growth and development, the knowledge that their work makes a difference and that their opinions count, as well as the enjoyment that they gain from their work. discussion outline of the findings the purpose of this study was to gather in-depth data pertaining to how work engagement and retention can be promoted amongst npo employees. table 2 provides a summary of the themes, categories and codes found in this regard. it was discovered that the employees under study are indeed absorbed in, dedicated to and energised by their work, which was conceptualised by schaufeli et al. (2002) as encompassing work engagement. in particular, it is apparent that non-profit employees are willing to invest long hours often to the detriment of their personal lives to ensure that they are meeting the purpose for which their positions and organisations exist. this does not imply that such employees would not feel tired after a day of hard work, but that their tiredness would be experienced as a pleasant state because it is associated with positive accomplishments (bakker & demerouti, 2008). indeed, the employees under study mentioned that they are energised by work-related successes and accomplishments and possess an exceptional level of commitment to their work. moreover, participants highlighted that aspects affecting their intentions to stay at their npos include working with room for growth, development and autonomy; operating in a caring environment managed by positive, driven leaders whom employees can respect; and enjoying the fact that they gain fulfilment and a sense of purpose from their work tasks. table 2: summary of themes, categories and codes. practical implications the fact that participants were found to be fully committed to their work roles is a positive benefit for the npos under study, because work engagement has been found to be positively correlated with improved levels of psychological empowerment, affective organisational commitment, happiness and intrinsic rewards, and negatively correlated with turnover intentions and work alienation (du plooy & roodt, 2010; field & buitendach, 2011; jacobs et al., 2014; stander & rothmann, 2010). rothmann (2014) also highlights positive organisational outcomes that are predicted by work engagement, including improved job satisfaction, motivation, shareholder value and return on assets, and bakker and demerouti (2008) note that engaged employees experience better physical health than disengaged employees. importantly, bussin (2013) states that no plausible reason exists for why engagement should not impact npo performance in the same way that it does in for-profit organisations, suggesting that the npos under study should maintain the work environments of their employees to sustain their levels of work engagement, thus positively impacting their overall organisational performance. with regard to retention, this study has revealed important aspects for npo managers to consider when assessing means to retain valuable staff. apart from the factors revealed in this study, steinman (2009) suggests a number of means to reduce voluntary turnover, such as promoting a sense of work–life balance, providing work that is challenging, having one-on-one feedback session with employees in which they are encouraged to voice their needs and suggestions, assisting employees in developing the skills necessary to be empowered to fulfil their long-term career aspirations, designing personal career development plans for employees, providing sufficient resources for employees to perform their jobs, providing opportunities both for individuals and team work, and building an employment brand that results in employees taking pride in working there. providing a good work environment and opportunities to advance and grow will also assist in employee retention (aamodt, 2010). aamodt (2010) furthermore notes that attitude surveys and exit interviews can be conducted to determine why employees desire to leave their organisations, as these often discover employee dissatisfaction regarding the content of their work or salary. this was indeed revealed in the present findings. npos should therefore be open with their employees regarding how market-related their remuneration is. if salaries are not externally competitive, then adjustments should be made to improve their competitiveness (steinman, 2009). as noted by noe et al. (2012), if employees are not paid relatively to the market rate, they will view this as an indication of status and a reflection of their self-worth. along this line, peters, fernandopulle, masaoka, chan and wolfred (2002) recommend that npo managers should focus on salary competitiveness with other npos as well as with similar jobs in for-profit organisations and the government in an effort to improve retention. that said, it is acknowledged that many npos struggle to pay market-related salaries owing to a scarcity of financial resources and funding. in the absence of being able to remunerate their employees according to market rates, renard and snelgar’s (2015) findings suggest that non-profit employees in south africa may, to a certain extent, offset their below-market salaries through performing work that is intrinsically rewarding to them, because npo employees in their sample were more likely to report higher levels of salary satisfaction when they deemed their work to be intrinsically rewarding. thus, npos should place significance on using intrinsic rewards to retain employees. this is because non-profit employees in this study have indicated that low levels of extrinsic rewards may lead to them experiencing an increased desire to leave their organisations, whereas intrinsic rewards such as growth opportunities, autonomy and purposeful work serve to decrease their turnover intentions. supporting this, muteswa and ortlepp (2011) have shown that a lack of intrinsic rewards, including challenging work and freedom to act on the job, influences managers’ intentions to leave their organisations, and preenen et al. (2011) discovered that the provision of challenging assignments leads to a decrease in turnover intentions. thus, intrinsic rewards may serve as a means of retaining employees, which indicates an area for future research within the non-profit sector. it is apparent from the results of this study that participants did not mention that being absorbed in or dedicated to their work would promote their intentions to remain working in their npos. yet, schaufeli and bakker (2004), du plooy and roodt (2010), park and gursoy (2012), bothma and roodt (2013) as well as robyn and du preez (2013) confirm that work engagement is significantly negatively related to employees’ intentions to quit their organisations. as mentioned by bussin (2011), engagement promotes the retention of employees because a critical driver of their intention to quit is their levels of organisational commitment. engagement should thus be of vital importance for organisations wishing to retain top talent (bussin, 2011; nel et al., 2011). because work engagement entails employees focussing wholeheartedly on their tasks in an intense and concentrated manner, this assumes that they would be enjoying their work and would be psychologically attached to their daily activities, implying that they would not strongly desire to leave their positions. owing to the fact that work engagement arises from specific job-related resources such as participation in decision-making, task variety, task significance, performance feedback and supervisory support (see bakker & demerouti, 2007; demerouti, bakker, nachreiner & schaufeli, 2001), it is likely that engagement in one’s work is a direct result of the working environment that one experiences, which should discourage employees from wanting to leave engrossing environments. limitations and recommendations a limitation of this study was the small sample size through which inferences have been drawn. coyne (1997) notes that a qualitative sample size is large enough when a theoretical saturation level is reached. yet, the authors of this study nonetheless acknowledge that a larger sample would have allowed for more meaningful interpretations to take place. it would have been particularly useful for the size of the belgian sample to have matched that of the south african sample. it is recommended that future research quantitatively assesses the relationship between rewards (both intrinsic and extrinsic) and the desire of non-profit employees to leave their organisations, because both rewards were found to play a role in the retention of participants. furthermore, whilst npo employees in this study are engaged in their work, it has been highlighted that the antithesis of work engagement is burnout, which is linked to compassion fatigue (see mason et al., 2014). it is possible that npo employees may experience emotional strain as a result of being too personally vested in their work, particularly if npo employees are deeply committed to making a difference, thus possibly experiencing emotional exhaustion as a result. it is recommended that future studies investigate whether npo employees experienced compassion fatigue as a result of their emotional investments at work. conclusion this study has provided evidence of the means by which npo employees across two geographically dispersed countries demonstrate their engagement through being enthusiastic, committed and involved in their work. it moreover provided insights into what aspects contribute to these employees desiring either to remain working at or intending to leave the employment of their organisations. this is the first such study to investigate these constructs within the non-profit sector in belgium and south africa, particularly utilising a qualitative research design which produced in-depth data for analysis. therefore, it contributes to the knowledge base related to work engagement and retention within both belgium and south africa. acknowledgements the authors wish to thank the south african reward association for partly funding this study. competing interests the data discussed in this article emanate from m.r.’s phd studies, but have not been published elsewhere or under review in any other publication. the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in conducting the research or writing this article. authors’ contributions m.r. collected this data within the first of three phases of research conducted for her phd in commerce in industrial psychology. r.j.s. was her supervisor. m.r. was responsible for authoring this article, with editorial assistance from r.j.s. references aamodt, m.g. (2010). industrial/organizational psychology: an applied approach. (6th edn.). belmont, ca: wadsworth cengage learning. armstrong, m., & brown, d. (2009). strategic reward: implementing more effective reward management. london, uk: kogan page. bakker, a.b. (2015). work engagement. retrieved may 27, 2015, from http://www.arnoldbakker.com/workengagement.php bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2007). the job demands-resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22(3), 309–328. http://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2008). towards a model of work engagement. career development international, 13(3), 209–223. http://doi.org/10.1108/13620430810870476 balta, m. (2014). employee retention. in m.f. özbilgin, d. groutsis, & w.s. harvey (eds.), international human resource management (pp. 128–147). melbourne, australia: cambridge university press. boshoff, a.b., van wyk, r., hoole, c., & owen, j.h. (2002). the prediction of intention to quit by means of biographic variables, work commitment, role strain and psychological climate. management dynamics, 11(4), 14–28. bothma, c.f.c., & roodt, g. (2013). the validation of the turnover intention scale. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), 1–12. http://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v11i1.507 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77–101. http://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa bruce, a. (2011). manager’s guide to motivating employees. (2nd edn.). madison, wi: mcgraw-hill. business belgium. (2010). non-profit organisation (asbl/vzw). retrieved june 2, 2015, from http://business.belgium.be/en/managing_your_business/setting_up_your_business/company_types/non_profit_organisation/ bussin, m. (2011). the remuneration handbook for africa. randburg, south africa: knowres publishing. bussin, m. (2013). performance management for government, universities, schools and ngos. randburg, south africa: knowres publishing. buys, c., & rothmann, s. (2010). burnout and engagement of reformed church ministers. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 1–12. http://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.825 coyne, i.t. (1997). sampling in qualitative research. purposeful and theoretical sampling; merging or clear boundaries? journal of advanced nursing, 26(3), 623–630. http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.1997.t01-25-00999.x de gieter, s., de cooman, r., pepermans, r., & jegers, m. (2008). manage through rewards, not only through pay: establishing the psychological reward satisfaction scale (press). in m. vartiainen, c. antoni, x. baeten, n. hakonen, r. lucas, & h. thierry (eds.), reward management: facts and trends in europe (pp. 97–117). lengerich: pabst science publishers. de gieter, s., hofmans, j., & pepermans, r. (2011). revisiting the impact of job satisfaction and organizational commitment on nurse turnover intention: an individual differences analysis. international journal of nursing studies, 48(12), 1562–1569. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2011.06.007 demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., nachreiner, f., & schaufeli, w.b. (2001). the job demands-resources model of burnout. journal of applied psychology, 86(3), 499–512. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.499 department of social development. (2011). all about nonprofit organisations. retrieved june 1, 2015, from http://www.dsd.gov.za/npo/ derycke, h., vlerick, p., burnay, n., decleire, c., d’hoore, w., hasselhorn, h.-m., et al. (2010). impact of the effort-reward imbalance model on intent to leave among belgian health care workers: a prospective study. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 83(4), 879–893. http://doi.org/10.1348/096317909x477594 du plooy, j., & roodt, g. (2010). work engagement, burnout and related constructs as predictors of turnover intentions. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 1–13. http://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.910 field, l.k., & buitendach, j.h. (2011). happiness, work engagement and organisational commitment of support staff at a tertiary education institution in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), 1–10. http://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i1.946 fouché, c.b. (2002). research strategies. in a.s. de vos (ed.), research at grass roots for the social sciences and human service professionals (2nd edn., pp. 270–277). pretoria, south africa: van schaik. glicken, m.d., & robinson, b.c. (2013). treating worker dissatisfaction during economic change. london, uk: elsevier inc. graham, j., grewal, i., & lewis, j. (2007). ethics in social research: the views of research participants. retrieved january 27, 2014, from http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/ethics_participants_tcm6-5783.pdf greeff, m. (2002). information collection: interviewing. in a.s. de vos (ed.), research at grass roots for the social sciences and human service professionals (2nd edn., pp. 291–320). pretoria, south africa: van schaik. haygroup. (n.d.). employee engagement. retrieved july 02, 2013, from http://www.haygroup.com/ jacobs, s., renard, m., & snelgar, r.j. (2014). intrinsic rewards and work engagement in the south african retail industry. sa journal of industrial psychology, 40(2), 332–344. http://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i2.1195 kahn, w.a. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 33(4), 692–724. http://doi.org/10.2307/256287 kuttner, r. (2008). good jobs for americans who help americans. retrieved february 16, 2015, from http://www.prospect.org/article/good-jobs-americans-who-help-americans kyndt, e., dochy, f., michielsen, m., & moeyaert, b. (2009). employee retention: organisational and personal perspectives. vocations and learning, 2(3), 195–215. http://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-009-9024-7 leroy, h., anseel, f., dimitrova, n.g., & sels, l. (2013). mindfulness, authentic functioning, and work engagement: a growth modeling approach. journal of vocational behavior, 82(3), 238–247. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2013.01.012 lewis, j., & mcnaughton nicholls, c. (2014). design issues. in j. ritchie, j. lewis, c. mcnaughton nicholls, & r. ormston (eds.), qualitative research practice: a guide for social science students and researchers (2nd edn., pp. 47–76). london, uk: sage. lin, c.-p. (2009). modeling corporate citizenship, organizational trust, and work engagement based on attachment theory. journal of business ethics, 94(4), 517–531. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0279-6 lynn, d.b. (2003). symposium: human resource management in nonprofit organizations. review of public personnel administration, 23(2), 91–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0734371x03023002001 mason, v.m., leslie, g., clark, k., lyons, p., walke, e., butler, c., et al. (2014). compassion fatigue, moral distress, and work engagement in surgical intensive care unit trauma nurses: a pilot study. dimensions of critical care nursing, 33(4), 215–225. http://doi.org/10.1097/dcc.0000000000000056 milkovich, g.t., newman, j.m., & gerhart, b. (2011). compensation. (10th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. muteswa, r., & ortlepp, k. (2011). contributing factors to potential turnover in a sample of south african management-level employees. acta commercii 11, 13–29. noe, r.a., hollenbeck, j.r., gerhart, b., & wright, p.m. (2012). human resource management: gaining a competitive advantage (8th edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill irwin. park, j., & gursoy, d. (2012). generation effects on work engagement among u.s. hotel employees. international journal of hospitality management, 31(4), 1195–1202. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2012.02.007 perkins, s.j., & white, g. (2009). reward management: alternatives, consequences and contexts (2nd edn.). london, uk: chartered institute of personnel and development. peters, j., fernandopulle, a., masaoka, j., chan, c., & wolfred, t. (2002). help wanted: turnover and vacancy in nonprofits. retrieved february 16, 2015, from http://www.compasspoint.org/sites/default/files/docs/research/10_helpwanted.pdf philanthropy news digest. (2012). as economy rebounds, nonprofits anticipate more turnover in staff, survey finds. retrieved february 16, 2015, from http://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/as-economy-rebounds-nonprofits-anticipate-more-turnover-in-staff-survey-finds phillips, j.m., & gully, s.m. (2012). strategic staffing. (2nd edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson prentice hall. preenen, p.t.y., de pater, i.e., van vianen, a.e.m., & keijzer, l. (2011). managing voluntary turnover through challenging assignments. group & organization management, 36(3), 308–344. http://doi.org/10.1177/1059601111402067 renard, m., & snelgar, r.j. (2015). correlating non-profit employees’ levels of salary satisfaction with their intrinsic rewards: a south african study. african journal of reward, 1(1), 63–83. ritchie, j., & ormston, r. (2014). the applications of qualitative methods to social research. in j. ritchie, j. lewis, c. mcnaughton nicholls, & r. ormston (eds.), qualitative research practice: a guide for social science students and researchers (2nd edn.). london, uk: sage. robyn, a., & du preez, r. (2013). intention to quit amongst generation y academics in higher education. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(1), 1–14. http://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i1.1106 rodríguez-muñoz, a., baillien, e., de witte, h., moreno-jiménez, b., & pastor, j.c. (2009). cross-lagged relationships between workplace bullying, job satisfaction and engagement: two longitudinal studies. work & stress, 23(3), 225–243. http://doi.org/10.1080/02678370903227357 rothmann, s. (2014). positive institutions. in m. wissing, j. potgieter, t. guse, t. khumalo, & l. nel (eds.), towards flourishing: contexualising positive psychology (pp. 221–261). pretoria, south africa: van schaik. rothmann, s., & rothmann s., jr. (2010). factors associated with employee engagement in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(2), 1–12. http://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i2.925 schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2003). utrecht work engagement scale: preliminary manual (version 1). retrieved july 17, 2013, from http://www.beanmanaged.com/doc/pdf/arnoldbakker/articles/articles_arnold_bakker_87.pdf schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organizational behavior, 25(3), 293–315. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.248 schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzález-romá, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two-sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3(1), 71–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 scully, j., turner, p., & gregson, m. (2014). workforce intelligence planning. in j.r. crawshaw, p. budhwar, & a. davis (eds.), human resource management: strategic and international perspectives (pp. 118–137). london, united kingdom: sage. sokkie, p. (2013). the importance of hr management in an ngo environment. retrieved july 17, 2013, from http://www.bizcommunity.com/article/196/534/91905.html spencer, l., ritchie, j., o’connor, w., morrell, g., & ormston, r. (2014). analysis in practice. in j. ritchie, j. lewis, c. mcnaughton nicholls, & r. ormston (eds.), qualitative research practice: a guide for social science students and researchers (2nd edn., pp. 295–345). london, uk: sage. stander, m.w., & rothmann, s. (2010). psychological empowerment, job insecurity and employee engagement. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(1), 1–8. http://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i1.849 steinman, s. (2009). organisational wellness. in integrated health and wellness: the employee wellness toolkit developed for the services seta (2nd edn.). parktown, south africa: services seta. surtees, j., sanders, k., shipton, h., & knight, l. (2014). hrm in the not-for-profit sectors. in j.r. crawshaw, p. budhwar, & a. davis (eds.), human resource management: strategic and international perspectives (pp. 296–318). london, uk: sage. tippet, j., & kluvers, r. (2009). employee rewards and motivation in nonprofit organisations: case study from australia. international journal of business and management, 4(3), 7–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v4n3p7 vander elst, t., baillien, e., de cuyper, n., & de witte, h. (2010). the role of organizational communication and participation in reducing job insecurity and its negative association with work-related well-being. economic and industrial democracy, 31(2), 249–264. http://doi.org/10.1177/0143831x09358372 van der vaart, l., linde, b., de beer, l., & cockeran, m. (2015). employee well-being, intention to leave and perceived employability: a psychological contract approach. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 18(1), 32–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2222-3436/2015/v18n1a3 wissing, m.p. (2014). selected theories on functioning well and feeling good. in m. wissing, j. potgieter, t. guse, t. khumalo, & l. nel (eds.), towards flourishing: contexualising positive psychology (pp. 141–171). pretoria, south africa: van schaik. worldatwork. (2007). the worldatwork handbook of compensation, benefits and total rewards. hoboken, nj: wiley. yin, r.k. (2011). qualitative research from start to finish. new york: the guilford press. abstract introduction research objectives literature review research design findings discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) renier steyn graduate school of business leadership, university of south africa, south africa magda l. bezuidenhout department of human resource management, university of south africa, south africa anton grobler graduate school of business leadership, university of south africa, south africa citation steyn, r., bezuidenhout, m.l., & grobler, a. (2017). human resource practices and affective organisational commitment: a sectoral comparative study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a841. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.841 original research human resource practices and affective organisational commitment: a sectoral comparative study renier steyn, magda l. bezuidenhout, anton grobler received: 19 july 2016; accepted: 30 mar. 2017; published: 30 may 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: organisational commitment (oc) is often depicted as a desirable employee attitude and relates to organisational performance. little research has been carried out on the (human resource) hr practices–oc relationship within the south african context, and specifically with regard to this relationship across various sectors. research purpose: the purpose of this contribution is to specify the hr practices–oc relationship, within south africa, and specifically across various sectors. motivation for the study: it addresses the important matter of oc, a necessary requirement for sustaining organisations, through effective delivery of hr practices. research design, approach and method: this study is based on a cross-sectional survey design, collecting primary data on hr practices and oc from south african employees in public and private sector organisations, as well as state-owned entities. main findings: minimal practically significant mean scored differences were detected among hr practices delivered per sector. furthermore, a positive link between effective hr practices and oc was found within each of the three sectors, but this relationship was sector-specific. practical implications: the findings of this study offer a new, contextualised perspective on the hr practices–oc relationship. the data gathered could assist practitioners in reshaping hr policies – and particularly practices – to suit their specific sector. contribution and value add: the findings of this study are expected to offer valuable insight into the deferential management along sector lines. they also reiterate the importance of localised research and caution practitioners not to transfer research findings to local settings without a thorough investigation of local research. introduction human resource (hr) practices denote the organisational activities aimed at managing the pool of hrs and ensuring that these resources are directed towards the achievement of organisational goals (chew, 2004; juhdi, pa’wan, hansaram & othman, 2011; rees & smith, 2014), including creating a competitive advantage (şendoğdu, kocabacak & gűven, 2013; zeeshan & sabir, 2014). hr practices traditionally play an important role in influencing employee attitudes and behaviour (nivethitha, dyaram & kamalanabhan, 2014). coetzee, mitonga-monga and swart (2014) emphasise this dual function of hr practices and state that hr practices represent the management processes and systems that are generally aimed at improving an organisation’s performance and efficiency, as well as their employees’ attitudes and behaviours. momemi, marjani and saadat (2012) suggest that, particularly in the 21st century, hr practitioners recognise the importance of hr practices and their impact on employee performance, job satisfaction, commitment and retention. bal, bozkurt and ertemsir (2014) specifically state that organisational commitment (oc) as an employee attitude is affected by the delivery of hr practices. despite the empirical link between hr practices and oc being widely accepted by theorists, the specifics of how they are connected are still weakly grounded, according to blakenstein (2014). in this study, the focus will be on the hr practices–oc link. although bal et al. (2014) state that well-designed hr practices will increase the commitment of employees and help them to achieve the goals of the organisation, and although swart (2009) posits that it can be assumed that employees who perceive that their organisation invests in sound hr practices that address their needs will be psychologically and emotionally committed to the organisation, most findings are based mainly on single-firm or organisational studies (zaitouni, sawalha & el, 2011) and have been conducted in the western world (hemdi, 2009; meyer & allen, 1997; nasurdin, hemdi & guat, 2008). this article brings to the fore an additional element of the hr practices–oc link discussion, namely the context of the organisation. while an hr delivery model describes how those services are provided (armstrong, 2012), each hr department is subject to different forces, requiring unique approaches to hr service delivery (swift, 2012). kumar and mishra (2011), for example, found that public and private sector organisations differ significantly with regard to hr practices. a major task is thus to identifying appropriate strategies for different contexts (aycan, al-hamadi, davis & budhwar, 2007). the need exists to test the assumptions and underpinnings of the unitarist approach (‘hr best practise’ approach), which, according to marchington and grugulis (2000), has resulted in the empirically untested assertions that hr practices have a universal effect, irrespective of organisational or industrial context. research objectives human resource practitioners may be tempted to think that all hr practices are similarly delivered, similarly valued and similarly effective in all organisational settings, implying sector and industry equivalence. in this research, this hypothesis is tested, focusing on (1) assessing whether there are differences in the mean scores on effective or satisfactory hr delivery in three sectors, and (2) determining whether the relationship between hr practices and oc is similar in each of the three sectors. the last-mentioned refers to the possible effectiveness of hr practices in soliciting desired attitudes, in this case oc. literature review human resource services are not delivered in a contextual vacuum. delery and doty (1996), as well as hemdi (2009), conceptualised hr practices as a set of internally consistent policies and services, designed and implemented to ensure that a company’s human capital contributes to the achievement of its business objectives. these services are thus not fixed and differ from one organisation to another (tiwari & saxena, 2012). the universalistic perspective, based on the pioneering work of pfeffer (1994, 1995, 1998), suggesting that organisational performance depends on common hr practices, regardless of the industry or strategy pursued, seems outdated. rather, the contingency perspective on hr practices, emphasising the external context in which they are applied (guest, 1997), and where hr practices are informed by strategy and organisational goals (aryee & budhwar, 2008; jackson, schuler & rivero, 1989; porter, 1985), seems appropriate. given the focus on different economic sectors, the configurational perspective on hr practices may also be more appropriate than the universalistic perspective. the configurational perspective on hr practices mentioned above reflects the notion that distinctive bundles or patterns of hr practices will result in superior organisational performance (delery & doty, 1996; guest, 1997). in this regard guest (1997, p. 271) refers to ‘patterns of hr practices that are horizontally integrated’. the manner in which hr practices are presented may also influence the outcomes associated therewith. rees and smith (2014) differentiate between hr practices which are transactional and transformational. transactional activities focus on supporting administrative needs within organisations, for example record-keeping and day-to-day maintenance, including recruitment, induction, performance management, development system, career development, the separation system and communicating organisational values to the employees (pareek, 2007). transformational hr practices, on the other hand, focus on supporting the more macroor organisational-wide needs. these activities act as change agents for line managers and include hr practices which meet the company’s strategic needs (wright, mcmahan, gerhart & snell, 1997). when considering the goals of public and private sector organisations, it may be argued that the hr practices could differ based on the economic sector. harel and tzafrir (2001), for example, found that public sector management emphasised those hr domains that deal with employee selection and grievance procedures because of the sector’s high level of unionisation. they also found that private sector management, on the other hand, emphasised employee growth and pay for performance. also focusing on the types of services delivered, kumar and mishra (2011) found that public sector and private sector organisations differ significantly regarding certain hr dimensions, such as strategic hr; hr planning, training and development; safety and industrial relations. however, these authors found no difference regarding recruitment between the two sectors. the research of harel and tzafrir (2001), as well as that of kumar and mishra (2011), thus reflects elements of the contingency perspective and configurational perspective of hr, as well as sector-based differences in transactional and transformational approaches to hr service delivery. veloso, tzafrir and enosh (2015), affirming these differences, report that, in public organisations more than in private organisations, the nature of hr is perceived as mainly operational and administrative, and as ignoring the diversity of hr practices and the strategic role it can play in the organisation. vanhala and stavrou (2013) report that hr is more advanced in private companies than in public sector companies. the aforementioned lack of advancement may be a function of the sector, as brown (2004) reports that public sector hr is bureaucratic and resistant to change. organisational commitment emerged in the 1970s and 1980s (see mowday, porter & steers, 1982) as a key factor of the relationship between the individual and the organisations (lamba & choudhary, 2013), and has been conceptualised in many different ways (ghanzanfar, chuanmin, siddique & bashir, 2012). early on, mowday et al. (1982) suggest that individuals who score high on oc tend to have: (1) a strong belief in the organisation’s goals and values, (2) a willingness to devote considerable effort in support of the organisation and (3) a keen desire to maintain membership in the organisation. meyer and allen (1997) define oc as the feeling of dedication to one’s employer, willingness to work hard for that employer and the intent to remain with that organisation. meyer and allen (1991) suggest a three-component model of oc, namely affective, normative and continuance commitment. the focus of this study is on affective organisational commitment (aoc), as lamba and choudhary (2013) argue that aoc is more important to organisational performance than continuance or normative commitment. aoc refers to employees’ commitment through emotional attachment to the organisation and a belief in the organisation’s values. committed employees identify with the goals of the organisation and want to be part thereof (ezirim, nwibere & emecheta, 2012). employees therefore commit to the organisation because they ‘want to’ (lamba & choudhary, 2013). aoc is thus the individual employee’s psychological attachment to the organisation (lamba & choudhary, 2013). kuo (2013) describes oc as an efficient and extremely powerful mechanism for connecting employees and the organisation. employees who are committed to their organisations could be more willing to participate in ‘extra-role’ activities, such as being innovative. this is likely to guarantee organisations’ competitiveness in the market (van dyk & coetzee, 2012). other benefits include improved employee performance and reduced employee turnover (bal et al., 2014; yew, 2013). it is important to retain the correct employees, as to make the most of their potential (ahmad & schroeder, 2003). as such, organisations are becoming gradually more interested in the promotion of commitment among employees (lew, 2011). the need to keep the workforce committed, and to gain a competitive edge through attracting quality staff, has led to a surge in the research studies trying to look into hr practices and oc relationships (ghanzanfar et al., 2012). blakenstein (2014) even suggests that the underlying goal of hr practices is to increase employee commitment. imran and ahmed (2012), for example, demonstrated in their research that compensation, perceived organisational support, work–life polices, training and development, career opportunities, empowerment, organisational climate and communication have a direct and positive impact on oc. further, zaitouni et al. (2011) found that hr practices that include competence development, fair rewards and information sharing were positively and significantly related to oc. several other scholars have also examined the relationship between hr practices and oc. a summary of some of these is presented in table 1. table 1: previous research between human resource practices and organisational commitment. kehoe and wright (2013) and marescaux, de winne and sels (2013) have also studied the link between hr practices and oc but have come up with differing results. at an organisational level, shahnawaz and juyal (2006) found that hr practices significantly differ across two organisations and that different hr practices significantly predicted oc in the two organisations. lamba and choudhary (2013) investigated the impact of hr practices on the oc of employees in two industries and report sector-specific results. blakenstein (2014) reported pessimistically that the hr practices–oc link has been left undetermined. research design research approach the research design was a cross-sectional survey design, focusing on collecting quantitative data. this design is well suited to studies focusing on the relationship between variables, but not adequate to determine causality (bryman, 2012). primary data were collected from south african employees in public and private sector organisations, as well as in in state-owned entities (soes). access to organisations was facilitated by 52 master’s degree students. the study was therefore carried out on an opportunity sample of organisations (rosnow & rosenthal, 2008), as it focused only on organisations accessible by students. once students had gained permission to conduct the study, simple random sampling was performed in each organisation (n = 60). those selected for participation were informed about the scope of the study, as well as all ethical matters in this regard. only those who volunteered to participate in the study did so, and only after signing an informed consent form. hereafter, data collection followed. several instruments, including one on hr practices and one on oc, were administered. once the data had been collected, it was coded and the statistical analysis performed. data collection methods two instruments were used for collecting data in this study, namely the human resource practices scale (hrps) developed by nyawose (2009) and the organisational commitment scale (ocs) (allen & meyer, 1990). human resource practices scale the original hrps (nyawose, 2009) consisted of 27 items, assessing nine hr practices, with three questions per practice. nyawose (2009) reports internal consistencies, varying from 0.74 to 0.93 for these scales. steyn (2012), using a shorter version of the scale, reports internal consistencies, varying between 0.74 and 0.88. with regard to validity, steyn (2012) found that hr practices correlated in an expected manner with aspects such as job satisfaction (positively) and intention to quit (negatively). only seven hr practices were assessed in this study, namely training and development (t&d), compensation and rewards (rem), performance management (pm), supervisor support (ss), staffing (sta), diversity management (div) and communication and information sharing (com). the following is a typical item, taken from the training and development scale, and reads as follows: ‘my company is committed to the training and development needs of its employees’. respondents were requested to assess the organisation in which they were employed on a five-point scale, ranging from one (1 – disagree strongly) to five (5 – agree strongly). for each individual hr practice, the minimum score would be three (3) and the maximum 15. a high score would suggest that the respondent was satisfied with that particular hr practice, while a low score would indicate the opposite. a total score for hr practices, adding the scores of the seven subscales, were also calculated. the range for this score was 21–105. this score was interpreted as indicative of satisfaction with the hr function as a whole. organisational commitment scale the ocs of allen and meyer (1990) can generally be used to assess affective, continuance and normative commitment. the scale consists of 24 questions, with 8 questions each on affective, continuance and normative commitment. even though different conceptualisations of oc have been used in the literature, perhaps the most important with regard to hr practices is the concept of aoc (lamba & choudhary, 2013; wright & kehoe, 2007). only the eight questions comprising the affective commitment part of the instrument were used. it is common practice to interpret the sections of the test separately (see, for example, steyn, 2012). allen and meyer (1990) report an internal consistency coefficient of 0.86 for the affective commitment section, and steyn (2012) reports a cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the eight items of 0.82. allen and meyer (1990) report evidence of construct validity, although there are some overlaps between affective and normative commitment. they also report that the ‘relationship between commitment measures … and the antecedent variables … was, for the most part, consistent with prediction’ (allen & meyer, 1990, p. 13). this points to convergent and discriminant validity. steyn (2012) reported correlation coefficients of around 0.30 between oc and the different hr practices. the first item of the affective commitment part of the scale reads as follows: ‘i would be very happy to spend the rest of my career with this organisation’. respondents were requested to indicate their views on this statement on a scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). the minimum score was 8 and the maximum 56. a high score on the scale would be indicative of high levels of commitment and low scores would be indicative of low commitment. statistical analysis the statistical analysis was performed by using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss version 23). firstly, statistics about the demographics of the respondents were calculated. next, central statistics were calculated per sector, specifically the mean score and the standard deviation for each measure. in order to determine the presence of differences in mean score across the sectors, one-way analysis of variance (anova) was conducted. when the overall anova showed significant differences between groups (p < 0.001), the scheffé post hoc test was used to determine which pairs of groups differed significantly. the effect size of the differences in means between the groups was then determined. the guidelines of pallant (2010) were used, where r values of 0.30, 0.50 and 0.80 represent small, medium and large effect sizes, as per calculated cohen’s d values. correlations between the independent variables (hr practices) and dependent variable (aoc) were calculated by means of pearson’s product moment correlations. statistically significant correlations (p < 0.001) with values larger than 0.20 were interpreted as indicative of a practically significant correlation. to assess if the significant correlations differed from each other, z-observed values were calculated, following a fisher r-to-z transformation. should the z-observed value be greater than 1.96 or smaller than -1.96, the difference in the correlations would be deemed as statistically significant. linear regression analysis was used to determine the amount of variance explained by each of the hr practices in oc. in this case, statistically significant (p < 0.001) beta values were interpreted as being indicative of a unique and significant contribution to the dependent variable. findings demographics of the participants the participants in this study were employees from different south african companies within the private and public sectors, as well as soes. the total number of participants was 3180 employees, representative of 52 companies. the private sector was the largest group, being 1944 (61% of the total), followed by the public sector with 719 (± 23%), followed by the soes with 480, representing 16% of the total sample. in total, 57.1% reported that they were male, compared to 42.5% reporting that they were female (missing data = 0.4%). as far as race is concerned, 8.3% marked asian, 58.4% black, 8.4% mixed race and 24.6% white (missing data = 0.3%). their ages ranged between 20 and 72, with an average of 37.80 (standard deviation = 9.11). as far as tenure at their present company is concerned, this varied between 1 month and 42 years, with an average of 8.39 (standard deviation = 7.47). means per sector and mean differences a preliminary analysis was performed to ensure that no violation of the assumptions of normality was made. following satisfactory results, means were calculated. the descriptive statistics, cronbach’s alpha, as well as the results on the anova, are reported in table 2. from table 2 (in column 5), it can be seen that the cronbach alpha coefficient (α), representing the proportional variance error and the internal consistency of the instrument, was acceptable, given the 0.70 or higher mark set by clark and watson (1995) and nunnally and bernstein (1994). the lowest α value was 0.69. this permitted further calculations to be performed. table 2: means, reliability and test of mean differences (anova). from table 2 (in column 3), it can be observed that several variations in the mean scores occurred across sectors. the statistical significance of these variations is reported in column 10. only three individual hr practices (t&d; div; comm) differed significantly on mean scores across sectors, and also the mean aggregate hr practices score (tot) and the oc scores. in order to determine between which groups the mean score differences occurred, the scheffé post hoc test was performed subsequent to the anova. the significant differences between the sectors are reported in table 3. table 3: scheffé post hoc test: between sectors mean score differences (practically significant differences are underlined). from table 3, we can observe that the only statistical difference between mean scores, which was also practically significant, occurred at the soes and public sector on t&d. here, the mean difference was 1.09, with a cohen d value of 0.37. relationship between human resource practices and organisational commitment, per sector pearson product moment correlations were used to determine the relationship between the independent variables (the individual hr practices and the aggregate score on the hr practices scale) and oc (as the dependent variable). a preliminary analysis was performed to ensure no violation of the assumptions of normality, linearity and homoscedasticity. following satisfactory results, correlations were calculated. these coefficients, presented in table 4, were all positive and statistically significant, with the exception of the correlation between ss and oc for the soes (r = 0.14). table 4: correlation between human resource practices and organisational commitment, as well as differences in the correlations. the correlation between tot and oc had a large effect (r = 51) in the private sector. in all the other cases, the correlations were of a medium effect size. in general, the hr practices individually, as well as collectively (tot), relate to oc. when considering the tot scores for the three sectors, it can also be observed that the correlation for the aggregate score for hr practices is the highest for the private sector (r = 0.51), followed by the public sector (r = 0.44) and the soes (r = 0.37). these correlations are statistically, as well as practically, significant. this brings to the fore the matter of significance of the differences between the ways hr practices correlate with oc. the extent to which the correlations differ across sectors was calculated as z-observed values. focusing only on tot’s correlation with oc, the z-observed values of 3.42 (private sector–soes) and 2.07 (private sector–public sector) indicate that the correlation for the private sector is higher than that of the soes, and also that the correlation for the private sector is higher than that of the public sector, but that the correlations of the soes and the public sector did not differ significantly. on a subscale level, the way hr practices correlated with oc differed in five instances between the private sector and soes, once in the case of private sector and public sector, and twice when comparing soes and the public sector. in all five cases, private sector correlations were stronger than soe correlations. in the one case where the correlations between the private sector and the public sector differed, the correlations were also stronger in the private sector. as far as the differences in correlations between soes and the public sector are concerned, the correlations were stronger in the public sector. linear regression was next to determine the extent to which all the hr practices combined (excluding the aggregate score on the hrps) explained the variance in oc, as well as which individual hr practices contributed uniquely to the variance in oc. the results are reported in tables 5 and 6. table 5: model summary of regression analysis – variance explained in organisational commitment by human resource practices. table 6: unique contributions of predictors to variance in organisational commitment (only standardised coefficients are presented). consistent with the results of the correlation coefficients reported in table 4, the total variance explained by the seven hr practices (this time, each contributed with its unique weighting), is highest for the private sector (27% variance explained), compared to the public sector and soes with 19% and 16% of the variance explained respectively (all p ≤ 0.001). to isolate the unique contribution of each of the hr practices to variance in oc, the β values of the abovementioned regression shown in table 6 are relevant. the uniqueness of the three sectors under investigation is apparent from these results. for the private sector, t&d and ss each have the highest contribution (β = 0.16; p ≤ 0.001), followed by com (β = 0.11; p ≤ 0.001). for the soes, t&d (β = 0.21; p ≤ 0.001) and rem (β = 0.18; p ≤ 0.001) contributed uniquely and significantly to oc. lastly, in the public sector, only rem (β = 0.20; p ≤ 0.001) contributed uniquely and significantly to the variance explained in oc. discussion the research answers the call not to address and assess organisational issues in mainly a single-firm, organisation-wide or western world context. in total, 52 organisations, which could be divided into three sectors and which involved 3180 south african employees, were examined. this constitutes a relatively large study. however, it is not a flawless sample in all respects, as the selection of organisations was opportunity based. note that sampling within organisations was random. the first objective of the study was to assess whether there are differences in the mean scores on effective/satisfactory hr delivery in three sectors. statistically significant differences in mean scores were found, 4/7 times for the private sector/public sector comparisons, and 2/7 times for both the private sector or soes and soes or public sector comparisons. only one of the comparisons yielded a practically significant value. thus, in only 1/21 comparisons on mean differences, this was practically significant. it was, consequently, not possible to replicate the findings of lamba and choudhary (2013), who found differences across sectors on effective or satisfactory hr delivery. the universalistic perspective (pfeffer, 1994, 1995, 1998) of hr practices, suggesting that organisational performance depends on common hr practices, regardless of the industry or strategy pursued, seems to be supported by the data. focusing on the mean differences (not) detected in this study, neither the contingency perspective nor the configurational perspective on hr practices could be supported. hr practitioners would therefore not be wrong to assume that all hr practices are similarly delivered and valued (by employees) across organisational settings. the second objective of the study was to determine whether the relationship between hr practices and oc is similar in each of the three sectors. do effective hr practices coincide with higher levels of oc? it was found that there is a link between effective hr practices and oc within each of the three sectors. given the correlation between the hr practices, total score and oc, the link was the strongest for the private sector, followed by the public sector, and lastly the soes. these scores were practically significant. considering the correlation of the per hr practice scores with oc scores, all of these reach statistical significance, with 20/21 at a practically significant level. there seems to be a strong correlation between perception on hr practices and oc. however, the size of these correlations differs per sector. private sector–soes differences in correlations accord 5/7 times and, in all cases, the correlations were higher for the private sector. private sector–public sector differences occurred only 1/7 times, once again with the correlation being larger for the private sector. lastly, 2/7 differences occurred when comparing the soes with the public sector, with the correlations for the public sector being higher. the aforementioned suggests that the effects of hr practices on oc is the highest in the private sector, lower in the public sector, and the lowest in soes. this may be related to the manner in which hr practices are presented. should hr services be delivered in a transformational manner in the private sector, as a change agent, and should hr services be delivered in a transactional manner in the public sector, only supporting the administrative needs within organisations (as brown [2004] and veloso et al. [2015] imply), some of these differences in correlations could be explained. hr practitioners should take note of these findings, which imply that hr practices have different levels of efficacy and that such efficacy is sector-specific and may be related to the way services are delivered. evidence from the regression analysis showed that the total variance explained by the seven hr practices is higher for the private sector (27%), compared to the public sector (19%) and soes (16%). this finding corresponds to that of allen and meyer (1990), bal et al. (2014), bawa and jantan (2005), chughtai (2013), jeet and sayeeduzzafar (2014), meyer and allen (1997), meyer and smith (2000), momemi et al. (2012), şendoğdu et al. (2013), steyn (2012), van dyk and coetzee (2012), van straaten and dodd (2011) and zeeshan and sabir (2014). this may confirm, as ahmad and schroeder (2003) optimistically state, that oc acts as a sign that verifies whether the hr practices utilised in an organisation are able to promote psychological links between organisational and employee goals. this link may be present in transformational, rather than in transactional hr practices. limitations of the study and directions for future research the findings of the present study are not without limitations, and these should be taken into consideration in future studies of this nature. as stated earlier, part of the sampling was performed in an opportunistic manner. future researchers may benefit from the random sampling of organisations. another limitation concerns the control variables of economic conditions, government policies and the political system, none of which were included. nonetheless, they have been demonstrated as important predictors of hr practices (aladwan, bhanugopan & d’netto, 2015). the aforementioned moderators will most likely affect public sector organisations as well as soes more than private sector organisations, thus limiting their ability to act in a transformational manner. future research could include those as well as other moderating variables, which might have some effect on the relationship between hr practices and oc. lastly, the research may suggest a causal relationship between hr practices and oc, which cannot be determined by applying this design. to investigate this link, quasi-experimental or longitudinal studies are suggested to future researchers. conclusion employees’ satisfaction with the delivery of hr services across sectors may be similar, but the effects thereof differ. if applied in a seemingly transformational environment, the effects are more pronounced than when delivered in a transactional environment. human resource practitioners and managers are therefore alerted to the fact that the effectiveness of hr practices may not be a function of the services delivered, but rather whether the services are intended to be transformational or transactional. hr practitioners and managers are thus urged to act in a transformational manner in order to optimise the effects of their actions. further, by knowing the unique contribution that each of the hr practices makes towards explaining the variance in oc in the different sectors, hr practitioners within these organisations can make more informed decisions on what hr practices to offer in order to obtain certain outcomes. the results of this study contribute to the body of knowledge on hr practices and oc literature by highlighting and providing insights into sector-specific effects among south african employees. the findings of this study offer new contextual perspectives on how hr practices affect oc and could assist in reshaping hr policies and, in particular, hr implementation in south african organisations. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions r.s. was the project leader. a.g. assisted in collecting the data and data analysis. m.l.b. played a primary role in writing the literature review. references ahmad, s., & schroeder, r.g. (2003). the impact of human resource management services on operational performance: recognizing country and industry differences. journal of operations management, 21, 19–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0272-6963(02)00056-6 ahmed, i., mohammad, s.k., & islam, t. (2013). the relationship between perceived fairness in performance appraisal and organisational citizenship behaviour in the banking sector of pakistan: the mediating role of organisational commitment. international journal of management and innovation, 5(2), 75–88. aladwan, k., bhanugopan, r., & d’netto, b. (2015). the effects of human resource management services on employees’ organisational commitment. international journal of organizational analysis, 23(3), 472–492. https://doi.org.10.1108/ijoa-11-2014-0822 allen, n.j., & meyer, j.p. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organisation. journal of occupational psychology, 63, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00506.x armstrong, m. (2012). armstrong’s handbook of human resource management services. (12th edn.). london: kogan page. aryee, s., & budhwar, p. (2008). human resources management and organizational performance. in m.j.r. butler (ed.), strategic human resources: building a research-based practice (pp. 191–212). london: charted institute for personnel development. aycan, z., al-hamadi, a.b., davis, a., & budhwar, p. (2007). cultural orientations and preferences for hrm policies and services: the case for oman. international journal of human resource management, 18(1), 11–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190601068243 bal, y., bozkurt, s., & ertemsir, e. (2014, june). determining the influence of hrm services on increasing organizational commitment: an empirical research from turkey. paper presented at the human capital without border: knowledge and learning for quality of life, portorož, slovenia. bawa, m.a., & jantan, m. (2005). human resource practices as determinant of employee turnover: an empirical investigation. asian academy of management journal, 10(2), 69–80. blakenstein, h. (2014, november). hr practices to affective commitment: through active knowledge and skills. paper presented at the 4th iba bachelor thesis conference, enschede, the netherlands. brown, k. (2004). human resource management in the public sector. public management review, 6(3), 303–309. retrieved june 20, 2016, from https://yellowedge.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/brown.pdf brown, m., hyatt, d., & benson, j. (2010). consequences of the performance appraisal experience. personnel review, 39(3), 375–396. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481011030557 bryman, a.d. (2012). social research methods. (4th edn.). new york: oxford university press. caldwell, d.f., chatman, j.a., & o’reilly, c.a. (1990). building organizational commitment: a multifirm study. journal of occupational psychology, 63, 245–261. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00525.x chew, j.c.l. (2004). the influence of human resource management services on the retention of core employees of australian organization: an empirical study. unpublished doctoral dissertation, murdoch university, murdoch. chughtai, t.a. (2013). role of hr practices in turnover intentions with the mediating effect on employee engagements. wseas transactions on business and economics, 10(2), 97–103. clark, l.a., & watson, d. (1995). constructing validity: basic issues in objective scale development. psychological assessment, 7, 309–319. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.7.3.309 coetzee, m., mitonga-monga, j., & swart, b. (2014). human resource services as predictors of engineering staff’s organisational commitment. south african journal of human resource management, 12(1), art. #604, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.604 delery, j.e., & doty, d. (1996). modes of theorizing in strategic human resource management: tests of universalistic, contingency and configurational performance predictions. academy of management journal, 39(4), 802–835. https://doi.org/10.2307/256713 dusterhoff, c., cunningham, j., & mcgregor, j.n. (2014). the effects of performance rating, leader–member exchange, perceived utility, and organizational justice on performance appraisal satisfaction: applying a moral judgment perspective. journal of business ethics, 119, 265–273. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1634-1 ezirim, c.b., nwibere, b.m., & emecheta, b.c. (2012). the influence of corporate culture on organizational commitment: the nigerian experience. international journal business & public administration, 9, 155–180. ghanzanfar, f., chuanmin, s., siddique, m., & bashir, m. (2012). exploring the relationship between human resource management services and organizational commitment: empirical evidence from the banking sector in china. information management and business review, 4(9), 502–516. guest, d.e. (1997). human resource management and performance: a review and research agenda. international human resources management, 8, 263–276. https://doi.org/10.1080/095851997341630 harel, g.h., & tzafrir, s.s. (2001). hrm services in the public and private sectors: differences and similarities. pubic administration quarterly, 25(3), 316–355. hemdi, m.a. (2009). investing hotel employees’ organizational commitment: the influence of human resource management services and perceived organizational support. journal of tourism, hospitality & culinary arts, 1, 1–18. imran, a., & ahmed, m. (2012). impact of human resource services on organizational commitment: a study among service sector employees in pakistan. interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, 4(2), 81–90. jackson, s.e., schuler, r.s., & rivero, j.c. (1989). organizational characteristics as predictor of personnel practises. personnel psychology, 42, 727–786. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1989.tb00674.x jeet, v., & sayeeduzzafar, dr. (2014). a study of human resource management practices and organizational commitment in self-financed professional institutions. international journal of advance research in computer science and management studies, 2(1), 69–73. juhdi, n., pa’wan, f., hansaram, r.m., & othman, n.a. (2011). hr practices, organizational commitment and turnover intention: a study on employees in klan valley, malaysia. recent researches in applied economics, 30–36. kehoe, r.r., & wright, p.m. (2013). the impact of high-performance human resource services on employees’ attitudes and behaviours. journal of management, 39(2), 366–391. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310365901 kumar, y., & mishra, a.k. (2011). measuring human resource functions: a comparison of public sector and private sector organisations. management insight, 8(1), 1–7. kuo, y.k. (2013). organisational commitment in an intense competition environment. industrial management & data system, 113(1), 39–59. https://doi.org/10.1108/02635571311289656 kuvaas, b. (2006). work performance, affective commitment, and work motivation: the roles of pay administration and pay level. journal of organisational behavior, 27(3), 365–385. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.377 kuvaas, b. (2011). the interactive role of performance appraisal reactions and regular feedback. journal of managerial psychology, 26(2), 123–137. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683941111102164 lamba, s., & choudhary, n. (2013). impact of hrm services on organizational commitment of employees. international journal of advancements in research & technology, 2(4), 407–423. lew, t.y. (2011). affective organizational commitment and turnover intention of academics in malaysia. in proceedings of the international conference on business and economics research, 26 november 2011, kuala lumpur, malaysia. marchington, m., & grugulis, i. (2000). ‘best practice’ human resource management: perfect opportunity or dangerous illusion? the international journal of human resource management, 11(6), 1104–1124. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190050177184 marescaux, e., de winne, s., & sels, l. (2013). hr practices and hrm outcomes: the role of basic need satisfaction. personnel review, 42(21), 4–27. meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1991). a three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment. human resource management review, 1(1), 61–89. retrieved july 18, 2016, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/105348229190011z meyer, j.p., & allen, n.j. (1997). commitment in the workplace: theory, research, and application. thousand oaks, ca: sage. meyer, j.p., & smith, c.a. (2000). hrm services and organizational commitment: test of mediation model. canadian journal of administration science, 17(4), 319–331. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1936-4490.2000.tb00231.x momemi, m., marjani, a.b., & saadat, v. (2012). the relationship between organisational culture and organisational commitment in staff of general prosecutors of tehran. international journal of business & social sciences, 3(13), 217–221. mowday, r.t., porter, l.w., & steers, r.m. (1982). the measurement of organizational commitment. journal of vocational behavior, 14, 224–247. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(79)90072-1 mustapha, m., & daud, n. (2012). perceived performance appraisal effectiveness and turnover intention of knowledge workers. interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, 3(19), 157–165. nasurdin, a.m., hemdi, m.a., & guat, l.p. (2008). does perceived organizational support mediate the relationship between human resource management services and organizational commitment? asian academy of management journal, 13(1), 15–36. nivethitha, s., dyaram, l., & kamalanabhan, t.j. (2014). relationship between human resource services and employee turnover intention in hospitality industry. global journal of management and business research: an administration and management, 14(1), 35–42. nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory. (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. nyawose, m. (2009). the relationship between human resources management services, organisational commitment and turnover intentions amongst engineering professionals. unpublished master’s thesis, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. pallant, j. (2010). spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using spss for windows. (4th edn.). berkshire: open university press. palmer, l. (2006). the impact of human resource management services on employees’ commitment in the banking sector in kingston. unpublished phd thesis, nova southeastern university, proquest, jamaica. pareek, u. (2007). transformational hrm: a brief outline. retrieved june 12, 2016, from http://udaipareek.blogspot.co.za/2007/03/transformational-hr.html pfeffer, j. (1994). competitive advantage through people. boston, ma: harvard business school press. pfeffer, j. (1995). producing sustainable competitive advantage through effective management of people. academy of management executive, 9, 55–69. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.1995.9503133495 pfeffer, j. (1998). the human equation: building profits by putting people first. boston, ma: harvard business school press. porter, m. (1985). competitive advantage: creating and sustaining superior performance. new york: free press. rees, g., & smith, p.e. (2014). strategic human resource management: an international perspective. (1st edn.). london: sage publications. rosnow, r.l., & rosenthal, r. (2008). beginning behavioural research: a conceptual primer. (6th edn.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson/prentice hall. salleh, m., amin, a., muda, s., & halim, m.a.s.a. (2013). fairness of performance appraisal and organisational commitment. asian social science, 9(2), 121–128. https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v9n2p121 selvarajan, t., & cloninger, p.a. (2012). can performance appraisals motivate employees to improve performance? a mexican study. the international journal of human resource management, 23, 3063–3084. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.637069 şendoğdu, a.a., kocabacak, a., & gűven, s. (2013). the relationship between human resource management services and organizational commitment: a field study. procedia: social and behavioral sciences, 99, 818–827. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.553 shahnawaz, m.g., & juyal, r.c. (2006). human resource management services and organizational commitment in different organizations. journal of the indian academy of applied psychology, 32(3), 171–178. steyn, r. (2012). human resource services and employee attitudes: a study of individuals in ten south african companies. alternation: interdisciplinary journal for the study of the arts and humanities in southern africa, 5, 167–184. swart, b. (2009). best company services and organisation commitment: an exploratory study of an engineering company. unpublished mba dissertation, graduate school of business leadership, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa. swift, g. (2012). human resource service delivery. in s. taylor & c. woodhams (eds.), managing people and organisations (pp. 1–22). london: chartered institute of personnel & development. tiwari, p., & saxena, k. (2012). human resource management services: a comprehensive review. pakistan business review, january, 669–705. van dyk, j., & coetzee, m. (2012). retention factors in relation to organisational commitment in medical and information technology services. south african journal of human resource management, 10(2), 433–444. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v10i2.433 van straaten-theron, a., & dodd, n.m. (2011). organisational commitment in a post-merger situation. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 14(3), 333–345. vanhala, s., & stavrou, e. (2013). human resource management services and the hrm-performance link in public and private sector organizations in three western societal clusters. baltic journal of management, 8(4), 416–437. https://doi.org/10.1108/bjm-12-2012-0115 veloso, a., tzafrir, s., & enosh, g. (2015). how employees perceive hrm services: differences between public and private organizations. in c.f. machado & j.p davim (eds.), human resource management challenges and changes (pp.19–36). new york: nova publishers. wayne, s.j., shore, l.m., & linden, r.c. (1997). perceived organizational support and leader-member exchange: a social exchange perspective. academy of management journal, 40, 82–111. https://doi.org/10.2307/257021 wright, p.m., & kehoe, r.r. (2007). human resource services and organizational commitment: a deeper examination. human resource services and organizational commitment, cahrs wp07-15. accessed january 26, 2017, from http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1473&context=cahrswp wright, p.m., mcmahan, g., gerhart, b., & snell, s.a. (1997). strategic human resource management: building human capital and organizational capability. ithaca, ny: cornell university. yew, l.t. (2013, july). the influence of human resources management (hrm) services on organizational commitment and turnover intention of academics in malaysia: the organizational support perspective. paper presented at the international conference of business and information, bali, indonesia. zaitouni, m., sawalha, n.n., & el, s.a. (2011). the impact of human resource management services and organizational commitment in the banking sector in kuwait. international journal of business and management, 6(6), 108–123. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v6n6p108 zeeshan, m., & sabir, h.m. (2014). the effects of cultural dimensions and hr practices on organizational commitment: an empirically evidence from the telecom sector in pakistan. european journal of business and management, 16(23), 204–208. abstract introduction method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) rachelle visser department of human resources management, university of pretoria, south africa pieter schaap department of human resources management, university of pretoria, south africa citation visser, r., & schaap, p. (2017). job applicants’ attitudes towards cognitive ability and personality testing. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a877. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.877 original research job applicants’ attitudes towards cognitive ability and personality testing rachelle visser, pieter schaap received: 16 oct. 2016; accepted: 08 aug. 2017; published: 05 oct. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: growing research has shown that not only test validity considerations but also the test-taking attitudes of job applicants are important in the choice of selection instruments as these can contribute to test performance and the perceived fairness of the selection process. research purpose: the main purpose of this study was to determine the test-taking attitudes of a diverse group of job applicants towards personality and cognitive ability tests administered conjointly online as part of employee selection in a financial services company in south africa. motivation for the study: if users understand how job applicants view specific test types, they will know which assessments are perceived more negatively and how this situation can potentially be rectified. research design, approach and method: a non-experimental and cross-sectional survey design was used. an adapted version of the test attitude survey was used to determine job applicants’ attitudes towards tests administered online as part of an employee selection process. the sample consisted of a group of job applicants (n = 160) who were diverse in terms of ethnicity and age and the educational level applicable for sales and supervisory positions. main findings: on average, the job applicants responded equally positively to the cognitive ability and personality tests. the african job applicants had a statistically significantly more positive attitude towards the tests than the other groups, and candidates applying for the sales position viewed the cognitive ability tests significantly less positively than the personality test. practical and managerial implications: the choice of selection tests used in combination as well as the testing conditions that are applicable should be considered carefully as they are the factors that can potentially influence the test-taking motivation and general test-taking attitudes of job applicants. contribution: this study consolidated the research findings on the determinants of attitudinal responses to cognitive ability and personality testing and produced valuable empirical findings on job applicants’ attitudes towards both test types when administered conjointly. introduction the sensible application of psychological assessment tools could play an important role in the transformation of organisations, in particular organisations in post-apartheid south africa (donald, thatcher & milner, 2014). despite the finding that occupational assessment has the potential to provide valid and reliable performance predictions in an occupational setting, participants’ perceptions may still adversely impact the results (mccarthy & goffin, 2003). variables, such as individuals’ attitudes towards an assessment process, should be considered in order to come to an understanding of individual performance levels in assessments (chu, guo & leighton, 2014). many research studies support the notion that attitude has a profound impact on the performance of an individual in a wide variety of assessment tasks (schmitt, 2013; smith, 1997). gilliland and steiner (2012) have identified some broad implications of positive reactions to testing, for instance, positive reactions can impact significantly the attractiveness of a job and an organisation and result in positive intentions regarding the job offer. the assessments chosen for inclusion in a selection battery may impact the job applicants’ reactions to the selection process as a whole. in general, practitioners and users of psychometric tools agree that the use of a combination of different assessment types serves the purpose of giving the user a more objective view of candidates’ abilities and preferences (saville, nyfield, mccarthy & gibbons, 1997). numerous studies and meta-analyses have provided evidence of the validity of cognitive and personality tests as predictors of job performance. although personality tests have low validity compared with cognitive ability tests, evidence has shown that when these are used in combination, personality tests have significant incremental validity (schmitt, 2013). in addition, cognitive ability and personality tests are popular choices for inclusion in selection processes as these measures have shown remarkable validity generalisation and cost-effectiveness (gilliland & steiner, 2012). however, test takers’ attitudes and perceptions may affect the validity of selection tools (schmitt, 2013). research has shown that job applicants generally evaluate cognitive ability and personality tests as less favourable than other competing selection tools (e.g. interviews and work samples) (anderson, salgado & hüsheger, 2010). if users understand how job applicants from diverse backgrounds view specific assessments and what potential impact their views could have on performance, they could get to know which assessments are perceived more negatively and how this perception could potentially be rectified. evoking positive reactions to testing during the selection process holds promise for attracting and retaining qualified employees, in particular from underrepresented or previously disadvantaged groups (de jong & visser, 2000; donald et al., 2014; muchinsky, kriek & schreuder, 2002). research purpose the main purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of a diverse group of job applicants towards personality and cognitive ability tests administered conjointly in a supervised online test session as part of a selection process in a financial services company in south africa. a secondary purpose of the study was to determine the effect of the group’s demographics (representing the group’s diversity) on the test-taking attitudes (ta) of the group. in the following section, a background to tas will be given, followed by relevant research questions that were formulated based on relevant literature that was studied. literature review theoretical background the study of job applicants’ attitudes towards testing forms part of a broad study field known as ‘applicant reactions to tests’, which entails a multitude of different theoretical perspectives. although no single overarching theoretical framework has directed research, there has been substantial cross-referencing and integration of various models (gilliland & steiner, 2012; hüsheger & anderson, 2009). research on test-taking attitudinal and motivational components and their influence on test performance and test validity (arvey, strickland, drauden & martin, 1990; o’neill, goffin & gellatly, 2012) is one of the recognised research streams relating to applicants’ reactions to tests. test attitude can be defined as the extent to which participants in assessments demonstrate focus, effort and diligence in completing the instrument (arvey et al., 1990). different aspects of tas, such as test anxiety, motivation during tests, belief in tests, concentration and test ease during assessments, have been observed (arvey et al., 1990). a second well-known research stream that has a bearing on job applicants’ reactions to selection practices is that of organisational justice (gilliland, 1993). organisational justice includes the concepts of procedural justice, interactional justice and distributive justice, which are considered central in promoting test fairness. the research issues tackled are job relatedness, test validity, equity, equality and communication about the assessment process and results (donald et al., 2014). gilliland’s justice constructs (procedural and interactional justice) that promote test fairness have been shown to be related to test attitude constructs (e.g. motivation during tests, belief in tests) (mccarthy, hrabluik & jelley, 2009). lievens, de corte and brysse (2003) have found that the attitudinal component known as belief in tests relates significantly to overall perceptions of the fairness of cognitive ability tests and personality tests. research conducted by these authors shows that perceived job relatedness and test validity may positively influence test takers’ belief in tests, resulting in a positive attitude. according to gilliland and steiner (2012) and nikolaou, bauer and truxillo (2015), social psychological theoretical models help explain reactions to tests. these models suggest that a job applicant’s attitude towards a test may be influenced by the job applicant’s perception of the level of congruence between his or her own identity and what the organisation stands for in terms of culture, values and beliefs. where congruence exists with respect to valued justice principles, the applicant’s attitude towards selection measures may be swayed to become more positive. ployhart and harold (2004) have developed the applicant attribution-reaction theory (aart), a theory which integrates attribution theory (weiner, 1985), the selection justice model (gilliland, 1993) and the test attitude model (arvey et al., 1990). the aart suggests that blatant mismatches between situational perceptions and expectations of fair treatment act as attribution triggers, leading to increased awareness of the violation of justice rules and standards of conduct in testing situations. in terms of the aart, unfavourable testing experiences may trigger a critical attitude towards tests and possibly counter-productive behavioural reactions such as withdrawal or litigation. a fundamental assumption that applies to test attitude research is that self-interest consciously and unconsciously drives attempts to maximise the likelihood of favourable outcomes, resulting in positive or negative reactions depending on the individual’s performance and the perceived fairness of the process. testing procedures tend to be seen as more fair if they are consistent, accurate, ethical, free from bias, open to challenge and created to provide opportunity for input (gilliland, 2008). gilliland and steiner (2012, p. 633) have formulated justice rules that contribute to the perceived fairness of a selection process. these rules are job relatedness, opportunity to perform, consistence of administration, reconsideration opportunity, selection information, feedback timeliness, honesty, interpersonal effectiveness of administrator, two-way communication and propriety of questions. a detailed discussion of each of the rules in this article is not justified because of limited space; therefore, only the rules and supporting research evidence specific to standardised proctored testing of cognitive ability and personality tests will be further discussed. meta-analytical studies have demonstrated that job applicants are inclined to react only moderately favourably to cognitive ability and personality tests but more favourably to work sample and interview selection techniques (anderson et al., 2010). this represents a challenge as these two off-the-shelf tests (cognitive ability and personality tests) are popular choices for inclusion in a selection battery because of their generalised validity evidence for predicting performance with respect to many jobs and because of their relative cost-effectiveness (gilliland & steiner, 2012). furthermore, there is a notable tendency to rate personality tests less favourably than cognitive ability tests (anderson et al., 2010; hausknecht, day & thomas, 2004). therefore, understanding the determinants of negative or positive reactions towards personality and cognitive ability tests could be considered important as these reactions could influence tas in specific contexts. determinants of personality and cognitive ability test-taking attitudes the ‘opportunity to perform’ rule of gilliland and steiner (2012, p. 633), which refers to the opportunity to demonstrate the required competencies within a testing and selection context, is also applicable to cognitive and personality tests. according to hausknecht et al. (2004), opportunity to perform correlates with test-taking motivation (tm) (r = 0.32). for instance, question steering (ability to ‘fake’ a response) in personality tests may elicit positive or negative responses depending on the extent to which the applicant is able to identify the job profile requirements in the items. according to van vianen, taris, scholten and schinkel (2004), personality tests are likely to be perceived as less fair by job applicants when the responses needed to obtain a favourable test outcome is less transparent (e.g. forced-choice-item format as opposed to a likert format). job applicants react favourably to tests in which their perceived and actual performance is good, and the opposite is true if they perform badly (whitman, kraus & van rooy, 2014). positively worded warnings not to fake on tests (e.g. emphasising the advantages of responding honestly) increase test takers’ motivation, whereas negative warnings (e.g. emphasising the negative outcomes of dishonesty) increase test takers’ levels of anxiety, resulting in inaccurate responses (burns, fillipowski, morris & shoda, 2015). research has shown that anxiety has a differential impact on applicants’ cognitive test performance within a personnel selection context (proost, derous, schreurs, hagtvet & de witte, 2008). meta-analyses have shown that test performance and test anxiety are negatively related (r = -0.31), but causality is unclear. surprisingly though, lievens et al. (2003) have found that test anxiety fails to predict test fairness perceptions. however, hausknecht et al. (2004) have found test anxiety to be related to negative tas. the justice rule of ‘propriety of questions’ formulated by gilliland and steiner (2012) refers to invasive, inappropriate and biased questions that infringe an applicant’s privacy. this rule may be more of an issue in structured personality tests than in cognitive ability tests. inappropriate questioning is associated with less job relatedness and produces lower justice, validity perceptions and fairness reactions, which are likely to have an impact on the applicant’s belief in tests (bauer et al., 2006; gilliland & steiner, 2012, p. 633). perceptions of question invasiveness have shown to be strongly (and negatively) related to perceptions of fairness (gilliland, 1993). ‘providing selection information and explanations’ to job applicants forms part of information justice rules (gilliland & steiner, 2012, p. 633). this rule refers to the job relatedness of the test, the validity of the test, the procedure to be followed, the way the test will be scored and the length of time it will take, the format of the test and the expected processes and timelines for feedback (gilliland & steiner, 2012; ryan & huth, 2008). although research findings are inconsistent (lahuis, perreault & ferguson, 2003; rolland & steiner, 2007), truxillo, bodner, bertolino, bauer and yonce (2009) have found that explanations affect performance in cognitive ability tests as they have a mediating effect on the motivation of the applicants taking the test. a further finding of their study is that selection information has a stronger effect on reactions to personality tests than to cognitive ability tests because of personality tests showing less job relatedness, lower transparency and controllability on the part of the applicant. ‘the interpersonal effectiveness of the test administrator’ is another justice rule that relates to ‘the degree to which applicants are treated with warmth and respect’ (gilliland & steiner, 2012, p. 633). interpersonal effectiveness is a factor applicants cite often as one that makes selection processes as a whole fair or unfair. however, overall research findings demonstrate less consistent results relating to the influence of interpersonal effectiveness on test-taker reactions. this may especially be true in standardised testing situations where interpersonal contact may be limited because of the nature of the testing circumstances (gilliland & steiner, 2012). although no research that has explored the differential effect of interpersonal treatment on tas towards personality and cognitive tests could be identified, in a meta-analysis conducted by hausknecht et al. (2004) interpersonal treatment shows a strong average effect size (r = 0.34) towards testing attitudes in general. according to zibarras and patterson (2015, p. 333), ‘job relatedness’ is considered the procedural justice principle that has the greatest influence on overall fairness perceptions compared to any other characteristics of a selection method. steiner and gilliland (1996) argue that people implicitly judge widely used testing techniques to be valid, resulting in a favourable view of tests (belief in tests). lievens et al. (2003) indicate a significant relation between the belief in tests and the perceived scientific value of cognitive ability tests but not of personality tests. however, belief in tests shows a significantly positive relationship with job relatedness in personality tests. furthermore, reactions towards cognitive ability tests containing concrete items are more positive than are reactions towards tests containing abstract items (gilliland & steiner, 2012). the findings of studies about the effect of demographic variables on tas are generally mixed (rosse, miller & stecher, 1994). the effect of race on cognitive ability test performance is found to be mediated partially by motivation: a portion of the difference in the test performance of african and white people may be explained through differences in tm (whitman et al., 2014). de jong and visser (2000) point out that black population groups are inclined to view personality tests as less fair than do white population groups. rynes and connerly (1993) have found that demographic variables are unrelated to job applicants’ attitudes. similarly, hausknecht et al. (2004) in their meta-analytical study have found no significant relationship between applicants’ perceptions of tests and personal characteristics, age, gender and ethnic background. to date, studies have found that test takers’ attitudinal reactions to a wide range of web-based administered tests are overwhelmingly positive. online testing is no longer a novelty and many people are frequently exposed to tests on internet portals in academic and employment settings (anderson, 2003; reynolds & lin, 2003; wiechmann & ryan, 2003). this includes the online administration of personality and cognitive ability tests (baron & austin, 2000; reynolds, sinar & mcclough, 2000). konradt, warszta and ellwart (2013) point out that gilliland’s (1993) organisational justice rules for promoting positive job applicant reactions apply equally to online testing platforms. the key factors that influence job applicants’ reactions to online testing are perceived to be efficiency and user-friendliness (e.g. system usability and speed), provision of information (e.g. tutorials and clear instructions), perceived process fairness (e.g. clarity about selection criteria) and the company’s technological image on the internet (i.e. job applicants’ image of companies that use modern and progressive online testing systems for selection purposes). to summarise, the theory suggests that job applicants’ attitude (e.g. test anxiety, motivation during tests and belief in tests) towards cognitive ability and personality tests will most likely be affected by the perceived opportunity that the tests provide for optimal performance (zibarras & patterson, 2015), interpersonal effectiveness during testing (schleicher, venkataramani, morgeson & campion, 2006), explanations and selection information provided (truxillo et al., 2009), question invasiveness (nikolaou et al., 2015) and the efficiency and user-friendliness of an online test administration platform (konradt et al., 2013). the favourability of testing situations may trigger a positive or negative attitude (according to attribution theory) towards tests, supported by the perceived congruence (according to social psychological models) between the applicants’ self-identity and the company’s culture and values. although research evidence generally points to a difference in job applicants’ favourability rating of cognitive ability and personality tests, research carried out by rosse et al. (1994) suggests that measures from the same category (e.g. psychological tests) applied conjointly may compensate for each other in terms of perceived relevance and fairness, resulting in job applicants reacting similarly to these measures (rosse et al., 1994). in line with the findings of previous studies, it is argued that the experience of tests of a demographically diverse group of job applicants should affect tm and general tas similarly irrespective of group membership. however, research findings to support this notion have been inconsistent. the specific research questions that this study intends to answer with regard to personality and cognitive ability tests administered online under supervision as part of the relevant financial services company’s selection process are the following: question 1: what are the job applicants’ attitudinal responses to supervised online personality and cognitive ability tests administered conjointly? question 2: are there significant differences in job applicants’ attitudinal responses to supervised online personality and cognitive ability tests administered conjointly? question 3: do demographical differences (e.g. ethnic origin, gender, educational level and position applied for) relate to job applicants’ attitudinal responses to supervised online personality and cognitive ability tests administered conjointly? question 4: do demographical differences (e.g. ethnic origin, gender, educational level and position applied for) relate to significant differences in job applicants’ attitudinal responses to supervised online personality and cognitive ability tests administered conjointly? the main purpose of the research was to determine the test-taking attitudinal responses of a demographically diverse sample of job applicants to personality and cognitive ability tests administered conjointly online under supervision and whether there are differences in test-taking attitudinal responses with respect to the type of test and the demographical subgroupings. method research approach a non-experimental and cross-sectional quantitative survey research design was used in this study. more specifically, a descriptive and associational research approach was taken for the purposes of addressing the research questions (gliner, morgan & leech, 2009). the research questions can be considered explorative in nature and current research to support clear directional hypotheses on the association between variables is lacking (gliner et al., 2009). participants the initial sample, which was a non-probability convenience sample, consisted of 175 respondents. however, after the exclusion of incomplete data, the data of 160 respondents were retained. the final sample consisted of 68 (42%) males, 91 (57%) females and one person of unspecified gender. equity was achieved in terms of racial distribution by including 116 (73%) african respondents, 22 (13%) respondents of mixed race, 12 (8%) white respondents and 7 (4%) indian respondents. the races of three participants were not specified. in respect of respondents’ highest educational qualifications, the data indicated that 56 (35%) respondents had completed grade 12, 43 (27%) had post-matric certificates, 52 (31%) had degrees, 8 (6%) had postgraduate qualifications and that the qualification of one person was not specified. age distribution data showed that 80 (50%) people were younger than 30, 75 (47%) were older than 30, whereas the age of six respondents was not specified. the distribution according to position occupied was as follows: 118 (74%) were sales consultants, 26 (16%) were team leaders and 16 (9%) were branch managers. measuring instrument in this study, a shorter and adapted version (20 items) of the test attitude survey (tas) by smith (1997) was used as limited time was available to gather information on tas during the proctored testing session. the original version (45 items) of the tas was developed by arvey et al. in 1990, which was specifically designed to assess job applicants’ motivational and attitudinal dispositions towards standardised tests in selection contexts (chu et al., 2014). as in the case of the original tas, the current survey utilised a five-point likert-type rating scale that ranged from 1 – strongly disagree to 5 – strongly agree (arvey et al., 1990). the areas included in the final survey distributed to the candidates of the current survey were based on smith’s adapted version of the tas (smith, 1997), namely: motivation (five items, e.g. doing well on the test[s] was important to me) lack of concentration (three items, e.g. i was bored while taking the test[s]) belief in tests (four items, e.g. the test[s] is[are] probably a good way of selecting people for jobs) comparative anxiety (five items, e.g. i felt nervous when taking the test[s]) external attribution (one item, i was ill or in a bad mood when i took the test[s]) future effects (two items, e.g. the way i answered the test[s] should help me). procedure the study utilised secondary data obtained from a talent managment and assessment solutions organisation collected in the form of a tas following the completion of supervised online cognitive ability and personality assessments. the assessments in this study were conducted for the purpose of selecting employees to occupy different positions at a south africa-based financial services organisation. the complexity levels of the cognitive tests were different for different positions, but the types of assessment (verbal and numerical cognitive ability tests and a forced-choice-item–type personality questionnaire) were the same for all three positions. the process followed was highly structured and the justice rules for conditions conducive to selection and favourable test practices (gilliland & steiner, 2012, p. 633) were taken into due consideration. individuals who had applied for the positions at the organisation were personally contacted and invited to be participants in the online assessment stage. the online assessments were determined through a job profiling process to ensure job relatedness. the participants were given detailed information about the process to be followed on assessment day, the venue where assessments would be completed and what would be expected of participants. for the data collection process, trained test administrators gave participants a standardised verbal set of instructions related to the purpose of the assessments (for selection), the types of assessment to be completed for relevant positions as well as the reason for inclusion (how the assessments provided job-related information). in addition to the verbal instructions, the online assessments included detailed written instructions as well as a test tutorial that outlined the benefit of honest responses in the personality test. participants were informed that feedback on the outcome of their assessment phase would be provided within a week of completing the assessments. the same process was followed for the completion of the survey. a verbal explanation was given of the purpose of the survey (to research participants’ attitudes), written instructions were given for the completion of the survey, and participants’ informed consent was obtained. data analyses the data analysis in this study was performed using the ibm statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 23. descriptive statistics, which included frequency analyses of ethnicity, age, qualification and job roles, as well as variable descriptive statistics were provided. confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) techniques for determining model fit were untenable in this study as only 160 candidates completed the tas with respect to the cognitive ability and personality tests. a larger sample size was required to avoid inadequate model specification and to provide sufficient statistical power for the number of free parameters (40) that needed to be estimated (kline, 2011). in some cases, the scales contained too few items (some consisting of only two) and consequently these scales did not reflect acceptable reliability scores. therefore, exploratory factor analysis (efa) using principal axis factoring (paf) was applied to determine a more appropriate factor structure for the tas that would appropriately represent the data. for further analyses of the tas variables and the demographical subgroups, the analysis of variance (anova) test, t-test, wilcoxon’s z-statistic and the kruskal–wallis test were used for the purposes of this study. ethical considerations this study is based on a master’s dissertation by the first author, which was approved by the ethics committee of the department of human resources management in the faculty of economic and management sciences at the university of pretoria. permission to conduct this study was obtained from the talent management and assessment solutions organisation and the financial institution in question. participants completed an informed consent form online prior to participating in the survey. they also gave their informed consent that the survey data could be used for research and noted that participation was voluntary and anonymity was assured. results the kaiser–meyer–olkin measure of sampling adequacy (kmo) and bartlett’s test of sphericity were used to determine the sample adequacy of the efa to yield distinct and reliable factors (field, 2009), both measures indicating the suitability of the data for use in factor analyses. the bartlett’s test of sphericity was highly significant (p < 0.001) and the kmo measures exceeded 0.85 for the use of the tas with respect to both the cognitive ability and personality tests. scree plots and horn’s parallel analysis were used to determine the number of significant factors to be retained (field, 2009). as indicated in figure 1, only two factors could be considered significant based on the 95% confidence interval of the inflexion point of the raw and random data’s eigenvalues. figure 1: scree plot and horn’s parallel test for number of significant factors to be retained on the test attitude survey – an adapted version of the measure. three items were excluded that did not load significantly on any of the factors; therefore, the final version of the adapted tas consisted of 17 items. in table 1, the percentage variance that can be accounted for by each of the factors is presented. the total variability across both the factors was 43.96% for the cognitive ability tests and 51.81% for the personality test. table 1: total variance of extracted factors explained for the test attitude survey – an adapted version of the measure. table 2 presents the pattern matrix based on oblique rotation that contains item loadings that represent unique contributions to specific factors (field, 2009). oblique rotation is an appropriate rotation method if factors correlate. the factors were identified as tm (factor 1) and general test attitude (ta) (factor 2). table 2: rotated factor pattern matrix and congruence coefficients for the test attitude survey – an adapted version of the measure. tucker’s congruence coefficient after targeted rotation was calculated to compare the pattern matrix of the tas for the cognitive ability and personality tests (van de vijver & leung, 1997). values higher than 0.95 imply that the pattern matrices can be considered equivalent. the tas showed factorial equivalence, which is considered important to make valid comparisons on the tas for the respective tests. the correlation between the rotated factors was low, which represented differential validity. the correlations found were -0.261 for personality assessments and -0.234 for cognitive ability assessments. factor 1 accounted for the most variance in the overall scale and can be described as the attitudinal response of motivation (tm) related to the testing experience. tm factors relating to individuals’ responses included the following: feeling that performing well in the assessment was important, doing well in the assessment was possible and trying one’s best was important. factor 1 also included individuals’ applying high levels of concentration in doing the assessment, expecting to do well in the assessment and caring about the outcome of the assessment. it should be noted that in the original version of the tas (arvey et al., 1990) the motivation dimension also accounted for the most variance in the overall scale. factor 2 represented the attitudinal response towards the tests in general (ta), which included the following: general feelings towards the content of questions and the manifestation of nervousness during testing, levels of apathy, dissatisfaction or satisfaction with the testing experience. the second factor also included belief that the assessments reflected a person’s ability to perform in an occupational setting, perceived fairness of the assessment and if such measurement tools should be used or not for selection purposes. the reliability (cronbach’s alpha) of the tas scales was generally of an acceptable standard (see table 3), with reliabilities that far exceeded the coefficient of 0.60 or above that can be utilised for group comparisons (field, 2009; owen & taljaard, 1996). table 3: descriptive and wilcoxon’s statistics of the test attitude survey – an adapted version of the measure. the skewness and kurtosis coefficients reported for the tm scale represented non-normal distributions with respect to both the cognitive ability and personality tests (skewness and kurtosis between -2 and +2 are considered acceptable for proving normal univariate distribution) (george & mallery, 2010). consequently, the shapiro–wilk test was performed to test the normality assumption statistically and it was rejected (p < 0.00). the score distributions appeared to be the same for both applications of the measure. for this reason, the non-parametric alternative for the dependent t-test (called the wilcoxon signed-rank test) was used to determine the statistical difference between scale scores (field, 2009). however, the ta scale scores were normally distributed according to the shapiro–wilk test and the dependent t-test was applied. the statistical results are further reported as per research question that was formulated earlier in the article. question 1: what are the job applicants’ attitudinal responses to supervised online personality and cognitive ability tests administered conjointly? when considering the means of the tas items presented in table 3, it can be seen that for both the cognitive ability and personality assessments for the tm items showed a high mean score of 4.16 and 4.21, respectively (high mean scores representing a positive ta). with regard to the item means for the ta scale, indications were that both tests were experienced dominantly positively, with item means at 3.48 and 3.53 for both the tests. question 2: are there significant differences in job applicants’ attitudinal responses to supervised online personality and cognitive ability tests administered conjointly? the wilcoxon’s z-statistic and the t-test results presented in table 3 showed insignificant differences between the tas scores for each of the test types (cognitive ability and personality) with respect to which comparisons were made [tm: z(160) = 1.29, p = 0.20; ta: t(160) = 1.77, p = 0.08]. question 3: do demographical differences (e.g. ethnic origin, gender, educational level and position applied for) relate to job applicants’ attitudinal responses to supervised online personality and cognitive ability tests administered conjointly? the demographic data from this study showed a significant deviation from the assumptions required for performing parametric-based statistical analysis techniques such as the anova test (field, 2009). the kruskal–wallis test is a non-parametric version of the one-way anova test and can be used when normality assumptions are violated and when cell sizes are small (n < 40) and differences in cell sizes are large. the kruskal–wallis test (chi-square statistic) was used to compare the total ranks between the demographic groups with respect to each of the tas scales in this study. with respect to each individual subscale, the chi-square statistics showed that age did not have a significant effect on any of the tas subscale scores for the cognitive ability tests [tm = χ2(1,160) = 1.44, p = 0.23; ta = χ2(1,160) = 2.9, p = 0.09] and the personality test [tm = χ2(1,160) = 0.44, p = 0.51; ta = χ2(1,160) = 3.17, p = 0.08]. educational level did not have a significant effect on the tas subscale scores for the cognitive ability tests [tm = χ2(1,n=160) = 5.43, p = 0.07; ta = χ2(1,160) = 3.34, p = 0.19] and the personality test [tm = χ2(1,160) = 2.72, p = 0.51; ta = χ2(1,160) = 1.52, p = 0.47] nor did the position applied for have a significant effect on the tas subscale scores for the cognitive ability tests [tm= χ2(1,160) = 0,17, p = 0.68; ta = χ2(1,160) = 0.12, p = 0.72] and the personality test [tm = χ2(1,160) = 0.5, p = 0.82; ta = χ2(1,160) = 0.39, p = 0.53]. with respect to ethnic groups, the african group differed statistically significantly on all the tas scales when compared to the composite of the remaining groups (mixed race, indian and white). the kruskal–wallis test showed that the remaining groups’ tas scores did not differ significantly from each other with respect to both tests (p-values between 0.56 and 0.87) and, therefore, justified the grouping formed to increase the power of the comparative statistics between the composite group (n = 40) and the african group (n = 116). the african group appeared to be significantly more motivated than the rest of the group with respect to completing both the cognitive ability test [tm = χ2(1,160) = 5,63, p = 0.02] and the personality test [tm = χ2(1,n=160) = 5.75, p = 0.016] and had a significantly more positive general attitude towards both the cognitive ability test [ta = χ2(1,160) = 7.16, p = 0.007] and the personality test [ta = χ2(1,160) = 7.73, p = 0.005]. question 4: do demographical differences (e.g. ethnic origin, gender, educational level and position applied for) relate to significant differences in job applicants’ attitudinal responses to supervised online personality and cognitive ability tests administered conjointly? the chi-square statistics showed that, with respect to the cognitive ability and personality tests, age did not significantly affect score differences on the two tas subscales, namely, tm [χ2(1,160) = 3.52, p = 0.07] and ta [χ2(1,160) = 0.575, p = 0.51]. similarly, the chi-square statistics showed that, with respect to the cognitive ability and personality tests, educational level did not significantly affect score differences on the two tas subscales [tm = χ2(2,160) = 1.80, p = 0.40; ta = χ2(2,160) = 2.895, p = 0.206]. furthermore, the chi-square statistics showed that, with respect to the cognitive ability and personality tests, ethnicity did not significantly affect score differences on the two tas subscales [tm = χ2(1,160) = 0.21, p = 0.65; ta = χ2 (1,160) = 2.863, p = 0.09]. however, the chi-square statistics showed that, with respect to the cognitive ability and personality tests, the factor ‘position applied for’ had a non-significant effect on score differences on the tm subscale [χ2(1,160) = 0.84, p = 0.36] but a significant effect on the ta subscale [χ2(1,160) =.4.759, p = 0.03]. the applicants for the leadership positions (team leaders and branch managers) reacted statistically significantly more positively towards the cognitive ability test than towards the personality test, when compared to the applicants for sales positions. discussion outline of the results the main purpose of the research was to determine the test-taking attitudinal responses of a diverse sample of job applicants towards a personality test and cognitive ability test administered conjointly in a supervised online test session. the job applicants showed attitudinal responses that were generally positive towards both the cognitive ability and personality tests that were used in a selection drive by a financial services company. on average, the respondents reacted positively towards both the measures in terms of tm and general ta. this is a promising finding as personality and cognitive ability tests are popular choices for inclusion in test batteries because of their generalisability of validity evidence and cost-effectiveness (gilliland & steiner, 2012). the research found that the sample group did not respond significantly different to the cognitive ability test and the personality test used conjointly in the selection process. these results support the findings of rosse et al. (1994) that the compartmentalisation of selection practices (e.g. interview, references checks, psychological tests and work sample tests) does not occur as readily within categories (e.g. psychological tests) and that tests may compensate for each other in terms of perceived relevancy and fairness, resulting in job applicants forming a heuristic evaluation of the test battery. as hausknecht et al. (2004) have pointed out, the positive evaluation of a test battery and the forming of positive tas and belief in tests appear to be mostly situated in procedural justice perceptions of job relatedness, face validity and perceived predictive validity of tests. the tests used in this study had been carefully aligned to the requirements of the relevant jobs using job profiling processes to ensure job relatedness and high face validity. in the literature, a variety of additional factors that influence tm and attitudes towards tests are identified and these include interpersonal treatment during testing (schleicher et al., 2006), explanations and selection information (truxillo et al., 2009), test format, question steering (ability to fake) and question invasiveness (nikolaou et al., 2015). the tas of the job applicants in this study may have been positively influenced as care was taken before and during the administration of the tests to adhere to gilliland and steiner’s (2012, p. 633) version of justice rules for enhancing the perceived fairness of the selection process. with reference to the invasion of privacy theory of bauer et al. (2006), the issue of invasiveness or propriety of questions may be more of an issue in personality tests than in cognitive ability tests and may be more salient and only important when blatantly violated (gilliland, 2008). in terms of the aart of ployhart and harold (2004), favourable testing conditions (selection procedure justice) may counteract the attribution trigger, resulting in a critical stance towards individual tests. the forced-choice-item format of the personality test used in this study had the potential of eliciting negative responses as the perceived influence over the outcome of the assessment was reduced (van vianen et al., 2004). however, it appears that this may not have differentially skewed tas in favour of the cognitive ability tests because of the compensatory effects of using the tests in combination (rosse et al., 1994). cognitive ability tests generally elicit more positive responses from job applicants because of the perceived scientific validity of these tests (lievens et al., 2003) and the use of concrete test items instead of abstract test items (as was the case in this study) (gilliland & steiner, 2012). the three-option forced-choice-item format of the personality test that was applied in this study can be considered less laborious and cognitively challenging than a four-option format as far as making choices is concerned, leading to less anxiety and a more positive experience of the testing process (vasilopoulos, cucina, dyomina, morewitz & reilly, 2006). the research finding of hausknecht et al. (2004) that applicants’ perceptions of tests are not related to their personal characteristics (i.e. age, gender and ethnic background) is confirmed in this study with respect to all the demographical variables except ethnic group and job type. the finding of statistically significant higher tm and positive ta of the african group compared to the other ethnic groups refutes earlier findings of negative perceptions held by black groups in south africa and abroad (de jong & visser, 2000; foxcroft & roodt, 2013; whitman et al., 2014). the general drive of companies towards the restitution of previously disadvantaged groups and the use of tests that do not unfairly exclude any group, which are principles stipulated in the employment equity act (republic of south africa, 2013), may have raised the employment expectations of the african group and resulted in a higher tm and more positive ta. this proposition is supported by social identity theoretical perspectives suggesting that a job applicant’s social identity matches a perceived organisational identity (such as culture, values and beliefs), leading to a positive expectation of the selection outcome, which is associated with high tm and a positive ta (gilliland & steiner, 2012; nikolaou et al., 2015). compared to the job applicants applying for leadership positions, job applicants applying for the sales positions had a statistically significant more negative attitude towards the cognitive ability test than towards the personality test. the reason for this difference is not clear and needs further investigation. however, it may be argued that the more negative ta of sales position applicants may be attributable to self-serving bias formed by a negative perception of perceived performance in a test that they may have experienced as difficult (whitman et al., 2014). job applicants generally view personality tests as more controllable than cognitive ability tests, which may contribute to self-serving bias manifesting as a negative ta towards a cognitive ability test that is perceived as particularly difficult and consequently less valid (van vianen et al., 2004). steiner and gilliland (1996) argue that people judge implicitly that widely used testing techniques must be valid, resulting in a favourable view of tests (belief in tests). so far, almost universally positive applicant reactions have been reported for internet-based testing batteries, which in all likelihood has had an equally positive influence on tm and attitudes, also with respect to the motivation and attitudes of this study’s job applicants as regards the personality and cognitive ability tests they completed (anderson, 2003; mead, 2001; sylva & mol, 2009). practical implication the findings of this study hold promise for the continued use of the relevant instruments in the financial services company because positive tas have been found to relate to perceived or actual performance and the perceived fairness of the testing process, which in turn promotes positive attitudes towards the selection process and the company in general (burns et al., 2015; schmitt, 2013). furthermore, the way job applicants perceive the instruments a company uses for selection purposes is advantageous for business in that it plays an important role in attracting and retaining workers from different ethnic groups, influences societal perceptions of the company’s commitment to fair selection practice and reduces the likelihood of legal action instituted by unsuccessful applicants (gilliland & steiner, 2012; hausknecht et al., 2004). therefore, investing resources in ensuring that the choice of tests and the testing conditions meet the selection justice rules for perceived fairness of the selection process (gilliland & steiner, 2012, p. 633) may be considered a good investment that will benefit the company and broader society. limitations and future directions the most important limitations of the study were the relatively small convenience sample and the context-specific nature of the study as these have an impact on the generalisability of the findings to the broader population and other testing contexts. the design of the study was non-experimental; therefore, the impact of different test conditions resulting in differences in job applicants’ tm and attitudinal reactions towards cognitive ability and personality tests were not determined. such controls would, however, pose ethical and legal challenges in field studies as job applicants have a right to prescribed best practice testing conditions in terms of the constitution of south africa and this right is guarded by law and enforced by the health professions council of south africa (foxcroft & roodt, 2013). it is proposed that future studies should focus on experimental research designs and simulations allowing for the systematic control of the effect of testing conditions using subjects who participate on a voluntary basis under mock testing conditions. conclusion research on how job applicants perceive and respond to tests has gained exponential popularity in recent years as practitioners have come to realise the importance of eliciting positive applicant reactions towards selection processes. research has shown that the choice of tests for a selection process and the test conditions that apply during the administration of the tests may influence the tas and motivational reactions adopted by the job applicants. this study produced evidence that a diverse group of job applicants applying for positions in a south african financial services company showed the same level of positive attitudinal and motivational responses towards personality and cognitive ability selection tests used conjointly in a selection battery. this finding supports the further use of the instruments in the relevant company provided that the psychometric properties of the specified measures have been shown to be acceptable for selection purposes in the company. acknowledgements this work is based on the research supported in part by the national research foundation of south africa (grant number 103796). competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions r.v. conceptualised the study, did the initial literature review, planned and executed the empirical survey, did the initial statistical analyses and presented the findings as part of a master’s degree study under supervision of the second author. r.v. also reviewed and adjusted the final draft of the article. p.s. wrote the article for publication, refined the literature review, refined the methodology and statistical analyses and presented the findings from the study. references anderson, n. (2003). applicant and recruiter reactions to new technology in selection: a critical review and agenda for future research. international journal of selection and assessment, 11(2–3), 121–136. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00235 anderson, n., salgado, j.f., & hüsheger, u.r. (2010). applicant reactions in selection: comprehensive meta-analysis into reaction generalization versus situational specificity. international journal of selection and assessment, 18(3), 291–304. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2389.2010.00512.x arvey, r.d., strickland, w., drauden, g., & martin, c. (1990). motivational components of test taking. personnel psychology, 43(4), 695–716. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1990.tb00679.x baron, h., & austin, j. (2000, april). measuring ability via the internet: opportunities and issues. paper presented at the 15th annual conference of the society for industrial and organizational psychology, new orleans, la. bauer, t.n., truxillo, d.t., tucker, j.s., weathers, v., bertolino, m., erdogan, b., et al. (2006). selection in the information age: the role of personal information privacy concerns and computer use in understanding applicant reactions. journal of management, 32, 601–621. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206306289829 burns, g.n., fillipowski, j.n., morris, m.b., & shoda, e.a. (2015). impact of electronic warnings on online personality scores and test-taker reactions in an applicant simulation. computers in human behavior, 48(february), 163–172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.01.051 chu, m.-w., guo, q., & leighton, j.p. (2014). students’ interpersonal trust and attitudes towards standardised tests: exploring affective variables related to student assessment. assessment in education: principles, policy and practice, 21(2), 167–192. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969594x.2013.844094 de jong, a., & visser, d. (2000). organisational justice rules as determinants of black and white employees’ fairness perceptions of personnel selection techniques. south african journal of industrial psychology, 26(1), 29–38. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v26i1.696 donald, f., thatcher, a., & milner, k. (2014). psychological assessment for redress in south african organisations: is it just? south african journal of psychology, 44(3), 333–349. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246314535685 field, a. (2009). discovering statistics using spss. london: sage. foxcroft, c., & roodt, g. (2013). an introduction to psychological assessment in the south african context. (2nd edn.). oxford, uk: oxford university press. george, d., & mallery, m. (2010). spss for windows step by step: a simple guide and reference. (17.0 update). (10th ed.). boston, ma: pearson. gilliland, s. (2008). the tails of justice: a critical examination of the dimensionality of organizational justice constructs. human resource management review, 18, 271–281. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2008.08.001 gilliland, s.w. (1993). the perceived fairness of selection systems: an organizational justice perspective. academy of management review, 18(4), 694–734, 20, 36–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2389.2012.00578 gilliland, s.w., & steiner, d.d. (2012). applicant reactions to testing and selection. in n. schmitt (ed.), the oxford handbook of personnel assessment and selection (pp. 629–666). new york: oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199732579.013.0028 gliner, j.a., morgan, g.a., & leech, n.l. (2009). research methods in applied settings: an integrated approach to design and analysis. (2nd edn.). new york: routledge taylor & francis group. hausknecht, j.p., day, d.v., & thomas, s.c. (2004). applicant reactions to selection procedures : an updated model and meta-analysis. personnel psychology, 20(3), 639–683. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2004.00003.x hüsheger, u.r., & anderson, n. (2009). applicant perspectives in selection: going beyond preference reactions. international journal of selection and assessment, 17(4), 335–345. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2389.2009.00477.x kline, r.b. (2011). principles and practice of structural equation modelling. (3rd edn.). new york, ny: guilford press. konradt, u., warszta, t., & ellwart, t. (2013). fairness perceptions in web-based selection: impact on applicants’ pursuit intentions, recommendation intentions, and intentions to reapply. international journal of selection and assessment, 21(2), 155–169. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsa.12026 lahuis, d.m., perreault, n.e., & ferguson, m.w. (2003). the effect of legitimizing explanations on applicants’ perceptions of selection assessment fairness. journal of applied social psychology, 33(10), 2198–2215. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2003.tb01881.x lievens, f., de corte, w., & brysse, k. (2003). applicant perceptions of selection procedures : the role of selection information, belief in tests, and comparative anxiety. international journal of psychology, 11(1), 65–75. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00227 mccarthy, j., hrabluik, c., & jelley, r.b. (2009). progression through the ranks: assessing employee reactions to high-stakes employment testing. personnel psychology, 62(4), 793–832. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2009.01158.x mccarthy, j.m., & goffin, r.d. (2003). is the test attitude survey psychometrically sound? educational and psychological measurement, 63(3), 446–464. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164402251038 mead, a.d. (2001, april). how well does web-based testing work? results of a survey of users of netassess. in f.l. oswald (chair) (eds.), computers = good? how test-user and test-taker perceptions affect technology-based employment testing. symposium conducted at the 16th annual conference of the society for industrial and organizational psychology, san diego, ca. muchinsky, p., kriek, h., & schreuder, a. (2002). personnel psychology. (2nd edn.). cape town, south africa: oxford university press. nikolaou, i., bauer, t.n., & truxillo, d.m. (2015). applicant reactions to selection methods: an overview of recent research and suggestions for the future. in i. nikolaou & j.k. oostrom (eds.), employee recruitment, selection, and assessment: contemporary issues for theory and practice (current issues in work and organizational psychology) (pp. 80–96). new york: psychology press. o’neill, t., goffin, r.d., & gellatly, i.r. (2012). the knowledge, skill, and ability requirements for teamwork: revisiting the teamwork-ksa test’s validity. international journal of selection and assessment, 20, 36–52. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2389.2012.00578.x owen, k., & taljaard, j. (1996). handbook for the use of psychological and scholastic tests of the hsrc. pretoria: human sciences research council. ployhart, r.e., & harold, c.m. (2004) the applicant attributionreaction theory (aart): an integrative theory of applicant attributional processing. international journal of selection and assessment, 12, 84–98. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0965-075x.2004.00266.x proost, k., derous, e., schreurs, b., hagtvet, k.a., & de witte, k. (2008). selection test anxiety: investigating applicants’ selfvs other-referenced anxiety in a real selection setting. international journal of selection and assessment, 16(1), 14–26. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2389.2008.00405.x republic of south africa. (2013). employment equity amendment act, no. 47 of 2013. government gazette. (vol. 583, no. 37238 of january 16, 2014). pretoria: government printers. reynolds, d.h., & lin, l.f. (2003, april). an unfair problem? subgroup reactions to internet selection techniques. paper presented at the annual conference of the society for industrial and organizational psychology, orlando, fl. reynolds, d.h., sinar, e.f., & mcclough, a.c. (2000, april). evaluation of an internet-based selection procedure. in n.j. mondragon (chair) (eds.), beyond the demo: the empirical nature of technology-based assessments. symposium conducted at the 15th annual conference of the society for industrial and organizational psychology, new orleans, la. rolland, f., & steiner, d.d. (2007). test-taker reactions to the selection process: effects of outcome favorability, explanations, and voice on fairness perceptions. journal of applied social psychology, 37(12), 2800–2826. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2007.00282.x rosse, j.g., miller, j.l., & stecher, m.d. (1994). a field study of job applicants’ reactions to personality and cognitive ability testing. journal of applied psychology, 79(6), 987–992. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.79.6.987 ryan, a.m., & huth, m. (2008). not much more than platitudes? a critical look at the utility of applicant reactions research. human resource management review, 18(3), 119–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2008.07.004 rynes, s.l., & connerly, m.l. (1993). applicant reactions to alternative selection procedures. journal of business and psychology, 7, 261–277. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01015754 saville, p., nyfield, g., mccarthy, t., & gibbons, g. (1997). occupational testing course notes. thames ditton, surrey: shl group. schleicher, d.j., venkataramani, v., morgeson, f.p., & campion, m.a. (2006). so you didn’t get the job … now what do you think? examining opportunity-to-perform fairness perceptions. personnel psychology, 59, 559–590. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2006.00047.x schmitt, n. (2013). personality and cognitive ability as predictors of effective performance at work. annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behavior, 1(1), 45–65. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091255 smith, j.a. (1997). an examination of test-taking attitudes and response distortion on a personality test. unpublished doctoral thesis, blacksburg, virginia: virginia state university. steiner, d.d., & gilliland, s.w. (1996). fairness reactions to personnel selection techniques in france and the united states. journal of applied psychology, 81, 134–141. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.81.2.134 sylva, h., & mol, s.t. (2009). e-recruitment: a study into applicant perceptions of an online application system. international journal of selection and assessment, 17(3), 311–323. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2389.2009.00473.x truxillo, d.m., bodner, t.e., bertolino, m., bauer, t.n., & yonce, c.a. (2009). effects of explanations on applicant reactions: a meta-analytic review. international journal of selection and assessment, 17(4), 346–361. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2389.2009.00478.x van de vijver, f.j.r., & leung, k. (1997). methods and data analysis for cross-cultural research. newbury park, ca: sage. van vianen, a.e.m., taris, r., scholten, e., & schinkel, s. (2004). perceived fairness in personnel selection: determinants and outcomes in different stages of the assessment procedure. international journal of selection and assessment, 12(1/2), 149–159. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0965-075x.2004.00270.x vasilopoulos, n.l., cucina, j.m., dyomina, n.v., morewitz, c.l., & reilly, r.r. (2006). forced-choice personality tests: a measure of personality and cognitive ability? human performance, 19(3), 175–199. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327043hup1903_1 weiner, b. (1985). an attribution theory of achievement motivation and emotion. psychological review, 92, 548–573. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.92.4.548 whitman, d.s., kraus, e., & van rooy, d.l. (2014). emotional intelligence among black and white job applicants: examining differences in test performance and test reactions. international journal of selection and assessment, 22(2), 199–210. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsa.12069 wiechmann, d., & ryan, a.m. (2003). reactions to computerized testing in selection contexts. international journal of selection and assessment, 11(2–3), 215–229. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2389.00245 zibarras, l.d., & patterson, f. (2015). the role of job relatedness and self-efficacy in applicant perceptions of fairness in a high-stakes selection setting. international journal of selection and assessment, 23(4), 332–344. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsa.12118 abstract introduction research methodology findings discussion of the findings acknowledgements references footnotes about the author(s) j. veli mazibuko department of business administration and management, regenesys business school, south africa krishna k. govender school of management, it and governance, university of kwazulu-natal, south africa citation mazibuko, j.v., & govender, k.k. (2017). exploring workplace diversity and organisational effectiveness: a south african exploratory case study. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a865. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.865 original research exploring workplace diversity and organisational effectiveness: a south african exploratory case study j. veli mazibuko, krishna k. govender received: 16 sept. 2016; accepted: 12 sept. 2017; published: 23 nov. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: transformation and managing diversity are organisational imperatives, especially in south africa. thus, it is important for international companies with major operations in south africa (sa) to embrace the benefits of managing a divergent workforce and translate this for organisational benefits. research purpose: the article explores the perceptions of management and staff on diversity and its value to the organisation, by empirically evaluating the relationship with organisational effectiveness and performance through the development and testing of five hypotheses. motivation for the study: legislation has made it mandatory for transformation of the south african workplace and ensuring that diversity is embraced. however, not all companies have fully understood the benefits of recruiting and managing diverse teams for the benefit of the organisation. research approach, design and method: both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used, whereby a survey was conducted among 227 employees using the towers watson employment employee insight survey (eis). inferential statistical techniques were used to test relationships among related variables postulated through five hypotheses. main findings: it was ascertained that understanding and managing diversity has played a pivotal role in the (research) organisation’s performance and effectiveness over the past 5 years. more specifically, diversity management created room for appreciation, innovation and creativity that gave the organisations an edge to tackle diverse markets. practical/managerial applications: south africa has a diverse population, and when individuals join an organisation, they bring a unique set of characteristics referred to as personalities, which, through the socialisation process, get assimilated into teams’ norms and values, and the culture of the organisation. managing diversity in the workplace is part of employee retention and attraction, with the intention to energise workplace productivity, thus increasing the organisation’s competitive edge. contributions or value add: the positive impact engendered by diverse recruitment and retention is also supported by employee engagement, which presupposes employee ownership of change, by making it happen, and it is driven by employees that offer solutions to problems, by helping one another and who are proud of being part of the organisation. its impact in the bigger scheme of events is to drive business performance, growth, cost management, and ability to attract, retain and engage top talent by establishing a winning and inclusive culture. introduction when individuals join an organisation, they bring a unique set of characteristics referred to as personalities, and through the socialisation process, they get assimilated into their teams’ norms and values, and eventually, the culture of the organisation. ferreira and coetzee (2010) posit that managing diversity in the workplace is part of employee retention and attraction, with the intention to energise workplace productivity, thus increasing the organisation’s competitive edge. the positive impact engendered by diverse recruitment and retention is also supported by employee engagement (neault & mondair, 2011). employee engagement presupposes employee ownership of change, by making it happen, and it is driven by employees that offer solutions to problems, by helping one another and who are proud of being part of the organisation. its impact in the bigger scheme of events is to drive business performance, growth, cost management, and ability to attract, retain and engage top talent by establishing a winning and inclusive culture. although there is much debate on the definition of diversity, esty, schorr-hirsh and griffin (1995), cited in green, lopez, wysocki and kepner (2002), define diversity as ‘acknowledging, understanding, accepting, valuing, and celebrating differences among people with respect’. mcenrue (1993) posits that diversity management is an organisational imperative and competitive necessity that contributes to its strategic intent. daniel (1994) argues that the lack of diversity is the businesses’ downfall, and the understanding and appreciation of diversity is beyond mere compliance. it has to transcend legislation by being an organisational imperative that truly recognises the value individuals add to an organisation without being stigmatised or dubbed affirmative action appointees. the argument for diversity is complex, and it is not just about comparing and pitting people or groups against one another, but recognition and appreciation of the uniqueness and contribution to the team and organisation. kamps and engelbrecht (2011) assert that discrimination as part of the political legacy in south africa (sa) has created serious challenges for workplace diversity. if organisations could determine requirements that reinforce diversity, they are better placed to improve cohesion, interaction and team work. diversity is also confused with employment equity and affirmative action, although the aforementioned programmes should be viewed as ‘tools’ to engineer and drive diversity (mason, williams & cranner, 2009). a number of workplaces still battle to meet employment equity targets, with specific reference to gender and the disabled. it is at the core of this challenge that society and organisations must ensure that people managers leverage the untapped resources that contribute to the diverse workforces (rogatschnig, 2011). although most studies focus on diversity management, there is a gap in establishing the empirical link between diversity, diversity management and organisational effectiveness that translates into business performance. kochan et al. (2003) capture the essence of this ‘gap’ which raises ambiguity on whether diversity is good or bad for business. the closest body of knowledge and research that explores this link in the south african context is within the financial service sector (carelse, 2013). the aforementioned asserted that successful implementation of diversity management brings about positive employee attitude and creates a competitive organisation. leonard and grobbler (2006), as cited in booysen and nkomo (2014), posit that implementation of employment equity (in sa) has been reduced to legal compliance, instead of substantial compliance, and affirmative action is perceived as reverse discrimination, thus creating resistance to the process, as well as casting doubt around affirmative action appointees with an outlook of incompetence, lack of skill, ability and qualifications (booysen & nkomo, 2014). in light of the above, this article will attempt to fill this ‘void’ by investigating whether an organisation that embraces diversity is more effective and whether performance is in any way impacted on by their diversity. literature review the end of apartheid has brought a resurgence of research into racial identities, attitudes and behaviour in sa (seekings, 2008), and the legacy of systematic racial ordering and discrimination under apartheid is that sa remains deeply racialised, in cultural and social terms, as well as unequal in terms of distribution of income and positions held in organisations. south africans have also experienced major changes in the landscape of employment relations in organisations over the past two decades (booysen, 2007), and although numerous legislations have been put in place to achieve greater social justice, progress in redressing unfair discrimination in the workplace has been slow and uneven. coupled with the above challenges that define the south african workplace, managing diversity, multiculturalism, affirmative action and equal employment opportunity are words in ‘common currency in a newly democratic south africa, as they are in most democratic countries of the world’ (human, 1996). the largest field-based research project was undertaken by diversity research network under the auspices of bold (business opportunities for leadership diversity) (kochan et al., 2003). bold recommended the promotion and development of a culture that is geared to value and appreciate diversity. there are striking similarities between the aforementioned research that was conducted in the usa with the current south african study. in sa, legislations like the employment equity act of 1998, promotion of equality and prevention of unfair discrimination act of 2000, and black economic empowerment act of 2003 were enacted to transform workplaces and provide access to equal opportunities. the essence of the abovementioned legislations was to eliminate exclusion in the workplace, of persons based on race, gender and sex. south africa has experienced radical political transformation over the past 12 years that is epitomised by shifts in the dominance, status and power bases of different population groups (booysen, 2007). this transformation has in turn resulted in identity crises with the unbundling of former social identification and socialisation to refined and redefined self-concepts. the most salient identity groups in sa are race, gender, ethnicity and language (booysen & nkomo, 2014). tensions and conflicts are prevalent between diverse groups in the south african workplace, and this is no different from the international norm; but the most pressing conflict in the south african workplace is based on changes and conflicts associated with race and gender (booysen & nkomo, 2014); thus, legislations have had to be enacted to fast track transformation with a view to engender equality. although some researchers (jackson, may & whitney, 1995) assert that there is no verified literature that confirms that diverse groups necessarily perform better, others (hofstede, 1994, cited by schultz, bagraim, potgieter, viegde & werner, 2003) have linked diversity to creative problem-solving and productivity. moreover, simons and rowland (2011) argue that functional diversity and non-functional diversity are critical to diversity management, and bunderson and sutcliffe (2002) posit that functional diversity improves organisational effectiveness and creative thinking. although the corporate research forum (crf) (2011) focuses on the problem-solving aspects of diversity and the diversity paradox which argues that diversity engenders conflict, it also recognises that conflict and contradictions result in innovation and well-thought through solutions to a problem. conflict in this instance is seen as a catalyst to debate, discussions, engagement and innovation that fosters continuous improvement and business performance. according to tatli and ozbilging (2012), organisational commitment to diversity is determined by a business case, and diversity management enables performance improvements. knouse and dansby (1999) argue that organisational diversity fosters synergy, networks and multi-tasking, and organisations that manage diversity properly are successful in the accomplishment of their objectives. organisations are motivated by a number of factors to implement diversity management, and it is consideration of this motivation, and a shift from the bottom line to the triple bottom line, that has engendered significant in-roads and influences the way the organisation approaches diversity (brabet, 2011; guillaume, dawson, woods, sacramento & west, 2013; jonsen, tatli, özbilgin & bell, 2013; klarsfeld, ng & tatli, 2012). research on whether diversity leads to better performance (or not) has produced contradictory results, and in some instances, no clear conclusions have been forthcoming. some researchers (weiliang, mun, chern, fong & yuan, 2012) posit that organisations that embrace strong gender diversity have demonstrated superior performance, and companies with diverse teams have shown exceptional performance. however, the aforementioned researchers have also clarified that the performance depends on whether the climate in the organisation fosters trust and mutual support. konrad (2003) presented three primary arguments in making a business case for diversity. firstly, organisations compete for the best talent that makes it necessary for them to cast their net wide when they recruit, hence the quest for diversity. secondly, diversity prepares the organisation to deal with diverse markets so as to increase its market share. thirdly, diversity becomes the foundation for creative thinking by producing various ideas, opinions and solutions to a problem, which makes the team flexible and competitive. the fact that markets are diverse, affirming and accepting differences is ‘socially acceptable’ by embracing diversity that reflects the markets. the aforementioned view is aligned with the crf (2011) report that alludes to an effective way of creating an inclusive culture and valuing diversity. schreuder and coetzee (2011) posit that the 21st century workplace has been evolutionary instead of revolutionary, and within the south african context, ‘affirmative action (aa)’ and ‘employment equity (ee)’ have become significant tools to address the inequalities of the past. madihlaba’s (2011) assertion of ‘legal compliance versus substantive compliance’ or ethical imperative necessitates attention. there is need to refocus this perception to benefit the organisation and avoid unnecessary lawsuits as a result of perceived discrimination or citation of reverse discrimination. muhtar kent, president of coca-cola, posits that everything that is done at coca-cola in terms of diversity is based on the simple, powerful and global premise, namely that coca-cola’s diversity should be as inclusive as the brand itself (kent, 2012). this is aligned to the global mission, which is to mirror the diversity of the marketplace that the company serves, by being the market leaders in diversity, inclusion and fairness in every aspect of the business, from the workplace, marketplace, supplier engagement and the community. thus, diversity at coca-cola is integral to how the company operates and how they perceive the future. ssegawa (2011) explains that coca-cola south africa’s talent strategy is also aligned with the company’s vision 2020, which recognises that the world is changing very fast. coca-cola (sa’s) strategy for delivering great results is built on the strong foundation of a ‘total rewards’ platform, which involves competitive pay, the opportunity to grow and thrive, and a work environment that promises sustainability, diversity, wellness and the observance of human rights. the coca-cola code of conduct is a set of policies, principles and values that each and every new employee gets inducted into, with continuous annual refresher training to embed the following: treat colleagues fairly, honestly and with respect; respect and promote diversity in the workplace; health and safety in the workplace; and respect for colleagues and human rights. according to ssegawa (2011), coca-cola sa actively seeks to create and inspire people to be their best. this study on which the article has been developed tracks the evolution of diversity over the past 5 years, so as to determine what is the level of diversity in the organisation and what significance (if any) does diversity hold for the organisation and its employees. more specifically, the impact of diversity on performance as posited by guillaume et al. (2013) is investigated. moreover, the fact that the company was dominated by white male and male in general motivated the context of the study. velaquez (2013) posits that diversity is loaded with all kinds of myths, misconceptions and baggage that have presented management challenges, which among others, the coca-cola company is striving to address, namely different culture and history that have to be tailored to suit the conditions of the country, region and geographic location; work–life balance to suit the needs of the various employees in its employ, especially women and the previously marginalised or disadvantaged; high cost of diversity with programmes undertaken to ensure accommodation of the diverse workforce; and lawsuits as a result of reported discriminatory cases. it is against the above background that this article seeks to understand the research organisation’s approach to diversity, and to ascertain whether diversity is a strategic tool to enhance organisational performance. in order to explore the aforementioned, the following hypotheses were formulated with respect to the research organisation: hypothesis 1 (h1): managing and valuing diversity enhances performance. hypothesis 2 (h2): diversity influences organisational effectiveness. hypothesis 3 (h3): performance is the outcome of diversity. hypothesis 4 (h4): diversity influences and drives transformation. hypothesis 5 (h5): diversity influences organisational effectiveness that translates into performance improvement. research methodology a quantitative approach was used, aimed at determining the employees’ perception of diversity, its relevance to them as employees and whether it adds value to their performance. the population (539) comprised all employees of the organisation in sa, and the probability sample of 300 was randomly selected after the population was stratified on the basis of occupational level, race, gender and tenure, with only those who were more than 5 years in the organisation being included. questionnaires were hand delivered to employees across all occupational levels, from top management or directors to semi-skilled employees who were employed in the organisation for 5 years and longer. in terms of race, the sample was dominated by africans (239), followed by 49 white people, 7 indians and 5 mixed race.1,2 data collection and analysis the survey questionnaire mirrored the employee insight survey (eis) (2014) questionnaire used by towers watson to determine causality between diversity, organisational effectiveness and business performance. it comprised 25 likert scaled questions designed to determine employees’ perceptions of diversity, value of diversity, belief in the goals and objectives of the organisation, pride in the organisation as the best place to work, by being enabled, energised and engaged. diversity in this instance is the independent variable on which performance and effectiveness are dependent. a 5-point scale was used where 5 = strongly agree, 4 = agree, 3 = not sure, 2 = disagree and 1 = strongly disagree. the questionnaire, though adapted for the south african context, is valid and reliable, because it has been consistently used in the research organisation in the past 5 years, and has yielded consistent results. the performance results of the organisation for the last 5 years, broad-based black economic empowerment (bbbee) certificates and ee reports were also analysed to establish the link between diversity in the workplace, organisational effectiveness and business performance. the equity reports that were a mandatory annual submission to the department of labour were also scrutinised to authenticate the complexion of the organisation, based on gender and demographics (designated groups), in alignment with the actual statistics generated from the survey. this was also supported by analysis of the bbbee certificates to determine the level of transformation that covers a host of elements like ownership, procurement and corporate social investment, that is, matched to diversity. the data were analysed using the spss programme to calculate percentages and conduct correlation and analysis of variance (anova) tests. findings a total of 227 questionnaires were completed and returned, comprising 82 from semi-skilled, 74 unskilled, 48 skilled, and 15 middle and 8 senior managers. there was male dominance at the unskilled staff level, whereas gender representation at other levels was more balanced. table 1 indicates dominant response by africans, followed by white people, which indicates that the organisation still lacks adequate indian and mixed race representation in the workforce. among the 173 african employees, the majority (74) were either unskilled or semi-skilled (67), and among the 42 white employees, the majority (23) were either skilled professionals or semi-skilled. table 1: racial profile of respondents by occupational level. the reliability of the five dimensions in the survey were examined using the cronbach’s alpha coefficient statistics. although only two dimensions produced alpha coefficients that exceeded 0.7, namely knowledge sharing and the impact of diversity on organisational effectiveness, and the other individual scores ranged between 0.45 and 0.56; the overall reliability of the instrument was 0.85, which according to cronbach and meehl (1955) is an acceptable score. with regard to ‘the value of diversity’, table 2 indicates that the majority (60%) of the respondents ‘strongly agree’ that they are treated with dignity and respect. the results also confirm the respondents’ appreciation of the company’s recruitment of a diverse workforce. furthermore, the vast majority (71%) of the respondents confirm that diversity enhances innovation and productivity, and 56% ‘strongly disagree’ that diversity creates confusion and conflict in the workplace. table 2: employee’s perceptions of the value of diversity. it is evident from table 3 that the corrected model is significant and shows that managing and valuing diversity enhances performance. the results of the anova test showed that diverse workforce [f(4.174) = 13.10, p < 0.001], individual differences [f(4.174) = 7.16, p < 0.001] and confusion conflict [f(4.174) = 5.52, p < 0.001] are significantly related with performance in terms of innovation and workplace productivity. these were the only p-values less than the level of significance of 0.05; thus, h1 is supported. table 3: statistical results on diverse workforce, innovation and productivity. table 4 reflects that the corrected model is not significant, which implies that diversity in terms of success attributes diversity [f(4.174) = 0.20, p = 0.94], innovative solution [f(4.174) = 1.35, p = 0.25] and diverse customer need [f(4.174) = 0.43, p = 0.79] is not related with the performance of an organisation in terms of the organisation’s strategic priorities. the reason for this conclusion is because the p-values were greater than the level of significance of 0.05. based on the aforementioned, h2 is not supported by the findings of this study. table 4: the influence of diversity on organisational effectiveness. according to table 5, the corrected model is significant, which implies that leadership diversity strongly influences organisational performance and/or effectiveness. specifically, the results of the anova test show that diverse programmes [f(4.174) = 11.33, p < 0.001] and sexism or discrimination [f(4.174) = 2.61, p = 0.04] are significantly related with performance in terms of ‘proud to be part of their organisation and recommend it as the best place to work’. all the p-values were less than the level of significance of 0.05. hence, it may be concluded that h3 is supported in this study. table 5: the influence of leadership diversity on performance and effectiveness. table 6, which represents the influence of diversity on transformation, indicates that 75% of the respondents ‘strongly agree’ that aa is a positive measure that supports diversity. aa as reverse discrimination is not differentiated by respondents who strongly agree and strongly disagree and is almost balanced at 43% and 45%, respectively. the vast majority (71%) of the respondents ‘strongly agree’ that the company is gender balanced and supports women leadership at work. the confirmation of aa as a positive measure in line with gender balance, transformation and equity supports the dominant view in the organisation on the influence diversity plays in transformation. table 6: influence of diversity on transformation. table 7, which represents the univariate statistical analysis for determining the influence of diversity in driving transformation, reveals that the corrected model is significant, which shows that diversity influences and drives transformation. specifically, the results of the anova test showed that aa positive [f(4.174) = 7.83, p < 0.001], aa discrimination [f(3.174) = 23.15, p <0.001] and women leadership [f(4.174) = 4.07, p < 0.001] are significantly related with driving transformation. the p-values were less than the level of significance of 0.05. given the above, h4 is supported, and it is concluded that diversity influences transformation. table 7: statistical test results for diversity influence on transformation. with respect to the drivers of organisational outcomes that determine the relationship between diversity, organisational effectiveness and performance, it became evident that 84% of the respondents are in favour of the promotion of diversity as the key driver of organisational outcomes. the majority (62%) of the male respondents are in support of promoting diversity, compared with 37% of the female respondents. the vast majority (76%) of the african employees’ respondents supported the view that diversity is a motivational aspect of performance. table 8 reflects that promoting diversity is significantly related with performance improvement in terms of knowledge to drive transformation [x2(1) = 13.10, p < 0.001], increased previously disadvantaged individuals (pdis) at senior management level [x2(1) = 37.35, p < 0.001], and cultural diversity and gender sensitive [x2(1) = 19.34, p < 0.001]. it is therefore concluded that there is a relationship between diversity and organisational effectiveness, which translates into performance improvement; thus, h5 is supported. table 8: the relationship between diversity, organisational effectiveness and business performance. it was also ascertained that 64% of the respondents ‘strongly agreed’ that the organisation allows for knowledge sharing among employees; the vast majority (71%) of the respondents ‘strongly agreed’ that they share knowledge and views with their peers. discussion of the findings it is evident that with respect to the research organisation, managing and valuing diversity enhances performance, which findings are in line with roberge, lewicki, heitapelto and abdyldaeva (2011) and carelse (2013). the policies, procedures, systems and values that include teamwork are among the initiatives that received emphasis in the organisation, clearly demonstrating employee awareness of the importance of diversity. the aforementioned finding is similar to bulbulia’s (2003:n.p.) argument that ‘the goal of managing diversity should be to maximise employee potential unhindered by group identities by ensuring a conducive workplace where similarities and differences are appreciated’. ely and thomas (2001) suggest that depending on the work group’s diversity perspective, members of culturally diverse groups can relate to each other, such that the members feel valued and respected and this has been the key in the research organisation. rosado (2006) argues in favour of total quality diversity as a holistic diversity management programme that assures unity in diversity, and the research organisation truly represents this. although page (2011) argues in favour of diversity and different levels of experience for performance improvement, he also pointed out that diversity in terms of ‘success attribute’, innovative solutions and diverse customer need is not related with the productivity of an organisation. in line with the aforementioned, kochan et al. (2003) posited that diversity does not necessarily engender productivity. the results of this study therefore confirm the mixed results presented by bowers, pharmer and salas (2000) and webber and donahue (2001), namely, that diversity does not necessarily improve performance, and it points to the so-called double-edged sword effect of diversity (milliken & martins, 1996). although it became evident that the success of the (research) organisation in the last 5 years can be ascribed to diversity with innovative solutions, it is, however, important to note that the ‘innovative solution’ is linked to aspects like capability building through the competency acquisition and management development programmes. the results are similar to horwitz and horwitz’s (2007) findings that positive teams’ impact performance on task-related diversity versus bio-demographic diversity. in line with previous studies (chin, 2013), it was ascertained that leadership diversity strongly influences organisational performance and/or effectiveness. the leadership role is assumed to clear up the ambiguity of contrasting theories on whether diversity influences performance, which performance in turn results in the realisation of strategic organisational objectives. ssegawa (2011:n.p.) posits that the organisation must ‘get ready for tomorrow today’ by attracting, developing and engaging highly talented and diverse workforce to drive cross-pollination of innovative ideas, and this was evident in the organisation where this study was conducted. the findings in this study are consistent with what is reflected in the bbbee certification of the research organisation, which reflect its ratings as rising from level 4 in 2010 to level 2 at the time of research. this reflects not just management evolution, but shareholder engagement of ‘broad-based’ partners that control 70% of the shareholding, and 5% ownership by employees on share appreciation rights scheme. the impact of this transformation is reflected in initiatives which the organisation undertook to involve women entrepreneurs and the footprint it established in its corporate social investment in ensuring that it achieves more than the triple bottom line. swanepoel, erasmus and schenk (2008) argue that the platform set by the bbbee act challenges organisations to empower more and more black people through affirmative action. with respect to the research organisation, women were recruited or promoted into leadership roles beyond the 25% compliance through focused recruitment. ferreira and coetzee (2010) posit that managing diversity in the workplace is part of employee retention and attraction with the intention to energise workplace productivity, thus increasing the organisation’s competitive edge. it was determined that in the last 3 years, the research organisation showed growth in production volume from 38 to 45 million cases, which at some stage in 2010 was at a staggering 20 million cases per annum. the aforementioned achievement is supposedly linked to the diverse talent and innovation in the organisation because deveale and manea (2007) assert that a diverse workforce leverages on the differences among the teams by strengthening their communication networks and eliminating the barriers that hinder their creative function. with respect to employee engagement, the survey revealed a change from 52% to 84% in 2015, indicating increased employee commitment and participation. the fact that innovation is encouraged among team members and different opinions are openly discussed creates a platform to innovate through debate and discussions, so as to find well-thought through solutions to problems. this is key to effectiveness and performance that are linked to individual capacity to perform, spanning through to the team/department and organisation performance. conclusion and recommendations the conclusions with respect to the decisions on the hypotheses are summarised in table 9. table 9: decisions on the hypotheses and conclusions. from the findings reported above as well as the summary decisions on the hypotheses, it may be concluded that organisations in sa are challenged by the legacy of apartheid that still subtly divide organisations through ‘covert’ racism, prejudice and stereotyping. hence, there is need to acknowledge, understand, accept, value and celebrate differences among people as part of the organisational policy. diversity awareness training programmes should form part of the organisation’s induction, so as to ensure that dignity, respect and valuing differences are understood by all employees and form part of the organisation’s dna. it is management’s responsibility to attract, retain and engage talent by establishing a winning and inclusive culture. commitment to diversity promotes the right behaviour that employees will emulate, thus mitigating the negative impact diversity would have in the workplace. organisational diversity training and development programmes must engender a culture that creates smooth assimilation of employees. line managers should be trained in team development and conflict management to reinforce an inclusive culture that the organisation enshrines, so as to extract maximum benefit from diverse teams. for organisations that are market driven, their strategy to serve the customer should mirror the diverse markets the company serves. an effective diversity management programme should not happen by default but by design, with clearly set objectives that do not look at transformation as ‘compliance’ but as an organisational imperative and an integral part of its policy and procedures. because employee engagement engenders participation and involvement that translates into effectiveness, there is need to constantly ‘test the organisational temperature’ as part of the key performance indicator of the organisation’s health. it is recommended that engagement forms part of the organisational, functional and team performance metrics and key performance indicators. limitations of the study and future research the study was limited to only one fast moving consumer goods (fmcg) company in sa. future research could be conducted in other multi-nationals with critical mass in sa, so as to be able to compare the findings and determine success stories. the racial composition of the sample (minority indian and mixed race participants) may not have been truly representative of the south african rainbow nation. thus, a more diverse organisation study would be beneficial. the causal link between diversity, engagement, effectiveness and performance should be explored using inferential statistical techniques. because diversity management energises workplace productivity and increases the company’s competitive edge, it would be critical to determine whether workplace diversity and employee engagement produce similar results. it would also be important to investigate the link between engagement, diversity, effectiveness and performance, in lieu of the fact that it commits employees by fostering growth for both the individual and the organisation. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions j.v.m. conducted the research towards his mba dissertation, under guidance of k.k.g. the article was developed and written entirely by k.k.g. references booysen, l.a.e. (2007). societal power shifts and changing social identities in south africa: workplace implications for management. south african journal of economics and management sciences, 10(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v10i1.533 booysen, l.a.e., & nkomo, s.m. (2014). new developments in employment equity and diversity management in south africa. in l.a.e. booysen, a. klarsfeld, e. ng, and a. tatli (eds.), international handbook on diversity management at work: country perspectives on diversity and equal treatment, vol. 2 (pp. 131–182). cheltenham: edward elgar publishing. bowers, c.a., pharmer, j.a., & salas, e. (2000). when member homogeneity is needed in work teams: a meta-analysis. small group research, 31, 305–327. https://doi.org/10.1177/104649640003100303 brabet, j. (2011). corporate social responsibility and its models in a contested field. responsible organization review (ror) 6(2), 38–50. https://doi.org/10.3917/ror.062.0038 bulbulia, s. (2003). diversity: too hot to handle. retrieved november 29, 2015, from http://www.biz-communication.com/article/196/18/2501.html bunderson, j.s., & sutcliffe, k.m. (2002). comparing alternative conceptualizations of functional diversity in management teams. the academy of management journal, 45(5), 875–893. https://doi.org/10.2307/3069319 carelse, k. (2013). employee perceptions towards workplace diversity in a financial institution operating in the western cape. faculty of economics and management sciences, university of western cape, cape town. chin, j.l. (2013). diversity leadership: influence of ethnicity, gender and minority status. open journal of leadership, 2, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojl.2013.21001 corporate research forum report. (2011). diversity and business performance. retrieved november 30, 2015, from http://www.crforum.co.uk/research-and-resources/diversity-and-business-performance-2 cronbach, l.j., & meehl, p.e. (1955). construct validity on psychological test. psychological bulletin, 52, 281–302. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0040957 daniel, c. (1994). how societies change. thousand oaks, ca: pine forge. deveale, c., & manea, l. (2007). companies embrace power of diversity. canadian hr reporter, 20(22), 14–15. ely, r., & thomas, d.a. (2001). making differences matter: a new paradigm for managing diversity. administrative science quarterly, 46(2), 229–273. https://doi.org/10.2307/2667087 employee insight survey (eis). (2014). diversity councils and business resource groups. retrieved september 23, 2015, from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/diversity/diversity-councils-andbusiness-resource-groups ferreira, n., & coetzee, m. (2010). psychological career resources and organisational commitment: exploring socio-demographic differences. south african journal of labour relations, 34(2), 25–41. green, k.a., lopez, m., wysocki, a., & kepner, k. (2002). diversity in the workplace: benefits, challenges, and the required managerial tools. gainesville, fl: department of food and resource economics, institute of food and agricultural sciences, university of florida. retrieved november 29, 2015, from http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu guillaume, y.r., dawson, j.f., woods, s.a., sacramento, c.a., & west, m.a. (2013). getting diversity at work to work: what we know and what we still don’t know. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 86(2), 123–141. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12009 horwitz, s., & horwitz, i. (2007). the effects of team diversity on team outcomes: a meta-analytic review of team demography. journal of management, 33(6), 987–1015. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206307308587 human, l. (1996). managing workforce diversity: a critique and example from south africa. international journal of manpower, 17(4/5), 46–64. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437729610127659 jackson, s.e., may, k.a., & whitney, k. (1995). dynamics of diversity in decision making teams. in r.a. guzzo & e. salas (eds.), team effectiveness and decision making in organizations, (pp. 89–131). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. jonsen, k., tatli, a., özbilgin, m.f., & bell, m.p. (2013). the tragedy of the uncommons: reframing workforce diversity. human relations, 66(2), 271–294. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726712466575 kamps, j.m., & engelbrecht, a.s. (2011). the influence of emotional intelligence on diversity complexity cognition and the attitude towards diversity. south african journal business management, 42(3), 37–48. kent, m. (2012). diversity: the coca-cola company. retrieved september 23, 2015, from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/diversity klarsfeld, a., ng, e., & tatli, a. (2012). social regulation and diversity management: a comparative study of france, canada and the uk. european journal of industrial relations, 18(4), 309–327. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959680112461091 knouse, b.s., & dansby, r.m. (1999). percentage of work-group diversity and work-group effectiveness. journal of psychology, 133(5), 486–494. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223989909599757 kochan, t., bezrukova, k., ely, r., jackson, s., joshi, a., jehn, k., et al., (2003). the effects of diversity on business performance: report of the diversity research network. human resource management, 42(1), 3–21. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.10061 konrad, a. (2003). defining the domain of workplace diversity scholarship. group and organization management, 28(1), 4–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601102250013 madihlaba, j. (2011). variables influencing management of diversity in the south african public sector. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. mason, g., williams, g., & cranmer, s. (2009). employability skills initiatives in higher education: what effects do they have on graduate labour market outcomes? education economics, 17(1), 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/09645290802028315 mcenrue, m.p. (1993). managing diversity: los angeles before and after the riots. organizational dynamics, 21(3), 18–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(93)90068-c milliken, f.j., & martins, l.l. (1996). searching for common threads: understanding the multiple effects of diversity in organizational groups. the academy of management review, 21(2), 102–133. neault, r.a., & mondair, s. (2011). supporting workplace diversity: emerging roles for employment counsellors. journal of employment and counselling, 48(1), 72–80. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1920.2011.tb00116.x page, s.e. (2011). diversity and complexity. princeton, nj: princeton university press. roberge, m., lewicki, r., heitapelto, a., & abdyldaeva, a. (2011). from theory to practice: recommending supportive diversity practices. journal of diversity management, 6(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.19030/jdm.v6i2.5481 rogatschnig, m. (2011). debunking diversity management. challenges go beyond narrow definitions. cape town: connemara. rosado, c. (2006). what do we mean by ‘managing diversity’? hyderabad, india: icafai university. schreuder, a., & coetzee, m. (2011). careers: an organisational perspective. claremont: juta and co. ltd. seekings, j. (2008). the continuing salience of race: discrimination and diversity in south africa. journal of contemporary african studies, 26(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/02589000701782612 schultz, h., bagraim, j., potgieter, t., viegde, c., & werner, a. (2003). organisational behavior. pretoria: van schaik. simons, s.m., & rowland, k.n. (2011). diversity and its impact on organizational performance: the influence of diversity constructions on expectations and outcomes. journal of technology management and innovation, 6(3), 172–174. https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-27242011000300013 ssegawa, d. (2011). workplace culture. retrieved july 15, 2013, from http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/diversity/workplace-culture swanepoel, b.j., erasmus, b.j., & schenk, h.w. (2008). south african human resources management. theory and practice. cape town: juta and co. ltd. tatli, a., & özbilgin, m.f. (2012). an emic approach to intersectional study of diversity at work: a bourdieuan framing. international journal of management reviews, 14(2), 180–200. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00326.x velaquez, m. (2013). the coca-cola series. retrieved september 25, 2015, from http://www.diversitydtg.com/article/best-practices-inclusive-strategies/the-coca-colaseries-three-articles webber, s.s., & donahue, l.m. (2001). impact of highly and less job-related diversity on work group cohesion and performance: a meta-analysis. journal of management, 27(2), 141–162. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630102700202 weiliang, e.c., mun, l.k., chern, t.s., fong, t.s., & yuan, y.p. (2012). the effects of workforce diversity towards the employee’s performance in an organization. faculty of business and finance. malaysia: university tunku. footnotes 1. in the south african context, black people comprise africans, indians and mixed race. 2. there are 56.5 million people in sa (stats sa, 2017): 79.4% africans, 9.2% white people, 8.8% mixed race and 2.6% indians. abstract introduction methodology results discussion on findings acknowledgements references about the author(s) patient rambe department of business support studies, central university of technology, south africa disebo l. modise department of business support studies, central university of technology, south africa crispen chipunza department of business support studies, central university of technology, south africa citation rambe, p., modise, d.l., & chipunza, c. (2018). the combined influence of self-leadership and locus of control on the job performance of engineering workforce in a power generation utility: an empirical perspective. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a952. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.952 original research the combined influence of self-leadership and locus of control on the job performance of engineering workforce in a power generation utility: an empirical perspective patient rambe, disebo l. modise, crispen chipunza received: 25 may 2017; accepted: 14 june 2018; published: 23 aug. 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the joint effects of self-leadership and locus of control within an engineering context have been under-explored because much research focused on self-leadership and locus of control as independent concepts, and studies on their combined effects on organisational performance remain hard to encounter in emerging economies. research purpose: the aim of the study was to develop deeper empirical knowledge of the combined effects of self-leadership and locus of control on job performance of engineering workforce in eskom free state. motivation for the study: the originality of the study lies in the reconstitution of individual self-leadership and locus of control concepts as they relate to job performance and its impact on prospective engineers who work at eskom in bloemfontein. research approach/design and method: drawing on a quantitative approach, a survey was conducted on 134 engineering personnel (comprising engineers, technologists and technicians). of this workforce, a total of 107 engineers participated in the study representing a response rate of 79.8%. correlation and multiple regression analysis were used to analyse the corpus of quantitative data. main findings: the results demonstrate that self-leadership and locus of control are significant independent variables and when considered jointly, they have a positive significant impact on job performance of the eskom engineering workforce. practical/managerial implications: implications for the initiation and fostering of self-leadership and locus of control to improve the job performance of eskom bloemfontein engineering workforce are discussed. contribution/value-add: the study contributes to engineers’ task-focused behaviour through its expectations for the engineering workforce to be self-leaders who exercise internal locus of control in the execution of their jobs. this study also contributes to engineers’ work-related personality dimensions and sense of self-awareness through an exposition of individual personalities they were not conscious of. introduction this empirical study examines the combined influence of self-leadership and locus of control on the job performance of the engineering workforce in a power generation utility, eskom, free state. eskom holdings soc limited (hereinafter referred to as ‘eskom’) which is the largest public power utility responsible for the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in south africa. among its core mandates, eskom has contributed to the steering of positive economic growth, economic and social transformation, strived to reduce carbon emissions (for which it is one chief contributor) and improved the efficiency (tsotsi, 2011) of the electricity generation and distribution programmes and projects. for the purpose of this study, self-leadership is one’s intrinsic motivation to influence self, regarding what, why and how to perform work (stewart, courtright & manz, 2011). locus of control is a psychological concept that refers to how strongly people believe they have control over situations and experiences that affect their lives. however, self-leadership is impossible without an internal locus of control (adams, kalliny, de los santos, & wang, 2008; mcdevitt, giapponi, & tromley, 2007). similarly, thomas, kelly and lillian (2006) report a strong connection between employees’ regulation or control of their actions (i.e. locus of control) and the consequences of those actions in the work environment (e.g. successful job performance). there is a convergence of literature on the role of self-leadership and locus of control in improving organisational performance (dewettinck & van ameijde, 2011; kalyar, 2011; neck & houghton, 2006; schermuly & meyer, 2011; sharma & kaur, 2011). however, the multiplicity of challenges experienced at eskom seems to be inconsistent with the prevalence and exertion of self-leadership and internal locus of control at this institution. these challenges include continuous blackouts attributed to poor projections of electricity demands, infrastructural project completion delays leading to cost overruns, project scope creep and increased electricity tariffs to avoid load shedding. as such, the combined influence of self-leadership and locus of control of the engineering workforce at eskom, bloemfontein on job performance needs examination to ensure effective delivery of electricity services in south africa. therefore, this study seeks to address the following question: what is the combined influence of self-leadership and locus of control of the eskom engineering workforce on their job performance? problem statement electricity is regarded as a pivotal component and enabler of mining, industrial, commercial and domestic activities that drive economic growth opportunities and enhance decent living for all south africa’s citizens. by the same token, the republic of south africa’s national development plan (which aims to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality) portrays electricity as an important component of a development framework that would assist society in achieving decent standards of living (national planning commission, 2012). mindful of this profound importance of electricity for human development and survival, it is unsurprising that the south african government is the sole shareholder of eskom that directs this organisation’s actions to ensure the achievement of its strategic objectives (eskom holdings soc ltd, 2013a). eskom’s underperformance has been interpreted as a consequence of multiple factors. these factors include serious and persistent failures of electricity supply leadership by the board of eskom, leadership failures in government, lack of capacity by eskom and government with regard to negotiating a successful private sector partnership for new generation capacity and eskom management’s poor response to the difficult situation (business tech, 2015; cde round table, 2008). constraints within leadership manifested in the eskom board’s failure to provide skilled and independent leadership to eskom’s management in dealing with coal procurement issues and the energy mix, and in the decade-long failure to communicate effectively with government and the public about the urgent need to build more power stations (cde round table, 2008). this conundrum was compounded further by the leadership crisis at eskom as recently noted in the suspension of eskom’s chief executive officer (ceo), three other senior executives and the financial director, to allow for the eskom board chairman’s inquiry into the operations of the utility without their interference (business tech, 2015). the lack of capacity at eskom and in the government resulted in their failure to contract international and local contractors to build a single plant in seven years (2001–2007) (cde round table, 2008) long after the electricity crisis in south africa had been predicted by the african national congress cabinet in 1998. the leadership crisis at eskom recently manifested in the suspension of eskom’s ceo, three other senior executives and the financial director, to allow for the eskom board chairman’s inquiry into the operations of the utility without their interference (business tech, 2015). in 2016, the ceo of eskom resigned under controversial circumstances over allegations of irregularities and corruption involving the awarding of tenders for procuring coal to fire eskom’s power plants. despite the aforementioned challenge’s demonstration of the inseparable connection of self-leadership and locus of control, these concepts and their impact on job performance are often explored as independent subjects. for instance, a demonstration of self-leadership by management is considered to modify employees’ perceptions of aspects of organisational culture such as social irresponsibility and minimise the associated negative effects that lead to undesirable behaviours among organisational employees (pearce & manz, 2011). by the same token, because internal locus of control is postulated to have a positive relationship with performance (thomas et al., 2006), fostering internal locus of control among employees of an organisation can optimise the productivity of the organisation. although internal locus of control may positively impact performance of an organisation, such impact cannot be assumed to be universal as other critical variables (e.g. self-leadership) are also implicated in organisational performance. however, to our knowledge, the combined effects of locus of control and self-leadership on organisational performance remain unknown in developing economies as no systematic study has been conducted to date on these issues. fostering high levels of self-leadership and internal locus of control can contribute to the overcoming of organisational cultures that impede innovation (prattom & savatsomboon, 2012) and the optimisation of organisational performance. therefore, the problem is our limited knowledge of the combined effects of self-leadership and locus of control on the job performance of the engineering workforce. literature review definition of self-leadership self-leadership has been explored by different authors who came up with different characterisations of the term, and different studies on the concept across different contexts have generated different results (elloy, 2008). the concept, which first emerged in the mid-1980s (manz, 1983, 1986) as an expansion of self-management (manz & sims, 1980), was rooted in the clinical self-control theory (cautela, 1969). self-leadership is inspired by kerr and jermier’s (1978) notion of ‘substitutes for leadership’, which describes situational factors that may ‘neutralise’ leadership or prevent a leader from taking action in particular situations. stewart et al. (2011) define self-leadership as the process of self-motivating and self-determining one’s actions through specific behavioural and cognitive methods. self-leadership consists of three distinct but complimentary strategies – behaviour-focused, natural reward, and constructive-thought pattern – strategies through which people control their own actions and thinking to reach personal and organisational goals (manz & sims, 2001; neck & manz, 2010; prussia, anderson, & manz, 1998). behaviour-focused strategies are related to a set of self-influence strategies proposed by early self-management scholars (manz & sims, 1980). these strategies operate within the framework of bandura’s (1986) social learning theory, which argues that a person’s behaviour is influenced not only by external environmental factors but also by the individual’s self-regulation processes. based on the premise of social learning theory, manz and sims (1980) highlight various self-management strategies such as self-goal setting, self-observation, self-reward, self-punishment and self-cueing (manz, 1986; neck & manz, 2010) that are used by individuals to manage their goal-striving behaviours. natural reward strategies involve building more pleasant and enjoyable features into goal-striving actions as well as shaping one’s perceptions by focusing attention on the rewarding aspect rather than the unpleasant features of tasks (manz & sims, 2001; neck & manz, 2010). constructive-thought strategies focus on the formation of constructive thought patterns that can positively impact performance (neck & manz, 2010). they include evaluating beliefs and assumptions, the use of mental imagery and positive self-talk. studies of self-leadership van zyl (2013) examines self-leadership and happiness within the south african working context (schools, manufacturing, mining and electricity sectors). the study reports that self-leadership can affect happiness within the african working context and the integration of this concept into traditional african values and beliefs can contribute to employees’ achievement of their full work potential. another study conducted by jooste and roux (2014) examines the practice of self-leadership in personal and professional development of contract nursing staff in a higher education institution. the study revealed that contract staff feel undervalued by the organisation and job insecurity and fewer benefits undermine their motivation and self-leadership within the organisation. the study also revealed that contract employees’ exertion of self-leadership enables the regulation of their own actions, personally and professionally. it can be inferred that while organisational environment can undermine the pursuit of self-leadership, personal agency could be fundamental to the realisation of self-leadership. implications of self-leadership on job performance research evidence links organisational success to various features of leadership, such as self-leadership (houghton, dawley & diliello, 2012). be that as it may, the self-leadership-performance relationship is not a clear and straightforward one. goldman, wesner, and karnchanomai (2013) warn that although organisations make huge financial investments into leadership development programmes, the benefits for organisations and individuals who complete these programmes are not yet discernible or well understood. at a team level, most studies on self-leadership focused on task performance to understand the role of self-leadership in achieving a high level of team performance aspects such as proficiency, adaption or proactivity (hauschildt & konradt, 2012). in a german business context, hauschildt and konradt (2012) conducted an empirical study on self-leadership and team members’ work role performance and reported that self-leadership is positively related to adaption and proactivity at the individual and team task level. definition of locus of control julian rotter first developed the concept ‘locus of control’. locus of control according to rotter (1966) refers to a personality dimension that helps explain one’s behaviour. it refers to the perception of one’s capacity to influence work or life outcomes and the extent to which people believe that they can control the events that affect them. locus of control is defined as a person’s tendency to see events as being controlled internally or externally (rotter, 1966; shojaee & french, 2014). this tendency characterises a person’s perspective on self-independence in contrast to control by others. locus of control also determines the likelihood of a particular behaviour as well as the outcomes of engaging in such behaviour (april, dharani, & peters, 2012). in the context of an engineering environment, locus of control describes the capacity of engineers to shape and influence work-related outcomes such as engineering drawing, maintenance of substations and execution of technical tasks such as restoration of power in customers’ houses. locus of control can be categorised into internal and external locus of control. the individuals with internal locus of control have the belief that they can monitor the events or situations with their own fate and have a strong belief in themselves and their abilities (zaidi & mohsin, 2013). therefore, such individuals discern clear connections between their actions and outcomes of their behaviours. in contrast, individuals with external locus of control attribute events and situations to the external circumstances rather than to their own capabilities. therefore, they believe that the events affecting their lives cannot be predicted and controlled (kücükkaragöz, 1998; rastegar & heidari, 2013) as they are consequences of a complex, dynamic external environment. studies of locus of control hans, mubeen and ghabshi (2014) conducted a study on locus of control and job satisfaction in private international schools in the sultanate of oman. the findings revealed that teachers at private international schools were primarily driven by internal locus of control and their level of job satisfaction was high. another study conducted by mustafa (2011) examined the goal orientations, locus of control and academic achievement of prospective teachers in different majors at the faculty of education in pamukkale university in turkey. the results show that mastery goal orientation was positively related with locus of control (r = 0.35; p < 0.01) and academic achievement (r = 0.15; p < 0.05) and avoidance goal orientation was negatively related with locus of control (r = -0.21; p < 0.01) and academic achievement (r = -0.19; p < 0.01). a positive relationship was found between locus of control and academic achievement (r = 0.14; p < 0.05). the results obtained in this study suggest that the teachers should stimulate their students to develop and use internal locus of control and mastery goal orientation to increase their academic performance. more so, they need to enhance internal locus of control for them to become good mastery learners. implications of locus of control for job performance many researchers have shown that locus of control is related to performance (sonnentage, volmer, & spychala, 2010; spector, 1982; spector & o’connell, 1994). wang, bowling and eschleman (2010) found that individuals with an internal locus of control orientation appear more motivated, perform better on the job and express higher levels of satisfaction than individuals with an external locus of control. literature (chen & silverthorne, 2008; asgari & varkiri, 2012) states that locus of control has been found to be positively associated with low perceived stress and high performance. if individuals with internal locus of control are found to take charge, perform better on complex tasks, are easier to motivate and exercise a higher degree of initiative than externals, as much of the research using rotter’s i-e questionnaire suggests, then it is reasonable to expect such individuals to demonstrate higher performance ratings and maintain a significantly greater performance average on their jobs than those with external locus of control. several studies support the notion that internals (people with internal locus of control) exert greater effort on the job and are subsequently better performers (asgari & vakiri, 2012; muhonen & torkelson, 2004; thomas et al., 2006) than externals (people with external locus of control). combined influence of self-leadership and locus of control on job performance the importance of the self-leader – locus of control – performance relationship arises from the contribution of followers to the leadership process as followers are integral to the performance of leadership (verwey, du plessis, & van der merwe, 2013). because self-leadership emphasises one’s intrinsic motivation towards work (stewart et al., 2011), it can be conceived to directly feed into perceptions about one’s capacity to influence his or her work-related outcomes and, therefore, improve performance of large organisations. as such, self-leadership is impossible without an internal locus of control and innovation (adams et al., 2008; mcdevitt et al., 2007). it can be inferred from the aforementioned discussion that a combination of self-leadership and internal locus of control is critical in achieving high job performance for engineers through increased proficiency, adaptation or proactivity and the ability to multitask in the face of competing tasks and work activities. methodology research design a research design details the procedures necessary for collection, measurement and analysis of data, which helps the researcher to structure or solve research problems (sreejesh, mohapatra, & anusree, 2014). a survey design was adopted in this study to explore eskom engineers’ perceptions of the importance of being a self-leader and having internal locus of control and the implications of such traits for job performance. because surveys are ideal for collecting information from large groups of individuals at minimum cost, this design cohered with the researchers’ intentions to collect data from a large engineering workforce comprising engineers, technologists and technicians at eskom, bloemfontein. target population the population comprised 134 full-time engineering workforce (n = 134) from eskom free state departments where the study was carried out. of the 134 engineering workforce, there were 30 full-time graduate engineers, 34 technologists and 70 technicians. given the small size of the population of engineers, technologists and technicians at eskom, bloemfontein, a census involving all members of this workforce, was considered. a census is considered appropriate when the entire population is very small and hence it becomes necessary to include all members of that population to all the engineering workforce, 107 questionnaires were successfully completed, representing 79.8% of the total population. data collection the second author administered the survey on respondents. the process involved getting clearance from senior management at eskom and the distribution of printed closed likert-based questionnaires to respondents. the survey, which was administered over 2 months involved the respondents de-briefing in groups about the purpose of the study and its intended benefits. they were also apprised of their anonymity and their right to voluntarily participate in the study. while the researcher administered some of the questionnaires, those respondents who were busy were granted the opportunity to collect the questionnaires, complete them at times convenient to them and submit them in one office most accessible to them. data analysis descriptive and inferential statistics were employed in this study. descriptive statistics which include frequencies and percentages were used to present demographic data. spearman’s rho correlation coefficient and regression equations were used to test the independent variables’ influence on the dependent variable (i.e. job performance) and to predict their influence on job performance, respectively. instrument credibility the structured questionnaire instrument was an adapted version of rotter’s locus of control scale and revised self-leadership questionnaire. a reliability analysis was conducted using cronbach’s alpha coefficient. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for internal locus of control was 0.706 and for external locus of control 0.434. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for locus of control (overall) was 0.688. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for self-leadership (overall) was 0.810. the self-leadership concept was also disaggregated into its components namely: behaviour-focused, natural rewards and constructive thoughts and the reliability analyses for these components were also calculated. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for behaviour-focused component (overall) was 0.744, for natural rewards 0.695 and for constructive thoughts (overall) 0.798. based on kumar’s (2011) argument that any cronbach’s coefficient that is over 0.6 signifies a reliable measurement, these statistics demonstrate that questionnaire items were reliable. the averages and percentages of the internal locus of control and overall locus of control variables were calculated. the average and percentages of self-leadership overall and its components were also calculated. the means and mean percentages of each of the items are presented in tables 1 and 2, respectively. table 1: descriptive statistics. table 2: descriptive statistics of self-leadership. the mean percentages of internal locus of control and overall locus of control were 77.88% and 69.11%, respectively. these measures were all high and above 50.00%. this means that a majority of these engineers identify highly with the locus of control. the mean percentages of overall self-leadership, behaviour-focused (overall), natural rewards and constructive thoughts (overall) are 77%, 76%, 82%, and 77% which are all high and above 50%. this means that a majority of these engineers identified highly with self-leadership, that is, they regarded themselves as self-leaders. results profile of respondents table 3 illustrates the profile of the respondents by gender, age group, ethnicity, marital status, educational level, hierarchy and their years of experience on the job. table 3: demographic information. the results in table 3 highlight that a majority of respondents were men (55.14%, n = 59) while the remainder were women (44.86%, n = 48). also, slightly more than a third (38.32%) of the respondents were in the 21–30 years of age category, followed by those who were 41 years of age and above (31.78%, n = 34) and lastly 31–40 years of age (29.91%, n = 32) group, respectively. about 65.42% of the respondents were black africans, 27.36% were white and 7.55% were indians and other minority groups. in addition, 41.12% of the respondents were never married, divorced and/or separated or widowed while 58.88% were married. a sizable percentage of the respondents (30.84%) had diplomas, while 28.04% had other qualifications, 19.63% (n = 21) had honours degrees and a further (13.04%, n = 14) had master’s degrees. lastly, the results indicate that 46.73% of the respondents were technicians, with 27.10% being graduate engineers and a small percentage (26.17%) were technologists. regression analysis having established the information above, the next step was determining the relationship among self-leadership, locus of control and job performance. the following regression equation was conducted. a regression equation with job performance as a dependent variable and locus of control as the independent variable was created. this regression sought to determine the impact that locus of control has on job performance. the results are reported in table 4. table 4: regression results (locus of control only). the results show that locus of control has a positive impact on job performance. the coefficient, 0.157, means that an improvement on locus of control by 1.0% leads to a 15.7% increase in job performance. r squared is 0.162, which means that about 16.2% of the variation in job performance is explained by locus of control. a regression equation with job performance as a dependent variable and self-leadership as the independent variable was constructed. this regression sought to determine the impact that the components of self-leadership have on job performance. the results are reported in table 5. table 5: regression results (self-leadership components). the results in table 5 show that behaviour-focused self-leadership and constructive thought were the only significant independent variables. they have a positive impact on job performance. a regression equation with job performance as a dependent variable and a combination of locus of control and self-leadership as the independent variables was constructed. the results are reported in table 6. table 6: regression results (both locus of control and self-leadership). the results in table 6 show that self-leadership and locus of control are significant independent variables even though both have a positive impact on job performance. discussion on findings in view of the regression results of locus of control as indicated in table 4, locus of control has a positive and statistically significant influence on job performance. this is supported by asiedu-appiah and addai’s study (2014) whose regression analysis examined the existence of a link between employees’ locus of control and contextual performance. their study concluded that employees with higher internal locus of control had higher contextual performance ratings than employees with external locus of control. furthermore, results from the regression analysis on self-leadership components (table 5) confirm that behaviour-focused and constructive thought strategies are the only significant independent variables that have a positive impact on job performance. because self-leadership is conceptualised as an intrapersonal process for influencing oneself (manz, 1986; manz & neck, 2004; sahin, 2011), it is not surprising that previous research has shown that each component of self-leadership contributes to performance (neck & houghton, 2006). for example, neck and manz (1992) found that individuals who received training in the constructive-thought pattern strategies experienced enhanced states of positive affect (enthusiasm) and job satisfaction as well as a decreased state of nervousness relative to those who had not received such training. the behaviour-focused coefficient of 0.104 means that an improvement in behaviour-focused self-leadership by 1.0% will lead to a 10.4% increase in job performance. moreover, the constructive thought coefficient of 0.167 means that an improvement in constructive thought leadership by 1.0% will lead to a 16.7% increase in job performance. although the behaviour-focused and constructive thought strategies were not very large, they were a statistically significant and positive influence on job performance. this finding is corroborated by findings from literature. a study conducted by politis (2006) established a direct, positive and significant relationship between behavioural-focused strategies and job satisfaction. it has usually been suggested that an individual who exhibits self-leadership behaviour is more likely to improve his or her performance with contributions to the organisational performance than an individual who does not exhibit self-leadership behaviours (neck & houghton, 2006; neck & manz, 1996). the standardised coefficients in table 5 show the marginal contributions of each variable to job performance and they help determine which of the independent variables are the most important. behaviour-focused leadership has a standardised coefficient of 0.418 and constructive thought has a standardised coefficient of 0.206. this means that behaviour-focused leadership exerts a larger positive influence on job performance than constructive thought. the r square value is 0.277, which means that about 27.7% of the variation in job performance is explained by behaviour-focused leadership and constructive thought. our finding (table 6) on how locus of control and job performance are connected to performance resonates with mainstream literature. the self-leadership coefficient was 0.085, implying that an improvement in self-leadership of 1.0% leads to an 8.5% increase in job performance. the locus of control coefficient was 0.086, which means that an improvement in locus of control of 1% will increase the job performance of the engineering workforce by 8.6%. when self-leadership and locus of control are considered jointly, they explain 29.9% of the variation in job performance. this is consistent with the literature review, which reports that self-leadership is impossible without locus of control (adams et al., 2008; mcdevitt et al., 2007). the self-leadership contribution to locus of control – job performance is also widely supported by literature. these findings corroborate evidence from mainstream literature on the significant role of self-leadership in improving organisational performance (dewettinck & van ameijde, 2011; kalyar, 2011; schermuly & meyer, 2011). moreover, the locus of control coefficient of 0.086 implies that an increase in locus of control of 1% will lead to 8.6% increase in job performance. thomas et al. (2006) report a strong connection between employees’ regulation or control of their actions (i.e. locus of control) and the consequences of those actions in the work environment (e.g. successful job performance). the standardised coefficients show the marginal contributions of each variable to job performance and assist in determining which of the independent variables are the most important. self-leadership has a standardised coefficient of 0.429 and the locus of control has a standardised coefficient of 0.219. this means that self-leadership has a larger contribution to job performance than locus of control. the r square value is 0.299, which means that about 29.9% of the variation in job performance is explained by self-leadership and locus of control. the findings on regression analysis (table 6) led to the conclusion that there is a positive relationship among self-leadership, locus of control and job performance even though the effect of the relationship as shown in the above tables is moderately strong. implications the fact that self-leadership and locus of control are regarded as self-influence behaviour that directs an individual towards performance when working indicates that managers need to develop a wider awareness of these concepts within the work environment to increase the self-conscious actions that affect employee productivity in the work environment. this will enable the employees to understand and identify with a strong leadership culture of an organisation to improve innovation and productivity with the organisation. given that self-leadership had a comparatively strong influence on job performance in comparison with locus of control, there is need for senior leadership to emphasise employees’ self-leadership if improved job performance is to be sustainably maintained. even though locus of control should not be ignored completely, more attention should be devoted to self-leadership. even though locus of control accounted for a small percentage (i.e. 16.2%) of the variations in job performance of the engineering workforce, this figure could be conceived as critical and cannot be ignored. because our study did not necessarily differentiate the impact of internal locus of control from external locus of control, it would be important for the management of eskom to delineate the possible performance differences arising from these forms of locus of control. specific focus could be paid to environmental conditions (work environment, supervisory approaches, training and development) as they relate to job performance and compare them to performance arising from individual psychological dispositions (personal agency, self-efficacy). because considerable variations in job performance were consequences of the combined influence of self-leadership and locus of control, perhaps there is need for eskom management to consider self-leadership within this organisation in conjunction with locus of control. this can take the form of infusion of components of these constructs into their staff development and training at both managerial and operational levels. such concepts should be infused into the operational practices of engineers, technologists and technicians within the organisation. for instance, the expression of self-leadership by the engineering workforce may require that eskom engineers do not only have to cooperate and follow the lead of their superiors but rather demonstrate self-leadership by challenging or resisting problematic and inappropriate leadership strategies implemented by their leaders. limitations and directions for future research because the study adopts a survey approach, this may mean that the results might have limited applicability to other related electricity utilities across the country. the sample size and uniqueness of conditions that obtain at eskom in the free state may not resonate with those at other power distribution stations. thus, expanding the focus of investigation to cover other power generators across the country may improve the generalisability of results. given that exploratory studies, such as the current one are based on perceptions of respondents from the eskom workforce at a particular time when the research was conducted, there is no guarantee of replicability of this study in the future as a result of an evolution of staff views on locus of control and self-leadership as conditions at eskom change over time. that said, this study can be conceived as an accurate presentation of the perceptions of eskom, bloemfontein engineering workforce at the time this study was conducted. this study focused on only one public power generation and distribution utility. it is important to take into consideration that this power utility, in its own way, is unique from other power utilities in terms of its structure, communication systems and management style. besides, the study focuses on engineers exclusively. thus, a larger sample of employees, including senior management, would allow a broader representation of the views on the matters investigated in this study, which will increase the extent of generalisability of results. conclusion the findings revealed that a combination of self-leadership and internal locus of control is critical to achieving high job performance of engineers. such performance could emerge from increased proficiency, proactivity and multitasking in the face of competing tasks and work activities. it is recommended that behaviour-focused and constructive thought pattern stratergies need to be aligned with internal locus of control behaviours to guarantee improved job performance of the engineering workforce at eskom bloemfontein. behaviour-focused strategies, which emphasise observation and change of the engineers’ own behaviour through primary factor strategies, could emphasise a strong customer orientation through proactive work order handling, prioritisation of customer needs, efficient and effective resource (money, time and energy) allocation, rapid response strategies to field services, fault management, control centre and flexing of work requirements in view of resource constraints. finally, constructive thought process would cover all the ‘head work’ required in design engineering, alignment of technical drawings to industrial and iso (international organisation for standardisation) standards, plant life cycle management and maintenance. acknowledgements the authors are grateful to the eskom bloemfontein engineering workforce for their participation in the survey and to eskom senior management for granting them permission to conduct the study in their organisation. the authors also thank the central university of technology, free state, for funding this study. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions d.l.m. wrote the article. p.r. reworked the entire article and c.c. edited the final version of the article. references adams, r., kalliny, m., de los santos, g., & wang, y. (2008). marketing implications of locus of control orientation among college students: comparisons of hispanic and anglo students in the united states. the marketing management journal, 15(18), 109–120. april, k. a., dharani, b., & peters, k. (2012). impact of locus of control expectancy on level of well-being. review of european studies, 4(2), 124–137. https://doi.org/10.5539/res.v4n2p124 asgari, m. h., & vakili, m. (2012). the relationship between locus of control, creativity and performance of the educational department employees in the west of mazandaran. international research journal of applied and basic sciences, 3(17), 255–256. asiedu-appiah, f., & addai, h. (2014). an investigation into the causal relationship between employees’ locus of control and contextual performance. proceedings of asbbs annual conference: las vegas, 21(1), 40–55. bandura, a. (1986). social foundations of thought and action: a social cognitive theory. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. business tech. (2015). poor load shedding plans affect businesses. retrieved from http://www.fin24.com/economy/poor-load-shedding-plans-affect-businesses-20150128 cautela, j. r. (1969). behaviour therapy and self-control: techniques and applications. in c. m. franks (ed.), behavioural therapy: appraisal and status (pp. 323–340). new york: mcgraw hill. chen, j. c., & silverthorne, c. (2008). the impact of locus of control on job stress, job performance and job satisfaction in taiwan leadership and organisation development. journal of organisational behaviour, 29(5), 572–582. cde round table, (2008), south africa’s electricity crisis. how did we get here? and how do we put things right. retrieved from http://www.cde.org.za/south-africa-s-electricity-crisis-how-did-we-get-here-and-how-do-we-put-things-right/ dewettinck, k., & van ameijde, m. (2011). linking leadership empowerment behaviour to employee attitudes and behavioural intentions: testing the mediating role of psychological empowerment. personnel review, 40(3), 284–305. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481111118621 elloy, d. f. (2008). the relationship between self-leadership behaviours and organisation variables in a self-managed work team environment. management research review, 31(1), 801–810. eskom holdings soc ltd (2013a). 1923–2013, eskom’s 1st decade. retrieved from http://www.eskomnews.com/eskomnews/history/1stdecade/#page/2 goldman, e., wesner, m., & karnchanomai, o. (2013). reciprocal peer coaching: a critical contributor to implementing individual leadership plans. human resource development quarterly, 24, 63–87. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21153 hans, a., mubeen, s. a., & ghabshi, a. s. a. (2014). a study on locus of control and job satisfaction in private international schools in sultanate of oman. international journal of application or innovation in engineering and management, 3(1), 91–98. hauschildt, k., & konradt, u. (2012). the effect of self-leadership on work role performance in teams. leadership, 8(2), 145–168. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715011429588 houghton, j. d., dawley, d., & diliello, t. c. (2012). the abbreviated self-leadership questionnaire (aslq): a more concise measure of self-leadership. international journal of leadership studies, 7(4), 216–232. houghton, j. d., & jinkerson, d. l. (2007). constructive thought strategies and job satisfaction: a preliminary examination. journal of business and psychology, 22(9), 45–53. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-007-9046-9 jooste, k., & roux, l. z. (2014). the practice of self-leadership in personal and professional development of contract nursing staff in the environment of a higher education institution. african journal for physical, health education, recreation and dance, october (supplement 1:1), 275–285. kalyar, m. n. (2011). creativity, self-leadership and individual innovation. the journal of commerce, 3(3), 20–20. kerr, s., & jermier, j. m. (1978). substitutes for leadership: their meaning and measurement. organization behavior and human performance, 22, 375–403. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(78)90023-5 kücükkaragöz, h. (1998). effects of locus of control and the formation of the students control the focus of elementary school teachers. unpublished phd thesis, dokuz eylul university, izmir: social sciences institute. kumar, r. (2011). research methodology: a step-by-step guide for beginners. london: sage. manz, c. c. (1983). the art of self-leadership: strategies for personal effectiveness in your life and work. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall, inc. manz, c.c. (1986). self-leadership: toward an expanded theory of self-influence processes in organisations. academy of management review, 11(3), 585–600. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1986.4306232 manz, c. c., & neck, c. p. (2004). mastering self-leadership: empowering yourself for personal excellence (3rd ed.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice-hall. manz, c. c., & sims, h. p. (1980). self-management as a substitute for leadership: a social learning perspective. academy of management review, 5(7), 361–367. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1980.4288845 manz, c. c., & sims, h. p. (2001). the new super leadership: leading others to lead themselves. san francisco, ca: berrett-koehler. mcdevitt, r., giapponi, c., & tromley, c. (2007). a model of ethical decision-making: the integration of process and content. journal of business ethics, 10(73), 219–229. muhonen, t., & tokelson, e. (2004) work locus of control and its relationship to health and job satisfaction from a gender perspective. journal of stress and health, 21(20), 21–28. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.994 mustafa, b. (2011). goal orientations, locus of control and academic achievement in prospective teachers: an individual differences perspective. education science: theory and practice, 11(2), 540–546. national planning commission. (2012). national development plan 2030. retrieved from http://www.gov.za/sites/www.gov.za/files/executive%20summary-ndp%202030%20-%20our%20future%20-%20make%20it%20work.pdf neck, c. p., & houghton, j. d. (2006). two decades of self-leadership theory and research: past developments, present trends, and future possibilities. journal of managerial psychology, 21(6), 270–295. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610663097 neck, c. p., & manz, c. c. (1992). thought self-leadership: the impact of self-talk and mental imagery on performance. journal of organisational behaviour, 12(1), 681–699. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030130705 neck, c. p., & manz, c. c. (1996). thought self-leadership: the impact of mental strategies training on employee behaviour, cognition, and emotion. journal of organisational behaviour, 17, 445–467. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199609)17:5%3c445:aid-job770%3e3.0.co;2-n neck, c. p., & manz, c. c. (2010). mastering self-leadership: empowering yourself for personal excellence (5th ed.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. pearce, c. l., & manz, c. c. (2011), leadership centrality and corporate social irresponsibility (csir): the potential ameliorating effects of self and shared leadership on csir. journal of business ethics, 1(102), 563–579. politis, j. d. (2006). self-leadership behavioural-focused strategies and team performance: the mediating influence of job satisfaction. leadership and organisation development journal, 27(3), 203–216. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730610657721 pratoom, k., & savatsomboon, g. (2012). explaining factors affecting individual innovation: the case of producer group members in thailand. asia pacific journal of management, 3(29), 1063–1087. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-010-9246-0 shojaee, m., & french, c. (2014). the relationship between mental health components and locus of control in youth. mount saint vincent university. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269798586_the_relationship_between_mental_health_components_and_locus_of_control_in_youth sreejesh, s., mohapatra, s., & anusree, m. (2014). business research methods: an applied orientation. new york: springer international publishing prussia, g. e., anderson, j. s., & manz, c. c. (1998). self-leadership and performance outcomes: the mediating influence of self-efficacy. journal of organisational behaviour, 19(5), 523–538. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199809)19:5%3c523::aid-job860%3e3.0.co;2-i rastegar, m., & heidari, n. (2013). the relationship between locus of control, test anxiety, and religious orientation among iranian efl students. scientific research, 3, 73–78. rotter, j. b. (1966). generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. psychological monographs: general and applied, 80(4), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0092976 sahin, f. (2011). the interaction of self-leadership and psychological climate on job performance. african journal of business management, 5(5), 1787–1794. retrieved from http://www.academicjournals.org/ajbmdoi:10.5897/ajbm10.763 sharma, m., & kaur, g. (2011). workplace empowerment and organisational effectiveness: an empirical investigation of indian banking sector. academy of banking studies journal, 10(2), 105–120. shojaee, m., & french, c. (2014). the relationship between mental health components and locus of control in youth. psychology, 5(8), 966–978. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2014.58107 sonnentag, s., volmer, j., & spychala, a. (2010). job performance. konstanzer (online) publications system (kops). retrieved from http://nbn-resolveing.de/urn.nbn:de:bsz:352-opus-121834 spector, p. e. (1982). behavior in organisations as a function of employees’ locus of control. psychological bulletin, 30(91), 482–497. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.91.3.482 spector, p., & o’connell, b. j. (1994). the contribution of personality traits, negative, locus of control and type a to the subsequent reports of job stressor and job strains. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 67(1), 1–11. stewart, g. l., courtright, s. h., & manz, c. c. (2011). self-leadership: a multilevel review. journal of management, 19(37), 185–222. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310383911 thomas w. h. n., kelly, l. s., & lillian, t. e. (2006). locus of control at work: a meta-analysis. journal of organisational behaviour, 27(2), 107–118. tsotsi, z. (2011). the eskom factor: chairman’s reflection. sunninghill sandton, johannesburg: eskom holdings limited. retrieved from http://www.eskom.co.za/ourcompany/sustainabledevelopment/documents/eskomfactor.pdf van zyl, e. (2013). self-leadership and happiness within the african working context. journal of psychology, 4(2), 59–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/09764224.2013.11885494 verwey, a., du plessis, f., & van der merwe, l. (2013). leadership effectiveness and toxicity – different perspectives. a pilot study in south africa. retrieved from http://whizants.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/leadership-effectiveness-and-toxicity_article-2_20131025.pdf wang, q., bowling, n. a., & eschleman, k. j. (2010). a meta-analytic examination of work and general locus of control. journal of applied psychology, 95(4), 761–780. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017707 zaidi, i. h., & mohsin, m. n. (2013). locus of control in graduation students. international journal of psychological research, 6(1), 15–20. https://doi.org/10.21500/20112084.695 abstract introduction literature review method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) wesley r. pieters department of human sciences, university of namibia, namibia citation pieters, w. r. (2018). assessing organisational justice as a predictor of job satisfaction and employee engagement in windhoek. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a928. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.928 original research assessing organisational justice as a predictor of job satisfaction and employee engagement in windhoek wesley r. pieters received: 13 mar. 2017; accepted: 29 may 2018; published: 27 aug. 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: working in the service industry with similar products and services requires organisations to be proactive and efficient. enhancing employees’ levels of organisational justice is likely to influence job satisfaction and employee engagement. research purpose: the purpose of this study was to investigate the dimensions of organisational justice that best predict job satisfaction and employee engagement among employees in windhoek, namibia. motivation for the study: poor service delivery is a concern within the service industry and this includes the banks and universities that operate in windhoek. having engaged employees is most likely going to improve the quality of service and customer satisfaction. research approach/design and method: a cross-sectional survey design was used, employing a questionnaire to collect data on the biographical details, organisational justice, job satisfaction and employee engagement of employees at a bank and university in windhoek. the sample consisted of employees from a bank, bank a (n = 106), and administrative staff at a university (n = 97). main findings: significant predictors of employee engagement (work energy) were interpersonal organisational justice and intrinsic job satisfaction. regarding employee engagement (work focus), intrinsic job satisfaction and extrinsic job satisfaction were the significant predictors. practical/managerial implications: managers and supervisors need to regularly assess, monitor and enhance employees’ perception of organisational justice, job satisfaction and employee engagement. improving organisational justice within the workplace is likely to result in an increase in job satisfaction and employee engagement, resulting in increased productivity and customer satisfaction. contribution/value-add: the novelty of this study in namibia will add to already existing knowledge within industrial and organisational psychology, pave the way for future research and guide the development of interventions aimed at keeping employees satisfied and engaged in their work. introduction employees working in the service industry may regard their jobs as challenging and exhausting. the manner in which employees or representatives from an organisation interact with clients will have a significant impact on the customers’ experience (bettencourt & brown, 1997). furthermore, the nature of the interaction will also impact on customers’ decision regarding whether to continue making use of the organisation’s service or to look for another service provider. the consequences of poor customer service are related to tertiary institutions and the banking industry. ikhide (2000) indicated that banks are critical to a country’s financial sector, and in namibia they account for half of the country’s financial assets. considering that namibia has five banks that offer similar services, it is important to identify how banks can remain competitive while at the same time remaining productive. competitiveness and productivity are some of the main reasons why organisations go into business. apart from the different advertising approaches or reduced banking fees, having the most satisfied and engaged workforce will likely add to that competitive advantage. soltis, agneessens, sasovova and labianca (2013) indicated that organisations are constantly working hard to retain their top talent, especially considering how much money and time is invested in developing employees to levels of effective functioning. universities, like many other organisations, are faced with increased challenges without the necessary resources to deal with the challenges (rothmann & jordaan, 2006). in order to maintain a competitive advantage and to overcome some of the challenges experienced by employees, apart from other positive experiences, these employees need to experience organisational justice. organisational justice can be defined as the perception of employees about fairness within the organisation (greenberg, 2011). this subjective perception can contradict what the employer believes or does in terms of fairness. organisational justice has different forms, namely distributive, procedural, informational and interpersonal justice. organisational justice may also be considered to consist of distributive, procedural and interactional justice. dajani (2015) found that when employees experience organisational justice they are also more likely to experience job satisfaction at the workplace. when employees perceive interactions to be fair at work they are likely to be more satisfied. job satisfaction can be regarded as the overall evaluation of employees regarding their jobs, characterised by gratification and positive feelings about their jobs. job satisfaction can be determined by different components of the job, namely pay, benefits, collegial relations, advancement opportunities or the meaning they experience from doing their jobs (judge & nammeyer-mueller, 2012). job satisfaction has been investigated as an antecedent or outcome variable. sehunoe, viviers and mayer (2015) found that when employees experience job satisfaction, they are also more likely to become more engaged in their work. employee engagement is defined as a positive, motivational state of work-related well-being that is fulfilling and affective (bakker, schaufeli, leiter, & taris, 2008). rothbard and patil (2012) explained engagement as the psychological presence of an employee in a role. this means that employees who are engaged experience positive emotions and work towards the goals of the organisation, especially if they identify with the specific role. these objectives would include providing quality customer service and ensuring that the objectives of the organisations are met more efficiently. rasheed, khan and ramzan (2013) indicated that organisational justice is a key factor for enhancing employee engagement within the organisation, and when improving employees’ perception of organisational justice, organisations ultimately also increase their competitive position within the job market. engaged employees also allow an organisation to achieve significant outcomes within their working environment. purpose a number of studies (alvi & abbasi, 2012; biswas, varma, & ramaswami, 2013; dajani, 2015; rasheed et al., 2013; saks, 2006; strom, sears, & kelly, 2013; tessema, 2014) have been conducted on the relationship between organisational justice and employee engagement, but a limited number, if any, has investigated the predictability of employee engagement by organisational justice. the same has been noted in relation to the relationship between job satisfaction and employee engagement. the researcher did not find any research regarding organisational justice, the relation between organisational justice, job satisfaction and employee engagement, nor has any study been found investigating the predictability of employee engagement by organisational justice or job satisfaction in namibia. this study aims to investigate these relations but also the predictability of organisational justice and job satisfaction on employee engagement. the aim of this study is equally to replicate the study in different industries, trying to influence the perception of employers, importance and understanding of organisational justice within the world of work. literature review organisational justice and job satisfaction as noted earlier, organisational justice comprises of three forms of justice, namely, distributive, procedural and interactional justice (interpersonal and informational justice combined). this study will be defining organisational justice based on the three forms of justice. distributive justice refers to the perception of fairness by employees in terms of how the outcomes within the organisation are distributed (rewards, recognition, pay). procedural justice pertains to how fair the procedures are that have been used to determine these outcomes. interactional justice refers to employees’ perception of fairness in terms of interpersonal treatment they receive from their authority figures within the organisation (greenberg, 2011). in a longitudinal study by kim, lin and leung (2015) conducted in hong kong on changes regarding the perception of employees about fairness, it was found that distributive justice at time 1 had a correlation of 0.29 with job satisfaction and 0.53 at time 2. procedural justice had correlations of 0.33 at time 1 and 0.43 at time 2 with job satisfaction. interactional justice also had correlations with job satisfaction, 0.27 at time 1 and 0.46 at time 2. this indicates that when employers invest time and effort in clarifying and educating employees on the procedures within organisations, communicating the outcomes of decisions and helping employees understand how decisions were reached, they are likely to increase their levels of perceived distributive, procedural and interactional justice. when these levels of perceived justice increase, they are more likely to experience higher levels of job satisfaction in their respective jobs. pinikahana and happell (2004) referred to job satisfaction as a state that is impacted by the employees’ personal characteristics, what they expect from the work and the organisation. in a study on talent management gelens, hofmans, dries and pepermans (2014) found a positive practical significant relation between job satisfaction and perceived procedural fairness. they also reported a positive practical significant relation between job satisfaction and perceived distributive justice. this means that if employees experience procedural and distributive justice in the organisation, perceiving procedures to be followed fairly and rewards and punishment to be distributed fairly, they are also more likely to experience job satisfaction in the organisation. organisational justice was shown to be positively related to job satisfaction in an investigation on employees in malawi (mcauliffe, manafa, maseko, bowie, & white, 2009). procedural justice (0.49), distributive justice (0.49), interpersonal justice (0.43) and informational justice (0.51) had a positive relation with job satisfaction (lawson, noblet, & rodwell, 2009). it was further found that distributive and interactional justice significantly influenced job satisfaction (lopez-cabarcos, pinho, & vazques-rodriguez, 2014). al-tit and hunitie (2015) conducted research at an academic institution and found that organisational justice was also positively correlated to job satisfaction (0.47). procedural justice (0.39) and distributive justice (0.51) had significant correlations with job satisfaction among employees working in canada (saks, 2006). these findings indicate that when employees perceive organisational justice within the organisation, if rewards and punishment are being distributed fairly, if procedures within the organisation are being followed and if the manner in which supervisors and colleagues interact is collegial, employees are likely to find more pleasure and satisfaction in their jobs. when working for an organisation that is regarded as treating employees fairly, employees are more likely to experience satisfaction in their work. considering the literature presenting a link between organisational justice and job satisfaction, the following hypotheses were developed: hypothesis 1: organisational justice has a positive relation with job satisfaction. hypothesis 2: organisational justice is a significant predictor of job satisfaction. organisational justice and employee engagement in a study on bank employees conducted in ethiopia by tessema (2014), it was found that perceptions of organisational justice positively impacted on employees’ level of engagement. it was further stated that when employees perceive fairness within the organisation they are also more likely to feel obliged to be fair in doing their work, resulting in higher levels of employee engagement. alvi and abbasi (2012) also undertook a similar study in pakistan on banking employees and found distributive (0.56), procedural (0.41) and interactional justice (0.43) to be positively correlated to employee engagement. when employees experience interactional justice, they perceive the manner in which supervisors and colleagues interact with them as fair and just. when you have colleagues and supervisors treating you with the necessary respect and dignity, you are also more likely to want to follow the instructions of such a supervisor or work collectively with these colleagues to achieve your organisational goals, becoming more engaged in the work that you are tasked to do. in an online survey by strom et al. (2013), distributive justice (0.44) and procedural justice (0.52) had positive correlations with employee engagement. this indicates that when employees perceive the distribution of rewards and punishment to be done fairly and justly, they are more likely to also become engaged in the work that they do in the organisation. based on the equity theory of 1963 by stacey adams (al-zawahreh & al-madi, 2012), when employees perceive an imbalance between inputs and outcomes, they are likely to find ways to re-establish equity. this means that when employees are treated unfairly (distributive justice, more punishment or fewer rewards), it is expected that these employees might try to find ways to reduce their inputs to justify the outcomes that they receive. conducting research on managers in india, biswas et al. (2013) found that distributive (0.01) and procedural justice (0.39) showed positive correlations with employee engagement. in a study that set out to determine the antecedents and outcomes of employee engagement in pakistan, rasheed et al. (2013) reported that procedural justice (0.26) correlated positively with job engagement and organisational engagement (0.47). distributive justice also had positive correlations with job engagement (0.19) and with organisational engagement (0.27). in an analysis of the antecedents and outcomes of employee engagement saks (2006) found a positive correlation between procedural justice and job engagement (0.25) and organisational engagement (0.41). distributive justice was also positively related to job engagement (0.22) and organisational engagement (0.33). in another study on employee engagement, al-tit and hunitie (2015) found that organisational justice was positively related to employee engagement (0.53). similarly, dajani (2015) conducted research within the egyptian banking sector and also found organisational justice to be positively correlated to employee engagement (0.44). when employees perceive the procedures used to determine outcomes as fair, meaning that the way or manner in which decisions within the organisations are made seems to be in line with organisational procedure, employees are more likely to become engaged in the work that they do in the organisation. based on the aforementioned literature on the link between organisational justice and employee engagement, the following hypotheses were developed: hypothesis 3: organisational justice has a positive relation with employee engagement. hypothesis 4: organisational justice is a significant predictor of employee engagement. job satisfaction and employee engagement bakker et al. (2008) indicated that employee engagement is characterised by vigour (high levels of energy in executing work tasks), dedication (remaining focused on completing the task even when it becomes challenging) and absorption (being able to work for long periods of time while being actively involved). harter, schmidt and hayes (2002) indicated that job satisfaction and employee engagement are related to meaningful business outcomes, and in order for the business to be successful and productive, it must first impact on individual-level constructs. saks (2006) found that job satisfaction is positively related to job engagement (0.52) and organisational engagement (0.57). the same positive correlation was found between job satisfaction and employee engagement (0.43) (brunetto, teo, shacklock, & farr-wharton, 2012). job satisfaction was also proven to have a positive correlation with vigour (0.44), dedication (0.50) and absorption (0.35) (sehunoe et al., 2015). it was further noted that job satisfaction and employee engagement are strong predictors of organisational commitment (affective commitment). this indicates that when employees are satisfied in their jobs they are more likely to become engaged in their work and are more likely to want to remain with the organisation. rothmann (2008) found that extrinsic satisfaction had a positive correlation with vigour (0.20) and dedication (0.21); intrinsic satisfaction also correlated positively with vigour (0.16) and dedication (0.23). al-tit and hunitie (2015) have shown that job satisfaction is an outcome of employee engagement. based on the aforementioned literature discussing the relation between employee engagement and job satisfaction, the following hypotheses were developed: hypothesis 5: job satisfaction is positively related to employee engagement. hypothesis 6: job satisfaction is a significant predictor of employee engagement. method research approach making use of a questionnaire, a cross-sectional research design was used to collect data on the biographical variables of employees, organisational justice, job satisfaction and employee engagement (creswell, 2003). research assistants approached institutions that provided a service to customers and these institutions provided approval to conduct the research. these organisations were approached at random and research was only conducted where and when approval was granted. participants making use of convenience sampling, participants who were fluent in english were included from a bank and a university in windhoek, namibia. from bank a, 106 participants (52.2%) and 97 participants from the university (47.8%) took part in the study. in total, 240 questionnaires were distributed and 203 completed questionnaires were returned. the distribution between males and females was fairly even with 45.3% males (n = 92) and 54.7% females (n = 111). the larger group in terms of age is of participants between the ages of 24 and 30 years (n = 85, 41.9%), with only five participants in the age category of 51 and older (2.5%). the participants had worked for approximately 1–2 years (n = 56, 27.6%), and 12 participants (5.9%) had worked for 7–8 years. looking at marital status, 69.5% (n = 141) of the participants were single, 26.6% (n = 54) were married and 3.9% (n = 8) were divorced. regarding qualifications, 91 participants (44.8%) had completed grade 12 and 0.5% (n = 1) had obtained post-doctoral qualifications. regarding the number of dependents, 90 (44.3%) had no dependents and only 1.5% (n = 3) had 5–6 dependents. the remainder of the biographical information is presented in table 1. table 1: biographical details of sample (n = 203). measuring instruments biographical information was collected using a questionnaire developed by the researcher to get information regarding the participants’ sex, age, marital status, qualifications, tenure and dependents within the two organisations. organisational justice was measured using the organisational justice measure developed by colquitt (2001) measuring procedural, distributive, interpersonal and informational justice. this instrument measures procedural justice by using seven items (‘to what extent have those procedures been free from bias?’), four items measuring distributive justice (‘to what extent is your [outcome] justified, given your performance?’), interpersonal justice being measured by four items (‘to what extent has he/she treated you with dignity?’), with informational justice being measured by five items (‘to what extent has he/she communicated details in a timely manner?’). this instrument is a self-report questionnaire making use of a likert-scale response format ranging from 1 (to a very small extent) to 5 (to a very large extent). cronbach’s alphas of 0.86 and 0.90 were also recorded for procedural justice and interpersonal justice, respectively, indicating the reliability of this instrument. employee engagement was measured using the utrecht work engagement scale developed by schaufeli, bakker and salanova (2006), making use of 17 items measuring vigour (‘i am bursting with energy in my work’), dedication (‘i find the work that i do full of meaning and purpose’) and absorption (‘time flies when i am working’). this is a self-report questionnaire with responses ranging from 0 (never) to 6 (every day), having reported cronbach’s alphas of 0.70 (simons & buitendach, 2013). job satisfaction was measured using the revised minnesota job satisfaction questionnaire developed by weiss, dawis, england and lofquist (1967). the instrument measures intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction (‘the working conditions’, ‘the praise i get for doing a good job’). this is also a self-report questionnaire with response items ranging between ‘very dissatisfied’ and ‘very satisfied’. pieters (2015) reported cronbach’s alphas ranging between 0.70 and 0.77 for autonomy, social, advancement and intrinsic job satisfaction. design research assistants were employed to help in conducting the study, and permission to conduct the study was obtained from the participating bank and university. participants were individually approached for permission to participate in the study. an information sheet and a consent form were distributed, and informed consent was then granted on an individual basis. the data were analysed using spss; no participants were harmed during the research; participants’ information was anonymised and kept confidential. furthermore, participants were in no way disadvantaged if deciding not to participate or to withdraw from the study. the questionnaires are kept in a safe place for safety and future consideration. analysis making use of spss version 24.0 (spss, 2016) the data were analysed. cronbach’s alpha coefficients (α) were used to determine the internal consistency of the measuring instruments; pearson correlation coefficients were used to determine the relationship between the variables. descriptive statistics were also used to describe the means and standard deviations (sds). multiple regression analyses were used to investigate whether organisational justice predicted job satisfaction and employee engagement. it was also decided to set the value of significance at 95% confidence interval level (p < 0.05). effect sizes were used to determine the practical significance of the findings (steyn, 1999), while a cut-off point of 0.30 (medium effect) was set for the practical significance of the correlation coefficient (cohen, 1988). results descriptive statistics and correlations the means, sd, cronbach’s alpha and correlations were analysed and recorded in table 2. table 2: descriptive statistics and pearson correlation coefficient. cronbach’s alphas were obtained on all the measuring instruments and were found to range between 0.68 and 0.86. resi and judd (2000) indicated that cronbach’s alphas between 0.80 and 0.60 are acceptable for research. means and sds were analysed to describe the data. a mean score of 18.00 was recorded for procedural justice and 14.85 for interpersonal justice. as part of job satisfaction, a mean score of 23.71 was recorded for intrinsic job satisfaction and a mean score of 25.44 for extrinsic job satisfaction. for employee engagement, a mean score of 13.75 was recorded for employee engagement (work energy) and a mean score of 15.58 for employee engagement (work focus). it terms of the sd, 4.93 was recorded for procedural justice and 3.37 for interpersonal justice. an sd of 4.02 was recorded for intrinsic job satisfaction and 5.26 for extrinsic job satisfaction. for employee engagement (work energy) an sd of 3.45 was reported and 5.93 for employee engagement (work focus). making use of pearson correlation coefficients, it was found that procedural justice had a positive correlation with interpersonal justice (r = 0.41, p < 0.05; medium effect); with intrinsic job satisfaction (r = 0.35, p < 0.05; medium effect); and with extrinsic job satisfaction (r = 0.44, p < 0.05; medium effect). interpersonal justice was also found to be positively related to intrinsic job satisfaction (r = 0.41, p < 0.05; medium effect); with extrinsic job satisfaction (r = 0.55, p < 0.05; large effect); supporting hypothesis 1. procedural justice had a positive correlation with employee engagement (work energy) (r = 0.22, p < 0.05; statistically significant) and with employee engagement (work focus) (r = 0.37, p < 0.05; medium effect). interpersonal justice was also found to be positively related to employee engagement (work energy) (r = 0.38, p < 0.05; medium effect) and with employee engagement (work focus) (r = 0.36, p < 0.05; medium effect), thereby supporting hypothesis 3. intrinsic job satisfaction correlated positively with employee engagement (work energy) (r = 0.57, p < 0.05; large effect) and with employee engagement (work focus) (r = 0.50, p < 0.05; large effect). extrinsic job satisfaction also had positive correlation with employee engagement (work energy) (r = 0.40, p < 0.05; medium effect) and with employee engagement (work focus) (r = 0.51, p < 0.05; large effect), hence supporting hypothesis 5. multiple regression analyses multiple regression analyses were carried out to test hypotheses 2, 4 and 6. in the first model, extrinsic job satisfaction was used as the dependent variable, with procedural justice and interpersonal justice as the independent variables in step 1. the results are reported in table 3. table 3: multiple regression analysis with extrinsic job satisfaction being the dependant variable and procedural justice and interpersonal justice the independent variables. from table 3 we can see that including procedural justice and interpersonal justice at the first step of the regression analysis produced a statistically significant model (f(2,200) = 56.82; p < 0.00) and accounted for 36% of the variance. it appears that procedural justice (β = 0.26; t = 4.18; p < 0.00) and interpersonal justice (β = 0.45; t = 7.22; p < 0.00) are significant predictors of extrinsic job satisfaction. multiple regression analyses were performed in order to identify the significant predictors in relation to the hypotheses of this study. the first model analysed used intrinsic job satisfaction as the dependent variable and procedural justice and interpersonal justice as the independent variables (model 1). the results are reported in table 4. table 4: multiple regression analysis with intrinsic job satisfaction being the dependent variable and procedural justice and interpersonal justice the independent variables. as can be seen from table 4, including procedural justice and interpersonal justice at the first step of the regression analysis produced a statistically significant model (f(2,200) = 25.83; p < 0.00) and accounted for 20% of the variance. it appears that procedural justice (β = 0.22; t = 3.20; p < 0.02) and interpersonal justice (β = 0.32; t = 4.55; p < 0.00) are significant predictors of intrinsic job satisfaction. the first model analysed used employee engagement (work energy) as the dependent variable and procedural justice and interpersonal justice were the independent variables (model 1). intrinsic job satisfaction and extrinsic job satisfaction in model 2. the results are reported in table 5. table 5: multiple regression analysis with employee engagement (work energy) being the dependent variable and procedural justice, interpersonal justice, intrinsic job satisfaction and extrinsic job satisfaction the independent variables. as shown in table 5, including procedural justice and interpersonal justice at the first step of the regression analysis produced a statistically significant model (f(2,200) = 17.96; p < 0.00) and accounted for 14% of the variance. it appears that procedural justice (β = 0.08; t = 1.11; p < 0.27) is not a significant predictor and that interpersonal justice (β = 0.35; t = 4.91; p < 0.00) is a significant predictor of employee engagement (work energy). in the second step of the regression analysis, job satisfaction was entered, and it produced an insignificant model. job satisfaction being part of the model (f(4,198) = 27.49; p < 0.57) explained an additional 34% of the total variance. looking at this together with job satisfaction, interpersonal justice (β = 0.16; t = 2.25; p < 0.03) and intrinsic job satisfaction (β = 0.47; t = 7.03; p < 0.00) predicted employee engagement (work energy). multiple regression analyses were performed. the first model used employee engagement (work focus) as the dependent variable and procedural justice and interpersonal justice as the independent variables (model 1). intrinsic job satisfaction and extrinsic job satisfaction in model 2. the results are reported in table 6. table 6: multiple regression analysis with employee engagement (work focus) being the dependent variable and procedural justice, interpersonal justice, intrinsic job satisfaction and extrinsic job satisfaction the independent variables. it can be seen from the data in table 6 that entry of procedural justice and interpersonal justice at the first step of the regression analysis did not produce a statistically significant model (f(2,200) = 23.80; p < 0.09) and accounted for 18% of the variance. it appears that procedural justice (β = 0.32; t = 3.83; p < 0.00) and interpersonal justice (β = 0.49; t = 3.65; p < 0.00) are significant predictors of employee engagement (work focus). in the second step of the regression analysis, job satisfaction was entered, and it produced a significant model. job satisfaction being part of the model (f(4,198) = 27.42; p < 0.00) explained an additional 34% of the total variance. looking at this together with job satisfaction, intrinsic job satisfaction (β = 0.30; t = 4.50; p < 0.00) and extrinsic job satisfaction (β = 0.29; t = 3.79; p < 0.00) predicted employee engagement (work focus). in summary, it has been shown from this discussion that: procedural justice predicted intrinsic job satisfaction (β = 0.22; t = 3.20; p < 0.02), intrinsic job satisfaction predicted employee engagement (work energy) (β = 0.47; t = 7.03; p < 0.00) and intrinsic job satisfaction predicted employee engagement (work focus) (β = 0.30; t = 4.50; p < 0.00). procedural justice (β = 0.26; t = 4.18; p < 0.00) predicted extrinsic job satisfaction, and extrinsic job satisfaction predicted employee engagement (work focus) (β = 0.29; t = 3.79; p < 0.00). procedural justice predicted employee engagement (work focus) (β = 0.27; t = 3.83; p < 0.00). interpersonal justice predicted intrinsic job satisfaction (β = 0.32; t = 4.55; p < 0.00), intrinsic job satisfaction predicted employee engagement (work energy) (β = 0.47; t = 7.03; p < 0.00) and intrinsic job satisfaction predicted employee engagement (work focus) (β = 0.30; t = 4.50; p < 0.00). interpersonal justice predicted extrinsic job satisfaction (β = 0.45; t = 7.22; p < 0.00); extrinsic job satisfaction predicted employee engagement (work focus) (β = 0.29; t = 3.79; p < 0.00). interpersonal justice predicted employee engagement (work energy) (β = 0.35; t = 4.91; p < 0.00). interpersonal justice predicted employee engagement (work focus) (β = 0.25; t = 3.65; p < 0.00). discussion outline of the results the first hypothesis of this study, organisational justice has a positive relation with job satisfaction, was accepted. procedural justice had a positive correlation with intrinsic job satisfaction and extrinsic job satisfaction. interpersonal justice also had positive correlations with intrinsic job satisfaction and extrinsic job satisfaction. interpersonal justice was found to be a stronger predictor of extrinsic job satisfaction and intrinsic job satisfaction over procedural justice, supporting hypothesis 2. gelens et al. (2014) also found positive correlations between procedural, distributive justice and job satisfaction. this indicates that when the organisational procedures are followed and applied consistently and fairly, when supervisors and managers treat employees with the necessary respect and dignity, employees are more likely to be satisfied in their jobs. several studies, including al-tit and hunitie (2015), lawson et al. (2009), lopez-cabarcos et al. (2014), mcauliffe et al. (2009) and saks (2006), also found positive correlations between components of organisational justice and job satisfaction. what is interesting to note is that these studies also highlighted the importance of interpersonal justice within the organisation and how it also has a positive correlation with job satisfaction. once managers or supervisors make a decision, informing employees about how that decision was made and treating them with the necessary respect and dignity enhances interpersonal justice. another critical component that impacts on job attitudes is the relations supervisors, managers and colleagues have with each other at work. employees spend 160 hours per month at work, and having negative relations or interactions with colleagues can negatively impact on the levels of job satisfaction. procedural justice had a positive correlation with employee engagement (work energy) and with employee engagement (work focus). interpersonal justice was also found to be positively related to employee engagement (work energy) and with employee engagement (work focus), supporting hypothesis 3. tessema (2014) also found similar results and stated that when employees experience fairness and justice within the workplace, they are likely to feel obligated to be fair in doing the work that they are paid for (employee engagement). interpersonal justice was found to be a significant predictor of work energy (employee engagement), supporting hypothesis 4 partially. procedural justice was not found to be a significant predictor of work focus (employee engagement); equally, procedural justice and interpersonal justice were also not found to be significant predictors of work energy (employee engagement). alvi and abbasi (2012) found interactional justice to be important in enhancing employees’ levels of engagement in their work. when supervisors and managers treat employees with the necessary respect and dignity (interactional justice), they are more likely to follow and execute instructions from these supervisors and managers (employee engagement). it was also found that distributive justice correlated positively to employee engagement. considering the equity theory by stacey adams in 1963 (al-zawahreh & al-madi, 2012), when rewards and punishment are not distributed fairly, employees will likely try and find ways to re-establish this imbalance between inputs and outcomes. this means that when supervisors favour certain employees, ensuring that these employees get more rewards and less punishment when compared to other employees, the employees who experience lower levels of distributive injustice will likely become disengaged from their work. this positive correlation between organisational justice and employee engagement was also supported by studies conducted in india (biswas et al., 2013), pakistan (rasheed et al., 2013) and egypt (dajani, 2015) and by studies conducted by al-tit and hunitie (2015), saks (2006) and strom et al. (2013). intrinsic job satisfaction correlated positively with employee engagement (work energy) and with employee engagement (work focus). extrinsic job satisfaction also had positive correlation with employee engagement (work energy) and with employee engagement (work focus), supporting hypothesis 5. intrinsic job satisfaction was found to be a significant predictor for employee engagement (work energy). intrinsic job satisfaction and extrinsic job satisfaction were found to be significant predictors of employee engagement (work focus), thereby supporting hypothesis 6. these findings are also supported by studies conducted by al-tit and hunitie (2015), brunetto et al. (2012) and saks (2006). rothmann (2008) and sehunoe et al. (2015) found positive correlations between job satisfaction and vigour, dedication and absorption. this means that when employees are satisfied in their jobs they are more likely to become more engaged in the work that they do. they would experience high levels of energy and mental resilience (vigour); they would be more involved in the work that they do, experience pride, inspiration, enthusiasm and feel like they were making a positive contribution in the work that they do (dedication); they would be fully concentrated on, happy and engrossed (taken in) by their work (absorption) (bakker et al., 2008). kim et al. (2015) found that the perception of justice decreases over time especially for newcomers in an organisation. after the honeymoon phase when joining a new organisation, employees perceive lower levels of organisational justice. resultantly, employers need to clarify unrealistic expectations, establish fair procedures for allocating rewards and improve communication about procedures and decisions made. when employers improve employees’ perception of organisational justice, employees will be more satisfied in their jobs. overall performance was found to be positively related to distributive justice (0.22) and procedural justice (0.46) (kassahun, 2005). this supports the importance of organisational justice, indicating how it also impacts on organisational performance. brunetto et al. (2012) suggested that possible factors that could influence job satisfaction levels of employees are inadequate supervisory resourcing and support, as well as unrealistic performance targets. this means that when supervisors do not provide the necessary resources and support to employees while having unrealistic work expectations, it could result in employees becoming dissatisfied in their work. rothmann and rothmann (2010) indicated that work role fit was the best predictor of employee engagement. job resources were also found to be positively related to employee engagement. organisational support and growth opportunities were the best predictors of vigour, dedication and absorption. it is thus suggested that organisations should put more emphasis on employment practices to ensure that the best-suited candidates are employed in the positions that best fit their abilities and skills. working in an environment that provides the necessary resources (physical, emotional and cognitive) to execute their duties allows for improved employee engagement. having policies and work practices in place that support employees, allowing employees to become part of decision-making within the organisation, identifying the needs of the employees and developing career growth paths for advancement (remuneration, promotion and training) also impacts positively on employee engagement. practical implications managers and organisations need to ensure that when they distribute rewards and punishments, it is done fairly and consistently. it is also important for managers and organisations to apply workplace policies consistently and fairly, giving the same outcomes for the same actions. gelens et al. (2014), as with this study, found that when employees perceive distributive and procedural justice within the organisation, they are more likely to become more satisfied in their jobs. ensuring that employees become more engaged and perceive organisational justice is not a once-off process, but rather one that requires continuous assessment, monitoring and improvement (kim et al., 2015; rasheed et al., 2013). it is thus suggested that organisations should monitor employees’ engagement levels regularly and improve where needed. the same can be said about employees’ levels of perceived organisational justice. when employees do not know or understand how and why certain outcomes were reached, they might perceive these outcomes as being unfair even though the organisation is handling procedures fairly and applying workplace policies consistently. to keep employees satisfied, conduct regular assessments and identify what would make your employees satisfied. the requirements for job satisfaction are not the same for all employees nor for all organisations. each organisation and employee will have different aspects that satisfy them in their work. boonzaier, ficker and rust (2001) indicated that in order for employees to be motivated and satisfied in their jobs, the jobs need to have five job characteristics. these job characteristics are task identity, the degree to which an employee can identify with a complete or identifiable piece of work, from start to finish; task significance has to do with the degree to which the job has an impact on the lives or work of other people, in the organisation or the external environment. skill variety refers to the degree to which the employees can use different skills and talents to execute their duties at work. autonomy can be defined as the degree to which the job allows you to be able to decide, having substantial freedom, independence and discretion in deciding how to execute your duties at work. feedback refers to the extent to which the job requires you to execute your work with direct and clear information about the effectiveness of your work performance. job resources and support, opportunities for advancement (marais, de klerk, nel, & de beer, 2014), supportive colleagues and supervisors (okediji, etuk, & anthony, 2011) and total rewards (smit, stanz, & bussin, 2015) may influence job satisfaction of employees. in order for businesses to become successful and productive, they need to focus on individual-level constructs such as job satisfaction and employee engagement (harter et al., 2002). one way of enhancing job satisfaction and employee engagement could be to start with organisational justice. organisational justice can be enhanced by ensuring that rewards and punishment are distributed fairly within the organisation and ensuring that organisational procedures are followed when making decisions that impact on the employees. managers and supervisors need to communicate these decisions, but they should ensure that the employees have been educated about these policies and procedures. another measure could be to ensure that managers and supervisors treat employees with the necessary respect and dignity that would not only enhance employees’ level of job satisfaction but also make employees more engaged in their work. limitations some of the limitations experienced when conducting this study include limited access to the bank because of gatekeepers. in addition, some questionnaires were not completed in full and were excluded from this study. data were collected over a period of a few months because of time constraints. recommendations this research has thrown up many questions in need of further investigation. it is therefore recommended that a similar study should be conducted on a long-term basis (longitudinal study) to solidify the findings in this study. further research could employ a quasi-experimental approach to explore the impact of educating employees about workplace policies and procedures, being informed about the information used to reach certain outcomes to test how organisational justice can be improved with education, information sharing and transparency. conclusion rasheed et al. (2013) indicated that because employee engagement is such a critical factor for an organisation to achieve significant outcomes, it should be measured, monitored and improved on a regular basis. when enhancing employees’ perception of organisational justice (distributive, procedural and interactional justice), organisations are also enhancing employee engagement within the organisation and improving overall performance (kassahun, 2005). managers need to understand that in order for employees to become more engaged, managers and supervisors need to provide resources and benefits that will motivate employees to want to do more. some of the factors that might positively influence employees’ level of engagement include organisational justice, job satisfaction, social support and job characteristics (saks, 2006). it is also critical to note that the same motivating factors might not work for all employees, meaning that organisations need to identify what resources and benefits would make employees more likely to become more engaged in their work. this study found that procedural justice and interpersonal justice are significant predictors of intrinsic job satisfaction, extrinsic job satisfaction and employee engagement (work energy and work focus). if organisations could introduce measures of addressing organisational justice within the workplace, they would be attending to the employees’ levels of job satisfaction and enhance their levels of engagement, thus resulting in increased productivity and customer satisfaction. acknowledgements the author would like to thank his research students, a. norich and n. neshuku, for assisting with the data collection. competing interests the author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. references al-tit, a. a., & hunitie, m. (2015). the mediating effect of employee engagement between its antecedents and consequences. journal of management research, 7(5), 47–62. https://doi.org/10.5296/jmr.v7i5.8048 alvi, a. k., & abbasi, a. s. (2012). impact of organisational justice on employee engagement in baking sector of pakistan. middle-east journal of scientific research, 12(5), 643–649. al-zawahreh, a., & al-madi, f. (2012). the utility of equity theory in enhancing organizational effectiveness. european journal of economics finance and administrative sciences, 46, 158–170. bakker, a. b., schaufeli, w. b., leiter, m. p., & taris, t. w. (2008). work engagement: an emerging concept in occupational health psychology. journal work and stress, 22(3), 187–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802393649 bettencourt, l. a., & brown, s. w. (1997). contact employees: relationships among workplace fairness, job satisfaction and pro-social behavior. journal of retailing, 73(1), 10–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-4359(97)90014-2 biswas, s., varma, a., & ramaswami, a. (2013). linking distributive and procedural justice to employee engagement through social exchange: a field study in india. chicago, il: loyola ecommons, school of business: faculty publications and other works. boonzaier, b., ficker, b., & rust, b. (2001). a review of research on the job characteristics model and the attendant job diagnostic survey. south african journal of business management, 32(1), 11–34. brunetto, y., teo, s. t. t., shacklock, k., & farr-wharton, r. (2012). emotional intelligence, job satisfaction, well-being and engagement: explaining organisational commitment and turnover intentions in policing. human resource management journal, 22(4), 428–441. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2012.00198.x cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioural sciences (rev. ed.). orlando, ca: academic press. colquitt, j. a. (2001). on the dimensionality of organisational justice: a construct validation of a measure. journal of applied psychology, 86, 386–400. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.386 creswell, j. w. (2003). research design; qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (2nd edn.). london, uk: sage publications. dajani, m. a. z. (2015). the impact of employee engagement on job performance and organisational commitment in the egyptian banking sector. journal of business and management sciences, 3(5), 138–147. gelens, j., hofmans, j., dries, n., & pepermans, r. (2014). talent management and organisational justice: employee reactions to high potential identification. human resource management journal, 24(2), 159–175. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12029 greenberg, j. (2011). behavior in organisations (10th edn.). cape town, south africa: pearson. harter, j. k., schmidt, f. l., & hayes, t. l. (2002). business-unit level relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: a meta-analysis. journal of applied psychology, 87, 268–279. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.2.268 ikhide, s. (2000). efficiency of commercial banks in namibia. bank of namibia occasional paper, number 4. windhoek, namibia: bank of namibia research department. retrieved from https://www.bon.com.na/cmstemplates/bon/files/bon.com.na/b8/b8b60638-88ce-457b-a0c2-554765376e70.pdf judge, t. a., & kammeyer-mueller, j. d. (2012). job attitudes. annual review of psychology, 63, 341–367. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100511 kassahun, t. (2005). level of organisational commitment: its correlates and predictors. indian journal of industrial relations, 41(1), 29–63. kim, t., lin, x., & leung, k. (2015). a dynamic approach to fairness: effects of temporal changes of fairness perceptions on job attitudes. journal of business and psychology, 30, 163–175. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-013-9341-6 lawson, k. j., noblet, a. j., & rodwell, j. j. (2009). promoting employee wellbeing: the relevance of work characteristics and organisational justice. health promotion international, 24(3), 223–233. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/dap025 lopez-cabarcos, m. a., pinho, a. i. m., & vazquez-rodriguez, p. (2014). the influence of organisational justice and job satisfaction on organisational commitment in portugal’s hotel industry. cornell hospitality quarterly, 56(3), 258–272. https://doi.org/10.1177/1938965514545680 marais, e., de klerk, m., nel, j. a., & de beer, l. (2014). the antecedents and outcomes of work-family enrichment amongst female workers. south african journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1186 mcauliffe, e., manafa, o., maseko, f., bowie, c., & white, e. (2009). understanding job satisfaction amongst mid-level cadres in malawi: the contribution of organisational justice. reproductive health matters, 17(33), 80–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0968-8080(09)33443-6 okediji, a. a., etuk, a. s., & anthony, o. u. (2011). influence of perceived co-worker involvement and supervisory support on job satisfaction. ife psychologyia, 19(1), 543–557. pieters, w. r. (2015). psychological empowerment and how it impacts on job satisfaction and organisational commitment of staff members at the university of namibia (unam). namibia journal of managerial sciences, 1(2), 98–120. pinikahana, j., & happell, b. (2004). stress, burnout and job satisfaction in rural psychiatric nurses: a victorian study. australian journal of rural health, 12, 120–125. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-1854.2004.00572.x rasheed, a., khan, s., & ramzan, m. (2013). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement: the case of pakistan. journal of business studies quarterly, 4(4), 183–200. resi, h. t., & judd, c. m. (2000). handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology. cambridge: cambridge university press. rothbard, n. p., & patil, s. v. (2012). being there: work engagement and positive organizational scholarship. in k. s. cameron & g. m. spreitzer (eds.), the oxford handbook of positive organizational scholarship (pp. 56–68). new york, ny: oxford university press. rothmann, s. (2008). job satisfaction, occupational stress, burnout and work engagement as components of work-related wellbeing. south african journal of industrial psychology, 34(3), 11–16. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v34i3.424 rothmann, s. & jordaan, g. m. e. (2006). job demands, job resources and work engagement of academic staff in south african higher education institutions. south african journal of industrial psychology, 32(4), 87–96. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v32i4.247 rothmann, s., & rothmann, s. (2010). factors associated with employee engagement in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 36(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i2.925 saks, a. m. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169 schaufeli, w. b., bakker, a. b., & salanova, m. (2006). the measurement of work engagement with a short questionnaire: a cross-national study. educational and psychological measurement, 44(4), 701–716. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164405282471 sehunoe, n., viviers, r., & mayer, c. (2015). job satisfaction, organisational commitment and work engagement in an insurance company. south african journal of labour relations, 39(2), 123–144. simons, j. c., & buitendach, j. h. (2013). psychological capital, work engagement and organisational commitment amongst call centre employees in south africa. south african journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1071 smit, w., stanz, k., & bassin, m. (2015). retention preferences and the relationship between total rewards, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisory support. south african journal of human resource management, 13(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.665 soltis, s. m., agneessens, f., sasovova, z., & labianca, g. (2013). a social network perspective on turnover intentions: the role of distributive justice and social support. human resource management, 52(4), 561–584. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21542 spss (2016). spss 24.0 for windows. chicago, il: spss incorporated. steyn, h. s. (1999). praktiese betekenisvolheid: die gebruik van effekgroottes. wetenskaplike bydraes – reeks b: natuurwetenskappe nr. 117. potchefstroom: pu vir cho. strom, d. l., sears, k. l., & kelly, k. m. (2013). work engagement: the roles of organisational justice and leadership style in predicting engagement among employees. journal of leadership and organisational studies, 20(5), 1–12. tessema, d. (2014). determinants of employee engagement in commercial bank of ethiopia addis ababa area. unpublished master’s degree in business administration in management. addis ababa university, ethiopia. weiss, d. j., davis, r. v., england, g. w., & lofquist, l. m. (1967). manual for the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire. minneapolis, mn: university of minnesota, industrial relations centre. abstract introduction method results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) megan matthysen department of industrial and organisational psychology, nelson mandela university, south africa chantel harris department of industrial and organisational psychology, nelson mandela university, south africa citation matthysen, m., & harris, c. (2018). the relationship between readiness to change and work engagement: a case study in an accounting firm undergoing change. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a855. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.855 original research the relationship between readiness to change and work engagement: a case study in an accounting firm undergoing change megan matthysen, chantel harris received: 31 aug. 2016; accepted: 08 nov. 2017; published: 22 mar. 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: readiness to change is a critical element for the successful implementation of organisational change. work engagement ensures that employees are committed to the organisations’ goals and is an important driver for organisational success. it is important that organisations sustain work engagement during organisational changes. research purpose: to investigate the relationship between readiness to change and work engagement within an accounting firm. motivation for the study: a change process can only be implemented successfully if there is a level of readiness to change. when readiness exists, resistance to change is reduced. engaged employees remain enthusiastic about their organisation and choose to remain with the organisation. change agents need to consider work engagement as an integral part of the change process, that is, before, during and after change has taken place. work engagement and readiness to change are important elements for successful organisational change. research design, approach and method: a cross-sectional survey design was utilised to collect the data. a convenience sample of employees and top management from the accounting firm (n = 340) were included. cronbach’s alpha coefficients, pearson’s product-moment correlations, analysis of variance (anova), scheffé tests, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were used to analyse the data. main findings: results indicated a practical and statistically significant relationship between readiness to change and work engagement. high levels of work engagement will generate high levels of readiness to change. further to this, readiness to change is influenced by employees’ work engagement and an organisation’s change processes. practical or managerial implications: an employee’s work engagement and an organisation’s processes of change influence an employee’s readiness to change. therefore, organisations need to sustain work engagement and improve change processes. contribution: the contribution of this study is that it has provided new insights into the relationships between readiness to change and work engagement in a south african context. introduction purpose in times when change is the rule rather than the exception, the ability of organisations to be flexible has become paramount (bouckenooghe, de vos & van den broeck, 2009). readiness to change is essential for a change to be implemented successfully (bouckenooghe et al., 2009). when readiness exists, the organisation is primed to embrace change and resistance could be reduced. when the converse is true, the change may be rejected. work engagement is viewed as a workplace approach designed to ensure that employees are committed to the organisation’s goals and values, motivated to contribute to organisational success and simultaneously to enhance their own sense of well-being (mcleod & clark, 2009). mangundjaya (2012) believes that high work engagement encourages readiness to change. with this in mind, the purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between readiness to change and work engagement. literature review readiness to change is a critical element for the successful implementation of organisational change (weiner, 2009), and work engagement is an important driver for organisational success (lockwood, 2007). it is important that organisations sustain work engagement during organisational changes. both readiness to change and work engagement are important aspects of a successful organisation. an introduction to the literature review will be discussed in the following section and should provide a better understanding regarding the concepts under scrutiny. conceptual literature readiness to change readiness to change takes its roots in early research on organisational change (walinga, 2008). the greatest challenge lies with the common assumption in organisational change literature that employees need to ‘be made ready’ for organisational change (armenakis & harris, 2002). walinga (2008) explains that facilitating employee readiness to change entails exploring how leaders can ‘get ready’ to ‘get employees ready’ for change. readiness to change emerged as one of the core attitudes affecting success and failure of change interventions (zayim, 2010). according to weiner (2009), it involves employees’ beliefs in their potential and efficacy for the change efforts. readiness to change is conceived as a multifaceted concept that comprises an emotional dimension, a cognitive dimension and an intentional dimension of change (bouckenooghe et al., 2009). intentional readiness to change refers to the extent to which employees are willing to put their energy into the change process (oreg, 2003). cognitive readiness to change refers to the beliefs and thoughts that people hold about change (oreg, 2003). according to bouckenooghe and de vos (2007), the cognitive component refers to what people think about change. emotional readiness to change refers to the affective reactions towards change (oreg, 2003). resistance is associated with fear of the unknown. therefore, emotional readiness is fuelled by cognitive readiness. it is believed that intentional, cognitive and emotional reactions towards change transpire at different stages in the change process and do not necessarily coincide (bouckenooghe et al., 2009). although this three-dimensional framework is useful in handling different aspects of change-related attitudes of individuals, they are also dependent on each other in the way that feelings regarding change are generally associated with the thoughts and behavioural intentions about the change (oreg, 2003). as a result, in this study, this three-dimensional framework was adopted and investigated to better comprehend readiness to change. work engagement work engagement is defined as ‘a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption’ (schaufeli, salanova, gonzalez-romá & bakker, 2002, p. 74). vigour is portrayed by high levels of energy, mental resilience, willingness to invest effort, as well as persistence (schaufeli et al., 2002). vigour helps individuals to be more sensitive to opportunities at work and fosters a more proactive work style (brummelhuis & bakker, 2012). dedication is characterised by ‘a sense of significance, enthusiasm, inspiration, pride, and challenge’ (schaufeli et al., 2002, p. 74). dedication is specified by enthusiasm, inspiration and pride (bakker, 2011; kassing, piemonte, goman & mitchell, 2012). absorption is depicted as being engrossed in one’s work, to the extent that time passes quickly and it is difficult to detach oneself from work (schaufeli et al., 2002). absorption entails full concentration and being highly and happily engrossed in one’s work (bakker, 2011; kassing et al., 2012). work engagement is a key business driver for organisational success where high levels of engagement promote retention of talent, foster customer loyalty and improve organisational performance and stakeholder value (lockwood, 2007). engaged employees typically remain enthusiastic about their organisation and choose to remain with the organisation (lockwood, 2007). further to this, employee engagement continues to be an important predictor of organisational performance even in a challenging economy (gallup, 2013). work engagement is influenced by many factors ranging from workplace culture, organisational communication and managerial styles to trust, respect, leadership and company reputation (lockwood, 2007). organisational changes that result from mergers, acquisitions, downsizing and restructuring lead to increased pressure on employees to work longer hours, take on greater responsibility and become more resistant towards continuous change and ambiguity (burnes, 2005). the problem is exaggerated when change agents, usually management, do not include employees in the adaptation process and fail to manage the change process adequately. this mismanagement impacts negatively on organisational effectiveness and employee well-being, resulting in the employee becoming disengaged in their work and the organisation (marks, 2007). according to bhola (2010), sustaining engagement throughout organisational change can make a significant difference in retaining employees and increasing performance. change agents must consider work engagement as an integral part of the change process, that is, before, during and after change has taken place (bhola, 2010) to ensure that the change process is successful. further to this, the state of the global workplace report presented by gallup indicated that employees who are engaged in their work are less likely to be thrown off course by organisational changes (gallup, 2013). increasing the number of engaged employees and managers driving organisational change initiatives will boost their likelihood of success (gallup, 2013). trust in leadership because change involves deviation and a certain amount of risk-taking, employees would most likely avoid change behaviours unless they operated in a situation in which they felt secure (tierney, 1999). therefore, the presence of a high level of trust amongst employees represents another necessary condition for change attempts and acceptance. in organisations where trust in top management exists, and where change projects have been implemented successfully in the past, organisational members are more likely to develop positive attitudes towards new changes (bouckenooghe et al., 2009). gallup’s assessment of many south african workplaces found that trust and transparent communication for organisational leaders are essential for talent management, which includes effective management of change initiatives amongst other talent management practices; therefore, organisational leaders should not overlook their impact (gallup, 2013). trust in the organisation, colleagues and the leader is an antecedent of work engagement, indicating how important it is to foster an open, dependable relationship in the workplace (bargagliotti, 2011). further to this, when leaders display transformational leadership behaviours, it leads to higher levels of work engagement (salanova, lorente, chambel & martinez, 2011). the relationship between trust and work engagement is mutually reinforcing and leads to an upward spiral effect (hassan & ahamed, 2011). further to this, results from a study conducted by zayim (2010) indicated that perceived trust in colleagues, leadership and clients is correlated with perceived organisational trust and contributed significantly in readiness to change. process of change the process dimensions of organisational change should involve change models, proposed for effective change implementation, and elements that contribute to the positive outcomes of the change efforts (bouckenooghe et al., 2009). process factors of change, specifically within this study, have a temporary nature and refer to the actual approach of implementing the change (bouckenooghe et al., 2009). open communication, knowledge sharing and participation are some factors that could facilitate successful change practices (marks, 2007). failure to do so can result in employees becoming disengaged at work (marks, 2007). readiness to change is also affected by the track record of an organisation in dealing effectively with change, which highlights the importance of such agents managing the change process effectively (bouckenooghe et al., 2009). relationships between the constructs in the study the motivation for this study was based on the notion that organisations need to determine the employee readiness for change before embarking on change processes, as this could possibly lead to the success or failure of planned change. a further motivation was to explore the relationship between readiness to change, work engagement, process of change and trust in leadership during a change process within an accounting firm. a study conducted by mangundjaya (2012) in four financial companies that consist of three private-owned banks and one government-owned financial company (n = 502) indicated that both organisational commitment and work engagement have a positive correlation with individual readiness to change. mangundjaya (2012) believes that the higher the work engagement, the higher the readiness to change will be. hung, wong, anderson and hereford (2013) conducted a study amongst 706 physicians and staff in 19 primary health care departments to measure readiness to change and to determine the role of work engagement, ownership and participation in managing change. this study identified that non-physicians who reported high levels of work engagement and ownership also appeared to be ready for change (hung et al., 2013). further studies highlight that there is a relationship between readiness and processes of change (jimmieson, peach & white, 2008; mckay, kuntz & näswall, 2013; ranta, 2011). in a study conducted by zayim (2010), in the education sector involving 603 teachers working at primary and secondary level public schools, identified that readiness to change and perceived organisational trust were significantly correlated with each other in a way that intentional-, emotionaland cognitive readiness were all associated and contributed significantly to perceived organisational trust. the results showed that perceived trust in colleagues, leadership and clients is correlated with perceived organisational trust and contributed significantly to readiness to change (zayim, 2010). myungweon (2011) also suggested certain aspects of leadership are shown to influence readiness to change. these include employees’ trust in executive management, effective leadership practices and the quality of employee–manager relationships. according to bargagliotti (2011), trust in leadership is an antecedent of work engagement. when leaders display transformational leadership behaviours, it leads to higher levels of work engagement (salanova et al., 2011). in a study conducted by mahembe and engelbrecht (2014), within the south african school system (n = 288), it was suggested that there is a positive relationship between trust in the leader and work engagement. bargagliotti (2011) concluded that trust in the leader is an antecedent of work engagement. organisational climate, such as trust in leadership, is important for establishing a positive attitude towards change. there is a limitation of available data from south africa; therefore, this study will provide new insights into the relationships between the constructs measured in this study from a south african context. the next section will discuss the proposed model and hypotheses for this study. proposed model a model for this study was constructed based on the questionnaires utilised, as well as the literature review. this model is illustrated in figure 1. figure 1: proposed model of the relationships between work engagement, readiness to change, process of change and trust in leadership. as identified by bouckenooghe et al. (2009), climate of change and process of change were uncovered as antecedents of readiness to change. figure 1 illustrates that the arrows are flowing from process of change to the sub-constructs which implies that process of change will be measured by (1) participation, (2) support by supervisors, (3) attitude of top management and (4) quality of change communication. climate of change is measured by trust in leadership, cohesion and politicking. however, this study will only focus on the trust in leadership component for which the reasons will be discussed in the research method section. figure 1 shows that the arrows are flowing from process of change and trust in leadership towards readiness to change. the researcher anticipates that the outcome of this study will possibly reveal a relationship between process of change and readiness to change, as well as a relationship between trust in leadership and readiness to change. as work engagement is an important part in the change process, it could possibly have an influence on readiness to change, and for this reason, it was included in the proposed model. this is indicated in figure 1 and is illustrated by the arrows flowing from work engagement towards the readiness to change construct. work engagement is measured in the model by vigour, dedication and absorption. therefore, the arrows are flowing from work engagement to the three sub-constructs as can be seen in figure 1. the level of readiness to change is measured through the respondents’ emotional-, cognitiveand intentional readiness to change. therefore, the arrows are flowing from readiness to change towards the sub-constructs. the relationships anticipated within the proposed model will be tested and discussed in the ‘results’ section. from the literature and the proposed model, the following hypotheses were set: h1-1: there is a significant relationship between readiness to change and work engagement. h1-2: there is a significant relationship between readiness to change and process of change. h1-3: there is a significant relationship between readiness to change and trust in leadership. h1-4: there is a significant relationship between work engagement and process of change. h1-5: there is a significant relationship between work engagement and trust in leadership. h1-6: there is a relationship between process of change and trust in leadership. method a descriptive research design utilising a quantitative research method was used to pursue the aim of this study. the accounting firm under scrutiny endured an integration process with an international accounting firm in 2008 introducing numerous changes which to date continues to take place. the aim for the accounting firm was to become fully integrated in a national and international capacity which implied that all the offices across south africa would implement similar business policies, procedures and strategies and would be viewed as one practice. the mid-tier accounting firm under scrutiny has 12 offices across south africa. participants the population consisted of employees and top management within the accounting firm and was estimated at approximately 990. all employees within the accounting firm were sent an electronic survey to complete and a total of 340 responses were received, indicating a response rate of 34%. the demographics of the sample are presented in table 1. table 1: demographic variables of the sample. measuring instrument a combined questionnaire, incorporating two measuring instruments, was utilised to gather the data for the purpose of this study. these instruments are the organisational change questionnaire – climate of change, process and readiness (ocq-c, p, r) as well as the utrecht’s work engagement scale (uwes). the ocq-c, p, r, developed by bouckenooghe et al. (2009), is a psychometrically sound diagnostic instrument that incorporates three separate questionnaires aimed at measuring the following: (1) the climate of change or internal change context (c), (2) the process of change (p) and (3) readiness to change (r). this instrument was designed to measure the circumstances under which change embarks (i.e. climate of change or internal context), the way a specific change is implemented (i.e. process) and the level of readiness at the individual level. the instrument encompasses the following 10 dimensions: (1) quality of change communication, (2) participation, (3) attitude of top management, (4) support by supervisors, (5) trust in leadership, (6) cohesion, (7) politicking, (8) emotional readiness to change, (9) cognitive readiness to change and (10) intentional readiness to change (bouckenooghe et al., 2009). as mentioned before, the researcher only included the sub-construct of trust in leadership from the climate of change dimension in this study’s questionnaire. trust in leadership will be used as one of the main constructs instead of a sub-construct that measures climate of change. politicking and cohesion were not deemed as essential components to measure by the researcher within this study. this notion was supported by the accounting firm under scrutiny. these sub-constructs could be included in future research. quality of change communication, participation, attitude of top management towards organisational change and support by supervisors all pertain to the process of how change is dealt with. readiness to change was measured by emotional, cognitive and intentional readiness. bouckenooghe et al. (2009) found that there is adequate content validity and reliability. further to this, bouckenooghe et al. (2009) suggested that different sections of the questionnaire could be used independently, as the scales showed adequate reliability and validity. permission to utilise this instrument for research purposes was obtained from the developers or publishers of the scale. respondents were asked to indicate their level of agreement with the items by using a 5-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). table 2 illustrates the reliability coefficients for process of change, climate of change and readiness to change. the reliability of these constructs was determined by utilising cronbach’s alpha reliability measure (bouckenooghe et al., 2009). table 2: cronbach’s alpha coefficients for organisational change questionnaire – climate of change, process and readiness. from table 2, it is evident that all sub-constructs for this questionnaire demonstrate adequate reliability which suggests that there is internal consistency (bouckenooghe et al., 2009). this study utilised the uwes to measure the work engagement of respondents. the uwes includes the three constituting aspects of work engagement: vigour, dedication and absorption. according to schaufeli, bakker and salanova (2006), the uwes can be used as an impartial instrument to measure work engagement because its equivalence is acceptable for different racial groups. furthermore, confirmatory factor analyses have supported the three-dimensional structure of the uwes, and it identifies that the dimensions are very closely related (schaufeli et al., 2006). psychometric evaluations also illustrated satisfactory validity and reliability of the uwes (schaufeli & bakker, 2003). the internal consistency of the uwes is respectable and displays cronbach’s alphas ranging from 0.80 to 0.90 in a number of studies (schaufeli & bakker, 2004; schaufeli, taris & van rhenen, 2003; schaufeli et al., 2002). in most cases, the 3-factor structure has been validated for the south african context (rothmann & jordaan, 2006). data collection it was also important to ensure that the respondents understood the items stated within the questionnaire. the pilot study was successful and all concerns were ironed out before the questionnaire was administered. data analysis ms excel applications and statistica version 12 were applied to analyse the descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. descriptive statistics comprised frequency distributions and measures of central tendency. inferential statistics comprised the pearson’s product-moment correlation and multiple regression analysis. descriptive statistics were utilised to describe the distribution of scores for readiness to change, work engagement, trust in leadership and process of change. cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated for each of the constructs and sub-constructs. amos version 23 was utilised to conduct the confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) and structure equation modelling (sem). table 3 summarises the reliability coefficients of overall work engagement, process of change, trust in leadership and readiness to change constructs. the results imply that all constructs and sub-constructs utilised in the questionnaire demonstrate adequate reliability, suggesting that there is internal consistency. table 3: cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the factors. for the purpose of this study, the measurement model was investigated through applying cfa. the results from cfa suggested that there was a good model fit with the data. ethical considerations before data collection could commence, the researcher had to obtain the necessary permission from the board of partners and also ethics approval from nelson mandela metropolitan university’s ethics committee. before the researcher could administer the questionnaire, it was essential to conduct a pilot study to ensure that the link to the questionnaire was accessible from the organisation’s website. results to gain a better understanding of the results, the researcher presented the outcomes from the questionnaire to illustrate levels of work engagement, process of change, trust in leadership and readiness to change. from table 4, it is apparent that there are high levels of absorption, dedication and vigour within the sample. further to this, the sample displays high levels of work engagement. quality of change communication and participation presented medium scores. attitude of top management and support by supervisors presented high scores. the sample has a medium score with regard to process of change. the trust in leadership construct revealed a medium score. the sample displayed high levels of emotional-, cognitiveand intentional readiness to change. further to this, the sample possesses high levels of readiness to change. table 4: descriptive statistics for work engagement, process of change, trust in leadership and readiness to change. relationship between the constructs table 5 reflects the correlations between scores on readiness to change and work engagement constructs and their respective sub-constructs based on the results of pearson’s product-moment correlation calculation. table 5: correlations between the constructs of readiness to change and work engagement. from table 5, it is apparent that there is practically and statistically significant relationship between overall readiness to change and work engagement (r = 0.452). regarding relationships between the sub-constructs of readiness to change and the sub-constructs of work engagement, table 5 indicates that there is a practically and statistically significant relationship between emotional readiness and vigour (r = 0.370), intentional readiness and absorption (r = 0.28), intentional readiness and dedication (r = 0.407) as well as intentional readiness and vigour (r = 0.461). table 5 also indicates that cognitive readiness has a statistical relationship with dedication (r = 0.263) and vigour (r = 0.260). absorption’s correlation with emotional readiness (r = 0.178) and cognitive readiness (r = 0.069) is relatively small. from table 6, there is a correlation of 0.482 between readiness to change and process of change, indicating a practically and statistically significance between the constructs. readiness to change displays practical and statistical significance with all the sub-constructs for process of change. process of change also displays practical and statistical significance with the sub-constructs for readiness to change. table 6: correlations between the constructs of readiness to change and process of change. results, as presented in table 7, reveal a positive relationship between readiness to change and trust in leadership (r = 0.465). trust in leadership demonstrates practical and statistical significance with the sub-constructs of readiness to change. table 7: correlations between the constructs of readiness to change and trust in leadership. from table 8, there is a correlation of r = 0.414 between work engagement and process of change, indicating a practical and statistical significance between the constructs. table 8 illustrates that all the sub-constructs from process of change display practically and statistically significant correlations with work engagement. a noticeable result observed from table 8 is that all the sub-constructs from process of change possess lower correlations with absorption; however, these correlations are still considered as statistically significant as r ≥ 0.106 (gravetter & wallnau, 2009). table 8: correlations between the constructs of process to change and work engagement. table 9 suggests that there is a positive relationship between work engagement and trust in leadership (r = 0.350). trust in leadership demonstrates practical and statistical significance with dedication (r = 0.384), vigour (r = 0.351) and a lower significance, although still statistically significant, with absorption (r = 0.132). table 9: correlations between the constructs of trust in leadership and work engagement. as can be seen in table 10, the correlation coefficient calculated for process of change and trust in leadership is 0.743, which implies that there is a positive relationship between the constructs. table 10: correlations between the constructs of trust in leadership and process of change. trust in leadership demonstrates practical and statistical significance with quality of change communication (r = 0.586), participation (r = 0.644), attitude of top management (r = 0.632) and support by supervisor (r = 0.671). structural equation modelling analysis structural equation modelling analysis was utilised to evaluate the relationships amongst the set of variables used in the model proposed in this study. if the indices meet or exceed the metrics mentioned in table 11, it will identify if there is an adequate data fit with the proposed model. table 11: results for structural equation modelling for proposed model. for comparing models, lower scores for akaike information criterion (aic) and brown–crudeck criterion (bcc) are deemed more suitable (hair, black, babin, anderson & tatham, 2006; schreiber et al., 2006; d. venter, pers. comm., july 01, 2015). the root mean square approximation (rmsea) is 0.047 indicating a good model fit. the bentler comparative fit index (cfi) was 0.92 indicating a conservative model fit. the chi-square was 1.74 which is below 3.00 as recommended in table 4.47. the joreskog adjusted gfi (agfi) was 0.76 which illustrates a mediocre model fit. the bonnet normed fit index (nfi) was 0.83 which is below the recommended 0.90 indicated in table 10, which is not seen as a good fit. the amos package utilised within this study measured the estimated relationships between constructs in the proposed model. the purpose of figure 2 is to illustrate the relationships between the constructs. figure 2: structural equation modelling estimations (n = 340). the single-headed arrows indicate dependency type relationship, and the double-headed blue arrows indicate a covariance. figure 2 illustrates three dependency type relationships with readiness to change and three covariances amongst process of change, trust in leadership and work engagement. the regression weights and covariances are reported as estimates, because the amos programme estimates these values based on the sample data. all the estimates illustrated in figure 2 are significant (p < 0.05), which implies causality because of the fact that sem was utilised. the weight of the regression of trust in leadership on readiness to change does not display significance. although a larger sample will most likely confirm that the trust in leadership on readiness to change regression weight is actually significant, the sample size of this study is viewed acceptable for exploratory purposes. as illustrated in figure 2, the single-headed arrows suggest that process of change and work engagement significantly influence readiness to change (p < 0.0005). the dual-headed arrows suggest that process of change and work engagement is significantly correlated (p < 0.0005), suggesting that employees with high levels of work engagement will perceive change processes positively. this is because engaged employees will be able to deal with job demands more effectively, specifically if change processes increase job demands. it further illustrates that process of change and trust in leadership are significantly correlated (p < 0.0005), suggesting that if trust in leadership exist, processes of change will be perceived more favourably. a correlation is also apparent between work engagement and trust in leadership (p < 0.0005), suggesting that work engagement could create enhanced trust in leadership and vice versa. the results from sem imply that the data support the hypotheses implied by the proposed model, as mentioned earlier and indicated in figure 2, in that process of change and work engagement influence readiness to change. however, the relationship between trust in leadership and readiness to change is not statistically significant (p > 0.05). discussion questionnaire results respondents have high levels of work engagement, as can be seen in table 4, suggesting that most of the respondents are energetic about their work, feel connected to their work and are better able to deal with job demands. organisational changes that are a result of mergers, acquisitions, downsizing and restructuring lead to increased pressure on employees to work longer hours, take on greater responsibility and become more tolerable towards continuous change and ambiguity (burnes, 2005) because of uncertainty and potential changes in the organisational culture. when employees are engaged, they are able to deal with job demands more effectively, particularly under circumstances of change. the process of change results, as can be seen in table 4, suggests that it is problematic, which may be because of the uncertainty with regard to processes around change implementation currently taking place in the accounting firm. when change agents fail to manage the process, it can lead to employees becoming disengaged in their work (marks, 2007); however, this does not seem to be the case as engagement levels are high. as seen in table 4, trust in leadership appears to be low, which suggests that leadership may need to become more transparent with the activities surrounding change implementation. although there are a percentage of respondents who perceive that trust in leadership exists, the overall score from this construct indicates that there is also room for improvement when it comes to trust in leadership for the accounting firm. it would possibly be easier for employees to go along an uncertain pathway of change when they trust their leaders who are guiding the change initiatives. because change involves deviation and a certain amount of risk-taking, employees would most likely avoid change behaviours unless they operated in a situation in which they felt secure (tierney, 1999). therefore, trust in leadership during change processes is essential. in organisations where trust in top management exists, and where change projects have been implemented successfully in the past, organisational members are more likely to develop positive attitudes towards new changes (bouckenooghe et al., 2009). the results from this study suggest that the respondents within the mid-tier accounting firm have high levels of readiness to change, as seen in table 4. this implies that they support and have positive attitudes towards change that occurs within the firm or their departments. relationship between the constructs this study found that there is a relationship between readiness to change and work engagement. the latter concurs with studies conducted by mangundjaya (2012), prasad (2014) and hung et al. (2013) where it was revealed that work engagement is positively related with readiness to change. this suggests that employees who support change are generally energetic about their work, feel connected to their work and are better able to deal with job demands. there is also a significant relationship between readiness to change and process of change. this suggests that when employees are prepared for change, they will perceive change processes positively within the organisation. according to ranta (2011), change communication was found to be an important factor in facilitating readiness to change. ranta (2011) explains that this finding has practical significance in that communication should be considered critical in facilitating readiness to change. in a study conducted by mckay et al. (2013), it was indicated that the perceived adequacy of change-related communication was associated with participants’ readiness to change. furthermore, there is a significant relationship between readiness to change and trust in leadership. employees who have trust in their leaders are more ready for change than those who do not have trust. this outcome is similar to findings from a study conducted by zayim (2010) indicating that perceived trust in colleagues, leadership and clients are all correlated with perceived organisational trust and contributed significantly in readiness to change (zayim, 2010). further to this, myungweon (2011) mentioned that certain aspects of leadership, such as employees’ trust in executive management, effective leadership practices and the quality of employee and manager relationships, also influence readiness to change. the correlation between work engagement and process of change implies that respondents who are energetic about their work, feel more connected to their work and are better able to deal with job demands (high on work engagement), will generally perceive processes of change in a positive light. according changefirst (2013), one of the major influencing factors in work engagement is the degree to which people see the organisation successfully implementing change, in other words, the processes of change. tvedt and buvik (2009) revealed that a healthy organisational change process can assist in shaping engagement. in addition to this, a significant relationship between work engagement and trust in leadership is present, suggesting that when employees trust leadership, they are more engaged. hassan and ahamed (2011) indicated that the relationship between trust and work engagement is mutually reinforcing and leads to an upward spiral effect. according to dirks and ferrin (2002), an increase in trust is a direct or indirect result of positive workplace behaviours and attitudes like organisational commitment and employees’ work engagement. according to this study, trust in leadership is significantly related to process of change and its sub-constructs, namely quality of change communication, participation, attitude of top management and support by supervisor. when trust in leadership exists, the processes of change will be received more positively. according to caetano and neves (2006), trust in leadership contributes to a successful change process. employees who have trust in leadership typically perceive change processes in a positive light as they have faith in those making the changes. the relationship between trust and change is reciprocal (caetano & neves, 2006; morgan & zeffane, 2003). good processes of change implementation could also improve trust in leadership. to support the findings from pearson’s product-moment correlations, the proposed model was tested by way of sem from which the results illustrate that work engagement and process of change influences readiness to change. this implies that employees who are engaged in their work will be less resistant towards change; thus, improving work engagement levels of employees will lead to them supporting change initiatives. furthermore, adequate change processes will contribute in generating support for change processes amongst employees thereby reducing resistance to change. the sem results further reveal that process of change and work engagement are significantly correlated, suggesting that employees with high levels of work engagement will generally perceive change processes positively. this is because engaged employees will be able to deal with job demands more effectively, specifically if change processes increase job demands. process of change and trust in leadership are also significantly correlated as indicated from the sem results. as mentioned before, this suggests that when processes of change are perceived positively, employees will generally have trust in leadership. further to this, when there is trust in leadership employees will generally perceive the change processes more positively. the sem results further reveal that there is a significant correlation between work engagement and trust in leadership which implies that work engagement will generally enhance trust in leadership and vice versa. limitations time constraints and work pressures could have influenced the response rates, as respondents work in a time and fee-driven environment. in order to overcome this, an electronic questionnaire was utilised in order for respondents to complete the questionnaire at home or in their own time. trust in leadership was only measured by three items as referred to in the methodology section. the researcher was aware that this could possibly influence the results for this construct. however, the results from this construct were still considered to be valuable and introduced an area for improvement within the accounting firm which can be potentially researched in the future. recommendations for future research it would be advisable to scrutinise the concept of trust in leadership as a lack of trust in leadership can be a consequence of ineffective communication within an organisation (lamm, gordon & purser, 2010). this can be done by incorporating a larger trust scale into this study’s questionnaire. alternatively, trust in leadership could be measured as a separate construct. another recommendation for future research would be to administer the research questionnaire utilised within this study before and after a change initiative takes place, so as to determine if the change process influenced work engagement or to assess the employees’ level of readiness to change. the sem results indicated a mediocre model fit with the data; therefore, it would be beneficial to attempt on improving the model fit. potentially testing this model with other samples and in other industries may be beneficial. conclusion and contribution of this study by understanding the relationships between readiness to change and work engagement, the mid-tier accounting firm will receive valuable information on how the integration and change processes impact employees and top management within the organisation. these findings further provide direction on how to approach future integration and change procedures. from the results of this study, it was implied that high levels of work engagement will generate high levels of readiness to change. engaged employees are better able to cope with job demands during change processes which ultimately will impact whether change implementation is successful. in conclusion, an employee’s work engagement and an organisation’s processes of change, such as quality of change communication, participation during change, attitude of top management towards change, support by supervisors and trust in leadership, influence the employees’ readiness to change. therefore, the latter elements are crucial for successful change implementation within an organisation. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions this article is based on m.m.’s degree of doctor of philosophy in industrial psychology from the nelson mandela metropolitan university, south campus. c.h. was the supervisor of the project and acted as the corresponding author. references armenakis, a.a., & harris, s.g. (2002). crafting a change message to create transformational readiness. journal of organizational change management, 15, 169–183. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810210423080 bakker, a.b. (2011). an evidence-based model of work engagement. current directions in psychological science, 20, 265–269. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721411414534 bargagliotti, l.a. (2011). work engagement in nursing: a concept analysis. journal of advanced nursing, 68(6), 1414–1428. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2011.05859.x bhola, h. (2010). employee engagement: the impact of change management implementation in mergers. retrieved 14 september 2014, from http://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/23769?show=full bouckenooghe, d., & de vos, g. (2007). psychological change climate as a catalyst of readiness for change: a dominance analysis. retrieved 27 july 2014, from http://wps-feb.ugent.be/papers/wp_07_483.pdf bouckenooghe, d., de vos, g., & van den broeck, h. (2009). organizational change questionnaire – climate of change, processes, and readiness: development of a new instrument. the journal of psychology, 143(6), 559–599. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980903218216 brummelhuis, l.l., & bakker, a.b. (2012). staying engaged during the week: the effect of off-job activities on next day work engagement. journal of occupational health psychology, 17(4), 445–455. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029213 burnes, b. (2005). complexity theories and organisational change. international journal of management reviews, 7(2), 73–90. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2005.00107.x caetano, a., & neves, p. (2006). social exchange processes in organizational change: the roles of trust and control. journal of change management, 6(4), 351–364. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697010601054008 changefirst. (2013, june 24). white paper: the psychology of successfully delivering organisational change. retrieved 14 september 2014, from http://www.changefirst.com/news/white-paper-psychology-successfully-delivering-organisational-change dirks, k.t., & ferrin, d.l. (2002). trust in leadership: meta analytic findings and implications for research and practice. journal of applied psychology, 87, 611–628. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.611 gallup. (2013). state of the global workplace: employee engagement insights for business leaders word wide. retrieved 09 november 2017, from http://www.securex.be/export/sites/default/.content/download-gallery/nl/brochures/gallup-state-of-the-globalworkplacereport_20131.pdf gravetter, f.j., & wallnau, l.b. (2009). statistics for the behavioral sciences (8th ed.). belmont, ca: wadsworth. goliath-yarde, l., & roodt, g. (2011). differential item functioning of the uwes-17 in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 37(1), 897–908. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i1.897 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., anderson, r.e., & tatham, r.l. (2006). multivariate data analysis. upper saddle river, nj: pearson education inc. hassan, a., & ahamed, f. (2011). authentic leadership, trust and work engagement. international journal of social, behavioral, educational, economic and management engineering, 5(8), 150–156. hung, d., wong, e., anderson, k., & hereford, j. (2013). ps2-14: ready to change? the role of employee engagement, ownership, and participation in managing change. clinical medicine and research, 11(3), 159. https://doi.org/10.3121/cmr.2013.1176.ps2-14 jimmieson, n.l., peach, m., & white, k.m. (2008). utilising the theory of planned behavior to inform change management. the journal of applied behavioural science, 44(2), 237–262. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886307312773 kassing, j.w., piemonte, n.m., goman, c.c., & mitchell, c.a. (2012). dissent expression as indicator of work engagement and intention to leave. journal of business communication, 49(3), 237–253. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021943612446751 lamm, e., gordon, j.r., & purser, r.e. (2010). the role of value congruence in organizational change. organization development journal, 28(2), 49–64. retrieved 14 september 2014, from http://www.odinstitute.org lockwood, n.r. (2007). leveraging employee engagement for competitive advantage: hr’s strategic role. retrieved 12 september 2014, from https://www.shrm.org/research/articles/articles/documents/07marresearchquarterly.pdf mahembe, b., & engelbrecht, a.s. (2014). the relationship between servant leadership, organisational citizenship behaviour and team effectiveness. sa journal of industrial psychology, 40, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1107 mangundjaya, w.l.h. (2012). are organizational commitment and employee engagement important in achieving individual readiness for change? humanitas, 2, 185–192. marks, m.l. (2007). a framework for facilitating adaptation to organisational transition. journal of organisational change management, 20(5), 721–739. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810710779126 mckay, k., kuntz, j.r.c., & näswall, k. (2013). the effect of affective commitment, communication and participation on resistance to change: the role of change readiness. new zealand journal of psychology, 42, 55–66. mcleod, d., & clarke, n. (2009). engaging for success: enhancing performance through employee engagement. london: office of public sector information. morgan, d.e., & zeffane, r. (2003). employee involvement, organizational change and trust in management. international journal of human resource management, 14(1), 55–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190210158510 myungweon, c. (2011). employees’ attitudes toward organizational change: a literature review. human resource management, 50(4), 479–500. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20434 oreg, s. (2003). resistance to change: developing an individual differences measure. journal of applied psychology, 88(4), 680–693. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.4.680 prasad, p. (2014). factors influencing employee centric performance in industries: a lesson in human resource management. international journal of scientific and research publications, 4(3), 1–6. ranta, m. (2011). the impact of trust in management and quality of change communication on readiness for change. retrieved from http://lurepository.lakeheadu.ca:8080/bitstream/handle/2453/514/rantam2011m-1b.pdf?sequence=1 rothmann, s., & jordaan, g.m.e. (2006). job demands, job resources and work engagement if academic staff in southern african higher education institutions. south african journal of industrial psychology, 32, 87–96. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v32i4.247 salanova, m., lorente, m.l., chambel, m.j., & martinez, i.m. (2011). transformational leadership to nurses’ extra-role performance: the mediating role of self-efficacy and work engagement. journal of advanced nursing 67(9), 2256–2266. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2011.05652.x schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2003). uwes utrecht work engagement scale: preliminary manual (version 1). occupational health psychology unit, utrecht university. retrieved 17 march 2014, from http://www.beanmanaged.eu/pdf/articles/arnoldbakker/article_arnold_bakker_7.pdf schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organizational behaviour, 25, 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.248 schaufeli, w.b., bakker, a.b., & salanova, m. (2006). the measurement of work engagement with a short questionnaire: a cross-national study. educational and psychological measurement, 66, 701–716. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164405282471 schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzalez-romá, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3, 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 schaufeli, w.b., taris, t.w., & van rhenen, w. (2003). workaholism, burnout and engagement: three of a kind or three different kinds of employee well-being? applied psychology: an international review, 57(2), 173–203. schreiber, j.b., stage, f.k., king, j., nora, a., & barlow, e.a. (2006). reporting structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis results: a review. the journal of educational research, 99(6), 323–338. https://doi.org/10.3200/joer.99.6.323-338 walinga, j. (2008). toward a theory of change readiness: the roles of appraisal, focus, and perceived control. the journal of applied behavioral science, 44, 315–347. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886308318967 weiner, j.b. (2009). a theory of organizational readiness for change. implementation science, 4, 67–75. https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-4-67 tierney, p. (1999). work relations as a precursor to a psychological climate for change. journal of organizational change management, 12(2), 120–134. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534819910263668 tvedt, s.d., & buvik, m.p. (2009). building engagement and commitment through healthy organizational change processes: a case study looking into possibilities, limitations, and rewards. retrieved 17 march 2014, from https://www.sintef.no/globalassets/project/ideellfabrikk/publications/paper-puerto-rico_endelig.pdf zayim, m. (2010). investigating the relationship between primary and secondary level public school teachers’ readiness for change and perceived organizational trust. retrieved from http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12612345/index.pdf 3dockelcarstens.qxd there is a revolutionary change in the world of work that impacts on the individual, work and society. the future of work suggests flexibility, boundaryless communities and change in work as we know it today (baruch, 2004; weiss, 2001). as the world of work changes from a worker-intensive, industrial society to an automated information society, the workforce increasingly becomes more educated with higher professionalism and a decrease in organisational loyalty (baugh & roberts, 1994; furnham, 2000). in addition, high technology industries operate in volatile markets and experience accelerating growth and rates of change. high technology employees are educated, have a strong preference for independence and hold a large portion of the organisation’s intellectual capital (mcnee, morello, zidar & smith, 1998; murphy, 2000). employers struggle to retain their valuable high technology employees due to a general shortage of experienced candidates and aggressive recruitment tactics by others in the high technology arena (de young, 2000; evans, gonzalez, popiel & walker, 2000; storey, 1992). the high technology worker identifies with a high technology culture separate from the organisation in which he or she works (rogers, 2001). this focus leads to a loyalty clash. high technology workers want to work on projects that enhance their careers, knowledge assets and future earning power, while the organisation generally wants current knowledge applied to developing value-added products. this clash is a common source of problems for firms wanting to retain high technology workers (von glinow & mohrman, 1990). the retention of technical staff and their organisational commitment appear to be of strategic importance to high technology employers because of the potential financial returns on them in the long term (chambers, 1998; huselid, 1995; turbin & rosse, 1990). loyal, engaged employees tend to generate high performance business outcomes as measured by increased sales, improved productivity, profitability and enhanced employee retention (rogers, 2001; tsui, pearce, porter & hite, 1995). commitment strategies shape desired employee behaviours and attitudes by forging psychological links between the organisation and employee goals. thus, the focus is on developing committed employees who can be trusted to use their discretion to carry out job tasks in ways that are consistent with organisational goals (eisenhardt, 1985; storm & roodt, 2002). this research sets out to investigate specific retention factors that induce organisational commitment and can thus increase the retention of high technology employees. organisational commitment the concept of organisational commitment has attracted considerable interest in an attempt to understand and clarif y the intensity and stability of an employee’s dedication to the organisation (mester, visser, roodt & kellerman, 2003). researchers have distinguished between three approaches to study commitment, namely from an attitudinal, behavioural and a motivational perspective. in the context of this study, organisational commitment is regarded as an attitude as it relates to individuals’ mindsets about the organisation (allen & meyer, 1990). meyer and allen’s (1991) three component model of organisational commitment is therefore of relevance to this research. according to meyer and allen (1997) the concept of organisational commitment is a construct distinguishable from other familiar concepts such as job satisfaction, job involvement, career salience, occupational commitment, turnover intentions, work group attachment and protestant work ethic (cohen, 1993; mathieu & farr, 1991; meyer, allen & smith, 1993; morrow & mcelroy, 1986; mueller, wallace & price, 1992). allen and meyer (1990) describe commitment as a psychological state that binds the individual to the organisation. meyer and herscovitch (2001) suggest that the binding force of commitment is experienced as a mindset (i.e. a frame of mind or psychological state that compels an individual toward a course of action). the mindsets reflect three distinguishable themes which meyer and allen (1991) label as affective commitment, continuance commitment, and normative commitment. these three distinguishable components of organisational commitment reflect a difference between a preference to stay with the present organisation arising out of a sense of emotional attachment (affective commitment), compared to one rooted in a sense of economic necessity or the perceived cost of leaving (continuance commitment) or of moral obligation (normative commitment). organisational commitment develops during employment in the organisation. meyer and herscovitch (2001) developed some propositions that encompass the development of the different andreas döckel andreas.dockel@jhb.za.sytes.com johan s basson johan.basson@up.ac.za department human resource management university of pretoria melinde coetzee coetzm1@unisa.ac.za department industrial & organisational psychology university of south africa abstract the objective of the present study was to investigate specific retention factors that induced the organisational commitment of high technology employees. a sample of 94 professional technicians from a south african owned telecommunications company based in the gauteng province participated. the organisational commitment scale and a retention factor measurement scale were administered. the most relevant explanatory factors were compensation, job characteristics, supervisor support, and work/life policies, which appeared to have a statistically significant influence on the development of organisational commitment in high technology employees. the implications of the findings are discussed. key words retention factors, organisational commitment, high technology employees the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees 20 sa journal of human resource management, 2006, 4 (2), 20-28 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2006, 4 (2), 20-28 mindsets: the mindset of desire (affective commitment) develops when an individual becomes involved in, recognises the value-relevance of, and/or derives his or her identity from, association with an entity or pursuit of a course of action. the mindset of perceived cost (continuance commitment) develops when an individual recognises that he or she stands to lose investments, and/or perceives that there are no alternatives other than to pursue a course of action relevant to a particular target. the mindset of obligation (normative commitment) develops as a result of the internalisation of norms through socialisation, the receipt of benefits that induces a need to reciprocate, and/or acceptance of the terms of a psychological contract. employees who have strong confidence in their abilities and achievements have higher affective commitment. a possible explanation for the observed relation between the two variables is that competent people are able to choose higher-quality organisations, which in turn inspires affective commitment (mathieu & zajac, 1990). affective commitment has shown a positive correlation with job scope, a composite of three variables, that is, job challenge, degree of autonomy and variety of skills used. affective commitment to the organisation is stronger among employees whose leaders allow them to participate in decision making (rhodes & steers, 1981) and those who treat them with consideration (decotiis & summer, 1987). continuance commitment originates from the “side bets” tradition (becker, 1960) and refers to the employee’s sacrifices (e.g. losing seniority or pension benefits) associated with terminating employment, thus the employee becomes aware of the costs that are associated with leaving the organisation. employees who have strong continuance commitment to an organisation stay with the organisation because they believe they have to do so. meyer and allen (1997) show continuance commitment to be related to employees’ perceptions about the transferability of their skills to other organisations. employees who thought their training investments were less easily transferable elsewhere expressed stronger continuance commitment to their current organisation. employees whose primary link to the organisation is based on strong continuance commitment stay with the organisation not for reasons of emotional attachment, but because of a recognition that the costs associated with doing otherwise are simply too high. all things being equal, there is no reason to expect that such employees will have a particularly strong desire to contribute to the organisation (meyer & allen, 1997). according to wiener (1982), normative commitment to the organisation develops on the basis of a collection of pressures that individuals feel during their early socialisation (from family and culture) and during their socialisation as newcomers to the organisation. meyer and allen (1997) suggest that normative commitment develops on the basis of a particular kind of investment that the organisation makes in the employee, specifically investments that seem difficult for employees to reciprocate (meyer & allen, 1991; scholl, 1981). strong normative commitment involves being tied to the organisation by feelings of obligation and duty. meyer and allen (1991) argue that, generally, such feelings would motivate individuals to behave appropriately and do what is right for the organisation. it is expected that normative commitment to the organisation will be positively related to such work behaviours as job performance, work attendance and organisational citizenship. sethi, meinert, king and sethi (1996) suggest that organisations need to re-examine policies that lead to building commitment. commonly employed strategies in a high technolog y environment, such as nonvested pension plans, participation in stock options and the development of organisation-specific skills may in fact be working against the organisation. although these steps make it difficult for employees to leave, they may not encourage them to stay. some employees may find themselves in a position where they want to quit, but may not be able to afford to do so. some may be motivated to do just enough to maintain their jobs. in these cases, commitment fostering steps may actually be counterproductive. affective commitment may be harder to foster but is strongly related to the results that organisations value – the employee’s desire to contribute to the organisation’s effectiveness. in previous studies, age and organisational tenure were controlled and these are thus a concern in this study as well (allen & meyer, 1993; luthans, mccaul & dodd, 1985; meyer & allen, 1984; miner, 1988). meta-analytic evidence suggests that age and organisational commitment are significantly, albeit weakly, related (mathieu & zajac, 1990). this relationship exists even when variables that are often confounded with age (organisational and position tenure) are controlled (allen & meyer, 1993). meyer and allen (1984) have suggested that older workers become more attitudinally committed to an organisation for a variet y of reasons, including greater satisfaction with their jobs, having received better positions, and having “cognitively justified” their continuance in an organisation. organisational tenure has often been used as a surrogate for side bets (meyer & allen, 1984). the general assumption is that as individuals accumulate more years with a company, they are likely to acquire greater investments, for example pension plans, and develop greater continuance commitment. organisational tenure has consistently been found to be positively associated with organisational commitment (paré, temblay & lalonde, 2001). retention factors cascio (2003) describes retention as initiatives taken by management to keep employees from leaving the organisation, such as rewarding employees for performing their jobs effectively; ensuring harmonious working relations between employees and managers; and maintaining a safe, healthy work environment. literature surveys conducted by mcnee et al. (1998) and döckel (2003) identified the following six critical factors that need to be considered in the retention of high technolog y employees: compensation (base salary); job characteristics (skill variety and job autonomy); training and development opportunities; supervisor support; career opportunities and work/life policies. compensation: money is still the primary incentive used to lure high technology professionals. according to higginbotham (1997), high salaries are not essential, but “good” and “fair” salaries showed a strong correlation with intention to stay, indicating that as long as the compensation is competitive, financial rewards are not the primary factor in retention. kochanski and ledford (2001) support this statement, which indicates that the actual level of pay is less important than feelings about pay raises and the process used to administer them. employees want to understand how the pay system works, and want to know how they can earn pay increases. once the pay level has been reached the intangibles such as career, supervisor support, work and family balance become important (tomlinson, 2002). high technology employees are very receptive to stock options, and are likely to base retention decisions on such options, particularly in organisations with high growth potential (higginbotham, 1997; kochanski & ledford, 2001). it appears that salary alone provides insufficient motivation for many high technology employees, but monetary compensation in the form of bonuses and profit sharing provides a measure of performance feedback that is often more effective with high technology professionals, for example engineers (balkin & gomez-meija, 1984). elaborate benefit packages are becoming increasingly common in high technology firms, making them retention factors on organisational commitment 21 more of a compensation issue and less of an incentive to stay with the current organisation. these are the indirect financial rewards employees receive for their labour. they consist of time off, benefit processes and benefit levels (farris, 2000). high technology employees do not work normal office hours, but work at a pace that invites burnout. time off, according to kochanski and ledford (2001), is more important than any other indirect benefit in predicting retention. high technology employees seem to care less about how benefits are administered than about the value of benefits. in addition, deyoung (2000) supports the notion that retention benefits are of an environmental and personal nature, for instance, luxury automobiles for anyone who has surpassed their goals, pets in the office because high technology workers spend a lot of time away from home, playrooms and quiet rooms to improve team work and reduce stress, and on-site gyms for employees to work out their stress. compensation offers an opportunity for security, autonomy, recognition and an improved self worth (hoyt & gerdloff, 1999). these increased feelings of self worth and importance should lead to affective commitment. mathieu and zajac (1990) indicate a positive correlation between salary and commitment. igbaria and greenhaus (1992) found salary to be positively related to organisational commitment and negatively related to turnover. perceptions of fairness in compensation have also been shown to be positively linked to affective organisational commitment (schaubroeck, may & brown, 1994). job characteristics: high technology employees want to do interesting work that challenges them and uses their skills and talents. repetitive, narrow work experience with little individual discretion repels high technology employees (kochanski & ledford, 2001). research has shown that the design of high technology professionals’ work content influences the stability of the technical workforce (amabile, conti, coon, lazenby & herron, 1996). furthermore when high technology professionals view their tasks as challenging with opportunities for learning and information exchange they are also less likely to leave. according to amabile et al. (1996) and glynn (1996), high technology professionals, for example engineers, appeared to be more involved, more satisfied with their jobs, and more committed to the organisation than nontechnical employees. job characteristics, such as variety and autonomy, are wellestablished determinants of organisational commitment (pretorius & roodt, 2004). according to dubie (2000), loyal, high technology employees enjoy the autonomy they receive in their current jobs. according to marsh and mannari (1977) the higher the level of autonomy that the individual possesses, the more negatively it is correlated with turnover. according to mceachern (2001), high technology employees will leave the organisation if their skills are underutilised. mathieu and zajac (1990) found a positive correlation between skill variety and organisational commitment. one way that individuals may develop a sense of competency is by working in a job with high skill variety (hackman & oldham, 1975; 1976). skill variety relates to feelings of belonging and a sense of attachment to the organisation (meyer & allen, 1991). skill variety is thus more related to affective commitment than continuance commitment because of the increased feelings of belonging. training and development opportunities: according to cataldo, assen and d’alessandro (2000), employees with key information technology skills have become increasingly hard to find. many companies have realised that proactive strategies are required for building and maintaining a high technolog y company’s knowledge reservoir. training is therefore essential for the survival of any information technology worker, and is the only way they can stay employable over the span of their careers. tomlinson (2002) suggests it is critical that organisations keep the leading edge by having their employees well trained in the latest technologies. employees stay at companies that promote career opportunities through learning, and the ability to apply their newly learned skills (cataldo et al., 2000; jiang & klein, 2000). the primary mechanism by which training is predicted to increase organisational commitment is through increased self worth and importance. according to chang (1999), company-provided training might affect the psychological states of employees. when employees believe that the company is doing a good job of providing proper training, they feel that the company is concerned with improving their skill and ability, making them attached to their company. if training is perceived as providing organisationspecific skills that contribute to status or economic advantage within the company, but will not transfer to jobs outside the organisation, a stronger continuance commitment will develop. extensive training should have little effect on continuance commitment, unless the training involves organisation-specific skills. paré et al. (2001) found training to be negatively related to continuance commitment. employees who are aware of the expense of training, or appreciate the skills they have acquired, might develop a sense of obligation (normative commitment). this will hold them in the organisation at least long enough to “reciprocate”. the employees might develop a moral obligation to give the organisation its money’s worth (normative commitment), particularly if the company funds the training (mcelroy, 2001). super visor support: for the purpose of this study, supervisor support refers to supervisory behaviours that sustain the high technolog y employee’s innovation, such as reward and recognition. most valuable high technology employees are staff with critical innovation skills, the people with knowledge of core products or services. most of the high technology employee’s work is tacit and often ambiguous and difficult to measure. according to kochanski and ledford (2001), high technology employees value the feedback from their coworkers and supervisors. providing sufficient performance feedback to employees helps bolster positive attit udes toward the organisation and helps prevent early intentions to leave the organisation. according to eisenberger, fasalo and davis-lamastro (1990), affective commitment may be enhanced under conditions of high feedback. as individuals are provided with praise and feedback, stronger feelings of loyalty to the organisation may develop. paré et al. (2001) indicate that recognition from the supervisor has been found to be related to affective commitment but not to continuance commitment. the reason for this might be that high technology employees explore new solutions and get feedback and recognition from supervisors, which increase their feelings of self worth, and not their obligation to stay at the company. career opportunities: labour market trends in the information technology field have continued to present increased career opportunities for high technology employees and hiring and retention challenges for the organisations that employ these workers. kochanski and ledford’s (2001) survey shows that career opportunities yield more significant predictors of retention than any other type of reward, followed by training opportunities and an employee’s relationship with his or her supervisor. according to baruch (2004), perceptions of the organisation’s adherence to career-orientated practices, including internal promotions, training and development and employment security are positively related to commitment. psychological commitment is higher among employees who believe they are being treated as resources to be developed rather than döckel, basson, coetzee22 commodities to buy and sell. investing in employees sends the message that companies value them. work/life policies: work/life policies include flexible work scheduling (e.g. part-time work, job-sharing, variable starting and quitting times), family leave policies allowing periods away from work for employees to take care of family matters, and childcare assistance (e.g. referral service, on-site or offsite care centres) (burke & cooper, 2002). mccrory (1999) indicates that the majority of high technology workers value work/life initiatives as very meaningful. loyal, high technolog y employees (those who cannot envision changing jobs in the foreseeable future) are more concerned with leave (vacation, holidays etc), flexible work schedules, family friendliness and a proximity to their home, than job seeking employees who are actively looking for a new position (dubie, 2000). grover and crooker (1995) empirically tested the effects of work and family benefits on organisational commitment. these benefits include parental leave, flexible schedules, childcare assistance and childcare information. employees who had access to work/life policies showed significantly greater organisational commitment and expressed significantly lower intention to quit their jobs. work/life policies were reported by paré et al. (2001) to be minimally related to affective commitment, and negatively to continuance commitment. this might be the result of the individual being forced to stay at the organisation to increase investments rather than to have less work/life conflict. owing to the lock-in effect, employees are forced to focus more on work than their families. this may not make for a committed employee. in view of the foregoing, it was expected that the identified retention factors are positively associated with the three components of meyer and allen’s (1991) organisational commitment model, that is, it could be expected that each form of commitment would be negatively correlated with employees’ intention to leave the organisation and with voluntary turnover behaviour. the purpose of the study was therefore to establish whether specific retention factors can induce organisational commitment. more specifically, the goal was to investigate whether: � there was a significant correlation between the identified retention factors and individuals’ organisational commitment � retention factors had a substantial effect on individuals’ organisational commitment research design research approach a survey design was used to achieve the research objectives (shaughnessy & zechmeister, 1997). participants a purposive sample of 94 nonrandomly selected professional technicians from a south african owned telecommunications company based in the gauteng province was used in the present study. the majority of the participants were white males (89.36%) with females representing only 10.64 percent of the total sample. in terms of age, 81.9 percent of the participants were between the ages of 20 and 34, and 10.1 percent between the ages 35 and 45. most of the participants (63.83%) had a tertiary education, achieving a post school certificate or diploma at a technikon. the majority of the participants (91.49%) indicated five or fewer years of organisational tenure with the company and a low percentage of absenteeism (42.55%). a large proportion of the participants (59.57%) also participated in an incentive scheme. most of the participants (85.11%) were involved in overtime at the organisation, working between 1 and 19 hours overtime per week. measuring instruments two measuring instruments, namely the organisational commitment questionnaire (meyer et al., 1993) and a retention factor measurement scale developed by döckel (2003), were used in the present study. a biographical questionnaire was used to obtain personal details of the participants. organisational commitment questionnaire (ocq) organisational commitment was measured using the threedimensional meyer et al. (1993) instrument that was originally developed by a llen & meyer (1990). the affective, continuance and normative organisational commitment scales each comprise six items, a modification of the original questionnaire. meyer et al. (1993) reported internal consistency reliabilit y estimates (cronbach’s alphas) for affective commitment (0.82), continuance commitment (0.74) and normative commitment (0.83). responses were made on a 7-point scale (1=strongly disagree and 7=strongly agree) and were averaged to yield composite commitment scores for each respondent. the retention factor measurement scale (rfms) the questionnaire consisted of 35 items and was presented in the form of a five-point likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). the rfms was developed by using items that originated from questionnaires that were designed to measure compensation, job characteristics, training and development opportunities, supervisor support, career opportunities and work/life policies (döckel, 2003). compensation: thirteen items regarding compensation factors pertaining to level, benefits, raises, structure/administration were selected from the pay satisfaction questionnaire (heneman & schwab, 1985). results reported by heneman and schwab (1985) show high internal consistency reliabilities for the four scales. job characteristics: the job diagnostic survey (hackman & oldham, 1975; 1976) was used with two items comprising each dimension, namely skill variety and job autonomy. fried and farris’s (1987) meta-analyses reported a cronbach alpha coefficient in the range of 0.20 to 0.94. training and development opportunities: six items based on a scale developed by rogg, schmidt, shull and schmitt (2001) were selected and used in the rfms. rogg et al. (2001) reported a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.77 to 0.87 for training and development opportunities. super visor support: six items based on a scale developed by ramus & steger (2000) were selected. a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.68 was reported for the scale. career opportunities: four items based on landau & hammer’s (1986) measurement scale on perceived ease of movement and perceived organisational policy of filling vacancies from within were selected. work/life policies: four items based on paré et al.’s (2001) work/life policies scale were selected. a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.87 was reported for the scale. a factor analysis on the rfms conducted by döckel (2003) confirmed the construct validity of the questionnaire. procedure the questionnaires were sent to the participants via the company’s internal mail system. a covering letter explaining the purpose of the study and the assurance that all information retention factors on organisational commitment 23 would be used for research purposes only accompanied each questionnaire. all questionnaires were answered anonymously and participation in the study was voluntary. completed questionnaires were sent back to the researchers via the internal mail system. statistical analysis the statistical analysis was carried out with the help of the sas program (sas institute, 2000). the analyses of data involved three stages. firstly, cronbach alpha coefficients and inter-item correlations were used to assess the internal consistency of the measuring instruments (clark & watson, 1995). a cronbach alpha coefficient of greater than 0.75 is generally considered reliable (internally consistent) (terre blanche & durrheim, 1999). secondly, pearson productmoment correlation coefficients were used to determine the magnitude of the relationships between each of the variables. finally, multiple linear regression was conducted to determine the separate and collective contributions of each of the specified independent variables (retention factors) to the variations of a dependent variable (organisational commitment). this is one of the most commonly used multivariate procedures in the social sciences, and is used to build models for explaining and predicting scores on the dependent variable from scores on a number of other independent variables (terre blanche & durrheim, 1999). a cut-off point of p<0,05 was set for the interpretation of the statistical significance of the results. results table 1 presents the results of the internal consistency of each scale as measured by cronbach alpha coefficients. the internal consistency reliabilities for the total sample as measured by cronbach alpha coefficients are moderately high, with the exception of somewhat lower reliabilities for continuance commitment and job characteristics. a desirable reliability coefficient would usually fall in the range of 0.8 to 0.9 (tredoux & durrheim, 2002). however, in the case of individual testing reliabilities as low as 0.3 are quite acceptable when instruments are used to gather group data (tredoux & durrheim, 2002). the internal consistency coefficients for the organisational commitment scales and the retention factors are generally regarded as acceptable. table 1 reliabilties for the ocq and rfms scale cronbach alpha coefficient number of items ocs affective commitment 0,78 6 continuance commitment 0,61 5 normative commitment 0,76 6 rfms compensation 0,90 13 job characteristics 0,41 2 training & development 0,83 6 supervisor support 0,90 6 career opportunities 0,76 4 work/life policies 0,87 4 the correlation coefficient matrix is presented in table 2, indicating that all the independent variables are strongly and significantly related to organisational commitment except for job characteristics, age and organisational tenure. the correlation coefficients vary between -0.409 and 0.85. all the retention factors except job characteristics, age and organisational tenure had a strong and significant relation to affective commitment. only the work/life policy factor shows a significant positive relation to continuance commitment. job characteristics show a significant negative relation to continuance commitment. the other independent variables, namely compensation, training and development opport unities, supervisor support, career opportunities, age and organisational tenure were poorly and non-significantly related to continuance commitment. all the retention factors except job characteristics, work/life policies, age and organisational tenure had a strong and significant relation to normative commitment. all the retention factors except job characteristics, age and organisational tenure had a strong and significant relation to organisational commitment as a total of all the different commitments. age and organisational tenure had no correlation with any of the commitment components, and thus were excluded in the multiple linear regression model. döckel, basson, coetzee24 table 2 intercorrelation matrix of scores on the ocq and rfms (n = 94) m sd ac cc nc oc comp jc td ss co wlp age ot ac 3,61 0,70 1,0 cc 3,07 0,70 0,12 1,0 nc 3,33 0,72 0,65** 0,12* 1,0 oc 3,34 0,53 0,79** 0,60** 0,85** 1,0 comp 3,04 0,66 0,40** 0,08 0,36** 0,38** 1,0 jc 4,19 0,60 -0,01 -0,22* 0,03 -0,08 0,01 1,0 td 3,24 0,76 0,36** 0,10 0,36** 0,37** 0,47** 0,22* 1,0 ss 3,45 0,89 0,47** 0,04 0,29** 0,36** 0,26* 0,22* 0,39** 1,0 co 3,02 0,79 0,45** 0,03 0,29** 0,34** 0,27** 0,11 0,59** 0,52** 1,0 wlp 3,05 0,96 0,35** 0,21* 0,14 0,31** 0,05 -0,10 0,19 0,33** 0,33** 1,0 age 29,99 5,86 0,05 -0,16 0,05 -0,02 0,19 0,09 0,02 -0,15 -0,29** 0,04 1,0 ot 2,86 2,04 -0,17 -0,11 -0,09 -0,16 -0,03 -0,06 -0,82 -0,28** -0,41** -0,34** 0,35** 1,0 **p=0,01; *p=0,05 ac = affective commitment; cc = continuance commitment; nc = normative commitment; oc = organisational commitment; comp = compensation; jc = job characteristics; td = training and development; ss = supervisor support; co = career opportunities; wlp = work/life policies; age = age; ot = organisational tenure multiple linear regression was calculated on the three commitment components and on organisational commitment as an overall measure of commitment. the results are reported in tables 3 to 6. in table 3 the results of the relation between the specified independent variables and affective commitment are presented. the overall model is significant at the 0.01 level. the retention factors explain 38 percent of the variance in affective commitment. of the independent variables, compensation (+), supervisor support (+) and work/life policies (+) are the only predictors statistically different from zero and had a significant and direct effect on affective commitment. the remaining independent variables, namely job characteristics (-), training and development opportunities (+) and career opportunities (+) had no significant direct effect on affective commitment. table 3 multiple linear regression analysis of rfms scores on ocq affective commitment (n = 94) independent parameter standard t-value p variables estimates error intercept 1,41 0,548 2,59** 0,011 compensation 0,293 0,104 2,82** 0,006 job characteristics -0,077 0,011 -0,73 0,470 training & 0,008 0,109 0,08 0,940 development supervisor support 0,205 0,083 2,47* 0,017 career opportunities 0,015 0,103 1,49 0,139 work/life policies 0,138 0,068 2,01* 0,048 **p=0,01; *p=0,05 overall model: f=8.90; p=0,0001; r²=0,38; adjusted r²=0,34. in table 4 the results of the relation between the specified independent variables and continuance commitment are presented. the results of the overall model are nonsignificant and all the retention factors explain only 11 percent of the variance in the continuance commitment variable. job characteristics (-) is the only predictor statistically different from zero and has a direct effect on continuance commitment. compensation (+), training and development opportunities (+), supervisor support (+), career opportunities (-) and work/ life policies (+) had no significant direct effect on continuance commitment. table 4 multiple linear regression analysis of rfms scores on ocq continuous commitment (n = 94) independent parameter standard t-value p variables estimates error intercept 3,480 0,658 5,29** 0,0001 compensation 0,013 0,125 0,11 0,916 job characteristics -0,270 0,127 -2,12* 0,037 training & 0,166 0,131 1,27 0,208 development supervisor support 0,020 0,100 0,20 0,841 career opportunities -0,112 0,123 -0,90 0,369 work/life policies 0,136 0,083 1,65 0,103 **p=0,01; *p=0,05 overall model: f=1,70; p=0,1296; r²=0,11; adjusted r²=0,04, in table 5 the results of the relation bet ween the specified independent variables and normative commitment are presented. the overall model is nonsignificant and all the retention factors explain only 21 percent of the variance in the normative commitment variable as indicated by r². all the retention factors are nonsignificant except compensation (+), which was statistically different from zero and had a direct effect on normative commitment. job characteristics (-), training and development opportunities (+), supervisor support (+), career opportunities (+) and work/life policies (+) had no direct effect on normative commitment. table 5 multiple linear regression analysis of rfms scores on ocq normative commitment (n = 94) independent parameter standard t-value p variables estimates error intercept 1,618 0,637 2,54** 0,013 compensation 0,260 0,121 2,14* 0,035 job characteristics -0,046 0,123 -0,37 0,710 training & 0,162 0,127 1,28 0,205 development supervisor support 0,108 0,097 1,12 0,265 career opportunities 0,047 0,120 1,39 0,699 work/life policies 0,025 0,080 0,31 0,756 **p=0,01; *p=0,05 overall model: f=3,74; p=0,0023; r²=0,21; adjusted r²=0,15, in table 6 the results of the relation between the specified independent variables and organisational commitment are presented. the overall model is significant at the 0.01 level and retention factors explained 30 percent of the organisational commitment variable. compensation (+) was the only predictor statistically different from zero and had significant and direct effects on organisational commitment at the 0.05 level. supervisor support (+) and work/life policies (+) had a significant effect on organisational commitment only at the 0.10 level. job characteristics (-), training and development opport unities (+) and career opport unities (+) had no significant direct effect on organisational commitment. table 6 multiple linear regression analysis of rfms scores on ocq organisational commitment (n = 94) independent parameter standard t-value p variables estimates error intercept 2,173 0,440 4,94*** 0,000 compensation 0,188 0,830 2,26** 0,027 job characteristics -0,131 0,085 -1,54 0,126 training & 0,112 0,088 1,28 0,204 development supervisor support 0,111 0,067 1,67* 0,099 career opportunities 0,030 0,083 0,36 0,721 work/life policies 0,100 0,055 1,81* 0,074 ***p=0,01; **p=0,05; *p=0,10 overall model: f=6.16; p=0,0001; r²=0,30; adjusted r²=0,25, retention factors on organisational commitment 25 discussion the goal of this research was to investigate specific retention factors that induce organisational commitment and can thus increase the retention of high technology employees. it was hypothesised that the various retention factors will relate significantly to the three forms of organisational commitment and therefore have a significant effect on individuals’ mindsets about the organisation. the overall fit of the various models, as indicated by the r², indicated that a low percentage of the variation had been explained. the best results were obtained for affective commitment and the worst for continuance commitment. it appears that the high technology workers that participated in this study had a desire to stay with the current organisation most probably because they generally accepted the terms of the psychological contract which positively addressed the various retention factors. in agreement with this observation, the most relevant explanatory factors were compensation, job characteristics, supervisor support, and work/life policies, which appeared to have a significant influence on the development of affective commitment (compensation, supervisor support, work/life policies), continuance commitment (job characteristics), normative commitment (compensation) and organisational commitment (compensation, supervisor support, work/life policies) in the participants. although training and development and career opportunities showed a significant relation to affective, normative and organisational commitment the results indicated, contrary to the findings of kochanski and ledford (2001) and mcelroy (2001), that these two retention factors did not have any significant direct impact on the development of organisational commitment in the participants. this finding confirms results of a st udy conducted by paré et al. (2001) that found training as having little effect on particularly continuance commitment. generally the results showed that compensation had a strong, significant relation to organisational commitment, affective commitment and normative commitment. the results obtained in the study are supported by higginbotham’s study (1997) on pay satisfaction, and kochanski and ledford’s study (2001) on retaining high technolog y professionals. the findings confirm that high technology employees want a competitive salary. perceptions of a “fair” salary have shown to be positively linked to affective commitment (schaubroeck et al., 1994) and with an intention to stay (higginbotham, 1997). because of the high technology employee’s commitment to their team, group-based pay may result in more commitment to the organisation (kochanski & ledford, 2001; tomlinson, 2002). according to the results, job characteristics had a significant strong negative relation to continuance commitment. high technology employees’ work requires them to use a number of complex or high level skills. this gives them considerable opportunity for independence, skill proficiency and freedom in how they complete their work (dubie, 2000; mceachern, 2001). continuance commitment creates a mindset of perceived costs, which compels the employees to stay in the organisation because of sunken costs (meyer & herscovitch, 2001). the majority of the participants were between the ages of 25 and 29 and with organisational tenure of fewer than 5 years, which suggest that few organisational investments had been made. these high technology employees could thus easily resign because of their high skill set demand in the market and minimal investments in the company. the relation bet ween supervisor support and affective commitment was strongly significant. supervisor support provides individuals with the chance to make a difference on the job, try out new skills, exercise discretion and receive feedback on their performance (kochanski & ledford, 2001). this is supported by paré et al. (2001) who demonstrated clearly that high technolog y employees are particularly sensitive to recognition, which has been shown to have a direct effect on affective commitment. supervisor support makes high technology employees feel important and responsible in that they can use their innovation and skill to the advantage of the organisation (eisenberger et al., 1990). this is a major intrinsic motivation for individuals. contrary to pare et al.’s (2001) findings, the relation between work/life policies and affective commitment was significant. it appears that the participants felt emotionally attracted to the organisation most probably because of the work/life benefits available to them. these benefits are generally seen as a general indicator of corporate concern and responsibility (dubie, 2000; grover & crooker, 1995). many high technology organisations offer employees family responsibilit y leave, referral programmes, flexible work arrangements and other human resources policies aimed at helping them balance work and family responsibilities (friedan, 1989; leinfuss, 1998). the majority of participants were between 25 and 29 years old, and were about equally divided into single and married employees. the majority of employees worked between 1 and 19 hours’ overtime per week. basically, for people to commit to an organisation, they need to know they are cared about (burke & cooper, 2002; dubie, 2000). high technology organisations are not just interested in retaining employees, but also creating a mutually beneficial interdependence with employees (mcnee et al., 1998; murphy, 2000). the identified retention factors might serve as a means to demonstrate the organisation’s support for, or commitment to, their employees and in turn cultivate a reciprocal attachment by employees. employees’ organisational commitment is related to their belief that the identified retention factors are motivated by the desire to retain good employees and to be fair in the treatment of employees (tsui et al., 1995). the aim of the present study was to assist human resources professionals and researchers in identif ying the effect of retention factors on high technology employees’ organisational commitment. however, in future investigations several of the limitations of this study would need to be considered. firstly, participants from various organisations in the high technology industry could be used to obtain a more representative sample. secondly, longitudinal studies are needed in order to validate the predictive dimension of the model. future studies could include an investigation of the retention factors’ effect on the attitudinal or behavioural commitment of high technology employees. high technology employees can become more committed to their own profession, because of the respect they receive as experts and the ability to deal with difficult technical situations. a study could investigate the difference in retention factors on their professional commitment and organisational commitment. as the workforce is becoming more diverse, a study could investigate the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment in a nonhomogenous employee environment. finally, as individuals are increasingly unable to depend on a single organisation for their entire career because of mergers, downsizing and layoffs, a longitudinal study could investigate the employee emigration from organisational commitment to career commitment. in conclusion, it is trusted that these findings presented useful insights regarding the retention of valuable high technology employees. researchers are encouraged to examine, both theoretically and empirically, these and other retention and commitment constructs to yield more insightful conclusions regarding the effect of retention factors on employees’ organisational commitment. döckel, basson, coetzee26 references agarwal, r. & ferratt, t. w. (1999). coping with labour scarcity in it: strategies and practices for effective recruitment and retention. cincinnati, oh: pinnaflex. allen, n. j. & meyer, j. p. (1990). the measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organisation. journal of occupational psychology, 63, 1–18. allen, n. j. & meyer, j. p. (1993). organisational commitment: evidence of career stage effects? journal of business research, 26, 49–61. amabile, t. m., conti, r., coon, h., lazenby, j., & herron, m. (1996). assessing the work environment for creativity. academy of management journal, 39, 1154–1184. balkin, d. b. & gomez-mejia, l. r. (1984). faculty satisfaction with pay and other job dimensions under union and nonunion conditions. academy of management journal, 27 (3), 591–602. baruch, y. (2004). transforming careers: from linear to multidirectional career paths. career development international, 9 (1), 58–73. baugh, s. g. & roberts, r. m. (1994). professional and organisational commitment among engineers: conflicting or complementing? ieee transactions on engineering management, 41, 108–114. becker, h. s. (1960). notes on the concept of commitment. american journal of sociology, 66, 32-42. burke, r.j. & cooper, c.l. (2002). the new world of work: challenges and opportunities. oxford: blackwell. cascio, w. f. (2003). managing human resources. new york: mcgraw-hill. cataldo, p., van assen, j. & d’alessandro, a. (2000). how to win the telecom talent war: companies can retain a best-in-class workforce in a highly competitive labour market using a knowledge-based approach that emphasises continuous learning. america’s network, 104 (11), 55. chambers, e. g. (1998). win the war for top talent. workforce, 77 (12), 50–56. chang, e. (1999). career commitment as a complex moderator of organisational commitment and turnover intention. human relations, 52 (10), 1257–1278. clark, l. a. & watson, d. (1995). constructing validity: basic issues in objective scale development. psychological assessment, 7, 309–319. cohen, a. (1993). on the discriminant validity of the meyer and allen (1984) measure of organisational commitment: how does it fir with the work commitment construct? organisational behaviour, 14, 82–91. decotiis, t. a. & summers, t. p. (1987). a path analysis of a model of the antecedents and consequences of organisational commitment. human relations, 40, 445–470. deyoung, p. (2000). high technical talent perks are ripe for the picking. workspan, 43 (10), 28–33. döckel, a. (2003). the effect of retention factors on organisational commitment: an investigation of high technology employees. unpublished mcom dissertation (human resources management), university of pretoria. dubie, d. (2000). should you stay or should you go? network world, 17 (29), 66. eisenberger, r., fasolo, p. & davis-lamastro, v. (1990). perceived organisational support and employee diligence, commitment, and innovation. journal of applied psychology, 75, 51–59. eisenhardt, k. m. (1985). control: organisational and economic approaches. management science, 31, 134–149. evans, r. s., gonzalez, j., popiel, s. & walker, t. (2000). whose capital is it? trends in human resources. ivey business journal, 64 (3), 28–37. farris, g. f. (2000). rewards and retention of technical staff. ieee international engineering management conference, 617–619. fried, y. & farris, g. r. (1987). the validity of the job characteristic model: a review and meta-analyses. personnel psychology, 4 (2), 287–322. friedan, b. (1989). mommy track [videotape recording of abc’s news nightline]. new york: abc news. furnham, a. (2000). work in 2020: prognostications about the world of work 20 years into the millennium. journal of managerial psychology, 15 (3), 242–254. glynn, m. a. (1996). innovative genius: a framework for relating individual and organisational intelligences to innovation. academy of management journal, 21 (4), 1081–1111. grover, s. l. & crooker, k. j. (1995). who appreciates familyresponsive human resources policies: the impact of familyfriendly policies on the organisational attachment of parent and non-parents. personnel psychology, 48 (2), 271–289. hackman, j. r. & oldham, g. r. (1975). the development of the job diagnostic survey. journal of applied psychology, 60, 159–170. hackman, j. r. & oldham, g. r. (1976). motivation through the design of work: tests of a theory. organisational behaviour and human performance, 16, 250–279. heneman, h. g. iii & schwab, d. p. (1985). pay satisfaction: its multidimensional nature and measurement. international journal of psychology, 20, 129-141. higginbotham, j. s. (1997). the satisfaction equation. research & development, 39 (10), 1–9. hoyt, j. & gerdloff, e. a. (1999). organisational environment, changing economic conditions and the effective supervision of technical personnel: a management challenge. journal of high technology management research, 10 (2), 275–294. huselid, m. a. (1995). the impact of human resource management practices on turnover, productivit y, and corporate financial performance. academy of management journal, 38, 635–672. igbaria, m. & greenhaus, j. (1992). determinants of mis employees’ turnover intentions: a structural equation model. communications of the acm, 35 (2), 34–49. jiang, j. j. & klein, g. (2000). supervisor support and career anchor on the career satisfaction of the entry-level information systems professional. journal of management information systems, 16 (3), 219–240. kochanski, j. & ledford, g. (2001). “how to keep me”: retaining technical professionals. research technology management, 44 (3), 31–38. landau, j. & hammer, t. h. (1986). clerical employees’ perceptions of intraorganisational career opportunities. academy of management journal, 29 (2), 385–404. leinfuss, e. (1998). the hiring frenzy continues. computer world, 32 (27), 64–65. luthans, f., mccaul, h. s. dodd, n. g. (1985). organisational communications: a comparison of america, japanese and korean employees. academy of management journal, 28 (1), 213–219. marsh, r. m. & mannari, h. (1977). organisational commitment and turnover: a predictive study. administrative science quarterly, 22, 57–75. mathieu, j. e. & farr, j. l. (1991). further evidence for the discriminant validit y of measures of organisational commitment, job involvement and job satisfaction. journal of applied psychology, 76, 127–133. mathieu j. e. & zajac, d. (1990). a review and meta analysis of the antecedents, correlates and consequences of organisational commitment. psychological bulletin, 108, 171–194. mccrory, a. (1999). workstyles. computer world, january 25, 65–66. mceachern, c. (2001). the economy may be slowing, but retaining a quality technical department is always key. wall street & technology, 19 (7), 43–46. mcelroy, j. c. (2001). managing workplace commitment by putting people first. human resources management review, 11, 327–335. retention factors on organisational commitment 27 mcnee, b., morello, t., zidar, e. & smith, c. (1998). strategic human resources management: addressing a critical problem for the information systems organisation. gartner group strategic analysis report, september 28. mester, c., visser, d., roodt, g. & kellerman, r. (2003). leadership style and its relation to employee attitudes and behaviour. sa journal of industrial psychology, 29 (2), 72-82. meyer, j. p. & allen, n. j. (1984). testing the “side bet theory” of organisational commitment: some methodological considerations. journal of applied psychology, 69, 372–378. meyer, j. p. & allen, n. j. (1991). a three component conceptualisation of organisational commitment. human resources management review, 1, 61–89. meyer, j. p. & allen, n. j. (1997). commitment in the workplace: theory, research and application. thousand oaks, ca: sage. meyer, j. p., allen, n. j. & smith, c. a. (1993). commitment to organisations and occupations: extension and test of three component conceptualisation. journal of applied psychology, 78, 538–551. meyer, j. p. & herscovitch, l. (2001). commitment in the workplace: toward a general model. human resources management review, 11, 299–326. miner, j. b. (1988). organisational behaviour: performance and productivity. new york: random house. morrow, p. c. & mcelroy, j. c. (1986). on assessing measures of work commitment. journal of occupational behaviour, 7, 139–145. mueller, c. w., wallace, j. e. & price, j. l. (1992). employee commitment: resolving some issues. work and occupations, 19, 211–236. murphy, c. (2000). the survey says: lots of it jobs, not enough workers. information week, no 782, 152. paré, g., tremblay, m. & lalonde, p. (2001). the role of organisational commitment and citizenship behaviours in understanding relations between human resources practices and turnover intentions of it personnel. scientific series #2001s-24, cirano, montreal, canada. pretorius,a.a.s. & roodt, g. (2004). die verband tussen werknemertevredenheid en organisasieverbondenheid. sa journal of industrial psychology, 30 (3), 65-74. ramus, c. a. & steger, u. (2000). the roles of supervisory support behaviours and environmental policy in employees “ecoinitiatives” at leading edge european companies. academy of management journal, 43 (4), 605–626. rhodes, s. r. & steers, r. m. (1981). conventional versus workerowned firms. human relations, 34, 1013–1035. rogers, e. w. (2001). a theoretical look at firm performance in high technology organisations: what does existing theory tell us? journal of high technology management research, 12, 39–61. rogg, k. l., schmidt, d. b., shull, c. & schmitt, n. (2001). human resources practices, organisational climate and customer satisfaction. journal of management, 27, 431–449. sas institute. (2000). the sas system for windows: release 8.01. cary: sas institute inc. schaubroeck, j., may, d. r. & brown, f. w. (1994). procedural justice explanations and employee reactions to economic hardship: a field experiment. journal of applied psychology, 79, 455–460. shaughnessy, j.j. & zechmeister, e.b. (1997). research methods in psychology. new york: mcgraw-hill. scholl, r. w. (1981). differentiating commitment from expectancy as motivating force. academy of management review, 6, 589–599. sethi, v., meinert, d., king, r. c. & sethi, v. (1996). the multidimensional nature of organisational commitment among information systems personnel. available online at http://hsb.baylor.edu/ramsower/ais.ac.96/papers/sethi.htm. (accessed 03/10/2001). storey, j. (1992). developments in the management of human resources. oxford: blackwell. storm, l. & roodt, g. (2002). die verband tussen organisasiesosialisering en organisasieverbondenheid. tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 28 (1), 14-21. terre blanche, m. & durrheim, k. (1999). research in practice: applied methods for the social sciences. cape town: university of cape town press. tomlinson, a. (2002). high technology workers want respect: survey. canadian human resources reporter, 15 (3), 2. tredoux, c. & durrheim, k. (2002). numbers, hypotheses & conclusions: a course in statistics for the social sciences. cape town: uct press. tsui, a. s., pearce, j. l., porter, l. w. & hite, j. p. (1995). choice of employee-organisation relationship: influence of external and internal organisational factors, in g. r. ferris (ed.) research in personnel and human resources management (pp. 117–151). greenwich, ct: jai. turbin, m. s. & rosse, j. g. (1990). staffing issues in the high technology industry, in l. r. gomez-meijia & m. w. lawless (eds.). organisation issues in high technology management. london: jai. von glinow, m. a. & mohrman, s. a. (1990). attachment and withdrawal patterns of high technology workers. journal of high technology management research, 1 (2), 149–165. weiss, j.w. (2001). organizational behaviour and change: managing diversity, cross-cultural dynamics, and ethics. ohio: south-western college. wiener, y. (1982). commitment in organisations: a normative view. academy of management review, 7, 418–428. döckel, basson, coetzee28 abstract introduction research design results discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) symen a. brouwers workwell research unit for economic and management, north-west university, south africa karina mostert workwell research unit for economic and management, north-west university, south africa sanelisiwe v. mtshali workwell research unit for economic and management, north-west university, south africa citation brouwers, s.a., mostert, k., & mtshali, s.v. (2017). bias and equivalence of the strengths use and deficit correction questionnaire in a south african context. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 15(0), a889. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.889 original research bias and equivalence of the strengths use and deficit correction questionnaire in a south african context symen a. brouwers, karina mostert, sanelisiwe v. mtshali received: 23 nov. 2016; accepted: 24 aug. 2017; published: 22 nov. 2017 copyright: © 2017. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: developing personnel into skilled employees is a major focus of managers and companies. doing this in a valid way in a cross-culturally diverse working environment may be challenging. it is, therefore, important to investigate the cultural consistency of new tools that assist managers in reaching these personnel development goals. research purpose: determine whether the strengths use and deficit correction (sudco) questionnaire is universally applicable across the nguni, sesotho and west-germanic language groups in south africa by evaluating it statistically for bias and equivalence. motivation for the study: south african personnel management could gain valuable insights and outcomes when they aim to improve both strengths and weaknesses. research design, approach and method: the study employed semi-stratified sampling. a sample (n = 658) of employees in the banking sector participated in the study. the research focused on psychometric properties relating to bias, structural equivalence and reliability. main findings: a four-factor model fitted the data best. this model described perceived organisational support (pos) for strengths use, pos for deficit correction, strengths-use behaviour and deficit-correction behaviour. a multi-group confirmatory factor analysis for the direct comparison of the sudco’s fit across the language groups (nguni, sesotho and west-germanic) showed the 33 were unbiased against any of the three language groups and structured into the same four latent constructs. practical implications: in personnel development, employees and managers should understand the benefits of a combined strengths and deficit approach as relating to different language groups. contribution: the study contributes to literature a cross-culturally validated measure for the assessment of strengths and deficits. introduction talent management stands out among the human-capital challenges that organisations in south africa face today. among challenges such as leadership, retention and engagement, diversity and inclusion, workforce capability, and talent acquisition (deloitte & touche, 2014), talent management makes up the largest component of business operating expenses. the average costs of talent management are estimated in the range of 70% – 80% (director, cascio & boudreau, 2013). therefore, to maintain a competitive advantage, organisations adopt a human-capital strategy with a similar level of precision and analyses as capital investments in plants and equipment (echols, 2005). to optimise the effect of factors related to human capital on overall business performance, organisations strongly emphasise practices of performance management aimed at improving employee deficits (aguinis, gottfredson & joo, 2012). positive dimensions underlying personnel development, such as strengths, have received relatively little attention, particularly from a cross-cultural perspective. the present study aims to close this gap between strengths and culture. literature review the strengths use and deficit correction questionnaire in an attempt to fill the gap of the one-sided focus on deficits, industrial psychologists proposed a shift towards positive psychology. one of the outcomes linked to this shift in thinking was the development of a strengths-based approach (hereafter: sba) (seligman, park & steen, 2004). sba is a positive aspect of psychology that focuses on peoples’ strengths (seligman & csikszentmihalyi, 2014). the value of an sba is well documented in literature. this entails practices such as positive leadership, a strengths-based organisational culture and appropriate change management (e.g. appreciative inquiry). evidence shows that these practices can help companies meet their business goals (tombaugh, 2005). furthermore, research indicates a positive association between the variable use of strengths with engagement (van woerkom, oerlemans & bakker, 2016), performance (tombaugh, 2005) and positive effect (meyers & van woerkom, 2016). other findings show that sba provides employees key support in achieving goals, which leads to an increased need for satisfaction and well-being (linley, nielsen, gillett & biswas-diener, 2010). the strengths use and deficit correction (sudco) questionnaire is an extension of this line of thinking. van woerkom et al. (2016) developed the sudco questionnaire with four dimensions in mind. the first two dimensions, perceived organisational support (hereafter pos) for strengths use and deficit correction, were based on the theory of perceived organisational support. traditionally, pos has been conceptualised as the generalised beliefs about the extent to which an organisation supports its employees (eisenberger, fasolo, davis-lamastro, 1990; eisenberger, huntington, hutchison & sowa, 1986). this construct is based on the social exchange theory, which postulates that employees reciprocate their salary and benefits by ensuring productivity and performance, provided they perceive their organisation would support them in turn (armstrong-stassen & ursel, 2009). as a result, employees’ form positive or negative perceptions based on the following actions: how an organisation creates meaningful jobs, handle employees who err and invest in establishing a positive working environment (eisenberger, huntington, hutchison & sowa, 1986). furthermore, employees view their organisation as supportive if individuals are allowed to participate in decision-making, deem the rewards system to be fair and are provided training (allen, shore & griffeth, 2003) which lead to opportunities for self-development and growth (armstrong-stassen & ursel, 2009). a strength is a natural capacity for behaving, thinking or feeling in a way that allows optimal functioning and performance to fulfil one’s goals (linley & harrington, 2006). pos for strengths use, therefore, can be defined as the extent to which employees perceive organisations to support them by utilising their strengths and talents in the workplace. this dimension also shows a strong connection with the theory of strength-based psychological climate, which similarly is described as employees’ perceptions of formal and informal practices, processes and procedures regarding their organisational support in the identification and use of strengths (van woerkom & meyers, 2014). evidence suggests that pos for strengths use is a significant predictor of work-related aspects such as burnout (keenan & mostert, 2012), engagement (keenan & mostert, 2012; stander & mostert, 2013; van woerkom et al., 2016) and job performance (van woerkom & meyers, 2015). pos for deficit correction can be defined as the extent to which employees perceive their organisations to support them in developing or correcting their deficits at work. organisations apply processes for performance management to identify deficits and adopt interventions at various levels in the organisation. such organisational input entails on-job learning, training and coaching to improve performance (gilley, gilley & kouider, 2010; kirkpatrick, 2006). in a study by ellinger (2003) involving four organisations, it was found that organisations’ interventions to correct deficits resulted in improved learning, performance and innovation among employees. the same study also indicated benefits for the organisation such as saving costs, improving systems and sharing knowledge. similarly, further studies conducted with leaders and employees suggest that working on deficits does improve performance (longenecker, 2010; zenger, 2008). even though organisations play a significant role in supporting their employees in strengths use and deficit correction, the individuals also need to be proactive in managing this development themselves. based on this reasoning, proactive behaviour for strengths use can be defined as the employees’ self-starting behaviour aimed at using their strengths in the workplace. crant (2000) argues that proactive behaviour in the workplace means taking the initiative to improve current circumstances or create new ones by challenging the status quo, rather than passively adapting to present conditions. people who know their strengths, apply it by taking the initiative to improve their environment and build networks (thompson, 2005). this process leads to higher levels of work engagement (van woerkom et al., 2016; xanthopoulou, bakker, demerouti & schaufeli, 2009), increased performance (corporate leadership council, 2002; crant, 2000; thompson, 2005) and an improved state of well-being (govindji & linley, 2007). proactive behaviour in correcting deficits can be defined as employees’ self-starting behaviour to help improve deficiencies in the workplace that may be perceived as hampering performance (van woerkom et al., 2016). in performance management, employees’ performance is assessed and they receive feedback from their direct reporting line. during this process, employees’ areas of development or deficits are identified. employees who are proactive demonstrate the following behaviour patterns: familiarise themselves with the expected performance standards, request help from other team members (torrente, salanova, llorens & schaufeli, 2012), spend more time practicing or doing on-the-job training (ericsson, nandagopal, & roring, 2009) and ask for feedback on their performance (belschak & den hartog, 2010). findings show that employees’ proactive behaviour towards deficit correction also leads to continuous learning (rowold & schilling, 2006). assessment within the south african context psychometric assessments are used mainly in recruitment, selection and placement to secure employment or promotional opportunities. in south africa, the use of tests for these purposes are highly regulated. in the labour market (including the banking sector) as promulgated in the employment equity act 55 of 1998 (section 8), the use of psychometric assessments is prohibited unless it (1) had been scientifically shown to be valid and reliable, (2) can be applied fairly to all, (3) is not biased against any employee or group and (4) is classified by the health professions council of south africa (department of labour, 1998). the existence of laws prohibiting discrimination in the workplace does not always guarantee that women, people from different ethnic backgrounds, or those from other segments of the workforce have equal employment opportunities (deloitte & touche, 2014). in several cases, information about the quality of assessment is emitted. psychological development and assessment trends in south africa are thus important for a comprehensive focus on the misuse of measures. such misuse entails the following: measuring different groups, investigating test properties and applying test results without considering the differences in socio-cultural, economic and educational factors (foxcroft & roodt, 2009). bias and equivalence examination of threats to fair assessment is categorised as bias and equivalence, and includes advanced statistical techniques to determine the impact of either. analysis of bias and equivalence focuses on different levels or types of biases in which equivalence can be seen as the opposite pole of bias. in other words, when the test scores are equivalent, bias is absent (van de vijver & tanzer, 1997). three sources of bias can be distinguished, namely, those of constructs, methods and items (van de vijver & leung, 1997). item bias refers to unwanted distractions of a scale at the item level (van de vijver & leung, 2011). the main concept linked to item bias is familiarity. particular words or phrasing within the item may be unfamiliar to the person who is tested, thus leading to a loss of accessibility. people belonging to different cultural groups than the one in which the item was developed, thus may respond in a consistently dissimilar manner (he & van de vijver, 2012; meiring, van de vijver & rothmann, 2007). furthermore, bias may be associated with events in the administration of the test, such as the interviewers’ characteristics (e.g. gender, cultural group), communication problems (poor use of language by either party) or other procedural aspects when collecting the data (van de vijver & leung, 2011; van de vijver & tanzer, 1997). at the opposite end of the scale is construct bias. this form of bias occurs when constructs differ in meaning or interpretation across cultures or language groups (he & van de vijver, 2012). the logical underpinning would be that the construct under investigation is not part of universal human functioning, but an invention from within a particular cultural context. between the extremes of item and construct bias, lies method bias. this form of bias can emerge because of the research method or weakness in the applied procedure during empirical studies (he & van de vijver, 2012). on the other side, bias may occur because of cognitive strategies applied by the study participants in more complex performance tasks. as a result, method bias covers the terrain of construct and item bias. however, there are no set techniques to examine method bias (podsakoff, mackenzie & podsakoff, 2012). the study of equivalence is an approach or method to assess bias. equivalence is a measure of similar scores and an indication of the differences found within the scores. score differences do not only consist of mean differences but also of measurement weights, measurement intercepts, structural means and measurement residuals. weights and intercepts do model item bias. uniform bias is found in the intercepts: one culture may score consistently higher or lower than another one, irrespective of the true level of the construct. non-uniform bias is found in significant regression weights of an item on its applicable latent variable; the effect of culture is different in size for exponents who score high and low (van de vijver & leung, 1997). structural means and measurement residuals serve to model properties of the construct; their assessment asks whether in each culture the starting point of the scale is similar; thus whether in each culture the scales can be juxtaposed, and will completely mirror each other without any deviations (van de vijver & leung, 2011). applying mean score differences when a construct shows comparability across cultures, there is still sufficient room for individual variation within cultures, particularly for variables of development over people’s lifespan. relations of age and the sudco dimensions may be expected to have the same direction in different cultures, but they differ in strength. it is a challenge for most organisations to manage the often conflicting views and needs of a diverse workforce, covering a wide range of generations from the so-called baby boomers to generation x and generation y. organisations who invest in career progression initiatives and offer opportunities for training and development will be able to attract the most talented young people and retain them for extended periods (deloitte & touche, 2014). furthermore, leaders face the challenge to manage diverse employees across different ages, generations and gender. access to life opportunities in south africa is divided according to gender, language and other dimensions (keeton, 2014). women, in particular, lag behind in terms of skills development and work opportunities (deloitte & touche, 2014; mateus, allen-ile & iwu, 2014). the present study the aim of the present study is to determine whether the sudco questionnaire is universally applicable across three south african language groups by evaluating it statistically for bias and equivalence. the two existing studies that examined cross-cultural validity of the sudco in south africa did so with a limited definition of social group differences (els, mostert & brouwers, 2016; black vs. white) and with a limited coverage across the south african population (theron, mostert & de beer, 2015; the west-germanic language group vs. the african language group, but where the african language group consisted mainly of only one out of 11 african languages, namely, setswana). furthermore, none of these studies examined the functioning of the sudco in relation to primary demographic variables, such as age and gender, variables that uphold valuable individual differences in the face of cross-cultural similarities. therefore, the present study aimed to determine whether the sudco shows meaningful relationships with demographic variables such as age and organisational tenure, and whether gender is a critical moderator. research design research participants data were gathered from employees in the banking sector (n = 658) using convenient sampling. participants with varying demographic characteristics including race, age, gender, education and language were sourced across different organisational levels and departments within one major bank. the demographic characteristics relevant for the present study are displayed in table 1. table 1: characteristics of participants. as indicated in table 1, the sample consisted of 463 females (69.26%) and 194 males (30.74%), and one participant did not indicate his/her gender. the youngest employee who participated was 19 years old, with the oldest one 60 years, with a mean age of 31.50 years and a standard deviation of 7.92. most participants had high school education (64.10%), while others had post-matric education (16.60%). the majority of the sample came from the west-germanic (english and afrikaans) language group (44.29%), followed by the nguni (isizulu, isixhosa, isindebele and siswati) group (29.22%) and the sesotho (south sesotho, sepedi and tswana) group (26.48%). in terms of organisational tenure, participants were evenly distributed, with the smallest group of 11.10% employed for less than 1 year, and the largest group of 19.90% for 2–3 years. even though most participants indicated english as their second language, they were proficient in english as it is considered an official requirement for business communication within the bank. measuring instruments a socio-demographic questionnaire was administered to determine the biographical characteristics of participants. questions were posed to determine age, gender, home language, educational qualifications and ethnicity, as well as external dimensions such as current position, job tenure and level of qualification. the sudco (van woerkom et al., 2016) was used to measure strengths use and deficit correction. the sudco consists of four sub-scales: (1) pos for strengths use, including eight items (e.g. ‘in this organisation, employees can do their jobs in a manner that best suits their strong points’, (2) pos for deficit correction, including eight items (e.g. ‘this organisation emphasises the development of employees’ weak points’), (3) strengths-use behaviour, measured by nine items (e.g. ‘i actively look for job tasks i am good at’) and (4) deficit-correction behaviour, measured with eight items (e.g. ‘in my job, i concentrate on my areas of development’). these four constructs were measured on a 7-point likert-type scale ranging from 0 (almost never) to 6 (almost always). van woerkom et al. (2016) also found the scales to be reliable, reporting cronbach’s alpha values regarding pos for strengths use: α = 0.95; pos for deficit correction: α = 0.89; strengths-use behaviour: α = 0.90; and deficit-correction behaviour: α = 0.90. research procedure permission was obtained from the group human capital (ghc) division of the participating bank to conduct the research within different business units. the ghc division requested that a disclaimer should be stipulated on the questionnaire confirming that the study was not business related but for academic purposes, to which the researcher duly obliged. the research questionnaire was designed as an electronic survey sent to research participants using internal email of the organisation. the questionnaire provided an option to accept or decline participation, thus ensuring the voluntary nature of participation. participants were also assured of privacy and confidentiality of their responses. meetings were scheduled with heads of the business unit to present the study objectives and request permission to conduct the survey in their respective areas. the heads then sent the electronic questionnaire to their respective team members to complete the survey at a convenient time. after a week, a reminder was sent to each team, respectively. statistical analyses the statistical analyses were conducted using a statistical package for social science (spss) version 22 (spss inc., 2011) and analyses of moment structures (amos) version 22, employing maximum likelihood estimation (arbuckle, 2013). interpretation of the results adopted both descriptive and inferential statistics (arbuckle, 2013). before analysing the applicability of the sudco items across the three language groups in the sample, the sudco items were checked for outliers, missing values and their dimensionality. outliers were replaced by a relevant score where possible, or otherwise as a missing score. cases with 10% or more of the items missing were removed; otherwise, missing values were replaced by their scale mean (thus leaving no missing values in the eventual dataset). preliminary analyses were done to establish the number of dimensions underlying the sudco. analyses were conducted in amos, comparing the relative fit of four distinct models: the hypothesised four-factor model; a one-factor model; a model with one person-oriented factor and one organisation-oriented factor; and a model with one strengths-use factor and one deficit-correction factor. overall, fit of the four models was assessed according to the basic statistical and goodness-of-fit indices. subsequently, fit of the competing models was examined relative to the hypothesised four-factor model. fit is based on the chi-square (χ²) statistic and the goodness-of-fit indices, root mean square error of approximation (rmsea), comparative fit index (cfi) and standardised root mean square residual (srmr), which are evaluated according to their cut-off criteria. the acceptable model fit for indices was evaluated as follows: rmsea is acceptable below 0.06 and excellent below 0.04; cfi is acceptable above 0.90 and excellent above 0.95 (he & van de vijver, 2012); srmr values less than 0.08 are generally considered an acceptable fit (hu & bentler, 1999). the present study utilised recent developments to test item bias and construct equivalence in a single multi-group model in amos. a multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) was conducted to compare the fit of the sudco directly across the three language groups. while sample-size requirements do not change from two to three or four factors, having relatively more indicators per factor lowers sample-size requirements (e.g. wolf, harrington, clark & miller, 2013). with four factors and eight indicators per factor, a minimum of 150 participants seems acceptable; the sub-sample sizes of 192, 174 and 292 in the study satisfy the recommended values for cfa. practically, within cfa bias and equivalence refer to different parameters in the model: measurement weight, measurement intercepts, structural means and measurement residuals. by using models that are nested (i.e. share most parameters, but systematically vary target parameters), their relative fit across cultures could be determined precisely. again, fit of the models was assessed in terms of the basic statistical and goodness-of-fit indices. descriptive data were analysed using the means, standard deviations, reliability and the range (tredoux & durrheim, 2008) to determine scale functioning. in order to assess the reliability of the sudco, cronbach’s alpha coefficient of ≥ 0.70 was considered as acceptable (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). spss was also used to conduct a series of regression analyses, with the four sudco scales’ means as the dependent variables, and age and organisational tenure as the independent variables. a stepwise procedure that removes the variance associated with age in a first step avoids violation of the possible collinearity between the two independent variables. in order to compare the two genders and three language groups, the analyses were conducted separately in terms of split groups: by gender (two groups), by language (three groups) and by combining gender and language (six groups). significance of the coefficients and explained proportions of variance were determined by p values smaller than 0.05 or 0.01. results the results section follows a strict systematic order. firstly, the analyses are given of the number of factors in the sudco. secondly, the results are reported of the multi-group analyses of the sudco in the three language groups, to assess item bias and construct equivalence. thirdly, descriptives of the sudco scales are reported along their relations with age, organisational tenure, gender and language group. factorial validity in order to ensure the factorial validity of the internal structures of the sudco, four competing models were tested. while model fit is the most important criterion, factor loadings and between-factor correlations are evaluated as well. model 1: the hypothesised four-factor model consisting of four sub-scales: pos for strengths use (specified as a first factor with eight items); pos for deficit correction (specified as a second factor with eight items); strengths-use behaviour (specified as a third factor with nine items); deficit-correction behaviour (specified as a fourth factor with eight items). model 2: items of all four sub-scales of pos for strengths use, pos for deficit correction, strengths-use behaviour and deficit-correction behaviour. model 3: organisational factors (pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction) loaded onto one factor and individual behaviour (strengths-use behaviour and deficit-correction behaviour) loaded onto one factor. model 4: another two-factor model, comprising strengths-use variables (pos for strengths use and strengths-use behaviour) and deficit-correction variables (pos for deficit correction and deficit-correction behaviours). table 2 shows the fit of the four models that were tested. when reviewing the results for the various models of the sudco scales, model 2 (one-factor model) compared significantly worse to the baseline model (m1) (m2 vs. m1: δχ2 = 6660.76, δdf = 6, p ≤ 0.00). in comparing the alternative model 3 (two factors, organisational and individual behaviour scales) to the baseline model 1 (four factors, pos for strengths use, pos for deficit correction, strengths-use behaviour and deficit-correction behaviour), the fit of this alternative model was favourable compared to model 3 but still not stronger than that of the baseline model 1 (m3 vs. m1: δχ2 = 2143.72, δdf = 5, p ≤ 0.00). the finally tested model 4 (two factors, strengths and deficits scales) was also compared with the baseline model 1, which proved a worse fit for data compared with model 3, as well as the baseline model (m4 vs. m1: δχ2 = 7353.71, δdf = 5, p ≤ 0.00). based on the findings from table 2, it is evident that the baseline model (hypothesised model), fitted the data the best, compared with other models (χ2 = 1576.05; df = 489, χ2/df = 3.22, p = 0.00; cfi = 0.94; rmsea = 0.06; srmr = 0.04). model 1 showed acceptable model fit as rmsea < 0.06, cfi values were close to 0.90 (he & van de vijver, 2012) and srmr values were below 0.08 (hu & bentler, 1999). table 2: results of the competing measurement models. table 3 shows the factor loadings for the latent variables. factor loading on all items proved to be statistically significant ranging from 0.64 to 0.87. regarding pos for strengths use, the smallest loading was for the following item: ‘in this organisation, employees can do their jobs in a manner that best suits their strong points’, with a loading of 0.72, and the highest loading was for the following item: ‘this organisation ensures that people can apply their strong points in their jobs’, with a loading of 0.87. with regard to pos for deficit correcting, the smallest loading was for the following item: ‘in this organisation, performance appraisals address people’s areas of development’, with a loading of 0.71, and the highest loading was for the item: ‘in this organisation, development plans are aimed to better people’s weaknesses’, with a loading of 0.86. for strengths-use behaviour, the smallest loading was for the item: ‘i actively look for job tasks i am good at’, with a loading of 0.64, and the highest loading was for the item: ‘i capitalise on my strengths at work’, with a loading of 0.84. finally, for deficit-correction behaviour, the smallest loading was for the item: ‘at work, i seek training opportunities to improve my weaknesses’, with a loading of 0.70, and the highest loading was for the item: ‘in my job, i make an effort to improve my limitations’, with a loading of 0.81. correlations between the factors show varying patterns: six correlations with values of 0.81, 0.48, 0.78, 0.52, 0.51 and 0.44 for model 1, no correlations for the single factor model 2, a correlation of 0.55 for the organisational versus individual model 3, and a correlation of 0.84 for the strength-use versus deficit-correction model 4. while models 1, 3 and 4 all show good discriminant validity, model 1 is the most detailed and discriminating between the various factors at the same time. table 3: standardised factor loadings of the strengths use and deficit correction items on the four latent variables. item bias and structural equivalence item bias and structural equivalence were tested to determine whether the sudco can be used across the three language groups. the fit indices of the multi-group cfa across the language groups are reported in table 4 and the chi-square differences reported in the model comparison function are used to ascertain the level of equivalence across the groups. in cfa, the theoretical model is investigated to see whether it fits the data. model 0 includes all four parameters where none of the parameters are constrained. in model 1, only the weights are constrained, while in model 2, parameters are constrained for weights and intercepts. in model 3, parameters are constrained for weights, intercepts and structural covariances, while in model 4, parameters for residuals, weights, intercepts and structural covariances are constrained. from the fit indices, it is clear that all four models fit the data well, but a closer look at changes in the chi-square that arise from adding constraints to the null model reveals that models 3 and 4 create a significantly poorer fit (δχ2 = 191.52; δdf = 144; p = 0.01 for model 3 and δχ2 = 445.02; δdf = 210; p = 0.00 for model 4). models 1 and 2 improve equivalence without compromising fit (δχ2 = 54.43; δdf = 58; p = 0.61 for model 1 and δχ2 = 135.35; δdf = 124; p = 0.23 for model 2), but the analyses show that model 2 still adds meaningful constraint over model 1 (δχ2 = 80.92; δdf = 66; p = 0.10). the best-fitting model is model 2 (χ2 = 3169.13; df = 1591; χ2/df = 1.99; p = 0.00; cfi = 0.92, rmsea = 0.04, srmr = 0.05). table 4: fit indices of the multi-group confirmatory factor analysis across language groups. working with strengths use and deficit correction mean scores the results indicated that items are consistent with acceptable cronbach’s alpha coefficients regarding pos for strengths use (α = 0.94); pos for deficit correction (α = 0.94); strengths-use behaviour (α = 0.93); and deficit-correction behaviour (α = 0.93). these are acceptable as the coefficient closer to 1 is considered a true score (struwig & stead, 2007). the descriptive statistics reflecting minimums, maximums, means and standard deviations regarding the sudco scales for the sample of nguni, sesotho and west-germanic language groups are displayed in table 5. the outer left column of table 5 presents the three groups with separate entries for each scale per group. presented in the table are the minimum and maximum scores, plus in the last two columns the means and standard deviations. when examining the scores, the following findings emerge: while the west-germanic group shows generally higher scores on all four scales, within each group, the four scales show more or less the same pattern. in other words, the two behaviour scales show consistently higher mean scores than the two pos scales. this pattern indicates homogeneity in scores of the nguni, sesotho and west-germanic groups in relation to the sudco scales. table 5: descriptive statistics for strengths use and deficit correction sub-scales in the three language groups. in the present study, comparability and equal functioning of the four sudco scales were established for the three mentioned language groups. thereafter, a series of regression analyses were done to apply the four scales to organisational parameters, in this case, age and organisational tenure. for each regression analysis, one of the sudco scale means was chosen as dependent variable, and age and organisational tenure as the independent variables. the dependent variables were entered in a stepwise fashion: first step, age and second step, organisational tenure. high correlation might be expected between the two dependent variables; therefore, this procedure allows the independent estimation of each variable’s effect. in order to compare the two genders and three language groups, the analyses were done separately for a split-group focus: by gender (two groups), language (three groups) and the combination of gender and language (six groups). the results for all of the regression analyses can be seen in table 6. it is visible that the effects per group are split. the first block shows the effects of age: the main effect for the entire sample, the effect of age for males and for females, as well as for nguni males, west-germanic males, etc. the second block follows the same outline for organisational tenure, with the findings split into main effects and effects per gender and language group. the findings show that the effects of age are confined mostly to strengths and to females, both regarding pos and behaviour. the largest effects, in this case, are β = 0.23, p < 0.01 for pos strengths use and β = 0.20, p < 0.01 for strengths-use behaviour in sesotho women, with west-germanic women showing slightly smaller effects than the sesotho women. males only show a significant main effect for pos deficit correction, β = −0.15, p < 0.05. table 6: strengths use and deficit correction scale behaviour: results of the stepwise regression analysis with age, organisational tenure, gender and language group. regarding organisational tenure, the effect of age is eliminated through stepwise regression procedure (with age as the first step and organisational tenure as the second step). the only significant effects in this case were found for strengths-use behaviour, both males and females showing a main effect (β = −0.15, p < 0.05 and β = −0.15, p < 0.05, respectively). while sesotho males and females showed high coefficients (0.46 and 0.25) for organisational tenure in relation to strengths-use behaviour, this effect only reached significance for the males (p < 0.05). taken as a whole, the three language groups thus show important and rather consistent functioning in terms of sudco scales, with two scales indicating only limited effects, and two other scales moderate effects. the results emphasise the relevance of a positive psychology for personal development, where the effects for strengths are persistently higher than for deficits. discussion the present study argues for a balanced and comprehensive approach to positive psychology, one which focuses on developing strengths and correcting deficits, at the level of both the organisation and of individual employees. this shift towards a balanced approach in the behaviour of personnel and the organisation (seligman, 2002; rust, diessner & reade, 2009) led to the development of the sudco (van woerkom et al., 2016). therefore, as indicated previously, the objectives of the present study was to validate the sudco in a specific working sample of banking employees. this was done by examining bias and equivalence of the sudco across the diverse language groups: nguni, sesotho and west-germanic. thereafter, the study compared the functioning of the sudco within each language group regarding the variables of age, organisational tenure and gender. the study commenced by validating the factor structure of the sudco, in comparing the hypothesised four-factor model with competing models. the analyses indicated that the hypothesised four-factor model provides a significantly better fit based on the fit indices and information criteria. these results are consistent with the research findings of previous studies (els et al., 2016; stander & mostert, 2013; van woerkom et al., 2016). cross-cultural psychology investigates whether cultural differences may cause differences in behaviour and whether similarities can be found in psychological behaviour across cultures (de klerk, 2008). thus, in cross-cultural studies and psychometric assessments, the taxonomies of bias and equivalence are significant because they provide a theoretical framework to validate these requirements (van de vijver & leung, 2011; van de vijver & tanzer, 2004). in order to measure bias and consistency in meaning, the present study investigated whether the theoretical model as a whole was consistent with the data sample from the population of the three language groups. the best-fitting model was model 2, indicating that the instrument has the same internal meaning across the three mentioned language groups (nguni, sesotho, and west-germanic). these findings are also congruent with those of els et al. (2016), and theron et al. (2015), who investigated bias and equivalence of the sudco in less comprehensive samples. even though model 4 did not show the best fit, this is not a problem as literature indicates that residuals do not have to be the same. in addition, the literature suggests that this is the most vigorous and adaptable approach to test invariance (steenkamp & baumgartner, 1998). these results indicate that the sudco items are not biased against any of the nguni, sesotho or west-germanic language groups. it was found that the sudco functions similarly for the three language groups. analysis of the cronbach’s alpha coefficients indicated that the sudco is a consistent measure with values ranging between α = 0.93 and α = 0.94 for the different sub-scales. these results show that the sudco items will consistently measure the extent to which the bank is perceived to offer its employees organisational support for strengths use and deficit correction. in addition, these scales will measure consistently how the bank employees themselves behave or take the initiative in using their strengths or correcting their deficits. similarly, van woerkom et al. (2016) and stander and mostert confirm cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranging between α = 0.89 and α = 0.95 for the four sub-scales. finally, the sudco showed meaningful relationships with demographic variables such as age and organisational tenure in each of the gender, language and gender by language groups. for this aim, a series of regression analyses were conducted. these analyses show that particularly the effects for the two strengths-use dimensions have significant coefficients, in which age and organisational tenure differ between the two. the moderating effect of gender was most visible for age and less for organisational tenure. more specifically, the effects of age related to strengths are stronger for women than for men. this study contributes to the fair application of psychometric assessments in the south african workplace. as south africa has 11 official language groups, it is suggested that future research should assess the bias and equivalence of the sudco with representatives of all language groups. the present study has dealt with these gaps in the literature, seeing that the researcher established bias and equivalence based on a sample of the three mentioned south african language groups. limitations and recommendations although the present study does contribute to the field of psychology, certain limitations were noted, which are discussed subsequently. firstly, the study focused on employees in the banking sector, where the population consists of employees with a minimum education of grade 12. however, the south african employment landscape comprises employees from differentiated education levels, and consequently socio-economic levels, who are thus motivated by different factors. it is well documented that employees in the blue-collar sector need to make their ends meet (according to maslow’s hierarchy of needs) and are therefore predominantly motivated by remuneration, rather than personal development (pink, 2010). on the contrary, employees with tasks involving cognitive skills, decision-making and creativity are more motivated to develop themselves in terms of strengths and unique work-related traits (pink, 2010). it is thus recommended that future research focuses on bias with a sample of a diverse population, which includes people from the different sectors of the economy. secondly, while the findings on bias and equivalence are favourable, a limitation was noted on the effects for the dimensions of pos for deficit correction and deficit-correction behaviour. these two scales did not show significant coefficients for age and organisational tenure. while this finding could potentially be an important contribution to the literature, it may also reflect a characteristic of the small sample size: too small to have sufficient power for fruitful testing of significance. however, the two strengths scales do reach significance in the same samples, which suggests that non-significance does reflect the true relationships in the population. nevertheless, to eliminate concerns about the power of statistical testing, future studies may employ larger sample sizes, just to make sure. thirdly, companies have to attend to the influx of people with diverse cultural profiles from the rural areas to the cities, as well as the educational and business systems that encourage the use of english. as a result, certain employees were not clear on what constitutes a home language and asked whether they were allowed to select more than one language. future cross-cultural studies thus need to define how the population can be categorised into different languages, whether for the business environment, a home dialect or language based on the parental line or ethnicity, in order to make meaningful inferences. therefore, ‘language’ needs to be defined in the cross-cultural context, for future studies that plan to investigate equivalence based on language groups. fourthly, the present study employed a cross-sectional design, where observations were made of a particular group at a specific period. in order to ensure equitable use of sudco, researchers may consider studies on predictive bias. this is based on the premise that any given score on the predictor should result in a similar level of performance for all study participants irrespective of their group membership (kuncel & klieger, 2012). thus, people from a specific ethnic group (e.g. west-germanic) who share similar characteristics (e.g. obtained the same rating in the job interview), should perform comparably (not necessarily equally) regardless of group membership. finally, in the cross-sectional design, observations were thus made at specific periods. because this instrument is relatively new in the industry, to date, no documented longitudinal studies are related to this instrument. longitudinal studies observe the same group of people or the same measure over an extended period (goodwin, 2010). this help researchers identify changes in the variables of the sample at both individual and group level. practical implications the present research’s findings have clear practical implications. employees within the bank are exposed to management feedback, which traditionally focuses on performance management aimed at correcting deficits. these findings can empower employees with the knowledge and value of using a balanced approach, sba’s self-development initiatives. the value of adopting sba is that employees become aware of their strengths, which increase their motivation and improve their performance in the work place. from a practical point of view, demonstrating that strengths use can yield performance benefits, provide leaders and organisations the tools to manage employees’ performance and thereby make the organisation more effective (kong & violet, 2016). in line with findings by sorenson (2014), the present research showed the benefits of investing in employees’ selection, strengths and well-being. such investment may boost the results that companies would receive from increasing its engagement alone. in this regard, the study helps organisations understand their employees’ strengths and deficits. this insight will guide companies in attracting, retaining and developing talent. in turn, this increases engagement, well-being, productivity, and maintains the bottom line. for example, employees that proactively attend to their own development of career-related skills and abilities have been shown to enhance their well-being (plomp et al., 2016). the study further contributes to literature in this field, as numerous studies focus on either a strength-based approach or deficit improvement. strength-based approaches are, for example, a historical reaction to an almost exclusive deficit focus (wright, 2003), which led to a broad shift in focus to strengths (van woerkom & meyers, 2014). there is a gap in literature and instruments that provide a balanced approach, which measures both strengths use and deficit correction in the same study. furthermore, the significance of the present study is pivotal, by ensuring that the principles of fairness, inclusivity and equity are observed in the organisation (foxcroft & roodt, 2009; robbins, judge, odendaal & roodt, 2009). the research contributes to the organisational psychology profession by aiming to validate reliability, bias and structural equivalence of the instrument. the research findings will provide evidence, which may be relevant for the classification of the sudco as a legally recognised psychological instrument to be applied in the south african context. conclusion literature proved to be limited with regard to knowledge on positive organisations (gable & haidt, 2005). the present research responds to a renaissance of positive psychology as a field that is not limited to the development of strengths, but finding the balance between both strengths and weaknesses (kaiser & white, 2008; seligman et al., 2004). a positive focus on strengths within measures of personnel development makes a substantial contribution to organisations’ attempt at keeping their employees on top of their game and committed to their company. the sudco shows good evidentiary support for helping managers in the south african workplace to achieve excellence. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions s.a.b. co-designed the study; supervised the collection of the data; conducted all statistical analyses in the manuscript; wrote the results section; and co-wrote the introduction, literature, method and discussion sections. k.m. co-designed the study and co-wrote the introduction, literature, method and discussion sections. s.v.m. collected the data and co-wrote the introduction, literature, method and discussion sections. the article follows from s.v.m.’s dissertation. references aguinis, h., gottfredson, r.k., & joo, h. (2012). delivering effective performance feedback: the strengths-based approach. business horizons, 55(2), 105–111. retrieved november 23, 2016, from http://ac.els-cdn.com.nwulib.nwu.ac.za/s0007681311001509/1-s2.0-s0007681311001509-main.pdf?_tid=8a752fac-9e11-11e6-aea3-00000aab0f02&acdnat=1477771065_67f6dc320ee3462e34810f2c24dc6c2c allen, d.g., shore, l.m., & griffeth, r.w. (2003). the role of perceived organizational support and supportive human resource practices in the turnover process. journal of management, 29(1), 99–118. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630302900107 arbuckle, j.l. (2013). ibm spss amos 22 user’s guide. crawfordville, fl: amos development corporation. retrieved november 23, 2016, from http://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/analytics/spss/documentation/amos/22.0/en/manuals/ibm_spss_amos_user_guide.pdf armstrong-stassen, m., & ursel, n.d. (2009). perceived organizational support, career satisfaction, and the retention of older workers. the british psychological society, 82(1), 201–220. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317908x288838/full belschak, f., & hartog, d., (2010). being proactive at work-blessing or bane? the psychologist, 23(11), 886–889. retrieved november 23, 2016, from http://hdl.handle.net/11245/1.328609 corporate leadership council. (2002). building the high-performance workforce: a quantitative analysis of the effectiveness of performance management strategies. washington, dc: corporate executive board. crant, m.j. (2000). proactive behaviour in organizations. journal of management, 26(3), 435–462. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630002600304 de klerk, g. (2008). cross-cultural testing. in m. born, c.d. foxcroft, & r. butter (eds.), online readings in testing and assessment. international test commission. retrieved november 23, 2016, from http://www.intestcom.org/publications/orta.php deloitte & touche. (2014). south africa human capital trends: engaging 21st century workforce. johannesburg: deloitte & touche. retrieved november 23, 2016, from http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/global/documents/humancapital/dttl-2014-human%20capital%20trends%20south%20africa.pdf department of labour. (1998). employment equity act 55 of 1998. pretoria, south africa: government printers. retrieved november 23, 2016, from http://www.saflii.org/za/legis/consol_reg/eea55o1998rangnr1085683/ director, s., cascio, w.f., & boudreau, j. (2013). key tools for human resource management. upper saddle river, nj: pearson education. echols, m.e. (2005). engaging employees to impact performance. bellevue, ne: bellevue university. eisenberger, r., fasolo, p., & davis-lamastro, v. (1990). perceived organizational support and employee diligence, commitment and innovation. journal of applied psychology, 75(1), 51–59. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.75.1.51 eisenberger, r., huntington, r., hutchison, s., & sowa, d., (1986). perceived organizational support. journal of applied psychology, 71(3) 500–507. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.71.3.500 ellinger, a.d. (2003). antecedents and consequences of coaching behaviour. performance improvement quarterly, 16(1), 5–28. retrieved november 23, 2016 from, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.nwulib.nwu.ac.za/doi/10.1111/j.1937-8327.2003.tb00269.x/epdf els, c., mostert, k., & brouwers, s. (2016). bias and equivalence of the strengths use and deficit correction questionnaire. sa journal of industrial psychology, 42(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v42i1.1365 ericsson, k.a., nandagopal, k., & roring, r.w. (2009). toward a science of exceptional achievement. longevity, regeneration, optimal health, 1172, 199–217. https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1393.001 foxcroft, c., & roodt, g. (2009). introduction to psychological assessment in the south african context (3rd ed.). cape town: oxford university press. gable, s.l., & haidt, j. (2005). what (and why) is positive psychology? review of general psychology, 9(2), 103–110. retrieved november 23, 2016, from http://psycnet.apa.org.nwulib.nwu.ac.za/doi/10.1037/1089-2680.9.2.103 gilley, a., gilley, j.w., & kouider, e. (2010). characteristics of management coaching. performance improvement quarterly, 53–70. https://doi.org.nwulib.nwu.ac.za/10.1108/00197851011013698 goodwin, c.j. (2010). research in psychology: methods and design. hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons. govindji, r., & linley, p.a. (2007). strengths use, self-concordance and well-being: implications for strengths coaching and coaching psychologists. international coaching psychology review, 2(2), 143–153. he, j., & van de vijver, f. (2012). bias and equivalence in cross-cultural research. online readings in psychology and culture, 2(2), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1111 hu, l., & bentler, p.m. (1999). cut-off criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. structural equation modeling: a multidisciplinary journal, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 kaiser, r.b., & white, r.p. (2008). strength test: debunking an unbalanced approach to development. leadership in action, 28(5), 8–12. https://doi.org/10.1002/lia.1261/full keenan, e., & mostert, k. (2012). the factorial validity and reliability of a newly-developed strength-based approach scale in a sample of south african employees (master’s dissertation). retrieved november 23, 2016, from http://dspace.nwu.ac.za.nwulib.nwu.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10394/8083/keenan_e.pdf?sequence=2&isallowed=y keeton, g. (2014). inequality in south africa. the journal of the helen suzman foundation 74, 26–31. retrieved november 23, 2016, from file:///c:/users/a216840/documents/nga/sudiq/sudiq%202016/strengths%20use%20and%20deficit%20improvements/5.%20inequality%20in%20south%20africa%20-%20g%20keeton.pdf kirkpatrick, d. (2006). improving employee performance through appraisal and coaching. new york: american management association. kong, d.t., & ho, v.t. (2016). a self-determination perspective of strengths use at work: examining its determinant and performance implications. the journal of positive psychology, 11(1), 15–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2015.1004555 kuncel, n.r., & klieger, d.m. (2012). predictive bias in work and educational settings. in n. schmitt, (eds.), the oxford handbook of personnel assessment and selection (pp. 462–484). new york: oxford university press. linley, p.a., & harrington, s. (2006). strengths coaching: a potential-guided approach to coaching psychology. international coaching psychology review, 1(1), 37–46. linley, p.a., nielsen, k.m., gillett, r., & biswas-diener, r. (2010). using signature strengths in pursuit of goals: effects on goal progress, need satisfaction, and well-being, and implications for coaching psychologists. international coaching psychology review, 5(1), 6–15. longenecker, c.o. (2010). coaching for better results: key practices of high performance leaders. industrial and commercial training, 43(1), 32–40. https://doi.org.nwulib.nwu.ac.za/10.1108/00197851011013698 mateus, a.d., allen-ile, c., & iwu, c.g. (2014). skills shortage in south africa: interrogating the repertoire of discussions. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 5(6), 63–73. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n6p63 meiring, d., van de vijver, a.j., & rothmann, s. (2007). bias and equivalence of psychological measures in south africa. ridderkerk, the netherlands: ridderprint. meyers, m.c., & van woerkom, m. (2016). effects of a strengths intervention on general and work-related well-being: the mediating role of positive affect. journal of happiness studies, 18, 671–689. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-016-9745-x nunnally, j.c., & bernstein, i.h. (1994). psychometric theory. (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. pink, d. (2010). drive: the surprising truth about what motivates us. new york, ny: canongate. plomp, j., tims, m., akkermans, j., khapova, s.n., jansen, p.g.w., & bakker, a.b. (2016). career competencies and job crafting: how proactive employees influence their well-being. career development international, 21, 587–602. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi-08-2016-0145 podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b., & podsakoff, s.p. (2012). sources of method bias in social science research and recommendations on how to control it. annual reviews of psychology, 63, 539–569. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100452 robbins, s.p., judge, t.a., odendaal, a., & roodt, g. (2009). organisational behaviour: global and south african perspectives. cape town: prentice hall. rowold, j., & schilling, j. (2006). career-related continuous learning: longitudinal predictive power of employees’ job and career attitudes. career development international, 11(6), 489–503. retrieved november 23, 2016, from http://www.emeraldinsight.com.nwulib.nwu.ac.za/doi/full/10.1108/13620430610692917 rust, t., diessner, r., & reade, l. (2009). strengths only or strengths and relative weaknesses? a preliminary study. journal of psychology, 143, 465–476. seligman, m.e.p. (2002). authentic happiness. new york: free press. seligman, m.e.p., & csikszentmihalyi, m. (2014). positive psychology: an introduction. in m. csikszentmihalyi, (ed.), flow and the foundations of positive psychology (pp. 279–298). claremont, ca: springer science &business media. seligman, m.e.p., park, a.c., & steen, t. (2004). a balanced psychology and a full life. philosophical transactions of the royal society of london, b, 359, 1379–1381. sorenson, s. (2014). how employees’ strengths make your company stronger. gallup business journal. retrieved november 23, 2016, from http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/167462/employees-strengths-company-stronger.aspx stander, f.w., & mostert, m. (2013). assessing the organisational and individual strengths use and deficit improvement amongst sport coaches. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1160 steenkamp, j.b., & baumgartner, h. (1998). assessing measurement invariance in cross-national consumer research. journal of consumer research, 25, 78–90. retrieved november 23, 2016, from http://www.jstor.org.nwulib.nwu.ac.za/stable/pdf/10.1086/209528.pdf struwig, f.w., & stead, g.b. (2007). planning, designing and reporting research. south africa, cape town: pearson education. theron, b., mostert, k., & de beer, l. (2015). proactive behaviour towards strengths use and deficit improvement: validating a scale for first-year university students. unpublished master’s dissertation. potchefstroom: north-west university. thompson, j.a. (2005). proactive personality and job performance: a social capital perspective. journal of applied psychology, 90(5), 1011–1017. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.90.5.1011 tombaugh, j.r. (2005). positive leadership yields performance and profitability: effective organizations develop their strengths. development and learning organisations, 19(3), 15–17. https://doi.org/10.1108/14777280510590031 torrente, p., salanova, m., llorens, s., & schaufeli, w.b. (2012). teams make it work: how team work engagement mediates between social resources and performance in teams. psicothema, 24(1), 106–112. retrieved november 23, 2016, from http://www.unioviedo.es/reunido/index.php/pst/article/view/9111 tredoux, c., & durrheim, k. (2008). numbers, hypotheses and conclusions: a course in statistics for social science. cape town: university of cape town press. van de vijver, f.j., & leung, k. (1997). methods and data analyses of comparative research. in j.w. berry, y.h. poortinga, & j. pandey, (eds.), handbook of cross-cultural psychology (pp. 257–300). boston, ma: allyn & bacon. van de vijver, f.j., & leung, k., (2011). equivalence and bias: a review of concepts, models, and data analytic procedures. in d. matsumoto, f. van de vijver, (eds.), cross cultural research methods in psychology, (pp. 17–45). new york: cambridge university press. van de vijver, f.j., & tanzer, n.k. (1997). bias and equivalence in cross-cultural assessment: an overview. european review of applied psychology, 47(4), 263–279. van woerkom, m., & meyers, m.c. (2014). my strengths count! effects of a strengths-based psychological climate on positive affect and job performance. human resource management, 54(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21623 van woerkom, m., mostert, k., els, c., bakker, a.b., de beer, l., & rothmann jr., s. (2016). strengths use and deficit correction in organizations: development and validation of a questionnaire. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 25, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2016.1193010 van woerkom, m., oerlemans, w., & bakker, a.b. (2016). strengths use and work engagement: a weekly diary study. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 25(3), 384–397. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2015.1089862 wolf, e.j., harrington, k.m., clark, s.l., & miller, m.w. (2013). sample size requirements for structural equation models: an evaluation of power, bias, and solution propriety. educational and psychological measurement, 73, 913–934. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164413495237 wright, t.a. (2003). positive organizational behavior: an idea whose time has truly come. journal of organizational behavior, 24, 437–442. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.197 xanthopoulou, d., bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2009). reciprocal relationships between job resources, personal resources, and work engagement. journal of vocational behaviour, 74(3), 235–244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2008.11.003 zenger, j. (2008). developing strengths or weaknesses: overcoming the lure of wrong choice. orem, ut: folkman. abstract introduction background problem statement research question discussion and findings limitations and recommendations acknowledgements reference about the author(s) jenni gobind research department, milpark education, south africa wits business school, university of witwatersrand, south africa citation gobind, j. (2018). transport anxiety and work performance. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a943. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.943 original research transport anxiety and work performance jenni gobind received: 18 apr. 2017; accepted: 15 mar. 2018; published: 23 july 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: it has often been taken for granted that employees in general should arrive at work within a stipulated time. while the process of commuting from home to work and vice versa should ideally result in minimal effort, this seamless process of commute is supposedly expected not to result in anxiety or work-related stress. individuals that rely on public transport for their daily commute to and for work are faced with physical and emotional challenges that are associated with the use of south african public transport. enduring these challenges on a daily basis has a tendency to raise commuter levels of anxiety. the discomfort and cause of anxiety gradually trickle into the workplace infringing on work performance. research purpose: this article examined whether the anxiety associated with public transport results in poor work performance. motivation for the study: the rationale for conducting the study stemmed from the need to understand the implication of transport anxiety on the south african employee, as transport related concerns are often mentioned as a stressor in the south african workplace. research approach/design and method: a qualitative content analysis was relied on, and 15 commuters were interviewed. interviewee responses were grouped into themes and analysed for frequency of word usage. main findings: the study revealed that commuters experience worry and concern for their safety and job security when relying on public transport. findings indicated that anxiety associated with using public transport does indeed result in poor work performance. practical/managerial implications: in light of the findings of the study it is suggested that employers take cognisance of the implications of transport anxiety in their workplaces and to give careful consideration when addressing disciplinary matters pertaining to late coming, absenteeism and poor performance. contribution/value-add: re-evaluation of the south african public transport system and workplace policy is therefore recommended. public transport has a negative impact on south african workers, of which the south african employer needs to be cognitive of when considering a sanction for poor performance. introduction how work is done, by whom and where are ever changing. yet, how individuals travel to work remains constant. compressed work weeks, flexitime, job sharing, telecommuting and freelancing are becoming the norm in most parts of the world. the danish workforce, according to steed (n.d., p. 1), have a higher degree of flexitime at work, ‘often being able to choose when they start their working day and having the flexibility of working from home’. these changes to the modes of work have yet to reach south african shores. the south african employee remains committed to extended working hours and 5–6 days a week work schedules. however, employee commitment to work comes at a price: long working hours compounded by the challenge of obtaining safe and reliable transport each day result in untoward anxiety. transport, many may argue, is the least of one’s concerns when trying to secure and maintain employment. in south africa, employees are concerned with getting to work on time and returning to their homes within a reasonable time. the findings of citrix, the london-based centre for economics and business research (cebr), as referred to by dube (2015, p. 1), state that ‘flexible working hours could save commuters up to 44.1 billion rand, by reducing commuting costs and time’. in another study, leshoro (2015), who also referred to the findings of the study, added that ‘commuters may well save close to r40 billion per annum in transportation costs, which translates to about 320 million hours of travel time that could be shaved off’. the crux of employment in south africa is that flexitime is not as widely practiced, and irrespective of dube (2015) and leshoro (2015) references, the benefits of flexitime does not apply to the average employee. flexitime, job sharing and compressed week are first world solutions that have yet to find place in the south african work context. flexitime is not an option for the average south african employee, as not all south africans can enjoy the privilege of ‘working from home’. the cebr study noted that the findings were applicable to individuals that work with information and technology and that ‘not all sectors could function remotely’; mcaravey as cited by dube (2015, p. 1) used the adage of how a ‘bartender cannot be away from the bar’. regretfully, sectors that are unable to function remotely are forced to commute to work. according to general household survey of 2014 statistics south africa (stats sa), 45.3% of south africans rely on minibus taxi or sedan, taxi or bakkie, taxi and busses for their daily commute (stats sa, 2015, p. 54). many south africans are unable to access private transport because of economic constraints and are therefore obligated to rely on public transport. this article investigates the anxiety associated with using public transport and the implication thereof on work performance. background like any other country in the world, south africa relies on transport as a vehicle that enables the economy. public transport in particular has a crucial function in facilitating the movement of the south african work force. national household travel survey of 2013 (stats sa, 2014, p. 3) noted that ‘approximately 85% of individuals in urban, metropolitan and rural areas travelled during the 7-day reference period’, prior to the surveys being conducted. in comparison, stats sa (2014) noted that: …in 2003, three-quarters (75.6%) of south africans travelled during the seven days prior to the survey. this increased to 81.4% in 2013. of the 42.4 million people who took trips across all provinces, slightly more than one in four people lived in gauteng, 17.9% in kwazulu-natal, and 12.3% in eastern cape. (p. 3) the 5.8% increase in travel since 2003 indicates that more individuals are travelling. this is indicative in the increase in the use of public transport (bus, taxi and train); minibus taxis showed an increased usage of 10.0% when compared with 2003 and 2013 data (stats sa, 2014, p. 3). these data are supported when comparing the national household travel survey of 2013 with the general household survey of 2014 which noted that there has been a drop in the use of private transport by 6.2% in 2014, while public transport usage increased by 9.4% (stats sa, 2013, 2014). there clearly is a greater reliance of individuals on public transport. individuals that engage in the daily commute do so for various reasons, many of whom travel for work. however, the historically marred south african infrastructure does not permit easy movement between the township and suburb or central business district (cbd) (visser & ferrer, 2015, p. 68). the act of commuting is often not pleasurable as these individuals are subjected to hours of travel and continuous queues (visser & ferrer, 2015, p. 200). newman (2014) explains that the duration of travel impacts on the commuter: …a journey lasting more than 15 minutes is associated with increased anxiety. as the journey time increases beyond 30 minutes, the negative effects of this form of commuting affect all aspects of personal well-being. (p. 16) as wei (2015) noted: …the ride to work is also associated with increased blood pressure, musculoskeletal problems, lower frustration tolerance, and higher levels of anxiety and hostility. it can cause bad moods when arriving at work and coming home, increased lateness and missed work, and worsened cognitive performance. (p. 1) these levels of physical strain contribute to commuters’ discomfort and cause of anxiety which trickle into the work place infringing on work performance. problem statement many south africans, as in most parts of the world, travel to and from work. individuals who rely on public transport in south africa are subjected to intolerable transport challenges (visser & ferrer, 2015). the stress and anxiety experienced by these individuals in getting to work and returning home affect their ability to function compared to individuals that do not share similar challenges (durham, 2017). it is therefore the intention of the study to investigate whether the anxiety associated with public transport results in poor work performance. the problem statement simply put is do the challenges associated with using public transport manifest in poor work performance. research question the research question is as follows: does the anxiety associated with public transport result in poor work performance? research methodology and design qualitative field research methodology was used to interview participants who did not own a motor vehicle and who relied on public transport as a means of commuting to work. a semi-structured interview schedule was developed and piloted. the schedule was rephrased achieving a flesch–kincaid readability of 81.9. a sample of 15 public transport commuters who spend an average of 4 h commuting time in the melville johannesburg area were interviewed. interviews were transcribed and captured on to excel. content analysis was used, while relying on atlas ti. interviewee statements were grouped into themes. downe-wambolt (1992) as cited by bengtsson (2016) states that: … content analysis is a research method that provides a systematic and objective means to make valid inferences from verbal, visual, or written data in order to describe and quantify specific phenomena. (p. 314) the goal is to link the results to their context or to the environment in which they were produced. (p. 9). results are presented in words and themes, which makes it possible to draw some interpretation of the results. (p. 10). theoretical framework public transport in south africa has always been tainted by the lack of infrastructure between township area and cbd. many south africans continue to commute from historically segregated areas to the cbd for work, school or medical treatment, irrespective of the availability of transport. the convenience of a readily available taxi outweighs the safety implications that come with the convenience. unsafe and un-roadworthy taxis often driven by unskilled taxi drivers that disregard traffic regulations are an ongoing concern. ‘of the 36 lives lost daily on our roads three are killed in taxi related incidents’ (arrive alive, 2017, p. 1). the associated reputation of taxi drivers often results in taxis being pulled off for inspection, which in turn results in delays, offering the commuters very little solace in arriving at their destination on time. kerr (2015, p. 3) add that minibus taxis spend most of the time in transit so that commuters often do not reach their destinations on time. these disruptions contribute to commuter anxiety; missing the taxi resulting in continued late coming threatens livelihoods, as continuous late coming may often result in dismissal (israelstam, n.d.). the late coming and the consequences thereof, constant panic of not arriving at a destination on time, are factors that contribute to commuter anxiety. not completing tasks on time, rollover of deadlines, getting home late (kerr, 2015, p. 1), unable to collect children on time, after-care imposing penalty for late collections and not being with family and loved ones add to the conundrum. being found for poor performance because of late coming often forces employees to resort to alternatives. employees that are dictated to by public transport constraints often move jobs in an attempt to relocate closer to work. elderly parents are forced to move in as makeshift after-care providers, as transport constraints disrupt working hours. these stressors have health and relationship implications. demands placed by family needs, taking care of one’s health and personal safety, missed transport that may result in absenteeism are stressful (kerr, 2015). cause of anxiety macmillan (2015) reiterates newman’s (2014) and wei’s (2015) conclusion that the effects of commuting can be felt by the individual in several ways. macmillan (2015) speaks of strain caused to lumber and shoulders, mood swings and greater exposure to pollution. cheng (2010, p. 876) refers to various authors like sadock and sadock (2007) who mention that anxiety is a response towards a form of apprehension or feeling of dread and uneasiness resulting in discomfort and worry. cheng (2010, p. 876) has also referred to james (1999) who mentions a pertinent point in relation to anxiety that emanates from the uneasiness of travel resulting from factors relating to ‘what is yet unknown in one’s self or an environment’. for the purpose of this article, the term ‘anxiety’ should not be confused or associated with social phobia. anxiety in this context is associated with the apprehension and uneasiness associated with the experience of travel. apprehension and uneasiness originate from the queuing, overcrowding, delays and unpredictability associated with public transport accompanied by the worry of not arriving at a destination within a scheduled time (luke & heyns, 2013, p. 6). transport may contribute to anxiety the use of public transport may contribute to anxiety particularly if an individual suffers from agoraphobia, which according to ebenezer (2015, p. 215) ‘is a phobia that is characterised by symptoms of anxiety and panic that are associated to “travel, crowded public places and the use of lifts”’. commuters that suffer from agoraphobia in many instances are aware of their discomfort, the trigger that contributes to the perceived anxiety. natarajan et al. (2015, p. 6) have also reported on interpersonal interactions and criminal activity pertaining to public transport. natarajan et al., 2015 mention that the disorder and criminal activity experienced by commuters that utilise public transport is a resultant factor that contributes to commuter anxiety. excluding the commuter that is stressed because of their own idiosyncrasies, the general commuter is also faced with stressors that are associated with public transport. according to natarajan et al. (2015, p. 5), participants in the above-mentioned study cited aggressive boarding and pushing where stronger commuters frequently forced their way through, whereas women, children and elderly often waited. this type of interaction is often accompanied by rude behaviour and remarks of the driver and passengers, ‘verbal altercations between drivers and passengers that ultimately result in aggressive driving or skipping stops, drivers not providing change or passengers trying to pay less than the fare’ (natarajan et al., 2015, p. 5). in these instances, the stress levels of the commuter are heightened by the experience. apart from the expected pushing and shoving by commuters, vulnerable groups, women in particular, are weary of the safety of their person and possession. natarajan (2016) and cheng (2010) mentioned similar concerns of commuters in india and taiwan that felt that public transport did raise concerns of safety. these are concerns that emanate from overcrowding in addition to the presence of individuals with criminal intent, as natarajan et al. (2015) revealed in the findings of a study conducted in el salvador. commuter experiences of similar situations are worrying as they are routinely faced with these interactions to and from work. clark (2001) in an irish study stated that rush hour travel contributed 45% to workplace stress, whereas in a united kingdom (uk) study individuals that experience long hours of commute show as durham (2017) stated: …signs of increased anger and resentment at work, absenteeism, lateness, and an ability to concentrate and perform to the same standards as those who live in much closer proximity to the workplace. (p. 2) subsequently, respondents in a south african study conducted by luke and heyns (2013) reiterated these concerns. overcrowding, delays and unpredictability overcrowding, delays and unpredictability, also mentioned by cheng (2010), are factors that cause commuters to stress. carrel and walker (2015, p. 12) agree with cheng (2010) that among other ‘specific reasons mentioned, the most important ones were overall unreliability, crowding levels, wait time unreliability and unreliability of in-vehicle travel times’ (carrel & walker, 2015, p. 12). while a united kingdom report conducted by passenger focus (2013) notes that: some participants gave examples of delayed bus journeys resulting in important appointments being missed, such as medical appointments or lateness to work, which at best reflects badly on the individual. others talked about being late to meet friends/relatives, which ranges from inconvenient to very stressful. (p. 8) lateness to work is a concern for most commuters relying on public transport. sullivan (2015) notes that lateness for work has proven to impact employee retention, as the stressors of travelling longer distances to work have resulted in employees opting for positions closer home. studies according to sullivan (2015, p. 1) have shown that employees living closer to their employ ‘remain at work 20 percent longer’. sullivan further mentions that stressors relating to commute and lateness for work has an impact on work performance. work performance workplace related performance is seen as competencies that are expected of an employee within the workplace fulfilment of these competences used to measure work performance. the inability to reasonably perform may raise concern for poor performance. workplace stress and various forms of anxiety may influence workplace performance. for example, stressors relating to transport often manifest in anxiety; the experience of overcrowding during the commute, delays in arriving at work, unpredictability and unreliability of public transport are factors that impact the performance of employees who rely on public transport (durham, 2017). in south africa, continuous lateness to work, for instance, is a dismissible offence (israelstam, n.d.) and may be seen as an example of misconduct. employees who are familiar with late coming policy are aware of the consequence. being aware of the sanction and not being able to control or prevent delays can be stressful. organisations are aware of the costs that emanated from loss in production and negative staff morale as employees compare their punctuality with others. gottholmseder, nowotny, pruckner and theurl (2009, p. 559) concur that stress levels not only effect ‘employee health and well-being but also an organisation’s bottom line’. customer dissatisfaction and the constant policing and managing of repeat offenders are taxing on the organisation, and therefore, repeat offenders are dealt with accordingly (israelstam, n.d.). according to zamora (n.d., p. 1), unrealistic or excessive worry can result in jitteriness, fatigue, racing or pounding heart. zamora (n.d., p. 1) add that these signs of worry may suggest the inability of working in teams or focusing on work. employees may focus on revisiting their travel, the worry and fear of revisiting the overcrowding, delays and arriving at their destination at unsafe hours or later than usual. lateness at work may also result in overtime which in turn results in a late commute home, which may be just as stressful. studies have unequivocally shown that commuting does play an indispensable role in perpetuating workplace stress (gottholmseder et al., 2009, p. 572). anxiety and poor work performance numerous articles have been written on anxiety and work performance; one such group of authors have concluded that workplace anxiety is a serious concern (mccarthy, trougakos, & cheng, 2015), whereas martin, goryakin and suhrcke (2014) and gottholmseder et al. (2009, p. 559) agree that ‘perceived stress level of workers with a special focus on the effects of commuting’ was an impediment to employee performance. anxiety and/or depressive disorders (adds), according to bokma, batelaan, van balkom and penninx (2017), ‘cause substantial disability, work absenteeism and presenteeism’; however, the effect of adds far exceeds that of other diseases such as chronic somatic diseases (csds). anxiety resulting from a stressful commute according to the above-mentioned authors has clearly pointed to poor work performance; martin et al. (2014, p. 301) reiterate that there is a ‘statistically significant negative associations between commuting, stress and work performance’. findings in this article point to similar suggestions, which are discussed next. discussion and findings of the 15 participants that were interviewed, ten were female and five male. more females agreed to be interviewed than males, who in the opinion of the researcher were more reserved than female participants. majority of the participants worked in and around melville, johannesburg, with the most common type of position held by the participants was that of administrator followed by office cleaner. participants’ level of qualification varied from grade 11 to diploma; one participant was in the process of completing a bachelor’s degree. participants indicated that they were concerned about the anxiety experienced because of delay, unreliability and lack of transport, their safety as female commuters and the need to make changes to the transport system and workplace policy pertaining to late coming. transport a cause of worry participants were asked whether getting transport to work and home caused them to worry. one participant felt that getting transport to work and home in the morning and afternoon was not a concern, particularly because this participant was a male administrator with odd working hours who often relied on private transport. however, remaining participants indicated that they did worry about transport to and from work. as waiting in line and arriving at work and home were a concern. participants indicated that: ‘…there is always a very long queue and i have to wake up very early, like i have to leave home at 5 am and i get home at around 8 pm late. it is tiring and this affects my performance’. (p2, female, 41) ‘yes, it does cause me to worry as i do not want to arrive for work late but, i would like to arrive home before it is too dark’. (p4, female, 26) ‘what is it about transport, which causes one to worry?’ was posed next. participants mentioned that they have many concerns regarding transport; many indicated that they had to wake up far earlier than their colleagues (with private transport) in order to get transport to work in the mornings; many complained that public transport was unreliable and limited in certain areas with long queues exacerbating the frustration. strike action and un-roadworthy vehicles have been identified as a factor that add to the unpredictability of public transport. traffic congestion was also identified as a concern. as stated by participant 3: ‘sometimes you get to the taxi rank and there are long queues but no taxis and i worry about getting to work on time’. (p3, gender fluid, 32) ‘it is not convenient, i get to where i catch that taxi early but sometimes taxis are not there in the morning. in the afternoon it worries me because i have to get home and study at the same time having to sleep early to be able to wake up next morning’. (p3, gender fluid, 32) delay and lack of transport the lack of public transport from historically disadvantaged areas continues to be an issue of discontent, ‘there are limited taxis from my area that go to work’ (p1, female, 39). safety is a worry for most commuters, the fear of arriving late to work or walking in the dark: ‘safety, because it is not safe walking in the dark especially in the area that i live in’ (p5, female, 19). a different type of concern relating to safety is the un-roadworthy vehicles and the reckless driving: ‘public transport is unreliable at times, too much traffic and un-roadworthy public transport’ (p6, female, 23), and ‘drivers never pay attention to the speed limits in the morning due to rush hour’ (p1, female, 39). transport concerns and how participants work during the day were investigated. participants indicated that transport concerns were a worry and caused them to leave work early leaving their tasks incomplete. the comments of some participants are given in the following: ‘sometimes as i rush to finish my work earlier in order to leave earlier’ (p2, female, 41); ‘yes, sometimes you get to work tired from the transport stress’ (p6, female, 26); ‘yes, i have to leave 10 minutes before my knock-off time to catch the early taxi to avoid traffic and the queue’ (p5, female, 19); and ‘yes, i constantly need to check the time so i can leave on time and lose focus’ (p5, female, 19). as a result, participants see a need to leave work early; all except one participant felt that they did not have to leave work in a rush because of transport concerns. transport and gender female participants revealed that they worried about transport-related issues towards the end of the day. the comments of some female participants are as follows: ‘yes, if i go out late to work i will wait for eternity just to go home, simply waiting for transport’ (p2, female,41); ‘only when it nears knock-off time’ (p4, female, 26); ‘no, it only worries me at the end of the day’ (p7, female, 34); ‘yes, i have to arrive at the taxi rank before, a certain time to avoid long queue’ (p4, female, 26); and ‘no, only when it becomes late, and i get home at night. i worry about my safety’ (p5, female, 19). some other female participants shared their thoughts or worries regarding transport getting home. participants were concerned of their safety, as shown in the following comment: ‘when it gets dark, i will still be waiting for transport and that will increase my chances of getting mugged or raped for that matter’ (p6, female, 23). safety and exhaustion, and the inability to cope with a shortened day as home commitments are neglected are some of the other concerns raised by the participants: ‘if i can get home late, i will not have enough time to do my work at home’ (p6, female, 23) and ‘the fact that i need to have time for my books before i sleep every day’ (p6, female, 23). the time spent on the road or waiting in line for transport or the lack thereof is burdensome compounded by the unreliability of public transport, ‘the long queue’, ‘traffic and transport breaking down’, ‘either the bus is late or it is too early or it does not show up or it is stuck on the way before you get home’ and ‘it rains or having to wait in long queues in taxi ranks because of shortage or delay of taxis’ (p2, female, 42). many female participants, like most working parents, have children in aftercare. dropping off and collecting children from aftercare is a concern for most parents who depend on public transport, ‘i hate getting home in the dark, fetching the baby from aftercare on time’ (p4, female, 26). the fear for one’s own safety when travelling in the evening is heightened when parents particularly mothers have to collect their children stand in queues faced by the factors mentioned by previous participants waiting for transport. unreliability participants indicated that adhering to appointments while relying on transport was a cause to worry. most participants missed appointments because of transport, resulting in the inconvenience of being at work either very early or late. the comments of some participants are as follows: ‘yes, i have missed meetings at work because of transport problems’ (p3, gender fluid, 32) and ‘no, when i have appointments i use public transport earlier to make sure i arrive 30 minutes before’ (p3, gender fluid, 32). having to justify reason for late coming based on transport is equally frustrating as colleagues are unable to relate to the inconvenience experienced, as many colleagues are not faced with similar challenges relating to transport. one participant commented as follows: ‘yes, it does because even if i try to explain the people find it hard to believe’ (p3, gender fluid, 32). the severity of delays resulting from transport may result in warnings and possible dismissal. two participants have come close to receiving warning, whereas one participant did receive a warning for late coming, as reflected in the following quote: ‘yes, i have received a warning for coming late’ (p5, female 19). participants have considered changing jobs because of transport issues. concerns relating to delays in obtaining transport and the inconvenience experienced with regard to transport have resulted in participants changing jobs because of transport concerns, whereas others have contemplated a change of job because of the concern. findings are clear, all participants agreed that they would perform better had they not being concerned about transport. the comments of some participants are as follows: ‘yes, because i would stay longer at work and complete my work than rushing to find a taxi’ (p8, male, 45) and ‘i would perform the same but i might just perform far better because of being relaxed about transport’ (p8, male, 45). participants were asked if they were concerned about using a taxi; two participants stated that using a taxi or a bus was not a concern. however, the remaining participants disagreed. participants complained about three distinctive themes: the expense of using a taxi, the reliability and roadworthiness of taxis and the lack of driver attention to abiding to the rules of the road. some participants’ responses are as follows: ‘bus is not reliable, taxi is too expensive’ (p9, female, 61); ‘some of these taxis and busses are not well maintained’ (p3, male 32); ‘yes, when the taxi breaks down in the free-way’ (p2, female, 41); ‘yes, because some of the taxis are very poor in terms of quality and waiting in the line for the taxi to get full’ (p6, female, 23); and ‘yes, some drivers are irresponsible’ (p5, female, 19). need for change lastly, participants were asked what they would like to change about their current transport arrangement. two participants were complacent about making changes, whereas the remaining participants mentioned that they would like to change the long queues and the time taken to travel to and from work, and they commented as follows: ‘the long queues and minutes wasted waiting for taxis, like i have to wake up early just to make sure i arrive early and dodge the traffic’ (p10, male, 21). participants also indicated that employers should accommodate late coming until changes are made to the public transport system. while other participants made recommendations, two participants wanted to add more taxis and busses: ‘i would like them to add more taxis’ (p6, female, 23) and ‘there should be more busses’ (p9, female, 61). another participant wanted to include public transport to and from the area that they reside in, and he added as follows: ‘there are no busses in the area and the train is too far, i would like to change the quality of the taxi and to find them near to where i work’ (p4, female, 26). safety remained a concern for commuters; one participant added that: ‘i would like it to be more safe and roadworthy’ (p3, gender fluid, 32) and ‘it would be better to get transport that would take me from home to work in that way i would feel much safer’ (p3, gender fluid, 32). limitations and recommendations this study focused on a qualitative study. as per the methodology, the findings were based on a small sample. it would be valuable to gather the responses of a larger sample or ideally to have compared responses of a quantitative and qualitative sample through a mixed method design. it is further recommended that these findings should be seen as a platform for municipal departments to re-evaluate and review the south african road transport system and infrastructure needs, more importantly for employer to review workplace policy pertaining to late coming. conclusion transport to and from work, long queues, and unreliable and unpredictable transport are a concern for many commuters who rely on public transport, for their daily commute to and from work. un-roadworthy vehicles, drivers that disregard traffic regulations and transport strikes are factors that are beyond the control of the daily commuter. this is further exacerbated by poor infrastructure, the lack of transport from historically disadvantaged areas and traffic congestion because of poor town planning. the unpunctuality of the south african transport system and the strain placed on commuters to leave and arrive home at the oddest and unsafe hours have burdened commuters to rush to finish work, constantly check their time and try to maintain appointments, which are stressful factors impacting work performance. delay, unreliability and lack of transport, and fear for one’s safety as a female commuter are constant factors that contribute to commuter workplace performance. poor work performance because of transport anxiety has resulted in commuters receiving warnings for late coming, being threatened with possible dismissal and forced to change jobs because of transport concerns. the need to effect change to the south african transport system and workplace policy pertaining to late coming are imperative for the safety and well-being of employees who are forced to rely on public transport for their daily commute. commuters would have performed better if transport was not a concern. it, therefore, can be said that anxiety associated with the use of public transport has a negative impact on south african workers, of which the south african employer needs to be cognitive of when considering a sanction for poor performance. acknowledgements competing interests the author declare that she has no financial or personal relationship(s) that may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article. reference arrive alive. (2017). minibus taxis and road safety. retrieved from https://www.arrivealive.co.za/minibus-taxis-and-road-safety bengtsson, b. (2016). how to plan and perform a qualitative study using content analysis, nursing plus open. elsevier. retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s2352900816000029#bbib9 bokma, w. a, batelaan, n. m, van balkom, a. j. l. m., & penninx, b. w. j. h. (2017). impact of anxiety and/or depressive disorders and chronic somatic diseases on disability and work impairment. journal of psychosomatic research. retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s002239991630486x carrel, a., & walker, j. l. (2015). understanding future mode choice intentions of transit riders as a function of past experiences with travel quality. retrieved from http://www.joanwalker.com/uploads/3/6/9/5/3695513/carrel&walker_2015_rider_intention.pdf cheng, y. (2010). exploring passenger anxiety associated with train travel. trans-portation, 37(6), 875–896. retrieved from: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11116-010-9267-z#/page1 clark, j. (2001). stress in the workplace. retrieved from http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=1241 downe-wambolt, b. (1992). content analysis: method, applications and issues. health care for women international, 13, 313–321. dube, t. (2015). flexible working hours could add r17bn to south africa’s economy, cnbc africa. retrieved from: http://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/southern-africa/2015/08/26/working-hours-r17bn-safrica/ durham, j. (2017). effects of long commutes to work. retrieved from http://www.safeworkers.co.uk/effectsoflongcommutestowork.html ebenezer, i. s. (2015). neuropsychopharmacology and therapeutics. west sussex: wiley. gottholmseder, g., nowotny, k., pruckner, g. j., & theurl, e. (2009). stress perception and commuting. health econ, pittsburgh, pa: wiley interscience. israelstam, i. (n.d.). are you responsible for your employee late-coming? the south african labour guide. retrieved from http://www.labourguide.co.za/most-recent/853-employee-late-coming james, k. (1999). re-thinking organisational stress: the transition to the new employment age. journal of managerial psychology, 14(7/8), 545–555. retrieved from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/02683949910292141 kerr, a. (2015). tax (i) ing the poor? commuting costs in south africa. redi working paper 12. retrieved from http://www.econ3x3.org/sites/default/files/articles/kerr%202015%20transport%20costs%20final.pdf leshoro, d. (2015). most south africans would love flexible working hours: study. sabc news. retrieved from http://www.sabc.co.za/news/a/0111a60049a05d30b4dbbca84320b537/most-south-africanswould-love-flexible-working-hours:-study--20150827 luke, r., & heyns, g. (2013). public transport policy and performance: the results of a south african public opinion poll. journal of transport and supply chain management, 7(1), art. #96, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/jtscm.v7i1.96 martin, a., goryakin, y., & suhrcke, m. (2014). does active commuting improve psychological wellbeing? longitudinal evidence from eighteen waves of the british household panel survey. preventive medicine, 69. retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc4262577/ mccarthy, j., trougakos, j., & cheng, b. (2015). anxiety in the workplace can lead to lower job performance. american psychological association, united states. retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/apl/index.asp macmillan, a. (2015). why your commute is bad for you. retrieved from https://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/06/health/commute-bad-for-you/index.html natarajan, m. (2016). rapid assessment of ‘eve teasing’ (sexual harassment) of young women during the commute to college in india. crime science, 5(1), 1. retrieved from http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/511/art%253a10.1186%252fs40163-016-00549.pdf?originurl=http%3a%2f%2fcrimesciencejournal.springeropen.com%2farticle%2f10.1186%2fs40163016-0054-&token2=exp=1471600851~acl=%2fstatic%2fpdf%2f511%2fart%25253a10.1186%25252fs40163-0160054-9.pdf*~hmac=528a0d4f997d2036d288d340241b636a02e1c66f6dbddf9c7ebc243ce3dedfbe natarajan, m., clarke, r., carcach, c., ponce, c., beneke sanfeliú, m., dolores escobar polanco, d., … shi, m. (2015). situational prevention and public transport crime in el salvador. crime science, 4(1), 1. retrieved from http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/379/art%253a10.1186%252fs40163-015-0043-4.pdf?originurl=http%3a%2f%2fcrimesciencejournal.springeropen.com%2farticle%2f10.1186%2fs40163015-0043-&token2=exp=1471600682~acl=%2fstatic%2fpdf%2f379%2fart%25253a10.1186%25252fs40163-0150043-4.pdf*~hmac=d4a2e19d64f0adaab9acf1acbf5bc62bbbdddd8387b42c756d15e6376f090ac9 newman, d. (2014). commuting and personal well-being. retrieved from http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171766_351954.pdf passenger focus. (2013). bus passengers’ experience of delays and disruption research report april 2013. retrieved from https://transportfocus.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/migrated/bus%20passengers%20experience%20of%20delays%20and%20disruption%20-%20april%202013%20%20web.pdf sadock, b.j., & sadock, v.a. (2007). kaplan & sadock’s synopsis of psychiatry: behavioural sciences/clinical psychiatry. philadelphia, pa: wolter kluwer/lippincott williams & wilkins. steed, r. (n.d.). work/life balance – the danish way. denmark. retrieved from http://denmark.dk/en/meet-the-danes/work-life-balance-the-danish-way/ statistics south africa (stats sa). (2014). national household travel survey. statistics south africa, statistical release p0320. retrieved from http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/p0320/p03202013.pdf statistics south africa (stats sa). (2015). general household survey. statistics south africa, statistical release p0318. retrieved from http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/p0318/p03182014.pdf sullivan, j. (2015). how commute issues can dramatically impact employee retention. retrieved from http://www.eremedia.com/tlnt/how-commute-issues-can-dramatically-impact-employee-retention/ visser, m., & ferrer, s. (2015). farm workers’ living and working conditions in south africa: key trends, emergent issues, and underlying and structural problems. retrieved from http://www.idll.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/3/ilo_farm%20workers%27%20living%20and%20working%20conditions%20in%20sa_14%20july%202015.pdf wei, m. (2015). commuting: ‘the stress that doesn’t pay’ commuting harms our psychological health and social lives. retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/urban-survival/201501/commuting-thestress-doesnt-pay zamora, d. (n.d.). anxiety at work: a career-busting condition. retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/guide/anxiety-at-work abstract introduction literature review work motivation research design results limitations and recommendations acknowledgements references about the author(s) crispen chipunza department of business management, central university of technology, south africa lerato l. matsumunyane department of business management, central university of technology, south africa citation chipunza, c., & matsumunyane, l.l. (2018). motivation sources and leadership styles among middle managers at a south african university. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a985. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.985 original research motivation sources and leadership styles among middle managers at a south african university crispen chipunza, lerato l. matsumunyane received: 31 july 2017; accepted: 26 mar. 2018; published: 09 july 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: leadership challenges have been evident in the south african higher education sector since 2004. dealing with these challenges has focused more on external factors at top management level than on the possible contribution of intrinsic factors among other levels of institutional management. research purpose: the purpose of the research was to determine the relationship between motivation sources and the leadership styles of middle managers in a south african higher education institution. motivation for the study: the ongoing leadership challenges in the higher education sector in south africa require not only strategies to deal with them at a national level but also academic efforts that focus on previously neglected areas, such as sources of leadership motivation. research design, approach and method: the population of the study consisted of 75 middle managers, comprising both academic and non-academic staff. a final sample size of 40, conveniently selected, was achieved. a quantitative research approach was employed using the case study method. main findings: results showed a positive relationship between transformational leadership and intrinsic process motivation, self-concept internal motivation and goal internalisation motivation. a negative correlation was found between instrumental motivation and transactional leadership style. practical and managerial implications: motivation sources could be used to explain leadership behaviour and assist in the selection and development of specific leadership styles for the different managerial levels within academic institutions through motivation profiling. sources of motivation may provide one of many pieces of information to consider when making recruitment and leadership development decisions within institution. contribution or value added: this is the first study of its kind to investigate the two variables within a higher education context. the study makes an invaluable contribution to the broadening of existing knowledge and a scholarly understanding of leadership motivation and behaviour. introduction this study seeks to determine the relationship between motivation sources and leadership styles among middle managers at a south african university. leadership styles are conceptualised as different approaches adopted by leaders at different levels in an organisation to guide and direct the behaviour of subordinates towards the achievement of organisational goals (quick & nelson, 2009). motivation sources are defined as those psychological states that arouse an individual to act in a particular and sustained way (kreitner & kinicki, 2010). research has shown that leaders can be understood, and subsequently developed, by examining a number of variables that contribute to their leadership styles. for example, evidence alludes to the existence of a relationship between a leader’s life events and leadership style (barbuto, 2005); between the personality of a leader and leadership practice (dulewickz & higgs, 2005); between personal variables, such as age, and leadership style (bass & riggorio, 2008); and between motivation and leadership style (barbuto, 2000). in most of these studies, the leadership style frequently reported was that of transformational leadership, with other leadership styles not significantly explaining the variance in data. empirical evidence is also available (ryan, 2010) on the existence of different sources of motivation such as goal internalisation, self-concept internal motivation, intrinsic process motivation, instrumental motivation and self-concept external motivation. the extent to which these motivational sources could explain different leadership behaviours among top management in a corporate environment has been established (barbuto, 2000). an understanding of this relationship is important in all sectors and at all levels of management. research by fernandez and rainy (2006) and northouse (2016) shows that middle management in any organisation is critical for ensuring the implementation of strategies and policies and therefore contributes to organisational effectiveness and profitability. although researchers have investigated motivation and leadership in different organisations, research in academic institutions, more particularly in emerging economies, has remained a neglected area (siddique, aslam, khan, & fatima, 2011). context of the study since the mergers and incorporations of higher education institutions in south africa 14 years ago, the higher education sector has experienced debates and concerns on issues of leadership, curriculum development and many other critical issues (kristan, 2005). these concerns have continued unabated, as evidenced by the recent wave of student protests in the higher education sector. most of these protests were, and continue to be, directed at universities’ leadership. what this suggests is that leadership issues in the south african higher education system remain a challenge and require attention. leo (2015) confirms that leadership concerns in the higher education sector in south africa date back to 2004. the mergers, and resultant transformation agendas which were followed, were necessitated by the need to redress past inequalities, meet the pressing needs for access to higher education and respond to new realities and opportunities, such as changes in student demographics (van der westhuizen, 2004). the overall aim was to increase accessibility and achieve equity in the provision of higher education for all. the mergers and incorporations created new types of higher education institutions, such as universities of technology, hereafter referred to as uots, characterised by their vocational orientation (chipunza & malo, 2017). students enrolled in these institutions spend a year in the workplace before they graduate. most of the current higher education institutions in the country were established as a result of either an incorporation or a merger between two or three previously different institutions. this meant that there were changes in leadership, systems, procedures, staff quality and complement, student numbers and conditions of service, among other things, in order to live up to the new demands of a new order. the above-mentioned changes meant that the new universities’ management had to design new strategies, recruit new personnel, and redeploy and reassign others in order to implement new policies and programmes, as well as to achieve a new culture infusion within these institutions. in other words, the right ‘middle managers’ had to be recruited to ensure that the new order was lived and realised, and that the required attitudes, culture of work and issues of quality were gradually established. despite this, there have been reports of mass resignations of middle and top managers from administrative and academic positions within these newly created higher education institutions. in addition, disturbingly poor quality and credibility of leadership at some of the higher education institutions has resulted in numerous court cases between some universities’ leadership and the government over governance issues (southern african legal information institute, 2012). further, governance of higher education at a systems level has been described as characterised by fragmentation, inefficiency and ineffectiveness, lack of cooperation, few common goals and negligible systemic planning (higher education south africa, 2009; shivambu, 2015). these concerns raise questions on the type of leadership that is appropriate for the country’s higher education institutions. efforts have been made to address these concerns, such as setting up commissions of enquiry, appointing administrators and changing rectors (top leadership). however, there is a paucity of evidence indicating what has been done to understand the challenges faced by and associated with management within higher education institutions, more particularly those associated with middle managers, and the role played by motivation and leadership style in this regard. considering the evidence that leadership can be understood from different sources, including motivation (barbuto, 2000), the questions that arise then are, firstly, what type of middle managers or leaders were put in place in the new institutions to implement the new order? secondly, what sources of motivation do these managers have that drive their leadership styles? problem statement the role of motivational sources in influencing leadership behaviour has been well researched among top managers in the corporate world (barbuto, 2000). however, this relationship has not been explored widely at other levels of leadership within different sectors and in emerging economies, where leadership issues may be of great concern. an investigation of motivation sources and related leadership behaviour among middle managers within the higher education context in south africa could assist in the selection and development of specific leadership styles for academic institutions through motivation profiling. the aim of this study was therefore to determine the relationship between motivation sources and leadership styles of middle managers at a south african university by answering the following questions: what are the sources of motivation for middle managers? what leadership styles are utilised by these middle managers? is there a correlation between the middle managers’ motivation sources and leadership styles? literature review theoretical framework the study is based on victor vroom’s expectancy theory (1964), which was popularised in his book work and motivation (vroom, 1964). this is one of the most well-known key process theories and commonly applied in attempting to understand human motivation and the resultant outcomes. the theory holds that the tendency of a person to act in certain way depends on the strength of the expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and on the degree to which that person desires the outcome (swanepoel, erasmus, & schenk, 2008). the theory is based on three variables: valence – the preference or values attached to the outcome by the employee, which varies from person to person; instrumentality – the extent to which one believes that performance at a given level will result in the desired outcome; and expectancy – the probability that a certain outcome will ensue if certain behaviour is chosen (mullins, 2010). in this study’s context, it is possible to argue that the decision to behave in a particular way as a leader, whether as a transformational, charismatic or transactional leader, is being based on the value held for such actions as well as the perception that certain outcomes (such as employees behaving in a certain way, e.g., increasing levels of productivity) could be achieved. support for this argument is provided by chen and zhao (2013) who used expectancy theory to examine factors that motivate business faculty members to conduct research. the study found that the value of rewards was the biggest determinant of research productivity. according to chen and zhao (2013), faculty members who were not tenured tended to be motivated by extrinsic rewards, whereas tenured faculty members tended to be intrinsically motivated by the respect earned through conducting research. with such evidence, the justification for using the theory to understand the link between middle managers’ sources of motivation and preferred leadership styles appears appropriate. the concept of leadership leadership is a widely researched topic, and its importance in modern organisations cannot be over emphasised. leadership scholars have defined it in different ways. for example, anca and dumitru (2012) claim that leadership is the process of influencing the activities of a person towards achieving the objectives of the organisation, whereas mccallum and o’connell (2009) regard leadership as the use of influence to encourage participation in achieving set organisational goals or objectives. a closer look at these definitions shows that leadership is the process of influencing others to work exceptionally well towards the achievement of the established organisational objectives or goals. this influencing process can be exerted by top, middle and supervisory level management in any organisational setting. in the context of this study, higher education middle managers, that is, non-academic staff holding responsible administrative and managerial positions below the level of registrar or chief administrative officer, as well as academic staff at the level of head of department, subject area or research unit and who may formally report to either a faculty dean or directly to the vice-chancellor, depending upon the decision-making structure of the institution (schofield, 1996), are assumed to be critical in exerting influence within institutions of higher learning. leadership styles leadership styles are a set of dynamic relationships, which are based on mutual influence between leaders and followers (northouse, 2016). these dynamic relationships are expected to result in increased levels of motivation and development on either part. mullins (2007) also maintains that leadership styles typically determine how the leader behaves towards members of the group. these relationships can be explained and understood within the framework of social exchange theory (blau, 1964; chernyak-hai & tziner, 2014) – an influential paradigm, which posits that human relationships are formed by the use of subjective cost-benefit analyses. this means that a leader whose style and interactions are based on trust and positive gestures will influence corresponding reciprocation by his or her subordinates. although a number of leadership styles exist and have been reported in literature (cummings & worley, 2015), for the purpose of this study, three leadership styles have been adopted and tested in terms of how they are influenced by motivation sources. these are: the transformational leadership style, the transactional leadership style and the charismatic leadership style. these styles have received much attention in the literature and have been explored in similar studies in the private sector (downes, 2016; trevor & hill, 2012). charismatic leadership style a charismatic leader is characterised by behaviour that is out of the ordinary, novel, unconventional and counter to norms (schermerhorn, osborn, uhl-bien & hunt, 2012). charismatic leaders are perceived as mavericks that initiate and support radical change. in organisations, charismatic leaders are useful in the sense that they can convince and inspire people to support changes (bergh & theron, 2006). in higher education institutions, charismatic leaders could arouse the motivation of followers, and this arousal could have important effects on attitudes such as commitment to the vision and the mission articulated by the institution. they can also be useful in the context of ongoing higher education sector changes in south africa, in terms of inspiring and convincing subordinates to adopt to ongoing changes. transformational leadership style a transformational leader helps define the vision of the organisation and establishes the link between that vision and the type of management and organisational principles that are introduced (badawy & bassiouny, 2014). transformational leaders are able to identify the long-term potential of an idea or organisation, and communicate the idea or dream to others in a convincing and inspiring manner (mccleskey, 2014). what this entails is that such type of leaders have the capacity to transmit a sense of commitment and can craft activities and roles that are clearly and easily embraced by subordinates. it is how they do it that is important. for example, oshagbemi and gill (2003) suggest that transformational leaders treat each worker as an individual (individual consideration), transmit their values and ethical principles (idealised influence), provide challenging goals and communicate a vision of the future (inspirational motivation), and encourage innovative ways of problem-solving (intellectual stimulation). these four principles of transformational leadership have received much attention in many studies (bass, 1985; grant, 2012; tse, huang, & lam, 2013). idealised influence is the manner in which subordinates trust and simulate their leaders’ behaviours. the followers also embrace their leader’s values and commit to achieve their vision, which maximises self-confidence and the pride of participating with the leader (alabduljader, 2012). it is the emotional component of leadership and describes how leaders can act as role models. inspirational motivation is achieved by providing meaning and challenge at work. expectations are set by leaders for followers and are well communicated. team spirit is aroused, and enthusiasm and optimism are displayed (marchington & wilkinson, 2012). schepers, wetzels and ruyter (2005) concur that inspirational motivation involves inspiring and empowering followers to enthusiastically accept and pursue challenging goals and a mission. intellectual stimulation is about challenging subordinates to be innovative and challenge their own beliefs and values as well as those of the organisation or leader (northouse, 2016). the leader here promotes subordinates’ own problem-solving approaches. individualised consideration entails leaders acting as coaches, listening to subordinates and creating an enabling environment, though, for example, use of delegation (wells & peachy, 2011). the impact of globalisation, technology advancements and a competitive operating environment have forced higher learning institutions to adapt to strategic change in order to remain relevant and competitive (nordin & kasbon, 2013). therefore, the need for middle managers in higher education institutions to be transformational has become more critical than ever before, as the implementation of established strategic objectives has become a core managerial function. middle managers are therefore expected to ensure that subordinates have the right motivation, knowledge, skills and attitudes in carrying out the activities necessary for the achievement of objectives in each division or unit. transactional leadership style hargis, watt and piotrowski (2011:64) define transactional leaders as ‘leaders who identify the needs of their followers and engage in exchange relationships with them based on objectives to be met’. with this style of leadership, clear goals and objectives are set and rewards (financial or non-financial) for achieving goals clearly specified. the transactional leadership style is based on three exchange styles, which are contingent rewards, active management by exception and passive management by exception (sahaya, 2012). contingent rewards are the exchanges between leaders and subordinates in which efforts by subordinates are exchanged for specific rewards, such as salary and benefits, bonuses or other incentives. a job description, usually drawn up by middle managers, becomes the basis for the leader to understand the subordinates, because it states the job to be executed and what benefits the employee will receive in performing that job (basham, 2012). active management by exception is characterised by the leader’s continued observation of followers to ensure that agreed upon standards of performance are met (hargis et al., 2011). with active management by exception, a leader arranges to monitor performance of their subordinates, and communicates and takes corrective measures where subordinates are found to be wanting (colquitt, lepine, & wesson, 2009). in this case, middle managers are at the cornerstone of ensuring compliance by subordinates with set out procedures or standards, and the application of suitable corrective procedures for the subordinates such as warning, transforming or dismissing (alabduljader, 2012). like any other organisation in the country, higher education sector administration and management in south africa is guided by legislative frameworks, such as the higher education act 101 of 1997, the king iv and v reports on corporate governance, the labour relations act 66 of 1995, and so forth. in addition, each institution has its own policies and procedures that must be complied with. middle managers are, by the very nature of their function, responsible for ensuring most of the compliance issues. as such, elements of transactional leadership, especially the active management by exception skills, are needed by this group of employees. leadership in higher education institutions – global view the leadership of higher education institutions has been placed under increasing scrutiny since the 1980s with the expansion of student numbers, changes in funding for student placements, technology and continuing globalisation of the sector (black, 2015). with such ongoing changes, higher education institutions are required to consider how to develop their leaders and what might be the appropriate leadership behaviour to enable adaptation to these new circumstances (black, 2015). for example, in the united kingdom, the rapid change and transformation that took place in recent years, driven by various players in the field such as local governments, global markets and internationalisation, as well as student and local community demands (angawi, 2012:34), necessitated the establishment of programmes to motivate, influence and shape the attitudes of staff, academics and students. the idea was to transform all levels of leadership within higher education institutions from playing figurative roles with administrative responsibilities, to change agents playing progressive transformational roles (angawi, 2012). in the african context, the major challenges of higher education institutions are more related to governance and management. according to sifuna (2012), typical challenges range from maladministration, underfunding and infrastructure to the unavailability of resources and inability of institutions to adapt to the globalisation trends. as alluded to previously, south africa has seen unprecedented changes in the higher education landscape since 1994 as restructuring policies of the democratic government were increasingly applied (tsheola & nembambula, 2015). the restructuring of south africa’s higher education sector placed onto the agenda the type of institutional leadership required to drive transformation, especially for mergers and incorporations involving historically disadvantaged universities. as a result, universities experienced leadership instability, public contestations, a paucity of academic leadership, internationalisation and globalisation imperatives, mushrooming of virtual, private and corporate universities as well as growing corporatisation, rampant managerialism and state control (hesa, 2009). the country’s higher education institutions are seen by some to be riddled with intractable governance and leadership dilemmas (tsheola & nembambula, 2015). work motivation the term ‘motivation’ describes the reason for action to be taken. in the work context, grobler, warnich, carrell, elbert and hatfield (2011) define ‘work motivation’ as the force that energises employee behaviour, gives direction to behaviour and underlies the tendency to persist, even in the face of one or more obstacles. werner, bagraim, cunningham, potgieter and viedge (2017) concur that motivation is the power within people that arouses, directs and sustains their behaviour. a closer look at both definitions alludes to the fact that work motivation is an internal state that encourages an individual to perform outstandingly to achieve organisational goals. several authors have pointed out the importance of motivation within the work environment. for example, adzei and atinga (2012) state that motivation makes employees put up positive attitudes, work hard, be punctual and contribute meaningfully to the organisation. similarly, toe, murhadi and lin (2013) observed that business success is linked to having teams of employees who are highly motivated. studies highlighting why motivation is important in the workplace can, however, be criticised for focusing more on the internal and external conceptualisation of motivation and not much on their sources. sources of work motivation the notion of work motivation is grounded in two basic approaches to motivation: the content theories (maslow hierarchy needs theory, mcclelland’s needs theory, herzberg’s erg theory, herzeberg’s two-factor theory (schermerhorn et al., 2012), which focus on the individual factors(needs) within each person that initiate, guide, sustain and stop behaviour (amos, ristow, & ristow, 2004), and the process theories (equity theory, goal-setting theory, vroom’s expectancy theory (martin & fellenz, 2010), which explain the process of how behaviour is initiated, directed and sustained. arguments for the merits of each viewpoint of motivation have been long and exhaustive in the social sciences literature (barbuto, trout, & brown, 2004). no viewpoint can be regarded as superior to another as both can be used to contextualise motivation in different situations (bergh & theron, 2005). however, using the tenets of these motivation theories in the last 20 years, five sources of work motivation have been developed and tested to predict transformational leadership behaviours, specifically (barbuto & scholl, 1998). the extent to which other leadership behaviours are linked to these developed five sources is still a grey area to be explored, especially in different organisational settings and contexts. the five sources are intrinsic process motivation, instrumental motivation, self-concept external motivation, self-concept internal motivation and goal internalisation motivation. these are briefly explained subsequently: intrinsic process motivation is derived from absolute enjoyment of working and work acts as an incentive because an employee enjoys what he or she is doing (moradi, 2015). barbuto and gifford (2012) concur that this type of motivation refers to motivation because of the enjoyment of the task, wherein work itself becomes motivational for the individual because of sheer enjoyment of performing the task. therefore, intrinsically motivated leaders find pleasure in the work they do. it is about enjoyment during the activity. instrumental motivation evolved from barnard’s (1938) exchange theory, as well as from expectancy theory and equity theory, which presume that organisations and employees enter into exchange relationships where external factors such as money or promotion drive employee motivation to perform a task (northouse, 2016). instrumental rewards therefore motivate individuals when they perceive that their behaviour will lead to certain extrinsic tangible outcomes, such as pay, promotions and bonuses (barbuto 2005). the self-concept externally motivated leaders seek affirmation from followers based on their traits, competencies and how they are perceived. the self-concept externally motivated leaders have a high need for recognition (roberts, hann, & slaughter, 2006). this motivation is similar to mcclelland’s (1961) need for affiliation, alderfer’s (1969) relatedness needs and maslow’s (1943) need for love, affection and belonging (barbuto & gifford, 2012). self-concept internally motivated people set their own internal standards of traits, competencies and values. these become the basis for their motivation as they engage in behaviours to reinforce the set standards. they have a high need for achievement (mcclelland, 1961). individuals motivated by goal internalisation believe in the cause or purpose of the organisation. it represents the absence of self-interest. they adopt behaviours that are in tandem with their ideal values and beliefs, and adopt a sense of duty and working towards the goal of the whole organisation (barbuto & scholl, 1998). leaders high in goal internalisation emphasise on principles and values and look to matching them with goals and the organisational mission and vision (moradi, 2015). motivation sources and leadership styles the purpose of this study is to determine if there is a relationship between middle managers’ leadership styles and their motivation sources. as previously alluded, although previous studies have examined the relationships between the two (e.g., antonakis & house, 2014; barbuto, 2000; buble, juras, & matic, 2014; graves, sarkis, & zhu, 2013), the different context (higher education) managerial level considered (middle managers), as well as the addition of other leadership styles (transactional and charismatic), is what makes this study unique. previous studies have shown that intrinsically motivated leaders find enjoyment and pleasure in the work they do (barbuto, 2005). transformational leaders, on the contrary, achieve maximum performance from followers because they are able to inspire followers to raise their criteria for success and to develop innovative problem-solving skills (northouse, 2016). it is therefore suggested that a leader who inspires is one who enjoys his or her work. this enjoyment of his or her work could be a source of inspiration (role models) to the followers to emulate the leaders’ behaviour and also incorporate enjoyment with their work. it is further postulated that leaders motivated by work itself are more likely to allow divergent views in the work context, create a work climate of delegation and treat each employee in a unique way. as such, these leaders are likely to self-report an ideology consistent with transformational leadership. a study by barbuto (2005) conducted among 186 leaders from various organisations in the united states reported that intrinsic process motivation correlated with transformational behaviours, although it was not in a higher education setting. charismatic leadership is thought to be key in the implementation of transformation, because it is the leader’s ability to generate great symbolic power (stout-rostron, 2014). the charisma, which can be equated to the leaders’ ability to articulate a vision as in transformational leadership, exhibiting sensitivity to follower and demonstrating novel behaviours, is what makes followers perceive the leader as endowed with exceptional skills or talents. research has demonstrated strong relationships between charismatic leadership and follower trust, commitment and effort (lowe, kroeck, & sivasubramaniam, 1996). both charismatic and transformational leaders have the potential of inspiring their followers to emulate their leaders’ behaviour and incorporate enjoyment in their work (avolio, waldman & einstein, 1988). as such, in this study, it is thus hypothesised that intrinsically process motivated middle managers would be more inclined to using transactional and transformational leadership styles. instrumentally motivated leaders see the value in a reward system for employees (moradi, 2015). this resonates with the tenets of transactional leadership which argues that transactional leaders work within a system of reward or punishment for employees (hargis et al., 2011). findings from a study carried out by barbuto, fritz and marx (2000) in the united states among 56 leaders and 234 followers from a variety of organisations revealed that instrumental motivation correlated with transactional leadership style, contingent rewards and management by exception. the study used top leadership and their immediate followers in a developed context, and not in the higher education sector. although in the higher education sector middle managers might not necessarily control rewards such as money for employees, they have discretionary powers to determine other non-monetary rewards, such as delegation, praising and recognition. use of such rewards can be linked to the aspects of transactional leadership behaviours such as giving orders and telling or communicating the organisation’s purpose. it is therefore expected that middle managers’ standing on instrumental motivation will be correlated with their transactional leadership style. when leaders are high in external self-concept motivation, they tend to be externally based and seek affirmation of their traits, competencies and values from external perceptions (barbuto, 2005). classic articulations of social rewards or social exchanges found in transactional leadership style are consistent with the motivational explanation of self-concept external motives (barbuto, 2000). both self-concept external motivation and transactional leadership style include managers using social rewards and praises to motivate employees to accept them and view them positively. thus, leaders high in external self-concept motivation behave in ways that will make reference group members satisfied to gain their acceptance and status. consistent with this type of motivational drive is the social identify theory of ashforth and mael (1989) which focuses on social reference and standing. this is supported by a study by chaudhry and javed (2012) who found a positive relationship between self-concept external motivation, and transactional and charismatic leadership styles among 278 employees in the banking sector of pakistan. similarly, the relationship of external concept motivation with charismatic leadership is supported by kuhnert and lewis (1987) who reported links between social tactics of influence, such as ingratiating and personal appeals, described as similar to charismatic leadership. based on the above evidence, it is therefore suggested that middle managers’ self-concept external motivation will be related to charismatic and transactional leadership styles. self-concept internal motivation is derived from an individual’s desire to satisfy, sustain their perception of characters, sufficiency and values (moradi, 2015). in this regard, motivation is regarded as freely chosen and emanating from one’s self, and not under pressure from some external force (brophy, 1989). leaders whose source of motivation is self-concept accept their strengths and ability for self-determination. according to pintrich and schunk (2002), to have the desire to satisfy own sufficiency (strength) values is synonymous to self-determination. the author further argues that to have self-determination is to decide how to act in the environment one finds himself or herself in. this research suggests that transformational leaders’ desire to create positive change is based on the self-concept internally driven motivation which is linked to their desire to satisfy their strength in inspiring and intellectually stimulating others for organisational success. in addition, it is assumed that the desire to satisfy and sustain perceptions of their own values engenders leadership behaviours that create positive change in the followers – such as taking care of each subordinate’s interests. it is reasonable therefore to suggest that when managers adopt the transformational leadership style, they are engaging in behaviours that satisfy their self-concept intrinsic motivation. some studies, however, found results contrary to what is proposed in this study. for example, a study conducted by barbuto (2005) among 186 leaders from a variety of organisations in the united states reported a negative correlation between self-concept internal motivation and transformational leadership behaviour. despite this finding, the fact that the present study is utilising a different set of leaders in a particular context might prove otherwise. as such, it is hypothesised that self-concept intrinsic motivation of middle managers will be related to transformational leadership styles leaders high in goal internalisation emphasise on their principles and values and look to matching them with organisational mission, vision and goals (moradi, 2015). similarly, transformational leaders’ behaviours are most typically seen in people who trust and believe in the goals of the organisation, naturally expanding to belief in the organisation’s cause, mission and vision (barbuto, 2005). barbuto found a positive correlation between goal internalisation and transformational leadership behaviour indicating that managers with high levels of goal internalisation motivation self-report an ideology consistent with transformational leadership style. their working behaviour has a purpose and a goal that is fulfilling the organisation’s business direction and success. middle managers represent an important group in organisations, performing a critical function between strategy formulation and implementation, and front-line management to achieve the strategy (mcgurk, 2015). as such, their purpose is to satisfy the strategic interest of senior managers by inspiring, simulating and creating a climate for organisational success. based on this analysis, it is hypothesised that goal internalisation motivation of middle managers is correlated with transformational leadership styles. research design the research sought to describe the proposed relationships between the variables of interests, that is, motivation sources and leadership styles. as such, an ex post facto design type, the correlational-descriptive case study design was adopted. the choice of the design was informed by the fact that the relationship to be described was only examined after the data had been collected, hence ex post facto. quantitative research approach the study followed the quantitative approach, associated with the empirical deductive reasoning philosophical paradigm, positivism. quantitative research designs (kumar, 2011) deal with large numbers or respondents, and also use numbers to generalise comparisons and conclusions about populations (ghauri & gronhaug, 2005). it was for these reasons, and the fact that hypotheses were generated for testing, that the approach was chosen. interviews, which are time-consuming, could not have provided a platform for comparison of data. research strategy a case study strategy, using questionnaires as a data collection method, was used to determine the relationship between the middle managers’ sources of motivation and their leadership styles. research method research setting the study was conducted at the two campuses of one of the institutions of higher learning in south africa. target population the target population in this study comprised all middle managers (academic and non-academic) at the university where the study was undertaken. the total population of both academic and non-academic middle managers was 75 (n = 75) and was divided as follows: 25 academic heads of department and 50 non-academic staff and heads of centres. the unit of analysis was each middle manager. sampling sampling refers to the process used to select a part of the population for a study (creswell, vicki, & clark, 2007). sample size in quantitative research for a small population is about 30% of the population (wagner, kin & lynch, 2012). researchers always advocate for sample representatively, and not necessarily its size. in this research, 40 middle managers selected via non-probability convenience sampling participated in the study. this represented 53% of the population of middle managers at the university. measuring instrument data collection was performed using a self-administered structured questionnaire. the self-administered questionnaire had items measured on a likert type scale ranging from 1 = ‘strongly disagree’ to 5 = ‘strongly agree’. the questionnaire consisted of three sections. section a solicited biographic or demographic information in relation to respondents’ age, gender and educational qualifications. section b measured the middle managers’ motivation sources, using the adapted and adjusted motivation sources inventory (msi) developed by barbuto and scholl (1998). section c measured leadership behaviours among the middle managers’ using the multifactor leadership questionnaire (mlq-rater version) developed by bass (1985). the items in these adopted questionnaire(s) were adjusted to suit the sample as well as the context of the study. questionnaires were distributed by the researchers themselves to willing and available ‘middle managers’ at the institution. statistical analysis descriptive statistics, such as frequency calculations, measures of central tendency (the mean, median and mode) and measures of variation (range and standard deviation) were used to summarise the sample responses to all questions or items in the questionnaire. inferential statistics such as cronbach’s alpha, spearman’s and pearson’s coefficient correlations were used to determine the reliability of the different questionnaire items and test the hypothesised relationships among the different motivation sources and leadership styles. detailed analyses procedures are described in the results section. ethical considerations permission was sought and granted by the institution’s research committee. the purpose of the research was explained to all participants to secure informed consent. confidentiality of data collected by aggregating results, as well its safe keeping and provision of results to the university’s authorities, was explained and assured. results response rate of the 75 middle managers, only 40 middle managers were willing to complete and returned the questionnaires, thereby representing a 53% response rate. according to bryman and bell (2011), a response rate above 50% is acceptable for any further analysis of data. research participants thirty-six of the middle managers in the sample were males, whereas 24 were females. forty-five of them were above 40 years of age, while 35.0% had at least a doctoral qualification, followed by 32.5% with at least a degree. more than 65.0% of the sample had worked at the institution for more than 5 years. reliability coefficients cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to estimate the reliability of the motivation sources and leadership styles items. all the items of the two constructs had an alpha value of above 0.5, except for the individualised consideration variable of transformational leadership which was subsequently dropped from further analysis. variables’ averages averages were calculated to indicate the levels of importance attached to each of the variables by the respondents, as shown in table 1. table 1: variables’ averages. as shown in the results above, inspirational motivation (4.45) had the highest mean average score, indicating greater consistency of responses for transformational leadership, followed by intellectual motivation, with a mean average score of 4.38. among the leadership styles, only charismatic leadership had the highest mean average score of 4.45. these results show that transformational leadership (especially inspirational motivation and intellectual stimulation) and charismatic leadership styles were regarded as most important by the respondents. normality tests where parametric tests for correlations, for example, pearson’s correlation coefficient, are used to analyse data, the requirement is that all the variables must be normally distributed. in this regard, a normality test known as the kolmogorov–smirnov (ks) test was used to determine whether motivation sources and leadership styles were normally distributed. the results are presented in table 2. using a significance level of 0.1, normally distributed variables in the study were intrinsic process motivation, instrumental motivation, self-concept internal motivation, goal internalisation motivation, transformational leadership style, contingent reward, transactional leadership style and charismatic leadership style. those variables that are not normally distributed were self-concept external motivation, idealised influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual motivation, management by exception – passive, management by exception – active, and motivation sources. therefore, two types of correlation coefficients were used, namely the pearson’s correlation coefficient and the spearman’s rho correlation coefficient. table 2: test for normality results. hypotheses testing to test the five hypotheses of the research, a correlation test was performed between motivation sources and leadership styles. pearson’s correlation coefficient was used on variables that were normally distributed, whereas the spearman’s rho correlation coefficient was used on variables that were not normally distributed. the first hypothesis stated that intrinsic process motivation is positively related to charismatic and transformational leadership style. to test this hypothesis, the pearson’s correlation coefficient was used. in addition, the spearman’s rho correlation coefficients were used to establish whether or not there was a positive relationship between intrinsic process motivation and the components of transformational style (idealised influence, inspirational motivation and intellectual motivation), because spearman’s rho coefficients are normally used on variables that are not normally distributed. the results are presented in table 3. table 3: intrinsic process motivation and charismatic and transformational leadership styles. the results in table 3 show that transformational leadership style and idealised influence had positive correlation coefficients of 0.323 and 0.321 and p values below 0.1, respectively. this means that there was a significant positive relationship between intrinsic process motivation and transformational leadership style and between intrinsic process motivation and idealised influence. hypothesis 1 is therefore supported regarding these two variables. when managers adopt the transformational leadership style, they behave in admirable ways and display conviction and take a stand that causes followers to identify with them (northouse, 2016). previous research results on the relationships between the two variables are supported by the current results. for example, barbuto (2005) reported that intrinsic process motivation correlated with transformational behaviours. this means that leaders who enjoy work also wish the same to happen to their followers and therefore make efforts to make them understand the value of the vision and mission (idealised influence). the second hypothesis state that instrumental motivation is positively related to transactional leadership style. pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to establish the existence or non-existence of a positive relationship between instrumental motivation and transactional leadership style and its component, contingent reward. furthermore, the spearman’s rho correlation coefficient was used to establish whether or not there was a positive relationship between instrumental motivation and the following components of transactional style: active management by exception and passive management by exception. the results are presented in table 4. table 4: instrumental motivation and transactional leadership style. no relationship was found between instrumental motivation and transactional leadership. the results do not confirm hypothesis 2. this negative correlation contradicts the findings of barbuto et al. (2000) who found that instrumental motivation correlated with transactional leadership style, contingent rewards and management by exception. middle managers in university settings do not usually have control over employee rewards that are monetary in nature. the results could be a reflection of this explanation or the fact that most of the participants could have been heads of academic department whose rewards seem less than those of their non-academic counterparts. in terms of the third hypothesis which states that self-concept external motivation is positively related to transactional and charismatic leadership style, the spearman’s rho correlation coefficient was used to test the hypothesis, specifically, the relationship between self-concept external motivation transactional leadership style and its components (contingent reward, active management by exception and passive management by exception), as well as between self-concept external motivation and charismatic leadership style. the results are shown in table 5. no relationship was found between self-concept external motivation and charismatic leadership style. however, a positive correlation was found between self-concept external motivation and transactional leadership style at a significance level p = 0.096 which was less than 0.1, accompanied by a coefficient of 0.267. table 5: self-concept external motivation, transactional and charismatic leadership style. in terms of the hypothesised relationship between these two, hypothesis 3 is supported. with transactional leadership style, the manager sets clear goals and objectives and clearly specifies what rewards (financial or non-financial) can be expected for achieving goals (sahaya, 2012). based on these findings, one might infer that when middle managers adopt the transactional leadership style within the institution, they may be influenced by the institutional-wide performance management system of which they are in charge. as such, the results of this study are unsurprising as both self-concept external motivation and transactional leadership style involve leaders using social rewards and seeking praises to motivate and reward exceptional performance in employees. these results are also consistent with a study by chaudhry and javed (2012) who found a positive relationship between self-concept external motivation and transactional leadership style. hypotheses four stated that self-concept internal motivation is positively related to transformational leadership style. the pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to establish this relationship. in addition, the spearman’s rho correlation coefficients were used to establish whether or not there was a positive relationship between self-concept internal motivation and the components of transformational leadership style (idealised influence, inspirational motivation and intellectual motivation). the results are illustrated in table 6. table 6: self-concept internal motivation and transformational leadership style. the results in table 6 show that the relationship between self-concept internal motivation and all components of transformational leadership style was highly correlated (p = 0.000) with positive coefficient values. transformational leadership theory is all about leadership that creates positive change in the followers. to do so, leaders should themselves have an inner need to satisfy their personal values. in this case, middle managers in the study showed how they were well grounded in directing followers towards the vision and mission of the institution (which they probably highly perceived and valued themselves), and now, they were trying to use transformational leadership tenets to satisfy these values. odumeru and ifeanyi (2013) argue that transformational leaders act in the interest of the whole group. consistent with the present results, actions such as ‘empowering’ could be construed of as inspiring the group through the leader’s intrinsic motivation drive. in a country like south africa where transformation is high on the strategic agenda, transformational leadership styles are needed, more especially in institutions of higher learning which are facing constant pressure to change in a number of ways. the last hypothesis states that goal internalisation motivation will be positively related to transformational leadership behaviours. the pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to establish whether or not there was a positive relationship between goal internalisation motivation and transformational leadership style. additionally, spearman’s rho correlation coefficients were used to establish whether or not there was a positive relationship between goal internalisation motivation and the following components of transformational leadership style: idealised influence, inspirational motivation and intellectual motivation. the results are presented in table 7. table 7: goal internalisation and transformational leadership style. the results in table 7 show that transformational leadership style and two of its components (idealised influence and inspirational motivation) had p-values that were below 0.1 and also had positive correlation coefficients of 0.348, 0.307 and 0.339, respectively. this means that there was significant positive relationship between goal internalisation motivation and transformational leadership style, as well as with two of its components (idealised influence [p = 0.054] and inspirational motivation [p = 0.032]). therefore, the above hypothesis is supported. these results correspond with barbuto’s (2005) findings in which transformational leadership style was found to be directly correlated with goal internalisation, indicating that managers with high levels of goal internalisation motivation are driven solely by a belief that the goals of the organisation are both worthwhile and achievable and therefore self-report an ideology consistent with transformational leadership style. the institution under study had a strategic vision and the fact that middle managers participated in its development could explain their standing on goals internalisation, and the need to ensure that subordinates are inspired and intellectually stimulated to embrace the strategic direction of the institution. limitations and recommendations the study is limited in terms of the generalisation of results, because a case study method was followed. in addition, a greater sample size could have led to a much broader view of the issues under investigation. despite these limitations, the study provides a useful departure point for how middle management can contribute to the amelioration of leadership challenges in the south african higher education sector. recommendations for practice like organisations in business and industry, institutions of higher education want to hire and retain talented and professionally committed academics. motivation sources could be used to explain leadership behaviour and could therefore help in the selection and development of specific leadership styles for the different managerial levels within academic institutions through motivation profiling. sources of motivation may provide one of many pieces of information to consider when making recruitment and leadership development decisions within institutions. the findings regarding relationships between self-concept external and transactional leadership style provide a platform for institutions to design programmes that enhance social cohesion and further enhance a sense of affiliation among leaders. this has ramifications for leadership behaviours that support the implementation of new strategies and compliance with newly adopted policies. the results supporting relationships between intrinsic process motivation, self-concept internal motivation and goal internalisation and transformational leadership style call for development programmes that further promote the use of transformational leadership styles, bearing in mind the theory that confirms that leaders can be developed. recommendations for future research the focus on this study was on self-report measures. future research could focus on other levels of management, but then compare this with data obtained from followers or subordinates. in addition, an extension of the study on a larger scale, using a bigger sample size, could highlight some best practices among different institutions in terms of profiling their leadership positions. finally, the inclusion of how demographic variables could play a role on the choice of motivation sources and leadership styles among higher education leadership would be an interesting study for the future. conclusion using quantitative analysis techniques, this study investigated the relationship between motivation sources (intrinsic motivation, instrumental motivation, self-concept external motivation self-concept internal motivation, and goal internalisation) and the three leadership styles (transformational, transactional and charismatic). the results showed that intrinsic process motivation highly correlated with transformational leadership style, especially idealised influence. hypothesis 1 was therefore supported. it is therefore reasonable to conclude that the middle managers in the institution were motivated by the enjoyment they got from their work, and this had an influence on preferred leadership style, that being transformational leadership. the hypothesised relationship between instrumental motivation and transactional leadership was rejected, leading to the conclusion that the middle managers’ motivation was not driven by external rewards and that their leadership style was not based on promising reward to their subordinates. no relationship was found to exist between self-concept external motivation and charismatic leadership style. however, self-concept external motivation was correlated with transactional leadership style. hypothesis 3 was therefore not rejected pertaining to this relationship, suggesting that the middle managers were also driven by the need for affiliation, or recognition, and sought to achieve that through setting standards and ensuring that subordinates perform accordingly. there was a significant relationship between self-concept internal motivation and transformational leadership, supporting hypothesis 4. one can therefore conclude that middle managers in the institution were driven by the need to achieve and that they valued and supported individual subordinates’ inherent strength for the achievement of organisational goals through transformational leadership styles. goal internalisation motivation was found to be correlated with the transformational leadership style aspects of idealised influence and inspirational motivation, indicating that hypothesis 5 was not rejected. it can be concluded that the middle managers had a full understanding of the vision and mission of the institution and that they wanted such internalisation to be cascaded down to their subordinates through inspirational and motivational strategies. acknowledgements the authors thank the central university of technology, free state for providing the research grant to carry out this study. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions c.c. conceptualised, analysed and wrote up the results and l.l.m. wrote up the literature and methodology sections. references adzei, f.a., & atinga, r.a. (2012). motivation and retention of health workers in ghana’s district hospitals: addressing the critical issues. journal of health organisation and management, 26(4), 467–485. https://doi.org/10.1108/14777261211251535 alabduljader, s.a. (2012). the transactional and transformational leadership in the kuwaiti commercial banks sector: which one is more applied? international journal of business and social science, 3(19), 211–219. alderfer, c.p. (1969). an empirical test of a new theory of human needs. organizational behavior and human performance, 4(2), 142–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(69)90004-x amos, t., ristow, a., & ristow, l. (2004). human resource management (2nd ed.) lansdowne: juta & co ltd. anca, v., & dumitru, d.d. (2012). leadership – a key factor to a successful organisation. studies in business & economics, 7(3), 179–189. angawi, g.t. (2012). neo-charismatic leadership: a new theory for effective leadership in higher education. educate, 12(2), 34–47. antonakis, j., & house, j.r. (2014). instrumental leadership: measurement and extension of transformational-transactional leadership theory. the leadership quarterly, 25, 746–771. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2014.04.005 ashforth, b.e. & mael, f. (1989). social identity theory and organisation. the academy of management review, 14(1), 20–39. avolio, b.j., waldman, d.a., & einstein, w.o. (1988). transformational leadership in a management game simulation. group & organization studies, 13(1), 59–80. badawy, t.a.e., & bassiouny, m. (2014). employee engagement as a mediator between transformational leadership and intention to quit. international journal of contemporary management, 13(2), 37–48. barbuto, j.e. (2000). influence triggers: a framework for understanding follower compliance. leadership quarterly, 11(3), 365–387. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(00)00045-x barbuto, j.e. (2005). motivation and transactional, charismatic, and transformational leadership: a test of antecedents. journal of leadership and organizational studies, 1(1), 26–40. https://doi.org/10.1177/107179190501100403 barbuto, j.e., fritz, s.m., & marx, d. (2000). a field study of two measures of work motivation for predicting leader’s transformational behaviours. psychological reports, 86, 295–300. barbuto, j.e., & gifford, g.t. (2012). motivation and leader-member exchange evidence counter to similarity attraction theory. international journal of leadership studies, 7(1), 18–28. barbuto, j.e., & scholl, r.w. (1998). motivation sources inventory: development and validation of new scales to measure an integrative taxonomy of motivation. psychological reports, 82(1), 1011–1022. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1998.82.3.1011 barbuto, j.e., jr, trout, s.k., & brown, l.l. (2004). identifying sources of motivation of adult rural workers. journal of agricultural education, 45(3), 11–21. https://doi.org/10.5032/jae.2004.03011 barnard, c. (1938). the functions of the executive. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. basham, l.m. (2012). transformational and transactional leaders in higher education. sam advanced management journal, 77(2), 141–152. bass, b.m. (1985). leadership and performance beyond expectation. new york: free press. bass, m.b., & riggio, r.e. (2008). transformational leadership (2nd ed.). new jersey: lawrence erlabaum associates, inc., publishers. bergh, z.c., & theron, a.l. (2005). psychology in the work context (2nd ed.). cape town: oxford university press. bergh, z.c., & theron, a.l. (2006). psychology in the work context (5th ed.). oxford: oxford university press. black, s.a. (2015). qualities of effective leadership in higher education. open journal of leadership, 4, 54–66. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojl.2015.42006 blau, p.m. (1964). exchange and power in social life. new york: wiley. brophy, b. (1989). it doesn’t hurt to be alone. u.s. news and world report, 106, 54–55. bryman, a., & bell, e. (2011). business research methods. new york: oxford university press. buble, m., juras, a., & matic, i. (2014). the relationship between managers’ leadership styles and motivation. management journal, 16(1), 30–36. chaudhry, a.q., & javed, h. (2012). impact of laissez faire leadership style on motivation. international journal of business and social science, 3(7), 258–264. chen, y., & zhao, q. (2013). gender differences in business faculty’s research motivation. journal of education for business, 88, 314–324. https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2012.717121 chernyak-hai, l., & tziner, a. (2014). relationships between counterproductive work behavior, perceived justice and climate, occupational status, and leader member exchange. journal of work and organizational psychology, 30, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.5093/tr2014a1 chipunza, c., & malo, b. (2017). organisational culture and job satisfaction among academic professionals at a south african university of technology. problems and perspectives in management, 15(2), 148–161. https://doi.org/10.21511/ppm.15(2).2017.14 colquitt, j.a., lepine, a.j., & wesson, j.m. (2009). organizational behaviour: improving performance and commitment in the workplace. maidenhead: mcgraw-hill irwin. creswell, j.w., vicki, l., & clark, p. (2007). designing and contacting mixed methods research. los angeles, ca: sage. cummings, t.g., & worley, c.g. (2015). organisation development & change (10th ed.). stamford, ct: cengage learning. downes, h. (2016). women in leadership series. retrieved 14 january 2018 from https://www.morganmckinley.ie/article/women-leadership-interview-helen-downes-ceo-shannon-chamber-commerce dulewickz, v., & higgs, m. (2005). assessing leadership styles and organisational context. journal of managerial psychology, 20(2), 105–123. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940510579759 fernandez, s., & rainey, f. (2006). managing successful organisational change in the public sector. public administration review, 66(2), 166–168. ghauri, n., & gronhaung, k. (2005). research methods in business studies: a practical guide. london: prentice hall. grant, a.m. (2012). leading with meaning: beneficiary contact, prosocial impact, and the performance effects of transformational leadership. academy management journal, 55(2), 458–476. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.0588 graves, l.m., sarkis, j., & zhu, q. (2013). how transformational leadership and employee motivation combine to predict employee pro-environmental behaviours in china. journal of environmental psychology, 35, 81–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2013.05.002 grobler, p.a., warnich, s., carrell, w.r., elbert, n.f., & hatfield, r.d. (2011). human resource management in south africa (4th edn.). great britain: international padstow cornwall. hargis, m.b., watt, j.d., & piotrowski, c. (2011). developing leaders: examining the role of transactional and transformational leadership across business contexts. organization development journal, 29, 51–66. higher education south africa (hesa). (2009). insight: higher education south africa. pretoria: hesa. kreitner, r., & kinicki, a. (2010). organisational behaviour (9th edn.). boston, ma: mcgraw-hill. kristan, c. (2005). integrating quality assurance systems in merged higher education institution. quality assurance in education, 13(3), 241–243. https://doi.org/10.1108/09684880510607972 kuhnert, k.w., & lewis, p. (1987). transactional and transformational leadership: a constructive/developmental analysis. the academy of management review, 12(4), 648–657. kumar, r. (2011). research methodology: a step-by-step guide for beginners. london: sage. leo, a. (2015). challenges facing leaders in higher education in south africa. retrieved july 26, 2017 from http://www.odgersberndtson.com/en-cz/insights/challenges-facing-leaders-in-higher-education-in-sa lowe, k.b., kroeck, k.g., & sivasubramaniam, n. (1996). effectiveness correlates of transformational and transactional leadership: a meta analytic review of the mlq literature. leadership quarterly, 7(3), 385–425. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(96)90027-2 marchington, m., & wilkinson, a. (2012). human resource management at work (5th ed.). london: cipd. martin, j., & fellenz, m. (2010). organisational behaviour and management (4th ed.). hampshire, uk: cengage learning. maslow, a.h. (1943). a theory of human motivation. psychological review, 50(4), 370–396. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054346 mccallum, s., & o’connell, d. (2009). social capital and leadership development: building stronger leadership through enhancing relational skills. leadership and organisation development journal, 30(2), 152–166. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730910935756 mcclelland, d.c. (1961). the achieving society. princeton, nj: van nostrand. mccleskey, j.a. (2014). situational, transformational, and transactional leadership and leadership development. journal of business studies quarterly, 5(4), 117–130. mcgurk, p. (2015). ‘developing middle leaders in the public services?’ the realities of management and leadership development for public managers. international journal of public management, 22(60), 464–477. moradi, m. (2015). modelling the relationship between work motivation and employees’ organisational citizenship behaviours of youth and sport offices in chaharmahal and bakhtiari province. european journal of physical education and sport, 7(1), 59–67. https://doi.org/10.13187/ejpe.2015.7.59 mullins, l.j. (2007). management and organisational behaviour (8th ed.). london: prentice hall. mullins, l.j. (2010). management and organisational behaviour (8th ed.). london: prentice hall. nordin, n., & kasbon, h. (2013). a study on leadership behaviour and organizational learning in higher learning institutions. gse journal of education. retrieved 13 june 2017 from https://worldconferences.net/journals/gse/gse%208%20norshidah.pdf northouse, p.g. (2016). leadership, theory & practice (7th ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. odumeru, j.a., & ifeanyi, g.o. (2013). transformation vs transactional leadership theories: evidence in literature. international review of management and business research, 2(2), 355–361. oshagbemi, t., & gill, t. (2003). differences in leadership styles and behaviour across hierarchical levels in uk organisations. the leadership and organisation development journal, 25(1), 93–106. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730410512796 pintrich, p.r., & schunk, d.h. (2002). motivation in education: theory, research, and applications (2nd ed.). upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. quick, j.c., & nelson, d.l. (2009). principles of organisational behaviour realities and challenges (6th ed.). florence: cengage learning inc. republic of south africa. (1998). employment equity act of 1998. pretoria: government printing. roberts, j., hann, i., & slaughter, s.a. (2006). understanding the motivations, participation and performance of open source software development: a longitudinal study of the apache projects. management science, 52(7), 984–999. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1060.0554 ryan, j. (2010). an examination of the factor structure and scale reliability of the work motivation scale, the motivation sources inventory. journal of applied social psychology, 40(6), 1566–1577. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2010.00629.x sahaya, n. (2012). a learning organization as a mediator of leadership style and firms’ financial performance. international journal of business and management, 7(14), 96–113. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v7n14p96 schepers, j., wetzels, m., & ruyter, k. (2005). leadership styles in technology acceptance: do followers practice what leaders preach? managing service quality, 15(6), 496–508. https://doi.org/10.1108/09604520510633998 schermerhorn, j.r., osborn, r.n., uhl-bien, m. & hunt, j.g. (2012). organisational behaviour. international student version (12th ed.). new jersey: john wiley & sons, inc. schofield, a. (1996). strengthening the skills of middle management in universities. paris, france: united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. shivambu, f. (2015, october 22). the crisis in higher education is a crisis of political leadership. daily maverick, pp. 1–5. siddique, a., aslam, h., khan, m., & fatima, u. (2011). impact of academic leadership on faculty’s motivation and organizational effectiveness in higher education system. international journal of academic research, 2(3), 730–737. sifuna, p.n. (2012). leadership in kenyan public universities and the challenges of autonomy and academic freedom: an overview of trends since independence. codesria, journal for higher education in africa, 10(1), 121–137. southern african legal information institute (saflii). (2012). minister of higher education and training and others v mthembu and others, council of central university of technology, free state v minister of higher education and training and others (2776/2012, 2786/2012) [2012] zafshc 144 (13 august 2012). retrieved july 27, 2017 from http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/zafshc/2012/144.html stout-rostron, s., (2014). leadership coaching for results. cutting edge practices for coach and client. randburg: knowres publishing. swanepoel, b., erasmus, b., & schenk, h. (2008). south african human resource management: theory and practice. lansdowne: juta & co. tsheola, j., & nembambula, p. (2015). governance and transformational leadership dilemmas for merged universities in a democratic south africa. bangaldesh e-journal of sociology, 12(1), 20–40. toe, t.t., murhadi, w.r., & lin, w. (2013). research study on the correlation between job satisfaction and employee motivation. international journal of business management, 6(1), 142–166. trevor, j., & hill, r. (2012). developing transformational leadership capability. developing leaders: executive education in practice, 9, 41–47. tse, h.h.m., huang, x., & lam, w. (2013). why does transformational leadership matter for employee turnover?. a multi-foci social exchange perspective. the leadership quarterly, 24, 763–776. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.07.005 van der westhuizen, c.n. (2004). the games institutions playor the impact of university incorporation on attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of college lecturers. perspectives on higher education. south african journal of higher education, 18(1), 153–164. vroom, v.h. (1964). work and motivation. new york: wiley. wagner, g.p., kin, k. & lynch, v.j. (2012). measurement of mrna abundance using rna-seq data: rpkm measure is inconsistent among samples. theory of bioscience, 131(4), 281–285. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12064-012-0162-3. wells, j.e., & peachey, j.w. (2011). turnover intentions–do leadership behaviors and satisfaction with the leader matter? team performance management, 17(1/2), 23–40. https://doi.org/10.1108/13527591111114693 werner, a., bagraim, j., cunningham, p., potgieter, t., and viedge, c. (2017). organisational behaviour: a contemporary south african perspective (4th ed.). pretoria: van schaik. 3rowecrafford.qxd there are more women in business today who hold senior executive positions and sit on corporate boards, and with the introduction of various forms of legislation protecting women’s rights, for example pay protection, maternity leave and employment rights, the future looks promising for senior women executives (heffernan 2002). in south africa, the employment equity act has spearheaded the drive for employment equity and affirmative action within organisations, including the employment and progression of women. in some spheres these drives have been successful and the demographics within south african business have changed with more women holding senior executive positions than before. the question to ask however, is how many of these women actually hold positions of power in top management, and the reality is very few. the situation is particularly true for the investment banking industry where the number of women professionals in senior executive management positions (for example ceo’s, company board members, heads of divisions) is minimal compared to that of men. the reasons for this difference are varied in nature and often referred to as ‘barriers’ or ‘obstacles’ that women face in the advancement of their careers. these barriers are often based on the factors of gender and race, and not aspects such as the lack of ability to handle jobs at higher institutional levels (cooper jackson, 2001). an article published in the ‘star’ (poulter, 2002) highlighted how many women are sacrificing marriage and a family for financial independence. it suggests that women are marrying later, putting off having children and more likely to get divorced as they concentrate on their careers. the article includes comment by the uk economic and social research council claiming that life in the fast lane for big city women comes with a high emotional price. another article, also published in the ‘star’ (halliwal, 2002), focuses on how women are giving up their careers to raise their families. the article includes a recent survey that found that 94% of women are sick of those who ‘do it all’ and more than 75% would leave their jobs if they could. hewlett (2002) conducted a nationwide survey in the us, which was targeted at the top 10% of women measured in terms of earning power. she summarised her findings in two points: 1. even in organisations whose policies support women, prevailing attitudes and unrelenting job pressures undermine them; and 2. women’s lives have been expanded, but the grudging attitudes of most corporate cultures weigh down and constrain what individual women feel is possible. these findings are supported by cooper jackson (2001) who suggested that beliefs and attitudes held by organisational members (i.e. women are not viewed as leaders), as well as contextual aspects of the organisation (i.e. social structures) contribute to the barriers that impede women’s career advancement. various studies investigating barriers experienced by women have been conducted in south africa. wood (1993) investigated the problems that female managers experienced in the workplace and the so-called ‘glass ceiling’ thats seem to succeed in keeping women out of the top ranks of management. abrahams (1997) researched the challenges for women in management and found that structural, as well as internal barriers to the advancement of women still exist in the workplace. other studies have had as focus, the barriers experienced by women in different industry sectors. for example parsadh (2001) explored gender inequality in education management using a case study of four women educators’ experiences in applying for promotion to principal posts in schools. govender (1997) investigated obstacles to career advancement encountered by women in a road transport division. the greatest obstacles being lack of mentors, lack of role models, role conflict, males attitudes towards working women, lack of daycare facilities, lack of part-time employment, insufficient maternity benefits and re-entry into the market-place. birch and datnow (1989) concentrated on the employment and advancement of women in the legal and advertising professions. other research around this topic has been conducted by gaddin (1995) and peens (2000) who both considered the ‘glass ceiling’ phenomenon and its implications as well as differing perceptions of men and women in this regard. there has however been no empirical investigation of these barriers in the context of investment banking. arising out of quarterly group discussions held with human resource managers in the investment banking industry, it is apparent that there has been a strong drive within the industry to bring on board young female graduates and to develop them into senior executive positions. however, the fruits of these initiatives are still a long way off, and the barriers (real and perceived) tracey rowe anne crafford leadership in performance and change department of human resources rand afrikaans university abstract a qualitative study was conducted to explore the barriers to career advancement for professional women in the investment banking industry. semi-structured interviews were conducted with male and female participants to explore their beliefs and perceptions of these barriers. the story of cinderella is used as an interpretative framework in which the findings are discussed. the key themes that emerged were structure of society, embodiment, male domination, support structures and networking. an additional theme, entitled ‘if the shoe fits’ is the underlying thread that links the other key themes together and forms the conclusion of the study. opsomming ’n kwalitatiewe studie was onlangs uitgevoer met die oog op hindernisse vir professionele vroue in die beleggings bank-sektor. semi-gestruktueerde onderhoude was uitgevoer met beide manlike en vroulike deelnemers ten einde die persepsies en oortuigings van hierdie hindernisse te ondersoek. die verhaal van aspoestertjie was gebruik as ’n raamwerk waarin die bevindings bespreek is. die sleutel temas wat geidentifiseer was sluit in gemeenskapstruktuur, beliggaming, manlike-dominasie, ondersteuningsraamwerk en die bou van netwerke. ’n addisionele tema, getitel ‘as die skoen pas’ is die onderliggende draad wat die ander temas saambind en die samevatting van die studie vorm. a study of barriers to career advancment for professional women in investment banking requests for copies should be addressed to: t rowe, department of human resource management, rau university, po box 524, auckland park, 2006 21 sa journal of human resource management, 2003, 1 (2), 21-27 sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 2003, 1 (2), 21-27 challenging other women today still remain a reality for these graduates. hewlett (2002) wrote that in order to change the world, women need to face and deal with many challenges, for example figuring out what you want your life to look like at 45, giving urgent priority to finding a partner, having your first child before 35, choosing a career that will give you the gift of time and choosing a company that will help you achieve work-life balance. these are key life challenges, but facing these all at once is proving extremely difficult for women to achieve, especially when one looks at women pursuing senior front office or client facing positions (that do not respect personal time) within the investment banking industry whilst trying to raise a family and giving priority to one’s partner. there seems a strong drive in the industry globally to consider barriers to career advancement, and this is evidenced by a recent conference that was held in london attended by the researcher and women investment bankers from all over the world. however, no empirical research has been conducted to provide clarity on the exact nature of the barriers in the industry. a research project was thus conducted to explore the barriers that prevent career advancement for women in the investment banking industry. the findings of the research will add value to and may provide support to our understanding of the role of women in investment banking, giving us greater insight into the perceptions that have existed in the industry for many years. this research is aimed to benefit people within the industry, especially those making the strategic recruitment, development and succession planning decisions, as well as women themselves. method in exploring the barriers to career advancement amongst professional women in investment banking, a qualitative research design was decided upon. the reason being that qualitative research is helpful in determining the meanings people ascribe to problems and how they contextualise these. this allows for a deeper understanding of action in context, allowing the researcher to examine the complexity in human phenomenon and reach a conclusion (babbie & mouton, 2001; silverman, 2000). participants the study was conducted in an organisation in the investment banking industry. purposive sampling was used to ensure that all participants met the requirements for inclusion in the study (esterberg, 2002). twelve participants were selected bearing in mind differences in gender, race, age (between 25-40 years), levels (from associate to managing director), divisions (equities, corporate finance, human resources, finance and operations) and length of service (between 1 to 13 years). in order to obtain a valid sample of opinions and perceptions, an equal representation of men and women participants were interviewed. each individual was approached and asked whether they would be willing to be interviewed on the topic. participants were informed that the research was for a masters degree, and assured that all information would remain confidential. an interview time was set up with each participant at his or her convenience. data gathering interviews were used to gather data regarding participant’s views of the barriers to carrier advancement for professional women in investment banking. use was made of semi-structured interviews, which allowed participants to express their thoughts and experiences in their own words (esterberg, 2001), whilst allowing the researcher to probe particular areas of interest. the informal nature of the interviews immediately put people at ease and allowed for trust to be established. permission to tape the interviews was obtained from each participant prior to commencing with the interview (oates, 2001). each participant was asked about their perceptions and beliefs around barriers to career advancement for professional women in investment banking. during the interviews reflective summaries were used to review key aspects to ensure that understanding was achieved. probing was also used to enquire further about particular statements and to understand the root of a participant’s beliefs and thoughts. each interview lasted between forty-five minutes and an hour. data was collected over a six-week period. data analysis each interview was transcribed verbatim to ensure that no information was missing. data was analysed using general qualitative principles outlined by baptiste (2001). each transcript was read several times and themes highlighted as these began to emerge. the process involved a systematic method of continual reassessment of the themes emerging from the interviews in order to classif y these into categories and subcategories. once tentative themes had been decided upon, the possibility of using morgan’s (1997) concept of imaginisation was discussed. the strategy is based on the use of metaphors as a tool in explaining research findings, as a means to empower and facilitate change. this is made possible because language, images and metaphors shape social realit y and one’s understanding of the world and oneself. this strategy is useful when conveying a message that may not be easily welcomed. because studies involving gender issues, are often viewed as emotive and despite much attention, do not really succeed in achieving the desired changes, it was decided to use a metaphor, in this case a fairy tale as an interpretive framework. the use of metaphors enables one to present the findings from another angle thus allowing people to digest and relate to the results of the research in a more imaginative way, as opposed to simply being given the bare facts and told to digest them. the use of the metaphor chosen in this study will be discussed in greater detail under the findings. reliability and validity issues of reliability and validity in this study were addressed using guidelines prescribed by smaling (1992). the internal reliability of the study was enhanced in the following ways. firstly data was gathered over a period of time to avoid interviewer fatigue and was limited to one researcher only. secondly member checks were used to overcome inconsistencies regarding participant’s inputs. data was analysed in association with an academic peer to ensure consistency in outcomes and interpretation. finally an audit trail was prepared to allow for examination of the categories (de ruyter & scholl, 1998). the requirements of external reliability were managed by providing a detailed and accurate description of the steps taken during data collection and analysis, relevant characteristics of participants and research methods (de ruyter & scholl, 1998; smaling, 1992). the requirements for validity were ensured by preparing a comprehensive register of data, notes about relevant events impacting on data gathering and interpretation, the use of member checks and proving an accurate description of the research process (smaling, 1992). a possible threat to reliability and validity lies in the fact that the researcher is the human resources manager of the investment bank in which the study took place, and this may have influenced the responses received during the study. although the impact of being an organisational member and researcher simultaneously cannot be determined precisely, attempts were made to reduce the negative effects as far as possible. this was done by actively managing personal biases (smaling, 1992) and assuring participants that all the information gained during the interview process would remain within the context of this study and not have an impact on their roles within the organisation. rowe, crafford22 findings interpretive framework the fairytale of ‘cinderella’ is used as a metaphor in the interpretation of the findings. there is no sense of time or space in fairytales, which makes them infinitely adaptable – the people and places change, but the themes remain the same. in feudal societies or in a society with rigid gender roles, these stories reflect the existing attitudes towards gender definition and serve to teach and emphasize societal attitudes (mistele 2002). the imagery and fantastic creations in fairytales may be seen as metaphoric dramatisations of the thoughts and feelings readers may believe about their daily lives and the problems they face giving expression to fears and desires that they are unaware of (swan jones 1995). hence, we chose to use the fairytale of cinderella as a metaphor in the interpretation of the findings. if one looks closely, the barriers to career advancement for women in investment banking often mirror the barriers that were faced by cinderella. cinderella’s ‘break’ from her world as a lowly servant came when she tried on the glass slipper ‘allowing’ her to become the prince’s wife. the story of cinderella invites us to recall times when we felt ourselves unappreciated and rejected – and then to share cinderella’s satisfaction at being discovered as a true princess (hallett & karasek, 1998). we have extended this concept for women in investment banking – career advancement for professional women is often dependent on whether ‘the shoe fits’. structure of society the structure of society has changed very little over time when one looks at the parental roles of men and women. it is generally accepted that a woman plays the “motherhood” role, and is the person who is judged by society for “being a good mother” (or not). in this way, society puts constraints on women in their attempts to find a balance between their working career and motherhood or family. the story of cinderella has interesting parallels. she becomes an orphan after both her parents pass away and is left in the hands of her ‘wicked’ stepmother and stepsisters. as an orphan in the society of her time constraints were placed on cinderella and what she could and could not achieve. as a result she was relegated to the kitchen and trapped there. she was treated as a lowly servant, and expected to act and behave in ways fitting her role or position. playing this role in society meant no choices and no opportunities for cinderella, for example not being ‘fit’ to go to the prince’s ball. in a similar fashion society today places constraints on women. although changing slowly over time, the women’s place is still linked to the kitchen in an assumed domestic role, as opposed to a business career role. a woman’s priority is expected to be the home and her family, which obviously puts limitations on women in their working careers. the structure of society today (just as it was in cinderella’s times) usually has the woman playing the caring motherhood role and the man the ‘protector’ or head of the family role – often referred to as the ‘breadwinner’. one participant said: “i know that there is potentially a time limit to my career, whereas my husband will be the breadwinner for the next 20 years.” there may obviously be exceptions to this, but traditionally the structure in society expects women to take primary responsibility for their family, forcing them to manage both their working careers and their family. evidence of this can be found in the media, which inadvertently propagates these expectations through radio and television advertising, one example being washing powder adverts. a few years ago these adverts showed the ‘perfect’ mother and wife happily hanging up her clean washing in the golden sun ecstatic at the results of her domestic work. today, a similar advert shows a high profile, modern executive at her glass desk. in preparing for a meeting she accidentally knocks over her espresso coffee whilst trying to answer the phone. instead of getting flustered or calling someone to help her clean up the mess, she immediately wipes it up with the sleeve of her expensive white shirt not worrying about the meeting she is about to go into. the final scene shows the woman in the meeting (surrounded only by men) totally relaxed and in control, wearing a stain free starched white shirt. despite the move from the wash line to the boardroom, the advert mirrors the expectations of society – even as a successful career woman, one is still ‘tied to the kitchen’ and the domestic role. these societal expectations put exceptional pressures on careerorientated women in the investment banking industry, and the pressure to juggle their roles is enormous. one participant said: “many women leave the industry because too many different pressures are being put on them. you are pressurised to succeed, but nobody’s actually there to help you prove yourself and if you shout and ask for help you are considered a silly woman.” another participant remarked: “you often end up with a thin top layer of women because many have left to support a family.” in south africa, excellent support structures are available (i.e. domestic help, family, au pairs etc), but women are still constrained by the “kitchen” mentality, which ties them to their family being their primary responsibility. women are expected to be good mothers before they are expected to be successful career women. one participant said: “in the south african market the males are generally the breadwinners – this fosters the perception that females are less committed and should thus be ready to sacrifice their careers for the home.” a mother is expected to behave in particular ways and achieve certain milestones before being considered a ‘good mother’ – a father, on the other hand, often has to do far less to achieve the same label. there are few women who can take the opportunities of a career and a family and achieve a happy medium. in order to strike a balance between career and family, women are often forced to give up a certain amount of (if not all) career responsibility, obviously then reducing or even ending opportunities available to them in their careers. this is not to say that women are unable to achieve success in their careers and raise a family at the same time, but the constraints put on them to balance the two are very real and it is rare that women are able to achieve ultimate success and satisfaction in both. there are a handful of powerful women in the investment banking industry, but this is the exception rather than the norm – just as cinderella was the exception in becoming a princess. embodiment in the story of cinderella the women were constrained by the fact that they were women and were not able to choose a man to marry them, but rather had to wait to be chosen by a man. this determined what type of life they would be able to live, what role they would eventually play in society and when they would be able to have a family of their own. the fact that a person is born a woman puts certain constraints on her because of her embodiment. a participant commented: “i don’t think the barriers to career advancement are inflicted by the company itself – i honestly think it is inflicted by the nature of women having to be the child bearers.” because society is structured around the needs of men and especially in an industry like investment banking, women entering the domain have to play by men’s rules. one participant said: “the industry does not want women in senior positions who will be on maternity leave twice in two years.” a simple decision of whether to have a family or not, has long-term career implications for women in this industry. a participant commented: “i could not have a child, take maternity leave and continue doing my job – i would lose credibility.” the issue of maternity leave and how this will effect one’s career was an important factor for most of the participant’s when asked about barriers to career advancement in the investment banking industry. it became evident from the participants that women need to keep in close contact with the office even whilst on maternity leave in order to prevent ‘out of sight, out of mind’. one participant commented: “it is imperative to constantly keep closely in touch with the office and attend meetings on a regular basis whilst on maternity leave in order to avoid being left behind or left out.” a further issue that was raised is that women need to have established credibility in a senior role, before leaving on maternity leave. one barriers to career advancement 23 participant said: “maternity leave is often about timing – i.e. finding a ‘suitable’ time to have a child.” another commented: “women need to make their mark and prove themselves in a senior position before starting a family.” a further comment was: “if you prove yourself while you are still fairly young and flexible it is fine, but if you want to try and prove yourself at age 33 once you have kids who are starting school it is very difficult.” ‘outsourcing’ is a concept that came up many times during the interviews, i.e. being able to outsource one’s family responsibilities in order to keep one’s career. one participant commented: “some women have had to outsource certain of their home responsibilities in order to make themselves available to work the long hours – i cannot see or imagine a situation where someone would be a senior executive if they were not to work on this basis.” however, there are limitations to outsourcing as well – affordability, reliability of au pairs/nannies, guilt, other family pressures etc. although it does give women another alternative, it was not perceived as an easy alternative. even if one were able to afford an au pair and someone to take care of their home, many of the participants said that the guilt of not spending quality time with their child was a problem – with the long hours that the industry demands it meant only spending quality time with their child on the weekends. as the mother, the expectation is that she makes the time during the day to be with the child, whereas the father is not expected to play this role because he is hard at work bringing in the income to raise his family. if the father does happen to leave work early one day to attend a school function or spend ‘quality’ time with the child, he is seen as a caring and doting father. on the other hand, little is said if he only gets home from work every night after 11pm because the mother is expected to be there to look after the child. bernadette murphy, chief technical analyst at a wallstreet firm, kimelman & baird, says: “i marvel how anyone with a career has time to raise a family. in my age group, there were fewer of us who married. i eventually did marry in my 40s, but a great number of women in my network never married. i think it was just too tough. you couldn’t possibly handle the job and the demands of a family without tremendous stress. if you did manage, you couldn’t fit other people and other things into your life” (herera 1997). male domination in the story of cinderella men in the characters of the king, the prince and the male servants, dominated the palace. similarly, the investment banking industry is historically a male dominated industry and was described by the participants as an ‘old boys club’ and very ‘collegiate’. to a large extent, men relate to and network with each other in ways they are more comfortable with for example drinking in bars, rounds of golf, and rugby/cricket matches. there seems to be a lot of ‘male bonding’ that occurs within these networks, and as a result women in the team are often left out in the origination of ideas and decisions. a female participant who works within an all male team commented: “when we have team discussions and i make a suggestion, they listen but they don’t listen. the next thing three weeks down the line one of the other guys comes up with the exact same suggestion and only then will they only sit up and listen.” with women professionals being the minority in the industry, it is often that there are not enough women to change the mindset. in many instances, people were (and still are) hired according to the similarity of those employing them, which perpetuates this domination. even with the recent employment equity legislation, which enforces employment and progression of previously disadvantaged people (including women), the environment seems to continue to be more accepting of men. although both men and women are continually under pressure to perform, there seems to be less pressure on men to prove themselves than what is put on women. one participant remarked: “women are forced to keep driving forward whereas it is far easier for men in this industry. it is more difficult for women to make an impression”. men form the majority of the front office (i.e. client facing) positions in the investment banking environment, which makes the women in the industry far more conspicuous. another participant commented: “the minority issue makes bonds between women more obvious and talked about, so women avoid these bonds.” a further participant commented: “women are a minority, and it is much easier to spot inconsistencies and problems in such a small group.” on the other hand, the ‘old boys club’, seems to have become an accepted norm and many of the participants believe is not worth making an issue of this as it may potentially lead to sacrificing one’s career to try to prove a point. one participant commented: “i have accepted it – i have no desire to break into that whole male bonding scene. i do miss out on the inside track, but then my strategy is not to try and break that but to work around it. i will always get the information second hand which is fine, just as long as i get it.” however, as more women enter the industry, this network is coming under pressure to widen its borders and accept women as a fundamental part of the industry, although not without discomfort. one interviewer remarked: “the historical imbalances and the impact of educational advances are causing some discomfort and confusion – people are not used to working together as equals.” in addition to the male domination of the industry, there appears to be a typical character suited to investment banking. one male participant described the industry as being “dominated by an obsessive type of character, which harbours a more male psyche”. the participant continued by saying: “men tend to be more focussed on one obsessive thing which fits with the industry, as opposed to women who generally have a range of interests”. in the story of cinderella, her stepmother and stepsisters are portrayed as almost masculine in character, displaying the same sort of obsessive and focussed nature. her stepsisters (under the strict guidance of their mother) focused on finding a way to marry the prince, without allowing other issues or interests to ‘get in their way’. cinderella, on the other hand, was the opposite – even within the constraints of the kitchen, she had many interests. she displayed the typical ‘societal’ female characteristics of love, warmth, affection and support, and did not have the drive that was displayed by her stepsisters. cinderella’s characteristics are not typical of the men who dominate the investment banking industry, and women are often misconceived as being too timid for such a ‘rough’ environment. one participant remarked: “i don’t want special treatment or to be molly-coddled. until men realise this, there will never be equality because women are always going to be regarded as pretty little things in little skirts that drop out of the work environment because of the pressure, which is not fair.” in the fairytale, the stepsisters are portrayed as large, ugly, bullying, masculine women who are rude and harsh, with very little femininity. cinderella on the other hand is portrayed as an image of femininity throughout the story (i.e. from servant to princess). when the glass slipper arrives at cinderella’s house, her stepsisters physically fight over which one of them the slipper will fit. they squeeze, push and pull but their feet are simply too big. however, it is the ‘lady’ of the house who slips into the glass slipper and becomes the prince’s bride. in the interviews conducted, it came out strongly that the answer to career advancement for women in investment banking is not to try and be ‘one of the boys’ or threaten their masculinity, but rather to work around this and keep one’s femininity. to win the support of male colleagues almost becomes a political game whereby women work within non-threatening parameters and find other ways to advance in their careers (i.e. proving oneself as a woman and not by trying to be a man). the perception is that in order to be taken seriously one has to ‘act like a man’, but this often becomes a defensive mechanism as opposed to an effective way of adding value or advancing in one’s career. this defensive mechanism mixed with ‘female emotion’ is seen to be a path of destruction as opposed to a path of career advancement. one participant said: “if you try and compete with your male colleagues you are viewed as a bitch.” rowe, crafford24 as a result, many of the women in high-level executive positions in the industry are in support functions (i.e. human resources, legal, finance, operations etc), with men dominating the front office executive or senior positions. a participant commented: “men find it easier to deal with women if they are stuck in a special little area where they are not forced to interact with them”. looking at the story of cinderella, the high-level front office (i.e. royalty) positions were held by the king and the prince, and cinderella only joined that status herself through marriage. her stepmother could be viewed as the ‘ceo’ of her own environment, however this remains a support structure (i.e. the home) that is not in the ‘eye of the public’ (or client facing in the investment banking world). one participant commented: “i think lots of people still have this stigma attached to women – they are seen as inferior in the business”. by nature, humans are creatures of habit and the perception is that often in the industry men do not even realise that they are being discriminatory or ‘male focused’, but are rather acting out of habit. these habits are viewed as a fundamental barrier to career advancement for women in the industry. for example, one participant said: “women are often the source of male jokes, which is how we think they perceive us when we hear these types of jokes.” another participant said: “men are not used to working together on an equal basis with women as it is. people are creatures of habit, and habits are often the barriers.” these habits extend not only out of the industry itself, but also out of the home environment. men are still traditionally viewed as the breadwinners, and many men in the industry have wives or partners who are either ‘home executives’ or in jobs that are not related to investment banking. one participant remarked: “men often perceive working women as they do their housewives and find it difficult to treat them on the same professional level.” another participant said: “professional men have easier relationships with their pa’s than their female colleagues as they are less threatening.” a further comment: “women have only been in the industry for a short time and men are still getting used to it – it is often the fear of the unknown that lead women to alienation.” in the story of cinderella, the king was embarrassed that his son did not have a bride, and so arranged that all the eligible maidens in the land be invited to a ball at the palace. the prince would get a chance to dance with each of the maidens and choose his bride. it was critical for the king and the image of royalt y that his son have a bride. at the time of the ball, the king was not worried about who the prince would choose, but rather just that he choose a maiden to marry. for the king, the future princess was ultimately window dressing for the royal family, and a way of producing an heir to the throne. similarly, it emerged that in investment banking, women are often involved in deals or client facing meetings as window dressing, and not really to add fundamental value. the perception is that window dressing or ‘tokenism’ as it is often referred to, is worse for black women. there are a limited number of black professional women in the industry and therefore they are often targeted to take to client meetings, but not necessarily to add value. one participant commented: “in a way it is good because you can see that people’s minds are beginning to change, but i think that this could potentially backfire. every time the company needs to show that we have previously disadvantaged people on our teams, you then are called to the forefront – this is very insulting.” another participant commented: “once you are assigned to a certain deal or project, you are then pigeon holed into that area of expertise and not exposed to other areas.” the question came up as to whether one is employed because one is black (i.e. window dressing), or because of one’s skill. it was felt that black women are looked at in terms of their colour and gender (as opposed to only their gender) and not their abilit y and competence. one participant said: “you can almost take the problems we had in the black/white era and transform them and stick them into the male/female era – it has the same stigmas.” another commented: “i think women are still going to be used as fronts, just as black people were used as fronts.” in addition to ‘window dressing’ is the fact that the client demographics in the industry reflect strong male domination. this is also viewed as a key barrier to career advancement for women, making it even more difficult for women to penetrate the industry. it came across strongly in the interviews that the industry is at the ‘mercy of its clients’ and because the client base is predominantly male, they feel more comfortable being serviced by their male counterparts. one participant said: “women are not taken seriously by clients – the two biggest sectors in the industry are mining and financial which are both very male dominated and where women have little respect.” another participant commented: “i don’t think that it’s got anything to do with the lack of skills – i think it’s just a worry and plays on the subconscious that women cannot deliver the same message as men.” as a result, the men in the industry are very territorial over their clients making it difficult for women to break into that established network. one participant said: “for men it’s about keeping the client versus the development of women – it is about the relationships with clients that often clinches the deal.” the difficulty is that as one becomes more senior in the industry, one is expected to have greater client exposure and more responsibility with regards to client development. a participant remarked: “seniority depends on the clients that you cover, but women are seldom automatically given transactions to run with.” it thus often becomes a no win situation for women. support structures in the story of cinderella, it is the animals of the house and her fairy godmother who support cinderella and ultimately help her to become the princess. her support structures therefore do not involve the other real women in her life. her stepsisters dislike her, and take advantage of her vulnerability for their own perceived ‘future success’ (for example, they force her to help them get ready for the ball whilst enjoying the fact that she cannot go). the image portrayed of the relationship between cinderella’s stepmother and stepsisters is of a very close bond and in total support of each other. however, the support structure begins to crumble when the sisters begin to compete for the same thing (i.e. the prince) whilst being spurred on by their mother. she knows that there will only be one princess, but her focus is for one of them to become that princess and she does not care which one of them it is, or how they get there. even before they leave the house for the ball, they are fighting over ‘mirror space’ and which one of them looks more attractive. when the glass slipper arrives at the house the next day, the stepsisters’ fight over it, each trying to force it onto their own foot and again being spurred on by their mother. this obviously ends in complete astonishment when cinderella’s foot slips comfortably into the slipper. a similar theme threads itself into the investment banking industry, and came up as a predominant barrier to career advancement for women. the underlying support structures between women seem to be flawed in that they do not have solid foundations and are often only surface level. with the industry being quite new for professional women, the roots have not yet developed for a solid structure. one participant commented: “women need to use other women as role models, but there are not enough women role models in this industry.” with other perceived barriers, women have to take the gap and fight to get ahead in their careers but this is often at the expense of other women. a participant commented: “women who have made it to the top often ignore where they have come from.” another said: “women are often barriers to other women because they tend to be much harder on each other because they know their capabilities.” barriers to career advancement 25 complications often arise in these support structures when women are in different stages of their lives – i.e. being single, married and/or being a mother. it seems that women will support each other when they are in similar stages of their lives, but find it difficult to relate to each other if they are not sharing similar experiences. one participant said: “women are not proactive enough in addressing women issues they tend to fight for their own cause, and not as a group.” in the story of cinderella it is the woman who continually supports other women and works around the barriers that face her that gets into the top position. throughout the interview process, it became clear that women need to support each other (as well as gain the support of their male colleagues) through their different circumstances in order to build a solid and credible foundation to work from to advance their careers. networking net working is a fundamental part of building relationships to align one’s self with those people who have the power or inf luence over one’s career advancement. cinderella was tied to the kitchen, which made it difficult for her to build net works outside of that environment. her net works were limited to people within the house and animals that had no power in the ‘real world’. once she had taken herself out of that environment and to the ball, her ent ire world changed. she took the window of opportunit y given to her by her fairy godmother in which to profile herself to be fit for the role of a princess. she used the limited time to net work and build up her relationship with the most important person at the ball – the person who had the power to determine her future. as a result, one of the barriers to career advancement is not positioning or profiling ones self to build the right networks that influence one’s progression. this is a strategy (and what was often described during the interviews as a ‘political game’) fundamental to anyone who is focusing on career advancement. the conclusion drawn from the interviews is that women are less likely to profile themselves correctly than men. for example one participant commented: “women do not naturally profile themselves correctly or demonstrate that they are adding value, therefore they look less useful than they really are.” in general, women do not nat urally make a big deal about doing well or achieving something in the office and therefore the additional value that they are actually adding could go unnoticed. one participant said that she did not feel comfortable making a song and dance about an achievement because she believed that in the end someone would recognise it. the realit y is that often these achievements go unnoticed in a fast paced and competitive environment if they are not vocalised immediately. another participant commented that, it is about marketing yourself correctly and positioning oneself to canvas support with the people who will influence promotions. it is seemingly expected and assumed in this industry that men are nat urally ambitious and assertive (often aggressive), and therefore it is easier for them to profile themselves in an environment that readily accepts this t ype of behaviour – especially when it comes to client interaction. it seems to be different for women in that they are not nat urally expected to behave in this way. one participant commented: “men simply assume that women are not interested in social net working events, and therefore as a woman one has to align oneself with the friendlier guys in the office in order to form solid net works.” it seems that women are required to ‘play the political game’ in order to avoid this potential barrier to career advancement, and profile themselves in such a way that they align themselves with the people who have the power to influence their development and advancement. ‘if the shoe fits’ the prince fell in love with his first impression of cinderella at the ball – a stunning young maiden who looked a respectable part of society, and perfectly fitted the mould of a princess. however, there was a limit to their happiness – when midnight struck, cinderella would be transformed back into her rags and her carriage would turn into a pumpkin (once again). ironically, when she fled from the palace at midnight, the prince after expressing his love for cinderella and his desire for her to become the princess, did not even know her name. a similar premise weaves itself into the investment banking industry where women can be impressive and competent, but they often remain nameless because of the constraints put on them by the nature of the industry. it was not only the ball, but also the power of magic that gave cinderella an opportunity to prove that she was competent to be a princess. she took the window of opportunity given to her by her fairy godmother, and immediately associated herself with the most important person at the ball who had the power to change her life. given that the structure of the society did not give her this opportunity but rather relegated her to the kitchen, she worked around these barriers through self-determination and the critical magical support from her fairy godmother in order to make her dream become reality. ‘cinderella’ tells a story, which helps readers make sense of reality, and in this fairytale the heroine has supernatural assistance in solving her problems (mistele 2002). for example cinderella’s fairy godmother uses magic to turn her into a beautiful maiden fit to be a princess. whilst in some instances, the story of cinderella has significant parallels for women in the investment banking industry, in reality, women do not have the assistance of supernatural powers to break through their constraints and the barriers they face in the advancement of their careers. the traditional structure of society expects women to take responsibilit y for a family over the responsibility of a career. the pressure and constraints put on career-orientated women to manage both make it extremely difficult for women to have a successful professional career in the investment banking industry. apart from the male domination within the industry and the consequences thereof, the support structures between women do not seem to be deep rooted and as a result may play against their career advancement. the participants made it clear that it made no sense to try and become ‘one of the boys’, but rather to align oneself with those men who had the power to influence the advancement of their careers. however, despite using this strategy for career advancement, there still seem to be few women in powerful senior positions within the industry. in the story of ‘cinderella’, even after she had won the love of the prince, her future still depended on the magical glass slipper. in reality, many women have the same size feet, but they do not get the opportunity to try on the magical glass slipper. in investment banking, there are many women who have the potential to become great industry leaders, but they are overlooked or simply not given the opportunity because they do not fit into the traditional male stereotype of an ‘investment banker’ or the cinderella equivalent. cinderella’s fairy godmother gave her the opportunity to make something of herself, but even so she was under an enormous amount of pressure because she had a limited amount of time in which to do it. could this be the same for the advancement of women in their careers – that they need a fairy godmother to give them a window of opportunity to prove themselves? for the women in investment banking, it is key men in the industry who represent their fairy godmother and determine the size and the magic of the glass slipper. a large part of a successful career as an investment banker is determined by one’s interaction and relationships with clients. with the male dominated client base who are used to dealing with other men in the industry, rowe, crafford26 women are continually at a disadvantage in trying to form any meaningful relationships. the clients have a large stake in determining the amount of revenue generated by the company, and therefore in most cases have the power to decide who they prefer dealing with. the traditional comfort zone often leads them to other men in industry who they believe are more capable of performing at the level that they desire (i.e. the shoe fits). this mindset is then weaved into the organisation’s themselves. the demographics of senior executive women and men within the investment banking industry closely reflect the demographics of the industry’s client base. it is therefore often the men within the industry who have the power to determine whether women have the right size feet for the shoe (i.e. the position) that they are trying to fit into. cinderella’s future rested on the glass slipper, just as the future of many women within the investment banking industry rests on ‘if the shoe fits’. references abrahams, a. (1997). challenges facing women in management, the nature of these challenges and how they cope with it. unpublished masters dissertation, university of cape town, cape town. babbie, e. & mouton, j. the practice of social research (sa edition). cape town: oxford university press. baptiste, i. (2001). qualitative data analysis. forum for qualitative social research. (http://www.qualitativeresearch.net/fqs). birch, s.m. & datnow, b.s. (1989). the employment and advancement of women in the legal and advertising professions in the cape peninsula. unpublished masters dissertation, university of cape town, cape town. cooper jackson, j. (2001). women middle manager’s perception of the glass ceiling. women in management review, volume 16, 30-41. de ruyter, k. & scholl, n. (1998). positioning qualitative market research: reflections from theory & practice. qualitative market research: an international journal, volume 1 ,7-14. esterberg, k.g. (2002). qualitative methods in social research. boston, ma: mcgrawhill. gaddin, j.a. (1995). perceptions of the glass ceiling phenomenon. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of witwatersrand, johannesburg. govender, k. (1997). career advancement obstacles encountered by women in the workplace. unpublished masters dissertation, university of durban-westville, durban. hallet, m. & karasek, b. (1998). folk & fairytales. toronto: broadview press ltd. halliwal, r. (2002). the death of the super women. the star: 24th june 2002. heffernan, m. (2002). the female ceo. fast company: august. herera, s. (1997). women of the street. new york: john wiley & sons, inc. hewlett, s. a. (2002). executive women & the myth of having it all. harvard business review, 80 (4), 5-11. mistele, w. (2002). an inter view regarding fair ytales. (http://www.lava.net) morgan, g. (1997). imaginization: new mindsets for seeing, organizing and managing. london: sage. oates, c. (2000). in d burton (ed). research training for social scientists. london: sage. parsadh, p.v. (2001). gender inequality in education management. unpublished masters dissertation, universit y of witwatersrand, johannesburg. peens, m. (2000). the development of strategies to enable south african women to break through the glass ceiling. unpublished masters dissertation, port elizabeth technikon, port elizabeth. poulter, s. (2002). career women opt for home alone. the star: 27th september 2002. silverman, d. (2000). doing qualitative research: a practical handbook. london: sage. smaling, a. (1992). objectivity, reliability and validity. in g j n bruisma and m a zwanenburg (eds). methodology for management specialists: trends and methods. muiderberg: coutinho. swan-jones, s. (1995). the magic mirror of imagination. new york: twayne publishers. wood, n. (1993). an investigation into the problems that women managers experience in the workplace and whether equal opportunity programmes deal effectively with these problems. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of natal, durban. barriers to career advancement 27 abstract introduction research methods results discussion acknowledgements reference about the author(s) leon t.b. jackson workwell research unit for economics and management sciences, north-west university, south africa fons j.r. van de vijver workwell research unit for economics and management sciences, north-west university, south africa school of psychology, university of queensland, australia department of culture studies, tilburg university, the netherlands citation jackson, l.t.b., & van de vijver, f.j.r. (2018). multiculturalism in the workplace: model and test. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a908. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.908 original research multiculturalism in the workplace: model and test leon t.b. jackson, fons j.r. van de vijver received: 30 jan. 2017; accepted: 24 may 2018; published: 04 sept. 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: this article addresses the role of multiculturalism in employee attitudes. research purpose: it proposes a model of positive features of multiculturalism in organisations and tests it in south africa. the model postulates three levels in multiculturalism: antecedent conditions, such as multiculturalism practices and norms that define the diversity climate; mediators, such as diversity-enhancing employee attitudes; and positive work outcomes. motivation for the study: south africans from diverse backgrounds hardly meet in their private spaces. given this forced contact in the workplace and the calls for national unity and social cohesion, we propose that a workplace that is characterised by mutual respect, accommodation and tolerance for difference could have a positive impact on employee work attitudes. research approach/design and method: a quantitative approach was adopted using survey questionnaires that were distributed to employees selected on the basis of convenience sampling (n = 299) in various workplaces. main findings: a multi-group path analysis confirmed the validity of the model for the white, black and mixed race ethnic groups. although the differences were negligible to medium, white groups seemed to experience a slightly more favourable multicultural environment compared to black and mixed race groups. practical/managerial implications: all dimension scores were well above the mid-point of the scale, which suggests that psychometrically speaking, the multicultural climate, ethnic integration orientations and employee attitudes are experienced by these employees as favourable. contribution/value-add: from a conceptual perspective, the model implies that the more distal variable of a multicultural climate influences employee attitudes through a set of more proximal integration attitudes and practices. from a practical perspective, an inclusive climate has more distal characteristics such as the general multiculturalism climate and more proximal characteristics such as ethnic vitality. introduction we are interested in the role of multiculturalism (referring to the recognition and support of the plural nature of the society; berry & kalin, 1995) in employee attitudes in the workplace. south africa is an interesting location to study diversity in organisations, given the country’s history of racial segregation and discrimination. the system of apartheid, the legal basis of this segregation and discrimination, was abolished in 1994. the promulgation of various post-1994 laws, such as the labour relations act 66 of 1995 (rsa, 1995), the employment equity act no 55 of 1998 (rsa, 1998) and the basic conditions of employment act no 75 of 1997 (rsa, 1997b), was aimed at demolishing discrimination, enhancing national cohesion and the creation of a rainbow nation (a term framed by bishop desmond tutu to refer to the multi-ethnic composition of the south african society). these developments have resulted in increments in intercultural contacts in the workplace. however, south african employees often encounter two types of diversity in the workplace. firstly, the business world as currently conceptualised and structured in most south african corporations is generally cast in a eurocentric mould (khoza, 1993), which largely resembles features of white domination of the pre-1994 era. this mould is quite different from the home culture, notably for the black groups. secondly, because of the still rampant segregation of society, work is the only place where many south africans meet individuals from other ethnic groups (hofmeyr, 2006; jackson & van de vijver, 2018). given this forced contact in the workplace, calls of the new constitution (rsa, 1996) for national unity and social cohesion, this contribution proposes that a workplace that is characterised by mutual respect, accommodation and tolerance for difference could have a positive impact on employee work attitudes and output. unfortunately, recent research results (stoermer, hitotsuyanagi-hansel, & froese, 2017) suggest that black south africans are still prone to become targets of workplace racial harassment and that fault lines based upon skin colour persist. consequently, racially harassed employees report lower degrees of job satisfaction (stoermer et al., 2017). this, in return, can lead to voluntary turnover (porter, steers, mowday, & boulian, 1974) and decrease individual performance (harter, schmidt, & hayes, 2002). this prevents organisations from maximising their competitive edge (earley & mosakowski, 2000). south african organisations need to take action to foster cooperation and trust among employees of different racioethnicities (stoermer et al., 2017). one remedy is establishing an organisational inclusion climate (nishii, 2013; stoermer, bader, & froese, 2016). this contribution aims to heed this call and to encourage interdisciplinary research, and it therefore proposes and tests a model of multiculturalism in the workplace. the model of this study is based on a mediating model of acculturation (arends-tóth & van de vijver, 2006), the interactive acculturation model (iam) (bourhis, moïse, perreault, & senécal, 1997) and the interactional model of cultural diversity (cox, 1993). the model holds that multiculturalism comprises three components: antecedents defining a climate of diversity-enhancing conditions such as multicultural policies and practices as supported by the majority in the workplace, mediating conditions comprising employee (and people from his ethnic group) orientations towards integration and employee outcomes comprising subjective experiences of work success, commitment and job satisfaction. not only does this article fill the gap in the literature regarding the role of multiculturalism in employee attitudes in the south african workplace but it also addresses the call of bourhis et al. (1997) to investigate the role of both mainstream (multicultural or diversity-enhancing conditions or requirements at work) and minority contextual features (integration orientation at work) and attitudes simultaneously. in addition, empirical evidence on the positive effects of multiculturalism in the workplace could be just the recipe for encouraging management (currently, mainly white) to facilitate and promote diversity initiatives in south african organisations. literature review models, typologies, strategies, definitions and benefits of multiculturalism psychological literature on acculturation has focused on the ways in which majority attitudes towards multiculturalism impact on the acculturation strategies of migrants. the most widely cited model of acculturation has been developed by berry (e.g. 1997, 2001, 2005, 2008, 2011). according to berry’s model, when migrants enter a new cultural environment, they are faced with two questions: (1) whether they wish to maintain their affiliation with the culture of their country of origin and (2) whether they wish to forge relations with the dominant culture of the society they are entering. depending on how migrants respond to these two issues, they are said to employ one of four acculturation strategies: not wanting to maintain one’s cultural identity but seeking contact with the dominant group (assimilation), avoidance of interaction with the dominant group and placement of value on maintaining one’s original culture (separation), little possibility or interest in cultural maintenance and relating to other cultures (marginalisation) and maintenance of one’s original culture while also pursuing contacts with the dominant group (integration) (berry, 2013). according to ojukwu and oni (2017), multiculturalism embodies and promotes cultural security, cultural diversity and cultural equity. cultural security is a broad concept that encompasses cultural safety, cultural sensitivity and awareness. cultural safety refers to the condition in which people recognise their own culture, language, customs, attitudes, beliefs and preferred ways of doing things in their social and economic environment (iaciu, 2014:6). multiculturalism has been policied, particularly in europe, to create national unity in ethnic diversity (johnson, 2015). as such, it has been criticised for essentialising culture and reifying cultural differences (howarth & andreouli, in press). the criticisms multiculturalism faces are many and varied (mason, 2018). it presupposes an essentialist conception of culture that treats cultures as static, homogeneous and bounded, with the result that multicultural policies tend to entrench traditional practices and promote the interests of established elites within cultural communities (barry, 2001; kukathas, 2003); that it gives unfair advantages to minority cultural and religious groups through additional funding and special provisions such as exemptions from laws and policies (barry, 2001); that it is bad for women (okin, 1999); and that it discourages cultural communities from integrating and encourages them to form separate parallel societies (goodhart, 2013; west, 2013). ironically, multicultural initiatives can produce scepticism and resentment on the part of, in particular, non-minorities (james, brief, dietz, & cohen, 2001) and criticism centres on the claim that it excludes non-minorities, threatens unity (plaut, sanchez-burks, buffardi, & stevens, 2007) and promotes separatism and division (frederickson, 1997). exclusion from organisational information and decision-making networks has been identified as one of the most significant problems facing today’s diverse workforce (fernandez, 1991; morrison & von glinow, 1990; o’leary & ickovics, 1992). the inclusion–exclusion experience of diversity is one that has deep social–psychological roots for human beings (baumeister & leary, 1995). this is in contrast to the use of the term to describe a situation in society where diversity is widely accepted and valued, by all ethnocultural groups, and where cultural groups maintain their ethnic and cultural distinctiveness while still participating in the daily life of greater society (berry, 2013; sam, 2006). in addition, howarth and andreouli (in press) propose that multiculturalism should be studied as a social representation, that is, a collectively shared system of ‘values, ideas and practices’ (jovchelovitch 2007; moscovici 1973, p. xiii; 2000; wagner & hayes, 2005). ramakrishna (2013, p. 100) argues that multiculturalism is ‘the representation of difference’. by this, multiculturalism means accepting and tolerating differences in cultural identities and promoting ways of peaceful coexistence. rosado (1996) explicitly defines multiculturalism as: a system of beliefs and behaviours that recognizes and respects the presence of all diverse groups in an organization or society, acknowledges and values their socio-cultural differences, and encourages and enables their continued contribution within an inclusive cultural context which empowers all within the organization or society. (p. 2) therefore, multiculturalism can be described as a behavioural pattern that appreciates, tolerates and promotes multiple cultures and identities situated within the confines of a particular community. these explanations infer that multiculturalism is a reactionary movement or ideology purposed to resolving the challenges of colour difference, cultural diversity and social inequality through an attitude of acceptability, hospitality, tolerance and love (olanrewaju, loromeke, & adekoye, 2017). in general, intercultural contact of higher quality predicted more positive intergroup attitudes, trust, more positive perceptions of out-group intentions in working towards peace (tropp et al., 2017). more specifically, managing and valuing diversity enhances the performance (choi & rainey, 2010; mazibuko & govender, 2017). workplace diversity is associated with higher organisational benefits (joubert, 2017). for instance, cultural diversity is associated with organisational advantages, such as strengthening the organisation’s culture, improving the company’s global reputation, increasing creativity and innovation or building loyalty among customers of different origins (cox & blake, 1991; franken, 2015; shen, chanda, d’netto, & monga, 2015; thomas & ely, 1996). it is also associated with increases in productivity, goal attainment, creativity, client focused services and an interesting work environment (joubert, 2017) as well as work team cohesion (cashmore, 2003; trivedi, 2008). in addition, when diversity is managed effectively, employees learn more about each other so that communication is improved, with less stereotyping and discrimination among the employees (joubert, 2017). organisations promoting initiatives based on a multicultural ideology can be expected to be particularly attractive to minorities, because diversity is acknowledged and retained (verkuyten, 2005). nonetheless, not all people might experience the workplace positively (jackson & van de vijver, 2018). for instance, women of all races are overrepresented in pink-collar jobs (jaga, arabandi, bagraim, & mdlongwa, 2017). sue and capodilupo (2008) reported that women experience a variety of gender microaggressions and discrimination that undervalue their work contributions. older workers were likely to be channelled to lower paid jobs than young workers, potentially affecting their standard of living (drydakis, macdonald, chiotis, & somers, 2018). about 16% – 68% of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals reported experiencing employment discrimination, with 41% being harassed at work and gay men earned 10% – 32% less than equally qualified heterosexual men (badgett, lau, sears, & ho, 2007). durrheim and talbot (2012) and moloto, brink and nel (2014) reported racial stereotypes prevalent among all four south african race groups (i.e. black, white, indian and mixed race). another study found that stereotypes also exist about both race and gender groups occupying managerial positions (booysen & nkomo, 2010). given the challenges above, efforts must be speeded up to provide answers to the problematic issues that arise as a result of frequent intercultural interaction in the workplace and in society. interdisciplinary research could provide some of the answers that we so desperately need. service research is also especially apt for interdisciplinary as service is not developed by any one function in a company; it is a purpose in some way for everyone across the organisation regardless of where they are working. it is strange then that we have not advanced further on interdisciplinary research, particularly because it has been in focus for a long time in the field (gustafsson & bowen, 2017). never before has cooperative research been as necessary among scholars and practitioners as in the case of inclusion (wooten & james, 2008). the greatest advances in human resources (hr) practices have resulted from the joint activities of scholars and practitioners (shore, cleveland, & sanchez, 2018). a model of multiculturalism in the workplace it is a novel feature of this contribution that it studies diversity from an acculturation perspective, as acculturation is a productive way of examining adjustment processes faced by individuals who come into continuous contact with other cultural backgrounds (berry, 1997). this theoretical framework combines a mediation model of acculturation in the broader society (arends-tóth & van de vijver, 2006) and in the workplace (jackson, van de vijver, & ali, 2012). antecedents in the model, called multiculturalism or diversity-enhancing conditions, refer to contextual conditions that define the climate of the workplace vis-à-vis diversity, such as descriptive norms and practices about the need to acknowledge, respect, appreciation of multiculturalism and tolerance of culturally diverse group. mediating variables, called ethnic integration, refer to the various aspects that, as a consequence of a positive diversity climate, promote integration that refers to retaining your own identity and freely interacting with people from different ethnic backgrounds. integration is a combination of attitudes and practices that maintain the own ethnic identity (such as ethnic vitality) and attitudes and practices that promote multiculturalism (interaction and contact with people from your own and other ethnic backgrounds) and the need to adopt a multicultural identity (such as pressure by co-ethnics to embrace multiculturalism at work). outcomes in the model are represented by employee attitudes such as job satisfaction, organisational commitment (psychological diversity outcome indicators) and perceived subjective experience of work success (sociocultural diversity outcome indicator). antecedent conditions the coexistence and integration of the diverse cultures represented in the workforce are important in multiculturalism. multiculturalism conditions have an impact on intercultural interaction and the adjustment in the workplace. research has recently confirmed contextual influences (such as the degree of multiculturalism in the workplace) on ethnic diversity orientations; ethnic vitality and an integration orientation play a crucial role in these orientations, which are supposed to influence adaptation and intergroup relationships (jackson & van de vijver, 2018; jackson et al., 2012). as antecedent or diversity-enhancing conditions, this study focuses on perceived institutional or majority support for multiculturalism and mainstream tolerance. perceived multicultural norms refer here to rules and codes of conduct that emphasise acknowledgement, respect and appreciation of cultural differences in the workplace (e.g. the majority members in the organisation believe that people from different ethnic backgrounds should be respected), while perceived multicultural practices refer to the actual co-employee behaviours vis-à-vis diversity in the workplace (e.g. the majority members in the organisation respect people from different ethnic backgrounds). according to berry (2006), although support for multiculturalism may be conceptually similar to tolerance, multiculturalism attitudes are more related to the idea that diversity is a resource for a society, and that all ethnocultural groups should be mutually accommodating to obtain harmonious relationships in a culturally plural society. empirically, support for multiculturalism was correlated with dominant group members’ tolerance (berry, 2006; jackson & van de vijver, 2018; jackson, van de vijver, & biela, 2013a), while support for multiculturalism strongly predicted social tolerance (van der noll, poppe, & verkuyten, 2010). perceived mainstream tolerance refers to the condition of not being uncomfortable with others’ existences with regard to different language, gender, religion, belief and attitude (sahin, 2011). tolerance has also been demarcated as a preparedness to give up unlikable thoughts or groups (gibson, 2006). contemporary scholars outline tolerance as diversity esteem, openness, inclusiveness of all ethnicities, races and walks of life and cultivating oneself to respect others (corneo & olivier, 2009; florida, 2003; ramadan, 2010). tolerance here refers to acknowledgement, acceptance and lenience towards cultural differences. tolerance is an attitude towards social equality and egalitarianism (berry, 2006). ethnic tolerance is opposite to ethnocentrism that tends to favour one’s in-group over out-groups (berry & kalin, 1995), whereas social egalitarianism involves intolerance for social dominance orientation, supporting equal opportunities and rights (berry, 2006). multicultural practices and norms and mainstream tolerance in the workplace are associated with lower levels of physical and psychological ill health as well as increased subjective experiences of work success (ait ouarasse & van de vijver, 2004; jackson & van de vijver, 2018; jackson et al., 2012) and satisfaction with life (jackson et al., 2013a). research also found that a multicultural ideology was related to an integration strategy (hui, chen, leung, & berry, 2015). mediating conditions: ethnic integration norms at work according to bourhis et al. (1997), a common shortcoming of acculturation models is the lack of importance given to how the host community and the integration policy of the state can shape especially the acculturation preferences of minority group members. the iam, proposed by bourhis et al. (1997), suggests that the acculturation orientations of ethnic minority members are related to the acculturation orientations of host majority members and should be emphasised and included in empirical studies. integration involves some degree of maintenance of the home culture, while at the same time, members of an ethnic cultural group seek to participate as an integral part of the larger social (diverse) network (berry, poortinga, breugelmans, chasiotis, & sam, 2011). ethnic integration norms at work (jackson et al., 2012), individual integration orientation (jackson & van de vijver, 2018; jackson et al., 2012) and ethnic vitality (ait ouarasse, 2004) are the variables from the minority context that have been reported to bear on acculturation outcomes that are considered in this contribution. in this study, perceived ethnic integration norms at work refer to the pressure or expectation from own ethnic members to retain one’s own culture, but also to participate in and adopt the culture of the workplace, which combines a largely european business culture and a plural ethnic culture among colleagues (the latter concept is known in south africa as the rainbow nation). integration is often seen as the best way for an individual to deal with differences between important cultures for the person such as the home and diverse culture of the workplace (berry, 2003). positive relations between ethnic integration norms, and multiculturalism, mainstream tolerance, subjective experiences of success at work as well as lower levels of ill health, have been reported (ait ouarasse, 2004; jackson et al., 2012). individual integration acculturation orientation, in berry’s (1997) bi-dimensional model, refers to an immigrant’s preference to maintain his own culture, but also to participate in the mainstream culture. in the context of the present study, integration refers to individual preferences in the workplace to have contacts with own but also other ethnicities. berry (1997) has argued that integration is the individual-level orientation that corresponds to multiculturalism at organisational or societal level. research has often shown that integration is the orientation most favoured by minority members (pham & harris, 2001; zagefka & brown, 2002). a recent study confirmed positive relations between an individual integration acculturation orientation and multiculturalism, mainstream tolerance, ethnic integration norms at work and subjective experiences of work success as well as a negative relation with physical and psychological ill health (jackson & van de vijver, 2018; jackson et al., 2012). the concept of ethnic vitality, adapted from linguistics (harwood, giles, & bourhis, 1994), refers to ethnic institutions that can support the diversity process, such as the availability of places of worship, shops, recreational opportunities and educational resources for specific ethnic groups (adelman, 1988; galchenko, 2006; malewska-peyre, 1982). perceived ethnic vitality refers in the present study to the availability of services for diverse groups in an organisation, such as availability of and catering for ethnic specific food and freedom to engage in ethnic practices (language usage, clothing and prayers), which are the consequences of support for a multicultural climate, as implemented in diversity policies. a minority that is vital and supportive acts as both springboard from which minority individuals can deal with the mainstream culture, which is seen in the positive effect on relationships and work success, and as a safety net that provides support to deal with negative acculturation experiences, which is performed indirectly via relationships with co-ethnics (jackson, van de vijver, & molokoane, 2013). positive relations between perceived ethnic vitality, social relations, school success, mental health (ait ouarasse, 2004), multiculturalism, tolerance and approach coping style and work success have been confirmed in the research (jackson et al., 2013b). diversity outcomes: employee attitudes and performance in the acculturation literature, outcomes are often grouped under two major types: psychological outcomes and sociocultural outcomes (ward, bochner, & furnham, 2001). the psychological outcomes of acculturation are mainly studied in the stress and coping tradition and refer to mental health and general satisfaction with life in the host milieu. sociocultural adaptation, on the other hand, is studied in the culture learning tradition, and is mainly a matter of successful participation in the host society. in the present study, the focus is on employee attitudes, such as job satisfaction and organisational commitment, as well as subjective experiences of work success as indicators of psychological and sociocultural diversity outcomes, respectively. psychological adaptation was positively correlated with an integration strategy and multicultural ideology, while sociocultural adaptation was positively correlated with an integration strategy (hui et al., 2015). job satisfaction and organisational commitment represent psychological diversity outcome indicators in this contribution. addressing the needs or challenges of a diverse workforce is important for maintaining positive work attitudes in employees, particularly job satisfaction (stoermer et al., 2017), which is one of the central determinants of crucial work-related outcomes, such as organisational commitment, employee performance or turnover (zimmerman, 2008). in their meta-analysis on the effects of perceived organisational support (pos), rhoades and eisenberger (2002) showed the beneficial effects of pos on several employee outcomes, for example, affective commitment, job satisfaction and extra-role performance. perceived organisational support signals to employees that the organisation is taking care of their needs beyond legal requirements. the positive association between multiculturalism and job satisfaction has been confirmed empirically in south africa (jackson et al., 2012). in addition, research has confirmed that women’s minority status in the mining industry places them at greater risk of poorer mental health and job satisfaction than their male colleagues because of their lower social status, less social support and less social integration in the industry (penhaligon, louis, & restubog, 2013; seeman, 1996; skaalvik & skaalvik, 2011; thoits, 2011). the effect of diversity management on employees’ affective commitment can partially be explained by its impact on the inclusiveness of the organisational culture (ashikali & groeneveld, 2015). perceptions of inclusion and fair treatment, which are features of multiculturalism, have been found to predict both organisational commitment and job performance (cho & mor barak, 2008). moreover, models of inclusion treat affective commitment as an outcome of diversity management for all employees because they rest upon the assumption that individuals need to fulfil their need for belongingness and uniqueness. this is, in fact, the goal of diversity training: to select and effectively manage diverse employees by valuing their uniqueness while increasing their sense of belonging to and identifying with the organisation (ashikali & groeneveld, 2015; shore et al., 2011). organisations endorsing a diversity climate should be regarded as serving employees from all ethnicities (mckay et al., 2007). perceived subjective experience of work success is a sociocultural diversity outcome indicator in this study, which refers to the extent employees perceive that they are meeting and exceeding standards, and that they are performing well at work. the concept also refers to the respect that employees earn from co-workers as consequences of being successful at work. work success relates positively with multiculturalism and tolerance (jackson & van de vijver, 2018; jackson et al., 2012, 2013) and negatively with diversity-inhibiting conditions, such as subtle racism, discrimination and segregation demands (jackson & van de vijver, 2018; jackson, van de vijver, & burckard, 2011; jackson et al., 2013a). the aim of the present study was to test the feasibility of a conceptual model of multiculturalism in the workplace. more specifically, the following hypothesis was tested: hypothesis 1: the same mediation model of multiculturalism (with positive associations between positive diversity conditions or antecedents, mediating variables and employee outcomes) holds for the white, black and mixed race groups. group differences in support for multiculturalism in south africa recent national and international surveys of ethnic differences in opposition to such policies suggested an element of group self-interest at play in the policy attitudes (durrheim, 2010; van de vijver, breugelmans, & schalk-soekar, 2008). members of the group who had most to gain from the policies (usually the groups with the least power in society) rated them most favourably, whereas members of the group who had most to lose rated the policies most negatively. it is argued that this type of reasoning does not apply to south africa. white people still remain in a much stronger economic position compared to black people in that they are still the dominant group in the economic sense, being the most affluent group with the highest positions in organisations; therefore, white people are served best by a policy that does not threaten their position. given the poor progress of representation of black people and women in top positions in the organisation, it is argued that extant business practices that still favour white people will not threaten the dominant position of the white group in the south african workplace. it is only through measures of affirmative action (aa) and broad base black economic empowerment (bbbee) policies and other forms of positive discrimination or preference to previous disadvantaged groups (black people, women and the people with disabilities) that the dominant position of the white groups is challenged. it is not surprising that once the beneficiaries and power wielders of the apartheid state, afrikaners in particular, found that their ‘worldview … imploded’ (steyn 2004, p. 143), and that the opposition to these measures of white groups is strong (herman, 2000). this is confirmed in studies showing that, in the aftermath of the racial state’s demise, white communities struggle to come to terms with their ‘new’ minority status (alsheh & elliker 2015), try to maintain white privilege in the face of black power (steyn & foster 2008) or work to ‘rehabilitate an ethnic whiteness in distress’ (blaser & van der westhuizen 2012, p. 385). the reality, however, paints a different picture. as a result of their dominant position in the workplace, white people still experience the recent south african diverse workplace more positive compared to non-white people despite recent legislative changes such as the employment equity act (rsa, 1998) and the use of aa policies that favour non-white people in both private and public institutions (jackson et al., 2011, 2012). this is also supported by the overrepresentation of white people in top management positions in the south africa (department of labour, 2017). africans constituted less than 14.4% of top management in 2016, yet they constitute 78% of the workforce of the country. mixed race constituted less than 4.9% of top management in 2016, yet they constitute 9.8% of the workforce of the country. indians constituted less than 8.9% of top management in 2016, yet they constitute 2.8% of the workforce of the country. white groups constitute 68.5% of top management in 2016, yet they constitute only 9.5% of the workforce (department of labour, 2017). another aim of this study was for ethnic group differences in components of the model. more specifically, given the aforementioned, we tested the following hypothesis: hypothesis 2: white employees score significantly higher in multiculturalism and mainstream tolerance, ethnic vitality, ethnic integration and positive employee attitudes compared to black employees. research methods research approach this research began with a quantitative approach, followed by a cross-sectional survey design whereby a sample was drawn from a population at one point in time, and this sample was used to obtain the research objectives. cross-sectional designs are appropriate where groups of participants, at various stages of development, are studied simultaneously, whereas the survey technique of data collection gathers information from the target population by means of questionnaires (burns & grove, 1993). this design is used to assess interrelationships among variables within the population. survey questionnaires were distributed to employees selected on the basis of convenience sampling in various workplaces in south africa. procedure the economic and management faculty’s ethics committee of north-west university approved the study. these employees were mostly the colleagues and co-workers of network members and acquaintances. in addition, permission was acquired through formal verbal requests to line managers during visits to various workplaces to gather data from employees not acquainted with the researcher filling out the questionnaires. participants completed consent forms. the purpose, anonymity and voluntary nature of the research and its advantages were explained to prospective participants after permission was granted during lunch break briefings. participants were given two weeks to complete the questionnaires, which could be dropped in a sealed box in the hr section that was later collected by the researcher. sampling and participants using convenience sampling, participants from different workplaces in south africa were approached. characteristics of the participants are presented in table 1. the sample (n = 299) consisted mainly of female employees (55.35%) in the age range of 26–33 years (40.67%). approximately one-third (34.56%) were mixed race employees, 33.33% were black employees, 23.55% were white employees, 7.95% were indian and 0.61 indicated other; 30.89% of the employees held a grade 12 or national senior certificate (corresponding to completed secondary school or higher). table 1: participant characteristics. measurements some instruments with well-established psychometric properties used in other cultural contexts were adapted (ait ouarasse & van de vijver, 2004). adaptations involved replacing the original ethnic groups of the scale, dutch and moroccan-dutch, with south african and its ethnic groups, respectively. all diversity scales follow a five-point likert format ranging from strongly agree (1) to strongly disagree (5) and item scores were reversed before the analyses so that higher scores reflect a higher standing on the target construct. mainstream domain instruments perceived multicultural norms: this six-item scale is an adaptation of ait ouarasse and van de vijver (2004). this instrument measures the participant’s multiculturalism values and attitudes on a five-item measurement scale that defines the participant’s experiences of the majority of his or her co-workers’ attitudes, cultural diversity acceptance, racial integration and equality within the workplace. an example item is: ‘i think most of my co-workers from other cultures are most welcoming people’. perceived multicultural practices: this scale is an adaptation of the scale by ait ouarasse and van de vijver (2004) and contains six items that measure the behaviour of actual multiculturalism and the occurrence of multicultural practices among the majority of co-workers within an organisation. an example item is ‘my co-workers generally show respect for other cultures in our organization’. perceived mainstream tolerance: this scale is an eight-item measure adapted from ait ouarasse and van de vijver (2004) and evaluates the participants’ perceptions of the majority of co-workers and their attitudes to ethnic difference within the workplace and their general acceptance of cultural diversity and minority ethnic group activity. a sample items is ‘i think that most of my co-workers accept the fact that we have different cultures’. mediating variables ethnic vitality: ethnic vitality is a six-item scale adapted from ait ouarasse and van de vijver (2004) that measures organisational institutions’ source of support and educational resources for acculturation processes taking place. a sample item is ‘the cafe caters (makes provision) for my cultural food in our organisation’. integration norms at work: this six-item scale (jackson et al., 2012) measures the individual’s own ethnic group’s preference and expectation for integration of their members within the organisation as part of diversity. it expresses wishes from co-ethnics to interact and make contact with members form other ethnic groups. items are phrased as positive statements; a sample item is ‘most members of my cultural group want me to show my cultural values and to respect those of others’. integration orientation: this three-item scale measures the intended responses from employees regarding their attitudes towards integration, which involves adaptation and adoption of the dominant culture while not relinquishing their own. sample items include ‘i prefer social contact and interaction with members of all south african groups irrespective of ethnicity as well as with members of my own ethnic group’. psychological and sociocultural diversity outcomes psychological outcome – the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire (msq): a short form developed by weiss, dawis, england and lofquist (1967) was used in the present study. the msq is a 20-item scale that was used to assess the participants’ intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction with their jobs. sample items include ‘the way my job provides for steady employment’ and ‘the chances for advancement on the job’. psychological outcome – organisational commitment: this eight-item scale was developed for the study to measure an individual’s affective commitment to his or her current workplace. sample items include ‘i am committed to this organization’ and ‘i am proud of this organization’. sociocultural diversity outcome – work success: this 14-item scale was developed by ait quarasse and van de vijver (2004). the scale measures sociocultural outcomes and includes punctuality, status, and recognition at work and task completion. sample items include ‘i always meet deadlines in my work’ and ‘i do my work well enough to be respected by my co-workers’. data analysis we applied multi-group path analysis (using amos version 24) to test for mediation effects of integration in the link between diversity conditions and employee outcomes. the mediation model was based on the reasoning that more distal variables (antecedent) conditions influence more proximal variables (diversity orientation), which, in turn, influence employee attitudes. we conducted a closer examination of the direct and indirect effects to evaluate their relative sizes, using the bootstrap procedure as implemented in the amos programme. moreover, we computed a multi-variate analysis of variance (manova) to examine racial group differences in their experiences of workplace diversity and employee attitudes. cohen’s d values were used to gauge the size of the ethnic differences. results the results of this study are presented in three parts. we firstly examined the psychometric properties of the scales by conducting exploratory factor analyses (efas) and confirmatory factor analyses (cfas) to examine the dimensionality and invariance of the scales and items in the black, mixed race, and white groups using amos and spss software. we also computed internal consistencies. secondly, we tested if our hypothesised multicultural model in the workplace would fit our data for the three groups of employees using multi-group analyses. thirdly, we test group differences between black and white employees in the experiences of antecedents and intervening variables and employee attitudes. psychometric properties the results obtained from efas indicated that all scales used were unifactorial; proportions of explained variance by the first factor obtained in this study were as follows: 43.25%, 47.78% and 43.52% of the variance in perceived multicultural norms for white, black and mixed race employees, respectively; 43.21%, 44.57% and 43.275% in perceived mainstream tolerance for white, black and mixed race employees, respectively; 56.40%, 46.25% and 54.38% in perceived multicultural practices for white, black and mixed race employees, respectively; 56.73%, 64.10% and 53.92% in an individual integration orientation for white, black and mixed race employees, respectively; 31.92%, 35.03% and 44.16% in perceived ethnic vitality at work for white, black and mixed race employees, respectively; 60.71%, 54.73% and 61.28% in perceived ethnic integration demands at work for white, black and mixed race employees, respectively; 39.30%, 31.53% and 36.96% in job satisfaction for white, black and mixed race employees, respectively; 62.44%, 62.44% and 48.45% in organisation commitment for white, black and mixed race employees, respectively; and 43.99%, 36.89% and 39.86% in subjective experiences of work success for white, black and mixed race employees, respectively. next, cronbach’s alpha coefficients and the relationships between the different variables focused on in this study were examined. an inspection of table 2 shows that all the alpha coefficients obtained for the constructs measured, except for multicultural norms (white and mixed race people), ethnic vitality at work (white and black people) and individual integration orientation (white people) were lower than the guideline of 0.70 (nunnally & bernstein, 1994). table 2: descriptive statistics and correlations between multiculturalism and integration characteristics and outcomes. we then conducted invariance analyses to test scalar invariance. we conducted such analyses for each scale separately. the common approach to test for invariance is to employ cfa. however, for some of our longer measures, we did not have a sufficient sample size made to use cfa. we therefore opted for an efa approach followed by differential item functioning analysis using regressions. over the past decade, applied researchers have argued that from a practical perspective, the χ2-difference test represents an excessively stringent test of invariance and particularly in the light of the fact that structural equation modelling models at best are only approximations of reality (maccallum, roznowski & necowitz, 1992). consistent with this perspective, cheung and rensvold (2002) reasoned that it may be more reasonable to base invariance decisions on a difference in cfi (δcfi) rather than on χ2 values. based on a rigorous monte carlo study of several goodness-of-fit indices, cheung and rensvold (2002) proposed that evidence of non-invariance be based on a difference in cfi values larger than 0.01. the model that is taken to be invariant is then the most restrictive model for which the change in cfi value (compared to the previous, less restrictive model) is less than 0.01. we also examined changes in tucker–lewis index (tli) and root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) (the same critical values of 0.01 have been proposed), as well as values of akaike information criterion akaike information criterion (aic) (the best fitting model is the model with the lowest aic value). we tested configural, metric and scalar invariance (the latter addresses item bias or differential item functioning), followed by tests of the invariance of path coefficients (structural weights), error components of the latent variables (structural residuals) and error components of the observed variables (measurement residuals). a test of the multiculturalism model in order to investigate the mediating role of ethnic integration in the relations between multiculturalism and positive employee attitudes at work, structural equation modelling was performed using amos 24; correlations of the components of the model are presented in table 2. in this model (see figure 1), a latent diversity climate variable, labelled multicultural climate that is measured by three positive multiculturalism conditions, namely multicultural norms, multicultural practices and mainstream tolerance, was found to impact on a single latent variable (positive employee attitudes at work) that was measured using three indicators, namely organisational commitment, job satisfaction (psychological outcomes) and work success (sociocultural outcomes) through a latent variable (ethnic integration) that was measured using three indicators, namely ethnic integration norms, ethnic vitality and an individual integration acculturation orientation. the conceptual model used in this study considers antecedent conditions, ethnic intervening variables and positive employee attitudes at work as outcomes of a multiculturalism model. figure 1: a model for multiculturalism at work. the similarities and differences between the white, black, and mixed race ethnic groups were explored by testing the fit of a hierarchy of models with increasing constraints on the number of invariant parameters (see table 3). an inspection of table 3 revealed that the structural residuals model (see figure 1) was the most restrictive model with a good fit: χ2 (115, n = 299) = 156.99, p < 0.01; χ2/df = 1.37 (recommended ≤ 3.00). other indices confirmed the good fit of the model: the tli was 0.94 (recommended ≥ 0.90), comparative fit index (cfi) was 0.94 (recommended ≥ 0.90), aic was 250.99 (the lowest of all aic values) and the rmsea was 0.04 (recommended ≤ 0.06). the results of the structural residuals model are presented in figure 1. in this model, the regression coefficients of the antecedent multicultural conditions and factor loadings to predict employee attitudes at work, through ethnic integration, the latent variable, as a mediating variable, are invariant across black, mixed race and white groups. the path from multicultural climate to ethnic integration was positive and significant. similarly, the path from ethnic integration to employee attitude at work was also positive and significant. this suggests that climate, ethnic integration and output are related in the expected way. employees who experienced a more positive multicultural climate also reported increased ethnic integration and better employee attitudes at work; as can be derived from the large standardised path coefficients, the associations between multicultural climate and ethnic integration and between the latter and outcomes were strong. we can therefore conclude that a multicultural climate is important for ethnic integration and employee attitudes at work. table 3: results of the multi-group structural equation model analysis. mediating effects of ethnic integration the hypothesised model is a mediation model in which multicultural conditions that are markers of a multicultural climate in an organisation influence an ethnic integration, which can be associated with an inclusive, colour-blind orientation, which, in turn, affects employee attitudes at work. there was a full mediation in our model. although we started with this more parsimonious model, there are no theoretical reasons to exclude partial mediation. we performed a closer examination of the direct and indirect effects to evaluate their relative sizes. we computed the significance of mediation effects by using the bootstrap procedure (90% bias-corrected confidence interval (ci) using 200 samples) as implemented in the amos programme. the results of the mediation analysis can be found in table 4. multicultural conditions therefore exert indirect and significant influence on psychological and sociocultural diversity outcomes (job satisfaction and organisational commitment as well as the subjective experience of work success). it can be concluded that ethnic integration fully mediates the path from multiculturalism conditions to psychological and sociocultural diversity outcomes and that multiculturalism conditions show significant indirect associations with our outcomes. table 4: mediation effects of integration (standardised effects). comparisons of ethnic groups an manova was then carried out with ethnicity (three levels: black, mixed race and white) as an independent variable and the mean scores of the scales as dependent variables. the multi-variate effect of ethnicity bordered on significance (wilks’ λ = 0.917, f (18, 576) = 1.422, p = 0.11). the mean scores of the scales per ethnic group are presented in table 5. the only significant univariate effect was found for ethnic integration demands at work (f [2, 296] = 3.643, p = 0.03), ethnic vitality (f [2, 296] = 2.685, p = 0.07), an individual acculturation orientation (f [2, 296] = 3.118, p = 0.05) and subjective experiences of work success (f [2, 296] = 2.842, p = 0.06). white employees experienced higher on multicultural norms and practices as well as tolerance and ethnic vitality at work, and preferred an individual integration acculturation orientation and subjective experiences of work success and more at work compared to black and mixed race employees in this study. it also appears that mixed race employees experience more ethnic integration demands at work compared to white and mixed race employees. table 5: means and standard deviations per scale for the different ethnic groups. the last column presents cohen’s d values, which gauges the size of the ethnic differences. only negligible and small effect sizes were observed. although the impact of social desirability cannot be ruled out, our data suggest that multiculturalism is relatively well supported by both groups, and that the attitudes among employees are conducive for establishing and maintaining good intergroup relations in the workplace. all scale scores were high and well above the mid-point of the scale, which suggests that the multicultural climate, integration orientation and employee attitude were experienced by these employees as favourable and that they were satisfied with what they experience. white employees seemed to experience a slightly more favourable working environment, although the differences were very small and are only significant for ethnic vitality, individual integration acculturation orientation, ethnic integration and subjective experiences of work success. discussion a model of multiculturalism in south african workplace is proposed and tested. the model holds that diversity can be conceptualised as an interrelated set of a multicultural climate (as an antecedent), ethnic integration (as a mediator) and employee attitudes (as outcomes). the model was confirmed in groups of all black, mixed race and white employees. models of multiculturalism have been reported in the literature (jackson et al., 2012). these results concur with recent findings (jackson et al., 2012), suggesting that (in this sample) a perceived multiculturalism climate was related to ethnic integration and positive attitudes at work. employees who experienced more multiculturalism at work also reported higher ethnic integration and better employee attitudes at work. we can therefore conclude that the model of multiculturalism in the workplace is a valid conceptualisation of diversity in the workplace because it was demonstrated that multiculturalism and tolerance matter for ethnic vitality and ethnic integration as well as employee attitudes at work. moreover, it was found that the link between a multicultural climate and outcomes is fully mediated by ethnic integration. the mediating effect of ethnic integration was also supported in a recent empirical study (jackson et al., 2012) that tested a simplified version of the current model as well as a dual process model of diversity (jackson et al., 2013b, jackson & van de vijver, 2018). this simplified model (jackson et al., 2012) does include all the current multicultural climate antecedents (multicultural norms or practices and tolerance) but did not include ethnic vitality as part of ethnic integration latent factor as mediator and include ill health (as opposed to job satisfaction and organisation commitment in the current contribution) as a psychological acculturation outcome. from a conceptual perspective, this model implies that the more distal variable of a multicultural climate influences employee attitudes through a set of more proximal integration attitudes and practices. from a theoretical perspective, it is therefore argued that the current model emphasises the inclusion of ethnic vitality as an additional element to the ethnic integration mediating latent factor. lastly, it was hypothesised that significant differences would be observed between black, mixed race and white ethnic groups in south africa, employed in the south african workplace, in actual experiences of multiculturalism and mainstream tolerance, ethnic vitality, ethnic integration and positive employee attitudes. the findings suggest that white employees experienced higher on multicultural norms and practices as well as tolerance and ethnic vitality at work, and preferred an individual integration acculturation orientation and subjective experiences of work success and more at work compared to black and mixed race employees in this study. this finding could be because of the fact that white employees still occupy the dominant position in the economic sphere of the south african society, especially in the private sector as confirmed by the most recent employment equity report issued by the south african department of labour (department of labour, 2017). only negligible differences to small effect sizes were observed. therefore, even though white employees tended to show somewhat higher scores on the antecedent, mediating and outcome variables, the group differences are small. all dimension scores are high and well above the mid-point of the scale, which suggests that the multicultural climate, ethnic integration orientations and employee attitudes that are experienced by these employees are favourable. practically speaking, it means that the employees are satisfied with what they experience. the results concur with previous findings that suggest that white employees seem to experience a slightly more favourable multicultural environment (jackson et al., 2012). in addition, the organisational literature suggests that minorities encounter less favourable racial conditions in firms than their white counterparts (foley, kidder, & powell, 2002; greenhaus, parasuraman, & wormley, 1990). minorities also reported such concerns to be of greater relative importance (kossek & zonia, 1993; mor barak, cherin, & berkman, 1998). in turn, these negative racial conditions have been shown to undermine minorities’ organisational attitudes (chrobot-mason, 2003; foley et al., 2002). there is some literature, originating from western countries, about the question of whether diverse teams are more productive or less productive than monocultural teams (e.g. bowers, pharmer, & salas, 2000; van knippenberg, de dreu, & homan, 2004; webber & donahue, 2001). this question is of theoretical interest; yet, its practical interest for multicultural countries like south africa is limited as the cultural composition of work teams can usually not be manipulated and more and more teams are multicultural. in such countries, it has more practical relevance to study the factors that can enhance well-being and productivity of employees in such organisations. in addition, the employment equity act (rsa, 1998) recommends that designated employer must collect information and conduct an analysis, as prescribed, of its employment policies, practices, procedures and the working environment, in order to identify employment barriers that adversely affect people from designated groups. the proposed model and instrument could useful for such workplace analysis or diversity audits. this study successfully demonstrated that both a multicultural climate (and conditions conducive for such a climate) and an inclusive orientation of employees have a substantial impact on employee attitudes. it may be noted that various aspects of this model (both in multicultural climate and in ethnic integration) can be influenced by diversity policies. this submission highlights the importance of treating all with respect and dignity in the workplace and provides a tool for hr, as the custodian of human right in the workplace, to ‘frequently’ assess especially intercultural interaction in the workplace. limitations the current study has some limitations. the cross-sectional nature of the data used does not allow for rigorous testing of causal links between the variables at hand; therefore, the dynamic nature of the relationships between multiculturalism, ethnic integration and employee attitudes cannot be uncovered with total accuracy. however, the findings constitute a useful basis for considering further research into factors that influence employees’ attitudes. one also needs to consider that the use of a self-report method may be a limitation of the study. we cannot be certain that self-report measures provide an accurate picture of employees’ actual responses to multiculturalism, ethnic integration and employee attitudes. future empirical work could consider the role of demographic variables such as age, gender, socio-economic status with regard to the support for multiculturalism, ethnic integration and its impact on employee attitudes in the workplace. future studies should also consider using longitudinal designs and recruiting samples from various other state departments in the public sectors as well as various organisations from various sectors in the private sector and not for profit organisations, using mixed methods and according to adkoli (2017, p. 38) multiple methods, tools and techniques, such as grounded theory (to develop a theoretical model based on actual ground realities), phenomenology (to understand a phenomenon from participants’ perception), ethnography (to gain insights in the organisation culture), case studies (to develop in-depth understanding of a case) and narratives (to capture long personal experience). it is advised that researchers interact with the participant in a ‘naturalistic setting’ as opposed to an artificial ‘lab setting’ and helps in describing and exploring an issue to ‘contextualisation’ rather than ‘generalisation’. a method of ‘triangulation’ should be used for validating the results. this will facilitate the use of the correct context-specific interventions. recommendations while diversity management is an approach that revolves around employees, the human resource management (hrm) function is the custodian of the people management processes. the hrm toolkits addressing inequality in recruitment, appraisal, advancement and reward can enhance equal employment opportunity, improve inclusiveness and enhance creativity in a diverse workforce. it is therefore widely recognised by researchers that effective diversity management can be achieved through using appropriate hrm strategies (shen, chanda, d’netto, & monga, (2009). at a theoretical level, diversity research has been criticised for lacking scientific precision, theoretical analysis, historical specificity, empirical grounding and for being seriously under-researched (litvin 1997; nkomo & cox 1996; sanchez & brock 1996). in this regard, gedro and mizzi (2014, p. 452) suggest critically exploring human resource development through a queer theory lens. firstly, this perspective would mean that the structures of organisations must questioned in ways that are very real and very practical to all workers. this suggestion could manifest in human resources development (hrd) practices in the following ways: through the selection, which includes the opportunities for preparation, or ‘grooming’ such as stretch assignments and expatriate assignments (gedro, 2010) for promotional opportunities; through the design of mentoring and career development programmes; through the design of workplace learning initiatives; through organisational change and development endeavours and through hr policies. examining and then changing hrd practices to reduce or even eliminate inherent biases against minorities have the potential to shift an organisational culture from one of heteromasculine dominance to one that operates on principles of inclusion, respect and awareness of differences. career development programmes that take into account the tapestry, the complexity and the fluidity of identity are one way of operationalising queer and feminist theoretical principles. to be more specific, career development programmes that resist stereotyping people based upon their gender or gender expression or their (perceived) sexual orientation or rather that expand the range of possibilities present a helpful type of resistance to fixed, stable and oppressive categories of identity. at a practical level, it is recommended that organisations make use of cross-cultural training as intervention, which aims to develop the awareness, knowledge and skills needed to interact appropriately and effectively with culturally diverse customers and co-workers, which is an important element in the development of cultural competence (bean, 2006). the kraiger, ford and salas’s (1993) framework of training evaluation identified three learning outcomes: affective-based, cognitive-based and skill-based outcomes. kraiger et al. (1993) defined affective-based outcomes as measures of internal states that drive perception and behaviour. affective-based outcomes include attitudes, self-efficacy and motivation in general; and cognitive-based outcomes include verbal knowledge, knowledge organisation and cognitive strategies. skill-based outcomes include changes in behaviour (kraiger et al., 1993). kulik and roberson (2008) have suggested that there are stronger effects for diversity training focused on dissemination (cognitive-based) and skills training than on awareness (affective-based). however, kalinoski et al. (2013) observed in their meta-analysis of 65 studies for diversity training weaker effects on affective-based outcomes, compared with effects observed on cognitive-based and skill-based outcomes. forming teams with members from different cultures should be encouraged (contact hypothesis) and the inconsistent application policies should be discouraged as it could create impressions and perceptions of discrimination. the findings seem to suggest that multiculturalism works and it even economically pays off by creating a climate that creates a sense of subjective experience of work success. lastly, it is suggested that organisations ensure that they have diversity management policies in place that can consistently be applied in situations where employees show disrespect for others’ cultural practices or undermine multicultural practices in the workplace. conclusion the future success of south africa’s unique democracy depends on the development of harmonious race relations. workplaces in south africa represent microcosms of the society. the development of models and frameworks that could assist to analysis race relations at work should be encouraged. the use of such models that enhance harmonious race relations at work could go a long way in understanding race-related dynamics in the broader society. understanding the factors underlying interracial attitudes is consequently important (gordon, 2017). this model provides a basis for emphasising the importance of the role of multicultural norms, conventions and practices (culture) in shaping positive inter cultural orientations and employee attitudes at work. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests with regard to the writing of this article. authors’ contributions l.t.b.j. was responsible for data collection, literature review, statistical analyses, article review and submission. f.j.r.v.d.v. was responsible for review and advice on matters relating to the literature, statistical analyses and final article. reference adelman, m. b. (1988). cross-cultural adjustment: a theoretical perspective on social support. international journal of intercultural relations, 12, 183–205. https://doi.org/10.1016/0147-1767(88)90015-6 adkoli, b. v. (2017). educational research in health sciences. journal of education technology in health sciences, 4(2), 38–41. https://doi.org/10.18231/2393-8005.2017.0011 ait ouarasse, o., 2004, what immigration does to young people: the psychological acculturation of moroccans in the netherlands. unpublished doctoral dissertation, tilburg university, tilburg, the netherlands. ait ouarasse, o., & van de vijver, f. j. r. (2004). structure and function of the perceived acculturation context of young moroccans in the netherlands. international journal of psychology, 39, 190–204. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207590344000367 alsheh, y., & elliker, f. (2015). the art of becoming a minority: afrikaner re-politicisation and afrikaans political ethnicity. african studies, 74(3), 429–448. https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2015.1011368 arends-tóth, j. v., & van de vijver, f. j. r. (2006). issues in conceptualization and assessment of acculturation. in m. h. bornstein & l. r. cote (eds.), acculturation and parent-child relationships: measurement and development (pp. 33–62). mahwah, nj: erlbaum. ashikali, t., & groeneveld, s. (2015). diversity management in public organizations and its effect on employees’ affective commitment. review of public personnel administration, 35(2), 146–168, https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x13511088 badgett, m. v. l. (1996). employment and sexual orientation: disclosure and discrimination in the workplace. journal of gay & lesbian social services, 4, 29–52. https://doi.org/10.1300/j041v04n04_03 barry, b. (2001). culture and equality: an egalitarian critique of multiculturalism. cambridge: polity. baumeister, r. f., & leary, m. r. (1995). the need to belong: desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. psychological bulletin, 117, 497–529. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497 bean, r. (2006). the effectiveness of cross-cultural training in the australian context. report prepared for the department of immigration and multicultural affairs on behalf of the joint commonwealth, state and territory research advisory committee. canberra, australia: cultural diversity services. berry, j. w. (1994). multicultural policy in canada: a social psychological analysis. canadian journal of behavioural sciences, 16, 353–370. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0080859 berry, j. w. (1997). immigration, acculturation, and adaptation. applied psychology: an international review, 46, 5–68. https://doi.org/10.1080/026999497378467 berry, j. w. (2003). conceptual approaches to acculturation. in k. chun, p. balls-organista, & g. martin (eds.), acculturation: advances in theory, measurement, and applied research (pp. 17–37). washington dc: american psychological association press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/10472-004 berry, j. w. (2006). mutual attitudes among immigrants and ethnocultural groups in canada. international journal of intercultural relations, 30, 719–734. https://doi.org/10.1080/01973530903540067 berry, j. w. (2001). a psychology of immigration. journal of social issues, 57(3), 615–631. berry, j. w. (2005). acculturation: living successfully in two cultures. international journal of intercultural relations, 29(6), 697–712. berry, j. w. (2008). globalisation and acculturation. international journal of intercultural relations, 32(4), 328–336. berry, j. w. (2011). integration and multiculturalism: ways towards social solidarity. papers on social representations, 20(1), 2.1–2.21. berry, j. w. (2013). achieving a global psychology. canadian psychology/psychologie canadienne, 54(1), 55. berry, j. w., & kalin, r. (1995). multicultural and ethnic attitudes in canada: an overview of the 1991 national survey. canadian journal of behavioural science/revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, 27(3), 301 berry, j. w., poortinga, y. h., breugelmans, s. m., chasiotis, a., & sam, d. l. (2011). cross-cultural psychology: research and applications. new york: cambridge university press blaser, t. m., & van der westhuizen, c. (2012). introduction: the paradox of post-apartheid ‘afrikaner’ identity: deployments of ethnicity and neo-liberalism. african studies 71(3), 380–390. https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2012.740882 booysen, l. a. e., & nkomo, s. m. (2010). gender role stereotypes and requisite management characteristics: the case of south africa. gender in management: an international journal, 25(4), 285–300. https://doi.org/10.1108/17542411011048164 bourhis, r. y., moïse, l. c., perreault, s., & senécal, s. (1997). toward an interactive acculturation model: a social psychological approach. international journal of psychology, 32, 369–386. https://doi.org/10.1080/002075997400629 bowers, c. a., pharmer, j. a., & salas, e. (2000). when member homogeneity is needed in work teams. a meta-analysis. small group research, 31, 305–327. https://doi.org/10.1177/104649640003100303 burns, n., & grove, s. k. (1993). the practice of nursing research, conduct, critique, and utilisation. (2nd edn.). oxford: w.b. saunders. cashmore, e. (2003). sport psychology: the key concepts (2nd edn.). london, new york: routledge taylor & francis. cheung, g. w., & rensvold, r. b. (2002). evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. structural equation modeling, 9, 233–255. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328007sem0902_5 cho, s., & mor barak, m. e. (2008). understanding of diversity and inclusion in a perceived homogeneous culture: a study of organizational commitment and job performance among korean employees. administration in social work, 32(4), 100–126. https://doi.org/10.1080/03643100802293865 choi, s., & rainey, h. g. (2010). managing diversity in us federal agencies: effects of diversity and diversity management on employee perceptions of organizational performance. public administration review, 70(1), 109–121. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2009.02115.x chrobot-mason, d. l. (2003). keeping the promise: psychological contract violations for minority employees. journal of managerial psychology, 18, 22–45. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940310459574 corneo, g., & olivier, j. (2009). a theory of tolerance. journal of public economics, 93(5), 691–702. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2009.02.005 cox, t., jr. (1993). cultural diversity in organizations: theory, research, and practice. san francisco, ca: berrett-koehler. cox, t., & blake, s. (1991). managing cultural diversity: implications for organizational competitiveness. academy of management executive, 5(3), 45–56. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.1991.4274465 drydakis, n., macdonald, p., chiotis, v., & somers, l. (2018). age discrimination in the uk labour market. does race moderate ageism? an experimental investigation. applied economics letters, 25(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/1080/13504851.2017.1290763 durrheim, k. (2010). attitudes towards racial redress in south africa. in roberts, b., kivilu, m. wa, & davids y. d. (eds.), south african social attitudes: 2nd report (pp. 31–42). cape town, south africa: hsrc press. durrheim, k., & talbot, k. (2012). the princeton trilogy revisited: how have racial stereotypes changed in south africa? south african journal of psychology, 42(4), 476–491. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124631204200403 earley, c. p., & mosakowski, e. (2000). creating hybrid team cultures: an empirical test of transnational team functioning. academy of management journal, 43, 26–49. fernandez, j. p. (1991). managing a diverse workforce. lexington, ma: lexington books. florida, r. (2003). cities and the creative class. city & community, 2(3), 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6040.00034 foley, s., kidder, d. l., & powell, g. n. (2002). the perceived glass ceiling and justice perceptions: an investigation of hispanic law associates. journal of management, 28, 471–496. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630202800401 franken, s. (2015). personal: diversity management. wiesbaden, germany: springer gabler. frederickson, g. m. (1997). models of american ethnic relations: a historical perspective. in d. a. prentice & d. t. miller (eds.). cultural divides: understanding and overcoming group conflict (pp. 23–34). new york: russell sage foundation. galchenko, i. (2006). acculturation of russian immigrants and emigrants. unpublished doctoral dissertation, tilburg university. veenendaal, the netherlands: universal press. gedro, j. (2010). the lavender ceiling atop the global closet: human resource development and lesbian expatriates. human resource development review, 9(4), 385–404. gedro, j., & mizzi, r. c. (2014). feminist theory and queer theory: implications for hrd research and practice. advances in developing human resources, 16 (4), 445–456. gibson, j. l. (2006). overcoming apartheid: can truth reconcile a divided nation? the annals of the american academy of political and social science, 603(1), 82–110. goodhart, d. (2013). the british dream: successes and failures of post-war immigration. london: atlantic books. gordon, s. l. (2017). understanding semantic differential measures in modern south africa: attitudes of black africans towards white south africans. south african journal of psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246317725921 greenhaus, j. h., parasuraman, s., & wormley, w. m. (1990). effects of race on organizational experiences, job performance evaluations, and career outcomes. academy of management journal, 33, 64–86. https://doi.org/10.2307/256352 gustafsson, a., & bowen, d. e. (2017). the curious case of interdisciplinary research deficiency: cause or symptom of what truly ails us?. journal of business research, 79, 212–218. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.05.006 harter, j. k., schmidt, f. l., & hayes, t. l. (2002). business–unit–level relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: a meta–analysis. journal of applied psychology, 87, 268–279. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.2.268 harwood, j., giles, h., & bourhis, r. y. (1994). the genesis of vitality theory: historical patterns and discoursal dimensions. international journal of the sociology of language, 108, 167–206. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl.1994.108.167 herman, d. (2000). the counter side of affirmative action. pretoria, south africa: jotha. hofmeyr, j. h. (2006, november). report of the sixth round of the sa reconciliation barometer survey. wynberg, south africa: institute for justice and reconciliation. howarth, c., & andeouli, e. (in press). has multiculturalism failed? the importance of lay knowledge and everyday practice. london, england: the london school of economics and political science publications. retrieved from http://centremcd.uqam.ca/upload/files/publications/veille/has%20multiculturalism%20failed.pdf hui, b. p. h., chen, s. x., leung, c. m., & berry, j. w. (2015). facilitating adaptation and intercultural contact: the role of integration and multicultural ideology in dominant and non-dominant groups. international journal of intercultural relations, 45, 70–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2015.01.002 institute for african culture and international understanding (iaciu) (2014). culture and economic security in africa: remodeling the options, vol. 3. abeokuta, nigeria: olusegun obasanjo presidential library. jackson, l. t., & van de vijver, f. j. (2018). confirming the structure of the dual process model of diversity amongst public sector south african employees. journal of psychology in africa, 28(3), 182–191. jackson, l. t. b., van de vijver, a. j. r., & ali, s. (2012). positive acculturation conditions and well-being in a mine in the north-west province. south african journal of industrial psychology, 38(1), 38–48. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v38i1.997 jackson, l. t. b., van de vijver, a. j. r., & burckard, a. (2011). adverse acculturation conditions and well-being of mine employees in the north-west province. journal of psychology in africa, 21, 385–396. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2011.10820472 jackson, l. t. b., van de vijver, f. j. r., & biela, r. (2013a). coping with diversity in dormitories in a historically white hei in south africa. south african journal of higher education, 27(3), 607–626. jackson, l. t., van de vijver, f. j., & molokoane, d. h. (2013b). a dual-process model of diversity outcomes: the case south african police service in the pretoria area. sa journal of human resource management, 11(1), 13. jaga, a., arabandi, b., bagraim, j., & mdlongwa, s. (2017). doing the ‘gender dance’: black women professionals negotiating gender, race, work and family in post-apartheid south africa. community, work & family, 31(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2017.1311840 james, e. h., brief, a. p., dietz, j., & cohen, r. r. (2001). prejudice matters: understanding the reactions of whites to affirmative action programs targeted to benefit blacks. journal of applied psychology, 86(6), 1120. johnston, e. r. (2015). south african clinical psychology’s response to cultural diversity, globalisation and multiculturalism: a review. south african journal of psychology, 45(3), 374–385. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246315575648 joubert, y. t. (2017). workplace diversity in south africa: its qualities and management. journal of psychology in africa, 27, 367–371. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2017.1347760 jovchelovitch, s. (2007). knowledge in context: representations, community and culture. new york: routledge. kalinoski, z. t., steele johnson, d., peyton, e. j., leas, k. a., steinke, j., & bowling, n. a. (2013). a meta analytic evaluation of diversity training outcomes. journal of organizational behavior, 34(8), 1076–1104. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1839 khoza, r. (1993). the need for an african approach to management. randburg, south africa: knowledge resources. kossek, e. e., & zonia, s. c. (1993). assessing diversity climate: a field study of reactions to employer efforts to promote diversity. journal of organizational behavior, 14, 61–81. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030140107 kraiger, k., ford, j. k., & salas, e. (1993). application of cognitive, skill-based, and affective theories of learning outcomes to new methods of training evaluation. journal of applied psychology, 78, 311–328. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.2.311 kukathas, c. (2003). the liberal archipelago. a theory of diversity and freedom. oxford: oxford university press. kulik, c. t., & roberson, l. (2008). diversity initiative effectiveness: what organizations can (and cannot) expect from diversity recruitment, diversity training, and formal mentoring programs. in a. p. brief (ed.). diversity at work (pp. 265–317). cambridge: cambridge university press. litvin, d. r. (1997). the discourse of diversity: from biology to management. organization, 4(2), 187–209. maccallum, r. c., roznowski, m., & necowitz, l. b. (1992). model modifications in covariance structure analysis: the problem of capitalization on chance. psychological bulletin, 111(3), 490. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.111.3.490 malewska-peyre, h. (1982). l’ experience du racisme et de la xenophobie chez jeunes immigres [the experience of racism and xenophobia among young immigrants]. in h. malewska-peyre (ed.), crise d’identite et deviance chez jeunes immigres [identity crisis and deviance among young immigrants] (pp. 53–73). paris: la documentation francaise. mason, a. (2018). the critique of multiculturalism in britain: integration, separation and shared identification. critical review of international social and political philosophy, 21(1), 22–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698230.2017.1398444 mazibuko, j. v., & govender, k. k. (2017). exploring workplace diversity and organisational effectiveness: a south african exploratory case study. sa journal of human resource management, 15, 10. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v15i0.865 mckay, p. f., avery, d. r., tonidandel, s., morris, m. a., hernandez, m., & hebl, m. r. (2007). racial differences in employee retention: are diversity climate perceptions the key? personnel psychology, 60, 35–62. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2007.00064.x moloto, g. r. b., brink, l., & nel, j. a. (2014). an exploration of stereotype perceptions amongst support staff within a south african higher education institution. south african journal of human resource management, 12(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.573 mor barak, m. e., cherin, d. a., & berkman, s. (1998). organizational and personal dimensions in diversity climate: ethnic and gender differences in employee perceptions. journal of applied behavioral science, 34, 82–104. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886398341006 morrison, a. m., & von glinow, m. a. (1990). women and minorities in management. american psychologist, 45, 200–208. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.45.2.200 moscovici, s. (1973). foreword. in c. herzlich (ed.), health and illness: a social psychological analysis (pp. ix–xiv). london: academic press [for] the european association of experimental social psychology. moscovici, s. (2000). the phenomenon of social representations. in g. duveen (ed.), social representations: explorations in social psychology (pp. 1–17). cambridge: polity press. nishii, l. h. (2013). the benefits of climate for inclusion for gender-diverse groups. academy of management journal, 56, 1754–1774. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2009.0823 nkomo, s., & cox jr, t. (1996). diverse identities in organizations. in s. clegg, c. hardy, & w. nord (eds.), handbook of organization studies. (pp. 338–356). london: sage. nunnally, j. c., & bernstein, i. h. (1994). psychometric theory (3rd edn.). new york: mcgraw-hill. ojukwu, c., & oni, e. o. (2017). multiculturalism, racialism and the dilemma of the african-american in the twenty-first century. affrika journal of politics, economics and society, 7(1), 111–126. okin, s. (1999). is multiculturalism bad for women? in j. cohen, m. howard & m. nussbaum (eds.), is multiculturalism bad for women? (pp. 8–24). princeton, nj: princeton university press. olanrewaju, i. p., loromeke, r. e., & adekoye, r. a. (2017). multiculturalism, value differences and cross-cultural conflict in nigeria: surgery on a centenarian. journal of african union studies, 6(1), 39–62. o’leary, v. e., & ickovics, j. r. (1992). cracking the glass ceiling: overcoming isolation and discrimination. in u. sekeran & f. leong (eds.), womanpower: managing in times of demographic turbulence (pp. 7–30). beverly hills, ca: sage. penhaligon, n. l., louis, w. r., & restubog, s. l. d. (2013). feeling left out? the mediating role of perceived rejection on workgroup mistreatment and affective, behavioral, and organizational outcomes and the moderating role of organizational norms. journal of applied social psychology, 43, 480–497. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2013.01026.x pham, t. b., & harris, r. j. (2001). acculturation strategies among vietnamese-americans. international journal of intercultural relations, 25, 279–300. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0147-1767(01)00004-9 plaut, v. c., sanchez-burks, j., buffardi, l., & stevens, f. g. (2007). what about me? understanding non-minority aversion to diversity initiatives in the workplace. unpublished manuscript, university of georgia. porter, l. w., steers, r. m., mowday, r. t., & boulian, p. v. (1974). organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover among psychiatric technicians. journal of applied psychology, 59, 603–609. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0037335 ramadan, t. (2010). the quest for meaning: developing a philosophy of pluralism. london: penguin group. ramakrishna, d. (2013). multiculturalism in america, australia and india. social change, 43(1), 99–110. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049085713475729 rhoades, l., & eisenberger, r. (2002). perceived organizational support: a review of the literature. journal of applied psychology, 87(4), 698. rosado, c. (1996). toward a definition of multiculturalism. retrieved from http://rosado.net/pdf/def_of_multiculturalism.pdf rsa (republic of south africa). (1995). labour relations act, act no. 66 of 1995. retrieved from http://www.info.gov.za/acts/1995/a66-95.pdf rsa (republic of south africa). (1996). constitution of south africa, act no.108 of 1996. retrieved from http://www.info.gov.za/documents/constitution/1996/a108-96.pdf rsa (republic of south africa). (1997a). basic conditions of employment act, act no 75 of 1997. retrieved from http://www.info.gov.za/view/downloadfileaction?id=70820 rsa (republic of south africa). (1997b). employment equity act, act no. 55 of 1998. retrieved from https://www.labour.gov.za/downloads/legislation/acts/employment-equity/act%20-%20employment%20equity.pdf rsa (republic of south africa). 1998. employment equity act, act no. 55 of 1998. retrieved from http://www.labour.gov.za/dol/downloads/legislation/acts/employment-equity/eegazette2015.pdf department of labour (dol) (2017). 18th commission for employment equity annual report 2017–2018. pretoria: government printers. retrieved from http://www.labour.gov.za/dol/documents/annual-reports/commission%20for%20employment%20equity%20report/2017-2018/downloads/documents/annual-reports/employment-equity/2017-2018/18ceereport_amended.pdf sahin, ç. (2011). perceptions of prospective teachers about tolerance education. educational research and reviews, 6, 77–86. sam, d. l. (2006). acculturation and health. in sam, d. l., & berry, j. w. (eds.). (2006). the cambridge handbook of acculturation psychology, (pp. 452–468). cambridge: cambridge university press. sanchez, j. i., & brock, p. (1996). outcomes of perceived discrimination among hispanic employees: is diversity management a luxury or a necessity?. academy of management journal, 39(3), 704–719. seeman, t. e. (1996). social ties and health: the benefits of social integration. annals of epidemiology, 6(5), 442–451. shen, j., chanda, a., d’netto, b., & monga, m. (2009). managing diversity through human resource management: an international perspective and conceptual framework. the international journal of human resource management, 20(2), 235–251. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190802670516 shen, j., chanda, a., d’netto, b., & monga, m. (2015). managing diversity through human resource management: an international perspective and conceptual framework. the international journal of human resource management, 20, 235–251. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190802670516 shore, l. m., cleveland, j. n., & sanchez, d. (2018). inclusive workplaces: a review and model. human resource management review, 28(2), 176–189. shore, l. m., randel, a. e., chung, b. g., dean, m. a., holcombe ehrhart, k., singh, g., (2011). inclusion and diversity in work groups: a review and model for future research. journal of manage, 37(4), 1262–1289. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310385943 skaalvik, e. m., & skaalvik, s. (2011). teacher job satisfaction and motivation to leave the teaching profession: relations with school context, feeling of belonging, and emotional exhaustion. teaching and teacher education, 27, 1029–1038. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2011.04.001 steyn, m. (2004). rehabilitating a whiteness disgraced: afrikaner white talk in post-apartheid south africa. communication quarterly, 52(2), 143–169. https://doi.org/10.1080/01463370409370187 steyn, m., & foster, d. (2008). repertoires for talking white: resistant whiteness in post-apartheid south africa. ethnic and racial studies, 31(1), 25–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870701538851 stoermer, s., bader, a. k., & froese, f. j. (2016). culture matters: the influence of national culture on inclusion climate. cross cultural & strategic management, 23, 287–305. https://doi.org/10.1108/ccsm-11-2014-0135 stoermer, s., hitotsuyanagi-hansel, a., & froese, f. j. (2017). racial harassment and job satisfaction in south africa: the moderating effects of career orientations and managerial rank. the international journal of human resource management, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1278254 sue, d. w., & capodilupo, c. (2008). racial, gender, and sexual orientation microaggressions: implications for counseling and psychotherapy. in d. w. sue & d. sue (eds.), counseling the culturally diverse: theory and practice (pp. 105–130). hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons. thoits, p. a. (2011). mechanisms linking social ties and support to physical and mental health. journal of health and social behavior, 52, 145–161. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022146510395592 thomas, d., & ely, r. e. (1996). making differences matter: a new paradigm for managing diversity. harvard business review, 74, 79–90. trivedi, p. (2008). respecting diversity through acknowledging, valuing and using diversity and challenging inequalities. chichester: wiley online library. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470699300.ch4 tropp, l. r., hawi, d. r., o’brien, t. c., gheorghiu, m., zetes, a., & butz, d. a. (2017). intergroup contact and the potential for post-conflict reconciliation: studies in northern ireland and south africa. peace and conflict: journal of peace psychology, 23(3), 239–249. https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000236 van de vijver f. j. r., breugelmans, s. m., & schalk-soekar, s. r. g. (2008). multiculturalism: construct validity and stability. international journal of intercultural relations, 32, 93–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2007.11.001 van der noll, j., poppe, e., & verkuyten, m. (2010). political tolerance and prejudice: differential reactions toward muslims in the netherlands. basic and applied social psychology, 32, 46–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/01973530903540067 van knippenberg, d., de dreu, c. k. w., & homan, a. c. (2004). work group diversity and group performance: an integrative model and research agenda. journal of applied psychology, 89, 1008–1022. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.6.1008 verkuyten, m. (2005). ethnic group identification and group evaluation among minority and majority groups: testing the multiculturalism hypothesis. journal of personality and social psychology, 88, 121–138. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.88.1.121 wagner, w., & hayes, n. (2005). everyday discourse and common sense: the theory of social representations. new york: palgrave macmillan. ward, c., bochner, s., & furnham, a. (2001). the psychology of culture shock (2nd edn.). philadelphia, pa: routledge. webber, s. s., & donahue, l. m. (2001). impact of highly and less job-related diversity on work group cohesion and performance: a meta-analysis. journal of management, 27, 141–162. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630102700202 weiss, d. j., dawis, r. v., england, g. w., & lofquist, l. h. (1967). manual for the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire. minneapolis, mn: university of minnesota. west, e. (2013). the diversity illusion: what we got wrong about immigration and how to set it right. london: gibson square books. wooten, l. p., & james, e. h. (2008). linking crisis management and leadership competencies: the role of human resource development. advances in developing human resources, 10(3), 352–379. zagefka, h., & brown, r. (2002). the relationship between acculturation strategies, relative fit and intergroup relations: immigrant-majority relations in germany. european journal of social psychology, 32, 171–188. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.73 zimmerman, b. j. (2008). investigating self-regulation and motivation: historical background, methodological developments, and future prospects. american educational research journal, 45(1), 166–183. abstract introduction literature review research design results ethical considerations discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) pule mphahlele workwell research unit for economic and management sciences, north-west university, south africa crizelle els workwell research unit for economic and management sciences, north-west university, south africa leon t. de beer workwell research unit for economic and management sciences, north-west university, south africa karina mostert workwell research unit for economic and management sciences, north-west university, south africa citation mphahlele, p., els, c., de beer, l.t., & mostert, k. (2018). investigating strengths and deficits to increase work engagement: a longitudinal study in the mining industry. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a900. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.900 original research investigating strengths and deficits to increase work engagement: a longitudinal study in the mining industry pule mphahlele, crizelle els, leon t. de beer, karina mostert received: 14 dec. 2016; accepted: 06 oct. 2017; published: 27 feb. 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the motivational process of the job demands-resources (jd-r) model indicates that job resources are the main predictors of work engagement. previous research has found that the two job resources perceived organisational support (pos) for strengths use and pos for deficit correction are also positively related to work engagement. however, the causal relationships between these variables have not been investigated longitudinally. research purpose: to determine if pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction are significant predictors of work engagement over time. motivation for the study: in the literature, empirical evidence on the longitudinal relationships between work engagement and specific job resources, namely pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction, is limited. research design, approach and method: a longitudinal design was employed in this study. the first wave elicited a total of 376 responses, while the second wave had a total sample size of 79. a web-based survey was used to measure the constructs and to gather data at both points in time. structural equation modelling was used to investigate the hypotheses. main findings: the results indicated that both pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction are positively related to work engagement in the short term. however, only pos for deficit correction significantly predicted work engagement over time. practical and managerial implications: the results provide valuable insights to organisations by providing knowledge regarding which approach influences work engagement levels of their employees in the short and long term. contribution or value-add: the study contributes to the limited research on what job resources predict work engagement over time. introduction it is evident that the mining industry is facing a challenging crisis, globally as well as in south africa. to gain investor confidence, organisations in the industry have to remain competitive and maximise the value of existing assets (jamasmie, 2015). this is a tough challenge, considering the unavoidable necessity to respond to the drop in commodity prices, rising production costs and volatile working environments (deloitte, 2016; jamasmie, 2015; kpmg, 2016; pwc, 2014). as part of the response to the above-mentioned challenges, one of the assets on which organisations can maximise value is their employees, who can be trained and developed for optimal functioning (salas, tannenbaum, kraiger & smith-jentsch, 2012). this strategy to achieve a competitive advantage through employees has been well researched and proven to be effective by numerous authors over the years (barney, 1991; de pablos & lytras, 2008; jassim & jaber, 1998; wright, mcmaham & mcwilliams, 1994). in the past, studies on the concept of training and developing employees have been centred on the notion of improving or overcoming weaknesses or deficiencies (goaverts, kyndt, dochy & baert, 2011; linley & harrington, 2006). practically, this has translated to employee shortcomings being identified and subsequently addressed through development initiatives. according to noe (2010), the deficit approach has been well entrenched in various organisations for several decades. in addition, some organisations utilise the development approach to stay abreast of the changing world of work by continually encouraging employee learning attainment and transference to ensure sustainable success and a competitive advantage (barney, 2002; bassi, ludwig, mcmurrer & van buren, 2000; noe, 2010). furthermore, numerous other studies on the deficit approach have provided scientific evidence of the positive outcomes from an organisational perspective. salas et al. (2012) have found that higher levels of work engagement can be achieved when organisations support a deficit improvement approach. similarly, benson (2006) and tansky and cohen (2001) have discovered that organisational commitment is obtained through following this approach. other outcomes of a deficit correction approach include higher job satisfaction and lower turnover intention (lee & bruvold, 2003), as well as increased performance (abdullah, ahsan & alam, 2009, anguinis & kraiger, 2009). the benefits resulting from the deficit improvement approach do however not escape criticism. kretzmann and mcknight (1993) have criticised that, as an intervention, it is reactive, as the problem would already be in existence. this has led to the study of more proactive approaches that focus on building what is already going right within organisations. this shift in paradigm occurred with the emergence of the positive psychology movement, where the focus is on what assists people to flourish, excel, experience flow and function optimally, as opposed to mainly focusing on improving their weaknesses (linley, joseph, harrington & wood, 2006). later on, the positive psychology paradigm was supported by the study on strengths, made prominent by marcus buckingham, which purports that people grow most in their areas of strengths (buckingham & clifton, 2001). this movement fuelled various other research studies on the application and use of strengths within the workplace and, subsequently, positive organisational outcomes have been attributed to the strengths approach. various studies have shown that work engagement is one of the positive outcomes of the use of strengths (botha & mostert, 2014; harter, schidt & hayes, 2002; harzer & ruch, 2012, 2013; keenan & mostert, 2013; linley & harrington, 2006; stander, mostert & de beer, 2014; van woerkom, oerlemans & bakker, 2015). in addition, clifton and harter (2003) have indicated that productivity increases for employees who use their strengths. organisational commitment was also found to be linked with the use of strengths within the organisation (biswas-diener, kashdan & minhas, 2011). it is clear that there are positive organisational outcomes associated with both the deficit and strengths-based approaches. it therefore seems important to investigate the effect of both these approaches, not only one or the other, on important organisational outcomes. indeed, recent studies investigating the contextual dependency of both approaches have emerged (rust, diessner & reade, 2009; van woerkom et al., 2016). more specifically, van woerkom et al. (2016) reason that it is important for an organisation to be supportive of employees to use their strengths and improve or overcome their weaknesses. these authors argue that positive organisational outcomes are a result of employees who perceive their organisations to be supportive of them using their strengths (perceived organisational support [pos] for strengths use) and improving their deficits (pos for deficit correction) (van woerkom et al., 2016). drawing on the arguments by van woerkom et al. (2016), the question arises as to what extent pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction contribute to employee outcomes, specifically work engagement. work engagement has been linked to bottom-line outcomes (bakker, albrecht & leiter, 2011; george, 2010), is fundamentally a motivational concept and has been proven to have a positive effect on employee commitment and motivation (sonnentag, 2011). in addition, researchers have indicated that there are organisations that leverage on employees with high levels of work engagement to create a competitive advantage (christian, garza & slaughter, 2011; macey & schneider, 2008; rich, lepine & crawford, 2010). ample research on the antecedents of work engagement is available both locally (de braine & roodt, 2011; mostert, cronjé & pienaar, 2006; olivier & rothmann, 2007; rothmann & jordaan, 2006) and internationally (bakker, demerouti & euwena, 2005; hakanen, bakker & schaufeli, 2006; llorens, schaufeli, bakker & salanova, 2007). recently, studies have also started to focus on the effect of strengths use and deficit correction (sudco) on engagement (botha & mostert, 2014; els, mostert & van woerkom, 2015; keenan & mostert, 2013; stander et al., 2014; van niekerk, mostert & de beer, 2016; van woerkom et al., 2016). these studies confirmed the predictive value of both sudco on engagement. however, all these studies were cross-sectional designs and therefore cannot determine whether there is a longitudinal relationship between sudco and work engagement, and cannot also make causal inferences. as previously indicated, given the grave challenges that mining organisations face, the industry presents a significant context for the study of work engagement and how it can be improved. in a study conducted in the mining sector by rothmann and joubert (2007), organisational support (in the form of managerial support, communication, role clarity and the extent of work autonomy) was found to be a significant predictor of work engagement. similarly, other forms of job resources (supervisor support and co-worker support) showed a positive relationship with work engagement in the platinum mining environment (palo & rothmann, 2016). while studies in various sectors have concluded positive organisational outcomes associated with pos for strength use and pos for deficit correction, these constructs have not been explored within the mining industry. this study aims to add to the body of literature from a longitudinal perspective on the relationship between pos for strengths use, pos for deficit correction and work engagement over time in a two-wave study within the mining industry. consequently, the objective of this article is to determine if pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction are significant predictors of work engagement over time. literature review perceived organisational support for strengths use and deficit correction in their study, eisenberger, huntington, hutchison and sowa (1986) concluded that employees develop global beliefs about how their organisations value their contributions and show care for their well-being. the authors derived the concept of pos, which explains the extent to which employees perceive that their organisations care for their well-being and value their contributions. appropriating from the social exchange theory of blau (1964), as well as the norm of reciprocity (gouldner, 1960), pos theory suggests that as perceived support from the organisations increases for employees, an increase and strengthening of organisational commitment is highly probable (eisenberger, armeli, rexwinkel, lynch & rhoades, 2001). this finding is supported by other studies, which have linked pos to other positive organisational outcomes, such as job satisfaction (aquino & griffeth, 1999; shore & tetrick, 1991), lower turnover intention, stress and withdrawal behaviour (rhoades & eisenberger, 2002) and work engagement (rich et al., 2010; saks, 2006). on the basis of the organisational support theory, van woerkom et al. (2016) derived the concepts of pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction. pos for strengths use is defined as the extent to which employees perceive and believe that their organisations support the use and application of their strengths within the workplace (van woerkom et al., 2016). practically, that translates to organisations having human resources (hr) practices that allow for and encourage employees to utilise their strengths at work. according to linley et al. (2006), strengths are a combination of talents (naturally recurring patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviour), knowledge (facts and lessons learned) and skills. buckingham (2007), on the other hand, explains that strengths are activities that are energising and performed with effortless excellence. as previously discussed, numerous positive organisational outcomes are associated with the use of strengths within the workplace, such as job satisfaction (peterson, stephens, park, lee & seligman, 2009), organisational commitment (biswas et al., 2011) and work engagement (botha & mostert, 2014; harzer & ruch, 2012, 2013; stander et al., 2014; van woerkom et al., 2015). with regard to deficits, van woerkom et al. (2016) argue that employees also rely on the support from the organisation to improve and develop their deficits. they define pos for deficit correction as the extent to which employees perceive and believe that their organisations support them to improve their deficits or weaknesses in the workplace. the word ‘deficit’, according to oxford english dictionary (2017), is derived from the latin word deficere, which means ‘it is lacking’. in the workplace, the common language to describe this is ‘weakness’, which implies a personal defect or failing (oxford english dictionary, 2017), which relates to skills, knowledge and behaviour that are not fully developed according to a set standard. traditionally, employee development in organisations was fundamentally from a deficit improvement perspective. well-entrenched hr processes such as coaching, performance appraisals, training and so forth can give testimony to that, where set performance standards are used as a benchmark to which employees should comply with (linley & harrington, 2006). as previously discussed, there are positive organisational outcomes that are linked to the deficit improvement approach, which include organisational commitment (bartlett, 2001), job satisfaction (schmidt, 2007), decrease in turnover intention (pfeffer & sutton, 2006) and work engagement (bakker & geurts, 2004). perceived organisational support for strengths use and perceived organisational support for deficit correction in the framework of the job demands-resources model one theory that is often used to explain the motivational process of work engagement is the job demands-resources (jd-r) model. the fundamental assumption of this model is that every occupation has its own sources of employee well-being and these can be classified into two categories, job demands and job resources (bakker & demerouti, 2007; demerouti, bakker, nachreiner & schaufeli, 2001). demerouti and bakker (2011) further explain that the jd-r model is applicable to various occupational settings regardless of the demands and resources present. job demands refer to those: physical, psychological, social, or organisational aspects of the job that require sustained physical and/or psychological (cognitive and emotional) effort or skills and are therefore associated with certain physiological and/or psychological costs. (bakker & demerouti, 2007, p. 312) typical examples of job demands could be unfavourable working conditions, work overload, strict deadlines, and cognitive and emotional demands. job resources, on the other hand, are defined as: those physical, social, or organisational aspects of the job that may do any of the following: (1) be functional in achieving work goals; (2) reduce job demands and the associated physiological and psychological costs; (3) stimulate personal growth and development. (bakker & demerouti, 2007, p. 312) typical examples include autonomy, social support, career opportunities and role clarity. one of the main assumptions of the jd-r model is that there are two underlying processes: a health impairment process and a motivational process. when there is not enough time to recover or recuperate from one’s job demands, this could lead to mental and/or physical exhaustion, such as burnout, and eventually ill-health symptoms (bakker et al., 2005). this is known as the health impairment process. the motivational process implies that job resources mitigate the negative effects of job demands and may lead to increased work engagement, and eventually positive organisational outcomes, such as organisational commitment (bakker, demerouti, taris, schaufeli & schreurs, 2003). as stated earlier, the motivational process of the jd-r model implies that work engagement is positively influenced by job resources, such as autonomy, social support and role clarity (bakker et al., 2003, 2005; bakker, hakanen, demerouti & xanthopoulou, 2007). this has encouraged other researchers to discover other possible job resources within the work environment. van woerkom et al. (2016) conceptualise pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction as specific forms of job resources. according to these authors, pos for strengths use can be classified as a job resource as it creates an environment that affords employees the opportunity to apply their potential and full capacity (strengths) to achieve organisational goals (demerouti & bakker, 2011; van woerkom et al., 2016). the application and use of strengths in the workplace have been attributed to higher levels of work engagement (harter et al., 2002), increased job satisfaction (peterson et al., 2009) as well as an increase in organisational commitment (biswas-diener et al., 2011). similarly, van woerkom et al. (2016) describe pos for deficit correction as a job resource. training and development initiatives, over the years, have been attributed to enhancing organisational performance and delivering positive results (arthur, bennett, edens & bell, 2003; keith & frese, 2008; morris & robie, 2001). tansky and cohen (2001) have discovered that the deficit approach leads to increased organisational commitment by employees. lee and bruvold (2003), on the other hand, have associated the development of deficits with an increase in job satisfaction, while schaufeli and bakker (2004) have recorded higher levels of work engagement. based on the definition of job resources according to the jd-r model, it is clear that both pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction (1) assist in the achievement of work goals, (2) assist in dealing with job demands and (3) stimulate the personal growth and development of employees. in addition, both pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction activate similar motivational processes as do other job resources, with positive outcomes such as the ones described above. relationships between perceived organisational support for strengths use and perceived organisational support for deficit correction and work engagement work engagement is a well-researched topic in the field of industrial psychology. it is defined as a ‘positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterised by vigour, dedication, and absorption’ (schaufeli & bakker, 2004, p. 295). vigour refers to high levels of energy that one devotes to one’s work, and the ability to face challenges without losing energy. dedication refers to a strong identification with one’s work. emotions such as pride, enthusiasm and inspiration are experienced. absorption refers to the state where an employee is immersed in his or her work under the perception that time flows rapidly (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). some researchers have indicated that vigour and dedication comprise the core dimensions of work engagement. absorption on the other hand has been equated to flow by some researchers (gonzález-roma, schaufeli, bakker & lloret, 2006; langelaan, bakker, van doornen & schaufeli, 2006), and as a consequence of work engagement (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). therefore, several studies only include the two core dimensions of vigour and dedication. research on work engagement suggests a win-win situation for both employer and employee. for the organisation, work engagement is positively related to customer satisfaction (salanova, agut & peiró, 2005), financial returns (xanthopoulou, bakker, demerouti & schaufeli, 2009) and attaining and maintaining a competitive advantage (bakker, schaufeli, leiter & taris, 2008). for employees, work engagement has been associated with good health and a positive work affect (demerouti, bakker, de jonge, janssen & schaufeli, 2001) as well as with in-role performance (schaufeli, taris & bakker, 2006). given several studies that prove that job resources are the main predictors of work engagement, it is therefore expected that both pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction lead to increased levels of work engagement. in studies conducted by botha and mostert (2014) and stander and mostert (2013), pos for strengths use was found to have a significant positive relationship with work engagement. this is consistent with buckingham’s (2007) conclusion that those activities completed from a strengths approach are energising and will be performed with excellence, which practically can be less time-consuming. as a result, it is expected that employee performance and engagement levels will increase. from an extrinsic motivational perspective, pos for strengths use creates a work environment where employees can utilise their potential, abilities and efforts to accomplish and execute their work tasks well (demerouti & bakker, 2011; van woerkom et al., 2016). in support of this, biswas-diener (2010) explains that employees who apply their strengths feel more energised and may derive fulfilment from their jobs. linley and harrington (2006) also found a positive relationship between strengths use and psychological state of fulfilment and satisfaction about employees’ abilities. this creates feelings that may lead to increased levels of work engagement. it is therefore expected that a significant positive relationship will exist between pos for strengths use and work engagement (hypothesis 1a). with regard to pos for deficit correction, organisations that support employees to rectify their weaknesses can minimise and, in some cases, also eliminate any skills and/or behaviour that do not facilitate the attainment of business goals (smits, van woerkom & van engen, 2012). various studies have positively correlated deficit correction with levels of work engagement (metz, burkhauser & bowie, 2009; salas et al., 2002). in addition, factors such as feelings of employability (implying that employees can remain attractive for current and future organisations) (rothwell & arnold, 2007) and career advancement (because of improving their skills sets for current and future roles) (benson, 2006) can contribute to increased levels of work engagement. furthermore, as the work performance of employees improves (because of weaknesses being addressed), employees may experience well-being and subsequently increased levels of work engagement (abdullah et al., 2009). research studies have also indicated that employees who are offered an environment that fosters growth and learning are likely to experience higher levels of work engagement (bakker & geurts, 2004), feel valued (metz et al., 2009) and are motivated (salas et al., 2002). the motivational role played by pos for deficit correction can be extrinsic and intrinsic in nature because it fosters learning and personal growth as well as assists in the achievement of tasks (bakker & demerouti, 2007). the intrinsic motivational nature of job resources is also in line with deci and ryan’s self-determination theory (deci & ryan, 1985), which explains that job resources fulfil basic human needs, such as autonomy, competence and relatedness. based on this reasoning, it is expected that pos for deficit correction will have a significant positive relationship with work engagement (hypothesis 1b). relationships between perceived organisational support for strengths use and perceived organisational support for deficit correction and work engagement over time over the years, work engagement research has shown that the construct is stable, permanent and long lasting (hakanen, peeters & perhoniemi, 2011; schaufeli, bakker & van rhenen, 2009). however, several studies have indicated that job resources are positively related to work engagement over time and, furthermore, discovered that there exists a reciprocal causal relationship present, where job resources predict work engagement, which in turn predicts job resources over time (mauno, kinnunch, mäkikangas & feldt, 2010; simbula, guglielmi & schaufeli, 2011; xanthopoulou et al., 2009). in a study by hakanen, schaufeli and ahola (2008), the authors found that the motivational process of the jd-r model was supported over a 3-year wave period. it was explicitly established that job resources predicted work engagement among finnish dentists over time. in another study by mauno, kinnunen and ruokolainen (2007), the longitudinal relationship between job resources and work engagement was confirmed among finnish public workers in a 2-year period. lastly, within the educational context, llorens et al. (2007) found significant longitudinal relationships between job resources and work engagement among university students. de lange, de witte and notelaers (2008) explained the underlying mechanisms between the constructs by making reference to the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (fredrickson, 2001). according to the broaden-and-build theory, positive emotions have the ability to broaden people’s thought action behavioural habits and build enduring personal resources that help them cope with and understand their environments better. it is through this process that individuals are able to transform and become more knowledgeable, creative and resilient, which can have a positive impact on their psychological and emotional well-being over time (fredrickson, 1998, 2001, 2004). in line with the broaden-and-build theory, de lange et al. (2008) argue that work engagement (which is a positive emotion) has the capacity to broaden one’s thought action patterns and increase and/or build more job resources. through this process, engaged employees can better mobilise their job resources, which might have an increase in their capability to regulate their emotions (de lange et al., 2008; hobfoll, 2001). based on the above studies and the inherent nature of pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction as job resources and the inherent nature of work engagement as a positive emotion, it is therefore expected that there will be a significant and positive relationship over time between pos for strengths use and work engagement (hypothesis 2a) and also a significant and positive relationship over time between pos for deficit correction and work engagement (hypothesis 2b). research design the research approach a quantitative approach was followed by the researcher to conduct the study. to determine the relationship between pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction over time, a longitudinal two-wave research design was utilised. menard (2002) defines this research design approach as one where participant outcomes are collected at multiple follow-up times. research participants a convenience sampling strategy within a mining organisation in south africa was utilised. geographically, participants were surveyed from across gauteng, limpopo and the northern cape provinces and consisted of employees on supervisory job levels and higher to ensure access to computers and the internet in order to complete the online survey. an important requirement was that the participants have a good command of english and good literacy levels. the characteristics of the participants are presented in table 1. table 1: characteristics of the participants. in total, 376 respondents completed the first wave, which resulted in a response rate of 47%. in the first wave, the total number of male respondents was 254 (67.55%) and that of female respondents was 122 (32.45%). this is representative of the male-dominated nature of the mining industry in south africa. the sample was highly educated, where 48.41% of participants finished university degrees and/or a postgraduate degree. the second wave of results resulted in a total common sample of 79 participants who completed the survey at wave 1 and wave 2 (response rate from wave 1 to wave 2 was 21.01%). therefore, the 79 participants in the second wave are those participants whose unique individual identification codes from wave 1 matched with those of wave 2. the mean age of these 79 employees was 44.41 years (standard deviation [sd] = 9.35). in terms of gender, the total male respondents represented 58.23% of the population, while female respondents represented 41.77%. the percentage of employees who held a university degree and/or a postgraduate degree was 53.16%. research procedure the questionnaire took approximately 30–45 min to complete. participants were given a time period of 2 weeks to complete the questionnaires on both occasions. a reminder was sent electronically to remind the participants of the submission date. the hypotheses were tested in a two-wave longitudinal study with a time lag of 3 months. data were collected by means of a web-based survey, with a link to the web-based survey sent to the participants via their work e-mail addresses. for the first wave the questionnaire was sent in july and data for the second wave were collected in october 2015 (3 months apart). individual-level identification codes were used for the participants to ensure continuity in the second wave and to anonymously link the data from time 1 and time 2. the code design was as follows: gender (e.g. female), year of birth (e.g. 1982), number of brothers (e.g. 1), number of sisters (e.g. 1) and first initial of mother’s name (e.g. h for helen) – an example is f198211h. measuring instruments biographical characteristics biographical characteristics such as year of birth, gender, ethnicity, education level, work experience, time in current role and work site were measured by means of a biographical questionnaire. perceived organisational support for strengths use and deficit correction perceived organisational support for strengths use and pos for deficit correction were measured using an adapted version of the sudco questionnaire developed by van woerkom et al. (2016). this is a tool that scores on a seven-point likert-type frequency scale, ranging from 0 (almost never) to 6 (almost always). pos for strengths use was measured with five items (e.g. ‘this organisation uses employees’ strengths’). van woerkom et al. (2016) report a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.96 for this dimension. pos for deficit correction, on the other hand, was measured with six items of which ‘in this organisation, employees receive training to improve their weak points’ is an example. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient for pos for deficit correction was reported as 0.93 (van woerkom et al., 2016). work engagement work engagement was measured by means of the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes-9) (schaufeli, salanova, gonzalez-roma & bakker, 2002). work engagement was measured as a single latent variable based on the items of the three dimensions (vigour, dedication and absorption), totalling nine items. three items measured vigour (e.g. ‘at work, i feel like i am bursting with energy’). dedication was also measured by means of three items: an example includes ‘i am enthusiastic about my job’. lastly, absorption was measured with three items (e.g. ‘when i am working, i forget everything else around me’). work engagement is measured on a seven-point likert scale ranging from 0 (never) to 6 (everyday). recent research within south africa has confirmed work engagement as a one-factor structure, especially when using the uwes-9 (e.g. de bruin & henn, 2013; smidt, de beer, brink & leiter, 2016). statistical analysis time 1: measurement model statistical analysis was conducted using mplus 7.3 (muthén & muthén, 2015). to measure the degree of linear dependence between the variables, pearson’s product–moment correlation (r) was used. in addition, effect sizes to determine the practical significance were utilised. according to cohen (1988), cut-off points of 0.30 (medium effect) and 0.50 (large effect) are used to determine the practical significance of the correlation coefficients. the confidence interval (ci) level for statistical significance was set at a value of 95% (p ≤ 0.05). confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) was used to determine the factorial validity (brown, 2015). to calculate the model’s goodness of fit, the following fit indices were considered: comparative fit index (cfi), tucker–lewis index (tli), root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) and standardised root mean square residual (srmr). guidelines on the cut-off points values according to lance, butts and michaels (2006) are as follows: cfi (between 0.90 and 0.99), tli (between 0.90 and 0.99), rmsea (between 0.01 and 0.08) and srmr (between 0.01 and 0.08) (cf. van de schoot, lugtig & hox, 2012). time 2: longitudinal evidence firstly, a measurement model was specified with cfa and maximum likelihood estimation based on the common sample at both points in time. the items were parameterised (labelled) in mplus to indicate that these were the same items at both time points. this inherently assumes measurement invariance between the two time points between the items. for model fit, the following fit statistics were considered: cfi, tli, rmsea and srmr. given an adequate measurement model according to the fit indices, the factor scores for this model were exported for further analysis with bayesian estimation in a structural model. factor scores lessen the number of parameters in the structural model and because of the scale of missingness at time 2 (n = 79; time 2; common sample). this was deemed necessary to establish longitudinal evidence. moreover, bayesian estimation has been shown to handle small samples quite well because of its iterative process (kosowski, naik & teo, 2007; scheines, hoijtink & boomsma, 1999). it was decided that evidence for longitudinal relationships between the variables would be considered with this estimation process, because maximum likelihood was unable to estimate this structural model accurately. bayesian modelling allows for the use of priors specification in models (i.e. information about parameters from past studies or experts). priors can be non-informative (diffuse) or informative (muthén, 2010). for this estimation, informed priors were used to inform the final structural model, that is, the loadings and intercepts from time 1 were specified as prior information for the estimation at time 2 with a variance to this prior (see table 2 for unstandardised loadings and intercepts used to inform the model at time 2). table 2: unstandardised and standardised loadings for the latent factors at time interval 1 (t1). bayesian modelling does not present the same fit statistics as is normally expected (e.g. cfi) but models the need to satisfy convergence criterion in the iterative process. specifically, 25 000 iterations were specified for this structural model, and for the convergence criterion, the potential scale reduction factor (psr), the default value in mplus at psr < 1.05 was considered (muthén, 2010). furthermore, it is important to consider chain mixing in the markov chain monte carlo (mcmc) chains specified. the default chains in mplus are set to 2 (i.e. two separate processors for estimation). basically, what this diagnostic entails is to visually inspect the chain mixing (see figure 1) in the estimation process, that is, if the two chains at some point converge and provide similar estimates and continue doing so, then chain mixing has been achieved. the kolmogorov–smirnov test is a non-parametric test for chain mixing and indicates whether chain values are similar across each 100 iterations (for this test to pass, the p-value should be 0.05 or above; non-significant). finally, regression results in bayesian modelling are interpreted with higher propensity density and 95% credibility intervals, which are similar to 95% ci and should not also cross zero (the classic p-value is therefore not provided). figure 1: plots for chain convergence and parameter distributions. parameters: (a) perceived organisational support for deficit correction (t1) predicting engagement (t2) and (b) perceived organisational support for strengths use (t1) predicting engagement (t2). kernel density plots: (c) perceived organisational support for deficit correction (t1) predicting engagement (t2) and (d) perceived organisational support for strengths use (t1) predicting engagement (t2). figure 1 (continues...): plots for chain convergence and parameter distributions. parameters: (a) perceived organisational support for deficit correction (t1) predicting engagement (t2) and (b) perceived organisational support for strengths use (t1) predicting engagement (t2). kernel density plots: (c) perceived organisational support for deficit correction (t1) predicting engagement (t2) and (d) perceived organisational support for strengths use (t1) predicting engagement (t2). results dropout analysis as latent variables could not be substantially created at the time 2, and that this was not a randomised control study which included an intervention, it was decided to conduct analysis on the time 1 variables. that is, whether the participants who completed at both times (n = 79) differed at time 1 with those who dropped out on their strengths use, deficit correction and work engagement as per cohen’s d effect size. results showed that there were no practically significant latent mean differences. values were as follows: strengths use (m: 0.00, sd: 1.00 [n = 79], m: -0.05, sd: 1.00 [n = 297] [cohen’s d = 0.05]); deficit correction (m: 0.00, sd: 1.00 [n = 79], m: 0.01, sd: 1.00 [n = 297] [cohen’s d = 0.01]); and work engagement (m: 0.00, sd: 1.00 [n = 79], m: -0.19, sd: 1.00 [n = 297] [cohen’s d = 0.19]). analysis therefore continued. time 1 data: measurement model the results from the cfa revealed that the specified measurement model fits the data well. this is indicated by the fit indices as follows: cfi (0.94), tli (0.93), rmsea (0.06) and srmr (0.04). the factors measured by the sudco were pos for strength use and pos for deficit improvement. in table 2, the factor loadings of the measurement model are presented. all of the items loaded significantly onto their respective factors (estimate > 0.60). however, item abs5 (an absorption item) indicated a lower but acceptable loading of 0.53. the unstandardised loadings and intercepts are also presented, as they were used to inform the longitudinal model in the next section of the results. the correlations from the sudco dimensions and work engagement to determine the relationship between the variables are presented in table 3. table 3: correlation matrix for the latent variables. correlations revealed that pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction are practically and significantly correlated to each other with a large effect (r = 0.83). strengths use was also correlated to work engagement to a large degree (r = 0.62). similarly, deficit correction was practically and significantly correlated to work engagement with a large effect (r = 0.53). all relationships were in a positive direction. time 2 data: longitudinal evidence factor scores model the results of the model to obtain factor scores for the factors at time 1 and time 2 were an adequate fit to the data. specifically, the following fit indices were shown: cfi (0.91), tli (0.90), rmsea (0.06) and srmr (0.08). based on the factor scores, the analysis continued with bayesian estimation. convergence and chain mixing after 25 000 iterations, the model was below a psr value of 1.05. the kolmogorov–smirnov test also showed that there were no significant differences on any of the parameters between the chains, indicating convergence of the model with adequate mixing. figure 1 presents visual evidence of the parameter trace plots and distribution for the relationships of interest. as can be seen, sufficient chain mixing took place between the two chains by mixing adequately, and the distribution of the presented parameters is normal (smoothed). given this evidence, interpretation of the results continued. factor loadings and correlations the factor loadings for the model in the second test are indicated in table 4. table 4: standardised loadings for the latent factors at time interval 2 (t2). as can be seen, all of the items had acceptable positive factor loadings on their respective factors, that is, all the loadings were above 0.50. the standard errors (ses) for the loadings were also relatively small, indicating the accuracy of the estimation of the loadings. as shown in table 5, the results revealed that pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction are practically and significantly correlated to each other to a large effect (r = 0.83; large effect). similarly, strengths use and deficit improvement are positively correlated to work engagement to a large degree (r = 0.61; large effect), respectively. table 5: correlation matrix for the latent variables at time 2. regressions table 6 presents the regression results. table 6: regression analysis. table 6 provides the structural paths between work engagement at time 1 and pos for strengths use at time 2 (β = 0.13; se = 0.03; 95% ci [0.08, 0.18]). it also provides insight into the relationship between pos for strengths use at time 1 and pos for strengths use at time 2 (β = 0.87; se = 0.02; 95% ci [0.84, 0.90]). the regression analysis indicates that work engagement at time 1 and pos for strengths use at time 1 are predictors of pos for strengths use at time 2. both of the structural regressions did not cross zero in the 95% confidence interval, indicating a trustworthy estimate value. also, the structural paths between work engagement at time 1 and pos for deficit correction at time 2 (β = 0.02; se = 0.03; 95% ci [-0.03, 0.07]) are presented. it also provides insight into the relationship between pos for deficit correction at time 1 and pos for deficit correction at time 2(β = 0.94; se = 0.01; 95% ci [0.91, 0.96]). the regression analysis indicates that work engagement at time 1 is not a significant predictor of pos for deficit correction at time 2, as the 95% credibility interval for the estimate went through zero. however, the analysis confirmed that pos for deficit correction at time 1 was a significant predictor of pos for deficit correction at time 2. the regression analysis further revealed that work engagement at time 1 is a predictor of work engagement at time 2 (β = 0.94; se = 0.02; 95% ci [0.89, 0.98]). by the same token, pos for deficit correction at time 1 was a significant predictor of work engagement at time 2 (β = 0.10; se = 0.05; 95% ci [0.01, 0.19]). however, pos for strengths use at time 1 did not predict work engagement at time 2 as the estimate crossed zero (β = -0.08; se = 0.04; 95% ci [-0.16, 0.01]). ethical considerations consent from the mining organisation’s management was sought and approved. a letter explaining the objective of the study and motivation was provided. participation in the study was voluntary and the confidentiality of participants was emphasised. as this was a research study, ethical considerations were taken into account. reinforcing voluntary participation, informed consent, doing no harm and confidentiality were of primary importance to this study. discussion this study sought to answer whether pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction were significant predictors of work engagement over time. the study aimed at addressing the gap in the literature, as previous research on these constructs has been conducted from a cross-sectional perspective. a sample within the south african mining industry was surveyed in two waves which were 3 months apart. the results revealed that both pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction are positively related to work engagement. this supports and confirms hypotheses 1a and 1b, stating that a positive relationship exists between job resources (pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction) and work engagement. this finding is in line with various studies that have confirmed a positive relationship between these constructs (botha & mostert, 2014; harter et al., 2002; linley & harrington, 2006; salas et al., 2012; stander et al., 2014). the findings can further be substantiated by making reference to the jd-r model, where job resources were found to be the main predictors of work engagement. from an organisational perspective, it has been proven that pos for strengths use is another form of job resources. this is because of its inherent nature of providing an environment where employees can use their strengths, which in turn may result in them using their abilities and dedicating efforts to achieve tasks at work (demerouti & bakker, 2011; van woerkom et al., 2016). similarly, pos for deficit correction is conceptualised as a job resource, because it can minimise or eliminate behaviour and/or skills that do not contribute to the attainment of business goals (smits et al., 2012). in addition, hr practices in support of improving deficits develop employees as well as foster their growth. schaufeli and taris (2013) believe that work engagement is likely to be achieved when an employee continually invests physical and/or emotional effort to reach work objectives within the context of supportive organisational resources. because pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction have been conceptualised as such, it was expected that they will be positively related to work engagement. the second hypothesis stated that pos for strengths use is a significant predictor of work engagement over time. unexpectedly, the results established that pos for strengths use was not a significant predictor of work engagement over time; therefore, hypothesis 2a was rejected. this finding is in contrast with longitudinal research conducted by wood, linley, maltby, kashdan and hurling (2011), where the authors established that employees who utilised their strengths in work activities recorded higher levels of work engagement over time. referencing the jd-r model, other studies also recorded significant positive longitudinal relationships between job resources and work engagement (llorens et al., 2007; mauno et al., 2007). as mentioned previously, the stability of work engagement could have played a role in the non-significant relations; however, studies with shorter follow-up time frames have recorded work engagement levels fluctuating (bakker & bal, 2010; sonnentag, 2003; sonnentag, dormann & demerouti, 2010), thereby nullifying the stability argument. on the contrary, in a study conducted by smits et al. (2012), the authors established in their preliminary analysis that the predictive power of strengths use on work engagement largely disappeared when placed in the same model with deficit improvement behaviour. although a stepwise regression analysis was not adopted in this study, the findings by smits et al. (2012) could potentially explain the reason for pos for strengths use not significantly predicting work engagement in time 2. another explanation for the unexpected results can be obtained by understanding the organisational climate of the surveyed company. the mining industry and the population surveyed are made up of subject matter experts, who are professionals in their fields. furthermore, the highly technological aspects of the industry require employees to stay abreast by remaining innovative and constantly coming up with new ways of mining faster and cheaper, yet maintaining safety standards. this expectation requires employees to dig deep within their professional expertise and to bridge the gap between the knowledge they currently have and what is required for future success. the surveyed organisation places a great deal of emphasis on the expert knowledge of their employees. given the many challenges that the industry as a whole is facing, it requires the best talent to ensure sustainability and survival. it is probable that the levels of work engagement were not significantly altered, as the psychological climate within the organisation is such that employees equate building on their weaknesses as potential for future success, and therefore not showing strong levels of engagement when utilising their strengths. in contrast, hypothesis 2b (which stated that pos for deficit correction is a significant predictor of work engagement over time) was confirmed. this is congruent with longitudinal studies (previously mentioned) that purport that job resources predict work engagement over time. practically, given that the employees are already in a climate that highly esteems a strength-based focus, it could be argued that employees feel that an organisation that supports them in improving their weaknesses can help in the quest to achieve even better business goals, thereby possibly influencing a strong sense of work engagement. in studies conducted by els et al. (2015) and van niekerk et al. (2016), deficit correction behaviour was found to predict higher levels of work engagement compared to strengths use behaviour. this has been attributed to individuals feeling valued and supported in rectifying their weaknesses. in addition, employees may feel challenged, fulfilled and may feel a sense of accomplishment when improving their weaknesses, thereby responding with motivation and commitment, leading to higher levels of engagement (els et al., 2015; tannenbaum, mathieu, salas & cannon-bowers, 1991; van niekerk et al., 2016). the results further explained the relationship between the job resources (pos for strengths use and pos for deficit correction) and work engagement by observing the reversed causal relationship, which means looking at how work engagement at time 1 influences job resources at time 2. in the case of pos for strengths use, it was found that work engagement at time 1 indeed predicts pos for strengths use at time 2. this finding is in line with llorens et al.’s (2007) study, where the normal, reciprocal and reversed influences of work engagement were investigated. it was found that work engagement at time 1 had a significant impact on job resources at time 2. this phenomenon was explained by de beer, pienaar and rothmann (2013) who made reference to the motivational process of the jd-r model and introduced the concept of a ‘perceptual hypothesis’. the authors reason that each individual has a perception of his or her job conditions, and that those conditions can change because of an increase in commitment or strain. having said that, committed employees could view their working conditions more favourably because of the presence of job resources (de beer et al., 2013), which explains the reason in this study where work engagement (committed employees) at time 1 predicts pos for strengths use at time 2. unexpectedly in this study, the reversed effect of work engagement on pos for deficit correction at time 2 was not significant. this finding illustrates an opposite effect to what previous studies have found regarding the reversed causal effects of work engagement on job resources (bakker & bal, 2010). however, the non-significance is to a small degree, and this finding could be sample specific. lastly, the relationship between job resources at time 1 and job resources at time 2 was significant. this practically means that pos for sudco at time 1 predicts pos for sudco at time 2. this finding can be explained by referencing the conservation of resources theory (hobfoll, 2001), which states that individuals will try to maintain and foster resources that are valuable and important to them in attaining future goals (salanova, schaufeli, xanthopoulou & bakker, 2010). furthermore, this theory makes assumptions about ‘loss spirals’ and ‘gain spirals’ where resources may either diminish or increase (hobfoll, 2001). the latter, which helps explain the findings in this study, elaborates that the gaining of (job) resources has the potential to increase more resources, making it more likely to seek and acquire additional (job) resources (llorens et al., 2007). simply stated, it is probable for employees to acquire and seek more job resources in the future, once they are in the possession of current job resources. practical implications the aim of the study was to determine the longitudinal relationship between an organisational environment that supports the use of strengths as well as the correction of weaknesses and how those affect work engagement. given the south african landscape and the emphasis on the training and development of employees, it is important for organisations to understand which approach has the best long-term benefits on the bottom line. through this study, it has been determined that an environment that supports the correction of deficits influences employees’ levels of work engagement in the longer term. given this, it is therefore justified for organisations to invest money (long term) in development interventions, such as succession planning, as it has been established that work engagement has direct impact on organisational bottom lines (bakker et al., 2011; george, 2010). furthermore, the results indicated that pos for strengths use is positively related to work engagement in the shorter term together with pos for deficit correction. it is therefore advisable for organisations to focus on both employee sudco when development in the short term is required. for example, development to assist an employee to excel in a current role could be addressed by utilising both a strengths use approach and a deficit correction approach. furthermore, development interventions that are short term and time constrained, such as coaching, could also benefit from following both a strengths-based and a deficit correction approach. from an employee perspective, it is important for employees to have the right tools to navigate this complex and changing world of work. having the knowledge of how to better develop themselves may have a positive impact on employees’ performance and career progression. it has been established that employees who are engaged have better in-role performance (schaufeli et al., 2006) and that having the opportunity to address their weaknesses can lead to career advancement (benson, 2006) and remaining relevant and marketable in their fields (rothwell & arnold, 2007). in terms of the field of industrial psychology, research on these forms of job resources and their relation to work engagement from a longitudinal perspective is lacking. this study aimed at addressing that gap by focusing it within the south african context. limitations and recommendations in this study, valuable findings were concluded on the antecedents of work engagement within the south african mining industry over time. however, this research study is not without limitations. firstly, a longitudinal approach was undertaken to explore causal relationships between the constructs. however, it has been recorded that both strengths use and work engagement are stable phenomena (hakanen et al., 2011; mauno et al., 2007; schaufeli et al., 2009; van woerkom et al., 2015) and therefore utilising research designs with a shorter time frame, such as weekly diaries, could better explain variations and differences in the levels of the constructs (bakker & bal, 2010; fritz & sonnentag, 2007). secondly, the study has limitation with regard to the compilation of the sample. it consisted of individuals at various levels and departments within a single large organisation in the mining industry. the results therefore cannot be generalised to all organisations within the south african context and caution should be taken when making any generalisations. it is therefore recommended that a more diverse sample, such as a multi-industry group, be utilised for future research. in addition, the study made use of convenience sampling. the sample was taken from the south african mining industry, where the majority of respondents constituted white male population. based on this homogeneous population, generalisations cannot be made, as the sample does not reflect the diversity, that is, the south african population. it is suggested that future research should make use of a probability sampling strategy to enhance the generalisability of the research results. thirdly, the sample size indicating the longitudinal evidence was very small. generally, larger sample sizes increase the probability of obtaining significance because they reflect the population mean more reliably (boyd, briggs, fenwick, norrie & stock, 2011). generalisations can therefore not be made with respect to the findings of this study. it is therefore suggested that future research should collect data from a larger sample size to overcome this limitation. lastly, the study utilised self-report questionnaires in the collection of data. spector (1994) has criticised this approach as it increases measurement bias. furthermore, when people respond to self-report questionnaires, there is a possibility of social desirability occurring. this simply means that respondents may present themselves in a positive image when responding to the questionnaire (johnson & fendrich, 2005). in this study, the constructs being measured were of a subjective nature, thereby restricting the manner in which this problem could be addressed (salkind, 2009). conclusion in this study, it was found that employees who believe that an organisation that supports them to correct their deficits will experience higher levels of work engagement over time. furthermore, the study established that in the short term, an environment that supports the use of strengths will yield higher levels of engagement. the long-term effect of pos for strengths use on employees’ work engagement was not established in this study, but it is suggested that future research should further investigate this causal relationship. the sample in this study included employees within the mining industry of south africa. this study provides much needed clarity on the debate as to which approach (strengths-based or deficit correction approach) has a positive impact on work engagement over time. it is therefore recommended that organisations should invest in development interventions which help their employees correct their weaknesses for long-term benefits, and that an environment that supports the use for strengths is beneficial in the short term. acknowledgements competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions p.m. fulfilled the role of the primary researcher, and this study formed part of her masters’ research. she was responsible for the conceptualisation of the article, collecting of the data, interpretation of the research results and the writing of the article. c.e., l.t.d.b. and k.m. acted as supervisor, co-supervisor and assistant supervisor, respectively. these authors played an advisory role in this study and assisted in the conceptualisation of the study, interpretation of the research results and the writing of the research article. l.t.d.b. also conducted the statistical analyses. references abdullah, z., ahsan, n., & alam, s.s. (2009). the effect of human resource management practices on business performance among private companies in malaysia. international journal of business and management, 4(6), 65–72. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v4n6p65 anguinis, h., & kraiger, k. (2009). benefits of training and development for individuals and teams, organizations and society. annual review of psychology, 60, 451–474. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163505 aquino, k., & griffeth, r.w. (1999). an exploration of the antecedents and consequences of perceived organizational support: a longitudinal study. unpublished manuscript. university of delaware and georgia state university. arthur, w., jr., bennett, w., jr., edens, p.s., & bell, s.t. (2003). effectiveness of training in organizations: a meta-analysis of design and evaluation features. journal of applied psychology, 88(2), 234–245. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.2.234 bakker, a.b., albrecht, s.l., & leiter, m.p. (2011). work engagement: further reflections on the state of play. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 20(1), 74–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2010.546711 bakker, a.b., & bal, m. (2010). weekly work engagement and performance: a study among starting teachers. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 83(1), 189–206. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317909x402596 bakker, a.b., & demerouti, e. (2007). the job demands-resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22(3), 309–328. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & euwema, m.c. (2005). job resources buffer the impact of job demands on burnout. journal of occupational health psychology, 10(2), 170–180. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.10.2.170 bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., taris, t., schaufeli, w.b., & schreurs, p. (2003). a multigroup analysis of the job demands-resources model in four home-care organizations. international journal of stress management, 10(1), 16–38. https://doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.10.1.16 bakker, a.b., & geurts, s. (2004). toward a dual-process model of work-home interference. work & occupations, 31(3), 345–366. https://doi.org/10.1177/0730888404266349 bakker, a.b., hakanen, j.j., demerouti, e., & xanthopoulou, d. (2007). job resources boost work engagement particularly when job demands are high. journal of educational psychology, 99(2), 274–284. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.99.2.274 bakker, a.b., schaufeli, w.b., leiter, m.p., & taris, t.w. (2008). work engagement: an emerging concept in occupational health psychology. work & stress, 22(3), 187–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802393649 barney, j. (1991). firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. journal of management, 17(1), 99–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639101700108 barney, j. (2002). gaining sustainable competitive advantage. upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. bartlett, k.r. (2001). the relationship between training and organizational commitment: a study in the health care field. human resource development quarterly, 12(4), 335–352. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.1001 bassi, l., ludwig, j., mcmurrer, d., & van buren, m. (2000). profiting from learning: do firms’ investments in education and training pay off? alexandria, va: american society for training and development. benson, g.s. (2006). employee development, commitment and intention to turnover: a test of ‘employability’ policies in action. human resource management journal, 16(2), 173–192. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2006.00011.x biswas-diener, r. (2010). practicing positive psychology coaching: assessment and strategies for success. hoboken, nj: wiley. biswas-diener, r., kashdan, t.b., & minhas, g. (2011). a dynamic approach to psychological strength development and intervention. journal of positive psychology, 6(2), 106–118. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2010.545429 blau, p.m. (1964). justice in social exchange. sociological enquiry, 34(2), 193–206. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682x.1964.tb00583.x botha, c., & mostert, k. (2014). a structural model of job resources, organisational and individual strengths use and work engagement. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 40(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v40i1.1135 boyd, k.a., briggs, a.h., fenwick, e., norrie, j., & stock, s. (2011). power and sample size for cost-effectiveness analysis. contemporary clinical trials, 32(6), 893–901. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2011.07.007 brown, t.a. (2015). confirmatory factor analysis for applied research (2nd ed.). new york: guilford press. buckingham, m. (2007). go put your strengths to work. new york: the free press. buckingham, m., & clifton, d.o. (2001). now, discover your strengths. new york: the free press. christian, m.s., garza, a.s., & slaughter, j.e. (2011). work engagement: a quantitative review and test of its relations with task and contextual performance. personnel psychology, 64(1), 89–136. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2010.01203.x clifton, d.o., & harter, j.k. (2003). investing in strengths. in a.k.s. cameron, b.j.e. dutton, & c.r.e. quinn (eds.), positive organisational scholarship (pp. 111–121). san francisco, ca: berret-koehler publishers. cohen, j. (1988). statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. de beer, l.t., pienaar, j., & rothmann, s., jr. (2013). investigating the reversed causality of engagement and burnout in job demands-resources theory. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 39(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i1.1055 de braine, r., & roodt, g. (2011). the job demands-resources model as predictor of work identity and work engagement: a comparative analysis. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 37(2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i2.889 de bruin, g.p., & henn, c.m. (2013). dimensionality of the 9-item utrecht work engagement scale (uwes–9). psychological reports, 112(3), 788–799. https://doi.org/10.2466/01.03.pr0.112.3.788-799 deci, w.l., & ryan, r.m. (1985). intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. new york: plenum. deficit, n. (2017). oxford english dictionary. retrieved october 31, 2016, from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/deficit de lange, a.h., de witte, h., & notelaers, g. (2008). should i stay or should i go? examining longitudinal relations among job resources and work engagement for stayers versus movers. work & stress, 22(3), 201–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802390132 deloitte. (2016). tracking the trends 2016: the top 10 issues mining companies will face in the coming year. retrieved october 31, 2016, from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/global/documents/energy-and-resources/gx-er-tracking-the-trends-2016.pdf demerouti, e., & bakker, a.b. (2011). the job demands-resources model: challenges for future research. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 37(2), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v37i2.974 demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., de jonge, j., janssen, p.p.m., & schaufeli, w.b. (2001). burnout and engagement at work as a function of demands and control. scandinavian journal of work environment and health, 27(4), 279–286. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.615 demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., nachreiner, f., & schaufeli, w.b. (2001). the job demands-resources model of burnout. journal of applied psychology, 86(3), 499–512. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.86.3.499 de pablos, p.o., & lytras, m.d. (2008). competencies and human resource management: implications for organizational competitive advantage. journal of knowledge management, 12(6), 48–55. https://doi.org/org/10.1108/13673270810913612 eisenberger, r., armeli, s., rexwinkel, b., lynch, p.d., & rhoades, l. (2001). reciprocation of perceived organizational support. journal of applied psychology, 86(1), 42–51. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.86.1.42 eisenberger, r., huntington, r., hutchison, s., & sowa, d. (1986). perceived organizational support. journal of applied psychology, 71(3), 500–507. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.71.3.500 els, c., mostert, k., & van woerkom, m. (2015). strengths use, deficit improvement or a focus on both for optimal organizational outcomes. unpublished doctoral thesis, north-west university, south africa. retrieved october 31, 2016, from https://dspace.nwu.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10394/15211/els_c_2015.pdf fredrickson, b.l. (1998). what good are positive emotions? review of general psychology, 2(3), 300–319. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.3.300 fredrickson, b.l. (2001). the role of positive emotions in positive psychology: the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. american psychologist, 56(3), 218–226. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.56.3.218 fredrickson, b.l. (2004). the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. the royal society, 359(1449), 1367–1377. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2004.1512 fritz, c., & sonnentag, s. (2007). antecedents of day-level proactive behavior: a look at job stressors and positive affect during the workday. journal of management, 35(1), 94–111. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206307308911 george, j.m. (2010). more engagement is not necessarily better: the benefits of fluctuating levels of engagement. in s.l. albrecht (ed.), handbook of employee engagement: perspectives, issues, research and practice (pp. 253–263). cheltenham, uk: edward elgar. goaverts, n., kyndt, e., dochy, f., & baert, h. (2011). influence of learning and working climate on the retention of talented employees. journal of workplace learning, 23(1), 35–55. https://doi.org/10.1108/13665621111097245 gonzález-roma, v., schaufeli, w.b., bakker, a.b., & lloret, s. (2006). burnout and work engagement: independent factors or opposite poles? journal of vocational behavior, 68(1), 165–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2005.01.003 gouldner, a.w. (1960). the norm of reciprocity: a preliminary statement. american sociological review, 25(2), 161–178. https://doi.org/10.2307/2092623 hakanen, j.j., bakker, a.b., & schaufeli, w. (2006). burnout and engagement among teachers. journal of school psychology, 43(6), 495–513. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2005.11.001 hakanen, j.j., peeters, m.c.w., & perhoniemi, r. (2011). enrichment processes and gain spirals at work and at home: a 3-year cross lagged panel study. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 84(1), 8–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.2010.02014.x hakanen, j.j., schaufeli, w.b., & ahola, k. (2008). the job demands resources model: a three-year cross-lagged study of burnout, depression, commitment, and work engagement. work & stress, 22(1), 224–241. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370802379432 harter, j.k., schmidt, f.l., & hayes, t.l. (2002). business unit-level relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: a meta-analysis. journal of applied psychology, 87(2), 268–279. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.87.2.268 harzer, c., & ruch, w. (2012). when the job is a calling: the role of applying one’s signature strengths at work. the journal of positive psychology, 7(5), 362–371. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2012.702784 harzer, c., & ruch, w. (2013). the application of signature character strengths and positive experiences at work. journal of happiness studies, 14(3), 965–983. https://doi.org/10.1007/10902-012-9364-0 hobfoll, s.e. (2001). the influence of culture, community, and the nested-self in the stress process: advancing conservation resources theory. applied psychology: an international review, 50(3), 337–370. https://doi.org/10.1111/1464-0597.00062 jamasmie, c. (2015). about 10% of global gold output being produced at a loss. retrieved october 31, 2016, from http://www.mining.com/about-10-percent-of-global-gold-output-being-produced-at-a-loss/ jassim, r.k., & jaber, g. (1998). competitive advantage through the employees. research paper. auckland, new zealand: university of auckland. johnson, t., & fendrich, m. (2005). modeling sources of self-report bias in a survey of drug use epidemiology. annals of epidemiology, 15(5), 381–389. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annepidem.2004.09.004 keenan, e.m., & mostert, k. (2013). perceived organisational support for strengths use: the factorial validity and reliability of a new scale in the banking industry. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 39(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i1.1052 keith, n., & frese, m. (2008). effectiveness of error management training: a meta-analysis. journal of applied psychology, 93(1), 59–69. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.93.1.59 kosowski, r., naik, n.y., & teo, m. (2007). do hedge funds deliver alpha? a bayesian and bootstrap analysis. journal of financial economics, 84(1), 229–264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2005.12.009 kpmg. (2016). settling the dust in south african mining: mining risk survey. retrieved october 31, 2016, from https://www.kpmg.com/za/en/industry/mining/mining-executive-forum/documents/mining%20risk%20survey%20-%20settling%20the%20dust.pdf kretzmann, j.p., & mcknight, j.l. (1993). building communities from the inside out: a path toward finding and mobilizing a community’s assets. evaston, il: institute for policy research. lance, c.e., butts, m.m., & michaels, l.c. (2006). the sources of four commonly reported cut-off criteria: what did they really say? organizational research methods, 9(2), 202–220. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428105284919 langelaan, s., bakker, a.b., van doornen, l.j.p., & schaufeli, w.b. (2006). burnout and work engagement: do individual differences make a difference? personality and individual differences, 40(3), 521–532. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2005.07.009 lee, c.h., & bruvold, n.t. (2003). creating value for employees: investment in employee development. the international journal of human resource management, 14(6), 981–1000. https://doi.org/10.1080/0958519032000106173 linley, p.a., & harrington, s. (2006). playing to your strengths. the psychologist, 19(2), 86–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760500372796 linley, p.a., joseph, s., harrington, s., & wood, a.m. (2006). positive psychology: past, present and (possible) future. journal of positive psychology, 1(1), 3–16. https://doi.org/:10.1016/j.paid.2010.08.004 llorens, s., schaufeli, w.b., bakker, a.b., & salanova, m. (2007). does a positive gain spiral of resources, efficacy beliefs and engagement exist? computers in human behavior, 23(1), 825–841. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2004.11.012 macey, w.h., & scheider, b. (2008). the meaning of employee engagement. journal of industrial and organizational psychology, 1(1), 3–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2007.0002.x mauno, s., kinnunen, u., mäkikangas, a., & feldt, t. (2010). job demands and resources as antecedents of work engagement: a qualitative review and directions for future research. in s.l. albrecht (ed.), handbook of employee engagement: perspectives, issues, research and practice (pp. 111–128). cheltenham, uk: edward elgar. mauno, s., kinnunen, u., & ruokolainen, m. (2007). job demands and resources as antecedents of work engagement: a longitudinal study. journal of vocational behavior, 70(1), 149–171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2006.09.002 menard, s.w. (2002). longitudinal research (2nd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. metz, a.j., burkhauser, m., & bowie, l. (2009). training out-of-school time staff. washington, dc: child trends. morris, m.a., & robie, c. (2001). a meta-analysis of the effects of cross-cultural training on expatriate performance and adjustment. international journal of training & development, 5(2), 112–125. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2419.00126 mostert, k., cronje, s., & pienaar, j. (2006). job resources, work engagement and the mediating role of positive work-home interaction of police officers in the north-west province. acta criminologica, 19(3), 64–87. retrieved october 31, 2016, from http://www.journals.co.za/crim/acta/index.html muthén, b. (2010). bayesian analysis in mplus: a brief introduction. retrieved october 31, 2016, from http://www.statmodel.com/download/introbayesversion3.pdf muthén, l.k., & muthén, b.o. (2015). mplus user’s guide (7th ed.). los angeles, ca: muthén & muthén. noe, r.a. (2010). employee training and development (5th ed.). new york: mcgraw-hill irwin. olivier, a.l., & rothmann, s. (2007). antecedents of work engagement in a multinational oil company. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 33(3), 49–56. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v33i3.396 palo, j., & rothmann, s. (2016). work engagement in the mining industry in south africa: the role of tasks and relationships. journal of psychology in africa, 26(3), 221–229. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2016.1185901 peterson, c., stephens, j.p., park, n., lee, f., & seligman, m.e.p. (2009). strengths of character and work. in p.a. linley, s. harrington, & n. garcia (eds.), oxford handbook of positive psychology and work (pp. 221–234). oxford, uk: oxford university press. pfeffer, j., & sutton, r.i. (2006). evidence-based management. harvard business review, 84(1), 62–74. pwc. (2014). highlighting trends in the south african mining industry (6th ed.). sa mine. retrieved october 31, 2016, from https://www.pwc.co.za/en/assets/pdf/sa-mine-2014-6th-edition-21-nov.pdf rhoades, l., & eisenberger, r. (2002). perceived organizational support: a review of the literature. journal of applied psychology, 87(4), 698–714. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.87.4.698 rich, b.l., lepine, j.a., & crawford, e.a. (2010). job engagement: antecedents and effects on job performance. academy of management journal, 53(3), 617–635. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.51468988 rothmann, s., & jordaan, g.m.e. (2006). job demands, job resources and work engagement of academic staff in southern african higher education institutions. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 32(4), 87–96. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v32i4.247 rothmann, s., & joubert, j.h.m. (2007). job demands, job resources, burnout and work engagement of managers at a platinum mine in the north west province. sa journal of business management, 38(3), 49–61. rothwell, a., & arnold, j. (2007). self-perceived employability: development and validation of a scale. personnel review, 36(1), 23–41. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480710716704 rust, t., diessner, r., & reade, l. (2009). strengths only or relative weaknesses? a preliminary study. the journal of psychology, 143(5), 465–476. https://doi.org/10.3200/jrl.143.5.465-476 saks, a.m. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169 salanova, m., agut, s., & peiró, j.m. (2005). linking organizational resources and work engagement to employee performance and customer loyalty: the mediation of service climate. journal of applied psychology, 90(6), 1217–1227. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.90.6.1217 salanova, m., schaufeli, w.b., xanthopoulou, d., & bakker, a.b. (2010). the gain spiral of resources and work engagement. in a.b. bakker & m.p. leiter (eds.), work engagement: a handbook of essential theory and research (pp. 118–131). new york: psychology press. salas, e., tannenbaum, s.i., kraiger, k., & smith-jentsch, k.a. (2012). the science of training and development in organizations: what matters in practice. psychological science in the public interest, 13(2), 74–101. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612436661 salkind, n.j. (2009). exploring research (7th ed.). upper saddle river, nj: pearson. schaufeli, w.b., & bakker, a.b. (2004). job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-study sample. journal of organizational behavior, 25(3), 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.248 schaufeli, w.b., bakker, a.b., & van rhenen, w. (2009). how changes in job demands and resources predict burnout, work engagement, and sickness absenteeism. journal of organizational behavior, 30(7), 893–917. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.595 schaufeli, w.b., salanova, m., gonzalez-roma, v., & bakker, a.b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. the journal of happiness studies, 3(1), 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 schaufeli, w.b., & taris, t.w. (2013). a critical review of the job demands-resources model: implications for improving work and health. in g. bauer & o. hämmig (eds.), bridging occupational, organizational and public health (pp. 43–68). new york: springer. schaufeli, w.b., taris, t.w., & bakker, a.b. (2006). dr. jeckyll or mr. hyde: on the differences between work engagement and workaholism. in r.j. burke (ed.), research companion to working time and work addiction (pp. 193–217). cheltenham glos, uk: edward elgar. scheines, r., hoijtink, h., & boomsma, a. (1999). bayesian estimation and testing of structural equation models. psychometrika, 64(1), 37–52. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02294318 schmidt, s.w. (2007). the relationship between satisfaction with workplace training and overall job satisfaction. human resource development quarterly, 18(4), 481–498. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.1216 shore, l.m., & tetrick, l.e. (1991). a construct validity study of the survey of perceived organizational support. journal of applied psychology, 76(5), 637–643. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.76.5.637 simbula, s., guglielmi, d., & schaufeli, w.b. (2011). a three-wave study of job resources, self-efficacy, and work engagement among italian school teachers. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 20(3), 285–304. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320903513916 smidt, o., de beer, l.t., brink, l., & leiter, m.p. (2016). the validation of a workplace incivility scale within the south african banking industry. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 42(1), a1316. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v42i1.1316 smits, s., van woerkom, m., & van engen, m. (2012). a pro-active perspective of employees’ focus on strengths and deficiencies in relation to work engagement and burnout. unpublished master’s dissertation, university of tilburg, the netherlands. sonnentag, s. (2003). recovery, work engagement, and proactive behavior: a new look at the interface between non-work and work. journal of applied psychology, 88(3), 518–528. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.3.518 sonnentag, s. (2011) research on work engagement is well and alive. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 20(1), 29–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2010.510639 sonnentag, s., dormann, c., & demerouti, e. (2010). not all days are created equal: the concept of state work engagement. in a.b. bakker & m.p. leiter (eds.), work engagement: a handbook of essential theory and research (pp. 25–38). new york: psychology press. spector, p.e. (1994). using self-report questionnaires in ob research: a comment on the use of a controversial method. journal of organizational behavior, 15(5), 385–392. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030150503 stander, f.w., & mostert, k. (2013). assessing the organisational and individual strengths use and deficit improvement amongst sport coaches. sa journal of industrial psychology/sa tydskrif vir bedryfsielkunde, 39(2), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1160 stander, f.w., mostert, k., & de beer, l.t. (2014). organisational and individual strengths use as predictors of engagement and productivity. journal of psychology in africa, 24(5), 403–409. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2014.997007 tannenbaum, s.i., mathieu, j.e., salas, e., & cannon-bowers, j.a. (1991). meeting trainees’ expectations: the influence of training fulfillment on the development of commitment, self-efficacy, and motivation. journal of applied psychology, 76(6), 759–769. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.76.6.759 tansky, j.w., & cohen, d.j. (2001). the relationship between organizational support, employee development, and organizational commitment: an empirical study. human resource development quarterly, 12(3), 285–300. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.15 van de schoot, r., lugtig, p., & hox, j. (2012). a checklist for testing measurement invariance. european journal of developmental psychology, 9(4), 486–492. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2012.686740 van niekerk, g., mostert, k., & de beer, l.t. (2016). strengths use and deficit improvement: the relationship with engagement and fit with study course amongst first-year students. journal of psychology in africa, 26(1), 43–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2015.1124610 van woerkom, m., mostert, k., els, c., bakker, a.b., de beer, l.t., & rothmann, s., jr. (2016). strengths use and deficit correction in organizations: the development and validation of a questionnaire. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 25(6), 960–975. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2016.1193010 van woerkom, m., oerlemans, w., & bakker, a.b. (2015). strengths use and work engagement: a weekly diary study. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 24(3), 384–395. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2015.1089862 wood, a.m., linley, p.a., maltby, j., kashdan, t.b., & hurling, r. (2011). using psychological strengths leads to less stress and greater self-esteem, vitality, and positive affect: longitudinal examination of the strengths use questionnaire. personality and individual differences, 50, 15–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.08.004 wright, p., mcmaham, g. & mcwilliams, a. (1994). human resources and sustained competitive advantage: a resource-based perspective. international journal of human resources management, 5(2), 301–326. retrieved october 31, 2016, from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.nwulib.nwu.ac.za/ehost/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=c4ce964e-361d-46a9-963a-563d26550de9%40sessionmgr4010&hid=4208&bdata=#an=5812660&db=buh xanthopoulou, d., bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w.b. (2009). work engagement and financial returns: a diary study on the role of job and personal resources. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 82(1), 183–200. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317908x285633 abstract introduction method discussion acknowledgements references about the author(s) maria sachane department of people management and development, tshwane university of technology, south africa adéle bezuidenhout department of human resource management, university of south africa, south africa chris botha department of people management and development, tshwane university of technology, south africa citation sachane, m., bezuidenhout, a., & botha, c. (2018). factors that influence employee perceptions about performance management at statistics south africa. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a986. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.986 original research factors that influence employee perceptions about performance management at statistics south africa maria sachane, adéle bezuidenhout, chris botha received: 04 aug. 2017; accepted: 23 aug. 2018; published: 20 nov. 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: the implementation of performance management (pm) in the public sector remains a challenge and requires an investigation into employees’ perception of pm at statistics south africa. research purpose: this study investigates the factors that affect employee performance at statistics south africa with the aim of providing a management framework for improving the performance of employees. motivation for the study: the motivation for this study was to identify factors that affect employees’ perception of pm at statistics south africa. by ascertaining these factors, it may be possible to influence the performance of employees positively. research approach/design and method: the study followed a quantitative research approach using an explorative and descriptive design. the population consisted of 3326 employees. the random sample drawn contained 444 respondents, and the realised sample had 303 respondents. this represented a response rate of 68%. data were collected through a likert-scale-type questionnaire. main findings: the results showed that employees perceived pm as ineffective and unfair. various factors affecting pm at statistics south africa negatively were revealed. the analysis of the research identified the following performance factors: communication, talent management, retention, recruitment and selection, engagement and motivation. practical/managerial implications: the findings revealed that employees were not involved in the development and the implementation of pm. managers and supervisors who are not committed to the pm of their subordinates avoid performance contracting and the conducting of performance reviews. managers should be encouraged to give feedback to employees and to see pm as a development tool, rather than a compliance matter. contribution/value-add: the research study contributes to the understanding of the perception of employees of statistics south africa regarding the factors that positively or negatively affect the pm process. introduction this study focuses on the factors that influence the perception of performance management (pm) at statistics south africa with the aim of providing a management framework for improving the performance of employees. performance management combines and coordinates an organisation’s efforts to grow or become more efficient by motivating employees through evaluation, development, reward and promotion (watkins & leigh, 2010, p. 99). according to castello (1994, p. 6), when employees are clear about what is expected of them, and have the necessary support to contribute to an organisation efficiently and productively, their sense of purpose, self-worth and motivation will increase. as the majority of employees in statistics south africa, who have not entered into performance agreements, may be uncertain whether they are performing in terms of the expectations of their jobs, this will impact negatively on the organisational performance. by entering into a performance agreement will help the supervisors and team members within statistics south africa to set performance standards and measure the achievements in terms of these set standards. this article reports on a study conducted among employees of statistics south africa to measure the impact of pm. six factors, namely communication, motivation, retention, recruitment and selection, engagement and talent management were used to measure the pm in this study. the study highlights how these variables influence performance positively or negatively. the objectives of this study are, firstly, to determine those factors that impact positively or negatively on pm at statistics south africa. secondly, the study aims to verify how various demographic groups differ in terms of their perception of pm at statistics south africa. thirdly, the article aims to make conclusions and recommendations on employee perceptions of pm at statistics south africa. this study contributes to the effectiveness of pm by providing a theoretical framework of the factors that influence the effectiveness of pm of employees at statistics south africa. research questions the research questions included the following: what are the factors that impact on pm at statistics south africa? how do various demographic groups compare in terms of their perception of pm at statistics south africa? what conclusions and recommendations can be made on employee perceptions of pm at statistics south africa? current trends in the literature performance management arrived in the latter part of the 1980s, partly as a reaction to the negative experience of merit rating and management by objectives. its strength is that it is essentially an integrated approach to managing performance on a continuous basis. the appeal of pm in its authentic form is that it is holistic. it pervades every aspect of running the business and helps to give purpose and meaning to those involved in achieving organisational success (armstrong, 2009, p. 25). according to koontz as quoted by armstrong (2009, pp. 10–11), the first known example of performance appraisal took place during the wei dynasty (ad 221–65) when the emperor employed an ‘imperial rater’ whose task was to evaluate the performance of the official family. in the 16th century, ignatius loyola established a system for formal rating of the members of the jesuit society. the first formal monitoring systems, however, evolved out of the work of frederick taylor and his followers before the first world war. management by objectives then came into being during the 1960s, while the term pm was first used in the 1970s. performance management has emerged, from the 1990s onwards, as an integral part of the human resource management approach to managing an organisation (fletcher, 2004, p. 31). performance management has become more popular as total quality management programmes emphasised using all the management tools, including performance appraisal. it involves the strategic use of performance measures and standards, and aims to establish performance targets and goals and to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the organisation (chen, 2011, p. 33). performance management is a critical aspect of organisational effectiveness, yet it is considered the ‘achilles heel’ of human capital management and should therefore be a top priority of managers. less than one-third of employees believe that their company’s pm process assists them in improving their performance. performance management regularly ranks among the lowest topics in employee satisfaction surveys (gruman & sack, 2010, p. 1). performance management places key emphasis on improving organisational performance. putting less emphasis on input and process control, its proponents argue that performance should be the guiding concept in organisational decision-making, routines and structures and that strategic planning and performance evaluation should be promoted. the pm model is often represented as a cyclical process in which management focuses primarily on defining organisational goals, setting performance targets and subsequently holding employees accountable. this process is then repeated possibly with adjustments in goals, targets or performance indicators reflecting the experiences of previous cycles (nielsen, 2018, p. 431). asamany and shaorong (2018, p. 57) define pm as a planned and cohesive approach to deliver continuous success to organisations by improving the performance of the employees, by considering the capabilities of teams and individual contributions. leonard (2010, p. 342) defines pm as all those things a supervisor must do to enable an employee to achieve prescribed objectives. the above statement is supported by brown and steward (2009, p. 284) who mention that pm is the process of measuring, assessing, providing feedback and communicating about employees’ contribution to the organisation. from the literature studied, it can thus be deduced that measuring performance and providing feedback does indeed improve employee performance. performance management forms part of a more comprehensive organisation development approach, referred to as the pm system (pms). ferreira and otley (2009) state that the term ‘pms’ refers to: formal and informal mechanisms, processes, systems, and networks used by organisations for conveying the key objectives and goals elicited by management, for assisting the strategic process and ongoing management through analysis, planning, measurement, control, rewarding, and broadly managing performance, and for supporting and facilitating organizational learning and change. (p. 264) performance management system thus refers to broad, over-all, ongoing processes including formal practices, procedures processes and systems, as well as the informal actions and procedures. the focus of this study was specifically on pm which can be seen as an important element of the pms. in most organisations, nationally and internationally, the pm cycle is a process that stretches over a 12-month period during which performance is planned, executed and assessed. in statistics south africa, it must be aligned to the organisation’s annual business plan, which is from 1st april to 31st march of the following year. the 12-month cycle is also linked to the financial year for the purpose of planning, pay progression and other performance-related incentives such as performance awards or cash bonuses. the probation cycle, however, is linked to the appointment date of a jobholder (department of public service & administration, 2007, p. 11; department of statistics south africa, 2003, p. 6). williams (2002, p. 16) and the department of public service and administration (2007, p. 11) identify factors that are closely related to the pm cycle in the south african context, such as (1) performance planning and agreement, (2) performance monitoring, developing and control and (3) performance appraisal. these factors are explained as follow: the performance agreement is the cornerstone of pm at the individual level. all employees must enter into and sign performance agreements before the end of the first quarter of the new cycle. the performance agreement format applies to all levels (salary levels 1–16) in the department of statistics south africa and the contents must reflect the department’s strategic and annual operation plan, business plans and job descriptions, job roles and actual activities and responsibilities (department of public service and administration, 2007, p. 11). individual performance must continuously be monitored to enable the identification of performance barriers and changes and to address development and improvement needs as they arise as well as to determine progress and/or identify obstacles in achieving objectives and targets (department of public service and administration, 2007, p. 15). performance appraisal begins by identifying objectives, recognising the benefits for all concerned, and identifying key criteria (arthur, 2008). it is a process that is commonly used throughout many organisations to evaluate or appraise employee’s performance in the past and to consider how to maximise the employee’s future contributions (banfield & kay, 2012, p. 295). unfortunately, employees often have doubt about the accuracy of their performance appraisals (decenzo & robbins, 2002, p. 280). swan and wilson (2007, pp. 21–27) identified a number of reasons of why performance appraisal fail, including inadequately defined standards of performance, an overemphasis on recent performance, reliance on gut feelings, without evidence, an employee’s miscomprehension of performance expectations, insufficient performance documentation, inadequate time for the discussion and the lack of a follow-up plan. further distortions that may affect the review are illustrated in figure 1 by decenzo and robbins (2002, p. 281). figure 1: factors that distort appraisals. performance standards are the ways the organisation goes about meeting its mission statement. these may include ethical values and levels of quality (sandler & keefe, 2005, p. 10). furthermore, rampersad (2003, pp. 83–85) mentions that a performance target is a quantitative aim of performance measurement. it indicates a value that must be met. he mentions that targets can be based on the expectations of management, the needs of the customers or the results of benchmark studies. this would both provide management with timely signals that are based on the focused guidance of the organisation according to measurements of change and a comparison of measured results against standards. based on a careful revision of the theory available, the researchers have identified the specific factors that may affect pm at statistics south africa. these identified factors formed the basis of the questionnaire that was developed and are explained below: communication: erasmus-kritzinger, bowler and goliath (2002, p. 3) define communication as a two-way process whereby information (message) is sent from one person (sender) through a channel to another (receiver) who, in turn, reacts by providing feedback. fyffe (2007, p. 18) supports this notion and explains that communication is a reciprocal process, establishing a dialogue with people in the business, and often results in a better solution that helps to get early engagement and interest in what one is introducing. leonard (2010, p. 342) emphasises the importance of communicating how well an employee is performing a job, during the pm effort. silber and foshay (2010, pp. 412–413) further explain that many pm efforts fail because of poorly managed relationships, including poor communication, between the different stakeholders. talent management is needed for success, effectiveness and consistency. talent is considered the most critical source of success in an organisation (phillips & edwards, 2009, p. 3). silzer and dowell (2010, p. 13) mention that talent in an organisation refers to an individual’s skills and abilities (talents) and what the person is capable of doing or contributing to the organisation. carey, grobler, holland and warnich (2008, p. 128) explain that talent management, which involves the cooperation and communication of managers at all levels, has become an imperative in today’s business world. the components of talent management include extensive new employee orientation, use of selection and rewards to align employees with company values, formal management development programmes, careful succession planning and chief executive officer (ceo) selection, investment in human capabilities through recruiting, training and development (silzer & dowell, 2010, p. 5). recruitment and selection: martel (2002, pp. 77–78) believes that recruiting and hiring are the most critical practices for finding and keeping high performers. the author further mentions that recruiting and retaining good employees have demonstrably measurable results and also mean important cost savings. assessment: reynolds and welner (2009, p. 35) explain that when used properly, an organisation has much to gain by incorporating assessment into their talent programmes. training and development: according to byars and rue (2008, p. 154), training is the learning process that involves the acquisition of the knowledge, skills and abilities (ksa) necessary to successfully perform a job. retention: phillips and edwards (2009, p. 27) define retention as the percentage of employees remaining in the organisation. they explain that high levels of retention are desired in most job groups. reward management: milne (2007, p. 30) mentions that recognition is a non-financial award given to employees selectively, in appreciation of a high level of accomplishment that is not dependent on achievement against a given target. according to zhou, zhang and montoro-sanchez (2011, p. 82), reward management is a key function in human resource management systems in modern enterprises, playing an important role in attracting, retaining and motivating employees. engagement: according to wiley (2010, p. 47), organisations that want to be successful need motivated and engaged employees. federman (2009, p. 22) defines employee engagement as the degree to which a person commits to an organisation and the impact that commitment has on how well they perform and their length of tenure. wiley (2010) postulates that a critical element in building confidence, motivating performance and increasing employee engagement is having managers who inspire belief in the organisation’s future. he further states that organisations that want to achieve business success need motivated and engaged employees. managers need to build a culture of motivated employees who are working to achieve business goals. method research approach a deductive, quantitative-descriptive approach was adopted to examine the impact of pm on employee’s performance in statistics south africa. this type of research involves identifying the characteristics of an observed phenomenon (saunders, lewis, & thornhill, 2009, p. 155). a cross-sectional survey design was used to gather primary data from the participants to achieve the objectives of the study. descriptive research examines a situation as it is. it does not involve changing or modifying the situation under investigation, nor is it intended to determine cause-and-effect relationships (babbie, 2011, p. 95). research design research participants as this study examines the impact of factors affecting the employee performance, the employees of statistics south africa have been taken as a target population. simple random sampling was used to select the study subjects from a list of names as this improves the reliability and generalisability of statistical results. according to blair and blair (2015, p. 11), probability sampling employs a random process to ensure that each element has the same, known, non-zero chance of selection. the entire population consisted of 3326 elements. the selected sample contained 444 units. in total 444 questionnaires were distributed to both male and female respondents and 303 completed responses were received back. this represents a response rate of 68%. measuring instruments a questionnaire was compiled based on the theoretical framework, compiled from a close scrutiny of the literature. the questionnaire contained a five-point likert-type scale instrument, with values ranging from 1 (strongly disagree), 2 (disagree), 3 (neutral), 4 (agree) to 5 (strongly agree) to measure responses. the questionnaire was divided into two sections, namely: section a required biographic information such as age, gender, language, designation, education, employment and years of service. section b contained questions in relation to factors affecting pm at statistics south africa. the survey consisted of the following factors: talent management, engagement, recruitment and selection, retention, motivation and communication. there were five questions posed in relation to each factor (sub-dimension) and therefore a total of 30 questions were posed to the respondents. research procedure permission was obtained from the statistician-general of statistics south africa to distribute the questionnaire to the targeted population. each questionnaire was accompanied by a covering letter, explaining the purpose of the study, promising confidentiality and voluntary participation, the importance of participation, potential benefits and contact information. the questionnaire was distributed electronically via a link, to those employees who were stationed at head office, as well as those stationed at provincial offices. data analysis the statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 20.0 was employed for the data analysis. descriptive analysis includes frequencies and percentages, and reliability tests include cronbach’s alpha (bouwan & ling, 2006, p. 38; ho, 2006, p. 26). furthermore, factor analysis was applied to discover patterns among the variations in values of several variables. pearson’s chi-square was used to test the statistical significance (curtis & curtis, 2011, p. 157) with the p-value of the chi-square test, specifically with regard to demographical variables. the factors that emerged are demonstrated in table 1. table 1: rotated factor pattern of the factor analysis. as one of the seven initial factors had only two items loading on it (the initial factor 6), it was not retained. as a rule of thumb, there should be at least three items loading on a factor for meaning interpretations to be made (walsh, 1990). as a result, the final factor analysis above shows that factor 1 represents communication, factor 2 represents talent management, factor 3 represents retention, factor 4 represents recruitment and selection, factor 5 represents engagement and factor 6 represents motivation. in addition to the factor analysis, the cronbach’s alpha statistics for each of the six factors affecting pm at statistics south africa were calculated and are presented in table 2. table 2: cronbach’s alpha for six factors affecting performance management at statistics south africa. the empirical results in table 2 confirmed the reliability of each of the six retained factors, as all the cronbach’s alpha values were above 0.7. the empirical results thus confirmed that the factors that affect pm at statistics south africa are communication, talent management, retention, recruitment and selection, engagement and motivation. furthermore, the total variance, explained by each factor, was calculated and is presented in table 3. table 3: total variance explained by each factor. from table 3, it is noteworthy that communication accounted for the most variance, talent management second most and retention the third most variance in explaining pm at statistics south africa. the pearson chi-squire statistics, as calculated for the demographical variables, are presented in table 4. table 4: pearson correlations in terms of demographical variables. the results in table 4 present the results of the pearson correlation analysis across different demographic groups. likelihood ratios as well as linear-by-linear associations were calculated for each item, but for the sake of parsimony, the results are summarised in table 4. in summary, the results of the statistical analysis showed that different age groups experience similarities in their attitudes towards communication, talent management, retention, engagement and motivation. the genders experience similarities towards the variables recruitment, selection and retention. employees with different educational levels experience similarities in their attitudes towards engagement, retention and motivation. different employment classes experience similarities in relation to talent management system, engagement and motivation. employees with different years of service experience similarities towards talent management, retention and communication. discussion the first research question was concerned with identifying the factors that affect pm at statistics south africa. six factors that play a role in employees’ perception of pm emerged, namely communication, talent management, retention, recruitment and selection, engagement and motivation. in addition, the empirical study confirmed the reliability of each of these the factors. the empirical results thus supported the view of leonard (2010) and silber and foshay (2010) that communication is a very important element of pm. as it emerged as the most important factor, it is reasonable to assume that a lack of feedback during pm will have an adverse effect on the acceptance and the success of pm at statistics south africa. furthermore, it is the responsibility of the manager to clearly communicate expectations in the form of performance standards and targets to subordinates. regular, continuous feedback throughout the period of assessment is essential to improve employee performance and to provide the recognition that will motivate employees to sustain satisfactory performance. managers have to work continuously at maintaining reciprocal communication channels (fyffe, 2007), because in order for the performance review and feedback process to work well, there must be a two-way communication process and dialogue, which is the responsibility of both managers and employees, jointly. as talent is considered the most critical source of success in an organisation (phillips & edwards, 2009), and this study identified talent management as the second most important factor, it can be concluded that talent management is imperative to the pm effort at statistics south africa. managers need to focus on individuals’ skills, abilities and talents. furthermore, successful talent management is impossible without effective communication. there is thus an interaction process between the individual factors at play. the same is true for recruitment and selection, which is integral to talent management interventions, as well as the retention of high performing employees (martel, 2002). retaining talented, high performing employees, promote retention of critical skills and organisational performance. the findings of this study supported wiley’s (2010) belief that successful pm practices depend on retaining motivated and engaged employees. by recognising the efforts of high performing employees and clearly communicating the trust in them during pm discussions, managers have the ability to motivate, inspire and retain valuable human capital. the first research question, pertaining to the identification of perceived pm factors at statistics south africa, was thus addressed comprehensively. the second research question sought to investigate how various demographic groups compare in terms of their perception of pm at statistics south africa. it is noteworthy that there are many similarities in the way different demographical groups perceive the factors that affect pm at statistics south africa. if the first factor, communication, is considered, the empirical results showed that employees of different ages, genders, educational levels and years of service all perceived communication to be an important determinant of pm. the second factor, talent management, was perceived similarly among the employees of different age groups, genders, employment classes and years of service. also, the third factor, retention, was perceived in the same way by different ages, genders, educational levels, employment classes and years of service. it is encouraging that the results seem to indicate that employees are perceiving pm at statistics south africa the same, across different demographical groups, as it may be an indication that all employees are fairly treated in the same manner. some of the exceptions that were identified included a discovery that employees indicated a lack of confidence in their prospects of promotion within statistics south africa. this may be a contributing factor in the negative perception by respondents towards pm, where the age group 30–39 felt that superior work performance is not recognised. in this study, it was also discovered that employees from the age groups 30–39 and 40–49 felt that the economic climate affects their satisfaction with their salary level to a higher extent, compared to their counterparts. this may be an example of extrinsic motivation, referring to performance that is contingent upon the attainment of an outcome that is separable from the action itself (legault, 2016, p. 1). lastly, employees from the age group 40–49 felt more positive about the materials and equipment to do their work effectively and were also more satisfied with the retention process at statistics south africa. the third aim of this article was to make conclusions and recommendations on employees’ perception of pm at statistics south africa. based on the human resource management literature reviewed and the empirical results obtained, the following recommendations are made: as the results of this study emphasised the importance of communication, managers must focus on providing clear communication on performance expectations and goals. employees also need continuous constructive feedback on their performance, so that they can adjust their performance as needed informed. critical decisions and instructions should be communicated timeously to promote transparency and keep employees motivated and engaged. performance management as a development tool rather than a compliance matter. when pm is used as a tool to develop employees, it encourages staff motivation by exploring alternative remuneration and reward systems that complement the organisation’s traditional rewards. considering the importance of talent management, identified as the second most influential factor in pm at statistics south africa, managers must incorporate career management conversations in the pm process. the implementation of the talent management strategy should be fast tracked. human resource practitioners should encourage job rotation, job shadowing and mentoring programmes to enhance the experience and exposure of high-performance employees at statistics south africa. high performing staff can also be considered for secondment to other divisions or departments to gain experience and exposure. this study confirmed the importance of fair recruitment and selection practices as a factor in determining employees’ perception of the success of pm. recruitment and selection should be transparent, fair and open in order to motivate internal employees to continuously improve their performance. although not all good performances can be rewarded through promotion, an effective remuneration strategy can introduce other forms of recognition of superior performance. an example could be a ‘staff awards day’ where high performing employees are publicly commended and recognised by the head of department. certificates and small cash awards can be given with clear citations of the reason for the award. this could address both the motivation and employee engagement factors that determine employee’s perception of pm. if employees understand what is expected, invest effort in improving their performance and then receive recognition, their perception of pm will improve. practical implications this study has identified significant factors that affect employee’s performance at statistics south africa. the findings of this research show that management people are not committed to their pm of their subordinate. this weakness about the lack of participation for the employees should be addressed to ensure that employees perceive the pm process as fair. limitations limited prior research findings on employees’ perception of pm at statistics south africa were available. a self-report questionnaire was used and the answers were dependent on employees’ memories. the sample was influenced by some employees being on maternity and vacation leave. recommendations the results of this study revealed the positive and negative factors affecting pm in statistics south africa. these factors need to be addressed to ensure a gradual sustainable progress in improving the performance of employees within statistics south africa. further research can be conducted in the following areas: this investigation can be expanded by doing research at other government departments. the perception of employees of pm within statistics south africa is in a broader perspective. further research is needed to validate these results in a few government departments. conclusion the study has identified unique factors that affect pm at statistics south africa. it was therefore concluded that: most of the employees within statistics south africa believe that talent management is a challenge. this is an area which the management of statistics south africa should address. statistics south africa should introduce a system that will be able to attract the competent employee in order to avoid staff turnover. more than half of the employees maintain that there is no job rotation process in statistics south africa. it can be concluded that the majority of the respondents within statistics south africa believe that there is no job rotation process in the organisation, which is a concern that the organisation should address. nearly half of the employees responded negatively regarding information related to a talent management system. this may be regarded as a negative response that reveals that the human resource processes regarding talent management are not clear to the employees. this is an area in which management must ensure that they conduct workshops with their employees to create an awareness of the policies that affect employees within the organisation. some employees claim that their abilities are not assessed by the organisation. management fails to implement a retention policy and strategy. a perceived lack of positive contributions from management towards the retention of employees within the organisation exists. some employees responded that the organisation’s performance reviews and rewards are not effective. opportunities for promotion are not adequate. further to that, employees do not receive recognition for doing good work. there is a lack of feedback from management. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the statistician-general dr pali lehohla for granting permission to distribute the questionnaires to the targeted employees, statisticians who have analysed the data as well as the respondents who completed the questionnaires. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions m.s. was the principal investigator responsible for the fieldwork. a.b. and c.b. were involved in helping to design and supervise the project. references armstrong, m. (2009). armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice (11th ed.). london: kogan page. arthur, d. (2008). the first time managers guide to pa. new york: american management association. asamany, a., & shaorong, s. (2018). the ripple effects of performance management on employees’ perceptions and effective commitment among small and medium scale enterprises. china: saedu press. babbie, e. (2011). the basic of social research (5th ed.). usa: cengage learning. banfield, p., & kay, r. (2012). introduction to human resource management (2nd ed.). new york: oxford university. blair, e., & blair, j. (2015). applied survey sampling. los angeles, ca: sage. bouwan, g. d., & ling, r. (2006). the research process (5th ed.). singapore: oxford university. brown, k. g., & steward, g. l. (2009). human resource management. linking strategy to practice. hoboken, nj: john wiley. byars, l. l., & rue, l. w. (2008). human resource management (10th ed.). new york: mcgraw-hill. carey, b. c., grobler, l., holland, p., & warnich, p. j. (2008). contemporary issues in human resource management (3rd ed.). south africa: oxford university press southern africa. castello, s. j. (1994). effective performance management. burr ridge, il: business one irwin. curtis, b., & curtis, c. (2011). social research. a practical introduction. washington, dc: sage. chen, x. (2011). assessment of performance appraisal process (unpublished master’s thesis). western cape: university of western cape. decenzo, d. a., & robbins, s. p. (2002). human resource management (7th ed.). usa: john wiley. department of public service and administration. (2007). employee performance and development system. pretoria: department of public service and administration. department of statistics south africa. (2003). monitoring and improving our performance for service delivery. pretoria: department of statistics south africa. erasmus-kritzinger, l. e., bowler, a., & goliath, d., (2002). effective communication. getting the message across in business. chicago, il: afritech. federman, b. (2009). employee engagement. a roadmap for creating profits, optimizing performance, and increase loyalty. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. ferreira, a., & otley, d. 2009. the design and use of performance management systems: an extended framework for analysis. management accounting research, 20, 263–282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mar.2009.07.003 fletcher, c. (2004). appraisal and feedback. making performance review work. london: cipd. fyffe, r. 2007. communicating total reward at o2. human resource management international digest, 15(3), 18–20. https://doi.org/10.1108/09670730710743952 gruman, j. a., & saks, a. m. (2010). performance management and employee engagement. human resource management review, 21(2), 123–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2010.09.004 ho, r. (2006). handbook of univariate and multivariate data analysis and interpretation with spss. new york: chapman & hall. leonard, e. g., jr., iii. (2010). supervision concepts and practices of management. usa: south western gengage learning. martel, l. (2002). high performers. how the best companies find and keep them. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. milne, p. (2007). motivation, incentives and organizational culture. journal of knowledge management, 11(6), 28–38. https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270710832145 nielsen, p. a. (2018). performance management, managerial authority, and public service performance. journal of public administration research and theory, 24(2), 431–458. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mut025 phillips, j. a., & edwards, l. (2009). managing talent retention and roi approach. san francisco, ca: pfeiffer. rampersad, h. k. (2003). total performance scorecard. redefining management to achieve performance with integrity. amsterdam: butterworthheinemann. reynolds, d. h., & welner, j. a. (2009). online recruitment and selection: innovation in talent acquisition. united kingdom: wiley-blackwell. sandler, c., & keefe, j. (2005). performance appraisals that work: features 150 samples for every situation. corey sandler & janice keefe. avon, ma: adams. saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2009). research methods for business students (5th ed.). new york, prentice hall: pearson education. silber, k. h., & foshay, w. r. (eds.). (2010). handbook of improving performance in the workplace, volume1: interactional design and training delivery. san francisco, ca: pfeiffer. silzer, r., & dowell, b. e. (2010). strategy-driven talent management. a leadership imperative. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. swan, w. s., & wilson, l. e., (2007). ready to use performance appraisal. new york, usa: wiley. walsh, a. (1990). statistics for the social sciences. new york, usa: harper & row. watkins, r., & leigh, d., (2010). handbook of improving performance in the workplace. vol. 2. selecting and implementing performance interventions. new york usa: pfeiffer. wiley, j. w. (2010). the impact of effective leadership on employee engagement. new york, usa: wiley interscience. williams, r. s. (2002). managing employee performance. design and implementation in organisation. usa: thomson. zhou, y., zhang, y., & montoro-sanchez, a. (2011). utilitarianism or romanticism: the effect of rewards on employees’ innovative behavior. international journal of manpower, 32(1), 81–98. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437721111121242 abstract introduction background research objectives literature review research design research method results discussion conclusion acknowledgements references about the author(s) anel meintjes gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa karl hofmeyr gordon institute of business science, university of pretoria, south africa citation meintjes, a., & hofmeyr, k. (2018). the impact of resilience and perceived organisational support on employee engagement in a competitive sales environment. sa journal of human resource management/sa tydskrif vir menslikehulpbronbestuur, 16(0), a953. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v16i0.953 original research the impact of resilience and perceived organisational support on employee engagement in a competitive sales environment anel meintjes, karl hofmeyr received: 29 may 2017; accepted: 22 mar. 2018; published: 31 may 2018 copyright: © 2018. the author(s). licensee: aosis. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract orientation: understanding the impact of resilience and perceived organisational support on employee engagement in a competitive sales environment. research purpose: the aim of this study was to explore the relationship between resilience, perceived organisational support and employee engagement among pharmaceutical sales employees in a competitive sales environment; and to establish whether resilience and perceived organisational support hold predictive value for employee engagement. motivation for the study: limited research has focused on the unique context of employee engagement as a construct in professional sales. a broader understanding of resilience and perceived organisational support can provide sales organisations with a lever to create an environment where sales employees are more fully engaged. research design, approach and method: a quantitative, exploratory, cross-sectional survey approach was used. a sample of 125 sales representatives from a south african pharmaceutical organisation participated in the research. the measuring instruments included the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes), brief resilience scale (brs) and the perceived organisational support scale (pos). main findings: perceived organisational support, but not resilience impacted employee engagement in a competitive sales environment. practical and managerial implications: sales organisations’ interventions to improve sales employee engagement should focus on perceived organisational support. contribution: the individual role of each construct provided insight into the sales context. the relationship between the constructs offered a different lens through which the drivers of employee engagement in sales can be viewed. this study contributes towards sales literature by including positive psychology and organisational support in a model of employee engagement. introduction key focus of the study understanding the impact of resilience and perceived organisational support (pos) on employee engagement in a competitive sales environment. background sales employees are often the most important channel through which companies execute their strategies and generate revenue (morelli & braganza, 2012). selling involves constant strain that includes competing with competitors, meeting sales targets and dealing with rejection (loveland, lounsbury, parks, & jackson, 2015). the topography of the current sales landscape is dynamic, evolving and uncertain. sales tasks are often conducted in a competitive environment with sales positions often resulting in emotional exhaustion (rajan & srinivasan, 2015). emotional exhaustion is often viewed as the opposite of engagement, or similar to being disengaged (bande, fernández-ferrín, varela, & jaramillo, 2015). contemporary organisations need employees who feel energetic and engaged with their work (albrecht, bakker, gruman, macy, & saks, 2015). the significance of employee engagement within an organisation relates to both the organisation and the employee. the benefits to organisations include increased financial turnover (rothmann & rothmann, 2010), revenue growth (werhane & royal, 2009), gross profit (towers watson, 2015), operating profit (towers watson, 2012), greater customer satisfaction and increased productivity (saks & gruman, 2014). benefits to the employee include self-reported indicators of greater health and well-being (saks & gruman, 2014), job satisfaction and lower staff turnover (rothmann & rothmann, 2010). despite extensive research into employee engagement, relatively low levels of engagement continue to be reported by organisations across the globe (albrecht et al., 2015). investigating the drivers of engagement is therefore vital to understand how to enhance employee engagement in the work environment. employee engagement is a positive organisational outcome which has been associated with resilience (king, newmans, & luthans, 2015; mache et al., 2014; shin, taylor, & seo, 2012). the growing performance expectations of the current business environment cannot be met with average performance. organisations thus require employees who are resilient and can succeed in chaos and grow in the face of difficulty, uncertainty and constant change (kotzé & nel, 2013). in sales, resilience enables the salesperson to sustain a constructive response in the face of adversity by focusing on the positive side of adversity, while simultaneously inhibiting negative responses (krush, agnihotri, trainor, & krishnakumar, 2013). people with a low level of resilience are more emotionally unstable when faced with difficulty (bande et al., 2015; bonanno, papa, & o’neill, 2001), less flexible to change and more resistant to new experiences (bande et al., 2015). under the influence of a dynamic business environment, it is natural for employees to develop expectations regarding the extent to which the organisation cares about their well-being and appreciates their contribution in achieving business goals. a sense of being valued and appreciated is a key driver of positive organisational outcomes such as engagement. feeling valued is not only highly organisation specific but also specific for different employee groups within an organisation (gupta & sharma, 2016). the aim of this research was to explore resilience of the individual and perceived support of the organisation as potential drivers of employee engagement in a competitive sales environment. trends from the research although employee engagement has been identified as a significant driver of revenue and financial performance in modern organisations (bakker & demerouti, 2014; verbeke, dietz & verwaal, 2011), limited research has focused on the unique context of employee engagement as a construct in professional sales (medhurst & albrecht, 2016). existing sales literature on employee engagement focuses mainly on drivers such as role conflict, role ambiguity, adaptive selling behaviour (miao & evans, 2013), trust, psychological contract and interactional justice (agarwal, 2014). various studies indicate that there is a relationship between resilience and engagement (bakker, albrecht, & leiter, 2011; bande et al., 2015; king et al., 2015; mache et al., 2014; shin et al., 2012). resilience appears to be closely linked to vigour, one of the three dimensions of employee engagement (schaufeli, salanova, gonzález-romá, & bakker 2002). medhurst and albrecht (2011) conclude similarly that resilience positively influences sales performance through vigour and also the investment of high levels of energy when faced with challenging situations. bande et al. (2015) argue that resilience can lead to a subjective assessment of well-being that includes engagement. in the south african context, simons and buitendach (2013) observe a practical and statistically significant relationship between total employment engagement scores and resilience among call centre employees. the call centre environment is comparable to a competitive sales environment with respect to the negative effect of emotional exhaustion on employee well-being (johnson et al., 2005). there appears to be no published studies in south africa investigating the relationship between employee engagement and resilience in a sales environment. perceived organisational support as a construct is positively associated with employee engagement (kurtessis et al., 2015; mathumbu & dodd, 2013). research by rothmann and rothmann (2010) indicates that organisational support is a strong predictor of employee engagement in various south african industries. in the context of sales, this association is underpinned by the stressful nature of sales positions accompanied by emotional exhaustion, which ultimately has important implications for levels of engagement and the need for organisational support (kurtessis et al., 2015). salespeople with a subdued perception may also experience diminished job involvement and identification with the organisation, which can lead to less dedication and absorption (deconinck, deconinck, & lockwood, 2015). research objectives the premise of this research is that employee engagement is a desirable organisational outcome in a competitive sales environment. although there is limited empirical evidence concerning which factors predict employee engagement in a sales environment, this research aims to explore resilience and perceived organisational support (pos) as possible predictors. the first objective of the study was to explore the relationship between resilience and employee engagement. despite the importance of resilience in a sales environment, limited research has focused on resilience in salespeople (loveland et al., 2015). resilience appears to be closely linked to vigour, one of the three dimensions of employee engagement (medhurst & albrecht, 2011; schaufeli et al., 2002). engagement was defined as an aroused psychological state of energy and focus aimed at addressing the situational and task-related demands in a sales environment (medhurst & albrecht, 2016). according to the authors, salesperson engagement shares similar characteristics to the existing conceptualisation of engagement in terms of vigour, dedication and absorption (schaufeli et al., 2002). the second objective of the study was to explore the relationship between pos and employee engagement. although many studies have focused on pos as a construct, few studies have focused on pos in a sales environment (deconinck et al., 2015). the stressful nature of sales positions accompanied by emotional exhaustion may have important implications for the incumbents’ level of engagement and need for organisational support. emotional exhaustion appears to be highly correlated with pos (kurtessis et al., 2015). this correlation has important practical implications in a stressful work environment where employees are subjected to emotional exhaustion. this importance is accentuated in a sales environment where the sales force work alone in different geographical locations and are detached from the organisation (morelli & braganza, 2012). the potential value-add of the study the purpose of this study was to contribute to the theoretical understanding of resilience and pos as potential drivers of employee engagement in a competitive sales environment. resilience as a personal resource is pliable and open to development (krush et al., 2013). an improved understanding of resilience can make a contribution to human resource management practices in terms of training and employee development. studying resilience as a potential driver of employee engagement will make a contribution towards the academic field of positive psychology and positive organisational behaviour. exploring salespeople’s perceptions of organisational support offers valuable insights into the employee–organisation relationship in terms of concepts such as feeling valued as an employee (gupta & sharma, 2016), levels of supervisor support (deconinck et al. 2015), fairness (morelli & braganza, 2012) and human resource management practices related to training, performance appraisal and compensation systems (zampetakis, 2014). these insights can be utilised to create a more supportive environment with improved employee engagement and the ability to cope in a stressful profession (deconinck et al. 2015). studying the relationship between employee engagement and pos will make a contribution to the academic fields of positive organisational behaviour and organisational support theory. in the next section, a synthesis and critical evaluation of the literature dealing with the constructs will be provided, followed by an explanation of the research design, reporting of results and a detailed discussion of the results. ethical consideration ethical clearance was obtained from the university of pretoria’s gordon institute of business science research ethics committee. all respondents were assured of confidentiality and anonymity, with participation being voluntary. literature review employee engagement the emergence of engagement research in the 21st century is related to the developing importance of human capital, involvement of employees in organisations (bailey, madden, alfes, & fletcher, 2015; schaufeli, 2013) and the need for businesses to maximise the inputs of employees (rothmann & rothmann, 2010). the first theoretical foundation of engagement stems from the work of kahn (1990, p. 694), who views personal role engagement as the individual’s emotional, cognitive and physical expression of their authentic self at work. to be fully engaged, individuals must display their full selves within their work role (bailey et al., 2015). building on the work of kahn (1990, p. 694), rich, levine and crawford (2010) state that individuals who are engaged invest their head, heart and hands in their performance. the second theoretical view of engagement is an activated positive state of mind directed towards work tasks. this view is founded on the concept of engagement and burnout being opposites of each other. this theoretical view defines engagement as ‘a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption towards work activities’ (schaufeli et al., 2002, p. 71). vigour assists individuals to foster a more proactive work style (coetzee, schreuder, & tladinyane, 2014) and is characterised by high levels of energy and mental resilience. in addition, vigour is associated with persistent, conscientious efforts to devote oneself to work and when facing difficulties (coetzee et al., 2014). dedication involves being strongly involved in one’s work with a sense of pride and enthusiasm. absorption involves being completely concentrated on and happily engrossed in one’s work, whereby time passes quickly and it is difficult to detach from work (bailey et al., 2015; schaufeli, 2013). employee engagement has been identified as a significant driver of salesperson performance in modern sales organisations (albrecht & medhurst, 2011; rapp, bachrach, panagopoulos, & ogilvie, 2014). according to albrecht et al. (2015), the direct influence of employee engagement on sales performance assists organisations to achieve a competitive advantage through improved customer satisfaction, increased selling intentions and a more favourable attitude towards products and resources. the impact of employee engagement in sales is also related to sales force turnover. sales positions are subject to high turnover rates and are often challenging positions to fill (bande et al., 2015). a high level of employee engagement is associated with 37% lower absenteeism (harter, schmidt, agrawal, & plowman, 2013) and has the ability to reduce the negative impact of sales force turnover on the business results of sales organisations (bande et al., 2015). a study by medhurst and albrecht (2016) interprets engagement among salespeople as an aroused psychological state of focus and energy, aimed at addressing the situational and task-related opportunities and demands encountered in sales positions. according to these authors, salesperson engagement shares similar characteristics with the existing conceptualisation of engagement in terms of vigour, dedication and absorption (schaufeli et al., 2002). resilience bardoel, pettit, de cieri and mcmillan (2014) propose that one of the theoretical approaches to resilience applied in the workplace is based on positive psychology and positive organisational behaviour. in positive psychology, resilience is described as a response where an individual adapts positively to exposure to a subjectively significant threat, risk or difficulty, without losing the ability to function normally (bardoel et al., 2014; bonanno, 2004). recent applications of resilience in occupational literature focus on occupations associated with a high risk for experiencing acute stress and trauma, such as police officers and fire fighters (freedman, 2004; peres et al., 2011; vanhove, herian, peres, harms & lester, 2015). however, vanhove et al. (2015) propose that resilience may also be of significance in an employment context where stress can accumulate over time because of influences such as work overload, work relationships, lack of resources and support, emotional and physical exhaustion and work–life conflict. johnson et al. (2005) identify teachers, ambulance workers, customer and social service workers, call centre staff and prison officers as examples of jobs where the above-mentioned influences and accumulated stress can have a negative effect on employee well-being and organisational functioning (vanhove et al., 2015). although no reference is made to sales employees, the nature of sales positions suggests that the sales environment can also be viewed as an employment context where resilience is of significance. krush et al. (2013) support this view with the observation that resilience enables positive responses towards adversity, while simultaneously inhibiting negative responses. resilience in the workplace is also defined as the ‘positive psychological capacity to “bounce back” from adversity, uncertainty, conflict, failure, or even positive change, progress and increased responsibility’ (kotzé & nel, 2013; luthans, 2002). according to the literature, a key component of resilience is whether an individual demonstrates simultaneous growth and positive change following a stressful event. although some definitions refer to positive change, most simply require successful adaptation to adversity (bande et al., 2015). in competitive sales, adaptation unaccompanied by growth or positive change will not enable a sales force to successfully meet sales targets or deal with rejection and competitors. employee engagement is a positive organisational outcome associated with resilience (king et al., 2015; mache et al., 2014; shin et al., 2012). bande et al. (2015) report that resilience can lead to a subjective assessment of well-being that includes engagement. however, this prediction includes all the dimensions of self-efficacy, optimism, hope and resilience. this raises questions as to whether this position can be proposed by taking into account only the dimension of resilience. luthans, vogelgesang and lester (2006) provide a possible explanation by arguing that resilient people may take a more pragmatic approach to dealing with stress than those with a high level of optimism or hope. medhurst and albrecht (2011) propose that resilience positively influences sales performance through vigour and the investment of high levels of energy when faced with challenging situations. vigour as a dimension of employee engagement could therefore be positioned as a driver of employee engagement among sales employees (schaufeli, 2013). this research study formulated the following hypothesis: hypothesis 1: can it be predicted with reasonable accuracy that a relationship exists between resilience and employee engagement in a sales environment? perceived organisational support organisational support theory has attracted considerable attention because of its potential ability to explain the employee–employer relationship. various studies indicate that pos is related to behavioural outcomes for both employees and organisations (caesens, marique, hanin, & stinglhamber, 2016). beneficial organisational behavioural outcomes include organisational commitment (baran, shanock, & miller, 2012; connelly, gallagher, & gilley, 2007), organisational citizenship behaviour (baran et al., 2012; coyle-shapiro & morrow, 2006), performance (webster & adams, 2010) and job satisfaction (kurtessis et al., 2015). beneficial employee behavioural outcomes related to pos include increased trust in the organisation, job satisfaction, positive psychological well-being and increased in-role performance. unfavourable behavioural outcomes include job stress, burnout and withdrawal behaviour. under the umbrella of organisational support theory, fairness, human resource practices and supervisor support are important antecedents of pos (baran et al., 2012; kurtessis et al., 2015). perceived organisational support as a construct is positively associated with employee engagement (kurtessis et al., 2015; mathumbu & dodd, 2013). according to organisational support theory, employees also develop beliefs regarding the extent to which the organisation cares about their well-being and appreciates their contribution to achieving business goals. feeling appreciated is a key driver of positive organisational outcomes such as engagement (gupta & sharma, 2016). the perception of organisational support can be viewed from an organisational or employee perspective. tavares, van knippenberg and van dick (2015) argue that the perception of organisational support can be viewed by the organisation as a social currency offered with the aim of increasing the quality of the employer–employee relationship. this relationship is discretionary in nature, which means that employees can determine the extent to which they engage in extra-role efforts to benefit the organisation and its employees. from the viewpoint of the employee, this relationship is reciprocal in nature as the employee feels obligated to support their employer with the expectation that increased performance will be noticed and rewarded. according to social exchange theory, employees with high pos will engage in greater job-related efforts (kurtessis et al., 2015). in a competitive and results-orientated milieu, sales representatives are more likely to succeed when they feel supported rather than directed (adamson, dixon, & tolman, 2013). sales representatives often work alone in different geographical locations and are detached from the organisation (morelli & braganza, 2012). working outside the boundaries of the organisation in a complex sales environment may accentuate the need for organisational support. deconinck et al. (2015) are of the opinion that with a subdued perception of organisational support, salespeople may also experience diminished job involvement and identification with the organisation, which can ultimately lead to less dedication and absorption. dedication and absorption are critical dimensions of employee engagement based on the theoretical foundation of engagement as a positive, work-related state of mind (schaufeli & bakker, 2004). based on the aforementioned, the following hypothesis is presented: hypothesis 2: can it be predicted with reasonable accuracy that a relationship exists between perceived organisational support and employee engagement in a sales environment? given these research findings, the researchers proposed a positive relationship between resilience and pos and employee engagement, respectively. measurement of constructs most existing empirical research on employee engagement makes use of either the utrecht work engagement scale (uwes) (gupta & sharma, 2016; schaufeli & bakker, 2003) or the job engagement scale (jes) (gupta & sharma, 2016; rich & levine, 2010). the jes is grounded in theories of self-expression at work and based on kahn’s (1990, p. 694) definition of engagement which includes physical, cognitive and affective dimensions (gupta & sharma, 2016). the uwes is grounded in burnout literature (gupta & sharma, 2016; maslach & leiter, 1997) and defines engagement as a positive, work-related state of mind with a strong sense of vigour towards, dedication to and absorption in work activities. according to saks and gruman (2014), the dimensions of the uwes are inconsistent with kahn’s (1990) original assertion that engagement is an indication of bringing one’s true self to the performance of one’s role (saks & gruman, 2014). the authors argue that bringing one’s true self to the performance of one’s role involves a much deeper and more authentic level of engagement than just devoting energy and dedication to the performance of work activities. however, a systematic review involving 214 studies found the uwes to be the most widely adopted measure of engagement (schaufeli & bakker, 2003). the challenges of developing an operational definition for resilience have led to different approaches to measuring the construct (windle et al., 2011). there is currently no gold standard in terms of measuring resilience. most existing measures have concentrated on examining resources or protective factors that might facilitate a resilient outcome. in contrast, the brief resilience scale (brs) is designed to measure resilience as an outcome measure defined as the ability to recover from stress. the brs is the only measure that assesses resilience based on its original and most basic meaning as relating to the ability to bounce back from stress (smith, tooley, christopher, & kay, 2010). in the south african context, the brs was used in a small mixed method study by edwards, edwards and highley (2015), with no references made to internal consistency scales using cronbach’s alpha. additional measurement scales used in the local context include the resilience scale (koen, van eeden, & wissing, 2011) and the adult resilience indicator (kotzé & nel, 2013). a criticism from jowkar, friborg and hjemdal (2010) is that most resilience measurement scales ignore the family and social aspects of resilience. an additional concern is that most of the resilience measurement instruments have been developed and utilised in the western world, with concerns regarding their validity in non-western population (abiola & udofia, 2011; dageid & gronlie, 2015). recent empirical research has demonstrated the brs’s reliability and validity in emerging countries such as malaysia (amat et al, 2014) and china (lai & yue, 2014). the original 36-item pos scale developed by eisenberger (1986) has gained considerable interest because of the benefit of understanding the employee–employer relationship. the scale measures employees’ perceptions regarding the extent to which employers value the contribution of employees and care about their well-being. shorter versions of the scale are now available. correlations among factor scores of pos scale scores suggest that both the 8-item and 16-item version are just as effective as the original 36-item version, but are more efficient (worley, fuqua, & hellman, 2009). a 6-item version of the pos scale was used in a multi-industry, multi-generational and multicultural study with a high level of reliability (smit, stanz, & bussin, 2015). in the south african context, the 8-item pos scale has been used in a study of nurses and had acceptable levels of reliability and validity (mathumbu & dodd, 2013). research design research approach quantitative research methods were used to test the predetermined hypotheses regarding the relationship between the variables of resilience, organisational support and employee engagement within a cross-sectional time frame. factor analysis, multiple regression and analysis of variance tests were applied to determine whether a predictive relationship of significance exists among the variables. factor validity and reliability were determined for all measurement scales. research method research participants the study made use of a convenience sampling approach. a survey was conducted on sales representatives from a johannesburg stock exchange listed pharmaceutical company (n = 220) in south africa. a response rate of 56.8% yielded a sample of 125 participants. the monte carlo simulation was used to determine the minimum sample size needed for multiple regression or prediction (knofczynski & mundfrom, 2007). from this method, it was inferred that for the purpose of this study, the minimum sample size needed for two predictor variables was 90 cases. the demographic characteristics of the sample indicate that almost 70% of the sales force were younger than or equal to 40 years of age, while 25% of the sales force had been employed by the organisation for 1 year or less. female participants accounted for 69% of the sample, the majority of the respondents were white people (45%), followed by indians (24%) and black people (17%), with the minority from the mixed race population (14%). measuring instruments the uwes, a 9-item questionnaire, measured employee engagement on a 7-point likert scale ranging from 1 = never to 7 = always. employee engagement was defined as a positive, fulfilling work-related state of mind that is characterised by the dimensions of vigour, dedication and absorption (schaufeli, bakker, & salanova, 2006). an example of a question in this scale is: ‘at my work, i feel bursting with energy’. the 6-item brs measured resilience as a single construct and the first independent variable (smith et al., 2008). the brs was chosen based on its ability to measure resilience in its most basic form (to bounce back from stress, difficulty or setbacks). the brs was scored on a 5-point likert scale varying from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree. an example of a question in this scale is ‘it is hard for me to snap back when something bad happens’. the 8-item version of the pos scale (eisenberger, 1986) was used to measure pos, and the extent to which employers value the contribution of employees and care about their well-being. the pos scale was scored by finding the mean of the eight items on a 7-point likert scale, varying from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree. an example of a question in this scale is ‘the organisation strongly considers my goals and values’. research procedure a letter explaining the objective of the study and requesting participation in the survey was emailed to sales employees within the organisation. the measuring instruments were pretested with selected sales representatives from a division not participating in the study prior to being distributed to the entire sample, with no changes made after the testing phase. surveys were distributed to sales employees in paper-based form and via a link to an electronic format in typeform™. convenience sampling was used to select participants nationally from a sample frame consisting of 220 employees from which 125 responses were obtained for final analysis. the first section of the survey collected demographic information, whereas the second section consisted of a questionnaire combining the three measuring instruments. statistical analysis coded data were analysed with the ibm spss (version 22) statistical software tool. descriptive statistics were calculated to describe the mean, median, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis of the various constructs. factor analysis was used to determine the construct validity of all measurement scales (zikmund, babin, carr, & griffin, 2010). first, the kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) index and bartlett’s test of sphericity were inspected to determine whether factor analysis was a feasible option. principle component analysis and a varimax rotation strategy were used to explore the factor structure of the various scales used within this study (yong & pearce, 2013). cronbach’s alpha was employed to determine reliability and internal consistency with a coefficient alpha between 0.70 and 0.80 considered to be reflective of good reliability (zikmund et al., 2010). the corrected item-total correlation was used as an additional measure of reliability by correlating the individual item score to the sum of all scores. a correlation coefficient greater than 0.3 indicated adequate item-total correlation (field, 2013). multiple regression determined whether resilience and pos hold predictive value for employee engagement. all required assumptions for multiple regression analyses were met before the analyses were conducted. the predictive power and relative contribution of the independent variables were tested with hierarchical multiple regression by entering the variables in a predetermined order. demographic variables were controlled for and forced into the first step to determine whether the independent variables were still able to explain the remaining variance of the dependent variable. results validity and reliability of measurement scales all the scales were subjected to a factor and reliability analysis. single factor structures were obtained for all scales, whereas acceptable reliabilities were obtained for all subscales and overall scales. the kmo index measure for sampling adequacy for employee engagement, resilience and pos exceeded the minimum accepted level of 0.6 for a good factor analysis (pallant, 2005). for the uwes, high factor loadings were observed in all nine items, and therefore, all items were included in the scale. a one-factor solution also seemed to best fit the data. all correlation coefficients were greater than 0.30, indicating adequate item-total correlation. with an alpha of 0.93, the uwes scale was considered to be reliable with a high degree of consistency between multiple measurements of the scale. this level of reliability is within close range of a south african nurses study reporting an alpha coefficient of 0.79 (mathumbu & dodd, 2013) and a comparable south african study of call centre employees that reported an alpha of 0.95 (simons & buitendach, 2013). for the brs, the loadings of each of the items on the one component with factor loadings ranged from 0.43 to 0.81 exceeding the acceptable factor loading of 0.40. therefore, all six scale items were included in the scale. all correlation coefficients were greater than 0.30, indicating adequate item-total correlation. the initial cronbach’s alpha for the brs was 0.73. item r5 (‘i usually come through difficulty times with little trouble’) lowered the scale’s reliability and validity with a low correlation coefficient (< 0.30) and factor loading (0.434), and was subsequently removed from further analysis. there are no comparable south african studies reporting mean resilience scores based on the brs. for the pos scale, high factor loadings were observed; therefore, all eight items were included in the scale. a one-factor solution also seemed to best fit the data. all correlation coefficients were greater than 0.30, indicating adequate item-total correlation. with a cronbach’s alpha of 0.90, the pos scale was considered to be reliable with a high degree of consistency between multiple measurements of the scale. these results are consistent with previous south african research indicating an acceptable level of reliability and validity for this scale with cronbach’s alpha values ranging from 0.71 (mathumbu & dodd, 2013) to 0.89 (smit et al., 2015). descriptive statistics the descriptive statistics for all constructs are presented in table 1. for employee engagement, a mean score of 5.77 indicated a high level of employee engagement. on the 7-point likert scale, this indicated a high level of engagement experienced often (a few times a week). a standard deviation dispersion of 0.87 showed that the individual responses did not deviate much from the main score; the responses were therefore not polarised. resilience had a mean score of 3.70 on a 5-point likert scale presenting a high perceived level of resilience close to ‘agree’. a standard deviation dispersion of 0.63 indicated that the individual responses deviated slightly from the main score. for pos, a mean score of 4.87 indicated a response close to ‘slightly agree’. a standard deviation dispersion of 1.31 indicated that there was a large amount of variation in the individual responses. table 1: descriptive statistics of constructs. in conclusion, descriptive statistics indicated a high perceived level of resilience and employee engagement, and a ‘slightly agree’ perception of pos. multiple regression in table 2, demographic variables (gender, age, length of service) predicted approximately 4% of the variance in employee engagement. resilience predicted just more than 5% of the variance in employee engagement. neither the demographic variables (f = 1.63, p > 0.05) nor resilience (f = 1.50, p > 0.05) was statistically significant predictor of employee engagement. perceived organisational support predicted approximately 23% of the variance in employee engagement (f = 27.20, p < 0.05). in table 3, the regression coefficient of pos was statistically significant (β = 0.44, p < 0.05). table 2: model summary of employee engagement. table 3: coefficients of employee engagementa. statistical power was increased with a large sample size (n = 125) than the required sample size of 90. the sample size was sufficient with a medium effect size (β ≥ 0.2) and power of 80%. the increase in power decreased the probability of a type ii error (false negative). with a critical α ≤ 0.05, there was only a 5% chance of a type i error, or incorrectly rejecting the null hypothesis. in conclusion, there is a statistically significant relationship between pos and employee engagement, but no statistically significant relationship between resilience and employee engagement. discussion the main objective of the study was to determine whether resilience and pos are significant predictors of employee engagement. a discussion on the various constructs will be followed by the regression analysis. hypothesis 1: can it be predicted with reasonable accuracy that a relationship exists between resilience and employee engagement in a sales environment? although resilience explained almost 5% of the variance in employee engagement, no statistically significant relationship was found with employee engagement. the results of this analysis contradict prior academic research indicating that employee engagement is a positive organisational outcome associated with resilience (king et al., 2015; mache et al., 2014; shin et al., 2012). in the south african context, simons and buitendach (2013) observed a practical and statistically significant relationship between total employee engagement scores and resilience among call centre employees. the call centre environment is similar to the sales environment in terms of emotional exhaustion and burnout. findings from bakker et al. (2011) also suggest that resilience is an important predictor of work engagement. however, this prediction included additional dimensions of self-efficacy, optimism, hope and resilience. it is likely that the predictive power of resilience for engagement could be stronger if it was defined and quantified in conjunction with all the dimensions of psychological capital. it is plausible that the relationship between resilience and employee engagement is more complex than what can be explained by a simple prediction model. resilience may be a moderating variable between an independent variable and the outcome variable employee engagement. for example, the possibility of the moderating effects of resilience as a personal resource in the relationship between job resources and work engagement has been recognised in existing empirical research (mäkikangas, feldt, kinnunen, & mauno, 2013; xanthopoulou, bakker, demerouti & schaufeli, 2007). it is also possible that resilience as a personal resource may act as a mediating variable between an independent variable and the outcome variable of employee engagement (bakker & demerouti, 2008; chen, westman, & hobfoll, 2015). using the job-resources or demands model, cooke, cooper, bartram, wang and mei (2016) found that employee resilience mediates the relationship between high-performance work systems and employee engagement within the context of chinese banking. in a sales context, resilience may act as a moderating variable between employee engagement and a different organisational outcome. medhurst and albrecht (2011) found that resilience influences a salesperson’s performance through engagement and the investment of high levels of energy when faced with challenging situations. in addition, although resilience did not predict employee engagement for the population under study, this may be different in other populations. hypothesis 2: can it be predicted with reasonable accuracy that a relationship exists between perceived organisational support and employee engagement in a sales environment? perceived organisational support not only predicted approximately 23% of the variance in employee engagement (f = 27.20, p < 0.05) but also proved the regression coefficient to be statistically significant (β = 0.44, p < 0.05). this outcome is consistent with the results of earlier studies based on similar theory (saks, 2006). according to social exchange theory, employees with high pos will engage in greater job-related efforts (kurtessis et al., 2015). in more recent international and south african studies, positive organisational support was positively associated with a high level of engagement (mathumbu & dodd, 2013; trinchero, brunetto & borgonovi, 2013). it is also plausible that the relationship between the two constructs can be defined beyond prediction. shantz, alfes and latham (2014) suggest that pos moderates the relationship between work engagement and behavioural outcomes such as turnover intentions and deviant behaviours. in a study of nurses, affective commitment mediated the relationship between pos and work engagement (gupta, agarwal, & khatri, 2016). while formulating the hypothesis, it was not assumed that employee engagement as an outcome would be entirely explained by the predictive power of the independent variable. perceived organisational support predicted nearly a quarter (23%) of the outcome, which means that the majority, or almost three quarters of the predictive power of engagement, is still explained by different independent variables. it is also important to take into account that different predictors or drivers of employee engagement are interrelated and do not function separately. examples of predictors of engagement reported in sales literature include role conflict, role ambiguity, activity and capability control, and adaptive selling behaviour (miao & evans, 2013), trust, psychological contract and interactional justice (agarwal, 2014). practical implications employee engagement is a continuous process in need of integration across all facets of the employer–employee relationship and employee life cycle (albrecht et al., 2015). direct supervisors and sales managers should treat employee engagement as a priority and actively take responsibility for driving the process. although there are many stakeholders involved in creating a culture of engagement, line managers and direct supervisors ought to be the ultimate owners of engagement (aon hewitt, 2015). resilience is pliable and open to development (krush et al., 2013) and resilience should thus be viewed as a set of skills that can be developed as part of strategic human resource management. resilience-building programmes have proven to be effective in the workplace with a positive effect on health, well-being and performance (robertson, cooper, sarkar, curran, & cooper, 2015; vanhove et al., 2015). this can be of particular importance in the stressful nature of a competitive sales environment. with supervisor support being identified as an antecedent of pos (morelli & braganza, 2012), sales managers should maintain a reflective outlook on the quality and level of their supervision and support towards sales staff. a high level of supervisor support has the ability to reduce burnout and ultimately staff turnover (deconinck et al. 2015). with fairness being one of the precursors of pos (morelli & braganza, 2012), managers responsible for the allocation of sales territories, structuring of sales targets and performance packages play an important role in making decisions that are perceived by sales staff as fair. human resource practices is the third antecedent of pos (morelli & braganza, 2012). a study by zampetakis (2014) indicated that human resource management practices such as training, performance appraisal and compensation systems play an important role in creating supportive environments for sales employees. individually or collectively, the above-mentioned factors may assist in creating an engaged sales force. limitations and recommendations the limitations of this study are mainly linked to shortcomings related to impact and generalisation. firstly, the sample in this study was derived from a single pharmaceutical organisation with sales roles predominantly focused on doctor detailing and business-to-business selling. the results may consequently not be generalisable to sales employees working in different industries. secondly, with pharmaceutical sales representatives working in a knowledge-intensive and science-based economy, the results may not be generalisable to sales employees working in other environments (e.g. telesales or retail sales). thirdly, a cross-sectional research design provided only a snapshot of the specific time frame used. a different time frame containing dynamics such as restructuring or organisational change may have produced different results. to validate and generalise the results of this study, future research should replicate the predictive relationship between pos and employee engagement in different sales organisations across different industries. employee engagement has not been studied extensively in the south african pharmaceutical context. more research focusing on this sales environment can provide valuable insight on the constructs in question on an industry level. this research did not focus on sales performance as an outcome of employee engagement. an interesting area of research could be to explore how pos mediates the relationship between employee engagement and sales performance. the competitive nature of the pharmaceutical sales environment is bound to intensify with an increased focus on industry profit margins, and gaining and protecting market share. demand for pharmaceuticals in south africa is likely to rise in the future, reflecting demographic and epidemiological trends as well as government commitments to improved healthcare. yet, the south african pharmaceutical industry will become more constrained (ims health, 2014) with squeezed industry margins due to increased drug pricing, intensified regulation of drug prices and the impact of inflation and exchange rate fluctuations on manufacturers. as a result, management will increasingly scrutinise sales performance as a driver of revenue. research measuring resilience as a single construct in a different context using the brs would make a valuable contribution towards demonstrating the reliability and validity of the scale in the south african context as an emerging country. the positive association between employee engagement efforts and staff retention is well documented (bande et al. 2015). taking into consideration concerns related to high sales force turnover (johnson, friend, & rutherford, 2016), future research can explore the moderating effect of pos and employee engagement on intention of sales staff to leave the organisation. conclusion employee engagement remains a burning issue across corporate, consulting and academic domains. in the dynamic and competitive topography of sales, employee engagement has immense opportunities to impact business success. resilience has the potential to reframe the challenging nature of sales positions into a more progressive and desirable occupational domain, while pos can be used by organisations as a social currency to increase employee engagement and ultimately sales performance. the results of this study provided insights that will encourage conversations and future research in a domain that is critical for organisational survival and success. acknowledgements the article is based on partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of master of business administration. competing interests the authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article. authors’ contributions the study was undertaken as part of a.m.’s studies at the gordon institute of business science. k.h. supervised the research project. references abiola, t., & udofia, o. (2011). psychometric assessment of the wagnild and young’ s resilience scale in kano, nigeria. bmc research notes, 4(1), 509. https://doi.org/10.1186/1756-0500-4-509 adamson, b., dixon, m., & toman, n. (2013). dismantling the sales machine. harvard business review, 99(11), 102–109. agarwal, u. (2014). linking justice, trust and innovative work behaviour to work engagement. personnel review, 43(1), 41–73. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-02-2012-0019 albrecht, s., bakker, a., gruman, j., macey, w., & saks, a. (2015). employee engagement, human resource management and practices and competitive advantage. journal of organizational effectiveness, 2(1), 7–35. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1108/joepp-08-2014-0042 albrecht, s., & medhurst, a. (2011). salesperson engagement and performance : a theoretical model. journal of management & organization, 17(3), 398–411. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1833367200001541 amat, s., subhan, m., marzuki, w., jaafar, w., mahmud, z., suhaila, k., & johari, k. (2014). evaluation and psychometric status of the brief resilience scale in a sample of malaysian international students. asian social science, 10(18), 240–245. https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v10n18p240 aon hewitt. (2015). 2015 trends in global employee engagement. retrieved from www.aonhewitt.com/2015_tgee_download bailey, c., madden, a., alfes, k., & fletcher, l. (2015). the meaning, antecedents and outcomes of employee engagement: a narrative synthesis. international journal of management reviews, 1–23. retrieved july 20, 2016 from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ijmr.12077 bakker, a., albrecht, s., & leiter, m. (2011). key questions regarding work engagement. european journal of work, 20(1), 4–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2010.485352 bakker, a., & demerouti, e. (2008). towards a model of work engagement. career development international, 13(209–223). retrieved from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/13620430810870476 bakker, a., & demerouti, e. (2014). job demands-resources theory. wellbeing, iii, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118539415.wbwell019 bande, b., fernández-ferrín, p., varela, j. a., & jaramillo, f. (2015). industrial marketing management emotions and salesperson propensity to leave : the effects of emotional intelligence and resilience. industrial marketing management, 44, 142–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2014.10.011 baran, b. e., shanock, l. r., & miller, l. r. (2012). advancing organizational support theory into the twenty-first century world of work. journal of business and psychology, 27(2), 123–147. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-011-9236-3 bardoel, e. a., pettit, t. m., de cieri, h., & mcmillan, l. (2014). employee resilience: an emerging challenge for hrm. asia pacific journal of human resources, 52(3), 279–297. https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7941.12033 bonanno, g. (2004). loss, trauma, and human resilience: have we underestimated the human capacity to thrive after extremely adverse events? american psychologist, 59(1), 20–28. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.59.1.20 bonanno, g. a., papa, a., & o’neill, k. (2001). loss and human resilience. applied and preventive psychology, 10(3), 193–206. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0962-1849(01)80014-7 caesens, g., marique, g., hanin, d., & stinglhamber, f. (2016). the relationship between perceived organizational support and proactive behaviour directed towards the organization. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 25(3), 398–411. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2015.1092960 chen, s., westman, m., & hobfoll, s. (2015). the commerce and crossover of resources: resource conservation in the service of resilience. stress and health: journal of the international society for the investigation of stress. retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smi.2574/full coetzee, m., schreuder, d., & tladinyane, r. (2014). employees’work engagement and job commitment: the moderating role of career anchors. south african journal of human resources management, 12(1), 88–99. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v12i1.572 connelly, c. e., gallagher, d. g., & gilley, k. m. (2007). organizational and client commitment among contracted employees: a replication and extension with temporary workers. journal of vocational behavior, 70(2), 326–335. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2006.10.003 cooke, f., cooper, b., bartram, t., wang, j., & mei, h. (2016). mapping the relationships between high-performance work systems, employee resilience and engagement: a study of the banking industry in china. the international journal of human resource management, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1137618 coyle-shapiro, j., & morrow, p. (2006). organizational and client commitment among contracted employees. journal of vocational behaviour, 68, 416–431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2005.10.002 dageid, w., & gronlie, a. (2015). measuring resilience and its association to social capital among hiv-positive south africans living in a context of adversity. journal of community psychology, 43(7), 832–848. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop deconinck, j., deconinck, m. b., & lockwood, f. (2015). influence of job fit, perceived support, and organizational identification in the sales force: an analysis of antecedents and outcomes. archives of business research, 3(5). https://doi.org/10.14738/abr.35.1489. retrieved july 12, 2016 from http://www.sseuk.org/index.php/abr/issue/view/74 edwards, s. d., edwards, d. j., & highley, j. a. (2015). evaluation of heartmath training programme for improving personal resilience and psychophysiological coherence. african journal for physical health education african journal for physical health education, recreation and dance, 21(32), 996–1008. eisenberger, r. (1986). perceived organizational support. journal of applied psychology, 71(3), 500–507. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.71.3.500 field, a. (2013). discovering statistics using ibm spss statistics. sage. retrieved from https://studysites.uk.sagepub.com/field4e/ freedman, t. g. (2004). voices of 9/11 first responders: patterns of collective resilience. clinical social work journal, 32(4), 377–393. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-004-0538-z gupta, v., agarwal, u. a., & khatri, n. (2016). the relationships between perceived organizational support, affective commitment, psychological contract breach, organizational citizenship behaviour and work engagement. journal of advanced nursing, 72(11), 2806–2817. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.13043 gupta, n., & sharma, v. (2016). exploring employee engagement a way to better business performance. global business review, 17(3s), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/0972150916631082 harter, j., schmidt, f., agrawal, s., & plowman, s. (2013). the relationship between engagement at work and organizational outcomes. gallup poll. washington, dc. retrieved from http://employeeengagement.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2012-q12-meta-analysis-research-paper.pdf ims health. (2014). global outlook for medicines through 2018. retrieved from www.imshealth.com johnson, j., friend, s., & rutherford, b. (2016). absolute versus relative sales failure. journal of business research, 69, 596–603. retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s014829631500226x johnson, s., cooper, c., cartwright, s., donald, i., taylor, p., & millet, c. (2005). the experience of work-related stress across occupations. journal of managerial psychology, 20(2), 178–187. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940510579803 jowkar, b., friborg, o., & hjemdal, o. (2010). cross-cultural validation of the resilience scale for adults (rsa) in iran. scandinavian journal of psychology, 51(5), 418–425. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.2009.00794.x kahn, w. a. (1990). psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, 33(4), 692–724. https://doi.org/10.2307/256287 king, d. d., newman, a., & luthans, f. (2015). not if, but when we need resilience in the workplace. journal of organizational behavior, 37(5), 782–786. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2063 knofczynski, g., & mundfrom, d. (2007). sample sizes when using multiple linear regression for prediction. educational and psychological measurement, 68(3), 431–442. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164407310131 koen, m., van eeden, c., & wissing, m. (2011). the prevalence of resilience in a group of professional nurses. journal of interdisciplinary health, 16(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/hsag.v16i1.576 kotzé, m., & nel, p. (2013). psychometric properties of the adult resilience indicator. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1132 krush, m. t., agnihotri, r. a. j., trainor, k. j., & krishnakumar, s. (2013). the salesperson’s ability to bounce back: examining the moderating role of resiliency on forms of intrarole job conflict and job attitudes, behaviors and performance. marketing management journal, 23(1), 42–56. kurtessis, j. n., eisenberger, r., ford, m. t., buffardi, l. c., stewart, k. a., & adis, c. s. (2015). perceived organizational support a meta-analytic evaluation of organizational support theory. journal of management, 10(5), 1–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206315575554 lai, j. c., & yue, x. (2014). using the brief resilience scale to assess chinese people’s ability to bounce back from stress. sage open, 4(4), 2158244014554386. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014554386 loveland, j., lounsbury, j., park, s., & jackson, d. (2015). are salespeople born or made ? biology, personality, and the career satisfaction of salespeople. journal of business & industrial marketing, 30(2), 233–240. https://doi.org/10.1108/jbim-12-2012-0257 luthans, f. (2002). the need for and meaning of positive organizational behavior. journal of organizational behavior, 23, 695–706. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.165 luthans, f., vogelgesang, g., & lester, p. (2006). developing the psychological capital of resiliency. human resource development review, 5(1), 25–44. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484305285335 mache, s., vitzthum, k., wanke, e., david, a., klapp, b., & danzer, g. (2014). exploring the impact of resilience, self-efficacy, optimism and organizational resources on work engagement. work, 47(4), 491–500. mäkikangas, a., feldt, t., kinnunen, u., & mauno, s. (2013). does personality matter? a review of individual differences in occupational well-being. advances in positive organizational psychology, 1, 107–143. https://doi.org/10.1108/s2046-410x(2013)0000001008 maslach, c., & leiter, m. (1997). the truth about burnout: how organizations cause personal stress and what to do about it. san francisco, ca: wiley. mathumbu, d., & dodd, n. (2013). perceived organisational support, work engagement and organisational citizenship behaviour of nurses at victoria hospital. journal of psychology, 4(2), 87–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/09764224.2013.11885497 medhurst, a., & albrecht, s. (2011). salesperson engagement and performance: a theoretical model. journal of management and organization, 77(3), 398–411. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1833367200001541 medhurst, a., & albrecht, s. (2016). salesperson work engagement and flow: a qualitative exploration of their antecedents and relationship. qualitative research in organizations and management: an international journal, 11(1), 22–45. https://doi.org/10.1108/qrom-04-2015-128 miao, c. f., & evans, k. r. (2013). the interactive effects of sales control systems on salesperson performance: a job demands–resources perspective. journal of the academy of marketing science, 41(1), 73–90. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-012-0315-4 morelli, g., & braganza, a. (2012). goal setting barriers : a pharmaceutical sales force case study. international journal of human resource management, 23(2), 312–332. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.561226 pallant, j. (2005). spss survival manual (1st ed.). sydney: allen & unwin. retrieved from www.allenandunwin.com/spss.htm peres, j. f. p., foerster, b., santana, l. g., fereira, m. d., nasello, a. g., savoia, m., & lederman, h. (2011). police officers under attack: resilience implications of an fmri study. journal of psychiatric research, 45(6), 727–734. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2010.11.004 rajan, c., & srinivasan, k. (2015). sales force effectiveness through technical skills – an empirical observation in indian pharmaceutical industry. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 6(6), 641–651. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s2p641 rapp, a., bachrach, d., panagopoulos, n., & ogilvie, j. (2014). salespeople as knowledge brokers: a review and critique of the challenger sales model. journal of personal selling & sales management, 3134(2015), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/08853134.2014.908126 rich, b. l., levine, j. a., & crawford, e. r. (2010). job engagement: antecedents and effects on job performance. academy of management journal, 53(3), 617–635. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.51468988 robertson, i. t., cooper, c. l., sarkar, m., curran, t., & cooper, r. (2015). resilience training in the workplace from 2003 to 2014 : a systematic review, 88(3), 533–562. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12120 rothmann, s., & rothmann jr, s. (2010). factors associated with employee engagement in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 36(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v36i2.925 saks, a. (2006). antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. journal of managerial psychology, 21(7), 600–619. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610690169 saks, a., & gruman, j. (2014). what do we really know about employee engagement? human resource development quarterly, 25(2), 155–182. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21187 schaufeli, w. b. (2013). what is engagement? in c. truss, k. alfes, r. delbridge, a. shantz, & e. soane (eds.), employee engagement in theory and practice (pp. 1–37). london: routledge. schaufeli, w. b., & bakker, a. b. (2004). job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. journal of organizational behavior, 25(3), 293–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.248 schaufeli, w. b., bakker, a. b., & salanova, m. (2006). the measurement of work engagement with a short questionnaire a cross-national study. educational and psychological measurement, 66(4), 701–716. schaufeli, w. b., salanova, m., gonzález-romá, v., & bakker, a. b. (2002). the measurement of engagement and burnout: a two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. journal of happiness studies, 3(1), 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015630930326 shantz, a., alfes, k., & latham, g. p. (2014). the buffering effect of perceived organizational support on the relationship between work engagement and behavioral outcomes. human resource management, 55, 25–38. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21653 shin, j., taylor, m. s., & seo, m.-g. (2012). resources for change: the relationships of organizational inducements and psychological resilience to employees’ attitudes and behaviors toward organizational change. academy of management journal, 55(3), 727–748. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2010.0325 simons, j., & buitendach, j. (2013). psychological capital, work engagement and organisational commitment amongst call centre employees in south africa. sa journal of industrial psychology, 39(2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i2.1071 smit, w., stanz, k., & bussin, m. (2015). retention preferences from a multi-generation workforce perspective: the relationship between total rewards, perceived organisational support, and perceived supervisor support. sa journal of human resource management, 13(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.665 smith, b., dalen, j., wiggins, k., tooley, e., christopher, p., & bernard, j. (2008). the brief resilience scale: assessing the ability to bounce back. international journal of behavioral medicine, 15, 194–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705500802222972 smith, b., tooley, e., christopher, p., & kay, v. (2010). resilience as the ability to bounce back from stress: a neglected personal resource? the journal of positive psychology, 5(3), 166–176. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2010.482186 tavares, s. m., van knippenberg, d., & van dick, r. (2015). organizational identification and “currencies of exchange”: integrating social identity and social exchange perspectives. journal of applied social psychology, 46(1), 34–45. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12329 towers watson. (2012). global workforce study: engagement at risk: driving strong performance in a volatile global environment. retrieved from https://www.towerswatson.com towers watson. (2015). the power of three. retrieved from www.towerswatson.com trinchero, e., brunetto, y., & borgonovi, e. (2013). examining the antecedents of engaged nurses in italy: perceived organisational support (pos); satisfaction with training and development; discretionary power. journal of nursing management, 21(6), 805–816. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12143 vanhove, a. j., herian, m. n., perez, a. l. u., harms, p. d., & lester, p. b. (2015). can resilience be developed at work? a meta-analytic review of resilience-building programme effectiveness. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 89, 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12123 verbeke, w., dietz, b., & verwaal, e. (2011). drivers of sales performance: a contemporary meta-analysis. have salespeople become knowledge brokers? journal of the academy of marketing science, 39(3), 407–428. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-010-0211-8 webster, j. r., & adams, g. a. (2010). organizational support and contract fulfillment as moderators of the relationship between preferred work status and performance. journal of business and psychology, 25(1), 131–138. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-009-9135-z werhane, w., & royal, m. (2009). engaging and enabling employees for company success. magazine of workatwork, 1–5. retrieved from https://www.worldatwork.org worley, j. a., fuqua, d. r., & hellman, c. m. (2009). the survey of perceived organisational support: which measure should we use? sa journal of industrial psychology, 35(1), 112–116. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v35i1.754 windle, g., bennett, k. m., & noyes, j. (2011). a methodological review of resilience measurement scales. health and quality of life outcomes, 9(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-7525-9-8 xanthopoulou, d., bakker, a. b., demerouti, e., & schaufeli, w. b. (2007). the role of personal resources in the job demands-resources model. international journal of stress management, 14(2), 121–141. https://doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.14.2.121 yong, a., & pearce, s. (2013). a beginner’s guide to factor analysis : focusing on exploratory factor analysis. tutorials in quantitative methods, 9(2), 79–94. https://doi.org/10.20982/tqmp.09.2.p079 zampetakis, l. (2014). sales force management practices in organizations with a supportive climate towards creativity. journal of strategic marketing, 22(1), 59–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/0965254x.2013.876062 zikmund, w., babin, b., carr, j., & griffin, m. (2010). business research methods (8th edn.). oh: south-western cengage learning.